There are many things Sheriff Joe Arpaio could fully explain to us here at New Times. Many of them can be found under our "Investigating Sheriff Joe Arpaio" file.
That said, Arpaio opted to defend himself from the assumption that he was a horrible basketball player in high school.
Let's just say he attempted to defend himself, since he sent over the proof that he didn't suck -- which includes a box score from a local newspaper showing that Arpaio scored a grand total of three points in a 29-point loss in the middle of the Civil War 1950 season.
Aside from finding out that the local newspaper in Springfield, Massachusetts used to call Arpaio "Rugged Joe," the Sheriff also told us about his outstanding baseball career, as he turned over the statistics sheet showing that he had three base hits through 11 games.
There's a newspaper clip Arpaio's office provided that has a "know your players" section about Arpaio's basketball team at Commerce High School, in which the writer apparently had to say something nice about everyone.
"'Rugged Joe' holds a back court position," the blurb says. "He is definitely the hardest fighting man on Coach Otto Wulff's team."
Another clip describes Arpaio making a shot as the "highlight of [the] contest," as Arpaio's shot sent the game to overtime. Arpaio's boys won a real barn-burner, with a score of 15-13.
Why Arpaio keeps this stuff, we couldn't tell you.
That said, here's a picture of Arpaio playing basketball, as the caption describes Arpaio "trying unsuccessfully to latch on to the sphere" -- which we assume to mean "failing to grab the ball":
