[Posted early Sunday PM]
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NHL Quiz: The other day, the Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin scored his 30th goal of the season, making him just the third player in NHL history to score at least 30 goals in each of his first 11 seasons. Who are the only two others to accomplish this? Answer below.
College Basketball Review
–Since the last chat…on Wednesday, San Diego State suffered its first Mountain West loss, 58-57, at Fresno State. The score was tied at 50 with five minutes to play so their streak of winning games when they are leading with five minutes to play stayed intact.
–Thursday, Indiana defeated 4 Iowa 85-78, while California blasted 11 Oregon 83-63.
–Then on Saturday….
No. 1 Villanova (22-3, 12-1) defeated struggling St. John’s (7-19, 0-13) 73-63.
Wisconsin (16-9, 8-4) upset 2 Maryland (22-4, 10-3) in College Park, 70-57, in a contest that should remove any doubt whether Wisconsin is still on the bubble.
In their highly anticipated rematch, 6 Kansas (21-4, 9-3) beat 3 Oklahoma (20-4, 8-4) in Norman 76-72 to stay in a first-place Big 12 tie with….
10 West Virginia (20-5, 9-3), which manhandled visiting TCU (11-14, 2-10) 73-42.
Duke (19-6, 8-4) will return to the top 25 after its upset of 7 Virginia (20-5, 9-4), 63-62 on a Grayson Allen leaner at the buzzer down in Durham..
Stanford (12-11, 5-7) handed 11 Oregon (20-6, 9-4) its second straight defeat, 76-72.
Notre Dame (18-7, 9-4) beat 13 Louisville (19-6, 8-4) 71-66, as the Cardinals fall to 1-2 since the announcement of their self-imposed ban on postseason play.
LSU (16-9, 9-3) vastly improved its chances of getting an NCAA bid with a defeat of 15 Texas A&M (18-7, 7-5) 76-71.
My “Pick to Click” San Diego State (19-7, 12-1) rebounded from that first Mountain West loss to defeat Air Force (12-14, 3-10) 70-61. Malik Pope had a great game off the bench (13 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists) as he is suddenly becoming a key factor.
And then there is Wake Forest. Did I graduate from this otherwise fine institution? Can we talk about Wake Forest golf, instead?
The Deacs lost their tenth straight and are now 10-15, 1-12 in ACC play, after a 99-88 defeat to North Carolina State (13-12, 3-9) in Raleigh. I was reading a column by Dan Collins of the Winston-Salem Journal and Wake has given up 50 points in the second half five times this season, as was the case Saturday. The Wolfpack scored on 16 of their last 18 possessions as Cat Barber went off for a career high 38 points, 17 of 20 from the free throw line. Wake was called for 32 fouls, to NC State’s 18.
As the beat writers have been reduced to writing, ‘What else is there to say?’ It’s an implosion of near-mythic proportions after such a promising start to the season. We were 9-3 heading into league play with a lot of good wins.
–Sunday….
9 North Carolina (21-4, 10-2) shot 59.3% from the field in defeating Pitt (17-7, 6-6) 85-64.
8 Michigan State (21-5, 8-5) dispatched of Indiana (20-6, 10-3) 88-69.
—Monmouth (21-5, 13-2) saved its NCAA tourney chances (if it doesn’t win the MAAC tournament) in beating Rider (10-16, 6-9) in the final seconds Friday night, 79-78, on a Justin Robinson three-pointer.
NBA
–No, I didn’t watch a single minute of the NBA’s All-Star weekend festivities. In these parts, the big story is whether the Knicks trade Carmelo Anthony before the Feb. 18 deadline. There have been rumors of a three team trade with Boston and Cleveland that would send Melo to the Cavs, Kevin Love to Boston and draft picks to the Knicks. I’ve had no problem with how Anthony has played this season (though he has missed seven games with injuries), but at this point the Knicks aren’t going to the playoffs and for the sake of the future, and building a team around Kristaps Porzingis, I love the idea.
But Anthony has a no-trade clause and he has said he has no plans to waive it. He’s 31 and his wife, La La, wants to be in New York for the sake of her own career.
By the way, the Knicks haven’t had a guard in the All-Star game in 15 years, Allan Houston being the last to make the Eastern Conference squad. Only two other teams – the Grizzlies and Pacers – have been shut out in the game at the guard position over this period. The Lakers lead with 15 in 15 (all Kobe Bryant).
–Michael Salfino of the Wall Street Journal had a story on the Knicks and their inability to win close games. For example, they are 8-20 in games where they have been trailing by five points or fewer in the final five minutes, so a 28.6% winning percentage in such contests vs. the NBA average of 35.5%. Additionally, they have hit just one of eight shots in the final 30 seconds of a game with a chance to win or tie it.
But back to the winning percentage in games decided in the final five minutes and down by five or fewer, Philadelphia is 1-20 in those situations. Yikes. Next worst is Phoenix at 4-21.
–I guess for the archives I need to note that Klay Thompson defeated Steph Curry in the three-point shooting contest, and Zach LaVine won the slam-dunk affair.
MLB
—Mets fans were shocked, and yet hardly surprised (you can be both) to learn relief pitcher Jenrry Mejia failed a drug test for a third time and under baseball’s program, he became the first to receive a permanent suspension for using illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
Mejia’s three offenses were all within the last year, this time testing positive for Boldenone, an anabolic steroid.
Mejia, 26, can actually apply for reinstatement in two years (the app goes in after one). Through a Dominican sports journalist, Mejia said on Friday he had done nothing wrong. He had been pitching winter ball in his native Dominican Republic.
The thing is Mejia had a chance to appeal before the verdict was announced so he obviously knew he screwed up.
Had he stayed clean, following a 162-game suspension levied for his second offense last July 28, he would have returned to the Mets late July.
Yes, Mr. Mejia goes into the December file for “Idiot of the Year” consideration, in the truest sense of the word.
–USA TODAY’s Gabe Lacques had a piece on the “100 Names You Need to Know” for 2016, “not necessarily the 100 best prospects, but rather the ones most likely to make their mark in 2016. To qualify, a player must have had more innings (for pitchers) or plate appearances (for hitters) in the minor leagues during 2015 than he has accumulated during all of his major league playing time. Players are ranked in order of their anticipated impact this season.”
1. Corey Seager, SS, Dodgers…anxious to see what he can do
2. Kyle Schwarber, OF-C, Cubs…he could hit 50 HR one day
3. Byron Buxton, OF, Twins
4. Steven Matz, LHP, Mets…it will be a great season for us if Matz plays to top ten status
5. Luis Severino, RHP, Yankees…sure seems to be the real deal
6. Aaron Nola, RHP, Phillies…this team needs a shot in the arm in the worst way
7. Michael Conforto, OF, Mets…very confident on this one…firmly believe in about 7 years he’ll already be considered an all-time Met, and that will be just for starters
8. Ketel Marte, SS, Mariners
9. Byung Ho Park, DH, Twins
10. Stephen Piscotty, OF-1B, Cardinals
Mets fans, Dilson Herrera is No. 83 on this list, but we all know his time is probably 2017 and beyond. I do not want the team to trade him, though no doubt he could bring something good back in return.
–While these aren’t Sports Illustrated’s official baseball predictions, writer Jonah Keri ranked the teams from 1 to 30, 30 being the Phillies, and 1-2 being the Cubs and Mets.
No doubt when New York and Chicago hook up this season, it’s going to be a tension convention.
Back to the rankings….
3. Astros
4. Dodgers
5. Pirates
6. Giants…and it’s a dreaded ‘even number’ year for the rest of us
–The Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga interviewed Sharon Robinson, Jackie Robinson’s daughter, and since it is Black History Month it’s appropriate to remember Jackie broke the color barrier way back in 1947, but the number of African Americans playing Jackie’s game has declined from 19 percent in the mid-1980s to below 8 percent last season.
Sharon Robinson said the numbers are “important to my family, not just because of it being baseball, but because baseball’s reflective of society – which has always been the case. We’re always watching out for it.”
This is a cool story.
“Nineteen years ago, to mark the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Dodgers, MLB used Sharon Robinson and her mother Rachel to celebrate the season at ballparks across the country. They threw out first pitches, smiled for photos, waved to crowds. In Seattle, a young black ballplayer waded through a sea of photographers. He asked for Sharon’s autograph.
“ ‘Who was that?’ she asked Mariners personnel.
“Ken Griffey Jr., she was told. She called him back for a hug.”
NFL
–Talk about outrageous…Denver Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib was fined $26,044 on Friday for taunting and committing that face-mask foul in the Super Bowl. That’s it!
Talib should have been suspended at least two games for violently yanking Panthers receiver Corey Brown to the ground by grabbing his face mask. He could have broken his neck!
Cincinnati’s Vontaze Burfict was suspended three games for his hit in the playoffs on the Steelers’ Antonio Brown, that caused a concussion, but I agree with my friend Mark R., what Talib did was even worse (both instances being awful). Burfict just appealed his suspension and lost, which pisses me off all over again re Talib.
Talib, if you don’t know, is also just an awful person off the field. A true dirtball, making the non-suspension almost laughable given the personal conduct issues the league has been facing.
–The Bears announced they wouldn’t offer eight-year running back Matt Forte a contract for a ninth season in Chicago, which has fans fuming. Forte has been the second-most productive running back in Bears history behind Walter Payton. Yeah, he’s 30, but he still rushed for 898 yards and a 4.1 average last season, with 44 receptions out of the backfield.
In 2014, Forte caught 102 passes for 808 yards, while also rushing for 1,038.
–The Raiders will remain in Oakland for at least one more season, with the team agreeing to a one-year lease (with a two-year option) that will keep them in antiquated, rat-infested O.Co Coliseum.
–The following hit early Saturday. At first many major outlets refused to carry it (I was checking around). Now, they gradually are. It is highly controversial but, recall, a few weeks ago I told you I did not like Peyton Manning, without really elaborating. To wit….
Shaun King / New York Daily News
“Thirteen years ago, USA TODAY obtained 74 pages of explosive court documents on Peyton Manning, Archie Manning, the University of Tennessee, and Florida Southern College that revealed allegations of a sexual-assault scandal, cover up, and smear campaign of the victim that was so deep, so widespread and so ugly that it would’ve rocked the American sports world to its core. Yet USA TODAY never released those documents for reasons I can’t explain.
“Mel Antonen, now a baseball writer for Sports Illustrated, wrote about the documents for the paper on Nov. 3, 2003. Three days later, Christine Brennan, longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, wrote an op-ed about Peyton Manning and the documents titled, ‘Do you really know your sports hero?’ but the scandal pretty much died right there.
“Facebook wouldn’t be invented for three more months. Twitter didn’t come for three more years. The word ‘viral’ was still only being used to describe the spread of infectious diseases.
“But when the documents were sent to me on Tuesday, two days after the Super Bowl, it was immediately clear to me that had the world actually known what they contained, it’s doubtful that Peyton would have ever been the ‘well, golly, gee-whiz’ pitchman for Nationwide Insurance, DirecTV or Papa John’s Pizza. Certainly, evangelical op-eds calling him ‘squeaky clean’ and positioning Peyton as the arbiter of all things good and decent in the world simply wouldn’t be the case.”
Shaun King has written a very extensive story…an ugly one. Just Google ‘Peyton Manning Sexual Assault’ to find it. As for the documents, King writes:
“Titled ‘Facts of the case,’ and submitted to the court by the plaintiff’s lawyers, the document, which warrants many more takes and reflections than what I will offer today, is simultaneously shocking, disgusting, painful, and infuriating.”
–Finally, we note the passing of Willie Richardson, an All-Pro receiver for the Baltimore Colts and their leading pass-catcher in Super Bowl III. He was 76.
Richardson played his college ball at Jackson State, one of six brothers to play there. The Jets chose him in the third round of the American Football League draft in 1963, and the Colts selected him in the seventh round of the NFL draft. He signed with the Colts, and played for them in eight of his nine pro seasons.
For his career he caught 195 passes for a 15.1 average and 25 touchdowns. He also caught six passes for 58 yards in the Super Bowl against the Jets.
College Football
–Just a follow-up on the results of national signing day. I noted that ESPN ranked Florida State’s class No. 1, but USA TODAY’s Paul Myerberg looked at four different rankings, including ESPN’s, and when you average the four, it’s….
1. Alabama
2. Florida State
3. Ohio State
4. LSU
5. Michigan
6. Mississippi
T7. Clemson
T7. Georgia
9. USC
10. Auburn
Hey, Wake Forest had the No. 2 ranked player in the country! Err, Dexter Lawrence, a defensive tackle, is from Wake Forest, N.C., and is going to Clemson.
—Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards stirred things up when he said there would be massive budget cuts if his proposed tax increases to fill a hole in the budget aren’t approved by legislators. One of the casualties would be the LSU football team.
“Without legislators approving new revenue this special session, some campuses will be forced to declare financial bankruptcy, which would include massive layoffs and the cancellation of classes,” Edwards said…. “That means you can say farewell to college football next fall.”
According to the governor, the state is $940 million in debt and that is expected to increase to $2 billion next year, which he blames on his predecessor, former Gov. Bobby Jindal.
–The above story on the University of Tennessee isn’t the only disturbing one involving that institution. A federal lawsuit filed in Nashville last week claims that Tennessee football players assaulted former wide receiver Drae Bowles after he helped a woman who accused fellow teammates A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams of rape in November of 2014.
According to the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the lawsuit was filed by six unnamed Tennessee female students, including five alleged rape victims. Four of the sexual assaults in question were allegedly committed by Tennessee athletes.
What’s unbelievable is how Drae Bowles was attacked by his teammates for doing the right thing. The University goes in the December file and I really hope the Vols go 0-12 next season.
*And now this…Sunday afternoon, The Tennessean reports the Peyton Manning incident is part of the above suit in describing the awful behavior at the university.
–On a far brighter note, the best story next fall will undoubtedly be Pitt running back James Conner, who returned to the team this week while he battles cancer (Hodgkin’s lymphoma), determined to play in the opener for the Panthers. He’s also rehabbing from his MCL tear that kept him out last season.
Premier League
Before I get to Super Sunday, Saturday, 19-place Sunderland embarrassed Manchester United 2-1, Chelsea blasted 18 Newcastle 5-1, and West Brom held on for a terrific 1-0 win over Everton (just a great match).
So on Sunday, Cinderella sports story of the year, Leicester City, traveled to Arsenal and had a 1-0 lead at the 54-minute mark when they lost a player to a red card.
So they were playing one down the rest of the way, and Leicester just couldn’t hold on, losing 2-1 on a final play that will be remembered by both teams’ fan bases for a long time.
Literally, on the last play in extra time, a free kick was headed in in spectacular fashion by Danny Welbeck for the Arsenal win. As dramatic as it gets given the importance of the game.
Then it was my Tottenham Spurs visiting Manchester City and the first half was scoreless, both teams feeling each other out.
In the second half, though, the Spurs got a huge break, a controversial penalty kick, converted by Harry Kane at the 53-minute mark. Iheanacho then tied it up for Man City at 74:00 and it certainly looked like it was headed for a draw.
But Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino inserted Erik Lamela late, supplying fresh legs, and at 83’ Lamela passed to Christian Eriksen for the winner, 2-1, with Man City putting on the pressure late but to no avail.
Tottenham is now second, just two points behind Leicester. The Spurs haven’t won a top-flight title since 1961.
So after a day where the top four teams played each other the standings look like this after 26 of 38 matches.
1. Leicester 53 points
2. Tottenham 51
3. Arsenal 51 [ties broken by goal differential]
4. Man City 47
5. Man U 41
6. Southampton 40
7. West Ham 40
8. Liverpool 38
9. Watford 36
10. Stoke 36
12. Chelsea 33
I watched every minute of Super Sunday…far better than most NFL action I saw this year.
Thanks to NBC Sports Network and the extensive coverage of the Premier League, my suggestion to those of you who don’t follow the sport is, pick a team for next season. Just go with it. Get your jersey. Learn some of the players (Tottenham’s squad is extremely likable).
Then again, this Premier League season is going down as one of the best ever. Great stories all around, starting with Leicester. And now Tottenham is very much in the picture.
Stuff
–The PGA Tour is best when it has a few stars, as is the case today with the Big Three, maybe Big Four if you include Rickie Fowler. It’s also great when a grizzled veteran who’s had success before, like Phil Mickelson, is in the hunt. I know I am more interested to tune in over the weekend if this is the case.
But every now and then you love to see a true feel-good story and such was the case this week at Pebble Beach for the AT&T Pro-Am as 39-year-old journeyman Vaughn Taylor, who had two victories under his belt but none since 2005, and no current tour card, pulled off a stunner in picking up his third triumph over Mickelson as Lefty blew a 5-foot par putt on No. 18 that would have forced a playoff.
I wanted Lefty to win, like virtually everyone else, since the 45-year-old hasn’t won himself since 2013, but Taylor’s win was very cool. A real life-changer for his family as well.
–The women’s World Cup season was interrupted this weekend by too much snow! Extremely heavy snow at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, where the last I saw they had something like four feet in a single storm. This has caused havoc with the WC schedule. America’s Mikaela Shiffrin was to make her return on Monday in a slalom race at the same site. Not sure whether this will come off.
After 25 of 40 races Lindsey Vonn maintains the overall points lead over Switzerland’s Lara Gut, 1,060 to 973.
On the men’s side, they’ve been competing in Japan and after 29 of 44 races Austria’s Marcel Hirscher has the overall lead over Norway’s Henrik Kristofferson, 1,045 to 957.
–NASCAR superstar Tony Stewart said he is doing OK after breaking his back in a dune buggy accident outside San Diego, but he hasn’t set a timetable for his return. He won’t be running in the Daytona 500 on Feb. 21, and this week Stewart-Haas Racing announced Brian Vickers would drive Stewart’s car.
–The U.S. is one of the few nations that has a run-off for the berths on the Olympic marathon team and the trials were held Saturday in Los Angeles. Galen Rupp, in his first marathon, ran away from three-time Olympian Meb Keflezighi over the final four miles to win the hottest trials race in history in 2:11.12, with Keflezighi 48 seconds behind.
Rupp was the silver medalist in the 10,000 meters in the 2012 London Olympics. Jared Ward took the third spot.
But Rupp could still opt to focus on the track events, so fourth-place finisher Luke Puskedra could also be going to Rio.
After the race, Keflezighi complained Rupp ran way too close to him, like it was a track race. Rupp does have a reputation for being a bit of a, err, you know. Meb, 40, is the first American to make four U.S. marathon teams and will be the oldest-ever U.S. marathon competitor this summer.
In the women’s race, Amy Cragg outlasted her training partner Shalane Flanagan, Flanagan fading to third in the final mile behind Desiree Linden.
Flanagan is a three-time Olympian and a favorite of your editor…just don’t tell Mr. Flanagan.
The temperature was 61 degrees at the start and got into the 70s, but this was actually less than initially forecast. Having finished a long race last December with temps in the 70s, I can sympathize.
–In the March edition of The Atlantic, the “Big Question” is: Who is the greatest supporting player of all time?
One person says Eve, “who steals the show and reroutes history.” Another says Tonto: “The Lone Ranger is just a guy in a mask.”
Historian Richard Norton Smith selects Martha Washington: “She ran Mount Vernon during his long absences; acted as his wartime secretary, sounding board, and surrogate; and charmed members of Congress who agreed on little else. Her discretion matched her hospitality: Because she burned most of her and George’s personal correspondence, we’ll never know the extent of her supporting role.”
Actor Jonathan Banks selects Daffy Duck: “The master of nuance. The reason I like him is he didn’t hide the fact that he hated being Bugs Bunny’s supporting player.”
And then you have actor Josh Charles’ selection: “In the span of just six years, before John Cazale’s life was cut short at age 42, he co-starred in The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter. All were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture; three of them won. We never met, yet I miss him whenever I watch him.”
That’s a great tribute.
Or as Johnny Mac reminded me of Cazale’s career, “Not bad, not bad at all.”
But in checking some facts, I forgot that in The Deer Hunter, because of his lung cancer, Cazale and Meryl Streep (his real-life girlfriend) filmed all their scenes early. Cazale died before the film was finished. Such a sad tale, but what a brilliant short career and life it was.
Streep, by the way, was born literally up the road from me. Right on my street. [Actually, you go up a hill and then down a hill, which is the short answer of why the town is called Summit.]
–Re The Atlantic’s Jan./Feb. question: What is the Greatest Collaboration of All Time? One reader wrote in, “Ink and paper, because without it there wouldn’t have been the second-greatest collaboration of all time: Calvin and Hobbes.”
Jeff B. and I are among those who wake up to this strip in our in-boxes each morning. It still cracks me up. I love the ones where Calvin goes to his father, sitting in his easy chair reading the paper, “New poll numbers are out, Dad. You’re not doing well….”
My favorite existing strip these days is “Pearls Before Swine.”
–I missed Philadelphia’s annual Wing Bowl (because Mark R., who would have reminded me, was out of town). On Feb. 5, Molly Schuyler ate 429 wings in 26 minutes to regain the title she had lost last year to Patrick Bertoletti, who finished second with 408. Just one of the better athletic feats in recent memory and Sports Illustrated will have to consider Schuyler, along with Lindsey Vonn (if she wins the overall World Cup title), Stephen Curry (if Golden State wins again) and Novak Djokovic (if he wins at least three majors) for Sportsperson of the Year..
By the way, there were a record six disqualified this year for a reversal of fortune.
–So the current issue of TIME magazine has this story on “long-lived species” that may offer up clues to help humans and their health, and the ocean quahog, a fist-size clam, can live to be 500 years or older!
“Some researchers believe the sturdy quahog’s secret to a long life is its ability to protect its proteins from damage. This mechanism, if further understood, could lead to potential treatments for such age-related diseases as Alzheimer’s, which is caused by protein disturbances in the brain.”
So the ocean quahog officially enters the All-Species List at No. 122 with a bullet. ‘Man’ (see Syria) remains mired in the 300s and is unlikely to ever sniff the top 100 again.
No. 2 on the ASL, the elephant, by the way, generally lives 60 to 70 years and what stumps researchers here is that it doesn’t develop cancer, at least almost all of them, “thanks to multiple copies of a gene that helps destroy mutated cells before they can cause disease.”
The longest-living mammal, the bowhead whale, can live beyond 200 years! Goodness gracious. Researchers on this one have “identified genes related to DNA repair, cancer and aging that could be responsible for the animal’s long life.”
–Maureen Callahan has an extensive piece in the New York Post concerning America’s military working dogs and the problems the soldiers are having reconnecting with them once they come home.
“In September 2012, Daniel and about 18 other soldiers boarded a flight (from Afghanistan) back to North Carolina; their deployment was over.
“Waiting on the tarmac were employees from a North Carolina-based company, K2 Solutions, which had the government contract for the dogs. Within moments of deplaning, the handlers got to pat their dogs on the head, say their goodbyes, then watch as the dogs – and all their equipment, down to their shredded leashes – were boarded on a truck and driven away.
“ ‘It’s a bunch of infantry guys, and no one wants to be the first to start crying,’ Daniel says. ‘But it didn’t take long. There wasn’t a dry eye.’
“The only solace these soldiers had was the knowledge that they could apply to adopt their dogs, and that the passage of Robby’s Law in November 2000 would protect that right.
“More than three years later, Daniel still doesn’t have Oogie. The dog has vanished.
“Daniel, who doesn’t want to use his real name because he’s on active duty, is one of at least 200 military handlers whose dogs were secretly dumped out to civilians by K2 Solutions in February 2014, a Post investigation has found.
“At least three government workers were also involved and may have taken dogs for themselves.
“It’s a scandal that continues to this day, with hundreds of handlers still searching for their dogs – and the Army, the Pentagon and K2 Solutions covering up what happened, and what may still be happening.”
It seems there is a thriving black market for the dogs. When the handlers question K2 after filing the proper paperwork to adopt them, they’re given the runaround.
“Meanwhile, civilians in small North Carolina towns were electrified by the idea of owning a war dog – the ultimate status symbol – and several deputized themselves as prime ‘bomb dog’ movers.”
One woman in Kinston, N.C. was very proud she had helped move 103 dogs in adoptions in 10 days. From her Facebook post she said, “Man, I wish we could do this every week. To all involved: GREAT JOB.”
When reached for comment, the woman hung up.
At gatherings where the dogs are made available, there is no vetting of those who end up adopting them and no one asks what they plan to do with them. Understand, all the dogs have PTSD.
It’s a depressing tale. Another example of Man at his worst, save for the handlers.
–A more uplifting story is taking place on California’s Channel Islands, where on Friday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed taking three subspecies of fox native to the area off the endangered species list, which is an historic victory. They were classified as endangered in 2004 after suffering a huge decline in their population “because of predation by Golden eagles,” as Louis Sahagun writes in the Los Angeles Times.
On Santa Catalina Island the population of one subspecies had crashed to roughly 100 in 1999 because of a canine distemper epidemic, yet now the island is home to about 1,800 of the animals.
So how did this turnaround happen? The National Park Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Catalina Island Conservancy relocated golden eagles from the Channel Islands; bringing in bald eagles, which eat fish, not foxes; vaccinating against distemper; and breeding them in captivity.
*I plead ignorance to not having known the difference in eating habits between Golden and bald eagles so I’m self-imposing a three-beer penalty; interpretation of which is up for debate.
–Finally, I did not know of the indie band Viola Beach out of Britain, but the tragic death of their four members (Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe, Jack Dain and manager Craig Tarry) is a big deal across the pond.
They were kids on the fast track to stardom, it seems, but on Saturday they were in Sweden for a gig (their first outside the UK) and in the early hours their car hit a roadside barrier and plunged into a canal – falling through a gap in a bridge which had opened to let a boat pass through. It doesn’t matter if this was incredibly careless, as it seems. They’re dead. RIP.
Top 3 songs for the week 2/18/78: #1 “Stayin’ Alive” (Bee Gees) #2 “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water” (Andy Gibb) #3 “Just The Way You Are” (Billy Joel…awesome tune…)…and…#4 “We Are The Champions” (Queen) #5 “Sometimes When We Touch” (Dan Hill…where?) #6 “Emotion” (Samantha Sang) #7 “Dance, Dance, Dance, (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)” (Chic…forgot to warn you…music is beginning to turn really, really crappy around this time…) #8 “Short People” (Randy Newman) #9 “Baby Come Back” (Player) #10 “How Deep Is Your Love” (Bee Gees …another big Wake slow-dance tune….cough cough…. cough….)
NHL Quiz Answer: The only other two players to score 30 goals in their first 11 seasons aside from Alex Ovechkin are Mike Gartner, who had at least 30 in his first 15 seasons, and Wayne Gretzky, who did it in his first 13.
Ovechkin has added five more the past week and leads the NHL with 35 on the season, 510 for his career. God, as a Rangers fan I hate this guy…but he is so freakin’ good. Washington fans are spoiled.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
