Cleaning out the Inbox; Baseball Passings

      We clean out the inbox with passings from the baseball world with two more players from the Seattle Pilots of Ball Four passing away.

Goodbye to Mike Ferraro at the age of 79.

Ferraro would only play in five games for the Pilots and only mentioned two times (I think) in Ball Four as part of a major league career that saw him bat five hundred times over four seasons with the Yankees, Pilots, and Brewers.

Ferraro would last under four months as the Cleveland Indians manager in 1983 and finished 1986 as the manager of the Kansas City Royals after Dick Howser's brain cancer forced him to resign.

Goodbye to Gordy Lund at the age of 83.

Lund, like Ferraro, was mentioned in Ball Four but wasn't a key person in the book, played two seasons in the majors with Cleveland in 1967 for three games and the Pilots in 1969 in twenty games.

Goodbye to Jim Umbarger at the age of 71.

Umbarger was a tremendous college pitcher at Arizona State and looked to be a coming star after finishing 10-12 for Texas in 1976 with an excellent 3.12 ERA with ten complete games but never won more than five games in a season again with Texas and Oakland.

Umbarger suffered from various injuries, including a sore elbow.

After his major league farewell in 1978, Umbarger bounced through the minors and in the famous longest game ever between Pawtucket and Rochester in 1981, Umbarger pitched ten shutout innings in relief for the Red Wings.

Goodbye to Doug Creek at the age of 55.

A well-traveled lefthanded bullpen specialist, who pitched for seven teams, Creek won seven games and earned one save over nine seasons in the bigs.

Bereft Browns drop opener to Dallas 33-17

       The Cleveland Browns offense was supposed to take the next step in efficiency with new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and the return from shoulder surgery by DeShaun Watson.

Instead, the Browns looked more like the offense that existed when Ken Dorsey played for the Browns in a worse than the score looked 33-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Cleveland.

DeShaun Watson finished 24 of 45 for 169 yards, a touchdown pass to Jerry Jeudy, and two interceptions.

The Browns will travel to Jacksonville next week to play the Jaguars, who lost at Miami on the final play of the game on a Dolphin field goal.

Brownie Bits

1) DeShaun Watson wasn't very good in his return to the field and it's not unfair to wonder about Watson's ability to lead the team to the postseason.

Watson was inaccurate, over and under-throwing receivers, and looked like a player bounding between running at the first rusher and an aging veteran holding the ball too long/

2) The Browns finished the first half with exactly one first down.

One. Think about that- ONE!

3) Watson did make a few strong throws to give me hope but many were overthrown and even when he connected, it had the feeling of an aberration rather than a return to consistency.

4) Watson made one excellent throw that should have been a touchdown in the final quarter but his pass slipped through the hands of Amari Cooper.

Had Cooper grabbed the pass, Watson's stats would have looked better and maybe Browns fans could have taken something positive out of the day.

5) Another reason to (maybe) cut Watson a break? Try the offensive line, who had issues in protecting the quarterback as Watson was sacked six times and hit seventeen times more!

The constant rush in Watson's face caused him to often get rid of the ball quickly and for short gains.

6) Some of this was due to the unexpected loss of Jack Conklin, who was expected to start and then was declared inactive but the Browns had to depend far too much on James Hudson and German Ifedi against the speed rushers from the outside from Dallas.

Of course, the protection will be better with the return of Conklin and Jedrick Wills but the line was in deep trouble today without them.

7) The Browns didn't run the ball often in the second half due to the deficit, so it's unknown how good the running backs were.

The Browns ran for 93 yards on the day but thirty-nine of those were on DeShaun Watson scrambles.

8) The defense didn't play as poorly as the score indicates as Dallas scored only two touchdowns against the defense, as the Cowboys would kick four field goals from forty yards or longer and allowed a punt return for the other Dallas score.

9) About that punt return score by the Cowboys KaVontae Turpin.

I would have understood had a return happened on a kickoff as teams are still learning the new rules.

But not a punt and certainly not the lack of interest in tackling Turpin.

I think Bubba Ventrone is one of the better special teams coaches in the league but he has some explaining to do after that coverage.

10) The Browns did provide some heat on Dak Prescott as they sacked him three times but it seemed as the game moved on, the defensive rush wasn't quite as effective.

11) David Njoku left the game with what is being reported as a high ankle sprain, which is bad news because that can take a while to heal.

The Browns disagreed with my thoughts that they needed another pass-catching threat and stood pat after adding Jerry Jeudy at wide receiver.

One game in and that decision seems questionable.

12) One game doesn't make a season right now but I do think the Browns have a problem.

DeShaun Watson may not have been protected well against Dallas but he didn't play well either and while Watson may be their guy, win or lose, for a while with the investment that the team has in him, that's worrisome because they could stick with him even at the cost of another season.

Next weekend in Jacksonvillle could be very interesting.

Ohio State rips Western Michigan 56-0

   Will Howard completed his first ten passes and the Ohio State ground game ran for six touchdowns as the Buckeyes cruised to a 56-0 win over Western Michigan at the Horseshoe in Columbus.

Quinshon Judkins rushed for 108 yards and two touchdowns to lead Ohio State in rushing with Jeremiah Smith catching five passes for over one hundred yards and a touchdown to pace the receiving unit.

Ohio State (2-0) will be off next week and will host Marshall (1-1) in two weeks.

Olentangy Offerings

1) Will Howard completed his first ten passes and looked very comfortable running the offense.

Howard made all the throws and looked the part of a veteran passe.

2) Another standout game from Jeremiah Smith who continues to be the team's go-to receiver as a freshman and on a team with a possible first-round receiver in Emeka Egbuka.

3) And yet for the second week in a row, Howard and Smith missed a connection that would have been a touchdown when Smith was several steps behind the coverage and Howard overthrew him.

If things are this good now, imagine when the chemistry builds!

4) The two-headed monster running backs of Quinshon Judkins and Treyvon Henderson ripped through the Broncos for four touchdowns between them (two each) and 174 yards combined on nineteen carries.

Keeping the two fresh isn't going to be a problem it seems.

5) Julian Sayin made his debut and threw a touchdown pass to tight end Bennett Christian.

Sayin will be the starter next season. Book it now.

6) The defense fires a shutout and what I liked even more than the shutout is how the Buckeye did it.

Many times through the years, Ohio State would dominate a team for three quarters or so and make changes for the reserves/younger players, who would allow a garbage score to spoil the shutout.

No let down this time and that is very important to see- a real commitment this year to notch the best possible numbers.

7) Again shorter than usual but on a day when MAC teams pulled major upsets (Northern Illinois over Notre Dame) and near surprises (Bowling Green pushing Penn State to the brink), the Buckeyes rolled over a Western Michigan team that battled Wisconsin deep into the fourth quarter last week.

That makes me feel better than I normally would about a shutout of a MAC team coming to Columbus and shows just how much talent this team ha.

PPM

 The NFL season begins and the college season rolls into week two with the PPM.

I'm dropping the Chargers as a featured team due to Jim Harbaugh, so I'm still trying to find a second team to choose, likely from the West Coast eventually.

Last Week: 10-1

College

Ohio State over Western Michigan 50-12 

Washington State over Texas Tech 45-41

Oregon over Boise State 40-29

Oklahoma State over Arkansas 24-17

Penn State over Bowling Green 42-10

UTSA over Texas State 28-21

Ole Miss over Middle Tennessee State 50-14

Georgia Southern over Nevada 37-30

Tennessee over N.C.State 34-20

Oregon State over San Diego State 29-17

Games of the Week

Iowa over Iowa State 23-20

Nebraska over Colorado 36-34

NFL

Browns over Cowboys 24-17

Games of the Week

Lions over Rams 29-17

Dolphins over Jaguars 37-30

I Tell Ya' Herbie

     

      Another edition of I Tell Ya' Herbie with a few takes from the world of college football.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             The ACC is in big trouble.

I can forgive Clemson's thumping against the hands of the powerful Georgia Bulldogs but Florida State's upset losses to Georgia Tech in Ireland and Monday's even bigger shocker at home to Boston College is very hard to let slide.

Clemson could still bounce back with a playoff berth ( if they can survive a sneaky game this weekend with Appalachian State) and maybe if Florida State could win out (something I find very doubtful after watching their first two games), the conference could be okay but it seems to me that the ACC might have their hopes pinned to N.C. State this weekend against Tennessee to bolster their non-conference resume'.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            One thing that has been overlooked about Deion Sanders and his Colorado Buffaloes' close win over North Dakota State has been how Deion himself allowed North Dakota State to have a final drive that fell five yards away from a miracle win.

Colorado could have run the clock out with a few runs (and first down) but Colorado kept calling pass plays that fell incomplete and gave North Dakota State a chance that they ordinarily would not have received.

Whether it was Deion attempting to run up the score or juice up his son's (quarterback Shedeur) passing numbers, neither was worth placing the game in jeopardy.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             I wouldn't write Oregon yet but they didn't impress in a win over 1-AA Idaho by only 24-14.

Boise State will be a bigger test this Saturday night but one thing that was discussed when the game was a three-point game in the fourth quarter.

This would have been the biggest upset ever with a 1-AA team dumping a top-five team on the road.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             Interesting game in Stillwater, Oklahoma with a ranked Oklahoma State team hosting Arkansas.

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman enters a pivotal season and was considered on the hot seat entering the season but scored seventy points in their opener against I-AA Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Oklahoma State returns the nation's top running back in Ollie Gordon and some have the Cowboys as the preseason favorite in the Big 12, so it's a crossroads game for both teams.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            The CyHawk trophy is one of the more underrated rivalries and this year both Iowa and Iowa State have teams capable of winning the trophy.

The game is in Iowa City this season and Iowa did score forty last week against 1-AA Illinois State but scored only two field goals at the half.

Iowa State dumped North Dakota 21-3 and Matt Campbell thinks that his Cyclones are the most talented team that Campbell has had in the last several seasons.

Iowa has a fortunate Big Ten schedule playing only Ohio State among the league powers, so a win over Iowa State might bode very well for a potential playoff challenge.

Road Trip: Take the long way home

     It was time to leave Omaha and we were driving in a different route than the one that brought us to Omaha as we would be dipping south through Kansas, driving across Missouri, and into southern Illinois before rejoining our original route in Indiana which would take us across Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania briefly and then home.

We were taking this route for two reasons.

First, it allowed Cherie and I to add Kansas to the visited states list and to visit the Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Library.

Earlier in the trip, we had considered day trip drives to the Truman Library on one day and the Eisenhower on another but we decided to do the Eisenhower version on the way home as it was a little farther away than the Truman Library.

This would be a fortunate decision as the path to the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, turned out to be one filled with two-lane highways and lonesome towns, and I'm sure that I would not have enjoyed that trip a second time to return to the hotel!

Roughly three hours later, we arrived in Abilene and the Eisenhower Library.

The Eisenhower Library isn't a one-building unit as in the Truman version; rather, it's like a college campus with separate buildings holding the library, museum, boyhood home, a building holding Mr. and Mrs. Eisenhower's graves, and the gift shop.

The gift shop is the first building that you see and is the closest to the parking lot, so after taking a look around there, we walked across the campus to the museum, where we were greeted warmly by someone inside, welcoming us.

As I moved around the museum, I recalled that there had been a few renovations through the years and even though the renovations were fairly recent, it felt a little dated which was odd since the Truman Library is actually a few years older.

The exhibits weren't old, the facility just had a dated feel to it, and I couldn't shake why it did.

After the tour, we took the above photo of the statue located in the middle of campus and walked towards the front area, considering a tour of the boyhood home but we didn't want to wait for the tour and moved to the building with the President and First Lady's tomb.

This was where things really felt dated and the building had the smell that you sometimes have when you move into buildings that are filled with old items.

I found the musty smell a bit overwhelming and left quickly for the gift shop, where I bought a magnet and a few items for others and escaped back to the road.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that I was disappointed with the Eisenhower Library, that would be a stretch but while I would consider visiting the Truman (and maybe the Hoover) Library again in a few years, I'm not sure that I would need to return to Abilene to visit again.

We moved toward Kansas City, with our only stop at a rest area McDonald's for a box of Chicken McNuggets that Cherie and I split, passing by Topeka, Lawrence, and Manhattan ( home to the University of Kansas and Kansas State).

Traffic was a bit tight in Kansas City for a while, which stymied our plans to stop and eat, but we did drive by Kemper Arena (the home of the old Kings and Scouts), Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Chiefs, and Kaufman Stadium, the home of the Royals.

From the interstate, we could look directly into Kaufman and peer into the field.

Kansas City is reportedly moving toward a new facility in either downtown Kansas City (Ugh) or another interstate-friendly park across the state line into Kansas, so if I ever make this trip again, I have Kaufman marked down as a priority!

After we crossed over Kansas City, we stopped at our third Brass Armadillo and I found a Kansas basketball program from 1986 and a few things to put back for Christmas.

The most interesting thing at this Brass Armadillo was this "delightful" statue of Oscar the Grouch,
which is not only strange, but it's incredibly creepy looking!

It was about five feet tall and at $295.00 was quite a steal (sarcasm included)

We decided to hold off on eating again to get as far as possible before it got dark in an attempt to leave Missouri for the night and we managed to do that as we finished our day in Greenville, Illinois at a Comfort Inn with a takeout from a nearby Domino's.

We took our time the next day, moving across Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, before stopping in St. Clairsville Ohio for the night.

I might have been able to make it home with a little under four hours to go but the sun was starting to go down and as I would have been getting tired, we would have reached the longest, darkest, and most desolate part of the trip, so we decided to stop for the night.

We walked around the mall that is on-site with the hotel, ate lunch at Quaker Steak & Lube, and finished our trip in the afternoon, arriving home with a waiting Rachel and Posey.

It was the longest trip that I had ever taken in miles and the second longest amount of time away from my house in my life and I'd like to thank Cherie for putting up with me and having such a good time together, Ryan and his family for welcoming us and all of their logistical help, and to Rachel for staying home and taking care of our Posey.

So, three months after it's over, I've noted everything for posterity.

My grandson is now over three months old, and something might come as a surprise to you.

It's hard enough being away from your family in these times when communication is easier and cheaper than it has ever been since the beginning of time.

You can pick up the phone and pay the same amount to call anywhere in North America, and it costs the same as calling your next-door neighbor.

With the internet getting better and faster daily, visual communication is also easier and cheaper than in any time known to man.

And I can only imagine the difficulties in timely communication at any other time, so I feel somewhat fortunate.

Yet, it feels somewhat strange to me.

It doesn't feel real.

I love getting Archie's pictures and updates, and Ryan has been excellent at keeping us informed and as involved as we can be.

But it still doesn't quite feel different, and maybe it shouldn't, I'm not sure.

It'll be an interesting journey, and we are barely out of the starting gate.

Now that the Omaha series is completed, I'll try to write a bit over the next month or so on my two baseball trips of length (Ohio and Tennessee) and maybe my day trip to Somerset New Jersey for the AA Patriots.

Hope you enjoyed reading this series. 

Cleaning out the Inbox : Passings

   The tributes continue with non-sports personalities and one influential person who has never played a game.

Goodbye to Phil Donahue at the age of 88.

The talk show pioneer hosted the first show that involved their audience and often tackled subjects that the mainstream media would not touch.

Donahue started his show in Dayton, Ohio in 1967, moved to Chicago in 1974, and finished his run in New York from 1985-96.

Donahue's show discussed controversial issues and occasionally touched on a "trash TV" subject, but he usually engaged his audience with respect as they debated the world's problems.

Donahue would marry "That Girl" television actress Marlo Thomas in 1980 and remained with Thomas until his passing.

Goodbye to Peter Marshall at the age of 98.

The longtime host of the Hollywood Squares game show, Marshall was only working sporadically in film and television in 1966, when Morey Amsterdam told Marshall that the host job was open.

Marshall didn't want to accept the job but did to spite the other possible choice, comic Dan Rowan of Rowan & Martin Laugh-In fame, as Marshall and Rowan had a personal feud at the time.

Marshall would host the show until its end in 1081 and five thousand episodes in the can.

Marshall was also the father of former Cubs and Royals first baseman Pete LaCock.

Goodbye to Nick Mileti at the age of 93.

Mileti was the biggest name in Cleveland sports in the 1970s, owning the Indians and AHL Barons and the original owner of the Cavaliers and WHA Crusaders.

Mileti owned the Cleveland Arena and made the decision to build the Richfield Coliseum as the Arena's condition deteriorated.

Mileti built the Richfield Coliseum in 1974 using private funding (although heavily leveraged) and moved the Crusaders and Cavaliers there but financial problems would force him to sell his shares in the Cavaliers and the building in 1979.

Mileti also owned the CFL's Las Vegas Posse in their only season (1994).

Goodbye to Greg Kihn at the age of 75.

The frontman for his namesake band, Kihn scored two hits with "The Breakup Song" in 1981, which reached fifteen on the charts, and his biggest hit "Jeopardy", which made it to number two in 1983.

Kihn and his band never reached those heights again but found success touring and opening for some of the biggest bands of the day.

Kihn also wrote four books including "Rubber Soul", a murder mystery involving the Beatles.

Goodbye to Chi Chi Rodriguez at the age of 88.

The flashy golfer from Puerto Rico won eight times on the main PGA tour and was one of the initial stars on the Senior PGA tour, winning twenty-two times on the veterans circuit.

Known for his flashy "Toreador Dance" when he would score a birdie or Eagle, Rodriguez would wave his putter like a sword and jab at the bull as the bull.

Rodriguez also gained fame as the subject of a DEVO album cover in 1978.

Rodriguez was paid $2,500 and fifty albums as compensation for his permission.

Rodriguez also lent his name to a Sega Genesis video game- "Chi Chi's Pro Challenge Golf" and was the subject of a name mispronunciation on an episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati: when announcer "Les Nessman" on air  stated his name as "CHY CHY Rodriqueez".