TOTALLY RANDOM
The San Francisco Giants toured the White House last week -- and, no, they weren’t being honored for not winning a World Series since moving from New York to the West Coast.
While the players were waiting to have their IDs checked, center fielder Aaron Rowand was pulled out of line and told to step into the guardhouse.
“If a Secret Service agent pulls you aside, that’s not good,” Rowand told the San Francisco Chronicle.
As it turns out, the agent was from Philadelphia and a big fan of Rowand’s during the player’s years with the Phillies. The agent got an autograph, Rowand received a Secret Service pin and the tour went on as scheduled.
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Trivia time
In which decade did the Giants first meet the New York Yankees in the World Series?
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No place like away from home
In the last 38 years, Pittsburgh’s three major pro sports franchises have won 10 Super Bowls, Stanley Cup titles and World Series championships, but not one was accomplished in Pittsburgh.
The Steelers’ six Super Bowl victories were won at neutral sites. The Pirates’ 1971 and 1979 World Series titles were won in Baltimore. The Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 1991 at Minnesota and in 1992 in Chicago.
The last championship won by a Pittsburgh team at home came in 1960, when the Pirates defeated the New York Yankees, 10-9, on Bill Mazeroski’s home run in Game 7 of the World Series.
If the Penguins are to win this year’s Stanley Cup, they will have to do it away from home, in Game 7, at Detroit.
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Not exclusive to sophomores
Chicago Cubs catcher Geovany Soto, who was the 2008 National League rookie of the year, is batting .209 with one home run this season. He was asked whether he was the latest victim of the sophomore jinx.
Soto said no.
“There are a lot of guys in the lineup who are slumping, he said, “and they’re not sophomores.”
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Trivia answer
The 1920s. The Giants and Yankees met in three consecutive World Series, from 1921 to 1923, with the Giants winning the first two Series and the Yankees the third.
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And finally
From Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press, on the Red Wings’ Jonathan Ericsson playing in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals three days after undergoing an appendectomy:
“I think I have the same HMO.”
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