Baseball Quiz: 1) Since 1900, three rookie pitchers have thrown 8 shutouts in a season: Russ Ford, 1910, and Reb Russell, 1913, are the first two. Name the third…post-1960. 2) Who holds the rookie strikeout record in each league, both modern day, post-1950? 3) What National Leaguer is tied with Brooklyn’s Karl Spooner for strikeouts in their first game with 15? [Hint: He did it in 1971.] Answers below.
Johnny Cash…Ragged Old Flag
You won’t believe this, but I just recently watched “Walk the Line” for the first time (of course I loved it), so have Johnny Cash on my brain and to celebrate the Fourth, why not highlight the song he penned in 1975 to honor our country. As you read this, just remember the times were quite different then amid the aftermath of Watergate and our Vietnam Veterans coming home, ignored or abused. Then again, if we’re not careful we could fall right back into these same traps.
[There are some good YouTube performances of this one you may want to check out.]
Ragged Old Flag
I walked through a county courthouse square
On a park bench, an old man was sittin’ there.
I said, “Your old court house is kinda run down,”
He said, “Naw, it’ll do for our little town.”
I said, “Your old flag pole is leaned a little bit,
And that’s a ragged old flag you got hangin’ on it.”
He said, “Have a seat,” and I sat down,
“Is this the first time you’ve been to our little town?”
I said, “I think it is.”
He said, “I don’t like to brag, but we’re kinda proud of That Ragged Old Flag.
“You see, we got a little hole in that flag there,
When Washington took it across the Delaware.
And it got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key sat watching it,
writing ‘Say Can You See.’
It got a rip in New Orleans, with Packingham & Jackson
tugging at its seams.
And it almost fell at the Alamo
beside the Texas flag,
but she waved on though.
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville,
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on
That Ragged Old Flag.
“On Flanders Field in World War I,
She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun,
She turned blood red in World War II,
She hung limp, and low, a time or two,
She was in Korea, Vietnam, she went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam.
She waved from our ships upon the briny foam
and now they’ve about quit wavin’ back here at home,
In her own good land here she’s been abused,
She’s been burned, dishonored, denied an’ refused,
And the government for which she stands
Has been scandalized throughout the land.
And she’s getting thread bare, and she’s wearin’ thin,
But she’s in good shape, for the shape she’s in.
Cause she’s been through the fire before
and I believe she can take a whole lot more.
“So we raise her up every morning,
And we bring her down slow every night,
We don’t let her touch the ground,
And we fold her up right.
On second thought,
I do like to brag
Cause I’m mighty proud of
That Ragged Old Flag.”
Novak Djokovic continued his total domination of tennis in 2011 with an upset win over Rafael Nadal, the 24-year-old Serb’s first Wimbledon title and 3rd Grand Slam triumph overall (the other two being Australian Opens). But Djokovic has also won 8 of his last ten matches against Nadal, including the last five.
Djokovic thus takes over as No. 1 in the world computer rankings, the first time in nearly 7 ½ years that Federer or Nadal isn’t on top.
And Czech Petra Kvitova won her first Grand Slam title in defeating Maria Sharapova, 6-3, 6-4, giving NBC too much time to kill as I opted to go for a jog. Kvitova, 21, looks like she enjoys a premium lager or two back home…and there’s nothing wrong with that, sports fans! Sharapova looks like she drinks nothing but Acai Berry products, and I’m not complaining about this either.
Ball Bits
–David Wharton and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times write that Major League Baseball did not expect Dodgers owner Frank McCourt to file for Chapter 11 protection – “a high-risk move that would leave his fate in the hands of a bankruptcy judge.”
“ ‘Even last Wednesday, I thought the way this was going to end was with him coming to the realization that he could not make payroll and saying, ‘You’ve got to cover me and I’ll sell the team,’ said a person familiar with league discussions but not authorized to speak publicly.
“Had McCourt been willing to sell, the league would have been willing to work with him and cover his costs. Instead, he pulled his storied club into a Delaware Bankruptcy Court, prompting MLB executives to consider what is now, experts say, a far different set of options.
“They could attempt a quick strike – arguing to a judge that McCourt, as a franchisee, should be removed because he has irreparably damaged the league’s brand by violating terms of ownership.
“Or they could choose a longer path that involves taking control of the team through the bankruptcy process itself.”
MLB will argue McCourt is losing the fans, rapidly, especially with news accounts that had him diverting $100 million in team revenues for personal use.
–Joe Posnanski has a good piece on Yogi Berra in the current Sports Illustrated.
“Here is something to blow your mind: From 1957 through 1981, New York baseball teams appeared in 13 World Series. Yogi Berra – as player, coach or manager – appeared in every one of them. In all, Yogi Berra appeared in 21 World Series. Think about that. The number is so staggering, so overwhelming, that it defies attempts to make sense of it. The St. Louis Cardinals, the second most successful franchise behind Yogi’s Yankees, have appeared in 17 World Series in their long history. At one point this season San Francisco, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Texas and Tampa Bay led their divisions – all six combined have not been in as many World Series as Yogi Berra….
“From 1950 to ’56 – a seven-year stretch during which Berra won three MVP awards* and played catcher at a sustained level of greatness perhaps unsurpassed in baseball history – Berra hit 191 home runs and struck out 166 ties. One day in 1950 he struck out twice against Dick Littlefield. He did not strike out again for three weeks. He did not strike out twice in a game again for more than a year.”
Yogi hated to take a day off, especially when early in his career he heard Joe DiMaggio gripe that Yogi was too young to be getting a break when Berra took off the second game of a doubleheader.
“That did it. In his seven golden years Berra played in 100 more games than any other catcher in baseball. There are so many numbers involving Yogi Berra that boggle the mind, but perhaps none more than this: In that seven-year prime Yogi Berra started at catcher in both games of a doubleheader 117 times. Seven times during that stretch he started both games of a doubleheader on back-to-back days.”
*I was surprised Posnanski didn’t mention that in Berra’s brilliant seven-year stretch, not only did he win three MVP awards, but he was 2nd, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the balloting the other four seasons.
–The disingenuous one, Alex Rodriguez, was at it again at the start of round two of the Subway Series between his Yankees and the Mets. Speaking of Jose Reyes, A-Rod said, “They have the world’s greatest player right now playing shortstop over there, and most exciting. I turn the TV on every time I get a chance to watch him.”
No you don’t. It’s just classic A-Rod. There’s no reason to embellish the original statement but he always feels compelled to.
A-Rod has never struck me as the kind of person who is sitting at home on his off day, watching other baseball games. I’d wager $10,000 on this.
Speaking of wagers, mine is safe because it seems that A-Rod, according to the Star Magazine, was one of the A-list Texas Hold ‘Em ring that is being investigated for the clandestine games that included actor Tobey Maguire, who is being sued for $300,000 in winnings. The Star has three sources placing A-Rod at the key game in question. One unnamed source told the Star that initially A-Rod “came to the game and simply watched. But once he knew what it was all about, he (bought) into the game. He played two or three hours, I would estimate.”
Back in 2005, Commissioner Bud Selig was very unhappy with Alex when he learned A-Rod had been going to New York poker clubs.
–Check this out. Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal was curious how many home runs in Yankee Stadium, a true launching pad, would have cleared cavernous Citi Field. “The answer is striking.”
“With the help of HitTrackerOnline’s Greg Rybarczyk and the ESPN Stats and Information Group, we looked at every home run hit at the new Yankee Stadium by seven key Yankees (through Sunday…June 26). Of the 242 homers, only 120 (49.6%) would have cleared the fence at Citi Field, assuming average weather conditions….
“Shortstop Derek Jeter would have been affected most, with just four of his 20 homers leaving Citi Field. For Robinson Cano, who hits most of his home runs into Yankee Stadium’s short right field, the number is 18 of 40 Even Alex Rodriguez…would have lost 41% of his homers if he played his home games at Citi Field.”
–The Yankees’ CC Sabathia, 30, is having another great season with 11 wins and now has 168 for his career. Since 1980, no pitcher has reached 168 faster. “And among the 10 hurlers who noted 300 wins in this span, only Tom Seaver matched Sabathia’s total at a comparable age,” as reported by the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Salfino.
So if CC wins 20 this year and an average of 18 for each of his remaining Yankees seasons, he would sit at 249 at age 35.
“From there, just being a left-hander with a great changeup may be enough to get to the finish line. Good health is of paramount importance, but Sabathia has been disabled only twice – both times for rib strains. His arm has been unscathed.”
—Ruth Roberts died on Thursday at the age of 84. All she did was write “Meet the Mets”. Yup, 50 years ago, in 1961, she wrote the ditty to encourage a skeptical town to “step right up and greet the Mets,” the new kids in town that would start play in ’62.
Roberts wrote the tune with her long-time collaborator, the composer Bill Katz, who died in 1988.
But “Meet the Mets” wasn’t her only hit. She wrote “The First Thing Ev’ry Morning (And the Last Thing Ev’ry Night),” which was performed by Dean Martin. But she also did “Mr. Touchdown, USA,” which she wrote with Katz and her husband, Gene Piller, in 1950. And six years after that, they wrote “I Love Mickey,” about Mickey Mantle.
So by 1961, as advertising agency J. Walter Thompson was crafting an image for the new National League franchise, Roberts and Katz were known quantities.
Roberts’ song, though, was one of 19 that were considered by the team, which left it up to fans in a contest. It actually wasn’t released until 1963, with the original version performed by the Glenn Osser Orchestra and then performed on the radio and at the Polo Grounds.
As Joshua Robinson writes in the Wall Street Journal:
“For the fans who could not get enough of it, the Mets sold 45-rpm records of ‘Meet the Mets’ for $1 as a souvenir of the Polo Grounds….
“According to one news report from May 1963, the records were immediately popular. The Mets sold more than 4,000 copies at the ballpark and through the mail during the first two months of the season.”
As Bob Thompson, a professor of music locally, put it, “It’s so stylized, it couldn’t have been written in any other period but the early 1960s. It’s so corny – and that’s what makes it beautiful.”
Meet the Mets
Meet the Mets
Step right up and greet the Mets
Bring your kiddies,
Bring your wife
Guaranteed to have the time of your life…Because the Mets are really sockin’ the ball…Knockin’ those home runs over the wall
East Side, West Side,
Ev’ry body’s comin’ down
To meet the M E T S Mets
Of New York town.
–Jason Gay / Wall Street Journal…some of his 22 rules of backyard Wiffle ball.
1. It’s not a real Wiffle ball game unless you can break a window. Or windows.
5. Skinny yellow bats only…The fat red bat your nephew just got for his 1st birthday? Put it back in the crib. Jeez.
9. You know that fast-pitch Wiffle craziness you can find on YouTube, with the fratty dudes in uniforms hurling it 84 miles an hour? That’s not Wiffle ball. That’s unchecked male aggression and most of those players wind up in prison or public office.
10. To that point: no high-speed pitching! Everyone should be able to hit. You are in the backyard with a Michelob in your hand, and you do not care about your earned-run average, Mr. Halladay!
11. Yes you can throw your super-awesome curve ball. But throw it fat and slow over the plate. Like a 2011 Astro.
12. If someone shows up to the game in eye black and a VARITEK or POSADA jersey – pat them on the head, point them to the driveway and call a cab and then the police.
13. Two outs an inning. You want to finish before the mosquitoes, yes?
19. If there’s someone from New England in your game they will spend at least five minutes explaining how growing up in New England, there was no such thing as “a crew cut” or a “buzz cut” – you just went to the barber and asked for a “Wiffle.” It’s not an interesting story, but it’s harmless.
21. If the ball gets hit into poison ivy, just decide which person in your Wiffle ball group is the least-liked, and send that person straight in.
22. The game is over when you hear a window smash. Now everybody run.
–Prior to R.A. Dickey singling in Sunday’s game, Mets pitchers had gone 1 for 79 at the plate.
—Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, 1941, continued…
Game 46…July 5…Philadelphia…1 for 4…1 HR 2 RBI
Game 47…July 6 (1)…Philadelphia…4 for 5…2 RBI
Game 48…July 6 (2)…Philadelphia…2 for 4…2 RBI
NBA Lockout
The league imposed its second lockout in 13 years and as Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News writes, it’s as much about Eddy Curry as anyone else; Curry having earned $31 million the past three seasons despite playing only 10 games in that time with the Knicks. The owners are now insisting that a new collective bargaining agreement feature smaller salaries.
The Knicks weren’t alone, of course. Orlando signed Rashard Lewis to a six-year, $125 million deal in 2007, “overpaying by $60 million for a player who gave them only one All-Star season.”
Or the $111 million given to Gilbert Arenas by the Wizards, even after he had already had two knee operations, and then promptly had a third (let alone all manner of other issues, including bringing guns into the locker room).
As to the negotiations, no one expects anything to happen until mid-August at the earliest. The season starts late October and you need a month to get ready so Oct. 1 is kind of a deadline.
The league is reportedly guaranteeing the players $2 billion annually over 10 years, or 45% of basketball-related income…12 percentage points less than players get now.
Commissioner David Stern said, “We have a huge philosophical divide.”
“Do they ever. Owners say the current economic system is broken. All it does is assure them of red ink on their books, and they’re tired of losing their shirts. Players counter that the current system is fine, but they think that owners throw away millions with bad signings, as Isiah Thomas made a career doing when he ran the Knicks.
“But this is why we’re in Day 1 of an NBA lockout, why Stern was talking about all the negative fallout that is coming his way.
“ ‘I’m not scared,’ he said. ‘I’m resigned to the potential damage it can cause to our league.’”
Billy Hunter, executive director of the Players Association, said, “Our differences are mammoth.”
“Here’s what is particularly troubling, but not surprising. Everybody has known about the great philosophical divide ever since owners and players decided to start negotiating in 2009. Yet, they have done nothing in all this time to get on the same page.
“As Stern admitted Thursday, maybe they need to chuck everything they’ve done so far and just start over when talks resume in perhaps another two weeks.
“In case you really thought the two sides were speaking the same language, the players’ last offer Thursday put that to rest. This is where Stern got the players, got them good.
“Hunter and his guys had already left the building when Stern revealed that their last offer, made in the three-hour negotiating session leading up to the midnight expiration of the CBA, actually would have increased the average salary from $5 million this season to $7 million.
“Do you think that will help the players, who already are considered overpaid and greedy?
“Both sides are going to catch grief for this. Not now, when basketball fans can live without the NBA for a few months. There won’t be summer leagues and free agency is getting delayed, but so what?
“But fall will eventually roll around, and fans will start wondering how LeBron James is going to recover from his colossal Finals flop. They’re going to begin to ponder if Mike Brown is going to be a good fit with Kobe Bryant. Knicks fans will be consumed with whether Mike D’Antoni can teach defense, and whether Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire will try to play that end of the court.
“And when those issues begin to be raised when camps would be starting, at the beginning of October, and there’s still no agreement, then the players will get the backlash. They always do.”
Charles Barkley commented, “It’s going to get ugly. I’ve already been on the record saying I don’t think they’re going to play at all next season.”
–Due to his ongoing dispute with Major League Eating, Takeru Kobayashi will once again be missing from the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. MLE is run by George and Richard Shea, and it was George who took over what had been a localized Nathan’s contest and began applying some of his PR magic. But it wasn’t until Kobayashi devoured over 50 dogs in 2001 that the world really took notice (the previous record had been only 25). In 2004, MLE signed on with ESPN, and in 2007, when Joey Chestnut defeated Kobayashi, it made every local and national newscast in the country.
In 2010, Chestnut made $220,000 from MLE contests and he expects to make considerably more this year. But No. 3, Tim Janus, has never earned more than $35,000 a year. So it’s top-heavy, to say the least.
This April, incidentally, Janus ate a record 42 cupcakes in 8 minutes. Last September, the Black Widow, Sonya Thomas, defeated Joey Chestnut at a Buffalo, N.Y., wings contest, devouring 181 in 12 minutes to Chestnut’s 169. Thomas is just 5 feet tall and weighs 105 pounds, but ate 4.86 pounds of chicken that day.
Chestnut’s Nathan’s Famous hot dog record was set in 2009 when he downed 68 in 10 minutes.
—Dave Ragan won his first Sprint Cup race at Daytona on Saturday, after blowing his chance to win the Daytona 500 back in February.
–Saturday night, I stayed up to watch a tape of the David Haye-Wladimir Klitschko heavyweight title fight from Germany, not knowing the result beforehand, and boy I wish I had known because this turned out to be one of the worst championship fights in the history of mankind as Klitschko handily outpointed the challenger. HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant, though, was in rare form, blistering Haye’s performance. “If you don’t punch, you don’t win!” “Haye is a museum!” “Pinch me when the fight starts.”
It was an utter disgrace. The card girls were quite attractive, however.
–Actor Charlie Sheen, in an interview with Sports Illustrated on the making of the movie “Major League,” said he took steroids for “six or eight weeks” in preparation for his role as pitcher Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn. Sheen, who pitched in high school, said “My fastball went from 79 to like 85.” Not a bad clue as to the impact steroids had on the likes of Roger Clemens.
—Nick Watney won his fourth career PGA Tour event in taking the AT&T National this weekend. And not for nothing, but while Wake Forest has had a tough go of it recently on the athletic front, one of its alums, Webb Simpson, is carving out quite a year as he now has 12, top-25 finishes in 16 events this year; a veritable money machine. He had a T-8 this week, his fifth top ten.
–Golfer Bubba Watson did not endear himself to Europeans. Appearing at a Euro PGA Tour event in France, “He complained of homesickness after round one and criticized cellphones and crowd control (‘It’s not a normal tournament’) after failing to make the cut. As for the British Open in two weeks, he said he will play ‘because it’s a major – that’s the only reason.’” [John Paul Newport / Wall Street Journal] Not a good move, Bubba.
–Mr. Newport also reports that Bob Hope’s name is being removed from the Desert Classic next January after 47 years. It will be called the Humana Challenge and will move from its five-round format to four, with the first three rounds for pros with amateurs, followed by a pro-only final round. The winner’s trophy will still be named for Hope. It’s already been 8 years since he died in 2003 at age 100.
–If you like to dine in Manhattan, know that Dominique Strauss-Kahn celebrated his first night of relative freedom last Friday by dining with his wife and another couple at Scalinatella Ristorante on E. 61st St. and 3rd Ave.
—Great white shark sightings have been frequent off Chatham, Massachusetts recently, as reported by Bloomberg. The sea population has grown and that is attracting Whitey. But many of the locals aren’t real happy about the attention and the resulting hordes of tourists. In the past two summers, 13 great whites have been tagged.
“Folks show up and ask, ‘What’s the best place to see the sharks?’ or ‘What time do they start eating the seals?’ as if it were a circus act,” said local Tim Roper.
–Funny story in New Jersey the past few days. A baboon escaped from Great Adventure’s drive-through safari in the central part of the state and was seen all over the area, including the first sighting, sitting along Interstate 195, before it was captured in a barn two days later. Imagine, one woman looked out on her back porch and there was the 3-foot baboon. By the time it was captured, the animal had gone 20 miles!
Jim Hosie, whose farm the baboon ended up on, said he was startled after the baboon “jumped about a dozen feet into a loft where a friend was baling hay.”
–95 years ago, July 1, 1916, was the most catastrophic day in the history of the British Army. The Battle of the Somme. Lloyd George called it “the most gigantic, tenacious, grim, futile and bloody fight ever waged in the history of war.” Along a 13-mile front, of the 120,000 men who took part, 20,000 died and more than 40,000 were wounded by nightfall.
By the time fighting ground to a halt in November of that year, Britain and its allies had suffered 420,000 casualties. 125,000 dead. The French had lost 200,000. The Germans between 450,000 and 680,000.
—Pippa Middleton is back with boyfriend Alex Loudon, so those of you who have been readying your resume for submission can find something else to do for the foreseeable future.
–Dr. John reports that Saison Dupont Belgian farmhouse ale, one of the Men’s Health summer beer picks, is indeed fabulous. Haven’t had it myself yet. I did enjoy Shiner Bock at a family gathering on Saturday.
–Jeff B. heard Peter Frampton the other night and gave the 70s rocker a rave review. Frampton plays the entire FCA album and then a second set. “An amazing 3+ hours in all,” said J.B., who offers a money back guarantee if you catch Frampton and don’t like the show.
Top 3 songs for the week 7/2/66: #1 “Strangers In The Night” (Frank Sinatra…shooby dooby dooo…doo dee dee daa da) #2 “Paperback Writer” (The Beatles…somehow “I wanna be a Kin-dle wri-terrrr” doesn’t have the same ring, know what I’m sayin’?) #3 “Red Rubber Ball” (The Cyrkle…you know, musically this one has held up pretty well)…and…#4 “Paint It, Black” (The Rolling Stones…earlier #1 for two weeks…definitely in my top five for them) #5 “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me” (Dusty Springfield…would have been fun to have a few beers with) #6 “Hanky Panky” (Tommy James and The Shondells) #7 “Cool Jerk” (The Capitols) #8 “I Am A Rock” (Simon and Garfunkel) #9 “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?” (The Lovin’ Spoonful…not my favorite of theirs) #10 “Barefootin’” (Robert Parker)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Fernando Valenzuela threw 8 shutouts in his magical rookie season, 1981. [Russ Ford had a helluva rookie season for the New York Highlanders (pre-Yankees) in 1910, going 26-6. And I see he’s buried in Rockingham, N.C. Hey, Phil W. Something for you and Beth to do one weekend. “Honey, let’s check out Russ Ford’s burial site. I’ll pack the beer.” 2) Rookie strikeout record: Dwight Gooden holds the record in the N.L. with 276 in 1984. Herb Score still holds the A.L. mark at 245 with Cleveland in 1955. 3) J.R. Richard fanned 15 in his first game for Houston back in 1971. Every time I look at his stroke-shortened career, I just shake my head. You feel so sorry for the guy. He was most likely headed to Cooperstown. And then after the stroke he fell on very hard times. But I also forgot the guy slammed 10 home runs! Not bad, not bad at all. And I forgot just how many batters he walked! Good lord…he had seasons of 138, 141 and 151 free passes! As for Brooklyn’s Karl Spooner, talk about a phenom. He came up in September 1954 as a 23-year-old and threw two complete game shutouts, fanning 27 in 18 innings. The next year he was 8-6 but hurt his arm in the first spring training game when manager Walter Alston brought him in earlier than planned and Spooner didn’t tell him he wasn’t ready; so instead he threw way too hard and blew out his shoulder, though he struggled under the pain the rest of the season. His major league career would be over after ’55 at age 24. He then died of cancer at 52.
No Bar Chat, Thursday. Next one, Monday July 11. [Slight chance I’ll have something Thurs. I need to catch up on some things.]
