Category: Sports

Controversy Over “Cave Rave” Continues

On Memorial Day, May 27, surfers, residents, and police found that a “Cave Rave” had been held at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. They also found broken glass, graffiti on the inside of the cave and other damage. But who was responsible? … a portable generator, strobe lights, and music. … COME INSIDE FOR MORE …

Does OB Want the Brighton Beach Restrooms Open 24/7?

The city has given itself a time extension to make a decision, but some members of the OB Town Council are not pleased about it. The restrooms Had been open 24 hours a day until mid-April … . A 30-day trial period ended May 15, but now the city says … COME INSIDE

Why Has OB Apartment Market Stalled? …

After having purchased and transformed the San Diego Union Tribune into America’s greatest newspaper in the Finest City in the World’s Best Darn Country, Doug Manchester is at it again. This time he has set his sights on the nation’s pastime and is aiming to put it back on the map for good by bringing an even more super American brand of baseball to the place where happy happens.

Change of course, is not just what will be left in your pocket after the Socialist in Chief leaves the White House, it’s the order of the day at Manchester Park, home of the San Diego Robber Barons. Swap out the statue of Tony Gwyn for one of the Lord Manchester himself and toss the swinging friar down the memory hole and replace him with that plucky little Carl DeMaio who will rove the stands passing out complementary reports on the inefficiency of local government and the scourge of pubic sector unionism.

As for the team, it’s been outsourced with all the players now coming from undisclosed third world nations and being paid at rates comparable to those they would receive in their native lands.

You can bet Mayor Bob Filner now knows about the gopher holes in Robb Field’s soccer field.

At his very first “open-house” session that Mayor Filner held last Saturday, Feb. 2nd, he heard about the holes from a group of kids who play soccer and their parents at Robb Field. Filner’s office will hold these open house sessions the first Saturday of every month.

Maya Freedman told the new mayor about the gopher holes. Later, she told local media:

“There are gopher holes. There’s just so many over there. They keep going down into the ground. They just make holes that people could trip in.”

I was asked by a friend to write something about Ezell Singleton who passed away this past September. I said I would put some words together, basically, because I’m not one to say “No.”

But I don’t know Ezell. And I love to tell a story well. So I tried to do a little research and ended up mistakenly deleting what little information I found. There was something in it, though, about Ezell being the first African American to do something or another, I don’t know, but it was sports related which leads me to this: when I say I don’t know Ezell, I mean I’ve never met him in the flesh but his name surely isn’t new to me as he’s nestled comfortably in San Diego sports history.

The first time I heard about him was at my barber shop soon after I had come to town in 1962. His name came up in an animated conversation about “Who Was the Baddest Athlete to Ever Come out of San Diego.”

Talking with Alex, a 28 year old skateboarder from Ocean Beach, I learned more about skateboarding in our ten minute conversation than I think I knew about the sport in total. But then again, I ride bicycles – not skateboards.

But Alex has a complaint – a major complaint about the OB Skateboard Park in Robb Field, …

Good morning Dudes and Dudettes!

Today, Wednesday, June 20, 2012, is the eighth annual International Surfing Day. Regardless of the June Gloom or lack of bump in the water, Our Mother Ocean is calling us to come and play…especially if you surf.

Now I know most who work in OB most likely will not have a problem getting the time off to commune with our Beautiful Lady to the West. Not all who live in San Diego, however, live west of I-5. I do not understand this, but it is the subject for another time.

So for those of you who work for uptight, tie-wearing, clock-puchin’, worried-about-makin’-a-buck bosses, regardless if it is in a high-rise downtown or changing tires in El Cabong, you need to get in the water. Have no fear, an answer has been provided to your dilemma.

Seems Jim Moriarty, the CEO of the Surfrider Foundation (truly an oxymoron if I ever heard one) has taken time to provide those of us who need to splain’ to their bosses why they need to get off work.

Just cut and past the link below, and Jim has drafted a fill-in-the-blank letter which should, in most reasonable cases, allow you to get off work. It looks official enough that if you worked for me, I’d give you the day off.

A world biking event is coming to the Ocean Beach Rec Center on May 9th. The traveling event called “Biking for Baseball” is cruising into OB and San Diego on that day, as the longest charity bike ride in the world.

Its sponsors are stopping at every city that has a major league baseball team, hoping to energize each community by raising funds and awareness for youth mentoring programs.

Here is the remainder of a report from NBC San Diego:

The event really goes the distance — with participants bicycling across 27 cities in the U.S. for charity. It’s known as the longest charity bike ride in the world, because after all is said and done, the bike ride spans 11,000 miles.

By R. Stickney and Sarah Grieco/ NBC San Diego / May 2, 2012

Former Chargers Pro Bowler Junior Seau has committed suicide according to a source within the Oceanside police department NBCSanDiego has learned.

Officers responded to a medical aid call at the home of the 43-year-old former Charger in the 600 block of South Strand Boulevard at 9:35 a.m. Wednesday.

According to officials at the North Community Fire Department no one was transported from the home.

Finally! The bike and pedestrian bridge over Rose Creek is finished. As an avid bike rider, I ride the circuit around Mission Bay all the time. My bicycling buddies and I have been waiting for this crucial link to be done and over with, so we can avoid running along the very busy streets that surround the Park.

Constructed for a year and coming in at $2.9 million, the bridge – renamed the Mike Gotch Memorial Bridge after the former Mission Beach-based San Diego City councilman – was dedicated yesterday, April 20th. Many of us remember Mike Gotch fondly. He passed away a few years ago from skin cancer.

Originally called the Rose Creek Bikeway and Pedestrian Bridge, the project – as the City informs us –

“is the vital missing link between the existing regional bicycle network that connects the existing bicycle facility along Pacific Beach Drive to the Class I bikeway at North Mission Bay Drive. This project is described and in conformance with the Mission Bay Master Plan and the Pacific Beach Master Plan. This bridge and bikeway will create a safe and convenient route over Rose Creek and significantly help minimize the use of Grand Avenue as the only route over the Creek.”

Opening week is upon us and the Padres ownership debacle has already done a lot to dampen the spirits of local baseball fans even before the first pitch has been thrown. With Jeff Moorad unlikely to ever take over the majority share of the team from John Moores, many fans rightly feel they have been bamboozled once again–left to sit in a park that their tax dollars built and pay through the nose for bad baseball and overpriced beer while the swooning friars stumble uncertainly around the bases toward yet another losing season. If you watch the Vegas line, the Padres are picked to finish last in the National League West with only 70 wins. Oh, the horror!

But, of course, that is the destiny of the Padres fan: losing. As I only half-jokingly tell my friends, I have taught my son to love baseball and love the Padres so he knows from a young age the first noble truth: life is suffering.

U.S. Supreme Court move backs game warden power over OB Pier fisherman

By Denny Walsh / Sacramento Bee / March 6, 2012

The claim of an unconstitutional search by a San Diego fisherman who got caught with an out-of-season lobster was rebuffed Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In denying review, the high court let stand a California Supreme Court opinion in June that people who hunt and fish have fewer of the privacy rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.

The state high court granted game wardens the authority to stop, question and search citizens without a warrant or even without probable cause to believe a law has been broken.

All the warden needs, the California court ruled, is knowledge that a person is or has been fishing or hunting.

by Tony Manolatos / San Diego Rostra / November 7, 2011

I published a blog post [editor: see below] Friday that questioned Mark Fabiani’s criticism of Mayor Jerry Sanders’ Convention Center expansion plan. Fabiani, who serves as special counsel to the San Diego Chargers and is the team’s point man on stadium talks, sent me a response on Saturday. Here it is: