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Bar Chat

10/27/2014

North Carolina Squirms

[Posted Sunday PM, prior to Game 5 of the World Series]

World Series Quiz: Name the six to hit 10 or more home runs in World Series play, all Hall of Famers. Answer below.

College Football Review....and scandal in Carolina...

--No. 1 Mississippi State (7-0, 4-0) traveled to Kentucky (5-3, 2-3) and looked less than impressive, even if the Bulldogs prevailed 45-31. Josh Robinson rushed for 198 yards and 2 TDs on 23 carries, but Mississippi State gave up 466 total yards and 4 TDs (2 passing, 2 rushing) to Wildcat QB Patrick Towles.

--No. 3 Ole Miss then lost 10-7 to No. 24 LSU (7-2, 3-2) in Baton Rouge, dropping the Rebels to 7-1, 4-1. For the life of me I don’t understand the final seconds. Ole Miss was positioned for a tying field goal, what would have been a 42-yard attempt, but the kicking team inexplicably wasn’t ready so they took a delay of game to move it back to the 47. Then, for some reason, LSU called a time out even though the Bulldogs were clearly rattled and would have been rushing the 47-yarder, so I thought this was a case where Mississippi State caught a break, allowing the kicker to catch his breath.

But instead, with nine seconds left, Ole Miss decides to throw a pass near the goal line, not attempt the tying field goal, or a sideline pattern to gain a few extra yards, and quarterback Bo Wallace, who was dreadful in the contest (14/33, 176, 1-1) threw an interception. What an incredibly stupid way to end this, and end the Rebels’ chance at a national title. They should plummet in the polls. [But probably won’t.]

--No. 4 Alabama (7-1, 4-1) was underwhelming in defeating Tennessee (3-5, 0-4) in Knoxville, 34-20.

--No. 5 Auburn (6-1, 3-1), the fourth SEC West team in the top five, also looked less than great in beating a highly mediocre South Carolina (4-4, 2-4) squad, 42-35. Auburn only outgained the Gamecocks 551-535 at home.

So you look at the four SEC West powers and there wasn’t a great performance in the bunch.

--My No. 6 Oregon Ducks (quack quack) prevailed on Thursday night against California, 59-41, as Marcus Mariota threw five touchdown passes (18/30, 326) and took over as the school’s passing leader with 8,625 yards (passing Bill Musgrave). But he did throw his first interception of the season after a streak of 253 passes without one, though the ball was deflected twice. Mariota is your Heisman Trophy winner for this year. Book it. The Ducks also more than kept their playoff hopes alive with the win.

But Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said of his quarterback and his first INT, “It’s almost funny, you just expect him to be perfect. Marcus is such a stud. It’s great that he has another 1 ½ years left.”

Ah, Coach? No way he is back next season.

--No. 8 Michigan State (7-1, 4-0) beat lousy Michigan (3-5, 1-3), 35-11, outgaining the Wolverines in the process, 446-186. So the Spartans are very much still in the picture.

[Michigan did a really stupid thing before the game...planting a stake on the Spartan Stadium turf after running onto the field before the opening kickoff. So Michigan State exacted its revenge by going for a last minute, superfluous touchdown. MSU coach Mark Dantonio said afterward, “I can only be diplomatic for so long. The little brother stuff, all the disrespect, it didn’t have to go in that direction.”]

--No. 10 TCU (6-1, 3-1) destroyed Texas Tech (3-5, 1-4) 82-27, a school record for points (as well as a Big 12 record for a conference game), with quarterback Trevone Boykin throwing for a school-record 7 TDs, 22/39, 433, 7-0. TCU racked up 785 yards of total offense. 

TCU’s only loss was 61-58 to Baylor, and the Horned Frogs play West Virginia and Kansas State the next two weeks so wins against both would vault them into the playoff picture in a big way, though the WVU game is in Morgantown.

--Speaking of No. 11 Kansas State (6-1, 4-0), it shut out Texas (3-5, 2-3) 23-0, outgaining the Longhorns 367-196.

--I stayed up for No. 13 Ohio State’s 31-24 overtime thriller against Penn State (4-3, 1-3) in Unhappy Valley. The Buckeyes (6-1, 3-0) led 17-0 at half yet should have lost in what aside from the end of the game was pretty dreadful offense on both sides, with Ohio State outgaining Penn State just 293-240 and both quarterbacks playing like crap. This game hurts Michigan State. Why? Because when the Spartans beat the Buckeyes, Nov. 8, it won’t mean as much since not only did Ohio State underwhelm Saturday, but remember, their lone loss is to a 4-4 Virginia Tech team, in Columbus.

--No. 14 Arizona State (6-1, 4-1) traveled to Washington (5-3, 1-3) and had a solid 24-10 victory.

--No. 15 Arizona (6-1, 3-1) whipped Washington State (2-6, 1-4) in Pullman 59-37, with Wildcats QB Anu Solomon going 26/38, 294, 5-0. For the Cougars, quarterback Connor Halliday was busy...56/79!, 489, 4-2. Seven different receivers caught at least four passes.

So Arizona and Arizona State hopefully keep their one-loss marks heading into their Nov. 28 showdown, in what would be a titanic contest, however, both still have Utah on the schedule.

--No. 16 Nebraska improved to 7-1, 3-1, in beating Rutgers (5-3, 1-3) in Lincoln, 42-24. The story of this one was Cornhusker running back Ameer Abdullah, who had a school-record 341 all-purpose yards, 225 of them rushing.

--Back to Utah, the No. 19 Utes (6-1, 3-1) should move up a few notches after a 24-21 win over No. 20 USC (5-3, 4-2) on a late touchdown.

--No. 18 East Carolina (6-1) didn’t help its case for a higher ranking in beating a dreadful UConn (1-6) team 31-21 at home. Shane Carden did at least have another 400-yard passing effort for the Pirates (38/64, 445, 2-1).

--No. 22 West Virginia (6-2, 4-1) continued to impress, going on the road to whip Oklahoma State (5-3, 3-2) 34-10. They are rapidly putting themselves in position for a New Year’s Day bowl game, or one of the big New Year’s Eve contests. Plus you know their fans travel well, albeit the city they travel to may need to beef up security.

--No. 23 Marshall (8-0) did not impress in beating Florida Atlantic (3-5) at home and I’d be shocked if Marshall, which should win its remaining games, is ranked higher than No. 20 the rest of the way. They should be destroying their opponents and they haven’t been; if they were looking to build a case for a major bowl game. That said running back Devon Johnson did have a school-record 272 yards, with 4 TDs, on 24 carries. Talk about flying under the radar, with QB Rakeem Cato getting all the press.  Johnson is averaging 8.8 per carry in rushing for 1,203 yards this season.

--In other games, Pitt (4-4) had a staggering five fumbles (four in their first six plays) in the opening six minutes or so, falling behind Georgia Tech (6-2) 28-0, at home, midway through the first quarter. Pitt then came back to make it a game, but then Tech rolled in the final minutes for a 56-28 win.

--Minnesota (6-2, 3-1) proved it was nothing more than a pretender in losing to Illinois (4-4, 1-3) 28-24 in Champaign.

--Paul P.’s SMU Mustangs fell to 0-7 in losing to Memphis 48-10. The Tigers, who travel with their own barbecue, had a good time in Dallas, outgaining SMU 582-251.

--But Paul, I still say my Wake Forest Demon Deacons are the worst team in the country. The Deacs fell to 2-6, 0-4, losing at home to Boston College 23-17. Granted, we finally got things going in the second half of this one, after trailing 17-0 at the intermission, having been outgained 213-6! We actually broke our streak of three consecutive games with under 200 yards offense in gaining 261 for the contest with the solid second half. But we also had a whopping 19 yards on the ground in 33 carries. The Deacs do indeed have the worst rushing attack in the history of college football, all levels.

I do have to give the Deacs credit for one thing, however. We beat the spread! And at the end of the day, boys and girls, that’s what’s most important. So while I owe Steve D., BC alum, a lunch, I did win $49,500. College buddy Phil W. won $68,000. [Note to IRS: These figures are for illustrative purposes only. Really, my brother is an illustrator.]

--Phil W. also passed along the incredibly exciting news that Wake Forest is renewing its football series with Appalachian State, a two-game series in 2017 and 2020.  The two schools are just 90 miles apart and played 22 times between 1975 and 2001, including every year from ’75-’96.

When I was in school we also played them every year in basketball and stopped that a while ago. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be playing each other. So what if we lose to App State. 

However, I can tell you that with the 2017 game being played in Boone, Wake is already a 9-point underdog, though the line is fluid.

--Thursday night I watched Summit High School alum Michael Badgley kick for Miami in its 30-6 win over Virginia Tech. The freshman made his lone field goal attempt and is 6 for 7 on the season, but he missed his third extra point (this one blocked) and is just 22-25 on XPAs. This is a kid who once made 67 in a row in high school. But he has a powerful leg and clearly has a good future at Miami. I’m still waiting for them to integrate him into some trick plays.

“The Army football team lured recruits with a saucy arsenal: a booze-fueled bash, dinner dates with female cadets and a party bus trip complete with cheerleaders making out with each other, a new report says.

“The raunchy antics on a single night led to the disciplining of 20 West Point cadets for promoting underage drinking and other misdeeds, according to The Gazette of Colorado Springs.

“Two officers and a pair of coaches were reprimanded.

“The hijinx reportedly took place during a recruiting trip on Jan. 24 involving 14 football stars.

“The recruits, escorted by members of the football team and two cheerleaders, were taken to a bowling alley known for turning a blind eye to underage drinking.....

“Then came a wild bus ride home – fueled by loud music, flashing strobe lights and dancing in the aisles.

“Two female cheerleaders began making out with each other....

“West Point self-reported a recruiting violation to the NCAA” and it was handled “administratively.”

--And now...the moment you’ve been waiting for...the North Carolina Academic Scandal!

A report commissioned by the University of North Carolina, released Wednesday, revealed that school academic advisers steered athletes into sham classes over an 18-year period, 1993 to 2011, but does not directly implicate coaches or athletic administrators.

The report says advisers in the athletic department colluded with a manager in the African and Afro-American Studies department for student-athletes to take classes to boost their GPAs and keep them eligible.

Debby Crowder was the longtime manager of the African/Afro-American Studies program (also known as AFAM), allowing students to write a paper of at least ten pages rather than attend lectures or meet with professors. The papers were graded by Crowder, who was not a professor, and typically earned an A or B+ grade.

Crowder was often advised by those in the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes how high a grade a student needed to maintain the 2.0 GPA to keep their eligibility.

Crowder retired in 2009, and then Julius Nyang’oro, the former chairman of the Afro-American Studies department, was urged to maintain the program. He was forced to retire in 2012 and charged with fraud for holding summer school classes that didn’t exist. The charges were dropped when he agreed to cooperate in what became the third investigation into UNC’s scam.

UNC President Thomas W. Ross said, “From the beginning, university has taken the position that these classes started in an academic department by a person employed by academic side of university...and athletic department took advantage of it.”

Butch Davis was the UNC football coach at the time of a 2009 meeting, as Crowder was retiring, where academic advisers told North Carolina football staff that the classes were “part of the solution in the past.” He says he did not remember the presentation.

The classes were available to all students and student-athletes accounted for 48% of the enrollees. The average GPA for all Tar Heel athletes in the AFAM paper classes was 3.55, compared to 2.84 in regular AFAM classes. 

Ten of the 15 players on North Carolina’s 2005 national championship men’s basketball team were AFAM majors. UNC coach Roy Williams told investigators he was “uncomfortable” early on about his players’ heavy use of AFAM classes, but he denied knowing the paper classes existed without an instructor.

Last June, former UNC star basketball player Rashad McCants told ESPN that he had papers written for him and that no-show classes helped keep him eligible, though he did not respond to interview requests by investigators.

There were 54 basketball player enrollments in AFAM independent studies during Dean Smith’s 36 years, 17 during Bill Guthridge’s three years, 42 during Matt Doherty’s three years, and 167 in Williams’ 11 years.

Among the athletes who were enrolled in the paper classes, 50.9 percent were football players and 12.2% were men’s basketball players.

The report said that football academic counselors were “painfully aware” that Crowder’s retirement in 2009 “would require the whole football program to adjust to a new reality of having to meet academic requirements with real academic work.” There was even a PowerPoint presentation to explain it all to the football staff. One slide read:

* We put them in classes that met degree requirements in which

-- They didn’t have to pay attention or necessarily engage with the material

Butch Davis was there, whether he ‘remembers’ or not. 

For the report, 126 interviews were conducted and 1.6 million emails and documents were reviewed. [ESPN.com / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post]

“ESPN just attached microphones to employees Davis and Brown and interviewed them in studio during halftime of the Rutgers-Nebraska game.

“Davis and Brown denied any knowledge of academic fraud while they were at North Carolina. Brown coached the Tar Heels from 1988-97 while Davis was head coach from 2007-10....

“ ‘I wasn’t aware,’ Brown, who left North Carolina for Texas after the 1997 season, said of the academic improprieties. ‘I never heard, felt or saw anything inappropriate academically.’

“Davis said he knew his players were taking independent study classes.

“ ‘But to deem there was any kind of knowing on our part that there was any fraudulent things is totally incorrect.’

“Stay tuned to ESPN for the latest breaking news on the widening North Carolina scandal, followed by continuing in-studio interviews with coaches on their payroll.”

“North Carolina has been disgraced. Unfortunately for everyone involved, it’s not going to end with mere embarrassment.

“Not if you believe that some shred of the NCAA Manual matters to anyone anymore. Not if you believe in the collegiate model that says education should have at least a smidge to do with getting a free education. Not if you believe that scores of folks in higher education have to take the fall for a massive, corrupt, paper class sham that goes back almost 20 years.

“It’s not going to end with North Carolina’s administration throwing itself on a flaming pyre of regret and reform. Or coaches moving on after I-don’t-remember answers to hard, burning questions about their athletes’ matriculation through fake classes.

“Some sort of burn-to-the-ground sanction seems to be in order. Death penalty, why not? It’s just a matter of who you pin it on. Football, where four coaches have to share some sort of blame. If nothing else, Mack Brown, Carl Torbush, John Bunting and Butch Davis were charged when some of their players – as part of that free education – seemingly got free grades. Basketball, where the corruption stretches all the way back to Dean Smith.

“And all the way to the desk of basketball coach Roy Williams who didn’t ask enough questions. Instead – quoting from the internal report – ‘delegated academic responsibilities’ to an assistant coach and academic counselor.

“That’s part of the reason why this massive scandal stinks back two decades. You only find out what you want to find out. It’s part of the reason some sport somewhere has to be shut down.

“Death penalty? It won’t happen, of course. The NCAA doesn’t have the stomach for it. There are TV contracts to fulfill, arenas to sell out. It got there, almost, with Penn State. Then the association took most of the penalties back....

“Nevertheless, a lesson must be taught at UNC beyond docking scholarships, fines and postseason sanctions. Otherwise, the NCAA loses what little credibility it has left.”

Dan Kane of the Raleigh News & Observer, by the way, is a hero for breaking every major story in the scandal.

My take? Of course, going to Wake I hated Carolina. Especially in basketball, we had some wicked contests. But I’m 56, mellowing, and over the years you know how I’ve been a “conference man” when it came to the NCAA b-ball tournament in particular.

I was at the North Carolina-Georgetown game in New Orleans, 1982. Can’t say I was upset by the ending.

But while I recognize there is no way the school gets the death penalty for football or basketball, I do believe slashing scholarships in half for both sports, as well as a three-year postseason ban, and a $75 billion fine (OK, maybe that’s not realistic) would send the right message. As long as it sticks, unlike the Penn State crap.

The important thing is that forever, at least for the next decade, us fans, and the social media crazies, will remember what a sham the school has been. And employers will snicker when they find out where the little kiddie matriculated. “I see you went to North Carolina... take any AFAM classes?” [Heh heh....as the kid squirms.]

Lastly, I do have to add that I have never, in these situations, been in favor of taking away victories and championships. We know who won the games. End of story. This isn’t a gambling scandal, after all.

Just a scandal that rightfully kills the reputation of a school that became too full of itself and big time lost its way.

--And now, back to college football....your new AP Poll, as we await Tuesday’s first poll by the Playoff Selection Committee.

1. Mississippi State 7-0 (46 first-place votes)
2. Florida State 7-0 (14)
3. Alabama 7-1...stupid
4. Auburn 6-1...stupid
5. Oregon 7-1...Duckwear being pulled out of sports drawer
6. Notre Dame 6-1
7. Ole Miss 7-1...actually, where they should be
8. Michigan State 7-1
9. Georgia 6-1
10. TCU 6-1...a tad surprising
11. Kansas State 6-1
12. Baylor 6-1
13. Ohio State 6-1...as expected
14. Arizona 6-1
15. Arizona State 6-1
16. LSU 7-2
18. Utah 6-1
20. West Virginia 6-2...almost hea-ven....
21. East Carolina 6-1...deserved drop
23. Marshall 8-0...like I was sayin’
24. Duke 6-1...good for them.

I will really be shocked if the Selection Committee deviates more than one or two positions from the above. I do think as these final weeks go by that they will settle on just one SEC West team. Obviously, Georgia is one of the many wild cards. Oregon, Michigan State and Notre Dame just need to win. And then I see the big decision being between these three for the last two spots. TCU? Despite my comments above, couldn’t put them above these guys.

NFL Action

--Ben Roethlisberger became the first quarterback in NFL history to have two games with 500+ yards, as he threw for 522 in Pittsburgh’s 51-34 win over Indianapolis. Roethlisberger was 40/49, 522 and a team record six touchdown passes. The Colts Andrew Luck threw for an even 400 himself. Both teams are now 5-3.

The 522 by Big Ben tied for fourth in NFL history, with Norm Van Brocklin still holding the record at 554, set way back on Sept. 28, 1951. In this age of incredible passing stats, Van Brocklin’s record becomes all the more remarkable with each passing year; certainly in the category of Ruth’s 60 before Maris topped it.

--The Cardinals are now 6-1 after defeating the Eagles (5-2) 24-20 in Phoenix (Glendale), with receiver Larry Fitzgerald having seven receptions for 160 yards and a score.

--The Dolphins moved to 4-3 with a 27-13 win over Steve G.’s 1-7 Jaguars. [Sorry, old buddy. You have to take responsibility for being a fan, just as I do later on.]

--Across the pond, at Wembley Stadium (an impressive 83,532 being in attendance), the Lions (6-2) fell behind 21-0 at the half to the Falcons (2-6), but rallied back to win 22-21.

--Kansas City (4-3) stayed in the conversation with a 34-7 win over St. Louis (2-5), which can officially pack it up.

--All you Bengals fans who packed it in look like schmucks after Cincinnati advanced to 4-2-1 with a 27-24 division tilt against Baltimore, which falls to 5-3.

--I was half-following the Seahawks-Panthers contest online and was thinking late in the fourth, hey, maybe Seattle really is in trouble.

But Russell Wilson threw a TD pass with 3:50 to go and the Seahawks held on for a 13-9 win down in Charlotte. So Seattle is more than relevant at 4-3, while Carolina is in trouble at 3-4-1.

--I wasn’t going to comment on Houston (4-4) beating Tennessee (2-6) 30-16, but for the Titans, Zach Mettenberger got his first NFL start and the rookie was OK, 27/41, 299, 2-1. He has immense potential. Loved him last season at LSU, as I wrote in this space.

--It’s official...if the prior three weeks weren’t enough. New England fans can stop their bawling and bitching. Tom Brady is fine. The Pats are fine. New England is now 6-2 after blasting the 3-5 Bears, 51-23, with Brady having one of the better days of his career...30/35, 354, 5-0. In the last four wins, he now has 14 TD passes and zero interceptions. Gisele is pleased, no doubt.

I also have to add Rob Gronkowski had a monster game...9 receptions for 149 yards and 3 TDs.

As Ronald Reagan would have said....

--For the first time in NFL history, or at least the last 25 years, the 1-6 Jets were favored by 3 points over the 4-3 Bills, which is the first time a team with a 1-6 record was a betting favorite over a team with a winning record. R.J. Bell of Pregame.com told NJ.com’s Dom Cosentino that the spread was mostly a result of Buffalo being without its two top running back, C.J. Spiller and Fred Jackson.

But, you know, they then play the game and within minutes, Jets quarterback Geno Smith had thrown three interceptions. His line...2/8, 5, 0-3. Exit Geno. 

Enter Michael (err, Mike) Vick, who rallied the boys, for a spell, but in the end, my Jets fell to 1-7 as the surprising 5-3 Bills won 43-23 at the Meadowlands. Vick ended up contributing an interception and two fumbles of his own, which meant that the Jets were the first team since 1991 to have two QBs with 3 turnovers in the same game.

Ball Bits

--The World Series is getting short shrift tonight as I need to post this before the conclusion of Game 5 and, frankly, I need to move on. This column takes up a huge amount of time.

But I did watch Games 3 and 4; Friday’s Game 3 being one of the better ones I’ve seen in recent years as the Royals took a 2-1 Series lead with a 3-2 win in San Francisco. The Royals Big Three in the bullpen – Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland – locked it down (with help from Brandon Finnegan)...four innings of no-hit relief.

In Game 4, Saturday, the Giants then evened it up at 2-2, coming from down 4-2 in the bottom of the fifth to tie it, and then took the lead with 3 in the sixth, and 4 more in the seventh for an 11-4 victory. Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval once again led the way for San Fran.

--Regarding the television ratings, Game 1 drew just 12.2 million viewers to Fox, making it the lowest-rated Game 1 on record. Game 2 improved slightly to 12.9 million.

As Jonathan Mahler and Bill Carter reported in the New York Times, this contrasts with last summer’s World Cup match between the United States and Portugal at 25 million, while in 1985, the last time the Royals played in the Series, the games averaged 34.5 million.

The 1978 Series between the Dodgers and Yankees was the most watched in the last four decades, with an average of more than 44 million viewers.

--Commissioner Bud Selig has a rule. Clubs aren’t allowed to make major announcements during the World Series that would take the focus away from the play on the field. The owners, and thus their general managers, abide by this. But it doesn’t mean individual players or managers have to and we’ve seen in the past someone like Alex Rodriguez rile things up during the Series.

But now manager Joe Maddon has in a big way by announcing he wouldn’t return to the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, Maddon exercising an opt-out in his contract, which was due to expire after next season.

If you don’t follow baseball that closely, just understand Joe Maddon is widely considered the best manager in the game and this is a case of a 60-year-old wanting the kind of bucks he feels he deserves, and which the frugal Rays clearly won’t pay him. [Management had already vowed to cut a payroll that was only $80 million.]

Maddon managed the Rays for nine season, compiling a 754-705 record and leading them to the playoffs four times, including one World Series appearance. He took over a team that had gone 61-101 and two years later had it in the Fall Classic. He has always been a players manager, too.

So this has created the very kind of buzz Bud Selig didn’t want. Immediately there was speculation Maddon would go to the Dodgers, who recently hired Andrew Friedman to head up baseball operations; Friedman having been the GM at Tampa Bay.

But Friedman issued a statement: “As I said last week, Joe and I enjoyed a tremendous relationship working together in Tampa Bay and I wish him nothing but the best wherever his next stop will be. However, nothing has changed on our end. Don Mattingly will be our manager next season and hopefully for a long time to come.”

So Joe Maddon has become the top free agent this offseason. What’s interesting is that Maddon, tracked down Friday night by the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner while he was driving his R.V., said he didn’t know about the opt-out clause in his contract until Matt Silverman, the Rays’ president of baseball operations, told him after Friedman left. “Otherwise I would not have known, I swear to you,” Maddon told Kepner.

So if not L.A., who? The Cubs are the obvious choice, Maddon having almost been hired by the Red Sox when current Cubs president of baseball operations, Theo Epstein, was Boston’s GM. But Chicago manager Rick Renteria is signed through 2016 (though hardly impressed this season).

However, the Cubs, as you saw at season’s end, have some outstanding prospects, with more on the way, which would seem like a perfect situation for Maddon.

But here in New York, all the talk is Maddon should be the Mets manager, not current skipper, Terry Collins.

“As of right now, immediately, it really doesn’t matter what promises Sandy Alderson made to Terry Collins. Because as of right now, immediately, Alderson has it within his grasp to make a move that would be the first legitimate game-changer on his watch as general manager of the Mets.

“As of right now – actually, as of about noon Friday – Joe Maddon is no longer in the employ of the Rays. Which means one of the two or three best managers in baseball is now a free agent.

“Which means Alderson already should have made an inquiry.

“Look, we can argue for hours about the true impact managers have in a sport dictated by the whims of line drives that are caught and bloopers that fall safe. Net Yost entering Friday three games from winning a world championship is only the latest affirmation you needn’t be Phi Beta Kappa to make it to the finish line.

“Still, the great managers give you the best chance to survive the 162-game grind, put you in position as often as possible, give you the greater chance to maximize the talents on your roster. That much is indispensable. Maddon already has one of the more improbable baseball turnarounds ever on his dossier, turning the Rays from hopeless drifters in the sport’s hinterlands to perennial contenders.

“I love the idea...that (Alex) Rodriguez is somehow due hope and consolation and a great big hug from the Yankees if he is healthy enough to play next season.

“Yes, why wouldn’t they welcome him back with open arms after he essentially sued them by suing their team doctors, sued his sport, questioned everybody’s integrity except his own – such as it is – and used the Lance Armstrong playbook until he got himself suspended for a whole year?

“There is this rush now to turn Barry Bonds into some kind of misunderstood errant knight, as if he was forced to take all the happy juice that turned him into the Michelin Man.

“The question never changes with A-Rod, and might not until he has his moment on Oprah’s couch:

“If we’re supposed to forgive him, forgive him for what?

“He maintained, all the way out the door, that he didn’t do anything wrong.”

NBA Fever

It’s here...a new season. Sports Illustrated has the Spurs over the Bulls in the final, while I’ll go with the Spurs over the Cavaliers.

Here’s a great stat concerning the Spurs since Tim Duncan* arrived in 1997-98. They have a .706 winning percentage over the last 17 seasons, which is the best in the four major North American pro sports.

SI’s Chris Mannix had a piece on San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard and I loved this bit about the team’s preseason media day, “an event that excites the San Antonio players as much as another trip to the Alamo.” Afterward, “coach Gregg Popovich has retreated to his office after explaining why the core of his title-winning team remains intact. ‘We had a pretty good year,’ Popovich said. ‘I didn’t see any reason to kick them out of town.’”

But when it comes to Leonard, he just doesn’t like to talk. In fact after being named Finals MVP, his agent was flooded with media requests and Leonard granted one, “Fully Uploaded,” an online video series hosted by professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek.

I mean get this. As Mannix writes: “He’s the small forward who spent the night of the 2012 draft at the Spurs practice facility. Why is that relevant? Because the draft that year was held on June 28. Leonard’s birthday – his 21st – was June 29. On a night most spend playing beer pong and swilling tequila, Leonard was polishing his midrange game. ‘He never wants to be in the limelight,’ Popovich says. ‘He’s like Timmy: All he is worried about is getting better.’”

Meanwhile, on a different topic, that of the Nets and the Knicks, I think they’ll both struggle to finish .500.

Now, if you tell me Nets center Brook Lopez will be healthy the whole year, along with Deron Williams, it’s a different story for Brooklyn.

As for the Knicks, the record won’t be great, but I’m guessing they are at least entertaining.

One other...the Lakers are absolutely dreadful and will win only 28...28-54. Kobe will be going bonkers. And for L.A., Steve Nash is hurt, again, and will miss the entire season with a back injury, the Lakers announced on Thursday. He only played in 15 games last season.

Golf Balls

--Robert Streb won his first PGA Tour title at Sea Island, Ga., defeating Brendon de Jonge and Will MacKenzie. No offense, but I watched just the playoff. I’ll get really interested again in January.

--Michael Allen won his 7th career Champions Tour event, the last of the season for the over-50 boys.

--Boy, it hasn’t been a good stretch for now former PGA of America president Ted Bishop. First he caught heat for his selection of Tom Watson as Ryder Cup captain after the U.S. flamed out in Wales, and then he was fired on Friday after a tweet and Facebook post directed at Ian Poulter.

Bishop was miffed at remarks Poulter made in his new book on the Ryder Cup captaincy of Nick Faldo in 2008 and Tom Watson this year. Bishop referred to Poulter as “lil Girl” on Twitter in comparing Poulter and Faldo’s careers, and then he defended Watson and Faldo on Facebook, who were being bashed by Poulter who has never won a major while those two had combined for 14.

“Sounds like a little school girl squealing during recess. C’MON MAN!” Bishop wrote.

Bishop apologized to Poulter and “anyone else I might have offended.”

Ironically, Bishop was with Faldo at The Greenbrier, where I know Faldo has a home and I’m assuming Bishop does too, when he issued his tweet and Facebook post defending Faldo’s playing record, compared to his failure as a Ryder Cup captain that Poulter chose to write about.

--Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his 23rd career race at Martinsville, though his first at the track; also the first of three eliminator races in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Unfortunately, Dale was eliminated from the Chase last week. I caught the last few laps of this one....very entertaining.

--Now I’m ticked off. Legalized sports betting was coming to New Jersey on Sunday at Monmouth Park race track, a soft launch involving just NFL games, but the four professional sports leagues and the NCAA got a temporary restraining order when Judge Michael Shipp granted the parties their injunction.

The leagues said Monmouth Park’s plan would cause immediate irreparable harm and freakin’ Judge Shipp agreed.

“The plaintiffs argue that betting could result in a negative effect on the perception of their games and their relationship to their fans,” he said in his decision. “This is a very real harm.”

Monmouth Park said the restraining order would cause them harm because they had spent $1 million constructing a sports bar to host betting and were expecting 5,000 to 10,000 extra patrons Sunday.

So Shipp said the track “could have waited on the validity (of the case) prior to taking such steps.”

“The public interest is serviced in preserving the status quo until the merits of a serious controversy can be fully considered by the court,” the judge said.

Now Judge Shipp will hold a hearing, probably soon, but legal experts say that no matter how he rules, it is likely to go to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

There is a little loophole. Judge Shipp’s ruling applied only to the five sports leagues, so Monmouth could still take bets on soccer, NASCAR and more...I’m assuming, including golf, like the British bookies do. [Brent Johnson / Star-Ledger]

--Did you see what Google executive, Alan Eustace, did? He broke Felix Baumgartner’s world altitude record for a parachute jump. Two years ago, Baumgartner famously jumped from a height of nearly 128,000 feet, far above the stratosphere, which is considered to start above 100,000 feet (30,480 meters).

Eustace was carried for two hours and seven minutes by a large helium balloon from New Mexico to over 25 miles above earth...135,890 feet.

He then jumped, decked out in a specially-designed space suit, reaching a top speed of 1,321km/h (822 mph), breaking the sound barrier in the process, in a freefall that lasted four minutes and 27 seconds, for a total freefall distance of 123,414 feet.

Eustace had been planning this jump for several years, though he did it without the aid of sponsorship and with far less fanfare than what accompanied Baumgartner, whose jump was streamed live over the Net.

Eustace told the New York Times, “It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I had never seen before.”

Heck, I’ve never even been in a hot air balloon, and not sure I need to at this point. But I’m thinking I would have died of a heart attack at about 25,000 feet, on the way up, if I were in Eustace’s balloon.

--The U.S. national Men’s soccer team has fallen to No. 23 in the FIFA rankings, after making the Round of 16 at the World Cup. Since then, the American team had a win in Prague against the Czech Republic, and two “uninspiring draws at home (against No. 27 Ecuador and No. 69 Honduras).” [Jack Bell / New York Times]

Germany and Argentina remain 1-2, with Colombia moving up to No. 3.

--Saturday, Real Madrid and Barcelona renewed their rivalry. As the New York Times' Sam Borden wrote, one that spans nearly 90 years and more than 220 games....a showdown known as el Clasico, La Blaugrana against Los Blancos.

Luis Suarez returned from a four-month suspension for biting an opponent during the World Cup, playing 69 minutes for Barcelona in his first official game for the club. But Madrid ended up victorious, 3-1, and are now just a point behind Barcelona in the Spanish League standings.

Talk about star power: Lionel Messi and Neymar, as well as Suarez, for Barcelona; Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and James Rodriguez for Madrid.

--A federal appeals court on Thursday threw out a ruling that could have resulted in Jim Thorpe’s body being reburied on American Indian land in Oklahoma. Instead, his body will stay in the Pennsylvania town where he was laid to rest six decades ago.

The athlete’s surviving sons have been fighting to move the body to the state where he was born and a federal judge had initially agreed with them, ruling the town of Jim Thorpe amounted to a museum under a 1990 law intended to rectify the historic plundering of American Indian burial grounds.

But the aforementioned Philadelphia-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals said the body should remain in Jim Thorpe.

According to the Associated Press, Thorpe died without a will in 1953. “After Oklahoma’s governor balked at the cost of a planned monument to the athlete, third wife Patricia had Thorpe’s body removed during his funeral service and sent it to northeastern Pennsylvania. She struck a deal with two merging towns – Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk – to build a memorial and name the new town after him. His remains are kept in a roadside mausoleum surrounded by statues and interpretive signage.”

The town’s economy, though, is not dependent on its connection to the man.

Thorpe’s son, Bill, now 86, isn’t happy with the ruling but doesn’t hold a grudge.

“It’s been a good place,” he said. “They’ve taken good care of him and continued the name.”

--The other week I wrote of marathon records being set in Berlin and said this had always been known as the fastest course in the world.   So in the latest issue of Wired magazine I see that the ‘grade’ in Berlin is indeed the best among the major races, with a minimum elevation of 106 feet and a maximum of 178 feet.

By comparison, Boston goes from a min. of 13 feet to a max of 468 feet. New York City is 6 feet to 260.

A killer mentioned in the article is the Whiskey Row Marathon in Arizona, which has a minimum of 5,336 feet and a maximum of 6,940.

Hey, Dr. W., Pete and Connie. I checked the Kiawah Marathon course (your editor having run the full one with Pete in 1999 and a bunch of half-marathons with Connie there since) and the min. elevation is 0 feet with a max of 64! So flatter than Berlin.

What makes Kiawah difficult*, even in December, is you can get a warm day, as was the case in 1999 for us, or it can be humid. That’s almost never the case in Berlin.

*Of course if you have black bean soup the night before, as I did in 1999, the more important issue is finding enough port-a-johns. Thankfully there was a housing boom then...if you catch my drift.

--Yikes...you see the story out of Brazil where eleven people fell seriously ill after eating a deadly puffer fish for lunch?

As reported by the BBC, “The group of neighbors, including four children, were hospitalized after they made a mistake while preparing the fish – one of the deadliest in the world.

“Within minutes all had become violently sick, according to Brazil’s RJ TV news.

“Puffer fish are highly venomous and contain a toxin which can trigger severe paralysis.”

The group knew they were being served a puffer fish, but as you may have seen on one of those Japanese cooking shows, you have to know how to cook it. Actually, you have to be specially licensed there to cook the ugly guy.

Almost all puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a substance 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide.

As of the report, Thursday, three of the 11 remained in intensive care.

--Speaking of fish, congratulations to 12-year-old Jenna Garvin, who set a world record when she hauled in a 616-pound Bluefin tuna off the coast of Nova Scotia. [The record was for a girl age 11 to 16.]

“It took her two hours to haul in the massive fish, and her parents had to leave her alone for the record to stand.”

Her mother later said in an interview, “The last part of the fight was very hard, her legs were starting to shake and she was getting a bit teary.”

Some say after looking at a video it’s all bogus, but the Daily Mail said it’s legit. I agree with the Mail.

--I very seldom repeat an item from that other column I do, here, but I do have to make note of White House guard dogs Hurricane and Jordan, who took down the latest fence jumper on Wednesday night. The guy punched and kicked the two Secret Service dogs, but after being treated at the vet, they were fit for duty the next day. Thanks to a 2000 law, it is a felony to assault a federal guard dog.

Hurricane and Jordan are Belgian Malinois, selected because of their unique characteristics; “they are smart, strong, agile and obedient. An adult male weighs more than 60 pounds and can run in bursts twice as fast as the swiftest human....and the Malinois are more compact, agile and higher-energy than German shepherds." [Washington Post]

Of course stories such as the above ensure ‘Dog’ retains the top spot on the All-Species List.

--As noted in a story in the Wall Street Journal, Apple’s iTunes Store has seen music sales fall 13% to 14% world-wide since the start of the year. This compares to a dip of just 2.1%, globally, in 2013. The big reason is the growing availability of cheap music, like $10-a-month unlimited subscription plans.

Apple iTune sales including movies, apps and books are still up over last year.

--We note the passing of Jack Bruce, the bassist and lead vocalist for Cream, who died of liver disease at the age of 71.

It was back in 1966 that Bruce teamed with guitarist Eric Clapton and the drummer Ginger Baker to form Cream. Their biggest year was 1968 with the #5 “Sunshine Of Your Love” and #6 “White Room.” Bruce did most of the singing, with Clapton providing his classic solos.

But just as success hit, they broke up...in ’68. The four albums they released have sold an estimated 35 million copies.

Clapton and Baker went on to found Blind Faith with Steve Winwood, but they disbanded after one album. For his part, Bruce never found wide commercial success again, though he toured with a number of groups.

Cream was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

--Raphael Ravenscroft died. If you don’t recognize the name, as I hadn’t, you’d certainly know his saxophone solo on Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street.” He was 60 and died of a suspected heart attack.

But guess how much Ravenscroft made for his solo? While Rafferty made a fortune on the tune, Ravenscroft received a reported flat fee of $43.

But it did kick-start his career and he went on to work for Pink Floyd, ABBA and Marvin Gaye.

--Attention: HBO has a documentary, “Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,” 9:00 PM, Monday. After reading a review in the Wall Street Journal, it should be great. And the reviewer, Nancy DeWolf Smith, says you’ll appreciate the awesome musicians Brown surrounded himself with and how ‘tight’ they were, especially in the mid-60s.

Top 3 songs for the week 10/30/61: #1 “Runaround Sue” (Dion) #2 “Bristol Stomp” (The Dovells) #3 “Big Bad John” (Jimmy Dean)...and...#4 “Hit The Road Jack” (Ray Charles) #5 “I Love How You Love Me” (The Paris Sisters) #6 “Sad Movies” (Sue Thompson) #7 “Ya Ya” (Lee Dorsey) #8 “Let’s Get Together” (Hayley Mills) #9 “The Fly” (Chubby Checker) #10 “This Time” (Troy Shondell...one hit wonder...sold millions of this one worldwide)

World Series Quiz Answer: Six to hit 10 or more homers in Series play.

Mickey Mantle 18 in 230 at-bats
Babe Ruth 15 – 129
Yogi Berra 12 – 259
Duke Snider 11 – 133
Reggie Jackson 10 – 98
Lou Gehrig 10 – 119

Next Bar Chat, Thursday....I will wait this time until late Wednesday if there is a Game 7.

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