NFL Quiz: Miami…1) Name the two whose first name is ‘Dick’
that hold the team record for interceptions in a game and season.
2) Who holds the career mark for receptions? 3) Who holds the
single season mark with 39 field goals?…New England…4) Who
is the team’s career rushing leader? 5) Who is the career leader
in TD passes? 6) Who holds the single season mark for TDs
with 17? Answers below.
Marion Jones…fraud
IAAF president Lamine Diack, the head of track and field’s
governing body, best summed it up following Jones’ pathetic
partial confession on Friday.
“If she had trusted to her own natural gifts and allied them to self
sacrifice and hard work I sincerely believe that she could have
been an honest champion at the Sydney Games. Now, instead,
Marion Jones will be remembered as one of the biggest frauds in
sporting history.
“A lot of people believed in the achievements of Marion Jones
and this confession leaves a bitter taste, and tarnishes the image
of a sport in which a majority of athletes are honest and clean.”
George Vecsey / New York Times
“Eyes flashing, voice rising, Marion Jones tried to intimidate
people that May afternoon in 2004.
“She did everything but wag her finger at a television camera,
the way Rafael Palmeiro would do a year later in front of
Congress, the way cheesy politicians do when denying one
indiscretion or another.
“ ‘I can tell you this,’ Jones told reporters at a pre-Olympic
publicity appearance in New York. ‘That if I make the Olympic
team, which I plan to do in Sacramento, and I am held from the
Olympic Games because of something that somebody thought,
you can pretty much expect that there will be lawsuits.’
“Guilty, I thought, right then and there. She’s trying to impress
us with a show of anger. Of course, it’s easy to think athletes are
guilty of juicing themselves, since the evidence is that many of
them are.
“This was before Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis tested
positive, before that pathetic appearance by Mark McGwire and
Palmeiro in front of Congress, but I was already pretty immune
to athletes who bluster.
“Sorry, but I don’t feel any more sorry for Jones, who has two
children and another husband and is reported to be broke, than I
do for Landis, who recently became the first winner of the Tour
de France to lose his title because of a positive test….
“This may seem vindictive on my part, but when do we start
getting angry about athletes who scam for dollars? They are
scamming their colleagues, and they are scamming you and me.
“The best thing Jones can do now is tell the truth about her
former coach Trevor Graham, whose trial comes later this year.
She may add a few details to what is known about the infamous
Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in California, which in turn
may bring about a perjury indictment for Barry Bonds,
BALCO’s most famous customer….
“If prosecutors can ultimately make a case against Bonds, why
shouldn’t he go to jail the way Jones is going to?”
And so once again it’s about Bonds. According to the New York
Daily News, “Sources familiar with the investigation into perjury
and tax evasion charges against the all-time home run leader told
(the paper) that the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Francisco
remains determined to indict Bonds by the time the grand jury
expires in January.”
College Football Review
Wow, I thought this would be the greatest season ever because
we’d have something like 10 undefeated teams entering the final
few weeks of the season and it would make for terrific BCS
controversy.
But now it’s turning into the greatest season ever because of the
upsets. Appalachian State over Michigan may be the all-time
one, but for cryin’ out loud, Stanford, a 41-point underdog at
game time, defeating #2 USC 24-23?! C’mon! Stanford had
been outscored 141-51 in its previous Pac-10 conference games!
And I stayed up past my bedtime Saturday (I’m getting old, you
understand) because you couldn’t have asked for two better
simultaneous endings than #1 LSU vs. #9 Florida and #20
Cincinnati vs. #21 Rutgers. Not just the results, but great story
lines…simply college football at its best.
So this past week saw another three top tens go down, including
Thursday when #11 South Carolina whipped undefeated #8
Kentucky. Then you had USC and #5 Wisconsin, the latter
which lost to upstart Illinois.
Some other games of note…Friday, Utah beat one of the year’s
great mysteries, Louisville, 44-35; Temple won its first in
defeating 1-5 Northern Illinois, 16-15; Wake Forest held on to
defeat a rapidly improving Duke team, 41-36 [take Duke anytime
they get double digits in points…that’s my deal going forward];
and #17 Missouri crushed #25 Nebraska, 41-6.
But then there is UCLA. What a bunch of losers. They spoiled
it for the rest of us in losing to Notre Dame, 20-6. We wanted
the Fighting Irish to start off 0-8!
How did your editor do? Well I split and am now 5-3 on the
year, thus holding onto my winnings of over $129,000.
Indiana, giving 13 ½ to Minnesota…Win, 40-20
Miami, giving 7 to North Carolina…Loss, 27-33
Penn State, giving 8 ½ to Iowa…Win, 27-7
Virginia, giving 10 to Middle Tennessee State…Loss, 23-21
Those two losses were an embarrassment, especially the UVA
game in terms of the ACC.
But back to Cincinnati, who first told you QB Ben Mauk was the
best single story in college football this year? I did. Hell, this
guy never played like this at Wake Forest, that’s for sure.
And I said Boston College could run the table after week one…
and they will.
The new AP Top Ten
1. LSU…6-0
2. California…5-0
3. Ohio State…6-0
4. Boston College…6-0
5. South Florida…5-0
6. Oklahoma…5-1
7. South Carolina…5-1
8. West Virginia…5-1
9. Oregon…4-1
10. USC…4-1
11. Missouri…5-0
14. Arizona State…6-0
15. Cincinnati…6-0
16. Hawaii…6-0
20. Kansas…5-0
[UConn is the only other undefeated team.]
The biggest game this coming week is Missouri at Oklahoma,
with LSU at Kentucky having some potential to surprise. But
then who knew App. State-Michigan, or USC-Stanford would be
big games?
Lastly, Danny Woodhead of Chadron State in Nebraska broke
the NCAA all-divisions career rushing record by running for 208
yards against Western New Mexico. Woodhead now has 7,441
yards, breaking R.J. Bowers’ record of 7,353 at Grove City (Pa.)
College. I wrote of Woodhead 11/7/06 after having passed
through Chadron last fall.
Stuff
–Yeah, yeah….A-Rod got two hits on Sunday, but the fact is
he’s still just 7-for-56 over his last 16 playoff games and hasn’t
driven in a run in the last 15. Nice performance by Phil Hughes,
though.
–Arizona swept the Cubbies and Colorado did the same to the
Phillies. Incredibly, Colorado has now won 17 of its last
18…and every single one of ‘em was critically important. This
has to be one of the top five or ten streaks in baseball history
when looked at this way. And Boston whipped the Angels, who
will win the battle for A-Rod this winter.
–I didn’t see any of Cleveland all season, having wasted my
freakin’ time watching every Mets game, the losers, but how can
you not love the pitching duo of C.C. Sabathia (27) and Fausto
Carmona (23). This is as exciting a pair as Koufax/Drysdale if
the two stay healthy. [I’m not saying Sabathia is a Koufax, but
taken together they could be as good as that all-time combo.]
–Research shows that the Incas “fattened up” children before
sacrificing them to the gods. Ugly people, them Incas, and a
reason to be wary if you see a family move into your
neighborhood.
–Neely Tucker of the Washington Post had a story on O.J.
Simpson and how the value of his memorabilia has crashed over
the past few years. For starters, all reputable dealers want
nothing to do with him.
One good example is how you can buy authentic team helmets
on the NFL’s Web site for $269, but a Simpson-signed
throwback Buffalo Bills helmet sold last week for $122.50 on
eBay, or less than half an ‘unsigned’ helmet would cost.
Now compare Simpson’s situation to that of Alex Rodriguez. An
authentic New York Yankees jersey sets you back $174 on the
league’s Web site. But if A-Rod signs it and adds “Bronx
Bombers” the jersey is then worth $922 at Pro Sports
Memorabilia, a popular online outlet. His signature on a $30
baseball runs you $425. A Peyton Manning signed jersey costs
$530. A Manning-signed football is $549 at Steiner Sports.
–Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly bought Joey (Jaws) Chestnut,
the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating champion, a ticket for the
Los Angeles Dodgers’ “All-You-Can-Eat Pavilion” to see what
kind of damage he could do for $35.
“Chestnut is the most devastating eating machine in history. He
eats as if he’s on his way to the electric chair.”
The problem was when the two went to the game, Chestnut
wasn’t that hungry since just the day before he had eaten 19
pounds of grits in a Louisiana contest. And unfortunately
someone recognized Chestnut when they got to the pavilion, told
superiors, and when Joey sidled up to the counter, “a lady shoved
20, 10-inch dogs forward and said, ‘The pavilion record is 20.’”
They didn’t go down quite that easily, though he finally did the
record 21st. “My jaws are tired,” moaned Chestnut. “And I’m
feeling the frickin’ grits.” But then Joey rallied and ended up
scarfing down 25.
As Reilly notes, “The man ate 21 feet of wiener. At $4.75 a dog,
plus five bottles of water and a Coke, I figure it all would’ve cost
$151 elsewhere in the stadium – more than a $100 profit.”
–SI predicts the San Jose Sharks will defeat the New York
Rangers for the Stanley Cup this season. I vow to watch at least
a full period of Rangers action before the playoffs begin this
time.
–A Faberge egg belonging to the Rothschild banking family
since 1902 could fetch as much as $18 million at an upcoming
auction. The previous record is $9.6 million for a Faberge egg in
2002.
Craftsman Peter Carl Faberge created more than 50 of them for
Russia’s imperial family, though not all survived. A few were
accidentally cracked for an omelet no doubt.
–Ripped from the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald:
“A woman has been rushed to hospital after being bitten by a
red-bellied black snake in her car in inner-city Sydney.”
Evidently, the snake somehow got into the 60-year-old’s car
when she was on a trip to the Blue Mountains. She’s in serious
condition at last word.
–Humans have been dropping steadily on the Bar Chat All-
Species List for some time now, but wildebeest prevent us from
scraping the bottom.
Wildebeests have an annual migration across Africa and in the
past few weeks, it would seem they picked the wrong point to
cross the Mara River in Kenya; the river having become swollen
with rains.
According to Rob Crilly of the London Times, “More than
10,000 wildebeest are estimated to have died as day after day
they poured into the water oblivious to the grotesque pile-up
ahead. Brian Heath, the head of the Mara Conservancy, which
runs a third of the reserve there, said: ‘I have lived in the Mara
for the past six years and this is by far the worst I have ever
seen.’”
Heath said the animals tried to cross the river en masse as heavy
rainstorms approached, so at least, it would appear, they were
reading their Dopler weather radar.
“The first few were managing OK but then they moved
downstream and started struggling to get out, clambering over
each other. It was just a bad choice of a crossing point.”
Thousands of tourists every year watch the awesome wildebeest
migration. Many wildebeest die each year, but nowhere near this
staggering number. One observer, who writes a blog for the
charity WildlifeDirect, said “There was some consideration put
into blocking off the lethal crossing point when the number of
fatalities began to rage out of control, with no end in sight. But,
as heartbreaking as it is to witness such mass suicide resulting
from sheer animal stupidity, it’s nature. And who are we as
humans to interfere with that?”
The beneficiaries are the crocodiles and vultures that are now
feasting on the thousands of bloated carcasses.
–As reported in the journal Science, researchers have
successfully fitted “crow-cams” on the birds’ tails to observe just
how smart they are and they’ve discovered that crows not only
whittle twigs and leaves into bug-grabbing implements, such as
for catching grubs in trees, but crows have also been observed
targeting their tools on the ground, something not seen before.
Just another reason why crows remain well ahead of humans on
the all-species list at #8. We’re down to #79.
–And this distressing tale from the AP:
“Bernardo, a male bear blamed for killing chickens, has been
found dead in the mountains of Abruzzo, central Italy, with a
female bear and a cub. The forestry service believes that the
Marsican bears, which were among about 50 remaining in the
wild, were poisoned.”
Freakin’ Italian farmers. I hope the remaining 47 bears kick
some serious butt.
–Goodness gracious. I didn’t realize 700 beavers were trapped
and killed in my state of New Jersey last season. Beavers, of
course, are responsible for the bulging inventory numbers we’re
seeing on the housing front, including in pending home sales, but
this is no way to address the problem. People go to beavers
because they want the quality of a beaver-built home, complete
with an esthetically pleasing pond out back.
–Tom Carney retired after 30 years of tending bar at the famous
New York eatery Elaine’s. Steve Dunleavy of the New York
Post, who frequents the spot, interviewed Carney and he said
Mick Jagger was a miserable tipper. “Brilliant, but a very cheap
man.”
Then there was Sinatra. “Frank Sinatra would look at me, look
across at Elaine and say, ‘You are taking care of my lady, right?’
and then he would give me a hundred-dollar tip,’ said Tom.”
–Jeff B. passed along a tale from Sydney, where customs
officials discovered about 11 ounces of ecstasy tablets hidden
inside a Mr. Potato Head sent to Australia from Ireland.
Just when you thought you knew someone, this happens.
–This is sad. Miami Dolphins quarterback Trent Green suffered
another concussion against Houston. Green was out half of last
season due to one and has had numerous other concussions
during his long career. He’s finished….at least one hopes.
[Meanwhile, Houston defensive tackle Travis Johnson, who hit
Green in the head with his knee on the play, then stood over
Green, taunting him.]
–My Jets blow.
–Who scored the winning touchdown for the Bears vs. Green
Bay? Why if it wasn’t Wake Forest’s Desmond Clark.
–We could really all save a lot of time if the NFL would just
move up the AFC Championship game to next Sunday. I’ll go
with Indianapolis to defeat New England, 24-17.
–Justin Leonard won his 11th PGA Tour title in taking the Texas
Open. Not a bad career.
–This is awful…a 35-year-old man died during the running of
Sunday’s Chicago Marathon as race organizers clearly weren’t
prepared for the 88-degree heat and smothering humidity. At
least 49 runners were taken to the hospital because of heat-
related ailments before the race was shut down about midway
through. Shortages of water were reported along the route. The
temperature bested the previous record high of 84 for the race.
–Somehow five intruders broke into Paris’ famous Musee
d’Orsay early Sunday and among other drunken acts, punched a
hole in Monet’s famous “The Argenteuil Bridge” work from
1874. It can be restored. The dirtballs got away but deserve the
guillotine when caught.
–Re: “For Worse….,” it pains me to admit Jeff B. and I were
wrong in guessing Grandpa Jim was dead. Jeff put his sterling
reputation on the line and made an incorrect diagnosis, which I
then went along with. The International Web Site Association
Accuracy Council could rule by week’s end on whether to
suspend both of us. The odds are not in our favor as Iran and
Sudan are among the AC board members.
Top 3 songs for the week 10/9/71: #1 “Maggie May” (Rod
Stewart) #2 “Go Away Little Girl” (Donny Osmond) #3
“Superstar” (Carpenters)…and…#4 “The Night They Drove Old
Dixie Down” (Joan Baez…pain in the neck) #5 “Yo-Yo” (The
Osmonds) #6 “Do You Know What I Mean” (Lee Michaels) #7
“Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” (Paul & Linda McCartney) #8
“Ain’t No Sunshine” (Bill Withers) #9 “Stevie Wonder” (If You
Really Love Me) #10 “Sweet City Woman” (Stampeders)
NFL Quiz Answers: 1) Dick Anderson had four INTs in a game
(1973); Dick Westmoreland stole ten passes in 1967. 2) Mark
Clayton, 1983-92, holds the career mark for receptions with 550.
If you said Mark Duper, 1982-92, he holds the mark for yardage
with 8,869. 3) Olindo Mare had 39 field goals in 1999. He also
had a team record six in one game that same season and is the
career FG leader with 245. 4) Sam Cunningham is New
England’s career rushing leader with 5,453 yards (1973-79,
1981-82). 5) Steve Grogan, 1975-1990, is the career leader in
TD passes with 182. [Tom Brady is up to 163 after Sunday’s
play.] 6) Curtis Martin scored 17 for the Pats in 1996.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
