NCAA Basketball Quiz: 1) Who coached the 1998-99 Gonzaga Cinderella squad that lost to eventual national champion UConn? [Mark Few took over the following year] 2) Who is the best player ever at Hampton? [Long career in NBA] 3) Who is the only 1st-rounder out of Hartford? [Recent vintage…long NBA career] 4) Who was the leading scorer on the Houston Phil Slama Jama squad that lost back-to-back NCAA title games in 1983 and ’84? Answers below.
Goodbye Vancouver…Hell-ooo Sochi…maybe
Let’s not go crazy over the medal count, my fellow Americans, though I guess it’s pretty good we were first, with 37, the most the U.S. has ever had in a Winter Games. After all, back in 1988, there were 46 events. Now there are 86…about 30 of which are flat out stupid. One that isn’t, though, is bobsledding and congratulations to Steve Holcomb for piloting the 4-man “Night Train” to our first gold medal since St. Moritz in 1948. Very cool, especially since he defeated German legend Andre Lange, who had won all four Olympics races he’s ever entered. Lange took the silver. And I didn’t realize NASCAR’s Geoff Bodine was behind the group that paid for Holcomb’s sleds. That’s also way cool.
But after two weeks, I grew weary of the whole Lindsey Vonn-Julia Mancuso catfight, as these two, after their hot starts, flamed out (though Mancuso would say it wasn’t her fault in the giant slalom), while you can’t help but say Bode Miller was perhaps the Game’s surprise with his three medals.
And we won’t forget the women figure skaters and their spectacular performances on Tuesday and Thursday. Talk about pressure, Kim Yu-Na had the weight of her nation on her back, South Korea vs. Japan. Think about this. Marathoner Sohn Kee-chung was the first Korean to win an Olympic gold medal, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but since Sohn was living under Japanese occupation, he competed under the Japanese name Kitei Son.
And get this. As reported by John M. Glionna and Yuriko Nagano of the Los Angeles Times:
“Anti-Japanese feeling ran so strongly in South Korea that, in 1954, when the countries’ soccer teams were to meet as equals for the first time in home-and-away matches for a place in the World Cup, South Korean President Syngman Rhee refused to allow the Japanese team to set foot on Korean soil. Both games had to be played in Tokyo, where the South Koreans prevailed anyway. They had motivation. ‘Be prepared to throw yourselves into the ocean if you lose,’ the president reportedly told them.”
So it’s no wonder Queen Kim broke down after her gold-winning performance. The pressure was ungodly.
“After the brilliance of the short program, it was hard to imagine there wouldn’t be a letdown. How could South Korea’s Kim Yu-Na be perfect a second night in the face of the suffocating pressure of expectations? How could Japan’s Mao Asada skate mistake-free again and push Kim with her amazing arsenal of triple axels. And, most poignantly, how could Canada’s Joannie Rochette keep herself together in the free skating program just four days after her mother’s sudden death after arriving in Vancouver to watch her compete?
“Yet, somehow, it wasn’t the anticlimax we feared. No, it wasn’t as extraordinary a night as Tuesday’s short had been, but it was almost everything the 11,700 spectators in the Pacific Coliseum hoped it would be. Kim’s brilliance was, again, unparalleled, and she put herself squarely atop any list of the greatest Olympic champions of all time. Skating first of the three medalists, Queen Kim set a standard the others could not hope to reach, shattering every record and winning every heart in her path. Skating to Gershwin’s Concerto in F in a royal blue cocktail outfit, Kim was enthralling….”
And you saw the rest. Rochette kept it together and showed amazing courage in capturing the bronze with Asada taking the silver. At least among Canadians, Rochette’s performance will be remembered forever. She commented afterwards:
“When I got the bronze, it was like I was five years old again, pretending to be on the podium winning an Olympic medal. I remember watching the Olympics for the first time with my parents – with my mom. In 1994. The dream started with my mom. We shared it together.”
Meanwhile, imagine Russia. So much for the glory days of Soviet times. Wednesday’s hockey loss to Canada was the pinnacle of Russian failures in Vancouver. Many of the old athletic heroes blame a corrupt bureaucracy and no doubt heads will roll. Maybe literally, seeing as the Kremlin won’t stand for failure, ahead of their hosting Sochi, on this level without making changes.
Ah, hockey. Helluva way to wrap things up on Sunday, wasn’t it? Canada gets their gold and Sidney Crosby will never have to buy a beer the rest of his life. But will the excitement translate to better ratings for the NHL?
And it does need to be said that after the Vancouver Games’ dreadful start, organizers got their act together. The Canadian people can be proud. But what of the IOC?
“It’s been almost a decade since (Jacques) Rogge took over the IOC, and the hope that he would provide some integrity and leadership to the organization is gone. Instead, the primary achievements of his millennial Olympic movement are unwieldy growth, a breathtaking collaboration with regimes that commit human rights abuses, and a shucking of responsibility for Olympic-sized ills. The IOC, confronted in Vancouver with a couple of lethal issues and fresh human rights concerns at the next Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, instead reserved some of its toughest words for this late-breaking scandal: the drinking of champagne by women in public.
“The IOC’s treatment of the Canadian women’s hockey team as scandalous for being photographed swilling from bottles of bubbly after winning a gold medal was typical of the organization’s recent fecklessness….
“It was another gold stroke in the emerging portrait of IOC leadership. The pattern is clear. We can count on the IOC to firmly tackle superficial issues. As for accountability on the meaningful ones, such as the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, killed on a training run on an unsafe track at nearly 90 mph, the IOC did not have ‘a responsibility in judicial terms,’ Rogge said, ever so carefully. Asked who was ultimately responsible for the fatal crash, Rogge said: ‘Everyone is responsible.’
“No. No, we’re not. You are.”
As for Sochi, I’ve long called this selection a joke. I can also tell you site preparation is way behind. But you can be sure Vladimir Putin will make sure the city is ready. A lot is going to happen here, however, over the next four years and much of it won’t be pretty.
Lastly, how beautiful is Peggy Fleming?! There’s a reason why I selected her as the Most Beautiful American of the Century. She continues to prove it every day.
Medal Count
U.S. 37
Germany 30
Canada 26
Norway 23
Austria 16
Russia 15
—College Basketball Review
Haven’t seen a weekend like this late in the season where Nos. 1, 2 and 3 went down in quite a while. No. 1 Kansas lost to Oklahoma State 85-77, No. 2 Kentucky lost to Tennessee 74-65, as the Vols scored the last nine points, and then on Sunday, No. 3 Purdue went down to No. 14 Michigan State as the Boilermakers deal with the season-ending injury to one of their top players, Robbie Hummel. So in a few hours Syracuse should be atop the polls.
Meanwhile, back on Jan. 18, Texas was No. 1, 17-0, before taking the court that evening and losing to Kansas State. The Longhorns are now 22-7 and just 8-6 in conference.
But how about my Wake Forest Demon Deacons? I said before the season started I’d be happy with 8-8 in ACC play. Then two weeks ago, we were 8-3, I said we were underrated, and 10-6 seemed a lock, plus a probable 5- or 6-seed in the NCAA tournament. Now, having lost to a lousy North Carolina team, after losing to an equally lousy North Carolina State, and a highly mediocre Virginia Tech, the Deacs are 8-6 and in very real danger of finishing 8-8 as expected initially, only with the kind of momentum that turns off any member of the NCAA Tourney selection committee. If we don’t make the Big Dance, I’m committing hari-kari….or at least drowning my sorrows in the cheapest domestic I can find. And would someone please tell our senior center, 7-footer Chas McFarland, that it’s OK to play like a guy with four years experience, rather than as some second-stringer on a poor high school team? I have never seen a guy brick more layups. Layups! This guy has the ability, which makes it even more frustrating.
Well, at least my friend Jose Rebimbas, coach at Division III William Paterson here in New Jersey, led his squad to their conference title on Saturday and now head to the NCAA’s at 25-2. Jose is 301-133 in his coaching career and WPU has the No. 1 scoring defense in D-III.
–News of the death of killer whale trainer Dawn Brancheau broke as I was posting last time and so for my voluminous archives I need to spend just a little time on it now. Saturday, Brancheau was honored at SeaWorld Orlando’s “Believe” show, three days after Tilikum yanked at her pony tail and pulled her underwater. All in attendance were moved to tears at a video tribute for the trainer, while Tilikum munched on salmon nearby. The trainers stayed out of the water and will remain so until an investigation is finished.
So here were some of the conflicting statements made on the attack from various reports.
“A retired couple from Michigan told the AP that Wednesday’s killing happened as a noontime show was winding down, with some in the audience staying to watch the animals and trainers.
“Spectator Eldon Skaggs said Brancheau was on a platform with the whale and was massaging it. He said the interaction appeared leisurely and informal.
“Then, Skaggs said, the whale ‘pulled her under and started swimming around with her.’”
Another audience member, Victoria Biniak, told WKMG-TV the whale “took off really fast in the tank, and then he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing around, and one of her shoes flew off.”
A separate witness said Brancheau was under water a good three minutes. “And then [the whale] brought her up…and her face was…you could see the fear in her. And then he just took her back down and it must have been five or six minutes.”
Two other witnesses told the Orlando Sentinel that the whale grabbed the woman by the upper arm and tossed her around in its mouth while swimming rapidly around the tank. Others said during an earlier show Tilikum was “acting like an ornery child.”
Well, Tilikum did have an ornery history, having killed a man near Reno in 1991, and then in 1999, Tilikum was involved in some fashion with the death of a man who had sneaked onto SeaWorld grounds and was found in the water.
In 2006, a trainer was bitten and held underwater several times by a killer whale during a show at SeaWorld’s San Diego park. And last Dec. 24 at a marine park on the Spanish island of Tenerife, a trainer fell off a whale and it crushed his ribcage, killing him.
But back to Brancheau, after all the evidence was sorted out, it’s clear Tilikum was disturbed by Brancheau’s long braid, which swung in front of him.
–The NFL competition committee is slated to vote in three weeks on a new proposal for handling overtime playoff games. If the team with the ball first fails to get a touchdown, but makes a field goal, the other team would be given a chance to tie it up or win with a TD. If both teams then got a field goal, it would revert to first team to score wins. I’m not sure I get the logic of a team not getting a crack if it gives up a TD. Two-thirds of the teams need to agree to the changes for new rules to be adopted.
–So it seems the odds of New York (the Meadowlands) getting the 2014 Super Bowl just went up considerably as Phoenix pulled its bid, and once again New York’s sports commentators are all giddy. Wouldn’t it be great to have a Super Bowl played in “Snowicane” conditions? But I appear to be the only one who counters that this is the single dumbest idea of the decade (OK, a new one just started, but it could be). Not one person has noted my main point. Sure, it would be fun watching a game played in lousy conditions from the comfort of your own home, and no doubt New York City would rock during the two weeks leading up to the game.
What if in the 1 in 20 chance the weather is truly awful… eight inches of snow and ice on the roads…or mass transit shut down due to an ice storm…which happens in these parts. What is the freakin’ purpose of holding your big event, charging $1,000+ a seat, patrons shelling out $5,000 for hotel and airfare, if they can’t make it to the damn game?!
Oh well. Go ahead, Commissioner Goodell. Award New York the game and then cross your fingers.
–Gatorade dropped Tiger Woods. “We no longer see a role for Tiger in our marketing efforts and have ended our relationship,” a Gatorade spokeswoman said. “We wish him all the best.”
Gatorade said it would continue in some shape or form with the Tiger Woods Foundation, but, frankly, I don’t see why anyone, after all we’ve learned, along with that stupid apology where he naively asked the media to lay off his family (spewing fire in doing so), would ever want anything to do with the guy. I can’t wait to see him back on the golf course for the drama of it all, but Tiger will have to move mountains to get many of us back on his side. He is who we now know he is; a very bad person.
—Michael Jordan is buying a controlling interest in the Charlotte Bobcats, with BET’s Bob Johnson selling Jordan his stake.
–Talk about a monster game, Zach Randolph of Memphis had 31 points and 25 rebounds against his former team, the Knicks, on Saturday. All this guy does is put up numbers, with four seasons averaging a 20-10, but past employers complained about his attitude and lack of defense. Hell, no one plays defense in the NBA, so what’s the point?
—Let’s Go Mets! Let’s Go Mets! Shortstop Jose Reyes is among the athletes that will receive grand jury subpoenas in the case against Canadian physician Anthony Galea, as reported by SI.com, as part of a multi-agency, federal investigation into whether Galea administered performance-enhancing drugs to the likes of Reyes, former Met Carlos Delgado (I’m shocked! There has never been a more obvious candidate than Delgado, save David Ortiz), A-Rod, Tiger Woods, swimmer Dara Torres and the NFL’s Chris Simms (Phil’s boy) and Jamal Lewis. It was back in September that Galea’s assistant was caught crossing the Canadian border into Buffalo with medical supplies, including HGH and an illegal substance, Actovegin, which is extracted from calf’s blood and thought to have healing properties. Catalano is cooperating with authorities.
Meanwhile, the NFL and MLB players associations will undoubtedly put up a fight on the topic of HGH (banned by both), after a British rugby player became the first world-class athlete to have tested positive for it.
—Mark McGwire’s brother, Jay, wrote a book titled “Mark and Me: Mark McGwire and the Truth Behind Baseball’s Worst-Kept Secret,” wherein he echoes Mark’s claims that his taking of steroids was only to gain a little weight and stay healthy.
“We never wanted to build him into a hulk so he couldn’t swing a bat,” Jay McGwire, a bodybuilder who worked with Mark, says.
Are you kidding me? Mark wasn’t built into a hulk? Standing next to Goliath, Goliath would have been scrambling for a slingshot. [Goliath having learned a painful lesson a few thousand years ago…one that never leaves you, they say.]
But then Jay told ESPN in a series of recent interviews ahead of the book:
“Mark knows that he [was] getting stronger and bigger, come on. He is coming across that it is only for health reasons [that he used the drugs], but he put on 30 pounds of lean muscle mass. That is why a lot of people don’t understand why he is not really coming out clean like that. Why not just admit it all? It is OK, everyone knows how powerful these drugs are.”
So Jay throws Mark under the bus after all. And he says that manager Tony La Russa obviously knew what was going on, despite all of his current denials.
—Kermit Tyler died at 96. It was on a tranquil Sunday morning in 1941 on the island of Oahu, that Tyler, on duty at Ft. Shafter’s radar information center on Dec. 7 when a radar operator on the northern tip of the island reported that he and another private were seeing an unusually large “blip” on their radar screen, 132 miles away and closing fast, that Tyler replied, “Don’t worry about it,” thinking that it was the flight of U.S. B-17 bombers that were due in from the mainland.
Not quite. Try 180 Japanese fighters and bombers. The U.S. was about to enter World War II at a huge cost to those stationed at Pearl Harbor.
Tyler ended up flying combat missions in the Pacific and retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in 1961. He once said he woke up many a night, thinking about his disastrous mistake, “But I don’t feel guilty. I did all I could that morning.”
Defenders of Tyler, who received hate mail the following 50+ years, say he wasn’t trained for his job and had done a walk-through just the previous Wednesday. Congressional committees and military inquiries looking into Pearl Harbor did not find Tyler at fault. Evidently, the two radar operators never volunteered that the two blips they saw represented about 50 planes, and there were indeed B-17s flying in from San Francisco that were due to land around the time of the attack.
“George Lopez…deadbeat?
“Lopez, an avid golfer, participated in the charity outing [for Joe Torre’s Safe at Home Foundation] at Trump National Golf Club in Westchester on July 15, 2008, along with Bill Clinton, Mayor Bloomberg, Billy Chrystal, Rudy Giuliani (and others).
“As the auction was ending after dinner in the clubhouse, Donald Trump spoke to the club’s executive vice president, Dan Scavino. ‘Donald said, ‘Let’s raise some more money for Joe’s cause. Why don’t you go up there and auction off a one-year honorary membership to the club?’’ Scavino told us.”
So here’s the deal. Picture annual dues are $18,000 (initiation is $300,000) and Scavino started the bidding at $5,000 and it rose to $20,000. A guy was all set to write the check…going once, going twice…when Lopez kicked it up to $21,000.
The thing is, everyone else paid for their prizes immediately, and Lopez didn’t. That was July 2008.
“To nudge Lopez into paying, Scavino e-mailed him in December, offering to extend the membership through the 2009 season, but never received a reply.
“ ‘Several attempts by the foundation have been unsuccessful in getting the money,’ a source said. ‘I think Lopez made that bid just to show off in front of the crowd and to impress Donald Trump.’
“Lopez’s spokeswoman insisted, ‘George’s understanding is that it was paid. George is not a deadbeat. George is very generous.’ The foundation had no comment.”
I love this story, because you can just picture how it all went down, just as the Post reports it.
For you golf fanatics out there, however, recall how Lopez was attempting to fill the vacant role of Bob Hope for the PGA Tour event in the desert a few years back and then the Hope board shunted him aside rather unceremoniously. I documented that in this space…BC 3/24/08
“Ahem, ahem…boy I nailed this one, concerning George Lopez.
“From Bar Chat, 1/21/08
“The 2008 PGA Tour season really doesn’t get going until next week at Torrey Pines when Tiger, Phil and most of the other top players make their debuts. I can’t get fired up by the Bob Hope anymore because the field is so poor (that is I can’t get fired up unless Bill Haas is in contention*), but I see how comedian George Lopez is picking up the role of host as a way of keeping the celebrity-studded event relevant. My only comment is that if Bob Hope knew this, I wonder how happy he’d be. I’ve remarked before that Lopez is not only not funny, his stand-up act is incredibly dirty and foul; the total antithesis of Hope’s brand of comedy. And that’s a memo.”
“Fast forward to GolfWorld, 3/21/08
“The ousting last week of George Lopez as host of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic was, above all, a surprise. From the outside, it seemed the Hope – which had struggled for an identity after the death of its founder in 2003 – had gained energy since Lopez was named official host in 2006.
“No one disputes that during his tenure, Lopez did everything asked of him to revitalize the event.
“But the tournament’s board of directors, generally acknowledged as one of the most conservative and parochial on tour, was another matter. Last week they tried to deflect the news away from Lopez’s dismissal by hinting they were seeking Arnold Palmer, who won the first Hope in 1960 and owns a La Quinta home, to become the host of next year’s 50th playing.
“The bottom line is the board decided Lopez was not the right fit. Although originally made the host because of the way he connected with galleries and promoted the event, the 46-year-old Mexican-American’s brand of humor – though considerably toned down from his gritty stand-up act – was edgier than the Hope elders were used to.”
“Suffice it to say, Lopez was more than a bit ticked off and won’t be playing in the pro-am ever again. Part of me feels sorry for him, but I saw this coming.”
Yup, people, especially celebrities, as we’ve painfully learned, are never who they seem to be. Except maybe Tom Hanks…one would hope.
*Funny how Haas won this year.
—Danica Patrick wrecked in her third Nationwide Series race on Saturday, though it wasn’t her fault with Michael McDowell claiming responsibility on lap 83. At one point Danica was running near the lead but it ended up being her third straight sub-30 finish. She now takes off four months to go back to Indy Car racing.
–We note the passing of former running back Mosi Tatupu, 54, of undisclosed causes. Drafted in 1978 out of Southern Cal, he played 14 seasons in the NFL, 13 of them with New England, where he rushed for 2,415 yards and 18 touchdowns, but was better known for his special-teams play. At USC, Tatupu was a blocking back for the likes of Anthony Davis, Ricky Bell and Charles White, while managing 1,277 yards himself.
–If for some reason you feel compelled to go to the World Cup in South Africa this June (you’re nuts…massive terror target because you can’t tell me the security will be worth a damn), be aware that the tickets are only issued in South Africa. So, as has become apparent, anyone claiming to be able to supply them online is either passing counterfeit tickets or you’ll never get them. Thousands of fake tickets have already been discovered per an investigation by the London Times.
—More animal bits:
A 16-foot python devoured a 77-pound goat, horns and all, in Australia, as reported last week.
“The goat had gone missing from a property bordering rainforest three weeks ago, when its owner stumbled on the enormous reptile, with a suspiciously large bump in its stomach. The python had swallowed the pet goat and spent the next three days digesting its meal before it disappeared.” [The Cairns Post]
Brad K. passed along a tale out of Moscow, via The Montreal Gazette:
“A Russian chimpanzee has been sent to rehab by zookeepers to cure the smoking and beer-drinking habits he has picked up. An ex-performer, Zhora became aggressive at his circus and was transferred to a zoo…where he fathered several baby chimps, learned to draw with markers and picked up his two vices.
“ ‘The beer and cigarettes were ruining him. He would pester passers-by for booze,’ the Komsomolskaya Pravda paper said.”
“Water gushed into a luxury Dubai mall when a huge shark-filled aquarium sprang a leak, sending startled shoppers scattering and shutting down nearby shops in one of the city’s proudest attractions….
“The timing is unfortunate for Dubai, which is trying to restore its once gilded image as it wades through a torrent of negative publicity generated by its burst property bubble, crippling debt pile and the assassination of a top Hamas commander in an airport hotel last month.
“Thursday’s incident also raises new questions about building safety in the city state.”
As for the fish, none of the 33,000 were hurt as the hole was quickly plugged, but imagine the talk in our oceans today when fish see a gilded net inching towards them. Whereas in the past the fish would willingly succumb… “We’re going to Dubai!”…now it’s going to be more like, “Swim for your lives!”
And this story I forgot to relay last time, via the AP:
“An Indonesian park ranger escaped an attack by a Komodo dragon when his colleagues heard his cries for help and drove the reptile away.
“Marcelinus Subanghadir [Ed. Don’t know him] was outside his hut on Komodo Island late Monday when a nearly 7-foot-long dragon grabbed hold of his right foot…
“The dragon had Subanghadir’s foot clamped in its shark-like, serrated teeth until fellow rangers heard his screams and drove it off with wooden clubs.
“Subanghadir, 34, suffered deep lacerations and was recovering at a hospital on nearby Bali.”
This guy is a goner, Komodos having a bite that injects you with all kinds of toxins. There are 4,000 of these monsters on Komodo Island, by the way.
—A-Rod crashed his $400,000 Maybach as he arrived at the Yankees training camp the other day, according to the New York Post’s Page Six, a minor fender bender and he wasn’t hurt. But his people are denying rumors “he’d been texting at the time of the crash.” Of course he was. It’s what they all do.
–As they said back at Woodstock, “There are some bad Lemon Chalet Cremes making the rounds, people. Of course it’s your own trip, so be my guest. But there’s a warning on that one, OK?”
Little Brownie Bakers, makers of this brand of Girl Scout cookies, is recalling them due to complaints they don’t smell good. The peanut butter crème brand is just fine, sports fans.
–Back to the Mets, 85-year-old Mildred Block sued the team’s concessionaire, Aramark, for age discrimination in replacing her with a 75-year-old. True story. Mildred said “she was marooned at a Shea booth where tips were scarce compared to the right field stand where she’d been for nearly two decades, pocketing $40 in tips on good days.”
Someone needs to very gently tell her the Mets have a new stadium and that is why she didn’t see any customers. Ah, Mildred? You’re standing in a parking lot. Shea no longer exists. Why don’t you just mosey on over to that big edifice straight ahead, the one with the Citi sign.
[Speaking of Citi Field, in another sign of bad things to come for the franchise, the covering for the letter C fell in January. It’s a brand new freakin’ stadium.]
–Former NBA All-Star Alvin Robertson was charged with sexual assault of a child (age 14), trafficking an underage child, and other incredibly despicable acts that need not be retold here. This was all part of a large sex ring.
–For the record, February proved to be the snowiest month on record in New York City, 37 inches, topped off by the 21 that fell in last week’s storm. Understand that for about the first ten hours of the “snowicane,” it was also above freezing in New York so the totals were actually held down.
–I’m watching the Closing Ceremonies and they’re playing the Norwegian anthem, which is a reminder they have the most expensive beer in the world. And you’ve gotta love the Russian anthem…marshal music that fills one with visions of tanks crushing the Hungarians in ’56 and the Czechs in ’68 and Georgia and…sorry, I’m forgetting the meaning of the Olympic spirit.
[Special kudos to goalie Ryan Miller for attending the Closing Ceremonies; Miller the deserving MVP of the entire hockey tournament. I’m guessing no single American gained more fans the past few weeks than he did, including all our gold medal winners.]
–I forgot last time to note the passing of Lee Freeman, 60, a member of Strawberry Alarm Clock. I also forgot that the group, which rocketed to stardom (ever so briefly) with the No. 1 hit “Incense and Peppermints,” intended the tune to be released as the B-side of a single, and none of the members of the group wanted to sing it, so a friend on hand for the recording session volunteered. Freeman, an original band member, could have sung it himself. So who did? 16-year-old Greg Munford, leader of an L.A. band the Shapes. And now you know…the rest of the story.
–And Happy 200th Birthday to Frederic Chopin! He was born on March 1, 1810, in the little village of Zelazowa Wola, about an hour outside of Warsaw and a place I went to back in 1999. The house where he grew up is there, it’s a beautiful piece of property with an idyllic stream (the very definition of idyllic), and my driver and I just happened to arrive as a concert pianist began a recital in the garden for a mere handful of visitors. Yes, you had to be there but it was special. Alas, Chopin, who went on to spend most of his life in Paris, died of tuberculosis in 1849. It was his trips as a youth around the Polish countryside with his father, however, that infused his work with a folk music theme.
So tonight, toast Chopin with a Zywiec beer from Poland.
Bar Chat’s All-Time Favorite Classical Composer List
1. Tchaikovsky
2. Rachmaninoff
3. Johan Strauss (II…I confuse these guys)
4. Chopin
5. Beethoven
6. Dave Clark Five
Top 3 songs for the week 3/5/66: #1 “The Ballad Of The Green Berets” (SSgt. Barry Sadler) #2 “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” (Nancy Sinatra) #3 “Lightnin’ Strikes” (Lou Christie…in my top 100)…and…#4 “Listen People” (Herman’s Hermits…underrated tune) #5 “California Dreamin’” (The Mamas and The Papas) #6 “Elusive Butterfly” (Bob Lind…I’m not a sap for liking this one) #7 “My Love” (Petula Clark…her photo hangs in my new rock ‘n’ roll room) #8 “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” (Stevie Wonder) #9 “Working My Way Back To You” (The 4 Seasons…Frankie is in the room, too, as are the Beach Boys, DC Five, the Stones, the Rascals, the Supremes (sorry, Mark R. It’s a signed album with the Temps), Four Tops and Tom Jones…but I digress) #10 “My World Is Empty Without You” (The Supremes…goodness gracious…top to bottom as good a week as there has ever been in the history of mankind)
NCAA Basketball Quiz Answers: 1) Dan Monson was the coach at Gonzaga before Mark Few who led the Zags to the Elite Eight in 1998-99. 2) Rick Mahorn is the best player ever from Hampton. 3) Vin Baker is the only 1st-rounder out of Hartford. 4) Michael Young was the leading scorer on Houston’s Phil Slama Jama teams that lost to N.C. State and Georgetown in back-to-back title games, 1983 and ’84. Young averaged 17.3 and 19.8 those seasons on a team that also had Hakeem (both years) and Drexler (’83). Some of the other memorable players were Alvin Franklin, Reid Gettys, Eric Dickens, Ricky Winslow, Greg Anderson, Benny Anders, and Larry Micheaux. [By the way, Houston hasn’t had a first-rounder since 1987. You could win some coin on that one, ’87 being the year after Guy Lewis (592-279) left.]
