Baseball Quiz: Gold Glovers…the Gold Glove was first awarded in 1957. 1) Name the top three for most Gold Gloves at pitcher (both leagues combined). 2) Name the top three for catcher. 3) Name the top three for first base. [You get this last one, you’re good.] Answers below.
It was a phenomenal Sunday in the world of sports, and as much as I have focused on golf’s majors, I had an editorial decision to make as far as the top story and being partial to track and field, and desperately hoping it can clean itself up, I start with Usain Bolt’s record-setting 9.58 in the 100 meters at the World Championships in Berlin. What Y.E. Yang did against Tiger is awesome, but anytime you’re talking about the world’s FASTEST HUMAN…geezuz, you have to take note. Maybe there was some guy in prehistoric times that ran faster as he tried to avoid being stomped on by a Woolly Mammoth, but no one had a clock on him, nor were they checking the wind speed.
I mean Usain Bolt, who is tested for steroids constantly, just toys with his competition, as he did in Beijing when he ‘pulled up’ and still did a record 9.69. Bolt himself thinks he can do 9.40. The improvement from 9.69 to 9.58, by the way, was the biggest since they started doing electronic timing in 1968.
As for American Tyson Gay, consider this. The guy who I saw pull up with a horrific looking injury at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials last year in Eugene, Ore., finished second on Sunday and set a new American record of 9.71…and Bolt still kicked his butt.
And to top it off, Bolt accomplished his feat at the same stadium where Jesse Owens wowed Adolf Hitler back in 1936.
It’s funny how many people (including some friends and family) can’t stand Tiger Woods. I keep writing that one day Tiger will grow up when it comes to some of his actions on the course, and not being totally sportsmanlike as he unleashes a few F-bombs and ‘goddammits ‘when a shot isn’t up to his standards, but at the same time the sport borders on blowdom without the man. I mean, think about it, fellow golf fans. Before Tiger we were satisfied with Nick Price winning all of 3 tournaments in one year! Sure, there were a lot of mothers and fathers happy to see their son win a major, see Bob Tway or Larry Mize, but I’ve always been one looking to see the true greats out there and thank God Tiger came along to redefine the sport.
But then on Sunday, this guy from Seoul, South Korea, became the first Asian-born player to win one of golf’s majors. Tiger was 14-0 when he went into the final round of the big four as the leader (meaning he’s still never come from behind), and he also hadn’t lost a tournament around the world in nine years when he was leading by two shots….until today.
And you had to love Yang’s comment at the end. “I tried to master the art of controlling my emotions throughout the small wins I had in my career. I think it turned out quite well today.”
Tiger was generally in control with his emotions on Sunday (for Tiger, that is) but he could learn a few things from Y.E. However, in the end, it was simply Tiger’s putter that let him down. "I hit it great all day," Woods said. "I made absolutely nothing."
So Tiger finishes the year, majors wise, without gaining any ground on Jack Nicklaus and the Golden Bear’s 18. Tiger remains stuck on 14, as the anticipation already begins to build for Augusta next spring. The sport needs Tiger to win a few more, get to #17…and then you either like the guy or not. He either bests Nicklaus’ 18 or doesn’t. But first he has to get #15, and he’s proved this year it’s not as easy as it looks on paper.
Lastly, as ESPN.com pointed out, what a year it was. Kenny Perry was poised at 48 to win the Masters, only to choke. Phil Mickelson, having just found out about wife Amy’s cancer issues, was on the verge of winning the U.S. Open, and choked. And 59-year-old Tom Watson, who could have become the oldest major winner by like a decade, choked big time on the 72nd hole at the British Open. Then there was Tiger. He choked.
Let me say upfront that I had to review the details on Vick’s case to refresh my memory as to the level of cruelty involved, including shooting, hanging, drowning and slamming some of his dogs to the ground.
That said, he paid his time. He’s out, and he’s entitled to get on with his life, and pursue any opportunities that present themselves, as long as he doesn’t screw up again. That’s the American justice system.
But then I watched him on ’60 Minutes’ and Vick said things like “it sickens me to my stomach” how he acted, and how he felt “disgust” and I was undoubtedly like many of you thinking, no, wait, how is this possible?
[I also just have to say that the early criticism of reporter James Browns’ performance, before CBS even showed the full interview, was totally unwarranted. Brown did a good job. If you were expecting Brown to jack Vick up against the wall, I’m sorry if you were disappointed.]
As to the Eagles signing Vick to a non-guaranteed, $1.6 million deal in the first year with an option for $5.2 million in the second, Michael has now become their problem. I don’t really have any feelings either way, except to say that if he’s slammed by a New York Giant linebacker in the open field and suffers a career-ending injury, I may suppress a smile. One thing is for sure, this is an interesting story on all kinds of fronts this coming season. I don’t wish him anything. I’ll just report what happens and give others’ opinions as I always do.
“I know I’ve done some terrible things, made a horrible mistake. Now I want to be part of the solution and not the problem,” Vick said Friday at his first press conference.
The Philadelphia Daily News blared on learning that Vick had been signed, “HIDE YOUR DOGS” on the front cover with “WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?” on the back. Some in Philly think it was a great football move, while others, such as the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Phil Sheridan, think it is unfair to unload Vick’s baggage on Eagles fans.
Then there are those who say Philadelphia is about the worst place for Vick to get a new start. Sports is taken very seriously there and the fans can be vicious. Forget the Santa Claus being pelted with snow balls story that will be noted 200 years from now; Philly fans cheered when Michael Irvin went down with a career-ending neck injury, for crying out loud.
Flip Bondy / New York Daily News
“Vick participated in the cruel annihilation of animals. He still doesn’t always sound as if he really gets it, either, like when he tells James Brown in a ’60 Minutes’ interview, ‘I should have took the initiative to stop it all. I didn’t. I didn’t step up. I wasn’t a leader.’
“The trouble is that Vick was very much a leader, in the worst way imaginable. He was the man at the center of these horrific events. And it would be very nice if he admitted to that, rather than rework the semantics.
“But even as a vegetarian and dog lover, I still can’t think of a good reason why Vick shouldn’t play or sit on the bench for the Philadelphia Eagles; why a man who served nearly two years of prison time shouldn’t get his shot at throwing a football again.
“It should be the same for Donte Stallworth, who Thursday received a season-long suspension from Roger Goodell after his conviction for killing a pedestrian while driving drunk.
“Vick isn’t going to be a schoolteacher. He’s not going to be a camp counselor or a veterinarian’s aide. He signed a contract with the Eagles yesterday to be a quarterback, to scramble out of the pocket and drive secondaries crazy again….
“At the same time, there will be protests from animal rights groups and a tough sell to many fans. By comparison, Terrell Owens was an absolute saint….
“This is a business, and not always a pretty one. Vick has been one of the worst embarrassments that the NFL has ever faced.
“I don’t have to like him. You don’t have to like him. If the Giants sack him a few times, we’ll all have a good time.”
Michael Wilbon / Washington Post
“There will be nothing gradual or below-the-radar about Michael Vick’s return to professional football. There’s no tougher place to play than in Philadelphia. Vick will play before the harshest critics, on a team some folks were already picking to reach the Super Bowl, in a division that is probably the most difficult in the NFL, operating week after week under the hottest media spotlight. There’ll be no patience, no cushion, no grading on the curve.”
Mike Lupica / New York Daily News
“The Eagles signing Michael Vick was bad news for hostile animal groups and perhaps much worse news for the NFC East. I have no idea whether Vick has come out of this a better and more decent and more enlightened person. Neither does (mentor) Tony Dungy or anybody else. But if he can still play – and at 29 there’s no reason to believe he can’t – the Eagles just got better.
“Bad news for the people who never wanted to see Vick on the field again, worse news for the Giants and the Cowboys.
“ ‘For the life of me I can’t understand why I was so involved in a pointless activity,’ Vick said on Friday.
“It was probably one more moment that made animal rights people and animal lovers fire remotes at their television sets. Training dogs to fight, torturing them along the way, isn’t a ‘pointless activity.’ It’s sick. No language softens Vick’s crimes. It was a little like listening to Rick Pitino talk about An Indiscretion Six Years Ago.
“But here is the question for the animal groups that spoke out so strongly on Friday when it was announced that the Eagles had signed Vick.
“Was he never supposed to work again? Or after the law decided about Michael Vick and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell decided, were we supposed to leave the whole thing up to groups like Main Line Animal Rescue, a group that plans to rent billboards near Lincoln Financial Field protesting the Eagles’ signing of Vick?
“The founder of Main Line Animal Rescue, Bill Smith, was quoted as saying, ‘There are a lot of people out there who deserve second chances more than Michael Vick.’
“Probably so. But Smith doesn’t get to decide. The Eagles were the ones who decided that Vick got a second chance for the usual reason in sports: Because they think he can help them. They signed him to be an even better team than the one that came within a few yards of going back to the Super Bowl last season.”
[Just a further word on the above mentioned Donte Stallworth, who was in the midst of a seven-year, $35 million deal with Cleveland, signed in March 2008. Lucky for him, he qualified for a $4.5 million roster bonus the day before the accident that killed Mario Reyes. Stallworth reached a financial settlement with the Reyes family, but now he won’t be paid his $745,000 salary this season and the rest of his contract is of course up in the air. But he is just 29 and assuming he behaves himself, look for Donte to return next year. At the same time, however, he wasn’t exactly a superstar to begin with.]
“When Karen Sypher caught Rick Pitino’s eye across the bar, the famous basketball coach motioned to the empty seat next to him.
“ ‘He had a glass of red wine ready for me,’ she told The Post. ‘I recognized him. I was divorced and single’ and decided to join the ex-Knick coach.
“The chance encounter in a Louisville restaurant on Aug. 1, 2003, would end in the two having sex on a table – and would change their lives forever. She accused Pitino of rape – an allegation he denies….
“He had to make a public apology this week to his fans and family. As for Sypher, she was accused of trying to extort him for as much as $10 million to keep quiet….
“The tawdry episode started quietly enough. Pitino and his new friend, whose name was then Karen Cunagin, drank together and talked – mostly about their kids.
“ ‘Being a typical mom, I said they were very good at sports,’ she recalled. ‘So he got on the phone and talked to my children.’
“Sypher, who said she ‘hardly ever drinks,’ insists she got up to leave after finishing a third of her wine. But the 56-year-old coach coaxed her to stay and have an ‘appetizer.’ The restaurant cleared out. The two agree that they wound up precariously balanced on one of the leather barroom booths. Sypher later claimed she had been raped. The coach insists it was consensual.”
So now there is the whole bit of he-said, she-said, as Sypher told Pitino weeks later she was pregnant, and whether or not Pitino gave her $3,000 to abort the baby or for medical costs depending on what she wanted to do. Sypher’s story at this point is riddled with holes, including a phone message from Pitino she produced which can be taken either way as to whether he was asking (demanding) she get the abortion.
Dick Weiss / New York Daily News
“Pitino (seems) determined to continue coaching at Louisville ‘as long as they’ll have me.’
“ ‘Regardless of how difficult the situation is, I want to coach at Louisville as long as I can physically maintain the passion I have for basketball,’ he said.
“There is a morals clause in section six, page eight of Pitino’s lucrative contract that allows the school to fire him with just cause for acts of ‘moral depravity’ or being dishonest with the university. It also allows him to be terminated with cause for generating disparaging publicity, if it is caused by his ‘willful conduct that could objectively be determined to bring the employee in public dispute or scandal, or which tends to greatly offend the public.’
“(School president) Dr. James Ramsey will have the final say on this one and has indicated he will meet with (AD Tom) Jurich and others on the matter. But, if we are to believe the prepared statement Ramsey made Tuesday night after the story broke in which he indicated he had ‘been informed that there may be other details, which if true, I find surprising,’ he may feel Pitino was not totally forthcoming in his mea culpa. Ramsey had a chance to give Pitino a public endorsement at a press conference for another topic yesterday, but chose not to comment.
“Pitino is a great coaching mind who revolutionized college basketball in the modern era with his use of the three-point shot. He took three schools – Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville – to the Final Four and coached Kentucky to the national championship in 1996.
“It is obvious now he is not about to resign, as some had speculated.
“If the university is willing to put its reputation on the line and keep him on, fine. Pitino has the strong backing of Jurich. But be warned, this is going to get ugly. Pitino will not be able to spin this story, which will be headline news until the end of a trial that has not even been scheduled yet….
“Louisville fans are not reacting well to this shocking news. We can only imagine how bitter rival Kentucky and the Big East fans will treat him on road trips. Louisville plays the ‘Cats in Lexington on Jan. 2. Kentucky fans, who have never forgiven Pitino for resurfacing at Louisville after a brief failed experiment with the Celtics, have to be champing at the bit.”
72-year-old Charles (Gus) Augusto, that is; the latest hero in New York City.
“A shotgun-wielding owner of a Harlem restaurant-supply company blasted two robbers to death and wounded two others on Thursday when he caught them pistol-whipping his employee, police said.
“Turning the tables on the brutish bandits, (Augusto) opened fire with a 12-gauge shotgun he kept handy for such occasions, cops and witnesses said….
“The stickup crew – three 21-year-olds and a 29-year-old – came prepared with a pistol and plastic handcuffs. They tried to tie up two of Augusto’s employees – a 35-year-old man and his 47-year-old female co-worker….
“ ‘The male employee started to struggle, and then, as he did that, the perp with the gun struck him once in the head,’ said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne. ‘That’s when the owner opened fire with the shotgun.’
“As the bandits bolted from the store, Augusto squeezed off three blasts from the pistol-grip shotgun from 20 to 30 feet away from the pistol-whipped employee.
“Two of the robbers were struck in the back. One dropped dead inside the store, a pistol near his body.
“The other made it across the street before collapsing on the sidewalk. He was later pronounced dead.”
The other two suspects were found blocks away and after being taken to the hospital were in stable condition.
Augusto’s gun was licensed and he faces no charges (though on a technicality he had no ‘permit.’) Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said over the weekend that Gus “acted in self-defense…He certainly had the right to defend himself and his co-workers. I know he took no pleasure in this thing. It was the toughest day of his life.”
The 35-year-old employee has been with Gus since he was 19 and feels like he owes his life to the man. The victims all had long rap sheets. Shed not one tear for them.
Gus “bristles” at being called a hero. “I would have felt like a hero if I could have talked that kid into going home,” he said.
Andrea Peyser / New York Post
“On the streets and in the stores of Harlem, Charles Augusto Jr. is a caped crusader.
“Elderly and unassuming, the senior is a savior to the neighborhood in which he spends his days. He’s Clint Eastwood with a belly. And a credit to humanity….
“Some, likely, will see it differently. But Augusto had an absolute right to protect his property. He had a moral right to protect his beaten employee. And this is from a woman who detests guns.
“Even so, Augusto’s thoughts yesterday were with the men he killed.
“ ‘I’m sad that there are mothers and fathers who lost a son today,’ he said.
“Augusto’s actions will reverberate through the neighborhood as word spreads that a seeming sitting duck was willing to do what was necessary to protect his own. From now on, robbers will think twice before brutalizing other honest businessmen.
“So here’s to you, Augusto. Harlem could use a few more like you. We all could.”
A lot happened the past few days, including the death at 94 of the guitar-inventor legend. Paul was the first to create a solid-body electric guitar, different from the hollow-bodied models of the time. And all manner of music superstars from Pete Townshend, Jimmy Paige, Richie Sambora, Ace Frehley, jazz great Al DiMeola, Peter Frampton, John Fogerty, Duane Allman, Bob Marley, Joe Perry, Keith Richards, Slash, and countless others played Les Paul guitars.
As noted in an obituary, his next “crazy idea” was to stack together eight mono tape machines and send their outputs to one piece of tape, stacking the recording heads on top of each other. The resulting machine served as the forerunner to today’s multi-track recorders. This was totally unique, and each element could now be mixed and layered, adding to the richness in sound.
But I didn’t realize he joined Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians in the mid-1930s! Holy cow. Might have to pull out a Fred Waring recording. [Actually, their Christmas album is in the rotation at StocksandNews’ world headquarters come holiday time.]
Editorial / New York Post
“What would popular music sound like today had it not been for Les Paul?
“More so than just about any performer or composer, Les Paul shaped the course of pop music over the past 60 years. As Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley said, ‘He changed the face of rock-and-roll.’
“Paul’s influence wasn’t felt in any particular music he wrote, though, but rather in the way music itself is performed and recorded.
“For it was Les Paul who invented the solid-body electric guitar, which he first began tinkering with as a youngster, using pieces of railroad track, ham radios and a dentist’s drill. The model, first conceived in 1941, evolved into the touchstone of modern guitars.
“Even more important, perhaps, were the innovations Paul brought to the recording studio….
“Absent Paul’s ideas, such classics as The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ album would have been impossible.”
I’m tellin’ ya, folks. This is going to be a phenomenal year, thanks to all the spectacular quarterbacks coming back when they could have easily gone pro this past spring.
1. Florida…but doesn’t play Alabama or Mississippi regular season
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. USC
5. Virginia Tech
6. Mississippi
7. Oklahoma State
8. Alabama
9. Boise State!
10. Ohio State
11. Oregon…Oct. 31, USC at Oregon…your editor has just made arrangements to be there…Halloween…can you say party!
14. Penn State
20. North Carolina
25. Notre Dame
27. Rutgers
49. Wake Forest…everyone has Wake around this position
118. New Mexico State
119. North Texas
120. Western Kentucky…I feel sorry for you folks
SI even projected its bowl lineup, including Dec. 30, Wake vs. Ball State in the EagleBank Bowl, wherever the hell that is. Sorry, ain’t goin’.
But what we all want to see is a BCS game of Florida-Texas or Florida-Oklahoma, with perhaps an Orange Bowl of undefeateds Penn State and Virginia Tech to really screw things up.
5. Mississippi…love it…this is going to be great
9. Ohio State
10. Oklahoma State
12. Penn State
14. Boise State
So Sporting News features all the super quarterbacks this season, topped off of course by the Big Three; Florida’s Tim Tebow, Texas’ Colt McCoy, and Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford.
Then the next grouping contains Terrell Pryor (Ohio State), Jevan Snead (Mississippi), Robert Griffin (Baylor), Zac Robinson (Oklahoma State), Juice Williams (Illinois), Jeremiah Masoli (Oregon), Todd Reesing (Kansas), Dan Lefevour (Western Michigan), Case Keenum (Houston), and Russell Wilson (N.C. State).
What? Wake Forest’s Riley Skinner isn’t among the Top 13?! He’s our winningest QB in school history and is the ACC’s career leader in completion percentage at 67.3%! Ah, but this is where we want ‘em, my fellow Demon Deacon fans. Just fly under the radar like in 2006. I know, I know…our ‘D,’ having lost four players to the draft, is highly suspect. I’ve just never felt this cocky about Wake football. And that’s a memo. [Sporting News otherwise treats Wake with about as much respect as anyone, pegging us for 8-4 (5-3 in conference). I’m saying we start out 7-1…then who knows.]
–Just an awful day, Saturday, in baseball as the Mets’ David Wright was beaned by San Francisco’s Matt Cain (suffering a concussion, but thankfully the ear flap saved him), while the Dodgers’ Hiroki Kuroda, cruising along with a three-hitter against Arizona, was hit above the right ear by a line drive off the bat of the Diamondbacks’ Rusty Ryal. “Kuroda grabbed his head in pain as he fell to the ground.” It appears Kuroda, like Wright, escaped with just a concussion as CT scans on both came back negative.
You know, it’s truly amazing that in the major leagues Ray Chapman remains the only victim of a thrown or batted ball, especially when you consider all those years that batters didn’t have to wear a helmet, let alone the era where there was no ear flap.
–Benjamin Hoffman of the New York Times points out that in the ten weeks since the major league baseball draft, as of Sunday, 16 of the 32 first-round picks have signed contracts with their teams. The other 16, though, have only until 11:59 p.m. Monday, including No. 1 Stephen Strasburg of Washington. If the 16 don’t sign, they have to re-enter the draft next year. Strasburg’s agent is mega a-hole Scott Boras and while the Nationals have offered Strasburg a record deal, which means at least $10.5 million, Boras is seeking a figure in multiples of that, which is totally insane, particularly for a pitcher.
–Cincinnati pitcher Bronson Arroyo admits he takes all kinds of pills, powders, liquids, herbs, and products such as creatine, most of which have not been approved by Major League Baseball. Arroyo concedes that some of them could trigger a positive drug test.
“I take 10 to 12 different things a day, and on the days I pitch, there’s four more things. There’s a caffeine drink I take from a company Curt Schilling introduced me to in ’05. I take some Korean ginseng and a few other proteins out there that are not certified. But I haven’t failed any tests, so I figure I’m good.”
Then, in an interview with Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY, Arroyo said, “People can think what they want of me. I don’t give a f—.” Nice, Bronson.
But wait…there’s more! “I can see where guys like Hank Aaron and some of the old-timers have a beef with (the whole steroids topic). But as far as looking at Manny Ramirez like he’s Ted Bundy, you’re out of your mind. At the end of the day, you think anybody really (cares) whether Manny Ramirez’s kidneys fail and he dies at 50? You were happy if the Red Sox won 95 games. You’d go home, have a cookout with your family. No big deal.”
To which Mike Lupica responded, “If someone like Manny Ramirez does face serious health problems down the road because he made the decision to use whatever baseball drugs he used – why is that supposed to be my fault?”
—Derek Jeter became the all-time leader in hits by a shortstop, surpassing Luis Aparicio at 2,674. As Ronald Reagan would have said, “Not bad…not bad at all.”
–Johnny Mac pointed out that catchers like Minnesota’s All-World Joe Mauer are supposed to tire at the plate come August, but Mauer is hitting .481 for the month and has his average back up to .377. Personally, I’m focused on Ichiro and his quest to have a clean baseball card filled with 200 hit seasons and 100 runs scored. In the latter department this year, he only has 69 runs with 40-some games left.
–Just a note for the archives on the U.S. soccer team’s loss in World Cup qualifying to Mexico in Mexico City the other day, 2-1. The U.S. now has an all-time mark of 0-23-1 when playing there. More importantly, while the U.S. should still qualify for the World Cup, with a 3-2-1 mark it’s not the lock it seemed to be a short while ago.
–Funny story out of New Jersey that just came to light. Back on July 23, a rather famous musician was in Long Branch, N.J., searching for shelter from a wicked thunderstorm. A homeowner called police to say there was a weird looking character hanging around her house. Police came. Cop Kristie Buble asked who he was and he said, “Bob Dylan.” So Kristie thought he was pulling her leg. She asked what he was doing in town and he said he was doing a show with John Mellancamp and Willie Nelson. A second officer joined Buble and he didn’t recognize Dylan either, plus Dylan wasn’t carrying any ID.
So the officers put him in the patrol car and drove him to the beach resort where he said he was staying.
“He was really nice, though, and he said he understood why I had to verify his identity and why I couldn’t let him go,” Buble said.
“I pulled into the parking lot,” she added, “and sure enough, there were these enormous tour buses, and I thought, ‘Whoa.’”
Well, Buble knocked on his bus and someone produced Dylan’s passport. “Um, have a nice day,” said Kristie. [Lukas Alpert / New York Post]
–Sporting News polled some scouts and NBA personnel about which college players to look for in the coming season as well as a projected 2010 draft.
2. Ed Davis, Soph., PF, North Carolina…this guy is going to be awesome this year
6. Al-Farouq Aminu, Soph., SF, Wake Forest…boy, do we need him to be big
7. Willie Warren, Soph., PG/SG, Oklahoma…my man can light it up! [Angling to be his agent, thus the use of “my man” when we’ve never met or exchanged correspondence, but I digress…]
–Six people have drowned this summer off Rockaway beaches in New York. The locals say the rip currents are the worst ever.
—Ed Reimer, the voice of Allstate for 22 years from 1957-79, passed away at the age of 96.
–Martin Scorsese is directing a biopic of Frank Sinatra, with Phil Alden Robinson, who wrote “Field of Dreams,” as screenwriter. Now this could be terrific.
But Tina Sinatra is executive producer and, according to the New York Post’s Page Six, is worried Scorsese will focus on the dark side and not the softer image Tina wants portrayed, so Tina could ruin the project. As a source told the Post:
“Marty wants it to be hard-hitting and showcase the violent, sexually charged, hard-drinking Frank…The 60s were a very swinging time for Frank – he was having sex with a garden variety of bimbos and cementing his Rat Pack status. It’s a really key time to his mythology. And Tina really wants to make sure that a sanitized Frank comes through.”
Scorsese wants Leonardo DiCaprio to play Frank; Tina wants George Clooney, and the studio prefers Johnny Depp. My first pick would be Depp, but really all three would work. Then again, it also sounds like this project could be a few years down the road. Never mind…
—HBO Real Sports alert…Aug. 18…supposedly powerful segment with Nick Schuyler, the sole survivor of the February boating accident that killed NFL players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith.
–Being an Entourage and Jeremy Piven fan, I’m kind of intrigued by his star turn in the film “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.” Anyone see it this opening weekend? [Oops…never mind…looks like it bombed at the box office.]
–Watched "Mad Men" for the first time last night. Can\’t say I\’ve ever had a stewardess come on to me like that.
–Jerry Seinfeld is going to be Jay Leno’s first guest, Sept. 14. I’m pumped to be able to wind down each night with Leno at 10:00, seeing as how I’m too old and frail to stay up to 11:30 these days. [Actually, I’m in pretty good shape…but work with me here…going for the 50-64 demographic.]
—Michael Phelps really needs to just get a driver…and a chaperone might help, too.
—Madonna turned 51 on Sunday. Good lord…I forgot we’re the same age. There was a time when we could have been a couple, but once she turned “British” I would have had to lay down the law. “Yoh, lose the fake accent or I’m outta here.”
Top 3 songs for the week 8/17/68: #1 “People Got To Be Free” (The Rascals) #2 “Hello, I Love You” (The Doors) #3 “Classical Gas” (Mason Williams)…and…#4 “Born To Be Wild” (Steppenwolf) #5 “Light My Fire” (Jose Feliciano) #6 “Stoned Soul Picnic” (The 5th Dimension) #7 “Turn Around, Look At Me” (The Vogues) #8 “Sunshine Of Your Love” (The Cream) #9 “Grazing In The Grass” (Hugh Masekela) #10 “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (Donovan…just a great week)
Baseball / Gold Glove Quiz Answers: 1) Pitcher: Greg Maddux, 18; Jim Kaat, 16; Bob Gibson, 9. [Bobby Shantz, 8. Now that would have been rather difficult.] 2) Catcher: Ivan Rodriguez, 13; Johnny Bench, 10; Bob Boone, 7. [Jim Sundberg, 6] 3) First Base: Keith Hernandez, 11; Don Mattingly, 9; George Scott, 8. [Vic Power and Bill White, 7 ….I just wouldn’t have had a chance with Scott. Killed that brain cell back in ’79. Would have gone with Power.]
