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08/08/2016

Bye-Bye, A-Rod

[Posted Sunday p.m.]

Baseball Quiz: 1) With the retirement of the Yankees’ Mark Teixeira, I can’t help but ask the question, who are the other four switch hitters with 400 or more lifetime home runs, Teixeira having 404?  2) With A-Rod’s retirement, who will be the leading active player in career RBIs once he steps aside?  Answers below.

What a Sunday!  Where to begin?  A 58 on the PGA Tour, A-Rod’s announcement, Ichiro’s 3,000th hit...I get to it all in the threads of the column.

MLB

--And what a stretch for the New York Yankees.  Friday, Mark Teixeira announced he was retiring at the end of the season.  Sunday morning, the Yanks held a press conference to announce Alex Rodriguez was hanging it up next Friday, Aug. 12, where he will play against Tampa Bay at Yankee Stadium in his last game.

At that point A-Rod will be unconditionally released by the Yankees from his player contract in order to sign a new one as a special adviser and instructor with the team through Dec. 31, 2017.  He will receive the remainder of his $21 million salary for this season (about $7m) and the $21 million for the final season of his 10-year, $275 million contract that was by far baseball’s biggest when he signed it.

GM Brian Cashman said, when asked if the Yankees considered letting A-Rod play on another team in order to reach certain home run milestones, Rodriguez being at 696, that no other teams reached out to the Yanks about acquiring him in a trade.

A-Rod is apparently free to sign with any team that may want him after his release next Friday.

I wrote the other day this was a consuming issue with the Yanks, and no doubt a big distraction as his teammates just saw him sitting on the bench, amid a 1-for-17 slump, 5-for-36.  He hasn’t played since Aug. 2 and it’s not known how much if any he will play before next Friday.

The story is he was about to be released and A-Rod and managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner then held a series of negotiations to arrive at this solution.

This is a big deal for New York sports fans, as well as baseball, given future Hall of Fame considerations (slim and none for a while at least).  I have covered A-Rod’s career, especially every moment of turmoil, extensively, that’s for sure.  So I’ll pick it up next chat...allowing others to weigh in. 

-- Teixeira’s goodbye marks the end of a run at age 36 because as he put it, he just can’t stand up to the rigors of a season anymore.

Tex arrived in New York in 2009, the beneficiary of an 8-year, $180 million contract, coming off five consecutive 100-RBI seasons with various teams.  Coupled with the signings that offseason of CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Nick Swisher, the Yankees won the 2009 World Series as Teixeira led the A.L. with 39 home runs and 122 RBI, as well as winning the first of his three Gold Gloves with the Yanks and finished second in the A.L. MVP balloting.

Tex followed up 2009 with power numbers of 33-108, 39-111, the next two seasons, but his batting average was sending warning signals, dropping to .256 and .248, respectively. 

This would prove to be the end of a streak of eight consecutive seasons of 30 homers and 100 RBIs.

The next five years, though, he wouldn’t appear in more than 123 games in a season and became a poster-boy for signing players to long-term contracts that carry a player through much of his 30s.

This year he is hitting just .200 with 10 home runs and 28 RBIs.

Sunday, the Yanks beat Cleveland 3-2 behind Masahiro Tanaka (8-4, 3.32) to get to 56-55.

--Going back to Wednesday, after I last posted, the Mets placed Yoenis Cespedes on the disabled list with the bad quad that he had been trying to play through.  This was done after the game that night when Cespedes complained he had re-aggravated it.

But when the issue of Cespedes’ golf habit came up Thursday, Yoenis having played earlier on Wednesday before the game, manager Terry Collins blew up when reporters brought the topic to his attention in a pre-game press conference, saying Cespedes’ playing golf wasn’t an issue.

But GM Sandy Alderson said, “The golf is bad optics, let’s just start there.  Our doctors have told us that probably had no impact on the injury, positive or negative, but let’s face it, to play golf during the day and then go out injured in the evening, it’s a bad visual. I think he recognizes that at this point.  So we’ll go from there.”

Sandy was asked what the team would say to him.

“I’ve had conversations with his people,” Alderson said.  “Not directly with Yoenis.  But that message will get to him, at least circuitously and probably directly.”

‘Conversations with his people.’  Yup, classic modern-day player-agent-management relations.  Pathetic. Remember, the Mets are paying Cespedes $27 million this year.

But what the above exposed was the growing rift between Collins and Alderson, with some wondering if the skipper would last the rest of the way.

Here’s what we do know, however.  What manager could deal with the following injuries to everyday or key bench players for long stretches?

First baseman Lucas Duda, a 30-homer guy, has played 37 games all year...out for the season.

Third baseman David Wright, the captain, has played 39 games all year...out for the season.

Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, a stalwart (except for his inability to hit with runners in scoring position), now probably out for the season.

Catcher Travis d’Arnaud earlier missed 50 games.

Key outfielder Juan Lagares...now out for the season.

Slugger Yoenis Cespedes...who knows, but he’s out now.

And then you have starter Matt Harvey, out for the season, and a key reliever, Jim Henderson, has missed a huge portion of the year.

Other teams have suffered major injuries, but no other team has lost huge chunks of their starting lineup like the Mets have...and just in time for a chase for a wild-card slot.

So how much can you blame the manager, Terry Collins, for the Mets’ troubles and mediocre play?

I blame him for just some awful managing over the year.

But Thursday, in the Mets’ 4-1 win over the Yanks to gain a split of their four-game Subway Series, new acquisition Jay Bruce slugged his first homer as a Met, a three-run bomb, and the Metsies got a solid effort out of Bartolo Colon.  Colon tossed 6 2/3 of one-run ball to move to 10-6, 3.46; the 43-year-old reaching double-figures in wins for the 13th time in his career and fifth consecutive season.

The Mets then traveled to Detroit for a weekend series against the hot Tigers and Friday, the Mets lost 4-3, with Noah Syndergaard going 6 innings and allowing 4 earned while striking out 7.  [Detroit’s Justin Verlander continued his fine pitching, 6 innings, 2 earned, 9 Ks, in moving to 12-6, 3.52.]

Syndergaard, now 9-6, 2.64, has not been a Cy Young caliber hurler since his first 13 starts of the season, when he posted a 2.00 ERA in 76 2/3, striking out 95 and walking just 12.  In his last eight starts, he has a 3.59 ERA in 52 2/3, striking out 62 and walking 15.  As a fan, you have to remember he is turning just 24 later this month.

So Saturday the Mets then lost 6-5, with the tying run thrown out at the plate in the top of the ninth for the last out.  Sandy Alderson was fuming at Collins over two replay decisions not made on both Friday and Saturday.  Was the manager back on the hot seat?

Collins’ job may have been saved on Sunday as the Mets pulled out a 3-1 victory on the strength of Neil Walker’s two-run ninth-inning home run.

So the Metsies, despite all their issues, somehow remain in the wild-card chase.

--In other games of note recently....

Saturday, the Giants beat Stephen Strasburg and the Nationals 7-1 in Washington, Strasburg allowing 4 earned in 4 2/3 to drop to 15-2, 2.80.  San Francisco received another solid performance from Matt Cain...his second straight of five shutout innings as he is now 4-6, 5.16, but perhaps rounding back into his old form just in time for the playoff drive.

Sunday, though, the Nats defeated the Giants 1-0 behind Tanner Roark (12-6, 2.88) and newly acquired closer Mark Melancon.  Madison Bumgarner went the distance, but is now 10-7, 2.20, as he has been pitching in very tough luck.

[But what’s up with Bryce Harper?  He was given a day off today, but he’s hitting a mere .233, 20 home runs and 57 RBIs, after months where he hit .200 in May and just .176 in July.]

Also Sunday, Baltimore’s Manny Machado homered his first three times to the plate, good for 7 RBIs (the home runs in the first, second, and third...before he went 0-for-3 the rest of the way), as the Orioles beat the White Sox 10-2; the White Sox’ James Shields giving up 8 earned in 1 ½ to drop to 3-7, 6.68.

And today, Ichiro finally got hit number 3,000 for the Marlins, at Colorado, the 30th to reach this automatic Hall of Fame mark. 

Friday, the Red Sox beat the Dodgers 9-0 in L.A. as knuckleballer Steven Wright went all the way for Boston, allowing 3 hits while striking out 9.  Wright is easily one of the best stories in the game this year and is now 13-5, 3.01.

Thursday, Toronto lefty J.A. Happ, who has been around and prior to this year had never won more than 12 games (2009), improved to 15-3, 3.09, as the Blue Jays defeated the Astros 4-1.

--Dennis Lin / San Diego Union-Tribune

“The Padres are under review by Major League Baseball regarding the exchange of medical information in two recent trades, sources told the Union-Tribune.

“Since dealing left-hander Drew Pomeranz* to Boston last month and right-hander Colin Rea to Miami last week, San Diego has drawn questions as to whether it properly shared medical records in the deals.  It is unclear if the Padres will face penalties as a result of MLB’s review....

“While a Padres spokesperson said the organization currently had no comment on the MLB review, sources Friday indicated the organization is confident it will be cleared of any alleged wrongdoing.

“Monday, the seven-player deal that sent Rea to Miami was reworked, with Rea being traded back to San Diego for pitching prospect Luis Castillo.  Friday, the Padres announced Rea will undergo Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament.

“The trade that sent Pomeranz to Boston will stand, according to sources, although the Red Sox have raised concerns about the exchange of medical information in that deal.  Sources said Boston’s concerns were not brought up immediately (Pomeranz made his fourth Red Sox start Thursday), whereas Miami voiced its issues after Rea left his Marlins debut with a right elbow injury.”

*Pomeranz in four starts with the BoSox has an ERA of 6.20, 14 earned runs in 20 1/3.

While teams swap and review all pertinent medical information before completing a trade, MLB has not established hard-and-fast rules to govern such exchanges.

“Rea, a 26-year-old rookie, threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings (last) Saturday before he exited the game.  Sources said the Marlins then asked Rea whether he was taking any medications, presumably for elbow discomfort. The pitcher revealed that he was.  According to sources, the Marlins claimed the Padres did not disclose any such medications at the time of the trade.

“The two sides subsequently came to an agreement; the Padres would take back Rea and return Castillo, who also was part of the original deal.

“After Rea underwent an MRI this week and met with team doctors, it was determined he had sustained a torn UCL.”  No date has been set for his Tommy John surgery.”

Coincidentally, in late June, the Padres sent closer Fernando Rodney to Miami for pitching prospect Chris Paddack, who then suffered a torn UCL after three starts with the Padres’ Low Single-A affiliate.  Paddack will undergo TJ surgery too.

In early June, the Padres acquired right-hander Erik Johnson from the White Sox as part of the James Shields trade.  After four starts, Johnson went on the DL, out for the season with a sprained elbow.

So it works both ways.

--Speaking of trades, Francisco Mejia is a Cleveland Indians catching prospect who was to be part of a trade for the Milwaukee Brewers’ Jonathan Lucroy...until he wasn’t, as Lucroy vetoed the trade and then ended up in Texas.  Mejia stayed an Indian, playing now in their Advanced-A Carolina League franchise in Lynchburg.

But Mejia is making quite a name for himself as he shows why he was a key to the proposed deal, extending his hitting streak to 47 games on Friday, the longest in modern minor league history, which is generally considered to be 1963 when the minors were reorganized.

The longest hitting streak on record belongs to Wichita’s Joe Wilhoit, who hit in 69 straight games in the Western League in 1919.  The second and third longest streaks belong to Joe DiMaggio, who had a 61-game streak in the Pacific Coast League in 1933 and the MLB-record 56-game streak in 1941.

What’s even better about Mejia’s streak is that his first 28 games were with the Low-A Midwest League team at Lake County, before he was promoted to Lynchburg and he didn’t miss a beat.

--Meanwhile, the Dodgers, who have had serious issues with their starting staff since spring training, have suffered the biggest conceivable hit yet, the possible loss of Clayton Kershaw for the season.  Kershaw was placed on the 60-day disabled list, meaning he is not eligible to come off until Aug. 27, and even if his back was better by then, he’d have to build up his arm again.  He hasn’t pitched in a game since June 26, and hasn’t picked up a baseball since experiencing a setback following a simulated game on July 16.

Well I wrote the above Sunday morning.  Sunday afternoon we learned Kershaw was tossing the ball around and that the goal is for him to build up his arm strength while on the DL, ergo, once he’s eligible to come off, he could be back on the mound in September.  The baseball world hopes this is indeed the case.

--What a shame...Colorado Rockies rookie sensation Trevor Story is out for the season with a torn ligament in his left thumb.  Story is batting .272 with 27 home runs, the most for an N.L. rookie shortstop, and he was closing in on the all-time mark of 30 set by Nomar Garciaparra while with the Red Sox.

--Eric Eisenberg of the Wall Street Journal notes that the Baltimore Orioles may be the slowest MLB team in 50 years.  So far this season, the O’s have three triples.  “In the entire history of Major League Baseball, there has never been a team with fewer than 10 triples, according to Baseball-Reference.com, save for a handful of Union Association teams in 1884 that played fewer than 30 games.”

Baltimore also has just 14 stolen bases, which puts them on pace for just 20 over 162 games.  No team has had so few since Detroit in 1972...154 games.

But Baltimore continues to lead the A.L. East.  It’s a different game, boys and girls.

--The Angels designated Tim Lincecum for assignment after the two-time Cy Young Award winner allowed six runs in the first inning of a 6-4 loss to the Mariners.  Lincecum was 2-6 with a 9.16 ERA in nine starts with Los Angeles in his return from left hip surgery last September.

The Angels hope he’ll accept a pitching assignment in the minors as manager Mike Scioscia said his issues can’t be solved in the majors.

Rio

--I can’t do Sunday night’s action justice but congratulations to Katie Ledecky on her first gold in the 400m freestyle in world record time.  And good for Dana Vollmer and Cody Miller for capturing bronze in their events.

And Sarah Sjostrom for her win in the 100m butterfly, the first woman from Sweden to win a swimming gold, if I heard that right.

--I didn’t see French gymnast Samir Ait Said break his leg on Saturday, but the poor guy suffered further indignity when the staffers dropped his stretcher as they were loading him into an ambulance.

“A worldwide audience was horrified when Ait Said’s left leg snapped as he landed a vault during the men’s qualifying competition, with the lower half of his shin dangling grotesquely after the bone audibly snapped.”  [USA TODAY Sports]

It turns out Ait Said had suffered the same injury in the build-up to the London Olympics four years ago.  Man, that sucks.  His mother, father, sister, girlfriend and best friend were all in attendance.  Hang in there, Ait Said.

--NBC announcer Dan Hicks caught some heat when after Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu obliterated the world record in the 400-meter individual medley Saturday, he said her husband, and coach, Shane Tusup, was “the man responsible” for the record-breaking performance.

Hosszu had won nine medals, including five golds, in world championship competition but had not won anything in the Olympics.

Hosszu has come under scrutiny amid allegations she used PEDs in the past.  Now with her dominating win by almost five seconds over American Maya DiRado, Hosszu will face even more scrutiny.

--Also in the pool, Chinese sports fans and local media turned on Australia’s newest Olympic swimming sensation, Mack Horton,  who was accused of “taunting” home favorite Sun Yang by calling him a “drug cheat” to his face in a post-race press conference.

These two have quite a rivalry and Horton upped the stakes before Saturday’s 400m freestyle final, saying he had “no time or respect for drug cheats,” referring to Sun’s three-month doping ban in 2014.  He then backed it up with his win, holding off Sun at the finish.

Sun burst into tears after in the interview area and received 47 million views on China’s Twitter-like Weibo within hours.  Geezuz...I hate social media.

But while many Chinese gave their support and sympathy to Sun, they also directed their vitriol at Horton.  Chinese fans bombarded Horton’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, demanding an apology to Sun.

And then it emerged Horton, by his own admission, taunted Sun as part of a deliberate ploy to unsettle his rival.  [Sydney Morning Herald]

--After the U.S. beat China 119-62 in basketball on Saturday, center DeMarcus Cousins said he would answer questions only about basketball.  You see, TMZ reported Cousins, DeAndre Jordan and DeMar DeRozan ended up at a Copacabana brothel, with TMZ also reporting via a “source” that the players accidentally ended up there after realizing it wasn’t a male spa.

I’ll buy that.  But isn’t it amazing these guys are still such idiots that they would go off like this, the most high-profile figures in the entire Games and a target on so many levels?  Stay on your ship, boys!

--The Indianapolis Star on Thursday published a lengthy investigation into sexual abuse at the grass-roots level of women’s gymnastics. 

Liz Clarke / Washington Post

“Drawing on lawsuits, depositions and interviews with victimized gymnasts and their families, the newspaper detailed numerous instances in which USA Gymnastics failed to report criminal behavior by four member coaches – three are now in jail; the other committed suicide in jail – and instead filed the complaints away as ‘hearsay’ unless they were reported directly by the victim or victim’s parent....

“(But) none of the cases detailed in the newspaper’s investigation, which occurred over the last two decades, involve current or former U.S. Olympic gymnasts or members of an Olympic coaching staff.”

[Liz Clarke wrote a funny separate piece from Rio, after she had gone without her luggage for four days.  She said she finally went to the mall and the only clothes for women in Brazil have sexy and revealing cuts in them.  Ms. Clarke added she wouldn’t get into the selection of undergarments.]

NFL

--Tom Brady finally spoke about his four-game Deflategate suspension, saying he was stopping the appeal process.

“It was just a personal decision...I’ve tried to move on from it. I try to focus on the positives, being here with my teammates and getting better.”

“I try to come out here and focus on what I need to do to get better and help our team. I’ll be excited to be back when I’m back, and I’ll be cheering our team on, hope we go out and win every game.”

This was definitely the right thing to do.

--I believe Brett Favre when he says he didn’t imagine himself getting into Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“Incredible.  I have a tremendous amount of respect for the game.  I hold these guys in the highest regard.  I just find it hard to believe I am in with those guys.”

Of course he knows he belongs, having one of the greatest careers ever, but you know from his personality he’s being pretty sincere.

So Favre joined Tony Dungy, Marvin Harrison, Orlando Pace, Kevin Greene, Ken Stabler (posthumously), Dick Stanfel and Ed DeBartolo Jr.

Dungy goes down in history as the first black coach to win a Super Bowl (Feb. ’07), which I frankly forgot already and for which I am doing penance, as Dungy would want me to.  [He’s an interesting guy.]

Marvin Harrison finally gets in; the man who holds the NFL mark for receptions in a season, 143, in 2002.  But there’s a dark episode in his....Oh, no reason to go there.  Nor with Favre and a former Jets....err, you know....

Stabler, of course, should have been in long ago.  Never understood that.  Yeah, he didn’t rack up the numbers, but all he did was win!  Try 96-49-1 lifetime, 69-26-1 with Oakland, plus 7-4 in the playoffs for the Silver and Black.  Loved this guy....just wish I had had the opportunity to share a few drinks with him in a honky-tonk joint in Alabama. 

The guy I don’t understand is Dick Stanfel, who had a short career with the Redskins and Lions, 1952-58, as an offensive lineman, but he was a coach for 39 years, which is how I remember him.

Anyway, the poor guy died a year ago and I know his family is happy...and sad...so no more from me on this topic.

Excerpts from some of the Hall of Fame speeches on Saturday.

Brett Favre: “It leads me to my reflection over my 20 years, and believe me, I had a blast. And I think anyone who watched me play would say that. Sometimes maybe a little too much. But what I’m most proud of and what I think about most has nothing to do with statistics, although who would have ever thought that a young man from Kiln, Mississippi, whose father ran the Wishbone, would hold every passing record in NFL history at one time?  Pretty doggone amazing if you ask me.

“But that’s not what makes me most proud. What makes me most proud is how I played the game and being real, authentic and spontaneous, and loving the game to me is what it was all about....

“I’ve said this to my daughters, and I’ll say it to any young person out there who is playing sports: Don’t ever look back and regret not doing your best.  Don’t ever look back, because there are no second chances. When you’re 25 and you wish you would have done something in high school, it’s too late. Don’t cheat yourself.  Don’t cheat your teammates.  Work as hard as you possibly can.  Lay it all on the line, and whatever happens, happens.  But you won’t look back in regret.”

Kevin Greene: “Y’all know that Brett Favre is actually No. 298 (in the Hall of Fame) and I’m No. 299, you follow me?  Isn’t that cool that I’m side-by-side with Brett Favre for eternity?  Right where a linebacker needs to be....

“That’s the best a football player can do, to exhaust his passion, and go out on his own terms.  And along the way, have fun kicking people’s asses with your brothers – that’s always fun – entertain some folks, develop some life-long relationships and have enough good health to play some football with your son and daughter in the front yard.”

[What an embarrassment the game Sunday was called due to poor field conditions.]

--Training camp is boring and like many of you, we just want the season to start (as opposed to baseball’s exhibition season which can provide some excitement with individual player stories).

But the Jets had some excitement when star cornerback Darrelle Revis got into a fight with star receiver Brandon Marshall who was taunting Revis.  Revis popped Marshall in the face during a one-on-one drill, and then Marshall took an open-handed swing at Revis; Marshall saying Revis “baited me” by saying something Marshall considered inappropriate.

Marshall had been taunting Revis on how the latter got torched by Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins last season.

Revis waited 24 hours before saying everything was “fine” between the two.  Marshall acknowledged he crossed the line.

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a big deal except Revis is coming off wrist surgery while the immensely talented Marshall showed his immaturity and the bottom line is these two guys really don’t like each other, which isn’t the kind of dynamic you want on a team...my team.

Or as the New York Post’s Steve Serby put it, coach Todd Bowles, who sloughed it off, “will need to emphasize there will be no playoffs, much less the first Super Bowl in 48 seasons, if the Jets don’t start the season as a family.

“Bowles put on an old-school face in public that Bill Parcells might have worn, but he needs to nip this kind of petty, incendiary behavior in the bud with reminders the enemy is in New England – no matter how close Marshall says he and Revis are.”

--Former running back Trent Richardson, recently released after a short stint with the Baltimore Ravens and a highly disappointing three-year career in the NFL that saw him average 3.3 yards per carry, told E:60 that family and friends spent more than $1.6 million of his money as his career was crumbling.

Richardson said from the time he signed his first contract with Cleveland, after being the third pick overall in the 2012 draft, he was giving away money, while buying a big house that others lived in.  He used to provide dozens of tickets to each game and when he had to move from Cleveland to Indianapolis, the people in the house didn’t help him pack – they just assumed he had the money to hire movers.

But for Richardson, he said the real wake-up call came in 2015.  “He saw 11 Netflix accounts and 8 Hulu accounts under his name, people buying bottle service at clubs and charges form Amazon.com that weren’t his.

“I was just blinded by my heart, by loving everybody, thinking that everybody was for me.”

And now he is out of football for good.

--Mark R. wanted me to note that the only “player” in the Football Hall of Fame to have never played in the NFL is Buffalo Bills guard Billy Shaw, who played there from 1961-69, the merger officially commencing with the 1970 season.  Mark, who grew up in the area, said he remembers Shaw on the sweep, leading the likes of Cookie Gilchrist.  The Bills won the AFL championship in 1964 and ’65, which gives me an excuse to note quarterback Jack Kemp, the main signal-caller on those teams.  Oh, how some of us miss the politician, Jack Kemp.  Only he was too good a guy to survive today’s social media-driven politics.

Golf Balls

--I was following golf early today because of my Draft Kings lineup, but only online as I did my normal Sunday thing...starting at 9:00 with CBS’ “Sunday Morning,” then the first half of ABC’s “This Week,” then the first half-four of CBS’ “Face the Nation.”  After that it kind of depends on the Premier League games (when in season) and whether I have enough beer for the day (seeing as one of my beer men opens at 11:00 Sundays...but that is perhaps telling you too much).  I only occasionally run on Sundays these days, opting for a long run on Saturdays and Mondays.

Anyway, Dr. W. first alerted me to Jim Furyk’s historic 58, Mr. Furyk not being in my DraftKings lineup or I would have known; the good doctor knowing this as we exchange lineups before each event.

All you can say is “Wow!!!”  The 46-year-old future Hall of Famer was the last golfer to shoot 59 in a PGA Tour event, the 2013 BMW Championship, and here he fires a 58 that was almost a 57 with his birdie putt on 18.

Furyk hit all 18 greens and missed but one fairway, shooting a 27 on the front nine!

CBS estimated there have been around 1.5 million competitive rounds on the PGA Tour and Furyk’s score is No. 1 of them all.

Al Geiberger was the first to shoot 59 in 1977.

I must add that it was great Jim Nantz was doing the broadcast as he appreciated the moment as much as anyone in his field.  I called our own Dr. Bortrum to warn him that he should have CBS on when they started their formal coverage because I knew Nantz would do a great job and his team came through.

Remember, this all happened in the morning, as Furyk started the day +1 after three, but finished -11, tied for fifth.

The winner?  Scotland’s Russell Knox, who picked up his second win of the year (second career), besting 49-year-old Jerry Kelly by one.

But I do have to note one not so small item. What were Tour officials doing with the Sunday pin placement that had the final few groups putting into the shadows?!  How freakin’ idiotic was that?  Knox had to nail a super tough par putt from sunlight into shade to secure the victory; totally unfair.

And that’s a memo...Charles Krauthammer is here.  Charles, what say you?

--Mike Lupica / New York Daily News: “You think Nike would be out of the business of making golf clubs if Tiger Woods was still in the business of being the best golfer in the world?”

Yes, Nike is getting out of the golf club, ball and bag business, focusing instead on golf apparel and footwear.

So as you can imagine, there was much talk of the company’s move at the PGA Tour stop at Cromwell, Conn., this weekend.  Nike staffers were left scratching their heads about what comes next after their company issued the statement on Wednesday.

Francisco Molinari, who signed with Nike when he turned pro in 2004, said he had no idea the news was coming.  Molinari had taken his son to the Nike Tour van on Tuesday for a new hat.

“My agent told me last night,” Brooks Koepka, a likely U.S. Ryder Cup team member, told Golfweek.

Patrick Rodgers said he has used Nike equipment for three years and was stunned.  Russell Henley, like Rodgers, playing well this weekend with their Nike equipment, said, “Right now is the most comfortable I have felt with all the stuff.”

A lot of the big names weren’t at this week’s event, post-PGA Championship.  Like Rory McIlroy, who signed with Nike in 2013.

A Nike spokeswoman told Golfweek that the Nike van will continue to appear at events through the end of the season, but many expect to see some Nike players begin using equipment from other manufacturers when the new Tour season commences Oct. 13 in Napa, California.

The sponsorship landscape has changed.  Budgets are much tighter and companies are going to be more critical when weighing return on investment.  For example, as Golfweek notes, “A company might not pay as much to have McIlroy play their clubs when he still will be decked out in apparel covered with the Nike swoosh.”

The players were concerned about their friends, the Nike Tour reps and the technicians at the testing center in Ft. Worth, Texas.  Apparently, numerous pink slips were already handed out Wednesday.

Golf continues to slide in popularity.  It’s certainly not a good career path for non-Tour players.  The equipment industry has been challenging for a while, so the Nike employees will have a very tough time and you can see how the player-rep bond in some cases would be strong.  Heck, you see your buddies on the road, 25-30 times a year.

Nike signed Tiger Woods in 1996 and established Nike Golf as a business unit in 1998, with Woods’ first foray into using Nike equipment coming with the Tour Accuracy TW ball in 2000.  Nike’s first clubs reached the market in 2002.

In its 10-K report for fiscal year 2015, Nike announced a 2-percent decrease in its golf business revenues from 2014, to $771 million, down from $789 million.

[Michelle Wie is another who has been with Nike, in her case ten years.]

Separately, Golfsmith, a 150-store golf specialty retailer, has hired an investment bank as it weighs a possible bankruptcy court filing.  One study has 20 percent of those who regularly play golf having walked away from the game since 2000; 24.1 million last year from 30 million in 2000, Tiger’s peak year with three major titles.

Golf Datatech reports golfers in the U.S. played 462 million rounds in 2014, the lowest number since 1995.  The National Golf Federation has reported similar trends, including 13 new courses opening in 2013, but 157 closing the same year.

Lastly, prices on Nike clubs were immediately slashed following the announcement so you might want to go to your Golfsmith-type store in your area.  I will.

--Bubba Watson, a member of the four-man U.S. Olympic team, told Dan Patrick that winning in Rio is not his top priority.  “The reason we brought golf back to the Olympics was to get the world involved and try to grow the game,” Watson said.  “The gold medal is a bonus.”  [Sports Illustrated]

Which is funny, since Rory McIlroy, who opted not to represent Northern Ireland due to non-existent Zika fears, also said, very defensively in explaining his decision, that it was not his job to “grow the game.”  [And as we now know, many of the golfers who opted out, like Rory, live in Florida where Zika currently is.]

--Matt Kuchar, one of Team USA’s four participants in Rio, the others being Bubba, Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed, caught some major flack for not knowing the Olympic format, which is hilarious.

“Now, I may be misinformed or just don’t know.  You may have to help me.  Is there no team format at all?” Kuchar asked the media.  “When they first talked about it, if there were four Americans it was the two highest ranked and they were going to combine the scores for a team event.

“There is no combined? No team event whatsoever?” Kuchar continued.

Kuchar was told that if either Watson, Fowler or Reed won the event, he wouldn’t be getting a medal. Again, it’s a 72-hole individual stroke play.

Stuff

--Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Sprint Cup event Sunday at Watkins Glen (a road course) over Joey Logano.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he would miss at least two more races.  ESPN is reporting tonight that retirement seems inevitable.  Just remember, I was first to mention this over a month ago.  I’m still pegging the Daytona 500 as the end.

--The Oklahoma City Thunder and star guard Russell Westbrook reached agreement in principle on a new three-year contract worth $85.7 million.  Westbrook got an $8.7 million boost in his existing contract for 2016-17, after which he would have been a free agent.  Now he gets the max the two years after that, though he has a player option for the third.

So with the loss of Kevin Durant to Golden State, the Thunder at least give their fans some hope

--The family holding company of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Fininvest SpA, has agreed to sell Italian soccer club AC Milan to a group of Chinese investors.  The deal values the club at $825.8 million.

Chinese President Xi Jinping wants his country to host the World Cup one day and has been encouraging investment in European soccer.

--New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill that allows daily fantasy sports to return to New York, and that as the New York Times’ Joe Drape put it, “it did not matter that the popular pastime walks, talks and smells like good old-fashioned sports betting: It really is a game of skill (wink) and merely a form of entertainment, to boot (wink wink).”

New York State is allowing this because it will now get a cut.  Cuomo said in a statement:

“Daily fantasy sports have proven to be popular in New York but until now have operated with no supervision and no protections for players.  This legislation strikes the right balance that allows this activity to continue with oversight from state regulators, new consumer protections and more funding for education.”

Millions in revenue will be generated for the state.  DraftKings and FanDuel will be in full operation in New York, its biggest market, just in time for football.

Speaking of DraftKings, after a prolonged slump, your editor won in both golf and NASCAR today!  Huge money...enough for a six-pack of Blatz!!!  [Needed another buck for Coors Light.]

--From the Associated Press: “Authorities say a mounted guide who was leading a family of four on a trail ride in Custer State Park prevented a possible disaster when she put her horse in front of a charging buffalo.

“A large bull buffalo attacked the group of riders Friday morning in the southwest part of the park.  The buffalo knocked the guide off her horse, which spooked the other four horses into spilling their riders.

“Park Superintendent Matt Snyder said there were no serious injuries.  The riders were taken to the hospital for examination.”

Now I’ve been here a bunch of times (part of my beloved Black Hills region) and this is where they filmed some of “Dances with Wolves.”  Just a beautiful area, near Mount Rushmore.

But there are a ton of buffalo in the park and last time I was there, my brother and I came across a monster on the side of the road that just stared at us as he slowed down.  Looking back, I think we should have been more scared than we were.

--Speaking of my Bro, he and the family were up on Cape Cod this past week for their annual vacation there and I asked if he had seen any Great White sharks, hoping for a tale of death and destruction, bodies being flipped out of the water, that kind of thing, and he said he hadn’t seen any, though a guy they vacation with said he had seen some giant sea turtles, which would have been cool.

So then I see that on Friday, three popular beaches up on the Cape were closed because great whites were feeding off an 11-foot minke whale carcass.  As many as six great whites were feasting on said minke before it washed onshore.

Just a few weeks earlier, a 6-year-old Houston boy fishing with his dad caught a great white off the coast of Cape Cod.

So we still have a few weeks left in the summer.  “Everyone in the water!” I would shout if I were a fake lifeguard there.

--But you don’t necessarily want to go in the waters off the Jersey Shore these days.  Not only have a few sharks actually been hauled in right at water’s edge, but now the deadly puffer fish has been caught in Barnegat Bay and elsewhere in the past few weeks.  It contains toxins up to 1200 times more lethal than cyanide.

While the fish can be found between New England and the Bahamas, it was thought to prefer southern waters.  But wind patterns are blowing warmer water into New Jersey on up to New England.

There are no known antidotes for the two toxins contained in the puffer fish, according to the FDA.

The worst-case scenario is death from respiratory paralysis.

So I’m opting to stay inside the rest of summer, or at least stay west of the Garden State Parkway.

--Amy B. Wang / Washington Post

“It’s still unclear how or why the scrappy, apricot-colored dog with pointy ears showed up to the starting line of the 155-mile ultramarathon in June.  The closest village was several miles away, and all that lay ahead was the vast, unforgiving Gobi Desert.

“Dion Leonard, a distance runner from Scotland, noticed the pup scampering alongside a group of American runners, but didn’t think she would last long – much less through most of the six stages of a grueling, week-long endurance race.

“Until she reappeared by his side at the start line on the morning of Day 2.

“ ‘This little dog’s sort of sitting next to me, looking up like, ‘Are we going to run together today?’’ Leonard told the Washington Post.  ‘I didn’t really think that much of it.  I thought, let’s see how long this dog lasts.’

“The dog, whom he soon nicknamed Gobi, followed him through all 23 miles that day, climbing nearly 20,000 feet in elevation as they crossed the Tian Shan range and journeyed into the Gobi Desert.  At times, she would charge ahead of Leonard, motivating him to run faster.  At other points, he stopped to give her beef jerky and water from his own pack.

“At their campsite that night, Gobi lay down next to him in his sleeping pad, wedging herself against his armpit to snuggle.

“ ‘She literally stayed with me all day,’ said Leonard, 41, an Edinburgh resident who has competed in numerous multistage ultramarathons.  It’s still a mystery why Gobi followed him, of all the 101 competitors in this year’s Gobi March....

“Over Day 3, Gobi continued to follow Leonard, this time over increasingly harsh terrain.  Leonard picked her up and carried her over multiple river crossings up to 21 yards long, with rushing water up to his stomach....

“In all, Leonard estimates Gobi accompanied him for 105 miles of the seven-day race, through stages 2, 3 and 6.  Because of the heat – temperatures peaked around 125 degrees Fahrenheit around the middle of the course – Gobi wasn’t allowed to run stages 4 and 5.  However, race organizers drove her to the finish lines on those days, where she waited faithfully for Leonard to cross....

“Ultimately, Leonard took second place in the race.  At the final finish line, event organizers produced a matching medal for Gobi, too.

“By then, he knew they shared a special, inexplicable bond.  Leonard began researching what it would take to bring Gobi back to the United Kingdom: a host of medical examinations, paperwork and quarantines, at a cost of more than $6,500.”

Well Leonard and his wife launched a crowdfunding campaign and Gobi could be in the U.K. by Christmas.

In the meantime, Leonard is preparing for his next ultramarathon in October, a similar 155-mile trek across the Atacama Desert in Chile...part of the 4 Deserts Race Series.

--Ringo Starr told BloombergBusinessweek that when he’s at home, he mostly listens to iTunes.  But: “The other night, I was at dinner with friends and their 18-year-old kid.  He buys CDs and vinyl. The kids are going back to vinyl to be rebels.”

I’m ticked I gave my vinyl away for nothing.  Dumb dumb dumb....

--We note the passing of clarinetist Pete Fountain, a mainstay of traditional jazz in his native New Orleans.  He was 86.

For more than six decades, Fountain was a fixture at Mardi Gras and the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival, but in 1957 he began appearing on “The Lawrence Welk Show,” which brought him a national audience.  In later years he appeared on the “Tonight” show with Johnny Carson numerous times.

Personally, I just remember seeing Fountain and Al Hirt every year on television at various national events, including early Super Bowls and at the Sugar Bowl.

In 1968, Fountain opened up Pete’s Place on Bourbon Street, with the club later moving to the Hotel Riverside.  It remained in business until 2003.

Hurricane Katrina did a number on Pete Fountain’s life, blowing the roof off his home and destroying another in Bay St. Louis.  He lost most of his possessions and he estimated he moved eight times in a year and a half.  He was hospitalized for a spell with “depression about all the stuff that happened,” as he himself put it.  His last public performance was at the 2013 Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Top 3 songs for the week 8/5/67:  #1 “Light My Fire” (The Doors...easily one of my favorite summer songs of all time...)  #2 “I Was Made To Love Her” (Stevie Wonder)  #3 “All You Need Is Love” (The Beatles)...and...#4 “Windy” (The Association...underrated group...)  #5 “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” (Procol Harum)  #6 “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” (Frankie Valli...one of the great movie scenes of all time... “The Deer Hunter”...)  #7 “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” (The Buckinghams)  #8 “White Rabbit” (Jefferson Airplane)  #9 “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (The Monkees)  #10 “Little Bit O’ Soul” (The Music Explosion...all in all, outstanding week, and another example of why I think, when pressed, 1967 is the best year...)

Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Other switch hitters with 400 career home runs....Mickey Mantle 536; Eddie Murray 504; Chipper Jones 468; Carlos Beltran 415; Mark Teixeira 404.  2) A-Rod currently has 2,084 RBIs, behind Ruth (2,214) and Aaron (2,297).  Albert Pujols will be the new active leader with 1,783 thru Saturday’s play.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.



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Bar Chat

08/08/2016

Bye-Bye, A-Rod

[Posted Sunday p.m.]

Baseball Quiz: 1) With the retirement of the Yankees’ Mark Teixeira, I can’t help but ask the question, who are the other four switch hitters with 400 or more lifetime home runs, Teixeira having 404?  2) With A-Rod’s retirement, who will be the leading active player in career RBIs once he steps aside?  Answers below.

What a Sunday!  Where to begin?  A 58 on the PGA Tour, A-Rod’s announcement, Ichiro’s 3,000th hit...I get to it all in the threads of the column.

MLB

--And what a stretch for the New York Yankees.  Friday, Mark Teixeira announced he was retiring at the end of the season.  Sunday morning, the Yanks held a press conference to announce Alex Rodriguez was hanging it up next Friday, Aug. 12, where he will play against Tampa Bay at Yankee Stadium in his last game.

At that point A-Rod will be unconditionally released by the Yankees from his player contract in order to sign a new one as a special adviser and instructor with the team through Dec. 31, 2017.  He will receive the remainder of his $21 million salary for this season (about $7m) and the $21 million for the final season of his 10-year, $275 million contract that was by far baseball’s biggest when he signed it.

GM Brian Cashman said, when asked if the Yankees considered letting A-Rod play on another team in order to reach certain home run milestones, Rodriguez being at 696, that no other teams reached out to the Yanks about acquiring him in a trade.

A-Rod is apparently free to sign with any team that may want him after his release next Friday.

I wrote the other day this was a consuming issue with the Yanks, and no doubt a big distraction as his teammates just saw him sitting on the bench, amid a 1-for-17 slump, 5-for-36.  He hasn’t played since Aug. 2 and it’s not known how much if any he will play before next Friday.

The story is he was about to be released and A-Rod and managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner then held a series of negotiations to arrive at this solution.

This is a big deal for New York sports fans, as well as baseball, given future Hall of Fame considerations (slim and none for a while at least).  I have covered A-Rod’s career, especially every moment of turmoil, extensively, that’s for sure.  So I’ll pick it up next chat...allowing others to weigh in. 

-- Teixeira’s goodbye marks the end of a run at age 36 because as he put it, he just can’t stand up to the rigors of a season anymore.

Tex arrived in New York in 2009, the beneficiary of an 8-year, $180 million contract, coming off five consecutive 100-RBI seasons with various teams.  Coupled with the signings that offseason of CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Nick Swisher, the Yankees won the 2009 World Series as Teixeira led the A.L. with 39 home runs and 122 RBI, as well as winning the first of his three Gold Gloves with the Yanks and finished second in the A.L. MVP balloting.

Tex followed up 2009 with power numbers of 33-108, 39-111, the next two seasons, but his batting average was sending warning signals, dropping to .256 and .248, respectively. 

This would prove to be the end of a streak of eight consecutive seasons of 30 homers and 100 RBIs.

The next five years, though, he wouldn’t appear in more than 123 games in a season and became a poster-boy for signing players to long-term contracts that carry a player through much of his 30s.

This year he is hitting just .200 with 10 home runs and 28 RBIs.

Sunday, the Yanks beat Cleveland 3-2 behind Masahiro Tanaka (8-4, 3.32) to get to 56-55.

--Going back to Wednesday, after I last posted, the Mets placed Yoenis Cespedes on the disabled list with the bad quad that he had been trying to play through.  This was done after the game that night when Cespedes complained he had re-aggravated it.

But when the issue of Cespedes’ golf habit came up Thursday, Yoenis having played earlier on Wednesday before the game, manager Terry Collins blew up when reporters brought the topic to his attention in a pre-game press conference, saying Cespedes’ playing golf wasn’t an issue.

But GM Sandy Alderson said, “The golf is bad optics, let’s just start there.  Our doctors have told us that probably had no impact on the injury, positive or negative, but let’s face it, to play golf during the day and then go out injured in the evening, it’s a bad visual. I think he recognizes that at this point.  So we’ll go from there.”

Sandy was asked what the team would say to him.

“I’ve had conversations with his people,” Alderson said.  “Not directly with Yoenis.  But that message will get to him, at least circuitously and probably directly.”

‘Conversations with his people.’  Yup, classic modern-day player-agent-management relations.  Pathetic. Remember, the Mets are paying Cespedes $27 million this year.

But what the above exposed was the growing rift between Collins and Alderson, with some wondering if the skipper would last the rest of the way.

Here’s what we do know, however.  What manager could deal with the following injuries to everyday or key bench players for long stretches?

First baseman Lucas Duda, a 30-homer guy, has played 37 games all year...out for the season.

Third baseman David Wright, the captain, has played 39 games all year...out for the season.

Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, a stalwart (except for his inability to hit with runners in scoring position), now probably out for the season.

Catcher Travis d’Arnaud earlier missed 50 games.

Key outfielder Juan Lagares...now out for the season.

Slugger Yoenis Cespedes...who knows, but he’s out now.

And then you have starter Matt Harvey, out for the season, and a key reliever, Jim Henderson, has missed a huge portion of the year.

Other teams have suffered major injuries, but no other team has lost huge chunks of their starting lineup like the Mets have...and just in time for a chase for a wild-card slot.

So how much can you blame the manager, Terry Collins, for the Mets’ troubles and mediocre play?

I blame him for just some awful managing over the year.

But Thursday, in the Mets’ 4-1 win over the Yanks to gain a split of their four-game Subway Series, new acquisition Jay Bruce slugged his first homer as a Met, a three-run bomb, and the Metsies got a solid effort out of Bartolo Colon.  Colon tossed 6 2/3 of one-run ball to move to 10-6, 3.46; the 43-year-old reaching double-figures in wins for the 13th time in his career and fifth consecutive season.

The Mets then traveled to Detroit for a weekend series against the hot Tigers and Friday, the Mets lost 4-3, with Noah Syndergaard going 6 innings and allowing 4 earned while striking out 7.  [Detroit’s Justin Verlander continued his fine pitching, 6 innings, 2 earned, 9 Ks, in moving to 12-6, 3.52.]

Syndergaard, now 9-6, 2.64, has not been a Cy Young caliber hurler since his first 13 starts of the season, when he posted a 2.00 ERA in 76 2/3, striking out 95 and walking just 12.  In his last eight starts, he has a 3.59 ERA in 52 2/3, striking out 62 and walking 15.  As a fan, you have to remember he is turning just 24 later this month.

So Saturday the Mets then lost 6-5, with the tying run thrown out at the plate in the top of the ninth for the last out.  Sandy Alderson was fuming at Collins over two replay decisions not made on both Friday and Saturday.  Was the manager back on the hot seat?

Collins’ job may have been saved on Sunday as the Mets pulled out a 3-1 victory on the strength of Neil Walker’s two-run ninth-inning home run.

So the Metsies, despite all their issues, somehow remain in the wild-card chase.

--In other games of note recently....

Saturday, the Giants beat Stephen Strasburg and the Nationals 7-1 in Washington, Strasburg allowing 4 earned in 4 2/3 to drop to 15-2, 2.80.  San Francisco received another solid performance from Matt Cain...his second straight of five shutout innings as he is now 4-6, 5.16, but perhaps rounding back into his old form just in time for the playoff drive.

Sunday, though, the Nats defeated the Giants 1-0 behind Tanner Roark (12-6, 2.88) and newly acquired closer Mark Melancon.  Madison Bumgarner went the distance, but is now 10-7, 2.20, as he has been pitching in very tough luck.

[But what’s up with Bryce Harper?  He was given a day off today, but he’s hitting a mere .233, 20 home runs and 57 RBIs, after months where he hit .200 in May and just .176 in July.]

Also Sunday, Baltimore’s Manny Machado homered his first three times to the plate, good for 7 RBIs (the home runs in the first, second, and third...before he went 0-for-3 the rest of the way), as the Orioles beat the White Sox 10-2; the White Sox’ James Shields giving up 8 earned in 1 ½ to drop to 3-7, 6.68.

And today, Ichiro finally got hit number 3,000 for the Marlins, at Colorado, the 30th to reach this automatic Hall of Fame mark. 

Friday, the Red Sox beat the Dodgers 9-0 in L.A. as knuckleballer Steven Wright went all the way for Boston, allowing 3 hits while striking out 9.  Wright is easily one of the best stories in the game this year and is now 13-5, 3.01.

Thursday, Toronto lefty J.A. Happ, who has been around and prior to this year had never won more than 12 games (2009), improved to 15-3, 3.09, as the Blue Jays defeated the Astros 4-1.

--Dennis Lin / San Diego Union-Tribune

“The Padres are under review by Major League Baseball regarding the exchange of medical information in two recent trades, sources told the Union-Tribune.

“Since dealing left-hander Drew Pomeranz* to Boston last month and right-hander Colin Rea to Miami last week, San Diego has drawn questions as to whether it properly shared medical records in the deals.  It is unclear if the Padres will face penalties as a result of MLB’s review....

“While a Padres spokesperson said the organization currently had no comment on the MLB review, sources Friday indicated the organization is confident it will be cleared of any alleged wrongdoing.

“Monday, the seven-player deal that sent Rea to Miami was reworked, with Rea being traded back to San Diego for pitching prospect Luis Castillo.  Friday, the Padres announced Rea will undergo Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament.

“The trade that sent Pomeranz to Boston will stand, according to sources, although the Red Sox have raised concerns about the exchange of medical information in that deal.  Sources said Boston’s concerns were not brought up immediately (Pomeranz made his fourth Red Sox start Thursday), whereas Miami voiced its issues after Rea left his Marlins debut with a right elbow injury.”

*Pomeranz in four starts with the BoSox has an ERA of 6.20, 14 earned runs in 20 1/3.

While teams swap and review all pertinent medical information before completing a trade, MLB has not established hard-and-fast rules to govern such exchanges.

“Rea, a 26-year-old rookie, threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings (last) Saturday before he exited the game.  Sources said the Marlins then asked Rea whether he was taking any medications, presumably for elbow discomfort. The pitcher revealed that he was.  According to sources, the Marlins claimed the Padres did not disclose any such medications at the time of the trade.

“The two sides subsequently came to an agreement; the Padres would take back Rea and return Castillo, who also was part of the original deal.

“After Rea underwent an MRI this week and met with team doctors, it was determined he had sustained a torn UCL.”  No date has been set for his Tommy John surgery.”

Coincidentally, in late June, the Padres sent closer Fernando Rodney to Miami for pitching prospect Chris Paddack, who then suffered a torn UCL after three starts with the Padres’ Low Single-A affiliate.  Paddack will undergo TJ surgery too.

In early June, the Padres acquired right-hander Erik Johnson from the White Sox as part of the James Shields trade.  After four starts, Johnson went on the DL, out for the season with a sprained elbow.

So it works both ways.

--Speaking of trades, Francisco Mejia is a Cleveland Indians catching prospect who was to be part of a trade for the Milwaukee Brewers’ Jonathan Lucroy...until he wasn’t, as Lucroy vetoed the trade and then ended up in Texas.  Mejia stayed an Indian, playing now in their Advanced-A Carolina League franchise in Lynchburg.

But Mejia is making quite a name for himself as he shows why he was a key to the proposed deal, extending his hitting streak to 47 games on Friday, the longest in modern minor league history, which is generally considered to be 1963 when the minors were reorganized.

The longest hitting streak on record belongs to Wichita’s Joe Wilhoit, who hit in 69 straight games in the Western League in 1919.  The second and third longest streaks belong to Joe DiMaggio, who had a 61-game streak in the Pacific Coast League in 1933 and the MLB-record 56-game streak in 1941.

What’s even better about Mejia’s streak is that his first 28 games were with the Low-A Midwest League team at Lake County, before he was promoted to Lynchburg and he didn’t miss a beat.

--Meanwhile, the Dodgers, who have had serious issues with their starting staff since spring training, have suffered the biggest conceivable hit yet, the possible loss of Clayton Kershaw for the season.  Kershaw was placed on the 60-day disabled list, meaning he is not eligible to come off until Aug. 27, and even if his back was better by then, he’d have to build up his arm again.  He hasn’t pitched in a game since June 26, and hasn’t picked up a baseball since experiencing a setback following a simulated game on July 16.

Well I wrote the above Sunday morning.  Sunday afternoon we learned Kershaw was tossing the ball around and that the goal is for him to build up his arm strength while on the DL, ergo, once he’s eligible to come off, he could be back on the mound in September.  The baseball world hopes this is indeed the case.

--What a shame...Colorado Rockies rookie sensation Trevor Story is out for the season with a torn ligament in his left thumb.  Story is batting .272 with 27 home runs, the most for an N.L. rookie shortstop, and he was closing in on the all-time mark of 30 set by Nomar Garciaparra while with the Red Sox.

--Eric Eisenberg of the Wall Street Journal notes that the Baltimore Orioles may be the slowest MLB team in 50 years.  So far this season, the O’s have three triples.  “In the entire history of Major League Baseball, there has never been a team with fewer than 10 triples, according to Baseball-Reference.com, save for a handful of Union Association teams in 1884 that played fewer than 30 games.”

Baltimore also has just 14 stolen bases, which puts them on pace for just 20 over 162 games.  No team has had so few since Detroit in 1972...154 games.

But Baltimore continues to lead the A.L. East.  It’s a different game, boys and girls.

--The Angels designated Tim Lincecum for assignment after the two-time Cy Young Award winner allowed six runs in the first inning of a 6-4 loss to the Mariners.  Lincecum was 2-6 with a 9.16 ERA in nine starts with Los Angeles in his return from left hip surgery last September.

The Angels hope he’ll accept a pitching assignment in the minors as manager Mike Scioscia said his issues can’t be solved in the majors.

Rio

--I can’t do Sunday night’s action justice but congratulations to Katie Ledecky on her first gold in the 400m freestyle in world record time.  And good for Dana Vollmer and Cody Miller for capturing bronze in their events.

And Sarah Sjostrom for her win in the 100m butterfly, the first woman from Sweden to win a swimming gold, if I heard that right.

--I didn’t see French gymnast Samir Ait Said break his leg on Saturday, but the poor guy suffered further indignity when the staffers dropped his stretcher as they were loading him into an ambulance.

“A worldwide audience was horrified when Ait Said’s left leg snapped as he landed a vault during the men’s qualifying competition, with the lower half of his shin dangling grotesquely after the bone audibly snapped.”  [USA TODAY Sports]

It turns out Ait Said had suffered the same injury in the build-up to the London Olympics four years ago.  Man, that sucks.  His mother, father, sister, girlfriend and best friend were all in attendance.  Hang in there, Ait Said.

--NBC announcer Dan Hicks caught some heat when after Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu obliterated the world record in the 400-meter individual medley Saturday, he said her husband, and coach, Shane Tusup, was “the man responsible” for the record-breaking performance.

Hosszu had won nine medals, including five golds, in world championship competition but had not won anything in the Olympics.

Hosszu has come under scrutiny amid allegations she used PEDs in the past.  Now with her dominating win by almost five seconds over American Maya DiRado, Hosszu will face even more scrutiny.

--Also in the pool, Chinese sports fans and local media turned on Australia’s newest Olympic swimming sensation, Mack Horton,  who was accused of “taunting” home favorite Sun Yang by calling him a “drug cheat” to his face in a post-race press conference.

These two have quite a rivalry and Horton upped the stakes before Saturday’s 400m freestyle final, saying he had “no time or respect for drug cheats,” referring to Sun’s three-month doping ban in 2014.  He then backed it up with his win, holding off Sun at the finish.

Sun burst into tears after in the interview area and received 47 million views on China’s Twitter-like Weibo within hours.  Geezuz...I hate social media.

But while many Chinese gave their support and sympathy to Sun, they also directed their vitriol at Horton.  Chinese fans bombarded Horton’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, demanding an apology to Sun.

And then it emerged Horton, by his own admission, taunted Sun as part of a deliberate ploy to unsettle his rival.  [Sydney Morning Herald]

--After the U.S. beat China 119-62 in basketball on Saturday, center DeMarcus Cousins said he would answer questions only about basketball.  You see, TMZ reported Cousins, DeAndre Jordan and DeMar DeRozan ended up at a Copacabana brothel, with TMZ also reporting via a “source” that the players accidentally ended up there after realizing it wasn’t a male spa.

I’ll buy that.  But isn’t it amazing these guys are still such idiots that they would go off like this, the most high-profile figures in the entire Games and a target on so many levels?  Stay on your ship, boys!

--The Indianapolis Star on Thursday published a lengthy investigation into sexual abuse at the grass-roots level of women’s gymnastics. 

Liz Clarke / Washington Post

“Drawing on lawsuits, depositions and interviews with victimized gymnasts and their families, the newspaper detailed numerous instances in which USA Gymnastics failed to report criminal behavior by four member coaches – three are now in jail; the other committed suicide in jail – and instead filed the complaints away as ‘hearsay’ unless they were reported directly by the victim or victim’s parent....

“(But) none of the cases detailed in the newspaper’s investigation, which occurred over the last two decades, involve current or former U.S. Olympic gymnasts or members of an Olympic coaching staff.”

[Liz Clarke wrote a funny separate piece from Rio, after she had gone without her luggage for four days.  She said she finally went to the mall and the only clothes for women in Brazil have sexy and revealing cuts in them.  Ms. Clarke added she wouldn’t get into the selection of undergarments.]

NFL

--Tom Brady finally spoke about his four-game Deflategate suspension, saying he was stopping the appeal process.

“It was just a personal decision...I’ve tried to move on from it. I try to focus on the positives, being here with my teammates and getting better.”

“I try to come out here and focus on what I need to do to get better and help our team. I’ll be excited to be back when I’m back, and I’ll be cheering our team on, hope we go out and win every game.”

This was definitely the right thing to do.

--I believe Brett Favre when he says he didn’t imagine himself getting into Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“Incredible.  I have a tremendous amount of respect for the game.  I hold these guys in the highest regard.  I just find it hard to believe I am in with those guys.”

Of course he knows he belongs, having one of the greatest careers ever, but you know from his personality he’s being pretty sincere.

So Favre joined Tony Dungy, Marvin Harrison, Orlando Pace, Kevin Greene, Ken Stabler (posthumously), Dick Stanfel and Ed DeBartolo Jr.

Dungy goes down in history as the first black coach to win a Super Bowl (Feb. ’07), which I frankly forgot already and for which I am doing penance, as Dungy would want me to.  [He’s an interesting guy.]

Marvin Harrison finally gets in; the man who holds the NFL mark for receptions in a season, 143, in 2002.  But there’s a dark episode in his....Oh, no reason to go there.  Nor with Favre and a former Jets....err, you know....

Stabler, of course, should have been in long ago.  Never understood that.  Yeah, he didn’t rack up the numbers, but all he did was win!  Try 96-49-1 lifetime, 69-26-1 with Oakland, plus 7-4 in the playoffs for the Silver and Black.  Loved this guy....just wish I had had the opportunity to share a few drinks with him in a honky-tonk joint in Alabama. 

The guy I don’t understand is Dick Stanfel, who had a short career with the Redskins and Lions, 1952-58, as an offensive lineman, but he was a coach for 39 years, which is how I remember him.

Anyway, the poor guy died a year ago and I know his family is happy...and sad...so no more from me on this topic.

Excerpts from some of the Hall of Fame speeches on Saturday.

Brett Favre: “It leads me to my reflection over my 20 years, and believe me, I had a blast. And I think anyone who watched me play would say that. Sometimes maybe a little too much. But what I’m most proud of and what I think about most has nothing to do with statistics, although who would have ever thought that a young man from Kiln, Mississippi, whose father ran the Wishbone, would hold every passing record in NFL history at one time?  Pretty doggone amazing if you ask me.

“But that’s not what makes me most proud. What makes me most proud is how I played the game and being real, authentic and spontaneous, and loving the game to me is what it was all about....

“I’ve said this to my daughters, and I’ll say it to any young person out there who is playing sports: Don’t ever look back and regret not doing your best.  Don’t ever look back, because there are no second chances. When you’re 25 and you wish you would have done something in high school, it’s too late. Don’t cheat yourself.  Don’t cheat your teammates.  Work as hard as you possibly can.  Lay it all on the line, and whatever happens, happens.  But you won’t look back in regret.”

Kevin Greene: “Y’all know that Brett Favre is actually No. 298 (in the Hall of Fame) and I’m No. 299, you follow me?  Isn’t that cool that I’m side-by-side with Brett Favre for eternity?  Right where a linebacker needs to be....

“That’s the best a football player can do, to exhaust his passion, and go out on his own terms.  And along the way, have fun kicking people’s asses with your brothers – that’s always fun – entertain some folks, develop some life-long relationships and have enough good health to play some football with your son and daughter in the front yard.”

[What an embarrassment the game Sunday was called due to poor field conditions.]

--Training camp is boring and like many of you, we just want the season to start (as opposed to baseball’s exhibition season which can provide some excitement with individual player stories).

But the Jets had some excitement when star cornerback Darrelle Revis got into a fight with star receiver Brandon Marshall who was taunting Revis.  Revis popped Marshall in the face during a one-on-one drill, and then Marshall took an open-handed swing at Revis; Marshall saying Revis “baited me” by saying something Marshall considered inappropriate.

Marshall had been taunting Revis on how the latter got torched by Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins last season.

Revis waited 24 hours before saying everything was “fine” between the two.  Marshall acknowledged he crossed the line.

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a big deal except Revis is coming off wrist surgery while the immensely talented Marshall showed his immaturity and the bottom line is these two guys really don’t like each other, which isn’t the kind of dynamic you want on a team...my team.

Or as the New York Post’s Steve Serby put it, coach Todd Bowles, who sloughed it off, “will need to emphasize there will be no playoffs, much less the first Super Bowl in 48 seasons, if the Jets don’t start the season as a family.

“Bowles put on an old-school face in public that Bill Parcells might have worn, but he needs to nip this kind of petty, incendiary behavior in the bud with reminders the enemy is in New England – no matter how close Marshall says he and Revis are.”

--Former running back Trent Richardson, recently released after a short stint with the Baltimore Ravens and a highly disappointing three-year career in the NFL that saw him average 3.3 yards per carry, told E:60 that family and friends spent more than $1.6 million of his money as his career was crumbling.

Richardson said from the time he signed his first contract with Cleveland, after being the third pick overall in the 2012 draft, he was giving away money, while buying a big house that others lived in.  He used to provide dozens of tickets to each game and when he had to move from Cleveland to Indianapolis, the people in the house didn’t help him pack – they just assumed he had the money to hire movers.

But for Richardson, he said the real wake-up call came in 2015.  “He saw 11 Netflix accounts and 8 Hulu accounts under his name, people buying bottle service at clubs and charges form Amazon.com that weren’t his.

“I was just blinded by my heart, by loving everybody, thinking that everybody was for me.”

And now he is out of football for good.

--Mark R. wanted me to note that the only “player” in the Football Hall of Fame to have never played in the NFL is Buffalo Bills guard Billy Shaw, who played there from 1961-69, the merger officially commencing with the 1970 season.  Mark, who grew up in the area, said he remembers Shaw on the sweep, leading the likes of Cookie Gilchrist.  The Bills won the AFL championship in 1964 and ’65, which gives me an excuse to note quarterback Jack Kemp, the main signal-caller on those teams.  Oh, how some of us miss the politician, Jack Kemp.  Only he was too good a guy to survive today’s social media-driven politics.

Golf Balls

--I was following golf early today because of my Draft Kings lineup, but only online as I did my normal Sunday thing...starting at 9:00 with CBS’ “Sunday Morning,” then the first half of ABC’s “This Week,” then the first half-four of CBS’ “Face the Nation.”  After that it kind of depends on the Premier League games (when in season) and whether I have enough beer for the day (seeing as one of my beer men opens at 11:00 Sundays...but that is perhaps telling you too much).  I only occasionally run on Sundays these days, opting for a long run on Saturdays and Mondays.

Anyway, Dr. W. first alerted me to Jim Furyk’s historic 58, Mr. Furyk not being in my DraftKings lineup or I would have known; the good doctor knowing this as we exchange lineups before each event.

All you can say is “Wow!!!”  The 46-year-old future Hall of Famer was the last golfer to shoot 59 in a PGA Tour event, the 2013 BMW Championship, and here he fires a 58 that was almost a 57 with his birdie putt on 18.

Furyk hit all 18 greens and missed but one fairway, shooting a 27 on the front nine!

CBS estimated there have been around 1.5 million competitive rounds on the PGA Tour and Furyk’s score is No. 1 of them all.

Al Geiberger was the first to shoot 59 in 1977.

I must add that it was great Jim Nantz was doing the broadcast as he appreciated the moment as much as anyone in his field.  I called our own Dr. Bortrum to warn him that he should have CBS on when they started their formal coverage because I knew Nantz would do a great job and his team came through.

Remember, this all happened in the morning, as Furyk started the day +1 after three, but finished -11, tied for fifth.

The winner?  Scotland’s Russell Knox, who picked up his second win of the year (second career), besting 49-year-old Jerry Kelly by one.

But I do have to note one not so small item. What were Tour officials doing with the Sunday pin placement that had the final few groups putting into the shadows?!  How freakin’ idiotic was that?  Knox had to nail a super tough par putt from sunlight into shade to secure the victory; totally unfair.

And that’s a memo...Charles Krauthammer is here.  Charles, what say you?

--Mike Lupica / New York Daily News: “You think Nike would be out of the business of making golf clubs if Tiger Woods was still in the business of being the best golfer in the world?”

Yes, Nike is getting out of the golf club, ball and bag business, focusing instead on golf apparel and footwear.

So as you can imagine, there was much talk of the company’s move at the PGA Tour stop at Cromwell, Conn., this weekend.  Nike staffers were left scratching their heads about what comes next after their company issued the statement on Wednesday.

Francisco Molinari, who signed with Nike when he turned pro in 2004, said he had no idea the news was coming.  Molinari had taken his son to the Nike Tour van on Tuesday for a new hat.

“My agent told me last night,” Brooks Koepka, a likely U.S. Ryder Cup team member, told Golfweek.

Patrick Rodgers said he has used Nike equipment for three years and was stunned.  Russell Henley, like Rodgers, playing well this weekend with their Nike equipment, said, “Right now is the most comfortable I have felt with all the stuff.”

A lot of the big names weren’t at this week’s event, post-PGA Championship.  Like Rory McIlroy, who signed with Nike in 2013.

A Nike spokeswoman told Golfweek that the Nike van will continue to appear at events through the end of the season, but many expect to see some Nike players begin using equipment from other manufacturers when the new Tour season commences Oct. 13 in Napa, California.

The sponsorship landscape has changed.  Budgets are much tighter and companies are going to be more critical when weighing return on investment.  For example, as Golfweek notes, “A company might not pay as much to have McIlroy play their clubs when he still will be decked out in apparel covered with the Nike swoosh.”

The players were concerned about their friends, the Nike Tour reps and the technicians at the testing center in Ft. Worth, Texas.  Apparently, numerous pink slips were already handed out Wednesday.

Golf continues to slide in popularity.  It’s certainly not a good career path for non-Tour players.  The equipment industry has been challenging for a while, so the Nike employees will have a very tough time and you can see how the player-rep bond in some cases would be strong.  Heck, you see your buddies on the road, 25-30 times a year.

Nike signed Tiger Woods in 1996 and established Nike Golf as a business unit in 1998, with Woods’ first foray into using Nike equipment coming with the Tour Accuracy TW ball in 2000.  Nike’s first clubs reached the market in 2002.

In its 10-K report for fiscal year 2015, Nike announced a 2-percent decrease in its golf business revenues from 2014, to $771 million, down from $789 million.

[Michelle Wie is another who has been with Nike, in her case ten years.]

Separately, Golfsmith, a 150-store golf specialty retailer, has hired an investment bank as it weighs a possible bankruptcy court filing.  One study has 20 percent of those who regularly play golf having walked away from the game since 2000; 24.1 million last year from 30 million in 2000, Tiger’s peak year with three major titles.

Golf Datatech reports golfers in the U.S. played 462 million rounds in 2014, the lowest number since 1995.  The National Golf Federation has reported similar trends, including 13 new courses opening in 2013, but 157 closing the same year.

Lastly, prices on Nike clubs were immediately slashed following the announcement so you might want to go to your Golfsmith-type store in your area.  I will.

--Bubba Watson, a member of the four-man U.S. Olympic team, told Dan Patrick that winning in Rio is not his top priority.  “The reason we brought golf back to the Olympics was to get the world involved and try to grow the game,” Watson said.  “The gold medal is a bonus.”  [Sports Illustrated]

Which is funny, since Rory McIlroy, who opted not to represent Northern Ireland due to non-existent Zika fears, also said, very defensively in explaining his decision, that it was not his job to “grow the game.”  [And as we now know, many of the golfers who opted out, like Rory, live in Florida where Zika currently is.]

--Matt Kuchar, one of Team USA’s four participants in Rio, the others being Bubba, Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed, caught some major flack for not knowing the Olympic format, which is hilarious.

“Now, I may be misinformed or just don’t know.  You may have to help me.  Is there no team format at all?” Kuchar asked the media.  “When they first talked about it, if there were four Americans it was the two highest ranked and they were going to combine the scores for a team event.

“There is no combined? No team event whatsoever?” Kuchar continued.

Kuchar was told that if either Watson, Fowler or Reed won the event, he wouldn’t be getting a medal. Again, it’s a 72-hole individual stroke play.

Stuff

--Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Sprint Cup event Sunday at Watkins Glen (a road course) over Joey Logano.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he would miss at least two more races.  ESPN is reporting tonight that retirement seems inevitable.  Just remember, I was first to mention this over a month ago.  I’m still pegging the Daytona 500 as the end.

--The Oklahoma City Thunder and star guard Russell Westbrook reached agreement in principle on a new three-year contract worth $85.7 million.  Westbrook got an $8.7 million boost in his existing contract for 2016-17, after which he would have been a free agent.  Now he gets the max the two years after that, though he has a player option for the third.

So with the loss of Kevin Durant to Golden State, the Thunder at least give their fans some hope

--The family holding company of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Fininvest SpA, has agreed to sell Italian soccer club AC Milan to a group of Chinese investors.  The deal values the club at $825.8 million.

Chinese President Xi Jinping wants his country to host the World Cup one day and has been encouraging investment in European soccer.

--New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill that allows daily fantasy sports to return to New York, and that as the New York Times’ Joe Drape put it, “it did not matter that the popular pastime walks, talks and smells like good old-fashioned sports betting: It really is a game of skill (wink) and merely a form of entertainment, to boot (wink wink).”

New York State is allowing this because it will now get a cut.  Cuomo said in a statement:

“Daily fantasy sports have proven to be popular in New York but until now have operated with no supervision and no protections for players.  This legislation strikes the right balance that allows this activity to continue with oversight from state regulators, new consumer protections and more funding for education.”

Millions in revenue will be generated for the state.  DraftKings and FanDuel will be in full operation in New York, its biggest market, just in time for football.

Speaking of DraftKings, after a prolonged slump, your editor won in both golf and NASCAR today!  Huge money...enough for a six-pack of Blatz!!!  [Needed another buck for Coors Light.]

--From the Associated Press: “Authorities say a mounted guide who was leading a family of four on a trail ride in Custer State Park prevented a possible disaster when she put her horse in front of a charging buffalo.

“A large bull buffalo attacked the group of riders Friday morning in the southwest part of the park.  The buffalo knocked the guide off her horse, which spooked the other four horses into spilling their riders.

“Park Superintendent Matt Snyder said there were no serious injuries.  The riders were taken to the hospital for examination.”

Now I’ve been here a bunch of times (part of my beloved Black Hills region) and this is where they filmed some of “Dances with Wolves.”  Just a beautiful area, near Mount Rushmore.

But there are a ton of buffalo in the park and last time I was there, my brother and I came across a monster on the side of the road that just stared at us as he slowed down.  Looking back, I think we should have been more scared than we were.

--Speaking of my Bro, he and the family were up on Cape Cod this past week for their annual vacation there and I asked if he had seen any Great White sharks, hoping for a tale of death and destruction, bodies being flipped out of the water, that kind of thing, and he said he hadn’t seen any, though a guy they vacation with said he had seen some giant sea turtles, which would have been cool.

So then I see that on Friday, three popular beaches up on the Cape were closed because great whites were feeding off an 11-foot minke whale carcass.  As many as six great whites were feasting on said minke before it washed onshore.

Just a few weeks earlier, a 6-year-old Houston boy fishing with his dad caught a great white off the coast of Cape Cod.

So we still have a few weeks left in the summer.  “Everyone in the water!” I would shout if I were a fake lifeguard there.

--But you don’t necessarily want to go in the waters off the Jersey Shore these days.  Not only have a few sharks actually been hauled in right at water’s edge, but now the deadly puffer fish has been caught in Barnegat Bay and elsewhere in the past few weeks.  It contains toxins up to 1200 times more lethal than cyanide.

While the fish can be found between New England and the Bahamas, it was thought to prefer southern waters.  But wind patterns are blowing warmer water into New Jersey on up to New England.

There are no known antidotes for the two toxins contained in the puffer fish, according to the FDA.

The worst-case scenario is death from respiratory paralysis.

So I’m opting to stay inside the rest of summer, or at least stay west of the Garden State Parkway.

--Amy B. Wang / Washington Post

“It’s still unclear how or why the scrappy, apricot-colored dog with pointy ears showed up to the starting line of the 155-mile ultramarathon in June.  The closest village was several miles away, and all that lay ahead was the vast, unforgiving Gobi Desert.

“Dion Leonard, a distance runner from Scotland, noticed the pup scampering alongside a group of American runners, but didn’t think she would last long – much less through most of the six stages of a grueling, week-long endurance race.

“Until she reappeared by his side at the start line on the morning of Day 2.

“ ‘This little dog’s sort of sitting next to me, looking up like, ‘Are we going to run together today?’’ Leonard told the Washington Post.  ‘I didn’t really think that much of it.  I thought, let’s see how long this dog lasts.’

“The dog, whom he soon nicknamed Gobi, followed him through all 23 miles that day, climbing nearly 20,000 feet in elevation as they crossed the Tian Shan range and journeyed into the Gobi Desert.  At times, she would charge ahead of Leonard, motivating him to run faster.  At other points, he stopped to give her beef jerky and water from his own pack.

“At their campsite that night, Gobi lay down next to him in his sleeping pad, wedging herself against his armpit to snuggle.

“ ‘She literally stayed with me all day,’ said Leonard, 41, an Edinburgh resident who has competed in numerous multistage ultramarathons.  It’s still a mystery why Gobi followed him, of all the 101 competitors in this year’s Gobi March....

“Over Day 3, Gobi continued to follow Leonard, this time over increasingly harsh terrain.  Leonard picked her up and carried her over multiple river crossings up to 21 yards long, with rushing water up to his stomach....

“In all, Leonard estimates Gobi accompanied him for 105 miles of the seven-day race, through stages 2, 3 and 6.  Because of the heat – temperatures peaked around 125 degrees Fahrenheit around the middle of the course – Gobi wasn’t allowed to run stages 4 and 5.  However, race organizers drove her to the finish lines on those days, where she waited faithfully for Leonard to cross....

“Ultimately, Leonard took second place in the race.  At the final finish line, event organizers produced a matching medal for Gobi, too.

“By then, he knew they shared a special, inexplicable bond.  Leonard began researching what it would take to bring Gobi back to the United Kingdom: a host of medical examinations, paperwork and quarantines, at a cost of more than $6,500.”

Well Leonard and his wife launched a crowdfunding campaign and Gobi could be in the U.K. by Christmas.

In the meantime, Leonard is preparing for his next ultramarathon in October, a similar 155-mile trek across the Atacama Desert in Chile...part of the 4 Deserts Race Series.

--Ringo Starr told BloombergBusinessweek that when he’s at home, he mostly listens to iTunes.  But: “The other night, I was at dinner with friends and their 18-year-old kid.  He buys CDs and vinyl. The kids are going back to vinyl to be rebels.”

I’m ticked I gave my vinyl away for nothing.  Dumb dumb dumb....

--We note the passing of clarinetist Pete Fountain, a mainstay of traditional jazz in his native New Orleans.  He was 86.

For more than six decades, Fountain was a fixture at Mardi Gras and the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival, but in 1957 he began appearing on “The Lawrence Welk Show,” which brought him a national audience.  In later years he appeared on the “Tonight” show with Johnny Carson numerous times.

Personally, I just remember seeing Fountain and Al Hirt every year on television at various national events, including early Super Bowls and at the Sugar Bowl.

In 1968, Fountain opened up Pete’s Place on Bourbon Street, with the club later moving to the Hotel Riverside.  It remained in business until 2003.

Hurricane Katrina did a number on Pete Fountain’s life, blowing the roof off his home and destroying another in Bay St. Louis.  He lost most of his possessions and he estimated he moved eight times in a year and a half.  He was hospitalized for a spell with “depression about all the stuff that happened,” as he himself put it.  His last public performance was at the 2013 Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Top 3 songs for the week 8/5/67:  #1 “Light My Fire” (The Doors...easily one of my favorite summer songs of all time...)  #2 “I Was Made To Love Her” (Stevie Wonder)  #3 “All You Need Is Love” (The Beatles)...and...#4 “Windy” (The Association...underrated group...)  #5 “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” (Procol Harum)  #6 “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” (Frankie Valli...one of the great movie scenes of all time... “The Deer Hunter”...)  #7 “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” (The Buckinghams)  #8 “White Rabbit” (Jefferson Airplane)  #9 “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (The Monkees)  #10 “Little Bit O’ Soul” (The Music Explosion...all in all, outstanding week, and another example of why I think, when pressed, 1967 is the best year...)

Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Other switch hitters with 400 career home runs....Mickey Mantle 536; Eddie Murray 504; Chipper Jones 468; Carlos Beltran 415; Mark Teixeira 404.  2) A-Rod currently has 2,084 RBIs, behind Ruth (2,214) and Aaron (2,297).  Albert Pujols will be the new active leader with 1,783 thru Saturday’s play.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.