[Posted Wednesday AM]
NFL Quiz: Name the six Washington Redskins quarterbacks with 10,000 or more yards passing in a Washington uniform. Answer below.
Mets 2 Dodgers 2
It’s back to Los Angeles for a deciding Game 5, the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw finally exorcising his postseason demons in pitching seven terrific innings of one run ball (one walk, 8 strikeouts) in a 3-1 win over the Mets Tuesday night at Citi Field. Rookie Steven Matz gave up all three runs in the third but was adequate in defeat.
Game 5, Thursday, Zack Greinke vs. Jacob deGrom….another dream matchup….but David Wright (1-for-12) and Lucas Duda (2-for-15) better hit or it’s season over for the Metropolitans…at least that’s my take.
But I have to recap Game 3 and put the issue of the elephant in the room to rest…for now.
After the hullabaloo over Chase Utley’s dirty “slide” that broke Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada’s leg, and talk of retaliation, the Mets got their revenge in the best way possible, storming back from an early 3-0 deficit to blast L.A. 13-7.
The Dodgers scored 3 runs in the second off Matt Harvey, who just wasn’t sharp but held the Dodgers to two earned in five innings, only to see the Mets score 10 unanswered for a 10-3 lead after four and it was ballgame over. Yoenis Cespedes and Travis d’Arnaud both went 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs.
Utley was held out of the lineup by manager Don Mattingly, despite the fact he had hit Harvey well in the past.
Tejada received a rousing ovation in the pregame introductions as he walked out onto the field, with the aid of a blue-and-orange Mets cane.
Cespedes said after: “We had a meeting in the batting cage before the game and were thinking along the lines, ‘Utley is not playing; what’s done is done. And we had to go out with the mentality to win and that’s how we kind of got back for [Tejada].”
Throughout the game, fans chanted “We want Ut-ley! We want Ut-ley!” As Tim Rohan of the New York Times put it, “It was the baseball equivalent of a crowd cheering for a bull to gore a matador.”
Major League Baseball had suspended Utley for two games, but he was allowed to play pending appeal, which isn’t going to be heard until after the NLDS.
Mets manager Terry Collins had specifically instructed Harvey not to throw at anyone, with Collins saying, “There’s a lot at stake here, and we cannot just give a game away to assure Ruben we’re going to back him up. He knows what we would do. We’ve done it several times this year, for everybody. But right now, this is a little different circumstance. When Matt Harvey gets ejected in the second inning tonight, we’re in trouble.”
Thomas Boswell / Washington Post
“It’s amazing how often baseball gets lucky. Now, the game has a chance to turn a bad incident into a good rule change – one that’s at least a century overdue.
“Finally, the vicious late takeout slide, which has put both infielders and base runners themselves at unnecessary risk for 150 years, can get its rightful burial if MLB and its players can agree on a new rule, as yet to be determined, that can turn the current mayhem at second base into tough but clean play.
“Whom should we thank? A hint: It’ll be called the Chase Utley rule.
“Utley’s slide that snapped Ruben Tejada’s leg like a stick Saturday night in Los Angeles was a dirty play to my eye, both the first time I saw it and the 20th. But the definition of dirty can be debated to eternity. Cal Ripken, who worked the game for TBS, thought the slide was within the definition of ‘hard play.’
“On Sunday night, MLB suspended Utley for two games – though he appealed and remained eligible to play, pending his hearing – but did so with an accompanying statement by Joe Torre, MLB’s chief baseball officer, which did everything except give Utley a hug and say, ‘Sorry to pick on you, Chase, after your fine career, but everybody’s doing it and we have to draw the line.’
“That’s the larger point: Everyone is doing it…..
“Torre has mentioned that MLB will speak with its union about rule changes. Here’s perhaps the simplest and most obvious starting point: The runner must not only slide so that he can touch the base as he passes it (as currently stipulated), but he must also hit the ground before he touches his foe.
“If MLB wants to go further and rewrite its rules so that the runner must hit the ground a yard before the base, then go for it. You can still do damage and induce fear – but not at the current level of mayhem. Make the play reviewable and rule the batter out, too, for a completed double play, to deter sinners.
“The double-play takeout slide, which endangers the brave hell-bent sliders themselves, can finally have the rule that it has always needed.
“Whatever the details of a new rule, it may reverse an ugly trend. In recent days, former players have claimed that the game was meaner and rougher in their good-ol’ days – chuckle, chuckle – with such slides as a perfect example. I would disagree. More players are now athletic and fast enough to execute more brutally dangerous takeout slides than in earlier times. Memory has simply exaggerated the dare-devilry of earlier days. This is exactly the era when a rule change is more needed than ever before.
“Ask yourself this: Are there more dazzling acrobatic ‘Web Gem’ plays in 2015 or in 1975? I promise there are far more now because more players are gifted enough to make them. The same is true of takeout slides that make middle infielders look like car-crash dummies.”
Brian Costa / Wall Street Journal
“In any sport, there are injuries that simply can’t be prevented. And even in baseball, which is less about physicality than football or basketball, some collisions are unavoidable. But it is not in MLB’s business interests to needlessly lose talent to injuries. And in that regard, Utley’s slide revealed a failure on two levels.
“The first was umpires’ inability to enforce a rule that already exists. The MLB rulebook states that if a runner ‘willfully and deliberately interferes with a batted ball or a fielder in the act of fielding a batted ball with the obvious intent to break up a double play, the ball is dead. The umpire shall call the runner out for interference and also call out the batter-runner because of the action of his teammates.’
“Meanwhile, another rule states that a batter is out when a preceding runner intentionally interferes with a fielder who is attempting to catch a thrown ball or throw a ball. It adds, ‘The objective of this rule is to penalize the offensive team for deliberate, unwarranted, unsportsmanlike action by the runner in leaving the baseline for the obvious purpose of crashing the pivot man on a double play, rather than trying to reach the base.’
“It is difficult to watch replays of Utley plowing into Tejada and not conclude that it constituted interference. People will call it a takeout slide, but Utley wasn’t sliding into second base. He wasn’t sliding at all, actually. He ran wide of second base by at least a foot, without so much as reaching to touch it. Then, with Tejada’s back turned to him as he spun to throw to first, Utley lowered himself just enough to undercut Tejada. ‘That’s not a slide,’ Mets outfielder Michael Cuddyer said. ‘That’s a tackle.’”
Meanwhile, Joel Wolfe, Utley’s agent, said his client, in appealing the two-game ban, described the punishment as “outrageous and completely unacceptable.” Wolfe told the Los Angeles Times’ Dylan Hernandez:
“Chase did what all players are taught to do in this situation – break up the double play. We routinely see plays at second base similar to this one that have not resulted in suspensions.”
It was late and not even a slide…period.
Finally, MLB Executive VP Joe Torre said in a statement:
“After thoroughly reviewing the play from all conceivable angles, I have concluded that Mr. Utley’s action warrants discipline. While I sincerely believe that Mr. Utley had no intention of injuring Ruben Tejada, and was attempting to help his club in a critical situation, I believe his slide was in violation of [an official baseball rule] which is designed to protect from precisely this type of rolling block that occurs away from the base.”
–Back to the Mets, as Jared Diamond (and others) have pointed out, the Bernie Madoff fiasco may have been a blessing in disguise for the Mets. “The Mets had no choice but to rebuild a winning team the old-fashioned way: by developing young talent through their farm system.”
Yes, it is a long process, and it has tried Mets fans’ patience. But here they are in the postseason with 15 homegrown players on their 25-man NLDS roster, tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for the most of any team that advanced to the division series. And Diamond notes that group doesn’t include Travis d’Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard, who began their careers in other organizations, but spent their formative years in the Mets’ farm system.
“So no matter how far the Mets go this month, at least they can say they got there not with pricey imports, but with born-and-bred Mets.”
Current GM Sandy Alderson, however, doesn’t deserve all of the credit. Former GM Omar Minaya, who ran the team from 2005 through 2010, drafted Mets starters Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz and Jon Niese, as well as Lucas Duda and Daniel Murphy.
Cubs 3 Cardinals 1…Cubs move on!
The Cubs took a 2-1 series lead on Monday with an 8-6 win over the Cardinals at Wrigley as Chicago clouted six home runs. Superstar Jake Arrieta was very ordinary for the Cubbies, 5 2/3, 4 earned, (though 9 strikeouts), but he received enough offense.
Then on Tuesday, the Cubs punched their ticket to the NLCS against the Mets-Dodgers winner, clinching their first postseason series at Wrigley Field in its history with a 6-4 win, the Cubs hitting three more home runs for nine in the last two games. The best pitching staff in baseball, that of St. Louis, yielded 6, 8 and 6 runs in the last three games, all losses.
One thing is for sure, the ratings for the NLCS should be very strong. Both the Mets and Dodgers, coupled with the Cubs’ story, makes for a super matchup in the biggest media markets in the nation.
Rangers 2 Blue Jays 2
With the Blue Jays having lost the first two of the series in Toronto, it was looking bleak for them as they went down to Arlington, Texas, for two with the Rangers.
But after opening the series 0-for-11, Troy Tulowitzki hit a three-run homer in the sixth on Sunday, 4 RBIs total, as the Blue Jays took Game 3.
Monday, Toronto evened things up at 2-2, with an 8-4 win behind Kevin Pillar’s 3-for-4, homer and 3 RBIs. What was kind of bizarre in this one, though, was R.A. Dickey pitched only 4 2/3, giving up just one earned, before David Price came in to replace him and Price, with all his postseason baggage, allowed 3 runs in 3 innings, which meant he wasn’t available to start Game 5.
So much for the guy who is going to finish first or second in the Cy Young Award voting, the other contender being Dallas Keuchel.
Clearly, Toronto didn’t want Price in Game 5, so the assignment instead goes to Marcus Stroman, who Ken P. reminded me is a Duke kid. Stroman is interesting in that he tore his ACL in spring training and as Ken noted, decided to return to Duke while rehabbing to finish his degree.
In Wednesday’s decider, it’s Stroman (4-0, 1.67, in his brief stint following rehab) vs. Cole Hamels (13-8, 3.65).
Astros 2 Royals 2
George H.W. and Barbara Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch on Monday in Houston as the Astros looked to wrap up their series against the Royals and move on to the ALCS. Houston had a 6-2 lead going into the eighth. It was party time.
But the Royals had other plans and took advantage of a critical error on a double-play ball by shortstop Carlos Correa (it took a tough hop, to cut the kid some slack), scored five in the eighth and two more in the ninth to win 9-6 and send the series back to Kansas City for Game 5 Wednesday night.
But I was watching the absolutely excruciating eighth and it went on and on and on…I heard later, 53 pitches! And the Houston pitchers took forever between throws…ughh.
So tonight it’s Colin McHugh (19-7, 3.89) for the ‘Stros vs. Johnny Cueto (11-13, 3.44) for the Royals. Cueto has struggled mightily his last month in K.C. after being acquired from the Reds at the trade deadline. This one will be interesting.
–We note the passing of 1964 Cy Young Award winner Dean Chance. He was 74 and died of a heart attack, according to his son.
In an 11-year big league career, the right-hander was 128-115 with a sterling 2.92 ERA. In ’64, while pitching for the Los Angeles Angels, he was 20-9 with a stupendous 1.65 ERA and 11 shutouts. In 278.1 innings he yielded just 194 hits. Chance was also a 20-game winner (20-14) for the Minnesota Twins in 1967.
Chance was known as a Yankee-killer, beating them 18 times. In ’64, when the Yanks were American League champions and lost only 63 games, Chance defeated them four times, shutting them out in three of them. In a fifth game against New York, he pitched 14 scoreless innings before a reliever lost the game in the 15th.
“Every time I see his name on a lineup card,” Mickey Mantle once told the sportswriter Maury Allen, “I feel like throwing up.”
Get this, as noted by Bruce Weber in the New York Times. In 50 innings against the Yankees in ’64, Chance gave up just 14 hits and one run – a homer by Mantle – for an ERA of 0.18. His overall ERA of 1.65 that season remains the second-best figure in the A.L. (behind Luis Tiant’s 1.60 in 1968) in more than 70 years.
Reportedly as a high school pitcher in West Salem, Ohio, Chance won 51 of 52 decisions, including 18 no-hitters.
But Dean Chance was also notable for being one of the worst hitters of all time. In 662 at-bats in the majors, he had just two doubles, no homers, and batted .066. This is the lowest figure in history for any one with at least 300 plate appearances. In those 662 official ABs, he fanned 420 times.
And he was a noted wingman for one of the game’s legendary night owls and ladies’ men, pitcher Bo Belinsky.
After retiring from baseball, among the many jobs Chance held was managing heavyweight boxer Earnie Shavers’ career. At one time Chance was president of the International Boxing Association.
NFL
–After I posted my last column, Eli Manning had a career game in a dramatic Sunday night win at MetLife Stadium, leading the Giants over the 49ers on a last minute pass to tight end Larry Donnell, who made a spectacular grab in the end zone with 21 seconds to play. Final: 30-27.
It was Manning’s 27th game-winning drive in the regular season, but his first since Dec. 22, 2013.
Eli had career highs in completions, 41 (a Giants record) and attempts 54, while throwing for 441 yards, the third-best total of his career. He is now up to 41,172 passing yards, moving him to 12th all time.
So the Giants, whose fans were in a deep state of depression after unbelievable fourth-quarter collapses in the first two games of the season, have now won three in a row and at 3-2 lead the highly mediocre NFC East.
—Quite a win for the Steelers (3-2) in San Diego Monday night. Pittsburgh’s Mike Vick engineered a 12-play, 80-yard drive in the final minutes and with five seconds left, down 20-17, had the ball inside the 1. That’s when Le’Veon Bell scored on a wildcat run as time expired. A gutty call by coach Mike Tomlin.
“It was time to go the mattresses, if you will,” Tomlin said. “We had to do what was required to win. Le’Veon gave us an opportunity to win, and we were trying to do everything we could to move the football.”
Bell had 111 yards on 21 carries.
San Diego rookie Josh Lambo had kicked a go-ahead, 54-yard field goal with 2:56 left to put the Chargers (2-3) up 20-17, and the NFL avoided another huge officiating embarrassment as for some reasons, following a touchback on the ensuing kickoff, 18 seconds ran off the game clock, which was visible on ESPN’s broadcast graphic, as well as a shot of the Qualcomm Stadium scoreboard as Vick jogged onto the field.
But Steelers coach Tomlin said he wasn’t aware of the clock error. Thankfully it didn’t change the outcome as the Steelers began their deciding drive with 2:38 left rather than what should have been 2:56.
–The following are still undefeated entering Week Six play:
New England (4-0), Cincinnati (5-0), Denver (5-0), Green Bay (5-0), Atlanta (5-0) and Carolina (4-0).
Detroit, on the other hand, remains the only winless team at 0-5. I can’t wait ‘til Thanksgiving and the matchup with the Eagles. Should be electrifying…must-see television.
Back to the undefeated bunch, of the 71 teams that started 4-0 or better since 1990, only 11 didn’t reach the layoffs.
–The Cowboys, heading into their bye week, are said to be ready to name Matt Cassel their starting quarterback over Brandon Weeden after three straight losses dropped them to 2-3. Tony Romo is out until Nov. 22 with his broken left collarbone.
Cassel had been acquired in a late-September trade with Buffalo. He’ll make his debut in Week 7 against the Giants.
–As if their 1-4 start wasn’t bad enough, the Kansas City Chiefs lost running back Jamaal Charles for the season with a torn ACL in his right knee.
–Update: Doctors are more optimistic that Giants tight end Daniel Fells, battling MRSA, won’t lose his foot. Like I said last time, this is so scary as doctors battle to keep the staph infection from spreading. He has had at least five medical procedures, with more scheduled.
—Despite the allegations of cheating within the two biggest fantasy sports companies, DraftKings and FanDuel, a record number of people entered tournaments for Sunday’s NFL games, according to an analysis from SuperLobby, an industry research firm. Together the two received 7.1 million entries to their guaranteed prize pool tournaments, generating some $43.6 million in entry fees. [Bloomberg News] Yours truly lost for a fifth consecutive week, but I will win it all this coming one. Ahem ahem….cough cough….
College Football
Some big games this week, highlighted by 10 Alabama at 9 Texas A&M; 8 Florida at 6 LSU; and 7 Michigan State at 12 Michigan.
But regarding the Florida-LSU game, Gators quarterback Will Grier has been suspended for one year for violating NCAA rules following a positive test for a performance-enhancing substance found in an over-the-counter supplement, according to coach Jim McElwain. The positive test carries an automatic suspension of one calendar year, meaning Grier won’t be able to return until Florida’s seventh game of the 2016 season, at which time he’ll have redshirt sophomore status.
Grier said during a Monday news conference, “I took an over-the-counter supplement that had something in it. I did not check with the medical staff before taking it. I hope that people can learn from this, learn from my mistake. I’m really sorry to everyone, just really sorry.”
Grier, a freshman from Davidson, North Carolina, had completed 65.8% of his passes for 10 touchdowns and 1,204 yards in Florida’s first six games. He was intercepted just three times.
Sophomore Treon Harris takes over. Harris started Florida’s final six games of the 2014 season, completing 49.5% of his passes for 1,019 yards, nine touchdowns and four interceptions. He was also suspended earlier in 2014 because of accusations of sexual battery, but was later reinstated after the allegations were withdrawn.
–As I wrote at the start of the season, this was likely South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier’s last season, but on Monday, he told his players and coaches that he was retiring immediately.
Spurrier is the Gamecocks’ all-time winningest coach, highlighted by three straight 11-2 seasons, 2011-13, three straight top-10 finishes, but then South Carolina fell to 7-6 last year and was off to a miserable 2-4 start, 0-4 in the SEC this campaign.
Spurrier coached South Carolina to an 86-49 record, having earlier spent 12 seasons at his alma mater, Florida, leading the Gators to the 1996 national championship and six SEC titles, while becoming that school’s winningest coach as well. He also had brief stints at Duke and the NFL’s Redskins.
Spurrier won the 1966 Heisman Trophy as Florida’s quarterback and played some in the NFL for San Francisco and Tampa Bay.
All in all, a fabulous career and life in the sport he loved, but as he put it Tuesday, “My answer has always been the same… If it starts going south, starts going bad, then I need to get out. …It’s time for me to get out of the way and give somebody else a go at it.”
–Meanwhile, the other S.C., USC out in Los Angeles, has a new interim coach for an entirely different reason as Steve Sarkisian was fired a day after the university put him on indefinite leave for a string of incidents related to alcohol abuse. Sarkisian has entered a rehabilitation program.
Gary Klein and David Wharton / Los Angeles Times
“Now the pressure is on Athletic Director Pat Haden, a former star quarterback at the school who has been criticized for not fully vetting Sarkisian before hiring him two years ago and for not taking more decisive action when the coach’s behavior began to erode.
“Haden, whose own job could be in jeopardy, will be searching for a brand-name coach for the university’s signature sports program as rumors swirl about likely candidates.”
The L.A. Times reported earlier Monday before the announcement of Sarkisian’s dismissal that he had alcohol issues while he was coach at the University of Washington for five season. A former Washington player said the coach had arrived at some morning meetings smelling of alcohol.
Golf Balls
–To close out coverage of the Presidents Cup competition, again, won by the U.S. 15 ½-14 ½, here are some of the overall records of key players.
Rickie Fowler: 1-3-0
Dustin Johnson: 3-1-0
Matt Kuchar: 0-2-1
Phil Mickelson: 3-0-1 [so he wasn’t a bad captain’s pick after all]
Jordan Spieth: 3-2-0
Bubba Watson: 2-1-2
For the International team:
Jason Day: 0-4-1!
Branden Grace (South Africa): 5-0-0 [Does he join the elite next year? He certainly played well in some of this year’s majors, with a T-4 in the U.S. Open and a third at the PGA Championship.]
Louis Oosthuizen: 4-0-1
Charl Schwartzel: 1-3-0
Adam Scott: 1-2-2
–Forgot to mention last time that 21-year-old Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick, who has made some waves in the British Open, as well as winning the 2013 U.S. Amateur, picked up his first European Tour victory in the British Masters at Woburn Golf Club last weekend, jumping him all the way up to 59th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
So add his name to the “Big Three plus Rickie”…along with Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger, Patrick Rodgers, Patrick Reed…oh, and Branden Grace…all 27 or younger.
Bryson DeChambeau, Ollie Schniederjans….
—NBC is picking up the British Open beginning in 2016, a year earlier than first thought, and part of a stretch where it will cover the Senior British Open and the Ricoh Women’s British Open in three weeks.
These three events are part of a 12-week stretch for the network that is rather attractive, including Men’s Olympic golf, all four FedEx Cup playoffs and then the Ryder Cup, as of course CBS, Fox and ABC/ESPN focus on the NFL and College Football.
See, I’m getting you to start thinking ahead…just as we do here in the home office. Basically, don’t bother me beginning, err, now, through the NFL Playoffs, March Madness, The Masters, the Stanley Cup Playoffs (but only if the Rangers are in it), the NBA Playoffs if Timmy D. and the Spurs are making another run, then the U.S. Open, baseball throughout, and, well, you get the picture. Following the Super Bowl, February can be a dull month if college basketball isn’t exciting. So maybe I’ll be free then.
This schedule applies through 2035, or until my death, whichever comes first.
–It’s not coming out until next summer, hopefully right before the British Open, but Jason Connery (Sean’s son) is directing a movie on the Tom Morrises of St. Andrews. The tale of “Young” and “Old” has triumph, tragedy, scandal, romance and a little golf – as in some superior golf, each winning four Open Championships from 1861-72.
“Tommy’s Honour” has been filming in a variety of locations across Scotland, with a town in the Scottish Borders area, Peebles, providing the “St. Andrews” street scenes. The Castle Course at St. Andrews became the Old Course. Musselburgh kept its identity. And the Wintervield course at Dunbar in East Lothian doubled for nearby North Berwick. The flick stars Scottish actors Peter Mullan and Jack Lowden as Old Tom and Young Tom. [John Huggan / Golf World]
Stuff
—CBS Sports has ranked all 351 Division I college basketball teams. To save you the suspense, Grambling State is No. 351.
Who is No. 1? North Carolina…Marcus Paige, Kennedy Meeks, Brice Johnson, Justin Jackson…
2. Kentucky 3. Kansas 4. Maryland 5. Virginia 6. Iowa State 7. Duke 8. Oklahoma 9. Wichita State 10. Gonzaga.
Wake Forest is No. 77. Boston College is, get this, 212! Yikes, Steve D.
Hey, Bryan J. Indiana is No. 13.
Mark R., Notre Dame is No. 20.
Jeff B., UConn is 16.
—Dave Meyers, the star forward on John Wooden’s last team at UCLA, died of cancer at the age of 62.
Meyers, a 6-foot-8 forward, led the team in scoring with 18.3 points a game and in rebounding with 7.9 per in his final season, helping the Bruins to a 28-3 record and the NCAA title when the Bruins defeated Kentucky 92-85 behind Meyers’ 24 points and 11 rebounds.
The Lakers selected him with the second overall pick in the 1975 NBA draft (behind David Thompson, who was drafted by Atlanta but ended up signing with the ABA’s Virginia Squires).
But shortly afterwards, Meyers was part of a blockbuster trade that had him going, along with Junior Bridgeman, Brian Winters and Elmore Smith, to the Milwaukee Bucks for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – already a three-time MVP – and Walt Wesley.
Meyers was solid in four seasons for the Bucks, averaging 11.2 points and 6.3 rebounds, but then he retired. His best season was 1977-78, when he averaged 14.7 points and 6.7 rebounds.
Dave Meyers was the brother of Ann Meyers Drysdale, also a star basketball player at UCLA who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993 and was married to the late Don Drysdale, the Baseball Hall of Famer.
–Former Laker Lamar Odom was found unconscious in a Vegas brothel and as I go to post is in critical condition at a Las Vegas hospital. Two women at the Love Ranch in Crystal, Nevada, found him face down and unconscious. When they turned him on his side, well, it gets kind of gross.
The owner, Dennis Hof, known for the reality show “Cathouse,” on HBO, said Odom had been taking herbal Viagra and had drunk part of a bottle of cognac since arriving, but had no knowledge of other drugs. Former wife Khloe Kardashian is at his side.
–Interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal by Rachel Bachman on bike helmet laws. Following is just a snippet.
“Helmets help prevent head injuries, so laws requiring cyclists to wear them would seem obvious.
“But many cycling advocates have taken a surprising position: They are pushing back against mandatory bike-helmet laws in the U.S. and elsewhere. They say mandatory helmet laws, particularly for adults, make cycling less convenient and seem less safe, thus hindering the larger public-health gains of more people riding bikes.
“All-ages helmet laws might actually make cycling more dangerous, some cyclists say, by decreasing ridership. Research shows that the more cyclists there are on the road, the fewer crashes there are. Academics theorize that as drivers become used to seeing bikes on a street, they watch more closely for them….
“WABA (Washington D.C., Area Bicyclist Association) argued that a mandatory, all-ages helmet law proposed in Maryland a few years ago would do more harm than good. The group cited a paper in the British Medical Journal that showed no noticeable drop in head injuries after enforcement of helmet laws in parts of Australia, Canada and New Zealand, but drops in cycling of between 20% and 44%. The study focused on the years leading up to and after the laws were passed. The Maryland bill died in committee.”
–So I see this headline in the Wall Street Journal, “Is Beer a Good Recovery Drink After a Workout?” and my immediate reaction is, of course it’s not. As Jim White, who owns a Fitness & Nutrition Studio chain in Virginia Beach, told the Journal’s Jen Murphy, “Beer only has about 14 grams of carbohydrates, so it would not be sufficient for recovery.”
But Nancy Clark, a sports-nutrition counselor in Newton Highlands, Mass., says it is OK to drink one post-workout beer, consumed responsibly and with water and some carbohydrates to refuel depleted muscles. But she emphasizes beer shouldn’t replace a post-workout meal.
I bring this up because the only thing that keeps me going during my annual half-marathon in South Carolina is the thought of the post-race beer. But I never thought this was responsible behavior. No, I’m quite irresponsible after, thank you very much.
–An extremely rare photograph of legendary outlaw Billy the Kid has emerged, only the second known photo of “The Kid,” real name Henry McCarty, thought to exist. The photo shows McCarty playing croquet with his gang of Lincoln County Regulators in late summer 1878.
As reported in the Daily Telegraph, “It was bought by collector Randy Guijarro for $2 from a California junk shop in 2010 and will now be sold by Kagin’s auctioneers for an estimated $5 million.”
Kagin’s David McCarthy said, “When we first saw the photograph, we were understandably skeptical – an original Billy the Kid photo is the holy grail of Western Americana.”
The photograph was owned by the descendants of Dan Dedrick, who was given the photo by his cattle rustling partner, Billy the Kid himself.
The only other known photograph of McCarty was sold for about $2 million in June 2011. Billionaire William Koch placed the winning bid on the first photo.
Billy the Kid, known in New Mexico as William Bonney, was shot dead at age 22 by lawman Pat Garrett in 1881, months after a jailbreak in which Kid reportedly killed two deputies.
–As Playboy’s circulation has dropped from 5.6 million in 1975 to about 800,000 today, and with porn being so easily accessible on the Net, the magazine has decided it will no longer publish photos of completely nude women. Said the company’s CEO, Scott Flanders: “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passe at this juncture.”
—Zimbabwe has decided not to charge Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer in the killing of the lion known as Cecil, saying that not only has it decided not to charge him but that he was welcome to return. The environmental minister said, “He is free to come, not for hunting, but as a tourist.”
On Monday the government said Palmer’s documentation for the hunt had been proper, after describing him back in July as a “foreign poacher.”
The trial of the professional hunter that was with Palmer, Theo Bronkhorst, has been postponed.
–A wolf hunt has begun in the French Alps. In 2014, an estimated 8,500 animals were killed by wolves, mainly in the Hautes Alpes and Provence area, and some farmers estimate they have lost around 10% of their flocks this year.
So the government has raised the limit on the number of wolves that can be culled in 2015 from 25 to 36. There are an estimated 300 wolves in the country. [BBC News]
My word of advice to the wolves is to form an alliance with the bears and launch a counteroffensive.
Top 3 songs for the week 10/15/66: #1 “Reach Out I’ll Be There” (Four Tops) #2 “Cherish” (The Association) #3 “96 Tears” (? (Question Mark) & The Mysterians)”…and…#4 “Last Train To Clarksville” (The Monkees) #5 “Psychotic Reaction” (Count Five…another great garage band tune…) #6 “Cherry, Cherry” (Neil Diamond) #7 “Walk Away Renee” (The Left Banke) #8 “What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted” (Jimmy Ruffin…terrific…) #9 “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (The 4 Seasons…easily one of their top five…in my all-time top 100…) #10 “You Can’t Hurry Love” (The Supremes…one of their three or four best…)
NFL Quiz Answer: Six Redskins QBs with 10,000 yards….
Joe Theisman 25,206
Sonny Jurgensen 22,585
Sammy Baugh 21,886
Mark Rypien 15,928
Billy Kilmer 12,352
Jason Campbell 10,860
Gus Frerotte 9,769
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
