I find it interesting that Ray Guy was considered one of the greatest punters in NFL history, but his stats really aren't that great by modern standards. His career average of 42.4 yards per kick ranks 61st all time and his net average of 32.2 yards (excluding his first three seasons when the statistic wasn't kept by the NFL) isn't even in the top 100.
I guess sports conditioning has led to stronger punters? I doubt it's the football - perhaps stadiums have a bit to do with it as well?
(This post was last modified: 11-03-2022 03:50 PM by Fort Bend Owl.)
Fred Hickman died Wednesday from liver cancer at the age of 66. He and Nick Charles were early pioneers in cable sports news shows - they were the anchors of CNN's Sports Tonight in the early 1980's, which went head to head (quite successfully) against ESPN's early Sportscenter shows. Charles also passed away early in life (at the age of 64, 11 years ago).
Quote:Frank Robinson founded his company at his kitchen table in 1973 with the goal of realizing his college dream of producing simple, low-cost helicopters for the civilian market. Today, Robinson Helicopter is closing in on the delivery of its 14,000th aircraft.
Robinson’s interest in helicopters dates back to his childhood. “I was nine years old when I saw a newspaper picture of a Sikorsky VS-300 prototype hovering. I was intrigued that someone could make a machine that could stand motionless in the air,” Robinson said in 2007.
He aimed his education and career path exclusively at helicopters, receiving his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington and later attending Wichita State’s graduate aeronautical engineering school. Robinson went on to work at various helicopter programs at Cessna, Umbaugh, McCulloch, Kaman, and Hughes, all the while unsuccessfully trying to foster his employers’ interest in his idea for a low-cost “everyman” helicopter while concurrently working on the concept in his spare time from his home workshop.
“I started working on it before I graduated from college and kept at it while I worked for other companies,” Robinson said. “I bought machine tools and riveting equipment and set it up in my basement or garage, where I did a lot of experimenting. I was married at the time and it always created a bit of a conflict—whether to spend money on an engine lathe or new drapes for the house. I continued to pitch the idea of a small, two-seat personal helicopter at just about every company I worked for, but could never convince them. They were making a lot of money building large, expensive, and overpriced helicopters for the military. I was working on the [AH-64] Apache program at Hughes in 1973 when I decided to leave.”
Robinson spent seven and a half years designing and testing his two-seat R22 light piston helicopter himself before achieving FAA certification in 1979. Much of the work was done in a small hangar in Torrance, California. Today, Robinson remains in Torrance but employs more than 1,000 at its sprawling plant there, manufacturing the R22, larger R44 piston, and R66 turbine single, sending 70 percent of its production to the export market.
Unlike many of its competitors, Robinson’s factory is vertically integrated, making most of the production components it needs in-house to control quality and scheduling. The company remains family-owned and Kurt Robinson still flies the company’s helicopters regularly.
Quote:Baseball Hall of Famer and two-time Cy Young Award winner Gaylord Perry, a master of the spitball who wrote a book about using the pitch, died Thursday. He was 84.
The native of Williamston, N.C., made history as the first player to win the Cy Young in both leagues, with Cleveland in 1972 and San Diego in 1978 just after turning 40.
Perry went 24-16 in his debut season with Cleveland after 10 years with the San Francisco Giants. He was 21-6 in his first season with the Padres in 1978 for his fifth and final 20-win season.
“Before I won my second Cy Young I thought I was too old – I didn’t think the writers would vote for me,” Perry said in an article on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website. “But they voted on my performance, so I won it.”
Perry’s 1974 autobiography was titled “Me and the Spitter,” and he wrote that when he started in 1962 he was the “11th man on an 11-man pitching staff” for the Giants. He needed an edge and learned the spitball from San Francisco teammate Bob Shaw.
Perry said he first threw it in May 1964 against the New York Mets, pitched 10 innings without giving up a run and soon after entered the Giants’ starting rotation.
He also wrote in the book that he chewed slippery elm bark to build up his saliva and eventually stopped throwing the pitch in 1968 after MLB ruled pitchers could no longer touch their fingers to their mouths before touching the baseball.
According to his book, he looked for other substances, like petroleum jelly, to doctor the baseball. He used various motions and routines to touch different parts of his jersey and body to get hitters thinking he was applying a foreign substance.
Perry was ejected from a game just once for doctoring a baseball – when he was with Seattle in August 1982. In his final season with Kansas City, Perry and teammate Leon Roberts tried to hide George Brett’s infamous pine-tar bat in the clubhouse but were stopped by a guard. Perry was ejected for his role in that game, too.
Quote:Baseball Hall of Famer and two-time Cy Young Award winner Gaylord Perry, a master of the spitball who wrote a book about using the pitch, died Thursday. He was 84.
The native of Williamston, N.C., made history as the first player to win the Cy Young in both leagues, with Cleveland in 1972 and San Diego in 1978 just after turning 40.
Perry went 24-16 in his debut season with Cleveland after 10 years with the San Francisco Giants. He was 21-6 in his first season with the Padres in 1978 for his fifth and final 20-win season.
“Before I won my second Cy Young I thought I was too old – I didn’t think the writers would vote for me,” Perry said in an article on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website. “But they voted on my performance, so I won it.”
Perry’s 1974 autobiography was titled “Me and the Spitter,” and he wrote that when he started in 1962 he was the “11th man on an 11-man pitching staff” for the Giants. He needed an edge and learned the spitball from San Francisco teammate Bob Shaw.
Perry said he first threw it in May 1964 against the New York Mets, pitched 10 innings without giving up a run and soon after entered the Giants’ starting rotation.
He also wrote in the book that he chewed slippery elm bark to build up his saliva and eventually stopped throwing the pitch in 1968 after MLB ruled pitchers could no longer touch their fingers to their mouths before touching the baseball.
According to his book, he looked for other substances, like petroleum jelly, to doctor the baseball. He used various motions and routines to touch different parts of his jersey and body to get hitters thinking he was applying a foreign substance.
Perry was ejected from a game just once for doctoring a baseball – when he was with Seattle in August 1982. In his final season with Kansas City, Perry and teammate Leon Roberts tried to hide George Brett’s infamous pine-tar bat in the clubhouse but were stopped by a guard. Perry was ejected for his role in that game, too.
I loved watching him pitch when I was a kid and he was at the Rangers!! "Master of the Spitter" and had supreme placement!
Oh man, wow! Back when Sesame Street was decent and had some values. He was a decent guy. Sad to hear. R.I.P. to Bob McGrath — one of the four non-Muppet castmembers when Sesame Street debuted on public television stations of Nov. 10, 1969.
Artist: Bob McGrath
Album: Home Sweet Home
Song: "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral (That's an Irish Lullaby)"
Songwriter: James Royce Shannon (1914)
1966 CBS Records
Artist: Bob McGrath
Song: "Snow"
Artists: David, Bob, Susan, Gordon, Maria, Herry Monster, Bert, Luis, Oscar, Count Von Count, & Mr. Hooper (uh, Looper)
Song: "What's The Name Of That Song?"
Nick Bollettieri, 91, innovative and influential tennis coach. He coached, among many others, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, and my GOAT, Monica Seles. He started the Bollettieri Tennis Academy (later purchased by IMG) in Bradenton, Florida.
I didn’t personally know ‘Nicky’, but he was my mother’s first cousin and my grandmother was his godmother. My mother was sad to
find out that he passed.