College Football Quiz: 1) Who replaced Tom Osborne as coach at Nebraska? 2) Who is the career leader in receiving yardage at North Carolina? 3) Who is the career rushing leader at UNC with over 4,000 yards? Answers below.
The Submariners of World War II
Last Tuesday, Election Day, I was in Honolulu and before I flew home went out to Pearl Harbor for a third time in my life. They have a remembrance circle/memorial there for the 52 subs and 3,500 submariners that were lost during World War II and I don’t recall having spent any time at this particular site before. To say the least it is both moving and incredibly educational.
Each of the 52 has its own plaque, telling the tale of it successes and eventual demise. They’re lined up alphabetically and I read at least part of them all so here are just a few snippets.
On Aug. 6, day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the Bullhead was north of Bali when a Japanese plane hit the Bullhead with depth charges, at least that is the theory. On Aug. 13, all submarines were ordered to cease fire. On Aug. 15, the Japanese accepted the terms of surrender. The Bullhead was never heard from and thus became the last U.S. sub to go down in the war. 84 were killed.
Just disappeared. No message. Probably hit by mine in October 1944. 82 killed.
April 1943…sub abandoned, mortally wounded, after being hit by Japanese aircraft. 4 of 63 did not survive internment. [A website I double-checked my scribbled notes on said 4 of 76. Plaque says 63.]
Perhaps the greatest single sub of the war (along with the Seawolf), the Harder and its Commander Samuel D. Dealey sank five Jap destroyers before going down in a depth charge attack. All 79 crew were killed. The entire U.S. Navy was saddened on word that the Harder had been destroyed as its exploits were legendary. Commander Dealey was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.
Probably hit by mine in July 1944. With a crew of 81, 4 managed to swim to Palawan Island. During imprisonment, one of the four passed a note to another American in the camp on the Robalo’s fate. The four prisoners, though, were never heard from again and probably died on a Japanese ship that was then sunk.
Nov. 1943…hit by 18 depth charges, the Sculpin was ordered by Commander Connaway to surface. Connaway was killed on the bridge as the crew fought a furious battle with a destroyer up top. At least 40 sailors would be picked up by the Japanese and after interrogation were put onto two boats. One Jap ship was then sunk by the U.S. with just one of 21 U.S. sailors on it surviving. The others served out the rest of the war in a Japanese copper mine.
But Captain John P. Cromwell, aware of the pending invasion of Tarawa and afraid he would give up the plans to the Japanese under the duress of interrogation, opted to go down with the mortally wounded sub. For this he was awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor. Of the Sculpin’s crew of 85, in the end 22 survived and 63 died.
First sub lost in World War II in Manila Bay in an air raid, 12/10/41. Four crew killed and later one other in captivity.
First patrol just hours after Pearl Harbor. 3 years, 14 patrols in total. No other submarine or crew in the Pacific fought longer or harder. But in a horrible case of mistaken identity, a U.S. destroyer took it out. 82 killed.
Disappeared off Okinawa on its 13th patrol, Jan. 1945. 89 killed.
One of the awful tragedies of the war, the Tullibee was on patrol near Palau when it attacked a Japanese convoy. One of the torpedoes malfunctioned and circled back, killing all but one of 80 sailors. Clifford Kuykendall, standing on the bridge, was thrown in the water and survived. He swam for 7 hours before being picked up by a Japanese frigate and made it through 18 months in a copper mine.
Note: I am not sure when the plaques at Pearl Harbor were made and in glancing at just a few individual sub websites, the numbers of the crew may be a little off as details continue to emerge over the years. My purpose is just to give you a sense of how quickly life ended for so many of these brave men.
I also hope that maybe one or two of you will get your kids to do a little research for a school project. Do a story on the Harder, for example. I know next time I go back, I’ll try and focus on just a few stories myself.
Lastly, I just want to make mention of the son of a good friend of mine from Wake Forest, Todd B. Toddy Jr. arrived at Pearl Harbor the day I returned there, Oct. 31, for the start of his 4-year stay as a submarine radioman. So Toddy, we all salute you!
Baseball Vets
I have written a ton over the years on the impact serving in World War II and Korea had on some ballplayers’ stats; players such as Ted Williams, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn and Hank Greenberg, to name a few (let alone Christy Mathewson, who while he was at the end of his career, nonetheless may have eked out a few more wins to go on top of his 373 had he not been gassed in World War I).
This past weekend the New York Post’s Phil Mushnick mused about Spahn, so I thought I’d throw in some of my own writings on Spahn’s war experience. Because of WW II, Spahn, who pitched briefly in the majors in 1942, enlisted and served throughout the remainder of the war, thus not notching his first win until 1946…yet he still went on to pick up 363. So how many more does he get otherwise?
Spahn fought heroically for America, earning a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his efforts during the Battle of the Bulge and his role in the taking of the bridge at Remagen, where he narrowly escaped death when the bridge collapsed.
Upon returning to baseball after the war, Spahn said, “I felt like, wow, what a great way to make a living. If I goof up, there’s going to be a relief pitcher come in there. Nobody’s going to shoot me.”
As Spahn was about to break through in the majors in ’42, he was always asked how many more he would win, to which he’d reply:
“People say that my absence from the big leagues may have cost me a chance to win 400 games. But I don’t know about that. I matured a lot in 3 years, and I think I was better equipped to handle major league hitters at 25 than I was at 22. Also, I pitched until I was 44. Maybe I wouldn’t have been able to do that otherwise.”
And then there is Hank Greenberg. I wrote the following on Greenberg over ten years ago, citing an article at the time by baseball historian Darrell Berger, who chronicled Greenberg’s career. Born on New Year’s, 1911, in New York, Greenberg had a cup of coffee with the Tigers at age 19 in 1930 before making it to the big time for good in 1933.
Greenberg was Jewish and back in the 30s it wasn’t easy. As Berger notes, America was broke to begin with and the newspapers would run ads for jobs with titles that said “Anglo-Saxon” or “Christian.” But after a solid rookie year in 1933, Greenberg burst on the scene in ’34 and Jews had a real hero.
Greenberg was the Tigers’ first baseman. He played in a time when many Jews in the public eye changed their names or downplayed their religion. Hank defied the stereotypes. He was big (6’4”, 210 lbs.), strong and hit home runs.
Playing in Detroit he had to deal with rabble-rousers like Father Coughlin, who had a radio show. Coughlin began as a populist, but later, as Berger describes it, he “descended into territories of hate unknown even to John Rocker, and Jews were first on his list.”
Greenberg heard the slurs from opposing dugouts and from the stands. “When I struck out,” he said, “I wasn’t just a bum. I was a Jewish bum.”
In this environment, Greenberg sat out a game against the Yankees in the heat of the pennant race because it was Yom Kippur. The Tigers lost. The poet Edgar Guest wrote, “He’s true to his religion, and I honor him for that.” [Greenberg received a standing ovation when he walked into services that day at the synagogue.] Eventually, the pennant was won and Greenberg became a hero not only to Jewish boys but to that throng of baseball fans who loves anybody that can beat the Yankees!
Toward the end of the decade of the 30s it became harder to be a Jew. Detroit’s strong German community sometimes was a little rough on him. In 1938, Greenberg had 58 home runs with 5 games to go. All America watched but he hit no more. [Greenberg and others said, however, that it wasn’t because pitchers avoided challenging him and the record shows that he walked only twice the last 5 games and even had 3 hits in the final contest.]
Later, as Hitler’s notoriety spread, Greenberg began to feel that every home run he hit was a blow against him. Said one writer of the time, “Hank Greenberg to a Jewish kid was just like Joe Louis, if you were black.”
In 1941, Hank became the first major leaguer to join the Army (Army Air Corps, specifically). He thought his hitch would be a year, but Pearl Harbor changed everything.
Greenberg could have had a stateside job as an athletic instructor in the Army and was exempt from service to begin with because he was 30, but he volunteered for combat and served in the China-Burma-India theater as part of a B-29 bomber unit. On his first game back in 1945, he homered.
In 1947, Greenberg was sent to the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates for his final season, where the Bucs paid him a salary of $100,000, thus making him the first player in baseball history to earn that figure. One day he collided with Jackie Robinson at first base. He helped Robinson to his feet and spoke to him, an act for which Robinson was eternally grateful.
Even actor Walter Matthau idolized Greenberg as a boy and said, “He showed me I didn’t have to end up in the garment district.”
As historian Berger concludes, “The life of Greenberg was lived in a time America needs to remember. It was a time of bigotry, but it was also a time when heroes could save us.”
Hank Greenberg had 41 HR and 150 RBI in 1940. He was essentially in the Army until mid-1945, when he hit 13 HR and drove in 60 in 78 games. In 1946, he went 44-127. So 4 ½ seasons he was out of baseball at the prime of his career.
David G. Dalin, a rabbi and professor, wrote a piece on Greenberg in the Nov. 1, 2010 issue of The Weekly Standard that some of you may want to look up. Dalin concludes:
“Greenberg’s contribution to baseball, and his enduring legacy….cannot be measured in terms of statistics alone. Equally if not more significant is that Greenberg set an inspiring example for generations of American Jews through his work ethic, his respect for Jewish religious tradition, and his ability to transcend the religious prejudice and anti-Semitic taunts of opposing players in pursuit of baseball excellence.
“Hank Greenberg should be remembered above all as baseball’s greatest patriot. That the America League’s reigning home run leader and MVP in 1940 put service to his country above his love of baseball, sacrificing most of the historic 1941 baseball season to serve in the military, and then became the first major league player to enlist after Pearl Harbor, remains the most compelling part of his enduring legacy. In sacrificing much of his baseball career to serve his country, he displayed true heroism. What Donald Kagan said of Joe DiMaggio can just as easily be said of Hank Greenberg: ‘A baseball legend,’ he was ‘also an American hero,…an American who quietly went to serve his country when called to war,…who represented the virtues and ideals of his era.’”
Hank Greenberg was the first Jewish player enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1956. He died in 1986 at the age of 75.
College Football
–The Cam Newton controversy only gets deeper as there are stories now that the Auburn quarterback and his father, pastor Cecil Newton, asked in separate phone conversations for a pay-to-play plan while Newton was being recruited by Mississippi State. As reported by Joe Schad of ESPN:
“Mississippi State compliance officials relayed the alleged conversations to Southeastern Conference compliance officials in January, according to two other sources (aside from the ones who gave Schad the above information) close to the football program.
“Prior to Newton’s commitment to Auburn, one of the recruiters said Cecil Newton told him it would take ‘more than a scholarship’ to bring his son to Mississippi State, a request the source said the school would not meet. Cecil Newton also referred the recruiter to a third person that would provide more specifics, the source said.
“After Newton committed to Auburn, another source said an emotional Cam Newton phoned another recruiter to express regret that he wouldn’t be going to Mississippi State, stating that his father Cecil had chosen Auburn for him because ‘the money was too much.’”
Both father and son have either refused comment or denied wrongdoing, but on Tuesday night, Cecil Newton told FoxSports.com, “I’m not going to confirm nor deny nothing that has been taking place” and he described all the reporting on Cam as a “witch hunt.”
The preceding was on top of a FoxSports report that Newton was caught cheating three times when he was at Florida before transferring to Blinn Junior College in Brenham, Texas.
A third party observer, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, who also recruited Newton out of Blinn, said he saw “nothing at all” out of the ordinary during that process.
–So on Friday night I’ll be in Moscow, Idaho for the Boise State-Idaho contest (which the lead-up for is being labeled “nasty and inebriated week”) and I’m expecting a total blowout…I’ll predict 48-10, but it won’t be that close. While the game isn’t going to be what I initially expected….which before the season started I thought Idaho would make a real game of it for the reasons I’ll spell out next chat…now I’m just anxious to see Boise up close and to watch the likes of quarterback Kellen Moore. Are they BCS title game worthy? You have four undefeateds left. If they all win out, who deserves to go in the current, non-playoff system? Well, as I said last time once again Boise is going to get screwed. But the Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon laid it out in starker terms.
“It’s the same old lies and promises as ever with the BCS and the cartel that props it up. It was supposed to be different this year, we were told, because Boise State and TCU began the season so high in all the rankings, in the top five or six in most polls. That level of preseason praise meant the game’s best and most high-profile party crashers wouldn’t have to leapfrog so many cartel members and therefore would be in position to play for the national title if they earned it on the field.
“So some of us, foolishly we know now, were hopeful – until Sunday night when the latest BCS standings were released. Twenty-four hours after TCU turned in probably the most stunning performance of the season and after Boise destroyed an opponent that had won five straight, they sat No. 3 and No. 4 respectively in the BCS standings, looking up longingly at the latest darlings of the cartel, Auburn and Oregon, knowing something cataclysmic would have to happen to derail the same scripted business-as-usual scenario in college football.
“TCU, No. 3 in the BCS when play began Saturday, went on the road to Utah and trashed the team that was ranked No. 5 by the BCS. That Utah team had won 21 straight home games and had every reason to think it, too, had a chance to play for a national championship by remaining undefeated. It’s a Utah program that less than two years ago humiliated Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. So, TCU goes into Salt Lake City and beats Utah 47-7, and some of what I heard Sunday night was that the victory should be discounted because Utah must not have been that good in the first place. So, turns out the cartel’s ranking of Utah as No. 5 must have been wrong. Boise piling up 737 yards of total offense while holding Hawaii’s No.1-ranked passing offense 244 yards below its season average in a 42-7 victory – that might as well not have happened.
“But Auburn, which had a virtual bye against Chattanooga, stayed right where it was, at No. 2 in the BCS rankings. And Oregon, who by local accounts turned in a rather uninspired performance at home against a pretty lousy Washington team, stayed at No. 1.
“So, with essentially three weeks left in the regular college football season there apparently is nothing TCU and Boise can do to play for the national championship. The cartel has slammed the door on them again. Auburn, which needed overtime to beat Clemson of the ACC (a conference that positively stinks), will stay in the top two if it remains undefeated. And Oregon will stay in the top two if it remains undefeated…because the last thing the BCS wants to see is an angry Boise or TCU beat the hell out of one of the cartel members as happened a couple of years ago when Utah ripped Alabama’s face off in the Sugar Bowl.
“The agents of the cartel are as likely to move LSU ahead of TCU and Boise as they are to put TCU or Boise in the top two. Trust me, they’re spinning it in that direction already….
“People can tell you the SEC and other conferences are better than the leagues TCU and Boise play in, but that doesn’t make it true. I’m a Big Ten alum and I love my conference. But it’s not great. I’m not sure it’s even really good. The Big Ten has four teams in the top 13 of the BCS standings, which is a joke. The ACC, which gets an automatic bid to the BCS while the Mountain West does not, has one team ranked in the top 25 (Virginia Tech), which last I checked lost to Boise State despite a home-field advantage here in Washington when the two played. And please don’t even mention the Big East, which is absolutely inferior to the Mountain West in football.”
As Wilbon concludes, let’s face it, to have either Boise or TCU in the title game will take a miracle.
Personally, knowing we wouldn’t have the wanted playoff system, I’ve said the BCS accomplishes what it sought to prevent…controversy…and without controversy the college football season’s conclusion wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun for us fans, many of whom matriculated at Div. I-A schools.
But the problem with it all is that Boise State and TCU, plus Utah, arrived as huge programs the past decade and this wasn’t expected. They didn’t just demolish their conference opponents, when given the opportunity to go outside they won those games, too. How do we deal with this, cowered the cartel members?
Well, we know the answer to that one. One or two years of controversy is tolerable, even if unfair to the likes of the non-BCS contenders, but as Wilbon puts it so succinctly, now it’s beyond absurd. All we can do in praying for a miracle is hope ‘Bama shows up against Auburn. It would be impossible to jump LSU ahead of TCU and Boise, as much as Wilbon thinks that would be the case. And while I’ve come to like Oregon after my experiences there the past two years, including the Olympic Trials, it would be kind of cool to see Oregon State ready for the Ducks on Dec. 4. It’s why yours truly always hedges his bets with Beaverwear!
–23-year-old Canadian Jonathan Duhamel won the World Series of Poker title and $8.94 million in the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em main event in Las Vegas. It wasn’t much of a contest in the end as Duhamel had a huge chip lead once it got down to him and runner-up John Racener, 24, who picked up $5.55 million for second place. Duhamel, who previously was earning his living playing $5 and $10 minimum tables online back in Quebec, won the final hand with an ace high.
–Book it…I said I would be looking at the YouTube clips of the prospective Kentucky Derby field for 2011, but Johnny Mac already convinced me there is zero reason to waste my time after I viewed the clips of 2-year-old Uncle Mo (who won a Breeders’ Cup race last weekend). Go ahead, look the Moster up. None of this Zenyatta, starting in the back and racing furiously to the front of the pack down the stretch stuff. Nope, Uncle Mo bolts from the start and maintains, and expands, his lead by the end. I just wish every time I see the name I wouldn’t think of former ballplayer Mo Vaughn, a poor association for Mets fans. Vaughn aside, we thus have our Exclusive Bar Chat 3-Year-Old to Dominate in 2011, winning the Triple Crown…Uncle Mo!! As I told Johnny, now all we need to do is keep the kid off the ice this winter.
But back to Zenyatta’s performance on Saturday, the superlatives, even in defeat, keep coming in.
“Her dash down the homestretch at Churchill Downs on Saturday, ending three inches short of the wonderful colt Blame, was both a tonic and a catalyst for her sport. So many more watched with so much more interest than would ever be imagined for a niche-audience event such as the Breeders’ Cup that the potential lasting residuals should not be underestimated.
“If nothing else, it inspired the wit of the written word.
“Sunday morning’s heading in the Louisville Courier-Journal, the horse racing bible in America’s horse-racing mecca, was perfect: BLAME THE WINNER.
“Longtime racing journalist Ed Golden noted that ‘the only thing Zenyatta lost in defeat was the race.’
“Beverly Hills screenwriter Jim Hayden gave the perfect dry summary when he wrote: ‘The catching-up strategy seems to have caught up to her.’
“Zenyatta has stirred the fan base and added to it. In losing the way she did, we see the black-and-white statistical 19-1 of her legacy in Technicolor. Because she captivated so many people, she has set the stage nicely for her sport to push its trend bar upward.”
At the midway point, the 6-2 Steelers are listed by bookmaker Jimmy Vaccaro (Vegas) as 6-1 favorites to now win the Super Bowl. The Giants, Jets, Baltimore and New England are 7-1. At 8-1 are Indianapolis, New Orleans and Green Bay.
In the preseason, Dallas was a 5-1 favorite at one point. Today, at the Mirage, the Cowboys are 500-1 after starting out 1-7. Vaccaro would give you 2,000-1. “They should be two million to one, but you can only go so high.”
For the record, Jerry Jones finally fired Wade Phillips, three weeks too late (Phillips should have been canned at 1-4, and not 1-7, to at least give the successor a slim shot at turning things around). You’d expect Dallas to continue to roll over, maybe play possum so as not to get totally run over before they hit the golf course as offensive coordinator Jason Garrett takes over on an interim basis. Of course Garrett has sucked in his job, too, yet makes $3 million, easily the highest paid assistant in the NFL! Back to Phillips, despite this year’s problems, he did finish his career (no way he gets another job, unless it’s Arena Football) with a respectable 82-61 record, but only 1-5 in playoff games.
–Ah, the college basketball season is underway. I can’t say I really get into it until January, but in this year of the Aztecs of San Diego State, I did pick up a ticket to SDSU vs. BYU in February. Just $20! Of course I have to get there, and other stuff, but seeing as my alma mater continues to suck in the big sports, one must look elsewhere for their excitement. [Actually, among things while out there I’ll check out the Reagan and Nixon libraries, but then I’m strange, which I readily admit.]
Anyway, the Wall Street Journal noted that last year Georgetown defeated both eventual national champ (Duke) and runner-up (Butler) during the regular season. Of course this got the Hoyas nothing and they lost in the first round to Ohio, a 14 seed. But as Darren Everson writes:
“The good news for the 20th-ranked Hoyas is that teams in their position usually come back strong the next season….
“Of the 10 previous teams that did so since 1985, when the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams (now 68), all but one reached the NCAAs the following season.”
And that’s probably the last time I’ll mention the Hoyas because you’ll never catch me buying a ticket for a Georgetown game unless Wake is playing them in the Final Four. Just sayin’.
Sporting News’ Preseason Poll
1. Michigan State
2. Duke
3. Kansas
4. Ohio State
5. Kansas State
6. Syracuse
7. Kentucky
8. North Carolina
9. Pitt…escaped with win in opener vs. Rhode Island
10. Villanova
20. Virginia Tech…big sleeper for Final Four, says your editor…would be good for the conference
24. Wichita State…huh
SN’s Preseason All-American team
Jimmer Fredette / BYU
Jacob Pullen / Kansas State
Kyle Singler / Duke
Marcus Morris / Kansas
Harrison Barnes / UNC…not him again! He’s a freakin’ freshman!
And on the third team, we have another real winner of a first name, LaceDarius Dunn of Baylor. What the [tape delay deployed]!
But at least Sporting News doesn’t have Wake Forest last in the ACC. We’re picked to finish 9th! Par-tay!!!
1. Syracuse
2. Pitt
3. Villanova
4. Georgetown
5. West Virginia
10. UConn….sorry, J.B.
14. Rutgers…my nephew just got accepted here for next fall, but I want him going to a school with a better sports program…don’t think I have much pull in the family, however.
15. DePaul
16. Providence
Lastly, I forgot to note the passing of Roy Skinner the other day. Skinner was the coach at Vanderbilt University who recruited the first black basketball player in the SEC in the mid-1960s. It was Chancellor Alexander Heard who encouraged Skinner who then ended up with Perry Wallace, a high school star in Nashville.
Skinner was looking for someone who not only was a good basketball player, but also a great student. Wallace, now 63, said Skinner was a calming influence during difficult times.
“The test is not, did he stand up to hostile crowds?” Mr. Wallace told Daniel Slotnik of the New York Times. “His basic manner and his approach and the fact that he was sincere in trying to help me was most important to me.”
Skinner became head coach at Vandy in 1960 and held that position until 1977, winning 278 games, and he was named SEC coach of the year four times. Roy Skinner was 80.
–OK, I’ve trashed Wake Forest’s sports program, and rightfully so, but I do have to note the Lady Deacons won the ACC soccer championship. Way to go, girls!
[You have to picture that since I started my site in 1999, I have been advertising in the Wake sports publication that goes to donors of the athletic program, among others. It’s been one of the better things I’ve done over the years and I have picked up a lot of loyal readers through it. But the ad is placed randomly, issue to issue, and the other week it was right below an interview with our new basketball coach and something like this always happens after I’ve just trashed the football or b-ball team. Even I cringe….Hey, Chris K. I did like your interview! Took me a while to catch up with everything following my trip.]
–So now I’m getting GQ, which is inferior to Men’s Health in terms of material, but GQ did have a bit on the “Wit and Wisdom of Bill Walton.”
“In this excerpt from their new book, The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History, the guys behind the must-read hoops blog FreeDarko present Walton’s greatest hits.”
[For those of you not familiar with Walton, he was king of the oddball one-liner.]
“And when I think of Boris Diaw, I think of Beethoven and the Age of the Romantics.”
“You look at Vladimir Radmanovic, this guy is cut from stone. It’s as if Michelangelo were reading and a lightning bolt flashed before him.”
“Yesterday we celebrated Sir Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity. Today, Fabrico Oberto is defying it.”
“The only man who can stop Cliff Robinson is Cliff Robinson. The man is unstoppable, even at 38.”
“John Stockton is one of the true marvels, not just in basketball, or in America, but in the history of Western Civilization.”
“If Eric Piatkowski continues playing at this level, he’s going to replace Jerry West on the NBA logo.”
“He had everything. He had…a doll.”
—Rory McIlroy announced he is returning to the European Tour rather than play extensively on the PGA Tour this coming year. Can’t blame him. Everyone says, for starters, that the European Tour is great fun for the players compared to the PGA Tour’s grindathon, with mostly dull personalities. McIlroy credited his Ryder Cup experience with helping him make his decision.
“There was camaraderie out there and I got to know the European guys better,” he told the BBC. “If you’re not playing well in the United States then it can be lonely, but over here you have your mates.”
Rory, just 21, remember, added: “I found myself thinking during the playoffs for FedEx Cup, not wanting to be there. I switched on the Golf Channel and watched the event in Switzerland and felt I wanted to be there. I’ll still play 11 or 12 tournaments (in the U.S.), but not as a member.”
–CBS analyst Peter Kostis had a great piece in the November issue of Golf Magazine.
“The Five Dumbest Rules in Golf”
1. Bunker vs. Waste Areas: “This is what created the whole PGA Championship debacle. It adds a layer of needless complexity to the game’s already complicated Rules. The solution: Get rid of waste areas and call everything a bunker.”
2. No Relief from Divots: “If a sand-filled divot isn’t ground under repair, then I don’t know what those words mean. Golfers get relief from unusual conditions and those should include divots.”
3. Out of Bounds: “You’re penalized less for whiffing your tee shot than you are for hitting it out of play. OB should be played as a lateral hazard rather than stroke-and-distance. The penalty is too severe. Many recreational golfers already play OB areas as a lateral hazard to speed up play. That, and the fact they are too embarrassed to walk back to the tee while another group is waiting there!”
4. Dropping the Ball: “Possibly the dumbest Rule of all. If you’re already taking a penalty, you should be allowed to place your ball on the ground. When you drop it, you need to make sure it doesn’t land closer to the hole or roll too far – or whatever! Plus, if you drop two times and the ball still ends up closer to the hole, you get to place the ball anyhow. Enough already, just place the ball and get out of there.”
5. Disqualification for Penalty Assessed after Round: “A player who commits a penalty that only becomes apparent after he signed his scorecard is disqualified. Why? Not for the two-stroke penalty. Instead, his score has changed so he’s disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. Just give me the penalty, but don’t DQ me under another rule.”
–I really hope America gets to know Shalane Flanagan better, she having won a bronze in the 10,000 meters in Beijing and now finishing second in her first marathon of any kind in New York on Sunday. Flanagan said in a news conference afterwards that she might compete in the U.S. marathon trials for the 2012 London Games. “We’ll see how the whole next track season plays out,” she said. “My passion for the marathon is very strong after today.”
But here’s the thing, she is dreaming of an unprecedented Olympic track and road double. No American woman has ever done both in the same Olympics. In 2004, Paula Radcliffe of England, the women’s marathon world-record holder, attempted a track-marathon double in Athens but didn’t finish either.
“Even though I didn’t win, I feel like a champion,” Flanagan said. “I conquered a big goal and a dream of mine.”
I also like that she is not going to run high-profile marathons in 2011, like Boston or London, because as she put it, “Marathoning is addicting, but I think it’s dangerous at this point to run so many marathons.” So she’s focusing on track next year.
Ball Bits
–The Baseball Hall of Fame used to have a Veterans Committee that looked at players who didn’t get in through the 15-year voting process, as well as executives and managers. The Vet Committee was highly criticized and so the Hall came up with a new system that operates on a three-year cycle, considering long-retired players, managers and executives from three different eras. The Expansion Era, beginning in 1973, the Golden Era (1947-72), candidates for which will be voted on in 2011, and Pre-Integration Era (1871-1946), voted on in 2012. Expansion Era candidates are eligible again in 2013 after a 16-member panel votes on 12 candidates for the 1973 –on group next month at the winter baseball meetings. And the candidates are:
George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, Pat Gillick, Marvin Miller and players’ Vida Blue, Dave Concepcion, Steve Garvey, Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Al Oliver, Ted Simmons, and Rusty Staub.
Candidates need 12 of the 16 ballots to be inducted into the Hall and results will be announced on Dec. 6.
Steinbrenner obviously gets in (whether you want him to or not), and I would hope Marvin Miller finally does, but as much as I liked Oliver and Simmons in particular, let alone Staub, I don’t see any of the others making it, or deserving to.
[I was shocked to look up Garvey, forgetting he had six 200-hit seasons, but his career on-base percentage was just .329!]
–OK, who is the last professional baseball player to bat .400? Ted Williams? True, he hit .406 in 1941. We all know that was the last time, right?
Well, technically, it’s Artie Wilson, who in 1948 hit .402 for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues. Artie Wilson died the other day at the age of 90.
Wilson was a slap-hitting shortstop whose .402 came the year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and after the ’48 season, Wilson was playing winter ball in Puerto Rico when both the Yankees and Indians claimed him, which proved to be a mess. Wilson opted for Cleveland, but Commissioner A.B. Chandler, for some reason, ruled Artie was property of the Yankees. The Yankees then unloaded him to the Oakland Oaks, an unaffiliated team in the Pacific Coast League, where Wilson roomed with none other than Billy Martin.
But while Artie led the PCL in batting in 1949 with a .348 average and batted .312 in 1950, all he got was a cup of coffee with the New York Giants in 1951, going 4 for 22. Wilson may be best known, however, for being a mentor to a teenage Willie Mays back in Birmingham.
—A.L. Gold Glovers: Evan Longoria, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira, Joe Mauer, Franklin Gutierrez, Carl Crawford, Ichiro Suzuki, and pitcher Mark Buehrle. No way Jeter deserved it.
[Ichiro tied Ken Griffey Jr. and Al Kaline with his 10th Gold Glove…ten in a row, to boot. In the N.L., Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente have the record at 12, though remember the award wasn’t established until 1957.]
[N.L. Gold Glove awards announced after I posted this piece.]
–The Daily News had more on the Charlie Samuels mess, he being the Mets’ clubhouse manager/traveling secretary who has been suspended by the club indefinitely while Samuels is investigated by the NYPD’s Organized Crime and Control Bureau for consorting with gamblers, among other things. The other day I talked about the rumors he has also been stealing hundreds of bats and balls and the Daily News quotes one memorabilia industry executive who said of Samuels’ dealings, “It was the worst-kept secret in the business. Everybody knew Charlie was the guy to go to if you want Mets stuff.”
But as the News’ reporting team describes, “It’s…unclear how much money Samuels made from selling Mets memorabilia. Memorabilia industry sources say they suspect Samuels, who purchased a $1.1 million seaside home in Arverne, Queens, last year, made a small fortune. Companies interested in becoming the sole licensees for Mets game-used memorabilia told team officials years ago that they were concerned that they would be competing with Samuels….
“The market for Mets’ game-used gear, meanwhile, is depressed, and although that has more to do with the team’s disappointing on-field performance over the past two season, memorabilia executives also say they believe Samuels flooded the market.
“Adds the executive: ‘You can’t give Mets stuff away.’”
–After 21 years of doing ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball,” the contracts of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan were not renewed. A vast majority of fans of the sport are very happy upon hearing this news.
–Boy, outside of the Daytona 500 and one or two of the night races, I’ve seen zippo of NASCAR this year and I used to be a big fan, which makes me not dissimilar to a lot of folks the past few years. But with just two races to go in the season, it’s Denny Hamlin, not Jimmie Johnson, in the points lead, though four-time champ Johnson is second.
–Ha! The Miami Heat are only 5-3! And Clippers’ rookie Al-Farouq Aminu of Wake Forest had a breakout game on Tuesday, 20 points and 8 rebounds in 30 minutes off the bench.
–Former NBA guard Quintin Dailey died. He was just 49. Dailey, immensely talented but deeply troubled, played in the NBA 10 seasons after a sterling career at the Univ. of San Francisco. Dailey made the 1982-83 All-Rookie team with the Chicago Bulls after they selected him in the first round. He averaged 14.2 points per game as a pro. But Dailey had many off the court issues, including a rape accusation while he was in college.
–Good lord…close to where I live, “Police shot and killed a 300-pound black bear that charged an officer Sunday in a Woodbridge park (more like Clark). Woodbridge and Clark police officers both responded to calls from residents about a black bear wandering around….
“Officers with rifles tracked the bear to Inman Park….
“When the roaming bear began charging towards a Woodbridge police officer, the two Clark officers opened fire and killed the bear.”
No one was injured. You know what I have nightmares about? That I will become the first victim of a bear attack in New Jersey history, going back to Colonial times. All of you would then just shake your head, “Isn’t that ironic.”
–The Star-Ledger’s Peter Genovese cited the following from TripAdvisor, their “Best Brewery Tours.”
1. Anheuser Busch, St. Louis…can’t believe I’ve never done this one, just because…
2. Samuel Adams, Boston…never thought to do this one when in Beantown…doh!
3. Coors Brewery, Golden, Colo.
4. Lakefront Brewery, Milwaukee…and don’t forget to go to Usinger’s!
5. Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co., Chippewa Falls, Wis. …my mouth is watering
6. Stone Brewery, Escondido, Calif.
7. Terrapin Brew Co., Athens, Ga.
8. Harpoon Brewery/Massachusetts Bay Brewing Co., Boston
9. New Belgium Brewing, Fort Collins, Colo.
10. Boulevard Brewing Co., Kansas City
Ah yes, back when I was at Wake Forest, we had a Schlitz Brewery (before Stroh’s bought it) and we’d cut our Friday classes (oops…I meant after we paid diligent attention at our Friday afternoon classes), you’d go to the brewery, take a free tour, and then get seated in the Brown Bottle Room, where, until they wised up, it was all you can drink as long as you had a hot dog or two, which I recall wasn’t bad either because we were poor, starving college kids and didn’t know what real food tasted like. Anyway, I think it was by junior year you could only have two beers after the tour. [Drinking age was 18 then, lest you think I was running around with a fake ID.]
[I looked up to see what happened to the brewery and it opened in 1970 and closed in 1999.]
–Speaking of beer, Phil W. passed along a piece from Charles Choi I had not seen on msnbc.com.
“Beer Lubricated the Rise of Civilization, Study Suggests”
Well, many of us already knew this but archaeologist Brian Hayden at Simon Fraser University in Canada notes (via Charles Choi) that there were “Signs that people went to great lengths to obtain grains despite the hard work needed to make them edible, plus the knowledge that feasts were important community-building gatherings, support the idea that cereal grains were being turned into beer.”
“Beer is sacred stuff in most traditional societies,” said Hayden.
—Back to Wake, another true story. When I visited the campus as a high school senior (circa 1975), the cafeteria tables were filled with packs of Winston and Salem cigarettes to get us kids hooked, the RJR factory being right there and RJR having a major influence on the financing of Wake’s new campus decades earlier. By the time I arrived, however, the school had wised up and the free cigarettes were no longer available.
Top 3 songs for the week 11/11/1972: #1 “I Can See Clearly Now” (Johnny Nash) #2 “Nights In White Satin” (The Moody Blues) #3 “I’d Love You To Want Me” (Lobo)…and…#4 “Freddie’s Dead (Theme From ‘Superfly’)” (Curtis Mayfield…Curtis, my man!) #5 “I’ll Be Around” (The Spinners…loved that Philly sound) #6 “Garden Party” (Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band…underrated volume of work) #7 “My Ding-A-Ling” (Chuck Berry) #8 “I Am Woman” (Helen Reddy…remember how she was on every variety show imaginable back in the day?) #9 “Convention ‘72” (The Delegates…huh?) #10 “Witchy Woman” (Eagles)
College Football Quiz Answers: 1) Frank Solich replaced Tom Osborne. Solich went 58-19. 2) Hakeem Nicks is UNC’s career receiving yards leader with 2,840. 3) Amos Lawrence is Carolina’s leading rusher with 4,391 yards (1977-80).
