By Tim Peterson
I’m watching the Dodgers game Sunday and first James Outman, in his first major league at bat, hits a two-run home run for the Dodgers. Then Brian Serven, who I covered when he played at Temple City National Little League about 17 years ago, goes deep for the Rockies. Pretty cool.
Serven, 27, only played one year at Temple City Little League before his family moved out to Palm Desert. He graduated from Palm Desert High School in 2013 and then went on to play at Arizona State. He was drafted by the Rockies in 2016 and has bounced around the minors for six years before getting his shot at the bigs this year. He has made the most of it nailing down the starting catching position. Long way from Millham Field. Cool story.
Big day for Outman as well as he ended up going 3 for 4 with 3 RBI. Cool, yeah but I didn’t cover him at Temple City National Little League so…the Serven story was cooler.
By the way on another quick Dodger note: Does anybody know why Max Muncy is still in the everyday lineup?
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Social Media Blues
You think I would have learned my lesson by now. Facebook is great to catch up with old friends, to promote your website or product, express your opinion, all of that. But unless you want to waste the next three hours of your life glued to Facebook don’t comment on a GOAT post. The other day I replied that Kobe was better than LeBron on a thread that already had been started. I thought it was innocent enough. I mean in my opinion he is. “Please explain,” said one guy. “Better at what?” said another. “LeBron is better in nearly every statistical category!” answered another. And for the next several hours on and on it went.
Look, you can make an argument for a number of players as the GOAT. Michael Jordan, Kobe, LeBron, Bird, Wilt, Kareem (why isn’t he mentioned more?) Bill Russell, etc. Everybody has their favorite. But it’s not worth spending several hours of your life debating it. You would think I would know that by now. One guy even said Allen Iverson was the best ever…is that even worth responding to?
It’s even worse with quarterbacks. Recently I said Brady was the GOAT and the floodgates opened.
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View from the North
Haven’t heard a lot about Northview this summer. The defending Division 10 CIF champs did lose a couple of key pieces on offense but do have quarterback James Arellanes and receiver Aaron Silva returning. Also senior Daniel Santillan returns to anchor the offensive and defensive fronts. I also love their non-league schedule. The Vikings travel to Muir to open the season. If that doesn’t get your blood pumping, they also have Charter Oak, South Hills, Covina, Cal, Sunny Hills and Bonita before opening Valle Vista League play at Los Altos October 14. That’s one of the best local schedules in the SGV.
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Questions Answered
We had a few questions answered over the past couple of weeks. We wondered who the next Temple City head coach would be. It turns out Riley Saxon is returning. There were questions at La Puente. Surprise! Former TC HC Laron Johnson was named head coach. And we wondered if Long Beach Poly quarterback Nico Iamaleava would play this season. Well it looks like he will but it will be for the school he played for last year…Warren. At least I’m being told he will play…stay tuned.
Personally I like that move. It makes the Downey-Warren game, which is already the best rivalry in So Cal, that much better.
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Zeroing In
The season officially kicks off in 18 days and Zero Week doesn’t disappoint. On Friday night August 19, you got La Serna at Pasadena, Monrovia at Bonita, Northview at Muir, and West Covina at Alta Loma just to name a few. And if you feel like making the trek out to Fontana, the Arroyo-Kaiser game is intriguing.
As usual we will have our game stories and scoreboard posted every Friday night and sometimes on Thursday. If you have any high school football scoop, updates, transfers, or other stats and stories please feel free to send them to us. We can’t be everywhere and we always welcome input from our readers.
Just don’t ask us who is the GOAT.
That’s my principle.
Tim can be reached at tim.midvalleysports@gmail.com or on Twitter @tspeterson40 and Facebook-Tim Peterson.
@ Anonymous: The Moors will play football starting with the season opener on Aug. 19. The coaching staff is pretty much the same as last year’s, with a new assistant coach or two. Everyone’s in good spirits and we are cautiously optimistic.
GOAT discussions are great in person over a cold one ,but online blah
QB’s in socal getting all the hype. It is because if you are an athlete with size and speed the QB position is for you. From D9 on up most teams field a very good QB with good back-ups. If you are a Jr. getting no reps you transfer. QB’s in socal getting all the big time offers. Even blue chip receivers are back-up QB’s in D1,2 and 3. The big question of these guys on Mater Dei and the like is what happens when they get punched in the mouth. Many get like Baker Mayfield and Jared Goff. They panic and start throwing it up for grabs. But many high school QB stars don’t get tested until college. Their high school linemen are big fast and limit any rush.
What’s the word out of Alhambra