Baseball Quiz: Seven different players have had 250 hits in a season. Ichiro leads the way with 262 in 2004. Name the other six, all of whom accomplished the feat between 1920 and 1930. Five of the six are Hall of Famers. The sixth won two batting titles. Answer below.
February 18, 2001
I was in Rome that day, attending the consistory (conclave) of the Cardinals, including the elevation of Cardinals McCarrick and Dulles, when I read of the death of Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the Daytona 500. I was shocked like everyone else and I was a fan of the No. 3. I still wear my Earnhardt cap from time to time.
This weekend, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will have the pole at the 500 as he attempts to break a long slump. I was at Daytona my one and only time in 2004 and wouldn’t you know, that was Junior’s lone triumph. I was going back over my notes from then and for you Wake Forest fans, I made mention of Rodney Rogers being in attendance. Sadly, life has changed for the worse for Rodney.
But the other day, Seth Livingstone had a great piece in USA TODAY on the death of Dale Earnhardt. He was on the last lap, trailing his teammate, Michael Waltrip, when Earnhardt, racing three wide, went into the wall in Turn 4. Few thought anything serious had happened. It was nowhere bad as looking as some other crashes that drivers had walked away from. But Dale never regained consciousness and was probably dead on contact.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 26 when his father died at age 49. Junior finished second that day to the winner, Waltrip.
“In the (broadcast) booth, Darrell Waltrip was urging his brother to victory.
“ ‘Come on, Mikey. You’ve got it. You’ve got it, Mikey. All right!’ he said. A few moments later, he was also the first to publicly contemplate the larger question: ‘I just hope Dale is OK. I guess he’s all right, isn’t he?’….
“It took a long time for Michael Waltrip to realize that something was dreadfully wrong. Only when Earnhardt failed to arrive in victory lane to congratulate him did he realize things were amiss. He tried to convince himself that Earnhardt had stopped to congratulate Junior on finishing second. It was only after his interviews were done that Waltrip was met by (driver Ken) Schrader (first on the scene), who told him: ‘It’s not good.’
“ ‘It was becoming obvious,’ Waltrip writes (in his new book). ‘This wasn’t about me anymore. All that mattered now was Dale…I didn’t know how bad it was yet. But I knew my win was suddenly the least important thing.’
“Eschewing further celebration in the luxury suites, Waltrip got into a van that took him and his wife, Bubby, to his motor home.
“ ‘As we settled into the van, I looked at her and she just shook her head,’ Waltrip writes. ‘She didn’t say a word. She didn’t have to…When we got to the motor home, Buffy and I walked inside. With the last shred of hope I could muster I asked: ‘He’s gonna be OK, right?’…With that, Buffy began to cry. Through the sob, she struggled to say the words I dreaded most: ‘Dale is dead.’….
“Television left millions hanging. Earnhardt had been taken by ambulance to Halifax Medical Center, less than a mile from the track. There was no definitive word on his condition when Fox signed off.
“Similarly, more than 150,000 fans exited Daytona International Speedway unaware that Earnhardt had been fatally injured….
“Betty and Art Paquet…were Florida residents when tragedy struck at Daytona.
“ ‘It was awful,’ Betty says. ‘I saw the car hit the wall, and I said (to Art), ‘He’s gone.’ He said, ‘No, he’s not,’ but I just had a bad feeling….Even today I still cry over Dale.’….
“Not every Earnhardt fan was at Daytona on Feb. 18, 2001. The vast majority were viewing the race on television.
“ ‘I was watching the race on TV,’ recalls Alan Grossman, 51, from Long Island, N.Y. ‘All I kept hearing was D.W. (Darrell Waltrip) saying, ‘Mikey won, Mikey won…I hope Dale’s OK.’ But when they wouldn’t show (Earnhardt) getting out of the car, I started to cry. I was devastated.
“ ‘To me, he was a hero. It was the way he drove, his aggressiveness, the way he showed no fear. And he drove from the back (of the field) to the front like it was nothing – like everyone else is standing still, and he’s zipping through’….
“The lack of news about Earnhardt left viewers with an uneasy feeling.
“ ‘I realized something was really wrong because television wasn’t showing any pictures of them getting Dale out of his car or him dropping the (window safety) net,’ says Walt Robinson, 52, of Oviedo, Fla. ‘I was really worried right away.
“ ‘I’ve seen really bad accidents where guys walked away. This accident didn’t’ look that bad. I thought maybe he’s banged up or something.’….
“He became known as ‘The Intimidator.’ When General Motors became sponsor of his No. 3 Goodwrench Chevrolet and opted for an all-black paint scheme, it further cultivated his bad-guy image. So did his racing style. In the 1999 Goody’s Headache Powder 500 on the short track at Bristol Motor Speedway, Earnhardt knew he couldn’t pass Terry Labonte. But he could get to his rear bumper and spin the leader into the fence, which he did. Earnhardt went on to win the race.
“ ‘I didn’t mean to wreck him. I just wanted to rattle his cage,’ Earnhardt said.”
“Exactly how Earnhardt died remains a mystery. Said to be unconscious when removed from his car, he was pronounced dead at Halifax Medical Center.
“An autopsy conducted in Volusia County concluded it was blunt-force trauma to the head.
“Barry Myers, a Duke University biomechanical engineer who studied the autopsy, later theorized that it was violent whiplash that cracked his skull. The autopsy also revealed eight broken ribs on the left side, a fractured sternum and a broken left ankle. Earnhardt’s lungs were partially collapsed.”
NASCAR has not lost a life in a Cup event since Earnhardt’s death. The sport woke up and took a stand on safety that has benefited everyone.
The 2011 Daytona 500 will be Junior’s 400th career Cup start, having won 18 of them.
February 15, 1961
“It has been almost 50 years since Carol Heiss Jenkins, the 1960 Olympic women’s figure skating gold medalist, received a phone call in the middle of the night.
“ ‘They’re all gone.’ The voice on the other end of the line was her brother-in-law, David Jenkins, the 1960 Olympic men’s figure skating gold medalist. He was crying. ‘The plane crashed, Carol. On the way to worlds.’
“ ‘Oh my God,’ Heiss screamed. ‘The whole team? The skaters and coaches and judges? They’re all gone? Maribel Vinson Owen and her two daughters? Oh my God!’
“The loss of the entire U.S. figure skating team in a plane crash near Brussels on Feb. 15, 1961, on its way to the world championships in Prague, remains to this day one of the nation’s worst sports tragedies. Eighteen skaters and 16 coaches, officials, judges and family members lost their lives in the crash….
“Peggy Fleming, who was 12 at the time and lost her coach in the crash, rose out of the ashes of that tragedy. Moving through the ranks quickly because the skaters who had been ahead of her were now gone, Fleming won five national titles from 1964 to 1968, then the Olympic gold medal.”
College Basketball
Men’s AP Poll
1. Kansas…but hours after being selected No. 1, lost to Kansas State 84-68
2. Ohio State
3. Texas
4. Pitt
5. Duke
6. San Diego State
7. BYU
8. Notre Dame
9. Georgetown
10. Wisconsin
Kansas State had lost to Kansas just 16 days earlier 90-66 at Kansas. Before the season started, these two were supposed to both be top five but K-State has had all kinds of issues in going 17-9, 5-6 in conference.
In losing to North Carolina on Tuesday, 78-64, Wake Forest beat the spread, which was 23, and at the end of the day, boys and girls, when you’re 1-10 in conference play that’s all that matters.
Women’s AP Poll
1. Baylor
2. UConn
3. Stanford
4. Tennessee
5. Texas A&M
6. Xavier
7. Duke
8. Notre Dame
9. UCLA
10. DePaul
24. Marist
—Tiger Woods got skewered for spitting at last weekend’s tourney in Dubai. Karl MacGinty / Irish Independent:
“So where will Tiger Woods fit in the pantheon of golf?
“Up there with Hagan, Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus perhaps? Or maybe the sport should open a new rogue’s gallery in his honor. The choice is Tiger’s. At age 35, the countdown clock has started ticking loudly for Woods in his bid to become golf’s most successful performer of all time.
“Though floundering in the deepest slump of his career (never before has he gone 15 months or 17 tournaments without a win), Woods still has some chance of winning the five more Majors he needs to surpass the record 18 achieved by Jack Nicklaus.
“Yet time definitely has run out for Tiger when it comes to his reputation.
‘That clock stopped on Sunday afternoon in Dubai, on the 12th hole, as Woods plumbed new, more disgusting depths.
“Tiger has never been good at managing his temper, a serious flaw in a game which places so much emphasis on character. The ability to accept misfortune with dignity and perform with grace under duress is as important a measure of any golfer as the trophies on his sideboard.
“In the glory days, foul-mouthed outbursts by Tiger usually were overlooked as the mainstream media and general public were swept along by the tsunami of excitement he stirred….
“(But on Sunday and) not for the first time in a frustrating week in Dubai, Woods angrily slammed his club into the ground on the 12th tee as his drive flew right of the fairway into a bunker.
“It was a childish act of petulance, something one might expect from some spotty kid in the full flush of puberty, not a 35-year-old master craftsman carving out his second billion from his art.
“Worse came on the green as Woods perused his 20-foot putt for par. Hunkered down behind his ball, he turned his head to the right and blew a large, white gob of spit onto the manicured grass beside him.
“Sky TV commentator Ewen Murray, who had already chastised Woods on air for spitting on a tee box during Thursday’s first round, expressed the disgust of the average golfer when he said: ‘Somebody now has to come behind him and maybe putt over his spit. It doesn’t get much lower than that.’”
–If you haven’t seen it, go on YouTube and check out Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney and a truly spectacular goal against rival Manchester City in the “Manchester Derby” last weekend. Rooney’s game-winner went viral, as the Journal’s Jason Gay put it, passed around the world with “OMG, Did-You-See-This?” flurry.
As Rooney’s teammate, Nani, crosses the ball, “Mr. Rooney swivels his shoulders and turns his back to the goal. The City defender Micah Richards charges forward, head down, but as he does, Mr. Rooney pushes off with his left foot….”
Bottom line, Rooney employs the ‘bicycle kick’ and is parallel to the ground after thrusting his body airborne and then proceeding to boot the ball into the net as he falls back to the ground.
“In photos, the maneuver appears graceful, almost balletic. A great sports photo can make the chaotic seem elegant – Bobby Orr levitating above the ice in the 1970 Stanley Cup; Michael Jordan soaring from the free-throw line; David Tyree pressing an Eli Manning pass to his helmet. Mr. Rooney looks peaceful as he whips his right leg forward, his left arm dangled to break his fall.”
But in live time Rooney’s kick “is swift, athletic and merciless.” The crowd erupts, incredulous.
–The Albert Pujols deadline has come and gone so now he’ll become a free agent at the end of the season, having said he’d refuse to negotiate a new contract during the year as it would be a distraction. But his manager, Tony La Russa, believes the players’ union is pressuring Pujols and most believe Pujols is insisting he be the highest paid player in the game, befitting the fact he is the best.
But as Jayson Stark of ESPN.com writes, the fans of St. Louis may not be prepared to have to wait out the entire season to see if their hero is coming back. “And even more important, they may not be so reverent. If they size up this situation this spring and decide Albert Pujols is a fellow who values money more than he values the special privilege of wearing Cardinals red, uh-oh. You never know how they might react. They might even (gasp) boo this man.”
Pujols rejected $25 million a year for 8 seasons, the Cardinals’ last offer, and seems to be insisting on $30 million per for ten years.
–The Carmelo Anthony trade deadline is Feb. 24. He wants to come to the Knicks but Denver is asking for way too much in return. Unfortunately, Madison Square Garden chairman Jim Dolan, not the sharpest tool in the tool box, may overrule his general manager and coach in giving Denver what they want.
–Yippee! The federal judge presiding over the Barry Bonds perjury case is going to allow an audio recording of his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, where Anderson discusses Bonds’ steroids use.
–In an interview with the New York Times, Bernie Madoff said the big banks and hedge funds he did business with should have known about the fraud he was orchestrating, but he says Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz didn’t know. “They knew nothing,” Bernie insisted.
How conveeenient. As details have emerged on the Wilpons’ operation, to me what’s most damning is how ownership’s Sterling Equities used Madoff funds to apply for bank loans, particularly for their real estate projects. Borrowing Madoff’s money to gussy up the balance sheet and then returning it once the loan was approved. You can’t do that.
Meanwhile, I wish the stories of Donald Trump being interested in more than a minority interest would turn into reality, but the Wilpons are adamant they are not giving up control.
–Former Ohio State quarterback Art Schlichter, 50, once banned for life by the NFL for gambling, was charged Monday with stealing more than $1 million from a 68-year-old woman in suburban Columbus, Ohio. He allegedly took the money in cash, checks and credit card charges.
—Lindsey Vonn was forced to pull out of the rest of the world alpine championships because of the aftereffects of her mild concussion after finishing second in the downhill. Some criticized the fact Vonn was even allowed by doctors to compete without being fully healed, a very legitimate point. Had she crashed again, no telling what the long-term effects would have been. Hockey superstar Sidney Crosby, for example, has been out indefinitely after a concussion. He suffered his injury on Jan. 6 and as of today there remains “no timetable” for his return, which is kind of sickening to think about how serious his condition is.
–Speaking of the NHL…Sporting News listed its “10 Greatest Teams” with the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens taking the top spot, followed by the 1955-56 Canadiens and 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers.
So this is an excuse to throw out some great names from the past for you older NHL fans.
Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson, Steve Shutt, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, Ken Dryden, Garry Unger, Jacques Lemaire, Yvan Cournoyer (perhaps my favorite all time), Pete Mahovlich, Mario Tremblay, Rejean Houle, Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, Jean Beliveau, Maurice “Rocket” Richard, Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies, Denis Potvin (“Sucks!”), Alex Delvecchio, Larry Wilson, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, John Bucyk, John McKenzie, Fred Stanfield, Mr. Bobby Orr, Gump Worsley, Stan Mikita, Keith Magnuson, Chico Maki, Teddy Irvine, “the GAG Line” (Vic Hadfield, Rod Gilbert, Jean Ratelle), Brad Park, Eddie Giacomin….
–We note the passing of David F. Friedman, 87, the longtime chairman of the Adult Film Assn. of America, who was best known for softcore fare and B-movie gore.
Friedman was a former carnival barker who along with director Herschell Gordon Lewis made a series of sexploitation films in the early 1960s that paved the way for the harder stuff to follow. He was perhaps best known for the 1963 cult film “Blood Feast,” which his own wife called “Vomitous.”
“Blood Feast,” which was about the collection of female body parts by a serial killer, was shot in five days for $24,500 and turned a $6.5 million profit. Later on Friedman made “Ilsa: She-Wolf of the S.S.,” winner of a record 16 Oscars. [Well, maybe not.]
–And former major leaguer Gino Cimoli passed away. He was 81. Cimoli was an outfielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers in their last season there, 1957, and made his first and only All-Star team that year, hitting .297 with 10 home runs and 57 RBI. He would later lead the American League in triples in 1962 while with the Kansas City Athletics, and he picked up a World Series ring as a member of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, hitting .267 that season and going 5-for-20 in the Series.
But Cimoli is also known as the first major league hitter on the West Coast. April 15, 1958, against the Giants at Seals Stadium in San Francisco, the now Los Angeles Dodgers’ Cimoli, who was born in San Francisco, struck out against Ruben Gomez.
For his career, Cimoli hit .265 with 44 HR and 321 RBI.
–Richard Sandomir of the New York Times has a story on some of ESPN’s on-air talent and their shoe deals with Nike. [Erin Andrews has one with Reebok.]
Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso, the “College GameDay (sic)” crew all have contracts with Nike but since being questioned about it, Fowler pulled what he called his “minor association” with the shoe company. This may not seem like a big deal, but it does present major conflicts of interest. As Bob Steele, an ethics and journalism professor at DePauw University told Sandomir, “It’s not just what’s said or written but what stories are covered and the frame for the story. It’s the questions that are asked and not asked in an interview, and who gets interviewed. You do have to wonder why a sports journalist, or any journalist, would wander in this kind of ethical minefield without recognizing the consequences.”
One example would be Nike’s major relationship with the University of Oregon with Nike founder Phil Knight having contributed heavily to the athletic program. Would ESPN analysts be influenced by their own endorsement deals when problems arise in the football operation? We’ve already seen how ESPN, through its coverage, manipulated the BCS poll.
Of course as Sandomir points out, there are countless sports announcers/analysts with endorsement contracts, but the ESPN/Nike connection is different. It’s not the same as Jim Nantz hawking watches.
–After praising Walt “Clyde” Frazier the other day, Crain’s New York Business had a bit on him; specifically what he’s reading, a feature they do weekly involving a local celeb. For those not from the area, Clyde is constantly peppering his New York Knicks color commentary with rhymes and SAT words, but he says he’s “Not a voracious reader, despite what a lot of people think.” But what he does do is cycle through about a dozen dictionaries, a thesaurus, and phrase books, bringing two or three with him on the road.
–This past weekend in New York, Strat-O-Matic Baseball celebrated its 50th anniversary. I can guarantee one thing. If all the nation’s kids played this like some of us did back in the day, the country would be far more proficient in math. I used to play a game each morning before school (including the football version in the fall). Hal Richman founded it when he was just 25.
As the New York Times’ Stuart Miller reported, Richman first came up with a primitive version of the game when he was 11 and spent the next ten years refining it.
“In his 20s, after discouragement from his father and rejection from numerous companies, Richman borrowed money from friends and started the game on his own. He survived money-losing years, royalty demands from the players union and challenges from well-heeled competitors as his invention became the leading baseball board game.”
Richman, with the help of an avid Strat-O player and computer programming expert, Bob Winberry, then survived the arrival of computer and home video games, creating a computer version, though many still prefer the board game one.
Richman spends 60 to 80 hours a week on Strat-O, but rarely has time to play, nor does he actually watch much baseball. He’s technically semi-retired and living on Long Island, but will he ever stop working on his baby? “Probably not,” he says.
–Congratulations to Hickory, a 5-year-old Scottish deerhound, for taking home the best in show trophy at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the first time this breed ever took top prize.
“A 25-year-old fisherman who swam nearly eight kilometers to shore without a life jacket after he was knocked off his boat is lucky, say locals, who saw several sharks feeding in the area.
“The man’s empty boat was found with the engine running off Kirra Beach about 5:15pm (Monday)….
“Police believe he was knocked off the boat at the reef and, with the motor running, it drifted away. The man then began swimming towards the shore, police said….
“The man was found at Fingal Head…and taken to hospital with cuts and mild hypothermia.”
It seems he wasn’t devoured by the sharks because they had just pigged out on some tuna.
–Huge win for the whales as Japan suspended its annual Antarctic whale hunt following protests from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a U.S.-based environmental group. Commercial whaling was banned back in 1986 but Japan uses a bogus scientific research loophole, while Iceland and Norway continue to hunt despite the ban. Activists’ ships had been harassing Japanese vessels for weeks in the icy seas and Japanese officials cited safety concerns in suspending the hunt. No word on whether the victorious whales then swallowed a few of the Japanese vessels, which would only be fitting; kind of like one of those early 60s Japanese sci-fi flicks filmed in a bathtub. Massive destruction…but minimal water displacement.
–New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg puts ice in his beer, much to the horror of the brewmaster at the Brooklyn Brewery, which Bloomberg visited on his birthday the other day.
—Billy Ray Cyrus says Hannah Montana destroyed his family, causing his divorce and sending daughter Miley Cyrus spinning out of control. In an interview with GQ Magazine, Cyrus said he wishes he never launched his daughter’s career. “Heck, yeah. I’d erase it all in a second if I could.”
Cyrus says he tried too hard to be a friend instead of a parent to his daughter. He is now scared for Miley and compared her current path to other stars whose lives ended tragically, such as Kurt Cobain, Anna Nicole Smith and Michael Jackson.
But Cyrus also believes Satan is attacking his family.
“It’s the way it is,” he said. “There has always been a battle between good and evil. Always will be. You think, ‘This is a chance to make family entertainment, bring families together…’ and look what it’s turned into.”
Satan?! That’s a good excuse. “Joe, how did you drop what would have been the game-winning touchdown pass?” “Satan. That’s all I can say. Every game is a battle between good and evil.”
—Jennifer Hudson update: A source, that needs to go nameless, said her husband was watching Oprah when Hudson was talking about her spectacular new look and Jennifer said she has encouraged “256” of her own family members to be on Weight Watchers too. So Liz S. (oops) and I were wondering how many folks out there have 256 family members. The two of us together have about 16. Just sayin’.
Top 3 songs for the week 2/18/78: #1 “Stayin’ Alive” (Bee Gees…can’t stand this one…break out in hives when I hear it like I do when Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” comes on…) #2 “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water” (Andy Gibb) #3 “Just The Way You Are” (Billy Joel…his best)…and… #4 “We Are The Champions” (Queen) #5 “Sometimes When We Touch” (Dan Hill…where?) #6 “Emotion” (Samantha Sang) #7 “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)” (Chic…might have been the worst year of the century for music…) #8 “Short People” (Randy Newman…this one hasn’t aged well at all…and didn’t like it first time around…) #9 “Baby Come Back” (Player…twang) #10 “How Deep Is Your Love” (Bee Gees)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 250 hits in a single season…Ichiro, 262; George Sisler, 257, 1920; Lefty O’Doul, 254, 1929; Bill Terry, 254, 1930; Al Simmons, 253, 1925; Rogers Hornsby, 250, 1922; Chuck Klein, 250, 1930. [O’Doul being the only one in the 1920-30 group not to make it to the Hall of Fame, though he won two batting titles and started his career very late.
Next Bar Chat, Monday…a very brief one…from California where I’ll be all next week.
