College Basketball Quiz: 1) UMass has had just two first round NBA draft selections. Who are they? [Don’t worry…both are familiar] 2) Who is the only first-rounder out of McNeese State, who then went on to a Hall of Fame career? 3) Name two players off the 1972-73 Memphis team that played UCLA in the title game? 4) Who is the best player ever to come out of Miami, and it’s not even close? 5) Michigan won the national championship in 1989, but what three players went in the first round of the 1990 draft? [Glen Rice went out in ’89. And this is before the Fab Five]
The Sweet Sixteen…give it up for…
9 Northern Iowa vs. 5 Michigan State
6 Tennessee vs. 2 Ohio State
1 Syracuse vs. 5 Butler
6 Xavier vs. 2 Kansas State
1 Kentucky vs. 12 Cornell
11 Washington vs. 2 West Virginia
1 Duke vs. 4 Purdue
3 Baylor vs. 10 St. Mary’s
If you love underdogs, this tourney has been as good as any, and so many of us will be pulling for Northern Iowa, Cornell, and St. Mary’s. Seeing as I picked West Virginia way back, I’m not pulling for the Huskies. And of course even though Butler has a 5-seed, it’s still a great story if they can advance any further.
So how is your editor doing? How is anyone doing, with Kansas down early, as well as Villanova? But 6 of my Elite Eight remain. I lost Kansas and Richmond, and Kansas from my Final Four, but have Xavier.
Tourney Bits:
So for the archives…those of us who dropped everything we were doing on Thursday to watch the opening games saw Old Dominion defeat Notre Dame, 51-50, BYU beat Florida in two overtimes, 99-92, Villanova hold off 15-seed Robert Morris in OT, 73-70, and Murray State defeat Vanderbilt, 66-65. No question…the greatest series of games out of the chute, ever.
I told you Cornell wasn’t a 12. Actually, the whole country knew that…everyone except the tournament committee, which must have been listening to USA TODAY “guru” Danny Sheridan, who had Cornell at 1 million:1!
One of my few shining moments thus far was telling you all year that New Mexico was overrated. On 3/4/10 I added, New Mexico would lose their second round game, and so they did.
Georgia Tech’s 24 of 25 from the foul line in their win over Oklahoma State was extraordinary. But then the ACC flamed out, with just Duke remaining. The ACC has sucked for years now, but at the same time they deserved their six bids. Duke and Maryland were top 16 material and the other four were Nos. 28-40.
As for Wake Forest, indulge me, as a fan and alum. I never thought we’d really show up vs. Texas in that thrilling first game. If you don’t follow the sport that closely, let alone Wake, I can’t begin to tell you how important that win was for the program, even if we were taken out back and shot in the next round by Ashley Judd’s Kentucky team, 90-60. If Wake had lost to Texas, it would have continued the nation’s worst record for underperformance come tourney time. But no doubt, Saturday’s effort was ugly.
However, basketball is a funny game, especially at the college level. It can be all about momentum, so if you saw the Kentucky game, consider it was 19-19 when our star, Aminu, went out with three fouls. But also consider that Ish Smith blew a dunk at this time, and L.D. Williams missed a layup, and McFarland was called for a charge that wasn’t, and a Kentucky player scored even though he clearly walked. All these little things add up in a big way. Four plays that if they go Wake’s way they have a ton of confidence.
[And a note to the NCAA tourney committee…next time, please don’t put Wake in the same bracket as Kentucky. There is a history here between us…a very ugly history, that is. They kill us every time, including an NCAA contest many of us remember not too fondly, March 1993, when Kentucky destroyed our Rodney Rogers-led Deacs, 103-69. I’ll never forget watching that in a hotel room in Williamsburg, where I was for a conference. Talk about depressing, as Phil W. reminded me we were down 34 at half as Jamal Mashburn went off for 23 (19 in the first 9 ½ minutes, for crying out loud).]
More Bouncing Ball Bits:
With all of the excitement in the tourney thus far, all the more reason for us fans to rise up and protest the probable expansion to 96 teams from the current 64-65. I mean the No. 15 Robert Morris Colonials’ near upset of No. 2 Villanova, which would have been just the fifth No. 15 triumph, is reason alone not to mess with success. Under the expansion to 96, the fist 32 would receive byes, leaving the first round with, say, four No. 9 teams playing four No. 24s; or, using this year’s bracket, Wake Forest vs. Fairfield, or Louisville vs. a Quinnipiac. Sure, the headline would look good if Fairfield upset Wake, but who the heck is going to watch it except fans at the two schools? The teams are No. 9 and 24 for a reason.
Meanwhile, there are four Division I coaching jobs open in the New York area these days; Seton Hall, St. John’s, Fordham and Wagner. St. John’s Norm Roberts became the latest to lose his job after six seasons and an 81-101 record. Roberts returned St. John’s to stability in terms of the integrity of the program, but he refused to play the game of cozying up to the A.A.U. coaches that control things in New York (and demand the coach “bend the rules” if they want their athlete). Roberts is a good man. But St. John’s needs wins.
As for Seton Hall and its ouster of Bobby Gonzalez, since mentioning his dismissal last Bar Chat, a lot more became known. We always knew the guy was a primo jerk, but George Vecsey of the New York Times brings the Gonzalez era into focus.
“Gonzalez’s tense demeanor was not the worst thing about his tenure at Seton Hall. Ultimately, he was booted for the high-risk recruits he kept attracting. [Ed. The total opposite of Roberts.] The latest disgrace was the revelation Wednesday that Robert Mitchell, a player Gonzalez tossed from the team only last weekend, had been arrested and charged in an armed robbery of eight people [Ed. Seton Hall students, it turned out.]
“Gonzalez also recruited Keon Lawrence, a transfer from Missouri who was charged with drinking and driving the wrong way on the Garden State Parkway [and causing a two-car accident.]
“Another of Gonzalez’s recruits, Herb Pope, a transfer from New Mexico State, came into public attention Tuesday night in the National Invitation Tournament when he punched an opponent in the groin and was ejected from the game. Gonzalez received his seventh technical foul of the season in the game.”
As for Robert Mitchell, check out this account from the Times’ Pete Thamel and Michael S. Schmidt.
“(Mitchell) was arrested on Tuesday in Newark and charged with kidnapping, robbery, burglary and possession of a weapon, according to a law enforcement official in Essex County, N.J. Mitchell and another person were accused of breaking into a home in South Orange, N.J., duct-taping eight people and stealing credit and debit cards, driver’s licenses, cellphones, digital cameras and about $300. The police did not identify the other person.”
So guess who we learned over the weekend was the other person? None other than another Seton Hall hoopster, Kelly Whitney, who starred there for four years, his last season being 2006.
I love this account from Whitney’s mother, courtesy of Sharon Adario of the Star-Ledger.
“Before his arrest, Whitney called his mother and told her that people were saying he was involved in the robbery because he is a close friend of Mitchell.
“ ‘Mommy, I am concerned about rumors on the street,’ Sharon Whitney said yesterday, recounting what her son told her. ‘Mommy, I had nothing to do with this.’”
Now everyone is innocent until proven guilty, cough cough, but puh-leeeze. Do ya think Kelly planted that call to ‘Mommy’?
Talkin’ Baseball
“Evidence has finally been published that seems to resolve a 72-year-old mystery. When Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers made a run at Babe Ruth’s season home run record, falling two short with 58 in 1938, was he pitched around because he was Jewish?
“It is impossible to know what was in pitchers’ hearts, but it is also impossible to ignore the statistical record. In short, the American League didn’t seem exactly thrilled with Greenberg’s pursuit….
“Some members of Greenberg’s family and legions of his fans believed that anti-Semitic pitchers had walked Greenberg often to keep him from a fair shot at Ruth, who set the record in 1927. Greenberg, however, called such a view ‘pure baloney.’….
“Greenberg received many more walks as he chased Ruth in 1938 than he did in the rest of his career. Almost no other hitter going after the home run record had anything like Greenberg’s late-season spike in bases on balls. He had 119 walks to lead the A.L., the only time he did so, and they accounted for 17.5% of his 681 plate appearances….
“[As opposed to the way he was treated early in the season], Greenberg had four three-walk games in the final two months of the 1938 season, three in September.
“By comparison, he had no three-walk games in 1937, when he drove in 183 runs; one in 1935, when he won his first Most Valuable Player award; and three in 1940, his second MVP year.”
Greenberg’s walk rate jumped to 20.4% in September, 1938, vs. 14.5% for 1937 and 15% in 1939. Greenberg’s approach at the plate didn’t suddenly change, either.
“He said he felt ‘if I, as a Jew, hit a home run, I was hitting one against Hitler.’ So he had compelling reasons not to take a walk.”
Meanwhile, back in 1932, Jimmie Foxx finished with 58 home runs but his walk ratio in September varied little with the rest of the season. Same as in 1998, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa took aim at Roger Maris.
“Only Greenberg, among all these would-be home run kings, had a significant increase in his walk rate.”
[Barry Bonds’ ratio spiked in September 2001, as he finished up with 73 home runs, but this is chalked up more to “a paradigm shift in pitching to Bonds that lasted well beyond 2001.” The numbers bear this out.]
–Wow…congratulations to the Minnesota Twins for locking up All-World catcher Joe Mauer for 8 years, $184 million. This is a huge deal, and a great one for baseball fans all over. Mauer, from St. Paul, long wanted to stay with Minnesota but there was significant doubt the small-market Twins could afford to keep him. Mauer, 27, has already won three batting titles and two Gold Gloves but would have become a free agent in the fall. As large as this new contract is, he could have commanded another $60 million to $70 million. I applaud the Twins and now hope they kick ass in the American League.
–As the New York Post’s Joel Sherman notes, one of the more interesting items this coming baseball season will be seeing what happens to the San Diego Padres’ Adrian Gonzalez, especially as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. Gonzalez is a budding superstar who doesn’t turn 28 until May, but seeing as he’s a free agent in a few years, with San Diego not being able to afford the kind of long-term money he’ll command, they need to unload him now if they’re to get some great prospects in return.
–The Washington Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg is starting the year at Double-A Harrisburg, despite being the best pitcher in camp. It does make sense to be careful with him, and no doubt he will be on the big-league roster by mid-season, but the economics of the sport are also such that by holding him back until late May, at the earliest, it delays Strasburg’s eligibility for salary arbitration and free agency.
–Speaking of the Nats, it was kind of bizarre they released outfielder Elijah Dukes. The immensely talented 25-year-old was told “it was a baseball issue.” The thing is, local followers of the team had assumed that this would be Dukes’ breakout season, and, despite a ton of past issues both on and off the field, he had had none going back to last year. And according to the team, they tried to trade him but found no interest. If he truly does have his act together these days, it would really suck if no one gives him a chance to prove his star potential.
–Longtime Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, 82, hit his head in a fall at home but is OK. The problem was the news hit late for the newspapers and local television stations, so the initial reports were sketchy as deadlines approached. Everyone feared the worst…because everyone loves Vin Scully.
“His reaction will be embarrassment [Ed. it was…Scully apologized for causing such concern; classic, humble Scully]….Our reaction, since this is all about us and his several million fans, is to mandate that he now wear a helmet around the house. He’ll get a chuckle out of that and go looking for one of those old leather jobs from the Red Grange era with no facemask.
“He will never quite understand what he means to the rest of us because he cannot. He is the one inside that skin.
“But if anything happens to him, the void is too huge for comprehension. If we had our way, there would be a fountain of youth and Scully would have John Wooden, who may know more baseball than basketball, as his broadcast sidekick….
“Think of what we would miss as we navigate our tangled web of freeways during the baseball season.
“Scully starts a story as the batter comes to the plate. The stories are almost always new, always fascinating. As the tale unspools, we focus harder, praying somewhere deep within ourselves that the pitcher has the decency to throw a couple in the dirt and the hitter has the good sense to take some pitches, or at least swing and miss. We don’t care about the game at that very moment. We want no interruption to Scully’s story.”
Scully returned to work on Sunday. “The score won’t matter. The voice giving it to us will. We remain blessed.”
–As the Daily News’ Mike Lupica noted, it’s really pretty amazing Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington wants us to believe he used cocaine just once and somehow got caught in a drug test a day or two later. But he’s tested clean the last nine months, and the Rangers, to their credit, didn’t overreact at the time.
—Fess Parker died at age 85. While he led a very full life, what was sad was that the death came on the 84th birthday of his wife of 50 years, Marcella, and just minutes before he was coherent and speaking with family.
It was back in 1954 that Disney’s “Davy Crockett” debuted with Fess Parker in the title role and Buddy Ebsen as his sidekick. He became a staple of the “Disneyland” show and soon Baby Boomers were wearing coonskin caps and scooping up Davy lunch boxes and buckskin shirts and jackets. [I remember my brother’s buckskin jacket. Cool stuff. I wonder if he’d let me wear it today. Let’s call him…. “Hey, Bro. How ya doin’? Listen, I’m writing Bar Chat and the audience wants to know if you’ll let me borrow your buckskin jacket? No? Why not?”]
“We had no idea what was going to happen to ‘Crockett.’ Why, by the time the first show finally got on the air, we were already shooting the third one and calmly killing Davy off at the Alamo. It became one of the biggest overnight hits in TV history, and there we were with just three films and a dead hero.”
During a 1955 summer appearance tour, it was reported that 20,000 would show up at each airport to greet Fess Parker.
But as Disney killed off Davy Crockett at the Alamo, where the real-life Crockett died, soon the coonskin cap craze dried up as well, as did Parker’s career.
Then from 1964-70, Parker made a comeback as “Daniel Boone,” with actor-singer Ed Ames playing a fake Indian, Mingo, who hit all the right stereotypical notes.
After “Daniel Boone,” Parker left Hollywood and went into real estate, built hotels and got into the wine business, where he set up shop and lived near Ronald Reagan’s ranch. The two were good friends, as you can picture. Parker was once considered for a senate race against California Democrat Alan Cranston, but Parker’s wife was against what would have been a rough campaign.
As for the coonskin cap craze, 10 million were reportedly sold. And Bill Hayes’ version of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” soared to No. 1 on the Billboard charts and remained there for 13 weeks. Oh, these were simpler times (though the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union existed).
But any fair retelling of Parker’s life has to note he made a ton of enemies among his Santa Ynez Valley neighbors, home to the Fess Parker Wine Country Inn & Spa, when he attempted to sell 745 acres of valley ranchland to the local Chumash Indians in a joint venture calling for building up to 500 luxury homes, a resort hotel and two championship golf courses. The problem was he could skirt local zoning laws because it was land being annexed by the tribe on sovereign land and for this the locals were major league torqued off. In the end, though, the project was abandoned when Parker went to war with the Indians (I’m taking slight liberty here. No one was hurt.) Nonetheless, the whole episode deeply tarnished Parker’s image, except among the tourists who didn’t know any better.
But let’s toast Fess…get out your favorite adult beverage, be it one of his wines or a domestic beer (it still being inappropriate to drink premium with a 9.7% official unemployment rate).
Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee
Greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so he knew every tree
Kilt him a b’ar when he was only 3
Davy, Davy Crockett
King of the wild frontier
–For the growing archives on Tiger Woods, porn star Joslyn James released some emails purportedly from the sex-craved golfer.
“I would love to have the ability to make you sore,” reads one message sent Aug. 28, 2009, at 3:32 p.m., while Tiger was competing in the Barclays golf tournament in Jersey City.
In a message sent four minutes later, Woods demanded a specific sexual act and proposed a threesome “with you and another girl you trust.”
Then, as noted in a report by the Daily News, “Woods requested something even darker.”
“I want to treat you rough,” Tiger wrote, according to James. “Throw you around, spank and slap you.”
And it gets worse, including one that says, “Whatever I want, you are mine.”
What a guy. But the Daily News’ Hank Gola had an interesting take concerning these text revelations and the upcoming Masters. The men running the tournament, after all, don’t have to let Tiger play if they don’t want to. I mean think about it.
“(These) are the same high-minded people who banned Gary McCord from the CBS broadcast booth because he dared to suggest the slick greens were ‘bikini-waxed.’ By comparison, Woods’ alleged texts make McCord’s wisecrack suitable for a kindergarten class. They were, in short, pornographic.
“McCord was a quasi-representative of the tournament and whatever Woods sent on his cellphone was meant to stay private. There is a difference there, but the hypocrisy remains.”
On Sunday, Tiger granted ESPN and the Golf Channel interviews, the first he has done in four months. To ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi, he addressed the topic of the kind of reception he hoped to get at Augusta. “I’m a little nervous about that to be honest with you….It would be nice to hear a couple claps here and there.”
Tiger also said: “I was living a life of a lie, I really was. And I was doing a lot of things…that hurt a lot of people. And stripping away denial and rationalization you start coming to the truth of who you really are and that can be very ugly. But then again, when you face it and you start conquering it and you start living up to it, the strength that I feel now…I’ve never felt that type of strength….
“I’ve hurt a lot of people, not just my wife. My friends, my colleagues, the public, kids who looked up to me. There were a lot of people that thought I was a different person and my actions were not according to that. That’s why I had to apologize. I was so sorry for what I had done.”
In less than three weeks, we’ll all learn a lot more. But for now, suffice it to say, what Tiger told us Sunday was nothing more than pure b.s.
–ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” featured former NBAer Antoine Walker discussing how he blew through the $110 million he earned in 13 seasons, including taking care of his extensive entourage; “That’s eight, nine rooms. That’s eight, nine flights.”
“It was very hard for me to say ‘no’ to people when they come ask me for something,” Walker said. “A lot of friends I grew up with would have a business venture and hit me with a sob story and I would say ‘yes,’ and I got burned a lot of times that way. People say ‘I need to borrow $200,000 for this deal and I’ll give it back to you,’ and then I never hear from them.”
Good lord. Why didn’t anyone tell me the Bank of Walker was offering such generous terms?
Former Celtic and longtime broadcaster Cedric Maxwell says Walker was heavily influenced by Michael Jordan when it came to the gaming tables. The two used to have marathon sessions at places like Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. The problem was that while Jordan could largely afford to lose the vast sums he did some evenings, Walker, despite his big contracts, was nowhere near Jordan’s league, what with MJ’s Nike fortune.
It’s also a reminder why it’s a bit unsettling that Jordan is the new majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.
–Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin told the NFL Network that when it comes to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the sexual-assault allegation against him, “I’m highly concerned for our franchise and for Ben personally.” But as Tomlin added, “Like everyone else, you watch these things unfold,” and today, we know little more than we did weeks ago when the charge surfaced.
—Wayne Collett died. He was 60. To jog your memory, it was back in 1972, at the Munich Olympics, that Collett won silver for the United States in the 400 meter dash, with teammate Vince Matthews taking the gold.
In the previous Olympics in Mexico City, 1968, runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos had staged their famous protest on the medal podium, each wearing a black glove while giving the black power salute.
So with this in mind, officials in Munich didn’t want a repeat of the ’68 display but as “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played, “Matthews and Collett, also African-Americans, did not face the flag. They stood casually, hands on hips, their jackets unzipped. They chatted and fidgeted. When the anthem ended and they climbed off the stand, the crowd booed. Matthews twirled his medal and Collett gave a black power salute.” [Frank Litsky / New York Times]
Calling it a “disgusting display,” the I.O.C. barred them. Collett defended his actions. “I couldn’t stand there and sing the words because I don’t believe they’re true.” Later, he told the Los Angeles Times, “I love America. I just don’t think it’s lived up to its promise.”
–What have I been saying for years…years…when it comes to protecting the world’s endangered species? We need a mercenary force, former Iraq and Afghanistan vets, preferably, under the auspices of the UN. My argument has been that you just know many vets would love to stay in the game, and for a cause no right-minded person can disagree with.
“WWF, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund, has hired former SAS soldiers to train African wildlife wardens, and the Zoological Society of London is funding elephant-mounted patrols to protect rhinos in Nepal. The trend towards militarization follows an estimated 150 deaths among game wardens in Africa in gunfights with poachers.”
I love it. The wildlife organizations could increase their donations a hundred-fold if they promoted the fact that X percent would go to funding militias, in essence, to protect the animals. I’m dead serious about this.
Distressingly, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Qatar, which just dismissed proposals to protect bluefin tuna, is likely to approve of “plans to restart sales of ivory taken from African elephants.”
Amazing. Dominic Dyer, chairman of Care for the Wild International, said, “These animals are being wiped out by poachers who are increasingly well equipped with automatic weapons, GPS satellites, night-vision kit and heat-seeking telescopes to spot animals at night.”
We should take no mercy. The people of the Good would be doing God’s work.
–The New Jersey Nets are 7-62, 13 games to go including tonight, Monday, as they launch their final assault on the record book and the 76ers all-time mark of futility, 9-73.
–Phil W., unofficial agent for former Appalachian State quarterback Armanti Edwards, passed along a piece from New England Sports Network on the coming draft and some of the bargains that might be had in the later rounds next month, say fourth round and up. Tom Brady, after all, was a sixth round selection.
First on the list is Edwards. I couldn’t agree more. Number one, he’s an athlete, whether you want him in the Wildcat formation, or as a receiver, a la the Jets’ Brad Smith (a Wildcat option as well), or a return man (ditto Brad Smith, or Josh Cribbs), just make sure Edwards is on your roster. At least that’s how I’d be if I were GM. Figure out how he fits in later. Just don’t let him get away.
I also agree with NESN’s take on Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount, he of the checkered past. I love C.J. Spiller for his versatility, but as a pure rusher, Blount is as good as any in the draft but he could go as low as the fifth round, some are saying. Talk about a steal if this proves to be the case.
—Jimmie Johnson won his 50th Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, his 3rd in five races.
—Jim Furyk won his first PGA Tour event since 2007, No. 14 in his career.
–According to Cynthia Fagen of the New York Post, Disney has issued a casting call for the fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.”
Specifically, filmmakers are seeking “beautiful female fit models. Must be 5ft7in-5ft8in, size 4 or 6, no bigger or smaller. Age 18-25. Must have a lean dancer body. Must have real breasts. Do not submit if you have implants.”
–But no word on tattoos, speaking of which, everyone in America is wondering the same thing. What was Sandra Bullock thinking? I loved what the New York Post’s Page Six dredged up, from last season’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” when Donald Trump was constantly asking Jesse James, “What the hell does Sandra Bullock see in you? How did you ever get Sandra? You must have something going, but I sure can’t figure it out. Maybe you’re just good in bed.” When Trump fired him, it was nasty. Trump now recalls:
“He was a quiet guy, but as the show progressed, you realized that he was very smart and very cunning. He didn’t get along with the people on the show, but I sort of got to like him, at least as much as such a sullen personality can be liked…Don’t underestimate Jesse, he is very deceptive, and what you see is not really what you get. He happens to be a very smart guy. As for Sandra, who I also know very well, she is a total sweetheart.”
Meanwhile, regarding the tattoo queen, Michelle “Bombshell” McGee, the Post reports that last year she “shamelessly posed for a photo shoot licking a long dagger, sporting a Nazi swastika armband and wearing the ‘Death’s Head’ hat of the Third Reich’s evil SS.”
And McGee’s ex-husband, a tattooist [“Mom, when I grow up can I become a tattooist?” “Sure, Bobby. That’s a great idea.”], said Bombshell has a huge swastika on her stomach.
I know free speech is protected under the Constitution, but can’t we just lock this jerk up, anyway?
[For her part, Bullock has gone into hiding, while James apologized. As for the Oscars curse…this past week, last year’s Best Actress, Kate Winslet, announced she was splitting from her director husband Sam Mendes. Reese Witherspoon split with actor Ryan Phillippe after winning the award in 2006, and Hillary Swank ended her marriage with Chad Lowe after picking up the Oscar in 2004.]
–Memo to Director of West Coast Shark Operations Bob S. [who’s actually on the East Coast, but the management structure at Bar Chat is in a state of upheaval]. I just saw a piece from last week’s L.A. Times by Kevin Spear titled “Orcas have big brains to go with their brawn.”
According to neuroscientist Lori Marino, “Killer whales have the second-biggest brains among ocean mammals, weighing as much as 15 pounds. It’s not clear whether orcas are as well-endowed with memory cells as humans, but scientists have found they are amazingly well-wired for sensing and analyzing their watery environment.”
Goodness gracious. “Scientists are trying to better understand how killer whales learn local dialects, teach one another specialized methods of hunting and pass on behaviors that can persist for generations – longer, possibly, than in any other species except humans.”
Which I guess means that if you were graphing it, killer whale intelligence could one day cross man’s, at which point we should all just give up and go back to frontier days. At least some of us have our caps.
Anyway, Ms. Marino wonders about the Feb. 24 SeaWorld incident.
“I’m not trying to second-guess what was in this particular whale’s mind (oh yes you are, Lori), but, certainly, if we are talking about whether killer whales have the wherewithal and the cognitive capacity to intentionally strike out at someone, or to be angry, or to really know what they are doing, I would have to say the answer is yes.”
–Two of the wolves suspected of having killed the teacher in Alaska about ten days ago were shot from the air. Tests found they did not have rabies. Officials called off the hunt for other wolves.
“My late husband, comedian Joey Adams, had a backstage patter when visiting anyone whose show was a bomb. He’d say, ‘Max, you did it again.’ Or: ‘Hey, had a little something in it for everybody.’
“So this accountant came home to find his wife, a heavy-duty liar, in bed with a midget. He screamed: ‘You swore you’d never cheat again.’ ‘Don’t be angry,’ she said. ‘Can’t you see I’m tapering off?’”
–Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes fame, sitting in front of the tube, complaining to Hobbes.
“These television programs sure are rotten. There isn’t an ounce of imagination in the whole bunch. What bilge. Who do they think is stupid enough to sit and watch this trash?”
If you didn’t know this, you can get a daily fix of Calvin & Hobbes in your e-mail, just as Jeff B. and I have been doing for years. Go to myucomics.com and sign up.
–Speaking of cartoons, Simpsons alert…March 28…the Simpsons travel to Israel, where they have an aggressive tour guide, voice by Sasha Baron Cohen. Producer Al Jean told the Jerusalem Post, “The Christians, the Jews and Muslims are united in that they all get mad at Homer. It’s the only thing they can agree on.”
Top 3 songs for the week 3/25/72: #1 “A Horse With No Name” (America) #2 “Heart Of Gold” (Neil Young..was I the only one that confused the artists of these first two?) #3 “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” (Robert John)…and…#4 “Puppy Love” (Donny Osmond) #5 “Mother And Child Reunion” (Paul Simon) #6 “Without You” (Nilsson) #7 “The Way Of Love” (Cher) #8 “Jungle Fever” (The Chakachas) #9 “Everything I Own” (Bread) #10 “I Gotcha” (Joe Tex)
*The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Valleys of Neptune enters the Billboard 200 at #4, putting him in the top five nearly 40 years after he died. No other artist has cracked the top five this long after his death, with Elvis having the previous record at 26 years for his Elvis’ 2nd To None, which debuted at #3 in Oct. 2003.
**And we note the passing of Alex Chilton, 59, who as a 16-year-old, sang and played guitar on the Box Tops’ No. 1 hit “The Letter.”
College Basketball Quiz Answers: 1) Dr. J., Julius Erving, was a 1972 first-rounder out of UMass, though he was already playing in the ABA with Virginia as he left after his junior year, and Marcus Camby, 1996, by Toronto. 2) Joe Dumars is the main man out of McNeese State who went on to a 14-year, Hall of Fame career with Detroit. But did you know he just averaged 16 points per game? I would have said more. 3) Tubby Finch and Larry Kenon were the two stars at Memphis as they lost to UCLA in the ’72-’73 title game, 87-66 (Finch and Kenon had 49 of the 66). Finch wasn’t NBA material and lasted just 128 games in the league, but Kenon was a stud and incredibly was selected in just the third round by Detroit, so he started what would be a fine career in the ABA with the New York Nets before heading to San Antonio. [OK, if for some reason you remember the other players, and you didn’t go to Memphis, they are Billy Buford, Bill Cook, Bill Laurie and Ronnie Robinson.] Oh, and in case you forgot, UCLA was led in the championship by Bill Walton. All he did was go 21 of 22 from the field with 13 rebounds in what is easily one of the top 3 performances of all time. That UCLA squad also had Keith Wilkes, Larry Hollyfield, Greg Lee, Dave Meyers and Larry Farmer. Swen Nater was Walton’s backup, thus he hardly saw action. 4) Rick Barry starred at Miami, 1962-65, averaging 29.8 per game over his three years (freshman ineligible…can’t help but stick in that reminder from time to time for the casual fan). Barry of course went on to a spectacular NBA Hall of Fame career (including time in the ABA), 1965-80, averaging 24.8, including four seasons over 30. He also led the league in free throw shooting seven times and was .893 for his career with his distinctive underhand style. This is one old-timer who would be a superstar in today’s modern game as well. 5) Michigan first-rounders, 1990: Rumeal Robinson, Atlanta…had a so-so six-year career; Loy Vaught, Clippers… serviceable 11-year career, 10 points a game; Terry Mills, Milwaukee…also 11 years, 10 ppg. And the Fab Five, which didn’t win a championship but dominated talk, consisted of Chris Webber, Jimmy King, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, and Ray Jackson.
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
