Tony at the yard

The email room at the Yard reviews inquiries weekly regarding the timing of the next Yard missive. It is a random circulation niche that we have carved out for our readers. At the Yard, the bar is set high and most days we do not climb up on the taller chairs until after 4:30 PM BRT. From the first key stroke to the cached infamy that is the Yard, each blog is a brisk meander. Many blogs are started and yet few are posted. At times it is unfortunate when a solid rant is mothballed. Editorial inertia is attempted with random precision. Yard clerics have worked hard to restrain our evangelical marketing team back from knighting the Dodgers as the next champion before they earned it. There were loud closed door sessions with frankincense and anger to shout down the anti-Dodger heretics living above the 805. The first calls to declare victory came after the 0-9 Friday night debacle followed by the Blue crew pounding out 21 runs to two for the Giants over the final two games of the series. The Dodgers appeared destined to dispatch the Giants with the usual prejudice. The Halloween Dreams were in their tail lights. Then the Giants kept hanging around with the better clubhouse and garlic fries. The Dodgers were battling through each series with the Giants right on their heels. The Giant’s persistence made the Dodgers play a more focused game during these past few weeks. Last year the Dodgers took off in late June and clinched without much fanfare. The Giants faded amid grumbling excuses. Those Dodgers played better in August than October and were home before Halloween. This year with the Giants never fading it came down to their last series to decide who would win the west. In the clinching game Kershaw won the MVP with his CY Young season performance. The Yard cheer the Giants on with their shellacking of the destiny drenched Pirates and hopefully a similar fate for the brash but untested Nationals. We can only hope that the Giants and Nationals go 7 while the Dodgers sweep the Cardinals. It is wistful thinking. Both West Coast teams could be sent home before next weekend. The Giants just burned their best pitcher with their two most important road games of the season this weekend. The Dodgers have the best pitcher in baseball who has been pretty average in the playoffs going Friday night. We can only hope the Dodgers can see the Giants again. There is a long ways to go and it has been a long time since the WS bunting has been hung on the rails at Chavez Ravine. But what better finish to the season than to clinch a World Series berth at AT&T Park! Halloween Dreams! While on hiatus, we finally did make our pilgrimage to Jerry’s World in Dallas to watch UCLA and UT square off under the massive big screen. The game is hard to watch live when the Big Screen at eye level sucks in every retina. The game was compelling with great story lines and a UCLA come from behind victory on the road. Rick Neuheisel recruited UCLA starting QB Brett Hundley and backup QB, Jerry Neuheisel. Hundley was one of the most sought after recruits in the country a few years back. Jerry was his son and Rick finagled him a scholarship. Neuheisel got run off before he ever saw either kid play for him. Ricky gets a lot of Yard cred for recruiting Hundley and not playing him as a freshman even with his job on the line. He saved Hundley from that woeful offensive line and rooted from the Pac-12 network when his son replaced him and led the Bruins to victory. The only thing that could have made the night more special was USC to lose on the road at Boston College. There was no way that re-anointed Trojans could lose to BC after beating Stanford at the Farm. Twenty yards rushing does not lead to many victories and it did not on that Saturday night either. We did not get on the goggles and spray champagne but there were no crushed grapes spared in the celebration. Roger Goodell went from the most beloved commissioner in all of professional sports to the most reviled in a single news cycle. The Yard has developed a few pet peeves since last we wrote. One is for a public person saying, “I own this, my mistake and we are going to get this right” more than once for the same infraction. Goodell has been apologizing for the Ray Rice incident since his first ridiculous ruling in April. He apologized then and then again when the stunning video tape was released by TMZ. Both times he got it wrong and each time his reputation dove. Rog, you want to keep NFL stories on ESPN not CNN. It is never good when the 24/7 news channels are talking about the NFL 24/7. We were all quite stunned by the video of Rice clocking his lovely wife. It was almost as chilling as the earlier video of Rice dragging Janay out of the elevator knocked out cold. Goodell is now hiring FBI people to research this case and get to the bottom while Rice is suspended indefinitely. He may want to just outsource this to TMZ. They seem to get all the inside dirt and they do it at no charge to the NFL. They got the video that Roger had never seen. We were all surprised by the video but we surmise Janay might have been the most surprised. We doubt she recalled the haymaker Rice landed in her face and the subsequent nosedive into the railing and floor of the elevator. She stood by her then fiancé and now husband when their livelihood was challenged by the NFL. It was her first time seeing what really happened. She has to be as terrified as we were of what she saw. Behind the ropes: Congratulations go out to the Clinton Family welcoming Bill and Hillary’s first grandchild. The little girl may keep Hillary from running for President with her proclaimed desire to be a grandparent. It might be more relaxing and enjoyable than the quagmire that is the Capitol. It will be a special moment when the little girl gets to go to the Smithsonian and see all of our country’s rich heritage and collective accomplishments emblazoned throughout the buildings. Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress and its placement in these hallowed halls will always be a holiday season folk tale at the Clinton’s dinner table. Bill recounting the source of the stain on the dress and his career always brings the biggest guffaws.