Baseball Quiz: A.L. pitching…strikeouts. 1) Who led the A.L. in strikeouts the last two seasons (two different)? 2) Who is the last A.L. hurler to fan 300? Answers below.
MLB…Ball Bits [stats thru Tuesday’s play]
–Chicago Cubs phenom Kris Bryant has played 17 games and after hitting nine homers in spring training and then three more in AAA before being called up, has zero homers thus far, though he’s hitting .283 with 12 RBI and has 16 walks (.442 OBP).
–Who is Stephen Vogt? The 30-year-old A’s catcher, who has never been a full-time player, is hitting .358 with 7 homers and 25 RBI!
–The Angels, who I stupidly picked to be in the World Series against the Nationals, are 12-15. Mike Trout is hitting .302, but has just 15 RBI to go with his 6 home runs. It doesn’t help that Albert Pujols, hitting behind him, is at .239 with just 12 RBI.
But Tuesday night marked Angels catcher Carlos Perez’ major league debut and in the bottom of the ninth, he lined a game-winning, two-run homer over the left-field wall to lift the Angels to a dramatic 5-4 walk-off victory over the Seattle Mariners, snapping a four-game losing streak.
“There have been only four walk-off homers hit by players in their major league debut. The last to do it? Miguel Cabrera for the Florida Marlins against the Tampa Bay Rays on June 20, 2003.”
–I don’t blame Yankees manager Joe Girardi for bitching about the team’s travel schedule. For starters, everyone in the country is sick of seeing the Yanks on Sunday Night Baseball. [Then again right now my Sunday nights are taken up by “Game of Thrones” and “Mad Men”.]
But Girardi’s complaint is the Yankees played in Boston Sunday night, the game ended around midnight, then they had to travel to Toronto to play the Blue Jays Monday night, and he’s saying the Yanks should have had Monday off.
A big thing is these ESPN Sunday night games start at 8:00, not the 7:00 normal time, and that hour can make a difference.
So the Yankees decided to try something different and traveled to Toronto on game day so the players could stick to their regular sleep schedules, but New York lost to R.A. Dickey and the Blue Jays, Monday, 3-1.
The Yanks did come back on Tuesday for a 6-3 win over Toronto to move to 17-10. Jacoby Ellsbury is hitting .358, with 17 hits in his last seven games.
–The Brewers fired manager Ron Roenicke after a 7-18 start. He was replaced by Craig Counsell, who has gone 1-2 in his first three games.
Roenicke was 342-331 since taking over before the 2011 season. That first year he guided the team to a franchise-best 96-66 mark and a National League Central title, losing to the Cardinals in the NLCS.
Milwaukee was then 83-79 in 2012, 74-88 in 2013 and 82-80 last year.
But in firing Roenicke, GM Doug Melvin said, “Over roughly the last 100 games, we have not performed at the level that we should.”
Ain’t that the truth. Last August 19, the Brewers were 71-55, 2 ½ games up in the NL Central, only to go 11-25 the rest of the way to finish 82-80 and miss the playoffs. So they were really 18-43 the last 61. That, friends, is horrid.
[Milwaukee does have one thing going for it. At the Brewers’ Miller Park you can get a “Pulled-Pork Parfait”…comprising layers of mashed potatoes alternated with layers of pulled pork and topped with gravy and chives.]
–In the Dodgers’ 8-2 win over the Brewers on Tuesday, Zack Greinke moved his record to 5-0, 1.56 ERA.
And who is this Justin Turner guy? After three seasons with the Mets where he hit about .270 as a bench player, Turner busted out for the Dodgers last year and hit .340 in 288 at-bats. This season he’s hitting .333 in 45 ABs, with 4 homers and 10 RBI. As Ronald Reagan would have said, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’
–The Houston Astros have lost their last two to drop to 18-9, after winning 10 in a row, but still lead the AL West by six games over the Angels. Once again, 5’6” Jose Altuve is the spark plug. He won the AL batting crown last year with a .341 average and thru Tuesday is at .348 with 19 RBIs.
But if the Astros make the playoffs, they would be in line for the most dramatic two-season turnaround ever.
As the Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Futterman put it:
“This isn’t about ‘worst-to-first,’ something the 2013 Boston Red Sox, the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays and the 1991 Atlanta Braves have rendered largely passe. This is about absolutely wretched-to-first, something that hasn’t really been done….
“Since the major-league season stretched to 162 games in 1961, no team has gone from posting fewer than 60 wins to making the postseason within two years in a non-strike-shortened year. The Oakland a’s managed the trick from 1979 to 1981 but only had to play 109 games in 1981 because of a work stoppage.
“Looking at all of baseball history, only the 1912 Boston Braves and the 1937 Cincinnati Reds had a .364 winning percentage (the equivalent of 59 wins in 162 games) or worse and made the postseason two years later. “
Well, I’ll be keeping track of this one as the season progresses.
–The Washington Nationals’ Anthony Rendon finished fifth in the MVP voting last season after hitting .287 with 21 home runs and 83 RBI, a budding star in the league.
But he hasn’t played a game yet this year due to his recovery from a sprained MCL in his left knee, and now he’s been diagnosed with an oblique strain. And you know how those things can go. We may be talking another month before his return, when he had been scheduled to come back shortly.
But Rendon’s absence isn’t the only thing hurting the 13-15 Nationals these days, as on Tuesday, pitcher Stephen Strasburg left after three innings, complaining of discomfort under his right shoulder blade – though he said later he could have stayed in the game and pitched through it. This is obviously a potentially serious development.
–Boy, here is some trivia for you. The Mets’ Dillon Gee went five innings against the Nationals on Sunday and lost 1-0. But Gee set a Mets club record with his 51st consecutive start of 5+ innings, the previous record held by Dwight Gooden.
The 51 is also the longest current such streak in the majors! Dillon Gee! Who wudda thunk it?
—Pedro Martinez has written a new book, called “Pedro,” and in it he has this about Mike Piazza.
“By 1993, boy, could he hit. Like so many hitters that decade who found sudden success at the plate, he had added some weight and bulked up that lanky frame of his. His bat started to fly!”
As Mike Vorkunov noted for NJ.com… “Translation: Piazza was juicing.”
–When you read box scores every day, it’s no secret offense is down again. Last season the major league batting average of .251 was the lowest since 1972.
—Baseball America’s College Baseball Poll (May 4)
1. LSU
2. UCLA
3. Texas A&M
4. Louisville
5. TCU
11. UC Santa Barbara…The girls…on the beach…
13. Missouri State
14. Dallas Baptist
NBA Playoffs
–The Bulls beat the Cavs 99-92 in Game 1 of their series. LeBron had just 19 points on 9 of 22 shooting from the field. Yes, he had 15 rebounds and 9 assists, but he also had six turnovers.
–The Clippers, playing without injured Chris Paul, beat the Rockets 117-101 in Houston in Game 1. Blake Griffin had another triple-double (26 pts., 14 reb., 13 asst.), while the Rockets’ James Harden was held to 20 points, plus he had a whopping nine turnovers.
Chris Paul’s status for Game 2 isn’t known at this time.
–Golden State point guard Steph Curry won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award, beating out James Harden, with Curry receiving 100 of 130 first-place votes from a panel of writers and broadcasters (and one fan vote on the NBA’s website). Harden had 25 first-place votes and LeBron got five.
This is pretty amazing. Curry is the team’s first MVP since Wilt Chamberlain in 1960, when the Warriors played in Philadelphia.
For his part, Harden was clearly bitter. “It’s tough,” he told reporters, prior to Game 1. “But it’s the second round of the playoffs, I got more, better things to worry about and that’s the Clippers….
“It didn’t work out… I heard it and that was it. It was nothing.”
Harden did not congratulate Curry. Whereas LeBron James said, “I think it’s great that another kid born in Akron, Ohio can win an MVP.” Curry was born in Akron during the 1987-88 season while his father, Dell, played for the Cavaliers. James added, Curry’s award was “Well-deserved.”
–But Golden State lost Game 2 of its playoff series against Memphis, 97-90, with the Griz evening it up at 1-1 in the process. Curry was just 2 of 11 from downtown. Mike Conley had 22 for Memphis.
—Atlanta evened its series with Washington at 1-1 with a 106-90 win on Tuesday. The Wizards’ John Wall was out with a left-wrist injury but it appears he’ll be back for Game 3 in Washington.
–In an incredible move, Isiah Thomas was invited by Knicks/Liberty owner James Dolan to come back to New York and run the WNBA entrant, eight years after Dolan shelled out $11.6 million as a result of a sexual harassment suit filed against Thomas when he was running the Knicks.
“Isiah Thomas has been hired to be president of the Liberty. He was also given an ownership stake, pending approval by the WNBA’s Board of Governors.
“Of the Liberty. A women’s basketball team, headquartered at Dolan’s Garden, which on Oct. 2, 2007, was found in Manhattan’s Federal District Court to have endorsed Thomas’ decision to terminate Anucha Browne Sanders for spurning Thomas’ advances. That jury found that Thomas had created, and Dolan by his silence abetted, a ‘hostile work environment.’
“No need to put a token ‘allegedly’ in front of all that, by the way. Thomas and Dolan had their day in court. The court found them liable. And ‘hostile work environment’ was the scrubbed-up version of what Thomas was found to have done. Under that umbrella was a regular routine of Thomas calling Sanders ‘bitch’ and ‘ho,’ which makes you wonder what the Liberty’s organizational meetings are going to look like. And sound like….
“The Liberty, stocked with female Garden employees who, the first time around, enjoyed a ‘hostile work environment’ on Thomas’ watch. For eight years, Dolan and Thomas have spit on the rulings of the Federal District Court. Now they turn their salivary aim to the Liberty – and to their fans.
“If you expect them to start caring if you’re outraged, here’s something to ask yourself: Why would either of them possibly start now?”
Mayweather-Pacquiao Fallout
It was announced on Monday that Manny Pacquiao will undergo right shoulder surgery to repair a “significant tear” in his rotator cuff, according to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAtrrache, who was with Pacquiao at his Kerlan Jobe Orthopedic Clinic office in Los Angeles when he spoke to ESPN.com.
ElAttrache said Pacquiao will be out of action between nine months and a year, assuming the surgery and rehab go as planned.
ElAttrache has operated on the likes of Kobe Bryant, Zack Greinke and Tom Brady, as well as boxer Vitali Klitschko.
On Saturday night, Nevada State Athletic Commission officials refused Pacquiao’s request to take an anti-inflammatory shot in his shoulder in his dressing room. Francisco Aguilar, the chairman of the NSAC, said it was Pacquiao’s fault for not disclosing his injury sooner.
Promoter Bob Arum claimed the NSAC knew of Pacquiao’s injury shortly after it happened and that Top Rank filed the proper paperwork requesting Pacquiao be allowed to receive the shot because he had similar treatment during training. The shots had been approved by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
But the commission, according to Aguilar, was not told of Pacquiao’s injury until 6:30 p.m. PT on fight night.
“The medications he was taking were disclosed on his medical questionnaire, but not the actual injury,” Aguilar said after the fight. “This isn’t our first fight. This is our business. There is a process, and when you try to screw with the process, it’s not going to work for you.”
But the whole issue could truly explode in the Pacquiao camp’s face. As reported by the New York Daily News’ Christian Red and Mitch Abramson:
“By inaccurately completing a pre-fight medical questionnaire – when Pacquiao’s camp checked the ‘No’ box for a question about whether he had a shoulder injury – the boxer’s inner circle has sparked an investigation by the Nevada authorities, according to sources.
“ ‘Disclosure is a big thing for us, and honesty,’ Cisco Aguilar, the Nevada Athletic Commissioner chairman told the Daily News Monday. ‘The commission at some point will have to discuss (Pacquiao’s medical questionnaire)…. but they do sign that document under the penalty of perjury.’
“In addition to possible perjury charges looming, if a lawyer for Pacquiao signed the medical questionnaire, the lawyer might have a license issue. And there is case law that supports a possible class-action suit, where ticket holders could argue they didn’t get what was promised – had Pacquiao been 100% healthy, it could have been a more entertaining fight.
“To make matters worse… Sources told The News, however, that Pacquiao’s camp never informed USADA of the boxer’s shoulder injury, and that the two calls his camp made to USADA prior to the fight were inquiries into whether certain substances Pacquiao was considering using were prohibited or not….
“Aguilar said the commission refused the shot (Saturday) because it was too close to fight time and ‘you want the fighter to be in a natural state. You don’t want them to be masking the pain.’….
“According to Travis Tygart, the CEO of USADA, Pacquiao’s camp let the boxer down big time by failing to disclose the boxer’s shoulder injury….
“ ‘He didn’t get the medication that he otherwise could have used. You feel sorry that his team let him down the way that they did. His team either committed an egregious mistake, or their gamesmanship by not disclosing something that could give the opponent a tactical advantage – a shoulder injury – came back to bite them,’ said Tygart.”
On Tuesday, Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Bob Bennett said, “It’s not just the fact (Pacquiao) didn’t fill out the question completely, it was that he wasn’t honest and they didn’t tell us a month ago when he had the shoulder injury. They’re not obligated to, but two hours before the fight they wanted a shot that’s a painkiller, in essence. That put us in a very precarious position.”
Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit was indeed filed on behalf of two Nevada residents seeking more than $5 million from Pacquiao and his team for fraudulently concealing his injury.
For his part, Floyd Mayweather told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith in a text Tuesday that he would be open to fighting Pacquiao when he recovers from shoulder surgery, which of course flies in the face of Mayweather’s long-announced plan to hang it up after his final September fight.
Obviously, no way would that one be anywhere near as attractive from a money standpoint, and at this point, frankly, the topic bores me.
Golf Balls
—Tiger Woods said on Tuesday at his press conference at the Players Championship that his breakup with Lindsey Vonn, coupled with the anniversary of the death of his father, Earl, has led to a difficult week for him emotionally.
“It obviously does affect me,” Woods said, speaking of the breakup. “It is tough. I’m not going to lie about that. And on top of that, this time of year is really, really hard on me….
“I haven’t slept (for three days)…it’s just brutal on me. And then what happened on Sunday just adds to it.”
— Rickie Fowler and Ian Poulter are two of the higher-profile players on Tour, yet between them have just three wins (one for Fowler, two for Poulter).
So in an anonymous poll of tour pros conducted by Sports Illustrated and Golf.com, 24% of tour players thought Fowler was the most overrated on tour, and the same 24% said Poulter was. Coming in third was Bubba Watson with 12%, followed by Hunter Mahan at 8%.
To me it’s hard to say Watson is overrated when he’s got two Green jackets, while on the other hand, Mahan is definitely deserving of the label.
As to who is the most underrated…11% said ‘Me,’ and 11% picked Bill Haas, which I found a little surprising. 8% said Bubba Watson and 8% tabbed Jordan Spieth.
“What’s the Best Course on Tour?” 18% said Riviera, while Muirfield Village, Colonial, and Harbour Town all received 15%. Riviera is my favorite as a viewer.
Torrey Pines (North) and Las Colinas were rated the worst (15% each).
–We note the passing of Pete Brown, 80, who was the first African-American to win a PGA-sanctioned event, the 1964 Waco Turner Open. Brown also won the 1970 Andy Williams San Diego Invitational, coming from seven strokes back in the final round at Torrey Pines to pass Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin.
Brown learned the game as a caddie in Jackson, Miss. At 19 he contracted polio, from which he recovered after a year in a Detroit hospital.
—New York Rangers fans will be sweating profusely tonight, Wednesday, as the Rangers seek to bounce back, yet again, this time from a horrid 1-0 loss to the Capitals that has Washington up 2-1 in the series. [The lone goal on Monday was a total fluke.]
–The Champions League semis started Tuesday, with Juventus upsetting Real Madrid 2-1 in the first leg of that series, with Barcelona and Bayern Munich squaring off tonight in the other semi. Return matches are May 12/13.
–As part of the “$1.25 Ask The Slouch Cash Giveaway”….
Q: Could a potential Redskins draftee have defected to Canada to avoid the draft? (Bruce D., Frederick, Md.).
–From Fred Barbash and Justin Wm. Moyer / Washington Post
“They never ate anybody – but now, some of Planet Earth’s innocent vegetarians face end times. Large herbivores – elephants, hippos, rhinos, gorillas among them – are vanishing from the globe at a startling rate, with some 60 percent threatened with extinction, a team of scientist reports.
“The situation is so dire, according to a new study, that it threatens an ‘empty landscape’ in some ecosystems ‘across much of the planet Earth.’ The authors were clear: This is a big problem – and it’s a problem with us, not them….
“As if humanity’s bottomless appetite for land and meat weren’t enough, organized crime and the endless hunt for body parts from elephants and rhinos is also a major factor in Africa and southern Asia, the study said. Between 2002 and 2011 alone, the number of forest elephants in central Africa declined by 62 percent. Some 100,000 African elephants were poached between 2010 and 2012. And the western black rhinoceros in Africa was declared extinct in 2011.
“ ‘This slaughter is driven by the high retail price of rhinoceros horn, which exceeds, per unit weight, that of gold, diamonds, or cocaine,’ according to the study.”
The authors of the paper, “Collapse of the world’s largest herbivores” in “Science Advances,” a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, note that the slaughter and its consequences are not modest. “In fact, the rate of decline is such that ‘ever-larger swaths of the world will soon lack many of the vital ecological services these animals provide, resulting in enormous ecological and social cost.’”
Barbash/Moyer: “Herbivores, it turns out, don’t just idle about munching on various green things. They play a vital role as ‘ecosystem engineers,’ the paper said – expanding grasslands for plant species, dispersing seeds in manure, and, in the ultimate sacrifice, providing food for predators.
“ ‘The big carnivores, like the charismatic big cats or wolves, face horrendous problems from direct persecution, over-hunting and habitat loss,’ David Macdonald, an Oxford scholar and co-author, told the BBC, ‘but our new study adds another nail to their coffin – the empty larder. …It’s no use having habitat if there’s nothing left to eat in it.’”
And so if you were hoping ‘Man’ might move back up the All-Species List from his current 298, get over it. We blow. Basically always have, save for the ’69 Mets.
“A 43-year-old Hudson County man on the verge of regaining his freedom ended up right back behind bars on Sunday.
“Sirbio S. (Ed. leaving out last name) of Union City allegedly punched two corrections officers as he was being released from Monroe County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania, according to a report on PoconoRecord.com.
“He then resisted as the guards tried to restrain him….
“It’s not clear why (Sirbio) was in jail to begin with.”
[Yeah, I know. It’s a truism. Some guys just prefer life in prison. This may be one of ‘em.]
–“Dirtball of the Millennium” candidate…Chelsea’s John Terry. Dr. W. reminded me the other day that the footballer has had three known affairs with other players’ wives…that we know of…but he’s still captain?!
–On a much lighter topic, love the name Charlotte Elizabeth Diana…fourth in line to the throne.
“Charlotte, the feminine form of Charles, has a long royal pedigree and became popular in the 18th century when it was the name of George III’s queen.
“The King bought Buckingham House in 1761 for his wife Queen Charlotte to use as a family home close to St. James’ Palace – it became known as the Queen’s House and is now Buckingham Palace.
“Charles is the name of two former Kings and of the Prince of Wales, the princess’ grandfather.”
Charlotte is the 21st most popular girl’s name in England and Wales.
Elizabeth is 39th on the list but Diana is not in the top 100. Huh!
–“Avengers: Age of Ultron” opened with an estimated $187.7 million in the U.S. and Canada – the second-best domestic opening weekend ever – short of “The Avengers” (2012), which opened to a record $207.4 million.
Second-biggest in history was pretty darn good considering it was the weekend of Sportsmageddon.
59% of the audience of ‘Age of Ultron’ was older than 25.
“Furious 7” added $6.1 million in its fifth weekend, raising its domestic haul to $330.5 million, but its worldwide take is $1.4 billion.
Top 3 songs for the week 5/4/68: #1 “Honey” (Bobby Goldsboro…#1 five weeks) #2 “Cry Like A Baby” (The Box Tops) #3 “Young Girl” (The Union Gap featuring Gary Puckett)…and…#4 “Lady Madonna” (The Beatles) #5 “Tighten Up” (Archie Bells & The Drells…love this one…) #6 “I Got The Feelin’” (James Brown) #7 “Cowboys To Girls” (The Intruders…I remember…when I used to play shoot ‘em up (shoot ‘em up), bang bang, baby….) #8 “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” (Hugo Montenegro… means one thing… Clint was on the Big Screen!… contained one of the great Civil War battle scenes of all times…and I miss Lee Van Cleef!) #9 “A Beautiful Morning” (The Rascals) #10 “The Unicorn” (The Irish Rovers)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) David Price (Tampa Bay/Detroit) led the A.L. in strikeouts in 2014 with 271. Yu Darvish (Texas) led the league in 2013 with 277. 2) The last American Leaguer to fan 300 in a season was Pedro Martinez, 313, with Boston in just 213 innings.
