Larranaga to miami

[MoValley John]

I had a short stint at Aberdeen Proving Grounds- Edgewood Arsenal, working at the Institute of Chemical Defense (ICD). I was there for nine months in 1984-85. And while it is outside of Baltimore, I always considered the whole DC-Baltimore corridor just one big place. As a matter of fact, I spent more of my free time in DC rather than in Baltimore. I was at the Smithsonian constantly. That said, even back then I had at least heard of George Mason. They got some press and it was long before their recent run. On the flipside, outside of a mention here or there, you rarely read anything about Towson State. For those unfamiliar with the area, Towson State `was literally a stone's throw from where I was at. They were treated like a community college, if that.

I have no idea how things are today for GM, but I do know what the overall sports scene is there. In a nutshell, Ace Dad is right, and if you haven't spent any appreciable time there, you wouldn't understand. This is a pro sports area. Period. And I'm not talking about how pro sports are treated in Kansas City, St Louis or even Dallas. It is ten times magnified on the East Coast! Out there, pro sports are the alpha and omega. They are the reason people breathe. People are still butt hurt about Colts leaving. And they are upset on a level most can't even comprehend. It's not just football, although the Redskins were the biggest thing then, it's MLB, the NHL, the NBA and even pro soccer. They have professional laccrosse as well! They have everything, all the time and it is all about being big league. On top of that, it really wasn't just the teams in DC and Baltimore, it was New York, Philly and more. The fans mix and match, city to city- and with passion. People commute three hours each way for work, a three hour commute to see a ballgame is no big deal. It is nothing for fans to jump on a train, connect to the subway and hit a road game without touching a car. There was a guy in my office that was a huge Yankees fan and he made it to at least one game every homestand. This is a pro sports area like no other and George Mason getting any attention is a huge accomplishment. 6,000 fans is a big deal.

On the flipside, I was stationed in San Diego for the bulk of 2 years. San Diego, and Los Angeles for that matter, are horrible sports towns, college or professional. The Chargers did pretty well, but the Padres only draw when they are winning, and even then, they don't draw all that well. The Clippers left San Diego during this time, nobody attended Clippers games. In LA, they like the Lakers, that's about it. USC has been the flavor of the past few years, but a little probabtion will kill what they had. Fans in SoCal are bad. They don't care, they aren't passionate. Sure, there are two MLB and two NBA franchises in LA, but the city is large enough to support four each! They can't even get it together enough to get a single NFL team and they have lackluster support for their hockey team. This in a metro of 13,000,000!

[Ace Dad]

Mo, thanks for the life raft. I did not know how to explain the DC metro area to someone who had not lived there. I am biased because I lived 4 miles from the George Mason campus from 1991 to 1996 and took Ace Kid to their summer basketball camp. It was a commuter college trying to build a fan base and following. I later lived 45 minutes from the campus from 2001-2008. By now, Mason had gained some respectability.

A basketball fan could get on Metro or his car and within an hour attend a game at Maryland, Georgetown, George Washington, Howard, Towson State, American University, Maryland Baltimore, etc, etc. My 75 minute commute to work and 75 minute commute back home meant I watched most games on tv. Those 6000 fans at GMU, in many cases, had a long commute the following weekday morning.

The DC metro area is Mars and most of us live on Venus.

[MoValley John]

I would hardly call myself an expert on the area as I was there less than a full year, but in the time I was there, it was very evident what was important- pro sports. And the way people commute is day and night from anything anywhere else. There were people living in VA, WV, PN and NY working in the office I was in. They commuted every day. It would be akin to a person living in Des Moines driving to work in Omaha every day or a Wichitan that drove to work in KC every day. From where I was, I could be on the Mall in DC in less than an hour if I didn't battle traffic. My memory fades with time, but I remember it being a pretty straight shot from the horbor tunnel to the Baltimore Washington Parkway to the Mall.

As far as college sports, Georgetown was a big deal, but they were Georgetown. I physically lived in Maryland, and being the state school they had a good fanbase. They drew well for basketball, not so well for football. at the same time, there was nowhere near the passion generated for the state team as there is for state schools in the Midwest. The University of Iowa is a much bigger deal in Iowa than The University of Maryland is in Maryland.

I don't miss the area much. Outside of seeing just about every square inch of the Smithsonian, the only thing I really miss about the area is the blue crabs. Every restaurant thought they served the best crabs! I learned of Old Bay Seasoning out there and learned how to eat crabs. My favorite crab place was in Deleware, about an hour away. You had to wind around this road and there was an old restaurant right on the water. You ate outside on picnic benches covered with newspaper. You bought beer and crabs by the bucket. Great stuff!!!

[Snapshot9]

Maybe, just maybe:

1) Larranaga was getting a little stale at GM, and being taken for granted.
2) He and the AD had issues which were not being resolved as promised.
3) He wanted to make more money.

http://www.cbssports.com/#!/collegebasketball/story/15002366/notebook-five-teams-on-the-rise-for-next-season

[MSUDuo]

Paul Hewitt to George Mason

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6456028