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Bar Chat

07/11/2011

Yankee Great

Baseball Quiz: USA TODAY Sports Weekly had a neat list, courtesy of Elias Sports Bureau. For the period July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011…the last 12 months…give me the major league leaders in home runs for each position (no DH…top three for all outfielders). For pitchers, name the four who won 20 games over that stretch. Answers below.

Derek Jeter

It was a magical day at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, to say the least. Derek Jeter needed two hits for 3,000 and instead went off for the third 5-hit game of his career.

“They were all pups together back in 1995, young Yankees with dreams. The gangly shortstop from Kalamazoo…the skinny, religious Panamanian pitcher…the thick-legged catcher from Puerto Rico.

“And none of them possibly could have seen this day in their dreams.

“Mariano Rivera, 580 saves later and Jorge Posada, 270 home runs later, could not possibly have imagined a sun-splashed day in July 2011 when the gangly shortstop would chase down 3,000 hits…with a home run, no less.

“Rivera, 41 now, made his Yankees debut on May 23, 1995; Posada, 40 next month, debuted on Sept. 4, 1995; Jeter, 37, on May 29, 1995.

“And so it was more than fitting that after Jeter – who started the day Captain 2,998 and ended it Captain 3,003…became Captain 3,000 with a home run to left off a David Price curveball, who had driven in the run that gave the Yankees a 5-4 lead and eventual victory in the eighth with an RBI single up the middle – the skinny, religious Panamanian closer was summoned to save the gangly shortstop’s day. Which he did in the ninth with that cutter that still breaks Father Time’s bat.”

Jeter’s Hits…thru Sunday (he added one)

Home…1,514
Away…1,490

“We’ve seen him seize more moments than anyone of his generation, oftentimes with a home run. We saw him make a star of Jeffrey Maier. We saw him dismiss Bobby Jones and the Mets with one swing of his bat, leading off Game 4 of the 2000 World Series. Saw him hit the first-ever November World Series home run off Byung-Hyun Kim, ending a forever World Series night in that awful autumn of 2001.”

Or Oct. 13, 2001…The Yankees trail the A’s two games to none in the ALDS when Jeter makes the famed “Flip” to get Jeremy Giambi out at home plate to preserve a 1-0 lead in the seventh. The Yankees came back to win the series. [My personal favorite Jeter moment.]

Jeter became the 10th member of the 3,000-hit club to collect every career hit with a single team.

Stan Musial…3,630
Carl Yastrzemski…3,419
Cal Ripken, Jr. …3,184
George Brett…3,154
Robin Yount…3,142
Tony Gwynn…3,141
Craig Biggio…3,060
Al Kaline…3,007
Derek Jeter…3,003
Roberto Clemente…3,000

“This was chilling and memorable, nostalgic and surreal, impressive and historic.

“But because this was Derek Jeter, the most important element of a special day was this:

“For at the end of his career, Jeter is not going to be defined by 3,000 hits. It is going to be part of his record, eventually part of his plaque in Cooperstown, a great distinction to be the only Yankee with that milestone.

“Jeter is going to be remembered just the way he had hoped – by winning.

“So the 5-for-5 yesterday, which even the humble Jeter found beyond a plausible movie script, instantly goes into his long reel of genius along with others such as The Flip and Mr. November and tumbling into the seats against the Red Sox.

Jeter is the 4th-youngest to join the 3,000 hit club.

1. Ty Cobb…34 years, 244 days
2. Hank Aaron…36 years, 100 days
3. Robin Yount…36 years, 359 days
4. Derek Jeter…37 years, 13 days
5. Pete Rose…37 years, 21 days

Derek Jeter: “I take a lot of pride in going out there every single day and trying to be as consistent as possible. I think that’s probably the most difficult thing to do in our sport. Playing well gets you here. Consistency keeps you here. That’s the thing that I’ve always tried to focus on.”

Finally, just a note on the 23-year-old who caught the home run ball, hit no. 3,000. I was watching on television and immediately had the same thought everyone else did. ‘Good thing he was a big guy!’ [Turns out he played football at St. Lawrence University.]

But then we learned what a great guy Christian Lopez is, too. By some estimates he could have sold the baseball for up to $400,000, and instead he gave it back to Jeter, seeking nothing in return.

Lopez was at the game with his dad and his girlfriend, who had gotten Christian the tickets for his birthday. The ball bounced off his father’s hands and Christian scooped it up.

But Lopez didn’t go away empty-handed. The Yankees gave him four tickets to a suite for every remaining game at Yankee Stadium this season (including possible playoff games), plus first row Legends Suite tickets to Sunday’s game. And he’ll receive an assortment of autographed bats and jerseys, plus he had the opportunity to meet Jeter after the game.

Ball Bits

--If you got tickets to the All-Star Game, thinking you were going to see Yankee greats Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Mariano Rivera, nope. All three are missing the game to take time off for “injuries,” even as Jeter and Rivera obviously played this weekend. A-Rod is a different story as he is having surgery for a torn meniscus that will keep him out 4-6 weeks. Seeing as he has only 13 home runs and hasn’t hit one since the injury was suffered, 85 at bats ago, it’s a certainty his record streak of 13 straight seasons of 30 homers and 100 RBI is history.

But back to the All-Star Game, a ton of players are backing out. This is bush league. Today’s athlete wants his time off. Screw the fans paying outrageous sums to attend events like this. 

--On Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Galea pleaded guilty in Buffalo to a felony charge of bringing unapproved drugs – including human growth hormone – into the United States to treat high-profile athletes. As Michael Schmidt of the New York Times notes, Major League Baseball now has a big opportunity, just as it did in the case of Kirk Radomski.

Radomski, you’ll recall, was the former Mets clubhouse attendant who avoided spending significant time in prison when he sung to authorities and gave up the names of those he sold performance-enhancing drugs to. Those names, dozens of players, ended up in the Mitchell Report; one of them being Roger Clemens.

So now Galea could be pressed by federal authorities to give up the names of athletes he provided banned substances to as part of a plea agreement. Baseball is most interested in any information Galea has on Alex Rodriguez as the two dealt with each other. [Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran were also treated by Galea, as was Tiger Woods.]

--Speaking of Mr. Reyes, so much for his dream season on the triples front. He suffered what was initially thought to be a mild hamstring strain, but, as is typical of the Mets, the mildest of injuries suddenly becomes far worse. In Reyes’ case, he was supposed to miss two games and now he’s on the 15-day disabled list. By the time he plays, though, it will be more like three weeks, or about 17-18 games. So any thought of him ending the season with 25 or more triples is out the window. Let alone the fact he was to be baseball’s most coveted free agent at season’s end. He can now kiss any thoughts of a 7-year, $140 million contract goodbye. That would be insane for a guy whose game relies on his legs and has had more than his share of leg injuries the past few seasons. But maybe now the Mets have a shot at giving him a five-year deal, with perhaps an option for a sixth. He wants to stay in New York, after all.

“As we move up on the end game for Roger Clemens, who won all those games in the big leagues, it appears this is the defense that is supposed to keep him out of a perjury conviction and out of jail:

“That his former trainer Brian McNamee kept syringes and blood and all the rest of it in case he might want to blackmail an innocent man someday.

“As one lawyer who has followed this case from the beginning, who has watched Clemens and his attorney Rusty Hardin bungle themselves all the way into Judge Reggie Walton’s courtroom said, ‘(Hardin) keeps opening doors that he’s never going to be able to close.’

“If you play out what Hardin is saying, or plans to say in front of the jury that will eventually decide Clemens’ fate, McNamee devised this elaborate plan to blackmail Clemens for a baseball crime – using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs – that Clemens swore in front of Congress that he did not commit.

“After what might be as much as $8 million in legal fees already, coming in behind a whole squadron of lawyers for even pre-trial hearings, this is the best Clemens can do. McNamee didn’t consider blackmailing Andy Pettitte, another one of his clients, did not consider blackmailing Chuck Knoblauch, did not consider blackmailing Mike Stanton. Just Clemens. Pettitte and Knoblauch and Stanton, they all will testify that McNamee told them exactly what kind of drugs he was giving them. They knew.

“But according to Rusty Hardin and Roger Clemens, the guy who only thought he was getting B-12 from McNamee – The Rocket himself – was the one who McNamee treated like a potential threat. He needed to have something on The Rocket, just in case, like he was saving up DNA for a rainy day.”

But will Clemens get off? Sure, it’s possible. As Lupica notes, “If Casey Anthony can beat the rap…anything is possible in our jury system.”

--HBO Sports is featuring Curt Flood in a documentary on Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. ET. As HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg says: “Every player in every team sport owes a debt of gratitude to Curt Flood. He is one of the giants in the history of sports but has largely been forgotten.”

If you don’t know anything about Flood, see John Mackey below. 

--Benjamin Hoffman of the New York Times had a piece on Ichiro Suzuki.

“There is no doubt that Suzuki is phenomenally talented, regardless of his struggles this season, and that his skill set makes him a fan favorite. The issues boil down to three categories: how effective is he as an offensive player, how much does he do to help his team score runs once on base, and how much can his defense be applied to his test of greatness when he plays right field?

“Suzuki’s accomplishments are well known….But for all his hitting prowess, he is unwilling or unable to take pitches and draw walks. A walk, after all, is nearly as good as a hit for a singles hitter like Suzuki, and yet he has seemed almost allergic to them. In 2009, he was unintentionally walked only 17 times.

“Despite his stellar .328 career batting average through Friday, his career on-base percentage of .373 ranks 26th among active players and tied for 228th in baseball history.

“In 2004, he set the single-season record for hits with 262, 225 of which were singles, but his low walk total of 49 led to him being on base a total of 315 times. That is the highest total of his career, but it is the 58th-most times a player has reached base in a season and well short of the major league record of 379 set by Babe Ruth in 1923.

“Excluding the truly elite players like Ruth, Ted Williams and Barry Bonds, who easily exceeded Suzuki’s total, some less impressive names have reached base more than 315 times in a season: Todd Helton (three times), Jason Giambi (twice) and Jeff Bagwell (twice).

“The difference between Suzuki and those players is that they also were hitting with power….And yet Helton and Bagwell are rarely talked about in the reverent terms reserved for Suzuki. Giambi finished second to Suzuki in Most Valuable Player voting in 2001, a season in which he outpaced him in on-base percentage, doubles, home runs and runs batted in.”

And Hoffman brings up his overrated base-stealing record and defensive skills and….

“None of this is an attempt to say that Suzuki is not a fine baseball player. His durability and consistency should not be dismissed. I fully expect him to be elected to the Hall of Fame when he is eligible, and he would hardly be the least qualified member of the institution.

“But when I watch this game, and I try to separate the ‘wow’ from the actual value, I’m often left wanting when it comes to Suzuki and how he puts his many talents to use.”

--As for my other favorite ballplayer, the White Sox’ Adam Dunn, you cannot have a more nightmarish first half. Dunn hits the break at .160…43 for 269, 117 strikeouts, just nine home runs.

--The Yankees’ CC Sabathia continued his recent mastery on Sunday, shutting out Tampa Bay 1-0. He now has 23+ consecutive scoreless innings as he moved his record to 13-4 (2.72 ERA). And just as impressive, the game was played in 2 hours 11 minutes! Just like the old days.

--Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, 1941, continued….

Game 49…July 10…St. Louis…1 for 2
Game 50…July 11…St. Louis…4 for 5…1 HR 2 RBI
Game 51…July 12…St. Louis…2 for 5…1RBI
Game 52…July 13 (1)…Chicago…3 for 4
Game 53…July 13 (2)…Chicago…1 for 4

--Finally, there’s little I can add to the sorrow and tragedy of the accident that took the life of baseball fan, and father, Shannon Stone, at the Ballpark in Arlington on Thursday night. Your heart just goes out to everyone involved; Shannon’s six-year-old son, his wife, Texas Rangers president Nolan Ryan and outfielder Josh Hamilton, who tossed the foul ball up to Mr. Stone.

Ryan said after, “It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen at a ballpark. As a father and a grandfather, my heart goes out to the family.

“It was a tragedy we had last night. It hits us at the roots of who we are. We’re about making memories, about family entertainment, and last night we had a father and a son at the game and had a very tragic incident. It just drives it to the core of what we’re about and the memories we try to make in this game for our fans.”

Stone’s mother, Suzann, told The Associated press that her son and grandson had stopped on the way to Arlington, Texas, to buy a glove and often made the 150-mile trip from Brownwood to attend Rangers games.

“That’s what they were there for was to catch a ball,” the 63-year-old mother said. “Cooper loves baseball and he’s a big Josh Hamilton fan. Had his jersey.”

Hamilton said he could hear Cooper Stone screaming for his dad after Stone fell. “That’s one of the main things I remember,” he said. “It’s definitely on my mind and in my heart. I can’t stop praying today for them.”

“Behind me I heard someone say ‘Hey Hamilton, how about the next one?’ I turned around and Stone was the first guy I saw sitting there with his son. I gave him a nod and I got the next one and threw it in that direction. I just remember it happened in slow motion. Obviously as soon as it happened, I couldn’t help but think about what was happening behind that fence.”

Hamilton said he would reach out to the Stone family at the appropriate time.

“I’m going to give this situation time to, you hate to think, sink in, but I can’t imagine what they’re going through right now. I can’t imagine. All I can think about is praying for them and know that God has a plan. You don’t always know what that plan is when those things happen, but you will.”

If you don’t know Josh Hamilton, just understand that of all the people for this to happen to, he’s potentially the best in terms of handling it down the road. Hamilton has had his own tragedies to deal with in his young life, many self-inflicted, but he has turned things around in a major way thanks to a great support system. He has to respect the privacy of Cooper’s mom, and she can’t expect him to replace the father, but I’m guessing he works out an arrangement to see the kid on a fairly regular basis.

[All Josh did on Saturday was hit a two-run, walkoff homer to propel the Rangers to a win over Oakland.]

John Mackey

Pro Football Hall of Famer John Mackey, one of the great tight ends in history, and a former president of the NFL Players Association, died of dementia at age 69.

Mackey played ten seasons for the Baltimore Colts and San Diego Chargers, catching 331 passes for 5,236 yards (a sterling 15.8 average per reception) and 38 touchdowns, as well as being named to five Pro Bowls. Before Mackey, the prototypical tight end was someone like Mike Ditka; players that blocked and caught short passes over the middle. But Mackey was not only big, he could run, and his quarterbacks would utilize his speed on deep routes. Six of his nine touchdown receptions in 1966 came on plays of 50 yards or longer.

But Mackey had perhaps an even bigger impact as the first president of the post-merger players’ union, where he fought for improved salaries and benefits. Mackey organized a players’ strike in the summer of 1970 that led to the owners kicking in $11 million for pensions and healthcare. And he won an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, which was forced to eliminate the “Rozelle Rule,” named for then-commissioner Pete Rozelle, that mandated equal compensation for teams that lost free agents, which then had the effect of limiting free agent signings. From this step it was just a matter of time before the players’ achieved full free agency. John Mackey and the above-mentioned Curt Flood were the key figures for their sports in advancing players’ rights.

“As John Mackey described the biggest game he won, he merely demonstrated all he had lost.

“In March 2007, in his Hall of Fame golf shirt and trademark black cowboy hat, Mackey proudly recounted how in Super Bowl V, he caught a 75-yard touchdown pass that fueled his Baltimore Colts’ 16-13 victory over Dallas. The problem was, the question was only, ‘Where do you live, John?’….

“The legacy of Mackey, who died Wednesday at age 69, will derive less from how his muscles revolutionized the tight end position from 1963 to 1972, or how his heart fought for players’ free-agency rights, but from how his brain atrophied before football’s eyes. No player so vividly advertised the growing problem of early-onset dementia among veterans of his era, or so unknowingly spurred the NFL to recognize it.

“Mackey was first found to have frontal temporal dementia in 2000, the same year that the owner of the Cowboys, Jerry Jones, told ESPN he would push his oft-concussed quarterback Troy Aikman into crucial games because ‘there is no evidence of any long-term, lasting impact’ from head trauma in the NFL. A few years later, a committee of doctors appointed by the league published several papers making the same claim, to the howls of more independent experts.”

All this time, John Mackey was getting worse. His wife, Sylvia, described his condition as “a slow, deteriorating, ugly, caregiver-killing, degenerative, brain-destroying tragic horror.”

Finally, the NFL created the 88 Plan, after John Mackey’s uniform number, to care for retired players with dementia, though the NFL “continued to claim football and dementia were not related, rather the 88 Plan was merely an effort to help players in need.” [Alan Schwarz]

Dick Williams

The Hall of Fame manager passed away on Thursday at the age of 82. Williams is one of only two managers (the other being Bill McKechnie) ever to lead three teams to the World Series, including World Championships for Charlie Finley’s Oakland A’s in 1972 and ’73. Fellow Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson said:

“He came to us at a very good time in our development and certainly for me as a young player full of talent…We were young and needed to understand how to go about winning and take the final step to become a great team. He was very important in that. He demanded excellence.”

Oh, no doubt Dick Williams was demanding, period. He also was hardly likeable. But he wasn’t out to be your friend, and didn’t care if his players despised him. In the end, most ‘bought in’ and it’s why he had the success he did.

It was during the 1973 Series, though, that Williams had a major tiff with Charlie Finley. After second baseman Mike Andrews made two errors in a Game 2 loss, Finley publicly berated Andrews and pressured him to sign an affidavit claiming he was hurt so the A’s could replace him on the roster.

Williams and the A’s players were outraged how Andrews was treated and Commissioner Bowie Kuhn intervened to block the roster move. Williams resigned after the Series was over, before Finley could fire him.

In 1967, Williams took over the helm of the Boston Red Sox, who had finished 9th in a ten-team American League the previous two years, and propelled them to the pennant for the first time since 1946 before losing the World Series in seven to St. Louis.

He also took over a Montreal franchise that had been last and turned them around, though he was fired right before the Expos made the playoffs. He then led the San Diego Padres to their first playoff berth and pennant in 1984.

Overall, in 21 seasons he had a record of 1,571-1,451 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008. He was also a part-time player for 13 seasons in the big leagues and had a .260 career average with 70 homers and 331 ribbies.

“As a rookie manager in 1967 – two seasons after he retired as a player – the 38-year-old Williams took the Boston Red Sox…to their first World Series in 31 years.

“Yet despite posting winning records in each of the next two seasons, Williams’ running battle with Red Sox superstar Carl Yastrzemski cost him his job with nine games remaining on the 1969 schedule.

“Yastrzemski later called Williams ‘one of the best managers I ever played for,’ starting a trend that would repeat itself throughout Williams’ career. Three times he used his hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners approach to turn teams around – and at least that many times, that approach got him fired.

“ ‘I was stern but fair,’ was how Williams described himself. ‘If some guys couldn’t stand the heat, then they didn’t belong in the major leagues. I don’t know anybody who refused the World Series checks I helped them get.’”

Andre Dawson, who played five seasons under Williams in Montreal:

“I was young when he came over to Montreal…and he had that presence about him. The tag [was] that he didn’t have a lot of patience and he could be tough on a young ballclub. But he never had to call me into his office.

“He only said to me once, ‘Enjoy yourself. Play the game hard. Don’t disrespect the fans. And just let your ability guide you.’ For me, that was someone telling me to just go out and have fun.”

Armen Gilliam

Gilliam, aka “The Hammer,” a member of the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels that made a Final Four run in 1987, and who then played for several NBA teams, died while playing basketball in Pittsburgh. He was only 47.

Gilliam was the leading scorer on the ‘87 team coached by Jerry Tarkanian. Tark, in a statement released by UNLV on Gilliam’s passing, called Armen one of the best the school had ever seen.

“In my ratings, I had Larry Johnson No. 1 and Armen No. 2. He was such a great person. Everybody loved him and he loved everybody. He was such a gentle person and such a caring guy. I am all shook up over it. I think the world of him and am just really shocked.”

In Gilliam’s 13-year NBA career, he averaged 13.7 points per game and 6.9 rebounds. But I frankly forgot what a great guy he was, even as he played for the New Jersey Nets from 1993-1996. Mike Wise of the Washington Post covered the Nets during the 1994-95 season and wrote a terrific piece on Gilliam, and his dysfunctional team that year which went 30-52 despite having a ton of talent.

“In the spring of 1995, the New Jersey Nets hit a new bottom. Neither a string of losses nor their point guard skipping morning practice to attend Scores, a Manhattan strip club, put them there. (When Kenny Anderson’s whereabouts were confirmed, the New York Post’s back page read, ‘He Scoots, He Scores.’)

“No, you knew the season was over when, in the middle of the locker room before a game, the trash talking was done by the reporters – sadly, about their Scrabble prowess.

“Anderson and Derrick Coleman, whose numerous misdeeds were fodder for us that year, buckled with laughter. Chris Morris cackled and laughed, too. One player did not.

“ ‘I want in,’ Armen Gilliam said. ‘Your hyperbole and language skills mean nothing to me.’

“And it was. The Hammer arrived at my Hackensack, N.J., apartment promptly that night with, if I recall correctly, his own Scrabble board. He left three hours later, having called out Dan Garcia from the Newark Star-Ledger for numerous misspellings and word inventions and having soundly beaten the rest of us. He won one round with a 24-point word, ambidextrous – apropos because Armen Gilliam had the best left hand of any right-handed player I’ve ever covered.

“ ‘Everything about him broke the mold and killed that gotta-get-mine stereotype of the modern NBA player,’ said Paul Silas, now coach of the Bobcats and then a Nets assistant to Butch Beard, by telephone from Charlotte. ‘He was somethin’ different, all right.’

“During the 1994-95 season, the one year I covered the Nets, ‘different’ was in no short supply. The team finished last in the Atlantic Division, but was as outrageous off the court as it was putrid on it.

“Against that backdrop stood one sane, stable veteran. Gilliam was thoughtful. He knew good food and fashion. He read complete novels during cross-country flights. When P.J. Brown got on a plane next to Gilliam as a rookie, Silas recalled, he couldn’t help but notice the financial portfolio Gilliam brought with him to look over.

“ ‘That’s who I want to be,’ Brown remembered thinking….

“Part of the shock (of The Hammer’s passing) stems from Gilliam’s place on that roster, that of the mature sage among young knuckleheads, old comedians and dysfunction everywhere. The most gifted of screenwriters could not make up that team.

“Morris showed up to play one night with words written on his sneakers. The right foot said ‘Please.’ The left foot said ‘Trade Me.’

“When told Anderson didn’t show up for practice that day, Coleman responded, ‘Whoopty-damn-do!’ During a scoreboard malfunction that season, he sat on the press table, disgusted. Within earshot, a writer jokingly pointed out, ‘D.C., they’re not getting you the ball enough.’

“ ‘Damn straight,’ Coleman said, throwing up his arms in anger.  He proceeded to take the team’s next 10 shots and shoot them out of the game.

“When shy and unproductive rookie Yinka Dare walked in the locker room, Anderson often greeted him with, ‘What up, Stinka?’

“And then there was Jayson Williams, cutting up everyone, pointing out their foibles. ‘Hey Yinka, what’s the C on Christian Laettner’s jersey stand for?’ Williams once asked Dare of Laettner, who was then the Timberwolves’ captain.

“ ‘I don’t know – Caucasian?’ Dare inquired. Suddenly, Benoit Benjamin spoke up, apparently ready to tell Dare the ‘C’ stood for ‘captain.’ ‘Yinka, you so stupid. Caucasian start with a K.’

“Gilliam was a prankster of renown, too. He could name Bill Clinton’s cabinet and would often ask teammates to tell him who Warren Christopher was and how many points he averaged.

“He had the entire locker room falling over on the road one night. Gilliam asked Morris before a game in Houston, ‘Mo, what is the capital of Houston?’ Morris, actually living in Houston, answered immediately, ‘Austin.’

“Kenny Anderson kept scratching his head and finally said, ‘So, what’s the capital of Houston, then?’”

“Always above the fray, Armen Gilliam, an original, is gone. More than his game, his dignity and his double-word scores, I’ll miss the person.”

--Congrats to the U.S. Women’s World Cup team for their dramatic win over Brazil that propels them into the semis in Germany.

--As Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal noted the other day, what’s so special about Derek Jeter and getting 3,000 hits? Diamond notes the achievement of “Jacinta Thomas, who has worked local hot dog and smoothie institution Papaya King for 38 years, slinging roughly 13.8 million dogs during that span. Don Ward, a shoeshine man on 6th Avenue in Manhattan, estimates he has shined nearly 164,000 pairs of shoes during his 21-year career.”

Or Brett Carow, who has played 11,000 games of Strat-O-Matic Baseball in his life. Personally, I retired from Strat-O-Matic when I was in high school, but by then I had played about 2,200.

--Steve Stricker won his third straight John Deere PGA Tour event and has now won 8 of his 11 tournaments since turning 40.

--But in the U.S. Women’s Open, a fifth weather delay in Colorado Springs meant no Sunday finish, the last thing the struggling LPGA needed in terms of exposure.

--Mini-uproar at my adopted school, San Diego State, where the incoming president, Elliot Hirshman, will receive $400,000 vs. the $299,435 taken down by departing President Stephen L. Weber.

Some are bitching because of all the cuts in the Cal State university system these days, and this is kind of understandable, but $400,000 seems like a realistic pay package. It’s the university presidents making seven figures that’s outrageous.

As for Stephen Weber, what a bang for the buck he gave SDSU, what with a competitive football program and the basketball team’s dream season that took them to the cusp of the Final Four last spring.

Because at the end of the day, kids, it’s all about college basketball and football, not academics. I’m hoping my Wake Forest Demon Deacons get the message this coming year. Good citizens are nice to have…but I want wins!!!

Back to Hirshman, he should be in great shape when it comes to Aztec football, but the basketball program is in major rebuilding mode.

--So much for last football season, if you are an Ohio State Buckeyes’ fan. The school vacated all 12 of its wins last year, including the Sugar Bowl victory over Arkansas, as a result of the scandal that cost coach Jim Tressel his job.

The move was part of Ohio State’s formal response to an NCAA investigation and also includes a self-imposed two-year probation and the suspension of five players for the first five games of next season. Incredibly, athletic director Gene Smith stays. As my late Uncle Bill would have said, “THE GUY’S A BUM!” [Everyone who wasn’t a Steeler, Pirate or on the Greensburg or Latrobe, Pa., high school football and basketball teams was a “bum” in Uncle Bill’s eyes.]

Meanwhile, the NCAA still has to respond and could impose further sanctions and penalties on the Buckeyes, especially seeing as the investigation itself isn’t over.

Tressel, by the way, said he’ll always be a Buckeye. A big, phony Buckeye, I’d add.

--West Virginia placed itself on two years’ probation for rules violations under former coaches Rich Rodriguez and Bill Stewart. The Mountaineers are losing a scholarship for the upcoming season and have recruiting restrictions and staff reductions. The probation doesn’t include postseason play. The NCAA accepted the penalties without imposing additional ones.

The NCAA had said WVU exceeded staff limits when it came to both on and off the field coaching activities and that neither Rodriguez or Stewart monitored the program the way they should have.

--Right after I posted the last column, word came in on the 57-year-old man who was mauled to death by a grizzly in Yellowstone National Park, the first such death there since 1986.

The attack occurred on the popular Wapiti Lake Trail as the man hiked with his wife. A bear warning sign was posted at the trailhead. As a story in The Billings Gazette put it:

“Park officials said the husband and wife had hiked just more than a mile down the trail when they surprised a grizzly sow with cubs.

“Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said the couple saw the bear twice on their hike. The first time, they continued hiking. The second time, the grizzly was running at them and the man told his wife to run.

“Park officials said the bear attacked to defend against a perceived threat. They said the victim’s wife called 911 on her cellphone and other hikers in the area responded to her cries for help.

“The woman told park officials that she didn’t see the bear attack her husband. When the bear went for her, Nash said, she dropped to the ground. The grizzly lifted her off the ground by the day pack she was wearing and then dropped her.

“The woman may have had scrapes and bruises but didn’t seek medical attention, Nash said.”

The story that this was the first human fatality in Yellowstone since 1986, though, is very deceiving.

“In June 2010, a grizzly just released after being trapped and tranquilized for study killed an Illinois man hiking outside Yellowstone’s east gate. Last July, a grizzly killed a Michigan man and injured two others in a nighttime campground rampage near Cooke City.”

There are anywhere from 600 to 1,000 grizzlies in and around Yellowstone.

One thing is for sure. If you go hiking there, you should be in a group of at least four people.

And in case you forgot, bears can run over 30 miles per hour, 44 feet per second, or faster than Olympic sprinters.

--Uh oh…trouble for Man’s Best Friend…consensus #1 on the All-Species List. I’m talking about Dog. As reported by Anna Patty of the Sydney Morning Herald:

“Police sniffer dogs are only identifying drugs or weapons in a small minority of searches in which they are used.

“Government figures supplied to the Greens in response to questions on notice show that last year sniffer dogs were involved in 551 searches for firearms or explosives, which identified only five positive cases.

“Of the 15,779 searches for illegal drugs, 5,087 identified them.”

Hey, what’s the problem? That’s a pretty good percentage on the drug front, don’t you think?

But to Greens MP David Shoebridge, who obtained the figures from the state government, said sniffer dogs had been a “clear failure” and “should be stopped immediately.”

“These figures prove that sniffer dogs are a waste of police resources and the government must commit to an immediate review of their use,” Mr. Shoebridge said.

Then again, he does have a point on the intrusive weapons front. Five for 551 kind of sucks.

So Bar Chat asked Peter Beagle to comment, he being a spokesman for the dogs, and Peter said, “Sniff…sniff sniff…sniff sniff sniff…” Point taken.

But should this impact Dog’s ranking on the All-Species List? Hardly. Just see who’s involved in the next earthquake rescue mission, or the next SEAL raid on an al-Qaeda hideout. You’ll see a Dog, is what you’ll see. No cats…or dancing cockatoos (incredibly overrated act in your editor’s opinion, by the way). You probably aren’t likely to see any Greens, either.

--You know what ticks me off? How Heineken Light is ripping off Dos Equis with the man in the snakeskin jacket commercial.

--Talk about a nightmare, from the New York Post’s Page Six:

“If the weather created travel troubles for you last night, spare a thought for those trapped on a delayed American Airlines plane with Octomom Nadya Suleman and 12 of her 14 kids aged between 2 and 9 at JFK. Sources said Suleman and her brood, who each got a seat, took up the whole business-class section of an L.A.-bound plane delayed by rain and then ordered back to the gate due to a computer problem. A spy told us, ‘The passengers were waiting for pandemonium to break out.’ The kids had earlier created chaos on ‘Today,’ with an apologetic Suleman telling Ann Curry, ‘This is their first time traveling.’”

Boy, if I was on that plane, it could have gotten ugly.

--The top 50 concert tours, including U2, Bon Jovi and Lady Gaga, grossed $1.65 billion in the first half of 2011 – an 11.2 percent jump over last year despite a 2.1 percent decline in total ticket sales, because the average ticket price jumped 13.6% to $84.92. The Eagles at $150.07 and Paul McCartney, $152.38, are the two highest for group acts. Celine Dion’s $167.56 is tops overall. By contrast, Katy Perry can only command $55 and Justin Bieber $67. [Kaja Whitehouse / New York Post]

“Whom did Justin Timberlake’s mom catch him in bed with when he was ‘too young,’ as he revealed in a recent interview? Could it have been former girlfriends Britney Spears or Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas? Speculation has spread like wildfire since the ‘Friends with Benefits’ star told Elle, ‘I was caught…My mom wasn’t cool about it. I was too young to be in bed with a girl.’ Timberlake dated Spears when they were 18, but they met on the set of ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ when they were just 12. Fergie dated Timberlake prior to his relationship with Spears, when he was 16 and she was 23. His rep declined to comment.”

--The New York Times’ William Rhoden had a piece on the late Clarence Clemons and his football playing days at Maryland State (now Maryland Eastern Shore), and the friendship Clemons had with running back Emerson Boozer, who would go on to star with the New York Jets.

“Boozer said the last time he saw Clemons face to face was about 1971 at a restaurant on Wall Street. Clemons spoke excitedly about being on the verge of a major breakthrough. Boozer says he also remembers that conversation as if it were yesterday.

“ ‘I asked him what he was doing, and he told me that he had met a blue-eyed soul brother who was going to make him a lot of money,’ Boozer said. ‘I asked him what he meant, and he said that he had met a young fella who could really sing, who stirs the crowd, gets them all involved. He said write this down and don’t forget it: Bruce Springsteen.’….

“Asked how he took the news (of Clemons’ death), Boozer, who celebrated his 68th birthday July 4, was philosophic.

“ ‘Naturally, it saddens you a little, but I’ve gotten to the point where death doesn’t sadden me too much because I know that we’re not here forever,’ Boozer said. ‘We’re only here for a span of time, and no matter how you go, that was your time span. You accept it and move on.’

“The Big Man is gone, but he leaves a rich and timeless legacy. How many musicians can say they opened holes for Emerson Boozer? How many offensive lineman can say they blazed a trail with Bruce Springsteen?

Top 3 songs for the week 7/13/68: #1 “This Guy’s In Love With You” (Herb Alpert…used to play this one on the piano in college to pick up women, with zero success…)   #2 “The Horse” (Cliff Nobles & Co. …ever after the bane of high school marching bands) #3 “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (The Rolling Stones)…and…#4 “Lady Willpower” (Gary Puckett and the Union Gap…first to really have Big Hair) #5 “Grazing In The Grass” (Hugh Masekela…loved this one) #6 “The Look Of Love” (Sergio Mendes & Brazil ’66…ditto) #7 “Angel Of The Morning” (Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts…never dated a Merrilee…) #8 “Stoned Soul Picnic” (The 5th Dimension…pause to honor Marilyn…) #9 “Here Comes The Judge” (Shorty Long…it was the time of “Laugh In”) #10 “Indian Lake” (The Cowsills)

Baseball Quiz Answer: Home run leaders by position from 7/1/10-6/30/11.

Catcher…Brian McCann, 26; Mike Napoli, 22; Buster Posey, 21
First Base…Mark Teixeira, 45; Albert Pujols, 41; Paul Konerko, 40
Second Base…Dan Uggla, 30; Rickie Weeks, 30; Robinson Cano, 28
Shortstop…Troy Tulowitzki, 33; Jhonny Peralta, 23
Third Base…Alex Rodriguez, 32; Adrian Beltre, 30; Aramis Ramirez, 29; Mark Reynolds, 29
Outfield…Jose Bautista, 58; Curtis Granderson, 38; Matt Kemp, 37; Mike Stanton, 36

Pitchers…20 wins…CC Sabathia, 23-8; Roy Halladay, 22-6; Justin Verlander, 20-7; Jon Lester, 20-10.

*Cole Hamels has the top ERA in baseball for the past year, 2.34.   He is 15-9 over that time.

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