NCAA Football Quiz: 1) Who was Cal’s leading rusher, 1973-
75, with over 3,000 yards? [you’ll recognize the name] 2) Who
holds the Cal single game receiving record with 289 yards?
[1976…went on to star in the NFL.] 3) What year did Clemson
win the national title? 4) Who was their quarterback that year?
5) Who is Colorado’s career rushing leader? 6) What year did
Colorado share the national title? Answers below.
Colorado-Boston
I’ve been writing Colorado’s run was the greatest of all time and
this is indeed the case; the Rockies being the first to win 19 of 20
entering the World Series…let alone it’s now 21 of 22.
But, as noted by the Times’ David Leonhardt and Stats, LLC, of
the 18 teams that went 16-4 or better heading into the Series,
only 8 of them won it. For example, the two to go 18-2, the 1935
Cubs and 1960 Yankees, lost in six and seven games,
respectively.
Joe Torre
And now…the last word on a topic that captivated New York the
past few weeks.
While Torre guided the Yankees to 12 post-season appearances
in his 12 years, the fact is after winning four World Series in the
first five, he won zero the last seven and when management is
spending $200 million on payroll, it can reasonably expect more.
That said, I know there are those out there who say the $5
million offer made to Torre, plus incentives for up to another $3
million, should have been enough but after he was making $7.5
million the deal, as structured, was an insult and I don’t blame
Torre for walking away.
Some other opinions. Murray Chass / New York Times.
“It’s never about the money. That’s what players say all the time
when they sign free-agent contracts for more money than anyone
else offered them. Joe Torre, who is now a free-agent manager,
said yesterday that it wasn’t about the money either. He was
talking about his rejection of the Yankees’ offer to retain him as
their manager.
“ ‘It’s not totally money,’ Torre said at his hourlong news
conference in Rye Brook, N.Y. ‘It’s a commitment.
Commitment is a two-way street. When I jump into it, I jump
into it.’
“ ‘It’s not the money that’s going to be the determining factor,’
he added. ‘It’s going to be the commitment and trust – you can’t
have one without the other – to manage a ball club.’
“But listening to Torre’s answers to the many questions he was
asked by an always adoring press corps, it was possible to
perceive that money was at least a part of the lack of
commitment Torre felt the Yankees demonstrated.
“ ‘Money is part of it,’ he said at another point. ‘If your salary is
such and it’s reduced, yeah, $5 million is a lot of money; I’m not
going to sneeze at that. I’m not going to make that this year. So
it’s nothing I take for granted. That fact that someone is
reducing your salary is telling me they’re not satisfied with what
you’re doing.’
“In the world of managers’ salaries, $5 million is certainly a lot
of money. Now that Torre has completed the $7.5 million third
year of his contract, no manager has that lavish a salary. In the
2008 season, Lou Piniella of the Cubs will be the highest-paid
manager, earning $3.5 million in the middle of a three-year, $10
million contract. Bobby Cox of the Braves has a $3 million
salary and a $500,000 signing bonus, Jim Leyland of the Tigers
will be at $2.5 million and Willie Randolph of the Mets and
Bruce Bochy of the Giants will each earn $2 million.”
Torre made $35.7 million the past six years. Another side, from
Joel Sherman / New York Post.
“Joe Torre removed Johnny Damon from center field. Mike
Mussina from the rotation and Jason Giambi from the every day
lineup.
“Torre did all of that last season and not only did not lose his
team, he did not lose any of the three high-paid, large-ego
players. In fact, Damon, Mussina and Giambi remained
ferociously loyal to Torre despite diminished roles.
“There is a theory – a really stupid one, by the way – that anyone
could manage the Yankees to at least the playoffs because of the
large payroll. Well, do you think anyone could have transitioned
Damon, Mussina and Giambi as Torre did and not fractured the
clubhouse ecosystem?
“The Dodgers this year tried to infuse youth onto their roster and
the team collapsed, as veterans Jeff Kent and Luis Gonzalez
loudly resisted. Did you like the Mets’ support network last year
when Lastings Milledge went astray and was derided by
veterans, or this year when Jose Reyes sulked the final two
months of the season away amid a fraying clubhouse. The Mets
and Dodgers, by the way, had the NL’s two largest payrolls and
failed to make the playoffs.
“The Yankees were paying all that money to Torre not just to
manage nine innings. In fact, managing the nine innings paled in
comparison to counseling and cajoling the highest-paid roster, in
the largest-stress atmosphere, for the most-demanding
ownership.”
Mike Lupica / New York Daily News
“It doesn’t mean (with his leaving that Torre) was a perfect
manager. There aren’t any of those. It doesn’t mean that
because of what Torre did those first five years in town that
nobody was ever allowed to think about getting rid of him when
the Yankees started losing in the first round. Even now, it is as if
somebody else managed the team this season until they were 14
½ behind the Red Sox and then Torre came back. Then left again
right before the Indians series.
“But the Steinbrenners would have been better off just firing him
instead of doing it this way, asking him to take that pay cut, even
with the incentives, in the Year of the Rocket. Think about it.
One of the reasons Torre goes is because of a sum of money that
works out to two Roger Clemens starts.”
Selena Roberts / New York Times
“Where there was once one Boss, there are now pinstriped
nesting dolls of incompetence.
“Where there were once snap decisions by George, there is now
indecision by Yankee consensus.
“To be sure, Hal and Hank Steinbrenner aren’t ready to slip into
their father’s blue blazer, to sit in the general’s saddle, to inherit
the light saber from Darth Vader….
“The Yankees wanted to cheapen Torre’s legacy, shortchange his
grace and mark down his integrity by about 30 percent. And
then Torre stunned them yesterday by taking a pass on their pay-
as-you-go offer.
“ ‘We thought we needed to go with a performance-based
model,’ said [Randy] Levine, the Yankees’ team president. ‘It’s
important to motivate people based on performance.’
“Hadn’t Torre already earned enough scout badges? Did he
really need to manage while having his every contract goal
greeted with a ka-ching?”
Andrea Peyser / New York Post
“Quit whining about Joe Torre, already. And start worrying
about the Yankees.
“The man called the greatest manager in baseball history has
choked. Admit it. He’s lost his fire, along with his manhood,
and replaced it with ego.
“Or maybe he’s just hung out with Alex Rodriguez for too long.
In recent years, Torre has demonstrated he does not have the
cojones to rein in his overpriced and annoying talent. Rodriguez,
to name just one erratic diva, refused to stay in his team’s hotel
when on the road, while he engaged in heated conversation with
a woman not his wife.
“Torre should have kicked a little butt. Instead, he tried to play
father figure to a head case like Alex, who was emotionally
hobbled by his father’s abandonment.
“Joe, of course, was emotionally crippled by his father’s abuse.
And what about Derek Jeter? Surely, Derek has needs that are
not being met.
“This kind of bonding may work in a men-only sweat lodge, but
it just doesn’t fly in the clubhouse, where – please don’t destroy
my fantasies! – testosterone was perfected.
“So quit crying. Joe has not walked away from a monstrous pay
cut, as some have said. Or any pay cut.
“Torre skipped out on the Yankees after being offered a chance
to ‘raise’ his already crazy salary by $500,000 over what he
earned last year. To put this in perspective, half a mil was the
total payday last year for the three lowest-paid managers in
baseball….
“Don’t cry for Joe Torre. He was a great manager and a good
guy. But he’s become too familiar, too touchy-feely.
“It’s time for someone younger and hungrier. A man not
threatened by performance-based bonuses, hobbled by ego, or his
players’ psycho-sexual bruises. Or maybe a man who hasn’t lost
the nerve to play New York.”
And so there you have it. Such is the New York media bubble. I
still say management couldn’t have handled the situation worse.
Nothing wrong with firing Torre right after the season in order to
go in a different direction. But Joe was jerked around and now
the Yankees will watch A-Rod opt out of the remaining three
years of his contract, one that would have paid him $24 million
per. Others will undoubtedly follow.
Of course I’m really feigning concern over this whole matter.
I’m a Mets fan, after all, faced with my own traumatic issues.
Living in these parts, though, is constant fun and right after the
conclusion of the World Series, when A-Rod and the others
begin to make their moves, it’s going to be very entertaining.
College Football
Yet another spectacular Saturday. I didn’t stay up for the end of
LSU-Auburn but caught the highlights as #4 LSU scored on the
final play of the game, a 22-yard pass play, to defeat #17
Auburn. And in a key game with BCS implications,
unbelievably, #19 Virginia defeated Maryland on a last second
play, 18-17. I must say I also enjoyed the Kansas – Colorado
contest, with Kansas remaining undefeated in winning 19-14.
On Thursday, #2 South Florida saw its bubble burst by Rutgers,
30-27. Saturday, #6 South Carolina lost to Vanderbilt, 17-6,
while #12 California lost to UCLA, for crying out loud, 30-21.
[UCLA having supplied Notre Dame with its only win on the
season.]
AP Top Ten
1. Ohio State…8-0
2. Boston College…7-0…Virginia Tech, Thursday
3. LSU…7-1
4. Oklahoma…7-1
5. Oregon…6-1…USC, Saturday
6. West Virginia…6-1
7. Arizona State…7-0
8. Virginia Tech…6-1
t-9. Florida…5-2
t-9. USC…6-1
12. Kansas…7-0
16. Hawaii…7-0
BCS
1. Ohio State, .9759
2. Boston College, .9501
3. LSU, .9114
4. Arizona State, .7629
5. Oregon, .7623
6. Oklahoma, .7551
7. West Virginia, .7076
Tidbits:
What a nightmare…I was 1-3 on the week with my picks and fell
to 8-8, losing the $129,000+ I had won on week one of my
selections.
I had Louisville, giving 3 to UConn, and lost 17-21.
I had Texas Tech and 3 ½ vs. Mizzou, and lost 10-41.
I had Maryland, giving 4 ½ to Virginia, and lost 17-18.
But thank god for Troy, giving 18 ½ to North Texas, a win, 45-7.
[I am protesting the UConn game, however, over the world’s
worst call; the illegal fair catch that officials let go for a
touchdown. The International Web Site Association / Football
Gambling Division, should decide by Thursday. In the
meantime all funds are held in escrow.]
Temple won its third straight! What a smart move switching to
the MAC conference.
So much for Ben Mauk and Cincinnati. While Mauk had a good
game, the Bearcats lost their second straight in falling to 3-4 Pitt.
Hey, my Wake Forest Demon Deacons have a five-game
winning streak! Huge, huge game coming up against North
Carolina. We win that one and we’re still very much in the
conference title game chase.
[I was listening to the very end on the radio and was pleased that
the Wake Forest players stayed out on the field after defeating
Navy in Annapolis, while Navy went through its usual post-game
ceremonies. A very classy move by Jim Grobe and his team.]
Nebraska is 4-4 after losing to Texas A&M. The citizens of this
great state are absolutely going nuts….as in literally going nuts.
But then you have the fans of Minnesota, with their only
Division I school having lost to I-AA North Dakota State, 27-21,
thanks to a school-record 263 yards rushing by Tyler Roehl.
Hell, North Dakota State outgained Minnesota 585 to 307 yards!
North Dakota State! Then again, the team, now 7-0, could go on
to win the I-AA crown.
Sports Illustrated had a story on Danny Woodhead of Division II
Chadron State (Neb.), who recently set the mark for career
rushing, all divisions. What I didn’t realize is that Woodhead,
just 5’7” but 200 lbs., runs a 4.43 forty. NFL scouts say there is
no reason why he couldn’t play at the next level. I also didn’t
realize former NFL receiver Don Beebe starred at Chadron State.
Stuff
–New England’s Tom Brady has an incredible 27 TD passes in
his first seven games. The record is 49 by Peyton Manning in
2004.
–Tennessee’s Rob Bironas set the NFL record for 8 field goals in
a game. Four others had seven, the first being Jim Bakken of St.
Louis back in 1967, one of my first real football memories.
–Every Saturday and Sunday morning, I exchange pleasantries
with the fellow at my newsstand and we discuss the usual stuff;
the weather, whether or not either had stayed up late the night
before, and what sporting events we were watching that day.
We’re both Jets fans and the talk this year goes like this.
“Don’t have to watch the Jets this week. They suck.”
“Really, really suck.”
The Jets are now 1-6, having been outscored 73-35 in the fourth
quarter thus far.
–Wake Forest men’s soccer, #1 in the nation and 11-0-2 [4-0-1
in the tough ACC], has outscored its last four opponents 20-0
after back-to-back ties had dropped the team to #2. That’s 20-0
….in four games.
–With four races to go for the Nextel Cup, Jeff Gordon has a 53-
point lead over teammate Jimmie Johnson, probably the only one
who can catch him.
–Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen won the Formula One title in the
tightest race for the championship in 21 years, rallying from third
place in the last event in Brazil. He ended up just one point
ahead of both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
–Nice to see Mike Weir win the PGA Tour event in Scottsdale,
Ariz., this week…his first in 3 ½ years and 8th overall.
–Just the other day I wrote of how I hoped India’s remaining
tigers would take out Calcutta. Well, the big animal offensive
we have written so extensively of the past few years has clearly
begun as Delhi’s deputy mayor died from a fall while attempting
to escape a gang of Rhesus macaques.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, SS Bajwa, 52, “was
reading a newspaper on his terrace on Friday when he was
attacked by the monkeys…Bajwa fell from the terrace while
trying to escape his attackers.” He died of head injuries.
“The man-monkey conflict has been a longstanding problem in
the Indian capital, with the civic authorities failing to control the
simians.”
This means war, but the monkeys are treated as descendants of
the Hindu monkey god Hanuman and are often fed by devotees.
Indians may have to cut a deal with the devil…and employ the
flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz to control the macaques,
in exchange for dropping longstanding charges against them.
–In Manhattan, there is a large apartment/condo complex called
Stuyvesant Town and managers there have just ordered 720,000
ladybugs to devour leaf-sucking aphids and mites. By doing so,
the complex’s owner, Tishman Speyer, can avoid using chemical
insecticides.
So where do they come from? There is an outfit in Bozeman,
Mt, that obtains them from collectors in the foothills of the Sierra
Nevada mountains, then freezes them in large refrigerators at 35
degrees where they go dormant, “using up their fat stores without
eating anything, and staying alive for about five months,”
according to Eric Vinje, owner of Planet Natural.
Then they are shipped in mesh bags filled with wood shavings,
$16.50 for every 2,000, and while in route they wake up, so by
the time they reach Manhattan, they are ready to eat anything.
Each ladybug then takes care of an area 19X19 inches and eats
up to 50 pests a day, plus insect eggs.
And in case you’re wondering if the apartment owners need to
worry about the ladybugs entering their units, these are not the
kind that do so. [Verena Dobnik / AP]
–A study of grizzly bears in and around Glacier National Park
estimates there are 240 in a 2 million acre area. This is important
in gauging bear population recovery efforts there as the grizzly
was listed as a threatened species in 1975.
But what’s incredible about the research is they came up with the
number by collecting 15,000 bear hairs left behind at barbed wire
“hair corrals” and natural bear rub trees evenly distributed across
the 2 million acres. “Individual bears can then be identified from
their hair because they contain DNA.” [AP / USA Today]
–This sucks…at an Indian wildlife park, 32 rare lions have died
just this year, at least six of which were electrocuted. 8 others
were killed by poachers, five fell into wells, one was hit by a
vehicle and the rest were found dead.
The number of Asiatic lions had actually fallen from 1,000 a
century ago to just 20 in 1913. Then in 1947, after India gained
its independence from Britain, the Gir National Park sanctuary
was created and in 2005, at the time of the last census, there were
350.
–Yuck… “Authorities in northeastern India are offering farmers
cash for every rat they kill because an explosion in the rat
population is threatening to devastate crops and plunge the
region into famine.” Farmers will be paid two rupees “for every
tail brought in to government offices.” [London Times / AP]
The issue is the rare flowering of wild bamboos, “which bloom
for about four years, and then not for another fifty. When the
flowers die, the rats move on in search of other foods.”
Uh oh…I hope the Dept. of Homeland Security is taking note of
this. We need to check the tankers extra carefully when they pull
into our ports. I sense a coming Trojan Horse type operation.
–But did you see the new research involving elephants? No
wonder they have long surpassed humans on the Bar Chat All-
Species List. [I need to update this in the coming weeks.]
Researchers at St. Andrews University have discovered that
elephants can determine whether a human is a friend or foe by
their scent and the color of their clothes. While elephants are
color blind, they react with fear when they see red (viewed as a
drab hue), which is characteristic of that worn by the Masai tribe.
It’s the Masai who hunt elephants with spears as a way of
displaying their manhood. So when you combine the red worn
by young male warriors with the scent, elephants go nuts.
But their “sense of smell is so acute that they can distinguish
rapidly between the scent of a Masai warrior and that of the crop-
growing Kamba tribe, both of which live in Kenya.” [Lewis
Smith / London Times]
There are some who could build the case that elephants are
smarter than George Steinbrenner’s boys.
–From Golf World: “Tiger Woods is so busy that, according to
reports, he missed the recent baptism of his 3-month-old
daughter, Sam Alexis.” Now before you jump all over him, the
ceremony, held in Sweden, conflicted with Tiger’s annual charity
event at the Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim. Then
again, I’ll let you discuss this amongst yourselves.
–Not for nothing but do you remember 18-year-old Rory
McIlroy of Northern Ireland, the kid who made the cut at the
British Open? He turned pro right after and already has two top-
five finishes on the European Tour. Rory would be a big hit
here, I imagine. Great kid.
–Nick Faldo, on the other hand, may be popular these days as an
announcer but he is facing major issues with next year’s Ryder
Cup as he captain’s the European squad. Faldo has resorted to
his old self in criticizing players such as Colin Montgomerie, and
then he inexplicably left Irishman Paul McGinley off the Great
Britain & Ireland team that won the Seve Trophy in Ireland.
What made it so controversial was Faldo had already tabbed
McGinley to be his Ryder Cup vice captain. McGinley then quit.
–The threatened strike by film and TV writers in Hollywood is
all about the digital revolution. Years ago, the writers believe
they were shortchanged when they agreed to a discounted pay
formula for home video sales, only to see the business take off
beyond agreed upon levels and their participation in the profits
drop. But with new technologies progressing at light speed, no
one really understands where the new models will lead in terms
of revenue streams.
–Did you know that illusionist David Copperfield earns $57
million a year? Goodness gracious. But now he’s being probed
by the FBI over an alleged rape that took place in the Bahamas,
as well as an investigation into other sex-related charges.
Copperfield’s Las Vegas warehouse containing 80,000 pieces of
magic memorabilia was raided for evidence the other day.
In July 2006, Copperfield paid $45.5 million for a collection of
four islands in the Bahamas, Musha Cay, where celebrities rent
out homes for $24,750 a day, yet another sign of the apocalypse.
[New York Post]
–According to Samuel Goldsmith of the Post, Michael Vick put
his Atlanta area home on the market for $4.5 million, this after
selling his Smithfield, Va., home for $350,000, less than half
what he paid for it in 2006. Records show he has no other
property…and no one knows where he is living.
–Big goings on in the sports media world as Sports Illustrated
picked up former ESPN giant Dan Patrick, while SI’s Rick Reilly
is leaving for ESPN. Sounds like Reilly wants to be a television
figure, while Patrick will not only write a column for SI, but will
have his new radio program simulcast on SI.com. [Another
example of issues and opportunities in the media / entertainment
industries.]
–Former Green Bay Packer great Max McGee, the first to score
a touchdown in a Super Bowl, was blowing leaves off the roof of
his home on Saturday when he fell. McGee died of head
injuries. His wife was away from the home at the time and had
warned the 75-year-old not to get up on the roof. There’s really
nothing more to say…except I will have more on McGee’s
career next time.
–We note the passing of comedian Joey Bishop, 89, the last
surviving member of the legendary Rat Pack…Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Bishop.
Bishop, born Joseph Abraham Gottlieb in the Bronx on Feb. 3,
1918, dropped out of high school to pursue a career in show
business. Following World War II, he gained a reputation as a
promising young comic and in 1952 was earning $1,000 a week
at the Latin Quarter in Manhattan when he caught the eye of
Frank Sinatra, who asked him to open for him at a popular New
Jersey club. Bishop continued in this role for a while and the
relationship worked wonders.
When JFK asked Sinatra to produce his inaugural ball, Frank
turned to Bishop to be the emcee. As reported by Dennis
McLellan of the Los Angeles Times, Bishop glanced “over at
John and Jacqueline Kennedy that night and said ‘I told you I’d
get you a good seat.’”
Bishop appeared in more than a dozen movies, including the Rat
Packers’ “Ocean’s 11.” It was in 1960, during the filming of this
picture, that Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Lawford and Bishop
performed nightly at the Sands in what was dubbed “the
Summit.” If you’ve never listened to a tape or seen video of this
act, catch it.
Bishop ended up with his own venue, “The Joey Bishop Show,”
that ran from 1961 to 1965, and then in 1967, ABC signed him to
host his own late-night talk show opposite Johnny Carson and
Merv Griffin, with Regis Philbin as his sidekick. But still third
in the ratings in November 1969, ABC said it was canceling the
show at the end of December. Then, famously, as Dennis
McLellan reports:
“A day later, Bishop shocked his Hollywood studio audience
during his opening monologue by saying he and the network had
decided to end the show. After praising his staff, he announced
that he was going home to have dinner with his wife. Then he
walked off the stage, leaving Philbin to preside over the
remainder of that night’s show.”
For his part Philbin had nothing but high praise for Bishop. “He
was a master comedian and a great teacher, and I will never
forget those days or him.”
–Six-time Oscar nominated Deborah Kerr passed away at 86.
Aside from her memorable role in “The King and I,” Kerr is of
course best known for her romp in the surf with Burt Lancaster
in “From Here to Eternity.” It got so steamy, even the crabs
were embarrassed.
–The other day I said it wouldn’t be bad being Kid Rock for a
week. Well, he was arrested over the weekend for his role in a
fracas at an Atlanta waffle house. Bar Chat does not condone
such behavior, though I must say I just realized I haven’t had
waffles in ages myself. I’m kind of hungry right now.
–In “For Worse…” we learned the title of Michael’s book is
“Stone Season,” after the “Stone House,” the brothel frequented
by the Eskimos of ANWR that are at the heart of his story.
Meanwhile, the incredibly selfish April doesn’t want to perform
with her band on Halloween because she’s tired of “giving up
another Halloween night to perform!” This girl needs to grow
up. Here’s hoping her bandmates dump her faster than chemical
discharge into a Chinese river.
Top 3 songs for the week 10/25/75: #1 “Bad Blood” (Neil
Sedaka) #2 “Calypso / I’m Sorry” (John Denver) #3 “Miracles”
(Jefferson Starship)…and…#4 “Lyin’ Eyes” (The Eagles) #5
“They Just Can’t Stop It” the (Games People Play) (Spinners)
#6 “Feelings” (Morris Albert….woh woh woh) #7 “Who Loves
You” (Four Seasons) #8 “Island Girl” (Elton John) #9
“Ballroom Blitz” (Sweet) #10 “It Only Takes A Minute”
(Tavares…their only top ten, but to me an underrated group)
NCAA Football Quiz Answers: 1) Chuck Muncie was Cal’s
leading rusher, 1973-75, with 3,052 yards. 2) Wesley Walker
holds Cal’s single game record with 289 receiving yards in 1976.
3) Clemson won the national title in 1981. 4) Homer Jordan was
the Clemson QB that year. 5) Eric Bieniemy is Colorado’s
career rushing leader with 3,940 yards, 1987-90. 6) Colorado
won a share of the national title in 1990. Georgia Tech was the
other in split polls.
Colorado tidbit: Running back Charlie Davis once ran for 342
yards on 34 carries against Oklahoma State back in 1971. But
Charlie had just a brief NFL career and is not to be confused with
Clarence Davis from the same era who had a long NFL stint at
Oakland.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
