Baseball Quiz: 1) What three players hold the record for most consecutive seasons, 13, scoring 100 or more runs. 2) Who is the only player to lead the major leagues in hits five consecutive seasons? 3) Who holds the record for fewest hits, 0, most at-bats, season? Answers below.
Farewell, Seve
The great Seve Ballesteros passed away early Saturday morning, the victim of a long bout with brain cancer. He was just 54.
Ballesteros was one of a kind, that’s for sure, with a charisma so lacking in today’s game. He also could play a bit.
Five Major titles: Masters (1980, 83); British Open (1979, 84, 88)
European Tour wins: 50 (the record) [European Tour Player of the Year…1986, 88, 91]
Ryder Cup Record: 20-12-5 [11-2-2 with Jose Maria Olazabal]
“While Seve Ballesteros, the greatest scrambler the game of golf has ever seen, was waging his most challenging scramble of all – against brain cancer – it had been a while since he had been seen by the golfing public.
“There was desperate hope Ballesteros would be able to attend the British Open last July at St. Andrews, the place he might be adored most, to be a part of a special past-champions exhibition. But he was not well enough to travel.
“Then, as the Masters approached last month, defending champion Phil Mickelson reached out to Seve to see if he would be able to make the Tuesday night Champions Dinner because he wanted to honor one of his heroes by serving a traditional Spanish menu.
“Last month, at a European Tour dinner in Augusta, when asked about Seve, the pain in (close friend) Olazabal’s face was obvious.
“Now Ballesteros is gone. But his presence will be a part of the game forever.
“From PGA Tour pros to 20-something handicappers, if you’ve scrambled for par or better from the trees, a parking lot or a swimming pool in someone’s backyard, it always will be known as a ‘Seve-like save.’
“Nick Faldo called Ballesteros’ style ‘Cirque du Soleil on golf.’
“Mickelson, one of the greatest players of his era, has conceded that he, perhaps subconsciously, modeled his game after Seve’s, and it’s no accident Mickelson is the greatest scrambler of this generation….
“But more important than his remarkable statistical accomplishments is this: Ballesteros was to European golf what Arnold Palmer was to American golf – it’s most important figure in history because of the way he made the game relevant to the masses.
“ ‘He’s certainly had an impact on the game,’ Mickelson said. ‘But to me the greatest thing about Seve is his flair and charisma. Because of the way he played the game of golf, you were drawn to him.’
“Whether in our own memories or through watching old clips of him on the Golf Channel, we always will be drawn to Ballesteros. That was his gift to us.”
“Once at the U.S. Open, I watched Seve Ballesteros practice bunker shots for 20 minutes, sometimes stepping on the ball to simulate a buried lie, or throwing it down hard to create a fried-egg lie. The result was a group of nearly perfect shots engulfing the hole, as tight a pattern of excellence as any pro could achieve from a steep-faced trap.
“However, the method was just slightly different: Ballesteros only used a 3-iron in the trap, a club that, it was universally assumed, was utterly impossible to use for such a purpose. Perhaps no other player in the world could have gotten even one ball over the head-high lip of the trap and onto any part of the green.
“Seve, cocking the club at a ridiculous angle at address, somehow turned the flattish blade with no ‘bounce’ into a precision instrument. The whole show was designed to mock the limitations of talent and imagination of the dozens of other pros who pretended to be practicing, too, but barely hit a shot because they wanted to peek at Ballesteros.
“Perhaps, I should have noted his method, to the degree I could understand it, for posterity. But the performance was such an audacious, pretentious piece of gamesmanship – typical of Ballesteros, with no practical purpose but to annoy and intimidate the predominantly American players around him – that you didn’t think it was worthy of special note. Who knew, perhaps the next day he would do something comparable, but completely different – maybe practice hitting half-swing drivers off hardpan that would hit a tree in front of him and bounce back over his head onto the green….
“I spent more than a decade with golf as one of my major responsibilities when Seve was at or near the top of the sport. Yet he was a mystery to me then and he remains so in death….
“(I) never ‘got’ him. His background was termed ‘agrarian,’ though his three older brothers were all pro golfers. My grandfather was a farmer and I spent plenty of time there. That ‘connection’ was no help. Ballesteros may have been from the farm, but he sure didn’t seem as if he longed to go back to one He turned to sport early and never cared for education. But he was so quick in repartee that no one doubted his intelligence.
“No golfer was more handsome or had a more radiant, infectious smile when he chose to unleash it, yet he often seemed annoyed or isolated. Or on a solitary lone march to some place to which nobody else was privy. I saw him in America and Europe, in airports and locker rooms. He seldom seemed happy, except when he was ecstatic or triumphant. I suspect he was the only real art-for-art’s-sake artist that I ever witnessed in golf and, to this day, it irritates me that I have little idea what made him tick.
“Dislike of American hegemony in golf hardly seems enough to define a man, so that can’t be it. Nevertheless, golf is now a world game, in which the United States is just another component, largely because Ballesteros obliterated the myth of U.S. superiority. He reminded everyone that we didn’t invent the game and hadn’t fully explored or perfected it and that our time alone at the top was an historical accident that would pass with his help.”
Ballesteros was always something of a mystery to his fellow players as well.
“Or perhaps mystery is the wrong word. Maybe ‘mystique’ is more to the point. Ballesteros had it, knew it, enjoyed it and, probably, cultivated it.
“A man who wants to be thoroughly understood and embraced does not spend 20 minutes in a sand trap hitting the toughest bunker shots with a 3-iron – and never explain how it is done – unless, at some prickly level, he prefers to be remembered as an artist of sport who remained to the end an almost magical, magnetic and unknowable star.”
Boswell’s description is spot on. The only thing missing is to say, Seve Ballesteros was one royal pain in the ass. There was no one better, if you can describe it this way, at gamesmanship, an often loathsome quality that in a sport such as baseball might earn you a fastball in your ear.
But oh how he was fun to watch, and to his few close friends, such as fellow Spaniards Jose Maria Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez, it’s a sad time. On Saturday, ironically at the Spanish Open, Olazabal played the third round with tears constantly flowing down his cheeks, though saying the “best homage we can pay him was to continue playing.”
Instructor Butch Harmon: “The thing that was phenomenal about (Seve) was his imagination and creativity. He saw things that other players don’t see. He saw shots they don’t see. He was just a genius. He was like watching an artist paint a picture when you’d see him in the trees. I think he was more at home in the trees than in the middle of the fairway. The more trouble he got into, the more comfortable he felt in the situation.”
And this classic from the man himself when asked to describe a four-putt. “I miss, I miss, I miss, I make.”
Animal Kingdom?!
Well, at least I got my $10 million+ back that I had wagered on Uncle Mo upon the Moster’s exit from the Kentucky Derby due to his gastrointestinal illness that was sapping the colt of its strength. I actually had a family dinner Saturday night and missed the Derby, but without Mo in the field didn’t care.
Then I get home and see that Animal Kingdom won. What kind of stupid name is that? It’s like the owners had their 4-year-old boy pick it.
I talked to Mark R. the other day and he said there is only one horse for him, Stay Thirsty, owing to those awesome Dos Equis commercials.
But Animal Kingdom?! Geezuz…do we have to root for it if it wins the Preakness to then win the Belmont?
I mean I’m the guy writing every year how desperately the racing industry needs a Triple Crown winner to get interest back up in the sport but here are the names of the eleven who have taken all three legs, the last one in 1978.
Sir Barton, Gallant Fox, Omaha, War Admiral, Whirlaway, Count Fleet, Assault, Citation, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed.
No way would you ever catch me betting on Animal Kingdom. Give me Uncle Mo, Stay Thirsty and the rest.
Anyway, I guess I do have to note that Uncle Mo’s jock, John Velazquez, did become a pretty good story in gaining the ride on Animal Kingdom, after Kingdom’s original rider, Robby Albarado, broke his nose in a spill on Wednesday at Churchill Downs. So Velazquez, who had been booked to ride the Derby favorite each of the past three years, only to have the horse pulled at the last minute, got his first Derby win in 13 tries.
Glad I didn’t shell out the pay-per-view bucks to watch the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley world welterweight title fight on Saturday. As noted by the Associated Press:
“Pacquiao won a lopsided 12-round decision…in a fight that was roundly booed over the late rounds because Mosley refused to trade punches.
“Pacquiao won every round on two ringside scorecards in extending the remarkable run that has made him the most exciting fighter in the sport.”
Willie Turns 80
On Friday, Willie Mays had a milestone birthday and it looks like the San Francisco Giants threw him a great party, complete with a celebratory letter from President Obama and a video tribute that included everyone from Commissioner Bud Selig to Tony Bennett, as well as wishes from Hank Aaron, Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton. In attendance were teammates such as Willie McCovey, Gaylord Perry, and Orlando Cepeda, as well as some of Willie’s former mates from the Negro Leagues.
I can just imagine the “roaring ovation” from the sellout crowd at AT&T Park. Good job, Giants.
“Once the only proper way to describe the combination of talent and star power in sports, the elusive combination that the late great Boston columnist George Frazier used to describe as ‘duende,’ was to say it this way: That guy has some Willie Mays in him, the same way you used to say that this singer or that one had some Elvis in him.
“Only one guy got to be Elvis. And only one ballplayer in this world got to be Willie Mays, who hit 660 home runs and Lord knows how many more he would have hit if he hadn’t had to play so much of his prime in the wind and cold of Candlestick Park, where summer always felt like winter, not to mention giving up nearly two years of his career to the military….
“The great Henry Aaron, more than ever, is the conscience of baseball. Willie Howard Mays, the Say Hey Kid, is still its soul.”
“10 reasons Willie is still the greatest”
1. Because Jim Murray once wrote this: “The first thing to establish about Willie Mays is that there really is one.”
2. Because he was better than Aaron, and Aaron was pretty freakin’ awesome.
3. Because he won two MVP Awards…but should have won eight.
4. Because he was one of the best fielders of all time.
5. Because Roger Angell once wrote this in the New Yorker:
“He may have lost a half-second or so in getting down to first base, but I doubt whether Willie Davis or Ralph Garr or any of the other new flashes can beat Mays from first to third, or can accelerate just as he does…how much he resembles a marvelous skier in midturn down some steep pitch of fast powder. Nobody like him.”
“Over 10 percent of Mays’ career plate appearances came against Hall of Famers. And these weren’t chump Hall of Famers: Spahn, Drysdale, Roberts, Koufax, Gibson, Bunning, Carlton, Jenkins, Sutton and Niekro (and, to a lesser extent, Seaver, Marichal, Wilhelm and Ryan). Against those pitchers he hit .286 with a .498 slugging percentage.”
8. Because Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth played in a different era.
10. Because of “The catch”… “Unlike, say, a certain called shot.”
By the way, as Kevin Stiner of the Baseball Hall of Fame notes, it was May 4, 1966, that Mays hit home run No. 512 off Claude Osteen of the Dodgers to become the National League home run king, surpassing Mel Ott. Kind of remarkable to think about that fact and the many who passed 511 since.
Detroit’s Justin Verlander threw his second career no-hitter on Friday as the Tigers beat up on Toronto, 9-0. Earlier in the week, Minnesota’s Francisco Liriano pitched a no-no against the White Sox. Verlander thus became the 30th pitcher in major league history to throw multiple career no-hitters and he faced the minimum in doing so, walking just one in the 8th inning.
[In another notable effort on Friday, Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee fanned 16 in just seven innings, but lost.]
–The Dodgers’ Andre Ethier had his 30-game hitting streak ended at the hands of the Mets on Saturday. What’s interesting is the last four to hit that plateau were stopped at 30 (Ethier, Ryan Zimmerman, Moises Alou and Willy Taveras).
–Much of the talk in the New York area these days has been about the start to the season for Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. But on Sunday he broke out in a big way, going 4-for-6 with two home runs, his first of the season, and in doing so raised his average to .276.
–Major League Baseball believes the Dodgers do not have enough cash to meet their end of May payroll. If so, MLB will then step in and make it, baseball having already taken over team operations from owner Frank McCourt.
[The Players Union says that if the Dodgers didn’t make payroll, the players could file for free agency, but no way it comes to this.]
–Sean Foreman notes in the New York Times that “Through April, (42 players who made their debut in March or April) had managed only 47 hits in 274 at-bats for a .172 batting average. That is the worst batting average through April for players making their debut since 1920.”
–The most popular jerseys for calendar 2010, according to Major League Baseball:
1. Derek Jeter
2. Joe Mauer
3. Roy Halladay
4. Chase Utley
5. Cliff Lee
6. Albert Pujols
–Shu didn’t want me to forget the 50th anniversary of “Diamond Jim” Gentile’s historic game, May 9, 1961, where he hit grand slams in consecutive at bats in a 13-5 win for his Orioles over the Twins, homering in the first and second. He also had a sac fly in the second, giving him 9 RBI for the game…and in the first two frames. As Ronald Reagan said back then…not bad, not bad at all.
Of course 1961 was Gentile’s spectacular season where he hit 46 homers and drove in 141, finishing third in the MVP balloting behind Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. He was 27 but by the end of 1964, at 30, his career was in serious decline. Gentile finished with 179 HR 549 RBI and a .260 average.
–The Dallas Mavericks swept the Lakers 4-0, destroying L.A. on Sunday, 122-86, as Peja Stojakovic and Jason Terry went a combined 15 of 16 from downtown, which is pretty darn good.
–Well, at least one Wake Forest alum is performing on the basketball court this late in the season, that being Atlanta’s Jeff Teague, who with the injury to Kirk Hinrich was thrown into the starting lineup against the Bulls and in his first three games performed brilliantly, turning the ball over just twice in 125 minutes while averaging 17 per contest. Peter Vecsey wrote in the New York Post:
“Why did it take Kirk Hinrich’s immobilization for Jeff Teague to get quality/quantity playing time? How many times does the same scenario play out a season, five times? But you rarely see it happen in the playoffs. In view of Teague’s significant contribution, his entombment by two coaches – Mike Woodson and Larry Drew – is a particularly impeachable offense.”
[The above was written before the conclusion of Game 4 of the series.]
–Maryland Terrapins basketball coach Gary Williams stepped down suddenly after 22 years at the helm. During that time he led the team to seven Sweet 16s and of course won the national title in 2002. As AD Kevin Anderson said, “Gary Williams is a legend.”
“ ‘I didn’t want to be one of those coaches who is still hanging around at 70 and can’t stand up to get off the bench during a game,’ he said in a phone conversation. ‘I’m 66. There are a lot of things I want to do.’
“I know he believes that right now. I know he was worn out by a lot of things: 15 years of battling an athletic director [Anderson’s predecessor] who couldn’t stand Williams being the face of Maryland sports; the skepticism of his own fans even after he revived a beleaguered program and delivered its only national championship; the complete cesspool high school recruiting has become; and, finally, his most talented player’s [Jordan Williams] misguided decision to turn pro rather than return for his junior season.”
Maryland tried to get Arizona’s Sean Miller but Miller agreed to a contract extension there. Now Maryland is said to be going after Butler’s Brad Stevens and Notre Dame’s Mike Brey. I’ll be shocked if either accepted. Stevens has a great deal and for Brey, it’s strictly a lateral move. The ACC just isn’t that great compared to what a coaching position in the conference meant, say, 10-15 years ago. We’re also talking Maryland, not Duke or Carolina.
–The Columbus Dispatch reported that Ohio State is now investigating at least 50 car sales to Buckeyes athletes and relatives to see if they met NCAA rules.
And the Wall Street Journal points out that if Ohio State is forced to give up its victories from the 2010 season because of the Jim Tressel scandal – “a strong possibility” – “it not only would cost the Buckeyes their share of the Big Ten title, it also would alter college football’s all-time standings quite a bit. Currently third in winning percentage, Ohio State would drop to fifth behind Texas and Oklahoma, assuming it had to vacate 11 of its 12 wins last season for knowingly using players who had committed NCAA violations. (The Sugar Bowl win over Arkansas could be left intact, since the NCAA cleared the players before that game). The vacated games don’t count as losses, but 11 fewer wins is enough to make the Buckeyes tumble down the standings.”
1. Michigan .735
2. Notre Dame .733
3. Ohio State .719
4. Texas .7173
5. Oklahoma .7170
[Kind of remarkable how even Texas and Oklahoma are, isn’t it?]
—Lucas Glover took his 3rd PGA Tour title in Charlotte this weekend, his first since winning the 2009 U.S. Open, in defeating Clemson teammate Jonathan Byrd in a playoff.
–So just who is the hero dog of the mission to kill Osama bin Laden? It’s still not exactly clear whether it was a German shepherd of a Belgian Malinois, military sources say. It’s use, though, reflects a fact…dogs are better than humans or machines in detecting bombs, which is yet another reason why dogs top Man, and the other creatures of the world, in any All-Species List.
A commander of the Military Working Dog Center at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas told the New York Times said “the dog on the raid could have checked the compound for explosives and even sniffed door handles to see if they were booby-trapped.” Dogs are also good at sniffing out people, in the event Osama had a safe room.
Currently there are 600 dogs serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and a spokesman for United States Central Command told the Times that figure is expected to grow substantially.
–My high school alma mater, Summit, has extended its state-record boys lacrosse win streak to 60…pretty impressive.
–Looking at the released bin Laden videos from his one-star hideout in Abbottabad, it appears he didn’t catch Phil Mickelson’s second shot at No. 13 in The Masters last year, nor Conan O’Brien’s departure and reemergence, for that matter.
—Speaking of rats, “Conservationists say they are pleased with early efforts to kill rats on South Georgia, in what is the biggest rodent eradication campaign in history,” reports the BBC.
“No one really knows how many rats inhabit the island in the South Atlantic, but it could be millions.
“Introduced on the ships of sealers and whalers in the 19th and 20th Centuries, the rodents have had a devastating impact on local seabird populations.”
So helicopters spread 50 tons of rodenticide in March over a contained zone hemmed in by glaciers. “Subsequent inspections on the ground found only dead rats.” Phase one is complete. Now on to the other 87% of the island, the story goes.
–Boxer Henry Cooper died. He was 76. Cooper was the British heavyweight best known for knocking down Muhammad Ali (when he was still Cassius Clay), in the fourth round of a 1963 non-title fight at Wembley Stadium. Ali won by TKO in the next round. They fought again in 1966, this time with Ali as champion, and Cooper was stopped in the sixth round.
–The last known combat veteran of World War I died. Claude Stanley Choules of Australia, age 110.
–Child actor Jackie Cooper died. He was 88. In his later years, Cooper was best known for his role as The Daily Planet editor Perry White in four “Superman” movies. In his childhood he was all over the place, including in films such as “Skippy” and “The Champ.” He was also a member of the “Our Gang” cast.
–And playwright Arthur Laurents passed away, age 93. All Laurents did was write two of the greatest stage musicals of all time, “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.”
–Last Monday I went to the Louvre in Paris and I have to admit after 3 or 4 times there I don’t need to go back….been there done that. [The crowd was immense…too much.] But in looking at the Venus de Milo, it is kind of interesting that it was discovered way back in 1820 on the island of Melos in the Cyclades (Greece) and is said to have been sculpted in 120 B.C.
Of course it was Frankie Avalon who honored Venus in song.
Venus with no arms
I’m nonetheless quite thrilled with your other charms…
“Yvette Vickers, an actress best known as the femme fatale in two late 1950s cult horror films, ‘Attack of the 50 Foot Woman’ and ‘Attack of the Giant Leeches,’ was found dead Wednesday at her Benedict Canyon home. She was 82.
“The body’s mummified state suggests that she could have been dead for close to a year, police said.”
Eegads! Ah, but back in the day, Vickers was a Playboy playmate of the month in 1959 and “proved to have the perfect look for 1950s drive-in films,” according to film historian Alan K. Rode.
–I caught a little of Lady Gaga’s HBO concert after the Mets game Saturday night and while I admire how she has made a success out of herself, you couldn’t pay me enough to go see her. It was dreadful…and I don’t want to get within 100 yards of some of her dance troop, if you know what I’m sayin’. Yikes.
–On the other hand, count me as one of the 230 million male fans of Pippa! As Sarah Lyall writes in the New York Times, “Hers was the rear that launched a thousand blogs.” “Her Royal Hotness.”
1. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley [never met her]
2. Katy Perry [never met her]
3. Rihanna [never met her]
4. Megan Fox [never met her]
5. Olivia Wilde [never met her]
6. Brooklyn Decker [never met her]
7. Marisa Miller [never met her]
8. Kelly Brook [never met her]
9. Nicole Scherzinger [never met her]
10. Irina Shayk [never met her]
–In a big week for art auctions, the top prize goes to my man Claude Monet, who sold an 1891 work “The Poplars” for $22.482 million. You da man, Claude!
–Finally, David Mason died at the age of 85. And who is David Mason? He’s the guy with the trumpet solo on the Beatles’ recording of “Penny Lane.”
It seems Paul McCartney was looking to embellish the song, as reported by the Los Angeles Times’ Valerie Nelson, when he saw Mason on television playing on a Bach piece. The next morning, producer George Martin recruited Mason for the Beatles.
Mason didn’t even know who the Beatles were. You see he was all wrapped up playing for various orchestra, including the Royal Philharmonic. He received a one-time fee of about $45 for “Penny Lane” and also worked on “A Day in the Life” and “All You Need Is Love.”
Top 3 songs for the week 5/3/75: #1 “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)” (Tony Orlando & Dawn) #2 “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” (B.J. Thomas…underrated artist) #3 “Before The Next Teardrop Falls” (Freddy Fender)…and…#4 “Philadelphia Freedom” (The Elton John Band) #5 “Chevy Van” (Sammy Johns) #6 “Jackie Blue” (Ozark Mountain Daredevils…my favorite lesser known group) #7 “Shining Star” (Earth, Wind & Fire…breakthrough song for my boys) #8 “Walking In Rhythm” (The Blackbyrds….love this one, too) #9 “Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance)” (Leo Sayer) #10 “Only Yesterday” (Carpenters…Karen not eating)
Baseball Quiz Answer: 1) 13 consecutive seasons with 100 runs. Hank Aaron, Lou Gehrig and Alex Rodriguez (1996-2008) 2) Ichiro holds the mark for leading the major leagues in hits five consecutive seasons, 2006-10. 3) Bob Buhl holds the record for most at-bats in a season without getting a hit, 70, in 1962. Buhl was a solid pitcher, 166-132 in his career (1953-67), but hit .089 lifetime, 76 hits in 857 at-bats. He only had two extra-base hits, both doubles.
