End of the season-Jacobs disposes of Mora

The Boxing Challenge returned last night in Reading,Pennsylvania with a PBC card that saw another "callout" of Gennady Golovkin that will be unlikely to happen and a lightweight title fight that filled a vacancy.

However,a slight detour.
I was unable to watch the card until this morning as I was live and in person at the Hagerstown Suns playoff game that saw them eliminated by the Lakewood Blue Claws.
That game also saw the end to the autograph season and following the game,I was stuck in a huge rainstorm,so wet clothes and all,I made a quick retreat to work.
Before I get to Boxing,just a quick nod to all my autograph buddies that make the year so great.
At this time of year,I am just as ready as the players to be finished for a while,but it's always the best time of the year.
Thanks to (no particular order) Derreck Chupak,Doug Hopkins,Bill Cover,Kendall Morris and Tim Jarman at home,Fred and Michael Landucci at Harrisburg and Brett Shaw at Altoona as well as my traders Jason Christensen,Corey White,Tom O'Brien and Craig Lindgren for all your help and fun in this crazy hobby that I so adore....

The main event saw Daniel Jacobs take on Sergio Mora for the second time in a rematch that few wanted to see the first time.
Jacobs dropped Mora in the fourth and fifth before scoring three knockdowns in the seventh to finish the fight.
Jacobs is supposed to be the mandatory for Gennady Golovkin,if Golovkin beats Kell Brook later today,but after the Sergei Kovalev/Adonis Stevenson HBO?PBC mess,I'm dubious of that bout getting made.
Ramon Malpica and I each added two points for the Jacobs win...

The vacancy for the IBF in the 135 pound division was filled with Robert Easter's split decision win over Richard Commey.
The fight was pretty entertaining and close for two fighters that had never went the 12 round distance entering the bout.
Commey scored the fights only knockdown when he knocked Easter off balance and Easter's glove touched the floor,but Easter almost stopped Commey in a huge 12th round for the Ohio native.
I scored Commey a 114-113 winner.
Ramon and I each earned 1 point for the Easter win and the total standings is now 99-83

Pigskin Picking Machine

The PPM returns with another weekend of football as the NFL kicks off!

Last Week:6-0

College
Ohio State over Tulsa 52-23
Bowling Green over North Dakota 44-41
Boise State over Washington State 40-37
Texas Tech over Arizona State 54-49
Washington over Idaho 45-10
Middle Tennessee State over Vanderbilt 23-19

Game of the week
Tennessee over Virginia Tech 23-17

NFL
Eagles over Browns 24-14
Raiders over Saints 35-31

Game of the Week
Cardinals over Patriots 24-20

Boxing Challenge is back!

The Boxing Challenge returns from hiatus with fights on Spike,HBO and untelevised fights.
Lots of chance for Ramon Malpica to gather some points and make a late run from the pack like Concern in the Breeders Cup Classic.
I hold a 96-80 lead at this writing.

The big bout features the best middleweight in the world defending his three titles against the best welterweight in the world in a bout that you would think is a mismatch physically,but not as much as you would think.
Gennady Golovkin struggles finding opponents and so does Kell Brook.
It's not a perfect matchup,but give Brook credit for giving it a shot.
Roman Gonzalez goes after the junior bantam title against undefeated Carlos Cuadras,Daniel Jacobs against another barely breathing foe,talented Robert Easter shooting for his first title and add in the untelevised fights of note and you have an awesome boxing weekend-even if you have to find some on YouTube.

Middleweights.12 rd
Daniel Jacobs vs Sergio Mora
R.L:Jacobs KO 3
TRS: Jacobs KO 5

Vacant IBF Lightweight title.12 rds
Robert Easter vs Richard Commey
R.L:Easter Unanimous Decision
TRS: Easter KO 8

IBF Junior Welterweight title.12 rds
Edouard Troyanovsky vs Keita Obara
R.L:Troyanovsky Unanimous Decision
TRS: Troyanovsky KO 6

WBA/WBC/IBF Middleweight titles.12 rds
Gennady Golovkin vs Kell Brook
R.L: Golovkin KO 6
TRS; Golovkin KO 8

IBF Bantamweight title.12 rds
Lee Haskins vs Stuart Hall
Both:Haskins Unanimous Decision

IBF Flyweight title.12 rds
Johnriel Casimero vs Charlie Edwards
R.L:Edwards Unanimous Decision
TRS: Casimero Split Decision

WBC Junior Bantamweight title.12 rds
Carlos Cuadras vs Roman Gonzalez
R,L: Gonzalez KO 8
TRS:Gonzalez Unanimous Decision

Junior Middleweights.10 rds
Yoshihiro Kamegai vs Jesus Soto-Karass
R.L:Kamegai Unanimous Decision
TRS;Soto-Karass Split Decision

Goodbye to the Schoolboy

Bobby Chacon passed away yesterday after a fall at the age of 64.
Chacon won WBC titles at featherweight and junior lightweight and was known for his exciting toe to toe wars in the latter half of his career.

The unusual part of Chacon's career was the change in styles as he aged.
Chacon was a smooth boxer/puncher as a featherweight,but lots of hard living cost Chacon many of those skills,so after his move to 130 pounds,Chacon became a fan friendly swapper of punches and became a staple of network broadcasts in the final heyday of boxing on the airwaves.

Chacon lost to the great champion Ruben Olivares after winning his first 19 bouts as he was stopped in the ninth round by Olivares,but the loss didn't derail Chacon,who faced future featherweight champ Danny "Little Red" Lopez in a crosstown rivalry bout that was demanded by the local fans.
Promoter Don Chargin said had they been able to wait another six months-Chacon-Lopez could have drawn 45,000 at the LA Coliseum.
Instead,the fight sold out the Los Angeles Sports Arena with its 16,000 capacity,the fight being too big for the normal home for big time boxing in Los Angeles,the Olympic Auditorium with Chacon scoring a ninth round KO.
It was at the Olympic,where Chacon won the vacant WBC featherweight title as he knocked out Alfredo Marcano in nine,but even as the future looked brightest for Chacon,the outside the ring activities would slow the in ring as Chacon was blasted out by old rival Olivares dropping the title in just two rounds.

Chacon would never return to the quality of boxer that he once was,but would enter the stage of his career where his national fan base would remember him best for next.
Chacon would fight what most would consider his greatest rival ( if not the best boxer) in Rafael "Bazooka" Limon for the first time as he lost a surprising decision on the road in Mexico.
Limon took a tremendous punch and his free swinging style meshes perfectly with that of Chacon's to make great fights...
Chacon then ripped off wins in 14 of his next 16 fights (only a controversial split decision loss to Arturo Leon and a draw with Limon in the second fight between the two marred the record) to become the number one contender to the great Alexis Arguello for his WBC junior lightweight title.
In the 1979 title fight,Chacon fought on even terms with Arguello for six rounds before a severe cut forced a stoppage of the bout.
Chacon would finally defeat Limon in his only fight of 1980 and the victory would give him another shot at the WBC 130 pound belt,this time vs Cornelius Boza-Edwards,who had won the title vacated by Arguello.
Chacon was stopped in another gutsy performance that saw his face chopped up by the punches of the Ugandan Boza-Edwards and looked to be a higher level of the present day Gabriel Rosado,which translates to his face just wouldn't hold up against top level opposition.
Chacon succumbed in 14 (yes,still the days of the 15 round title fight) and looked to be finished as a championship level fighter.
However,this is boxing and there is always a promoter willing to use a name and after Chacon won five bouts against lesser opposition (including avenging the loss to Arturo Leon),Chacon was set to fight one more time for the WBC title against old rival Limon,who had won the title in a tremendous bout against Rolando Navarette.
This bout would decide the series since the set stood at one win apiece and a draw and in what was the most memorable bout of the rivalry,Chacon got off the floor in the 3rd and 10th rounds to drop Limon with seconds remaining in the 15th to win the championship in front of a raucous crowd in Sacramento.
Had Chacon not dropped Limon,the bout would have ended in a majority draw.
Chacon would make one defense winning another gritty action fight with a decision over Boza-Edwards to avenge another previous loss.

Chacon would vacate the title in order to avoid the challenge of Hector Camacho and instead moved up to lightweight,where the smaller Chacon was overpowered in three rounds vs Ray Mancini in an attempt to win a world title in a third weight class.
Chacon wasn't through yet as he won a series of decisions against former champion Arturo Frias,former title challenger Rafael Solis,faded prospect Carlton "two gun' Sparrow and journeyman (and now trainer) Freddie Roach before a two year retirement.
Chacon would beat two overmatched foes (including one making his pro debut) before his neurological issues caught up with him and he was unable to be licensed to continue his career.

Chacon made a nice story with his comeback in the early 80's as he won the title 9 months after his wife committed suicide,but the story wasn't always so nice as he was married four times,battled alcohol and drug addiction and in the end suffered from pugilistic dementia.
The end might not have been great and showed the type of damage the sport can do,but Bobby Chacon created a lot of great memories in the ring.
It's too bad with the talent that he possessed that there wasn't more of them made....

Cleaning Out the inbox

Time to clean out the inbox before we hit a big football and boxing weekend!

We start with an interview with Mike Grell on his 1980's run with the DC Comics character Green Arrow.
Grell revamped GA with a gritty,urban feel that took away super-powered villains and the trick arrows that were such a huge part of the character previously.
The Longbow Hunters mini-series that Grell wrote and re-introduced the "new" Arrow was received well and I quite enjoyed it,despite missing the Arrow that I grew up with...

The first computer in space on the unmanned Apollo-Saturn mission in 1966 has not only been found in a scrap auction in Houston,but a self-described "perpetual hacker" from South Africa has verified and restored the computer.
Atlas Obscura has more here with the computer now being displayed on USS Hornet and its museum ship....

Now that Ohio State's game with Bowling Green is over and the Buckeyes will have no further games against MAC opponents on the schedule,Urban Meyer can go back to rooting for the Falcons,which was his first head coaching position in 2001.
Meyer turned the Falcons from 2-9 to 8-3 as he "changed the culture" (don't we hear that phrase a lot anymore?) and not only began his road to the top,but began the run that moved Bowling Green as a consistent MAC powerhouse.
Scout.com writes of Meyer's first season at Bowling Green and his attachment to the first team that he coached...

I stumbled upon a neat site at NFLUniforms that discusses the flamboyant uniforms of the World Football League.
It's a really interesting post on the league that must have taken a lot of work to have such detail...

We wrap with two local notes-the first of which is a thanks for the nice comments on the Danny Taylor post.
I wonder sometimes how much of "me" people really want to read and when I get words on those types of posts,I feel quite gratified...

The other is this SABR article on former big leaguer and Williamsport MD native Dave Cole,who pitched parts of six seasons in the 1950's.
Dave Cole was always a name that you heard locally when baseball came up and even though I never met him,playing (and announcing) in Williamsport,it was pretty tough to avoid the name of Dave Cole.
The article by Austin Gisriel is incredibly detailed and I highly recommend giving it a read...

Road Trip:Johnson City

The Appalachian league tour continues with a trip to Johnson City for an eleven AM morning game featuring the Burlington Royals vs the homestanding Cardinals in a battle between the two division leaders in the league.

I was pulled out of bed early in the morning (6 AM) with a paper for checkout-This was annoying because we weren't checking out until the following morning.
Not a great start to the day and it really was just a dumb mistake on the part of the hotel.

I had been to Johnson City before on the trip with Ryan and Battlin' Bob and the first thing that you noticed from the previous visit was the absence of the hill in right field.
The hill was so large (much larger than the left field incline at the Muni) that it was the main feature of the playing field-Now,unless you knew ahead of time,one would never know that hill ever existed...

This was one of those wonderful kids days,but school had already returned in Johnson City and the kids were pretty well behaved as they were entertained by a police officers show that featured attack dogs.
Those are usually fun to watch with the dog attacking the poor guy in the padded suit!

I liked the grandstand at Johnson City,but that's where most of the kids were,so we avoided that area,although we did stop long enough to get a picture and stop at their small walkup team shop to get the lovely Cherie a shirt from the Cardinals.
I try to get the ladies shirts from my various travels and Cherie had Johnson City on the top of her list.
As we walked around the stadium,we stumbled upon a local favorite drink-Dr.Enuf.
I had never heard of Dr.Enuf and Fred treated all of us to a bottle of this concoction.
It was OK,nothing that I would buy cases to bring home,but something that I wouldn't be against trying on a area return.
I'd say it tasted like a Sprite and Mountain Dew mix...

We finally sat under an umbrella down the left field line in their version of a beer garden.
Normally,I would avoid those areas like the plague,but on a morning game,it was basically abandoned,so it was a good fit on this day.
Johnson City has zero access for the visiting teams for autographs,but you can get some players down the line for the home Cardinals.
Johnson City did not make a team set this season,so I only had cards for one player-Bryce Denton,the Cardinals second rounder in 2015.
Denton was very nice in signing and chatted a bit about the Appy league and how the travel usually worked.
Wish I could say the same for pitching coach Cale Johnson,who blew Fred off with one card and no other graphers around.
I guess in the Appy league,one way to look at it is that you are seldom asked,so people just are caught off guard.
I wouldn't agree,but that could be one way of looking at it.

Fred and I watched the game,while Michael took advantage of the beer proximity to sample the local beers.
I know how Michael feels as I like to do that with local drinks (like Dr,Enuf) and sometimes potato chips,so when Michael sampled Cardinal red ale (a beer sold only at the park) and Yee Haw-I knew where he was coming from.
Michael would then disappear to meet Miss Johnson City,but I'll keep that story and the involvement of Doug Hopkins private.

After Michael (and Doug) got their pictures signed,we decided to leave the game since the heat was in full force and the game was 7-0 Burlington and went to lunch before returning to our hotel for some regeneration time before our evening.
We selected the top place on TripAdvisor in the Firehouse. 
The Firehouse is supposedly inside a former Firehouse (hence the name) and specializes in barbecue.
When you travel south,the barbecue places should be at least stopped at once and with all of us in the mood for it,it was an easy call.

I ordered the three of us some nachos to snack on  and they were quite good.
I don't recall what Fred and Michael ordered,but I had the pulled chicken with fries and I found them to be very good.
I liked the atmosphere,which was homey enough without the cramped feel that so many of these places tend to have.
The facility was quite large,so that was a considerable help.
If you are in the Johnson City area,you could do far worse than the Firehouse,if you are a barbecue fan,,

We then went back to the hotel for a few hours before our next trip to Elizabethton-home of the Twins and what would prove to be an added bonus for Michael.
That will be the next installment of the series....

Browns In,Browns Out-

I wrote yesterday that the Cleveland Browns weren't finished tinkering with a rundown roster (and they still might not be) as they claimed five players off waivers and added quarterback Kevin Hogan to the practice squad.

The cuts were mostly journeymen except for fifth round cornerback Trey Caldwell,who missed much of pre-season to injury and the Browns hope that he clears waivers to add him to the practice squad.

The additions are interesting with George Atkinson Jr leading the pack.
The son of the former Raider led the Raiders in rushing in the preseason and his release surprised some observers.
The rap on Atkinson is a fumbling problem.
Not sure how quickly that he will play at running back,but he has real shot at being the kick returner for Sunday's opener...

Two cornerbacks were signed as former Seahawk veteran Marcus Burley and rookie Briean Boddy-Calhoun join the team.
Burley was the Seahawks nickel and dime back last season,so on this team might have a chance to help.
Calhoun was an undrafted free agent from Minnesota that I remember watching with the Gophers.
Dan Shonka (one of my three draft gurus) liked his ball skills,but thought he was more of a slot corner...

The player that I really like is Tyrone Holmes of Montana.
Holmes was the 1-AA defensive player of the year last season and was the sixth round pick of the Jaguars.
Holmes interests me as a edge rusher and did have a sack with Jacksonville in the preseason.
At 6'4 247,Holmes could at least be a situational pass rusher..

Corey Lemonier was the 3rd rounder of the 49ers in 2013,but was a disappointment in his three years there.
Lemonier had just one sack in the three years and might be a special teamer in Cleveland.

Two of the veterans that the Browns released quickly found jobs as wide receiver Taylor Gabriel was claimed by Atlanta and cornerback Pierre Desir was added by San Diego.
It'll be interesting to follow those two players and compare their play to the young players that beat them out in Cleveland.
It could be our first small sample on the Sashi Brown led front office's talent evaluating.

As for Kevin Hogan,many draft followers rated Hogan above the Browns third rounder Cody Kessler.
Kansas City picked Hogan in the fifth round and he didn't see a lot of preseason action.
Hogan doesn't possess a great arm,but his tools are better than those of Kessler and he was a heady player at Stanford.
The addition of Hogan makes me think that the Browns are already beginning to have questions about not only about taking Kessler in the third round,but taking him at all.
Adding Kevin Hogan certainly shows some doubt about Cody Kessler's long term viability in Cleveland.....