Baseball Quiz: 1) In 1967, baseball finally gave out a Cy Young award for both leagues. Before that it had been one between the two. So, in 1968, Bob Gibson and Denny McLain won both the Cy Young and MVP awards. Since ’68, no N.L. pitcher has won the MVP. But in the A.L., five pitchers have won both the MVP and Cy Young since McLain accomplished the feat. Name ‘em. 2) Bob Welch won 27 games in 1990. Ron Guidry won 25 in 1978. Name the only other pitcher to win 25 from ’78 to today. Answers below.
Federer Gone!
At the French Open, Roger Federer lost to Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals, marking the first time in six years Federer had failed to reach a semifinal at a major, a remarkable record.
But now he’s lost in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon to Tomas Berdych. So after 23 straight semifinals, he’s now 0-for-2.
[As I go to post, Rafael Nadal advanced to the semis (over Soderling), as did Novak Djokovic, and Brit Andy Murray appeared headed to victory for the final slot.]
College World Series
South Carolina won its first College World Series by defeating UCLA. After losing their CWS opener against Oklahoma, the Gamecocks won six straight. On Tuesday, they clinched the title with an 11th inning, 2-1 triumph over the Bruins on Whit Merrifield’s RBI single. I mention Merrifield because he is the son of a former Wake Forest great, All-American Bill Merrifield, who made it to AAA before injuries forced him out of the game. And after 61 years, Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium is making way for a new home in Omaha. One of my 698 regrets in life is never having attended the CWS while Rosenblatt was still standing.
World Cup Final Eight
Uruguay-Ghana…Friday 2:30 pm ET
Netherlands-Brazil…Friday 10:00 am
Germany-Argentina…Saturday 2:30 pm
Paraguay-Spain…Saturday 10:00 am
So it’s possible we’ll have an all-South American Final Four. Your editor had Uruguay and Paraguay progressing to that point, though I was blown out by Slovakia and England.
I’m now rooting big time for Paraguay. Of all the places I’ve been to in the world, this was the worst, in terms of poverty, infrastructure and a hideous airport that should have been shut down from a safety standpoint. There was also less English (as in zero) spoken here than anywhere else I’ve visited. But while my trip was highly unsuccessful in terms of the reason for my being there, I’ll never forget the smiles on the faces of the women at the golf club PGA Tour player Carlos Franco grew up on as I mentioned his name and bought some shirts. [Franco himself grew up in poverty and it was amazing he got out of it to get to the level he later attained.]
So this is why I’m rooting for them. Futbol is everything to the people of Paraguay and it’s been a huge pick me up for the nation.
–I am posting this column before the midnight Thursday deadline upon which LeBron James and others in his free agent class become eligible to sign with any team in the league. According to the New York Post, LeBron has been looking at digs in Manhattan’s West Village, raising hopes he could yet land in New York. Broker Dolly Lenz said, “He seems to be set on that neighborhood.” [For those of you familiar with the area, he particularly liked 23 Perry Street, where Billy Joel used to live. The four-story townhouse is listed at $12.95 million, and includes a fireplace, elevator, indoor pool, and a garden with a sound system.]
But I just don’t see LeBron signing with the Knicks. The Nets, though, are a different story. For starters, LeBron could still live in the Village while the Nets play the next two seasons in Newark until their new digs in Brooklyn are ready. I can see LeBron loving the idea of being King of Brooklyn. I also see new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov giving LeBron anything he wants. Prokhorov, along with minority owner Jay-Z and new coach Avery Johnson are meeting with LeBron in Ohio on Thursday. What the Russian billionaire can provide James is a global platform, even more so than LeBron already has.
So I’ll say that despite the rumors LeBron and Chris Bosh are headed to Chicago, LeBron goes to New Jersey! Bosh goes to Chicago. Dwyane Wade remains in Miami. And Dirk Nowitzki, who opted out of his contract with Dallas, goes to the Knicks. [And Josh Howard becomes a Net, as he’s reunited with Avery Johnson.]
Of course not one of the above will come true, but just had to put my two cents in.
–Last December, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry died, a day after either jumping or falling from the back of a pickup truck being driven by his fiancée. The two were having an argument, Loleini Tonga got into the truck and Henry jumped into the back. One witness told reporters that Henry said, “If you take off, I’m going to jump off the truck and kill myself.” It was never determined if Henry jumped off the moving vehicle or fell, but he died of head injuries.
That’s what we knew last year. This week it came to light that Henry had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) – a form of degenerative brain damage caused by multiple hits to the head. His mother had given scientists at the Brain Injury Research Institute, a center affiliated with West Virginia University, permission to examine Henry’s brain in detail and he becomes one of at least 50 deceased former athletes, including more than a dozen NFL and college players, to be diagnosed with it.
But as the New York Times’ Alan Schwarz notes, Henry also becomes the first player to be identified as having CTE while he was still active in the NFL.
Sean Morey, a special-teams player now with the Seattle Seahawks, who is a co-chairman of the NFL Players Union’s brain-injury committee said, “It’s very emotional to hear – it rattles me. The fact that this has been found that guys played against last year, an active player, I think it’s sobering. You have to ask yourself how many are playing the game today that have this and don’t even know about it.”
“Like many of the other players found to have had CTE after their deaths, Henry had behavioral problems in his final years that might have been at least partly a result of the disease, which is linked to depression, poor decision-making and substance abuse.
“He was arrested five times in a 28-month stretch for incidents involving assault, driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana possession. The league suspended him several times for violating its personal-conduct policy.”
–Meanwhile, talk about disturbed, there’s the case of Chicago Cubs’ pitcher Carlos Zambrano, who was suspended by the team after a meltdown in the dugout the other day. Only now the players union agreed to allow Zambrano to be removed from the suspended list and placed on the restricted list while the hurler gets help. Real help. Like professional help. In return, Zambrano continues to be paid under his insane 5-year, $91.5 million contract extension signed in August 2007. Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said, “I think it’s not time for just words a few days after the fact, but some actions. So hopefully he goes and gets the help he needs and can rectify some of his actions with his teammates and be able to move forward after the [All-Star] break.”
It’s really too bad you have to deal with the union on matters such as this. The Cubs should be allowed to dump him without pay for the duration of his contract.
–Golfer Dustin Johnson is finally speaking after his collapse at Pebble Beach in the final round of the U.S. Open. He’s also receiving calls of support from the likes of Greg Norman, who had his share of final round disasters in majors; a classy move on Shark’s part.
But as the New York Times’ Larry Dorman points out, June was a cruel month for 54-hole leaders.
“Four weeks ago, Rickie Fowler, 21, led by three strokes after three rounds at the Memorial Tournament, but shot 74 and lost to a charging Justin Rose. At the St. Jude Classic in Memphis three weeks ago, Robert Garrigus, 32, had a three-stroke lead going into the last hole, made a triple bogey and lost a playoff.
“Then Johnson squandered six shots in three holes and never recovered at the Open. And last week at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn., Rose lost his three-stroke lead in a few holes Sunday.”
As an aside, I have far more confidence Johnson will get over his travails than Garrigus.
Animal Bites
“A young Bengal tiger mauled a three-year-old girl after breaking free from its handlers at an Indonesian zoo…leaving the toddler with head injuries that required surgery.
“The 10-month-old male tiger, called Ony, attacked Angelica Rosa while it was being transferred between enclosures….
“ ‘Two keepers were walking the tiger on a leash to an exercise area when all of a sudden he ran very fast and attacked the girl,’ said spokeswoman Tisa Ananda.
“It seems that the tiger, who’s only 10 months old, was excited to see the girl and wanted to play with her.’
“Although still only a cub, Ony (Sona-Buony) was strong enough to knock over one of the trainers and drag the other as it lunged at the girl, who was visiting the park with her parents.”
The girl was said to be in stable condition. Brad K. notes it all goes back to the movie Born Free, the animals being pissed they have to listen to Andy Williams mock them. ‘We’re in a freakin’ cage, for crying out loud. Who you sayin’ is free?’ [Lions and tigers’ English has regressed over the years.]
–In Rye, New York (Westchester County), there was a second coyote attack on a little girl Tuesday night. The 3-year-old suffered bites but was said to be otherwise OK; that is if you consider the fact the poor girl will never have a normal night’s sleep again to be OK. I reported last time on another coyote attack in this town just a few days earlier. Understand there are all of six such attacks nationwide in a typical year. Seeing as New York City is very close by and coyotes have already been sighted in Manhattan, Homeland Security needs to look to the Columbus Day Parade as a potential issue.
“A northern New Jersey community is postponing its holiday fireworks display as authorities search for a bear that attacked a hiker and his dog last week.”
The man and dog were walking on an off-road bicycle trail when attacked. The dog suffered serious injuries but survived, while the hiker had minor cuts and bruises.
Officially, New Jersey authorities maintain there has never been a fatality in recorded history here, but my own guess is 3,250 folks have perished in bear attacks. I never did hear what happened to the bear spotted just blocks from where I live last week. I’m going to have to be careful in my walk to Dunkin’ Donuts each morning.
“A rare ‘white elephant,’ a traditional symbol of good fortune and power in southeast Asia, has been captured in Burma, state media reports.”
So I see a picture and I’m thinking, ‘That ain’t no white elephant!’ Indeed, white elephants are “reddish-brown in the sun, and light pink when wet.”
What a scam. Soraida Salwala told the Associated Press, “The white elephant is a sign of great blessings and fortune for the land.” It’s not white, Soraida!
Humans truly are idiots, and this is yet another reason why we will never sniff the top fifty on the All-Species List.
—Six were killed on an amusement ride in Shenzen, China. The ride at a space-themed amusement park elevates and spins 11 rectangular cabins, each carrying four passengers. Witness accounts said one of the cabins came loose during a high-speed spin, knocking into other cabins. The report said some of the cabins fell from a height of around 50 feet.
–And very bad news concerning Fourth of July and the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. Six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi, one of the great athletes of any generation, will not compete. But is it the lock jaw he’s suffered from in the past? No. It’s a contractual dispute, according to organizers.
So this leaves it wide open for Joey Chestnut, who defeated Kobayashi the past three years after Takeru won from 2001-2006. Last year Chestnut downed a record 68 hot dogs and buns.
George Shea, Chairman of Major League Eating, said there is still a strong field even without Kobayashi, citing Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti, Bob “Notorious B.O.B.” Shoudt, and “Eater X” Tim Janus.
Oh puh-leeze. None of these guys will eat 50. And I challenge them all to a sugar cookie contest.
—Erin Andrews has apparently agreed to a new multi-year contract at ESPN. I’m still waiting for Dick Vitale to put his foot in his mouth when they’re working together and I’m guessing that will occur second week in January next season.
–There’s a new documentary, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, that John Podhoretz praised in The Weekly Standard. While no one should feel sorry for Joan when she checks into a hotel at 3:00 a.m. after traveling on a private jet from Palm Springs, Podhoretz notes that Rivers has “an astonishing, raging, unstoppable comic gift. She is bitterly, furiously, compulsively, and continuously funny. Rivers has thousands and thousands of jokes she herself has written on 3X5 file cards lining a wall in her palatial residence on 64th Street just east of Fifth Avenue. But she doesn’t need them; the movie shows her riffing conversationally from morning until night, practically unable to speak a sentence that doesn’t work somehow as a joke. This is so much the case that when the camera catches her saying something in earnest you keep waiting in vain for the vicious punch line to undercut the sentiment.”
“Comedians are not necessarily naturally funny people. Steve Martin’s remarkable memoir, Born Standing Up, is an account of a man so intelligent that he was able to break comedy down into its constituent parts and learn how to perform it despite being entirely bereft of an innate sense of humor. It was said of Jack Benny, one of the great comedians, that he couldn’t tell a joke to save his life; his best friend George Burns, who was a straight man until his surprising old-age career after the age of 80, would spend his days at the Hillcrest Country Club making everyone around him laugh until they could barely breathe.”
Podhoretz also notes that in the documentary, which now I’m dying to see, Rivers is “as blue as the voters of the District of Columbia, whose lines and asides are so foul it’s nearly impossible even to hint at them. The movie opens with Rivers on stage revealing how her daughter Melissa sought her approval for refusing to appear topless in Playboy for $400,000. Rivers, who will say just about anything, then says the last and most disgusting thing you would expect to hear – and I have to say, it’s so incredibly transgressive that it’s hilarious.”
“The British woman who has been accused many times of disturbing and waking neighbors with noisy sex has received one very loud warning from a judge.
“Appearing in Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday, Caroline Cartwright, 49, was given a 12-week suspended prison term, according to numerous reports….
“The complaints against Cartwright….date back to 2005. But in March, a neighbor called the police after hearing Cartwright screaming, BBC News reports. At one point, even a postman walking by complained.”
Cartwright previously told the court: “I did not understand why people asked me to be quiet because to me it is normal. I have tried to minimize the situation by having sex in the morning – not at night – so the noise was not waking anybody.”
Witnesses said Cartwright and husband Steve have “three-hour sessions from approximately midnight to 3 a.m.”
–According to Time magazine, King Tut’s, err, member is missing and may have been swiped back in 1968 because the 19-year-old royal was less-than-endowed. It was intact upon the first unwrapping in 1922.
Top 3 songs for the week 6/25/77: #1 “Got To Give It Up” (Marvin Gaye) #2 “Gonna Fly Now” (Bill Conti…ughh…has aged like a 2-year-old melon) #3 “Undercover Angel” (Alan O’Day)…and…#4 “Feels Like The First Time” (Foreigner…have no idea what they’re talking about…first time for what?….) #5 “Lucille” (Kenny Rogers) #6 “Dreams” (Fleetwood Mac) #7 “Lonely Boy” (Andrew Gold…strange tune) #8 “Da Doo Ron Ron” (Shaun Cassidy) #9 “Angel In Your Arms” (Hot) #10 “Jet Airliner” (The Steve Miller Band*)
*Shu sent me a note on Steve Miller and a tour he is launching. You may want to check him out if he’s in your area. Sounded good in a rehearsal clip.
Baseball Quiz Answer: 1) Five A.L. pitchers to win both Cy Young and MVP awards in the same year since 1968. Vida Blue, 1971; Rollie Fingers, 1981; Willie Hernandez, 1984; Roger Clemens, 1986; Dennis Eckersley, 1992. 2) Steve Stone is the only other 25-game winner between 1978 and today, Stone going 25-7 with Baltimore in 1980. The next season he was 4-7 and then out of baseball. Of course today this topic is coming up because of the phenomenal start of Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez, who is 14-1 in his first 16 starts.
