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KNUCKLEBALLS, By Dave Clark Oddball Things I Know About Sports If the ice has been used a lot, look for the following: If the Zamboni driver doesn't keep his speed on the straights and his speed on the ends close, or if he doesn't cut the water on the ends, expect the ends to be built-up, choppy, and soft. That's where you'll really have to focus on your puck-control, where the puck will probably bounce all over the place. --Ice Hockey As you circle the track, pick a line. There's a thousand of them, but you have to find the groove, the right line to run. This depends on how the car's set up, track conditions, and how the field is running. Find the groove as fast as you can and always try to straighten the turns and lengthen the straightaways. --Auto Racing If you're slowly approaching the formation level or slightly above, kick with your feet, pull your hands back, and fly your nose right up to your grip. Reach to catch yourself from colliding, then shake and break. And if you're having trouble staying stable, picture a point on the back of your head and one on your tailbone and try to draw them together. --Skydiving relative work There's an intense psychological game played in the interior that makes or breaks the best players. Honest to God, the best linemen aren't the fastest or the strongest, but the smartest. There's a premium on smart linemen, and the game will never have enough of them. --Football Try to set a pick and you'll get called for interference. Trust me. --Ice Hockey Play it smart and versatile. Develop the skills to swing your clubs with control and know what they can do if you made them do it. Never be afraid to play it short; laying up may give you a longer but way better shot than one closer to the pin. Tiger Woods is the greatest finisher the game has going, not the best driver or putter. Understand how and why and you might make yourself a far better golfer than you could ever believe. --Golf A pitcher will miss in and out along the general angle of his delivery. Sidearm= straight left and right. High 3/4= high on that side, low on the other. Submarine= low that side, high the other. Try to pick up if the pitcher is adjusting his delivery right or left of that angle, to get a better idea where the ball may go. --Baseball Altitude and airspeed is like money in the bank. --Flying Control your elbows and hips and half your game is automatic. --Basketball Stand with your throwing shoulder straight away from your target and your other shoulder in line with it. Stand with both feet flat and pointing straight ahead, slightly wider apart than your shoulders, arm nearest the target hanging at your side, the other hand hanging in front of you. Without moving anything else, look over your shoulder nearest the target and make a fist with that hand, your thumb near you and fingers away. Do not move your head or body a bit from here. Hold your other hand with fingertips curled straight down in front of you with fingernails up and near you. Raise your arm near the target up straight to level with your shoulder, rotating your fist until your knuckles are in a line straight up and down and you see the center of the target just above your fist. At the same time, bring your hand in front of you straight up and turn it so your fingernails are in a line straight up and down and bring your hand toward your mouth until your index finger is resting in the corner of your mouth on that side. Gently relax the fingers at your mouth. Start like that and you'll be miles ahead of virtually every other beginner. --Archery SUPERFANS, By Matthew Crowder Mike Knapp (e-mail him at mknapp@bgnet.bgsu.edu if you have any items on his wantlist at the end of this article) has always had a penchant for Cleveland Indians infielders. He has collected cards of Tony Bernazard and Mark Lewis but his favorite player is Brook Jacoby. He has collected Jacoby stuff since he was age 9 in 1988. He has over 400 different Jacoby cards as well as 20 different signed Jacoby items. He has pictures of himself with "Jake" from 1988 and 2001. He got one enlarged and Brook signed it to him "to Mike, my biggest fan, Brook Jacoby". Mike has met Jacoby several times. Besides the times he got his picture taken with Jacoby, Mike recalled "back in the old days at Cleveland Stadium I had a Jacoby jersey and every game I went to I would yell to him during batting practice and show him the jersey. . . He would always wave and act as if he remembered me . . . Whether he did or not I will probably never know." He saw him at spring training in 1991 in Tucson and met him last year at a Toledo Mudhens game (Jacoby is the hitting coach for the Louisville Bats nowadays). At the Toledo game Jacoby signed a game-used bat he had given Mike during batting practice back in 1992. The game that day turned out to be Jacoby's last before retiring. Brook told Mike at the Toledo game he had brought more memorabilia about his career to the ballpark that day than Brook had in his house! Are there other Jacoby fanatics out there? At least one. Mike has met one other Jacoby collector. She lives in North Carolina. Her Jacoby wantlist is down to about ten items and Mike's list is down to five cards. Please contact Mike at mknapp@bgnet.bgsu.edu if you can help him locate any of these last five cards: 1984 Indians Team Issue HOOPS AVENUE, By David Fitzpatrick - HoopsAvenue.com Question: Paul Pierce should be MVP because he is a franchise player. He rebounds, dishes it out and scores more than any other player in the league in the 4th. Go C's (from seb) Answer: Pierce is, without a doubt, one of the league's best players and definitely deserves MVP consideration. However, we give Tim Duncan the nod for what he's done in San Antonio this season. Question: Now I'm sure you heard a lot of MVP questions, but Jason Kidd deserves it. MVP isn't necessarily a dynamic 30+ point scorer. It's someone who is valuable to their team and the team wouldn't be there without Kidd even with the improvements. Look what Kidd did with the Suns - look what Marbury's done with them. My question is not if the Suns are looking to trade Marbury, but who would they look for? (from Doug) Answer: Jason Kidd has obviously been a major plus for New Jersey, but, once again, it must be stated that Marbury never had that type of team last season (and we don't think Phoenix is looking to trade him either). Marbury didn't have a healthy Kerry Kittles, didn't have a healthy Keith Van Horn, and didn't have rookie guard Richard Jefferson. He didn't have free agent center Todd Macculoch either, plus Kenyon Martin was also hurt for portions of last season. If Marbury was in New Jersey this season, they would still be very successful, almost as good as Kidd has made them. Once again we still give the MVP to Tim Duncan in San Antonio, but Kidd gets props too. Question: Why is it that Gary Payton can't get any MVP credit? . . . Payton is playing on a team decimated by injuries with two players signed from the CBA and a starting center with basically no NBA experience. On top of this, Calvin Booth, their big offseason signing, is out for the year. This is a team that was meant to finish in the lottery at full strength. Instead they're looking at 7th seed in the tough West and credit Payton with a lot of this. Kidd may be most people's pick, but a healthy Van Horn, Kittles and the additon of MacCulloh has had a lot to do with it. Credit where credit is due guys!! (from mocko) Answer: Payton gets props from us, but not enough to land a top five spot on the Awards Watch. We agree he doesn't have nearly as much talent around him and has done a great job, but so has Andre Miller! Granted, Payton is on a good team and Miller is not, both these guys are going to fall short of legit MVP consideration. Submit your questions in the Mailbag section of HoopsAvenue.com. AUTOGRAPH HOUND, By Marc SchoderPhoenix, AZ - The perfect way of asking for the perfect autograph Well, there is really no perfect way. It depends totally on the individual's mood. The perfect example is Cy Young award-winning pitcher Randy Johnson. "The Big Unit" arrived at the ballpark about six hours before game time. Fans were lined up along fences guarded by the Phoenix Police Department. I counted 14 uniformed officers and who knows how many un-uniformed ones there were. Most of what I saw wouldn’t be told by a mainstream news media outlet.
 COLLECTIBLES QUERIES This column showcases questions or wants which have been preying on collectors' minds. If you can help them out, please contact them through The Card Board message board at http://www.oddball-mall.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=1 If you have a query of your own, post your own message at that address and you may find your question published here next month! Shuffake writes: MaVerixK writes: THEGURU19 writes: The contents of the respective articles represent the opinions of the individual writers and not necessarily those of the editor/owner of The Oddball Mall Sports Cards. © Copyright 2002. All rights reserved. |
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