Saturday, November 24, 2018

2018 High School Football

12/16/18 - Gabriel and Tuitele top All-State team
11/24/18 - St. Louis sacks Mililani 38-17 to win state championship
11/21/18 - Cal Lee was there in the early days
11/16/18 - St. Louis romps past Kahuku 49-22
11/16/18 - Mililani gets by Campbell 24-2 in Open Division semifinal
11/12/18 - Dillon Gabriel decommits from Army
11/2/18 - Mililani defeats Kahuku 27-7 to win OIA title
11/2/18 - Campbell defeats Farrington 42-26 for state playoff berth
10/27/18 - No. 1 St. Louis knocks out no. 2 Punahou 45-21
10/20/18 - Undefeated St. Francis forfeits season
10/6/18 - Campbell stuns Kahuku 28-27
9/29/18 - Kahuku stunned at home by Mililani 10-38
9/22/18 - Dillon Gabriel becomes career passing leader
9/8/18 - no. 3 Mililani taken down by no. 5 Punahou 21-43
9/7/18 - no. 1 St. Louis overwhelms no. 2 Kahuku 30-14
8/31/18 - St. John Bosco 52, Mililani 14
8/10/18 - OIA and ILH together again
8/2/18 - St. Louis is the team to beat (again)
8/1/18 - Stacked Class of 2019
7/22/18 - How the OIA-ILH alliance came about
3/9/18 - Randall Okimoto steps down as Farrington head coach
2/22/18 - ILH agreed only after pledges from Kurisu and Amemiya
2/13/18 - OIA and ILH agree to two-year pilot program of interleague play
1/23/18 - OIA will move to three tiers
1/18/18 - Kahuku names Sterling Carvalho as head coach, fifth head coach in six years

Thursday, November 01, 2018

Willie McCovey

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Willie McCovey, the sweet-swinging Hall of Famer nicknamed "Stretch" for his 6-foot-4 height and those long arms, died Wednesday. He was 80.

The San Francisco Giants announced McCovey's death, saying the fearsome hitter passed "peacefully" on Wednesday afternoon "after losing his battle with ongoing health issues."

A first baseman and left fielder, McCovey was a .270 career hitter with 521 home runs and 1,555 RBIs in 22 major league seasons, 19 of them with the Giants. He also played for the Athletics and Padres.

McCovey made his major league debut at age 21 on July 30, 1959, and played alongside the other Willie -- Hall of Famer Willie Mays -- into the 1972 season before Mays was traded to the New York Mets that May.

McCovey batted .354 with 13 homers and 38 RBIs on the way to winning the 1959 NL Rookie of the Year award. The six-time All-Star also won the 1969 NL MVP and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986 after his first time on the ballot.

"You knew right away he wasn't an ordinary ballplayer," Hall of Famer Hank Aaron said, courtesy of the Hall of Fame. "He was so strong, and he had the gift of knowing the strike zone. There's no telling how many home runs he would have hit if those knees weren't bothering him all the time and if he played in a park other than Candlestick."

McCovey narrowly beat out Mets pitcher Tom Seaver for the 1969 MVP award. McCovey led the NL in home runs (45) and RBIs (126) for the second straight year, batting .320 while also posting NL bests with a .453 on-base percentage and .656 slugging percentage. He was walked 121 times, then drew a career-high 137 free passes the next season.

When San Francisco opened its new waterfront ballpark in 2000, the cove beyond the right-field fence was named "McCovey Cove" in appreciation of all he did for the organization. There's a statue of McCovey's likeness on the other side of the water from where those splash hits land.