Baseball Quiz: Name the four, in either league, to win a Rookie of the Year award in the 1960s and then go on to win the MVP later in their careers. Answer below.
We take you back to forty years ago and one of the worst days for the NBC network. It was the fall of 1968, a great one for fans of AFL football. The games were fun to watch and full of legendary characters. As the November 17 battle between the Oakland Raiders and New York Jets drew near, both teams were at 7-2 and seemed on a collision course for the AFL championship and the right to represent the league at Super Bowl III.
The game was living up to its billing when with 65 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, the Jets’ Jim Turner kicked a 26-yard field goal to put the Jets up 32-29.
The game was being televised on NBC and had started at 4:07 p.m. Eastern Time. As 7:00 p.m. drew near, executives at the network were preparing to make television history…and they didn’t know it.
After the kickoff from the Jets, the Raiders had 60 seconds on the clock to try and at least tie the game up. They took the ball on their own 22-yard line and quarterback Daryl Lamonica worked a 20-yard pass play to Charlie Smith. But a 15-yard facemask penalty moved the ball down to about the Jets 43 when suddenly the millions of viewers watching across the land, including yours truly, were treated to 60 seconds of commercials and a musical billboard leading into the movie “Heidi.”
The switchboard lit up at NBC’s New York City headquarters, as well as stations across the land. I remember how ticked off I was…even though I wanted to watch the movie as well, I have to admit.
Actually, at 6:53 p.m. ET, network officials had decided to stick with the game but NBC later said it was confusion in their communications system that caused the cutoff.
And so what we all missed was seeing a 43-yard touchdown pass from Lamonica to Smith that put Oakland ahead, 35-32, with 42 seconds to play. Then on the ensuing kickoff, the Jets’ Earl Christy fumbled and the Raiders recovered in the end zone with 33 seconds left for the final score, Raiders 43 – Jets 32.
The calls into the network were so crushing that the board shut down. It wasn’t until 22 minutes into “Heidi” that NBC ran a crawl on the bottom of the screen giving the final score. [This was long before ESPN or the Internet, folks. If you couldn’t quickly switch on the Raiders or Jets radio networks, you were totally in the dark.]
The viewer outrage lasted well over 24 hours. NBC president Julius Goodman actually issued a statement from his home around 8:30 p.m. telling the world that he, too, was a bit miffed he hadn’t seen the conclusion of the game either, but that “it was a forgivable error committed by humans who were concerned about children expecting to see Heidi.”
As for the Jets and Raiders, the Jets recovered to win their last four games, finishing 11-3, while the Raiders went on to close with a 12-2 record. The Raiders then had a playoff with the 12-2 Kansas City Chiefs for the right to meet the Jets for the AFL Championship.
The Raiders whipped the Chiefs 41-6 and then the Jets defeated the Raiders in the grudge match, 27-23. For Joe Namath and Company, it was on to the Super Bowl and destiny.
One other postscript: Seven years later, the Raiders and Washington Redskins were tied at 23-23 at the end of regulation with “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” scheduled to begin when the game ended. NBC wisely stuck with the game for 45 minutes before George Blanda’s field goal gave the Raiders a 26-23 victory. In the Eastern time zone, viewers missed the movie’s first 45 minutes. [Source: “Total Football”]
–The LPGA is looking at a 2009 schedule that will be down two to three tournaments and $4 million to $5 million in prize money, according to Carolyn Bivens, the tour’s commissioner, and Larry Dorman of the New York Times. Bivens told Dorman, “The headline for us, I would say, is that no renewal – no partner, no sponsor, no contract – is an automatic renewal. That means for us and for just about every other sports organization.”
For its part the PGA Tour continues to be adamant it sees no changes for 2009, though what I didn’t know until reading Dorman’s piece is that the PGA has a large reserve fund for contingencies should a bankrupt sponsor be forced to pull out in any year. I’ve argued the PGA Tour will face its own day of reckoning in 2010.
[Actually, the PGA was just informed that Buick, the official car of the tour, will not be providing courtesy cars next year, thanks to the problems with parent GM. Separately, we also learned GM isn’t doing any ads on the Super Bowl, another harbinger of things to come.]
–I returned home last Sunday to see some NFL highlights and on Monday, Mark R. reminded me of the actions of Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb in overtime against Cincinnati, a game that ended in a tie, and it really is remarkable. Aside from throwing three interceptions and fumbling, McNabb had no clue that a regular season game had only one full overtime period.
“I didn’t know that,” he said after. “I’ve never been part of a tie. I never even knew it was in the rule book. I was looking forward to getting the opportunity to get out there and try to drive to win the game. But unfortunately with the rules, we settled with a tie.”
Ashley Fox / Philadelphia Inquirer:
“Here’s a little more knowledge for Super Five [ed. McNabb’s number]: This season is over. That 13-13 tie with the Cincinnati Bengals, a team with one win all season, ensured that the Eagles are going nowhere. The playoffs? Forget about it.”
It also turns out there were at least four other Eagles who didn’t know the overtime rule. Absolutely incredible. Not one of you reading this doesn’t know it. What the hell do you pay these guys astounding figures for, anyway?
–As for the end of the Steelers-Chargers game, Steve Serby of the New York Post had the following comment:
“The NFL won’t have any sympathy for all the bettors who had the Steelers minus 4 ½ or 5 against the Chargers on Sunday night, because the league has always refused to acknowledge that these are the urchins within its constituency who drive its popularity and gazillion-dollar empire.
“And though the NFL couldn’t care less about outraged Steelers bettors who lost $32 million because of yet another officiating fumble storming the Las Vegas sportsbooks yesterday, today or tomorrow, the league ought to care about the integrity of its playoff tiebreaker system and how it could directly impact the Steelers and their AFC brethren.
“NFL, you admitted you got The Touchdown That Was Ultimately Ruled No Touchdown wrong. Now get it right.
“The final score, after further review, after Troy Polamalu’s Touchdown That Was Ultimately Ruled No Touchdown on the last play of the game, should be 17-10, or 18-10, not 11-10.
“7. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed.
“8. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed.
“The Steelers are not making any public stink over it. ‘We’re just moving forward; that play is in the rearview mirror,’ Steelers communications coordinator Dave Lockett said yesterday.
“Let’s see what they’re saying if they finish in a dead heat for the final wild card playoff berth with, say, the Ravens or Patriots, and those six points mean layoff instead of playoffs.”
–As Skip Wood points out in USA Today, the four West Coast teams in the NFL, San Diego, Seattle, Oakland and San Francisco, are a combined 0-11 in the Eastern time zone this season. Throw in the Arizona Cardinals and it’s 0-14.
Granted, the West Coast teams overall aren’t much better; 4-6, 2-8, 2-8, and 3-7, but it’s never been good for teams going from West to East, losing three hours and playing at 1:00 p.m.
–I join the New York Times’ George Vecsey in going against Barack Obama and the other 99% of college football fans who want a playoff. Vecsey:
“College football was made for controversy, for letting old players and old fans and old coaches bicker into their dotage. After the 2003 season, the writers who vote in the Associated Press poll staged a rebellion, voting for Southern California, which had made a strong showing in the Rose Bowl. The coaches were obligated to vote for Louisiana State, the winner of the Sugar Bowl, the designated championship game.
“That little override by the writers created co-champions, and more important, sustained the human bickering that is so endearing to college football.
“The reality is that a playoff format would omit conference runner-ups that just might think they are among the best eight teams in the country. Watch the politicking that will ensue if Oklahoma knocks off Texas Tech on Saturday night. It’s great fun to watch institutions of higher learning squirm when only two bids matter.
“With all due respect to the new president, college football does not need to be sensible.”
–And now…your picks to click this weekend. [Wednesday’s line]
Take Rutgers, giving 17 ½ to Army
Take Wake Forest, giving 2 to Boston College
Take Maryland, giving 1 to Florida State
Take Arkansas State, giving 5 to Florida Atlantic
Take Middle Tennessee State, giving 20 to North Texas
–Defending champion Wake Forest is the No. 1 seed in the men’s soccer tournament. Wake finished the regular season 18-1-1 (having lost to Virginia in the ACC tourney semis) and outscored its opponents 68-16. Go Deacs!
–Per the above sports quiz, congratulations to Boston’s Dustin Pedroia, who one year after being named A.L. Rookie of the Year won the MVP vote for 2008. Pedroia was the first A.L. second-sacker to win since Nellie Fox in 1959. I just have to note that the great, clutch Alex Rodriguez was 8th in the balloting.
–I can’t believe Albert Pujols, he of the fourth-place St. Louis Cardinals, won the MVP vote over the Phillies’ Ryan Howard.
–In a new book ranking the presidents, Alvin Felzenberg lays out six criteria: “character,” “vision,” “competence,” “economic policy,” “preserving and extending liberty,” and “defense, national security, and foreign policy.”
So he comes up with Lincoln #1, Washington #2, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, tied for #3, Dwight Eisenhower #5, FDR #6, and a five-way tie for seventh among Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, Harry Truman, and JFK. [George W. Bush isn’t evaluated.]
As noted in a story by the editors of The American (November/December issue):
“All readers will have their quibbles with the list. But Felzenberg’s book is well researched and thought provoking. We were struck, in particular, by his efforts to boost the reputations of Presidents Taylor, Grant, Calvin Coolidge, and Benjamin Harrison, all of whom the author regards as underrated and underappreciated.
“Had Taylor not died 16 months into his presidency, he ‘might well have killed secessionist agitation in its cradle.’ Coolidge and Harrison both get high marks on character. As Felzenberg points out, Harrison fought (unsuccessfully) to guarantee African-American voting rights and was ‘the first president to call for a federal antilynching law.’ Civil rights icon Frederick Douglass gave Harrison high praise: ‘To my mind,’ Douglass said, ‘we never had a better president.’
“Grant, meanwhile, ‘was the last president before Dwight D. Eisenhower to send federal troops to the South to protect the right of blacks to vote.’ He ‘destroyed’ the earliest version of the Ku Klux Klan and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875. His administration was plagued by scandals, but ‘when compared to scandals of more recent vintage, those that transpired under Grant were of short duration, inflicted no long-term damage on governmental institutions, did not involve Grant personally, and did not encroach upon the civil liberties of other Americans.’”
Well, you know why I had to include this piece. Per my Bar Chat of a few weeks ago involving another presidential ranking, Grant continues to be reassessed, positively, all these years later. Alvin Felzenberg’s book is titled “The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn’t): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game.”
–The New Jersey Institute of Technology, which moved to Division I men’s basketball two years ago, set an NCAA record with its 35th straight loss in falling to Penn State the other night. Since moving to D-I, NJIT is 5-55.
–I have to admit I can’t get into college basketball until January, and I caught just a little of Tuesday night’s action, including UNC-Kentucky, but No. 21 Davidson certainly acquitted itself well in playing at No. 14 Oklahoma. Or rather, Davidson All-American Stephen Curry did…scoring 44 in the 82-78 loss. Oklahoma’s own All-American, forward Blake Griffin, had 25 points and 21 rebounds. The sophomore is a lock top five pick should he opt to go early next spring.
–We note the passing of Hall of Fame basketball coach Pete Newell, 93. Newell, who coached Cal-Berkeley to the 1959 NCAA title, is one of just three, the others being Dean Smith and Bob Knight, to also guide teams to the NIT title (when it meant something) and an Olympic gold medal. Jerry West, who played for Newell on the winning 1960 Olympic team, said of his friend and mentor, “When you are around a guy like him, you realize how beloved he really is. He was a great teacher. He loved basketball. He loved to teach young kids how to play the game.”
Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979, in later years, Newell was best known for his “Big Man Camp” where more than 250 NBA players participated, including the likes of Shaq, Hakeem Olajuwon, James Worthy, Scottie Pippen, Sam Perkins and Jermaine O’Neal. As Newell said in 2005, guards weren’t invited.
“I just don’t feel I could do what I want to do, which is keep the American center in business.” Newell considered today’s players “over-coached but under-taught,” meaning coaches focus too much on strategy without teaching players fundamental skills.
When Knight was a young coach at Army, he became friends with Newell.
“In all of sport, I think Pete is the least-known outstanding figure there is. He was at his best at a time when media coverage was nothing like it is now. Just imagine if he won the NCAA title today, went back to the title game the following year (1960), then coached the Olympic team. He’d be at the forefront of everything.”
And I liked what the New York Times’ Harvey Araton wrote the other day.
“Newell…always loved to talk about the centers that flocked to the big man camp he became known for in the later stages of his career. ‘We have an adage at camp,’ he said in one of several telephone interviews we did. ‘The quality of your shot will depend on the quality of your footwork.’
“Newell would say, in a nutshell, without reservation, that that was the difference between Hakeem Olajuwon winning two N.B.A. championships with the Houston Rockets and Patrick Ewing’s failing to win one with the Knicks. In the early years of Ewing’s career, the Knicks begged their franchise center to attend Newell’s camp to better learn the fundamentals of interior play. They knew how much Newell had helped the young Bernard King become a nearly unstoppable force on the low post, a small forward who could launch his turnaround jump shot at will because his balance and footwork were sublime.
“Ewing steadfastly refused. The Newell camp was in the west. Ewing was an East Coast guy, part of the Georgetown cabal. Great as he was, Ewing never did develop great foot skills in the post, often taking the path of least resistance, relying on his athleticism to get to the basket, or release his shots, until those natural gifts faded.
“The difference between Ewing and Olajuwon, who did attend Newell’s camps, was obvious when they squared off in the 1994 finals.”
–Uh oh…mountain lion expert Jon Jenks of South Dakota State University has been doing research on the Black Hills cougar population and, according to High Plains Journal, “has made some discoveries that are shocking.”
Jenks and his team captured 23 cougars in the Black Hills during 2003-04 and outfitted them with radio-transmitters.
“We’ve documented record dispersal movements of mountain lions from the Black Hills, South Dakota, to Oklahoma, and just recently, to (Canada’s) Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.”
You’ll also recall that last spring a mountain lion was found in Chicago that had traveled from the Black Hills.
–From AFP: “Even Popeye’s stomach would probably have churned at the grisly find made by a 32-year-old mother from Vienna who decided to cook frozen spinach for her family’s evening meal, the daily Oesterreich reported on Tuesday.
“Martina R. told the newspaper she thought the spinach was a bit ‘lumpy’ as it bubbled in the saucepan.
“But it was only when she went to dish out a serving for her young daughter that she noticed there was a dead frog in it.
“ ‘My stomach turned. It was almost whole, except for a missing leg which I probably knocked off when I stirred the spinach,’ the shocked housewife said.
“She complained to the supermarket where she had bought the spinach and the manager presented her with a free packet of coffee as compensation.”
–Speaking of frogs and their cousin the toad, Trader George passed on an important Bloomberg story.
“Toxic cane toads are threatening Australia’s freshwater crocodile population as their numbers explode in the country’s Northern Territory, a scientist said. The toads have poisonous sacs on their heads and prove deadly when eaten by the crocodiles, which are smaller and grow at a smaller pace than their saltwater counterparts. In some waterways, their numbers have been cut in half.”
Well, we’ve had articles before on the destructive power of the cane toad, but this is depressing. It was introduced to Australia in 1935 from central and South America as a way of combating beetles destroying sugar cane crops and then things went haywire.
“A babysitter’s parrot is being credited with helping save the life of a 2-year-old girl who was choking Friday at a Denver area home while the sitter was in the bathroom.
“ ‘While I was in the bathroom, Willie (the parrot) started screaming like I’d never heard him scream before and he started flapping his wings,’ said Meagan, the babysitter. ‘Then he started saying ‘mama baby’ over and over and over again until I came out and looked at Hannah and Hannah’s face was turning blue because she was choking on her pop tart.’”
[This reminds me, I used to love cinnamon pop tarts and haven’t had them in quite a while. Time to go shopping….but first, back to our story.]
“Meagan performed the Heimlich maneuver on Hannah, which stopped the choking.
“ ‘If (Willie) wouldn’t have warned me, I probably wouldn’t have come out of the bathroom in time because she was already turning blue, her lips were blue and everything,’ Meagan said.
[Which reminds me…I remember as a kid the movie “Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here,” starring Robert Redford and Katharine Ross. But I digress. Back to our story.]
“ ‘If anything happened to her, I don’t know what I would do,’ said Samantha Kuusk, Hannah’s mother. ‘I’m very grateful for the both of them because they both saved her.’”
Actually, when CBS sent a reporter, Karlyn Tilley, to visit Willie (no relation to Willie Mays), Tilley notes:
“He says ‘I love you’ and he says ‘mama’ and he says ‘step up’ and some other words that aren’t so nice.”
Well, Bob S.’s original point on passing along this story was that parrots clearly need to move up on the next All-Species List, to be posted early next year. I agree, though with the language they use it could be with an asterisk.
As for Meagan the Babysitter, how irresponsible can you be? I suppose when Hannah is on the floor with a bunch of Tinker Toys (they still have them, don’t they?) and is at risk of choking to death on a piece, Meagan will be in the bathroom, making herself look pretty for the boyfriend who is about to come over.
–You all keep sending me notes on what a good guy Bruce Springsteen is on the humanitarian front….I know, I know! But the other night I saw a story on NBC News about a man who specializes in building full homes for disabled veterans and two celebrities were mentioned as being critical to the success of the venture…Phil Mickelson and Billy Joel. So, just had to get out there that there is more than one celeb doing the right thing these days. Actually, Lefty does this kind of thing all the time.
But speaking of the Boss, who is focusing his charitable efforts on New Jersey’s Food Bank these days, his new album is scheduled for release on Jan. 27, quite a quick turnaround from “Magic.” In an interview with the Star-Ledger’s Jay Lustig, Springsteen says:
“Towards the end of recording ‘Magic,’ excited by the return to pop production sounds, I continued writing….Over the course of the next year, that’s just what we did, recording with the E Street Band during the breaks on last year’s tour. I hope ‘Working on a Dream’ has caught the energy of the band fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we’ve ever done. All the songs were written quickly, we usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end.”
Of course Springsteen and the band are doing the Super Bowl half-time show on Feb. 1 as well. Good timing, eh? But for those of you who can’t get enough, here are the songs that will be on the album.
“Outlaw Pete,” “My Lucky Day,” “Working on a Dream,” “Queen of the Supermarket,” “What Love Can Do,” “This Life,” “Good Eye,” “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “Life Itself,” “Kingdom of Days,” “Surprise, Surprise,” “The Last Carnival,”…and… bonus tracks “The Wrestler” and “A Night with the Jersey Devil.”
–The Chipmunks are 50 years old. It was in 1958 that songwriter Ross Bagdasarian, struggling to pay his mortgage, wrote a tune called “Witch Doctor” and he sped up the vocals on his tape recorder. As Ramin Setoodeh reported in Newsweek, “Although the lyrics sounded like a coughing train engine (‘ooo eee ooo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang’), it became a hit, and the Chipmunks were born as the squeaky voices of the song.”
–Rolling Stone asked a varied panel, including the likes of Felix Cavaliere (The Rascals), Clive Davis, Dion, Carol King, Billy Joel, Loretta Lynn, Keith Richards, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt and Brian Wilson, to select their 20 favorite vocalists from the rock era. The Top Ten:
1. Aretha Franklin 2. Ray Charles 3. Elvis Presley 4. Sam Cooke 5. John Lennon 6. Marvin Gaye 7. Bob Dylan 8. Otis Redding 9. Stevie Wonder 10. James Brown
11. Paul McCartney 12. Little Richard 14. Al Green 15. Robert Plant 16. Mick Jagger 18. Freddie Mercury 21. Johnny Cash 25. Michael Jackson 32. Bono 35. Dusty Springfield 36. Springsteen 38. Elton John 40. Curtis Mayfield 43. George Jones 47. Jim Morrison 48. Buddy Holly and 50. Bonnie Raitt
Top 3 songs for the week 11/24/79: #1 “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” (Barbra Streisand/Donna Summer) #2 “Babe” (Styx) #3 “Still” (Commodores)…and…#4 “Dim All The Lights” (Donna Summer) #5 “Heartache Tonight” (Eagles) #6 “Please Don’t Go” (K.C. Sunshine Band) #7 “You Decorated My Life” (Kenny Rogers) #8 “Send One Your Love” (Stevie Wonder) #9 “Tusk” (Fleetwood Mac) #10 “Pop Muzik” (M)
Baseball Quiz Answer: In light of Dustin Pedroia’s rookie of the year/MVP double the past two seasons, ESPN.com had the full list of those who had accomplished both. So the four in the 60s were: Pete Rose (ROY ’63 / MVP ’73); Richie Allen (’64 / ’72); Rod Carew (’67 / ’76); and Johnny Bench (’68 / ’70, ’72). By the way, it’s only right that the first to do this was Jackie Robinson, who was rookie of the year in 1947, the first season it was awarded. Two years later he was MVP.
