1908-2008

ALCS: Boston – Tampa Bay…of course we all want Boston – L.A.

NFL Quiz: 1) Who is Cleveland’s career leader in passing yards? 2) Who is Cleveland’s career leader in receptions? 3) Who replaced Paul Brown (1968-75) as Cincinnati’s coach? 4) Who is Cincinnati’s career rushing leader? 5) Who am I? I’m one of two to score four TDs in a game for Cincinnati and my initials are L.K. Answers below. 

What a disaster. As the AP put it, the Dodgers’ 3-game sweep of the Cubbies “has to be among the most galling (for the franchise), considering they fell flat against the Dodgers after their best regular season since 1945 – the last time they appeared in the World Series.” 

Star Alfonso Soriano was 1-for-14 and is 2-for-28 in the postseason since joining Chicago. The Dodgers, led by Joe Torre, outscored the Cubs 20-6. Manager Lou Piniella: 

“Let me tell you this: You can play postseason baseball for now to another hundred years, but if you score six runs in three games, it’s going to be another hundred years before we win.” [For you casual fans, the Cubs haven’t won since 1908.] 

Mike Vaccaro / New York Post 

“You think you know angst? You don’t know angst. You don’t know misery. You don’t know despair so deep and so thick that it shackles your hands and binds your feet and fills your throat with the worst kind of baseball bile. 

“Angst? If you’re a Mets fan? Here’s two words for you: Bill Buckner. Here are four numbers for you: 1-9-6-9. Angst? If you’re a Yankees fan? After 26 world championships, after 39 American League pennants, after 100 World Series games contested in Yankee Stadium alone? 

“ ‘If a New York baseball fan ever tells you about how much they suffer, if they ever use those words in a public place,’ Sean Graham was saying yesterday afternoon, in between gulps of his Old Style beer, ‘then they should have their tongues cut out in a public square somewhere.’” 

Graham and his friends were “pounding beers and cheeseburgers at the Billy Goat Tavern on North Michigan Avenue…. 

“By now you surely know about baseball’s most relentless urban myth, the tale of saloon owner Bill Sianis and his pet goat, Murphy. Sianis had bought two tickets for Game 4 of the 1945 World Series between the Cubs and the Tigers: one for him, one for the goat. The Cubs wouldn’t let the animal past a turnstile, and Sianis deemed it necessary to put a curse on the franchise. 

John Branch / New York Times…prior to Game 3 and the sweep 

“The feet that he famously clicked together are gone now, and his Cubs are on the verge of completing a century without a World Series victory. 

“But Ron Santo still feels that he is closing in on everything he wants. He can imagine a cure for the diabetes that forced his lower right leg to be amputated in 2001, and the lower left one in 2002. He can picture the championship that has eluded the Cubs since 1908. And he can hear the call that tells him, finally, that he is going to the Hall of Fame. 

“Nobody epitomizes the plight and the wait-till-next-year optimism of the Cubs like Santo, 68. He was a nine-time All-Star as a third baseman for the team from 1960 to 1973 [with 342 home runs and 1,331 RBI], and has spent the last 19 seasons as an emotionally charged color commentator for the team’s radio broadcasts…. 

“What fans did not know until a decade into his career was that Santo was found to have juvenile diabetes at age 18. He did not tell the club until he made his first All-Star Game. Fans learned years later. Santo did not want it to affect how he was perceived. 

“He always kept a candy bar and orange juice or Coke in the dugout. And he remembers a game in 1966, standing in the on-deck circle as Williams drew a walk to load the bases. The Big green scoreboard in center field was in triplicate. 

“ ‘Bill Singer was the pitcher for the Dodgers and there were three of him – one, two, three,’ Santo said. ‘I’ll never forget this. I just said to myself, I’m swinging at everything, just to get out of there and get some sugar in me. First pitch I hit a grand slam home run. And I’m going around the bases, and Billy Williams is slowing down, and I said, ‘Billy, go, go!’…. 

“Santo has had several operations on his eyes. He had quadruple bypass surgery in 1999. Circulation problems led to the amputation of his legs, about 8 inches below the knees. He wears prosthetics and walks with little trouble.” 

Santo is one of ten on the Veterans Committee ballot for the Hall of Fame, with the decision to come in December. 

“By the time O.J. Simpson stood up in court late Friday to hear the spray of guilty verdicts on robbery and kidnapping charges that may send him to prison for the rest of his life, he was already so far removed from the heights of his fame and popularity that an entire generation of young Americans was barely aware that he had ever been a football star. 

Simpson has been remanded into custody until his sentencing on Dec. 5. 

–What’s incredible about the discovery of Steve Fossett’s plane and remains believed to be his is the fact not only that the I.D. was intact, along with the money, but that the hiker who found it didn’t have a clue as to the importance until he mentioned it to a friend. Can you imagine stumbling on it? How quickly does it register? 

No huge upsets, but we have a developing story down in Vanderbilt, now 5-0 and off to its best start since 1943 after defeating #13 Auburn. 

And Oklahoma State is now 5-0 and slated to face off next Saturday night against my pick to go all the way, Missouri. 

Rutgers is 1-4 after losing to West Virginia. WVU is 16-0 at home against the Scarlet Knights. Oh yeah, the citizens of New Jersey are very proud of this Rutgers program. 

How did Virginia blast Maryland 31-0?! The ACC is wild this year. Which leads me to my own picks. Last time I wrote, in picking six games instead of my normal 3 or 4, “I love the lineup this Saturday, so I’m going for six.” And I went 6-0, to extend my ’08 mark to 8-1 after going 24-13 last year.  [For new readers, I never bet the first four weeks of the season.]

I had Penn State, giving 13 to Purdue…Penn State won 20-6
I had Minnesota, giving 7 to Indiana…Minnesota won 16-7
I had North Carolina, giving 6 ½ to UConn. The Tar Heels won 38-12
I had Missouri, giving 10 ½ to Nebraska. Mizzou won 52-17
I had Florida, giving 24 to Arkansas. Florida won 38-7
I had Florida International, giving 6 ½ to North Texas. FIU won 42-10 

Kids, take your $543,000 in winnings and stick it in an Irish bank, now that the government there is insuring all deposits for two years. 

1. Oklahoma 5-0
2. Alabama 6-0
3. Missouri 5-0
4. LSU 4-0
5. Texas 5-0
6. Penn State 6-0
7. Texas Tech 5-0
8. USC 3-1
9. BYU 5-0
10. Georgia 4-1 

I know that with the exception of the first game against Washington that the 4-0 Giants haven’t played anyone, but they are looking awesome. And this I found incredible. Their 44-6 win over Seattle represented their largest margin of victory since 1972. 

Meanwhile, Washington has recovered from the first game to win its next four, including road wins at Dallas and Philadelphia. Washington’s multi-purpose receiver/running back/ return man, Antwaan Randle El, a former quarterback in college, has now completed 19 of 23 career passes with four touchdowns. 

Does Detroit, 0-4, suck or what? 

–Shortstop Eddie Brinkman died. He was 66. Brinkman played mostly with the Washington Senators and Detroit Tigers from 1961-75 and hit just .224 with 60 homers and 461 RBI. 

But Eddie was a slick fielder. In fact he was so good, in 1972 he committed just seven errors in 156 games in winning the Gold Glove. 

Johnny Mac, though, pointed out what an incredible season this must have been in the field because, believe it or not, only four position players finished ahead of him in the MVP vote, despite the fact he hit only .203! Remarkable. RIP, Eddie. 

–Milt Davis, a defensive back on two Baltimore Colts NFL championship teams in the 1950s passed away at the age of 79. I just looked up his record and this man had 27 interceptions in his short, 45-game career, 1957-60, including leading the league in ’57 and ’59. 

I’m going to have to go through my football books later, but I have to admit I forgot what an interesting fellow he was. 

Davis was drafted in 1954 by the Detroit Lions – and the Army. He served two years in the military, joined the Lions, but was told “We don’t have a black teammate for you to go on road trips, therefore you can’t stay on our team.” 

To paraphrase the great Jeff Spicoli, “What a bunch of d—-.” 

Davis then received a tryout with the Colts in 1957 and signed as a free agent. 

In 1958, he earned $7,000 as a cornerback and played a key role in the Colts 23-17 classic overtime win over the Giants in the championship. Davis played the game with two broken bones in his right foot and forced a first-half fumble by Frank Gifford. 

Davis left football early because he was sick of the racism in the sport and instead finished up his doctorate at U.C.L.A., where he played in school. He later taught high school in L.A. and worked as a history professor at Los Angeles City College from 1964 to 1989. God bless him. 

–It’s hard to let go of the Mets’ second straight collapse. For the record, the bullpen blew 29 of 72 save opportunities, including four of six in the final 17 games. Interim manager Jerry Manuel was given a two-year contract, with options, so if he doesn’t win next year they’ll just eat the second. 

–Two-time Indy 500 winner and “Dancing with the Stars” champ Helio Castroneves is in deep trouble. Castroneves pleaded not guilty Friday to charges he failed to pay taxes on more than $5 million. The racer is allowed to travel within the United States to work, but had to surrender his passport and post bail on $10 million. If convicted he faces up to 35 years in prison. Castroneves, who earns at least $2 million a year, was reporting income of only $200,000 to the IRS. 

–NASCAR continues to have embarrassing, and potentially deadly, problems with Goodyear tires. This week Dale Earnhardt Jr. crashed in practice when a tire exploded, and in the main event at Talladega, Brian Vickers and Denny Hamlin also suffered tire failures, with Hamlin escaping serious injury. [Tony Stewart won, ending a 43-race drought.] 

Personally, I’d put Finchem and Boras in at least the top 15. As for Manning, he does seem to be in just about every single commercial except for Cialis. 

–Former Denver Broncos running back Travis Henry was arrested following an alleged cocaine deal, where the Drug Enforcement Administration said Henry and an associate knowingly conspired to distribute it. 

Henry had 691 yards in his one season with Denver, 2007, and was released this past June. The only reason he got to play last year was because he successfully appealed a one-year NFL suspension over a failed drug test. 

And another former back, Lawrence Phillips, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. The immensely talented Phillips rushed for 1,300 yards in 1996-97 while with St. Louis and Miami. As Johnny Mac said, what a freakin’ waste. 

“The shooting of a bear that attacked an Australian tourist in the Canadian ski resort village of Whistler has sparked outrage among locals and animal lovers. 

“The 25-year-old Australian suffered minor injuries when he was bitten on the leg by the black bear after a crowd converged on the animal to take pictures of it.” 

You see, the bear wandered into the town square, looking for garbage, so the crowd gathered to take pictures and the Aussie was in the way of the bear’s escape. Even though the man’s injuries were not serious, conservation officers shot the bruin when it appeared it was later heading back into town. Readers flooded the local newspaper questioning why the bear was killed when it was the members of the public that closed in on the animal. 

I agree. The crowd should have been gunned down instead. Two of the comments. 

“These idiots were surrounding a wild animal to take bloody pictures and they got what they deserved – the bear fought back.” 

“Well this ‘tourist’ managed to get a death sentence pronounced on this bear.” 

–Only four Yangtze giant soft-shell turtles are known to exist, with just one of the four being female. So officials tried to breed the 80…yes, 80-year-old female with the 100-year old male. The mating part was successful, which shows me everything, but the eggs failed to hatch. 

“Conservationists were thrilled this spring when the female and male finally were introduced, nudged each other curiously and slowly got down to business…. 

“Within weeks, dozens of eggs were found in the sandy nesting area at the Suzhou Zoo.” 

“A 7-year-old boy broke into a popular Outback zoo, fed a string of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to death with a rock, the zoo’s director said Friday. 

“The 30-minute rampage, caught on the zoo’s security camera, happened early Wednesday after the boy jumped a security fence at the Alice Springs Reptile Center in central Australia…. 

“The child then went on a killing spree, bashing three lizards to death with a rock, including the zoo’s beloved, 20-year-old goanna, which he then fed to ‘Terry,’ an 11-foot, 440-pound saltwater crocodile…. 

“The boy also fed several live animals to Terry by throwing them over the two fences surrounding the crocodile’s enclosure…. 

“By the time he was done, 13 animals worth around $5,500 had been killed, including a turtle, bearded dragons and thorny devil lizards…. 

“Alice Springs police said they are unable to press charges against the boy because of his age.” 

The zoo director plans to sue the boy’s parents. “The boy’s small size is probably the reason he didn’t trip the zoo’s security system.” 

So I’m thinking, you’re going off to college in eleven years and this kid shows up as your roommate. Now that would be a nightmare. 

–A few past croc attacks in Australia, from Joanna Sugden of the London Times. 

“A woman who lived through an attack in 1985 was eventually killed by a snake. Ecologist Val Plumwood, 67, was attacked by a crocodile while bird-watching from a canoe in Kakadu in 1985. When the crocodile appeared, she had climbed on to an overhanging branch before the reptile jumped up and wrenched her into the water. It then let her go before attacking her again as she sought refuge in the tree. Ironically, she was found dead on her property, near Braidwood, having suffered a fatal snake attack.” 

“Briton Russell Harris, 37, was snorkeling at Groote Eylandt when he was overcome by a four-meter saltwater crocodile. Just five days later in the same territory, Russell Butel, 55, a diver, was collecting fish and coral for his aquarium supply business when he was mauled by a crocodile. He died from a single bite to the head.” 

“Katie McQuarrie was swimming to her boat across a crocodile-infested creek north of Karumba and was just two meters from her raft when the reptile struck. The 31-year-old was snapped up by the six-meter crocodile.” 18 feet! 

“Ten-year-old James Mason was playing with his brother and father in the Barron river when it started to swirl.   James was dragged down as his father tried in vain to grab onto his legs and keep him from the crocodile’s jaws. Moments later the crocodile surfaced with James’ leg between its teeth.” 

–Update: Queensland, Australia officials are still trying to figure out which croc ate Arthur Booker, the 62-year-old who was swallowed up by one of them last week as he checked crab pots near his camp site. The Sydney Morning Herald reports they have two suspects, which they are doing x-rays and endoscopies on (really), and “they will induce a smaller croc to regurgitate its stomach contents, a method only effective with smaller crocodiles.” 

Top 3 songs for the week 10/7/67: #1 “The Letter” (The Box Tops) #2 “Never My Love” (The Association) #3 “Ode To Billie Joe” (Bobbie Gentry)…and…#4 “Come Back When You Grow Up” (Bobby Vee) #5 “Little Ole Man (Uptight-Everything’s Alright)” (Bill Cosby) #6 “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher” (Jackie Wilson) #7 “Reflections” (Diana Ross and The Supremes) #8 “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie” (Jay and The Techniques) #9 “How Can I Be Sure” (The Young Rascals) #10 “Gimme Little Sign” (Brenton Wood) 

NFL Quiz Answers: 1) Brian Sipe (1974-83) is Cleveland’s career leader in passing yards with 23,713. 2) Ozzie Newsome (1978-90) is the Browns’ leader in receptions, 662. 3) Bill Johnson (1976-78) replaced Paul Brown as coach and went 18-15. 4) Corey Dillon (1997-2003) is the Bengals’ career rushing leader with 8,061 yards. 5) Larry Kinnebrew scored four TDs in a game for Cincy back in 1984; the other was Dillon, ‘97.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday…..Rocktober! And Pittsburgh trivia…if you keep it where it is.