A MID SUMMER DAY'S NAME GAME--FROM HOOPSTERS TO HITTERS TO HORSES
Pull up that lawn chair and grab a shrimp off the barbie because it’s time for a mid-summer session of the name game, a mentally aerobic exercise in which we check in on the almost and almost-never famous.
Since it is vacation season let’s open with the name drop of one well-traveled floppy haired point guard named Steve Nash. He was a just a Canadian high school kid in the summer of 1990 when LBSU basketball’s most famous gypsy warrior, Seth Greenberg, asked me to organize a little booster trip to follow the 49ers on a summer exhibition tour to LA, that would be lower Alberta, in Canada.
The big, bad and urban Beach boys would play the Canadian junior national team along a trail of tiny towns ending up with the final contest in Calgary. Ever confident as a talent scout, Greenberg was pestered in every one of those five gyms by this skinny and very pale kid named Nash who was begging for a scholarship to a US university. Any university. Greenberg passed.
Fast forward to last week and the same Mr. Nash, after eventually crossing the border for college days at Gonzaga, was traded from Dallas to Phoenix where he signed a five year $65 million dollar contract. Whoops.
Our next names sound like, and acted like, a Saturday morning cartoon. That is of course refers to the latest adventures of Augie and George. Fullerton of course is always lacking in love and got none after the College World series went final and the losing Longhorns of Texas went to their locker room, passing up the normal awards ceremony. Nobody had done that in at least 25 years and in fact Texas has two number two trophies in their trophy case. “I forgot” Augie said.
George meanwhile, with some amnesia of his own, is still on the hot seat for having his top hurler throw 322 pitches in eight days. Like his mentor Augie who claimed temporary amnesia when the Horns passed up the traditional post-game singing of “The Eyes of Texas, George of the Nutwood Jungle can blame the teacher.
Also expected back this fall is one hot and cold baseball reliever, Neil Jamison. After a blistering start and 12 saves, NJ cooled but was still drafted high by the Mets (8th round) despite an ERA that zoomed from 0.0 to 4.35 with a key Super Regional meltdown. If Neil does come back credit the kid with wanting to get what broke fixed.
The 2005 D-Bags will be a mix of newcomers and returnees all now busy with summer ball. Cesar Ramos and Troy Tulowitzki are with the touring USA National Team and up in Alaska are six players, Scott Bradley, Tito Cruz, Brandon Godfrey, Brett Andrade, Kenny Maiques and of course our aptly named Scott Juneau.
The Norwood League has three D-Bags--Brian Anderson, Danny Mocny and Tom Wolf, Josh Tamba is in Illinois, Romeo Newman is in the Northwest Collegiate League and Sean Boatright and Cole Jacobsen are playing locally for the Orange County Outlaws.
Ramos by the way is a hero to the young Latino kids that get to Team USA games. The Durham Herald-Sun, gave this nice report. It was raining that night but “the 20 children from El Centro Latino barely noticed it. They were too busy getting their new bats and hats signed by Cesar Ramos, pitcher for the USA Baseball National Team. "I think it's really cool," said 11-year-old Pati Cervantes. "If I was a baseball player, I wouldn't have time to come talk to kids. I think that's really cool they did."
Also way cool are the prospects for A’s shortstop Bobby Crosby to win the 2004 AL Rookie of the Year award. He won the June award last month based on a .337 average, 3 HRs, and 12 RBI.
Final Fullerton fact. A horse named Titan Baseball recently finished fourth at Hollywood Park, beaten by a nag (or bag) named Trail Mix
Last add shameless plug. A few seats are left for my CIF grant writing workshop on July 20. Call John Costello at 562-493-9500 and squeeze in.—DR. DAN
Since it is vacation season let’s open with the name drop of one well-traveled floppy haired point guard named Steve Nash. He was a just a Canadian high school kid in the summer of 1990 when LBSU basketball’s most famous gypsy warrior, Seth Greenberg, asked me to organize a little booster trip to follow the 49ers on a summer exhibition tour to LA, that would be lower Alberta, in Canada.
The big, bad and urban Beach boys would play the Canadian junior national team along a trail of tiny towns ending up with the final contest in Calgary. Ever confident as a talent scout, Greenberg was pestered in every one of those five gyms by this skinny and very pale kid named Nash who was begging for a scholarship to a US university. Any university. Greenberg passed.
Fast forward to last week and the same Mr. Nash, after eventually crossing the border for college days at Gonzaga, was traded from Dallas to Phoenix where he signed a five year $65 million dollar contract. Whoops.
Our next names sound like, and acted like, a Saturday morning cartoon. That is of course refers to the latest adventures of Augie and George. Fullerton of course is always lacking in love and got none after the College World series went final and the losing Longhorns of Texas went to their locker room, passing up the normal awards ceremony. Nobody had done that in at least 25 years and in fact Texas has two number two trophies in their trophy case. “I forgot” Augie said.
George meanwhile, with some amnesia of his own, is still on the hot seat for having his top hurler throw 322 pitches in eight days. Like his mentor Augie who claimed temporary amnesia when the Horns passed up the traditional post-game singing of “The Eyes of Texas, George of the Nutwood Jungle can blame the teacher.
Also expected back this fall is one hot and cold baseball reliever, Neil Jamison. After a blistering start and 12 saves, NJ cooled but was still drafted high by the Mets (8th round) despite an ERA that zoomed from 0.0 to 4.35 with a key Super Regional meltdown. If Neil does come back credit the kid with wanting to get what broke fixed.
The 2005 D-Bags will be a mix of newcomers and returnees all now busy with summer ball. Cesar Ramos and Troy Tulowitzki are with the touring USA National Team and up in Alaska are six players, Scott Bradley, Tito Cruz, Brandon Godfrey, Brett Andrade, Kenny Maiques and of course our aptly named Scott Juneau.
The Norwood League has three D-Bags--Brian Anderson, Danny Mocny and Tom Wolf, Josh Tamba is in Illinois, Romeo Newman is in the Northwest Collegiate League and Sean Boatright and Cole Jacobsen are playing locally for the Orange County Outlaws.
Ramos by the way is a hero to the young Latino kids that get to Team USA games. The Durham Herald-Sun, gave this nice report. It was raining that night but “the 20 children from El Centro Latino barely noticed it. They were too busy getting their new bats and hats signed by Cesar Ramos, pitcher for the USA Baseball National Team. "I think it's really cool," said 11-year-old Pati Cervantes. "If I was a baseball player, I wouldn't have time to come talk to kids. I think that's really cool they did."
Also way cool are the prospects for A’s shortstop Bobby Crosby to win the 2004 AL Rookie of the Year award. He won the June award last month based on a .337 average, 3 HRs, and 12 RBI.
Final Fullerton fact. A horse named Titan Baseball recently finished fourth at Hollywood Park, beaten by a nag (or bag) named Trail Mix
Last add shameless plug. A few seats are left for my CIF grant writing workshop on July 20. Call John Costello at 562-493-9500 and squeeze in.—DR. DAN
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home