Cleaning out the inbox

We return to the inbox with plenty of news and some passings as well....

The post on the Hagerstown Suns pitchers was our 3000th post here!
It's hard to believe that I have done so many posts.
I am amazed that I actually stuck with this....


Starting with the passings as "Lefty" Koch sends word of the death of former pitcher Joaquin Andujar at the age of 62.
Andujar won 20 games in 1984 and 1985 with the St,Louis Cardinals,but was surprisingly out of the game by 1989,
The righthander blossomed after becoming a Redbird after a journeyman-like tenure with the Houston Astros that never saw him win more than 12 games in the rainbow uniforms in the Astrodome.
Andujar is also remembered for being ejected in the middle of the Cardinals game seven loss in the 1985 World Series in what would be his final game as a Cardinal,as he was traded to Oakland at the end of the season.
Andujar might be best remembered as he dubbed himself "one tough Dominican" and once said his favorite word in English was "Youneverknow"......

Another passing was that of former Iowa forward Roy Marble at the age of 48,
Marble,who is the father of the Orlando Magic's Devyn Marble,left Iowa in 1989 as the schools all time leading scorer and would spend two seasons with the Atlanta Hawks.
Marble could play small forward or shooting guard and I thought that he would have been a better pro than he turned out to be.
Marble passed away due to lung cancer..

I really enjoyed the SEC Network program on former N.C.State and LSU head coach Bo Rein.
A forgotten figure,Rein took the LSU job in 1980,but never coached a game after dying in a mysterious plane crash.
I think you'll be pleased with the half hour on the former Buckeye baseball and football star.
Eleven Warriors brought it to my attention and I enjoyed the program.

Hardball Times looks at the career of Bobby Murcer.
Hardball Times often looks at players on the 40 year anniversary of Topps baseball card sets and the Murcer card from that season was after the winter trade to the Giants (we wrote about it here) for Bobby Bonds.
The card features one of those awful Topps airbrushing jobs of the day with a not so swift Giants cap on Murcer.

Grantland discusses two southwestern programs with two different types of problems.
The first topic is about the problems that the SMU Mustangs have had since their death penalty in the late 1980's.
What I thought was most interesting was the comparison to fellow Dallas/Ft.Worth metroplex school TCU,which was of the same status as SMU for years before the investment into their program and resulting rise....

The other talks about the Arkansas State football program and the difficulty in keeping coaches as for the first time in years,ASU has been able to retain their coach (Blake Anderson) for a second year.
Arkansas State lost three coaches in a row to more successful programs after their first season in Jonesboro and this article talks about the issues in retaining coaches after success at lower levels...

Hagerstown is considered part of the Washington TV market,which moved up one spot in the Nielsen ratings.
Nielsen has been the name brand in TV ratings for decades and their research saw Washington nose out Boston for 7th place.
Baltimore is 26th overall and if Baltimore and Washington were to be considered one market,it would move up to 3rd behind just New York and Los Angeles overall.