Weber Cup History Recap

image source: Weber Cup

The 2012 Weber Cup matches are now available for viewing on YouTube. The above video is a historic recap of previous Weber Cup matches. What I didn't know was that Kelly Kulick was a former Weber Cup member.

Roster for 2012 was probably the strongest I've seen of all the Weber Cups. I'd like to see future matches include women. Or at least have a women's version of Weber Cup.

Nina Flack, Sandra Andersson, Mai Ginge Jensen, and Birgit Poppler are among those that I think would be a great fit for Team Europe. Missy Parkin, Diandra Asbaty, Liz Johnson, Danielle McEwan, Josie Earnest and a return from Kelly Kulick would make great team members for Team USA.

Chris Hardwick, chip off the old block

On Super Bowl Sunday, ESPN will air the 4th annual Chris Paul Celebrity Bowling tournament on ESPN at 1 pm Pacific Time (4 pm Eastern).

This year's celebrities scheduled to bowl include several of the new PBA League's owners: Host Chris Paul (Los Angeles LXA) , Terrell Owens (Dallas Strikers), LaMarr Woodley (Pittsburgh Jack Rabbits), Kevin Hart (Philadelphia Hitmen), Jesse Williams (Brooklyn STyLES), and Chris Hardwick (Silver Lake Atom Splitters).

As I wrote in my blog entry of December 22, 2012, Chris Hardwick is the son of former PBA tour pro Billy Hardwick. While Chris's bowling isn't at the level of his doubles partner Chris Barnes, the video preview shows Billy's boy has definitely got game.

Jim Harbaugh, Sports Fan

image source: Michael Conroy, AP

Over the weekend, the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens won their respective conference championships and will be playing in this year's NFL Super Bowl on February 3. What's probably gotten almost more headlines than the teams themselves are their head coaches, brothers John Harbaugh (Baltimore) and Jim Harbaugh (San Francisco).

Some of you already know John and Jim aren't the only coaches in the family. Their dad, Jack Harbaugh was a former head coach at Western Michigan University. Sister Joani is married to Tom Crean, who is head coach of Indiana University's men's basketball team.

The above picture is showing Jim Harbaugh on a visit to his one of his brother-in-law's home games in February 2012 (see USA Today story). Well, he did a little more than visit. He sat at the end of Indiana's bench and during timeouts, he would bring chairs on and off the floor for the players to sit.

And let's not forget this past October. Giants fans were floored when we saw Coach Harbaugh drive 1st baseman Brandon Belt in the World Series celebration parade.

I am in awe of Coach Harbaugh's support, admiration and respect for sports outside of his own.  As an Ohio State alumna, I must admit this is pretty good for someone who played football at Michigan.

Buster Posey did more than OK

After yesterday's impressive San Francisco 49ers playoff game versus the Green Bay Packers, it made me reflect for the umpteenth time on the San Francisco Giants 2012 season. To win 6 elimination games in the division and league series and then sweep the World Series. It's something that would be very difficult to repeat.

While deciding on what to write for my latest blog entry, I came across an article San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist John Shea wrote on May 29, 2011 ("After surgery, Buster Posey turns focus to 2012").  The above image contains my comments to Mr. Shea's article.  Remarks in the last paragraph include, "...Buster's going to do fine."

Fast forward to the 2012 season. Buster was more than fine. He broke out above and beyond most people's expectations. He started as the National League catcher in the All-Star game, won a Silver Slugger Award, became the National League's Most Valuable Player and played a HUGE part in capturing the 2012 World Series Championship for the Giants.

Buster: 2 full seasons = 2 World Series Championships.

Can't wait to see what he's going to do next.

All Split Up

Anyone who's ever bowled has probably seen this diagram on a score terminal or somewhere on the lanes. If a strike hasn't been bowled, the remaining pin(s) is referred to by number, such as the 7-10 split seen here:

image source: Augusta Chronicle

Just as nasty and undesirable is what's called the Big 4 (4-6-7-10 split)

Here is an example of a split with a great name, the Greek Church (4-6-7-8-10 shown below, or 4-6-7-9-10 split):

And, the Sour Apple (5-7-10 split), while not seen often, looks like this :

Of these splits, I once converted the Greek Church 3 1/2 years ago in summer league. Baby splits, such as the 3-10 and 2-7 are much more common and not as difficult to convert.

Last night, a league bowler told me he'd rather get a gutter ball than get the 2-4-10 split I bowled. For me, while I hate splits, I hate gutter balls even more. I'd rather take on the challenge to pick it up. In most cases, I won't be successful, but sometimes I am. At least I gave it a shot.

Remembering The Odd Couple

Last week, on Christmas Eve, we lost the other half of one of TV's beloved actors, Jack Klugman, best known for his role as Oscar Madison in ABC's "The Odd Couple". The TV series is based on Neil Simon's play which premiered on Broadway in 1965.

As I was reading Mr. Klugman's obituary, I came across a comment quoting verbatim the narrated introduction (performed by voice actor Bill Woodson) that was shown in Seasons 1 and 2. The introduction provides us the story of how Felix Unger (portrayed by a wonderful Tony Randall) and Oscar Madison became roommates.

Attached is a YouTube clip of the introduction with theme song (earworm likely to follow) written by Neal Hefti. And don't forget your frying pan. Rest in peace, Jack and Tony.