The Freak and The Big Unit

Tim Lincecum raised his record to 15-7 and his strikeouts total to 261 in the Giants’ 7-3 victory over the Diamondbacks. If it turns out to be Lincecum’s final appearance of the season, as it would appear to be, he would finish with an earned run average of 2.48. Last season, Lincecum went 18-5 with 265 strikeouts and a 2.62 ERA.
Since the Majors began keeping track of earned runs, and consequently of ERA - 1912 in the National League and 1913 in the American League — those were only the 28th and 29th seasons in modern Major League history in which a pitcher had at least 15 wins, won at least two-thirds of his decisions, struck out 260-or-more batters and fashioned an ERA below 2.70.
The only other pitchers who had more than one of those seasons were Steve Carlton (two), Roger Clemens (two), Sandy Koufax (three), Pedro Martinez (three) and the man who was the finishing pitcher in the Giants’ win, Randy Johnson, who had five such stellar seasons (1995, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002).

Olympic Break and Scheduling
With the National Hockey League taking a break mid-season for their players to participate in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, there was some creative scheduling done. For the Sharks, it seems to be extreme. This February, San Jose ends the “first-half” with five consecutive home games. Then, the second portion commences with a rugged six-game road trip spannign10-days. The Sharks don’t see San José ice from February 2 all the way until March 2.

Hedican Has New Job
Bret Hedican retired from the National hockey league after a successful 17-year career. Bret and his wife, figure-skater Kristi Yamaguchi, now live in Alamo with their two children. Hedican’s career included two Olympic appearances and one Stanley Cup Championship. He has now been hired by Comcast Sports California to be an analyst on the pre and post-game shows for the San José Sharks

Three Sharks Score First Career Point on Same Play
There were a lot of firsts when the Sharks scored the opening goal in their game at Anaheim on October 3. The goal scorer, Benn Ferriero, and the players who got assists, Jason Demers and Frazer McLaren, all registered their first career point in the NHL on that goal.
This was only the second time in the last 29 seasons that three players got their first NHL point on the same goal. Before then, the last time it happened was on October 4, 2007, when the Coyotes’ Daniel Winnik scored against St. Louis with assists from Martin Hanzal and Craig Weller.

Quick Hits
•    Since its loss in the 2003 Super Bowl, the Oakland Raiders have a record of 25-75. This represents the worst 100-game span in National Football League history. It’s even worse than the Detroit Lions and those Tampa Bay Buccaneer teams from the mid-1970s.

•    Following the NFL’s Twitter policy announcement, the NBA’s commissioner, David Stern, told Yahoo! Sports yesterday that his league will soon be issuing Twitter and social media guidelines of their own, which will be modeled after the NFL. Following the lead of those leagues, the NHL said it was close to making similar recommendations that will prohibit players from using communication devices for social media activity — including Twitter and Facebook 30-minutes before and after games, practices, meetings and media access periods. The ban would extend to coaches, trainers and all game-related personnel.

•    The new United Football League (UFL) formally announced its roster of Game Officials for its inaugural season. This is a diverse group, comprised of 28 men and one woman, bring plenty of experience to the field, having officiated games in NFL Europe, the Arena Football Leagues and major college and bowl games. Former Martinez Police Chief Dave Cutaia is one of the honored few. Cutaia was the Head Referee for the first-ever UFL game. In addition to his duties with the UFL, Cutaia is also Supervisor of Officials for the Pacific-10 Conference.