---

Bar Chat

08/12/2013

Dufnering

Pittsburgh Pirates Quiz: 1) Name the only three Pirates to have 230 hits in a season. 2) Name the only four to drive in 125. Answers below.

Jayson Dufer Is Your Winner at the PGA

Not bad for a major...270, 2 better than runner-up Jim Furyk. So the 36-year-old Dufner gets his first big one, third PGA Tour title overall. His popularity will soar, even if he has a hard time readily acknowledging it.

Golf Balls

--Three times on Sunday, Dufner putted with a 3-wood. Gee, you think a lot of weekend golfers will be trying this next time they play?

--Phil Mickelson was T-72...71-71-78-72. All the excitement from Muirfield finally caught up to him.

--Tiger went 71-70-73-70, +4, T-40...17 majors without a win now, going back to 2008 and the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. But outside of the four majors, he has won five of the 8 events he’s entered on the PGA Tour; the strangest year of his career.

--Speaking of Stenson, and countryman Jonas Blixt, I always get a kick out of how Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Finns...and Germans, for that matter...all speak far better English than we do.

We are so freakin’ overrated!!!

--I don’t care what people say about Dustin Johnson...I want to be in his shoes for just 24 hours. And he will win multiple majors before it’s over.

--Woody Austin missed the cut at the PGA by one stroke, but would have comfortably made it into the weekend if he realized before he hit the first tee on Friday that he had an extra club in his bag.

Austin was on the range looking for a potential driving iron to replace his 3-iron, which he then stuck in his bag while leaving the 3-iron in there too.

The penalty for exceeding the 14 club limit is two strokes for each hole at which the breach occurred, and Austin didn’t discover his blunder until the par-3 third.

--Rory McIlroy’s solid comeback in the fourth round from his early disastrous triple-bogey tells me one thing...he is going to win the FedEx Cup. Book it! [Over Tiger on the final hole down in Atlanta.]

--NBC and ESPN are showing their last U.S. Open next year at Pinehurst. Starting in 2015, Fox and its new Fox Sports cable network will begin broadcasting the event, the first of a 12-year deal agreed to on Wednesday.

But Fox only has this tournament so it’s not as if they’ll be able to snatch anyone away, say, Johnny Miller.

Ball Bits

--Teri Thompson and Michael O’keeffe / New York Daily News

“Last spring, a year before Anthony Bosch catapulted into the center of Major League Baseball’s latest doping scandal, Alex Rodriguez secretly sought out the advice of the man at the heart of its first major steroid crisis: Victor Conte.

“Now, the BALCO founder – who served four months in prison for masterminding a huge steroid conspiracy that enveloped Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Olympic track star Marion Jones, among others – met last week with two investigators from Major League Baseball’s Department of Investigations....

“(Conte) described how Rodriguez showed up uninvited on his doorstep in May 2012 with admitted BALCO steroid casualty Bill Romanowski, the former NFL linebacker, to discuss legal products that could give Rodriguez an edge....

“Conte said he met with Rodriguez and Romanowski for about 45 minutes. Conte said he believes Rodriguez was looking for products that would give him a legal edge, but that the Yankee didn’t want their transactions to become public knowledge....

“(Conte) said he gave basic advice to Rodriguez and then Bosch by telephone after he reviewed (a blood test he required of A-Rod); he told the embattled superstar and ‘his nutrition guy,’ for example, to stop using a calcium-magnesium-zinc product because calcium blocks the absorption of zinc.

“He also urged him to use a type of protein that promotes overnight healing of the little muscle tears that are the result of working out....

“For years now, Conte has been shining a bright light on some of the dark corners of the sports world. The BALCO founder is now an outspoken clean sports advocate, aggressively calling out leagues and agencies for not doing enough to fight doping.

“ ‘I was eager to meet with (MLB) because I wanted to answer their questions (about Rodriguez),’ Conte said during an interview with the Daily News. ‘I also wanted to give my input and have them take it back to (commissioner) Bud Selig. I wanted to share my ideas about improving Major League Baseball’s drug program. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.’”

Conte said A-Rod did not ask him for illicit drugs. “But Conte said his telephone exchanges with Rodriguez and Bosch gave him the impression that the self-styled ‘biochemist’ was deeply involved in what Bosch called ‘A-Rod’s program.’”

Separately, the Daily News has learned MLB is aggressively investigating the role agents may have played in steering players to Biogenesis.

--After going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts on Friday night in his return to Yankee Stadium, A-Rod was replaced for defensive purposes in the ninth and was nowhere to be found after the Yankees won it in extra innings. He then sat out on Saturday, but homered his first bat Sunday. Sadly, in the process he passed Stan Musial on the all-time RBI list with 1,952.

One thing is clear, the Yankee clubhouse seems divided on just how welcoming they will be for their teammate the rest of the season.

--As the Daily News’ Mike Lupica notes this weekend, what a shame Mariano Rivera’s last baseball summer is being hijacked by A-Rod. Plus this week Mariano blew three straight saves for the first time in his career, though he was still the winning pitcher on Sunday.

--The New York Times conducted a survey of New York City residents and Yankees fans far outnumber Mets fans, 55% to 21 %, with 5% saying they like them both, which is worse than weak. Separately, only 1 in 5 Yankee fans have a favorable opinion of A-Rod, which is also pathetic. How can a single ‘fan’ support the guy?! Do you people actually listen to the guy? Ditto Ryan Braun...or Barry Bonds...or Roger Clemens.

The Mets’ Marlon Byrd was caught in a drug test last year, didn’t raise a stink, took his 50-game penalty like a man, and is now a highly popular, at least appreciated, member of the team. That’s all A-Rod, or any of the others had to do. Come clean.

--Former major leaguer Jack Clark was fired from a St. Louis AM radio station just one week into his tenure co-hosting an afternoon drive time show with Kevin Slaten (also canned). What Clark did was worthy of the station’s action, the former All-Star making shocking accusations that Albert Pujols’ former personal trainer told Clark that the slugger used performance enhancing drugs. Clark said the same of Detroit Tigers star hurler Justin Verlander.

Verlander told USA TODAY that Clark’s comments were “moronic.” Clark had hypothesized on his radio show that Verlander had become less dominant because he wasn’t able to take PEDs.

But the big story was that Pujols fired back immediately and said he planned to pursue legal action over Clark’s “irresponsible and reckless” claims.

“I’ve said time and time again that I would never take, or even consider taking, anything illegal. I’ve been tested hundreds of times throughout my career and never once have I tested positive. It is irresponsible and reckless for Jack Clark to have falsely accused me of using PEDs. My faith in Jesus Christ, and my respect for this game are too important to me. I would never be able to look my wife or kids in the eye if I had done what this man is accusing me of.

“I know people are tired of athletes saying they are innocent, asking for the public to believe in them, only to have their sins exposed later down the road. But I am not one of those athletes, and I will not stand to have my name and my family’s name, dragged through the mud.

“I am currently in the process of taking legal action against Jack Clark and his employers at WGNU 920AM. I am going to send a message that you cannot act in a reckless manner, like they have, and get away with it. If I have to be the athlete to carry the torch and pave the way for other innocent players to see that you can do something about it, I am proud to be that person. I have five young children and I take being a role model very seriously. The last thing I want is for the fans, and especially the kids out there, to question my reputation and character.”

--Entering Sunday night’s contest, the Dodgers, who were 30-42 on June 21, have gone 36-8 since; the first team to win 36 of 44 in any one stretch since the 2005 Oakland A’s.

And for those thinking it’s all about the addition of Yasiel Puig, just a reminder. They were 7-10 in his first 17 games, before they went on their roll. [Yeah, he was hitting .455 during that stretch, but they only won 7 of 17.]

--The Houston Astros are just 4-18 since the All-Star break...suddenly only 37-79 overall. Sacrebleu!

--Detroit’s Max Scherzer is 17-1.

--Oakland’s Josh Reddick hit five home runs in two games, Friday and Saturday, thus becoming the 30th in baseball history to do so.

--Shockingly, the Mets are 5-3 since David Wright’s injury. 22-year-old Wilmer Flores, called up to play third, has 9 RBI in his first six games.

--Johnny Logan, a fine four-time All-Star shortstop who helped the Milwaukee Braves win the 1957 World Series, died. He was 86.

Logan played 13 seasons for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves, as well as the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1951-63. He finished his career hitting .268 with 93 home runs and 547 RBI. When you look back at his stats, you realize this is a guy who in today’s game would be making $6 or $7 million a year and he probably made about $20,000 back in those days.

College Football

--Another preseason poll...this one ESPN’s Power Rankings

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Oregon
4. Stanford...Oregon@Stanford Nov. 7
5. Texas A&M...Alabama@Texas A&M Sept. 14
T-6. Georgia
T-6. South Carolina....South Carolina@Georgia Sept. 7
8. Louisville
9. Clemson...Georgia@Clemson Aug. 31
10. Florida

--How good is South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney? In his first two seasons, he led all SEC linemen in tackles for loss with 35.5. The next guy on the list for the past two years is Sam Montgomery, LSU, at 26.5. 9 more! That’s a huge margin for this kind of thing.

And yes, Shu, I agree that the Aug. 29 North Carolina-South Carolina matchup is intriguing.

--Johnny Manziel

“If you want to read that it’s okay to pound beers and get locked up for disorderly conduct and have a fake ID because you’re 19 and you were going to win the Heisman Trophy later on that year anyway and all kids do dumb things, go somewhere else. If you want to make a rebel without a clue out to be Che Guevara, try another columnist.

“Johnny Manziel is not Che Guevara or Norma Rae or Curt Flood. He is not the flashpoint for change in the hypocrisy that is unpaid apprenticeships in college athletics.

“He’s closer to the intersection of Kevin Federline and Kid Rock, about a trailer park away from Tonya Harding. He is a Texas-size dumpster fire who stands for nothing and is just plum lucky that Texas A&M and NCAA investigators fall for everything....

“What Johnny Football – Foosball, Foosgold, whatever – doesn’t get is that he’s not playing at a no-name junior college in the nooks and crannies of East Texas. He signed an athletic scholarship to play in College Station, at Texas A&M, which began competing last season in the most successful and scrutinized conference in college football.

“Prominent athletes who stand to reap great rewards from their considerable physical talent and personal appeal have to understand, even at 20, that they are held to a higher standard of decency and behavior than other kids hitting the kegger in the back of the dorm room....

“Part of the job as a starting quarterback at a Southeastern Conference school is ambassador, pitchman. That’s the deal. We give kids scholarships to lead our big-time football teams as freshmen because they supposedly have more talent and leadership qualities than other kids who have to live out their athletic dreams with 50 people in the stands....

“(Manziel) comes across as if he would have been better off partying at some nondescript junior college where no one knew his name and he could make all the stupid mistakes he wanted on his way to finding his real lot in life...

“The kid doesn’t have to instantly transform his live-wire personality into saintliness. He doesn’t have to become Johnny Be Good. But even Johnny Be Civil would be a hell of an improvement. And I’ll guarantee this: It’s a lot better than Johnny Be Undrafted.”

Meanwhile, the attorney for Manziel says even if the NCAA investigation into his signing autographs for money isn’t completed by the start of the season, Manziel will be able to play in A&M’s first game. The attorney wouldn’t say if Manziel has already met with the NCAA or if he plans to speak with investigators.

--I’m pressed for time, plus there just isn’t anything big to say the first few weeks of preseason football, save for the inevitable injuries. In terms of the Jets, Geno Smith will be the opening day starter barring injury (and his current one doesn’t appear to be serious). Yeah, Mark Sanchez started this weekend...whoopty-damn-do. He blows.

--Pittsburgh receiver Plaxico Burress suffered a torn rotator cuff that signals the end of his career.

--Tim Tebow was very unimpressive in his debut with the Patriots, 4 of 12 for 55 yards through the air, but it sure as heck is better talking about Tebow in New England than Aaron Hernandez.

--Britain’s Mo Farah staked his claim to being the greatest distance runner of all time by winning the 10,000m title at the World Championships in Moscow Saturday night. He now holds all four major long-distance titles, world and Olympic, on the track, a feat equaled only by the Ethiopian star Kenenisa Bekele. Next season the Somalian-born British athlete vows to run his first full London marathon as a lead up to a potential triple gold-medal challenge in Rio. Only Emil Zatopek has added the 5,000m, 10,000m and the marathon at the same Olympics.

Farah’s time in the 10,000 on Saturday was 27.21, nine seconds faster than his victory in London.

Then on Sunday I watched Usain Bolt take the 100m in 9.78, with American Justin Gatlin second at 9.85.

Of course this year’s championships, particularly the 100, are tainted by the positive drug tests for Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay that kept them out, while Bolt’s teammate Yohan Blake couldn’t race in Moscow due to injury.

The sport of track and field would be dead, period, if Bolt ever tested positive. Several other Jamaican sprinters have been banned in just the past few months.

Meanwhile, American Ashton Eaton picked up his first gold at the Worlds in the decathlon.

But one of my faves, Shalane Flanagan, finished a disappointing 8th in the women’s 10,000m.

--Jere Longman of the New York Times reported that a newly published study “revealed that West Germany also began engaging in a government-financed plan in the 1970s to boost athletic achievement through the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs.

“Although the West German government did not run its program top-down as in East Germany, the study indicated the West Germans engaged in systematic doping.”

West Germany hosted the 1972 Munich Games, but won 40 medals compared to 66 for East Germany. At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, the gap widened to 90 for East Germany and 39 for West Germany. The latter was trying to make up the difference and couldn’t.

[Another excuse to remind sports fans that particularly in 1976, the American women’s swim team was totally screwed by the East Germans’ drug-addled men, err, women, especially my high school classmate from Summit, N.J., Kathy Heddy, who the year before dominated her international competition.]

--In the spring of 1972, the Philadelphia 76ers ran advertisements in The Philadelphia Inquirer seeking applicants for their head coaching job. Roy Rubin was one of those who interviewed and he got the job.

Rubin had been a successful basketball coach in New York City for two decades, both at the high school level and then in 11 seasons at Long Island University.

But he had no experience coaching at the big-time college or pro level. Nonetheless, the 76ers hired him, giving Rubin a huge (for this time) 3-year, $300,000 contract.

So Rubin’s 76ers lost their first 15 games and when Philly was 4-47, he was fired at the All-Star break. Sixers guard Kevin Loughery became player-coach and the team ended up 9-73, the record for futility until the Charlotte Bobcats went 7-59 in the strike-shortened 2011-12 season.

Rubin would later say losing took a huge toll on him...like try 45 pounds since the season had begun. He told the New York Times back then that as the losses mounted, “I felt so humiliated.”

He never returned to basketball, managing an IHOP in Florida and teaching down there. Rubin was 87.

--There were rumors the National Hockey League was going to have to take over the New Jersey Devils, but now it appears Joshua Harris, owner of the 76ers, assuming the NHL and creditors owed more than $200 million sign off on it.

--Congratulations to jockey Calvin Borel for being inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame up in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. You know he’s just 46 (he looks 65), but has ridden the winners of more than 5,000 races and has purses exceeding $121 million in a career that began in 1983. 

Of course us race fans will never forget he won the Kentucky Derby three times in four years; aboard Street Sense in 2007, Mine That Bird in 2009 and with Super Saver the following year.

--Among the 16 who are to be the latest recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom later this year are Bill Clinton, Oprah, Ben Bradlee, Ernie Banks, Richard Lugar, Dean Smith, Loretta Lynn and Gloria Steinem.

I know there are some who scoff at this award, which has been handed out to more than 500 since President John F. Kennedy created it 50 years ago by executive order, but what the heck. When Stan Musial received the award a few years ago, that was like the last time we saw the baseball great. It is terrific that both Banks and Smith are being so honored.

--I must say it’s intriguing that Greg Oden signed with the Miami Heat. Any basketball fan has to be very curious as to what he can do...that is if he can stay on the court. Oden hasn’t played in the NBA since December 2009.

--Here’s a story that will also make that other column I do.

“After a week that saw another major haul of ivory intercepted in Hong Kong and the arrest of a man said to be responsible for killing tens of thousands of elephants for their tusks, a Chinese conservationist working in Africa has voiced optimism that China can take center stage in efforts to conserve the species....

“In 2012 alone, 25,000 African elephants were illegally slaughtered for their tusks, according to Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants, a body set up as part of an international treaty regulating the legal sale of ivory from approved countries.

“And while Hong Kong’s Custom and Excise Department has made four big seizures of elephant ivory shipped to the city this year, a lot more is being successfully smuggled. The ivory seized in the city since 2010 is equivalent to the tusks of just 3,300 elephants.”

Last week authorities arrested the ringleader of the largest gang and a series of joint operations between police and activists in Africa and Asia has netted a staggering 900 traffickers, but it’s still just a dent.

--Actress Karen Black, who shot to stardom in the 1969 classic “Easy Rider,” died. She was 74.

Black appeared in around 100 movies, including “Five Easy Pieces,” earning an Academy Award nomination opposite Jack Nicholson. And she was alongside Robert Redford in the 1974 version of “The Great Gatsby,” as well as Robert Altman’s “Nashville.”

--Cowboy Jack Clement died. He was 82. Clement had a multifaceted career as a producer, engineer, songwriter and arranger, working with the likes of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Charley Pride, and non-country acts like U2.

Clement engineered the so-called Million Dollar Quartet in the 1950s – Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Cash and Carl Perkins. 

Cowboy Jack’s longest association was with Charley Pride, country music’s first African-American superstar.

Clement is to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this fall.

--We note the passing of nightclub and television singer Eydie Gorme, 84. She was a successful band singer when she was invited to join the cast of Steve Allen’s local New York television show in 1953. There she met Steve Lawrence and they remained with the program when the following year it became NBC’s “Tonight Show.” They then married in Las Vegas in 1957.

I’ve always said Steve Lawrence was one of the more underrated entertainers of his generation. Aside from being a terrific singer, he has a great sense of humor.

Eydie, who had a huge solo hit in 1963 with “Blame It On the Bossa Nova,” teamed with her husband to become a fixture on variety shows, such as “Ed Sullivan,” as well as late-night television, and they had a big Vegas act.

Steve and Eydie were married for 55 years and he was by her side in the end. Gorme apparently had a short illness.

Finally, I like what Steve Allen told the Los Angeles Times back in 1996 on the two.

“What has been the nature of their success? First, the fact that they are a couple has something to do with it. Secondly, they are damned good singers. And thirdly – this has both hurt and helped them – they concentrated for the most part on good music. This lost them the youthful audience, who prefer crap to Cole Porter’s music. But it endeared them to people with sophisticated taste.”

--Paul Anka, who has a new album “Duets,” wrote an article this weekend for the Wall Street Journal on how a certain doo-wop classic set a new standard, that being Billy Ward and His Dominoes’ version of “Star Dust,” speaking of good music, as Steve Allen would say.

I mean YouTube this one. For 1957, musically it was brilliant....mixing in symphonic sounds.

But I looked it up. I always liked the tune and it was a staple of the old WCBS-FM oldies station, before they basically eliminated the 1950s, save for Elvis and one or two others. Yet this  only peaked at #12! ‘Sup wit dat?!

Anyway, Anka says that the Dominoes’ “Star Dust” heavily influenced many of his own records, including even “My Way.”

Top 3 songs for the week of 8/9/69: #1 “In The Year 2525” (Zager & Evans...ughh...what were we thinking, people?!) #2 “Crystal Blue Persuasion” (Tommy James & The Shondells...as you all know in my top 3 all time...was #2 three weeks in a row behind Zagermeister’s crapola...) #3 “Honky Tonk Women” (The Rolling Stones... heard of them...)...and...#4 “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)” (Jr. Walker & The All Stars...ah yes, an excuse to once again say this has the best opening of any song of its era...) #5 “Sweet Caroline” (Neil Diamond) #6 “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town” (Kenny Rogers and The First Edition) #7 “A Boy Named Sue” (Johnny Cash...it was so great to see him cross over in the day...) #8 “My Cherie Amour” (Stevie Wonder... peaked at #4) #9 “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” (Jackie DeShannon) #10 “Baby, I Love You” (Andy Kim)

Pittsburgh Pirates Quiz Answers: 1) 230 hits...Paul Waner, 237 (1927); Lloyd Waner, 234 (1929); Matty Alou, 231 (1969). 2) 125 RBI...Paul Waner, 131 (1927); Ralph Kiner, 127 (1947 and 1949); Honus Wagner, 126 (1901); Willie Stargell, 125 (1971).

---