47-year old Bo Jackson was one of the only two sport stars in recent history.  He played 8 years in the major leagues with the Royals, White Sox and Angels.  He also played in four seasons with the Oakland Raiders.  Bo Jackson played from 1986-1990 with the Kansas City Royals and he played in 511 games for them in which he was 460 for 1,837 (.250 avg, .787 OPS) with 278 runs scored, 109 homers, 313 RBIs and 81 stolen bases.  Jackson was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in 1986 but he refused to sign with them because they wanted him to give up playing baseball.  The Raiders then drafted Jackson in the 7th round of the 1987 NFL Draft, and he turned out to be an outstanding pick for them.  He played in 38 games (23 starts) for the Raiders (at the same time he was playing with the Royals) and he carried the ball 515 times for 2,782 yards (5.4 ypc) with 16 TD runs.  Jackson also caught 40 passes for 352 yards (8.8 avg) with 2 TD grabs for the Raiders.  But, in 1990, Jackson was injured in a game against the Bengals (dislocated hip).  When the doctors looked him over they discovered that he needed a hip replacement.  That ended his football career and everyone seemed to think that his major league career was over too……except Bo.  Jackson worked hard and he got back to the majors in 2001 with the White Sox.  He went on to play three more years (with the White Sox and Angels) and he was 138 of 556 (.248 avg) with 63 runs scored, 32 homers, 102 RBIs and 1 stolen base.  Jackson finished up his baseball career playing in 694 games in his 8 years in the majors and he was 598 for 2,393 (.250 avg, .784 OPS) with 341 runs scored, 141 homers, 415 RBIs and 82 stolen bases.  He made the All-Star team with the Royals in 1989.  I feel fortunate to have seen Bo Jackson play with my own two eyes as he has a marvel to watch.

 74-year old Harmon Killebrew has decided to enter hospice care as he has decided to drop his fight with esophageal cancer.  He will likely die in the next few days.  The strapping righty swinging 1B/3B/OF made his mark in his 22 years in the majors (21 of them were spent with the Twins/Senators’ franchise).  Killebrew played in 2,453 games in his 22 years in the majors and he was 2,086 for 8,147 (.256 avg, .884 OPS) with 1,283 runs scored, 573 homers, 1,584 RBIs and 19 stolen bases.  He is currently #127 in major league history in runs scored (1,283), #11 in homers (573) and he’s tied for 36th in RBIs with Rogers Hornsby (1,584).  Killebrew made 11 All-Star teams and he was the American League MVP in 1969 with the Twins.  Killebrew was a pure power hitter without any helpers (steroids), so it’s sad to see so many cheaters passing him up on the All-Time homers list in Major League Baseball.  Killebrew was elected into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1984.  He might be gone in a couple of days but he will live on as a true baseball legend.

Lefty swinging outfielder Andre Ethier has broke a record that Joe Torre held since the 1971 season when he hit in 22 straight games that April.  Torre went on to win the N.L. MVP Award that year for the Cardinals.  He played in 161 games for the Cardinals in 1971 and he was 230 of 634 (.363 avg, .976 OPS) with 97 runs scored, 24 homers, 137 RBIs and 4 stolen bases.  Torre never seems to get much credit for how good of a player he was.  He played 18 years in the majors in which he played in 2,209 games and he was 2,342 of 7,874 (.297 avg, .817 OPS) with 996 runs scored, 252 homers, 1,185 RBIs and 23 stolen bases.  Torre was a N.L. All-Star 9 times in his career and he won 1 Gold Glove.  Torre is best known as the manager of the New York Yankees where he won six A.L. Pennants and 4 World Series.  In 29 years as a manager in the majors, Torre compiled a 2,326-1,997 (53.8%) during the regular season and he was 84-55 (60.4%) during the post-season.  Torre was denied of getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a player but he will get in as a manager.  What a career Torre had.

Doug Williams might have won the MVP Award in Super Bowl XXII but anyone that watched that game knows that RB Timmy Smith had just as much to do with that win as Williams did.  All Smith did in the Super Bowl was carry the football 22 times for 204 yards (9.4 ypc) with 2 TD runs and he also caught 1 pass for 9 yards!  This came completely out of nowhere for the Redskins as Smith was a backup that didn’t play much in 1987.  He played in 7 games (0 starts) during the regular season for the Redskins and he carried the ball 29 times for 126 yards (4.3 ypc).  He also caught 1 pass for -2 yards (-2.0 ypc) that year.  Smith played in 22 games (9 starts) in only three years in the NFL and he carried the ball 190 times for 602 yards (3.2 ypc) with 3 TD runs.  He also caught 9 passes for 51 yards (5.7 avg) in his NFL career.  Smith might have just been a shooting star in the NFL but he had his biggest moments in the biggest game of the year and for that he will always be remembered in Washington.  By the way, Smith’s 204 yards rushing is the most ever in Super Bowl history and it has withstood 22 chances to break it.

It’s amazing to me that 40-year old QB Jeff Garcia could not find a job in the NFL this year.  The 4-time Pro Bowler has signed on to play with the Omaha Nighthawks with the ided of getting in shape and ready for a phone call when the UFL season is over from an NFL team.  Garcia completed 23 of 39 passes for 226 yards passing with 3 TD passes last night in his debut with the Nighthawks.  His last TD pass came with only six seconds left which gave the Nighthawks a win in the season opener.  Garcia has played in 125 games (116 starts) in his NFL career and he has completed 2,264 of 3,676 passes (61.6%) for 25,537 yards with 161 TD passes and 83 INTs (87.5 QB Rating).  Garcia also has carried the ball 468 times for 2,140 yards (4.6 ypc) with 26 TD runs in his career in the NFL.  Personally, I think Garcia could walk right in to Buffalo or Arizona and be the starting QB from the day he showed up making both of them teams a lot better than they are right now.  My prediction is that Jeff Garcia will be signed out of the UFL when their season is over.