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Bar Chat

08/11/2016

Duels in the Pool

[Posted Wednesday a.m.]

Track Quiz: Following are some basic numbers and record-holders that every sports fan, says moi, should know. Men: 1) What is the world record time for the 100-meters?  2) What is the WR for the 200-meters?  3) The WR for the 400-meters?  4) The WR for the mile?  Women: 1) World record in the 100-meters?  2) WR in the 200-meters?  Answers below.

Rio

--What a Tuesday for Team USA, as Michael Phelps took gold medals No. 20 and 21 (he now has 25 medals overall), Phelps gaining revenge in the 200-meter butterfly (where he lost in London) and then swimming anchor on the 4X200 relay team.  Phelps, 31, also became the oldest individual swimming gold medalist in Olympic history.

Katie Ledecky picked up her second individual gold in winning the 200-meter freestyle over Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, in what was expected to be Ledecky’s toughest event.  She just has the 800m remaining and is likely to cruise in it. She would then become the second female Olympian in history to win three freestyle golds, the other being Debbie Meyer back in 1968.

And then you had the U.S. women’s gymnastics team capturing its second straight gold with a dominating performance, though some of the talk after surrounded Gabby Douglas’ refusal to put her hand over heart during the playing of the National Anthem. 

The win, hpowever, was particularly sweet for retiring national team coordinator Martha Karolyi, with the golden girls (Simone Biles, Lauren Hernandez, Madison Kocian, Aly Raisman and Douglas) calling themselves “The Final Five” in her honor.  The team format in Tokyo in 2020 will only have four team members in the team competition.

[Russia took the silver, China the bronze.]

--Back to the pool, Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu won the 200-IM on Tuesday, adding to her wins in the 100-meter backstroke and 400-IM, thus joining the likes of Shane Gould, Janet Evans, Kornelia Ender and Inge de Bruijn as triple gold medalists in individual events in a single Games.

Hosszu has one event remaining, the 200 backstroke, giving her a chance to tie East German Kristin Otto’s mark of four individual golds.

And a word on Monday and American swimmer Lilly King’s race against Russia’s Yulia Efimova, who most believe shouldn’t have even been in Rio after she finished a year-plus suspension for doping and had another more recent failed test overturned.  Somehow she was reinstated at literally the last minute.

So King, having dissed Efimova after the semis on Sunday, beat her rival in the finals.

When asked if U.S. athletes who have fallen foul of the drug testers, such as sprinters Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay, deserved to be in Rio, King, 19, said: “I have to respect (the track authorities’) decision even if it is something I don’t necessarily agree with.  No, do I think people who have been caught doping should be on the team?  They shouldn’t.  It is unfortunate we have to see that.”

Bill Plaschke / Los Angeles Times

“For one long chilling moment behind the starting blocks, Lilly King stared down Yulia Efimova.

“Then, about a minute later, sending a message to the alleged Russian drug cheats who populate these Olympics, she beat her down.

“On a dramatic night at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on Monday night, a 19-year-old kid from Indiana did what the world’s Olympic and swimming officials were too weak to do and what legions of athletes only dreamed of doing....

“If only it had ended there.  But King continued to attack.  Moments after the race ended, she threw her fists down with two big splashes in runner-up Efimova’s lane before swimming in the other direction to hug third-place finisher Katie Meili.

“She blew Efimova off. She never congratulated her. She never even acknowledged her.  Not in the water, not on the pool deck, not until they were finally forced to stand next to each other on the medals podium.

“ ‘If I was in Yulia’s position, I would not want to be congratulated by someone who wasn’t speaking highly of me,’ King said.

“It was truly a fight to the end, not very sporting, not very pretty, equally triumphant and ugly, an appropriately uncomfortable ending to an awkward saga that will be repeated throughout these Games....

“ ‘It’s a victory for clean sport,’ (King) said.  ‘It shows you can win if you compete cleanly all your life. That’s where I’m at.’

“As King spoke at the post-race news conference, Efimova sat at the far end of the table instead of next to King in a position usually occupied by the silver medalist.  She appeared shunned, and stunned, staring sadly into space. When Efimova spoke at the end of the conference, she was fighting back tears.  During what should have been a joyous time for someone who just won an Olympic medal, it looked and felt awful.

“ ‘I can understand, what all the newspapers write, all the TVs give the news...but it’s not true,’ she said.”

As Plaschke then notes, yes, Efimova should not have been in Rio.  No way.  But King should have handled the situation with more grace.

Plaschke:

“It’s a real mess, and it’s so unfair to the athletes trying to navigate the lack of spine shown by the International Olympic Committee since a New York Times report this spring in which a former Russian anti-doping official exposed an elaborate cheating scandal during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia....

“The IOC agreed to ban most of the Russian track and field athletes, but refused to issue a total team ban, shamefully passing the buck to small governing bodies of individual sports, most of whom can’t face the responsibility or ramifications of such action....

“On this night, the right swimmer did what she had to do, and claimed a victory that needed to be won.  But there were too many moments when it felt like everyone lost.”

--On the issue of controversial Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, who won the 200m freestyle, French swimmer Camille Lacourt said swimming was becoming like athletics “with two or three doped in each final,” referring to track and field.

“Sun Yang, he pisses purple,” Lacourt said.  “When I see the 200m podium I want to be sick. I prefer to remember the crowd that cheered when we went out.”

Then Lacourt, who finished fifth in the 100m backstroke, won by American Ryan Murphy, took a pot shot at China’s Xu Jiayu, who came in second in the race.

“I don’t like being beaten by a Chinese,” he said.  Yikes.

Meanwhile, Australian Mack Horton was being looked at by the IOC following his comments on Sun Yang, after Horton called him a “drug cheat” before and after the men’s 400m freestyle final that Horton won by a fingertip on Saturday night.

Sun, who was banned three months in 2014 for testing positive, said: “I am clean.”

Mainland Chinese state-run media blasted Horton’s homeland as a former “offshore prison,” and the Chinese Swimming Association wrote to its Australian counterpart to demand an apology from Horton, who was too naïve to realize what would come his way with his pointed remarks.

Sun and Horton will face off in the 1500-m freestyle on Friday (qualifying heats) and Saturday (final).

--Wow, the tennis competition has been turned on its head with top seed Novak Djokovic being beaten in the first round by Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina.  Djokovic “was in tears as he left the court after the match,” as reported by the BBC.

“This is one of the toughest losses in my career,” said Djokovic, who was trying to win his first Olympic title.

So after holding all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously by winning the French Open in June, Djokovic suffered a third-round loss at Wimbledon and then this (though he won a tournament in Toronto last week).

Djokovic just has a bronze from the 2008 Olympics.

And not a good Olympics for the Williams sisters, who were eliminated in the doubles competition after three golds, and then both Venus and Serena flamed out in the singles.  Serena lost on Tuesday to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina as she was described as “looking out of sorts and irritated, accumulating 37 unforced errors” in her 6-4, 6-3 loss.

The U.S. women’s soccer team was tied by Colombia 2-2 but still moves on to the quarterfinals.

MLB

--At the All-Star break, I posted the records of the playoff contenders...so here they are thru Tuesday’s games....

A.L. East

Baltimore 51-36 [at the break]...63-49 [thru Tues.]
Boston 49-38...61-50
Toronto 51-40...64-50

A.L. Central

Cleveland 52-36...63-47
Detroit 46-43...61-52
Kansas City 45-43...53-59...yuck
Chicago 45-43...54-58...barf

A.L. West

Texas 54-36...67-47
Houston 48-41...58-55

*I didn’t’ list Seattle at the break as they were 45-44...but now they’re 59-53 and very much in the chase.

N.L. East

Washington 54-36...66-46
New York 47-41...57-55*
Miami 47-41...60-53

*Not only have the Mets sucked royally, they are 36-43 since starting out the season 21-12...just a hideous period of blowdom.

N.L. Central

Chicago 53-35...70-41
St. Louis 46-42...59-54
Pittsburgh 46-43...56-54

N.L. West

San Francisco 57-33...64-49
Los Angeles 51-40...64-49

--Yes, the Mets have been playing putrid baseball, including Tuesday’s 5-3 loss at Citi Field to the pathetic Diamondbacks.  The Mets have not won consecutive games since July 6 and 7!

Arizona stole five bases Tuesday off Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who has now thrown out only nine of 42 base stealers this season.

The only Met playing worth a damn these days is Neil Walker, who in his last 13 games is batting .491 (26 for 53 with four home runs). And, suddenly, GM Sandy Alderson said after the game the Mets were open to a contract extension for Walker, who it was assumed would be allowed to, err, walk into free agency.  But since the Mets traded away “second baseman of the future Dilson Herrera,” time to look at Walker, 30, as a longer-term piece of stability.

Meanwhile, Alderson is growing increasingly impatient with Manager Terry Collins, as are we all.

--Brandon Crawford of the Giants had seven hits on Monday, the first major leaguer in 41 years to get seven in a game, as the last hit plated the winning run in the 14th inning of an 8-7 victory over the Miami Marlins.

The last previous player to get seven hits was Pittsburgh’s Rennie Stennett on Sept. 16, 1975, at Chicago.  But Stennett did it in nine innings.

Crawford, in the midst of a 6-for-36 slump, raised his average 13 points to .278. He was 7-for-8.

The only other player to get seven hits in a nine-inning game was Wilbert Robinson back in 1892, about ten years before I was born (at least I feel that way these days).

The record for hits in an extra-inning contest is Johnny Burnett, who had nine in a 1932 game that lasted 16 innings.

A-Rod, part deux

Alex Rodriguez did not play in the Yankees game Tuesday at Fenway, though it seems he will DH on Thursday, prior to his swan song at Yankee Stadium Friday night.

Ken Davidoff / New York Post

“Alex Rodriguez should be remembered as one of the best baseball players ever.

“That he might well do so, depending on how our mores evolve through time, speaks to his greatest contribution to American society. Quite simply, A-Rod can stop playing, if this week truly proves to be it for him, knowing that he has changed the moral compass of professional athletes like no one before him or since.

“The black-and-white notion of ‘heroes’ in one corner and ‘villains’ in the other has been blown to bits.  A-Rod was both, often sometimes simultaneously.  While he didn’t intend to do this, by hanging around for such a long time – and by creating controversy as naturally as a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly – A-Rod forever clouded the notion of whom fans should and shouldn’t support.

“For that, we should be grateful.

“Forget about all of the bouquets he has received in the last year and a half, after ending his entertainingly foolish legal battle with the Yankees and Major League Baseball. What’s more important to recall is that during the height of that battle in 2013, when A-Rod was playing for the Yankees as he was disparaging them, he still received a healthy percentage of cheers and love in The Bronx.  Many understood that his case carried more complications than ‘The guy CHEATED!!!’  They appreciated that no one in that swamp – not Bud Selig, not Yankees ownership and not opposing players – had arrived there without acquiring their own crosses to bear.

“The love of the game that convinced the Yankees to hire A-Rod as an advisor and instructor is a connective tissue to the drive that pushed him to repeatedly use illegal performance-enhancing drugs.  And to slap the ball out of Bronson Arroyo’s glove in 2004.  And to distract Blue Jays infielder Howie Clark from a pop fly with a shout of ‘Ha!’ in 2007.  As Dr. Zweig (Anne Bancroft) once said on ‘The Simpsons’ concerning the multiple reasons behind Marge’s fear of flying, ‘It’s all a rich tapestry.’  You don’t get to cherry-pick the good qualities from any of us, and larger-than-life celebrities aren’t immune to that rule....

“He could be a great teammate when it came to stuff like that.  He could be a terrible teammate, forcing them to answer awkward questions about his behavior and committing countless other transgressions.  He could be admired.  He could be loathed.

“A-Rod did what an athlete is supposed to do. He entertained the heck out of us.  Go find your heroes somewhere else.”

Mike Lupica / New York Daily News

“There was a moment Sunday morning, after Alex Rodriguez had announced that he will play his last game for the Yankees on Friday, when Brian Cashman sat down behind the microphone and was asked about Rodriguez’s contract, which still has a season to run and for money as big as ever.

“ ‘He will get everything he deserves,’ Cashman said, meaning around $27 million, even if Rodriguez will be serving as a special advisor with the Yankees until the end of 2017.

“The truth about Rodriguez is that he gets a much better ending from the Yankees than he earned when he was in the barrel for Biogenesis, and about to be suspended for the entire 2014 season, back when he went after them and his own union and team doctors and the commissioner of baseball, when he tried to convince the whole world that he was the most falsely accused user of baseball drugs in all of baseball history.

“Now he gets one last week as an active player with the Yankees.  He gets to play one more game at Yankee Stadium. So Rodriguez gets the great Yankee treatment on Friday night.  He gets the kind of goodbye the Yankees do better than anybody else.  And knowing the kind of drama king that Rodriguez has always been, he will probably hit one more home run.  Or two.

“He just doesn’t get to retire as the all-time home run king of baseball, statistically if not authentically....He doesn’t get the ending that he wanted.  In that way, in a lot of important ways, Rodriguez gets exactly the ending he deserves....

“He once thought he would not just get to 700, that he would pass Babe Ruth and the great Henry Aaron, the authentic home run king of baseball, and Bonds.  It is why the people who have followed the honest arc of his career, despite the dishonesty from him and the people who tried to provide legal cover for him three years ago, think that in the late innings he went looking for help, either from a needle or a bottle.  And the problem with him, and what will remain a problem for him, despite all the amazing numbers he has put into the record books, it will always be nearly impossible to evaluate a career that has lasted 22 seasons, from the time when he was the most exciting kid in the world with the Seattle Mariners....

“Once Rodriguez got the biggest contract in baseball history from the Texas Rangers when he left Seattle, $252 million.  Finally he got the best and brightest stage – Yankees, Yankee Stadium, old and new – that you can get from baseball.  Finally there was the October when Rodriguez, who’d first admitted to baseball drug use in the spring of 2009 because of a Sports Illustrated story, officially became a great Yankee by doing that in October, and hit himself and his team all the way to the Canyon of Heroes.

“And then, either because of his obsession with home run history or insecurity or both, he went running straight for Bosch.  And even with the way he has reinvented himself one last time, as if running for class president at Yankee Stadium or Most Likely to Succeed by the media, even the way he came back last season when everybody thought last season would be the one when he limped away from baseball for good, that is a part of his permanent record along with all the other records....

“He doesn’t get the farewell tour Derek Jeter got, or Mariano Rivera.  It will be a week for Rodriguez instead of a year, first in Boston, where he almost played once before the Rangers traded him to the Yankees, and finally at home on Friday night against the Rays.  The Yankees will do this up right, because they always do, and give him more than anybody ever thought he would deserve from them.”

Harvey Araton / New York Times

“This is how it ends for Alex Rodriguez?  With a Yankees-orchestrated whimper instead of an all-out public relations war?

“Hard to believe.  For the moment, let’s not.

“It is possible that Rodriguez – at 41 and having been, as he put it, ‘to hell and back’ – talked himself into being ‘at peace’ about walking away after Friday night’s game against Tampa Bay at Yankee Stadium.

“But after a long and tumultuous career fueled by what even amateur psychologists could positively diagnose as a chronic inner turbulence, we suspect this was A-Rod merely acceding to the franchise’s wishes to move beyond him without stirring up memories of his contentious and litigious past.

“Four home runs short of 700, 18 shy of Babe Ruth, this image- and achievement-obsessed man, once photographed kissing his reflection in the mirror, is going to retire just because Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman decided it was time?

“ ‘Of course, I think I can play baseball,’ Rodriguez said.  ‘You always think you have one more hit in you.  That wasn’t in the cards.  That was the Yankees’ decision, and I’m at peace with it.’

“All of that rang true except the last part.  That is why no one should be surprised if another team reaches out in the next couple of weeks or for next season and Rodriguez’s tenure as a Yankees organizational adviser has the staying power of a Trump news cycle....

“As A-Rod rode the bench these last few weeks – ‘painful and embarrassing,’ he said – and Manager Joe Girardi bristled at reporters’ questions of why, anyone who knows Cashman could imagine his hardening feelings about a player the Yankees welcomed back in 2015 after a one-season suspension for being snared in the net of the Biogenesis drug scandal.

“Yes, Rodriguez was necessarily contrite and no longer a provocative clubhouse presence.  More important, he produced, against all odds and expectations, on the way to 33 home runs....

“(But by the end of the year) his bat had slowed and the letters-high fastball had become an unhittable blur.

“His return season was nonetheless hailed as a triumphant character reconstruction.  He was no longer an albatross with a capital A – until he resumed flailing away this season and the unsparing Cashman had to ask himself, besides $21 million in 2017, how much do we owe this guy?....

“So many of Rodriguez’s machinations with the Yankees were painfully contrived, especially the 10-year, $275 million deal that tethered him to the team past the point where the marriage was played out.

“Remember how word happened to get out during the 2007 World Series that Rodriguez was intending to leave the Yankees as a free agent?

“As a commodity, he had juice back then, the Yankees capitulated and the deal was officially announced on the very day baseball released the Mitchell report, detailing an entrenched steroid culture we would soon learn Rodriguez was part of.

“For timing so transparently tacky, it was easy to say, in the flurry of headlines to follow, that A-Rod and the Yankees deserved each other.  All due respect and good cheer aside, that part of the narrative will never change.”

Mike Vaccaro / New York Post

“That was always the thing about Alex Rodriguez: He was polarizing as hell.  If you liked him, you probably loved him, and if you didn’t like him, there have been few athletes ever born who could infuriate as much.  But you have to give him this: He made you pay attention.

“You always knew he was in the room.

“Sometimes, that wasn’t a room you – or he – necessarily wanted to be in, usually when he was talking about performance-enhancing drugs.  Sometimes he denied it.  Sometimes he admitted to it.  Sometimes he talked about pink elephants, and there was a time he sent packs of attack-dog lawyers at the Yankees and at the commissioner and at the sport itself.”

--After the Yankees game on Sunday, A-Rod’s teammates focused on his great career when asked about the press conference prior to the game.  Brett Gardner appeared miffed.

“Sad the way it’s all gone done,” he said.  “Sad to see him go and not get the chance to play with him anymore.”

Then Gardner said he wished the situation was handled differently.

“It’s two completely different situations,” he said, when asked to juxtapose Teixeira’s announcement to this.  “I think the ultimate way to go out is to go out on your own terms. Tex is getting a chance to do that.  It’s sad to see that Alex isn’t.”

A-Rod was generally well liked by his teammates over the years, especially the younger ones

Former teammate Johnny Damon tweeted: “When you get to know A-Rod, he’s a special person, special teammate, & one of my favorite teammates of all time.”

I agree with reader Shu from the great state of Arizona (though he seems to spend far more time in Vegas), that Rodriguez will get into the Hall at age 60.  Personally, I just believe in about ten years, once more of the old-time writers, err, you know, go to baseball writers heaven (which is just a bar with pretty hostesses, in case you didn’t know), that baseball will convene a special committee of players and historians to examine 3-5 special cases...the obvious ones; Bonds, Clemens, and A-Rod, maybe one or two others...to try to come up with a reasonable way of giving them a plaque with a big asterisk, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come looming over them (Alistair Sims’ Christmas Carol version).

--Sad situation in Texas, as Prince Fielder’s career is likely over after his second neck surgery, though he is owed $24 million annually through 2020 as part of the nine-year, $214 million deal he signed with Detroit in 2012.

Amazingly, in a statistical quirk, Prince has 319 career home runs, the exact same as his father, Cecil Fielder. 

--On a different topic, former quarterback Tim Tebow is reportedly “actively pursuing” a baseball career.  Tebow’s agents told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that 30 MLB teams would be invited to a workout later this month.

Tebow, obviously an outstanding athlete, hit .494 in high school in Florida as  junior, an All-State player, but then chose to focus on football his senior year.  There were major league teams ready to take him in the draft if he had played as a senior.

Tebow turns 29 on Sunday and I don’t think this is as far-fetched as it may seem.

Golf Balls

--I got a kick out of how on Monday, catching a little local sports radio, some supposed golf fans were criticizing Jim Furyk’s historic 58 on Sunday at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., because the course is a par-70.

Oh give me a break.  As I noted in my last chat, this was totally an awesome achievement, and as Golfweek pointed out, the top four names on the leaderboard to start the day – Daniel Berger, eventual winner Russell Knox, Tyrone Van Aswegen and Russell Henley – combined to go 6 over with 11 birdies against 13 bogeys and 2 doubles.

“You still had to ‘do it,’ as the saying goes, so cheers to Furyk.”

For the record, after Furyk’s round included an eagle at the par-4 third when he holed out from 135 yards, and after he had birdied from 16 feet the second, check out these birdie putts:

Par-4 fourth: 5 feet
Par-5 sixth: 3 feet.
Par-4 seventh: 2 feet.
Par-3 eighth: 16 feet.
Par-4 ninth: 2 feet.
Par-4 10th: 15 feet.
Par-3 11th: 16 feet.
Par-4 12th: 5 feet.
Par-3 16th: 23 feet.

I’d say that’s rather good ball-striking, wouldn’t you?

Some of you saw as Furyk walked off the 18th after his historic effort how he met Jay Fishman, Travelers’ executive chairman and the heart and soul of the tournament that just finished its 10th anniversary.

As reported by Golfweek:

“Fishman told Furyk that his company would donate $58,000 to a charity of the player’s choice and the two exchanged a warm embrace.

“Fully aware of the emotional story that swirled around the Travelers this week – how Fishman has been so out front about his struggle with ALS – Furyk said he wanted all $58,000 to go to the Bruce Edwards Foundation for ALS Research.

“Later, Fishman and Travelers said half would go the Bruce Edwards fund, but the other half would go to the Jim and Tabitha Furyk Foundation.”

Golf fans remember how viciously the PGA Tour was treated in the midst of the financial crisis, 2008-09, with some tournament sponsors bailing out because of the bad publicity, even though the vast majority of them had nothing to do with the debacle.

I’ve got all kinds of material on the topic in my one-of-a-kind archives.  It just really sucked, and was totally unfair at the time.

So I dare you to go up to Jay Fishman, in his wheelchair, and tell him to his face that his company isn’t doing good for humanity...or so many of the other sponsors of PGA Tour events.  The sums they raise are humongous. 

There is no other country on this earth that approaches our generosity, and, gosh darnit, golf plays a big part in it all.

On to the Olympics’ competition, which starts Thursday, as well as this week’s John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour...plus the U.S. Senior Open.

Stuff

--Race car driver Bryan Clauson, 27, was killed in a horrific short-track dirt-car race (this one midget-car) in Belleville, Kansas last weekend.

He was leading “when he flipped off the guardrail and then was hit by another driver while his car was rolling.”  He was airlifted to a hospital in Lincoln, Neb., following the accident and died after.

Clauson raced at the Indy 500 three times, including a career-best 23rd this past May.  He was once viewed as a potential star on the NASCAR circuit as well, racing for Tony Stewart’s Xfinity team.

The clip of his death is on YouTube.  It’s awful.  Thoughts and prayers to his friends and family.

--On the topic of auto racing, when I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, my older brother instilled in me a love of the sport and one of the stories I learned was of all the hard luck that driver Chris Amon experienced.  Amon died the other day, age 73.

From his obituary in the New York Times:

“Chris Amon, a New Zealander who was considered one of the best Formula One drivers of his generation, although he never won a championship, died....

“Amon, who began racing as a teenager, competed in Formula One from 1963 to 1976.  (In 96 races) he finished on the podium 11 times without winning.

“He won the 1966 Le Mans 24-hour race in a Ford GT40 with his fellow New Zealander Bruce McLaren, who was later killed in a racing accident.  Amon’s death came shortly after the 50th anniversary of that victory.”

Amon would drive for a number of teams in his Formula One career before settling in with Ferrari, where he was known as their best test driver.

Mario Andretti once said of Amon that he had “such bad luck in championship races that ‘if he became an undertaker, people would give up dying.’  But Amon himself said he was fortunate to have survived in one of auto racing’s most dangerous eras.”

Boy, that’s for sure.  The movie “Grand Prix,” the John Frankenheimer version with James Garner and Yves Montand, was totally authentic and holds up remarkably well in describing those times.

I’ve told you this story before but I was fortunate to spend over 7 weeks in Europe the summer of 1968 and 4 more in 1970, traveling with the family, and my brother and I would just devour all the Grand Prix news in the Herald Tribune.  It was 1968 that we went to the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch for the time trials, courtesy of my Aunt Jean, and there is a reader of Bar Chat, Bob P., who has seen the photo of myself and Denny Hulme, as he was sitting in his car in the pits!  And a pic of Jochen Rindt, who won the driving championship posthumously.

My brother and I would pick favorite drivers in that era and mine, starting with Bruce McLaren and Pedro Rodriguez, kept dying in crashes. [Jo Siffert was another...for you old time Grand Prix fans.]

Anyway, Amon was indeed a survivor.

[Of course 1968 also marked the death of Jim Clark, the first great Grand Prix driver I learned of.  He was a mega star, Indy 500 crossover winner, who died at a race in Hockenheim, Germany.  There is a touching, brief YouTube clip on his death there... “Jim Clark’s fatal accident.”]

--Arizona Wildcats football coach Rich Rodriguez announced on Monday that offensive lineman Zach Hemmila died Sunday night or early Monday, the cause unknown.  He passed away in his sleep.

Hemmila played all 13 games last season, starting in six.  He was competing for the starting center job.  Just very sad.

--The break is too short, but Premier League action starts up again, a new season, this weekend.  I’m all in on Tottenham as always and they face off against Everton on Saturday.  I’m anxious to see how well they respond to last season’s poor play at the end, as well as the lousy play of some of the Spurs’ stars in Euro 2016, representing England.

--I forgot to include a bear story last time from here in beautiful New Jersey, the “Garden State,” if you exclude the northern half of the N.J. Turnpike and parts of Hudson and Essex Counties, but I digress....

From NJ.com and Pamela Sroka-Holzmann / LehighValleyLive.com

“A bear attacked and injured a Pohatcong Township (western Jersey, near the Delaware River) man before running off into the woods Wednesday (Aug. 3) morning on the man’s property off Route 627, the township’s mayor said.

“The black bear, estimated to be between 450 to 500 pounds, ran over to the 57-year-old man about 9:30 a.m. and began swatting at him, Mayor James Kern III said.  The man was outside trying to feed his animals, Kern said.”  [Pohatcong Township police said the man was feeding a cat.]

The bear was startled and reacted by swiping at the guy, kind of like the Jets’ Darrelle Revis and Brandon Marshall in training camp the other day.

The man suffered cuts to his arms and hands and was taken to a hospital in Phillipsburg, “but injuries did not appear to be life threatening,” said the mayor.

The victim said he had seen the bear before, but it never approached him.

I had to relate this story because that is one big bear, sports fans!  My friend Brad K., who is out that general way and has wrestled bears before (so legend has it), is locking his windows.

--From Erica Evans of the Los Angeles Times:

“Police have ordered the closure of a popular Montebello park and petting zoo after three people were attacked recently by coyotes...

“The park, a grassy recreational area that covers about one square mile at 600 Rea Drive, features a petting zoo filled with ducks, goats, donkeys, sheep and other animals....

“The three victims – two men and a teenage girl – all suffered unprovoked attacks.”

The victims were tested for rabies and treated for various wounds.

Like I say, this animal scares me most these days  But, imagine the discussion among the animals in the petting zoo.  They are establishing nighttime watch duties, no doubt.

--Johnny Mac, who hails from Asheville, N.C., passed along a note from Bon Appetit magazine, which is acknowledging Hole Doughnuts in West Asheville for the “Dessert of the Year,” a bourbon-molasses doughnut, one of its specialty treats.  I’m drooling and can’t find my bib.

Top 3 songs for the week 8/10/68: #1 “Hello, I Love You” (The Doors)  #2 “Classical Gas” (Mason Williams)  #3 “Stoned Soul Picnic” (The 5th Dimension)...and...#4 “Grazing In The Grass” (Hugh Masekela...loved this one...)  #5 “People Got To Be Free” (The Rascals)  #6 “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (Donovan)  #7 “Lady Willpower” (Gary Puckett and The Union Gap)  #8 “Turn Around, Look At Me” (The Vogues)  #9 “Sunshine Of Your Love” (The Cream...official title of group then...) #10 “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (The Rolling Stones)

Track Quiz Answers: Men: 1) Usain Bolt holds the world record in the 100m at 9.58 (8/6/09).  2) Bolt holds the WR in the 200m at 19.19 (8/20/09).  3) Michael Johnson still holds the WR in the 400m at 43.18 (8/26/99).  4) Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco is the record-holder in the mile at 3:43.13 (7/7/99).  Women: 1) Florence Griffith Joyner holds the WR in the 100m at 10.49* (7/16/88).  2) Flo Jo also holds the WR in the 200m at 21.34 (8/29/88)...all these years later.

*Track & Field News and others don’t recognize the 10.49, saying it was illegally wind-aided; but the next day, 7/17/88, she ran it in 10.61 which would still be a record.

Next Bar Chat, Monday.

 

 

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