Baseball Quiz: [Got this idea from ESPN The Magazine] Name the ten players with the most career home runs with no World Series appearances. I’ll give you the home run totals. With Ken Griffey Jr.’s retirement (OK, there’s one), all are retired. 630, 609, 569, 521, 512, 473, 442, 438, 434, 426. Answer below.
The U.S. Open
It won’t be a tourney we’ll remember much about ten years from now, let alone 20, but in 30-year-old Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland we have a deserving champion. Plus I won’t be repeating the same quiz next year; as in name the last European to win a U.S. Open? because after 40 years the streak has been broken.
Anyone who has followed golf much the past two years is in a bit of a state of shock that 3rd-round leader Dustin Johnson shot 82 following his superb 66 on Saturday, evidently the worst performance by a 3rd-round leader since 1911! The guy had already won on Pebble at the AT&T twice already, after all. There was no reason to believe he would blow up.
But the biggest cliché in sports, that there is a certain kind of pressure on Sundays in a major that isn’t felt anywhere else once again was proved right as Davis Love, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Tiger all had their shots…only to falter badly.
Special kudos, though, to Frenchman Gregory Havret, for his stalwart second-place finish.
Open Bits
60-year-old Tom Watson took advantage of his special exemption and made the cut, the second-oldest in Open history to do so, but then he faltered on Sunday and we witnessed his final appearance at this event.
My choice to win, Rory McIlroy, failed to make the cut. I owe each one of you $42,000. Now what assets can I sell?
For the record, in the second round, Y.E. Yang had a 49. 49! [5, 7, 4, 5, 8, 6, 5, 4, 5]
One of the better stories was Ty Tryon making the cut. It was back in 2001 that the 17-year-old became the youngest to earn his PGA Tour card, but then he made only 5 of 27 cuts and was soon in golf’s wilderness. Now an “old 26” by his own admission, Tryon is methodically attempting to get his game back by playing the Florida and southern mini-tours.
The World Cup
I can understand why some couldn’t care less about this event. After the first slew of games I myself was ready for the knock-out round to begin where it’s single elimination though we have the group contests through this coming Friday.
Yes, the U.S. was robbed of a game-winner against Slovenia because the Malian ref is an idiot, but then the U.S. shouldn’t have dug a 2-0 hole for itself. Detractors of the sport, however, rightfully point to such rulings and all the fake fouls/flops as a reason not to like soccer at this level.
But then on Sunday morning you had Italy v. New Zealand, #5 in the world rankings vs. #78. The biggest mismatch of the tournament thus far. Final score…New Zealand 1 Italy 1. I caught this one and it was a game for the ages given the circumstances with the All-Whites goalkeeper coming up huge on a number of occasions.
The game announcer for ESPN said the draw was “one of the great results in World Cup history” and you just have to imagine how little New Zealand is treating it. The Kiwis don’t even have a professional football league, for crying out loud, and many of their players don’t play for clubs in Europe or elsewhere as just about everyone else on a World Cup roster does.
But back to the U.S.-Slovenia contest, the ref never did explain who he called the foul on, even as three Americans were being blatantly fouled by Slovenes. Koman Coulibaly is his name and it’s assumed he will never be granted permission to enter the States. Then again our security can be so shoddy, he’ll probably crash a state dinner at the White House and have his picture taken with an unknowing President Obama.
At least the U.S. advances if it beats Algeria. But imagine being a Brit who shelled out thousands to watch Final Four favorite England draw with Algeria after its draw with the United States. Superstar Wayne Rooney, in the immediate moments after the Algerian contest, let loose on the booing England fans in the stands. Turning to a television camera, Rooney said, “Nice to see your own fans booing you. If that’s what loyal support is.” He then muttered a swear word. The next day he was forced to apologize, a la Congressman Joe Barton.
“Last night, on reflection I said things in the heat of the moment that came out of frustration of both our performance and the result.”
Too late. You’re a jerk, Wayne Rooney. Just another spoiled superstar athlete. The Daily Telegraph described the team’s performance thus far in the Cup, “Hopeless, clueless, spineless.” “Never in the field of World Cup conflict has so little been offered by so few to so many (with apologies to Winston Churchill),” The Sun said. “Cape Clowns,” The Daily Mirror screamed. [Greg Bishop / The New York Times] Ironically, Friday, the draw with Algeria, was the 70th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s “finest hour” speech.
Meanwhile, Spanish fans were blaming their team’s 1-0 defeat by Switzerland on a stunning TV sports reporter whom they accuse of distracting the goalkeeper. Her name is Sara Carbonero. Go ahead, guys. Google her. There Sara was, right behind the touchline throughout, after which she asked her boyfriend, Iker Casillas, the goalie, on live TV: “How did you manage to muck it up?”
It seems Carbonero has been voted sexiest journalist in the world. It was she, the fans insisted, “who had sapped the strength of the Spain goalkeeper and caused him to fluff what seemed an easy shot.”
Then there is France. After a loss and a draw, and the expulsion of their striker for a profanity-laced tirade against the coach, the French players refused to practice on Sunday. Then the director of the team quit.
“It’s a scandal for the French, for the young people here…It’s unacceptable…I’m sickened and disgusted,” he said.
As for your editor’s Final Four of England, Uruguay, Paraguay and Slovakia…I’m looking solid with Paraguay and Uruguay. The others? To be determined.
–Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers for their 16th NBA title as they defended their crown in defeating Boston in an almost unwatchable Game 7. As David P. and a number of others commented, one of the many problems the NBA has is the players are not in the least bit likeable. And as great as Kobe Bryant is, Bryant having won his fifth ring, he did go 6-for-24 from the field in the deciding contest, hardly Jordanesque. For the record, I do have to add that Phil Jackson won his 11th title, six with Chicago, five with L.A. He turns 65 next season and why would he want to put up with the grind? Quit! Plus you just know he hates his players. Would you want to be an NBA coach and put up with these jerks?
In his third start, Stephen Strasburg struck out 10 with no walks in seven innings against the White Sox but it was a no-decision as the Sox beat the Nationals 2-1 in 11 innings. Strasburg upped his K total to 32, a record for a pitcher in his first three games. J.R. Richard had 29 back in 1971. No, I’m not going to mention that President Obama was in the stands…..Doh!
The Pirates snapped a 12-game losing streak as the organization implodes…which I didn’t think was possible because it has already imploded about ten times before during this 17, soon to be 18, streak of losing seasons.
–The NBA Draft is June 24. ESPN The Magazine had the following potential order.
1. John Wall (Kentucky)…Washington
2. Derrick Favors (Georgia Tech)…Philadelphia
3. Evan Turner (Ohio State)…New Jersey…that would be awesome
4. Wesley Johnson (Syracuse)…Minnesota
5. DeMarcus Cousins (Kentucky)…Sacramento
6. Greg Monroe (Georgetown)…Golden State
7. Cole Aldrich (Kansas)…Detroit…good pick for this city
8. Al-Farouq Aminu (Wake Forest)…Los Angeles Clippers…Nooooooooo!!!
9. Ekpe Udoh (Baylor)…Utah
10. Ed Davis (North Carolina)…Indiana
11. Hassan Whiteside (Marshall)…New Orleans…where have I been? Who’s he?
12. Xavier Henry (Kansas)…Memphis
13. Daniel Orton (Kentucky)…Toronto
14. Eric Bledsoe (Kentucky)…Houston
15. Tiny Gallon (Oklahoma)…Milwaukee
16. Paul George (Fresno State)…Minnesota
17. Derrick Caracter (UTEP)…Chicago…grew up ten minutes from me
18. Solomon Alabi (Florida State)…Miami
19. Terrico White (Mississippi)…Boston
20. Gordon Hayward (Butler)…San Antonio…should have stayed in school!!!
21. James Anderson (Oklahoma State)…Oklahoma City
22. Luke Babbitt (Nevada)…Portland
23. Jordan Crawford (Xavier)…Minnesota
24. Quincy Pondexter (Washington)…Atlanta
25. Devin Ebanks (West Virginia)…also should have stayed
26. Damon James (Texas)…Oklahoma City
27. Patrick Patterson (Kentucky)…New Jersey
28. Sherron Collins (Kansas)…Memphis…steal of the draft
29. Dominique Jones (South Florida)…Orlando
30. Stanley Robinson (UConn)…Washington…very intriguing player
1. John Wall
2. Evan Turner
3. Derrick Favors
4. Wesley Johnson
5. DeMarcus Cousins
6. Greg Monroe
7. Ekpe Udoh
8. Al-Farouq Aminu
9. Xavier Henry
10. Ed Davis
14. Gordon Hayward
1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Boise State
4. Miami
5. Florida
6. TCU
7. Nebraska
8. Wisconsin
9. Texas
10. Oklahoma
—Utah joined the Pac-10, giving it 12 teams with the admission of Colorado, so in two years (Utah joins first, 2011, and Colorado, probably 2012), the Pac-10 (or whatever it’s called then) will qualify for a conference title game and more big money. It also means that if Utah is good enough, it won’t have to sneak through the back door when it comes to the BCS.
—Manute Bol passed away at the age of 47 from complications from Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare skin disease that doctors believe he picked up from medication he received in Africa.
Bol was the 7 feet 6 ¾-inch shot-blocking sensation from Sudan, the tallest player in NBA history until 7’7” Gheorghe Muresan came along. Bol’s basketball skills were limited but with an 8 feet 6 inches wingspan, shot-blocking was his game. Even after the Washington Bullets put him on a weightlifting and pizza regimen, he only weighed 207 pounds at his peak. But in his rookie season he led the league with 397 blocks despite playing only 25 minutes a game.
Imagine, he was a cattle-herder in Sudan as a kid and somehow made it to the bright lights of the NBA. In a long-told story, once he saw a lion lurking nearby and killed it with a spear.
Bol was about far more than basketball, though. He defined the word “humanitarian.” And he routinely called sports fans “friends.” As then-Washington GM Bob Ferry once said, “He’s so proud, almost noble. He’s completely at ease with himself, which is hard to believe when you consider…well, he’s 7-foot-7.”
His opponents tried to pick on him due to his thin frame but once when a Chicago Bulls player threw a punch at him, Bol “flattened him with a single blow, prompting a bench-clearing brawl.”
“When I play, I try to make friends, with my team and the other,” Bol said. “If I wanted to look for a fight, I’ll go to Libya and join the Marines.”
Bol was incredibly devoted to his homeland and drew attention to the long civil war in Sudan. Charles Barkley once said, “You know, a lot of people feel sorry for him, because he’s so tall and awkward. But I’ll tell you this – if everyone in the world was a Manute Bol, it’s a world I’d want to live in.”
His later years were tough, filled with financial and physical hardship, but he never stopped trying to make life better for his people back home, building schools and raising money to feed the destitute in Darfur. Through it all, Manute never lost his optimism.
“I had a good time with the American people,” he told Sports Illustrated in 2001. “I hope they remember me as a good guy who played hard. I wasn’t Michael Jordan, but I was somebody called Manute Bol.”
–Golfweek named Tom Nieporte its “Father of the Year.” Nieporte, 81, was the head professional at Winged Foot Golf Club for almost 30 years and is the last club professional to win on the PGA Tour, the 1967 Bob Hope Desert Classic, one of his three PGA Tour victories (the others being in 1959 and 1960).
But I remember Mr. Nieporte because it was in 1967 that I attended my first golf tournament as a 9-year-old, the U.S. Open at next door Baltusrol. While my mother procured Jack Nicklaus’ autograph on a pairing sheet, I vividly remember the two I got. Tom Nieporte and Frank Boynton. Alas, while I am now in possession of the Nicklaus autograph, I lost the others along the way. The day I forget these two names, though, will be the day you put the nametag on my windbreaker and send me to the dog track.
But my, life was different on the PGA Tour back in the days of Nieporte. There was this story by Bradley S. Klein of Golfweek.
“Before he would win that ’67 Hope title, Nieporte had headed west to play the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am. While packing for the trip, he unloaded gear to meet luggage weight restrictions, dumping some shoes from his travel bag. When he got to Pebble Beach, he discovered that he had only a mismatched pair of golf shoes: one winged tip and one navy. Not much of a fashion plate, he wore the odd pair and played well enough to make the cut, qualifying for the next week’s event in San Diego. He checked in with his wife, who urged him to keep playing. After making the cut in San Diego, he hitched a ride with Gay Brewer to Palm Springs, where he won the Hope.
“At the awards presentation, with former President Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, on hand, Bob Hope’s wife, Dolores, noticed Nieporte’s mismatched shoes.
“ ‘The funny thing,’ he told her, ‘is that I have another pair just like it at home.’”
–I’m not breaking any news when I say that the future of thoroughbred racing seems a little bleak, but there’s an experiment going on in New Jersey that is working out fabulously.
Monmouth Park was struggling (as I saw firsthand a few times the past few years) with its 141-day racing schedule and average $331,000 in purses per day.
So authorities decided to switch to a 50-day, $50 million meeting, with $1 million per day – tops in the nation, as reported by the Star-Ledger’s Mike Mazzeo. The goal was to attract bigger-name trainers and their horses and thus far it is working splendidly. The live handle is up 55% (it was projected to be up 29%), from $5.6 million to $8.7 million, and average daily attendance is up 21% (projected up 12%). The number of horses running has increased 46%. [Monmouth was known for a ton of 5- and 6-horse fields before.] Congratulations to the sales and marketing folks responsible for the turnaround.
–Boy, the New York Giants were dealt a crushing blow when receiver/return man par excellence Domenik Hixon went down for the season after tearing his ACL in the very first day of practice at the New Meadowlands Stadium. Hixon’s right foot stuck in the new Field Turf playing surface. Unfortunately, the turf needs to be broken in like everything else and players have to be careful what cleats they wear.
–Speaking of the NFL, you have the case of Albert Haynesworth, the All Pro defensive tackle who failed to show for a mandatory Washington Redskins’ two-day minicamp. The team is now attempting to recoup all or part of a $21 million bonus he received just this past April 1 (part of his 7-year, $100 million contract). It seems Haynesworth doesn’t like the new defense being installed by coach Mike Shanahan. Linebacker London Fletcher said, “Albert made a very selfish decision. When you decide to play a team sport, you have to look at it and think about everybody involved in the situation. This is not golf, tennis, things like that, where it’s an all-about-you sport. What he’s decided to do is make a decision based on all-about-him.”
This is really incredible. Haynesworth knows how tough it will be for Washington to get the signing bonus back.
“The Redskins were crazy to hire Albert Haynesworth at an exorbitant price and wrong to give him the impression that he could dictate the defense he played in. But they did, and now they have to deal with it. They are probably going to eat a large part of his contract, and it’s going to taste like dog food….
“Everyone is vilifying him simply for mirroring the culture in which he was hired.
“Please don’t tell me that Haynesworth is obliged to live up to his contract with the Redskins. People breach their contracts all the time in labor disagreements. It’s called a work stoppage….
“Let’s say you have your choice of job offers. You accept the one that promises you the most money and the most freedom, right? That’s what Haynesworth did. But let’s say your boss changes your job description into something you don’t want to do, and never would have agreed to. You might sulk, then balk, and try to find another job. That’s what Haynesworth is doing.
“He’s not the first player to have stung the Redskins for their star-struck profligacy. The Redskins have to eat their dog food – and the worst part is that it’s their own recipe.”
–By now you’ve all heard the story, but for the archives, police in South Africa say that David Makoeya, 61, was killed, beaten to death by his family, when a fight broke out over the remote control because he wanted to watch Germany play Australia in the World Cup, while the others wanted to watch a gospel show.
“He said, ‘No, I want to watch soccer,’ police spokesman Mothemane Malefo said Thursday. “That is when the argument came about. In that argument, they started assaulting him.”
Cause of death is not certain but it appears they beat his head against a wall. Just another reason to stay single, I say. I have total control of the remote, and, frankly, what beer is drunk as well.
–Remember, Dr. Tendler is compensated for appearing in the commercial for Restasis, guys. And she’s an actual Restasis user.
“You use Restasis?” “Twice a day.” [Big fan of Dr. Tendler…bigggg fan.]
–A San Diego County man died after being stung more than 500 times by bees as he cleared brush. The poor guy ran to an outhouse to escape the attack but it was too late. He went into cardiac arrest.
–Italian researchers have discovered the bones of one of my favorite artists, Caravaggio. But after studying their find, the researchers believe that the man who enjoyed drink, women and fighting (I’ll pass on the third), died at 39 on the Tuscan coast in 1610, “possibly from sunstroke while weakened by syphilis.” [I’ll pass on this, too.]
“When Colorado angler Aaron Buscher hooked something in about 100 feet of water while jigging Monday morning on a halibut charter south of Montague Island near Seward, it was anyone’s guess what might be on the other end.
“Buscher would pump, reel, pump, reel and gain maybe 15 feet of line. Then the fish would make a short run and those 15 feet would be gone. The stalemate repeated time and again.
“After about 40 minutes of muscle-draining toil, Buscher’s denizen of the deep finally appeared off the stern of the Crackerjack Voyager. The sight took Buscher’s breath away.
“ ‘It was bigger than anything I’ve ever dreamed of,’ said Buscher, a 34-year-old on his first trip to Alaska. ‘I didn’t even know they got that big….It was like a submarine coming up.’
“A small sub, perhaps, but one heck of a halibut. By the time the 7-foot-4-inch fish tipped the scales at 337 pounds on the Seward docks, Crackerjack captain Andy Mezirow had repeated more than once, ‘It’s good to be lucky.’
“Lucky to have the biggest sport-caught halibut in Alaska this year.”
For which Buscher will win $10,000 in the 2010 Seward Halibut Derby.
—Jeff B.’s Old Man’s tennis team extended its record to 15-0 as they “rode into the Fairfield Hunt Club and galloped off with a decisive victory,” as he wrote for Sports Illustrated afterwards. “We beat the Wilton Riding Club like a rented mule.” Anytime you can beat an opponent like a rented mule is a good excuse for drinking premium and Jeff assures me both he and his mates did exactly that.
–Campbell Soup recalled a gazillion cans of Spaghettios because it said the meatballs were undercooked…or not cooked at all. Ruh Roh, Spaghettios.
“Thieves who made off with a truck and trailer outside a motel near Montreal early Friday morning may have been surprised to discover its cargo: a tiger and two camels. Quebec has recently experienced a rash of truck and trailer thefts. The police speculated that the thieves were probably unaware that they had also acquired the animals, which were traveling to a private zoo near Toronto from Nova Scotia when their two handlers stopped for the night. The handlers told the police that the trailer and the animals were gone when they woke up on Friday morning. The tiger, they said, had been caged within the trailer, which was designed to carry cattle.”
But this story took a bad turn when the next day, the truck was discovered but not the trailer. The animals could die without water.
—John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to the final song on “Sgt. Pepper,” A Day in the Life, was picked up by an anonymous American collector for $1.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction. As reported by USA TODAY, “The double-sided sheet of paper features Lennon’s edits and corrections in his own hand – in black felt marker and blue point pen, with a few annotations in red ink.” Back in 2005, another anonymous collector purchased the lyrics to All You Need Is Love for $1.25 million. I’ve gotta tell you, if I had a spare $10-$20 million lying around, this is the kind of thing I’d buy.
–Congratulations to oldies station WCBS-FM in New York for climbing to the top of the ratings in May, a huge accomplishment. Recall, it was back in 2005 that the CBS Radio division blew up the long-time staple of classic hits, for no good reason whatsoever, only to learn the error of their ways and return to the format (tweaked to include ‘80s tunes) in 2007.
–Drat! Steven Van Zandt, a k a Silvio Dante, said there is little hope for a “Sopranos” movie. Van Zandt and David Chase are, however, working on a film project “about a band growing up in New Jersey in the 60s,” according to Little Steven.
Top 3 songs for the week 6/22/74: #1 “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero” (Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods) #2 “You Make Me Feel Brand New” (The Stylistics) #3 “Sundown” (Gordon Lightfoot)…and…#4 “The Streak” (Ray Stevens) #5 “Be Thankful For What You Got” (William DeVaughn…“Though you may not drive…a great big Cadillac…”) #6 “Band On The Run” (Paul McCartney & Wings) #7 “If You Love Me” (Olivia Newton-John) #8 “Dancing Machine” (The Jackson 5) #9 “Hollywood Swinging” (Kool & The Gang) #10 “The Entertainer” (Marvin Hamlisch)
**Bruce Springsteen’s new DVD, “London Calling: Live in Hyde Park,” is out. I picked up six copies on Saturday at my local record store. Yes, there are a few of these still around in the country.
Baseball Quiz Answer: Most career home runs without a World Series appearance.
Ken Griffey Jr. 630
Sammy Sosa 609…Booooo!
Rafael Palmeiro 569….Boooooooooo!
Frank Thomas 521
Ernie Banks 512
Carlos Delgado 473…Booooo!
Dave Kingman 442…Kong!! [One of my 3 or 4 favorite players all time]
Andre Dawson 438
Juan Gonzalez 434
Billy Williams 426
