Baseball Quiz: [Well, it\’\’s that time of year again, when we start
a slew of baseball quizzes to catch you all up on career marks
before the new season begins.] 1) Name the seven players who
played in 3000 or more games? 2) Name the six players who
scored 2,000 or more runs? Answers below.
[Abe Lincoln, pioneer, will not be seen in order to bring you the
following special program. Abe\’\’s story will be shown on Friday
in this space.]
Valentine\’\’s Day
Back in 1754, according to the "Encyclopedia of American Facts
and Dates" (edited by Gorton Carruth), a colonial girl recorded
the following:
"Last Friday was St. Valentine\’\’s Day, and the night before I got
five bay leaves and pinned four on the corners of my pillow and
the fifth to the middle; and then if I dreamt of my sweetheart,
Betty said we should be married before the year was out. But to
make it more sure I boiled an egg hard and took out the yolk and
filled it with salt; and when I went to bed ate it shell and all,
without speaking or drinking after it. [ed. I never speak while
drinking grog.] We also wrote our lovers\’\’ names on bits of
paper, and rolled them up in clay and put them into water; and
the first that rose up was to be our Valentine. Would you think
it? Mr. Blossom was my man. I lay abed and shut my eyes all
the morning, till he came to our house, for I would not have seen
another man before him for all the world."
It was about this time that the history of valentines in America
began. Guides containing valentine verses were imported from
England and many senders in America simply copied these.
But when it comes to the real origin for the holiday, Harry K. has
allowed me to use some material he forwarded on to his friends
the other day.
—
Valentine\’\’s Day was named after Saint Valentine, though the
Catholic Church has at least three that may qualify for the real
title. The most likely candidate is a 3rd century priest named
Valentine. When Emperor Claudius II decided single men made
better soldiers than married ones, he outlawed marriage for all
young men, the better to insure a good crop of catapult fodder
(cannons not having been invented yet). Valentine, legend has it,
thought that decree was unfair, and continued to perform
weddings in secret. Claudius discovered his actions, and had
him arrested and sentenced to death. Other stories suggest that
Valentine was killed for helping Christians escape harsh Roman
prisons where they were routinely tortured and beaten.
Anyway, the legend we\’\’re sticking with has it that Valentine,
while on death row, fell in love with his jailer\’\’s daughter, who
visited him during his confinement. Before his execution he is
alleged to have sent her a note, signed "from your Valentine," a
phrase still used today. By the Middle Ages, St. Valentine was
one of the most popular saints in England and France.
Valentine\’\’s Day is thought by some to be on the anniversary of
his execution (around 270 AD). More likely is the notion that
the early Church decided to hold the feast day for the popular
saint in mid-February to \’\’christianize\’\’ celebrations of the pagan
festival Lupercalia. In ancient Rome, Lupercalia was the official
beginning of spring and celebrated on the Ides of February, as a
festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman God of Fertility.
Members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would
gather at Romulus and Remus\’\’s sacred cave, and sacrifice a goat
for fertility, and a dog for purification. Then they would slice the
goat hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood, and boys
would run through the streets of Rome, gently slapping any
women they encountered with the goat hide strips. Women
welcomed being hit with the strips because they believed it
would make them more fertile in the year ahead. Later in the
day, all the single women in Rome would put their names in a
large urn. The city\’\’s bachelors would then pull a name and
become paired for the year with that woman. Many of these
pairings later resulted in marriages.
Around 498 AD, Pope Gelasius declared February 14th as St.
Valentine\’\’s Day. He also declared the Roman lottery system for
romantic pairing was Un-Christian and banned it. During the
Middle Ages, it was a common belief that Feb. 14th was the
beginning of birds\’\’ mating season, adding to the idea that
Valentine\’\’s Day should be a day for romance.
As for the connection of Valentine\’\’s Day to chocolate, while it
dates back to the Aztecs, it was only available as a drink up until
1847, when a Dutch chemist invented the chocolate press, which
allowed the production of chocolate candies. In 1876, Daniel
Peter, a Swiss candy maker, invented milk chocolate. As far as
links between the holiday and the sweet, there are some possible
connections. (1) Chocolate candy appeared about the same time
as cheap postal service became available to the general public,
and gained in popularity along with the practice of sending
valentines, (2) chocolate contains Phenylethylamine (PEA),
which is a chemical produced naturally by the body when you
are in love. That "rush of infatuation" is really a drug-induced
high. Which explains the reasoning behind men thinking up the
idea of giving chocolate to women they wanted to woo – they
were plying them with drugs!
Lastly, don\’\’t feed chocolate to your dogs. It\’\’s toxic, due to the
presence of the chemical theobromine. Rover won\’\’t croak if he
only snarfs up a few M&Ms, but larger amounts could kill the
old boy.
They Wuz Robbed
So I turn on the Olympic coverage Monday night in time to see
the U.S. pair of Ina and Zimmerman. Damn they were good.
Since they finished 5th in the short program, I assumed they had a
solid shot at a bronze. Then the Russian pair of Totmianina and
Marinin, 4th in the short, skated and they sucked. But the judges
scored them ahead of Ina and Zimmerman. There was your clue
that the rest of the evening would be a disaster for Canadians
Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.
But first, after watching Jamie get creamed in the warm-up when
she smashed into Anton Sikharulidze, Anton and his partner
Elena Berezhnaya (you don\’\’t know if these names are really
spelled properly or not, do you?), number one in the short
program and attempting to become the 11th consecutive winning
pair for Russia or the former Soviet Union, skated an OK routine,
with Anton stumbling out of a double axel. "There\’\’s the opening
for Sale and Pelletier," shouted the American commentators. Get
fired up, mused the editor.
But the judges gave Elena and Anton 5.7s and 5.8s on technical
merit and 5.8s and 5.9s on presentation, so if Sale and Pelletier
were to win, they had to be perfect. [I realize many of you saw
this, but, hell, it all bears repeating.] Well, they did just that. An
inspiring effort, the live audience and those watching at home
could agree. The Canadians had won gold. Oh, but not so fast,
Scotty. When the scores came in, the Russkies had stolen
another one. Following are the judges scorecards for the two
pairs. The first mark is "technical," the second "presentation or
artistic." The figure in parenthesis is where the judge ranked the
pair overall.
Elena and Anton
Russia – 5.8 5.9 (1)
China – 5.8 5.9 (1)
U.S. – 5.7 5.9 (2)
France – 5.8 5.9 (1)
Poland – 5.7 5.9 (1)
Canada – 5.7 5.8 (2)
Ukraine – 5.8 5.9 (1)
Germany – 5.8 5.8 (2)
Japan – 5.7 5.9 (2)
Jamie and David
Russia – 5.8 5.8 (2)
China – 5.9 5.8 (2)
U.S. – 5.8 5.9 (1)
France – 5.8 5.8 (2)
Poland – 5.8 5.8 (2)
Canada – 5.9 5.9 (1)
Ukraine – 5.8 5.8 (2)
Germany – 5.9 5.9 (1)
Japan – 5.8 5.9 (1)
Yes, it was a huge sham. Clearly, the French judge was bought
off by the Russian one, since remember boys and girls,
corruption is rampant everywhere these days and everyone has
their price.
To Germany and Japan, you have the grateful thanks of all North
America. And to my Canadian friends, know that all Americans
share your grief. As for France, watch out for a stray daisy
cutter.
College Basketball
Sports Illustrated had a column last week, pointing out what a
sham (big week for this word, and we aren\’\’t even talking secret
partnerships) the basketball polls can be.
While both the ESPN / USA Today coaches and the AP writers
polls have the same Top Ten.Duke, Kansas, Maryland,
Oklahoma, Cincinnati, Florida, Alabama, Gonzaga, Kentucky
and Arizona (with the latter two being reversed in AP), once you
get beyond these schools, there is some crazy voting taking
place. For example:
–Virginia (#13 ESPN and #15 AP) is 5-5 in the ACC, good for
5th, yet Wake Forest (#17 and #19) is all by itself at 3rd in the
conference at 7-3, and North Carolina State (NR / #24) is 6-4,
with a win over UVA.
–Oklahoma State (#15 / #16), is 5-5 in the Big Twelve (5th).
–Illinois (#19 / #18), is 6-5 (5th) in the Big Ten (behind unranked
Wisconsin and Minnesota, as well as the top two teams in the
conference, Indiana and Ohio State, though these later two are
ranked in both polls.but behind Illinois).
–But let\’\’s take a look at the coaches poll, and some of those who
received votes, but didn\’\’t crack the Top 25. Western Kentucky
is 22-3 and 11-1 in the Sun Belt conference. Memphis is 20-5
and 10-1 in Conference USA. Hawaii is 20-4 and 11-2 in
Western Athletic. UConn (despite a hideous victory Monday
night over Villanova.gosh, that game sucked) is nonetheless 8-
3 in the Big East / East, tops in its division. Pepperdine is 10-0
in the West Coast Confernce, has 3 victories over Top 25 squads,
beat Gonzaga, yet is far out of the rankings.
And then there is the case of Illinois State, which received two
votes in the Coaches poll. These guys are 12-12, 8-5 in a lousy
conference! Who the hell voted for them? Well, let\’\’s look at
some of the coaches who are doing the voting. Fellows like
Rickey Broussard of Nichols State (1-21, 0-15 in the Southland
Conference), Joel Sobotka / Portland State (5-19, 1-9 West Coast
Conf.), Tom Green / Fairleigh Dickinson (4-20, 4-11 Northeast
Conf.), and Fang Mitchell / Coppin State (3-21, 1-12 Mid-
Eastern Conf.). Get these guys out of there.
But aside from the fact that I\’\’m a Wake Forest alum, and biased
big time, my sleeper team for the NCAAs is Saint Joseph\’\’s.
Yeah, they had high expectations coming in and have
disappointed, but they are now 9-1 in the A-10 (really A-12), yet
received zero votes in either poll this week. You heard it here
first, Sweet 16 ba-bee. [The editor does not want to be reminded
that his 63-6, Rams, Super Bowl prediction was slightly off.]
Stuff
–After roaring back in the ratings game following some
mediocre seasons, NBC has successfully negotiated for a final
year of "Friends" next fall. The six stars will receive $1mm
each, per episode, for the projected 22 shows. The past two
years they have made just $750,000 apiece. It\’\’s so tough to live
on such a piddly sum, I think you\’\’d agree.
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/12/72: #1 "Let\’\’s Stay Together"
(Al Green) #2 "American Pie" (Don McLean.huge in Ireland)
#3 "Without You" (Nilsson)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) 3,000 games: Pete Rose, 3562; Carl
Yastrzemski, 3308; Hank Aaron, 3298; Ty Cobb 3033; Eddie
Murray, 3026; Stan Musial, 3026; Cal Ripken, Jr., 3001.
[Rickey Henderson is at 2979] 2) 2,000 runs scored: Rickey
Henderson, 2248; Ty Cobb, 2245; Hank Aaron, 2174; Babe
Ruth, 2174 (tied); Pete Rose, 2165; Willie Mays, 2062.
Next Bar Chat, Friday. Maybe we\’\’ll get to Abe.
