Note: 10:00 PM ET, Sunday night….I’m tired…so posting with Coca-Cola 600 in progress, thanks to Fox Sports’ camera cable falling onto the track, getting into the wheels of some of the cars and forcing a lengthy delay (unreal)…and with the Mets’ Ike Davis 1-for-1 against the Braves….and with Miami up 70-56 at the half against the Pacers.
Baseball Quiz: From time to time through the summer, I’m going to ask you to give me the birth places for some Hall of Famers. Some are going to be easy, though designed to give the casual fan a chance to wow their significant other at the neighborhood tavern, while others are hard but, heck, if you’re ever passing through these places it would just be cool to know. In all seriousness, I’m printing out burial spots of some old-timers who I hope to pay respects to at some point in my life. [And some obscure ones…like J. Mac and Phil W., I want to visit the grave of Danny Napoleon…it’s near Trenton…just because…] Anyway, give me the birth place for the following: Hank Aaron, Sparky Anderson, Ernie Banks, Johnny Bench, Roy Campanella, Roberto Clemente, Ty Cobb, and Eddie Collins. Answer below.
Indy 500…and other race bits…
What a great race, though all wanted it to finish under green and not a caution. Nonetheless, Tony Kanaan, the popular Brazilian (with Lebanese roots), took his first 500, a race he was very vocal in saying he wanted more than anything.
Before a restart that promised great action at the end, Kanaan said it was “all or nothing” and he took the lead, only to see 3-time champ Dario Franchitti hit the wall, allowing Kanaan to win under the yellow.
As Kanaan said after, “I’m going to put my ugly face on that trophy.”
21-year-old Colombian Carlos Munoz finished second in his very first Indy car race. Spectacular.
–With Marco Andretti finishing fourth, the Andretti family – Mario, Michael, John and Marco – is now 1 for 81 at Indy.
–NBC had terrific coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix, also Sunday, as Nico Rosberg won. But there is a major controversy involving a tire test by Rosberg’s Mercedes team…to be continued…
–Great piece by Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times on Parnelli Jones, who won the Indy 500 fifty years ago, May 30, 1963. It was not without controversy.
“Late in the race, Jones’ car, in the lead, leaked oil and prompted demands he be black-flagged (ordered into the pits).
“ ‘There were lots of cars leaking the whole race,’ Jones says now. ‘Mine sealed, and I ran the fastest all day on one of my last laps.’
“Jones was allowed to keep running. When he won, his time was the first-ever finish under 3 ½ hours, 3:29.35.40.
“The next day, at the victory banquet, another driving legend, Eddie Sachs, congratulated Jones and said he should have been disqualified. Sachs claimed he spun in Jones’ oil. Jones responded that there had been lots of oil, not just his. They argued. Sachs told Jones to take the first punch. Jones did. Sachs left and returned with his own version of a bandage for his punched mouth – a black-flag handkerchief.
“The next year, Jones was on the backstretch on his second lap when he saw the yellow flag come out and looked left.
“ ‘It looked like the entire grandstand was on fire,’ he says. ‘If there had been an exit on turn 3, I would have taken it.’
“Dave MacDonald, driving an ill-handling car, had crashed, and his car exploded. Sachs crashed into MacDonald. Sachs died from the impact, MacDonald from burns.
“Some fifty laps later, Jones pitted, headed back out to race and saw other crews waving at him to stop. He was on fire.
“ ‘I eased the car into the infield and bailed out,’ he says.
“That incident, in which Jones suffered serious but not life-threatening burns, was his worst racing accident.”
Jones was the first to do 150 mph at Indy in winning the pole in 1962, prompting cops around the country to say when they stopped drivers for speeding, “Who do you think you are, Parnelli Jones?” You can look it up. Actually, that line lasted a long time.
–Ah, one of the great traditions in all of America, Jim Nabors singing “Back Home Again In Indiana” before the 500. He’s been in and out of action for years, it seems, with health issues, but there he was on Sunday.
Some of us of a certain age will never forget 1972, the first time he performed at Indy.
–In other racing news, Dale Jarrett and the late Glenn “Fireball” Roberts were among the new members elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The others are drivers Tim Flock and Jack Ingram, along with engine builder Maurice Petty, brother of Richard Petty.
Jarrett was the 1999 NASCAR champion and a three-time winner of the Daytona 500. His father Ned, a two-time series champion in the 1960s, is already in the Hall.
Roberts was also a Daytona 500 winner and acknowledged to be one of the best to never win a title. He died of injuries suffered in a spectacular crash in 1964 at the World 600 in Charlotte. Ned Jarrett was first on the scene to try to save him but Roberts would die weeks later.
Ball Bits
—Historically bad teams? One we know finished that way…the 1962 New York Mets…40-120.
Astros 14-36
Marlins 13-37
’62 Mets 13-37
How bad are the 2013 Mets? They’ve now lost 20 of their last 27. 17-29 overall. [Not including Sunday’s result.]
“I mean, you knew the Mets had no shot of contending, but, Matt Harvey aside, did anybody really think they’d be this unwatchable?
“Similarly, you knew they wouldn’t hit much. But who knew that Jeremy Hefner would be their second-best pitcher the first two months of the season. And that the poor guy would be 0-5 because his team can’t score runs for him. [Ed. The Mets are 0-9 in his starts.]”
And as Harper notes, “As volatile as bullpens tend to be from year to year…it’s almost impossible to be among the worst in the league three straight years.
“Yet the numbers don’t lie: the Mets’ bullpen ERA ranked 15th in the NL in 2011, 15th in 2012, and is 15th right now, which amounts to quite an indictment of the (GM Sandy) Alderson regime’s decision-making.”
Oh, and Ike Davis is now 2 for his last 44. [Also, not including Sunday.]
“I don’t think Ike Davis is a lost cause. It would not surprise me at all if two years from now he were hitting 37 homers, defending at a high level and doing so for, say, the Tampa Bay Rays….
“At this point Davis probably is too open to new advice, overloaded with information, being killed by attempts at kindness. He looks mentally fried, beaten down by the debilitating brew of failure, daily interrogations on that failure and recognition there simply is no quick fix to a .147 batting average and .481 OPS – both major league lows among 169 qualifiers.”
–The Pirates are 31-19….Do You Believe in Miracles?!
–The Dodgers’ Matt Kemp is being paid $20,250,000 this season. He has played in all 48 games for the amazingly underachieving team from L.A. and Kemp is hitting .260 with 2 home runs and 17 RBI.
—Miguel Cabrera has 14 homers and 57 RBI in his team’s first 48 games. Oh, and he’s hitting .385.
“More than 500 major league players served in the military during World War II, including stars like Ted Williams, Stan Musial and Joe DiMaggio. But little attention has been paid to the two who died, Elmer Gedeon and Harry O’Neill, because their playing days were brief….
“In five games in 1939 (with the Washington Senators), Gedeon had 17 plate appearances, with three singles, one run scored and one run batted in. He spent the 1940 season in the minors, and he was drafted in January 1941, almost a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“O’Neill, a catcher, was the subject of a bidding war between the Senators and his hometown Philadelphia Athletics. Connie Mac and the A’s bid higher. On July 23, 1939, during a 16-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers, O’Neill replaced Philadelphia’s starting catcher, Frankie Hayes. He caught the final two innings but never got a chance to hit.
“It was O’Neill’s only game in the major leagues. He spent the next two seasons in the minors, and he enlisted in the Marines in 1942.”
Gedeon died in a bombing run to destroy a launch site for Hitler’s V-1 rockets in France. O’Neill on Iwo Jima.
Both had been seriously injured prior to their deaths, but had returned to the war.
Gedeon had been a three-sport star at Michigan and was aiming for the Olympics in track and field. O’Neill was a three-sport star at Gettysburg College.
Just looked it up. Gedeon is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
NBA Action…It’s Fannn-tastic!
I have to admit I was shocked Tim Duncan made first team All-NBA (along with LeBron, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul and Kobe). I mean I’ve been writing all year what an outstanding season he was having but a 37-year-old first-teamer is pretty darn impressive.
And that was a heckuva performance in Game 3 of the Spurs contest against the Grizzlies.
“Now more than ever, Tim Duncan is forcing us to rely on the visual, rather than auditory, to pursue insight from the slightest cues.
“Saturday night was the first playoff game for Duncan, the first one he played since the news broke that he is going through a divorce. The divorce case is a rare moment that Duncan’s private life has been pried open, even if the legal terminology can’t provide a hint of the emotional toll.
“Would Duncan be forthcoming about it? Yeah, right. He won’t even give the story behind his pregame ritual of taking the ball and rubbing it while he spreads out his elbows. Divorce is definitely off limits….
“These are small measures of payback from an organization that he’s meant everything to, and done everything for, including playing this season for a $9.6 million salary that’s way below market value. Duncan isn’t just the oldest member of the first team All-NBA squad….he’s also the cheapest, coming in at just more than half of what LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul are making and about one third of Kobe Bryant’s salary.
“Not only has Duncan earned the right of privacy from the Spurs, he’s earned it from the rest of us. He doesn’t post pictures of his home and family all over Instagram, only to ask that his ‘wishes be respected’ when things go south. He doesn’t sit on talk-show couches or get mic-d up for satellite remote interviews. He has been as consistent with his demeanor off the court as he’s been on the court….
“Now that this playoff series had shifted to Memphis’ FedEx Forum and his divorce had seeped onto TMZ’s website, would he provide greater evidence of strain? It might have seemed that way when two of his initial touches resulted in a missed shot and a turnover…
“But after 17 seasons, we should know what Tim Duncan’s about: the end result. And man, the results he got in the end. After the Spurs swiped the Grizzlies’ style (Duncan even borrowed one of their pet words: ‘grind’) to claw back from an 18-point deficit, he dominated in overtime. He scored seven points, set a mean pick to free Tony Parker for a jumper and dropped a no-look pass to Tiago Splitter for a basket. It all led the way to a 104-93 Spurs victory that put them in firm control of this series at three games to zero.”
Duncan finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.
“Am I surprised at what I’m able to do?” Duncan said. “I’m just here to play, man. I’m not worried about how old I am or whatever.”
Meanwhile, how awesome was it to see LeBron James choke big time on Friday night as he turned the ball over twice in the final minute to allow the Pacers to emerge victorious and even up the series at one. Miami not only had won 9 of its 10 playoff games, but also 47 of their last 50.
But how about Dwyane Wade and the elbow he threw at Lance Stephenson’s head?
“He ran over then-Indiana guard Darren Collison like a freight train as Collison tried to go to the basket.
“And that’s just a partial compilation of Dwyane Wade’s dirty plays during his extraordinary but chippy career, all of them happily captured in a YouTube mini-documentary.
“In the second half of Indiana’s Game 2 Eastern Conference finals victory against the Miami Heat, Wade, trailing the play, jumped up and threw a Jimmy ‘Super Fly’ Snuka elbow into Lance Stephenson’s temple.
“If there’s not a suspension – or, at the very least, a massive fine – I’ll be willing to engage crazed fans in the small-market conspiracy talk.
“Because it was terrible. It was egregious. It was malicious, even if Reggie Miller thought otherwise. It was on purpose, even if Steve Kerr thought it was ‘inadvertent.’ And it was vintage Wade, who remains one of the dirtiest players, and biggest whiners, on the Planet Basketball.”
Personally, I could not believe Miller and Kerr saying it was not malicious and rather inadvertent. Wade’s play was egregious. It also needs to be thrown into the conversation that Stephenson himself is a royal pain in the ass.
But then on Sunday, the league ruled Wade would not be suspended, assessing him with a flagrant foul instead. Of course this is meaningless.
–The All-NBA second team consists of Carmleo Anthony, Tony Parker, Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin and Marc Gasol.
Anthony had the league’s fifth-highest vote total, but because of how the voting works – two guards, two forwards and a center make the team – as long as LeBron and Durant are around, Anthony will never be a first-teamer.
[Melo also has a torn labrum in his left shoulder that probably requires surgery, though they’re trying ‘rest’ first for a few weeks.]
–We note the passing of guard Flynn Robinson, 72. He had been battling multiple myeloma for about two years.
Robinson was a member of the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers’ team that brought L.A. its first NBA title. He had the nickname “Instant Offense” and led the Lakers reserves in scoring during that historic season where they ran off a record 33-game winning streak.
In 2008, Robinson told the Los Angeles Times that Jack Kent Cooke, who then owned the Lakers, hadn’t shown the team enough appreciation. “We won 33 games in a row and he gave us a $5 pen set.”
Robinson was a prolific scorer at the Univ. of Wyoming, having grown up in Elgin, Illinois. He played eight seasons in the NBA and was an All-Star with the Milwaukee Bucks, 1969-70, while playing alongside rookie center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Robinson actually played with five different teams and averaged 20 points per game twice, with a sterling .846 percentage from the foul line. Robinson is one who would have thrived with the three-point shot had it been in existence during his playing career.
Bayern Munich
What a super Champions League finale between Bayern Munich and rival Borussia Dortmund in the first all-German final at Wembley Stadium. Bayern emerged victorious, 2-1, thanks to an 89th minute goal by Arjen Robben in a game that featured spectacular goaltending. Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.
A year ago it was Robben’s failure to convert a penalty in extra time that led to a shootout, in which Chelsea prevailed. Bayern had lost in the final twice in the past three seasons, though this was its fifth Champions League title. [Real Madrid has nine.]
Sergio Garcia…Idiot
After Sergio’s comment at a European Tour players dinner Tuesday night about getting together with Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open, “We’ll have him ‘round every night. We will serve fried chicken,” Garcia apologized, then met with the media on Wednesday after his pro-am round at Wentworth, site of this week’s European Tour flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship.*
“I want to apologize to Tiger and anybody that I could have offended. I feel sick about it. I’m truly, truly sorry. And I hope we can kind of settle things down and hopefully move on.”
“I’m confident that there is real regret that the remark was made. The Players ended nearly two weeks ago and it’s long past time to move on and talk about golf.”
TaylorMade is reviewing its sponsorship arrangement with Garcia.
Garcia said “I would love to talk to [Woods] as soon as possible and make sure everything is OK.”
Oh, Sergio…you just don’t know how bad it is going to get. The U.S. fans, beginning with the Open at Merion, are going to be vicious.
Everyone remembers what happened to Fuzzy Zoeller when he made a similar comment, though Garcia said he was unaware of the uproar then, which I find shocking.
“We learned Sergio Garcia was thin-skinned at the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage when he was in the midst of an endless re-gripping routine that prompted more than a few heckles from the New York gallery. After being vocally abused over constantly adjusting his grip, Garcia gave the fans the middle finger.
“Since then, he often sounds immature when he makes excuses for what has kept him from winning at least one major championship and envious when it comes to talking about Tiger Woods, who has won 14. But now Garcia has shown a degree of ignorance and stupidity that will tarnish the rest of his career and perhaps his legacy.
“Saying, ‘We’ll serve him fried chicken,’ when asked if he would ever consider having Woods for dinner was dumber than anything Garcia has done on a golf course.
“The ridicule he received after putting two balls in the water at the par-3 17th at the Players Championship two weeks ago will seem mild. He was just a choker then. Now he’ll battle the brand of racist….
“Garcia can make all the apologies he wants, and I believe they’re as sincere as can be for someone hoping to hold on to a multi-million dollar endorsement deal with TaylorMade-adidas Golf, for whom Sergio is the most notable player….
“But now the golf manufacturer has to rethink whether the Spaniard can continue to represent its brand.
“It was also a stupid move because the last thing Garcia wanted to do was make Woods a sympathetic figure.”
“So this is how we’ll remember Sergio Garcia. Not as the great golfer, because he’s never quite been that. Not as the head case, though he definitely has been that. Not even as the whiner, the moaner, the guy who complains about every little thing and even spits into the damn hole in the middle of a round.
“Those are parts of his character, part of who he is, but that’s not how history will remember Sergio Garcia.
“We’ll remember him as a racist.
“Fair or not – and I don’t see how this is remotely unfair – we’ll remember Garcia as the guy who taunted Tiger Woods with a comment about fried chicken….
“Fuzzy Zoeller did the same sort of thing once, making fun of 21-year-old Tiger Woods after Tiger’s first win at the Masters in 1997 by calling him a ‘little boy’ and saying, ‘You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it? Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.’
“What Zoeller said was awful, indefensible, hurtful, and while we remember him for those comments, I hope they’re not his legacy. They’re not who he is….in his mind he was just telling one of his jokes, a joke from the 1950s when he was growing up in a small town in Indiana. He’s from another place, another time, and it spilled out when he made that joke in 1997 about a ‘boy’ who would request ‘fried chicken…or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve’ at the next Masters Champion Dinner. Zoeller was 46 at the time, a product of another era. That doesn’t excuse what he said, but it helps explain it. That’s just an opinion, but that’s my opinion.
“Sergio’s comment has no such explanation. He’s not a good-hearted goofball jokester from a bygone era. Sergio is 33 years old. He was born in 1980. He has lived every second of his life in a time and place where you don’t taunt a man like Tiger Woods with a comment about fried chicken. Short of calling him a racial epithet, Sergio’s comment – aimed at the one player he has been targeting for weeks – was about as nakedly racist as possible.
“You have to consider who Garcia is, and who he is not. He is not, to be frank here, Fuzzy Zoeller. Garcia doesn’t go around making quips – he whines. While Zoeller attacks life with a grin, Sergio Garcia wades into it with a martyr complex, seeing enemies and issues everywhere, pointing fingers at those who are conspiring to keep him down. This is who he is. It’s who he was long before he taunted Tiger Woods with fried chicken.”
George O’Grady, the top executive at the European Tour, addressed Garcia’s ill-fated joke in an interview with Sky Sports TV.
“We know the connotation in the United States. We accept all races on the European Tour. Most of Sergio’s friends happen to be colored athletes in the United States, he is absolutely abject in his apology and we accepted it and are moving on.”
“I deeply regret using an inappropriate word in a live interview for Sky Sports for which I unreservedly apologize.”
But Colin Montgomerie, aka Mrs. Doubtfire, said the controversy over Garcia’s comment was “making a mountain out of a molehill.”
Monty added: “We’re all frightened to say anything; we’re frightened to open our mouths in case we say something that isn’t kosher in 2013. Somebody should tell us what to say because no one is quite sure what is right and wrong.”
Meanwhile, why not pair Tiger and Sergio at Merion? As everyone and their brother has already pointed out, Merion is outside Philadelphia, and Philly fans once booed and threw snowballs at Santa Claus. Ergo, this could get real ugly for Sergio.
*As for the BMW PGA championship, 20-year-old Matteo Manassero won in a four-hole playoff. Sergio was T-19.
Golf Balls
–At Colonial, Boo Weekley ended a long drought (2008) to capture his third PGA Tour title, besting Matt Kuchar. But earlier, then leader Scott Stallings hit two of the worst shots I’ve ever seen from just off the green at the fifteenth. I mean, seriously, they were beyond dreadful. His wife, who is very beautiful, had to have told him afterwards, “You are a disgrace!”
Really, I think she then said, “I’m running off with the editor of Bar Chat.”
–And at the Senior PGA Championship, talk about out of nowhere. Kohki Idoki of Japan won it with a final round 65. Aside from the fact no one in America had ever heard of Idoki, it was his first trip to the United States!!! You’ve gotta love it. This guy is now eligible for the big boys’ PGA Championship in August.
“Ken Venturi had a severe stuttering problem as a youth, lost competitive golf to carpal tunnel syndrome in his prime, lost a wife to brain cancer and underwent heart surgery. Yet he was inclined to repeat, ‘I’ve been very fortunate.’ And he was right. If you heard his passion and have examined the rich experiences and associations of his 82 years, you know he lived a charmed life.
“Francis Ouimet was his stockbroker. Frank Sinatra was his bachelor running mate for five years and, in effect, best man in his wedding. Byron Nelson taught him for years. Ben Hogan mentored him and in his final days picked him as his No. 1 pallbearer. Gene Sarazen, in his final minutes, chose him to deliver his funeral eulogy. Joe DiMaggio tutored him in baseball. Bing Crosby lived down the street. Bob Hope played golf with him.
“ ‘Isn’t that something?’ Venturi told me five years ago. ‘I know they make a lot of money today, but I lived in an era you’ll never see again.’”
–The Men’s NCAA Division I golf championship is May 28-June 2 at the Capital City Club, Woodstock, Ga. But in the field of 30, there are just two ACC schools…Georgia Tech and Florida State. That’s pathetic. Wake Forest had another highly disappointing campaign.
California is the favorite…Alabama, Texas, UCLA and New Mexico should contend as well.
The SEC, by the way, has nine teams in the field. The Pac-12, five.
–They held the Volvo World Match Play championship two weeks ago at a new Gary Player designed course in Bulgaria, high above the Black Sea, called Thracian Cliffs. It looks spectacular but the players (Graeme McDowell won the event) said the course only works for Match Play…for stroke play it would be a nightmare. Some of the holes are apparently ridiculously difficult.
But there is a nightmare of a different kind on the course. From Golfweek:
“In the pro-am, Peter Hanson’s group lost 15 balls in a stretch of four holes – with Hanson losing two of them. Something else caught The Forecaddie’s eye – a warning issued to players about snakes.
“ ‘The white-headed snake with zigzags on its back is poisonous but not serious. Bites can be dealt with quickly by anti-venom administered by the medics,’ read the notice-board missive. Gulp. Talk about giving new meaning to a curling 5-footer.
“The ‘zigzagged’ one would be the meadow viper, common to Bulgaria. Thankfully, the snake sunning itself next to Graeme McDowell’s ball on the ninth fairway in his opening match wasn’t of that ilk.
“ ‘A little tiddler,’ McDowell would call his slithering green-and-yellow intruder. ‘But where there’s a baby, Momma’s never far away.’”
Vernon McGarity, RIP
McGarity, 91, a former World War II Army squad leader who received the Medal of Honor for valor displayed during the Battle of the Bulge, died Tuesday in Memphis, Tenn.
McGarity was a technical sergeant in the 393rd Infantry, 99th Infantry Division.
Wounded in an artillery barrage that preceded a German counteroffensive near Krinkelt, Belgium in December 1944, he received treatment but refused to be evacuated and returned to battle.
During the battle, McGarity rescued two wounded soldiers, immobilized a tank with a round from a rocket launcher, replenished the unit’s ammunition under heavy fire and destroyed a German machine gun.
“The machine gun had cut off the squad’s only escape route, but McGarity managed to destroy it single-handedly under heavy fire and kill or wound all the German gunners, according to his Medal of Honor citation.”
The delaying action allowed reserves to assemble and form a line against the Germans. [Los Angeles Times]
–I don’t mean to give the NHL short shrift…I watched all the Ranger games…but there’s not a lot to say. The Rangers lost 3-1 to the Bruins on Saturday, with Boston taking the series 4-1. Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was outstanding throughout. Without his efforts, it would have been even worse.
And in the Chicago-Detroit series, the Red Wings have a 3-2 lead over the Blackhawks, who had the best regular season record in the league.
–So much for Notre Dame’s chances of winning the BCS title next fall as quarterback Everett Golson was suspended “due to poor academic judgment.”
Golson vowed he has learned a valuable lesson and will return in 2014. He’s an idiot.
–Unbelievable…Rutgers’ athletic program has another issue on their hands. Newly appointed Athletics Director Julie Hermann, hired two weeks ago to replace Tim Pernetti following the men’s basketball scandal and the dismissal of coach Mike Rice for abusing his players, was involved in a controversy of her own stemming from her days coaching Tennessee’s women’s volleyball team.
Ginger Hineline, Hermann’s former assistant coach, alleged in a 1997 employment discrimination suit that she was discouraged from becoming pregnant while she served under Hermann. Eventually, Hineline was awarded $150,000 by a jury verdict.
Hineline reportedly testified that she felt pressured by Hermann to choose between her coaching career or starting a family prior to her termination in July 1995.
Hermann was a bridesmaid in Hineline’s 1994 wedding and a damning video of that event has emerged as well. It’s complicated, but the Star-Ledger reported that Hermann said in an interview last week she “didn’t remember attending Hineline’s wedding 19 years ago.” The Ledger then showed a clip of Hermann catching the bouquet from Hineline.
Sports Illustrated had reported back in 1997 on the lawsuit and during her introductory press conference, Hermann was pressed by a local WNBC-TV reporter to address the article. Brian Thompson told Hermann there’s a video.
Hermann said: “There’s a video? I’m sorry did you say there’s a video?”
Thompson replied: “(Sports Illustrated) referred to a video, a wedding video in which you may have said (‘don’t come back with a baby’).
Hermann chuckled and then said: “There’s no video, trust me.”
Hermann just signed a five-year deal worth $450,000 annually. And this is just part of it. Now the players on Hermann’s old volleyball team are coming forward saying she was a totally abusive coach.
–Jets running back Mike Goodson, arrested May 17 on weapons and drug charges, is expected to return to practice on Tuesday, according to the team.
But what I didn’t realize is that Goodson already had a long rap sheet, including, as the Daily News reported, “being sued for paternity by three different women over a nine-month span from 2010-11.” He pleaded not guilty to all five charges against him in the May 17 incident, including unlawful possession of a loaded handgun and possession of hollow point bullets.
Seeing as he is such a man of outstanding character, what the heck were the Jets doing in signing him to a three-year, $6.9 million contract?!
–Interesting piece by Andrew Brandt in Sports Illustrated on how the NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement is hurting the young stars of the game. Brandt, a vice president of the Packers who negotiated close to 100 contracts, cites the 2010 example of top pick Sam Bradford, who signed for a guaranteed $50 million over the first four years of his contract. “The top overall picks since the CBA adjustment – Cam Newton and Andrew Luck – are getting less than half that amount, approximately $22 million over four years….
“And no matter where they’re selected or how well they perform over their first few years, drafted players cannot renegotiate their deal until they finish their third season. So, for instance, Seattle’s Russell Wilson, a 2012 third-round pick who tied Peyton Manning’s NFL rookie record with 26 touchdown passes, will continue to be one of the lowest-paid starting quarterbacks for the next two seasons. He’s scheduled to make $526,000 in 2013 and $662,000 in ’14 and cannot have his contract adjusted until 2015 at the earliest.”
–According to Rivals.com, Kentucky has four of the top ten incoming freshmen for the college basketball season. Florida has two.
And while most college basketball fans don’t get into the sport until around mid-January when conference play is in full swing, there is an interesting doubleheader in Chicago on Nov. 12. The 2013 Champions Classic has Duke vs. Kansas, and Michigan State vs. Kentucky.
—Syracuse faces off against Duke, Monday, for the Men’s Division I lacrosse title.
–A British zoo worker died of her injuries after being mauled by a tiger on Friday in the big cats enclosure at South Lakes Wild Animal Park in northwest England. No details were available.
–From Brent Johnson and Peggy McGlone of the Star-Ledger here in New Jersey:
“It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book: Secretly pour some cheap whiskey into a bottle that once held high-grade liquor and charge customers top dollar for a glass.
“State alcohol enforcement officials say they believe it’s been happening across New Jersey in bars of all kinds – fancy joints, neighborhood dives and chain restaurants.”
My state is loaded with a-holes….to state the obvious.
“More than 100 investigators raided 29 establishments…Wednesday morning on suspicion of the practice, authorities announced.”
But the reason why I’m bringing this up is because 13 of the 29 restaurants named were TGI Fridays!
–This was cool…Brad Pitt showed up out of nowhere at a screening for his new zombie flick “World War Z” in Hoboken, N.J. on Thursday night. I mean if you were there, that’s neat.
“We gotta do a screening for the fans, and what better place than New Jersey?” Pitt said. He then handed out T-shirts.
This flick seems like the kind of mindless entertainment that is right up my alley.
–This is the 50th anniversary of the famous epic, “Cleopatra,” which almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox, which had started the 1963 film with a $2 million budget and saw it soar to $42 million ($300 million in today’s dollars). The movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, along with Rex Harrison, did pull in more than $24 million, the highest grossing film for that year, but it was considered a monumental flop, even as it received nine Academy Award nominations, with four wins, including costume design. Taylor went through 65 costume changes, by the way. She also ended up earning $7 million for the film because of all the production delays.
I forgot they started shooting it in London in 1960 with one director, and finished up in Rome with another, Joseph Mankiewicz. Mankiewicz was then fired while editing it, but because the film was such a mess and no one else could figure out how to put it all together, he was hired back.
And now you know….the rest of the story. [A newly restored version of the flick was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and is available on Tuesday.]
Top 3 songs for the week 5/25/74: #1 “The Streak” (Ray Stevens…boy, I remember kids streaking at my high school then…) #2 “Dancing Machine” (The Jackson 5…blows…) #3 “The Entertainer” (Marvin Hamlisch…this one isn’t aging well at all…no one wants anyone to play it at a party either…. “Jimmy knows how to play ‘The Entertainer’!” “Tell Jimmy to go play outside, Barb.”)… and…#4 “The Show Must Go On” (Three Dog Night…not my favorite of theirs…) #5 “Band On The Run” (Paul McCartney & Wings…OK…) #6 “You Make Me Feel Brand New” (The Sylistics…another super tune from this group…) #7 “Midnight At The Oasis” (Maria Muldaur… incredibly dumb lyrics…but still liked this one…was a different sound for the times…) #8 “The Loco-Motion” (Grand Funk) #9 “(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long” (Chicago…eh….) #10 “Help Me” (Joni Mitchell…not a fan of hers…but this is a terrific tune…and do yourself a favor…YouTube the 2001 tribute concert and K.D. Lang’s version…what you will appreciate is how K.D. stays true to the original…)
Baseball Quiz Answers: Birth places – Hank Aaron (Mobile, AL), Sparky Anderson (Bridgewater, SD…between Sioux Falls and Mitchell), Ernie Banks (Dallas, TX), Johnny Bench (Oklahoma City, OK), Roy Campanella (Philadelphia, PA), Roberto Clemente (Carolina, PR), Ty Cobb (Narrows, GA…not an official town at that time…grew up in Royston, GA, which isn’t near anywhere…between Atlanta and Anderson, SC), Eddie Collins (Millerton, NY…near border with NW Connecticut).
*I have a problem with some of the real old timers, like late 1890s, early 1900s, and their records…like a lot of stuff is missing…but look up Eddie Collins on baseballreference.com to refresh your memory as to how great he was.
