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Bar Chat

06/24/2024

The Say Hey Kid...and Scottie Scheffler

Add-on posted early Tuesday a.m.

Stanley Cup Finals

It’s the Florida Panthers!  The first Stanley Cup in their 30th year as a franchise, holding on to beat Edmonton 2-1 in Game 7 last night.  The Oilers were indeed gassed at the end...after a valiant effort in the third period.

The decider came at 15:11, when the Oilers’ Warren Foegele shot the puck with a crowd in front of Panthers’ goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, it deflected over his arm, where defenseman Dmitry Kulikov cleared it to a corner while falling down.

That play ended up being the second assist on a goal by Sam Reinhart, a wrist shot through a screen that beat goalie Stuart Skinner...and that was it.

So Canada still doesn’t have a Cup since 1992-93, and superstar Connor McDavid has to wait another year for his first, though he picked up the Conn Smythe Trophy for his 42 points overall in the playoffs.

Edmonton deserves a lot of credit.  They made it exciting by coming from down 3-0.  But Florida is a deserving champ.

College World Series

The Tennessee Volunteers are national champions for the first time in school history, winning the finale last night 6-5 over Texas A&M.  The Aggies were down 6-1 after seven and had the tying run at the plate with two outs in the top of the ninth, but Aaron Combs didn’t break, yielding 2 runs but striking out the side.

Dylan Dreiling was named Most Outstanding Player. Last year it was Paul Skenes, and he’s done OK for himself.

Congrats to Coach Tony Vitello.

As the announcers said after, “College Baseball is only getting bigger...and better.”

If your own team ever makes it to Omaha, go.  It’s a great experience.

MLB

--Sunday night, after I posted, the Mets defeated the Cubs 5-2, the team having own 9 of 11, 13 of 17, to move to within two games of .500, 37-39, and one game back in the wild card.  A very nice turnaround.

The Metsies got home runs from Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and a titanic bomb from Mark Vientos, while receiving six innings of shutout ball, 0 walks, 10 strikeouts, from Luis Severino (5-2, 3.29).

All was good, until the bottom of the ninth when closer Edwin Diaz was ejected for having sticky stuff on his hand, an automatic 10-game suspension.

We’re about to learn just how resilient this team is, particularly the pitching.  The starters must step up and go six, while manager Carlos Mendoza has to figure out where his big innings are coming from.  Making it worse is the fact the team is not allowed to replace Diaz on the roster, so 25 players rather than 26.

Diaz denied using any illegal substance.

“I was really surprised because I didn’t have anything on my hand, my glove, my belt,” he said.  “They always check my hat, everything.  And they thought that was sticky a lot.  I said ‘you could check my hand, smell my hand,’ and they didn’t smell anything, but they threw me out of the game.”

Crew chief Vic Carapazza was confident it was more than rosin.

“It definitely wasn’t rosin and sweat,” Carapazza told a pool reporter.  “We’ve checked thousands of these.  I know what that feeling is.  This was very sticky.”

Subway Series Tuesday and Wednesday at Citi Field.

As I go to post, it appears Mets outfielder Starling Marte, a key cog, could be headed to the IL with a sore right knee.  We need him.

--The Phillies are 52-26 after beating the Tigers last night in Detroit, 8-1, as Bryce Harper continued his MVP-type season, a homer, two doubles, 5 RBIs, while Alec Bohm had four hits, 3 RBIs.  Aaron Nola threw seven innings of one-run ball to go to 9-3, 3.39.

--The Indians (50-26) beat the Orioles (49-29) in Baltimore, Monday, 3-2, Jose Ramirez with home run No. 20 and two ribbies to give him 69.

--The Dodgers (49-31) beat the White Sox in Chicago last night, 3-0.  But L.A. announced Clayton Kershaw had a little setback with his rehab.  He needs to shut it down for a week.  Not the end of the world.  He’ll back sometime in July.

Not for nuthin’, but the White Sox, at 21-59, have a legitimate shot at threatening the Mets’ historic 40-120 mark from 1962.  Yikes.

--Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. is headed to the IL and will be out for weeks with a thigh injury.

U.S. Olympic Trials

--On the track in Paris, Americans Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson are going to be headliners.  Richardson qualified in the 100 meters Saturday night in Eugene, Oregon, and then Lyles saved his best career performance for Sunday’s 100-meter final, running it in 9.83 seconds en route to the win.  Lyles will now attempt to qualify for the 200 as well later in the week, setting up a possible sprint double next month.  No American has won the 100 and 200 since Carl Lewis did it in 1984.

Kenny Bednarek, who was second in the 100 at 9.87, and Tokyo silver medalist Fred Kerley, who was third in 9.88, also qualified for Paris.

Lyles’ 200m bronze in Tokyo remains his only Olympic medal.

And 16-year-old Quincy Wilson qualified for the 400-meter final Monday night.  He has already broken the under-18 world record.    Alas, he finished sixth, but could still be selected for the team in the 4X400 relay.

The Olympic Trials can produce some wrenching heartbreak and Monday night, defending Olympic champion in the 800m, Trenton, N.J.’s Athing Mu, fell in the first lap of the finals, couldn’t recover, and she will not be going to Paris to defend.  Crushing.

Stuff

--The U.S. men’s’ national soccer team opened its Copa America campaign with a solid 2-0 win over Bolivia Sunday night in Arlington, Texas.  Christian Pulisic, who carries the hopes and dreams of the American squad on his shoulders, opened the scoring with a very sweet goal three minutes into the game, and he assisted on the other from Folarin Balogun. The USNMT totally dominated an overmatched Bolivian squad.

--The Cleveland Cavaliers are hiring Kenny Atkinson to be their next head coach after firing J.B. Bickerstaff this offseason.

Atkinson was last head coach of the Nets in 2020 and has a solid reputation.  He’s been an assistant for the Clippers and Warriors.

But management has to figure out if star guards Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland can co-exist and if that pairing is the future of the franchise. 

--Chrisopher Bell outlasted the rain, darkness, repeated cautions and the rest of the field Sunday evening to win the 2024 USA TODAY 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Bell, who also won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, is now second in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with eight races remaining in the regular season.  He is one of just four drivers to have won multiple races in 2024, all of whom – Bell, Denny Hamlin, William Byron and Kyle Larson – have three apiece. It was Bell’s ninth career Cup win.

--Surfing legend Tamayo Perry died following a shark attack in Oahu, Hawaii.

Perry, who also dabbled in acting and was a lifeguard, was attacked near Goat Island on Sunday. He was 49.

He was found off Malaekahana beach on Oahu’s North Shore by local surfers with an arm and a leg missing, reports noted.

The horrific incident was reported by a bystander who spotted a man suffering from shark bites, Honolulu’s emergency services said.  Perry was brought to shore but was pronounced dead moments later.

Tamayo was a well-known figure in the islands, “a legendary waterman and highly respected,” Honolulu mayor Rick Blangiardi said, calling Perry’s death “a tragic loss.”

In 2005, he was widely regarded as one of the area’s most prominent surfers.

Perry’s death marks the second fatal shark attack in Oahu this month.

Next Bar Chat, Sunday p.m.

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[Posted early Sunday p.m.]

Brief Add-on up top by noon, Tues.

Golf Quiz: Last week when Bryson DeChambeau won the U.S. Open, it made six consecutive men’s majors won by six different American players.  The last time there was a streak that long of consecutive, different U.S. players winning majors was in the mid-to-late 1970s. From the 1975 PGA through the 1977 U.S. Open, seven different U.S. players won seven straight.  Name them.  Answer below.

Stanley Cup Playoffs

--Friday, we got a Game 6, the Oilers winning Game 5 in Sunrise, Florida, 5-3, to turn what had been a presumed 4-0 Panthers sweep of the series into 3-2, Game 6 back in Edmonton, a 6-hour flight from South Florida.

Staring down the barrel of elimination a second straight game, the Oilers received two goals and two assists from All-World Connor McDavid, who is finally getting his national (North American) spotlight, his second consecutive four-point performance.

McDavid has already surpassed Wayne Gretzky’s record for most assists in a single postseason, and he’s closing in on another, with 42 points, five behind Gretzky’s all-time record of 47 points, set in the 1985 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Consider the travel in this series.  Brutal...and after an already long playoffs for both sides.

So in Game 6...Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, already shellshocked after allowing nine goals his last two games on 39 shots, gave up a sweet goal to Warren Foegele on a beautiful pass from Leon Draisaitl, 1-0 Edmonton, the Oilers scored again to make it 2-0, and then it seemed the Panthers had cut it to 2-1 on an Aleksander Barkov goal, but Edmonton challenged that it was offsides and it was...by millimeters, but offsides.

The Oilers went on to win 5-1, and without a shot on goal from McDavid.

Back on another 6-hour flight to Sunrise, Florida, for a winner-take-all Game 7 on Monday (8 p.m. ET, ABC). Oh baby!

You have got to love the enthusiasm of the Edmonton fans, including packing the plaza outside their arena. 

As you know, the Oilers are going to be trying to make history...become the first NHL team to come back from down 3-0 in the Finals since the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.  Only four teams in NHL history, period, have come back from down 3-0 in a playoff series.

[Just the 2004 Red Sox did it against the Yankees in 2004 in MLB.  It has never been done in the NBA.]

MLB

--The story here in the New York area is the Yankees’ sudden swoon.  Going back to Wednesday against the Orioles at the Stadium, Gerrit Cole made his 2024 debut and he was OK, four innings, two runs, 5 strikeouts, 62 pitches, but the Yankee bullpen failed late and Baltimore took it 7-6 in 10 innings.

Thursday, the Orioles cut the Yankees’ first-place lead in the AL East to just a ½ game, blasting New York and Luis Gil, 17-5. Gil yielded 7 earned in 1 1/3, his ERA soaring to 2.77 from 1.82 on June 4, three starts ago.  Aaron Judge returned from a one-game absence after getting hit by a pitch on the hand and hit home run No. 27.

And then Friday Atlanta came to town and behind Chris Sale’s effective five inning, one run, 8 strikeout outing, the Braves crushed the Yanks 8-1, Sale now 10-2, 2.91.  Carlos Rodon gave up 7 earned in 3 2/3, Rodon 9-4, 3.86, and hearing boos again from the Yankees faithful.

So that meant New York had lost three straight, 5 of 6, 6 of 8, and a little panic was setting in.  The pitching has faltered bigly, both starters and relievers.

Saturday, the Yankees played well, an 8-3 win over the Braves, Marcos Stroman solid, 6 2/3, 3 earned to improve to 7-3, 3.15.  Aaron Judge hit No. 28, now with 70 RBIs, leading the majors in both categories.

But they lost Giancarlo Stanton to a hamstring injury, and for this guy, such injuries can keep him on the shelf for weeks.  He’s been a plus factor this season, 18 homers, 45 RBIs, .795 OPS.

Stanton was then put on the IL, and the Yanks traded with Oakland for J.D. Davis to supply some right-handed pop out of the DH position.  Smart move.  While Davis had been DFA’d by Oakland, he was hitting much better before the move and it’s a great opportunity for the lad, who had some good moments with the Mets.

Sunday, the Yanks lost to the Braves, 3-1.  Former Met Jarred Kelenic with the decisive 2-run homer.

--Back to the Orioles, they lost another starter Wednesday after Kyle Bradish underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery.  He recorded a 2.75 ERA in 39 1/3 innings this year, with 53 strikeouts. The team is already without left-hander John Means (TJ surgery), right-hander Tyler Wells (UCL repair surgery) and closer Felix Bautista (TJ surgery).

Reliever Danny Coulombe had surgery Tuesday to remove bone chips in his left elbow and could return in September.  Coulombe, the Orioles’ best reliever this season, felt elbow soreness while playing catch on June 10. He had posted a 2.42 ERA with 28 strikeouts and a 0.62 ERA in 26 innings pitched.

And the Orioles lost the first two to the Astros in Houston this weekend, 14-11 and 5-1.  In the latter, Saturday, the Astros reached Corbin Burnes (8-3, 2.35) for four runs in 7 innings, while Houston’s Ronel Blanco’s 7 innings, one run, saw his record go to 8-2, 2.34.

Burnes saw his quality start streak end at 10.

After last night, Baltimore was 1 ½ back of the Yankees.

Baltimore then lost 8-1 today to remain 1 ½ back.

--Meanwhile, across town, the Mets had their seven-game winning streak snapped in Texas on Wednesday, 5-3.  But after an off-day Thursday, they opened a 3-game series in Chicago against the Cubs on Friday afternoon and the Metsies had a laugher, 11-1, J.D. Martinez with a home run and four RBIs, Jose Igelsias with four hits.

Shota Imanaga was lit up for 10 runs in three innings, his ERA ballooning from 1.89 to 2.96! [And from 0.84 May 18.] Bye-bye dream season...at least historic season.

The Cubs turned the tables on the Mets, Saturday, 8-1, as this one was over early, Chicago scoring five runs in the first off Tylor Megill.

These two face off Sunday night on the ESPN game.

--The Dodgers are trying to get used to no Mookie Betts at the top of the order for a probable two months with his broken hand.  Friday, the red-hot Shohei Ohtani belted a 455-foot two-run homer, his 22nd, as he was inserted into the leadoff spot and went 2-for-2, 2 walks.

But the Dodgers fell to the Angels, 3-2 in 10.  It was the Angels’ first win after 10 straight losses to their rivals.

The Dodgers then rebounded Saturday, 7-2, as Ohtani stayed hot, hitting home run No. 23, another 2-run shot giving him 57 RBIs.  Ohtani’s homer traveled an estimated 459 feet, marking his fourth blast of at least 450 feet this week!

Tyler Glasnow pitched 7 innings, one earned, 10 strikeouts, to move to 8-5, 2.88.  He is up to 100 innings on the season, when his career high is 120.

The Dodgers, 48-31, placed starter Walker Buehler on the IL, Wednesday, with a hip injury (right hip inflammation), his comeback season suffering another setback.  Buehler has not been effective, 1-4, 5.84 ERA in eight starts since his return from a second career Tommy John surgery.

But Clayton Kershaw made his first rehab start the other day, and he’s on track to return in a few weeks, it seems, sooner than expected.  Starter Bobby Miller returned Wednesday from a 9-week absence and gave up 5 earned in 6 1/3 in a 7-6 loss to the Rockies.

--Philadelphia entered today’s play tied with the Yankees for top winning percentage in baseball... .658, the Phils 50-26, Yanks 52-27.

And Philadelphia won the Roku morning game, 4-1, over Arizona, as Christopher Sanchez, who had just been rewarded by the Phils with a four-year contract extension the day before, showed his appreciation with 7 innings of shutout ball, Sanchez 5-2, 2.67 ERA.

Pretty amazing, the two who were in the World Series last Fall, Arizona and Texas, are below .500.

[Texas (37-40) beat the Royals today, 4-0, as Max Scherzer made his 2024 debut, five innings, one hit.  Not bad, not bad at all....]

--I wished a few folks this morning “Happy Paul Skenes Day,” including my cousin Marilyn in the Pittsburgh area who is a huge local sports fan (all my cousins there are...you have to be).  And Skenes delivered; seven innings, one run, 8 Ks, lowering his ERA to 2.14.

Alas, a no-decision...and the Pirates bullpen blew it, though the Bucco offense was non-existent...3-1 loss.

--Reggie Jackson was on the set Thursday to share his thoughts on playing at historic Rickwood Field Thursday in Birmingham. 

“I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say, ‘The [n-word] can’t eat here.’ I would go to a hotel and they would say, ‘The [n-word] can’t stay here,’” the 78-year-old told a Fox Sports panel that featured Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Derek Jeter.

As a young member of the A’s organization in 1967, just before the major league club moved from Kansas City to Oakland, Jackson played for Birmingham at Rickwood and other ballparks in the South.  On Thursday, he said returning to Birmingham was “not easy.”

“The racism, when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places where we traveled – fortunately, I had a manager and I had players on the team who helped me get through it,” he said. 

Jackson then shared a sentiment he repeated several times during the Fox Sports interview: “I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”

Reggie credited a number of White teammates, plus then-manager John McNamara, with helping him get through that period.  Jackson said he spent several nights a week for many weeks sleeping on their couches until they received threats to “burn our apartment complex down” if he didn’t leave.  He added that his Birmingham teammates – including Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi, who went on to win three World Series with him in Oakland – saved him from getting into physical confrontations with Southern racists.

“I’d have got killed here, because I’d have beat somebody’s ass,” Jackson said Thursday, referring to the history of lynchings of Black people by White mobs. “You’d have saw me in an oak tree somewhere.” [Des Bieler / Washington Post]

Jackson has often spoken of racism, including his allegation it played a role in the Mets’ decision to pass on him with the No. 1 pick in the 1966 MLB draft in favor of Steve Chilcott, a White player who never reached the major leagues.  [Ed. I’m not sure that’s a fair statement, but in terms of Birmingham, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself said it was the most racist city in America.]

College World Series

The ACC’s four teams were eliminated, not with distinction, and we had another all-SEC final in Omaha for a second straight year and third time in four.

Texas A&M was playing for a national championship in baseball for the first time in its program’s 130-year history.  Coach Jim Schlossnagle had brought seven teams to the Men’s College World Series since 2010 – five when he was at TCU and two in his first three seasons at A&M – and never made it to the finals until now.

The Aggies (52-13) were playing No. 1 national seed Tennessee (58-12) in the best-of-three championship series.

The Vols are in their program’s first final in the modern era. Tennessee made it to a one-game final in its first CWS appearance in 1951, losing 3-2 to Oklahoma.  In those days, there were no preliminary rounds in the NCAA tournament; teams were selected for the CWS based on regular-season performance.

No. 1 seeds haven’t won a ring in this tourney since Miami in 1999.

Saturday night, Texas A&M prevailed 9-5, third baseman Gavin Grahovac smacking a leadoff home run to kick off the game for the Aggies.

Would they wrap it up Sunday, or would we have a Game 3?

Game 3 Monday...Tennessee winning today 4-1.

Remembering Willie Mays

The greatest center fielder of all time, and perhaps the greatest all-around player in the game’s history, Willie Mays, died last Tuesday afternoon at the age of 93, the San Francisco Giants announced.

By the numbers....

660 Home Runs...6th all-time.
1909 RBIs...12th
3293 Hits...13th
2068 Runs...7th
7,112 putouts as an outfielder...No. 1 in major league history

Rookie of the Year, 1951
Two-time NL MVP
12-time Gold Glove
Four times led the league in steals
Once had 20 triples
11 consecutive seasons with 100 runs scored
10 seasons with 35+ home runs, six with 40+, two with 50+
10 seasons with 100 RBIs
24 All-Star Games

And he missed 1 ¾ seasons, 1952-53, by virtue of his military service.  As I’ve covered many times before in this space concerning all of baseball’s past stars who served in the military, like Ted Williams and Bob Feller, adjust their numbers accordingly.

I also can’t help but add, when he was traded to the Mets in May of 1972, there were many who questioned the move, Willie then 41 with rather diminished skills.  I was psyched.

And I always like to point out, in 1972 with the Mets, he had an .848 OPS, with a .402 on-base percentage in 195 at-bats.  There are a lot of today’s players, and organizations, who would take that in a heartbeat.

I also can’t help but note, for probably the 20th time, I am the only kid on my block who was in attendance for both Mickey Mantle’s 500th home run, and Willie Mays’ home run in his first game for the Mets at Shea Stadium.

How did I (the family) pull this off?  Both games were on Mother’s Day, and it was a family tradition to go to the Mets or Yankees back then.  Mom was a good sports fan, poor Dad had to drive my brother and I, and Mom, into Gotham, but, boy, we saw some history (my brother was in college so not in attendance for the Mays debut).

Anyway, yes, Willie in 1973 was a different story, but he did have the game-winning hit in Game 2 of the Mets’ World Series against Oakland, a very sad 7-game series defeat for us Mets fans overall.  I cried as much as I ever have after it ended.

But the Say Hey Kid left an indelible mark on the sport, the classic five-tool player (hit for power, hit for average, run, field and throw), forever known for “The Catch” in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series for the New York Giants, which became his only championship.

Mays was born on May 6, 1931, and grew up in Alabama.  He excelled in baseball, football and basketball in high school. But his love of baseball trumped all sports.  In 1948, at the age of 17, he began his professional career with the Birmingham Black Barons, helping the team to the Negro League World Series that season.  Since Willie was still in high school, he only played on the weekends with the club; he traveled with Birmingham when school was out.

The New York Giants purchased his contract from Birmingham in 1950.  Mays then batted .353 in 81 games with Trenton that season.  In 1951, Mays broke out with the Triple-A Minneapolis Millers, batting .477 in 35 games before the Giants called him up in May.

At age 20, Mays was the 10th Black player in major league history.  Mays then famously went 0-for-12 before his first career hit was a home run off Hall of Famer Warren Spahn in the first inning of the Giants’ 4-1 loss to the Braves on May 28, 1951.  He then went 0-for-13 and was tearful at his locker when he told Leo Durocher he couldn’t hit big league pitching.  Durocher told him that he was the best center fielder he had ever seen and assured him that he would remain in the lineup.

Mays would then go on to hit .274, 20 home runs, 68 RBIs, and be named NL Rookie of the Year.

The Giants staged a storied revival that season, coming from 13 ½ games behind the Dodgers in mid-August to force the playoff series that ended up in the history books.

Willie was on-deck when the Giants’ Bobby Thomson hit his NL pennant-winning home run against the Dodgers on Oct. 3, 1951, famously known as “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”

After the military service layoff, Mays returned to the Giants in the spring of 1954.  The layoff didn’t affect him.  He won the first of his two career NL MVP awards that season, leading the league in hitting at .345, with 41 HR and 110 RBIs.

It was in Game 1 of the ’54 World Series against Cleveland at the Polo Grounds that Mays made one of the most famous plays in the history of the game.  With the score tied at 2-2 and runners on first and second, Cleveland’s Vic Wertz hit a 2-1 pitch to deep center in the top of the 8th inning.  Mays sprinted toward the wall, over 450-feet from home plate in that strangely shaped park, with his back away from Wertz.  He made a basket catch while on the run, pivoted and fired the ball into the infield. Mays’ catch and quick relay throw prevented both runners from scoring; the Giants won the game 5-2 in 10 innings on Dusty Rhodes’ three-run pinch-hit home run.

Charles M. Schulz was such a fan of Mays that he often came up by name in Schulz’s “Peanuts” comic strip.  (Asked to spell “maze” in a spelling bee, Charlie Brown ventured, “M...A...Y...S...”).  Woody Allen’s alter ego in “Manhattan” ranked Mays No. 2 on his list of joys that made life worthwhile.  (Groucho Marx was No. 1).  In 1954, the R&B group the Treniers recorded “Say Hey (the Willie Mays Song).”

“When I broke in, I didn’t know many people by name,” Mays once explained, “so I would just say, ‘Say, hey,’ and the writers picked that up.”

“He had an open manner, friendly, vivacious, irrepressible,” the baseball writer Leonard Koppett said of the young Mays. “Whatever his private insecurities, he projected a feeling that playing ball, for its own sake, was the most wonderful thing in the world.”

New York embraced this son of Alabama, putting him on a pedestal along with the city’s two other center fielders in an era when the Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants dominated the sport...Mickey Mantle and Brooklyn’s Duke Snider.  It was a fun time; many an argument at the local taverns over who had the better center fielder.

Mays was revered, especially in Black neighborhoods, like Harlem, where he played stickball with youngsters outside his apartment on St. Nicholas Place – not far from the Polo Grounds – and he was treated like visiting royalty at the original Red Rooster, one of Harlem’s most popular restaurants in his day. The videos that came out this week of him playing with the kids are priceless...and the looks of the older folks observing.  He’s ‘one of ours’ they were saying.

Willie was only 5’11”, 175-180 pounds, but he had unusually large hands and outstanding peripheral vision that complemented his speed running down balls in the outfield.  And he was all muscle.

Branch Rickey, in his book “The American Diamon” (1965), recalled Mays “propelling the ball in one electric flash off the Polo Grounds scoreboard on the face of the upper deck in left field for a home run.”

“The ball got up there so fast, it was incredible,” Rickey wrote. “Like a pistol shot, it would crash off the tin and fall to the grass below.”

“Willie could do everything from the day he joined the Giants,” Leo Durocher, his manager during most of his years at the Polo Grounds, said when Mays was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility.  “He never had to be taught a thing. The only other player who could do it all was Joe DiMaggio.”

But even DiMaggio bowed to Mays.

“Willie Mays is the closest to being perfect I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Willie had trouble when the Giants moved to San Francisco.  DiMaggio owned the Bay Area, revered because he was not just a native, but a minor league star before ascending to the Yankees.  To local fans, “There was no other center fielder except Joe,” Mays said in a memoir, recalling the wary reception he received at his new home ballpark.  A lot of it was blatant racism.  For example, Mays wasn’t able to purchase a home because the owner of the property was afraid it would hurt home values in the area and the neighbors weren’t happy, but with the city facing embarrassment, the owner of the home finally relented.

After playing two seasons in Seals Stadium, the Giants moved to the newly built, and ever windy, Candlestick Park. 

“Playing in Candlestick cost me 10, 12 homers a year,” Mays once said.  “I’ve always thought it cost me the opportunity to break Babe Ruth’s record.”  [That and the military service, I’d add.]

But Willie also thrived in San Francisco.

Alas, by the time he was 40, Mays, while still capable of outstanding play, had changed.

“Willie, as he grew older, became more withdrawn and suspicious, more cautious, more vulnerable and with plenty of reason,” Leonard Koppett wrote in ‘A Thinking Man’s Guide to Baseball.’  “Life, both personally and professionally, became more complicated for him, and he had his share of sorrow.”  After marrying and adopting a child, Mays “went through a painful divorce,” Koppett wrote. [Richard Goldstein / New York Times]

On May 11, 1972, with the Giants’ attendance in decline, Horace Stoneham, the team’s longtime owner, wanted to provide Mays with longtime financial security and sent him to the Mets in a trade for a minor league pitcher, Charlie Williams, and some cash.

Mays was in the next to last year of a two-year contract paying him $165,000 a season (the equivalent of a little more than $1 million today).  When the deal was made, Joan Payson, the Mets’ president, who had been a stockholder in the New York Giants and was a fan of Mays, guaranteed him a 10-year, $50,000 annual payment apart from his baseball salary.  He was to be a good-will ambassador and part-time instructor after his playing days ended.

The deal would sour.  Willie wasn’t interested in instructional or promotional work.  There was an issue with Major League Baseball when Willie signed a 10-year deal to represent Bally, the Atlantic City hotel and casino company, with commissioner Bowie Kuhn telling Mays he could not hold a job with a company that promoted gambling and also retain a salaried position in baseball.  Mays decided to forgo the remainder of his Mets deal, and Kuhn suspended him from baseball.

Kuhn imposed a similar ban on Mickey Mantle when he took a post with the Claridge casino and hotel in Atlantic City [Ed. this was my favorite casino back in the day.] But in March 1985, Peter Ueberroth, Kuhn’s successor, revoked both bans, and Mays continued to work for Bally’s while becoming a part-time hitting coach for the Giants.  In the late 1980s, the Giants gave Mays a lifetime contract as a front-office consultant.

The Mets would retire Mays’ No. 24, which Joan Payson had promised the organization would do.  She died in 1975.  But the promise was eventually fulfilled.

When Mays’ number finally went up, there were many Mets fans who were quizzical, to be kind.  I can guarantee those same people today get it.  It’s great it will always be there, a reminder to younger fans that this was a New York folk hero, aside from being one of the two greatest players in the history of the sport (if you call Babe Ruth No. 1...throw in Hank Aaron if you want a top 3).

Geroge Will / Washington Post

“In the 1962 Yankees-Giants World Series, the Yankees’ Clete Boyer hit a line-drive to right-center.  ‘As the ball left the bat, I said to myself two things. The first thing I said was ‘Hello double!’  The second thing I said was, ‘Oh, sh--, he’s out there.’....

“Said his major league manager, Leo Durocher.  ‘If he could cook, I’d marry him.’  Said actress Tallulah Bankhead, ‘There have only been two authentic geniuses in the world, William Shakespeare and Willie Mays.’

“ ‘I can’t hit the pitching up there,’ said Mays, a scared minor leaguer, in 1951, speaking by phone to Durocher, who would soon manage him.  ‘Do you think you can hit .2-f---ing-70 for me?’ Durocher asked of the player who was hitting .477 in Minneapolis.  He could.

“A few weeks later, the Giants sent May – who was 0-12 in major league at bats – to the plate to face, 60 feet 6 inches away, Warren Spahn, who was en route to becoming the winningest left-hander in baseball history.  Mays hit the first of his 660 home runs. After the game, Spahn said, ‘For the first 60 feet it was a helluva pitch.’  Years later, he said: ‘We might have gotten rid of Willie forever if I’d only struck him out.’

“In 1963, in a game of a sort that will never again be played, Spahn, then 42, and another future Hall of Famer, Juan Marichal, 25, both pitched shutouts into the 16th inning.  Marichal threw 227 pitches, Spahn 201. The Giants won 1-0, when Spahn gave up a walk-off home run.  You know who hit it.”

The greatest single day of Mays’ career, though, was on the road at County Stadium in Milwaukee on April 30, 1961. The day hardly had the makings of a classic.  Mays arrived at the ballpark terribly ill due to some questionable room service spareribs he consumed with Willie McCovey a night earlier.  Mays felt so rotten before the game that he warned manager Alvin Dark to leave him out of the lineup.

But as a test run, Mays borrowed a lighter bat from teammate Joey Amalfitano and took some hacks in the batting cage.  “Every ball I hit, for the first six balls, goes out of the ballpark,” Mays recalled.

With a change of heart (and stomach), Mays promptly marched over the lineup sheet, crossed out whoever had been listed as the center fielder and inked his own name. Then he went 4-for-5 with eight RBIs, becoming just the ninth player in baseball history to hit four home runs in a single game.

“How about some more ribs?” McCovey asked him when it was over.

Willie clearly planned his death, or so it seems, including a statement that was released by his good friend Dusty Baker a day before MLB’s return to Rickwood Field in Birmingham, the oldest baseball stadium in America.  He also gifted a clock to the city.

“I wish I could be with you all today.  This is where I’m from.  I had my first pro hit here at Rickwood as a Baron in 1948.  And now this year, 76 years later, it finally got counted in the record books.  Some things take time, but I always think better late than never. Time changes things. Time heals wounds, and that is a good thing.  I had some of the best times of my life and Birmingham so I want you to have this clock to remember those times with me and remember all the other players who were lucky enough to play here at Rickwood Field in Birmingham. Remember, time is on your side.”

Tuesday, when the death of Willie Mays became public, I was watching the Mets’ Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez do the game from Texas when Cohen, seemingly the first to know, because the wire services and ESPN had yet to pick up on it, notified us of Willie’s passing.

Keith, who grew up in the Bay Area idolizing Mays, after a few minutes, gathering his thoughts, almost broke down describing the last time he saw Willie.

“What always came off was: He was The Say Hey Kid. He had that ebullient personality – infectious and genuine,” Hernandez said, fighting tears.  “And I got to tell him that he was the greatest player I ever saw.”

NBA

--It’s coming up, the NBA Draft...Wednesday and Thursday.  There is zero buzz around this edition and yours truly couldn’t care less, except I will be curious to see who the Knicks take with the Nos. 24, 25 and 38 picks.

--The big story in the NBA this week was the Lakers opting for JJ Redick as their next head coach, after being spurned by Dan Hurley. Redick, 39, has no coaching experience, but he co-hosts a podcast with LeBron James, who clearly advocated for Redick and who can also become a free agent.  Redick played 15 years in the NBA and was on the lead broadcast team with Mike Breen and Doris Burke for this year’s playoffs.

So, James will stay in L.A. and the Lakers will no doubt draft his son, Bronny, in the second round, so says just about everyone.

Hurley, Reddick, and Pelicans assistant James Borrego were the only candidates to have in-person interviews.  Anthony Davis reportedly was advocating for Borrego.

The Lakers are expected to add a former head coach to Redick’s staff as a lead assistant, someone like former Oklahoma City and Washington coach Scott Brooks, who has been linked to the Lakers.

Needless to say, while the selection of Redick wasn’t a shock because it was well-telegraphed until Hurley entered the picture...Redick as head coach of the Lakers IS a shock and a massive risk.  This could be LeBron’s final season, certainly no more than another two, and Davis is no spring chicken.

Bill Plaschke / Los Angeles Times

“So now it’s painfully clear that JJ doesn’t stand for Just Joking.

“So now this is real.

“Real unusual. Real unsettling. Real unfortunate.

“An NBA team in most need of strong leadership just hired a head coach who has never been a head coach, assistant coach, or any kind of coach.

“An NBA team desperate for a culture creator just hired a head coach who has never led a group of athletes at any level above youth basketball.

“An NBA team that just lost its share of the record for most championships – the newly crowned Boston Celtics now have 18, dammit! – just hired a coach who has never been involved with an NBA champion.

“An NBA team that needs a powerful voice to drown out the overwhelming and often misguided influence of LeBron James just hired LeBron James’ podcast partner.

“Welcome to the Lakers, JJ Redick.

“Buckle up, everybody else....

“Redick becomes their seventh full-time coach in the 13 years since Phil Jackson retired and the fourth coach in six years with James.

“What makes anyone think Redick’s tenure will renounce that sordid history?

“Absolutely nothing.

“For one, he’s not the Lakers’ first choice, and every player in that locker room will know that.”

--The Pistons fired coach Monty Williams, which is unsurprising given the team’s 14-68 season, but the timing is strange, as in why not make the move months ago if this was your predilection, and it is jarring that the 2022 Coach of the Year is already gone one season after signing a six-year, $78.5 million deal.  He has about $65 million remaining on that contract, so a huge embarrassment for the franchise.

Pistons front-office boss Trajan Langdon came over from New Orleans and could hire the aforementioned Pels assistant James Borrego to replace Williams, while the Pelicans are interested in bringing back former head coach Williams as a lead assistant.

Overall, Williams is 381-404 (.485) spanning 10 seasons with the Pelicans, Hornets, Suns and Pistons, including guiding the Suns to a 64-18 record in 2022, though that team lost in the conference semifinals with an embarrassing home loss in Game 7 to the Mavericks.

--The Pacers signed trade-deadline acquisition Pascal Siakam, 30, to a four-year, $189.5 million max contract.

--In the WNBA, the Indiana Fever won their fourth straight Friday night, 91-79 at the Atlanta Dream (6-8), the Fever now 7-10.

Caitlin Clark had 16 points, 4 of 8 from 3.  Through her first 17 games, she is averaging 16.2 points per game, but just 33.8% from behind the arc.

Golf Balls

--Another signature event following a major, this one The Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., no Rory McIlroy, who is in the box, getting his mind right.

But what a terrific leaderboard after two rounds, this being the point of signature events.

Tom Kim -13
Collin Morikawa -11
Akshay Bhatia -11
Scottie Scheffler -11
Xander Schauffele -10
Sungjae Im -9
Shane Lowry -9
Justin Thomas -9

Yup, Scheffler was back after his issues at the U.S. Open.

And after three rounds....

Kim -18
Bhatia -17
Scheffler -17
Schauffele -16
Im -16
Morikawa -15

Cameron Young -13

As good a leaderboard as you’ll see all season, with some fascinating figures, including Kim, who could easily become a superstar.

As for former Demon Deacon Young, he became the 13th player in PGA Tour history to break 60, with an 11-under 59.  Jim Furyk is the only one to shoot 58 back in 2016 on the same course.

Al Geiberger was the first to shoot 59 in 1977.

*Three spectators were hit by lightning while standing under a tree during the late-afternoon rain delay...thankfully, none seriously.

And what a shootout in Round Four....

Late in the round....

Patrick Cantlay -19...thru 14
Tony Finau -19...13
Scheffler -19...11
Bhatia -19...11
Kim -19...11
Tom Hoge -18...15

Kim was hoping he wouldn’t rue missing a short par-putt on No. 8.

Finau took the lead with a birdie at No. 15, but then inexplicably put his tee shot on the par-3 16th in the water, missing badly.

Scheffler and Kim birdied 13 to go to -20.

Meanwhile, Hoge, who fascinates me because he always seems to be solid but with just one win (at Pebble in 2022), came in this week with eight top 20s this year.  He ended up birdieing 15, 17, and 18 for a 62 to finish -20.  But this won’t be good enough.

And then....

Scheffler -22...15...birdieing 13-15
Kim -21...15
Hoge -20...F

And we move to 18, Scheffler still one-up...but his approach on the par-4 is just off the green and Kim almost jars his...can Kim birdie to force a playoff?

Scottie first of all needs to make a good putt....

And then a bunch of f’n protesters showed up!  Goddam bastards!

This was one time I liked the “USA! USA!” chants in response from the massive gallery. CBS should not have cut off the sound of the “Ass-holes! Ass-holes!” chant, but I get it. 

So, after the disruption and the crowd needing to settle down....

Scheffler hits a tremendous putt...just short.  Par.

Kim needs to sink his for the tie.  He nails it!  A playoff!

Wow...drama from all angles.

Scheffler -22
Kim -22
Hoge -20
Im -20
Cantlay -18
Bhatia -18
Finau -18
Thomas -18

They replay 18 with a different pin location due to the protest, and Kim’s approach shot is poor...a fried egg in the bunker...Scheffler’s approach is pure...just 12 feet.

Kim’s bunker shot isn’t good.

Scheffler wins it...six wins this year before July 1st, first since Arnold Palmer in 1962...win No. 12 for his career, all in the last three years.  Love it!

--The PGA Tour created a special sponsor exemption for Tiger Woods – and Woods alone – based on his “exceptional lifetime achievement,” the tour told its members in a memo Tuesday.

Woods will be given the sponsor exemption to compete in the eight signature events, with the increased prize money and FedEx Cup points.  Heck, he deserves it.  Problem is, as we all now know, physically he just can’t play more than a handful of tournaments a year, and the guy is 48, after all.

The tour also said it would develop an alternate list that would ensure that each of the signature events had a field of 72 players, the Travelers with 71 due to Rory’s withdrawal.

In the memo to the players, Commissioner Jay Monahan gave an update on the tour’s negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

“As we’ve said in the past – we can’t negotiate in public – but we are making progress,” Monahan told the policy board, according to the memo.

--Charlie Woods qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur championship, which will take part July 22-27 at Oakland Hills Country Club in Michigan.

--Last Sunday’s final round of the U.S. Open from Pinehurst averaged 5.9 million viewers on NBC, marking the most-watched final round of an East Coast U.S. Open since 2013 (seven telecasts).

As one would expect, ratings fell 11% and viewership 6% from last year’s final round at LA Country Club in California (5.92 million), which is why the USGA will make sure there is a West Coast Open, such as Pebble Beach in 2027 and 2032, and Riviera in 2031.

Hope I’m alive for them and lucid.

--On the LPGA Tour, Nelly Korda’s shocking fall Friday dropped her from contending at Sahalee Country Club to missing the cut.  Her second-round nine-over-par 81 matched the worst score of her career and had her missing the cut for a third straight start, after winning six times this season.

--Going back to the U.S. Open...Sally Jenkins / Washington Post:

“The wrong guy won the U.S. Open. It happens sometimes. The better golfer from tee to green – and the stronger man of character – was not Bryson DeChambeau. His brawny-armed slap hugs and audience pandering to beery bro chants of ‘USA!’ shouldn’t obscure the fact that he took Saudi blood money from a terrorism-financier government or that he stumble-lucked into a victory on one of the few courses in the world, Pinehurst No. 2, that would forgive his erratic thrashing off the tee.

“One great shot from a bunker to the 18th green – and credit due, it was great – is not the measure of someone’s moral constitution, and neither was that three-putt by Rory McIlroy.  DeChambeau’s character isn’t defined by his idle, dimpled chitchat with spectators between tees or how he let fans swarm him to put mustard fingerprints on the trophy.  ‘I want you guys to touch this trophy because I want you to experience what this feels like for me,’ he said afterward, with not a small hint of narcissism.  All of it was rich coming from a guy who betrayed American audiences and bailed on his U.S.-based PGA Tour colleagues to take giant bags of money from the sheikhs of the Kingdom, a reported $125 million for a four-year contract.

“DeChambeau’s frantic efforts at audience rapport all week long were so obviously a public relations effort to reestablish a connection with golf fans who have recoiled wholesale from LIV Golf. The glint of his smile or the glare of the victory silver should not blind anyone to his actual conduct.  It’s a true shame because the 30-year-old with the cartoon superhero’s jaw and the chesty swing yet soft hands really could be the star the game needs to replace the aging, ailing Tiger Woods. As it is, there’s no forgetting he’s a phony.  One who champions a regime with alleged connections to the 9/11 attacks that killed almost 3,000 Americans and was behind the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“The cringiest moment of DeChambeau’s post-victory ingratiating was when he disgracefully invoked the late Payne Stewart, the vividly clad icon. After DeChambeau made that save from the bunker, he bellowed, ‘That’s Payne right there, baby!’ as he walked off the 18th green.  As if Stewart had somehow intervened from heaven – or would have ever given him a benediction.

“All of the evidence suggests that Stewart would have been disgusted by DeChambeau’s defection and would have reviled LIV Golf.  Stewart was an ardent, demonstrative patriot who wept during ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at the Ryder Cup.  He specifically referenced the human rights violations of foreign regimes in discussing his American privilege.  Here was Stewart in a 1999 interview with Golf Digest editor Guy Yocum:

“ ‘I’m a patriotic person,’ Stewart said. ‘For these people who disgrace the American way and burn our flag and do all of these things...I say, don’t live here and disgrace my country. Go live in the Middle East and see how you like it.  Where if you steal something, they cut your hand off. Things like that. We live in such a sheltered environment in the United States.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have traveled all over the world, and I’ve seen things you only read about and see on the news.  Vicious poverty.  That’s why I’m very proud of being American.  I’m proud to pay my taxes.  I pay a lot of taxes, but it sure beats the alternative.’

“Meanwhile, here was DeChambeau’s noble stand on the Saudis, after agreeing to take their money: ‘Nobody is perfect.’....

“Stewart was no pure saint; he could be surly and big headed and profligate early in his career, and he certainly liked his money.  ‘Sales are going up,’ he joked on winning the PGA in his signature knickers.  But he steadily matured, he knew the fine line between winning and losing a major by a stroke could be all but indefinable, and he came to believe golf was as much a personal ethic as a game.  Maybe DeChambeau, too, can mature, into someone who deserves to properly invoke Payne Stewart.”

U.S. Olympic Trials

--Katie Ledecky will aim to join the great Michael Phelps at the Paris Olympics when she goes for a fourth straight gold medal in the same event.

Ledecky broke through with 800m freestyle gold at London 2012 aged 15.  She then won the 800 in Rio and Tokyo...among the 10 Olympic medals she has won.

Saturday, Ledecky became the first woman to win four titles at a single trials with a blistering 800m freestyle victory, finishing more than six seconds clear of her nearest challenger.

So, she’ll bid to extend her Olympic medal haul by featuring in the 400m free, 800m free, 1500m free in addition to the 4X200 freestyle relay in Paris.

--Sha’Carri Richardson secured her place on the U.S. Olympic team, winning the women’s 100m in Eugene, Oregon.  The 24-year-old world champion claimed victory in 10.71 seconds, which is the fastest time in the world this year. to qualify for her first Olympics.

Richardson won the 100m at the U.S. Olympic Trials three years ago but did not compete at the Tokyo Games after testing positive for Olympics. Ever since, it’s been about redemption.

“I cannot wait to go to Paris and represent,” she said last night.

Richardson won gold last summer at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.

Stuff

--In the Euro 2024 competition...we had some biggies in Group play Thursday, with Spain defeating Italy 1-0, while England only managed a 1-1 draw with Denmark, as there seems to be a little dissension on the England side, or at least uncertainty surrounding who should be on the pitch.

Friday, Netherlands and France played to a 0-0 draw.

Things will heat up once we get to the Round of 16.

--The Copa America tournament is just starting, with USA facing Bolivia tonight.  This too will heat up in the coming weeks and the tickets have been selling fast.  Team USA, or USMNT, needs to do well, and they should.  Such a performance will only further juice the 2026 World Cup in these parts.

--Legendary actor Donald Sutherland died on Thursday. He was 88.  His representatives said he died after an unspecified “long illness.”

As Clyde Haberman of the New York Times wrote, Sutherland had the “ability to both charm and unsettle, both reassure and repulse,” as amply displayed in scores of films as a laid-back battlefield surgeon in “M*A*S*H,” a ruthless Nazi spy in “Eye of the Needle,” a soulful father in “Ordinary People” and a strutting fascist in “1900.”

“With his long face, droopy eyes, protruding ears and wolfish smile, the 6-foot-4 Mr. Sutherland was never anyone’s idea of a movie heartthrob.  He often recalled that while growing up in eastern Canada, he once asked his mother if he was good-looking, only to be told, ‘No, but your face has a lot of character.’  He recounted how he was once rejected for a film role by a producer who said: ‘This part calls for a guy-next-door type.  You don’t look like you’ve lived next door to anyone.’”

But starting in the early 1960s, Sutherland appeared in nearly 200 films and television shows.  “His chameleonlike ability to be endearing in one role, menacing in another and just plain odd in yet a third appealed to directors, among them Federico Fellini, Robert Altman, Bernardo Bertolucci and Oliver Stone.”

“For me, working with these great guys was like falling in love,” Mr. Sutherland said of those filmmakers. “I was their lover, their beloved.”

Sutherland first came to the attention of many moviegoers as one of the Army misfits and sociopaths in “The Dirty Dozen” (1967). 

And aside from the others listed above... “Don’t Look Now” with Julie Christie and “Klute” with Jane Fonda, the two then having an affair that lasted three years.

Sutherland played a pot-smoking professor in “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” the mysterious X in Oliver Stone’s “JFK”, a self-important father in “Six Degrees of Separation,” and the president in the “Hunger Games” series of the 2010s.  He also had a lot of stinkers.

Sutherland was born in Saint John, a coastal town in New Brunswick (beautiful spot), living his formative years in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.  He attended the University of Toronto, graduating in 1956 as an English major.

But he had the acting bug and went off to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.  He got his start working in horror films, cast “as an artistic homicidal maniac,” Sutherland told The Guardian in 2005.  He did enough to become one of “The Dirty Dozen.”

Kiefer Sutherland wrote: “With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away.  I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film.  Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly.  He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that.  A life well lived.”

--Kansas legislators approved a bipartisan plan Tuesday aimed at luring the Kansas City Chiefs away from Missouri by helping finance a new stadium for the Super Bowl champions.  The plan would include a new stadium in the state for the MLB Royals as well.

It was in April that voters on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area refused to extend a sales tax used to keep up the teams’ existing stadiums, which sit side by side.

But this will be playing out over years as Missouri officials have said they’ll do whatever it takes to keep the teams but haven’t outlined any proposals.

--A tourist from New Mexico was killed in Zambia when an elephant charged her, according to the police commissioner who investigated the incident. She is the second tourist to be fatally attacked by an elephant in the southern African country this year.

The woman, 64, had just visited Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World that straddles the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and was heading back to her hotel on Wednesday when the group that she was traveling with encountered a herd of elephants on the road.

She and others stepped out of their vehicle to observe the animals, the police commissioner said in a telephone interview on Saturday.

“They stopped to watch the elephants, and unfortunately one of them charged towards them as they were standing there watching,” he said.  The woman was declared dead on arrival at a clinic nearby, her injuries including deep wounds on the right shoulder blade and forehead, a fractured left ankle and a slightly depressed chest, according to a police statement.

This past March, a 79-year-old American woman on safari in a different part of Zambia was killed when an elephant charged the tour group’s vehicle.

Elephant remains No. 2 on the All-Species List behind Dog.  But the ASL Supreme Council in Kazakhstan reserves the right to put Elephant on probation, seeing as the tourist dollars are in part designed to help save the wildlife in Africa, and the elephants should know this.

--Did you know that 4,000 people die every year of snakebites in Kenya!  Goodness gracious.  Another 7,000 experienced paralysis or other health complications, according to the local Institute of Primate Research.

The problem is growing.  As the forests shrink due to logging and agricultural expansion, snakes are turning up around homes more frequently.

The issue is that the local medical facilities lack antivenom to treat snake bites.

Top 3 songs for the week 6/22/63:  #1 “Sukiyaki” (Kyu Sakamoto...ah yes, little did America know what was coming in less than seven months...)  #2 “It’s My Party” (Lesley Gore) #3 “Hello Stranger” (Barbara Lewis)...and...#4 “You Can’t Sit Down” (The Dovells) #5 “Blue On Blue” (Bobby Vinton...underrated artist...)  #6 “Da Doo Ron Ron” (The Crystals)  #7 “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days Of Summer” (Nat King Cole...the one and only...)  #8 “Still” (Bill Anderson) #9 “I Love You Because” (Al Martino) #10 “One Fine Day” (The Chiffons...pretty good week, boys and girls...it’s a B+...)

Golf Quiz Answer: Seven different U.S. players and seven straight majors, from 1975 PGA through the 1977 U.S. Open...Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd, Jerry Pate, Johnny Miller, Dave Stockton, Tom Watson and Hubert Green.

Brief Add-on up top by noon, Tues. Game 7 NHL...

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