NFL Quiz: Name the 10 passers to throw for 40,000 yards in
their career. Answer below.
Death by Grouper
From the Star-Ledger and wire service reports.
“A Florida diver shot a large grouper with a spear gun, then
apparently drowned when the fish sped into a hole, entangling
the man in the line attached to the spear, investigators said.
“The 42-year-old man was free-diving in about 25 feet of water
off the lower Florida Keys on Saturday and speared a Goliath
grouper, Monroe County Sheriff’s Detective Mark Coleman said.
“ ‘It looks like the fish wrapped the line attached to the spear
around the victim’s wrist. The fish then went into a hole in a
coral rock, effectively pinning the man to the bottom of the
ocean,’ Coleman said in a news release.
“Police divers found the speared fish tightly wedged into the
hole, with the man’s body still tangled in the line, a sheriff’s
spokeswoman said.”
I’m assuming the police then filleted the grouper and had some
delicious sandwiches with fresh, homemade coleslaw. Throw in
some Coronas and, bingo….you’ve got a party. [I’m also
assuming one of them remembered to collect the body.]
Now I just went to my definitive “The Encyclopedia of the Sea”
by Richard Ellis and found the following on groupers. While the
book has nothing specifically on the Goliath, the potato cod
“is a large, fearless grouper that can weigh 200 pounds and
often approaches divers, particularly along the Great Barrier
Reef.” [Perhaps Steve Irwin was concerned about a potato cod
grouper and ignored the other danger below him.]
But then I went to the ESPN Sports Almanac and under
Saltwater Fish records, as established by the International Game
Fish Association, I see there is a specific record for the Goliath
grouper…680 pounds! This particular one was caught off
Fernandina Beach, FL, May 20, 1961, by Lynn Joyner, mother of
former major leaguer Wally. [Actually, I have no idea on this
last bit.]
The Scooter
Former Yankee great and Hall of Famer Phil Rizzuto isn’t doing
well health wise these days. But he turns 89 on Sept. 25 so we
shouldn’t be too surprised he’s now in a private rehab facility, as
reported by the New York Post’s Kevin Kernan.
I also have to concede I never really liked the guy. Part of it is
because I’m a Mets fan and have hated all Yankees except Derek
Jeter and Mickey Mantle, but you also have to picture growing
up in the 1960s and 70s and having to deal with Rizzuto’s
dreadful broadcasting on those days I watched the Yankees when
the Mets weren’t on. In fact the Yankees have had pitiful radio
and television crews for 40 years, for the most part, especially
compared to the Mets original triumvirate of Lindsey Nelson,
Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner. And these days the Mets have the
great Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen on
television….but I digress.
What compels me to write today, though, concerns Rizzuto’s
Hall of Fame status. Only because he played with the Yankees
and had this constant drumbeat of support in the #1 media market
did “the Scooter” finally get in; selected by the Veterans
Committee in his 11th year on that ballot after being shut out by
the Baseball Writers for 15.
I mean Rizzuto accumulated only 1,588 hits in his career for a
piddly .273 average, and he had a whopping 38 homers and 563
RBI. In fact he had only three seasons where he hit over .280,
though in 1950 he did deserve his MVP trophy, I guess, as he
batted .324, collected 200 hits (for the only time), and had 66
RBI out of the shortstop position. Yet Rizzuto overall made only
five All-Star squads and was top ten in the MVP voting just three
times.
Of course Rizzuto gained a lot of ink from being in nine World
Series, but even here he hit only .246 and had a whopping 8 RBI
… 8!… in 183 at bats.
Compare this to fellow Hall of Fame shortstop, and
contemporary, Pee Wee Reese who had 2,170 hits, hit .269, but
had 126 homers and drove in 885. Reese also hit .272 in 7
World Series, was on 10 All-Star teams, and finished in the top
ten in the MVP voting 8 times.
Of course right about now all the Yankees fans are upset with
me, so I’ll let the editors of “Total Baseball” and “Baseball: The
Biographical Encyclopedia” take over.
“Rizzuto pales next to Reese, particularly in offensive
categories….
“It seems that Rizzuto’s two most important attributes – his
glove and his leadership – are difficult strengths to evaluate.
Opponent Ted Williams said that Rizzuto made the difference in
the sensational Yankees-Red Sox late-season pennant races
during those years (1941-56). Joe DiMaggio said that Rizzuto
‘holds the team together.’ Yankees pitcher Vic Raschi said, ‘My
best pitch is anything the batter grounds, lines, or pops up in the
direction of Rizzuto.’ New York manager Casey Stengel, in his
inimitable fashion, said, ‘What about this shortstop Rizzuto
who’s got nothing but daughters but throws out the lefthanded
hitters in the double play?’”
But then there was the 1955 World Series, specifically Game
Seven. With two out, Rizzuto on at second and Billy Martin on
at first in the third inning of a scoreless game, “(Gil) McDougald
rapped a slow chopper down the third-base line. Dodgers third
sacker Don Hoak had no chance of a play at first base, so he let
the ball go, hoping it would roll foul. It didn’t. Instead it hit
Rizzuto as he was sliding into third. He was called out, the
inning was over, and the Dodgers beat the Yankees in a World
Series for the first time.”
How freakin’ stupid was that?!
The next year, 1956, Rizzuto was unceremoniously released on
Old Timer’s Day. “Yankee management called him into the
front office and asked his advice on cutting a player. Rizzuto
thought they were serious and offered some suggestions, but in
fact they were letting him know the player to be cut was Rizzuto
himself.”
But Phil was immediately kicked up into the broadcast booth and
his “first accomplishment was to bring about a rapprochement
between announcers Mel Allen and Red Barber. Both had been
professionally cool to each other for years, but they united in
their resentment against the appearance of the untrained former
ballplayer.”
Rizzuto quickly earned a reputation for talking about anything
but baseball. But then he lasted 40 years, though as the editors of
“Total Baseball” note:
“Rizzuto could be dull, and was often ridiculed for it. Once, a
man who had died on the operating table miraculously recovered.
Wondering what it must have been like to be temporarily dead,
David Letterman commented, ‘It must have been like listening to
Phil Rizzuto during a rain delay.’”
But I’ll tell you why I wrote this bit on the Scooter; it’s because I
also saw a blurb in the book “Ninety Feet from Fame: Close
Calls with Baseball Immortality” by Mike Robbins and once
again any good baseball fan has to wonder…why the hell isn’t
Vern Stephens in the Hall of Fame?
Back on 4/28/05 in this spot I wrote:
“Speaking of Stephens, am I missing something? Why isn’t this
guy at least on the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee ballot? I
mean he was a shortstop, for crying out loud, who hit 247
homers and drove in 1174 (including leading the league, or tied,
three times in this category), plus, he was an 8-time All-Star.”
I should have also added then that compared to Rizzuto,
Stephens finished in the top ten in the MVP vote six times and
still had a .960 fielding percentage compared to Rizzuto’s .968.
In fact, from 1948-50 while with the Red Sox, Stephens drove in
137 (2nd in the AL), 159 (T-1st), and 144 (1st)…again, out of the
shortstop position. [He led the AL in ribbies in 1944 while with
the St. Louis Browns] As a middle infielder, Ryne Sandberg is
in the Hall and can only dream of totals like this.
Unfortunately, chronic back and knee problems zapped Stephens
of his power by the time he was 31 (at which point he had hit 224
of his 247 homers), so as Mike Robbins points out, if he had just
averaged 13 a year for six more years he would have had 300 and
been a Hall of Fame lock.
And get this; Vern Stephens never received a single Hall of Fame
vote, but both Rizzuto and Reese are in! Wassup with dat?!
Sadly, it has been written that Vern Stephens reportedly loved
the bottle too much when his playing days were over. He died of
a heart attack at age 48 in 1968. These days, when it comes to
the Veterans Committee, there isn’t anyone blaring a horn for
him, like they did with Rizzuto in spades when his playing career
was long over.
Well gosh darn it! Johnny Mac and I are going to do something
about this. For starters, I just decided to sponsor Stephens’ page
on Baseball-Reference.com. Next, the two of us will begin
pestering congressional candidates to see where they stand on the
issue before the mid-term elections.
Stuff
–Once again, Lance Armstrong is in the news for all the wrong
reasons. This time as a result of a New York Times story by
Juliet Macur concerning two of his teammates who now admit to
using the banned endurance-boosting drug EPO in 1999, the year
Armstrong won his first of seven Tour de France titles.
Frankie Andreu, retired from the sport, and another rider who
chose to remain anonymous, have come forward to detail their
use of EPO. But both say they never saw Armstrong take any
banned substance.
Armstrong said “I think it’s a pretty nasty attempt by The New
York Times to link me to doping through somebody else’s
admission. You have to read way down in the article until
Frankie says, ‘I never saw Lance do anything.’
Actually, Lance, reporter Macur makes this point early on. She
also writes:
“Armstrong once said that cycling had no secrets and that hard
work was the key to winning. Recent events and disclosures,
however, demonstrate that cycling does, indeed, have secrets.
“Dozens of interviews with people in the sport as well as court
documents (reveal) a murky world of clandestine meetings,
mysterious pills and thermoses that clink with the sound of drug
vials rattling inside them.” [EPO has to be kept cold so riders
were constantly refilling their thermoses with ice.]
Regarding EPO specifically, “Motorola’s top riders asked their
doctor, Massimo Testa, about the drug’s safety because more
than a dozen young riders in Europe had died mysteriously of
heart attacks. Some cyclists had linked those deaths to rumored
EPO use.”
More than a dozen?! Why isn’t this part of a story on “60
Minutes”?
“Dr. Testa said he urged the riders not to take the drug, but he
wanted them to be educated.
“ ‘If you want to use a gun, you had better use a manual, rather
than to ask the guy on the street how to use it,’ he said. ‘I cannot
rule out that someone did it.’”
–On Saturday, Sept. 2, Division I-AA Montana State defeated
Colorado 19-10 in one of college football’s biggest upsets in
recent years.
So Montana State returned home last Saturday to play Division II
Chadron State out of Chadron, Neb. Chadron won, 35-24. Now
how embarrassing is that?
And, yes, I had to look up just where the heck Chadron State
was. Turns out these guys play schools like Colorado Mines,
Adams State, Mesa State and W. New Mexico.
–Huge game this coming Saturday…Wake Forest – UConn. Jeff
B. and I have a big bet on it….I get six points…for a burger
and beer(s).
In the exclusive Bar Chat Top Ten, Wake is still #2.
1. Nebraska (2-0)
2. Wake Forest (2-0)
3. Richmond (1-0)…idle last weekend
4. Navy (2-0)
5. Ohio State (2-0)
6. USC (2-0)
7. Rutgers (2-0)
8. Lafayette (2-0)
9. Notre Dame (2-0)
10. West Virginia (2-0)
Falling out of the rankings last week were Montana State, Texas,
Arkansas State and Wyoming.
As for the AP poll, it’s slightly different:
1. Ohio State
2. Notre Dame
3. Auburn
4. USC
5. West Virginia
6. LSU
7. Florida
8. Texas
9. Florida State
10. Georgia
[Note: The Bar Chat Top Ten is NOT part of the BCS polling
system. My attorneys suggested I mention this so as not to get
the hopes of the Richmond Spiders up too much.]
–Meanwhile, Johnny Mac reports that East Stroudsburg’s Jimmy
Terwilliger, after a tough opening week loss in the rains from
Tropical Storm Ernesto, recovered to throw for 343 yards and
five touchdown passes in ESU’s 45-14 victory over Lock Haven.
For Terwilliger, who should be the frontrunner for the Heisman
Trophy, it was his record 23rd game of 300+ yards and 39th
straight game with a TD pass.
–I liked this story from Kevin Manahan of the Star-Ledger on
Ryder Cup Captain Tom Lehman.
“After a long night in a Dublin pub, trading autographs for pints,
Tom Lehman and a few of his Ryder Cup players wobbled back
to the hotel around 2 a.m. That’s when somebody had a great
idea – okay, it was Lehman – to sneak into Tiger Woods’ room
and leave him a note.
“On his back. While he slept. In indelible marker.
“ ‘It was going to be something nasty with a Sharpie that wasn’t
going to come off easily,’ Lehman said.
“Just one problem: Woods was wearing a shirt.
“ ‘Who sleeps with a shirt on?’ a frustrated Lehman whispered to
his co-conspirators at Woods’ bedside. The players snickered.
Well, at least the world’s best player wasn’t wearing jammies
and hugging a stuffed animal. As captain, Lehman was obliged
to come up with a Plan B. He did.
“ ‘Mickelson’s room!’ he said, and the group crept toward a new
victim.
“Another problem: Even after 2 a.m., Phil Mickelson was still
awake. ‘Nice try,’ he said.”
–You have to feel for Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Trent
Green, whose head was slammed to the turf by Cincinnati’s
Robert Geathers on Sunday. Green suffered a “very, very
severe” concussion and will be out at least two weeks. Geathers
didn’t even receive a penalty on the play, but you can be sure
he’s now a marked man.
–Then there is this story from the AP and ESPN.com.
“A T-ball coach accused of offering an 8-year-old boy $25 to
bean a disabled teammate is unlikely to receive a fair trial
because of intense media coverage, the man’s lawyer said.
“Mark R. Downs Jr., 29, of Dunbar (near Pittsburgh) was
scheduled to go on trial Tuesday in Fayette County on a string of
charges, including solicitation, corruption of minors and reckless
endangerment.”
This was part of a case that came to light in June 2005, when
Down didn’t want Harry Bowers Jr., then 9, to play in a playoff
contest because he wasn’t good enough. Bowers suffers from
mild retardation.
“Keith Reese, 8 at the time, testified at a preliminary hearing that
he hit Bowers with baseballs first in the groin and later in the ear.
Reese said he did it because Downs offered him $25 to make
sure Bowers wouldn’t be able to play.”
There are various versions of the story, with Downs’ defense
attorney saying “[Bowers] was terrible….It’s not like he got
blind-sided. He put his glove up, he missed it and it went off his
glove and hit him.”
Throw the attorney in jail, too.
–Nice contract….the New York Islanders just signed 25-year-
old goalie Rick DiPietro to a 15-year, $67.5 million deal. 15
years!
According to ESPN.com and the Star-Ledger, “As long as
DiPietro wants to play for the Islanders, he will be paid for the
duration of the deal ($4.5 mm each season) barring either a trade
to another NHL team or his retirement.”
If he’s traded the contract goes with him.
–Bob S. passed along the musings of San Jose Mercury News
sportswriter Bud Geracie. Bud points out that the Florida
Marlins now have four no-hitters in their short history, while the
Mets are still looking for their first. [The Mets debuted in 1962.]
And Geracie in turn noted the musings of “JessieBoy”:
“After third-place finishes in the Olympics and at the World
Basketball Championships, you could call him LeBronze James.”
–Last year the St. Louis Cardinals’ Albert Pujols won his first
MVP, playing in 161 games, hitting 41 homers, driving in 117
and batting .330.
This year Johnny Mac points out Pujols has played in 126 games
(missing about 15 due to an oblique injury) and has 45 HR 120
RBI and a .323 average. [Thru Tuesday’s play]
So, yeah, the Phils’ Ryan Howard is probably a lock with his 56-
138 and .316 BA, but had Pujols not been hurt he would have
been around 50-130 and the Cards are heading to the post-season
while the Phils are still battling for the wild-card.
Ergo, Johnny Mac is right. Pujols deserves to be right up there
with Mr. Howard and, as he adds, since there isn’t a National
League hurler deserving of the Cy Young this season, why not
make Howard and Pujols co-MVPs and put the Cy Young in
safekeeping for next year? [This is only half in jest…if Johnny
ruled baseball “It would be so!”]
Both Johnny and I would also add that the Mets’ Jose Reyes
should finish third.
–According to the New York Daily News, Thomas Vogel from
Bavaria broke the Guinness world record for the most brassieres
unhooked in one minute using one hand…56. He accomplished
this feat on a German TV show in Cologne. No comment.
–Madonna finally held her first concert in Russia on Tuesday
night in front of 50,000. Initially the concert was to be held at a
site overlooking the Moscow River but authorities were
concerned they couldn’t secure it. You’ll recall 16 were killed in
a bomb attack there at an open air rock concert in 2003.
So anyway they sold the first 30,000 tickets and realized it had to
be moved to the venue that hosted the 1980 Olympics, Luzhniki
Stadium.
But according to Peter Finn of the Washington Post, “(The)
designer of the stadium (then) said that part of the structure could
collapse if the frequency of Madonna’s sound system somehow
got in tune with the stadium’s natural vibrations. That
hypothesis might have been dismissed as simply bizarre except
that the architect issuing the warning, Nodar Kancheli, built a
swimming complex that collapsed here in 2004, killing 28
people.”
The concert went off without a hitch, but this is Moscow where
the gap between rich and poor is as great as anywhere in the
world. [When I was here a few years ago I never saw more black
Mercedes, to go along with some of the more pitiful characters
I’ve ever seen.] The top tickets went for $900!
–I forgot to include this last time.
On Sept. 9, New York City police stopped rapper 50 Cent after
spotting him making an illegal lane change on Eighth Ave.
around 35th Street (Manhattan).
“Fitty” was driving a $500,000 chrome Lamborghini…without
valid plates, insurance or a license.
So a crowd surrounded the police and Fitty and his fans gave the
cops a real hard time.
From the New York Post:
“Witnesses claimed Fitty was idling by the side of the avenue,
talking on the phone and signing autographs for an excited
crowd, when a car full of police caught up with him….
“Asked for his license and registration, the foul-mouthed, much-
shot-at rapper replied, ‘You know who the f— I am,’ said a
witness.
“That’s when cops slapped cuffs on and drove him to the
Midtown South Precinct station house.
“The crowd’s cheers turned to boos as fans began heckling the
police, accusing them of ‘arresting another black man just for
being black,’ said Jeremy Lange….
“A cop at the scene said Fitty ‘was being an a-hole, speeding or
some s—. They stopped him and he wouldn’t give up his
license.”
Cops issued him four summonses – for driving with an expired
license, lack of insurance and registration, and making an unsafe
lane change. He was released after just an hour.
Isn’t Fitty a great role model?!
–David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & Tears turned 65 on
Tuesday. Goodness gracious.
Top 3 songs for the week of 9/13/75: #1 “Rhinestone Cowboy”
(Glen Campbell) #2 “Fallin’ In Love” (Hamilton, Joe Frank &
Reynolds) #3 “At Seventeen” (Janis Ian)…and…#4 “Get Down
Tonight” (K.C. & The Sunshine Band) #5 “Fame” (David
Bowie) #7 “Could It Be Magic” (Barry Manilow)
NFL Quiz Answer: Top ten passers…40,000 yards.
1. Dan Marino…61,361
2. Brett Favre…53,615*
3. John Elway…51,475
4. Warren Moon…49,325
5. Fran Tarkenton…47,003
6. Vinny Testaverde…45,252
7. Drew Bledsoe…43,447*
8. Dan Fouts…43,040
9. Joe Montana…40,551
10. Johnny Unitas…40,239
17. Kerry Collins…33,637*
20. Peyton Manning…33,189*
*Active…and not including opening week of ’06 season.
–Only four with 300 TD passes in their career.
Dan Marino…420
Brett Favre…396
Fran Tarkenton…342
John Elway…300
[Bledsoe and Manning entered season with 244 apiece]
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday.
