[Posted Monday AM]
Baseball Quiz: Through April 16, St. Louis’ Albert Pujols and
Detroit’s Chris Shelton already have 8 home runs this month.
Two players hold the record for most April blasts with 13… one
in each league. The A.L. player was in 1997. The N.L. in 2001.
Name them. Answer below.
April 18, 1906
I have a ton of history books in the office and I was surprised
how little there is on the San Francisco earthquake. Depending
on the account, it registered anywhere from a 7.8 to 8.3 on the
Richter scale, still the largest ever recorded in a U.S.
metropolitan area, left 200,000 homeless in San Francisco alone
(half the city’s population) and killed between 500 and 5,000,
again, depending on the account.
The ground was split for 300 miles and for up to 60 seconds,
from Humboldt County to Monterey Bay, the earth shook. A
local politician wrote “Did you ever see a dog shake a rat? We
were like rats in a dog’s mouth.” Fires raged for three days. 500
city blocks were destroyed.
This was the front page of the New York Times the next day…
April 19.
OVER 500 DEAD, $200,000,000 LOST
IN SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE
Nearly Half the City Is in Ruins and 50,000 Are Homeless
WATER SUPPLY FAILS AND DYNAMITE IS USED IN
VAIN
Great Buildings Consumed Before Helpless Firemen – Federal
Troops and Militia Guard the City, With Orders to Shoot Down
Thieves – Citizens Roused in Early Morning by Great
Convulsion and Hundreds Caught by Falling Walls.
San Francisco, April 18 – Earthquake and fire today have put
nearly half of San Francisco in ruins. About 500 persons have
been killed, a thousand injured, and the property loss will exceed
$200,000,000.
Fifty thousand are homeless and destitute, and all day long
streams of people have been flowing from the stricken districts to
places of safety.
It was 5:13 this morning when a terrific earthquake shock shook
the whole city and surrounding country. One shock apparently
lasted two minutes, and there was almost immediate collapse of
flimsy structures all over the city.
The water supply was cut off, and when fires started in various
sections there was nothing to do but let the buildings burn.
Telegraph and telephone communications was cut off for a time.
The Western Union was put completely out of business and the
Postal Company was the only one that managed to get a wire out
of the city. About 10 o’clock even the Postal was forced to
suspend.
Electric power was stopped and street cars did not run, railroads
and ferryboats also ceased operations. The various fires raged all
day and the fire department has been powerless to do anything
except dynamite buildings threatened. All day long explosions
have shaken the city and added to the terror of the inhabitants….
The motion of the disturbance apparently was from east to west.
At first the upheaval of the earth was gradual, but in a few
seconds it increased in intensity. Chimneys began to fall and
buildings to crash, tottering on their foundations….
The Valencia Hotel, a four-story wooden building, sank into the
basement, a pile of splintered timbers, under which were pinned
many dead and dying occupants of the house. The basement was
full of water, and some of the helpless victims were drowned.
Scarcely had the earth ceased to shake when fires started
simultaneously in many places. The Fire Department promptly
responded to the first calls for aid, but it was found that the water
mains had been rendered useless by the underground movement.
Fanned by a light breeze, [ed. “a slight zephyr,” as golf
commentator Ben Wright would have said………….sorry] the
flames quickly spread, and soon many blocks were seen to be
doomed. Then dynamite was resorted to, and the sound of
frequent explosions added to the terror of the people. These
efforts to stay the progress of the fire, however, proved futile.
The south side of Market Street, from Ninth Street to the bay,
was soon ablaze, the fire covering a belt two blocks wide. On
this, the main thoroughfare, were many of the finest edifices in
the city, including the Grant, Parrott, Flood, Call, Examiner, and
Monadnock Buildings, and the Palace and Grand Hotels….
Banks and commercial houses, supposed to be fireproof, though
not of modern build, burned quickly, and the roar of the flames
could be heard even on the hills, which were out of the danger
zone. Here many thousands of people congregated and viewed
the awful scene.
Great sheets of flame rose high in the heavens or rushed down
some narrow street, joining midway between the sidewalks,
making a horizontal chimney of the former passageway….
One of the first orders issued by Chief of Police Dinan this
morning was for the closing of every saloon in the city. This
step is taken to prevent drink-crazed men from rioting in the
streets.
[You’re reading Bar Chat.]
Stuff
–It was bound to happen. On Thursday a 6-year-old girl was
killed by a black bear in Cherokee National Forest (in the Smoky
Mountains).
“Witnesses described the bear picking up the (girl’s 2-year-old
brother) in its mouth while the mother and other visitors tried to
fend it off with sticks and rocks. The mother was injured before
the bear was chased away.
“The girl ran away during that attack, but was found dead a short
time later with the bear nearby. A park ranger fired at least one
shot at the bear before it bolted off.” [AP]
So that was Thursday and as I go to post a bear has been killed,
though it”s not known as yet if it”s the culprit.
By the way, it was just in 2000 that a woman was killed by a
black bear in the Smokies.
As for the injuries to the little boy and his mother, the boy
suffered a bite wound to his skull, while the mother “had eight
puncture wounds to the neck and too many claw and tooth
injuries to count elsewhere on her body,” doctors said. She’s in
deep trauma and won’t talk about the attack.
–I’ve written before of the iguana problem in Florida, but on the
barrier island of Gasparilla, home to about 1,000 humans, there
are some 12,000 iguanas! Goodness gracious. Why hasn’t the
Sci-Fi channel done a straight to video movie on this?
And it sounds like quite a disgusting place to live. One resident,
Bonnie McGee, told the AP’s Brian Sokoloff:
“They eat your flowers and their feces is everywhere,” adding
she’s killed dozens herself. “Some people toss them in the canal
and the hermit crabs feed on them.” [Note to self: Turn down
hermit crab appetizer at Red Lobster.]
Aaron Diaz, owner of a hardware store that’s sold 75 traps in the
past three weeks alone, said “For some people, they’ve really
taken over, climbing into attics, into vents and even into their
toilets.”
Yikes!
The iguanas were introduced to Boca Grande in the 1970s by a
boat captain who brought a few from Mexico for his kids but
released them when they grew too big. The population then
exploded because the female can lay up to 75 eggs a year.
One exotic species expert said “Once they’re established…it’s a
lost cause.”
I see only one solution. Give the residents one week to leave,
some compensation, perhaps $1,275 each, and then carpet bomb
the island.
It’s time to take back our country, America!
–Sharon Begley had a story in the Wall Street Journal on animal
behavior, such as a study of buffalos that showed they use
“vector algebra” in choosing a grazing ground. No, seriously.
These guys are smarter than most NBA ballplayers.
But check this out. Thomas Seeley of Cornell University did a
study on honey bees.
“In a swarm of 10,000 bees, several hundred ‘scouts’ visit a
dozen or more tree hollows. Each visits only one site; there is no
comparison shopping. When a scout returns to the swarm after
finding a great site (lots of space, small entrance), she shows her
enthusiasm for it by dancing. Much as the ‘waggle dance’ tells
other bees where to find food, the dances of scout bees tell
watchers the location of prime real estate.” Why mess with a
realtor?
–Wouldn’t you know I’m in Cleveland less than ten days ago
and write from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that you all
shouldn’t be throwing away any rock memorabilia, when the
April 24 issue of Business Week addresses this very topic. It’s
all about us Baby Boomers. For example:
A Beatles lunch box now fetches $500. Eric Clapton’s guitar
“Blackie” set the record for a guitar at a charity auction recently,
$959,500. A Nirvana drum head went for $18,800. An Elvis
Presley board game is worth $3,000-$5,000. A Jimi Hendrix
necklace worn during his Isle of Wight concert is worth
$150,000!
But I told you the other day that if you have any old concert bills,
whatever you do, don’t throw them away. A Rolling Stones
poster from 1964 is worth $24,000, for example, though in this
particular case the value comes from the fact the concert,
scheduled for New Haven, Ct., was canceled due to lack of
interest! A Chuck Berry poster from 1955, believed to be the
first to use the term “rock ‘n’ roll,” is worth $35,000.
–Hey, did you see that Cheeta the chimp, who starred in
“Tarzan” movies in the 1930s and 1940s, turned 74 last week?
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Cheeta is the
world’s oldest chimp. Chimps normally don’t get past 40 in the
wild and rarely reach 60 in captivity. Oh, the stories that Cheeta
could tell about what really went on during the shooting of those
movies. I’m surprised he hasn’t written a tell all.
–Golf bits:
I didn’t realize Ben Hogan didn’t win his first major until age 34,
the PGA; starting a streak that saw him take 9 of 16 majors
played over an 8-year period.
And I didn’t know that by winning the Masters, Phil Mickelson
became just the seventh player since the 1934 inception of the
tournament to win at least one major in three straight seasons:
Ralph Guldahl, Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus,
Tom Watson, and Tiger Woods being the others.
Mickelson now has eight straight top-10 finishes at Augusta.
The record is 14 by Hogan.
You have to be a golf fanatic, I guess, to say Aaron Baddeley’s
win at Heritage was a shocker, but it was. This is a 25-year-old
who was already considered a bust, but he beat back Jim Furyk
down the stretch.
*And this correction. The other day I made a major faux pas in
not crediting Ernie Els with a 3rd major. Call it a brain cramp. I
don’t think I would get any arguments, though, that Phil
Mickelson is far ahead of Els these days.
–I have to amend my prediction for the Pennsylvania ball clubs.
The other day I said they’d win 20 games between the two of
them. Pittsburgh, though, is now 4-10, while the Phillies are 5-7.
Thus, I’m upping the season win total to 28; 13 for the Pirates,
15 for Philadelphia.
–Andy Kotulski, 66, will be running in his 29th consecutive
Boston Marathon on Monday. But as if that’s not big enough,
Kotulski has run in 562 marathons in his life, beginning with
New York in 1977. He’s also run at least five in each of the 50
states.
Even more remarkable, still, is his effort following a marathon in
Moscow on Sept. 9, 2001. After the race, he traveled to St.
Petersburg to do some sightseeing, but two days later, on Sept.
11, he became violently ill just as the WTC towers were being
destroyed, coincidentally.
After remaining in his hotel there for a week, he struggled back
home to Montclair, NJ, and ended up in an emergency ward with
a bacterial infection and double pneumonia. Kotulski’s organs
were shutting down and he was administered last rites.
But somehow he survived and the guy ran Boston the next April,
completing it in 3 hours 55 minutes.
[Dave Caldwell / New York Times]
–Barry Bonds, Part XCLIII
As the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco pursues a
probable perjury indictment against Barry Bonds, Brian Costello
of the New York Post writes that the Yankees’ Gary Sheffield
could be a key, since Sheffield is on record as telling the BALCO
grand jury he saw Bonds use steroids, including “the cream” and
“the clear.”
Sheffield previously testified:
“Nothing was between me and Greg (Anderson…Bonds’s
trainer). Barry pretty much controlled everything – it was
basically Barry (saying), ‘Trust me. Do what I do.’
“I know I’ve seen Greg give Barry the same thing I was taking. I
didn’t see him taking those ‘red beans,’ but I seen him taking this
(clear) and this cream here.’”
So it’s pretty simple. Compel Sheffield to get back into court
and retell the story. Understand also that he is one volatile dude
and liable to say anything, plus he had a falling out with Barry in
2003.
Dan Graziano / Star-Ledger:
“When Bonds went before the BALCO grand jury, his lawyers
would have given him three choices: Tell the truth, take the fifth
amendment or testify and say what he wanted to say, effectively
daring the feds to pursue a perjury case. He apparently chose
Option Three, saying he didn’t know that the stuff he was taking
was illegal. And then, last month, when a book came out with
detailed physical evidence that Bonds knew exactly what he was
doing, the jig was up. Those federal prosecutors apparently
don’t take as kindly to being embarrassed as Selig does.
“Now, those who want to see Bonds go away have new hope.
And those who cling to the belief that he’s an innocent man
being persecuted by the media are going to have to make the
same ludicrous claims about the federal government. At some
point, this has to be his fault, doesn’t it?”
I watched Barry Sunday night against L.A. Is there any doubt
he is breaking down before our eyes? No home runs as yet in ”06.
–Speaking of illicit substances, did you know that the disgusting
Easter candy, Peeps, have been produced by Just Born Inc. in
Bethlehem, Pa., since 1954? The company churns out 1.5 billion
annually, two-thirds sold at Easter.
But as Thomas Vinciguerra of the New York Times writes,
“there is something vaguely creepy about Peeps. They are blob-
like and ubiquitous. Their eyes have no expression. With little
taste, no nutritional value (though only 32 calories apiece) and a
shelf life of two years, they hover somewhere between foodstuff
and material object.
“These traits have inspired many to test their physical properties,
(including) microwaving, hammering, decapitating and otherwise
abusing the spongy confections.”
–Truth be told, when I was younger I thought, “Editor, you
could be a ventriloquist.” Really. So a high school classmate of
mine, ironically, Bruce Knecht, had a piece in the Wall Street
Journal the other day on the closing of Maher Ventriloquist
Studios after 70 years. Maher not only made the dummies, it
taught people the art through its course which included
pamphlets and videos.
But Bruce wrote something I never thought of. As a
ventriloquist, try pronouncing a word beginning with B, M or P.
“The course suggests the beginner start by replacing words like
‘please’ and ‘pray’ with back-of-the-mouth substitutes like
‘klease’ and ‘kray.’”
Now for those of you who are reading this in an office
environment, I don’t want you to lose your jobs so practice this
in the car.
–Here’s a bit from Catherine Arnst of Business Week.
Attention, girls. “If you want to tune up those brain cells, then
have a drink. A continuing study of more than 3,000 New York
City residents found that women who had one or two alcoholic
drinks a day scored 20% higher on standard cognitive tests than
women who didn’t drink or consumed less than one a day.”
Hey, this is Columbia University, friends. Not to be sloughed
off. And the difference remained after adjusting for income,
marital status, race and favorite baseball team.
–Back on July 7, 1944, Captain Fred Christensen shot down six
German transport planes in a single day, a record number of kills
by an American airman for a sole mission in the European
theater. In all, Christensen downed 21 German planes on his
own.
As for the six in one day, Christensen once said “there really was
nothing to it.”
“We had finished escorting some bombers…and were heading
for home when down around Magdeburg I saw a Junker-52
getting ready to land. Then I looked again and saw others. I was
up about 10,000 feet. I put the plane into a dive and leveled out
behind the last one of the line of 12 in the rear of their formation.
I had called to the flight and told them I was going down. They
wanted to know if they should stay up there for top cover for me,
and I said, ‘Hell, no, might as well come on down, too.’
“I just kept moving up the line, shooting them down. They were
only about 50 to 100 feet off the ground, and they didn’t have a
chance.”
The other pilots shot down another four.
Christensen died the other day. [Richard Goldstein / New York
Times]
–Jesse Jackson has interjected himself into the Duke lacrosse
case, seeing as he has nothing better to do with himself, I
imagine. Jackson said his shadowy group would pay for the
accuser’s tuition regardless of whether she made the rape story
up or not.
USA Today reported that the family of Devon Sherwood, the
team’s only black member, said the DNA results should have
ended the investigation. “I’m just glad that that ordeal is over
with, and hopefully as we progress with the case, it will show
that all of the players will be exonerated….of any wrongdoing at
all,” said Sherwood’s father, Chuck.
Indictments are still likely to be handed down.
–In case you wonder why I continue to bemoan the fact this
year’s edition of the Wake Forest basketball team should have
been contending for the NCAA championship instead of
struggling to finish .500, here are two comments on NBA
consensus rookie of the year, Chris Paul, who should have been
wrapping up his junior year this spring.
“Take a team that had won just 18 games the previous season
and uproot it from New Orleans to Oklahoma because of the
nation’s biggest natural disaster and you have ready-made
excuses. But Chris Paul, the Hornets’ point guard, refused to
accept them. He had a monumental impact on his team that no
other rookie did.” [Liz Robbins, New York Times]
“Learning the point guard position on this level is usually a
three- or four-year process. That’s how it was for (Steve) Nash,
John Stockton, and many others. But (Chris Paul) walked into
the NBA like he owned it, resurrected a dead franchise, and he’s
all over the league-leader lists.” [Dave D’Alessandro / Star-
Ledger]
Why couldn’t Paul have just stayed one more year?! Why won’t
I ever drop this topic? Because we’ll never have another chance
like this one the rest of my freakin’ life, that’s why.
–We note the passing of June Pointer of the Pointer Sisters.
[“I’m So Excited,” “Fire,” “Jump (For My Love),” and “Slow
Hand.”] Can’t say I was ever a real fan of their work.
Top 3 songs for the week of 4/14/73: #1 “The Night The Lights
Went Out In Georgia” (Vicki Lawrence…she was hot) #2
“Neither One Of Us” (Gladys Knight & The Pips…never liked
her either) #3 “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree”
(Dawn featuring Tony Orlando)…and…#4 “Ain’t No Woman”
(Four Tops) #6 “The Cisco Kid” (War…great car song) #8
“Break Up To Make Up” (The Stylistics…not a good air guitar
tune)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Ken Griffey Jr., Seattle, 1997, and Luis
Gonzalez, Arizona, 2001, hold the record with 13 home runs in
the month of April.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
