Cleaning out the Inbox

 It has been a while since I worked on an inbox cleaning that doesn't have tributes to the recently passed, so the time feels right.

The photo to the left is from Pennsylvania and what resulted there from Hurricane Agnes in June 1972.

There was some similar flooding here in Washington Country, including some near my house (I remember seeing old home movies of the flooding that my dad filmed) but Pennsylvania was hit even harder with spots in Harrisburg ending the storm thirteen feet underwater.

Hurricane Agnes is THE storm that people remember most locally and it's hard to believe fifty years have gone by since the devastation that it brought to the Mid-Atlantic.

Newsweek reports a recent finding of forty-five eggs laid on a Texas beach by the Kemp-Ridley sea turtle, which is the smallest and rarest sea turtle among all sea turtles.

Apparently, some maintenance workers on the beach found a few of the eggs and helped twenty-five hatchlings reach the water, and later after the local agent was notified, even more turtles hatched and were assisted in making it to the water.

The Kemp-Ridley turtle is most often found in the Gulf of Mexico but has been found in the Atlantic Ocean in spots and is the only sea turtle that nests in the day rather than usual night for turtles.

Accuweather reports a record-breaking Burmese Python catch in the wilds of Florida that dwarfed the previous record high for weight.

This python weighed 215 pounds which obliterated the former record that was set in 2016 at 140 pounds and this could have been even worse as the python was a female, pregnant, and carrying one hundred and twenty-two eggs!

We have written before about invasive species and the issues that Florida has but that python (listed as the size of a large shipping container) would have been quite a problem on its own!

The Athletic looks back at the twenty-fifth anniversary of "Happy Gilmore"'s theatrical release and how Happy Gilmore became such an iconic film in the world of sports.

The author talks to star Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald who portrayed Gilmore's heel protagonist Shooter McGavin, director Dennis Dugan, who played the commissioner and is the father of former Phillies farmhand Kelly Dugan, who I once met at a Hagerstown Suns game as Kelly played for Lakewood, and co-writer Tim Herlihy for the ins and outs of the film and just how Bob Barker was selected to fight Gilmore and how that fight was planned.

I've written during basketball season about how impressed I was with WNBA player Chiney Ogwumike's work on ESPN's NBA Today and Forbes magazine, which isn't known for its sports coverage, writes about the importance of Ogwumike and her hectic schedule as an NBA broadcaster with playing with the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks.

Ogwumike hasn't quite reached her former level of play after struggling with injuries and has played in only fifteen games, averaging six points in sixteen minutes per game.

Cleaning out the Inbox

   Cleaning out the inbox returns with several nuggets that hopefully will catch one's eye for a few minutes of interest!

Mike Oravec sends this ESPN article on Gary Davidson and the World Football League.

Davidson was also involved with the creation of the ABA and WHA but it was the WFL that Davidson was most involved in and served as the league's commissioner.

It's a long article with interesting portions on how and why the Memphis Southmen targeted Paul Warfield, Larry Csonka, and Jim Kiick to poach from the Miami Dolphins, the always hilarious financial stories, the only World Bowl and others...

The Athletic has been working on a series based on football programs that have struggled to reach the level of their previous success.

The Texas Tech article discusses the Red Raider's struggles since the departure of Mike Leach and the three coaches that have tried to win in Lubbock Post-Leach and how they (Tommy Tuberville, Kliff Kingsbury, and Matt Wells), how they managed to not win with Patrick Mahones, and the hopes that Joey McGuire can return to Texas Tech at least a perennial bowl team.

The article on Arkansas might have been even better as it wrote about the Razorback's steep decline from the day that Frank Broyles took the Hogs from the now-defunct Southwest Conference for the trip to the SEC.

One fact that I didn't know and always wondered about was a claim by the now-deceased Broyles that had Arkansas not headed to the SEC and waited for the eventual Big 8 to add four SWC teams (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor) which would have seemed to be a better fit with long-time rivals than the SEC, Arkansas would not have been invited to join the new Big 12.

I didn't know that and it would have sent Arkansas to either an independent or group of five status in the AAC.

While the Razorbacks may have struggled on the field since joining the SEC, the financial coffers swelled by multiples over what they would have received had they decided to pass on the opportunity.

The article on Kansas shows just how easy it is for a program to go south with one or two wrong decisions.

It details how then-athletic director Lew Perkins was determined to fire head coach Mark Mangino, who has been the only coach in the last fifty years to get any kind of momentum going in Lawrence (Mangino actually finished 12-1 and won an Orange Bowl? I still can't believe that a decade and a half later) and hired Turner Gill over Jim Harbaugh, who actually interviewed for the job!

Kansas would later run through Gill, Charlie Weis, David Beaty, and Les Miles before their current hiring of Lance Leipold.

It's a great series and there are other schools written about as well.

The Athletic scores again as Brendan Quinn writes about what it is like for the regular everyday golfer to play at Augusta National during Masters week.

The Masters holds a media lottery each year before the tournament and allows the winner to play the course.

Quinn writes of his round, how the experience felt, and took questions from his readers.

Fred Landucci sends this from the New York Post as columnist Phil Mushnick writes of just badly the analytics crowd is damaging baseball.

I could write about the awful changes to the game that I once loved but Mushnick does a better job and hits all points as the Ivy League invaders that think that they are revolutionizing a game that they are actually slowly choking to death.

ESPN writes of the thirty-year anniversary of the basketball film "White Men Can't Jump", which I haven't seen in years but always enjoyed the many times that I have viewed the film.

The article tells the stories of the casting, filming, and the many bets that were placed during filming on the Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson led cast including the many bets placed on Harrelson's ability to actually dunk and how the bests were actually settled.

We wrap with this Washington Post article on Chiney Ogwumike, who not only plays for the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks but spent her off-season this year on ESPN's NBA studio show as an analyst and I was impressed with her performance and besides her future with the Sparks and judging by this article Ogwumike has an excellent head on her shoulders and certainly has a future outside of basketball when and if she chooses to travel that path.