Baseball Quiz: Washington’s Adam Dunn has 35 home runs as of this writing and should reach 40 for a sixth consecutive season. Who are the only three to accomplish the feat. Answer below.
Happy 80th Birthday, Arnie
Jason Gore / Tour Player: When I was 11, my mom and I met Mr. Palmer at Latrobe Country Club. He took a picture with us, signed a scorecard, and then he said, ‘Son, I’m going to go hit balls. Would you like to watch?’ I watched for 45 minutes. And from that point on I knew I wanted to be a professional golfer.
Jimmy Roberts: When he said goodbye at Oakmont, we all knew the significance of it. I was working for ESPN at the time, and Arnie lost it. Just totally, totally lost it. I’ve interviewed hundreds of athletes who cried, but this was Arnold Palmer at Oakmont. I remember feeling kind of embarrassed and very unsure of myself. How do you react? Do you try to console Arnold Palmer?
Bob Goalby / 1968 Masters champion: I wrote Arnold a letter the other day. Never wrote him one in my life. I just told him that I was honored to have played in the same era as he did. I said, ‘All of us would have liked to have been like you.’ That may not have been adequate, but I wanted him to know how we feel.
Doc Giffin / Long-time business manager: Probably the most memorable moment for me was the time President Eisenhower surprised him on his birthday in 1966. Winnie set it up, and I was one of the few in on it. She sent Arnie’s plane to Gettysburg on a Saturday morning to pick up the former President. Eisenhower just comes up the walk and knocks on the door. Winnie and Arnie answer and Ike standing there with a little bag in his hands. And Ike says, “Do you happen to have a little room for an old man to spend the night?”
Bob Goalby: I saw him sign autographs in hundred-degree heat after he’d shot 74 or 75. He’d stand there for an hour by the ropes. I wouldn’t stand there for 10 minutes; I’d be churning inside. But he’d just stand there. I think he loved the adulation.
Gary Player: Arnold fell out of bed with charisma. He didn’t need to speak. He just had it.
Tom Ridge, former Pa. governor: One fall day, the clouds are puffy, the leaves are turning. He says, “This is my office. Is it any wonder I like my work?” [Golf Magazine]
Rocco Mediate: I was fortunate to be paired with Mr. Palmer at the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont, which was his last U.S. Open. Friday afternoon, we were walking up the 18th fairway toward the green. I was about 50 yards or so behind him, just taking it all in: huge galleries as far as you could see and applause as loud as it could possibly be, just to acknowledge and admire the man they all loved and had cheered for so long. It didn’t matter what he shot; it mattered to them that he was there, and they appreciated it.
When I putted out on 18 I went to him, shook his hand and said, “You made all this possible for golf – this is all because of you.” At that we both were overcome with emotion.
Tiger Woods: I know I can visit Arnold for advice or a reassuring smile anytime. To have a role model like him makes us all try a little harder. I’m certain much success and friendship lie ahead. Thank you, Arnold.
“At Latrobe Country Club, it’s difficult to picture Palmer on the cusp of 80. The reminders of yesteryear are everywhere. Photos and trophies, plaques and crystals, have transformed the place into a museum….
“Across the street, at the top of the hill on Legends Drive and just 50 yards from Arnie’s house, stands his office, where he spends most mornings. Palmer still wakes before dawn, drinks 12 ounces of water with a wedge of lemon and exercises. He no longer jogs the golf course but still rides his bike, weather permitting, or ‘fast walks’ on a treadmill daily. Then, he’s off in his golf cart, packed with two golf bags stuffed with as many as 50 clubs, balls and lead tape. Mulligan, his yellow Labrador retriever, rides shotgun.
“There are obligations, too. Palmer returns calls, answers e-mails, signs autographs and takes care of business. Finally, he allows himself to indulge in his passion. He escapes into the back room of his office – a private workshop filled with racks of clubs. Palmer’s longtime assistant, Doc Giffin, estimates there are more than 2,000 flatsticks alone.
“ ‘It’s the largest private collection of putters in the world,’ Giffin claims.
“Palmer is a tinkerer of golf clubs: He hammers them, tweaks their lofts and lies, bangs them some more and tests them endlessly….
“Palmer does most of his toiling these days at a private range behind No. 6 and parallel to the eighth hole. This is where he practices and where he goes to think. It is his refuge.
“ ‘You don’t go there unless you’re invited,’ Jerry Palmer explains.
“Here, Palmer displays his genuine affection for the game. After all these years, it’s evident he still relishes the simple act of hitting golf balls. And he strikes them with the same corkscrew swing, a motion that writer Charles Price once described as one ‘with all the abandon of a drunk at a driving range.’”
This is too much. So as I go to post, Jeter is three hits shy of tying Lou Gehrig’s 2,721 for most hits by a Yankee. No doubt it’s a cool record to hold, given the franchise’s history, but the New York media, as is its wont, has gone way overboard. For starters, most ballplayers look at 3,000 as magical, not anything below it, plus guys that Jeter has passed, like Babe Ruth, walked a zillion times and total hits were largely irrelevant when reviewing their careers.
So what happens? As I told you last time, tickets have been going for outrageous sums as the Yanks returned from being on the road and fans expected Derek to set the record in the first game or two of the current home stand yet he’s gone 0-for-12. And a funny thing happened the past few nights. The normally classy Jeter clammed up, creating an issue of a different kind.
John Harper / New York Daily News
“In a world where the Yankees almost never lose anymore, Derek Jeter’s unlikely detour on the road to pinstriped immortality is practically inconsequential. But it sure is odd.
“Hard to say which is more un-Jeter-like; looking as if he’s allowed the Lou Gehrig milestone to get to him at the plate, where he is now officially slumping, or pulling a no-show with the media after the game last night.”
Meanwhile, who holds the New York Mets’ career hit mark? Why it’s Eddie Kranepool, “The Other No. 7” in the Big Apple as I like to say. Kranepool’s 1,418 are the fewest for any hit leader among the pre-1993 expansion teams.
Way, way back…Esso (before it was Exxon) had a deal where if you purchased a tank of gasoline, which was like $0.30 a gallon then, you could receive a tumbler with either Kranepool or fellow Met Ron Hunt on it. My brother’s favorite was Hunt so he got that one (and I assume he still has it). 40+ years later I still have my Kranepool tumbler and let me tell you, there is a furious behind the scenes tussle among some of my friends for this should I predecease them. In fact, it’s getting downright unseemly. But should I get hit by a bus, or a little electric car I didn’t hear, it goes to Johnny Mac as of today.
*Update: Jeter did get 3 hits on Wed. night to tie Gehrig.
–And now, your EXCLUSIVE NFL Super Bowl prediction.
Actually, I don’t have a clue. Sports Illustrated’s Peter King is picking the Patriots to defeat the Bears, while Sporting News has the Giants besting the Pats. Oh what the hell. The Jets have a potential bruising ground game and some talent on D, with a new, aggressive coach with a winning attitude, Rex Ryan, so even though I’m not convinced rookie Mark Sanchez is the man at quarterback, I’m going with my Jets to win it all! [The Jets’ rookie running back Shonn Greene is going to be awesome, says your editor. And when the injuries begin to pile up, we have Chadron State’s Danny Woodhead, who was signed to the practice squad, waiting in the wings. Hang in there, Danny. You’ll get your shot.]
“Mr. Goodell, lift those television blackouts – and let the people of Detroit watch the Lions.
“O.K., the Lions are coming off a 0-16 season, but their fans still deserve to watch them at home.
“In a city with a wheezing automotive industry and a jobless rate near 30 percent, people need diversions.
“But NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he would not waive the blackout policy to accommodate the wreckage of the Great Recession. His predecessor, Paul Tagliabue, properly waived it in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina sent the New Orleans Saints from the damaged Louisiana Superdome to ‘home’ games at LSU and in San Antonio.
“And Goodell should waive it now. The economy, even in a slow recovery, did not physically devastate cities the way Katrina did. But it has devastated millions of lives through widespread layoffs, foreclosures and bankruptcies. In reducing, or eliminating, people’s disposable income, the recession has slowed the sale of season tickets.”
But Goodell said the 36-year blackout policy would remain in place.
–You know what the Crime of the Century is? I’m reading a Wall Street Journal piece on the $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium, the one with the low scoreboard that will be the source of ridicule until it’s raised next year, and I saw that a Shiner Bock beer sets you back $9.50! Now Shiner is simply the best beer in America, the only “domestic” with the “premium” taste, come to think of it, but you can’t charge $9.50 for “America’s Beer”!!!! I want an investigation. I want names.
5. Oklahoma State
7. Penn State
8. Ohio State
12. Boise State
18. Notre Dame
19. North Carolina
Biggest busts of 2009 to date, Wake Forest and Rutgers.
John Feinstein / Washington Post
“Here we go again. As in here we go with another fall of hearing the spinners from the Atlantic Coast Conference tell us how balanced the league is. Sure, the ACC is balanced – apparently no one (again) is really any good.
“Oh, sure, Virginia Tech played respectably in losing to Alabama. The Hokies may very well be the class of the league again and can play in the Orange Bowl against someone like Cincinnati or Rutgers in a game watched by dozens.
“For all the preseason hype about all the returning quarterbacks and how this was going to be the year the ACC became important again – although when exactly was the ACC important nationally outside of Tallahassee? – it took exactly one week for the league to once again be exposed for what it truly is: a basketball league. Except for the fact that, outside of Chapel Hill, it hasn’t been much of a basketball league since the now infamous football expansion of 2005.”
The ACC was 4-6 in its first week. “Four ACC teams (gasp!) actually opened against 1-A opponents. None of them actually won a game, but at least, by gosh, they gave it a shot. Wake Forest opened at home against Baylor, a team that might have a big year and win three games in the Big 12. Final score: Baylor 24, Wake 21. At least it was close. North Carolina State also kept it close although scoring a touchdown was an issue. The Wolfpack lost 7-3 to what looks like a mediocre South Carolina team.”
Virginia Tech kept it close, but Maryland got crushed by California, 52-13. [Then you had Miami and Florida State playing each other on Monday night, with Miami winning 38-34, but it’s far too early to tell if these programs are bouncing back.]
As John Feinstein notes, it’s a joke both the ACC and the Big East (equally mediocre, at best) get automatic BCS bids. “Their champions should play each other in the Meineke Car Care Bowl. The Mountain West is better than they are right now – see Brigham Young, TCU, Utah for starters.”
“Bigger. Stronger. Faster. This is the most jarring part about this laughingstock of a home opener yesterday. What happened to all those great recruiting classes that Greg Schiano supposedly brought to Rutgers?
“Yes, Cincinnati was the better coached team yesterday – that is an understatement bigger than the expanded stadium – but it also was clearly more talented. Quicker. Deeper. Smarter.
And to think the school felt it necessary to add 11,000 seats for $102 million.
–One of the true jerks on the planet is Cleveland Browns coach Eric Mangini, a k a “Mangenius” as he was going 23-25 with the Jets. Some of us in the New York area are still startled that after the Jets dumped him, within a week he was hired by Cleveland.
So this week we learned that as of Tuesday, Mangenius still hadn’t decided who his starting quarterback would be; Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson. Even Boomer Esiason, who has a sports talk show in New York, was ripping Manjerk mercilessly over his idiotic toying with the first week’s opponent, Minnesota. The coach explained:
“In terms of announcing it publicly, that’s not something I plan to do. It will be internal. I understand everybody has a different opinion on it. I respect that. I understand the excitement in relationship to that and I respect that as well. But that will be something that will be internal.”
“It is more difficult to plan for two (quarterbacks) than it is to plan for one. I’m not saying that’s going to be the difference or not the difference, but I know that there is time allotted to that and you can’t put the same amount of time into focusing on one player.”
As Esiason said, however, “C’mon…we’re aren’t talking about preparing for both Dan Marino and Michael Vick.”
–Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Pirates for formally setting a mark that may be tough to break, at least in our lifetimes, especially because it could keep going another few years.
The Pirates wrapped up their 17th consecutive losing season, the longest for any team in the four major North American pro team sports. But at least the good citizens of Pittsburgh have the Steelers and Penguins and normally competitive b-ball and football teams at the Univ. of Pittsburgh. That’s far more than virtually every other city in America can say.
–Shu first passed along the story of Michael Jordan and his induction Friday into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Surprisingly, Jordan passed on Dean Smith and Phil Jackson to present him and chose instead David Thompson, the former superstar who didn’t go to Carolina, but rather N.C. State. Thompson said:
“I got a call from the Hall of Fame and they asked me if I was willing to be a presenter for someone,” he told Yahoo Sports. “I said, ‘Yeah.’ I didn’t know who it was….They said Michael Jordan. I was like, ‘Wow.’ He told them that he was a big fan of mine and I was the one that really inspired him.”
Before Air Jordan, David Thompson was “Skywalker” as he led the Wolfpack to their first NCAA championship in 1974. His selection speaks volumes about Jordan as both a person and a man who truly appreciates basketball history.
–The 50th anniversary issue of Golf Magazine has a piece on Phil Mickelson, “The People’s Champion.” He gets some grief among his fellow Tour players, with some calling him rather insincere, but the fact is no one gives back like Phil. For example:
“During the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol, Mickelson met John Finn and his wheelchair-bound son David, who has a central-nervous-system disorder. Minutes after Mickelson won the title on Monday, he invited David onto the green. Says John, ‘We have the greatest photo you’ve ever seen: Phil with the trophy in his right arm, his left arm on David’s shoulder in his wheelchair, and my wife and I. David was thrilled.’”
“After contributing $250,000 to Hurricane Katrina relief, Mickelson pledged to donate his prize money from the 2006 Zurich Classic in New Orleans. He finished T15, but decided that $81,720 was insufficient and added another $250,000. Habitat for Humanity built two homes in the Lower Ninth Ward in Mickelson’s name, one for cellist and singer Helen Gillet. ‘I’m interested in who Phil Mickelson is as a person and philanthropist,’ Gillet says. ‘He’s got his hands in a lot of cool things going on in the country.’”
–Looking for a Cy Young Award winner in the National League? Just book it…Chris Carpenter of the Cardinals, now 16-3 with a 2.16 ERA. Carpenter is 11-0 in 13 starts since June 30.
—1969 Mets, continued…Mets are 77-56, five games back of the Cubbies…
Sept. 5…home against Philadelphia. In the opener of a doubleheader, Tom Seaver (20-7) bests Grant Jackson (12-14) as Jerry Grote hits a 2-run homer, his 5th.
Sept. 5…in the nightcap, Mets lose 4-2 as Rick Wise (12-11) shuts down New York while striking out 11. Jim McAndrew (6-6) takes the loss.
Sept. 6…Mets defeat Phils 3-0 behind Don Cardwell (6-9) and Tug McGraw, with McGraw going last 3 for his 11th save. Jerry Johnson (6-12) takes the loss. Grote again hits one out, his 6th. And I can’t help but note that Wayne “Warning Track Power” Garrett had a sac fly.
Sept. 7…Mets beat Phils again, 9-3, as Nolan Ryan (5-1) picks up the win with 3 in relief of starter Gary Gentry. Bill Champion (5-8) took the loss. Tommie Agee had 3 RBI, including his 25th home run, while Art Shamsky hit no. 12. The game was 3-3 before the Mets scored 2 in the 7th and 4 in the 8th.
Sept. 8…Chicago comes to town for two critical contests. 43,274 pack Shea Stadium for a Monday night affair and the Mets win 3-2 on a 6th-inning Wayne Garrett single. Jerry Koosman (13-9) goes all the way and strikes out 13, as Bill Hands (16-13) takes the loss. Tommie Agee hit no. 26, a 2-run shot. The Cubs’ lead is cut to 1 ½.
Sept. 9…Mets whip Fergie Jenkins (19-13) and the Cubs, 7-1, as Donn Clendenon and Art Shamsky each hit their 13th home runs. Ken Boswell drove in 2. Tom Seaver (21-7) went all the way, striking out 5.
–Brad K. passed along a rather disturbing piece from the AP.
MARSHFIELD, Wis. – When it comes to spitting a cricket for distance, the central Wisconsin talent seems concentrated in one Marshfield family. Brian Johnsrud spat a thawed cricket 22 feet, 8 inches at the Central Wisconsin State Fair on Saturday. Minutes later, his son Jared shot his cricket 10 feet, 5 inches to win the 9-to-11 age division.
I’m surprised PETA isn’t involved. Then again, Brad said he’s going for 23’ in 2010. Wonder what he would do in the thin air of Mexico City, know what I’m sayin’?
–In a further example of why Man will never crack the top ten of the All-Species List, hip-hop superstar Jay-Z is holding a 9/11 charity show at Madison Square Garden this coming Friday and when I first heard of this a few weeks ago I have to admit my respect for the man went up big time.
Jay-Z set the ticket price at $54.50 for all seats to make it accessible to fans struggling in these times, and still raise a sizable amount of money for the widows and orphans of New York City cops and firefighters who died in the line of duty.
The 20,000 seats sold out immediately on Tuesday and, of course, man being man, a lot of the tickets then suddenly showed up on resale sites for $200 to $3,000.
Jay-Z was pissed. “We are truly disheartened that certain individuals would choose to benefit from what is meant to be a 100% charitable event. We do not support any profits made from reselling any ticket that was meant to be purchased by honest fans.”
The treasurer of the New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund called the situation “a shame.”
Jay-Z purposely didn’t make the seats available until the last minute to avoid the scalping problem.
Look for the media to be all over this as to who actually attends. The police should initiate some kind of sting operation.
Top 3 songs for the week 9/13/75: #1 “Rhinestone Cowboy” (Glen Campbell) #2 “Fallin’ In Love” (Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds) #3 “At Seventeen” (Janis Ian)…and…#4 “Get Down Tonight” (K.C. & The Sunshine Band) #5 “Fame” (David Bowie) #6 “Fight The Power Part I” (The Isley Brothers) #7 “Could It Be Magic” (Barry Manilow) #8 “I’m Sorry” (John Denver) #9 “Run Joey Run” (David Geddes) #10 “Wasted Days And Wasted Nights” (Freddy Fender)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Should Adam Dunn reach 40 home runs, he’ll join Babe Ruth (7 times), Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa as the only players to hit the figure six consecutive seasons. Incredibly, Dunn has hit exactly 40 each of the last four.
*This is pretty remarkable…Reba McEntire is back at the top of the Billboard Pop charts with her new LP, “Keep On Loving You.” Neil Diamond is No. 6 with “Hot August Night,” a sequel to his 1972 live album.
Next Bar Chat, Monday. Everything you wanted to know about Appalachian State football but were afraid to ask as your editor travels to Boone, NC, for a critical FCS contest between No. 2 App State and No. 16 McNeese State. Phil W. and I will be drinking domestic prior to the contest, as you might expect. And I was just informed his daughter got us seats in the student section. I’m sure we’ll be talking U.S. dollar policy and such.
