Brent Morel has made the show

former Cal Poly standout, Brent Morel is playing in the big leagues with the White Sox. ever since my friend Craig Wallenbrock, Morel's former hitting coach, alerted me to his abilities, I've been following him at Cal Poly and in the minors. check him here

Ray Floyd - there wasn't anyone better

Some of my fraternity brothers will gather at the College World Series

This is a note from Mike Ball.

Thought that you might like to know that the NCAA is recognizing the 1970 USC National Champ baseball team on the field next Saturday night June 19 at the College World Series in Omaha. ESPN is televising the games, and we're not sure if our introduction (during the 5th inning of the second round game starting at 4PM PST) will be televised...what do you think?....run commercials, or show a bunch of old guys that haven't touched a ball in 30-40 years?

This is the final year for Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, which coincides with the 40th anniversary of our 1970 championship, which also was the first of five titles in a row for SC...never done before and will never be done again! One of my buddies who works at the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis (where I lived for 19 years before moving to Florida) said that the NCAA wanted to recognize USC for the 12 titles we've won, and they decided that no other school would be recognized...pretty cool!

The bros that will be in Omaha are Rick Raczka (Most Outstanding Orthpaedic Surgeon/Catcher), Jack Harrington (Most Outstanding Dentist/Water Park Developer/Pitcher), Frank Alfano (CWS All-Star Second Baseman 1970 & 71) and myself...Walt Failor, are you coming, buddy??? (and, I can't even imagine your resume!).

The other bros that were on that team, but not able to make it to Omaha, are Al Rossi (friend of Peaches O'Day), Brent Strom (5-year MLB career) and Steve Busby (only MLB pitcher to throw a no-hitter his first and second year in the bigs....a great trivia question). Hope that I didn't miss anybody.

The important quote from Tiger . . .

“I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have to go far to find them.”

Fishing the Lower Sacramento River

Off for two days of fly fishing on the lower Sacramento River, that's between Redding and Anderson. The upper Sacramento is above Shasta Lake.

Dominic DiMaggio

Say what you will about the DiMaggios but they were a tour de force in major league baseball but my favorite was Dominic, who played with Ted Williams with the Boston Red Sox. During the season of '41 he said he had the bird's eye view of 4 amazing events : Joe's 56 game hitting streak, Ted William's dramatic homerun to drive in Joe Dimaggio and win the '41 All Star game (Dom was on deck) and be apart of Lefty Gomez's 300th pitching win (Dom caught the final out). Everyone remembers Joe (and a little about Vince) but Dom had an incredible career and wrote a great book about the season of '41 called "Real Grass, Real Heroes". Learn more about Dominic here

Video - Tiger's Masterly Chip

The chip in on #16 at the Masters in 2005 was iconic for so many reasons but here's a new look at the shot . . . . it's amazing and only Tiger can do stuff like this!

Sports Trivia Question

Who was one of the most famous athlete's of all time to play a role in a movie and not play himself?






Wilt Chamberlain in Conan the Barbarian

learned this from the movie "Shotgun Solutions"

George Freeth update

from the Easy Reader in Manhattan Beach giving an overview of 2008 . . . "the iconic bust of Redondo's original surfer dude was stolen from the pier in August, police were unable to identify a suspect in the theft of the broze bust which had been a part of the pier landscape since 1977; the high price of scrap metal and high incidence of metal thefts maybe have been a motive to steal the approsimately 100 lb bronze bust. A native of Hawaii, Freeth came to Redondo in 1907, where he was acclaimed for both his many rescues as a life guard and for helping poularize surfing here on the mainland."

a replacement statue has been cast and the new bronze statue is in place!

Are you a fisherman?

Want to know where the Dept of Fish Game is planting trout in California? click here