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Bar Chat

03/02/2020

More Upsets in College Basketball

[Posted early Sunday p.m.]

FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Quiz: Name the 15 countries that the World Cup circuit has held events in, or will, this season.  [10 hold both men’s and women’s events, the other five, one or the other.]  Answer below.

***I can’t help but start out that we all should be prepared for some major disruptions due to the coronavirus...as in it’s possible crowds will be severely limited, if not prohibited, at all of our major sporting venues.  I talk about the PGA Championship, for example, down below.  There are some already talking about limiting crowds at the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

Heck, games are being played in Italy’s top football league without crowds.

For example, as I told our own Dr. Bortrum while watching the final round of the Honda Classic today, Korean Sungjae Im can’t go home.  England’s Tommy Fleetwood has to reconsider if that is part of his travel plans as well.  At least they better.  They might not be able to return by the time they want to.

And then we have the Olympics.

But for now, we move on.....

College Basketball Review

Another big shakeup is looming in the top ten when the AP releases its poll on Monday.

While No. 1 Kansas (26-3, 15-1) held off lowly Kansas State (9-20, 2-14) on the road, 62-58, No. 2 Baylor (25-3, 14-2) suffered an awful loss at TCU (16-13, 7-9), 75-72, as the Horned Frogs staged an 18-1 run  late to take control, the final score rather deceiving. 

So after winning 23 in a row to take over the No. 1 spot in the rankings, the Bears have now lost 2 of 3, and a 1-seed is in serious doubt.

Also....

6 Florida State (24-5, 14-4) lost at Clemson (15-13, 9-9) 70-69.

And 7 Duke has now lost 3 of 4, 23-6, 13-5 overall, the latest Saturday’s 52-50 defeat at the hands of surging Virginia (21-7, 13-5), the Cavs' sixth straight.

So heading into tonight’s game between 11 Louisville and Virginia Tech, we had the following in the ACC:

Louisville 14-4
Florida State 14-4
Virginia 13-5
Duke 13-5

Frankly, these are the only four from the conference that deserve to be invited to the Big Dance.

Elsewhere, 3 Gonzaga beat Saint Mary’s 86-76, the Zags now 29-2, 15-1, the Gaels 24-7, 11-5, and on the NCAA tourney bubble.

5 San Diego State rallied on the road to defeat Nevada (19-10, 12-5) 83-76, as the Aztecs (27-1, 16-1) have righted the ship after their lone loss and remain very much in the 1-seed conversation.

8 Kentucky (24-5, 14-2) beat 15 Auburn (24-5, 11-5) 73-66.

But 9 Maryland (23-6, 13-5) will fall out of the top ten after its second loss in three, 78-66 at home against 24 Michigan State (20-9, 12-6).

A team I told you last week was one to watch, IF they could get to the Dance, Providence, most likely punched its ticket in with an important 58-54 road win at 12 Villanova (22-7, 11-5), the Friars improving to 17-12, 10-6, but getting hot at the right time.

13 Seton Hall should be No. 10 or 11 after Saturday’s 88-79 win at Marquette (18-10, 8-8), the Pirates 21-7, 13-3, and first in the Big East.  Myles Powell got back on track, 28 points, while  Sandro Mamukaleshvili continues to showoff his NBA-caliber stuff, 26 points on 10 of 13 from the field, 3 of 3 from three, plus nine rebounds.

Once again, though, Marquette’s Markus Howard played heroically in defeat, 37 points.

18 Iowa had a big win over 16 Penn State (21-8, 11-7), as the Hawkeyes moved to 20-9, 11-7.

Finally, regarding Saturday’s play, Wake Forest (13-15, 6-12) won its second consecutive ACC game for the first time in three years.  After upsetting Duke on Tuesday, the Deacs handed Notre Dame (18-11, 9-9) a costly defeat, 84-73, ending any hope the Irish had of an at-large berth.

Wake’s junior center, Olivier Sarr, hot off a career-high 25 against Duke, is improving by leaps and bounds in front of our eyes, Sarr then with 30 points and 17 rebounds yesterday in Winston-Salem.  For the first time, he looked like a true NBA prospect.  If he stays in school, he could be special next year.

And it’s for this reason that in the past week, coach Danny Manning, despite his miserable record at the helm of the Deacs, will no doubt be back one more year.

I do have to add that Notre Dame’s senior forward John Mooney, the second-leading rebounder in the nation, would be a welcome addition to any NBA rotation; Mooney with 24 points and 17 rebounds against Wake.

Earlier in the week since my last chat, Penn State handed Rutgers a costly loss, 65-64 in Happy Valley, as Rutgers, 18-11, 9-9, may no longer even be on the bubble.

And my “Pick to Surprise” (Elite Eight), 21 Colorado, had a bad loss at Cal on Thursday, 76-62, to fall to 21-8, 10-6.

Today....

St. John’s had its biggest win in years, blitzing 10 Creighton (22-7, 11-5) 91-71, the Johnnies improving to 15-14, 4-12.

But get this.  St. John’s came into the game as one of the worst shooting teams in the country from three, 30.4%, and proceeded to go an otherworldly 14 of 22!  As Larry David would say, “Pretty, pretty good.”

23 Ohio State moved to 20-9, 10-8, after defeating 19 Michigan (18-11, 9-9) 77-63 in Columbus.

NBA

--Zion Williamson’s terrific rookie run continues, as he scored 24 points in a win Friday night over the Cavaliers.  Prior to Friday, Williamson had tied Michael Jordan’s rookie mark of four consecutive games of 25 points while shooting at least 57% from the field.

--Charlotte Hornets guard Malik Monk was suspended indefinitely without pay for violating the NBA’s anti-drug program, no details on the violation provided.

The third-year reserve from Kentucky was averaging 10.3 points and 2.9 rebounds in 21 minutes per game this season, though he had averaged 18.2 points per in the past seven contests.

MLB

--The Yankees, with all their injury issues, appear to have dodged a bullet for once.  Suspended pitcher Domingo German avoided being hurt when he was involved in a dune buggy accident in the Dominican Republic on Friday.

The Yanks said German wasn’t driving, though there was some discrepancy over that, but two others in the vehicle were injured.

German was an 18-game winner last year but he’s out the first 63 games as part of an 81-game suspension for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy.

As for Giancarlo Stanton, who played a whopping 18 games last year due to three different injuries, Stanton went down again Tuesday with a grade 1 calf strain.

When asked about his level of frustration, Stanton said Friday, “There’s no words.  Just have to get back to where I need to be.”

Meanwhile, Aaron Judge hasn’t taken batting practice on the field yet due to a balky right shoulder and discomfort under his pectoral muscle that doctors as yet haven’t been able to diagnose.  Judge played in only 102 games last season.  [An MRI came back negative, further tests scheduled.]

For Yankees fans, it’s looking like 2019 all over again, though that edition still won 103 games.

--Congress, in conjunction with the MLBPA, urged Baseball to enshrine Curt Flood into the Hall of Fame via the Golden Days Committee.

“Curt Flood’s historic challenge of the reserve clause a half-century ago transcended baseball,” wrote the MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL and MLS Players Associations in a joint statement.  “He courageously sacrificed his career to take a stand for the rights of all players in professional sports, bringing the issue of free agency to the forefront of national discussion.  His accomplishments on the field and off warrant induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.”

No argument here.

Gerrit Cole, who leveraged free agency to sign a record-breaking $324 million deal with the Yankees, praised Flood at his introductory press conference.

“Challenging the reserve clause was one of the first stepping stones to ultimately the system we have today, which I believe brings out the most competitive, you know, genuine competitiveness, that we have in baseball,” said Cole.  “The best stories are always told because there’s competitiveness and Curt was instrumental in getting the ball rolling.”

--One reason Mets fans love Pete Alonso is the guy is bright, and a student of history.  Asked if he could talk to any hitter in history, the first baseman, who blasted 53 home runs his rookie season, did not hesitate.

“Ted Williams would be great,” Alonso told the New York Post.  “For a guy to go fight in a war and then come back and absolutely rake is kind of mind-boggling to me.  To come back from war and just be a dude, that’s ridiculous.”

--I’m tired of stories on the Astros’ cheating.  Just hit them.

And pitchers have been!  Kind of funny, actually.

--We note the passing of former All-Star pitcher Johnny Antonelli, 89.  The lefty helped propel the 1954 New York Giants to a World Series and remained one of the National League’s leading pitchers when the team moved to San Francisco.

Antonelli was known for his fastball and became one of baseball’s first “bonus babies” in the summer of 1948 when, right out of high school in Rochester, N.Y., he signed with the Boston Braves for $52,000 (the equivalent of $566,000 today).

Antonelli never spent a day in the minors, since players with large bonuses could be claimed by another team if farmed out.  He was used sparingly in three seasons for the Braves, then spent two years in the Army during the Korean War, before getting his career going in earnest,

Antonelli became a star in 1954 after he was traded to the Giants in February of that year.  He went 21-7 for the pennant-winning Giants, leading the N.L. in ERA (2.30) and shutouts (6).

The ‘54 World Series between the Giants and Indians is remembered mainly for Willie Mays’ spectacular over-the-shoulder catch and throw at the Polo Grounds with two men on base in Game 1, and for Dusty Rhodes’ pinch-hit home runs.  But Antonelli threw a complete game in a 3-1 win in Game 2.

Antonelli finished third in the balloting for the league’s MVP.

In 1955, he pitched all 16 innings in a 2-1 victory over Cincinnati at the Polo Grounds in May, won 20 games in 1956 and was the starting pitcher when the Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds before moving to San Francisco in 1958.

But despite winning 35 games his first two years in San Fran, where they played in hitter-friendly Seals Stadium, Antonelli became something of a villain when he yielded two home runs on a windy day.

“I get beat by two lousy fly balls,” Sports Illustrated quoted Antonelli as saying in the clubhouse.  “A pitcher should be paid double for working here.  Worst ballpark in America.  Every time you stand up there, you’ve got to beat the hitter and a 30-mile-per-hour wind.”

An editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle then suggested the Giants should send Antonelli to “some mythical park where the wind never blows, or else hang a pacifier in the clubhouse.”

Antonelli never got back in the fans’ good graces.  After moving to Candlestick Park in 1960, the winds no better there, he was still being booed and after a 6-7 season, was traded to Cleveland.

He retired after the 1961 season, age 31, having gone 126-110, 3.34 ERA, and an All-Star in five seasons. [Richard Goldstein / New York Times]

NFL

--It seems clear the NFL and its players will agree to a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement soon, after a key decision by the players’ union to put the deal to a majority vote by the players in the next week or two.  Ratification is expected, despite the opposition of some high-profile players such as Richard Sherman.

The deal, which was approved by the owners of the 32 teams, would put an expanded set of playoffs into effect for the 2020 season, implement a 17-game regular season and a reduced preseason later on and bring changes to the sport’s marijuana policy and system of player discipline.

The NFLPA’s team-by-team player reps, meeting Wednesday, voted to put the proposed CBA to a vote of the players, 17-14, with one abstention.

Among the inducements in the new CBA is an immediate bump in the minimum salary by at least $90,000 per player, a facet that is expected to be attractive to younger players on the lower end of the pay scale, though perhaps not as much to highly paid veterans such as Russell Wilson and J.J. Watt, both of whom oppose the deal.

--I’m not a big follower of the NFL Scouting Combine, but I agree with Notre Dame alum Mark R. that Fighting Irish wide receiver Chase Claypool is a surefire future star in the NFL.

Claypool, 6-foot-4, 238, ran a 4.42 in the 40, did 19 reps, and had a 40.5-inch vertical leap; the best numbers for a man his size since former Lions star Calvin Johnson.

--Tony Romo agreed to the largest sports analyst contract in television history, a reported $17 million per season, which is more than double the previous high of $8 million per that John Madden received more than two decades ago.

Romo was said to be in line for $10 million per year, with ESPN vigorously pursuing him for Monday Night Football, and he was slated to become a free agent in March.

Disney, which owns ESPN, was rumored to want to bid $20 million per, which ESPN officials denied.

Romo’s rookie contract at CBS was for three years and around $10 million.  He made a little more than $3 million last season.

Meanwhile, ESPN has to find someone to partner with Joe Tessitore, because ol’ Booger just doesn’t cut it, in the estimation of 99.7% of those watching.

There is one obvious pick and at Romoesque money, Peyton Manning has to listen, you’d think.

But Peyton would never do that.  He has a perfect gig today, doing tons of commercials, no doubt making a small fortune off of them, and his little interview segments with NFL greats.  Nothing live, mind you.  That would bring too much scrutiny. 

Golf Balls

--Tommy Fleetwood is a popular player from England, but he entered the week as the only player in the top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking without a victory on the PGA Tour.  Granted he hasn’t played much over here save for majors and WGCs, but he knows a win in the States means more than any of the five titles he has on the Euro circuit.

And so he stepped to the first tee today as the leader of the Honda Classic at Jack’s Place, the Bear Trap (Palm Beach Gardens), and he didn’t get it done.  Instead, 21-year-old Korean Sungjae Im, a favorite of DraftKings players because he’s become a cut-making machine, 10 of 11 this season coming into this week, won his first Tour title with some clutch play down the stretch, while Fleetwood, having a chance to force a playoff on No. 18, hit his second shot into the water on the par-5, finishing third, behind MacKenzie Hughes, who went 66-66 on the weekend; a huge result for a guy who had missed the cut in 9 of 11 events this season, his best finish T-55.

--Brooks Koepka missed the weekend after going 74-74, including a triple-bogey in the first round.  As I noted the other week, it’s been a struggle since the stem cell procedure on his left knee late last year that forced him to skip the Presidents Cup in December.

Since the surgery, Koepka doesn’t have a top ten, and just one top 20 (a Euro Tour event) in six tournaments.

Koepka said after Friday’s round, “Yeah, everything is good.  No complaints.  It has nothing to do with my knee.”

He has the same sunny response to everything, it needs to be said.

--“The line of the Week,” David Feherty, who in observing Rory Sabbatini’s attempt to hit a shot out of the water, observed, “This golf course will make you look like a moron.”

Which had me musing.  I’ve looked like a moron on a golf course about 84,525 times, by last count.  Can I make it to 100,000 before I die?  Stay tuned.

--Tiger Woods will miss next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational for the second straight year in order to rest his body and continue training.  Despite winning the event eight times, the move isn’t surprising.  Tiger just doesn’t play back-to-back events anymore and the Players Championship is the week after Bay Hill.

After The Players, Tiger would likely play in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event as his final start before Augusta.

--We have started to see concerns over the holding of the PGA Championship in May at San Francisco’s TPC Harding Park, due to the coronavirus.

While San Francisco has yet to see a case of it, the city has instituted crisis measures because the spread to the city seems inevitable.

It’s conceivable, at this early date, that the event could be played but before few fans, and individual golfers coming from around the world may face quarantine.  Recently, for example, Italian Edoardo Molinari, brother of Francesco, was briefly quarantined over fears that he had contracted the virus and was forced to withdraw from the Oman Open.

--Lastly, Rickie Fowler has had a charmed life.  He’s as big a name in golf as there is, despite being just a five-time PGA Tour winner.  But because of his immense popularity, and by all measures he is a truly ‘good guy,’ he’s very wealthy with all the endorsements he’s involved in, like for Farmers Insurance, Rocket Mortgage, Puma, Red Bull, Grant Thornton and I’m sure I’m missing one or two others.

So Wednesday at the Honda he was asked how all the outside work impacts his Tour schedule and Rickie conceded the most events he plays in a row these days is three, and that he “spends 25 to 30 days a year” with sponsors for shoots, whether its commercials or stills.  That doesn’t include client outings for sponsors.

That’s a lot, as Golfweek noted.

Well Rickie missed the cut this week, and he’s off to a pretty poor start on the 2019-2020 wraparound season.  Kind of makes you wonder.  I know having put him in my hideous DraftKings lineup this week, I won’t be again until he begins to show me something.  Ditto Justin Rose, by the way, who is playing like crap.  [Two MCs and a T-56 in his last three PGA Tour events.]

For those of you who play DK and do a golf lineup, as I told Dr. W. this afternoon, it’s not a good sign when your lineup is finished play on Sunday before the network coverage begins.

Premier League

--In a shocker, Watford, seemingly relegation bound, ended Liverpool’s 18-game winning streak yesterday, also handing the Reds their first loss of the season in decisive fashion, 3-0, as Ismaila Sarr scored twice.  So Liverpool remains tied with Manchester City for the longest winning streak in PL history, and also still needs just four wins the rest of the way to secure the league title for the first time in 30 years.

Also in the past few days, Friday, Norwich had a huge 1-0 win over Leicester City, as it struggles to avoid relegation.

Saturday, Chelsea and Bournemouth played to a 2-2 draw.

And today, my Tottenham Spurs continued their collapse, losing to Wolverhampton at home, 3-2, a huge win for the Wolves, while Everton and Manchester United tied at 1-1.

Standings after 27/28 of 38....ties broken by goal differential

1. Liverpool 28 – 79 points
2. Man City 27 – 57
3. Leicester City 28 – 50
4. Chelsea 28 – 45
5. Man U 28 – 42*
6. Wolves 28 – 42
7. Tottenham 28 – 40
8. Sheffield 27 – 40

*It’s still assumed whoever finishes No. 5 replaces City.

16. West Ham 28 – 27
17. Watford 28 – 27 ...relegation line
18. Bournemouth 28 – 27
19. Aston Villa 27 – 25
20. Norwich 28 – 21

--Speaking of Man City, should it lose its appeal of the Champions League ban levied on it, football finance expert Kieran Maguire, a lecturer at the University of Liverpool, told BBC Radio, “The financial implications of not playing in the Champions League are very significant.”

“Liverpool made more than $128 million (100m British pounds) from winning it last season, along with bonuses from sponsors – and then the six or seven home matches to get to the final can be worth $6.4 million each. So if you put that all together, Champions League participation can be worth up to $192 million for a club.   And for a club the size of City, that can be a quarter to a third of their income.”

So if the income is going to fall by, say, $125 million to $200 million, “the owners are in a catch-22 situation where if City are going to spend the money to recruit players they could fall afoul of financial fair play rules again.”

You can only spend as much as you take in.

In last week’s Champions League Round of 16 play, first leg, Bayern Munich whipped Chelsea 3-0, while Man City beat Real Madrid 2-1, on the road, a huge win.

--Finally, in an example of the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, Tottenham’s Son Heung-min, who traveled home to South Korea to have surgery on his broken arm, will spend time under quarantine upon his return to England, though he was already out for the season.

Tokyo Olympics Under Threat

--As for the looming Tokyo Games, and the coronavirus epidemic....

Sally Jenkins / Washington Post

“The Summer Olympics are such a crowded, sweat-dampened, close-packed and germ-ridden affair that attending them can be like hanging out inside someone’s mouth. And that’s in the best of circumstances, when the world isn’t on the brink of a pandemic.  Knowing what we know now about the novel coronavirus – the very little we know, which is not nearly enough to fully understand its dangers and spread – it's fair to ask, should the Games go on?

“It’s premature to call for the cancellation or postponement of Tokyo 2020.  But with the torch relay about to begin and just 150 days remaining to the Opening Ceremonies, it’s certainly not too early to ask how the organizers and the International Olympic Committee realistically propose to keep the Summer Games healthy and secure as opposed to a disease epicenter.  How can they prevent an outbreak with athletes from 200 countries and 7.5 million ticket holders preparing to jam into villages and venues?  They better have a Plan B.

“So far, they don’t.  Olympic authorities insist no alterations are even being contemplated.  Dick Pound of the IOC said Tuesday that it was ‘business as usual,’ while the organization’s Tokyo event coordinator, John Coates, said last week that ‘there is no case for any contingency plans or canceling the Games or moving the Games.’”

Well, money is everything, of course.  “The estimated cost of building, hosting and organizing the Tokyo Games is around $25 billion.  The IOC is counting on $5.7 billion in broadcast rights, and Japanese companies have paid out $3 billion in sponsorship deals they could never recoup.  You think the lords of Lausanne want to contemplate giving any of that back?”

Just one more, for now.

As Sally Jenkins puts it:

“The athlete village in Tokyo will house 18,000 people all in one place.  It’s the size of five Diamond Princess cruise ships put together, a perfect matrix of recirculated air and potentially infectious surfaces.”

I have long argued for each sport, such as Track and Field, to hold their own events, just as they do with the World Championships.

Swimming, gymnastics, boxing, basketball...they could all be held on different weeks over the course of the summer and still garner terrific ratings with the right publicity.

And no one city would bear the massive costs of staging the Games as we know them.

But then this makes too much sense.

--China’s top swimmer, Sun Yang, said he was shocked and would appeal after being handed an eight-year ban on Friday for a dope test violation that rules him out of the Tokyo Games.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) earlier accepted an appeal from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against a decision by swimming body FINA to clear Sun of wrongdoing for his conduct during the 2018 test.

CAS said the eight-year ban was imposed because Sun, 28, already had an earlier anti-doping rule violation against him from 2014.  Sun protested his innocence, saying in a statement, “facts must overcome lies!”

But Sun and members of his entourage smashed vials containing blood samples taken at an out-of-competition test in September 2018, after questioning the credentials of the testers.

The Chinese is reigning world and Olympic champion in the 200m freestyle and won two gold medals at the 2012 London Games and another at Rio in 2016, but he’s also a controversial figure in the sport.  At the Rio Games, Australian rival Mack Horton accused him of being a “drug cheat.”  At last year’s Gwangju world championships in South Korea, 400m freestyle silver medalist Horton refused to share a podium with Sun, who won the gold while competing under the shadow of the appeal.

Stuff

--So here I was getting all fired up about the New York Rangers and their push for the playoffs, especially with the news they had given one of their stars, Chris Kreider, a seven-year contract extension when it seemed he was going to be traded at the deadline.

And then literally hours later, Kreider broke his foot in the first period of a loss against the Flyers in Philadelphia.  No timetable on his recovery.

But this afternoon, the Rangers had a rematch with the Flyers at the Garden.  It was critical they regroup and pick up a win.

The Blueshirts didn’t, losing for the ninth time in 10 to Philadelphia, 5-3, as Henrik Lundqvist was in goal for the first time since Feb. 3 for New York and it showed.

The injury to Kreider, as well as the absence of goalie sensation Igor Shesterkin due to the auto accident, have been killers.

As Charlie Brown would say, “Drat!”  [Charles Schulz being a massive hockey fan.  In fact he’s in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame!  Having grown up in Minnesota playing the sport, when he moved to California, he missed it so much he built a hockey arena, where he had most of his breakfasts and lunches at the Warm Puppy Snack Bar.  And now you know...the rest of the story...]

--Five-time major winner Maria Sharapova announced her retirement at 32.

Sharapova became one of the highest paid sportswomen in the world at the height of her career, with a victory over Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2004 at the age of 17, propelling her to superstardom and riches.

Her decision to quit was hardly a surprise as she has been a shell of her former self since returning in 2017 from a 15-month ban for taking the prohibited heart drug meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open.

This year she lost in the first round at the Australian Open and her world ranking had fallen to 373.

Sharapova completed a career Grand Slam when she won the French Open in 2012.  She also won there in 2014, her last major title.   She won the U.S. Open in 2006, and the Australian Open in 2008.

--Santa Anita suffered its ninth death of the racing and training season when Chosen Vessel became the fourth fatality on the track’s turf course due to a fractured left front ankle.  The season started on Dec. 26. 

Not the news the sport needs as we approach the 3-year-old prep season leading up to the Kentucky Derby, though last year at this time, Santa Anita had 19 fatalities before the Stronach Group, which owns the track, instituted a number of reforms, among them being a reduction in race days.

The turf track had been safe until this season.

*Johnny Mac passed along a clip of the Fountain of Youth Stakes run yesterday at Gulfstream, one of the early qualifiers for the Derby, and “Ete Indien” went wire-to-wire in impressive fashion, so it has already punched its ticket to Churchill Downs.

--Sign of the Apocalypse:  Garth Brooks took to the stage in Detroit, wearing the number 20 of Lions great Barry Sanders.

And so the clueless, the idiots, began posting on Garth’s Instagram account that he was a “millionaire socialist;” i.e., a supporter of Bernie Sanders.

I’m biting my tongue to prevent me from commenting further.

--Jeff B., my celebrity reporter in Antigua for his annual trip to the island, reports he and the Missus just missed DeNiro, but he’s heard Paul Rudd is staying at his resort so we await word on whether Jeff and Mr. Rudd shared mega drinks.  Jeff said he embarrassingly needed help operating a toaster in the breakfast line, but that the woman helping him was most attractive.

Which has your editor wondering if there really was a problem in the first place.

And this just in...Jeff has made contact with Mr. Rudd.  Developing....

Top 3 songs for the week 3/1/75: #1 “Best Of My Love” (The Eagles)  #2 “Have You Never Been Mellow” (Olivia Newton-John)  #3 “Black Water” (The Doobie Brothers)...and...#4 “My Eyes Adored You” (Frankie Valli)  #5 “Some Kind Of Wonderful” (Grand Funk)  #6 “Lonely People” (America)  #7 “Pick Up The Pieces” (AWB) #8 “Lady Marmalade” (LaBelle)  #9 “Nightingale” (Carole King)  #10 “Lady” (Styx...not an awful week... ‘B-’ …)

FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Quiz Answer:  15 nations where WC events are held this season.

Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, France, Finland, Canada, and U.S. for both men and women.

Men only: China, Japan

Women only: Russia, Bulgaria, Sweden

The World Cup season, as is always the case, has been beset by weather issues, including this coming week in Germany, but now coronavirus is impacting things as well.

*According to reports, Mikaela Shiffrin was slated to make her return after the death of her father next weekend in Germany, but now with the weather that won’t be the case.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.

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