NASCAR Quiz: OK, sports fans, the Winston Cup season is
now over. But if you are to be an effective player in the taverns
this winter, and have the opportunity to win cash and prizes from
your drinking compatriots, you need to know the following. 1)
Who were the final top five drivers in the points standings? 2)
Who was the only driver to win 5 races? [Hint: He did not finish
in the top five for points.] Answers below.
Girls vs. Boys
Sports Illustrated commenced a series in last week’s edition on
the state of high school athletics in America. The basic
conclusion is that while participation has soared, which is a good
thing, much of the innocence is gone. And as you parents also
understand, the pressure to excel, whether it is in field hockey or
boys basketball, is far greater than it ever was. [Of course, look
who is applying the pressure!]
Anyway, SI listed the individual sport participation statistics
from both 1980-81 and 2000-2001. Overall, it is up about 16%
for boys and girls combined over this period. So, using this as
your benchmark, here are a few other stats I found interesting.
–Boys’ basketball, -2.4%…surprising.
–Girls’ basketball, +7.8%
–Boys’ baseball, +7.0%
–Girls’ softball, +67.3%
–Boys’ soccer, +127%
–Girls’ soccer, +618%
–Boys’ outdoor track, -2.7%…this depresses me, as an old track
participant and fan.
–Girls’ outdoor track, +10.0%…again, this sucks.
–Boys’ water polo, -48.9%
–Girls’ water polo, +5,145%…yup, not a misprint. Guess where
the boys are?
–Uh oh, guys…Girls’ weightlifting, +820%.
–Uh oh, guys, Part II…Girls’ riflery, +57%
–Boys’ riflery, -19.7%. We’re not only going to be pushed
around, we’ll be outgunned!!!
In a somewhat similar vein to the above, a Harris Poll (source:
Business Week) revealed the favorite spectator sport for people
today versus 1985.
Football: 1985 – 24%. 2002 – 27%
Basketball: 1985 – 6%. 2002 – 11%
Baseball: 1985 – 23%. 2002 – 14%. Wow, bigger drop than I
would have guessed. But you know I could be finally leaning
towards football, too.
Other Sports Bits
College Football: Both major polls and the BCS have the same
top three.
1. Miami
2. Ohio State
3. Washington State
*But remember, sports fans, Miami-Pitt Thursday night on
ESPN! Miami goes down.
Hey, North Carolina State, good job the last few weeks…NOT!!!
College Soccer: Division I Men’s Soccer Championship starts
this weekend…and look who the #1 seed is!
1. Wake Forest…if you’re new to the site, the editor went to
school here.
2. Maryland
3. UCLA
4. St. John’s (NY)
5. Boston College
6. Virginia
7. Connecticut
8. Virginia Commonwealth
Seriously, this is probably as good a Division I tournament as
you’re going to find (maybe even better than the basketball
variety), because you not only get the huge schools, (like
UCLA, Maryland and Indiana), but you also have the likes of
Fairleigh Dickinson, Cal St. Northridge, Lehigh, Wis.-
Milwaukee, and Winthrop, many of whom have a legitimate shot
at winning it all (which is seldom the case with March Madness).
–Uh oh, Wake Forest hoops fans. The boys lost to EA Sports in
an exhibition game, 80-75, as Wake went 5 of 27 from 3-point
land.
–And then there’s Rutgers football. 1-9 entering this weekend’s
game against Notre Dame, you won’t believe the following
statistics.
Over Rutgers’ current 7-game losing streak, they have rushed the
ball 226 times…for a total of 217 yards!
Over just the last five games Rutgers has 99 yards rushing on
155 carries. As the Star-Ledger put it this week, about 23 inches
gained per attempt.
Nonetheless, the coach said he is going to keep running the ball.
Unbelievable.
–Wow, Memphis’s NBA entry is playing real well…0-11.
–The Atlanta Hawks are off to a solid 6-4 start, yet they drew a
whopping 6,374 at their last home game versus Toronto. Great
support, guys.
–Allen Iverson, in an interview with the Philadelphia Daily
News:
“I’ve heard about police officers toasting to Allen Iverson’s next
felony conviction,” he said. “I’m hearing about them saying I’m
involved with one thing or another, and it scares me. I know that
if there’s a crooked cop out there, they could do anything to me.
He could do anything. Allen Iverson could wind up dead
tomorrow if a crooked cop wants him dead. It’s as simple as
that.”
Maybe if you stopped talking in the third person, you jerk, the
cops would be more reasonable. Actually, this story will just
grow bigger and bigger over the course of the season. Look for a
blowup, with NBA Commissioner David Stern forced to suspend
the little thug.
–Speaking of jail time and suspensions, Michael Jackson should
be banned from touching all children for the rest of his years,
following his disgraceful performance at the Berlin hotel when
he dangled his 9-month old from the balcony. Moreover,
Jackson should already be serving 7-10 years for naming his kids
Prince Michael Jr., Prince Michael II, and Paris. Pity them when
they get older. It’s not like they are going to inherit enough
money to make up for their misery, either. The guy is broke.
Deadwood, South Dakota
Just last November 5 in this space I wrote of my experience in
this cool little town in the Black Hills, where you can gamble in
a kind of Old West atmosphere. Well, last Friday the Wall Street
Journal, in its weekend section, highlighted Deadwood as a place
to have some fun, particularly since there are activities in the
surrounding area for the kids, but the paper criticized Deadwood
for having a $100 maximum bet at the tables. Trust me, you can
still lose $tens of thousands at that level, if you try hard enough.
But bottom line, if you want to forget the everyday world for a
few days, Deadwood is a blast and I can envision going back
there for a more extended stay next time. [You can also tell I’m
still angling for a ‘comp’ room and free beer at Saloon No. 10.]
The Sopranos
If you don’t watch this program I apologize, but to you fellow
fans out there, was that a great TV moment with Coquette or
what? I do have some real life info to pass along, however,
concerning Tony’s real estate ventures in Newark. For those of
you not familiar with the area, this part of the story line is very
factual, and in Wednesday’s Star-Ledger I noticed an example of
this. There is a piece of land near Newark’s Penn Station (also
near Tony’s investment) that has been vacant for two decades,
but will now fetch at least $5 million.
Animal Bits, err, Bites
–The London Times reports that a 55-year-old licensed bat
handler is in critical condition as a result of a bat bite. He now
has EBL, European Bat Lyssavirus, which only 3 others have
contracted on the entire European continent over the past 25
years, all of whom then died. No one has died from rabies in all
of Britain since 1902, if you can imagine that. Of course the
man’s colleagues are wondering, if he was a bat handler, why
hadn’t he been vaccinated? [You can see why this story is Bar
Chat material and not Week in Review, can’t you?]
But did you know that 40,000 people worldwide die of rabies
each year? Win some money at your local tavern on that one.
Also, one of the symptoms (and why I personally may get a
booster) is you suddenly develop a fear of water and air, the
latter being particularly important if you plan on living a while.
–And then there is the guy in Yacolt, Washington, who decided
he would show off for some friends by kissing his pet
rattlesnake. Instead, the rattlesnake bit him on the lip and he
nearly died. Friend Jim Roban, who will regret for the rest of his
life that he was quoted in this wire service story, told the victim
before the snake lashed out, “OK, man, you’re being stupid, put
it away. He said, ‘It’s OK, I do it all the time.’” Roban then
ended up killing the snake with his boot…which should now
make him a target of animal rights groups, since the snake was
only doing what it is supposed to do, bite and kill things.
Johnny Mac’s Musings
–Follow-up to last Chat’s Lions quiz, Johnny reminded me that
quarterback Bobby Layne once said, “The secret to a happy life
is to run out of cash and air at the same time.” Or I guess you
could develop rabies while playing at a high stakes poker game
with Vegas showgirls draped all over you.
–Both Johnny and I are also wondering why it was necessary for
Alex Rodriguez’s “scum-sucking agent” (J Mac’s term) to insist
on an extra $200,000 incentive in his contract for finishing 2nd in
the MVP voting. As Johnny points out, “I guess muddling
through on $21 million a year wasn’t enough…couldn’t his agent
and the team just agree to bag something like this for P.R.
purposes?”
Giselle
Lastly, your editor went to the ballet at the Bolshoi Theater in
Moscow the other day. Now I can’t say I’m the ballet kind of
guy, but I saw Adolphe Adam’s “Giselle” and I have to tell you
it was pretty spectacular, especially with my awesome seats.
[I later learned some of the locals at my hotel were very jealous
I had scored tickets, since “Giselle” is supposed to be one of
the best.]
But right now some of you are thinking, why bore us with this
tale, editor? Hold on, sports fans, because let me just relate the
beginning of the story.
You see, the ballet opens with a small, peaceful village…
inhabited by “simple, artless people.” Giselle, a young peasant
girl (I always had a thing for peasant girls), is rejoicing in the
pure, trusting love which has lit up her life.
And who is this guy that she is so smitten with? Why if it isn’t
Count Albrecht, who is really a nobleman but is pretending he’s
a peasant in his effort to win her over. Giselle then falls for this
garbage.
Enter Hilarion, who is also in love with Giselle, but Hilarion
knows the true identity of Albrecht and decides to expose the
fraud. In other words, Hilarion is kind of like New York
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, if you catch my drift.
Furthermore, Hilarion is the local gamekeeper! Never, ever
cross a gamekeeper, I always say. They control the animals,
after all.
Well, as you might imagine, Giselle, upon learning that Albrecht
is really a nobleman and that he has been lying to her all along,
becomes so distraught that she literally dances herself to death,
in front of both suitors.
The moral? Gamekeepers may get the animals, but they never
get the girl.
Top 3 songs for the week of 11/21/64: Actually, the whole top
ten for this week was particularly interesting, as it was a time
with all sorts of crosscurrents in the music industry.
#1 Baby Love (The Supremes)
#2 Leader Of The Pack (The Sangri-Las)
#3 Come A Little Bit Closer (Jay & The Americans)
#4 Last Kiss (J. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers… “Oh where oh
where can my, baby be? The Lord took her, away from me”)
#5 She’s Not There (The Zombies)
#6 Ringo (Lorne Greene)
#7 Have I The Right? (The Honeycombs)
#8 You Really Got Me (The Kinks)
#9 The Door Is Still Open To My Heart (Dean Martin)
#10 Time Is On My Side (The Rolling Stones)
NASCAR Quiz Answers: 1) Top five – 1. Tony Stewart 2.
Mark Martin 3. Kurt Busch 4. Jeff Gordon 5. Jimmie Johnson
2) Matt Kenseth was the only one to win 5 races this season (out
of 36 starts), though he only finished 8th in the point standings.
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday. An extensive look at the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.
