BYU Cougars: What to Say Now? Post Second Week 2015

Okay, okay ... college football may not matter that much, some people may not like it. I get that.

But I really dig it.  It has something I cannot ignore. Pitch and pathos. Ebb and sway. Millions do like like it and pay attention to it.  Some who are not alive now (2015) may read these words some day and care. For posterity, I write.

It could mean something after all, or at least for writing a few thoughts as I am wont to do.

So this weekend I could talk about a few things that have already happened in two weeks of college football related to Brigham Young University football.  In a word ...

WOW!

If I could put that word in bigger font letters, louder noise on a silent page and brighter and wowier colors and effects, I would.

This season is going a bit like a Disney film.  And all of it so far, two games in, mind you.

Now, not all Disney films are saccharine to the point of the exclusion of some real gut-wrenching tragedy or conflict. And BYU has had their fair share of some heartfelt loss. The would-be all-time leading rusher drops out of school before the season starts. He may come back healthy next year. 

Turn that page. 

Okay, let's pass the ball more with our Heisman candidate Senior who can run and pass ... NO!  He breaks his Lisfranc bone in the third quarter (well, maybe the second, but he's a tough dude) in the opener in Nebraska. Turn ... that ... page .  Kinda tearful, if you watch a post-game video.  He is probably done in the college game. He's ended three out of four seasons this way. So much promise, and so little reward ...

But these losses of pathos, certainly not pathetic, are not the story or the WOWs of which I am alluding to.

No, the wow factor is how the team and the particular replacement of said Heisman candidate has responded as the new leader of the squad.

WOW, WOW and WOW.

Spectacular.  I don't know if anyone has ever seen anything like it.

Two games.  Two very worthy opponents, and two game set-ups that allowed two really well thrown long passes that wind up winning two very dramatic games.

And this kid, a grey-shirt freshman twenty-two year-old who finished his church mission in Chile about 3 months ago in June, heaves these passes that are caught by BYU receivers, while bodies are flinging around like electrons around a fission war head!

Cougars win!

Cougars win!

And I actually want to talk about BYU going back to Pasadena this coming Saturday.

More of that later ... Really, that is what I started this post wanting to discuss.

UCLA of the past and near future. BYU has a date with ya.

Blog it, EMC.

Bryce Harper is Becoming the Elite: Top 955 HR Hitter and Counting

Bryce is making this season look like he has achieved his long (since he was 15 or 16 years-old) talked-about status. The bally hoo of years past, one of the promising baseball icons of the 21st century. The hope, the promise. Was it yet just a lot of banter, he being another of many hyped up ne'er do-wells that happens in every celebrated sport or art?

This season he is (finally?) hitting for power, average, on-base percentage. He fields well, he throws well, he runs well. And he is staying healthy and playing games. Unlike past years (this, his fourth in the majors, at the precocious age of 22), he is avoiding serious injuries. The occasional muscle pull or strain has taken him away from some at-bats, but he is sticking around. As his team is staying around in their division despite August woes, currently four back of the Mets in the NL East with about three weeks to go.

As of early Labor Day 2015 (the Washington Nats play the division-leading NY Mets later today) he has 88 career home runs, placing him tied at 955 all time, tied with Kevin Elster (1986-2000), Rich Gedman (1980-1992), Tommy Holmes (1942-1952), Dan Wilson (1992-2005), and Greg Zaun (1995-2010).

Back in May I wrote about Bryce's upcoming entrance into the top 1,000 home run hitters of all time. [See below]
Moose Solters and Seven Others: Joining the Club in 2015

Top 1000 all-time is nothing to write home about, per se, but for a 22 year-old I think it is significant.  So few players start their major league careers so young that those first years of success or failure can set them up for their career as a boon or bust: an all-time great, a career journeyman or a flash in the pan.

Bryce is backing up the hype in 2015; we can safely say, Mr. Harper has arrived as a big time player.

His debut year as a teenager was formidable back in 2012. But the two following years of 2013 and 2014 while still showing some of that freshman promise also indicated there was way too much injury and impatience when he managed playing while somewhat healthy.  Which, it was arguable how healthy he actually was playing, which was part of the overall problem.  Bryce's numbers were disappointingly low while his slightly older rival Mike Trout for the Anaheim/LA Angels seemed unstoppable as the player of the present and future. Trout has put up huge numbers in the same years Bryce has played. Trout has looked like another Mickey Mantle, Bryce maybe another ... Dale Murphy. Which is not a slight to Dale, but Mickey is top 20 while Dale is top 200...

This season, notably, Trout has suffered a little bit more injury and less-than-stellar numbers. Although, a down year for him is still pretty terrific. But not like a potential MVP year Bryce is having at present.

There are now 9 players tied with 89 home runs, which Bryce may tie or surpass today.  He is hitting well in the last few games, having gotten a homer in three straight wins.  The day before those games, he went 0 for 0 at the plate and scored 4 runs, not having swung at one pitch!  That tied a record with about 4 other players, all Hall of Famers, I believe, but Bryce was the first of them to not even attempt a swing.

Of course, baseball is not all about the long ball.  Part of the point is, Bryce is doing it all as a complete and dominating player. Walking, hitting for average (around .339 and leading the National League), scoring runs, playing defense, both catching and throwing (he leads in put-outs for an outfielder, I think).  He is getting it done as the overall best player in the best league in the world.

He is in a word, an elite of elites.

The one category he is not totally dominating is in RBIs, which has a bit to do with the hitters in front of him, and even behind him.  He could produce better there, but he has not been given enough opportunities to knock them home.  And when he does have those chances, like Barry Bonds in years of his brilliance earlier this century, he is carefully walked rather than allowed a possible purview of a throw close to the plate.  And who can blame the opponents for that?

Bryce has 34 dingers for the year, and will likely get to 40 for the season. The post-season is a question mark still, but Nats fans are hoping for good things.  Trailing the Mets by 4, with a huge series starting today.

What will be...

If he does hit 40 for the season, Bryce will be among the top 900 home run hitters of all time. By next time this year at his current rate he could be in the top 600 ...

But we will acknowledge that milestone of 900 on another blog post soon, hopefully sooner than later. And the future will take care of itself.  Many things could drastically change between now and then ....Word war, accident, mishap ....

For now we recognize this right fielder among the top 955. Not bad young man, for having half your young career blighted by the Disabled List and frustrated at-bats and seasons.  Play the game as you can.  Some think you are brash and egotistical.  Others think you are ambitious and hungry.

Confident. Bold.  Aggressive yet forbearing.  Smart.

Stay hungry. Go all the way to the top. Be who you are supposed to be. The best.

Blog on, EMC.