NFL Quiz: Name the all-time top ten in rushing yardage. Answer below.
Bobby Thomson, RIP
You knew this day would come, but for old-time baseball fans it’s still a little sad and yet another of those “passing of an era” moments. On Oct. 3, 1951, Bobby Thomson hit “the shot heard round the world” against the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Ralph Branca, giving the New York Giants the pennant. The other day, Thomson died at the age of 86. Branca survives.
In the third game of a three-game playoff, bottom of the ninth, the Giants were down two runs, two on, one out, no balls one strike to Thomson. Giants radio announcer Russ Hodges called Branca’s next pitch…
“There’s a long drive…it’s gonna be…I believe…the Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!
“Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands! The Giants win the pennant, and they’re going crazy, they’re going crazy…
“I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it, I do not believe it!”
Red Smith wrote in the New York Herald Tribune, “Now the story ends. And there is no way to tell it. The art of fiction is dead. Reality has strangled invention. Only the utterly impossible, the inexpressibly fantastic, can ever be plausible again.”
And so it became the Branca and Thomson show as over the years the two became fast friends and would go to card shows and other gigs, signing autographs together. Thomson was the hero…Branca the goat.
[Over the years it was kind of lost, though, that Bobby Thomson was also a darn good ballplayer, playing from 1946-60, clubbing 264 home runs and driving in 1,026, while hitting .270. He had 8 seasons of 20+ homers and four seasons of 100 RBI. He even led the league in triples once and was a three-time All-Star.]
As all baseball fans know, while there have been other historic home runs, Thomson’s was the biggest of them all.
Part of the drama was because of the Giants’ spectacular comeback that season. At one point they were 13 ½ games behind the Dodgers, just 59-51, but then reeled off 16 in a row and 37 of 44 to force the playoff. Alas, the Yankees beat the Giants in the World Series in six games.
Branca, 35 years later, told the Daily News’ Mike Lupica what he had remembered that day in Oct. ’51.
“I remember the parking lot,” Branca said. “I remember going out to the parking lot. Ann was in the car with a friend of ours, Father Paul Rowley from Fordham. And I said to Father Rowley, ‘Why me? Why did this have to happen to me?’ And Father Rowley said, ‘God gave you this cross to bear because you’re strong enough to bear it.’”
Over the years, the story also developed that the Giants were stealing the Dodgers’ signs, though Thomson forever denied he knew what pitch was coming. All of baseball cheated in those days and I’ll leave it for historians to decide the importance of the allegation.
But here’s a different angle, courtesy of “Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Blunders.”
“The Brooklyn Dodgers, of course, lost the 1951 pennant on the last pitch of the last game of their best-of-three playoff series with the New York Giants. With the benefit of hindsight, we can guess the Dodgers wouldn’t have blown that huge August lead over the Giants if they’d done one of two things: 1) called up, sooner than they did, right-hander Clem Labine, who spent much of the summer fooling American Association hitters, or 2) pitched Labine more often, once he was up, than they did.
“After joining the club in August, Labine initially pitched in relief, but on the 28th he started for the first time, and earned his first of four straight complete-game wins. On September 21, though, Labine gave up a first-inning grand slam to Phillies third baseman Willie ‘Puddin’ Head’ Jones. As Labine would later tell the story, he wanted to pitch from the stretch, manager Charlie Dressen wanted him to take the full windup…and when Labine pitched from the stretch and gave up the homer, Labine went straight into Dressen’s doghouse, and wouldn’t pitch in any of the Dodgers’ next eight games. Two of those games were one-run losses, and it’s certainly possible that Labine would have made a difference.”
But Labine did nonetheless pitch a shutout in the second game of the playoff series, a 10-0 Brooklyn win.
“With the Dodgers and Giants tied at the conclusion of the 154-game schedule, they would play a best-of-three series to determine the National League championship. A few days earlier, there was a coin flip in New York, at National League headquarters, to determine the game sites. The Dodgers won.
“ ‘For some reason, when the Dodgers won the toss for the playoffs in 1946, they elected to go to St. Louis to play the first game and then come back and play the next two in Brooklyn. I do not know who made the decision, but because of it we had to travel by train to St. Louis, which was a 26-hour trip, and we were exhausted, and of course, we lost.
“And the reason I bring that up, now it’s 1951, and we’re in Philadelphia, and the Giants are in Boston, and we have a playoff with the Giants, and they toss a coin, and the Dodgers win the toss again. Only this time, no one is around because they’re all in Philadelphia, and they call a guy named Jack Collins, who was ticket manager. Collins remembers that the ’46 decision was wrong, that we went all the way to St. Louis and then all the way back, and so he makes the decision that we’ll play the first game at Ebbets Field and the next two at the Polo Grounds.’
Neyer doesn’t think Jack Collins could have possibly been that powerful to have made this decision. Buzzie Bavasi later said, no one but Charlie Dressen made the decision.
“So how did Collins get the goat horns? Well, he, unlike Dressen and Bavasi, was in New York and might well have announced the Dodgers’ decision after the coin flip went their way. Dressen, who never made a mistake he couldn’t blame on somebody else, probably told anybody who’d listen that the pointy-headed ticket manager was the one who screwed up. And shortly after the season, Collins – who according to Bavasi, wasn’t one of (owner Walter) O’Malley’s favorite people anyway – was fired, and thus wasn’t around to defend himself.
“So it was Dressen. But was there any good reason for potentially playing two of three on the road?
“Both clubs were outstanding that season in both home and road games. The Giants were 49-27 at the Polo Grounds, 47-31 away from home. The Dodgers were 49-28 at Ebbets Field and 47-30 on the road. And of course the twin advantages of not traveling beforehand and sleeping in one’s own bed weren’t operative here, as the entire proceedings would take place within the confines of two New York boroughs.
“Historically, though, the Giants struggled at Ebbets Field. From 1947 through ’51, the Giants fared well against the Dodgers at home: 28-26. In Brooklyn, though, the Giants were awful, going just 18-38 (including 2-9 in 1951).”
So Branca started the first game, in Flatbush, and gave up three runs, two of them coming on a Bobby Thomson home run that would, according to Branca, have been a routine fly ball in the Polo Grounds. The Dodgers lost, 3-1. Branca relieved in the third game, in Harlem, and gave up Thomson’s pennant-winning home run that would, according to Branca, have been an out in Ebbets Field.
“Of course, considering the vast differences in the two stadiums’ geometries, it’s highly unlikely that all the other events would have occurred similarly. But then, that’s sort of the point. We know it makes more sense to play two of three games at home, and we know the Dodgers lost the series, two games to one.
“Would the Dodgers have won the pennant if Dressen had made a different choice? I believe they would have. The Dodgers won the second game, 10-0, and they just barely lost the other games. I think they would have won one of those games, if they’d been played in the other ballpark.”
One other item…Thomson’s home run ball…it was never found.
Ryder Cup Update…U.S. Team
Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Dustin Johnson, Jeff Overton, Matt Kuchar
I feel a lot better with this group, now that Watson and Johnson are in, and I think Kuchar will do well.
But captain Corey Pavin has four more selections to make by Sept. 7. In the points standings (the first 8 getting in), we have:
9. Anthony Kim
10. Lucas Glover
11. Zach Johnson
12. Tiger
13. Bo Van Pelt
14. Stewart Cink
15. Ben Crane
16. Ricky Barnes
17. Nick Watney
18. Sean O’Hair
19. J.B. Holmes
20. Rickie Fowler
Kim is coming off surgery and has not played well at all. No way Pavin can take him. Tiger is of course a lock.
So I’ll go with Tiger, Glover, Zach Johnson, and Stewart Cink; Cink getting the nod because of his previous extensive experience in Ryder/Presidents Cup competitions.
As for the Euro team…captain Colin Montgomerie has until Sun., Aug. 29, and final points standings for both the Ryder Cup World Points List and the European Points List. But if the selection was today, Montgomerie would have the following nine automatics.
Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter, Ross Fisher, Francesco Molinari, Miguel Angel Jimenez, and Paul Casey.
Monty then gets three picks and I’m guessing he goes with Padraig Harrington, Justin Rose, and perhaps Edoardo Molinari. Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia would ordinarily be automatics, but neither is setting the world on fire.
But then you have the case of 53-year-old Bernhard Langer, who just won the Senior British Open and U.S. Senior Open on consecutive weekends and has been on 10 Ryder Cup squads.
So forget my first choices…I’m going with Justin Rose, Edoardo Molinari and Langer. No Padraig.
SHARK ATTACK!
A 31-year-old Australian surfer, Nicholas Edwards, died from injuries suffered when he was attacked by a presumed Great White off Western Australia (near Gracetown…170 miles south of Perth). The last surfer to be killed in the area was 2004. Local media reported that the victim had been seen by a resident watching from his house. He rushed down to the beach and tried to resuscitate the man. Evidently, there were large numbers of seals in the area. The shark had shredded the top of his leg and Edwards was probably dead when found in the surf, though officially he died in the hospital. His board washed up later after being bitten in half.
The Sydney Morning Herald interviewed world champion surfer Taj Burrow, on holiday nearby, who said the area “is one of the spookiest for sharks…you hear stories about them being spotted.”
Another professional surfer said this is a time of year when salmon draw the sharks in.
“Big wave surf legend Mitch Thorson was surfing at the beach with his son last night and said the area wasn’t any different to other spots when it came to shark attacks.
“ ‘It’s like getting in a car and thinking ‘if I drive out onto the highway I might be hit by a truck.’ You just put it to the side.’”
Meanwhile, West Coast Shark Director Bob S., who is also head of advertising at Bar Chat for Latin America and Africa (I had to lay off 20 in the division due to the recession…though they’re still on COBRA), passed along the story… “Bay Area Kayaker Survives Great White Attack.”
“Adam Coca, 45, came face-to-face with a great white shark over the weekend while kayaking near Pigeon Point off the San Mateo Coast. The Pinole resident was fishing in his kayak near Bean Hollow State Beach, in an area known as the ‘Red Triangle,’ where great white shark sightings are not uncommon when the shark chomped down onto the bottom of his 13-foot boat with its sharp teeth….
“Coca said the shark flipped his kayak over as the two locked eyes. He managed to climb on top of the flipped kayak as the encounter continued. He said he used the paddle to distract the shark. That’s when he saw the image nobody ever wants to see first-hand – the inside of a great white’s mouth.
“ ‘He raises up out of the water and turns around and goes, ‘bam!’ and smashes on the paddle then takes off,’ Coca said.
“Seconds after the attack, Coca’s friends came to his rescue. He survived the attack with just a cut above his foot. His wetsuit bootie is torn and the bottom of his kayak bears the bite marks that tell the tale of his near-death experience.”
Well, Coca (no relation to Imogene Coca) said he’s planning on going right back to the same spot, which makes him an idiot. [NBC News / San Francisco]
“French officials have banned swimming off some of the Riviera’s best known resorts after several beachgoers reported a rare shark sighting in coastal waters….”
–Oh brother…Brett Favre is back yet again. And three Minnesota teammates actually missed practice to go to Mississippi to recruit the quarterback. As Colonel Kurtz said while dying, “The horror…the horror…”
–The Washington Nationals agreed to terms with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Bryce Harper, the 17-year-old slugging phenom, at the deadline, with Harper receiving a five-year, $9.9 million deal, which includes a $6.25 million signing bonus in five equal payments of $1.25 million. The deal is a record for a non-pitcher. Last year, the Nats signed Stephen Strasburg to a record-breaking $15.1 million, four-year contract, for a pitcher, both being represented by Scott Boras.
But now the Nationals hope they never pick first again…it wouldn’t be a sign of success on the field, that’s for sure. The plan for Harper is to reach the majors by the end of the 2012 season, at which point he would be just 19, the same age as Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Justin Upton when they made their big league debuts. Harper will start shortly in the Gulf Coast League.
–So after I reported last time on Mets reliever K-Rod and the incident involving his girlfriend’s father, wherein Francisco pummeled the guy in front of Mets wives and children, we learned that he required surgery to repair a torn ligament in his thumb, suffered during the altercation.
Immediately, Mets fans cried in unison, “Don’t honor the freakin’ dirtball’s contract!” And lo and behold, the Mets placed K-Rod on the disqualified list and will attempt to remove the remaining guarantees on it, though they want him back for next season. Rodriguez won’t be paid while sidelined, including $3 million he’s owed the rest of the year.
But of course the major-league players union will contest the Mets’ move. Next year, K-Rod is owed $11.5 million, but if he finishes 55 games, he automatically earns an option for $17.5 million, but if they can keep his non-guaranteed status, they can cut the SOB, seeing as how none of K-Rod’s teammates want to be around the jerk anymore.
–What a scary moment in the Giants-Jets preseason game. Normally I don’t want exhibition games, but with the Mets fading into oblivion yet again, I turned to football and there was Giants quarterback Eli Manning, bumped into by running back Brandon Jacobs on a botched play action, whereupon Manning was pummeled from behind by the Jets’ Calvin Pace, with Manning then falling forward, helmet flying off, when his head hit the helmet of Jets safety Jim Leonard. Immediately, Manning went down, felt his head, and blood was streaming out.
It was one of the worst moments I’ve seen on a football field because in that first second you almost felt like he’d bleed to death right there. Alas, the three-inch gash ‘only’ required 12 stitches and, amazingly, Eli didn’t suffer a concussion, at least as of this writing.
“One of the most famous veterans of the World War II era was a whining hypochondriac who spent much of his 2 ½ years in uniform trying to find a way out, newly released documents show.
“New York Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio had a ‘conscious attitude of hostility and resistance’ toward his Army duties, military doctors wrote in documents unearthed by the Smoking Gun website.
“Staff Sgt. DiMaggio – who saw no combat, never went overseas, and spent months based in Hawaii – complained of an ulcer for which there was no physical evidence, as well as a ‘nervous condition,’ in arguing for a discharge.”
Joe D. really was an asshole, not that you didn’t already know that.
–But the present-day Yankees have started something called Hope Week, where they honor people making a difference and serving as role models, and on Tuesday, it was a special day for Jane Lang. Well I know Jane Lang! A few years ago I picked her up at her home in Morristown, NJ, with her seeing eye dog, and brought her to one of my Lions Club meetings. A remarkable woman.
“Into her 67th year unafraid of the closed door, Jane Lang opened hers after 11 a.m. yesterday to one of the most wondrous sights she never has seen.
“ ‘Hi Jane. It’s Joe Girardi, Joba Chamberlain, Chad Gaudin, David Robertson and Tino Martinez. We’re here to escort you to the game.’
“All in the eye of the beholder. Blind since her birth and her twin sister’s premature birth, and the navigator – with the help of her seeing eye golden retriever, Clipper – to Yankee Stadium more than 250 times, Jane not only sees a different world from most of us, but probably a better one.
“ ‘There’s a lot of other stuff to go by,’ she said. ‘If you close your eyes and concentrate, you’d be surprised how much you hear. Actually, I can’t understand why you guys get excited looking in the mirror when you are seeing yourself backwards.
“ ‘I don’t think I miss much. I have an advantage. Because everybody looks the same to me. I don’t prejudge anybody. I remember at Perkins (School for the Blind), my roommate Faith was my best buddy. My mother said ‘you know Faith is black.’ And I said ‘black what?’’”
Understand that a few times a year, Jane Lang takes the train into Yankee Stadium, from Morristown, switching subways, with nothing more than her dog, including a long walk from her home to the Morristown train station. I remember the time I picked her up, knowing her full story before I got there, and marveling at just this first segment of her trek, let alone the rest.
And of course you can imagine what these dogs are like. A helluva lot better than most of us, that’s for sure! She told me that only once did she ever really have a problem and it was when someone insisted on helping her (she doesn’t want it) and kind of got her and the dog all turned around and they got on the wrong train, but it was quickly rectified.
[Jane is married to a man she met in his capacity as a dog trainer for The Seeing Eye in Morristown, 45 years ago. This is a great institution for your charity dollars, by the way.]
–I forgot to note last time that Albert Pujols hit his 30th home run of the season, becoming the first to do so in each of his first ten major league seasons. [Barry Bonds…Booo, Booooo!…has the record for 13 consecutive seasons with 30.] Of course Pujols has also driven in 100 runs his first ten years (assuming he gets another 10 or so RBI the remainder of this campaign), is about to hit career homer No. 400, and is still just 30.
–A week ago I mentioned former Yankees hurler Wilcy Moore and Stu W. reminded me I missed a key point in discussing the 1927 season pertaining to Moore.
From Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf’s “Baseball Anecdotes”:
“One of the relatively unsung mainstays of the ’27 Yankees was an unformidable, balding Oklahoma farmer named Wilcy Moore, whom Ed Barrow had signed after reading in The Sporting News that he had won 30 games in the Sally League in 1926. Moore said he was 28, but he was clearly older. He had just one pitch, a sinking fastball, but he made it work through great control and, as Frank Graham wrote, ‘nerves of steel – or no nerves at all.’ Moore used to beg (manager Miller) Huggins to let him throw his curve, but the manager told him, ‘Your curve ball wouldn’t go around a button on my vest.’ Still, Moore became the prototype of the modern relief pitcher, winning 19 and saving 15 of the 50 games in which he appeared.” [Ed. Okrent and Wulf don’t mention what I did in my bit on Moore…that he started 12 games, which is kind of important.]
“Moore was also a dreadful hitter, and Ruth put up $300 to Moore’s $100 that he wouldn’t get three hits all season. Moore ended up with six, including a home run, and Ruth made good on his bet. After the season, Moore wrote to his benefactor: ‘The $300 come in handy. I used it to buy a fine pair of mules. I named one Babe and the other Ruth.’”
—Steve Williams doesn’t believe the stories that his days as Tiger Woods’ caddie are numbered.
“I’m sure if there was going to be some sort of parting of the ways, I’d be the first to know,” he told New Zealand radio. “From my point of view, I don’t see any chance of that happening.”
“Tiger and I are very good friends and we’ve been through a tough time, there’s no question about that.”
We? Aside from the fact that isn’t true, Steve, it’s never been about you, don’t you get it?
Now, I think Tiger will definitely dump him. The last thing Tiger wants is a guy who can’t keep his mouth shut, see Fluff Cowan.
–The Indiana Pacers have a real winner in Lance Stephenson, the 40th overall pick in the recent draft…NOT! Stephenson set the New York City high school scoring record, before playing a year at Cincinnati and then going out early for the draft, but on Saturday night / Sunday morning, Stephenson confronted his girlfriend, who was coming home at 5:00 a.m. with some friends, and an unhappy Stephenson pushed her down the stairs, with the woman suffering head and back wounds. He was arrested on assault and menacing charges. Pacers president Larry Bird said he was disappointed. Stephenson gets thrown in the December file for “Dirtball of the Year” consideration.
–A new study published in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology provides new evidence that repetitive head trauma not only increases the risk of progressive brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s, but also ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Hanging around Lance Stephenson can also be a contributing factor if you’re a woman.
–Tom Shales of the Washington Post, on Johnny Carson, whose nephew and president of Carson Productions, Jeff Sotzing, has just announced the opening of a new Web site that will contain tapes for the public, though also a private section for advertisers who want to license footage or imagery for a modern-day commercial, a la the ones you’ve seen with Elvis, Bogart and Astaire.
“By a twist of fate rather than anything approaching journalistic enterprise, I did the last major interview with Johnny Carson. We sat in the tennis house he’d had built across the street from his main, architecturally chilly home on a cliff in Malibu – the place with a round-the-clock security guard stationed in a kind of treehouse tower to keep tourists from scaling the high wall, and the house that caused friend Bob Newhart, upon entering it for the first time, to ask, ‘Which way to the gift shop?’
“My rented car was parked in front of the main house, so Johnny walked me back across the street when the interview was over. We shook hands, said goodbye, and I watched him over the roof of the car as he headed for the front door. And then some impulse buzzed me and I called out his name – certainly not ‘Mr. Carson,’ either, but the name by which the nation knew him.
“ ‘Johnny?’ I shouted. ‘Yes?’ he said, turning around one last time before going inside. ‘Thank you,’ I said, foolishly and sentimentally.
“He knew very well that I didn’t mean thanks for the interview. For one thing, we both had tears in our eyes, honest.”
–And now…relationship tips from the latest Men’s Health magazine.
Actress Lyndsy Fonseca says, “Women tend to take care of men a lot, but I like a guy who balances that out and takes care of me, too. Men need to feel comfortable taking charge. Besides, when a man does something for me, I want to do things for him.”
Her: What choices do we have on television tonight?
Me: I’ve already settled this…we’re watching the Mets…hey, where are you going? It will only be for about 3 hours!
By the way, according to a poll of Women’s Health readers, what do you think is the drink she likes to see you order, in the ‘classic beer’ category?
Why if it isn’t Yuengling…ding ding ding!!! “It shows you’re not into drama,” says Carolyn Kylstra, the Men’s Health Girl Next Door. Personally, I was a poli-sci major. [I was just informed this wasn’t exactly what Ms. Kylstra meant.]
–My old elementary school classmate Ice-T, aka Tracy Marrow, got off for driving with a suspended license, since it turns out his license was never really suspended in the first place. It was a DMV clerical error. A triumphant Ice-T said, “I never broke the law…That’s why I got so angry when they put me in handcuffs.”
“Did he ever,” reported the New York Post. “Cops say Ice-T unleashed a torrent of profanity after he was pulled over in his 2009 Cadillac sedan near the Lincoln Tunnel, with his buxom wife Coco at his side….
“It wasn’t long before the 52-year-old rapper-turned-actor…gave his Twitter followers a good taste of his fury over being locked up for no reason.
“ ‘Some punk bitch rookie cop named Fisher made the arrest of his bull—t career today,’ he sniped.”
Yup, that’s Tracy for you. But I wonder if Coco would like to come to our 35th high school reunion next year? I’m just sayin’.
–I forgot to note last time that my buddy Jeff B. deserves Father of the Year credits for taking his daughter to see Green Day and then Aerosmith in the span of about 48 hours; then again, this wasn’t really painful for Jeff. I mean it’s not like he was sent to boot camp at Quantico, and he loved both shows. But he’s 50, and old, like your editor, and reported on being very tired afterwards.
–Bloomberg gave Brian Wilson’s new album, “Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin,” a solid review.
Top 3 songs for the week 8/15/70: #1 “(They Long To Be) Close To You” (Carpenters…oooh-waaa!) #2 “Make It With You” (Bread…still the Wonder years) #3 “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” (Stevie Wonder…dreadful)…and…#4 “Spill The Wine” (Eric Burdon and War) #5 “In The Summertime” (Mungo Jerry) #6 “War” (Edwin Starr) #7 “Band Of Gold” (Freda Payne…this one has aged well) #8 “Mama Told Her (Not To Come)” (Three Dog Night) #9 “Tighter, Tighter” (Alive & Kicking) #10 “Ball Of Confusion” (The Temptations)
NFL Quiz Answer: Top ten rushers.
1. Emmitt Smith…18,355…4.2 avg
2. Walter Payton…16,726…4.4
3. Barry Sanders…15,269…5.0
4. Curtis Martin…14,101…4.0…talk about underrated
5. Jerome Bettis…13,662…3.9
6. Eric Dickerson…13,259…4.4
7. Tony Dorsett…12,739…4.3
8. LaDainian Tomlinson…12,490…4.3…looks like he has some left in the tank, Jets fans!
9. Jim Brown…12,312…5.2…he and Sanders are 1 and 1A. [Payton 3.]
10. Marshall Faulk…12,279…4.3
11. Edgerrin James…12,246…4.0
12. Marcus Allen…12,243…4.1
13. Franco Harris…12,120…4.1
14. Thurman Thomas…12,074…4.2
15. Fred Taylor…11,540…4.6…surprised by average…another hugely underrated back
