Peter Magowan, savior of the San Francisco Giants, passed away last week at 76. His NY Times obit is here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/obituaries/peter-magowan-dead.html One might quibble with the details of his purchase of the Giants in 1992, but one point is absolutely certain. If he had not had the vision and acumen to build Pacific Bell Park …
Minnesota Golden Gopher Vern Gagne won four Big Ten and two NCAA heavyweight wrestling championships in the 1940s. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears to play football, but Gagne chose a different direction. Gagne decided to pursue professional wrasslin’. He ultimately became owner of the American Wrestling Association (AWA), based in Minnesota, which appeared …
She HAS to be the G.O.A.T., the Greatest of All Time!
Rookie Bear GM Ryan Pace decided against resigning placekicker Robbie Gould who at the time was da Bears all-time leading scorer and had a FG kicking success rate that exceeded the “legendary” Kevin Butler by over 10 percentage points. (Butler kicked for da Bears around their Super Bowl season and finished his career as the …
For those who don’t follow the NFL, the Chicago Bears experienced a heartbreaking end to their season, losing to the Philadelphia Eagles when the potential game-winning field goal hit both the upright and the crossbar before bouncing back onto the field. It was, as the following post noted, a double doink: https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2019/1/6/18171422/cody-parkey-doink-chicago-bears-wild-card-playoffs-philadelphia-eagles To add insult …
After their face plant in the first round of the NBA playoffs last season against the New Orleans Pelicans, it was widely expected that the Portland Trail Blazers would acknowledge the competitive ceiling of their roster and trade one or more of their stars in the hope of finding a path at least to the …
Growing up in God’s Country The first memory I have of Third Ward Elementary School is the sound of my father shooting his rifle. I had moved to Bradford, Pennsylvania just before I began Kindergarten. I went to Third Ward one summer night for the first time with my Dad. He was a marksman and …
For the second straight year, the Golden State Warriors have been a difficult team to assess during the regular season. They still have the best starting lineup of any team in the NBA, and when they are at their best, no team in either conference can match up with them. The problem, however, is that …
“Hey Murphy! You know better than to do that! You’re putting them too near the fire!” Th US Army produced this film in 1941 to teach young soldiers how to ski. Thanks to the gallant efforts of these men, no flag but the Stars and Stripes has ever flown over Aspen. (Thanks to Mark Johnson …
I cannot sit by and watch the legacy of Bill Walton be tarnished by valid criticism of his diminishing mental faculties. This is the man that gave birth to Luke Walton. If he wants to drop acid and do color commentary, by all means, just turn his mic off. Put on a Beach Boys cassette …
Willie McCovey, Hall-of-Fame first baseman and left-handed slugger extraordinaire for the San Francisco Giants, passed away yesterday at 80. Rest in peace. – Chuck Strom
People are already starting to debate Paul Allen’s legacy. Some admire him, some disliked him (mostly because of his wealth) and some don’t care at all. I can honestly say his generosity had a major impact on my life as well as countless other people in this region. He used his wealth to try and …
My Alma Mater, North Park University (Chicago, IL), used to be a national powerhouse in Division III (non-scholarship) men’s basketball. North Park won national championships in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1985, and 1987. The hoops’ team fell on very hard times after the release of the head coach who guided the Viking ship to the last …
Only in America do teams find it better to be hot than good, floundering for weeks at a time only to make a run in the playoffs and claim the trophy. In those crazy other countries, the team that wins the most games takes the league title. So little imagination. I bet they measure things …
Like the entire tournament it culminated, the World Cup final Sunday was a wild one, featuring an own goal, controversial use of video review and lots of scoring, with France defeating feisty Croatia, 4-2. What we may remember best though about this World Cup in the years to come is the emergence of French phenom …
It may be a sign of climate change that the old Mark Twain joke about cold summers in San Francisco no longer seems to apply, at least during day games at AT&T Park. It was roasting in the upper deck behind home plate on Saturday, even for those of us used to the dry summer …
The Golden State Warriors’ sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018 NBA Finals suggested an inevitability to their 2018 championship, especially after the final game when most of the second half was garbage time. For those who watched the Warriors throughout the playoffs and the regular season, however, the result was anything but assured. …
That is the question. These guys can rattle on with the erudition of a college professor about a long reliever for the local baseball team or a minute change in the football’s catch rule, but dare talk about the real futbol, and sports radio guys will ruthlessly mock you. Should they be foolhardy enough to …
The Portland Trail Blazers are no strangers to early NBA playoff exits, but this one hurts more than most. Unlike the Blazers of recent years, this team had all of its stars healthy and a higher seed that allowed them not only home court in the first round but the privilege of not facing the …
Paid a visit to the San Francisco Giants yesterday as they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 on Sunday. The win brought the Giants record for April to 14-14, suggesting that the jury is still out on whether their off-season makeover will bear fruit. The defending National League champion Dodgers have had their own share …
One of the best parts of playoffs in the NBA is that teams step up their pageantry a notch. The banners are more plentiful outside the arena, the excitement of the crowd is more palpable, and the lights out introductions are astounding. In this case, the fans were all issued, in addition to T-shirts draped …
As of this writing, the Portland Trail Blazers have lost their last four games and play the streaking Utah Jazz tonight in their final game of the NBA regular season. A win will clinch the #3 seed for the Blazers, and a loss might put them as low as #5 and send them on the …
Generally there are two kinds of biographies: those that skate on the surface and those that do their homework and dive deeply into the subject’s life. The biography, Tiger Woods, published this last week by investigative journalists Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian, just in time for the Masters, falls into the second category. In addition …
Well, the next shoe has dropped in the MSU/USA gymnastics sexual molestation scandal. Dr. William Strampel, 70 y/o, the MSU supervisor of serial molester Dr. Larry Nassar, has been arrested. Strampel came under scrutiny earlier this month, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on 3.20.18. The Journal noted that Stampel, MSU’s Dean of Osteopathic …
The Cubs had a great start to the season Thursday, with center fielder Ian Happ leading off and hitting a HR on the first pitch. Team leader Anthony Rizzo dedicated his first HR of the season to his alma mater, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. It’s got to be a bit demoralizing for the Marlins …
Last Tuesday night, I took my daughter Jillian to see the Sacramento Kings play the Dallas Mavericks. She had never seen an NBA game, and the tickets were cheap for two lottery teams playing a game with absolutely no bearing on the playoffs. The Mavericks won 103-97, but the evening was most notable in that …
No surprise that my bracket was busted in the first round of March Madness. It was a little shocking at first that my pick for national champion, Virginia, didn’t even make it past their first game, but as I watched the second half of their game against UMBC, I was more puzzled how the Cavaliers had managed …
Here’s a question for Chicago Cubs fans: Which player hit the club’s farthest home run in 2017? You would be forgiven if you said Kyle Schwarber; after all, Scwarbs, who is built like an NFL lineman, hit five of the team’s ten deepest dingers. But you’d be wrong. On October 18, catcher Willson Contreras launched …
One of the first things you notice when the Golden State Warriors come to town is that their fans travel well. There were as many blue and gold jerseys as Blazer black and red outside the Moda Center before Friday night’s game, and the majority of them had the familiar number 30 for Stephen Curry, …
Just today, Yahoo! broke the story of federal documents identifying an extensive list of NCAA schools and players that have been involved in the recent recruiting scandals that have been investigated by the FBI. You can find their post here: https://sports.yahoo.com/exclusive-federal-documents-detail-sweeping-potential-ncaa-violations-involving-high-profile-players-schools-103338484.html One reason I’ve preferred professional sports to the NCAA is that the former make …