[Posted early 10/27]
What’s this?
NHL Quiz: 1) Name the four who have played 24 or more
seasons? 2) Name the six who have scored 700 or more goals?
Answers below.
**I have been a miserable NHL fan the last decade or so, except
for when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, but part of the reason
has been the lack of a good history book on the league and player
bios. Finally, such a book has been published. Called “Total
NHL,” it is a must for any fan of the sport. [Triumph is the
publisher.] I mean to tell you, I couldn’t put it down, perusing
the stats of old heroes like Vic Hadfield and Brad Park.
Anyway, rush to your favorite bookstore (I always support them
over the online variety) and pick it up.
Fish Fry!
Everything that needed to be said and written has already been
so, but I hope many of you will agree that the World Series
proved to be more than a bit interesting. There were some great
stories there, particularly if you wanted the Yankees to lose as I
did.
And let me add my voice to the chorus of praise for Florida
manager Jack McKeon. Those of you not in the New York area
in particular may have missed all the second-guessing on running
out Josh Beckett on just three days rest. [By the way, “Bar Chat”
is being written on 3 days rest as well………..don’t comment if
you can tell the difference.] Blohards like Mad Dog Russo and
Mike Francesa (the latter the absolute worst prognosticator in the
history of the medium) went on and on about what a fool McKeon
was….blah blah blah.
Which also begs the comment, how brilliant does owner Jeffrey
Loria look for tabbing McKeon in May?
Yes, it’s going to be an interesting winter in these parts as
baseball fans wait to see what George Steinbrenner does. Don
Zimmer resigned, for starters, and I’m just glad Yankee fans got
another taste of reality. As for this Mets fan, I’m looking
forward to a 70-92 season next year.
Don’t Drink the Water!
Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post had a piece the other day
on ‘Hyponatremia,’ a condition that has afflicted a number of
marathon runners over the past decade, with at least 4 dying from
drinking too much water, including a woman at the Boston
Marathon last year and another at last year’s Marine Corps race
in D.C. The new advice being given to runners is drink only
when thirsty.
Doctors now say overhydration is more dangerous than
underhydration and one reason why women may suffer more
than men is because they generally are out on the course longer,
drink more, and have lower body weight. Most races are already
drastically cutting back on the number of water stations, with
officials at the Houston Marathon this year going from 30 to 16.
Steinberg writes:
“While scientists offer differing views on the precise triggers of
severe hyponatremia, a consensus has emerged about the general
progression of the illness. As runners absorb liquids while
sweating out salt, diluted water floods the body’s cells. And with
blood flowing to the legs and lungs instead of the kidneys, less
urine is produced, further increasing fluid buildup.
“Swelling in extremities can cause watch bands and running
shoes to tighten; swelling in the chest can restrict breathing.
Most severely, swelling in the enclosed brain cavity can cause
vomiting, confusion, seizures, coma and even death.”
One fellow, Jethro Defensor, ran in the 2000 Disney World
Marathon. He had been cautioned about dehydration, especially
with the temperature into the 80s by mid-morning, so he drank
24 ounces of water before the race and carried a 16-ounce bottle
onto the course. His wife saw him at mile 10, sweating
profusely, and urged him to drink more fluids. He then gulped
down three or four cups at every station the rest of the way, 30 or
40 in all.
At mile 23 he felt dizzy and disoriented, stumbled to a medical
station, and was taken to the hospital. The emergency room
personnel then plied him with intravenous fluids which only
exacerbated his condition and he went into cardiac arrest. It was
then they did more work on him and changed the makeup of the
solutions and luckily he survived.
College Football Review
And the StocksandNews official game ball goes to West Virginia
for its stunning triumph over #3 Virginia Tech on Thursday.
[Nice riot afterwards, however.]
As for the more highly coveted “Frosties,” 16 ounces of your
favorite brew (if you are of legal drinking age, of course):
Bowling Green. Yes, I nailed this one, unfortunately, as BG and
its superstar quarterback Josh Harris rolled over #12 (#10 BCS)
Northern Illinois, 38-14. It’s really too bad, because it would
have been great to see NIU in a BCS game. But no one said life
is fair, right?
Bobby Bowden is old enough to drink a frosty, and he earns one
for becoming the winningest coach in Division I history with
victory #339, one more than Joe Paterno. Bowden’s Florida
State defeated my Demon Deacons 48-24. Wake falls to 4-4.
Drat.
And how about a Frosty to Delaware, the Division I-AA
powerhouse that defeated a solid Navy squad 21-17?! That’s a
great win for the Blue Hens.
Finally, the fourth Frosty (I drank the other two in the six-pack,
in case you were wondering) goes to 8-0 Colgate, just because.
–Elsewhere, Rutgers snapped its 25-game Big East losing streak
in slapping Temple around, 30-14. But is Temple getting the
shaft or what? They are out of the Big East after next season, to
be replaced by the likes of Louisville, Cincinnati and South
Florida (who in turn are replacing Miami, Virginia Tech and
Boston College). I mean to tell you, Temple has done everything
expected of them, including an average crowd of 26,000 at its
home games, great on campus facilities and a high graduation
rate. This sucks. Meanwhile, as Temple likes to argue, if you’re
going to boot the Owls out, why does Rutgers get to stay?
–The aforementioned Joe Paterno, who refuses to go gracefully,
is subjecting his alumni to nothing but torture as the Nittany
Lions are now 2-6 this season. And how the hell can he recruit
effectively? Of course he can’t.
–Sorry, Mark R., but I have to mention that Notre Dame is 2-5.
–Three great games next week in Oklahoma State – Oklahoma,
Michigan State – Michigan, and USC – Washington State.
Stuff
–Thanks to my full-service broker David P. for passing along a
piece by Brian McGrory in the Boston Globe concerning the
town of Wayland, Massachusetts, which canceled its annual
kindergarten costume parade. Said the principal, “Although we
all agree it is a lot of fun for many children, we do have children
that don’t celebrate Halloween and feel uncomfortable or stay
home from school that day. We want to be an inclusive
community and meet the needs of every child.”
Unbelievable. Then again, these days nothing should surprise
any of us. McGrory notes that parents in Wayland are afraid to
protest because they don’t want to anger school officials.
–I hate to admit this, but this season I actually gained a lot of
respect for Roger Clemens. That doesn’t necessarily make me a
bad person, right?
–Johnny Mac and I have been musing about old ball clubs and I
recently had a piece on the worst teams for each franchise, but I
failed to mention the 1905 Boston Braves, which went 51-103
and had four 20-game losers. But what’s really remarkable is
that the four starters threw all but 87 innings of the team’s total
that year, including a few relief appearances for each. Yup,
won’t ever see that again, I can assure you.
Also, not for nothing but one of the hurlers was Vic Willis, who
went 12-29 that season and 249-207 for his career, yet he’s in the
Hall of Fame…why, I’ll never know.
–Canada’s National Post had a story the other day on all the
caviar that is being smuggled in by employees of LOT Polish
Airlines. Blackmarket sales of Caspian Sea sturgeon eggs are
worth about $2 billion (with a ‘b’) a year. Of course the
employees (and to be fair, LOT isn’t the only one involved) can
resell the caviar for many times over their cost. You can also see
why the sturgeon are near extinction.
–I was reading this piece in the Los Angeles Times on the
impact “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy has had on New
Zealand’s economy and to give you but one example, one farmer
whose land was turned into Hobbiton decided that after having
countless tourists bang on his door for a look around, he would
start charging for tours, which the fanatics are only too happy to
pay for. This fellow made over $300,000 in just 11 months.
The filming of these spectacular movies employed up to 23,000
workers during the various stages of shooting and you can be
sure that the residual effect will last for decades in New Zealand.
How smart would it have been to buy real estate there just about
five years ago?! Another missed opportunity………………
–………………………..the editor is musing about other missed
real estate opportunities………………………like in Ireland……
–Kelly Whiteside had an interesting piece in USA Today on the
1963 Pittsburgh Panthers football team, which finished #3 in the
UPI poll back then but didn’t go to a bowl game due to
circumstances surrounding the assassination of JFK. The day
Kennedy was killed, our family was driving out to the Pittsburgh
area to visit relatives when we heard of the tragedy on the car
radio. I was 5 ½ at the time and it’s my first real memory of an
historical event.
Whiteside writes, “Pitt was left hanging when its Penn State
game was postponed because of the assassination…Pitt had
passed on lesser bowl bids earlier because it expected an Orange
bid if it beat Penn State.”
“But when that game was delayed, the Orange took Auburn in
case the Panthers lost to the Nittany Lions.”
Interestingly, of the team’s 61 members, 57 graduated and 34
went on to obtain advanced degrees. Marty Schottenheimer was
the center, incidentally, and they had a terrific halfback, Paul
Martha, who played some in the NFL.
But this pricked my curiosity, so here is the final UPI poll for
that year.
1. Texas
2. Navy (Roger Staubach…handed Pitt its only loss)
3. Pitt
4. Illinois
5. Nebraska
6. Auburn
7. Mississippi
8. Oklahoma
9. Alabama
10. Michigan State
[AP had the same #’s 1 and 2, but reversed Pitt and Illinois.]
–Sports Illustrated is out with its annual NBA issue and not that
this means anything but they foresee a Sacramento – New Jersey
NBA Final, with the Kings coming out on top. The official
StocksandNews view? Nets, baby. Over the Spurs. [But did
you check out the Utah Jazz, finally minus Malone and
Stockton? They’ll be lucky to win 15.]
–Just how do you go about becoming a “Slam Ball” coach?
–I haven’t had a chance to comment on the death of Indy racer
Tony Renna, a promising 26-year-old who finished 7th in his
rookie run at the Indy 500. Renna crashed during a test drive at
220 mph at the famed Brickyard and thus became the 67th driver
to be killed at Indy since it opened in 1909. Track officials are
hamstrung in their investigation, however, because there are no
films or pictures of the crash while it was taking place.
–Catch any of the Breeders’ Cup? I just saw the last two races
but they were terrific…the dead heat and the Classic. Boy,
Funny Cide’s story is officially over, having finished 9th in the
latter.
–De La Salle High School in California won its 145th straight
football game on Friday. The previous mark was 72. Now that’s
incredible!
–Regina Jacobs, America’s top middle distance runner, tested
positive for the steroid THG. If she’s found guilty, Jacobs will
lose her eligibility for the 2004 Olympics.
–The Wall Street Journal reports that El Monte Sagrado resort in
Taos, New Mexico is now serving Yak Chili. Everyone loves it.
We were ahead of the game when it came to yaks, talking up this
noble, and nutritious animal years ago. My attorneys are
working on seeing if I’m entitled to any royalties.
–I never liked Pat Riley, but he was one helluva coach.
Glancing at his record, what stands out aside from the 4 NBA
championships are the 13 straight seasons with 50 wins or more.
–But here’s the Nets Alonzo Mourning, a Riley disciple, on his
former coach’s leaving the bench.
“I expected it to happen. But I didn’t expect it to happen in the
middle of the season. Riles, when he starts something, he
finishes it. This is very uncharacteristic of him.” [Star-Ledger]
Uh, do you want to tell Alonzo the season hasn’t started yet or
should I?
–Well, that solar storm didn’t amount to much following the
warnings we were receiving. But I was perusing my PBS Guide
for November (slow night) and saw this coming attraction for the
18th on NOVA.
“On March 13, 1989, a power grid failure affected Canada and
the eastern seaboard of the United States as far south as New
York. It was caused by a magnetic storm in the earth’s upper
atmosphere, itself triggered by the eruption of a huge flare from
the surface of the sun. Scientists are worried that it may have
been a harbinger of things to come, and that changes to the
planet’s magnetic field could make the earth ever more
vulnerable to deadly radiation from space. This film explores
one of the least-known but most serious threats to life on our
planet.”
Aughhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
–I didn’t see Donald Rumsfeld mention the above in his
controversial memo, did you?
–With his fourth win of the year this weekend, Vijay Singh now
has a $250,000 lead over Tiger Woods for the money title.
–Folks around golfer John Daly deny he is back in rehab for
alcohol abuse. It’s been another rough year for him.
–Speaking of drinking, did you see the mess Disney is in with
Caterpillar over use of Caterpillar’s tractors in “George of the
Jungle 2”? It seems Cat was ticked off over when the film had
its machinery destroying the jungle. Hurts the image, they say.
But here’s the payoff. Disney says that it rented the loaders from
a Cat dealer in Australia, after the fellow saw the script. So how
was the Aussie paid? “In beer and wine for the dealership’s
annual Christmas party.” [Business Week]
–Drinking, part IX…..If you are new to the site, you may have
wondered about some of the pictures up at the top. I took the
beer bottles looking over the lake in Slovenia (Lake Bled), after
quaffing the Union (pronounced ‘Oo-neeyen’) Beer myself, of
course. It was a gorgeous day and I climbed up this hill to this
neat castle where they served it. I mean it doesn’t get any better
than that. So after a while the mind begins to get a little creative.
–Australian scientists have discovered a giant fossil shark tooth
thought to be from a species twice as large as the Great White.
In other words, they estimate it was up to 50 feet in length and
researchers claim the species was from 3 million years ago. But
at the same time they say the tooth is amazingly well preserved,
so why should we believe that it is 3mm years old? I mean it
could be from a creature that is plying the waters off the coast
right now!
The discovery was actually part of this global census of the
oceans you may have heard about. Some 300 scientists from 53
countries have logged 15,034 different species of fish and they
expect to find another 2-3,000 when the census runs its course in
2010.
Maybe you all could get a fish named after you? Throw
something you’ve caught back in the ocean after putting a tag on
it, something like “I am the feared Ross Fish.” If a researcher is
short on his quota of discoveries for that day, he or she just might
bite. [Make sure the fish hasn’t been cooked first, though.]
–Here’s another fish tale, from the Times of London. Scientists
in Scotland are seeking information on an unusual specie that
may be directly responsible for the deaths of two English kings.
They are looking for lampreys, a fish that predates the dinosaur
era.
Now lampreys “look like eels but have a sucker-like mouth and
attack prey by latching onto them with the powerful suckers.”
King Henry I and King John reputedly died from gorging
themselves on lampreys. A little late to be doing a study on this,
don’t you think?
–From Reuters: “Bahraini Islamists fought pitched battles with
police late on Wednesday during a protest against a concert by
sultry Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram whose performance they
deemed immoral…And in Egypt, female parliament members
recently joined Islamist deputies to demand a ban on the airing of
Nancy’s music videos, which are known for her slinky
movements, newspapers said.” I’ll give you a moment to go
scanning the Internet for Ms. Ajram. …………………….
–Say it ain’t so! Anna Kournikova is close to retiring. And
according to Sports Illustrated, and London’s Evening Standard,
Anna may pursue a career as an actress. But as SI quoted her,
“I’d love to appear in something like ‘Sex and the City’ or
‘Friends.’” To which SI replied, Anna is “apparently
unconcerned that each show is in its final season.” Beauty over
brains, I always say…………………..waiting for e-mails on that
one……………………………JUST KIDDING!
–And this hard-hitting item from Parade magazine, Walter
Scott’s “Personality Parade” to be more specific. [Now there’s a
job I’d like.]
Q: As far as I can tell, Paris Hilton, the hard-partying heiress of
the hotel fortune, has not done anything to earn her celebrity.
Can you tell me why photographers are so eager to snap her
picture wherever she goes?
A: “Because she’s a tall blonde who wears short dresses and
likes to flash her thong underwear.”
There you have it, sports fans.
Top 3 songs week of 10/28/72: #1 “My Ding-A-Ling” (Chuck
Berry) #2 “Burning Love” (Elvis Presley) #3 “Nights In White
Satin” (The Moody Blues)
*I was pleased to see Shelby Lynne doing “God Bless America”
during Game 4 of the World Series. This is one of the more
underrated performers in the business. Buy “I Am Shelby
Lynne” and you won’t be disappointed.
**I also hope that Ronan Tynan, the Irish Tenor, will now find a
real job with the end of the Series. I don’t think I have to prove
my own patriotism here, but I was really getting tired of this guy.
And it”s not like he was a good luck charm, a la Kate Smith and
the great Philadelphia Flyers teams.
NHL Quiz Answers: 1) 24 or more seasons: Gordie Howe, 26;
Mark Messier, in his 25th; Alex Delvecchio, 24; Tim Horton, 24.
2) 700 or more goals: Wayne Gretzky, 894; Gordie Howe, 801;
Marcel Dionne, 731; Phil Esposito, 717; Brett Hull, 716
(entering 2003); Mike Gartner, 708. [Mario Lemieux had 682
entering 2003; Mark Messier, 676 (ditto); Steve Yzerman, 660
(ditto).]
And just messing around, I was going through “Total NHL,”
musing about scoring 30 goals at age 35 or older, and I’ll force
the following on you.
Gretzky last scored 30 at age 33. Howe scored 31 at age 42!
[And at age 52, he had 15 goals and 26 assists for Hartford, one
of the more amazing performances in sports history…at least it’s
one of the most underrated, I think you’d have to agree.] Marcel
Dionne scored 31 at age 36, Esposito 34 at age 38, Hull scored
37 last year at 38, and Gartner had 32 at age 37.
But wait, there’s more! Boston’s John Bucyk scored 36 at
age 41. And here’s something Bruins fans could win some coin
on at the local watering hole. Derek Sanderson never scored 30.
That’s right. He had six seasons where he tallied between 24 and
29.
Finally, the other night the New York Rangers beat Detroit.
Rangers win! Rangers win! Daaaaaaaaaaaaa Rangers win!
Next Bar Chat, Thursday. [It may be a little late due to travel.]
