New York / San Francisco Giants Quiz: 1) When was the
franchise’s last Series championship? 2) Who were the 3 rookies
of the year in the 1950s? 3) Who was 2-time NL MVP in the
1930s? 4) Who is the single season RBI leader? 5) Who threw
the last no-hitter? 6) Who is the career leader in RBI? 7) What
year did Candlestick Park open? Answers below.
Staying Power
The great Barry White was born in Galveston, Texas, 1944. Soon
after the family moved to East Los Angeles, where in 1960 he spent
3 months in prison for stealing tires from a local car dealer. But
it was in prison that Barry later said he found musical inspiration
and afterwards he stayed out of trouble.
In the early 1960s he joined a local R&B band, the Upfronts, and
by 1966 he was working for Mustang Records, doing production
work. There he discovered a vocal trio, Love Unlimited,
whereupon he produced their gold single “Walking In The Rain
With The One I Love,” a highly irritating song that just goes on
and on and on…. But White ended up marrying one of the
singers, his second wife, and it lasted until the end.
In 1973 White had his own first big recording, “I’m Gonna Love
You Just A Little Bit More Baby” (White liked long song titles),
which hit #3 on the Billboard Pop Charts, #1 R&B. Despite his
chubby physique White became a major sex symbol, “the high
priest of love,” as he himself put it.
Around this time White was also writing for Love Unlimited
Orchestra and he had a huge instrumental hit, “Love’s Theme,”
which not only hit #1 on the pop charts, it is also credited with
helping to launch the disco era. [Incidentally, a 17-year-old by
the name of Kenny Gorelick was in the orchestra. Kenny G.]
For the next few years, Barry White was a writing, producing,
performing machine. He never received the credit he deserved
for being so multi-talented, in my opinion, but the record speaks
for itself. Among his other hits in the 70s were:
“Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up” [#7 Pop]
“Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe” [#1 Pop, #1 R&B]
“You’re The First, The Last, My Everything” [#2 Pop, #1 R&B]
“What Am I Gonna Do With You” [#8 Pop, #1 R&B]
By the late 70s, however, White’s popularity waned. But then in
the later part of the 80s he experienced a resurgence, which
culminated in his 1994 #1 R&B album “The Icon Is Love” with
the #1 R&B tune “Practice What You Preach.” Then in 1999,
his album “Staying Power” won Barry his first, and only two
Grammys.
Ah yes, every guy in America, and around the world for that
matter, I imagine, had Barry White’s Greatest Hits for those
‘special’ occasions. Now discuss amongst yourselves. I’ll help
you get started, with the lyrics to “Love Serenade.” [Children
under 16 must skip to the next story.]
“I want you the way you came into the world, I don’t want to feel
no clothes….”
Stuff
–You know, sometimes your editor nails an issue. Just last week
I discussed the fact that of the 13 players listed on the 1st team
N.J. high school all-state baseball team, not one was black, and
mentioned what an indictment this was for the future of the
game.
Well, lo and behold, the current Sports Illustrated has a piece on
the exact same topic, written by Tom Verducci. So here are
some of his far more extensive findings.
At one premier baseball camp for high school players from all
across America, only 6 of 150 in attendance were black.
Blacks comprise just 10% of major league rosters. Back in 1975
they filled 27% of roster spots.
Today, only five starting pitchers in the major leagues are black.
Only 6.7% of Division I college players are black.
Thankfully, Latinos now hold 28% of roster spots in the majors.
Now compare the above to the fact that 65% of NFL players are
African-American and over the past 10 years, 72-82% of NBA
players are as well.
Of course one of the sad facts of urban America is the lack of
ball fields. And as Verducci points out, kids growing up do what
their friends are doing. Amazingly, there isn’t a single black
major leaguer from Boston, New York or Philadelphia.
Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins, black, comments.
“The thing about baseball is that it’s such a team sport. And
when you’re in the inner city, it’s all about being the man, about
establishing your strength as an individual. So how can you be
the man? You want that ball in your hands with three seconds on
the clock to take the shot, or you want the football under your
arm. That’s how.”
Another part of the problem these days is the “instruction
chasm.” Today, parents with money are spending up to $5,000
to have their sons playing on traveling squads with non-stop
private lessons. I saw this firsthand the other day with an article
in the local paper about a rising 9th grader from my home town
who is the only American playing in a tournament down in
Australia this summer. Hell, the kid’s like 6’2”, a pitcher, and I
never heard of him. I don’t know what his future scholastic
plans are, but since the article mentioned he had two individual
coaches, neither from Summit (N.J.), it sure doesn’t look like
he’ll be resetting Summit High’s record book.
Speaking of which, a classic story along the lines of this topic
involves someone I’ve mentioned before, former Kansas City
Royals all-star Willie Wilson. Wilson went to Summit High and
graduated two years ahead of me in 1974. In the opinion of
many, Wilson is still the greatest football player the state
produced, and our school was visited by the likes of Woody
Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and John McKay his senior year.
[Also Tom Seaver, who was trying to convince Wilson he could
play both baseball and football at McKay’s USC, where Seaver
also went to school.]
But Wilson ended up committing to play at Maryland, which had
those great football teams at the time under Jerry Claiborne.
Then, however, the baseball draft rolled around, the Royals took
him in the first round (the same year that Garry Templeton was a
first-rounder as well) and Wilson chose baseball before ever
giving college football a shot. Just a guess, but these days I
suspect he would have picked Maryland and football.
–Separately, Sports Illustrated surveyed some 550 current major
leaguers on various topics, among which were:
“Who gets the most from the least talent?”
–Anaheim’s David Eckstein in a landslide with 62% of the vote.
“Who gets the least from the most talent?”
–29% chose Rubin Rivera of the Giants.
Best fans – St. Louis, 46%; Boston is next at 13%
Worst fans – New York and Montreal with 15.5%. Actually, I
think that 15% figure for Montreal is the percentage of residents
who even know they have a baseball team.
Best Road City – Chicago, 35%; New York, 17%.
Worst Road City – Detroit, 32%; Milwaukee, 24%.
“Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame?”
–74% of the players surveyed said ‘Yes, unconditionally.’
–I missed Anna Kournikova not making her brief appearance at
Wimbledon this year.
–Wohhh….a 1,152-lb. bluefin tuna, the biggest ever caught on
rod and reel in the Gulf of Mexico, was hauled in by Ron
Roland. [So much for the stories that all the big fish are
disappearing, I guess.] Roland hooked it at 3:45 PM, 35 miles
off the Louisiana coast, and didn’t stop battling until 9:00 PM.
The fish was so big it couldn’t be hauled onto the 50-foot vessel
so they dragged it to shore, whereupon it was cut into steaks. By
the looks of the picture, it seemed to be about 11-feet long. [SI]
I once fished in the Gulf of Mexico, chartering a boat with three
friends. We took in about 8 Spanish mackerel, each weighing
less than 3 lbs., or 1,149 less than Roland’s bluefin.
–Congratulations to Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, all 145-lbs. of
him, for repeating once again as the Nathan’s Famous / Coney
Island Hot Dog champion. As one of his fellow competitors put
it, Kobayashi is the “Michael Jordan of wiener wolfing.” Heck,
he inhaled 44 ½ in 12 minutes, with buns, sports fans. Last year
he did 50. To put this in perspective, Ed “Cookie” Jarvis, 420
lbs., took second with 30, while Eric “Badlands” Booker, another
400-pounder, was 3rd with 29.
But the biggest disappointment of the event was the performance
of William “The Refrigerator” Perry, the former Chicago Bears
star who dropped out after eating only 4 in 5 minutes. Whassup
with dat? As for Kobayashi, he is clearly one of the great
athletes of all time, not only rivaling Jordan in his
accomplishment, but also other greats such as Richard Petty,
Tiger Woods and Walter Payton.
–What? You disagree?
–For the record, the Chicago Bulls’ Jay Williams was not only
not wearing a helmet when he suffered his career-threatening
injury while riding a motorcycle, he also didn’t have a valid
Illinois license to drive one, plus he was in violation of his players
contract.
–“If a skunk stomps its feet, it’s warning you to leave. If you
then get sprayed, soak in anything acidic, like tomato juice,
vinegar or Massengill douche.” [Rena Kirsch / Newsweek] But, I
would add, if you open your front door and see a skunk stomping
it’s feet, don’t just turn over the deed to the place, put up a fight,
for crying out loud.
–Porcupines, by the way, can be bribed. They love Chex Mix,
which is why we always have some on hand here at
StocksandNews.
–And remember, with all the recent bear sightings, they tend to
lose interest if you play dead. Don’t just lie down in the road,
however, unless you are wearing reflective clothing.
*Next Chat I’m going to break down my official position on
animal rights, since I know I’m ticking some of you off. There
were some ridiculous claims in the local paper this weekend
concerning bears in my community that I’ll share with you at that
time.
–The men are pissed that prize money for the Association of
Tennis Professionals, the ATP, is down 6% over the past 2 years,
while at grand slam events it’s up 25%. The ATP wants a bigger
slice of the Grand Slam pool. I watched zippo of Wimbledon
this year.
–You gotta love this. As I’ve noted in this space recently, future
Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson is still playing, though at Class-
A Newark, in a final attempt to convince a major league team he
can contribute. So on Saturday it was a typical Rickey game. 4
at-bats, 4 walks, 3 runs scored. By August, I have to believe
someone in the pennant hunt will sign him for the stretch run.
–Watched the Daytona 400 on Saturday. I get fired up for the
Saturday night races, and then they almost always seem to
disappoint, with this week’s no exception. Sorry, NASCAR
fans, I can’t get into Greg Biffle just yet. I thought Miss Winston
was pretty snappy, however!
–Did you know that the “Dog Days of Summer” are officially
defined as July 3rd – August 11th? Yup, learned that on my local
weather station. It has something to do with a dog star and all
that astrology crap.
–The Detroit Tigers remain on pace to match the futility of the
1962 NY Mets, who went 40-120. Detroit is 21-65 through
Sunday’s play. In about four weeks I’ll be out there for a
firsthand assessment.
–Nice to see that Annika Sorenstam learned so much playing
against the big boys at Colonial. Was that a choke in the
Women’s U.S. Open or what yesterday? Geezuz, she was pitiful
on the last hole, needing only a par to get into a playoff, but
bogeying instead. But the 18-minute delay following her
wayward 2nd shot did give me time to clean out some of my
kitchen cabinets while I waited for play to resume.
–As for the PGA Tour itself, Tiger Woods is perhaps the most
vocal on the issue of ‘hot’ drivers, so the tour is going to begin
testing them by early next year. I’ve noted this before but it
bears repeating. The average drive was 263 yards on tour in 1995,
in 2002 it was 279. I’m still at 210………..drat. That’s if I can
find my freakin’ ball. Geezuz, I suck this year.
–Jack Nicklaus, on his fraternity days at Ohio State.
“As a freshman, I tried to drink all the beer in Columbus. Then I
found out they just kept making more.”
I have to tell ya, this was quite a discovery for me, too, in my
college days, though we had a Schlitz brewery near campus,
which was kind of a strong hint that beer was not merely a
depleting natural resource.
–Switching gears, drastically, it was on July 6, 1944 that some
8,000 Hartford, Connecticut residents went to see the Greatest
Show on Earth. It was a brutally hot afternoon for a matinee, and
shortly after the performance began, fire broke out on the canvas.
Measuring a square mile, the canvas had been waterproofed with
paraffin wax and gasoline. Uh oh. As thousands stampeded
towards the exits, many had their paths blocked by the cages
housing the lions and panthers. The big top collapsed. 169 dead,
550 injured.
Ringling Brothers was charged with involuntary manslaughter,
nearly bankrupting it, but in 1950 a 21-year-old drifter confessed
to starting the fire, though decades later this claim is viewed to
be largely imagined.
[Source: National Post / The Daily Telegraph]
–Boy, I hope this allegation against Kobe Bryant isn”t true. I”m
going to wait for more details before offering further comment.
–In winning the Western Open, Tiger Woods became the first
player in PGA Tour history to win at least four tournaments five
straight years.
–Finally, I imagine many of you have seen pictures of this 12-
metre-wide giant blob that was found on the coast of Chile about
a week ago. It was first thought to be a beached whale, but now
other experts think the remains could be those of a giant squid or
octopus, as there also appears to be one tentacle amidst the
blubber. Back in 1896, an 18-metre creature resembling this
current find was discovered off Florida, one that came to be
known as “octopus giganteas.”
But I have to tell you, I think everyone is really off base on the
current discovery. I mean has anyone seen the New York Mets’
Mo Vaughn recently? Well, there’s your answer.
Top 3 songs for the week of 7/5/75: #1 “Love Will Keep Us
Together” (The Captain & Tenille) #2 “The Hustle” (Van
McCoy & The Soul City Symphony) #3 “Listen To What The
Man Said” (Wings)
New York / San Francisco Giants Quiz Answers: 1) The Giants
won their last World Series in 1954. Shocking, isn’t it? 2) In the
1950s, rookies of the year were Willie Mays, ’51; Orlando
Cepeda, ’58; Willie McCovey, ’59. 3) Pitcher Carl Hubbell was
a 2-time NL MVP in the 30s. 1933, 23-12; 1936, 26-6. Hubbell
was 253-154 in his sterling career. 4) Mel Ott holds the single
season RBI mark with 151 in 1929. [Cepeda (142) and Mays
(141) are the only others over 140.] 5) John Montefusco threw
the last no-hitter back in 1976. 6) Mel Ott is the career leader in
RBI with 1,860. Mays had 1,859. 7) Candlestick opened in
1960. Seal Stadium was used the first two seasons in San Fran,
1958-59. It had a capacity of just 22,900.
Giants tidbit: No Giants pitcher has led the league in strikeouts
since 1944 – Bill Voiselle.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
