U.S. Open Tennis Quiz: 1) Name the five foreigners to win the men’s title between 1970-79 (five different champs). 2) Name the two foreigners to win the women’s title between 1980-89. Answers below.
MLB…The Diva…
—Mets fans and management are furious with both starting pitcher Matt Harvey and his agent Scott Boras as the two strongly hinted Harvey may shut himself down at 180 innings in his post-Tommy John surgery season; Harvey already being at 166 and the team in the midst of a pennant race that should end in the Mets’ first playoff appearance since 2006.
What has everyone fuming is how the issue came up out of nowhere on Friday and Saturday when the Mets have been especially careful with Harvey all season, holding him out of a start the other week to limit his innings so he would be available for the postseason, for example, while neither Boras nor Harvey said anything all year that would lead one to believe his season could in essence be over after the next two starts.
Harvey said on Saturday: “I hired Dr. Andrews to do my surgery, and I hired Scott, for a reason. That’s to prolong my career and get in the best possible position moving forward.”
Many Mets fans are already saying good riddance… trade the guy this offseason even though he doesn’t become a free agent until after the 2018 campaign, especially since Boras no doubt will be demanding top dollar when that time comes.
“Go ahead. Be mad. Be furious. Boil all of your venom and aim it all at Matt Harvey, who’s got it coming. Harvey has proven to be the worst kind of sporting phony – the fake tough guy, a fugazi in full, all talk and no action. Rip away.
“What, he thinks we forgot all the times this year when he rolled his eyes at all the times the Mets tried to curtail his activity in this first year back after Tommy John? He thinks we’ll have selective amnesia for all the times he scoffed at being held back from taking his turn as the Alpha-est Alpha male of all?
“He thinks we can forget what his manager, Terry Collins, has said of him all year – the way he’s marveled at his toughness, his resolve, his will. It was just last Wednesday when Collins said this of Harvey, in tones that were almost reverent:
“ ‘This is the time of year we’ve talked about, that he’s talked about. One of the things we had discoursed all summer long when all the innings things started to rear its ugly head, Matt said, ‘I’m pitching in the playoffs. If we get to the playoffs, I want to be able to pitch.’ In all the discussions we’ve had, he’s said, ‘Listen, I’ll do it but I’m pitching in October.’’
“My goodness, how fraudulent does that sound now? And look: We get it, all of us. Tommy John is a grind. It’s a major procedure. That’s why the Mets refused to let Harvey throw in real games last year (and today, right now, how many of you can possibly believe he meant it when he said he wanted to do that?).
“It’s why they’ve spent so much time preserving him this year, and enduring his Chuck Bronson nonsense whenever he bristled like a kid being kept in detention. If he’s hurting, then he should say that.
“If he’s worried he may be pushing things too far? Say that, too.
“Now is when he decides to usurp the attention of Mets fans, first sending out his messenger-boy agent to serve as a human trial balloon – and then, seeing that zeppelin savaged by the arrows of public scorn, admitting it’s his idea, too, to shut himself down at 180 innings, after letting the Mets believe – no! Letting them shout! – that he was going to be their October horse?….
“The Mets? They can act similarly upset, and you had better believe that Jeff Wilpon, never the biggest Harvey fan, will allow general manager Sandy Alderson to exile him in the winter in exchange for something the Mets really could use, a legit bat….
“Harvey has played this in the most inexcusable way possible. He’ll pay for it plenty. But it makes no sense not to make chicken salad out of the word that best describes Harvey’s behavior in all of this.”
“Down the road, we might look back on what transpired Saturday and realize Matt Harvey did the Mets a favor.
“The diva right-hander just made it 180 times easier for the Mets, ever aware of how their actions play on the streets, to do what they should have done, anyway, this coming offseason.
“Yes, it’s time to start working on a Harvey trade….
“(Harvey’s) personality didn’t magically become a problem overnight. Few have embraced celebrity and its many trappings as quickly as did Harvey, and with that has arrived a high-maintenance personality.
“Really, what’s most galling about Harvey’s change of heart – his 180, if you will – is that he led the revolt earlier this season against the Mets’ six-man starting rotation, a plan designed expressly to help manage the innings of Harvey and his fellow youngsters. Don’t hate on Boras for doing his job as player advocate. It’s Harvey who constructed the Tough Guy narrative, only to jettison it in crunch time.”
“Matt Harvey needs to know that if he eventually stops pitching for the Mets this season because of an arbitrary innings limit in his first season back from Tommy John surgery, then he will be remembered, for as long as he pitches around here, as the star Mets pitcher who quit on his stool because that’s what his agent told him to do….
“So apparently the idea here, from Harvey’s side of this, is that if the Mets pitch him past 180 innings, then they don’t have his best interests at heart. It is not only insulting to Sandy Alderson, the Mets general manager, in particular, it is a bit shameful. It is why somebody ought to ask Harvey a couple of questions, now that his gasbag of an agent does everything except hire a skywriter to tell people that the Mets are practically running some kind of sweatshop with Harvey:
“One: Who is the guy who wanted to rush back from Tommy John surgery last September, against the advice of just about everybody on the planet?
“Two: Which Mets pitcher was most resistant to the idea of the Mets going to a six-man rotation as a way of protecting him and getting him to the playoffs?
“Somebody, but probably not Scott Boras, should tell Harvey that a guy who wanted to pitch last September, and who didn’t want the Mets to go to a six-man rotation, looks like a gold-plated phony here, and a hypocrite.”
So this giant distraction isn’t helping matters as the Mets suddenly struggle, having lost 2 of 3* to the Marlins in Miami after Sunday’s crushing 4-3 loss. Tyler Clippard had his first poor outing as a Met, while New York failed to come through in the clutch at the plate.
*The Mets win was Saturday, as 42-year-old Bartolo Colon hurled a shutout, extending his scoreless innings streak to 25 in the Mets’ 7-0 victory.
Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals feasted on the godawful Braves, sweeping four games from what long ago was called ‘America’s team.’ [The Braves have lost a staggering 12 in a row, worst since 1988, and 19 of 20!]
The Nats have won five in a row and cut the Mets’ lead from 6.5 to 4 since Thursday. And now the Mets begin a critical 3-game series in Washington on Monday afternoon.
Mets 75-61
Nationals 71-65
Your editor does not have a good feeling, and it goes back to the disastrous collapses in 2007 and ’08.
–As for the Yankees and their race against the Jays, the amazing 21-year-old rookie Luis Severino won his third straight on Friday, 5-2 over the Rays. In six starts thus far,
Severino has thrown 35.1 innings with a 2.04 ERA to go along with his 3-2 mark.
But the Rays beat Nate Eovaldi (14-3, 4.20) 3-2 on Saturday; this as the Blue Jays were splitting their first two with the Orioles.
Then on Sunday…the Yankees won 6-4, A-Rod hitting his 28th of the season as New York beat Chris Archer in the process, while Toronto beat the Orioles 10-4 to stay in the lead in the A.L. East.
Toronto 78-58
New York 76-59…1.5
–The struggling Pirates are playing in St. Louis Sunday night, a full 6.5 games back. At 80-54 overall, the Bucs are 58-21 outside their division, but 22-33 within it, including a 3-game sweep at the hands of the Brewers in Milwaukee last week.
I heard a great stat concerning the Pirates on the Mets’ broadcast the other day. Since former first baseman Randall Simon, then of the Pirates, clocked one of the Brewers’ sausage mascots with a bat in 2003, the Pirates are 29-78 in Milwaukee.
–The Cubs’ Jake Arrieta followed up his no-hitter with eight scoreless on Saturday in Chicago’s 2-0 win over Arizona, Arrieta improving his record to 18-6, 2.03.
–Thursday night, Washington’s Bryce Harper saw 20 pitches, including four strikes, and never swung the bat. He drew four walks and scored four runs, driving in one.
So, again, he did not swing the bat all night and scored four runs, the first player to accomplish this since 1914. The Nats beat the Braves in the game 15-1.
–Wednesday night, Clayton Kershaw spun another masterpiece, striking out 15 in a 2-1 win over the Giants, throwing a career high-tying 132 pitches for his third complete game of the season. He hiked his strikeout total to a career best 251 – the first Dodger to surpass 250 since Sandy Koufax in 1966.
In his last ten starts, Kershaw is 7-0 with an ERA of 0.90. In 80 innings, he has walked seven and struck out 104.
–The Tim Lincecum era is over in San Francisco. The 31-year-old righthander underwent surgery on his left hip and there is little chance the Giants will bring him back as his current two-year contract is expiring and his performance has been declining for some time.
Lincecum was just 32-38, with an awful 4.76 ERA from 2012-14, and then was 7-4, 4.13, before being shelved end of June. [He did throw no-hitters in both 2013 and ’14.]
But he was a back-to-back winner of the Cy Young Award in 2008 and ’09, and Giants fans will forever remember his heroics in the 2010 postseason as he went 4-1, including outdueling Texas ace Cliff Lee twice as the Giants picked up the first of what would be three World Series titles in five seasons.
Yes, it would seem the Freak’s twisting motion and once explosive fastball did him in, which was pretty predictable in hindsight.
–The Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell points out that 117 of 118 baseball pundits selected the Nationals to win the N.L. East. [The other picked the Marlins.]
–ESPN announced that former Olympic softball player Jessica Mendoza will be joining Sunday Night Baseball for the remainder of the season, effectively replacing Curt Schilling, who was removed by the network from a Little League World Series broadcast after a controversial tweet. Schilling was wronged.
College Football
[Folks…as I say every year in covering this sport and the NFL, I am in no way attempting to mention every game, but I am keeping a running history of what’s important…as well as covering my own parochial interests.]
—Temple stunned Penn State 27-10, the first win for the Owls over the Nittany Lions in 74 years, Penn State going 38-0-1 since 1941 with a 1950 7-7 tie being the only time the Owls didn’t lose. 69,176 showed up at Lincoln Financial Field and the locals were rewarded.
—FCS school Portland State defeated Washington State in Pullman, 24-17, the first win in 15 tries vs. a Pac-12 team for them. It was the Cougars’ first loss to an FCS school in 20 outings.
–The South Dakota State Jackrabbits beat the Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence, 41-38, as Kansas muffed a spike prior to a potential tying field goal attempt. Not a good debut for Coach David Beaty.
—Texas A&M upset 15 Arizona State 38-17.
—3 Alabama beat 20 Wisconsin at home 35-17.
—7 Oregon beat Eastern Washington 61-42, as Vernon Adams Jr. was 19/25, 246 yards and two touchdowns against his old school.
—Malik Zaire passed for 313 yards in his first home start as No. 11 Notre Dame held Texas to 163 yards of total offense in a 38-3 victory Saturday night. Zaire was 19 for 22 passing, an 86.6% completion rate that was second-best in school history.
Texas, coming off a 6-7 season, suffered its third straight blowout going back to last fall’s 48-10 loss to TCU and 31-7 drubbing at the hands of Arkansas.
—BYU suffered a crushing blow, losing star quarterback Taysom Hill to a season-ending foot injury in the Cougars’ 33-28 win over Nebraska in Lincoln. Hill was expected to be a strong Heisman Trophy candidate. He went back into Saturday’s game despite the fact he had suffered a Lisfranc fracture, which is as bad a football injury as you can have. The senior ends up having only one healthy season, 2013, when he accounted for 4,282 yards and 29 touchdowns. Last year he was limited to five games because of a knee injury.
23 Boise State held off visiting Washington 16-13.
4 Baylor blasted SMU 56-21 as quarterback Seth Russell threw for 376 yards and five touchdowns.
2 TCU was far from impressive in defeating Minnesota in Minneapolis, 23-17, as Heisman hopeful Trevone Boykin had a very ordinary game at QB for the Horned Frogs…26/42, 245, 1-1.
6 Auburn defeated visiting Louisville 31-24.
Northwestern upset 21 Stanford 16-6. I watched a lot of this one and was shocked by how awful the Cardinal looked.
Pitt barely survived Youngstown State, 45-37. Star running back James Conner had 77 yards on 8 carries with two touchdowns before leaving with a minor injury. His replacement, redshirt-freshman Qadree Ollison, rumbled for 207 yards on 16 carries, the highest ever for a Pitt running back in their debut. Star receiver Tyler Boyd served out his one-game suspension for some bad behavior in the offseason (DUI). Pitt’s quarterback play was awful.
—Fordham shocked Army, 37-35, the Rams first win in five games dating back to 1891.
Thursday, South Carolina beat North Carolina 17-13 in what many believe is Coach Steve Spurrier’s final season.
Michigan lost to Utah in Salt Lake City, 24-17, in Jim Harbaugh’s debut for the Wolverines. The fans are going to have to be patient, but they have the right man to turn things around.
Wake Forest whipped Elon, 41-3, outgaining the Phoenix 591-151. The Deacs are playing a ton of freshmen. Next up Syracuse…then Army and Indiana. Ergo, the Deacs could conceivably be 3-1 or even 4-0, but then lose their last eight, though I’m jumping way ahead of myself.
—Then there is Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights rolled over Norfolk State 63-13, but before the game, five players were kicked off the team after being arrested: one accused of two armed home invasions and the other four charged in an assault that left a student with a broken jaw.
Additionally, coach Kyle Flood is being investigated for potential impermissible contact with a faculty member, ironically involving the academic standing of one of the players later arrested.
Steve Politi of the Star-Ledger is suggesting Rutgers fire Flood and re-hire former coach Greg Schiano, who flamed out in the NFL after turning the Rutgers program around. It’s not a bad idea. Schiano is acting like no way he would do this, but he would if Rutgers dumped their godawful athletic director, Julie Hermann.
–Monday night, it’s Ohio State at Virginia Tech and we get to see the two-headed quarterback monster for the Buckeyes – J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones. The other QB, two-time Big Ten player of the year Braxton Miller, voluntarily moved to receiver.
And we get to see running back Ezekiel Elliott for the first time since his amazing stretch to close out Ohio State’s national championship title run…220 yards in the Big Ten Championship Game; 230 yards in the College Football Playoff semifinal against No. 1 Alabama; and 246 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-20 trouncing of No. 2 Oregon.
–Finally, a high school football player in Louisiana died Friday night after he was injured on a punt return. Franklin Parish High sophomore Tyrell Cameron was wheeled off the field on a stretcher and taken to the emergency room. It was reported he broke his neck.
—Sports Illustrated is picking the Ravens to win the Super Bowl over the Seahawks. [Ravens over Broncos in AFC Championship Game; Seahawks over the Eagles in the NFC.]
What is depressing is that the SI wrap-up has both the Jets and Giants finishing 5-11. If this proves to be the case, it will be most depressing around here.
All the more reason for the Mets and Yankees to keep it going for as long as possible, right Tri-State Mets/Jets, Yankees/Giants fans?!
–I followed the Tim Tebow / Eagles saga pretty closely and after his decent performance in the last exhibition game, I thought he’d stick as the team’s third quarterback, but he was cut.
“We felt Tim has progressed, but we didn’t feel he was good enough to be the (No.) 3 right now,” Eagles Coach Chip Kelly said.
What made it surprising is the Eagles had traded Matt Barkley to the Arizona Cardinals the day before, so the Eagles were left with just Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez as their quarterbacks prior to picking up former Univ. of Miami QB Stephen Morris off the waiver wires.
Tebow tweeted his thanks to Kelly and the organization. He last appeared in an NFL regular-season game in December 2012.
–Among the other high-profile players that were cut were receivers Reggie Wayne (Patriots) and James Jones (Giants).
—The Giants also cut popular punter Steve Weatherford, but held onto fullback Nikita Whitlock of Wake Forest! Whitlock was the terrific, undersized defensive tackle for the Deacs who decided he’d turn himself into a fullback in order to have a shot in the NFL and the Giants have actually been using him at both, as well as special teams.
Plus the other team occupying MetLife Stadium, the Jets, kept another Wake fullback, Tommy Bohanon. [And former Wake receiver Michael Campanaro made the Ravens, while wideout Chris Givens is sticking with the Rams. Givens supposedly has looked great thus far. Maybe a breakout year is coming for him.]
–As for DeflateGate, Judge Richard Berman overturned NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s four-game ban of Tom Brady after I posted last Bar Chat, so Tom Brady is in full prep mode for next Thursday night’s NFL opener against the Steelers at Gillette Stadium.
Brady said in a post on Facebook, “While I am pleased to be eligible to play, I am sorry our league had to endure this. I don’t think it has been good for our sport – to a large degree, we have all lost.”
Then on Sunday, he made his first comments to the press since his Feb. 2 Super Bowl MVP news conference, expressing sympathy for equipment assistant John Jastremski and locker room attendant Jim McNally.
“It’s been a very tough situation for everybody. It’s put a lot of stress on everybody’s families, Brady said. “I feel bad that anybody is in the position that we’ve been put in. Hopefully we can just keep learning from life’s experiences, and I certainly feel terrible for them that they’re not able to be with us right now.”
What a jerk. Jastremski and McNally are banned from working for the Patriots until they are cleared by the NFL.
And as the New York Post’s Bart Hubbuch put it, eventually Brady is going to have to supply some answers to some simple questions.
3. Why did you give Jim McNally autographed merchandise?
5. Why did you not speak to the media for seven months after the Super Bowl?
“Ah, Roger, being king isn’t what it used to be.
“The NFL’s unionized vassals have struck yet another legal blow at their overlords. Judge Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan pushed questions of deflated balls and texts and a destroyed cellphone to the side Thursday. He ruled that the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, who is fond of acting as judge and jury, cannot make up legal procedure as he goes along.
“The words ‘fundamentally unfair’ appear in Berman’s decision, accompanied by a chaser of ‘inadequate’ and ‘improperly denied.’ Goodell, the judge noted, tried to dispense ‘his own brand of industrial justice.’
“The commissioner and the NFL once again behaved with arrogance cubed. For seemingly the 149th time in the past half-decade, a federal judge has ruled that this management culture of disdain is at odds with legal rules of fair play.
“A district court, the judge wrote, will not ‘countenance, much less confirm, an award obtained without the requisites of fairness or due process.’
“The judge’s decision offers no exoneration for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady… For months, Brady piled the unlikely atop the improbable excuse until the edifice threatened to tumble down atop him. The text messages of the Patriots’ clubhouse men – one of whom dubbed himself the Deflator – and the quarterback’s sleep-with-the-fishes insistence on destroying his cellphone just before his interview with league investigators: These actions would rouse a sleeping man to a sudden state of deep suspicion.
“Brady and his forever scheming coach, Bill Belichick, will not serve as poster boys for a League Innocence Project. The Patriots are a too-clever-by-half franchise, expert at the semi-dirty trick. For now, however, let’s forget these perhaps not entirely trustworthy gentlemen….
“Berman found Goodell failed in his elementary duty to make clear to Brady what the consequences might be if Brady refused to cooperate with investigators. Then Berman examined Goodell’s reasoning that deflating a football was an offense equivalent to imbibing steroids and found it cracked.
“This court, Berman noted, ‘is unable to perceive’ a comparison between taking performance-enhancing drugs and a ‘general awareness’ that a clubhouse man might have let air leak out of a football.”
“Judge Richard M. Berman turned Roger Goodell’s desk over and spilled its embarrassingly sparse contents onto the floor. Goodell’s imperious conduct, faulty reasoning and vanity-driven clutching at authority in the Tom Brady case were all exposed…. Lesson to first-year law students: Collective bargaining agreements don’t give an NFL commissioner the right to act like a petty prince….
“All in all, it’s a portrait of total incompetence by Goodell, who nonetheless announced his intention to keep pursuing the case, saying, ‘We will appeal today’s ruling in order to uphold the collectively bargained responsibility to protect the integrity of the game.’ Now he’s truly rolling the dice out of desperation to recoup what he has lost. He’s hoping a Second Circuit appeals court will find for him on the narrowed possible procedural grounds: that arbitration shouldn’t be overturned even with idiotic errors committed by a tyrant….
“The man does not belong in his post. That’s clear now. Goodell has proved to be an entitled legacy hire lacking in intelligence or real-world experience. Berman’s impeccably neutral language in his decision serves only to highlight Goodell’s shortcomings as a leader who can manage complex situations…. Goodell’s one and only job is to arbitrate quarrels with reason and dispassion so as to instill public confidence in the league. He has totally failed.”
U.S. Open
The past few days the big upset in Flushing Meadows was 8-seed Rafael Nadal blowing a two-set lead to 32nd-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy (3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4) in the third round Friday night, a match ending at 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Nadal had never lost a Grand Slam match when taking a two-set lead – a 151-0 record.
So Nadal’s year in terms of the majors is over and he goes winless in the big ones for the first time in 11 years, having won a Grand Slam title 10 consecutive years, 2005-2014, the longest in men’s history. Roger Federer (2003-10), Pete Sampras (1993-00) and Bjorn Borg (1974-81) are next at 8 each.
[The timing of the Nadal / Tommy Hilfiger underwear commercial looks stupid as well.]
On the women’s side, Venus Williams, 35, will meet sis Serena, 33, in a Tuesday night quarterfinal, after both prevailed in their matches on Sunday. Serena is 15-11 against Venus.
Golf Balls
–This is the week in the PGA Tour season where we have a Monday finish due to Labor Day, and so in the second round of the FedEx Cup playoffs, the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Mass., Henrik Stenson has a one-shot lead over Rickie Fowler after three.
Jason Day is nine back, having shot his first over-par round in Sunday’s third since June 21st.
Jordan Spieth missed his second straight cut, while Rory McIlroy is not a factor.
–Forgot to mention the good job by 46-year-old part-time PGA Tour journeyman Dicky Pride, who last week won a Web.com Tour event, his first Tour-sanctioned win since the PGA Tour’s 1994 FedEx St. Jude Classic…yes 21 years ago. Pride thus earned a card on the Big Boys Tour for 2015-16. I saw a lot of him at Q-School, way back when I followed Bill Haas for six days, and Pride seemed like a good guy. Gotta admire his perseverance. [Of course it’s all about preparing for the Champions Tour for him.]
Speaking of Champions Tour, yes, I’ve seen my old ‘friend’ Carlos Franco has begun his career on same…playing decently early on. For new readers, it’s a long story but the bottom line was I took a trip to his home of Paraguay in 2004 to meet with him and he blew me off…this was about ten days after the 2004 Q-School…and I was telling Bill Haas’ mother about my upcoming trip. I wonder now, as she follows hubby Jay, if she faintly remembers this today seeing Carlos on tour….probably not.
1. Florida State
2. Texas
3. Illinois
4. LSU
5. Stanford
18. Wake Forest
Maverick McNealy, junior, Stanford, is the No. 1 ranked player, followed by Jon Rahm, senior, Arizona State, and Bryson DeChambeau, senior, SMU.
Wake sophomore Will Zalatoris is on the second team of ten. Wake also has the No. 6-ranked freshman, Cameron Young.
1. Duke
2. Stanford
3. USC
4. Arkansas
5. UCLA
13. Wake Forest
—American Pharoah will close out his career in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Oct. 31, at Keeneland. Owner Ahmed Zayat announced Thursday that despite the shock of the second-place finish in the Travers Stakes, after a lengthy meeting with the team they decided Pharoah deserves another chance.
Zayat said the colt came out of the Travers in great shape and that everyone from trainer Bob Baffert to jockey Victor Espinoza believes “there were a combination of factors that prevented American Pharoah from running his absolute best…I have every confidence that he can run to his best again, and he deserves the chance to do so,” said the owner.
Well, this will be fun. Keen Ice, who defeated Pharoah in the Travers and finished second to him in the Haskell, will be part of a very deep, international field for the $5 million purse. [Remember, older horses race in this one, too.]
–England striker Wayne Rooney equaled Sir Bobby Charlton’s scoring record at 49 goals for his country, Rooney scoring in a 6-0 win in San Marino as part of Euro 2016 play. Tottenham’s Harry Kane also scored, his first goal of the season in competition.
From the Sydney Morning Herald: “A man has been attacked by a shark at a beach on Hallidays Point (on the New South Wales coast)….
“ ‘Information from paramedics at the scene suggests the man has a severe injury to his lower leg, a spokesman for NSW Ambulance said….
“Late last month the carcass of a dolphin washed to shore on a beach at Hallidays Point after apparently having been attacked by a shark….
“Two surfers have died and two have been severely injured in attacks in northern NSW waters in the past 11 months.”
Director of Shark Attacks Bob S. reported on another attack, this one off Malibu on Saturday, as a 25-year-old kayaker was attacked about a mile off shore, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
The victim was stupidly dangling his feet in the water, fishing for sharks, when one bit him. It was reportedly a 10-foot hammerhead, which is interesting because there have been a number of hammerhead shark sightings off La Jolla recently.
The guy was on the national news Sunday night and will survive.
–From W8TV (Seminole County, FL): “Trappers have captured and killed a more than 300-pound alligator that bit off most of a woman’s arm Saturday afternoon as she swam in the waters of the Wekiva River….
“The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said (the woman’s) arm was torn off above her elbow, and she was also bitten on her back and her abdomen.”
Two kayakers came to her rescue and luckily she made it to Orlando’s Regional Medical Center. No update on her condition.
–As reported by the Moscow Times, a joint team of Russian and South Korean scientists are working in a lab in Russia’s northern republic of Sakha to revive the past and clone mammoths.
But it seems as if the science is still decades away and I’ve been saying in that other column I do that Putin will be removed in a coup long beforehand.
The lab where the work is being done does possess “some 2,000 frozen samples of ancient animals… Some of them are tens of thousands of years old, like the notorious Malolyakhovsky mammoth discovered in 2013, which is estimated to be more than 28,000 years old.”
The samples are mostly from the permafrost zones in Sakha.
—Dean Jones died. He was 84. Jones starred in a number of Disney films such as “The Love Bug,” “The Million Dollar Duck,” “The Shaggy D.A.” and “That Darn Cat!” He also appeared on Broadway, including the successful “Under the Yum-Yum Tree.”
–Sports Illustrated’s “Sign of the Apocalypse”: Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly paying $30,000 for a life-sized wax figure of himself for his home.
Top 3 songs for week 9/2/78: #1 “Grease” (Frankie Valli…he’s not proud of this one…but then he earned a lot of cash off it and at the end of the day…) #2 “Three Times A Lady” (Commodores…another big slow dance song at Wake in my day…which means I have to move on…we have children reading this…) #3 “Boogie Oogie Oogie” (A Taste of Honey)…and…#4 “Hot Blooded” (Foreigner… really a crappy song…but big hair groups were getting hot…) #5 “Hopelessly Devoted To You” (Olivia Newton-John) #6 “Miss You” (The Rolling Stones…I know a lot of you liked this Stones’ era…I’ll always prefer the ‘Hot Rocks’ one…) #7 “Kiss You All Over” (Exile…kids, you really need to go to bed…ask your father to read “A Charlie Brown Christmas”…Charlie to Linus: “I think there must be something wrong with me….”…) #8 “An Everlasting Love” (Andy Gibb…you know, this one isn’t totally awful, given the overall lousy era…) #9 “Magnet And Steal” (Walter Egan…no relation to Johnny Egan, who played with multiple teams in the NBA from 1962-72… Bazooka Joe says: “Johnny played his college ball at Providence!”…) #10 “Shame” (Evelyn “Champagne” King…also not awful…)
U.S. Open Tennis Quiz Answers: 1) Foreign men’s champs 1970-79: Ken Rosewall, Australia (1970); Ilie Nastase, Romania (1972); John Newcombe, Australia (1973); Manuel Orantes, Spain (1975…his only GS); Guillermo Vilas, 1977 (Argentina). 2) Foreign women’s champs 1980-89: Hana Mandlikova, Czechoslovakia (1985); Steffi Graf, Germany…W. Germany (1988-89).
If you were wondering about Martina Navratilova, yes, she was Czech, but she became a U.S. citizen in 1981 and won her first Open title in 1983.
I’m just wondering where the years have flown by…I remember Mandlikova distinctly, let alone Nastase’s triumph. Those were interesting times…Cold War and all.
