Cleveland Indians Quiz (1901-2001): 1) Who was the last 20-
game winner? 2) What year did the Tribe last win the Series? 3)
Who was the last Rookie of the Year? 4) Single season RBI
leader? 5) Career home run leader? 6) Who is #2 in wins to Bob
Feller’s 266? 7) Career RBI leader? Answers below.
Scandal!!!!!
The following concerns Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Sportswriter Kevin Eason of the London Times sets the stage.
“Michael Schumacher was a driver on the threshold of greatness
but today stands accused of being Formula One’s most cynical
manipulator. The torrent of jeers that rained down from the
stands at the end of the Austrian Grand Prix yesterday should
have told the world champion and his Ferrari team that their
pursuit of success at all costs deserves little more than abuse.”
Ah, yes, Schumacher and Formula One. Formula One and
Schumacher. Michael is the 4-time World Driving Champion
who also holds the record with 58 career victories. #58,
however, will be remembered for a long, long time as Ferrari
teammate, Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, suddenly, in the last
turn of a race he had led from the start, braked to allow
Schumacher to pass him and claim the checkered flag.
Imagine being a fan at the race. Barrichello had the superior car,
and talent, this particular weekend, taking the pole and then
driving spectacularly throughout, yet, as Eason put it, “he knew
(all along) that he would not be allowed to win.”
Juan Montoya, 2nd in the overall point standings this season, said,
“Michael has a more than 20-point lead and a car a second-a-lap
faster than the rest, so what is he scared of?” Montoya’s crew
chief said, “It was the most cynical end to a grand prix I have
seen in my career. It might even be considered by some to be
fraudulent.”
Eason labeled the post-race presentation, “the most embarrassing
probably seen in any sport as a shame-faced Schumacher pushed
Barrichello to the top of the podium and then handed him the
winner’s trophy.”
Schumacher tried to convince everyone that it was a team
decision and that it is a team sport. He owed it to the sponsors.
Bulls—. An estimated worldwide television audience of 350
million was looking in.
The Austrian Grand Prix was the only one that Schumacher had
not won, but, as Eason concludes, “The record books will now
show that he has won them all, but the millions who watched
yesterday will know that this was a sham.”
Formula One’s governing body will be meeting over the coming
weeks and their decision will be a big one. The early guess is
that Ferrari will have team points taken away, at the least, and as
my brother and long-time Grand Prix fan, Harry, said, “Go
Jacques Villeneuve!”
“Playboy’s Girl Next Door”
I alluded to the above in “Week in Review,” but did you catch
any of this on Friday night? Hugh Hefner didn’t come off too
good in the eyes of yours truly. Plus, the guy has horrible tastes.
Clearly, Katie was the best, even if her “symmetry” wasn’t there.
Ron Santo
Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly has a touching piece on a
ballplayer who I have long argued should be in the Hall of Fame,
and maybe next year the revamped Veterans Committee will vote
him in. Third baseman Santo, who played 14 of his 15 seasons
with the Cubs, certainly has the career #’s to warrant induction.
342 HR 1,331 RBI 2,254 H .277 BA .464 SA
Led NL in walks 4 times and won 5 Gold Gloves.
Here’s his best stretch, from 1963-70…and remember, this was
an era when 20 homers and 90 RBI were big time.
’63: 25 HR – 99 RBI
’64: 30 – 114
’65: 33 – 101
’66: 30 –94
’67: 31 – 98
’68: 26 – 98
’69: 29 – 123
’70: 26 – 114
Of course, there is far more to the Ron Santo story, which is why
he should have been selected for the Hall of Fame long ago. You
see, Santo found out at age 18 he had diabetes and for most of his
career he kept it a secret, with only a few teammates knowing.
Santo used to give himself insulin shots in the bathroom and he
had to constantly monitor his body, particularly during games.
The last year or so has been particularly rough on Ron, who
continues to do color on Cubs broadcasts. Recently, he had his
right leg amputated as a result of complications from his disease,
but it hasn’t slowed him down any.
“I just appreciate being alive,” he told Reilly. “Every day is a
gift.”
Dave Anderson’s Top 20 Ballplayers of All-Time
Anderson is the veteran sportswriter for the New York Times
and on Sunday he came up with his Top 20 non-pitchers. This
isn’t purely hitting, but the list reads close to it, with Anderson’s
position being that no one will ever top Babe Ruth because of his
awesome prowess as a pitcher before he became a full-time
outfielder for the Yankees.
1. Babe
2. Hank Aaron
3. Willie Mays
4. Ty Cobb
5. Lou Gehrig
6. Joe DiMaggio
7. Stan Musial
8. Ted Williams
9. Honus Wagner
10. Jackie Robinson
11. Mickey Mantle
12. Frank Robinson
13. Rogers Hornsby
14. Pete Rose
15. Mark McGwire
16. Cal Ripken, Jr.
17. Mike Schmidt
18. Johnny Bench
19. Josh Gibson
20. Roberto Clemente
Anderson was not including active players, but he would argue
that Barry Bonds can’t be considered in the Top 5 or so until he
proves himself in post-season play, the point being that while
Ted Williams only had one opportunity (and was mediocre),
Bonds has had ample chances to perform in the big games and
he’s sucked.
Lastly, what about Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, Tris Speaker and
Ernie Banks, to name a few? [I’m not sold on McGwire; sorry,
sports fans.]
Being Canadian
Harry K. passed along a list of things that Canadians have to be
proud of…a few of which are:
–Smarties: [M&M’s are a pale imitation]
–Crispy Crunch, Coffee Crisp: [US Chocolate bars are insipid in
comparison, with the possible exception of the ‘Payday’ salted
nut bar]
–The size of our football fields and one less down.
–Lacrosse and Hockey are Canadian.
–Tim Horton’s kicks Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme’s ass.
–Canada has the largest French population that never
surrendered to Germany.
–We have the largest English population that never ever
surrendered or withdrew during any war to anyone, anywhere.
–We knew plaid was cool long before Seattle caught on.
–The average dog sled team can kill and devour a full grown
human in under 3 minutes.
–We still know what to do with all the parts of a buffalo.
–We don’t marry our kinfolk.
–We ALL have frozen our tongues to something metal and lived
to tell about it.
[In our next Bar Chat, we’ll explore Canada’s civil war.]
Hockey News
According to Richard Foot of the National Post, a 21-year-old
club player was charged with assault when he flipped a puck into
a crowd and struck a woman in the head. This could be the first
case in Canada where a player faced charges for hurting a fan.
The woman required 3 stitches.
College Bowl Games
This is really getting out of hand. 3 more college bowls have
been added to the yearend football schedule, making a total of
28, which means that 56 of 117 Division I-A teams are eligible.
I can’t be the only one who has been watching fewer games, the
more they create.
Pavarotti
Boy, you talk about your basic dirtballs, add Luciano to the list
of candidates for Bar Chat Dirtball of the Year, after his no-show
this past Saturday at the Metropolitan Opera.
Now this was to be tenor Pavarotti’s last performance at the Met,
“Tosca,” and tickets sold for $1,500 for what promised to be a
truly historic evening.
So at 5:15 PM on Saturday, he told the Met’s music director he
was going to sing, then at 7:00 PM, one hour before the curtain
was to rise, he backed out. [Pavarotti had canceled the previous
Wednesday, as well, claiming illness.] “It gives new meaning to
the word disrespect,” said one fan.
Well, the Met was prepared for such an occurrence and had
flown in Salvatore Licitra on the Concorde just in case Luciano
pulled a final fast one. 40 minutes before show time, Licitra was
told he was going on in the lead role. Ah, yes, yours truly isn’t a
big opera fan, but I know enough that from the account of the
evening, a new star was born. The audience gave him a sincere
standing ovation for his performance. As for Luciano, he didn’t
even have the class to appear on stage and explain that his voice
was finally history. That’s all the fans expected.
Boooooo……Boooooo……..Booooo…….Boooooooo…….
Rey Ordonez
Speaking of a-holes, the Mets shortstop was the only player who
failed to partake in the annual Photo Day for the team’s fans last
Saturday. For one hour a season, the fans get to go on the field
before a game and have their picture taken with the ballplayers,
so Ordonez blew it off because he said he didn’t feel well. It
turns out he wasn’t in the starting lineup and this primadonna
couldn’t take it. Yoh, Rey, take your 9 errors and your lousy bat
and get the heck out of town!
Booooooo……Boooooo……
[I’m having trouble controlling the fans around here at Bar Chat.]
Joe Bonanno
The long-time leader of one of New York’s Five Families died at
age 97. He headed up all of New York from about 1931 to the
mid-60s, with most of his gains coming from illegal gambling,
loan sharking and heroin trafficking. Bonanno was never
indicted for a crime during his years as a boss, but was later
hauled in for obstruction of justice. He was one of those present
at the creation of the American Mafia. [Aside from the Bonanno
family, the other biggies in New York were / are the Lucchese,
Gambino, Colombo, and Genovese clans.]
Attention Soccer / Football / Futbol Fans!!!
The European Cup is on the line this Wednesday afternoon…
Bayer Leverkusen vs. Real Madrid, ESPN2 at 2:30 PM ET.
Start getting fired up for the World Cup.
Title IX
Bill Pennington of the New York Times had a piece the other
day updating developments since this landmark legislation was
signed into law back in 1972, an act of Congress which leveled
the playing field in college athletics between male and female.
Of course the guiding principle of Title IX is “proportionality,”
whereby the ratio of male and female athletes should be equal to
the ratio of all male and female undergraduates.
Unfortunately, this has meant the elimination of a ton of “minor”
sports since 1972, with some 170 college wrestling programs, 80
men’s tennis, and 45 men’s track teams shut down. [There have
also been 70 men’s gymnastics programs eliminated, but,
personally, your editor couldn’t care less.]
However, many of the schools wouldn’t be faced with these hard
choices if they would reduce some of their football scholarships,
but 39 schools have added football in just the past ten years, and
another 143 have added men’s soccer. Football, with 110 spots
on most squads, creates the biggest problem because then you
have to even up the numbers somewhere else.
Actually, the worst thing about all this crap is that it is becoming
increasingly impossible to “walk-on” to major sports teams,
again, without screwing up the formulas, and that sucks.
[We are also partial to ‘track’ around here.]
The Baseball
The Colorado Rockies have been moistening the baseballs in a
humidor to keep them from drying out, so, not coincidentally,
scoring is down 35% over 2001 thus far at Coors Field. The
reason is that Colorado’s low humidity (in the neighborhood of
30%) dries out the balls, which makes them travel about 9%
farther, or so the scientists would have us believe. [Actually, I
think it’s more like 20%, because why else would a mediocre
ballplayer like Vinny Castilla hit 40 home runs 3 consecutive
seasons?] Anyway, by keeping the balls at a humidity level of
around 40%, this tends to negate the impact of the high altitude
and low humidity. [Source: USA Today]
Cancer Threat
I’ve really been surprised that more hasn’t been said about the
recent Swedish study showing that foods such as french fries and
potato chips have an abundance of a deadly substance that causes
cancer. I mentioned this last week, but it bears repeating since
I have new data.
The substance, acrylamide, induces gene mutations and has
caused malignant tumors in animals. Just to give you an idea of
how bad chips are for you (and, believe me, I eat too many of
them myself), one bag of potato chips contains up to 500 times
more acrylamide than the top level allowed in drinking water.
[For a large serving of fries it’s 100 Xs.]
Our Kids
One-quarter of children watch TV four hours or more a day.
Four hours!!! Goodness, gracious. Throw them outside. Teach
them a new sport, like baseball. Surely, they’ve heard of it.
Sports Center
CNN/SI is dropping its 24-hour sports network on Wednesday,
once again leaving ESPN’s “SportsCenter” as undisputed king.
Nigeria’s E-mail Scam
I have written of this long-running problem, so even our own Dr.
Bortrum got one the other day. This is what it said.
[*As written]
Dear Dr. Bortrum:
I am Mrs. Mariam Abacha, the widow of Sani Abacha the late
Nigerian Head of State.
I am presently in distress and under house arrest, while my son
Mohammed is undergoing trial in Lagos and Abuja.
…The government has frozen all the family account and
auctioned all our properties.
To save the family from total bankruptcy I have managed to ship
through an undercover courier company the sum of US
$20,000,000 kept by my late husband.
The money was disguised to beat the Nigerian Security and it is
currently deposited in a security company. I want you to receive
the money and pay into your account for the family safely.
I am offering you 30% for assisting me secure this money.
Contact me immediately with my Email address so that I can
forward to you all necessary details.
Best regards,
Mrs. Mariam Abacha
*Folks, believe it or not, hundreds of people have fallen for this
crap. Once contact is made, you are told to wire money to them
before they send you your reward, they grab control of your
account and poof! Savings gone.
By the way, Sani Abacha died from an overdose of Viagra. Yes,
I heard this from a very reliable source who travels to Nigeria
quite frequently. It seems that Abacha wanted to get it on with a
lady friend and presto! Sani be dead. [Don’t worry, guys. He
also had a very bad ticker.]
Top 3 songs for the week of 5/11/74: #1 “The Loco-Motion”
(Grand Funk) #2 “The Streak” (Ray Stevens…my, how times
have changed) #3 “Dancing Machine” (The Jackson 5)
Cleveland Indians Quiz Answers: 1) Last 20-game winner:
Gaylord Perry, 21-13, 1974 2) Last WS title: 1948 (year of Lou
Boudreau) 3) Last Rookie of the Year: Sandy Alomar, 1990. 4)
Single season RBI leader: Manny Ramirez, 165, 1999. 5) Career
HR leader: Entering ’02, Jim Thome with 282. 6) #2 in wins to
Bob Feller’s 266: Mel Harder, 223-186. 7) Career RBI leader:
Earl Averill – 1,084 (Thome has 809 coming into this season).
For a franchise that’s been around this long, 1,084 is truly pitiful.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
