Penny Oleksiak. At age 9 she could barely swim. There was no expectation that she would get any medals in Rio. The idea was just to get her used to the media attention and upheaval that comes with the Olympics, and to start getting seriously competitive next year, in preparation for the 2020 games... but she kind of overturned those plans. At age 16, she just won a gold, a silver and two bronze medals and she was Canada's flag-bearer at the closing ceremony. The excitement and amazement on her face when she saw her time was a joy to see.

For Vince Scully, today's contest between the Dodgers and Giants marked the end of a 67-year career, a career that will end on a fitting note, since it comes 80 years to the day after he became a baseball fan. In a poetic twist, the 8 year old Vince became a Giants fan in 1936 because he felt sorry for them after the Yankees had trounced them in a World Series game.

DoubleSaj and I were at ATT Park today taking in this contest between these long time rivals. We were privileged to heard Scully’s call of the 3rd inning courtesy of the Giants flagship station KNBR. He was magnificent; doing play-by-play and color commentary alone, as always. He was smooth, poetic and so knowledgeable. It is the only time I’ve hear his broadcast while watching the game in person. He retired today and won’t be doing the playoffs, or so it is planned. I wouldn’t be surprised if the cry for an encore will be so strong that he might yield and do an inning or 2 more.

Old Blue
Vince you will be missed

Sorry to see the Giants knocked out of the playoffs. Was hoping to see a Giants/Dodgers 7 game series. Thought that might entice Vince to come back for the series. Would really be cool to hear him call a game seven world series with the Dodgers.

The Giants were the worst in baseball for closing out games. 31 blown saves, including 11 in the 9th inning; so it wasn't meant to be. If the Dodgers are in WS game 7, Vin might actually do an inning or 2. I wouldn't expect more than that, but Scully only knows.

Old Blue

Need to order a double helping of goat. To be delivered Saturday to
1060 W Addison St, Chicago, IL

Go Cubbies!!!!

Baaaaa

We ain't afraid of no goat!!

TG

Goat usually shows up later in the series.

The goat is dead.

TG

Oh it is just on hold for the Indians. Two jinxed teams for sure. The Kershaw choke factor overrode the Cubs jinx.

Go Cubs!

Go Cubbies!

Go Cubbies!

They've got the momentum, and they've got 40 more years of futility and heartbreak to motivate them. THEY'RE GOING TO WIN THIS!!!!

TG

I don't care who wins, I'm just rooting for a spectacular omg loss.

Like a bottom of the 9th two out error with the ball going between the first baseman's legs to allow the walk off winning run to score! Or top of the 9th for Cub fans.

No GOATS (Has there been a Burkman sighting? Heard the Indians were going to give him front row seats down the third base line. - Mwhahaha)

No WILLIE MAYS (I was in the "mistake by the lake" in the early 80s with the guy beating the drum alone in section 54) May need some age to get the significance of this event and the player.

PLAY BALL!

Has there been a Burkman sighting?

Who's Burkman??

TG

Sorry. Typo. Bartman.

Oh Trekkie you may be Celebrating at work tomorrow. It's looking good, but there is a lot of game left.
David Ross just made history!!

~Aurora

No goats yet, but definitely cats and dogs!!!! Wow!

Cubs Win!

Congratulations Cubs! But Cleveland Rocks...love our Indians.

There is always next year.

I'm running a March Madness bracket game on CBS Sports. Last year I ran it just for a handful of AQ members interested in one of my boxes, with prizes related to it. This year we decided to open it to all of AQ. Its a pretty small game (last year it had 11 people), but there is really no limit if others on AQ want to play. I'll run it each year if there is interest. It will only be AQ members or family/friends of AQ members.

As for prizes, I will be crowdsourcing them, so players can donate prizes if they want to. But there is no obligation to donate a prize in order to play. They should be letterboxing related; I dunno, LTC, carved stamp, whatever sort of stuff like that.

I will put up as a prize the choice of a) a yes/no question on one of my boxes (useless :)); b) a clue from my 1998-1999 shoebox from Southern New England, or c) a stamped copy of the first edition of my book (useless :)).

Any donated prizes are thrown into the prize pool, and drafted by players in the order that they place (as opposed to being assigned to specific places).

So, if you are interested in playing, AQ mail me with the e-mail address you want an invite on (if you are already a member of the CBS Sports fantasy site, it may make sense to use the address associated with your acct; if not a member, no big deal).

If you want to donate a prize, click hug and post your prize in this thread. I'll either run the game in this thread or on the game's message board.

Brackets are posted this Sunday. and you typically have til midday Thu to fill them out.

Awesome!! Thank you for doing this again
it was a lot of fun last year, especially since Villanova won :)

b) a clue from my 1998-1999 shoebox from Southern New England

How about d) A 5 minute frenzy in the shoebox itself!

I'm in again!

hoops...i'll lean on my dad for bracket advice.

here's another useless, but perhaps fun, prize to add to the booty: the opportunity to collaborate with River Sol on creating a letterbox (cradle to grave), totally transferable if the winner doesn't want it :D

I hit the hug. I haven't offered a prize. I'm offering just a hug...

Seriously though, I'll offer something. I just need to decide what exactly I'm offering that doesn't pale in comparison to the already offered options...

I would like to participate.

We used to do this on the postal boards with each person donating a carved stamp related to a team or the final four logo. We made postal cards (LTC without the creativity) for each participant as well.

I have a few college logo stamps I might donate.

T Riley
irishref2016@frontier.com

Lets Goooooooooo MOUNTAINEERS!

Sounds fun...I'm in! Sending AQ Mail shortly. I'll also likely donate a prize....just don't know what yet.

I will offer a handcarved stamp of the historic building of your choice. You provide at least one clear, unobstructed, photo of your building from the front (not an angle) and a reasonable dose of patience. I will carve you a stamp in the style that I used on the Stagecoach Legacies stamps (people seem to like them). Size will be determined by the nature of the building.

Now that I've given this an additional 11 minutes of thought, I guess the building doesn't really need to be historic. If you want me to carve your house, or whatever, that is probably fine.