Baseball Quiz: 1) Name the top ten on the all time hits list.
[Hint: Four had their last season in 1930 or earlier. #10 is at
3,283.] 2) Name the top five active players in hits…not
including Rafael Palmeiro because I’m assuming no one would
be so stupid as to pick him up for this year. Answers below.
Curt Gowdy, RIP
13 Emmy Awards, 16 World Series, nine Super Bowls, 12 Rose
Bowls and 24 NCAA Final Fours, as well as “The American
Sportsman.” As Richard Sandomir of the New York Times
wrote:
“In an extraordinary run that showed his multisport versatility, he
called 7 Super Bowls from 1967 to 1979, 10 consecutive World
Series from 1966 to 1975,” plus all those Rose Bowls and Final
Fours, as well as 7 Olympics.
Long before Jim Nantz and Al Michaels, there was Curt Gowdy.
NBC broadcaster Dick Enberg said, “He was the first superstar
of sports television because he did all of the big events….He’s
the last of the dinosaurs. No one will ever be the voice of so
many major events at the same time ever again.”
Curt Gowdy, who died on Monday at the age of 86, was born in
Green River, Wyoming, where his father, a Union Pacific
Railroad superintendent, taught him the outdoor life.
“I was a very lucky guy,” he said in 2002. “I grew up in
Wyoming. My father was the best fly fisherman in the state. We
had free access to prime-time fishing and hunting. The outdoors
was a way of life for me. I should have paid them to host
‘American Sportsman.’”
Gowdy got his start in broadcasting at the University of
Wyoming, broadcasting six-man football games. Then he found
himself doing Oklahoma Sooners football at a key time, the Bud
Wilkinson era, and his skill earned him a telegram from the great
Edward R. Murrow for a job well done.
In 1949, Gowdy was selected from among 300 applicants to
become Mel Allen’s partner on New York Yankees broadcasts
and two years later he became the Red Sox play-by-play
announcer, a position he held through 1966, after which he had a
10-year stint for NBC’s “Game of the Week” and the lead
announcer on NBC’s burgeoning AFL football coverage, plus the
other aforementioned big events. NBC Universal Sports
chairman Dick Ebersol said upon Gowdy’s death, “He literally
carried the sports division at NBC for so many years on his
back.”
Gowdy was teamed up on NBC baseball telecasts with Tony
Kubek but he was forced out after calling the 1975 World Series
and replaced by Joe Garagiola. From Richard Sandomir:
“The network denied that its decision had resulted from an
accusation by an American League umpire, Larry Barnett, that
Mr. Gowdy and Tony Kubek…had partly been responsible for
threats on the lives of Mr. Barnett and his family. The
announcers, especially Mr. Kubek, said that Mr. Barnett had
failed to call interference on a Cincinnati Reds pinch-hitter in
Game 3 of the Series against the Red Sox.”
Gowdy was forced to focus on football and other events
afterwards.
Gowdy once told The Denver Post that his biggest sports
moment was announcing Super Bowl III, the Jets’ upset of the
Baltimore Colts.
“In the fourth quarter, I delivered a little editorial in which I said
this would change the map of football in America…I was
accused of rooting for the [AFL]. But I was just telling the
facts.”
Mark Feeney of the Boston Globe notes that “Mr. Gowdy’s
willingness to go his own way got him trouble in 1971. When
the AFC divisional championship game between the Kansas City
Chiefs and Miami Dolphins went into overtime, Mr. Gowdy
started referring to ‘sudden victory’ rather than ‘sudden death.’”
Prior to Super Bowl III, Gowdy and partner Al DeRogatis were
involved in the famous “Heidi” game. With 65 seconds to go
and the Jets ahead of the Oakland Raiders 32-29 in a critical late-
season contest, NBC cut the broadcast to go to the scheduled
showing of the movie “Heidi.” The Raiders scored two quick
touchdowns to win 43-32 and needless to say NBC’s
switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree.
But Gowdy kept broadcasting the game, not knowing they were
off the air. He later told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “When the
game was over, I was packing to get out of there, and the stage
manager yelled at me, ‘Hey, you’ve got to do those two
touchdowns again!’” Gowdy returned to the booth to reconstruct
his call, which then ran on NBC’s news programs and on the
next morning’s “Today Show.”
For those of us of a certain age, though, my memories of Curt
Gowdy are as much about “The American Sportsman” as
anything else. Talk about a television original. There was the
outdoorsman Gowdy, coupled with his best friend from his
Boston days, Ted Williams, or celebrities such as Bing Crosby or
Phil Harris, hunting quail or fishing in some exotic place. The
show was broadcast on Sundays and particularly after the
football season was over; there was nothing on back then except
an NBA Game of the Week and, maybe, a golf tournament.
“American Sportsman” would come on around 4:00 or 4:30 and
the ratings had to be huge. I know I loved watching it.
Curt Gowdy. American sportsman…an American legend.
Wildlife Tidbits
In honor of Mr. Gowdy, here’s the latest on the animal front.
In a story by Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post, there is a
plan afoot to save the Florida panther, of which only about 80 are
known to exist. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed
that some of them be moved to other states, including Arkansas,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama.
I read this and think but one thing… “Oh, that’s good. You try
and get people to come back to New Orleans post-Katrina, for
example, only to have them eaten by a panther.” Or maybe I’m
reading too much into it.
Actually, what some officials are concerned about is
crossbreeding between Texas cougars and Florida panthers. It
turns out this was first accomplished back in 1995 to eliminate
the effects of inbreeding in the Florida animal.
One fellow at the Univ. of Kentucky, however, David Maehr,
says “The situation with the crossbreeding (is spiraling) out of
control.” Regardless, just another thing to worry about when you
stop off along Interstate 10 to pick up some more beer on your
trip from Jacksonville to New Orleans…not that I ever did this
myself, you understand.
Panthers, cougars, pumas…mountain lions. It’s the last one that
Californians have a problem with. Or rather, the humans that kill
them. William Welch of USA Today reports that Bill Hill of
Rancho Santa Margarita is in trouble for killing a mountain lion
that was perched on his backyard wall. Orange County officials
may file charges against Hill. As one grandmother put it:
“Evidently (the Hills) don’t like the wild in wilderness. If you
don’t like it, move away. I would feel so blessed at just seeing it.
I would just leave it alone.”
Goodness gracious, woman. If I saw one while picking up the
paper in the driveway, I’d have a heart attack; especially if it was
sitting there with the sports section in its mouth.
Hill is getting a bad deal. The mountain lion was just two blocks
from an elementary school, let alone the fact Hill has a young
child he was trying to protect.
But California is the only state that has made mountain lions a
legally protected species…Proposition 117, which passed in
1990, prohibits hunting or trapping them and violators face up to
a year in prison. In fact, Governor Ronald Reagan signed a bill
banning the hunting of mountain lions back in 1972.
California recorded one death and two serious injuries from the
big cats in 2004. The death was just a few miles from where Bill
Hill lives. That was the situation where hours later the same
cougar, later found and destroyed, severely mauled a bicyclist in
the vicinity of the initial attack.
Meanwhile, overseas, 25 sperm whales of Moby Dick fame have
made it into the North Sea, but here researchers are concerned
they are about to beach themselves; four others having already
done so in 2006, compared to seven in the previous three years.
This latest group is a “bachelor pod.” Upon reading this one
hopes they are just a bunch of rambunctious youths, looking to
take the ferry across the Mersey for that full Liverpool
experience.
Finally, we’re not domestic feline fans here at Bar Chat. As
Johnny Mac always says, “You don’t see any rescue cats, do
you?” And now it would appear cats carry a parasite that is
killing off sea otters, according to the BBC and a California
researcher. Cat owners in the Golden State are being urged to
keep them indoors. [Personally, I’d throw ‘em outside for their
larger brethren to munch on.]
Yes, the parasite is a result of cat feces, which wash into U.S.
waterways and then into the sea where the otters are becoming
infected, causing brain disease. Of course there is also a risk to
humans, who, for example, may escape the clutches of a Great
White, only to succumb to cat crap. [There’s no way to do this
story delicately, sports fans.]
So there’s a pretty simple solution to yours truly…Proposition
9,087…the elimination of cats.
But wait…there’s more…..from Bloomberg News:
An 8-inch northern snakehead was caught near Philadelphia
International Airport in December, one year after being
discovered in South Philly, eating a cheesesteak. Well, this
means you can kiss all the game fish in the Delaware River
goodbye. The snakehead has no natural predators.
Female snakeheads are prolific suckers, capable of carrying as
many as 50,000 eggs at a time, and they grow to 3-4 feet and
about 15 pounds. Plus, recall they can walk short distances,
which is undoubtedly why the above referenced one was found
near the airport, Philly being a hub for Southwest Airlines and its
low, low fares.
Now the snakehead story goes back to 2002 when they were first
discovered in Crofton, Maryland. But did you know that when
that first pond was drained, there were 1,300 snakeheads in it?
Holy abalone!
Stuff
–And now……..more on Bode Miller…loser extraordinaire.
Following Bode’s 3rd event, the super-G on Saturday, the
Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins weighed in.
“I want to like Miller. I really do. He’s a compelling performer
who’s obviously got physical courage on the course, and a kind
of tongue-twisted articulacy off of it. But this spiritual search
party he’s on is increasingly difficult to sympathize with. If
Miller’s said it once, he’s said four or five times during the
Games, that he couldn’t care less about medals. His latest
remarks came in an interview in the Italian Gazzetta dello Sport
newspaper this week. ‘It’s other people who want me to win
medals,’ Miller said. ‘This year I just want to enjoy myself. I
could give up tomorrow without having the slightest regret.’
“Who knows if this attitude is real or affected? Regardless, it
violates a basic contract between the Olympic athlete and
spectator. If athletes want spectators to take a sport seriously, to
pay for them, buy tickets to them, watch them, and celebrate
them, then surely they themselves should appear to take it
seriously.
“But Miller has gone out of his way to signal his lack of regard
for these Olympics, and worse, for his audience. He slouched
through the Opening Ceremonies, walking by himself yards
behind the rest of the U.S. team, hatless. He has reportedly
haunted the bars and clubs of Sestriere, which may have
compromised his performance in the downhill. He led the
downhill race until the final section, when he inexplicably
yielded time, something almost no other skier did.
“You get the feeling that Miller is trying hard to exude the
ethereal New Hampshire cabin-boy purity for which he is
known. But really, what he exudes is a fundamental immaturity
and indecisiveness. He can’t seem to decide why he’s here. In
his self-contradictory interviews, he simultaneously courts fame
and loathes what it’s done to him. He heaps pressure on himself
by making provocative remarks – and then claims he’s
persecuted when the public reacts unfavorably.
“ ‘Sport is born clean and it would stay that way if it was the
athletes who ran it for the pleasure of taking part, but then the
fans and the media intervene and finish up by corrupting it with
the pressure that they exercise,’ he said to the Italian paper.
“Are his sensibilities really so much finer, and less corrupt, than
those of his audience and his fellow skiers?”
Jon Saraceno / USA Today…also after the super-G
“My antipathy towards Bode Miller has far more to do with his
palpable apathy to the Olympic ideal – the undermining of the
Games’ inherent spirit of competition – than with his penchant
for triggering an avalanche of criticism with his controversial
opinions.
“If he wants to ski ‘wasted,’ as he told ’60 Minutes,’ fine with
me – just don’t make it an anthem for young, impressionable
minds. And I really don’t care that he prefers to sleep in his
cushy RV rather than in cramped village beds.
“I can’t cheer for an Olympian who doesn’t have his heart and
mind into being the best, who doesn’t appear to care if he wins or
loses for his country. I don’t care how daring his skiing is or
how sexy his story line….
“It’s easy to find yourself pulling for anyone other than Mr.
Indifferent – even non-Americans. Consider Austrian Hermann
Maier – at 33, five years older than Bode and in his first
Olympics since nearly losing a leg in a motorcycle crash…. And
Eric Guay of Canada, who recently bruised both calves yet
ripped down the mountainside. And Kjetil Andre Aamodt, the
bearded Norwegian who won the gold.
“ ‘It’s better to have one gold than two silvers,’ Aamodt said,
after bypassing the combined event because of a bothersome
knee.
“Now that sounds like an Olympian….
“Bode exudes an offensive, lofty detachment from these Games
that insults other athletes and disrespects the founding spirit of
the Olympics. Winning might not be everything, but is it
anything for Bode?
“By the bottom of the hill, the bottom line is this: Bode is a
loser.”
Then we had event #4, the giant slalom, where Bode finished 6th.
Once again, Miller left the venue without talking to reporters, but
an Associated Press scribe caught up to him in the parking lot.
Incredibly, Miller said the following:
“One of the good things about my career is I have such extensive
knowledge, so I always go as hard as I can. Some guys can go
70-80 percent and get results, but I wouldn’t do that.
“If things went well, I could be sitting on four medals, maybe all
of them gold.”
By the way, Miller has not won a race in his last 25 starts.
Our long national nightmare is almost over.
And now……Shani and Chad!!!!!
Oh yeah, you won’t be seeing this act on the road together. Not
exactly Chad and Jeremy, if you catch my drift.
But in watching clips from the news conference Shani Davis and
Chad Hedrick had after they took silver and bronze, respectively,
in the 1,500-meters, the video doesn’t show the full deal. The
following is a compilation of reports from Richard Sandomir /
New York Times and T.J. Quinn / New York Daily News.
“Davis congratulated Hedrick when he won the 5,000 meters, but
Hedrick did not reciprocate after Davis won the 1,000.
“And thus, a chasm developed for the news media to drive a
custom Hummer through. Toward the end of their joint news
conference Tuesday, where they served up an hourlong repast of
thinly veiled loathing, Davis praised his idol, Michael Jordan, for
never acting unprofessionally when he lost. Then…
Hedrick: “We were focused on each other; we weren’t focused
on our game plan.”
Davis: “I totally disagree.”
Hedrick: “He has a different approach to skating. If he feels like
not doing the team pursuit to prepare for the 1,000…that’s his
agenda.”
Davis: “It would have been nice if, after the 1,000, he could have
been a good teammate after I won, like I hugged him – hugged
him – after he won the 5,000 meters.”
Then Davis walked out, muttering loudly about Hedrick.
“I’m done,” Davis said, heading to where his mother was waiting
just outside the room. “He only shakes my hand when I lose.
Typical Chad.”
[T.J. Quinn] Hedrick, dumbstruck, rose for a second, then sat
back down in front of his microphone as reporters shouted at him
to respond. After an uncomfortable moment to collect his
thoughts, Hedrick gave his final words on the subject.
“We’re all part of Team USA. I went to the Opening
Ceremonies. We had a great opportunity to win the team pursuit.
I felt betrayed. Not only didn’t he not participate, but he didn’t
discuss it with me, the team leader. We passed up a gold medal.”
If you asked me just 24 hours ago, I would have said, well,
maybe Davis has some endorsement opportunities, regardless of
this flap. I’m not so sure now. Let’s face it, neither is likable
and as T.J. Quinn wrote, “They will leave Italy, (returning) to
their sparsely covered circuit, and they will have each other to
deal with for the next four years.”
–AP Top Ten Men’s College Basketball
1. Duke
2. Villanova
3. UConn
4. Memphis
5. Gonzaga
6. George Washington…goodness gracious
7. Texas
8. Illinois
9. Pittsburgh
10. Tennessee
223. Wake Forest…good match-up would be with Savannah
State.
So I did a sweep of all the conferences the other day, trying to
figure out the 65-team field for the NCAAs in March, and I came
up with only 55, including the automatics from the little
conferences.
[Did you know that as of Monday, Coppin State was 11-3 in the
Mid-Eastern conference and 11-14 overall? Heck, they could get
to the dance if they win their tourney, where Delaware State
heads up the pack at 13-1 (but 15-11 overall).]
And I’m giving the Big East 7 in my own calculation. Johnny
Mac says it’s leagues such as the Missouri Valley Conference
where you can build a legitimate case for four bids [Wichita
State, No. Iowa, Creighton, and Southern Illinois] that could end
up shaking things up come selection time. On the other hand,
George Washington is #6 in the nation but may be the only pick
from its own A-10.
Separately, I missed the end of the Syracuse – West Virginia
game, won by the ‘Cuse 60-58. Johnny Mac said the last few
seconds epitomized the need for his foul rule, per our last bar
chat.
“WVU was down two, with the ball. They hoisted a long three
(naturally), missed it, Syracuse rebounded. 5.8 seconds on the
clock and WVU fouled immediately. There was still time for
‘Cuse to brick a foul shot and WVU get a shot at winning it, if
not sending the contest into overtime. Except they hadn’t fouled
enough…so three more times Syracuse inbounded and WVU
fouled. But now there were just 1.5 seconds left. Silly way to
end the game.”
–Abraham Lincoln
Don’t worry, we’re just going to focus on his pre-presidential
years here. Yes, Abe was born on February 12, 1809, in a one-
room, dirt-floored log cabin, the son of Thomas and Nancy.
Thomas Lincoln owned a small tract in Kentucky and when Abe
was just two, they moved to a larger one, “in the valley of Knob
Creek, surrounded by high hills and deep gorges.” It was a
terrible place to raise crops, what with all the gully washers
sweeping away whatever seeds were planted. Simply put, a
peasant life.
Mother Nancy Hanks could read but not write. Thomas could
supposedly only scribble a little. Life back then was non-stop
farm labor and “book learning” wasn”t a priority.
In 1816, Thomas and Nancy set off for better land and ended up
in Pigeon Creek, Indiana. It is said that Thomas was also trying
to get away from slavery, being opposed to it on both religious
and economic grounds. He felt that slave labor was unfair
competition and this was a feeling that Abe would carry forward
as well.
In 1817, tragedy struck as Nancy Hanks succumbed to “milk
sickness.” Abe was shattered and it is said that the spells of
depression he suffered through the rest of his life can be traced to
this event. But a year later, Thomas remarried the widow Sarah.
Sarah had a pleasant demeanor and she took to Abe and
encouraged what was clearly his passion for reading. And what
did he read back then? Well, you have to remember that very
few books were even available, so it was mostly ‘Aesop’s
Fables,’ ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and the Bible.
Because there were so few choices available in those days,
children took to memorizing the texts they could get their hands
on. Historian Jean Bethke Elshtain observes, “All those hours
spent reading by dim firelight the same book over and over (the
way little children still like to be read to) were to contribute to
Lincoln’s being the foremost master of prose among our
presidents.”
In addition, another popular book of the time, John Bunyan’s
“The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (published in 1684), “must have played
an important part in shaping Lincoln’s complexity of mind,” says
Elshtain, “through a life of action and of reflection, often
mordant reflection, on that action.”
While still a teen, Abe set off for New Salem, Illinois. He spent
some time working on a flatboat carrying goods to New Orleans.
Then he took a job clerking in a general store, which gave him a
chance to learn how to “politick.” Around town Lincoln was
known as a kind and thoughtful young man. He was also
prodigious with an axe at 6’4”, often chopping wood for the
ladies, further endearing himself in their hearts. And in July
1831, he gained some fame by taking on the town bully, one Jack
Armstrong, fighting him to a draw (or so the story goes).
Clerking gave Abe lots of time to indulge in his favorite passion,
reading. Now he was devouring the likes of Thomas Paine,
Voltaire, and Shakespeare (‘Macbeth’ being his favorite). He
was also known to be a brooder. Carl Sandburg wrote, “Silence
found him for her own. In the making of him, the element of
silence was immense.”
Lincoln lost his first election to the Illinois State legislature in
1832, but won the seat in 1834. As a popular member he
hobnobbed with the elite in town and eventually met Mary Todd
of Lexington, Kentucky. Mary was well educated (but high-
tempered) and a marriage was set for 1/1/41. But it is said that
Abe had fallen in love with another woman and so the wedding
was cancelled. Lincoln suffered, emotionally, for over a year,
but by mid-1842, Mary and Abe were back together and they
married 11/4/42. Curiously, however, he concluded a business
letter a week later with the following: “Nothing new here except
my marrying, which to me is matter of profound wonder.” [Uh
oh. Not a great attitude. And they did end up having a rocky
time of it.]
In 1846, Lincoln was elected to Congress. The Whig Party gave
him $200 for campaign expenses, Abe handed back $199.25,
keeping 75 cents for a barrel of cider he had purchased. So it
should be no wonder, boys and girls, that the future president
was given the moniker, “Honest Abe.”
Lincoln only lasted one term in Congress, clashing with
President Polk over policy in the Mexican War. This represented
another extraordinary moment in the development of Abe
Lincoln’s political character. The U.S. had annexed Texas and
rapidly overwhelmed Mexico. President Polk’s policies were
popular regarding this action, but Lincoln disagreed. He saw the
U.S. as being the aggressor and stated, “Allow the President to
invade a neighboring nation whenever ‘he’ shall deem it
necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to make war
at pleasure.”
Abe Lincoln tired of Washington and sought the simple life of
a lawyer back in Illinois so after two years he packed up and
went home. As he himself later put it, Abe saw “a superior
opportunity” for “being a good man.”
Of course the slavery issue overwhelmed good men like Lincoln
and he soon found himself back in politics, this time as one of
the founders of the new Republican Party. In 1858 he ran for the
Senate against the incumbent, Stephen Douglas. It was during
the Lincoln-Douglas debates that the nation really took note of
Abe’s talents. As described in “The Presidents,” “The language
he spoke and the moral convictions he championed were
memorable.” Following are Lincoln’s words:
“The ant, who has toiled and dragged a crumb to his nest will
furiously defend the fruit of his labor, against whatever robber
assails him. So plain, that the most dumb and stupid slave that
ever toiled for a master, does constantly know that he is
wronged.
“If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember
when I did not so think, and feel.
“As I would not be a ‘slave,’ so I would not be a ‘master.’ This
expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to
the extent of the difference, is no democracy.
“Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has not
hope.”
Well, Lincoln lost the Senate race, but two years later was the
Republican nominee for president. I think you know the rest.
Sources: “The Presidents,” edited by Henry Graff; “American
Heritage: The Presidents,” edited by Michael Beschloss; “The
Second One Thousand Years: The People Who Defined a
Millennium,” edited by Richard Neuhaus.
–First, Barry Bonds told USA Today the 2006 season was his
last. Then he told MLB.com, “If my knee holds up, I’ll keep on
going. I’m playing psychological games with myself right now.
So I go back and forth.”
On steroids, Bonds told USA Today.
“I’m clean; I’ve always been clean. But it never ends. It seems
like every reporter from last season to this season has reported
and opened up a new can of (expletive). And I haven’t even
been to spring training. At least let me get to spring training and
(expletive) up before you crucify me.
“Thank you for all of your criticism. Thank you for dogging me.
The latest thing is that ESPN says that Barry is still big. They
say I didn’t lose weight. Well, you know what? I am still big.
I’m fat (6’2”, 230 lbs.). I can’t do much. I can’t train like I used
to. So the weight stays. I’m just not a skinny person, dude. I’m
not.
“So what are they going to say now? Are they going to say,
‘Wow, I guess it can’t be steroids anymore because he didn’t
lose all that weight? Or are they going to be mad that I’m fat.
Come on, which one is it?”
Oh, shut up, Barry.
–Ricky Williams violated the NFL’s drug policy for a fourth
time. We’re shocked…SHOCKED!!!! But in the interest of
fairness, Ricky’s mother said it can’t be.
“I’m thinking maybe it was one of his [legal] supplements for his
yoga school.”
Williams faces a one-year suspension.
–Hey, almost forgot to congratulate the two-person U.S.
women’s bobsled team that took silver. And while many of you
will read this after the results are known in the women’s figure
skating competition….we’re pulling for Sasha Cohen, big time.
–I forgot to note last time that golfer Loren Roberts is off to
quite a start on the Champions Tour after turning 50. Roberts
has won the first three events of 2006. Only Chi Chi Rodriguez
has ever won four in a row.
–And from Bloomberg News and reporter Gregory Viscusi, this
tidbit on the Zamboni.
“Frank Joseph Zamboni was born in 1902 in Eureka, Utah. In
1922, he and younger brother Lawrence moved to southern
California, where older brother George repaired cars.
“They produced ice for local dairies until refrigerated trucks put
them out of business. In 1940, they used their ice expertise to
open Iceland Skating Rink, then one of the largest ice rinks in
America. It’s still open, with its original organ.
“At the time, it took four workers more than an hour to resurface
the ice. To save time and cut costs, Frank tinkered with tractors
and surplus army jeeps and in 1949 produced a prototype self-
propelled ice cleaner, which he patented. The Zamboni company
has since delivered 8,000 machines.”
The machines are manufactured by hand in Paramount and in
Brantford, Ontario, and sell for $65,000 to $90,000.
Personally, I’m waiting for the ZH-85….the Zamboni hybrid.
–Finally, geezuz, who’s killing off the Cowsils? First Barry
Cowsill’s body was found in New Orleans last December, a
victim of Katrina, now William (Billy), the lead singer, died on
Saturday in Calgary, Canada. While no cause of death was
given, he had been suffering from numerous ailments but was
just 58. The poor family learned of his death as they were
holding a memorial service in Newport, R.I., for Barry. A
longtime friend said Billy was torn up over Barry’s death.
Billy had lived in Calgary the past decade where he formed a
country-rock band. In 2004 he did a radio interview with a
Canadian station and Cowsill compared himself to a bird who
was born to sing. “You stop rockin’, you die. That’s the moral
of my story.” [Daniel J. Wakin / New York Times]
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/24/68: #1 “Love Is Blue” (Paul
Mauriat) #2 “(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls” (Dionne
Warwick) #3 “Spooky” (Classics IV)…and…#4 “I Wish It
Would Rain” (The Temptations) #5 “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of
The Bay” (Otis Redding) #7 “Green Tambourine” (The Lemon
Pipers) #9 “Going Out Of My Head / Can’t Take My Eyes Off
You” (The Lettermen…which gives me another excuse to ask the
question, ‘What’s the deal with the clapping by the live audience
in the middle of this tune?’ Oh baby, it’s The Lettermen!!!!!
Must have been a real rowdy time at the tailgate party
beforehand)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Top ten in hits, career –
1. Pete Rose…4256…last season 1986
2. Ty Cobb…4189…1928
3. Hank Aaron…3771…1976
4. Stan Musial…3630…1963
5. Tris Speaker…3514…1928
6. Honus Wagner…3420…1917
7. Carl Yastrzemski…3419…1983
8. Paul Molitor…3319…1998
9. Eddie Collins…3315…1930
10. Willie Mays…3283…1973
11. Eddie Murray…3255
2) Top five in hits, active (ex-Palmeiro who has 3020)
1. Craig Biggio…2795…surprised?
2. Barry Bonds…2742….Booooo Boooooooo
3. Julio Franco…2521…now on Mets, age 59
4. Steve Finley…2426
5. Gary Sheffield…2345…one strange dude
*Ken Griffey Jr. has 2304
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday.
