Baseball Quiz: Name the last five to hit four home runs in a
game since Mike Schmidt accomplished the feat in 1976.
Answer below.
The Mary Celeste
When I travel I take along articles that I’ve clipped out for just
such an occasion (i.e., long flights) and I keep forgetting to pass
on a piece from the Nov. 2007 Smithsonian by Jess Blumberg on
the fate of the Mary Celeste, a famous mystery on the high seas.
It was Dec. 5, 1872, when the crew of a British Brig, Dei Gratia,
spotted a ship adrift about 400 miles east of the Azores. The
captain was startled to learn it was the Mary Celeste, which had
left New York City eight days before he had and should have
already arrived in Genoa, Italy.
Capt. David Morehouse sent a boarding party. “Below decks,
the ship’s charts had been tossed about, and the crewmen’s
belongings were still in their quarters. The ship’s only lifeboat
was missing, and one of its pumps had been disassembled. Three
and a half feet of water was sloshing in the ship’s bottom, though
the cargo of 1,701 barrels of industrial alcohol was largely intact.
There was a six-month supply of food and water – but not a soul
to consume it.”
Thus began one of the more durable mysteries in nautical history.
What happened to the crew of ten, including the captain, his wife
and 2-year-old daughter? Jess Blumberg writes:
“Theories have ranged from mutiny to pirates to sea monsters to
killer waterspouts. Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1884 short story based
on the case posited a capture by a vengeful ex-slave, a 1935
movie featured Bela Lugosi as a homicidal sailor. Now, a new
investigation, drawing on maritime technology and newly
discovered documents, has pieced together the most likely
scenario.”
The crew of the Dei Gratia sailed the Mary Celeste 800 miles to
Gibraltar, where a British court convened a salvage hearing, the
kind that were usually limited to determining how much the Dei
Gratia got to keep. The attorney general in charge initially
suspected foul play, though after three months found none.
Eventually, the Dei Gratia received only about 1/6th the value of
the amount the ship had been insured for, the latter being
$46,000.
Enter documentarian Ann MacGregor, who has done work on
disasters such as the Hindenburg. MacGregor began by asking
what didn’t happen. The issue of sea monsters was thus easy to
dismiss, so said she. [Not me, mon.]
The ship’s intact condition, including the cargo, also ruled out
pirates. Another theory that the crew drank the alcohol and
mutinied was crossed off. And at first there seemed little
possibility the captain, Benjamin Spooner Briggs, abandoned
ship.
However, working with oceanographer Phil Richardson and
using a comprehensive database of the waters from that time,
they concluded the Mary Celeste was indeed abandoned on the
morning of November 25, after the last log entry was written.
The bottom line is that on a previous voyage, “the Mary Celeste
had carried coal and the ship had been extensively refitted. Coal
dust and construction debris could have fouled the ship’s pumps,
which would explain the disassembled pump found on the Mary
Celeste. With the pump inoperative, Briggs would not have
known how much seawater was in his ship’s hull, which was too
fully packed for him to measure visually.
“At that point, says MacGregor, Briggs – having come through
rough weather, having finally and belatedly sighted land and
having no way of determining whether his ship would sink –
might well have issued an order to abandon ship.”
Whereupon they were no doubt eaten by sea serpents.
MacGregor says she is continuing her investigation. She must be
very lonely.
Stuff
–Medal of Honor winner, Michael Daly, died. He was 83. The
following is from an obituary by Richard Goldstein in the New
York Times.
“On the morning of April 18, 1945, Lieutenant Daly, serving in
the Army’s Third Infantry Division, was leading his company
through the shell-battered ruins of Nuremberg when the men
came under machine-gun fire.
“Lieutenant Daly moved ahead alone and engaged in four
separate firefights. He destroyed three machine-gun
emplacements – the final one by firing his rifle from a range of
10 yards – and killed 15 Germans. The next day, he was shot in
the face and evacuated. On Aug. 23, 1945, President Harry S.
Truman awarded him the Medal of Honor at the White House.
The day after, he was honored at a parade in Fairfield, Conn.
Speaking then he said:
“We all lose our courage at times. It is something we pray for in
the morning, that God will give us the strength and courage to do
what is right.”
–Next time you have a world map in front of you, take a look at
Lake Baikal in Siberia. It looks smaller than Lakes Michigan
and Superior, for example, but what I find remarkable is that
Baikal contains one-fifth of the world’s fresh water. Because,
sports fans, it is easily the world’s deepest body of fresh water,
some 5,500 feet deep in spots. Or think of diving 14 times the
length of home plate to center field, which is what two Soviet
mini-subs did the other day, the first time this has been
accomplished. The mission was designed to call attention to
efforts to conserve Baikal’s unique ecosystem, which includes
giant serpents measuring 190-feet in length and a 60-foot trout.
–Brett Favre applied for reinstatement to the NFL, a required
step that then forces the Packers to do something – add him,
trade him or release him. The team doesn’t want to release him
because then it’s likely Favre would sign with rival Minnesota,
his favored option, which in turn faces Green Bay at Lambeau
Field in the Monday night opener. Can you imagine that scene?
Alas, this is the last thing the Pack wants to see, having already
committed to Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. As to rumors the
Jets could be interested, I don’t want Favre. I’m actually pretty
confident we’ll have a solid season with what we have.
J-E-T-S….JETS JETS JETS!!!!
But back to Favre, Bill Dwyre of the L.A. Times had these
observations on the locals’ reaction in Green Bay to the circus.
Support for Brett is waning.
“There is only one certainly. If Favre quarterbacks either the
Vikings or the Bears this season, knowing how Packers fans feel
about those teams, the guy in the blue jeans and T-shirt will be a
dead memory. There are some places where loyalty trumps
money and ego, and Wisconsin is one of them.
“If it happens, if Favre goes to the Vikings or Bears, the people
on the bar stools will get used to it. There will be memories of
the Bart Starr years to dig out.
“And there will be rounds of shots and beers, to hoist in toasts to
Aaron Rodgers.”
–Former NBA ref Tim Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in
prison for betting on games. He faced up to 33 months but was
cut a break because of his cooperation in the case. Donaghy
apologized in court and then sought out a bookie to place some
bets on the upcoming Olympic Games’ hoops action.
Meanwhile, the NBA is readying an internal report examining
the scandal and betting among officials, having promised to
release it but as yet giving no date. Expect a total whitewash of
the topic.
–Bud Browne, a former Venice beach lifeguard who became
king of surfer films in the early 1950s, died at 96. As noted by
Dennis McLellan of the L.A. Times, Browne was “A former
captain of the USC swim team who learned to surf while
working as a lifeguard at Venice Beach in 1938. Browne bought
an 8-millimeter movie camera two years later and began making
home movies of his fellow surfers.”
Then in 1947, following the war, he upgraded his camera to a 16-
millimeter Bell & Howell and got serious about shooting the
action on the waves, particularly during his annual trips to
Hawaii.
His first film in 1953 was “Hawaiian Surfing Movies” and after
giving up teaching he launched his career as a surf filmmaker,
releasing a new film each year from ’53 to ’64.
Browne used a camera cased in housing to take his lumps in the
water while getting his film. A few years ago surfing champion
Corky Carroll recalled a day at Pipeline in Hawaii.
“(Browne) told me to surf like he wasn’t there, so I did,” Carroll
noted. “I am tucked deep into this monster barrel, and there is
Bud, right in the way, filming me. I figured that he was gonna
dive under before I ran him down. Wrong. He just stayed right
there filming, and I took him out like a Greyhound bus nailing a
highway dog.”
So you’re probably wondering if this Browne is related to Bruce
Brown of “The Endless Summer” fame. Nope. “Endless
Summer” came out in 1966, with Bruce Brown asking his mentor
for permission before shooting it first. Browne said go for it.
Of course my bringing all this up is really just another excuse to
remind you to get a copy of “The Endless Summer.” It is so
hopelessly politically incorrect and dated that it is laugh out loud
funny.
–Stephen Bleach of the London Times was one of the first
reporters to tour a new mega-resort in Dubai, Atlantis, 1,539
rooms that open on Sept. 24. Bleach called the whole project
“ludicrous,” a “Peter Jackson fantasy meets arabesque meets
Hilton high-rise, all painted a slightly queasy frozen-prawn pink.
I’m not sure it’s what Plato had in mind.”
There are 17 restaurants, with some of the best chefs in the world
having outlets here, and the total size of the complex is 114
acres. Plus it has a giant lagoon that the rooms face with 65,000
specimens of fish, “twice as many as the London Aquarium.”
–Annika Sorenstam, on Michelle Wie’s decision to play on the
men’s tour this week instead of the Women’s British Open, a
major for which she was going to have to qualify.
“I really don’t know why Michelle continues to do this. We have
a major this week and, if you can’t qualify for a major, I don’t
see any reason why you should play with the men.”
–Bar Chat has learned John McCain is selecting Wilford
Brimley as his running mate, while some of us are ready to write
in the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore. “Cantore…experience
under fire and the ability to see the future.”
–Oh baby….this is exciting…Shaikh Azizur Rahman / South
China Morning Post.
“Indian environmental authorities last week released 57 captive-
bred adult crocodiles into a sensitive mangrove forest to ward off
illegal loggers and poachers.
“The estuarine Bhitarkanika mangrove forest in the eastern state
of Orissa is the second-largest such ecosystem in India.
“Crisscrossed with rivers and spread over 672 sq. km. of coastal
wetlands, the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary is home to a vast
array of wildlife, including more than 215 species of birds. But
it has come under increased pressure from loggers, hunters and
poor villagers.
“Orissa forest officials hit on the novel method after analyzing
satellite photos, which showed that areas known to be infested
with wild crocodiles were suffering little loss of trees. In an
experiment last year, they freed some crocodiles near a captive
breeding center in Bhitarkanika.
“ ‘We became sure that just because the giant crocodiles were
present in huge numbers inside Bhitarkanika, unauthorized
people were afraid to enter the area. So we took some adult
crocodiles from our breeding park and released them in the rivers
around the greater sanctuary area, and it worked like a magic
deterrent,” assistant forest conservation officer Golaksha Rout
said.
“In a three-year plan, the authorities hope to release up to 500
crocodiles into the area’s rivers.
“India’s largest mangrove forest – the Sundarbans, which
stretches across the Ganges Delta and into Bangladesh – has long
been guarded from intruders by a population of tigers,
conservationist Biswajit Mohanty pointed out.
“ ‘Because of the man-eating tigers, the Sundarbans mangrove
forest has largely remained safe from timber mafia, while
everywhere in the country, illegal deforestation is going on
unchecked.’
“Wild crocodiles have killed 50 people in Orissa in the past 10
years. Some are reputed to have leaped out of the water to seize
fishermen.”
Yes, here’s the key, boys and girls.
“ ‘Unlike guard dogs, crocodiles cannot be tamed and are
ferocious, and can attack anyone in the swamps or boats or
canoes,’ said another wildlife officer.”
Forget the Slomin’s Shield. Get a croc instead.
–Many of us are a bit disgusted with our choice of candidates
this fall, so I can’t help but note the candidacy of Willie Bean
Roscoe P. Coltrane for mayor of Fairhope, Alaska. Willie Bean
is a 7-year-old yellow Labrador retriever whose owner launched
his pooch into the race, as reported by the AP.
Willie Bean is said to be a bit timid, however. Not exactly ready
for prime time, you might say.
But owner Tress Turner, who manages The Coffee Loft in town,
the dog’s campaign headquarters, said her customers were sick
of the other six alternatives and it was like, ‘You know what? We
are going to let Willie Bean run for mayor,’ Turner said.
Alas, it turns out Willie Bean has missed the qualifying deadline.
But back in 2004, Rabbit Hash, Ky., elected Junior Cochran, a
black Lab, as mayor; the second such canine to hold office in this
small Northern Kentucky town.
–And now it’s……………………………………
THE COORS LIGHT/BAR CHAT ALL-SPECIES LIST
1. Gibbons…replaces a plummeting beaver from the 1/17/08
edition (see below) as all the evidence shows Gibbons’
understood before others that not only was Roger Clemens a
fraud, but that Willie Randolph would be fired during a west
coast road trip.
2. Dogs…4th on the 6/07 list, 3rd in 1/08, dogs appear to be
poised to snare the top slot.
3. Grizzlies…on a roll as they supply more fodder than Britney’s
ongoing comeback. Worthy of respect.
4. Kamchatka Bears…appearing on the charts a first time, and
with a bullet, their professional assault on the mining camp in
Kamchatka makes you wonder where they’ve been hiding all
these years.
5. New Caledonian crows…our own Dr. Bortrum wrote in March
of this year of the tool-making expertise of these incredibly smart
birds who have been hired as spokesbirds for Home Depot.
6. Orangutans…hard behind the New Caledonian crow due to its
confounding naturalists in learning to swim across rivers and to
fish with sticks, something they picked up from crows, not us.
7. Groupers…taste delicious, but also protective of deep-sea
divers, as explained in a story by my friend Father Bill.
8. Dolphins…still hanging in there at No. 8 for a second straight
time, but can’t move them up any higher until they start speaking
English.
9. Tigers…see above story on Sundarbans.
10. Killer whales….continue to outsmart the incredibly overrated
seal on a daily basis.
11. Elephants…slipped two notches but still winning the war in
India.
12. Cape Water Buffalo….you’ve all seen the Battle at Kruger.
Need I say more?! But CWB needs to follow up soon or it could
plunge back below 50 as many still question its overall
intelligence.
13. Badgers…up from No. 19, this underrated and ferocious
killer is one of our more effective weapons against the Evil Ones.
14. Yaks…based primarily in Mongolia, helped stem post-
election violence there recently through the use of artful
diplomacy. Mangy, yet quite tasty and nutritious as well.
15. Beavers…OK, had been No. 1 as a result of its avoiding the
subprime mortgage disaster, but then on Tuesday we learned it
was swept up in the Sen. Ted Stevens scandal and extensive
additions to his Alaska home that the senator didn’t declare on
his financial disclosure forms. The Dept. of Justice, in indicting
Stevens, said executives at Beaver Homes were uncooperative.
16. Chimps…really just tired of their nasty attitude. Plus they
like to fling stuff at you when observing them in a zoo…and it’s
not pleasant.
17. House cats…slipping. Attempting to find out why.
18. Lions…should be higher, but see No. 12 above, plus failed
recently to take out Robert Mugabe.
19. Condors…continue to fly above it all.
20. Wildebeest…good guys, the perfect neighbor.
21. Crocodiles…after the above story in India, I expect them to
crack top ten shortly.
22. Man…slips a notch. The Big Guy looks at the performance
and just shakes His head, especially given the tools we’re
provided.
23. Raccoon…had been No. 10 but is swept up in the mortgage
fraud investigation.
24. Polar bears…increasingly on thin ice.
25. Wolves…should be higher but waiting for a reason to move
them up.
97. Jets fans
98. Ferrets
99. Pigeons
100. Plankton
Top 3 songs for the week 7/26/69: #1 “In The Year 2525”
(Zager & Evans…dreadful) #2 “Crystal Blue Persuasion”
(Tommy James & The Shondells…one of your editor’s top three
all time) #3 “Spinning Wheel” (Blood, Sweat & Tears)…and…
#4 “My Cherie Amour” (Stevie Wonder) #5 “What Does It Take
(To Win Your Love)” (Jr. Walker & The All Stars…best
beginning to a rock ‘n’ roll/soul tune of all time) #6 “Good
Morning Starshine” (Oliver…not related to former Pirates and
Rangers’ slugger Al Oliver) #7 “One” (Three Dog Night) #8
“The Ballad Of John And Yoko” (The Beatles) #9 “Baby, I
Love You” (Andy Kim) #10 “Love Theme From Romeo &
Juliet” (Henry Mancini)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Four home runs in a game since 1976.
Bob Horner, Atlanta, 1986; Mark Whiten, St. Louis, 1993; Mike
Cameron, Seattle, 2002; Shawn Green, L.A. Dodgers, 2002;
Carlos Delgado, Toronto, 2003.
