90s Sports Quiz: The following is gleaned from the Wall Street
Journal (3/10), with a twist. Just testing everyone”s short-term
memory.
1) Which was the worst baseball team of the 1990s? (Non-
expansion…not including Tampa, Florida,
Colorado, Arizona)
2) What was the worst football team of the 90s? (Again, non-
expansion teams)
3) Worst NBA franchise in the 90s? Answers below.
Television Ratings
Sunday”s Oscars presentation on ABC has traditionally been the
second biggest day of the year for advertising, trailing only the
Super Bowl. According to the New York Times Stuart Elliott,
the advertising boom continues. “There is still no end in sight to
the strong demand for commercial time among marketers –
whether dot-com or not-com – which has intensified their need to
break through the clutter.”
Oscar ratings often depend on the Best Picture nominees. For
example the numbers were huge for 1998 when “Titanic” won 11
awards. It fell off last year. But even in the weak years, the
telecast is still the second-highest rated show behind the Super
Bowl.
30-second spots are going for $1.3 million, 30 percent higher
than the record $1 million set last year. With 48 30-second spots
scheduled during the show that means ABC will garner about
$62 million.
Software maker SAP is running a 90-second spot, featuring
golfer Gary Player, as a way of kicking off a new campaign.
And then there is the NBA. Boy, they are struggling big time
since the retirement of Michael Jordan. NBC spent $1.75 billion
for the rights to telecast games for four years (commencing last
season) and the audience is down some 20%. The decline is
having a horrible impact on NBC”s prime-time ratings as well.
Two Sunday”s ago, the network had a prime-time game which
led the network to its lowest rating for any night in a television
season in the network”s history.
With Jordan, the ratings had held steady through the end of his
career. The usual excuses are given for the subsequent decline;
cable, increased local coverage of games, after-hours trading.
But also, as I mentioned in a piece on the NCAA tournament a
few days ago, Tiger Woods presence has significantly hurt the
Sunday afternoon NBA telecasts too.
Commissioner David Stern admits that college stars not staying
in school is having a significant adverse impact. “There”s a
building process to exposure for these star players.” Stern is
relying on a buildup of new stars such as Vince Carter, Kevin
Garnett, and Kobe Bryant.
And it can”t please NBC that pro wrestling, on both UPN and
USA, is averaging 7 million viewers in prime time versus the
NBA”s 5.9 million average. [Source: Bill Carter, New York
Times]
NCAA
As if the sporting scene didn”t have enough problems, a new
potential labor union is being formed, the Student Basketball
Council, presently comprised of 40-some college stars.
The goal of the “union” is to pressure the NCAA into paying
college athletes. An executive committee of the Council is
scheduled to hold a meeting the weekend of the Final Four.
The players are after a portion of the $6 billion in television
money. What would the athletes be paid? After all, a 4-year
college scholarship is already worth at least $100,000. And
where do the demands end?
Sportswriter Sid Dorfman adds, “And if the colleges abandon
amateurism, what of high school? And what of the ladies and
Title IX who would certainly demand their fair share?”
So far it”s just the basketball players but obviously the
footballers would follow, and then the field hockey players.
Bhopal
Clinton”s trip to India forced me to look up the Bhopal disaster.
It was back on December 3, 1984 that poisonous gas leaked
from a Union Carbide plant, killing 2,500 in the world”s worst
industrial accident. In 1989, India”s Supreme Court ordered
Carbide to pay $470 million in damages.
H. Rap Brown
I had to note the recent arrest of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, or H.
Rap Brown, the former black militant who I profiled in a Bar
Chat last June. Brown is accused of killing a sheriff”s deputy in
Atlanta last Thursday. He was sniffed out five days later by
hounds in Alabama after 5 days on the run. Authorities found
the rifle that supposedly was used in the killing and Brown was
also wearing a bullet proof vest upon his arrest.
After his Alabama court appearance, Brown declared defiantly,
“It”s a government conspiracy, man.” His attorney, J.L.
Chestnutt, a veteran of the civil rights movement, couched the
case in racial terms, as well, in speaking with reporters. He said
Brown was targeted “because he”s a black man who has been
fighting the system all his life.” Hmmm.
*J Mac passed along a true story (Reuters) of an arrest at a
French airport a few days ago. It seems that a Colombian was
trying to smuggle a 16-inch boa into the country (illegal as it is
an endangered species). Once again, the dogs came through as
they sniffed out the snake…in the guy”s shorts.
Best Picture
I was glancing through a list the other day and just picked out the
following era as probably the best when it came to truly
outstanding flicks (at least the Oscar winners).
1970 – Patton
1971 – The French Connection
1972 – The Godfather
1973 – The Sting
1974 – The Godfather, Part II
1975 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo”s Nest
Top 3 songs for the week of 3/21/70: #1 “Bridge Over Troubled
Water” (Simon & Garfunkel) #2 “The Rapper” (The Jaggerz)
#3 “Give Me Just A Little More Time” (Chairmen of the Board).
Some of you have written of your favorite live albums. Harry K
argues for The Who”s “Live at Leeds” and the Allman Brothers
“Live at Fillmore East.” Harry also mused about Janis Joplin
and her penchant for Southern Comfort as well as heroin. But in
the summer of 1970, Janis was part of the Festival Express, a
tour which took about 20 bands and put them on a train, so, as
Harry put it, “like, you could move the whole rock festival from
town to town, man. Too bad all the amps and stuff had to go by
truck and arrive two days later.” Nonetheless, HK said it was a
good concert, at least what he remembers.
To my friend Liz S., I may have to check out Supertramps”
“Crisis? What Crisis?” Right now, I”m stuck on my Burt
Bacharach boxed set. Bet some of you didn”t know that the
Shirelles “Baby It”s You” is a Bacharach / David tune.
Quiz answers: Baseball – Detroit, .452; Minnesota, .463.
Football – Cincinnati, .325 (52-108); Arizona, .363 (58-102)
Basketball – Dallas, .282 (199-507); Minnesota, .340 (240-466).
Next Bar Chat, Monday…the FBI”s Ten Most Wanted List.
