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Tuesday NCAAF — Temple at Miami (Ohio), 4 p.m., ESPN2 NCAAB — Chaminade vs. Wichita St., 11 a.m., ESPN2 NCAAB — Oklahoma vs. TBD, 1:30 p.m., ESPN2 NCAAB —Michigan St. vs. Connecticut., 4 p.m., ESPN NCAAB — Kentucky vs. TBD, 6:30 p.m., ESPN NCAAB — Duke vs. TBD, 7 p.m., ESPN2 Sports 1B Tuesday November 23, 2010 Thanksgiving feast Just days away now and my taste buds are already salivating. My stomach is beginning to speak for my brain. All I have on my mind is turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie. Braising, grilling, deep frying, marinating — they all look so delicious. The brining catches my eye, or I should say my tongue. Yes, let the simple power of salt and osmosis deliver me into a food- induced coma. Mmmmmm. But no, I can't. Sandra Lee makes it look so Rich Greene easy, but I would surely mess it up. I couldn't ruin the centerpiece of Thanksgiving. These were my thoughts after 20-too many hours of watching Food Network this past week. Then I turned off the tv and had my Linus with Char- lie Brown moment. Even if I managed to wrestle the job of cooking the bird away from my wife, there's no way I could ruin Thanksgiving. The turk may be the centerpiece of the dinner table, but it's not at the heart of the holiday. With another rough year winding down not just for our community, but the state, the country, it becomes clear why all those years ago our ancestors booked up the calender with these holidays. This past year has been no foothill to paradise, but while the portions might be smaller, there's still plenty to give thanks too. It's not always easy viewing the punch bowl half full and lately we've spent too many days doing the opposite. There's been scarring, injury and surgeries. There's been troubles, setbacks and losses. There's been death. The one thing we haven't loss is our memories. Whether painful or joyous, they are things we never lose. We can choose, which ones to call on to get us through the difficult times. We can recall the moments of vigor, of wins, of loved ones — no matter what state we're currently in. I’ll take 34 good memories to one bad one. I’d even take one good to nine bad. That’s why we watch, why we play, why we live. The holiday season provides an opportunity to add to those good memories — the real meat and potatoes of what’s important. I’m willing to believe there’s still enough to give thankful for that the food would go cold if I took the time to list them all before I dug in. Here’s to the wishbone breaking in our favor. Happy Thanksgiving. A soon-to-be much fatter Daily News Sports Editor Rich Greene can be reached at 527-2151, ext. 109 or by e-mail at sports@redbluffdailynews.com. Vikings fire Childress EDEN PRAIRIE, Minnesota Vikings Minn. (AP) — Hastily hired five seasons ago to bring order to a disheveled franchise, Brad Childress vowed to lead the Min- nesota Vikings the only way he knew how — in case this was his only crack at being a head coach. After an eventful and often tumultuous run marred recently by player unrest, livid fans and a boss angry about abrupt person- nel decisions and a 3-7 start this year, Childress is out. His conservative approach to offensive strat- egy and rigid communication style are gone, too, leaving behind a talented team that’s out of the playoff race and a leadership vacuum in an organization trying hard to rebuild public good will toward a new stadium. Childress was fired Monday, one season after he famous- Childress ly picked up Brett Favre at the airport, got a contract exten- sion and came within a field goal of reaching the Super Bowl. Owner Zygi Wilf read from a script and wouldn’t get into specifics about his decision a day after the Vikings were blown out at home by rival Green Bay. ‘‘It’s often difficult to articulate one reason why change is needed,’’ Wilf said. Wilf mentioned his ‘‘deep respect’’ for Childress, his hand-picked replacement for Mike Tice in 2006. ‘‘He was an integral part of helping this franchise turn the corner and re-establishing ourselves as a force in the NFL,’’ Wilf said, ‘‘as well as bringing in players who did an excel- lent job representing themselves and our organization in this community.’’ Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, who has inter- viewed seven times for NFL head coaching jobs, will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season. He wasted no time in answering a big question: The 41-year-old Favre is still the starting quarterback despite his 17 intercep- tions and looming retirement, whenever that may come. ‘‘There’s no hesitation from me in that regard,’’ Frazier said, later adding: ‘‘I’m of the belief that Brett Favre is going to get it going and the turnovers are going to come down and we’re going to get going as a football team.’’ Frazier wore a suit and a solemn look at the podium dur- ing a news conference, looking like he was already audi- tioning for the permanent job. He said he expected the full effort of his players for the rest of the season, despite the shattered title hope. Childress went 40-37 with the Vikings. Courtesy photo Cori Bartolomei and Jeff Crow show off their trophies following their competition at the American Powerlifting Associations Northwest Competition, held Saturday in Sacramento. Special to the DN Two local residents, Jeff Crow and Cori Bartolomei, competed and made history in the American Powerlifting Association Northwest Competition on Saturday at Body Tribe facility in Sacramento. Crow is an employee at the Physical Therapy & Wellness Center in Red Bluff and was awarded first place in the 33-39 men’s sub-masters 220-pound weight class for his combined totals of a 405-pound squat, 325-pound bench press and 545-pound-dead lift. Crow set new state records in each of those areas. Bartolomei is a nursing student at California State University, Chico and was awarded first place in the 33-39 women’s sub-masters 148-pound weight class for her combined totals of a 170-pound squat, 125-pound bench press and a 245-pound dead lift. Bar- tolomei set new state records in each of those areas in just her second competi- tion. This competition adhered to the less popular Raw philosophy — lifting with no more aid than a belt and maybe some wraps — without the fancy lift- ing suits in vogue amongst many pro- fessional lifters. Those claustrophobic suits can take up to three people to get on, so this event brought back the gold- en days of one person and one bar and not much else — lifting in its Raw form. If you are interested in learning more about training or competing in power lifting, strongman events or other weight lifting contests, call Crow at 529-3636. Cincinnati’s Joey Votto easily wins NLMVP for me sometimes now. It’s hard when you lose some- one in your life that means so much. It was a difficult 2009 and quite a bit less dif- ficult in 2010, and I think that was definitely a big rea- son why I was able to stay on the ballfield every day and succeed and make progress and feel better about life.’’ Votto earned the final spot on the NL All-Star ros- ter by beating out Washing- ton third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, Carlos Gonza- lez and Atlanta closer Billy Wagner in fan voting. ‘‘I got there and I saw my MCT file photo Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto won the 2010 NL MVP. NEW YORK (AP) — Joey Votto and Albert Pujols had a long conversation behind the batting cage before a game a few years ago. ‘‘There’s something about a star player of that magnitude kind of pulling you in and saying, it’s OK, we can talk, don’t be a rook- ie right now, we’re going to talk like men,’’ Votto said. ‘‘I think he made me feel com- fortable and a little more confident.’’ Lesson learned. Votto was overwhelm- ingly elected the National League’s Most Valuable Player on Monday, ending the Pujols’ two-year reign. A first baseman who helped the Reds reach the postseason for the first time in 15 years, Votto received 31 of 32 first-place votes and 443 points in voting announced by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Pujols, the St. Louis Car- dinals’ first baseman, was second with the remaining first-place vote, from Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post- Dispatch, and 279 points after winning the award in 2005, 2008 and 2009. ‘‘I tried to keep my head down for almost a year there, and it was nice to speak to somebody who’s been there and done that when it comes to every- thing,’’ Votto said. ‘‘For him to give me time of the day and to talk about defensive stuff and ways to improve my game was very generous of him, and he certainly did- n’t have to do that.’’ Votto was a first-time All-Star, finishing second in the NL in batting average at .324 and third in homers (37) and RBIs (113). He led the NL in slugging percent- age (.600), topped the major leagues in on-base percent- age (.424) and had 16 stolen bases in 21 chances. Pujols batted .312 and led the NL in homers (42) and RBIs (118). ‘‘After the season, when I looked at my numbers and at Albert’s numbers, I thought: ’Holy cow! He’s beaten me in a lot of them,’’’ Votto said. ‘‘He beat me in runs, he beat me in RBIs, home runs, I think a couple others. I beat him in a few of the qualitative stats. ‘‘I don’t know — I think it was a tossup. I think that it was as close as it can get. I’m not going to go on a limb and say, ’Oh, yeah, I played a heck of a lot better than him because I beat him in batting average, but we all know that batting average is kind of an overrated statis- tic.’’’ The NL Central stand- ings probably were the dif- ference. ‘‘Most importantly, we won,’’ Votto said. Colorado’s Carlos Gon- zalez was third with 240 points after winning the NL batting title with a .336 aver- age. San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez (197) was fourth, followed by Colorado’s Troy Tulowitzki (132) and Philadelphia pitcher Roy Halladay (130), San Francisco’s Aubrey Huff finished seventh (70), Buster Posey was 11th (40) and Brian Wilson 13th (28(. Posey and Wilson each received a third place vote. Now 27, Votto didn’t become a major league reg- ular until two years ago. Fol- lowing the death of his father in August 2008, he went on the disabled list and missed 21 games the follow- ing year partly because of depression and anxiety. ‘‘I had a really, really dif- ficult time I guess getting over the death of my father,’’ Votto said. ‘‘It’s still difficult peers,’’ Votto said. ‘‘I saw the A-Rods and the Pujolses and the Jeters. And I thought, ’Well, I just got 14 million votes for the fan vot- ing and I’m still the small fish in the big pond.’’’ He joined Ernie Lombar- di (1938), Bucky Walters (1939), Frank McCormick (1940), Frank Robinson (1961), Johnny Bench (1970, 1972), Pete Rose (1973), Joe Morgan (1975- 76), George Foster (1977) and Barry Larkin (1995) as Reds to win the award. The Reds’ 12 MVPs are tied with the Giants for second in the NL behind the Cardinals (17). In the AL, the New York Yankees have won 20. Pujols has 10 straight top-10 finishes. His three wins and four second-place finishes match those of Car- dinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial. Votto, a bargain with a $525,000 salary, will be eli- gible for arbitration for the first time. Neither Votto nor Gonzalez ($406,000) had MVP bonus provisions. Pujols gets $100,000 for fin- ishing second. By finishing fourth, Adrian Gonzalez gets a $100,000 raise to $6.3 million next season. Born in Toronto, Votto becomes the third Canadi- an-born MVP, following Colorado’s Larry Walker (1997) and Minnesota’s Justin Morneau (2006). Red Bluff duo prove their strength