Miscellaneous Sports Quiz:
1) With Luis Castillo’s hitting streak having ended at 35, name
the other seven players who had 31-game or better ones since 1950.*
2) Name the only 7 nations to win the World Cup. [There have
been 16 tournaments prior to this one, the first back in 1930 (no
tourneys held in ’42 or ’46.)] Answers below.
*Updated 8:00 AM…I initially had an incorrect list, which listed
six, when there were seven.
Brock Yates…Jerk
[I promise, this is my last bit on this subject…until next week.]
So I pick up Monday’s Wall Street Journal and read one of the
most idiotic op-ed pieces of all time by Brock Yates, editor of
Car and Driver magazine.
Titled, “A Dopey Scandal,” Yates makes fun of the uproar over
steroid use in baseball. Here is his point.
“The use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs is
now common even at the high school level, and as long as
society remains electrified and energized by their surrogate
heroes on the fields of play, the juice will flow. Major league
baseball ain’t co-ed softball on the Harvard Yard and for the
media (the same ones who slavishly celebrate athletic
performance) to suffer palpitations over steroids in baseball
borders on the ludicrous.”
But Yates is drawing comparisons in his piece to East Germany’s
female athletes using steroids at the Olympics, John F. Kennedy
doing drugs for his back pain, and all of the drug-addled music
performers, ranging from Judy Garland to Jimi Hendrix, Janis
Joplin and Jim Morrison.
That’s not the freakin’ point, you moron. None of us give a
damn whether a rock star like Hendrix (whom I’m becoming
more of a fan of today than I ever was, incidentally) used drugs
because it’s all about the music, for which there is no record
book similar to that of baseball’s, let alone standards for
producing a song. East Germany’s women broke the rules and
they earned gold medals that everyone agrees rightfully belong to
others. JFK hid his drug use, but the last I saw, we don’t
continually go back to the presidential record book to fact check
on this issue (though it is entertaining).
If you’re a baseball fan and fully understand that the last 5-6
years in particular have been a total farce as far as the home run
records are concerned, you should be super pissed. Hey, I think
we’d all agree that players today are far stronger because of
better weight training, diet, and the fact that most of them don’t
carouse all night like their predecessors did. So it only makes
sense that more homers would be hit, especially when you throw
in diluted pitching staffs and a tighter ball.
But it’s the drug angle, which Yates fails to mention in his whole
piece is not permitted in other sports, which is the difference
between a guy hitting 60 homers and a McGwire or Bonds
blasting 70. Or, just as importantly, someone hitting 35 (a super
season in the old days) who is now jacking 45 or 50.
Oh, forget it. Yates, you’re an idiot.
—
John A. Murphy
Who was he? Simply one of the most important men of the
century, that’s all.
John Murphy became president of Miller Brewing Co. in 1972,
shortly after Philip Morris acquired it. At the time Miller was
seventh in the U.S. market but under his stewardship it rose to
second behind Anheuser-Busch.
Murphy took advantage of Philip Morris’s big advertising
budget, creating new campaigns for Miller High Life and
redirecting its appeal to blue-collar types.
But it was in 1975 that he really made his mark, because it was
John Murphy, boys and girls, who created Miller Lite, the first
low-calorie beer.
Murphy was a super competitive fellow, and according to a piece
in the National Post by Sherri Day, at the height of Miller’s
battles with Anheuser-Busch, “Mr. Murphy was said to have had
a rug under his desk with the Anheuser-Busch logo, on which he
wiped his feet.”
Murphy was later named president of Philip Morris.
Commenting on his funeral, his son said the family would
probably hold a traditional Irish wake.
“He was a Miller Lite man,” he said. “He would like to make
sure that at the end of the Mass, everybody would raise a glass of
beer to him.”
John Murphy, great American.
—
Saccharin…25 years ago.
Now I’ve warned you all that a big stink is about to arise over
potato chips (geez, I wish it would get here already), but 25 years
ago there was a controversy of a different sort concerning
saccharin. And whereas today the FDA isn’t telling us how
carcinogenic potato chips are, seriously, back in 1977, they went
way overboard when it came to the sweetener.
It was in 1969 that cyclamates had been banned for causing
cancer and then studies originating in Canada came up with the
conclusion that saccharin was equally as harmful. Saccharin had
been in use since the turn of the century and was the only
artificial sweetener still on the market.
So on March 9, 1977, the FDA announced the ban and Canada did
the same. But opponents pointed out the ludicrous nature of the
studies, which were based on the fact that rats had been fed a diet
of 5 percent saccharin, or the equivalent of 800 cans of diet soda
per day! Goodness, gracious. 40 cans would kill you.
But Congress stepped in and passed an 18-month moratorium on
the ban and the FDA ended up settling for warning labels on
products containing saccharin, which were then repealed by laws
passed in 1996 and 2000. In July 2000, the National Institutes of
Health removed it from the list of suspected carcinogens.
[Source: Frederic Schwarz / “American Heritage” Feb. / Mar.
2002]
Tidbits
–NBA Draft / June 26: [Top Ten picks, according to SI]
1. Houston – Yao Ming
2. Chicago – Jay Williams
3. Golden State – Mike Dunleavy…will be scoring 25+ a game
by his 3rd season.
4. Memphis – Drew Gooden…love this guy.
5. Denver – Nikoloz Tskitishvili / Italy
6. Cleveland – Caron Butler
7. New York Knicks – Chris Wilcox…gosh, I hope they get
him.
8. LA Clippers – Curtis Borchardt
9. Phoenix – Jared Jefferies
10. Miami – Amare Stoudemire / High Schooler
–Congrats to Texas for winning the NCAA baseball
championship, defeating South Carolina. Hey, the Gamecocks
had a solid sports year, though, didn’t they?
–Heard on the Mets game the other night; in 2002, if the leadoff
man gets on base, 52% of the time he scores.
–JC Snead won this week’s Senior Tour event at age 61, the 3rd
oldest in history to do so. Mike Fetchick holds the record for
winning at age 63 in 1985, while Gary Player is second at 62, 9
months back in 1998.
–Phil Mickelson captured his 21st title in Hartford. He won’t be
around the top at the British Open, but I’m more convinced we
are being set up for something special at the PGA, as he denies
Tiger the Slam.
–I wish Mets catcher Mike Piazza would look at the Royals
Mike Sweeney and finally give up catching to play first base or
the outfield. Sweeney came up to the big leagues a catcher, the
Royals moved him to first, and now he’s one of the game’s best.
Piazza, on the other hand, is slowly deteriorating, year after year,
as he refuses to move from behind the plate. Of course then
there are the rumors….oh, forget it.
–Darryl Kile, RIP…by all accounts his death was of natural
causes. Lifetime 133-119, with a solid 4.12 ERA (for this juiced
up era of ours).
–Hey, last Bar Chat I implored the Mets’ Edgardo Alfonzo to
take some steroids since he wasn’t hitting the long ball. Well, he
must have listened, because the next two games he went deep.
–Stu Baby, long-time New York sports fan who is currently
leading the good life in Pinehurst, passed along this little tale.
Long ago, back in 1961, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford were
about to play in the All Star game at Candlestick Park when they
asked Giants owner Horace Stoneham if they could play golf at
his exclusive club, Olympic. Stoneham agreed.
At the club, Mantle and Ford bought all kinds of stuff like balls,
sweaters, shirts, and charged it to Stoneham, about $250 worth
(big money back then), but when they told him what they had
done and offered to write a check, Horace said he’d make it
double or nothing. If Ford could get Willie Mays out, they
wouldn’t owe him anything.
Well, Ford was the starting pitcher and Mays was up third.
Whitey struck him out, at which point Mantle in center field
jumped up for joy and dashed in to exchange hi-fives with an
equally gleeful Ford.
For his part, Mays had no clue what was going on and was more
than a bit miffed at being shown up. Oh, those innocent days of
yore.
–1943: #1 songs…and other stuff
I’ve Heard That Song Before – Harry James (Helen Forrest)
Paper Doll – Mills Brothers
Sunday, Monday Or Always – Bing Crosby
There Are Such Things – Tommy Dorsey (Frank Sinatra)
You’ll Never Know – Dick Haymes
In The Blue of Evening – Tommy Dorsey (Frank Sinatra)
Comin’ In On A Wing And A Prayer – The Song Spinners
Taking A Chance On Love – Benny Goodman (Helen Forrest)
That Old Black Magic – Glenn Miller (Skip Nelson)
Pistol Packin’ Mama – Al Dexter & his Troopers
*In late ’43, Sinatra went solo.
*The Lindy-Hop is the nation’s hottest dance craze.
* “Casablanca” wins Best Picture
*Shoe rationing began, limiting civilians to three pairs a year.
*Charlie Chaplin, 54, married Oona O’Neill, 18, daughter of the
playwright Eugene O’Neill. There’s a story there, I tell ya.
Top 3 songs for the week of 6/25/77: #1 “Got To Give You Up”
(Part I)” (Marvin Gaye) #2 “Gonna Fly Now (Theme From
‘Rocky’)” (Bill Conti…simply dreadful) #3 “Undercover Angel”
(Alan O’Day…not much better).
*Folks, huge editorial decision here at Bar Chat. It is time to
move on and eliminate 1961-63 from the “Top 3” lists. We’re
bringing 1976-78 into the rotation. But fret not, since we
recognize the 60s really began in 1964, we won’t go beyond that.
Sports Quiz Answers:
1) Hitting streaks since 1950:
–Pete Rose, 44 (1978…finished the year hitting .302)
–Paul Molitor, 39 (1987…hit .353)
–Benito Santiago, 34 (1987…hit .300)
–Willie Davis, 31 (1969… hit .311)
–Rico Carty, 31 (1970… hit .366)
–Ken Landreaux, 31 (1980… hit just .281 for the season)
–Vladimir Guerrero, 31 (1999…hit .316)
*I loved watching Willie Davis fly. For his career he hit .279
and had 2,561 hits with 138 triples. No one was faster going
from first to third, in my humble opinion.
2) World Cup results…and the seven nations that have captured
it.
1930 – Uruguay defeated Argentina
1934 – Italy def. Czechoslovakia
1938 – Italy def. Hungary
1950 – Uruguay def. Brazil
1954 – W. Germany def. Hungary
1958 – Brazil def. Sweden
1962 – Brazil def. Czechoslovakia
1966 – England def. W. Germany
1970 – Brazil def. Italy
1974 – W. Germany def. Netherlands
1978 – Argentina def. Netherlands
1982 – Italy def. W. Germany
1986 – Argentina def. W. Germany
1990 – W. Germany def. Argentina
1994 – Brazil def. Italy
1998 – France def. Brazil
*Entering this year, South Korea had a 0-10-4 World Cup match
record.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday…ya know, it’s time for some funk.
