Special Duo- Since Miami had its fire sale late last season and into the postseason, there were only two returning players from the Marlins' opening-day lineup in 2012. They are Logan Morrison and Giancarlo Stanton.
Morrison was a member of the 2006 Jamestown Jammers and Stanton, then known as Mike, was a Jammer in 2007.
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Perfect Fit - Speaking of former Jammers, I had been thinking it would be a good move for the Pittsburgh Pirates to sign former Jammer Brandon Inge and it happened last week when he accepted a minor league contract.
Inge, who played for Oakland last season after 12 seasons with Detroit, is a possible backup at third base if he makes the Pirates. But third base is just one of his positions.
When Inge was drafted in the second round by the Tigers out of Virginia Commonwealth University in 1998, he was a top-notch shortstop and did a little relief pitching. Because of his arm strength, when Inge was sent to Jamestown he was converted to a catcher because the Tigers were short on catchers at that time. When he first came up with the Tigers in 2001, Inge was behind the plate until they signed Pudge Rodriguez 2004. Then Inge played at third base and in the outfield.
After being a third baseman, shortstop, outfielder, catcher and relief pitcher, Inge has done it all. The Pirates would have a utility player with a capital U.
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Fit To A Tee - Some big news in the golf world last week was about Daniela Holmquist of Sweden. She was qualifying for the Women's Australian Open and was bitten by a spider. She thought it was a black widow spider, but didn't seek medical attention because she didn't want to miss her chance to qualify.
Instead, Holmquist used a tee to pierce her skin, extracted what she thought was potentially fatal venom and then finished her round. Officials followed her for two holes and determined she was OK. She went on to finish with a 74 and didn't qualify.
Tournament officials said it was more likely that Holmquist was bitten by a redback spider. It's still a serious bite, but no deaths have been reported from Redback spider bites since an antidote was developed in 1955.
Holmquist's determination to keep playing reminded me of years ago at Chautauqua Golf Club when a golfer was stung on the tongue by a bee. His playing partners suggested he should head to the pro shop to check it out, but he wanted to continue playing. However, the sting victim didn't play for long as his tongue began to swell and he had difficulty breathing. Instead of a golf cart ride to the pro shop, he took an ambulance ride to the hospital.
The dedication of golfers was always demonstrated in the old joke about a golfer telling a friend about a member of their foursome suffering a heart attack. The friend says, ''Gee, that must have been difficult.'' The golfer said, ''Yes it was. It was hit a shot, drag John, hit a shot, drag John...''
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Snowed Out- It was a shocker on Wednesday to be sitting inside watching the snow falling outside and then turning on the Golf Channel to watch the Match Play Championships in Marana, Ariz., and thinking the TV screen was a window.
It was snowing just as hard in that portion of Arizona as it was here.
As I watched more and more snow fall in Arizona, the announcers kept saying they were hoping it would melt quickly so a few more hours of golf could be played. It never did melt off and play was suspended.
It had snowed 2 more inches to suspend play and it continued to snow overnight for a total of 4 inches. And the resumption of play on Thursday was delayed because there was still snow on the course.
In contrast, the opening round of the LPGA in Thailand on Thursday was played with temperatures in the mid-90s.
A similar freak snowstorm happened here a few years ago in early May. I was walking to the third tee and far ahead near the fifth green I could see a wall of gray coming my way. I was concerned that it would be raining soon, but was happy that I had brought my umbrella. As I teed up my ball, the weather front arrived and it wasn't rain. As I stood over my ball, snow began falling.
By the time I reached where my drive had landed, I was in a snowstorm. It was a par-5 hole and when I hit to the green, it wasn't green, but was white because it was completely covered with snow.
I tried to putt, but the ball collected snow and as it rolled it became a larger and larger like a snowball.
I surrendered and walked to the pro shop. Then after about a 20-minute wait, the snow melted and the round continued. And it continued after I tried that putt again without the snowball effect.
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Lots Of Work For Nothing - An innovation for National Hockey League telecasts that appeared a few years ago was a camera mounted high on the glass at center ice. It gives a shot from a different angle of players skating past that area and it was an interesting view. But it appears the appeal has worn off.
I've watched quite a few NHL games during this late-starting season and I've seen shots from that camera only about three times. On Wednesday night I watched an entire game and it was never used once.
All I could think about was the poor technician out in the video truck operating that camera and never seeing any results of his work live on the air. But most TV news cameramen are used to that. For example, they'll shoot video of an event for 15 minutes and 15 seconds of it gets on the air.