SO,since I dropped the ball on that,I can get the lysol out and start cleaning the inbox a bit instead.
Let's get started with a SABR baseball cards blog entry on a long time favorite of mine and maybe the most polarizing figure in baseball broadcasting-Ken "The Hawk" Harrelson.
Hawk,who whether you like him or not, is definitely the
biggest homer in the booth anywhere and certainly is a memorable person from the first time that you hear a game that he does.
The SABR article though looks at Hawk's playing career through his various Topps cards and it's neat to see the evolution through a career and hear some stories about why and how some cards look the way they do.
The 1970 Topps set isn't my favorite set,but it is my favorite Hawk card-it is one of two cards of him as an Indian,he wears a hat that I own (one of my two favorite non-Wahoo Indians hats) and I love the stadium (Yankee Stadium in this case) shots in the background!
More Hawk as the White Sox saluted Harrelson with a stadium giveaway that I want in the Hawk talking alarm clock!
The clock can wake you with one of various Hawk sayings and stuff like that are home runs to me!
Kudos to the White Sox for the clock,which was based on the Milwaukee Brewers doing a Bob Uecker clock of the same style last year...
The Hardball Times writes of a seven day offensive run by Frank Howard of the Washington Senators in 1968.
The article discusses Howard's career as a Dodger,but mainly looks at his time in Washington with the Senators,in which with the exception a surprising 1969,Howard was about the only thing to get excited about for a bad franchise that was nearing the end of its time in Washington.
It also writes of the powerful long balls that Howard hit and the three white seats that remain in RFK stadium to this day that were commemorated for Howard's blasts into the upper deck.
I've written before about my fondness for mid-major basketball and with Xavier moving up to the Big East a few years and arguably passing metro rival Cincinnati on the food chain,my main mid-major school was gone.
Wichita State under Gregg Marshall was their replacement,but with the Shockers move to the American Athletic Conference,which in basketball is not quite top notch,but above the mid-major level and leaving the Missouri Valley conference,the MVC needed a replacement and found it in Valparaiso.
Valpo had been the best program in the Horizon League (especially since Butler had left) for years and like Wichita State climbing the conference ladder up a notch with the AAC,Valpo is doing the same with its move to the MVC.
It's part of the business of college sports today-understandable.but sometimes at the cost of some of what makes college sports so great.
Mid-Major Madness writes about the Crusaders move here and the Wichita Eagle discusses it here in what will likely be one of the final articles for that paper on the MVC with the Wichita State departure of the league effective in the fall.
Meanwhile,the AAC is beginning to tout itself as the conference attempting to push its way into prominence and turn the "Power 5"conferences into the "Power 6" and this ESPN article talks about the AAC churning out coaches for the higher level in football.
The point is made when you look at Tom Herman (leaving Houston for Texas),Justin Fuente (Memphis for Virginia Tech) and Willie Taggart (South Florida for Oregon) that the AAC truly is a
a league that prepares coaches for the power five jobs and even if I'm not sure that the AAC should make the five a six,the league has some really good programs and makes for many fun fall evenings watching their teams go at it...
Steve Kim at UCNLive writes about the lack of buzz over Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev II and the frustrations by Main Events (promoter of Kovalev) with the promotion of Roc Nation (promoter of Ward) and their questionable promoting of the rematch.
Ward's questionable decision win in November meant the contracted rematch would be promoted by Roc Nation-a "promotion" that has been a disaster in their time in the boxing business.
Roc Nation hasn't pushing the fight,there is next to no excitement for a fight that should have it amid rumors that this will be the final event before Roc Nation boxing folds its tent and goes away as the latest "money mark" to think that promoting boxing is easy and leaves after losing lots of money to come to the realization that boxing isn't like any other business venture.
We wrap with the Cleveland Plain Dealer looking at two players with plenty in common-Robert Griffin and Johnny Manziel.
Two stars at Texas colleges,Heisman winners,first round draft picks,spread offense runners and disappointments with the Cleveland Browns,both players say they want to play in the NFL again,but no one has come calling as of this writing.
Should either of the two decide to try Canada and the CFL-their home would be in Hamilton as a Tiger-Cat as Hamilton holds the rights to both Griffin and Manziel.
I'd be interested to see how they would play in the CFL,which does require some mobility from their QB's,but needs a bigger arm than most American fans would think as the throws to the sideline are longer with the wider field.
When you look at Vince Young,who has much in common with the above two ( minus the Heisman,but adding a national title) and his attempt to come back to football with the CFL (Young is with the Saskatchewan Roughriders),it's not so far fetched to some day see either or even both of those players giving Canadian Football a shot...
