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Bar Chat

06/16/2014

San Antonio, Los Angeles and Kaymer

Baseball Quiz: Name the only three major leaguers to homer before their 20th birthday and after their 40th. All three are big names, one a Hall of Famers. Answer below.

Five For San Antonio...and Timmy D.!!!!

Game 4...San Antonio 107 Miami 86...Spurs shoot 57.1% from the field, take 3-1 series lead.

Game 5...Miami and LeBron take a 22-6 lead, but Spurs come storming back to trail just 29-22 after one. James had 17 points and 6 rebounds. San Antonio was 6-21 from the field.

By half, the Spurs having outscored the Heat 25-11 in the second, it was 47-40 San Antonio. Manu Ginobili had 14 off the bench. Kawhi Leonard continued his superlative play with 15.

San Antonio then outscored Miami 30-18 in the third to take a commanding 77-58 lead as Patty Mills went off for 14 in the quarter (17 in 13 minutes off the bench), while Ginobili had 19 in 19.

The Spurs coasted from there, as Tony Parker, who missed his first ten from the field, hit his next seven.

Final Score.......104-87...payback complete for last year’s Game 6.

Lots of questions for the Heat...more below...and what will Timmy D., Manu and Parker do?

Kaymer Again

Like I’ve been writing, just what golf didn’t need. A U.S. Open with zero drama and Phil Mickelson not in contention. Instead, Germany’s Martin Kaymer went wire-to-wire, just as he had done at The Players Championship last month. Kay

Kaymer won by 8 shots, having set the 36-hole record for a U.S. Open, 65-65. 

2010 PGA Championship
2014 Players Championship
2014 U.S. Open

Kaymer is a good guy and if he goes on to take the British Open, well then we’d have one heck of a story heading into the PGA.

But I’m imagining the ratings were abysmal. I watched much of it with my father, a Father’s Day tradition, so that part is always good. [Subway sandwiches and beer, by the way.]

Separately, congratulations to Erik Compton, 34, who finished tied for second with Rickie Fowler, the best finish of his PGA Tour career in just his second major. If you didn’t catch any of the action and don’t know his story, Erik Compton is on his third heart. Yes, he had his second heart transplant six years ago. It’s simply unfathomable.

And a shout-out to 53-year-old Kenny Perry for not only making the cut, but for his spectacular eagle on Saturday.

Finally, kudos to NBC and Johnny Miller for their 20 years covering the event. It now goes to Fox...Joe Buck and Greg Norman.

Local hockey fans are all in agreement. This was the greatest five-game series any of us have witnessed. Yes, I stayed up to the bitter end on Friday night. As good as it gets, only not the result us Rangers fans wanted. Kudos to the Los Angeles Kings. They were relentless, and talk about ‘showing up’ in crunch time.

Game 1...3-2 Kings (OT)...Rangers 27 shots Kings 43...Rangers outshot 20-3 in 3rd.

Game 2...5-4 King (2 OT)...Rangers 38 shots Kings 44...Rangers outshot 12-7 in 3rd.

Game 3...3-0 Kings...Rangers 32 shots Kings 15...Rangers 11-2 in 3rd.

Game 4...2-1 Rangers...Rangers 19 shots Kings 41...Rangers outshot 15-1 in 3rd.

Game 5...3-2 Kings (2 OT)...Rangers 30 shots Kings 51...Rangers outshot 12-3 in 3rd.

Amazing. In three of the games the Rangers didn’t have more than 3 shots in the 3rd period.

Except for Game 3, it was all Henrik Lundqvist for New York, while the Kings’ Jonathan Quick certainly had his share of spectacular saves...and at clutch moments.

One player who did not show up for the Rangers throughout the playoffs was Rick Nash, he of the $7.8 million cap hit thru 2017-18. Nash, the designated scorer, had but 3 goals in 25 playoff games. As a Ranger he now has just 4 in 36 over the last two seasons.

“This is how the Rangers season ended and the season of Carmelo Anthony officially began: Alec Martinez having just put a rebound behind Henrik Lundqvist, Lundqvist face down in his own crease like Martinez had just knocked him cold with that shot, Martinez already skating right past Lundqvist, jubilant, celebrating the goal that had just won another Stanley Cup for him and for the Kings.

“That is where two months of the Rangers coming to life this way in New York ended, after nearly two more full overtimes at Staples Center that showed us all why the people who love hockey love it the way they do, the Rangers trying to bring the series home to New York for one more night at Madison Square Garden, the Kings trying to make sure that they didn’t make one more cross-country trip and neither did the Stanley Cup.”

But while us Rangers fans can play ‘what if?’ all summer, like ‘what if the goalie interference in Game 2 hadn’t been called?’ the fact is the Kings were better, which was why your editor picked them in five to start with. Henrik Lundqvist, save for Game 3, singlehandedly kept them in this.

It’s also a fact that in their last seven playoff games, the Rangers never scored a goal after the second period.

“Bad omens stared at Henrik Lundqvist at the start of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. It was the 666th game of his Rangers career. A full moon – the first on Friday the 13th since 2000 – hung over Staples Center.

“Perhaps the omens were true portents. A riveting Stanley Cup playoffs finally came to an end, almost 30 minutes past midnight Eastern time.

“For the second time in three years, the Kings won the Stanley Cup. The Rangers put together an overachieving springtime run, although they wound up falling short of their first championship in 20 years....

“ ‘I prepared so hard for every game,’ Lundqvist said afterward. ‘I’ve never been so tired after a run like this.’

“The psychological damage in the Rangers’ locker room following Friday’s elimination Game 5 double-overtime defeat to the once and current Kings of the hockey world was manifest and it was real. The combination of pain and emptiness transmitted through the Blueshirts’ sad eyes will linger for some time...

“But there is little time for regret. Training camp begins in three months. It is imperative that the Rangers regard their trip to the Stanley Cup finals as a stepping stone and not, well, a final destination.”

“The Kings’ Stanley Cup playoff run appeared to be over before it had really begun. Sloppy on defense and helpless against the speed of the San Jose Sharks, the Kings lost the first three games of their opening-round playoff series and were one loss from going home for the summer.

“But Coach Darryl Sutter saw something that few people outside the team’s tight circle could glimpse: an air of resilience, a resolve that wouldn’t be shaken. He said they weren’t done. Coaches always say that.

“ ‘It’s a tough hill,’ Sutter said, ‘and we won’t go quietly away, that’s for sure.’

“They didn’t go away at all. They rallied and won the next four games and the series, setting a tone for a playoff journey that was as nerve-racking as it was unique.”

Ball Bits

--The Mets’ had a rare home win on Friday night, 6-2 over the Padres, and the two stars for the Metropolitans were 40-year-old Bobby Abreu, who went 4-for-4 with two RBI, and 41-year-old Bartolo Colon, who went 7 1/3 for his sixth win.

But then on Saturday, the Mets lost 5-0, had just two hits, and outfielder Chris Young was booed unmercifully while striking out four times.

2007...32-68, .237
2008...22-85, .248
2010...27-91, .257...makes All-Star team
2011...20-71, .236
2012...14-41, .231
2013...12-40, .200
2014.....4-15, .196

Now this was clearly a player in decline, yet the Mets signed him to a one-year, $7.25 million contract. Thank you, Sandy Alderson.

Oh, I can go on and on about the Mets and this sorry, multi-year stretch of theirs...but I’ll save it for next time!

As for captain David Wright, he’s in a disastrous 2-for-39 slump after an 0-for-3 in Sunday’s 3-1 win.

--Speaking of the Padres, they have a team on-base percentage of .276. The major-league average is .316. To give you an idea of how poor this is, if the Padres finish the season at this level, it will be the worst in baseball history in at least 100 years.

--Where would the 35-33 Yanks be without Masahiro Tanaka? 13 starts...13 quality starts...10-1, 2.02 ERA...93 2/3 innings, 14 walks, 103 strikeouts.  Phenomenal.

--Detroit’s Victor Martinez is hitting .333 with 17 home runs and 44 RBI...and only 17 strikeouts.

--Power surge! Cincinnati’s Billy Hamilton now has four home runs and has his average up to .264. With his speed (25 steals), the Reds hope he continues to show he can hit big-league pitching.

--It’s amazing how long some of the injuries last these days. Like the Mets’ Dillon Gee hit the DL a while ago with a stiff back and it was thought he’d miss two starts in going on the 15-day DL. Now he’ll be out at least two months. Ditto the Yankees’ Michael Pineda. He was thought to miss just a few weeks after a back issue, returning to the rotation early May. Now it’s August, if at all this season. What is going on with these guys? [The Yanks’ CC Sabathia has a knee issue that was expected to sideline him just about three weeks, returning early June. Now it’s late July.]

--UC Irvine was one of the last four teams selected for the NCAA baseball tournament and all they’ve done is knock off No. 1 seed Oregon State and sweep their super regional at Oklahoma State to advance to the College World Series, whereupon they opened with a 3-1 victory over Texas. Next up on Monday, Vanderbilt, 5-3 winners over Louisville.

World Cup

That was a huge win for Costa Rica over Uruguay, 3-1, though Uruguay had to play without star striker Luis Suarez, still out with a knee injury.

Italy opened with a 2-1 win over England on a Mario Balotelli header. England now must beat Uruguay on June 19.

I watched Ivory Coast’s 2-1 comeback win over Japan as Didier Drogba came off the bench to inspire his teammates.

But thus far the biggest story has been the Netherlands’ 5-1 rout of world champion Spain in a rematch of their 2010 World Cup final.

As for Brazil’s 3-1 win over Croatia in the opener, everyone was talking about the awful call on Croatia that resulted in a penalty kick for Neymar that gave Brazil a 2-1 lead. The Japanese referee is not expected to do another game.

On Sunday, Switzerland had a dramatic extra time score to defeat Ecuador 2-1.

Noll, architect of the “Steel Curtain” Steelers, died of natural causes in Pittsburgh Friday night. He was 82. 

Chuck Noll is simply one of the greatest coaches, of any sport. I mean here’s a guy who went 193-148, .566 (1969-1991), after starting out 1-13, 5-9, and 6-8, and won four Super Bowls, 1974, 75, 78, 79. His playoff record was 16-8. 

Yet we never thought of him. But that’s just the way he wanted it. 

Noll, who divided his time between a home near Pittsburgh (Sewickley) and Florida, let his wife Marianne take care of those trying to get an interview. He evidently had severe back problems, but did make it to a Steelers home game from time to time and followed the team closely. 

Here are some random thoughts from a 2009 piece by Elizabeth Merrill on ESPN.com.

Despite all his success, the only endorsement Noll ever took was for a local bank run by a friend, but when he “saw his face plastered on a billboard for the bank – an ad that hung near a road that took the team to training camp – he became annoyed.”  

“Mean Joe” Greene recalls that when he was selected first in the 1969 draft out of North Texas State, by the new coach Noll, he was dejected “because it meant he was headed to a moribund franchise with no hope of winning. He spent the first couple of seasons angry and let his temper get the best of him.” 

“ ‘I didn’t buy into it early on,’ Greene says. ‘It was hard to believe what he was saying.’” 

Then one day Noll issued the speech. As a practice he never gave them, saying that if he needed to motivate them, they probably deserved to be fired. 

“Something got to him in late December 1974. The Raiders had just beaten the Dolphins in an AFC divisional playoff game that was far more interesting than Pittsburgh’s win against Buffalo. Ken Stabler made a falling throw, and the epic that would later be known as the ‘Sea of Hands’ game was getting far more play. It featured supposedly the best two teams in football. The Super Bowl, to many, seemed like a formality. 

“Noll gathered his team in that Monday, and, like always, broke down the plusses and minuses of their previous game. Then he launched into a lecture and slammed a chalkboard. 

“ ‘He said, ‘Guys, the people in Oakland think the Super Bowl was played yesterday and the best team was in that game,’ Greene says. ‘I want you guys to know the Super Bowl will be played two weeks from now, and the best team in the National Football League is sitting right here.’ 

“ ‘From that moment on, regardless of what went on at the start of the game, I knew the Raiders weren’t going to win it. I’ve never had that feeling before or after that [the other] team had no chance.’” 

Noll was detached and the players figured that was because he didn’t want to get close to someone he may have to eventually cut. 

But one Christmas in the late 1970s, Lynn Swann had some teammates over for a tree-trimming party and they decided to go caroling afterward. One imagines they were feeling pretty good, though Merrill doesn’t say. They stopped by Dan Rooney’s house and a few others along the chain of power. “Swann suggested they go to Noll’s. His buddies hesitated.” 

Well, it was before 11:00 p.m., curfew, “so they knocked on the door and sang to Chuck and Marianne. He invited them in. Noll showed them some pictures he had taken, then grabbed his ukulele and started playing. It was a side they had never seen before.” 

“ ‘I thought we were breaking the ice,’ Swann says. ‘We’re getting to the core of this man, this is great. Wonderful. A breakthrough. 

“ ‘The next morning, we walk in there, and I thought we were going to have a new relationship. He looked at us, and nodded his head. It was like we were never in his home for a second. He never acknowledged it. But that was Chuck.” 

Then there was the case of linebacker Andy Russell, one of just five from the first team that Noll coached in ‘69 to play in a Super Bowl for the Steelers. Noll called Russell in for their first meeting. 

“I’ve been watching game film, Russell,” Noll told him. “I don’t like the way you play. You’re too aggressive. You’re too out of control. You’re too impatient, trying to be a hero. I’m going to change the way you play. You’re going to be a lot different in your 30s than your 20s.” 

Russell became a 10-year captain and went to seven Pro Bowls. 

Surprisingly, Chuck Noll was not one of those classic NFL head coach workaholics. He kept to a schedule that had him home by 7:00 p.m. most nights but Monday and Tuesday. 

When the Steelers won their first Super Bowl championship, Noll was asked about the meaning of it and a certain word.

Noll was the son of a butcher, born on Jan. 5, 1932, in Cleveland. He played his college ball at the University of Dayton, then joined the Browns in 1953.

He was a “messenger guard” for Paul Brown, the franchise’s founder and coach, shuttling his plays in to quarterback Otto Graham.

After seven seasons as a player for the Browns, Noll was a defensive coach under Sid Gillman for the Los Angeles (and later San Diego) Chargers, 1960-65, and then as an assistant to Don Shula on the Baltimore Colts from 1966 to 1968.

Then the Steelers tabbed him, replacing Bill Austin, who had guided Pittsburgh to a 2-11-1 record. But Noll only got the job after Penn State’s Joe Paterno turned down a $350,000, five-year offer. 

Asked at his first news conference if his goal was to make the Steelers respectable, Noll said, "Respectability?  Who wants to be respectable? That’s spoken like a true loser.” Noll then went 1-13.

But he had taken Mean Joe Greene as his first NFL draft pick. Drafted Terry Bradshaw and cornerback Mel Blount in 1970, linebacker Jack Ham in 1971, running back Franco Harris in 1972 and the spectacular class of 1974...Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Jack Lambert and center Mike Webster. All became Hall of Famers. The Steelers didn’t have a general manager. It was Noll.

He ended up assembling a defense anchored by the Steel Curtain (Greene, Dwight White, Ernie Holmes and L.C. Greenwood); linebackers Lambert, Ham and Russell; and a defensive backfield of Blount, J.T. Thomas, Glen Edwards, Donnie Shell and Mike Wagner...one of the greatest defenses ever.

In fact one of their best seasons ever was a year in which they didn’t win the Super Bowl, 1976. I remember it vividly. They started out just 1-4, but won their last nine – even with Bradshaw injured and out most of the season – by playing the greatest stretch of defense in modern NFL history.

The Steel Curtain shut out five of their final nine opponents and gave up only 28 points. 28 points in nine games! [And no more than 257 total yards in any of them.] Alas, Harris and Rocky Bleier were injured in a playoff game against Baltimore and Pittsburgh lost the AFC title to Oakland.

As Richard Goldstein of the New York Times wrote, however, Chuck Noll did have one dark moment:

“Noll generally stayed away from controversy. But when George Atkinson of the Oakland Raiders hit Swann from behind during a 1976 game, giving him a concussion, Noll said that Atkinson had attempted to injure Swann and that he was part of a ‘criminal element’ in the NFL. Atkinson filed a $2 million slander suit against Noll and the Steelers, but a federal court jury found in their favor.”

Andy Russell spoke of Noll’s ability to coach players already known for their talent.

“He would teach new draft choices who were All-American guards how to get in a stance. In his first year, we won our first game and lost 13 in a row. He said: ‘We will get worse before we get better because I’m going to force you to play the right way.’”

Noll may not have been the most colorful to ever walk the sidelines, but he had a number of memorable one-liners.

“A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning.”

“Before you can win a game, you have to not lose it.”

“The thrill isn’t in the winning, it’s in the doing.”

Noll’s final 12 seasons weren’t the best. The great players began retiring and the Steelers won only two playoff games and no conference championships during that time. When he retired, he said he would never coach again and he didn’t.

Team owner Dan Rooney wrote in his autobiography, “Hiring Chuck Noll was the best decision we ever made for the Steelers... To become world champions, we needed a coach with the right combination of vision, intelligence and leadership: someone who could teach us how to win.”

Rocky Bleier said: “He wasn’t one who put his arm around you and pumped you up. His way was, ‘I don’t have time to motivate you. My job is to take self-motivators and show them how to become better.’ He wasn’t very comfortable at having to go pat guys on the back or jack them up. He will not go down in the annals of history as a great, halftime rah-rah guy.”

Jack Ham: “Chuck always said that if he has to waste time or spend time motivating players, he’s going to get rid of those kind of people. He coined the phrase ‘self-starters.’ I always knew he was going to be fair, no matter if you were Bradshaw or the 45th guy on the team.”

Tony Dungy, who played and coached under Noll in Pittsburgh, said a while back, “Chuck Noll was one of the greatest leaders that I’ve ever been around. His best quality was being able to get everyone to buy into the program. ...I can remember the first meeting I was ever in as a rookie player, and after 20 minutes feeling like I know what it takes to win a Super Bowl.”

One of Dungy’s favorite Noll-isms: “Everyone’s job is important, but no one is indispensable.”

[Remind you of anyone? Sounds like Gregg Popovich to me. Buying into the program and all.]

Asked by Sports Illustrated in 2007 how he wanted to be remembered, Noll replied: “A person who could adapt to a world of constant change. But most of all as a teacher.”

Chuck Noll remains the only coach to win four Super Bowls. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993. [Sources: Richard Goldstein / New York Times; AP; Elizabeth Merrill / ESPN.com; Gary Mihoces / USA TODAY; Gerry Dulac / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

--Jimmie Johnson won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway in 25 starts on Sunday, his third win of the year and 69th of his career.

--Congratulations to the Oregon men’s track and field team for winning its first outdoor NCAA title since 1984! Yes, the Ducks are known for their distance running, including multiple cross-country championships, but not necessarily other events, though this time they prevailed at Hayward Field. I wish I was at the final of the 1500 meters, won by Oregon senior Mac Fleet over Arizona’s Lawi Lalang. Would have been very cool with the home crowd going nuts.

--Formula One legend Michael Schumacher is supposedly “out of danger” and has been moved from intensive care to a rehabilitation ward in the Grenoble hospital where the comatose driver is being treated for severe brain injuries, according to a German magazine report. But, the family still hasn’t issued an official update and there is widespread speculation the driver is in a permanent vegetative state.

--71-year-old actor Harrison Ford suffered a broken ankle on the set of “Star Wars” after he was struck by a hydraulic door during the filming of “Star Wars: Episode VII” at Pinewood Studios in England.

Ford, who is reprising his role as Han Solo, is not in good shape, according to Scotland’s Daily Record, with a source saying his injuries appeared serious.

--Congratulations to loyal reader and friend, Jeff B., for finishing second in a Connecticut OMTL tournament. [Old Man Tennis League] For his efforts, Jeff won a beer mug and $98,000, plus entrance into the U.S. Open.

--Dave Berg, longtime producer of the “Tonight Show,” has written a memoir titled “Behind the Curtain: An Insider’s View of Jay Leno’s Tonight Show.” Each guest receives $500, by the way. But guests seldom moved the ratings dial the way cute animals did.

As for the divas, Eddie Murphy was a primo one. He handed over an entire page of necessities for the 45 minutes he spent in his dressing room, including:

“4 Snapple fruit punch, 4 Snapple orangeade, 4 Snapple grapeade, 4 Dr. Brown’s root beer, Coke in glass bottles, bananas, cherries, Evian bottled water, Juicy Fruit gum, Snickers, Milky Ways, peppermints, York Peppermint Patties, writing pads/pencils/pens, regular-sized towels, washcloths/small.”

What a jerk.

Bill Clinton never appeared, despite Jay’s many entreaties, because Berg said the president “simply didn’t like Jay’s never-ending Monica Lewinsky jokes.”

--Finally, we note the passing of Casey Kasem, 82. It had been a rough time for him of late. Actually, basically since 2007, when his health deteriorated rapidly.

But for many generations of Americans, he will forever be known for his “American Top 40.” Driving around today, I was listening to it on Sirius XM. The show first aired in the summer of 1970, “a weekly four-hour feast of homey sentiment and American optimism that ran headlong into the prevailing spirit of rebellion in the music culture of the day.

“The show gave new life to the top 40 format at a time when the popularity of the 45 r.p.m. was waning and FM disc jockeys were experimenting with more personal formats, creating playlists from their favorite long-playing album cuts.” [Paul Vitello / New York Times]

But Kasem focused on the Billboard magazine pop list and as TIME magazine put it, “He embraced corniness as Vietnam-era cynicism peaked.” And it worked.

When it debuted, only five radio stations carried it. By the mid-1970s it had reached nearly 1,000 outlets “coast-to-coast,” as Kasem liked to say.

So we remember him. Thanks to XM radio, we’ll all be hearing his voice the rest of our lives. And as he always signed off: “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”

Top 3 songs for the week 6/18/77: #1 “Dreams” (Fleetwood Mac) #2 “Got To Give It Up” (Marvin Gaye) #3 “Gonna Fly Now” (Bill Conti)...and...#4 “Feels Like The First Time” (Foreigner) #5 “Lucille” (Kenny Rogers) #6 “Undercover Angel” (Alan O’Day...ughh...) #7 “Lonely Boy” (Andrew Gold) #8 “I’m Your Boogie Man” (KC & The Sunshine Band) #9 “Sir Duke” (Stevie Wonder) #10 “Angel In Your Arms” (Hot)

Baseball Quiz Answer: Three to homer before their 20th birthday and after their 40th...Ty Cobb, Gary Sheffield and Rusty Staub. [If you thought Ken Griffey Jr., he hit his last dinger at age 39.]

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.

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