Baseball Quiz: For most of the month of March we will dispatch
with the basics before the season gets underway. Today’s –
Name the 17 in the 500-homer club. Answer below. [Extra
credit and a free subscription to ‘Bar Chat’ if you get the # hit
correct as well.]
Baseball Hall of Fame…Veterans Committee
So this new, improved committee, consisting of the 58 living
Hall of Fame players, plus 27 or so member sportswriters,
broadcasters and former committee members, was to vote on a
representative list of players and non-players, the latter including
umpires, executives and former players’ union head Marvin
Miller, and enshrine one or two…and they failed to come up
with anyone! Not one, including Gil Hodges, Ron Santo or
Miller received the required 75%. I’m sorry, but this sucks,
especially for those of us who have been touting Santo for years.
Following are the top vote totals.
Gil Hodges – 62% [50 of 81…4 didn’t turn in ballots.]
Tony Oliva – 59%
Ron Santo – 57%
Joe Torre – 36%
Maury Wills – 30%
Vada Pinson – 26% [Another personal fave]
Non-players
Doug Harvey (umpire) – 61%
Walter O’Malley (executive) – 48%
Marvin Miller – 44%
I’ll have to comment more on all this next week, but for now,
aside from Santo, I still don’t understand the hesitation with
Hodges…amazing.
Stuff
–USA Today is running a series on the “10 Hardest Things To
Do In Sports.” Thus far they are down to the final 3 (as of
Wednesday).
10. The Downhill
9. Saving a penalty kick
8. Tour de France
7. Running a marathon
6. Landing a quad (figure skating)
5. Returning a serve
4. Hitting a long, straight tee shot
With all due respect, having run two marathons myself (one after
eating a huge portion of black bean soup the night before),
ranking this achievement at #7 is a joke. It’s not even top ten.
Hell, for one marathon I had a training run of 13 miles and one
of 10, that’s it, and I still finished the freakin’ thing. Of course I
almost died, but that had to do with the black beans, you
understand.
So where do you think ‘hitting a baseball’ will be? More on this
Tuesday.
–No French bashing, just a straightforward story concerning the
suspected suicide of master chef Bernard Loiseau on Monday.
Loiseau was the proprietor of the 3-star Michelin Guide ‘Cote
d’Or’ outside Paris, as well as the owner of the only publicly
traded food empire, his company also producing frozen foods
along with having 3 other restaurants in Paris.
Loiseau was known for promoting “nouvelle cuisine” in which
thick, creamy sauces were largely replaced with meat stock-
based recipes. In case you gave a damn…
But the reason for me mentioning this story is that Loiseau may
have succumbed to the pressure of the ratings system, both with
Michelin and the competitor, Gault-Millau. Michelin has a 20-
point system and while they kept Cote d’Or’s 3-stars, they
deducted two points to 17. Bernard was upset about that, but he
was even more so concerning a downgrade from Gault-Millau.
It was back in the 17th century, though, that the legendary
(according to press reports, I can’t say I ever knew this) Francois
Vatel served a poor meal to King Louis XIV. Evidently the fish
arrived late, so Vatel killed himself.
Actually, I’m thinking of creating a chain of restaurants, Chex
d’Or, specializing in food cooked in sauces containing Chex
Mix. We would also serve Shiner Bock beer and Sleeman’s
Cream Ale, the latter for our Canadian friends.
–On Wednesday the final report from the 15-member
commission looking into Title IX was to be released, though it’s
not known as of this writing exactly what it says. What we do
know, however, is that two members, Julie Foudy (U.S. women’s
soccer) and Donna de Varona (former Olympian and
broadcaster) won’t sign the final version because they dispute the
findings by the commission chaired by Stanford’s athletic
director. Here are some facts.
Women represent 56% of full-time students on college campuses
today. One NCAA official, Judith Sweet, contends 58% of the
athletes are male, 42% female, while women’s sports make
up 36% of athletic budgets.
Personally, I’ve commented enough in the past on this topic,
though I just want to reiterate two things. First, of course it’s
collegiate football that skews both the participation and financial
figures (and on the participation side perhaps some minimal
changes can be made here) while, second, I remain unconvinced
that in the case of some sports, like field hockey… oh, forget it.
I’ll lose too many readers if I give my true opinion right now.
I’ll wait for the final report and a review of the reaction.
–Thanks to my full-service broker David P. for reminding me to
read the Times’ Mike Freeman and his piece on boxer Roy Jones
Jr. Now I’ve always been a decent fan of the heavyweight scene,
but I normally ignore the other weight classes and so it is that I
forgot the undefeated, and clean, Jones is attempting to jump up
from middleweight to heavyweight this Saturday with his bout
against WBA champ John Ruiz. Should Jones win, he would be
the first since Bob Fitzsimmons 106 years ago to win the title in
both classes, an amazing achievement.
–When Wilt Chamberlain was at Kansas, he had a school record
52 points and 31 rebounds in his first varsity game (freshmen
being ineligible back then). [Source: David Teel / Phil W.]
–According to the latest power ratings for Division I men’s
basketball, the following are the top conferences this year.
1. Southeastern
2. Big 12
3. ACC
4. Big Ten
5. Big East
–Our prayers are with NBA player Todd MacCulloch, currently
with Philadelphia, who has been diagnosed with a rare
degenerative neurological disorder, Charcot-Marie-Tooth
disease, that saps the strength from your legs. Doctors say he has
played his last game. MacCulloch is known to be one of the
truly good guys in all of sports.
–On Monday, MTV was slated to begin a contest whereby over
the course of the week some 1,000 rappers were to be judged in
an open call, with the winner receiving $25,000 and a Def Jam
recording contract. But by Monday morning at 7:00 AM, over
3,500 were assembled outside MTV’s Times Square
headquarters in New York. The crowd got unruly and a first-
class riot broke out after New York Police insisted that MTV
cancel the deal. Amazingly only a few were injured.
The police said MTV didn’t issue ID bracelets to guarantee one’s
place in line, which had been their request. MTV’s management,
a bunch of irresponsible a-holes, denied this.
Can you imagine that some jerks flew all the way out from
Honolulu and Seattle for this hip-hop fiasco? We want our
Norah Jones!
–Kudos to HBO for its excellent documentary on the life of
broadcaster Jim McKay. Try and catch it if you haven’t seen it.
–Happy Birthday to Johnny Cash…#71!
Johnny Paycheck, Part II
The other day when I wrote a bit on Paycheck’s death, I didn’t
have access to his full song list. So I thought I’d just list a few,
all of which hit the country charts, as a further example of what
he was all about… though these aren’t necessarily dissimilar to
many other country artists and their own tunes.
If I’m Gonna Sink
I Can See You Lovin’ Me Again
Slide Off Of Your Satin Sheets… [A big hit]
I’m The Only Hell (Mama Ever Raised)
Down On The Corner At A Bar Called Kelly’s
(Stay Away From) The Cocaine Train
Drinkin’ And Drivin’
Fifteen Beers
When You’re Ugly Like Us (You Just Naturally Got To Be
Cool)
D.O.A. (Drunk On Arrival)
Out Of Beer… [Personally, when I was on Guam the other day,
due to supply problems following the recent typhoon there some
of the bars were running out of beer! Imagine my dismay.]
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/25/67: #1 “Kind Of A Drag” (The
Buckinghams) #2 “Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone” (The
Supremes) #3 “Ruby Tuesday” (The Rolling Stones)
–Thanks to Craig N. for reminding me that Great White had a
top ten hit, “Once Bitten Twice Shy.” I looked it up and it was
on the list for 5 weeks in the summer of ’89, peaking at #5.
Baseball Quiz Answer: 500-homer club.
Hank Aaron 755
Babe Ruth 714
Willie Mays 660
Barry Bonds 613
Frank Robinson 586
Mark McGwire 583
Harmon Killebrew 573
Reggie Jackson 563
Mike Schmidt 548
Mickey Mantle 536
Jimmie Foxx 534
Ted Williams 521
Willie McCovey 521
Eddie Mathews 512
Ernie Banks 512
Mel Ott 511
Eddie Murray 504
*Other ‘actives’ aside from Bonds…
Sammy Sosa 499
Rafael Palmeiro 490
Fred McGriff 478
Ken Griffey Jr. 468
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday.
**Friends, our “Lamb In Command” creator, my brother, has
been laid up for a spell. Your positive vibes and prayers would
be appreciated.
