NCAA Football: So on Saturday, this guy by the name of
LaDainian (who the hell picked that name?) Tomlinson, of TCU,
broke the Div. I-A single-game rushing record as he ran for 406
yards in TCU”s 52-24 victory over Texas El-Paso. He had
consecutive TD runs of 63 and 70 yards in the 4th quarter. Can
you name any of the next 4 on the all-time single-game list?
Answer below.
NBA Tidbits
–NBA attendance is off 6.5% so far this year. Even in San
Antonio they are drawing 3,000 less per game than they did last
year. The first Nets game I went to this season, they announced
the crowd at 15,000 plus but there clearly were only about 9,000
in attendance. Yes, NBA Action…It”s Fan-tastic!!
–In Saturday”s San Antonio – Dallas game, the Spurs shot a
franchise low 5 free throws. My man, Tim Duncan, did not go to
the line all game. [I”m going to have to start wearing my official
Tim Duncan jersey around the house to send off some positive
vibes]. The Mavs were assessed just 5 personals all game! So
the question is, where the hell were the refs?! C”mon…
Yes, NBA Action…It”s Fan-tastic!!
–Latrell Sprewell didn”t choke anyone in his return to Golden
State on Saturday. But he wanted to, as he cussed the whole
game, acting like the true jerk that he is. Yes, NBA Action…It”s
Fan-tastic!!
The Dirt on Baseballs
From a recent New York Times article by Steve Strunsky comes
the following. As you know, major league baseballs are dirtied
before a game, to remove the sheen that would give pitchers
blisters. The mythical mud that is employed during the rubdown
process is from somewhere in New Jersey.
“It comes from the ground, and I have a special process that I
don”t divulge to anybody,” said the mudman, Burns Bintliff (sic)
from Largo, Florida. For years now, Mr. Bintliff, 79, a retired
carpenter from South Jersey, has been packaging what is still
called Lena Blackburne Rubbing Mud, named for the person who
started it all back in 1938.
Mr. Bintliff moved to Florida in 1982 after he retired, but he
makes an annual trip to New Jersey in warm weather to mine half
a garbage can full of mud. He then lugs it home to Florida, where
he mixes it with secret ingredients, and sells it in one-pound
containers.
Blackburne, the father of modern baseball mud, was a Chicago
White Sox utility infielder and an umpire who discovered the mud
in the 1930s.
The purpose of rubbing a ball with the mud is to “take the gloss
off it, to keep it from having any of that slick feeling that a brand-
new ball has,” says minor league ump Neil Taylor.
A 1982 article in the Times said the mud came from near
Pennsauken Creek, a tributary of the Delaware River, in
Burlington County, NJ. At the time of the article, an analysis
conducted at The Times”s request by a Princeton University
professor found that 90 percent of the mud was finely ground
quartz, probably pulverized by ice that covered New Jersey
during the Pleistocene Epoch more than 10,000 years ago. I
realize this is way more than you ever cared to know about
baseball mud. Never mind…
Bill Bradley and Title IX
A few months ago, I wrote a series of articles on Title IX, more as
an exercise for myself than anything else. So from The Weekly
Standard comes an article written by Jessica Gavora. The
General Accounting Office has calculated that 12 percent of
men”s sports opportunities have been eliminated since 1985 –
including 10 percent of their scholarship assistance. The
Independent Women”s Forum counts 350 teams that have fallen
under the Title IX knife. The issue with regards to Bradley is that
for all he owes athletics as a candidate, he certainly hasn”t shown
much concern for the growing threat to men”s collegiate programs.
As Gavora relates, when ninth-grade wrestler Clarke Davidson
asked Bradley at a campaign stop in Des Moines if he supported
“proportionality” – the Title IX quota mechanism that forces
men”s and women”s athletics to mirror the gender balance in the
student body as a whole – Bradley played dumb. “What”s
proportionality?” he shot back.
But Bradley served as a consultant to a NCAA Gender Equity
Task Force back in 1992 charged with developing guidelines for
schools struggling to comply with Title IX. In its final report, the
task force declared that the “ultimate goal” of NCAA member
institutions should be that “the numbers of male and female
athletes are substantially proportionate to their numbers in the
institution”s undergraduate student population.” In other words,
according to Gavora, “gender equity” means proportionality.
Period.
To be fair, the outlook for ending gender quotas in athletics is
only marginally brighter on the Republican side. “Besieged male
athletes and their female supporters, frustrated by a lack of
support from Congress (even House speaker Dennis Hastert, a
former wrestling coach, has offered little more than a sympathetic
ear), have turned their sights on presidential candidates.”
A group called Iowans Against Quotas is approaching the
presidential candidates with a petition pledging them to abolish
quotas under Title IX if elected president. [Collegiate wrestling
programs have been the most effected by Title IX.and Iowa is,
of course, the leading state in the nation when it comes to the
sport]. George W. Bush is only halfway on board, saying he
supports Title IX but that he doesn”t believe that men”s sports
programs should be dropped in the name of Title IX.
Meanwhile the casualties mount. Baseball players at Providence,
gymnasts at the Univ. of New Mexico (actually, who cares about
them), soccer players at Miami of Ohio, swimmers at Northern
Arizona, tennis players at the University of Cincinnati, trackmen
at New Mexico State, wrestlers at Brigham Young, and hundreds
of other male athletes at schools across the country won”t suit up
this season because their programs have been cut.
So how much will be enough? Bill Bradley, star college athlete,
isn”t saying.
Top 3 songs for the week of 11/18/72: #1 “I Can See Clearly
Now” (Johnny Nash) #2 “I”d Love You To Want Me” (Lobo)
#3 “I”ll Be Around” (The Spinners).
Quiz Answer: #2 Tony Sands, Kansas, 396 (1991) #3 Marshall
Faulk, San Diego St., 386 (1991) #4 Troy Davis, Iowa St., 378
(1996) #5 Anthony Thompson, Indiana, 377 (1989).
Male Alert!! Shania Twain, Thursday, 8:00 ET, CBS.
Next Bar Chat, Wednesday…A Thanksgiving Special…
