Freakin' Awright!

The Dock is surely smiling down from his number 9 cloud this week. The bestest, baddest pitcher this side of Danny G. won the Cy Young again. Tim Lincecum joined the immortals with his second straight award for the league's best hurler. Only undeniable legends like the Big Unit, the Rocket and Sandy have won back-to-back. None have done it as young as the 25 year old Giant.
A little online chatter has emerged about his low win total, but I don't see how you argue against the purest measure of a pitcher: strikeouts. Timmy led the league again in K's and the best hitters in the league have nothing but admiration when they talk about facing him. Win total has changed in baseball as a measure of greatness. How often have you heard that there will never be a thirty game winner again in today's game? Wins are doubly hard to come by playing for the lowly Giants who forgot to develop hitters when they developed a co-dependency with BALCO.
A few of us Lincecum fans worried that he would be denied acknowledgment after recent dalliances. But in a Phelpsian turn of events, he still got the Cy. Hey, it's easy to understand that Tim may have thought it was required to have a little Mother Nature when crossing from Oregon into Washington. The voters have decided that times have changed and Lincecum is a likeable, normal guy.
Shown here with a mess of fish, Lincecum bows to Jojo the king of fishing strikeouts, and exhibits a humanness that can only help a sport wrought with pricks like 7 time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens.
Known alternately as the "Franchise" and the "Freak," Linceum probably narrowed the nickname pool with his Halloween eve hijinks. Sports apologists say his freakish delivery is the reason for his moniker. I think that the Washington State Patrol confirmed that it is more likely his nickname identifies him as the fourth, long lost, Fabulous Furry Freak Brother.

Congrats, Freak. Your GM Brian Sabean probably summed up the last couple weeks the best when he said.“I don’t know if we ever grow up, as people, as professionals,” Sabean said. “It’s a process. I don’t know if he’s any different from any young guy trying to make a name for himself, make a living. Obviously the stakes are higher when you’re Tim Lincecum.”
This blogger only wonders what might have been if the Freak had signed out of high school when the Cubs drafted him. Could he have put the goat out to pasture?

Playing for the Geezers

Chris Chelios and the Chicago Wolves are barnstorming Texas, giving thrills and chills to the oldsters. Of course those just might be more of the arthritic agony of winter.
Chelios has played 25 NHL seasons. He has 3 rings and more facial scars than a Dinka warrior. Search "Chelios" on youtube, and you'll find fight videos spanning 3 decades.
Currently, Cheli is playing in the AHL for the Chicago Wolves, his hometown minor league club. Before the game in Austin last night Ruben and I debated whether the teams travel between Texas and Chi-town by bus a la Semi-Pro. This guy plays because he loves hockey and relishes his daily smackdown of father time.
In the recent years, Mick Jaggar and Chris Chelios have both played the ATX for the first time ever. Both never age and play for the love of the game. They also serve as reminders to all of us that age is what you make of it. It appears Cheli plans on playing into his 50's and breaking Gordie Howe's record. As long as Chris Chelios is playing hockey, none of us will never be old. Hell, even Cheli looks like a kid compared to Austin College Kangaroo placekicker Tom Thompson. Chris Chelios also gets immortality points on this blog for his uncompromising defense of not just the crease, but also the workers.

Condor to be released back into wild

Jack "Condor" Lupori will return to the links this week after a brief hiatus.
Lupori, a North Park, Colorado native transplanted earlier this year to Mr. Haney's Golf Academy in South Carolina. Coming from his home courses of Catamount and Haymaker in the rarified air of the Rockies, the "Condor" had some difficulty adjusting to the snake infested swamp courses of backwater USA. The game of golf is a little different in the South, and being away from the adoration of the mountain girls had the young looper hitting his balls off in every direction the first few weeks of the season.
Luckily, Lupori was suspended after Academy authorities discovered a secret room, replete with cocktail waitresses and go-karts, that Lupori and roomate Hugh Jorgen had built behind a bookcase in their dormitory.
The suspension allowed Lupori to work on his swing with headmaster Haney, known for correcting Tiger Woods swing after he discovered girls. After a stellar hockey career, leading the Steamboat Willies to multiple tournament victories, Lupori encountered the same trouble Happy Gilmore did transitioning to the stationary nature of golf. In addition, Colorado golfers use a brown ball so it is easier to find in the snow and the Condor ran into numerous unpleasant episodes chipping alligator turds from bunkers.
Things seem to be in order now and Lupori returns to action just in time for the Open on November 6th. Follow his progress here, and watch as the Condor soars, dropping birdies from the sky.