NHL Quiz: Name the top ten all-time in goal scoring. Answer below.
Follow-up to my story on the Washington Nationals and their signing of a teenage shortstop from the Dominican Republic who turned out to be four years older than the team thought he was.
On July 2, 2006, the Nationals signed 16-year-old Esmailyn Gonzalez to a $1.4 million contract, double what other major league teams were willing to pay him.
But as President Stan Kasten had to admit on Wednesday, Gonzalez had falsified his identity and age, part of what Kasten said was “deliberate, premeditated fraud.” The player’s real identity is Carlos Alvarez Daniel Lugo and his current age is 23, not 19.
As Kasten says, this was not just the workings of a teenager, there were others involved, and for a year the FBI has been investigating the murky world of middlemen and street agents in the D.R.
Gonzalez has flourished in the minors, hitting .343 in 2008, but success only fueled rumors about his age. One of his teammates told the Washington Post, “You can tell a teenager from an adult. The way that he carried himself and stuff like that – teenagers didn’t do that. At 19, he was kind of bald in the front. I was suspicious. And I would ask him, too. He’d tell me was 19, and I would say, ‘C’mon, bro, stop lying.’”
Kasten had followed all the proper procedures and major league baseball had checked Gonzalez’ background, including his age, when he was first signed, but in the last six months, Kasten requested MLB to “At least verify he is who he is,” he recalled saying.
So on Tuesday, MLB gave the official confirmation that Gonzalez had falsified his name. The player’s real birthday is sometime in 1985, not Sept. 21, 1989. There were falsified hospital documents, falsified school documents and family members who changed their identities. We’ll see how the kid, who is now probably going to go under the name Carlos Alvarez, fares from here.
Thomas Boswell / Washington Post
“Now we have the mysterious case of what President Stan Kasten called the ‘player to be named later.’ It would be farce if it weren’t so mortifying….
“Bleak humor about the Nats now bounces all around baseball. But this case, as Kasten says ominously, ‘will have big repercussions.’
[SI.com is reporting Washington GM Jim Bowden is under investigation for his ties to illegal scouting practices in the Dominican Republic.]
So now that A-Rod has spoken, we learn the Primobolan, the “boli” referred to in Rodriguez’s press conference, was not available for legal purchase, over-the-counter or with a prescription, in the Dominican Republic between 2001 and 2003.
Dr. Pia Veras, who oversees the regulatory agency in the D.R. responsible for pharmaceutical drugs, told ESPN.com’s Yoel Adames: “What Alex Rodriguez stated at the press conference doesn’t make sense. It is important for us to clarify that such substance has not been registered and is not currently registered for legal sale in Dominican pharmacies – not now and the same applies for the years 2001 to 2003.”
Then we find out A-Rod spent the entire 2007 season in the company of his cousin, now identified as Yuri Sucart, and a known steroid dealer, Angel Presinal, who was banned from private areas of every MLB park after an October 2001 incident involving an unmarked gym bag full of steroids that was later traced to slugger Juan Gonzalez; though neither Presinal nor Gonzalez was charged as the FBI didn’t have enough evidence linking the two. At the time, Presinal denied ever having any involvement with steroids. MLB did its own investigation, though, and concluded Presinal was indeed linked to the bag and banned him. He was mentioned in the Mitchell Report for the same incident.
Yet now it’s come out Presinal and Sucart traveled with A-Rod exclusively in ’07, staying in a separate room from A-Roid, with Presinal never being seen in public with the slugger. Presinal has also admitted working with A-Rod from 2001 to 2003 in Texas, but says “I have never advised a player [to take steroids]; I have never talked about steroids with any athlete, with any baseball player.”
A number of ballplayers who have worked with Presinal vouch for him, while for his part, A-Rod has suddenly clammed up again, refusing to discuss his cousin or Presinal.
Former New York Mets outfielder Ron Swoboda, in town for 40th anniversary celebrations of the ’69 World Series Champs, was asked his thoughts on Rodriguez.
“He is a tremendous athlete, but for what he gets paid, his game breaks down in a bunch of different ways too often when it really maters. Like Joe Torre said, he puts a lot of pressure on himself and he’s so aware of every move he makes sometimes you can just see him cracking because the play’s too easy. The guy can’t catch a popup, can’t make a simple throw, can’t get a big hit when it really matters.
“If you had eight A-Rods out there I doubt you would be a winning team. He isn’t about winning. He may think he is, but he isn’t about winning. He’s about building those numbers and some day being called the greatest player that ever played. That’s fine and dandy, but in my humble opinion, he is way overpaid for what he contributes to winning.
“I (wasn’t) a quarter of the player he is, but in every way his presence is at times bigger than the game and nobody is bigger than the game.
“The game is so self purifying. It has a way of overcoming everything from lunatic owners to cheaters whose egos have hit the stratosphere.” [Kevin Kernan / New York Post]
According to a poll by AP-AOL Sports, 52% say A-Rod shouldn’t be allowed into the Hall; 61% say Bonds shouldn’t go to Cooperstown.
And back to the Yankees in general, we’ve learned Johnny Damon and Xavier Nady have been swept up in the R. Allen Stanford scandal as they have accounts linked to him, all of which have now been frozen by the receiver. So Nady said he can’t access any of his money and is suddenly penniless, because his Visa cards were also frozen.
But Damon said he’s relying on his Amex card. “We have American Express and no limit.” Nothing like a little free advertising during these tough times, right?
Back to A-Rod, he better tell the truth when MLB grills him. They’ll want to know where he got the steroids and, while the 2003 test was for survey purposes only, MLB could still suspend him if they don’t like what they hear.
Mike Lupica / New York Daily News
“There are plenty of differences between Bonds and A-Rod, starting with the fact that A-Rod doesn’t have the feds after him, but here is one now fully actualized for Hank Steinbrenner, the guy who couldn’t live without A-Rod in pinstripes: Bonds was moving up on the end of his career when the stories about him and drugs began to swallow him up. Alex Rodriguez? Even though he has some difficulty doing the math on his own age, he’s still in his prime.
“That is why the Yankees need to start coming up with an exit strategy for this guy if they can ever find another team that wants him. Find an exit strategy no matter how much it ends up costing them. Because keeping him around is going to cost them a whole lot more.”
—SHARKS!!! My old friend George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File, said there were only four fatal shark attacks in 2008, an average tally, but greater than the one in 2007. Two deaths were in Mexico, one in Australia and one in the U.S. We reported on all four.
But of course Burgess is understating the figure by thousands, such as in the number killed in Vanuatu. It’s all part of the massive conspiracy between Burgess and the travel ministries around the world.
I mean Burgess tried to claim there were fewer overall attacks, 59 in ‘08 vs. 71 in 2007, because there “may have been the reticence of some people to take holidays and go to the beach for economic reasons.” Rigggghhht.
I was checking out an Aussie Web site and there are more sharks in their waters than ever before, which led to the two brutal attacks there in just the past two weeks. More to follow, say authorities.
–The NHL is investigating whether three members of the Montreal Canadiens are involved with a man linked to organized crime. A newspaper in Montreal reported that defenseman Roman Hamrlik and forwards Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn have relationships with Pasquale Mangiola, who was arrested last week during a police raid on street gangs and drug dealers. Canadiens GM Bob Gainey said he’s “very concerned” by the report. Off-ice behavior may be one of the reasons the team hasn’t performed well, Gainey said. The Canadiens had won three of their last 15 games by Friday.
College Basketball Bits
This is being posted before the latest polls, but who is going to be the new No. 1? After all, in the past week, No. 1 UConn, No. 2 Oklahoma, and No. 3 North Carolina all lost. In the Oklahoma loss to Texas, superstar Blake Griffin suffered a concussion for the Sooners and I just hope they don’t bring him back too soon. Monday night OU plays Kansas.
And I hope some of you caught Wake Forest-Duke on Sunday. The Blue Devils prevailed 101-91 in a most entertaining game. But now my Demon Deacons need to go 3-1 the last four conference contests (to finish 10-6) or we’ll be in danger of dropping to a No. 4 or 5 seed.
I’m heading down to Davidson this week to see Stephen Curry play, just for the hell of it. Wanted to see him in a small college atmosphere.
TV alert….Monday night, HBO, 9:00 p.m. “Battle For Tobacco Road: Duke vs. Carolina”.
A well-known activist confronted UConn coach Jim Calhoun, after the Huskies’ 64-50 victory over South Florida, questioning his $1.6 million salary. Ken Krayeske, a-hole, wondered why the coach of a public university was earning so much during tough times and with a massive state budget deficit, asking Calhoun if he would give any back.
“Not a dime,” replied Calhoun, joking. But then Krayeske kept at it and Calhoun got pissed.
“If these guys (the other journalists) covered this stuff, I wouldn’t have to do it,” said Krayeske.
“Quite frankly, we bring in $12 million to the university, nothing to do with state funds. We make $12 million a year for this university. Get some facts and come back and see me.”
Calhoun continued in this vein before he was able to move on to the next question.
Now I’ve written of how outrageous some coaches salaries are, but it’s an incredibly stressful position and you can lose your position at any time…thus the need to get the big guarantee. You’re also, in most cases, in charge of a department that is netting the school a profit, though we’ll see if attendance stays at current levels over the coming year or two.
So I don’t blame Calhoun one bit for reacting the way he did. It was an inappropriate forum, and Krayeske, who was once arrested for a demonstration at the governor’s inauguration, becomes an a-hole of the year candidate.
“A Sumatran tiger mauled two illegal loggers to death in western Indonesia, bringing to five the number of people killed by the critically endangered cats in less than a month.
“The tiger attacked a man and his 18-year-old son while they slept next to a pile of stolen wood in a protected forest on Sumatra, said Didy Wurdjanto of a state conservation agency.
“Three people were killed in two attacks in the area last month. Park rangers last week trapped an adult tigress believed responsible for the deaths and it was being relocated.”
But this just in…the same tiger that killed the two on Saturday reportedly killed a third the next day. So it\’s really six victims in a month.
Sadly, only about 250 Sumatran tigers are left in the wild, compared with 1,000 in the 1970s. But to the tigers, I say to you…NEVER, EVER GIVE UP!
–By now you’ve seen the details on the chimp attack in Stamford, Conn., details I was loathe to print earlier, such as the fact Charla Nash lost her nose, eyes and jaw “as the crazed simian ate her alive,” as the New York Daily News put it.
But Rich Schapiro of the Daily News describes a story concerning the offending chimp’s mother, Suzy. It seems Suzy suffered the same fate as Travis.
It was 2001, and Suzy and two other primates escaped from their Missouri ranch and wreaked havoc.
“The bizarre incident in April 2001 began when the trio of apes broke out of Mike and Connie Casey’s compound, the Missouri Primate Foundation. In addition to running a business that supplied simians for parties, the couple bred and sold chimps, sources say.
“After the escape, Suzy, 28, and her two buddies ambled down a road and ended up outside Coats’ home. What happened next is unclear.
“Coats and his friends claimed that the ape gang attacked their car and then charged the teens when they tried to flee.
“ ‘It turned into something crazy: a big old dog-and-monkey fight like nothing I ever saw in my life,’ Coats’ friend, Kenny Rike, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Coats eventually made it inside his house, retrieved a shotgun and shot Suzy to save the lives of his friends and dog, he said.
“But several neighbors testified that Suzy was gunned down only after she had been hit with tranquilizer darts and appeared nearly unconscious.
Travis came from the Missouri breeder, but at the time of his mother’s death, he was already in the care of the Stamford woman.
–Mike Vaccaro / New York Post
“You want to know the true impact of Tiger Woods on golf? In every other major sport, you probably could delete up to the top 50 names without impacting the overall popularity of the games. But I ask you now: How many holes have you watched on TV since the U.S. Open last June? That’s what I thought.”
That might not be totally fair, but it’s close to the truth. At least us golf fans were thoroughly entertained this weekend with Phil Mickelson’s performance in winning his 35th PGA Tour title at Riviera, with 49-year-old Freddie Couples finishing just two back. The Masters is truly going to be special, and before that, perhaps Doral.
–330 players showed up in Indianapolis for the NFL’s scouting combine, a huge event prior to April’s draft, but one player grabbed the headlines, potential overall first pick, wide receiver Michael Crabtree. Crabtree was discovered to have a stress fracture in his foot, severe enough that a screw would be inserted during surgery and it will require recovery time of 6-10 weeks.
But Crabtree is saying he won’t have the procedure done until after he has a chance to run the 40-yard dash at his March 26 workout, knowing how important the number is for the league’s general managers.
In USA TODAY’s draft evaluation, Crabtree was rated the No. 1 prospect (which doesn’t necessarily mean you are the No. 1 pick). Wake Forest’s Aaron Curry was No. 2.
[Clark Judge of CBSSports.com has an incredibly glowing piece on Curry; as much about his character as his playing ability.]
–Here’s to Ken Griffey Jr. for opting to return to Seattle to finish up his career. I liked the way he asked Willie Mays and Hank Aaron for advice on the matter. They both told him the bottom line is, ‘Go by how you want to be remembered for the next 50 years after you’re done,’ as Griffey put it. He’s returning to the city of his greatest moments, a time when he made the A.L. All-Star team and won a Gold Glove every year in the 1990s, an incredible record.
–The economic crisis is hitting baseball hard already. Not only are seats suddenly becoming available at what was supposed to be sold-out Yankee Stadium, but salaries are coming down at a rapid clip. It’s probably safe to say that A-Rod’s existing contract that has him in New York another nine years, will be the peak for a long, long spell.
Here’s an example. Pitcher Randy Wolf, who just signed a one-year, $5 million deal with $3 million in incentives after missing out on a three-year, $28.5 million contract with the Houston Astros.
But as Jonathan Abrams of the New York Times notes, “(Wolf) did not lose the contract because Houston suddenly soured on him or he had haggled in hopes of more money or more years.
“Instead, as the final details were being hammered out, the Astros informed him that the economic climate had changed their financial situation and the contract would not be offered.”
Wolf thought, no problemo…someone else will emerge. But none did. So after a month he accepted the Dodgers’ offer. At least Wolf has the right attitude about it all.
“I play major league baseball. I make a very good living and I get to do what I love to do. With people losing their jobs, and they’re making $40,000 a year and they’re working their tails off 12 months a year to make ends meet, and they get laid off, it’s not right for me to complain about a contract.”
–And have you ever wondered about the economic impact of cattle rustling? Seriously. Check this out. Last fall, when my brother and I were tooling around the American West, we often thought of this topic but in reading the High Plains Journal, here is an example.
Chip Porterfield of Greene County, Missouri, said it will take years for him to recover financially after 10 of his Black Angus cattle were stolen from a farm outside Springfield. The cattle were worth about $10,000. Cows fetch up to $1,500 based on their breed. When you’re looking at a business where breaking even in some years is pretty good, you can see how gut-wrenching it must be to discover one or two, let alone ten, being stolen.
–We note the passing of Socks the Cat, who had lived with Bill Clinton’s secretary, Betty Currie, since the Clintons left the White House in 2001. Socks was really, really old…18…and oh, the stories it could have told had it not been muzzled. Socks was also known for not getting along with Buddy the retriever, who appeared to defend his boss when the whole Monica issue came to the forefront. Socks took Hillary’s side but was soon banished.
–We had a really stupid incident at NYU last week. On Wednesday evening, a bunch of students, upset the school wasn’t going along with their request for more transparency regarding the budget and staff salaries, barricaded themselves in the school cafeteria. In the end, after the protest was ended, 18 were suspended by the administration, pending the outcome of the school’s disciplinary process.
You had to see the television coverage of the events. One protester who was standing out on the balcony quit and then said, ‘I have no socks and it’s too cold.’ A majority of the students, it needs to be noted, were against the protesters. For starters, they blocked their cafeteria, for crying out loud.
—Matt Kenseth followed up his win at Daytona with a second victory in Fontana, Calif. at the Auto Club 500, thus becoming the first since Jeff Gordon in 1997 to win the first two races of the year.
—Lindsey Vonn broke the record for Alpine skiing championships for U.S. women with a victory in the super-giant slalom race in Tarviso, Italy. Vonn\’s 19th triumph of her career is one more than Tamara McKinney.
–From Smithsonian: “When two mosquitoes of the opposite sex approach each other, according to new research at Cornell University, they synchronize their wing beats and harmonize the buzzing, producing a high-frequency love duet. The researchers theorize that the ritual evolved as a form of sexual selection that helps females pick mates: if a male can’t keep up with her song, she’ll fly away to find a real Pavarotti.”
–This sucks. From the London Times: “Wildlife experts are alarmed at a dramatic upsurge in rhino poaching in South Africa’s game reserves that may threaten the survival of the creature in one of its last redoubts.
“Just 10 rhinos were poached in the whole of 2007, but last year the number reached 100. On Christmas Day alone, 13 rhinos were killed by poachers.”
One game warden said, “The rhino is actually a gentle and friendly animal. They are vegetarians, not predators, and only man preys on them.”
Yet another reason why man won’t sniff the top ten of the All-Species List as long as I’m compiling it.
–SI.com reported on Bode Miller’s announcement he has a one-year-old daughter and that he took a break from the World Cup ski circuit to visit her.
“My daughter’s name is Neesyn Dacey but everyone calls her Dacey. Her mom chose Neesyn and I chose Dacey after she was born. The mother is a good friend of mine who I was seeing a while ago. We are no longer together.”
“It’s cool because you think all babies are the same but they aren’t at all. They all have such different personalities. It’s crazy.”
Adam Scott buys $75 million jet, which will cost $1.5 million a year to operate. “What is Scott’s goal, to be a one-man financial stimulus package?”
–Golfer Jim Thorpe was charged with tax evasion. According to a suit filed in U.S. District Court, Thorpe failed to pay nearly $1.6 million in federal taxes from 2002 to 2004, which could result in a multimillion dollar fine and up to seven years in jail.
It seems Thorpe wasn’t even bothering to file his returns, even as he spent about $2 million on the construction of a new home and $61,000 on a new car.
This is disappointing. I always liked the guy. And it’s not as if Thorpe shouldn’t have learned from a past run-in with the IRS for failing to file his returns in the early 1990s.
–Can’t say I was surprised that Los Angeles Clippers forward Zach Randolph was suspended two games for hitting the Phoenix Suns’ Louis Amundson in the face. When Randolph was with the Knicks, I was always waiting for him to punch someone’s lights out. He’s just not a good person.
–Certainly as compared to former Giants linebacker Brad Van Pelt, who died way too early at the age of 57 due to a heart attack. Van Pelt was a five-time Pro Bowler (1976-80) for the Giants during his 11 seasons in New York, 1973-83. He was one of the more likeable sports figures of his era, but, alas, the Giants only had one winning record while he was there. Later in his career he was joined by Harry Carson and Lawrence Taylor, but as Bruce Weber writes in the New York Times, it was as if Van Pelt was born just a few years too soon and he didn’t partake in the Giants’ later success.
Van Pelt was born in Owosso, Mich., and became a 3-sport superstar in football, baseball and basketball, playing all three at Michigan State. You will never see that again. You hardly ever see college athletes play two sports, say, like Sam Clancy and Julius Peppers did, let alone three.
Anyway, in reading Weber’s obituary, one is reminded of the Giants linebacking corps of Carson, Taylor and Carl Banks. As good as there has ever been in the NFL.
–I missed the death last week of former major leaguer Ted Uhlaender at the age of 68. Uhlaender played 8 seasons and hit .263, with his best seasons being 1968 and ’69 for the Twins, .283 and .273. I note his passing for personal reasons…his baseball card from those years having been among my favorites.
–The Sports Museum of America in New York’s Wall Street area was forced to close down after opening just last May. Investors had expected the $93 million, for-profit museum, to draw one million a year, but was on track to attract only 125,000.
–The LAPD is rightfully furious that pictures of a bruised and battered Rihanna were released. In a statement the department said, “A violation of this type is considered serious misconduct, with penalties up to and including termination.” At the same time, though, after viewing the photos, how could you possibly ever forgive singer Chris Brown?
–A South Korean housewife has broken a world record in marathon singing after crooning nonstop for 76 hours without stopping at a Seoul karaoke bar. Kim Sun-Ok, 54, broke the 75-hour Guinness World Record held by an American.
“She started singing at 11:14 a.m. local time on Thursday and sang a total of 1283 tunes before she gave up at 3:21 p.m. on Saturday following her family’s appeal for her to quit for the sake of her health, it said.”
Under Guinness World Record rules, she was given 30-second breaks between songs and a five-minute break every hour. She was also barred from singing any song she had already sung less than four hours earlier.
Top 3 songs for the week 2/23/85: #1 “Careless Whisper” (Wham! Featuring Geroge Michael) #2 “Loverboy” (Billy Ocean) #3 “Easy Lover” (Philip Bailey with Phil Collins)…and…#4 “Can’t Fight This Feeling” (REO Speedwagon) #5 “I Want To Know What Love Is” (Foreigner) #6 “Neutron Dance” (Pointer Sisters) #7 “The Heat Is On” (Glenn Frey) #8 “California Girls” (David Lee Roth) #9 “Method Of Modern Love” (Daryl Hall / John Oates) #10 “Sugar Walls” (Sheena Easton)
