[Posted Sunday evening…pre- any news on the LeBron front, which is expected Monday.]
Baseball Quiz: Name the following starting pitchers for All-Star Games. 1960 / A.L. initials B.M. [there were two games in each of 1959-62, not that this matters for the question]. 1961 / N.L. initials B.P. 1971 / N.L. initials D.E. 1975 / N.L. initials J.R. 1985 / N.L. initials L.H. 1993 / A.L. initials M.L. Bonus: 1959 / A.L. initials J.W. [You get this one, you’re good.] Answers below.
World Cup
Boy, even if you don’t like futbol, from a pure sports standpoint the Uruguay-Ghana and Paraguay-Spain matches were as dramatic as it gets. In the first one, Ghana had a chance to win with the final kick of extra time, but the hero from the U.S. contest, Gyan, missed the penalty kick (this after Uruguay’s Luis Suarez purposefully swatted away a sure goal with his hand to at least give his team some hope in incurring the infraction, and red card), sending it to the penalty kick phase where the Uruguay keeper stopped two of Ghana’s shots. Gyan may never recover from this. It’s amazing how the Cup competition can turn heroes into goats, not just for a year or two…a lifetime.
Then on Saturday we had Spain-Paraguay. Late in a scoreless tie, Paraguay is awarded a penalty kick and their guy misses it. Then about a minute later, Spain is awarded a penalty kick and, after a false score as there was encroachment on the part of the Spanish players, Spain missed its attempt! But then shortly thereafter Spain scored for real.
Tues. 2:30 pm ET
Wed. 2:30 pm ET
But on a different note, crime, virtually every reporter has a story or two to tell about the World Cup and South Africa, though not all of them are coming forward until later, if ever. Christopher Clarey of the New York Times, however, related the following.
“There are affluent beachfront communities (in South Africa) that look as if they belong in Southern California and then, not far away, slum towns where dirt roads and mud-brick rondavels were the rule.
“On Sunday, unable to find a flight, I drove north to Durban in a rental car for the next day’s match between the Netherlands and Slovakia.
“Before leaving Port Elizabeth, I had asked for travel advice from a South African who had looked at my map, pointed at the stretch of the N2 road between the towns of Butterworth and Kokstad and said: ‘Look, this is a very dangerous area here, the Transkei. Don’t stop for anything. Don’t get out of the car. Just keep driving. If you get a flat, drive on the rim. I mean it.’
“But it was the most direct route to Durban. So I headed off, confident that I would make good time before dark and that things are never as nasty up close as they seem from afar. But the journey took longer than expected. About 12 miles from Kokstad in the dark, a man suddenly appeared in my headlights waving his arms frantically.
“ ‘Don’t stop for anything,’ I heard in my head, although I did slow down, only to strike the huge carcass of a horse. The small car lifted on impact, landed hard and came to a halt with the horse’s blood on the windshield.
“Behind me was another car with a smashed hood: presumably the car that had struck the horse in the first place. Unsure of the damage to my vehicle, I kept driving, but soon the car overheated.
“Driving on was no longer an option. I stopped, phoned for help, then waited for more than two hours with my mind racing before the Kokstad police arrived and a tow truck eventually followed.
“ ‘They hijack trucks here all the time,’ a warrant officer said. ‘They stab; they shoot. You were very lucky.’”
I said two years ago, no way could you ever get me to go to South Africa. I stand by that today.
LeBron et al
As the New York Daily News’ Mitch Lawrence notes, LeBron, Dwyane and Joe Johnson are probably staying right where they are (Johnson agreed to a six-year deal to stay with Atlanta) because the way the NBA is structured, the current team can sign a player to a six-year maximum salary while the likes of the Knicks, Bulls and Nets can only offer a five-year maximum deal worth around $30 million less, or what is known as the $30 million hammer.
“For James, the $30 million hammer is his insurance against his endorsement portfolio taking a further beating. He still might have an opt-out clause, this time after four years. But his six-year total deal still will be better than anything the Knicks, Nets, Bulls, Heat and Clippers can offer.
“During their pitch, the Knicks tried to sell James on his quest to make $1 billion, telling him his best chance of doing so would be in New York. It was a smart play, knowing what makes him tick. But those are projections. The $30 million hammer is real and fully guaranteed.”
“The irony of all this in the NBA, in the high heat of the free agent summer of 2010, is this:
“The owners courting LeBron James and Dwyane Wade and Amare Stoudemire and Chris Bosh, the ones bowing and scraping in front of these young players like mid-level gangsters begging for approval from some godfather, are going to lock these players out the very first chance they get.
“That means when the current collective bargaining agreement expires, the owners will look for new rules that will never allow players to collude like this – collude in the eyes of the owners, anyway – ever again. The owners have to be thinking that they’re the money men in the sport, they’re the bosses. If anybody’s going to collude, it ought to be them….
“Do you think that (James) Dolan (owner of the Knicks), who fancies himself a master of the universe despite his chronic incompetence as an owner, almost epic incompetence, wants to beg young basketball players to take his money? He does not.
“It is why Dolan and the other owners, especially the ones in there begging along with Dolan right now, will shut down the sport before they allow players to gang up like this on them ever again. To have the audacity to think they’re the ones in charge.
“And it is why this must be a strange time for David Stern, who has deluded himself into thinking he is some kind of star of his league, but has found out what a lot of other sports executives have found out before him – that he is not his own product….
“Here is Stern with this insane interest in a league not even in season, the NBA dominating the baseball season and everything else, but doing that precisely because of the insane spending and terrible basketball economy that has turned Stern’s league into such an economic disaster. No matter how much of a smiley face Stern tries to put on everything when the Celtics and Lakers are playing in another NBA Finals.
“You know what one league executive told me? That if there is a lockout that more than 20 teams would lose less money with their doors closed than they do with them open.”
I have to admit I watched less of it this year than ever before, in part because of the World Cup, plus if the Mets are on, they get my attention, which is why I’m increasingly suicidal. I mean if you had to deal with K-Rod as your closer, you’d be looking for your samurai sword too.
Anyway, for the record, Serena Williams, one of the truly despicable people on the planet, won her 13th major in defeating No. 21 Vera Zvonareva of Russia 6-3, 6-2. [If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, think back to Williams’ treatment of a line judge at the U.S. Open.] Williams now has four Wimbledons, five Australian Opens, three U.S. Opens, and one French Open.
And on the men’s side, Rafael Nadal became the second-youngest to 8 majors (behind Bjorn Borg) as he defeated Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. Nadal trails Roger Federer’s 16 major titles but is five years younger. Can he stay healthy? The U.S. Open should be very interesting.
With Takeru Kobayashi taunting from the sidelines (and later arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest), instead of being on stage due to a contract dispute with Major League Eating, Joey Chestnut cruised to his fourth-consecutive Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, scarfing down 54 dogs and buns in 10 minutes, well off his record 68 from last year. Chestnut didn’t have Kobayashi to push him and this year’s show just didn’t have the tension and drama of past contests. Tim Janus finished second with 45.
But I learned that the world record for pulled pork sandwiches is 45 in 10 minutes and I think I’m going to start training for that. In fact I know I am this coming week in Orange Beach, Alabama, because there are a number of barbecue joints near where I’m staying.
Earlier, Joey Chestnut divulged his training regimen to the New York Post. “For a major competition, such as today’s, he’ll fast for three days before the competition, drinking only water and milk to ‘stretch out’ the muscles surrounding his stomach.”
Chestnut says he has gotten sick just once during a competitive eating competition; a Vienna sausage-eating contest in North Carolina. “They had the gelatinous little nasty ones, the ones that come in a can,” he said. Oh gross. No wonder he threw up, or what’s known in the biz as a “reversal of fortune.”
Chestnut earns about $150,000 a year through his eating contests alone. The rest of the time he’s a construction engineer. His favorite off-duty meals include steak with mashed potatoes, his mother’s lasagna, pizza, chicken wings and burritos. He runs to keep the weight off, and said that aside from heartburn, he has suffered no ill effects from this career.
“An 8-foot blue shark, hooked by a weekend fisherman, chomped the man’s arm Saturday afternoon as he released the beast back into the Atlantic Ocean.”
The victim, 20, and two other men were fishing about 25 miles south of Shinnecock Inlet when he snagged the blue shark.
“As he tried to remove the hook from the shark’s mouth, it turned and snapped at the bottom of his right bicep.
“The other two men aboard the 25-foot craft used a sweatshirt to stanch the bleeding and called for help as the shark swam off into the ocean.
“Joseph, feeling dizzy and lightheaded, was loaded into a Coast Guard ship and rushed to shore, where the chopper was waiting for the injured man.”
A day earlier, the U.S. Coast Guard warned boaters along the entire Northeast coast to watch out for sharks this weekend. Great Whites were confirmed off Massachusetts, but the advisory extended far beyond that.
“Predation is not generally a concern for boaters and paddlers in Northeast waters,” said Al Johnson of the Coast Guard. “But I have no doubt that a Great White shark that swims into your comfort zone would surely find a splashing paddle or dangling hand inviting. I also expect that same passing shark would spend little time differentiating between boater, paddler and prey.”
“In recent years, sharks seen off the New England coast have been between 6 and 15 feet long. These sharks can capsize a small boat or kayak, the Coast Guard said.”
It’s the growing seal population that is influencing behavior, sports fans.
And Brad K. showed me a photo of a baby hammerhead caught off New Jersey. Am I the only one who thought hammerheads were born 8-feet long?
Ball Bits
–Among all the preseason NFL football publications…Athlon, Beckett, Lindy’s, Pro Football Weekly, Sporting News, and USA TODAY, two pick the Ravens for the Super Bowl, with one each for the Cowboys, Packers, Jets and Vikings.
–The Wall Street Journal carried a blurb concerning Colorado pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez, who as of 7/1 was 14-1. Of all the pitchers in the last 40 or so years who would win 25 for the season, none of them had this many wins at this point in the season. For example, when Steve Carlton had his amazing 27-10 in 1972 (for a Phillies team that went 59-97…or 32-87 when he wasn’t pitching), Lefty was only 9-6 on July 1st.
–At the halfway point to the season, 10 pitchers in baseball have 10 wins (7 in the A.L.). To put this in perspective, from 2006-2009, only five pitchers won 20; four in the A.L. and one in the N.L. And thanks to the crackdown on steroids, at least that we know of, no one in baseball is going to hit 50 homers or drive in 150, it would appear. So another year like the days of our youth, for many of us…which is good!
–Sorry, I don’t lose sleep over who gets selected to the All-Star team and who has been hosed.
–Arizona named Kirk Gibson interim manager after A.J. Hinch, and his 31-48 record, was fired. Earlier this year, Kansas City, Florida and Baltimore canned their skippers.
–Entering the final round of the Champions Tour event in Montreal, this was the leaderboard.
John Cook
Russ Cochran
Craig Stadler
Fred Couples
Corey Pavin
D.A. Weibring
David Frost
Larry Mize
Peter Senior
James Mason
Mark Calcavecchia
Loren Roberts
Tom Lehman
David Peoples
Jay Haas
With the exception of Mason and Peoples, golf junkies would have killed for a final round PGA Tour leaderboard like this one 10 years ago. Compared to most PGA events in 2010, in fact, if given a choice between a Champions or PGA tournament to attend, I’d in most cases pick the Champions’ one.
[Mize, with a final round 64, ended up defeating John Cook. In the PGA Tour stop in Washington, D.C., Justin Rose won his second event in a month, while Tiger finished 14 back in a tie for 46th.]
–Speaking of Woods, it would appear to be official. Elin is getting $750 million from Tiger under their divorce agreement. Tiger can’t bring girlfriends near his kids and Elin has to keep her mouth shut. Elin gets the $4.5 million home in Windemere, Flas., plus an apartment in Stockholm and a farm there. Tiger gets the $75 million Jupiter, Fla., estate, and his $3 million do-pad in L.A. Which all means that Tiger used to be worth more than $1 billion if he’s willing to let go of that much.
–I’ve written in the past on how I don’t understand how many of the LPGA Tour players can survive. They’ve been losing sponsors, and events, and there just isn’t a lot of money in it unless you are at the very top. I mean check this out.
No. 50 on the PGA Tour money list came in at $1,011,000.
No. 50 on the LPGA Tour is at $71,000. It doesn’t help that Michelle Wie, No. 15, just isn’t getting it done. One of the more overrated athletes of the past 100 years.
–We note the passing of NFL coaching legend Don Coryell, 85, creator of the famed “Air Coryell” offense that led the league in passing yardage every season from 1978 through 1983.
Coryell was a head coach for 14 seasons; five with the St. Louis Cardinals and then nine with San Diego. His career mark was a solid 111-83-1, including four divisional title games, winning three, and reaching two AFC championship games.
Super Bowl-winning coaches John Madden and Joe Gibbs were assistants under Coryell. Madden said, “It was the way he treated players. I think that was something that was missed. We tend to jump right to the coaching part, the offensive part, and the passing game. But his No. 1 thing was his handling of his team….As an assistant, he treated you as an equal. Players were always the most important thing to him. I think he had more respect for his players and coaches than anyone I’ve ever known.”
The player most associated with Coryell is quarterback Dan Fouts, a six-time Pro Bowl selection who threw for more than 4,000 yards in three consecutive seasons, including a then-NFL record 4,802 yards in 1981. “I owe him so much,” said Fouts. “It’s really hard.”
–Nice job Chris Simms. The Tennessee Titans quarterback was arrested at a police checkpoint in the West Village of Manhattan the other night, reeking of marijuana and with red eyes, a flushed face and slurred speech, sources told the New York Post. Simms of course is the son of former NFL great Phil Simms, who must be thrilled. Oh, and did I tell you his 8-months pregnant wife was in the passenger seat? Well, at least it was his wife.
—Rachel Alexandra is returning to Monmouth Park, July 24. Very cool. She won the Haskell Invitational last year, the Haskell being one of the top ten races in the country these days, but this time will run in the Lady’s Secret Stakes. The purse, once $150,000, was pushed up to $400,000 with Rachel’s presence so now on consecutive Saturdays, Jersey horse fans, you’ll have this event, followed by the Haskell, which has a strong field.
–Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the Nets new owner, lunched at Nello’s in Manhattan yesterday and according to the New York Post, “left a $1,500 cash tip.” I am now applying for a busboy position at Nello’s, figuring I have to work my way up.
—Callaway Golf is rewarding any major leaguer who hits a home run over 470 feet with a full set of Diablo Edge clubs. Thus far, Josh Hamilton of the Rangers and Colby Rasmus of the Cardinals have the longest blasts of the season, 485 and 483 feet.
–The following is for the one or two other track junkies out there, but in 2008, when I went to the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, the highlight was the 800-meter race where local Univ. of Oregon runner Andrew Wheating finished a dramatic 2nd to make the team.
So on Saturday, at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, in the meet’s signature Bowerman Mile (named after the legendary Oregon coach), Wheating entered and finished fifth in a world-class field. Better yet, his time of 3:51.74 was the school’s all-time best for the event. I may just have to go back to the trials in 2012. [Of course I will…I love this stuff.]
–So far this year, there have been 114 reported cases of rabies in Central Park. The culprit? Raccoons. Said one Manhattan teacher, “I’ve always been taught if I see a raccoon in the daytime, they are sick. There are big, fat huge families up there.” No humans have been attacked since February, however. In December and January, two people were.
–This is classic. Paris Hilton was busted for possession of marijuana at a World Cup match on Friday, but a South African judge threw out the charges.
“Hilton and her friend, former Playboy Playmate Jennifer Rovero, were arrested for carrying a joint at the Brazil v. Netherlands quarter-final.”
What’s funny is that before a judge dismissed the charges (to which Hilton said, “Thank you, your honor”), she had arrived about 30 minutes earlier and appeared relaxed, “smiling at court officials with her blonde hair pulled into two ponytails.”
Oh, can’t you just picture the guys in court there, ogling her.
“While she waited for the hearing, people with FIFA badges were seen bringing her seven pizzas, 12 cold drinks and six waters in an antechamber.”
Yup, FIFA can’t do anything about the horrid officiating, but gotta take care of those starlets.
–OK, kids. Remember, don’t mess with fireworks! Each year, police departments around the country blow up watermelons to remind us that if you don’t treat fireworks with respect, you too could blow up a perfectly good melon…which really is a waste, isn’t it?
“The holiday turned gruesome for a Long Island man when he blew off his arm while lighting illegal fireworks for friends and family Saturday, Suffolk County police said.
“Eric S. (I have a new policy…in most cases like this I’m not going to use full names anymore…it’s about how things stick on the Web, forever), 36, lost his left arm in the Independence Day weekend blast…when the mortar he ignited went off before he could get out of the way, cops said.”
A mortar? What, he couldn’t find a SAM missile?! Geezuz.
“The short-fused mortar completely severed Smith’s arm from his shoulder, police said.
“Relatives and friends grabbed the appendage, packed it in a cooler with ice and brought it to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, where doctors were trying to reattach the limb last night.”
–According to Men’s Health (the new issue arrived…but sorry, guys…no sex chat this time), if you are stung by a box jellyfish you have about 3 minutes to live. That’s 3 minutes to get all your paperwork in order (assuming you’ve brought it to the beach with you), have an attorney nearby to take care of any loose ends, talk to your wife and kids about what a great time you’ve all had together but now they’re screwed (or maybe she’s happy), talk to Mets GM Omar Minaya about the prospects for picking up another starter, cash in your gold (assuming you have that with you as well), pick up your favorite all-time beer and quaff it quickly, have your favorite restaurant cater a meal at the beach, call Rima Fakih (Miss USA), and, that’s pretty much all you can cram into three minutes, I’m guessing. Thankfully, there are zero lethal jellyfish in U.S. waters.
–The Hawktree golf course near Bismarck, North Dakota, has become the latest to employ two goats to rid the course of weeds and clover. Actually, it worked out so well, three more goats were added. In other words, the folks at Hawktree have created a far more useful economic stimulus program, at least for goats, than the Obama administration has done with $hundreds of billions.
“Serve your pals colder drinks at the beach. To keep a cooler’s contents extra cold, pour a cup of seawater over 10 pounds of ice. ‘The salt melts some of the ice, reduces its freezing point to below 32 F, and, in effect, creates colder ice,’ says Doug Goff, Ph.D., a food scientist at the University of Guelph, Ontario. For even better results, add a cup of salt to bring the ice down to 15 F.” Personally, it sounds as if Dr. Goff is really out of the University of Grolsch.
Top 3 songs for the week 7/1/78: #1 “Shadow Dancing” (Andy Gibb) #2 “Baker Street” (Gerry Rafferty…great beginning, then fizzes out) #3 “It’s A Heartache” (Bonnie Tyler)…and…#4 “Take A Chance On Me” (Abba) #5 “”Use To Be My Girl” (The O’Jays) #6 “You Belong To Me” (Carly Simon) #7 “Still The Same” (Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band) #8 “Love Is Like Oxygen” (Sweet) #9 “Dance With Me” (Peter Brown with Betty Wright) #10 “The Groove Line” (Heatwave…I was selling books door-to-door in Oklahoma and Kansas this summer. Every song is vivid, though not necessarily welcome. I had to be the worst book salesman in the history of mankind. Plus we were brainwashed. We couldn’t drink beer! Noooooo!)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1960 – Bill Monbouquette (Red Sox). 1961 – Bob Purkey (Reds). 1971 – Dock Ellis (Pirates). 1975 – Jerry Reuss (Pirates). 1985 – LaMarr Hoyt (Padres). 1993 – Mark Langston (Angels). Bonus: 1959 – Jerry Walker (Orioles). What gets me about Walker is that he ended up ’59 going only 11-10, and just 37-44 for his career. But then there were two games that year and Early Wynn started the other for the A.L. If you got Walker, however, pour yourself an ice cold premium.
*Next Bar Chat, Sunday, July 11. Aside from the fact I’m giving myself a minor break, I’m traveling around a lot on Wednesday. Sunday’s will be from Orange Beach, Alabama.
And every Fourth of July, I can’t help but retell the amazing story of our 2nd and 3rd presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, and how they both died on the Fourth of July, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Adams’ last words were reported to have been, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” He had no means of knowing that Jefferson had died the same morning at 9:50 AM, an hour or two before him.
For his part, Jefferson had ten days earlier declined an invitation to attend the ceremonies in Washington marking this golden anniversary. Barely able to hold pen in hand, he wrote his last testament to the American people:
“All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their back, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day, forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”
