STARTING FIVE

1. Lincecum Gulch?

AT&T Park has McCovey Cove, but now that Tim “Big Time Timmy Jim” Lincecum has thrown a second career no-hitter, the Giants may want to immortalize him in physical space, too.

A few notes:

–Only 32 pitchers have thrown multiple no-hitters, and most of them taller than Lincecum, who stands five-foot-eleven.

–Only three pitchers own multiple no-hitters and multiple Cy Youngs: Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson, and now Lincecum.

–Only two have multiple no-hitters, multiple Cy Youngs and multiple World Series rings: Koufax and Lincecum.

–Lincecum actually had a 6.58 ERA for the month of June before yesterday’s start against the Padres. While he has led the National League in strikeouts three times and has posted sub-3.00 ERAs three times, his ERAs the past three seasons have been 5.18, 4.37 and 4.42. His record in that span is 26-34. He has never won even 19 games in a season.

Is Lincecum even a Hall of Famer? His A-plus personable nature will help him with voters some day.

 

2. GoPro Goes Public

If you are the recumbent type who passively ingests sports, you may not be all that familiar with GoPro. However, if you’re the type whose life actually emulates a Red Bull commercial –surfing, skiing, BASE-jumping, off-road racing–then you know all about GoPro.

GoPro was originally created for adventure junkies, but the camera’s uses are only limited by our imagination. Or our fears. The easiest way to describe GoPro video to someone whose never seen it? Think of that bullet’s path in the original Matrix film.

Today the fledgling company goes public (GPRO), and while I’m not sure about just how successful it will be, the company’s founder, Nicholas Woodman, is an intriguing dude. On a CNBC interview with Becky Quick this morning, he was asked what trait all successful entrepeneurs have in common. “Monomaniacal focus,” Woodman replied. This recent 60 Minutes profile of him last year (thanks, Ross Blacker) is terrifc.

Woodman also acknowledged that when he was developing his product, he was so intent that he’d use his Camel-Bak pouch as his bathroom so that he wouldn’t have to leave his desk. Woodman is a total San Diego boy, a guy whose first company flopped so he decided to travel the world surfing. And it was on that expedition that he hatched the idea for GoPro.

3. Amy Van Dyken

It’s been sort of buried beneath all of the noise of both the World Cup and the NBA Finals (and LeBron), but Olympic swimmer Amy Van Dyken, who won four gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, was paralyzed from the waist down in an ATV accident on June 6. Van Dyken, who is married to former NFL punter Tom Rouen, was in the Mogollon Rim area of Arizona, in the town of Show Low, when the accident occurred. She was riding the ATV in a parking lot, launched over a curb, and slid down an embankment.

Van Dyken, 41, will likely never walk again. In her first public appearance, she was disarmingly upbeat and positive. There’s a long road ahead, of course.

4. “I Believe!”

Things the World Cup has introduced a wider audience to: “Men in Blazers” (Not in the face), “Seven Nation Army” (I know, college football fans were already well aware of it), Luis Suarez and the “I Believe” chant. As for the last on the list, it was actually started by Naval Academy plebe Jay Rodriguez back in the late 1990s. Here’ the story, from Yahoo! Sports.

5. Great Day For the Irish

Yesterday Notre Dame announced that it will play a home-and-home football series with the “How ’bout them Dawgs!” in 2017 and 2019 (a certain someone said on Twitter within the last year that if there is one school he’d like to see the Irish play in football, that would be Georgia). Even better, Herschel Walker will not be suiting up this time.

Also, our friend Dan Wolken’s alma mater, Vanderbilt, won the College World Series last night, which means that the Irish win the Capital One Cup. What’s in your wallet, Jack Swarbrick? An extra $200,000 in scholarship money this morning.

Where In The World

On the advice of loyal reader Crash, I’ll reveal WitW on the following day from now on. A clue, though: It’s domestic.