Athlete of the Month, December 2013

November is here.

Jamaal Charles. Runners-up:  Tre Mason,  LeSean McCoy, Damian Lillard

December's short so we can get to the Athlete of the Year, that will come before the end of the week from among the following candidates:

January - Colin Kaepernick

February - Joe Flacco

March - LeBron James

April - Justin Upton

May-Clayton Kershaw

June - Patrick Kane  

July - Andy Murray

August- Mike Trout
September - Peyton Manning
October - David Ortiz
November - Paul George
December - Jamaal Charles

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #11

#12 is here.

#11 July 2, 1963 The Greatest Game Ever Pitched

Juan Marichal beat Warren Spahn 1-0 in 16 innings. Both men threw complete games.

Warren Spahn was 42 years old. He fought in the goddamn Battle of the Bulge.

Both men threw over 200 pitches. Marichal threw 227 and struck out ten.

Oh - and he had the first Giants no hitter in 40 years a couple of outings prior.

Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, two of the half dozen greatest players who ever lived, went a combined 1 for 12.

The game ended on a Willie Mays walk off home run.

I mean, I don't even know what to say to you. It's a freak of nature this game.

90 down - I'll do a recap of the list so far tomorrow, and then the Ten Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History begin the day following.

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #12

#13 is here.

#12 October 30, 1988 Young's Run.

The greatest run in 49er history?

The Niners were 5-3, in third place in the NFC West, coming off a loss, and facing a Viking team which had the NFLs second ranked defense and had bounced them from the playoffs the year before.

With less than 2 minutes to go and down by 4, the Niners had third down at the Viking 49; a failure to convert most likely means dropping to 5-4 and out of contention.

Then Steve Young made the greatest run in 49er history.  San Francisco beat the Vikings, went on to win their third Super Bowl, and then their 4th the following year.

The 11th greatest moment in Candlestick History is tomorrow.

2013-14 Bowl Game Predictions

I finished the regular season 49-43-2 ATS.

I'll pick every game both straight and ATS.

12-21
New Mexico Washington St. -4.5 Colorado St. (ATS loss, SU loss)
Las Vegas     USC -6 Fresno St. (ATS win, SU win)
Idaho Potato  Buffalo -1 SD St (ATS loss, SU loss)
New Orleans  Tulane over La-La (ATS loss, SU loss)

ATS 1-3
SU 1-3

12-23
St Petersburg  ECU -13.5 Ohio (ATS win, SU win)
ATS 2-3
SU 2-3

12-24
Hawaii            Boise +3 Oregon St. (Boise wins) (ATS loss, SU loss)
ATS 2-4
SU 2-4


12-26
Little Caesars  Bowling Green -5.5 Pitt (ATS loss, SU loss)
Poinsettia         Utah St. +2.5 NIU (Utah St wins)(ATS win, SU win)
ATS 3-5
SU 3-5


12-27
Military           Marshall -2.5 Maryland(ATS win, SU win)
Texas               Minn -5 Syracuse (ATS loss, SU loss)
Fight Hunger   Washington -3 BYU (ATS win, SU win)
ATS 5-6
SU 5-6


12-28
Pinstripe                      Rutgers +15.5 ND (I switched that pick, ND wins)(ATS win, SU win)
Belk                             UNC -3 UC(ATS win, SU win)
Russell Athletic         Miami +3.5 Louisville (I switched that pick, Lville wins)(ATS loss, SU win)
Buffalo Wild Wings    Michigan +3.5 KSt (UM wins)(ATS loss, SU loss)
ATS 7-8
SU 8-7

12-30
Armed Forces    Mid Ten St. +6.5 Navy (Navy wins)(ATS loss, SU win)
Music City         Mississippi -3 Geo Tech (ATS win, SU win)
Alamo                Texas +14.5 Oregon (Oregon wins)(ATS loss, SU win)
Holiday              TTech +14.5 Ariz St. (Switched pick, ASt wins)(ATS win, SU loss)
ATS 9-10
SU 11-8



12-31
Advocare          Arizona -7.5 BC (ATS win, SU win)
Sun                    VTech +7.5 UCLA (UCLA wins) (ATS loss, SU win)
Liberty               Rice +7 Miss St (Miss St wins)(ATS loss, SU win)
Chik-fil-a           Duke +13 A&M (A&M wins)(ATS win, SU win)
ATS 11-12
SU 15-8


1-1
Gator                  Nebraska +9.5 Georgia (Switched pick, UGA wins)(ATS win, SU loss)
Heart of Dallas  NTexas -6.5 UNLV(ATS win, SU win)
Cap One             SCarolina -1 Wisc(ATS win, SU win)
Outback              Iowa +7.5 LSU (Switched pick, LSU wins)(ATS win, SU win)
Rose                   Stanford -4.5 Mich St.(ATS loss, SU loss)
Fiesta                 UCF +17 Baylor (Baylor wins)(ATS win SU loss)
ATS 16-13
SU 18-11

1-2
Sugar                  Oklahoma +16 Alabama (Alabama wins)(ATS win, SU loss)
ATS 17-13
SU 18-12

1-3
Cotton                Ok St. +1.5 Missouri(ATS loss, SU loss)
Orange               Ohio St. -2.5 Clemson(ATS loss, SU loss)
ATS 17-15
SU 18-14


1-4
Compass          Houston +3 Vandy(ATS loss, SU loss)
ATS 17-16
SU 18-15


1-5
Go Daddy         Ball St. -9.5 Ark St(ATS loss, SU loss)
ATS 17-17
SU 18-16

1-6
BCS                   Aub +7.5 Florida St. (Florida St. wins)(ATS win SU win)
ATS 18-18
SU 19-16

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #13

#14 is here.

#13 October 10, 1987 One Flap Down

Down 2 games to 1 in the '87 NLCS The Cards got 2 off Mike Krukow in the second (the only two they'd get in a Krukow complete game) a Robby Thompson 4th inning homer cut it in half – and that man again, Hac Leonard – one flapped down his way around the bases with a 2 run homer in the fifth; his 4th homer in the series.  Buster Posey’s 2010 was our best season by a catcher since Bob Brenly’s in ’87 – and Brenly homered in the 8th to give us a 4-2 lead. Krukow – still today, right now, this very second, an enormously popular radio voice for SFG, finished them off to tie the series in his biggest performance ever.

The 12th greatest moment in Candlestick Park history is tomorrow.