Note…6/2…Folks, I wasn’t going to do a Chat in the regularly scheduled timeslot for a number of reasons (lack of time being the primary one), but just wanted to clear the table on some items that will be too dated by next Monday.
Baseball Quiz: Since 1960 (and long before, but keeping it simple), Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA in 1968 is the lowest in the N.L. What is the lowest single-season ERA in the A.L. since then? Answer below.
Bits and Pieces
—Duke captured its first NCAA Men’s lacrosse title in defeating Notre Dame, 6-5; the lowest scoring championship game ever. It was in 2006 that Duke was enveloped in scandal, though later vindicated.
–And the NCAA Baseball tournament gets underway this weekend. The eight seeds are:
1. Arizona State 2. Texas 3. Florida 4. Coastal Carolina (that’s cool…bet they have great t-shirts) 5. Virginia 6. UCLA 7. Louisville 8. Georgia Tech
*Garrett Wittels’ FIU team is going to have to advance out of the first round for him to have a shot at Robin Ventura’s 58-game hitting streak, Wittels being at 54…and assuming he keeps it going himself.
–After reaching 23 consecutive semifinals in tennis’ majors, Roger Federer lost in a French Open quarterfinal to Robin Soderling. Last year, Soderling upset Rafael Nadal in the same event, allowing Federer to claim his first French Open title. So, yes, Soderling should now be considered right up there with these two.
What’s amazing about Federer’s semifinals streak, though, is that next on the list to his 23 straight is Ivan Lendl and Rod Laver with just 10. It’s easily in the top ten all-time of sporting achievements of any kind.
–When you’re a track and field fan, you always think about the worst…as in I long ago purchased tickets to see Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest human, in a meet on June 12 in New York City, but he can always get hurt beforehand, I mused. And sure enough, that’s what happened. I’m as ticked as I’ve ever been about something like this because while the meet goes on, with a few name athletes, I wouldn’t in a million years pay $75 a ticket, knowing I have to schlep into New York (and a not particularly accessible part of it…Randall’s Island) in order to see a face-off between two pole-vaulters or javelin throwers. I guarantee 90% of the people who initially rushed the ticket office got seats because of Bolt.
So I’m super frustrated, though not in the least upset with Bolt, mind you. He has an injury and he’s like a thoroughbred; you can’t risk him when there are world championships next year and then the Olympics in London the following one.
It’s just that to me this is like the U2 tour that has been derailed because of Bono’s injury. Ticketholders are either getting a refund or assured of the same seat when he reschedules, which the band has vowed to do. You can live with that. But my situation blows.
–It’s Larry King’s 25th Anniversary Week and he’s got a lot of special events lined up (that’s from his promo), including his interview with LeBron James on Friday where the overrated James hints he may wish to stay in Cleveland after all. At the same time, Dwyane Wade is acting like he now wants to stay in Miami. James told King that he is the “ringleader” of the idiotic ‘summit of free agents,’ which you can be sure isn’t exactly Reagan-Gorbachev in Reykjavik in terms of global import.
–Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez has not only thrown 26 scoreless innings as of this writing, but his ERA is down to 0.78 and his record up to 10-1 in 11 starts. As the aforementioned Reagan would have said, “Not bad…not bad at all.”
Now unlike a hitting streak, or a guy who starts out with 20 homers in the first 45 games (of which there were none this year), you’re not getting me talking about Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA when it comes to Jimenez until about game 100. Two bad starts of 5 runs in 5 innings and his ERA could rise to 1.50 if this occurred in August and in between his pitching was more realistic.
For the record, and it’s great Bar Chat when at your neighborhood tavern, Gibson gave up 38 earned runs in 304 innings. Jimenez has given up 7 in 80. So let’s say Jimenez threw 240 innings this year (which is way beyond usual these days); is he only going to give up 23 more runs the rest of the year? Start marking them on a beer coaster.
By the way, as I don’t have time to get into the whole Pedro Martinez great seasons where he finished up years with a full run lower ERA than the next best guy in the league, a simpler look back at great performances that are mostly forgotten already are the back-to-back years that Greg Maddux had in 1994 and 1995 with ERA’s of 1.56 and 1.63, respectively.
Of course Dwight Gooden’s 1.53 in 1985 showed you what he was capable of, when he wasn’t doing lines of the white stuff.
—Stephen Strasburg is making his big debut for the Washington Nationals on June 8 against Pittsburgh at Nationals Park. This is very cool. Every true baseball fan should hope this guy performs as advertised. Heck, I hope 15 years from now we’re talking he’s 270-75! [15 years of 18-5….lots of no-decisions as he exits many a 1-1 ballgame after seven because the team wants to protect their investment.] Of course in between I hope the Mets grab him for 6 years and $180 million because it ain’t my money, kids!
–Meanwhile, before we snatch Strasburg in 2017, us Mets fans have to deal with pitcher Ollie Perez, who is owed another $20 million on his original 3-year, $36 million deal…one of the two or three worst contracts in the history of the world, including some of the Knicks’ deals (think Eddy Curry or Jerome James) of yore.
Perez, understand, is also one of the dumber people on the planet…and now he’s refusing a demotion to the minors to work on his game, with the Mets hoping to salvage something from their investment. But Ollie says, no, he’s improving with his bullpen sessions! Except he isn’t, and when he’s inserted in blowout type situations he continues to do nothing but suck. I mean the guy is 0-3 with a 6.28 ERA and 33 walks in 38 innings.
So imagine how his teammates just despise the guy, not only because he has the brain of a dairy cow, but because he is depriving a more deserving pitcher of a roster spot at this point. Since he has five years of major-league service, though, Perez can refuse to be reassigned.
Alas, his agent is Steve Boras. Will Boras, for once, earn his fee as ‘the world’s greatest agent’ and convince his client to go down to AAA? We’re about to find out.
–5 times teams have issued an intentional walk to Mark Teixeira to pitch to Alex Rodriguez with the bases loaded, and 5 times A-Roid has delivered, with 18 RBI, the latest being his 20th career grand slam that puts him behind Lou Gehrig’s 23 and Manny Ramirez’ 21.
–Talk about tough luck. How about Philadelphia Eagles safety Marlin Jackson, who ruptured his Achilles in practice Tuesday and will miss the rest of the season? This is the same guy who suffered season-ending knee injuries the prior two years; tearing the ACL in each. Just imagine what he’s going to be like in 20-30 years. But someone to root for in the interim. Hang in there, Marlin! Good luck with the rehab.
–After I dissed the Wake Forest men’s golf team (I could have dissed the women’s team as well, incidentally), Phil W. passed along a story that hit on Monday noting Wake has recruited Grayson Murray, a 16-year-old who recently became the second-youngest player in the 31-year history of the Nationwide Tour to make a cut. But Murray, finishing his sophomore year of high school, doesn’t arrive on campus until the fall of 2012! By then we could all be dead, for crying out loud. We’ve only got 12 more months to fulfill all of our sports dreams…in my case Wake B-Ball in a Final Four, Mets World Series, and Jets Super Bowl championships. It’s going to be tight…or maybe not tight at all.
–Parade Magazine had a pretty good piece on “The Best Hot Dogs in America.” Hey, I talk about burgers and pulled pork barbecue all the time, but there’s nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned grilled hot dog and those delicious pork extenders and cow brains. In fact way back in the day, like circa early-1980s, part of my routine, and that of my fellow commuters, was to pick up two hot dogs, and two Rheingolds, from this great stand as you got off the PATH train in Hoboken before you boarded the old Erie-Lackawanna and train cars with wicker seats built when Thomas Edison was alive. Alas, looking back, the quality of the dogs kind of went down around the same time they finally modernized the rail system.
Anyway, the article by Jane and Michael Stern says that El Reno, Oklahoma is best known for its hamburgers along the old Route 66, but the hot dogs served there are just as good. I have a list of places in western New Jersey I’ve never checked out for good dogs. Cheshire, Connecticut, is home to Blackie’s Hot Dog Stand. Atlanta’s famous Varsity is the world’s largest drive-in and many of us have partaken of their superb chili dogs.
Of course Chicago has great ones, too, but in looking at the pictures, I kind of like the Sonoran dog, sold by some street-corner vendors throughout Tucson.
“An experimental spray improved sex for some men who regularly experience premature, err, err, you know…premature, err…warbling….according to the results of two studies set to be presented Tuesday at a urology conference.
“Men who applied the aerosol spray to their, err, larynx, a mixture of the anesthetics lidocaine [think Roger Clemens] and prilocaine, reached, err, for the remote a mean of 3 minutes 18 seconds after beginning sex, compared with about 56 seconds for those who got a placebo spray.”
“Doctors are not sure what causes men to have the problem, reaching for the remote, that is, which may involve an abnormality of the central nervous system or extreme nerve sensitivity in the, err, hummus dip, that leads to, err, hummus being spilled on the carpet. Psychological factors may also play a role.” Of course.
—Demi Moore is getting $2 million for her memoir. Demi Moore?! Did I miss something the last 20 years? Does she have anything remotely worth interesting to read about? I saw a blurb that the book is actually going to largely focus on her alcoholic mother, Virginia King, with whom Demi had a difficult relationship. Which begs another question. Do I want to shell out $30 to read about Virginia King?
“How the hell can you take an SNL skit that runs 90 seconds and stretch it to a 90-minute feature? Sounds excruciating. But MacGruber breaks the jinx by putting the skit in the context of a 1980s action movie and creating its own brand of explosive lunacy.”
–Last time I forgot to note the passing of William Pflaumer, Philly Beer Baron, who died at the age of 76.
It was back in 1976 that Pflaumer bought the 116-year-old Christian Schmidt and Sons Inc. brewery and turned it into one of the largest. Ah yes, Schits, err, Schmidt’s. Came in a nice bottle, I must say, and it was pretty darn cheap for those of us on a budget. Domestic at its purest (which is why it’s always best to shoot for premium).
“(After) more than a decade of criminal investigations into his practices and allegations of ties to organized crime, Mr. Pflaumer was convicted in 1983 of a false billing scheme in which he had evaded paying $125,000 in excise taxes in three states. He sold the brewery to a Wisconsin company in 1986, when, after his appeals had failed, he began serving a three-year sentence.
“Schmidt’s closed its factory, on Second and Hancock streets, in 1987, the first time in 300 years that no beer was made in Philadelphia.”
Actually, it was Pflaumer who acquired troubled Rheingold, but he also had other problems with the law, including “mislabeling barrels of Ballantine beer as Piels.” Good gawd…they both were dreadful. Why bother?!
–Note to Dr. John M. I finally got around to your recommendation to pick up Jimmy Webb’s Ten Easy Pieces’ versions of Wichita Lineman and Galveston on iTunes. You were right. Terrific stuff! [Before you all start sending me song suggestions, understand Dr. John knew I love Glen Campbell’s old hits and Wichita Lineman is in my all-time top ten.]
Top 3 songs for the week 6/7/69: #1 “Get Back” (The Beatles with Billy Preston) #2 “Love (Can Make You Happy)” (Mercy…..Laaaa!) #3 “Grazing In The Grass” (The Friends of Distinction)…and…#4 “Oh Happy Day” (The Edwin Hawkins’ Singers) #5 “Bad Moon Rising” (Creedence Clearwater Revival) #6 “In The Ghetto” (Elvis Presley) #7 “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In” (The 5th Dimension…another excuse to say Marilyn McCoo was/is one of the ten most beautiful women of the past 50 years) #8 “Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet” (Henry Mancini) #9 “These Eyes” (The Guess Who?) #10 “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby” (Marvin Gaye)
Baseball Quiz Answer: 1968, Luis Tiant had a 1.60 ERA for Cleveland. [Tiant didn’t go to the Red Sox until 1971.]
