We Are the Champions

And now for something not quite as similar as the past posts. I took the kids to the library to get new books yesterday, and whilst I was there, I looked for a book on Catfish Hunter that I've been informed was a good'un. I didn't find that one, but I did find a book written a few years ago about the De La Salle football teams winning streak, which at the time was still intact. There are a couple reasons I checked it out. One, I almost went there. And that probably would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my life. It's a good academic school and probably would've been fine for me. But I went to a private Catholic school from K-8, and at the interview for admission into DLS, yup folks, there was an interview for us 8th graders to get into the school. I was wearing some very stylish high top Jordans and really short socks, and was told by the person interviewing me that socks were required to be worn on the school grounds. When I told him that I was, in fact, wearing socks, he just said, "Oh." And after eight straight years of uniforms, I wasn't about to enter into a school that was going to get picky about my socks. And I know that K-8 equals nine years, but in Kindergarten, we got free dress every day. And besides that, there were no girls around anywhere until you hit Jr. and Sr. years. And I didn't need two years of nothing but guys in my classes.

The second reason I checked it out, is because it had the high school I did go to on the cover chasing a DLS running back. It's about 5 guys from Clayton Valley running after this guy in a futile attempt to catch him. Then I went to the back of the book where it shows all the DLS football scores from 1979 through 2003. The biggest win in that time frame was a 75-0 blowout over CV at a game I went to in my Senior year. I vividly remember how brutal that game was. And the DLS team during the third quarter had no starters in there anymore. They actually let CV start at their own 45 yard line on one play, and they couldn't get past the 50. It was just sad. Their second biggest blowout came against Northgate, a 70-0 victory. The 75 points is the most points they'd scored through '03. So I figured since I'd seen a small part of history, I may as well read about the team.

And also, Tony LaRussa wrote the forward, and since I'm close personal friends with one of the greatest managers of all time. . .well, I've met him a couple times and once told him about the wonders of the laptops we had at the store I was working at. Anyhoo, I figured if he thought it was worth reading, I'd give it a whirl. And since you're wondering, so far it's not that bad. But I'm only about 70 pages in right now.