Please tell me…
Thank you so much, Xander Schauffele, for further confirming what I’ve known for years.
San Diego is a city of champions. Individual champions. Major pro team champions. And now we’re down to just one franchise with no rings to match one runway. Not true. In fact, we don’t have a single champion.
(Don’t count the 1963 AFL championship, because the fledgling Football League wasn’t a big deal then. We’ll never know if the Chargers were good enough to beat the NFL’s Bears.)
We may be Mayberry by the Sea in many ways, and not just to our team, but to anyone who knows anything about politics and half-baked dreams gone awry, or even those who don’t, that’s right. Even our best clubs haven’t found their way to the jewelry store.
But what about us as individuals? We have that. We always have.
By winning the PGA tournament, Xander, already an Olympic gold medalist, became just the sixth San Diego native to win a major golf championship, joining Phil Mickelson, Billy Casper, Gene Littler, Craig Stadler and Scott Simpson.
I don’t know if any other city in the U.S. has half a dozen major championship winners, but probably not. We have the best courses, the best weather, the best coaches, the best junior golf program in the world, and we have a lot of great golfers who have never won a major championship.
Let’s add the all-time great Mickey Wright as number seven. She is the all-time great female golfer in the world, with 83 LPGA Tour wins and 13 major championships.
But enough golf.
Marcus Allen. Rashaan Salaam. Ricky Williams. Reggie Bush. No other city can produce four Heisman Trophy winners.
The Lincoln High School/University of Southern California product Allen was the first college talkback to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. A Pro Football Hall of Famer, he was also named NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP while with the Raiders.
Lincoln University running back Terrell Davis is also a Hall of Famer and Super Bowl and NFL MVP.
Brian Sipe (Grossmont High School, SDSU, Cleveland Browns) was also an NFL MVP. What other city has had three NFL MVPs?
I firmly believe Bill Walton was the best college basketball player and Bush was the best college football player, both at the same high school, Helix.
Hoover High School not only produced Wright, but also Ted Williams, widely considered baseball’s greatest hitter. Perhaps the most revered tennis player of all time, Maureen Connolly, attended the school. Willie Steele, the 1958 Olympic long jump gold medalist, attended the school. Morse’s Ernie Robinson won the same event at the Montreal Games. Kearney’s Alan Trammell is also a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Wasn’t Valhalla’s Greg Louganis the best diver ever? There are a lot of great yachtsmen, including America’s Cup star Dennis Connor.
Keep in mind that we’re not including athletes who didn’t attend high school, so guys like Tony Gwynn and Marshall Faulk don’t apply.
I can’t name everyone (sorry), but a few would be: Brick Mueller, Gail Devers, Dave Freeman, Pesky Sprott, Ray Boone and his son Bob, Bob Skinner, Tony Hawk, Jimmie Johnson, the Giles brothers, Mike Stam, Graig Nettles, Junior Seau, Hambone Williams, Willie Buchanon, John Lynch, Monique Henderson, Broc Glover, Shawn White, Judd Buechler, and so many more.
Oh, remember Don Larsen of Point Loma who pitched a perfect game in the World Series for the Yankees, and also David Wells of the Pointers who pitched a perfect game for the Yankees.
Xander, a Scripps Ranch and San Diego State graduate, is a perfect fit for the position and while he’s been solid, it would be a surprise if he doesn’t win another major championship.
Now it’s up to the Padres to end the losing streak and win the World Series.
Are you holding your breath? Now, breathe out. …
Can I make up another verb? Padreing.
Chiefs kicker Harrison ButkerHe should be forgiven for basically telling the female graduates at Benedictine University’s commencement speech that he would have preferred to be barefoot and pregnant. Maybe he wasn’t an idiot before he got kicked in the head.
Those of us who still have civic brain cells rattling around in our heads can only hope that historians will one day determine exactly when humanity became collectively stupid and uncaring, when hatred grew only for hatred’s sake, when lies became truths, and when much of what Americans fought and died for was forgotten.
If the movie Scottie SchaefflerThe arrest of is the last resort of the Louisville authorities, and Scotty will walk like an Egyptian.
Fox will begin broadcasting college football on Friday nights this fall. It’s terrible. Friday nights are for high school kids. But greed knows no tradition.
Speaking of high school athletics, I don’t understand why the state high school track and field meet isn’t televised. It’s not just a good event, it’s a great event.
But every four years, the Olympic Games provide an opportunity to celebrate some of the most unknown athletes.
wonderful Anthony EdwardsAir Apparent, and the next Jordan was named to the All-NBA Second Team. …
Rory McIlroyHis shot landed in the waters of Valhalla and there was not a ripple. LouganisSo, for every action, there is not necessarily a reaction. Newton Should have stuck to the figs.…
It’s funny how the TV stations put the flags of the golfers next to their names. How do they know them all? Sheldon Cooper? …
Trevor Immelman He needs to stop with the constant “momentems.” If they existed, they would be a terrible, useless, overused word.
Smart may not have a physical presence, but as you saw in the way Game 1 ended between the Pacers and Celtics, Smart can be overwhelmingly strong on stoopids.
Happy 116th birthday. Jimmy StewartCan you think of anyone else who has never had a breakdown?
“Sin is bad, Jesus is good. Details inside,” reads a sign outside the church.
Just a year later, Soccer Manager Mauricio Pochettinowoke up, watched Chelsea Morning, walked out, and received a termination notice at the front door. Given their short life expectancy, football coaches should be allowed to wear asbestos underwear and hang out at 101 Ash Street. …
Speaking of 101 Ash, its owner is, Bicycle Mayor & his Ham & EggersYou must forget the incredibly stupid and inconsiderate idea of putting a homeless shelter on Kettner and Vine. Kettner is crammed with tourists and travelers, full of speeders heading to the airport, and way too close to hundreds of family homes. Think outside your own narrow box. Citizens, please stand up. …
California’s marijuana prohibitionists are finally getting closer to allowing city governments to open European-style cannabis cafes. Winners: Frito-Lay, Planters, Nabisco. San Diego’s losers: Bike lanes, Starbucks…
Abandoned city property that needs repair should be repaired by city hall. …
See how our water bills are going up like astronauts? 5.2 percent, as approved by Ham & Egger. Soon there won’t be anyone here voting on water rates…
I am sure there are politicians and bureaucrats sitting around campfires all day trying to think of ways to deceive the public.
The NCAA is going to allow Power 5 universities to pay their players. What did they do before? Ah, legally. …
It took me a while, but I eventually came to the following conclusion: Shakespeare It was a very packed book and difficult to read…
Memorial Day should be every day. “Let us not mourn that these people died, but rejoice that these people lived.” General George S. Patton Jr.
