Baseball Quiz: 1) Post-1920: Name the two players who led their respective league seven times in extra base hits. 2) Three players in baseball history have had four or more extra-base hits in a game at least four times in their career, the first two five times. All three are Hall of Famers. I’ll give you the years, you give me the player. Player A: 1926, 28, 30, 32, 34. Player B: 1936-37, 41, 48, 50. Player C: 1965, 68, 70, 73. Answers below.
Baseball’s Serious Issue
The Cleveland Indians are 23-11 through Tuesday’s play, a truly remarkable start given they were 69-93 and 65-97 the last two seasons. In fact, by winning 21 of their first 30, they became just the sixth team since 1900 to start out that way after losing 90 the year before. [Darren Everson / Wall Street Journal]
But on Tuesday, at home against solid Tampa Bay, the Indians drew just 13,500, or about 30% of capacity.
Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY had a piece in Sports Weekly the other day titled “Good seats available in Rust Belt,” looking at four specific cities that suffered the largest population declines of the 30 major league cities in the 2010 Census:
Detroit (25%), Cleveland (17%), Cincinnati (10.4%) and Pittsburgh (8.6%). All rank in the top eight for population loss nationwide.
“We have to reinvent ourselves as a business and look at ourselves differently,” says Indians President Mark Shapiro, whose team’s season-ticket base has gone from 27,000 at the peak from 1995 to 1998 to about 7,700 today.
The last time USA TODAY figured it, Cleveland and Pittsburgh were 30th and 27th, respectively, in major league attendance this season, mirroring MLB’s overall 2% decline in April.
Imagine, the Indians had the six smallest crowds in their stadium’s 18-year history in April. And on Sunday, May 1, in 65-degree weather, the Indians won a franchise-record 13th consecutive game at home against rival Detroit before a whopping 14,200 fans. The city of Cleveland’s population is just 396,000, down from 900,000 in 1950. The Flats, the neighborhood that spurred Cleveland’s revival in the 1990s, is littered with empty buildings. Former Indians pitcher, and Cleveland-area native, Brian Anderson observed:
“The deterioration that has taken place is shocking. I love it there. But if you’re a kid and go to college, unless you’re in the medical field, why are you gonna stick around?
“Look at what happened to The Flats. That was the place you wanted to go to have a good time. Now it’s a place you go if you want to get shot.”
“One bar was open April 26 after the Indians game. The lone parking lot with activity was Christie’s Cabaret, a strip club.”
Cleveland has a gorgeous stadium with 130 luxury boxes and no execs or high-rollers to fill them. Think of this. Architects are now looking at reducing the number of boxes.
Meanwhile, Detroit’s population of 713,000 is the lowest since 1910. Somehow, though, the Tigers have drawn well…averaging more than 30,000 fans a game the last five years. Tigers manager Jim Leyland says:
“There’s a passion here that’s unbelievable. I told these guys, ‘This is not the time not to be running to first base.’ People are starving and losing their jobs. They’re paying hard-earned money to come.”
In Pittsburgh, on Easter Sunday at PNC Park, 12 concession stands lined up around the lower concourse were empty. Attendance that day was 5,986. Then again, the Pirates haven’t had a winning season since 1992, the longest drought by any major franchise in North American history. But there are small signs of a turnaround, with season-ticket sales up a bit as the economy turns.
“Major League Baseball’s attendance figures – swelling over the past generation – finally have stagnated. Why? Maybe, as Yogi Berra once observed about a popular restaurant, ‘Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.’
“In truth, it’s not the size of the crowd that’s problematic, it’s the sensibility of the crowd. But we’ll get back to that in a moment.
“Who’s still going to baseball games? Plenty of Sports Nation. MLB, despite itself – the steroids era, rising ticket prices, the length of games and length of the season – still draws more people than the NFL, NBA and NHL combined, with fewer total dates.
“(Let me qualify this by pointing out that MLB attendance totals are suspect. You would think that ‘attendance’ means the number of people who attended the game. You would think wrong. MLB defines attendance as ‘tickets sold,’ not ‘tickets used.’ I’ve been to Dodgers games where they announce a crowd of 46,000 and I figure they must be double-counting fans with facelifts.)
“(By the way, who are all these folks buying game tickets and then not going to the game? That would be like getting married and then not consummating the marriage. Been there, done that.)
“But it’s the quality of the stadium experience that is wearing down some fans.
“They gouge you on parking. They gouge you on concessions. And then they don’t even run hard to first base on groundballs. Seriously, what type of business charges you $35 for parking, then doesn’t refund your parking fee if the game is postponed before it even begins?
“More significantly, just sitting benignly and trying to watch the games has become a risky chore….
“Sports is just supposed to be an outlet, something to make people feel better for a few hours. Somehow it’s become something else for too many unruly people, and the rest of us are buried in the rubble….
“If you bring kids to a game hoping for a family atmosphere, you’d be better off dropping them at a Comedy Central roast. Loud, profane and drunk is routine fare these days; it’s even money to have beer spilt on you before there’s a pitching change. Sitting in the upper deck is like going to a Hell’s Angels rally without a Harley.”
By the way, when it comes to attendance, after the great run baseball has had in this regard it’s easy to forget the bad times. Just picking on my Mets, back in 1979, on the way to a desultory 63-99 record, they drew a whopping 788,905.
Or to go back to the 1930s, granted, during the Depression, the pathetic St. Louis Browns (later Baltimore Orioles) drew 88,113 for a full season in 1933 (55-96) and just 80,922 in 1935 (65-87).
Even the spectacular 1927 Yankees, 110-44, drew less than 1.2 million, though to be fair there were lots of doubleheaders in those days. Still, it’s not like mammoth Old Yankee Stadium even had 20,000 in the stands on many a day. The problem for baseball today, though, is it can’t contemplate going back to some of the preceding attendance numbers given its cost structure in 2011 compared to 1980, let alone the 30s.
–26-year-old Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt died after crashing during Monday’s third stage of the Giro d’Italia, one of the three biggest cycling tours of the season. He fell during a high speed descent and died instantly, even though paramedics were on the scene in 30 seconds and spent 40 minutes trying to revive him. Weylandt suffered a fracture to the front of his skull.
Lance Armstrong said on Twitter: “I’m shocked and saddened. May he rest in peace.”
Weylandt was the first killed in one of the big three since Fabio Casartelli in the 1995 Tour de France. He is the first to die in the Giro in 25 years.
–I was reading Army Times and they had an interesting bit on a Vietnam battle that might be familiar to some of you, May 11, 1969, the fight for Hill 937, “Hamburger Hill,” later turned into a 1987 movie of the same name. As told by Army Times, through documents of the U.S. Army Center of Military History:
Fought between 101st Airborne Division troops and South Vietnamese forces, and North Vietnamese fighters in one of the Vietnam War’s “fiercest and most controversial” battles.
“The 10-day battle erupted when paratroopers found communist forces entrenched on Ap Bia Mountain, about a mile east of the Laotian border, during a sweep for the enemy in the A Shau Valley.
“Enemy forces, behind fortified bunkers with well-prepared fields of fire, repelled the first 10 American advances. Finally, on an 11th try, about 1,400 101st Airborne Division troops and South Vietnamese soldiers climbed the slope, fighting at close quarters, to claim the summit.
“The victory, however, was met with some skepticism, since the ‘hill itself had no strategic or tactical importance,’ the documents stated. Critics cited the battle as an example of the ‘irrelevance of large-unit tactics’ in Vietnam.
“But 101st Airborne Division commander Maj. Gen. Melvin Zais defended the operation.
“ ‘My mission,’ he said in the documents, ‘was to destroy enemy forces and installations. We found the enemy on Hill 937, and that is where we fought them.’
“American troops left the valley roughly a month later and, according to the documents, ‘the North Vietnamese were free to use it again.’”
–I told you Maryland was way too cocky thinking they could find a big name to replace Gary Williams as hoops coach.
“It’s heartening fifth, sixth or 13th choice Mark Turgeon took Gary Williams’ old job. Because if the Texas A&M coach had turned down Maryland, I would hate to be (athletic director) Kevin Anderson today.
“High-profile names who have either outright rejected the Maryland men’s basketball job, refused to enter into conversations with the athletic director about the opening or flat-out used Anderson and the school for a salary bump: Arizona’s Sean Miller, Notre Dame’s Mike Brey, Villanova’s Jay Wright, Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon and Butler’s Brad Stevens.
“The fallback who took the gig Monday night? Turgeon, whose Aggie and Wichita State programs have been tournament-tested and clean. Still, Turgeon isn’t that name Garyland so covets and Anderson has unsuccessfully courted – and not in basketball alone.
“In his pursuit of an It Guy to generate new revenue streams for the university’s athletic coffers, Anderson has come across as the gym-class dreamer who thinks he has a shot with the homecoming queen – only to be shot down by her and the members of her court. Out of options on prom night, he finally texts his biology lab partner, who thought he would never ask….
“(This) has been a public litmus test of the national relevance of Maryland athletics, and the results show that the coaching profession’s best and brightest just don’t consider Terrapin Nation – and, by association, the ACC – the big time.”
–Lakers forward Pau Gasol, fresh off a dreadful series against the Dallas Mavericks, denied that Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, impacted his performance when she reportedly advised his girlfriend, Silvia Lopez Castro (no relation to Fidel or former Mets catcher Ramon), to kick Pau to the curb. Vanessa is evil. Guys, if you catch her talking to your girlfriend, get your girl away, quickly.
As for Lakers center Andrew Bynum, he was suspended by the league for the first five games of next season and fined $25,000 for his flagrant foul on Mavs guard J.J. Barea in the final game of the series. Bynum will be forfeiting $677,272 in salary for behavior befitting a “Dirtball of the Year” candidate. What an embarrassment for coach Phil Jackson in his final game with the team.
–We note the passing of legendary sports cartoonist and columnist Bill Gallo of the New York Daily News at the age of 88. Gallo’s career at the paper spanned 70 years. His last cartoon was April 19. Gallo was also an authentic World War II hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima.
–The former chairman of England’s failed attempt to gain the 2018 World Cup provided details to parliament of bribery during the selection process. Qatar, for example, is alleged to have paid two Fifa (soccer’s governing board) members $1.5 million each. Qatar won the 2022 vote. The 2018 bid went to Russia.
–Shark Director Bob S. passed along an important story from Martha’s Vineyard. Last Friday, as reported by the Boston Herald, a group of guys were out fishing for mackerel when they came across a huge great white shark that was “bumping” and “nudging” a dead whale before circling their boat, at which point they realized, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
One of the fishermen told the Herald, though, he was surprised the shark didn’t actually chow down on the dead minke whale (tangled up in lobster gear…which sucks), so fishing boat captain Jeff Lynch surmised the great white sensed the whale was long dead. Luckily, the shark largely ignored them as well because the fishermen were in a 23-foot boat and the shark was pegged at at least 17 feet, perhaps 20.
It’s early in the year for great whites in these parts. Come the official start of the summer tourist season on the Vineyard, look for extensive casualties.
“Goats recognize their kids’ voices”
As reported by Victoria Gill, “Goats are able to recognize the voices of their very young kids, and differentiate them from other animals’ offspring, according to researchers.
“A mother goat is able to pick out her own baby from its voice alone by the time the kid is just five days old.”
–And John Walker died. He was 67. Two great songs from the mid-60s were the Walker Brothers’ #16 “Make It Easy On Yourself” and #13 “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore)”. Looking back, I’m shocked neither was a top ten, especially when you consider how well these two tunes have aged.
So guess what? The Walker Brothers weren’t brothers. I’ve probably written this before over the years, but I killed that brain cell in Deadwood, South Dakota, Halloween Night 2009.
In fact the Walker Brothers were three friends from Los Angeles – John Walker, the frontman/guitarist, bassist Scott Engel and drummer Gary Leeds – who decided that with all the British Invasion groups crossing the pond to come to America, they would instead set up shop in England, where they took John’s surname and became the Walker Brothers. Their first British recording, “Love Her,” was a hit there (but not here). Walker, who was actually born John Maus but adopted the Walker name at age 17, died of cancer.
Oh, what the hell…time to get out of your cubes, folks…
The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore)
Loneliness
Is a cloak you wear
A deep shade of blue
Is always there
The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore
The moon ain’t gonna rise in the sky
The tears are always clouding your eyes
When you’re without love – Baby
Emptiness
Is a place you’re in
With nothing to lose
But no more to win
[Chorus]
Lonely, without you baby
Girl I need you
I can’t go on
[Chorus…but add an extra ‘The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore’ after 3rd line]
Top 3 songs for the week 5/15/76: #1 “Boogie Fever” (Sylvers…ughh…the music scene was beginning to change for the worse) #2 “Welcome Back” (John Sebastian) #3 “Silly Love Songs” (Wings…total piece of crap)…and…#4 “Fooled Around And Fell In Love” (Elvin Bishop…but then there is this one…one of my top 3 all time) #5 “Love Hangover” (Diana Ross) #6 “Show Me The Way” (Peter Frampton…thank god for Frampton’s album, “Frampton Comes Alive”) #7 “Get Up And Boogie (That’s Right)” (Silver Convention…just shoot me) #8 “Right Back Where We Started From” (Maxine Nightingale…ehh) #9 “Happy Days” (Pratt & McClain) #10 “Shannon” (Henry Gross…song about Shannon Airport in Ireland)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Stan Musial (1943-44, 46, 48-50, 53) and Babe Ruth (1918-19 Bos., 1920-21, 23-24, 28 N.Y.) led their leagues in extra-base hits seven seasons. 2) Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio each had 4 or more extra-base hits in a game a record five times. Willie Stargell is the only National Leaguer to do it four times.
Stargell is also one of only nine players, going back to 1885, to get five extra-base hits in a single game (not accomplished by Gehrig or DiMaggio), Aug. 1, 1970.
Great box score…Pirates 20 Atlanta 10. Stargell went 5 for 6, two homers, three doubles, five runs scored, 6 RBI. Hank Aaron was 3 for 4 with two homers and five RBI.
Also, re: question 1…Honus Wagner also led the league in extra-base hits seven times for Pittsburgh (1900, 02-04, 07-09).
