Indy 500 Quiz: Name the seven drivers who won the Indy 500 during the decade of the 1970s. Answer below.
Ball Bits…stats thru Tuesday’s play…
—Miguel Cabrera…12 HR 49 RBI, .384
“Not for nothing, but did you know Miguel Cabrera is going to win a second straight Triple Crown?
“Thru Sunday, he is batting .385 with six home runs and 36 RBI. He’ll pick up the home run pace as the season goes on, just as he did last year. He only had nine through May, before ending up with 44.”
Well, two weeks later, he goes 4-for-4 with three home runs on Sunday night. To me he’s a lock to become the first in baseball history to have back-to-back Triple Crowns; Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby being the only two to achieve two Triple Crowns overall.
“I was the best on the field. I did more things than he did. My game was different than his game. So comparing him, to me, there’s no comparison.
“He doesn’t have my MVPs. He doesn’t have my numbers. Well, not yet, anyways.
“But does he have that ability? Yes, he does.
“Does he have that gift? Yes, he does.”
Cabrera is 30 and leads Bonds in every Triple Crown category at the same age, hitting .320 with 332 homers and 1,170 RBI. Bonds had a .285 batting average with 259 homers and 760 RBI.
“Cabrera’s numbers are eerily similar to Aaron’s at the same age. Cabrera, playing 43 more games, has the identical batting average as Aaron (with similar power numbers…inexplicably, Nightengale has two sets of numbers in his article…but both sets have the same batting average).”
Of course when it comes to Bonds…he only improved with age through better pharmacology.
—Mike Trout hit for the cycle on Tuesday in the Angels’ 12-0 rout of the Mariners. He thus became the youngest A.L. player to accomplish the feat and the third youngest in the major leagues since 1930. After a relatively slow start, Trout is now at .293, 9 HR 34 RBI….and he doesn’t turn 22 until Aug. 7.
–It’s hard keeping up with all the young pitching talent these days.
Arizona’s Patrick Corbin, 23, has burst on the scene with nine quality starts in nine outings, a 7-0 record, 1.44 ERA. [While Arizona slugger Paul Goldschmidt, 25, is emerging as one of the game’s big home run hitters; Goldschmidt having 12 with 36 RBI thus far.]
The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, 25, is already 66-39, 2.69, in his young career, including a 5-2, 1.35 start for L.A.
The Cards’ Shelby Miller, 22, is 5-3, 1.74.
The Mets’ Matt Harvey, 24, is 5-0, 1.55, and has yet to give up more than 3 runs or 3 walks in his nine starts. [He’s throwing Wednesday afternoon…after I go to post.]
And Tampa Bay’s Matt Moore, 23, is the first lefty to start the season 8-0 since Babe Ruth did it in 1917 at age 22. [The Rays are 9-0 in his nine starts.]
But Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels is 1-7, 4.45, even though 7 of his 10 starts are quality starts (6 innings, no more than 3 runs). Hamels has also now pitched 52 2/3 innings without a lead.
–Back to Kershaw, the other day, Tuesday May 14, he threw 132 pitches, which has become a worrisome threshold for a hurler. The Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moyer had a list of the last ten to throw 130 pitches in a game, including Kershaw, and you have the following.
Justin Verlander, DET, 132
Johan Santana, NYM, 134
Chris Carpenter, STL, 132
Tim Lincecum, SF, 133
Roy Halladay, PHI, 130
Brandon Morrow, TOR, 137
Edwin Jackson, ARI, 149
Chris Narveson, MIL, 130
Adam Wainwright, STL, 130
Santana is out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery. Carpenter, Halladay and Narveson had major shoulder injuries, Wainwright a major elbow surgery. Lincecum and Morrow have had their share of injuries and injury whispers.
Kershaw followed up his 132 pitch game with a complete game, 107 pitch, effort on Monday. Time will tell.
–The Mets’ Ike Davis is hitting .132 for the month of May with a single RBI in 53 at-bats. Since April 20, he is 0-for-24 with runners in scoring position and is hitting .149 overall. [.098 with RISP]. Oh, and entering Wednesday’s game, he’s in a 1-for-36 skid.
NBA Fever…it’s Fannn-tastic!
It’s funny how clueless some of the Knicks players were following their 4-2 loss to the Pacers. This team has no future, with the Heat, Danny Granger returning for Indiana, Derrick Rose for Chicago, Rajon Rondo in Boston, Brooklyn with a solid cast, Atlanta with some existing talent and $30 million to spend…
And the Knicks? They will be paying out $46 million to Marcus Camby, Steve Novak, Amare’e Stoudemire, Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler.
[As the players cleaned out their lockers and spoke to the press.]
“Next up was Raymond Felton, fresh off an 0-for-7 shooting performance in Game 6…
“ ‘I’m gonna say it was a great year,’ Felton said. ‘It was a great year, great run.’
“When a team loses six of its last nine playoff games, as the Knicks did to close their season on Saturday night, that’s anything but a ‘great’ run.
“ ‘This was our first year together, so it’s gonna take time,’ said Felton, oblivious to the Knicks’ advanced age. ‘We wish we could’ve come in this year and won a championship, that would’ve been great. But things take time. You still have to build and continue to get better with each other.’”
“Carmelo Anthony, as the face of the Knicks franchise, clearly sees his obligation to make sure to portray a happy public face to New York, orange-and-blue-colored glasses covering his eyes.
“Nowhere near Miami, nowhere near the Heat, that’s where.
“ ‘We kinda teased the city of New York a little bit, because now everybody expects us to play at this level, this high level,’ Melo says.
“Sorry, the city of New York has waited 40 years for an NBA championship. The city of New York expects the Knicks to play at something higher than an Eastern Conference semifinals level.
“But unless changes are made, changes more drastic than Melo seems to think are needed, the city of New York has every right to wonder whether the championship window, opened the moment Melo arrived to join forces with Amar’e Stoudemire, is now closed, perhaps forever, on the Carmelo Anthony Era in New York should he decide to opt-out after next season.
“ ‘It’s just some detail-oriented things that we kinda gotta fix,’ Melo says.
“ ‘This was the first time that this team was assembled, and to be able to accomplish what we were able to accomplish this year and take the steps in the right direction, I was excited about that, and I’m still excited about what’s here to come,’ Melo says.
“ ‘I don’t think we underachieved,’ Melo says. ‘We made strides forward, we took huge steps. When I first got here in New York, I always said this was a process, it’s gonna take a couple of years, 2-3 years, and this is the first year that the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall into place. So we’re only gonna get better from here on out.’
“Thank you, Nostramelo. Stoudemire’s role – and knees – are uncertain. Chris Copeland may or may not be back. Pablo Prigioni is likely gone. Debilitated Tyson Chandler, still recovering from Hibbertitis, will be 31 in October. Jason Kidd may be kicked to the curb.”
–The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Draft lottery. Kentucky’s Nerlens Noel, Ben McLemore (Kansas) and Otto Porter Jr. (Georgetown) are the names most mentioned to go early. Orlando is No. 2. Washington No. 3.
Pro Football Players’ Pain
The Washington Post conducted an online survey of more than 500 retired NFL players to get a sense of the amount of pain they are dealing with on a daily basis once their careers are over.
As reported by Sally Jenkins, Rick Maese and Scott Clement, here are a few of their findings.
“Nearly nine in 10 report suffering from aches and pains on a daily basis, and they overwhelmingly – 91 percent – connect nearly all their pains to football.
“ ‘I hurt like hell every morning when I wake up,’ says former linebacker Darryl Talley, 52.
“ ‘I can’t run anymore,’ says former offensive lineman Pete Kendall, 39. ‘I can’t play basketball with my kids, can’t walk for any extended distance.’
“ ‘I’m 40 years old going on 65,’ says Roman Oben, another ex-lineman. ‘God knows what I’ll feel like when I’m actually 65 years old.’”
Yet nine in 10 said they’re happy they played the sport, though fewer than half would recommend children play it today.
“Nine in 10 former NFL players reported suffering concussions while playing, and nearly six in 10 reported three or more….
“Forty-four percent of former players said they have either had a joint replacement or have been advised they’ll need one.”
The Post also conducted extensive interviews with three dozen retired NFL players “and most said they accepted a certain amount of pain as the fair exchange for football’s compensations.”
“Seventeen years removed from his NFL career, ex-quarterback Don Majkowski says he can no longer hold down a job. He can’t stand for long periods, and sitting is also tough. He has undergone nearly 20 surgeries related to football, including 11 on his ankle, three on his shoulder and two on his back. He has a 12-inch scar on his stomach, and he can’t walk very far because his left foot is fused with his ankle by a pair of metal plates and 13 screws. ‘It’s like walking on a pirate peg leg,’ he said.
“No one warned Majkowski that all those blindside hits might result in lumbar spinal fusion and degenerative disk disease, and certainly no one mentioned the crippling pain that preceded it. What few warnings he did receive, he didn’t particularly listen to. ‘You hear stories of what you will have to face when you get older,’ he said. ‘You don’t put much merit in that when you’re younger.’”
Majkowski’s injury list is unreal. “He got a staph infection from one of his ankle surgeries. The bone spurs frayed his Achilles’ tendon so badly that one day it ruptured when he was simply walking up the steps to his house. Then came the disk problems. Today he has two steel plates in his back, and he needs another in his neck.
“For all of that, Majkowski, 49, counts himself one of the luckier ones, because he is financially secure. At the height of his career he commanded a salary of more than $1 million a year; he estimates he was able to save about $6 million.”
As for the head trauma issue, Fred Smoot, 34, “lost count of the concussions he experienced during his nine-year career, before sideline protocols were in place to prevent players from staying on the field with head injuries. Or rather, he didn’t bother counting them, since he experienced them so frequently as a defensive back who plowed into receivers and running backs at a dead run. ‘There were many times I’m on the field and praying the quarterback don’t throw my way because I don’t know what’s going on,’ he said. ‘It was a glaze or a fog over the eyes.’”
–There’s not much to say about the NHL playoffs. Us Rangers fans are just very depressed that we now find ourselves down 3-0 to the Bruins after New York wasted a superb effort by goalie Henrik Lundqvist on Tuesday, blowing a 1-0 third period lead to fall 2-1 at the Garden.
–It’s rather remarkable that Sergio Garcia doesn’t know when to shut up. You are supposed to mature as you age, not regress as Garcia has. To wit…the fallout continues from The Players Championship and the third round when Tiger Woods was teamed up with Garcia.
Garcia said in an interview with Golf.com’s Paul Mahoney:
“He (Woods) called me a whiner. He’s probably right. But that’s also probably the first thing he’s told you guys that’s true in 15 years. I know what he’s like. You guys are finding out.”
Garcia said he wasn’t surprised Woods didn’t call to apologize.
“First of all, I don’t have his number. And secondly, I did nothing wrong and don’t have anything to say to him. And he wouldn’t pick up the phone anyway. But that’s OK; I don’t need him as a friend. I don’t need him in my life to be happy and that’s fine. It’s as simple as that. Like I have always said, I try to be as truthful as possible,’ Garcia said. ‘That’s why I think sometimes most of the people love me and some hate me. I understand that but I’m not going to change. That’s what makes me who I am and that’s what makes me happy. And that’s what makes the people I care about happy because they know they can trust me. Tiger doesn’t make a difference to my life. And I know that I don’t make a difference to his life.”
But wait…there’s more! On Tuesday, at the European Tour awards dinner, Sergio was asked by Steve Sands of the Golf Channel, in jest, if he would be inviting Woods over for dinner during the U.S. Open. Sergio then said this:
“We will have him round every night. We will serve fried chicken.”
“I apologize for any offense that may have been caused by my comment on stage during the European Tour Players’ Awards dinner. I answered a question that was clearly made towards me as a joke with a silly remark, but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner.”
And so we hereby place Sergio Garcia’s name in the December file for strong “Idiot of the Year” consideration.
–Meanwhile, after a comment period, the U.S. Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club announced they have outlawed the practice of anchoring a golf club to the body when a player makes a stroke, ergo, putting.
The new rule (14-1b) takes effect in 2016. USGA executive director Mike Davis said: “This is about protecting the fundamentals of what the game has always been about, and we do believe this has been a divisive issue that needed to be cleared up. I think it’s really important that the PGA Tour – and all the professional tours – continue to follow one set of rules. We have gotten very positive feedback from the tours around the world saying that they like one set of rules, they like the R&A and USGA governing those. So if there was some type of schism, we don’t think that would be good for golf.”
Belly putters can still be used, provided such clubs are not anchored during a stroke.
So expect the lawsuits to begin to flow. Recent major championship winners who anchor their putters include Keegan Bradley (2011 PGA), Webb Simpson (2012 U.S. Open), Ernie Els (2012 British Open) and Adam Scott (2013 Masters). Scott and Bradley are among those contemplating taking legal action against the ban.
You also have the potential for the PGA Tour breaking ranks with the USGA and R&A.
But anchored putting isn’t the only issue in the sport these days.
“Among (the others): performance-enhancing equipment used by 100 percent of touring pros; caddies lining up their players on putts; the slow pace of play; the viewer call-ins that are threatening to turn tournament golf into a good walk spoiled by armchair rules officials; and an anti-doping program that is not up to the Olympic model.
“It sounds like a golfer’s utopia, where a 3-wood shot travels farther than a driver, golf balls that don’t cut or curve, and utility clubs designed to help shots out of the rough brake on the greens….
“Why does the USGA bother growing rough that looks like Bart Simpson’s hair if it is going to allow clubs designed to cut through it like a scythe?”
–Finally, we note the passing of Ray Manzarek, a founding member of The Doors and one of the most influential keyboard players in rock history. He died in Germany of bile duct cancer. Manzarek was 74.
If you had to pick only two rockers who aged gracefully, it would be Eric Clapton and Ray Manzarek. Manzarek always seemed like a real classy act, to yours truly. He died too young.
Manzarek co-founded the Doors after running into Jim Morrison at the beach in Venice, California, in 1965. They had actually met earlier as film students in Los Angeles, but Morrison had never mentioned he wrote music.
“It dropped quite simply, quite innocently from his lips,” Manzarek wrote of Morrison’s disclosure in his biography, Light My Fire, in 1998, “but it changed our collective destinies.”
Manzarek added: “We knew what the people wanted: the same thing the Doors wanted. Freedom.”
Manzarek’s Vox Continental organ can be famously heard on Light My Fire and Riders on the Storm – while since the Doors didn’t have a bassist, he often played bass on his Fender Rhodes piano.
The Doors included guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. Manzarek met Densmore in a transcendental meditation class, while Densmore introduced them to his friend Krieger.
Beginning in 1967, the Doors charted 15 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including Hello, I Love You, Touch Me, and People Are Strange. They sold 100 million albums before Morrison’s death in Paris, in 1971, which essentially marked the end of the band.
Top 3 songs for the week 5/19/73: #1 “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” (Stevie Wonder….probably his best…) #2 “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree” (Dawn featuring Tony Orlando) #3 “Little Willy” (The Sweet…blows…)…and…#4 “Frankenstein” (The Edgar Winter Group) #5 “Daniel” (Elton John…eh…) #6 “My Love” (Paul McCartney & Wings…decent tune…) #7 “Drift Away” (Dobie Gray) #8 “Stuck In The Middle With You” (Stealers Wheel…solid tune…the late Gerry Rafferty on vocals…) #9 “Pillow Talk” (Sylvia…oh baby…nice daddy…nice daddy….nice daddy…aie aie aie yaaaa….) #10 “Wildflower” (Skylark)
Indy 500 Quiz Answer: Winners in the 70s…
1970 – Al Unser
1971 – Al Unser
1972 – Mark Donohue
1973 – Gordon Johncock
1974 – Johnny Rutherford
1975 – Bobby Unser
1976 – Johnny Rutherford
1977 – A.J. Foyt
1978 – Al Unser
1979 – Rick Mears
