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Bar Chat

06/02/2014

Mickelson and the Feds

Note: Long day coming up Monday, had to post this late Sunday as Kings-Blackhawks goes to OT.

Baseball Quiz: Last week I had a quiz about players who hit more than 20 home runs in a season and struck out less than the number of round-trippers. Who is the only one to hit more than 50 home runs in a season and strike out less than 50 times? [Hint: Old-timer.] Answer below.

“Another rough day, Phil? Well down the leaderboard in this weekend’s Memorial Tournament, Hall of Fame golfer Phil Mickelson responded Saturday to reports that he’s being investigated for possible insider stock trading by claiming that he hasn’t done anything subpar.

“ ‘I have done absolutely nothing wrong. That’s why I’m fully cooperating with the FBI agents and will continue to do so.

“ ‘I wish I could fully discuss this matter. For right now, I’m not really able to do so. I don’t want to say anything more than that.’...

“Federal investigators are probing a possible insider-trading scheme in Clorox stock involving Mickelson, pro gambler Billy Walters and billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

“The feds are looking into whether Mickelson and Walters illegally traded on nonpublic information from Icahn about his attempted $10.2 billion takeover of Clorox in July 2011.

“Icahn’s bid caused Clorox’s price to skyrocket amid a rash of suspicious trading, say sources with knowledge of the probe.

“None of the three has been formally accused of wrongdoing. Icahn says he has never given out any inside information during his 53-year Wall Street career. He says he knows Walters but has never met Mickelson....

“Mickelson sometimes hits the links with Walters, a legendary sports bettor who buys and sells golf courses and is a big player in Las Vegas real estate.

“In 2011, Walters told ’60 Minutes’ that he once won $1 million betting on a round of golf – and lost it all later in the day playing blackjack at a downtown Las Vegas casino.

“In that same interview, Walters said he had run into many more thieves on Wall Street than in casinos.

“ ‘So you would say that the hustler from Vegas got hustled by Wall Street?’ interviewer Lara Logan asked.

Two FBI agents approached Mickelson after his opening round at The Memorial on Thursday. The New York Times reported that agents had previously surprised Phil at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey last year about his trading.

Mickelson and Walters are said to have reaped millions on options contracts in Clorox, with the trades going through just days before Icahn announced an unsolicited takeover bid.

So did Icahn leak details of his bid to Walters, who then passed it on to Mickelson? It sure seems like that, but, it’s been three years since the activity and there is still no case. Insider trading is not always easy to prove. Plus, if Icahn leaked details of his trades, it’s not necessarily illegal.

According to the New York Times, authorities were “planning to secure cooperation from one of Mr. Icahn’s top employees, the people briefed on the matter said, but shifted gears when they lacked the leverage to do so.

“The focus then turned to Mr. Mickelson, whom authorities hoped to scare into cooperating....

“But when the FBI approached Mr. Mickelson – first pulling him off a plane at Teterboro Airport last year, the people said, and then confronting him on Thursday...Mr. Mickelson had little to offer. In the airport discussion last year, which lasted no more than an hour, the people said, Mr. Mickelson pledged to cooperate but explained that he did not know Mr. Icahn and had no clue that the stock tips might have been improper. On Thursday, Mr. Mickelson said, he instructed FBI agents to ‘speak to my lawyers.’”

Another stock at issue is Dean Foods, which Walters and Mickelson invested in prior to an earnings report. Icahn is not involved in this one, but investigators are attempting to ascertain if Walters had an inside contact at Dean.

Of course none of the above is helpful when it comes to Mickelson and his focus heading to Pinehurst for the U.S. Open, which begins June 12; the only tournament that matters to him as he attempts to complete the career Grand Slam. Phil has finished second or tied for second six times at the event. But at age 44 (he turns that the day after the Open...or a Monday playoff), time is rapidly running out.

Speaking of Pinehurst, Tiger Woods officially withdrew from the event, saying on his website, “I’m not yet physically able to play competitive golf,” though he added, “I remain very optimistic about this year and my future.”

No word yet whether Tiger will play in the British Open, which begins July 17.

--As for The Memorial tournament conclusion, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, 22, captured his first PGA Tour title in a playoff over Kevin Na na na naaaaa.....

--Stanford’s Cameron Wilson won the Division I Men’s Championship individual title on the third hole of a playoff with Georgia Tech’s Allie Schniederjans (how do you fit that one on a golf bag?). Wilson notched 11 top 10s in 12 starts this season.

By the way, the two others from Stanford to win the NCAA individual title are Tiger Woods (1996) and “Sandy” Tatum (1942).

As for the team title, Alabama won its second straight, defeating Oklahoma State in the final. Nice career for seniors Bobby Wyatt, Cory Whitsett and Trey Mullinax. They also accumulated three SEC titles in their four years.

--Duke’s women won their sixth national title under Coach Dan Brooks, two strokes ahead of USC. The Trojans’ Doris Chen won the individual title.

Ballmer Buys the Clippers

The NBA approved former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s $2 billion bid to buy the Los Angeles Clippers. The sale is subject to approval from the league’s owners.

As part of the sale agreement, Shelly Sterling and the Sterling family trust have agreed not to sue the NBA and to absolve the league of litigation by others, including Donald Sterling.

For his part, Donald filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the league on Friday as well, though Sterling’s attorney, Max Blecher, said, “We gotta sit down and see how all of this affects us. We have to think through the whole situation.”

The $2 billion price tag exceeds the previous high, $550 million paid for by the Milwaukee Bucks earlier this year.

Ballmer said, “I’ve got big dreams for the team. I’d love to win a championship. I’d love the Clippers to be the most dynamic, vibrant team and name in professional sports.

As a provision of the sale, Shelly Sterling will be allowed to attend Clippers games. Donald obviously won’t be.

“At least on a surface level, the Los Angeles Clippers appeared to be a lousy investment for any potential buyer – a franchise with none of the championship history and Hollywood buzz of the rival Lakers and one still reeling from the racist comments made five weeks ago by now-deposed owner Donald Sterling....

“ ‘This sale sets a new standard for market price for sports teams, at least in large-market cities,’ said Marc Edelman, a law professor at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College of New York. Noting that it was only two weeks ago that the sale of the Milwaukee Bucks was finalized for what was then a NBA-record price of $550 million, he added, ‘To jump from $550 million for the Bucks to $2 billion for the Clippers, at least on the face of it, seems absurd.’....

“The story of how the high-water threshold for the sale of an NBA franchise made a nearly four-fold jump in only two weeks in some ways is a simple tale of supply and demand.

“There are no other NBA franchises on the market, at least not publicly. An NBA franchise had not become available in Los Angeles – the second-largest media market in the United States and the center of the entertainment industry – in more than 30 years. And Ballmer, 58, had tried to purchase the Sacramento Kings a year ago with the intention of moving them to Seattle but failed.

“Ballmer has said publicly that if his bid for the Clippers goes through, he would keep them in Los Angeles.

“ ‘You had a guy [Ballmer] who couldn’t get in the first time, and now there’s an even better option in a bigger market,’ said one high-ranking NBA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the league office staff was not to speak about the sale until it was done. ‘He saw another opportunity, and he wasn’t going to be outbid.’...

“ ‘The [NBA’s economic] system is designed for franchise values to skyrocket,’ said Mark Bartelstein, a prominent NBA player agent, who cited gains made by the owners in the league’s most recent labor agreement. ‘They have cost certainty on the player [payroll] side, and they’ve got unlimited revenue they can generate. The way the [labor agreement] is set up now, it’s almost a license to print money.’

“It was more than sheer economics that was driving the Clippers sale. When the Los Angeles Dodgers sold for $2.15 billion in 2012, that price included a television contract and stakes in land and parking lots. The Clippers, on the other hand, are tenants in their arena, the Staples Center, in a lease that lasts nine more years, and thus they do not receive any non-basketball revenue. They also earn a relatively modest $20 million-$25 million per year on their current television deal, which expires after the 2015-16 season.”

And the Clippers’ next TV deal is expected to be substantially less than the estimated $150 million per the Lakers are receiving from Time Warner Cable. [Some say just $60 million.]

“ ‘I think [$2 billion] is at least two times too large to make economic sense,’ Andrew Zimbalist, professor of economics at Smith College, said of the Clippers’ sale price. ‘There’s one of either two things going on. [Ballmer] is either making a vanity purchase...or he’s expecting the Clippers to generate the type of television deal the Lakers or Dodgers got. If that’s the way he’s looking at it, he’s going to be sorely disappointed. He won’t get anything close to that.’”

“There was a time when $10 million was considered an outrageous sum to buy the Yankees. It was 1973, the Bronx was crumbling, and George Steinbrenner’s purchase (for about $50 million in today’s dollars) made jaws drop. Jerry Jones’ $140 million outlay for the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 had the same effect, as did the 2012 sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers for $2.15 billion.”

Howard Bryant in ESPN The Magazine had an interesting take on the $2 billion spent to acquire the Dodgers in 2012.

“(Team president) Stan Kasten and GM Ned Colletti are unapologetic (about the huge payroll, too), as they should be. The Dodgers are not the Royals or the Twins; they are a big-name megafranchise in a game that rewards massive financial imbalances. They also play in a city that thrives on the power of the marquee. Even after failing to make the playoffs from 2010 to 2012, the Dodgers announced a reported 25-year, $8.35 billion TV contract in 2013. They have doubled their season-ticket base since 2012 to 35,000 – nearly the entire capacity of Fenway Park – and rank first in MLB in attendance at 46,194 per game (through May 16). It is appropriate to apply to the Dodgers what Tommy Lee Jones’ character said of the fictional pharmaceutical company Devlin-MacGregor in the movie The Fugitive:  ‘That company’s a monster.’”

NBA – NHL...The Finals – The Stanley Cup

Spurs – Heat....Rangers – Blackhawks/Kings

Tim Duncan did it again, willing the Spurs to victory in Game 6 of their conference finals win over the Thunder in Oklahoma City, 112-107 in overtime, sending San Antonio to a rematch with Miami. The 38-year-old’s fadeaway jumper with 19.4 seconds left in OT proved to be the difference, as Timmy D. finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds. The Spurs’ Boris Diaw had 26, even as they played without Tony Parker for the entire second half and OT, due to a bad ankle.

For the Thunder, while Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for 65 points, they also committed seven turnovers apiece.

Earlier, on Thursday, with the series knotted at 2, Duncan led a Spurs rout, 117-89, with 22 points and 12 boards.

Friday, Miami took down Indiana 117-92 to win their series 4-2.

So can San Antonio make up for last season’s historic loss to Miami, specifically the Game 6 debacle when the Spurs had the title clinched? I’m praying this will prove to be the case.

--Phil Jackson let it be known that Derek Fisher was his plan B (at least he strongly hinted as much) after Steve Kerr turned down the offer to be the Knicks next head coach. Jackson said the other day that Kerr backed out of a verbal commitment the day before the Golden State Warriors’ job became available.

“I had to kind of release him to actually go to this job and say, ‘You have to do what’s right for yourself.’ I understood entirely the process he was going through to have that job open up. That was something he kind of thought would be a good fit for him. So that’s good, we’re happy for him,” said Jackson.

Jackson also conceded Kerr, aside from being a California guy, is also going to a team with a lot more talent than the Knicks have.

Jackson said his next candidate will have a history with him, which meant it wouldn’t be Mark Jackson. Phil also maintains he is just not physically capable of coaching the team himself.

As for Carmelo Anthony’s status, Jackson is urging him to stay one more year and see how it goes. Anthony still has one year and $23.5 million remaining on his current contract, but can opt out through a player option that Melo said he’d exercise to test the free agent waters.

It’s really amazing to look back on the Rangers’ season. After all, because of renovations to Madison Square Garden, the team started it all with a nine-game road trip and were 3-6, including losses of 9-2 and 6-0.

And then in the playoffs to come from down 3-1 to the Penguins to win the next three by a combined score of 10-3. Us fans are psyched, though realistic. 

Ticket prices for Games 3 and 4 on June 9 and 11 in New York are being offered at an average of $2,250 and $2,480, respectively, according to TiqIQ, a ticket-sales analyst firm.

But as I go to post...no winner yet in Kings-Blackhawks. More next time.

Ball Bits

--The San Francisco Giants are the best team in baseball with a 37-20 record. Tim Hudson moved to 6-2, 1.75, on Sunday with 7 scoreless in an 8-0 win over the Cardinals. Hudson is now 210-113 for his career.

--The Red Sox have suddenly responded from their 10-game losing streak to win seven in a row, now 27-29 overall.

--For the first time in their history, the Mets played consecutive five-hour games this weekend. Friday night they lost to the Phillies 6-5 in 14 innings, the game taking 5:23. Then Saturday they beat the Phils 5-4, also in 14, with this one taking 5:32. The last time the team played back-to-back 14 inning affairs was 1979. So needless to say the bullpen was shot (ditto Philadelphia’s), and for Saturday the Mets called up a true journeyman, Buddy Carlyle. The 36-year-old last pitched in the majors in 2011, but he threw three scoreless for the win, his first big league victory since 2008 when he was with Atlanta. Pretty cool.

Meanwhile, as fans of the team know, the Mets’ Daniel Murphy has been incredibly reckless on the basepaths...bordering on pure idiocy. Please trade him. We will never win with the guy. Oh, we could make the playoffs, but he has proven time and time again that no one makes more bonehead plays than he does and in a clutch situation, like a Game 7 of an NLCS, the ‘bad’ Murph will show up...count on it.

[On Sunday, the Mets and Phils went 11, Mets winning 4-3. It was the first time since 1975 the Mets had had such a stretch.]

--Chicago White Sox hurler Chris Sale moved to 5-0, 1.59, after a 4-1 win over San Diego on Sunday.

--Toronto’s Mark Buehrle, who I’ve already written a ton about this season, became MLB’s first 10-game winner with a 4-0 victory over the Royals. [He is 10-1, 2.10.]

--Back to long baseball games, SI.com’s Tom Verducci recently did a column that noted the average time for a game this season is 3:08, compared with an average 2:48 in 2004.

This is a big problem, but if the umpires would just keep the batters in the batter’s box between pitches, and keep the pitcher on the mound, you’d pick things up considerably. The rules are in place...the umps need to enforce them.

--It’s very worrisome for the Yankees that Mark Teixeira’s wrist injury is not going away, forcing him to sit a number of games. He was playing great and appeared fully mended, but then the soreness returned.

So as the New York Post’s Kevin Kernan notes, the Yankees should be all over free agent Kendrys Morales, who supposedly has five other teams interested in his services.

Separately, Masahiro Tanaka moved his record to 8-1 on Saturday, allowing one unearned run in eight innings of a 3-1 Yanks win over the Twins. Tanaka thus became only the fourth rookie to win 8 before the end of May, the others being Kaz Ishii (Dodgers, 2002), Fernando Valenzuela (Dodgers, 1981), and Jerry Koosman (Mets, 1968).

In Sunday’s game, Phil Hughes made his return to Yankee Stadium as a Twin and won 7-2, Hughes upping his mark to 6-1, 3.12. Not bad...not bad at all.

--Michael Beschloss had a piece in the New York Times on the motel Sandy Koufax owned, a West Hollywood motor inn named “Sandy Koufax’s Tropicana Motel." Down Santa Monica Boulevard from the famed Troubadour club, these “74 luxurious air-conditioned rooms” came to lodge “some of the biggest musical acts of the period: Alice Cooper, Bob Marley, the Mamas and the Papas, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and the Doors. ‘I don’t know which made me more excited,’ said one guest, ‘to be in Sandy’s motel or to be in a room right beside Sly Stone, from Sly and the Family Stone.’”

As Beschloss wrote, these weren’t the days of Miguel Cabrera type contracts. Top ballplayers were paid well, but they still took off-season jobs or put their name on a motor hotel or bar, like “Don Drysdale’s Dugout Lounge” in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Van Nuys.

“In 1965, Koufax was earning $85,000. Drysdale, his fellow Dodgers pitcher, took in $80,000. (Each salary would equal slightly less than $600,000 in 2014 dollars).”

That fall the two staged a 32-day contract boycott, much to the chagrin of GM Buzzie Bavasi. Eventually, Drysdale got $110,000 and Sandy $125,000, which in today’s dollars would still be less than a million for each.

--In the NCAA baseball tournament, Saturday night, TCU defeated Sam Houston State 3-2 in 22 innings! 6 hours 54 minutes...a combined 13 pitchers...594 pitches (316 by SHS). Good lord. It was the second-longest in NCAA tournament history, the longest being Texas’ 3-2 victory over Boston College in 25 innings on May 30, 2009.

--In the French Open, the big story early was on the women’s side, with defending champion Serena Williams losing her second-round match to Garbine Muguruza of Spain, this after No. 2-seed Li Na was upset. Venus Williams also lost in the second round. The two sisters would have played each other in the third.

On the men’s side, fourth-seeded Roger Federer’s streak of nine consecutive quarterfinals at the French ended Sunday with a loss to 18-seed Ernests Gulbis of Latvia. Federer is 32, after all, and has now failed to reach the quarterfinals at three of the last four majors. Gulbis took a somewhat controversial medical timeout at a crucial stage in the match.

Meanwhile, American John Isner, the 10-seed, failed in his bid to become the first American man in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros since Andre Agassi in 2003, losing to No. 6 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic. He was the last of the eight Americans in the draw.

No American has made it to the quarterfinals at any Grand Slam event since 2011. Right now there are no Americans in the top 10 of the ATP rankings; Isner being 11th, which makes him the only American in the top 60. Eegads. I blame George W. Bush.

--Six climbers died on Mount Rainier, likely falling thousands of feet to their deaths in what would be among the worst alpine accidents on the mountain. After a helicopter crew spotted camping and climbing gear, it is believed the group fell 3,300 feet from their last known whereabouts of 12,800 feet, according to a National Park spokeswoman. An avalanche is the probable cause.

Before this most recent accident, the park service says 89 people have died on Mount Rainier since 1897.

--According to the latest government data, the number of Americans ages 5 to 19 with traumatic brain injuries in sports-related incidents grew 62% from 2001 to 250,000 in 2009.

--I said I’m all in with Tottenham next Premier League season, so I note “we” have a new manager, Mauricio Pochettino of Southampton. The Argentine led them to eighth in the Premier League last season, while Tottenham finished sixth.

--Speaking of the Premier League, we note the passing of Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer, the American billionaire who was also owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which he purchased in 1995.

In 2005 he took over Man U and at its current value of $3.1 billion (it could be less than that after a disappointing season), it is twice what Glazer paid for it.

Glazer’s death won’t spark a sale of either franchise. The Buccaneers said there is a succession plan that will keep it in the family for generations, while Manchester United is in the hands of a trust fund owned by Glazer’s six children.

[I’ll discuss the death of Lewis Katz, former co-owner of the Nets and Devils, next time.]

--I’m going to omit the last names on this one, but I saw this blurb in the Star-Ledger and know many of you can relate.

“Joanne T. says her neighbor’s son’s drumming is so loud, so constant, so incessant, she’s had to get therapy because of the anxiety it causes. And an appellate court is giving her the chance to make the case he should have to stop.

“T. is suing James and Sandra P., trying to silence the drums their teenage son plays in a detached garage about 15 feet from T.’s home. Last year, her lawsuit had been dismissed by Morris County Superior Court Judge “Joe Blow,” who reasoned that the drumming stopped by 7 p.m. and complied with a local noise ordinance.”

--Anne B. Davis, Alice on “The Brady Bunch,” died. She was 88. 

“A U.S. Airways flight headed to Philadelphia was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Missouri after a big dog pooped in the aisle. Twice.

“Flight 598 was already two hours late when it took off from Los Angeles International Airport.

“The source? A service dog, belonging to a passenger, heeded nature’s call smack in the center aisle. And then the mutt pooped again.”

The airline ran out of paper towels, and that’s when the pilot got on and said he had to make an emergency landing.

Clearly, the airline food didn’t appeal to the pooch. Dog nonetheless remains #1 on the All-Species List. It was a ‘service dog,’ after all. The Beaver, recently reinstated following a suspension, is at #8 and top rodent.

--I just have to note a record recently set by James “The Beast” Nielsen, who the other day honored the 60th anniversary of the first sub-four-minute mile by setting a mark many thought unbreakable: the five-minute “beer mile.”

As described by the Wall Street Journal’s Zusha Elinson:

“Since its origin on college campuses in the late 1980s, the beer mile has grown into an underground phenomenon. Thousands of people, including some professional athletes, have sought to be the fastest in the world at chugging a 12-ounce beer, running one lap, then repeating the uncomfortable, belch-heavy process three more times. Adherents call it the most ‘glorified’ of the ‘digestive athletics’ – a realm that includes competitive eating contests – but it has remained mostly in the shadows.”

So Nielsen did a 4:57, that I haven’t watched on YouTube yet, with some questioning the time. As Elinson writes, beer-milers “have examined his video like assassination theorists poring over the Zapruder film....(Some) question why he didn’t flip the first can upside down above his head to prove that he had completely drained its contents, as custom demands.”

By the way, the rules of beer-miling state that competitors who vomit must complete an extra lap.

Gotta tell ya, I greatly admire Mr. Nielsen. My best mile in high school was about 4:55, sans brewskis. [I was a better two-miler. And, yes, today I could drink, err, eight...cough cough... Kids, I’m a professional. Don’t try this at home.]

--And the “Good Guy of the Week” award goes to Joe Cornell, 52, who is in a Salvation Army substance-abuse program, but on Tuesday, he returned a bag containing $125,000 that fell from a Brinks truck. 

Cornell found it after the truck pulled away from a red light in Fresno, Calif., and left the sack behind. He says he started crying when he realized what he found, but decided to report it to the police after thinking of his coming grandchild.

Brinks isn’t sure how the bag fell off, or out, but the company is giving Cornell $5,000 and making a separate $5,000 donation to the Salvation Army; making them Good Guys as well.

Top 3 songs for the week 6/2/73: #1 “My Love” (Paul McCartney & Wings) #2 “Daniel” (Elton John...not about the Mets’ mercurial Daniel Murphy...) #3 “Frankenstein” (The Edgar Winter Group)...and...#4 “Pillow Talk” (Sylvia...uhh...uhhh...) #5 “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree” (Dawn featuring Tony Orlando) #6 “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” (Stevie Wonder) #7 “I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby” (Barry White) #8 “Little Willy” (The Sweet) #9 “Hocus Pocus” (Focus) #10 “Playgrounds In My Mind” (Clint Holmes)

Baseball Quiz Answer: Johnny Mize, 1947, hit 51 homers and struck out just 42 times.

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