Baseball Hall of Fame Quiz: Last one…name the birthplaces for the following Hall of Famers: Joe Medwick, Joe Morgan, Stan Musial, Satchel Paige, Gaylord Perry, Frank Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Mike Schmidt, Warren Spahn, Cy Young. Answers below.
NBA / ABA
Game 3…San Antonio 113…Miami 77…Spurs lead 2-1.
Oh, it doesn’t get any better than that. Danny Green was 7-of-9 from three-point land in scoring 27, while reserve Gary Neal had a career game, 24, hitting 6-of-10 from downtown. Tim Duncan had 14 rebounds. And Kawhi Leonard had 14 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals, and limited LeBron James to just 15 points on 7-of-21 shooting from the field.
Yes, once again I have to note what I said about Kawhi in this space back on 6/27/11.
“Charlotte took UConn’s Kemba Walker with the ninth selection and my man Kawhi Leonard of San Diego State slipped down to No. 15, picked by Indiana, but then traded to San Antonio for guard George Hill. Leonard is perfect for the San Antonio system. He’ll thrive there.”
But as for LeBron, he’s scored 18, 17 and 15 points in the three games thus far. This from the best player on the planet. After hitting a stupendous .565 from the field during the regular season, he is 21-of-54 in the finals.
As for Thursday’s Game 4, the availability of Tony Parker, as I go to post Wednesday morning, is up in the air.
—Lionel Hollins was officially let go by Memphis. Detroit hired former Philadelphia and Portland coach Maurice Cheeks.
–I hope you saw the NBA TV documentary on the life of Dr. J., Julius Erving. It was outstanding and what many of us in the New York area loved, especially if you’re of a certain age, was the extensive segment on his time as a New York Net.
Growing up in the 60s and 70s, pre-ESPN and other sports networks, we had a choice of watching the Knicks on Friday nights and the Nets or Rangers on Saturdays. [Then you hoped the Knicks were part of ABC’s “Game of the Week” on Sundays, but it always seemed to be Boston-Philadelphia.]
Given a choice between the Nets and the Rangers, it was generally 50/50 for me, especially once Erving was on the team. The ABA was immensely entertaining, especially the games against Kentucky and Indiana.
So time to roll out an oldie but goodie from the Bar Chat archives.
“Stories from the ABA”
First up, Marvin “Bad News” Barnes.
It was 1974 and the St. Louis Spirits of the ABA won a bidding war for Providence star, Marvin Barnes. Barnes was a classic, as spelled out in Terry Pluto’s book on the era, “Loose Balls,” the best history of the league.
One day Marvin was late for practice (he always was) and the coach asked him why.
There couldn’t have been 3 Bentleys in all of St. Louis.
Another Barnes habit was showing up just 20 minutes before a game. He’d stuff his face with food while getting taped and then, as the team warmed up, would sit with his women in the stands. After losing a road game, Marvin would shout when the team got back to the hotel, “Party hardy, gentlemen. Party hardy.”
Coach Joe Mullaney had this Barnes experience. “I was coaching the Spirits and it was right at the end of the first half. Marvin got the ball about 20 feet from the basket on a breakaway and there were about 4 seconds on the clock. He could have walked in and dunked it. Instead, he took three steps BACKWARDS and heaved up a 3-pointer. It was the most undisciplined, outrageous play I had ever seen at any level of basketball.”
Broadcaster and former ABA star, Steve Jones. “The morning after a game, we’d be on the bus ready to go to the airport and Marvin would come out with a woman on each arm. He would kiss them both a couple of times before he got on the bus.”
At one point Barnes bolted the Spirits for two weeks because teammate “Jumpin’ Joe” Caldwell told him he was being screwed on his contract. Caldwell’s agent, Marshall Boyer, was a mess. Harry Weltman, the Spirits owner, said of Boyer, “I had lots of conversations with the guy and none of them made any sense. He would close his conversations by saying, ‘Men move at night.’ What the hell did that mean?”
Barnes was never on the early morning flights so one day the Spirits had a game in Norfolk after playing in New York. Everyone called Marvin from the airport and he just said that he’ll catch a later plane. So Marvin missed the 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 1:00 p.m. flights. When Barnes finally got to LaGuardia he found that all the flights to Norfolk were gone. So Marvin started explaining his plight to some folks and was told that the only way he could get to Norfolk was to charter a plane, which is what he did, cutting a deal for a private plane to take him there. Barnes arrived about 10 minutes before the contest.
“Boys, game time is on time,” he announced upon his arrival. Marvin was wearing a big, wide-brimmed hat and his floor-length $10,000 mink coat. He had a bag of McDonald’s hamburgers and fries and, opening his coat, everyone could see he had his uniform on. Of course he had 43 points and 19 rebounds that night.
Meanwhile, during the game, the pilot showed up to get paid (he certainly wasn’t going to trust Barnes to send him a check) so Barnes ended up writing one out for about $1,000 right in the middle of the contest. [Source: Bob Costas, the St. Louis Spirits’ radio announcer at the time.]
Wendell Ladner
Among the other great characters of the old ABA was Ladner, a 6’4”, 220-pound forward who in five seasons played for four teams – Memphis, Kentucky, Carolina and New York. He averaged 11.6 points and 8 rebounds and also made two all-star teams.
Ladner was attending Southern Miss when the scouts came calling, but he was drastically out of shape and only Memphis took a flyer on him. While he was listed as being much taller, Ladner made up for his lack of stature by being incredibly strong and a hustler. He was one of the great offensive rebounders in the game. And, oh, the stories. Following are some snippets, again from Pluto’s “Loose Balls.”
There was the time Wendell went diving for a loose ball and smacked into a glass water cooler, head first, requiring 48 stitches. This was Game 6 of the 1973 playoffs. A reporter remarked to Ladner’s coach, Babe McCarthy, “It seems Wendell doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘fear.’” McCarthy responded, “That’s right; of course, he doesn’t know the meaning of many other words, either.”
Once when the team was flying into Washington, D.C., Ladner looked out the window and, spying the Washington Monument, said, “I bet that’s the Washington Post.”
Ladner was also known to be a big fighter. Steve Jones recalls that Memphis was playing the Pittsburgh Condors and their psycho, John Brisker. Brisker came up to Jones and said, “I hear you’ve got this tough white kid on your team.” Jones said, “Ladner can fight. I wouldn’t mess with him.” Brisker replied that they would find out that evening. Jones describes what happened next.
“(After the selfish Brisker got his 30 points) he decided it was time to go after Wendell. John threw an elbow at Ladner, who didn’t pay any attention to it and just ran down to the other end of the court. The next time down, Brisker threw another elbow, and Ladner went crazy. It became more like two bulls trying to gore each other than a basketball fight. In their next game, they got into a fight at the jump ball to start the game.”
Former player and coach Tom Meschery related his own tale about Ladner. “He had a two-track mind – basketball and sex. He used hair spray before games and at halftime so he’d look good for the ladies.”
And there is this one. Wendell went to see a doctor and said he had a discomfort in his groin area. Ladner was single at the time and the doctor said, “It looks like you’ve been having sex too much.”
Wendell Ladner died in a plane crash in 1975 at the age of 26.
John Brisker
Finally, back to Brisker, he was an all-star for the Pittsburgh Pipers / Condors, playing between 1969-72. His second and third seasons he lit it up for 29.3 and 28.9 points per game, combining his bruising inside game with deadly long-range bombs. But there was a whole lot more.
Teammate Charlie Williams: “He was an excellent player, but say something wrong to the guy and you had this feeling he would reach into his bag, take out a gun and shoot you.”
Once, future all-star Billy Knight was practicing with the Pipers while attending the University of Pittsburgh. “The first time I played a game against Brisker, he just turned toward me and busted me in the mouth. (And then) he just stood there, waiting for me to do something about it. I didn’t do anything. He just scared me.”
Brisker liked to pick on the big guys. So Pittsburgh brought in an ex-football player to take care of him during training camp before he busted up their lineup. The first time he would step out of line, the footballer was to level him. Former ABA team official Dick Tinkham describes what happened next.
“So the two guys are going at it and the football player said, ‘The hell with you, I’m gonna get my gun.’ And Brisker said, ‘If you’re getting a gun, then I’m gonna get my gun.’ Then the two guys ran off in different directions. The coaches called off practice.”
Along with Warren Jabali and Ladner, Brisker was the roughest player in an often out of control league. Dallas coach Tom Nissalke related how the team owner would give a checkbook so Nissalke could pay out bonuses for outstanding play right after the game. [Times were different, back then, especially with this league.] Well, one day the team was on a big losing streak with Pittsburgh as their next opponent. The coach had to shake things up.
“The first guy in this room who decks Brisker will get $500.”
Lenny Chappell (normally a reserve at the time) asked if he could start. At the jump ball to open play, Chappell flattened Brisker with a punch. None of the officials saw what happened. [They were all looking up, after all.] The bad boy was out cold and Dallas ended up breaking their losing streak.
After three years in Pittsburgh, Brisker went to Seattle of the NBA for the ’72-’73 season. His play rapidly deteriorated as it became well-known that he was using drugs heavily. [Brisker’s scoring average dropped to 12.8, 12.5 and 7.7 for his three years in Seattle.] At the age of 28, he was out of basketball.
Then in March 1978, John Brisker headed to Liberia, claiming he was going to start an import/export business. What is known is that he called his girlfriend from Uganda some four times that April. That’s the last anyone heard from him.
Rumor has it he became a mercenary. Others say he was invited by that great basketball fan, Idi Amin, to play hoops for him, only to be killed by a firing squad when Amin was toppled in ’79. For the purposes of clearing up his estate, a King County, WA, court declared John Brisker legally dead in 1985. But if you think he’s alive and know his whereabouts, drop us a line!
Ball Bits
–The New York Mutts selected 17-year-old Dominic Smith with their first-round pick in last week’s amateur draft, 11th overall. The kid is said to one of the best high-school hitters in the country but as the Wall Street Journal’s Tim Marchman notes:
“What (Smith) likely doesn’t have is all the potential that Mets fans, scarred by Ike Davis’ pitcher-quality hitting, would like to think he does. Smith could grow up to be a valued member of a good team, even a hitter in the middle of a World Series champion’s lineup, but he’s likely not going to be a true foundational player. It’s hard to rise above your class.
“That’s rough judgment to pass on someone who can’t vote yet, but there’s a lot of history to back it up. It’s a truism that the way to get a second baseman is to draft a shortstop. In the same line, the way to get a great first baseman isn’t to draft one out of high school.
“A straight list of the best players at the position over the past couple of generations tells most of the story. Albert Pujols, Mark McGwire, Jeff Bagwell and Jason Giambi, among others, came up in baseball as third basemen. The best pure first basemen, like Frank Thomas, Todd Helton and John Olerud, came out of college. There are exceptions, like Eddie Murray and Fred McGriff. (There are always exceptions). But the ceiling tends to be relatively lower for someone who comes into pro baseball as a teenage first baseman.
“If you think about it at all, the reason why is obvious. A great player needs a certain level of athleticism. If you start with enough speed and reflexes to play, say, a passable third base, then even as they decline you’ll still have plenty; if you don’t when you’re 17, then when they start to slip you won’t have enough to keep up. Even the careers of the better pure first basemen to come out of college suggests as much: Thomas and Helton were strong football players, and Olerud was a fine pitcher. They were lead-footed, but clearly athletic in other ways.”
Marchman isn’t saying Dominic Smith won’t make it. He could be up to the big club in perhaps three years. He could be a contributor.
“Even if nothing goes wrong with him, that doesn’t mean much will go right.”
–For the archives…this is what us Mets fans have had to put up with the last two seasons in watching first baseman Ike Davis in April and May.
April, .185, 24 strikeouts in 81 at-bats
May, .154, 25 in 78
April, .165, 29 in 85
May, .160, 32 in 81
But this June he was 3-for-20 and finally sent down to AAA.
–My man Adam Dunn had one of the best games of his career on Monday, going 4-for-4 with two home runs and five RBI. He then hit No. 17 on Tuesday. Dunn might still be hitting .182, but you don’t leave your seat when he’s at the plate.
–Pittsburgh hurler Gerrit Cole, the first overall pick in the 2011 draft out of UCLA, allowed just two runs in 6 1/3 in his major league debut on Tuesday, picking up the win as the Pirates defeated the Giants, 8-2. Cole also singled in two runs.
–What an ugly deal in Los Angeles Tuesday night as Arizona pitcher Ian Kennedy hit Dodgers phenom Yasiel Puig in the face, and then later hit L.A. pitcher Zack Greinke up high. Both benches emptied and Kennedy deserves a suspension.
–Last time I wrote that Derek Jeter may not be coming back this season, but since we’ve learned he has resumed “baseball activities.” In fact, he’s playing catch! And he took ground balls hit directly at him!
–75 years ago this week…Johnny Vander Meer threw his two no-nos. At the start of the 1938 season, Vander Meer (known as “The Dutch Master” because his parents were born in Holland) was a 23-year-old for the Cincinnati Reds who back in 1936, won 19 games and struck out 295 for the Piedmont League’s Durham Bulls.
In ’38, he got off to a good start, entering the Saturday, June 11 game against the Boston Bees with a 5-2 record. After retiring the first nine, in the fourth, Boston’s Vince DiMaggio lined a shot off Vander Meer’s glove. The ball deflected to third baseman Lew Riggs, whose throw to first just beat DiMaggio.
Vander Meer would end up walking three while striking out four as the home fans at Crosley Field witnessed the first Reds no-hitter since Hod Eller’s in 1919, Cincy winning 3-0.
Four days later, June 15, Vander Meer’s attempt at history coincided with the first-ever night game to be played in the New York City area.
38,748 packed Ebbets Field, with the fire department having to turn away 10,000, the second-largest crowd to ever attend a game in Brooklyn.
After a pregame show, the game’s first pitch was finally made at 9:45 p.m. Vander Meer would walk eight, but strike out seven while holding the Dodgers hitless in a 6-0 triumph. Actually, in the ninth, with one out, Vander Meer walked the next three. After a visit to the mound by Reds manager Bill McKechnie, Vander Meer got a force play at home on a grounder, and then induced Leo Durocher to hit a fly ball into short center that Harry Craft caught to end the game.
Vander Meer said after that McKechnie told him when he came out in the ninth, “Hell, kid, they’re more scared of that ball than you are. Pour it in there!”
Vander Meer would finish the season 15-10, 3.12 ERA. He would go on to lead the N.L. in strikeouts, 1941-43, while going 16-13, 18-12, and 15-16. [He also walked 162 in ’43.] He served in the war in 1944-5, then returned and had one more big season, 17-14, in 1948. For his career, Vander Meer was 119-121, 3.44. [Bill Francis / Memories and Dreams…Baseball HOF]
—College World Series
The field is set…North Carolina State, North Carolina, UCLA, Oregon State, LSU, Mississippi State, Indiana, Louisville
UNC and NC State play each other in the opener (double-elimination for the CWS). Some of us would like to see an ACC team finally win. It’s the annual reminder that none has since Wake Forest in 1955.
–What a mess…the weather and the U.S. Open, that is. The northeast has generaly had 5-10 inches of rain thus far in June, and it’s looking like a ton for Thursday, possibly bleeding into Friday. In other words, there is no way we are crowning a champion on Sunday, which blows big time. I’m guessing this goes into Tuesday, which would doubly blow.
And as Philly area resident Mark R. told me on Monday, the locals are fuming about the traffic issues.
Anyway, for the record I did say Matt Kuchar would win it, whenever it finishes up. Kooch wins by two shots.
–So I’m reading a Golf World piece and I’m totally embarrassed.
It’s one thing to not know some golfer who won a single major in, say, the early 1900s, let alone all those who won the British Open in the 1890s…[Morris Jr. and Sr. were well before then]…but I didn’t know Dutra won both the U.S. Open in 1934 at Merion as well as the 1932 PGA Championship. Once you win two in what most would call the modern era of a sport, you should know that. Plus Dutra won 10 tournaments on the pro tour in the 1920s and ‘30s.
Dutra was born in 1901, Monterey, Calif., the son of a Portugese father and a Spanish mother. His father worked on the grounds crew of a local course. Both Olin and his older brother got into the game as caddies at the club.
–Scanning the field for the Open, I saw that John Nieporte was in the field. ‘Has to be a son of Tom Nieporte,’ I mused, and sure enough, John is.
And why would I care about Tom Nieporte? Because long ago, 1967, I was nine years old and at the U.S. Open at Baltusrol, my first major sporting event (outside of Mets games). My mom picked up Jack Nicklaus’ autograph and I got Tom Nieporte and Frank Boynton’s. Nieporte was a tour regular at the time, Boynton an irregular one. Nieporte would go on to be the long-time pro at Winged Foot.
John Nieporte is the head pro at one of Donald Trump’s courses.
Mount Everest
There is a terrific piece in the June issue of National Geographic by Mark Jenkins on Mount Everest and the incredible traffic jam there these days. Of course it being Nat Geo, you also have lots of great photographs. I mean parts of the climb look like Grand Central terminal at rush hour. One picture is of the Hillary Step on May 19, 2012, where some people spent two hours at this 40-foot rock wall below the summit, losing body heat, because of the traffic. On that particular day, 234 people reached the top. “Four climbers died.”
So speaking of deaths, and causes thereof, since the first recorded climber deaths in 1921, through March 21, 2013, 157 expedition members have died and 83 local staff.
For expedition members, the 157 breaks down as follows:
18…exhaustion
17…altitude sickness
6…crevasse/icefall collapse
25…exposure/frostbite
23…other
18…avalanche
50…fall
Interestingly, or perhaps not surprisingly, of the 83 local staff to die, none died of exhaustion and only one from exposure or frostbite. 63 died from crevasse/icefall collapse, avalanche or fall.
—Tim Tebow signed with the New England Patriots. What does this mean? I have no freakin’ clue. I mean I want Tebow to succeed. He got a raw deal in New York…everyone knows that.
–The United States defeated Panama, 2-0, in another World Cup qualifying match and moved into first place in its group. A crowd of 40,847 turned out in Seattle…pretty darn good.
–North American Director of Shark Operations for Bar Chat, Bob S., noted that officials closed down the beach around Cape Cod National Seashore Sunday morning when Orleans Harbormaster Dawson Farber spotted a dorsal fin of a Great White Shark about 150 yards off the beach. Farber estimated it to be between 12- and 13-feet long. He noted there are tens-of-thousands of seals in the harbor. Good eatin’ for Whitey.
–I’m reading the Wake Forest alumni magazine and my favorite all-time actor, Carroll O’Connor, attended Wake as a freshman way back in 1941. He dropped out before finishing his first year. Seems he not only was a poor student (like moi!), but he spent far more time in Shorty Joyner’s pool hall in downtown Wake Forest (this was years before Wake’s campus moved to Winston-Salem).
–The above mentioned Mark R. reminded me on Monday of two birthdays. Kate Upton, 21, and Elizabeth Hurley, 48…who would….
You know what? I need to stop right here. I’m in enough trouble as it is with the International Web Site Association.
—Benjamin Franklin: “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
Top 3 songs for the week 6/11/77: #1 “I’m Your Boogie Man” (KC & The Sunshine Band) #2 “Dreams” (Fleetwood Mac) #3 “Got To Give It Up” (Marvin Gaye)…and…#4 “Gonna Fly Now” (Bill Conti…ughhh…sorry, hasn’t aged well…) #5 “Feels Like The First Time” (Foreigner… watching your first Mets game and wanting to commit hari-kari right after…) #6 “Lucille” (Kenny Rogers…old face…) #7 “Lonely Boy” (Andrew Gold…son of soundtrack composer Ernest Gold (Exodus)…) #8 “Undercover Angel” (Alan O’Day…total crappola…) #9 “Sir Duke” (Stevie Wonder…better tunes off that album…had been #1 for three weeks…) #10 “Couldn’t Get It Right” (Climax Blues Band…different sound for back then…)
Baseball Hall of Fame Quiz Answers: Birthplaces…
Joe Medwick…Carteret, N.J.*
Joe Morgan…Bonham, TX
Stan Musial…Donora, PA
Satchel Paige…Mobile, AL
Gaylord Perry…Williamston, NC
Frank Robinson…Beaumont, TX
Jackie Robinson…Cairo, GA
Mike Schmidt…Dayton, OH
Warren Spahn…Buffalo, NY
Cy Young…Gilmore, OH
*So an old friend is Art C. here in Summit. Father of crafty lefty and classmate Bobby C., and coach of Willie Wilson at Summit High School. Willie played his games at Memorial Field, which was one block from where I grew up. It was a great place to go after school. Football in the fall, baseball in the spring and summer. A running track. Hoops courts. [We played b-ball at lunchtime during elementary school, which was next to the field.] It’s where the town fireworks were held, which was also convenient. And I had an easy walk downtown to pick up my baseball cards with my childhood buddy, Jeff.
But why bring up Memorial Field? Because Joe Medwick played on that field, too. Art C. wrote it up in the Summit Historical Society newsletter a number of years ago.
“The time is the summer of 1928 and over at Memorial Field in Summit there is a high school sophomore who is playing for the semi-professional Summit Red Sox of the Lackawanna Baseball League. This young athlete, who is creating quite a bit of interest playing with players who are older and have a great deal more experience, some former professionals, is Joe Medwick of Carteret High School. He is already an outstanding athlete in high school, starring in football, basketball, and track, as well as baseball. Medwick will sign with the St. Louis Cardinals within two years, go on to a great career in the National League, become the most feared hitter in the league in the thirties, win a batting title, and lead the Cardinals to a World Series championship. Little did the people who crowded the Memorial Field stands on weekend afternoons that summer of 1928 foresee what that young, 16-year-old athlete was to go on to accomplish.”
The Lackawanna League was a strong one and Medwick played in Summit in the 1928, ‘29 and ‘30 seasons. In June 1930, Medwick signed with the St. Louis Cardinals and was sent to the Cardinal farm team at Scottsdale, Pennsylvania in the Middle Atlantic League, where he batted .419 in 75 games that summer.
Well, by 1933, Medwick was starring for the Cardinals at the age of 21. 1934-39, he drove in over 100 runs each year (led the N.L. in ribbies 1936-38), helped the Gas House Gang to the Series in ’34, and won the Triple Crown in ’37. All that by age 27.
As for the Summit Red Sox, World War II put an end to the Lackawanna Baseball League. It would be revived later for a few years, but as Art C. notes, there was never another player of the caliber of Joe Medwick who played at Memorial Field. [Sorry, Willie.]
