British Open Quiz: 1) Who was John Daly’s playoff opponent in
1995? 2) Who was Mark O’Meara’s playoff opponent in 1998?
3) What two players were in the playoff in 1999 with Paul
Lawrie? 4) Guess these one-time winners (since 1960):
B.C., R.D., T.W. Answers below. [Sorry, I originally forgot
to add "one-time."]
Baseball Tidbits
I have a bunch of old Sports Illustrateds lying around and
uncovered some of the following.
–Reporter E.M. Swift wrote an interesting piece in 1992
concerning 10 sports records that “won’t tumble.” You’ll get a
kick out of it.
#1 Glenn Hall’s 502 consecutive complete games in goal. Now
get this, between the start of the 1955 season and November 7,
1962, Hall not only played the official 502 in a row, he also was
in 49 playoff games, but the NHL doesn’t recognize this in its
tabulations. Remember, sports fans, Hall played all these
without a mask. Boy, I’d have to agree with Mr. Swift, this
won’t be broken.
#2 Ty Cobb’s .367 career batting average. Yeah, sounds good to
me.
#3 Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. You know, I think
this will be broken in the next 5 years. Ichiro could do it.
#4 The Boston Celtics’ eight straight NBA championships. If
you told me Shaq could stay motivated for another five, and team
with Kobe, the Lakers could tie it. But Shaq looks to be outta
there in another year, at least for a sabbatical.
#5 Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points in a game. Agree.
#6 UCLA’s seven straight NCAA basketball championships.
Actually, this could be #2 in today’s era.
#7 The Los Angeles Lakers’ 33-game winning streak. Will be
beaten.
#8 Jack Nicklaus’s 20 major golf championships. D’oh! Tiger
was a mere 16 when Swift wrote this, but, it also points out one
of my pet peeves, that being that US Amateur titles (of which
Jack has two and Tiger three) used to always be part of the
calculation, as they should. But suddenly over the last year or so
the number mentioned for Jack is 18, and Tiger, 8. By the way,
Woods is 7-4 to win the British Open, an incredible betting line
for golf.
#9 Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 heavyweight record (1947-55).
Probably.
#10 Roger Maris’s 61 home runs in a season. Ahem. Swift
wrote in 1992, “Since 1961 only three players have hit at
least 50. If you trust trends, you can trust that Maris’s mark is
safe.” Hey, how was he to know they’d all start doing the steroid
thing.
[On a personal note, last year I was to play golf with E.M. Swift,
an outing set up by my friend in Boston. So I was driving up to
meet them when I heard the following on the radio, as the
‘morning crew’ was looking at a television monitor. “Hey, is
that the Trade Center on fire?” September 11. I drove back to
New Jersey.]
–July 2, 1963 42-year-old Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee
Braves hooks up with 25-year-old Juan Marichal in a true classic.
No score after 8 innings, San Francisco manager Alvin Dark
wanted to take Marichal out but Juan said that if the 42-year-old
guy was still pitching, he wasn’t going to quit.
So on and on it went 12, 13, 14 still no score, both starting
pitchers still on the mound. [You’ll never, ever, see this again in
your lifetime.] Finally in the 16th inning Willie Mays homered
off Spahn for the 1-0 victory.
Spahn’s official line was 15 1/3, one run on 9 hits, walked one
and struckout two.
Marichal hurled all 16, allowing 8 hits, while walking 4 and
fanning 10. He allowed only two hits the final 8.
For the ’63 season, again, at 42 Spahn was an amazing 23-7,
throwing 260 innings and completing 22 of his 33 starts.
Marichal went 25-8, going 321 innings. Ah, the good old days.
–In 1950 the New York Yankees had the highest payroll in the
major leagues at $488,500. The St. Louis Browns the lowest at
$192,000.
–In the winter of 1960, 39-year-old Stan Musial took a cut in
salary from the St. Louis Cardinals from $100,000 to $80,000.
Musial said it was overdue. “I’m glad to sign this contract,
because a couple of times in the past the Cards have had me sign
for more than we agreed upon orally. This year I thought I’d be
kind to them.”
Philadelphia’s Robin Roberts saw his slashed and he responded,
“I have to admit I deserved to be cut. It wasn’t a tremendous
slice, and for a man who lost 17 games and won 15, it was
justified.”
The Yankees Whitey Ford thought he would get a cut from his
$35,000 salary despite going 16-10 the year before, but his
remained the same. “Who did I beat? Kansas City and
Washington!” he explained.
–Back in 1962, San Francisco manager Alvin Dark was
watching pitcher Gaylord Perry take batting practice. “There
will be a man on the moon before he hits a home run in the big
leagues.”
Seven years later, 34 minutes after Apollo 11 landed on the
moon, Perry hit his first major league home run.
–Tug McGraw, Philadelphia Phillie pitcher, on his $75,000
salary back in 1975. “Ninety percent I’ll spend on good times,
women and Irish whiskey. The other 10 percent I’ll probably
waste.” [Yeah, yeah, this is country star Tim McGraw’s father,
so you’re probably thinking, no wonder Tug was such a lousy
dad.]
100 Starts / 100 Saves
The other day I had a quiz asking for the four in major league
history who have had separate seasons of 20 wins and 20 saves.
Well, Johnny Mac said an equally good stat, a little better
indicator of real double-duty, is 100 starts and 100 saves in a
career. Some of these guys are so obscure, there’s no way it
would have made for a fair quiz, but here are the six who qualify.
Dennis Eckersley (who is one of the four in the original item):
197-171 W-L, 361 starts, 390 saves. This guy was awesome.
Ron Kline (1952-70): 114-144 (ugh), 203 starts, 108 saves.
Dave Giusti (1962-1977): 100-93, 133 starts, 145 saves.
Ron Reed (1965-1984): 146-140, 236 starts, 103 saves.
Ellis Kinder (1946-1957): 102-71, 122 starts, 102 saves.
Firpo Marberry (1923-1936): 147-89, 186 starts, 101 saves.
J Mac notes that Kinder didn’t break into the majors until age 31
and had a super year in 1949 with the Red Sox, going 23-6.
Marberry was perhaps the first great relief pitcher, but a potential
Hall of Fame career was clouded by him not being one or the
other throughout.
Also, John Smoltz is a lock to join this elite group next year.
Snakehead run for the hills!
By now most of you have probably heard of the discovery in the
past few days of a meat-eating fish from China, the snakehead,
which has been found in a Maryland pond. Two years ago a man
placed two in there, after hoping to originally use them in a soup
for his ailing wife, but they are proliferating like crazy.
What’s so awful about this foreign species? This incredibly
grotesque looking fish can grow up to 3-feet long, but, get this, it
can also live 3 days out of water and walk short distances on its
fins. The main concern is it may have strolled about 75 yards to
a nearby river. It could be at your front door!!! What if it breeds
with the land shark?! Calling homeland security, come in please.
Ye Old Hummingbird
On a far more tranquil topic, I was reading some incredible stuff
in Wyoming Wildlife (yes, I’m probably the only New Jersey
resident who subscribes to it) concerning the hummingbird. For
example, I bet you didn’t know that the wings of most
hummingbirds beat between 20 and 80 times per second! The
heart beats 1,200 times per minute to send oxygen to the working
muscles. By comparison, the heart rate of a perched bird is 250
times.
They also migrate incredible distances, with the record held by
the rufous hummingbird at about 7,500 miles, round trip,
annually from Mexico to Alaska. But when the birds want to
chill after their workout, they are capable of going into a state of
“torpor,” at which point they lower their body temperature from
99 to 50 degrees. Kind of makes you want to treat the little guys
with more respect, doesn’t it?
The Bot Fly
A few weeks ago my friend George told me about this awful
creature. Its larvae are known to wreak havoc on hoofed
mammals. [Actually, this is really gross you may want to skip
the following.]
The larvae develop in the gut of horses, in the throat of deer, and
in the sinuses of sheep. The eggs are deposited around the mouth
or nostrils and then the larvae eventually feed inside the animals,
causing total loss of body control and . You know what? I
think that’s enough on the bot fly.
Herschel Walker
Want to feel out of shape? The former football great still does
1,500 push-ups and 3,000 sit-ups a day at age 40.
The Tiger Effect
Thanks to Tiger Woods, total prize money on the PGA Tour has
exploded from $80.5 million in 1997 to $198 million in 2002.
But it’s going to be real interesting to see if this is a peak for a
while, because you’re beginning to hear grumblings from various
sponsors that they can’t afford such ventures in a lousy economy.
Or, like WorldCom (which sponsored an event), they’re basically
history.
Top 3 songs for the week of 7/15/72: #1 “Lean On Me” (Bill
Withers) #2 “Too Late To Turn Back Now” (Cornelius Brothers
& Sister Rose) #3 “Outa-Space” (Billy Preston)
*Another reason to feel old. The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn turned
60 last weekend.
British Open Quiz Answers: 1) John Daly beat Costantino Rocca
in the 1995 Open playoff. 2) Mark O’Meara beat Brian Watts in
’98. 3) Paul Lawrie beat Jean Van de Velde and Justin Leonard
in ‘99. 4) B.C. / Bob Charles, 1963; R.D. / Roberto DeVicenzo,
1967; T.W. / Tom Weiskopf, 1973.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
