Note: Posted early Wednesday a.m., so won’t have a lot of NBA signing stuff that is about to hit.
New York Mets Pitching Quiz: 1) Name the five to win 20 in a season for the Mets. 2) Name the four to win double figures in 1973, the year they won the N.L. East with an 82-79 record and almost won the World Series. Answers below.
Ball Bits
“Perhaps only Tony La Russa, a manager often accused of trying to reinvent baseball, could have over-thought the R.A. Dickey decision and gotten it wrong.
“The guy did insist on batting his pitcher eighth on occasion during his years with the Cardinals, just to show he was smarter than everybody else.
“But I blame Bud Selig for screwing this up, as well.
“His insistence on making the All-Star Game count for home-field advantage in the World Series, a ridiculous idea from the start, is surely what sent La Russa into Bill Belichick mode, preparing for his one-game return to baseball as if designing a game plan for a Super Bowl.
“If the game were still merely a showcase for baseball’s best players, with nothing at stake but league pride, I’m convinced La Russa would have given Dickey the start Tuesday night, rather than Matt Cain.
“It’s not as if he doesn’t understand the national appeal of Dickey’s story, or wouldn’t enjoy rewarding the perseverance of a 37-year-old pitcher who endured years as a journeyman before turning himself into a knuckleball star.
“No, I don’t think there’s anything sinister about La Russa’s decision. I just think that, as a control-freak manager determined to deliver home-field advantage, he couldn’t come to grips with the idea of Dickey starting the game, throwing his knuckler to an unfamiliar catcher.
“Indeed, in explaining his decision on Monday, he talked about ‘the edge’ that pairing Cain with his Giants teammate and regular catcher, Buster Posey, gave the National League.
“And though he wouldn’t say it, clearly he feared Dickey’s knuckler giving Posey fits, no doubt envisioning a messy inning or two that put the NL in a hole that might prove costly….
“(But) La Russa just doesn’t seem to trust the knuckleball, apparently finding it easier to justify using the Mets righthander for an inning somewhere in the middle of the game, as he indicated he would. [Ed. Dickey pitched a scoreless sixth in the N.L.’s 8-0 triumph.]
“And that’s what really seemed to bother Dickey. He downplayed his disappointment, but it wasn’t hard to read between the lines to see how much the decision stung.
“For one thing, he made a point of saying that he had expected a call from La Russa telling him of his decision in advance, and instead had to find out via a text from a friend on Tuesday morning after the Daily News broke the story.
“For another, he took umbrage at the notion that his knuckler itself was the issue.
“ ‘That’s part of what’s been over-thought, maybe,’ he said, in what sounded like a dig at La Russa. ‘You’re talking about the best baseball players in the world, and to say that someone’s got a pitcher that’s too nasty for them to catch it, that doesn’t make sense.’….
“Surely Dickey’s story, which transcends baseball, would bring more casual fans to the TV on Tuesday night, for the spectacle of seeing him start the game. How many of those folks will be watching when Dickey comes in to pitch the fifth or sixth inning?
“La Russa is wrong, regardless. Dickey’s knuckler has been the best weapon in the game this season, and the manager should have had the courage to trust it.
–Don’t ask me to comment on the home run derby….I’m sorry, I take the Monday off during the All-Star break. I’m watching the Mets every single night I’m home and I couldn’t give a damn about an artificial contest. That said, the whole Robinson Cano, Kansas City fans deal was kind of funny after he snubbed Royals All-Star Billy Butler.
But I do have to comment on the bit Fox had before the All-Star Game on the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. [nlbm.com] I have been there twice the last four years or so but I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t done a full tour. I must get back. Through my relationship with Willie Wilson at least I got to meet CC Sabathia and Prince Fielder there, and was struck out by Dennis Leonard and Dave Stewart in a charity game. [Thank god I fouled one or two off….eegads, I sucked….]
–Oh brother…Mets starter Dillon Gee was hospitalized with a blood clot in his pitching shoulder and is now on the DL. Gee had experienced numbness in his fingers. I experience numbness in my brain after drinking domestic sometimes, not to compare the two.
Mets fans are now wondering if the team will bring up one of their two main pitching prospects, Matt Harvey (the other being Zack Wheeler). I was hoping they wouldn’t have to for a while longer.
–As I noted last time, Reggie Jackson’s relationship with the Yankees is about to end, and indeed the next day the team told him to stay away from club events indefinitely, though general manager Brian Cashman is disputing multiple reports this is the case.
Now I understand why the Yankees would be unhappy, but I don’t want to hear anyone cutting down Reggie for telling the truth. I was listening to a local sports radio talk show guy on Tuesday and he made the point that there are no good interviews anymore, what with players being so cautious…using the terrific example of Derek Jeter, the master of saying absolutely nothing. I mean we all respect the hell out of Jeter, but he has never, ever said a freakin’ thing worth quoting. Of course he knows what he’s doing. No one is more careful at cultivating his image than Jeter and it has paid off in spades.
Meanwhile, Jackson gets killed for telling the truth and, as I mentioned last time, Reggie never tried to hide behind the “I was misquoted” garbage.
Good for you, Reggie. Your legacy is more than secure and I’m guessing after about a year, you’ll be back in the Yankees’ good graces (though not at a paying position level).
–I thought Erin Andrews did an outstanding job in her debut with Fox for the All-Star Game. Just outstanding. Frankly, close to a Bar Chat Hall of Fame performance.
“Karl Kissner picked up a soot-covered cardboard box that had been under a wooden dollhouse in his grandfather’s attic. Taking a look inside, he saw hundreds of baseball cards bundled with twine. They were smaller than the ones he was used to seeing.
“But some of the names were familiar: Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Honus Wagner.
“Then he put the box on a dresser and went back to digging through the attic.
“It wasn’t until two weeks later that he learned that his family had come across what experts say is one of the biggest, most exciting finds in the history of sports card collecting, a discovery worth perhaps millions.”
And the thing is, his cards are in nearly pristine condition, “untouched for more than a century.”
“It’s like finding the Mona Lisa in the attic,” said Kissner.
Everything has been authenticated, with 37 specific cards expected to fetch a total of $500,000 at auction in August, though the 700 cards in all could be worth up to $3 million.
The grandfather died in the 1940s and then after his wife passed away, two of his daughters lived in the house. Jean Hench kept it until she died in October, leaving everything inside to her 20 nieces and nephews. Kissner, 51, is the youngest and was put in charge of the estate. Months went by before they even got to the attic.
The cards won’t all be sold at once so as not to flood the market.
–You know who I’m rooting for? The Yankees’ Joba Chamberlain, who just had his first rehab outing following elbow surgery and threw 97 mph. It would be a terrific story if he can make it all the way back before season end. Actually, he could be back by August. Recall that after his Tommy John surgery, he dislocated an ankle playing on a trampoline with his son, for which he took an unreal amount of grief (but not in this space).
—Sacramento is warming up to make a pitch for the Oakland A’s, with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson saying he would begin an “exploratory effort,” this as the A’s have long been talking with San Jose about moving there. But as the Wall Street Journal reports, San Jose has a big advantage in being able to market season tickets to the region’s many tech firms.
You know I forgot the San Francisco 49ers are moving to a new stadium in Santa Clara in 2014; like some 40 miles away.
B-Ball Bits
—Madison Square Garden has been undergoing a multi-year upgrade, new luxury boxes, restaurants and such, but I had no idea they were adding a nursing home. How else do you explain not just a three-year contract for ancient Jason Kidd, but three years for Marcus Camby, age 38, who has been healthy like six weeks his entire career?!
Seriously, Marcus Camby has been around since 1996, when Bill Clinton had Monica Lewinsky at his beck and call, and Camby has played in 70 or more games just three seasons!
Nice role player at this stage in his career, but I’m guessing he plays like 40 contests this coming campaign.
[In the sign-and-trade with the Rockets, the Knicks gave up Josh Harrelson (had a nice rookie season), Jerome Jordan (not Michael) and Toney Douglas (not Buster).]
But the Knicks re-signed Steve Novak to a four-year, $15 million deal. What the hell. It’s not my money. Novak shot 47.2 percent from downtown last season.
As for Jeremy Lin, the Knicks will match the Rockets’ $29 million offer sheet though there are rumblings the team handled the situation poorly, certainly in not contacting Lin first.
But, as the New York Daily News’ Mitch Lawrence notes, it was the Knicks who gave Lin the chance to gain free agent riches and his salary is skyrocketing from $788,000 last season to $18 million (cumulatively) in years three and four of the deal. It’s going to be interesting to watch his attitude.
—Tim Duncan, 36, signed a three-year, $36 million deal to finish his career in San Antonio, with the third year being a player option.
–Clippers superstar Blake Griffin signed a five-year extension beginning with the 2013-2014 season. Teammate Chris Paul could sign a three-year extension this summer, but could also sign a five-year one next summer so he’s waiting and still talking about possibly joining the Knicks in two seasons.
All-time rank in tour wins: Federer No. 4, Woods No. 2.
Years left to win more majors: Federer – two or three. Woods – 10?
“Degree of difficulty in majors: Federer must go 7-0 over two weeks to win a major. He can’t have a bad day. Woods can be 43rd after Thursday and first on Sunday and he’s fine.
“On the other hand, Woods must go 143-0. He must beat everybody in the field…There’s nothing he can do to stop them, short of poisoning their room-service trays. This is why 15 men have won the past 15 golf majors and four men have won the past 15 tennis majors.”
–We note the passing of Norman Sas, 87. You know…I saw the name and thought ‘I don’t know him,’ but I and every guy of my generation should have known who he was.
Norman Sas invented electric football!!! Goodness gracious….how many hours did some of us play this one, totally irritating our parents. You could use your imagination, big time, though those ‘scrums’ were a bit frustrating, let alone the passer and kicker. Then again, this was pre-Air Coryell and the evolution of the passing game. Just ground and pound with Macarthur Lane and John Brockington. [I had Jets, Rams and Packers as my electric football figures…Dick Bass, Jack Snow, Don Maynard, George Sauer….needless to say, Namath and Gabriel didn’t have a real high passing percentage in my contests.]
I didn’t know this…Sas invented the game in 1948, but it wasn’t until 1967 that he signed a deal with NFL Properties which allowed for the plastic players representing actual NFL teams, which was when I was nine…the perfect age to discover this game.
Sas was born in New York City in 1925 and received degrees in mechanical engineering and business administration from MIT before serving in the Navy during World War II.
So he was just 23 when he used a vibrating horse-racing toy he’d seen and turned the concept into electric football. In 1949, it cost $5.95 at A&S in New York.
Sas became president of his father Elmer’s Tudor Metal Products, which he then turned into Tudor Games. “A December 1971 Sports Illustrated story identified Tudor Electric Football – then retailing for $9.95 to $14.95 – as the ‘bestseller’ among all NFL-licensed products.” [Jay Levin / The Record of Hackensack, N.J. and McClatchy Newspapers]
There’s a book coming out later this year titled “The Unforgettable Buzz” by Earl Shores that could be a fun, two-hour or so read.
“You’d sit there and on the 10th try your running back would turn to the left and magically go down the field for a touchdown,” he said. “You played Electric Football for that one moment.”
I’d lose the cotton football under the bed and spend 20 minutes trying to find it after a failed field goal attempt.
–Ha! A federal judge threw out Lance Armstrong’s lawsuit against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, though Lance can refile in 20 days. It seems the district judge, Sam Sparks (sounds lke a western gunslinger, know what I’m sayin’?) said Armstrong’s complaint was more intended to whip up public opinion than address the legal arguments.
[Separately, two physicians and a trainer who worked with Armstrong were just handed lifetime bans from working in Olympic sports by the same USADA.]
—I’ll Have Another was sold to a Japanese breeding farm by his owner, Paul Reddam, for about $10 million. Not a bad investment.
But a story in Wednesday’s New York Times by Joe Drape and Walt Bogdanich says there is growing evidence that the colt may have been ailing before even the Kentucky Derby, according to medical records and statements from veterinary experts. One, Dr. George Maylin, said it was clear that “osteoarthritis has been with this horse for a period of time,” adding the “tendon problem (that prevented I’ll Have Another from going for the Triple Crown at the Belmont) has also been existent for some period of time.”
The colt was shot up with powerful anti-inflammatories and a synthetic joint fluid just days before the Belmont and it was after an early-morning gallop that controversial trainer Doug O’Neill pulled the horse. I’m guessing this story isn’t over…another black eye for the sport.
–Remember Peter Sauer, a former captain of the Stanford basketball team who helped lead the Cardinal to the 1998 Final Four?
He died the other day after playing in an adult league basketball game in White Plains, N.Y., age 35. Evidently he was shooting free throws after the game, collapsed and hit his head. He couldn’t be revived after 20 minutes by EMTs.
Sauer knocked down a key 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the Cardinal’s 86-85 overtime loss to Kentucky in the NCAA semifinals. He graduated with a degree in economics and worked for Bank of America. He is survived by his wife and three children.
–Greg Doyel of CBSSports.com had this bit on a story I didn’t know of until this week.
“It’s like we’ve entered some bizarre world where down is up, wrong is right, and high school senior Robert Nkemdiche [Ed. 6-foot-5, 260-pound defensive end] is a hero for trying to extort Clemson into giving his buddy a football scholarship.
“What Nkemdiche is trying to do is wrong, and more than just wrong – which is obviously an opinion, and therefore up for debate – it’s against the spirit of the NCAA rulebook. And that’s not an opinion. That’s a fact.
“There’s a way around that fact, just like there’s a way around almost every NCAA rule in the book, but it’s a fact nonetheless. The NCAA wouldn’t allow Clemson to give Robert Nkemdiche’s buddy a $37,000 car to win Nkemdiche’s signature on scholarship papers. Why would the NCAA let Clemson give Nkemdiche’s buddy a $37,000 education for the same purpose?
“(This is where we enter that murky territory of package deals, whether it’s a school signing a recruit’s buddy or hiring a recruit’s father. It happens. All the time. It happens because schools are sleazy and the NCAA is lazy. But it seems a fairly clear violation of NCAA rules, a violation the NCAA hasn’t found a way to stop or even penalize. Boggles my mind, but that’s where we are on that point. And don’t give me, ‘Lots of people do it, so it’s OK.’ Lots of people cheat the IRS. Lots of people drink and drive. Lots of people get away with lots of things. That doesn’t make those things OK.)
“So this is wrong, a big-time recruit named Robert Nkemdiche trying to finagle a scholarship for a much smaller-time recruit named…wait, you know what? I’m not going to make it worse for the much smaller-time recruit by naming him. It’s not (name redacted)’s fault that Nkemdiche is trying to leverage his status into a scholarship for a friend….
“It’s not Clemson’s fault, either. Not yet, anyway. If Clemson offers (name redacted) a scholarship? Well, sure. Then it would be Clemson’s fault, because giving (name redacted) a $37,000 scholarship just to win the services of Nkemdiche would violate the spirit of the NCAA rulebook.
“Would the NCAA have the gumption, the nerve, to pursue Clemson? No, probably not. The NCAA would hide behind the same thing that Clemson fans are hiding behind now: Maybe (name redacted) is worth the scholarship on his own merit!
Name redacted may have been a Division I recruit, but in no way on the scale of the kind of player Clemson recruits.
“(But), because college football is a cesspool, it’s OK that Nkemdiche is pumping more sludge into the deep end? Nonsensical. But I’m a minority. (Other big name college football writers) are in favor of Nkemdiche’s scummy request. They see nothing wrong with a recruit using his NFL-level potential to muscle Clemson into giving $37,000 in goods and services to a Tulane-level buddy.
“This is where we are in college sports: It’s hopelessly dirty, so let’s play in the mud.
“Your move, Clemson. Nkemdiche and (name redacted) are waiting. The world is watching. The cesspool is beckoning. You’re already in the cesspool – but how deep do you want to go?”
–This is too much. Notre Dame wants to be part of the ACC’s arrangement with the Orange Bowl; as in the Fighting Irish would get an automatic spot opposite the ACC champion, assuming ND is good enough. But if they are really good, and the Orange Bowl isn’t part of the four-team playoff that year, well, then ND says bye-bye.
–So it seems the NFL could be coming back to Los Angeles sooner than later. Maybe as early as the 2013 season as Commissioner Roger Goodell has made it clear he’d welcome a team in L.A., but, at the same time, there are to be no secret handshakes. Any changes must go through league offices and Goodell.
There are two proposals for a new stadium in L.A., including one in City of Industry, 22 miles away, and many are talking that a new stadium would be home to two teams, and of course you could play for a year or two in the Coliseum or Rose Bowl, and at least for now the talk seems to be the St. Louis Rams might be the first to return; perhaps the Raiders the second team.
Don’t bother talking about the Bills. They are staying put, even when Ralph Wilson passes.
–I told you the other day about Antonio Esfandiari, who won the record $18.3 million (including the buy-in) at a recent poker event and this week the official World Series of Poker started with 6,598 entrants ($10,000 buy-in for the No-Limit Hold’em championship), and they announced the top prize would be $8.5 million, $200,000 less than last year when Pius Heinz took the title.
Anyway, David Einhorn, noted hedge fund manager who finished third in the big money event of last week is not competing, but Esfandiari made it through the first day, Monday. [Not going to look further…I’m not THAT interested, after all.]
However, I was interested enough to read a Bloomberg piece on the event and so I note that of the original 6,598, “the top 666 finishers will win at least $19,227” which would be kind of cool. Hang out another few days after and really have a good time.
You don’t think I would save the net $10,000, do you?
–For those of you going to London for the Olympics or otherwise the next few months, check out the James Bond exhibit at the Barbican Centre there, celebrating the 50th anniversary of 007 being on the silver screen. The 24th film in the series, “Skyfall,” is due out this autumn. I’ll get around to seeing it in 2024.
–So you’ve seen all the Great White stories from Cape Cod the past few weeks, including Walter Szulc Jr., the kayaker who didn’t know he was being trailed by Whitey until people on shore alerted him to this, but I found it incredible that the “seal population in New England has increased from 10,000 to 300,000 since conservation efforts began.” [New York Daily News]
300,000?! Good lord. You’d think every single Great White in the world would be heading to the Cape, wouldn’t you? As a result I’m estimating the human death toll by Labor Day will approximate 750.
“The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (New York City) yesterday was the worst place to be a Canada goose.
“Federal officials rounded up about 700 of the birds from the area to be euthanized in hopes of cutting down on the strikes with passenger jets that have forced emergency landings form JFK and La Guardia Airports.”
Yessss!!!! About freakin’ time. Seems they can’t fly during their molting season.
But fret not, geese lovers. At least these guys’ will be given to food pantries after being gassed.
–“Man” can’t get out of his own way when it comes to the All-Species List. As reported by Michael Winter of USA TODAY:
“Bulldozers called in to shore up a Trinidadian beach that is a prime nesting ground for endangered leatherback sea turtles ended up crushing thousands of eggs and hatchlings, according to reports from the Caribbean island.
“One environmentalist told the Trinidad Express that the weekend disaster along the Grand Riviere was ‘the worst set of destruction I have ever seen by humans on turtles.’ The stretch of shoreline on the north coast is considered the world’s densest nesting ground for leatherbacks, the largest sea turtle. They can grow to almost 10 feet and weigh 800 pounds.”
Experts say the destruction should not, however, accelerate the decline of the species.
Nonetheless, here’s hoping Leatherback Nation successfully sues Man for about $3 billion. Take it out of the Afghan account, they having stolen $billions from the U.S. over the years.
–Bitter piece in the Wall Street Journal by Jim Fusilli on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, now on newsstands but essentially the same list as RS’s last effort from 2003. The top 21 are the same, including the No. 1 “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The only youngster in the top ten is 1980’s “London Calling” by the Clash.
“This affinity for music of an ever-distant past may provide comfort for generationally biased boomer-era rock fans, but for the rest of us, it reinforces the fiction that popular music reached its zenith four decades ago….
“Sweep aside 45 years of almost-unchallenged praise, some of which has nothing to do with its 13 songs and 40 minutes of music, and really listen to ‘Sgt. Pepper.’ It is a great rock and pop album. But indisputably better than, say, ‘Kiko,’ a 1992 album by Los Lobos, or Bjork’s 2001 disc ‘Vespertine’ – neither of which is among the Rolling Stone 500? Of course not. But the greatness of ‘Kiko’ and ‘Vespertine’ exist outside the confines of boomer-rock’s narrow cultural context.”
Oh, stop bitching. The 60s, defined by your editor as late 1963-1974, will never be beat…ever. Just deal with it.
So, to provide some proper context, your editor will go back to 1962, before music really got good.
Top 3 songs for the week 7/14/62: #1 “Roses Are Red (My Love)” (Bobby Vinton) #2 “The Stripper” (David Rose…oh, those were the days…) #3 “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (Ray Charles…look how well this one has held up…or just about anything of his for that matter)…and…#4 “The Wah Watusi” (The Orlons…as opposed to this one…) #5 “Sealed With A Kiss” (Brian Hyland) #6 “Palisades Park” (Freddy Cannon… ‘ride the coaster, get cool, in the waves, in the pool…you’ll have fun…so… come…on…o-verrr’…that was the commercial, not Cannon’s lyrics…) #7 “Wolverton Mountain” (Claude King) #8 “It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin’” (Johnny Tillotson) #9 “Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes)” (Dee Dee Sharp…absolutely dreadful…we need the British Invasion…) #10 “Al Di La’” (Emilio Pericoli…nice tune…classic for this time)
New York Mets Pitching Quiz: 1) 20-game winners: Tom Seaver, 25 (1969), 22 (1975), 21 (1972), 20 (1971); Dwight Gooden, 24 (1985); Jerry Koosman, 21 (1976); David Cone, 20 (1988); Frank Viola, 20 (1990). 2) 1973 / double-digits in wins: Tom Seaver, 19-10; Jerry Koosman, 14-15; Jon Matlack, 14-16; George Stone, 12-3.
*You know who gets overlooked when talking of good pitchers of his era? David Cone. I mean there are guys in the Hall of Fame with not nearly the resume he compiled, beginning with a sterling 194-126 record and 3.46 ERA. Cone won a Cy Young award, was a two-time 20-game winner, led the league in strikeouts twice, five-time All-Star…yet in his only year of Hall of Fame eligibility, he received 3.9% of the vote of the baseball writers! I’m not saying David Cone deserves to be in Cooperstown…he doesn’t…but, geezuz, his career deserves to be treated with a little more respect.
