Baseball Quiz: Dallas Braden became the 17th pitcher in the modern-era to throw a perfect game last Sunday. Of the other sixteen, name the three who had a losing record for their career. Of course I’ll give you the names…Cy Young, Addie Joss, Charles Robertson, Don Larsen, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, Catfish Hunter, Len Barker, Mike Witt, Tom Browning, Dennis Martinez, Kenny Rogers, David Wells, David Cone, Randy Johnson, Mark Buehrle. Answer below.
Tiger and Erica
So who pulled the trigger first…Tiger or Hank Haney? When I first heard the news that Haney had resigned as Tiger’s swing coach I thought it was a brilliant move for Haney to get ahead of the inevitable. Haney said on his Web site, “I have informed Tiger Woods this evening that I will no longer be his coach. I would like to thank Tiger for the opportunity that I have had to work with him…Tiger has done the work to achieve a level of greatness that I believe the game of golf has never seen before and I will always appreciate the opportunity that I have had to contribute to his successes.” Haney emphasized he had not been fired. “Just so there is no confusion, I would like to make it clear that this is my decision.”
But in a statement after, Tiger said, “Hank Haney and I have agreed that he will no longer be my coach. Hank is an outstanding teacher and has been a great help to me, but equally important he is a friend. That will not change. I would like to thank him for all he has done for me the past six years.” It’s that first line that Tiger wants you to read as ‘we reached a mutual decision.’
And what of Tiger’s neck injury that has thrown his whole schedule, including the U.S. Open, into question? The Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee said pumping iron in the gym has left him prone to injury.
“Now, in his mid-30s, we’re starting to see the results, I think, of all that vigorous activity in the gym,” Chamblee said. [Michael McCarthy / USA TODAY] Others would say it’s another case of steroids causing a breakdown, but that’s just conjecture at this point.
“Golf galleries from Augusta National to Quail Hollow to the TPC Sawgrass have made it overwhelmingly clear that they want Tiger Woods back – the old great Tiger, that is.
“They have welcomed and encouraged him, while almost never heckling him. He crashed over the winter; few want to see him burn. Most of us, after watching his self-inflicted torments of the past six months, pull for Woods to fix himself and his mighty golf game, too.
“So, it’s painful to ask the obvious: Even as Woods is trying to put his life back together, is he falling apart as a golfer?….Will Woods ever be the sport’s dominant champion again?
“That is increasingly coming into doubt. And it’s happening at the same general age that former No. 1 players such as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson saw their eras of supremacy fade, leaving them as adored perennial contenders, but rarely winners of the greatest prizes in their sport….
“Pros quit events on Thursdays and Fridays for injuries. But it’s part of golf’s unwritten code that players, especially great ones, almost never leave the course in a final round.
“It’s a measure of Woods’ pain, especially the cramping in his neck, that he couldn’t continue, even though he won the 2008 U.S. Open playing on a stress-fractured left leg and an almost shredded knee.
“On Monday, Woods described how he battled pain in that knee for 10 years before massive surgery. Then, last year, pain in his Achilles’ tendon ‘bugged me all year…Now this thing flares up,’ he said. ‘I’m getting old, dude.’
“Woods was joking, smiling, but he’s right. Physically, he may have driven himself harder than any golfer. And he’s done it since childhood. If anybody has the right to be an old 34, it’s Woods. For years in his ferocious workouts, his motto has always been to do ‘two more’ reps after everybody else had collapsed. The reward: 14 major titles. The cost? We may be finding out now.”
“Here is what is ailing Tiger Woods, more than a sore shoulder or neck. The realization that no matter how many golf tournaments he wins he is never going to be able to put Humpty Dumpty all the way back together again.
“People are never going to look at him the way they once did. He realizes that, too. He will always be as famous for his infidelities as for his incredible talent for golf. His brand will never be worth what it once was and neither will he….
“A big guy from golf, a name from the sport everybody would know, was talking about Tiger on Monday.
“ ‘He’s gone from messiah to pariah, and he plays a mental game for a living,’ the guy said.
“This is somebody who has been around the game a long time and never saw a golfer like Tiger Woods before in his life. Before Thanksgiving night, he was as much a fan of Woods as anybody I knew. And has consistently offered the best analysis of Tiger’s game, and what he has meant to golf.
“The guy said, ‘Tiger has always been a borderline hypochondriac. But I think the real problem here is that he’s going through some very tough times mentally. He used to be bulletproof on and off the course. Now he’s taking serious financial hits, and please remember this is happening to somebody who’s cheap. Not only is he losing income, but whatever money he has will get divided now (in a divorce). That is huge for him, worrying about that, things like what that monster house he built in Florida is now worth in Florida’s real estate market.
“ ‘But the bigger problem? He’s become a living joke. Not only that, but in what was once his safe haven – the golf course – his game looks awful. Forget whether I like him or not or whether you like him, forget that he caused all this himself. It is still a lot to have crashing down on you. I don’t know how serious the neck thing is. What I do know is that nobody cares. Including me. And I was a major fan.’
“The guy concluded by saying this: ‘If he returns to his previous level, it will be miraculous. Nicklaus’ record has never looked safer.’”
And then there’s the tragic death of golfer Erica Blasberg. Awhile back I did a series of reports on the LPGA Tour and how only the top 30 or so money winners are really making it financially. With tournaments being cut, as well as some purses, and after paying travel, caddie and sponsor expenses, let alone taxes, many on tour are struggling mightily.
Blasberg, 25, was in that category, though police still won’t give a reason for her death; bags packed at her Henderson, Nev., home for a tournament in Alabama when her body was discovered. And while it’s far from my style on such stories to jump to conclusions, being a ‘wait 24 hours’ guy, here are some facts.
2005…$52,500…16 events
2006…$62, 500…16
2007…$72,000…19
2008…$113,500…23
2009…$26,500…17
2010…$5,500…just one event thus far because she wasn’t on the exempt list from qualifying.
Erica was scraping by, and her fellow competitors said she wasn’t in a good state of mind the last time they saw her at a tournament in Mexico.
But back to the LPGA comparison with the PGA Tour that I’ve brought up in this space, understand that as of this week, the No. 50 woman on the LPGA money list for 2010 has earned a whopping $30,350. No. 50 on the PGA Tour has earned $725,696. Heck, No. 150 on the PGA Tour is at least making a living with $180,000. The disparity is unreal, and the health of the LPGA had just taken a real hit with the retirement at age 28 of superstar Lorena Ochoa. Never has the sport needed Michelle Wie more to realize her potential and dominate.
–Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver moves on to the Preakness this weekend, and as much as I desperately want a Triple Crown winner, with a change in jockey, to Martin Garcia, I’m going with Bar Chat’s official pony, Lookin at Lucky, to prevail. It’s also looking as if the Preakness will have a full field, 14, so post position will once again be key and the drawing for this will be held after I post this column.
As to the change to Garcia from Garrett Gomez, Lookin trainer Bob Baffert said, “I love Garrett – it’s just luck. We were just having bad luck on that horse. I told him it might be a one-shot deal. I just wanted to try something different.”
–Rather extraordinary the other night that some Cleveland Cavaliers fans booed LeBron James, but then he played like crap, shooting 3-of-14 from the field in the Cavs’ 120-88 humiliation at the hands of the Boston Celtics, Boston taking a shocking 3-2 lead in the series. Should the Celts close things out Thursday in Beantown, Tuesday’s contest could easily have been LeBron’s last in Cleveland as he becomes a free agent on July 1…with the New York Knicks pulling out all the stops to get him.
But for the archives I do have to mention last Sunday’s performance by Boston’s 6’1” point guard, Rajon Rondo…29 points, 18 rebounds! and 13 assists…just the third player in playoff history to amass those numbers, the others being Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain. As Ronald Reagan would have said…not bad company, not bad at all.
–There were all kinds of rumors flying around Tuesday morning that Rutgers was all set to get an invite into the Big Ten, thus setting in motion a big chain of moves, including Big Ten invites for Missouri, Nebraska, and Notre Dame.
But Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany quashed the rumors, adding that an upcoming meeting of conference athletic directors is routine and nothing would be decided on expansion.
From here on my whole attitude is it happens when it happens. Until then, I’m bored with it all.
“A West Texas student who led his high school basketball team to the state playoffs last season was actually a 22-year-old man, police said Tuesday.
“Police say the basketball star was really Guerdwich Montimere, a naturalized U.S. citizen form Haiti who school officials say was recognized last month by Florida coaches (at an amateur tournament in Arkansas) as having been a star high school player in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a few years ago.
“Ector County school district officials said the man posed as 16-year-old Jerry Joseph and enrolled at Permian High School in Odessa for the 2009-2010 academic year. He also presented himself as homeless to the school’s basketball coach, Danny Wright, who took the boy in last summer, the coach said.”
Montimere was arrested at Permian High on a charge of presenting false ID to a peace officer.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, this is the same Permian High School that inspired “Friday Night Lights.” Now they’ll have to forfeit their state basketball title.
–Seattle Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said Ken Griffey Jr. was not asleep in the clubhouse late in Saturday night’s contest and that he was on the bench and available to pinch-hit, contrary to a report in a local newspaper.
The story rocked an already struggling team and in a players-only meeting before Tuesday’s 5-1 win over Baltimore, the players came out 100 percent behind Griffey. If the story wasn’t true, you wouldn’t blame Griffey for refusing to talk to the media, but the Tacoma News Tribune had quoted two young players, who spoke off the record, saying Griffey was indeed asleep.
The thing is Griffey was vague when asked about the alleged incident, just saying, “I wish they [the unnamed players] had been man enough to talk to me.”
Griffey, 40, hit .214 last season and is batting .200 with no home runs and two extra-base hits in 80 at-bats this year.
–The Mets, despite a stirring comeback on Tuesday against the upstart Washington Nationals, have been taking far too many third strikes so Phil W. recommended that at the end of his current season, also his last, Jack Bauer be named hitting coach. Based on Bauer’s performance this past Monday, I’d say it’s a brilliant idea.
–Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing was suspended for the first four games of the 2010 regular season for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drugs policy. But if that wasn’t bad enough, Cushing, who was voted Defensive Rookie of the Year off his play last season, will undoubtedly lose the award as the Associated Press, in charge of such matters, is going to hold a new vote, though Cushing will still be on the list. According to ESPN, however, Cushing actually failed the test last September but was allowed to play through the appeal process, which is absurd.
“Adding to the urgency of this action is that Cushing is the third Defensive Rookie of the Year to fail such a test – former Carolina Panthers and current Chicago Bears defensive end Julius Peppers was suspended for the last four games of the 2002 season…And in October 2006, San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman was suspended for four games after a positive test – he had won the DROY award in 2005. Neither player was stripped of their awards.
“The Cushing suspension has raised more and more questions about the NFL’s PED policy and how well it’s enforced. How is it that a rookie, who went through the pre-draft process with suspicions about his possible chemical intake all over the place, could test positive for a banned substance and then play a full season?”
“Move over, Ryan Leaf. You, too, Tony Mandarich. JaMarcus Russell has settled the debate: He’s the biggest draft bust in NFL history.
“Russell, taken No. 1 overall (Leaf and Mandarich both went second) by the Oakland Raiders three years ago, was released May 6 to bring finality to this disastrous chapter in the life of a quarterback, franchise and draft documentation. It seemed fitting that Russell got his pink slip on a day the Dow tumbled 348 points.
“Russell’s work ethic was constantly under fire. Last year he was fined for being overweight, by some estimates carrying 300 pounds on his 6-6 frame. He once was so out of shape he was gassed running from sideline to sideline.
“His reputation in league circles as being unprofessional was pronounced. Former teammate Dominic Rhodes said on ESPN’s Outside the Lines that Russell even fell asleep in meetings. And he seemingly has a thing for the club scene and trips to Las Vegas.
–Last season, 24 of 32 NFL teams didn’t raise ticket prices in the midst of the recession. This coming year, 18 of the 32 are raising them, according to USA TODAY. It’s hard to get an exact reading because of all the different tiers in pricing these days, but it appears the increases are generally in the 3% to 7% range. Major League Baseball hiked prices an average 1.7% this season.
—NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in Charlotte opened on Tuesday. It looks like a total pisser. Yes, the sport’s corporate offices are in Daytona Beach, Fla., but 90% of NASCAR’s teams are based in the Charlotte area and in reading a Washington Post piece on the museum, I didn’t realize there is a $5.9 billion economic impact from the sport in Charlotte, including more than 27,000 jobs. Good lord.
Charlotte beat out Atlanta for this officially sanctioned museum and the inaugural class of inductees will be inducted May 23…just five…Junior Johnson, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR founder Bill France and his son, Bill France Jr. Only the first two are still alive.
I can’t argue with the initial group. Next time you’d include David Pearson and Bobby Allison, for starters. I still say Pearson is one of the 4 or 5 most underrated great athletes in American sports history. Billy Casper would be another. Tris Speaker, perhaps. Stan Musial, except most fans would put him in a top ten in his sport, I imagine, if given at least five minutes to think about it. [Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Aaron, Mays, Williams, Johnson, Mathewson, ….hmmm… now that I think about it myself….Musial would indeed be underrated], Dan Gurney (right, Bro?), Nate Thurmond, Frank Mahovlich (oops, did I say American?), Smokin’ Joe Frazier….OK, I’m having too much fun. Time to move on.
–Here’s a classic “Jerk of the Year” candidate…via the AP.
“A Notre Dame golfer disqualified from an NCAA regional tournament for giving false scores during the final round says she was just trying to be funny.
“ ‘Obviously it was not funny. I did not think about long-term effects and consequences of my actions,’ Annie Brophy said Monday. ‘I was just out goofing around.’
“Brophy said her scorecard was accurate and she never intended to turn in a false score. But she told people keeping track of scores every three holes to post on the leaderboard at the NCAA Central Regional tournament at the Otter Creek Golf Course in Columbus, Ind., that she had five birdies, an eagle and a bogey through the first nine holes Saturday on the par-72 course.
“She had shot an 85 and an 81 in the first two rounds.
“ ‘I was not lying or cheating on my score. I was going to turn in my actual score at the end of 18 holes on my actual scorecard. That’s how golf is scored, on your actual scorecard,’ she said.
“She never got a chance, though, because NCAA officials disqualified her and pulled her off the course after 14 holes.”
–The great illustrator Frank Frazetta passed away. He was 82. None better than he…his “visions of musclebound men fighting with swords and axes to defend scantily dressed women helped define fantasy heroes like Conan, Tarzan and John Carter of Mars,” as noted in the New York Times’ obituary.
Frazetta was a comic book artist, as well as cartoonist for the likes of “Lil’ Abner,” when he got his first Hollywood job, the movie poster for 1965’s “What’s New Pussycat?” A collection of his drawings, “The Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta,” sold more than 300,000 copies. [I have one somewhere.]
But unfortunately for Frazetta, following the death of his wife of 53 years in 2009, the children fought over their father’s work and in December, Frank Jr. was arrested on charges of breaking into the family museum and attempting to remove 90 paintings that had been insured for $20 million. Last month, though, charges were dropped and the dispute evidently settled.
Uh oh. Big news out of New York City. Budget cuts at the Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium could mean that some big animals are going to have to ship out. The city is looking to cut the budgets for both facilities some 42%! The Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs them, is also facing a budget cut from the state. Together, the cuts would mean layoffs and the closure of some exhibits. Just imagine the buzz at the Bronx Zoo, for example. It’s one of the better facilities in the world, so if you’re a bear, for example, to be shipped to some inferior zoo would be like going from the major leagues to riding buses in Class A.
So I’m thinking that just as in the case of Greece and the riots over the government’s austerity plan, the animals take action into their own paws and take some of their keepers hostage until the cuts are restored. Kind of like “Dog Day Afternoon.”
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, one of the remaining five Javan rhinos was killed by poachers, giving the Animal Kingdom yet another reason to launch guerilla warfare across Asia.
And check this out…from the Star-Ledger here in New Jersey:
“Sometime Saturday, 15 Koi fish, reportedly worth $4,500 each, were stolen from a Linden woman’s fish pond, police said.
“The Koi fish were stolen from a pond beside the Linden woman’s house.”
I had no idea…did you? I mean one Koi fish is worth almost four times an ounce of gold, for crying out loud. So like maybe I’ll trade in my signet ring for a Koi and throw it in the whirlpool, seeing as I don’t use it anyway for its original purpose. Of course then I’d have to do something with all the domestic.
“An Arcadia woman was riding her motorcycle in Sarasota County when a wild turkey flew into her path and hit her in the face.
“The Florida Highway Patrol reports that 42-year-old Lori Hansen was taken by helicopter to a St. Petersburg hospital in serious condition after Saturday afternoon’s crash.”
Hansen was knocked unconscious. To make matters worse, “the motorcycle ran off the road and struck a barbed-wire fence, entangling Hansen.”
Brad K. notes that this is very disturbing on a number of levels, beginning with suicide bomber turkeys.
Meanwhile, I’m a big fan…biiig fan…of foie gras. Every time I go overseas, for example, I buy it at the airports to give to loved ones for Christmas (foie gras lasting a long time…but check the expiration date first, sports fans).
Granted, I may have just lost some readers with this statement; animal rights activists wanting certain chefs in New York to stop serving it in their restaurants, as reported in the current issue of Crain’s New York Business. I didn’t realize there is a large supplier of the product in Ferndale, New York….Hudson Valley Foie Gras. But lest you think this is too cruel, force-feeding said ducks until their livers are enlarged, a spokesperson for Thomas Keller Restaurant Group says the company makes “extremely conscientious decisions regarding all suppliers with whom we work, and our chefs…source from the most ethical purveyors possible.”
So last year, the Animal Protection and Rescue League of San Diego staged a protest against David Chang, chef of the popular New York noodle restaurants Momofuku. Chang, non-plussed, said he would “serve even more foie gras.”
It’s going to get ugly, folks. And now that I’ve mentioned I eat the stuff, I’m posting extra security outside my new place.
–On the last Saturday Night Live, Whitney Houston’s comeback was parodied, as in her new tour is getting panned royally. So Wednesday’s USA TODAY has a piece by Edna Gundersen and Steve Jones on just this topic.
“In her prime, nobody could touch Whitney Houston’s towering gospelized mezzo-soprano. Sadly, that once-glorious voice is showing signs of serious deterioration, decline and distress. And some worry the same could be said for the diva’s career.
“Globally renowned for her pristine pipes, Houston lately has been a target of stinging criticism and derision for a series of overseas concerts marked by awkward stage demeanor, meandering chatter and, most tarnishing, impaired vocals.
“ ‘A national scandal’ is how London’s The Independent described the first stop on the U.K. leg of her Nothing But Love tour….
“(Critic Simon Price observed), ‘Between songs, wheezing and panting and occasionally breaking into a scary Wicked Witch of the West cackle, she plays for time.’”
–I apologize I gave Lena Horne’s career short shrift last time. I just learned of her passing too late. As noted in Aljean Harmetz’s obituary in the New York Times, she “was the first black performer to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio.”
And by 1945 she was also “the nation’s top Negro entertainer,” as reported then in Liberty magazine. “In addition to her MGM salary of $1,000 a week, she was earning $1,500 for every radio appearance and $6,500 a week when she played nightclubs,” which back then was great money. In World War II, black soldiers put the beautiful Horne’s picture in their footlockers.
But for some of us, we’ll always remember her rendition of “Stormy Weather,” though I’m partial to the 1958 Spaniels’ version (you can YouTube it), which, shockingly, wasn’t a top 40 tune though it used to get a fair amount of air time on the New York oldies stations.
Don’t’ know why
There’s no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather
Since me and my gal ain’t been together
Keeps raining all the time…all time all time all time all tiiiime
Top 3 songs for the week 5/10/86: #1 “West End Girls” (Pet Shop Boys) #2 “Addicted To Love” (Robert Palmer…currently part of my car playlist) #3 “Greatest Love Of All” (Whitney Houston)…and…#4 “Why Can’t This Be Love” (Van Halen) #5 “What Have You Done For Me Lately” (Janet Jackson) #6 “Your Love” (The Outfield) #7 “Take Me Home” (Phil Collins) #8 “Bad Boy” (Miami Sound Machine) #9 “Harlem Shuffle” (Rolling Stones) #10 “If You Leave” (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark…huh?…going back to the Sixties, sports fans)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Three pitchers who threw a perfect game yet finished careers with a sub-.500 record. Charles Robertson, Don Larsen and Len Barker. Braden himself is just 18-23.
Cy Young…511-136…1904 threw perfect game
Addie Joss…160-97…1908
Charles Robertson…49-80…1922
Don Larsen…81-91…1956…perfect effort in World Series
Jim Bunning…224-184…1964
Sandy Koufax…165-87…1965
Catfish Hunter…224-166…1968
Len Barker…74-76…1981
Mike Witt…117-116…1984
Tom Browning…123-90…1988
Dennis Martinez…245-193…1991
Kenny Rogers…219-156…1994
David Wells…239-157…1998
David Cone…194-126…1999
Randy Johnson…303-166…2004
Mark Buehrle…137-101…2009
Dallas Braden…18-23…2010
Jeff B. passed along Braden’s “Top 10 thoughts” as read by Braden Tuesday night on David Letterman.
No. 10: “Grandma’s right. Stick it, A-Rod.”
No. 9: “I did it! Oh crap, it’s only the 4th inning.”
No. 8: “Seriously, how cool a name is Dallas Braden?”
No. 7: “Now maybe Justin Bieber will notice me.”
No. 6: “I must not tell the world I’m Iron Man.”
No. 5: “This is something they can never take away from me. But for $50,000, you can have my glove.”
No. 4: “This next pitch, eyes closed.”
No. 3: “Even I’ve never heard of me.”
No. 2: “I should at least give up one hit so I don’t have to do Letterman.”
No. 1: “Maybe I can give Kate Hudson a call.”
