Baseball Quiz: 14 pitchers have won the Cy Young Award at
least twice. Name the two to have won their 2nd at the age of 35
or older. Answer below.
Killer Bears
WARNING: The following is not recommended for children
under the age of nine, as spelled out in the International Web Site
Association’s guidelines.
From the great outdoors writer Craig Medred of the Anchorage
Daily News.
“When most people think about bears shot in self defense, they
think about charging grizzlies. But there is another kind of
dangerous bear out there – the predaceous black bear.
“A real rarity in most of North America, these dangerous bears
pop up occasionally in the Far North. Back in 1977, geologist
Cynthia Dusel-Bacon lost both arms to one that attacked her in a
thicket north of Fairbanks and tried to eat her alive.
“In 1992, Darcy Staver and her husband, Michael, retreated to
the roof of a cabin near Glennallen after being pursued by
another. Michael eventually decided to go for help. While he
was gone, the bear got up on the roof and killed Darcy.”
Yikes. Again, these are black bears, sports fans.
“Canadian bear expert Stephen Herrero has compiled data on
these and about 50 other predaceous attacks and says there are
similarities in many of the incidents:
“Black bears that attack and kill people with an eye toward
eating them tend to be young bears in wild areas where human
contacts are rare.
“In June of this year, one such bear attacked and killed a 70-year-
old grandmother in northern Quebec.
“Cecile Lavoie and her 73-year-old husband, Alexander, were
fishing in a remote area about 350 miles northwest of Ottawa,
according to (Toronto’s) The Globe and Mail…
“ ‘As she scouted a fishing hole for walleye, Ms. Lavoie became
separated from her husband,’ the newspaper reported. ‘Barely 10
minutes later, Mr. Lavoie felt something was amiss and went
searching for his wife of 51 years. Meters away he came upon
the nightmarish scene of her body being dragged into the forest
by a bear.
“ ‘Mr. Lavoie chased the predator for nearly 200 meters and
managed very briefly to scare it away from his wife. He tried but
was unable to carry her limp and bleeding body back through the
dense spring foliage.’
Mr. Lavoie was forced to leave her to get help, but when he
returned with authorities, “his wife was dead, and police had a
difficult time driving the bear off her body.”
What’s interesting about the studies on grizzlies vs. black bears
is that Craig Medred and his outdoor buddies find grizzlies
generally leave you alone as long as you don’t invade their
space, but Don McKnight, former wildlife research director for
the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, has a different opinion of
black bears, as in a crazy one pops up from time to time.
“McKnight told of an encounter with a black bear that
approached his tent in northern Alaska.
“He opened the flap, and there was the bear. The biologist fired
a warning shot across its nose. The bear simply ignored the
warning shot and stared at McKnight. McKnight said the look
sent a chill up his spine.
“At that point, the biologist did the sensible thing. He stopped
wasting ammunition and shot the bear dead.”
[This is where I’d be in trouble, seeing as I’d probably only have
my Swiss Army Knife on hand, the one with the corkscrew.]
And then there is this scary news. In Denali Park on the 4th of
July, the Park Service was forced to kill a black bear. As Medred
points out, you might initially think that bears should be
protected in a park, but when a black bear approached a field
camp and wasn’t totally scared off by rangers, even after they
threw objects at it, they were forced to take action.
“ ‘After initially being chased off, the bear circled back to the
camp three or four times, and at one point, the animal destroyed
one of the team’s tents. On its final approach, the black bear
aggressively charged the three researchers, hissing and pouncing
at the ground. An attempt to divert the bear with pepper spray
was ineffective,’ according to a park spokeswoman.”
Craig Medred:
“Make note of that last sentence. As has been observed
elsewhere…bear spray won’t repel all of the bears all of the time,
which is probably why it was a good thing the Park Service
botanists had a gun.”
And of course now the Supreme Court has given you all the legal
protection you need on the gun front as well….and that’s a
memo.
Stuff
–I turned off the All-Star Game when it was 2-2, it beginning to
get late on the East Coast at that point, but could Fox’s
production have been any worse…as in the sound quality during
the player and Hall of Fame members’ introductions? Part of the
fun with the intros (which has been the only fun of these contests
for the past 30 years or so) is being able to gauge fan reaction
and it was impossible to do so with Joe Buck screaming at us and
drowning out the crowd.
Anyway, nice game for Florida’s Dan Uggla. 3 errors and 3
strikeouts. And leave it up to Mets closer Billy Wagner to blow
it. We’re used to this. For the archives, by the way, the game
ended at 1:37 a.m.
–Thomas Boswell / Washington Post
“The All-Star Game here Tuesday was supposed to
commemorate the last season of Yankee Stadium. Instead, it was
transformed into a far more topical and touching evening – a
farewell to the third-of-a-century Yankee dynasty of George
Steinbrenner III, the man whose wallet and will revived the most
important franchise in the game.
“When Steinbrenner, who seldom appears in public and never
speaks when he does, rode a golf cart from the Yankees bullpen
to the pitcher’s mound on this evening, the symbolism pulled the
whole night together. He brought with him four baseballs, one
each for Yankees Hall of Famers Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford,
Goose Gossage and Reggie Jackson, who threw out simultaneous
first pitches. Only four? The ranks are thinning fast.
“For months, this town has prepared an enormous baseball
celebration for this day. Yet ironically, no one here seemed to
understand the true focus of the night until it arrived. The
Steinbrenner Era probably has run its course in the last seven
seasons of incredibly expensive and disappointing postseason
defeats. So the time was right, disguised as a Goodbye Ballpark
affair, to pay respects to a man who spent decades being mocked
across America while being grudgingly appreciated or amusingly
endured….
“Now we have arrived at a time for summations and
reconciliation. When Steinbrenner arrived at the mound, he
never left his golf cart. Yogi Berra, who feuded with the Boss
for years and wouldn’t come to old-timers’ games for a while,
hugged the legendary owner and kissed him on the cheek. Ford,
Gossage (who enters Cooperstown this year) and Jackson also
clustered protectively around the owner.
“All around the field were assembled 49 Hall of Famers as well
as both all-star teams, more than 100 of the best players of this or
any time. If George’s famous checkbook had been in his coat
pocket, it might have spontaneously combusted.
“Few could miss the parallel between George’s trip to the mound
and Ted Williams’ similar journey at Fenway Park before the ’99
All-Star Game. There, Williams was surrounded by players,
some of whom cried as they met him.
“No one needs to tear up for the Boss. But all forms of
appreciation are deserved. Sometimes, hindsight is kind. In ’76,
when New Yankee Stadium opened, free agency began to bloom.
Without Steinbrenner’s bottomless budget, the offseason
auctions that fueled a generation of hot-stove debate never would
have been half as intense. Without his Yanks to hate in public
but grudgingly respect in private, the game would not have
mushroomed to its current popularity, especially in New York.
“The third and most opulent iteration of Yankee Stadium that
opens next season will not be the only new ballpark that has the
stamp of Steinbrenner and his Yanks on it. For a third of a
century, and an extremely healthy one, this team has energized
and enriched the game. To compete with them, you had to get
smarter, build bigger, spend more, think larger. Or George
would crush you and laugh as he did it.
“Here in the venue that always will be associated with his
success, Steinbrenner probably took his valedictory lap. On the
same stage where the greatest Yankees have gotten their biggest
ovations, no one forgot to stand and cheer for the Boss.”
–Alan Schwarz and Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times
reported that the FBI is looking into whether major league
personnel have been pocketing bonus money intended for Latin
American ballplayers.
“Players primarily from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela,
who are not subject to baseball’s amateur draft, have traditionally
paid portions of their bonuses to local baseball insiders – called
buscones – who help them be seen by scouts. But the FBI is
investigating whether some major league club officials paid the
players small fractions of the bonuses they reported to Major
League Baseball and kept most of the difference.”
One minor leaguer, Elvis Andrus, a shortstop for the Texas
Rangers, said players from his homeland of Venezuela were too
poor and desperate to turn professional that they didn’t know
when they were being shortchanged.
Supposedly, among other cases authorities are looking into is
the Yankees’ 2001 signing of outfielder Melky Cabrera, who
received a $175,000 bonus.
–From Jeane MacIntosh / New York Post:
“Alex Rodriguez has no problem doling out dough for fancy toys
and stripper gal pals – but when it comes to his two nonprofits
for needy kids, he forked over little more than a measly $50,000
for the last complete year of giving, tax records reveal.”
The two main foundations of A-Rod’s have distributed all of
$146,000 over a ten-year period thru 2006, despite him earning
on average $25 million these days. By contrast, over the same
period Derek Jeter has doled out $1.3 million.
–But wait….there’s more! From the Post’s Page Six:
“Alex Rodriguez’s teammates must wish they could divorce him
too. ‘He’s become a huge distraction with the Madonna fiasco,’
a source told Page Six. ‘It’s always all about him.’ That
explains why none of his fellow Yankees went to the All-Star
bash he hosted at Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club Monday night.
“Instead, his mommy, Lourdes, and his new best friends, Guy
Oseary and Ingrid Casares, were by his side in a corner booth as
he threw back shots. And Casares was then spotted leaving A-
Rod’s Park Avenue pad yesterday afternoon.”
Madonna never showed at the party, even though organizers said
she would.
For his part, Derek Jeter hosted a bash at Marquee with pals Billy
Crystal and Michael Jordan.
Yours truly forgot it was even supposed to be a party night and
thus didn’t put one together. Sorry, next time. I’ll see if Sophia
Loren and Peggy Fleming can make it. Maybe Tom and Nancy
Seaver, Clyde, Earl Monroe, Arnold Palmer…….folks like that.
–Former steroids dealer Kirk Radomski has evidently turned
over the goods to federal authorities that directly ties Roger
Clemens to steroids, specifically HGH, sent to him in late 2002
or 2003. Clemens has denied under oath ever using HGH, but
trainer Brian McNamee had told Congress Roger was using it
during this time period.
–Us Mets fans are thrilled we are back in the hunt. Meaningful
games in September is what we shoot for. After all you invest in
the first five months, April thru August, the least your team can
do is keep it going just one more. Or as Johnny Mac told me the
other night as we were following the Mets’ Mike Pelfrey carve
up the Rockies, “Thank god the Mets are back. Without
baseball, I’d have to think about nonsense like Fannie, Freddie,
bank failures, endless campaigns, and endless wars. I’d rather
worry about the Metsies.”
–Actually, Johnny could have added that otherwise he’d have to
care about the rapidly tiresome story of Brett Favre. I laid it all
out from the Packers’ standpoint last time, but for his part Favre
is now saying he doesn’t feel welcome in Green Bay and thus he
asked for his release.
Favre told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, “I am guilty of
retiring early and there is a reason for that. And the major issue
is ‘Why did he retire?’ and ‘He asked for a release because he
doesn’t want to play in Green Bay.’ That’s not true. And I hope
people are hearing this and saying, ‘OK, that clears it up.’”
Favre says he felt pressured by Packers general manager Ted
Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy. McCarthy said, “Ted
always wanted Brett back. We always wanted Brett back.”
So Favre says, “Them moving on does not bother me….I totally
understand that. By me retiring March 3rd, I knew that could
possibly happen. All I was saying is, you know, I’m thinking
about playing again.”
I maintain Favre is totally jerking management around and it’s
not fair for him to demand he be able to come back, and as the
starter, nor is Green Bay under any obligation to let him go, only
to see him sign with division rivals Minnesota or Chicago, for
example. And now we learn from his interview with Greta that
Brett is considering causing a media circus by showing up at
training camp, which starts July 27, just for the hell of it.
Following is an editorial from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“Like so many other Packers fans, we, too, were suffering from
more than just a tad of separation anxiety back in March when
Brett Favre, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, tearfully
proclaimed his playing days were over. Favre is already a
legitimate legend of the game and, judging from the reaction to
his announcement, a lot of National Football League fans felt
Favre’s pain on the podium that day.
“But while time moves on, Favre, sad to say, hasn’t.
“After approaching the Packers recently about playing again,
Favre and his longtime agent, James ‘Bus’ Cook, have asked for
his release. The Packers, who have, unfortunately, been
entangled in this will-he-retire-or-won’t-he thicket before, have
denied Favre’s request and made it clear the team would gladly
accept him back on the roster.
“A reasonable position. Why on Earth would the team, or any
true-blue Packers fan for that matter, want to see No. 4 playing
someplace else, especially on a team in Green Bay’s division?
“Some fans, however, have gone so far as to ask that Ted
Thompson, the Packers’ general manager, be fired, conveniently
forgetting how Thompson’s solid calls on personnel have helped
to make the Packers formidable again.
“Whether Favre accepts the Packers’ offer or not is his call. He
has to make the decision he believes is best for himself and his
family.
“But this melodrama already has gone on far too long. Brett, it’s
time to either accept the Packers’ offer and take your chances on
whether you can regain your starting spot or do what you told the
world you were doing only a few minutes ago, and leave while
you’re on top.”
–The NBA’s Tim Donaghy nightmare may be hitting a new
level as investigators have confirmed Donaghy made in excess of
130 short phone calls to then fellow referee Scott Foster between
October 2006 and April 2007, a period during which Donaghy
has already confessed to betting on games and/or passing along
information to gamblers. Donaghy is awaiting sentencing later
this month.
–Billy Packer, who has done every Final Four since 1975, was
sent packing. Clark Kellogg will replace him. Big East
commissioner Mike Tranghese said “The only word to describe
Billy is a giant. His passion for the game and presenting it the
way he presented it is, I think, unrivaled. This creates an
incredible void.”
Oh, puh-leeze. It’s freakin’ Billy Packer, for crying out loud.
Trust me, life will go on. Very few announcers in the history of
mankind have truly mattered. In fact I can count on one hand the
number I cared about in my 40+ years of following sports.
[Marv Albert doing Knicks basketball on the radio, the great Bob
Murphy for the Mets, and……………………………that’s about
it. The rest of you have your own old-time baseball announcer, I
imagine, and little more, especially on the national level.]
–Believe it or not, tickets for the U.S. Open men’s final this
September are already going for as much as $10,000.
–A little tidbit from an article on Greenland in Rolling Stone by
Mark Binelli.
“(Explorers) like Robert Peary came to test their mettle against
the harsh climate and win the race to the North Pole. In 1897,
Peary also brought six Inuits back to New York, where they were
housed in the basement of the Museum of Natural History. Four
quickly died; a seven-year-old boy named Minik survived, only
to learn that the museum buried an empty casket at his father’s
‘funeral’ and kept the body for its collection. In 1909, when
Peary finally claimed to have reached the Pole, the San Francisco
Examiner interviewed Minik, then 19. The headline was “Why
Arctic Explorer Peary’s Neglected Eskimo Boy Wants to Shoot
Him.”
Suffice it to say, if Peary had pulled his stunt today, he’d be a
candidate for Bar Chat “Dirtball of the Year.”
–Uh oh…a second climber has died within a week on a guided
trip to Mount McKinley and mountaineers are wondering why
two seemingly healthy men collapsed. Lisa Demer of the
Anchorage Daily News writes:
“The wind picked up, clouds moved in and it began to snow.
[The Indonesian Baruno’s] guide kept asking him whether he felt
nauseous or dizzy. Baruno said he didn’t feel sick, according to
Todd Rutledge, co-owner of the guiding company.
“Then, roped to his guide, maybe 15 minutes from camp, Baruno
gave out. ‘I can’t go on,’ he told his guide, then collapsed. The
others had gone ahead.”
The other climber to die did so after reaching the summit of
Mount McKinley and was also seemingly healthy. A physician
specializing in emergency medicine of this kind said neither died
of altitude sickness – it doesn’t work that fast – but maybe the
lack of oxygen aggravated an underlying condition.
Lisa Demer adds: “Altitude sickness leads to a state of
decreasing consciousness that takes at least 12 hours to be
serious enough to kill and usually longer.”
The guide service for the second death, Mountain Trip, has a
good safety record and they tell clients that climbers should be
able to run six to eight miles in under an hour. They also need to
practice carrying a heavy pack, the company stresses.
Tips on climbing Mount McKinley. Another free feature of Bar
Chat.
–Here’s the deal with Michelle Wie. Because she didn’t earn her
tour card for 2008, she had only six sponsor exemptions for this
year and she has used up all but two of them thus far, earning
about $26,200 by my back of the beer coaster calculation. On
the LPGA Tour you need to finish in the top 80 on the money list
to earn a card for 2009 and last year No. 80 made $117,000.
[She is due to play this week and again in mid-August.]
The issue is Wie doesn’t want to go to Q School, meaning 2009
could easily be another year of part-time play. Ron Sirak of
GolfWorld writes:
“Throughout her career, Wie has never played enough to get any
momentum going – not in junior golf, not as an amateur and not
as a pro. But there is a way for her to get the tournament
experience she needs: Write a letter to the LPGA and ask for a
spot on the Duramed Futures Tour, a request that certainly would
be granted.”
I didn’t even know of this option (I can’t focus on Zimbabwe and
follow Duramed at the same time), but the top-five on this tour
earn an LPGA card for 2009. And Sirak points out that other
past Duramed alumni include none other than Lorena Ochoa and
Inbee (Game) Park. He also adds that it’s clear Wie’s current
approach isn’t working “and a special talent is accumulating
emotional scar tissue instead of the positive competitive
memories that translate into victories.”
Then again, I’m really more concerned with Natalie Gulbis’
slump.
–Sales of rock memorabilia are soaring and collectibles are
hitting one new high after another, with the drumhead featured
on the cover of The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper” album recently going
for $1.1 million. The sports memorabilia market, conversely, is
generally plunging, much of which has to do with baseball and
the bursting of the steroids bubble that impacts the likes of Mark
McGwire and Barry Bonds.
But as David Lieberman notes in USA Today, you still have the
huge issue of forgeries, something that concerns yours truly since
I have a few signed albums. [I buy from the biggest player in the
business, but who the heck really knows?]
Top 3 songs for the week 7/17/65: #1 “(I Can’t Get No)
Satisfaction” (The Rolling Stones) #2 “I Can’t Help Myself”
(Four Tops) #3 “I’m Henry VIII, I Am” (Herman’s Hermits)
…and…#4 “Mr. Tambourine Man” (The Byrds) #5 “Cara, Mia”
(Jay & The Americans) #6 “Yes, I’m Ready” (Barbara Mason)
#7 “Seventh Son” (Johnny Rivers) #8 “You Turn Me On (Turn
On Song)” (Ian Whitcomb) #9 “What The World Needs Now Is
Love” (Jackie DeShannon…call me Mr. Schmaltz, but love this
tune) #10 “What’s New Pussycat?” (Tom Jones…and who’s
better than him?!)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Two to win their second Cy Young
Award at age 35 or older. Randy Johnson, 1999, age 36, 1999.
Gaylord Perry, age 40, 1978.
Note: At the All-Star break, there really isn’t one compelling
story from a statistical standpoint. Sure, Josh Hamilton has a
stupendous 95 ribbies in 96 games, but as recently as 1999,
Manny Ramirez had 165 and last year A-Rod had 156. Texas’
Ian Kinsler has 84 runs scored, on pace for 141, but last year A-
Rod had 143.
But it will be mildly interesting to see if Texas’ Michael Young,
on pace for 199 hits, can get his 6th straight 200-hit season, while
Ichiro guns for his 8th straight, Ichiro being exactly on the 200
pace himself.
No one in either league is a threat to hit 60 homers and in the
A.L. no one is likely to hit 50.
[By the way, here’s one that is kind of cool. No one in the
American League has bested Roger Maris’ 61 since Roger hit
that mark in 1961.]
Alas, one all-time record appears ready to fall, and fall hard; that
being Ryan Howard’s record 199 strikeouts, set just last year.
This season Howard is on a pace to fan 217 times. 217 times!!!
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
