British Open Quiz: There are now nine courses considered part of “the rota,” sites for the British Open. Royal Portrush, site of a British Open in 1951, is not one of them (but they desperately want it back… unfortunately, for security reasons, it being in Northern Ireland, it’s deemed impossible…but I digress). Anyway, how many of the nine can you name? Answer below.
George Steinbrenner
I’m a Mets fan. Growing up in the area that means you are also a Jets fan. Almost all Yankees fans are Giants fan, too. That’s what it’s like in these parts. In Los Angeles or Chicago you have two baseball teams, but just one football (OK, San Diego in the case of the former). Having two of each helps make the New York sports world so unique, and the press coverage overwhelming.
So if you’re a Mets/Jets fan, since George Steinbrenner took over in 1973, the Yankees and Giants have 10 world championships, the Mets/Jets 1. 10-1. That’s the bottom line. We’re outnumbered where it counts. Most years, especially recently with the Mets’ historic collapses of 2007 and 2008, it’s like each year it’s Little Bighorn all over again. It sucks.
For his part, George Steinbrenner was exactly as he’s being described in every obituary these days, The Boss having died Tuesday days after his 80th birthday. He was indeed a towering figure. His teams won 7 World Series. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame for the ways in which he changed the game. He deserves to be in the American Business Hall of Fame, as well, for turning an $8.8 million investment (together with partners) into a franchise worth an estimated $1.6 billion today.
Steinbrenner was a New Yorker through and through, having once said:
“New Yorkers have to be tough…When you’re taking a cab, you’re fighting for that cab. You go to a lunch place, you’ve got to battle for a table. It goes on every day. There’s a mental toughness about New Yorkers.”
The Boss was also suspended twice from the game; first, for making an illegal campaign contribution to Richard Nixon, then a lifetime ban (which became two years) for paying a gambler to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield.
But make no mistake. George Steinbrenner was one giant asshole. And as some discuss below, as he dealt with his illness the last five years in particular his handlers did their best to remake his image. I’ve seen the stories of how charitable he was, but I’ve well-documented in another column I do how the rich for decades have hidden behind their philanthropy.
As a fan of the sport, however, while this may seem a contradiction, I respected him because unlike Mets ownership during much of the same era Steinbrenner covered, The Boss was all about winning. I, like so many of my ilk, were jealous of the Yankees. Fans of the Bronx Bombers have good reason to mourn today. For the rest of us, he certainly made life more interesting in these parts. He was always great copy. But there are simply too many instances when this man was outright cruel. That has to be part of the Steinbrenner legacy, and it will be.
“George M. Steinbrenner III was a Yankee Doodle Dandy, born on the Fourth of July and somehow destined to run the most renowned franchise in the history of American sports.
“The Yankees owner did it longer than anybody: 37 tumultuous years of winning, whining and World Series, of bitter feuds and big-bucks free agents, from Reggie Jackson to Derek Jeter….
“He became better known than his ballplayers. He was revered and reviled, the overlord of baseball’s ‘Evil Empire’ – and the guy responsible, as he’d be first to tell you, for the Yankees’ return to greatness.
“ ‘I felt he just wanted what all of us wanted,’ said current Yankees manager Joe Girardi. ‘To win.’….
“ ‘Owning the Yankees,’ Steinbrenner once said, ‘is like owning the Mona Lisa.’”
“When strangers met George Steinbrenner socially, maybe at a charity dinner or by chance at a restaurant, they would rave about what a nice guy he was, how pleasant and friendly he was, how he certainly was not the ogre they read about as the Yankees’ principal owner. And in a social setting with strangers, he was a nice guy, pleasant and friendly.
“But if you worked for Steinbrenner…you were an almost daily victim of his impatient bluster and bombast. He fired managers and public-relations directors and anybody who didn’t get his lunch order correct.
“If you were a New York sports columnist, as I was even before his arrival at Yankee Stadium in 1973, he was a subject you couldn’t ignore. He was always saying or doing something that made headlines, especially when the Yankees did not win the World Series. And when they did not win the World Series from 1979 to 1995, he was seldom on his best behavior.
“In a Thanksgiving Day column I wrote during that era, I lumped him with pro football’s Al Davis and the boxing promoter Don King as ‘scoundrels’ not to be thankful for. About a week later, when I asked where he had suddenly gone after a Yankees news conference, I was told: ‘George said he wasn’t talking to you, anyway. He said you ruined his mother’s Thanksgiving.’
“Imagine how his rash decisions affected so many other mothers, much less the Yankees’ managers, players and office employees themselves.”
Anderson writes of the time after the 1980 season, a year in which the Yankees won 103 games but were swept in 3 by the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS. Steinbrenner, in a rare move, called in 14 reporters and columnists for a news conference. Manager Dick Howser was there, looking more than a bit glum.
“Dick has decided,” Steinbrenner began, “that he will not be returning to the Yankees next year. I should say, not returning to the Yankees as manager.”
“Dick has decided. Ostensibly, Howser had decided to go into the real estate business in Tallahassee, Fla., rather than continue as the Yankees’ manager. When Steinbrenner was asked if Howser could have returned as the manager, he said, yes. But when Howser was asked why he didn’t want to continue as manager, he said, ‘I have to be cautious here.’ When he was asked if he had been fired, he said, ‘I’m not going to comment on that.’
“The principal owner even added, ‘I think it’s safe to say that Dick Howser wants to be a Florida resident year round, right, Dick?’
“This was an execution, not a news conference, and when it was over, as everybody was walking out of his office, the principal owner looked around and said, ‘Nobody ate any sandwiches.’ He didn’t seem to realize that nobody believed that ‘Dick had decided.’”
“Before the 1985 season, the principal owner promised that Berra would complete the season as the manager. But after a 6-10 start, Steinbrenner sent word for a front-office executive to tell Berra, a Yankees icon, that he was out. Because the principal owner didn’t have the class to tell him man to man, Berra vowed not to go to Yankee Stadium again as long as Steinbrenner owned the team.”
“Say this for George Steinbrenner, he was always willing to invest millions to make the Yankees the best team.
“He just didn’t always understand that he had his faults. Years ago, Joe Vecchione, then the Times’ sports editor, was chatting with the principal owner in spring training one year when several fans stopped to get Steinbrenner’s autograph. Pleasant and friendly, Steinbrenner turned and said; ‘Joe, look at this. Everybody loves me except Dave Anderson.’
“I loved George Steinbrenner, too, but as somebody to write about, certainly not somebody to work for.”
“Worst of all he was a bully, who seized on a spineless employee or an out-of-favor player and did not have the compassion to know when he had crossed the line from tough owner to outright indecency.
“In hundreds of times in his company over the past two-plus decades, I watched the dichotomy of his personality in which he could charm and appall you in a sentence or two. He was ruthless and sentimental, capable of breaking out in screams or tears, especially in his later years. He loved the pep talk and redemption, and in later years did find a more unbreakable tether back to employees from his past….
“Ignore the editing that has occurred in recent years. The George his minions would like you to eulogize could not become an icon, could not turn an organization into an empire. The myth is not just wrong, it is disrespectful of both history and the titan that was George Steinbrenner, a force of nature who only changed the world.”
“He leaves behind the most extraordinary footprint in American sports, the Yankees having gone from second team in town in 1973 to the No. 1 sporting logo in the world. He leaves behind a baseball team whose mission is now engrained in his own relentless expectation, and a regional TV network that is the envy of that industry, too.
“And he leaves behind a city that rarely has known a character this colorful, a personality this diverse, a legacy that leads in a hundred different directions. However you felt about Steinbrenner, however you feel about him now, you always knew this: you always knew he was in town, the bigger the room the better.
“Rooms that all seem a little extra empty this morning.”
“Steinbrenner was an owner many New Yorkers loved to hate, and there’s no denying his dark side: He was twice suspended from baseball and forced to shell out hundreds of thousands in fines. He often provoked wholly unnecessary tension, and his public spats with Jackson, Billy Martin and Yogi Berra turned ugly….
“(His) outsized personality was inseparable from his winning ways – and from his ability to restore the team to its triumphant days.
“Steinbrenner spent lavishly on free agents and brought in the best managers – constantly hiring, firing and re-hiring them. And he created a level of expectation so high that anything short of total victory is seen as failure.
“He did right by the city and its baseball fans in myriad ways, on and off the field: Many of his public contributions are well-known, such as the $1 million he gave to the Twin Towers Fund after 9/11. But most of his considerable private charity and philanthropic support remained anonymous – at his request.
“He also played a key role in boosting America’s winter Olympics teams.
“But Steinbrenner’s heart was in New York. ‘I care about New York deeply,’ he said. ‘I like every cab driver, every guy that stops the car and honks, every truck driver, I feed on that.’
“New Yorkers, in return, are grateful to George Steinbrenner, who reminded them what victory can mean to a city.
Bob Sheppard, RIP
It’s truly amazing that within the span of two days, the two modern-era individuals most associated with Yankee Stadium (more so than any players), passed away. It’s also incredible to look back at Bob Sheppard’s career, he having died on Sunday at age 99, and realize he worked his first game at Yankee Stadium in 1951 and didn’t stop being the public address announcer until Sept. 2007. By now those of you outside the New York area have now heard the name given Sheppard… “the Voice of God.” As manager Joe Girardi said, “When you think of Bob Sheppard you think of all the tradition with the Yankees. You think about Ruth and Gehrig and Yogi and Joe D. and Mantle, and I think you mention Bob Sheppard.” Derek Jeter loved hearing Sheppard introduce him at the plate so much, he made Sheppard record it before he retired so that Derek will always be introduced with Sheppard’s voice. Mickey Mantle once told Sheppard he got goose bumps every time Sheppard introduced him. Sheppard responded, “Mickey, so do I.”
“From the start, his voice was like Shakespeare in a park. Just a ballpark. He was immediately part of this golden age of baseball, not just at the Stadium, but in New York. The Dodgers were still in Brooklyn and the Giants were at the Polo Grounds, and during the ‘50s, there would be just one World Series – in 1959, the Los Angeles Dodgers (by then) against the Chicago White Sox – that did not include at least one New York City team. Sometimes two.
“So a voice that really did seem as suited to a Broadway stage as the great baseball stage in the Bronx became permanently attached to the fine memories of that time. Bob Sheppard’s voice, and his presence. And his permanence.
“There was something else: Hearing him was not hearing the game on radio or television. Bob Sheppard meant you were inside. You were at the game. At Yankee Stadium.”
And think of this. In Sheppard’s very first game, the first name he announced was DiMaggio – Dom DiMaggio, the center fielder for the Red Sox. The Yankees’ lineup that day included five Hall of Famers: Mantle, Joe D., Berra, Mize and Rizzuto; the Sox had three more, Williams, Bobby Doerr and Lou Boudreau.
One final line, from a piece by Clyde Haberman of the New York Times five years ago.
“Mr. Sheppard could read Eminem lyrics and make them sound like the Magna Carta.”
–As the British Open gets underway, attention turns to Tiger Woods once again. But caddie Steve Williams said that the forecasted rough weather the first two days could be Tiger’s unending because his game is already ragged. Williams probably should have kept his mouth shut because he proceeded to tell pgatour.com:
“The one part of Tiger’s game this year that has been very substandard is his putting. He hasn’t putted well in any of his events.”
And despite the fact Tiger has vowed to interact with the galleries more, during a practice round on Monday he teed off at No. 2 and finished on No. 17 to avoid the main crowds.
[Woods, by the way, dumped his Scotty Cameron Newport 2 putter, which he has used for 13 of his 14 major championships, for a new Nike model called the Method. Since putting is about rhythm, you could just call the putter the Rhythm Method, it being Tiger and all, though there are two women at least who might disagree, however now I’m getting off track.]
One thing you can look forward to this week is some in the British crowd giving Tiger a very hard time and it’s going to be interesting to see how Stevie handles it as much as it will be watching Tiger’s reaction.
But despite his many problems, Tiger is still the 7-2 favorite by British bookmakers. Phil Mickelson is second at 14-1.
The number one memory of all the Opens at the Old Course was in 1970. Doug Sanders, needing to sink a 2 ½-foot putt for victory.
“That’s what he faced for par and victory on the 72nd hole. Sanders seemed ready to pull the putter back when he bent over, brushed something from the line and stood up again. Sanders admitted later that when he settled back over the ball his alignment had changed. His ball never came close to the hole, missing right. Sanders lost a playoff to Jack Nicklaus the next day. Years later, Sanders was asked if he ever thought about that missed putt. ‘Not much,’ he said. ‘Sometimes I manage to go 10 minutes without thinking about it.’”
–The stories on Seve Ballesteros’ health and his battle with cancer are not good. Everyone was hoping to see him again at St. Andrews, even if for just a brief appearance, but his doctors advised him against travel as he appears to have suffered a relapse. Seve said he has no feeling in one of his hands.
–Since I had to post my last column on Sat. night from Alabama, I just need to mention a few results for the record. Of course for starters we had Spain’s 1-0 win in the World Cup over the Netherlands for its first title (Netherlands now being 0-3 in Cup finals), but what I got a kick out of was FIFA’s claim that its own study showed referees were right 96% of the time, when looking at key moments such as free-kicks, penalties and goal decisions.
96%? Who knows? But what we do know is that there were some high-profile misses that will be remembered forever among football aficionados, like the failure to award England a goal against Germany when the shot hit the crossbar and went over, which would have tied the game at that point.
And there is still an uproar over Luiz Suarez’s hand ball to stop a goalbound shot in the Ghana-Uruguay contest. Some say the rule should be changed to give referees the power to allow a goal and not award a penalty shot in instances like that. [Personally, I’d keep it as it is.]
Back to the title game, I only caught bits of it in the airport in New Orleans but from what I saw, it was a yellow card affair and hardly a classic.
Moving along, Paula Creamer won the U.S. Open last Sunday, her first major title. Looking from afar, it just seems to me like the LPGA Tour is in freefall, with sponsors pulling out and stars Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa having left the sport.
So once again I have to say that this is supposed to be the time for Michelle Wie to take over and save the day, but what does Wie do in the Open? Shoots 82-76 and misses the cut by six.
On the PGA Tour, Steve Stricker wrapped up his fifth win in two years (how many of you knew that?), and ninth of his career, in winning the John Deere, but he failed to break the 72-hole record of 254 for a PGA event, firing a still stupendous 258 in a tourney that will also be remembered for runner-up Paul Goydos’ opening-round 59.
And just a note for golf junkies out there. You know who I’ve been following this year pretty closely? Tom Pernice Jr. Why? Because he turned 50 last Sept. and is determined to still play with the younger guys. I admire the hell out of this. So far he’s scrambling…No. 116 on the money list and it would be great to see him finish in the top 125 and get his Tour card back. It’s my understanding he’s been playing largely off sponsor exemptions this year. [And this weekend he’s at the British Open.] So Mr. Pernice…here’s one guy in New Jersey that is a big fan.
–Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert has received an outpouring of support from Cleveland fans for his missive blasting LeBron James for his “shameful display of selfishness and betrayal.”
But Commissioner David Stern fined Gilbert $100,000 for words Stern said were “a little bit extreme.” At least Stern also said the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s comment, that Gilbert sees James as a “runaway slave,” was also extreme. Stern then said that James didn’t handle his announcement well.
–Not that I really give a damn, but I like the moves the New York Knicks made after being snubbed by King James. Let’s just say that Stoudemire is healthy. Add newly acquired Anthony Randolph, a power forward with immense potential. Then add 7-1 Russian Timofey Mozgov, supposedly the best free agent out of Europe that no one knew the Knicks were even after until they signed him. Add point guard Raymond Felton. Plus holdovers like Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler. Now go out and kick Miami’s butt!
—The Yankees front three…C.C. Sabathia, 12-3; Phil Hughes, 11-2; Andy Pettitte, 11-2. As Ronald Reagan said, “Not bad…not bad at all.”
—Marlon Byrd made an incredible play in the All-Star Game.
–The NCAA unveiled its format for the newly expanded 68-team field for March Madness. Eight teams will play in a “First Four” round, with winners advancing to games on Thursday and Friday, but instead of going with the lowest eight seeds, the NCAA will match Nos. 65 thru 68 in two of the games, with winners advancing to play a top seed, while the other two games will match the last four at-large qualifiers. So you could have two teams from bigger conferences out before the tournament really gets going.
MACUNGIE, Pa. – “A veterinarian said a dog trapped in a car on a 90-degree day in eastern Pennsylvania honked the horn until he was rescued. Nancy Soares said the chocolate Labrador was brought to her Macungie Animal Hospital last month after he had been in the car for about an hour.
“She said Max’s owner had gone shopping and was unloading packages when she returned but forgot that Max was still in the car. She later heard the horn honking and looked outside several times but saw nothing amiss. Finally, she went outside and saw Max sitting in the driver’s seat, honking the horn.
“Soares said the owner immediately gave Max cold water to drink and wet him down with towels before rushing him to the clinic.
“Soares said Max was very warm and panting heavily but had suffered no serious injuries, only heat exhaustion.”
So Man falls a few more notches on the All-Species List while Dog solidifies his hold on first place.
–Need further proof of Man’s demise? In the annual “Running of the Idiots” in Pamplona, Spain, three were gored, six others injured in the eighth and final day of the festival.
“A drunk man has been bitten on the leg after trying to ride a 15-foot saltwater croc named Fatso.
“The man, who had earlier been turfed out of a Broome tavern for being drunk [Ed. thankfully I don’t recall ever being turfed out], told police he climbed into Fatso’s enclosure at a local crocodile park because he wanted to give him a pat.”
So the guy climbed into Fatso’s place and when he tried to sit on its back, the croc took offense and bit him on the leg, whereupon Fatso let the guy go, he climbed back over the fence, and returned to the tavern for help. He had very nasty lacerations that required hospitalization. When asked why he didn’t devour the drunk, Fatso replied, “Whatever.”
–Shark Director Bob S., passed along this vitally important story. Sharks are making a comeback in Tampa Bay, species such as “bonnetheads,” which resemble M.C. Hammerheads. Speaking of which, Frank Sargeant reports:
“The great hammerhead…can get enormous. The famed ‘Old Hitler’ of Boca Grande Pass – now thought to be several different sharks seen over the decades – is more than 15 feet long and can take a man-sized tarpon in a single gulp.…A few years back, one hammerhead chased a tarpon between dozens of swimmers on a Longboat Key beach, ignoring all the people and eating the tarpon just a few feet off the sand.”
But the other day in that other column I do, I said I saw a bunch of sharks off the Gulf State Park Pier in Gulf Shores, Alabama. After posting that column, I went back there and it turns out the sharks I saw were blacktips. So I noted with interest the following comment from Frank Sargeant.
“Small blacktip sharks are also common on the flats, and larger ones hang around just outside the bar throughout Tampa Bay.
“Blacktips seen on the flats are babies, usually less than 10 pounds, but the adults found in deeper water might exceed 6 feet and 100 pounds. Blacktips are more aggressive than bonnetheads, and sometimes will grab a topwater or a jig cast close to them.”
Yup, that describes exactly what I saw…the aggressive blacktips in deeper waters, though mine were closer to 3 feet than 6.
“Bull sharks, identified by their blunt noses, are the actual bad boys of Tampa Bay.
“Bulls get big – more than 10 feet long and 400 pounds – and they can be very aggressive. Both of the deaths resulting from shark attacks on Tampa Bay in the past 25 years are thought to have been by bull sharks. One grabbed a swimmer jumping from a sailboat in mid-bay; the other snatched a man jumping off his dock in the St. Petersburg area.
“Bulls are particularly worrisome because they readily travel many miles from the open Gulf and can be found in the most inland reaches of Tampa Bay. They sometimes run well up coastal rivers, as well….It’s something to be aware of, particularly during low-light periods when most sharks like to feed.
“Bull sharks don’t often come into wading depths, but they have been seen prowling in as little as 4 feet.”
And so…you’ve been warned, yet again, though some of us refuse to learn.
“Man, 85, dies trying to grab catfish”
“An 85-year-old man died when he swam underwater, trying to catch catfish with his bare hands, Madison County (Mississippi) Coroner Alex Breeland, said….
“Breeland said Cecil Payne was ‘catfish grabbing’ with friends on Friday at the Ross Barnett Reservoir. They realized he hadn’t surfaced, searched for him and then called authorities.
So let that be a lesson, boys and girls. There is nothing wrong with buying catfish at your local food or fish store.
–Male sports fans can breathe easier today as Erin Andrews has signed a new multi-year deal with ESPN. She looked smashing during Monday’s home run derby. Actually, she was the only reason to watch the home run derby.
But Andrews, aside from expanded duties that will include College Game Day, will also be making regular appearances on “Good Morning America,” seeing as both ESPN and ABC are owned by Disney.
ESPN executive Norby Williamson told USA TODAY, “She’s very versatile.”
–Speaking of the home run derby, did you know tickets for that Killer Bore started, started, at $120?! One mother told the New York Times she spent $650 for two tickets to bring her 13-year-old son, taking a day off from work (remember, it started at 5:00 PM California time and fans were there hours earlier).
[This is the first year since 1995 that no player had at least 25 home runs at the break, by the way. Gee, wasn’t that the year the steroids era started?]
–There’s nothing to be said about Mel Gibson. You hit a woman, it’s over, and his name has been duly placed in the December file for “Dirtball of the Year” consideration.
–We note the passing of two-time All-Pro tight end Milt Morin, 67. Morin played for the Browns from 1966 to 1975. He played his college football at the Univ. of Massachusetts and was to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this weekend.
Top 3 songs for the week of 7/11/81: #1 “Bette Davis Eyes” (Kim Carnes…hasn’t aged well) #2 “All Those Years Ago” (George Harrison…still miss the man) #3 “The One That You Love” (Air Supply)…and…#4 “Jessie’s Girl” (Rick Springfield) #5 “You Make My Dreams” (Daryl Hall & John Oates) #6 “Elvira” (The Oak Ridge Boys…a crossover hit that never should have crossed over) #7 “Medley” (Stars on 45…gag me…just dreadful…shows America at its very worst…here, we can’t think of anything new so we’ll just throw some sound bites together and the public is so stupid, they’ll buy it…but did you ever meet anyone who actually did? So how did it top the charts 3 weeks earlier?) #8 “Theme From ‘Greatest American Hero’ (Believe It Or Not)” (Joey Scarbury…I’m sure he’s a nice boy, but this was pathetic) #9 “I Don’t Need You” (Kenny Rogers…I don’t recognize you, Mr. Rogers, after your new face job…Tony Bennett didn’t need a new face to still be popular at like 84!) #10 “Slow Hand” (Pointer Sisters…awful)
British Open Quiz Answer: The rota…Open sites…St. Andrews (Old…no. 28 starting today), Muirfield, Turnberry, Carnoustie, Royal St. George’s, Royal Birkdale, Royal Troon (Old), Royal Lytham & St. Annes, and Royal Liverpool.
