New York Yankees Quiz: 1) Single season RBI leader? 2) Who
went 20-11 in 1970? 3) Who was the last AL MVP? 4) Who was
the last to win the AL ERA title? [This is tough.] 5) Who was
the last AL strikeout champion? [You get this one, you’re damn
good and therein lies a hint.] 6) Who is the all-time club leader
in triples? 7) Games pitched? Answers below.
Jefferson and Adams
You can’t celebrate the Fourth without retelling the story of
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, Founding Fathers and our
2nd and 3rd Presidents (Adams, 2nd), who both died on the Fourth
of July, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence.
Adams’s last words were reported to have been, “Thomas
Jefferson still survives.” He had no means of knowing that
Jefferson had died the same morning at 9:50 AM.
For his part, Jefferson had ten days earlier declined an invitation
to attend ceremonies in Washington marking this golden
anniversary. Barely able to hold pen in hand, he wrote his last
testament to the American people:
“All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The
general spread of the light of science has already laid open to
every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not
been born with saddles on their back, nor a favored few booted
and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.
These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the
annual return of this day, forever refresh our recollections of
these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”
[Source: “The Presidents,” Henry Graff incidentally, while it
was signed on July 4, the Declaration of Independence wasn’t
published for the first time until July 6, as it appeared in the
Pennsylvania Evening Post under the title “A Declaration by the
Representatives of the United States of America, in General
Congress Assembled.” The Evening Post was a four-page paper
and the Declaration covered the entire first page and part of the
second. Imagine sitting in a tavern as it came out. Oh, the Bar
Chat!!!!]
Rosemary Clooney
One of the music industry’s superstars in the 1950s, Clooney,
whose nephew is George, died the other day at age 74.
At times Clooney’s love life was the source of more chatter than
her singing ability, though, as she had a stormy relationship with
actor Jose Ferrer, whom she married and divorced twice, all
while Ferrer, a known womanizer, was playing the field
(including during their first honeymoon, so Rosemary claimed).
But Clooney had a few flings of her own, including with
bandleader Nelson Riddle (a puzzling affair).
Then in 1968, heavily into Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign for the
presidency, Clooney and two of her daughters witnessed his
assassination in Los Angeles, which deeply impacted Rosemary
and led to a stint in the psycho ward.
But it was Bing Crosby, among others, who stepped up to help
revive her career and Clooney then carved out a niche on the
nightclub circuit.
Some Clooney hits:
1951 – Come On-a My House (#1)
1952 – Half As Much (#1)
1952 – Tenderly (great rendition)
1954 – Hey There (#1)
1954 – This Ole House (#1)
Clooney also starred with Crosby and Danny Kaye in “White
Christmas.”
Baseball Bits
–Baseball’s Pete Gray died the other day. He was the one-armed
outfielder who had his moment of glory in 1945 when the St.
Louis Browns called him up, rosters ravaged by war, and he
responded with a .218 batting average in 234 at bats. [6 doubles,
2 triples, 13 RBI, 5 steals but only fanned 11 times.]
As a six-year-old growing up Nanticoke, PA, Gray slipped while
riding on the running board of a truck, his arm got stuck in one of
the wheels and soon he was learning to play baseball left-handed.
Of course he was a tremendous inspiration to many, but others
taunted him for his handicap. What I find remarkable is his
minor league record, where he hit .381 his first season.
–July 4, 1939: Jim Tabor of the Red Sox hit 4 homers in a sweep
of Philadelphia, 17-7 and 18-12 (I shouldn’t complain about
Coors Field, I guess). Tabor hit two grand slams in the nightcap
and had 11 RBI in the doubleheader. Overall that season, he
ended up with just 14 homers in 577 at bats, with 95 ribbies. For
his career, Tabor was .270, 104-598.
–July 13, 1946: St. Louis Browns outfielder Al Zarilla hit 2
triples in one inning. In 1951, Monroe, North Carolina’s Gil
Coan hit 2 triples in an inning for Washington. But the last NL
player to do so was Curt Walker, an outfielder with Cincinnati
and a pretty fair player. Walker accomplished his feat in 1926, a
year in which he had 20 triples to go along with a .306 average.
For his career he hit .304.
–Speaking of triples, in 1969, San Diego second baseman John
Sipin hit two triples in his first game, the only two of his career.
’69 was his lone season in the big leagues (.223 in 229 at bats).
Boy, he must have been one cocky dude after that fast start.
The only other NL player to have two triples in his first major
league game was the great Willie McCovey.
–July 5, 1947: Larry Doby makes debut for Indians, the first
black player in AL history.
–July 9, 1969: With two outs to go, Jim Qualls’s bloop single
ends Tom Seaver’s bid for a perfect game. The editor, then 11
years of age, cried all night. Qualls had a whopping 31 hits in
his major league career.
–July 8, 1972: Detroit pitcher John Hiller makes his first
appearance in 18 months after suffering a heart attack. He goes
on to pitch successfully through 1980 87-76, 125 saves and a
2.84 ERA.
–July 4, 1983: The Yankees’ Dave Righetti pitched a 4-0 no-
hitter against the Red Sox, marking the Yankees’ first no-no
since Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956 World Series.
–July 4, 2026: Buddy Spitzfinger finally tosses the first no-hitter
in New York Mets history in his major league debut. The Mets
then trade him to the Yankees for 55-year-old Jorge Posada.
Your editor shoots himself.
–As of this writing, the Dodgers’ Eric Gagne is on pace to set a
new major league save mark. Gagne has 30 (thru Monday) and
Bobby Thigpen holds the record with 57 for the White Sox back
in 1990. Gagne has walked just 4 and given up only 23 hits in 42
innings.
–Roland Latina, “The Glove Doctor,” died at age 78. Latina
worked for Rawlings Sporting Goods for 39 years and designed
the closed-back glove with an index finger opening, as well as
the basket web design. His father also worked at Rawlings and
the two designed gloves for the likes of Musial, Mantle and
Clemente.
–Steroid alert: A major league record 62 home runs were hit in
games played Tuesday.
–AL Shortstops
Talk about your era of the shortstop, check out the mid-year
marks for the five AL reps making the All-Star team.
[BA, HR-RBI as of Saturday, June 29.]
Nomar Garciappara .315, 10-60
Alex Rodriguez .302, 24-65
Derek Jeter .305, 11-39
Miguel Tejada .299, 15-59
Omar Vizquel .295, 10-45
Vizquel is going to be interesting down the road when it comes
to the Hall of Fame. He’ll finish with numbers very similar to
Luis Aparacio, who’s in.
As for Tejada, Johnny Mac says this guy has to be about as
underrated as anyone in the game. Only 26, Tejada is on his way
to his 3rd straight 30-100 season.
2000 – 30 HR 115 RBI
2001 – 31 HR 113 RBI
Assuming Nomar stays healthy, he’ll be joining ‘locks’ A-Rod
and Jeter in the Hall.
–I’m encouraged at the mid-point. We may not have outrageous
HR and RBI totals this year, after all. A nice 20-game ‘strike’
would help, too just kidding.
In both the AL and NL, it looks as though 140 ribbies will be
tops, which is more reasonable than the past few years.
Leading RBI Total, AL / NL
1995 126 / 128
1996 148 / 150
1997 147 / 148
1998 157 / 158
1999 165 / 147
2000 145 / 147
2001 141 / 160
As for home runs, there’s an outside shot no one will bang 50
(though I would expect Sosa to do so assuming the supplier
comes through, if you know what I’m sayin’).
Leading HR Total, AL / NL
1995 50* / 40 [*Albert Belle this was legit.]
1996 52 / 47
1997 56 / 49
1998 56 / 70
1999 48 / 65
2000 47 / 50
2001 52 / 73
Fireball Roberts
The first real superstar of stock car racing, “Fireball” Roberts (he
hated the name, preferring his real one, Glenn) captured his
first Winston Cup race at age 21 in 1950, but it was six years
before he won another. By 1958, however, he was king of the
superspeedway, becoming the first to win two 500-mile races in
one year, including at Darlington.
But Roberts’s pedal-to-the-metal style was not necessarily
conducive to winning the driving championship, so he was
seldom in the Top Ten in the points standings.
By May 1964, Fireball nonetheless had won 32 races, including
the Daytona 500 in 1962 (where he won the pole, ‘61-’63), as
well as the Southern 500 (Darlington) in ’58 and ’63.
Next up for Roberts was the Charlotte 600, but his mind seemed
to be elsewhere. In January, he had lost one of his good friends,
Joe Weatherly, who was killed in a crash at Riverside.
Weatherly’s brakes failed as he was trying to run down Dan
Gurney (the winner of the race), when his brakes failed and he
hit the wall on the left side. Weatherly was only going 85 mph,
but his head extended out the driver’s window and he slammed
his skull against the concrete wall, the first death on a NASCAR
track in seven years.
There were some who said that at age 35, Fireball Roberts was
beginning to lose some of his skills. And the night before the
World 600 in Charlotte, he was sitting around the motel pool,
talking to driver Ned Jarrett, when he told Ned he was losing his
competitive edge.
The morning of the race he also told fellow competitor Banjo
Matthews that he didn’t feel up to racing. Banjo told him, “Get
your ass up and go get in your car and go home.” But Roberts
insisted he couldn’t disappoint his fans, let alone the sponsors.
It was then on just the 8th lap, that Junior Johnson spun into Ned
Jarrett, Jarrett caught fire, Roberts swerved to avoid both but
bounced into the rear of Jarrett, tagged the wall and landed
upside down in a sea of flames.
Jarrett leaped out of his own burning car to go to Fireball’s aid.
“Oh, my God, Ned, help me. I’m on fire,” screamed Roberts.
Jarrett managed to pull him out, but he was burned over 75% of
his body. [Before the race, Roberts had cut the sleeves on his
fire retardant suit because it was scratchy.]
Amazingly, Roberts lived until July 2nd , as friend and rival Fred
Lorenzen stayed at his side most of the time.
[Source: “American Zoom,” Peter Golenbock]
Beer Bits
–By law, only beers produced by Trappist monasteries have the
right to be called “Trappist.”
–Africa’s first commercial brewery was set up by a sailor from
Antwerp, Pieter Visagie, in the Cape of Good Hope as early as
1655. [Hey, I’m big in Zimbabwe, you know.]
–The Czech Republic’s hop-growing tradition dates back to the
9th century. The product was so valuable, Bohemian King
Vaclav IV forbade growers from selling cuttings abroad on
penalty of death.
–Captain James Cook (1728-1779), a British naval officer and
explorer, is credited with being New Zealand’s first brewer. He
was concerned about scurvy (just like the Miller commercials),
and brewed “beer” for the ship’s crew by boiling up spruce and
tea shrub leaves and twigs, mixed with molasses. The
concoction was then served with a shot of rum to disguise the
flavor. [This could be a good summer project, boys and girls.
Gather the ingredients and see if you can come up with Cook’s
beer. Ask your parents first, though, when it comes to adding the
rum.]
Back to Cook, this is the same captain who then discovered the
Hawaiian Islands, where he was later killed in a dispute with the
natives. “You call this stinkin’ beer?!” they cried.
–Following are some recommendations for your holiday dishes,
as proposed by beer expert Michael Jackson in his book
“Ultimate Beer.” I only picked out the North American
offerings.
Chicken: Penn Oktoberfest (Pittsburgh), Independence
Franklinfest (Philadelphia)
Pork: Big Rock McNally’s Extra Ale (Alberta, Canada),
McGuire’s Old Style Irish Ale (Pensacola, Florida)
Beef: St.-Ambroise Pale Ale (Montreal), Pike Pale Ale (Seattle)
Smoked Food: Boscos Flaming Stone (Memphis)
Pizza: Rickard’s Red (Barrie, Ontario), Chelsea Sunset Red
(Manhattan)
Top 3 songs for the week of 7/5/75: “Love Will Keep Us
Together” (The Captain & Tennille) #2 “The Hustle” (Van
McCoy & The Soul City Symphony) #3 “Listen To What The
Man Said” (Wings)
NY Yankees Quiz Answers: 1) Single season RBI: Lou Gehrig,
184 in 1931. He’s also #2 and #3, with 175 and 174. 2) That
great wife-swapper, Fritz Peterson, went 20-11 in 1970.
[Peterson was 133-131 in his career. In case you forgot, he once
exchanged wives with teammate Mike Kekich.] 3) Don
Mattingly was the last MVP, 1985. 4) Rudy May was the last
ERA champion, 1980, when he went 15-5 with a 2.46 ERA. 5)
Al Downing was the last league strikeout king, 217, in 1964. 6)
The all-time club leader in triples is Gehrig with 163. 7) Dave
Righetti is the all-time leader in games pitched, 522.
Happy Fourth, friends. Next Bar Chat, Tuesday.
