NASCAR Quiz: OK, fellow pulled pork barbecue and beer fans.
Name the 12 who qualified for the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Answer below. [Girls, this is a great way to impress the guy in
your life. Or gal…..it’s really none of my business.]
Rutgers/Navy…Last Word
In light of my remarks concerning the Rutgers’ students and their
treatment of Navy when the two played each other in New
Brunswick, Sept. 7, I’ve accumulated some material that came
out after my initial commentary.
The Star-Ledger’s Steve Politi, in discussing Rutgers’ blitzing of
Norfolk State last weekend, 59-0, wrote of how Rutgers coach
Greg Schiano called three timeouts late in the first half with his
team ahead 45-0. Norfolk State coach Pete Adrian said “Ahead
(45)-zip in the first half and calling timeouts, if that turns you on,
that’s fine.”
Politi:
“Adrian was miffed but took the high road. What if he decided
to blast Schiano for poor sportsmanship? Rutgers would have
another few days of bad publicity on the heels of the backlash
following the fan behavior against Navy, another chance for
detractors to say Rutgers has gone from a feel-good story to
another big-time bully.
“It wasn’t 44,000 fans who were chanting obscenities that night.
It was a few hundred students. And still, because Rutgers is a
top-15 team now, the story went from local media outlets to the
national Web sites to the Drudge Report and even Fox News, a
black eye for the school that required multiple apologies.”
I love Politi’s work, but “a few hundred students” shouting “F—
you, Navy!” is more than a handful, and that was one of the
points in my rant on the topic the other day. Plus it was a
national story, Steve, because it was Navy!
The Ledger printed a number of letters to the editor (e-mails
these days) following Mark DiIonno’s piece that exposed the full
extent of the bad behavior and I’ve selected a few.
“…I was sitting in Section 102 with my three children, ages 6, 8
and 10, when that chant, ‘F-you Navy (clap clap clap-clap clap],’
came out of nowhere.
“What was even more remarkable than the chant itself was the
sudden and powerful wave of revulsion that coursed through the
fans on the West side of the Stadium who were close enough to
hear it. All around me, fans – Rutgers fans – erupted into
thunderous boos, many waving frantically to the students like
they were directing traffic, trying to drown out and stop the
noise. The students were surprised. The chant withered and
died…” – T.B.
“Such behavior is all too common-place these days. As Howard
Cosell once said, ‘they’re (fans) confusing license with liberty.”
– S.B.
“I play lacrosse here so I’m used to getting roused by opposing
fans but I’ve never heard of anything like that. Tell your student
body section to Google these names: J.P. Blacksmith, Ron
Winchester and Scott Zellem.
“All 3 were former Navy football players who were killed in Iraq
or Afghanistan. Let them check their email in the morning and
have notices of grads killed or wounded in their Inbox.
“Ask them how they would feel to know your best friends are
ALL going to be overseas within months of graduation.” – Chris
Dattaro (MIDN USN)
“Your piece is making the rounds among service parents and
alumni. I am both, with two of my kids being fourth generation
West Pointers, one likely soon to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan.
“It is bad enough that the extraordinary sacrifices being made by
our servicemen and women are ignored by far too many
Americans, who take their freedom and security for granted.
That midshipmen would be shown such disrespect, however, is
intolerable. It even suggests that in reality, we are not a nation at
war. Rather, only a small part of our society is fighting the War
on Terror, with no apparent sacrifice being made by the rest of
us…” – Claude M. McQuarrie III
“Your (column) has the unintentional aspect of basically painting
a broad brush of Rutgers fans. Why don’t you write about the
fans that stood up and applauded Navy when they took the field?
Or about the people that stayed for the respective alma maters? I
would venture to guess that at most 2,000 of the 44,000 in
attendance were chanting stupid things. Are you happy that
42,000 people, even if it’s not your intention, are now going to
be labeled as classless, and jerks?” – R.P. (Class of 2003)
2,000?! Note to R.P. [I purposefully didn’t want to print the full
names of non-Navy writers], you just don’t get it.
And the Ledger printed some postings from NJVoices.com. One
asshole, by the name of “EatAHogie” [oh yeah, hilarious] wrote:
“If you think a few chants are bad you should attend a European
soccer match and hope the stadium doesn’t get burned down.
Football’s a tough sport and people get crazy when they watch
it….It could be worse; someone could have thrown a battery or
iceball. Sticks and Stones, right?”
Unreal. Any of you who think our nation is heading in the right
direction need to be reminded we have idiots like EatAHogie.
Here’s one more, from “2FNsensitive”:
“Whatever it is their (sic) saying I don’t care because it’s called
‘home field advantage.’ I bet those cadets mouths are as spotless
as our record in Iraq too…Grow up – Get real – Stop censoring –
This is life.”
I rest my case. The Ledger had a story last weekend on how Penn
State fans chanted “F-you, Notre Dame” during their contest the
other week. I know this goes on everywhere. But to then not
draw the distinction between Notre Dame, Wake Forest, North
Carolina or Michigan…and Army or Navy, well, I shouldn’t
have to state the obvious. But now I’m ticked off all over again.
I also seriously doubt the last two authors above will be watching
Ken Burns’ “The War.”
—
Isiah the Dirtball, part Deux
In his sexual harassment trial, the jury saw a videotaped
deposition that Knicks coach Isiah Thomas gave. Isiah was
asked if he was bothered by a black man calling a black female
“bitch” vs. a white man doing the same.
“Not as much. I’m sorry to say, I do make a distinction. A white
male calling a black female a bitch is highly offensive. That
would have violated my code of conduct.
“Maybe I shouldn’t go there…A white male calling a black
female, that is wrong with me. I’m not taking that. I’m not
accepting that….That’s a problem for me.”
Oh brother. Jane Ridley of the New York Daily News
commented.
“(Isiah) earnestly insisted that calling (former Knicks exec
Anucha Browne Sanders) a bitch would violate ‘my code of
conduct.’
“That’s when he should have shut up, but his mouth, which
matches his outsized ego – if not his brain – just kept on moving.
“ ”Maybe I’m not supposed to go there,’ he continued, pausing for
theatrical effect, as if that would really stop him from sharing his
fascinating, insightful views on life, the universe and everything
else.
“He went there, all right. Lights flashing, horns blaring.
“In the world according to Isiah, it’s wrong for a black man to
call a black woman a bitch. Fair enough. But it’s MORE
WRONG for a white man to make the same remark. Excuse
me?”
Recall, earlier in the trial (which has gone on far longer than
these cases normally do…plus the Knicks and MSG were too
stupid to recognize they should have settled out of court),
Thomas allegedly told Sanders that he didn’t give a “f—” about
season ticket subscribers he referred to as “these white folk.”
Meanwhile, a Madison Square Garden employee in charge of
human resources had to admit the Garden really didn’t have a
policy against sexual harassment. This is 2007! All of you in
the working world know that every company was instituting
policies (especially on Wall Street where I worked) back around
1995 at the latest, if I recall correctly.
In the interests of full disclosure, however, it does need to be
pointed out that Ms. Sanders has been forced to admit under
cross-examination that she “copped to filing fraudulent tax
returns from 2001 to 2004, claiming she had a marketing
business that didn’t exist and writing off up to $19,000 each year
in expenses.” [Kati Cornell / New York Post] What a mess this
whole deal is.
Tsavo
The other day I noted the famous Lions of Tsavo, who killed as
many as 140 workers laying a railroad between Mombasa and
Lake Victoria back in 1898. Here is a brief bit from Robert R.
Frump’s book “The Man-Eaters of Eden.”
“The most famous African hunter, of course, is John H.
Patterson, the good British colonel who sought to build a bridge
in Tsavo, only to have two lions – Ghost and Darkness – bring
the whole project to a halt.
“Patterson was an experienced hunter and tried everything he
knew. He sat in trees over bait. He concocted a trap for the
lions. He and the workers built thorn enclosures and fed huge
fires at night.
“But the two lions worked the encampments as clever house cats
might work a mouse colony. They struck in different spots on
different nights, never in the same place twice. If Patterson sat
up over bait to the north, they were in the south. When he went
south, they went east. They crept through the nyika, the vast
thorn bush maze, then into tents and grabbed workers by the
head and rushed them off into the thorny bush.
“It was only through luck and grit that Patterson shot first one
and then the other, both within a few weeks. The last lion was so
determined to kill Patterson before Patterson killed it that the lion
took six shots from a heavy-caliber rifle. At the last, with a
crippled leg, it was still crawling toward Patterson, biting sticks
and grass, ever focused on its prey.”
And so these days, animals of all stripes are rallying to the chant
“Remember Tsavo.” Really…they are.
Stuff
–I have to comment on Philadelphia Eagles quarterback
Donovan McNabb and his complaint in an interview with James
Brown of “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” that he’s treated
differently because he’s black. It’s a little more complicated than
what you see in the headlines unless you watch the entire
interview as I did.
McNabb’s parents are true role models. The family moved to a
Chicago suburb and a largely all-white neighborhood when
Donovan was young and the McNabb’s were harassed
unmercifully. Little Donovan didn’t have an easy time of it, but
his father’s counsel was good; basically, always wait and think
through the consequences before you act. Alas, there are times
when McNabb doesn’t do so, such as with HBO’s Brown.
“There’s not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we
have to do a little bit extra,” McNabb said. “Because the
percentage of us playing this position, which people didn’t want
us to play…is low.”
But Brown pressed McNabb, pointing out that all manner of
white quarterbacks receive criticism if they play poorly.
“I pass for 300 yards, our team wins by seven, [mimicking] ‘Ah,
he could’ve made this throw, they would have scored if he did
this,’” said Donovan.
Brown questioned McNabb’s reasoning again, but McNabb said
“Every year I’m part of some criticism… (blah blah blah).”
Look, Donovan McNabb has normally taken the high road when
it comes to controversies, such as the one he had with then
teammate Terrell Owens following the Eagles’ losing effort in
the Super Bowl. But as much as he has accomplished, McNabb
also throws more bad balls than anyone I can remember since Joe
Kapp, who had about 1/10th the natural ability.
Steve Serby of the New York Post put it best.
“(McNabb) is paid handsomely – obscenely – to go win a Super
Bowl with owners so impatient and trigger-happy if the head
coach does not deliver.
“McNabb plays in a tough town, no doubt, a town that booed
him on draft day…a town that booed him Monday night for
being as off target against the Redskins as he is on this issue. It
is the same town that made him its favorite son when he took the
Eagles to a Super Bowl three years ago, even if it ended with him
out of gas and taking his sweet time to catch the Patriots.
“He should ask Phil Simms about what it was like playing in a
town that unleashed its boobirds on him and did not appreciate
him until Pasadena at the earliest….
“He should ask Eli Manning what it is like with his town
expecting him to be older brother Peyton.
“He should ask Richard Todd what it was like trying to follow
Joe Namath. Todd, 26 years after shoving me into a locker,
won’t come to the telephone to take my calls even now.
“He should ask Neil O’Donnell what it was like when he left
Pittsburgh to sign that $25 million contract with the Rich Kotite
Jets.
“McNabb should ask Rex Grossman what it is like being called
Wrecks Grossman in Chicago.
“He should ask Steve Young what it was like trying to follow Joe
Montana.
“He should ask John Elway what it was like trying to get a Super
Bowl for Denver….
“McNabb would have been right 20 years ago. But when Doug
Williams won his Super Bowl with Joe Gibbs, the NFL began to
embrace the possibilities for the black quarterback.”
–As my Mets collapse, a New York sportswriter had the
comment, “No team has been up seven games with 17 to play
and failed to win the division or league.” So I had to check back
to the 1964 Phillies’ collapse and that was 6 ½ games with 12 to
go. Philadelphia then lost ten in a row and the pennant.
I told fellow fan Johnny Mac to shoot me if the Mets blow it, but
I had to break it to him that Trader George was still in line to get
my Ed Kranepool tumbler.
–A lot of fans are upset these days. Ken S. is threatening to
move to Colorado after watching Nebraska’s performance
Saturday night against USC. Why Colorado? “At least then I
would have an excuse for backing a bad team.” Good point.
–And Notre Dame fans are obviously not a happy lot these days,
plus what does it say when the fellow who lost his starting job at
quarterback after the first game three weeks ago transferred
already…to Northern Illinois. From a wire service report:
“Demetrius Jones surprised Notre Dame coaches by failing to
show up Friday for the team bus trip to Michigan. He said he
was stung by coach Charlie Weis’ comments that freshman
Jimmy Clausen had been the team’s top quarterback but was not
named the opening game starter because he was recovering from
surgery to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow.”
Jones told the South Bend Tribune, “that’s not what I was led to
believe going into the summer. I thought I was getting a chance
because Coach Weis believed in me.”
Well, this kind of stuff hurts the Fighting Irish’s recruiting efforts
even further and we can already project, right here, that next
season Notre Dame will have its second straight 2-10 season;
following the 2-10 for this year that it will be shown Mark R. so
presciently projected over the summer.
–Nice job Texas Longhorns. With the arrest of freshman
running back James Henry, who is accused of beating up a
victim of a July home invasion that allegedly involved two other
players, Henry became the sixth Longhorns player to be arrested
since June. Coach Mack Brown insisted Texas is not riddled
with problems.
–Shu passed along a piece relating back to Appalachian State’s
upset of Michigan and the biggest shocker prior to this contest;
going all the way back to Nov. 27, 1926, and Notre Dame’s 19-0
loss to little Carnegie Tech (that would later become tiny
Carnegie Mellon).
The Notre Dame coach back in ‘26 was none other than Knute
Rockne. According to Alan Robinson of the AP, the team was a
5-to-1 favorite as Tech dressed just 30 players and was coached
part-time by a Chicago-based judge, Walter Steffen.
“Blame it on Rockne for making one of the greatest coaching
blunders in history. Notre Dame had beaten Tech so
convincingly the previous four seasons – by a combined score of
111-19 – Rockne chose to watch the Army-Navy game played
before a crowd of 100,000 in Chicago. Historians have long
spun a tale that Rockne was scouting Navy for the following
season, but that appears to cover up his true motives.
“In his book ‘Shake Down The Thunder: The Creation of Notre
Dame Football,’ author Murray A. Sperber writes Rockne was
convinced by Christy Walsh, “the first nationally recognized
sports agent,” to blow off the Tech game and watch Army-Navy
instead. Stanford’s Pop Warner and Yale’s Tad Jones also went
along and the deal was they would write some stories for the
papers and pick an All-America football team, too.
So, Rockne blew the Tech game off. ND was 8-0 and had
allowed only one touchdown all season, while Tech was 6-2,
having defeated Pitt but with losses to Washington & Jefferson
and New York University.
Rockne put assistant “Hunk” Anderson in charge and gave him a
game plan. “The only problem: it didn’t consider Notre Dame
might trail or be pressured and Anderson stubbornly stuck with it
long after the Irish fell behind.” [Alan Robinson]
Tech Coach Steffen told his players, “Men, Knute Rockne thinks
you’re so poor as football players that he’s starting his second
string against you and he’s so sure he’ll win, he’s not even here.
He’s in Chicago watching Army and Navy play some real
football.”
Carnegie Tech football took off after the upset and they played
major college ball for a number of years, winning the Lambert
Trophy for best team in the East. And Tech beat Notre Dame
three more times; in 1928, 1933, and 1937. Alas, Tech quit big-
time football during World War II.
By the way, Rockne and Notre Dame beat Southern Cal a week
later, 13-12, in a game he called “the greatest I ever saw,” but the
Tech loss cost him the national championship.
And now you know……………..the rest of the story.
–SHARK!!!!!! From the Sydney Morning Herald:
“An Australian man has suffered ‘rugged’ bite wounds in a shark
attack while spearfishing in the Solomon Islands. Corey Howell,
who has lived in the Solomons for seven years (that’s crazy), was
diving for fish near Gizo in Western Province on Monday when a
shark took three bites at him, injuring his left thigh.
“The shark was attracted by the fish he caught, the Solomon Star
newspaper reported today.”
Well, for the first time in my life, I checked out the Solomon Star
itself and learned this further detail.
“He was badly injured….Mr. Howell was believed to be diving
without any protective gear.”
What an idiot! Whenever I go spearfishing in the Solomons, I
always wear official Lord of the Rings chainmail.
As for Howell, he was airlifted to an island with a real hospital
and is still undergoing surgery, two days later, as we write.
–Bob S., newly promoted Director of East Coast Gator Attacks
for Bar Chat, as well as being West Coast Manager for Shark-
Related Fatalities, first passed along the story of the South
Carolina snorkeler who had his arm bitten off by an alligator.
From the Charlotte Observer and the AP:
“Bill Hedden, of Summerville (S.C.), was bitten by an 11-foot,
10-inch alligator on Sunday afternoon in Lake Moultrie.”
[I didn’t know there were gators in Lake Moultrie!]
Hedden had the arm taken off, but doctors were able to reattach
it. The surgeons said they “are in good spirits.” Well I should
hope so! They weren’t the ones who just lost an arm, after all.
Hell, I’d be in good spirits, too. In fact, right now I’m in
generally good spirits, seeing as my stocks are having a pretty
good day.
Back to Hedden, what happened? He was snorkeling when this
550-pound gator simply tore his arm from his shoulder.
“Hedden stumbled into a party of picnickers with his arm
missing and blood gushing [oops….forgot to warn you about this
part of the story…] from his wound. Five nurses were among
those at the gathering and put ice on the wound and kept him
awake until paramedics could arrive.
“His arm was retrieved from the alligator’s belly after wildlife
officers shot the animal. The limb was then rushed to the
hospital in an ice cooler with a police escort.” [I hope they
washed it off before reattaching it…infection prevention, you
understand.]
This really is incredible, sports fans. Think about how many
things had to go right for him to survive, for starters. Hedden,
that is…not the gator. But I’m thinking the poor guy has a few
nightmares the rest of his life…let alone the picnickers.
By the way, the AP story concludes “There have been no
confirmed deaths in South Carolina involving an alligator
attack.” I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Start with the missing
persons list.
–And this just in… “Bats took over a university dormitory,
forcing more than 200 students into hotels and worrying health
officials, who now fear students could have been exposed to
rabies.
“Videos posted on the Internet show students swinging a broom
and a tennis racket as several bats fly about in a dormitory
hallway at Texas Southern University. One student, 19-year-old
Jason Smith, said he killed dozens of bats but didn’t know of
anyone who was bitten.” [AP]
As Johnny Mac noted, bats are nature’s Luftwaffe; strafing the
enemy before invasion.
–The above reminds me of a story my parents told me the other
day. A woman they met in a doctor’s waiting room said she was
up in the Adirondacks, boating with her husband, and had a
blanket over her legs. She felt something bite her…pulled off
the blanket…and a bat flew out! The poor woman is now going
through the series of rabies shots.
–Goodness gracious… “Police are investigating the death of a
man who collapsed after being headbutted by an armless man in
a fight over a woman. Snellville (Ga.) Police Chief Roy
Whitehead said the two men, Charles Keith Teer and William
Russell Redfren, scuffled Monday afternoon in the driveway of a
suburban Atlanta home.”
“Witnesses told authorities that Redfren, who has no arms,
kicked Teer, and Teer struck Redfren, Whitehead said. After
bystanders separated them, Redfren ‘came back and headbutted
[Teer] one time,’ Whitehead said.
“Teer complained of being dizzy, collapsed, and died, Whitehead
said.”
Police are awaiting the autopsy results before deciding whether
Redfren should be charged. Jeff B. and I were discussing this
situation and you’ve got to wonder whether the arms were taken
off by a gator.
–Gregg Easterbrook of ESPN.com makes a good point regarding
the whole Bill Belichick cheating episode.
“The situation with the National Football League is a lot worse
than people realize, and the only one who seems to grasp this
fully is commissioner Roger Goodell….
“Why is the situation worse than people think? Because the NFL
is on the precipice of blowing its status as the country’s favorite
sport. The whole NFL enterprise is in jeopardy from that single
word: cheating. It’s the most distasteful word in sports. And
now the Patriots have brought the word into the NFL.
“Think the NFL can’t decline? Fifteen years ago, the National
Basketball Association was going up, up, up by every measure
and was widely considered the gold-plated can’t-miss ‘sport of
the next century.’ Since then, NBA popularity and ratings have
plummeted while NBA-based teams have floundered in
international competition. At the moment of its maximum
success, the NBA became overconfident and arrogant in ways
that need not be recounted here. Key point: There was no law of
nature that said the NBA had to stay popular, and it did not.”
Hmmmmmmmm. I know I was a little more interested in the
NBA 15 years ago than I am today…which is basically non-
existent.
–So I’m reading my favorite wildlife reporter Fred Aun’s piece
in the Star-Ledger and he has some interesting stats on bobwhite
quail; as in the quail population, nationwide, dropped 70 percent
from 1980 to 2000. And, Quail Forever says the “bird could
disappear from some areas of the South by 2010.”
The number of quail was once 31 million in America back in
1967 and is now down to an estimated 5.5 million owing to the
destruction of its habitat by ruthless developers building homes
people couldn’t afford, but purchased anyway.
–Tiger Woods has won 28 percent of the PGA Tour events he’s
entered.
–Pitcher Greg Maddux is truly amazing. He now has a record 20
straight seasons with at least 13 wins, and the other night when
he issued a walk, it was the first he had given up in 59 2/3
innings.
–We note the passing of actress and comedian Brett Somers, best
known to most of us for her regular stint on “Match Game,”
perhaps my favorite game show. I also liked the old
“Concentration,” 60s/70s-era.
“Charmaine, you’re up. Two…kadunk….Refrigerator….
kadunk… Nineteen… kadunk…Easy chair… kadunk. Robert,
your turn…….…….Two…kadunk…Refrigerator…. kadunk
….Sixteen… kadunk…Refrigerator… kadunk… [applause]…
Refrigerator goes into your column, Robert. Do you want to
solve the puzzle? [da-da] Continue……”
As for “Match Game” and Ms. Somers, the great thing about that
show, which also featured the likes of Richard Dawson and
Charles Nelson Reilly, was that they were all smashed. Often
they’d tape a week”s worth in a day and the alcohol was flowing.
Top 3 songs for the week of 9/23/67: #1 “The Letter” (The Box
Tops…never liked this one) #2 “Ode To Billie Joe” (Bobbie
Gentry…like this one more today than I did in ’67) #3 “Come
Back When You Grow Up” (Bobby Vee…people still say this to
me)…and…#4 “Reflections” (Diana Ross and The Supremes)
#5 “Never My Love” (The Association) #6 “Apples, Peaches,
Pumpkin Pie” (Jay and The Techniques…has aged well) #7
“(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher” (Jackie
Wilson) #8 “You’re My Everything” (The Temptations) #9 “I
Dig Rock And Roll Music” (Peter, Paul and Mary…not a fan of
this trio) #10 “Funky Broadway” (Wilson Pickett)
*The Dept. of Tourism theme “I Love New York” is 30 years old
today! My, how time flies.
NASCAR Quiz Answer: 12 in the Nextel Cup Chase.
Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson,
Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Martin
Truex Jr. (Jersey Boy), Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin
Harvick
Next Bar Chat, Sat. p.m. Heading overseas for a quick trip and
will be posting something earlier than normal.
