**RIP Warren Spahn…more Thursday**
San Diego Chargers Quiz: 1) Name the only three coaches with a
winning record (more than 10 wins). 2) Rushing, career? 3)
Passing TDs, career? 4) Receptions, career? 5) Interceptions,
career? [1983-92]. Answers below.
HELP!
We interrupt the flow of this chat to bring you distressing news,
to New York Mets fans at least. Mo Vaughn may be considering
an attempt to play baseball again. This story broke over the
weekend and has depressed the hell out of us. You see,
through a clause in an attached insurance policy, the Mets get
75% of his salary if he retires (75% of $15 mm for ’04, plus a
$2 mm buyout for ’05). I mean if we see this guy in spring
training, I fear that thousands of Mets fans will take their
lives. [I can’t…I’m under contract for “Bar Chat” throughout
’04 and will first honor that agreement.]
The New York Sports Scene
Along with the awful rumor concerning Vaughn, New York fans
have had a distressing stretch, particularly as it relates to the
Mets / Jets / Giants / Knicks and Rangers. And before the NBA
season is out you may have to count the Nets, too.
The press is ripping management, especially those running
Madison Square Garden. The New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro
writes that Knicks GM Scott Layden and coach Don Chaney
have turned the Knicks into “basketball cyanide.” And
throughout New York you have a “confederacy of sports dunces
…everywhere you look, someone in a suit is mangling your
rosters.”
Richard Sandomir of the Times says “Watching the Knicks on
the MSG Network is like an elective course in torture.”
Then you have the case of St. John’s basketball coach Mike
Jarvis, who I noted a while back has a new motivational book
out, to which Vaccaro observes that the subtitle is “How to put
your spare time to better use than recruiting good basketball
players.”
Where we are headed is a repeat of 1966, a year in which the
Yankees were 70-89, the Mets 66-96, the Giants 1-12-1, the
Knicks 30-50, the Rangers 18-41-11, and the Jets, a mediocre
6-6-2.
At least I’ll be able to rip on the now 4-9 Knicks all season.
But did you see who Derek Jeter squired the other night?
Goodness, gracious. It was Vanessa Minnillo, former Miss Teen
USA and now a fixture on MTV. Oh, she sure had all the heads
turning that evening. [Among Jeter’s other dates have been
Jordana Brewster, Erica Mondor, Lara Dutta and Mariah Carey.]
Back to the Nets, they are off to a rough start of their own
this year and it got worse the other day when teammates Kenyon
Martin and Alonzo Mourning nearly came to blows. Here’s the
account by Colin Stephenson in the Star-Ledger.
“The incident began with Martin and Richard Jefferson enjoying
a laugh as Mourning and the rest of his teammates were forced
to run ‘suicide’ wind sprints after losing out to Martin and
Jefferson’s team in a scrimmage drill. But it grew out of control
when Mourning said something about Martin’s missing time
with a sprained ankle, and Martin responded by bringing up
Mourning’s kidney condition.”
Mourning charged at Martin, shouting, “You talk about my (bad)
kidney! I’ll put you on your back!” No punches were thrown.
Idiots.
[Editor note, 11/24. The timing of this last bit wasn”t too good
on my part as Mourning has just left the team, due to recurring
problems with his kidney. But I”m not going to beat myself up
over it. Stuff happens.]
Black Vultures!
Alan Brinker, a central Ohio farmer, has had problems lately.
“We’d have 10 new (baby lambs), and the next day I’d go out
and we had 10 dead ones.”
From the High Plains Journal and the AP:
“Suspecting that a flock of black vultures was to blame, he drove
out to a hillside where a lone ewe was on the ground, ready to
give birth. It was too late. Fifty vultures had surrounded her.”
A while back I wrote of the problem with black vultures in
Virginia, where it is estimated they caused some $320,000 in
damage to livestock there. Shooters then killed 371 vultures in
retaliation.
But while black vultures have harassed livestock in the south for
years, it’s the emergence of the killers up north that has officials
particularly distressed.
Turkey vultures eat carcasses and rarely attack live animals, but
the black vultures go after piglets, sheep and cows. They roost in
dead trees, cellphone towers and power lines, sometimes in packs
of hundreds.
And now the black vultures are going after lawn chairs and roof
shingles! I mean to tell ya, if I saw some staring me down as I
pick up my morning papers in the driveway, I’d have a heart
attack.
No one seems to have any idea how many of these monsters
there are, but regardless, they’re protected under the Migratory
Bird Treaty Act, which was a codicil to the Treaty of Versailles.
[Actually, this last bit may be a stretch, but they are protected
unless the state authorizes a kill, as in Virginia.]
Back to Brinker, he lost 90 newborn lambs to black vultures two
years ago, forcing him out of the business.
One thing that does appear to work in keeping them away,
however, is to place a dead vulture near their roosts. It probably
smells pretty bad, however.
Stuff
–Boy, that was a bizarre ending to the Presidents Cup. I had
accidentally seen the result on the Net earlier in the day, but
didn’t know how events actually unfolded so I decided to check
it out nonetheless. In case you missed it, the Americans and the
International sides ended up in a 17-17 tie, including 3 holes of
sudden death between Tiger Woods and Ernie Els. Then it got
dark, and the respective captains, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player,
decided it was in the best interests of the sport to “share the
Cup.” No one really cares, actually, since this competition isn’t
on the same level as the Ryder Cup, but in the end, if you love
golf you had to admire the putts Ernie and Tiger made to keep
the competition square. It was also just another display of good
sportsmanship, a trait lacking in almost any other sport in the
world.
*Phil Mickelson, continuing his slide into ignominy, was 0-5.
–College Football Review:
You have to give the Game Ball to Michigan, not only for
defeating Ohio State, but for giving us an Oklahoma – USC
national championship game. USC has to be OU’s opponent. If
it’s LSU, college football fans everywhere will scream, because
Trojans-Sooners has the potential to be one of the great contests
of all time.
As for Oklahoma, they successfully silenced Texas Tech
gunslinger B.J. Symons, who nonetheless broke the single season
passing record for Division I-A, but threw 5 interceptions and
hardly looked like a top draft pick.
Frosties, 16 ounces of the recipient’s favorite adult beverage, go
to Boston College, for defeating Virginia Tech, and Duke, for
besting North Carolina. [It was a lean weekend, folks.]
Actually, we’ll give frosties to Michigan’s Chris Perry, who IS a
high draft pick and a future superstar in the NFL, along with
USC’s spectacular wide receiver Mike Williams, another surefire
All-Pro. Jets fans, pray we get him. Blow off Keyshawn.
Boise State is #18 in the AP poll, Miami of Ohio #15. You gotta
love it.
Penn State finished 3-9. Also, 8 current or former players have
been arrested since March.
–Johnny Mac passed along a sad tale from the St. Petersburg
Times (Jeff Testerman) concerning the former pitching great
Dwight Gooden, who threw his career and surefire Hall of Fame
plaque away after succumbing to drugs.
Doc earned $35 million in his career, yet today he is supposedly
broke. And at age 39, he is still 6 years away from beginning to
receive his baseball pension.
So how did this happen? No one seems to know. His wife of 16
years, for example, stuck by him through thick and thin until
Gooden tired of the whole deal this spring and asked for a
divorce. Before this, Gooden just stopped paying bills and
Monica had to petition the court for help.
Between salary deferral and his $100,000 deal with the Yankees,
Gooden still made $1.7 million in 2002, yet he was falling
behind with his mortgage payments and utility bills. Finally, he
paid Monica $38,000 to avoid a 5-month jail sentence (after
which they separated).
So now a forensic auditor has been hired by Monica for the
divorce proceedings. The Goodens have 4 kids. Dwight has
another, Dwight, Jr., by a woman he didn’t marry, and Dwight
Jr., now 17, was recently arrested for cocaine possession and
possible trafficking charges.
Oh yeah, Gooden and Strawberry. What could have been. The
former should have won 300, the latter should have hit 600 home
runs.
–Great to have Opus of “Bloom County” fame back in the
Sunday comics.
–So I’ve spent a lot of time on the island of Guam, out in the
South Pacific, and the local natives are called Chamorros. But
what I didn’t know is that these beautiful people, who are among
the most friendly in the world, have 50-100 Xs more incidences
of neurodegenerative diseases than elsewhere. Scientists now
believe they know why. The Chamorros eat the flying fox bat,
but the bats eat cycad seeds which contain a neurotoxin called
BMAA. As BMAA goes up the food chain, it becomes more
concentrated and by the time it’s consumed by humans it can
lead to afflictions such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Lou
Gehrig’s disease. [Business Week]
–Congratulations to England for becoming the first Northern
Hemisphere team to win the World Cup of Rugby as it defeated
Australia in overtime. This is big stuff over there, my American
friends.
–Motor Trend picked the Toyota Prius as its “Car of the Year,”
which should help sales of the gasoline-electric hybrid. But in
the past Motor Trend hasn’t always selected winners. Back in
1960 it chose the Chevy Corvair, the first rear-engine auto that
ended up making Ralph Nader famous because it was incredibly
ill-conceived. Motor Trend also once picked the Chevy Vega
(1971). I don’t recall that being a big winner, either.
–Did you see the phenomenal hockey show in Edmonton on
Saturday? 55,000 tickets were sold for the first outdoor NHL
game in history, and sponsors said they could have sold 700,000.
But if you watched the contest (I only saw clips), you didn’t see
55,000 in the stands by the end (a game won by the Montreal
Canadiens). Why? Because it was minus 20 F. wind chill, that’s
why.
–Here are the top ten athletes / sports figures who hail from
Alabama, according to Sports Illustrated.
1. Hank Aaron
2. Willie Mays
3. Bo Jackson
4. Ozzie Newsome
5. Willie McCovey
6. Satchell Paige
7. John Hannah
8. Bart Starr
9. Charles Barkley
10. Early Wynn
But when it comes to the greatest athlete who ever lived in or
played for a team in the state, 36% of residents say it was Joe
Namath (who grew up in Pennsylvania, but played at ‘Bama),
27% said Bo Jackson. I find it great that the folks down there
pick Namath, about 40 years after he played his last game for
Bear Bryant.
Aaron, McCovey and Paige, by the way, are all from Mobile.
–The Los Angeles Times had a piece on how hard it is to get
into UC Berkeley and UCLA. Of course it’s difficult getting into
any decent school these days, but Berkeley has been turning
down thousands of students (most from out of state) with SAT
scores over 1400. Yet at the same time they’re admitting
hundreds with scores below 1000. The situation is similar at
UCLA, and it begs the question are they turning down students
from affluent homes on purpose in another case of reverse
discrimination? Both deny it.
In a similar vein, Bloomberg had a story on how critical letters of
recommendation have become to the application process for
college. Admissions folks concede that a strong
recommendation generally means a good applicant¸ so make sure
you’re doing a good job of ass-kissing, boys and girls, before you
enter your senior year of high school.
–So Johnny Mac and I were musing about two players who
often slip below the radar when it comes to all-time greats in the
NBA. Hall of Famer Walt Bellamy (“Bells”) averaged 20.1 ppg
and 13.7 rpg for his career. He was also a 2-time All-American
at Indiana and a member of the 1960 Gold Medal Olympic team
as well. What’s kind of deceiving, though, is that his best season
was his rookie year with the Chicago Bulls, when he averaged
31.6 points and 19 (!) rebounds a game.
The other is fellow Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor. Just check out
this string of performance.
1959-60…29.6 ppg, 16.4 rbg
1960-61…34.8, 19.8
1961-62…38.3, 18.6
And he was all of 6’ 5”.
–We note the passing of former pitcher Ken Brett, brother of
George. Ken had an 83-85 career mark, winning 13 games 3
different seasons. But it was his bat I’ll remember him for. He
hit .262 for his career with 10 home runs, including one in each
of 4 consecutive starts back in 1973. In ’74 he hit .310 (27 for
87).
–Did you see the college basketball game Friday night between
#3 Michigan State and Bucknell? This was almost one of the
great upsets in history. The Spartans won 64-52, but that only
tells a fraction of the story. Michigan State was trailing 50-49
with 7 minutes remaining and Bucknell missed its last 8 free
throws…yes, free throws, with most of them one-and-one
opportunities. And get this, for the game Bucknell was 1 of 17
from the foul line. You’re reading that right.
–Kevin Appier, an aging pitcher with the Kansas City Royals,
re-signed with K.C. for the minimum $300,000. But don’t feel
sorry for him because Anaheim is still paying the hurler another
$12 million from a previous contract. Hope he’s doing a better
job with his money than Gooden did.
–I forgot to comment on an article by Jere Longman of the New
York Times the other day, concerning the use of performance-
enhancing drugs. Some scientists say now is the time to accept
them, believe it or not. Actually, that’s a horrifying prospect. As
the director of the Olympic drug-testing lab at UCLA says, “You
have no clue what you are watching (these days). It may be
clean, it may not be.”
At the world track championships this past summer, Longman
notes that a number of athletes wore braces on their teeth. “Was
this a coincidence? Were the athletes only now able to afford
braces? Or were they using human growth hormone, which had
caused their jaws to realign?”
BALCO, the drug operation at the center of the current steroid
investigation involving Barry Bonds and members of the
Oakland Raiders, is but the tip of the iceberg, according to
experts. Some say a dozen like it are developing designer
steroids that aren’t currently detectable.
What’s most distressing is the fact that in a Colorado poll, among
sports fans between 18 and 34, most aren’t bothered by the THG
allegations. It really is just another instance of the erosion of
values across all of American life. This is one 45-year-old who
thinks it sucks…and it’s a big reason why I’m down on the
future.
–The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its inductees for
2004. George Harrison (as a solo artist), Prince, ZZ Top,
Jackson Browne, The Dells, Bob Seger, and Traffic. I’ll have far
more on this down the road.
–Finally, Phil Spector was formally charged with murder after
being under investigation since February for the shooting death
of former actress Lana Clarkson. Spector has hired O.J. lawyer
Robert Shapiro and the hearing is January 23rd. You have my
word I will not do anymore Phil Spector pieces. They’re just too
depressing. It is a given, though, that Spector will take the jury
and create a wall of sound in the courtroom.
Top 3 songs for the week of 11/21/64: #1 “Baby Love” (The
Supremes) #2 “Leader Of The Pack” (The Shangri-Las) #3
“Come A Little Bit Closer” (Jay & The Americans…the U.S.
fights back amidst the British Invasion)
San Diego Chargers Quiz Answers: 1) Winning coaches: Sid
Gillman (83-51-6, 1st shot, 1960-69; 4-6-0, 2nd shot, 1971); Don
Coryell (72-60-0, 1978-86); Bobby Ross (50-36-0, 1992-96). 2)
Rushing, career: Paul Lowe…4,963 yards (1960-67…if you got
this one, pour yourself a frosty). 3) Passing TDs, career: Dan
Fouts, 254 (1973-87). 4) Receptions, career: Charlie Joiner, 586
(1976-86). 5) Interceptions, career: Gill Byrd, 42 (1983-92).
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
