[Posted Sunday…prior to the Oscars]
Baseball Quiz: San Diego Padres All-Star first baseman Wil Myers had 28 home runs and stole 28 bases last season and a few weeks ago, I saw where he made the comment he wanted to join the 40-40 club at some point in his career. So who are the only four in baseball history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season. Answer below.
Daytona 500
Wow! What a freakin’ race! I admit I was flipping non-stop between Daytona and golf, but I caught all the major action of both and as I write below, written before the race, NASCAR needs a shot or two in the arm and boy, this race delivered, helped in no small part by the fantastic commentary of Jeff Gordon.
I wrote last year that Gordon was phenomenal in the broadcast booth, and I swear, he is the best at what he does of anyone in the sports world. [The Mets’ Ron Darling is second.]
In the end, 38-year-old Kurt Busch won his first Daytona 500 on a last lap pass, the only lap he led of the entire race, what to me was even more exciting than last year’s closest-ever win by Denny Hamlin because of the strategy involved, described perfectly by Gordon.
Ironically, Busch’s primary sponsor is Monster Energy, which I talk about below.
And it is so cool that Tony Stewart, of Haas-Stewart Racing, wins the race he couldn’t as a driver in his first year of retirement.
I also can’t help but note that with about 30 laps to go, fellow race fan, my brother, called to say he was rooting for Ryan Blaney, because he was driving the legendary Wood Brothers car, and Blaney finished second, his best career finish.
Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was taken out in a crash that started when Kyle Busch had a tire go bad (Dale Jr. not injured, thankfully), and I loved how Kyle totally trashed Goodyear Tire, a major sponsor of his. If you watched the race from the beginning, it was largely about how [lousy] the tires were. Too funny….though I imagine Goodyear execs tonight are apoplectic.
So NASCAR is off to an awesome start. I hope it’s an entertaining season throughout.
Now these last bits were written before the race.
–Since 2005, NASCAR’s television viewership is down 45%, according to Nielsen, twice as large as the NBA’s decline from its peak. NFL viewership has fallen 8%.
I saw an interview with Roger Penske the other day and he said part of the problem is perception. You have these tracks with, say, 150,000 seats, but when 80,000 show up, the place looks empty, even though it’s still a massive crowd. People then sense there is something wrong, so many tracks are now tearing out whole sections.
–Meanwhile, NASCAR’s new title sponsor, Monster Energy, is known for its models and their risqué outfits and despite some criticism on social media, a spokesman for the company said the other day: “Monster has always been about racing and girls, and that won’t change.”
*Postscript: Goodness gracious! They looked awesome!
College Basketball Review….
Since last chat, there were a few games of note on Wednesday….
No. 2 Villanova (26-3, 13-3) lost for a second time this season to 22 Butler (22-6, 11-5), 74-66 at Villanova, snapping a 48-game on-campus winning streak for the Wildcats.
No. 8 North Carolina (24-5, 12-3) defeated 7 Louisville (22-6, 10-5) in Chapel Hill, 74-63.
No. 10 Duke saw its winning streak snapped at the Carrier Dome as Syracuse guard John Gillon hit a 3 at the buzzer for a 78-75 win, dropping the Blue Devils to 22-6, 10-5, while the Orange should have wrapped up a NCAA Tournament bid at 17-12, 9-7 (I know, everyone else still has them on the bubble…but one more win and they’re in).
Minnesota had an important win in the Big Ten, defeating 24 Maryland (22-6, 10-5) on the road, 89-75. The Gophers at 21-7, 9-6, should be in line for a bid.
Then there was Wake Forest-Pitt in Winston-Salem, a must-win contest for the Deacs if they were to still harbor the slightest dream of a bid to the Big Dance. But Wake started out flat, Pitt hit six threes in the first half, and at the intermission the Deacs trailed 36-24.
Having been down 36-17 with 2:51 left, though, I felt strangely confident watching it all unfold. But little did I know just how awful the play would be in the second half as Wake nonetheless ever so slowly chipped away at the Pitt lead. Neither team played well at all but Wake, despite some awful turnovers and a bunch of missed free throws down the stretch, somehow prevailed 63-59.
Get this, the Panthers were 1 of 18 from the field the final 15 ½ minutes! 1 of 11 from three in the second half. Heck, our two main guards, Bryant Crawford and Keyshawn Woods, were a combined 4 of 20 from the field in the game.
But John Collins set a school record with his 11th consecutive game of 20 points, all against ACC competition, as he had 22 with 13 rebounds.
So Wake stayed relevant, 16-12, 7-9, while Pitt fell to 15-13, 4-11. The Deacs didn’t play this weekend and face Louisville at home on Wednesday. If we win that one, we have a shot.
One other game of import strictly to moi on Wednesday…my “Pick to Click” San Diego State Aztecs fell to 16-11, 8-7, with a bad home loss to Fresno State (17-11, 9-7) 63-55.
Thursday, No. 1 Gonzaga (29-0) destroyed San Diego 96-38, as the Zags were 37 of 56 from the field, 66.1%, while the Toreros went 14 of 58, 24.1%. Yup, that’s how you end up with 96-38, boys and girls.
But then Saturday, Gonzaga lost at home to BYU, 79-71, behind Eric Mika’s 29 points and 11 rebounds. It was the Cougars’ first victory over a No. 1 team.
Gonzaga ended a string of 15 consecutive games where it didn’t trail in the second half.
BYU is now 21-10, 12-6, and clearly on the NCAA bubble. Gonzaga, which hasn’t been highly respected by the tourney selection committee, would definitely not be a 1-seed if they were to lose to, say, Saint Mary’s, or BYU, in their conference tourney.
Meanwhile, Villanova rebounded with a 79-63 win over 23 Creighton. [Creighton point guard Maurice Watson Jr. was charged with first-degree sexual assault Thursday. He was already out for the season with a knee injury, but nine days after the alleged assault, the school had suspended him from all basketball activities.]
In a huge Pac-12 contest involving a probable No. 1 seed in the NCAAs, 5 UCLA (26-3, 13-3) defeated 4 Arizona (26-4, 15-2) 77-72.
8 North Carolina (25-5, 13-3) kept its 1-seed hopes alive with an 85-67 win over Pitt.
9 Baylor (23-6, 10-6) lost again, this time at Iowa State (19-9, 11-5) 72-69. Baylor should tumble to 20.
10 Duke (22-7, 10-6) suddenly has a two-game losing streak after falling to Miami 55-50. Grayson Allen was out with an ankle injury and Luke Kennard and Jayson Tatum went a combined 10 for 36 from the field. For the Hurricanes (20-8, 10-6), freshman guard Bruce Brown had 25.
11 Kentucky (24-5, 14-2) took over sole possession of the SEC conference with a 76-66 win over 13 Florida (23-6, 13-3).
And 24 Maryland (22-7, 10-6) suffered another awful loss at home, this time to Iowa (16-13, 8-8) 83-69.
Others of note….
Virginia rebounded to defeat North Carolina State, 70-55, and 19 Florida State (23-6, 11-5) edged Clemson 76-74. The Seminoles have an important contest at Duke on Tuesday.
And San Diego State lost at Colorado State 56-55.
Well, I have to note some of Sunday’s games….
Louisville defeated Syracuse 88-68, the Orange dropping to 9-8 in the ACC.
UCF upset 15 Cincinnati (25-4, 14-2) 53-49.
And 16 Wisconsin (22-7, 11-5) lost to Michigan State (18-11, 10-6) 84-74.
For my ACC friends looking for the likes of Wake to get a bid, this last result is not good. With Tom Izzo’s track record, this was a huge win in the eyes of the selection committee, I imagine.
NBA
Play resumed Thursday following the All-Star break and the Cavaliers whipped the Knicks in Cleveland, 119-104, as neither Carmelo Anthony or Derrick Rose were traded at the deadline. LeBron had 18 points, 13 rebounds and 15 assists.
I can’t help but note another contest Thursday, Detroit’s 114-108 win over Charlotte, because Wake Forest’s Ish Smith was 2 of 12 from the field, but he had 16 assists and was +20 off the bench!
Friday, the Nets (9-48) lost to the Nuggets (26-32) in Denver, 129-109, Brooklyn’s 15th loss in a row. Since Dec. 26 when they were 8-22, the Nets are 1-26!
Everyone and their mother knew the Nets would suck this year, but I have to call myself out because last Sept. 22 I had this:
“The Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas released its over/under regular-season win totals for the 2016-17 NBA season and it’s no surprise the Golden State Warriors are tops at 66.5 wins. Most people expect the Warriors to exceed their record 73-win total of last season.
“The Brooklyn Nets are projected to be the worst at 20.5 wins. I’d snap up the ‘over’ if I were you.”
I was thinking they’d go something like 28-54, which is still dreadful, but now they’re looking like 12-70.
Meanwhile, that Warriors total is looking pretty good. They are currently 48-9. 67-15?
Make that Warriors are 49-9, Nets are 9-49, as Saturday night, Golden State handed Brooklyn loss no. 16 in a row, 112-95.
—Cleveland got the backup point guard LeBron has been clamoring for, Deron Williams, who negotiated his release from the Dallas Mavericks, where he was averaging 13.1 points and 6.9 assists in 40 games. He will cost the Cavs $900,000 in salary and luxury tax. This is the perfect fit for D-Will. But the Cavs lost to the Bulls Saturday in Cleveland, 117-99, as LeBron stayed home with a strep throat.
In other contests, Carmelo Anthony hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds left to give the Knicks a 110-109 win over the 76ers.
And Miami beat Indiana, 113-95, as Demon Deacon James Johnson had 15 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocked shots off the bench. [Fellow Deac Jeff Teague had a poor game, 16 points but a -24.]
NFL
The NFL Combine is this week and I have to admit, I won’t watch a single second of it, but I do like looking at the potential draft lists and USA TODAY Sports has one for each position.
Quarterback
1. Mitch Trubisky, North Carolina
2. Deshaun Watson, Clemson
3. DeShone Kizer, Notre Dame
4. Patrick Mahomes, Texas Tech
5. Brad Kaaya, Miami
But there’s been some recent buzz about Davis Webb from Cal, that maybe he is the top prospect at the position. He’s currently projected as a fourth-round pick. Sound familiar? Played in Dallas this past season. [Webb is 9th on the USA TODAY list, behind No. 8 Nathan Peterman of Pitt, who I can’t believe is ranked this high.]
Running Backs
1. Dalvin Cook, Florida State…my man…
2. Leonard Fournette, LSU
3. Christian McCaffrey, Stanford…no way…don’t take him
4. Joe Mixon, Oklahoma…lots of PR risk with this one
9. James Conner, Pitt…projected 4/5…I’d take him in the fifth and not expect anything the first year. He just wasn’t all the way back last fall, in my amateur opinion, following his bout with cancer, and I’m guessing he might still need a little more time, especially at the NFL level.
Wide Receiver
1. Corey Davis, Western Michigan…can’t disagree
2. Mike Williams, Clemson…but I’d put him No. 1, Davis No. 2
3. John Ross II, Washington…huh…
4. JuJu Smith-Schuster, Southern Cal
5. Curtis Samuel, Ohio State…safe pick for second round
Tight Ends
1. O.J. Howard, Alabama…man among boys
2. David Njoku, Miami
No. 1 player overall in these rankings, Defensive End Myles Garrett, Texas A&M. No. 2, DT/DE Jonathan Allen, Alabama.
Wake Forest fans…Marquel Lee is listed as the ninth best inside linebacker (4/5 round).
–We knew this was coming, but it still kind of sucks…the Jets released center Nick Mangold, a fixture over the last 11 seasons. He posted Saturday:
“I truly want to thank the fans for their amazing support over the past 11 years. It meant a lot to see all the #74 jerseys in the crowd every Sunday.”
The Jets will save the entire $9.1 million Mangold was set to make in 2017 – a number that was simply too high after injuries held him to just eight games in 2016. Earlier this week, they cut long-time kicker Nick Folk and right tackle Breno Giacomini to save another $7.5 million in cap space with free agency looming in two weeks.
Jets fans now await decisions on Darrelle Revis, receiver Brandon Marshall and linebacker David Harris…a combined $23 million more in potential cap savings.
–On the college football front, Ole Miss officials announced a self-imposed one-year bowl ban for the 2017 season, after the university received a new NCAA notice of allegations that accused it of lack of institutional control, with Rebels coach Hugh Freeze failing to monitor his coaching staff.
The NCAA has accused the Rebels of 21 rules violations by current or former coaches.
Ole Miss has 90 days to respond to the notice and it seems likely the NCAA will add to the school’s self-imposed penalties, while Freeze could face a multigame suspension if he can’t prove he was in charge.
The charges mostly concern recruiting, such as a former Ole Miss staff member supposedly arranged for a recruit to receive cash payments from two boosters totaling $13,000 to $15,600.
–On a lighter college football note, I am on the Oregon football mailing list because I went to one game years ago, and I got a kick out of an email I received today that said there was a “One Week Extension” for season tickets.
Well, I forwarded the note to Johnny Mac, commenting on how this was an example of the dire straits of Oregon these days, and he replied with the rather trenchant comment, “Hold out for a pair of cheerleaders!” Brilliant.
MLB
Bob Nightengale / USA TODAY Sports
“Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred insists he’s simply trying to be proactive, thinking that new rules to speed up his sport will provide more action and keep Millennials engaged.
“Among those who play the game, however, Manfred has provoked only disgust.
“Manfred wants the 20-second pitch clock that exists in the minor leagues to be implemented in the big leagues. He wants limited visits to the pitcher’s mound by catchers and infielders. He wants to eliminate the low strike in the strike zone. And if he doesn’t get cooperation from the players union, he’ll implement them himself in time for the 2018 season.
“The players think these new rules will cause so much collateral damage to the sport that the game will become unrecognizable.
“ ‘If you put a clock on baseball, you take away the sanctity of the game and the character of it,’ Texas Rangers catcher Jonathan Lucroy told USA TODAY Sports. ‘The game has been played like this way for 150 years, and now we’re going to change it? I understand trying to speed up the game to create more action, but this isn’t football. It doesn’t make any sense.’
“Says Kansas City Royals slugger Brandon Moss: ‘I’m just very glad I will not be playing this game in 10 years. It won’t be recognizable. It’s going in a direction where it’s not the same game. Every year they keep trying to think of some stupid new rule. It’s getting old. Real old.’”
But baseball is scared of losing the younger audience forever. As Nightengale writes:
“(Manfred) and the executives on Park Avenue worry about the game’s lack of action. There were fewer balls put in play last season than at any other time in history. The ball was not in play during 30.8% of plate appearances last season, according to Sports Illustrated, with the ball entering play once every 3 minutes, 25 seconds. They stress over dominant relief pitching suffocating offenses. They’re troubled by the lack of late-game lead changes.”
And the move this year to eliminate the intentional walk is kind of absurd. There’s only one free pass issued every three games, it turns out.
Golf Balls
After Rickie Fowler shot an opening round 66 at the Honda Classic (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.), I told my friend David P. what every golf fan knows. He needs some Ws to keep his Q Score up.
Rickie has built a great brand, but he had only three PGA Tour wins, until today, when he captured No. 4.
Fowler was 0-4 with a 54-hole lead, and it seemed he would squander his 4-shot lead as he stumbled big time early, but he more than held on with a solid back nine for a 4-shot win over New Jersey’s Morgan Hoffman and Gary Woodland.
But this is a tournament associated with Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, and their incredible charity work with their hospital, and I loved the job NBC and Jack did in analyzing Fowler’s swing, and how he lifts the club off the ground before every shot (including putts). It’s what Jack did, and it makes so much sense (to clear the swing instead of dragging it back off the ground) but I’m one godawful golfer who never thinks about this.
Well goshdarnit…this year I will, in my 5 or so rounds. I also forget to choke down on the club…like on a 4-iron instead of trying to pound a 5 or 6.
—Pat Perez went on the SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio show “Out of Bounds” and accused Tiger Woods of continuing to play only to keep his sponsorship deals.
“He knows he can’t beat anybody,” Perez said. “He’s got this new corporation that he started, so he has to keep his name relevant to keep the corporation going. So he’s going to show up to a few events. He’s going to try to play. …He’s going to show the Monster bag. He’s going to show the TaylorMade driver. He’s gonna get on TV. He’s got the Nike clothes. He’s gotta keep that stuff relevant.”
Perez added; “If he doesn’t play [in the Masters at] Augusta, then it’s over. I can tell you that right now. …Personally, I don’t think you’ll see him again this year.”
–Rory McIlroy isn’t afraid to fight back when he’s given grief over something that most of us would consider to be no big deal. After taking flack on social media for golfing the other day with Donald Trump, Rory tweeted, “It was, quite simply, a round of golf.”
Rory played with Trump, former Yankee Paul O’Neill and Clear Sports CEO Garry Singer at Trump International in South Florida.
“I don’t agree with everything my friends or family say or do, but I still play golf with them,” McIlroy wrote.
“Last week, I was invited to play golf with the President of the United States. Whether you respect the person who holds that position or not, you respect the office that he holds. That wasn’t an endorsement nor a political statement of any kind. It was, quite simply, a round of golf.”
“Golf was our common ground, nothing else.”
Of course some of the criticism of Rory was vicious and he clearly felt the sting.
“I’ve travelled all over the world and have been fortunate enough to befriend people from many different countries, beliefs and cultures. To be called a fascist and a bigot by some people because I spend time in someone’s company is ridiculous.”
Karen Crouse of the New York Times polled 56 players at the recent Genesis Open if they would play with Trump if asked and 50 – 89.3% – said they would. Only three said they would not, and three declined to answer.
Ernie Els was recently asked to play with Trump, and while he had pulled out of that week’s PGA Tour event due to a sore neck, he said he wasn’t passing up an opportunity to have exclusive access to the leader of the free world.
“He is the president at the moment,” Els said. “If it was Barack Obama, I would have played. If it was Hillary Clinton, I would have played.”
—Ian Poulter told a funny story the other day. There is a famous photo of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, “The Lost Bet,” that shows Arnie handing Jack a $50 bill after losing a practice round bet in 1967. Poulter had a copy of the photo, unsigned, and decided he’d have Palmer and Nicklaus each sign a $100 to put into a nice frame to hang in the home office. One problem: he opened the home safe one day at Lake Nona, in Orlando, and the $100 he’d had Palmer sign was nowhere to be found.
His wife, Katie, had spent it.
Asked where she spent the money, Poulter said, “I have no idea. Not a clue. It was probably in Publix (a Florida supermarket chain), to be honest….but it was a shock horror when I actually did go in there to put it in the frame. You can imagine what I said… ‘Where’s the $100 bill gone?’”
“ ‘What hundred?’ his wife answered. Adds Poulter, ‘She says, ‘I don’t know, I must have spent it.’’
So Poulter drove across town to Palmer’s office at Bay Hill to ask him to sign another $100 bill for him. Palmer obliged, of course.
“I did tell him it was lost,” Poulter said. “I didn’t sell it.”
Seriously, there is a $100 bill floating around out there and chances are whoever currently holds it has no idea as to the significance. [Golf Digest]
Premier League
This week will long be remembered for Leicester City fans. What seemed unimaginable just a few months ago, happened…the firing of manager Claudio Ranieri after he pulled off the greatest miracle in Premier League history last spring; overcoming 5,000-to-1 odds to win the championship.
But the Foxes now face relegation in a stunning reversal of fortune. The club’s vice chairman said in a statement: “This has been the most difficult decision we have had to make in nearly seven years since King Power took ownership of Leicester City. But we are duty-bound to put the Club’s long-term interests above all sense of personal sentiment, no matter how strong that might be.”
Leicester hasn’t won a league game in 2017 and has a critical contest with Liverpool on Monday. It’s felt the Foxes need five wins in their final 13 games to avoid relegation. Reminder, no defending English champion has suffered such a fate since 1938.
Due to various League and Cup matches, Premier League action has been scattered, with my Tottenham Spurs regaining their mojo Sunday in a 4-0 win over Stoke City; Harry Kane getting his third hat-trick in nine games.
Chelsea beat Swansea 3-1, and in a critical relegation battle, Crystal Palace defeated Middlesbrough 1-0.
Standings….
1. Chelsea 26 games – 63 points
2. Tottenham 26 – 53
3. Manchester City 25 – 52
4. Arsenal 25 – 50
5. Liverpool 25 – 49
6. Manchester United 25 – 48
15. Swansea 26 – 24
16. Middlesbrough 26 – 22
17. Crystal Palace 26 – 22
18. Leicester 25 – 21
19. Hull 26 – 21
20. Sunderland 26 – 19
Stuff
–Nothing new on the World Cup ski front in terms of Mikaela Shiffrin closing the deal for the overall title. The women were at Crans-Montana, Switzerland this weekend and in the first event, the combined, the first leg of which was a super-G, the first three skiers out of the gate crashed at virtually the same spot, causing organizers to halt the race and restart it from a lower point on the course. But this wasn’t good enough for Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn, who pulled out of the event, not wanting to risk injury.
Other Americans did race, and Vonn told the Associated Press, “The problem is a lot of times people mistake our opinions as just whining. We’re women and we’re whining and we just need to suck it up and race, and that’s not the case.”
Other than Shiffrin, Vonn and another American, Laurenne Ross, all the entrants started (except one of the first three who was injured).
Shiffrin’s margin in the standings wasn’t threatened by her decision to sit out.
But then on Sunday, Shiffrin won a second Alpine combined at Crans-Montana; a makeup of a race canceled in January. She was seventh after the super-G and then had a stunning performance in the slalom for her first World Cup combined victory.
–I’ve written for years that the Olympics should be scrubbed in favor of a focus on each sport’s world championships, but since NBC has committed a $zillion for future Games, they will continue.
That said, Budapest withdrew its bid for the 2024 summer games, leaving just two cities – Los Angeles and Paris – competing to play host. I mean this is kind of shocking, and of course makes total sense.
Athens, Sochi, Rio…all total financial busts. Rio, for example, built these stadiums that cost $hundreds of millions to construct and now they have no occupants. In fact the swimming venue is already in disrepair, if you can believe it. Plus I wrote the other month that the Olympic golf course is going to hell.
At least L.A. and Paris already have existing facilities that could be used.
—American running coach Alberto Salazar is under investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), according to the BBC. Salazar has coached Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, among others.
This isn’t a surprise, as I’ve written of Salazar’s controversial training methods, but a leaked report, dated March 2016 and obtained by the Sunday Times (London) alleges he routinely gave Farah and others legal prescription drugs with potentially harmful side-effects without a justifiable medical reason.
This story has been out there in one form or another since 2015 and the BBC hasn’t been able to establish if the reported conclusions are out of date.
According to the Sunday Times, Salazar “used a banned method of infusing a legal supplement called L-carnitine,” while risking “the health of his athletes, including Farah, by issuing potentially harmful prescription medicines to improve testosterone levels and boost recovery, despite no obvious medical need.”
The main issue seems to be that the method of infusing L-carnitine may have broken doping rules.
Farah won the 5,000m and 10,000m gold medals at the past two Olympics.
But Salazar was cleared nine months ago from a similar investigation.
On Sunday, Farah said: “If Usada or any other anti-doping body has evidence of wrongdoing they should publish it and take action rather than allow the media to be judge and jury.”
In a statement UK Athletics said it stood by the findings of an investigation published in 2016 that found “there was no evidence of any impropriety on the part of Mo Farrah and no reason to lack confidence in his training program.”
–Sad note out of Hollywood as American actor and director Bill Paxton died unexpectedly yesterday after complications during surgery.
Paxton was known for appearing in hit films like “Aliens,” “Twister” and “Apollo 13.”
–Australia, for all its beauty, does scare the hell out of you if you know about all the poisonous snakes and spiders that you have to be aware of in just going about your business. It doesn’t matter where you live, you can become a victim if you’re not careful.
So we had the story this week of the 10-year-old Aussie boy who, thanks to the quick thinking of his father, survived a bite from one of the world’s deadliest creatures, the funnel-web spider.
Matthew Mitchell was helping his dad clear out the back shed at their home north of Sydney when he was bitten on the finger by the spider that found its way into his shoe.
The boy later told the Australian Daily Telegraph, “It sort of clawed onto me and all the legs and everything crawled around my finger and I couldn’t get it off.”
As described in the New York Daily News: “His father used his shirt as a compression bandage to try to slow the venom’s spread and rushed him to a hospital.
“He experienced convulsions but survived after being given 12 vials of anti-venom, which local media said was an Australian record.”
The funnel-web spider’s venom attacks the nervous system, causing foaming at the mouth, muscle spasms and then death, if you aren’t treated quickly.
The spider was actually caught and taken to the Australian Reptile Park, where it will be milked as part of their program to develop anti-venom.
–I forgot to contact Sports Illustrated to tell them not to send me the Swimsuit Issue, so it arrived and I had to glance through it….such drudgery….
Danielle Herrington on page 57 is my favorite! I am also attempting to contact Lais Ribeiro to see if she’d be interested in hosting our yearend Bar Chat Awards show. But it’s one of those ‘my people’ contacting ‘her people’ deals and it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to pull it off.
–Did you see the story of the jerk on “Jeopardy! College Championship” who gave Alex Trebek the finger?
Into the December file goes Stanford undergrad Viraj Mehta, who flipped Trebek the bird while talking about differential geometry and pizza.
It was during the small talk portion of Wednesday night’s edition when Mehta was explaining a theorem in geometry “that explains really, well, why, if you fold a slice of pizza, the tip stays in the air so you can eat it easily,” all the while flashing his own single-digit salute in the air.
This went on for about seven seconds before Mehta wrapped up his explanation. Trebek appeared not to notice as he chalked up Mehta’s theorem to “thick crust.”
Twitter noticed, though, and Mehta confirmed to one user that yes, the finger was quite intentional. He went on to win the game and become a finalist in the championship series.
Cue Jeff Spicoli.
–From the Orange County Register:
“There’s that moment, that split second, that you have to wonder what to do with the thrashing, enraged great white shark that’s stuck on the sand.
“The species is illegal to catch, so when an angler unknowingly reeled a 500-pound, eight-foot-long great white shark onto the shore at Sunset Beach about 2 p.m. Tuesday, there was no choice but to get it back in the water.”
Huntington Beach Marine Safety Officer Michael Bartlett said in his 31 years of lifeguarding, it was the first time he’s ever seen a great white shark caught from shore, but it was the latest in a series of great white incidents in recent weeks.
“To think an eight-footer is that close to shore is incredible, and a little spooky to think about it,” he said.
A week ago when a great white was hooked from the Huntington Beach Pier – but freed when the line broke – the area was put under a 24-hour advisory. There were no closures, because at 7- to 8-feet-long, the sharks are still considered juveniles.
But Director of Shark Attacks for Bar Chat, Bob S., passed along word today that a helicopter crew saw an 11- to 14-foot great white swimming 100 feet off Bolsa Chica State Beach (Huntington Beach) yesterday. That’s no juvenile, sports fans!
–My great friend and supporter, Jeff B., takes an annual vacation this time of year with his lovely wife, Kathy, to a beautiful resort on Antigua and I have told you over the years of the times he has brushed up against Hollywood elites.
So I knew he was going this week and I said, “Report in!” He did today, but it was bad news.
“DeNiro was here and sat next to a British couple we know, but we ate at the beach bar and missed him! [Rats!]”
Jeff, the week is young.
Top 3 songs for the week 2/25/84: #1 “Jump” (Van Halen) #2 “Karma Chameleon” (Culture Club…Nooooo!!!…) #3 “99 Luftballons” (Nena)…and…#4 “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” (Cyndi Lauper…god, music could not have sucked more back in this era…) #5 “Thriller” (Michael Jackson…well, we had him, I guess…) #6 “Joanna” (Kool & The Gang…not their best…) #7 “Nobody Told Me” (John Lennon…OK…) #8 “Let The Music Play” (Shannon) #9 “Wrapped Around Your Finger” (The Police…far from their best…) #10 “An Innocent Man” (Billy Joel…helps salvage the week…but we’re going back to the 60s…)
Baseball Quiz Answer: 40-40 club….
Jose Canseco, 1988, A’s…42 HR 40 SB
Barry Bonds, 1996, Giants…42 – 40
Alex Rodriguez, 1998, Mariners…42 – 46
Alfonso Soriano, 2006, Nationals…46 – 41
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
