BASEBALL: After all this, it's Monrovia again ... Wildcats face Bishop Amat in CIF-SS Division V championship at UC Riverside on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Torres is a product of Arcadia or Temple City, correct? Enough said.

come on...torres is good agt one thing.....he's got that "junior" porn stache working for him like the guy from reno 911

oh by the way....Torres has a connection....."his boy" over at that paper, so its not a surprise that his boy jumped up on his nuts....its not an objective point of view.

sometimes when people come on and rip coaches or players, I am usually ready to give the coach the benefit of the doubt because of all the whining they put up with....however, through experience, no one treats others with less respect than Phil Torres at Crescenta Valley. He's the kind of guy who wants publicity and then you show up and he'll tell you you have five minutes...despite driving 30 mins to do what he's asked of you. If you ask any kid that plays for him the most common description you will get is "power trip." Yes, the guy wins, but so do others and they seem to do it in a much more civil and classy manner. I couldn't have been more happy to see that CV was eliminated. You were right....he is the MOST DISLIKED coach in the area because of the way he treats others and his players. My favorite team is always whomever is playing CV.

In response to this article and the opinion that CV is the best baseball program in the area...

Perspective article today:
http://www.glendalenewspress.com/articles/2007/05/31/sports/gnp-string31.txt

This might be true but it should be no surprise that class is not synonymous
with CV. And it starts with Torres.

The guy knows his baseball and the guy's a winner, but how he wins is a complete joke sometimes.

Ever watch a game coached by Torres? It's comical and circus-like. I don't
know a coach in this area that pisses off more people in a short amount of
time than him.

And why would anyone play for him. Ever hear him demean his players publicly? I get the motivation angle but c'mon.

There's a certain way to win and he doesn't get that - nor does the program.

Neil was a shortstop, not a pitcher.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/1971draft.shtml

You are confusing him with Roger Rasmussen, same era, from Monrovia HS. No relation.

PP -

Great post.
I agree.

I don't think Bishop Amat is gonna cruise thru Monrovia like everyone seems to think. I was at practice today and I've never seen those guys look looser or more confident. They are definitely ready for Saturdays game and I don't think it matters who shows up to play them. Good luck boys, can't wait to watch the Fireworks.

Mike...not that it matters but a check of baseball-reference.com shows no record of a Neil Rasmussen pitching for the Cardinals.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/player_search.cgi?search=rasmussen

Rassmussen's dad is Dale who played @ Arcadia in 1975. His uncle's are Keith who played @ Arcadia in 1974 and Neil who played @ Arcadia in 1970 and then played for the St. Louis Cardinals. Neil was a fine pitcher also!!

Loyola defeated La Mirada 11-5 extra innings at Dodger Stadium to win the CIF D3 Championship.

Correct me if I am wrong but most of the Rasmussen family, brother, uncles and aunts went to arcadia high. I believe his brother went there and he grew up in arcadia. Can someone confirm this?

More genius from SF - boy that school has gone down over the years. Athletics is the least of its problems.

Let's take a step back for a minute.

http://www.polytechnic.org/rasmussen--1stgraders.jpg

^^^This is what its all about, right?

Look people for the last time!!
It's not McKiernans Wildcats it's the MONROVIA WILDCATS!! Eddie is a great player and any team with him in their line-up has a better chance to win but there are only 3 Senior Starters not returning next year. Eddie leaves big shoes to fill but there are Frosh Players coming up ready to do just that. I don't know what team you support but if they are in the Rio Hondo League our Freshman Team Probably beat you and more than once. So please don't worry about Monrovia Baseball. I guarantee you Coach "B" and Moore are not!

Previous Post Correction, sorry peanut not directed at you! Directed to Quote "Maybe it is because you have the knuckleheads from SF"

Hey peanut from what I understand guys from SF play or have played with Rasmussen, Mckiernan, Rueda, etc. and are actually friends! You speak from ignorance! What university are you going to mensa? As for the other trash talker, who are you to criticize Rasmussen. There are pros that can't go on 3-4 days rest after pitching a lot of innings in a short stretch! His arm was hangin and that's that! Don't see you out there throwing 90+ do we!

Credit should be given when its due. Mckiernan is a solid pitcher, with a deceptive pithching motion. His place on the rubber will be worked on next year by a coach who has a clue so he can stop throwing across his body. It has gotten him by but at the next level it won't cut it. Speaking of the future, his coach should take that into consideration and be careful with his arm as Robbie started to get bothered by the innings he threw this year. The differrence between Robbie and Eddie is that Eddie has a little more sack than Robbie. Eddie is not scared to get on the mound and throw to anyone, although he gets rattled when his team doesn't play defense. Having said that, Monrovia and Poly are basically nothing without their pitchers. We'll see how well they do next year. Monrovia is now on the map because of Eddie, but soon will dissappear because i don't see the program going anywhere.

The Poly invitees to the SGV All Star game aren't able to participate due to a conflict with a graduation / senior event at Poly.

No worries. Rasmussen is not hurt, just finished pitching 17 of 21 playoffs innings, with over 100+ pitches on Friday and only 3 days rest. We hear he'll be pitching when his summer team needs him in the week ahead.

Why isn't Rasmussen on that all star game list? He is the best pitcher around and he proved that in Poly's semifinal game. Shouldn't he be involved? Did they not include Poly or does his pus.. arm still hurt?

Perspective article today: http://www.glendalenewspress.com/articles/2007/05/31/sports/gnp-string31.txt

Why no mention of Eric Smith at La Canada?? Led Rio Hondo in hitting and is only a soph.

gknights,
Maybe it is because you have the knuckleheads from SF ripping great kids/players from TC, Poly and Monrovia. Do you think that might be the reason SF gets brought into this. That school per capita has the most immature students/parents of any school in the area public or private.

No worries Cat Fans!!
Monrovia will Defend their Title like the Champions they are. Amat is formidable but beatable and if it comes down to a pitching duel my money is on McKiernan. We have got a great program at MHS and our Freshman Team was Undefeated this year.
Up and coming players like, Chris Calver, Justin De La Nunez, and Pitcher Aaron Murphree, 6'1" 220 and already throwing 80+ mph. are all eager to step-up next year.

Why does St. Francis get pulled into this blog everytime something bad is said. It is ridiculous that you judge a whole school based on the posts of a kid three months ago, you should all get over Saint Francis' bad season because i know they have. They know they totally screwed up and the program is going to rebuild with the first step being Solar leaving. He left for a higher paying position at Alemany, next year will be extremely exciting but for now lets leave SF out of this thrash talking. good luck monrovia and loyola

Rasmussen was scheduled to start - he didn't because his arm hurt - but when the team needed him he went in - even though his arm was hurting - he didn't make excuses, just responded to the question as to why he didn't start. He showed great courage going in when he had no gas in the tank. I am sure he wasn't concern about what some "neverwas" from the school that couldn't even make the playoffs would say about him on a blog.

Ah ..... Just how many baseball CIF championships has the team that returned 7 starters and had a JV team with a 15-5 record from the prior year and didn't make the playoff win? That's right none.

Ah ..... Just how many baseball CIF championships has the team that returned 7 starters and had a JV team with a 15-5 record from the prior year and didn't make the playoff win? That's right none.

FB Realist
Circumstances beyond my control.

Fraud:

Your ignorance is laughable. Rasmussen is the #126 draft prospect in the country this year ala' Baseball America. No player would intentionally hurt their draft stock by saying their arm felt like jelly and that he couldn't make the start in a semi final playoff game. Based on your typing ability and bitterness, I would guess you go to Saint Francis.

fraud...you don't need my help making yourself look bad. Just keep posting!

Solar left Saint Francis

pasadenapreps,

you got me. you must have taken the whole month of may to think of those sweet disses. can i just be like you. some weird guy that runs his own website to talk about high school sports even though nobody pays attention to his website. please teach me your ways of sweet disses and tight websites.

correction...you had the whole month of MAY off because you didn't make the playoffs....what year is it again?

fraud...you couldn't have chosen a better name to post with. My best guess is that your some jealous kid whose team's "Solar" power failed this season so you've had the whole month of April to wish for everyone else's failure in the hope that would make them as miserable as you....you are pathetic!

Nobody here is afraid of Amat, not in any sport. Sure, they played in D-1 the past couple years, but they got bounced. They ran D-4 a few years earlier. They are probably a legite D-3 team, but that doesn't matter.

Monrovia got its sloppiness out of the way yesterday (enough for the next ten years). Monrovia will play a crisp game and repeat as CIF Champs.

Got 'Cats!

Ah yes - Loyola in the finals and SF not even in the playoffs - things are back to normal.

hold on. you realize that Loyola has not been to the finals in more than fifty years. the loyola coach didn't even know the last time the made it. also, of the series between the loyola seniors and sf seniors, SF lead 4-2. i guess that is normal moron.

As far as Rasmussen not starting, Robbie told our reporter, Scott Galetti, that his arm didn't feel right when he woke up. He said it felt like jelly.

Oh, thank God. So we can redo the game right because bitchmussen's arm didn't feel good. Gimme a break. This kid is not a competitor. His arm was fine he just needed an excuse for pitching like trash and striking out to end the game. He is a selfish and did not compete in this game. Sure his stats look great but look who he played. When the going got tough, HE FOLDED AND SAID HIS ARM DIDNT FEEL GOOD. A real champion knows when to admit defeat.

As for Monrovia, wow. I didn't know that little league teams were in the playoffs. Whoever they played was obviously a joke and Bishop Amat will unfortunately beat Monrovia.

Temple City, I told you so. You have been overrated all year and your true colors finally come out. Congrats on losing in the semis. You're not even the winner of the losers.

Nelson lived and played in SM until high school

Where are the monrovia fans. Does Amat scare you that much!

Nelson from South Pasadena not Sierra Madre

No one on Loyola from LC?

then theres Patrick Drolet, Ryan Nelson and Matt Condon are from sierra madre, Will Gilmore, Will Paulsen and Mike Rueda from south pas,

anon 10:23am.....checking the Loyola roster on Max Preps there are eight players from the Pasadena area on the roster. Most noteworthy is Pasadena resident Joseph Macmillan who hit .338 with 2 homers and was 10/10 in steals.

Just like that, everyone's on the Amat bandwagon. They're good, but not unbeatable. If Monrovia doesn't screw things up, they can win this game. Can't wait for it.

Ah yes - Loyola in the finals and SF not even in the playoffs - things are back to normal.

Can you name the locals who will be playing for Loyola and where they are from?

Congratulations to Poly for a great season and especially to Rob Rasmussen for giving us lots to talk about this spring.
The West SGV will be well represented in the final round not only by Monrovia but several local kids on the Loyola team when it faces La Mirada in the D3 finals at Dodger Stadium.

Scott: Game's over and we should let it go...but also thought a big part of the story that was missing was the great performance by AJ Talt relieving and finishing the game...preventing any more damage.

Scott,

How can you not mention why Robbie didn't start in your story????? That's probably most important fact of the story, other then the score.

Rasmussen pitched 17 of 21 innings of the playoffs before the semi-final game. 7 innings in round 1 Friday 6/18, 3 innings in round 2 Tuesday 6/22 and 7 innings in round 3 Friday 2/29 . I think anyones arm would have felt like jelly.

What a great season ending with 200 strkeouts!

RR's arm is fine. He's just trying to pace himself after a big week last week....looking at the big picture and trying to play it smart. Look to see him soon in the SGV summer teams.

Fred J,
Thanks for the update - even though RR threw a no-hitter on Friday, he did not look like his usual over-powering self. Sort of funny to say - but true - I hope he is going to be okay.

sgv - thanks for that.
Great season nonetheless for Poly - I hope RR arm is okay.

I'll update this later tonight or tomorrow, I'm still trying to digest what Monrovia just did.
Cat's coach Brad Blackmore said it was the worst defensive performance he's seen in 17-years at the school. Not only did the 'Cats have six errors and allow nine unearned runs, there were at least three more mental errors and poor decisions that led to runs.
Eddie came in to pitch in the fourth, and the Cat's kept making errors, but you knew Eddie would shut them down eventually, and that's what he did, throwing three no-hit shutout innings in the fifth, sixth, and seventh, which allowed the 'Cats a chance to rally from a 14-8 deficit.
Woodcrest helped, they walked in three runs in the fifth inning and in the sixth, with the Wildcats trailing 14-12, McKiernan's two-out bases loaded line drive to center was dropped, scoring two runs to tie the score 14-14. Then with Cowell on third and McKiernan on first, Royals pitcher Kyle Matthews was called for a balk trying to pickoff McKiernan, bringing in Cowell for the eventual game-winning run.
---------
As far as Rasmussen not starting, Robbie told our reporter, Scott Galetti, that his arm didn't feel right when he woke up. He said it felt like jelly.

From what I heard Rasmussen's arm wasn't feeling good today. Poly started Feess who didn't get hit that hard, but Poly couldnt make a play in the field/catch any breaks.

Why didn't Poly stick with starting Rasmussen and keeping him in for 7 as planned?

Poly lost 10-3.

The MHS vs. Woodcrest game was a wild one! Poor fielding on both sides, poor pitching for Woodcrest (10 + walks) but it was very exciting. It's what high school sports is all about. I swear Monrovia had more fans at the game than the home team did. At least we were the loudest and most suportive. Eddie was his usual outstanding self, but kudos behind the plate to Nick F., at the plate to Vince V. and some tough innings by Jeff W. Now it's time to prepare for Amat and bring home another championship to the Wildcats.

Fred,
Any details on the Poly game?

WOW!! This is what sports is all about! 15-14???? It sounds like a football score. Congrats to the CATS. Is too bad I had to work... But, Im off for the final.

See you all on Sat.

DAWG

First off congratulations Monrovia Wildcats.Its incredible just getting back to defend your title.I tell you what it sure would look nice making that Back to Back sign to go on the right field fence.15-14 wow, so I guess you guys went for two and pulled it off.So here come the Mighty Lancers,man,not a better way then to battle the best Head to Head.I wish we could go 7 games though to really settle all of this "1 man show bull...."but I guess we'll just have to pitch Eddie hehehe.Good luck to all the Cats make us proud and just do your BEST and I think the rest will take care of itself.GO BRUINS>>>>13-9....

Congrats M-Town,just gettin back to the dance is an achievment in itself .Now bring us home another championship.

Congrats Monrovia! Hoping you do it again!