California State Route 14
State Route 14 is a north–south state highway in the U. S. state of California in the Mojave Desert. The southern portion of the highway is signed as the Antelope Valley Freeway; the route connects Interstate 5 on the border of the city of Santa Clarita to the north and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Granada Hills and Sylmar to the south, with U. S. Route 395 near Inyokern. Legislatively, the route extends south of I-5 to SR 1 in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles; the southern part of the constructed route is a busy commuter freeway serving and connecting the cities of Santa Clarita and Lancaster to the rest of the Greater Los Angeles area. The northern portion, from Vincent to US 395, is legislatively named the Aerospace Highway, as the highway serves Edwards Air Force Base, once one of the primary landing strips for NASA's Space Shuttle; this section is rural, following the line between the hot Mojave desert and the forming Sierra Nevada mountain range. Most of SR 14 is loosely paralleled by a main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, used for the Antelope Valley Line of the Metrolink commuter rail system as well as a connection between Los Angeles and the Central Valley via Tehachapi Pass.
Linked with US 395, this road connects Los Angeles with such places as Mammoth Mountain, Mono Lake, Yosemite National Park and Reno, Nevada. SR 14 was part of US 6 prior to truncation in 1964, when US 6 was a coast-to-coast route from Long Beach to Provincetown, Massachusetts; the non-freeway segment of SR 14 from Silver Queen Road north of Rosamond to Mojave is known as Sierra Highway, as is the old routing between I-5 and Silver Queen Road where SR 14 has been moved to a newer freeway alignment. Portions of SR 14 remain signed with names associated with US 6, including Midland Trail, Theodore Roosevelt Highway, Grand Army of the Republic Highway. SR 14 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration; the southern portion of the freeway, from I-5 to the Avenue D exit near Lancaster, has been designated the Antelope Valley Freeway by the state legislature.
The Antelope Valley Freeway begins in the Santa Susana Mountains at the Newhall Pass interchange by splitting from the Golden State Freeway. This is the busiest portion of the route with an annual average daily traffic count of 169,000 vehicles per day; the freeway forms much of the eastern boundary of Santa Clarita along its route. Past Santa Clarita, the road continues northeast and crosses the Sierra Pelona Mountains and western San Gabriel Mountains via the canyon of the seasonal Santa Clara River; the ascent is rugged and rural terrain, with only two small towns along the ascent, first Agua Dulce and Acton. Between the two towns, the freeway forms the southern boundary of a county park; the highway crests the Sierra Pelona Mountains via Escondido Summit, at an elevation of 3,258 feet, before descending and passing by Acton to the north. The highway crests the San Gabriel Mountains via Soledad Pass, at an elevation of 3,209 feet; the route of the highway through the mountains loosely parallels that of the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, used for the Metrolink Antelope Valley Line.
After cresting both mountain passes, the highway descends into the Antelope Valley, a large valley within the Mojave Desert. The highway crosses the California Aqueduct in the descent. SR 14 serves as the primary north -- south thoroughfare for the communities of Lancaster. Between Palmdale Boulevard and Avenue D in Lancaster, SR 14 runs concurrently with SR 138. From the Pearblossom Highway exit south of Palmdale to its northern terminus at US 395 near Inyokern, SR 14 has been designated the Aerospace Highway. Between Pearblossom Highway and Avenue S, there is a vista point overlooking Lake Palmdale, which features a historic plaque that honors aviation accomplishments including the space shuttle, breaking the sound barrier and the speed record; the freeway passes the Los Angeles–Kern county line at Avenue A, continues to run north through Rosamond and Mojave. In Rosamond, the highway passes close to Edwards Air Force Base, used as one of the main landing strips for NASA's space shuttle, as the base for the X-15 and many other air and spacecraft.
The freeway portion terminates just south of Mojave, where SR 14 serves as the main street and runs through the downtown area. To the east of the route is Mojave Air & Space Port, home to the National Test Pilot School and SpaceShipOne, the first funded human spaceflight, as well as a vast airplane graveyard. SR 58 was routed concurrently with SR 14 through Mojave, before it was rerouted onto a bypass running north and east of the town; the character of the highway changes. The road, now a divided highway with at-grade intersections, departs the corridor of the main Southern Pacific Line, to follow the crest of the forming Sierra Nevada mountains; the route continues to follow a branch line of the Southern Pacific used as a connector for the Trona Railway. The main line of the railroad proceeds towards the Central Valley via Tehachapi Pass. Though SR 14 heads away from the pass, the highway has views of the mountains and the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm; the scenery changes, as the highway departs the Mojave Desert and crosses Red Rock Canyon State Park.
Traffic counts drop as the highway becomes more rural
Shane (film)
Shane is a 1953 American Technicolor Western film from Paramount Pictures, noted for its landscape cinematography, editing and contributions to the genre. The picture was produced and directed by George Stevens from a screenplay by A. B. Guthrie Jr. based on the 1949 novel of the same name by Jack Schaefer. Its Oscar-winning cinematography was by Loyal Griggs. Shane stars Alan Jean Arthur in the last feature film of her career; the film stars Van Heflin and features Brandon deWilde, Jack Palance, Emile Meyer, Elisha Cook Jr. and Ben Johnson. Shane was listed No. 45 in the 2007 edition of AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list, No. 3 on AFI's 10 Top 10 in the'Western' category. Shane, a laconic but skilled gunfighter with a mysterious past, is a drifter who rides into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled Wyoming Territory, some time after the Civil War, he is hired as a farm hand by local rancher Joe Starrett who lives as a homesteader with his wife and their young son, Joey. Starrett tells Shane.
Though they have claimed their land under the Homestead Acts, a ruthless cattle baron, Rufus Ryker, has hired various rogues and henchmen to harass them and force them out of the valley. Shane goes to town with the Starretts to buy supplies at Grafton's, a general store with an adjacent saloon. Shane enters the saloon where Ryker's men are drinking, orders a soda pop for Joey. Chris Calloway, one of Ryker's men and taunts Shane, but Shane ignores him and leaves. On Shane's next trip to town with the Starretts and other homesteaders, he finds Calloway and whips him and he and Starrett win a bar room brawl against most of Ryker's other men. Ryker promises. Ryker hires an unscrupulous and notoriously skilled gunfighter. Joey admires Shane, much to his mother's chagrin. Frank "Stonewall" Torrey, a hot-tempered ex-Confederate homesteader, is taunted by Wilson, who shoots Torrey dead outside the saloon. At Torrey's funeral, the settlers discuss leaving the valley. Ryker invites Starrett to a meeting at the saloon to negotiate a settlement with the purpose of killing him.
Calloway, no longer loyal to Ryker, warns Shane of the double-cross. Shane and Starrett argue over; the two fight with Shane knocking Starrett unconscious. Shane rides in to town. Joey follows. Shane kills Wilson and Ryker's brother. Shane sees Joey outside. Shane bids Joey farewell, rides off in to the valley while Joey cries "Shane! Come back!" Alan Ladd as Shane Jean Arthur as Marian Starrett Van Heflin as Joe Starrett Brandon deWilde as Joey Starrett Jack Palance as Jack Wilson Ben Johnson as Chris Calloway Edgar Buchanan as Fred Lewis Emile Meyer as Rufus Ryker Elisha Cook Jr. as Frank "Stonewall" Torrey Douglas Spencer as Axel'Swede' Shipstead John Dierkes as Morgan Ryker Ellen Corby as Mrs. Liz Torrey Paul McVey as Sam Grafton, store owner John Miller as Will Atkey, bartender Edith Evanson as Mrs. Shipstead Leonard Strong as Ernie Wright Nancy Kulp as Mrs. Howells Shane was expensive for a Western movie at the time with a cost of $3.1 million. It was the first film to be projected in "flat" widescreen, a format that Paramount invented in order to offer audiences a wider panorama than television could provide.
Director George Stevens wanted Montgomery Clift and William Holden for the Shane and Starrett roles. Frank Freeman for a list of available actors with current contracts. Shane was Arthur's first cinematic role in five years, her last, at the age of 50—though she appeared in theater, a short-lived television series, she accepted the part at the request of Stevens, who had directed her in The Talk of the Town and The More the Merrier for which she received her only Oscar nomination. Although never explicitly stated, the basic plot elements of Shane were derived from the 1892 Johnson County War in Wyoming, the archetypal cattlemen–homesteaders conflict, which served as the background for The Virginian and Heaven's Gate; the physical setting is the high plains near Jackson and many shots feature the Grand Teton massif looming in the near distance. The fictional town and Starrett homestead were constructed for the film near Kelly, in the Jackson Hole valley, demolished after filming was completed.
One vintage structure that appeared in the film, the Ernie Wright Cabin still stands, but is deteriorating due to its classification as "ruins" by the National Park Service. Ladd was uncomfortable with guns. A careful review of Shane's gun skill demonstration to Joey shows Alan Ladd firing with his eyes closed. In the saloon battle, Ladd's pistol is pointed well away from the man he shoots the final scene where he kills Riker's brother. Palance was nervous around horses, had great difficulty with mounting and dismounting. After many attempts, he executed a flawless dismount, which Stevens used for all of the Wilson character's dismounts and—run in reverse—his mounts as well. Palance looked so awkward on horseback that Stevens was forced to replace Wilson's introductory ride into town astride his galloping horse w
Fault scarp
A fault scarp is a small step or offset on the ground surface where one side of a fault has moved vertically with respect to the other. It is the topographic expression of faulting attributed to the displacement of the land surface by movement along faults, they are exhibited either by differential movement and subsequent erosion along an old inactive geologic fault, or by a movement on a recent active fault. Fault scarps contain fractured rock of both hard and weak consistency. In many cases, bluffs form from the upthrown block and can be steep; the height of the scarp formation is equal to the vertical displacement along the fault. Active scarps are formed by tectonic displacement, e.g. when an earthquake changes the elevation of the ground, can be caused by any type of fault, including strike-slip faults, whose motion is horizontal. This movement is episodic, with the height of the bluffs being the result of multiple movements over time. Displacement of around 5 to 10 meters per tectonic event is common.
Due to the dramatic uplift along the fault, the fault scarp is prone to erosion if the material being uplifted consists of unconsolidated sediment. Weathering, mass wasting and water runoff can soon wear down these bluffs, sometimes resulting in V-shaped valleys along runoff channels. Adjacent V-shaped valley formations give the remaining fault spurs a triangular shape; this formation is known as a triangular facet. Fault scarps may be only a few centimeters or many meters high. Fault-line scarps are coincident with faults, but are most formed by the erosion of weaker rocks that have been brought alongside more resistant ones by the movement along the fault. In the case of old eroded fault scarps, active erosion may have moved the physical cliff back away from the actual fault location which may be buried beneath a talus, alluvial fan or the sediments of the valley fill. Teton RangeThe Teton Range in Wyoming is an example of an active fault scarp; the dramatic topography of the Tetons is due to geologically recent activity on the Teton Fault.
Hurricane CliffsThe Hurricane Cliffs, west of Zion National Park in Utah is a prominent example of a fault scarp along an old inactive, fault. Other examples include the scarps bounding the East African Rift Valley and the Rio Grande Rift in New Mexico. Sources Easterbrook, D. J. Surface processes and landforms.. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
Owens Valley
Owens Valley is the now-arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States, to the east of the Sierra Nevada and west of the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains on the west edge of the Great Basin. The mountain peaks on either side reach above 14,000 feet in elevation, while the floor of the Owens Valley is about 4,000 feet, making the valley one of the deepest in the United States; the Sierra Nevada casts the valley in a rain shadow, which makes Owens Valley "the Land of Little Rain." The bed of Owens Lake, now a predominantly dry endorheic alkali flat, sits on the southern end of the valley. The valley provides water to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the source of one-third of the water for Los Angeles, is infamous as the scene of one of the fiercest and longest-running episodes of the California Water Wars; these episodes inspired aspects of the 1974 film Chinatown. As well, the now-arid nature of the valley is due to LADWP depleting the water of the region. For example, Owens Lake was emptied by 1926, only 13 years after LA began diverting water.
Towns in the Owens Valley include Bishop, Lone Pine and Big Pine. The major road in the Owens Valley is U. S. Route 395. About three million years ago, the Sierra Nevada Fault and the White Mountains Fault systems became active with repeated episodes of slip earthquakes producing the impressive relief of the eastern Sierra Nevada and White Mountain escarpments that bound the northern Owens Valley-Mono Basin region. Owens Valley is a graben—a downdropped block of land between two vertical faults—the westernmost in the Basin and Range Province, it is part of a trough which extends from Oregon to Death Valley called the Walker Lane. The western flank of much of the valley has large moraines coming off the Sierra Nevada; these unsorted piles of rock and dust were pushed to where they are by glaciers during the last ice age. An excellent example of a moraine is on State Route 168; this graben was formed by a long series of earthquakes, such as the 1872 Lone Pine earthquake, that have moved the graben down and helped move the Sierra Nevada up.
The graben is much larger. The topmost part of this escarpment is exposed at Alabama Hills; the Owens Valley has many mini-volcanoes, such as Crater Mountain in the Big Pine volcanic field. Smaller versions of the Devils Postpile, can be found, by Little Lake; the valley contains plants adapted to alkali flat habitat. One of these, the Owens Valley checkerbloom, is endemic to Owens Valley; the valley was inhabited in late prehistoric times by the Timbisha in the extreme south end around Owens Lake and by the Mono tribe in the central and northern portions of the valley. The Timbisha speak the Timbisha language, classified in the Numic branch of Uto-Aztecan language family; the closest related languages are Comanche. The Eastern Mono speak a dialect of the Mono language, Numic but is more related to Northern Paiute; the Timbisha presently live in Death Valley at Furnace Creek although most families have summer homes in the Lone Pine colony. The Eastern Mono live in several colonies from Lone Pine to Bishop.
Trade between Native Americans of the Owens Valley and coastal tribes such as the Chumash has been indicated by the archaeological record. On May 1, 1834, Joseph R. Walker entered Owens Valley at the mouth of Walker Pass. Walker and his group of 52 men traveled up the valley on their way back to the Humboldt Sink, back up the Humboldt River to the Rocky Mountains. In 1845, John C. Fremont named the Owens valley and lake for Richard Owens, one of his guides. Camp Independence was established on Oak Creek nearby modern Independence, California, on July 4, 1862, during the Owens Valley Indian War. From 1942 to 1945, during World War II, the first Japanese American Internment camp operated in the valley at Manzanar near Independence, California. In the early 20th century, the valley became the scene of a struggle between local residents and the city of Los Angeles over water rights. William Mulholland, superintendent of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, planned the 223-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct, completed in 1913, which diverted water from the Owens River.
The water rights were acquired in a deceitful manner splitting water cooperatives and pitting neighbors against one another. In 1924, local farmers were fed up with the purchases and erupted in violence, sabotaging parts of the water system. Los Angeles acquired a large portion of the water rights to over 300,000 acres of land in the valley completely diverting the inflows of water away from Owens Lake. Gary Libecap of the University of California, Santa Barbara observed that the price that Los Angeles was willing to pay to other water sources per acre-foot of water was far higher than what the farmers received. Farmers who resisted the pressure from Los Angeles until 1930 received the highest price for their land. However, the sale of their land brought the farmers more income than if they had kept the land for farming and ranching. None of the sales were made under threat of eminent domain; as a result of these acquisitions, the lake subsequently dried up complet
Los Angeles Aqueduct
The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valley aqueduct was designed and built by the city's water department, at the time named The Bureau of Los Angeles Aqueduct, under the supervision of the department's Chief Engineer William Mulholland; the system delivers water from the Owens River in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains to Los Angeles, California. In 1971 it was recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers on the List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks, its construction was controversial from the start, as water diversions to Los Angeles all but ended agriculture in the Owens Valley. Since its continued operation has led to public debate and court battles over the environmental impacts of the aqueduct on Mono Lake and other ecosystems; the aqueduct project began in 1905 when the voters of Los Angeles approved a US$1.5 million bond for the'purchase of lands and water and the inauguration of work on the aqueduct'.
On June 12, 1907 a second bond was passed with a budget of US$24.5 million to fund construction. Construction was divided into 11 divisions and a cement plant; the number of men who were on the payroll the first year was 2,629 and this number peaked at 6,060 in May 1909. In 1910, employment dropped to 1,150 due to financial reasons but rebounded in the year. Between 1911 and 1912 employment ranged from 2,800 to 3,800 workers; the number of laborers working on the aqueduct at its peak was 3,900. In 1913 the City of Los Angeles completed construction of the first Los Angeles Aqueduct; the aqueduct as constructed consisted of six storage reservoirs and 215 mi of conduit. Beginning three and one half miles north of Black Rock Springs, the aqueduct diverts the Owens River into an unlined canal to begin its 233 mi journey south to the Lower San Fernando Reservoir; this reservoir was renamed the Lower Van Norman Reservoir. The original project consisted of 24 mi of open unlined canal, 37 mi of lined open canal, 97 mi of covered concrete conduit, 43 mi of concrete tunnels, 12.00 mi steel siphons, 120 mi of railroad track, two hydroelectric plants, three cement plants, 170 mi of power lines, 240 mi of telephone line, 500 mi of roads and was expanded with the construction of the Mono Extension and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct.
The aqueduct uses gravity alone to move the water and uses the water to generate electricity, which makes it cost-efficient to operate. The aqueduct system is still in operation; the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct eliminated the Owens Valley as a viable farming community and devastated the Owens Lake ecosystem. A group labeled the "San Fernando Syndicate" – including Fred Eaton, Harrison Otis, Henry Huntington, other wealthy individuals – were a group of investors who bought land in the San Fernando Valley based on inside knowledge that the Los Angeles aqueduct would soon irrigate it and encourage development. Although there is disagreement over the actions of the "syndicate" as to whether they were a "diabolical" cabal or only a group that united the Los Angeles business community behind supporting the aqueduct, Eaton and others connected with the project have long been accused of using deceptive tactics and underhanded methods to obtain water rights and block the Bureau of Reclamation from building water infrastructure for the residents in Owens Valley.
By the 1920s, the aggressive pursuits of the water rights and the diversion of the Owens River precipitated the outbreak of violence known as the California Water Wars. Farmers in Owens Valley attacked infrastructure, dynamiting the aqueduct numerous times and opening sluice gates to divert the flow of water; the aqueduct's water provided developers with the resources to develop the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles through World War II. Mulholland's role in the vision and completion of the aqueduct and the growth of Los Angeles into a large metropolis is recognized and well-documented; the William Mulholland Memorial Fountain, built in 1940 and located at Riverside Drive and Los Feliz Blvd. in Los Feliz, is dedicated to his memory and contributions. Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Dam are both named for him as well. In an effort to find more water, the city of Los Angeles reached farther north. In 1930, Los Angeles voters passed a third US$38.8 million bond to buy land in the Mono Basin and fund the Mono Basin extension.
The 105 mile extension diverted flows from the Rush Creek, Lee Vining Creek and Parker Creeks that would have flowed into Mono Lake. The construction of the Mono extension consisted of an intake at Lee Vining Creek, the Lee Vining conduit to the Grant Reservoir on Rush Creek, which would have a capacity of 48,000 acre⋅ft, the 12.7 mile Mono Craters Tunnel to the Owens River and a second reservoir named Crowley Lake with a capacity of 183,465 acre⋅ft in Long Valley at the head of the Owens River Gorge. Completed in 1940, diversions began in 1941; the Mono Extension has a design capacity of 400 cu ft/s of flow to the aqueduct however the flow was limited to 123 cu ft/s due to the limited downstream capacity of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Full appropriation of the water could not be met until the second aqueduct was completed in 1970. Between 1940 and 1970, water exports through the Mono Extension averaged 57
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is one of the hottest places in the world along with deserts in the Middle East. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the point of the lowest elevation in North America, at 282 feet below sea level; this point is 84.6 miles east-southeast of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States, with an elevation of 14,505 feet. On the afternoon of July 10, 1913, the United States Weather Bureau recorded a high temperature of 134 °F at Furnace Creek in Death Valley; this temperature stands as the highest ambient air temperature recorded at the surface of the Earth. Located near the border of California and Nevada, in the Great Basin, east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Death Valley constitutes much of Death Valley National Park and is the principal feature of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve, it is located in Inyo County, California. It runs from north to south between the Amargosa Range on the east and the Panamint Range on the west.
It has an area of about 3,000 sq mi. The highest point in Death Valley itself is Telescope Peak in the Panamint Range, which has an elevation of 11,043 feet. Death Valley is an excellent example of a graben, or a downdropped block of land between two mountain ranges, it lies at the southern end of a geological trough known as Walker Lane. The valley is bisected by a right lateral strike slip fault system, represented by the Death Valley Fault and the Furnace Creek Fault; the eastern end of the left lateral Garlock Fault intersects the Death Valley Fault. Furnace Creek and the Amargosa River flow through the valley but disappear into the sands of the valley floor. Death Valley contains salt pans. According to current geological consensus, at various times during the middle of the Pleistocene era, which ended 10,000–12,000 years ago, an inland lake referred to as Lake Manly formed in Death Valley. Lake Manly was nearly 100 miles long and 600 feet deep, the end-basin in a chain of lakes that began with Mono Lake in the north and continued through multiple basins down the Owens River Valley through Searles and China Lakes and the Panamint Valley to the immediate west.
As the area turned to desert, the water evaporated, leaving the abundance of evaporitic salts such as common sodium salts and borax, which were exploited during the modern history of the region 1883 to 1907. Death Valley has a subtropical, hot desert climate, with long hot summers and short, mild winters, as well as little rainfall; as a general rule, lower altitudes tend to have higher temperatures. When the sun heats the ground, that heat is radiated upward, but the dense below-sea-level air absorbs some of this radiation and radiates some of it back towards the ground. In addition, the high valley walls trap rising hot air and recycle it back down to the valley floor, where it is heated by compression; this process is important in Death Valley, as it provides its specific climate and geography. The valley is surrounded by mountains, while its surface is flat and devoid of plants, so much of the sun's heat can reach the ground, absorbed by soil and rock; when air at ground level is heated, it begins to rise, moving up past steep, high mountain ranges, which cools sinking back down towards the valley more compressed.
This air is reheated by the sun to a higher temperature, moving up the mountain again, whereby the air moves up and down in a circular motion in cycles, similar to how a convection oven works. This heated air increases ground temperature markedly, forming the hot wind currents that are trapped by atmospheric pressure and mountains and thus stay within the valley; such hot wind currents contribute to perpetual drought-like conditions in Death Valley and prevent much cloud formation from passing through the confines of the valley, where precipitation is in the form of a virga. Death Valley holds temperature records because it has an unusually high number of factors that lead to high atmospheric temperatures; the depth and shape of Death Valley influence its summer temperatures. The valley is a long, narrow basin 282 feet below sea level, yet is walled by high, steep mountain ranges; the clear, dry air and sparse plant cover allow sunlight to heat the desert surface. Summer nights provide little relief.
Moving masses of super-heated air blow through the valley creating high temperatures. The hottest air temperature recorded in Death Valley was 134 °F on July 10, 1913, at Greenland Ranch, the highest atmospheric temperature recorded on earth. A report of a temperature of 58 °C recorded in Libya in 1922 was determined to be inaccurate. During the heat wave that peaked with that record, five consecutive days reached 129 above; some meteorologists dispute the accuracy of the 1913 temperature measurement. The highest surface temperature recorded in Death Valley was 201.0 °F on July 15, 1972, at Furnace Creek, the highest ground surface temperature recorded on earth, as well as the only recorded surface temperature of above 200 °F. The greatest number of consecutive days with a maximum temperature of 100 °F or above was 154 days in the summer of 2001; the summer of 1996 had 40 days over 120 °F, 105 days over 110 °F. The summer of 1917 had 52 days where the temperature
Matt Williams (third baseman)
Matthew Derrick Williams, nicknamed "Matt the Bat" and "The Big Marine" is a former professional baseball third baseman and current third base coach for the Oakland Athletics. A right-handed batter, Williams played in Major League Baseball for the San Francisco Giants, the Cleveland Indians, the Arizona Diamondbacks, he was the manager of the Washington Nationals from 2014 to 2015. Williams played in a World Series for each of these teams. During these years, Williams became the only player to hit at least one World Series home run for three different Major League baseball teams. During his career, Williams had an overall batting average of.268, with 378 home runs and 1218 runs batted in. He scored 997 Major League runs, he accumulated 1878 hits, 338 doubles, 35 triples, while playing in 1866 regular-season games; as of August, 2015 – 13 years after his final game – he still ranks in the top 75 all-time players for career home runs and the top 150 all-time players for career RBIs. Williams was selected by the New York Mets from Carson High School in Carson City, but he did not sign with the Mets.
Williams was the starting quarterback on the Carson Senators football team in high school. Two of his teammates who played baseball in high school, Bob Ayrault and Charlie Kerfeld played baseball in the major leagues. Williams accepted a baseball scholarship to play for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, after attending college and playing baseball there, Williams was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the first round of the 1986 pro baseball draft. Williams began his major league career in 1987 as a short stop for the Giants while playing some games at third base also, he played both short stop and third base until the 1990 season when he became the starting third baseman for the Giants and went on to lead the National League in Runs Batted In with 122 while making the National League All Star team. Despite suffering from several leg injuries and some lower-back ailments, Williams was an excellent fielder at third base, a dangerous and productive hitter; as a third baseman, Williams had good reflexes and excellent hands, with a quick release and strong, accurate arm.
During his career he earned four Gold Glove Awards, all between 1991 and 1997. A hitter with exceptional power, six times he hit more than 30 home runs in a season as a Giant, with more than 90 runs batted in, his best season was 1994 when he hit a National League-best 43 home runs and had an impressive 96 runs batted in in only 110 games as the Major League Baseball season was shortened by nearly one-third because of a season-ending strike by Major League baseball players. He was on pace to challenge the single season home run record of 61, at the time held by Roger Maris, with his 43 home runs in 115 games projecting to 60.6 home runs at season's end. Williams finished second in the voting for the National League Most Valuable Player Award that year behind first baseman, Jeff Bagwell, of the Houston Astros. Williams was an original member of the Arizona Diamondbacks, holds the Diamondbacks record for the most RBIs in one season with a total of 142 during 1999. Williams was a partial owner of the Diamondbacks, carried the title of "Special Assistant to the General Partner".
Williams also served as color commentator during Diamondbacks radio and television broadcasts, assisted in coaching and with player personnel matters. Williams was hired in November 2009 by the Diamondbacks to be the first base coach for 2010. Williams moved from first base coach to third base coach for the 2011 season, while working under first-year manager Kirk Gibson. On October 31, 2013, the Washington Nationals announced that they had hired Williams to replace Davey Johnson as their manager for the 2014 season. Prior to the 2015 season, the Nationals exercised an option to extend Williams through the 2016 season. Williams managed the Nationals to a NL East division title and the playoffs, but lost the NLDS to the San Francisco Giants. Williams was named the 2014 National League Manager of the Year. On October 5, 2015, the Nationals terminated Williams after a disappointing season where they were favored to win the World Series and failed to make the postseason, he finished with a record of 145 losses.
As of games played on April 10, 2019. Williams was hired as the Oakland Athletics' third base coach in November 2017. Williams joined NBC Sports Bay Area in 2017 as a studio analyst, appearing before and after San Francisco Giants telecasts. On November 6, 2007, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Williams purchased $11,600 worth of human growth hormone and other drugs from the Palm Beach clinic in 2002. Williams told the Chronicle he used HGH on the advice of a doctor to treat an ankle injury he suffered during spring training in 2002. On December 13, 2007, he was named among the dozens of players alleged to have used steroids in the Mitchell Report, commissioned by Major League Baseball and written by former Senator George J. Mitchell. Williams became eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009, he received just 1.3% of the votes, was dropped off the ballot. Williams has been married three times, his first wife, left with their three children for another. His second wife was Michelle Johnson.
She filed for divorce in 2002. The couple had no children, in July 2002 their divorce was final. In 2003, Williams became engaged to Phoenix news anc
United States
California
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