Stephen Strasburg is the best pitcher in the upcoming draft. He’d have been the best in the last five drafts. Or 10. Or… when was Nolan Ryan drafted? Okay, that’s an exaggeration. Maybe.

(”I came here to do two things: kick ass and tip my cap. And I’m all out of tipping my cap.”)

So you’d think he’s going first, since people think he’s already a top-level major league pitcher, but oh yes, this is the MLB draft, and a-holes agents like Scott Boras love pricing their clients out of teams in small markets (and with small payrolls). It was just weeks ago that Washington was saying they wouldn’t draft Strasburg since Boras is going to ask for 70 times the United States’ GDP, but according to FOX SPORTS, that tune has changed:   Read more…

• Before coupling up with cutie Alex Curran, Liverpool soccer player Steve Gerrard used to pursue his gals by following the mantra of “Go Ugly“.

(I don’t think Steve is “going ugly” anymore.)

• At least the Lakers are one step closer to holding up their end of the deal for a Kobe-LeBron finals.

• MLB All-Star Voting: It’s like “American Idol” without any Simon Cowell!

• San Diego State students show off what they’re made of when they let themselves unwind in with a late night Undie Run.

• Too bad they didn’t have this race when Reggie Grigsby Jr. was with the Aztecs - then maybe he wouldn’t have been shot by his policeman dad after attacking his mom.

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Last year, we wrote about (and showed some great pictures from) UCLA’s annual Undie Run, an event where college students in their skivvies take a late-night run around campus. We even uncovered some video of the fun festivities. Turns out the same revealing activities also take place just a little further down Interstate 5.

San Diego State University held it’s own Undie Run last Thursday night. Just like their Bruin neighbors to the north, the Aztec student body showed off their bodies in a midnight run as a way to relieve the stress & pressures that comes with finals week. (Whoa - two straight SDSU stories in a row. What are the odds?)

So, how did it all look? See for yourself with photos & video after the jump.

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I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to shoot your son or daughter. Having to take a gun and point it and your progeny - your flesh and blood - just boggles my mind. But the NORTH COUNTY TIMES says that’s exactly what Oceanside police captain Reggie Grigsby Sr. had to do over the weekend when his son, former San Diego State starting safety Reggie Grigsby Jr., attacked his mother.

The younger Grigsby apparently got into a verbal altercation with his mother Desirah that quickly turned appalingly violent, with Reggie Jr. beating and choking to the point that she lost consciousness and had her nose broken. A police spokesman said that Capt. Grigsby tried to pull his son off of Desirah, but when he couldn’t he was forced to retrieve his non-police issued handgun and shoot his son.

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He’s already considered perhaps the best college pitching prospect of all time, but Stephen Strasburg just might have earned himself a couple extra million in that deal Scott Boras is “not at all negotiating at this time” with the Nationals.

The acting GM of the Nats, Mike Rizzo, was on hand yesterday as San Diego State’s Strasburg threw a no-hitter against Air Force, piling up 17 strikeouts in the process. Almost as entertaining, though, was Rizzo’s attempts to give Strasburg as many back-handed compliments as possible to make it look like the team isn’t falling all over itself to get him in their rotation as soon as possible.

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You can be sure that Manny Ramirez wasn’t the only person in his camp disappointed when he was “only” able to get a two-year $45 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.  You can bet that his agent Scott Boras was hurting, too. That’s because Boras was the one who orchestrated Manny opting out of his old deal with the Red Sox in the first place because that contract was done by Ramirez’s previous agent, so Boras never got a taste of the money. So he was trying to cash in on Manny while he still could.

Well apparently Boras has decided that he needs another way to get that money into his wallet, and it seems he’s chosen San Diego State’s Stephen Strasburg to do it for him.  Strasburg has been making a mockery of the game while at SDSU during this time there, striking out 19.4 batters per nine innings, and is the consensus number one pick in MLB’s amateur draft this summer. That pick is held by the Washington Nationals, and if Boras gets his way, the Nats are going to need a mortgage on their new stadium to sign Strasburg.

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San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg has been mowing down hitters at an unprecendented rate with a 100 MPH fastball and vicious 94 MPH slider (!). One scout recently told ESPN’s Buster Olney that Strasburg is the best prospect he’s ever seen.

With that kind of talent, and being in located in SoCal, I think it’s a pretty sure bet that Strasburg will be repped by Scott Boras once his career is over.

That’s the good news for Strasburg. Now onto the bad. Read more…

• A new study has revealed that hitting golf balls can make you go deaf.

At least Tiger Woods wouldn’t be bothered by photographers anymore.

• Speaking with ESPN’s Chris Mortensen is a privilege, not a right.

• Secret camera captures soccer club employee stealing over 2,000 jerseys for fun & profit.

• It wasn’t a good weekend to be a good basketball team.

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It’s been 15 years since Marshall Faulk graduated from San Diego State and left the school as the greatest football player in the history of the program. He’d go on to play in the NFL for the Colts and Rams and basically redefine what a running back could be in the league. He’s since retired, and is now awaiting his eventual induction into the NFL Hall of Fame. Unfortunately for San Diego State, their football program has not followed the same path as Mr. Faulk. They haven’t played in a bowl game since the 1998 Las Vegas Bowl, and haven’t won a bowl game since 1969’s Pasadena Bowl. In the last five years the team has compiled a record of 18-41, and things don’t seem to be getting any better even with the hiring of Brady Hoke from Ball State.

Which is why Mark Zeigler’s column in the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE  this morning so interesting. In the piece, Zeigler makes a pretty good argument for why the school should just cut its losses and drop the football program all together. Considering that the school loses about $4 million annually running the program, doesn’t have it’s own stadium, and Qualcomm Stadium doesn’t really want them back since they lose money hosting games, there are plenty of reasons — those three are just a start — why dropping the program would be the smart thing to do. Of course, writing a column saying that a school should drop football will no doubt cause quite an uproar amongst the school’s fans, right? Well, apparently not.

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I was listening to XPRS-AM in San Diego today and they were discussing the hiring of the next San Diego State football coach (I know, stay with me on this though…)

(Only thing missing in the pic is the leather helmet)

Afternoon host Darren Smith pointed out, apparently from a piece today in the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, that the school had hired a search firm to help identify candidates for the *plum* position.  He then noted that the company, called Parker Executive Search, had a website that listed some of the coaches and schools the firm as connected.

One of those wonderful marriages arranged (and duly noted) by PES? Kelvin Sampson and Indiana.

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