Meet Artie the Fighting Artichoke, the mascot of Scottsdale Community College, who looks like not only an artichoke but about five other things that one could think of.
Artie was the choice of the newly created college student board as the mascot in a clearly satirical decision in 1970.
The times were controversial then as now and the board didn't think that sports were important in times of the anti-war movement with student organizations, so they picked Artie the Artichoke as their way of poking the bear of organized sports.
The Artichoke defeated the Rutabaga and the Scoundrel to become the school mascot in the organized election and makes me think of two things.
One- I don't recall eating either an Artichoke or a Rutabaga.
Two- What I remember most about either vegetable was the failed attempt to bring a bowl to Hooterville in Green Acres- the Rutabaga Bowl.
The article also notes that should you decide to deep fry Artie, it would take 200 gallons of oil and 20 pounds of batter to crisp Artie up a bit!
The Athletic has lots of time on their hands with no games to report and very little other than NFL free agency to write about.
They are trying to fill the void with plenty of pieces about stars of the past along with stories of interest that writers ordinarily don't have the time to write during the season.
Two of these stories cover my two favorite Giants since I became a fan as Giants beat writer Andrew Baggerly interviews, Buster Posey, as Posey attempts to improve from his first season that showed significant slippage.
Posey talks about everything baseball that you could want to know and expresses a rare interest in today's game- an intent to retire a Giant with the only team that Posey has ever played for.
Baggerly's other article talks about his favorite Giant as he looks at Tim Lincecum, who is likely the most popular Giant since I became a fan.
Lincecum is probably the "everyman" that fans always are drawn to and between the unabashed joy on the field and the laid back person off the field, Lincecum was the Giant that I was drawn to right away.
Lincecum's unusual delivery was dominating during his fairly short peak, but it also is likely what took so much out of the slight-framed righthander to result in a few years of such brilliance and quickly downhill.
The Lincecum curveball was so devastating and for those few seasons (2008-11), Tim Lincecum made me think for the only time (The Indians have had some excellent hurlers, but no one like 55) that I didn't want to miss a start because you never knew what you would miss.
It must have been what it was like for Dodgers fans when Sandy Koufax was the scheduled starter and I've never had anyone like that pitch for my team before or since.
The final Athletic article is an oral history of the 2006 Final Four run of the George Mason Patriots.
The article talks to Mason's coach Jim Larranaga and several players about the run that started with George Mason getting an at-large bid out of the Colonial Athletic Conference and the CBS studio group that questioned Mason getting such a bid.
The CAA doesn't receive many at-large bids and that alone made the season memorable as George Mason was the first of a few mid-majors to reach the Final Four since 2006 such as Butler, Wichita State, Loyola Chicago, and Virginia Commonwealth.
I'm not a college basketball junkie as I once was, but I always pull for the mid-majors that make the tournament what it is.
Next time, I'll either be giving tributes to the recently passed or finishing the inbox with a few non-sports notes.
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