National League Quiz: Scott Williamson of Cincy won the
Rookie of the Year Award for ”99, but the L.A. Dodgers have
generally had a monopoly on this award. Who were the 4 Dodger
winners between 1979 and 1982? Answer below.
Tiger Woods
I feel like I have paid the man short shrift but what a year he had.
By now you know that he was the first since Ben Hogan in 1953
to win 4 straight tournaments (including last Sunday”s at
Valderrama which counted as a PGA event). His 8 PGA titles for
the year were the most since Johnny Miller won 8 in 1974. It
really is amazing because there was a time when winning 3 in a
year was super. Anyway, even the great Jack Nicklaus didn”t win
8 in a single year. BUT MY MAN ARNIE, DID. TWICE!!
PALMER for President…is it too late?! And as my friends are
sick of hearing, if I could follow just one golfer at next year”s
Master”s, it would be Palmer…at age 70.
“That”s not Frank! That”s an impostor!”
There was a little article in the December issue of Runner”s World
that reminded me of a great Olympic moment. The scene was the
1972 Men”s Marathon at the Munich Games. As American Frank
Shorter was about to enter the Olympic Stadium for his final lap
or so, with the crowd on its feet awaiting his appearance, an
impostor by the name of Norbert Sudhaus snuck in ahead of him
in the tunnel leading onto the track.
As Mark Will-Weber writes, “Up in the ABC-TV broadcast
booth, marathoner and ”Love Story” author Erich Segal, from
whom Shorter had taken a Greek comedy class at Yale, was
bellowing: ”That”s not Frank! That”s an impostor!”” Track
officials quickly snagged Sudhaus and Shorter was able to savor
the moment.
Steve Muhammad…dirtball
On Monday,I read about the tragic death of Indianapolis Colts
player Steve Muhammad”s wife after giving birth to a stillborn
infant. I thought, “God, that”s awful.” Then, as is too often the
case these days, I found out the rest of the story Tuesday.
Nichole Muhammad went into premature labor and died from
excessive bleeding Sunday, 10 days after her husband was
arrested and charged with three counts of battery against her and
their 6-year-old son; charges for which Muhammad surrendered
to police and had faced a hearing scheduled for December.
Now to be fair, according to the AP report, the doctor with
Indiana University said the injuries Mrs. Muhammad suffered in
the alleged beating were not the cause, rather she was affected
more by injuries on her chest and lower abdomen after hitting a
steering wheel in an auto accident a few days before she died.
Seems to me it”s one of those stories where we”ll never know the
truth.
Studio 54
Disco was rocking America in the ”70s when the Studio 54
nightclub burst on the New York party scene, April 1977. It soon
became “the embodiment of the most decadent social period of
any city in modern history. By 1978, New York was headlong
into an era of staggering permissiveness.” [Steven Gaines].
Founded by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, the club”s success
solidified, in the public mind, the connection between disco and
an aristocratic sensibility. Rubell “was famous for the arbitrary
brutality of his door policies: allowing a woman in but not her
date, demanding that people strip naked before entering, telling
would-be guests they would never be let in under any
circumstances because they were gauche, or not well shaven, or
tackily dressed.” This assured those that got in that they were in a
world “that was completely safe for you to do whatever you
wanted.” And ladies and gentlemen, that”s why it eventually
closed.
And Disco was to have its end soon thereafter as well. For it was
on a July night in 1979 that Steve Dahl, a Chicago disc jockey
and fervent disco hater staged the famous Disco Demolition rally
in Chicago”s Comiskey Park. The idea was to detonate disco
records between games of a doubleheader the White Sox were
hosting. But Sox fans began chanting, “Disco sucks” and “Death
to disco.” Things got a little out of hand, to say the least, and
basically the stadium was torn up by the mob. The Comiskey riot
became synonymous with the end of the disco era. [Source:
American Heritage magazine].
More On Fake Sports Memorabilia
A few weeks ago I had a Bar Chat on the crisis in the
memorabilia business. Well, the investigation which is centered in
my great state of New Jersey, is intensifying, though the FBI
is divulging little. However, evidently one California dealer has
turned state”s witness and tells tails like a retailer who requested
360 Roger Maris balls, 240 balls signed by Satchel Paige, and
another 240 bearing the signature of Thurman Munson.
In another case, one informant says he witnessed the forging of
signatures of such notables as Jack Dempsey, Frank Sinatra, Babe
Ruth, Ty Cobb, the Beatles and even Abraham Lincoln. What
about Joe Schlabotnik? [Charlie Brown”s favorite player].
[Source: Robert Rudolph, Star-Ledger]
Top 3 songs for the week of 11/10/73: #1 “Keep On Truckin””
(Eddie Kendricks) #2 “Midnight Train To Georgia” (Gladys
Knight & The Pips…gosh, I hate that song) #3 “Angie”
(The Rolling Stones).
Quiz Answers: 1979 – Rick Sutcliffe 1980 – Steve Howe (snort,
snort) 1981 – Fernando Valenzuela 1982 – Steve Sax.
Next Bar Chat, Friday.
