NBA Quiz: The 1974-75 Golden State Warriors swept the Washington Bullets, 4-0, for the NBA title. Name Golden State’s starting five. Answer below.
The Month of April in Baseball (not including Tuesday’s, May 1, contests in any of the following, including stats, unless otherwise noted)
—Players of the Month…the Dodgers’ Matt Kemp (12 HR 25 RBI, .417) and the Rangers’ Josh Hamilton (9 HR 25 RBI, .395). Yes, it’s early, but both legitimate triple crown threats. Heck, Kemp came close last season.
—Bust of the Month…Albert Pujols, .217, 0 HR 4RBI…last 14 games without ribby. Ha! [I do have to note that on May 1, Pujols did finally get an RBI with a grounder, but he was 0-for-4, dropping the average further to .208.]
—Surprise teams…
Red Sox…start off 4-10 and Bobby V. is about to get fired. Rally to finish April 11-11.
Angels…8-15…at 7-15 it matched the team’s worst 22-game start ever, 1976. The bullpen is 0-6 with a 5.26 ERA. They released Bobby Abreu, eating what was left of a $9 million contract.
Baltimore…14-9
Detroit…11-11
Washington…14-8…except I don’t view this as a surprise at all
Atlanta…14-9…a surprise because of the 0-4 start
Miami…8-14…blows
Mets…13-10…surprise only to the extent this means they’ll go 30-108 the rest of the way. After a strong start, bullpen showing its true colors.
—Tampa Bay is 15-8, yet on Monday at home against Seattle, they drew an announced 9,458; the smallest crowd there since 2007. Yet another reason why this franchise should move.
–Nice first month in the major leagues, Yu Darvish, as the Texas hurler proved he’s for real, 4-0 with a 2.18 ERA.
–Miami’s Jose Reyes didn’t exactly get off to a gangbuster start, .220 with six runs in 21 games. No wonder the Marlins were 8-14.
–Update: After mentioning the Yankees’ starting rotation the other day, Freddy Garcia (and his 12.51 ERA) was dumped in favor of David Phelps, though Andy Pettitte will probably make his return next week.
–Update: Detroit’s Delmon Young ended up being suspended for seven days without pay by Major League Baseball for his arrest on an aggravated harassment charge in New York City. This seems fair. Young will not appeal the sentence that is retroactive to last Friday.
—San Diego hit .215 for the month; St. Louis .280. Washington’s staff ERA was 2.33; Milwaukee’s 5.12.
—Texas led the A.L. in batting, .291, with Boston next at .281. Oakland only hit .209. On the pitching front, Texas had a staff ERA of 2.81; Minnesota’s was 5.64. Kind of obvious why Texas leads baseball at 17-6.
–So let’s see…it’s very early but I have Dodgers over the White Sox in the Series. Can someone tell me why I picked Chicago? Geezuz. Talk about a brain cramp. The other day in Asheville, Johnny Mac said I had some sleeper brain cells but clearly they weren’t activated at the time of this selection.
On the other hand I said the five N.L. playoff teams would be the Braves, Nationals, Cardinals, Dodgers and Giants. Lookin’ good.
In the A.L., though, I have the Yanks, Blue Jays, White Sox, Rangers and Angels. The Angels?!!!
–Meanwhile, in the only segment of the Roger Clemens trial I cared about, Andy Pettitte sat just 20 feet away from Clemens on Tuesday in taking the stand and Pettitte testified:
“Roger had mentioned to me that he had taken HGH. And that it could help with recovery, and that’s really all I remember about the conversation.”
Pettitte noted the words were said in passing during a workout. Clemens said earlier that Pettitte “misremembers.”
Pettitte’s appearance came without warning, though you knew it would be between starts as he continues to tune up, using the term loosely, for his 2012 Yankee debut. I didn’t realize he had allowed six runs on 10 hits with eight strikeouts over 5 2/3 in an extended spring training game the day before in Florida.
Pettitte also recalled a key conversation he had with Clemens in 2005 on drug use in sports. Both were playing for the Astros and Pettitte asked Clemens what he would say if he was questioned about HGH use.
Clemens responded: “What are you talking about?” according to Pettitte, and that Pettitte misunderstood their 1999-2000 conversation.
“He said, ‘My wife used it,’” Pettitte said. “Obviously I was a little flustered, because I thought that he told me that he did.” [Joseph White / AP]
Pettitte and Clemens only made eye contact once, it seems, during the hearing, after not talking to each other for some time at the advice of attorneys.
The Dysfunctional Knicks
“Paramedics were rushed into the Knicks locker room moments after their 104-94 loss to the Heat last night in Game 2 after Amar’e Stoudemire punched the glass-enclosed fire extinguisher in the hallway leading to the dressing room.
“Stoudemire received multiple stitches and the Knicks called it a ‘lacerated’ left hand as the Knicks’ mess went from bad to unthinkable.”
Stoudemire is most likely gone for the series, which is lasting only two more games anyway. One Knicks player told reporters, “I saw a lot of blood, I’m squeamish so I got out of there.”
“The season was careening off the cliff anyway, spinning into the abyss thanks to a lost weekend in this rainy nook of South Florida.
“So the Knicks were already coming home to a Madison Square Garden that wasn’t going to be half as alive, half as hopeful, as it had been last year. Then, the Knicks had gone 0-for-2 in Boston but easily could have come back 1-1 or even 2-0. The sweep that followed was almost surprising.
“The one that’s coming will be significantly less so.
“It was bad enough that Stoudemire for a second straight game had been a non-factor, his 18 points and seven rebounds an empty and unsatisfying answer to the Heat. It was only after the game was over and the teams filed back to the locker rooms that Stoudemire decided to make his presence felt.
“Only instead of a basket, and instead of a Heat basketball player, he decided to post up a glass case protecting a fire extinguisher outside the Knicks’ dressing room.
“ ‘Sometimes,’ Carmelo Anthony would say, ‘it seems like we’re snake-bit a little.’
“No. This isn’t bad luck. This is bad judgment….
“In his first splendid moment in town, Stoudemire had gleefully declared, ‘The Knicks are back!’
“Now, with one mindless, thoughtless, brainless act of emotion, he has essentially declared, ‘The Knicks are dead!’
“(Amar’e) went to see a specialist yesterday. But there’s only one place where he could possibly find the treatment he needs most.
“Glass always wins except against diamonds and Amar’e is no diamond.”
And so Amar’e’s name has been placed in the December folder for not only “Idiot of the Year,” but also “Jerk of the Year,” duly qualifying for both.
As for Stoudemire’s running mate, Carmelo Anthony, the player the franchise thought would lead them to a championship when coupled with “Stat,” he has now played 51 playoff games, after Monday’s loss to the Heat, and he is 16-35 – .313 – the worst of any player who has appeared in that many postseason games since 1991-92. The Knicks themselves have tied an NBA record, incidentally, with 12 straight playoff losses.
Michael Jordan has the best playoff winning percentage, .734, with the rest of the top ten being his teammates. [Jared Diamond / Wall Street Journal]
—This just in…as I go to post…The NFL suspended four players for their roles in the New Orleans Saints’ bounty system, with linebacker Jonathan Vilma being suspended for the entire 2012 season. Wow.
In addition, defensive tackle Anthony Hargrove (now with the Packers) was suspended eight games, defensive end Will Smith four games and linebacker Scott Fujita (now with Cleveland) three games. All of the suspensions are without pay. The players can appeal within three days.
–I did watch the entire Manchester City vs. Manchester United match on Monday, an entertaining affair as Man City prevailed 1-0 and now leads the Premier League on goal differential.
The hero of this historic contest who will be long remembered is Vincent Kompany, whose header right before half-time was the only score.
So now Man City needs to win its final two matches to seal its first title since 1968. Sunday’s game is away at Newcastle and that won’t be easy. So will Man City win the battle but lose the war?
–Sad Story for Norway as Alexander Dale Oen, who won the 100-meter breaststroke at last year’s world championships in Shanghai and was a distinct Olympic hopeful for the country, died suddenly from cardiac arrest during a pre-Olympic training camp in Flagstaff, Ariz. He was just 26. There were no signs of foul play.
At last year’s championships, Dale Oen’s win came just three days after Norway was rocked by the massacre by the right-wing extremist and his triumph was seen as a sign of national resilience.
The day he died, he had a light workout and also played some golf, but teammates became worried when he took an unusually long shower and entered the bathroom when he failed to respond to knocks on the door. He was sprawled over the tub. It was too late.
The Norwegian swim team has trained many times at Flagstaff and loved going to the Grand Canyon and Sedona.
—Union Rags was the official pony of Bar Chat for the Derby. But upon further review with Johnny Mac, we have decided (he decided) to go with Gemologist. The horse is attempting to become just the 8th to win the race undefeated, having won all five starts thus far, including twice over the Churchill Downs track. His biggest win was in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
But is it me or is there less buzz for this one than usual? Exactly not what the sport needs. But once again I’ll light a candle, or veritable facsimile thereof, for a triple crown winner.
—Amarillo Slim, the great poker player, passed away. He was 83. Born Thomas Austin Preston Jr., the tall, lanky cowboy became poker’s first celebrity. As Dennis McLellan of the Los Angeles Times wrote:
“(Slim) had won the main event at the World Series of Poker less than two hours earlier, and there he was looking for a game – any game.
“ ‘Seems like a feller ought to be able to get a game like that – something interesting, you know – in a town like this here,’ he said. ‘But I swear to goodness I just can’t hardly find a thing to occupy my time!’”
So Slim began promoting poker, and himself, on venues like “The Tonight Show.”
Larry Grossman, a longtime gaming analyst and poker historian, said, “(Slim) brought poker out of the back alleys. He was just a guy with an outsized personality, and he was the perfect person for the first time to represent poker. It was really Slim that became the face of poker for middle America.”
Among Slim’s more famous sayings was, “Look around the table. If you don’t see a sucker, get up, because you’re the sucker.”
From 1964 to 1971, Slim joined Doyle Brunson and Brian “Sailor” Roberts in traveling around the Southwest playing poker.
“Those were the days when poker was totally underground,” Grossman told McLellan. “One of Slim’s famous quotes was, ‘It wasn’t a matter of beating the game, it was a matter of getting out of there with the money.’”
Brunson recalled on Monday, “We got robbed rive times, we got arrested a lot of times for playing illegal poker games; you got a fine and they’d turn you loose. People equated us with being some kind of gangsters or outlaws or something, and all we were doing was playing poker.”
And talk about getting around, as noted by Douglas Martin of the New York Times:
“Amarillo Slim won five times in World Series of Poker events, was elected to at least four gambling halls of fame and played poker with Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon, the drug lord Pablo Escobar and the magazine publisher Larry Flynt, who dropped $1.7 million.”
But Slim had some problems with the law, back in 2003-2004, though I’ll leave out the details. Not that pretty.
—Billy Neighbors died. I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t read USA TODAY, but Neighbors was a legend in Alabama, a star lineman on Bear Bryant’s first national championship team in 1961, anchoring a defense that allowed 25 points in 11 games, total. Neighbors then went on to an 8-year NFL career with Miami and the Boston Patriots. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003.
Here’s why I have to note his passing. Way, way back in my Wall Street career, with Thomson McKinnon Securities, I was working our southeastern region (out of Washington, D.C.) and that included Alabama, where we had offices in Birmingham and Huntsville. A friend at Thomson said, ‘Hey, you’ll get to meet Billy Neighbors.’ Billy was a stockbroker for Thomson in Huntsville and I had heard of him when I was in New York because he was a big producer, plus the name was familiar as a football fan and knowing something about its history. Like through listening to Keith Jackson on many a football Saturday.
Anyway, I was big time intimidated when I went to Huntsville (having driven up from Birmingham…beautiful drive, by the way), to introduce myself to the office as this Yankee who was their new regional guy, and I was ushered in to see Billy. Thank god I knew my football, because he was wary of me at the start but I remember we had a delightful chat.
Billy ended up being a broker for four decades and was a legend in the state. By all accounts a classic, a good guy, and very funny. I was privileged to meet him. My sympathies to his family, including his two sons, Wes and Keith, who played for Alabama as well.
–Brad K. passed along the near tragedy of 75-year-old Albert Miller, who is recovering from being bitten and dragged by a 9-foot alligator while he was playing golf at Lake Ashton Golf and Country Club in Lake Wales, Florida.
Miller hooked a ball into the water on the 15th hole that borders an irrigation pond.
“Miller went over to the edge of the water with a ball retriever tool, and found two balls that weren’t his, so he turned to leave.
“That’s when the alligator launched at him from under the water and got him by his left knee.
“ ‘He lifted me up three feet and slammed me down,’ Miller said.
“(Miller’s playing partner) ran over and grabbed Miller under his shoulders while the animal was thrashing and pulling.
“The other two golfers in the foursome ran over to help.
“Miller said the animal took one look at him and clamped down harder.
“ ‘It was excruciating to say the least,’ Miller said.
“As the animal started dragging Miller into the water, Miller prayed for a miracle.
“ ‘He let me go,’ Miller said. ‘I was three feet from my life. He had me submerged up to my belt buckle. That was my miracle of the month.’….
“ ‘If a person had been there by himself, it’s safe to say that he would have been dragged into the water,’ said playing partner Price.”
Miller’s leg was a mess but at least the group had a cart so they rushed him to the clubhouse to meet an ambulance.
Miller had 35-40 stitches to close a 10-inch gash, and two other 5-inch wounds. He could yet face several surgeries and long rehab as the bite went clear through to the bone. But the alligator didn’t cut a major artery or tendon.
Trappers found not only the offending gator, but another one as well. I assume they were served up quickly, with fries and coleslaw. I’d pair that with a Shiner Bock.
–Speaking of Florida wildlife, I was reading a Washington Post piece by Darryl Fears from last weekend on the impact of pythons on the Everglades, one of which that was captured coming in at 17 ½ feet, and Fears has the following:
“No one knows for certain how the invasive (Burmese python) entered the Everglades. The belief that Hurricane Andrew blew them there from exotic pet shops and houses in 1992, or that numerous pet owners released them when they grew too large, is likely a myth, according to Frank J. Mazzotti, a professor of wildlife ecology and conservation for the University of Florida.
“ ‘All it takes is three snakes,’ he said, mating and laying an average of 50 eggs, and up to 100 eggs, per year.
“Their population in the Everglades is estimated at anywhere between 5,000 and 100,000 by (the U.S. Geological Survey). The National Park Service says that more than 1,800 pythons have been removed from the park and surrounding areas since 2002. No one in the park has ever been attacked by a python.”
Or so the Florida Department of Tourism wants us to believe.
–This one is just too much…from Chuck Bartels of the AP:
“An Arkansas woman who cashed a $1 million lottery ticket may have to give up the winnings to a woman who threw away the ticket after she bought it, according to a judge’s ruling Tuesday.
“The judge decided that Sharon Duncan was entitled to the prize money, not Sharon Jones, who claimed the prize money after she took the ticket from a trash can of discarded lottery tickets at a convenience store in Beebe, a city about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock.
“Jones’ attorney, James Simpson, said he plans to appeal. Jones had testified that she already spent some of the money on a new truck and cash gifts to her children.
“Simpson noted that Duncan testified she threw away the ticket after the read-out on a ticket scanner said, ‘Sorry. Not a winner.’ The attorney argued that people shouldn’t be allowed to throw items away and then say, ‘ooh, I want to un-abandon it.’
“ ‘We’d have garage-sale law all over the place,’ he said. ‘It became trash when someone threw it away.’
“White County judge Thomas Hughes, however, said Jones never met the burden of proof that Duncan abandoned her right to claim $1 million.
“Earlier Tuesday, Jones testified that she gathered a handful of discarded tickets from the trash can – as she had done many times before – and said there was no sign alerting customers not to take tickets.
“That contradicted Super 1 Stop store manager Lisa Petriches’ earlier testimony that she had taped a sign that read ‘Do not take’ on the can. But a former store clerk testified that Petriches posted the sign only after Jones claimed the prize….
“Hughes found that the evidence weighed in Duncan’s favor that she bought the winning ticket, even though lottery records and store security video didn’t synch up to the precise timing of the purchase.
“Arkansas Lottery Security Chief Lance Huey testified that he investigated the circumstances of the ticket falling into Jones’ hands. He said the lottery was satisfied with the investigation and awarded the prize.”
—Duran Duran was selected to headline a huge outdoor concert to celebrate the start of the Olympics, joined by Snow Patrol, Stereophonics and Paolo Nutini as the headliners on July 27 in Hyde Park. As noted by James Jackson of the London Times:
“The choice of bands immediately met with mockery on Twitter,” seeing as the group’s golden days were in the early 1980s.
Understand, there had also been reports organizers were trying to recruit The Who’s drummer Keith Moon, who died in 1978.
Top 3 songs for the week 5/6/72: #1 “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (Roberta Flack…think “Play Misty For Me” and Clint getting it on with the blond girl) #2 “I Gotcha” (Joe Tex) #3 “Betcha By Golly, Wow” (The Stylistics…Philly sound hittin’ stride)…and… #4 “Rockin’ Robin” (Michael Jackson…moronic…Michael never recovered from being forced to do this one) #5 “Day Dreaming” (Aretha Franklin…easily in my top 3 of hers) #6 “A Horse With No Name” (America…incredibly stupid) #7 “I’ll Take You There” (The Staple Singers…not a fan) #8 “Doctor My Eyes” (Jackson Browne…should have quit with this one) #9 “Look What You Done For Me” (Al Green…great horn section at the 1:12 mark) #10 “Back Off Boogaloo” (Ringo Starr…eh)
NBA quiz Answer: 1974-75 Golden State Warriors starting five: Rick Barry (30.6 ppg), Jamaal Wilkes (14.2), Butch Beard (12.8), Charles Johnson (10.9), Clifford Ray (9.4). Jeff Mullins, Derrek Dickey, Phil Smith and George Johnson were key reserves. Washington’s starting five was Elvin Hayes, Phil Chenier Mike Riordan, Kevin Porter and Wes Unseld. Key reserves were Nick Weatherspoon, Jimmy Jones, Truck Robinson, and Clem Haskins.
