NFL Quiz: 1) Who is the all-time leader in interceptions? 2) Who
is the only punter with a career average over 45 yards? 3) With
the start of the 2002 season, what two players in NFL history
have been, or were, with the same team for 20 seasons?
Answers below.
100 Greatest Brits
In case you missed it, here are some of the results from an
extensive BBC survey which is attempting to identify the
greatest Brit of them all. 100 have now been selected, with the
Top Ten to be disclosed, formally, in October, at which point the
BBC is going to run an hour-long documentary on each,
followed by a final poll to pick #1.
Churchill is thought to have received the most votes in the initial
tally (sorry to my British readers if this was actually made
official), while others believed to be in the top ten include
Shakespeare, Admiral Nelson, Sir Isaac Newton, Elizabeth I and
John Lennon.
Others in the Top 100 include:
Julie Andrews, King Arthur, Tony Blair, David Bowie, Robert
the Bruce, Richard Burton, Chaucer, Cromwell, Darwin, Diana,
Dickens, QE II, the Queen Mother, Bob Geldof(!), George
Harrison, King Henry VIII, Johnny Rotten (of the Sex Pistols),
Boy George (goodness, gracious), Paul McCartney, Freddie
Mercury, Cliff Richard, J.K. Rowling, Ernest Shackleton,
Margaret Thatcher, J.R.R. Tolkien, and William Wallace (Mel
Gibson).
Those ‘not’ on the list include George Orwell, Laurence Olivier,
Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone, and Ringo Starr. I
suspect Churchill will roll in the final tally, and that Lennon will
finish second, just because.
Oh, Canada!
–Police in Ontario arrested the Canadian ringleader of a Nigerian
scam that has defrauded investors of at least $10 million in
Canada alone. Now you’ve all probably received an e-mail or
two asking to save some Nigerian heir and his inheritance, which
you would then share in if you only send $10,000…or
something like that. In this particular case, Jerry Statz is still
trying to convince authorities that it was all legit, even the
payments to banks, immigration officials, government agencies,
airlines and shippers. Of course the funds are going to Nigerian
crime bosses.
–Scientists strapped radio transmitters on six Irish light-bellied
brent geese, for the purposes of tracking them during their
incredible 4,500-mile roundtrip trek from Northern Ireland to the
Canadian wilds, up near the Arctic Circle.
Last May, as the geese made a stop in Iceland, the birds were
fitted with their belts, but beeps from one stopped as it flew off
the coast of Greenland. It’s assumed it was hunted.
A second, “Oscar,” died in Iceland, possibly from a bird of prey,
or maybe, Godzilla.
Now, though, a third has turned up, tracked to Cornwallis Island,
way, way up there. Researchers began to search the island after
“Kerry’s” transmitter showed that the bird had stopped. As told
by Anne Marie Owens of the National Post:
“They followed the loud beeps to a house in the (Eskimo)
community, knocked on the door, and found a man who admitted
he had shot the bird on a hunting trip on another island a few
weeks earlier.
“Kerry was in the hunter’s freezer, still fitted with his
transmitter.”
The poor guy had no clue what the black collar was.
So now there are three left, “Hugh,” “Austin,” and “Major
Ruttledge,” all of whom appear ready to begin their trek back to
Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland where they winter. If they
come to New Jersey and try to stay, they’re cooked.
Watch That Frisbee
Ed Headrick, the creator of the modern Frisbee, died the other
day. Headrick took the original design, Walter Morrison’s Pluto
Platter, and notched grooves in the center which made it more
aerodynamically sound. But Headrick had a rather unusual
request upon his death. His ashes were to be molded into a
limited edition set of commemorative disks. According to his
son, “He said he wanted to end up in a Frisbee that accidentally
lands on someone’s roof.” [Frank Lidz / Sports Illustrated]
Farm Belt
Just a few items gleaned from the pages of The High Plains
Journal; Texas / Oklahoma / New Mexico edition.
–Now some of my friends have had to deal with swarms of
grasshoppers this summer due to the drought (which is good for
these monsters). But did you know that one way to keep them
out is to leave an uncultivated area, 5-10 yards around the
garden? Yes, in essence, like a moat. Then you could employ
monitor lizards to act as border patrol.
–Wal-Mart has had to cough up $464,000 in a patent
infringement case involving Golight Inc. of Culbertson,
Nebraska. Now most of us like Wal-Mart, but this was a real
dirtball thing that the Bentonville, Arkansas folks did. Golight
had developed a revolving, portable searchlight that attached to
the car or truck and was perfect for cattle ranchers checking on
their herd. But about two years after Golight came out with its
product, Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club affiliate began selling an
identical product, so the judge ruled it was a deliberate knockoff.
Score one for the little guy. [Of course the knockoff was also
made in Hong Kong.]
–Army Worms on the march! These little suckers are only a ¼-
inch in size, the “caterpillar stage of the noctuid moth,” but they
can destroy a hay crop in a matter of hours, as has been the case
in parts of Arkansas the past few weeks.
More Stuff
–Hoyt Wilhelm died the other day at age 79 or 80, depending on
the source. [The record book says 79, the nursing home said 80.]
Wilhelm was the first reliever elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Wilhelm grew up in Huntersville, N.C. and served in World War
II, where he won a Purple Heart at the Battle of the Bulge. He
didn’t make it to the major leagues until 1952 (when he was
reportedly 29), but had a great first season, going 15-3 out of the
bullpen for the New York Giants, with 11 saves and a league-
leading 2.43 ERA (159 innings…this was when pitchers of all
stripes were men, none of this one-inning crap).
Wilhelm was a knuckle-baller, which allowed him to hang on,
and on, and on…until he had pitched in 1,070 major league
games by the time he hung it up in 1972. He went 143-122 for
his career with 227 saves, and he even tossed a no-hitter in 1958.
Plus, he homered in his first major league at bat (the only of his
entire career).
–Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling are a combined 40-8 for
Arizona through Sunday’s contests.
–Rafael Palmeiro has 483 career home runs, the most in major
league history for a player who has never led his league in any
single season. [A.J. Burnett / Star-Ledger]
–Juan Marichal spoke at John Roseboro’s funeral service. Heck,
that’s the least he could do, after almost killing him 37 years ago.
–If you want to try and qualify for the 2003 PGA Tour,
qualifying play begins in October. There are two regional stages
before the finals in December. Top 35 low scores and ties
receive playing privileges for next year.
Entry fee: $4,000. If you’re like me and generally shoot in the
90s on a county course, chances are pretty good this would be
throwing it away. Also, if you’re playing on courses with
swinging windmills, don’t bother.
–I was channel-surfing Saturday night (hot times!) between
NASCAR at Bristol, the Mets, and Nebraska football. As for
Bristol, an event won by Jeff Gordon (his 59th career victory), I
have vowed I will attend this one of these years. It looks like a
pisser, and I wish NASCAR would hold more Saturday night
races. Actually, with Bristol’s little track, on television it looks
like a slot-car race.
As for Nebraska football, sorry, Husker fans, but they didn’t look
too impressive, despite the 48-10 final score.
Here’s another College Football Top Ten, courtesy of the
computer at the NY Times.
1. Texas
2. Miami
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida State
5. Florida
6. Washington State
7. Tennessee
8. Colorado
9. Oregon
10. Nebraska
*The official StocksandNews Cinderella teams, Marshall and
Louisville, are ranked #11 and #14, respectively, in this poll.
Marshall’s big game is Thursday, Sept. 12 against Va. Tech.
Louisville plays Florida State at home on Sept. 26.
But as for the official StocksandNews college football pick, after
thorough analysis, cough cough, I have to go with the Times and
Texas. Chris Simms will come through. But if Marshall runs the
table, they could be in a B.C.S. game. Now that would be cool.
–Mike Freeman had a piece in the Times the other day
discussing all the recent problems in college football. The
crime blotter is loaded with players, and as former Nebraska
coach Tom Osborne noted:
“We’ve seen a bit of a crisis of morals at all levels of society…I
think a very big thing is 20 or 30 years ago when a player did
something wrong, he knew it was wrong. There’s been a shift in
values.”
Geezuz, I also didn’t realize that 6 of the 12 SEC schools are
either on probation or charged with unethical behavior. Alabama
was close to receiving the “death penalty” for repeated rules
violations. Gosh, I miss Bear Bryant.
–Follow-up to Johnny Mac’s comments on the Rockies’ Larry
Walker and the difference in his home/away batting averages,
this year teammate Todd Helton is hitting .375 at home and .290
away. No player should ever be selected for the Hall of Fame
who played at Coors Field, unless he also hit at least .300 on the
road.
–So I’m watching the Mets – Rockies game (seriously) and
Mike Hampton is on the mound for Colorado. Hampton entered
the contest hitting something like .375 and the announcers stated
that he has a chance to have the highest average for a pitcher
since Carl Scheib of the 1951 Philadelphia A’s.
Well, we looked up Mr. Scheib’s mark and he did indeed go 21
for 53 in ’51, a cool .396 average. For his career, though, he was
a .250 hitter in 468 at bats, with 5 homers. Good thing the guy at
least hit in ’51, because he was 1-12 on the mound (45-65 for his
career).
–A new study has revealed that the Earth was struck by a 12-
mile wide asteroid about 3.5 billion years ago (give or take 200-
300 million), one billion years after our planet took shape. A 6-
mile wide space rock 65 million years ago is thought to have
killed off the dinosaurs, so a sucker twice the size had to have
caused quite a stir among the bacteria that were inhabiting Earth
back then. And we’re still standing!
–Finally, Anna Kournikova, in the biggest upset in the history of
sports, will capture her first crown at the U.S. Open. [We just
want her to advance at least a few rounds, know what I’m
sayin’?]
*Update: Oh, for cryin” out loud…Anna got her cute butt
whipped in the first round. That”s the last time I ever root
for her. [No it”s not.]
Top 3 songs for the week of 8/23/75: #1 “Fallin’ In Love”
(Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds) #2 “One Of These Nights”
(Eagles) #3 “Get Down Tonight” (K.C. & The Sunshine Band)
…now that’s a great Top 3.
NFL Quiz Answers: 1) Paul Krause had 81 interceptions. 2)
Sammy Baugh (1937-52) is still the only punter in NFL history
to have a career average over 45 (45.1). Baugh also has the
highest single season average, 51.4 (1940), and he was a pretty
fair quarterback as well 3) With the start of the 2002 season, the
Redskins’ Darrell Green joins Jackie Slater (L.A. Rams 1976-94,
St. Louis 1995) as the only two players in NFL history to spend
20 years with the same team. Bruce Matthews would have been
part of this group, but he retired from the Tennessee Titans
(Houston Oilers) one month ago.
*Incidentally, re: punting, the longest punt ever is 98 yards by
Steve O’Neill of the Jets against Denver (Mile High Stadium) on
9/21/69. Many of us Jets fans can still vividly recall this one on
the radio.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday. And don’t miss September 3rd, as Bar
Chat celebrates its 500th edition!
