Super Bowl Quiz: 1) Name the only running back to rush for 200 yards in a Super Bowl game. 2) Who has the most TD receptions, career? Who has the most rushing TDs, career, in Super Bowl contests? 3) Three players have three career interceptions, the most in SB history. The initials are C.H., R.M., and L.B. Name ‘em. Answers below.
The Wilpons, Part Deux
Serge F. Kovaleski and David Waldstein penned a piece in Wednesday’s New York Times titled “Madoff Had Wide Role in Mets’ Finances.”
Aside from the personal ties between the Madoff and Wilpon families:
“When the Mets negotiated their larger contracts with star players – complex deals with signing bonuses and performance incentives – they sometimes adopted the strategy of placing deferred money owed the players with Mr. Madoff’s investment firm. They would have to pay the player, but the owners of the club would be able to make money for themselves in the meantime. There never seemed to be much doubt about that, according to several people with knowledge of the arrangements.
“ ‘Bernie was part of the business plan for the Mets,’ a former employee of the club said.”
And now, as a result of trustee Irving H. Picard’s lawsuit against Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz (friend and partial owner of the Mets), Picard “has asserted that (the two) either knew or should have known that Mr. Madoff’s operation was a potential fraud.”
The Times’ investigation, including interviews with former employees, “makes it clear that the relationship was substantial and that the role Mr. Madoff played in the financial life of the ball club and the Wilpon and Katz families was pervasive.”
“ ‘The relationship between Fred and Bernie became closer and closer because Bernie was returning more and more to Fred in terms of his investments while Bernie is getting exposure from Fred and Saul,’ said Jerry Reisman, a lawyer in Garden City, N.Y., who has represented 10 or so commercial real estate investors who lost a total of some $150 million to Mr. Madoff.
“ ‘They both relied on one another,’ he said. ‘It was reciprocal, symbiotic. They both relied on each other for money, and Bernie also relied on Fred for contacts.’
“One former executive with the Mets recalled how it could work:
“ ‘I remember vividly Madoff’s name being brought up a lot when’ the team ‘would negotiate contracts, particularly with deferments,’ said the former executive, who would not be identified because he did not want to harm his career in baseball. ‘That money would be turned over to Madoff….There was talk about Bernie averaging like 15% for the Wilpons. It just seemed too good to be true, but then you think the owner has vetted it.’”
Madoff’s former secretary said both Wilpon and Katz were a constant presence in Bernie’s offices. But Eleanor Squillari doesn’t believe Wilpon and Katz knew of the criminal enterprise.
More than 500 of Madoff’s 15,000 client accounts can be traced to Wilpon and Katz. Fred Wilpon had at least 17 accounts alone under his name.
As to the deferred compensation arranged for players, among them long-term contracts held by the likes of Bobby Bonilla, the money was placed with Madoff. The Times reports:
“In those cases, the players would agree to take less money up front and be paid over a number of years, earning interest. It appears the Mets would be able to keep any money earned over that agreed rate, and Mr. Madoff regularly produced returns that outdid prevailing interest rates.”
So we go back to the Wilpons’ announcement of last Friday that they were putting a 25% interest in the team up for sale to raise in excess of $200 million due to the suit filed by Picard. As I wrote last time, though, who the heck would be interested without, first, seeing the books in detail, which also means unsealing the lawsuit, and, second, gaining some say in the operation? Plus, as noted before, Wilpon has massive amounts of debt tied to his television network and the new stadium.
Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz met with baseball commissioner Bud Selig on Tuesday to update him on their financial situation.
Separately, you have some agents who have clients that are Mets players and they are none too happy. One told the New York Post, “It’s going to be interesting. All you ever heard was them denying it would have anything to do with the baseball team and now it clearly has. Now that this is out, you have to wonder: What else is there that we don’t know?”
Clearly it is going to hurt the Mets in going after free agents, even if the Wilpons say they have the wherewithal to do so. You’d have to be an idiot to sign with them until the situation is far clearer.
Bottom line, Fred Wilpon, in particular, lied to his fan base and for this he should be scorned. He is also now in the December file for “A-Hole of the Year” consideration.
But this note from the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay on the coming fan experience. We can expect significant cutbacks and changes. Such as:
“All hot dogs, pretzels and peanuts will be significantly discounted. Those popular hamburgers at the Shake Shack, however, will be $850 each.
“The Mets will no longer cut or water the grass at Citi Field. By mid-August, the outfield should look like the Tuscan countryside. A beautiful Tuscan countryside, with Carlos Beltran sleeping in the middle of it.
“During the U.S. Open tennis tournament next door, all of the BMWs and Mercedes parked by tennis fans will be stolen and pawned for cash.
“If August comes and the Mets find themselves more than 20 games back in the N.L. East, Citi Field will be shut down and reopened as a llama farm.
“One night, when they least expect it, the Mets are totally going to mug the Yankees.”
–But wait…there’s more! Speaking of the aforementioned Bobby Bonilla, Johnny Mac pointed out to me that this is the year the former outfielder’s deferred compensation deal kicks in…about $1.2 million a year from 2011 to 2035. Now that we know his funds were invested with Bernie, Bobby Bo can’t be sleeping too well.
Ronald Reagan
February 6, 1911…Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois. The other day The Weekly Standard had the following:
“To put that into some chronological perspective, his birth is as remote from us today as the Madison administration (1809-17) was from the growing Reagan family at the time of Ronald’s birth. The Civil War had ended 46 years earlier – the equivalent of 1965 to us – and no one had yet heard of the Titanic.”
I’m going to be out at the Reagan Library in a few weeks and will have more on our former president then. For now, for those of you who wonder about the genesis of one of my well-worn lines, “Not bad…not bad at all,” the following is from Reagan’s Farewell Address, Jan. 11, 1989.
Note: This is a little more political than what you’re used to in this column.
“People ask how I feel about leaving. And, the fact is, ‘parting is such sweet sorrow.’ The sweet part is California, and the ranch and freedom. The sorrow – the good-byes, of course, and leaving this beautiful place. You know, down the hall and up the stairs from this office is the part of the White House where the president and his family live. There are a few favorite windows I have up there that I like to stand and look out of early in the morning. The view is over the grounds here to the Washington Monument, and then the Mall and the Jefferson Memorial. But on mornings when the humidity is low, you can see past the Jefferson to the river, the Potomac, and the Virginia shore. Someone said that’s the view Lincoln had when he saw the smoke rising from the Battle of Bull Run. Well, I see more prosaic things: the grass on the banks, the morning traffic as people make their way to work, now and then a sailboat on the river.
“I’ve been thinking a bit at that window. I’ve been reflecting on what the past eight years have meant and mean. And the image that comes to mind like a refrain is a nautical one – a small story about a big ship, and a refugee and a sailor. It was back in the early eighties, at the height of the boat people. And the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart, and fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck, and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled, ‘Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man.’ A small moment with a big meaning, a moment the sailor, who wrote it in a letter, couldn’t get out of his mind. And when I saw it, neither could I. Because that’s what it was to be an American in the 1980s. We stood, again, for freedom. I know we always have, but in the past few years the world again, and in a way, we ourselves – rediscovered it….
“Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: ‘We the People.’ ‘We the People’ tell the government what to do, it doesn’t tell us. ‘We the People’ are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world’s constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which ‘We the People’ tell the government what it is allowed to do. ‘We the People’ are free. This belief has been the underlying basis for everything I’ve tried to do these past eight years….
“Finally, there is a great tradition of warnings in presidential farewells, and I’ve got one that’s been on my mind for some time. But oddly enough it starts with one of the things I’m proudest of in the past eight years: the resurgence of national pride that I called the new patriotism. This national feeling is good, but it won’t count for much, and it won’t last unless it’s grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge.
“An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of our world? Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn’t get these things from your family, you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed, you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-sixties.
“But now, we’re about to enter the nineties, and some things have changed. Younger parents aren’t sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven’t reinstitutionalized it. We’ve got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom – freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection.
“So we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important: why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. You know, four years ago, on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, I read a letter from a young woman writing of her late father, who’d fought on Omaha Beach. Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, ‘we will always remember, we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did.’ Well, let’s help her keep her word. If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are. I’m warning of an eradication of that – of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let’s start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual. And let me offer lesson number one about America: all great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven’t been teaching you what it means to be an American, let ‘em know and nail ‘em on it. That would be a very American thing to do.
“And that’s about all I have to say tonight. Except for one thing. The past few days when I’ve been at that window upstairs, I’ve thought a bit of the ‘shining city upon a hill.’ The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we’d call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.
“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.
“And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that; after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.
“We’ve done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back. My friends, we did it. We weren’t just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.
“And so, good-bye, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.”
College Basketball Review
1. Ohio State…only remaining undefeated
2. Kansas
3. Texas
4. Pitt
5. Duke
6. UConn
7. San Diego State
8. BYU
9. Notre Dame
10. Kentucky…then lost to Mississippi on Tues.
t-23. North Carolina…getting their act together as freshman Harrison Barnes has had his first two 20-point games back-to-back (26 and 25)
1. Baylor
2. UConn*
3. Duke
4. Stanford
5. Tennessee
*The poll was released prior to Monday night’s 87-51 undressing by the Lady Huskies of Duke’s Blue Devils, who were left writhing on the floor, crying for their mothers. From Mark Viera of the New York Times:
“The Blue Devils arrived here as the nation’s only undefeated team, the winners of 20 straight. They left humbled: UConn fans chanted ‘Over-rated!’ after Duke fell behind by as many as 31 points in the first half.”
Seth Davis / Sports Illustrated…on the state of the men’s game.
“If ever there was a season when we should be grateful that college hoops crowns its champion in a most un-football-like fashion, this is it. You can’t even say that up is down and down is up anymore. There are no directions. Last weekend’s action summed up the state of the game in a neat, 48-hour window. Thirteen of the Top 25 teams lost. Half of the top 10 went down. And that doesn’t include top-ranked Ohio State, which nearly lost at Northwestern….
“Last week, the Top 25 had a record of 22-20. That’s right, the very best teams in the country were two games over .500. It’s the very definition of mediocrity….
“All of which begs two questions: Why is this happening? And is it good for the sport?
“The first answer is pretty simple. What we’re seeing is the confluence of trends that have been burgeoning for more than a decade. The most obvious is the stream of underclassman defections to the NBA. That began with that watershed moment in 1995 when Kevin Garnett went from high school senior to the fifth pick in the draft.
“The second trend is the proliferation of national television coverage. I mean, even the Mountain West Conference has its own network now. Players have always had opportunities at lots of schools. Now they know that wherever they go, they’re going to be on national TV. That doesn’t just have an effect on recruiting, either. If a guy doesn’t start as a college freshman, he can simply transfer to his second choice. Happens all the time.
“Finally, the development of international basketball has provided lesser-known schools with a whole new talent pool to exploit. Saint Mary’s has built itself into a mid-major powerhouse by setting up a pipeline to Australia alone.”
Meanwhile, back in Deaconland, after winning their first ACC contest on Saturday, Wake Forest traveled to Florida State and got creamed, 85-61, as the Deacs committed 24 turnovers with just 12 assists. Someone needs to tell them the ratio is supposed to be the other way around.
Greatest Paddle Players Ever
This past weekend, the dynamic Chatham, New Jersey-based tandem of Nicki Ross and Corey Delaney became the first paddle team, boys or girls, to win five national titles! 12-and-under, 14-and-under, and three 18-and-under crowns, which proud papa of Nicki, Trader George, says also hasn’t been done. So Nicki and Corey are the greatest paddle duo of all time! Or as Muhammad Ali said when reached by Bar Chat, “Make that all timessss!” Picture they had to play a total of 87 games to defend and in the quarters, semis, and finals totally kicked butt: 6-1,6-0; 6-2, 6-2; and 6-2, 6-3.
–Boy, here’s a surprise, mused your editor, tongue firmly planted in cheek. Former Florida football coach Urban Meyer will be an analyst with ESPN, thus taking someone’s job, which sucks, because Meyer should just go away. [Not a big Urban Meyer fan, you see.]
–Now that 26-year-old Jhonattan Vegas has burst on the scene, it seems we’ve settled on the correct spelling of “Jhonny,” as he’s being called. Jhonny Vegas. And Wednesday’s New York Times has a piece by Larry Dorman that I want to quote because the casual observer of Venezuela and the golf scene there may have doubted some of what I’ve written recently. Dorman writes:
“Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, is no friend of golf. He has called it a ‘bourgeois sport’ played primarily by lazy, rich people in carts. He has closed six of the country’s courses and said the government should appropriate private urban land for public housing. ‘Do you mean to tell me this is a people’s sport?’ he said in 2009. ‘It is not.’”
But now with Vegas’ success (a 1st and 3rd in consecutive weeks), Chavez proclaimed that he was not “an enemy of golf, or any other sport.” He congratulated Vegas because “He beat all of the gringos.”
For his part, Vegas did say he talked to Chavez. “Just to have the support of your country, it’s huge.” Of course Jhonny hopes that Chavez will change his attitudes about the sport overall, and as far as anyone can tell, nothing has been built on the courses as yet.
For Jhonny it’s highly personal because his father worked as a food concessionaire for two of the courses that were closed and so lost his job, while Jhonny was forced to pursue golf elsewhere, which ended up being in Texas. So picture he came to America as a 17-year-old who didn’t speak any English and look how far he has come just nine years later.
Meanwhile, tournament sponsors are salivating that the sport may finally have the kind of charismatic figure that brings out the crowds, at least until Tiger gets his game back.
–I can’t imagine any of you are planning on attending the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, but if you are you may want to rethink those plans. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin replaced the head of construction on Monday, with officials saying the man stepped down for health reasons, which I’d bet a few rubles is far from the truth.
Understand the entire venue is being built from scratch. Originally it was to cost $12 billion, financed both by the government and the public, but it’s believed the cost is skyrocketing, while human rights workers have accused Sochi organizers of badly mistreating construction workers, with some going long stretches without pay.
—John Barry died, age 77. All Barry did was win five Oscars for composing the music to movies such as “Born Free” and “Out of Africa,” though he is perhaps forever known for writing the scores for 11 James Bond films, including “From Russia With Love,” “Thunderball,” and “Goldfinger.”
The first two Oscars were for “Born Free” – best original music score and best original song, which he co-wrote with lyricist Don Black. He also won for best original score with “The Lion in Winter,” “Out of Africa” and “Dances with Wolves.”
But among his many Bond efforts was also “You Only Live Twice,” “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” “Diamonds Are Forever” and “Octopussy.” He started out working with Monty Norman on “Dr. No” and then took over in succeeding efforts.
[The “Dr. No” story, however, turned nasty as Norman sued the Sunday Times of London in 2001 for reporting that Barry had composed the theme; with Vic Flick, trivia buffs, supplying the Duane Eddy-style guitar twang. Barry said he did write it, from scraps of Norman’s work. Norman won the case, collecting $48,000, but as John Barry said later, “If I didn’t write it, why did they ask me to do the other ones?”]
Producer Barbara Broccoli, daughter of original Bond producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, said of Barry, “John is part of the original DNA of the Bond film franchise.”
Talk about prolific, Barry also had a hand in the likes of “Zulu,” “Midnight Cowboy,” “The Cotton Club,” and “Indecent Proposal.”
Barry was born John Barry Prendergast in Yorkshire, England. He played the piano and trumpet as a youth and served in the British Army band while stationed in Egypt and Cyprus. After his discharge he formed his own instrumental group, the John Barry Seven, and eventually he did the score for singer Adam Faith when he appeared in the movie “Beat Girl,” with Barry moving on from there.
—Golf Bits…a few items from Golfweek.
Scotsman Elliot Saltman became only the third player in European Tour history to be banned for cheating when he was suspended for three months for improperly marking his ball as the result of an investigation into an infraction late last year. His playing companions accused Saltman of placing a coin to the side of the ball, but then placing the ball in front of the marker, thereby placing the ball closer to the hole. The other two to be suspended (banned for 10 and 20 years, respectively…later reduced) either altered their scorecard or placed the ball closer to the green. [Alistair Tait]
Late last year Jim Furyk “plucked a Yes! Golf putter out of a bargain bin for $39 and used it to claim the $1.35 million Tour Championship and the $10 million bonus as the winner of the FedEx Cup playoffs.”
Then on Jan. 18, Adams Golf acquired Yes! Golf for $1.5 million out of bankruptcy. Adams was always looking for an independent putter brand.
On the broadcast last weekend Jim Nantz mentioned that Arnold Palmer, 81, was giving up his pilot’s license and there’s a story in Golfweek on this. Simply, Arnie realized it was time, but you can imagine how difficult this was. He grew up a mile from Latrobe Airport, after all, and earned his pilot’s license in late 1956. Over the years he has owned 10 planes with the call letters “N1AP.” He once set an aviation world record when in May 1976 he circumnavigated the globe in a Lear 36 jet in less than 58 hours.
–It’s not too late, sports fans. According to Newsweek, if you want a Giants or Jets player to appear at your Super Bowl party, “For fees ranging from $4,000 to $10,000 for a two-hour stint, players including Giants tight end Kevin Boss and Jets center Nick Mangold will turn up at house parties to mingle and offer commentary.” Or you could hire a celebrity chef, starting at $5,000, to prepare your grub.
—The Cleveland Cavaliers are now 8-40 thru Tuesday’s play, having lost 21 in a row (two shy of the NBA record) and are 1-31 since starting off the season 7-9. The Washington Wizards are 0-24 on the road.
–For a time this week it appeared we faced the end of the world with the massive storm that crippled parts of the country. I had convinced Jeff B. that Tuesday was the final night to go out to one’s favorite restaurant, to which J.B. said he would splurge on blue cheese dressing if it was indeed his last meal. Alas it wasn’t the end of the world and now J.B. is deep in debt. [Inside family story.]
–Ever wonder how old Fox NFL reporter Pam Oliver is? 49. I only know this because she’s on the back of the current Runner’s World (still one of the best publications of any kind). Turns out Ms. Oliver was an All-American in track at Florida A&M University in the 400 meters and in 1984 she had an Olympic qualifying time but had no interest in training further. Instead, Oliver focused on her career. But now she’s training for a half marathon in Little Rock. You go, Girl!
–Yet another reason why Man will never sniff the top ten again on the All-Species List, let alone make the top 100 these days. [Warning: The following is very ugly.] From AFP:
“Police are investigating the slaughter of 100 husky dogs used to pull tourist sleds in the Canadian ski resort of Whistler during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
“The grisly killings were reportedly carried out by one worker over two days in April last year with a shotgun and a knife, with reports of injured dogs crawling out of a mass grave.
“Local media said the dogs were killed because business slumped in the two months following the Games and they were no longer needed by tourist companies Outdoor Adventures and Howling Dogs, which sell dog-sled rides to tourists.”
The story is even worse than this…but this is where I’ll stop. The unnamed worker faces up to five years in jail.
“A New Jersey man remained hospitalized today after he was bitten by his pet snake.
“Fair Lawn police said (the man) bought the albino Monocled Cobra, an eastern diamondback rattlesnake and a copperhead snake in Pennsylvania on Monday and thought their venom sacks had been removed.
“Sgt. Rich Schultz said the cobra bit (the man…my new policy of keeping people such as this anonymous) on Monday night after he reached into its container to feed it or otherwise handle it.”
So he began to experience severe respiratory problems and was taken to a hospital which has a snakebite treatment center.
The man’s wife said “her husband wasn’t able to speak but that he was responding to her non-verbally.” [Star-Ledger]
–Update: I did finally go to my safe deposit box. You see it had moved locations when my bank was taken over by another and the particular branch holding my possessions was closed. So the girl takes me down to the vault, pulls out my signature card, and it turns out I hadn’t looked at the box’s contents in ten years. I began to open it with excitement as the girl turned away to give me privacy.
There was an air of excitement as I slowly opened the lid, but, just like Geraldo with Al Capone’s vault, there was nothing! Nothing but a copy of my will. No gold coins, no Pete Rose rookie card (sorry, Bro…thought maybe I had it in there for you)…nuthin’. I could tell the employee thought I was a loser.
Top 3 songs for the week 2/2/74: #1 “The Way We Were” (Barbra Streisand) #2 “You’re Sixteen” (Ringo Starr) #3 “Love’s Theme” (Love Unlimited Orchestra)…and…#4 “Show And Tell” (Al Wilson…These are the eyes…That never knew how to smile…till you came into my life (do-do-do-do-doooo)…my man, Al! I’d stick this in my all-time top 50) #5 “Americans” (Byron MacGregor) #6 “I’ve Got To Use My Imagination” (Gladys Knight & The Pips…not a fan) #7 “Let Me Be There” (Olivia Newton-John) #8 “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” (Aretha Franklin…easily my favorite of hers) #9 “The Joker” (Steve Miller Band) #10 “Spiders & Snakes” (Jim Stafford…one of the more underrated pure entertainers in American history…really…I mean it…)
Super Bowl Quiz Answers: 1) Washington’s Timmy Smith ran for 204 yards in SB XXII against Denver. 2) Jerry Rice has 8 career TD receptions in 4 games. Emmitt Smith has 5 rushing TDs in 3 games. 3) Three interceptions, career: Chuck Howley, Dallas, 2 games; Rod Martin, L.A.-Oakland Raiders, 2 games; Larry Brown, Dallas, 3 games.
