Summer reading list starting to take shape

With much joy two books arrived this week. Sports books.

Jerry Tipton’s “Deja Blue” on his 41-year career of covering the Kentucky Wildcats basketball program is going to be a fun read and will no doubt provide a few summer columns since John Calipari is a big part of the book.

Bill Bell and Peter Oltchick have penned “Football for Fun,” is the story of Coach Stewart “Fergie” Ferguson, who spent several years riding rickety old buses and leading Arkansas-Monticello (Arkansas A&M in those days).

Tipton covered every Kentucky basketball coach from Joe B. Hall to Calipari, plus he covered Wildcats football from 1981-1986.

These books will put yours truly into high gear to finish a book my nephew Henry Oltman recommended.

Henry is a junior at Columbia University, so needless to say he’s much more scholarly than your trusty scribe. The book he suggested was “North Toward Home” by Willie Morris, and it is his story of growing up in Mississippi, educated at the University of Texas and living in New York, where at age 32 he became the editor for Harper’s Magazine.

Having finally arrived in Texas, which Henry admitted was too much of the book, the vow now is to read at least 10 pages a day and get it finished, or just not tell Henry I didn’t like it much. Although he suspects and said the key to the book is about a southern living in New York and missing home.

These days Henry and his classmates are under constant security because of all the protests in New York.

The sports books can be found on Amazon, “North Toward Home” too, but it will be a used copy because it was published in 1982.

Willie Morris did make it back home and died in Jackson, Miss., in 1999. The book was critically acclaimed when it was released.

The 2022 world champion Houston Astros are 10 games below .500, but they are fairly consistent.

They are 4-9 at home and 3-8 on the road through Tuesday’s game.

Only Miami, Colorado and the Chicago White Sox have worse records.

The problem is only two players are hitting with any consistency, leadoff hitter Jose Altuve (.357) and shortstop Jeremy Pena (.330), who bats sixth so both are being stranded on base more times than not.

It was only a matter of time, especially since Nike ended its endorsement of Tiger Woods.

Nike is poised to sign a $28 million, eight-year deal with Caitlin Clark.

College basketball’s alltime leading scorer is already doing commercials for State Farm Insurance, Gatorade, Panini and Xfinity.

Clark was the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft by Indiana and will make $76,535 per year for her first four years.

Since NIL and the transfer portal have come along, college athletics has seem to become a more slippery slope every day.

One good thing came out of it, the Heisman Trust has announced that it is returning Reggie Bush’s 2005 Heisman Trophy, and it gave a formal reinstatement of all honors due him because of the “enormous changes in the college football landscape.”

The Heisman Trust’s decision comes after Bush forfeited his Heisman Trophy in 2010 in the wake of significant NCAA sanctions for USC, which included Bush receiving improper benefits during a Trojans career that spanned from 2003 to 2005. Those benefits, about $1,200 a month, pale in comparison to what some athletes are making today.

As part of the decision Wednesday, the Heisman Trust is returning the Heisman Trophy to Bush and a replica to USC. Bush will again be invited to all future Heisman Trophy ceremonies.