Showing posts with label Nelly Korda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nelly Korda. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Cleaning out the inbox

Photo: SF Chronicle
I've been working on tidying up the inbox often this week with passings (and I still have enough remaining for one more post), but there still are the regular notes to be swept up before the football and boxing weekend.

The final Sunday of the baseball season was meaningless for the San Francisco Giants and their fans as far as postseason baseball, but Sunday was a big day anyway as the Giants and their fans said goodbye to longtime manager Bruce Bochy before the future Cooperstown inductee managed his final game with the Giants.
The Ringer writes a great article on Bochy and whether or not the game has seen the last of his type of manager,
The invasion of the game with the "analytic" types will slowly winnow the old school baseball types from the game and even though the San Diego Padres, where Bochy spent most of his playing career, has been rumored to be interested in bringing Bochy south, it's pretty clear where the game is going.

The loudest ovation on Bochy's day among the roughly 100 former Giants that attended the ceremonies and the game, was very easy to gauge as it was clearly Tim Lincecum, who received the loudest cheer.
Lincecum has easily been the most popular Giant of my tenure as a fan and as popular as others have been, it's still Lincecum out in front of that race.
Lincecum will never be inducted in Cooperstown, but his four year run from 2008-12 was certainly of that level that included two Cy Young awards.
Ann Killion of the San Francisco Chronicle writes of Lincecum's return, some memories and a little about what Lincecum is up to today, which is a lot when you consider how Lincecum stays away from the spotlight.
I may be writing posts on Bochy and/or Lincecum throughout the off-season.

The Chicago Tribune writes of the families and supporters of Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver as they continue to battle to clear the names of their ancestors on the 100th anniversary of the "Black Sox" scandal.
Jackson and Weaver are the two players that are involved with the scandal that has a viable claim of being somewhat innocent of the charges of throwing the 1919 World Series that would eventually claim the careers of several of the White Sox via commissioner decree the following year.

The Athletic travels through the state of Ohio for five days and eight hundred miles as the football passion of the state is recorded through the various people involved with high school, Ohio State, Ohio State's club team and one school playing eight-man football.
I found the rules and problems with eight-man football to be especially interesting and I wonder how viable eight-man football could be in some areas.
As one official was quoted as saying "Eight-man football is better than no football".

The Athletic returns with an article on Kellen Moore, the 30-year-old offensive wunderkind of the Dallas Cowboys,
Moore, who spent a few years in the league as a backup with the Cowboys and the Detroit Lions, is best remembered as a quarterback for his days at Boise State, where Moore was a finalist for the 2010 Heisman Trophy and for leading the Broncos to a 50-3 record with Moore at the helm.
That record is even more spectacular when you look at the three losses coming by a combined six points and two of the three losses could have been avoided as field goals that would have won the game were missed on the final play.
The article looks at the impact Moore has at Boise State and in the Boise area, where he is still popular enough to be a commercial endorser for a local auto group and public service announcements as well.

The LPGA's official site writes of the challenge of Nelly Korda to her sister Jessica as the best golfer in the family.
Jessica has more tour victories (5 to 2), but Nelly has passed her older sister in the Rolex World Rankings (9 to 19) and seems to have a better all-around game compared to Jessica's big hitter status off the tee, but can struggle with the short game.
I wonder what it would be like to compete with a sibling in an individual sport at the world's highest level?
I suppose that the travel and all that comes with the grind that surrounds a tour could be very nice to travel with but during the event? That has to be quite difficult if both are in a battle for position.






Thursday, February 2, 2017

Cleaning out the inbox

We start the inbox with another goodbye as former N.C.State center Charles Shackleford was found dead in his home in Kinston NC at the age of 50.
Shackleford was a well traveled center in the NBA,playing for several teams,but was better known for his days as the center for the Wolfpack in the mid 1980's.
Shackleford was an imposing rebounder and big body,but was never able to develop the type of scoring skills away from the basket to be anything more than a role player at the next level.
It was the off court antics of Shackleford and another talented yet disappointing big man Chris Washburn that drew attention to N.C. State basketball under Jim Valvano and the eventual dismissal of Valvano with the dreaded tag "Lack of Institutional Control" to the basketball program...

Recently,we observed the 50th anniversary of the Apollo One fire and two interesting notes found their way into the inbox.
Motherboard offers a look titled "Heat and Ashes" in which one of the men that tried to pry the hatch to the capsule off (Henry Rogers) is part of the story by his grandchild-the author of the piece,Kaleigh Rogers.

The other note is that NASA has finally put a piece of the capsule out for public display.
Not the entire capsule,which remains in storage in Virginia,but the hatch that couldn't be released in the fire has been placed for the public to see at their Cape Canaveral museum.
It had often been mentioned with NASA displaying pieces from the two Space Shuttle tragedies that the Apollo One mission had never been represented.
The hatch is something to share with the public and allow them to pay tribute to...

Mark Arbour writes on the SABR Baseball Card blog about a mid-1980's trip for work in the defense industry than saw him use his per diem (in travelers checks,remember those?) on baseball and two baseball cards bought in a shop near his hotel.
Going chintzy on food and expenses in order to buy something for the collection sounds exactly like something I would do (and have done!)!!!!

I've written before about my LPGA fandom and my favorite player in Jessica Korda,but this season brings an added twist to the tour with the arrival of Jessica's younger sister Nelly.
The 18 year Korda was one of the top 10 players on the Symmetra tour (the LPGA's farm system) and automatically moved up to the main circuit.
The article talks about the sisters and shows a video of a shootout between the pair on the course....

Rachel has begun to bowl occasionally lately and she was surprised to hear that the game of her choice,Duckpin Bowling is a regional game,not a national one.
As I looked this up for more information,this blog turned up with a post on not only Duckpin Bowling,but something called Candlepin Bowling as well.
I've never heard of this game,but apparently it too is a regional thing,mostly in the New England states.
The interesting part for me was that I always grew up with Duckpin Bowling with three lanes offering it just in this town,but there are now just 41 alleys left that offer this game compared to over 400 in 1963.
Bowling itself might be scuffling along,but duckpin appears to be a dying game....

That completes the inbox,I'm hoping to finally get the Mary Tyler Moore piece finished for the next post!!




Boxing Challenge: Joshua Dropped, Tsyzu retires Spence

      No upsets over the weekend, but the biggest news came from a near-upset as unknown Kristian Prenga dropped former heavyweight champion...