Thursday, September 28, 2017

Cleaning out the inbox

Back to the still overflowing inbox that has more non-sports content than sports, so I'll get the sports items out of there now and try to continue soon with the rest!

Sorry to hear of the passing of former Denver Broncos and Denver Gold head coach Red Miller at the age of 89.
Miller, who brought the Broncos to their first Super Bowl in the 1977 season, coached the Broncos to the playoffs in the first three seasons that he coached and his final year saw him go 8-8 before being fired.
I never understood why Miller got fired even then (I've noted I was a Denver fan as a kid) for the sin of going .500 one season and I've never been able to figure out with a record of 40-22 that Miller was never given another chance in the league.
Miller coached the Denver Gold in the first season of the league but didn't make through the season.

The San Jose Mercury-News and Daniel Brown has a great article on the search for the suddenly absent Tim Lincecum.
The former Giant ace, who struggled through a comeback attempt in 2016 with the Angels hasn't been in the public spotlight since.
Brown's travels took him to Lincecum's high school, college (University of Washington) and travels while writing about the pitcher's career.
I really enjoyed reading this...

Another Giants pitching star of the same age that has seen his struggles over the last few season announced his retirement today as Matt Cain will make his final start in the game with his Saturday start against the Padres in San Francisco.
Cain, who turns 33 on Monday, has struggled over the last few seasons and was just 3-11 with a 5.66 ERA in 2016.
The former Hagerstown Sun walks away with a career record of 104-118 and as the only Giant to ever pitch a perfect game- vs the Astros in 2012.
I may do a longer piece on Cain next week...

The attention in college football might be mostly going towards Sam Darnold of USC, Josh Rosen of UCLA and Penn State's Saquon Barkley, but the best player in college football just might not even play for a Power Five conference as the American Athletic Conference's Houston Cougars possesses a defensive lineman that makes plays that you just don't see every day or even year in Ed Oliver.
I've seen Oliver triple-teamed at times and during the Cougars game vs Texas Tech last week, saw ten men off the line of scrimmage and only rushed Oliver, who still managed to pressure the Red Raider quarterback and that's a semi-official pressure, not just a somewhere near the passer.
ESPN writes about Oliver, how the Cougars landed him and his commitment to the city of Houston.
On and off the field, Ed Oliver is going to be a fortunate addition to some city and franchise in the NFL soon.

This is over now, but the Buffalo Bisons recently found a way to boost income without playing a game as the team designed a golf course on (yes on) the outfield at Coca-Cola Field with nine holes with "different" stipulations for each hole such as wearing a football helmet, drinking a beer and sinking a putt with a Happy Gilmore inspired putter....

I'll wrap up with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's article on the DuraEdge playing surface or specially blended dirt and its base in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.
DuraEdge is used by 21 major league teams as their infield surface and founder Grant McKnight says it saves many games each year with its terrific drainage system.
The article looks at how it's made,blended and how it actually plays on the field....




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