This week, some quips and comments from this sports writer’s notebook.

It’s not very often you see a minor league baseball pitcher pitch more than six innings, but I witnessed it with my own eyes this past Sunday at ONEOK Field, as the Tulsa Drillers starter, Bobby Miller, went 7.1 innings. He even threw over 100 pitches (103), which is also a rarity in minor league baseball. Most pitchers are on pitch limits, usually well below 100, so it was nice to see the Drillers allow Miller to stay in the game while pitching a shutout.

Miller allowed only four hits, all singles, while striking out nine in the longest outing of his professional career. He came out of the game in the top of the eighth inning with Tulsa leading Midland, 3-0. The Drillers scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and won the game 7-0.

Also, in that same game, Drillers’ shortstop Leonel Valera nearly hit for the cycle, a feat that may be rarer than a pitcher throwing a no-hitter. Valera in consecutive at bats was working on a reverse cycle, as he hit a home run, a triple, a double, and on his fourth at bat of the game grounded into a fielder’s choice. He missed the single by just a couple feet as the Midland shortstop was able to get to a ground ball up the middle and made the force out at second base.

The last Tulsa player to hit for the cycle was Ryan Spilborghs in 2005. Before him, Hank Blalock hit for the cycle twice in one week during the Drillers’ 2001 season.

This past weekend marked the 28th anniversary of Nick Price winning the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. It was the first major golf tournament I ever covered; pro-am’s back in New York don’t count.

I remember how hot it was during that August weekend in 1994. Just like this past week, the temperatures were in the upper 90s and low 100s. The PGA was nice enough to handout frozen neck wraps in the media center, that made following the golfers on the course a little more tolerable. However, there was a lot of talk at the time as to whether the tournament would ever return to Tulsa in August because of the extreme temperatures. Well, it did, 13 years later, as Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in August 2007.

This year, the PGA Championship made yet another run at Southern Hills, but this time around, wisely, the tournament was moved to the third week in May, and despite the one night of rain that soaked the course, the weather was fairly cooperative. It was an uncommonly hot week in May, so the temperatures were in the low 90s, but still a bit better than the 100-degree heat of August.

I’ll make a confession here, in 1994, I broke a cardinal rule of working in the media and attending a sports event on a media credential. I got Nick Price’s autograph on a PGA Championship visor. You see, obtaining autographs from any pro athletes is strictly prohibited for working media who have been granted a media pass in order to cover the event.

I was young, but not totally stupid. I waited until after the tournament was finished and after Price did his press conference with the media. At that point I figured, what’s the worse thing that could happen?

Speaking of golf, you have to appreciate the honesty of long-time NBC golf analyst David Feherty as to why he recently left the network to join the LIV Tour’s broadcast team.

“Money,” Feherty said in an interview with The Blade. “People don’t talk about it. I hear, ‘Well, it’s to grow the game.’ Bull—. They paid me a lot of money.”

Feherty also admitted the move allows him to be more open and honest on the air.

“It’s an opportunity to be myself again,” Feherty said. “It’s become more and more difficult, especially in sports broadcasting, to have any kind of character. Charles Barkley (of TNT) can say pretty much anything he wants, because it’s, ‘Oh, that’s just Charles.’ And it is just Charles. But I have become more and more guarded over the last few years.”

There is no doubt the unbridled Feherty is a much more colorful personality than the buttoned-up one.

BATTLE OF THE BURBS

High School football kicks off next week and there’s a big rivalry game taking place at H.A. Chapman Stadium at TU on Thursday, Aug. 15 at 7:35 p.m. Owasso, the home team, will square off against Bixby.

This will be the first time since 2011 that these two powerhouse high school teams have met.

“Nothing like jumping right into the fire with a team of their caliber, we couldn’t be more excited,” Owasso Football Head Coach Bill Blankenship said at a recent press conference. “I think our fans and communities will be excited to be a part of something I think that will grow into a big, big deal over the next couple of years.”

All tickets are general admission at $10 each and can be purchased online.