Annika Sorenstam Quiz: 1) With her retirement, how many LPGA events did Annika win in her career? 2) What two Hall of Famers does she trail in this category? Answers below.
Ron Santo got screwed again as Baseball’s Veterans Committee, comprised of living Hall of Famers, failed to give Santo the 75 percent necessary for enshrinement. Instead, a player who’s been dead 30 years, Joe Gordon, got in on the pre-1943 list.
Paul Sullivan / Chicago Tribune
“The longer he goes without getting the call from the Hall of Fame, the easier it is for Ron Santo to rebound.
“ Santo received 39 votes, or 61 percent [of 64 who voted.] No one on the ballot came close to getting in, the fourth straight time the Veterans Committee has failed to elect a member.
“ ‘ ‘I thought it was going to be harder to deal with, but it wasn’t,’ Santo said by phone from his Scottsdale, Ariz. home.
“ ‘I’m just kind of fed up with it. I figure, hey, it’s not in the cards. But I don’t want to go through this every two years. It’s ridiculous.’”
Cubs general manager Jim Hendry called it a “terribly devastating day” for Santo.
As Johnny Mac said, “Sometimes you gotta shake your head. You’d have thought they learned their lesson with the Buck O’Neil fiasco. Santo has given his entire life, and two limbs [lost to diabetes] to the game of baseball. His acceptance speech would have been one for the ages. And as decent a player as Joe Gordon was, he was certainly not demonstrably better than Santo.”
You know, I just looked up Gordon’s stats and he had a nice 11-year career, seven with the Yankees, and for a second baseman he had good power, 253 homeruns (Gordon was the first second-sacker to hit 20 in a season). He also lost two years to WWII (1944-45), while being A.L. MVP in the war-depleted season of 1942.
But he only hit .268, and just .243 in 29 World Series games. Nonetheless Gordon received 10 of 12 votes from the Veterans Committee members voting on the pre-1943 ballot. 9 was needed for enshrinement on this one. [Allie Reynolds received 8.]
Back to the post-1942 ballot…Jim Kaat garnered 38 of 64, while Gil Hodges only picked up 28 and Joe Torre 19 votes.
But there is this nice tale concerning Gordon from the Star-Ledger’s Jerry Izenberg.
“He was a baseball man, which is why on a steamy afternoon in Chicago he was so offended by what he saw in his own locker room [Gordon was with Cleveland at the time] that he befriended a brilliant rookie faced with a crisis only one other man – Jackie Robinson in the National League – had faced.
“His name was Larry Doby and he was the first Afro-American to play in the American League. On the day he stepped across the threshold into history only three of his ‘teammates’ shook his hand. When he walked down the tunnel, up the dugout steps, onto the playing field, he was never more alone in his life. All around him he heard the familiar pop of a dozen baseballs hitting the pockets of the gloves of those warming up. He was surrounded by men who were supposed to be his teammates.
“But nobody threw him the ball. He stood there half-frozen between heartache and anger.
“Then Gordon came over and said, ‘Hey, rookie, you gonna stand there all day and pose or are you gonna get loose with me?’ They paired off and threw the ball back and forth. Unlike many others who now offer a revisionist version of history, Gordon was there for a friendless 23-year-old pioneer when it counted.
Seeing as this was the 40th anniversary of McLain’s spectacular 31-6 season for the Detroit Tigers, I meant to do a little bit on him during the season.
McLain burst on the scene as a 21-year-old, going 16-6 in his first full season. By the time he was 25, he had already accumulated 114 wins in the big leagues, including seasons of 20-14, 24-9 and the 31-6 campaign. He was A.L. MVP and Cy Young award winner in ’68, and then repeated as the Cy Young recipient in ’69.
During 1968, McLain completed 28 of his 41 starts and struck out 280 in 336 innings to go along with a 1.96 ERA. Recently he was interviewed by the Sporting News’ Stan McNeal and pointed to one particular inning during the season that stood out.
“(1968) was the year that I finally picked up what (pitching coach) Johnny Sain was trying to teach and that led to a large portion of my success. He said to have success, we had to throw and throw. I started every four games and threw every day, sometimes for five minutes, sometimes for 20. Every time you went out, he wanted you to learn something and then apply it.
“The one inning that has stayed with me came at Boston (August 16). They had won the pennant in ’67, and we were trying to put distance between us and them. They had runners on second and third and no outs (with Detroit leading, 2-0, in the sixth) when (manager) Mayo Smith came out to get me. I looked at him and said, ‘I’m not giving you the (expletive) ball.’ He could have just asked the umpire for another one, but he didn’t. ‘Don’t (mess) up,’ he said.
“(Catcher) Bill Freehan looks at me and says, ‘Pitch these guys like it’s the end of the world.’ Literally, nine pitches later I had struck out Dalton Jones, Carl Yastrzemski and Kenny Harrelson. I went back to the dugout and said, ‘(Take that), Mayo.’ Those were the best nine pitches I threw all year. Jones and Yaz were lowball hitters, and I was a high-ball pitcher and got them to chase fastballs up. I threw Harrelson two sliders and sat him down. My control that year was better than it ever was.”
Alas, McLain may have won 114 games by age 25, but he only won 17 the rest of his career and he was out of the game at 28. His life off the ballfield spiraled out of control as well and he spent more than eight years in prison.
“I thought McLain was a real fun guy. He sure as hell liked to have fun. You probably remember that McLain played the organ in nightclubs. Well, Denny was scheduled to pitch the first game of the World Series (’68), but the night before the game, where was Denny? Down in the hotel lounge, playing the organ until two in the morning. And we were playing a day game the next day, too. Hell, I knew I wasn’t going to get off the bench, but I left the lounge by midnight and went to bed. Not Denny. He closed the place.
“People would ask me, ‘How come you get along with McLain so well?’ And I’d say, ‘Well, he’s already alienated everybody else on the team. I’m just a rookie, so he’s breaking me in.’ McLain was generous, too. He’d always pick up the check whenever we went out, which I appreciated because I was only making about 10 grand for the year. Denny was making at least 60.
“Another thing about Denny is that he was the worst card-player in the history of baseball. We had a card-playing team, and we played a lot of poker on the road, usually in Gates Brown and Willie Horton’s room. You know this was in the old days because we all had roommates. These prima donnas today have suites all to themselves. Anyway, we’d always let McLain in the game because he was such a bad card-player. Pat Dobson nicknamed him ‘the Dolphin’ because he was such a fish. We’d be playing five-card stud, and McLain would have an ace, king, two, three…all different suits, and he’d look at his cards and say, ‘Oh, let’s see now…yeah, I’ll call that 10-dollar raise.’ And I’d be thinking, ‘What in the hell is he gonna make out of that damn hand? He ain’t got a prayer for anything.’ But that was Denny.”
Warden also told of the time Mickey Mantle was making his last appearance in Detroit, the Tigers had clinched the pennant but it was McLain’s turn in the rotation.
“McLain’s throwing a shutout going into the seventh or eighth inning, and we’ve got the game won when Mantle comes up for his last time in Tiger Stadium. McLain calls Freehan out to the mound and says to him, ‘Tell Mantle it’s coming right down the middle. I want to see him hit one outta here one last time.’ Freehan goes back to the plate and gives Mantle the message.
“Well, the Yankees all know how goofy McLain is, so Mantle says, ‘Yeah, right.’ But the first pitch is right down the middle, just like McLain said it would be, and Mantle fouls it off. Mantle looks out at Denny, and Denny nods at him. The next pitch is right down the middle too, and Mantle hits a rocket into the upper deck in right that curves just foul.
“So Mantle takes his right hand and holds it out over the plate to indicate to McLain, ‘Just a little higher.’
“Now, McLain could thread a needle with his fastball, so he puts it right where Mantle had asked for it, and BOOM: Mantle hit that sucker a ton – upper deck, home run. And as Mantle runs around the bases Denny takes off his glove and claps for him; our second baseman, Dick McAuliffe, takes off his glove and claps too. Hell, the whole team was clapping.
“Joe Pepitone is up next. He digs in, looks out at Denny, and motions just like Mantle did: ‘Put her right here, Denny, old boy.’ McLain threw a fastball right at his ear hole and knocked him on his ass.
“After the game some of the writers who were worried about the integrity of the game and all that crap were all over Denny: ‘Did you let Mantle hit that home run?’ So Denny had to deny it: ‘Oh, no. I really juiced that ball. Mantle just had a helluva swing.’ We all knew different.” [“Tales from the Dugout,” by Mike Shannon]
Then there was the other side of McLain. On April 1, 1970, just a few days before Opening Day, McLain was suspended from baseball for ninety days for associating with known gamblers, frequenting a bar that housed a bookmaking operation, and investing in a bookmaking operation.
Commissioner Bowie Kuhn: “It was never clear just exactly what the depth of his involvement was, but McLain’s involvement in a bookmaking operation in Flint, Michigan, the Long Horn Saloon, that was all it took to warrant some substantial penalty.
“There was no indication he was betting on baseball, although a lot of members of the media felt he was, but we never generated any evidence.”
McLain returned to the Tigers on July 1, but was never the same pitcher he had been. He also broke his probation with such acts of misconduct as dousing Detroit sportswriter Watson Spoelstra with a bucket of water that he was suspended for the remainder of the season. [“Talkin’ Baseball,” by Phil Pepe]
McLain’s prison sentence was the result of an extortion plot, but he would prefer today that you remember the glory years.
Such as the time during a 1969 nationally televised game against the Twins, when McLain and Detroit first baseman Norm Cash started thinking more about the post-game show than about the game itself – the star of the game received $100 to appear on the program. Cash had hit a homer and a single. McLain was pitching a shutout, and both men were arguing over who was going to be picked. Wrote Bill Freehan in “Behind the Mask,” “We still had three outs to go. Mayo Smith sat there, gritting his teeth and wondering. I was, too. I could see that if McLain started screwing around, I’d have to get on his tail real quick. I knew that his arm had been bothering him the whole game, that he wasn’t pitching well….But he went out there, this man who makes at least $150,000 a year from baseball and other interests, and, sniffing that $100, reached back and threw the blazes out of the ball. He struck out Harmon Killebrew on four pitches. Cash was down at first base rooting for Harmon, yelling, ‘Hit a home run.’
“But McLain got the Twins out, one-two-three, went on the show, and came back into the locker room with the $100 bill pasted to his forehead. It was the best inning he’d pitched all year.” [“Baseball Anecdotes,” Daniel Okrent / Steve Wulf]
11. Wake Forest…very surprised at the rapid ascent…first ACC game, however, is against UNC…1/11, Winston-Salem. The place will be rockin’. Early prediction: UNC 86 Wake 78.
The Premier Football (soccer) League has it right. The bottom three teams at the end of the season are moved down a notch and three from the league below move up. [I think I have this right.] So I would suggest that once the Tar Heels win the national title, they move up to the NBA, seeing as their first six or seven are headed there anyway. The penalty would be that the Oklahoma City Thunder have to move down to Division I-A, perhaps placed in Conference USA.
4. Texas A&M
–Florida is an early 3-point favorite over Oklahoma in the BCS title game, to be played, oh, like four weeks from today. Geezuz. I’ll be ready for baseball by then.
I’m liking this TCU-Boise State matchup on Dec. 23. [Very selfish reason alert…Tuesday night is a good one for me and my work schedule.] And let’s face it. Dec. 23 is the height of one’s Christmas spirits.
I also like Oregon State-Pitt on New Year’s Eve at 2:00. I might have some beer in the headquarters that day watching this one.
–Texas QB Colt McCoy officially said he was returning for his senior year.
–To repeat, the Jets play Miami the last game of the season, and it’s likely the AFC East will not have a wildcard entrant.
Jets 8-5…play Buffalo at home this weekend
Patriots 8-5…at Oakland
Dolphins 8-5…San Francisco at home
–Jeff B. relayed a note from Peter King…the Quote of the Week from NBC news anchor Brian Williams at a March of Dimes luncheon in Manhattan.
“It’s a pleasure to be in the presence of so many Giants’ fans, all of whom I believe are unarmed.”
–Johnny Mac passed along another tale of why dogs rule. From Jane Furse of the New York Daily News.
“A toddler lost in the Virginia woods was back home safe Sunday thanks to two puppies who kept him warm through a harrowing night of freezing temperatures.
“Jaylynn Thorpe, 3, wandered away from his baby-sitter at 4 p.m. Friday and was missing for 21 hours as hundreds of friends, family and law enforcement officials searched for him in the thick woods of Halifax County, fearing the worst….
“Officials said the lost little boy and the two family puppies wandered up to a mile in the dark, even across a highway, but it wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that members of the search team found him by a tree, the two puppies nestled against him.”
–From Wellington, New Zealand (AP) – A “nagging” wife who pushed her husband to buy a lottery ticket helped scoop the $4.2 million first prize – with only minutes to spare. The man from New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland, bought his ticket just two minutes before ticket sales closed Saturday night.
“My wife had been nagging me all week to get a ticket, so when I saw the Lotto sign…I sprinted in to get the ticket before they closed,” said the man who asked not to be identified.
“I must have been their last customer of the night,” he said, adding that the young married couple had had a “rough” couple of years.
“I have never been so glad to listen to my wife’s nagging,” the man said Tuesday.
He discovered their newly won fortune Sunday thanks to his wife’s request for a barbecued sausage.
Out shopping for bargains, the man said he didn’t have enough money to buy his wife the sausage she’d asked him for. So he decided to check his Saturday lottery ticket in case he’d won a small prize.
“I could not believe it when they said I was actually the big winner,” he said.
When he showed the printout to his wife, she initially thought they had won $4,200. [Ed. no wonder they’ve had a tough stretch.]
“When she realized how much it really was, she fell to the floor, and then said: ‘but all I wanted was a sausage.’”
If you want good sausage, by the way, try Usinger’s Famous from Milwaukee. Order a holiday gift box today. [usinger.com]
–The PGA completed its Q School on Monday as the top 25 and ties received their cards for 2009. Among the names successfully completing the grueling six-round competition were Chris Riley, Notah Begay and John Huston. Harrison Frazar was medalist. And recent Wake Forest grad Webb Simpson earned his card, giving some of us a new Demon Deac to root for.
But there were some names, as always, who failed to get full Tour privileges, including Kevin Stadler, Joe Durant, Robert Gamez, Carlos Franco, Frank Lickliter, Hunter Haas, and Jason Gore. [Because they all have had some success in the past, and/or already have ‘conditional’ status, they can still get into about 12-15 tourneys if they play their cards right.]
–It’s pays to live in the New York area for one reason…we have rich baseball teams and are always in the hunt for the top free agents. And so the Mets picked up K-Rod and the Yanks got CC. I love CC. A real throwback and an innings eater.
But this is a guy who loves to hit (and he’s good), said he wanted to play in the N.L., told the Dodgers as much, and then, presto! He signs with the Yanks. Something about money.
As for K-Rod, I seem to be one of the few who isn’t real excited about this one, though that’s largely because our history with closers hasn’t been a real good one the past decade or so.
–Sarah Vine / London Times
“Last week, the therapist and former comic Pamela Stephenson caused a stir by suggesting that women who cut their hair are deliberately sabotaging their sexuality. The implication is that short hair is unsexy, whereas long hair leads to masses of exciting bedroom action.”
Huh. Now discuss amongst yourselves. I’ll give you one name to get things started… Rihanna.
–Good gawd. From the AP – A giant panda bit a worker’s left leg while the staffer was laying bamboo leaves in the animal’s exhibit at Ocean Park (Hong Kong).
Remember, kids. “Although pandas look cute and cuddly, they are wild animals that can be violent when provoked or startled.”
Which is why I’m always on the lookout when I get the morning paper from the driveway.
–The NBA’s Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls suffered a wound to his left forearm that required 10 stitches to close “after he said he rolled onto a knife while eating an apple in bed.”
“ It was a silly incident,” Rose said. “I was cutting up some food, and I laid on a knife getting lazy in bed. I went to get a bottle of water, came back, forgot the knife was there, then sat down and sliced my arm.”
–Whaddya know…Wake’s Aaron Curry won the Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker.
–Rutgers’ football program has faced withering criticism, and for good reason. The Star-Ledger continues to expose all manner of secret deals the school cut with head coach Greg Schiano, following what was seen as a breakout 11-2 season in 2006, in order to keep him in the fold. But the Scarlet Knights have gone 8-5 and 7-5 since then and the football program now represents 50% of total funds spent on athletics, up from 35% five years ago. Rutgers spends more on football than any of the other seven Big East schools. But now a $102mm expansion program for the stadium is on hold after one-third was completed.
–Trader George was all fired up that St. Lawrence defeated Colgate 5-2 in ECAC men’s hockey action, but I had to remind the lad that his team is still just 6-7-1 (as of last weekend). Trader George is now very disconsolate.
–Depressing news from the music world. Dennis Yost died. He was 65. Yost, of course, was the lead singer of the Classics IV…who had one of my all-time favorites, “Stormy.”
This last one is a great tune as well. Altogether now…[first hum or whistle the intro.]
[Guys, if you’re smart you’ll learn this one before Christmas. I guarantee you’ll get a six-pack of premium from your significant other. Me? I’ve got issues.]
[Actually, this is how Mets fans feel the day after another collapse.]
Yost was a Detroit native but the group was founded in Jacksonville, Fla., where he was raised. In 1967, the band relocated to Atlanta and a year later they came up with “Spooky.”
Buddy Buie co-wrote the songs with guitarist J.R. Cobb, by the way. And here’s a factoid for you. Some members of the group left in 1970 to form what would later be called the Atlanta Rhythm Section, a group that had a solid two-album run in the 70s.
Top 3 songs for the week 12/11/65: #1 “Turn! Turn! Turn!” (The Byrds) #2 “I Hear A Symphony” (The Supremes) #3 “Let’s Hang On!” (The 4 Seasons)…and…#4 “I Got You (I Feel Good)” (James Brown) #5 “Over And Over” (The Dave Clark Five) #6 “I Can Never Go Home Anymore” (The Shangri-Las) #7 “1-2-3” (Len Barry…underrated tune) #8 “Taste Of Honey” (Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass) #9 “Rescue Me” (Fontella Bass) #10 “I Will” (Dean Martin)
Annika Sorenstam Quiz Answers: Annika won 72 LPGA Tour titles. 2) She trails Kathy Whitworth, 88, and Mickey Wright, 82. Annika also won 10 majors.
Sorenstam’s biggest stretch was 2000-2005 when she won 5, 8, 11, 6, 8, and 10 LPGA events as well as seven of her majors. [Actually, she won 48 of the 126 LPGA events she entered during this period. Not bad…not bad at all.]
