Former NY Yankee Oscar Gamble said to be planning visit to Evergreen

I heard through the rumor mill on Monday morning that former Major League Baseball player Oscar Gamble is planning to visit Evergreen sometime in January. Details are still being shored up, but word around the campfire is that Gamble will pay a visit to one or more of our local schools as part of a planned educational program.

Many older baseball fans in the reading audience will be familiar with Gamble, who is from the small town of Ramer in Montgomery County. A star outfielder and designated hitter, Gamble made his Major League debut with the Chicago Cubs during the 1969 season. He went on to play 17 seasons for a number of different teams, including the Cubs, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Cleveland Indians, the New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, the San Diego Padres and the Texas Rangers. He made his final Major League appearance during the 1985 season.

Look for more details about Gamble’s visit to Evergreen in upcoming editions of The Courant.

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The 11th weekend of the college football season has come and gone, and last week’s slate of games featured a handful of upsets. Georgia upset Auburn, 20-13, and Arkansas upset LSU, 31-14. Also, Missouri beat favored BYU, 20-16.

Alabama and Auburn will play lesser opponents this week with a pair of games against Charleston Southern and Idaho, respectively. Both of those games will kick off at 3 p.m. and will be televised on SEC Network channels.

In addition to those games, four other games will feature head-to-head match-ups between SEC teams. LSU will play Ole Miss in Oxford, and Mississippi State will play Arkansas in Fayetteville. Texas A&M will face Vanderbilt in Nashville, and Tennessee will take on Missouri in Columbia.

In other non-conference action, The Citadel will play South Carolina in Columbia, and Florida Atlantic will face Florida in Gainesville. Georgia Southern will take on Georgia in Athens, and Charlotte will play Kentucky in Lexington.

With that said, here are my predictions for this week’s slate of games. I like Alabama over Charleston Southern, Auburn over Idaho, Ole Miss over LSU, Arkansas over Mississippi State, Texas A&M over Vanderbilt, Florida over Florida Atlantic, Georgia over Georgia Southern, Kentucky over Charlotte, Tennessee over Missouri and South Carolina over The Citadel.

Last week: 5-3. So far this season: 74-18.

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This past weekend also marked the 11th weekend of our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em Contest, and when the dust settled after Saturday’s slate of games, the standings showed that two contestants were tied for the No. 1 spot in the local contest.

Sharon Peacock, who has been in first place for eight weeks in a row, is now tied with Ricky Taylor, who had been in second place for the four previous weeks. Hunter Norris remained in third place for the third week in a row, and Ricky Powell maintained his hold on the fourth place spot for the third straight week.

Casey Grant held down the fifth place spot for the third straight week, and Mike Dailey went from seventh place to sixth place. I dropped from sixth place to seventh place, and Deagan Dailey remained in eighth place for the third straight week. Sam Rowell remained in ninth place for the fourth straight week and Jonathan Tuberville remained in tenth place for the second straight week.

With just two weeks left to go, we’re getting down to the short rows with this year’s contest. However, there are no guarantees, and the standings could change a lot over the next two weekends. Only time will tell, especially during the big “Rivalry Week” that’s coming up.