The Players Championship Quiz [1974-2007]: 1) Who won in
1977, initials M.H.? [This is hard.] 2) Name the two with the
initials C.P. who won the TPC. 3) Who won in 1990, initials
J.M.? [Another hard one.] Answers below.
New Jersey
The following is a little parochial, but being from New Jersey,
the Garden State, you’ll have to put up with it, plus I know a lot
of you are Springsteen fans.
The other evening, the likes of Yogi Berra, Frank Sinatra,
Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Buzz Aldrin and nine others
were inducted into our first formal hall of fame, among them
Bruce Springsteen, who in giving the induction speech for
Sinatra reflected on his ties to the state.
[From the Star-Ledger]
“You know, when I first got the letter, I was a little suspicious
because…a New Jersey Hall of Fame? I don’t know. Does New
York have a hall of fame? Does Connecticut have a hall of
fame? I mean, maybe they think they don’t need one. But then I
thought like, ‘Well, let me see. All right, Albert Einstein, Bruce
Springsteen…my mother’s really gonna like that part.’ So…
she’s here tonight, it’s her birthday…it’s the only time those two
names are gonna be mentioned in the same sentence, right now,
so I’m gonna enjoy it.
“But when I was recording my first album, the record company
spent a lot of money taking a lot of pictures of me in New York
City. And…something didn’t quite feel right. I was walking
down the boardwalk one day. And I stopped at a souvenir stand
and bought a postcard, saying ‘Greetings From Asbury Park.’ I
remember thinking, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’ I mean, down south there
was Patti Smith. And up north, right here in Newark, was
George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, great musicians.
“With the exception of, I guess, a few half-years in California,
my family and I, we’ve raised our kids here. We got a big
Italian-Irish family, and I found my own Jersey girl here…And
in the end, I just found something that grew deeply resonant, like
holding the hands of my kids on the same streets where my mom
held my hand and swimming in the same ocean and visiting the
same beaches I did as a child.
“It was a place, also, that really protected me. It’s been very
nurturing. I could take my kids down to Freehold, throw ‘em up
on my shoulders and walk along the street, with thousands of
other people on Cruise Nights, with everybody just going, ‘Hey
Bruce’…that was something that meant a lot to me, the ability to
just go about my life. I was protected here, by the people here.
And I really appreciated that.
“So anyway…you get a little older now, you get those crisp fall
days that come in September and the beginning of October. My
friends and I, we slip into that cold water of that Atlantic Ocean.
These days, you take note that there’s a few less of your friends
swimming alongside of you as each year passes. But something
about being in one place your whole life, they’re all still around
you, in the water. And I look towards the shore, and I see my
son and my daughter, pushing their way through the waves, and
on the beach there’s a whole batch of new little kids running
away from the crashing surf. Like time itself.
“That’s what New Jersey is for me. It’s a repository now, of just
my time on earth. My memory, the music I’ve made,
friendships, my life, it’s all buried here, at this point, in a box,
somewhere in the sand, down on the Jersey Shore. And I can’t
imagine having it any other way.
“But let me finish with a Garden State benediction.
“Rise up, my fellow New Jerseyans, for we are all members of a
confused but noble race. We of the state that will never get any
respect, we who bear the cruelness of the forever uncool. A chip
on the shoulders of those with forever something to prove. And
even with this wonderful hall of fame, we know that there’s
another bad Jersey joke just around the corner.
“But fear not, fear not! This is not our curse. It is our blessing.
For this is what infused us with our fighting spirit, that we may
salute the world forever with the fabulous Jersey state bird
[raises middle finger.] And that the fumes from our great
northern industrial area, to the ocean breezes of Cape May, fill us
with the raw hunger, the naked ambition and the desire not just to
do our best, but to stick it in your face.
“Theory of relativity, anybody? How about some electric light
with your day? Or maybe a spin to the moon and back? That’s
right. And that is why our fellow Americans in those other 49
states know that when the announcer says, ‘And now, in this
corner, from New Jersey…,’ they’d better keep their hands up
and their heads down, ‘cause when that bell rings, we always
come out swinging.
“God bless the Garden State.”
—
Stuff
–Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had some of the following thoughts on
the Beijing Olympics in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times.
Kareem was a member of the 1968 U.S. Olympic team, one that
was swept up in its own turmoil, including a call by a then up-
and-coming black sociologist, Dr. Harry Edwards, for a boycott
by black athletes.
Kareem:
“Clearly the Olympic Games and the Vietnam War were parallel
competitions. In each, blacks were supposed to go overseas to
drive themselves as hard as they could in order to bring glory to
their country, only to return home and still be treated as second-
class citizens.
“All that gave me a lot to think about. Then baseball-turned-
broadcaster Joe Garagiola interviewed me on the ‘Today Show’
and for the first time I spoke publicly about my concerns and
frustrations regarding the direction the country was taking
politically. Garagiola was clearly annoyed that I would even
consider boycotting the Olympics. My response was that for
black Americans life in this country was still something that
included racially based discrimination in every area of life.
“Eventually the idea of a boycott was abandoned because
Edwards was unable to attract a critical number of athletes to the
idea. In my case, I had a summer job with the city of New York
that paid me very well and enabled me to attend school without
having to worry about financial matters.
“However, that October at the Olympics, Tommie Smith and
John Carlos, after winning first and third in the 200-meter dash,
raised their black-gloved fists from the medal podium and bowed
their heads during the playing of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’
This image captured the spirit of the times: Whites were
outraged, blacks felt some rush of pride….
“Here we are 40 years later and we are once again about to send
our young athletes overseas to compete in games while we send
our young soldiers overseas to fight in war. And, as before, there
is a social agenda attached to the Olympic Games.
“Should we boycott the Olympic Games to protest China’s
arrogant human rights performance, its political imperialism, its
shoddy exports that recently have left some Americans ill or
dead?
“The answer is no. While it may seem disingenuous to be
playing games with countries that aim weapons at us, the same
claim can be made about us by many other nations.
“I am of a mind that the actions of Smith and Carlos made a
difference in 1968. However, this Olympics is an entirely
different situation that requires different tactics to achieve a
satisfactory resolution. Instead of turning our backs, we need to
continue a dialogue with the Chinese.
“The more we talk with each other, the more we understand each
other and can reach compromises that will benefit the lives of
those we are trying to help. Jackie Robinson once said that the
great thing about athletics is that ‘you learn to act democracy, not
just talk it.’ That’s what our athletes will demonstrate to the one
billion Chinese who may be watching.
“A second means of influencing the Chinese is through
globalization, in which we share products, entertainment, and
culture with others – and they share theirs with us – in order to
break down the barriers that make us fear each other’s
differences.
“The NBA is a good model for globalization. The Chinese
Basketball Assn. permits only two foreign-born players per team.
But the NBA’s policy of choosing the best players, regardless of
nationality, has not only kicked up the level of play, but it’s
made basketball more popular on an international level than ever.
The fact that the NBA brought in China’s Yao Ming, Wang
Zhizhi, Yi Jianlian, Sun Yue and Mengke Bateer has increased
NBA fans in China – and when the Chinese people are exposed
to America through basketball, we become more human to them,
less a threat.
“So, let’s not just pick up our ball and stay home. We have
many more options – political, commercial, and cultural – to
express our displeasure with China’s policies. The more we have
in common, the more impact we can make. It’s all about
building trust.”
–Mike Lupica / New York Daily News:
“This is what Earl Ward, one of Brian McNamee’s lawyers, said
back in January, when one of Roger Clemens’ first grandstand
plays, right after going on ’60 Minutes’ and denying just about
everything except that he had been a baseball pitcher, was to sue
McNamee for defamation. Nobody paid much attention to Ward
at the time, because Clemens was using up all the air in the room,
playing to the crowd as if he were winning his 300th game at
Yankee Stadium all over again.
“ ‘Brian knows a lot about Roger’s moral character,’ Ward said.
‘And if some of the stuff were to come out, Roger Clemens
would look very, very bad.’
“And if McNamee knew ‘stuff’ so did other people. Now some
of that stuff, all of it about other women, some of them alleged to
be exceptionally young women, has come out, and Clemens
looks worse than ever. So now he comes out with an apology
about nothing, an artless, pathetic combination of lawyering and
agenting that makes Clemens sound like Bill Clinton saying he
did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. Clinton was
so good at giving answers about old girlfriends he ended up
getting himself impeached….
“ ‘Now I have been accused of having an improper relationship
with a 15-year-old girl,’ Clemens said in his statement. ‘Nothing
could be further from the truth. This relationship has been
twisted and distorted far beyond reality. It is just one of many,
many accusations that are utterly false.’
“Again, he sounds like Bill Clinton here, parsing his words,
dancing around the truth, to the point where you kept waiting for
him to drop the big one on us about his relationship with Mindy
McCready, and say that it all depended on what your definition
of ‘it’ is….
“When this newspaper first printed the story about Clemens’
relationship with McCready, this was the response from
Clemens’ attorney Rusty Hardin to the Daily News:
“ ‘(Clemens) flatly denies having had any kind of inappropriate
relationship with her.’ He was quoted elsewhere as saying, ‘At
no time did Roger engage in any kind of inappropriate or
improper relationship with her.’
“So here is a question for Mr. Hardin, who obviously spoke to
his client about this:
“What would have been a proper and appropriate relationship
between a (then) 28-year-old married baseball pitcher and a
teenager he met in a karaoke bar? Same question for Clemens….
“There is a book that Dan Jenkins wrote called ‘Baja Oklahoma,’
and in it Jenkins lists his 10 stages of drunkenness. And the last
two could apply to almost anything, to being drunk with power
or celebrity or ego or even being President of the United States.
On Jenkins’ list No. 9 is invisible and 10? No. 10 is bulletproof.
Maybe that is where Clemens was in his prime, when he was out
there making his mistakes and not making choices ‘which have
not been right’ and being an all-around flawed American sports
superstar….
“Clemens…still thinks he’s bulletproof. He’s not. He must have
thought that once he started swinging away, nobody else would
swing back. That’s not the way it worked.”
–Interesting piece in the New York Times by Carl Zimmer on
animal intelligence. Tadeusz Kawecki, an evolutionary biologist
at the University of Fribourg, says “If it’s so great to be smart (a
la humans), why have most animals remained dumb?”
It seems that scientists have learned through research that being
smart can be bad for one’s health. “Even the microscopic
vinegar worm…can learn, despite having just 302 neurons. [Ed.
this is far more, however, than I have left.] It feeds on bacteria.
But if it eats a disease-causing strain, it can become sick. The
worms are not born with an innate aversion to the dangerous
bacteria. They need time to learn to tell the difference and avoid
becoming sick.”
Kind of like some college students, who need time to learn that
Heineken tastes better than Blatz or Weidemann’s.
Reuven Dukas, a biologist, says that any animal with a nervous
system can learn.
But Carl Zimmer writes:
“It is possible to adapt to a changing environment without using
a nervous system…Bacteria can alter behavior to help their
survival. If a microbe senses a toxin, it can swim away. If it
senses a new food, it can switch genes on and off to alter its
metabolism.”
Perhaps I should be placing bacteria on the all-species list.
Hadn’t thought of this before. I mean read that statement again.
Certainly, bacteria are a lot smarter than some humans we all
know.
In fact, Dr. Kawecki performed a bunch of experiments with flies
and after breeding 15 generations, “the flies (became) genetically
programmed to learn better.”
Ah, but as Zimmer adds, “the flies pay a price for fast learning.
Dr. Kawecki and his colleagues pitted smart fly larvae against a
different strain of flies, mixing the insects and giving them a
meager supply of yeast to see who would survive. The scientists
then ran the same experiment, but with the ordinary relatives of
the smart flies competing against the new strain. About half the
smart flies survived; 80 percent of the ordinary flies did.”
So smart does not ensure survival. In fact, Dr. Kawecki wonders
whether humans pay hidden costs for extreme learning.
I’m so confused!
–Great News! From the BBC, “Fourteen tiger cubs have been
spotted in a reserve in northwestern India, forestry officials say.
The sightings are a rare piece of good news in the fight to halt
the steep decline in tiger numbers in India.”
Of course this also means that in about two years, these fourteen,
could, you know, err, become part of future Bar Chats! [But
somehow we have to keep the poachers away.]
–There are some outstanding early pitching performances in
baseball this year, including that of the Los Angeles Angels’
Ervin Santana, who last year was 7-14 and thus far in ’08 is 6-0
with a 2.02 ERA. Not bad, not bad at all.
–Nice game by LeBron James on Tuesday as his Cavs lost to the
Celtics in Game One of their playoff series, 76-72. LeBron was
2 of 18 from the field with 10 turnovers. Time to trade him.
–Boy, Tiki Barber has done well…cough cough..…has anyone
seen him? I mean like I don’t watch the last hour of the “Today”
show, but so much for his meteoric rise to stardom in the
broadcasting world.
–Robert Vesco is dead….maybe….
The famous American fugitive supposedly died in Cuba six
months ago, though this just came to light on Monday through a
listing in Havana. Vesco looted over $200 million in a famous
Swiss mutual fund scam, cooked up schemes with Colombian
drug lords, and was one of Richard Nixon’s financiers, for which
he was once indicted for contributing $200,000 to Nixon’s 1972
campaign, after which Vesco renounced his citizenship and fled
the country.
–And now… Worst-Case Scenarios
I picked up a book at the Spy Museum titled “The Worst-Case
Scenario Book of Survival Questions” by Joshua Piven and
David Borgenicht.
For example, when jumping from a train, “Hitting the ground
feet-first after jumping from a speeding train is likely to cause
severe injury, including broken legs, heels, and ankles. You also
risk flying forward head over heels, potentially resulting in fatal
head trauma.”
Instead, “To survive a jump from a moving train, wait for the
train to slow (as around a bend) and then jump from the train and
logroll on the ground until you come to a stop. Keep your arms
around your head to protect it. Try to jump into a grassy field or
other forgiving surface. Avoid jumping out when the train is in a
tunnel.”
Jumping out of trains advice…another free feature of Bar Chat.
–On Tuesday, Violet of “Peanuts” fame tells Charlie Brown:
“My dad is a better bowler than your dad! He has a 185 average
in his Monday night league, a 170 average in his Thursday night
league, and a 204 average in his Friday night league!”
Only about five to six times better than Barack Obama.
Top 3 songs for the week 5/9/64: #1 “Hello, Dolly!” (Louis
Armstrong) #2 “Do You Want To Know A Secret” (The
Beatles) #3 “My Guy” (Mary Wells)…and…#4 “Bits And
Pieces” (The Dave Clark Five) #5 “Can’t Buy Me Love” (The
Beatles) #6 “Don’t Let The Rain Come Down” (The Serendipity
Singers) #7 “Ronnie” (The 4 Seasons) #8 “Dead Man’s Curve”
(Jan & Dean) #9 “Suspicion” (Terry Stafford) #10 “White On
White” (Danny Williams)
Players Championship Quiz Answers: 1) Mark Hayes won in
1977. 2) The two “C.P.’s”: Calvin Peete, 1985, and Craig Perks,
2002. [Perks has literally made only a handful of cuts ever
since.] 3) Jodie Mudd won in 1990.
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
