NFL Quiz: 1) Name the two Kansas City Chiefs running backs to win rushing titles (not including Abner Haynes at the forerunner Dallas Texans). 2) Jerry Rice holds the single-season record for receiving yardage at 1,848 set in 1995 while he was with San Francisco. That same year, what player accumulated the second most yards receiving in history with 1,781? 3) Who is No. 3 on the single-season receiving yards list, established in 1961 by an AFL player? 4) Who was the last Washington Redskin to win the rushing title? Answers below.
World Series…Phone-Gate
[Note: Posted prior to Game 6…which I just saw was postponed to Thursday]
“He has won two World Series, been a subject of books about his managerial prowess and is considered by some as one of the best managers in baseball history. But on his way to what will undoubtedly be a Hall of Fame induction, Tony La Russa, a manager for 33 years, stumbled Monday night.
“That it happened on a grand stage, Game 5 of the World Series, made it excruciating for La Russa. And it may have led directly to the Texas Rangers defeating his St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2, to move within one victory of their first World Series championship….
“In Game 5, the sense of managerial invincibility crumbled. La Russa made several questionable moves, including a curious bunt in the third inning and a bizarre hit-and-run play in the seventh. Most glaring, he failed to properly communicate which pitchers he wanted warming up in a tie game in the eighth inning.
“He originally said that stadium noise prevented the proper names from being communicated to the bullpen coach, Derek Lilliquist. On Tuesday, during a long and dispassionate explanation of all the unexpected difficulties he encountered while running the game, La Russa took the ultimate blame for them.
“Most of all, he acknowledged he was mortified it took place in such a glaring forum.
“ ‘I said, ‘Man, this is stuff that I hope happens on a Wednesday game on the road someplace that nobody is there,’’ he said, adding: ‘Long story short, once the thing started, you go and make a pitching change, you’ve got the wrong guy coming out there, that’s no fun. Jeez, that was embarrassing.’
“But La Russa also indicted that Lilliquist had hung up on him too early, after La Russa had said the name of the left-hander Marc Rzepczynski but before he had said, ‘and Jason Motte.’ Motte was the right-hander La Russa wanted to face the right-handed-hitting Mike Napoli, who won the game with a two-run double off Rzepczynski.
“ ‘The first mention of Motte was probably after he had hung up,’ La Russa said. ‘Maybe I didn’t say it quickly enough.’
“Rzepczynski was brought in to face the left-handed-hitting David Murphy, who reached on a single that bounced off the pitcher. Otherwise, it might have been an inning-ending double play.
“La Russa’s uncharacteristic reaction to the play was caught on television. Normally stoic in the dugout, he put both hands to his head and arched backward in anguish. Only then did he notice that Motte was not warming up.
“Rzepczynski had to stay in the game, and Napoli crushed a two-run double. La Russa said that although he did not want Rzepczynski facing Napoli, he would not consider delaying tactics like initiating an argument with the umpires or having someone fake an injury.
“When he saw Motte was not ready, La Russa called the bullpen again, but he said Lilliquist heard him say ‘Lynn,’ for Lance Lynn, who was not supposed to pitch at all because of his recent workload.
“La Russa was not aware of the second miscommunication, so when he called for a right-hander, he got Lynn instead of Motte. He did not want Lynn to throw any real pitches, so he had him walk Ian Kinsler intentionally, then finally got Motte into the game.”
“Tony La Russa is going to get the blame if the Cardinals can’t come back to win the World Series, partly for ‘phone-gate’ when he couldn’t’ get Jason Motte in the game.
“The irony, of course, is that the one area the Cardinals were supposed to have a clear-cut edge in this World Series was in the dugout. Ron Washington himself even volunteered that he couldn’t match strategic wits with La Russa.
“Only now, if the Cardinals don’t win these final two games, this could very well be remembered as the World Series that La Russa, The Genius, lost with his logic-defying mismanaging….
“Never mind his own moves – who knew the most hands-on manager in the game allowed Albert Pujols to cal his own hit-and-run plays from the batter’s box?
“La Russa went to great lengths Tuesday to explain that he gives Pujols such a right because he’s one of the smartest players he has ever managed. That may be, but Pujols’ decision to put on the hit-and-run with Allen Craig in the seventh was awfully dumb….
“Pujols, by the way, may have had his Ruthian moment in Game 3, with those three home runs, but he needs to deliver some heroics in Games 6 and 7 or he’ll deserve some A-Rod-like blame.
“Between the missed cut-off throw in Game 2, his dopey hit-and-run call, complete with him deciding not to swing as cover for Craig, and his strikeout on a pitch a foot outside in the ninth inning Monday night with Craig running again, Pujols has had his issues.”
“For starters, I’m still trying to understand how ‘Lynn’ sounds like ‘Motte,’ which is supposedly what bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist heard the second time La Russa called him with orders to get Motte warmed up….
“Tuesday La Russa took full blame for the ‘phone mix-up,’ but it still doesn’t quite add up. So after he did some of his best managing to get the Cardinals to the World Series, he now needs his team to bail him out in Games 6 and 7 – or his reputation may never be quite the same.”
One note on Pujols, who is about to become a free agent and is seeking an A-Rod-like 10-year, $275 million deal, which is absolutely nuts. I was listening to a local radio sports talk show host and he had a good point. If Pujols knows what’s good for him, he’ll stay in St. Louis and accept a lot less money because no matter where he goes, let’s say he signs an 8-year, $180 million deal but by year four he is in obvious decline, those last years of the contract will be a living hell for the guy. Say it’s the Cubs. Chicago fans will not be tolerant, whereas St. Louis fans, because he was a Cardinal all along, will be far more so.
The Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Futterman also had the point that “like a lot of aging sluggers – Pujols will be 32 in January – he is starting to resemble something of an opera singer as he gets older. Still massively strong with thick arms that look like they run a jackhammer all day, he’s getting thick around the middle.” The guy can’t run.
Ball Bits
–The New York Daily News says the Boston Red Sox could take a real run at CC Sabathia, especially after it was announced Boston hurler John Lackey will be out the 2012 season owing to Tommy John surgery, not that Lackey’s historically bad performance this year has Red Sox Nation bemoaning the loss of the starter (though he was to be entering only year three of a 5-year, $82.5 million contract). Sabathia is expected to exercise the opt-out clause in his contract allowing him to negotiate a new deal with anyone else, or re-sign with the Yanks. Sabathia is owed $92 million by the Yanks over the next four years if he doesn’t opt out but he may believe he can get more years, and money, elsewhere. Boston, on the other hand, already has a huge payroll and it’s no certainty they can afford CC.
–Meanwhile, the Theo Epstein era began in Chicago with the Cubs paying him $18.5 million over five years as the president of baseball operations. Good lord! The Cubs still have to compensate Boston in some fashion as Epstein had a year left on his contract with the Red Sox.
–The Phillies released pitchers Roy Oswalt and Brad Lidge, rather than pick up their $16 million and $12.5 million options, respectively.
–Major League Baseball alleges Dodgers owner Frank McCourt took $189 million out of the team, describing the distributions as “looting.” In its filing as part of the Dodgers’ bankruptcy proceeding, the league claims McCourt funneled $73 million in parking revenue though a non-team related entity; used $61.2 million in team revenue to pay off personal debts; and took $55 million from team revenue for personal distributions.
–So Norman Chad has the “$1.25 Ask The Slouch Cash Giveaway” at his Washington Post perch, (asktheslouch@aol.com) and if your question is used, you win $1.25 in cash!
Q: If Tony La Russa had been alive during colonial days, would Paul Revere have been permitted to finish his dash or would he have been lifted for a relief pitcher? (Scott D. Shuster; Watertown, Mass.)
Q: When Tony La Russa attends a wedding reception, does he demand different servers for the appetizer, salad, entrée and dessert? (Scott D. Shuster; Watertown, Mass.)
Q: Are you aware that Tony La Russa has been known to change bank tellers mid-transaction? (Scott D. Shuster; Watertown, Mass.)
A: Yes, we have our first three-time winner in a single week!
–Michael O’Keeffe of the Daily News reports that “Six sports memorabilia dealers have been charged with selling hundreds of bogus game-used jerseys to trading card companies and other buyers, federal prosecutors in Rockford, Ill., announced Tuesday.”
The Chicago FBI spearheaded Operation Foul Ball for more than 10 years. A press release from the office of U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald “says the defendants obtained hundreds of jerseys from retail outlets and other sources, and then scuffed them up to make them appear to have game-used wear and tear.
“The jerseys were then resold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The buyers included trading card companies, which cut up the jerseys and inserted threads into cards, transforming them into higher-priced collectibles.
“ ‘As part of the scheme, the defendants provided the buyers with fraudulent certificates of authenticity,’ the press release said.”
Tuesday was the 25th anniversary of Bill Buckner’s famous World Series error on Mookie Wilson’s ground ball that got through his legs, allowing the winning run to score in Game 6, forcing a Game 7 that the Red Sox would lose to the Mets.
The actual ball, though, didn’t sell on eBay’s auction site Tuesday night as the bidding failed to reach the $1 million minimum. Los Angeles songwriter Seth Swirsky bought it for $63,500 in 2000, according to ESPN.
As baseball writer Peter Golenbock said, “I’ve never ever in my life seen such vituperation by a mob of fans as the Red Sox felt after the World Series was lost. It was terrible.”
Buckner, 61, told Bloomberg in a phone interview, “I am at a point where I can forgive the media and the fans. There were some dark spots, especially because I don’t think the crime fit the punishment.”
“Of course I remember where I was 25 years ago Tuesday night. You probably do, too.
“It’s not seared into my skull like a childhood trauma. The passage of time and a couple of World Series titles have dulled its pain.
“At least I keep telling myself that. It’s still a bizarre memory for lunatics like me who grew up in Massachusetts.
“It’s much different for my friends in New York, of course…If you’re a Mets fan, it’s an indelible, almost sepia-toned joy, like a wedding, a Springsteen show, or that time that cab got you to JFK in nine minutes.”
Oh, I remember. I actually went to Game 1 of the Series, the dullest 1-0 game in the history of mankind as the Mets were held to four singles by Bruce Hurst and Calvin Schiraldi in bone-chilling cold at Shea Stadium, my friend and I just glad to get into a warm car afterwards.
But for Game 6, I was down in Texas, visiting a friend, and of course the game was over when Boston scored two in the top of the tenth to take a 5-3 lead.
Then with two outs in the bottom of the tenth, Gary Carter singled, Kevin Mitchell (who was naked in the clubhouse when he was told he was pinch-hitting, as legend has it) singled, Ray Knight singled, and then a wild pitch scored Mitchell with the tying run before Wilson’s bleeder was mishandled by Buckner.
I wasn’t scheduled to fly back to New York until two days later but told my friend I had to get back for Game 7 and left a day early (only to see it postponed by rain). Even when the Mets fell behind by 3 in the final contest, though, every Mets fan was fully confident and we won 8-5. Alas, I’m 53, having devoted a solid 45 of those years to the Metsies, and have only ’69 and ’86 to fall back on. Then again, that’s two more than Cubs fans have!
–The conference realignment game is back in the news in a big way with West Virginia reportedly set to become a member of the Big 12. The Big East’s future thus looks worse than ever. And now Rutgers and UConn, in particular, are on the outside looking in. Rutgers, for example, desperately needs the ACC or Big Ten to come calling, as the Star-Ledger’s Tom Liucci puts it, or Rutgers’ entire athletic program is at risk because staying in a weakened Big East, without automatic BCS bids, the money that comes with bowl games, and conference television contracts, just won’t cut it.
Rutgers, academically, is a great fit for either conference, while West Virginia is a great one for the academically challenged Big 12!
As Luicci points out, though, it’s really about Notre Dame. If they remain independent in football, the ACC could add Rutgers and UConn. If Notre Dame decides to join the Big Ten, Rutgers is then likely to become the Big Ten’s 14th member.
–Meanwhile, Missouri is still slated to join the SEC but nothing formal has been announced. Plus, as the New York Times’ Pete Thamel notes:
“Legal problems are holding up Missouri’s move, as it has to negotiate an exit fee, and there is a concern among Big 12 teams about how to fill the void in their schedules that Missouri would leave. That creates two problems, as universities will have to scramble to find another opponent, perhaps from the Football Championship Subdivision. A victory over a team from that level would not count toward a Big 12 member’s bowl eligibility. It will also cause the Big 12 to fall short of fulfilling its television contract. Both could be costly for the league.”
The SEC has mandated that Missouri not have any baggage before joining.
–The NCAA released its latest data on Graduation Success Rates, looking at Division I student-athletes. The goal is for eight of every ten to earn their degrees within six years. 82% who entered college in 2004 have graduated on time, so the NCAA is happy.
But…football and men’s basketball both fall short of 70%. USC men’s basketball, for example, is just 38%.
As for Wake Forest, for graduating classes 2001-2004, we are 100% for men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s and women’s soccer. 81% for football. As Ronald Reagan would have said, ‘Not bad…not bad at all.’
Then again, I’d much rather have these figures in the 70s and win a few more freakin’ games, know what I’m sayin’?!
–And NCAA President Mark Emmert said he supported a proposal that would let conferences increase grants to athletes by $2,000, which is absurd. This would be in addition to tuition, room, board, books and other expenses already covered by athletic scholarships.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘Well, you want to do this $2,000 cost-of-attendance thing to reduce the probability of students breaking rules,’ and that’s nonsense,” Emmert told the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. “People break rules because they break rules.”
As noted by Adam Himmelsbach of the New York Times, Emmert’s plan is to help cover costs student-athletes are unable to offset because they don’t have time to work part-time jobs, but this, critics say, “would escalate the financial disparity in college sports.”
Boise State’s president, Robert Kustra, said, “President Emmert said some conferences will do this and some won’t, and it’s pretty clear to me who will and who won’t. There’s already a great divide between larger conferences and the smaller conferences, and this is just going to exacerbate the gap between the haves and have-nots.”
Then there’s the issue of how the student’s would spend the $2,000. Personally, I’d opt to buy some domestic, assuming I was of age, and then I’d go to Vegas, and then I’d….
–I watched Game 5 of the Series on Monday night, of course, and frankly totally forgot there was even a Monday Night Football contest! Looks like I wasn’t the only one as the Jaguars’ 12-7 win over the Ravens drew the lowest rating ever for MNF! And from what I hear of the game itself, it was simply dreadful.
–For the record, the 62 points New Orleans registered against Indianapolis on Sunday night equaled the most in a game by any team since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.
And as Judy Battista of the New York Times noted, in the race to the bottom, here is the order in the Lose for Luck Bowl (the opportunity to draft Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, that is).
1. Dolphins (0-6): “A home cave-in to one of the worst teams in the NFL means the Dolphins, despite what appears to be better talent, might be even worse than they were in 2007, when they won just one game and ushered in the now-failed Bill Parcells/Jeff Ireland/Tony Sparano era. The rest of their schedule features just one team, the Eagles, below .500.”
2. Colts (0-7): “Everybody knew the Colts would struggle without Peyton Manning, but that does not explain the wholesale disappearance of the defense, too. This roster has more than enough talent to generate at least one victory, but after all those years of winning, do the Colts still possess the will to pull themselves up? If they hold the top spot, their draft decision would be the story of the off-season.” [I noted this last week.]
3. Rams (0-6): “So much more was expected of them this year, but they still have Sam Bradford. They could get a huge haul of draft picks to surround Bradford with talent if they sit in the No. 1 spot.” [Good point.]
–I didn’t know this…from the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Salfino:
“If you’re going to judge a quarterback by his wins and losses, then New York has a new Mr. October – Eli Manning.
“No active passer with more than 10 October starts in his career can match Manning’s sparkling win rate of 81.5% in the month (22-5).”
Alas, Giants fans also know about the team’s history in November and December, where in the case of Manning, his winning percentage goes down to just 46.2% and 45.2%, respectively. [This November, the Giants’ opponents are New England, San Francisco, Philadelphia and New Orleans.]
–The recent shark attack off Western Australia has garnered world attention, especially since sharks have killed four in the past 14 months in Aussie waters. Efforts to catch the killer, though, were abandoned when it was thought the Great White had headed out to deeper waters.
According to my friends at the International Shark Attack File (he wrote, tongue in cheek), 13 have died in shark-related attacks this year, or triple the annual average. I’d put the death toll at closer to 1,300, so there is a slight difference in methodology.
The controversy now is over all the shark hunts, worldwide, while at the same time scientists estimate between 26 million and 73 million sharks a year are targeted for their fins. Recently California joined Washington and Oregon in banning shark fin soup. Florida is readying a measure to ban the harvest of tiger sharks and great hammerheads.
“Killer cat: leopard drags away four-year-old”
“A leopard has dragged away and killed a four-year-old boy in western Nepal, the third victim from the same remote village in just four months.”
The thing is the kid was playing inside his house and the leopard came in and dragged him away!
So lock your doors, people! These leopards are smart, worthy of their No. 12 ranking on the All-Species List.
–The WWF and the International Rhino Foundation said Vietnam’s last Javan rhino was killed by poachers as it was discovered with the horn cut off, thus making it extinct in the country. Only one sighting had been recorded since 2008. Fewer than 50 are now estimated to remain in the wild in all of Southeast Asia.
Evidently, the WWF in Vietnam had invested large sums in an effort to save the species, but the director there said, “Vietnam has lost part of its natural heritage.”
Separately, as noted in this space, the rhino population in Africa is facing its worst poaching crisis in decades over the horns.
So Man continues to plummet on the All-Species List, another four notches to No. 171, passing the stink bug, which itself has had PR problems of its own.
–Ooh baby…just received the Usinger’s Sausage holiday catalogue…I’m drooling over the centerfold of the Beef Summer Sausage and Canadian Bacon.
–Composer, songwriter Paul Leka died the other day. He was 68. As Dennis McLellan of the Los Angeles Times wrote:
“It was intended to be a ‘throwaway’ song, the seldom-played B-side of a 45-rpm record produced in a New York recording studio in 1969.
“Instead, it became an A-side No. 1 hit single for a band called Steam, a song whose simple but catchy chorus became an enduring sports anthem chanted by sports fans around the world to taunt an opposing team:
“ ‘Na Na Na Na. Na Na Na Na. Hey Hey Hey. Goodbye.’”
It was Leka who co-wrote and produced the song. He did the same for the Lemon Pipers’ 1968 No. 1 hit ‘Green Tambourine,’ which your editor bought the rights to for a series of radio commercials that I did to launch StocksandNews back in 1999 and 2000. [Bloomberg Radio didn’t like that the introduction was too long, which is why I selected it because it’s so catchy, and made me go into the studio to re-cut it. CBS, in both New York and Los Angeles, though, let it slide.]
Top 3 songs for the week 10/21/72: #1 “My Ding-A-Ling” (Chuck Berry…Once while swimming cross turtle creek…Man them snappers right at my feet…Sure was hard swimming cross that thing…with both hands holding my ding-a-ling…) #2 “Burning Love” (Elvis Presley) #3 “Nights In White Satin” (The Moody Blues…a little too precious for me, just sayin’)…and…#4 “Use Me” (Bill Withers…gets better with age) #5 “I Can See Clearly Now” (Johnny Nash…pretty good) #6 “Freddie’ Dead (Theme from ‘Superfly’)” (Curtis Mayfield…best listened to with some Colt ’45…otherwise get Curtis’ greatest hits) #7 “Garden Party” (Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band…the one and only…time to repeat, “One of the most underrated artists of the second half of the 20th century” …right, Steve G.?) #8 “Ben” (Michael Jackson… what has come out in the Conrad Murray trial is that the King of Pop had a rather disconcerting infatuation long ago with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke) #9 “Everybody Plays The Fool” (The Main Ingredient) #10 “Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues” (Danny O’Keefe…wow, totally forgot this one… solid tune…youtube it if you don’t remember…)
NFL Quiz Answers: 1) Priest Holmes, 1,555 yards, 2001; and Christian Okoye, 1,480, 1989, are the two K.C. players to lead the NFL in rushing. 2) Isaac Bruce holds the No. 2 mark in receiving yards, 1,781, set in 1995 when Jerry Rice had 1,848. 3) The Houston Oilers’ Charley Hennigan, way back in 1961, had 1,746 yards (3rd-highest in history) on 82 catches, 21.3 avg., and did it in a 14-game schedule. 4) The last Redskins running back to lead the league in rushing was Larry Brown, 1970, with 1,125 yards.
Next Bar Chat, Monday, from Charleston, S.C., a very brief one that might not be posted until sometime Monday. Going to be messing around Charleston with my brother …lots of great food and drink, and a little civil war history.
