NFL Quiz:None of the top ten all-time interception leaders is active, and some of those on the list may be a bit obscure, so I’ll give you the initials. There are actually 14, with five being tied for 10th. P.K., E.T., R.W., D.L., K.R., R.L., D.B., D.L., E.T., M.B., B.B., J.R., E.W., E.R. Name ‘em. Answer below.
–Wow…pretty impressive win in the men’s finals of the U.S. Open by 20-year-old Argentinian Juan Martin del Potro…3-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 over Roger Federer, as Federer pulled a mini-Serena in losing his cool. Federer, though, did still make the final in a Grand Slam for the 17th time in the last 18, an amazing stat.
–When I was down in North Carolina, Phil W. and I were talking about Indianapolis Colts head coach Jim Caldwell, a man with whom us Wake Forest alums are quite familiar. Phil got to know him well and as he puts it, there is no finer human being than Coach.
That was never in doubt, that Jim Caldwell was a good guy. The problem was he had the following record at Wake.
And under Caldwell, Wake was 12-52 in ACC play. The decision to go in a different direction and bring in Jim Grobe was thus a pretty easy one, you’d think, but getting rid of Caldwell wasn’t because he is such a quality guy and in all other respects represented the school well.
But Caldwell landed on his feet, got a job with Indy and Tony Dungy and became the anointed successor to Dungy upon his retirement after last season. So while it’s J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets for the kid (as well as for Phil W.), there’s a part of us that hopes Caldwell does well. Except on Dec. 27 when the Jets play at Indianapolis.
–Jeff B., Steelers fan, reminded me that he was ecstatic I didn’t select Pittsburgh to go all the way this year, seeing as in the four major sports I really care about, college football and basketball, NFL and MLB, I have about a 3-37 track record.
–Golf Magazine released its latest survey of the Top 100 World Courses. The top ten:
1. Pine Valley
2. Cypress Point
3. Augusta National
4. St. Andrews (Old)
5. Royal County Down (Newcastle, N. Ireland)
6. Shinnecock Hills
7. Pebble Beach
8. Oakmont
9. Muirfield (Scotland)
10. Merion (East)
*I’m kind of proud of the fact that a course I belong to, Lahinch (County Clare, Ireland) moved up ten notches to No. 44.
–The great Norman Chad of the Washington Post has a deal where you can enter his “$1.25 Ask The Slouch Cash Giveaway” [asktheslouch@aol.com] but having submitted an entry or two myself, I can say with certainty I never sniffed the prize…and I could really use the money. You might know Chad as being one of the top poker players around and I liked some of the finalists for this week’s Ask The Slouch.
Q: At your next poker tournament, would you mind if I scream “Deal him aces!” at the beginning of each hand, similar to the way golf fans yell “Get in the hole!” on every one of Tiger’s shots? [Joe Lucas; Woodstock, Md.]
Q: Any truth to the rumor that the Pirates were trying to trade the Pirate Parrot for two minor league mascots in order to “shore up” their farm system? [Mike Dojcak; Castle Shannon, Pa.]
Q: In pro bowling, if a pinsetter is crowding the lane, does the bowler roll one inside to move him back? [Roger Minor; Houston]
A: Looks like you’re going to have to dip into petty cash, Shirley.
Q: If baseball is such a timeless game, why does Joe Torre always wear a watch? [Jim LaBate; Clifton Park, N.Y.]
–Speaking of great writers, here in New Jersey we have one of the best in the Star-Ledger’s Steve Politi. The other day he wrote of “Giants Stadium’s long, sad goodbye.”
“It was a source of constant wonder during my childhood, like an alien spaceship parked at the edge of Route 3.
“I remember watching the 1986 NFC Championship Game from the very last row, wondering if those were really football players on the field so far below, or if they were tiny robots in shoulder pads. How could one building be so impossibly big?
“Now, just as impossible to my adult eyes, Giants Stadium looks like a miniaturized version of itself standing in the shadow of the monstrosity that will soon open next door. Like most old-timers, the 33-year-old landmark in the swamp is shrinking with age.
“We have grown accustomed to closing sporting venues around here, and a football stadium built in the ‘70s won’t get the same gushy poetry as a baseball cathedral opened in the ‘20s. But for fans who spent their autumn weekends here for decades, you can bet the long goodbye that begins this afternoon with the Giants-Redskins game will be a sad one.
“This is what I heard most when the new stadium started going up and the bills for those PSLs started going out: ‘We never asked for this.’ The teams may have needed it for the revenue from those luxury suites and sky boxes to keep pace with the (Jerry) Joneses.
“But to the paying customers, the old building may have been free of the flat screen TVs and carving stations that have somehow become part of our sporting experience, but it was a perfectly fine place to watch a football game. One of the best ever, in fact.”
One fan after another has said the same thing. “There is nothing wrong with Giants Stadium.” I’ve been to a bunch of games there. I totally concur. What a waste.
“I put my name on the fabled waiting list [for the Giants] five years ago on a lark, back when it topped 50,000. The list, in its heyday, was like Alcatraz – nobody made it off. Then, just two weeks ago, the Giants sent me an e-mail practically begging me to buy season tickets.
“The seats were available in the Coaches Club, and including the ‘rich interiors’ and ‘spectacular furniture,’ the team website promised that fans ‘no longer will have to worry about finding a great restaurant before or after the game.’
“A great restaurant? There are roughly 20,000 chefs on the average game day, their kitchens the five square feet between their trunks and the traffic. Nobody who ever walked into that stadium needed anything but a seat, a beer and a bathroom to enjoy the experience.”
–Phil W. passed along a bit by Tom Sorensen of the Charlotte Observer that has a different take on the Michael Vick story.
“I had hoped that Carolina would [acquire Vick, not Philly], even though that was never a possibility. And if you believe that I hate dogs, we did rescue two greyhounds. I love my dogs. I love dogs.
“But if you think you do, stand where the Eagles will see you Sunday morning [Ed. last week, Philly traveled to Charlotte to play the Panthers]. Protest is a beautiful form of self-expression. You can hold up a placard that tells everybody who you are.
“Dempsey and Davenport are 3-month-old Labrador retriever/hound mixes. They’re black and white, impossibly cute and much more fun to hold than a homemade sign. They’re brothers who will grow to 70 pounds. For a $95 adoption fee, one can be yours. For a mere $190, you can collect the whole set.
“Dempsey and Davenport checked into the Humane Society of Charlotte seven days ago. This year the Humane Society will match 2,400 dogs and cats with an owner. That’s five times what it did five years ago. That’s remarkable.”
Yup. As the story was titled, “Angry with Vick? Give a dog a new home.”
–The aforementioned Tom Sorensen also did a recent piece on Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers, who had a career high 14 ½ sacks last season when Carolina was 12-4, but two seasons ago, with the team just 7-9, had a career low 2 ½. As Peppers goes, so go the Panthers, you could say.
But this year Peppers is making $17 million, more than $1 million a game, yet he blew off voluntary spring and summer workouts. In other words, all eyes are on the guy. [In the opener, Julius had one sack as the Philadelphia Eagles pummeled Carolina, 38-10.]
—Eric Mangini, a k a Mangenius, former head coach of the New York Jets who was stupidly taken in by the Cleveland Browns, is being investigated by the NFL for hiding Brett Favre’s torn biceps tendon injury last season. For the last four or five games, with Favre knowing of his injury, he should have been listed as “probable” on the injury report instead of not listing him at all.
*Update: The NFL fined Mangini and the team a collective $125,000.
–From the Wall Street Journal and Sportsbook.com….the odds Larry Fitzgerald will miss a game in the 2009-2010 season due to injury because he was on the cover of the Madden 2010 video game are 7/4. Troy Polamalu, the other player on the cover, is already hurt.
–Former U.S. track star Carl Lewis said South African authorities “let down” Caster Semenya amid the dispute over her sex. “The South African federation should have dealt with it,” Lewis told the BBC. “She is your athlete in your country and you didn’t deal with this before. To put it out in front of the world like that, I am very disappointed in them because I feel that it is unfair to her. Now, for the rest of her life she’ll be marked as ‘the one.’”
–Doesn’t look like a great weekend in college football, unless you’re telling me Tennessee is going to upset Florida. The most intriguing game is probably No. 19 Nebraska at No. 13 Virginia Tech.
And Shu…as for Elon-Wake Forest, since there is no line, the best I can do is give you 27, though my prediction is 30-10. So I’ll be buying the barbecue.
“Crew members who worked with actress Megan Fox on the set of ‘Transformers 2’ are saying the sultry sex bomb is ‘dumb as a rock.’ And that’s one of the nicer things they called her!
“According to the Daily Mail, the three anonymous crew members bashed Fox in a letter posted on the official Web site of ‘Transformers’ director Michael Bay in response to the actress recently comparing him to Napoleon and Hitler and being ‘a nightmare to work for.’
“Among the other descriptions the crew used for Fox were ‘talking trailer trash,’ ‘posing like a porn star,’ ‘ungracious’ and ‘classless.’
“ ‘We know this quite intimately because we’ve had the tedious experience of working with the dumb-as-a-rock Megan Fox on both Transformers movies,’ read the letter, which was taken down from the site after being read by thousands of fans….
“In direct response to the Hitler comparison, the crew wrote, ‘We actually don’t think she knows who Hitler is by the way.’”
Ouch! Coupled with Fox’s own admissions the other day in an interview that she exhibits schizophrenic traits, it forces me to rethink my idea of making her CEO of StocksandNews as a way to juice traffic.
–One of the true jerks on the planet, Joe Jackson, “raised eyebrows by bringing a curvy new recording artist he manages as his date to the VMAs on the night honoring his son, Michael. Jackson arrived at Radio City Music Hall with a singer known as Taina. But Jennifer Lopez was not amused when Jackson introduced her to his date, who was wearing an eye-popping dress. As they took their seats, J.Lo was spotted giving Marc Anthony a look as if to say: ‘What is Joe doing?’ Other guests at the awards said they were surprised Jackson chose to bring the busty singer rather than wife Catherine to see Janet’s tribute performance to his son.” [New York Post’s Page Six]
And so we place Joe Jackson in the December file for “Jerk of the Year” consideration, a category that is suddenly exploding with candidates.
–Yet another reason why Man will never sniff the Top Ten of the All-Species List. From Jody Bourton of BBC News:
“An undercover investigation has found that up to two gorillas are killed and sold as bushmeat each week in Kouilou, a region of the Republic of Congo.
“The apes’ body parts are then taken downriver and passed on to traders who sell them in big-city markets.”
Gorilla meat is sold for $6 per “hand-sized” piece. Actual gorilla hands are also available. In this particular region, only 200 are left, ergo, half could be wiped out over the next year.
—1969 Mets, continued…almost over, folks, but this time we had some historic games as the Metsies began to leave the Cubs in the dust. So as we pick up our story, the Mets are 82-57, one-half game back of Chicago.
Sept. 10…home against Montreal for a twin-bill. In the opener the Mets win 3-2 in 12 innings as both starters, the Mets’ Jim McAndrew and Montreal’s Mike Wegener, go 11 innings each. Mets win in 12th on a Ken Boswell single. Ron Taylor (8-4) picks up the win. Bill Stoneman (9-17) takes the loss.
Sept. 10…in the nightcap the Mets defeat the Expos, 7-1, as Nolan Ryan (6-1) goes all the way, giving up just 3 hits while fanning 11. Howie Reed (6-6) takes the loss as Ken Boswell has 3 hits.
The Mets are now in first place following the sweep…a full-game ahead of Chicago.
Sept. 11…Mets beat Expos, 4-0, as Gary Gentry (11-11) tosses the shutout and strikes out 9. Jerry Robertson (5-13) takes the loss.
Sept. 12…at Pittsburgh for a historic doubleheader. Mets win first, 1-0, as Jerry Koosman hurls a 3-hitter, besting Bob Moose (10-3). Koosman drives in the only run with a 5th-inning single, what would be his only RBI of the year.
Sept. 12…Mets take nightcap, again, 1-0, as Don Cardwell goes 8 strong, allowing just 4 hits, with Tug McGraw picking up his 12th save. And it’s Cardwell who, like Koosman, drives in the lone run with a single in the 2nd. Long-time Mets fans will forever remember this day. [By the way, the two games are played in a combined four hours, twenty-one minutes.]
Sept. 13…Mets beat Pirates, 5-2, as Tom Seaver (22-7) throws another complete game, though he walks 5 and only strikes out 4. Ron Swoboda hits his 7th homer, his first career grand slam, in the 8th off loser Luke Walker (2-6).
Sept. 14…Mets lose to the Bucs, 5-3, as Steve Blass (15-9) goes all the way for Pittsburgh. Nolan Ryan (6-2) gets hit hard.
Sept. 15…Mets travel to St. Louis for another historic game. For the Cardinals, Steve Carlton (16-10) strikes out a record 19, and loses, 4-3, as Ron Swoboda hits two, 2-run homers in the 4th and 8th innings (nos. 8 and 9). Tug McGraw (8-3) gets the win with 3 scoreless in relief of starter Gary Gentry. Carlton must have thrown a ton of pitches as he gave up 9 hits, plus 2 walks, to go along with all the Ks in going the distance.
Sept. 17…Mets are now in Montreal and whip the Expos, 5-0, as Jerry Koosman (15-9) throws a 6-hit shutout. Gary Waslewski (2-9) takes the loss.
Sept. 18…Mets beat the Expos, 2-0, as Tom Seaver (23-7) scatters 5 hits and strikes out 9. “The Other No. 7,” Ed Kranepool, hits a solo shot, his 11th of the season. The New York staff now has 24 shutouts on the year.
The Mets are 91-58 and suddenly five games ahead of the badly slumping, choking Cubs.
Dick Young / New York Daily News
“With Commissioner Bowie Kuhn here to spectate, not investigate, the 100-1 shot Amazin’ Mets tonight continued to make a shambles of the NL race.”
–Just saw the New York Mets’ schedule for 2010 and mark down the last three games on your calendar…Oct 1-3 vs. Washington. Could be huge…really, I swear…why are you laughing? [OK, perhaps more importantly, the Yankees finish up with three at Boston next year.]
–I didn’t know this…the rules on becoming a free agent in baseball. Former major league G.M. John Hart commented to Sporting News on the Washington Nationals’ No. 1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg and when the team should begin pitching him at the major league level.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he spent 60 days in the minors [next spring] before being called up. They know when dealing with (agent) Scott Boras clients, there’s no gifts. You start him in the majors and you can say, ‘Wait a minute – that’s just one extra year we’re going to get hosed (because he would be eligible to become a free agent one year sooner than if he spent the first 60 days in the minors).’”
–In case you’ve been wondering, I haven’t commented on Lenny Dykstra’s financial woes for a simple reason. The story is totally pathetic and he is not a likeable fellow… just ask his former teammates. Then again, I might as well throw his name in the December file for “Idiot of the Year.”
–Mandy Stadtmiller / New York Post…on Kanye West.
“Kanye, the people have spoken – and we are done. You are not the voice of your generation. You are not Jesus Christ. You are not Beyonce’s spokesman.
“And you need to lay off the Hennessy as you strut down the red carpet with your weird, bald she-beast of a girlfriend and your awful zigzag haircut during the pre-show. For real….
“With the list of celebs coming out against him growing by the hour – think Donald Trump, Adam Lambert, Joel Madden and (gulp) world’s greatest dad Joe Jackson – the consensus is in: West’s megalomaniac antics aren’t cute, funny or stick-it-to-the-man inspiring. They just want to slap him.
“ ‘He absolutely jumped the shark,’ says Jon Hein, creator of jumptheshark.com. ‘Why Taylor Swift? Was Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez not available? I mean, come on.’
“Or as Pink told Matt Lauer on ‘Today’: ‘Honestly, I don’t think it would have happened if I were up there.’ Meaning, West wouldn’t have had the chutzpah to pick on a harder target. (Pink said she was bummed not to get to use her brass knuckles.)
“Backstage at the VMAs a shell-shocked Swift came this close to saying that she was no longer a fan of Kanye’s….
“ ‘I was standing onstage, and I was really excited because I had just won the award, and then I was really excited because Kanye West was on the stage and then,’ Swift said softly, ‘I wasn’t so excited anymore after that.’
“Though she never had met him, she had been a fan before, it turns out. ‘Yeah,’ she drawled. ‘He’s Kanye West.’ [Ed. Ah, Mandy? Was it necessary to throw in the word ‘drawled’? C’mon.] Is she still a fan? ‘You know,’ she reached, ‘I just don’t know him. I don’t want to start anything.’
“Reason Kanye is Over No. 1: He’s an even bigger attention whore than Perez Hilton. And that’s saying something….
“No. 2: He appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone adorned in a crown of thorns. Yeah. Don’t think we have to explain that one.
“No. 3: He looks like a weirdo and not in a cool Gaga way. ‘We got to see the worst haircut since 1984 try to steal the spotlight from lovely Taylor Swift,’ Kings of Leon’s Nathan Followill told MTV….
“No. 4: He’s compared himself without irony to icons Michael Jordan, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and said he would be in the Bible if they wrote it again.
–Michael Walker Jr. of Golf Magazine interviewed Tommy Armour III, “TA3” about to turn 50. Armour, as many of you are aware, has a well-deserved reputation of being a playboy and to say the least he’s led the good life.
Q: Would you have had more success [Ed. TA3 has won only twice on the PGA Tour] if you didn’t live a lavish lifestyle and spend your time with rock stars like Kid Rock and beautiful women?
TA3: I don’t know. I know I wouldn’t have met the great friends I have and the people I enjoy being with.
Q: The party you host at the Byron Nelson tournament in Dallas is legendary – you even serve sushi on naked models. Do you think you would have made a good Roman emperor?
TA3: [Laughs] I’ve always thrown parties. I was the social chairman at my fraternity. I don’t have a theme for the Dallas party, it’s more a feeling when you walk in. One year, the house looked like it was on fire. This year was all LED lighting – more of a groovy party. The fire one was more of a raging party. It’s a fun thing. There’s no guest list. Whoever shows up is on the guest list. Next year we might have to have one, though, because it’s starting to get over the top.
Q: How does watching Tom Watson at Turnberry this year make you feel about your chances to compete at age 50?
TA3: It should inspire anybody who’s over 50. How can it not? Lee Trevino told me 10 years ago, ‘Golf clubs don’t know how old you are.’ Last year I said Tom Watson would be a great Ryder Cup pick and people looked at me like I was out of my f—ing mind. Literally. Other than Tiger Woods, tell me who’s better than Tom Watson on the PGA Tour.
TA3 also had an interesting comment on playing the seniors (Champions) tour vs. the PGA Tour. Depending on his recovery from recent back surgery, he feels he has a good shot to continue competing with the younger guys because “with the groove change you’ll have to control your ball more, and I’m pretty good at that.”
–We note the passing of actor Patrick Swayze, 57, after a 20-month battle with pancreatic cancer…actually living more than a year beyond the initial prognosis but his final months were not good. He will forever be known for his star turns in “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost.”
–Did you see that story from Agence France-Presse about the thunderstorm on Saturn that astronomers observed began in January, and as of this week was still going?! Goodness gracious. I mean like you’d still be on the golf course, huddled in a shelter, starving to death. “When is it ever going to end?” “Heck, I thought it would be over in 30 minutes…say, your beard is looking a bit scraggly.” “Well you stink.”
Actually, “Thunderstorms on Saturn can be as big as 2,000 miles across.”
So I’m officially crossing Saturn off my “Places To Go Before I Die” list. Separately, I wish I knew I could have crashed TA3’s parties.
Top 3 songs for the week 9/17/77: #1 “I Just Want To Be Your Everything” (Andy Gibb) #2 “Float On” (The Floaters…great tune… ‘Libra, and my name is Charles…’) #2 “Best Of My Love” (Emotions)…and…#4 “Handy Man” (James Taylor) #5 “Don’t Stop” (Fleetwood Mac) #6 “Keep It Comin’ Love” (KC & The Sunshine Band) #7 “Strawberry Letter 23” (The Brothers Johnson…the underrated Brothers Johnson, that is) #8 “Telephone Line” (Electric Light Orchestra) #9 “Smoke From A Distant Fire” (The Sanford/Townsend Band…great start to this one, then dies…like Gerry Raftery’s “Baker Street”) #10 “Star Wars main title” (The London Symphony)
NFL Quiz Answer: All-time interceptions leaders.
Dick Lane, 68 [157]
Next Bar Chat, Monday….your editor goes to the Jets-Pats game. It’s war, I tell ya. I don’t care about no stinkin’ Bill Belichick’s rings, know what I’m sayin’? At least those are the marching orders of my coach, and leader, Rex Ryan.
