NBA Quiz: [Yes, you probably have to be of a certain age, like
45 or older, to have a shot at these.] 1) Name the six who
averaged in double figures on the 1968-69 World Champion
Boston Celtics that defeated the Lakers in 7 games. 2) Name the
six who averaged in double figures on the 1969-70 World
Champion New York Knicks squad that defeated the Lakers in 7
games. 3) Name the five who averaged in double figures for the
1970-71 World Champion Milwaukee Bucks who defeated
Baltimore in 4 for the title. Answers below.
Phil Mickelson, Part II
Last time I made the claim that Mickelson must now be
considered one of the greats of all time after winning ‘just’ his
third major; a statement that raised a few eyebrows. I then said
one can say this when you consider how tough it is to win these
days because the competition is so superior to “25-30 years ago.”
So if you’re one of the doubters, I want you to consider the
following.
Through the Masters, six of the top ten money winners thus far in
2006 are foreign-born golfers.
1. Mickelson
2. Woods
3. Geoff Ogilvy
4. Rory Sabbatini
5. David Toms
6. Chad Campbell
7. Stephen Ames
8. Vijay Singh
9. Retief Goosen
10. Jose Maria Olazabal
9 of the top 15 are foreign. 11 of 20. 15 of 30. 22 of 50.
Compare this to 1980. For the full year the top ten money
winners were:
1. Tom Watson
2. Lee Trevino
3. Curtis Strange
4. Andy Bean
5. Ben Crenshaw
6. Jerry Pate
7. George Burns
8. Craig Stadler
9. Mike Reid
10. Ray Floyd
All Americans. That year, only 2 of the top 50 were foreign-
born! [David Graham and Seve Ballesteros]
In 1981, just 3 of the top 50 were foreign.
Remember how so few Americans played in the British Open,
even as late as 1980? A big complaint then was the expense to
fly overseas and spend a week, plus the prize money was
relatively small for the effort. I have to tell you, having traveled
overseas with my family in 1968, 70, and 73, it doesn’t cost
much more today than it did back then. Why? There’s more
competition in the airline industry. My point being costs were
prohibitive for good foreign players to come and spend any
extended time in the U.S., as well, back in the 1960s and 1970s,
unless you were Gary Player.
So I feel like today’s game is so superior, from a competitive
standpoint, to what many of us grew up with that to win three
majors as Phil and Vijay Singh have done, let alone Tiger, is a
super feat.
You also got to observe another fact of golf this past weekend,
however; that being it always comes down to putting on
championship Sunday.
Baseball Bits…from the past
[The following excerpts from “Baseball Extra” are exactly as
they appeared.]
April 13, 1914 [The Baltimore News]
New Federal league Opens Season At Terrapin Park; Great
Outpouring Of ‘Fans’
The bleacher entrance gate was swung open shortly after 11 a.m.,
and a minute afterward the first admission ticket was purchased.
The opening of the gate was greeted with a cheer that could be
heard for blocks, and simultaneously a smile appeared on the
face of each person in line, some of whom had been standing in
line since 7 o’clock.
At the same time, a score of “scalpers,” who had armed their
“dummies” with a bank roll with which to purchase tickets,
assumed a disappointed appearance when they discovered their
game had been knocked in the head by the officials with the rule
‘that each person who purchased a ticket had to pass immediately
into the park.’
Protests made by them were of no avail, for a large delegation,
representing the strong arm of the law, was on hand to see that
the rule was enforced.
[And so you see, sports fans, ticket scalping is as old a profession
as, err, that other deal.]
July 14, 1934 [San Francisco Chronicle]
Ruth Clouts 700th Homer. Yankees Win
Cold Sends Lou Gehrig Out of Game
Babe Ruth’s 700th home run, Bill Dickey’s double with two on,
and Red Ruffing’s steady pitching carried the Yankees back into
the American League lead today, with a 4-2 victory over the
Tigers.
The “Friday the 13th” jinx struck Lou Gehrig and forced the
“indestructible” first baseman of the Yankees out of action in the
second inning of the battle.
An acute cold in the back, gripping him suddenly as he ran for
first base after hitting one of Tommy Bridges’ pitches, forced
Lou to abandon his efforts to play through his 1426th consecutive
game. His all-time durability record remained intact, however,
since he played through one full inning before retiring.
It was the third threat to Gehrig’s record string of consecutive
appearances in the past five weeks.
July 15, 1933 [San Francisco Chronicle]
De Maggio Hits In 50th Game, Sets Record
Joe De Maggio, 18-year-old batting sensation of the Coast
League, either has nerves of steel or he had no nerves at all, for
the kid slammed out a single in the first inning of the game last
night, making the fiftieth game in succession in which he has
made one or more hits. That hit drove in two runs and smashed
the record of forty-nine games made by Jack Ness eighteen years
ago.
[Yes, that’s how they spelled his name then.]
July 27, 1933 [San Francisco Chronicle]
Oaks Stop De Maggio’s Hitting Record
Joe De Maggio, sensational young slugger of the Seals, was
stopped yesterday, but the fly ball he hit to end his hitting streak
drove in the winning run for the Seals, who beat the Oaks, 4 to 3.
Ed Walsh, son of the famous Ed Walsh of the old Chicago White
Sox in the days when they were called the hitless wonders, was
pitching for the Oaks yesterday and he easily disposed of De
Maggio the five times the kid faced him….
Young Joe went down gallantly…after having established a
record of hitting safely in 61 games in succession, a record that
will probably stand for some time.
As Joe galloped for the clubhouse after the game ended, he was
pursued by a mob of excited youngsters who just wanted to get
close enough to touch him and say hello. No question but that
Joe DeMaggio, 18-year-old youngster from North Beach, has
captured the imagination of San Francisco folks.
November 22, 1934 [ San Francisco Examiner]
Seals Sell Outfielder Di Maggio to New York Yankees
Col. Jake Ruppert, owner of the New York Yankees, yesterday
proved himself the most daring gambler in baseball when he
purchased Joe Di Maggio, young outfielder of the Seals.
Ruppert paid $75,000 and gave up five ball players on the long
and dangerous gamble that Di Maggio’s injured knee will
respond to treatment and prove sound when he reports to the
Yankees in the fall of 1935.
[I had forgotten DiMaggio tore his knee up in an auto accident.
The deal was that DiMaggio would continue to play with the
Seals through the 1935 season. Plus somewhere in the preceding
months, the spelling of his name changed.]
—
Sam Cooke
When I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the other day,
there was a terrific exhibit on Sam Cooke. Man, this was one
cool cat. The HOF had great videos of him on talk shows, for
example.
Born in Chicago, Jan. 1931, Cooke had a #1 on the Billboard
charts in ‘57 with “You Send Me” and the hits just kept on
coming; like the #2 “Chain Gang,” #9 “Twistin’ The Night
Away,” and the #10 “Another Saturday Night.”
RCA was hoping Cooke would eclipse Columbia’s Johnny
Mathis. But despite all the hits, Cooke didn’t want to crossover
the way Mathis had and Sam kept writing songs heralding the
black urban experience. As Timothy White writes in “Rock
Lives,” Sam Cooke “did not take the racial indignities of the era
lightly.”
But here’s the story of his final days. From “Rock Lives”:
“In 1963, Cooke and his wife, former high school sweetheart
Barbara Campbell, were arrested in Shreveport, La., on charges
of disturbing the peace; the couple and two of their friends had
attempted to register at a whites-only hotel. A year later, Cooke
died in a bizarre shooting incident at a Los Angeles motel.
Rumors in the record industry were that Cooke had been set up
for a rubout by mob figures trying to gain control of his
publishing interests, but the accounts given by newspapers at the
time make no mention of any such allegations.
“According to the principals involved, Cooke had picked up a
Eurasian girl named Elisa Boyer at a bar on the evening of
December 10, 1964, and she had accepted his offer of a ride
home. Instead, he drove them to a motel on South Figueroa in
Los Angeles and registered as ‘Mr. and Mrs. Cooke.’ Boyer told
police that she insisted he take her home, but that Cooke refused
and forced her into the motel room. She testified that he ‘began
to rip my clothes off.’ When Cooke went into the bathroom, she
fled on foot with her clothes and most of Cooke’s. Clad only in a
sports jacket and his shoes, he pursued her. The manager of the
motel, Mrs. Bertha Lee Franklin, told police that Cooke kicked in
the door of her apartment and accused her of harboring the girl
(who was actually in a nearby telephone booth, calling the
police). Franklin testified that Cooke struck her twice with his
fist. She responded by producing a .22 caliber pistol and firing
three shots; one hit Cooke in the chest.
“Mortally wounded, he continued to charge her, she said, so she
bludgeoned him with a stick. When the police arrived, they
found him dead on the floor.
“His wife, Barbara, became hysterical when police notified her at
their Hollywood home; with her were two of their children, a
third child having drowned in their swimming pool that summer.
“Thousands of anguished fans stormed the twin chapel at the
A.R. Leak Funeral Home at 7838 Cottage Grove in Chicago
during the public wake, breaking glass and splintering wood.
One woman screamed, ‘Please let me in! I’ve never seen
anything like this in my life!’
Postscript: “Shortly before Cooke’s death, he had been a guest
vocalist with the Soul Stirrers [ed. the gospel group he fronted
for years] at an anniversary concert in Chicago. When he took
the microphone to raise his pure, sweet voice in Stirrers
standards like ‘Jesus Wash Away My Troubles’ and ‘Nearer To
Thee,’ the crowd fell silent and then began to castigate him. ‘Get
that blues singer down!’ they yelled angrily. ‘This is a Christian
program! Get that no-good so-and-so down!’
“Cooke walked off the stage in tears.”
Stuff
–Jason Fagone has a piece on competitive eating in the May
issue of The Atlantic Monthly. Fagone followed competitors
under the banner of the International Federation of Competitive
Eating, or IFOCE, to the World Grilled Cheese Eating
Championship in Venice Beach, Ca. This particular event had its
genesis ten years ago when the image of the Virgin Mary
appeared on a grilled-cheese sandwich in the frying pan of Diana
Duyser of Florida. As IFOCE chairman George Shea notes:
“Ladies and gentlemen. It is said that pearls are the precipitate of
sunlight, slowed and bent by the ocean until it forms a nugget of
beauty inside the lowly mollusk. And likewise, this grilled-
cheese sandwich is the precipitate of the divine spirit, captured
here on earth in the most unlikely of places, delivered to us in the
image of the Virgin Mary!”
I believe!
Later Shea notes, “Remember, ladies and gentlemen, competitive
eating is the battleground upon which God and Lucifer battle for
men’s souls!”
Boo-yah!
Some of the competitors you’re already familiar with from the
Nathan’s Famous, Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest held
on Coney Island. Like 400-pound Ed “Cookie” Jarvis. Jason
Fagone talked to Cookie, who at the time was pondering his
participation in an upcoming cannoli contest. [Ed. I could
challenge in that one.] Jarvis was seriously considering not
defending his crown.
“It’s rough on the body,” he said. “One, you’re eating 11,000
calories. Two, there’s no money. Three, all that said, the bottom
line is: What am I doing this for? I’m basically putting 11,000
calories into my body with the chance I could get hurt. What
for? There’s gotta be a cause.”
Ah, but then there is Sonya Thomas, the Black Widow; so named
because she gleefully devours the males.
Sonya Thomas, 37, hails from South Korea where she worked as
a typist for a shipping company. After putting herself through
school, Sonya went out looking for a better job, but men told her
she would come up empty. So she moved to America.
Sonya then started out managing a Burger King at an Air Force
base in Maryland and it was in 2002 that she watched the
Nathan’s contest on television and got curious. She
experimented at home and then won a regional qualifying contest
in 2003, winning a spot in the finals on Coney Island and
consuming a women’s record 25 hot dogs in 12 minutes. That
October, “despite never having eaten a pulled-pork sandwich in
her life, she ate 23 in ten minutes, winning $1,250 and the world
title.”
[Ed. I could also compete here…especially during a NASCAR
race.]
But Sonya wasn’t as yet the household name she is today until
early in 2004 and the famous Wing Bowl in Philadelphia.
Sonya’s friend David “Coondog” O’Karma, an expert on
bratwurst eating, told the legendary Bill “El Wingador”
Simmons, a 322-pound truck driver from South Jersey, that he
knew a 99-pound girl who could defeat the four-time Wing Bowl
champion.
Out of nowhere, Sonya beat him, but El Wingador accused the
Black Widow of dropping her chicken on the floor. However,
the New York Post’s Gersh Kuntzman, “the original competitive-
eating beat reporter, thought Simmons was guilty of not cleaning
his wings. ‘I could have an entire meal off the meat that Bill left
on his bones,’ he said.”
[Ed. Mark R. reminds me that all fathers should abstain from
taking their kids to Wing Bowl as the event has degenerated into
a veritable pornfest.]
Moving along, in the summer of 2004, Sonya went up against the
likes of Cookie Jarvis in a baked-bean contest. After just 2 ½
minutes, Sonya had consumed the maximum 8.4 pounds.
Contest over. Jarvis lifted his head, glanced at Sonya, and, err,
let’s just say he got rid of the beans he had already eaten.
Back to the grilled cheese eating contest, Sonya would win that
one, too, scarfing down 25 in ten minutes. Time to get pumped
for Fourth of July and Nathan’s Famous.
–Oh, to be a Pirates fan. Pittsburgh hasn’t had a winning season
since 1992 and it’s already obvious 2006 will be no exception.
[9-152, after all, being the official prediction here.] Monday was
the home opener for the Bucs and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s
Chico Harlan reported on the action.
“Two batters into the afternoon, the Pirates trailed 2-0. At the
end of the second inning, they trailed 5-0, and boos flew from
every angle into the stadium. Fans booed again in the fifth, when
starting pitcher Zach Duke allowed two more runs, and again at
the end of the sixth…
“Opening Day in Pittsburgh produced an unsettling sentiment –
halfway between ‘Here we go again’ and ‘Here we go, Steelers.’
….
“Even before the game, fans interviewed while tailgating – booze
preceding boos…
“ ‘I drove in from Harrisburg,’ said Rege Ryan, 25, sipping a
Busch. ‘We’re basically Tampa Bay without the sun.’”
–Uh oh….it’s the time of year when owls get frisky. Frankly,
owls freak me out, not that I’ve seen many in my neighborhood
over the years. But in reading the Anchorage Daily News, we
learn:
“The habits of owls have earned them a mysterious reputation, in
which they are the topic of myths or legend, revered and even
feared. Many Alaska Natives thought the owl to be an omen of
bad news. Early English owl lore told that they were messengers
of death. Roman mythology dictated that a dead owl nailed to a
door would ward off evil. In Africa, owls are still considered
evil and referred to as ‘witchbirds.’”
Anyway, stay away from this woman in Alaska, a Ms. Guinn,
who takes in injured owls. Especially if she says, “Help yourself
to a beer in the refrigerator.”
“Wherever you look in my refrigerator or freezer you’re going to
find rats and mice.”
Food for the owls, you see.
Top 3 songs for the week of 4/15/72: #1 “The First Ever I Saw
Your Face” (Roberta Flack…. “Play Misty For Me”) #2 A
Horse With No Name” (America) #3 “I Gotcha” (Joe Tex)…
and…#5 “Heart Of Gold” (Neil Young) #6 “In The Rain”
(Dramatics….very cool, underrated tune) #7 “Puppy Love”
(Donny Osmond…hey, had to list this one for LT) #8 “Betcha
By Golly, Wow” (The Stylistics)
NBA Quiz Answers: 1) 1968-69 Boston Celtics in double
figures: John Havlicek, 21.6; Bailey Howell, 19.7; Sam Jones,
16.3; Larry Siegfried, 14.2; Don Nelson, 11.6; Satch Sanders,
11.2. [Bill Russell averaged 9.9., but also 19 rebounds a game]
2) 1969-70 New York Knicks: Willis Reed, 21.7; Walt Frazier,
20.9; Dick Barnett, 14.9; Dave DeBusschere, 14.6; Bill Bradley,
14.5; Cazzie Russell, 11.5. [Wow…Frazier’s field goal
percentage was .518…not too shabby.] 3) 1970-71 Milwaukee
Bucks: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 31.7; Oscar Robertson, 19.4; Bob
Dandridge, 18.4; Jon McGlocklin, 15.8; Greg Smith, 11.7. [Yes,
if you got Greg Smith…pour yourself a premium lager! In case
some of you were wondering, Bob Boozer averaged 9.1 and
Lucius Allen 7.1. And could you remember Kareem’s backup?
No way I could…Dick Cunningham.]
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday. The San Francisco Earthquake.
