Baseball Gold Glove Award Quiz: About two weeks ago the
Gold Glove winners for fielding were announced in both leagues.
The award has been presented since 1957 and is voted on by
managers and players. So, give me the all-time leader at each
position. [Pick the top three for the outfield…and in this category
two are tied for the 3rd slot, i.e., pick four…for those of you, like
myself, who didn’t do well in reading comprehension back in
middle school.] Answer below.
Beer Update…from Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal
“Beer lovers may know hops as the ingredient that gives their
brew its bitter taste. But hop plants also contain substances with
potential health benefits, possibly including cancer prevention
and treatment of osteoporosis, according to researchers.
“Raising a glass to good health might not be good enough,
though. The concentration of these substances in beer is
relatively low. To get amounts needed for any health benefit,
you would……….[We interrupt this story because the reporter
was about to turn around and refute the known benefits of
drinking beer, much to the dismay of the editorial board here at
Bar Chat.]
Beer Update, part II…Amsterdam
I came home Tuesday night to a distressing note from long-time
reader, and friend, Dave H.
“Dear Editor,
“I am very depressed. I am sure I speak for a number of Bar
Chat readers that want to hear of your beer consumption and the
different varieties that you always experiment with while on your
search for knowledge around the world.”
Well, Dave, you have a point. I didn’t get into the beer scene in
Amsterdam last chat but I’ll fill you in on what I was doing on
this front.
It was all about Heineken, sports fans. Only on the third night,
when I went for dinner at a tapas place, did I deviate from the
tried and true Heineken label. [And that was because it only
served Warsteiner…which, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, wasn’t
bad….not bad at all.]
You see, Heineken was first brewed in Amsterdam (the roots go
all the way back to 1592), and heck, it’s just fresher here. I
drank only draft, and, err, enough of it to know I was being
served some of the finest, and freshest, ingredients known to
man.
So….here was the deal…
Arrive Thursday, Heineken with dinner at my hotel (the
Bilderberg Garden). Turns out this particular restaurant was one
of the better ones in town, and rather expensive, to say the least.
Now I love a good feed, but four tiny strips of duck is not my
idea of a big meal. The Heineken, though, made up for it.
Friday, had to work on that other column I do. Took a dinner
break to walk around the neighborhood, where I found a pub for
some Heineken. [Don’t worry…the column was written but I
hadn’t started typing it.] The bartender was giving me dinner
recommendations, though I wasn’t dressed appropriately for
some of the spots, and then he said, “We serve food.” In a flash,
I had veal cutlet and a giant heaping of some of the best fries I’ve
ever had. Duly satiated, I thanked the kind sir and went back to
resume work.
Saturday, checked out the Heineken Brewery (or Brouwery, to be
more factual) in the morning, but my mother (who’s been to
Amsterdam about ten times) had told me before leaving that she
was afraid it was only open a few days; so I got there when it
opened at 10:00 to make sure it was open again on Sunday
afternoon. You see, you get three beers with your 10 euro fee
whilst inside (notice the clever use of ‘whilst’….I heard it used
more this trip than anytime in my life), and why would I want to
drink three Heinekens in the morning, get all tired, and then not
want to do other museums? No, the brewery tour was going to
be for Sunday’s happy hour, I had decided.
Anyway, instead on Saturday I hit two art museums (Rijks and
Van Gogh) plus the Maritime Museum. [See 11/15 Bar Chat.]
Then Saturday night, fired up over life because the weather was
good and I loved the city, I checked out one of the bartender’s
recommendations from the night before, the tapas joint,
“Stefanos.”
At first I didn’t know if they’d let me in for dinner. There were
only a few tables and it was about 6:00 pm, but they set me up
right next to the bar and I stared at this ‘all Dutch’ menu for
about ten minutes, acting like I knew what the hell I was going to
order. In the meantime the Warsteiner was flowing. [You can
drink a lot of Warsteiner in ten minutes if you set your mind to
it.]
Well, I placed my order, asking just one question, and all three
courses were awesome….two were of the meats, as they would
have said in Beirut, and the other was a delicious yogurt dish.
Then I ordered some out of this world baklava. And more
Warsteiner.
But I’m leaving out an important part of the story….kind of on
purpose…for you see, I was seated near the front door of the
place and I couldn’t see a sticker for ‘Visa.’ In fact I didn’t see a
sticker for anything and I only had a Visa card…and not enough
euro. In other words, I was up a Warsteiner without a paddle.
So the check arrived and I plopped down the Visa anyway. “We
only accept American Express.” Hell, no one just takes Amex
anymore. It’s a card for losers. [No offense, Amex CEO
Kenneth Chenault. But nice way to warn on earnings,
Wednesday, by the way.]
Of course there was little I could do…aside from washing dishes
for six days and missing my flight home. Without saying a
word, I handed them my wallet, with the Visa, euro and lots of
U.S. dollars, and dejectedly walked 15 minutes back to my hotel
to get more euro cashed with dollars I had there. Then I walked
back, paid the bill, smiled sheepishly, they smiled back, and I
trudged all the way home again; thus also giving patrons at other
restaurants something to talk about. “What the hell is that boy
doing? He keeps walking past us.”
Yes, for all the experience I’ve garnered over the years, I am still
capable of some real rookie mistakes.
That brings us to Sunday. I went to the concert I told you about
last time, then a spectacular museum, the Verzetsmuseum,
Museum of the Resistance (WW II). I didn’t mention this one
before because I’m saving it for “Week in Review.” It was a
powerful place and I’ve drawn a conclusion or two pertaining to
today’s problems in Europe.
After this, I then finally got to the Heineken museum, or as they
call it “The Heineken Experience.” What a cool place. It is so
well done. You’re in a building where Heineken was brewed
beginning 140 years ago, and they have a couple of experiences
for you (such as simulating being a beer bottle) that are simply
good fun. You’re also handed three poker chips; one for the
midway bar, and the second two for the final watering hole. I
only used two of mine, though, because I needed to move on as I
was starving.
So it’s Sunday night and I asked the hotel what they
recommended for dinner (a lot of places were closed) and I was
directed to Sardegna, an Italian joint less than a 10-minute walk.
That became my home the next two evenings; lots of great food,
super waiters, and beaucoup Heineken.
And that’s about it….save for a few pre-dinner brews and
nightcaps at the hotel bar, talking real estate with the locals.
[They have the same bubble that everywhere else in the world is
experiencing.]
Monday I took a train ride out into the country to Alkmaar, a
neat place with lots of quaint restaurants and watering holes, but
I didn’t allow myself enough time to partake before I had to hop
back on the train and catch some final museums in Amsterdam,
including Rembrandt’s House.
Speaking of Rembrandt, I felt a little badly over trashing the
Dutch Master like I did last time. Especially when I saw that he
“received clients with a glass of chilled wine from a marble wine
cooler.” Now how can you not like a guy like that, especially
back in the 1640s?
I also found another artist to add to my favorites list at the
Amsterdam Historical Museum (a super place…better than the
Rijks and Van Gogh museums); Abraham Beerstraten (1939-
1665?…they don’t seem to know when the chap died). I mean
aside from the fact I liked his work, how could I also not go for
the name? [He had a brother Jan who was equally talented.]
So that was Amsterdam…can’t wait to go back. But some of
you might be saying, hey, editor, you’re leaving out the world
famous red-light district…………………………..huh?
[For a variety of reasons I can’t kid about this. I didn’t go there.]
Stuff
–It was great to see Major League Baseball cave to the pressure
from Congress and finally come up with a steroids policy that
will re-inject integrity into the game.
First offense – 50 game suspension (up from current 10)
Second offense – 100 games (up from 30)
Third offense – Lifetime ban
[Lesser penalties for amphetamine use, but at least it’s now part
of the program.]
This is what any true fan of the sport has been waiting for. And
while the occasional ballplayer will no doubt find his way around
the system as each new designer drug hits the market, this policy
will work.
Columnist Michael Wilbon / Washington Post
“With Congress threatening to unilaterally impose what
amounted to a no-tolerance, go-to-jail-now policy for steroid
users, the strongest union in America completely capitulated…
and accepted the commissioner’s proposal…
“This, we think, is a deterrent. Ten games is nothing. Fifty
games is something. It’s too much money to give away, too big
a chunk of laying time to forfeit, too big a stain on a player’s
career to justify risking it….the great, great majority of players
will say to themselves, ‘Ain’t worth it.’ …
“(Commissioner Bud) Selig, who has rightfully had to take his
share of the blame for so many instances of baseball
mismanagement in recent years, deserves a giant share of the
credit for building the necessary support to push through a policy
that ought to help remove a storm cloud of suspicion from the
game while improving the lives of its players.”
[Editor note: I never gave a damn about the lives of the players.
Why should any of you?]
Mike Lupica / New York Daily News
“We can never go back and save the record books from the way
they were poisoned in the 1990s and then into this century. We
are never going to have the positive tests we want on Barry
Bonds and Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. There will always
be a steroid era of baseball as surely as there was a dead ball era
once. But steroids in baseball end now. They end because in
three years, the sport has gone from having no drug policy to
having the toughest in major American sports.
“You can thank the commissioner of baseball for that, and
Congress, and a deadbeat named Jose Canseco and a dead
ballplayer named Ken Caminiti.”
[Ed. I’m taking a bow for giving Canseco the benefit of the doubt
from day one.]
Lupica:
“Maybe the Players Association thought its members were smart
enough not to keep using steroids if they knew testing was
coming. They weren’t. The news about baseball going past 5%
with positive tests came out in November 2003, a year after
Caminiti blew the whistle on drug cheats in Sports Illustrated,
and not so long before Caminiti died his sad death in a drug
house in the Bronx. This was way before Mark McGwire’s
pathetic appearance in front of Congress, before Rafael Palmeiro
pointed his finger at Congress and said he’s never used steroids
in his life, before the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Jason
Giambi testified that he was a steroid user in front of the BALCO
grand jury.”
Mike Vaccaro / New York Post
“We expect a lot from baseball. Other sports have troubles.
Other sports have issues. Other sports have had drug problems,
and steroid problems. Other sports have had gambling scandals.
Other sports had color lines that forbade African-Americans
from playing.
“Those other sports never have gone on trial as often, or as
publicly, as baseball.
“We take baseball personally. We hold baseball accountable.
Say what you will about all the corny ‘Field of Dreams’ poetry
that so often tinkles in the background, but baseball really is a
part of who we are. It’s part of our daily fabric even in the short
days of November, when baseball couldn’t seem further away…
“This morning, if you are a baseball fan, you have to feel good
about how far baseball has come, and how quickly it has arrived
there. Finally, there is a steroid policy with teeth….
“Finally, we can believe in the game again….
“Was Selig too slow to act? Sure he was.
“But you know what? Baseball hasn’t always been about swift
action. It’s been about ultimate action. Kennesaw Mountain
Landis long has been credited for saving baseball in the wake of
the 1919 Black Sox scandal. But under every year of his reign,
baseball was a lily-white sea of exclusion. It took until 1947 for
baseball to recognize what Abraham Lincoln had seen in 1863.
“But you know something? Baseball did the changing then.
And baseball does the changing now….
“Yes, we expect a lot from baseball, and here’s the thing: More
often than not, baseball justifies that faith. It sure did yesterday.”
—
–The latest BCS standings
1. USC, .9829 [Fresno State and UCLA left on schedule]
2. Texas, .9771 [Texas A&M and Big 12 Championship game]
3. Miami, .8906
4. Penn State, .8520
5. LSU, .8224
–College Football “Picks to Click”
Putting my 9-8 record on the line…just two games this weekend.
Take Maryland and 2 ½ vs. Boston College
Take South Carolina and 1 ½ vs. Clemson
–Whilst in Amsterdam I picked up a copy of the Daily Mail and
learned this important fact as we gear up for “King Kong.”
Scientists believe that the real Kong, or as he’s properly called,
“Gigantopithecus Blackii,” existed some 100,000 years ago, in
Southeast Asia. He stood 10 feet tall and weighed 85 stone, or
1,190 pounds. [I had to look up the weight of a stone…it’s 14
pounds.]
Researchers have been piecing together fossils in the region to
come up with their theory. Said one, “Probably the creatures
lived up in the caves and in the bamboo forests.” They only ate
bamboo, “But it’s quite likely that humans came face to face
with the ape.”
[“Hello.” “Hey.”]
–Also in the Daily Mail is the tragic story of William Andrew,
18, who as of a few days ago was hovering near death following
a freak accident in South Africa at a conservation center.
Andrew was in a training program for handling elephants when
he tried to mount one which was being trained to take tourists on
safari.
“A source at the conservation center said: ‘The youngster was
climbing on to the back of a female elephant called Mojadji. He
was simulating a tourist getting on to an elephant when he slid
off the back of the animal and landed on its foot. The elephant
got a fright and turned around and her sheer weight knocked the
youngster and he hit his head on its foot.’”
Poor William split his head wide open.
But you also have to feel sorry for Mojadji. There was
absolutely no aggression involved. Unfortunately, this is likely
to be a permanent blot on her resume.
–A-Rod wins the MVP
What a jerk Alex Rodriguez is. Responding to his well-deserved
MVP award, over an equally deserving David Ortiz of Boston,
A-Rod, who hit .133 in the playoffs, said, “We can win three
World Series, with me it’s never going to be over. I think my
benchmark is so high that no matter what I do, it’s never going to
be enough, and I understand that.”
Mike Lupica responded, “What a guy.”
“The definition of benchmark goes something like this: A point
of reference for a measurement. A-Rod knew exactly how big
Yankees were measured when he decided to move here from
Texas and move from shortstop to third base. The idea that the
expectations for him are now ridiculously high is ridiculously
low comedy.
“The expectations are just as they should be for someone who is
routinely discussed as one of the great baseball players of all
time. That is what he should understand. He knew the deal as
well when he signed for $252 million….
“The bull’s-eye on A-Rod’s back that he alluded to yesterday?
He put it there himself when he elected to become a Yankee.”
A-Rod also added, “Maybe when I retire is when the critics and
all that kind of stuff will end.”
Good grief. Lupica:
“So far there is a Wilt Chamberlain quality to him. He has the
most amazing numbers and the fans don’t love him the way he
wants them to and he still hasn’t won. Chamberlain was eight
years in the NBA before he finally won with the 76ers.”
As Mike Vaccaro put it, one of the glaring truths of A-Rod’s
career is “The amazing dearth of championship jewelry currently
adorning his fingers.”
And it’s sure as heck fair to criticize him.
–NASCAR’s final race is upon us and Tony Stewart needs to
finish just 9th to secure the title; that is without help. Sunday’s
finale is worth checking out as these things have a way of
producing spectacular finishes.
–Those of you who follow the ponies certainly know the name
Johnny Campo. He died the other day, just 67. Campo trained
Pleasant Colony, the 1981 Kentucky Derby winner. Pleasant
Colony then won the Preakness but finished 3rd in the Belmont.
–Boy, did Wake Forest luck into this year’s NCAA Men’s
Soccer tourney. But maybe that’s a good thing. Every year we
enter this thing highly ranked and then flame out. This time
there’s no pressure…mused the alum, tired of seeing his soccer,
baseball and basketball teams get crushed in post-season play.
–But then there are the Lady Deacs…going after an
unprecedented 4th straight NCAA Field Hockey title. No
offense, girls, but I’d still rather have a Men’s Final Four; know
what I’m sayin’?
–GQ Magazine named Jennifer Aniston as its ‘Man of the Year’
for handling her situation with grace and good humor. Now I
love Ms. Aniston, and Brad Pitt is one of the bigger jerks on the
planet, but ‘Man of the Year’? That’s just stupid.
–Thanks to Ken P. for pointing out to me a New York Times
piece on the Gettysburg Cyclorama, the 365 foot (in
circumference) and 27 foot tall work that describes Pickett’s
Charge, July 3, 1863. It closes up this Sunday to undergo a two-
year, $9 million restoration, but it turns out there were three other
copies produced at the time of the original in the 1880s; “one has
disappeared, one became tent material, and one is in storage at
Wake Forest University.”
I didn’t know that. Heck, if I did when I was at Wake, I would
have thrown a week-long restoration party!
[I was also an idiot for not seeing the Cyclorama during my visit
to Gettysburg last fall.]
–So in catching up on some reading, I see that it doesn’t appear
anyone knows for sure just why Phil Mickelson blew off the
season-ending Tour Championship two weeks ago. According to
Golf World, Mickelson’s public relations man, T.R. Reinman,
told Furman Bisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Phil
just didn’t feel like playing any more golf. But then Mickelson,
when reached by Golf World, said “the reason I said my reasons
are personal is personal.” Click.
However, maybe there is a reason after all. It seems Phil had a
family Halloween party that Monday night (10/31) in San Diego
and didn’t feel like trying to make a pro-am affiliated with the
tournament on Tuesday.
–Be the first one on your block to tell the neighbors that Nov. 21
represents the 25th anniversary of the “who shot J.R.?” episode
from “Dallas.” 83 million viewers tuned in to see sister-in-law
Kristin hold the smoking gun. I wasn’t a watcher of the show,
but I do remember catching this particular episode in a bar with a
big fan of it, my friend E.C. [Remember this, E.C.?] It was
TV’s most watched show, by the way, until the finale of “M*A*S*H”
in 1983.
–On November 20, 1805, Ludwig van Beethoven conducted the
premiere of ‘Fidelio,’ his only opera, in Vienna. According to
Smithsonian magazine, “His timing is bad: most of Vienna’s
opera goers had fled a week earlier as Napoleon’s army occupied
the city, and the tale of Leonore, a loyal wife who disguises
herself as a boy to save her imprisoned husband, is a flop. The
composer revises his opus for ten years, declaring it ‘of all my
children, the one that cost me the most birth pangs…the one
most dear to me.’”
[I wouldn’t tell your neighbors the above tale. Unlike “who shot
J.R.?” your knowledge of this other tidbit may freak some of
them out.]
–Country Music Association Awards
Entertainer of the Year – Keith Urban
Vocal Group of the Year – Rascal Flatts
Female Vocalist of the Year – Gretchen Wilson
Male Vocalist of the Year – Keith Urban
Vocal Duo of the Year – Brooks & Dunn…geezuz, select
someone new, for cryin’ out loud…like Montgomery Gentry
Album of the Year – “There’s More Where That Came From,”
Lee Ann Womack
Single of the Year – “I May Hate Myself In The Morning,” Lee
Ann Womack
Well I’m just going to have to rush out and get Ms. Womack’s
album, but first let’s look at the lyrics to “I May Hate Myself…”
Ain’t it just like one of us
To pick up the phone and call after a couple drinks
Say how ya been I’ve been wondering if maybe you’ve been
thinking ‘bout me
And somewhere in the conversation
An ole familiar invitation always arrives
I may hate myself in the morning
But I’m gonna love you tonight
[Yup, that’s a winner…heading out to buy it now…..]
Top 3 songs for the week of 11/15/68: #1 “Wedding Bell Blues”
(The 5th Dimension) #2 “Come Together” (Beatles) #3
“Something” (Beatles)…and…#4 “And When I Die” (Blood,
Sweat & Tears)
Baseball Gold Glove all-time award winners:
Pitcher – Jim Kaat, 16 [Greg Maddux is up to 15]
Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez, 11
1B – Keith Hernandez, 11
2B – Roberto Alomar, 10
3B – Brooks Robinson, 16
SS – Ozzie Smith, 13
OF – Roberto Clemente, 12, Willie Mays, 12, Ken Griffey, 10,
Al Kaline, 10
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday…a little Rolling Stones
