by Ray Sanchez© 07.24.16
Gerina Mendoza Piller makes me shake my head.
I mean, the former UTEP star is a beautiful young lady and a great golfer and all that but when I start 
comparing her game to mine I sort of get ill.
Are you a golfer? If you are, I’d like you to suffer with me while we compare her statistics on the LPGA Tour with mine.
I can’t hit my drives over 200 yards anymore. She’s only 5 feet 7 inches tall and averages 267.84 yards per drive. That means she hits some drives more than 270 yards.
I hit the greens in regulation once in a while. She averages 73.85 in getting on the greens in regulation.
Her putts per greens in regulation go in 1.77 percent of the time. I usually two or three putt.
Her scoring average is 70.21 per 18-hole round. I have a hard time breaking 80.
WOULD YOU like to shake your head even more? Listen to this:
She’s already earned $2,825,488 on the LPGA Tour, including $696,903 this year.
And she’s representing the United States in this year’s Summer Olympics.
Oh, yes, and she’ll be inducted into the UTEP Athletic Hall of Fame in October.
Me? I’m still struggling to break 80 at Dos Lagos Golf Course.
So if you see me out at some local course and I’m shaking my head, don’t blame me. Blame Gerina.
TRIVIA QUESTION: A couple of weeks ago I asked you who was the starting pitcher for the New York Giants when Bobby Thomson hit his “homer heard round the world.” against Brooklyn in 1951. Some of you correctly guessed it was Sal Maglie. Okay. But Maglie was also the opposing starting pitcher in the only perfect game ever pitched in the World Series in 1956. Who was the perfect game pitcher in that game? Answer at end of column.
HERE’S A NICE note from Boone Almanza, an attorney in Austin: “Thanks for the nice article (last week) about my father (Albert Almanza). I shared it with him tonight and he was very pleased. Thanks again.”
It feels good to make people happy.
AND THIS from another reader, D. Bustillos: “I enjoyed your story (about Almanza). Awesome. I believe, but I’m not sure, Julio Gallardo, who started at Bowie HIgh but graduated from Ysleta High and went on to play at Baylor, also played in the Olympics for Mexico. He graduated in 1976 from Ysleta. I would appreciate it if you could confirm it. Thank you.”
I looked it up. It’s true. Consider it confirmed.
GOOD NEWS Department: Nancy Miller Hamilton, one of the nicest, most talented ladies you’d ever want to meet, is recovering well from a pacemaker that was recently installed.
Nancy was a schoolmate of mine at UTEP in the 1950s. We both worked on the school newspaper, The Prospector, and she went on to become widely respected in literary circles. Among other things, she spent nine years with the El Paso Times, nine years with the El Paso Independent School District, four years with the El Paso Herald-Post and nine years in media relations for UTEP. She then became associate director of Texas Western Press at UTEP, serving until her retirement in 1990. She continued to edit books for TW Press and other publishers for another 10 years. In 1997 and 1998 she was a part-time lecturer in public relations for the UTEP Department of Communication.
Her recent pacemaker surgery was performed by Dr. Michael Deluca. “The pacemaker is ticking well,” she says. “I’m feeling better than I have in some time.”
ANSWER to trivia question: Don Larsen of the New York Yankees. Ironically, Maglie had been traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers.