[Posted Sunday PM, prior to conclusion of Islanders-Panthers and other playoff action because I have to watch “Game of Thrones” uninterrupted.]
Baseball Quiz: The other day the Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond was discussing the Hall of Fame prospects of Carlos Beltran, who is on the verge of joining a very select group…400 HR 300 stolen bases. Who are the four to attain this? Answer below.
MLB
—N.L. Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta tossed a no-hitter for the Cubs Thursday night, defeating the Reds 16-0 in Cincinnati.
It was Arrieta’s second career no-hitter, second in two seasons. He gave up four walks with six strikeouts as he moved to 4-0, 0.87 ERA. [He is the 29th pitcher to throw two no-nos.]
The Cubs have now won 17 straight regular-season Arrieta decisions, outscoring their opponents 97-20. It was also the 24th consecutive quality start by Arrieta (six or more innings, three or fewer runs), the longest since Bob Gibson had an MLB-record 26 straight quality starts from 1967-68.
Surprisingly, the Reds hadn’t been held hitless since 1971, when Rick Wise did it for Philadelphia, and Wise famously also hit two home runs in the contest. [Roy Halladay of the Phillies no-hit the Reds in the 2010 playoffs.]
So on Sunday, the Cubs’ Jason Hammel moved to 3-0, 0.75, as Chicago (14-5) shut out the Reds again, 9-0. Anthony Rizzo had two home runs and 4 RBI, and now has 8 HR, 21 RBI, while batting just .203! He has those 21 ribbies on only 14 hits.
But talk about a four-game series. These were the scores for Cubs-Reds. 16-0, 8-1, 13-5 (the lone Reds win) and 9-0. Not exactly spine-tingling action, save for Arrieta’s no-no.
–Detroit seems to have made a nice free-agent pickup in Jordan Zimmermann, the righty off to a 3-0, 0.00 ERA start in 19 1/3 innings. As Ronald Reagan would have said, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’
–But Arizona’s Zack Greinke, he of the $34 million per contract, is 1-2, 5.25 ERA after his first four starts.
–Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post
“If you believe, as do I, that God created baseball as a relief from politics, I herewith offer, as a public service, a column not about Trump, Cruz, Sanders & Clinton but about Harper & friends.
“We all have our ways of marking the seasons. I know it’s spring when in early April I start my morning by skipping The Post front page and going right to the sports section. It’s not until I’ve fully savored the baseball box scores that I resignedly turn to politics….
“When they first came here a decade ago, (the Washington Nationals) didn’t win much. In 2008-2009, the Nats lost 205 games. I went to the park anyway. When your team is good, you go to see them win. When they’re bad, you go for the moments – the beautiful moments, like the perfectly executed outfield assist, that grace every difficult athletic endeavor from the balance beam to the giant slalom.
“The Nationals, being a very good team now, practically guarantee such moments every game….
“And then there’s Bryce Harper.
“He’s the best baseball player on the planet, probably in the entire Milky Way. (Those box scores are slow in coming in.) And for the next three years, he’ll be playing at Nats Park. After that, he becomes a free agent and will command the largest contract in the history of professional sports. He might very well end up with the money-bag Dodgers or Yankees and $500 million. Give or take.
“So be it. By 2019, we could all be underwater or living under Sharia law, depending on whether your doomsday is of the Democratic or Republican flavor. In the interim, I’m going to eat, drink and watch Harper.
“At 16, he graced the cover of Sports Illustrated as the ‘Chosen one.’ At 19, when most elite players are starting college ball, he was the National League rookie of the year. For his age 22 season, he was unanimously voted the NL Most Valuable Player, the youngest to score such a sweep. That was last year. This year, he’s even better. He came in as a brash, hyperenergetic, often reckless rookie who in his eighth major league game stole home off a former World Series MVP pitcher who had deliberately plunked him minutes earlier just to teach him a lesson. It obviously didn’t take.
“These days, Harper plays with more controlled fury. No longer crashes into outfield walls. And has tamed his violently explosive swing with such pitch recognition and plate discipline that in the age of the strikeout – up 24 percent in the past decade – he has fewer strikeouts than home runs….
“In spring training, Harper hit two home runs in a game off Cy Young winner Justin Verlander. The second cleared a 35-foot wall at the 420-foot mark in dead center. Said the Nats’ new pitching coach, incredulous, to the manager: ‘We get to watch this every day?’
“If you live in Washington, you get to watch this – our own young Mickey Mantle – 81 times a season. How then can you get too despondent about our presidential choices, the kowtow to Cuba or the decline of the California smelt? It’s spring. It’s warm. There’s baseball. There’s Harper. Why, even the Cubs are good this year.”
–The Yanks recently went through a 2-for-50 stretch with runners in scoring position, the first time they had done this poorly in a 50 at-bat sample since at least 1974, the earliest Stats LLC tracks such data. [They have been 7-for-33 since, including today.]
But on Friday, the much-maligned Jacoby Ellsbury, he of the $153 million contract, unexpectedly stole home in the bottom of the fifth that tied a game with the Rays the Yanks would go on to win, Ellsbury energizing his moribund teammates.
But he did it on a 3-2 count and with two outs! Idiotic. Brett Gardner, the batter, thankfully took ball four. Otherwise, Ellsbury could have been killed. Jacoby then added a two-run double to seal a 6-3 win.
The positive mojo carried over to Saturday as the Yanks won 3-2 on a two-run, Gardner walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth, thus overcoming the major league debut of Rays hurler Blake Snell, one of the top prospects in baseball…Snell allowing just one run in five innings, striking out six. I watched him. He looked a lot like the Mets’ Steven Matz.
But the Yanks continue to struggle mightily with an anemic offense.
However, they have this incredible relief duo of Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller. A combined 37 strikeouts, no earned runs, in just 17 innings, with only two walks.
They weren’t needed on Sunday, though, as the Rays beat up on the Yanks and Michael Pineda 8-1, dropping New York to 7-10.
Thank god I’m not a Yankees fan. For starters, this team is incredibly boring! There is zero…ZERO…reason to personally attend a Yankees game.
—My Mets beat the Braves 6-3 on Friday as Matt Harvey picked up his first win but once again looked very ordinary, hardly the stuff of the ace he is supposed to be. He’s now 1-3, 5.24, with just 14 Ks in 22.1 innings.
And as Kevin Kernan wrote in the New York Post, the scary part is that the second year of pitching after Tommy John surgery is supposed to be the better season for a TJ pitcher.
Saturday, though, the Mets got another solid effort out of the aforementioned Steven Matz and hit two more home runs, making it a franchise-best 23 in 8 games as the Mets beat the Braves 8-2.
Then on Sunday the Mets (10-7) prevailed 3-2, no homers, as Jacob deGrom returned from his various issues (both family-related and physical) to toss 5 2/3 of one run ball in picking up the victory.
The Braves, 4-14, really, really blow. Like unwatchable blowdom.
–The Dodgers’ Kenta Maeda is now 3-0 with a 0.36 ERA, following L.A.’s 4-1 win over the Rockies on Saturday.
–The White Sox’ Mat Latos is 4-0, 0.74, after a 4-1 win over the Rangers on Sunday.
—Toronto outfielder Chris Colabello, who had a breakthrough season last year at the age of 31 with 15 HR 54 RBI, .321 BA, was suspended 80 games without pay for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance, Major League Baseball announced on Friday.
Colabello tested positive for an anabolic steroid that is sold under the name Turinabol.
In his statement, Colabello said in part, “I have spent every waking moment since (the phone call) trying to find an answer as to why or how (this happened)?”
Ah, you bought the stuff?
Colabello will lose $227,891 of his $521,126 major league salary.
–For the record, the White Sox pulled off an amazing triple play against the Rangers on Friday, 9-3-2-6-2-5.
“The bases-loaded play began with a Mitch Moreland line out to right fielder Adam Eaton, who tossed it to first baseman Jose Abreu, who managed to tag Ian Desmond despite his acrobatic attempts to get back to first base. Abreu then tossed it to catcher Dioner Navarro, who threw it to shortstop Tyler Saladino, who ran down Prince Fielder to catch him in a pickle between third base and home. Saladino then passed the ball back to Navarro, who threw it to third baseman Todd Frazier, who ran down the third base line and tagged Fielder for the final out.”
The White Sox won the game 5-0.
—Curt Schilling was fired by ESPN Wednesday for providing (seemingly) offensive commentary on social media on the topic of transgender people.
“ESPN is an inclusive company,” ESPN said in a statement. “Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated.”
Schilling shared an anti-transgender meme on his Facebook page, in response to the North Carolina law that bars transgender people from using restroom and locker rooms that do not correspond to their birth genders.
He then removed it, but wrote a blog post in which he doubled down.
“A man is a man no matter what they call themselves,” he wrote on his personal website. “I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”
I’ve seen comments online from people I respect on this issue and I just shake my head. Schilling is an idiot. You may agree with his position, and that’s fine by me, but the blog post is flat out stupid. And he had already been suspended last year for posting a meme comparing Islamic extremists to Nazis. Jessica Mendoza owes her “Sunday Night Baseball” gig to Schilling’s stupidity.
Schilling refused to apologize, or just disappear for a while. Instead he said in part, “I am not going to give you answers to make sure you like what I say, let the rest of the insecure world do that.”
Whatever you say, Curt.
As for ESPN, a denizen of sexual harassment (with admittedly one or two being falsely accused…as I’ve noted in this space) it is beyond hypocritical in its corporate speak.
–Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times reported on a survey conducted by Loyola Marymount’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles, polling 2,400 L.A. County residents on their favorite local team and 37% identified the Lakers as their No. 1, compared to 35% for the Dodgers. Two years ago a similar survey had it 43% Lakers and 34% Dodgers.
Since you can only pick one I guess I’m not surprised, but I am kind of shocked the Angels received just 5%, behind the Clippers 9%, Kings 8% and the Galaxy 6%.
–And a note on college baseball. My Wake Forest Demon Deacons swept No. 13 North Carolina in Winston-Salem by scores of 6-1, 5-4, 3-2. Go Deacs!!!
NBA Playoffs
–According to the NBA’s Last Two Minute Report released Friday, James Harden’s game-winning jumper from Game 3 against the Warriors should have been called as an offensive foul.
The shot gave the Rockets a 97-96 lead with 2.7 seconds remaining, and they went on to win the game, the Warriors again without Steph Curry.
But Curry returned for Game 4 and with the score tied at 56-56 at the half, the Warriors ran away with it, 121-94, hitting a playoff record 21 three-pointers to go up 3-1.
However…Curry didn’t play in the second half after suffering a sprained knee late in the first half. He was only 2 of 9 from the field, 1 of 7 from three, in his return. No word on his availability for Game 5.
–The Spurs completed their sweep of the Grizzlies on Sunday, 116-95. Memphis was severely undermanned, but their coach, Olwhatshisname, was way too emotional afterwards, extolling his team’s grit. Yoh, coach, you lost all four. And you have Matt Barnes, one of the true jerks on the planet.
–In a highly contentious series, Oklahoma City took a 3-1 lead over Dallas Saturday, 119-108, with Russell Westbrook having 25 points and 15 assists.
Kevin Durant was ejected in the final minute for a flagrant foul on Dallas’ Justin Anderson. Earlier, Thunder players on the court got in a tussle with some of the Mavs on the bench.
—Indiana tied up its series with Toronto at 2-2 in Indianapolis, 100-83, as once again the Raptors’ backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan was horrid, 8-of-27 from the field, 0-for-7 from three. Game 5 will be played in Toronto on Tuesday.
For the series, Lowry and DeRozan are a combined 40-for-130 (30.7%). [5-of-35 from three.]
—Boston won its first on Friday night, 111-103 over Atlanta in Boston as Isaiah Thomas had 42 points.
[I’m posting before the conclusion of Game 4.]
—Charlotte won its first against Miami, 96-80, with Jeremy Lin scoring 18. But Miami leads 2-1, Game 4 in Charlotte on Monday.
—Portland defeated the Clippers 96-88 in Portland, but L.A. leads 2-1. For the Trail Blazers, their backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum combined for 59 points.
–Dylan Hernandez / Los Angeles Times, referencing a published interview with ESPN’s The Undefeated, wherein Kobe Bryant was asked if he wanted to be understood: “I don’t do things for people to understand me. I say things to help them understand themselves.”
Hernandez: “Seriously, get over yourself.”
–The Washington Wizards hired Scott Brooks to be their new head coach, replacing Randy Wittman. The Wizards still harbor dreams of luring free-agent-to-be Kevin Durant home this summer and Brooks was Durant’s old coach.
Washington is totally rolling the dice they can get Durant, having given Brooks an absurd $35 million over five years. It’s also not as if Durant tried to save Brooks’ job this time a year ago.
Scott Brooks had success in OKC, a .620 winning percentage and an NBA Finals in 2012, but it was all with Durant and the likes of Russell Westbrook and James Harden for a spell.
NHL
Stanley Cup Champions
2010 – Chicago
2011 – Boston
2012 – Los Angeles
2013 – Chicago
2014 – Los Angeles
2015 – Chicago
–Helene Elliott / L.A. Times
“A handshake instead of another Stanley Cup championship.
“A season end with a beautiful but brief tease and a first-round playoff exit.
“What had the makings of another epic rally against a familiar foe ended Friday with the Kings’ 6-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks, pushing them into an offseason sure to be full of soul-searching and roster rebuilding as the most dominant era of their history recedes further into the past.
“If they are honest, they shouldn’t be fooled by having spotted the Sharks a 3-0 lead Friday and then pulling even in the second period, setting pulses racing and restoring fans’ shaken faith at a raucous Staples Center.”
But it wasn’t to be.
“The Kings’ Cup triumphs in 2012 and 2014, sandwiched around a loss in the 2013 West final to eventual champion Chicago, seem even more impressive in retrospect. If it’s tough to reach the top, it’s much tougher to stay there. Missing the playoffs last spring and this season’s early exit emphasize how difficult it is to sustain success in a salary-cap era and keep players motivated and healthy….
“It’s no coincidence the Kings and the Blackhawks have faced elimination in the first round this spring, although the Blackhawks escaped Thursday with a double-overtime victory over the St. Louis Blues.* The Blackhawks, who won the cup in 2010, 2013 and last season, have had to figure out how to reward players for success yet keep everyone under a salary cap that hasn’t risen as much as had been anticipated, and how to replace vital role players whose salaries had to be sacrificed to give the team’s stars lucrative, long-term deals.”
*Chicago then forced a Game 7 with 6-3 win over St. Louis on Saturday.
—As a Rangers fan, we can echo many of Ms. Elliott’s sentiments above in that our most dominant era in recent history is receding into the past, too, only there is one key difference. We don’t have two Stanley Cups to show for it!
I watched Saturday’s deciding Game 5 in Pittsburgh, the Rangers getting blown out by the Penguins 6-3, Pittsburgh winning the series 4-1 with ease.
Larry Brooks / New York Post
“The Rangers made the last two – and three of the last four – springtimes in New York special times, thrice making it to the conference finals and once taking it further to play for the Stanley Cup.
“They skated through the final weekend of May each of those four years, even in 2013 when kayoed by the Bruins in a five-game second round that marked the end of John Tortorella’s stay behind the Blueshirts’ bench…
“So hockey reigned in New York during the spring, like basketball did when Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley and Pat Riley/Jeff Van Gundy made the Knicks great playoff theater all those years playing the Bulls, Pacers and Heat.
“But that run ended and now so does this one, and each shy of a championship. Close, but close is never enough. And now it is done. The icy road has come to a dead end.
“Yesterday’s gone….
“Saturday was the day the music died for this estimable group of Rangers…
“There can be no illusions under the debris of this series in which the Blueshirts were outscored 21-10, and 11-4 over the final two games, both of which Henrik Lundqvist finished on the bench after being pulled, and in both of which the abysmal defensive zone play that pockmarked the season from beginning to end surfaced time and time again.”
As Brooks observes, “the Rangers grew old overnight and became slow, quickly.”
44 postseason games the past two years and 76 over the previous four springs can do that to an older team.
Then there’s Lundqvist. Prior to Saturday’s game, King Henrik was 15-4 in elimination games.
“Lundqvist comes out of this with his crown tarnished. There is no doubt about that. But the franchise goaltender was so far and away the Rangers’ best and most valuable player this season, it is well-nigh impossible to name the runner-up in either category.”
I’ve long told you what kind of hockey fan I am. I was a super one growing up and in the early 80s had season tickets.
The last few years, though, I would casually follow the regular season, just waiting for the playoffs, and it’s been fun. Eight playoff round victories over four springs is pretty good.
But this era of success is over…finis. I’m kind of depressed writing this. We had our chances and didn’t get it done.
–As I go to post, the Islanders are trying to wrap things up against the Panthers, after a 2-1 win on Friday in double OT down in Florida. I may have to stay interested in the playoffs through them.
–After allowing the Flyers to come back from a 3-0 deficit to get the series to 3-2, Washington ended it on Sunday, 1-0. Washington-Pittsburgh would be a terrific conference final.
–The Dallas Stars advanced with a 4-2 series win over the Minnesota Wild.
NFL
In a stunning and incredibly stupid trade, the Philadelphia Eagles obtained the No. 2 overall pick in Thursday’s NFL draft from Cleveland for five selections over the next two years.
The Browns received the Eagles’ 2016 first-round pick (No. 8 overall) and their third- and fourth-round picks this year. They also get the Eagles’ 2017 first-round pick and the Eagles’ 2018 second-rounder.
The Eagles get a conditional fourth-round pick from the Browns in the 2017 draft aside from the No. 2 pick.
Why did the Eagles do this when they seemingly committed to Sam Bradford? I am hardly a Sam Bradford fan (I think there are six in the entire U.S.), but are Jared Goff or Carson “Senor Wences” really going to be better? Bradford is ticked and is demanding a trade.
I mean I’m a big college football fan, but I had no idea who Jared Goff was until mid-season, and barely knew anything about Carson Wentz.
I’m also very unimpressed by the next two supposed QBs in the draft, Paxton Lynch and Connor Cook. In fact I think Cook is a stiff so I was startled to see an article in the local papers today saying the Jets may want him, after they have previously expressed interest in Lynch.
The Eagles will get whoever the Rams, with the No. 1, don’t pick among the two.
I mean this comes a week after a blockbuster trade in which the Tennessee Titans sent the No. 1 pick to the Rams. As far as anyone can determine, this is the first time the Nos. 1 and 2 overall picks have been swapped in such a fashion. And the two quarterbacks the Rams and Eagles seem to be targeting are far from sure things.
Jarrett Bell / USA TODAY Sports
“Here’s to analytics…or just plain old common sense.
“You don’t have to possess a degree from an Ivy League institution to conclude that the Cleveland Browns scored a major coup on Wednesday in dealing away the second pick in next week’s draft.
“The Browns? Yes, that franchise, the one that once used first-round picks on Johnny Manziel, Justin Gilbert, Brandon Weeden, Brady Quinn…
“This is the franchise that has pulled the ‘under new management’ signage from the shed (again) as it is so hard-pressed to contain the revolving door of GMs and coaches that have flowed through Berea, Ohio.
“Well, now the Browns are also the franchise that I suspect just pulled one over on the Philadelphia Eagles and their top football decision-maker, Howie Roseman.
“Coming soon to social media: Another video installment featuring that crying, cursing Eagles fan….
“Are they crazy?
“Here’s what neither Wentz nor Goff are: Troy Aikman. Cam Newton. Andrew Luck. Jameis Winston. Marcus Mariota. The Eagles – who already have $34 million of owner Jeffrey Lurie’s money guaranteed for Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel – traded up for a quarterback who will be no sure thing in a league where the hit-miss ratio is around 50-50 on first-round passers.”
–Meanwhile, in another huge move, the Washington Redskins agreed to terms with free agent cornerback Josh Norman on a five-year deal worth $75 million ($36.5m guaranteed over the next two years), just two days after the Carolina Panthers withdrew the franchise tag on Norman that would have paid him $13.952 million in 2016.
But with Norman prepared to boycott the offseason workouts, and with a potential holdout looming and the Panthers not interested in a long-term deal, they decided to go in another direction.
Norman, 28, has spent all four of his NFL seasons with Carolina, establishing himself as one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL last year, named first-team all-pro and selected to the Pro Bowl for the first time.
So now Norman will be going up twice a year against Giants’ nemesis Odell Beckham Jr., as well as the Cowboys’ Dez Bryant. Must-see TV.
—Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan said the team is in no hurry to re-sign quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. We’ll see what the Jets do in the draft, but Maccagnan said on-field organized team activities don’t begin until May 24, so view that as a deadline.
Also, in light of what the Panthers did with Josh Norman, Maccagnan said there were no plans to rescind the $15.701 million franchise tag on defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson.
College Basketball
–It’s official. Duke forward Amile Jefferson was granted a medical-hardship waiver that will allow him to play one more college season in 2016-17, after a broken foot limited him to just nine games last season.
While the move was expected, you can now officially put it in the books…Duke is your national champion come next spring.
We now move on to the 2017-18 campaign.
–If I was doing Bar Chat back in the 1980s, much of the space would have been taken up with talk of the Big East Conference, and the constant comparisons with the ACC. Being a 1980 Wake Forest grad, I know my fellow ACC alums were constantly having to defend our conference against the Big East, led back then by the likes of Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin and Dwayne “Pearl” Washington.
Pearl died the other day at the age of 52, having been diagnosed with a brain tumor last summer. He had surgery in the fall.
Washington grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York and like so many before him became a playground and high school legend. He was dubbed “The Pearl” because his game resembled that of NBA great Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, which, frankly, was a label I didn’t understand because I didn’t think their games were really that similar.
Washington excelled at Boys and Girls High School and was the nation’s most sought-after recruit in 1983. It was a surprise when he ended up at Syracuse and it changed coach Jim Boeheim’s program forever.
Boeheim said in the book “Color Him Orange: The Jim Boeheim Story,” “I can’t underscore how big a moment that was for our program. I believe at that point we officially went from being an Eastern program to a national program. Everybody knew who the Pearl was. I’d get off of a plane in L.A. and somebody would say, ‘There’s Pearl’s coach.’ He was the guy who opened the door for us and enabled us to land recruits not just from the East Coast or the Midwest but from the entire country.
Pearl played three years at Syracuse, 1983-86, and averaged 14.4, 15.4 and 17.3 ppg. But he was more than that, a sterling point guard, averaging nearly 7 assists and 2+ steals as well for his career. The Big East was awesome in those days with great tussles, twice a year, between Syracuse, St. John’s, Georgetown and Villanova in particular; UConn arriving on the scene in a big way later. [The other players, who had their own moments, were Boston College, Pittsburgh, Seton Hall and Providence.]
After graduating from Wake and having moved back up north, and in the days before every game imaginable was on television, the local TV and ESPN games were largely Big East affairs, save for the occasional North Carolina-Duke, North Carolina-Maryland, Maryland-Duke games.
Heck, I was jealous.
But for Pearl, his most memorable moment came on Jan. 21, 1984. With a home crowd of 30,000+ looking on, Washington made a running 45-foot shot at the buzzer to give the Orange a 75-73 win over Boston College, with the crowd reacting as if it was the NCAA Final. [YouTube it…great fun.]
Boeheim would tell the New York Times after, “We never had a shot like that for or against us in my 15 years at Syracuse.” Washington was just a freshman. The legend was born. He would earn All-American honors at Syracuse all three years and was first-team All-Big East twice. The ‘Cuse was 71-24 in his time there.
But after being selected in the first round by the New Jersey Nets in the 1986 draft (No. 13 overall pick), he had a tough time, and injuries, and averaged 8.6 points and 4.2 assists his rookie season and 9.3, 3.0 in 1987-88, finishing up with the expansion Miami Heat in 1988-89. It just wasn’t to be.
Forever after, though, he was The Pearl of Big East lore. One of the greatest ever.
Mike Vaccaro / New York Post
“Pearl Washington arrived just in time, in so many ways: in time for the Big East boom, in time for the Carrier Dome, in time for the first great wave of television exposure for a sport, college basketball, that for years was something you attended, not something you watched.
“We could watch Pearl. We still can watch him. We can spend an hour on YouTube and see the eternal magic he brought to Syracuse, the half-court shot that beat Boston College as a freshman, the way he nearly single-handedly took out Georgetown that same year, the times he lit up the Garden, which was just about any time he set foot in the Garden.
“Still, there is an essential element of the city’s basketball soul that Pearl takes with him, for in so many ways he was the Last Playground Legend. He was the bridge between the glittery present – where every crossover move a seventh-grader makes anywhere in the world is preserved on a cellphone camera – and a dusty old city basketball culture that was so much about word-of-mouth, so much about were-you-there-when.
“And so, so much about forever names out of a yesterday that weren’t photographed or filmed, Earl (The Goat) Manigault and Herman (Helicopter) Knowings and James (Fly) Williams and Joe (The Destroyer) Hammond and Richard (Pee Wee) Kirkland.
“And Dwayne (Pearl) Washington.
“These were the basketball ghosts who breathed life into cement city gardens from Rucker Park to West 4th Street and every corner of the outer boroughs, who were known as much by reputation as by anything anyone actually saw. Of course: everyone thinks they saw, but there are about 400,000 people who say they saw Wilt drop 100 on the Knicks in 1962, when only 4,124 actually did.”
[Ed. I did see some real talent on the West 4th Street court Vaccaro refers to. You’d get off the PATH at the 9th street station and walk a few blocks to this court in the middle of the Village. For years my brother lived two blocks from there so every time I went to see him I’d catch the action. I’m tellin’ ya, the Dudes were good. Actually, our main hangout for consuming domestic was across the street (a place called Emilio’s that turned into a fast-food joint years ago). And seeing as the years frequenting this place were 1977-84, I probably saw Pearl and didn’t know it. 18 drinking age back then, for accuracy.]
“But if you did see them?
“That’s what Pearl was. That’s what Pearl still is: the star of your memory. If you called around to your basketball friends of a certain age Wednesday, the stories were so clear, so vivid, so immediate.
“And none of them are available on YouTube.”
William C. Rhoden / New York Times
“Over the next few days there will be tributes to Washington, 52, one of the most celebrated guards to come out of Brooklyn. His freewheeling game put him on the list of legends like Roger Brown and Connie Hawkins as one of the most transformational high school players New York City has ever produced.
“More than Brown and more than Hawkins, whose college careers were cut short by scandal, Washington was a high school star whose fame and celebrity actually grew in college. At Syracuse, he not only became the face of the program, he became the charismatic force who ushered in a dominant era of Big East basketball, and the star of dozens of showcase nights at Syracuse’s new Carrier Dome.
“ ‘We had just opened, and we were getting 18,000 a game,’ Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said Wednesday. ‘It got to 25,000 when Pearl came here, because he was exciting. He never thought, and I never thought, he was the best point guard. But he was the most exciting guard I’ve ever seen.’
“Boeheim added: ‘I was very lucky to have a guy like Pearl…he helped make Jim Boeheim.’”
And this is important when you talk about Pearl Washington, the man.
Rhoden:
“While he left Syracuse early Washington returned to earn his degree and later returned a second time to begin work on a master’s degree.
“He also was as humble and selfless a person as he was flamboyant as a player. Entering their senior year of high school, (Elmer) Anderson [Ed. who played at St. Bonaventure] and Washington were invited to the fabled Five-Star summer camp, where they competed against the best players in the nation. Anderson was having an extraordinary camp, yet was overlooked for the All-Star team.
“Crestfallen, Anderson returned to his cabin. ‘I’m in tears,’ he said, ‘and who comes to my cabin at the foot of my bed and taps me and goes, ‘Elmer, here’’? It was Washington, handing Anderson his All-Star jersey.
“Washington had told the camp official, Howard Garfinkel, that he was injured and that Anderson would take his place.
“ ‘He loved Five-Star, he loved Howie Garfinkel and those guys, but he also loved me because I was going to be the one sweating with him for a whole year and not for a momentary existence for a week in camp,’ Anderson said.
“In January, as Washington’s health deteriorated, members of the Syracuse basketball team wore warm-up shirts with his nickname, Pearl, on the front. Boeheim, whose Orange reached the Final Four, said the tribute was the players’ idea.
“He also said the news of Washington’s death was an emotional body blow. ‘I’ve been here 40 years, so to me, these are my family guys, and as a father you don’t want to see your sons go before you go,’ he said. ‘That’s what it’s like. It’s like losing a son. I’ve cried on and off all day today. You knew it was coming, but I’m a little shocked.’
“Two weeks ago, Anderson gathered about 500 of Washington’s friends, former teammates and opponents, and fans who had never met Washington but had enjoyed watching him play….
“ ‘He could make the opponents’ fans stand up in anticipation of his next move,’ Anderson said. ‘You knew something was coming next. You just didn’t know what it would be.’”
RIP, Pearl.
Golf Balls
—Charley Hoffman won his fourth PGA Tour title at the Valero Open in San Antonio over Patrick Reed. He’s been playing well this year, but has had miserable fourth rounds. Today he closed the deal.
Third-round leader Ricky Barnes, on the other hand, failed to win his first title in his 222nd event.
–All kinds of rumors swirling around Tiger Woods this week. The Golf Channel’s Tim Rosaforte reported that Tiger has been “involved in a series of four-to-five-hour practice sessions at Medalist Golf Club…including the playing of some holes’ and that he ‘looked great, was talking to everybody in an upbeat mood, couldn’t have been happier.’ This comes two weeks after Rosaforte reported that Woods was spotted hitting drivers ‘full speed’ at Medalist, the club in Hobe Sound, Fla., at which Woods is a member. Rosaforte thought Woods was gearing up for the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, which begins on May 5.
But is Tiger really about to come back? And where would he do so? I said I thought it might be for the PGA at Baltusrol end of July. But now people are talking, perhaps, The Memorial, June 2-5; at least that is what Golf Channel reported on Friday, separate from Rosaforte’s report.
Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, though, said nothing has been decided.
But Michael Jordan told ESPN this week that his longtime friend, Woods, was “tired” and lamented the fact he had no “companion” to make him happy.
“I think he’s tired,” Jordan told ESPN. “I think he really wishes he could retire, but he doesn’t know how to do it yet, and I don’t think he wants to leave it where it is right now. If he could win a major and walk away, he would, I think.”
However, Jordan thinks the chances of future success is slim. “The thing is I love him so much that I can’t tell him, ‘You’re not gonna be great again,’’ he told the broadcaster. [Irish Independent]
Woods last event was in August, when he tied for 10th at the Wyndham Championship.
—Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa joined Australia’s Adam Scott in announcing he would not participate in golf’s return to the Olympics in August. Both players have cited busy schedules.
Vijay Singh of Fiji also said he would not participate. In a Golf Channel interview, Singh cited “the Zika virus, you know, and all that crap.” [I’m not sure how Singh would qualify.]
Thus far, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy have expressed their enthusiasm.
But I totally understand why some are pulling out. As I’ve noted since last fall, the schedule this summer is nuts, with three majors, the Olympics, and the FedEx Cup Playoffs in a three-month stretch, let alone regular tour events.
–In college golf, Clemson won the ACC Men’s Championship, but Wake Forest finished a solid second, so we’re looking good for the regionals and then, hopefully, the NCAAs.
NASCAR
–After missing the first eight races of the season, Tony Stewart returned to racing at Richmond International Raceway, having been sidelined with a back injury sustained in a dune buggy accident last January. This also marks the beginning of the end for Stewart, who had previously announced he was retiring at the conclusion of the season.
Richmond is a short track at just 0.75 miles, and Stewart is skipping next week’s race at Talladega, a 2.6-mile long track that allows drivers to reach speeds that could potentially cause issues for his back, he said.
–Earlier Stewart was fined $35,000 for comments he made criticizing NASCAR over how it polices pit road.
Stewart warned drivers will be injured if NASCAR doesn’t start forcing teams to put all five lug nuts on their cars during tire changes.
NASCAR said later that the series will re-consider how it polices the application of lug nuts during pit stops following incidences of loose wheels and an outcry of safety concerns among drivers.
NASCAR last season began allowing teams to use as few as three of five lug nuts as policing became more difficult without an official assigned to each pit stall.
Teams gain valuable time by applying just three or four. Right now, NASCAR rule 10.11.3.4 states that “All tires and wheels must be installed in a safe and secure manner at all times during the event,” but the rule makes no mention of lug nuts.
–So, who won the race at Richmond? Carl Edwards won his second in a row, number 27 overall, as he manufactured a bump and run against teammate Kyle Busch on the final run that was quite ingenious. Busch didn’t seem overly upset in the end, but I only saw a brief interview.
Tony Stewart finished 19, which was a solid effort.
Premier League
Scattered play this weekend owing to ongoing Cup play for some of the teams, Manchester United defeating Everton 2-1 in one semifinal of the FA Cup; Crystal Palace defeating Watford 2-1 in the other.
In Premier League play, on Saturday, Manchester City blitzed Stoke 4-0, while Liverpool drew with Newcastle 2-2, another key point for Newcastle as it seeks to stave off relegation.
Sunday, Leicester pulled 8 points clear with a dominating performance over Swansea, 4-0. The greatest professional sports story in the world continues. Sunderland, though, dealt Arsenal’s Champions League hopes a blow with a 0-0 draw, that, like Newcastle, helped Sunderland in the relegation fight.
Earlier in the week, Arsenal defeated West Brom 2-0. The reason why the draw w/Sunderland hurts is that, yes, finishing fourth ensures Champions League play, but you have to go through a qualifying round, whereas the top three are in without this extra step.
So the standings…as irregular play continues with all the Cup action….
1. Leicester 35 (games) – 76 (points)
2. Tottenham 34 – 68*
3. Manchester City 35 – 64
4. Arnsenal 35 – 64
5. Manchester United 34 – 59
*Tottenham plays West Brom on Monday.
In the relegation battle, the last three getting expelled….
17. Sunderland 34 – 31
18. Norwich 34 – 31 [Sunderland ahead on goal differential]
19. Newcastle 35 – 30
20. Aston Villa 35 – 16
Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho signed a contract with Manchester United to become their next manager, with a formal announcement expected in the weeks ahead.
The former Chelsea manager has been linked with replacing Louis van Gaal for months. There is a potential wrinkle in that Paris St. Germain is apparently offering him similar dollars (euros) to return there.
The FA Cup final on May 21 would be Van Gaal’s final game.
–The Champions League is down to the semis. Tuesday it’s Man City vs. Real Madrid. Wednesday it’s Atletico Madrid vs. Bayern Munich.
RIP Prince
Prince, 57, died Thursday morning in his home recording studio in Chanhassen, Minn. He had been hospitalized in Illinois last week, as his plane on the way from Atlanta back home to Minneapolis, made an emergency landing for a medical condition, but then after about three hours in a local hospital, Prince and his entourage hopped back on the plane, according to reports, against the recommendations of the medical staff. TMZ reported Prince had overdosed on painkillers. Results of an autopsy may not be released for weeks.
Born Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis on June 7, 1958, the trailblazing performer sold more than 100 million records over the course of his career, fusing rock, pop, funk and R&B while demonstrating an audacious sense of style and a willingness to court controversy.
Prince won seven Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for best original song score for the 1984 film “Purple Rain.”
Prince’s first Billboard Top 40 was 1979’s #11 “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” but he really burst on the scene in 1983 with #6 “Little Red Corvette,” #12 “1999,” #8 “Delirious,” and then #1s “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy,” along with #2 “Purple Rain.”
Prince would end up with five Billboard #1s, 50 top 40 hits worldwide, but he was far more than that.
From 1980 on…he was simply the best overall performer, bandleader, composer and musician in the world.
John Jurgensen and Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal
“Prince’s protean career, which took him from humble origins in Minneapolis to megastardom, ended with a series of concerts that distilled his prodigious talent: In his final shows, he was alone on stage, singing at a piano.
“With more performances ahead and a memoir planned for 2017, the singer seemed poised to sustain his prolific and unpredictable pace. Several days ago, Prince texted his team about getting a clear, acrylic piano made for those shows – ideally one where the black key would turn purple when he played them, Marciano Agabon, one of Prince’s production managers for the past two year, said in an interview.
“After reports last week that Prince was hospitalized during a trip home from a concert in Atlanta, the performer held an impromptu public gathering days later at his Paisley Park compound outside Minneapolis, apparently to demonstrate that he was in good health….
“Prince leaves an enormous trove of unreleased music. The website PrinceVault.com list 26 unreleased albums and the ‘unreleased Prince projects’ Wikipedia entry lists hundreds of songs and goes on for pages.
“Warner Music Group co-owns the rights to all the unreleased music in Prince’s vault that was recorded between 1978 and 1996, when Prince was under contract there, and those songs can’t be released without permission from both the label and whoever takes control of Prince’s estate. It isn’t clear who that will be because Prince wasn’t married, had no children and cycled through many business managers.”
[Much more on the estate issue in the weeks and months to come.]
President Barack Obama
“Today, the world lost a creative icon. Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent. As one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time, Prince did it all. Funk. R&B. Rock and roll. He was a virtuoso instrumentalist, a brilliant bandleader, and an electrifying performer.
“ ‘A strong spirt transcends rules,’ Prince once said – and nobody’s spirit was stronger, bolder, or more creative. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, his band, and all who loved him.”
Cindy Boren / Washington Post
“Prince honored the sports world with his presence a number of times over the years, usually letting his music do the speaking for him. Most memorably, he delivered the best halftime performance in Super Bowl history in 2007, when he rocked Miami’s Dolphin Stadium in a pouring rain.
“ ‘Can you make it rain harder?’ he asked, when told that it would be raining during the show.
“ ‘He’s just one performer shaking the entire world,’ Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote, and that actually felt like an understatement as he performed ‘Let’s Go Crazy,’ ‘Purple Rain’ and other songs in the 12-minute show….
“The Chicago Bears went on to lose that game to the Indianapolis Colts and, worse, they didn’t get to see Prince….
“In early March, Prince sat courtside to watch the NBA’s reigning monarch, Stephen Curry, and the Golden State Warriors play in Oakland. At a recent concert at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre, he said, ‘What can you truly count on besides Steph Curry? And you can count on Steph Curry.’”
Jody Rosen of the New York Times, on the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where an all-star band played the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” a tribute to George Harrison, a posthumous honoree.
Harrison’s son Dhani, along with old bandmates and collaborators like Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Steve Winwood are there, along with another person, “standing a bit apart from the rest.”
If you haven’t seen the video, it’s easy to find, with over 20m views.
There’s Prince, who at about the 3 ½ minute mark takes over.
“A huge sound comes roaring out of his Telecaster, an onslaught of notes and riffs and block chords that continues rippling and lashing for nearly three minutes. It’s an attack that seems intended not just to extinguish all memory of Eric Clapton’s famous solo on the original recording, but to vanquish George Harrison and the Beatles for good measure. It’s a brazen hijacking of an In Memoriam tribute, a breach of etiquette – and a wondrous exhibition of pure showmanship and ego. When the song ends, Prince whips off his guitar, flings it in the air and peacocks off, stage left….
“A month before the Rock Hall gig, he appeared on the Grammy Awards, charging through a medley of his hits alongside Beyonce. You could see him straining to be courteous, to cede the spotlight a bit. But after a few minutes, he appeared to lose patience and cranked up the virtuosity – dancing, shredding on guitar, sliding from the depth-sounder bottom end of his vocal register into an otherworldly falsetto. The spectacle concluded with another guitar toss, and Beyonce, one of the world’s more unflappable performers, was left looking rather windblown, teetering on her high heels.
“Antagonism has always been one of music’s animating forces. It runs through history…Bronx street corner battle-rap showdowns, Mozart versus Salieri, Beatles versus Stones… But Prince may have been the most tenacious musical competitor of them all. His ambition was outrageous: With every song, every note, he aimed to be the best, the baddest, the most wizardly, the most unimpeachable….
“He was a one-man band extraordinaire, the world’s best rhythm section and the world’s best background vocal choir. He could sing like Al Green or, if the mood struck, John Lennon; he could work a bandstand as fearsomely as James Brown and play a guitar as well as Jimi Hendrix. His death came as a shock because he had strode into his sixth decade in apparently undiminished form, with the waistline and hairline of a man half his age and the stamina of a man even younger than that. His hitmaking days were behind him, and his pop-culture profile waxed and waned, but whenever he resurfaced, he served notice that he was indomitable: He could still sing, dance, play instruments, write songs and produce records better than everyone else….
“The point was unmistakable: If Michael Jackson wanted a rip-roaring guitar solo, he had to corral Eddie Van Halen and pay him a generous day rate. Prince could peel off the solo himself, presumably in between orgies….
“(Prince’s) faith in music and his own paranormal gift for it never wavered. His most persuasive theological pronouncement came in ‘My Name Is Prince.’ ‘In the beginning God made the sea,’ he sings. ‘But on the seventh day he made me.’ Amen.”
Allison Morrow / Wall Street Journal
“The death of a celebrity always creates a wellspring of emotion on Twitter, and news of Prince’s death Thursday was no exception.
“Predictably, not long after his death was confirmed, consumer brands were jumping into the conversation on social media, showing us all how in touch they are with pop culture and our collective pain.
“General Mills’ Cheerios account posted (and soon after deleted) a tweet of a purple banner reading ‘Rest in Peace’ – with a Cheerio dotting the i.
“Some people found the message tone-deaf.”
I’ll say.
Prince was cremated with a small, private service for family, friends and musicians on Saturday.
Stuff
—People magazine selected Jennifer Aniston, 47, as its “Most Beautiful Woman in the World.” I have zero problem with this, though I’m still partial to Peggy Fleming.
Aniston held the title in 2004 at age 35. Last year Sandra Bullock won at age 50.
—Former wrestling champion Joanie Laurer, known better in the ring as Chyna, died Wednesday at the age of 45. TMZ reported police were investigating the death as a possible overdose.
Chyna had a groundbreaking career with the WWE and fought both men and women.
–Brad K. passed along this tragic tale.
“An ostrich freed from a circus by animal rights activists enjoyed 10 minutes of freedom…before it was killed by a hit-and-run driver.
“Nala was sprung along with her partner Zawo and goose called Fred from the Kaiser Circus in Munich on Monday evening.
“All three fled into the night after the door keeping them captive was removed from its hinges. But circus staff who went looking for them found Nala dead in the road a short distance from the big top.
“The two other birds were recaptured. Police say three men and a woman – known animal rights activists – were responsible for her death.
“ ‘It’s really affected me, I live with my animals,’ said circus director Andre Kaiser, who was looking after some camels when the intruders set the birds free.”
Talk about assholes….and dirtballs. Into the December file you go.
–Update: The Palm Beach Zoo announced Friday that Stacey K., the 37-year-old animal keeper who was killed by a Malayan tiger, entered a part of the tiger enclosure with one of the big cats in it – which is not allowed.
In a statement, the zoo said: “There is absolutely no mystery as to how Stacey K. died. The question is: why did a deeply talented and experienced zookeeper, fully aware of the presence of a tiger and knowledgeable of our safety protocols, enter a tiger enclosure into which a tiger had access?”
The zoo has refused to identify the animal as it has been receiving threats. Some are also wondering why the tiger was tranquilized and not killed.
I say this in all seriousness. Knowing what we know now, there is zero reason for the tiger to be put down.
–Yes, I’m a “Game of Thrones” fan, even if like many of us I have a hard time keeping up with who is who and the plot. I was reading an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times by some Northwestern University professor, whose name I don’t need to mention, and he trashed the show and those of our ilk who “waste their time” watching such a fantasy.
Well, heck with you, professor. Life sucks, and, personally speaking, I have so little free time these days I need a fantasy break.
GOT isn’t for everyone, but it’s just right for me. [I abandoned HBO’s “Vinyl” early, by the way.]
–Must see television…maybe…Tuesday morning, Kelly Ripa’s return to “Live With Kelly and Michael.” At least that’s the word as of tonight.
—2016 has been a terrible year for lovers of the music industry: David Bowie, Maurice White, Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner, Merle Haggard, Sir George Martin, and Prince; many far too young.
Baseball Quiz Answer: Four with 400 HR 300 SB:
Willie Mays…660 HRs…338 SBs
Andrew Dawson…438…314
Barry Bonds…762…514
Alex Rodriguez…689…327
Beltran…396…311
Here’s my problem with Beltran. Yes, he was Rookie of the Year in 1999. Yes he’s an 8-time All-Star, and 3-time Gold Glove winner. But he has been top 5 in the MVP voting only once, and while he’s been a superb postseason hitter, with 16 home runs and a .332 average in 184 at bats, he has no rings.
I mean he has never led the league in any offensive category, period.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
