Football Quiz: Yup, it”s time to get started. 1) Who led the NFC
in rushing in 1998? [Yes, 1998] 2) Name the Top 3 all-time
scorers? Answers below.
8/22/65
Yeah, it”s not quite August 22 but I thought I would beat anyone
else who happens to write about this date in baseball history. It
was one of the all-time donnybrooks.
In Candlestick Park, San Francisco, the Giants were playing the
Los Angeles Dodgers. On the mound were perhaps the two best
in baseball at the time, Juan Marichal for the Giants and the
Dodgers Sandy Koufax. And receiving Koufax”s pitches was
L.A. catcher Johnny Roseboro.
Roseboro had been touted as the likely successor to Roy
Campanella when he was called up by the Dodgers in 1957. And
he proved to be a solid player, but no Campanella, as he stuck
around for 14 years and hit .249 with 104 HR and 548 RBI.
[This was in an era during which there were few great-hitting
catchers; pre-Bench, Simmons and Sanguillen.]
On August 22, Juan Marichal threw at the Dodgers Maury Wills
and Ron Fairly early in the contest; just part of the intimidation
game that was played back then. Roseboro knew that Koufax
“was constitutionally incapable of throwing at anyone”s head. So
I decided to take matters into my own hands.”
Koufax did brush back Willie Mays but when Marichal came to
bat, Roseboro whizzed a return throw to the mound close to
Marichal”s head. Marichal claimed the throw nicked his ear.
Roseboro denied it.
“Why did you do that?” screamed Juan. He then settled into the
batter”s box.only to suddenly turn and clobber Roseboro three
times over the head with his bat. [And catchers didn”t wear
protective helmets behind the plate in those days.]
Roseboro got up to retaliate and swung several times at Marichal.
Both benches emptied. Marichal ran toward the Giants dugout
and the bloodied Roseboro took out after him.
Willie Mays was yelling to Roseboro, “Stop fighting! Your eye is
out!”
Marichal was taunting Roseboro, and then Dodgers coach Danny
Ozark attacked Marichal. Roseboro was a bloody mess.
“I thought the bat had knocked Roseboro”s left eye out,” said
Dodger manager Walter Alston. “There was nothing but blood
where his eye had been.”
Roseboro”s eye was still intact. Later he admitted, “Of course I
had provoked the incident. But I don”t think anything I did
justified Marichal hitting me on the head with his bat.”
For his part, Marichal was suspended 9 games (though he really
missed just one start) as well as $1,750.the largest in league
history.
I remember seeing the pictures in publications like LIFE
magazine, my first vivid baseball memory as I was just 7. I
imagine if that happened today, the player would be out for the
season.then again, Carl Everett only received 10 games for
head-butting an umpire.
[Source: Baseball – The Biographical Encyclopedia]
Nature”s Hostile Takeover
About a week ago, the Washington Post”s Joel Achenbach wrote
of the various attacks that nature has launched against the United
States. We”re talking serious stuff here, folks. For example:
–Lygodium: An Old Word climbing fern is literally choking off
the trees in parts of the Everglades. It is the classic invasive
species; an organism that is transported by humans to areas where
it has no natural enemies.
–Exotic species, including diseases, cost the nation more than
$130 billion a year.
–Domestic honeybees are under siege from not only “killer” bees
but also the invasive Varroa mite that have arrived from South
America.
–Aside from West Nile Virus (or, as Tom Brokaw said the other
day, West Vile Nirus) the Asian tiger mosquito, which bites all
day long, has been plaguing the Washington area.
–The sagebrush of Nevada is being replaced by cheat grass, an
invader from Europe that is explosively flammable.
–More than 5,000 maple trees in New York and Chicago have
been cut down due to the Asian longhorn beetle, a totally
disgusting creature if I may say so myself.
Achenbach notes that the invaders “are characterized not so much
by their exotic origins as by their virulent behavior.”
We are increasingly susceptible for the simple fact that the ancient
barriers – oceans, rivers, mountain ranges – have been breached.
Even the treads of a hiker”s boot can become the perfect slot for
an exotic seed. Other examples:
–Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is concerned about ”buffel
grass,” a species from Mexico that “carries fire wonderfully” and
now threatens the saguaro cactus.
–Hawaii used to see maybe one new species every 10,000 years
due to its remoteness. Today, many of the islands are seeing the
extinction of native birds and plants. And any one who has been
there knows how the islands are constantly on guard for the
brown tree snake, which could stow away on planes from Guam.
Just a few decades ago, Guam received its first brown snake and
today, there are virtually no birds left. I was on Guam, myself,
two years ago and the first thing I asked the cabdriver at the
airport was “So is this snake really as bad as I hear?” “You see
any birds?” he replied. On the route to my hotel, I didn”t see any,
nor did I see one the whole time I was there. [It also triggers lots
of power failures and has bitten quite a few people in their homes.
So when I checked into my hotel, the first thing I did was look
under my bed and in the closets. Not that I would have known
what to do if I had seen one of these huge monstrosities.]
–Experts in South Florida say 5,000 invasive primates are on the
loose. Capuchin monkeys may be forming troops in the wild.
The culprit is the international traffic in exotic creatures. For
instance, Pythons go for just $59.
A wildlife expert at Miami International Airport said, “We”re the
hotbed for venomous reptiles.” The inspections require rapid
peeking, in the event a crazed lizard pokes its head out. Today, a
colony of Caimans (a kind of alligator that can grow up to 10 feet
long) is breeding near the Turkey Point nuclear plant.
And then there was the case of a plant nursery near the
Everglades that was flooded last fall. When the waters receded,
the workers sloshed about the nursery as they attempted to clean
up. Then they felt something slithering around their ankles.
Asian swamp eels. Said one government biologist, “They don”t
even have to stick to water – they can wriggle across a moist
road.”
But wait…there”s more.
Recently, the Leisure World retirement community in Orange
County was inundated by thousands of cottontail rabbits. Forced
into the open since developers cut down local woodlands, they hit
the old folks.
“They”re everywhere,” says Bill Narang, Leisure World”s
administrator. Since the average resident is 79 years of age, it”s a
problem. Leisure World”s proposal to shoot the rabbits has so far
succeeded in flushing out only angry animal rights advocates.
[Source: Sunday Times Magazine]
And then there are the New Jersey Bears.
This weekend, more stories on my favorite topic. Residents in
the northwest corner of the state are being hit hard. In the small
county of Stillwater alone, 7 homes were broken into by bears
within a 3-week period in July. They are now breaking through
living room windows to get to the refrigerators!
Actually, the biggest problem is that some local jerks are feeding
them.
Kenya”s Olympic Marathon Team
All is not rosy with the Kenyans. The chairman of the Kenya
Amateur Athletics Association kicked off one of the three
representatives because he wasn”t training hard enough. So
Kenya will only have two runners. Which means they won”t
sweep the medals!!!
It turns out that two others who had qualified earlier had also
been kicked off for not training hard enough. I find this a little
hard to believe since these guys can outrun gazelles. But a fourth
marathoner had some legitimate bad luck. Ondoro Osoro would have
been going to Sydney were it not for the fact that he was shot by
carjackers. Osoro clearly should have run to the store for the milk.
Top 3 songs for the week of 8/5/67: #1 “Light My Fire” (The
Doors) #2 “I Was Made To Love Her” (Stevie Wonder)
#3 “All You Need Is Love” (The Beatles).
Football Quiz Answers: 1) Jamal Anderson, 1846 yds.
2) #1 George Blanda, 2002; #2 Gary Anderson, 1948
#3 Morten Andersen, 1840.
Next Bar Chat, Wednesday…more One-Hit Wonders and the
great Tom Jones.
