Hill's game plan takes a hit from coach

Published online on Saturday, Jun. 27, 2009

Enter the Warzone, more incendiary than a Milton Bradley meltdown.

Some folks will do anything to finish the Climb to Kaiser. Ride coordinator John Craft recalled one such dope who duct-taped running shoes to his handlebars intending to push his bike up the hills.

The strategy didn't work so well.

"It was 12 o'clock, and he was at the bottom of Tollhouse lying in the middle of the road," Craft said. "I had SAG wagon pick him up."

Here's what an anonymous Western Athletic Conference football coach had to say about Fresno State in Athlon Sports' season preview issue:

"For all the crazy talking [coach Pat] Hill does about playing anyone anywhere and all his cute slogans, he really is a pretty conservative offensive football coach. They've just tried to grind it out, and that's not working anymore."

Strange days indeed when football coaches and sports writers start to sound alike.

The magazine picked Fresno State to finish fourth in the WAC and left the Bulldogs out of its bowl projections.

And just to rub it in, it's predicting a Boise State-Texas matchup in the Fiesta Bowl.

Hard to say whether the addition of Shaquille O'Neal makes the Cleveland Cavaliers clear-cut favorites to win the NBA title.

All we know for certain is there's going to be a lot less room on the team bus.

He's tall, talented and about to be very rich, so why do we feel sorry for Blake Griffin? Oh, yeah. He got drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers.

Only 13 members of the 1989 Oakland A's turned up Tuesday night at the Oakland Coliseum for a reunion of their World Series title.

Good thing the A's were playing the San Francisco Giants, or only 13 fans would've been there, too.

Among the no-shows were Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, who missed out on a chance to reminisce about all the good times they had in the bathroom stall.

For years, the Fresno Grizzlies consistently ranked among the Pacific Coast League leaders in attendance even though they consistently fielded lousy teams.

Now the Grizzlies have a good team but few are showing up to games. We'd blame the economy, but things are tough everywhere.

For no apparent reason: Michael Olowokandi.

The soccer world is in a tizzy following the United States' 2-0 upset of Spain in the Confederations Cup semifinals.

That's all well and good, but since when did we start naming our athletes Jozy and Landon?

A Sacramento man is facing three years in prison for stealing Lance Armstrong's bike during the Tour of California.

Good thing he didn't hijack Lance's Twitter account.