NCAA Football Quiz: 1) Who am I? I quarterbacked Kentucky
from 1949-51 and then went on to a lengthy career in both the
NFL and AFL, initials B.P. 2) Who are the three to rush for
4,000 yards at LSU…initials K.F., D.H., and C.A.? 3) Who is
Maryland’s career rushing leader? [Played 1997-2000 and is
currently in the NFL.] 4) Who was Miami’s coach in 1983 for
its first national title? Answers below.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL ALERT….
Gardner-Webb 84…Kentucky 68
—
Nothing but Stuff
[A little hectic around here this week, folks.]
–The saga of A-Rod continues, as the Mets and Angels appear to
be ready to talk to agent Scott Boras. I haven’t been sleeping
well recently.
–Others who aren’t sleeping well these days are outfielder Jose
Guillen and former major leaguers Matt Williams and Ismael
Valdez, the latest names to surface in the steroid investigation,
specifically the one out of Florida and the Palm Beach
Rejuvenation Center, which actually grew out of an Albany
County (NY) District Attorney’s probe. The Palm Beach center
was linked to Indians pitcher Paul Byrd, while St. Louis
Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel is among those receiving
human growth hormone from an Orlando pharmacy.
And Sports Illustrated reports that the first active player has
volunteered to talk to Sen. George Mitchell’s commission. [I’m
betting it’s Curt Schilling, because the report says it is a player
who has ripped steroid use and not necessarily a user.]
–Just a note on the Gold Glove winners, as announced on
Tuesday. David Wright at third? I love Wright, but c’mon! The
guy has the least accurate throwing arm in baseball. Separately,
Greg Maddux won his record-setting 17th, breaking a mark held
by Brooks Robinson and Jim Kaat. Detroit catcher Ivan
Rodriguez extended his record to 13.
–College Football…putting my 15-8 record on the line, it’s a
six-pack, and frankly I’ll be very happy with a split. Children
under 12 should continue to limit their bets to $3,000 per contest.
Age 12-21, bet up to $13,500 per. Those who own their home
can feel secure in betting 14 times the current value. Should I go
2-4 or worse, I’ll be unreachable.
Take Cincinnati, giving 6 to UConn
Take Boise State, giving 24 to Utah State
Take Georgia, giving 1 ½ to Auburn
Take Florida, giving 6 ½ to South Carolina
Take Navy, giving 15 to North Texas
Take Hawaii, giving 17 ½ to Fresno State
[Wednesday’s lines]
Nebraska coach Bill Callahan said he refuses to resign before the
Huskers’ disastrous season ends, thus forcing interim athletic
director, and god, Tom Osborne, to fire him. Ken S. wrote that
at the 76-39 debacle against Kansas last Saturday, a fan yelled at
Osborne as he walked by, “Help Us!” [Imagine that Kansas
scored on 10 consecutive possessions.]
–I have a confession to make. I watched the first five minutes
and last five of the Knicks-Denver game on Tuesday and was
mildly entertained. My problem with the NBA goes back to my
childhood. Those of us in the New York area were spoiled
watching the great Knicks teams of Reed, DeBuscherre, Frazier,
Bradley, Lucas, Monroe, Barnett, Russell, Riordan, and Wingo
and Bill Hoskett. Number one, they were all very likeable guys.
No thugs. I’d like to care about the current Knicks but there are
all of maybe two guys you’d like to go out and have a beer with.
Make that one. [And just one guess.]
–I have yet to watch any hockey, nor will I for quite a while,
especially now that college basketball is gearing up, but I do
have to note that Ottawa is off to the best start in NHL history,
13-1-0.
–Yikes. “Hockey legend Guy Lafleur knew his son was
breaking conditions of his bail, a Montreal judge said yesterday
in denying a request to let Mark Lafleur live with his father.
“The former Montreal Canadiens star had testified before the
court that his son was abiding by a court-ordered curfew while
staying with his parents on weekends.
“Lafleur has since admitted that he drove his son to hotels to
spend the night with his 16-year-old girlfriend. Lafleur’s 23-
year-old son faces more than 20 criminal charges, including
sexually assaulting a minor, armed assault, uttering threats, and
forcible confinement between 2004 and 2007.”
This is as ugly a story as I’ve seen in a long while.
–Don Shula, ever protective of his 1972 Miami Dolphins, still
the only NFL team to go undefeated in the regular season and
playoffs, said if the Patriots pull it off, an asterisk should be
placed next to their name because of Bill Belichick getting
caught cheating.
“The Spygate thing has diminished what they’ve accomplished.
You would hate to have that attached to your accomplishments.
They’ve got it. Belichick was fined $500,000, the team was
fined $250,000 and they lost a first-round draft choice. That tells
you the seriousness or significance of what they found.
“I guess you got the same thing as putting an asterisk by Barry
Bonds’ home run record. I guess it will be noted that the Patriots
were fined and a No. 1 draft choice was taken away during that
year of accomplishment. The sad thing is Tom Brady looks so
good, it doesn’t look like he needs any help.”
What’s funny about the above is that the New York Daily News’
Gary Myers had called Shula and without any prodding, Shula
just rattled this off. Oh yeah…he’s protective.
Myers, and others, have written of how the ’72 Dolphins party
any time a team that threatens their record finally goes down in
defeat, but Jim Mandich, a tight end on that team, told Myers he
resents how they are portrayed.
“You guys put forth the myth that we are pathetic losers down
here clicking champagne glasses and clinging desperately to a
record set 35 years ago. Somehow we’ve been portrayed as
being evil. We don’t ever blow our own horn. It’s a great
record, but the record doesn’t get beaten. The Patriots have
assembled a powerhouse of a team. They are a classy bunch of
guys and play ball the right way. If they want to join the
unbeaten club, come on board.”
Right. Safety Dick Anderson in turn admits, “We would not be
unhappy (if their record stands). We’re not trying to be
obnoxious about it, but we’re proud we have a record nobody
else does. If New England does it this year, we will sit and raise
a glass of champagne to them.”
No you won’t. You’ll be smashing them in disgust.
–Here’s an example of how brutal the PGA Tour can be.
Entering the final event of 2007, Craig Kanada stood 129th on the
money list with $713,280. He needed a top finish to have a shot
at the top 125 and his playing card for 2008. But first he had to
make the cut.
So Kanada does so and ends up finishing right in the middle of
the pack at 8-under, taking home $30,025 for his efforts and thus
raising his season total to $743, 305.
But that was only good enough to move him up one spot to 128th.
No. 125 turned out to be Mathias Gronberg with $785,180.
Gronberg was No. 124 entering the event and not only needed to
make the cut, but he couldn’t rest easy. As it turned out he
finished one behind Kanada and took home $21,160.
Had Kanada made just two more putts, though, over the full four
rounds, he would have earned $73,600, taking his total to
$786,880, thus bumping Gronberg from the exempt list.
There are countless other examples. Kevin Stadler was No. 127
entering the final week, made the cut, and proceeded to tie for
16th, earning $73,600 to end up No. 124 on the final list with
$810,876. But had he finished 8-under instead of 10-under, he’s
on the outside looking in.
Those who finished No. 126-150 on the money list do have one
last shot…they are exempt into the final stage of the six-round
Q-School. If they then don’t finish in the top 25 and ties, they
have ‘conditional’ status in 2008. Those in this position, though,
have to wait until about 175 in front of them decide whether or
not they are participating in a full-field event of, say, 144, before
the ‘conditional’ guys have a shot.
This year, a golfer I’ve written of before, Jerry Smith, who I
followed closely at Q-School a number of years ago, had
conditional status and was able to enter 19 events. But he made
only five cuts and $63,335. Tiger Woods, by comparison, was
No. 1 with $10,867,057. Sound like a lot? The other day I wrote
of how the New York Yankees exercised their option on Bobby
Abreu for $16 million. And if Abreu pulls a hammy and plays
only 60 games next season, he still gets the full amount. But if
Tiger has back issues and can’t play, he earns nothing. [OK,
OK, so he has $100 million in endorsements….just work with
me…]
Which is why, sports fans, some of us continue to appreciate just
how tough it is to play golf consistently at the highest possible
level.
–From Antony Sguazzin (sic) of Bloomberg News:
“Leigh Fletcher gazes down a line of fenced, dirt enclosures
where she rears 200 lions for American and Russian hunters
willing to pay $35,000 to shoot them.”
Great. Fletcher’s operation is in South Africa, where it provided
more than 300 lions for trophy hunters “to stalk and kill last year,
(as) part of an industry that brought $146 million into the
economy.” Animal rights groups correctly call this “canned
hunting,” where marksmen kill lions in small enclosures with no
chance to escape.
Well, I have absolutely no problem with hunting, but this is b.s.
However, as Sguazzin reports, “Starting Feb. 1, South Africa will
require that lions roam free for two years before they are hunted.
Breeders say the rules will destroy the industry and force them to
slaughter many of the 5,000 captive-bred cats. Game farms can’t
afford to have the lions hunting their other animals for such a
long period, and there isn’t enough room for them in the wild.”
Two thoughts. First to the breeders, find a different line of work,
a-holes! Second, who wants to join me in a trip to South Africa
to release the lions? Now that would make for a good flick. The
200 lions go nuts in the surrounding community, with a
government insider on the side of the lions, aligned against the
locals who are seeing 40-50 of their people killed each night.
Throw in Pamela Anderson for an obligatory shot of some sort
(you know what I mean, guys), and you have a winner!
–Consumer Reports has a story on holiday tipping, as noted by
Rita Delfiner of the New York Post. But I see this line.
“Housekeepers/cleaners were among the likeliest to clean up and
get a holiday tip last year, according to a survey of 1,800
Americans. Respondents said their gratuity typically ranged
from $25 to $75 in cash or gifts.”
What?! $25?! Now I have a cleaning person for my office [she
doesn’t read the site] and let’s just say it’s mega-multiples of
$25. And she deserves it.
But then I see, with teachers, “it’s tricky because you don’t want
to look like you’re bribing your child’s teacher to get better
grades, so cash doesn’t look right.”
You mean there are some out there who have actually been
giving their teacher cash?! Unreal.
Other advice from Consumer Reports. Give the dog walker one
week’s pay. I’d give them two. Bu then it’s not my dog.
–From the AP:
Dublin, Tex. – “Jackie Bibby, the ‘Texas Snake Man,’ shared a
see-through bathtub with 87 rattlesnakes for about 45 minutes
Monday.
“A fully clothed Bibby slithered past his own record by 12
snakes just in time for Guinness World Records Day, set for
Thursday. A Guinness official certified the record. The snakes
crawled under his arms, between his legs and anywhere else they
could, Bibby said. None bit him.
“ ‘They can go wherever they want as long as they don’t start
biting,’ Bibby said. ‘The key to not biting is for me to stay still.
If you move real slow and gentle, that doesn’t seem to bother
them. I have set several world records in that bathtub,’ Bibby
added.”
His parents must be thrilled.
–Brad K. passed along this distressing story from Manson,
Wash., via the AP.
“Charles and Linda Everson were driving back to their hotel
when their minivan was struck by a falling object – a 600-pound
cow. The Eversons were unhurt but the cow, which had fallen
off a cliff, had to be euthanized.
“The year-old cow fell about 200 feet from the cliff and landed
on the hood of the couple’s minivan, causing heavy damage. A
Chelan County fire chief, Arnold Baker [he of the Arnold Bakery
family, no doubt], said the couple missed being killed by a matter
of inches.”
Brad points out this was no accident. The suicide cow scored a
direct hit, yet another troubling sign of the pending all-out assault
the animals are about to launch against us.
–I forgot to relate this tale from the London Times the other day
concerning some British explorers in the Arctic who described
their terror “after coming face to face with a pack of bloodstained
wolves.”
“Pen Hadow, Anne Daniels and Martin Hartley were testing
equipment in the Arctic at night when the 17-strong pack
encircled them.
“As a huge, yellow-eyed male crept within 10 meters of the team
the rest of the pack split up to surround the three vulnerable
humans.
“ ‘There were so many of them,’ said Mr. Hadow, the veteran
explorer. ‘They were watching us intently. We felt like mice
being watched by cats.
“ ‘It was like a child’s nightmare. The images in your head of
wolves are so deeply embedded from bedtime stories like Little
Red Riding Hood. It’s very hard to get past that.
“ ‘We’d been told they wouldn’t attack but to have a pack of 17
wolves is worrying however much you may try to rationalize and
tell yourself the number of wolf attacks on humans can be
counted on one hand.
“ ‘I could see blood on their fur. It was nerve-wracking – but at
the same time it was an incredible experience.’
[I would have died of a heart attack….that’s how incredible it
would have been for me.]
“The three explorers had seen one of the wolves approaching
from some distance away but it was only when it was within 200
meters that they realized it was part of a pack.
“Mr. Hadow said the lead wolf had ‘the most striking pure bright
yellow eyes’ and that it lowered its head just as he’d imagined as
a child that a hungry wolf would do.
“After a 15-minute stand-off the pack of wolves ‘evaporated into
the Arctic night’ leaving the explorers with racing hearts but
exhilarated at having witnessed such a sight.”
[Again, at this point they would have had to figure out what to do
with my body, especially since with the wolf’s departure, they
couldn’t feed me to them.]
–Tom Glavine was the only sports figure that I could see who
attended the pseudo-state dinner for French President Nicolas
Sarkozy…go figure.
–I can’t say I was turned on by Mary Lillian Ellison growing up
…the Fabulous Moolah who passed away the other day. As in
the women’s wrestling champion from the mid-1950s to the mid-
1980s.
–So I open up the obituary section of the New York Times and
see the name ‘Frank Viola.’ Noooooo…..I scream (slight
exaggeration)…it can’t be! Frankie V. of Mets and Twins
fame?! Turns out it was Frank Viola, “one of the grand old men
of a grand old New York sport – pigeon racing.” Well, growing
up in an upper-middle class section of Summit, N.J., I can’t say I
knew much about pigeon racing, quite frankly. But if Detective
Bobby Simone did it on NYPD Blue, that’s good enough for me.
–Dr. Matthew P. Hardy, a research scientist, ran the New York
City Marathon on Sunday, returned to his Manhattan apartment,
and died. He was 50. A preliminary autopsy revealed it was a
clot and may not have been necessarily related to the race.
Dr. Jeffrey Moses of Columbia University Medical Center,
however, told the New York Times’ Joshua Robinson that the
marathon “is a very likely explanation.”
“When you exercise, your blood gets stickier,” he added. “So
the likelihood of a clot forming during that period is higher. The
clot probably formed during the marathon, and the average heart
attack victim doesn’t call an ambulance or a hospital for about
three hours.”
I’ve decided I’m just going to check myself into the emergency
room after each jog to make sure I’m OK.
–And we note the passing of George Osmond, patriarch of the
Osmond family.
Valerie J. Nelson / Los Angeles Times
“George was a singer who taught four of his sons – Alan,
Wayne, Merrill and Jay – to perform as a barbershop quartet.
When he failed to get his sons an audition with ‘The Lawrence
Welk Show,’ Osmond took the youngsters to Disneyland as a
consolation prize.
“After giving an impromptu concert at the park, the brothers
were hired to perform regularly. Within weeks, the father of
singer Andy Williams saw their act in Anaheim and
recommended them to his son. They debuted on ‘The Andy
Williams Show’ in 1962. About a year later, 6-year-old Donny
joined the group.”
Well, you know the rest. The Osmonds used the Jackson 5 as
their model and in 1971, burst on the scene with the #1 “One Bad
Apple,” which sounded like the Jacksons. Other top tens
followed, such as #3 “Yo-Yo” and #4 “Down By The Lazy
River,” while Donny was solo on the #1 remake of “Go Away
Little Girl” and the #3 “Puppy Love,” at a point when he was just
14 and should have been out shooting hoops or tossing a football.
[At least that’s what I was doing when I was that age. Then
again, that was 1971-72. Today, at 14 our kids are doing who
knows what……..if you catch my drift.]
Anyway, in 1976, the “Donny and Marie” show debuted on
ABC, with the two insisting the siblings be involved, including
little Jimmy, who was a real pain in the butt. [Actually, I have
no idea, but the kid was like 12 or 13 then and must have been.]
Back to George, who was 90 when he passed away, he is
survived by nine children, 55 grandchildren and 48 great-
grandchildren…all of whom I imagine now support Mitt
Romney.
Top 3 songs for the week 11/7/64: #1 “Baby Love” (The
Supremes) #2 “Last Kiss” (J. Frank Wilson and The Cavaliers)
#3 “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” (Manfred Mann)…and…#4 “Leader
Of The Pack” (The Shangri-Las) #5 “Let It Be Me” (Betty
Everett & Jerry Butler) #6 “Have I The Right?” (The
Honeycombs) #7 “Come A Little Bit Closer” (Jay & The
Americans) #8 “The Door Is Still Open To My Heart” (Dean
Martin) #9 “Chug-A-Lug” (Roger Miller) #10 “We’ll Sing In
The Sunshine” (Gale Garnett)
*In a gutsy move, Radiohead opted to let its fans decide how
much to pay to download its latest release, “In Rainbows,”
breaking with the past practice of working through a major label,
but 62 percent of those who took it down over a four-week
period decided to pay the British band zippo, zero, nada. [The
remaining 38 percent volunteered an average of $6.]
Of course this lends further proof to my theory that 50 percent of
the people in the world are, err, jerks, though I may have to up
this figure at year end.
**And this music tidbit, from Brian Hiatt and Steve Knopper of
Rolling Stone.
“During a recent visit to a Los Angeles Best Buy store, a top
major-label executive encountered a disconcerting sight. ‘As I
walked to the cash register, I noticed there was no one in the
music aisles – no one,’ the exec says. ‘That can’t be lost on
them.’ In fact, according to industry insiders, Wal-Mart, Best
Buy and other ‘big box’ retail chains – which account for sixty-
five percent of all music sales – have in the past year or so cut
back floor space devoted to music. And Wal-Mart, the country’s
biggest music retailer, and other chains have told labels to expect
substantial further cutbacks in the new year, perhaps as much as
twenty percent.”
One media analyst, Aram Sinnreich, told Rolling Stone, “Next
year is the year when the format is going to take a nose dive.”
Sales at big-box retailers have dropped 17 percent in 2007,
including the worst week ever just recently.
I myself will literally be the last person buying a CD at a store.
NCAA Football Quiz Answers: 1) Babe Parilli quarterbacked
Kentucky from 1949-51 before an NFL/AFL career spanning
1952-69. 2) LSU’s three 4,000 yard rushers: Kevin Faulk (1995-
98) 4,557; Dalton Hilliard (1982-85) 4,050; Charles Alexander
(1975-78) 4,035. 3) Maryland’s career rushing leader: LaMont
Jordan (1997-2000) 4,147 yards. 4) Howard Schnellenberger
was Miami’s coach in 1983, his 5th year at the helm and the
school’s first national title.
Next Bar Chat, Monday…I think…from Moscow. If I have
computer issues, well, then we just won’t have a column I guess.
