Baseball Quiz: [More from George Will…no cheating…] 1) Who is the only pitcher to hurl a shutout in four decades? 2) Only once in a 22-year career – in his last season, when he was 42 – struck out three times in a game. 3) Who allowed the fewest hits per nine innings in a career? 4) Who is the only catcher to lead a league in triples? Answers below.
The Masters…a tradition unlike any other, only on CBS…Sat. 3:30-7:00 p.m., ET; 2:00-7:00, Sunday…
And your EXCLUSIVE Bar Chat Pick to Click…Luke Donald!!! [Webb Simpson second, Tiger a solid third, three back.]
Kentucky 67 Kansas 59
It was far from a great national title game, but as much as we like upsets, sometimes you also want to see the greats come through and that was Kentucky this year, culminating in Monday’s contest. Anthony Davis, despite going just 1 of 10 from the field, became the fourth freshman to win the Most Outstanding Player Award as he hauled down 16 rebounds, blocked six shots, handed out five assists and had three steals.
But Kansas’ Thomas Robinson, who had 18 points (6-17 from the field) and 17 rebounds, was unimpressed by Davis.
“He’s not Superman,” Robinson said. “He’s just a great player. I don’t mean to be disrespectful by it, but as a competitor, I’m not going to sit here and give all my praise to someone I go up against.”
Seeing as Robinson is a lottery pick and instant double-double in the NBA, looks like we have a little rivalry developing.
I’m getting a kick out of those (with far more expertise than Thomas Robinson) who are kind of downplaying Davis’ potential, making him out to be just another very good player once he gets into the NBA. They’re idiots. Just as the NBA rigged the lottery so that the Knicks got Patrick Ewing (half-kidding folks), David Stern needs to ensure the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets get Davis. I think Deron Williams would then stay, don’t you? What we don’t want is Anthony Davis ending up in some crappy mid-market (no offense, Charlotte)
“Rarely has a national title seemed to yield so little to celebrate. The starting five for the champion Kentucky Wildcats – a mix of freshmen and sophomores – are expected to enter the NBA draft, and never again play for the college they ever so briefly attended.
“Mark Emmert, the president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, had already expressed regret that the NBA’s so-called ‘one-and-done’ rule allows universities to recruit athletes who show little interest in getting an education. That said, Emmert was not going to be forfeiting any of the tens of millions of dollars his organization has made as a result of the tournament the Kentucky team was so spectacular in winning.
“For his part, John Calipari said he did not like the state of affairs, either. But he said he nonetheless was going to hit the recruiting trail this week to seal deals with the best high school players in the country, and see if he could repeat the feat: persuade talented teenagers to spend seven months or so with him in pursuit of a college title and maybe National Basketball Association riches.
“The confetti inside the Louisiana Superdome on Monday night, then, showered a remarkable basketball team, but also fell with a certain joylessness on a college sport many believe has been cynically compromised.”
Of course Calipari isn’t the first to game the system. Syracuse won a national title with one-and-done Carmelo Anthony in 2003.
“NBA Commissioner David Stern told the AP on Tuesday that while he would like to see star players return after their freshman season, he was happy that the rule has kept NBA scouts away from high school gyms.”
A lot of us are not Calipari fans, but, hey, he’s not breaking any rules. And as Thamel and Bishop write:
“Few could argue the on-court benefits of Calipari’s approach. Six of his last seven teams at Memphis and at Kentucky advanced at least to the regional final of the NCAA tournament, among the final eight teams remaining. The seventh, Memphis in 2009, lost in the regional seminfinals. (Two teams that Calipari led to the Final Four – Memphis in 2008 and Massachusetts in 1996 – later had their victories vacated by the NCAA, although Calipari was never implicated in any wrongdoing.)
“Calipari has also had 13 players selected in the first round of the NBA draft, with Derrick Rose and John Wall being selected first overall. Davis…is expected to be taken first overall in this summer’s draft.”
This year, six of his players could be taken in the first round, including senior Darius Miller.
So Kentucky is an NBA AAA team. Calipari makes sure his players do the minimum required to stay in school through March, at least.
David Ridpath, an assistant professor of sports administration at Ohio University, probably has the best solution, adopt baseball’s model “in which players who do not enter the draft directly out of high school and choose to attend college are not eligible again until after they turn 21 or complete their junior season.”
Or maybe amend that to read 20 or complete sophomore season.
[For his part, Anthony Davis said he hasn’t decided whether to go out yet. He will. He’d be nuts not to.]
All in all, when it comes to the 2011-2012 college basketball season, I totally agree with ESPN.com’s Gene Wojciechowski:
“I’m not saying there weren’t some memorable stories throughout it all…But it wasn’t an especially likable season. Or, at least, it wasn’t a season worth transferring to your iCloud.
Meanwhile, the Baylor women won their national championship, 80-61 over Notre Dame, becoming the first NCAA basketball team to win 40 games in a season. I have to admit I didn’t watch a minute of it as I was glued to an unbelievable collapse by the New York Knicks against the Indiana Pacers, but 6-foot-8 (a little too tall for me, girls) Brittney Griner had 26 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots. Most believe Griner is the greatest women’s college basketball player of all time. So does she stay for her senior season?
Ball Bits
–Boy, I don’t know about this one. The Cincinnati Reds signed slugging first baseman Joey Votto to a 10-year, $225 million contract extension; the fourth-largest deal in baseball history and the third first baseman in four months to top the $200 million mark, following Albert Pujols’ $240 million, 10-year contract with the Angels and Prince Fielder’s nine-year, $213 million deal with the Tigers. Previously, only A-Rod had cracked the $200 million barrier with his 10-year, $277 million pact.
27-year-old Votto’s deal doesn’t take effect until after the final two years on his current contract expire…one that pays him $9.5 million this season and $17 million in 2014.
Separately, the Giants signed pitcher Matt Cain to a five-year, $112.5 million extension.
–There was an ugly incident the other day involving Colorado star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and a former Rockies’ teammate, pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez, now with Cleveland, with Jimenez deliberately drilling Tulowitzki, the result of a festering feud. Luckily, X-rays on his elbow were negative.
Rockies manager Jim Tracy called it “the most gutless act I’ve seen in 35 years in the game….He intentionally threw at him, he should be suspended.”
Jimenez said it was an accident, but he had recently told Foxsports.com that he was upset he didn’t receive a contract extension from Colorado, while Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez got new deals. Jimenez was then traded to the Indians last summer. As far as I can see, Tulowitzki never said anything about Jimenez.
So MLB suspended Jimenez for five games, while the pitcher said the next day he wasn’t going to apologize and he’s appealing.
Two years ago, Jimenez was 15-1 for the Rockies at the All-Star break, but he’s gone 14-20 since.
–I’m posting this column before the Mets’ Opening Day, Thursday, and it appears it will not be a sellout. Talk about embarrassing.
–The Boston Red Sox announced that their new closer, Andrew Bailey, will have thumb surgery that is likely to keep him out most of the season. Bailey was acquired from Oakland after Philadelphia signed Jonathan Papelbon. I’m guessing the Red Sox finish .500 and it’s not going to be a fun season for Bobby V.
–I was listening to a guy in the know describe the Marlins’ new ballpark the other day and I didn’t realize it was built on the site of the old Orange Bowl, which means one thing. The location is awful; having attended a game there when Wake Forest was in it a few years ago.
It’s not that the area is dangerous, there simply isn’t good transportation to the place, like in calling a cab, which if you were staying in South Beach can also be a bit expensive.
After the game, though, is the biggest issue. It took me forever to find a cab after the Orange Bowl. I’m assuming the Marlins will have a better system in place but now I’m not so keen to go as I once was until I get feedback from the guinea pigs.
So if you attend a game as a visitor, and haven’t driven your own car to Marlins Park, drop me a line on your experience.
–Michael Wilbon said on Tony Kornheiser’s ESPN show Monday morning that his sources tell him Indianapolis is now considering Robert Griffin III over Andrew Luck.
RG3 then declined a Colts request for a private workout. Owner Jim Irsay said he wanted to do his due diligence, even though the team is working out Andrew Luck and has stated before Luck was their guy. Griffin has met with the Redskins and is scheduled to visit the team later this month. It’s not clear if his declining the Colts’ offer means he’s either resigned to being No. 2 or that he wants to play in Washington.
–This is intriguing. The Jets signed 6-foot-7 Hayden Smith, an Australian-born rugby star, to play tight end. Smith has played Division II basketball in the U.S. and the organization is convinced he can learn the position quickly. The Saints’ Jimmy Graham, after all, had little football experience before joining the NFL. Smith weighs 240, but supposedly doesn’t have much speed.
–The NFL Players Association said the 22 to 27 defensive players who were part of the Saints’ pay-for-pain bounty pool better be prepared to face criminal charges and should have an attorney present when the NFL interviews them. Uh oh. Bet they didn’t count on that, sports fans. Commissioner Roger Goodell said he would wait for NFLPA input before ruling.
–Former soccer star Giorgio Chinaglia died. The Italian great was 65.
Chinaglia was the all-time leading scorer in the North American Soccer League after previously starring with Lazio. He was living in Naples, Fla., because he faced accusations in Rome that he was involved with organized crime and an attempt to buy Lazio in 2006. He had helped Lazio win its first Italian title in 1974.
It was in 1976, though, that he joined the New York Cosmos, teaming with Pele and Franz Beckenbauer. Those were heady times for the sport.
“I am a finisher,” Chinaglia would say. “That means when I finish with the ball, it is in the back of the net.”
He scored 262 goals in his eight seasons with the Cosmos.
–So I mentioned the Knicks’ collapse on Tuesday up above and it was as ugly as you’ll ever see. The team was rolling in Indianapolis, up 87-72 after three, playing stifling defense and having their way on the offensive end, when suddenly the momentum reversed in stunning fashion as the Knicks were outscored 40-17 in the final period! The Knicks were shell-shocked, coach Mike Woodson was stupefied, and J.R. Smith, whose signing I immediately questioned because he’s a bad person (though he has helped the team for the most part), was ejected with ten seconds to go for slamming the Pacers’ Leandro Barbosa to the floor. Woodson called Smith’s play “unprofessional.”
For Knicks fans, at least this one, it brought back memories of certain Mets losses over the years that then led to a total collapse for that team at critical junctures of the season. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Knicks handles this one, as they remain without Stoudemire and Lin. I suspect not well.
–You talk about a stupid Hall of Fame…it’s the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. It’s stupid because it combines college and pro, men and women, as opposed to baseball and football with their specific Halls for each rank. I mean Ralph Sampson, awesome three-time national player of the year for college, makes the HOF for that rather than his mediocre, injury-riddled NBA career. Reggie Miller makes it for his unique NBA stint. Katrina McClain makes it for being a two-time Olympic gold medalist. Jamaal Wilkes? Why the hell did he just get selected? He’d be maybe in the top 500 college players of all time, and top 400 NBAers, but he’s in?
My bottom line? I have zero desire to ever go to this one. This is bogus. [I really need to get to both the Pro Football and College Football HOFs, however.]
–You know who has a neat rule? The Premier League and the rule that the last three of the 20 teams in the standings are “relegated” to the lower ranks the following season, while three move on up to the Premier League from lower leagues. Now that’s cool, albeit incredibly nerve-wracking for fans (and owners) of the bottom dwellers.
I was thinking of this on Monday because I caught ESPN2’s live telecast of Manchester United and Blackburn, at Blackburn, with Blackburn No. 17 in the standings with 8 matches to go in the season. [ManU is on top, ahead of Manchester City, both of whom are well ahead of the rest.]
I watched the entire contest as Blackburn played their hearts out, and even though it was scoreless into the 80th minute, eminently exciting for a true follower of the Premier League (I’m a casual fan these days), but then in the 81st minute, ManU scored an improbable goal on an impossible angle that the goalie just made a poor play on, and then ManU added an insurance tally; final score: ManU 2 Blackburn 0.
So that meant with seven games to go, Blackburn was tied with Queens Park and Wigan for Nos. 17-19 (Wolverhampton a solid No. 20), at 28 points each, but Blackburn is now No. 18 because the tie-breaker is goal differential and they are two behind Queens Park in that category.
Oh, you should have seen the disappointment on the faces of the Blackburn followers as they filed out. Some of them had tears in their eyes.
I mean, imagine. If you get relegated, the fan base shrinks, the team isn’t drawing, revenue goes down, and the owners can’t afford to buy better players, which is the key to the Premier League and why the rich stay on top (the big mark against the sport), let alone how depressing it is for the community overall. [Imagine how thrilling it is for the three towns that move up!]
1. ManU
2. Manchester City
3. Arsenal
4. Tottenham
5. Chelsea
6. Newcastle United
7. Everton*
8. Liverpool
The casual sports fan recognizes at least six of the eight names, but no way gets more than one or two of the rest…
Sunderland, Fulham, Swansea City, Norwich City, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers, Queens Park Rangers, Wigan Athletic, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
And that’s your Premier League update for April 5, 2012.
*I told you last August, how in visiting the site marking where Buddy Holly died, outside Clear Lake, Iowa, that someone had wrapped a 1979 Everton scarf around a post there.
–Interesting piece in the New York Times by Karen Crouse on the end of the black caddie in professional golf. There was a time, for example, when black caddies were the rule at Augusta, literally. The club’s founder, Clifford Roberts, once said, “As long as I’m alive, all the golfers will be white and all the caddies will be black.” 20 years after Roberts’ death, Tiger Woods won with a white caddie, Fluff Cowan.
But think about it. How many black caddies do you associate with the greats of the past, yet today, the PGA Tour started with just two, and now there is only one after the other was fired. One! Said Carl Jackson, one of the few remaining black caddies who will work Augusta this week (he’s on Ben Crenshaw’s bag for a 36th year):
“A guy can make six figures a year on a decent bag now, but the players want to have family members, people that are close to them and who they can relate to on their bags.”
The advent of golf carts hasn’t helped. Clubs are scrambling big time for revenue these days. I was with a friend the other day who told me a local club, that has reemerged from bankruptcy, is demanding players use a cart in order to get the revenue, even though it’s a highly walkable course. Personally, I hate carts. My playing partners know that if we’re on a course where one is required, after my tee shot, I’m walking the rest of the way.
Carl Jackson said, “I believe when Tiger hired Fluff, I was somewhere on Tiger’s mind. I think business people get in players’ heads on these kinds of decisions.”
“It’s not humanly possible for Tiger to please as many people as want his time. Tiger is a professional golfer, not an activist.”
–GolfWorld had a series of interviews with legends of the sport in the March 26 issue and one of them, five-time British Open winner Peter Thomson, said of Jack Nicklaus, “(He) has the biggest ego I have ever come across. I think I’ll leave it at that.”
Thomson also said: “The difference between Tiger and Arnold is that Arnold was a folk hero. Tiger is a pop star, like Norman was. There’s a big difference.”
On the golf swing, Thomson said something that could be a lesson for all us amateurs.
“It’s hard to explain why Greg (Norman) didn’t win more of the bigger events. But he had a blind faith in holding on tight. He thought that the tighter he held on, the more mechanically perfect he would be. But that’s the opposite of what you have to do.”
–“Dumb Nation of the Year” award goes to Vietnam, where rhino horn is viewed as something that can cure everything from headaches to cancer, as an AP story by Mike Ives points out. “Surging demand is threatening to wipe out the world’s remaining rhinoceros populations, which recovered from the brink of extinction after the 1970s thanks to conservation campaigns. Illegal killings in Africa hit the highest recorded level in 2011 and are expected to worsen this year.”
Talk about depressing, in case you also wondered why Man is now down to No. 199 on the All-Species List.
Of course the Chinese aren’t any better when it comes to rhino horn, but U.S. officials say Vietnam’s “intense craving” can be “blamed partly on a widespread rumor that rhino horn cures cancer.”
The crushed powder commands a value greater than the U.S. street value of cocaine, “making (it) as valuable as gold.”
I’ve reported before how thieves are getting so bold, they are smashing off rhino horns from animals on display at natural history museums.
–April 6-7 marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh, a titanic struggle that left 24,000 killed or wounded and made a hero of Ulysses S. Grant, and left Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston dead, a huge early blow for the South.
A number of years ago, some of you may recall I went to Shiloh (the home of Sheriff Buford Pusser also being nearby) and had a personal tour, which was very cool. It’s a beautiful battlefield, with many calling it America’s best preserved.
Of course what else is unique about Shiloh? Grant had to save the day on April 7 after a screw-up by General Lew Wallace…the same Lew Wallace who would go on to write “Ben-Hur.”
I’ve also been to Lew Wallace’s museum in Crawfordsville, Indiana and had the opportunity to look through the very Bible Wallace used in writing his monumental work.
–Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene had a kind of touching piece on Davy Jones in the March 29 issue of the magazine. Following is the conclusion.
“In 2011, the Monkees returned to the stage for an international tour that got some of the best reviews of their career. Over the years, they’d picked up a surprising amount of respect: ‘People realize how great the songs are,’ says R.E.M.’s Mike Mills. ‘It doesn’t matter anymore that they didn’t write them. It’s just not the perceived crime that it was then.’ On their final tour, the Monkees were more of a real band than ever – digging deep into their catalog, even playing much of the Head soundtrack. Dolenz is grateful the group got one last chance. ‘Thank goodness we did that,’ he says. ‘It was phenomenal, and David had so much to do with putting that together and staging it.’
“Jones spent the early months of 2012 playing club gigs and tending to the horses he kept at a stable near his adopted hometown of Indiantown, Florida. He was at his stable on the morning of February 29th when, by one account, he complained to the staff of chest pains. He went to rest in his car, and when they went to check on him he was already dead of a heart attack.
“Just 11 days before he died, Jones performed at B.B. King’s Blues Club in New York. It’s a cramped basement club in Times Square, but Jones was happy to be there – and he still sounded like Davy Jones. Toward the end, he sang ‘Daydream Believer,’ swaying to the beat and soaking in the cheers. ‘One more time,’ he said, pacing the stage during the chorus of one of the last songs he’d ever perform. He held his microphone out to the small but joyful crowd, and yelled, ‘Everyone sing!’ They sang, loud and clear, and Jones smiled: They still believed.”
–So the Beach Boys, aside from launching a 50th anniversary tour (one that I’m not about to go to after watching them on the Grammies), are in the studio recording for a new album. I’ll buy this if the reviews are decent. And I did like this comment from Mike Love.
“Conceptually, the album is not going to be anything outlandish or silly like Smiley Smile – it will be like the Beach Boys circa ’65. I’m trying to write lyrics that fit the music without making it sound like you’re writing from a hospice.”
—Bruuuuuce played the Izod Center at the Meadowlands, which he opened 30 years ago. His current tour is getting a ton of press in the Jersey papers, as you can imagine. His encores for the Tuesday night show:
Rocky Ground
Out In The Street
Born To Run
Dancing In The Dark
Land of Hope and Dreams
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out…moving tribute to Clarence Clemons, so the reporter wrote.
Top 3 songs for the week 4/4/64: #1 “Can’t Buy Me Love” (The Beatles) #2 “Twist And Shout” (The Beatles) #3 “She Loves You” (The Beatles)…and…#4 “I Want To Hold Your Hand” (The Beatles) #5 “Please Please Me” (The Beatles…pretty amazing to look back on this time…I was about to turn six but remember it vividly…of course I’ve told you many times before I was far sharper then in those pre-domestic days…Old Milwaukee, Blatz and $1.30/six Wiedemann’s doing a number on the ol’ brain cells…but I’ll soldier on with the remaining seven out of a once bountiful assemblage of 3,800…) #6 “Suspicion” (Terry Stafford…the guy who sounded like Elvis and fooled more than a few people) #7 “Hello, Dolly!” (Louis Armstrong…incredibly, went to #1 on May 9…. breaking the Beatles’ string of 14 straight weeks at the top…and who had the last #1 before the Beatles? Bobby Vinton with “There! I’ve Said It Again”…great tune) #8 “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” (Betty Everett) #9 “My Heart Belongs To Only You” (Bobby Vinton) #10 “Glad All Over” (The Dave Clark Five…you rock, Dave Clark!!!)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Only pitcher to hurl a shutout in four decades – Jamie Moyer. 2) Stan Musial didn’t strike out three times in a game until he was 42. 3) Nolan Ryan allowed the fewest hits per nine innings in a career. 4) Tim McCarver is the only catcher to lead the league in triples.
