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You may have read or heard by now about Mike Coolbaugh, a coach killed during a minor league baseball game on Sunday night. He was struck in the head by a foul ball during a game in Arkansas. Talk about a freak accident.
Coolbaugh, a batting coach for the Tulsa Drillers, was standing in the first base box. He was only 35. Mike was from San Antonio, and attended Roosevelt High School with a good friend of mine. David Flores of the San Antonio Express-News reminds us of another incident that occured nearly 18 years ago.
Another accident in a memorable locker-room incident 18 years ago this fall tarnished Coolbaugh’s senior football season and ended the late John Ferrara’s career as a public-school coach.
With his team trailing Judson 21-0 at halftime of a key district game on Oct. 28, 1989, an angry Ferrara hurled a clipboard at a wall in frustration.
Unfortunately, the object hit Coolbaugh in the face and cut him badly. He had to be taken to the hospital and Ferrara was fired as the Rough Riders’ coach a few days later.
Even though he went on to a long pro baseball career after graduating, Coolbaugh never escaped his association with that infamous incident. But he handled the unwanted attention with the dignity that defined his life.
Needless to say everyone is heartbroken over this recent tragedy. Mike Coolbaugh was held in high regard by those he met throughout his life…coaches, friends, fans, teammates. Coolbaugh is survived by his wife, Mandy, and two sons, Joseph, 5, and Jacob, 3, all of San Antonio. Mandy Coolbaugh is expecting another child in October.
UPDATE: Removed mailing address for donations.
You can read the rest of David Flores’ article at MySA.com.
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Today is beautiful outside. Sun shining, only a few clouds scattered across the sky. And although I’m stuck inside behind my desk all day, I’m happy. HAPPY IT’S NOT RAINING ANYMORE!!!
For 2 weeks straight, it rained. Everyday. All day. And I can’t stand rain. Yesterday and today have been gorgeous. I even got to wash my car…gave it a bubble bath. On National Geographic’s website, they posted a photo taken by a NASA satellite between June 11 and June 20.
About 48,000 square miles (124,319 square kilometers), an area the size of Mississippi, was pounded by rains. Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas were hit with more than 330 percent of their average rainfall. In Texas, every major river basin flooded, an event that had not occurred since 1957, according to the Associated Press.
You can read the rest of the article here.
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Well. The NBA season is over…many NBA “fans” are thankful. I’m just glad the Spurs won. I won’t have to hear anymore about how the Spurs are boring (they’re not) and whether or not to refer to the Spurs as a dynasty (they are). I can just sit back, relax, and wait to do this again next year. Congrats, Tony! (you know) And congrats to the San Antonio Spurs.
My brother, Jason, made this video from a collection of photos he took after Game 4 in downtown San Antonio. I was there as well, but we never managed to find each other due to poor logistics. The second video is of the official Spurs celebration downtown last Sunday (Father’s Day). Now that the season is over, I can concentrate on Fantasy Football. 
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 Courtesy Big Shot Bob in Texas. |
Hey. It’s always exciting to see your team win especially in the NBA Finals. But I agree with most of the critics. This series is a…*yawn*…a bore. The lop-sided outcome has some talking about fixing the NBA Playoffs among other things. I’m just glad that this Finals matchup hasn’t gone unnoticed like those of the NHL. Who won that cup thingy again?
Don’t fret Spurs fans. I’m certainly not ceding to the idiots that continue to call the Spurs boring. Thanks to the exciting play by Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker throughout the season, there is no possible way even the most intent Spurs haters can say that any longer…since 2003 to be exact.
Take it from 6-time champion, Robert Horry, who says that this Spurs team is arguably the best of San Antonio’s four championship teams, but that they don’t compare to his 2001 Lakers squad.
What about Michael Finley? If anyone on this squad deserves a ring more, it’s him. Finley is ol’ reliable. He finds his stroke when it matters. In Game 5 of the Denver series, he sunk a franchise playoff-record 8 shots from beyond the arc. So, my mantra has become “Win For Fin!” since the start of the playoffs.
Don’t forget to download the Rob G Reppin My Block Spurs Remix and blare it in your car tonight. Everyone else will…including the 09er and Monte Vista mom mobiles.
GO SPURS GO!!! and let’s WIN FOR FIN!
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15 Minutes of Fame? Johnny On The Spot, perhaps? Either way, I’ll take it. Last week, I posted a video of the Mississippi Braves Manager Meltdown. I posted the video Tuesday. By Wednesday, I was #1 for the search “Mississippi Braves Manager” (sans quotation marks) or some variation of that search in Google Trends, Google Blogsearch and Google Web Search. As of Monday evening, I am #2, #1, and #9, respectively.
For June 6th, that traffic translated into 27.94%, or 725, of my visits. Of course, traffic slowly tapered off as people stopped searching for it. Normally, I get about 400-600 visits per day. Not super awesome. But, my other huge traffic booster (totally unrelated) was for the Reppin My Block Spurs Remix, which is still #1 on Google, by the way. 
In The News…
Friday morning on my way down to the beach for a fishing trip, my mom called to inform me that Derrich.com was mentioned in the paper. When I returned on Sunday evening, I saw that David King, a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, had included Derrich.com in a list of blogs that mentioned the manager meltdown. According to King, it turns out that the maniac manager is from San Antonio…a graduate of Madison High School.
You can read the online version here. Unfortunately, none of the domains referred to on the newspaper’s website are actual links…or this could have resulted in even more traffic. The mention resulted in a small hiccup in Friday traffic. Hard to tell exactly how much of that was related to the article with no tracking. Like I said before…I’ll take it. Thanks for the mention, David. I’ll try to keep the one-liners coming.
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Spurs West versus Spurs East. Spurs East? Cavs Head Coach Mike Brown, General Manger Danny Ferry, and assistant coach Hank Egan were all members of the Spurs organization in some capacity. As far as the makeup of the teams? Not even close.
And then there’s King James. Wait. Allow me to get this out real quick: *ehem* LeBron may not have gone to college, but the Spurs will take him to school starting tonight (thanks, Ed). Seriously though…LeBron James is a ridiculous basketball player. Arguably the best player on the court (sorry, Kobe). Quite frankly, I’m glad the Spurs are playing Cleveland because I wanted nothing more than to watch LeBron play…and do that thing he does with the chalk. No doubt Bruce Bowen will have his hands full. But in favor of the Spurs, who is going to stop Tim Duncan? Unless Sideshow Bob distracts Timmy with his dreds, it’s a hopeless cause. And Tony Parker? Not ti…I mean boobie.
The Spurs Are Boring?
That’s funny. The Spurs aren’t showy, but they’re not boring. If you’re a still a believer in this ridiculous mantra, then maybe you haven’t noticed Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. I think they split a sixer of Red Bull before each game.
I read a pretty good article on SI.com by Ian Thomsen that discusses this very misconception. Well, he just turns it into a positive thing, actually…but the Spurs aren’t boring.
People like to complain that the Spurs are boring. I say we should all be grateful. If it weren’t for a franchise like the Spurs maintaining the high standard for team basketball as handed down from Bill Russell’s Celtics, then the NBA really would lose its way as a traditional sports league. Without teams like San Antonio this whole enterprise might devolve into a reality show based on marketing and celebrity and preening for the cameras.
Check out the rest of the article about how the Cavs will only benefit from showdown with Spurs. Heck, they defeated the “supposedly unbeatable Pistons”. Whomever “supposedly” that the Pistons were “unbeatable” didn’t watch NBA basketball this season.
Spurs Haters Out In Full Force
When you win as often as the Spurs, or the Patriots, it’s inevitable that hatred runs rampant throughout the blogosphere…or anywhere for that matter. Spurs haters and Patriot haters are similar. They really don’t have a good reason to hate these teams…they just do. Kinda like how I hated Robert Horry with every bone in my body before he became a Spur. One thing remains: Bobby Ho is a winner…and undoubtedly a future inductee.
It is equally fascinating to see what names people come up with for the teams or players. For the Pats, the best I could find is the “Hatriots”. For the Spurs, you’ve got Tim “the Whiner” Duncan, and Manu “the Flopper” Ginobili, and Bruce Bowen who’s just regarded as “Dirty”. Typical bad boys. As far as whining, the Spurs have definitely toned it down since last season…arguably much more reserved this season. “Yeah…because they’re getting all the calls in their favor!”. *sigh* You just can’t win. 
As far as I’m concerned, the Pistons have stripped that title from the Spurs after this season.
Check out this hilarious video from the guys at Basketbawful.com.
…and be sure to check out Jack Archey’s breakdown of Cleveland vs. San Antonio.
GO SPURS GO!!! and let’s WIN FOR FIN!
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Last week, I had an opportunity to sit down with the crew at BlogCatalog. While browsing exploring the site’s many functions, I discovered in the “About” page that they were based right here in San Antonio. So, I decided to make an afternoon trip out there to see what they were up to. I’m glad I did.
I’m only in my 2nd week of using the service and have already noticed differences between MBL and BlogCatalog. I had seen the MyBlogLog-like widget on many of the blogs I read; but quite frankly, wrote it off as a MBL wanna-be (sorry, Angie & Tony). Boy, was I wrong!
Angelica Alaniz & Antony Berkman of SitePro shared with me the story behind BlogCatalog’s inception and eventual success. They purchased BlogCatalog from Jacob Gower of BlogFlux on January 20, 2007 via Sitepoint for $40,000. By early March with the help of its designers and programmers, Daniel and Oscar, the site had grown. Aside from improved traffic, they had implemented a variety of changes to differentiate itself from the competition.
The first thing I noticed was the “Discussion” tab. Behind it lies a diverse list of topics. Contrary to a traditional forum, this provides one place for any and all deilberations to take place.
Discuss issues and concerns, or promote a Community Fundraising Event
The second thing I noticed is that it doesn’t have site stats. I visit MyBlogLog daily becuase of this feature…even though I use Google Analytics. While this feature may be of value to me, it may not be to others.
And last, I really like the fact that “Featured Blog” on the front page gives everyone a chance to be seen. While the “Top Neighborhoods” and tag cloud point readers in the direction of the latest buzz (that’s all MBL does, it seems), everyone has a chance to get noticed by being featured…on the front page. A minor courtesy, but definitely an honorable mention.
Anyway…that’s just my quick $0.02. As always, Andy Beard assembled a thorough and unbiased review of BlogCatalog versus MyBlogLog. Check it out…and then get your butt over to BlogCatalog and join in the fun!
Oh yeah…and thanks for the coffee, guys! 
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