Chicago White Sox Quiz: 1) Who am I? I appeared in 161 games in 1989 and my initials are D.G. 2) How many seasons did Frank Thomas hit 40 or more home runs? 3) Who is the all-time single season ChiSox leader in steals with 77? [Modern day…not Aparicio.] Answers below.
I spent all Tuesday in the Amherst, Mass., area, driving ten hours because of awful weather and construction. But arrived back home in time for Heat-Spurs.
What a game. And what an immensely frustrating and depressing loss for Spurs fans.
I’d also say it was a great game for Miami fans, except many of them bolted with the score 94-89, San Antonio, with 28 seconds left and then weren’t allowed back in.
“The rope was being laid along the baselines, a braided border signaling finality, a familiar indicator of the revelry to come. Security guards crouched along it. Somewhere, just out of sight, the Larry O’Brien trophy awaited its reunion with Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Gregg Popovich.
“Twenty-eight seconds were left on the clock Tuesday night when the NBA began prepping for the San Antonio Spurs’ coronation – their first in six years, their fifth since 1999. The lead was 94-89. The Miami Heat were wheezing, their fans turning away in despair.
“Legacies were hurriedly being revised and enhanced – Duncan’s legend growing, LeBron James’ shrinking. The end was that close.
“The trophy never did see the court, its moment postponed by Ray Allen’s shooting stroke, by James’ stubborn insistence, by Chris Bosh’s spiteful palm.
“The Heat wiped out the deficit on two shots, spaced 15 seconds apart, then overpowered the Spurs in overtime, taking a 103-100 victory that will rank among the greatest games in finals history.”
Afterwards, the Spurs were shattered, wasting a humongous 25-point first-half effort by Duncan, who finished with 30 points and 17 rebounds, though zero in the fourth and overtime.
The Spurs blew it. As a big fan of Timmy D., I don’t know how he and his teammates can recover for Thursday.
And once again it came down to missed free throws, as it so often does in big b-ball games…Ginobili making just 1 of 2 with 28 seconds left; Kawhi Leonard doing the same with 19 seconds left.
If either one made both, the trophy makes an appearance on Tuesday, not Thursday.
Of course it didn’t help that Parker, despite two big shots down the stretch, was 6-of-23 overall from the field, and that Ginobili was beyond horrid in turning the ball over eight times. He played like an out of control eighth grader on the playground. [Leonard, on the other hand, was superb…22 points, 11 rebounds…but choked at the end.]
LeBron had a triple…32 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, but was only 11-of-26 from the field, while Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade went a combined 11-of-27, though Bosh had two huge blocks in overtime, after grabbing a critical offensive board in the final seconds of regulation. All the more reason why the Spurs are crushed they couldn’t wrap it up.
I posted last Sunday night, before I could note some of the other commentary on Phil Mickelson’s loss at Merion.
“All the good people on Earth, from the United States and Canada to Scotland and Europe to Japan and Australia to South Africa and South America, everywhere that golf is played seriously, rooted for Phil Mickelson on Sunday at the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club, all of them, 100 percent. If you didn’t, you are bad, and you know it. Mickelson, runner-up in his national championship five times, led entering Sunday on his birthday, which is Father’s Day.
“That coincides with his very public adoration of his blond wife and three blond children, one of whom he flew coast-to-coast red-eye to see graduate from junior high school, meaning he got little sleep before Round 1.
“But on Sunday, on a day when a 1-over-par 71 would have won this U.S. Open and a 72 would have put him in a playoff with England’s Justin Rose, Mickelson shot 74 and lost again….
“Or, rather, finished second for the sixth time in the Open, an unsurpassed silver accomplishment in a world that only has eyes for gold.
“That is what I usually love about sports. They don’t pay off on cheesy greeting card emotions….
“This superb but hard-hearted U.S. Open may be the exception, at least for me. If there was ever an event, a day, a protagonist, when I wanted pathos and soap opera to win, regardless of the actual score, this was it. Phil wears his heart on his sleeve. By now, his whole wardrobe is crimson.
“Then Mickelson came in after his defeat, what he called the ‘worst’ of all his U.S. Open ‘heartbreaks,’ and with his gracious honesty, his matter-of-fact expert analysis of his own shortcomings, proved once again that, sometimes, the true champion is the man himself, not just his score….
“Maybe I’ll think of somebody who wants to win so badly, hates to lose so much and is still so gracious in defeat. Give me a few weeks….
“When young, Mickelson had a strain of phony, which he gradually got out of his system. He grew, fixed a couple of bad habits and won the Masters three times. He signs every autograph. He wants to help you, he really does. What Arnold Palmer once was to his fans – really there in the moment, looking you in the eye, appreciating your feelings for him – that’s the final mature version of Mickelson….
“Will Phil ever have another day, another chance, like this one? Maybe not. But he has three green jackets to go with his six long black mourning coats. He has a PGA Championship, too. He has wins by the dozen, fans by the millions and something that even trophies can’t truly duplicate.
“Faced with the worst experience his game could offer, and a sixth dose of that bile to boot, Phil Mickelson showed the absolute best in himself.”
“Somebody asked (Phil) if he’ll someday look back on the record six second-place finishes in this event as an accomplishment, as if the Buffalo Bills pull out the scrapbooks from those four Super Bowl losses. Give Mickelson credit for this: He wasn’t trying to spin it.
“ ‘If I have a win to match, then yes,’ he said. ‘If I had won today or if I ultimately win, I’ll look back at the other Opens and think it was positive. If I never get one, then every time I think of the U.S. Open, I’ll just think of heartbreak.’
“Well, he should prepare for a lifetime of regrets, because he’ll never get a better chance than this. He turned 43 yesterday, his window of opportunity likely inches from shutting entirely. He had a course that he loved, a 1-shot lead to begin the final round, and the usual adoring fans trying to will him to the trophy.
“The crowd along the first fairway broke out into a spontaneous chorus of ‘Happy Birthday!’ when he walked to the tee box at 3:12 p.m., and Mickelson nodded and smiled. It was a nice moment, one that got old in a hurry.
“Because the crowd did it again on the fourth hole, after his first three-putt double bogey, and again on the sixth hole after his second three-putt double bogey, Mickelson barely nodded. It was as if he was living on his Facebook page, waiting for the day to end and the wall posts to stop.”
–Detroit’s Max Scherzer is 10-0, 3.08, with 116 strikeouts in 96 innings. As Ronald Reagan would have said…not bad, not bad at all.
–It has been an awful year for Mets fans, but we were able to take heart in the debut of 23-year-old hurler Zack Wheeler, who threw six scoreless innings, striking out 7, in gaining his first major league win, 6-1, on Tuesday. What made it even more impressive was Wheeler was pitching before his hometown friends and family. Earlier, in the first of a day/night doubleheader, 24-year-old Matt Harvey moved to 6-1, 2.16, as the Mets won 4-3, Harvey taking a no-hitter into the seventh and striking out a career high 13.
That’s the future. Now if we can only find about six position players we’ll have a shot at finishing .500 next year. [Very low expectations for us Mets fans.]
—A-Rod keeps on giving, even when he’s not in uniform. It turns out his rehab is not going as well as we were led to believe just last week. He’s still a long ways off from returning it would seem.
But I wouldn’t even mention this were there not another reason to bring up A-Roid. The New York Daily News and Miami New Times report that “Rodriguez was so desperate during last year’s ALCS that he allegedly turned to the one person he thought could help him – Biogenesis founder Anthony Bosch.”
Mired in a slump, A-Rod summoned Bosch to Detroit, according to a former business associate of the latter’s. The Yankees claim they had no knowledge of Bosch traveling to Detroit during a series they would lose as A-Rod went 1 for 9.
However, the source of this latest story, Porter Fischer, a Biogenesis investor, has his own credibility issues.
–Heading into Wednesday night’s action at the College World Series, UCLA and Mississippi State have moved on, while Indiana faces off against Oregon State for one spot in the final four, Wednesday, and North Carolina and North Carolina State have a rematch in the other contest, Thursday…Louisville and LSU having been eliminated.
–The Knicks are said to be seriously looking at taking South Dakota State’s Nate Wolters as a back-up at point with their 24th overall pick. I’d love it.
And I do have to get down for the archives that just as the Spurs got a steal two years ago in selecting Kawhi Leonard with the 15th pick, someone around picks 12-16, I’m guessing, will get a similar steal with Leonard’s former teammate at San Diego State, Jamaal Franklin. Franklin, by his second year, will be a super NBAer…a stat machine. His outside shot will improve, he is a big-time competitor, is the most explosive player in the draft, and a terrific defender, a la Leonard. Franklin is an All-Star in his third year.
—Serena Williams is not a good person. She has proved it time and time again. But she outdoes herself in a coming Rolling Stone interview wherein the reporter, Stephen Rodrick, and Williams are watching television when the Steubenville, Ohio rape trial came on the screen. Williams reportedly asked, “Do you think it was fair, what they got?” Then she proceeds:
“They did something stupid, but I don’t know. I’m not blaming the girl, but if you’re a 16-year-old and you’re drunk like that, your parents should teach you – don’t take drinks from other people. She’s 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn’t remember? It could have been much worse. She’s lucky. Obviously I don’t know, maybe she wasn’t a virgin, but she shouldn’t have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that’s different.”
–The Miss Universe pageant is going to be held in Moscow in November. I can just picture the nation’s beauties, of which there are many, flooding Moscow that week. Great people watching, guys. [And girls…]
Donald Trump, who owns the competition, said, “I am convinced that it will be the biggest and best Miss Universe that you have ever seen.”
Oh yeah…just hope a good college football game isn’t on at the same time.
–So you know the Robert Kraft / Vladimir Putin Super Bowl ring story? I’m mystified why it’s in the news again. I wrote the following in this space way back on 1/27/11!!
“This is a story from a few weeks ago I’ve been meaning to pass on, via Will Pavia of the London Times, concerning Vladimir Putin and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Nic Iljine talks of an incident in The Hedonist’s Guide to Art, a collection of essays by curators, collectors and critics. As Iljine tells Pavia:
“ ‘We got Putin to open this big show of ours in September (2005). We timed it to parallel the United Nations General Assembly.’
“Putin addressed a black-tie audience at the Guggenheim, after which he joined the director of the Foundation, Thomas Krens, for tea in his office. Krens noted that visiting Russians often left gifts, and pulled out a large wooden case with a vodka-filled glass sculpture shaped like an AK-47 rifle, as an example.
“ ‘Mr. Iljine says that the Russian leader held the sculpture for a time while talking – ‘then put the thing back into its wooden case and handed it to one of his bodyguards, who proceeded to exit the office at lightning speed with our vodka-gun tucked neatly under his arm.’
“Iljine says: ‘I was about to scream ‘Stop!’ but thought better of it, and kept shtoom [Ed. ‘silent’].’
“Iljine was asked if there was any way Putin misinterpreted it as a gift. ‘His English is good enough.’
“This wasn’t the first time Putin had acted in this fashion. That same year, a few months earlier, Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, was at a forum in St. Petersburg and showed Putin his diamond-encrusted 2005 Super Bowl ring. Putin put it on, then slipped it into his pocket and walked away!”
— ‘Man’ plummets further to No. 296 on the All-Species List after this story out of the South China Morning Post…
“A stranded dolphin died on Monday morning in Sanya City, Hainan province, after being manhandled by tourists who used it as a photo prop.
“The dolphin was first discovered at 6pm on Sunday evening stranded near Sanya’s Dadonghai beach resort….
“With no professional marine rescue center in Sanya, staff from the Sanya City Bureau of Oceans and Fishing Department were forced to contact Hainan province rescue workers who eventually arrived at 9 pm.
“In the meantime, Sanya City tourists gathered around the stranded dolphin for nearly 30 minutes to take photographs. Several men posed with the dolphin, eventually lifting it out of the water. This continued until local lifeguards surrounded the dolphin and guided it away to prevent further manhandling.
“The dolphin was then declared dead at midnight due to excessive bleeding from the caudal (tail) fin….
“The tourists may now face animal cruelty charges, according to the Daily Mail.”
I saw the pictures and it is despicable…though at least the lifeguards acted compassionately. A post on Sina Weibo put it best: “Lack of respect for life is the root of every Chinese tragedy.”
–Brad K. passed along a tale from the Anchorage Daily News…just days after the fatal black bear mauling I noted last time in Alaska. Another guy in the state was mauled by a black bear, though survived. It seems he was drunk and was throwing barbecue at the bear. Clearly, it wasn’t Carolina barbecue and so said bruin turned on the jerk.
As Brad mused, the victim should be first in line for a one-way trip to Mars.
Top 3 songs for the week 6/23/79: #1 “Hot Stuff” (Donna Summer…dreadful…) #2 “We Are Family” (Sister Sledge…all about the Pirates back then…their theme song as they went on to win the Series and your editor major coin…which he then spent buying beers for everyone…) #3 “Ring My Bell” (Anita Ward…the music scene could not have been worse…)…and…#4 “Just When I Needed You Most” (Randy Vanwarmer…whatever…buy a dog…) #5 “Bad Girls” (Donna Summer…beep beep…) #6 “The Logical Song” (Supertramp…I was trying to figure out how I could graduate on time the following May…which seemed illogical…) #7 “Chuck E.’s In Love” (Rickie Lee Jones…this tune really sucked…but was viewed as good for this insipid era…) #8 “She Believes In Me” (Kenny Rogers…I don’t know why…you would later change your face…) #9 “Boogie Wonderland” (Earth, Wind & Fire with The Emotions…this year was so awful, my faves, EWF, mailed this drivel in, which should never be included in a Greatest Hits compilation…) #10 “You Take My Breath Away” (Rex Smith…Kate Upton does…just sayin’…)
Chicago White Sox Quiz Answers: 1) Outfielder Dave Gallagher appeared in 161 games in 1989, batting .266 with 1 HR and 46 RBI. 2) Frank Thomas hit 40+ home runs five different seasons, finishing his career with 521, along with 1704 RBI and a .301 batting average. He should be admitted to Cooperstown with the coming ballot. 3) Outfielder Rudy Law stole 77 in 1983.
