Spring football games across the country, and especially at Alabama and Auburn, have become increasingly popular over the past several years, seemingly ever since 90,000 fan showed up for Nick Saban’s first spring game at UA.
Alabama’s spring game this year will be held on Sat., April 16, at 2 p.m. at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Admission is free to the public, but the game will be televised on ESPNU if you’d rather not make the ride to Tuscaloosa.
Auburn’s spring game will be also be held on April 16, and it is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn. This game will be televised on College Sports South (CSS). General admission tickets, which can’t be bought online, are $5.
Basketball fans in the reading audience will be interested to hear that Central-Hayneville High School senior Antjuan Ball won the 2011 National High School Slam Dunk championship Friday night in Cypress, Texas.
Hillcrest High School fans will remember Ball after having watched him play when Central-Hayneville visited Evergreen for a varsity basketball game last Dec. 16.
In the dunk contest, the 6-2, 193-pound Ball beat seven other contestants with a lob pass toward the goal, followed by a full cartwheel, a sprint to the basket just in time to catch the ball on the bounce and dunk it behind his head.
Those of you who missed the contest’s broadcast on CBS Sunday can watch the winning dunk online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gt7KrnY3JU.
Sunday’s edition of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! featured a cool sports-related item. According to an item submitted by West Lafayette, Ohio’s Dan Paulun, Mark Whiten, a major league baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals hit four home runs and brought in 12 runs in a single game on Sept. 7, 1993.
Many of you will remember “Hard-Hittin” Mark Whiten, as he as called. Born in Pensacola, Fla., Whiten was a switch-hitter and outfielder who played for a number of major league teams, including the Blue Jays, Indians, Cardinals, Red Sox, Phillies, Braves, Mariners and Yankees.
Not only is he known for being one of only 15 players to hit four home runs in a game, but he’s also known for an unusual outing as a pitcher. While playing for Cleveland on July 31, 1998, he pitched his only inning as a pro against the Oakland A’s. Despite giving up two walks, a hit and an earned run, he struck out three opposing batters, including Miguel Tejada, who would go on to win the American League MVP title. Whiten’s one-inning performance, left him with a perfect career K/9 ration of 27.
A pitcher’s K/9 ratio, which you don’t hear discussed very often, is their ratio of strikeouts per nine innings pitched, that is, strikeouts times nine divided by inning pitched. In the case of Whiten, that’s three times nine (27), divided by one (27). As the saying goes, it doesn’t get any better than that.
No comments:
Post a Comment