Sooley

Have you read the John Grisham book Sooley, about the Sudanese basketball player? Good stuff. Grisham likes his sports. Just when you thought the book wasn’t about lawyers, a few get involved to help Sooley and his displaced refuge family.

With overall business booming, all the manpower shortages and late orders from the steel mill is making my job twice as hard. Like spinning plates on the Ed Sullivan show.

Glad Ronald Acuna isn’t in the Home Run Derby. Glad Austin Riley didn’t make the All-Star team. They need a little rest.

See where Auburn QB Bo Nix has a sponsorship deal with Milo’s Sweet Tea? A UGA lineman is taking advantage of the new rules by putting on a football clinic for kids in his hometown of Savannah, with an entry fee of $35.00. I hear UGA incoming freshman QB Brock Vandagriff has some sort of sponsorship deal lined up, as do over a thousand other players across the nation.

Kelly Kullberg, author of the bestseller Finding God at Harvard, said: "The Left is attempting to redefine the gospel, using biblical words but not their accurate meanings. If we no longer admit our sin, we no longer turn to Jesus. He is our actual hope. Biblical truth yields great love for people and great progress for cultures."

REGGIE JACKSON [SABR Bio] was the first player in major league history to rack up 100 home runs for each of three different clubs: Oakland = 269, Yankees = 123, and Angels = 144. He played in two perfect games: Jim Hunter’s = 08-May-1968 & Mike Witt’s = 30-Sep-1984  In the 1971 ASG, 25-year-old Jackson’s two-run home run off Dock Ellis in the 3rd inning hit a light tower above the stands in Tiger Stadium. A team of local Wayne State University physics professors did the math and agreed that the ball would have traveled around 650 feet from home plate. Very few people doubt the accuracy of their calculation.  MLB's longest verified HR distance is circa 575 feet by Babe Ruth on 18-Jul-1921, to straightaway center at Navin Field, Detroit, which landed nearly across the intersection of Trumbull & Cherry Streets. Consensus on Mickey Mantle’s 1^st HR of 1953, off Washington’s Chuck Stobbs at an unscientifically-reported 656 feet, is that the “measured” distance was more marketing hype that documented fact.

GRAIG NETTLES  [SABR Bio] won the 1981 ALCS MVP. -  Ans. He hit .500 with 9 RBIs in a 3-game NYY sweep over his former manager, Billy Martin, and the “Billy Ball” Oakland A’s. Though Nettles only won two Gold Glove Awards, his career defensive WAR is fifth-best all-time for his position. Nettles is fifth all-time in career defensive WAR for third basemen with 21.4.  Nettles got his GGs in 1977 &’78, as well as national recognition for his stellar play at 3B during the 1978 WS. He’s the last man to lead the league in homers with fewer than 35 in a full season. Nettles hit 32 homers to lead the AL in 1976.