Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Cleaning out the inbox-Sports edition.

The sports inbox needs to be cleaned and I'll start with the unveiling of the Sacramento Kings new logo as they prepare to enter a new arena next season.
I like the new logo because it is very much like the old Kansas City Kings logo that the team used for years when they first arrived in the capital of California.
The funny part is the picture from USA Today,which takes the Kings and Atlanta Hawks logo,turns them upside down and looks a lot like a game of PacMan...

Sports Illustrated posts an oral history of the first great quarterback crop in the NFL draft from 1971.
The crop did not produce any Hall of Famers,but did have two Super Bowl winners in Joe Theismann and Jim Plunkett along with two players that were considered among the best of their time in Archie Manning and Ken Anderson.
Its interesting looking back at just how little news that the draft created in 1971 compared to the media behemoth of today.....

Hardball Times has an excellent oral history on the Doug Mirabelli trade in 2006.
Mirabelli was a generic backup catcher with one plus skill-the ability to catch a knuckleball.
That skill generally is like being an excellent surfer in the Arctic Ocean,but on a team with with a knuckleballer,it's worth its weight in gold.
Those Red Sox needed Mirabelli by employing Tim Wakefield,but yet traded him away over the previous winter and expected Josh Bard to catch Wakefield,which quickly proved to be a less than successful expectation.
This tells the story of the trade and the extraordinary extremes that were used to get Mirabelli to catch on the day that he was obtained from the San Diego Padres....

Jim Weber at the SI Cauldron discusses how much better NFL Helmets used to be and writes what helmet each team should be using.
I agree with all of his choices except for two- Weber would keep the current Redskins (I'd use the Lombardi yellow R helmet) and he would go back to the 80's Giants with the GIANTS name across it (I prefer the current NY logo),
Other than I like Weber's pick with the heavy on tradition selections!

Eleven Warriors has an excellent article on the late Drushaun Humphrey,who passed away as Ohio State's top recruit at running back in 2002 (Yes over Maurice Clarett) from a heart condition suffered during a high school basketball game.
It's a good read on Humphrey,but it covers other points as well-Clarett,Toledo's decline,high school sports and recruiting of the day.
Another point that I didn't know was one of the things that the NCAA went after Jim Tressel on when he was relieved of his duties was giving Humphrey's mother a 2002 championship ring and his high school coach a Buckeye jersey with Humphrey's name and number on it.
Please tell me what Tressel or Ohio State got out of that gesture to have it be an official reprimand?
That's the stuff that drives me nuts about the NCAA...

The Guardian looks at the best show on the fledgling Fox Sports One and its charismatic host Katie Nolan.
Garbage Time has been the only show on FS1 that I even try to see and Nolan is the main reason why.
Nolan attacks issues,but not in an obnoxious way and I think has the potential to be a star in the industry in a way that far surpasses the Erin Andrews of the world.
Nolan isn't afraid to take stands (like her takedown of Dallas Cowboy Greg Hardy and the softballing of him by the media) and prides herself on being more than just eye candy-I like her.

Finally,wanted to wrap up with a word or two on the graphing circuit-I have been having a great time and hope to have a post on my weekend trip up to Scranton up tomorrow or Thursday.
I'm behind but not out!!
Until then!



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