Baseball Quiz: 1) Since 1900, what two pitchers won at least 20 games in 13 seasons? 2) Who had at least 200 hits and 100 walks in four consecutive seasons? Answers below.
Steve Williams
When was the last time I led with a caddie? Never. Hopefully a lot of you watched the end of the W.G.C.-Bridgestone golf tournament on Sunday from Firestone, because, first off, I commend CBS Sports for absolutely brilliant time management and recognizing the story was as much about caddie Steve Williams as winner Adam Scott.
It was an incredible piece of television. I was watching from my office as Scott sank the winning putt for his 8th PGA Tour triumph and saw the clock read 5:50 p.m. ET. As in, how will CBS handle this going up against a 6:00 deadline, seeing as the tournament was over? Well they immediately went to Scott for a few emotionless comments and then quickly switched to his new caddie, Steve Williams, previously with Tiger Woods until Woods fired him a few weeks ago.
Williams, who was on Tiger’s bag for 13 of his 14 majors, proceeded to tell the world, “This was the best week of my life.” Better than anything he did with Tiger!!! The CBS anchor crew of Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo was clearly stupefied.
But think of it. Williams is the caddie…but in the interview went on to act like he was the one swinging the clubs. “I’m a great frontrunner!” exclaimed Williams. Whether it is racing cars (his hobby) or golf! What a freakin’ jerk!
Yet again…major kudos to CBS for recognizing this total a-hole would make news!
Don’t misunderstand me. Steve Williams is obviously a great caddie, and I believe a good caddie on the PGA Tour is worth more than the one shot Ian Baker-Finch said a caddie is worth on Saturday’s broadcast (after the other analysts had bailed on the topic). I’d say 2 or 3 shots, depending on the on-course attitude of the man he is holding the bag for.
Heck, I saw a caddie make about a six-shot difference as my friend Todd B. won a Mid-Amateur qualifier with a 68 after I assigned my club’s best caddie to Todd…knowing Todd had never played the course before. [Todd, I know you’d admit this. Also hope you had a good time in Jersey this weekend, by the way.]
Meanwhile, as to the man who really matters, golfer Adam Scott, this is a guy who for years when I predicted the major winners, it was him. Yet he’s never won a major, but who knows what happens now. Stevie’s on the bag and the chemistry’s great. Someone just remind Williams he’s not the one actually swinging the club.
Ball Bits
–What a scary moment in Colorado as Rockies pitcher Juan Nicasio was struck in the head by a line drive on Friday off the bat of Washington’s Ian Desmond. It smashed into the right side and bounced back into foul territory. For a while you’re thinking this is the major league’s first victim since 1920, when Ray Chapman would die after being hit by a Carl Mays pitch.
Nicasio underwent neck surgery to stabilize a break in the C-1 vertebra, which was put back together with pins. He also had some internal bleeding on the right side of his head. Rockies trainer Keith Dugger said the injuries Nicasio suffered are more often associated with an auto accident or someone diving in shallow water and hitting a rock. “I don’t think there has ever been a C-1 fracture in a professional baseball player.”
Dugger is optimistic Nicasio could be back on the mound next spring because there was no bruising, bleeding or other damage to the spinal cord.
The pitcher is still in serious condition, however, and will remain hospitalized at least for a week, last I saw.
[For anyone interested, I have the full Chapman story in my archives. BC 8/16/05, or just plug Ray Chapman into the search function. He died a day after his beaning.]
–When the story broke about Alex Rodriguez potentially being in trouble with Major League Baseball over “illegal” poker games, my friend Ken P. and I, who have been known to play many an “illegal” game, were rather amused. I mean you might as well put out a drag net over the entire country if you’re going to do something in this case, and it now appears MLB will merely warn A-Rod, very sternly, to cut the crap after he had been told way back in 2005 to stay away from high-stakes games.
The story has legs only because of the potential drug use ( and no one is pointing a finger at A-Rod in this regard). The other thing is, if the stakes get too high, undesirables always seem to interject themselves in the inevitable arguments.
–The Yankees’ CC Sabathia is 16-6 this season and a Cy Young candidate (though Justin Verlander is the heavy favorite at this point), but he’s 0-4 against Boston. This becomes a real problem come postseason play as the two teams seem destined to face each other. CC has given up more than six runs in a start three times this year, all against the Red Sox.
–I feel awful…I officially jinxed the Pirates. When I announced I had purchased tickets to two games in September in Pittsburgh, the Bucs were in first place, 51-44. Forget having their first winning season in 19 years, they were going to the playoffs! Alas, they have gone 3-15 since, including 15-5 and 13-2 drubbings at home at the hands of the lowly Padres this weekend. “Shu,” a Pirates fan residing in Arizona, wrote that he was at a D-Backs game on Saturday and when he saw the Padres go up 11-2, he almost spilled a $9 beer, the sight of the score sending Shu into a state of shock. Lots of pierogis have been part of reversals of fortune among Pittsburgh residents these days.
–Despite hitting four home runs at home on Saturday night, the Mets clearly have psychological issues hitting at cavernous Citi Field. GM Sandy Alderson maintains, for now, the team will not move home plate closer to center-field, but there are signs the club is beginning to seriously contemplate it. But what’s kind of interesting is that as Andrew Keh of the New York Times pointed out:
“Before the 1969 season [’68 being the year of the pitcher], for example, the Los Angeles Dodgers moved home plate 10 feet closer to center field, and the consequences were clear-cut: 45 more home runs were hit in Dodger Stadium that season compared with 1968.”
–It really is amazing the Boston Red Sox paid outfielder Carl Crawford $142 million over seven years in the offseason. This is a guy who had like a putrid .330 career on-base percentage but this year, as I go to post during the Sunday night Yankees-Red Sox contest, Crawford, after going 6-for-8 in the first two games of the series, is still just hitting a puny .254 with a .287 OBP!
–Milwaukee’s Craig Counsell avoided a most embarrassing MLB record; consecutive times at bat for a non-pitcher without a hit, 46. After 45 hitless ABs he finally responded.
What’s funny, though, is that the record of 46 is held by none other than Bill Bergen. The same Bill Bergen who played 11 seasons from 1901-1911 and holds the record for lowest batting average by a major league regular, .139…the mark that the White Sox’ Adam Dunn is technically threatening as Dunn sits at .163 through Sunday. Dunn’s mark is the worst since Bergen’s. Further, Dunn is now 3-for-78 against lefties. You’re reading that right.
–So the other day, long-time Philly area friend from the brokerage business, Mark R. (we’ve shared too many adult beverages together…though I think I’m 54 domestics ahead of him), said that with the Phillies’ Ryan Howard’s first homer against a lefty this year, the local broadcasters brought up that in 1957, Brooklyn’s Duke Snider hit 40 home runs but none against a lefty.
Well, I didn’t doubt Mark R. He was just relaying what the Philly announcers said, but being the responsible editor I had to try and verify it.
Sure enough, the good folks at baseballreference.com have the splits for 1957 and, yes, the lefty-swinging Snider didn’t hit a homer against a left-handed pitcher.
But…and this is important, and a fact I’m sure the Philly announcers didn’t mention. Duke Snider had all of 27 at-bats against lefties! 27! So like whoopty-damn-do! Howard, as of Saturday, on the other hand, had 133 at-bats against lefties this year with the one home run. Now that’s significant. [He has 23 vs. right-handers.]
So thanks, Mark R., for bringing this up because hopefully I’ve just enlightened some folks.
–Oh, to be a Mets fan, part 98. In order to stay in the wildcard hunt, the Mets needed to take 2 of 3 from the Atlanta Braves this weekend at Shiti Field. [Oops, Citi…sorry….] But on Sunday, the series tied 1-1, the Mets lost two of the top hitters in the league, Jose Reyes and Daniel Murphy to injuries that seem destined to keep them out for weeks…in Murphy’s case, maybe forever.
Why the Mets didn’t trade the .320-hitting Murphy, the man without a position who is destined for a solid career as a DH I’ll never know. Now the poor guy’s career could be in jeopardy. [Hopefully it’s not half as bad as it looked.]
–Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano now has 23 career home runs and a .242 career batting average.
–Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times has a story on a contract dispute between workers at Angel Stadium of Anaheim and the team, the Angels being one of the richest franchises in all of professional sports. But the 400 workers – ticket sellers, ushers, janitors – are paid substantially less than those at the other four California teams. For example a janitor at Angel Stadium earns $11.21 an hour (and I think we’d all agree there is no worse job in the world than a janitor at a sports stadium), compared to $15.15 at San Francisco’s AT&T Park and $17.50 in Oakland.
Granted these are generally supplemental jobs for the workers, and a season’s pay ranges from $5,000 to $10,000, but when you consider what the experience for paying fans would be without these valuable folks, it’s time for the Angels to pony up a little more.
Foot-Ball Bits
–As part of the new reality, and new collective bargaining agreement between owners and players, rookie pay is way down. As reported by Mark Maske of the Washington Post:
“The top ten picks in this year’s draft will receive about $170 million in guaranteed money, down from about $310 million in the deals last year.”
And while I’ve mentioned this before it bears repeating. Last year, the top overall pick in the draft, quarterback Sam Bradford, signed a six-year contract with the St. Louis Rams worth $78 million, $50 million of it guaranteed. This year’s top pick, quarterback Cam Newton of Carolina, signed a four-year, fully guaranteed deal, worth about $22 million. Agents are scrambling to get as much guaranteed money as possible to make up for the far lower overall contract scale. Quarterback Blaine Gabbert, the 10th overall selection by Jacksonville, agreed to a four-year, $12 million contract that is fully guaranteed. The 10th pick in last year’s draft, defensive end Tyson Alualu, also signed with Jacksonville but for five-years, $28 million, with $17.5 million guaranteed.
The rookies understand it’s a new world and that if they can survive to negotiate a second contract, they’ll be richly rewarded then.
—Deion Sanders, inducted into Pro Football’s Hall of Fame on Saturday.
“This game taught me how to be a man. This game taught me if I get knocked down, I got to get my butt back up.
“I always had a rule in life that I would never love anything that couldn’t love me back. It taught me how to be a man, how to get up, how to live in pain. Taught me so much about people, timing, focus, dedication, submitting oneself, sacrificing.
“If your dream ain’t bigger than you, there’s a problem with your dream.”
As for Shannon Sharpe, also inducted, I forgot he was a seventh-round selection out of Savannah State. 815 career receptions and three Super Bowl rings later, the tight end has his own, well-deserved bust in Canton.
Sanders and Sharpe went in with Marshall Faulk, Richard Dent, Chris Hanburger, Les Richter and Ed Sabol. The crowd, incidentally, was “much lower than the usual turnout,” as reported by the AP, in no small part because Sunday’s Hall of Fame game was a victim of the lockout.
–The NFL’s new drug testing policy contains a provision whereby every player will be tested for HGH at least once a year, and possibly many more times. Well that’s a step in the right direction. The NFL thus becomes the first major American sports league to carry out blood testing at the major league level, the test for HGH requiring a blood sample. Players can actually be tested up to six times in the off-season, which would kind of suck if you’re a player and you look out the front door one morning to see some dweeb carrying a little black bag, not that all drug testers are dweebs, not having personally been tested for drugs and HGH, though the International Web Site Association is contemplating such a policy for Web editors.
–Talk about a crushing loss, the New York Giants’ first-round selection in the 2011 draft, cornerback Prince Amukamara, fractured his foot and will require a screw, never a good thing. It was just his second practice after signing a four-year, $8.1 million deal where the first three years are fully guaranteed.
–The Jets will miss wide receiver Jericho Cotchery, a classy guy who was a victim of the business side of football. In his place they signed veteran Derrick Mason.
–Finally, we note the passing of NFL great Bubba Smith, who was found dead at his Los Angeles home. He was 66.
Smith, a 6-foot-7, 280-pound defensive end, was the No. 1 overall selection in the 1967 NFL draft from Michigan State when he taken by the Baltimore Colts. He played five seasons with them, and then four seasons between Oakland and Houston before an earlier knee injury caught up with him and ended his career in 1976.
Famously, after football, he appeared in commercials for Miller Lite beer with fellow NFL veteran Dick Butkus, including a spot where Smith extolled the virtues of the beer, beaming into the camera, “I also love the easy-opening cans,” while ripping off the top.
But as the Los Angeles Times’ Claire Noland reported, Smith walked away from the Miller job.
“I went back to Michigan State for the homecoming parade last year,” he told a Times’ interviewer in 1986. “I was the grand marshal and I was riding in the back seat of this car. The people were yelling, but they weren’t saying, ‘Go, State, go!’ One side of the street was yelling, ‘Tastes great!’ and the other side was yelling ‘Less filling!’
“Then we go to the stadium. The older folks are yelling ‘Kill, Bubba, kill!’ But the students are yelling ‘Tastes great! Less filling!’ Everyone in the stands is drunk. It was like I was contributing to alcohol, and I don’t drink. It made me realize I was doing something I didn’t want to do.”
So he turned to acting, playing Moses Hightower in six “Police Academy” movies and a number of TV series.
At Michigan State, Bubba Smith was simply one of the greatest college football players ever. But in the NFL he ‘only’ made two Pro Bowls and one All-Pro team, though to be fair this was because he was more often than not double-teamed.
It was at Michigan State, however, that he anchored a tremendous defense that went 19-1 in his last two seasons. Fans would often chant, “Kill, Bubba, Kill” during the games. Of course it was in 1966 that he participated in one of the most celebrated contests in college history, Michigan State’s 10-10 with Notre Dame when the teams were 1 and 2 in the country.
But in reading a New York Times piece by Andy Barall, I forgot that three of Smith’s college teammates were also among the first eight picks in the college draft in ‘67; Clint Jones, George Webster and Gene Washington.
In Smith’s five years in Baltimore, the Colts compiled a 53-13-4 regular-season record, but it was in 1972, during a preseason game, “Smith was pursuing across the field when he became entangled with the yard markers along the sideline. In those years, when the action got too close, the chain crew would retreat and leave the sticks upright, still affixed to the ground. As a result of Smith’s injury, I believe, the league changed the procedure, requiring the crew, before they backed away, to remove the sticks and to drop them flat onto the ground.
“The Colts’ team doctors described Smith’s knee injury as one of the worst they had seen. He was forced to watch most of that season from the sideline in a wheelchair, and he wasn’t the same player again.” [Barall]
Smith also never got over the Colts’ shocking loss to the Jets in Super Bowl 3, though at least he was on the winning Colts team that defeated the Cowboys two years later. All the Colts from that squad, however, including Smith, said the 1971 victory was little consolation. Recall, that was a horrible game, won on a Jim O’Brien field goal.
Golf Balls
–Back to the W.G.C. event at Firestone, I’m a Ryo Ishikawa fan, he being the 19-year-old from Japan who finished tied for fourth, but the more I see of him, and knowing he has a “stylist” tour with him and that this goofy arm band around one of his biceps is clearly for show, the more I’m going to turn on him. Let’s just say he’s getting some very bad advice on the PR front.
But at the same time, he is just 19 so you want to cut him slack. For example, he understands English but just isn’t comfortable speaking it yet in a formal interview but I admire how hard he is working at it.
So on Saturday, CBS interviews him after his round and Ishikawa understands the questions but has his interpreter there to respond, and the interpreter invariably says, “He mentioned that…blah blah blah.”
Well wouldn’t it be fun if just once, the interpreter said, “Ryo mentioned that he believes the tensions between Japan and China are increasing and that he feels his government needs to take aggressive actions against Chinese fishing trawlers invading Japanese fishing grounds. And Ryo also says that Japan should go nuclear and enact a nuclear weapons program.’
—Rory McIlroy said he’s contemplating playing more in the U.S. and is going house hunting in Florida. ‘I feel as if I play my best golf over here and I am very comfortable in this country.”
Plus, it seems Rory likes our weather better than the weather back home and in Britain.
“I love Quail Hollow, Memorial, Akron. You play Match Play, Honda, Doral, Masters – you have your favorite events and most of my favorite events seem to be on this side of the pond. I’d like to give it a go again and last more than one year and see how it goes.”
–It seems the European press (far worse than our own) took exception to British Open winner Darren Clarke’s excessive celebration.
“People are concerned about whether I had one pint too many? I mean, get a life,” said Clarke.
“You’ve just come in from a long day on the course. What are you drinking?”
[I actually drink a lot of the Arizona / Arnold Palmer Lite Half & Half; quite tasty.]
–Golf Magazine released its latest rankings of the Top 100 World Courses and it’s the same top ten as 2009.
1. Pine Valley
2. Cypress Point
3. Augusta National
4. St. Andrews (Old Course)
5. Royal County Down
6. Shinnecock Hills
7. Pebble Beach
8. Oakmont
9. Muirfield
10. Merion (East)
I was pleased to see a place I belong to, Lahinch, in County Clare, Ireland, move up from 44 to 42. Very cool. I’ve played about 50 rounds there and never shot better than 92 (and I needed a 40 on the back to do that). The killer for a highly mediocre golfer such as myself, including the winds, is six par-4s over 400 yards from the whites. Five of them 412 or better. [I have the scorecard under my blotter here.]
But this is funny. Last year, the day before my trip there, I had my first case ever of vertigo, which was scary. It went away after about six hours but of course I was concerned it would return when I got to Lahinch. Sure enough on the first tee, it hit. I told my playing partner, who knew of my situation earlier, “Pete, I can’t believe it came back.” I then proceeded to hit the best drive I’ve ever hit off No. 1, an incredibly intimidating tee shot, smack up against the clubhouse with everyone staring at you, and then launched a hybrid second shot, one of the tougher second shots in Ireland, onto the green and got my par, which I had never done on No. 1. The whole time I had vertigo. The vertigo went away by my second tee shot and I couldn’t have sucked more the rest of the way.
OK… I know personal golf stories are the most boring of all time unless you’ve been there and I promise not to do this again.
–PGA Tour pro Robert Garrigus: “Plenty of guys on the Nationwide Tour smoked [marijuana] in the middle of the round. You could go in the Porta John and take your drags.” [Golf Magazine]
Now, seriously, how many of you knew this? I had no idea. But when you see coverage of the tour [for you non-golfers, the highest-minor league to the PGA Tour itself] on television and the sparse crowds, you can see how players would get away with this.
“The current thinking in America suggests that acquiring a college education is critical to success, but the truth is that the young superstars of golf are coming from everywhere in the world except the United States college golf programs.
“There are two major problems with college golf: The NCAA restricts how much golf student-athletes can play, and with a few exceptions, college coaching is just not as good as the instruction that these players would get as touring pros. Look at some of the top golfers from around the world: Rory McIlroy, Charl Schwartzel, Ryo Ishikawa, Matteo Manassero, Jason Day. What do they have in common? None of them played college golf. While their American counterparts are playing an NCAA-restricted schedule, these international players are focusing on their games 24/7/365.
“Jordan Spieth, the 18-year-old who’s already made the cut twice at the Byron Nelson, is going to the University of Texas in the fall, but you can’t tell me he’ll be a better golfer in four years than if he turned pro now. Rickie Fowler left college after two years and his game is immeasurably better than it would have been if he had stayed in school. Phil Mickelson and Matt Kuchar have had excellent pro careers after college golf, but that era is over. The game is global now, and the competition is more intense than ever….
“The American college system creates players who join the Tour at age 22 and finally acquire the experience and know-how to win in their late 20s. At that point, they are 10 years behind the competition. The need to have a fallback plan B (a diploma) in case of failure is holding players back from developing a game based on the intense need to succeed. Instead, their game is based on hoping and wishing and trying to play well.”
Rickie Fowler says, “My two years at OK State gave me time to develop my game. If you have Nationwide status, that’s great, but not many guys do coming straight out of high school.”
—USA TODAY Coaches Preseason College Football Poll
1. Oklahoma
2. Alabama
3. Oregon…vs. LSU, Sat. Sept. 3, 8:00 pm / ABC…don’t bother me
4. LSU
5. Florida State
6. Stanford
7. Boise State
8. Oklahoma State
9. Texas A&M
10. Wisconsin
18. Notre Dame
176. Wake Forest…Sept. 17 vs. Gardner Webb…be there!!!
*It’s the first time since USA TODAY took over the coaches poll in 1991 that both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are in the preseason top 10. The two meet in Stillwater on Dec. 3. One can only hope it’s something like 11-0 vs. 10-1. OU leads the series 82-16-7, if you don’t count a game OSU says should have been forfeited due to irregularities discovered after the fact.
–I wasn’t going to report on the following, but after reading further details the death of former Occidental College quarterback Andy Collins at the age of 27 from an apparent heart attack (after using a treadmill) merit’s a mention. Collins was a three-time Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference offensive player of the year, playing for the Los Angeles school from 2004 to 2006 and the Tigers never lost a regular-season game in which he started, gong 27-0 over that span. Occidental Coach Dale Widolff said, “He was spectacular…clearly the best player to play for us in the 30 years I’ve been here. No one was even close.”
Collins had a brief tryout with the New York Giants and played in the Arena Football League.
But what makes this story even worse was ten days earlier, he married Brooke Olzendam, a college football reporter for CBS.
–I have to admit, I just haven’t cared about NASCAR this year but do have to note that in the Sprint Cup race at Pocono on Sunday, Brad Keselowski won despite having a broken leg.
–Boy, I bet the London Olympics organizers were absolutely thrilled to see their Tottenham neighborhood in flames following a police shooting on Saturday. It’s an important story, but I’ll comment further in that other column I do.
–This just in…caddie Steve Williams still thinks he won the W.G.C.-Bridgestone event at Firestone.
–So the New York Post has this story about harness-racing trainer Lou Pena. It seems that during the current meet at New York’s Yonkers Raceway, Pena’s horses have won 242 races – triple the 82 of the next-best trainer in the last seven months. So officials are very suspicious and last week they showed Pena the door.
The thing is, “No evidence of him using banned substances has been found, prompting Pena, 42, to believe he was booted because of his dominance.
“ ‘Officials told me, ‘Slow down. Don’t win so much.’ I’m like, you’ve got to be kidding me,’ said the trainer, a native of Mexico….
“ ‘I’m crushing the opposition – it’s totally technique training – and these people are crying: they’re not happy. I’ve become the most hated man on earth. If you’re good, you must be bad.’
“On July 29, Pena said he was phoned by Yonkers Racing Secretary Steve Starr, who told him, ‘For the best interests of the sport, you must leave.’”
Pena was also tops at the Meadowlands, and between the two tracks, over the last two years, his horses finished in the money 44% of the time and have garnered $13 million in purses.
Pena has had 12 positive tests on his horses since 1991, but when you read the details, these were not very serious offenses and in the most questionable one, a drug found in one of his horses was approved soon after.
One top racing official told the Post that “out of his 3,000 starts, you have two or three minor violations.”
–We note the passing of a major World War II hero, Rear Adm. Maurice H. Rindskopf, “the youngest commander of an American fleet submarine…who directed the sinking of 15 Japanese vessels, one of the highest totals in the war.” [Dennis Hevesi / New York Times] He was 93.
Rindskopf was 26 when he took over the U.S.S. Drum after its captain fell ill and had to undergo surgery. 26!
“In his three years aboard, he was directly involved in the firing of 125 torpedoes, leading to the confirmed sinking of 15 ships – most of them cargo vessels – with a total tonnage of more than 80,000. Of all the submarines in World War II, the Drum ranked No. 8 in confirmed tonnage sunk.” [Hevesi]
Rindskopf received the Navy Cross, the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for his wartime service. He later served as assistant chief of staff for intelligence to Adm. John S. McCain Jr., commander of the United States Pacific Command during the Vietnam War and, of course, father of Senator John McCain.
–The attack by a polar bear in Norway on Friday that killed a 17-year-old student was big news in Britain as the boy was part of a British Schools Exploring Society Arctic expedition.
The attack took place on Svalbard archipelago, where there are 2,400 people and 3,000 polar bears. The British Schools Exploring Society has run expeditions for young people all over the globe for 75 years. It’s not cheap…up to $3,300 a person. You work, like in clearing debris, as well as tour the spectacular beauty up there.
The campers were in a group of 80 when the bear attacked early in the morning. As reported by Lucy Bannerman and Theo Merz of the London Times, the bear killed Horatio Chapple, 17, who was sharing a tent with other teenagers when the 250kg bear struck. One member of the group managed to shoot the bear dead, but Horatio died at the scene.
Four others were mauled, including one 16-year-old who suffered severe head and arm injuries.
“The group was trained in bear defense. They had received shooting lessons and instructions on the use of ‘bear flares’ as a deterrent. It is understood that the tripwire around their camping area failed to activate.
“Terry Flinders, the father of one of the injured boys, described how his son had tried to fend off the bear, an adult male. He said: ‘According to the doctor, and the other people, Patrick was trying to fend off the polar bear by hitting it on the nose. The bear got into the tent where Patrick was with two friends, and he just, for some reason, grabbed hold of the other boy and just killed him. There were three of them in the tent and I don’t really know too much, why he chose the other boy – perhaps he was the closest one. Patrick, I think, was probably in the middle, because he grabbed hold of his head next, and then his arm, and I don’t know how he got out to be honest.”
You can imagine how the killing shook up the victim’s home town. And you feel for the ones who were wounded. How do you ever have a normal night’s sleep afterwards, without heavy use of medication that creates its own problems?
Around 30,000 tourists a year visit Svalbard and, unbelievably, a tour coordinator said “quite a few come to camp in the wilderness.”
The last fatal polar bear attack, however, was way back in 1995, which I find hard to believe given the numbers. I’m guessing it’s closer to 42,000 since 1990, the Svalbard tourism folks wanting to cover up the carnage.
I’m also now looking for bear flares to use here at home. Case in point….
–The New Jersey Black Bear community is up in arms (legs, paws…whatever) over the euthanization of 18-month-old Yogi Jones. All the 102-pound male bruin did was wander into a northwest New Jersey campground before dawn on Wednesday and scare a group of young campers. When the bear was captured on Friday, state officials briefly interrogated Yogi and then put him down.
But here’s the thing. It was a classic case of my adage “wait 24 hours.” The story first broke after I had posted my last Bar Chat and it seems the bear did pull at a sleeping bag and knock a tent down, as counselors clapped and blew a whistle and shouted to keep the bear at bay. A conservation official then shot the bear, wounding it.
What got the attention of the press later Wednesday, though, was two of the kids claimed to have been injured by the bear, “but it was later determined the boys’ injuries were old and not inflicted by it,” as reported by the Star-Ledger’s Julia Terruso.
Nonetheless, the bear was treated as a Category One, the most dangerous type of bruin, because of its aggressive behavior.
My sources tell me the bear was simply telling the kids it was time to get up. No word yet on how the thousands of bears that populate my state are going to respond but this will get ugly.
“It was as if the Playboy Mansjion met the East End at a wild party at private-equity titan Marc Leder’s Bridgehampton estate, where guests cavorted nude in the pool and performed sex acts, scantily dressed Russians danced on platforms and men twirled lit torches to a booming techno beat.
“The divorced Sun Capital Partners honcho rented a sprawling beachfront mansion on Surf Side Road for $500,000 for the month of July. Leder’s weekly Friday and Saturday night parties have become the talk of the Hamptons – and he ended them in style last weekend with his wildest bash yet.”
[I see Lifetime has a new reality series featuring Russian women from the huge enclave in Brighton Beach (New York City). Actually, I see in the New York Post some are Ukrainian…and having been to both countries, let’s just say women in each are, err, err… looking for the right word…err, err….]
–Uh oh…the New York Post reports there is trouble in Bieberville! Selena Gomez is laying down the law with Justin Bieber over the little one’s penchant for hanging out with bad characters, specifically rappers like Sean Kingston and Lil Wayne. You tell him, Selena! You’re too good for the guy. [The editor…pretending to care knowing it’s “Web Sweeps Month.”]
–Hey, Bro…don’t you have some Bruce Lee memorabilia? [My black-belt brother being a Lee fan from way back.] Some of Lee’s stuff was auctioned off in Hong Kong over the weekend. A basic business card went for about $4,000. The card was from Lee’s time teaching kung fu in the U.S. The man who bought it, Albert Wong Kam-hong, shelled out about $35,000 for five items, overall, including a letter from Time magazine to the young Lee, offering him discounts on subscriptions.
Wong said the business card was important because of what was printed on it. “You can see a yin-yang symbol and the master’s motto, ‘Using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation.’”
Huh. I may have to drink some Tsingtao and contemplate this.
The most expensive item went for $75,000; a jacket Lee wore in the film “Game of Death.” [Amy Nip / South China Morning Post]
–After 45 years, Jerry Lewis will not be hosting the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s telethon over the Labor Day weekend. Some of you younger folks just can’t imagine how popular this show was, particularly in the 1960s and 70s when you could see Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra, among others. The telethons have raised nearly $2.5 billion, according to the MDA. The 85-year-old Lewis was definitely pushed out. It was just last May the MDA reaffirmed Lewis would be hosting this year for a final time.
But the Los Angeles Times mentioned some memorable moments over the years. I forgot this one:
In 1968, Lewis brought movie star (and future ‘Mommie Dearest’ subject) Joan Crawford onto the telethon set to donate a check for $5,000 and “read a poem of questionable taste entitled, ‘The Clumsy, Falling-Down Child,’ which ends with a child with muscular dystrophy dying. After the slurring and quite possibly intoxicated star finished the poem, Lewis briefly brought out her daughter Christina before Crawford grabbed the child’s arm to take her to work the phones.”
In 1976, Frank Sinatra reunited Lewis with Dean Martin for the first time in 20 years live on the telethon after their very public split in 1956.
Top 3 songs for the week 8/7/76: #1 “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” (Elton John & Kiki Dee…bleh) #2 “Love Is Alive” (Gary Wright…eh) #3 “Moonlight Feels Right” (Starbuck…do do do do dooo….do do do do dooo…)…and…#4 “Let ‘Em In” (Wings…getting bored by this week) #5 “You Should Be Dancing” (Bee Gees… simply dreadful) #6 “Rock And Roll Music” (The Beach Boys…can’t believe this dreck from one of my 3 or 4 favorite groups of all time got this high, but then look at the competition…) #7 “Got To Get You Into My Life” (The Beatles…ditto #6) #8 “Kiss And Say Goodbye” (Manhattans…wake me when this is over, please, so I can finish the column) #9 “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” (Lou Rawls…finally, a real tune) #10 “Afternoon Delight” (Starland Vocal Band…a few months ago a friend told me he met the female lead singer for this one in a bar…not sure I believe him, many beers having been consumed when he told me this…)
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Two pitchers since 1900 to win at least 20 games in 13 seasons: Christy Mathewson and Warren Spahn. Walter Johnson did it 12 times, in case you’re thinking, ‘Hey, wait a darn minute, editor!’ 2) 200 hits and 100 walks in four consecutive seasons: Wade Boggs, 1986-89. Boggs’ on-base percentage those years ranged from .430 to .476. He just missed in 1985, when he had 240 hits and 96 walks. [Questions courtesy of George Will.]
*And a huge apology. The Ed Sullivan Comedy Special I told you about last time was on Sunday, not Saturday, but it was the Los Angeles Times, not me, who f’ed up the date. Further, the L.A. Times didn’t mention that the Sullivan show was part of pledge week! A rather important miss. Oh well, I’m assuming you didn’t change plans on Saturday without glancing at the TV schedule yourself.
