Heavy Metal, Manny, Britney…

NCAA Men’s Basketball Quiz: Since 1970, the five following Division I players led the NCAA in scoring two consecutive seasons, yet most would consider all but one, perhaps, to be pretty obscure. So…I’ll give you the schools (in chronological order), you give me the individual…Portland State, Texas Southern, LIU, St. Peter’s, VMI. Answer below. 

–What is the genesis of the term “heavy metal”? I was just flipping through the late Timothy White’s book “Rock Lives” and in reading about Jimmy Page saw this. 

“The term ‘heavy metal’ first appeared in the opening lines of chapter fourteen of The Soft Machine, novelist/ex-heroin addict William Seward Burroughs’ psycho-sexual science fiction masterpiece, published in 1961. The phrase was coined to depict a young thug – Uranian Willy the Heavy Metal Kid – but by chapter fifteen it also described a tempest in a mythical, war-torn world: ‘‘Citizens of Gravity, we are converting all out to Heavy Metal!…Do not believe the calumny that our metal fallout will turn our planet into a slag heap…Heavy Metal is our program and we are prepared to sink through it…’’ Critic Lester Bangs later salted a CREEM Magazine review of the Yardbirds with a reference to ‘Heavy Metal Kids,’ providing the music with a fitting handle it could proudly hammer home. 

“Meanwhile, the lazy afternoon of psychedelic idylls and flower power was over, and Led Zeppelin heralded the approach of the great storm…. 

“The spell they cast was a potent one. Few groups could control a vast crowd with the broody confidence of Led Zeppelin, the gawky, bedraggled Page lording over the worshipful with a flourish of the violin bow he used for various ear-hemorrhaging solos. Stooped at his Les Paul electric guitar or a gleaming acoustic, dispensing songs rife with Celtic mythology and Druidic symbolism, he resembled a man-sized praying mantis in a gothic sci-fi novel.” 

–Manny Ramirez finally accepted a $45 million two-year contract to return to the Los Angeles Dodgers. In an interview with the L.A. Times’ T.J. Simers, Manny said that while he was seeking four years, from anyone, “Two years is fine with me…the economy is making me adjust. That’s just the way it is.” 

“Manny’s goofiness doesn’t always play well in baseball, a game filled with so many serious folks, including many who make their living writing about the sport. 

“But in his time with the Dodgers, it became clear to those who hardly knew him previously, he’s dedicated to working hard in order to hit the baseball hard with regularity. 

“The debate continues whether he is more into himself than his team, but inside the Dodgers’ locker room it’s unanimous – unless someone is keeping quiet – how much he meant to everyone on the team last season.” 

Manny told T.J., “I’ve looked at the big picture from every different angle and life is too short to be mad. I’ve already made a ton of money and now it’s just about negotiating a deal. It’s what happens in sports. As long as I’m alive, I’m happy. I’m sitting here in my house by the water, drinking a margarita, dark glasses on and I’m in a good place. I’m in pretty good shape too, playing with my three kids all the time.” 

It’s a running joke among New York sportscasters and writers that you simply can’t have a day without A-Rod because Alex Rodriguez won’t let that happen. The story always has to be about him, including this past Monday, the day after he spoke to Major League investigators on the steroids issue, when he decided to trot out his two young daughters, along with ex-wife Cynthia, to pose for photographers. 

Kevin Kernan / New York Post 

“In every way, A-Rod is trying to put his steroid past behind him as he tries to paint a more human picture of himself.  Shortly before practice began…Cynthia rolled into the complex in her silver Mercedes SUV. 

“She made a phone call and A-Rod emerged with bats in hand to greet his daughters. That set the tone for his afternoon, as a relaxed Rodriguez was at ease with his new baseball family, his Dominican teammates. [Ed. for the World Baseball Classic] 

“The experience also gave his new mates an inside look at the show that is A-Rod, always center stage. The circus moved from Tampa…. 

“As for the usual media frenzy and the three rings that are A-Rod, he said he apologized to some of his new teammates and added with a smile, ‘It will be a good experience for them. I think they’ll enjoy you guys.’ 

“No other players, of course, arrived with their children at this practice…. 

“For those who think Rodriguez was using his children as public-relations props, Rodriguez said it all just worked out that way.” 

“Rodriguez veered off a walkway and peeked into the windows of a Mercedes sport utility vehicle. After a door opened, Rodriguez plucked out Natasha, his 4-year-old daughter, and kissed her. Cynthia, Rodriguez’s former wife, held Ella, their 10-month-old daughter. 

‘What could have been a quiet moment in a secluded room turned into another episode of A-Rod’s reality show. While Rodriguez snuggled with his oldest daughter, the cameras were a few feet from their faces. Natasha fidgeted. Rodriguez ignored the attention, even if it was something he helped create.” 

And so the legend of A-Fraud, a k a A-Phony, builds and builds. 

“One of the more fascinating elements of the Alex Rodriguez steroid chronicles is how willing people – some even in the news media – have been to decry the breach of confidential drug testing, along with the messenger. But isn’t that what a free press is largely about, getting to the bottom of unsavory things that are not necessarily intended to be known?” 

Araton brings up the case of Sports Illustrated reporter Selena Roberts, who broke the A-Rod steroids story, only to have him attack her in his first comments to ESPN reporter Peter Gammons. 

“Roberts didn’t expose your average ballplayer, but the one considered a lock to restore honor to the reputation of American machismo in the form of the most cherished record in sports. For that, she was called a stalker by Rodriguez…. 

“If a man had broken the steroid story, would he have been demonized as a social deviant when all he was doing was due diligence? Would he have been subjected to a cross-examination of his intentions and ethics by too many in the news media and slandered by one WFAN morning radio host, whose recent misogynist ravings sunk to the level of his departed predecessor? [Ed. Araton is referring to Craig Carton and Don Imus]…. 

“For those still inclined to believe that women don’t have the necessities to compete in a male-dominated world, let’s briefly review the Rodriguez newsmakers since the turn of the year. 

“Joe Torre released a book with Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci in which he claimed Rodriguez was known in Yankees circles as A-Fraud, but immediately copped to a co-authorship plea. Peter Gammons allowed Rodriguez to control the ESPN interview without a peep of challenge on the stalking lie. And Rodriguez required his army of consultants to say he was sorry for having a cousin who injected him with things he didn’t know anything about. 

“Roberts, conversely, got a big story and, yes, a book deal with her own aggressive reporting and without collaborating with a famous sports celebrity. When she had it nailed, she went right to Rodriguez and looked him in the eye, woman-to-man. 

“Confronted with truth, he ran back to the good-old-boy network to spin his version of it.” 

“Chalk up yet another day when Alex Rodriguez rocked the Yankee universe. Rodriguez first shook things up yesterday (Tues.) afternoon when he tried to compliment Jose Reyes, which left A-Rod open to criticism that he had dissed Derek Jeter. 

“A second tremor came last night when it was revealed that Rodriguez has a hip injury that likely will knock him out of the World Baseball Classic…. 

“Earlier in the day when I asked A-Rod about the Mets shortstop’s laser running ability, he said, ‘I wish he was leading off on our team or playing on our team; that’s fun to watch.’ 

“ ‘Our team’ happens to be the Yankees, which has Jeter at short and Johnny Damon leading off.   Shortly after A-Rod made his statement, he sent word through a WBC official that he did not mean anything negative toward Jeter. 

“Too late, the blogo-sphere was off and running with the quote.” 

—College Basketball Review 

“The road winning percentage in major men’s college basketball is .340 – meaning the road team wins roughly one out of ever three games. 

“Somewhere on Earth there may be a sport in which this figure is lower. But it isn’t the NBA, NHL, American or Australian football, English or Argentine soccer, Major League Baseball, Japanese baseball, Dominican winter baseball, or any of two dozen other sports leagues…. 

“In each of the past five weeks, a top-10 team in the Associated Press poll has lost on the road to an unranked one.” 

Everson notes that the record is obviously skewed a bit by all the early season games where the powers invite the patsies in, “But even if one discards that portion of the season and counts only intraconference play, the resulting .380 road-winning figure is still below every other major U.S. team sport. In 2007, road teams in the SEC lost 75% of their conference games – an only slightly worse record than this year’s 68% rate.” 

As for Wake Forest and my Deacs, first, Chris K. reassured me that his sources tell him the only player going after this season is James Johnson. But then a top secret source, by way of a friend, confirms that all three (Johnson, Jeff Teague and Al-Farouq Aminu) are indeed entering the NBA draft. And as I was listening to the Wake-Maryland game on XM Tuesday night, the Maryland announcers said ‘there are all kinds of rumblings down in Winston-Salem that the team is going to be dramatically different next year.’ 

Chris, I hope you’re right and it’s just Johnson, but I fear the worst. Then again, we’re still capable of getting to the Final Four this go ‘round. 

–The other day I read a book excerpt in Sports Illustrated; the story of Matt McCarthy, a graduate of Yale and of Harvard Medical School, who writes of his experience in 2002 as a minor league pitcher. Titled “Odd Man Out,” I found the blurb very entertaining and was thinking of buying the book which is currently No. 29 on the New York Times’ nonfiction bestseller list. 

But as the Times’ Benjamin Hill and Alan Schwarz write, the book is riddled with holes, with many portions being “incorrect, embellished or impossible.” This comes at a critical time for the publishing industry, with three major memoirs, including the infamous James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces” that Oprah had so highly touted, exposed as being fabricated. 

McCarthy’s catcher during his time in the Angels’ farm system, Alex Dvorsky, said, “Some of this is true, and some of it is made up.” 

Chris Stone, the baseball editor at SI instrumental in publishing the extensive excerpt in the Feb. 16 issue, said that the identified errors made him question the book’s overall truthfulness. “The only thing that the publisher told us was it had been aggressively vetted by its lawyers.” 

McCarthy comments on players still in the game and the lies he tells could really hurt their careers. 

Here’s an example, as the Times reports, concerning McCarthy’s manager, Tom Kotchman, “described at various times as implicitly suggesting to Dvorsky that he try steroids (Dvorsky denies this), going on misogynistic tirades, and ordering a pitcher to hit an Ogden batter in retaliation for a Provo player being hit twice (when box scores from the local newspaper show no Provo player being hit in the series).” 

–The Star-Ledger reported on Wednesday that despite collecting $1.2 million for its participation in the PapaJohns.com Bowl last December, “by the time expenses were paid and the coaching staff given its performance bonuses, Rutgers lost more than $184,000, according to reports filed with the NCAA.” 

It seems the team’s expenses were more than covered by the Big East Conference, which pools playoff money, but “the university spent more than $200,000 to send faculty, staff and 187 members of the band and cheerleader squads to the game in Alabama.” 

I love this part. The athletic department said that if the band and cheerleaders had been left home, they would have made $16,456, as if it’s all their fault; this while the bowl game triggered $268,000 in performance bonuses for head coach Greg Schiano and staff. And the school, obligated to buy 10,000 tickets to the game, sold only half and thus absorbed $214,000 in tickets. 

–Now that prosecutors have launched an appeal in the Barry Bonds case, it could be 12-18 months before the trial finally starts. Drat! 

–Alan Landers, the Winston cigarettes man, died of cancer at the age of 68. In later years he was a foe of smoking, suing R.J. Reynolds in 1995, saying the company had exposed him to health risks without warning him, though the matter is finally coming to trial this coming April. [Douglas Martin / New York Times] 

Landers’ suit was based on his commercial days [“Winston tastes good like a cigarette should”] when he used to puff “through literally cartons of cigarettes in photographic sessions as he sought to achieve the ideal spiral of smoke while not letting ash at the tip of the cigarette exceed a quarter-inch. He said he was not warned of the hazards of smoking and called the industry ‘the biggest con of the 20th century.’” 

RJR countered he could have read the warning labels on the side of the packages. 

It was Wayne McLaren, one of the models for the Marlboro Man, who also became an anti-smoking crusader prior to his death from lung cancer a number of years ago. 

“A man who tried to cool out his hyper cat by stuffing her into a boxlike homemade bong faces cruelty charges – and catcalls from animal lovers.” 

Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call and saw 20-year-old Acea Schomaker “smoking marijuana through a piece of garden hose attached to a duct-taped, plastic glass box in which the cat had been stuffed.” 

Sgt. Andy Stebbing said, “This cat was just dazed. She was on the front seat of the cop car, wrapped in a blanket, and never moved all the way to the humane society.” 

Must have been good stuff, though I hasten to add there are some who still insist ‘man’ belongs in the top 25 of the All-Species List. 

–Goodness gracious. Jeff S. passed along the tale of a 16-year-old jaguar in Arizona that had to be euthanized because veterinarians believed it was suffering from kidney failure when it was….well, let me explain. 

The jaguar had been caught near Tucson, was fitted with a radio collar, released, and then recaptured. As if the real estate crisis down this way isn’t bad enough, imagine holding an Open House, you finally get some traffic, and then a potential buyer looks out the back window and sees a jaguar. I’d probably lose my interest. 

–More stories on the fate of the Sumatran tiger. With only 400 left, it is on the verge of becoming the first major mammal to become extinct in the 21st century. But it’s going down with a bang, should this prove to be the case, as the death toll in its rampage is up to nine humans in the past month alone. 

Richard Lloyd Parry / London Times 

“The fact that several victims of the recent attacks have been devoured by the tigers, which usually have little taste for human flesh, suggests how hungry and desperate they are becoming, as economic exploitation of their habitat confines them in ever smaller and more impoverished patches of jungle.” 

The World Wildlife Fund is spearheading an effort to catch them and release them away from human habitation. The encroaching villagers are battling back, with one tiger having been killed with a spear.

“In the grisliest attack, a 50-year-old man named Suyud was killed in his hut, which he shared with his 21-year-old son Imam Mujianto (don’t know him). The young man was consumed by the creature, which ate his brain, heart and liver, according to local reports.” 

There’s a good straight-to-video flick here. Throw in Pamela Anderson as an official from the WWF and it could be far more than that. 

–We note the passing of former Yankee pitcher and two-time 16-game winner, Tom Sturdivant, who was 78. Sturdivant went 16-8 and 16-6 in 1956 and ’57, and in 1956 threw a complete game in a 6-2 win against the Dodgers in the World Series. For his career he was 59-51. 

“Dressed as a sexy ringmaster and directing a colorful cast that included jugglers, acrobats and martial arts dancers, Britney Spears delivered a tightly choreographed, if perfunctory performance Tuesday night as she kicked off her first concert tour in five years. 

“The 27-year-old pop superstar’s ‘Circus’ tour kicked off in her home state of Louisiana at the New Orleans Arena before a nearly sold-out crowd that cheered on their idol as she gyrated and slithered across the stage while singing some of her biggest hits.” 

I’m trying to figure out the use of the word ‘perfunctory,’ which doesn’t fit, but, that aside, I have nothing wrong with a sexy ringmaster slithering across the stage, assuming the floor is clean.  

Jim Farber / New York Daily News 

“It wasn’t exactly ‘the Greatest Show on Earth.’ But the opening night of Britney Spears’ crucial ‘Circus’ tour nudged this long-troubled singer a firm step further on the road back from major fruitcake to reborn pop star. 

“Onstage at the New Orleans Arena for the kickoff show of her first full tour in five years, Spears dutifully hit her marks, kept up a robust pace and looked determined and engaged. 

“All this in defiant contrast to her zombielike performance at the MTV Video Music Awards a short 18 months ago…. 

“She’s never been about nuanced (or even decent) singing, individual spirit, or, God knows, emotional grit. 

“For all Britney’s renewed physical prowess, she didn’t project much in the way of personality. And the truth is she never has. 

“Once again, she came across mainly like a Fembot – a dutiful, spry and attractive machine.” 

A Fembot giving a perfunctory performance as a sexy ringmaster; and at the end of the day, isn’t that all that really matters guys? 

–The Bondi Beach shark attack victim from last month lost his hand. Surgeons initially had reattached it (recall, it was literally dangling by a tendon), but there was no way circulation could be maintained. The youngest victim of the three Sydney-area attacks, our 15-year-old from a few days back, is in satisfactory condition. The third lost a hand and a leg. 

Due to the carnage, organizers were forced to cancel a popular Sydney harbor swim. Said race director, Dean Gardiner, “We’ve been getting quite a lot of inquiries from swimmers about the event [asking] if we were going to change anything or do anything with it. It was just the feed back we’ve been getting from a lot of recreational fishermen and other sources that there has been a lot more activity on the harbor and a lot more baitfish.” [Sydney Morning Herald] 

–In discussing Congress’ $410 billion omnibus spending bill, that sustains the government through the end of the 2009 fiscal year, the Times’ Maureen Dowd, in going over the 9,000 earmarks, cites “$650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and Mississippi.” Don’t blame the beavers on this one, sports fans. They’ve largely played by the rules and were not involved in the subprime mortgage debacle. 

–The raves for 19-year-old Irish (Northern Ireland) golfer Rory McIlroy continue to pour in. Geoff Ogilvy, who defeated McIlroy in the quarterfinals of last weekend’s match play event, said, “Plenty of young guys can kind of smash it and do all of that. What I found impressive was the more Rory needed to hit good shots, the more he did.” Ogilvy described McIlroy as “by far the best young player I’ve played with.” 

I can’t wait to see the lad at The Masters. Plus we have the 17-year-old Japanese kid, Ryo Ishikawa, and 18-year-old New Zealander Danny Lee, who will also be there. And 54-year-old Greg Norman. And the return of Tiger. And Freddie Couples playing well. And Lefty. And… 

—Bode Miller is close to announcing his retirement. Good riddance. What a disappointing career when it came to the big events.  

–Uh oh…billed as a savior for the music industry, and amid a massive publicity blitz, in the UK sales of U2’s new album were disappointing. 65,000 copies on release day, vs. 125,000 for Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida…” album on its first day. Actually, in the UK, the boy band Take That sold 133,000 its first day. Never heard of them. 

But back to U2, the year was 1987…the times were different in terms of media outlets, let alone the global economy, and “The Joshua Tree” sold 25 million copies. 

Top 3 songs for the week 3/6/65: #1 “My Girl” (The Temptations) #2 “This Diamond Ring” (Gary Lewis and The Playboys) #3 “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (The Righteous Brothers)…and…#4 “The Jolly Green Giant” (The Kingsmen) #5 “Eight Days A Week” (The Beatles) #6 “Tell Her No” (The Zombies) #7 “King Of The Road” (Roger Miller) #8 “The Birds And The Bees” (Jewel Akens) #9 “Ferry Cross The Mersey” (Gerry & The Pacemakers) #10 “Downtown” (Petula Clark…now that’s a top ten) 

NCAA Men’s Basketball Quiz Answer: Five to lead all Division I scorers two consecutive seasons since 1970.