Baseball Quiz: Carlos Delgado and Todd Helton should finish
the year with over 100 extra-base hits, making them only the 11th
and 12th players to have accomplished that. 1) Who are the only
two players to get over 110 in a single season? 2) Who is the
only player in baseball history to hit 50 doubles and 50 home
runs in the same season? Answers below.
Beware of the Animals
Pat Borzi of the Star-Ledger newspaper wrote a story that is right
up the alley of your editor. As Borzi puts it, “Australia is a
Chinese buffet of things that can kill you, collectively called ”the
nasties” by Australians.”
The 10 most poisonous snakes in the world are here; including
the brown snake, which is indigenous to Sydney, along with the
tiger, taipan and death adder. 18 Aussies died of snakebites in
the 1980s.
The mosquito-borne Ross River virus is the nation”s equivalent
of West Nile.
Box jellyfish are more prominent, and poisonous, than the
Portuguese Man O” War.
There is the paralysis tick. You can figure out what that little
sucker does.
Riptides can kill you, as they did in 1967 when Prime Minister
Harold Holt was swept away, his body never found (probably
gobbled up by sharks, mused the editor).
But it”s the spiders that should give you the real creeps.
Australians particularly take precautions against the world”s
deadliest, the funnel web spider, which comes out in wet
weather. [There is a vaccine, supposedly, for a funnel web bite.]
The redback spider is also capable of administering lethal poison.
Separately, you”ve all now heard about the shark alert in Sydney
Harbor where the triathlon and yachting events will be held. So
while I have also seen many stories that there is nothing to worry
about, especially this time of year down under, I was watching
the “Today Show” Tuesday morning and, sure enough, there are
well-established shark nets which protect swimmers in certain
parts of the harbor. Don”t tell me there aren”t any sharks!! [The
editor can”t get enough of this stuff.]
Weather Bit
Everyone says Mother Nature is definitely throwing us some
curve balls, whether it is unusually warm winters, drought in the
southwest, record storms in France…and New Jersey, or, this
week, record rains in Japan. In Nagoya, the 3rd-largest
metropolitan area, they just had another of those “storms of the
century” as a typhoon dumped 23 inches of rain in a 24-hour
period.
The Olympics
Look for tons of records to be set as there is no denying the fact
that today”s athletes are the best trained and best equipped ever.
Some say that swimming records could fall by huge amounts.
Allen St. John, writing in U.S. News, had the comparison of
Australia”s Ian Thorpe, the current world champ in the 400-meter
freestyle, with the 1932 Olympic champion in the same event,
Buster Crabbe. Crabbe would have finished 2 full pool lengths
behind Thorpe.
And there is the case of U.S. women”s pole vaulter Stacy
Dragila. Dragila”s best is 15” 2″. Bob Richards won the 1956
pole vault at 14” 11″.
Or you can look at Jesse Owens and his 10.3 100-meter time in
the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Florence Griffith-Joyner is the
women”s record holder at 10.49 (10.54 in the 1988 Olympics).
42% of this year”s Olympians will be women. But when it
comes to women athletes and advertising, sex still sells better
than athletic prowess. Witness Anna Kournikova, who should
earn about $15 million this year in endorsements, even though
she hasn”t won a tournament yet. The men of the world are very
upset about this situation. Yup, very upset.
Bobby Morrow
Perhaps the least known great track athlete of all time, Morrow is
the Texan who won both the 100 and 200-meter dashes at the
1956 Melbourne Olympics (he also won a 3rd gold in the 4 X 100
relay). That year, Morrow was also selected to be Sports
Illustrated”s “Sportsman of the Year.” But then it all changed
for him.
Morrow grew particularly resentful of then International
Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage, a man who had
formerly run the U.S. Olympic Committee. In light of all that
has transpired with the scandals in Salt Lake City, it shouldn”t
surprise anyone just how awful Olympic officials were back in
the 1950s and early 60s.
Morrow was particularly upset at how the officials would grab
up the nice accommodations and first class amenities for
themselves and their wives while the athletes were treated like
garbage.
And in 1960, Bobby Morrow suffered the ultimate indignity. As
he explained in a June article in Sports Illustrated*, he had
completed his college eligibility and was working in Abilene
while training independently.
“I ran at invitational meets around the country. I would cash in
my plane ticket and drive to wherever the meet or public
appearance was, so that I could eat. That was typical of what
track and field athletes had to do in those days. According to
Brundage, along with the AAU, which sanctioned the meets, we
were supposed to sleep on park benches. They let me on this
CBS Quiz Show, ”To Tell the Truth,” and the network had to
superimpose this announcement on the screen that said my $25
winnings would be donated to Abilene Christian.”
About a year before the 1960 U.S. Olympic Trials, Morrow
pulled a groin muscle very badly and it still bothered him when
the trials rolled around. He failed to qualify for the team.
“But the coaches asked me to stay in California and work out
with the team, thinking I would get a relay spot as an alternate.
Or at least that was what I was thinking. I took a month off from
my job at the bank, and pretty soon my leg was better and I was
beating some of the guys who had made the team. The coach,
Larry Snyder, instructed me to show up at the airport in Los
Angeles and accompany the team to Rome. But when I got to
the airport, he said there was no room for me on the plane.”
Four years earlier, Morrow had been “Sportsman of the Year.”
He was a 3-time Olympic champion. He is also a proud man.
Bobby Morrow never laced them up again.
In 1961 he sought out Attorney General Robert Kennedy and
was allowed to testify at a Senate hearing on the plight of track
and field athletes who were forced to live on a $15 per diem
while U.S. Olympic and AAU officials led a life of luxury.
That would prove to be the final straw. Morrow was essentially
excommunicated from the track and field world. You see, Avery
Brundage wielded incredible clout in those days. Bobby Morrow
didn”t stand a chance.
*In saving the referenced article, I lost the author”s name. I
apologize for this omission.
Tiger Woods
After last week”s victory in the Canadian Open, it is time to
unequivocally say that Tiger has just completed the greatest
summer in the history of golf. He won 5 of the 7 tournaments he
entered and achieved the scoring mark in all five wins! Of
course, this wasn”t five Magnolia Opens, either. U.S. Open,
British Open, Canadian Open, PGA and the World Series at
Firestone.
Tiger became the first to sweep the U.S., British and Canadian
titles since Lee Trevino in 1971. And he now has won 9 of the
17 tournaments he has entered this year, the most victories since
Sam Snead won 11 in 1950. [The record is Byron Nelson”s 18 in
1945.] Finally, since the 1999 Memorial tournament, Tiger has
won 16 of 27.
Top 3 songs for the week of 9/16/67: #1 “Ode To Billie Joe”
(Bobbie Gentry) #2 “Reflections” (Diana Ross & The
Supremes) #3 “Come Back When You Grow Up” (Bobby Vee)
Rambling With Gambling
You have to be from the New York area to appreciate this but
after an incredible 75 years, WOR radio fired John R. Gambling,
the last of 3 Gambling”s to host the longest running program in
radio history, “Rambling With Gambling.”
It all started in 1925 when John B. Gambling, John R”s
grandfather, started the morning drive-time program, turning it
over to son John A. in 1959, who then handed the reigns to his
own son, John R., in 1989.
This was the program that all the families listened to as I was
growing up. Even though I was a WABC-AM music listener, in
the morning it was WOR. And I must say, a big reason why I am
the news junkie I am today is from all of the quality news that
“Rambling With Gambling” incorporated into their light format.
Plus, it was the first station to have a helicopter traffic reporter
(and I”ll never forget the day that one of them crashed).
I can”t say I listened to the program since I went to college, but I
do have fond memories. Gambling was canned because the
program wasn”t attracting the right demographics (25 to 54-year-
olds.even though it was #10 out of 47 programs in the crowded
New York market).
Baseball Quiz: 1) Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are the only two
players to get over 110 extra-base hits in a single season. Ruth
did it in 1921; 44 2B 16 3B 59 HR.119. Gehrig, 1927; 52 2B
18 3B 47 HR.117. 2) Albert Belle, 1995.52 2B – 50 HR (he
also had one triple).
Get to Know Dedric: So I went to Monday”s Jets – Patriots
game and we were all handed a little media booklet. This week”s
contained a profile of Jets receiver Dedric Ward. It talked about
his favorite food (lasagne) and favorite car (Lexus GS 400).
What caught my attention, though, was Dedric”s favorite place,
“heaven.” For thousands of years people have pondered the
question, “Just what is heaven like?” Now we can ask Dedric!
Next Bar Chat, Friday.
