Baseball Quiz: No-brainer for some (like Johnny Mac), but
perhaps a little challenging for the casual fan. Name the six to
accumulate 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases in their careers.
Answer below.
—
“I am such an idiot.”
–Phil Mickelson
And so once again, sports fans were rewarded this weekend with
another incredible moment, only this time it was as painful to
watch as any event I can imagine where my home team wasn’t
involved.
Not only did Phil Mickelson blow the U.S. Open, but the 18th
hole collapse by Colin Montgomerie was almost equally
shocking. That was some of the worst golf in history, that last 30
minutes, but it was just another example why some of us
schedule our lives around golf’s four majors. At least two or
three times a year they supply some of the best entertainment
going.
Mickelson added in his press conference:
“It really stings. As a kid I dreamt of winning the tournament. I
can’t believe I did that.”
“This one hurts more than any tournament because I had it won.”
But perhaps the line of the year was NBC analyst Johnny
Miller’s. In commenting on Mickelson’s reckless play with the
driver the last few holes, particularly #18 where Phil knew he
had the lead:
“You don’t have to run down the fairway on a white stallion.”
Mike Lupica / New York Daily News
“On the day when he was supposed to take his place with Ben
Hogan and Tiger Woods, the only other men to ever have won
three professional major championships in a row, on the day
when Phil Mickelson only needed a par on No. 18 at Winged
Foot to win the U.S. Open, needed only a bogey to get into a
playoff, Mickelson turned into another immortal. He turned into
Arnold Palmer, who threw away a Masters once, in 1961, by
making a double-bogey on the last hole. Mickelson lost that way
yesterday at Winged Foot.
“And somehow this one was worse than Palmer yesterday
because of the stakes for Mickelson at Winged Foot, because of
the way he got carried out of the place at the very end. There
have been other bad endings in golf history. Never one worse
than this. Winged Foot didn’t do this to Mickelson. He did it to
himself. Tiger never loses like this.”
Steve Politi / Star-Ledger
“The ‘C’ word is going to get tossed around again, for sure. Phil
Mickelson needed a par to win the U.S. Open. He needed a
bogey to force a playoff.
“He made a double bogey.
“He choked.
“But you can’t call him a choker anymore. Those days are over.
Mickelson still has three major championships in the past three
years, more than any other golfer. He stared down the best
players at two Masters and the PGA Championship at Baltusrol
last August.
“Choke? Yes. Choker? Hell no.
“What Mickelson lost yesterday on that pitiful 18th hole at
Winged Foot, perhaps the most agonizing 20 minutes in U.S.
Open history, was something much different, but just as hard to
swallow.
“He was shooting for golfing greatness, to take another step up
the ladder of the all-time best in his sport, to creep a little closer
to Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson.
“To start putting his name in the conversation.
“And wow, he blew it….
“He was (supposed to be) a new Mickelson, steady and tested,
second-best in the world and climbing. He was trying to win
three straight majors, something only Tiger Woods has done in
the last 50 years.
“But great champions find a way to par that last hole, and in his
toughest test, Mickelson carded another impossible failure….
“What he might not realize yet, what he might not see for a few
months or maybe years, is what this victory could have done for
his place in history, for how people perceive him when they
reflect on his career.
“For now, he is still closer to Greg Norman than Palmer or
Watson, and still miles away from his contemporary Woods. If
he never played another major, people would see him as a player
who was very good, but had a chance to do so much more….
“In the awful aftermath, that was the most shocking part. You
wanted to believe that Mickelson had this figured out. You
wanted to think he was a different player, a confident winner
who knew how to put majors away on Sunday. A guy who was
on his way to greatness.
“And he was.
“Then, just like that, he wasn’t.”
Oh, and Geoff Ogilvy of Australia won, a legitimate champion
who is bound to win another major or two.
—
Burleigh Grimes
My old friend Ken P. sent a note the other day on Hall of Fame
pitcher Burleigh Grimes, the last of the legal spitballers when he
retired in 1934. Grimes was 270-212, 3.53 ERA, in a career that
spanned from 1916-34, but when baseball banned the spitball,
which was commonplace at the time, in 1920, 17 were exempted,
including Burleigh.
So I decided to go through some of my baseball books and found
an article Red Smith wrote back in March 1957. For starters,
what’s interesting is he notes at one point, “Mickey Mantle will
lose a ball in Westchester County, and the inevitable cry of
protest will arise about the lively ball.”
I have to admit, I didn’t realize this wasn’t just debated in the
1980s and beyond, save for when baseball intentionally livened it
at the start of the Ruth Era, which was also the reason for doing
away with the spitter. [No more Frank “Home Run” Bakers
leading the majors with 10 roundtrippers.]
Smith’s remedy in ’57 for pitchers bitching and moaning was to
allow them to throw the spitter again. Then he delves back into
the history of the game.
“The only thing wrong with the spitter is that it has been illegal
since 1920. Its use was prohibited that year, except by pitchers
already employing it in the majors. (Red) Faber continued on his
slobbery way through 1933 and (Burleigh) Grimes was still
drooling in 1934, but when they departed that was the end of
sanctioned expectorations.
“There are qualified baseball men who believe that legalizing the
spitter would do more than arm the pitcher with a weapon which
he needs. There is at least some ground for a belief that it would
mitigate the plague of sore arms which is an occupational hazard
blighting many young lives.
“All the evidence indicates that the pitch was easy on the arm,
for Faber was still with the White Sox at forty-six and (Bill)
Doak, (Clarence) Mitchell and Grimes all played into or past
their fortieth year.
“When they departed, spiting didn’t cease all together, though
only Ted Williams has done it openly. Preacher Roe has
confessed that he slipped in a wet one now and then when he
pitched for the Dodgers, Lew Burdette is accused of it, and
Nelson Potter got caught at it.
“The records credit Potter with nineteen victories for the
pennant-winning Browns of 1944 but with a little more guile he
could have made it twenty. He was winning another game that
summer when the umpire detected more on the ball than the A.J.
Reach Co. had put there. ‘Shame!’ cried the umpire, ‘Begone.’
“In 1920 the growing popularity of Babe Ruth made fans and
club owners home run conscious, and trick deliveries were
outlawed to aid the batters and draw more customers. The profit
motive sired the rule and it is for personal profit that pitchers
occasionally violate it, moistening fingertips with the tongue or
with a smidgeon of perspiration from brow, neck or forearm.
“They aren’t necessarily evil characters. There is a classic tale
about the estimable Tommy Bridges, Detroit’s wonderful little
curve ball pitcher, struggling to protect a one-run lead over
Washington with menacing Stan Spence at bat.
“He got Spence on three dipping strikes whose erratic behavior
brought loud protests from the batter and his manager, Ossie
Bluege. Spence, Bluege and Bill Summers, the umpire, trooped
out to the mound where Summers put the question bluntly: Had
Bridges thrown a spitter? Tommy was deeply hurt. This, he told
Summers reproachfully, was tantamount to a charge of cheating.
As the delegation turned away, defeated, Bridges cupped his
glove to his mouth.
“ ‘Hey, Bill,’ he called in a stage whisper, ‘wasn’t that last one a
sweetheart?’ [Source: “Red Smith on Baseball”]
Here’s some other stuff on the topic from “Baseball Anecdotes”
by Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf.
“In the winter of 1919-20…the spitball was about to be declared
illegal. In preparation for the rule change, every major league
club was asked to submit the names of current spitballers whose
use of the pitch would still be allowed, a procedure that extended
the careers of such notables as Burleigh Grimes and Red Faber.
“But Harry Grabiner, the White Sox general manager, forgot to
include on the list the name of Frank Shellenback, who had won
10 games with the Sox in 1918 and had been sent out to
Minneapolis for seasoning in 1919. Thus excluded from the
grandfather clause, Shellenback, who was twenty-one at the time,
was condemned to a life in the minor leagues. The Pacific Coast
League gave him the spitball privilege he was denied in the
majors, and Shellenback won 295 PCL games over the next 19
years.
As for Grimes, he won only five of his first 24 decisions in the
major leagues until he got his act together. But as Okrent and
Wulf write, “the spitball had its hazards. After pitching a shutout
in the second game of the 1920 World Series, Grimes was hit
badly in his next start. The problem was that second baseman
Pete Kilduff didn’t want to handle a slippery ball if it were hit to
him, so that each time Brooklyn catcher Otto Miller called for
the spitter, Kilduff would reach for a handful of dirt and deposit
it in his glove. Cleveland quickly caught on, and Grimes’s best
weapon was taken away.
“Fortunately for Grimes, Kilduff was gone by the end of the next
year, and the pitcher could continue his spitballing unimpeded.
For the rest of his career the man who looked, wrote John
Kieran, ‘like a man who was about to commit assault and battery
when he threw the ball’ was the master of a dying style.”
And in the book “We Played the Game” (edited by Danny
Peary), Lew Burdette makes note of Burleigh Grimes’s
assistance, when Grimes was a roving instructor at the same time
Burdette was in the Yankees minor league system. Burdette, later
hurling for the Milwaukee Braves, had some solid seasons from
1953-55, but in 1956 he really came into his own, going 19-10
while leading the league in earned run average. Word was out
Burdette was throwing a spitter.
Burdette had asked Grimes to teach him how to throw the pitch,
but Grimes told him, “If I teach you how to throw one, you’ll
get caught and get banned from baseball. But if you make them
think you throw it and don’t – and don’t get caught – they’ll be
looking for something that isn’t there. If your ball moves, they’ll
complain. When hitters make outs they’ll complain because
they’re all egotistical.”
Lew Burdette:
“I discovered that if I could get one of the first 3 hitters in the
first inning to go back to the dugout saying I was cheating, by the
fifth inning everybody on the team wanted to see the ball when
they batted. If I made any motion to my mouth they became
suspicious. So I’d go through my ritual, going to my hat and then
crossing my chest. I got so many Catholic medals and sacred
heart medals in the mail. I had a whole drawer of mementos
which fans sent to me ‘from one good Catholic to another.’ I
was a Southern Baptist.
“Hitters were so funny that I just had a ball on the mound. I’d
almost bust out laughing when they’d complain about a spitball
after I’d really thrown a bad change of pace, screwball, or slider.
Even if they hit a hard liner straight at the center fielder, they
went by the mound complaining like the dickens. I’d suck it all
up. The umpires didn’t believe them. They’d come out and
practically undress me. I’d tell them they missed a certain place
and they’d get a little ticked.”
Grimes, by the way, as alluded to above, was one surly guy and
was known to throw at an occasional batter. As Red Smith wrote
in a separate article back in June 1961, “this was due more to the
venom in his soul than the slippery elm in his mouth.”
“With a two-day stubble on his jowls, eyes blazing with hate and
yellow fangs bared, old Burleigh wasn’t exactly a pretty sight as
he drooled or pretended to drool into his cupped paws, but he
was a sight to remember.”
And by the way, Grimes was also a fair hitter, batting .248 for
his career.
Stuff
–Congratulations to the U.S. soccer team for its effort against
Italy. They earned back a ton of respect. But now I’m on the
Ecuador train. Funky drinks on it, however.
–Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly on soccer chants.
“The French make the best wine. The Swiss build the best
watches. But the English make up the best chants. In English
football, for instance, Blackburn hates Burnley the way
tornadoes hate trailers, so the Blackburn fans, 31,000 strong,
holler:
Yer mum’s yer dad!
Yer dad’s yer mum!
Yer inbred, ya Burnley scum!
“Which is good, but not as good as this…
Away in a manger
No crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus,
Looked up and he said,
We HATE Burnley!
“How much better is that than ‘Dal-las sucks!
“English star Michael Owen is often serenaded by this chant,
sung to ‘Guantanamera’:
One Michael Owen!
There’s only one Michael Owen!
“Of course, when fellow Brit Andy Goram was rumored to be
schizophrenic, fans of opposing teams in the Scottish Premier
League chanted:
Two Andy Gorams!
There’s Only two Andy Gorams!
“I wish America had a decent chant. Ours is lamer than
Members Only jackets. All we have is that crappy old U-S-A!
U-S-A! cheer. A stoned ferret could’ve thought of that one. It’s
so bad that for the last World Cup, U.S. Soccer held a contest to
pick a new official U.S. stadium chant. Out of 1,000 entries, this
was the winner:
Our legs shall never tire!
Our hearts will see us through!
Goals! Goals! Goals!
For the red, white and blue!
“Ugh. Why beat around the bush? Here’s my entry:
We are the Yankees!
We are not afraid!
You beat us tonight!
Thursday, we invade!
–Selena Roberts of the New York Times has written some good
pieces from Winged Foot. In one she discusses the lack of
blacks on the PGA Tour, including caddies, the latter a topic
I hadn’t thought much of myself.
“While he has touched hundreds of children through his
foundation, there has been an unforeseen paradox to Tiger
(Woods) social reach, an odd twist to the wealth he has bestowed
upon the PGA Tour: He has been the innocent accomplice to a
reversal of diversity.
“Nearly a dozen black American players were on the PGA Tour
20 years ago. Now, there is only Tiger. There are many reasons
behind this – like the economics of access to country clubs, but
one is not so easy to comprehend: the demise of the black caddie.
“ ‘What strikes me is that when black players were allowed on
the PGA Tour in 1961, ending the Caucasians – only clause,
there was an influx of players: Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder and
Calvin Peete and so on – and they won 20 tournaments,’ said
Orin Starn, a cultural anthropologist at Duke University who is
working on a book about American society. ‘All of these guys
got their starts in the caddie shacks. That was their way in. And
if you go back farther, caddying was a way for the poor, working
class and sometimes immigrant kids to climb their way into the
blue-blooded world of golf as with Walter Hagen and Gene
Sarazen.’
“Somewhere along the way to riches in the Woods era, the blue-
collar job of caddying went white collar, the lunch pail went
executive dining room. ‘It’s a new era,’ said Otis Moore, the
caddie for Olin Browne. ‘A lot of players are letting brother-in-
laws and cousins caddy for them. It’s tough right now. You’re
an independent contractor.’
“Moore is one of the few black caddies left on the PGA Tour.
He started his career at Augusta National Golf Club, which
began allowing players to take their own caddies to the Masters
in 1983.
“This was supposed to be a sign of progress – an end to the black
caddie in the white Augusta National jumper, a stop to Jim Crow
memories and an end to subservient imagery – but the move
turned out to be unemployment for many minority-group
members just as caddying became lucrative.
“ ‘The paradox is the end to caddying correlates to fewer black
golf pros,’ Starn said.”
Selena Roberts on Sunday addressed the difference between
Alex Rodriguez and Phil Mickelson, specifically the difference
in the way New York fans treat the two. It speaks to why some
of us love following the PGA Tour, though after Phil’s collapse,
it will be interesting to see how Phil is treated when the Open
returns to Bethpage in a few years.
But for now, think about it. Why is Phil loved and A-Rod not?
Both are two of the more calculating, some would say
insincere, athletes of our generation. [Though Phil debunked
much of that at Baltusrol last year in the way he spent hours with
the fans after each round.]
But while A-Rod has been booed more vociferously the past few
weeks than anyone can remember a New York athlete getting
such treatment, especially a future Hall of Famer, Lefty is
embraced by New York area golf fans like no one before has.
Selena Roberts:
“The difference is not about performance under pressure, about
Mickelson’s three major titles and Rodriguez’s zero World
Series rings. This is about earning a margin for error when
nothing in sports unleashes more public venom like
unaccountable wealth.
“Rodriguez’s defining moments in baseball are not his Most
Valuable Player awards or his pristine lifetime statistics. He is
defined by his $252 million deal – one that laps the contracts of
his peers, is ultimately paid by baseball fans and is a burden to
his image. Swing or miss, Rodriguez will pocket $25.6 million
in salary this year….
“Once surreal excess defines a player – or chief executive (Ms.
Roberts earlier talked about Exxon Mobil’s Lee Raymond and
his pay package) – it is hard to gain separation from the cash pile
even based on grand performance figures.
“This is why Mickelson is a liberated man. True, his wealth is
vast, and, according to real estate records, he owns plenty of
luxury-estate properties, but Mickelson has to earn his paycheck
every week.
“Golf is known as a dignified land – hence the reason David
Duval is labeled as feisty instead of a jerk – but Mickelson is
forced to work for his hugs in each round.
“Without victories, there is no prize money for Mickelson or
lucrative endorsements or celebrity friends or ‘Go get ‘em, Phil’
from his fans. Mickelson is guaranteed nothing at each Tour
stop.
“No matter how outsized a pro athlete’s income – or how warped
the amount may seem compared to the earnings of a teacher –
Mickelson makes money within the moral limits of his sport, in
amounts reflective of his work.
“This makes all the difference. So fans continue to harass
Rodriguez for trying too hard at perfection, for never daring to
produce a clutch slap single with an ungraceful swing, for always
having a scripted response to his failings.
“The affection for Mickelson is unconditional. He keeps
pressing on that smile and fist-bumping those fans and living life
as a human happy-gram….
“He may be every bit as specious as Rodriguez, but Mickelson
remains unburdened by questions of his authenticity. Every
week, every round, he earns the benefit of the doubt.”
–NBC’s Jimmy Roberts had the story of how Winged Foot Golf
Club is the home of the “mulligan.” But I thought Bloomberg
News and reporter Michael Buteau covered the topic better.
The story goes back to 1937 and Canadian-born hotelier David
B. Mulligan.
“Mulligan brought the term to the U.S. from Canada, where he
was a member at several clubs…
“Mulligan, who was president of the Windsor Hotel in Montreal,
would rush to the course a few minutes past noon in order to be
back to the hotel before 6 p.m., according to a letter sent to the
USGA in 1985 by M. Donald Grant, former chairman of
baseball’s New York Mets and a cousin of the late duffer. The
same approach occurred at Winged Foot.
“ ‘He was a very fast dresser, and when he would reach the first
tee, because of his rushing, he would invariably top his drive,’
wrote Grant, who often drove Mulligan to the course.
“Mulligan would then hit another ball, which he called a
‘correction shot,’ according to the USGA. ‘All his friends ever
did was snicker and let him get away with it,’ Grant wrote.
“The term began to spread when Charles Gordon, a friend
playing in Mulligan’s group, topped his drive one day.
“ ‘As we all started to leave the tee he said, ‘Wait a minute boys,
I’m going to take a Mulligan,’’ Grant wrote. ‘Thereafter, all of
us did it and it grew like wildfire.”
[Essex Fells Country Club in New Jersey also claims title to
“Mulligan.” It says it originated with John A. ‘Buddy’ Mulligan,
a locker-room attendant who worked at the course during the
1930s. He was known for replaying shots, particularly on the
first tee, according to the USGA.]
All I know is that if I ever tried to take one where I play, I’d be
booted out.
–I once walked 18 holes with golfer Tommy Armour III at the
84 Lumber Classic in Pennsylvania back in 2004 and he just
struck me as a real jerk. He also hit one of the worst golf shots
I’ve ever seen by a professional (until Sunday), a drive that
went no further than two feet off the ground and slammed into
the bank of the ladies tee, all of 120 yards away. [Bar Chat
9/28/04]
Armour has quite a reputation as a ladies man and is known to
travel in celebrity circles; sort of a throwback to some of
yesteryear’s pros and the cross with Hollywood.
Well he’s finally getting married and I couldn’t help but note this
bit from GolfWeek.
“The Man Out Front (ed. ‘anonymous’ writer of a column) has
been to a few weddings in his day, but he has a feeling this is one
he won’t want to miss. The Forecaddie is here to report that cool
guy Tommy Armour III, long one of the PGA Tour’s foremost
bachelors, is engaged to be married. And, as you might expect,
he proposed to Amy, his girlfriend of about three years, in cool-
guy fashion. He wrote, ‘Will you marry me?’ on the bathroom
mirror in red marker, with an addendum that said, ‘if so, please
go find the cat.’
“Upon finding the cat, Mr. A, Amy found an engagement ring
tied to his collar.
“Now, knowing that Armour knows how to throw a party with
assorted lovelies and delicacies, the Man Out Front can hardly
wait for the reception.”
Maybe I should take back what I said about the man, eh? Could
be a fun one to crash, know what I’m sayin’?
–The Mitchell investigation into steroid abuse is plodding along.
The Washington Post reported that George Mitchell and his team
have been interviewing key figures in various organizations, with
the Orioles slated for this week; important because of the team’s
association with Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa. Palmeiro
had also implicated Miguel Tejada, you’ll recall.
And “Game of Shadows” authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance
Williams commented in Sports Illustrated on lead BALCO
investigator Jeff Novitzky who put together the raid on Jason
Grimsley’s home.
“(Recently) Novitzky traveled to New York City to interview a
woman thought to have insights into (Barry) Bonds’s alleged
receipt of cash from memorabilia sales, according to a source
familiar with the agent’s activities. He also has been lining up
witnesses for a grand jury probe aimed at determining if Bonds
committed perjury when he testified in 2003 that he had never
knowingly used banned drugs….
“Novitzky can’t discuss his work, but it’s known that he shares
fans’ disgust with steroid users, and he is not afraid to get his
hands dirty. Novitzky has trailed suspected drug dealers into the
players’ parking lot at the Giants’ ballpark and gone through
their garbage. As a result he is doing what baseball
commissioner Bud Selig, the players’ union and perhaps even
quasi-independent investigator George Mitchell can’t (or won’t)
do: He’s forcing baseball to confront its Steroid Era….
“The government says Novtizky is just doing his job. But as the
last person a cheater wants to see, he has emerged as one of the
most influential figures in the war on performance-enhancing
drugs.”
[Former ballplayer David Segui confessed to ESPN that he was
one of those whose names were blacked out in Jason Grimsley’s
affidavit. Segui says he took human growth hormone under a
doctor’s prescription. Of course HGH was prohibited when he
was using, as late as 2004, though he didn’t apply for a medical
waiver. A baseball spokesman told ESPN that it “would be
difficult to imagine” a waiver would have been granted.]
–Sports Illustrated polled 470 current major leaguers on “Which
baseball record do you think will never be broken?”
42% – Cal Ripken’s 2,632 consecutive games played
23% – Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak
13% – Cy Young’s 511 career wins
7% – Pete Rose’s 4.256 career hits
I’ve gotta go with both Ripken and Young’s marks. Someone on
human growth hormone, with amazing speed, will beat
DiMaggio, while even Derek Jeter has a shot at Rose’s record.
Jeter’s the kind who at age 40 would be motivated to go after it.
–Maybe Joey Chestnut should be checked for steroids. Chestnut
could give Takeru Kobayashi (the world’s greatest athlete) a run
for his money this Fourth of July at the Nathan’s Famous Hot
Dog Eating Contest.
At a qualifier in Las Vegas, Chestnut downed 50 wieners in 12
minutes, shattering the U.S. mark by 13.
We’ll have full coverage, of course, of the Nathan’s event which
rivals the Super Bowl, Daytona and the World Series.
–Back to the U.S. Open, congratulations to 52-year-old Jay Haas
for breaking the PGA Tour record for most cuts made, 591.
Pretty good to set the mark at Winged Foot, I think you’d agree.
And Johnny Mac on Colin Montgomerie:
“Winning a major doesn”t make you a great player, but not winning
one keeps you from being a great.”
–A 1907 painting by Austrian Gustav Klimt sold for a record
$137 million; purchased by cosmetics king Ronald Lauder.
–Bruno, the fugitive bear in Germany, was actually spotted this
weekend sitting outside a police station at a small resort town.
[London Times]
–Interesting sports tidbit for you Notre Dame football fans.
Wide receiver Jeff Samardzija, who is bound to be a first-round
pick in the 2007 NFL draft, nonetheless signed a contract with
the Chicago Cubs. Samardzija will be allowed to play his senior
year at Notre Dame in football while also pursuing a professional
baseball career. Most of his money with the Cubs, however, is
contingent on him sticking with the sport. He’s a pretty fair
pitcher…as well as the best possession receiver I’ve seen since
Freddie Biletnikoff.
–Sports Illustrated’s “Sign of the Apocalypse”
“In Washington State playing poker online is now a felony that
carries the same penalties as possessing child pornography.”
–Sir Paul McCartney turned 64 on Sunday. Goodness gracious.
Ringo is 66. I’m depressed.
Top 3 songs for the week of 6/24/67: #1 “Groovin’” (The Young
Rascals) #2 “Respect” (Aretha Franklin) #3 “She’d Rather Be
With Me” (The Turtles)…and…#4 “Windy” (Association) #5
“Little Bit O’Soul” (The Music Explosion) #6 “San Francisco
(Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair…also remember to take
a shower)” (Scott McKenzie) #7 “Somebody To Love”
(Jefferson Airplane) #8 “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”
(Frankie Valli) #9 “Sunday Will Never Be The Same” (Spanky
& Our Gang) #10 “Let’s Live For Today” (The Grass Roots)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Six to have 300 homers / 300 stolen
bases.
Barry Bonds…718 HR…506 SB (thru Sun.)…Boo Boooooo
Willie Mays…660 HR…338 SB
Andre Dawson…438 HR…314 SB
Bobby Bonds…332 HR…461 SB
Steve Finley…301 HR…316 SB (thru Sun.)
Reggie Sanders…301 HR…302 SB (thru Sun.)
Both Finley and Sanders accomplished the feat in the past week
or so.
And I just have to comment on Willie Mays’ season when he
was 40-years-old. Still with the Giants, Mays hit 18 homers and
drove in 61 while batting .271. But what was most unusual was
he had 112 walks (for an on-base average of .425, career high),
123 strikeouts (first time over 100, as in the case with walks),
and 23 stolen bases (in 26 attempts), the first year he stole 20
since age 29. In other words, he was letting it all hang out. The
following season he was traded to the Mets and was a shell of
what he was even the year before.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday. I’m traveling Wednesday and
Thursday and really don’t know when I’ll post.
