NCAA Basketball Quiz: Name the starting five for the 1984-85 champion Villanova Wildcats, who stunned No. 1 ranked Georgetown 66-64. Answer below.
College Basketball…March Madness
Let me start by saying I have really found it hard to get into college basketball this year because I’m sick and tired of my alma mater, Wake Forest, playing like crap. Five straight seasons…no hope of even being on the freakin’ bubble, for crying out loud.
I went to Wake from 1976-80 and we went to the Elite Eight, 1977, though that was our only NCAA tourney bid in my four years. However, we were very entertaining, even as my junior and senior years saw a team that was rebuilding, and sure enough Wake then went to the Big Dance 1981, 82, and 84.
Then a bunch of years in the wilderness. But we returned 1991-97, then 2001-05, then 2009-10.
So we’ve had our dry spells, but they were generally short-lived. These last five years, however, have been hideous.
8-24, 13-18, 13-18, 17-16 (worse than this looks), and 13-19 in Danny Manning’s first season at the helm, including our first-round ACC tournament loss to an awful Virginia Tech team.
Thank god each year I’ve adopted another squad for the season, this year being a return to San Diego State, so I’ve watched far more Aztec contests than Deacs games. [In these five years it’s been SDSU, Murray State, SDSU, VCU, and SDSU.]
But then Saturday night, in the Mountain West tourney final, the Aztecs laid a major egg, losing 45-43 to Wyoming, whom they had defeated twice in the regular season. SDSU shot a pathetic 15-of-46 from the field, 32.6 percent. Ughh. As I write it’s before noon on Sunday and with Wyoming getting an automatic bid, there is no way the Mountain West deserves three. You’d think the Aztecs were a lock, but they were co-champions in the regular-season with Boise State and the Broncos beat them twice (Boise lost to Wyoming in the semis). So what does the Selection Committee do?
Meanwhile, some other games of note the past few days during conference tournament play.
–In the ACC, No. 19 North Carolina upset No. 3 Virginia 71-67 in the semis, while No. 2 Duke flamed out against No. 11 Notre Dame 74-64 in the other semi. Then, Notre Dame defeated UNC 90-82 for the title. All four should be Sweet Sixteen bound, though as Duke followers know, and as I pointed out a few weeks ago, they have a real Achilles heel…Jahlil Okafor’s foul-shooting, 51% on the season but far worse recently.
–Congratulations to Bobby Hurley for guiding Buffalo to the NCAA tourney with an 89-84 win over Central Michigan in the MAC tourney final; their first NCAA bid. Quite an accomplishment for Hurley, who is in just his second year at Buffalo. Brother Danny Hurley missed taking Rhode Island to the tournament when they fell to Dayton in the A-10 semis, 56-52.
—Harvard beat Yale in dramatic fashion to earn its fourth straight trip to the NCAAs. Coach Tommy Amaker’s squad prevailed in a one-game Ivy League playoff, 53-51, on an 18-footer by Steve Moundou-Missi with 7.2 seconds left.
“(Even) though it may not have been pretty, the game was spectacular – 40 minutes during which every shot, every pass and every rebound was contested. The crowd of 5,256 in the Palestra was on its feet for almost the entire afternoon.”
Yale had beaten Harvard eight days earlier to put itself in position to gain its first NCAA bid since 1962. As Feinstein noted, back then that team lost to Wake Forest, which featured Billy Packer.
–The UC-Irvine Anteaters had never advanced to the NCAA tournament in the first 38 years of the school’s basketball program until Saturday night, when they defeated Hawaii 67-58 to win the Big West tournament and the automatic bid. UC-Irvine had lost four previous times in the title game.
—Albany gained its third straight bid in besting Stony Brook in the America East final, 51-50, as Peter Hooley hit a dramatic game-winning three; Hooley being an Aussie who missed about eight games to go back home and care for his terminally ill mother, only to return to hit this shot.
–In an embarrassment, Hampton qualified for a bid despite a 16-17 overall record by beating Delaware State (18-17) in the MEAC final, 82-61. Hampton was the sixth seed, Delaware State the fifth seed. Yuck.
—Lafayette (20-12) won the Patriot League tournament title and the automatic bid with a 65-63 win over American.
–What a fiasco…in the Sun Belt Conference final, Georgia State defeated Georgia Southern 38-36. College basketball at its worst. The loser was 11-of-47 from the field, 23.4%. Georgia State was a San Diego Statesque 15-of-46, 32.6%.
—UConn will not defend its national title, losing to No. 20 SMU in the American Conference final, 62-54. Good for Paul P. Bad for Jeff B., though J.B. has had more than a bit of success to celebrate…cough cough…cough….[phlegm attack]
—No. 6 Wisconsin, headed to a 1-seed, blitzed Michigan State in overtime 11-0 to win the Big Ten title final 80-69. The Spartans had upset No. 8 Maryland in the semis 62-58.
—As for Kentucky’s quest…I’ve said they won’t win it all for one reason. The Harrison twins will have one dreadful shooting game along the way that will prove costly. Here’s why I say this.
Heading into the SEC final, these are their shooting percentages in this their sophomore season vs. last year.
Aaron Harrison…FR. 423 FG, .326 3-pt. …SO. .393 FG, .301 3-pt.
Andrew Harrison…FR. .367 FG, .351 3-pt. …SO. .369 FG, .366 3-pt.
However, in the Wildcats’ 78-63 SEC final win over Arkansas, the Harrison twins were a combined 9-of-19 from the field, and a sterling 6-of-8 from downtown.
–So now….it’s time for the Selection Show!!! Did SDSU get a bid?!
Well….first off the #1 seeds were Kentucky (MW), Villanova (East), Duke (South) and Wisconsin (West). Arizona and Virginia were the two who could argue, but let’s just get it on.
The biggest controversy ends up being UCLA receiving an 11-seed without having to go thru the 11-seed play-in game. I half follow the Bruins because I read the L.A. Times every day and they just shouldn’t be in…period. But otherwise there really aren’t any terrible omissions, though you’ll have those like Temple complaining.
San Diego State did get in, though here Greg Gumbel really screwed up in a royal way. With the first team announced out of the Mountain West, Wyoming, Gumbel said they were the “third team in” from the conference, which of course told you Boise State and SDSU were also in, though they hadn’t been announced yet. Idiot. I mean this ended up being as close as I thought it would be…Boise State is an 11-seed play-in! The Aztecs received an 8-seed and play St. John’s, which is rich because Dwayne Polee II started out with the Johnnies before transferring to San Diego. The winner of this one plays Duke and that would be a great matchup for SDSU if they can win the first one. So I’m psyched.
But what the heck was the committee thinking in seeding Wichita State 7th?!!! Now that was outrageous.
I’ll have more on the seedings next chat. I’ll give you picks to click in those 7-10, 5-12 matchups that will win you major coin. It’s the Bar Chat guarantee!!!
Preview, #13 Eastern Washington whips #4 Georgetown 72-56.
One more for now…Paul P., I hope #6 SMU kicks #11 UCLA’s butt.
–Just a note on the Division III tournament…the Final Four is Virginia Wesleyan (which defeated top-seed Randolph-Macon 49-47 in the Elite Eight), Augustana (Ill.), Babson and Wis.-Stevens Pt.
The semis are in Salem, Virginia, March 20 with the final the following day.
–With the ESPN program Sunday, “I Hate Christian Laettner,” everyone is remembering his great career at Duke. First the numbers…
Fr. 8.9 ppg – 4.7 reb
So. 16.3 – 9.6
Jr. 19.8 – 8.7
Sr. 21.5 – 7.9
Laettner had a .574 field-goal percentage for his career, and he hit a sterling .806 percent of his free throws. Plus throw in two steals and assists per game from the 6’11” stud, who was indeed truly a royal pain in the ass if you were an opponent, let alone a fan of anyone but Duke.
Benjamin Hoffman has a piece on Laettner in the New York Times, on how Laettner was the collegiate face of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team that featured Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone…in fact of the 12 on the team, Laettner is the only one who didn’t make the Basketball Hall of Fame as an individual.
Granted, he was far from a superstar in the NBA, but his first five seasons were very solid, 17 points, 8 rebounds for Minnesota and Atlanta. Then he kind of drifted off, hanging around as an effective role player.
But he’s still the only collegian to appear in four Final Fours, winning two national titles. And he’s forever immortalized for one of the top three, if not the greatest, moments in NCAA tournament history, his turnaround jumper against Kentucky in 1992.
Jay Bilas says: “There are very few players in the history of the game that can match his college career. You’re talking Walton, Alcindor, Elvin Hayes.”
But the point of Hoffman’s story is why isn’t Laettner in the Hall of Fame? The Basketball version isn’t about just the pro careers of those enshrined, a la Cooperstown and Canton. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in Springfield, Mass., looks at one’s contributions as an amateur and a professional, as well as the national team.
Heck, Laettner was hardly a stiff in the NBA, as I note above, but Bilas says it will just take time. Ralph Sampson, after all, had nowhere near the NBA career that you would have thought he’d have after his spectacular college one. But he had to wait a long time to get to Springfield.
–One more…Shu reminded me that last time when I talked about the 1982 championship game, forever known as the “Jordan Game,” that Worthy missing the last two free throws was huge because the betting line was 1 ½. Final score, 63-62. Shu, Carolina fan, has since recovered to have a good life.
I didn’t mention last time I was at the game because I’ve only written this about 100 times before. I will tell new readers that my friends and I had no clue what happened when Freddie Brown inadvertently passed it to Worthy after Jordan’s bucket because we were in the very top row of the Superdome and everyone looked like ants the entire time. [No Jerry’s Palace huge monitors in those days, boys and girls. We also mistook the sinks in the massive bathrooms for….well, I really shouldn’t go there…we’re talking my permanent record…]
–Thursday night, Cleveland All-Star Kyrie Irving put on a show for the ages in San Antonio against the Spurs, 57 points, the high in the NBA this season, with the Cavs prevailing in overtime 128-125.
The 57 marked the most for a player in a regular-season game against the defending champion since Jan. 14, 1962, when Wilt Chamberlain scored 62 for the Philadelphia Warriors in a loss to the Celtics. He also became the first to score 50 against a Gregg Popovich team.
Irving made all seven of his 3-point attempts, was 20-of-32 from the field overall and made 10-of-10 from the foul line.
Earlier, in a game against Portland on Jan. 28, Irving had 55.
–The other day the Knicks beat the Lakers in L.A., with the Knicks now 13-52 vs. L.A.’s 17-47 heading into the NBA Draft Lottery. [Both played late Sunday after I went to post.] So the New York Times’ Harvey Araton had some thoughts on which team is better positioned in terms of attracting free agents, both also having lots of cap space.
“The combined payroll of the two teams for this season is about $157 million, yet one would be challenged to identify five players from the two active rosters as suitable role players on a serious contender.
“Each has an injured franchise player, though Bryant is six years older than Carmelo Anthony and has plans to retire – he would not guarantee it this week – after next season. But with a virtual blank slate (and assuming Bryant does quit in 2016) and cap space expected to soar throughout the league, that would seem to make the Lakers more appealing to the 2016 class of free agents, which could include Kevin Durant and LeBron James.
“From Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Shaquille O’Neal, Los Angeles has long been more of a draw for superstar free agents or for those angling for a trade than winter-weather-challenged New York. In some respects, it’s all about the beach.
“If the Lakers are positioned for a top-five pick in the June draft, they will not have to surrender it to Philadelphia.
“They will also have power forward Julius Randle returning next season after a broken leg ended his rookie year early. It’s hard to say what Randle will be, but Kentucky players have generally been very good at the NBA level.
“The Knicks, too, should land one of the top picks this summer, though in an interview with reporters Thursday, Jackson warned not to expect much from a rookie after a year of college ball.
“ ‘We know what the first-round pick is going to mean to us,’ he said, ‘but we also know we’re going to build our team with free agents.’ When he added that he was hoping for a quick turnaround, he fueled immediately speculation that he might be interested in dealing the pick to accommodate Anthony’s ticking career clock.
“No harm in gauging the market, but if Jackson is banking on the Knicks’ curb appeal to land free agents, it is fair to wonder how attractive a tag-team partner Anthony will be next summer as he approaches his age-31 season, coming off knee surgery and with an unremarkable playoff history. And then there is the unknown component of how free agents will view fitting into a system not practiced anywhere else.
“All things considered, edge to Lakers.”
Araton also rips the Knicks’ PA announcer, especially when compared to the Lakers’ Lawrence Tanter “and his wonderful baritone voice…perhaps the last nonshouter in the NBA – and what sensible star would not want his name regularly announced by him?
“His shrill Knicks counterpart, especially after an Anthony basket, sounds like a 12-year-old taunting his kid sister. It is unbecoming for the equivalent of basketball on Broadway. But much worse, in comparison with the Lakers, are those two lonely championship banners hanging in the rafters. Look up at Staples Center and you will see the 11 banners the Lakers have hung since moving here from Minneapolis in 1960.”
—Charles Oakley was honored by the Toronto Raptors on Friday, for what I reason I have no idea since he only spent three seasons there near the end of his career, but he made some comments on today’s game that caught a little press.
Asked who he watched these days, Oakley said, “Who do I like watching? It’s hard to watch. I don’t know, it’s just, it’s a different game. It’s some good games and a lot of bad games. More bad games than good games these days.”
NFL…moves since last chat…
—Reggie Bush signed with the San Francisco 49ers, where he will be expected to largely fill the gap left by Frank Gore, who signed with Indianapolis. But that requires Bush to stay healthy.
–Indianapolis, aside from signing Gore, inked veteran receiver Andre Johnson, who in 12 seasons with the Texans caught 1,012 passes for 13,597 yards. Last season he hauled in 85 for 936.
–Gore had originally been thought to be going to the Eagles, but then he balked, which worked out well for Philadelphia because then they turned around and signed DeMarco Murray, the NFL’s leading rusher last season for Dallas.
Dallas didn’t want to meet Murray’s contract demands, so instead Murray got $21 million guaranteed from the Eagles in a five-year, $42 million package. The Cowboys were supposedly offering him $6 million per year on average.
The Eagles also reached agreement with running back Ryan Mathews on a three-year deal with $5 million guaranteed. So Philadelphia has more than replaced LeSean McCoy, who shuffled off to Buffalo.
I didn’t realize Murray was the former Oklahoma roommate of new Eagles QB Sam Bradford.
–Buffalo picked up Percy Harvin, after the talented, enigmatic receiver was released by the Jets once they acquired Brandon Marshall. Harvin will team with budding superstar Sammy Watkins to give Rex Ryan a heckuva deep threat should the two stay healthy, Harvin’s key issue.
–Back to Dallas, with their sudden gap at running back, they at least partially filled it by signing former Raider Darren McFadden, who while just 27, has battled injuries all his career. That said, he played in all 16 games last season for the first time but averaged just 3.4 yards per carry. However, Dallas has the best offensive line in the league.
–The Jets added Darrelle Revis’ former sidekick, Antonio Cromartie, reuniting the Jets’ cornerback tandem of 2010-2012. Then they signed San Diego Chargers free agent safety Marcus Gilchrist (who’s not that good), while earlier picking up corner Buster Skrine, formerly of Cleveland.
Voila! A new defensive backfield (including incumbent safety Calvin Pryor). That’s one mission done. As for quarterback, they picked up Ryan Fitzpatrick, who is fine. He’s just not the future.
GM Mike Maccagnan went to the west coast to see Marcus Mariota’s Pro Day on Thursday and while Mariota underwhelmed, the Jets are clearly interested if the Heisman winner slipped to No. 6.
–The Vikings acquired wide receiver Mike Wallace from Miami for a fifth-round pick this year; the Dolphins acting before they would have had to pay Wallace a $3 million roster bonus this weekend.
The Vikings got the deep threat they’ve been looking for. Wallace led Miami with 862 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns, but at the end of the year he was a head case…as in lousy attitude.
Miami replaced Wallace’s speed with New Orleans receiver Kenny Stills.
—Antrel Rolle, the heart and soul of the Giants defense for most of his five seasons in New York, signed with the Chicago Bears. He never missed a game with the Giants and while not spectacular, was dependable.
–Pittsburgh signed Ben Roethlisberger to a five-year contract that means in all likelihood he’ll end his career there. He turned 33 on March 2. Last season he established career highs in passing yards (4,952), completions (408) and completion percentage (67.1). He would have been heading into the final year of an 8-year contract until inking the new one.
The Steelers also signed former Carolina running back DeAngelo Williams to a 2-year deal.
–Back to the Eagles, coach Chip Kelly said the price to pay to move up in the draft to select Mariota was too high and that no one should expect the Eagles to do this.
“Let’s dispel that right now,” Kelly said. “I think that stuff’s crazy….I think Marcus is the best quarterback in the draft, (but) we will never mortgage our future to go all the way up to get somebody like that, because we have too many other holes we have to take care of.”
“Oakland is back in the same predicament (it’s been in for years now), unable to lure big fish free agents to town for myriad reasons, yet also, at a time when trades were being made at a dizzying rate on Tuesday, not a part of that free-for-all, either. And that’s what gives me pause.
“Owner Mark Davis’ liquidity is always under question, and he has a decrepit stadium with the lowest revenue streams in the league. He also has difficulty funding contracts, considering whatever a team gives a player in ‘fully guaranteed’ money must be put in escrow, in full, after the signing. So $60M fully guaranteed to land Ndamukong Suh means stroking a $60M check in real time. That’s a real conundrum when the only possible lure the Raiders could have to a top free agent would be more money than anyone else could offer (especially when you factor in California’s steep state tax compared to places like Texas and Florida that don’t have one).
“So it’s become clear, through last year’s splurge on aging, mostly second-tier free agents, and through this year’s swing and miss at all of the A-list guys the Raiders liked (Suh and Randall Cobb among them) that just meeting that 89-percent (spending) threshold won’t be easy for Oakland Add in the fact the future of the franchise is up in the air – with Davis flirting with the likes of San Antonio while badly wanting out of the Bay Area and praying he gets to tag along with another team to Los Angeles by 2016 – and the ability to recruit is limited, if not crippled. And unable to tap into their vast immediate salary cap space because of being beat out by teams able to flood deals with much more Year 1 money than Oakland can, the problems just seem to compound.”
–The NFL was shocked when in the span of five days four veterans – San Francisco linebacker Patrick Willis, Tennessee quarterback Jake Locker, Pittsburgh’s Jason Worilds (sic) and Oakland’s Maurice Jones-Drew – announced their retirements at the age of 30 or younger.
Former NFL cornerback Champ Bailey, who retired last year at 36, said, “Twenty years ago, guys weren’t informed about how this game affects you long term. But now there’s so much information out there. Nobody wants to be handicapped when they’re in their 40s. That definitely plays a role. I think the fact that we’ve seen a lot of older players go through that, it’s a little scary now.”
Willis, a seven-time Pro Bowler, said: “Honestly, I pay attention to guys when they’re finished playing, walking around they’ve got no hips or they can’t play with their kids or they can’t play a pickup basketball game or they can barely walk or their fingers are all like this and people see that and feel sorry then, but nobody knows it’s because you played those few extra years. And for me, I just feel…there’s more to football than this and football has been everything to me and it has provided an amazing platform for me to build upon now….it’s my health first and everything else kind of just makes sense around it.” [Lindsay H. Jones / USA TODAY Sports]
Willis had three years and nearly $20 million in base salary remaining on his contract.
“Darrelle Revis, who has torn up and rehabilitated a knee in service of the NFL, established this winter that his market value was $39 million for five years. [Ed. the contract is for $70m, but the difference is funny money.]
“That is guaranteed money in a sport in which so many contracts are not worth the ink on the signatures.
“Revis…decided Tuesday to return to New York and ply his wizardly defensive talents for the Jets. Good for those lost souls such as myself who follow the Jets. He did not sign for a penny less than his market value. Good on him.
“In this brutal and most lucrative of major American sports, players have tiny windows in which to earn their pile. Then their bodies present the lifelong bill for broken bones, torn ligaments, bent fingers and toes, and rattled brains….
“May Revis dance and cut and offer the Jets his usual flypaper defense. And may he bank those dollars and leave this game in one piece.”
—Mets fans are fired up over the potential for their pitching staff, but these days you have to be realistic. These guys get hurt a lot.
So some of us winced when we heard young gun Zack Wheeler was missing his start Saturday due to a tender elbow, though this doesn’t appear to be serious, according to GM Sandy Alderson, even though he was still having an MRI. Of as much concern to yours truly is he has blister issues, which then can impact the way you throw, perhaps unintentionally.
Anyway, the guy who was supposed to be our prime lefty out of the bullpen, Josh Edgin, is facing Tommy John surgery, and one of our top setup men, Vic Black, had his right shoulder looked at, but it’s supposedly OK.
The point being, Mets fans, we aren’t trading Dillon Gee, currently slated as the sixth starter and thus, seemingly, expendable. Nope. Wouldn’t be prudent.
—Al Rosen died. He was 91. Rosen played his entire career with Cleveland from 1947-56, though his first full season wasn’t until 1950 at age 26. From ’50-’54, he had five straight 100-RBI seasons, leading the league twice. In 1953 he was A.L. MVP, leading the league in home runs (43) and RBI (145), while hitting a career high .336. He missed out on winning the Triple Crown by a single point, as Washington’s Mickey Vernon hit .337.
“Going into the final game of the 1953 season, Rosen was battling (Vernon) for the batting title. In Rosen’s last at-bat, against the Detroit Tigers at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium, he hit a slow grounder to third base and seemed to have beaten the throw on a close play.
“ ‘Everybody on the bench thought I was safe,’ Rosen told Baseball Digest in 2002. But the umpire, Hank Soar, called Rosen out, and he agreed.
“Had Rosen been safe, he would have won the batting title and the Triple Crown.”
Rosen was a member of the 1948 Indians title team, the last Cleveland squad to win the World Series, though he only had five at-bats in the regular season and one in the Series.
Overall, Rosen had 192 homers with 717 RBIs, batting .285. He was a four-time All-Star.
He was a big strong dude, as well as one of the few Jewish players in the game, and was known to use his fists if any slurs came his way. For this he was known as the “Hebrew Hammer.”
After his playing career ended, he worked in the front offices of Houston, San Francisco and the Yankees.
He was the only person in baseball history to earn the honors of MVP as a player and Executive of the Year, earning the latter with the Giants.
—A-Rod conceded on Saturday that he is not moving well. “I’m moving as good as you’re going to see me move. The days of speed are behind me.”
He’s hit .375 this spring (thru Sat.), 6-for-16 with a double and a home run, but his range at third is very limited.
–I have to admit, I wasn’t into Will Ferrell’s deal the other day as he went around and played every position in 10 games, even if it was for charity. John Madden, of all people, really ripped him.
But in case you didn’t know, Ferrell does have his own page on Baseball-Reference.com and there are a few funny bits there. Check it out.
Golf Balls
–In a super Sunday finish, the future of golf was on full display as 21-year-old Jordan Spieth outlasted 24-year-old Patrick Reed, as well as comeback kid Sean O’Hair, in a playoff at the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook. It was Spieth’s second PGA Tour title. Some of us would love to see a 10-15 year Spieth-Reed rivalry. It could be 20 years.
—Tiger Woods announced he would not play in Arnie’s Bay Hill tournament next week, which Tiger has won eight times, because he still isn’t “tournament ready.” Woods phoned Arnie to tell him and Woods isn’t sure if he’ll be ready in time for The Masters….a tradition unlike any other…on CBS.
—John Daly called the PGA Tour’s drug-testing policy “a big joke” the other day on SiriusXM’s “Hit It Hard with John Daly.”
The program host, Patrick Meagher, asked him if drug testing on the Tour was random.
“Not at all. I’m gonna play at 1:50 on Friday so they’re [going to] get me about 6:52, 7 o’clock.”
“Wait, you’re telling me you already know you’re gonna get tested?” Meagher replied.
“Oh yeah, this’ll be the fifth or sixth year in a row I’m going to get drug tested [at this event],” said Daly, referring to the Valspar Championship. “It’s the biggest bulls—, I’m sorry, I’m gonna say it, fine me. I don’t care what you do, fix ‘em right now, fine me, but I’m tired of it.”
Daly blasted commissioner Tim Finchem and chief of operations Andy Pazder, saying it was time they got off their “ass” and get it right.
–Kevin Cook in the April Golf Magazine has a story on Babe Ruth, who while he was with the Yankees was one of the most famous golfers in America. “Bobby Jones was the best golfer in Ruth’s day – the game’s superstar – but it was a minor sport then, far behind baseball, boxing, horse racing and college football in popularity. It’s true that Jones drew crowds of thousands while chasing his 1930 Grand Slam, but far more often he played for galleries that would disappoint Briny Baird.
“ ‘Jones was a celebrity to golf fans, but there weren’t that many of them,’ says Doug Vogel, a member of the Society for American Baseball Research who has spent nearly ten years researching a book about Ruth’s golf game. ‘In contrast, Babe Ruth was the most famous athlete in the world. He played a big role in making golf a spectator sport in America – arguably, bigger than Jones.’”
As Kevin Cook writes: “In the 1930s, it was Ruth who made the game look like fun, and whose passion for golf not only generated large crowds but motivated millions of average Americans who had never pictured themselves playing the rich man’s sport.
“Ruth was 20 when he took up the game in 1915, during his rookie year with the Boston Red Sox. The Sox trained in Hot Springs, Arkansas, a gambling-and-golf mecca where baseball players rubbed shoulders with crime lords like Al Capone and hustlers like Titanic Thompson. The six-foot-two jock whaled at the ball, sometimes snapping the shaft of his driver. He launched 300-yard drives (using wound-rubber Haskell balls, no less) as well as hooks and slices that were still rising as they sailed out of bounds. ‘With broken clubs and lost balls taken into account, golf is a pretty expensive pastime for Babe Ruth,’ quipped one news account. To his credit, he always took his penalty strokes and putted out. No gimmes for the Babe. And he improved in a hurry.”
Ruth was playing a round at Griffith Park in Los Angeles on January 5, 1920, when news arrived he had been sold to the Yankees for $100,000.
“Three months later he reported to the Yankees’ training camp in Florida but skipped his first practice to play 18.”
By this time he could occasionally break 80. He also realized this “country-club diversion suited his appetites and talents. A golfer could drain a flask of whisky while playing and eat a hot dog or three between holes – what a game!”
Ruth became a single-digit handicapper but it seems his putting held him back. Doug Vogel discovered one scorecard with a 69, but he thinks it was the only time he broke 70.
In his later years when Babe couldn’t move well, he played a lot of golf with a substitute outfielder, Samuel “Sammy” Byrd, known as his personal baserunner, who is the greatest golfer who ever played in the majors. After eight years with the Yankees and Reds, Byrd joined the PGA Tour and won six times.
Man, I didn’t know this story. Byrd finished third in the 1941 Masters, fourth in the 1942 Masters, and lost the 1945 PGA Championship in a match-play final against Byron Nelson.
Kevin Cook: “During his baseball days (Byrd) tutored Ruth on the golf course, but it was the Babe who gave Byrd a practice tip golfers still use. During batting practice one day, Ruth tucked a hand towel in his armpit to keep his front elbow close to his chest. Byrd tried the trick, passed it on, and golfers have tucked towels on the driving range ever since.”
The Babe was screwed by the Yankees at the end of his career. Owner Jacob Ruppert promised Ruth he could manage the Yankees when he retired, but he “was just stringing him along, hoping to keep the greatest Yankee loyal to the franchise. In private, Ruppert asked cronies, ‘How could Ruth manage a team when he can’t manage himself?’ The Babe’s reputation as baseball’s Falstaff stuck, despite the fact that he was now a family man, happily ensconced in an Upper West Side apartment with Claire and their two daughters. ‘I don’t think Mr. Ruppert realizes I have matured,’ he fumed to reporters. ‘I’m a grown man, not the playboy I was in 1919.’”
So every day Ruth would play 36 holes in New Jersey and then when he got home he’d ask Claire if the phone had rung…if someone had called offering a baseball job. None did.
When the weather got cold, Ruth would pick up the family and go to Florida. One year in the late 1930s, he told a New York reporter, “I played 365 rounds last year. Thank God for whoever invented golf.”
In 1940, Ruth played Pine Valley for the first time and New York newsmen flocked to the course. Ruth bet them five dollars apiece he could break 90 and shot 85.
Kevin Cook: “That evening, celebrating his victory, he called Pine Valley ‘a pushover’ and offered the writers double or nothing. ‘I’ll break 85 tomorrow,’ he said. ‘Who wants some of that?’ Eleven writers anted up, along with a pair of Pine Valley waiters. The next day Ruth was whistling while he swung, looking like a million bucks, when he hooked a shot into the trees on the long, uphill 15th. Several swats sent his ball in several directions. When a playing partner asked if he needed a line to the green, he said, ‘Hell, I don’t need to know where the green is. Where’s the golf course?’ Ten minutes later, putting out for a 12, he had no chance to break 90. He paid off his bets and bought drinks for the house.”
Ruth is really the pioneer of celebrity golf. In 1941 he played a headline-grabbing charity event with Ty Cobb. Cobb was a better putter and won two rounds out of three in what he called “the Ruth Cup.” Ever the fierce competitor, Cobb was so psyched he put the trophy over his fireplace.
In another charity event, Ruth and Masters champion Jimmy Demaret played Gene Sarazen and former heavyweight champion Gene Tunney.
Playing at Connecticut’s Shorehaven Golf Club, Fred Waring and his band blasted swing tunes while the golfers swung.
“With Waring’s noisiest musicians tooting and trumpeting, with 5,000 spectators chattering, cheering and rattling the putter,” TIME magazine reported, “Demaret and Ruth defeated Sarazen and Tunney, 2 & 1. The gallery voted it more fun than a circus.”
The most famous exhibition event, though, was probably at Fresh Meadow Country Club on Long Island. The two Babes, Babe Ruth and Babe Didrikson, played trick-shot artist Laverne Moore – a.k.a. the Mysterious Montague, and top amateur Sylvia Annenberg. Promoters hoped for 6,000. That’s how many tickets they printed up. Quickly they sold out and they opened up the gate for thousands more. Estimates on the crowd ranged from 10,000 to 12,000. The New York Times likened the throng to the one at Bobby Jones’ Slam-clinching U.S. Amateur at Merion in 1930, “except at Merion there was a semblance of order, whereas here there was none.” The Journal-American noted that with Ruth’s crowd, “Sixty percent of those present didn’t know a bunker from a bung-hole.”
To say it was a zoo was an understatement. The crowd danced on the greens, thronged the fairways.
Kevin Cook: “After the two Babes and Montague hit the green on a par 3, the mob forgot all about Sylvia Annenberg. Perched on the tee, seeing a green encircled by fans standing six deep, she lofted a fairway wood over the jostling crowd. The ball hopped and stopped an inch from the cup. It was the shot of the day and one of the last. Fearing a melee, the promoters declared the match over after nine holes.
There was no definitive accounting of the match, but the Journal-American called it a 2-up victory for the Babes, who swore they’d never play again without bodyguards.
But Babe Ruth’s health turned for the worse quickly. In the mid-1940s “he began to feel aches in his face, neck and larynx. Nobody told him he had cancer – the word was taboo – but he knew. ‘The termites have got me,’ he said.”
Kevin Cook: “He teed up a drive at St. Albans (Country Club in Queens) in 1948. He was 53. He swung hard and caught the ball between the screws. It flew high and true, only to land less than 100 yards away. The Babe stood on the tee and wept.
A few months later, Aug. 16, 1948, we lost Babe Ruth. Grantland Rice wrote: “The greatest figure the world of sport has ever known has passed from the field. Game called on account of darkness. Babe Ruth is dead.”
But think about this. Doug Vogel says, “Sixty-one years after his death, he’s still one of the most famous names in sports. What bothers me is that hardly anybody knows what he did for golf…. The first famous left-handed golfer. Babe Ruth played a major role in popularizing the game in America. Of course, so did Bing Crosby, George H.W. Bush, Dwight Eisenhower, Bob Hope, Dan Jenkins and Dinah Shore. The difference is, they’re all in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Why isn’t he?”
Premier League Standings
1. Chelsea 28 (games ) – 64 (points…3 for a win; 1 for a draw)
2. Man City 29 – 58
3. Arsenal 29 – 57
4. Man U 29 – 56
5. Liverpool 28 – 51
6. Southampton 29 – 50
7. Tottenham 29 – 50
8. Stoke 29 – 42
17. Sunderland 29 – 26
18. Burnley 29 – 25
19. QPR 29 – 22
20. Leicester 28 – 19
Reminder for those who don’t follow this that closely. Top four after 38 matches (no playoffs) are in the Champions League. Bottom three are relegated, which has huge financial consequences for those teams.
–In a shocker on Saturday, lowly Burnley, facing relegation, defeated Manchester City, 1-0, which in all likelihood ended the defending Premier League champs season as they are six points behind Chelsea, though Chelsea only managed a 1-1- draw on Sunday against Southampton, but they also have a game in hand.
–Earlier in the week, Chelsea was eliminated from the Champions League by 10-man Paris Saint-Germain in London (Stamford Bridge) on Wednesday with a 2-2 draw that gave it to PSG on ‘away goals’ after a 3-3 aggregate draw. Last year, PSG was eliminated by Chelsea on away goals in the quarterfinals after another 3-3 draw.
For PSG, striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sent off in the first half on a controversial red card in challenging Oscar.
–I had been waiting for my Tottenham Spurs to take on Manchester United in the biggest game of the year to date for both but Man U blitzed us, 3-0 early and that’s how it ended. Not good. But Tottenham has Leicester and Burnley in its next two and with wins would be right back in the conversation for the final seven matches, which include only Man City and Southampton among the teams ahead of them.
—Kurt Busch was reinstated for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway this Sunday.
Busch missed the first three races of the season, having been indefinitely suspended two days before the Daytona 500 after a Delaware court determined that he had committed an act of domestic violence last September at Dover International Speedway.
But the Delaware attorney general’s office announced last week that it would not press criminal charges, citing an inability to be able to prove the case beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Busch will be eligible for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, though he does remain on NASCAR probation and he must participate in a treatment program for his anger management issues.
His ex-girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll, said she remained committed to standing up for her integrity and “seeking full justice.” [Bob Pockrass / ESPN.com]
NASCAR doesn’t need any more of these stories. Last year it was Tony Stewart and his debacle.
As for the race itself, the amazing Kevin Harvick did it again. The defending NASCAR champion won his second in a row and now has finished first or second in seven straight races, dating back to last year. The last driver to do that was Richard Petty in 1974.
—Mikaela Shiffrin turned 20 on Friday and is now on the verge of her third consecutive World Cup slalom championship after winning her fourth race of the season in Are, Sweden. She now has 13 slalom wins and one in giant slalom in her young career. To assure her slalom title, she needs to just finish in the top 20 in the final race, assuming her nearest competitor won the event.
The final four races, all four disciplines, are in Meribel, France, March 18-22. Lindsey Vonn is the points leader in both the Downhill and Super-G, but for the overall World Cup crown it remains Anna Fenninger, who is a mere 30 points ahead of Tina Maze (1,341 to 1,311). Shiffrin is way back in third at 900, Vonn fourth.
If the schedule holds, it comes down to the Giant Slalom, which Fenninger leads, for the overall.
–If you are a distance runner, you’ll appreciate how warm it was for Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon. Thankfully the race started early and as the elite runners finished it was ‘only’ in the high 60s, which is way too warm for that kind of race. But for those doing it in 4 hours or so, it was in the 80s by then, on the way to a forecast high of 91! Yikes.
–The Road to the Kentucky Derby is about to get serious with the likes of the Florida and Louisiana Derbies on March 28, followed by the Wood Memorial, Santa Anita Derby, Blue Grass (all April 4) and the Arkansas Derby (April 11).
Dortmund is still the current favorite for the Run for the Roses, May 2. Johnny Mac, we have to remind each other on these.
–Great story on George Foreman by Daniel Roberts in the current Sports Illustrated. Ever the pitchman, Foreman, now 66, is preparing to launch George Foreman’s Butcher Shop, “a mail-order meat company with an emphasis on quality, healthfulness and products sourced from family farms in the Midwest. ‘These days, man, how careful do you have to be with meat,’ he says. ‘You want to know about the cow’s brother, sister, the spot she stood on.’”
That’s our George. But of course he wasn’t always that way. Promoter Bob Arum recalls how in 1987, when Foreman, after a 10-year absence decided to make a comeback, “I was not enthusiastic, realizing what a horrid person he had been.”
But, “After spending an hour with him, I said, ‘This is the greatest con man in history,’ because he was so different from what he had been before,’ says Arum. “But it wasn’t a con. He had really changed.”
Well, you know what happens next. Foreman stages a number of fights, proving to be a huge hit, and it all culminated with his defeat of 26-year-old Michael Moorer in 1994, thus becoming the oldest heavyweight champion ever at age 45.
But I didn’t realize the role Bill Cosby had in Foreman’s second act…or third…that of a pitchman. [I’m not making any editorial comments on Cosby’s own story these days for one simple reason. I don’t know all the facts.]
Daniel Roberts: “(Foreman) had initially been wary of hawking products, but that changed after an unlikely phone call in 1991. Foreman was in a hotel room when comedian Bill Cosby called to offer support. Decades earlier Foreman had appeared on The Dating Game with Cosby’s brother Bob. Foreman told Cosby that companies were coming to him with offers but said, ‘I don’t want to be on TV saying this and that.’ Cosby admonished him for ignoring the opportunities. ‘Come on, man. You’re no different from anyone else. You want to be on television, you want to be known,’ Foreman remembers him saying. ‘If you don’t take ‘em, I’ll take ‘em.’ From then on Foreman embraced the pitch.”
And boy did that work out. In 1999, Salton Inc., the maker of the George Foreman Grill, gave him $137.5 million in combined stock and cash to avoid having to continue paying him royalties.
–The New Jersey crime family that served as the inspiration for “The Sopranos” was hit hard in a mob bust the other day.
Ten members and associates of the DeCavalcante family were rounded up. As part of the complaint filed in U.S. District Court, you have the 71-year-old capo, when not plotting murder, counseling his 33-year-old son on the ins and outs of running a prostitution business.
“The bulls and the bears, Anthony, they survive,” the father tells the son. “The pigs they get slaughtered. OK? Always go for a bologna sandwich. OK? You know?…If you got five bologna sandwiches, you’re eating pretty good.” [Ed. always liked fried bologna, myself.]
John Gotti is once said to have referred to the DeCavalcantes as “our farm team.” They are now under the control of the Gambino crime family, according to the complaint. [Thomas Zambito / NJ.com]
–Another bird story…this one from the Wall Street Journal and Charu Suri. It’s about visiting Nebraska this time of year to view the sandhill cranes and their migration that takes place each year along the Platte River.
“From mid-February to mid-April (peaking during the last few weeks of March), the densest influx of migrating sandhill cranes in the world descends on Nebraska. Eighty percent of the planet’s crane population – roughly 650,000 birds – have been making seasonal stopovers in the region for at least 10,000 years, an epic spectacle of nature, on par with the annual wildebeest migration in Kenya’s Rift Valley.”
The Platte River provides them protection from predators and they feast on corn left over from the harvest. “Then they continue on their way north, to Canada, Alaska or Siberia.”
So the locals have of course learned to take advantage of this and there are blinds set up for visitors. It sounds like a pisser. [We’re talking head to Kearney, Nebraska, in case you’re interested.]
—Larry Dixon, competing in a Top Fuel drag race at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., survived a crash at 280 mph as his car split in half, flew through the air, and then landed upright on the track. Dixon walked away. “That isn’t good for your insides,” he said
The top speed ever recorded in Top Fuel was 334.15 mph by Shawn Langdon in 2012.
Dixon had survived a similar crash in 2000 where he said his eye literally popped out of its socket. After that incident in Memphis, he became one of the first NHRA drivers to use a HANS device, a restraint system that attaches to the helmet and that prevents the head from snapping forward, which was what killed Dale Earnhardt at Daytona.
–For those of us of a certain age who took a lot of sick days back in elementary and middle school, it was fun watching the game shows, like “Concentration” and “Match Game,” “Hollywood Squares,” “The Newlywed Game” and “Let’s Make A Deal.”
Another was Chuck Barris’ “The Gong Show” and we learned this weekend that “Gene Gene the Dancing Machine” died the other day. Gene Patton. He was 82.
As noted in an obituary by Deborah Hastings of the New York Daily News:
“For seemingly no reason at all, Barris would bellow for “Gene Gene the Dancing Machine,” and out would shuffle Patton, who was really an NBC stagehand. Pandemonium ensued as Barris, the guest judges and the audience screamed and danced and Patton did his weird, static little dance to the show’s band belting out Count Basie’s ‘Jumpin’ at the Woodside.’
“While Patton danced, show staff in the wings would throw rubber chickens, articles of clothing, shoes, toys and even basketballs, which Patton would catch and dribble while he tripped his version of the light fantastic.”
As Hastings adds, “The Gong Show” was an incredibly goofy and sometimes just plain awful variety show…(that) could be called the antithesis of modern series like ‘America’s Got Talent.’”
—Jimmy Greenspoon, the longtime keyboardist for the rock band Three Dog Night, died at the age of 67. He had been with the group since its founding in 1968 until last October, when he took a leave of absence to deal with cancer.
Three Dog Night had three No. 1 Billboard hits between 1970 and 1972 [The New York Times incorrectly has it 1969 to 1971] in “Mama Told Me (Not To Come),” “Joy to The World,” and “Black & White.”
But my favorites were “One,” a No. 5 hit; “Easy To Be Hard,” No. 4 from the musical ‘Hair’; and “Out In The Country,” No. 15….this last one I’d put in my all-time top 50.
–Finally, regarding the “Blurred Lines” verdict against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, my friend Ken P. and I agree with the likes of the Washington Post’s Chris Richards who writes:
“Will Madonna sue Lady Gaga? Will George Clinton sue OutKast? Will Prince sue Bruno Mars, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and umpteen-hundred others? And then will Little Richard sue Prince?
“These idiotic questions became frighteningly legitimate after a federal jury in Los Angeles ruled that singer Robin Thicke and producer Pharrell Williams had committed copyright infringement. The jurors decided that, yes, Thicke’s 2013 chart-topping single ‘Blurred Lines’ had copied elements of Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit ‘Got to Give It Up,’ and awarded Gaye’s family a walloping $7.4 million. The titles of the two songs in question could not have been more fitting.
“But it was the lack of detail on exactly which elements were copied that prompted a hard-swallow across all of popland on Tuesday night.
“The jury was instructed to make its ruling based on written melodies, chords and lyrics, not the sounds of the respective recordings. If that’s the case, how these eight jurors arrived at their verdict is incomprehensible. Yes, ‘Blurred Lines’ approximates the rhythm and timbre of ‘Got to Give It Up,’ but is that theft?…
“(While) ‘Blurred Lines’ might lack imagination, Thicke and Williams ultimately only seem guilty of stealing a vibe.
“And if Vibes are now considered intellectual property, let us swiftly prepare for every idiom of popular music to go crashing into juridical oblivion.”
Top 3 songs for the week 3/13/76: #1 “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” (The Four Seasons) #2 “All By Myself” (Eric Carmen…little boy learns to tie his shoes…) #3 “Love Machine” (The Miracles)…and…#4 “Take It To The Limit” (Eagles) #5 “Dream Weaver” (Gary Wright) #6 “Lonely Night (Angel Face)” (Captain & Tennille) #7 “Theme From S.W.A.T.” (Rhythm Heritage… ughh…) #8 “Love Hurts” (Nazareth…ditto…) #9 “Sweet Thing” (Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan…super tune…) #10 “Junk Food Junkie” (Larry Groce…yes, a novelty song, and no clue on how this one got to #9 a week later…)
NCAA Basketball Quiz Answer: 8-seed Villanova’s starting five and their field goal shooting for the game; the team shooting 78.6% from the field…22 of 28:
Dwayne McClain (5-7)
Ed Pinckney (5-7)
Harold Jensen (5-5)
Harold Pressley (4-6)
Gary McLain (3-3)
The starting five played all but nine minutes and took all 28 shots. Nova was also 22 of 27 from the foul line for coach Rollie Massimino.
John Thompson’s No. 1 ranked Georgetown Hoyas had David Wingate, Patrick Ewing, Bill Martin, Reggie Williams, and Michael Jackson. Horace Broadnax was also in the rotation. The Hoyas shot 29 of 53 from the field, but just 6 of 8 from the foul line as Georgetown was whistled for 22 fouls to Nova’s 12.
That Final Four also featured No. 3 ranked St. John’s (losers to Georgetown in the semis) and Memphis. It was the year of the Big East. The ACC had N.C. State, Georgia Tech and North Carolina all go down in the quarterfinals.
St. John’s had a great team…Willie Glass, Bill Wennington, Walter Berry, Chris Mullin and Mark Jackson.
Memphis, on the other hand, was led by coach Dana Kirk, who ended up in prison for tax evasion, while running a totally corrupt program. They eventually had to vacate their Final Four.
