The Front Row with MARK NELKE April 21, 2011

We get some crazy emails around here - most of which, fortunately, go straight to the quarantine file.

But one snuck through recently - and the more I read it, the less crazy it sounded.

As a gift for fans purchasing season tickets to University of Idaho home football games this fall, the school will throw in a "limited edition bobblehead" featuring ... Mark Schlereth.

Schlereth, an offensive lineman, helped lead Idaho to three Big Sky Conference titles in his four seasons in Moscow. He went on to become a three-time Super Bowl champion and a two-time Pro Bowl selection. He is currently an ESPN commentator.

But this might top all of that, apparently.

"It's fitting that the school that gave a kid from Alaska an opportunity to play football and get an education is also giving me my first bobblehead," Schlereth said in a UI news release. "I'm really honored!"

Idaho says this is the first in a "commemorative set of Vandal Legends." In future years, "a new bobblehead will be unveiled" for season ticket holders, and "each seven-inch high figure will have a distinctive base that will connect to future bobblehead bases to form a commemorative set."

Wow! this might be better than when I used to eat all those hot fudge sundaes at Dairy Queen as a kid, just so I could collect all those helmets of NFL and major league baseball teams.

"Mark on the field, Mark in the NFL, Mark on ESPN and now Mark as a bobblehead - we wanted to both have a memorable way to honor him and celebrate the amazing qualities of our Vandal athletes that he represents," Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said in the release.

Hopefully the John Friesz bobblehead will be part of this "commemorative set" soon.

For some teams, softball can be an uphill battle.

For Coeur d'Alene High, it literally was - at least from the pitching circle to the plate.

Following a winter/spring chock full of snow and/or rain, which caused several games at Coeur d'Alene High's Larry Schwenke Field to be postponed or moved, Viking coaches, players and parents spent the weekend reworking the waterlogged infield to get it ready for Tuesday's 5A Inland Empire League softball game with Lake City.

"Once we dug up the infield, we measured and we'd been pitching uphill for seven years," Bieber said after Lake City's 9-0 victory.

He estimated the pitching rubber may have been as much as seven inches lower than home plate - making every pitch essentially a riseball.

Now, considering the many talented pitchers the Vikings have had over the last decade-plus, you would think opponents would complain the Vikings were pitching downhill to their batters, not uphill.

Over the past seven years or so, Jenna DeLong, Heather Helmhout and Amber Coburn handled most of the Vikings' pitching duties. Last year, Lindsie Scholwinski took over as a freshman.

During that time, the Vikings went to state every year but last year, with two state titles and three runner-up finishes at state since 2004.

Now, the playing field has been leveled - literally.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at [email protected].