World Cup Quiz: 1) OK, girls. Wow your significant other by rattling off the winners of the last three World Cups…1998, 2002, 2006. 2) The first four World Cups were in 1930, 34, 38, and 1950 (the gap because of the war). Two countries accounted for the first four…neither were Brazil, Germany, France or Argentina. Name the two. Answers below.
Strasburg’s Stunning Debut
I’m jealous. If you’re a Washington Nationals fan you have a number of reasons to be excited, not the least of which is Stephen Strasburg, who made his long-anticipated debut on Tuesday night and exceeded the hype. 7 innings, 2 runs on 4 hits, no walks and a franchise-record 14 strikeouts. After giving up a two-run homer to Pittsburgh’s Delwyn Young in the fourth, Strasburg, throwing his 98-99 mph heat (and a few 100 mph-bullets), showed his intestinal fortitude in fanning 8 of the next 10. The Nats also prevailed, 5-2, in securing a victory for the phenom.
Nationals manager Jim Riggleman said afterwards, “I can’t really put it into words any better than you saw. It was just a great night for baseball in Washington.”
Heck, it was a great night for baseball, period. And in two years the Nationals will have another potential Hall of Famer on the major league roster, Bryce Harper. [Yeah, yeah…I know pitchers in particular are fragile and can flame out. All kinds of examples of this. But if Strasburg is around 10-12 years from now, I can guarantee he will have already put up Hall numbers. As for Harper, he’s as can’t miss as they come…maybe not a consistent batting champion contender, but obviously a 35-40 homer guy, minimum.]
“The only thing I really remember is the first pitch – ball inside – everything else is just such a blur. At one point I lost track of how many innings I threw. I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to go out there and have fun.’ It’s amazing.”
The world cannot suck enough these days. Sports provides our relief. And as George Will, a Nationals season-ticketholder who was in the crowd, once wrote, “Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence.” [Joe Lemire / SI.com]
The World Cup
Get fired up, part deux! This will be fun. We’ll use Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl and his predictions as a guide. His choices for round of sixteen in bold.
Group A…Mexico, Uruguay, France, South Africa
Group B…Argentina, Nigeria, Greece, South Korea
Group C…England, United States, Slovenia, Algeria
Group D…Serbia, Germany, Ghana, Australia
Group E…Netherlands, Cameroon, Denmark, Japan
Group F…Italy, Slovakia, Paraguay, New Zealand
Group G…Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast, North Korea
Group H…Spain, Chile, Switzerland, Honduras
SI has a final four of England, Brazil, Serbia and Spain; England playing Spain for the title; Spain the winner.
But your official Bar Chat picks to click for the Final Four are…Slovakia (because of my heritage), Paraguay (because I have a cool Paraguay shirt, I’ve been to this place, and I know how important the sport is there), England, and Uruguay…with the winner being Slovakia!!!
*Don’t be confused by Slovakia and Paraguay being in the same group and then my having them in the Final Four. Once out of the group stage, the two qualifiers go into opposite sides of the bracket.
First games Friday…South Africa v. Mexico; Uruguay v. France.
England v. USA on Sat., June 12, 1:30 pm ET (not sure if match doesn’t start until 2:30). [Drat, regardless, I’m going to be heading to the track meet that Usain Bolt pulled out of at this time.]
—College World Series…from 64 to 16
1 Arizona State
Arkansas
Clemson
Alabama
5 Virginia
Oklahoma
South Carolina
4 Coastal Carolina… “Chanticleer” t-shirt arriving shortly.
2 Texas
TCU
Florida State
Vanderbilt
6 UCLA
CS-Fullerton
3 Florida
Miami
–With all the talk of Stephen Strasburg, another phenom made his debut on Tuesday, Florida’s Mike Stanton, a 20-year-old slugging outfielder who had 21 homers in 52 minor league games this year before his call-up. Stanton went 3-for-5, though all singles. Nonetheless, Bar Chat can project he’ll hit .457 the rest of the way in 2010, and while it’s too early to talk about 2011, our crack staff nonetheless is working on a range of .432 to .489, with 59 home runs and 184 RBI. Stanton and Atlanta’s own 20-year-old wunderkind, Jason Heyward (10 HR 40 RBI), will be drawing fans into ballparks around the league for the next 15+ years.
Aside from the Nationals selecting 17-year-old slugger Bryce Harper, Mets fans should be psyched to get a real horse, University of North Carolina fireballer Matt Harvey. Harvey 6’4”, 225, has a mid-90s fastball and this year threw 157 pitches in an outing against Clemson, which you can see from the above is a pretty fair ballclub, picking up the win.
As for Harper, he’s been a catcher for the college of Southern Nevada where he batted .442 with 29 homers in 62 games, but the Nationals seem determined to turn him into an outfielder from day one.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Bud Selig said he’s “comfortable” with his decision on Armando Galarraga’s Imperfecto Game because he didn’t want to open a “Pandora’s box,” and Selig is right. Selig is also spot on when he says that at least for now, he doesn’t foresee increased use of instant replay. It’s interesting that Selig’s 14-member special committee that will guide him on such matters, not only includes Frank Robinson but also columnist George Will, and last Sunday on “This Week,” Will was passionate on the subject of not overturning Jim Joyce’s call. So with traditionalists like Will and Robinson, I wouldn’t expect any expanded use of instant replay until 2012 at the earliest.
[Galarraga, by the way, yielded a leadoff single in his first start following the Imperfecto, allowing two runs in five innings before being lifted. But as he walked to the mound for the first time since the game that made him famous, White Sox fans gave him a hearty standing ovation. More great stuff.]
Boy, you could win some coin on this one. Guess who the career leader in innings pitched for the Red Sox is? Tim Wakefield. 2,777…one more than Roger Clemens. Wakefield has been on the BoSox since 1995.
Kudos to Joe Torre and his Los Angeles Dodgers, who started the year 8-14 amidst all kinds of talk of dissension, and are 27-10 since as of Tuesday’s play.
Lastly, while it’s easy to talk about the Pittsburgh Pirates’ futility, a major-league record 17 consecutive losing seasons (18 including an inevitable below-.500 mark this year), the Kansas City Royals have in some respects flown under the radar for their own extensive putrid play. Since going 84-78 in 1993, the Royals have but one winning season, 2003’s 83-79 showing. And the Baltimore Orioles, just 16-42 thru Tuesday, are on their way to their 13th straight losing campaign.
–I missed the result of the Division I Men’s Golf Championship last time. This is the second year of the new format whereby the 30 schools (and an additional six individual players) that qualify play 54 holes of stroke play, which determines the individual medalist as the field is then cut to the final eight teams for three days of match play…which is really a cool idea. I’m thinking that’s not a bad week for a spectator, i.e., moi, some year. [It would help if my Demon Deacs got their act together first.]
Anyway, the winner? Augusta State! [Augusta, Georgia] The Jaguars! They’ve always had a good golf program, this being the only sport they are Division I (D-II for the others), but they beat mighty Oklahoma State in the final. All OSU has done is qualify for every NCAA men’s tournament in the 64-year history of the darn thing, while winning 10 titles.
–The other day in the Moscow Times there was a story on the dogs of war. Forget these are Soviet-era stories, if you must, but they deserve to be told.
For example, as reported by Olga Kalashnikova (treat her well, guys…given that last name):
“Eyewitnesses of the Victory Parade held in Moscow on June 24, 1945, remember a detachment of dog-handlers with their charges parading across Red Square.
“Among those who had the honor of taking part was Dzhulbars, a dog who was famous at the time. Gifted with an incredible ability to detect explosives with his sense of smell, Dzhulbars saved architectural masterpieces in Prague, Vienna, Hungary and Romania. The dog had been injured and deemed unable to take part in the procession until Stalin himself ordered that Dzhulbars be carried across Red Square in Stalin’s own overcoat.”
While there is no way to verify the above, other stories emerged from actual documentation, sparse though it may be.
“Dogs that served on the front delivered messages, laid telegraph wires, detected mines, dug out the injured in bombings and acted as guards or patrol dogs. They battled on despite wounds and in terrifying circumstances to the very limits of their endurance, showing indomitable courage.
“According to a Soviet dog-breeding manual published in 1973, more than 60,000 dogs served in the Red Army….
“Dogs saved the lives of more than 700,000 wounded soldiers. The specially trained animals carried first-aid kits on their backs and a Red Cross band to allow them to be instantly recognized.
“ ‘I met lots of intrepid dogs,’ Russian author and journalist Ilya Ehrenburg wrote in his notes on World War II. ‘A Shetland sheepdog in protective white clothing – it was winter – would find a wounded person and lay down next to him. The dog would have a special basket with food and vodka. Then it would take in its teeth the special leather dog tag that hung from the man’s collar and hurry off to find a medic. The dog would show her that it had found a wounded soldier and then lead the handler to him.’….
“ ‘A canine medic that found a wounded soldier would nuzzle his face to revive him and to show him ‘I’m with you,’ said Yekaterina Vasilyeva, a researcher at the Military History Museum of the Artillery, Engineering and Signal Corps.
“In order not to frighten the soldier, the dog would immediately show him its Red Cross symbol and first-aid medicines. Often animals would drag soldiers back from the battlefield on special sledges. Under fire, the dogs could do things that were impossible for the medical orderlies.”
The majority of dogs during the war served as messengers. “During the war, dogs carried more than 200,000 reports….Even wounded dogs would usually crawl to their destination points. Six messenger dogs could do the work of 10 human messengers, and the speed of delivery was three or four times faster,” Vasilyeva said.
The archives contain the story of the bombing of a Nazi train in Belarus on Aug. 19, 1943. “Ten carriages were destroyed, and a large part of the railway line was put out of service. The report has a small postscript: ‘There were no losses on our side.’ The blast was the result of a saboteur – a dog named Dina.
“It’s no legend,” Vasilyeva sid. “[Dina] was a very clever dog. Canine saboteurs had special detachable harnesses. They’d noticed in training that if the harness with the pack fell off, the dog would pick it up in its teeth and carry it to the destination. This is what Dina did. She let an enemy patrol pass and only then carried the pack that had slipped down from her back to the railway line. And then she went away.”
Another dog, Rob, a British Collie, made more than 20 parachute jumps during the war.
“Animals often gave their lives for victory. Nazi troops dreaded the Soviet dogs that carried mines to the tanks. There were cases when dogs turned back whole enemy detachments.
“Sniffer dogs capable of detecting mines played a crucial role. They discovered and deactivated more than four million enemy charges and land mines.
“ ‘Nazi troops often left booby traps, for the most part in industrial buildings,’ Vasilyeva said. ‘Metal detectors could only find the bombs if they were in metal casings. Many of them, however, were in wooden casings. Only a dog could discover such a mine at a depth of 1.5 meters – they would be able to smell it.”
“Dozens of headless skeletons excavated from a northern English building site appear to be the remains of Roman gladiators, one of whom had bites from a lion, tiger, bear or other large animal, archaeologists said Monday.
“Experts said new forensic evidence suggests the bones belong to the professional fighters, who were often killed while entertaining spectators.”
Huh. Wonder if there were personal seat licenses then. What about the Laker Girls, always a nice attraction for corporate events and gladiatorial contests? [L.A. took a 2-1 lead on Boston, Tuesday night, by the way.]
But why were the gladiators beheaded, you might be asking? Well, according to Michael Wysocki, an expert who studied the skeletons, gladiators were often beheaded as an act of mercy because their injuries were so horrific. “All of the skeletons were buried with pottery, animals or other offerings, suggesting they were respected people, not criminals.”
Note to self: Remind loved ones I don’t want to be buried with pottery, animals or other doo-dads. Perhaps a Tom Seaver baseball card and a six-pack of Pilsner Urquel. Of course it would be my luck that they put in the Pilsner Urquel but forget the bottle opener.
–This just in from Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Fort Lauderdale (not to be confused with Yale in New Haven)… researchers “found that alongside caffeine, energy drinks and guarana, professional and amateur poker players all over the world are turning to marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, Valium and a host of other prescription medications to try to gain some advantage at the table.” [Alan Mozes / USA TODAY]
It’s all about stamina, sports fans. And for a different kind of stamina, how about a serving or two of Oysters Rockefeller, named after the late Nelson Rockefeller, who, err, err….
[OK, I better come clean…the dish was named after John D. Rockefeller, not Nelson, who was, err…you know…when he died.]
—Marvin Isley, bass player of the Isley Brothers for much of the 1970s, 80s and early 90s, died at the age of 56. Isley stopped performing in 1996 due to serious health issues related to diabetes.
Top 3 songs for the week of 6/5/71: #1 “Brown Sugar” (The Rolling Stones) #2 “Joy To The World” (Three Dog Night) #3 “Want Ads” (The Honey Cones…dreadful)…and…#4 “It Don’t Come Easy” (Ringo Starr) #5 “Rainy Days And Mondays” (Carpenters….Mondays no longer get me down since it’s an easier day than when I was in the business world…ergo, Sunday is a prime day for domestic, especially during football season…but enough about me) #6 “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (Aretha Franklin…actually, even when I had to think about driving to Stamford, Ct., on Mondays, Sundays were still a good day for domestic…) #7 “Sweet And Innocent” (Donny Osmond…not that Monday thru Saturday aren’t good days for domestic as well…it just depends where you are and who you’re with…of course if you’re at a sidewalk café in Vienna, we’re talking premium) #8 “Never Can Say Goodbye” (The Jackson 5…it took awhile, but I finally said goodbye to Wiedemann’s Beer when I graduated from Wake Forest…it was like $1.29 a six-pack when in school) #9 “It’s Too Late” (Carole King…my favorite of hers) #10 “Me And You And A Dog Named Boo” (Sheriff Lobo)
World Cup Quiz Answers: 1) 1998 – France (beat Brazil); 2002 – Brazil (beat Germany); 2006 – Italy (France). 2) First four WC winners…1930 – Uruguay; 1934 – Italy; 1938 – Italy; 1950 – Uruguay.
Only 7 different nations have won a World Cup (out of 18 years it’s been held)…Uruguay, Italy, W. Germany, Brazil, England, Argentina, and France.
