NFL Quiz: Touchdowns… 1) Twice Jets and Giants players have led the league in TDs the same season; once in the 60s and once in the 70s. Name the players involved. [3 different players for the 4 slots] 2) Who am I? I led the AFC in TDs in 1970, initials G.G. 3) Who was the last Steeler to lead the league, 1985. Answers below.
Last chat I mentioned that the Washington Wizards’ Gilbert Arenas had been caught with guns in the locker-room, a major no-no. Then Peter Vecsey and Dan Mangan of the New York Post broke the story that Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton “drew guns on each other in a locker-room dispute over a gambling debt.” The league had not been notified by the Wizards of the incident prior to the report.
“That stunning gun duel now threatens to end the Wizard careers of not only the two point guards – who stand to lose millions of dollars in pay – but also of general manager Ernie Grunfeld….
“ ‘This is gonna cost Ernie his job,’ a former NBA team president told The Post. ‘Because the buck stops at the top.’….
“The Post exclusively reported that Arenas, 27, went for a gun after Crittenton confronted the veteran guard about failing to make good on a gambling debt owed Crittenton and threats were exchanged.
“ ‘I’m not your punk!’ Crittenton shouted, according to a league source close to the Wizards.
“After Arenas drew a gun on him, Crittenton then brandished a firearm himself, sources said. It is not known if Crittenton had his own gun with him, or if he grabbed one of several Arenas had in the locker room.
“Before yesterday’s report of the showdown, the Wizards had merely claimed that Arenas had admitted bringing guns to the locker room – a violation of NBA rules – and had turned them over to security.”
[Ed. this is what I first wrote last time before Vecsey broke the story wide open.]
“The NBA source noted that the Wizards could void the remainder of Arenas’ six-year contract – which he signed last summer – if he is convicted of a felony. About $100 million remains on the contract.”
Arenas denies having a confrontation, though acknowledged storing three firearms in his locker. When asked if he had shown the weapons to anyone, Arenas said, “Yes, I showed them to someone. I showed them to team security when I handed them to them and said give them to the police.”
This is serious stuff. Not only District of Columbia police are involved but also the U.S. Attorney’s Office as part of a joint investigation. But when it comes to the NBA, understand they have yet to discipline the Cavs’ Delonte West after he was indicted for riding on his motorcycle with two loaded handguns, a shotgun, 112 shotgun shells and a knife back in September.
Meanwhile, the New Jersey Nets’ Devin Harris told reporters that he estimates 75% of NBA players own guns (Harris doesn’t). Oh yeah, Commissioner David Stern is just loving this, not far removed from referee Tim Donaghy’s admission that he bet on games. Harris’ teammate Jarvis Hayes admitted he’s packing (back home in Atlanta, though). The players say it’s for their own protection given the number who have been robbed. I’d offer it would help if they just stayed home instead of partying until 4:00 a.m. every night.
New York Daily News reporter Mitch Lawrence says that if the story proves to be true, Stern has only one choice…throw Arenas and Crittenton out for life to send a message.
Johnny Mac added that this may have been the only time in his career that Arenas didn’t take an open shot. Excellent point.
As for the cause of the dispute, the Post reported on Sunday it was a game of Texas hold ‘em on the Wizards’ team flight home from Phoenix, with Arenas allegedly piling up a $25,000 debt to Crittenton.
Another issue I brought up last time reached resolution a day later as Texas Tech fired coach Mike Leach after he had been suspended for his treatment of sophomore receiver Adam James, son of ESPN analyst Craig James. The firing came a day before Leach was to receive an $800,000 bonus, not a small issue in this case. [Texas Tech then went on to defeat a lousy Michigan State squad in the Alamo Bowl, not that anyone cared.] Leach had been accused of confining James, who was recovering from a concussion, in small, dark spaces while the team practiced.
Leach wasn’t exactly a beloved figure. Defensive lineman Chris Perry said: “I have no complaints about this decision. [Leach] put Adam in a shed like an animal. Like an animal in a cage. That was bull. You call other players. I think it was a good decision.”
Cornerback Taylor Charbonnet: “The players make this team, not one coach. As Adam’s friend, I didn’t like it at all what [Leach] did. He was my brother and I didn’t agree with it.”
But others supported Leach, with one former wide receiver Eric Morris writing that James was “never known as a hard worker” and “seemed to have a negative attitude toward the football program the majority of the time.”
The Wall Street Journal’s David Biderman said much of the problem has to do with Leach’s strained relations with school administrators and the board of regents as a result of a heated contract negotiation early last year.
“In April 2008, Mr. Leach’s agents from the sports agency IMG sent the school a proposal for a contract extension for $15.25 million over five years that would make Leach one of college football’s 10 highest-paid coaches. At that time, Leach had a 65-37 overall record at Tech with eight straight bowl appearances.
“According to a person familiar with the negotiations, Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers sent back a short note declining to negotiate. The note said the school would understand if ‘better opportunities’ came up….
“In January 2009, Texas Tech board members say Mr. Leach’s agents at IMG sent them an email about the coach’s contract situation that was not sent to the athletic director. The regents were infuriated by the move. ‘They were trying to get us to put pressure on the athletic director and force Tech to come to the terms they wanted,’ says board member Jerry Turner. ‘The way they tried dragging people into the negotiation process, we took offense to that. It’s hard to really forget things like that.’”
A big bone of contention with the AD was it was well-known Leach had interviewed with Washington. But Leach then signed a five-year, $12.7 million deal. Not exactly chump change.
The Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins defends Leach.
“You can hear the sound of a railroading in Lubbock, and it’s not coming from the train station.
“Actually, nothing in this case is simple. Leach is not some head-banging throwback. He’s idiosyncratic and incurably outspoken, but nothing suggests he’s a sadist or an idiot who would endanger a player. In fact, he is one of the more well-read and thoughtful men in the game, with a large curiosity and a law degree from Pepperdine. More importantly, he’s a serious, demanding educator whose team has a graduation rate of 79 percent, eighth best in the country and first in the Big 12 Conference. He trails only Notre Dame (94), Stanford (93), Boston College (92), Duke (92) Northwestern (92), Vanderbilt (91) and Wake Forest (83) in turning out grads, while he also has made nine bowl appearances in nine years….
“Two days before the concussion, Leach and his staff apparently disciplined James for poor effort during drills. Leach contends that this, and a lack of playing time, led the James family to resent his handling of the player. James’ habits and attitude have also been questioned by his teammates….Receivers coach Lincoln Riley wrote a memo in support of Leach to the administration, obtained by ESPN.com, in which he referred to the player as ‘unusually lazy and entitled.’….
“It’s impossible to say exactly what happened between Leach and James, but we can be reasonably sure that there are two sides of the story, and that Texas Tech acted too quickly in firing him just two days after suspending him. Was it the right thing to do to send an injured player into the shed with the appearance of disciplining him? Probably not. Was it a firing offense? Certainly not….
“At a time that concern over concussions is growing, coaches have a growing awareness of entitlement and hypersensitivity in the teenagers they welcome to campus. Every coach I know has remarked with disappointment on the trend: Too many of today’s college athletes expect more while sacrificing less, and regard tough coaching as unfair criticism. They suspect that young athletes are over-congratulated for merely participating in high school, and they fear that kids are losing a sense of what real excellence is, and requires.
“Put a prideful, protective parent in the same room with a driven coach who thinks his players have been babied, and throw in the hot-button concussion topic, and you get a recipe for a lawsuit.
“Leach is not one who tolerates pampered or pouty players, judging by his public statements over the years. He is a blunt critic, which probably hasn’t helped him in this case. Earlier this season he tongue-lashed his team for being too complacent by saying ‘their fat little girlfriends are telling them what they want to hear, which is how great you are and how easy it’s going to be.’….
“Leach also has a penchant for creative forms of discipline, which has obviously led to his current trouble. Last spring he was unhappy with split end Edward Britton for not hitting the books. Leach demoted him during spring practice, and, to further make his point, had a desk placed on the 50-yard line.
“After practice he ordered Britton to sit at the desk and study, even though Lubbock was experiencing a cold snap. There Britton sat, in an overcoat and hood, reading at a desk in the middle of the football field. ‘If he does good studying out there, we’ll decide if we’re going to actually let him practice,’ Leach said.
Personally, I’m disturbed by the Craig James angle. The family, though, is now facing all manner of threats, mostly online. Yet another situation where there are no winners. But I love Sally Jenkins’ comments on today’s college player and the issues coaches face. You may see that same quote in another column I do later in the week. It speaks volumes about our entire society as well.
—NFL Update: J-E-T-S…Jets Jets Jets!!!
Wild-card matchups
Sat.
Jets at Cincinnati
Philadelphia at Dallas
Sun.
Baltimore at New England
Green Bay at Arizona
Incredibly, the league felt compelled to address the season-ending “competitiveness” issue. A league spokesman said:
“This is an issue that we have reviewed in the past. The position of the competition committee, and affirmed by the clubs, when it was reviewed in 2005 was that ‘a team that has clinched its division title has earned the right to rest its starters for the postseason, and that preparing for the postseason is just as important as protecting some other team’s playoff opportunity.’
“We are aware of the fan reaction and that is a factor to be considered. Some teams that have everything clinched, like the Giants and Patriots two years ago, choose to play all out to continue or gain momentum for the playoffs. We expect to continue to review this issue.”
What is there to review? You can’t possibly insist teams play their starters. There is no debate here. The only ones bitching are fantasy football types and idiots who bet on season-ending games. It’s like you also should never place a college football bet until Week 5 because it’s just too unpredictable when it comes to the point spread until you see some patterns emerge; not to mix apples and oranges.
[Ask New England fans how they are feeling today, re Wes Welker]
Tidbits: Did Browns coach Eric Mangini save his job with Cleveland\’s season-ending four-game win streak? Does Drew Brees feel silly saying that he wasn\’t going to pull a Ted Williams and sit out the last game to ensure he finished with the NFL pass completion percentage record of 70.6% and then proceed to do just that? If Ted Williams still had his head would he have had something to say about this? [OK, of course New Orleans did the right thing.] And Chris Johnson needed 36 carries to get his 2,000 yards, becoming just the sixth in NFL history to do so. Good for him.
–Interesting situation involving Denver Broncos’ star receiver Brandon Marshall and coach Josh McDaniels, who suspended Marshall for the final game because he felt the receiver wasn’t as hurt as he claimed.
But let’s face it, sports fans. We all know there are way too many bowl games and their value diminishes with each passing year. I’ve written countless stories over the years how when growing up, the 1960s/early 70s in particular, there were only 11, then 12, and each one was meaningful. We got fired up for the Liberty and Peach Bowls, and the Gator Bowl was the 5th bowl in terms of meaning (behind the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Cotton…prior to the advent of the Fiesta Bowl). Anyway, if you wasted time watching South Florida-Northern Illinois in the International Bowl, sorry to offend you. And, heck, for some reason the networks stopped showing the cheerleaders! [The only reason to watch South Florida.] ‘Sup wit dat? I think they showed the No. 1 Oregon cheerleaders like all of 3 times the entire Rose Bowl. Instead of 242 meaningless shots of the sidelines and overpaid coaches, we should be seeing 245 shots of the cheerleaders between plays. And that’s a memo.
Oh, I do have to note a few bits from the other games, however. Congratulations to UConn for its 20-7 triumph over South Carolina. It was a rough year for the Huskies, given the murder of defensive back Jasper Howard, and coach Randy Edsall deserves a ton of credit for more than holding the program together as they finished 8-5.
And then you had some bizarre quarterbacking performances, like Houston’s supposed superstar Case Keenum who threw six…six!…interceptions as the Cougars lost to Air Force, 47-20. Or Northwestern’s Mike Kafka, who put on a Kafkaesque performance in losing to Auburn, 38-35. Kafka was 47-78 for 532 yards and 4 TDs…but also 5 interceptions.
And we give Joe Paterno credit as the Nittany Lions finished a solid 11-2 by virtue of their win over LSU.
And in Idaho’s crazy 43-42 last second defeat of Bowling Green, BG receiver Freddie Barnes caught 17 passes to become the all-time Division I single-season leader with 155.
And Pitt beat North Carolina, 19-17. Let’s face it, Pitt’s last three contests against West Virginia, Cincinnati and UNC represented the best stretch of entertaining football of the entire season.
And we note Tim Tebow’s 31-35, 482 yards and 3 TD effort against Cincinnati.
But Oregon State laid an egg against BYU, 44-20. Coupled with the Ducks’ effort, Oregonians have a very empty feeling heading into the New Year.
Finally, yes, I’ll watch a little Boise State-TCU, and, of course, Texas-Alabama, both of which are enticing matchups. So I guess I paid a little more attention to bowl season than I thought I did. I’d still much prefer only 11 games. A playoff? Even I am finally turning the corner on this one. Bring it on, but just four teams.
–Turning to the college draft, an NFL scouting director told Sporting News that the top five players are:
Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen is the first QB choice at No. 12, just ahead of Colt McCoy. C.J. Spiller is No. 21. He’ll go much higher than that. Like No. 10.
—College Basketball Bits:
My West Virginia Mountaineers (the Bar Chat pick to go all the way) were manhandled by No. 4 Purdue, 77-62. No big deal. Pitt handed Syracuse its first loss, 82-72, and No. 1 Kansas destroyed No. 19 Temple in Philly, 84-52. Meanwhile, No. 2 Texas barely got by Texas A&M Corpus Christi, 76-70. T&A CC? Well, actually these are the same “Islanders” who defeated Oregon State, and Barack Obama’s brother-in-law Craig Robinson, in the season opener, 67-43.
My Wake Forest Demon Deacons had two nice OT wins in four days against Richmond and Xavier.
Shu, Carolina fan, and I, basketball fan, are waiting for Carolina’s Ed Davis to start dominating as he should. I still maintain Davis is the No. 1 pick in the draft after he leaves following this season. Then again Kentucky’s John Wall is probably a lock for the top pick these days. Sporting News has Wake’s Al-Farouq Aminu at No. 5! Aminu has shown a very limited offensive game thus far, but he’s becoming a rebounding machine.
William & Mary has now defeated both Maryland and Wake Forest. Not bad…not bad at all. They’ve never been to the NCAA tournament, if I recall correctly.
On crime beat, four Tennessee b-ball players were suspended after being charged with gun possession and other counts during a traffic stop. Coach Bruce Pearl told ESPN, “They are all suspended indefinitely. I’m extremely disappointed, this is embarrassing for the program and the university.” [Hell, Tennessee’s football program also has major issues. What an embarrassing school. And there go my Volunteer readers…..]
Aside from finding a bag of marijuana and an open container of alcohol in the car, police found a handgun with an altered serial number (not funny). All the charges, though, are misdemeanors. The four were among the top 8 on the team.
Northwestern was ranked in men’s basketball last week for the first team since 1969! [They then proceeded to lose to both Illinois and Michigan State so fame is fleeting.]
But I was shocked by the school that now has the longest gap between AP poll appearances among the major conferences…Rutgers! 3/13/79 was the last time. Oregon State is next at 3/13/90.
–And now your Tiger update. Ashley Samson said she received $25,000 to spill the beans about Tiger and Rachel Uchitel to the National Enquirer, but as she told the Daily News she should have taken the $200,000 she claims the Woods camp offered to keep her quiet. Basically, her life is now a mess and she claims Rachel “went crazy on me” in denying the two knew each other.
It was in Spain that Uchitel told Samson she was dating Tiger Woods. “She was on her phone, 24/7, talking or texting with (him).” Then it was in Australia, with Woods playing in the Australian Masters and Uchitel also in town, that Rachel left early because details were starting to emerge about a possible relationship between the two.
As for Elin, the News reports that she celebrated New Year’s – and her 30th birthday – with friends and her twin sister in Chamonix. Incredibly, Tiger still hasn’t been seen. [Ignore those rumors of various Tiger sightings, except maybe the one having him at Trump Tower was real. Elin on Monday is also being reported as having received a substantial amount from Tiger…$300 million…but we need far more clarity on this bit.]
And for the archives, and an upcoming Tiger Woods site I’ll be unveiling sometime in the spring, AT&T dropped its sponsorship of Woods, but they “wish him well in the future.” Woods never appeared in any AT&T commercials.
U.S. News & World Report publisher Mort Zuckerman gave the following as something he’d like to hear involving Tiger and a response to a question about what he says to his wife after having sex: “I’ll be home in 30 minutes, dear.”
[I also liked another of Zuckerman’s lines. “Obama’s new book, provoked by the ‘beer summit’…The Audacity of Hops.]
–Golfer Bill Powell died. He was 93. Powell was a pioneer for African-Americans and the sport, including the fact he is the only African-American to build, own and operate a golf course in the United States.
It was upon his return from England and service in WWII that Powell was denied a chance to play on public courses in his native Ohio. When he then tried to get a bank loan to build his own course he was turned down. But Powell was undeterred and with help from some black physicians he built a course anyway. It became Clearview Golf Club and over time it flourished. Powell’s daughter, Renee, who became the second black woman to play the LPGA Tour in 1967 (Althea Gibson being first) is the head pro today at Clearview.
—Drive for show…No. 1 on the PGA Tour this year in driving distance, Robert Garrigus, finished No. 127 on the money list. Steve Stricker was No. 1 in putting and finished second to Tiger in earnings. Stricker was 104 in driving distance. Tiger, by the way, was No. 1 all-around in the statistical categories, including No. 1 in scoring and birdies per round.
–You know, thanks to Tom Watson’s 2nd-place finish in the British Open, he finished No. 114 on the money list and thus is exempt on the PGA Tour. I know he won’t, but it would be cool to see him play 4 or 5 events with the big boys this year just for the hell of it. He obviously could make some cuts. And of course he’ll be back at the British and St. Andrews this summer.
–I wrote this before in another form but it’s worth repeating. No. 100 on the PGA Tour money list, Ted Purdy, earned $838,707, while No. 100 on the LPGA Tour, Reilley Rankin, picked up a whopping $79,102. When you include all the expenses involved there are a ton of LPGA players who are basically at the poverty level…seriously…and it’s only going to get worse as more tournaments are cut from the schedule due to lack of sponsorship.
—Darko Milicic, the Knicks’ 15th man, is going back to Europe to play at season’s end. “They lie to everybody” the Serb said of the Pistons, the team that made him the No. 2 pick in the 2003 draft. “It’s the NBA. The NBA – all around the league – same (stuff): ‘Your chance is going to come.’”
But before you cry for Darko, who Detroit stupidly selected ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the 7-footer (acquired by the Knicks in the offseason) has banked $37.8 million for playing just 6,000 minutes (or two years full of work). And the guy is still just 24, incredibly.
–Talk about a joke…try the NBA’s selection process for the All-Star Game. Allen Iverson is second in the Eastern Conference voting. And Tracy McGrady is second among guards in the West even though he has played like six games for Houston before they mutually agreed he wouldn’t suit up again until they can dump him somewhere else.
–Pretty incredible performance the other day by the Knicks’ Nate Robinson, who for a full 14 games didn’t play, being in coach Mike D’Antoni’s doghouse for being a real jerk, something Robinson specializes in.
But Nate can play and he’s pretty exciting at times and on New Year’s night, D’Antoni called on Robinson early and Nate responded with 41 points in 38 minutes, hitting 18 of 24 from the field, including 19 of the team’s last 21 points to spark the Knicks to an overtime win over Atlanta. D’Antoni said afterwards that “Nategate” was history. He’s back in the rotation.
–I missed Carmen Electra on New Year’s Eve. On television, I mean. Rihanna was looking rather sexy, however.
–Talk about classic Mets, the New York Post is reporting the team “shelled out $51.6 million in taxpayer money to contractors shunned by the city for their ties to the Mafia, labor corruption or bribery” in the building of Citi Field.
–Speaking of Citi Field, as Ken Belson writes in the New York Times, even with the signing of Jason Bay, who does supply a badly needed power bat, how many fans are going to be showing up this year? A big issue is this incredible one. You have a brand new, state-of-the-art facility yet there are a ton of blind spots, such as thousands of seats with obstructed views of left field, and Belson notes individual cases of season-ticket holders saying, ‘Screw it. I’ll just get single-game seats.’ I told you of the lone game I went to about a month after Citi opened, a field level seat, and I couldn’t see anything in right field. Pitiful. I’ve said it’s a great place to watch a game, but from the concourses, not a seat. No way would I get an expensive one if I ever go back. General admission for me. Plus you’re closer to the cold beer. But I digress. Here’s the bottom line. The Mets could still draw well but only if they get off to a real good start, say 37-23. Otherwise, by August it’s going to look awful empty. And then in 2011 it will look like Municipal Stadium in Cleveland for the Indians back in the 70s.
–The new Baseball Hall of Fame class will be announced on Wednesday. Stuart Miller of the New York Times has a piece on Dale Murphy, who received less than 12% of the vote in 2009. Murphy was MVP in 1982 and ‘83 and of 20 multiple MVP winners eligible for the Hall, “and besides Roger Maris (who managed only three great seasons), Murphy is the only one who has not been inducted.” Murphy finished second in the decade of the 80s in both home runs and RBI.
Statistician Bill James says the 80s was an era of mediocre ‘stars.’ “Players like Mike Schmidt were 1970s stars while most of the biggest talents of the early 1980s like Fernando Valenzuela and Darryl Strawberry failed to match early expectations (Rickey Henderson excepted)." Murphy fits the bill. Very good but far from a Hall of Famer.
[A player needs 75% for enshrinement and newcomers Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez and Fred McGriff are far from certain to come even close to the figure. Personally, I want Bert Blyleven.]
—Snowboarder Kevin Pierce remains in critical condition after suffering a “severe, traumatic brain injury” in a training accident. Pierce was preparing for Olympic qualifying this coming week when he hit his head. As relatives have said, “Being young, healthy and strong is working in his favor.” Pierce was a favorite along with Shaun White in the halfpipe. What’s a little disturbing is that just three weeks earlier he had suffered a concussion.
–I was reading a story in the Los Angeles Times on the impact of the economy on sports franchises and I didn’t realize the Dodgers cut the price of water and soft drinks. But get this, the price went down to $3.75. Do you know what the Dodgers were charging for water before? Are you sitting down? $5.75! For freakin’ water! Beer, once $8 (which is par for the course everywhere these days) is now $6.
–We all get those Nigerian e-mail scams but I get a kick out of the grammar and have to admit I read at least a paragraph of some of them.
Like this one from Dr. Mike Williams, Bill and Exchange Manager, Bank of African (sic), Nigeria.
I can pick up a cool $22.85 million, which I think you’d agree isn’t chump change, which was part of an account for a victim of a plane crash in Benin on Christmas Day 2007. Dr. Williams then supplies a link to a CNN story. The guy is such an idiot, though, that while there was indeed a crash it was in 2003! I mean it says 2003 in the freakin’ link. So I offer up my services to the Nigerians if they ever want some more authentic stories.
Then again, one of these daffy Nigerians still managed to get on one of our aircraft, almost blowing it up. So who then are the real idiots?!
“Top officials in Turkey say the country is considering requesting the return of St. Nicholas’s remains from Italy so they may be placed at a museum to be built at his birthplace.
“St. Nicholas, from whom the story of Santa Claus emerged, was born and served as a bishop of what is now the Turkish Mediterranean town of Demre, in the 4th century AD.
“He was buried there, but his bones were later taken to the southern Italian town of Bari.”
Parents, if you know what’s good for you, do not bring this story up with the little ones. It’s far too confusing, including the fact that we now know Santa’s elves are not Italian, but rather Turks.
“Fox bites man and child in separate incidents”
“On Dec. 24 and Dec. 25, police responded to separate incidents in which a person was bitten by a fox….
“After the second incident, police were able to locate the fox, which they killed. None of the bites were life-threatening and the animal’s remains will be tested for rabies.”
Well if you get rabies it can be life-threatening, sports fans. But no word on whether police used a simple handgun or bazooka, though had it been the latter I guess there wouldn’t have been many remains to check.
“Woman sues NYC eatery over fallen moose head”
“Raina Kumra [Ed. I love the name Raina…back to our story] said in a negligence lawsuit filed last week that a stuffed moose head plummeted off a wall and onto her head at the Scandinavian-themed White Slab Palace…She said she suffered a concussion and other injuries after being hit by the 150-pound moose head, adorned with 3-foot-wide antlers."
Ms. Kumra is representing herself in the case and is seeking unspecified damages.
Sounds like my kind of restaurant, know what I’m sayin’? On the Lower East Side. Gotta check it out.
“Erectile dysfunction was 78 percent more likely in men with symptoms of restless legs syndrome than those without them.”
Huh. Something else to worry about in the New Year.
–A Sturgis, S.D., woman made news when she was found slumped behind the wheel of a stolen car parked on Interstate 90. Marguerite Engle, 45, had a blood alcohol level of .708. In the modern era of baseball, former Yankee Whitey Ford leads with a won-loss percentage of .690, while in case you’re wondering, Pedro Martinez is at .686, making Marguerite’s effort quite remarkable…especially since .400 is normally deemed lethal when it comes to drinking, but in baseball, no one has hit that level since Ted Williams in 1941.
[By the way, Johnny Mac, knowing I’ve been to the Sturgis area (the Black Hills) numerous times, asked if I knew Ms. Engle. Can’t recall meeting her, honestly.]
Top 3 songs for the week of 1/1/72: [skipping a year because, you see, at yearend if I just move on to the next one, I’m repeating all the tunes from the previous chat…and so…] #1 “Brand New Key” (Melanie) #2 “American Pie” (Don McLean) #3 “Family Affair” (Sly & The Family Stone)…and…#4 “An Old Fashioned Love Song” (Three Dog Night) #5 “Got To Be There” (Michael Jackson…his best) #6 “Have You Seen Her” (Chi-Lites) #7 “Scorpio” (Dennis Coffey & The Detroit Guitar Band) #8 “Sunshine” (Jonathan Edwards) #9 “Cherish” (David Cassidy) #10 “Hey Girl” (Donny Osmond…I’d say that was an interesting week)
NFL Quiz Answers: 1) In 1967, the Giants’ Homer Jones had 14 TDs (one rushing, 13 receiving) and the Jets’ Emerson Boozer had 13 (10 rushing, 3 receiving). In 1972, Boozer had 14 TDs (11 rushing, 3 receiving) and the Giants’ Ron Johnson had 14 (9 rushing, 5 receiving). 2) In 1970, the Chargers’ Gary Garrison led the AFC with 12 TDs, all receiving. 3) The last Steeler to lead the AFC in TDs was Louis Lipps, 1985, with 15 (one rushing, 12 receiving, and two returns)
Note: Folks, these next few weeks are, to say the least, going to be nuts for yours truly. I’m attempting to pull off two moves (home and office) with zero help, outside of the big stuff, and if you know me I have a zillion books and pictures/paintings. So hang with me. Once I’m settled into my new place I’ll get back into a normal routine.
