NFL Quiz: Who are the only five coaches to win 200 regular
season games? All have winning percentages over .600. [Hint:
If you added playoff games, you would have two others with
200+; Chuck Noll and Dan Reeves.] Answer below.
APPALACHIAN STATE 34……#5 MICHIGAN 32….
By now you’ve seen all the clichés… “David Beats Goliath”
being at the top. But this was truly the greatest upset in college
football history.
Pat Forde / ESPN.com
“Hats off to Appalachian State, which completed a week like
none in school history.
“First came word via ‘The Today Show’ of a recruiting coup for
the little school in the North Carolina mountains. Caitlin Upton,
the freshly famous Miss Teen South Carolina, whose dingbat
answer to a beauty pageant question became an instant YouTube
classic, told Matt Lauer she planned to attend Appalachian State.
This might not have dazzled the academic folks on campus, but I
guarantee the male students are stoked.
“Including the football team, perhaps? Maybe Miss Upton’s
commitment was the final motivation for the Mountaineers to
defrock college football’s winningest program in America’s
largest stadium.
“Remember the score: App. State 34, Michigan 32.
“We’ll still be talking about it a few decades from now.
Especially in the locker rooms of every huge underdog, where
they’ll say, ‘If Appalachian State can beat Michigan, why can’t
we shock the world, too?
“These are the kinds of things that don’t normally happen in
college football, where the chasm between have and have-not is
wider than in any other sport. In fact, as the preposterous partial
scores from Ann Arbor kept rolling in, Labor Day weekend
began to feel like March Madness. That charm is usually lost on
the gridiron, but not Saturday.”
For the record, since they went to Division I-AA in 1978, no I-
AA team had ever beaten an AP Top 25 squad. But it needs to
be pointed out App. St. is a two-time I-AA champion.
As for Michigan, this is a school where quarterback Chad Henne
and running back Michael Hart opted to forego the NFL draft in
order to go after a national title, making this upset all the more
remarkable.
And as for Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, as Pat Forde notes, Carr
should just be happy his athletic director isn’t Frank Broyles. In
1992, Broyles, the athletic director at Arkansas, fired his coach
Jack Crowe the day after the Razorbacks lost their season opener
to I-AA Citadel, 10-3.
I haven’t heard or read every accounting of App. State’s historic
achievement so I don’t know how many have noted it, but to me
the closest comparison might be tiny Chaminade’s win over
Ralph Sampson’s then #1 ranked Virginia Cavaliers in college
basketball decades ago.
Regardless, what occurred on Saturday was an awesome moment
for the sport of college football. No doubt, too, these next two
months are the best of the sports year.
—
No-No!
Yes, it was quite a day in sports, Saturday, as Boston pitcher
Clay Buchholz became the 20th rookie to throw a no-hitter since
1900. But it was also just the second major league start for the
23-year-old, thus becoming only the third pitcher to toss one in
his first or second outing; the others being Bobo Hollomon
(1953), whose story has been well-chronicled in these pages, and
Wilson Alvarez (1991).
Michael Jackson, RIP
Beer-lovers are in mourning this weekend. The world’s leading
authority on ales and lagers has died at the age of 65, the victim
of a heart attack at his home in London.
Back in 1977, Jackson published “The World Guide to Beer” at a
time when there were just 40 breweries in the United States
producing “essentially boring beer,” according to fellow expert
Charles Finkel. The book helped rekindle interest and today
there are 1,440 breweries in America, with all but about 50 on
the micro level.
Finkel notes, “His book was pivotal in the history of beer,
because it was the first time that anyone had taken an academic
approach to the culture of beer by looking at people’s habits,
traditions, how it tastes and the brewing styles. He essentially
taught a generation of craft brewers about what these styles were,
told them they tasted great and said, ‘Give them a chance and
customers will come.’”
Jackson once told the Sydney Morning Herald that his first book
was the result of “20 years’ drinking experience and three years
of serious research.”
“ ‘Do you ever drink wine?’ people ask me, as though beer were
a prison rather than a playground,” Jackson wrote in his 1996
book ‘The Beer Companion.’ “Beer is by far the more
extensively consumed but less adequately honored. I want to
help right that injustice.”
Here in the office, I have two of Jackson’s books… “The Beer
Companion” and “Ultimate Beer.” They serve as an inspiration.
“On a busy day,” writes Valerie J. Nelson of the Los Angeles
Times, “Jackson could sample 50 kinds of beer, and he admitted
that hangovers were a hazard of the profession.”
Jackson dropped out of school at 16 to become a journalist so he
could help support his family. He was an investigative reporter
for the London Daily Mail as well as a British television show,
before deciding to cover beer.
And how did it all start? Jackson was sitting in a pub with his
editor when he asked if he could fly to Cambodia to do a story, it
being the time of the Vietnam War, and his editor reportedly
snapped, “A good reporter can find a good story under his nose.”
“Under my nose was a beer,” Jackson told the San Diego Union-
Tribune in 1999.
He also used to address having the same name as that other guy
by saying he was “not that Michael Jackson” but that he was on a
world tour “in pursuit of exceptional beer.”
Which is kind of what I’ve been doing the past 8+ years myself.
Stuff
–NFL bytes:
And now…your EXCLUSIVE “Bar Chat Pick to Go All the
Way”…San Diego. [For the record, Mark R. is going with
Philadelphia, at least for the first four games until McNabb gets
hurt, and Johnny Mac is picking New England. Johnny brings up
the point it’s still a coach and quarterback league and the Pats are
pretty good in both.]
Sports Illustrated’s Paul Zimmerman has selected New Orleans
to defeat the Chargers.
One thing I know, my Jets won’t get it done. I’m thinking 8-8.
But then you have the situation with New England Patriots safety
Rodney Harrison, who has been suspended by the NFL for
violating the league’s ban on performance-enhancing drugs.
Harrison came out and said he was using human growth
hormone.
“I want to make it clear not once did I ever use steroids,”
Harrison said. “My purpose was never to gain a competitive
edge. Rather, my use was solely for the purpose of accelerating
the healing process of injuries I sustained while playing
football.”
Rodney thinks we’re all morons.
Now remember, the NFL does not test for HGH because a
reliable test hasn’t been developed. So how did they find out
about Harrison? Through an ongoing investigation into Internet
sales of steroids and other drugs centering on a pharmacy in
Orlando, FL. Major League baseball players, college players,
coaches and doctors are also involved; including Dallas
Cowboys coach Wade Wilson, who was suspended five games
for being on the list. Why would a coach purchase the stuff?
He’s a dealer, that’s why.
Mike Lupica / New York Daily News
“You know why Harrison didn’t think he needed steroids?
Because he had moved on to the new drug of choice in big-time
sports, human growth hormone, for which neither football nor
baseball has a reliable test yet.
“Why did Harrison do it?
“The stuff works, that’s why, for safeties and linemen, sluggers
and pitchers, young and old….Harrison is the one dumb enough
to get caught this time. If you think he is the last…think again.”
–College football tidbits:
Reminder, if you’re waiting for your EXCLUSIVE “Bar Chat
Picks to Click,” we don’t begin putting them out until Week
Five. It just takes a while for the season to develop and since
many of you are betting $hundreds of thousands on my
selections, I think this is the only responsible thing to do. So stay
tuned…Sept. 27.
–#4 Texas narrowly escaped the fate of Michigan in defeating
lowly Arkansas State by only 21-13. And boy is Notre Dame
going to suck. They lost 33-3 to Georgia Tech.
–Good to see Cal get its revenge against Tennessee after getting
blown out in the opener last year. This time Cal won 45-31 as
superstar DeSean Jackson had his 6th touchdown on a punt
return.
–As for my Wake Forest Demon Deacons, it’s awful tough to
have an opening game against a main rival such as Boston
College. We lost 38-28 to a squad that is a top 25 team as long
as BC quarterback Matt Ryan stays healthy. And the way things
line up in the ACC, Boston College could be BCS bound.
Next up for Wake…Nebraska. Ughh.
–Omigod! The bloodsucking chupacabra lives! The mythical
creature has turned up in Cuero, Texas. “It is one ugly creature,”
said Phylis Canion, who found one near her home the other day.
She put the head in her freezer for safe-keeping. Really.
Canion and some of her neighbors have discovered the bodies of
three of the 40-pound animals over four days in July outside her
ranch, 80 miles southeast of San Antonio. She suspects as many
as 26 of her chickens may have been killed by the chupacabra.
Chupacabra means “goat sucker” in Spanish and it’s a cross
between a mastodon and a saber toothed tiger.
Well, actually, Canion believes it’s part wolf, though others say
it’s just a strange breed of dog. One thing is for sure, whatever it
is, it’s as ugly as they come and it does indeed love to suck
blood. Yet another reason to beware when getting the morning
paper in the driveway.
–So the other day I mentioned Monica Oswald of Neptune, NJ,
who had reportedly caught a world record fluke, a 24.3-pound
flounder. But as Judy Peet of the Star-Ledger reported in a front
page story this Sunday, the catch has become a nightmare for
Oswald.
“Oswald’s morals, honesty, intelligence, fishing skills, looks,
weight and cleavage have been savaged on the Internet,” writes
Peet.
Oswald has been reduced to hiding out in her home, four miles
from the ocean; refusing to answer the door or phone.
Part of the problem is “This is the first major (saltwater fishing)
record set since the advent of fishing Web sites,” according to Ed
Marut, a Coast Guard-certified boat captain and a founder of
njsaltwaterfisherman.com. “It’s not that people didn’t always
badmouth record-holders, but this is the first time it’s been in
writing and global.”
Here’s the issue, as described by Ms. Peet:
“In the best of all worlds, a potential record fish would be
brought to a weighing station with barely a mark except for the
imbedded hook announcing that it was, indeed, caught with a rod
and reel, and it would be kept on ice immediately after its
departure from the sea. But life isn’t perfect and neither was
Oswald’s fish.”
When Oswald caught the fish, “it was too big for the net and
slipped out, causing some damage, she said. It fought on the
deck and she damaged the tail, standing on it while she worked
the hook out. More damage.”
The fish was also too big for the cooler so the head and tail stuck
out, further damaging it.
So by the time they got it to the bait and tackle shop, it was all
beat up. But as word spread, 25 witnesses came in and can
verify not only the fish wasn’t line dragged (which would rule it
ineligible), but that it was fresh.
However, Oswald made a huge mistake in not letting the tackle
owner keep it in his cooler until someone official could check it
out. She wanted to take it home to show friends and family.
You won’t believe the next part….but then this is a fish story,
after all.
Oswald’s 38.25-inch fluke wouldn’t fit in her refrigerator so she
put it in a cooler in the garage. She awaited the game officer, but
when he arrived the next day, they found the cooler opened and
lying on its side, empty. “The officer helped search. They found
part of the fish in the yard, but the head and part of the body
were missing.”
No one is sure what happened, but they suspect a raccoon.
Regardless, the fish was destroyed. So now all that’s left are the
photos and the International Game Fish Association will take up
to two months before ruling on it. I’d pile on, but the poor
woman has enough problems.
–Goodness gracious…from the AP:
“A backpacker fell prey to one of Southern California’s lesser-
known hazards: being gored by an American bison on Santa
Catalina Island.
“Jardrec Anangos was recovering from a fractured pelvic bone, a
sore back and an open wound after he was attacked Wednesday
by one of the descendants of a bison herd brought over to film a
silent movie in the 1920s.”
Anangos and two friends were heading towards an area where
they could go snorkeling when they saw a herd of about 15 bison
blocking the path to the beach. “Anangos said he was about 20
feet away when he caught the eye of one animal.”
“The bison didn’t like me standing that close and charged me,”
he said.
Anangos ran but “there was no real chance of me escaping,” he
said. “They’re way faster than humans.”
Anangos was gored from behind in the upper thigh and lifted. “I
was pretty much on top of his head,” he said. He was then
deposited on the ground and the herd moved away, having had its
fun.
But there are some 200 bison on Catalina! What if they hop a
ferry to the mainland?!
–Ichiro is two hits shy of his seventh straight 200-hit season,
which will equal Wade Boggs’ record.
–The Cards Rick Ankiel is hitting .353 with 6 HR and 19 RBI in
68 at bats.
–Update on Detroit’s Curtis Granderson and his pursuit of the
20-20-20-20 club.
36 doubles, 21 triples, 19 homers, 17 stolen bases
–The World Track and Field Championships were held in
Osaka, Japan, the past ten days…a sign that the Olympics are
really just around the corner. In the men’s 1,500 meters,
American Alan Webb ran a disappointing eighth after breaking
the American mile record the other week and having the best
1,500 meter time in the world this year.
But another American, Bernard Lagat, a Kenyan who became a
U.S. citizen three years ago, won the gold. It’s going to be fun
watching these two; Lagat having become eligible to run for the
U.S. on the eve of the world championships because Kenya
invoked a three-year waiting period once he became a citizen.
[And then Lagat won the 5,000 as well, thus becoming the first
double-winner in World Championship history. Paavo Nurmi
and Hicham El Guerrouj accomplished this incredible feat in the
Olympics.]
Meanwhile, American Tyson Gay won both the 100- and 200-
meters. He’s obviously going to be a huge focus of the media in
Beijing. And the world’s fastest white man, Jeremy Wariner, led
an American sweep of the men’s 400.
Overall, the U.S. kicked butt.
United States…14 golds
Kenya…5
Russia…4
–The PGA Tour will institute drug testing in 2008.
–Golfer John Daly on why he doesn’t exercise. “Every time I
worked out I threw up and I thought to myself, ‘I can get drunk
and throw up. I don’t need to do this.’”
–Andy Mill, former husband of tennis great Chris Evert, who is
now seeing golfer Greg Norman. “Greg Norman at one time was
my best friend, and a year-and-a-half ago I would have taken a
bullet for this guy. But I didn’t realize he was the one who was
going to pull the trigger.” Ouch!
–We note the passing of former Masters champion Gay Brewer,
75. Brewer won at Augusta in 1967, one of 11 PGA Tour titles,
and one year after blowing a six-foot par putt that would have
given him a green jacket in ‘66. Brewer attended the University
of Kentucky on a football scholarship, at a time when there was
nothing for golfers, and it was none other than Bear Bryant who
offered it.
–The Giants’ Michael Strahan is returning after his ridiculous
holdout. We were told by his agent that Strahan is “willing to
put off his television career until he decides to retire.” Someone
tell Michael for me, “No one gives a damn.” I’m too busy right
now.
–Update: Leona Helmsley’s dog, Trouble, is not allowed to be
buried next to Leona and Harry at the couple’s mausoleum in
New York because under state law, a dog can’t be buried where
people are. And get this, officials at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in
Westchester, where the Helmsleys have a $1.4 million crypt in
the mausoleum, told the New York Post they never had an
intention of honoring the will.
Well that’s just great. Now we know where Trouble’s $12
million inheritance is going…to pay the upcoming legal bills as
the pooch fights the system. It’s just not fair, I tell you.
–I know everyone is getting on David Beckham’s case because
he is probably out for the season with an injury…already. But if
you’re a fan of his sport, it’s simply a shame.
–“For Worse…” has gotten so bad, as creator Lynn Johnston
mails in her final weeks’ work, that all I care about are the butter
tarts being featured the past few days. Where can I get some?
Obviously April has been eating massive quantities as she’s
gained 84 pounds in just ten days.
NFL Quiz Answer: Coaches with 200 regular season wins –
Don Shula…33 years……..328-156-6, .677 [19-17 postseason]
George Halas…40…………318-148-31, .682 [6-3]
Tom Landry…29…………250-162-6, .607 [20-16]
Curly Lambeau…33………226-132-22, .631 [3-2]
Marty Schottenheimer…21…200-126-1, .613 [5-13!]
Chuck Noll…23…………..193-148-1, .566 [16-8]
Dan Reeves…23………….190-165-2, .535 [11-9]
Next Bar Chat, Thursday….and Bar Chat 1,000 next Monday!
