Note: Posted Tuesday around 5:00 PM ET…had to put down some older items for the archives as I clear the table from my trip.
PGA Tour Golf Quiz: Name the seven with 50 career PGA Tour wins. Answer below.
Super Sunday
—Mike Ditka weighed in on playing a Super Bowl in the cold, telling the Detroit Free Press, “The weather’s going to be a problem. They made a big mistake. The game shouldn’t be there. I mean, it’s supid.”
“I’m just saying, if you get extreme cold or you get snow during the game, then it’s unfair to the fans, to the players, to everybody. You’re not going to be able to perform at near the level you’re used to. And the element of luck comes into it, and it shouldn’t happen in that game. That game should be based on the people on the field who make the plays.”
–Norman Chad / Washington Post: “Roger Goodell – who, after all, is just a regular guy like the rest of us – will attend the game and sit outside. His frozen body then will be airlifted to midtown Manhattan, where it will be erected as a statue honoring the commissioner at the entrance of NFL headquarters.”
–Alas, the weather forecast as I go to post is temperatures around 32 at kickoff, but no precip and wind not a factor. But, at 32 degrees, Peyton Manning is still just 4-7.
–As reported by the New York Times’ Joe Drape, last year Nevada’s sports books took in a record $99 million on the Super Bowl, keeping $7,206,000. The average win margin over the last 10 Super Bowls is $5 million and they have won 21 of the last 23 outright.
The books’ biggest win came in 2005, when the underdog Eagles, covering against the Patriots, earned Nevada books $15.4 million.
Their biggest loss came in 2008, when the Giants upset the Patriots, costing the books $2.5 million.
–I missed that opera star Renee Fleming is singing the national anthem on Sunday. What a super choice! She will leave America, and the world, reaching for the Kleenex…it’s the Bar Chat Guarantee!
[I have some family members who totally disagree with me. They think the choice should have been someone from New Jersey. Yoh, fellow Jerseyites…let it go…this game is bigger than Joisey, which is why I understood the Bruno Mars selection.]
–Meanwhile, many hotels in the area are getting nowhere near the rates they thought they were going to receive. And a classic case of if you ever decide to go to one of these, it won’t hurt you to wait rather than make a reservation a year ahead of time.
Ticket brokers, as you’ve heard, aren’t doing much better. And imagine if the forecast had deteriorated?!
–A Harris Poll has pro football as America’s favorite sport for a 30th straight year. 35% call it their favorite, followed by MLB 14%, college football 11%, auto racing 7%, the NBA 6%, NHL 5% and college basketball 3%.
None of this surprises me, except I would have thought college football and basketball captured maybe 2% more apiece.
Notice one sport that isn’t on this list? Professional golf…now at just 2%. It had been 4% before Tiger’s extramarital stuff.
College Basketball / AP Poll
1. Arizona 20-0 (63)
2. Syracuse 19-0 (2)
3. Florida 17-2
4. Wichita State 21-0
5. San Diego State 18-1*
6. Kansas 15-4
7. Michigan State 18-2
8. Oklahoma State 16-3
9. Villanova 17-2
10. Michigan 15-4…soared after beating then No. 3 Michigan State, 80-75, in East Lansing over the weekend.
*Aztecs’ only loss 69-60 to Arizona early in the season. Tulane transfer Josh Davis with 13 consecutive double-figure games in rebounds.
—No. 23 Oklahoma defeated No. 8 Oklahoma State on Monday night, post poll.
—No. 17 Duke beat No. 18 Pitt, in Pittsburgh, 80-65 on Monday, also post poll. [In the prior Duke contest, against FSU, Mike Krzyzewski won his 900th as Duke coach, a Division 1 all-time leading 973 overall.]
–Last Sunday, Clemson lost at North Carolina 80-61 to go 0-57 at Chapel Hill, equaling the record of the first cavemen when they took on the Mastodon in their own backyard.
–Yes, I wish I had known about Josh Davis and picked San Diego State this year after backing them two prior ones, but my 2013-14 “Pick to Click,” VCU, is still 16-4, 4-1, yet getting zero respect in the polls…like not a single vote. They’ll be there come tourney time.
—Wake is 4-3 in ACC play! [I followed their win over Notre Dame last weekend on the computer in my Hong Kong hotel room at like 4:00 a.m.]
–This is Commissioner David Stern’s last week. Miami Heat President Pat Riley calls Stern “the No. 1 force, the No. 1 reason why this league is where it is today.”
“Stern leaves the NBA in fantastic shape: a profitable business generating more than $5.5 billion annually; average player salary of more than $4 million; rising franchise valuations; millions of fans worldwide; a $1-billion-a-year TV rights deal that will increase after the current deal expires in 2016; and a meaningful philanthropic endeavor helping others worldwide.
“He is many things: intelligent, savvy, old, stubborn, driven, competitive, charming, humorous, kind, biting, forceful and demanding. For all his strengths and flaws, he is one of the best commissioners in the history of pro sports.”
Can’t argue with that. It was Stern, after all, who rescued the NBA from its dark ages, the late 1970s and early 80s, when the league had a small TV deal and a crippling substance abuse problem with no national identity.
Former NBA player and broadcaster Bill Walton said: “David Stern is the single most important person in the history of basketball. He has used basketball to make the world a better place. …He is a master at getting to what’s next.”
Of course it helped to have Bird, Magic and Jordan come along at the same time as Stern’s first years.
And so we wish Stern’s successor, deputy commissioner Adam Silver, the best. He has tough shoes to fill.
–I have to note Carmelo Anthony’s Knicks record 62 points the other day against the Bobcats on 23 of 35 shooting from the field, besting Bernard King’s 60 and the Madison Square Garden record of 61 held by Kobe Bryant.
Melo’s wife, La La, says he will stay in New York. [She wears the pants, err, shorts, in that family.]
–My pre-season “Pick to Click,” the Brooklyn Nets, have been playing much better, 10-2 in 2014 to advance to 20-23, but what a terrible loss on Monday at home against surprising Toronto (23-21) when Deron Williams couldn’t successfully protect the lead and just inbound the ball with 10 seconds to play, turning it over on a poor pass. The game was even more critical as they next host Oklahoma City on Friday before going to Indiana on Saturday.
–Hall of Famer Tom Gola died. He was 81. Gola was the first to be named a first-team All-American four consecutive seasons while with La Salle, including college player of the year in 1955. At 6’6”, he grabbed 2,201 rebounds, an NCAA record that has stood for more than half a century.
In his rookie season with the hometown Philadelphia Warriors, he helped Philly to the 1956 NBA championship and was a five-time NBA all-star, retiring as a Knick in 1966.
Gola also coached at La Salle two seasons, leading them to a No. 2 ranking in 1968-69. Plus he was a leading Republican political figure, including time as a state legislator. Gola actually resigned his coaching position after being elected to the controller’s seat in Philadelphia.
A fellow legend in Philly area high school basketball, Wilt Chamberlain once said, “When I was growing up, you whispered the name Tom Gola. He was like a saint.” [I miss Wilt.]
Australian Open
For the record…Rafael Nadal crushed Roger Federer in the semi-finals, 7-6, 6-3, 6-3, with Federer not too pleased at Nadal’s comportment during the match, becoming particularly agitated when Nadal left the court between sets to have treatment on his blistered hand.
But then Nadal, attempting to win his 14th major, was upset by first time major winner Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland in the final, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, as the Melbourne crowd gave Nadal a hard time after another medical timeout for his back. [Nadal may have gotten a raw deal on this one from the fans but I’ve never been a fan of the guy, like I am, say Federer or Murray.]
On the women’s side, Chinese star Li Na (from Wuhan…I flew over it the other day…which has to connect me to her in some fashion, right? …) took her second Grand Slam at the age of 31 (32 next month) with a 7-6, 6-0 win over Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia. Previously, the highly popular Na, especially in Asia and Australia, had lost Aussie Open finals twice.
Na gave one of the better victory speeches, first thanking her agent, Max Eisenbud, “for making me rich,” her coach Carlos Rodriguez and then her husband, former coach and constant traveling companion, Shan Jiang. She told him he was “even famous in China.”
“So thanks for him giving up everything, just traveling with me to be my hitting partner, fix the drinks, fix the racket. So thanks a lot, you are a nice guy,” she said, pausing for the laughter. “Also you are so lucky to find me.”
The coverage she received while I was in China makes even a passive follower such as me want to root for her the next three Grand Slam events.
The Mongols
So I took a slew of reading with me for my two 15+ hour flights to Hong Kong and back and among the pieces was one by Ian Frazier from 2005 (that for some reason I just printed up), on the Mongols and Hulagu. It had to do with a message Osama bin Laden sent concerning this grandson of Genghis Khan and the sacking of Baghdad in the year 1258. Back around 2003, bin Laden’s “out-of-left-field comparison” concerned the first Gulf War and Colin Powell and Dick Cheney.
Now why would I bring this up in Bar Chat? Because Mr. Frazier has a terrific, if totally disgusting, portrayal of the Mongol hordes of that era; which, according to some historians were responsible for 1.6 million killed in the Afghan city of Herat, for example. 1.6 million.
“The Mongols had so many oxen and cattle that they were able to carry all kinds of stuff with them – entire houses, and even temples – on giant carts.”
They also spent so much time on horseback that they grew up bowlegged, which by observation you can see in the genes of some in that region centuries later, I couldn’t help but notice after my last visit.
“In battle, a historian wrote, ‘the Mongols made the fullest use of the terror inspired by their physique, their ugliness, and their stench.’ Mongols were narrow-waisted and small-footed, with big heads. They shaved their hair short on the backs and tops of their heads and left it long at the sides. Custom forbade them from ever washing their clothes. Also contributing to their smell might have been their diet, which at certain times of the year was mainly mare’s milk. On marches when there wasn’t time to milk, Mongol riders would open a vein in their horses’ necks and drink the blood, either straight or from a pouch….
“Mongols also ate meat tenderized by being sat on beneath their saddles on long journeys…
“Other Mongol facts: On their treeless steppes, they tended to get hit by lightning a lot.”
–Not for nuthin’ but Bode Miller seems primed for Sochi after two top-3 finishes over the weekend in Kitzbuhel, Austria in the downhill and super-G.
–The New York Daily News reports NBC’s Olympic staff “has been warned in a memo to watch what they email and text during the games, because Russian law allows for ‘the monitoring, retention and analysis of all data that traverses Russian communication networks, including Internet browsing, email messages, telephone calls and fax transmissions.’”
Then again, NBC issued the same memo to the Beijing Olympics.
Meanwhile, the News reports: “A secret, steamy relationship between one of NBC’s best-known on-air personalities and a network executive has been put on ice because the duo fear their naughty behavior will be exposed” by the eavesdropping Russian agents. No names disclosed. Hmmm….
–As I noted a while back, there were rumors Jake Coker, the backup to Jameis Winston at Florida State, would transfer to Alabama seeing as how he would not have to sit out a year because he is on target to graduate in May, though he’ll just be a junior next season. [NCAA rules allow a graduate student to transfer without sitting.] And so he has.
But there are four other QBs at ‘Bama who thought they were in line to replace AJ McCarron. Imagine how pissed they are.
Coker, though, as I wrote before, is said to be a great kid and, more importantly, at 6’5”, 230, a classic passer.
–There aren’t too many casual golf fans, I imagine, who know Scott Stallings has three PGA Tour wins after taking Sunday’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Jordan Spieth, the 54-hole leader, flamed out.
Worrisomely, Phil Mickelson withdrew after two rounds with a bad back. He was smart. He said he didn’t want to play through the pain and develop bad swing habits. But this weekend he is to defend his title at the Phoenix Open. Nothing definitive as yet.
–Yes, gonna be interesting to see how Ryan Braun does this season, and how he’s treated.
—Babe Ruth’s 1923 World Series championship pocket watch, for decades thought to be lost to history, will be auctioned on February 22 in New York, where it is expected to fetch at least $750,000.
I mean think about it. You can forge all kinds of signatures, including on bats, gloves, and jerseys, let alone balls, as well as art, for that matter…but pretty difficult to come up with a fake watch of a certain era properly marked.
–As I left Hong Kong, it was a big story Down Under that a 13-foot saltwater crocodile had snatched a 12-year-old boy in the Northern Territory, near Darwin, while at the same time mauling one of his friends. The boy that was snatched hadn’t been found days later.
Darwin police sergeant Stephen Constable [Ed. pretty easy to see how he chose his profession] said, “One boy fought off the crocodile, and then the crocodile turned and took the other boy.”
The saltwater croc population has exploded in the Northern Territory, promoted as a major tourist attraction.
–Saw this in a local Chinese paper. “An American tourist has died after apparently being trampled to death by elephants. Thai police said the woman went missing on January 13 in Kaeng Krachan National Park in Petchaburi. Her battered body was found in the woods five days later, and it was likely she had been trampled by elephants because of the severe injuries.”
Elephant nonetheless remains No. 2 on the All-Species List. [Tourist hadn’t learned Mastodon lesson.]
–So as you know, one of my all-time faves is Petula Clark, who is now 81 and, as Bob Greene writes in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, still singing. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the official launch of the British Invasion, Feb. 9, Clark is not looking back but rather still recording. In fact TIME magazine commented that a song off an album of hers from last year, “Cut Copy Me,” was one of the 10 best of 2013.
But Clark does say of that magical time in 1964, while she was about ten years older than her peers, the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, “Kind of like their big sister,” as she put it, she had no problem when they opened the door and was able to charge right through with them. I’ve told you in the past how I have her recordings she made in France when she was a big cabaret singer in the 1950s, but these days she only looks forward.
“Each of us, wherever life may have led, has something that sustains us. We won’t find it by looking over our shoulder, but if we’re lucky it’s forever right beside us, waiting to be called upon. ‘The person I am comes to life when I’m singing,’ Ms. Clark says. ‘I don’t just chuck it around. I don’t take it lightly. It’s almost like a religion.’
“Which – 50 years after ‘Downtown,’ 50 years of work – may be her implicit lesson for the rest of us, regardless of what special skill, what treasured calling, makes us feel whole. The lesson: to cherish and keep close at hand that secret place where, when you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go. Everything’s waiting for you.”
–We note the passing of folk singer / songwriter Pete Seeger, 94. Seeger first gained fame with The Weavers, formed in 1948, and continued to perform the next six decades. Renowned for his protest songs, he was blacklisted by the U.S. government in the 1950s. In 1955, he testified before the Un-American Activities Committee. When questioned as to whether he was a Communist, and thus un-American, he replied he “greatly resented” the implication that his work made him any less American. He was charged with contempt of Congress, but the sentence was overturned on appeal.
As a songwriter, he co-wrote “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “Turn! Turn! Turn!” (turned into a No. 1 by The Byrds in 1965), “We Shall Overcome,” and “The Hammer Song,” the latter popularized by Peter, Paul and Mary in the 1960s.
Seeger dropped out of Harvard in 1938 after attending an Appalachian song and dance festival in Asheville, N.C.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
Top 3 songs for the week 1/22/66: #1 “The Sounds of Silence” (Simon & Garfunkel) #2 “We Can Work It Out” (The Beatles) #3 “She’s Just My Style” (Gary Lewis and The Playboys… underrated…)…and…#4 “Five O’Clock World” (The Vogues…HEY!… HEY!… HEY!…) #5 “Day Tripper” (The Beatles) #6 “No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In)” (The T-Bones) #7 “The Men In My Little Girl’s Life” (Mike Douglas…yes, that Mike Douglas…) #8 “A Must To Avoid” (Herman’s Hermits) #9 “As Tears Go By” (The Rolling Stones… one of their best…) #10 “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice” (The Lovin’ Spoonful… ditto…has held up great…) Pretty darn good week, I think you’d agree.
PGA Tour Golf Quiz Answer: Top seven – 50 wins
Sam Snead 82
Tiger Woods 79
Jack Nicklaus 73
Ben Hogan 64
Arnold Palmer 62
Byron Nelson 52
Billy Casper 51
Walter Hagen 45
Phil Mickelson 42
