That’s right, not a cloud in the sky today, a nothing but nice version of the occasionally gloomy, sarcastic, critical, worried, wishing, or worse that often occupies this space. We will take some liberty on maybe mentioning a loss or two but only to emphasize, by comparison, glorious victories, progress and sunshine on the horizon. (For reports on the Congress please see the news dept.)

So we start with the national exposure that the flagship sport of Beach basketball will have once again playing between 12 and 17 nationally televised games over the course of the 2013-14 schedule. The SIDs report, “Long Beach State will start off the season with another difficult non-conference schedule, but one of the upsides to that scheduling is an early nationwide television presence. That will start with the second game of the season, as the 49ers travel to Arizona for a game on the Pac-12 Networks with the 49ers’ game at Washington on November 30 on the same network. Fox offers LBSU at Kansas State (11/17), NC State (12/7) and at Missouri (1/4).

Before that there is the TV at the ESPN staged Puerto Rico tip off with the likes of Michigan in late November. Additionally, the 49ers have four home games set for TV-Dec. 19 with USC plus UC Irvine, Cal Poly and Hawai’i. The Beach is also in the mix for five dates that have been offered as TV “Wild Card” games, giving the broadcasters the option to choose from a number of Big West games on different dates.”

Hungry for more? It comes Saturday, October 19, as the 49ers welcome back over 30 alumni for an Alumni scrimmage at 11 a.m., which will be immediately followed by the Black/Gold Intrasquad scrimmage for the 2013-14 49ers squad. Bonus good news, the ticket office is closed since the whole day is free!!

And how about our honorary Blair Field medic Tommy Lasorda who recently visited a Georgia girl hit by baseball along the Blair Field third baseline. She and her family were watching a brother play in a summer all star game. She is doing better and still wants to play college softball. Tom BTW is all over the TNT cameras in those NLCS games, at home and on the road. So is Magic, wonder if they split a plate of pre-game pasta?

Now the gooder version of the Dust from the women of volleyball and soccer. The Players of the Week were volleyballers Chisom Okpala who led the 49ers with 15 kills and four blocks in a 3-1 win on the road against UC Davis and Junior Tyler Jackson with a career high 28 digs in the win over the Aggies. This week the court queens host Cal State Fullerton, Friday, 7 p.m. and Saturday same time vs UC Riverside both in the iconic Walter Pyramid.

Last of the good news report for the week, the crack Public Affairs office hosted the new CSU Chancellor Tim White and got glowing reviews from the new chief on the state of CSULB (he likes that name best). He gushed about the student optimism, the physical plant, the abundance of good coffee on campus and the fact that he was greeted upon arrival by serenading trumpets and crumpets at the Bob Cole music complex.—DR. DAN