Baseball Quiz: Gold Glove winners, Part Deux…reminder, first ones issued in 1957. 1) Name the four second basemen to win at least 8. 2) Name the five outfielders to win at least 10. Answers below.
Good for you, Washington Nationals. Congratulations to ownership for telling your fans that you are committed to growing a competitive franchise. Last Bar Chat I wrote of how 16 of the 32 first-round major league draft picks remained unsigned with a looming 11:59 p.m. Monday deadline and the No. 1 selection, the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg looked like he might bag it, thanks to agent Scott Boras, and reapply next June.
But Boras, who was originally looking for a totally absurd $50 million package, when the record for a first-round pick was $10.5 million, settled for $15.1 million, still outrageous by any standard. Seeing as it’s late in the season, it’s also not expected that Strasburg will pitch for the Nats this year.
Thomas Boswell / Washington Post
“Few teams have ever needed a watershed event more than the Nationals. And no town in baseball has needed a validation and a fresh start more than Washington. On Monday night, at 11:58:43 p.m., both the team and the town got their wish.
“Just 77 seconds before a witching midnight deadline, the franchise that so often gets kicked when it is down and the town that is constantly accused of baseball’s original sin (being Washington) proved that it could do something big and difficult and right.
“The Nats signed Stephen Strasburg, probably the most heralded young pitcher of the last 50 years. Who knows what portion of his collegiate and Olympic fame will prove justified. But not only did the Nats sign him for a fair price of $15.1 million, plus incentives, despite the howls of his crusading agent, Scott Boras, but Strasburg also did what has been unthinkable in baseball until now.
“No 21-year-old deserves such responsibility, but Strasburg has put the Nats squarely on baseball’s map, on the list of can’t-miss attractions in the game that must be seen. Does he really throw 100 to 102 mph with command? Or is that partly scouts’ mythology? Is his 93-mph slider really his best pitch, so sharp it actually seems to hit something in midair and deflect?”
As Boswell notes, now the people of Washington will have to come to the park to find out.
“How can you live here and not see Alex Ovechkin play hockey? You can’t. So it may be with Strasburg and the Nats by sometime next year. A winning team? Someday. But with luck and health, every fifth day, the Strasburg phenomenon may beckon.
Oh yeah, this was a messy negotiation, filled with one profanity laced tirade after another. Scott Boras is not a likable guy and the Nationals grew weary of his act. But in the end they got it done. Washington got their man. Truly, it’s a great day for the sport, too. Any fan of baseball wants Strasburg to succeed. And maybe, just maybe, the city of Washington will erase an old saying, going back to the days when the Senators were an American League franchise.
“Washington: First in War, First in Peace, Last in the American League.” And today, last in the National. But probably not for much longer.
1987…Griffey or Harkey
Speaking of the draft, last Sunday’s New York Times had a great piece by Tyler Kepner on the decision the Seattle Mariners faced back in 1987. Select Ken Griffey Jr. or pitcher Mike Harkey.
“In ’87, Griffey was the top high school player in the country at Moeller High in Cincinnati, where his father had helped the Reds win two World Series. Harkey was the most coveted college player, a right-hander for Cal State Fullerton who was 6 feet 5 inches with an overpowering fastball.
“The Mariners’ owner, George Argyros, lived in Orange County, Calif., and wanted Harkey, who could advance quickly to the majors. Roger Jongewaard, the scouting director, badly wanted Griffey, whose tools and genes promised greatness.
“ ‘I went to the owner and said, ‘Griffey’s the guy – he’s one of the best players I’ve ever scouted,’ said Jongewaard, 72, now a scout for the Florida Marlins. ‘He said, ‘You said that last year about Patrick Lennon.’
“Jongewaard had found several gems when he worked for the Mets, including Lenny Dykstra, Kevin Mitchell and the No. 1 overall pick in 1980, Darryl Strawberry. But he had missed on Lennon, who looked overmatched in the pros, and Argyros was skeptical of another high school outfielder.
“Still, Jongewaard and General Manager Dick Balderson knew Griffey was special. Jongewaard said he might have taken Harkey later in the draft, but not with Griffey available.”
My times were different. Griffey signed for just $160,000 (Heck, 13 years earlier Willie Wilson signed for $90,000 and he wasn’t even the top pick). Harkey ended up going No. 4 to the Cubs. While he showed flashes of brilliance, he finished his career just 36-36 with a 4.49 ERA. Tellingly, Kepner notes Harkey was never the same after throwing 160 pitches in a game.
Brett Favre, that is…this time in long-rumored Minnesota, having signed a two-year, $25 million contract. And as ESPN.com’s Gene Wojciechowski said, “the nanosecond he burned the last few remaining wooden bridges between him and Packers fans, he became Fredo Corleone in ‘The Godfather: Part II’ – the one who betrays the family. Packers fans became Michael Corleone, who tells his older brother, ‘Fredo, you’re nothing to me now.’
“Fredo got popped on a fishing boat in the middle of Lake Tahoe. Favre could get his on national television in the middle of the Metrodome. Or he could lead the team with the league’s best running back and one of the league’s best defensive lines to Super Bowl XLIV.
“Anyway, he’s a Viking now, which is what Favre wanted all along. Actually, that’s not true. He wanted to be a Packer, but remember all that Packers management stuff about crossing the Rubicon River and protecting Favre’s legacy? It was as sincere as Favre’s first retirement announcement.
“Bottom line: The Packers didn’t want Favre as their quarterback, and equally as important, they didn’t want Favre as the Vikings’ quarterback. That’s why they poisoned any deals with NFC North teams. And that’s why Favre ended up in another conference with the New York Jets last season….
“If you’re Favre, wouldn’t you want to play for this team, in that West Coast offense, for that coach, in that division, for that kind of money? He isn’t going there to be a ceremonial clipboard holder. He’ll start for a team that was favored to go long and far, even before he signed….
“Vikings fans are going to love him. Or love the idea of him. For them, it’s the best of both worlds. They get an upgrade at quarterback (admittedly, one with some bald spots on the football tires) and they get the possibility of watching Favre beat the archrival Packers on Oct. 5 and maybe again at Lambeau on Nov. 1.
“So think of this as the third and final act of Favre’s playing career. There was the glorious Packers phase, the inglorious Jets phase and the still-to-be-determined Vikings phase. Whatever goodwill currency he had left with the Packers faithful is spent. There won’t be many mixed feelings when he returns to Lambeau; they’ll want to see him spend the day on his back.”
John Feinstein / Washington Post…on Tiger Woods’ career and prime competitors Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington.
“One thing is now clear…Those who say Jack Nicklaus faced higher-quality competition in his peak years are right. There just isn’t an Arnold Palmer, a Gary Player, a Lee Trevino or a Tom Watson in this group. Just check the numbers on those four: 30 majors among them and several down-to-the wire battles with Nicklaus that Nicklaus lost. That’s one reason Nicklaus finished second in majors 19 times.
“The best players of Woods’s generation – the aforementioned Mickelson, Singh, Els and Harrington – have 12 majors among them (three apiece), and none has ever won a memorable duel with Woods at a major. There’s no Watson at Turnberry (1977), no Trevino at Muirfield (1972). There just isn’t.
“That’s no knock on Woods. You can only beat those who show up to play you, and his top challengers simply haven’t shown up very often when major titles have been at stake. It looked for a while Sunday as if Harrington might hang with him but then he imploded. Els, as has become his habit since his knee surgery three years ago, got some TV time, but never seriously contended. Mickelson gets a pass this time because he is still dealing with the aftermath of his wife’s breast cancer surgery. Singh, it says here, is done winning majors at the age of 46. Making the top 10? Sure. Winning? I don’t think so….
“As for (Y.E.) Yang and Woods, a different ending isn’t such a bad thing. Woods on Sunday with the lead at a major had become predictable. This was different, something you couldn’t take your eyes off because you really couldn’t believe it was going to happen until it actually did.
“Yang got it. When someone asked if he wanted a rematch with Woods someday, he shook his head and said, ‘No rematch, no redo.’
“Smart man. He knows that all the analysis and over-analysis of ‘what went wrong’ with Woods this year will be massively overblown. The guy has won five times on tour this year and will probably win at least twice more. He will be player of the year again. Is he angry that he didn’t win a major for the first time since 2004? You bet he is. You can bet that everyone who works for him is walking on eggshells right now.
“But this is nothing more than a glitch. Nicklaus didn’t win a major between 1967 and 1970 at the peak of his powers. Golf’s a hard game, even for the greatest players of all time.
“Years ago someone asked Ben Hogan what he considered a perfect round of golf.
“ ‘A perfect round of golf is an 18,’ he said. ‘I once dreamed I made 17 holes-in-one in a row and lipped out on 18. I woke up angry.’
“Even in their dreams, the immortals can’t conquer golf. Woods comes about as close as you can possibly come. The fact that he’s human every once in a while just makes the game that much more fun.”
Mike Lupica / New York Daily News
“It was near the end of the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, another major that Tiger Woods did not win this year, when they couldn’t wait to tell you behind the 17th green how he had walked off that green cursing, after missing one more short birdie putt. There were some New York guys right behind the ropes and they said that the last words they heard from Woods as he made his way to the 18th tee, after a string of bad words, were these:
Sally Jenkins / Washington Post
“There are plenty of good reasons why Woods lost and went winless for the year in the majors. In retrospect, it’s taken him all season to recover his form since he underwent offseason knee surgery – and he may not be fully back yet….
“There is only one thing Woods should reappraise in the wake of his loss: whether he’s grown too conservative. At 33, Woods’s personality has become clearer, and his chief characteristic is that he’s an absolute control freak. The Woods of 2009 is a less supple and explosive player. He has retooled his once-elastic swing into a more muscular, mechanical motion, partly to take the torque off his reconstructed knee but also to make him feel more in control of the ball, but it’s debatable whether it’s cost him more than he’s gained.
“Afterward, he was defensive at suggestions that he may have surrendered too much in favor of consistency, and argued that his swing alteration will help him win majors, not lose them. ‘You have to give yourself enough chances to win them, and I’ve done that,’ he said. ‘I’m proud of the changes I’ve made to get to this point.’
“But Woods is strategically more careful as well, eschewing aggression in favor of steadiness. He studies conditions almost obsessively, and predetermines what score he believes will win. He is so calculated that he rarely hemorrhages strokes like other players do, which is what makes him so hard to beat. He gives up nothing easily, avoids the round-killing mistake and leaves his opponents little to hope for. But that makes him less flexible, too, when disruptions such as wind or mud upset his plans and introduce unpredictability – or when he has a bad day with the putter.”
By the way…in three weeks, Arnold Palmer turns 80, Sept. 10. Lots of Arnie chat on Sept. 3, 7 and 10.
Last week Karen Kaplan of the Los Angeles Times had a piece I have to make note of involving one of my favorite topics, manned missions to Mars….like with snowboarders, though that wasn’t Ms. Kaplan’s idea.
No, we’re talking about coming up with a menu. Let’s say there is a manned mission around 2030. Should that be the case, Michele Perchonok, NASA’s manager of advanced food technology, says the agency will need to solve most of its food storage issues by 2015 or 2016 and come up with a menu “that’s light enough, nutritious enough, tasty enough and durable enough to withstand a years-long mission to the Red Planet.”
“Imagine having to pack more than 6,570 breakfasts, lunches, snacks and dinners all at once – enough meals to feed six people every day for more than three years. Imagine preparing all these meals with an allotment of 3.2 pounds of food per person per day, about one-third less than the average American eats each day on Earth. Imagine that each dish needs to have a five-year shelf life. And imagine having to transport all the meals to a dining table 55 million miles away, where cooking equipment will be rudimentary at best.”
Space food has already come a long way since the first missions with Tang and veggie puree out of a tube. Today, shuttle and space station astronauts get stuff like freeze-dried shrimp cocktail and irradiated beef fajitas. In the end, however, while taste might matter it’s all about safety. Most food on the space station, for example, has a shelf life of two years.
“But it will take at least six to eight months to fly to Mars (when Earth and Mars) are at their closest, and astronauts would probably sojourn on the Red Planet for a year and a half so that they can head home when the planets are once again close by. If NASA decides to send food ahead of time in a separate capsule, the meals will have to last five years.
“Some items from the space station menu might remain safe to eat for that long. But none are likely to remain appetizing.”
“Only after the right preservation and packaging technologies are found can the food scientists get down to the business of recalibrating old recipes and creating new ones. Their lab resembles a home economics classroom, except that it is outfitted with specialized equipment like a vacuum moisture analyzer, a pH meter, a colorimeter, a texture analyzer, a viscometer and a huge shelf-life testing chamber….
“In the meantime, scientists are weighing the pros and cons of supplementing packaged meals with fresh fruits and vegetables. NASA first grew plants in space in the 1960s, and a team at Kennedy Space Center in Florida has been developing a domed chamber in which astronauts could raise crops like lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and green onions hydroponically.”
You know, if I was an undergrad biology/chemistry student, this would be a fascinating field to work in for a decade or two post-grad (or having completed any requisite graduate study). The only problem is Michele Perchonok has a staff of just “15 food lab scientists.” But, hey, drop her a line in Houston. Or show up at her office with a shiny apple. Make sure it’s fresh.
–Jerry Crowe / L.A. Times:
“If the world’s fastest sprinters can’t stay closer to Usain Bolt, NFL cornerbacks wouldn’t stand a chance…
Well that’s kind of intriguing. Let Usain do the track thing through the 2012 Games, get his 100m record down to 9.40 and the 200m to 19.20, and then have him hit the weight room and see what happens. He’d certainly occupy two on defense, freeing it up for the others on ‘O.’ And he’s too big to just hope to jam on the line each time.
Of course Bob Hayes would be a role model, he having had a great career at receiver after winning the 100 meters in Tokyo, 1964. But 1968 Olympic Gold Medalist Jimmy Hines wouldn’t be; Hines having caught all of two passes for the Dolphins in 1969.
–Congratulations to American Sanya Richards for finally winning a world title in the 400 meters at the track and field championships in Berlin. It’s been one disappointment after another for Sanya, but she came through this time. Richards is the one who suffers from Behcet’s syndrome, “a rare disorder that causes chronic inflammation of blood vessels throughout the body.” Richards gets lesions on her legs, her stomach and inside her mouth and in Berlin, the condition flared up again the day of the 400 final but she shook it off. Sanya had finished a disappointing third in Beijing.
—Greg Paulus, the former Duke starting point guard who transferred to Syracuse and got a waiver to play football as a graduate student, was announced as the starting quarterback for the Orangemen.
–Interesting tidbit from USA TODAY. No team in baseball since the 1930 New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals has had a lineup where each player hit at least .300 with a minimum of 200 at-bats, according to Elias Sports Bureau. But this year’s Los Angeles Angels have a shot at it….Averages thru Sunday.
On the other hand, one glance at the list also tells you they could end up with none!
—1969 Mets, continued….I don’t know why but this Saturday, the Mets are going to honor the ’69 edition on the 40th anniversary of something they say was kind of special. I’ve been merely recounting the season because, well, I really don’t know why.
Anyway, we pick up the story with the Mets 62-51 and struggling…now 10 games back of the division-leading Chicago Cubs.
Aug. 16…the first game of back-to-back doubleheaders as the Mets face the San Diego Padres at beautiful Shea Stadium. Mets win opener 2-0 as Tom Seaver (17-7) goes 8 scoreless and Ron Taylor picks up save No. 11. Tommie Sisk (0-7) is the loser.
Aug. 16…in the nightcap the Mets win 2-1 behind Jim McAndrew (4-5) and Tug McGraw’s 8th save. Cleon Jones hits home run No. 12. Gary Ross (1-10) takes the loss. Ergo, the two Padres’ starters had a combined mark of 1-17.
Aug. 17…day two…Mets win opener 3-2 as Jerry Koosman (10-8) goes all the way, besting Joe Niekro (6-11). Duffy Dyer supplies all the offense with a 3-run homer, his first since Opening Day, in the 5th.
Aug. 17…Mets earn two-day, 4-game sweep with another 3-2 win, this time as Don Cardwell (5-9) throws 7 scoreless, Ron Taylor gets his 12th save, and Bud Harrelson hits a 2-run triple. Clay Kirby (3-16!) took the loss.
Aug. 19…San Francisco comes to town and 48,968 pack Shea for the Tuesday night contest. Mets win 1-0 in 14 innings as Tommie Agee hits No. 21 for the walk-off winner. And who did he hit it off? Starter Juan Marichal (14-9). Yes, these were the days when men were men. Marichal ended up going 13 1/3, striking out 13. For the Metsies, Gary Gentry threw the first 10 innings and Tug McGraw (6-2) went the last four.
Aug. 20…48,914 in attendance as the Mets win their 6th straight with another outstanding pitching performance, 6-0, as Jim McAndrew (5-5) goes all the way with a 2-hitter. Art Shamsky drives in 4, including 3 on his 10th homer.
Aug. 21…42,795 see the Mets finally go down, 7-6, in 11. Tom Seaver (struggling lately with shoulder issues) gets hit hard, going 7 innings and giving up 6 runs (4 earned) while walking 7! But Ron Taylor (6-4) takes the loss. Tommie Agee clubs No. 22 and Cleon Jones has 3 hits to raise his average to .352.
So the Mets are now 68-52 and have whittled the Cubs’ lead down to 7 games. Meanwhile, I still don’t know why the ’69 Mets are being honored at Citi Field this weekend.
–The other day I was discussing the horrific beaning the Mets’ David Wright took (he seems to be OK and is on the 15-day DL), and in looking at the entry for Ray Chapman in the Total Baseball Biographical Encyclopedia, Chapman being the only major leaguer to die as a result of an on-field accident when he was hit in the left temple by a pitch thrown by the Yankees’ Carl Mays on Aug. 17, 1920, the following provides further context:
“One change that surprisingly did not occur for another three decades was the introduction of batting helmets. The Spalding Guide advocated their use immediately after the Chapman tragedy, saying, ‘A head helmet for the batter is not to be despised. There is nothing ‘sissy’ about it.’ Yet nothing was done until the Pittsburgh Pirates introduced protective headgear in the early 1950s.”
–The NFL is investigating Raiders head coach Tom Cable and an altercation at training camp on Aug. 5 that resulted in assistant coach Randy Hanson having his jaw broken. Cable, it seems, punched him out though Hanson doesn’t want to press charges.
What a freakin’ joke this franchise has become. It was six years ago that linebacker Bill Romanowski, Mr. ‘Roid Rage, shattered teammate Marcus Williams’ eye socket during a scrimmage.
–This isn’t good. Kenya has lost an average of 100 lions in each of the last 7 years and within 20 they could disappear altogether, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service. The population is down to about 2,000. Personally, I think if you polled the lions and phrased the question, “You have 20 years to live. Do you go out with a bang or a whimper?” the vast majority of lions would say, “With a bang.” So here’s hoping they mass for a final assault.
–Brad K. passed along the following important story from the Daily Mail.
“Farmer dies after being trampled by herd of cows ‘spooked’ by a fire engine siren”
“A farmer has died from serious head and chest injuries after he was trampled by cows, which appear to have been scared by a fire engine.
“Harold Lee, 75, was bringing up the rear of a herd of 100 dairy cows being led along a country lane, when they turned and bolted towards him. His son Richard, 42, who was leading the cattle to be milked at their farm in Burtle, Somerset, had said that a fire engine had suddenly appeared with its sirens blaring.”
Well, said cows then became “agitated” and unleashed their assault on Harold. The poor guy didn’t have a chance.
Meanwhile, Brad K. said he likes a fine Cabernet with his steak, while I like my cows young…veal being my favorite dish. Actually, Veal Holstein! Escalope of veal with fried eggs and capers.
But back to our main story, it turns out this was the fourth fatality involving “agitated” cows in just four weeks in England! It seems there are issues the cows are having with dogs that are “off lead.” As in lead dog.
Eifion Huws, vice president of the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW…don’t ever get in a drinking contest with these guys), “warned that such attacks could increase if dogs remained off leads in the countryside.”
“A dog is a foreign animal to them,” Mr. Huws told the Daily Mail. “If you’re confronted by cattle running onwards you, leave your dog. You would be surprised at how fast a cow or a bullock can run. They can easily outrun a human. But not a dog, it can look after itself. If there is a herd coming down on you and you hold on to your dog you have not got a hope in hell.”
I’ve gotta tell ya. It’s easy to lose some respect for cows when you read they can’t identify a dog from other animals. Kind of makes you wonder what they’re thinking of all day as they stare, Homer Simpson like, into space.
“Man’s best friend or food-grubbing flatterer? Dogs are no dummies either way, suggests a study showing how canines respond to deception.
“Fido always seems to know which hand hides the treat, even without sniffing, and researchers and pet owners alike have long wondered whether pooches imagine what we are thinking or whether they simply read body language.
“ ‘Dogs evolved with humans, and a number of studies have suggested they are particularly sensitive to human cues,’ says psychologist William Roberts of Canada’s Dalhousie University. Sentimental pet owners might even say their dogs know what they are thinking. [Ed. such as in “Mets suck”…but I digress]
“To test how well dogs have people figured out, Roberts and colleagues performed three experiments….and tested 16 dogs in a park near London, Ontario.
“First, the researchers presented the dogs with two covered buckets, one empty, one loaded with treats. In some trials, the same tester would always signal to the dogs the empty bucket. In other trials, another tester would signal the full bucket.
“The dogs started out running to the bucket indicated by testers in both trials, but within five attempts, the dogs figured out a little less than half the time to run to the bucket not indicated by the ‘deceptive’ tester.”
“Similar tests were done decades ago in chimps, notes psychologist Clive Wynne of the University of Florida-Gainesville… “One interesting thing is that the dogs are wiping the floor with the chimps in how often, statistically, they figure out the deception,’ he says.”
[By the way, there is a bad story out there about a pack of wild dogs and the demise of a Georgia couple, the wife being a true dog lover to compound matters. Not wanting to get into details, I nonetheless must place dogs on 24-hours probation.]
–Brad K. also first noted that a rat eating plant has been named after wildlife broadcaster Sir Richard Attenborough. It’s a giant pitcher plant, found in the Philippines and belived to be the largest man-eating shrub in existence, which “lures rodents into its slipper-shaped mouth and dissolves them with acid-like enzymes.” Botanists Stewart McPherson and Alastair Robinson tracked it down and say “It is remarkable that it remained undiscovered until the 21st century.”
–By now you’ve all seen the story that the American Chemical Society has determined “cocaine is present in up to 90% of paper money in the United States, particularly in large cities,” 95% in Washington, D.C., alone. [To be fair, most are contaminated by being touched by tainted bills, like in counting machines, but in an unofficial, related study for StocksandNews, 84% of Bar Chat readers do heroin while perusing this column.]
–Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have concluded that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died of complications from strep throat back in 1791. He didn’t take care of himself. Too many late nights, composing.
Top 3 songs for the week 8/16/69: #1 “In The Year 2525” (Zager & Evans…can’t believe it was #1 for six weeks! What were we thinking, people!) #2 “Honky Tonk Women” (The Rolling Stones) #3 “Crystal Blue Persuasion” (Tommy James & The Shondells… one of your editor’s top three all time)…and…#4 “Sweet Caroline” (Neil Diamond) #5 “A Boy Named Sue” (Johnny Cash) #6 “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” (Jackie DeShannon) #7 “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town” (Kenny Rogers and The First Edition) #8 “My Cherie Amour” (Stevie Wonder…can you believe this didn’t get higher than #4?! It’s a travesty, I tell ya!) #9 “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)” (Jr. Walker & The All Stars…perhaps the best beginning for any tune next to “The Christmas Song,” Nat King Cole version…or the orchestral version of “Meet the Mets”) #10 “Baby, I Love You” (Andy Kim)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Gold Gloves, second basemen – Roberto Alomar, 10; Ryne Sandberg, 9; Bill Mazeroski, 8; Frank White, 8. 2) Gold Gloves, outfielders – Roberto Clemente, 12; Willie Mays, 12; Ken Griffey Jr., 10; Al Kaline, 10; Andruw Jones, 10.
*No one gets to drink premium unless they got all nine right. 7 or 8 you can quaff domestic. Under 7, Yoo-Hoo.
Next Bar Chat, Monday. Lastings Milledge and the sorry Pittsburgh Pirates. Let’s just say it has something to do with the Washington Nationals as well.
