{"id":59974,"date":"2017-07-12T09:17:26","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T16:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=59974"},"modified":"2017-07-12T17:29:21","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T00:29:21","slug":"fanview-july-12-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=59974","title":{"rendered":"Fanview: July 12, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The El Rock, Bad Dudes of EMHS
From left to right: Christopher Alvarez, Charlie Carrillo, Luis Valerio, Abel Ochoa, John Leon, Christian Alvarez<\/p><\/div>\n

By Joe Torosian<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy can\u2019t you tell her to talk to us? We\u2019re the ones doing all the blocking.\u201d\u2014Pineapple Bartholomew, LT, West El Monte Poly<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Kick it!<\/p>\n

Right off the Top:<\/strong> I want to write a book about offensive linemen.<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t a book about high school offensive linemen and all they go through be interesting? Or course, only a good offensive line would be interesting. I mean who wants to see a bad offensive line on Fridays in the fall when you can see the Los Angeles Rams offensive line every Sunday?<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have a great prep career, I didn\u2019t have a great church league career, but I did have that occasional moment where I hit the home run (a legit home run not a between the outfielder\u2019s legs grounder punctuated by an overthrow of third base) or stroked a three from 25-feet plus. And I was affirmed in those moments.<\/p>\n

But\u2026<\/p>\n

What affirmation does a good offensive lineman get? The guy he blocks for becomes the MVP. The guy he blocks for becomes the face of the program. The guy he blocks for gets remembered.<\/p>\n

A little over a decade ago Schurr had a running back named Jesse Ramirez. \u201cGordo\u201d had back-to-back 2,000 yard seasons. One of his blockers played some pro-ball can you name him? More importantly when a guy rushes for 2,000 yards (twice), perhaps we should be able to name all five guys that plowed the road for him.<\/p>\n

Who were the Apaches that blocked for Audarrius Bailey at Arcadia from 2002-2005? Who were the five guys that blocked for Sal Tovar at South El Monte last season?<\/p>\n

I get it\u2026They knew the job was dangerous when they took it. They knew there would be little fanfare regarding them because no one really cares about how the sausage is made. But before writing a book about offensive linemen (or telling somebody else to write a book about offensive linemen), I\u2019d love to hear half the stories I hear about quarterbacks.<\/p>\n

What do we hear about quarterbacks?
\n\u201cThis kid is tough\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cThis kid never quits\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cHe\u2019s a leader\u2026\u201d
\n\u2026yada\u2026yada\u2026yada\u2026<\/p>\n

What do we hear about offensive linemen? He\u2019s strong? He works hard?<\/p>\n

Besides some attention, a good offensive line needs a nickname. Like Buffalo’s “Electric Company” back in the 1970s…Like “The Devil’s Herd” at South El Monte in 2016. (Yeah, I made that one up.)<\/p>\n

Are there any nicknames out there we don’t know about?<\/p>\n

Good things do happen for offensive linemen, but it would be better to see everything they go through. The sweat, the labor, the insults\u2026Something more than car pulls, tire throws and yellow flags on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Really, somebody should do a book on these guys.
\n***<\/p>\n

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Midbits (same as \u2018Tidbits\u2019)<\/strong>
\nMidbits:<\/strong> It was great to read something positive about Cathedral for a change. Most of the stuff I see about the Phantoms on this website starts out like; \u201cI looked as they opened the sixth seal and a beast with seven heads and ten horns rose up near Dodger Stadium\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Midbits:<\/strong> Oh, by the way, the other day when I dumped the NFL Network I also dumped all (ALL) of my ESPN channels\u2026Don\u2019t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.<\/p>\n

Midbits:<\/strong> Speaking of South Pasadena did you know over the course of the last 14 seasons the Tigers have only had a losing record four times and only three playoff appearances (none at home)?<\/p>\n

Midbits:<\/strong> Now that Jesse Ceniceros is at El Monte\u2026(A development still rattling the space-time continuum)\u2026I\u2019m going to start calling them El Rock\u2026<\/p>\n

Midbits:<\/strong> What was all that gold Yadier Molina was wearing in last night\u2019s MLB All-Star Game? (I only caught the first nine innings)\u2026Molina looked like C3Po from Star Wars\u2026Man, who let the nerds out?<\/p>\n

The Dude abides\u2026<\/p>\n

667<\/p>\n

Job 11:7-8<\/p>\n

Contact Joe at joe@midvalleysports.com<\/p>\n

Author of \u201cTangent Dreams: A High School Football Novel\u201d & \u201cThe Dead Bug Tales\u201d both available through amazon.com and Barnes & Noble<\/p>\n

Follow Joe on Twitter @joet13b<\/p>\n

Follow \u201cJoe Torosian\u2019s Books\u201d on Facebook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joe Torosian \u201cWhy can\u2019t you tell her to talk to us? We\u2019re the ones doing all the blocking.\u201d\u2014Pineapple Bartholomew, LT, West El Monte Poly Kick it! Right off the Top: I want to write a book about offensive linemen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[239,1148,297,12868,3811,1778,3542,365,12232,309,115,98,11755,12866],"class_list":["post-59974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fanview","tag-arcadia","tag-audarrius-bailey","tag-el-monte","tag-el-rock","tag-emhs","tag-jesse-gordo-ramirez","tag-joe-t","tag-joe-torosian","tag-sal-tovar","tag-schurr","tag-south-el-monte","tag-south-pasadena","tag-tangent-dreams","tag-the-dead-bug-tales"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59974"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59987,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59974\/revisions\/59987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}