Gil Thorp by Henry Barajas and Rod Whigham for August 30, 2011

oh PLEASE bring back Clambake!

He’s leaving to recruit for the University of Miami.

This raises an interesting question: Are Gil’s parents still alive? It would make a good story if Dad Thorp showed up and interfered with Gil’s coaching. Longtime readers might know if it was established decades ago that Gil’s parents were deceased.

I don’t think they are dead. I’ve been reading since ’66 and vaguely recall he may have visitied them one summer or so. Often, the summer plot lines would have Gil flying off somewhere and crashing once,too. He could still fly off, looking for his kids. ;)

Marks’ parents must be really old.

Get ready for a real problem with the replacement coach, he may want to use a 20th Century offense instead of the Colonial system Gil still uses.

To bad Sid Gillman isn’t alive. He’d have a passing offense that would break all records. Great coach.

A common theme today, taking care of your parents. There is an alternative out there called Long Term Care insurance to lessen the burden on loved ones.

Can Molly coach football?

It’s not that far down the road from Columbus to Milford. Jim Tressel will be Gil’s new Offensive Coordinator, and a young-looking Maurice Clarret wiill sneak back into high school as the hard-running new halfback. State Title, here we come, until a gun falls from the running back’s hip pads on a 60-yard touchdown run.

No… not Tabor. What will the team do without him, since he is so rarely in the story?

Why can’t Coach Tabor have a “Mark” coffee mug?

I vote for Clambake too, but I sense an ex-Mudlark footballer coming into the picture.

Good stuff on Clambake: “Now just keep your eye on that one hole.” I could see how that could be applied to football as well as baseball.

Maybe Wally Lamb will give up his lucrative medical practice to return as coach. Or else his wife Bitsy Twill could coach because of all she’s learned from Wally.

Gil’s parents call. “So Gil, we’ve had the kids staying here for 3 years now, isn’t it time for you to pick them up?”

Pop Thorp’s 100th birthday next week. Gil’s going to text him as soon as he learns what a text is.