Cleaning out the inbox

The inbox returns with what might be the goofiest mascot that I have ever seen.

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.

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.

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....

Cleaning out the inbox

We start the cleaning of the inbox with an article on Andrew Wiggins on the reality of being in the pro game from Fox Sports.
I've been desperately hoping against hope that that the Cavaliers will be able to hold onto Wiggins in the prospective Kevin Love trade because I love his game.
I still believe that the Cavaliers would have been better served waiting a little while to gain Kevin Love and I also still believe that the asking price would have dropped over time.
I understand the lust for a title for Cleveland fans-I have it just as bad,I think that holding onto Andrew Wiggins would have made things more sustainable long-term....

The Oklahoma City Thunder are trying an unusual end around the NBA rules with an attempt to "draft and stash" Stanford forward Josh Husetis in the D-League.
The catch is that Huestis has to refuse his NBA mandated rookie slot contract of over a million dollars to take far less to play in the D-League.
As in 25,000 dollars to play the season there.
The Thunder gambles that Huestis doesn't sign it and takes him at his word that he doesn't,Huestis gambles that he can develop his game there and make up those earnings later with a more improved game.
It'll be interesting to see how this works out...

I rarely link to Herald-Mail articles,but this one that discusses why the Hagerstown Suns are drawing so poorly is worth a look.
The article talks to fans,although the author didn't do a good job of talking to fans that are regulars,about their thoughts on why the Suns attendance is lousy.
There are plenty of excuses by various people quoted in the article,but two things that are only lightly touched and yet loom as the two largest reasons for this problem-the decrepit state of the stadium and that fact that the Suns have been so transparent about heading out of town.
Pretty tough to hook fans when you have stated you don't really want to be around....

Grantland writes about the seemingly revived Tim Lincecum and makes a case that the Giant pitcher has had various issues that accumulated into the decline and perhaps the return.
Very interesting if you like more than the everyday statistics and even more so if you like Lincecum and the Giants....

Hardball Times reviews a new book about the AA Southern League that covers the time period of 1965 to the present and looks like a good read.\
It appears to be a book long on characters known and less known and I'm considering getting it sometime in the future.
Former Indian rookie of the year Joe Charboneau is pictured on the cover from his year with the Chattanooga Lookouts in a tuxedo while sipping champagne at a table placed on the field.

We wrap up with a link to the Moon.
More specifically what the landing spots of the Apollo missions look like today from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
What they look like is just about like things looked when the Apollo astronauts left after their mission.
As the article states,erosion is an extremely gradual process on the moon and those footprints would still be visible if you arrived there today...

Consider things cleaned out for a while-Back for more next time!