NHL Quiz: Since the 1970-71 season, name the teams that have
won at least two Stanley Cups. Answer below.
Notes on the NFL Playoffs:
–What more can you say? The best set of games, ever.
–4th-and-26…McNabb delivers. Great stuff.
–But as for Brett Favre’s pass, “What the hell was that?”
Goodness, gracious. Nice way to end the season.
–The Rams’ Mike Martz should be out of a job for not
attempting at least one pass into the end zone in the last 40
seconds of regulation.
–Hey, I know Eddie George is a “warrior,” but he averages 3.5
yards per carry!
–Now be honest, how many knew that Carolina’s coach was
John Fox just a few weeks ago?
Tom Coughlin
The new coach of the Giants made quite a splash the other day as
he was introduced to the media. Giants fans should be excited.
There’s a new sheriff in town. Here are Coughlin’s remarks.
“It is an honor to be selected as the 16th head football coach of
the New York Giants…
“What we must be all about right now, immediately, is the
restoration of pride: self pride, team pride, the restoration of our
professionalism and the dignity with which we conduct our
business. We must restore our belief in the process by which we
will win. We must replace despair with hope and return the
energy and the passion to New York Giant football.
“From a technical standpoint, we must begin to focus
immediately on the basic axioms which determine winning in the
National Football League. Effort is the key to success.
Consistent application of each individual, each individual’s best
in the task at hand. Outstanding effort must exist on many
levels. It starts with the off-season program. It starts in the
spring, carries through the summer to the practice field and
training camp and, of course, to game day. Football is
fundamentally a physical game. It is a tough game played by
tough people. We must win the line of scrimmage on both sides
of the ball. We must run the ball, and we must be able to defend
the run. The year off that I have experienced allowed me to
make many observations, one of which is more games are lost in
this league than are won. We must eliminate turnovers. You are
not going to beat anybody with a minus 16 (turnover ratio). That
stat has to radically change. We must eliminate costly penalties.
You can’t shoot yourself in the foot and expect to win the one
hundred meter dash. Special teams and winning the battle of
field position must become our catalyst for victory and not our
Achilles heel.
“I believe that the young men who represent the New York
Giants want strong leadership. They want clear and stated
objectives. They want superb detail and organization. And they
want discipline which provides us all with the courage and the
confidence to win in this league in the fourth quarter.
“My job is to convince these young men that with the parity that
exists in this league today, the difference is in the preparation
and that our formula will earn us the right to win.
“I look forward to working with the great people here in the New
York Giant organization, with our football team and with the
loyal fans of the New York Giants.”
Aarghhhh!
By the way, in case you thought I was being too harsh on former
coach Jim Fassel, Giants owner Wellington Mara said this the
day Coughlin came on board.
“Since halftime against San Francisco (last year’s pitiful playoff
loss) every step we’ve taken has been backward.”
Pete Rose, part III
Further thoughts since my last piece.
George Will: “Rose’s coming clean is the most soiled conversion
of convenience since…well, Aug. 17, 1998, when DNA evidence
caused Bill Clinton to undergo a memory clarification. On the
diamond, no one ever wrung more success from less natural
talent than Rose did. But his second autobiography – which
refutes the first – makes worse the mess he has made.
“The supposedly truth-telling book contains this patent lie:
‘During the times I gambled as a manager, I never took an unfair
advantage. I never bet more or less based on injuries or inside
information.’ But he also says – does he even read his
autobiographies? – ‘I began betting regularly on the sport I knew
best – baseball.’ Managing the Reds, he knew – he decided –
when a tired or injured star would be played or rested. And the
network of bookies handling his bets knew that he knew.”
Mike Penner of the Los Angeles Times gathered some thoughts
from the baseball writers that would have to decide on Rose’s
enshrinement into the Hall of Fame if the commissioner allows
him to come up for a vote. A survey conducted by the Times
found that of 159 interviewed, 72 said they would vote for Rose,
76 said they would vote against, 11 still undecided.
“Pete is one of my two or three favorite players,” said John Shea
of the San Francisco Chronicle. But “if I had to vote today, I
would vote no….He’s as guilty now as he was 14 years ago.”
Larry Rocca / Star-Ledger: “Obviously, it’s not just a museum.
It’s the ultimate place of honor for baseball players. Rose
dishonored the game and recklessly endangered its essential
integrity. Honoring him in any way would be patently absurd.”
Peter Gammons / ESPN: “For a long time, I have maintained
that if the commissioner judges him to be on the ballot and
eligible, I would vote for him based on his performance as a
player. I’m having serious second thoughts….The release of this
book has reminded me that Pete Rose does not like baseball. He
likes himself. The fact that all this stuff would come out and
take away from Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersley shows he has
no respect for the Hall of Fame and what it means. This is an
issue central to all the credibility of baseball. I now lean very
strongly to the position that I would not vote for him.”
[Gammons’ opinion carries tremendous weight in the baseball
community.]
And in an op-ed for the Washington Post on Sunday, John Dowd,
who conducted the original 1989 investigation into Rose,
described the period following his work for Commissioner Bart
Giamatti and Fay Vincent.
“We were at complete loggerheads. Pete’s criminal counsel
wanted the resolution we were working on but his agent would
not budge. Bart, then-deputy commissioner Fay Vincent and I
met with Pete’s agent. He told us that Pete was a legend and
would not admit to any of the allegations. It was a short meeting.
“I then tried to find some friends of Pete’s – Reds teammates –
we could call upon to reach out and help him in his obvious time
of need. I was told Pete had no friends in baseball.”
Well, that last statement is rather telling.
Over the years, as much as I didn’t want Rose in the Hall, I was
like, well, if everyone else wants him, so be it. Not any more,
and I told you back on 1/6 and 1/8 that attitudes would change
big time…and they have. Why do we need him in there?
Because he has the stats? They’ll always be in the record book,
after all; Rose no longer deserves to have a plaque. As reporter
Jim Gray and former commissioner Fay Vincent have said over
the past week, when are we as Americans going to stand up,
whether it’s baseball or anything else, and say, “No, this is
wrong! You can’t do that!”
Animal Chat
Wow, a lot has happened recently on this front, topped off by the
man-eating cougar in Orange County, CA. But, incredibly, a
woman in the same state park survived, even though the cougar
dragged her by the head. Only the heroic intervention of a friend
caused the beast to release the victim. As for the dead man, his
body was found half-eaten. I have to tell you folks, this really
isn’t the way I want to go when the Big Guy says, “Ah, editor?
You just wrote your last Bar Chat.”
The big controversy, however, stems from the fact that there is
some research that now suggests mountain lions are learning to
prey on people, according to Professor Leon Fitzhugh of UC
Davis. [L.A. Times]
Well then, you all shouldn’t be surprised because I said I was
fearful of being attacked by a cougar when I go out to get the
morning papers. And Fitzhugh “recounted how humans who had
had close encounters with cougars noted how the animals
crouched and swished their tails back and forth while eyeing
humans.”
Fitzhugh believes such traits indicate predatory rather than
defensive behavior.
According to the L.A. Times, from 1890 to 1970 there were 29
recorded attacks by cougars on humans in North America. But
from 1971 through 2002, there were 77.
Now I’ve written before about the active population on
Vancouver Island so the fear is that the California cougars and
the Vancouver ones join forces, perhaps in Portland, Oregon. I
fear the worst.
But then you have this story from the BBC that in Antarctica
marine biologists have discovered that the sleeper shark, which
can grow to a length of 24 feet, goes after giant and colossal
squid. The giant squid can grow to 39 feet and the colossal squid
is up to 46 feet long. What this means, boys and girls, is that the
sleeper shark is the only beast smaller than a squid that still
attacks it. Sperm whales, heretofore, being the other known
predator.
Now you’ll recall from your squid history lessons in high school
that no human has yet ever seen a giant or colossal squid in its
natural state, because they tend to live in depths far below the
normal operating depth of a submarine. I recall one of those
National Geographic expeditions tried to find one and couldn’t.
So, if you spot a squid, one that hasn’t just washed up on shore,
drop us a line. We’ll name you “Bar Chat Person of the Year.”
Lastly, you have this global warming study that got a lot of press
this week, the one that says 1mm+ species could be extinct by
just 2050. Some say the report, published in Nature, ignores
species’ ability to adapt to higher temperatures, with the
average world temp projected to rise 2.5 to 10.4 degrees by
2100.
The problem with a study such as this, though, is that it says
nothing about new species being created, or the ability of
existing ones to not just adapt, but to mutate. You know where
I’m headed with this, don’t you? We could be dealing with 60-
foot crocodiles…or maybe the return of the dinosaurs…in just a
few decades! That’s my story, and until proven otherwise I’m
sticking to it.
Stuff
–Yikes…UConn looked absolutely awesome versus Oklahoma
on Sunday. I told my friend Jeff B., who was at the game, that
the Huskies are going all the way. Great depth, inside-outside
game, future NBA All-Stars……….book it…UConn wins it.
[Then Wake Forest next year.]
–Well, Cornhusker fans, I hope you’re happy with former
Raiders coach Bill Callahan as your new big guy at Nebraska.
Personally, I’m kind of like, eh.
–I correctly thought Nick Saban would stay at LSU, but I didn’t
know he had this contract clause that will now pay him around
$3.3 million per season! What did we say about college
coaching salaries these days? Freakin’ outrageous.
–If you are a boxing fan, the sport is in a heap of trouble and
once again promoter Bob Arum is at the center of controversy.
Law enforcement officials recently raided Arum’s headquarters
in Las Vegas, seizing computers, financial documents, boxers’
contracts, medical records and videotapes of professional fights.
[Michele McPhee / New York Daily News]
This will be a fascinating story, and probably a movie when the
full tale is told, but according to McPhee, the FBI’s Las Vegas
office asked the NYPD for assistance and an undercover
detective went out there, established himself as a New York
wiseguy, moved about in the Vegas underworld, met leading
sports figures and learned through this network that a slew of
fights were probably fixed, including, possibly, the disputed bout
between Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Shane Mosley. In a
nutshell, this could be huge.
–Joe Gibbs returns to the Redskins, where he won 3 Super
Bowls, for a cool $5mm+ per year / 5 years. I still would have
stayed in NASCAR. But it is great to see a city so devoted to
one guy as Washington is to Gibbs. Good for the game, good for
America.
–I missed this about a week ago…for you Knicks fans no longer
living in the New York area, trainer Danny Whelan died at age
85. Whelan was a colorful figure on the bench during the Knicks
glory years in the late 60s / early 70s. He was also the trainer for
the world champion Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960.
–And another obituary for those of you with roots in New York.
Radio great John A. Gambling died. Ah yes, “Rambling with
Gambling,” a fixture in so many households for decades. In fact
three generations of Gamblings had a similar show from 1925-
2000 on WOR-AM…the longest running program in history.
John A. ruled the dial from 1959-1991. His was a dignified
morning program that was also revolutionary, being the first to
carry things like helicopter traffic reports and school closings.
Gambling once said of his laidback style that focused on family,
news, weather, and sports, “I believe the morning is bad enough
as it is. I don’t want to talk about anything that’s going to offend
anyone.” And this thought. “If people wake up and hear about
problems – a strike, a war, assassination, whatever – they turn us
on and know the world hasn’t come to an end. Their world has
some continuity.”
I’ve got to tell you, as a kid I listened to it in the morning,
catching sports reports from Don Criqui and terrific world news
wrap-ups.
Gambling’s son, John R., carried the program in its last ten years,
1991-2000, but he was increasingly bumping up against the likes
of Imus and Stern.
So farewell, John A. Gambling. It was a great program for the
times and no doubt it had something to do with my love of the
news today.
–On Friday, my friend Paul P. sent me a note. “Did you hear
about the AP guy who accidentally passed along a list of sports
figures’ phone numbers?” No way, I replied. Then Paul sent me
Hank Aaron’s. Yup, looks like we got us a problem, officer.
Some poor schlep at the AP is probably six-feet under by now
for this incredibly stupid move. The list contained the #’s for
about 750 celebrities, though it was an old one and had a few
dead folk on it. Nonetheless, the #’s for Aaron, Mays, O.J.,
Magic, and Yogi Berra were included in the bunch.
–I received quite a few notes on the passing of former Mets /
Phillies pitcher Tug McGraw. All of you said he was a special
kind of guy, just like the descriptions you’ve seen in the
obituaries. Mark R. told of meeting McGraw in a bar in Philly,
and he was as nice as could be. My brother also called him a
“genuinely nice man,” having met him at a school presentation.
And then there is this story from Allen H.
“In Ipswich, Massachusetts I lived next door to Jerry Moses (a
former catcher for the Red Sox and Angels). Every year Jerry
co-hosted a Monday golf outing for the Jimmy Fund (Ted
Williams’ big project) and a lot of his baseball friends would
come in early. So one time I hosted a foursome and Tug was in
the group. I can’t remember laughing as much as I did in that
round. The man just loved life. By the way, his wife was a
knockout!”
Ah yes, all of you also commented on Tug’s eye for the ladies.
God love him.
–Boy, has Roberto Alomar fallen or what? He received a one-
year contract with Arizona for only $1 million, with $350,000
deferred until 2009.
–If he can stay reasonably healthy, Kansas City got a steal in
signing Juan Gonzalez for $4.5 million. [Hey, it’s all relative
these days.]
–But praise Jesus, because it appears Mo Vaughn will not be
coming back to play for the Mets ever again. We can continue to
collect our insurance money!
–We note the passing of Leon “Daddy Wags” Wagner, a solid
power hitter in the early 60s with both the then Los Angeles
Angels and the Cleveland Indians. Wagner had 6 straight years
of 23+ homers (1961-66) and belted 211 for his career. Now if
he was on steroids, like everyone else these days, he would have
clouted 35+ a year, easy. He also had some great baseball cards.
–Here’s a new candidate for “Bar Chat Dirtball of the Year.”
[We’re loaded already in ’04.] Dr. Gilbert Lederman, the
oncologist at Staten Island Hospital who treated George Harrison
while George was on his deathbed. You may have heard the
Harrison estate is now suing Lederman, along with his kids.
Here’s what happened, according to the suit.
“Dr. Lederman took the children into the room where Mr.
Harrison was bedridden and in great discomfort. Dr. Lederman
had Mr. Harrison listen to his son play the guitar. Afterwards he
took the guitar…and put it in Mr. Harrison’s lap” and asked him
to sign it.
Harrison didn’t even know if he could spell his own name
anymore and he resisted, but Lederman said, “Come on, you can
do this,” and then he held Harrison’s right hand and guided
George through the autograph. Then Lederman made Harrison
listen to his little boy play the guitar! The guy was dying, he’s
one of the great rock musicians of all time, and the a-hole put
him through all this.
Of course the doctor and his family wanted to sell the guitar,
valued at $5,000-$6,000 (remember, it’s the kid’s, not Harrison’s
guitar) and that’s when the suit accelerated. The Harrison’s want
the guitar because they don’t want any objects associated with
George out there without their permission.
Lederman’s contract with the hospital is not being renewed.
–This is a cool story. Janou Rubin was a walk-on hoopster at
UCLA a few years ago and now Rubin, a junior guard, was
recently named Pac-10 player of the week. Given a chance to
play due to an injury, he led the Bruins to two big victories. It
was in pre-season practice this fall that new coach Ben Howland
gave Rubin a scholarship, but he’s not assured of retaining it
for his senior year due to the incoming recruiting class. [David
Leon Moore / USA Today]
–From Links magazine I gleaned the following: If you own a
home on a golf course, it’s best to be in a Tom Fazio
development. Over the past ten years the average price at his
communities has increased 262%. Jim Fazio’s golf-related
homes are up 212%. But Jack Nicklaus comes in at 104%, Pete
Dye 81%, and Arnold Palmer up just 30%.
–Tracie Rozhon wrote a piece recently in the New York Times
for all you folks who desire luxury watches. [I’ve never spent
more than $60 on mine.] This past Christmas season $1,000
watches by Michele sold out at Saks Fifth Avenue, the Tiger
Woods Link Calibre 36 by Tag Heuer is a big seller for $5,000,
and Tag Heuer is working on bringing back the watch worn by
Steve McQueen when he was doing the movie Le Mans, though
it will set you back $12,000.
Continuing…Harry Winston sells “classic, everyday watches”
for $6,000-$11,000, and if you are a billionaire, you’ll soon be
able to buy a Harry Winston Opus IV for………$200,000.
–The Righteous Brothers’ Bobby Hatfield didn’t die from a
massive heart attack…it was a cocaine overdose.
–We note the passing of former NBA bust, Yinka Dare. More on
his story, Thursday.
–1/14/54: Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe. It lasted less
than a year.
–Congratulations to Stuart Appleby for winning the first PGA
event of the year. But if I had to guess, Vijay Singh is going
to be the story in 2004.
–Condolences to Lisa Simpson, who lost 3 cats on last night”s
episode of “The Simpsons.” Tragic.
–And a final follow-up on Brownie / Metro, the 35-pound mutt
that was found on a New York commuter train on Christmas
Eve. More details have surfaced and it turns out that Brownie’s
last owner, the truck driver, lost the dog at a rest stop in
Connecticut and Brownie wandered around for 3 weeks before
hopping on the train in Greenwich, bound for Manhattan.
Finally, after the original owner (who had to give the dog up
because the family had other obligations at the time) tragically
died after receiving the good word that his old dog had been
found, Brownie was reunited with the man’s relatives in
Maryland.
Top 3 songs for the week of 1/14/67: #1 “I’m A Believer” (The
Monkees) #2 “Snoopy vs. The Red Baron” (The Royal
Guardsmen) #3 “Tell It Like It Is” (Aaron Neville)
NHL Quiz Answer: Teams with 2 or more Stanley Cups since
1970-71.
Montreal: 70-71, 72-73, 75-79 (4), 85-86, 92-93
Philadelphia: 73-74, 74-75
New York Islanders: 79-83 (4)
Edmonton: 83-84, 84-85, 86-87, 87-88, 89-90
Pittsburgh: 90-91, 91-92
Detroit: 96-97, 97-98, 01-02
New Jersey: 94-95, 99-00, 02-03
Colorado: 95-96, 00-01
[The only other teams to win during this period are Boston,
Calgary, New York Rangers, and Dallas]
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
