PGA Championship Quiz: 1) Name the only four to win three or
more titles. [No obscure names.] 2) Name the two with the
initials D.S. to win two. [You get this one you’re good.] 3) Who
won in 1978, initials J.M.? 4) Who won his two titles 13-years
apart, 1969 and 1982? 5) Nick Price won in 1992. Give me the
four who finished tied for second, 3 strokes back, with the
following initials…N.F., J.C., J.G., G.S. Answers below.
Don Wilson
Born on Feb. 12, 1945, Monroe, La., Don Wilson was a pitcher
who came up with the Houston Astros in 1966, appearing in just
one game, but the following year, just 22, saw him begin a streak
of 8 consecutive seasons with double figures in wins, including
three where he won 15 or more for usually sub-par Astros’
squads.
But Wilson was out of baseball at the age of 29, having compiled
a won-loss record of 104-92 with a fine 3.15 ERA.
Pretty ordinary story, actually, except for two facts; Don Wilson
threw two no-hitters and could have had a third, and, as for the
second fact, well we’ll get to that later.
In the history of baseball, only five pitchers have thrown three
no-hitters.
Nolan Ryan (7), Sandy Koufax (4), Cy Young (3), Bob Feller
(3), and a fellow from the 1880s, Larry Corcoran (3).
Wilson’s first no-hitter came in 1967 when he beat Atlanta, 2-0,
and struck out 15 along the way.
His second was in 1969, a 4-0 victory over Cincinnati. In this
effort he went to full counts on the first three batters in the eighth
and ninth innings and ended up striking out 13 while walking six.
[Interestingly, Cincy’s Jim Maloney had no-hit Houston the day
before….one of his two no-nos.]
So here was 24-year-old Don Wilson with two no-hitters and a
great future. But late in ’69 he hurt his arm which drastically
affected the speed at which he could throw the ball (in 1968 he
once fanned 18 in a game) and Wilson had to change his style of
pitching.
But he actually got better, having his best seasons in 1971 and
’72, going 16-10 and 15-10 with ERAs of 2.45 and 2.68.
Yes, Don Wilson was good but there were a lot of solid pitchers
in those days and he made only one All-Star team in his career.
But for the rest of the tale we turn to Mike Robbins and his book
“Ninety Feet from Fame: Close Calls with Baseball
Immortality.”
“On September 4, 1974, Wilson appeared on the verge of
becoming considerably more famous. He’d dominated the
Cincinnati Reds all day, and was three outs away from his third
career no-hitter. That would have put him in some very select
company. Wilson wouldn’t get the no-hitter, but it wasn’t the
Reds who stopped him. It was his own manager, Preston Gomez.
Despite the no-hitter, the Astros were trailing 2-1, the result of a
5th-inning error. So Gomez did what he’d always done when
trailing late in the game. He sent up a pinch hitter for his pitcher.
“There are those who will argue that Gomez made the correct
move, that a manager must put team success ahead of individual
accomplishment. But certainly circumstances must be taken into
account. The circumstances here were that it was the last month
of the season and the Astros were far out of contention. Winning
or losing the game meant little. The circumstances also
suggested that going to a pinch hitter wasn’t all that big of an
advantage. Don Wilson hit .206 that year, Tommy Helms, the
man sent up in his place, hit .279. Gomez in effect had ended
Wilson’s no-hit bid for an added one-in-13 shot at a hit. As it
turned out, he’d ended it for nothing. Helms grounded out, and
relief pitcher Mike Cosgrove gave up a hit in the 9th, costing
Wilson a share of a combined no-hitter….
“Don Wilson had a reputation as a man who didn’t get along
with managers, so reporters were expecting fireworks in the
clubhouse. They wouldn’t get them. ‘I respect (Gomez) more
than ever tonight,’ said Wilson when he finally agreed to talk to
the press. ‘He wants to win and I want to win as much as he
does. When people start putting personal goals ahead of the
team, you’ll never have a winner.’
“ ‘I could scream and say, ‘Look at what the manager did to me.’
The third no-hitter would have meant a lot because I would have
been doing something no other man pitching today has done.
But I still have enough confidence in myself that I believe I
might get another one.’”
As it turns out Wilson did throw a two-hitter on Sept. 28, his last
start of the season. It would also be the last start of his career.
On January 5, 1975, Wilson took his own life by running the car
in a closed garage. It had been idling for hours and carbon
monoxide seeped through the ceiling into the home above,
killing his five-year-old son and hospitalizing his wife and
daughter.
Wilson wasn’t known to have any personal or psychological
issues and as an autopsy showed a high level of alcohol in his
blood, some surmised he may have just passed out in his car.
Officially, though, it was ruled a suicide. Don Wilson, dead at
29.
[And one side note: On July 21, 1970, San Diego hurler Clay
Kirby no-hit the Mets through 8 innings but trailed 1-0. His
manager was the same Preston Gomez and he pulled Kirby for a
pinch hitter. The Padres still lost and the relief pitcher gave up a
hit. San Diego finished 63-99, 39 games out of first. Kirby, who
was just 74-105 in his career, died of a heart attack at the age of
43. Preston Gomez always argued he would have done the same
thing in both cases. What an a-hole.]
Stuff
–On November 1, 1950, Medical Company, 8th Cavalry
Regiment, came under fire from Chinese forces near Unsan,
North Korea. Army Cpl. Edward F. Blazejewski was a medic
tending to his fellow servicemen when their unit was forced to
move to a previous defensive position and leave their fallen
comrades behind. Later, a U.S. soldier being held prisoner of
war told officials the men had been killed by a grenade
explosion, among them Cpl. Blazejewski.
As reported by Jennifer Golson of the Star-Ledger, in the years
that followed Albert Blazejewski, now deceased, wrote
congressmen and senators trying to find out what happened to his
brother.
But it wasn’t until August 1997 that a joint U.S.-North Korean
team excavated a site in Pyongan province believed to contain
the remains of several U.S. soldiers. Those of four were
uncovered and returned to the U.S.
Three of the four were identified in 2000 and only recently did
scientists match DNA from a relative of Edward Blazejewski.
On Friday, Cpl. Edward Blazejewski was laid to rest, 56 years
later, at Arlington National Cemetery.
–We note the passing of talk show host Mike Douglas at the age
of 81. Caution to you golfers out there…he was pretty healthy
until a recent round when he became dehydrated and after was
being treated for complications when he succumbed.
I watched a ton of “The Mike Douglas Show” growing up as it
aired from 4:30 to 6:00 each afternoon. Overall it’s estimated he
did 6,000 shows from 1961 to 1982, but for a younger
generation, these days, he’s only known for debuting a 2-year-
old Tiger Woods. [Bob Hope was on the same show and
quipped, “I don’t know what kind of drugs they’ve got this kid
on, but I want some.”]
Unlike the often edgier Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas was far
more laid back. Washington Post television critic Tom Shales:
“The show that he’d hosted all those years was proudly fluffy,
rarely ruffling a feather, and Douglas himself was so ingenuous
that he could probably have made bland and friendly banter with
a serial killer or right-wing radical – even though his show was
launched in 1961 at the dawn of an explosive decade of domestic
turbulence….
“If you dug up an old episode of the show and watched it, you
might never guess that America was all but coming apart at the
seams over Vietnam, civil rights and generational conflict.
Mike’s place was like a friendly diner or coffeehouse that, for the
most part, kept the real world locked out, and viewers looked to
it – and retreated to it – as a refuge from the prevailing fractious
racket of the times.”
Douglas did have on John Lennon and Yoko Ono quite a bit,
often as co-hosts, and he mixed in Malcolm X, Richard Nixon,
George Wallace and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
He also was, like Merv Griffin, a former big-band singer and he
always sang at least one tune during his show.
Mike Douglas once told Time magazine, “I don’t smoke, I don’t
drink, I get home every night. I’m square.”
He took pride in getting the best out of his guests. Burt Reynolds
recalled that Douglas “just had a way about him that very, very
few people have – that is, he knew how to listen.” Reynolds
added he never heard anybody say anything negative about
Mike.
Douglas was born Michael Delaney Dowd Jr., the son of a
railway freight agent in Chicago and got his start by strolling into
taverns and singing Irish songs. As he once said “the coins just
started flying at me.” At age eleven he was singing on a Chicago
radio station and after college became a featured singer with the
Kay Kyser band. Kyser changed Mike’s surname.
Among Mike Douglas’s memories was one of Jack Benny who
repeatedly turned down requests to do the show because he was
scared of live television. As reported by Dennis McLellan of the
Los Angeles Times, Benny “changed his mind after Douglas
came up with an idea that Benny couldn’t resist.”
“The day Benny was to appear on the show, Douglas and his
camera crew went outside, where a crowd gathered to join him
watching for the arrival of Benny’s limousine – then a bus pulled
up and America’s favorite penny pincher stepped out, counting
his change.”
Douglas actually had a top-ten on the Billboard charts in 1966
with the sappy “The Men In My Little Girl’s Life.”
–22-year-old pitching sensation Francisco Liriano of the
Minnesota Twins didn’t tell his manager or coaches that he was
playing with pain going back to July 18. He just kept pitching
and now he’s on the disabled list, with his 12-3, 2.19 ERA that
had propelled the Twins into the wild-card hunt. The coaches
are besides themselves because they kept asking him if he was
OK and he’d say he was fine. Finally he got shelled and pitching
coach Rick Anderson asked him if he was hurt. Liriano said he
felt sore. Anderson asked “since when?” “The first inning.” He
was immediately placed on the disabled list and there’s no telling
when he’ll return. Youth.
–Once again a bunch of Native Americans has challenged the
name and logo of the Washington Redskins. In this latest
episode, six activists say the franchise’s name “breaks a 1946
federal law prohibiting the government from registering a
trademark that disparages any race, religion or other group,” as
reported by Eric M. Weiss of the Washington Post.
“Jillian Pappan, 19, of Sioux City, Iowa, one of the six
challengers, equated the name Redskin with the ‘N-word.’
‘You’re not going to call me a redskin, and they shouldn’t be
allowed to have that as a copyright,’ she said.”
2,000 Native American references in team names and mascots
have been changed since 1970, such as the Stanford Indians
becoming the Cardinal. [Still don’t know why they didn’t add an
‘s’, but then they’re smarter than I am.]
900 teams, though, continue to use Indian references, the best
being Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians.
–Johnny Mac passed along this terrifying story.
“Man Missing After Pulled Into Ocean by Turtle”
Last Thursday, a graduate student from the University of Central
Florida, Boyd Lyon, was tagging sea turtles as part of a research
project and was onboard his boat when a large turtle somehow
pulled him under, never to be seen again.
For the life of me I can’t ever recall something like this and our
sympathies to the family of Mr. Lyon.
But it just goes to show how the Animal Kingdom is fighting
back; yet another front in the war on terror.
–In the Okefenokee Swamp there is a 14-foot, 1,000-pound
alligator that goes by the name of Oscar and is believed to be 90
years old. Goodness gracious.
–A local writer who was once a reporter for the Philadelphia
Inquirer, Robert R. Frump, has written a book titled “The Man-
eaters of Eden: Life and Death in Kruger National Park” that was
highlighted this Sunday in the Star-Ledger.
And guess what? I have been correct all these years in saying
‘official’ animal kill figures of humans are vastly understated.
Robert Frump:
“Lions are consuming humans, mostly poor African villagers, at
rates that make the famous man-eaters of the 19th and 20th
centuries look like pussycats.
“That is the conclusion of a book I recently wrote about Kruger
National Park in South Africa, where the park’s lions are tourist
rock stars by day and man-eaters by night. Mozambican
refugees attempting to cross the park have been killed and eaten
by the thousands.
“Yet no one really cares to discuss the matter.
“No central count of the deaths is kept. No known graves for
remains are kept – when there are remains. The rangers and the
park officials acknowledge the problem, but treat the
phenomenon as they might a mad aunt in the attic. Everyone
knew. They all heard the thumping upstairs. Yet no one in the
parlor addressed the situation in polite company.”
One lion expert, Craig Packer, has been sounding the alarm
about an area in the far south of Tanzania. As Frump writes,
“Man-eaters (there) have killed 560 people and injured 308 from
1990 to 2004. They have eaten men, women, children, babies,
even a few hunters sent out to kill them.”
This isn’t made up, sports fans. I mean I’m now raising my own
estimate on the number of deaths at the flippers of sea turtles to
some 3,300 a year. And you scoffed when I said I was afraid to
go into the driveway to get the morning paper because I didn’t
want to be breakfast for a mountain lion, now rumored to be in
New Jersey.
We wish Mr. Frump well with his book. I’m ordering it today.
–A local Jersey boy, Jamie Gold, 36, won the World Series of
Poker and $12 million. Gold now resides in Malibu but we’ll
claim him all the same. Geezuz, the second-place finisher, Paul
Wasicka of Westminster, Co., won $6.1 million! In fact the nine
at the final table were all guaranteed a minimum $1.5 million.
Gold defeated a record 8,733 players.
–This just in…Jamie Gold moved to Monte Carlo.
–In case you’re wondering where former Ohio State running
back Maurice Clarett stands in terms of “Dirtball of the Year,”
I’ve decided he doesn’t even merit consideration anymore. For
starters, he hasn’t been a factor in sports or any other field for
that matter in ages and the fact that he’s sitting in jail, with bail
set at $5 million, isn’t even a story. There are millions of others
like him.
–From the New York Daily News, “Knicks coach Isiah Thomas
has admitted he once touched fired team exec Anucha Browne
Sanders’ shoulder [nothing wrong with that], and may have even
tried to kiss her on the cheek. [What a dirtball!]
As I’ve hinted at before, the whole topic of sexual harassment
scared the hell out of me when I was in the corporate world.
But what gets me in the Thomas case is he insists in the latest
court filing he meant no harm [oh yeah, but you tried to kiss her,
for crying out loud!]. Thomas also categorically denies Brown
Sanders’ allegations – “including claims that Thomas, who
doubles as the Knicks’ general manager, asked her to have sex
with him and called her a ‘blanking blank.’” [We have our
standards here at Bar Chat.]
–Chicago Cubs’ manager Dusty Baker is a prime target of
baseball’s steroids investigation. Not because he was using, but
because if anyone knows what Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa
were doing it should be Baker, seeing as he was their manager
for long stretches.
But Baker thus far has refused to talk to former Sen. George
Mitchell, who is heading up the inquiry and has recommended
‘employees’ be penalized for not cooperating, whereas
Commissioner Bud Selig has now decided non-uniformed
employees could have personal lawyers with them, which gives
Mitchell a better shot at getting Baker to talk. [Murray Chass /
New York Times]
–Speaking of steroids, of the 34 players who have tested positive
this year – 2 in the majors, the rest in the minor leagues – 22 are
from Latin America, with 13 from Venezuela and 8 from the
Dominican Republic. And 24 of the 34 who failed tests are
pitchers. [Jack Curry / New York Times]
–Phil W. alerted me to more distressing news from Wake Forest.
NBA rookie of the year Chris Paul is holding the inaugural
“Chris Paul’s Winston-Salem Weekend” Sept. 15-17. Paul, a
Winston-Salem native as well as Wake Forest traitor, wants to
give back to the community and will be holding a celebrity
bowling tournament among other events.
Well that’s just great. Give to the community. But keep Wake
out of it.
No, Phil, I won’t be attending the dinner / dance. Wouldn’t be
prudent.
–Now this is interesting. New York Knicks point guard Stephon
Marbury, who is far from likable, is launching the Starbury One,
a $14.98 sneaker he’ll wear on the court. That’s right, $14.98
compared to $180 for a pair of Nike’s Air Jordan XX1.
“Two hundred to buy a pair of sneakers,” Marbury told Business
Week, “that’s groceries for the week.”
Reporter Robert Berner writes Marbury (who likes to refer to
himself as Starbury) wants to show kids how little it costs to
make a high-quality sneaker.
Boy, in all sincerity I hope this works and if it does Stephon
would go from the doghouse to a possible Bar Chat Hall of Fame
nomination. But while moms might be excited by this
development, I just see bullies having a new target because that’s
just the way it is on the street.
–New York Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca has not had an easy time
of it recently, what with his divorce, tabloid reports he was
hooking up with a 19-year-old and now rumors of extensive
gambling, including high-stakes poker games and possible
organized crime connections (denied by both Lo Duca and Major
League Baseball).
New York Post columnist Mike Vaccaro opined:
“You and me, we can’t get into a high-stakes poker game on a
business flight and laugh off losses with zeroes in them the way
big-leaguers can. We don’t know what it is to have money
literally burning holes in our trousers. We’d like to know. We’d
like to think we know. We don’t know.
“Their world is different than our world. We are reminded of that
at every turn. This week it was Lo Duca. The week before it was
(Mets pitcher) Duaner Sanchez, whose innocent post-midnight
Miami wanderings became a subject for some because they
couldn’t understand why someone would want to venture out for
dinner at two o’clock in the morning. Maybe in our world, that
sounds a little off the wall.
“In their world, it’s more innocent than kindergarten.
“In their world, anything you want is available to you any time
you want it. If you want Dominican food at two o’clock in the
morning, it’s yours. Want to play golf at the country’s greatest
courses gratis? Yours. Want to run around on your wife?
Knock yourself out, it’s all there for you. Want to bet ponies?
Play cards? Put together a six-team football teaser? There’s
always a guy to call.
“In our world, we call those fantasies. In their world, they are
perks. In our world, temptation is pondering an extra slice of
cheesecake. In theirs, it’s anything and everything, wherever and
whenever, like living in Vegas without ever having to cross the
Nevada state line. Every now and again, we get to live in their
world.
“But it is their world.”
–Alex Rodriguez hit another meaningless home run in Sunday’s
Yankees loss, after which he said “This is the best I feel all year,
head and shoulders. I feel 100%. Feel like spring training just
ended. I’m fresh out there. Me swinging the bat like now can be
conducive to a better streak.”
Huh? This is the first anyone heard A-Rod was hurt.
–I missed this one. Former PGA Tour golfer Al Balding died on
July 30 at the age of 82. What’s significant about his career, in
which he won four PGA events, is the fact he was the first
Canadian to win one, the 1955 Mayfair Open. In 1968, “The
Silver Fox” teamed with George Knudson to win the 1968 World
Cup back when this was a pretty big deal.
–You know those commercials for the Stickup Bulb? [“And it
slides out to become a handy lantern!”] I’m thinking that at, say,
Christmastime, instead of passing out candles churches could
save money by using them. Amortized over 40 years it makes
sense.
Top 3 songs for the week 8/12/78: #1 “Three Times A Lady”
(Commodores) #2 “Grease” (Frankie Valli) #3 “Last Dance”
(Donna Summer)…and…#4 “Miss You” (The Rolling Stones)
#5 “Hot Blooded” (Foreigner) #6 “Boogie Oogie Oogie” (A
Taste of Honey) #7 “Love Will Find A Way” (Pablo Cruise) #8
“Copacabana” (Barry Manilow) #9 “Magnet And Steel” (Walter
Egan) #10 “An Everlasting Love” (Andy Gibb)
PGA Tour Quiz Answers: 1) Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus
won five times; Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead three times. 2)
Denny Shute (1936, 37) and Dave Stockton (1970, 76). 3) John
Mahaffey won in 1978. 4) Ray Floyd won 13 years apart…1969
and 1982. 5) In 1992, Nick Faldo, John Cook, Jim Gallagher Jr.,
and Gene Sauers finished tied for second to Nick Price.
And I just saw this very sad note. One of the more popular
golfers in the world, Darren Clarke, lost his wife Heather this
weekend after a long battle with breast cancer.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday….everything you need to know about
the Ryder Cup squad as you watch the PGA this weekend.
