Via Devilsdigest, came across this link to Ted Miller's ESPN Pac 10 blog with a great profile on Jeremy Staat, one of the key DL cogs on the famous 1996 team.  He joined the Marines in 2006, and served a 7 month tour in Iraq.  After leaving the military due to a medical discharge, he came back to ASU to finish his degree and graduated yesterday.  Great story, and I'm proud to have this guy as a true Sun Devil.

Jeremy Staat, from ASU to the NFL to Iraq and back again

FSN Arizona will be airing "Spotlight: A Tribute to Bruce Snyder" Thursday night at 6:30 PM.  It'll include rememberances from friends and players from the former ASU head football coach and will replay again at 10:30 PM.  In between, FSN will show Bruce's greatest game, and probably the greatest ASU moment in the last 30 years, the 19-0 shutout over Nebraska in 1996.  I know some of you who frequent this blog might be a little younger so you might not have seen the game before.  I was a junior in the stands that night and it still ranks probably just below the birth of my son as the greatest night of my life.  You owe it to yourselves to see this game, trust me. 

ASU's national title hopes took a severe blow when coach Pat Murphy revealed that left hander Josh Spence will likely not return to the mound this season and may have already thrown his last pitch for the Sun Devils.  He has a torn tendon in his pitching hand and while surgery isn't needed, he will likely be out for the rest of the year. 

Murph predicted that Spence will likely be a high pick in the June MLB draft and is unlikely to return to ASU, as he already spent 2 years at junior college and is eligible this season. 

I emailed Baseball America editor John Manuel asking about Spence's draft prospects and he indicated that while he likes Spence's makeup, he has doubts about how well he projects at the next level due to his low velocity, topping out in the mid 80s. So I suppose there is a chance that he could get drafted lower than he wants and could come back to ASU. 

Of course, it's not like he's going to start throwing any harder with an extra year in college, so he may just figure he wants to start his pro career and start drawing a paycheck rather than risk further injury. 

ASU is still capable of making it to Omaha, especially if they draw one of the top 8 national seeds and get to play at Packard through the postseason. But this young team would struggle to have the pitching depth to keep advancing, especially if they ever drop into a loser's bracket. Hopefully guys like Seth Blair and Jason Franzblau can step up and carry the Devils.

I know that college baseball has a lower profile than football or basketball, but baseball is inarguably the most successful sport on campus.  The team has been ranked in the top 5 in the country since the 2nd week of the season, and briefly rose to #1.  They just finished up a 20-3 beatdown against arizona in tuscum, following a 23-9 bludgeoning earlier in the spring.  They're on track to win their 3rd straight conference title, something they've never done before.  After this weekend at UCLA, they likely will not have to play another road game unless they make it to Omaha and the College World Series. 

Look, I know it's something of a niche sport to the general public.  But c'mon -- if you're gonna bill yourselves as the blog for all things Sun Devil, college baseball has gotta be part of the equation!

The Sun Devils will take on top ranked Cal State Fullerton in a 2 game midweek series March 31 and April 1st at Packard Stadium in the DeMarini Invitational.  ASU comes in having won 5 of 6 to get off to a great start in Pac 10 play against USC and arizona.  The Titans are coming off a series win against UC-Riverside.  Should be a good series -- the rivalry has died down a bit from the early part of the decade when it seemed like the Devils' hearts were annually broken at Fullerton (including one unbelievably unfair year when we were ranked in the top 5 and yet were sent to Goodwin Field for Super Regionals), but their fans are still lively and snooty so it should be a good time.  Definitely will be a great time to get out to Packard and make some noise!

EDIT: Excellent preview over on Pitchfork Nation.

Looks like the fates finally caught up with him, after he was able to get away with it a couple of years ago.  And nope, sorry I don't buy the excuse that "we've all done it..."  Uhhh, no we haven't, and it's stupid stupid stupid in the extreme for anyone who does.  Nor do I wanna hear about how we can't talk because Erickson's gotten one -- hey guys, doesn't Mike Stoops have one of those bad boys on his record as well?  All in all, a fitting capping off to the career of the "best" QB in au history. 

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/ua/articles/2009/03/09/20090309spt-tuitama.html

Tucson police arrested Tuitama early Sunday after a McDonald's worker flagged down a police sergeant, saying a customer who just left the drive-through window may have been impaired.

Police spokesman Officer Chuck Rydzak says the officer saw Tuitama run a red light and pulled him over.

When it rains, it pours...

Suns guard Jason Richardson was arrested and booked into Scottsdale City Jail on Sunday after a police officer pulled him over for driving 90 mph in a 35 mph with his 3-year-old son unrestrained in his vehicle's back seat, according to Scottsdale police.

Scottsdale police first clocked Richardson, 27, traveling at 67 mph in a 40 mph zone of the 6500 block of East Camelback Road before the vehicle turned northbound onto 64th Street. Police said that Richardson then reached a speed of 90 mph before being pulled over in the 5400 block of North 64th Street at about 8 p.m.

The police summary stated that Richardson identified himself as a Suns player and admitted speeding. The officer noticed that Richardson's 3-year-old son was in the back seat and was not in a child seat, as required by state law. Richardson told the officer he and his son had gone to dinner and were on their way to his Paradise Valley home.

Who would have ever thought that the Suns could somehow become the most dysfunctional, embarassing outfit in town?  As the dad of a 3 year old myself, I'm glad that the kid is okay but utterly beyond horrified that he was risking his son's life like that, and indeed only a few miles away from my neighborhood.  Wonder if a Shaq/Kerr/Sarver/J-Rich trade would find any takers?

Richardson charged with reckless driving

Wish I had remembered this one in advance cause it would have been good to take my son to get a taste of the way things should be!  But the score tells the story -- ASU obliterates u of a this afternoon by a score of 75-38!  Sybil Dosty posted a double double with 12 points and 11 boards, while Dymond Simon led the Devils with 19 points.  ASU has now beaten the rats 7 straight times and 9 out of the last 10. 

Link

Not sports related, but still worth discussing...article in the Trib today says that one of the options on the table to meet budget reductions for ASU is to close the Polytechnic campus out in east Mesa.  That would be a HUGE blow to the university, and to the communities out on that side of town.  Talk about a permanent solution to a (hopefully!) temporary problem! Hopefully it doesn't come to that, and alternate arrangements can be made somewhere.

Link

ASU released their schedule for the upcoming season and as usual, it's a doozy.  Heavily front-loaded with home games, the Devils start out with their first 19 games played either at Packard or over at Surprise Stadium.  They will travel to Arkansas, USC, Cal, Oregon State, as well as 3 non-conference games against au in tuscum.  In addition, they will also play Missouri, U of San Diego, and Cal State Fullerton in the Valley.  This freshman laden team will have their work cut out for them, but the talent is definitely there to make another run through the regionals and even a 3rd straight conference title.  Hopefully fans will be patient with the inevitable ups and downs that come with fielding a very young team. 

2009 ASU baseball schedule

As always, the true test of how good this class is won't be seen until after the MLB draft next summer, but it is good to see that the talent pipeline is still flowing strong to Packard.  It will be interesting to see whether or not Murph decided to stick with the theme of getting alot of guys who are more likely to come to college that worked so well last year, or if we took a few more chances with top end guys who will get buckets of money thrown at them by MLB clubs.  Here's the quick scoop from ASU's homepage -- I'll post more info on players as I can track it down.

ASU's 2009 Baseball recruiting class

It's been a productive weekend for the Devils, as Peoria RB Jamal Miles pledged to ASU last night, and has now been joined by juco CB LeQuan Lewis and DT Will Sutton, both from California.  Sutton was a teammate of Brandon Magee, Shelly Lyons and Ryan Bass at Centennial HS and it came down to ASU and au for his services.  Lewis comes from Cerritos CC and will have 3 years to play 2.  He is supposed to have blazing speed and could contribute on special teams as a return man in addition to providing good depth in the secondary.

After coming down between ASU and au, Jamal Miles committed to the Sun Devils on his official visit tonight.  Miles (5-10 175) had a big senior year for the Panthers, rushing for 2,168 yards and 29 touchdowns.

This is the biggest recruiting weekend thus far for the Devils, with a dozen players reportedly on campus (although some of those are already committed players and are probably cheerleaders for the newcomers).  The biggest targets aside from Miles are probably 4* LB Kyle Van Noy from Reno, dual threat QB Keith Price, and OT Nik Abele. Hopefully we can bring in a few more guys to bolster the class.

Former SB Nation stalwart Matt Hinton, aka Dr. Saturday, aka Sunday Morning QB, wrote a post looking back at ASU's disappointing season.  I had actually emailed him a couple of days ago to ask what sites he used to research stats as I was hoping to put something together for a Fanpost here, but he did me one better and actually put it up on his site.  Well worth a read, even if it is utterly depressing to see the cold, hard numbers on exactly how pathetic we were this year. 

2008 Year in Review by Dr. Saturday

Brent Guy brought the infamous 4-2-5 defense to ASU, giving up points and yards in numbers previously unseen in Sun Devil Stadium.  Rich Olsen has perfected the 3-and-out offense here in Tempe, with regular cover-your-eyes awful performances when the Devils have the ball.  Both became anchors to the program and did serious damage to the head coach's prospects for success.  Which coach did more damage to Arizona State, and is least competent at their job? 

Now, let me preface this by saying as much as I enjoy Ted Miller, I have a sneaking suspicion he's a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing on this issue.  He came to ESPN via the Seattle Post Intelligencer, and currently lives right here in Scottsdale (ahem, ahem -- good interview suspect, House of Sparky?).  But he was born in Atlanta and went to school in Virginia, so he's certainly steeped in the SEC mystique, and in various interviews I've read he has generally been admiring of that conference's tradition and power. 

All that said...he is a GREAT beat writer, and I'd kill to have him on staff at one of the local papers.  He did a piece on his blog presenting some *gasp* FACTS about recent SEC/Pac-10 tilts, and questioning the going wisdom that ASU is going to shrivel up in a little ball at the mere sight of those big, bad southern boys are visiting SDS tomorrow.  An excerpt:

As ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel pointed out this week: Eight SEC teams are in the top 30 in total defense.

But how many elite offenses have SEC teams faced so far? Check out the schedule. I'll wait here.

And it's not like those SEC defenses will face elite offenses in conference play, as Ivan also pointed out, "Four SEC teams rank among the top 50 in total offense, and only four rank among the top 59 in passing efficiency."

Now, Sun Devil fans certainly have reason to worry, given our collective fragile psyche after the shocking upset to UNLV last week.  And ASU's last several big stage performances certainly haven't gone particularly well (I'm looking at you, Oregon, USC, and Texas).  But it shouldn't be a surprise to see Rudy Carpenter & Co make some hay on the big, bad, Bulldawgs. 

ESPN: Should Arizona State be terrified of an SEC defense?

Came across an awesome article in the Washington Post via The Big Lead about the negotiation process between the Washington Nationals and their top draft pick Aaron Crow, who ended up being the only 1st rounder not to sign (I think -- max of 2.)  Unlike the NFL or NBA drafts, the MLB draft doesn't get nearly as much attention and the process is pretty opaque to alot of us.  This sheds a good light on what goes on with many players at the top of the draft and how it can often come down to the very last second, just like it did with Eric Hosmer this year and Josh Vitters last year.  Because of the type of players we are dealing with at ASU who are among the most talented in the country, we will probably see something like this situation just about every year with at least a few players.  It's long, but well worth a read.

More Than 3,700 words from Jim Bowden on Aaron Crow

UPDATE: Baseball America is reporting that Hosmer signed a deal with the Royals at the deadline.  Terms haven't been released as of yet, but I'll update when they are.

The deadline for drafted players to sign a contract is this Friday, 8/15.  As always, there's a handful of high picks holding out to the last minute, and in all likelihood, everyone will come to terms before midnight on Friday.  ASU recruit Eric Hosmer was drafted 3rd by the Kansas City Royals and negotiations are still apparently ongoing.  But much of what's been written seems to indicate that although Hosmer is still pretty likely to sign a contract, it's not an absolute slam dunk.

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This is a few days old, but I didn't see anything on it so I thought I'd throw it up here.  Via the Yahoo! BDL blog, a post about Tim Duncan's adventures to return some pants.  An excerpt:

Saleswoman: Sir, you can’t return these pants.

Duncan: (incredulous) Wha-what do you mean I can’t return them?

Saleswoman: Sir, these pants have obviously been worn a number of times.  It looks like you have also used them to paint in…

Duncan: (voice getting higher) What do you mean they’ve been worn?

Enjoy!

http://foodcourtlunch.com/?p=919

I will admit to having fond feelings for both UT and A&M, due to having friends loyal to both schools, but I thought you guys would get a kick out of this one in case you haven't made your way to Sunday Morning Quarterback yet today.  

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Congratulations from this ASU Sun Devil on your deserved victory in San Diego.  Your team came in focused and ready to play and it showed.  There was no "big-timing" about how mighty UT was too bored with the Holiday Bowl and as a result, my Devils got throttled.  In all truth, ASU is probably a year or 2 away from having the horses to compete with the Longhorns, but I had hoped for a better showing than we provided.  But didn't I tell you that we'd manage to make your defensive woes go away? ;)

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