NHL Quiz: Last one for a while. 1) Goaltending: Most games
won, career? 2) Who are the only two with 9, 50-goal seasons?
Answers below.
Scattershot
[Items on my mind…and in the news.]
–Golfer John Daly threw another fit, this time at the Australian
PGA, when on the 18th green he hurled his putter into the water.
This followed his failure to sign his scorecard in the previous
round, for which he was fined by the Aussie PGA and forced to
write an apology to a tour official he verbally abused, as well as
his playing partners, including Greg Norman. To be fair, though,
Daly was playing one week after the death of his mother.
–British soccer superstar David Beckham is spending $547,000
on two armor-plated BMWs, following the attempt to kidnap his
wife, Victoria, a.k.a. Posh Spice, and their two children.
–The Montreal Expos are slated to play 22 home games in
Puerto Rico in 2003. The players’ union is none too happy about
this. And did anyone ask the natives?
–The movie “Gangs of New York,” Martin Scorsese’s long-
delayed epic, received a terrific review in the December issue of
Smithsonian magazine. Now granted, this isn’t where you
normally turn for reviews, but the Smithsonian also did a full
piece on the era the film covers, the New York of the late 1800s,
and folks, this looks like a keeper. Of course around here we are
also eagerly awaiting December 18th and the release of “The Two
Towers.”
–Paris’s efforts to clean up dog @#$% continues. Fines of as
much as $440 are being levied if you don’t pick up after Fido.
There are now 1,500 surveillance officers on the beat in this
effort and the city is spending well in excess of $10 million.
–Following is the average weight of college football”s
All-American team lineman over the last 50+ years.
1946 – 211 lbs.
1966 – 230
1976 – 255
1986 – 280
1996 – 290
[Source: Allen Barra / Wall Street Journal]
–For you Irish golfing fanatics out there, a women’s group in
Ireland is protesting the fact that the great Portmarnock club
doesn’t allow men. Separately, an AP poll revealed that the U.S.
is split on the issue of whether or not Augusta National should be
forced to admit women; 46% for, 46% against. I guess the other
8% were too busy looking for lost balls and couldn’t be bothered.
–How good is Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Vick?! Goodness,
gracious. Vick’s 173 yards rushing on Sunday were the most
since Bobby Douglass ran for 127 yards in a contest back in
1972 while playing for the Chicago Bears. That season,
Douglass had 968 yards on the ground for a 6.9 average per
carry. But you’ll recall that he wasn’t a great passer. In fact he
sucked, completing just 37.9% of his throws that year (with a
49.8 rating) and only about 43% for his career.
–Then there is Kansas City’s Priest Holmes, who now has 22
touchdowns in 12 games. Marshall Faulk holds the NFL mark
with 26, set back in 2000. Or how about Indianapolis wide
receiver Marvin Harrison? He is going to shatter Herman
Moore’s single-season receptions record of 123, which Moore
accomplished back in 1995. Harrison is already up to 109, with
four games to play.
–I have to be careful here, since I’ve advertised for years in the
Wake Forest sports publication, but you know what frustrates
alumni like yours truly? I’ll tell you what frustrates us, it’s being
highly ranked in some sports and then not making it to the Final
Four. It all started in the Tim Duncan era, moved on to baseball
(where we’ve had great teams the past few years but can’t get
beyond the first regional), and then this year it’s men’s soccer.
Here we were, seeded #1 in the nation, and we failed to get to the
quarterfinals, losing to rival Clemson 2-1 in OT on Saturday.
But our field hockey team won the NCAA!
Speaking of the Division I men’s soccer tournament…here are
the final 8 schools, with play continuing this coming weekend.
Clemson, Stanford, Boston College, Creighton, UCLA, Penn
State, Connecticut, and Maryland.
–The ballot has been released for this year’s nominations for
baseball’s Hall of Fame. Eddie Murray (500 homers, 3,000 hits),
Lee Smith (478 saves) and Ryne Sandberg (10-time All-Star, 9
Gold Gloves) top the list of 1st-time eligibles. It’s going to be
interesting to see how Murray is treated. He has to be in
Cooperstown, but he never had one truly outstanding season, like
the other greats in the 500/3,000 club. Sandberg also deserves to
be in there, but, hopefully, 2003 is the year when Gary Carter
gets in, Carter having finished just 11 votes short last year. And
then there is Bert Blyleven…more on him down the road. [I
threatened to prove he belonged last year and never followed up.
But will the editor do so this year?]
–I cut out articles for Bar Chat and throw them in a folder for
future use, like a 2001 Sports Illustrated piece on
“overrated/underrated” that I perused this weekend. Reporter
Paul Zimmerman weighed in on famous sports quotes.
Overrated: Vince Lombardi’s “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the
only thing.” For starters, the quote has also been attributed to
Knute Rockne and John Wayne, among others, who uttered it
long before Lombardi’s pronouncement in 1962. Zimmerman
adds that he was there when Lombardi made his and he actually
said, “Winning isn’t the most important thing; it’s the only
thing.” And now you know…the rest of the story.
Underrated: Dallas Cowboys lineman Blaine Nye, commenting
on QB Clint Longley after the backup came into a game on
Thanksgiving Day in 1974 versus the Redskins and completed a
dramatic 50-yard TD pass to Drew Pearson in the waning
moments. “The triumph of the uncluttered mind,” said Nye.
But did you know that Longley threw only 68 passes in his entire
NFL career? Yup, he was in just 9 games over three seasons.
You can look it up.
In a different category, Sports Illustrated had the most underrated
NFL record….Gerald Riggs for his 1985 effort in which he ran
the ball 397 times for 1,719 yards, while not fumbling once, the
most rushing attempts in history without doing so. What’s
interesting about this is that Riggs wasn’t always so careful with
the pigskin, having coughed it up 11 times in 1984 and 6 in 1986,
en route to his 3 straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons.
–So I’m watching the Country Music channel Saturday night
(CMT) and I see that Tim McGraw was making his first
appearance ever at the Grand Ole Opry…wassup with that?!
–My friend Harry K., commenting on the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame pieces I did last week, said there really should be a Rock
and Roll Hall of Infamy, for artists like Bobby Goldsboro
(“Watching Scotty Grow”) and Terry Jacks (“Seasons In The
Sun”). Well Harry, you’ll be upset to learn that the great oldies
station here in New York, WCBS-FM, just had their top 1001
songs of the century and Jacks’s tune was #130.
–I saw where Steve Scott was just selected for the National
Track and Field Hall of Fame, along with racewalker Larry
Young, pole-vaulter Earl Bell and sprinter Gwen Torrence. For
his part, Scott is perhaps America’s greatest distance runner, and
his 1982 mile mark of 3:47.69 is still the American record. He
broke 4 minutes 136 times in his career; more than any other
runner in history. Many of us are now waiting for Alan Webb to
challenge Scott’s mark. What’s the lad doing these days,
anyway?
–Back to underrated/overrated, Jeff Pearlman in the
aforementioned 2001 Sports Illustrated labeled Pittsburgh
Steelers great Franco Harris as the most overrated runner.
Pearlman wrote, “A highlight reel of (Franco’s) greatest runs
would have a lot of this: Franco darts past a cheerleader; Franco
leaps over a Gatorade bucket; Franco jukes a ball boy.” As
Harris approached the all-time rushing mark of Jim Brown back
in 1984, Brown himself rooted against Franco.
In the underrated category, Pearlman chose the New York Jets’
Freeman McNeil, a great pick. McNeil ran for over 8,000 yards
in his 12 year career “behind some of the worst NFL offensive
lineman this side of Tony Mandarich. He was a thrill ride (and)
he was never afraid to wedge his helmet into a linebacker’s
chest. His numbers won’t blow folks away, but McNeil was an
artist.” J-E-T-S…Jets, Jets, Jets!!! [Freeman had an outstanding
4.5 yards per carry average, by the way.]
–In the quarterback category, writer Peter King names Bob
Waterfield as the most overrated. Waterfield is in the Hall of
Fame and King would submit that it’s mainly because of his
“tryst with Jane Russell.” After all, he played just 8 years with
the Cleveland-LA Rams and while he won two titles, it was in a
watered-down post-WW II era when the NFL was competing for
players with the All-America Football Conference. Plus
Waterfield only completed 50% of his passes and threw for 128
interceptions, with only 97 TD strikes.
Who’s King’s pick for most underrated? The New York Giants’
Phil Simms. Can’t argue with this selection. The more the years
go by, the more I appreciate how good Simms was.
–Noel Regney, RIP. Now here was an interesting songwriter.
Regney died the other day at age 80 and is responsible for the
Christmas song “Do You Hear What I Hear?” He wrote this
back in 1962 with his then wife Gloria Shayne, but he was
always amazed that folks didn’t pick up on the fact it was a
prayer for peace, the song having been written during the Cuban
missile crisis. [The key line is, “Pray for peace, people,
everywhere.”] *Hey boxing fans, think Gloria Shayne is related
to Eva Shayne? Just musing.
Regney had been drafted into the Nazi army as a young
Frenchman, but he deserted and joined the resistance. After the
war he settled in Manhattan where he met Shayne. The two
wrote songs like “Goodbye Cruel World” (James Darren’s #3
tune in 1961) and “Rain Rain Go Away” (#12 for Bobby Vinton,
1962).
But did you know that Regney wrote “Dominique,” the #1 1963
hit sung by Sister Luc-Gabrielle, a k a The Singing Nun? It’s
trooo, it’s weally trooo. [If you are already having nightmares
over this revelation, quick, think of the Raspberries “Go All The
Way.” It will take your mind off “Dominique.”]
–College Football:
Only six schools have longer major college winning streaks than
the Miami Hurricanes, whose own one is now up to 33 games.
1. Oklahoma…47 (1953-57)
2. Washington…39 (1908-14)
3. Yale…37 (1890-93)
Yale…37 (1887-89)
5. Toledo…35 (1969-71)
6. Penn…34 (1894-96)…those Penn/Yale games must have
been classics!
Should Miami win it’s next two games, including the Fiesta
Bowl, and then run the table in 2003, they would beat
Oklahoma’s mark in the title game, which would make for some
rather dramatic television viewing, come to think of it. But first
there is Virginia Tech this weekend.
–Murray Chass in the New York Times had a piece on a topic I
knew little about, the insurance clauses in baseball contracts.
Specifically, the problem major league teams have with the
permanent disability provisions. For example, the Orioles’
Albert Belle retired two years ago with an arthritic hip, but
Baltimore recently placed him on the 40-man roster in order to
get proper payment on their insurance policy for his $65 million,
5-year contract.
The insurance companies have been taking a bath on these, and
premiums have risen 300 percent in the past 30 months.
Moreover, coverage has now been reduced from 5 to 3 years
(Belle’s was before this change) and the maximum amounts
covered have been cut. Premiums can be more than $1 million a
year. For example, the Texas Rangers are paying $9 million in
premiums for coverage of the first five years of Alex
Rodriguez’s 10-year, $252 million contract.
The whole situation is impacting current player negotiations, like
in the case of Atlanta’s Tom Glavine, who wants a 4th year but is
seeing teams balk, mainly because they have no way of covering
his salary should he break down at age 40. [Personally, I broke
down at age 40, too, which is why I abandoned Wall Street for
the Web.]
–Wildlife Update: The Star-Ledger reports that an unusual
number of seals have beached recently along New Jersey’s coast,
many with shark bites. Looks like lots of Bar Chat fodder
coming up next summer!
–Lastly, did you see the results of the “World’s Biggest Liar”
contest? George Kemp won for the second consecutive year, as
he told of how he rode a balsa wood motorcycle to victory at an
Isle of Man race, stopping to take advice from ex-Formula One
drive Nigel Mansell, who happened to be walking his dog on the
course.
Among the other competitors was one who disproved a theory
that French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had only one testicle
and another who regaled the audience with his expedition to
Africa, where he met Elvis.
The runner-up was five-time champion John Graham, who was
beat by Kemp for a second straight year. Last year Kemp’s tale
was about his grandfather’s greyhound, which gave birth to pups
in the middle of a race…and still won!
The competition organizer Ian Congdon said “The entrants try
very hard to keep a straight face. They’re judged on delivery,
humor…anything that keeps you entertained, and George
certainly did that.”
The winner receives $39.49 in cash and a silver cup that they get
to keep for a year.
[Source: Reuters / CNN]
Top 3 songs for the week of 12/7/74: “Kung Fu Fighting” (Carl
Douglas) #2 “I Can Help” (Billy Swan) #3 “When Will I See
You Again” (The Three Degrees)
NHL Quiz Answers: 1) Patrick Roy entered this year with 516
career victories in net. #2 is Terry Sawchuk with 447, though to
be fair, Sawchuk played considerably fewer games. 2) 50-goal
seasons: Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy are the only two with
9, 50-goal seasons. Guy Lafleur, Marcel Dionne and Mario
Lemieux are next with six each.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
