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Bar Chat

08/18/2016

The U.S. performance...some good, some bad...

[Posted: Wednesday, a.m.]

Baseball Quiz: 1) Aug. 10 was the 45th anniversary of Harmon Killebrew’s 500th home run.  When he retired with 573 at the end of the 1975 season, where did he stand on the all-time list? 2) Joe Medwick had 154 RBIs in 1937 for St. Louis and Sammy Sosa had 158 for the Cubs in 1998.  In all the years between these two, name the only two to have 150 RBIs in a season in the National League.  Answers below.

Rio

Monday....

--In the evening it was all about the women’s 400-meters and Allyson Felix’ quest for her fifth Olympic gold.  Instead, in a stunning ending, Felix settled for silver as the Bahamas’ Shaunae Miller launched herself at the finish line to catch Felix.

Felix said, “I just tried to give all I had.  I didn’t have more to give.”

So Miller dove and won by seven-hundredths of a second to earn her first Olympic medal.

But Felix nevertheless picked up her seventh medal to become the most decorated female track athlete in U.S. history – one more than Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

This isn’t the first time there was a critical dive at the finish line.  The USA’s Natasha Hastings actually dove through the stripe to finish third and earn her spot in Rio at the U.S. team trials last month.

--In the men’s 800 meters, Kenya’s David Rudisha repeated to win in 1:42.15, Rudisha, the world record-holder, probably the greatest runner ever in the event.

But American Clayton Murphy, just 21, ran the race of his life to take the bronze, with his time of 1:42.93 not only the third-fastest in American history, but it buried his previous personal best of 1:44.30, which is remarkable.  Murphy because the first American to medal in the event since 1992 (Johnny Gray, bronze, in Barcelona).

Just four years ago, Murphy, then a junior in high school, had a PR of 1:56.  He went to the University of Akron for cross country and today he is the reigning NCAA champ at 1,500.

As Ronald Reagan would have said, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’

--I feel for American gymnast Gabby Douglas, who broke down after a poor performance on Sunday in the uneven-bars, her final competitive event.  It was in speaking with the press after that all the pressure of the past week came through as she has been pilloried on social media, for, as the Washington Post’s Liz Clarke put it,  “absurd reasons: the placement of her hands during the national anthem following the U.S. team’s gold medal performance, and her countenance in a televised moment during the individual all-around competition for which she did not qualify solely because of a much-debated rule that allows just two entrants per country.)  When Michael Phelps is hailed for his menacing scowl or celebrated for his during-anthem guffaws, one wonders what exactly inspires such anonymous shots at another Olympic champion such as Douglas....

“Roughly a dozen reporters were on hand for Douglas’ final Olympic interview, most representing U.S. media outlets.  She started bravely, explaining that she would leave Rio ‘rejoicing’ even though she’d hoped to do better.

“Then came the question that startled her: ‘Do you think your Olympics got ruined?’  Soon after came another that confused Douglas, asking what she might have done differently this week.  She sought clarification, as if unsure whether she was being asked for particulars on her uneven-bars routine?  Her performance in the team finals? Qualifying?....

“She might have been hearing the criticism for the first time. She might have pushed it to the back of her mind for the duration of the Games, as champion athletes do, compartmentalizing for later review.

“Either way, her eyes pooled.  And she fought the tears just as she had fought the hitch in her routine.

“Finally, asked if she second-guessed her decision to return for a second Olympics, Douglas, a three-time gold medalist, didn’t waver.

“ ‘For me, when you go through a lot, and you have so many difficulties, and people [are] against you sometimes; it kind of just determines your character,’ Douglas said.  ‘Are you going to stand, or are you going to crumble?  In the face of everything, still stand.

“ ‘I have no regrets coming back for a second Olympics.  It’s been an amazing experience, an amazing journey so far. And it’s teaching me a lot.’

“At least to this close observer of the past week, Douglas appeared to be the one with the least to learn.”

Did I ever tell you I hate social media...and many in the press, too?

--So much was going on Sunday in the sports world that I forgot to note Andy Murray won his second gold medal in tennis with an epic four-set win over Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro.

Del Potro had reached the final by beating Rafael Nadal in one of the semifinals, with Nadal then losing the bronze medal match to Japan’s Kei Nishikori.  [Nadal won gold in the men’s doubles for Spain with his boyhood friend Marc Lopez.]

On the women’s side, unseeded Monica Puig pulled off a stunner to gain Puerto Rico its first-ever Olympic gold medal as she beat No.2 seed Angelique Kerber of Germany.

The U.S. Open, by the way, begins Aug. 29 and suddenly, everyone is wondering what’s wrong with Novak Djokovic (likely nothing), while Andy Murray is coming off his gold and Wimbledon title.

--Usain Bolt next has the 200-meters on Thursday, and then 4X100 relay beginning on Friday.  After winning the 100-meters on Sunday, Bolt said:

“Somebody said I can become immortal. Two more medals to go and I can sign off.  Immortal.”

He would be nine for nine in three Olympics; a treble (100, 200, 4X100)....

Bolt said in February he was retiring after the 2017 World Championships.

His teammate, Yohan Blake, who finished fourth, said Bolt is now “among the legends.  You’re talking about Muhammad Ali and all those other guys.”

Phelps, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods, would be others I’d have in my modern-era pantheon.

--It appears the cab driver bringing four swimmers from the U.S. team, including Ryan Lochte, back to the Olympic Village, was in cahoots with the armed robbers who were involved in the Sunday stickup.

Lochte and his teammates were riding back to their room around 3 a.m. Sunday when they were approached by a group of gun-slinging thugs posing as police officers.

When Lochte refused to get down on the ground like the other three did when told to do so, “The guy pulled out his gun. He cocked it, put it on my forehead and he said, ‘Get down.’  I put  my hands up.  I was like, ‘Whatever,’” Lochte said.

All four were robbed of their wallets and cellphones, but none was injured.

However, Brazilian police can’t corroborate any of the details and a security camera in the Olympic Village shows the swimmers returning around 6:40 a.m.  Who the heck knows?  Wait 24 hours.

Tuesday....

--In the men’s triple jump, Christian Taylor and Will Claye of the U.S. repeated their gold and silver performances from 2012 in London.  It’s not that easy, folks.

--In the men’s high jump, Canada’s Derek Drouin took the gold, with the U.S. shut out.

--Omar McLeod won Jamaica’s first-ever gold in the men’s 110m hurdles, with the U.S. shut out for the first time in Olympic history.  Not good, boys.

--But as Kenya’s Kipyegon took gold in the women’s 1500, American Jenny Simpson captured the bronze in a gutty performance; the first medal for the U.S. in this event, ever, which I still find hard to believe.

--Simone Biles picked up her fourth gold in her best discipline, the floor exercise, while teammate Aly Raisman took the silver; so Biles leaves Rio with five medals, four of them gold, joining four other women in winning four gymnastics golds at an Olympics, last accomplished by Ekaterina Szabo of Romania 32 years ago.

Raisman won three medals here, and now has six for her career.

The U.S. won 12 medals in gymnastics – nine by the women, three by the men – the most in one Olympics.

I do have to add that if you didn’t see actor Zac Efron’s surprise appearance after the last event, organized by the Today Show, it’s really a great moment; Simone Biles having previously expressed that she had a crush on him.  Great job by Efron.  [Good for his ‘Q-rating.’]

--One of the big stories of the day occurred in a 5,000m heat as Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand helped American Abbey D’Agostino, who was lying dazed on the track after the two got tangled up and fell.

“Get up.  We have to finish this,” Hamblin told her.

Hamblin hung back to encourage the injured American, who hobbled over the line in last place.  They embraced before D’Agostino was put in a wheelchair with an ankle injury.

The incident began about 3km into the 5km race, with Hamblin falling heavily, D’Agostino helped Hamblin and then it was clear D’Agostino’s injury was the more serious, so Hamblin hung back to encourage her rival.

The runners were reinstated as finalists by the organizers, if they are fit enough for Friday night’s final.

--New Jersey’s Sydney McLaughlin, the 17-year-old who is going to be a senior at Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, N.J., about 15 minutes from moi, failed to make the field of the 400-meter hurdles final, but it was a terrific learning experience for her.

However, while all of us are just assuming she’ll be one of the favorites in 2020 in Tokyo, nothing is preordained in track and field.  As I told you last month regarding the U.S. team trials in Eugene, after I attended that event in 2008 and 2012, I noted a number of athletes whose careers looked so promising but then never materialized.

Track is a funny sport.  Ask someone like distance runner Alan Webb, who as a high-schooler seemed destined for greatness and basically did little after, retiring in 2014 with nary a big medal.  [Or Jordan Hasay...or countless others...]

So it will be interesting following McLaughlin’s career from here on...including just how well she does next spring during her outdoor season.

--Irish boxer Michael Conlan should have won his bantamweight fight against Russian Vladimir Nikitin, according to American website Comubox, which showed Conlan threw more punches than the Russian – 365 as opposed to 257. He landed 89 of these in comparison to Nikitin’s 75.

And Conlan, from Belfast, landed the greatest number of power punches.

But, while the decision on the part of the judges was highly controversial, prompting Conlan to tweet Vladimir Putin, “How much did they charge you bro??” it’s about scoring rounds and the Russian did land more of his punches than Conlan in the first.

Conlan won the second and then the computer backs up the theory Conlan should have been awarded the last one, landing 31 to the Russian’s 21.

Conlan labeled boxing officials as “cheats.”

--I’m sorry, boys and girls.  I never, ever gave a damn about beach volleyball (it’s just swimming and track for moi, as I’ve told you...and this year, golf).  But for those of you staying up late Tuesday night to watch a duo from Brazil knock off Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross, my condolences.

For Walsh Jennings, the defeat ended her bid for a fourth consecutive gold medal, having done it three times with Misty May-Treanor, who retired in 2013.

--I also couldn’t care less about USA Basketball, which has a potentially tough knockout round game against Argentina today.  It’s also not as if Team USA is playing well.  Charles Barkley of course had to weigh in

“Well, I hope they win gold,” he told Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat in an interview Tuesday.  “I always want us to win the gold medal.  It’s not a good team to put together. I don’t think they did a good job because if you watch all those guys – they’re all good players, don’t get me wrong – they all need the ball.

“(But) if you take away DeAndre Jordan, every guy on that team is a ball-dominant guy.  You see them playing a lot of one-on-one basketball.”

Actually, there are very few NBA players I really like, which is why I already miss Tim Duncan.

--Thursday, we’ll see South Africa’s Caster Semenya in the 800m semifinals (final, Sat. night) and once again, let the debates begin.  It’s about her gender, with many athletes, medical experts and sports journalists believing she has an “intersex condition, in which a person has anatomical sex characteristics of both males and females.  That causes her to be hyperandrogenous – her body produces much higher levels of testosterone than most other females.  And that in turn builds greater muscle mass and allows her to run faster.  Semenya...has never publicly confirmed any of this.”  [Tim Layden / Sports Illustrated]

--NBC’s viewership at night is down 15% from the London Olympics, which was down from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.  Of major concern is a 30% drop among viewers age 18-34.

But NBC’s live-streaming audience has surpassed the combined total of London and Sochi.

You begin to see how important a Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps are, though, and Bolt should attract big audiences Thursday and Friday.

But come 2020 with both of these superstars gone, track, for one, needs a new star sprinter.  Swimming at least will still have Katie Ledecky.

--I had to double-check analyst Ato Boldon’s street cred.  He won three bronzes and a silver in the 1996-2000 Olympics in the 100 and 200 for Trinidad & Tobago.  Pretty damn good.

MLB

--Hot off winning two-in-a-row for the first time since July 6-7, typed the editor, sarcastically, the Mets opened up a critical 10-game road trip in Arizona and promptly lost 10-6 on Monday.  Bartolo Colon was “Bad Bart” in this one, lasting only four innings.

But Colon did achieve a milestone, the first walk of his career in his 282nd plate appearance.  No other player in baseball history had gone that long without a walk.

Earlier in the season, Colon became the oldest player to hit his first major league home run.  He was nearing his 43rd birthday back then, May 7.

But Tuesday, Noah Syndergaard cracked a two-run home run, his third of the season, as Thor was also just good enough on the mound for the Mets to prevail 7-5.  [Two earned in 5 2/3 as he is now 10-7, 2.76.]

So entering Wednesday night’s game against the D’Backs, the Mets are 3 back in the wild-card race and the second-spot held by St. Louis, with the Pirates and Marlins 1 back.

--The Yankees had a nice 1-0 win over Toronto on Monday night, with rookie starter Chad Green throwing six innings of two-hit ball, while striking out 11.  Fellow rookie Aaron Judge drove in the lone run with a double as the Yanks’ youth movement has been paying immediate dividends.

But then they lost 12-6 on Tuesday to fall 5 ½ back of Baltimore and Boston for a wild-card spot (Seattle 3 back, Detroit 3 ½...Houston also being 5 ½ back).  Ergo, it is going to be one tough road for the Yanks the rest of the way.

And it wasn’t made any easier by the loss of pitcher Nate Eovaldi, who tore the flexor tendon in his elbow “off the bone” and damaged his reconstructed UCL (ulnar collateral ligament), a devastating injury that will force him to undergo a second Tommy John surgery (the first in high school).  He no doubt will miss all of 2017 and at 26, the man with the terrific stuff, but disappointing early career, could be out of baseball.  You have to feel awful for the guy.  Somehow he has to keep his spirits up.

Eovaldi is eligible for arbitration after earning $5.6 million in 2016, so the Yankees could non-tender him, making him a free agent, but no team would be foolish enough to take a flyer on the guy until they see how his rehab is progresses.

[Meanwhile, the Mets’ Zack Wheeler, who has suffered some setbacks as he attempts to come back from Tommy John surgery, is having another examination today by Dr. James Andrews after he experienced discomfort during a rehab start.]

--Tuesday, Boston’s Mookie Betts hit two more home runs in the Red Sox’ 5-3 win over Baltimore. Betts now has 28 homers and 89 RBIs, to go along with his .315 batting average.  Yea, I’d say he’s a strong MVP candidate.

But he has 12 home runs in 11 games this season against the Orioles!!! Good gawd!

--Also Tuesday, the Royals’ Danny Duffy continued his superb pitching in a 6-1 win over the Tigers; Duffy now 10-1, 2.73.

--Cleveland Indians prospect, Francisco Mejia, saw his 50-game hitting streak end Sunday as he went 0-for-3 with a walk for Class-A Lynchburg.

“I was very nervous today, going to hit,” Mejia told The News & Advance of Lynchburg, Va.  “Every at bat. I was feeling pressure, was very scared as a hitter.”

During the streak, Mejia hit .386, with eight homers and 42 RBI.

--We note the passing of Clarence “Choo-Choo” Coleman, one of the original Mets, who died Monday at the age of 80 (other sources have it at 78)

Coleman, a catcher, was selected in the 1961 expansion draft and played 55 games in their inaugural year, hitting six home runs.  He actually hit .250 in 152 at-bats, but let’s just say he wasn’t known for his defense and, in hitting .178 in 1963, he was out of baseball after a final cup of coffee in ’66.

Mets manager Casey Stengel used to say he had never seen a catcher so fast at retrieving passed balls.

Roger Angell observed in The New Yorker that the slight Coleman (only 5’9”, 165) “handles outside curve balls like a man fighting bees.” In 1963, he finished third among N.L. catchers in errors (15) and fourth in passed balls (11) despite starting just 66 games behind the plate.

Coleman was a simple man from the south, soft-spoken, who was known for calling everyone “Bub.”

In 1963, his Mets roommate from the previous year, Charlie Neal, said he thought Coleman couldn’t remember his name. Coleman said he remembered: “You’re No. 4,” he said.

Bruce Weber / New York Times

“Perhaps the bet-known anecdote about Coleman is one that, in later years, he said never happened, though Ralph Kiner, the former slugger and broadcaster, assured The New York Times that it had. In 1962, Kiner interviewed Coleman and asked, “What’s your wife’s name, and what’s she like?”  Coleman replied, “Her name is Mrs. Coleman – and she likes me, Bub.”

Golf Balls

--Lots of talk about the Olympics, at least among the golfer set.  I warmed to it for the third round, Saturday, and then with all the high-profile no-shows (Jordan, Rory, Jason, DJ), you couldn’t have asked for a better final duel than Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose, Rose clinching it on 18 with one of the best chips of his career.

So despite all the criticism surrounding the 72-hole stroke play format, including from yours truly, it worked out perfectly, including a very deserving, fired up Matt Kuchar capturing the bronze.

Everyone was surprised how well attended the event was, especially Saturday and Sunday, and now I’d be shocked if golf wasn’t extended beyond 2020 in Tokyo.

The IOC has to recognize that the no-shows were all about the Zika threat, which today is a far greater one in the Miami area, where many of the golfers live, compared to Brazil.

Then again, with the massively corrupt, a-hole-ridden IOC you never know.

Rose said after: “I felt very inspired this week, for sure.  It’s definitely been something I’ve been looking forward to for a long, long time, and I guess I felt very motivated this week all week....

“I think it sits alongside the U.S. Open trophy for me for sure,” he said of his gold medal....“I said earlier this year that if my resume one day read ‘multiple Major Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist,’ I would be a very, very happy man.”

Rose also believes that the event will help grow the sport.  “I just think it resonated with a younger audience.  I think it takes it out of the golf world and brings it into the sports world.”

It was also great to see Americans Kuchar, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed embrace the experience, though Reed said afterwards he wished he hadn’t put so much pressure on himself and enjoyed it as much as the others did.  Fowler and Watson stayed in adjoining rooms in the Olympic Village, providing daily media updates on their movements.  Bubba said of mingling with athletes who have overcome so much:

“We’re always going to complain about three-putts, but we should never complain about what we have and what we don’t have.  We’re so blessed.”

--Gene Sauers won the rain-delayed U.S. Senior Open by a stroke over Miguel Angel Jimenez and Billy Mayfair on Monday.

Five years ago, Sauers spent seven weeks in the hospital and was given only a 25 percent chance of survival after he was struck with a rare skin disorder, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.  Emerging from this experience, he was determined to enjoy golf again; the 53-year-old having won four times on the PGA Tour.

--Aug. 16 was the 20th anniversary of the release of the movie “Tin Cup.”  I’ve been holding a piece from Golf Magazine by Chris Nashawaty on the filming of this great golf movie and it all started with this.

“During the final round of the 1993 Masters, Chip Beck etched his name in the annals of golf infamy with his second shot on the par-5 15th hole.  Beck trailed Bernhard Langer by three strokes with three holes to play, but rather than go for the green in two, he laid up, inciting the outrage of forehead-slapping second-guessers watching at home.  [Ed. I sure was one of the head-slappers.]  Ron Shelton, the director of such offbeat sports movies as Bull Durham and White Men Can’t Jump, was one of those armchair critics.  When Beck made his fateful decision, Shelton immediately called his golfing buddy, screenwriter John Norville.  The two men had kicked around ideas for a golf movie over the course of several years and even more adult beverages, but they could never find a way into the story.  Beck gave them what they were looking for. What if the hero of the movie was the anti-Beck, a guy constitutionally incapable of laying up, a guy who went for it all the time, even when – especially when – he shouldn’t?  That was the moment Tin Cup was born.”

Kevin Costner was Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy, a washed-up pro drinking his days away at a Texas driving range; Don Johnson as David Simms, his smarmy, play-it-safe college rival who’s become a Tour star; Renee Russo as a shrink who comes between them; and Cheech Marin as Romeo, Roy’s loyal sidekick and caddie.

And then you’ve got some 24 (at least) PGA Tour players making cameos, including Fred Couples, Corey Pavin, Bruce Lietzke, Gary McCord and Tommy Armour III.

Ron Shelton: “We had to overcome the perception of golf as a rich man’s sport, because I don’t think it is a rich man’s sport.  One of the glorious parts of the game is that golfers will wait in line at five a.m. at a public course to shoot 103.  [Ed. Love that line...our own Dr. Bortrum, over 50 years ago, used to line up at the local course on Saturdays at 5:00 a.m. to play with Larry I.]....

“When we started writing it, we didn’t have an actor in mind for Roy, but about 20 pages into it, John and I looked at each other and said, ‘It’s Costner.’  So I called Kevin, who I’d worked with on Bull Durham, and he said, ‘I’m taking some time off.’  I said, ‘Just read it before you say no.’  So he did.  A few days later, we met for breakfast, and he said, ‘Damn it.  You’re right.  I got to do this.’”

Kevin Costner: “I’d just done Waterworld and had gone through a divorce, and my heart was pretty much on the ground.  But I knew working with Ron again would be the best therapy, because he basically hands you something you can’t fail with.”

Shelton: “For the part of David Simms, we needed someone with swagger who could swing a golf club.  Alec Baldwin was going to do it, but his wife at the time, Kim Basinger, was expecting.  Then someone suggested Don Johnson. He could really play, which was crucial because we were about to start shooting.”

Johnson was indeed a legitimate golfer. He said he was an 8 or 9 handicap.  But Costner, a good athlete, wasn’t a good golfer. 

Shelton: “(We) brought in Gary McCord and Peter Kostis to work with him and Don. Kevin never took a swing they didn’t sign off on, and they were both surprised by how well he could mimic them.  He had a short follow-through that they kept trying to make longer, and I said, ‘Let’s just write it into the script.  Because Roy’s from West Texas and he’s used to playing in the wind, he has a short follow-through.’  I knew the golf press would go after us, so I made it part of the story.”

Peter Kostis: “We met for the first time during the week of the Bridgestone, the year before the movie was made.  And I took Kevin out to the driving range to start the process of constructing a swing.  He was a baseball player growing up, so he’s a natural athlete.  About 30 minutes into the lesson, he hit an 8-iron three feet from a flag on a green that was maybe 150 yards away, and after he hit it, he turned to Ron Shelton and said, ‘Ronnie, I’m hitting all the shots in the movie. There’ll be no stunt double.’ And, basically, he did.  That same week, we were in the bar at the Hilton in Akron, Ohio, and Kevin was regaling us with all these stories about Hollywood women. Everybody was really quite intrigued, including Jerry Pate, who was with CBS at the time and who we affectionately called ‘Mr. Inappropriate Man.’  He tried to one-up Kevin Costner with stories about women in Alabama.  Yeah. He was a moron.”

Don Johnson said that by the end of the film, his handicap was a 3, working with Gary and Peter.

Shelton: “We needed to get some professional golfers in the movie to give it a flavor of authenticity.  So we started calling, and their agents wanted $50,000 for an appearance, like it was a corporate outing.  We were like, ‘No, we’re offering them $600.’ And they all said no way.  Then McCord had a great idea.”

McCord: “I called the players’ wives and said, ‘How’d you like to have dinner with Kevin Costner and Don Johnson? The catch is, your husband is going to have to be on a movie set for a day.’  We rented a big room in Tucson and let Kevin and Don loose on them.  [Ed. Both were bachelors at the time and they apparently had a great time going out together during shooting.]  In the end, we got 35 players, four U.S. Open winners – and they got SAG minimum!”

Corey Pavin: “I was the reigning U.S. Open champion when we shot the film, and I still get a residual check every six or eight months, for $1.80 or something.”

Cheech Marin: “I’ll tell you a story no one’s ever heard. We were between scenes, standing around, and someone came up with a bet. There was this really tall pine tree, and someone said to Phil Mickelson, ‘I bet you can’t put your shoulder against the tree, drop a ball and hit it over the tree.’  The shot basically had to go straight up.  Everybody threw in a hundred bucks.  I think there was $1,200 in the pot.  And he did it!  When the ball was still in the air, Mickelson bent over, picked up the money, and put it in his pocket.”

McCord: “One day when we were shooting in Arizona, Craig Stadler got stopped in a golf cart by the cops.  He’d driven it to a  liquor store a mile away and got pulled over with a golf cart full of beer.  We were laughing.  He was like, ‘Well, I’m sitting around here doing nothing all day!’”

John Norville: “Stadler was fabulous. I think his contract might have called for two cases of beer – which, by the way, he shared with the crew.”

I haven’t seen this film in ages, but now I can’t wait to again.

NFL

--I imagine most of you are like me...just wanting the real games to begin in September.  In the meantime, the NFL has threatened to indefinitely suspend four players because they have declined to cooperate with an investigation into whether they purchased performance-enhancing drugs; the four being Pittsburg linebacker James Harrison; Green Bay’s Clay Matthews; Mike Neal, a free agent who last played with Green Bay; and Julius Peppers, also of the Packers.

The league has said they will be suspended Aug. 26 if they do not speak about allegations made in a documentary by Al Jazeera, the same one that originally implicated Peyton Manning, since cleared by the league.

--Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, who it was hoped would finally play again after missing the last 1 ½ seasons with, first, a devastating knee injury, and then a calf injury, now can’t play because of a groin issue.  It seems doubtful he will be ready for the opener.

Talk about hard luck.  It’s driving him, Giants management, and Giants fans crazy.

Stuff

--Adele said she declined the NFL’s offer to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show next February, but then the NFL weighed in, denying she was ever formally offered the gig.

Adele told a Staple Center crowd in Los Angeles last Saturday: “First of all, I’m not doing the Super Bowl.  I mean, come on, that show is not about music.  And I don’t really – I can’t dance or anything like that.  They were very kind, they did ask me, but I said no.”

The NFL then denied it has made an offer to anyone.

I’d go with Kenny Chesney.  [I know, I know...ain’t gonna happen.  But it’s in Houston....]

Or Tony Bennett and Jack Jones.  [Cough cough]

Top 3 songs for the week of 8/15/70:  #1 “(They Long To Be) Close To You” (Carpenters)  #2 “Make It With You” (Bread)  #3 “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” (Stevie Wonder)...and... #4 “Spill The Wine” (Eric Burdon and War)  #5 “In The Summertime” (Mungo Jerry)  #6 “War” (Edwin Starr)  #7 “Band Of Gold” (Freda Payne)  #8 “Mama Told Me (Not To Come)” (Three Dog Night)  #9 “Tighter, Tighter” (Alive & Kicking)  #10 “Ball Of Confusion” (The Temptations)

Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) When he retired in 1975 with 573 home runs, Harmon Killebrew trailed Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Frank Robinson.  He was the tenth to hit 500.*  There are now 27.  2) Between Joe Medwick, 1937, and Sammy Sosa, 1998, the only two in the N.L. to have 150 RBIs in a season were Tommy Davis, Los Angeles, 153 in 1962, and Andres Galarraga, Colorado, 150 in 1996.

*Killebrew waited a long time to hit No. 500, 16 games after he hit No. 499.  He later told the Arizona Republic: “When it finally happened, my manager, Bill Rigney, said he hoped it wouldn’t be as long between 500 and 501 as it was between 499 and 500.”

Killebrew hit No. 500 off the Orioles’ Mike Cuellar, and then hit a second home-run in his next at-bat, though the Twins lost 4-3.

The excitement of the moment reached the White House.  On Aug. 6, 1971, a couple days before Killebrew’s 500th, President Richard Nixon left a memorandum for Bob Haldeman, chief of staff at the time.  It read:

“In case I miss it on the sports page, would you be sure and inform me whenever Harmon Killebrew hits his 500th home run, so that I can send him a note of congratulations or call him on the phone.”  [Baseball Hall of Fame]

Recall, Killebrew was a Washington Senator when Nixon, a big sports fan, was vice president under Dwight Eisenhower.

Next Bar Chat, Monday.

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