College Basketball Quiz: 1) Name the consensus All-America
team for 1971? [Now here are some hints. This was the team
sandwiched in between Pete Maravich’s last season and Bill
Walton’s first. Schools represented were ND, UCLA,
Jacksonville, Marquette, and Western Ky. The guards were
listed at 6’3” and 6’1”.] 2) Who is the only consensus All-
American to attend the University of Detroit? 3) Who is the only
consensus All-American for UNLV? 4) Who is the only
consensus All-American for South Carolina? Answers below.
George Washington
Since his birthday, February 22nd, often goes unnoticed these days,
I thought I’d just throw out a few quotes on character,
honesty and other things that our first president opined on.
“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial
fire, – conscience.”
“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain
what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an
‘Honest Man.’ Your honesty influences others to be honest.”
“My only ambition is to do my duty in this world as well as I am
capable of performing it, and to merit the good opinion of all
good men.”
“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
[Upon reading this I thought of Iraq…and then hopefully Iran,
Syria, et al.]
“The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the
courage and conduct of this army…We have, therefore, to
resolve to conquer or die.”
[Source: “Quotations For Public Speakers,” edited by Robert
Torricelli. Yes, the Torch was a corrupt SOB, but he put
together one helluva book.]
Spring Training
Sunday’s Star-Ledger newspaper here in New Jersey has a great
piece by long-time columnist Jerry Izenberg. I have written
often in the past, as has our own Johnny Mac, on the sacrifices
that baseball and other sports made during World War II and
Korea, in particular, where players like Ted Williams, Bob Feller
and Hank Greenberg lost huge chunks of their careers in their
prime, a fact lost on 99% of today’s ballplayers.
What I had forgotten, though, was that due to rationing of
gasoline during World War II, along with the cut off of rubber
production and other materials for all consumer use, most
baseball teams didn’t travel to Florida for spring training in those
days. For example, Izenberg writes:
“Here in the Great Megalopolis (New York), travel restrictions
sent the Dodgers to Bear Mountain (near West Point), the Giants
to Lakewood (N.J.), and the Yankees, who split their camp, first
to Asbury Park and then Atlantic City. The Triple-A Newark
Bears found their preseason sun in Plainfield (N.J., where your
editor was born). Mel Ott, the Giants manager, worked his
players through the snow and cold and at spring training’s end
called them ‘the worst-conditioned team in Giants history.’”
I have given the Yankees’ Roger Clemens a lot of grief over the
years, but I do have to acknowledge that he is one of the few
modern players who knows stuff like this and has always
expressed an appreciation for the sport’s heritage.
Derek Jeter
And speaking of the Yankees, you have to appreciate that in the
New York area the verbal battle between owner George
Steinbrenner and All-Star shortstop Jeter has been all the rage in
the press. Then on Friday, the Wall Street Journal’s Allan Barra
weighed in with some stats showing that Jeter’s play has clearly
deteriorated over the past four seasons, a period when
Steinbrenner claims the bachelor Jeter has been having too good
a time in New York at night, which is impacting his performance
on the field.
So let me throw some #’s out there, including a few that Barra
didn’t include in his critique, and leave it up to you to decide.
[HR-RBI, BA, on-base percentage, runs scored]
1998: 19-84, .324, .400, 127
1999: 24-102, .349, .438, 134
2000: 15-73, .339, .416, 119
2001: 21-74, .311, .377, 110
2002: 18-75, .297, .373, 124
There is clearly a serious decline in some categories, but I also
like to look at runs scored. Here’s the real bottom-line, though,
as Barra and others correctly point out, that being the fact that
Jeter is not a superstar. Alex Rodriguez is (as is Miguel Tejada,
in the opinion of Johnny Mac and myself). Jeter is a very, very
good ballplayer, but he plays in New York and has had the Series
spotlight. Admittedly, he is also headed towards 3,000 hits, so
the Hall of Fame beckons, but as you all know not all members
were superstars. Anyway, debate amongst yourselves.
Johnny Paycheck
I didn’t have a chance to comment upon his passing last week,
but for the record, and the archives, Johnny was born Donald
Eugene Lytle in Greenfield, Ohio, the son of a barge worker. [I
read this and immediately thought, I wonder if Pop worked on
the barges that Enron and Merrill Lynch then built all the
crooked partnerships around? Well?]
Anyway, eventually he obviously changed his name and
Paycheck started his music career playing bass for Porter
Wagoner, Faron Young, Ray Price (one of the most underrated
singers of all time), and George Jones.
But it wasn’t until the mid-70s, when Paycheck was in his
30s, that he was able to capitalize on the outlaw era that was
sweeping country music at the time with the likes of Waylon
Jennings, Kris (“Don’t let the bastards get you down”)
Kristofferson and David Allan Coe. Paycheck had a slew of hits
including the songs “(Pardon Me) I’ve Got Someone To Kill”
and “I Drop More Than I Drink.” Then in 1977 he had his big
chart topper, “Take This Job And Shove It,” a tune written by
Coe. This song was about a factory worker bent on revenge
against his boss and it played into the sentiments of the times,
i.e., it was a lousy time to be an American, post-Watergate and
the start of the Jimmy Carter presidency. [Sorry to bring this
up…don’t want anyone to have Carter flashbacks.]
Of course Paycheck is sometimes best known for his brushes
with the law, like the time he was sentenced to 18 years for
assaulting a superior officer when he was in the Navy (though he
was released after two), or when he pleaded no contest to a
charge of assaulting a 12-year-old girl in Wyoming following a
concert, or the time in 1985 when he shot a man in the head
during an argument in a bar (the victim wasn’t seriously hurt…
just grazed him, thankfully).
So we remember Donald Eugene Lytle, err, Paycheck, who if he
had had the foresight to call himself Paychex, could have made a
fortune suing Tom Golisano, the founder of the company of the
same name. But then he didn’t, did he?
Stuff
–Another story hit the wires that Tiger Woods is a cheapskate
when it comes to tipping. A Vegas barmaid said Woods only
tipped her a $1 for a drink. [I didn’t realize that $3 was the rule
in Vegas…I haven’t been there in years…just another reason to
play Blackjack in Deadwood, SD instead.] Big tippers include
Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino and President Bush, who is said to
leave 50% of the tab.
–Well, I have to apologize to His Airness, Michael Jordan, for
slamming him earlier in the season, because Jordan just torched
the Nets for 43 points, becoming the first NBA player over age
40 to score 40…another amazing feat. The quotes following the
game are pretty scary, though, as Jordan said he’s simply a lot
wiser than he ever was, in other words, should we be shocked if
he returns again?
–Ken Griffey Jr. is grumpy. He was asked if he was glad to be
in training camp with the Reds and he only said, “I’m here.” Get
over it, you overpaid baby. The last three, largely injury-plagued
seasons he has hit a whopping .271, .286 and .264. The guy is 33
with 468* career homers. Remember when we all thought he’d
hit 700+? [*I apologize…for a few hours I had only Griffey”s
A.L. home run total.]
–There were 37,000 Canada geese permanently residing in New
Jersey back in 1985. Today it’s close to 100,000. Now
according to the Star-Ledger, one goose drops ¾ lb. of feces a
day. 50 geese drop 13,500 lbs. a year! Let’s see, multiply that
by 2,000 and you get a lot of —-. That’s also a lot of potential
disease, sports fans, and it’s why I’m in favor of labeling all
geese terrorists, so we can more appropriately deal with them.
One other item on this topic, many municipalities are using dogs
to keep the geese off golf courses, corporate and public parks,
etc. The dogs earn $350-$1,500 a month, which I’m assuming
they then put in a balanced portfolio of stocks, bonds, and cash.
[I was just informed the dogs don’t actually receive this money.]
–Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has called for new talks with
the players’ union for the purposes of banning ephedra, the
nutritional supplement that played a part in the death of pitcher
Steve Bechler. Of course the players are a bunch of weenies
when it comes to topics like this, even though ephedra has been
banned by the NFL, NCAA and IOC, and it seems unlikely
they’ll agree to a ban. Another big story in New York this
weekend is the fact that pitcher David Wells is a user.
–I often refer to gossip taken from the New York Post’s Page
Six column, which is a must read if you live in the New York
area in particular. But it really sucks when columns like this, as
well as other tabloids, cross the line and such was the case with
all-time pitching great Sandy Koufax, who was smeared in a
thinly veiled reference in Page Six about two months ago, the
inference being that Koufax was gay. He’s not and the Post
apologized a few days ago. But in between the accusation and
the retraction, Sandy cut off all ties to the Dodgers organization,
thinking they had something to do with it. It’s all very ugly and
unfortunate.
–This is for Sunday Times Magazine junkies, but this week there
is a story on NBA star Chris Webber and the perjury charges he
faces. So as I told you last week, the prosecution’s chief witness,
booster Ed Martin, died about a week ago. The Times must not
have any editors, because they failed to put that fact in the
article! Idiots.
–Guess what I did Sunday? I watched my first professional
bowling match since I was a kid and the days of Dick Weber,
Ray Bluth, Teta Semiz, Johnny Petraglia and Earl Anthony Jr.
This week it was Dick’s son Pete, the renegade on tour, vs.
fellow Hall of Famer Brian Voss, and Pete kicked ass. [The
preceding is undoubtedly the last time you will ever read of
professional bowling in this space.]
–My friend Phil W. told me about a situation in Guilford
County, North Carolina which is disgraceful, that being the fact
that 11 of the 14 high schools in the county have been using
ineligible players on many of their sports teams, as well as
cheerleading squads, due to the fact that the athletes in question
haven’t been attending the mandatory 85% of classes. So what
this means is that the coaches, principals, and parents were all
cheating. One school, Dudley, had to forfeit its 3-AA state
football championship. What a bunch of 3-AA A-holes.
[Source: Greensboro News & Record / Ed Hardin]
–Canada has a new sports superstar, golfer Mike Weir.
–The Grammys: So I’m writing some of this while watching the
program (I’m sure it shows), and this year I really have few
comments except I was pleased to see Tito Puente win a lifetime
achievement award and Ashanti clearly had the best outfit, know
what I’m sayin’?
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/27/65: #1 “This Diamond Ring”
(Gary Lewis & The Playboys) #2 “You”ve Lost That Lovin”
Feelin”” (The Righteous Brothers) #3 “My Girl” (The Temptations)
[Now is that a great top 3 or what?]
College Basketball Quiz Answers: 1) 1971 All-American team:
Austin Carr / ND, Sidney Wicks / UCLA, Artis Gilmore /
Jacksonville, Dean Meminger / Marquette, Jim McDaniels /
Western Ky. 2) Spencer Driftwood, err, Haywood was a
consensus All-American at Detroit in 1969. 3) Larry Johnson is
UNLV’s only consensus All-American. 4) Tom Riker is South
Carolina’s only one. [Now before you say, hey, wait a second,
editor, John Roche was on the second team twice, 1970 and
1971. He was never a consensus first-teamer.]
*Get fired up, baseball trivia fans, because the editor purchased
all the 2003 record books over the weekend so the next month
it’s nothing but baseball…whether you like it or not!
Quotation from Homer…Simpson, that is.
“Now son, you don’t want to drink beer. That’s for daddies and
kids with fake IDs.”
You’re reading Bar Chat. Next one, Thursday.
