Baseball Quiz: 1) Who is the last National Leaguer to lead the league in RBIs three consecutive seasons? 2) Who is the last American Leaguer to do the same? 3) Who is the only player to drive in 150 runs seven seasons? 4) Who holds the all-time record for RBIs in two consecutive games with 15? [Hint: Not an obvious name but a Hall of Famer. Played between 1920 and 1950.] Answers below.
David Einhorn
So the Mets have a new minority owner (pending certain MLB approval), hedge fund king David Einhorn, who may not remain a minority owner for long according to all the reports. From the New York Times’ Ken Belson and Peter Lattman:
“Einhorn is expected to receive a one-third share of the Mets in return for his investment, but could gain much more. He will have the option in three years of raising his stake to 60 percent, effectively ending more than three decades of control of the team by the Wilpon family.
“Fred Wilpon, the principal owner, could block a move to take over his team by repaying Einhorn the $200 million he had invested. But Einhorn would then retain his one-third share of the team, essentially at no net cost….
“It is unclear what Einhorn would have to pay to increase his stake in the team to 60% in three years….
“The deal now being discussed between Einhorn and the Mets does not include a stake in SNY, the team’s profitable cable television network.”
One thing to love about the new owner, he grew up a Dave Kingman fan, Kingman being my favorite Met next to Tom Seaver. I mean Kong deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, by god! [I just tossed a grenade out there…waiting to see who falls on it.]
As for Fred Wilpon and the controversy stirred up last week by his interviews in the New Yorker and Sports Illustrated, further opinion.
“Wilpon’s legacy now hangs by the slender thread of unresolved legal and financial issues that could take away the true love of his life: his baseball team….
“My initial reaction (to the criticism of the core of the team; Reyes, Beltran and Wright) was, Good for you. Nothing Wilpon said was untrue; he should have said it sooner. The core of this Mets team has been allowed to skate by for at least four seasons on the promise of youth and potential. Perhaps prompted by financial pressure – Wilpon told Sports Illustrated his team was ‘bleeding cash’ and could lose up to $70 million this year – and the privilege of candor that age grants, Wilpon let loose….
“After Friday’s game, Wright said Wilpon had spoken to him and said he had misspoken. ‘I know I haven’t done what I want to do for this franchise,’ Wright said, adding: ‘I go out and play the game. Sometimes I play it well; sometimes I don’t play it well.’….
“For disenchanted fans, disgusted with the Mets under Wilpon, the best news of the week was the emergence of David Einhorn…
“The bad news for many Mets fans is that the deal allows Fred and Jeff Wilpon and Saul Katz to retain control of the franchise, at least for the next few years. The influx of money will simply help pay debts and cover operating expenses. Wilpon and Katz are the current owners and are being sued by the trustee in the Bernard Madoff case.
“It’s good that Wilpon finally spoke up and lit a fire under his team. He may have spoken out a bit too late.”
“(Wilpon’s) orchestrated publicity push, in The New Yorker and Sports Illustrated, has changed the game. He presented himself as in charge and in touch, sharing the passion of the fans, at lest those who still come to the games.
“It was not appropriate to rip Beltran, Reyes and Wright, even if the criticisms were valid. And it was completely unfair to (manager Terry) Collins, who has the team playing hard, to characterize the team as a whole the way he did. But if that is the kind of owner Wilpon wants to be, the George Steinbrenner model, then he should play the part.
“Instead, Wilpon has gone into hiding. He has said through a spokesman that any issues resulting from his comments would be handled internally. That is his right, of course, but it is cowardly, and it undercuts whatever good will be hoped his candor would achieve with the fan base. The lack of accountability is galling.”
Or as Stu W., longtime Mets fan, wrote me, “Wilpon is a bona-fide asshole.”
Indy 500
What a finish…one for the ages…as rookie J.R. Hildebrand, the race in hand, made an unnecessary pass of a slower car in the last turn, went too high, crashed into the wall, and handed it to now two-time winner Dan Wheldon, the runner-up the prior two years.
But even then there was controversy. Did Wheldon pass Hildebrand after the caution lights came on, meaning Hildebrand, who nonetheless dragged his mangled car across the line to finish second, was really the winner? No, but it took race officials two hours to review all the tapes. Frankly, after the interview with Wheldon at Victory Lane I didn’t give the result a second thought.
Meanwhile, Roger Penske, 74 and a 15-time winner of the 500, was asked why he’s still at it after all these years.
“As long as I’m physically able,” he said, “I want to be here at Indy. I’ve had that same drive since we first came here in 1969 with Mark Donohue.” [The great Donohue, a future Indy champion (1972) who died in ‘75 at a practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix, is buried in my home town of Summit, N.J., where he spent most of his childhood.]
Penske himself retired from racing in 1965, just 28, and purchased a Chevy dealership and founded his race team. 46 years later, the Lehigh University grad is a multi-billionaire and his empire includes a truck leasing company and more than 300 car dealerships and repair shops. Penske Corp. generates more than $16 billion in revenue annually and employs more than 36,000. [Tarik El-Bashir / Washington Post]
Barca Triumphs
I only caught a little of Saturday’s Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United, won by Barcelona 3-1, with the obligatory riot afterwards in that city, but there is no doubt Lionel Messi is as good as any who has ever played the game. More than a few experts believe Messi, who has 53 goals in 55 games this season (including one on Saturday), is the greatest of all time. He’s also highly likeable, always seeming to smile even when things don’t go right. As an editorial on the final from the Daily Telegraph put it:
“The man in the luminous green boots lit up this occasion, which was a pyrotechnic of a match. It raced along like a blur with Messi, at times, its still center….
“Messi may have been the quietest man out there but he communicates with the ball. At his feet, it never strays too far ahead of him and the way in which he accelerates away is unmatched. Former Argentina striker Jorge Valdano summed it up when he was asked to compare Messi to Maradona. ‘Diego sometimes used to put his foot on the accelerator, whereas Messi lives with his pedal to the floor.’
Separately, the scandal over the handing out of World Cup bids grew exponentially in the wake of new evidence showing how Qatar plotted to secure the 2022 slot. Mohamed bin Hammam, the Qatari Fifa member, withdrew his candidacy for the presidency as it’s now clear cash offers for votes were made in the biggest corruption scandal in Fifa’s 107-year history. There are serious doubts now whether Qatar should be hosting the Cup. It doesn’t help there are claims Bin Hammam paid up to $40,000 in cash for votes ahead of this Wednesday’s election for the presidency.
Ball Bits
–What a sad tale, that of Giants catcher Buster Posey, the budding superstar who severely injured his left ankle in a horrific collision at home plate with the Marlins’ Scott Cousins, Wednesday night. Posey told reporters on Friday it is “highly likely” his season is over but that he is still committed to playing catcher when he returns. Posey also joined the calls of his manager and others that Major League Baseball look into ways to protect the catcher at home plate.
At first I thought this was a stupid idea, but as Giants general manager Brian Sabean said, the change would be a simple one.
“You have to slide into the other bases. Why shouldn’t you have to slide into home plate?
I don’t think purists can have a problem with this.
Posey broke a bone in his lower left leg plus he tore three ligaments in the ankle, though some sports surgeons say he suffered a rather typical football injury and players return all the time from what he’s going through so we wish him the best.
As for Cousins, GM Sabean said that while the Marlin could have slid around Posey, it didn’t appear to be a dirty play. Cousins himself apologized repeatedly and had tears in his eyes when he heard of the severity of the injury. “The last thing I wanted to do was break a guy’s leg,” he said.
–And this is another sad tale of a different sort. Former Met and Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter learned from doctors at Duke University that they are “90% certain” that tumors on his brain are malignant, this after being diagnosed with them on May 21 after experiencing headaches and forgetfulness in recent weeks. Carter is just 57.
–Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times had a piece on the crumbling production this season from left fielders.
“52 games into the season, (the Dodgers’) six left fielders have combined to hit .219 with two home runs.”
Of course you associate left field with power, but “the average big league left fielder is hitting .248 with five home runs, 23 runs batted in and more than twice as many strikeouts as walks through Friday’s games.
“Vernon Wells, the highest-paid player in Angels history, went on the disabled list this month with a .183 average. Detroit’s regular left fielder, Ryan Raburn, is hitting .190 with 46 strikeouts (and 23 hits) there this season. And the Blue Jays, Reds and Twins have regularly started left fielders hitting below .200.”
–The Washington Nationals’ Jayson Werth, he of the seven-year, $126 million contract, is hitting .205 with runners in scoring position thru Saturday, this after batting .186 in the same category at Philadelphia last season. Now he’s talking about how the Nats need to make changes as the team struggles after a respectable start and essentially he is throwing his manager, Jim Riggleman, under the bus. The move to sign Werth will be added to the case study work on all-time dumb contracts.
–Toronto’s Jo-Jo Reyes is slated to start on Memorial Day against Cleveland in his attempt to avoid holding the major league mark for most consecutive winless starts by himself, with the record currently 28 and Reyes sharing it with Matt Keough and Cliff Curtis.
–The Yankees’ Mariano Rivera became the first pitcher to ever appear in 1,000 games with one team. Trevor Hoffman is next at 902 with the Padres. Then it’s Walter Johnson (Senators) and Roy Face (Pirates) at 802.
–The Elias Sports Bureau says that in the Phillies-Reds 19-inning contest on Wednesday, that rolled into Thursday morning before Philadelphia prevailed 5-4 after six hours and eleven minutes, the Phillies’ Wilson Valdez became the first position player to start a game in the field and then eventually become the winning pitcher since Babe Ruth in 1921.
–And we note the passing of former Royals pitcher Paul Splittorff, who died at the age of 64 from complications of melanoma. Splittorff spent his entire 15-year career with Kansas City, 1970-84, and was a model of consistency, winning a franchise record 166 games (166-143), with ten seasons in double-figures, yet he never made an All-Star team. Splittorff was the classic crafty lefty without overpowering stuff who just got the job done.
—Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, 1941, continued…
Game 17…June 1 (1)…Cleveland…1 for 4
Game 18…June 1 (2)…Cleveland…1 for 4
Game 19…June 2…Cleveland…2 for 4
Game 20…June 3…Detroit…1 for 4…1 HR 1 RBI
–With a win on Sunday in the French Open, Novak Djokovic extended his season-opening record to 41-0, the best start since John McEnroe’s 42-0 in 1984. Including two Davis Cup matches in December, his overall winning streak of 43 is just three shy of Guillermo Vilas’ record 46 in a row from 1977.
–The only reason to watch the NBA Finals admittedly is a good one…pray that Dallas beats LeBron and Co. The series begins Tuesday in Miami.
But just a word on Miami’s 4-1 victory over Chicago. Did MVP Derrick Rose suck or what?! Geezuz. Every time I turned it on (which was never before the 4th quarter, Rose did nothing but throw up bricks. He was 42 of 120 from the field, 35%, including 7 of 30 from downtown. In Games 4 and 5 Rose was 17 of 46 (3 of 17 from 3-point land). I’d note that LeBron played good defense on Rose, but I just hate to give the guy credit for anything.
–Lakers owner Jerry Buss’ son, Jim, is said to be running the franchise these days, though the 51-year-old Jim says he shares the decision-making with his father and GM Mitch Kupchak. But everyone believes it was Jim who selected Mike Brown, the former Cavaliers coach, to replace Phil Jackson and the criticism of the move has been fast and furious. Incredibly, Jim Buss didn’t contact Kobe Bryant beforehand. Jim told the L.A. Times’ T.J. Simers:
“Looking back on it, we should have contacted Kobe,” Buss says. “Kobe said it was management’s job to pick a coach. He just said, ‘Defense first.’ That’s what we were doing, but we should have reached out to him.”
“(The Lakers) not only didn’t run (the choice of Brown) by (Kobe), they chose the only coach in the running he wasn’t fine with.
“Kobe liked (Rick) Adelman, (Mike) Dunleavy and Jeff Van Gundy, who wasn’t in the running but should have been.”
–L.A. bond investor Jeffrey Gundlach, who heads DoubleLine Capital, reportedly has his eyes on the Buffalo Bills, the home team of his youth, though owner Ralph Wilson, now 92, says the team isn’t for sale. Gundlach said he would not just buy the team and then move it to L.A. as some believe.
–It’s Maryland vs. Virginia for the men’s national championship of lacrosse on Monday.
“The most troubling thing about the current drug accusation against Lance Armstrong is that, at first blush, it doesn’t seem to be all that troubling.
“Famous cyclist, seven-time winner of the Tour de France, is accused of enhancing his performance. Yawn….
“We have suffered so much already. We loved the home run derby of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and then learned it was a chemical concoction. We thought Alex Rodriguez might be the real deal and learned he wasn’t. Manny Ramirez came to Los Angeles. We saw and were conquered. Also conned.
“Marion Jones looked us in the eye, over and over again, and then went off to jail.
“We have been through the court case of Barry Bonds and we now wait to see whether Roger Clemens continues to misremember. And what about the NFL and steroids? We pretty much know that men don’t grow that large and run that fast on extra bowls of Wheaties. But we mostly shrug and seem content to let them do harm to themselves, for our entertainment value.
“On the Armstrong case, the emails are already pouring in:
“—Leave the guy alone: Everybody in pro cycling does it. The entire sport is dirty. Always has been, so why pick on one guy?
“—We shouldn’t care what he did 10 years ago, especially since he is a cancer survivor and has done so much, through his foundation, to help others.
“—Why does the government keep spending our tax money on investigations of athletes when there are so many other needs?
“—It’s bike racing. Nobody cares anyway….
“Making light of all this drug stuff has become our default….
“That makes all the yawning and rationalizing in the Armstrong case even more troubling. In essence, on the Richter scale of drug cheats, this could be the biggest shaker yet. Nor should we turn our backs and yawn, just because it is ‘only’ bike racing and we are tired of all this….
“Armstrong has responded similarly, as he did in his May 19 Twitter message: ‘20+ year career. 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never failed a drug test. I rest my case.’
“Where there is smoke, there is fire, and the forest is smoldering around Armstrong right now.
“As much as we may not want to, we need to splash some cold water on our faces and wake up to the reality that this one is big, important and potentially trendsetting. We are either going to clean up the integrity of the games we watch, or accept that much of what we watch is dirty.”
–Guess who inserted foot in mouth again? Tiki Barber!
“(In) the same issue of Sports Illustrated in which Fred Wilpon spoke about how much money his team is hemorrhaging, in the same week Wilpon made like Michael Corleone, bloodily settling all family business, Barber – in what clearly was intended to be a positive story (sound familiar?) – explained his life after he left his pregnant wife, Ginny, taking up with his 23-year-old girlfriend, Traci Johnson.
“Barber told SI’s Jon Wertheim that he and Johnson decided to escape the media scrutiny by moving into the attic of Mark Lepselter, Barber’s agent.
“ ‘Lep’s Jewish,’ Wertheim quotes Barber, ‘and it was like a reverse Anne Frank thing.’
“It’s remarkable: Barber has a gift for saying exactly the wrong thing almost every time he opens his mouth….
“He really thought it was a good idea to compare holing up with his paramour, hoping to ward off Page Six, to the two-year plight of the Frank family hiding from the Nazis – a story, by the way, that ended with Anne’s death from typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp?
“It’s staggering, is what it is. Think about this: Think about what the reaction would be if any of the white named plaintiffs in the NFLPA’s antitrust lawsuit – Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, for starters – decided to compare their plight to Dred Scott’s?
“Really, by this point, nothing should surprise us when it comes to Barber, who throughout his public life has been disingenuous at best and downright phony at worst, who never has had problems offering his dim views on everything from Tom Coughlin’s coaching to Eli Manning’s leadership. Those observations were merely silly and ill-conceived.
–Reader Liz S. says the following from the New York Times is one of the stupider things she has seen in recent years, and I concur.
“In preparation for the 2012 London Olympics, the Badminton World Federation has decreed that female elite players must wear skirts or dresses to create ‘a more attractive presentation.’”
The athletes are looking to get the ruling overturned.
–In the coming days it appears USC will be stripped of its 2004 BCS title after the NCAA denied the Trojans’ appeal of sanctions that include a bowl ban and scholarship cuts amid the investigation into allegations of violations in the Reggie Bush case. It’s the BCS that calls for national titles to be vacated when major rules infractions are later found. As noted by Steve Wieberg of USA TODAY, the policy is clear, the BCS has to take away the title as long as “the player in question played in that game or in wins that led to the bowl berth, as Bush did.”
The AP title, however, will stay, thus enabling USC to maintain it had a championship season. The BCS championship for ’04 would be left vacant and not awarded to another team.
[Meanwhile, USC will lose 30 scholarships over the next three years and won’t be eligible to play in this coming season’s Pac-12 title game or a bowl game.]
–Talk about a mess. Former Ohio State wide receiver Ray Small told the campus newspaper, The Lantern, that he earned up to $2,000 selling two of his Big Ten Championship rings while he was playing for the Buckeyes, which he knew was in violation of NCAA rules, because he needed the cash to make ends meet. Further, Small told the paper that some of his teammates did the same thing and regularly received benefits in violation of the rules. But then a few days later, he told ESPN, “I’ve come back to retract my words, because there’s two sides to every story,” and that he was unaware any teammates had done anything wrong.
Jets wide receiver Braylon Edwards made good on a promise to send 100 Cleveland-area students to college as part of a commitment he made through his foundation while playing with the Browns. He tweeted last Thursday that “as the 2nd most hated man in Clev [a guy named LeBron being number one] & a man of my word,” he did what he set out to do.
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but good for Braylon Edwards!
–In an annual survey by Florida International University professor Steven Leatherman, aka “Dr. Beach,” Siesta Beach in Sarasota, Fla., is ranked No. 1 in the country. I haven’t been here but just got lost in various Web sites for it and it looks like a great, year-round destination for a getaway.
2. San Diego’s Coronado Beach
3. Kahanamoku Beach in Waikiki, Honolulu
4. Main Beach, East Hampton, Long Island
5. Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
6. St. George Island State Park, Florida Panhandle
7. Beachwalker Park, Kiawah Island, S.C….reader Jeff B., Whit and Connie, Pete M. and I concur on Kiawah for all your vacation needs, whether it’s golf or tennis, or just walking on the beach with the one you love. [Only one problem…I haven’t been to Kiawah with a woman…but I have drunk a lot of beer there! The 2012 PGA Golf Championship is also being played on Kiawah’s Ocean Course, a great track.]
8. Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod, Mass.
9. Waimanalo Bay Beach Park, Oahu
10. Cape Florida State Park near Miami
Once a beach hits No. 1 on Leatherman’s list he retires it because it generally means a big spike in tourism, such as people like moi now interested in the crystalline sand that is the consistency of sugar at Siesta Beach.
–Yes, it’s way in the future, but I can’t help but note that France will host the 2018 Ryder Cup at a venue that looks like a real pisser, Le Golf National outside Paris. It’s a stadium course that is the site of the French Open and they say the noise and buzz for the place is tremendous. Plus it’s near Paris! Golf during the day…Paree at night…what more could you want?!
—Tom Watson won the Senior PGA Championship in a playoff with David Eger, while a guy I had never heard of, Keenan Bradley, won his first PGA Tour title in sudden death over Ryan Palmer at the Byron Nelson Championship. [And Luke Donald became the world’s No. 1 when he bested Lee Westwood in a playoff at the European PGA Tour’s event.]
–Nineteen years ago, a record 13 climbers perished in the Alaska Range, including 11 on Mount McKinley. But this week, on Wednesday, a four-member team fell in Denali Pass, killing two, which brought this year’s toll to seven since the season began last month. Both survivors are fighting for their lives as well. The accident occurred at about 18,000 feet. Since 1932, there have been 112 fatalities on Mount McKinley.
–Sign of the Apocalypse: Justin Bieber fans are in an uproar over the fact Selena Gomez, 18, and the 17-year-old singing sensation have gone public with their relationship. So while the Web and print media posted all manner of sizzling pictures from the couple’s trip to Maui, Bieber fans are setting up Facebook groups such as “I hate Selena Gomez cuz she is dating my man.” The New York Post reported that some have taken to Twitter and Facebook to announce they’re out for blood.
“Stay away from Justin pedophile,” one fan tweeted at Gomez. “I’m gonna kill ya in the night underneath your smelly bed.”
–Actor Jeff Conaway died at the age of 60. He came to fame in the movie “Grease” and on TV’s “Taxi,” where he played Bobby Wheeler, the cab-driving struggling actor. Conaway quit the show after three seasons, though, because he was tired of being typecast as a “blond bimbo” and the butt of struggling-actor jokes, as noted by the Los Angeles Times’ Dennis McLellan.
Well that proved to be a dumb move as his career after “Taxi” went nowhere and he spiraled into a life of substance abuse.
–In lighter news, New Jersey Nets forward Kris Humphries gave Kim Kardashian a $2 million rock when he proposed the other day. Talk about stupid. While Humphries should be around the league a while, currently he’s only making about that amount ($3.2 million). As for the ring itself, the New York Post’s Page Six reports it was designed by New York’s Lorraine Schwartz and boasts a 16.5-carat, emerald-cut center diamond with a 2-carat diamond on either side. [No cubic zirconium, kids.]
—Gil Scott-Heron died, a pioneer of sounds that would fuse to become rap. He was 62. Go ahead, YouTube his “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and forget the message, if you must, but you can’t help but admire his brilliance in creating the word song as he does with this one. Scott-Heron hated the title “Godfather of Rap,” but when you listen to some of his work you’ll wish all rap music had been similar to his.
Top 3 songs for the week 5/30/81: #1 “Bette Davis Eyes” (Kim Carnes…couldn’t stand this one) #2 “Being With You” (Smokey Robinson) #3 “Medley” (Stars on 45…ughh…some of us actually bought this garbage!) …and…#4 “Sukiyaki” (A Taste Of Honey) #5 “Take It On The Run” (REO Speedwagon) #6 “Living Inside Myself” (Gino Vannelli…kind of underrated artist) #7 “A Woman Needs Love” (Ray Parker Jr. & Raydio…eh) #8 “Just The Two Of Us” (Grover Washington Jr. with Bill Withers…I do a great “Lovely Day” by Withers…at least when I was in college and had a few beers in me…but the voice ain’t what it used to be so don’t bother requesting it) #9 “Too Much Time On My Hands” (Styx) #10 “Watching The Wheels” (John Lennon)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) George Foster is the last to lead the N.L. in RBIs three consecutive seasons, 1976-78. 2) Cecil Fielder is the last to do it in the A.L., 1990-92. 3) Lou Gehrig had an astounding seven seasons with 150 RBIs; 1927, 30-32, 34, 36-37.* 4) Yankee second baseman Tony Lazzeri had 15 RBI in two consecutive games, May 23-24, 1936.**
*I’m giving you a homework assignment. Go to baseballreference.com and tell me why Lou Gehrig isn’t ever in the conversation in terms of greatest hitters of all time? Sluggers, durability, yes. Best hitter? I don’t hear his name brought up in that vein, do you? But he should always be right up there.
**Ah, the beauty of baseballreference and being able to look up box scores. Lazzeri went 3 for 5 with two homers and 4 RBI in his first game. Then the next day he went 4 for 5 with 3 home runs (two grand slams) and a triple, while driving in a still-A.L. record 11 RBI. But what a game the Yankees had against the A’s on May 24, 1936. They won 25-2, though on only 19 hits. How did they do this? Try 16 walks! Outfielder Ben Chapman went 2 for 2 with 5 of the free passes.
Army Times has a special supplement each Memorial Day with the pictures of those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan the preceding year….this time some 556 faces. The list doesn’t include the nine we lost in two incidents last Thursday in Afghanistan. We remember their spirit. America’s finest.
