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Bar Chat

11/20/2014

The $325 Million Man

[Posted 9:30 AM ET, Wednesday]

NCAA Football Quiz: Beginning in 1970, the national rushing champion was judged on yards per game rather than the prior total yards. Ed Marinaro of Cornell (when it was still considered Division I) won the first two titles in 1970-71 under this new measurement. But from 1975-81, there were seven different rushing leaders that were all giants of the college game, six of the seven winning the Heisman that same year. How many can you name. [Hint: the 1975 national leader was the only one not to win the Heisman. It went to Archie Griffin.] Answer below.

College Football

The new College Football Playoff selection committee rankings...

1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. Florida State
4. Mississippi State
5. TCU
6. Ohio State
7. Baylor
8. Ole Miss
9. UCLA
10. Georgia
11. Michigan State
16. Wisconsin

1. Florida State 10-0 (43 first-place votes)
2. Alabama 9-1 (16)
3. Oregon 9-1 (1)...quack quack
4. Mississippi State 9-1
5. TCU 9-1
6. Baylor 8-1
7. Ohio State 9-1
8. Ole Miss 8-2
9. Georgia 8-2
10. Michigan State 8-2
11. UCLA 8-2
14. Wisconsin 8-2
18. Marshall 10-0
22. Colorado State 9-1

For fans of Wisconsin, there are some who still think the 8-2 Badgers can get in the playoffs. How? Marc Tracy of the New York Times lays out an argument for them. [*Written prior to Tuesday’s release of the new CFP rankings.]

“Wisconsin’s 59-24 victory over Nebraska, which was No. 16 in the committee’s latest rankings, meant that the No. 20 Badgers have a shot at making the committee’s final four if they win out, and capture the Big Ten title game on Dec. 6.

“Where the committee slots the Badgers might reveal how it deals with an under-discussed dynamic: the question of timing.

“On Saturday, No. 1 Mississippi State lost to No. 5 Alabama, 25-20. The loss in a close game on the road would seem to suggest that the Bulldogs – one of seven undefeated or one-loss teams from major conferences – would continue to find favor with the committee.

“It is a safe bet that Alabama will crack the top four when the new rankings are released Tuesday.

“No. 3 Florida State and No. 4 Texas Christian each almost lost road games that never should have been close. The Seminoles are the last undefeated major conference team, and the committee seems determined to overlook their extremely weak schedule to honor that distinction. TCU already looked dubious outranking No. 7 Baylor, which won their meeting last month, and Saturday’s showing might lead to a swap in the rankings for those Big 12 squads....

“How teams hold up in the final weeks is a theme to look out for. Up to this point, discussion surrounding the rankings has been dominated by strength of schedule – the ‘full body of work,’ as the committee likes to say. But the committee might find itself biased in favor of teams that close out the year well, regardless of their early-season results.

“After all, the committee’s charge is to determine the best teams, and there are many reasons a team might be better, or worse, in early December than in early October. The committee chairman, Jeff Long, who is the athletic director at Arkansas, referred to this last week when he justified the committee’s seeding of one-loss Oregon above undefeated Florida State by noting that injuries had in part led to Oregon’s loss to No. 14 Arizona on Oct. 2 (the Ducks were forced to play backups on their offensive line, and quarterback Marcus Mariota was sacked five times). A healthy Oregon, Long seemed to be saying, is a better Oregon, and it is this Oregon team now at full strength that the committee is considering.

“Which leads back to Wisconsin. To focus on the Badgers’ resume does them no favors. The Badgers have played only two ranked opponents, and one of them – No. 17 Louisiana State – defeated them. Wisconsin’s other loss was to unranked Northwestern....

“But if the committee instead notes that Wisconsin has not lost in six weeks – a longer streak than 14 of the 19 teams ahead of it – and just put up 59 points against a top-20 defense, then the Badgers will be in the mix.”

Meanwhile, Ohio State has not lost since Sept. 6 and that fateful Virginia Tech game.

“The Buckeyes won at No. 25 Minnesota, where the game-time temperature was 15 degrees. Earlier this month, the Buckeyes defeated No. 12 Michigan State on the road.

“If things hold and Wisconsin and Ohio State meet in Indianapolis in the Big Ten title game, the winner would have another late-season quality victory.

“At that point, the committee could still exclude the Big Ten champion from the playoff. But it would need to do so partly based on results from months earlier.”

Alas, I imagine Mr. Tracy is surprised, as I was, that Wisconsin is just No. 16 in the CFP rankings. No chance...absolutely no chance.

But what of UCLA? They’re suddenly No. 9.

Chris Dufresne / Los Angeles Times...prior to the new rankings:

“The Bruins could fight their way to the No. 4 playoff spot.

“UCLA may need some cooperation, but maybe not much. The Bruins need Oregon, which has clinched the North, to win its final two games and enter the Pac-12 title game at 11-1 and ranked in the top five.

“That seems doable; Oregon closes with Colorado and Oregon State.

“Mark this down...Any two-loss champion from the Pac-12 South that defeats 11-1 Oregon in the title game is going to receive strong consideration for the playoff.

“If UCLA closes with wins against USC, Stanford and Oregon, it will probably receive the committee nod over one-loss Big Ten champion Ohio State, one-loss Big 12 runner-up (most likely TCU) and even one-loss Mississippi State if the Bulldogs don’t win the SEC West.”

Separately, Chris Dufresne had this comment concerning the Pac-12 and Oregon’s penchant for blowing their national championship opportunities the past few years, going back to the 2010 title game when they couldn’t stop Auburn on its last drive.

“Most Pac-12 programs could learn one thing from Florida State. Granted, most of the lessons offered by the FSU team are not ones you’d teach your children. The Seminoles are not very likable, and quarterback Jameis Winston is the opposite of a role model. No matter what they do, Seminoles players can’t seem to get arrested in Tallahassee.

“Florida State has one intangible, however, that most Pac-12 programs lack: put-away power.

“Winston and the Seminoles win every close game because they don’t panic, and they make every play they have to make.

“Winston is not fazed by his mistakes and thinks every next pass he throws is going to be a touchdown. He has no more quarterbacking ability than Oregon’s Marcus Mariota or UCLA’s Brett Hundley.

--This week’s slate of games is downright awful. Including Alabama playing Western Carolina. In fact, there is only one must-see game, and it’s not exactly No. 1 vs. No. 4; that being No. 9 UCLA vs. No. 19 USC, 8:00 PM.

--ESPN’s Darren Rovell reported that Georgia’s athletics association paid $50,000 to $60,000 in premiums to upgrade running back Todd Gurley’s insurance policy, prior to his suffering a torn ACL on Saturday in his return from an NCAA suspension, which the rules permit. So if Gurley has a total disability he would be paid $5 million and up to $5 million in loss of value if he falls in the draft because of the injury. Gurley may face a situation similar to golfer Anthony Kim, as I wrote a few months ago. Recall, Kim reportedly has a hefty policy that pays him some ungodly amount if he never swings a club on the PGA Tour again.

In Gurley’s case, a lot of running backs don’t return from such an injury. Recently former South Carolina star Marcus Lattimore, who suffered a devastating injury in college, retired from the San Francisco 49ers without ever playing a down for them.

It’s sickening this happened to Gurley after what virtually all agree was a dumb suspension in the first place...signing autographs for a few bucks.

But kudos to Georgia for stepping up to protect a star.

--Until reading a piece in USA TODAY, hadn’t thought about this. With Virginia Tech’s win over then No. 21 Duke last Saturday, they are 2-0 against ranked teams this season and 3-5 against the rest.

--Back to Florida State and Jameis Winston, he has told university compliance officials that some items allegedly bearing his signature are forgeries, according to the Palm Beach Post. He has examined jerseys and photos being sold online with compliance officers and he claims that some pictured on the James Spence Authentication (JSA) website are fake.

On Tuesday, ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” reported that JSA received items from another firm that the latter rejected because of concerns about their legitimacy.

Winston maintains, through coach Jimbo Fisher, that he never accepted money for autographs.

Giancarlo Stanton...and assorted Ball Bits

Well the Marlins pulled the trigger and signed Mr. Stanton to a 13-year, $325 million contract, averaging $25 million per season, or $154,321 per game. Talk about income inequality.

Give Miami owner Jeffrey Loria credit. He’s been much-maligned for some past moves, including by Giancarlo, but he’s wrapped up the biggest slugger in the game, with Stanton’s contract exceeding the 10-year, $292 million deal given Miguel Cabrera by Detroit in March. A-Rod still is owed $61 million on his 10-year, $275 million contract with the Yankees.

Stanton turned 25 on Nov. 8 and the contract not only includes a no-trade clause, but he can opt out after six years (not the five initially thought by most).

“At first blush, this would seem to be a troublesome wrinkle from the Marlins’ standpoint. They’ll pay dearly to lock up Stanton until his late 30s, but then Stanton can simply tear up the contract if he decides he can do better on the market. However, if Stanton winds up opting out, it won’t be bad news for the Marlins – at all.

“Let’s say, given the implications above, Stanton’s deal allows him to opt out after the 2019 season [Ed. it’s going to be after 2020], at which point he’ll have, as (Jon) Heyman notes, just turned 30 [31]. If Stanton exercises that right, then that will mean he’s maintained a high level of performance – high enough, in fact, to persuade him and his representatives that he can make more on the market than the final eight [seven] years of his Marlins contract guarantee him. This will mean that Stanton will have provided tremendous value over the first [six] years of the deal, otherwise he’d never dare test the market.

“Therein lies the value for the Marlins. These kinds of mega-contracts are almost always backloaded, so that the player is underpaid relative to the market at the front end and overpaid at the back end. It’s to the team’s advantage to free up cash in the short term, and players, given that multiyear contracts in MLB are guaranteed, don’t worry so much about putting off higher paydays for a few years. No obligations to Stanton after Year [6] means that the Marlins will likely escape the post-prime portion of the contract, when the player tends not to live up to his yearly salary. That’s a good thing for the team....

“It’s a problem when the player doesn’t opt out (meaning he believes his remaining contract exceeds his market value) or if the team, out of a misplaced sense of something, re-signs the aging player at new, costlier terms.”

Well, as Dayn Perry was saying, these kinds of contracts are indeed backloaded and ESPN’s Jayson Stark reported that Stanton earns just $30 million the first three years:

2015...$6.5M
2016...$9.0M
2017...$14.5M

Then $77 million the next three. So that brings you to $107 million the first six (when he can opt out), and $218 million the final seven years. 

“To me, there are three good bets – Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen and Giancarlo Stanton. And I felt a whole lot better about that bet on Stanton before he took a Mike Fiers fastball to the face that ended last season. We will have to see how he responds in the future to pitches up and in. Sure, it would have been better for the Marlins to wait to see that. But if they did, this deal very possibly goes away.

“So they took the risk. Because what is rare is valuable, and think about what we are talking about here: three position players who we think are stars today who will be five years from now. That is rare. Maybe your list is a little different. But it just is not a long list.

“Stanton is 25. He just led the NL in slugging percentage. He had 37 homers, nine more than any other righty hitter in the NL. He is a special athlete, known as a great guy.

“Does that add up to a 13-year, $325 million contract? Who knows?....

“Stanton is not perfect. He strikes out a bunch. He has to prove he can play post-beanball. But what is rare is valuable and in 2014, Stanton is a rarity.”

--Russell Martin agreed to a five-year, $82 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, so he returns home, having been born in Canada. He was also the first major free agent to sign with a new team this offseason. Big blow for the Pirates, though their chances of retaining Martin were slim.

Toronto is also said to be in the running for pitcher Jon Lester, as well as Andrew Miller. One baseball official told the New York Daily News’ Mark Feinsand, “(Toronto’s) sensing a window in the American League East. The Yankees and Red Sox aren’t very strong, the Orioles might lose (Nelson) Cruz and the Rays are a mess right now. This might be Toronto’s best shot, so they’re going for it.”

During the past four years Martin has averaged 16 homers and 60 RBI, though it’s his defense that has shined. Last season he threw out a league-high 37 baserunners, with his 38.5% success rate ranking second in the majors among catchers playing at least 100 games.

The Pirates had acquired Yankees’ backup catcher Francisco Cervelli a few days ago for reliever Justin Wilson so now Cervelli could find himself playing every day.

--Free agent Billy Butler agreed to a three-year, $30 million deal with the Oakland A’s. The Royals bought him out for $1 million rather than exercise their $12.5 million option on his contract for 2015.

Butler is solid, .295 career hitter, and just 28, but he’s limited to being a DH, it would seem, and this makes sense all around. Prudent on the part of the Royals, a good move for the A’s.

--25-year-old Atlanta outfielder Justin Heyward, who is yet to fulfill his immense potential, was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for promising pitcher Shelby Miller and a minor-leaguer. Heyward is due to make $7.8 million in the final season of a two-year contract and there was no thought the Braves would give him a long-term deal. The Cards are hoping he blossoms in St. Louis.

In return the Braves get a 24-year-old pitcher who is 25-18 his last two seasons and can’t become a free agent until after the 2018 season.

The Braves are in rebuilding mode as they deal with some hideous contracts, like B.J. Upton’s, who is owed more than $46 million over the next three years.

--San Francisco free agent Pablo Sandoval met with Boston officials in Beantown on Monday. Aside from the Red Sox, the Padres, Blue Jays and White Sox are most interested, but the Giants are still hoping they can entice “Kung Fu Panda” to return.

--It’s official...the Mets unveiled their revised dimensions for Citi Field, the second time since the ballpark debuted in 2009. This is so stupid.

Citi Field was mammoth, no doubt, at first, but a lot of us fans just assumed the Mets would then  tailor a team around it...pitching and speed (like some of those classic Cardinals teams of the 1980s).

But then the Mets hitters were psyched out by the dimensions, the Mets changed them in 2012, and now they are tweaking ‘em again. Bottom line, right-center, which was originally 415, is all the way down to 380, in ten feet from 390.

The Mets have had losing records at home the past four seasons and they were outhomered by their opponents 71-59 at Citi in 2014.

--Last time I wrote that Sunday was Dwight Gooden’s 50th birthday. I didn’t then know that Monday, Tom Seaver turned 70. My favorite player of all time....70.

James Rosen, native New Yorker and chief Washington correspondent for Fox News, had a terrific op-ed for Seaver’s birthday in the New York Post. It starts out describing a game I have commented on in this space more than once...I was in sixth grade and about an eight-minute walk from my elementary school. That afternoon I ran home in about three minutes. Seaver was on.

“On April 22, 1970, after accepting the Cy Young Award as the National League’s best pitcher of 1969 – the year he took the Mets from lovable losers to World Series champions, the year of Woodstock and the moon landing, the year of impossible triumphs at the close of a tumultuous decade – Tom Seaver, the Mets’ ace righthander, took the mound at the old Shea Stadium to face the San Diego Padres.

“As if to mark the occasion, ‘Tom Terrific’ – the quintessential power pitcher known for 95-mile-an-hour fastballs, precision placement and a maturity that belied his 25 years – delivered one of the most impressive pitching performances in the history of baseball.

“He struck out 19 men, then a record, and finished the game by striking out the last 10 betters – still a record. No Padre hit a fair ball after the fifth inning.

“Seaver’s record that season improved to 3-0 – and he barely squeaked out a victory, with the Mets mustering all of two runs to the Padres’ one.

“A perennial victim of the Mets’ perennially anemic hitting, the preeminent pitcher of his era was forever winning or losing games 1-0, 2-1, 3-2....

“His very motion was a thing of beauty: the high leg kick, the deep rearing back of his right arm, his right knee, perpetually dirtied, dragging along the mound as he lowered himself for maximum thrust....

“When he ended innings with another strikeout, he never showboated with fist pumps or other unseemly displays.

“Rather, he walked calmly to the dugout, head down – as if in deep contemplation of the physical mechanics of pitching he so often spoke of, with the erudition that made him, in the sportswriters’ estimation, the Thinking Man’s Pitcher....

“Tom Seaver’s grace may have distanced him from some, but for the multitudes, it enhanced our humanity, and life itself, in trying times.

“His struggles with lousy teams and idiotic management enabled us to feel sympathy even for one endowed with all of the best attributes God can bestow: the man who had everything.

“SEAVER IS OUR SAVIOR, the homemade banners used to read – and to a generation of New Yorkers, it hardly seemed like overstatement.”

--The NFL suspended Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson without pay for at least the remainder of the 2014 season, with the star not being considered for reinstatement before April 15, 2015, for violating the league’s conduct policy. The NFL Players Association released a statement announcing it would appeal because “the discipline imposed is inconsistent.”

Having been indicted last September on a felony charge of injury to a child, his 4-year-old son, Peterson had pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of misdemeanor reckless assault on Nov. 4.

As part of a lengthy statement, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Peterson must undergo counseling and treatment before he would be considered for reinstatement. In part:

“You have shown no meaningful remorse for your conduct. When indicted, you acknowledged what you did but said that you would not ‘eliminate whooping my kids’ and defended your conduct in numerous published text messages to the child’s mother. You also said that you felt ‘very confident with my actions because I know my intent.’ These comments raise the serious concern that you do not fully appreciate the seriousness of your conduct, or even worse, that you may feel free to engage in similar conduct in the future.”

“The difference in size and strength between you and the child is significant, and your actions clearly caused physical injury to the child. While an adult may have a number of options when confronted with abuse – to flee, to fight back, or to seek help from law enforcement – none of those options is realistically available to a four-year old child.

“Further, the injury inflicted on your son includes the emotional and psychological trauma to a young child who suffers criminal physical abuse at the hands of his father.”

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said on a radio interview: “You get the feeling that the NFL, over the past few months, has been simply making it up as they go along. That is something that is not in the best interest of the game, the players, or the sponsors.”

“Five NFL teams that were subject to surprise inspections by Drug Enforcement Administration agents following their games on Sunday described the questioning as brief and straightforward, and said no arrests were made.

“As the teams returned to their football seasons, federal agents added to the paperwork in their months-long investigation into the way NFL franchises store, prescribe, track and distribute prescription medications and other controlled substances.”

The Bengals, Lions, 49ers, Buccaneers and Seahawks were the teams that met with DEA agents.

“A former prosecutor from (the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which is coordinating with the DEA) cautioned against reading too much into a single operation, noting that agents and prosecutors typically spend months building a case. ‘What we saw yesterday was most likely the tip of the iceberg,’ said Josh Berman, now a partner with Katten Muchin Rosenman’s Washington office....

“Berman said investigators typically target physicians who are ‘excessive’ in their prescription practices.”

This whole situation has evolved out of the class-action lawsuit filed back in May by former players, with more than 1,300 now signed onto it. The players allege team medical staffs “routinely violated federal and state laws by supplying players powerful addictive narcotics to help them play through injuries on game days,” as reported by Sally Jenkins and Rick Maese.

“Federal law prohibits anyone but a physician or nurse practitioner from distributing prescription drugs, and they must meet myriad regulations for acquiring, storing, labeling and transporting them. It is also illegal for a physician to distribute prescription drugs outside of his geographic area of practice. And it is illegal for trainers to dispense, or even handle, controlled substances in anyway.”

Retired NFL players, it should be no surprise, misuse opioids “at a rate more than four times that of their peers,” according to a 2010 Washington University School of Medicine.

--Pittsburgh Steelers running back LeGarrette Blount isn’t one of the brighter people on the planet, witness him missing his senior year at Oregon because he punched an opposing player. Once in the NFL, Blount is now with his fourth team in five seasons, and after Monday night it could be his last as he left the field before the end of the Steelers’ 27-24 win over Tennessee.

It seems that Blount, who signed a two-year, $3.85 million contract in March, is upset over his playing time and he didn’t carry it once Monday for the first time this season.

But teammate Le’Veon Bell had a career-high 204 yards on 33 carries. Alas, LeGarrette doesn’t know how to be a good teammate.

Well I obviously wrote the above early Tuesday, before learning later in the day that the Steelers did cut Blount. In a statement, coach Mike Tomlin said: “We believe the decision to release LeGarrette is in the best interest of the organization and wish him the best of luck.”

But here’s what funny, Wake Forest fans. The Steelers promoted our former back, Josh Harris, off the practice squad. I had seen he carried a few times in the exhibition season and didn’t realize he had stuck with the organization. We all thought he was a big talent in college, with an NFL-sized body, but he couldn’t stay healthy. I hope he can stick around.

--So the 3-7 Redskins truly suck. The Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell wrote following the team’s 27-7 loss at home to the pathetic then 1-8 Tampa Bay Bucs:

“Good thing (1st-year Coach Jay) Gruden has a five-year contract. Maybe his honesty will outlast, and ultimately survive the Washington tenure of some of his players who can’t line up correctly, recall the snap count, remember their assignments or do any of the pre-snap functions of elementary football on a consistent basis.

“If ever a home defeat, before a sparse and booing crowd, required context, this was it. As of Sunday morning Pro-Football-Reference.com rated the Bucs as the worst NFL team since the ’09 (1-15) Rams. Against a bad team, Robert Griffin III was intercepted on the first play from scrimmage and, on the final two plays, from the Tampa Bay 35-yard line, Gruden conceded that, with only five healthy offensive line standing, he didn’t even try to score. ‘Smart to run out the clock, get outta here and lick our wounds.’”

Speaking of RG3, as Boswell writes: “Post-knee surgery, is he even a C, yet?”

Then there is a topic Boswell raised in the offseason, that I passed along here, that of defensive coordinator Jim Haslett.

“This is Haslett’s 13th consecutive season, as a defensive coordinator or head coach, of producing mediocre to awful defenses. This year, they’re 23rd so far in points allowed after being 30th last year. Before that: 22, 21, 21, 31, 31, 28, 28, 27, 14, 26 and 27. So, Haz’s average rank in points allowed over all those years is 26th out of 32. Even if his players are bad, how good can he be?”

--Here in New York they’re still talking about how awful Eli Manning was in the Giants’ 16-10 loss to San Francisco. Manning was having a solid year, 17 TDs, just 6 INTs, even though the Giants overall were not doing the job. But then he throws five picks, and looked horrendous on all of them. The 49ers said Eli had “happy feet,” not a compliment.

--The opposite of Eli is Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, who now has 29 touchdown passes and 322 consecutive pass attempts at home since his last interception! Both streaks go back to the 2012 season and are the longest in NFL history. [Tom Pelissero / USA TODAY Sports]

Rodgers, with 28 TDs and just three INTs on the year overall also has a passer rating of 120.1, which is spectacular, with Tony Romo next at 107.2. Rodgers holds the all-time full season mark of 122.5 set in 2011 (the year he had a TD-INT split of 45-6).

--Meanwhile, Peyton Manning has six picks in his last three games after just three in his first seven. No mystery why the Broncos have lost two of their last three to fall to 7-3 and a tie with Kansas City, which has now won five in a row.

--In a big early season contest, the Grizzlies (10-1) defeated the Rockets (9-2), 119-93. I saw a blurb where one person tweeted that Justin Timberlake, in attendance, was hopping on the bandwagon. Justin had to remind the guy that he’s not only from Memphis, he’s part-owner of the team!

--Dwight Howard is being investigated by Cobb County, Georgia officials for possible child abuse involving his 7-year-old. At first the incident was reported Oct. 1, 2014, and authorities initially did nothing. But now more information has come forth. The NBA said it was aware of the situation. Howard’s attorney said the child’s mother is “shopping her baseless allegations to authorities...after the case was closed.”

--Philadelphia is still 0-10 through Tuesday’s play.

College Basketball

--AP Poll (Nov. 17...no need to list W-L records until January)

1. Kentucky (49 first-place votes)
2. Arizona (4)
3. Wisconsin (7)
4. Duke (4)
5. Kansas
6. North Carolina
7. Louisville
8. Florida
9. Virginia
10. Texas
16. San Diego State

Then Monday, Miami beat No. 8 Florida 69-67, while No. 13 Gonzaga whipped No. 22 SMU 72-56.

And Tuesday, No. 4 Duke defeated No. 19 Michigan State 81-71 and No. 1 Kentucky destroyed No. 5 Kansas 72-40, holding the Jayhawks to 11 of 56 from the field! 19.6%.

Tuesday afternoon I caught some of No. 16 San Diego State’s 53-49 win at home against No. 25 Utah and at least for one game, it’s the same old story for my Aztecs. They can’t shoot, but they play great ‘D’ and more often than not make some clutch plays down the stretch. They are the very definition of winning ugly.

--Monday, Wake Forest defeated Tulane 71-49 as the Green Wave were 1 of 20 from three! Yikes.

It’s tough for me to get fired up about college basketball until January. Too many other distractions, and the caliber of play is often atrocious. I watched a fair amount of Duke-Michigan State and was underwhelmed.

--The No. 1 Lady Huskies of UConn had their 47-game winning streak snapped by No. 6 Stanford 88-86 in overtime on Monday night in Stanford.

--The NCAA Men’s Division I Soccer Championship begins on Nov. 20. Hey, Wake Forest made the field...barely.

The last Coaches Top Ten heading into it has...

1. Stanford
2. Notre Dame
3. UCLA
4. Syracuse (down from No. 1)
5. Indiana
6. Maryland (up from 13)
7. Clemson (up from 14)
8. Charlotte
9. Creighton
10. Providence (up from 23 in one week!)

--Recently I received my copy of Golf Digest and the venerable Dan Jenkins had an interview with Tiger Woods. Wait, I immediately thought, this isn’t possible. Woods wouldn’t grant Jenkins an interview, and Jenkins right up front says he never had. I read it and thought it was fake, though it was accompanied by realistic looking photos of Tiger. Then I read it again and thought, eh, it’s possible, but I saw nothing in it that was worthy of Bar Chat.

Thank god. On Tuesday, Tiger spoke out, via Derek Jeter’s new website, The Players Tribune.

“Jenkins faked an interview, which fails as parody, and is really more like a grudge-fueled piece of character assassination,” writing under the headline “Not True, Not Funny.” “Journalistically and ethically, can you sink any lower?”

“All athletes know that we will be under scrutiny from the media,” Woods wrote. “”But this concocted article was below the belt. Good-natured satire is one thing, but no fair-minded writer would put someone in the position of having to publicly deny that he mistreats his friends, takes pleasure in firing people, and stiffs on tips – and a lot of other slurs, too....

“I let plenty of things slide, but this time I can’t do that. The sheer nastiness of this attack, the photos and how it put false words in my mouth just had to be confronted.”

Woods used to be part of the magazine’s instruction section and he and his people contacted Golf Digest to complain but the magazine didn’t back down in saying it was merely Jenkins’ brand of humor.

“(Tiger) didn’t just come out and say: Read this. No, he actually went to a section of Derek Jeter’s new website, apparently reserved for whiny multimillionaire athletes, and blasted the Jenkins piece even though it is clearly labeled ‘fake’ on the cover of the December issue of Golf Digest – a cover that features Johnny Manziel holding a Cleveland Browns’ golf bag while striking the Heisman pose.

“Woods’ tirade is not the length of a tweet, or even a paragraph. Rather, it’s a nearly 600-word pout, self-absorbed and clueless, starting out with the hope that none of us has read the fake Q-and-A – but ensuring that all of us now will.

“Congratulations, Tiger. You’ve done it. You’ve achieved the media equivalent of hitting the fire hydrant. I cannot wait to see what you’re planning for the 10th anniversary in November 2019.”

--The official PGA Tour is now on hiatus until Tournament of Champions, Jan. 9-12, and frankly I’ll be ready for better golf by then.

As should be expected, the beginning of the 2014-2015 wraparound season was less than scintillating, save for Bubba Watson’s WGC win in Shanghai, which, because of the time difference, no one saw. 

The other winners (all of whom qualified for Augusta, if they hadn’t already) were Sang-Moon Bae, Ben Martin, Robert Streb, Ryan Moore, Nick Taylor and Charley Hoffman.

--Here’s something interesting. At the European Tour’s Qualifying School in Girona, Spain, John Hahn shot a 12-under 58 in the fourth round.

Hahn, a Kent State grad from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., moved from T-104 to inside the top 15 with two rounds to go (yes, six total). The top 25 pick up their Euro Tour cards.

But what I didn’t know is that Hahn’s 58 doesn’t make the official record book as being the first player to break 60 in European Tour history (which I also didn’t know), because preferred lies were in operation.

--One more golf item. A local pro, Frank Esposito Jr., won the Senior PGA Professional National Championship in Florida over the weekend. Esposito, 51, is the head pro at Brooklake in Florham Park, N.J., literally about ten minutes from here. So he along with 34 others earned spots in next year’s Senior PGA Championship. Jerry Haas, the golf coach at Wake Forest and brother of Jay Haas, finished fifth.

--Every now and then you see a local high school sports story that’s pretty cool. A community next to my hometown of Summit, Millburn, N.J., is known for great track and cross country teams, so the other day they held the Essex County “junior varsity” meet...the ‘second team,’ so to speak, and Millburn had the top six out of 287 runners. I’d say that’s depth.

--SHARK! So I’ve been to Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, one of the most popular, and scenic (in more than ways than one...wink, wink, guys...) in the world and you can’t help but wonder about shark attacks while sitting at one of the cafes on the beach (I didn’t go into the water).

Years ago, though, I wrote of the controversy surrounding the installation of shark nets to protect swimmers. The nets don’t extend all the way across, from one end of the beach to the other, and were never intended to “create a total barrier between bathers and sharks, as one spokeswoman described it today, Wednesday.

“They are designed to deter sharks from establishing territories, thereby reducing the odds of a shark encounter.”

Well as part of the routine inspection program, they found an 8-foot great white this morning...dead.

It’s really too bad the nets were there, a thought echoed by conservationists. It would have been terrific for ratings, especially during Web Sweeps Week.

Top 3 songs for the week 11/16/68: #1 “Hey Jude” (The Beatles) #2 “Those Were The Days” (Mary Hopkin) #3 “Love Child” (Diana Ross and the Supremes)...and...#4 “Magic Carpet Ride” (Steppenwolf) #5 “Hold Me Tight” (Johnny Nash) #6 “White Room” (Cream) #7 “Little Green Apples” (O.C. Smith) #8 “Who’s Making Love” (Johnnie Taylor) #9 “Abraham, Martin and John” (Dion...whipped this one up in like minutes...) #10 “Elenore” (The Turtles...just another great week)

NCAA Football Quiz Answer: Rushing leaders, 1975-81...

1975 Ricky Bell, USC [Archie Griffin wins Heisman]
1976 Tony Dorsett, Pitt
1977 Earl Campbell, Texas
1978 Billy Sims, Oklahoma
1979 Charles White, USC
1980 George Rogers, South Carolina
1981 Marcus Allen, USC

The last six all won the Heisman in those years. What a stretch.

And in 1982, Ernest Anderson of Oklahoma State was the rushing leader, but a pretty fair back won the Heisman...Herschel Walker.

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