Note: Posted before the Spurs-Thunder contest Sunday night, as well as the conclusion of the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR event.
Pittsburgh Pirates Pitching Quiz: 1) In the modern era, post-1930, who are the only two Pirates hurlers to win 150 games in a Pittsburgh uniform? 2) Who is the all-time leader in strikeouts? 3) Who is the single-season leader in strikeouts with 276? [Not the same as No. 2] Answers below.
Ball Bits
–Unfortunately, three players I was hoping would finish the season with less than 10 home runs apiece have hit a few since our last chat. Albert Pujols finished play on Sunday with 7 homers and 26 RBI, though his average is still at just .227. Alex Rodriguez, after a recent two homer game, now has 7 as well, but just 19 RBI. And his teammate, Mark Teixeira, upped his home run total to 8 to go along with 29 ribbies. But with the Angels and Yankees having now played 49 and 47 games, respectively, it seems safe to say that all three will fall short of the expectations that come with salaries ranging from $23 million to $30 million.
–The Angels’ home attendance is down 14% this year; this after selling more than 5,000 season tickets upon signing Pujols. The Yankees and Rangers come to town this week, however, so as Bill Shaikin notes in the Los Angeles Times, the team will learn the depth of the crisis.
–None of the five teams with the highest payrolls in baseball this season are in first place – the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Phillies and Tigers.
–According to the Wall Street Journal, as of Thursday’s play, “There have been 2,340 team seasons in the majors since 1900, and in all that time, only four teams have posted a lower batting average than Pittsburgh’s current .217 mark. In terms of on-base percentage, Pittsburgh is doing even worse: It’s tied with the 1908 Brooklyn Superbas for the lowest mark (.266) over that span.”
But once you adjust for the fact that the Pirates play in a totally different age than the early 1900s dead ball era, the Pirates stand alone as the least effective offense baseball has seen since the turn of the last century.
Some of the worst offensive teams since 1900.
1920 Athletics… 3.6 runs/game…48-106
1909 Doves… 2.8…45-108
1963 Mets… 3.1…51-111
1965 Mets… 3.0…50-112
Alas, as so often happens with some of these stories, see Pujols above, the Pirates busted out for 10 runs on Sunday and so after 47 games their runs per game average is up to 2.98. [The on-base percentage is now .272.] But, semi-incredibly, the Bucs are 23-24 owing to the team’s ERA of 3.25…3rd best in the league.
But as Bay Area resident Bob S. (not to be confused with the Bob S. of Shark Attack Director fame) wrote, don’t forget this year’s Oakland A’s. While they are scoring at a 3.29 run/game clip, the team batting average is .209 and on-base percentage .285 (OBP not including Sunday’s action…batting average does). Actually, Seattle’s OBP is only .289 (thru Saturday).
–Not for nothing, but the Chicago White Sox’ Paul Konerko is scorching hot and the 36-year-old has his average up to .399, with 11 homers and 33 RBI. And how many of you realize Konerko now has 407 career home runs?! I didn’t, until looking him up earlier in the week.
Thanks to Konerko and his hitting mates like Adam Dunn, the ChiSox are on a roll, winning 9 of 10 to get to 26-22, just ½-game behind the Indians.
Maybe I wasn’t nuts after all in calling for a Dodgers-White Sox World Series.
–You know what is a joke? Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park, where on Sunday a record nine home runs were hit as the Reds defeated the Rockies 7-5. Talk about a freakin’ band box. It’s worse than the “New” Yankee Stadium, where pop flies turn into souvenirs for the fans in the bleachers.
–In getting swept by the Pirates this weekend, the now 15-32 Cubs extended their losing streak to 12, the most since they lost the first 14 games of the 1997 season (one in which they finished 68-94).
–Talk about pitching in tough luck, the Mets’ Johan Santana has made 10 starts and is pitching to a 2.75 ERA, but he’s only 2-2 after tossing a shutout on Saturday against San Diego. But his teammate R.A. Dickey is 7-1 after 7 1/3 scoreless Sunday. 9 of Dickey’s 10 starts have been quality ones.
“I love what the San Francisco Giants did with two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum. Evidently he will sign for two years and $41 million. Lincecum can be a free agent after the 2013 season and had been offered $100 million over five seasons but turned that down. I just think the Giants have made a great move in not jerking him around in the short run, while still having an opportunity to be in the mix after 2013, or sign him to an extension during that season.
“I really like that they don’t commit right now to the guy for more than two years because as good as he’s been, there were ever so slight signs last season (13-14, but a sterling 2.74 ERA), that his most dominating days are already over at age 27. Should this prove to be the case, the Giants won’t have committed to a Johan Santanaesque contract that destroys the salary structure of the entire team.”
Pretty good analysis back then, don’t you think? Lincecum is 2-5 with a 6.41 ERA. Oh yeah, he’s wishing he had taken the $100 million about now.
–Former first baseman David Segui reluctantly took the stand in the Roger Clemens perjury trial and “backed up (Brian) McNamee’s testimony that he saved the medical waste to placate his wife long before the strength coach began cooperating with federal agents in 2007. Segui told jurors that in 2001 McNamee told him about marital troubles he was having in part because of his demanding work schedule as Clemens’ personal trainer.” [AP]
Segui had worked out with McNamee and admits using steroids himself.
Spectacular finish at the Indy 500 as Dario Franchitti became a three-time winner in holding off a late-charging Takumu Sato who spun out trying to pass Franchitti on the final lap. Franchitti’s wife, Ashley Judd, was very cool in her own post-race comments in saying she’d like to thank “Sir Jackie Stewart, who brought him up great.” No doubt the great Stewart is beaming.
But I really wanted Marco Andretti to win, and he had enough car to do so, but then he screwed up, touched the ‘white’ and spun out, hitting the wall. It’s unending disappointment for the Andretti family since Mario’s lone triumph in 1969. [A Marco triumph would have been great for the sport.]
The race was emotional as last year’s champion, Dan Wheldon, was missing but not forgotten; Wheldon having been killed in that horrific crash at Las Vegas in October. In fact his three best friends, Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan, took the top three spots.
And I just have to say that no one does patriotism better than the sport of auto racing. Very touching clip of the mother of Benjamin Kopp, killed in Afghanistan, before ‘taps’ to honor all our war dead. Kopp is buried in section 60 at Arlington. I need to get back there to pay my respects….and when I do I’ll look up Corp. Kopp of Rosemount, Minnesota. I just read his Department of Defense obituary. What a great kid. He was 21.
A final note on the racing front…Rusty Wallace was among the latest to be elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The 1989 Cup champion who won 55 times (highest among non-active drivers who weren’t in the Hall yet) is being joined by early champions Herb Thomas and Buck Baker, along with driver-owner Cotton Owens and legendary mechanic Leonard Wood, co-founder of Wood Brothers Racing with his brother, Glen (who was inducted last year).
In Praise of Beavers
The Beaver is a perennial Top Ten on the All-Species List so I pass along a piece in the June issue of The Atlantic by David Ferry titled “Leave It to Beavers.”
“In the 1820s, one of the largest corporations on Earth tried to kill every beaver in the Pacific Northwest. Britain’s Hudson’s Bay Company, threatened by the United States’ westward expansion, sent trappers sweeping down the Columbia River watershed to exterminate all the beavers they found and harvest their valuable pelts. Without beavers to hunt, the company’s governor reasoned, the United States would have ‘no inducement to proceed hither.’ Within 20 years, the beaver was nearly eradicated from an area the size of France.
“Now, nearly two centuries later, beavers are valued not just for their pelts, but for the environmental benefits of their gnawing and nesting. A growing community of ‘beaver believers’ is reintroducing the animal to regional water systems throughout the American West in the hopes of reducing the incidence of floods and the damage from forest fires, alleviating drought, helping fish thrive, and conserving fresh water – in the process, helping to combat some of the effects of climate change.
“In the 1600s, as many as 400 million beavers were waddling about the continent. Just 6 million to 12 million remain today….
“In the 1940s, Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game embarked on an effort both larger in scale and kookier in method. Finding long, dusty overland trips too hard on the beavers, the department instead packed pairs of the animals into crates, loaded them onto airplanes bound for drought-stricken corners of the state, and dropped them by parachute. (The crates were rigged to open on impact.) The endeavor was apparently a success: a 1950 report notes that of the 76 beavers airdropped in the fall of 1948, only one fell to its death; the others began building dams and homes and founding colonies, which can grow as large as a dozen or so beavers.
“Idaho’s strategy has since been validated by dozens of scientific studies illustrating the vital role beavers play in ecosystems. Their dams create ponds and wetlands that retain rainwater and snowmelt, and while beaver ponds themselves are shallow little affairs, research has shown that they help preserve groundwater, allowing vegetation and trees to flourish and increasing biodiversity. According to one study, the amount of fresh water a single colony adds to a local ecosystem each day is the equivalent of at least a once-in-200-years flood event.”
Kind of makes you want to treat the beaver with more respect, doesn’t it? Plus, recall how they avoided the subprime housing crisis by only building what they needed, and all cash.
Croc Attack!!!
Two British businessmen were killed by a crocodile(s) in India last weekend, with both bodies having been discovered in the past few days. Michael Easton and Ian Turton set off on a rafting expedition down the Cauvery River near Bangalore, Saturday, and Turton’s employer raised the alarm on Monday evening when they failed to return. They didn’t have official permission to go river rafting in the area as the river is dangerous, owing to strong currents and its depth, plus it passes through a rugged jungle known as a haven for elephants, tigers, leopards and wild boar.
The men’s inflatable boat was discovered bearing puncture marks consistent with a croc attack. The condition of the bodies, when found, was not revealed. [London Times]
–So it was fun watching the New York Rangers while it lasted, but there’s a reason why no team that has played 14 games in the first two rounds has ever gone on to win the Stanley Cup. The NHL playoffs are grueling like no other sports competition, especially when you have a team like the Rangers that insists on blocking as many shots as possible, taking one blow to the body after another.
That said, there they were in overtime in Game 6 against the Devils and if they had scored on the scramble in front of the Devils net before New Jersey came back down ice and scored on a similar one, we could be singing a different tune.
But now it’s 40-year-old Martin Brodeur going for his fourth Cup title against the Los Angeles Kings, who are gunning for their first in franchise history. Play begins Wednesday.
As for the Rangers, their future looks secure. Now that I know the players well, I might even watch a few regular-season games again.
I agree with those who believe the Thunder-Spurs series could be special, but I continue to pray it’s Spurs vs. Heat in the NBA Finals. I really want the Spurs to stick it to LeBron and Dwyane.
Tim Duncan on his success, including four NBA titles:
“I’m incredibly fortunate. I understand the situation I’m in. It doesn’t happen for a lot of people. The organization, the players, the coach. In every respect, I’ve been blessed. I understand it every day and I appreciate it every day.”
Coach Gregg Popovich always deflects praise in the direction of Duncan.
“I’ve got one hand hanging on his coat tail. He just keeps dragging me around wherever he goes. Every time I walk around the house, about once a month, I tell my wife, ‘Say, ‘Thank you, Tim.’’ And I’m serious.”
Former Spur David Robinson on Duncan, when asked by SI’s Dan Patrick to rank him among the great power forwards:
“At Number 1. His statistics will hold up against anybody’s. Two things for against him. One is being in a small market. Jeremy Lin plays great basketball for three weeks, and he’s the king of the world. Timmy’s a monster and doesn’t get the publicity. And the other thing is his reluctance to seek the spotlight, which makes him even a greater person.”
–So the Knicks signed interim coach Mike Woodson to a new contract and I have no problem with that, Woodson having gone 18-6 after replacing Mike D’Antoni. I just have a problem with giving him three years at a rumored $10-12 million. Why can’t you sign a coach for two years, especially one like Woodson? It’s not like other teams are banging down the door to get him. I mean this Knicks team is very fragile, especially if they can’t re-sign Lin. So give Woodson two years and if he does well next season, give him a two-year extension on top of his remaining season. But nooooo….it’s like someone giving Josh Hamilton a nine-year deal next offseason. It will happen.
Anyway, some will question that the Knicks never talked to Phil Jackson, but he would have asked for at least five years, $50 million.
–The PGA Tour has been dominated by two golfers the past few weeks; Zach Johnson and Jason Dufner. Johnson won at Colonial this weekend, his eighth career triumph (I won’t get into the final hole fiasco but golf fans know what I’m talking about). So Johnson has a win and two seconds, while Dufner has two wins and this week’s second in the last four tournaments for each.
–With the Belmont Stakes now two weeks away, the trainer of Triple Crown hopeful I’ll Have Another, Doug O’Neill, was just suspended for 45 days by the California Horse Racing Board, for exceeding the allowable limit for total carbon dioxide in one of his horses, but there was no evidence of what is known as a “milkshake,” a concoction of baking soda, sugar and electrolytes delivered through a tube down a horse’s nose to combat fatigue. The punishment, if upheld following a probable appeal by O’Neill, wouldn’t begin sooner than July 1 so it does not impact the Belmont, but certainly puts a cloud over the trainer.
This isn’t the first time O’Neill has run afoul of the rules of the sport. In fact it was the third time one of O’Neill’s horses had been found to have performance enhancers in its system at a California track. He was also suspended for a similar offense in Illinois in 2010.
—Maryland vs. Loyola of Maryland for the NCAA Division I men’s lacross title, Monday. Maryland upset third-seeded Duke, 16-10, while No. 1 seed Loyola topped Notre Dame in the other semifinal.
—Miami reaffirmed its commitment to the ACC after rumors surfaced it was jumping to the Big 12 or elsewhere. Florida State’s president previously debunked speculation it was preparing to exit for the Big 12 after the board of trustees chairman for the school said he “would be in favor of seeing what the Big 12 might have to offer.”
But the chairman of Clemson’s board of trustees said that the Tigers would listen if a serious offer came along.
The Big 12, recall, lost Texas A&M and Missouri, which are headed to the SEC next season, and replaced them with West Virginia and TCU. The ACC is adding Pitt and Syracuse.
–Count me as another hoping former California high school football star Brian Banks gets a shot at an NFL training camp. The 26-year-old, falsely accused of rape but not before serving six years in prison, was headed to USC, and possibly the NFL, before being charged put away in 2002.
Incredibly, his accuser then friended him on Facebook after he was released in 2008, at which point Banks used a private investigator to get her to admit on a hidden camera that she made the whole incident up.
“A polar bear bit off two fingers of a woman attempting to feed it at a zoo in a suburb of the Far East city of Khabarovsk.
“The zoo’s director, Andrei Dolin, said the woman thought the bear looked hungry, slipped through a barrier guarding the bear’s enclosure, and extended her hand through the bars of its cage, Interfax reported Thursday.”
–Director of Shark Attacks and Space Rocks for Bar Chat, Bob S., passed along this piece from California and My Fox.
“A woman suffered severe burns after stones picked up from a California beach by her children burst into flames in her shorts pocket, fire department officials said.
“The woman put seven stones in her pocket that her daughters had collected after a family outing Saturday morning at Upper Trestles on San Onofre State Beach. After they had returned to their San Clemente home the stones burst into flames.
“The fire department was called and when they arrived her shorts were still on fire, KABC-TV reported.”
The woman had severe burns to her leg as well as to her hands.
County officials said it was unclear how phosphorus rocks could have ended up on the beach.
–As I noted in that other column I do, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has approved sports betting in my state, beginning this fall, even though a 1992 federal law limits sports betting to four states: Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana.
“We intend to go forward,” said Christie. “If someone wants to stop us, then let them try to stop us. We want to work with the casinos and horse racing industry to get it implemented.
“Am I expecting there may be legal action taken against us to try to prevent it? Yes, but I have every confidence we’re going to be successful.”
The U.S. Justice Department has yet to comment. Your editor is very pumped. Take Wake Forest and the points at Notre Dame on Nov. 17.
Centralia, Pa.
“Fifty years ago on Sunday, a fire at the town dump ignited an exposed coal seam, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to the demolition of nearly every building in Centralia – a whole community of 1,400 simply gone.
“All these decades later, the Centralia fire still burns….
“Yet to the handful of residents who still occupy Centralia, who keep their houses tidy and their lawns mowed, this borough in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania is no sideshow attraction. Its home, and they’d like to keep it that way….
“Centralia was already a coal-mining town in decline when the fire department set the town’s landfill ablaze on May 27, 1962, in an ill-fated attempt to tidy up for Memorial Day. The fire wound up igniting the coal outcropping and, over the years, spread to the vast network of mines beneath homes and businesses, threatening residents with poisonous gases and dangerous sinkholes….
“By the end of the 1980s, more than 1,000 people had moved and 500 structures demolished under a $42 million federal relocation program.”
For you younger folk, just picture this story was a major staple of LIFE magazine and the network news back in the day.
–On the other side of the country, and the other end of the economic spectrum, you have Pebble Beach, which is now advertising a “Stay & Play Package.” 2 nights at the Inn, 2 rounds of golf…starting at $1,995…but that’s The Inn at Spanish Bay, not the Lodge at Pebble Beach, plus only one of the 2 rounds is at Pebble. Throw in about $1,500 for caddies and meals and you’re in!!!
“Model Bar Refaeli says she’s sick of being hit on by her countrymen who pretend they don’t know who she is.
“The Israeli beauty, who’s the No. 1-ranked girl on this year’s Maxim magazine ‘Hot 100’ list, told us she is tired of men at home who try to chat her up, pretending to play it cool and approach by saying, ‘I’m so-and-so, what’s your name?’ She said, ‘It’s where I come from, I don’t expect everyone to know me everywhere else – but in Israel, when a guy talks to me, it’s like, you just blew it, my friend. Just be honest,’ she says of men.”
Anyway, Refaeli told the Post that the ideal approach “has to be with a sense of humor. If a guy could make me laugh, it would get my attention.” She said, “A combination of being really natural and confident in your own skin and smart’ is what makes someone hot – ‘That combination to me is sexy.”
So that’s your homework assignment, guys. Work on your act, just like I’m doing this weekend.
Top 3 songs for the week of 5/26/79: #1 “Reunited” (Peaches & Herb) #2 “Hot Stuff” (Donna Summer) #3 “In The Navy” (Village People)…and…#4 “Love You Inside Out” (Bee Gees) #5 “Goodnight Tonight” (Wings…eh) #6 “We Are Family” (Sister Sledge…hated the tune, but the Pittsburgh Pirates adopted it and it helped carry them to the World Series title) #7 “Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)” (The Jacksons) #8 “Just When I Needed You Most” (Randy Vanwarmer…if you knew he sang this one, pour yourself a cold frosty) #9 “Stumblin’ In” (Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman) #10 “Love Is The Answer” (England Dan & John Ford Coley…great tune…saves what otherwise was a truly dreadful week as your editor prepared for summer school…badly needed so I could pick up enough credits to graduate in four years instead of eleven)
Pittsburgh Pirates Quiz Answers: 1) Bob Friend, 191, and Vern Law, 162, are the only pitchers to win 150 in a Pirates uniform since 1930. Friend, one of my favorites all time, finished his career 197-230 (191-218 as a Buc, 1951-65), yet had an excellent 3.58 career ERA. He had nine seasons with Pittsburgh where he won 13 or more and was a 3-time All-Star. Vernon “Vern” Law, the “Deacon,” was 162-147 with a 3.77 ERA, pitching for the Bucs from 1950-67. He was the 1960 Cy Young Award winner, ironically also the only time he made an All-Star team. 2) Bob Friend is the career leader in strikeouts with 1682. 3) Bob Veale holds the Pirates single-season record with 276 strikeouts in 1965. Veale was 116-91 for his Pirate career spanning 1962-72. He was a two-time All-Star.
Back to Friend and Law, understand that from 1950-1957, the Pirates’ best record was 66-88 so both their won-loss records must be put in proper perspective. In 1960, when the Pirates finished first in the N.L. with a 95-59 mark, Friend was 18-12 and Law was 20-9, both pitching over 270 innings.
