Cleveland Indians Quiz: 1) Name the only Cy Young award
winner. 2) Who was Rookie of the Year in 1971? 3) Who threw
a no-hitter in 1966? 4) When was the Indians’ last World
Championship? 5) Who was the last to win the MVP award? 6)
Who am I? I hit 42 home runs in 1936 and my initials are H.T.
7) Who am I? I had 23 triples in 1949, a total not exceeded in
either league since. Answers below.
*I had the flight from hell returning from Chicago on Sunday,
diverted to Cleveland for a while due to landing gear issues as it
turned out, so the following isn’t as complete as I had wished.
[Actually, they thought it was better to crash in Cleveland than
Newark…or so I surmised. It wasn’t a happy bunch of
passengers in the end.]
Stuff
–Boy, it sure is enjoyable going to a Cubs game. My friends
often say, ‘Hey, Editor. Why don’t you go to more Mets
games?’ ‘Because it’s a minimum of 1 ½ hours to get there,’ I
reply, testily. But in Chicago on Saturday, my hotel was a two
minute walk from the train, the train ride was 15 minutes to
Wrigley, and the stadium is right across from the station. Now
that’s enjoyable.
The weather turned out better than forecast, too; no rain, and I
loved the bleacher seat experience. Everyone was well-behaved
(though the fact the Cubs were playing the lowly Washington
Nationals had more than something to do with it) and a good
time was had by all. Of course the beer was flowing so by the 7th
inning, the Nationals’ right-fielder, Austin Kearns, got a little
grief. The only drawback was I was four rows back from the
wall, in fair territory, and nary a blast was hit our way. I still
have never caught a baseball at a game I was attending.
By the way, there were 40,000 in the stands on a dreary, damp
day with the Nationals as the attraction. That’s pretty good.
But the Cubs didn’t always draw well, despite what most believe
these days. In fact, back in 1966, when the team was a putrid 59-
103, the Cubs drew just 635,891 the entire season…or 7,851 a
game.
And some Cubs tidbits from days of yore. Hall of Famer Billy
Herman had back-to-back seasons of 57 doubles (1935-36), and
some guy named Russ Stephenson hit .362 and .367 in 1929 and
1930. Stephenson hit .336 for his career, 1921-34, but he really
only played four full seasons which is why many of us don’t
know him. [I’m making the big leap that I’m not the only one, in
other words.]
–Saturday was also the first game of the Bulls-Pistons playoff
series so I caught that at a local watering hole…Melnick’s.
Geezuz, the Bulls sucked. Here is what Mike Imrem of the Daily
Herald wrote on Sunday, in addressing pre-game talk as to which
Bulls player the Pistons fans would end up hating.
“Well, one game into the Eastern Conference semifinals, Pistons
fans couldn’t have hated any of the Bulls.
“I mean, can you hate a litter of cute little puppies? Can you hate
the homeless? Can you hate any of society’s powerless groups?
“The Bulls were emasculated…Someone cruel might say this
had the odor of a skunk being run over by a Peterbilt.”
–Back to the Cubs, recently Sam Zell acquired Tribune Co.,
owner of the team, and this is creating a bit of havoc because
Zell said he would sell the Cubs as part of the deal but the way
these things work it might not happen until February.
In the meantime, no one knows who’s really running the team,
much to the chagrin of new manager Lou Piniella, and it’s
impacting the pending free agency of star pitcher Carlos
Zambrano, who can walk after the season.
–George Will led “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on Saturday at
Wrigley. Then the byline of his Sunday column in the
Washington Post said Mobile, AL. How’d he do that?
–Only the Yankees have the wherewithal to toy with the system
and sign Roger Clemens for $4.5 million a month. But will
Roger’s name come up in the steroid investigation?
–The Milwaukee Brewers are 21-10!
–The Chicago Blackhawks take a lot of heat. They’ve now
missed the playoffs 8 of the last 9 seasons and have gone 46
years without a title.
–Good thing I didn’t hop on the New York Rangers bandwagon.
–I also caught the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, so once again
we have to hope Street Sense is the real deal and takes the
Preakness. Unbelievable ride by Calvin Borel.
–My brother noted that in “For Better or For Worse,” if April
wears any more makeup “by June she’s going to look like Bette
Davis in ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.’”
–Goodness gracious. I get home late Sunday, am pouring
through the newspapers, and see the following headline.
“Black bear strolls through corporate land”
“An adult black bear was seen in the Murray Hill section
yesterday afternoon (Thursday), the first bear sighting here in
nine months, police said.
“The bear was first observed around 1 p.m. on the Alcatel-
Lucent property.”
Yikes! That’s just a few blocks from yours truly! I could have
been out getting the paper and whomp! I’m the first mauling
victim of the season.
–I see a five-year-old boy in western Mexico was killed by a
crocodile the other day. I gotta tell ya…I never knew crocs
existed here, let alone that story out of San Antonio the other
day. Maybe we can use them for border patrol, know what I’m
sayin’?
–Sounds like sharks had a field day on those Haitian boat people
off the Turks and Caicos. Haiti’s probably not looking too bad,
eh?
–Bad time for elephants. The latest study on ivory leads to the
conclusion that 5% of Africa’s pachyderms are being slaughtered
each year, or about 23,000. Less than 500,000 are thought to be
left. A kilogram of ivory is now fetching $750 on the black
market.
–Tiger Woods has now won 9 of his last 12 starts on the PGA
Tour and has 57 wins overall. Wake alum Scott Hoch captured
his first Champions Tour crown.
–So I’m at the Museum of Science and Industry on Thursday in
Chicago where they are rebuilding Craig Breedlove’s “Spirit of
America,” the vehicle he used to set the land speed record back
in 1964.
On Oct. 15 of that year, Breedlove averaged a top speed of 526
mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah…513 on the way down
and 539 on the way back.
But his chutes failed to release and the brakes burnt out.
Breedlove proceeded to snap off a telephone pole, went through
¼ mile of shallow water, hit an 8-foot-tall dirt dike, went
airborne, and landed in a body of water 18-feet deep.
Breedlove survived unharmed, however, as he swam ashore.
This was back in the days when we were still in that “Right
Stuff” kind of mode as a nation.
–And I just have to note I went to the Art Institute, which was
playing host to the show “Cezanne to Picasso.” Now I can’t
stand those who were featured, including Paul Gauguin, but you
do walk away with some appreciation for the star of the show, art
dealer Henri Louis-Ambroise (1866-1939).
All he did was help establish Cezanne, Gauguin, Picasso and
Van Gogh, among countless others, launching their careers in the
salons of Paris. [There was a phenomenal video as part of the
exhibit of Ambroise with an elderly Renoir. Now that’s history.]
The Art Institute, which I’d never been to, is the home of the
famous painting “American Gothic” by Grant Wood. [Think
those old commercials for Country Corn Flakes.]
And since the Art Institute had all manner of works, I have to
bore the majority of you with my usual appraisal.
You know how around here it’s “Monet good…Manet bad”? I
might be a little hard on the latter.
And who is known as “The American Manet”? Why it’s my
main man Bill Glackens (1870-1938). Actually, it’s William, but
I can’t remember ever seeing his work so I’m calling him Bill…
Billy Glackens, in fact.
My man Al Sisley was there, as well as one of my all-time top
three, Camille Pissaro (1830-1903). I was fired up to see that
Pissarro, who mentored Gauguin, couldn’t stand Gauguin’s
works from Tahiti. Why he “denounced them,” I tell you. “Hey
Gauguin, this stuff blows! Stick to what I freakin’ taught you,
you jerk.” [I have to admit there was no video of this so I really
don’t know what Pissarro said to Gauguin, but this has to be
close.]
–St. Louis manager Tony La Russa was lampooned in the
Chicago papers following the disclosure that pitcher Josh
Hancock was very drunk when he had his fatal accident (as well
as being on his cellphone and having marijuana in the car).
Rick Telander wrote in the Chicago Sun Times:
“The problem, of course, is that the 29-year-old Hancock –
eulogized so quickly, vilified almost as swiftly – had shown
signs of a drinking problem earlier, and his death from speeding
headlong into a parked tow truck…seemed almost predictable.
“ ‘When you sign a contract with the Cardinals, you’re talked to
about these [drinking and drugs] issues,’ La Russa said. ‘I did
have a very serious heart-to-heart with Josh on that Thursday,
and here it is [Sunday morning] and he still drank and crashed.’
“La Russa, perhaps, was not the best person to give that speech.
“One of only two managers in history to win World Series titles
in each league, La Russa is a fiery man who just this March was
charged with drunken driving in Jupiter, Fla., after falling asleep
behind the wheel of his car and sitting through several red
lights….
“The trouble is that in baseball, as in other young men’s sports,
culture speaks louder than words.
“You’re a tough young guy, you go pedal to the metal, you’re
full of spit and vinegar, and, by God, you can kick anybody’s
ass, throw a 100-mile-an-hour speedball, and you’re never gonna
die.
“It’s called testosterone. It’s why guys take steroids. It’s
caveman.
“Then you see your hip, famous manager out drinking, and you
see the team cooler filled with beer, and you know your club is
owned by the very people – Busch – who sell more beer in this
country than anyone, and you can’t stop yourself from going out
and acting like a risk-taker from hell.
“Young men always have done crazy things. They always have.
They always will.”
–Hey, Goose Island beer is a pretty tasty local brew in Chicago.
Oops, I guess this was an inappropriate time to bring this up.
Sorry.
–How ‘bout them Dallas Mavericks? Yes, that is definitely one
of the all-time choke jobs. And how embarrassing will it be for
Dirk Nowitzki to pick up the MVP trophy?
–Wally Schirra, one of the seven original Mercury astronauts
and the only one to fly on Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, died at
the age of 84. The other six from Project Mercury were John
Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, Gus
Grissom and Gordon Cooper. Glenn and Carpenter are still
alive.
–Finally, we’re all waiting to see who the 36 former and current
ballplayers are that former Senator George Mitchell has
requested meetings with as part of his ongoing investigation into
steroids in baseball. While none will cooperate initially, I’m sure
the names are bound to leak out soon…and no doubt will be part
of Mitchell’s final report anyway.
Along these lines, Phil W. passed along a good piece by John
Feinstein from the Washington Post that I had previously missed.
“Those who played in the big leagues during the 1990s are now
starting to talk about circumstantial evidence they saw – but for
the most part ignored – during that period. As they talk, it is
becoming more and more evident that those who didn’t partake
were probably the minority.
“ ‘It’s at the point now where you wonder if anyone was
innocent,’ said Ron Darling, who pitched in the majors from
1983 to 1995. ‘The only reason pitchers from my era are pretty
much in the clear is that no one had figured out back then that
steroids could help us too. Clearly that changed somewhere
along the way but I was out of the game by then.’
“Darling has a clear memory of when he noticed the sport
changing. ‘When I first came up, I remember after games we’d
all sit around and eat the postgame meal and talk about the game.
We’d second-guess a manager or a play or wonder what maybe
could have been done differently that night. When I got to
Oakland in 1991, I noticed that wasn’t happening anymore. As
soon as the game was over, most of the guys would come inside,
change out of their uniforms and go down the hall to pump iron
for an hour. At least. Then they’d get up the next morning,
workout again and eat 4,000 calories at lunch. And they never
got tired.
“ ‘Looking back now, it’s pretty clear what was going on. Back
then, I just didn’t give it much thought. I was worried about
getting ready for my next start.’
“Beyond that is the jock code that you never turn in a teammate.
Neither Darling nor anyone else was going to go to anyone in
management and say, ‘that guy’s cheating.’ After all, if the
cheating was helping the team win, why would you stop
someone from doing it?”
There’s also no doubt the baseballs themselves changed after the
1994-95 strike, as pitchers like Darling and Mike Mussina attest
to. Mussina told Feinstein he remembers cutting open two
baseballs during a rain delay as a time-killing science
experiment: “No comparison,” he said. “The core of the old ball
just laid down flat on the table. The new ball, the core literally
sat up it was so lively.”
And on the topic of Barry Bonds, who is now up to 744,
Feinstein writes the following:
“Bonds is going to break baseball’s most cherished record and
stain the game by doing so. Hank Aaron won’t be there to
congratulate him when he breaks the record and you can bet
Commissioner Bud Selig won’t be there, either. He simply
cannot be there to shake Bonds’ hand because the minute he does
that he is saying that cheating is okay. Yes, Selig is tacitly guilty
of all this because he was one of the people who closed his eyes
when the steroid outbreak occurred. But he can’t continue to
endorse what Bonds and others have done to the game by going
along with the notion that Bonds is the greatest home run hitter
in history.
“He has to turn his back. And please let us not continue with this
foolish notion that Bonds and the others must be convicted
beyond a reasonable doubt. This isn’t a court of law. Being
considered a hero is a privilege, not a legal right. Even if you
take Bonds at his word – which is a little bit like taking anything
Alberto Gonzales says seriously – he has taken steroids
(accidentally, he told a grand jury) and amphetamines, for which
he tested positive last year. [Another accident of course.
Athletes and drugs are a little bit like Claudine Longet, the
beautiful French singer who killed her lover, skier Spider Sabich,
and then claimed she’d shot him accidentally. Saturday Night
Live once staged a ‘Claudine Longet skiing invitational,’ in
which every competitor was accidentally shot by Claudine
Longet.]
“Every single athlete who has ever tested positive for drugs
ended up with them in his or her system accidentally.
“If you are paying even a little bit of attention – ala Darling in
the Oakland clubhouse in 1991 – it is pretty clear that the number
of players using steroids in the last 15 or 20 years has been
epidemic. Bonds is just the best of them and, while the
apologists will claim that the reason people don’t want to
acknowledge his pursuit of the record is that they don’t like him,
that’s just not the case.
“Make no mistake, Bonds is a bad guy. He’s obnoxious,
condescending and rude. Forget his relationship with the media
(no one cares if he’s not nice to the media), ask his ex-teammates
or his ex-wives or ex-girlfriends. Don’t ask current teammates
(for obvious reasons) especially pitcher Barry Zito, whose
behavior in trying to ingratiate himself with Bonds this spring
has been close to disgusting.
“Lots of bad guys have set important records…
“But no one has ever tried to demean their baseball
accomplishments of any of them because there’s never been a
shred of evidence any of them cheated. There’s plenty of
evidence Bonds has cheated and there’s no one inside the game
who doesn’t think he’s lying every time he claims his innocence.
“He’s not alone by any means. In fact, every day it is becoming
more and more apparent that he was probably a part of the
majority. He’s just the symbol of an era that baseball can’t
forget soon enough.
“The problem is it is going to be a long, long time before anyone
is able to forget. Baseball has been stained. Perhaps not forever
and probably not irreparably but in ways that won’t be forgotten,
and shouldn’t be forgotten, anytime soon.”
Top 3 songs for the week of 5/5/79: #1 “Reunited” (Peaches &
Herb) #2 “Heart of Glass” (Blondie) #3 “Music Box Dancer”
(Frank Mills…gag me…put me to sleep)…and…#4 “Knock On
Wood” (Amii Stewart) #5 “Stumblin’ In” (Suzi Quatro & Chris
Norman) #6 “In The Navy” (Village People) #7 “I Want Your
Love” (Chic) #9 “Take Me Home” (Cher) #10 “He’s The
Greatest Dancer” (Sister Sledge)….and with this list, I think it’s
safe to say we are heading back to the 60s…that’s for sure!
[Oops…missed #8 and I don’t have the book here.]
Cleveland Indians Quiz Answers: 1) Last Cy Young winner:
Gaylord Perry, 1972. 2) Rookie of the Year, 1971: Chris
Chambliss. 3) No-hitter, 1966: Sonny Siebert. 4) Last World
title: 1948. [The Indians were recent losers in the Series in 1995
and 1997] 5) Last to win the MVP award: Al Rosen, 1953. 6)
Hal Trosky hit 42 homers in 1936…in fact that season, at the age
of 23, he also had 162 RBI and batted .343. By age 27, Trosky
had already accumulated 860 RBI…and then he faded from
baseball; not because of WWII, but ostensibly because of
migraines. Trosky hailed from Norway, Iowa. 7) In 1949, Dale
Mitchell hit 23 triples, a total no one has reached since,
amazingly. Mitchell hit .312 in 11 seasons. In ’49, he had 203
hits, with 16 doubles and 3 homers, but those 23 triples, in one of
the weirder stat lines you’ll ever see. So you’d think he’d have a
lot of speed, right? Maybe so, but he was a miserable base
stealer for his career…just 45 while being caught 47 times. But
Mitchell is perhaps best known for making the final out in Don
Larsen’s perfect game in 1956. It was Mitchell’s next to last at
bat in the big leagues and it was on a called third strike. Mitchell
always claimed it was a ball and there was little disputing this
because Dale Mitchell was also one of the hardest to strike out in
baseball history. In 1948, in 608 official at bats, he whiffed just
14 times…and hit .336. In 1949, in 640 at bats, he fanned only
11 times!
Next Bar Chat, Thursday. I need to play catch up on some
things.
