ABA Quiz (1968-76…9 seasons): 1) Name the 7 different
scoring champs. [One was a 3-time winner.] 2) What player with
the initials S.N. was a rookie of the year? 3) How many titles did
Indiana win? Kentucky? 4) Who was the only player to make
five 1st-team All-ABA squads? 5) Who had the most coaching
wins in league history with 387? Answers below.
The Grammys
And now…your exclusive recap…parts of which are LIVE!
Opening act…Prince and Beyonce. Awful, musically. But
anytime I get to see Beyonce is a positive event.
Sting, Dave Matthews and Vince Gill doing the Beatles.
Embarrassing.
Christina Aguilera…dreadful…prefer her as a sultry blond.
The White Stripes…what the heck was that all about? Girl
drummer was interesting, however.
Martina McBride…super! She’s also beautiful, in a Peggy
Fleming kind of way.
Justin Timberlake wins an award. Who is Joan of Arcadia?
What a freakin’ mess she is. Justin showed some class in
apologizing for the Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction. [Later,
we learn he was forced to do this.]
Who is doing the production of this show? No Emmy for them.
Couldn’t figure out Celine Dion’s audio. Someone got fired over
this one.
Madonna introduced Sting…she looked great. Sting played
“Roxanne” in a freakin’ skirt. Man, if this sudden trend takes
off, I’m going to go nuts.
Paulina Rubio and Hillary Duff…gotta love ‘em, even if Hillary
is supposed to be a real, err, you know…
Christina gets her Grammy and almost loses her top. Again, girl,
lose the hair.
Justin and Arturo Sandoval. Now this was a great act. Good
tune.
Black-Eyed Peas…can do without them.
Good to honor Van Cliburn. Should have shown a clip of him
playing, however.
Justin Timberlake’s mother is clearly looking to get picked up.
Act your age, woman!
Beyonce is back! Song sucks, but we don’t care.
And now…Earth…Wind…& Fire!!!! My favorite non-60s
group…actually, I also like Ozark Mountain Daredevils but I
figure few of you have heard of them. Good to see Maurice
White on stage. He’s had major health problems. These guys
are one of the most underrated acts of all time. And Robert
Randolph was good. I’ll check out his stuff. But then P-Funk
came on with George Clinton and you could tell this was a
mistake. The set deteriorated quickly. Nothing against Clinton,
mind you, but it’s nighty-night time for this gang.
Michael McDonald comes on with Mary J. Blige to introduce
‘Record of the Year.’ Blige puts down McDonald’s Grammy
while with the Doobie Brothers. Blige thus goes on your editor’s
S@#$ list.
Coldplay’s “Clocks” wins…I finally realize who sung this. Will
probably buy the CD.
Sarah McLaughlin and Alison Kraus……zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Starting to lose interest…at least Warren Zevon won, pleasing
my buddy Jeff B. and my brother, big time.
It’s 11:15 PM here on the East Coast…where is Janet?
So I bought this new PC a few months ago, complete with an
NEC flat panel screen and the freakin’ colors ‘bleed,’ so I told
NEC to send me a new one and I have the same damn problem.
Whatever you do, don’t buy an NEC flat panel screen, folks.
How could anyone sit in the audience for the Grammys? It’s got
to be worse than death. Snoop Dogg should be in jail, by the
way. Never cared about Ozzy Osbourne.
Ready for bed…Faith Hill comes on to introduce “Album of the
Year.” Hill has a Faye Dunaway / Kim Novak look. I like it.
OutKast wins…I couldn”t give a damn and once again wonder
why I watched this crappy telecast.
USS Pueblo, Part II
[If you missed part I, check the 2/5 edition of ‘Bar Chat’ through
the below archives. I decided to do this series as a result of the
passing of Commander Lloyd Bucher about two weeks ago.]
After the capture of the Pueblo, the North Koreans released a
purported confession from Captain Bucher which the Pentagon
branded a fabrication, flatly denying that the ship had encroached
on the North’s territorial waters.
President Johnson, exasperated, restrained himself despite a
public outcry for quick military retaliation. Instead, he called to
active duty 15,000 air force and naval reserves as well as
ordering the aircraft carrier Enterprise to assume a station off the
coast of South Korea. LBJ’s desire was to give the impression
that despite the war in Vietnam, he continued to exercise
freedom of military action.
A week after the seizure, the Vietcong launched the Tet offensive
with every vital city and provincial capital in South Vietnam
coming under attack. LBJ’s attentions were quickly diverted
from the Pueblo crisis to more pressing matters.
While military sources acknowledged that the Pueblo was a “spy
ship,” it had been under orders to move off rather than fire its
guns. This backed up those who claimed that Bucher’s surrender
was in contradiction to Navy tradition. The U.S. took the case to
the U.N. Security Council but the Council failed to act.
Presidential candidate Richard Nixon called the Pueblo incident
“an incredible blunder” by the Johnson administration for having
failed to provide adequate protection for the ship. But Nixon did
counsel firm diplomacy rather than rash action.
The State Department issued the following on February 23, 1968,
a month after the capture:
“The North Korean action is not only against all principles of
international law, but is against international practice and past
experience involving this type of ship. Since naval vessels enjoy
sovereign immunity on the high seas, the United States does not
provide protection escort for these ships, nor do other powers
also operating intelligence collection vessels.”
On the issue of why the U.S. didn’t attack the Koreans when it
was known the Pueblo was being seized, the State Department
said the following:
“There were no naval forces which could have reached the area
in time. Aircraft could have done so, but in addition to not
wanting to endanger the safety of the crew of the Pueblo the field
commanders had to consider the likelihood that the North
Koreans would be able to put up a sizeable defense force.”
The State Department proceeded to spell out that the seizure was
part of a pattern:
“The North Korean campaign culminated in the recent attempt to
assassinate South Korean President Park and in the illegal seizure
of the Pueblo. These incidents may have had some connection
with the Vietnam situation, in that they may be an attempt by the
Communists to divert South Korean and U.S. military resources
which together are resisting the aggression in Vietnam. The
incidents are, moreover, in accord with North Korea’s overall
aggressive posture directed at South Korea and the United
States.”
Meanwhile, Captain Lloyd Bucher and the other 81 taken
prisoner (reminder, one was killed during the seizure) were
constantly being tortured and beaten. The North Koreans hit the
Americans with lumber, kicked out teeth, and burned them on
radiators, for starters.
In March, as negotiations for the release of the crew dragged on,
alleged confessions were constantly being presented by the
North. LBJ received a letter reportedly from the crew that stated
“repatriation can be realized only when our government frankly
admits the fact that we intruded into the territorial waters of
North Korea and committed hostile acts.”
In May, Secretary of State Dean Rusk reported to Congress that a
stalemate had been reached in negotiations for the crew’s release.
By mid-September, LBJ (who had announced the previous spring
that he wasn’t running for re-election in the fall) was annoyed
that Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie, the Democratic
ticket, were second-guessing his Vietnam policy. At the same
time he had to deal with reports that his administration was ready
to apologize to the North Koreans over the activities of the
Pueblo, in return for release of the ship and its crew. The State
Department flatly rejected the apology report and made public
what it said were secret orders issued to the Pueblo nearly 3
weeks before its seizure, instructing the captain to remain at least
13 miles off the North Korean coast, superseding a 1966 standing
order permitting ships to go as close as three miles. To
Johnson’s continuing frustration and embarrassment, the ship
and crew remained in Korean hands.
Finally, on December 23, 11 months after the seizure, the crew
of the Pueblo was turned over to American authorities only after
the U.S. first repudiated the North Korean charges that the ship
had intruded illegally into North Korean waters and had engaged
in espionage, then signed a “confession” prepared by the North
Korean regime. Commander Bucher also denied the charges in a
press conference in Panmunjom at the time of his release.
Secretary Rusk called the release arrangements insisted upon by
the North “a strange procedure…If you asked me why these two
contradictory statements proved to be the key to effect the
release of our men,” he said, “the North would have to explain
it.”
On December 24, Christmas Eve, the men of Apollo 8 became
the first human beings to orbit the moon.
Postscript: For 11 months, the crew of the Pueblo endured
beatings, mental torture and malnourishment at the hands of their
captors. Captain Bucher later received a court-martial for
permitting the North Koreans to board the ship (which remains in
North Korean hands to this day). His intelligence officer was
also court-martialed for having failed to destroy sensitive
manuals. A third officer received a letter of admonition for
failing to provide leadership to the crew, but the Secretary of the
Navy, John Chafee, threw out the findings, saying of the three
officers, “They have suffered enough.”
One anecdote from a crew member, Don Peppard, best
exemplifies the attitude of the crew during their time in captivity.
Peppard and fellow sailors made obscene gestures while posing
for a North Korean propaganda photo. When their guards asked
them what the gestures meant, they said it was a Hawaiian good
luck sign. After the picture was published and the meaning of
the gestures discovered, the sailors were severely beaten.
For his part, Captain Bucher was forever pissed off that no one
came to his rescue when he came under attack, despite huge U.S.
forces in the region. Yet today, naval officers and historians
remain split on the surrender of the first American warship since
the War of 1812. Many say Bucher should have gone down
fighting.
The Pueblo was just one of many historic and chaotic events of
1968, the most tempestuous year of the century. It’s also an
object lesson about the North Koreans, who haven’t changed a
lick since then. We shouldn’t be surprised by anything they do
as we attempt to negotiate with them today on the issue of their
nuclear weapons capability.
[The chief source for part II was Jules Witcover’s “The Year The
Dream Died.” I also used State Department archives.]
Stuff
–James J. Jordan Jr., perhaps the greatest sloganeer in
advertising history, died recently at age 73. Jordan is responsible
for:
“Schaefer is the one beer to have when you’re having more than
one.”
“Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch.”
“Delta is ready when you are.”
“Quaker Oatmeal, it’s the right thing to do.”
“Wisk beats ring around the collar.”
As Stuart Elliott notes in Jordan’s obituary for the Times, when it
comes to the Schaefer slogan, written in 1961, research by the
brewer indicated that “80 percent of the beer sold in the United
States was bought by 20 percent of the drinkers. (Jordan) noted a
line in a report Schaefer prepared that described the brand as
‘one beer for heavy drinkers to consume when they are engaged
in a substantive drinking experience.’” Presto! [Remember to
drink responsibly…a message from your friends at Bar Chat.]
–The New York Rangers retired the uniform number of goalie
Mike Richter the other night. In a story written by John
Dellapina of the Daily News, Richter related a tale from his first
days in New York following his call-up from the minors and
Flint, Michigan on New Year’s Eve 1989 with “no money in my
pocket and no clue.” The next day Richter was starving and in
desperate need of a pregame meal. Dellapina:
“He found a deli man who listened to his story and asked only,
‘Where are you staying?’ Richter said he returned to his hotel
room to pack up for that afternoon’s game only to hear a knock
at the door.
“ ‘The man showed up with a ham and cheese omelet and orange
juice,’ Richter said. Then, bringing down the house at the
Garden, he said: ‘To this day, that might have been the best meal
I’ve ever eaten.’”
[Sponsored by the New York City Department of Tourism]
–The case of former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett
and a recent U.S. District Court judgment allowing him to apply
for the NFL draft before league rules say he should be eligible is
much ado about nothing. For starters, Clarett, a primo dirtball
whom you’ll recall lied to police about that loaner car incident
last year and also reportedly accepted money from a known
gambler, is projected as a 2nd-round pick.
The bigger issue is that the NFL can’t prevent anyone, regardless
of their age, from applying, just like the NBA can’t. Football is
obviously concerned about losing control of its free farm system,
as the Daily News’ Mike Lupica points out, and at least for this
year the league’s appeal won’t be heard until after the April 24-
25 draft.
But as my buddy Johnny Mac pointed out, “First off, very few
underclassmen are ready for the pros and the pros know it.
Teams draft for immediate need more often than not, not long-
range prospects (with perhaps the exception of a talented
quarterback), so they won’t be scooping up kids out of high
school only to lose them to free agency just as they are maturing.
“Secondly, college football’s popularity is not predicated on the
best talent; it’s about tradition, alumni, community, etc. College
basketball, for example, is having a great year without Carmelo
and Lebron. Kids who stay are now looked at with respect.”
On this last point, Johnny compares the experience of Kansas
players Drew Gooden and Danny Manning. Gooden had the
chance to take the Jayhawks to the championship, but he left
early for the NBA where he is just another decent player, which
he would have been anyway had he stayed, whereas Manning
will forever be the guy who led Kansas to the ’88 title.
–St. John’s Basketball…geezuz, can it get any worse? It was
back on December 19 that player Willie Shaw was booted off the
team for a drug offense. Then the other day 6 of 10 members of
St. John’s traveling squad decided to break curfew following a
71-51 loss to Pitt in Pittsburgh. They went to a strip club, “Club
Erotica,” where Sherri Bann Urbanek-Bach, a prostitute, was
plying her trade. The players invited her back to their hotel
rooms, Sherri accused them of rape that morning (this all
happened around 2:30 AM, by the way, not exactly a minor
curfew infraction), Pittsburgh police absolved the players,
accusing Sherri of lying, but the damage had already been done.
There are stories some of the dirtballs used a picture phone to
capture the action, for example.
St. John’s expelled Grady Reynolds, who a year earlier had been
accused of assaulting a female student, and at least 4 of the other
5 will end up being expelled as well, with the 6th fellow facing
some kind of suspension. In other words, St. John’s finds itself
with 8 players left on the squad. As William Rhoden wrote in the
Times, the school should just cancel the rest of its schedule.
Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post added:
“Fourteen months ago, Reynolds stood accused of third-degree
assault and second-degree harassment of a fellow student-athlete.
St. John’s response to those charges was to smugly refuse to
discipline Reynolds.
“ ‘Why shouldn’t he play?’ cried Mike Jarvis, the ever-
sanctimonious head coach at the time. ‘I know he didn’t
do anything wrong.’”
The past few days everyone in these parts has also been asking of
the whereabouts of the school’s president, Reverend Donald J.
Harrington. On Saturday, he finally spoke out, best summing up
the situation, “I don’t go out and recruit the athletes.”
If you’d like to coach St. John’s, send your resume to President
Harrington. Lack of experience is probably a plus at this point.
You couldn’t possibly do any worse.
–The recent financial difficulties faced by Tower Records are
but another example of the demise of the record store, according
to a story by David Segal in the Washington Post. Internet
piracy, competition from Wal-Mart and Best Buy, online CD
stores, and legal downloads such as from Apple’s iTunes are
spelling doom. Of course it’s the same issue that faced local
bookstores and travel agencies; thanks to low-priced alternatives
and the Net. One result, however, could be the return of the
‘single’ to the levels of the 50s and 60s.
–Here’s a neat story from Dalya Alberge and the Times of
London. A 13 foot by 5 foot chamber has been unearthed in a
London dig that was once the burial site of a Saxon king from
back in the early 7th century. Everything is “remarkably intact.
All that is missing is the body of the king, whose remains have
dissolved over the centuries.”
All the treasures, such as gold buckles, glass vessels and copper
bowls were found in their original positions, just as they had
been arranged on the day of the king’s funeral. The project
manager explained:
“There was an awful lot of stuff with him. The really exciting
part is that we don’t have to reconstruct how it looked. It’s all
there. The hanging bowl was still hanging on the nail. Glass
vessels were stacked up by the side of the coffin.”
As Alberge writes, “The contents were held in place because
sand from the mound sealing the grave seeped into the chamber,
silting up the air spaces and supporting the roof timbers,” in case
you were wondering how this could be.
–Winter Update: A storm from 1/28-1/31 dumped 86 inches of
snow on Parish, NY, 25 miles north of Syracuse. And Alaska is
entirely snow-covered, a real rarity.
–Former basketball star Jayson Williams goes on trial for
manslaughter this week in New Jersey. What some of you may
not have heard, and what the jury isn’t supposed to hear, is the
story that Williams blew his pet dog’s head off a few years ago
when he lost a $100 bet to former teammate Dwayne Schintzius.
It’s a sickening tale and I’ll leave it at that, except to say that
none of us can pretend to know any of today’s celebrities, just
like we didn’t know what was going on with, say, Hollywood’s
stars of yesteryear.
–The average free-throw percentage in Division I men’s
basketball this year is just 67.2%. As for my Wake Forest
Demon Deacons, I just can’t believe the lack of intensity we’ve
played with the past month and anyone watching our latest
debacle against North Carolina on Saturday still has to be
shaking their head over that incredibly stupid intentional foul at
the start of the second half which cost Wake 6 points when they
had just cut Carolina’s lead to two. C’mon guys, you’ve got the
talent, start showing it!
–Yogi Berra and ex-teammate Whitey Ford were discussing a
list of deceased Yankees greats that appeared on the scoreboard
last year at an Old Timers’ game: “Boy, I hope I never see my
name up there,” said Yogi. [Sports Illustrated]
–I just want to be Tom Brady for one day….preferably in Las
Vegas.
–Philip Francis is a 15-year-old amateur golfer who just missed
qualifying for last week’s PGA tournament in Scottsdale after
firing a 67. When asked why he didn’t seek a sponsor’s
exemption a la Michelle Wie, Francis replied, “I think you
should qualify.” Count me in as a charter member of the Philip
Francis Fan Club. I’ll work on a secret handshake and dues
structure.
–I have to give Senator John Kerry credit for an answer he gave
in a Q&A with Sports Illustrated.
SI: Have you forgiven Grady Little for leaving Pedro in against
the Yankees in the playoffs?
Kerry: No! That was just unbelievable. We were screaming at
the TV, “Take him out!”
–John Dowd, the attorney that conducted the investigation into
Pete Rose’s gambling back in 1989, is still a high-powered legal
figure in Washington, D.C. But the other week, he gave a
presentation to a regional chapter of the Society for American
Baseball Research (SABR), the stat nuts that seek to preserve
baseball’s heritage.
Dowd told the group that back in ’89 he was close to proving
Rose bet ‘against’ the Reds, but that he had only two sources and
he required three before releasing it as part of the formal report.
Of course this would have permanently killed Rose’s chances of
ever getting back into the game, let alone admittance to the Hall
of Fame, if it had been proved back then. It also turns out that
Major League Baseball had investigated Rose for gambling on
baseball back in the 1970s when he was still playing, but when
Dowd asked for the file as part of his investigation he was told
by MLB that it was missing.
Stefan Fatsis of the Wall Street Journal reported on Dowd’s
speech to SABR.
“Mr. Dowd’s bottom line: Pete Rose was a bad guy who hung
out with drug dealers and gamblers; who probably bet more
extensively on baseball than Mr. Dowd had time to prove; who
still gambles. Mr. Dowd certainly is allied with former
commissioners Giamatti and Vincent – the last independent ones
– and not the current regime. But it carried weight when he said,
‘I don’t mind telling you I’m very, very concerned about the
condition of the game.’
“John Dowd got a standing O from the SABR audience. That
should tell you what real fans think of Pete Rose, and of
baseball’s leadership.”
[Frankly, I’m surprised how well Rose’s book is selling. Why
the hell would you buy it? It’s fiction! If you want to read a
good book on baseball, behind the scenes, go back and re-read
“Ball Four.”]
–Not for nothing, but Vijay Singh is the #1 golfer in the world
right now, especially after winning at Pebble Beach this
weekend. Singh has 12 top tens in a row. Nicklaus has the
record at 14.
–New Nets coach Lawrence Frank is 7-0. Who wudda thunk it?
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/8/75: #1 “Fire” (Ohio Players) #2
“You’re No Good” (Linda Ronstadt) #3 “Boogie On Reggae
Woman” (Stevie Wonder)
ABA Quiz Answers: 1) Scoring champs: ’68 – Connie Hawkins
(26.8), ’69 – Rick Barry (34.0), ’70 – Spencer Haywood (30.0),
’71 – Dan Issel (29.9), ’72 – Charlie Scott (34.6), ’73 – Julius
Erving (31.9), ’74 – Julius Erving (27.4), ’75 – George McGinnis
(29.8), ’76 – Julius Erving (29.3). 2) Swen Nater was a rookie of
the year with San Antonio. 3) Indiana won 3 titles, Kentucky,
one. 4) Artis Gilmore was the only player to make five 1st-team
All-ABA squads. 5) Bob “Slick” Leonard was the all-time
winningest coach in ABA history, compiling 387 wins with
Indiana.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
