NFL Quiz: 1) Top five coaches all-time, regular season wins.
[Hint: one name is probably not that obvious.] 2) Coach of the
Year: 1978? [Seattle] 1974? [St. Louis] 3) Who were the
overall 1st picks in the NFL draft for 1999-2002? Answers
below.
***Bulletin……….Tiger Woods has refuted rumors that the
relationship between himself and Elin Nordegren is over.
“Nothing’s happened to us. We’re still very happy.” I don’t
know about you, but to me this wasn’t strong enough***
Pennant Races
With the great wildcard race in the National League, five teams
within 2 ½ games as of this writing, here were two classic
pennant races in the American League.
1967
September 1
Boston……..77-59
Minnesota…75-58…0.5 GB
Detroit……..74-60…2.0
Chicago……73-60…2.5
September 26
Minnesota…91-68
Chicago……89-68…1.0
Boston……..90-69…1.0
Detroit……..89-69…1.5
But on September 27, the White Sox lost a doubleheader to
Kansas City. Then Minnesota, having lost 2 of 3 to the
California Angels at home to go 91-69, went into Boston, now
90-70, for the final two, while Detroit was forced to play back-
to-back doubleheaders at home against the Angels (due to
previous rainouts).
On Saturday, the Tigers split with the Angels, while Boston beat
the Twins 6-4 after the Twinkies bullpen blew up. So there was
a tie at the top. Then on Sunday, Boston’s Jim Lonborg defeated
Dean Chance, 5-3, but the Tigers won their first game to move
within a half game of Boston. Detroit then lost the second 8-5
and Boston moved on to the World Series.
Final Standings
Boston………92-70
Detroit………91-71
Minnesota…..91-71
Chicago……..89-73
Boston had finished 9th the year before and was a 100-1 shot to
win the pennant.
But I have to make note of the White Sox, who finished as well
as they did despite having a .225 team batting average with not
one starter hitting over .241. What the ChiSox had was great
pitching, to the tune of a 2.45 staff ERA, led by Joel Horlen
(2.06), Gary Peters (2.28) and Tommy John (2.48).
And it should also be noted that Carl Yastrzemski went 10 for 13
at season’s end to wrap up the Triple Crown.
1978
A.L. East
July 19
Boston………62-28
Milwaukee….53-37…9 GB
Baltimore……51-42…12 ½
Yankees…….48-42…14
September 16
Yankees…….90-57
Boston………87-61…3 ½
It was on July 17 that Billy Martin suspended Reggie Jackson for
five games, with Martin then saying of Reggie and George
Steinbrenner, “one’s a born liar, the other’s convicted.” Exit
Martin stage left, enter Bob Lemon. After rallying the Yankees
to within four games of the Red Sox, Lemon’s boys swept a four-
game series with Boston by a total score of 42-9 in what became
known as the Boston Massacre.
But after falling behind by 3 ½ on September 16, the Sox went
12-2 the rest of the way, forcing the one-game playoff at Fenway
as the teams finished with identical 99-63 marks. Well, you
know the rest of that story…the legend of Bucky “Bleeping”
Dent, as he was known forever after in Beantown.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Moments
American Heritage magazine commented on the most overrated
and underrated moments in the genre. Cornell Professor Glenn
C. Altschuler weighed in.
Overrated: September 9, 1956, Elvis Presley’s appearance on
“Toast of the Town,” hosted by Ed Sullivan. Presley opened
with “Don’t Be Cruel,” then introduced the title song of his new
movie, “Love Me Tender.”
“Later in the show Presley sang Little Richard’s hit ‘Reddy
Teddy.’ As he began to move and dance, the camera pulled in,
so that the television audience saw him only from the waist up.
The incident has become a legendary moment in the history of
American culture, cited often as evidence of the dominance of
sexual censors in the 1950s.
“Their power has been vastly overrated. Elvis’s appearance in
face demonstrates that rock ‘n’ roll had put the prudes on the
defensive. Sullivan, who had said earlier that Elvis ‘is not my
cup of tea,’ booked him for the then astronomical feel of $50,000
when the popularity of the rock ‘n’ roll singer soared. His
investment paid off: The September 9 show got a Trendex rating
of 43.7, which meant that 82.6 percent of the television audience
had tuned in. Even from the waist up, Elvis retained his erotic
appeal, especially when viewers heard eruptions of emotion from
the studio audience each time the singer sneered, swayed, or
sighed.” [Altschuler]
Jack Gould, the television critic for the New York Times wrote
that Presley had “injected movements of the tongue and indulged
in wordless singing that were singularly distasteful.” But Gould
predicted correctly that the medium would benefit greatly from
capitalizing on the desires of the mass audience. Afterwards,
Tom Parker, Elvis’s manager, announced his client’s price for
two guest appearances and an hourlong television special was
now $300,000.
Underrated: Rock ‘n’ roll got its name in the fall of 1954, after
disc jockey Alan Freed was sued by a blind street musician /
composer, Louis Hardin, for calling his radio program
“Moondog House,” a play on Hardin’s recording “Moondog
Symphony.” A judge awarded Hardin $5,700 and forbade Freed
from using the label. So Freed changed the name of the show to
“Rock ‘n’ Roll Party.”
As Glenn Altschuler writes, “A black euphemism for sexual
intercourse, ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ appeared often in the lyrics of rhythm
and blues music.” The phrase caught on and Freed had it
copyrighted while at radio station WINS.
Altschuler: “As it entered popular discourse, ‘rock ‘n’ roll’
became a social construction as well as a musical conception,
with complex and sometimes contradictory consequences for
American culture.”
Rock ‘n roll also increased the opportunities for black
performers. Of the 730 Top Ten hits on the Billboard charts
between 1957 and 1964, black artists recorded 204, the largest
percentage they ever registered. And in a modest way ‘rock’
promoted integration.
Underrated Political Slogan
According to author Brian Burrell [“The Words We Live By:
The Creeds, Mottoes, and Pledges That Have Shaped America”]
the most underrated slogan is Ronald Reagan’s 1980 riff “Are
you better off now than you were four years ago?”
In 1976, Illinois gubernatorial candidate Jim Thompson, the
incumbent, won in a landslide by asking a similar question.
Later Bill Clinton would use a variation of it in 1996 in his re-
election bid.
Stuff
–Ryder Cup Tales
In a simpler time, the 1979 Ryder Cup was held at The
Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. It was then
that an earlier idea of Jack Nicklaus’s came to fruition; that being
the addition of European golfers to the traditional Great Britain-
Ireland squad.
In ’79, the only two golfers added from the continent were Seve
Ballesteros and Antonio Garrido and Europe still lost 17-11.
But one aspect of the play that year deserves some attention,
another example of the sportsmanship that normally prevails in
the sport. Helen Ross of PGATour.com explains.
Europe entered Sunday’s play down just 8 ½ – 7 ½ and “could
have gained another half-point and perhaps some momentum on
Sunday if team captain John Jacobs hadn’t made a generous
gesture of sportsmanship that likely wouldn’t be extended
today.”
“Jacobs and U.S. captain Billy Casper placed into an envelope
the name of a player to be pulled if the opposing team had an
injury. Casper, either by accident or by confusion, chose his best
player, Lee Trevino, rather than his worst.
“When Europe’s Mark James was scratched with an aching
shoulder, Trevino should have rested, but Jacobs refused to
benefit from Casper’s grievous error and allowed him to sit Gil
Morgan instead. Trevino went on to beat Sandy Lyle 2 and 1.”
[Thanks, Phil W.]
Golf Digest asked some past Ryder Cup participants for their
most memorable moments. Here are just a few selections.
David Feherty (on Bernhard Langer’s missed six-foot putt in
1991 at Kiaway Island that would have retained the Cup for
Europe): Langer was taking forever as usual over this putt with a
spike mark in it, and I’m sitting with the rest of the European
team, all jammed together in a 10-foot square area. Remember
the late Lawrence Levy, the photographer? He was one of my
greatest friends. He was right beside me, and I’m shaking so
badly he says, “Stop shaking – you’re shaking my lens.” I said,
“I can’t stop.” He turns to me and he says, “You know, it occurs
to me that the last time a German was under this kind of
pressure, he shot himself in a bunker.” Which is still maybe the
most inappropriate thing I’ve ever heard on a golf course.
Jack Nicklaus, on being matched up against the legendary party
animal Brian Barnes twice in 1975. Barnes beat him both times
and he told Jack 15 years later, “You know, when I beat you the
second day I was stone-drunk.”
Lanny Wadkins (on playing Seve Ballesteros in 1985 at The
Belfry): The first hole, playing four-ball, I had about a 30-footer
for birdie. I had Seve move his coin – he had about a six- to
eight-footer for birdie – and I pulled my putt, hit his coin, and it
kicked it right into the hole. Seve was, “You did that on
purpose! You hit my coin on purpose!” I said, “Yeah, well,
Seve, I’m sorry I’m that freakin’ good.” I wasn’t going to take
any crap off him.
[Seve, by the way, is the biggest a-hole in the history of the
sport. His stories are legendary.]
–The other day Arnold Palmer turned 75. In an interview with
PGA Tour Partners magazine, he was asked how many days of
the year he played golf. “Oh, I would say 270 or so out of 365
days.”
And this one…pertaining to a famous story.
Q: What is the biggest thing you splurged on with a winner’s
check?
Arnie: My caddie! When I won the 1958 Masters and I won
$11,250. My wife Winnie wrote my caddie, Iron Man, a check
for $14,000. It was supposed to be $1,400. The good news is
that we caught him before he cashed it. But he was trying to
disappear. Winnie was scared to death. [They realized their
mistake the same day.]
As to what separates great champions from the other players on
tour, Arnie had this to say.
“Maybe the most important is desire….I see players who love to
play golf. But I see others who skip golf tournaments that are
critical to their career. Well, they don’t have the desire. The
desire is missing. Or you’ll see guys that are on the border of the
money list and being in the top 125 and keeping their card, but
they skip tournaments. They won’t play and they’ll say they’re
tired. I just don’t understand that.”
–I didn’t know this………Detroit quarterback Joey Harrington
and golfer Padraig Harrington are cousins.
–Canada won the World Cup of Hockey, the last hockey anyone
will see at least until 2005 as the owners will lock out the players
over current contract negotiations. For their part, the players are
total idiots. Then again, few of them have gone to school beyond
the 8th grade.
–Doh! Marshall’s football coach Bob Pruett called the Ohio
State Buckeyes “a bunch of Mandingos” in a news conference
following his team’s 24-21 loss to OSU on Saturday. Pruett
apologized for the remark…but then he didn’t shut up.
Comments in […]s are mine.
“I used it in an effort to explain superior physical ability. [Ah,
Coach? You better stop right there.] I was trying to be
complimentary. I would consider it complimentary [too late] if
someone called me a (Mandingo) warrior. [Oh, brother.] I
profusely apologize. I didn’t mean it to be derogatory to
anyone.” [USA Today]
–The New Jersey Nets are looking to trade Jason Kidd. Good.
With the team already decimated by previous roster moves, Kidd
is not the kind to come to the arena with his ‘A’ game if he isn’t
happy.
–Yes, another study is out on the health benefits of drinking beer
and wine, but this one from the University of Western Ontario
(and Harry K.) notes that just one beer has the same antioxidant
benefit as one glass of red wine, even though red wine “contains
about 20 times the amount of polyphenols as beer.”
[The findings are going to be published in the journal
“Nonlinearity in Biology, Toxicology and Medicine.” Can’t say
I subscribe to this one. Assume most of you don’t either.]
Well, time to wrap this up. I’m reaching for some polyphenols.
Top 3 songs for the week of 9/16/67: #1 “Ode To Billie Joe”
(Bobbie Gentry) #2 “Reflections” (Diana Ross & The
Supremes) #3 “Come Back When You Grow Up” (Bobby Vee)
NFL Quiz Answers: 1) Top five coaches wins, regular season –
Don Shula (328-156-6), George Halas (318-148-31), Tom
Landry (250-162-6), Curly Lambeau (226-132-22), Chuck Noll
(193-148-1). [Dan Reeves had 190 wins, Chuck Knox 186.] 2)
Coach of the Year – 1978, Jack Patera / Seattle; 1974, Don
Coryell / St. Louis. 3) Overall 1st round draft picks: 1999 – Tim
Couch, QB (Cleveland); 2000: Courtney Brown, DE
(Cleveland); 2001: Michael Vick, QB (Atlanta); David Carr, QB
(Houston).
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday.
