Catching up | by Pat

Catching up on some of the ND-centric stories that showed up on the internet over the past few weeks.

Cubby Bear. The South Bend Tribune notes that Jeff Samardzija officially signed with a five-year deal that includes a signing bonus worth up to $7.25 million. He will start out with the Boise Hawks summer before returning to ND in August for the start of football season. Meanwhile, Dusty Baker will figure out the best way to ruin his young arm.

It also seems that the contract has upset baseball commish Bug Selig.

Justin Upton, the No. 1 pick in 2005, received a $6.1 million bonus from Arizona, the record for a player signed by the team drafted him. Baseball America, citing unnamed sources, reported Commissioner Bud Selig was upset by the Samardzija bonus and became personally involved in the negotiations because the Cubs have upset the slotting structure for signing bonuses, giving out moneyno first-round pick has ever received to a player selected in the fifth round.

Back on Campus. The Tribune has a note that defensive end Travis Leitko has re-enrolled at Notre Dame and will begin his quest to rejoin the football team. No publicly announced timetable has been set, but I assume his status will be made known once practice starts in early August.

[Insert Ari Gold quote here]. It seems that Brady Quinn and his family spent some time looking for an NFL agent recently. While I'm sure many college football fans are hoping he actually signs with one this summer, all they were doing was narrowing down the list to cut down on distractions during the season.

Wake Up the Echoes. A new exhibit titled Rockne: Crossing the Last Chalk Line at the has opened at the Northern Indiana Center for History. Make sure to check it out when you are in town. In conjuction with the opening, the SBT has a nice collection of Rockne-related video clips to watch. Good stuff. Along those lines, make sure to check out this photo posted on ndnation by poster humbaba. It's a letter from a Ku Klux Klan member to the President of Notre Dame complaining about ND's ruffian students that is on display at the Center for History.

Truths and Rumors. Amid internet rumors of another fight in February, Tom Zbikowski's dad states that so far nothing has been related to the Zbikowski family on the matter and that furthermore, the time frame makes no sense. However, there is truth to the rumor that TZ will sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame at a Cubs game on July 18th. We'll see if he does as good a job as Weis did last week.

On a sad note. Cathy Mazurkiewicz, who's son Montana was the subject of the Pass Right story back in October, passed away last month of melanoma. Rockne, the youngest of her five other children, is now is living with guardians. The South Bend Tribune mentions a charity started by a high school freshman that will benefit Rockne and his new guardian family.

Rudy meets Rudy. Taking a break from hawking his new energy drink, Notre Dame's very own Rudy took time to meet Rudy Allen, the Georgia Tech quarterback who was sacked by Rudy in his now famous final play. The author of the story notes that his meeting will play a large part in the pre-game coverage of this fall's ND-Georgia Tech game, so I'd expect to see something on ABC come the fall. The only real reason I included this was because I thought this was pretty funny.

Rudy Allen was confused when he heard the cheering as he entered the football
game to "mop up". He couldn't undertand why the Notre Dame students were calling his name.