[As I go to post, Wed. a.m., our thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families of the shooting in Alexandria, Va., this morning, as well as the victims of that horrible apartment tower fire in London. More in “Week in Review” on both later.]
U.S. Open Quiz: 1) Who won at the following venues: 2004 / Shinnecock; 2005: Pinehurst; 2006: Winged Foot; 2009: Bethpage Black. 2) Since 1970, what was the highest winning score, who won it, and at what course? Answers below.
Warriors Are Your Champs
A year ago, the then-defending champion Golden State Warriors, hot off a record regular season, 73-9, lost Game 7 to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals, blowing a 3-1 lead. It was a sickening finish for the team and their fans.
So they went out and got Kevin Durant, much to the chagrin of many of us because it seemed Golden State had locked up the 2016-17 title before the new season started, and we were right, but, hey, it seems Game 5 on Monday drew the highest-ratings since 1998, and at the end of the day, I guess to the powers-that-be that’s really all that matters…not the competitive landscape of the sport.
For the record, the Warriors beat the Cavs 129-120 to take the series 4-1, so their second title in three years, and they are of course the favorites to repeat next year, too.
Oh, it’s true the Cavs, the same team that staged such a heroic comeback last year was intact and they didn’t give in easily to the Warriors, especially with their Game 4 effort to avoid a sweep, but they aren’t going to beat Golden State with the Core Four in place…Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green….all of whom are under 30 years old.
And right now, no one else in the NBA is close to matching these two teams.
Kevin Durant scored 30 points or more in all five games to earn series MVP.
And it needs to be noted that LeBron James played in his seventh straight Finals, eighth overall.
But after the deciding Game 5, James had an interesting take.
“I don’t believe I’ve played for a super team. I don’t believe in that. I don’t believe we’re a super team here (in Cleveland).”
Last week, James defended Durant’s decision to join the Warriors, saying he doesn’t care if it’s fair or not and that he would “try to sign everybody” if he were an owner.
“I think it’s great,” said LeBron. “It’s great for our league. Right now, look at our TV ratings, look at the money our league is pouring in. I mean, guys are loving the game, our fans love the game. Who am I say if it’s fair or not?”
Well, like I said, everyone likes ratings, but I’m one who thinks the product largely sucks.
As for LeBron’s comments that he never played on a “super team,” guess he’s forgetting his two titles in Miami with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh (both in their prime). As for the title with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, I’m more sympathetic with his characterization they weren’t a super three.
Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal
“The NBA has bad teams, laughably bad teams, mediocre teams, good teams, even great teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers, and then it has the Golden State Warriors.
“The other NBA teams with perfectly normal amounts of professional basketball talent spent this year scheming to beat the Warriors. It seemed impossible at the beginning of the season. It really was impossible by the end of the season.
“Golden State capped one of the greatest postseason runs in the history of the league, an unprecedented 16-1 romp through the playoffs, by winning the NBA championship….
“(The) sight of them holding a trophy over their heads wasn’t simply a reminder that every other team spent this year trying and failing to figure out how to stop them. It was also visual evidence of the league’s future: The Warriors are a potential basketball dynasty capable of dominating the NBA for a long time.
“They’re a problem that might take the league’s other teams several years to solve.
“The Warriors have a core of star players – Curry, Durant, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson – who happen to be in their primes. They can keep all of them for at least the next two seasons and, almost equally important, surround them with free agents willing to accept less money for the privilege of playing the basketball Eden they have created….
“How any mere NBA team is supposed to beat the Warriors is still a question without an answer.”
–Back to the ratings, the ABC Game 5 telecast registered a 16.0 market rating, up 13 percent from Game 5 in both 2016 and 2015. In Golden State’s home San Francisco-Oakland market, the game drew a 39.6. In Cleveland it drew a 37.1.
–As for the odds for 2017-18, the Las Vegas Insider has the Warriors at 5/9, the Cavs at 7/2.
Then it’s a big drop to San Antonio, 15-1 and Boston 20-1. It’s not even remotely close to 20-1 after that.
Brooklyn, Sacramento and Orlando are last at 1,000-1.
The Westgate SuperBook has Golden State 1-2, Cleveland 7-2. But then San Antonio 9-1.
Boston 20-1; Clippers and Rockets 25-1.
You can have the Clippers at 25-1. How can they even set odds for these guys, not knowing what the roster is?!
The preceding was fake exasperation. This is the sports franchise I least care about in all of sports, including the Bundesliga.
–In the upcoming NBA draft, the Lakers, at No. 2, were expected to take Lonzo Ball, but they’ve worked out others, including Kansas forward Josh Jackson and Kentucky point guard De’Aaron Fox.
I’d love to see them blow off Ball and his dad…now that I know the Knicks never had a realistic shot at Fox.
Penguins Go Back-to-Back
In the end, it was rather anti-climactic, as the Penguins took Game 6, and the series, in Nashville, 2-0, the dream ending for the Predators. Sidney Crosby was named the playoff MVP for the second consecutive year as the Penguins were the first to repeat since the 1997-98 Red Wings.
Crosby had eight goals and 27 points in 24 games of this playoff run.
But I can’t help but note that on Sunday, the Predators appeared to take a 1-0 lead early in the second period when Colton Sissons tapped in a rebound past Pittsburgh goalie Matt Murray, but the referee immediately raised his arm to signal the play dead.
All of us watching, let alone the fans in attendance in Nashville, were stunned. As they showed the replays, it was a clean goal.
But referee Kevin Pollock, who was screened on the play, lost sight of the puck and Pollock assumed Murray had controlled it, though instead it had squirted between his pads and glove and rolled into the crease.
The rule is, however, that once the referee loses sight of the puck, play is dead and thus he blew his whistle just before Sissons tapped it into the net. It was a mistake, a horrible one for Nashville, but it was the right call. After that, you just knew Pittsburgh would win.
MLB
–Yes, it’s about the Yankees and once again their phenom was front and center.
Randy Miller / NJ.com
“Every time Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge stepped to the plate Monday night, there was a buzz. You felt it. You heard it.
“This was Angels Stadium, not Yankee Stadium. This was Southern California, not the Bronx.
“It didn’t matter.
“It sounded as if most of the 36,245 paying customers anticipated seeing this man-giant rookie who is the talk of baseball add another chapter of greatness into his first half for the ages.
“They oohed and aahed when Judge struck out his first two times up and followed his seventh-inning single with MVP chants.
“Eventually, Judge gave ‘em a bigger thrill…the kind that has made him an early favorite to be an MVP as a rookie.
“A Chase Headley error led to the Los Angeles Angels scoring two seventh-inning runs to tie up Monday night’s game, but Judge saved the Yankees by doing what he does best.
“Incredibly, Judge homered again, and this one was a two-run blast in the eighth to put the Yankees back on top, this time for good, in what would become a 5-3 victory….
“(With one on and one out), Judge laid off two cutters that were off the plate, then got another and laced an opposite-field blast to right-center that cleared the high wall and touched down deep into the seats for a 438-foot homer, his 22nd of the season and fourth in his last three games.”
The other big story for the Yanks was that Masahiro Tanaka, who had been struggling mightily all season, pitched 6 2/3, allowing just one earned run, while striking out 8 in a no decision. Potentially another huge boost for the team if he can repeat this effort consistently the rest of the way.
But Tuesday the Angels prevailed in 11, 3-2, and the Yanks suffered what is undoubtedly a big blow. CC Sabathia left after four innings with a strained hamstring and given his huge build I would not expect him back anytime soon.
So mark this date, the Yanks 38-24, 3 up on Boston.
–The Mets won their fourth in a row, Monday, with a 6-1 win over the Cubs behind a complete game by Jacob deGrom. It marked the sixth straight game where the Mets’ starters, who have sucked this season, allowed one run or less. Suddenly there was hope in Metsville.
But then we learned that Asdrubal Cabrera, who homered twice in the contest, went on the DL after with a sore thumb and Tuesday, starter Zack Wheeler, who had been the team’s best the past six weeks, was shelled…1 2/3, 8 earned runs. Yikes. The Cubs’ Jon Lester (4-4, 3.89) threw 7 innings of one-run ball as Chicago, which has been playing awful, ran away with it, 14-3.
–Monday, the Washington Nationals bullpen blew another as the Nats lost to the Braves 11-10. The bullpen ERA thru Monday was 5.11, third worst in baseball, and it’s 11 blown saves are tied for fifth-worst in that category. So there are serious issues for Washington if it wants to be in the World Series conversation.
Tuesday, the Nats rebounded, beating the Braves 10-5.
–The surprising, first-place Minnesota Twins defeated the Mariners Tuesday, 20-7, behind a franchise-record 28 hits, with Eddie Rosario clubbing three homers. Eduardo Escobar had five hits.
Minnesota, the team that went 59-103 last season, is 33-28 and two ahead of Cleveland in the A.L. Central.
The 28 hits was the most in baseball since Texas had 29 in a 30-3 win over the Orioles on Aug. 22, 2007.
–Monday, Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon hurled five scoreless innings in his return from treatment for testicular cancer, picking up his third win of the season as Pittsburgh beat Colorado 7-2.
Taillon, 25, had surgery on May 8, then made three rehab starts in the minor leagues; a remarkable recovery.
—Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig flashed the middle finger on both his hands toward fans close to the field in Cleveland Tuesday. “I reacted that way,” Puig said after through an interpreter after Los Angeles won 7-5. “I stooped to their level.”
Puig had homered earlier, giving the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. After he celebrated briefly, the gesture came as he was heading to the dugout.
Puig said, “It’s something that came out. There’s really nothing I can do at this point.”
–If you were watching Mets-Braves last weekend in Atlanta, all of you were wondering just who “The Freeze” was, the man behind the ski goggles and arctic-blue bodysuit who races fans between innings on the outfield track in a truly unique in-game stunt that is already better than the presidents race at the Washington Nationals’ park.
In the race, fans are given a head start to beat “The Freeze,” and then Nigel Talton runs them down. It’s great stuff.
Talton, 26, from Fort Valley, Ga., has been a member of the Braves grounds crew since 2012. He was a track athlete since his junior year at Peach County High School, where he also played football.
Talton ran for Iowa Wesleyan, where he broke a 23-year-old record during his freshman year before transferring to Shorter University.
I mean this guy has done 10.47 in the 100 and 21.66 in the 200, so he’s a legitimate top college-type runner who no doubt would have scored a lot of points in a major-college meet, for example.
He still races outdoors, but has now shut it down to focus on his new job. He also works full-time as a school security guard, midnight to 8 a.m.
Talton said he still harbors dreams of making the USA team before he’s done with track, including the 2018 world indoor championships in England.
–In the MLB draft on Monday, Sports Illustrated cover boy, Hunter Greene, the pitcher-shortstop compared to LeBron James and Babe Ruth because of his multiple skills, was selected second by Cincinnati. As I noted when the story came out, Greene, an African-American, seems like a great kid who recognizes how any success he has can help draw more blacks into a sport that badly needs them.
Jordan Adell, another high-profile African-American high schooler, was selected tenth by the Angels. His favorite players are Curtis Granderson, Adam Jones and Lorenzo Cain, adding that he knows quite well how he can be an inspiration someday.
“That’s always the motivation that, ‘Hey, look, these guys look like you, they did it.’”
Meanwhile, the top pick went to Minnesota and they selected Royce Lewis, a middle-infield prospect out of San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
The last time the Twinkies selected first overall, they chose Joe Mauer.
Monday’s draft was the first since 1990 where the first three picks were high schoolers, the third pick being pitcher MacKenzie Gore, taken by the Padres.
But as of end of Tuesday, and the first 10 rounds, Oregon State left-handed pitcher Luke Heimlich, who I wrote of the other day, had not been taken.
Heimlich had pleaded guilty as a teenager five years ago to molesting a 6-year-old girl and was projected as an early round pick until a story detailing his case was reported by The Oregonian last Thursday.
–In the College World Series, which starts this weekend, the eight entrants are Oregon State, Cal State-Fullerton, Texas A&M, Louisville, Florida State, Florida, LSU and TCU.
Wake Forest lost a heartbreaking 2 of 3 to Florida in the super regionals, easily the most competitive of the bunch. Both teams had to deal with non-stop rain delays, and we aren’t talking of the short variety. Wake had lost the first contest, 2-1, in 11 innings, but came back with a dramatic 8-6 win in Game 2, also in 11, and then lost the final 3-0.
Needless to say, both pitching staffs by the end were a mess, but the Gators’ held up better.
Wake Forest did itself proud. The coverage on ESPN certainly didn’t hurt recruiting. Two of our players, Stuart Fairchild and Gavin Sheets, were taken on the second round of the MLB draft, too.
U.S. Open
–The rough at Erin Hills has been heavily criticized by the players and Tuesday, the USGA did something about it, cutting it back on some key holes.
But while the players have bitched, I didn’t realize that the fairways are generally very wide here.
Anyway, us golf fans anxiously await the action. I’ll go with Justin Rose.
–As I go to post, Phil Mickelson is still going to attempt to make it to his scheduled 2:20 tee time on Thursday, seeing as he’s hours away from his daughter’s graduation in California at 10:00 a.m. local the same day.
Of course he can’t make it, but as some of us saw when Phil was interviewed on Sunday, he was praying for a “4-hour weather delay.”
The latest forecast as I go to post is not accommodative.
If you watched Sunday, though, you saw a Mickelson who clearly was thinking twice of his decision. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and at least that was my sense of things.
At the same time there is the other side of him.
I have never seen this mentioned anywhere, but I get the sense Mickelson, having seen the timeliness of Arnold Palmer and Arnie being able to rake in $40 million a year until he died, wants a similar post-playing career path. He could easily receive it. Image is all-important from here on.
U-S-A! U-S-A!
When is a draw as good as a win? When the U.S. national soccer team is tying Mexico in a World Cup qualifier, in Mexico, at the madhouse known as Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, traditionally a house of horror for the Americans.
But they came through on Sunday night as U.S. captain Michael Bradley silenced the crowd of 81,000 just six minutes into the contest with a stunning chip from 40 yards. I was watching, great moment.
I then flipped to the Stanley Cup action and missed Mexico tying it up, but that’s where it ended, 1-1, truly an authentic moral victory as the U.S. pulled even with second-place Costa Rica in its group at 2-2-2. Three teams receive automatic berths in the 2018 World Cup in Russia (a fourth in a playoff against an Asian foe), but Team USA should have no problem from here on.
The Americans don’t resume their qualifying schedule until early September against Costa Rica at home and Honduras on the road.
Mexico has lost to the United States just once in 23 meetings in the capital city and is 5-0-3 against the Americans in qualifiers at famed Azteca.
The Americans are now 2-0-2 since Bruce Arena began his second tour as coach.
Stuff
–The Indianapolis Colts are very concerned with the fate of quarterback Andrew Luck, who had offseason surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, as it’s not known if he’ll be available for training camp come July…or beyond.
What has everyone in the organization from owner Jim Irsay on down to Coach Chuck Pagano is Luck is not only not making the progress it was thought he would by now, but he’s lost a ton of weight. Something doesn’t seem right.
–Tyler Heintz, a freshman offensive lineman at Kent State, died Tuesday after a workout. An autopsy will be performed to determine a cause of death.
—Spanish prosecutors have accused Cristiano Ronaldo of defrauding the authorities of millions of euros in taxes.
“The prosecutor’s office in Madrid said it filed a lawsuit against the Real Madrid superstar, accusing him of evading tax of $16 million from 2011 to 2014.”
Ronaldo previously said he wasn’t worried about any tax evasion investigation because he had nothing to hide.
Previously released leaked documents suggested he had avoided tax on income allegedly held in offshore accounts.
For the second straight year, Ronaldo is the highest-paid sportsperson, according to Forbes, at $93 million from salary, bonuses and endorsements.
Lionel Messi faced a similar charge and he settled, along with his father, for a very hefty fine. Messi was sentenced to prison but didn’t serve any time. Expect a similar deal for Ronaldo.
—SHARK! I have to be sensitive on this one. Tiffany Johnson of Concord, N.C., was on an ordinary snorkeling excursion in a shallow reef in the Bahamas last week when things went horribly wrong.
“It just felt like I had bumped into something, so I just casually turned to my right to look…my whole arm was in (a shark’s) mouth, just floating there. I kept trying to yank my hand back, and the last time I yanked, he had cut it clean off so I was able to actually get free,” she told an ABC affiliate back in North Carolina. [I’m giving her name because she has been all over the airwaves and clearly wants her story told.]
Johnson, 32, and her husband were on the last stop of a Caribbean cruise when the attack occurred and Johnson said her ability to stay calm, along with her religious faith, enabled her to survive. Doctors were unable to save her arm, which was amputated just below the elbow.
It was believed to be a tiger shark. Her husband was watching her swim from a boat. When he heard her screams, J.J. Johnson jumped into the water.
Tiffany said she “felt this tangible peace on me and it was so thick, that I was just calm.”
When she got home she told WBTV, “Who cares about a limb? It’s a limb and I’m here.”
The incident left Johnson “thankful to be able to share this story and I hope, and I know, that it’s going to change people’s lives because you can’t hear this story and not see God in it.” [Cindy Boren / Washington Post]
We wish Tiffany and J.J. the very best.
–Big event in California’s backcountry on May 9 or 10, as we’re just learning, according to Diane Cell of the San Diego Union Tribute. “Six new members of the critically endangered Mexican wolf population were born on land occupied by the California Wolf Center.”
In 1977, Mexican gray wolves had been hunted to just 15 left in the U.S., according to a wolf center spokeswoman. “In the 40 years since, thanks to conservation efforts, the population in the wild has rebounded to 113 known wolves (all in Arizona and New Mexico), plus about 300 more in captivity.
But wait…there’s more!
“In a clandestine conservationist raid, two of the six newborn pups were removed at the request of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. They were transported to Arizona where they were placed with a litter in a wild wolf pack den in the Panther Creek area. Two of the wild pups were removed and brought back to the Julia den.
“The exchange, called cross-festering, is an effort to increase genetic diversity and bolster the Mexican wolf’s resistance to disease.
“The strategy works…because of the strong parenting instincts of wolves, known to adopt unrelated pups and raise them as their own.”
You can visit the California Wolf Center, but you will never see the pups because the operators hope one day to release them into the wild, where they could ambush unsuspecting campers or hikers…hopefully just in time for Web Sweeps Week!
Anything to juice site traffic, is the motto around here.
Top 3 songs for the week 6/14/69: #1 “Get Back” (The Beatles with Billy Preston…one of their weaker #1s…) #2 “Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet” (Henry Mancini) #3 “In The Ghetto” (Elvis Presley…one of my favorites of his…)…and…#4 “Bad Moon Rising” (Creedence Clearwater Revival) #5 “Love (Can Make You Happy)” (Mercy) #6 “Grazing In the Grass” (The Friends of Distinction) #7 “Oh Happy Day” (The Edwin Hawkins’ Singers) #8 “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby” (Marvin Gaye) #9 “These Eyes” (The Guess Who) #10 “One” (Three Dog Night…peaked at #5 for three weeks afterwards…should have made it to #1…)
U.S. Open Quiz Answers: 1) 2004 / Shinnecock: Retief Goosen; 2005 / Pinehurst: Michael Campbell; 2006 / Winged Foot: Geoff Ogilvy; 2009 / Bethpage Black: Lucas Glover. 2) Highest winning score since 1970, Hale Irwin, +7, at Winged Foot in 1974.
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
