"Stretch" McCovey

We went to a Giants game last week, the first one we had been to this year.  Before I went into the ballpark, I stopped out at McCovey Plaza, named for the great Hall-of-Famer Willie McCovey.  It's across the water from right field, a water space aptly named "McCovey Cove."

There is a great statue of Willie there:

McCovey Cove, by the way, is noted for being the site of Splash Hits at AT&T Park.  These are home runs hit by a Giants player into the water on the fly.  To date, there have been 51 Splash Hits, 35 of them by Barry Bonds.  At our game, Andres Torres hit a home run into the Cove, but it bounced on its way there, so it was not a Splash Hit.

Willie McCovey never got to play at AT&T Park, or he would have hit a lot.  I've been really lucky to see him there in person a few times.

It's really nice that the second "Willie" is an honored member of the Giants' history.

The thrill of victory

I saw the end of the womens' final at the French Open yesterday.  Francesca Schiavone, a long-time player on the womens' tour, won to become the first Italian player ever to win a Grand Slam event.  Besides that milestone, she really got my attention with a level of enthusiasm and excitement that you don't see all the time in the big-money world of professional sports.

When Schiavone won, she fell to the court on the clay at Roland Garros, then rolled over and kissed the ground:

She came up covered with red clay, but it was probably something she did not want to wash off.

Complimenti!

John Wooden

There are not many role models that come close to John Wooden.  He was not just a great basketball coach - he was a great leader and a great man.

I always admired his astonishing commitment to integrity.  It is missing so much in sports (though both Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, my two great sports heroes, have it in abundance).

It is fascinating to see all the writing about Wooden upon his death.  The superlatives and the stories about his life are wonderful to read.  The most important thing I read, though, is something I knew about but had forgotten.  He always carried a piece of paper with him, with a creed, given to him by his father when he graduated from grammar school:

• Be true to yourself.
• Make each day your masterpiece.
• Help others.
• Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
• Make friendship a fine art.
• Build a shelter against a rainy day.
• Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Words to live by, if you can.

Don't send it to the wrong address

I got an email from Barnes & Noble, offering a deal on their Nook electronic book reader.  Given that I use the free Amazon Kindle software on my iPod Touch, I can't really see buying a separate e-reader.  But I wondered about the opportunity to try out the Nook (the screen on the Touch is pretty small).

So I checked out the return policy from Barnes & Noble, and found this rule:

Returning nook

You can return nook within 14 days of receipt. Either call 1-800-THE-BOOK (843-2665) for a return authorization, or return it to a Barnes & Noble store.

Please note: if you do not call for a return authorization number and send the nook to the wrong return center, no refund will be provided and your nook will not be returned to you. 

Wow.  Look at that language in red -- pretty harsh.  I would double-check that address before sending one back.

Make it so

This seems very well-deserved - Patrick Stewart was knighted by Queen Elizabeth yesterday.

I like his response:

"It was an unlooked-for honor but as I grew up as a child, falling in love with the theatre and Shakespeare, my heroes were Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Alec Guinness.

"The knights of the theatre represented to me not only the pinnacle of the profession but the esteem in which the profession was held. And now to find myself, to my astonishment, in that company is the grandest thing that has professionally happened to me."

iPhone TV

I really like this - a paper iPhone retro TV!

The work, by artist Ricky Trittart, took some serious thought.  He even made a little video, showing off the TV show M*A*S*H:

Really loud planes!

I thought we were under attack yesterday, but it was only a pair of F-16 jets zooming past our town on a Memorial Day flyover.  I've never heard anything quite that loud here, except maybe in San Francisco when I've seen the Blue Angels perform.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a ice looking plane, though: