Winter Olympics / Women’s Figure Skating Quiz: Starting with 1968 and Peggy Fleming [Bar Chat’s “American Woman of the Century”] winning gold; the U.S. has captured at least one medal in every succeeding Olympics. So…I’ll give you the medal we won, you give me the name. 1972 – bronze; 1976 – gold; 1980 – silver; 1984 – silver; 1988 – bronze; 1992 – gold and bronze; 1994 – silver; 1998 – gold and silver; 2002 – gold and bronze; 2006 – silver. Answers below.
Nicki and Corey
When it comes to friends they don’t make ‘em any better than Trader George so I have to start out with an exciting development in his family. Daughter Nicki Ross, and partner Corey Delaney, successfully defended their National Platform Tennis Championship on Sunday and the two have now won four titles; 18 and under twice, 14 and under, and 12 and under. I mean this is no club affair they are dominating. Very cool. Now we have to figure out how to get the two Shaun White type endorsement money.
[By the way, Nicki and Corey fought off 10 straight match points to even the score at 5-5 in the third set before prevailing…7-5, 4-6, 7-5.]
Serena and Roger
Serena Williams won her 12th grand slam title, and modern-day record fifth Australian Open, in defeating Justin Henin. She’s five for five in finals at Melbourne Park and eclipsed the four titles won by Margaret Smith Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles. Williams is now sixth overall in grand slam titles…Smith Court (24), Graf (22), Helen Wills Moody (19), Martina Navratilova (19) and Chris Evert (18).
As for Roger Federer, he won his fourth Aussie Open, and record 16th grand slam, in defeating Scot Andy Murray. No British man has won one of tennis’ four majors since Fred Perry in 1936.
But think about this…Federer has been in 23 straight Grand Slam semis and has reached the final in 18 of the last 19. As Mike Lupica of the Daily News wrote, the 23 straight is the equivalent of Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak. I can’t disagree.
College Basketball Review
Rutgers won its first Big East game, upsetting Notre Dame and dealing the Irish’ NCAA tourney hopes a fatal blow. [Rutgers sucks so bad in b-ball that when they win they deserve top billing.]
No. 6 Texas lost its third, defeated by Baylor in OT. No. 7 Duke lost to No. 11 Georgetown*, and No. 8 Gonzaga suffered a horrible loss in going down to a dreadful San Francisco squad.
But in the big game that proved to be a total bust…Cornell (18-3, 4-0) destroyed Harvard (14-4, 3-1) 86-50. Earlier there was talk, including in this space, that for the first time the Ivy League deserved two NCAA bids. Ah, not quite. On the other hand, Cornell deserves to crack the top 25 this week and seems destined for the 6-seed I mentioned the other day.
*But back to the Georgetown game, both President Obama and Vice President Biden were in attendance and Obama got another star turn doing some commentary on CBS. I’m just wondering why our government is being so reckless, in these times of al-Qaeda, in having our two leaders together like this in such a public venue.
As for women’s basketball, Sports Illustrated’s Phil Taylor:
“There’s a chance that the undefeated UConn women’s basketball team will fall short of the national championship. Really, there is. Of course there’s also a chance that Shaquille O’Neal will be the winning jockey in the next Kentucky Derby, and that Conan O’Brien will ask Jay Leno to be his valentine….
“Like a young Mike Tyson, the Huskies have crushed all comers, giving the rest of Division I such an inferiority complex that coaches drift into fantasy when trying to envision how UConn might be toppled. ‘You know that part in the movie Space Jam where the NBA players lose their mojo and suddenly can’t dribble or shoot anymore?’ says Cincinnati coach Jamelle Elliott. ‘It might take something like that.’”
The Lady Huskies average margin of victory is 39 points this season, but as Taylor notes this is not good for the sport, concluding, “someone, soon, had better give them a game.”
NFL Chat:
–Talk about ridiculous, the NFL is claiming ownership of the phrase ‘Who Dat” which has long been a staple of New Orleans, including this wild season where the phrase “Who Dat Say Dey Gonna Beat Dem Saints? Who Dat? Who Dat?”
As the Wall Street Journal’s Jennifer Levitz points out, back in the 1980s, New Orleans’ own Aaron Neville made a video with team members singing ‘who dat.’ It’s just part of the city. But the league issued a cease-and-desist order against New Orleans vendors who sell Saints merchandise adorned with the wording, asserting that to do so is likely to “confuse the purchasing public into believing that your items” are sponsored by the NFL.
“New Orleans locals are outraged and suspicious,” writes Levitz. “The NFL, they contend, never cared about the quirky chant when the football team was dubbed the ‘Aints a few decades ago, or after it was ousted from its home stadium in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and finished 3-13.”
Wade Dugas, a New Orleans native, said of the NFL, “What are they going to do – charge us if we cheer? Is that the next step?”
–The over/under on the Super Bowl is 56 ½, the highest in its 44-year shootout. The Colts are 4 ½- to 5 ½- point favorites. Before this year the highest over/under was 55 when the Giants played the Patriots two years ago and that one ended up 17-14. Personally, I’d take the under. Indianapolis will win 28-17.
–By the way, that kick by New Orleans’ Garrett Hartley that won the game last week? Saints legend Tom Dempsey passed along some advice a few days before. “Don’t overkick.” “The leg swing is like a golf swing and is most effective when it is rhythmic and unrushed.” [Karen Crouse / New York Times]
Of course Dempsey is responsible for one of the great moments in football history, his 63-yard field goal for New Orleans in 1970 that secured one of their two victories that year. It was the whole idea that not only was it a record, since equaled by Jason Elam in 1998, but Dempsey had been born without toes on his right kicking foot.
While he played only two of his ten NFL seasons in New Orleans, it’s where he has long made his home. His place in Metairie was flooded during Katrina but Dempsey then settled in the Lakeview district of the Big Easy.
—Kurt Warner retired after a terrific 12 seasons in which he was twice NFL MVP (1999 and 2001), MVP of Super Bowl XXXIV, four-time Pro Bowl selection, and the second QB to start a Super Bowl for two different teams (St. Louis and Arizona). There is no doubt he is a Hall of Famer. He’s also been one of the best role models in all of sports, period.
“Obviously, it’s been 12 unbelievable years, some of the best years of my life. But I want everybody to know that I’m just as excited about the next 12, that I’m excited about what lies in front of me. I’m excited about spending more time with my family, and seeing what God’s going to do next.”
Warner walked away with a year left on a two-year, $23 million contract, but he has taken a beating, including a brutal hit in Arizona’s playoff loss to New Orleans. We wish him well.
Golf Bits:
At this week’s PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines, Phil Mickelson made his season debut and fellow pro Scott McCarron accused him of cheating by using a square-grooved wedge. McCarron was upset that Lefty and three others were using vintage Ping Eye 2 wedges that were grandfathered in way back and thus not covered by a ban on square-grooved clubs that took effect Jan. 1. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was “appalled” Mickelson would use clubs that violated “the spirit of the rules.”
Talk about opening a can of worms. The thing is Mickelson’s wedge from the mid-1980s is on the list of conforming clubs. Nonetheless, McCarron said, “It’s cheating.”
The Ping Eye 2 irons were grandfathered in as conforming following a legal settlement in 1993 between the manufacturer, Karsten Manufacturing Co., and the governing bodies of golf, including the Royal and Ancient of St. Andrews.
Mickelson said, “(Rather) than answer that directly, I think what he’s saying is the rule is a terrible rule, and I agree with him. I’m just as upset. The difference is I’ve been talking with Dick Rugge of the U.S.G.A. and talking to the commissioner behind closed doors, how ridiculous all this is. I don’t agree with the way he carried on about it, but that’s his choice.”
The PGA Tour is holding a regularly scheduled players meeting on Tuesday and the issue will come to a head then. Others, including Robert Allenby and Ryuji Imada, agree with McCarron but didn’t go so far as to say Mickelson was cheating. Phil is threatening legal action to clear his name.
Meanwhile, in the tourney itself, Ben Crane won his 3rd PGA Tour title.
Earlier, John Daly, after shooting 79-71 and missing the cut, said he was finished. “I’m tired of embarrassing myself.” The next day he backed off the comment, but while it’s often hard to give Daly credit for anything, I do admire him for saying that in getting a sponsor’s exemption into some events he recognizes he’s taking a spot from someone more deserving.
“How many guys turn 70 (Jan. 21) and suddenly never look better? Nicklaus’ flying home on Friday nights with a tourney lead to see his kid play high school football is positively Rockwellian now, isn’t it? Fifty years married so far and not a mistress turned up yet. And when you search for the word ‘controversy’ on the Golden Bear’s 14,000-word Wikipedia bio, you get ‘Text Not Found.’ Ain’t it wonderful?”
Nick Faldo on Tiger. “If it was me, the Masters would make sense to come back. It’s just you and your caddie inside the ropes in a beautiful setting.” But, “whenever he comes back and he’s standing on the first tee, what will he be thinking and feeling? He’s been phenomenal. He used to stand at the first tee in complete control of everything; family, business, golf. But we don’t know if fans will cheer him, boo him or do nothing. There are way more questions than answers here.”
Faldo added he didn’t foresee Woods’ problems. “We were staggered. You would have never guessed in a million years the most-recognizable sportsman in the world would have this and come down the mountain.” [Michael Hiestand / USA TODAY]
[Reminder, Tiger’s favorability rating among the American public plummeted from 85% to 33% in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup survey. I’m guessing he’s definitely back in time for Augusta.]
–Legendary former Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson on guns and the NBA, following the suspension of Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton.
“There’s something wrong when it’s written in your contract that you can’t bring a gun to work; that tells you where we are, that tells you there’s a crisis going on. We’ve had a lot of things go on with players and guns before and the players are not learning from these experiences. It’s crazy. I think that after this thing with Arenas, if any player is caught with a gun from now on, they’re gone for good.”
Many feel that should have been the case with Arenas himself.
–As the first college baseball poll came out, Texas is ranked No. 1, followed by last year’s champion, LSU, Cal State-Fullerton, Virginia and Florida State.
The ACC has six in the top fifteen, but the last ACC school to win the College World Series was Wake Forest way back in 1955; one of the more remarkable factoids in all of college sports seeing as how many ACC schools have been ranked in the top ten over the years.
–The Obama administration has entered the BCS fray, with the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department looking into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws. The BCS argues that “The consensus of the schools is to go with the BCS. We feel strongly the people in higher education are the people best equipped to manage college football.”
–I love this story on Joe Paterno, as told to Sporting News by his son, Jay, Penn State’s quarterbacks coach.
“In high school, I had to go in early for extra work in calculus. He had to drive me there at, like, 7 a.m. We got to a red light one day – a really long light – and he was looking around, getting aggravated. ‘You know what?’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t even be in this car with you.’ Then he ran the red light, probably the only time he’s ever done that in his life. I said, ‘Dad!’ And he said, ‘I don’t want to hear it! It’s your fault!’”
–Former Philadelphia Eagles great and longtime CBS broadcaster Tom Brookshier died. He was 78. In a seven-year career with the Eagles, Brookshier made two All-Pro teams at defensive back and picked off 20 passes. After being forced into an early retirement due to injury, he became a sportscaster in Philly and then joined Pat Summerall on the lead team for CBS. I always thought the two were a good pair.
But it was in December 1983 that Brookshier got in some hot water when following a commercial for a coming CBS telecast of a Louisville Cardinals basketball game he said that the team’s players had “a collective I.Q. of about 40.” Brookshier was ordered off the air for the last weekend of the NFL season.
–A cigar left unfinished by Winston Churchill in 1941 fetched about $7,000 at auction the other day. He abandoned the stub to attend a cabinet meeting, after which it was picked up by a Downing Street valet who sent it to a friend with a note jotted on Number 10 writing paper. The friend then kept the souvenir until his death, passing it to a relative. The stub, four inches long, was only expected to bring in $600.
–Good god, actor Rip Torn was so, err, ripped, he broke into a Connecticut bank while carrying a loaded handgun Friday night. The intoxicated 78-year-old Torn is being held on $100,000 bond and is scheduled for a Monday court appearance. He’s never been the same since the demise of “The Larry Sanders Show.”
–For the first time, baseball great Willie Mays has cooperated with a biographer, James S. Hirsch, and the product, “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend,” is due out this month. Looks pretty good.
–Oh yeah…U.S. Olympic snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler is hot. As is alpine skiing’s Lindsey Vonn. Vonn, the overall World Cup leader this year by a wide margin, failed in her bid to win a 7th straight downhill in St. Moritz. The record is ten straight by Annmarie Moser-Proll. But it’s now on to Vancouver for both.
–Speaking of hot, congratulations to Miss Virginia, Caressa Cameron, for being crowned Miss America on Saturday. I didn’t see the telecast but Ms. Cameron exhorted kids to get off their butts and play outdoors. You tell ‘em, Caressa!
–This is pretty good. Richard Lugner is an Austrian billionaire, 77 and four times divorced, who loves being in the spotlight. So each year Austria’s premier social event is the Vienna Opera Ball and Lugner shells out $150,000 to a world beauty, and/or well known actress, to be his date. As Ginger Adams Otis reported in the New York Post, in the past he has squired the likes of Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton, Carmen Electra, Sophia Loren, Raquel Welch and Andie MacDowell.
This year his date was Lindsay Lohan, a pick the Austrian media ripped. But here’s the crazy thing. Lohan had to go with Lugner’s 20-year-old girlfriend.
–Author J.D. Salinger, who died the other day at 91, once said, “I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.”
Frankly, I write to set the record straight on shark attacks and bear maulings.
[Salinger’s classic “Catcher in the Rye” has sold more than 65 million copies.]
WARSAW, Poland – “A frightened, shivering dog was rescued after floating at least 75 miles on an ice floe down Poland’s Vistula River and into the Baltic Sea, officials said Thursday.” Now everyone is trying to figure out who owns the thick-furred male dog estimated to be 5 or 6 years old. Many saw the dog initially but were unable to reach it until a ship carrying ocean researchers finally got it to safety. The dog is OK after being on the ice for six days. Experts say a dog with thick fur can last about eight days in brutally cold conditions as long as it gets some water to drink.
–So I’ve been in my new digs for two weeks (finally settling in) and I have some great trees to look at from my office windows but I’ve been disappointed. Where are the birds? The first two weeks I hadn’t seen a single one, until just now…a hawk! Yeah, baby. Now we’re talking. Just as long as it doesn’t come crashing through the window and attack me because of something I’ve written.
–Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden is apologizing for nude photos that have surfaced on the Net. He took them with his celllphone and then sent them to his girlfriend, like a true idiot,
1 ½ years ago.
–Sports Illustrated had a bit about politicians flubbing sports references on the campaign trail, following Martha Coakley’s gaffe that Curt Schilling, a Scott Brown supporter, was a “Yankee fan,” Schilling having been a Red Sox great. So one is reminded of 2004 and Sen. John Kerry, who referred to Green Bay’s “Lambert Field”; to his favorite current Sox player, “Manny Ortez”; and to his all-time Sox fave, Eddie Yost, who never played in Boston.
[Speaking of Yost, who was largely a third baseman in his 18-year career with Washington, Detroit and the Los Angeles Angels, I always knew he was known as “The Walking Man” for his penchant for getting a base on balls (8 times he walked over 100 times in a season), but I had forgotten the huge disparity between his career batting average, just .254, and his career on-base percentage, a superb .394. To me it’s really pretty remarkable, so, I just looked up two obvious candidates to have had a better mark (difference between the two). Ted Williams hit .344 and had an OBP of .482, and Barry Bonds’ splits are .298 / .444…or 146. If you can find anyone better, let me know.]
–The New Jersey Nets are 4-42. Good seats available the rest of the way.
–I thought the Grammy Awards show was pretty darn good. First off, you have to admire Lady Gaga for turning herself into such a success. If she isn’t a perfect example of capitalism at its best, I don’t know who is. And these days we should be cheering on any deserved success (as opposed to a pitcher who’s paid $12 million and then goes 3-4, largely because he’s out of shape …like Oliver Perez of the Mets, not that this bothers me that much).
My brother’s favorite artist, Pink, certainly didn’t disappoint. You work it, girl! And then there’s Beyonce, who took home a record six Grammys for a female artist. Beauty, talent, good person. And, heck, it’s been a great year for Fergie and her Black Eyed Peas mates as well.
Can you believe Ringo Starr turns 70 in July? The guy looks 55.
Taylor Swift won Album of the Year for “Fearless,” along with three other awards, thus bringing the number of trophies she’s accumulated the past 12 months to about 876.
And is Miley Cyrus really just 17? Do I get in trouble for even asking this?
–Finally, Mets fans mourn the passing of the great Jane Jarvis, 94. With a jazz background, Jarvis broke into baseball with the Milwaukee Braves, playing the organ for eight years before moving to the Mets when they opened Shea Stadium, where she ended up being a fixture from 1964 to 1979. She also had a job with the Muzak Corporation, becoming an executive and composing elevator music. When she left the Mets, she was not replaced. No one could.
Top 3 songs for the week 2/3/79: #1 “Le Freak” (Chic) #2 “Y.M.C.A.” (Village People) #3 “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” (Rod Stewart)…and…#4 “A Little More Love” (Olivia Newton-John) #5 “Too Much Heaven” (Bee Gees) #6 “My Life” (Billy Joel) #7 “Every 1’s A Winner” (Hot Chocolate) #8 “Fire” (Pointer Sisters) #9 “September” (Earth, Wind & Fire…saw these guys in concert in Greensboro just as this particular song was hitting the charts) #10 “I Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor)
Winter Olympics Quiz Answer: U.S. women figure skating medal winners.
1972 – Janet Lynn (bronze)
1976 – Dorothy Hamill (gold)
1980 – Linda Fratianne (silver)
1984 – Rosalynn Sumners (silver)
1988 – Debi Thomas (bronze)
1992 – Kristi Yamaguchi (gold) and Nancy Kerrigan (bronze)
1994 – Nancy Kerrigan (silver)
1998 – Tara Lipinski (gold) and Michelle Kwan (silver)
2002 – Sarah Hughes (gold) and Michelle Kwan (bronze)
2006 – Sasha Cohen (silver)
*I received a lot of comments that you’ve watched Franz Klammer’s 1976 Olympic downhill dash for gold on YouTube. Glad you liked it. Mark R. noted that the downhill, both men’s and women’s, is about as good a single sporting event as you can come up with; similar to the great heavyweight title fights of yore (not today), or in my mind a horse going for a Triple Crown in the Belmont, the fourth round at Augusta, or a Game Seven in any baseball, basketball or hockey championship round. That’s about it. Don’t say the Super Bowl…too many of them have proved to be busts with zero drama.
