That's Right.....!

Harry B. told us a long time ago, and Bobby sang it best.
Once again my job allows me to be a fly on the wall of UT sports. My co-worker, we'll call him Numero Uno, and I were musing about how we heard competing factions of the softball team speaking ill of each other. Being of conventional cloth we decided that things wouldn't bode well for the young Longhorns. There just seemed to be too much jealousy and sundry other of the seven deadly sins to play a team sport like softball. Softball may move slowly, but it requires a very precise brand of teamwork to get the job done.
Before the season started I had them doomed to the badlands of bad chemistry.
Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong. Not only are these Horns able to play together, but they won the opening tourney, anchored by Austin frish flames-thrower Blaire Luna who blazed a no-hitter in her first NCAA game. These smart women are now 6-0 and cracked the top 25 this week to the surprise of the world, and me, and Numero Uno. Things look good for a nice little run at the Big 12 and who knows what else.

“I’m glad we had this game scheduled for tonight,” Clark said. “It was a good test for our mentality and our approach and process. We’re playing the game, not the opponent.” -Connie Clark 2/16/10

Maybe women are better able to leave the silly stuff on the bus, or maybe the whole chemistry thing is overrated. Whatever it is, men seem incapable of doing what this band of young overachievers are poised to do, as evidenced by the up women's hoops and the down men's.
Never mind what the people say. Don't try to figure it out. Just enjoy Blazin' Blair and the 2010 Horns softball team in every way.

Historic may be an Understatement

Today, Kelly Kulick made history. Not ordinary history, but the kind that should be worthy of front page sports news. Maybe even frontpage frontpage for it's significance in our man's man's world.
She has done what Danica and Anika tried but couldn't quite do. She won the Pro Bowler's Tournament of Champions. In bowling, this is the most prestigious major. It is the Masters of bowling. This is not Michele Wie winning the St. Jude.
This is as big as Obama in so many ways. It changes our world forever and takes us places that can only be good.
It will be interesting to see if Hoopster in Chief invites her to the White House. He may have to dig deep into his Blackberry to even find out. I personally think he will. We know he knows how hard bowling is! And may be the only person who can fathom the significance and understand the importance of what Kelly has done.

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.