Baseball Quiz: What are the top five franchises in baseball, winning percentage, all time? Answer below.
The Masters
Might as well add my voice in saying, yes, it was another win for the ages, or as Jim Nantz put it, “One for the family.” I went through a few Kleenex at the end there. If you’re a fan of golf, and know the whole Amy-Phil dynamic, you couldn’t help but get choked up.
I’ve always gotten a kick out of those, mostly his fellow competitors, who aren’t real fans of Phil Mickelson. All I see is a guy with amazing talent, and a gambler, who sometimes lets the latter instinct take over to his detriment, such as at Winged Foot, when the rest of us want to reach through the screen and pull him back.
But when you follow Mickelson, you also know of his tremendous respect for the game, as well as for those of us who invest our time either by watching on television or going to an actual event. Some call Mickelson a big phony, but all you see is him signing endless autographs at the end of each round, and acknowledging the crowd with that great, goofy grin of his all the way through, whether he’s got his ‘A’ game or not.
As for the talent, this guy has pulled off almost as many miraculous shots as Tiger has, witness what I thought was the key to yesterday’s final round, his par save from the woods on #10, even more so than the spectacular shot at #13.
Then there’s Amy. I subscribe to four golf magazines, and scores of other publications, and I’ve never seen a bad word written about her. Oh, there’s been some sniping from the usual suspects about the two as a couple, but it’s nothing more than pure jealousy. Phil and family have a good life. He makes a lot of money. He’s also earned every penny, and there have been countless stories of his extreme generosity.
But now you see Amy gamely battling cancer and if you weren’t a fan before, you are now. Those were some of the most touching moments you will ever see off the 18th green yesterday. I have my favorite…Amy’s reaching up to clutch him around the neck after the initial embrace.
“It’s not often women win the Masters, but they did Sunday.
“Actually, Phil Mickelson won, but for millions of women around the country, it must feel like a lipstick-sized victory. Mickelson, in case you forgot, is the guy who stayed true to his wife. He’s the guy who’s been missing tournaments the last 11 months while he flies her back and forth to a breast cancer specialist in Houston. He’s the guy who didn’t need reminding that women are not disposable.”
What a Masters overall, too. 50-year-old Fred Couples finishing sixth. Just a few balky putts and he’s right there; but then everyone has their share of balky putts at Augusta, let alone in a major. It’s just great Freddie is playing so well, and it’s awesome for the Champions Tour. A huge shot in the arm for the senior circuit.
60-year-old Tom Watson, T-18, one-under. Phenomenal effort…and it’s obvious that if the USGA doesn’t extend him an invitation to the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, there’s going to be hell to pay. But they will….they can’t be that stupid.
Lee Westwood…until it was mentioned at the end there, I forgot this was the third straight top 3 in a major for him. How awesome is that?! He’s a good man. Here’s hoping he closes the deal very soon, like at the British.
Anthony Kim showed us he is indeed ready to really break through with his renewed dedication.
And then there’s Tiger. I have all kinds of stuff on the man down below. He showed his true colors. He really is a jerk and class one a-hole. It’s clear he hasn’t changed one bit. Those cheers were subdued, despite what the CBS crew was telling us, and that’s about the best it’s going to be for him I suspect for perhaps, forever.
I’ve always felt that first and foremost, Tiger Woods was great for the game of golf and I’d much rather watch a tournament with him then one without. I thought it was great that he was going after Nicklaus’ record 18 majors. Yeah, he was a surly SOB, but there have been a lot of surly sports stars. It’s what he did inside the ropes that many of us admired.
Then last Thanksgiving hit. I wanted him back for the sport of it, not because I was willing to forgive him for treating us all as chumps. But now, I really couldn’t give a damn. There are some absolutely tremendous young golfers out there who are finally ready to pick up the torch, plus Phil is just turning 40. And Ernie has shown major signs of life, so the sport will do just fine with or without Tiger.
All of that said, it certainly made things more entertaining having him around this weekend. But none of us will ever believe a thing he says outside of a discussion about golf. He’s like Barry Bonds. No one gives a damn about Barry’s records. It’s possible that if Tiger breaks Jack’s mark, few will really give a damn about Woods. We know who the best are now. Hank Aaron and Jack Nicklaus. End of story.
Tiger’s return led to a record 5 million viewers watching Thursday’s round on ESPN, and I’m sure other records were broken the rest of the weekend.
I loved this description of Mickelson’s spectacular, one for the ages, eagle-eagle-birdie run on Saturday by the Star-Ledger’s Steve Politi.
“A routine round took off on the par-5 13th hole. Mickelson had 195 yards to go and a 7 iron in his hand. ‘I took a chance,’ he said, and the ball settled to within six feet for the first eagle.
“That 7 iron was the harder shot to pull off, but not the more remarkable one. He hit another perfect drive on 14, and when his wedge shot landed and spun into the cup, it was bedlam.
“The ovation lasted longer than a minute. Strangers hugged. Fred Couples, standing just off the 15th tee box and watching the scene unfold, yelled out, ‘I want that ball!’
“ ‘That’s what you call witnessing sports history,’ Willard Rhodes, a fan from Lynchburg, Va., said.
“His lower lip quivered. He reached under his sunglasses to wipe his eyes. It was that kind of moment.
“ ‘It was the most incredible thing I’ve witnessed live ever,’ he said, and then Rhodes followed Mickelson to the par-5 15th hole where he saw something nearly as incredible.
“No one in Masters history has eagled three straight holes. Mickelson looked like he had blown his chance when his drive settled in the right rough, forcing him to lay up with his second shot.
“He had 87 yards to the pin and a wedge in his hands. The ball bounced on the front of the green and started rolling to its right, following the break to the cup. Could it happen?
“ ‘As it was crossing the hole,’ Mickelson said, ‘I was expecting it to disappear, yeah.’
“Everyone did. On a day when the back nine on this old course roared like it used to on Sundays, Mickelson made the most noise.”
Politi on Tiger Woods, as CBS’ coverage began on Saturday.
“Tiger Woods may have used some naughty language to describe his performance on the sixth tee at Augusta National yesterday, but at least give him this:
“ ‘Tiger Woods!’ he yelled, the CBS microphones picking it up clearly. ‘You suck!’
“Then he punctuated that with two words that won’t go over well among church-goers in the audience.
“Woods had promised to show more ‘respect for the game’ when he returned from his self-imposed, five-month hiatus. He vowed he would be less demonstrative on the course when he started playing for the first time since a parade of alleged mistresses ruined his image.
“So, after a rocky 2-under round left him tied for third and four shots behind leader Lee Westwood, there was this exchange with a reporter.
Q: You mentioned that you were going to try to tone down the outbursts. Any regrets about some of the cursing on the front nine?
After a commercial, commentator Verne Lundquist said, “Some things never change.”
“First this week it was the ghost of Earl Woods. Then on Friday at Augusta National, it was the ghost of Ben Hogan. You wonder who’s next Rosa Parks?
“ ‘It was similar to what Hogan went through coming off the accident,’ Woods said, talking about a ‘sabbatical’ from golf that began after he turned a couple of turns in his driveway into the first turn at Indy.
“Now if Tiger Woods thinks there are any comparisons at all to be made, as he tries to make his own comeback more than it is, he ought to pick up a wonderful coffee-table book by Martin Davis, called ‘Ben Hogan: The Man Behind the Mystique.’ There is a picture, across pages 111 and 112, of the Cadillac Hogan was driving when he got hit by a bus near Van Horn, Texas, on Feb. 2, 1949.
“The car looks as if it was hit by an airplane, not a bus. If Hogan hadn’t thrown himself across his wife Valerie, as the book says, ‘he probably would have been killed as the steering wheel was thrust to within inches of the driver’s seat back.’
“After the accident, Hogan never played more than seven tournaments a year because his legs wouldn’t allow him to, because one of the surgeries to save his life had involved tying up principal veins in his legs to keep a blood clot from reaching his heart and finishing the job a Greyhound bus started.
“So you have to say that Hogan’s comeback, which nearly saw him win a Grand Slam in 1953 (a scheduling conflict didn’t allow him to play both the British Open and the PGA), was pretty good, too, even though it didn’t happen in the modern world, where Tiger’s comeback has to be made out to be much more and much more heroic than it is so everybody can start putting Humpty Dumpty back together. Heavy on the Humpty, by the way.
“Only it’s not going to happen, no matter how much he smiles and apologizes. It’s not going to happen even if he wins this Masters and wins the U.S. Open, you can only imagine what Nike will do with that one, since the Open always ends on Father’s Day and goes to St. Andrews and wins the British Open so he is playing for his own Grand Slam at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin in August….
“There have been other athletes who behaved badly. There aren’t any saints or heroes, no matter how much people still want to believe that. Usually it is just the gap between what we do and don’t know about these guys. But there has to be a part of Woods when he is at least honest with himself that knows he jumped the shark here by jumping all these women and leaving, well, an oral history with these text messages.”
Well, I said the Mets would go 64-98 and they’re off to a terrific 2-4 start…and at home, no less. The Mets won on opening day, running their major league best to 32-17 to start a season, but then they lost game two to go 24-25 in the second game and with just a handful of exceptions, it’s pretty well down from there…something like 3,657-3,985. But I was commiserating with Johnny Mac that our ace, Johan Santana, won opening day but how there is little reason for optimism with the rest of the rotation, so to paraphrase the old “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain,” J. Mac said for us it’s “Johan Santana and we got [bleep] for manana.” Then wouldn’t you know, in his second start Santana gave up a first-inning grand slam and the Mets went on to lose. To compound matters, some of the Mets afterward said they were lacking the intensity of opening day. Oh brother. We’re freaking six games into the season!!! So as they say in the ‘hood, it’s a good time to go to Albania.
And now your EXCLUSIVE first week projections based on 6 or 7 games action.
The Detroit Tigers are 5-1 and Bar Chat can now say they’ll go 125-37. Miguel Cabrera, who shouldn’t even be in the sport after the despicable way he ended last season, is nonetheless off to a .522 start with 8 RBI. He’s going to finish at .404, sadly, with 159 ribbies.
The Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1, will finish 134-28. The great Roy Halladay, 2-0 with a 0.56 ERA, will finish 33-1, 0.67. Ryan Howard, who has a cool 10 RBI will finish the year with 76 HR and 245 ribbies.
The Houston Astros are already 0-6, losing all six at home. We can now project with this sampling that the Astros will finish 19-143. Slugger Cliff Lee, hitting .130 with no RBI, will end the year at .115 with 2 HR and 9 ribbies in 550 at-bats.
The Toronto Blue Jays, one of the early season surprise stories are 5-1, but this is about as good as it gets. They win just 42 all year. Vernon Wells, who had four home runs in the first three games, will only get three more. But reliever Casey Johnson, who has appeared in three games and gained the win in all three, will go 24-2 in relief. Casey will of course make the All-Star team.
My pick to go all the way, Seattle, is making me look very, very bad…just 2-5 and not scoring runs. I nonetheless see them going 120-35 the rest of the way.
And the San Francisco Giants at 5-1 are for real with that great starting staff. The Giants will finish 140-22.
Lastly, Boston’s David Ortiz, off to a .111 start, will end the season at .118, while Cubs reliever John Grabow, 0-2, will finish up 1-22.
Of course on all the above, the sabermetricians at Bar Chat reserve the right to amend the projections as we see fit.
And this bit from the Los Angeles Times’ T.J. Simers. Last Tuesday the Dodgers were in Pittsburgh with an off day, and there was “nothing for four sportswriters to do in Pittsburgh except go to a hockey game, so everyone agrees it’s best to get out of Pittsburgh.
“We make the trek to West Virginia and the Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort, the best chance any of us will ever have in the newspaper business of getting a raise again – if only No. 5 wins the third.”
“We also catch a break because there’s no sign of Ronnie Belliard – hired by the Dodgers to laugh at Manny’s jokes, allow Manny to ignore his other teammates and talk trash about reporters in Spanish so the reporters won’t know what he’s saying.”
“He hates Boston more than any other city, wants to live in Florida, and we’re talking to Manny Ramirez here, so why bother telling him that’s exactly where Manny Ramirez lives?”
One other item. The Washington Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg won his minor league debut Sunday. Five innings, one earned run, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts. Fastball consistently in the 97-98 mph range.
–Congratulations to Boston College for its 4th national title in hockey, 2nd in 3 seasons, as it shut out Wisconsin in the Frozen Four, 5-0, before a record 37,592 fans at Ford Field in Detroit. Great stuff for the sport. BC alum Steve D. had a nice sports week. Earlier he was down at Augusta with one of his sons to attend some practice rounds.
—Zenyatta kicked butt at the Apple Blossom Invitational Handicap at Oaklawn Park, Hot Springs, Ark., on Friday night, running her record to 16-0, thus tying the record of the great Cigar and the 1948 Triple Crown champion Citation of 16 straight against top-level competition.
“Was it easy? How about a four-and-a-quarter-length victory for the mile-and-an-eighth race – if you can call it that – in which she spotted her four rivals double-digit lengths and then inhaled them around the far turn without (jockey Mike) Smith even having to move his hands or adjust his rump.
“In fact, Smith was not even paying attention as he galloped her home.
“ ‘I was looking at the big screen in the stretch, to be honest,’ said Smith, who was peering into the infield. ‘At that point, we’d already hit the front really easy, and I just moved a little to keep her focused.’….
“Zenyatta’s trainer, John Shirreffs, beamed and offered a concise analysis of the stretch run.
“ ‘Mike started to move her outside,’ he said. ‘Her ears went forward, head went down, she lengthened her stride, and it was over.’”
As for Rachel Alexandra, who lost last month, it’s not known if she’ll face Zenyatta this year. But Shirreffs appears to have an aggressive schedule in mind for his mare, with the Breeders’ Cup as the final goal. Zenyatta’s owner Jerry Moss said, “If Rachel Alexandra wants to join us, she’s more than welcome.”
–Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will not be charged following an investigation into allegations he assaulted a 20-year-old Georgia woman. It is expected that the District Attorney will make this announcement on Monday.
And the Jets acquired Steelers receiver Santonio Holmes for a fifth-round draft pick in a brilliant move, assuming the troubled Holmes gets his act together….seeing as for starters, he’ll be serving a four-game suspension at the beginning of the season for substance abuse, plus he has an assault case pending.
–The New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro on the prospect of the Dolphins’ Jason Taylor becoming a New York Jet.
“Jason Taylor, the quintessential Dolphin because he not only played well against the Jets all these years, he relished the role of enemy?
“He’s thinking of becoming a Jet?
“This is player movement gone utterly awry, modern professional sports gone completely insane….
“What happened to the good old days, like 1957, when the Dodgers tried to trade Jackie Robinson to the Giants, and the mere thought of wearing the hateful spiteful colors of a hated, spited rival, just the idea of moving his shingle from Brooklyn to Manhattan, from Flatbush Avenue to 155th Street, was enough to drive Robinson clear out of the game and to a desk job for a company?
“What happened to the good old days, like 1982, when Denis Potvin was asked what he would do if the Islanders ever traded him to the Rangers, and Potvin answered, quite simply, ‘Retire.’
“It’s jarring enough to be watching television one night this week and learn that Donovan McNabb, an Eagle’s Eagle, will be spending next football season as a Redskin….But McNabb has never said a disparaging word about the Redskins….
“Seriously, if Jets fans have to learn how to root for Taylor, it’s possible the whole fan base might get the bends. This, after all, was Taylor’s infamous rant about the Jets and their fans from 2004:
“The experience of playing at the Meadowlands was ‘a bunch of them chanting their dumb-ass chant and all that other stuff, being the ignorant fans they are. I said it. I don’t care if they get mad at me or not. They don’t like me anyway. Quite frankly, I don’t care…I’m just being real. I’m telling the truth.’”
—College Basketball
Do you really think John Calipari is having fun? Yeah, he’s got a lot of money, and a dream job, but five of his players, including freshmen John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe, announced they were headed out early for the draft. The first two are certainly among the top five picks overall.
It hasn’t been easy being a New York-area coach this year. The latest saga involves Rutgers’ Fred Hill. His father, Fred Hill Sr., is the Rutgers baseball coach and the other day, Rutgers defeated Pitt in thrilling fashion, 9-8, with Pitt’s coach arguing the final call, whereupon Fred Hill Jr. unleashed a profanity-laced tirade at the guy. Athletic Director Tim Pernetti wasn’t pleased and it was the final straw, so on Monday it is expected Hill will be officially relieved of his duties, not just because of this incident but rather the hoops team has done a horrible job under his leadership, with lots of players leaving and, in yet another story hitting, failed drug tests. But Hill is due $1.8 million and the school is attempting to fire him with cause, thus limiting their liability to $600,000…so one imagines they’ll meet somewhere in the middle.
But think of it…you had the mess at Seton Hall with Bobby Gonzalez, who is now suing the school, plus coaching changes at St. John’s, Hofstra, Iona, Wagner, Fordham, Fairleigh Dickinson (where the interim coach got the full-time job), and now you have openings at Rutgers, St. Francis of Brooklyn (Johnny Mac threw his name in the ring for this one), and Columbia (who saw its coach, Joe Jones, leave to be the lead assistant with Steve Donahue at Boston College). By my count, 9 area schools in flux since about March 8.
Meanwhile, down at Wake Forest, the latest rumor has us looking at Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik, who has been a Bison for three seasons and prior to that was the head coach for the Denver Nuggets. He also coached at Air Force, where he did a good job.
The New York Post’s Steve Serby interviewed Butler coach Brad Stevens.
Q: Have you watched a replay of your championship game?
A: Yes. At 3 a.m. on Tuesday morning when I got home.
A: I remember staring up at the ceiling thinking, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go to sleep again.’
Us Wake fans were offering to rename the school after Brad Stevens if he would just move his family over to Winston-Salem, but Butler gave him a new 12-year deal. I was going to be in charge of replacing all the signs at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., just so there wouldn’t be any confusion. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to replace the signs with, but I was up to the challenge.
This is funny. A math professor at Duke, Richard Hain, spearheaded a drive that culminated in a 2006 agreement, whereby any celebration of a Duke national championship, or Final Four participation, would be held at night so as not to conflict with classroom time.
So Duke wins the title and the following day, Tuesday, the celebration for the team was held in the afternoon at a packed Cameron Indoor Stadium. Hain told the New York Times’ William Rhoden:
“This is the first time since that agreement was made that Duke’s men’s BB team has been to the Final Four. This year, the agreement was completely ignored….How can somebody schedule a major event that wipes out basically all undergraduate classes the whole afternoon, without talking to the provost?”
It seems Provost Peter Lange wasn’t told of the schedule for the event, either.
So why does Hain care? He told Rhoden, “It may seem like a trivial matter, except that some courses, like some math courses, run on a very tight schedule, and it is different to cope with the loss of one class period.”
Something tells me the students won’t be impacted by this, Professor. But, to be fair, you would think the party could wait a few more hours. After all, if I was at Duke, I’d cut my afternoon classes, get a friend who is 21 buy me some cheap domestic, and have a few before heading over to Cameron for the appointed 8:00 p.m. celebration.
–Back to Tiger…Eleanor Mills of the London Times had a piece on professional golfers. At one of the European PGA Tour stops, one player told her he wasn’t the least bit surprised by Tiger’s behavior.
“They’re all at it,” he said, after Mills promised him anonymity. “I know loads who are worse than Tiger, they’re just not so famous, so no one talks about it. There’s a rule, a code of omerta: what happens on tour, stays on tour.”
“There are some spots which are well known for bad behavior: Thailand, Malaysia, Amsterdam and eastern Europe. ‘In those places the lads just go berserk,’ the player said. This was confirmed to me by a veteran journalist who covered the European Tour.
“ ‘Eighty percent of the caddies are brothel hands, they know one in every city. Of course there are some honorable husbands and boyfriends, but for the rest? I shudder to think what they are taking home. There’s a minority of the players who will go with the caddies on these excursions, I’d say 5% of them: they know who they are. Some of the top ones are at it, the ones who get a taste for it.’
“ ‘There are some who prefer to pay,’ a player adds. ‘And for the rest, there are always girls at these tournaments. Sometimes they are the drivers of the courtesy cars, or they are with the management companies, or with the sponsors or promoters. At the end of some tournaments there’ll be girls at the final green, asking if you’d like them to take you on a tour round their city, or hang out. If you want to get laid there’s usually an opportunity.’”
“(Tiger) told me he wasn’t happy at home. He said that he was frustrated and depressed, that his wife didn’t sexually satisfy him – that he wasn’t attracted to her very much anymore.
“He told me the only two things he cared about are golf and sex.”
You know, every time Elin must think the worst is out, something else, like this, pops up. She can’t possibly be thinking of taking the jerk back.
Back to Devon James, she’s yet another of Tiger’s girls who received nothing. Except for a golf ball. “An unsigned Tiger Woods brand golf ball.”
Joanna Molloy / New York Daily News…on the appearance of Joslyn James at the Pink Pony strip club in Atlanta this past week.
“The men who made the trip from Augusta saw why America’s greatest golfer kept coming back for more.
“James, with luminous skin and long, wavy auburn locks, has a fantasy body usually found only in superhero comics.
“Juicy Fruit-thin torso and thoroughbred legs with prize-pumpkin breasts impossibly cantilevering over it all.”
Oops. Sorry, kids. I should have warned you ahead of time on this one. My bad.
Joslyn also had a few things to get off her ample chest. As Joanna Molloy reports:
“It wasn’t only Tiger who betrayed her, his wife and all the other women, James said. It’s his inner circle: caddie Steve Williams, who denied meeting her; Bryon Bell, Woods’ childhood friend who runs Tiger Woods Design; and Jerry Chang, his Stanford buddy.
“ ‘He didn’t hide me from them. They say they haven’t met me or may have met me. I guess when Bryon had dinner with me at Tiger’s house in Vegas, I was invisible. I guess when Jerry sat next to me…I was invisible.”
Meanwhile, what has been the Tiger effect on the business of golf? According to Golf Magazine, and various market research firms…
From 1997 to 2008, there was a 9% increase in American golfers.
From 1997 to 2009, there was a 1% decrease in total rounds played in the U.S.
From 1997 to 2009, there was a 0% increase in golf equipment sales.
The most prominent boxing referee of the past half-century, Arthur Mercante Sr., died. He was 90.
Mercante was in the ring for Ali, Frazier, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, George Foreman, Mike Tyson and Floyd Patterson.
In his memoir, “Inside the Ropes,” Mercante cited his approach.
“The action is constant for three minutes a round, anything can happen at any time and you need to know how to control the fighters and keep an eye on what’s going on in the corners between rounds,” he said. “You need to be firm but never intrusive; alert, but not overreactive; mobile, but never out of position to intervene at a moment’s notice.”
Arthur Mercante Sr. was born in Brockton, Mass., where his father, an Italian immigrant, worked in the shoe factories. Rocky Marciano was a childhood buddy.
Mercante’s family moved to Brooklyn and he wanted to be a boxer, but his father insisted he attend college, so Arthur graduated from NYU in 1942, entered the Navy, taught boxing and refereed bouts in the physical fitness program.
He became a pro referee in 1954 and did his first title bout in 1960, the second matchup between Patterson and Ingemar Johansson, who had knocked out Patterson in the third round the first time they met.
Patterson knocked Johansson unconscious in the fifth round at the Polo Grounds. Johansson lay on the canvas bleeding from the mouth, his left foot quivering. Mercante describes what happened next in his memoir.
“I looked on helplessly, dreadfully worried about Johansson’s condition and thinking how ironic it would be if I finally got my turn in the national spotlight only to have a guy get killed on my watch. Suddenly, as only he could do, broadcaster Howard Cosell insinuated himself in the middle of the maelstrom.
“ ‘Is he dead? Is he dead, Whitey?’ Cosell hollered at Whitey Bimstein, Johansson’s legendary trainer.”
Then on March 8, 1971, Mercante had his biggest moment in the spotlight when Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier for his crown at Madison Square Garden, a battle of unbeatens.
“In the 10th round, Mercante endured what he called one of the most embarrassing moments of his refereeing career when he accidentally poked Frazier in the eye while seeking to break a clinch. Frazier and his corner were furious at Mercante, but Frazier went on to win a unanimous decision in an epic battle.”
Mercante also refereed the 1973 bout in Jamaica when George Foreman took Frazier’s title. “Down goes Frazier!…Down goes Frazier!…” screamed Howard Cosell in one of the two or three most memorable calls in any sport. [Actually, that’s a good topic for Bar Chat…literally, at your neighborhood tavern.]
And Meinhardt Raabe died at the age of 94. Raabe played the Munchkin coroner in “The Wizard of Oz,” proclaiming that the Wicked Witch of the East was “really most sincerely dead.”
Raabe was one of 124 Munchkins in the 1939 classic and one of only nine with speaking parts.
Back in 1988, Raabe commented to the AP about the film’s appeal all these years later.
“There is nothing in the picture that dates it. There are no old vintage cars or old vintage streetcars…It’s a fantasy picture that will be fantasy for generations to come.”
Raabe was working in Oscar Mayer’s public relations department when he learned about the “Wizard of Oz” roles.
“Every little person who walked through the front gate got a job with MGM,” he said later.
Former major league catcher Jim Pagliaroni died, age 72. Drafted by the Red Sox in 1955, who gave him a then solid bonus of $50,000, he was called to serve in the Army from 1956 to 1958, then played his first full season in 1960. In 11 seasons, his best years were with the Pittsburgh Pirates and he finished up with a .252 career average, 90 HR and 252 RBI. He also caught “Catfish” Hunter’s perfect game with the Oakland A’s in 1968.
Lastly, Dixie Carter of the long-running CBS sitcom “Designing Women” died. She was 70.
–Hey, girls…from Sinead Van Kampen of the Irish Independent:
Want something new for your skin? Try a beer facial.
“Take half a can of beer, some honey, avocado and a little vinegar, mix in a bowl and use as a face-mask, apply liberally and wash off after 30 minutes.
“Beer is packed with nutrients which act as a great boost for healthy skin. Full of B vitamins, brewers yeast also promotes skin healing by acting as a salve to dry and inflamed skin, in theory, great for laughter lines.”
What’s best? Guinness, of course. But be forewarned…it feels awful.
–In Kitty Kelley’s upcoming tell-all Oprah Winfrey biography, Kelley, who, like her not certainly researches her subjects like no other, says Winfrey and John Tesh were quite an item when Winfrey was barely out of her teens, sharing her Nashville apartment, though he bolted in the middle of the night, never to return. The two worked at the same television station, where Tesh was an anchor and none other than Pat Sajak was the weatherman.
“Kelly mentions that Tesh appeared with Winfrey on the 10th anniversary of her show in 1996, with Oprah claiming the pair shared one platonic dinner date.” [Daily News]
–Comedian Tracy Morgan is hot…as hot as anyone in Hollywood these days. I just liked this line in an interview with the New York Post.
Post: Luke Wilson said you were picking up girls while being towed down the street in a camera-ready car.
Morgan: Absolutely. All day long. I’m like the Gorton’s Fisherman. I gotta keep my mack up. You’re macking the girls…Just hollah. You keep your game sharp. If you get the girls laughing, then everybody will follow.
Tracy Morgan also says the best decision he made was not going to college.
“I’m glad I didn’t have anything to fall back on, man, because that made me go for my dreams that much harder.”
–AP: “Elephant kicks trainer at Pa. circus, killing him”
“Police say an elephant at a northeastern Pennsylvania circus startled and kicked its animal trainer, killing him.
“It happened at around 5 p.m. Friday at the Irem Shrine Circus in Wilkes-Barre. The circus wasn’t open at the time.”
As Johnny Mac commented, “How many incidents do we need to see? The animals are in revolt and we refuse to acknowledge it. History will not treat us kindly.”
You could say it’s kind of like the Obama administration’s ignoring the dangers in Hugo Chavez’s rush to arm his nation.
–So much for the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname. The state Supreme Court ruled that the school must retire it after a four-year legal battle. Actually, a group of Spirit Lake Sioux tribal members wanted the school to keep the nickname and supporters said the logo shows pride and tradition. But the NCAA ruled it was “hostile and offensive.”
What a shame. But I just went on the UND website to buy some Fighting Siouxwear and wouldn’t you know, the better looking t-shirts, in the size I wanted, were sold out, but I did still get one. Gotta support the Spirit Lake Sioux, after all. Wasn’t their fault Custer rode straight into the largest Indian camp of all time.
–I’m torn. I’ve always wanted to see Kid Rock in concert and I see he is the feature act at the Calgary Stampede, which I reported to you from last summer. Of all the places you’d want to see him, this is as good as any, guys. Trust me. It’s all about the, err, you know…scenery, Calgary being near the Canadian Rockies…yeah, that’s what I meant. I just can’t swing it. [And Orianthi is the opening act, too.]
Top 3 songs for the week 4/15/78: #1 “Night Fever” (Bee Gees) #2 “Stayin’ Alive” (Bee Gees) #3 “Lay Down Sally” (Eric Clapton)…and…#4 “Can’t Smile Without You” (Barry Manilow) #5 “If I Can’t Have You” (Yvonne Elliman) #6 “Dust In The Wind” (Kansas) #7 “The Closer I Get To You” (Roberta Flack with Donny Hathaway) #8 “Jack And Jill” (Raydio) #9 “We’ll Never Have To Say Goodbye Again” (England Dan & John Ford Coley) #10 “Our Love” (Natalie Cole)
Baseball Quiz Answer: According to Baseballreference.com, the top five franchises all time are:
Yankees .568
Giants .538
Dodgers .524
Cardinals .518
Red Sox .517
Cubs are next .514
Next Bar Chat, Thursday…maybe…from Albania. Very long trip coming up today and tomorrow just to get there.
