Baseball Quiz: 1) Name the five active players with 400 or more
HRs? [Not including Bonds.] 2) Name the top 8 on the all-time RBI
list, each with 1,900 or more? Answers below.
[Ah, the best laid plans. So I”m here in Taiwan, thinking Internet
connections will be easy with the AOL I have on the laptop, and
I discover that the new #1 on the StocksandNews dirtball list no
longer has an access number here (supposedly, they haven”t
since June, yet they continue to show that they do). Bottom line,
I”m scrambling with the business center at the hotel and it ain”t
easy. It also means I have to post this a little sooner than I
expected.]
1980
I was traveling 20 hours in the air until this morning and just saw
the result of the U.S. / Russian hockey game the other night, so I
thought it was a good time to reprise a piece I did two years ago
on the “Miracle on Ice” from Lake Placid. It was a game that
lifted the spirits of all Americans, what with hostages being held
in Iran, the Soviets invading Afghanistan and the Cold War in
full force. Slava Fetisov, then a rookie defenseman on the Soviet
team, recalled from his end, “We were told (we could) lose to
anybody but the U.S.”
The year before, in a Challenge Cup Series with the NHL All-
Stars, the same Soviet team had won 2 of 3, including a 6-0
finale. In a pre-Olympic appearance, the Soviets beat the
Americans, 10-3.
At Lake Placid, the U.S. team was seeded 7th, though coach Herb
Brooks still thought they might win a bronze medal. In their
opener, the Americans salvaged a 2-2 tie with 3rd-seeded
Sweden. Then they whipped 2nd-seeded Czechoslovakia, 7-3;
Norway, 5-1; Romania, 7-2; and W. Germany, 4-2. Next up
were the Soviets.
Many of you can recall where you watched the game that day.
What I can”t remember is if I knew the result beforehand because
the game was on a 3-hour tape delay. The Soviets led 2-1 when,
with one second remaining in the first period, Mark Johnson
scored the tie at 2. The Soviets had the world”s best goalie,
Vladislav Tretiak, but he was benched for the remainder of the
game after Johnson knotted it, one of the more controversial
moves in the history of the sport.
In the 3rd period, with the Soviets now up 3-2, Johnson scored
again to tie it and then suddenly, on a shift change with 10
minutes to go in the game, Mike Eruzione scored on a screened
shot to make it 4-3, U.S. That”s the way it ended. The final 10
minutes were perhaps the longest in the history of the sport, for
both sides.
What many now forget is that the U.S. still had to defeat Finland
for the Gold Medal. If they lost they”d finish 4th. The
Americans won, 4-2. Eleven members of the U.S. team went on
to play in the NHL.
Stuff
–The March issue of Golf Digest has a story of a scam that is
pretty amazing, an amazing example of just how stupid some
people are. Two California men have just been indicted on 10
counts each of mail and wire fraud in a scheme that collected
some $8 million from victims.
The crooks had telemarketers at Platinum Pro Tour and State of
the Art Golf cold-call golfers around the U.S., offering them the
opportunity to play “state-of-the-art” golf clubs they claimed had
a retail value of $2,500. Golfers were then told they could try the
clubs with no financial risk, but they had to place a $1,500
security deposit, charged to their credit card. At the end of the
test period, you returned the clubs and your deposit was credited.
Of course you know the ending of this one. For starters, the
clubs were worth far less than $1,500 and when folks asked for
the credit on their cards, the two dirtballs “obstructed and
complicated the return process” and refused to accept
cancellations of the test-play period or the return of the clubs
before a 60-day period, “thereby causing most victims to lose the
opportunity to contest the charges on their credit cards.”
Embarrassment of falling victim to this scam led many not to
pursue it. For those who did complain vociferously the
defendants, who could receive up to 200 years for the crime,
would pay refunds from the deposits of others.
–I save a lot of old articles for long plane flights so I just read
one from the September issue of American Heritage magazine
concerning the B-24 bombers of World War II. Of course
Stephen Ambrose recently published the book, “The Wild Blue,”
about “The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany.”
I don”t think Mr. Ambrose would mind if I quoted a passage
(ahem, no jokes now–he”s still a great American).
“Steering the four-engine airplane was difficult and exhausting,
as there was no power except the pilot”s muscle. It had no
windshield wipers, so the pilot had to stick his head out the side
window to see during a rain. Breathing was possible only by
wearing an oxygen mask above 10,000 feet. There was no
heat, despite temperatures at 20,000 feet and higher that got as
low as 40 or even 50 below zero.
“There were no bathrooms. To urinate, there were two small
relief tubes, one forward and one aft, which were almost
impossible to use without spilling because of the heavy layers of
clothing the men wore. Plus which, the tubes were often clogged
with frozen urine. Defecating could be done only in a receptacle
lined with a wax-paper bag.”
You get the picture. These 7-8 hour missions were pure hell.
Hug a veteran today.
–I see where Taiwan”s professional baseball league is just
coming back from a 1997 game-fixing scandal. I”ll see if I can
come up with more details.
–Trade between Taiwan and the mainland is picking up, despite
the political rhetoric between the two. Some 7,000 items can be
imported from the mainland, including this week”s addition,
“edible salt.” Can reunification be far behind after this stunning
development?
–On the customs form entering Taiwan it says that “fishing
harpoons” are forbidden, which meant it wasn”t a good time for
me to use, “Call me Ishmael.”
–2002 is the Chinese “Year of the Horse.” The official
astrological forecast predicts: “Savings accounts will dwindle,
travel is likely, and the fires of romance will crescendo. But all
the enthusiasm will be followed by serious self-doubts. In other
words, look before you leap.” Yikes.
–I knew I was in trouble, language-wise, when I was listening to
the stewardesses on my EVA flight from San Francisco. Plus,
English is compulsory among middle and high school kids on
Taiwan, but they have big-time trouble with our language, too.
[By the way, guys, no “stewards” on EVA. A major plus!]
Anyway, I arrived at 6:00 AM local time and was ready for my
first beer by 11:30 (heck, it was 10:30 PM, Sunday, on my New
York body clock), but I have to admit, fellow beer drinkers, that I
broke my cardinal rule of international travel, I didn”t order the
local brew. Instead, I had a couple of Duvels, a tasty Belgian
brew. You”re reading Bar Chat.
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/17/68: #1 “Love Is Blue” (Paul
Mariat) #2 “Green Tambourine” (The Lemon Pipers) #3
“Spooky” (Classics IV).
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) 400 HR / active: Jose Canseco, 462;
Ken Griffey Jr., 460; Sammy Sosa, 450; Fred McGriff, 448;
Rafael Palmeiro, 447. 2) 1,900 RBI: Hank Aaron, 2,297; Babe
Ruth, 2,204; Lou Gehrig, 1,990; Ty Cobb, 1,960; Stan Musial,
1,951; Jimmie Foxx, 1,921; Eddie Murray, 1,917; Willie Mays,
1,903.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday, I hope. Yes, boys and girls,
everything you wanted to know about Chiang Kai-Shek, but
were afraid to ask.
