Bye-Bye Boise

Heisman Trophy Quiz: Name the seven players from either Florida, Florida State or Miami to win the Heisman, all QBs, all since 1960. Answer below.

And then…the depression set in…

College Football Review

I’m just a college football fan like the rest of you. Sure, we all have our alma maters, some better than others, but in the end the college football season is as good as it gets (my pick over college basketball, for example) and so it was that this year we had a chance to really shake things up…Boise State had a legitimate shot at playing for the national championship.

But week one, Boise had to play a very solid, preseason top ten Virginia Tech team and it was essentially a home game for the Hokies, yet Boise passed the test, 33-30. That contest would at worst keep the Broncos in the top 4 or 5 all year, some of us mused at the time.

But then in week two, inexplicably, Virginia Tech lost to James Madison in what until this past Friday was the most significant game of the entire year in terms of how it set up the BCS standings. All football fans at that point knew that if Boise was to sneak in it would need Virginia Tech to run the table from there on out, which, as so happened, VT proceeded to do.

For its part, Boise had one other out-of-conference test in its third game, Oregon State, which it defeated 37-24. All eyes then turned to a Nov. 26 contest for the Broncos against what appeared to be a very solid Nevada/Reno team, which defeated California of the Pac-10, 52-31, early on.

But as the season developed from those first few weeks, and as chronicled heavily in these pages, those of us pulling for Boise (recall I picked them to go all the way) realized that even as we had that run of three straight #1s going down, it was going to be exceedingly difficult for Boise, or its non-automatic qualifier brother from the Mountain West conference, TCU, to sneak into the title game.

As Oregon and Auburn then ascended to the top two in the BCS standings, many of us prayed that Auburn, for one, would meet its end against Alabama in Tuscaloosa on the same Friday that Boise State was playing now No. 19 Nevada, while Oregon was hosting a suspect No. 21 Arizona team that same day. Yes, if Alabama would just show up, Auburn might finally go down and Boise State, after defeating Nevada, in Reno, would leapfrog No. 3 BCS TCU and face Oregon for the national title; TCU playing 1-10 New Mexico the same weekend and thus getting zero style points when it came to pollsters and the computers.

So now we move to Friday, Nov. 26. I had a lunch engagement that day and got home just as Alabama was taking a 14-0 lead. Could it be? ‘Bama would go on to lead 24-0, and 24-7 at the half. It was at this point that any good college football fan must have had the same thought. ‘I wonder how much of this Boise State coach Chris Petersen was letting his team watch (if he could prevent them from doing so) about six hours (at this point) before Boise took the field against Nevada? Gee, with Alabama’s inevitable win, how would Boise then respond? Why they’d be sky high, of course.’

And then, as it turned out, the next nine hours or so proved to be as crazy as it gets, with a break in between for No. 1 Oregon’s second-half dismantling of Arizona after the Wildcats led the Ducks by five at half, 19-14, only to see the Big O storm back for their typical after the break onslaught, winning 48-29.

You see, a funny thing happened on the way to a Boise State-Oregon national title game. Alabama imploded, or to be fair Auburn and your Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton stepped up in true champion’s fashion, coming back from that 24-0 deficit to win 28-27.

Oh well, while many of us were upset, at least we had the prospect of a super Rose Bowl matchup, Boise State vs. a tremendous Wisconsin team. I’ve been saying for a few weeks that I was already looking forward to this one, having resigned myself to the fact that Boise (and TCU) were going to get screwed as Auburn and Oregon won their remaining contests.

And so on Friday night, as I worked on that other column I do, I had the Boise State-Nevada contest on in the background and watched Boise take a commanding 24-7 halftime lead. [So much for being worried about the Broncos players and any adverse reaction to the Auburn disappointment earlier, I mused.] It was after 11:30 p.m. eastern at this point and I went to bed, secure in the knowledge that Boise would go on to win by 20 and, indeed, leapfrog TCU. [I have nothing against TCU…I’m just a college football fan, remember.]

On Saturday mornings I’m at work at 4:30 a.m., putting to bed that other column of mine, but as is my routine every day, the first thing I do is check late-night sports scores and the first page I go to is ESPN.com…which told me of the “Shocker!”…Nevada had taken out Boise, 34-31 in overtime. The depression immediately set in and as I write this, two days later, I can’t believe how upset I still am over this development.

But enough about me, representing you all…I can’t stop thinking about how depressing it must be in Boise, Idaho these days, especially for alum of the school, let alone Coach Petersen and his players.

It all came down to a senior kicker, a good one, Boise’s Kyle Brotzman, who not only missed a 26-yard field goal on the last play of regulation (this after quarterback Kellen Moore connected on a 58-yard Hail Mary with 13 seconds left to set Brotzman’s attempt up, after Nevada had driven 79 yards for the tying touchdown), but then Brotzman missed a 29-yarder in overtime, with Nevada winning it on a 34-yarder of their own.

On Saturday I read the local accounts of the game in the Idaho Statesman and learned more about Brotzman, the leading scorer in Boise State and WAC history and soon the highest-scoring kicker in NCAA history. It seems he had never attempted a game-winning field goal! [Boise’s always kicking its opponents’ butts, of course.] This year, Brotzman hadn’t missed a field goal from inside 50 yards since the opening Virginia Tech game.

No doubt, had Brotzman made the 26-yarder in regulation, which missed by mere inches, let alone had Boise pulled it out in overtime, even though the margin of victory would have been slim, the pollsters and computers would have taken it easy on Boise and still jumped them over TCU. Yet lost in all this is Nevada’s performance. Their only loss this season is a 27-21 defeat at the hands of 9-3 Hawaii. Oregon beat the same California team Nevada manhandled by only 15-13, and if not for a disputed call at the end the Ducks would have lost to Cal. Nevada is legit. No matter.

“It’s not often you get that close to a goal so many have called unattainable. It is an unfamiliar feeling, uncomfortable, no doubt, for Boise State and its fans. An ache that won’t go away anytime soon.”

Back to Brotzman, the Statesman reported that by Saturday evening, more than 65 Facebook pages had sprung up dedicated to comforting, or condemning him. As of my going to post, Brotzman has not been made available to the press. He does still have this coming Saturday’s home game vs. Utah State, Senior Day, and then the bowl game. Oh, the life of a big-time placekicker.

And where will Boise State now head? From the Rose Bowl, at worst, to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco it would appear. And instead of playing Wisconsin (or before the Nevada debacle, Auburn or Oregon should the other have stumbled in their final contest), the Broncos will probably get Georgia Tech or Boston College. Good god. Nevada, which tied for the WAC title with Hawaii and Boise (assuming all three win on Saturday in their regular season finales, as expected), will likely play in Boise in the Humanitarian Bowl against, get this, Ohio. [Hawaii may get Tulsa in the Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu.] There is a chance, though, that if Kraft organizers don’t sense a lot of enthusiasm from a now incredibly deflated Boise fan base, Nevada could go to San Francisco and Boise stay home. [Just like I told you in the Sports Illustrated piece a few chats ago, the WAC representative in this case (the Hunger Bowl) is responsible for 11,000 tickets at $50 per pop, vs. a $750,000 payout.]

Well, after this crazy year, at least I never bought any Boisewear. No, lots of Idaho Vandalwear, instead, and as you well know I now have more Oregon Duckwear than anything else. The other day I sent a ton of Wake Forest Demon Deaconwear to my friends on Yap, and, I counted it up. I now officially have more Duckwear than Deaconwear.   [Including Oregon track, cross country and Steve Prefontaine shirts.]

I like Oregon…I’ll be rooting in a huge way for them to beat Auburn (or TCU should Auburn lose to South Carolina in the SEC title game)…but I wanted Boise State for the good of the game. Then again, as Oregon goes up against Oregon State on Saturday in their Civil War, I may sneak a Beaver shirt under my Duckwear as a hedge…just like you should do at all times when watching your favorite. It’s called “buying protection.” Or as even Pope Benedict XVI now admits….

….In other games of import, TCU took care of New Mexico, 66-17; No. 5 LSU lost to No. 12 Arkansas in an exciting contest, 31-23; No. 6 Stanford routed Oregon State 38-0 (which doesn’t bode well in terms of the competitiveness of next week’s Ducks-Beavers game); No. 7 Wisconsin slaughtered Northwestern, 70-23; No. 8 Ohio State defeated Michigan, 37-7 (Michigan finishing 7-5 and just 3-5 in Big Ten play as it mulls over what to do with head coach Rich Rodriguez); and No. 9 Oklahoma State lost to No. 13 Oklahoma in a huge loss for the Cowboys that will cost it a potential BCS berth. Lastly, No. 10 Michigan State beat Penn State, 28-22, as the Nittany Lions finish 7-5 (4-4), and the world wonders why Joe Paterno is such a jerk in insisting he should come back at age 111.

A few other games of note…Notre Dame defeated USC, 20-16…Boooo booooo!!! [Actually, both are hardly likeable these days….sorry, Dale.] And South Carolina, in defeating Clemson 29-7, won its ninth game for just the third time in the school’s 117-year history! I find this unbelievable. [The other two years were 1984 and 2001.]

Miami fired coach Randy Shannon after the Hurricanes went to 7-5 with a loss to South Florida in front of just 27,000 fans in a stadium seating 73,000. Shannon received a four-year extension before this season and will probably take home a $1.5 million buyout (plus some Good Humor Whammy Sticks) after going just 28-22 in his tenure.

Looking at the Big Ten and the tie at the top between Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan State, all at 7-1 in conference, only two can go to a BCS game.

So, recall that Wisconsin’s loss was to Michigan State, 31-18, but the Badgers beat Ohio State, 34-24. Ohio State didn’t play Michigan State, while the Spartans’ lone loss was a bad one, 37-6 to an incredibly disappointing Iowa team. The Hawkeyes were a preseason top ten in many polls but lost one close game after another down the stretch, including Saturday’s dreadful loss to Minnesota, and finished 7-5 (4-4).

But what’s this? Wake Forest beat Vanderbilt 34-13 in a battle of 2-9 teams?! As Al Michaels said 30 years ago, “Do you believe in miracles?!” I choose to be optimistic when it comes to 2011. Yup, no more of this negativism when it comes to my Demon Deacons! No sirree. Just don’t ask me to donate another dollar to the school until we get back to .500 for a full season.  And don’t look for me to be putting on any Deaconwear the balance of the 2010-2011 sports year.  

[But I see I just got my bill to continue advertising in the Wake sports publication and, err, I’ll cut a check for that one….$2,700 worth!]

–Prior to this week’s action, Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee said that TCU and Boise State do not face a tough enough schedule to warrant playing in the national championship game.

“Well, I don’t know enough about the Xs and Os of college football. I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president [Vanderbilt] and a Big Ten president that it’s like murderer’s row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day. So I think until a university runs through that gauntlet that there’s some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to [be] in the big ballgame.”

Firing back, Boise State president Bob Kustra said Gee’s claim that the Big Ten and SEC play a “murderer’s row” schedule “is the greatest exaggeration I think we’ve heard this year in college football.” Kustra added, “I don’t mind somebody stating that they don’t think we ought to be in the national championship, but to do it with such erroneous information as Gordon Gee has used gets under the skin of all of us who thought university presidents were supposed to be standing for fairness, equity and truth in how we portray our universities. And he’s doing a very poor job of that at the moment.”

Kustra then made a great point, often lost in this argument.

“It’s easy for the presidents to talk, but ask the ADs when’s the last time that they seriously entertained taking requests or inviting Boise State to (play them). If you’re Boise State or TCU, they’re going to want to steer way clear of you.” 

Kustra added he had phone records that would prove that Boise State had tried to schedule home-and-home games with Top 25 teams from the BCS conferences, but that they would not play the Broncos anywhere but at their home stadium.

Back to Gee, who really is full of [merde], he argues the current BCS/bowl system is better for the student-athletes.

“It’s not about this incessant drive to have a national championship because I think that’s a slippery slope to professionalism. I’m a fan of the bowl system and I think that by and large it’s worked very, very well.”

I’m assuming Mr. Gee didn’t read the excellent Sports Illustrated piece I cited the other day that refutes the above claim in a huge way and how many of the bowl participants lose massive sums of money. 95% of us have officially had it with this inane talk about doing what’s best for the “student-athlete.” It’s all a freakin’ crock.

—Rutgers is now 0-5 since Eric LeGrand was paralyzed in their last win against Army as the Scarlet Knights are 4-7 with a game to go.

1. Oregon 11-0…1475 votes
2. Auburn 12-0…1456
3. TCU 12-0…1383
4. Wisconsin 11-1…1289
5. Stanford 11-1…1283
6. Ohio State 11-1…1186
7. Michigan State 11-1…1098
8. Arkansas 10-2
9. Boise State 10-1
10. Oklahoma 10-2
12. Virginia Tech 10-2
14. Nevada 11-1
23. West Virginia 8-3
24. Northern Illinois 10-2
25. Hawaii 9-3…3 WAC teams in top 25…one Big East*

*And UConn, which isn’t in the top 25, can get the conference’s BCS bid with a win against South Florida on Saturday.  Pathetic. Yoh, Gordon Gee.   What say you?

The BCS

1. Auburn .9779
2. Oregon .9777
3. TCU .9167…Rose Bowl vs. Wisconsin
4. Stanford .8413…Fiesta vs. Oklahoma?
5. Wisconsin .8185
6. Ohio State…7632..Sugar vs. Arkansas?
7. Arkansas .7189
8. Michigan State .6980…totally screwed…only two BCS games for each conference
9. Oklahoma .6780…plays Nebraska for BCS bid
10. LSU .6067
11. Boise State…ughh
15. Virginia Tech…James Madison loss absolutely killed them, as it should have…Orange Bowl vs. UConn or West Virginia…total estimated crowd…3,578
17. Nevada
24. West Virginia

NFL Bits

–In these parts, it’s all about Monday night, Dec. 6, Foxboro, Mass., Jets vs. Patriots, one of the biggest games in New York Jets history, a showdown between two 9-2 teams, same division, and potential home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The stage was set after the Jets and Pats won on Thanksgiving Day and the extra time now before Dec. 6 only adds to the hype. All I know is the Jets better be ready from the start. They won’t be able to perform their usual circle jerk until the second half, expecting to come from behind this time. And it needs to be noted the Jets are just 1-2 against teams with a winning record, while their past six wins have come against teams with a combined mark of 19-53.

The game is also of critical importance, however, because were the Jets to lose, they then have games against Miami, Pittsburgh and Chicago, before ending the season against plucky Buffalo. The Pittsburgh and Chicago games are on the road. 10-6 wouldn’t be out of the question, which should still get them a wild-card but that last Sunday might then be a must-win situation. The Jets have a history, after all, of major collapses down the stretch.

–So after last week’s despicable actions by Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young, where he walked out on coach Jeff Fisher, Young texted…TEXTED…an apology.

Fisher, when asked if he would have rather received an apology face to face, said, “You guys draw that conclusion. I’m not a real big text guy. I’m not really into this new-age stuff. I don’t Twitter or tweet. But I think face to face is a man thing, OK?”

When asked if a text was better than no apology at all, Fisher said, “Someone could have grabbed his phone.”

Young needs season-ending surgery to repair a torn tendon in his right thumb and in the text wished Fisher and the team good luck for the rest of the season, while asking Fisher to have more faith in him going forward. Ha!

Meanwhile…the Giants pulled out a clutch win at home against a solid Jaguars squad, 24-20, to move to 7-4.

Jeff Fisher’s Titans were clearly distracted in getting shut out by Houston, 20-0.

Minnesota, under new coach Leslie Frazier, edged Washington 17-13 as the Skins’ Donovan McNabb clearly is going to be released at season’s end, so don’t worry about having that huge contract obligation, Washington fans.

The Browns went to 4-7 in edging the 1-10 Carolina Panthers, 24-23.

Atlanta QB Matt Ryan is now 19-1 in his career at home as the Falcons, 9-2, defeated the Packers (7-4), 20-17. [Green Bay is my pick to go all the way.]

The Steelers went to 8-3 as the 2-9 Bills blew their shot in OT when Stevie Johnson let a pass go through his hands in the end zone.

And Michal Vick threw his first interception of the season, though he played well in defeat as the Eagles went to 7-4 in losing to the now 8-3 Bears behind Jay Cutler’s four TD throws. Chicago actually looked exciting for about the second time in my life.

Derek Jeter Contract Update

I told you last time that Jeter was misreading the animosity he faces from his once adoring public unless he gets real with his contract demands and three days later we had this from Brian Costello of the New York Post:

“That’s what respondents to a nypost.com poll said this week about Derek Jeter and his sticky contract negotiations with the Yankees. Asked ‘Who’s at fault?’ close to 72 percent pointed the finger at Jeter….saying the Yankees’ three-year, $45 million offer is more than fair.”

Some who believe the Yankees are in the right, however, do feel the team should not have publicly challenged Jeter to find a better offer.

Meanwhile, the Jeter camp “lowered” its demands from $25 million for six years to a five-year, $22 million to $24 million deal. This is beyond absurd. And believe me, I’d be saying the same thing if Jeter was a Met.

Again, Jeter is coming off his worst year and he turns 37 next season! C’mon, Derek. You’re on the verge of becoming a late-season candidate for “Idiot of the Year,” as well as “Jerk…”

The other day when I compared winnings on the PGA Tour with the LPGA, I thought the LPGA’s season was over. Wrong. This week they have their season-ending Tour Championship.

However, this will in no way change the earnings disparities I pointed out as in particular the No. 30, 70 and 125 slots will change very little, like maybe $1,000 to $2,000, max, though I’ll try and remember to update my findings upon completion of their event.

–Johnny Mac sent me a link to Friday’s California-Notre Dame basketball game and warned me it wasn’t pretty. He was right. Notre Dame prevailed 57-44, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story of one of the worst first halves of basketball in the history of the sport.

As in the Fighting Irish led at the intermission 21-5. You’re reading that right. Cal was 2 for 25 from the field, 0 for 8 from 3-point range. ND wasn’t much better…9 for 32 from the field, 0 for 13 from 3. So the teams were a combined 0 for 21 from downtown.

For the game, Cal shot .262 from the field and ND was .278, including 1 for 20 from 3.

–And since my last chat, Div. II Chaminade, which had given then No. 2 Michigan State all it could handle down in Hawaii, defeated Oklahoma, 68-64.

—Richmond, always well-coached and dangerous, defeated No. 8 Purdue on Saturday, 65-54. The Spiders will destroy Wake Forest later in December.

–Speaking of Wake, we beat the Red Foxes of Marist, 81-59, in front of a wild crowd of 3,418 at home on Tuesday. Geezuz, talk about a program in freefall…3,418! And the tickets were $8. But as Phil W. noted, we need to find more dead comedians to go up against. [Phil will be back for a second show later tonight.]

–The New Jersey Devils’ Ilya Kovalchuk, he of the mammoth 15-year, $100 million contract, has now scored just 4 goals in the team’s first 24 games. Over the prior five seasons for Atlanta, Kovalchuk had 41, 52, 42, 52, and 43 goals.

—MLB Network Reminders: Shu told me of a special on the 1971 Pirates and Roberto Clemente on MLB, today, Mon. Nov. 29, 9:00 p.m. ET. And then on Dec. 15, the MLB Network is airing the recently discovered long-lost tape of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series.

–The Miami Heat are just 9-7, and the other day Phil Jackson said of the team when it was 8-6, “That record, I think, says a lot about coming together with some real talented guys, and not having a base,” Jackson said on an ESPN radio program. “The scenario that sits kind of behind the scene, is that eventually these guys that were recruited – Bosh and James – by Pat Riley and Mickey Arison, the owner, are going to come in and say, ‘We feel you [Riley] can do a better job coaching the team. We came here on the hopes that this would work,’ and whatever, I don’t know,” Jackson said. “That’s kind of my take on it, is that eventually if things don’t straighten out here soon, it could be the Van Gundy thing all over again.”

Wohhh….that’s former Heat coach, now Orlando Magic coach, Stan Van Gundy, Jackson is talking about.

So Van Gundy got all pissed off, he having resigned in December 2005 after the Heat went 11-10 at the start of the season. Some believe Van Gundy was forced out by Riley. Van Gundy himself said it was for personal reasons.

“To second-guess another coach and comment on a situation he knows nothing about – it’s inappropriate. And it’s also ignorant,” Van Gundy said.

Meanwhile, the current coach of the Miami Heat, Erik Spoelstra, who you’d think would be most offended, said the right thing.

“My coaching staff was giving me some grief about it; they got a chuckle out of it.”

“It was an off-handed remark about if things continue to go poorly for Miami, what might happen. But, obviously Stan felt that he had to say something. Unfortunately he got defensive about it. I didn’t mean to do that. I should apologize because I do not know about his situation.

“Stan was going home to be with his family and that was his reason for leaving,” Jackson continued. “I have no idea about the rest of it; why he came back out [to a head-coaching job] after retiring and being with his family. But, that’s his decision and fine.”

I love it. Not that I’m a Phil Jackson fan (it’s been well over 30 years since he was a Knick, after all), but Stan Van Gundy is a primo jerk so keep sticking it to the guy!

—Lee Trevino, 70, on nearing the end of his playing career: “It’s time to sit on the porch with a corn-cob pipe and a Bud.”

—Seve Ballesteros appears to be doing very well in his battle against brain cancer. He said he’s walking two hours a day “and I laugh. It’s important to laugh a lot. Even though we [in Spain] are out of work and suffering with the crisis, laughing doesn’t cost anything.”

–Yippee! Wake Forest men’s golf is back in the Golf World Top 25 (No. 25).

—World Golf Rankings

1. Lee Westwood 8.704
2. Tiger 8.254
3. Martin Kaymer 7.812
4. Phil Mickelson 7.615
5. Steve Stricker 6.943

1. Tiger 28.64
2. Ernie Els 11.80
3. Phil 11.07
4. David Duval 10.93
5. Lee Westwood 10.01

–Hey, J. Mac. Looks like our favorite for the Kentucky Derby, and the Triple Crown, Uncle Mo, has some competition from “late-blooming” To Honor and Serve. As reported by the New York Post’s Ed Fontaine, To Honor and Serve, after finishing second in its debut has rattled off three straight. However, Uncle Mo’s rider, John Velazquez, is also To Honor and Serve’s jock. Who’s it gonna be, boy? [To paraphrase Meatloaf.]

–From CNN: “A lightning strike killed seven people – including a 4-year-old child – at a nursery school Christmas party in South Africa,” Saturday.

According to a spokeswoman for the province, “It happened so suddenly…They were inside enjoying their Christmas party, and the lightning came through the window into the room that they were in.”

Yet another reason to live in a car with the windows up.

–The story of the three teenagers lost at sea in the South Pacific for 50 days is really remarkable. Samuel, Filo, and Edward, 14 and 15 years of age, had 20 coconuts on board when they disappeared, eating them in two days, and then lived on rainwater, some fish and one seagull before they were picked up by a fishing vessel in the Tokelau Islands of New Zealand. [The Tokelaus actually being between Hawaii and New Zealand.]

And it turns out their adventure all started because they were in search of a girl, who as Chuck Bennett of the New York Post described “must be the Siren of the South Seas.”

“Lovesick and tipsy, the boys from (Atafu atoll in Tokelau) loaded up their small motorboat with a few sacks of coconuts, beer and some fuel to make the 125-mile journey to visit a comely coed on the island of Fakaofo. They thought it would be an eight-hour cruise.”

It seems the girl had visited the boys’ island for a soccer tournament. Alas, the motor fell off and before you know it, they had drifted 800 miles away. Gotta admit I’m kind of curious about the girl myself….OK OK…stop it…only if she’s at least 32, of course.

–So Miss USA, Rima Fakih (speaking of Sirens), was on her float at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when Miss New York, Davina Reeves, decided to hitch a ride.

Reeves, “wearing her Miss New York sash and crown, managed to claw her way onto Fakih’s float and began enthusiastically signing autographs and waving to the crowd as the parade got under way,” according to the New York Post.

After five blocks, “Fakih’s horrified handlers managed to persuade parade organizers to boot her pageant rival off the float,” shades of the flick “Miss Congeniality.”

For her part, Rima Fakih “kept her cool and her claws in.” Reeves disappeared into the crowd.

“Betty White has finally fired back to a months-old dig from 84-year-old ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ actress Cloris Leachman. In an interview with reporters at the Television Critics Association tour in August for Leachman’s new Fox show, ‘Raising Hope,’ Leachman had said, ‘I’m so sick of Betty White. Never liked her.’ Yesterday, asked to comment on the remark in a Wall Street Journal online profile of Leachman, White, 88, snapped back: ‘Is she still conscious?’”

–Russia and a dozen Asian nations held a Tiger Summit, vowing to double the population of the big cat by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger under the Chinese zodiac. This is a pet project of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who said, “Everybody understands full well that we are talking not just about a concrete representative of the live nature, a tiger, but we are talking about the state-level understanding with which we begin to address the environmental issues.”

The global population of tigers is estimated at 3,200, and Russia is vowing to increase its own from 450 to more than 700, which would bring the total number to a level above the risk of extinction, say experts. Poachers in Russia have been killing 20 to 30 a year and sending the bones and body parts to China.

–From the Star-Ledger (N.J.): “Upper Saddle River police say a young girl escaped injury this morning when a deer unexpectedly ran out on to the course during a 5K race and knocked her down. The deer then fled the scene as onlookers and officials went to the girl’s aid.” Yikes!

–If you have a few bucks (no pun intended) to blow this holiday season, check out the Roosevelt Hotel’s Vander Bar on 45th Street, which is introducing “Teddy’s Haute Dog,” a five-ounce Kobe beef wiener doused with shaved foie gras and caramelized shallots, served on a monster brioche bun. But wait…there’s more! You also get black-and-white truffle fries served with a caviar and saffron aioli (garlic, egg, olive oil sauce…had to look this up). All for $50. 10% of proceeds benefit City Harvest, which provides meals to the homeless.

—Alex Rodriguez is back with Cameron Diaz! According to Page Six, the two are “rekindling their romance in Miami following a split.” Bar Chat is very happy for them.

–Say it ain’t so! Ingrid Pitt died! Nooooooo!!! OK, admittedly this is a guy thing but there were none sexier than Ms. Pitt, queen of the Hammer Horror Films, often playing alongside Christopher Lee in flicks such as “The House That Dripped Blood,” “Countess Dracula,” and “Vampire Lovers.” Pitt was just 73 when she collapsed at her home in London on Tuesday.

Ingrid Pitt began her acting career with a role in 1968’s “Where Eagles Dare,” which starred Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood, and then she signed with Britain’s Hammer.

Pitt’s birth in Poland on Nov. 21, 1937, interrupted her parents’ attempts to flee Nazi Germany and escape to Britain. Pitt’s mother was of Jewish descent and the two of them were interned at the Stutthof concentration camp, where Pitt witnessed her mother’s best friend’s hanging and a little girl being raped and beaten to death by guards. Pitt survived the war and with her mother found the father in a refugee camp, but he was severely weakened and died a few years later. Eventually Ingrid joined a Berlin theater group, though she was an outspoken critic of the communists there.

So on the night of her planned stage debut in Berlin, Ingrid dove into the River Spree, which runs through the capital, in full costume and was rescued by a U.S. officer, whom she would later marry. She then moved to America and, following the breakup of her marriage, to Spain where she was discovered while watching a bullfight, after which Hollywood and British horror films beckoned.

Yes, it wouldn’t have been too hard to “discover” Ingrid Pitt because, you see, Ingrid was rather buxom and sexy. Hammer billed her as “the most beautiful ghoul in the world.”

Ingrid once said of her audition for James Carreras, then head of Hammer:

“I turned up at Jimmy’s office in a maxicoat, a mane of hair, lots of makeup and high leather boots. [Ed. Ooh baby! Big fan of high boots…but I digress…] I walked up to him, threw open my coat like a flasher. I was wearing the tiniest and lowest-cut minidress you can imagine….He took me, darling, but not in the way film moguls are said to.”

–Johnny Mac said that with regards to “March of the Wooden Soldiers,” they never really got to him, but the pigs did. Now I hadn’t seen it in years but watched it Thanksgiving morning and now realize that the bogeymen are nothing worse than creepy college football mascots. But Silas Barnaby clearly reminds me of a TSA agent. Bo Peep is kind of hot…though not real keen on her hair style. But, yes, the three pigs…Elmer, Willie and Jiggs…gave me nightmares over the weekend, as did Hi-Diddle-Diddle, the cat with the fiddle. All in all, I don’t need to see this again the rest of my life because it is far too disturbing.

–So I’m looking at the New York Post’s Christmas season TV lineup and there is this blurb.

“The Alistair Sim classic ‘Carol’ is not scheduled and to that we say, ‘Bah, humbug!’”

What the [expletive deleted]!!! How can this not be on anywhere?!!! This is an outrage!!! [Instead TCM is showing the Reginald Owen, 1938 version, which sucks, as you all know.]

Top 3 songs for the week of 11/26/77: #1 “You Light Up My Life” (Debby Boone…speaking of sucks…the song, not Debby) #2 “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” (Crystal Gayle) #3 “How Deep Is Your Love” (Bee Gees)…and…#4 “Boogie Nights” (Heatwave…OK for the era) #5 “Baby, What A Big Surprise” (Chicago…possibly their worst ‘hit’) #6 “Heaven On The 7th Floor” (Paul Nicholas…dreadful) #7 “We’re All Alone” (Rita Coolidge) #8 “Blue Bayou” (Linda Ronstadt) #9 “It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me” (Barry White…thank God Barry saves what was otherwise a dreadful, lounge lizardesque week of nothing but artists mailing it in!!!) #10 “It’s So Easy” (Linda Ronstadt…another case in point…musically worse than listening to squeaky chalk on the blackboard)

Heisman Trophy Quiz Answer: Winners from either Florida, Florida State or Miami.

1966 – Steve Spurrier, Florida
1986 – Vinny Testaverde, Miami
1992 – Gino Torretta, Miami
1993 – Charlie Ward, Florida State
1996 – Danny Wuerffel, Florida
2000 – Chris Weinke, Florida State
2007 – Tim Tebow, Florida

Next Bar Chat, Monday. Anyone watching the Monday Night Football contest between 3-7 San Francisco and 3-7 Arizona will be fined $42,000. Do the laundry, come up with a new religion, remodel the house, take the dog for a three-hour walk…but whatever you do, don’t spend a minute on this one.