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Story highlights
- Fred Craddock revolutionized art of preaching
- Craddock was selected as one of the world's best preachers
- He only hinted at his chaotic childhood in sermons
- Craddock on troubled father: "I struggled with his silence"
Blue Ridge, Georgia (CNN) Fred Craddock was a young preacher trying to find his voice when he received a call from his mother one day.
"You need to go see your father," she said. "He may not live longer."
Craddock found his father in a VA hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Fred Craddock Sr. had whittled down to 73 pounds. Radiation treatments had burned him to pieces. He couldn't eat or speak.
When he saw his son, he picked up a Kleenex box and scribbled on it a line from Shakespeare's "Hamlet": "In this harsh world, draw your breath in pain to tell my story."
"What is your story, Daddy?"
His father's eyes welled with tears. He wrote:
"I was wrong."
'A preacher like no other'
Craddock never became a televangelist, built a megachurch or preached to an adoring crowd in a packed stadium. He is a diminutive, bespectacled man whose voice is so soft that he once compared it to "wind whistling through a splinter on the post."
Yet he is a pulpit giant, a man who, one preaching scholar says, tilted the preaching world "on its axis" after creating a revolutionary method that led to him being selected as one of the 12 best preachers in the English-speaking world.
"He is a preacher like no other" is how the Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, who also made the top 12 list, describes him.
Craddock preached his last official sermon in October. He is 83 and struggling with Parkinson's disease. When he greets a visitor, he moves gingerly to his seat. He is 5-foot-5 with a plump belly and an impish smile.
He lives in Blue Ridge, Georgia, a small town in the Appalachian Mountains that looks like a rustic postcard, with its small white-steeple churches and autumn forests bristling with burgundy and gold.
Friends worry about Craddock's health, but he seems to treat his illness as an annoyance.
"I should have something by 83," he says with a quick smile when the conversation turns to Parkinson's.
His arms shake when he talks at length, but everything else is there: his phenomenal recall of names, details, places.
Though he has gathered all manner of awards during 50 years of preaching, he never received praise for his calling from the one man he wanted to hear it from most: his father.
"I struggled with his silence," Craddock says. "I wanted him to say he was proud of me."
A father like no other
Fred Craddock Sr. had plenty to say about other subjects. He stood 5-foot-7, weighed 150 pounds and even in his 50s could do one-arm chin-ups. He liked to dance, race his horse at county fairs.
Most of all, he loved to tell stories.
His son and namesake, Fred Jr., was one of his most devoted fans. Father and son developed a storytelling ritual. At the end of the day, the elder Craddock would return to his home in the small town of Humboldt, Tennessee, roll a Bull Durham cigarette by the fireplace and say to no one in particular, "Boy, I never hope to see what I saw today."
Craddock, his three brothers and his sister flocked around their father.
"What'd you see today?"
"Oh, you kids still up? No, you go to bed. You don't want to have nightmares."
His children protested. Back and forth they'd go before Craddock Sr. finally said, "Well, sit down, but don't blame me if you have nightmares."
Craddock Sr. thrilled his children with adventure stories about Chief Loud Thunder, Civil War battles and, on occasion, stories from the Bible. The elder Craddock taught his son some of his first lessons in theology.
Each student in Craddock's first-grade class was required to answer morning roll call with a Bible verse. Craddock didn't know any, until his father taught him one. One morning, he stood up "like a bantam rooster" and repeated his father's scripture:
"Samson took the jawbone of an ass and killed 10,000 Filipinos."
The teacher sent Craddock home with a stern note to his parents for his use of profanity. Ethel Craddock chided her husband, but he chuckled, saying, "I bet the class enjoyed it."
The elder Craddock developed a following. Storytellers were admired in rural Tennessee during the first half of the 20th century. Television was nonexistent. Books were expensive. People spent their day around pot-bellied stoves, whittling wood and spitting tobacco while swapping stories.
When Craddock Sr. stopped on a corner to roll a cigarette, crowds gathered, because they knew a tall tale was coming. They rarely guessed how it would end. Craddock Sr. would uncork a story, lead his audience up to the edge, then suddenly announce that he had to go to work and walk away.
Says his son: "I'm convinced now that he didn't know where his stories were going when he started."
'Another name, another pledge'
Stories, however, don't feed hungry children.
Craddock's father had enough education to devour Shakespeare in his spare time. But he discovered, after inheriting 10 acres, that he couldn't farm. He wasn't good with his hands, either. Doors, fixtures and steps hung off-kilter in his house.
The elder Craddock had a bigger problem. He was an alcoholic.
When the Great Depression tore into rural Tennessee, Craddock Sr. drank to cushion the pain. His drinking, though, only magnified his self-loathing. His mood darkened. He yelled at his family, but Craddock says he never saw his father hit his mom. When visitors came by, though, everyone was embarrassed.
Sometimes, Craddock saw his father break down in tears.
"He wanted to do better by his family. He didn't know how."
At times, Craddock Sr. would sober up. He vowed never to drink again. He found an odd job. Once, he even arranged for a dentist to pull a gold crown from one of his molars so he could buy Christmas toys for his children.
"Sometimes, when something nice happened," Craddock says, "he would just go into the kitchen, take my mom away from the stove, and they would dance around the house."
His father's pluck, though, couldn't prevent the family's slide into poverty. They lost the farm and moved into a shack with a dirt floor and no electricity. A spigot in the yard was the only running water.
Craddock's family even struggled to clothe him. He still remembers walking to grade school on a cold day, hiding his donated sweater under a bridge and walking to school shivering in his shirtsleeves. He didn't want to risk any classmate recognizing that he was wearing a sweater that had once belonged to them.
"There's something worse than being poor," Craddock said. "It's being ashamed."
Ethel Craddock held the family together. By day, she worked in a factory, sticking labels on Buster Brown shoes. At night, she gathered her children around the fireplace to play word games: "If you can say it, you can spell it: omnivorous."
And faith held Ethel Craddock together. She took her children to church, sang hymns at home to the accompaniment of her harmonica and welcomed down-on-their luck strangers who needed a hot meal or a place to stay.
At first, Craddock's father shared the pews with his family. He was even named after a preacher. But he stopped attending as his drinking grew worse.
"He felt guilty," Craddock says. "He'd say, 'Every time I go to church, they preach against the drunks like they can't go to heaven.' "
Craddock Sr.'s hostility toward the church deepened when they decided to come to him. The church dispatched preachers to his home, hoping to draw him back to the pews. He belittled them so much that Craddock's mother worried a fight would erupt.
"I know what the church wants," he'd say. "Another name; another pledge. Right?"
Craddock, though, found acceptance in the church. It was the only place where he didn't feel different -- any less or any more than anybody else. Pastors told him he would be a good preacher one day; church ladies doted on him with new shoes and a picture book filled with stories about Jesus.
"We loved our dad, but we loved the church," Craddock says.
Home was a place filled with fantastic stories. But Ethel Craddock kept one story from him. It centered on the horrible night when she decided her son had been set apart by God.
Saved by a miracle?
A winter night in 1928, Humboldt, Tennessee.
Ethel Craddock is sprawled in a barn on a bale of hay, crying and praying to God. Her 8-month-old son, Fred, is dying.
He has diphtheria, a highly infectious disease that forms blockages over the lungs, gradually suffocating a child.
The boy can barely draw breath. His father has run a mile to summon a doctor. But the doctor can't do much, and Craddock's breathing has grown more labored.
His mother couldn't watch him suffer any more. She has fled to the barn, where she prays:
"Dear God, if you will let him live, I will pray every day that he will serve you as a minister."
She falls asleep on the hay. When she awakens at daybreak, she runs to the house, where the doctor says her son is going to be fine. He leaves without asking for payment.
Ethel Craddock didn't reveal this story to her son until he came to her after turning 17 to tell her that he was thinking about becoming a minister.
She began to cry after hearing the news, quickly regained her composure and told Craddock the story.
He was bewildered. Why hadn't she told him before?
She didn't want him to feel pushed into becoming a minister, she said. She believed that a deed couldn't be good if the motive was wrong.
When Craddock told his father of his decision to join the ministry, he listened intently before finally saying it was a big decision. Then he simply said: "Good, son."
Craddock was deflated. No tears. No sober, fatherly advice. The only reaction his father would give to his calling in the days ahead would be to crack jokes. "Don't be like John the Baptist and lose your head."
"He might have been embarrassed that I became a preacher," Craddock says. "It was kind of the opposite of him. Maybe that created some discomfort.
"I wanted more."
His father seemed to rub away some of the luster from his calling again when Craddock went off to college.
Wanting to make sure his call to the ministry was genuine, Craddock sought out a counselor. Over several sessions, the young student ended up talking about his childhood. The counselor's verdict was devastating:
"I think I'm clear why you're in the ministry: to redeem your father."
The counselor didn't elaborate, and Craddock was too stunned to ask questions. He thought about what his mother had taught him -- and knew what he had to do.
"I thought I was disqualified," he says. "My mother had always told me nothing can be right if the reason is wrong."
He quit the ministry and started picking up odd jobs.
"It crushed me," he says of the conversation with the counselor. "I didn't have a Plan B in my life. I was kicking the can down the road every night, trying to figure it out."
The answer came while reading one of his favorite books in the Bible.
The book of Philippians, written by the Apostle Paul, is regarded by some as one of the most uplifting in the New Testament. Yet the backdrop for Paul's composition is grim. He is imprisoned, and the church is splintering into factions. Paul thinks he's about to be executed; his enemies are spreading division and preaching Christ out of selfish motives.
But Paul says that none of that matters. Whether he lives or dies, or whether his enemies preach Christ out of selfish gain, what ultimately matters is that Christ is proclaimed.
Something shifted inside of Craddock. What did it matter if he preached Christ to save his father or save souls? Christ is preached.
"They're preaching for the wrong reason, yet Paul said thanks God for that," he says.
The message was clear; living it would prove more difficult:
"I had to get to a point where I disagreed with my mother. That was tough."
Craddock returned to school and started preaching at rural churches. He had ignored his father and defied his mother's teaching to pursue the ministry.
Now he was about to revolutionize preaching.
Changing the rules of preaching
Craddock had three books in his childhood home: his mother's King James Bible, his father's complete works of Shakespeare and "The Life and Times of Billy Sunday."
Sunday was a Major League Baseball player who became one of America's most famous preachers during the early 20th century by transforming preaching into an athletic event.
He'd smash chairs, throw parts of his clothing into the audience and run across the preaching platform as if he were sliding into home plate while proclaiming, "Safe at home -- by the blood of Jesus!"
Sunday was the type of pastor Craddock grew up admiring. They strode the pulpit like human firecrackers: booming voices, explosive movements, big men who radiated power.
Craddock had a problem. He couldn't bring the thunder. He was short, and his voice was weak. His high school counselor tried to talk him out of becoming a preacher because of his size. And his first church sermon landed with a thud. While preaching about three wise men visiting baby Jesus, an elderly man stood up in the back and blurted: "How do you know there were three?"
A flustered Craddock had no reply. But he eventually found a way to be heard and owed part of that breakthrough to his father.
When he started preaching in rural Tennessee during the 1950s, Craddock employed the traditional "deductive" preaching style. The sermon is structured like a term paper: thesis, three supporting points, restatement of thesis.
"Something in me said that's not the way to do it," he says.
Maybe it was the stories he heard growing up, but Craddock gradually stumbled onto his preaching style.
While serving as a young pastor at a church in Columbia, Tennessee, he noticed that people responded more to his informal talks outside church service than to his sermons.
He started experimenting. What if you didn't structure the sermon like a legal argument but more like an extended conversation? The listener -- not the preacher -- would be challenged to give the sermon its meaning.
Craddock never took to preachers who tried to bulldoze people into converting. He had seen plenty of preachers try to goad his father back to church. And his mother, by withholding the story of his near-death experience, had taught him that people's faith decisions must be genuine, not coerced.
So Craddock became a preacher who didn't preach. He once said that a "yes" is no good unless a "no" is possible.
"No one wants to listen to pulpit bullies, behaving as though they had walked all round God and taken pictures," he wrote in the introduction to his book "Craddock on the Craft of Preaching."
Over the years, people have tried to describe Craddock's style. Some use the term "inductive," a word he resists because it sounds like a legal term. One of his prize students, the Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, offers one of the best descriptions of Craddock's preaching style.
In an introduction to "The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock," Taylor wrote:
"He assumes from the start that we are capable of attending to the text, handling some scholarship, dealing with open-ended stories, and drawing our own conclusions. He does not tell us what he is going to tell us, and then tell us what he told us. He sits down before we are ready. He lets us chew our own food."
Craddock's sermons, though, don't go down like broccoli. They are playful, inventive, filled with hyperbole. They sound like probing short stories or front-porch yarns.
In one sermon, Craddock recounts a conversation with an overweight sparrow that doesn't know it can fly. In another, he imagines bored teenagers who "sat out on the hoods of their camels" listening to a shaggy John the Baptist preach in the desert, and in another he pretends to emcee a debate at a dreary church committee meeting between early Christian leaders arguing over whether Gentiles should be included in the church.
Craddock didn't have to break chairs to get people's attention. His stories did the job. His reputation spread. He began writing influential preaching textbooks. When he became a preaching professor at Emory University in Atlanta, he spawned a new generation of preachers who took his style out into the pews. People started describing him as a pulpit genius.
In 1996, Craddock received one of his most celebrated honors. Baylor University in Texas polled 341 seminary professors and editors of religious periodicals and asked them to name the most effective preachers in the English-speaking world. Newsweek magazine published the top 12.
Craddock was selected for the list. So were two pastors he heavily influenced: Taylor and the Rev. Thomas Long.
Long says Craddock tilted the homiletic world "on its axis" with his 1971 book on preaching, "As One without Authority." He calls it one of the most pivotal books on preaching to appear in the past century.
"There's a homespun nostalgic quality to his sermons," says Long, who now teaches at Emory. "He rarely preaches about the engineer with the complex ethical decision. It's more about the pot of beans served at the back door."
Taylor still remembers the first time she heard Craddock speak at Yale Divinity School in 1978. She was working as a secretary at a local church on the weekends, but listening to Craddock stirred her desire to preach.
"He simply spoke of the gospel so compellingly that I wanted know more -- about the way of life he was describing, about why his words struck me with such force and about how I could learn to use language that way, too."
Some preachers transform their eloquence into business ventures. They build megachurches, TV empires. Some even get entourages. Craddock wasn't driven to build a personal brand. He has no e-mail address, doesn't drive and refused to turn on a personal computer his son and daughter bought him several years ago.
"If Fred Craddock ever tweets, I'll know the world has come to an end," Taylor says.
Craddock used some of his renown to reach out to the region that nurtured him. He gave preaching workshops to itinerant pastors in the Appalachian Mountains and established the Craddock Center, a nonprofit group that offers free meals and storytelling to needy kids in three Southern states.
He built a family as he built a career. He married his high school sweetheart, Nettie, and they raised their two children, John and Laura, as he taught at various seminaries and accepted preaching invitations across the country.
"Sometimes we felt like we were in competition with the church and God," says Laura, his daughter, who named her son after her father.
His son, John, never felt pressured to become a minister. He is the CEO of America's First Choice Warranty company in Atlanta. His father, he says, is the most remarkable person he has ever known.
"I don't care if it's a guy on the street asking for a dollar or the president of the United States, he makes you feel as if you're the most important person in the world when he's talking to you.
"I won the lottery as far as great fathers go."
Telling his father's story
Craddock yearned to hear such praise from his father.
Yet his father never even came to hear him preach. Craddock says he sometimes overheard his father accept praise for his son's decision to enter the ministry, but he can't recall ever hearing his father admit to anyone that he was proud of his son's choice.
"He never said it. I looked for little signals. I finally decided that I was reading into things that were not there."
His father may not have acknowledged him, but Craddock affirmed his father. In the dedication in his book "As One without Authority," he wrote:
"To my mother, and in memory of my father: She taught me the Word. He taught me the words."
One Sunday, he did get a sign that maybe his father would have enjoyed hearing him preach. At his childhood church in Humboldt, Tennessee, a man approached after hearing him preach. The man was about his father's age.
"You sound like your daddy," he said.
The comment stirred strong emotions in Craddock. He had to compose himself before he shook the man's hand and thanked him. He says it was the grandest compliment he's ever had about a sermon.
"He was a good storyteller and a good man," Craddock says of his father. "For him to relate me to my father ... I spent a lot of time working through my relationship with my father."
Perhaps he still is.
When asked in one interview whether he became a minister to save his father, he says, "I'll never know."
Yet in his memoirs, "Reflections on My Call to Preach," he wrote:
"I was confident that my being a Christian minister would have a life-changing effect on my father. With a son, his own namesake, going into the ministry, would not Daddy toss the bottle forever and return to the pew beside my mother? Surely. But I was naïve, knowing nothing about the power of addiction."
Craddock's last visit with his father revealed to him the results of addiction. His father never stopped drinking or smoking and was hospitalized with throat cancer. He was 63.
That's when Craddock received the phone call from his mom: You need to go see your father.
When he entered his father's hospital room, he noticed that it was filled with flowers and a stack of get-well cards 20 inches deep besides his bed. Every card and every blossom came from Craddock's childhood church in Humboldt, the church his father scorned.
His father confessed that he was wrong about the church and the people in the pews. They didn't just want a name and a pledge. They wanted him.
His father's admission didn't provide relief. It deepened his grief.
"It was so late. It was at the end. With his personality and his education -- he was generous to a fault; give you the shirt off of his back. He could have been such a good person, helping people, talking to people, playing with children -- he could do all these things."
Would it have been better if his father had said he was also wrong about his son and his decision to become a minister?
Would it have been better if he had finally said, "I'm proud of you, son"?
Craddock doesn't dwell on those questions.
"In my tendency to choose between yes and no, I choose yes. I really think he would be proud of me because he loved a storyteller. He would have taken credit for it, though. He would have said, 'I taught you real good, son.' ''
What Craddock remembers of their last moments together is not just his father's confession but something his father did.
After he asked his son to "tell my story," Craddock reached out and clutched his gaunt hand.
"I just held his hand. ... He couldn't move. I couldn't move."
Craddock squeezed his father's hand, and both men cried.


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Small Space Solutions: Compact & Smart Home Workstations
A clean, organized, and well-lit home work space is a must. And what better time to tackle this issue in your home than the fresh start of a new year! Many of us don't have the luxury of a separate home office or studio, but that doesn't mean we can't create a healthy environment for working at home. Even if you don't work from home, carving out a space for productivity is important and a smart way focus on specific tasks without distraction.
Whether you're aiming to revamp your work space or even relocate it within your home, here are some great small space examples from our tours and why they work.
1. Window Niche Studio Jamie is an artist, so natural light was a crucial component of her workspace. A small nook off the main hallway collected the best light in her home and became the obvious place for her to paint. She loves the coziness of her corner and its proximity to the kitchen where she can rinse her paint brushes. While this exact scenario may not exist for everyone, the take-away is to find a location in your home with natural light and low glare for a productive and enjoyable work environment.
2. Multipurpose Space Saver Joe and Brad's 420 SF home forced them to get creative in the design of their workspace. Using an IKEA Lagan countertop and hairpin legs they constructed a desk, perfect for a computer workspace. The desk doubles as a dining table when it is extended from the wall and inserted with a few leaves.
3. Custom Casework Wall System Kim and Scott had a hard time finding furniture that fit the parameters of their apartment. In this case their office also acts as a guest bedroom, but this wall unit is a great idea for creating a more open environment in any home. The narrow console provides storage as well as an adequate working counter, yet doesn't take over the entire room. While a custom piece could be built to fit the space, this look is also attainable with furniture.
4. Room Divider Desk For Adam and Daniel loft living meant using furniture, to define the different functions of their space. They built an awesome room divider that forms a partition between the sleeping and living areas. Not only is it a work of art (with a jungle vibe) but it's a fully functional shelving unit and desk.
5. Secret Closet Work Space Jennifer was able to transform a closet into a home office (and theater) by applying wallpaper to the interior. This step instantly transformed the storage space into a room. Without a lot of depth to work with she took advantage of the vertical storage for housing crafting supplies and home office accessories. A simple curtain can be drawn to hide clutter when not in use, although in this case the wallpaper is far to pretty to hide.
• 10 Space Saving Wall Mounted Desks
• Make it Work: 10 Desks for Small Spaces
• Multipurpose and Convertible Furniture
(Images 1. Jamie and Byron's Elegant Art Canvas, 2. Joe and Brad's Small Space with Big Style, 3. Kim and Scott's Small Footprint, 4. Adam and Daniels "Boclectic Craftern" Loft, 5. Jennifer's Creative Closet Home Office.)

subset: commoncrawl


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First many thanks to Stoner for telling me about this in another post ,It appears I have won a new Yarga from BEST in their advert competition.
I have been in touch with Tim from BEST and and he is going to send me a kite . I guess it proves for me that they are SIMPLY THE BEST .
Almost as good as my 15 Metre HELLFISH but that is another story.


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Ole Miss began spring practice Tuesday, and for the first time under head coach Hugh Freeze, the Rebels will have a starting quarterback not named Bo Wallace. With the graduation of Wallace, sophomores Ryan Buchanan and DeVante Kincade, as well as junior college transfer Chad Kelly, will split equal reps this spring.
"We're going to be very thorough in our evaluations by charting every single drill that they do," Freeze said. "We'll look at stats from those. It's going to a very competition three-man deal. They will be in a constant rotation, and everyone will get equal reps with the 1's and the 2's. The main thing you want to see is who can handle hard coaching and who can understand what we're trying to get accomplished with what we have called and then being able to execute and take care of the ball, which is always a priority."
It's the first true quarterback competition in Oxford since the 2012 season, when Wallace beat out Barry Brunetti for the starting job. In that case, Freeze did not name Wallace his starting quarterback until two days before the Rebels' season opener against Central Arkansas, and it may a similar case this season between Buchanan, Kelly and Kincade.
"It would probably have to be so clear-cut for me to do that this spring, knowing the personalities of who I'm dealing with and the time between now and fall," said Freeze of naming a starting quarterback in the spring. "A lot of dynamics play into that. It's probably not going to be a clear-cut decision at the end of spring and will continue through summer workouts. It's time for that room to be the leaders of this team. With that, comes some responsibility, and we have them to understand that throughout summer workouts."
Changes on Defense
Freeze had already announced one position change during his National Signing Day press conference. That change was moving Jeremy Liggins to offensive tackle, although he will likely continue to play some tight end and "Wildcat" quarterback. But there are also changes on the other side of the ball.
The changes on the defensive side are familiar, but they are notable. Freeze announced that senior Mike Hilton, who has started a game at every defensive backfield position, will start the spring at one of the safety positions, as they try to find the best rotation in the defensive backfield.
"We think we he have a lot options (in the secondary)," Freeze said. "We're going to start Tony (Bridges) and Tee (Shepard) at cornerback and start Mike Hilton at one of the safety positions, knowing that he's played them all and can do that. If we think there's a better rotation, we won't hesitate to move them around"
Freeze also said that senior C.J. Johnson will get a look at Mike linebacker, a position that Freeze called their biggest question mark right now. Johnson was originally recruited as a linebacker and began his Ole Miss career at the position, and he will join senior Christian Russell and junior Temario Strong in looking to replace Deterrian Shackelford and Keith Lewis.
"We are going to see this spring," said Freeze of Johnson playing Mike linebacker. "I don't know (how he will perform), it is hard to say. I know he can run and tackle. I know he is smart and really understands the defense. It is a different role, playing there. But that's where we are going to put him and see how it goes this spring. We can always move him back down to the defensive line. We are going to see how he performs this spring."
D. Nkemdiche, Treadwell Return from Injury
The Rebels will be without a trio of offensive linemen in junior Laremy Tunsil and senior Aaron Morris, two returning starters, as well as sophomore Daronte Bouldin, but the Rebels will welcome back a talented trio of players in junior wide receiver Laquon Treadwell, senior linebacker Denzel Nkemdiche and junior cornerback Tee Shepard.
"I expect Denzel and Quon, both, to be back," Freeze said. "Denzel, right away. Quon, after spring break. He will do some things but not a lot this week. Robert Conyers will go after spring break also. The others, Daronte (Bouldin), Aaron (Morris), and Laremy, will not participate in spring practice. Tee will be full-go. Carlos Davis, we'll see where is after spring break."
With the injuries along the offensive line, it is a great opportunity for freshman offensive lineman Javon Patterson, an early enrollee, who was rated a five-star prospect and listed as the No. 1 offensive guard in the nation by 247Sports.com.
"I told him yesterday that we he will get all the reps he wants, and then some," Freeze said. "It's going be good for him. He's going to get plenty of reps. i'm really excited about him. He's exactly the type of student-athlete you want. He's a great kid, first, and he's going to be an outstanding player. Getting him enrolled early and getting an extra spring with him will be big for him. He will get plenty of reps to get looked at this spring."


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*Please contact dealer to verify price, options, and other vehicle details.
MPG Disclaimer: *Based on 2019 EPA mileage and driving range ratings. Use for comparison purposes only. Your MPGe/MPG and driving range will vary depending on driving conditions, how you drive and maintain your vehicle, battery age/condition, and other factors.
Tax, title, license, and lender mandated insurance costs are extra. May not be available with special finance, limited time offers and other specials or promotions. An administration fee of $199 is not included in the advertised price and must be added to the final purchase price


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How You Can Honor Veterans on D-Day
To many people, it's just Thursday, but we want to take a moment to remember what happened on this date 69 years ago.
It was June 6, 1944 when 160,000 allied troops landed in Normandy to fight Nazi Germany. To put that in perspective, that's the same number of people if you took every man, woman and child in Midland, Big Spring, Andrews, Kermit, Coahoma and most of Sterling City and put them all on the same beach.
More than 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed that day which is more than both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars since 2003.
But this wasn't a fight in vain. Their sacrifice and effort helped liberate Europe, defeat Hitler and bring an end to the war.
If you're looking to help honor our veterans, there are plenty of ways to do so.
You can support our living veterans and pay homage to fallen heroes by volunteering. You can find more by clicking here.
You can make a tribute video. Whether you are a veteran or know someone that served, you can make a video talking about what the men and women in our armed forces mean to you. If you do make a video, let us know about it as we'd love to share it.
There is also a charity called Homes for Our Troops. Just like during World War II, there are many veterans coming back from the wars overseas and many of them are facing added hardships. You can donate money for them to build homes for seriously wounded veterans at no cost to them by clicking here.
There's also the Wounded Warrior Project which helps seriously wounded veterans by connecting them with caregivers to help them recover. You can find out more about them by clicking here.
But not everything you do to honor them has to cost you money. If you have a relative or friend who has served, just saying thank you or helping them with an errand or a good deed is a great way.
From everyone here, we thank our veterans for their service and sacrifice!


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Point 65 Grand Tourer Kayak Paddle | Orange
The Grand Tourer kayak paddle is Point 65's most popular paddle.This all-around paddle is great for both high and low angle strokes. The fiberglass blade is slightly curved which gives it great grip in the water.
The Grand Tourer is made from vacuum-molded fiberglass and pigmented injected epoxy.The medium-sized elongated touring blade offers a perfect combination for paddlers who like a soft but firm grip in the water, with lower windage.
Point 65 Grand Tourer Kayak Paddle | Orange Specs
|Point 65
|Telescopic: 220 cm. - 230 cm.
|Blade Material
|Fiberglass, Foam-Core
|Shaft Material
|Fiberglass, take-apart 2-piece
|1.9 lbs.
FREE US shipping (continental 48 states) on orders over $200!* Orders under $200 ship for a flat-rate of $11.99. Please contact us before-hand for orders shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, or internationally.
* some boats have a "shipping surcharge". Read more HERE for details.
Order Confirmation
As soon as you place your order, you will receive an order confirmation e-mail. This means that we have received your order in our system and pre-authorized your credit card for the purchase. As soon as we receive your order, we automatically reach out to our suppliers to confirm that it is in stock and available for immediate shipment. If your item is on backorder or unavailable, we will void the pre-authorization and reach out to you via e-mail. If your item(s) are available for immediate shipment (within 5 business days), we will process the charges and submit the order for shipment.
Order Shipment
If your order is in stock and we process the charges to your credit card, it will ship within five business days from the date of your order. We will send you tracking information within 24 hours of your order leaving the warehouse to the e-mail address you provided when checking out. If you do not receive tracking information from us within six business days of your order, feel free to follow up with us at email@example.com.
We can also do next day, 2 day, or 3 day shipping for most items (excluding those shipping freight). This is at the customer's expense. If you would like one of these services, please call or email us before placing your order.
All solid and modular kayaks ship via LTL freight. The shipping company will call you, usually the day before or the day of the expected delivery date, to schedule a delivery time. This is "curb-side delivery", so someone must be home and available to sign for the package and take it from the back of the truck. Please see our Returns page HERE for details/info about signing for your package and damages. If the shipping company is unable to get ahold of you and the package is returned to us, you will be liable for shipping charges (both to you and back to us), and any restocking/misc. fees involved.
The freight companies we use are usually very good with accommodating for our customers on a delivery day and time. Please note that while the shippers are usually fine with holding the package for a day or two for a delivery appointment, if it goes any longer than that, storage fees may start to accumulate. In any case, if storage fees are accumulated, they will be the responsibility of the customer (you) to pay.
"Built to Order" Orders
There are certain brands of boats that we sell that we do not stock in-house, simply because they offer a ton of different color combinations, packages, etc.. These brands' boats will be shipped directly to you from the manufacturer. In some cases, the manufacturer will have the color you ordered in their inventory and almost ready to ship out. In the event that they do not have the color/package/etc that you ordered in their inventory, they will manufacture it on the spot for you!
If the item is in their inventory, it will typically ship out within 1-2 weeks. This is because the item will need to be packaged and an appointment will need to be made for a freight carrier to come pick it up.
If the item is not in their inventory and needs to be manufactured, it will typically ship out within 2-4 weeks (usually closer to the 3 week mark).
Please keep in mind that these are estimated shipping times are not guaranteed, and may vary depending on the time of year ordered. After you place your order, we will email you with an "expected completion date" of when the item is expected to be done with the manufacturing process, packaged, and ready to ship (this is not a "delivered to you" date).
Once shipped, transit time is typically anywhere from 2-5 business days, depending on your distance from the manufacturer.
In the vast majority of orders, we are able to beat these timelines! We just want to make sure that we are very transparent with the process and the time involved.
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What is a Student Life Ambassador? Student Life Ambassadors are the heart and soul of Student Life at UFV. They are enthusiastic volunteers that go out of their way to help welcome new students to UFV while being proud representatives of our university. During New Student Orientation (NSO), Ambassador's main role is being a group leader, being excited and welcoming students to UFV as well as answering questions and providing valuable advice on how to have a great university experience! Ambassadors can also be involved in various activities around campus including conferences, retreats, student panels and much more!
Go to the Student Life Ambassador page to learn more.


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Mary Newby was traveling to Las Vegas for a vacation with her siblings in 2003 when she received an unpleasant surprise.
The Bowling Green woman got as far as New Mexico before she became ill enough to seek medical care. She found out she had an aneurysm in her carotid artery that can block blood flow to the brain.
"They found it by chance," she said.
Newby made an appointment with Dr. Michael Byrne, a vascular surgeon at The Medical Center Heart Institute in Bowling Green, and had surgery to correct her condition.
"I did very well from the surgery," she said. "I didn't have any complications."
In 2005, Newby decided to have a screening to see if there were any other blockages. This time she found out she had an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Once again, she went to Byrne for surgery.
Since that surgery, Newby has felt well, but she thought it was better to be safe than sorry. She decided to get her legs screened.
"Sometimes my legs feel kind of funny, like a tingling," she said.
She had a screening Friday at The Medical Center Health and Wellness Center at Chandler Park. A vascular technologist screens for disorders such as stroke, aortic aneurysm and lower-extremity vascular disease and sends the results to The Heart Institute so they can be evaluated by a board-certified vascular surgeon.
"Vascular screenings are easy and cost-effective tools to identify patients at risk of stroke, amputation or mortality associated with complications of vascular disease," said Dr. Shane O'Keeffe, a vascular surgeon at The Heart Institute.
A copy of the report is also sent to the patients and their physicians. The cost is $35 per screening or $90 for all three. Members of Senior Health Network, Men's Health Alliance and The Women's Center can get all three for $80.
Newby said she didn't "want any surprises."
"I'm a preschool monitor. This is my fifth year," she said. "I want to have everything up and running before school starts."
Charlotte English, a vascular ultrasonographer at The Heart Institute, does the screenings and said they are important. Men make up the majority of people with vascular disease, and it tends to run in families.
"We take anyone who comes in, but our target age we're trying to reach is 50 and up," she said.
Some people don't go to the doctor until they begin to have symptoms, English said. Some vascular issues don't even have symptoms, making them even more deadly.
"Screening for (abdominal aortic aneurysm) is especially important because there are no symptoms until a rupture occurs," she said. "We have a high rate of deaths with ruptured aneurysms."
English asked Newby to slip off her sandals and lie on an examination table. She put gel on one side of Newby's neck and slid an ultrasound wand over the area. Black-and-white images began to appear on the screen. The machine whirred as English checked the velocity of the blood flow to her artery. Then she repeated the process on the other side.
"What's that black thing?" Newby asked as her head was facing the ultrasound screen.
"That's your artery that we're looking at," English explained.
English did an ultrasound on Newby's carotid artery and did an ankle brachial index, in which blood pressure is measured on the arm and neck. She put gel on the lower and side of each ankle as she examined them.
When screening results aren't good, English doesn't let patients leave, calls a doctor immediately and lets the doctor tell her what the patient needs to do. In Newby's case, English let her leave with a recommendation that she check in with her doctor.
Newby was happy to find out more about her health and plans to talk to a doctor soon about her results.
"I would advise anybody to have (screenings) done," she said.
The next screening will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 27. Appointments are encouraged, but walk-ins are taken if space is available. For more information, call 745-0942 or 877-800-3824.
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Former Staples track star jailed for bank robbery
A former Staples High School track star who had been jailed since he threatened to detonate a bomb in a Stamford bank before fleeing with about $5,000 has been given a four-year prison term.
Just prior to sentencing Wednesday in state Superior Court in Stamford, Anthony Janssen Lewis, 28, pleaded guilty to the armed robbery of the TD Bank branch at 1625 Summer St. in Stamford on Oct. 11, 2013.
Lewis has been held at the Bridgeport Correctional Center in lieu of $50,000 bond on charges of armed robbery and third-degree larceny since his arrest a day after the robbery.
Judge Bruce Hudock sentenced Lewis to 10 years in prison, suspended after four, and put him on three years' probation. If he breaks any law while on probation, he could be made to serve part or all of the suspended sentence. While on probation, Lewis cannot visit any TD Bank branch and must submit to psychological counseling and treatment as determined by the state Department of Probation. He must also pay up to $5,000 in restitution during probation, Hudock said.
Senior Assistant State's Attorney Paul Ferencek said Lewis walked into the bank at 4:35 p.m. last Oct. 11 and passed a note to a teller that stated he had a bomb. Then Lewis told the female teller, "Give me $50,000. Hurry up. I have my finger on the trigger." As he made the threat, Ferencek said Lewis had his hand in one of his pockets. While the teller did not see a weapon, she felt threatened with physical harm and handed him about $5,000 in cash.
One Stamford police officer thought he recognized the robber from the bank's surveillance video, and Fairfield police called Stamford to report they arrested someone matching the robber's description for trespassing the night before, Ferencek said.
Following up on tips, a team of Stamford police officers went to Lewis' address in Stamford, where they saw a car in a driveway belonging to him where they said they found a large amount of currency, a black bag, the robbery note and dark clothing.
Ferencek said Lewis was cooperative with police and confessed to the robbery, saying he was having marital and money problems. He previously had no criminal record.
Ferencek said that he told police that after the robbery he took his wife to dinner in Manhattan but spent only $60.
In 2003, Lewis was the Laddie Lawrence Scholarship recipient from Staples High School, receiving $10,000 to attend a school of his choosing.


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Dienogest; estradiol valerate is the generic ingredient in one branded drug marketed by Bayer Hlthcare and is included in one NDA. There are two patents protecting this compound.
Drug patent litigation for DIENOGEST; ESTRADIOL VALERATE.
This ingredient has seventy-one patent family members in thirty-seven countries.
Two suppliers are listed for this compound. There is one tentative approval for this compound.
Copyright © DrugPatentWatch. Originally published at New tentative approval for Watson Labs drug dienogest; estradiol valerate
For more information on how DrugPatentWatch can help with your pharmaceutical business intelligence needs, contact email@example.com or visit www.DrugPatentWatch.com


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Pheromone Parties Help You Choose a Mate Depending on Their Stink
If you've ever blown a chance with a woman due to uninhibited underarm odor, you know full well how important the sense of smell is to romance. Scientific theories postulate that we are attracted at a base genetic level to people who exude certain smells, so why not use the nose to sniff out a mate?
Pheromone Parties are the bright idea of filmmaker Judith Prays, who turned her fondness for her lovers' stench into an event that's part speed dating, part the bad side of Craigslist.
Here's how it works: you wear a white T-shirt for a few days without washing it, then seal it in a Ziploc bag and hand it off to the party organizers, who put a number on it and put it in a pile (color-coded, of course – you don't want to let your nose play for the other team).
At the party, you're free to pick up and huff any bag, and if you find a smell that pleases you, inform the Pheromone Party team. They'll then take a picture of you blissfully sniffing the bag and project it up on a screen. If the person sees you up there holding the bag, they can hunt you down and talk to you.
Can true love bloom in a human armpit? Read more about the experience at Good.
[Via Pheromone Parties]


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- Professional Team
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Team USA Improves to 3-0 in Super Round
|Team USA
|Win: A. Short Loss: C. O'Halloran
|Box Score | Play-by-play
CHITRE, Panama - Starting pitcher Avery Short (Indianapolis, Ind.) opened the game with six shutout innings as Team USA bested Canada 11-2 to continue Super Round play in the COPABE U-18 Pan-American Championships on Thursday at Rico Cedeno Stadium in Chitre, Panama.
With the win, the stars and stripes improved to 3-0 in the Super Round and are the lone remaining undefeated team in the tournament.
Team USA jumped out to a hot start, scoring two runs in the first inning. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the frame, Riley Greene (Oviedo, Fla.) reached base on a fielder's choice that scored C.J. Abrams (Alpharetta, Ga.) for the first run of the contest. Corbin Carroll (Seattle, Wash.) then scored on a throwing error by Canada to give the red, white and blue a 2-0 lead.
The bats stayed hot for the U.S. in the second inning as Anthony Volpe (Watchung, N.J.) hit a two-RBI single up the middle to push the lead to 4-0. Greene then hit a double down the right-field line to score Volpe, before Bobby Witt Jr. (Colleyville, Texas) hit an RBI single through the middle to extend the lead to 6-0.
The score would stay the same until the bottom of the sixth inning when Team USA added four more runs for a 10-0 advantage. With men on second and third, Pete Crow-Armstrong (Sherman Oaks, Calif.) singled to center field to clear the bases. In the next at-bat, Drew Romo (The Woodlands, Texas) capped the scoring with a two-run homer to right-center field.
With six scoreless innings of work under his belt, Short stepped on the mound in the seventh, where he pitched one out, before giving up two runs to cut the lead to 10-2. Timmy Manning (Pompano Beach, Fla.) completed the final two outs of the inning before Tyler Callihan (Neptune Beach, Fla.) closed the game with three scoreless innings of relief.
Team USA added its final run of the game in the bottom of the eighth when Crow-Armstrong scored on a wild pitch to make the final score 11-2.
Witt Jr. led the team offensively with four hits in five plate appearances on the day. A trio of players scored three runs to pace the squad, while Greene led the team with three RBI. Short (2-0) earned the win on the mound, striking out four batters on the day.
The United States (6-0; 3-0) will continue the Super Round of the COPABE U-18 Pan-American Championships against Venezuela (3-1; 1-2) on Friday, November 20. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. ET at Rico Cedeno Stadium in Chitre, Panama.
Continue to follow @USABaseball18U on Twitter and visit USABaseball.com for the most up-to-date news about the 18U National Team.
GSA Spotlight: Ryan Garcia
UCLA righthander Ryan Garcia, the No. 1 pitcher on the No. 1 team in the nation, couldn't stop crying.
Granted, he was just 4 years old at the time, and he was a most-reluctant T-ball player.
"'I don't want to be here'," said Garcia's father, Edgar, quoting his son from 17 years ago. "But I put the ball on the tee for him, and he smacked it to left field.
"When he got to first base, I asked him if he wanted to go home, and he said, 'No, daddy, I want to stay here.'"
Unfortunately for Bruins opponents, Garcia stuck to baseball from that point forward, arriving on UCLA's campus in the fall of 2016 as an infielder/pitcher. Right away, Bruins coach John Savage decided that Garcia's best position was pitcher.
Good call.
After a freshman season in the bullpen, Garcia became a starter in 2018, going 8-1, 2.23.
This year, he has been even more dominant: 8-0 with a 1.30 ERA in 12 appearances, including 10 starts.
In 69 innings, Garcia has allowed just 38 hits (.161 batting average), including seven doubles and four homers, and 21 walks.
He is a Golden Spikes semifinalist who ranks third in the nation in ERA and first among Power Five conferences.
"I'm not saying he's in the Trevor Bauer/Gerrit Cole class," Savage said of two former UCLA first-round pitchers now in the majors. "But he's in that company."
Diamond Destiny
Garcia's parents, Edgar and Liz, have known each other since elementary school, and they were baseball teammates in middle school.
Liz made her high school baseball freshman team - against boys - but opted to play varsity softball instead.
Edgar and Liz became high school sweethearts, and he had a scholarship offer to play baseball as a catcher for Cal State Northridge. But Liz, who was in college at the time, became pregnant with Ryan just before Edgar graduated high school.
That was the end of Edgar's baseball career. He went to work to support his growing family, and he and Liz married one year after Ryan was born. Edgar and Liz have another child, Dylan, 12, who is also an aspiring baseball player.
Meanwhile, Ryan, who is California-born but has Mexican heritage on his father's side, didn't really get serious about pitching until he got to UCLA.
Bruins catcher Will McInerny, a fellow junior, remembers the first time he caught Garcia in the fall of 2016.
"He has such an easy delivery, it doesn't feel like you're catching someone throwing in the 90s," McInerny said. "It feels like you're just playing catch with another position player."
The fact that Garcia played shortstop and third base in high school helps him on the mound.
"He's like a fifth infielder," McInerny said. "He's a really good athlete. And with his history as a hitter, he trusts his pitches. He knows how hard it is to hit."
Slow Start
Garcia started this season on the sidelines with an injury to his right forearm. He made his season debut on March 9 as a middle reliever, pitching one scoreless inning against Oklahoma State.
On March 24, he made his first weekend start of the year, on a Sunday, and he allowed just one hit and one walk in 7 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out eight Arizona hitters.
His biggest breakthrough came on April 26, his first Friday start as a member of the Bruins.
In that win over Utah, he became the first Bruins pitcher to throw a complete game since 2017 and the first since Bauer in 2011 to get 14 strikeouts. He threw a two-hitter, requiring just 106 pitches and allowing three baserunners, including one walk.
No Utah hitter got past first base.
"That game felt great," said Garcia, who is much more shy and silent than bold and brash. "I try to pitch every game like I'm the Friday starter. But, on Fridays, it is an important task to set the tone for the weekend."
Garcia has done that for the Bruins, who are 45-8 - including 18-4 away from home - and have won eight straight games.
No team has beaten UCLA more than once this season, and the Bruins have not lost consecutive games since March 8.
Inner Intensity
Garcia said he gets far more nervous during media interviews than he does when he's staring at a batter from a distance of 60 feet, six inches.
But even though he doesn't wear his emotions on his Bruins jersey, he didn't get this far without being competitive. An example of that comes out when asked about his size - he is a 6-foot, 185-pounder, which is smaller than most top prospects at his position.
"It adds fuel to my fire," Garcia said when asked about his doubters.
Garcia gets batters out by having a superior mix of four pitches: a four-seam fastball that ranges between 89-94 mph; an 81-84 slider with sharp, late tilt; a mid-80s changeup and a 73-75 curve.
"All four of Ryan's pitches are beneficial to each other," McInerny said. "His arm speed and spin rate add zippiness to his fastball. As a hitter, you think you are on time … but you're late.
"Batters leave the box confused as to why they are not hitting him. Guys start the game against him in a groove, and, by the end, they're in a slump."
After not getting drafted out of high school, Garcia is projected to go in the top four rounds next month. In fact, a selection in the top two rounds would not be a surprise, given his success this season.
Savage, who led UCLA to its only College World Series title in 2013 and may have the horses to do it again this year, said he is not surprised at how Garcia has developed.
"I thought he could be special," Savage said. "I knew it would take time - and it has. He was a high school shortstop with a terrific arm. We had him at our camp, and he had a clean delivery. The way the ball came out of his hand, it wasn't hard to see he could be a legit pitcher in our program.
"We dug into him and invested into him, and he has become our No. 1 guy. … His (forearm) injury has been a blessing in disguise because he has just 69 innings - he's fresh and pitching at the highest level of his career."
Garcia's career record at UCLA is 18-1. In two years as a starter, he is 14-1, 1.58 with 145 strikeouts in 125 2/3 innings.
In addition, he pitched in Cape Cod for the first time last summer, and he was an all-star for the league champs, going 2-0, 1.28 with 33 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings.
He also finished the summer with a streak of 25 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run.
"Statistically, Ryan is lights out," McInerny said. "But he hasn't been pitching that long. He still hasn't hit his ceiling, and that's what's most exciting."
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"Fun At Bat," An Introductory & Character Building and Softball Program, To Be Implemented In Schools Throughout Mexico
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - Major League Baseball and USA Baseball today announced that "Fun At Bat" (www.funatbat.org), the introductory and character building bat-and-ball program designed for use in physical education (P.E.) classes, will now be available to elementary school students throughout Mexico. The free program, which is currently reaching more than one million children in all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, will be administered in Mexico by the Presidential Office for Baseball Development and Promotion in Mexico (PROBEIS), an initiative commissioned by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to develop and promote baseball in the country, with support from both MLB and USA Baseball.
The Mexico Fun At Bat program will serve more than 1.3 million students throughout the country. Franklin Sports, a long-time MLB and USA Baseball partner, has created custom Fun At Bat Baseball equipment to help activate this program since its inception in 2016.
A joint MLB and USA Baseball youth program, Fun At Bat promotes fun and active lifestyles for children, while also teaching the fundamental skills of bat-and-ball sports. The program, available in both English and Spanish, also includes a literacy component focusing on character development and teaching traits such as leadership, teamwork and responsibility. Fun At Bat is part of the PLAY BALL initiative (www.PlayBall.org) - the sport's largest collective effort to encourage young people to participate in baseball- or softball-related activities, including formal and casual forms of play. Since the initiative's launch in 2015, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) has reported a 52.8 percent increase in casual baseball participation in the United States.
"Baseball's future in Mexico is a bright one, and this collaborative effort between MLB, USA Baseball and PROBEIS will contribute greatly toward that end," said Tony Reagins, Executive Vice President of Baseball & Softball Development, Major League Baseball. "In line with our larger PLAY BALL initiative, Fun At Bat will give children in Mexico the opportunity to discover the game at its most basic levels, which we believe will be the beginning of a lifelong passion for baseball."
"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to deliver this program to students across Mexico," said Rick Riccobono, USA Baseball's Chief Development Officer. "Fun At Bat is the fastest growing bat-and-ball program in the world. With its comprehensive curriculum and fun-first approach, it is the ideal way to introduce kids from across the globe to our great game."
"We couldn't be more thrilled about this historic opportunity to formally implement baseball in public grammar schools in Mexico as part of our strategy to develop and promote the sport, as instructed by President Lopez Obrador," said Edgar Gonzalez, Director of PROBEIS. "Teachers are the backbone of our social development and it is exciting to know they are participating in this amazing program designed exclusively for the purpose of teaching fundamental principles to children. Naturally, we are looking forward to implementing additional projects jointly with USA Baseball and Major League Baseball to continue furthering mission."
Adam Franklin, Vice President at Franklin Sports said: "Franklin Sports is proud to be the Official Equipment Partner of the Fun At Bat program. As long time partners of USA Baseball and Major League Baseball, we are committed to the collective goals of growing youth participation and creating young fans of the sport of baseball."
The expansion of Fun At Bat to Mexico is MLB's latest efforts to grow the game among young people throughout the world. In addition to the multiple PLAY BALL events held in various parts of the United States as well as in Mexico, Brazil, and Panama, MLB has had a substantive imprint on the youth & amateur levels of the sport throughout the world. Over the last three years, the MLB CUP, MLB's signature international youth league competition, has served nearly 10,000 kids in Japan, Taiwan and Mexico in tournament play.
Tyler Thornton Earns Spot at USA Baseball National Team Camp
MORAGA, Calif. - Freshman Tyler Thornton made the record books on Monday: the right-hander is just the second baseball player in Saint Mary's history to be selected to the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team training camp roster. The last was Von Hayes in 1979.
After a record and accolade-laden regular season campaign, Thornton will head to the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina where he will compete for a spot on the 26-man roster. The camp will consist of four intrasquad exhibition contests and a game against the Coastal Plain League. The final roster will take on Cuba, Chinese Taipei, and Japan over the summer.
Thornton earned the prestigious invitation as he is one of the top freshmen pitchers in the nation. He has amassed a 9-2 record in 12 starts (70.1 innings pitched) and his 2.56 earned run average is the lowest of any starter on the team. He is ranked 11th in the country and first in the West Coast Conference in hits allowed per nine innings (5.37) and his nine wins are tied for the 12th-most in the nation (first in the WCC). Along with teammate Carlos Lomeli (also nine wins), he has collected the most wins by any Gael pitcher since Martin Agosta's nine favorable decision in 2012 (fourth-most since 1968).
Thornton's 10.88 strikeouts per nine are ranked third in the WCC and his WHIP of 0.97 is also third in the conference (28th in the nation). The San Diego native has twice been named the WCC Pitcher of the Week and both times were in a span of three weeks. Furthermore, he went on a streak earlier this season of three starts without allowing an earned run (22.1 innings in total), allowing just six hits during that time while striking out 26 batters.
Thornton and rest of his teammates will head to Stockton this week to compete as the No. 3 seed in the West Coast Conference Tournament.
Lacy Earns USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Invitation
HOOVER, Alabama - Texas A&M sophomore pitcher Asa Lacy was selected to play for the USA Baseball 2019 Collegiate National Team, it was announced Monday.
The USA Baseball Collegiate National Team will participate in three international friendship series in 2019, beginning with the eighth USA vs. Cuba International Friendship Series that will take place July 2-6 in Cary, Charlotte, Durham and Hickory, North Carolina. The U.S. travels to Taiwan and Japan to compete in the 19th USA vs. Chinese Taipei International Friendship Series from July 9-12 and the 43rd USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series from July 16-21.
The southpaw is 7-4 on the season with a 2.13 ERA, .162 opponent batting average and 115 strikeouts over 76.0 innings in his 13 starts. He is the first Aggie sophomore to record 100 strikeouts in a season since Michael Wacha in 2011. Lacy was named to the Perfect Game Midseason All-America Second Team and was tabbed a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist.
Lacy ranks second in the SEC in strikeouts per nine innings (13.62), third in strikeouts, fourth in hits allowed per nine innings (4.97) and opponent batting average and fifth in ERA. Nationally, he ranks seventh in hits allowed per nine innings, eighth in strikeouts per nine innings and 12 in strikeouts.
The list of recent Aggies to play for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team include John Doxakis (2018), Braden Shewmake (2017 & '18), Ryan Hendrix (2015), Nick Banks (2014 & 2015), A.J. Minter (2014), Daniel Mengden (2013), Tyler Naquin (2011) and Michael Wacha (2011).
For more information on USA Baseball and the Collegiate National Team, follow @USABaseball on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; and @USABaseballCNT on Twitter.
USA Baseball Announces Multi-Year Partnership with Diamond Kinetics
DURHAM, N.C. - USA Baseball announced a multi-year partnership with Diamond Kinetics on Tuesday, making the Pittsburgh-based technology company an Official Player Development Partner of the organization.
As part of the partnership, USA Baseball will utilize Diamond Kinetics' SwingTracker bat sensor and PitchTracker smart baseball technologies for its six national teams and three national team development programs, as well as select national team identification events and development programs.
"We are very pleased and excited to partner with Diamond Kinetics to usher in state-of-the-art tools, technology and collaborative content to USA Baseball," said Paul Seiler, USA Baseball's Executive Director and CEO. "It is critical in this new era of baseball evaluation, training and development to have quantifiable, objective information accessible at a moment's notice and Diamond Kinetics will allow USA Baseball to utilize this essential data in its efforts to further develop its athletes."
USA Baseball will introduce this innovative technology to its 2019 programming during the Prospect Development Pipeline and the recently announced Prospect Development Pipeline League. Additionally, the Diamond Kinetics technology will be utilized during evaluation days at the National Team Championships in Arizona and Florida, and the National Team Identification Series Champions Cup at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.
All USA Baseball national team and national team development program members will have access to the smart, sensor-based technology beginning in 2019 and both organizations will jointly collaborate on custom software tools to further enhance the technology and its impact on total athlete development.
"We are very excited at the opportunity to partner with such an esteemed, respected and influential organization as USA Baseball," said Diamond Kinetics CEO C.J. Handron. "Together, we can fully modernize how players are scouted and evaluated with Diamond Kinetic's wide array of smart, capable technologies. We are excited to tap USA Baseball's expertise to develop and distribute high-quality instructional and educational content through our apps and digital channels."
Furthermore, USA Baseball and Diamond Kinetics will work together to produce free educational and instructional content that will be accessible via Diamond Kinetics' mobile apps and throughout all of USA Baseball's online education platforms, including the Mobile Coach App and SportDev.org.
GSA Spotlight: George Kirby
ELON, N.C. - It's the kind of stat you'd expect to see from a finesse pitcher: just six walks in 82.2 innings, spanning 13 starts. But Elon's George Kirby is no thumber - he's one of the premier power arms in college baseball.
Kirby also has 105 strikeouts and has held batters to a .203 average this season, while going8-1, 2.07 for the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season champion Phoenix. Kirby ranks fifth nationally with a 0.83 WHIP, and he leads all of Division I with a ridiculous 17.5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
"It's quite a floor, ain't it?" said Elon pitching coach Sean McGrath. "He's the best of both worlds. He's a command guy, kind of what you see from a mid-major Friday or Saturday guy who's a mid-to-upper-80s guy, and he's doing it at 95. And beyond that, he's doing it probably better than most ever do it."
The combination of plus fastball velocity, an ideal pitcher's frame at 6-foot-4, 201 pounds, and elite strike-throwing ability gives Kirby perhaps a better combination of a high floor and a high ceiling than any other pitcher in the 2019 draft class. In his final regular-season start Sunday against UNC Wilmington, Kirby came out of the chute sitting at 96 mph with his fastball and bumped 97. He pitched comfortably at 94-95 and touched 96 repeatedly over the first four innings, and he didn't throw a fastball below 93 mph in his five excellent innings of work, before Elon pulled him at the 79-pitch mark to get him a little extra rest heading into the conference tournament and hopefully the NCAA tournament. It was typical Kirby dominance: he allowed just one unearned run on two hits while striking out nine - and walking none, as usual.
For most college pitchers, learning to pound the strike zone is paramount. Kirby, however, has had to learn to expand the zone more often.
"He's really taken to being able to leave the zone, because the beginning portion of this year, he was so much in the zone that he was putting guys in swing mode," McGrath said. "Then he learned, 'OK, I can pitch a couple balls off or I can pitch a couple balls up, and they're probably still gonna offer.' And he commands it well enough that even if you do it 1-0 and 2-1, you're not afraid you're gonna go walk them, and it gets called more because he has the reputation."
Kirby showed good control as a sophomore too, going 10-3, 2.89 with a 96-27 K-BB mark in 90.1 innings. But he's gotten better across the board as a junior.
"One thing I've done a lot better this year is be able to command and limit the walks, which has helped me a lot. I expect to do this well every time I go out," Kirby said. "I think just the work I do during the week, trying to hone in my mechanics, I think that's helped me a lot. The pitch calling helps me a lot to expand, so I just try to hit those spots, keep it out of the zone. I didn't really change anything mechanically, I just tried to add more flow in my delivery. I changed the way I step back, I'm a little quicker to the plate now, which has helped me in the flow of the game, staying consistent. … It kind of just clicked."
Kirby took an important step forward last summer in the Cape Cod League, where he posted a 1.20 ERA in 11 relief appearances for Harwich. He said he enjoyed the closer role last summer, and he gained confidence from facing the best hitters in college baseball day-in and day-out. He also worked hard to improve his changeup and slider in the summer and throughout the fall.
Kirby's calling card remains that electric fastball, which served as the putaway pitch on eight of his nine strikeouts against UNCW. But he has refined his secondary stuff to the point that he now feels comfortable mixing with four quality pitches. His 85-86 mph straight changeup has been his best secondary pitch for most of his collegiate career, and he threw it with good arm speed against the Seahawks, helping him get ahead of hitters early in counts. He also excels at throwing his 78-80 mph curveball as a backdoor strike against lefties. It's not a hammer, but he has developed it to the point that he can get occasional swing-and-misses with it, as he did Sunday against Riley Zayicek, who struck out on the pitch.
"He's been able to go ahead and leave that thing short and believable, more often than he was last year," McGrath said. "Last year it was almost, how do you mix early to finish with fastball? Now we can give any assortment of pitches early in the AB and finish them whichever way we see fit late in the AB."
The biggest difference from last year is the development of Kirby's slider, an 82-85 mph offering that flashes solid-average. That's become an important weapon for him, as he has learned to throw it harder, with more intent, as he put it.
"We tried to add a slider last spring and it never really took shape. Some days he'd have it and would be able to throw a couple, and other days it just wouldn't be there," McGrath said. "And then this fall, a little bit this summer when he was up in the Cape, he was able to go ahead and fiddle around with grips and fiddle around with thoughts of what exactly he's looking to do with the slider, if he were to add one. Man, he's hammered away at it in bullpens and game plan, and it's taken shape. But he went from fastball-changeup with a show-me breaking ball, to now he can put people away with four different pitches."
Kirby and fellow junior righthander Kyle Brnovich form one of the best one-two pitching duos in college baseball, giving Elon a chance to beat any team in America in a weekend series. They have two very different styles - Brnovich pitches heavily off his devastating slider, one of the best in the country, while Kirby lives off that fastball - but they complement each other well. They also have a healthy competitive relationship; last year Kirby pitched on Friday and Brnovich went 8-2, 1.71 with 147 strikeouts in 105 innings as the Saturday starter. This year, Brnovich is 6-3, 3.81 on Fridays, and Kirby has been utterly dominant on Saturdays.
"We definitely push each other, but I'd say it's more individual, honestly," Kirby said. "We both have different styles of pitching, and we both worked on that during the week all the time, bullpens and everything. But we definitely do push each other a little bit, because Friday-Saturday, either of us could really have the Friday spot. So we're both competing with each other, and it's good to be competitive when you're good friends."
Kirby places great value in being a model teammate and helping Elon's young arms improve. He's soft-spoken and even-keeled, and he isn't afraid to offer teammates some insights.
"He's a guy's guy. Teammates love him. They know not to bother him too much on game day, but you won't to be able to tell, 'Oh, that's George Kirby.' He doesn't want to look any different than any of these other 33, 34 guys," McGrath said. "He's just one of the boys. The guys take to him. The other thing he's been really, really good at is he's been a great leader, whether it be allowing young guys to watch his bullpens and allowing them to take something from him, or he'll sit down with guys and talk about how he thinks about using his lower half, or his thoughts on certain pitches, where to execute, how to execute. He's done as much developing as I have with those freshman and sophomore arms, in terms of getting in touch with them and making sure in his catch play that he's a good example for others. He's diligent, and I think he's helped some buy-in, and other guys carry themselves pretty similarly."
"I'm just trying to share all the information I can give them," Kirby added. "A lot of times we struggle just hitting the zone, so I'll spot some things that guys are doing down there that I think have worked for me. I think having McGrath down there, we're both on the same page, so if I have something to say he'll let me say it, and he usually agrees with it. I think just giving my advice has helped them get a little more confidence on the mound, and I think it's shown. The past couple weeks the younger guys have gone out and done pretty well."
After going 19-5 in CAA play to run away with the regular-season title, Elon is now focused on winning the automatic bid that goes to the conference tournament champion, and getting the program back to regionals for the first time since 2013. With Kirby and Brnovich leading the way, and talented sophomore Jared Wetherbee rounding out the rotation with flame-thrower Ty Adcock anchoring the back of the bullpen, the Phoenix have the pitching firepower to make some serious noise in the postseason. And Elon's progression over the last three years has been very gratifying for Kirby, as you might imagine.
"Came here freshman year, we didn't do very well. Last year we got bumped out in the semis. So I'm just glad we're making progress every year," Kirby said. "We have a special group of guys, our pitching staff's really good, gave our guys a chance to win every time out there. You see we just dominated the CAA this year, so it was pretty fun to watch."
Kirby is awfully fun to watch, too.
|D1Baseball.com is your online home for college baseball scores, schedules, standings, statistics, analysis, features, podcasts and prospect coverage.
Mitchell Invited to USA Baseball Collegiate National Team
LOS ANGELES - UCLA sophomore outfielder Garrett Mitchell has been invited to play with the United States Collegiate National Team this summer, it was announced on Wednesday by USA Baseball.
Mitchell, who was in the midst of a breakout sophomore season, joins a rich history of Bruins to have suited up for the Collegiate National Team. He is set to become the 18th UCLA player to don the red, white, and blue, following in the footsteps of established MLB stars such as Gerrit Cole, Trevor Bauer, Brandon Crawford, and Troy Glaus.
The Orange, Calif. native is poised to be UCLA's first position player on the Collegiate National Team since Steve Rodriguez in 2010. Current Bruin second baseman Chase Strumpf was selected to the team in the summer of 2018, but did not participate due to injury.
The USA Baseball Collegiate National Team will participate in series of four intrasquad exhibition games and a game against the Coastal Plain League Select before announcing a 26-man roster prior to the 8th USA vs. Cuba International Friendship Series that will take place July 2-6 in Cary, Charlotte, Durham and Hickory, North Carolina.
Team USA's 26-man roster will then travel to Taiwan for the 19th USA vs. Chinese Taipei International Friendship Series after which USA Baseball will announce a final 24-man roster to compete in the 43rd USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series from July 16-21 in Japan.
As of May 15, Mitchell is slashing .353/.425/.544 for the Bruins with 24 extra-base hits and 29 RBIs. UCLA's leadoff hitter, he's stolen a team-high 15 bases in 19 tries. He ranks in the top-10 in the Pac-12 in a bevy of statistics, including batting average (eighth), runs (46, 10th), hits (72, fourth), doubles (14, seventh), triples (five, second), stolen bases (fourth), and total bases (111, ninth). Mitchell has also been a lock-down defender in right field - his primary position - and center field, earning a national ABCA Gold Glove nomination.
Keep up-to-date on all things UCLA Baseball by following the team Twitter account at @UCLABaseball. Fans can follow the Collegiate National Team on Twitter at @USCBaseballCNT.
USA Baseball Names 2019 Golden Spikes Award Semifinalists
DURHAM, N.C. - USA Baseball named the 25 semifinalists for its Golden Spikes Award on Wednesday. Presented in partnership with the Rod Dedeaux Foundation, the 42nd Golden Spikes Award winner will be announced on June 14 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska.
The list of semifinalists spans 20 different colleges and universities, one high school and nine NCAA conferences. The list also features three athletes who were also a semifinalist in 2018 with Josh Jung (Texas Tech), Spencer Torkelson (Arizona State) and 2018 Golden Spikes Award winner Andrew Vaughn (California). Since 2007, 29 athletes have been named a semifinalist more than once in their careers, including past Golden Spikes Award winners Stephen Strasburg (2009), Trevor Bauer (2011), Mike Zunino (2012), Kris Bryant (2013), Brendan McKay (2017) and Vaughn (2018).
"The twenty-five student-athletes honored as Golden Spikes Award semifinalists this year highlight the depth of elite amateur baseball talent in the United States," said USA Baseball Executive Director and CEO Paul Seiler. "Each and every one of these athletes have excelled on the field this season and we are honored to continue our partnership with the Rod Dedeaux Foundation to recognize their contributions to their teams and schools."
Joining Sun Devils teammate Torkelson as a 2019 semifinalist is Hunter Bishop (IF; Arizona State), meanwhile Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt join Arizona State as the only schools with multiple semifinalists with the selections of Jake Mangum (Mississippi State), Ethan Small (Mississippi State), John Doxakis (Texas A&M), Asa Lacy (Texas A&M), JJ Bleday (Vanderbilt) and Austin Martin (Vanderbilt), respectively.
Jackson Rutledge (San Jacinto College) and Bobby Witt Jr. (Colleyville-Heritage High School) have also been named a Golden Spikes semifinalist in 2019. Since USA Baseball introduced semifinalists to the voting process in 2007, Rutledge is the fourth semifinalist from the junior college ranks while Witt is the first-ever high school student athlete to earn this honor. To this date, Alex Fernandez (1990) and Bryce Harper (2010) are the only non-NCAA Division I athletes to win the Golden Spikes Award.
Last year, Cal's Vaughn took home the prestigious award, joining a group of recent winners that include Brendan McKay (2017), Kyle Lewis (2016), Andrew Benintendi (2015), A.J. Reed (2014), Kris Bryant (2013), Mike Zunino (2012), Trevor Bauer (2011), Bryce Harper (2010), Stephen Strasburg (2009), Buster Posey (2008), and David Price (2007).
Beginning with the announcement of semifinalists, a ballot will be sent to the Golden Spikes Award voting body consisting of national baseball media, select professional baseball personnel, previous Golden Spikes Award winners and select USA Baseball staff, totaling a group of over 200 voters. From Wednesday, May 15 through Sunday, May 26, each voting member will select three athletes from the Golden Spikes Award ballot of semifinalists and fan voting will simultaneously be open on GoldenSpikesAward.com. Selections made by the voting body will carry a 95% weight of each athlete's total, while fan votes will account for the remaining 5%.
The finalists will then be announced on Wednesday, May 29. Beginning that same day through Monday, June 10, the voting body and fans will be able to cast their final vote for the Golden Spikes Award winner.
The winner of the 42nd Golden Spikes Award will be named on Friday, June 14.
USA Baseball has partnered with the Rod Dedeaux Foundation to host the Golden Spikes Award since 2013. The Foundation was formed to honor legendary University of Southern California and USA Baseball Olympic team coach, Rod Dedeaux, and supports youth baseball and softball programs in underserved communities throughout Southern California.
A complete list of the 25 Golden Spikes Award semifinalists is as follows:
Name, Class, Position, School, Conference
Hunter Bishop, Jr., OF, Arizona St., Pac-12
JJ Bleday, Jr., OF, Vanderbilt, SEC
Isaiah Campbell, RS-Jr., P, Arkansas, SEC
Reid Detmers, So., P, Louisville, ACC
John Doxakis, Jr., P, Texas A&M, SEC
Ryan Garcia, Jr., P, UCLA, Pac-12
Nick Gonzales, So., IF, New Mexico St., WAC
Emerson Hancock, So., P, Georgia, SEC
Kody Hoese, Jr., IF, Tulane, AAC
Josh Jung, Jr., IF, Texas Tech, Big 12
George Kirby, Jr., P, Elon, CAA
Asa Lacy, So., P, Texas A&M, SEC
Jake Mangum, Sr., OF, Mississippi St., SEC
Alek Manoah, Jr., P, West Virginia, Big 12
Austin Martin, So., IF, Vanderbilt, SEC
Jackson Rutledge, So., P, San Jacinto, Region XIV
Adley Rutschman, Jr., C, Oregon St., Pac-12
T.J. Sikkema, Jr., P, Missouri, SEC
Ethan Small, RS-Jr., P, Mississippi St., SEC
Noah Song, Sr., P, Navy, Patriot
Bryson Stott, Jr., IF, UNLV, MWC
Zack Thompson, Jr., P, Kentucky, SEC
Spencer Torkelson, So., IF, Arizona St., Pac-12
Andrew Vaughn, Jr., IF, California, Pac-12
Bobby Witt Jr., HS-Sr., IF, Colleyville-Heritage High School
Spencer Torkelson Named to USA Baseball Collegiate National Team for Second Time
PHOENIX - For the second consecutive season, Sun Devil Baseball's Spencer Torkelson will shed the Maroon and Gold this summer in favor of the Red, White and Blue as the sophomore infielder has been selected to represent the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team and will join the 2019 edition of Team USA in three international friendly series this summer.
Torkelson is the first Sun Devil to become a two-time selection for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team since Ryan Burr was selected in 2013 and 2014. Torkelson, Burr and Dustin Pedroia represent the only Sun Devils in program history to represent their country on more than one occasion.
Torkelson joins an illustrious list of Sun Devils to represent their country over the years, including Floyd Bannister (1975), Bob Horner (1976), Kevin Romine (1981), Oddibe McDowell (1984), Dustin Pedroia (2002 and 2003) and current MLB players Mike Leake (2008), Deven Marrero (2011) and Trevor Williams (2012).
In total, 36 Sun Devils have been selected a total 40 times to represent the United States with Torkelson's addition this summer. Only USC (70) and Stanford (51) have more all-time selections than ASU among all teams in the NCAA.
After an All-American caliber freshman season, Torkelson has followed that with an equally impressive sophomore campaign for the Sun Devils. Torkelson has 19 home runs this season, second in the Pac-12 and ninth in the country. He has at least one home run in each of the last nine weekend series that the Sun Devils have played - including every single series of Pac-12 play.
After posting 25 homers as a freshman, Torkelson now has 44 in his career at ASU - tied for sixth in program history despite only being a sophomore and just 12 shy of the Sun Devil school record of 56 held by Bob Horner. He is one home run away from joining Horner as the only other player in ASU history to have 20 or more home runs in consecutive seasons.
With another big fly, Torkelson would also join former Missouri State First-Round Draft Pick Jake Burger as the only player in the BBCOR era of batting standards to log multiple seasons with 20 or more home runs.
Torkelson enters this weekend ranked in the Top-10 in nearly every major offensive category, including average (10th/.351), slugging percentage (4th/.688), RBIs (3rd/57), runs (4th/58), doubles (10th/13), total bases (2nd/143), walks (8th/36) and hits (3rd/73) in addition to his spot among the home run leaders. He sits in the Top-30 nationally in home runs, run, RBIs, slugging and total bases.
Defensively, Torkelson has made huge strides and helped turn 12 more double plays than any other player in the Pac-12 (51). He has just two errors on the year despite being in the Pac-12 in defensive chances (404) and one of those came while he was playing out of position in right field for one inning in a game earlier this season. Among Pac-12 players with 350 or more chances, Torkelson's two errors are third behind Stanford's Andrew Daschbach and Oregon's Gabe Matthews (1).
The USA Baseball Collegiate National Team will participate in three international friendship series in 2019, beginning with the 8th USA vs. Cuba International Friendship Series that will take place July 2-6 in Cary, Charlotte, Durham and Hickory, North Carolina. The U.S. will then travel to Taiwan and Japan to compete in the 19th USA vs. Chinese Taipei International Friendship Series from July 9-12 and the 43rd USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series from July 16-21. For more information on USA Baseball and the Collegiate National Team, follow @USABaseball on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; and @USABaseballCNT on Twitter.
GSA Spotlight: Corbin Carroll
For OF Corbin Carroll (Lakeside School, WA), the high school season is over. Lakeside was eliminated in the playoffs Monday, but on Tuesday, Carroll lifted weights and hit. A season is over and chapter closed, but much is still to come for the UCLA recruit. So the work doesn't stop.
"I'm just thinking what got me to this position," Carroll said. "I don't think anything is changing right now. I'm just trying to work as hard as I can."
That hard work has made him one of the top high school players in the country, one who will likely hear his name called early in the first round of the 2019 MLB Draft, less than a month away. It would put a stamp on the last 11 months, an impressive run in which Carroll traveled the United States to play in different showcases and tournaments, as well as to Panama where he helped Team USA's 18U National Team win a gold medal in the 2018 Pan Am Championship. As part of the squad's offensive dominance, Carroll hit .500 with three home runs, 15 RBIs and nine stolen bases in eight games. An important time for many rising seniors, the summer and fall seasons served as a proving ground for Carroll.
"I learned that I can go out there and compete with whoever I want to compete with," he said. "The biggest thing for me was confidence. Going into that summer, not really playing at that level before, and then coming out of that summer feeling like I can hang with anyone. That was huge for me and pretty cool to see, given that I didn't really have those expectations going in per se."
Carroll's confidence, and talent, extends off the field as well. He was just selected to the all-league academic team and hasn't received a B since he was a sophomore. That's a noteworthy accomplishment in itself, but Lakeside is an academically rigorous institution and boasts an impressive alumni list that includes the co-founders of Microsoft-Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
"The community there is really incredible and supportive," Carroll said. "One of the coolest things about being at such a rigorous academic school is you're constantly challenged. I'm constantly challenged in the classroom, which is really cool, competing in those different ways."
Carroll has a bright future in baseball, no matter which direction his path takes next month. However, if a Plan B were to become necessary, science seems to be his calling. His declared major for UCLA is physiological sciences and he's currently taking sports medicine and physiology courses. That same drive that elicits success on the field, helps off it too. Being a senior and baseball being his likely career, it would be easy for Carroll to hit cruise control.
"(I'm) not making excuses for myself from the baseball front," he said. "(I'm) going in with the mindset that I'm just another student here and I need to get my business done. That's really paid off for me. I was named to the all-league academic team. Seeing that hard work pay off has been rewarding for me."
Rewarding and a testament to the work he's put in since freshman year. As much as he's proven as a player, he's also done so as a student.
"I definitely wasn't this caliber of a student going into the school freshman year," Carroll said. "School was definitely a lot tougher for me then. I didn't have some of the study habits that I do now. I just think that's a testament to the work I've put in, as well as the school.
"Freshman year, I was mostly a B student. And then I haven't had a B since sophomore year. From the work perspective, what that looked like, was those two hours a night not really making excuses and saying I've done enough. Just pushing through that extra hour and finding ways to get my stuff done. If I have a 45-minute free period and I've got work to get done, I have the self control now where I say, 'I'm not gonna goof off with my friends. I'm gonna go get some work done.'"
The work is only beginning for Carroll, but you can bet he'll find his way on Lakeside's notable alumni list.
|The Prep Baseball Report is the No. 1 resource for amateur baseball in each state it covers through its variety of events, boots-on-the-ground scouting staff, daily coverage, and multimedia platforms.


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Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.
Di Canio quits Swindon
Paolo Di Canio has resigned as manager of npower League One side Swindon.
In a statement, the fiery Italian cited "a number of broken promises" and claimed his position had "become untenable" with continuing uncertainty over the club's ownership. The former West Ham striker had issued a statement at the start of this month revealing he was considering his position following the sale of Matt Ritchie to Bournemouth.
The 44-year-old, who guided the Robins to promotion last season, claimed he had tendered his resignation last Tuesday but had met with the club's prospective new owners on Friday.
As a result of those discussions, Di Canio revealed he agreed to stay on as Swindon boss only to make another U-turn with this announcement on Monday as a takeover was still yet to be rubber-stamped.
In the statement, Di Canio said: "Last Tuesday, 12th February, I formally confirmed my resignation as manager of Swindon Town Football Club with immediate effect. There have been a number of broken promises made by the club over the time that I have been manager of Swindon Town.
"Despite these problems, I have delivered everything and more that was asked of me, by achieving promotion last year as champions and competing this season for promotion to the Championship and being just three points from top place a year earlier than expected.
"I did not resign immediately, nor publicise my resignation after I had formally confirmed it as I did not want to jeopardise the negotiations for the sale of the club and I wanted to listen to what the proposed new owners plans were. My representatives put forward a proposal that would secure my future at the club until at least the end of the season and quite possibly beyond as well.
"This proposal actually reduced the club's contractual liabilities to me in the interest of saving Swindon Town FC. At a meeting last Friday the proposed new owners accepted and said they were very happy with the new terms.
"I entered into a temporary arrangement with the proposed new owners to continue in my role as manager but all this was agreed subject to Football League approval for the purchase of the club being granted by 5:00pm on Monday 18th February.
"At the time of issuing this statement, I have had no further contact from the proposed new owners and I have been told that unfortunately Football League approval has not been granted yet and therefore my temporary arrangement has ended and my resignation stands."


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Learn about WWII from one who lived it. Claud Aldrich was a Tin-Can sailor, serving on the USS Van Valkenburg - named for the captain of the USS Arizona. The crew of the USS Van Valkenburg took the ghosts of USS Arizona with them into battle.
Claud was a poor boy, one of nine children, seven boys and two girls. At 18, he was drafted in to the United States Navy, which was an entirely new world to him. He knew nothing about life outside his home. It was a rude awakening for him, to shape up to the facts of life on a warship in a time of war. Learning to be in harm's way and survive was a hard life's lesson to learn, but if you didn't learn it - you didn't ever go home.