[Posted early Wednesday a.m.]
Baseball Quiz: 10 have won three or more MVP awards. Name them. [Hints: The award wasn’t consistently handed out until 1931, so no Ruth or Gehrig, but one of the ten did win all three in the 1930s.]
College Basketball
New AP Poll (Feb. 29…records a/o Sunday)
1. Kansas 25-4 (63)
2. Michigan State 24-5 (2)
3. Villanova 25-4
4. Virginia 22-6
5. Xavier 25-4
6. Oklahoma 22-6
7. Miami (FL) 23-5
8. North Carolina 23-6
9. Oregon 23-6
10. West Virginia 22-7
12. Indiana 23-6
13. Utah 23-7….wow, the Utes moved up even higher than I thought they would
14. Maryland 23-6
17. Duke 21-8
23. Texas 19-10
27. Seton Hall….if you carry the votes out
30. Notre Dame
–So with Kansas’ return to No. 1, Monday they traveled to take on Texas and the Jayhawks blew out the Longhorns 86-56, shooting a phenomenal 64% from the field, 32 of 50, while Texas was just 19 of 63 (30.2%). Not exactly home-court advantage.
–There were no upsets on Tuesday, with Virginia defeating Clemson, 64-57; Oklahoma over 19 Baylor 73-71; and 12 Indiana holding off 16 Iowa 81-78.
And Wake Forest finished its regular season with a 2-16 ACC mark in losing 79-71 to Duke in Durham, 79-71. For Duke, Grayson Allen had 30 points, going to the free throw line 19 times (converting 14).
A friend of mine, Wake Forest classmate, has been in Texas this week, taking his daughter on a college tour, and while we’ve been commiserating over our godawful basketball team and what to do about our coach, Danny Manning, I found some of Dr. W.’s comments from the field on Monday rather telling, plus a fun sidebar.
The doctor and his wife (who I run the half-marathon at Kiawah with every year) were in their Austin hotel restaurant for breakfast the day of the Kansas-UT game and the Jayhawks were staying in the same place. “My goodness, the KU team is HUGE!!!”
So the two of them “sat next to a 60ish KU supporter and his 85-year-old dad (in a wheelchair). The older man has only missed 3 KU games in the past 56 years! I briefly mentioned we rooted for WFU and had Danny Manning as our coach. Jokingly asked if they would like to have him back. The younger man said that Danny was a great player but only a very mediocre coaching talent and that he was on their staff only for the recruiting advantages that he brought to the table. He said that Manning got a reputation as a ‘big man’ coach but that it really wasn’t Manning that was responsible for bringing out the best in big man talent.”
Well, the man proceeds to rip Manning, saying he “was not a very likeable person, with other members of the coaching staff glad to see him go to Tulsa.” [From where Wake recruited him.]
That’s what I’ve written the second half of our miserable season. Just watching his body language on the bench, I’ve noted I have never seen Manning smile, or ‘buck up’ his players. But I’m guessing he will be given a third year. As I keep repeating, I’m just worried we’ll be able to hold onto our solid freshmen and recruits.
NBA
–With Steph Curry and his Warriors being all the rage, the guard will no doubt win the NBA MVP Award a second straight year which will put him in some elite company, the 11th player in league history to do so. All of them are in the Hall of Fame or well on their way.
Bill Russell: 1960-61 and 1961-62. Also won in 1962-63.
Wilt Chamberlain: 1965-66 and 1966-67.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 1970-71 and 1971-72. Also back-to-back in 1975-76 and 1976-77.
Moses Malone: 1981-82 and 1982-83
Larry Bird: 1983-84 and 1984-85
Magic Johnson: 1988-89 and 1989-90
Michael Jordan: 1990-91 and 1991-92 (won five in total)
Tim Duncan: 2001-02 and 2002-03
Steve Nash: 2004-05 and 2005-06
LeBron James: 2008-09 and 2009-10. Also 2011-12 and 2012-13.
–So Tuesday, Curry sat out a home game against Atlanta with a sore ankle and the Warriors barely held on, winning 109-105 in overtime to go to 54-5, 25-0 at home.
–When Amar’e Stoudemire was on the Knicks, he was known as a standup guy but following Miami’s win over New York at the Garden Sunday night, Stoudemire for some reason decided to resurrect a feud he had with Carmelo Anthony, strongly insinuating that it was Anthony who ran Jeremy Lin out of town when Linsanity was the hottest thing going in the Big Apple for that brief spell a few years ago.
Anthony didn’t understand why Amar’e did this and I’m on Melo’s side.
So then the Knicks hosted Portland on Tuesday and it was another pathetic performance by New York, losing 104-85, scoring just 35 points in the second half.
The Garden crowds have gotten increasingly surly as this season has crumbled after a 22-22 start. Since then they’ve lost 15 of 18.
So with Melo on the bench late in the game, he had an exchange with a heckler.
“He kept calling my name, saying, ‘you guys suck, you guys suck,’” Anthony said afterwards.
“At that point, I was trying to gather myself and I turned around,” Anthony continued. “All I did was point at (owner James) Dolan and told him, ‘Look, the owner’s right there. Ask for your money back.’”
MLB
–Major League Baseball suspended Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman for 30 games without pay and he will not appeal the decision. The suspension occurs under MLB’s new domestic violence policy and stems from an alleged incident in October of 2015.
Commissioner Rob Manfred said in part: “I found Mr. Chapman’s acknowledged conduct on that day to be inapproprirate under the negotiated Policy, particularly his use of a firearm and the impact of that behavior on his partner. I am gratified that Mr. Chapman has taken responsibility for his conduct….”
In his own statement, Chapman said: “I want to be clear, I did not in any way harm my girlfriend that evening. However, I should have exercised better judgment with respect to certain actions, and for that I am sorry.”
So it appears, for now, that the Yankees’ gamble to obtain Chapman has paid off. He misses the month of April, but the Yanks already have shutdown relievers Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances.
–Free agent Shortstop Ian Desmond signed a one-year, $8 million contract with the Texas Rangers in an incredible fall from what he had turned down two years ago, a seven-year, $107 million contract extension from the Washington Nationals. He then rejected their $15.8 million qualifying offer in November.
Now, not only is he receiving just $8 million, but the Rangers are having him switch positions to the outfield.
As USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale noted, “We haven’t seen an athlete’s value plummet like this since Mike Tyson.”
Desmond said he wasn’t bitter, allowing “I’m coming here now completely humbled.”
Nightengale: “Oh, yes indeed. What other occupation can you lose nearly $100 million in value after being one of only six players with at least 100 homers and 100 stolen bases since 2010, win three Silver Slugger awards, become an All-Star shortstop in 2012, to being unemployed until Monday?”
New teammate Cole Hamels said Desmond will pull a Nelson Cruz.
Nightengale: “It was Cruz who couldn’t find a job two years ago, either, with a qualifying offer attached to him, requiring teams to forfeit a first-round draft pick for his services. He signed a one-year, $8 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles, hit 40 homers, and the next winter signed a four-year, $57 million deal with the Seattle Mariners.”
Desmond said part of the problem these days is that teams are treating their first-round picks as if they can all find the next Bryce Harper or Mike Trout; yet 21 players selected in the first two rounds in the 2013 draft are no longer even with their original team.
“I think it’s clear something needs to change,” Desmond said. “I spent 12-plus years with the Washington Nationals. I gave them everything I had. And I think that should be worth something, not only to them, but to me. There are smart enough people in place to make the proper adjustments. I trust they’ll figure it out.”
Desmond is known to be a great guy in the clubhouse so the Rangers probably got a good deal, though his numbers have been declining.
But he had his chance two years ago and didn’t take it. That’s the lesson.
–Meanwhile, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Gerritt Cole is not a happy camper. Despite coming off a 2015 season that saw him go 19-8 with a 2.60 ERA, fourth in the NL Cy Young voting and his first All-Star nod, he signed for $541,000, the same amount he made last year when his base was $531,000, plus another $10,000 for making the All-Star team.
Cole is in that position where he isn’t arbitration eligible until 2017 and he’s not a free agent until 2020.
But what kind of message is Pittsburgh management sending to players around the league when it won’t give Cole a $100,000 raise?
Pittsburgh GM Neal Huntington countered that his $541,000 salary makes him the Pirates’ highest-paid pre-arbitration player.
–So as if owning fancy cars isn’t enough for Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, Saturday night he was at the St. Lucie (FL) County Fair and a day later he returned to purchase a $7,000 grand champion hog raised by a local 4-H member. The porker weighs 270 pounds. Proceeds of the auction benefit the 4-H club.
As for the future of the hog…err, we probably shouldn’t go there.
But it seems Mets manager Terry Collins has had enough of the early circus-like atmosphere in Mets camp. Tuesday, Cespedes and pitcher Noah Syndergaard showed up on horseback.
Said Collins, “The fun time is over. It’s time to get ready for baseball now.”
NFL
–The following story is awful.
Mark W. Sanchez / New York Post
“Bart Starr played 16 brilliant NFL seasons and was sacked an untold number of times – most before the ‘sack’ was even a statistic. But the most brutal hits of his life came before his professional career during a hazing incident before his junior season at Alabama.
“Starr had suffered a back injury so severe that it disqualified him from military service in the Korean War – the college athlete was deemed unfit – and derailed his promising Crimson Tide career. It affected him through each year as a Packer, too, but the cover story had gone that it had resulted from a punting exercise gone wrong.
“The truth, according to his wife more than half a century later, was that initiation into the university’s A-Club – a group to unite the school’s varsity athletes – meant a wooden paddle beating that went too far.
“ ‘He was hospitalized at one point in traction,’ Cherry Starr told Al.com. [Ed: I went on this site to make sure it was correct and it is everything Alabama. Coincidentally, there was a story up top on a current serious hazing case at a fraternity at the university.] ‘That was in the days when they were initiated into the A-Club, and they had severe beatings and paddling. From all the members of the A-Club, they lined up with a big paddle with holes drilled in it, and it actually injured his back.’….
“(According) to Cherry, his back bothered him his entire career.
“ ‘His back was never right after that,’ Cherry Starr said about the 1954 incident. ‘It was horrible. It was not a football injury. It was an injury sustained from hazing. His whole back all the way up to his rib cage looked like a piece of raw meat. The bruising went all the way up his back. It was red and black and awful looking. It was so brutal.’
“ ‘It was hell,’ said Nick Germanos, who played tight end. ‘Lord have mercy it was a rough initiation.’
“With a suffering quarterback, Alabama went 0-10 in Starr’s senior season (1955), and he fell to a 17th-round draft pick by Green Bay.”
[Ed: Bear Bryant didn’t come on the scene at ‘Bama until 1958.]
Starr was in pain until the 1980s, when Dr. James Andrews found a crack in Starr’s vertebrae, prompting back surgery.
Cherry Starr said Bart never spoke about the incident because he thought “it would make him look bad.”
–The likes of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning aside, as Rob Arthur of the Wall Street Journal reports:
“According to data from Pro-Football-Reference.com, NFL careers are shrinking at an unprecedented rate. From 2008 to 2014, the average NFL career dropped in length by about two and a half years.
“The decrease in career lengths is a historical abnormality. From 1991 to about 2008, career lengths were mostly consistent. But since 2008, players have been exiting the league earlier.
“While the decrease is occurring across all positions, some have seen a sharper drop. Quarterbacks have seen their career lengths fall by almost three years during this span, with the average career across all positions falling from 4.99 years to 2.66.
“Concerns about the effects of concussions and head injuries have prompted some players to retire early. Several recent retirees, including Chris Borland and Adrian Coxson, expressed concerns about their long-term health when discussing their reasons for leaving the game….
“As the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis wraps on Monday, hundreds of prospects are hoping it is the start of a long career in professional football. But if they make it into the league at all, it will likely be a shorter stay than it used to be.”
–Speaking of Brady and Manning, the former agreed to a two-year extension with the Patriots that would keep him in New England through 2019. He turns 39 in August.
But Peyton is being a real jerk. At first we were told he was announcing his retirement this week, but now it seems to be up in the air, with even his agent not knowing as I go to post.
Again, Manning’s $19 million salary for 2016 becomes fully guaranteed on March 9 – next Wednesday, the start of the league year – and the Broncos can’t sign their other potential free agents, like QB Brock Osweiler, until Peyton makes up his mind. [They franchised Super Bowl MVP Von Miller to keep him in the fold].
If Osweiler wants to test the free agent waters, he can next week. Denver’s John Elway said “We’ll start talking to Brock about a new contract and see what we can do there but with that in mind, also affording Peyton the time that he deserves. But we’re not in any rush.”
Well you should be! The deadline is a week away! Tell Peyton to pound sand. [As you know I was early in not liking Manning so I can get away with this.]
Of course the Broncos can just release Peyton before they have to pay him the guarantee. Osweiler, though, should test the waters.
–The Eagles and quarterback Sam Bradford signed a two-year extension worth a reported $36 million, $26 million guaranteed (though there is some question if there is an injury provision contained therein). Staggering numbers for a guy who has a career record of 25-37-1, is hurt a lot, and has never appeared in a playoff game.
The Bradford deal impacts what the Jets may do with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, who is a free agent but wants to stay. But he’s 34 (Bradford is 28) and also has never played in the playoffs. The Jets thought they could offer him maybe a two-year deal at $10 million per, but now that may not be enough.
Stuff
–In the Premier League, Tottenham can take over first place if they win at West Ham today, Wednesday, after on Tuesday, Leicester drew with West Brom. The Spurs are three points behind but would go ahead on goal differential.
Tottenham has not won the title for 55 years, and last led the table in March or later in 1964, when they eventually finished fourth.
Their highest finish since then is third, on five occasions.
But West Ham is good, No. 6 currently, and Tottenham also has a huge match with Arsenal on Saturday.
–We note the passing of actor George Kennedy, 91. He died in his sleep at his home in Boise, Idaho, the day of the Academy Awards.
Kennedy will forever be known for his role as prison leader Dragline alongside Paul Newman in 1967’s “Cool Hand Luke,” one of the greatest flicks of all time for which Kennedy won a best supporting actor Oscar. Dragline gave Newman’s character the nickname “Cool Hand Luke” following a bluff in a prison poker game.
Kennedy was in a slew of other movies, including the “Airport” series, and in another 1970s disaster flick, “Earthquake.”
But then in the late 1980s he went from tough guy to comedy, starring in the “Naked Gun” series with Leslie Nielsen.
–Interesting how NASCAR CEO Brian France endorsed Donald Trump. France appeared at a Trump rally in Valdosta, GA, along with Hall of Famer Bill Elliott and drivers Chase Elliott, Ryan Newman and David Ragan. No comment otherwise from your editor.
–I posted last time before the big Oscar awards were handed out and I just have to note that Tom McCarthy, winner of best original screenplay for “Spotlight”, as well as director of the flick that won Best Picture, is a graduate of next door New Providence High School. I talked to an administrator at the school on Tuesday and needless to say they are all thrilled.
–I watched the Oscars’ “In Memoriam” tribute and until my brother brought it up the next day, it didn’t hit me they missed Abe Vigoda. So the man whose death was often misreported, but who really did die recently, got screwed again. I mean his appearance in “The Godfather” warranted mention. [He was included, however, in the online tribute.]
–Chris Rock’s best line of the night concerned Will Smith.
“It’s not fair Will was this good and didn’t get nominated [for ‘Concussion’]. It’s also not fair Will was paid $20 million for ‘Wild Wild West,’ OK?”
Top 3 songs for the week 3/5/83: #1 “Billie Jean” (Michael Jackson) #2 “Shame On The Moon” (Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band) #3 “Stray Cat Strut” (Stray Cats)…and…#4 “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me” (Culture Club…incredibly depressing song…Boy George is depressing…) #5 “Hungry Like The Wolf” (Duran Duran) #6 “Baby, Come To Me” (Patti Austin with James Ingram) #7 “You And I” (Eddie Rabbitt with Crystal Gayle) #8 “We’ve Got Tonight” (Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton) #9 “Back On The Chain Gang” (Pretenders) #10 “Pass The Dutchie” (Musical Youth…oh brother…no wonder I was an oldies fanatic then…)
Baseball Quiz Answer: 3 or more MVP Awards.
Bonds 7
Yogi Berra 3
Roy Campanella 3*
Joe DiMaggio 3
Jimmie Foxx 3
Mickey Mantle 3
Stan Musial 3
Albert Pujols 3
A-Rod 3
Mike Schmidt 3
*Campanella kind of had a bizarre career. The three years he won his MVP awards, 1951, ‘53 and ‘55, were the only three in which he hit .300 and drove in 100.
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
