Baseball Quiz: Once again I am stretched for time so I’m going to take advantage of an item I saw in the Los Angeles Times by Kevin Baxter. Name the all-time home run leaders for the 30 big league franchises. This should keep you busy this weekend. Answer below.
The Day the Music Died
[Some of the following material is from past Bar Chats, some of it is new.]
Why is Buddy Holly still so revered among many of us? As Jim Fusilli wrote in the Wall Street Journal a few months ago in reviewing the new multi-artist tribute album to Holly, “Rave On”:
“His songs still reflect the runaway emotions of youth in bloom; his lyrics glow with pure innocence. Holly expresses this perspective directly: ‘Words of love whisper soft and true. Darling, I love you’; ‘Well, you are the one that makes me glad and you are the one that makes me sad’; ‘Where you’re concerned my heart has learned it’s so easy to fall in love.’”
Charles Hardin Holley (sic) was born on Sept. 7, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas, the third son of Lawrence and Ella Holley. The Holleys had moved to west Texas in the 1920s when the area had begun to experience an economic boom occasioned by the advent of cotton farming.
The Holleys were a musical family. Buddy’s eldest brother, Larry, played violin and guitar, while brother Travis played the accordion, piano and guitar. And sister Pat could sing.
“Buddy’s musical debut was something of a gentle hoax; his mother had insisted that his brothers take five-year-old Buddy along with them to a talent contest they’d entered in the nearby town of County Line. They greased the strings of his toy fiddle so he couldn’t sour their sound and used him as a prop. But it was Buddy who took home a $5 prize for singing a number his mom taught him, ‘Down the River of Memories.’”
Buddy eventually settled on the acoustic guitar as his instrument of choice and began to teach himself Hank Williams songs such as “Lovesick Blues.” By the early 1950s, he had formed a country-oriented combo called the Western and Bop Band with school friends Bob Montgomery and Larry Welborn.
The group was good enough to land a half-hour Sunday afternoon segment on local radio station KDAV and in 1956, Welborn was replaced with Don Guess. Buddy then signed with Decca Records and lost the ‘e’ in his name because of a misspelling in the contract. The Decca deal was uneventful but for a country song Buddy issued, a tune called “That’ll Be the Day.”
“Back in Lubbock, Buddy and drummer Jerry Allison crossed over into rock and roll after opening for Elvis Presley at the Lubbock Youth Center. The next day, Holly talked Elvis into accompanying him to Lubbock High to meet some of his friends and teachers. Forming the Crickets (Joe Mauldin on bass, Jerry Allison on drums, Niki Sullivan on guitar), Buddy re-cut ‘That’ll Be the Day’ with a rock edge, and it got picked up by the New York-based Coral-Brunswick label, which made it a top 5 hit in 1957.” [It hit #1 on the Billboard Pop Chart]
Holly followed up this success with the #3 “Peggy Sue,” #10 “Oh, Boy!” #37 “Rave On” [can’t believe it wasn’t top ten], and #17 “Maybe Baby.”
As Timothy White writes, Holly had a “blushing tenderness and a rollicking brand of goodwill unlike any rock has enjoyed before or since…each was sung with a straightforward zeal that never wavered and a bright outlook that never turned mawkish or hackneyed.”
And as was so typical of the music business in those days, success came quickly but Holly seemed unfazed by it. He usually appeared onstage in a black suit, or blazer, a bowtie and those horn-rimmed glasses. Buddy was proud and purposeful and never thought about being mistaken for a wimp, “and his anachronistic appearance became so popular that fans began sporting horn-rims fitted with ordinary glass. Offstage, he rarely drank. His forays into the wild side of paradise were occasional back-of-the-bus crapshoots with roustabout Chuck Berry.”
But Buddy Holly was too trusting. He married Maria Elena Santiago, a Puerto Rican girl from New York, in 1958, and with her help they began to investigate his financial arrangements. Buddy confronted his manager Norman Petty about the presence of Petty’s name in the writing credits of several songs and it turns out the management of Buddy’s career had been a mess. Buddy was sick about it, left the Crickets, and moved with Elena to New York’s Greenwich Village.
“Money was tight, so he took a new group, consisting of guitarist Tommy Allsup, drummer Charlie Bunch, and green young bassist Waylon Jennings, on the road to raise seed money for his fledgling publishing company.”
And so it was on a bus tour in the winter of 1959 that Holly met his end. It was February 3…Holly and Jennings were standing out on the tarmac in Mason City, Iowa (after a show in Clear Lake) when Jennings gave up his seat on the plane to the Big Bopper, opting to take the bus instead because of bad weather. “I hope your damned bus freezes up again,” Holly kidded Waylon. “I hope your plane crashes,” responded Jennings. Shortly after 1:00 a.m., the plane carrying Holly, the Big Bopper, and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens, disintegrated in a field nine miles from the airport. As you can imagine, the incident haunted Waylon for years.
The Waylon Jennings angle to the Buddy Holly story is well known, but less so is the one with Dion DiMucci…a k a Dion.
Born on July 18, 1939 in the Bronx, Dion DiMucci had a rough childhood. His father hardly worked, there never was any money, and the fights were legendary. Escaping his wretched family life, Dion sought escape through music. And he also discovered heroin at 14!
Growing up his idols were Elvis and Bill Haley and after getting a recording contract of his own, the record company formed Dion and the Timberlanes, only Dion didn’t know who the backup singers were. So Dion was like, heck, I can do better with guys from the neighborhood, and a few months later you had Dion and the Belmonts with Dion as lead singer and Fred Milano, Carlo Mastrangelo and Angelo D’Aleo as the supporting cast. The name “Belmonts” came from Belmont Ave. in the Bronx where they lived.
Oh, those were the days. The group would rehearse its doo-wop sound on the 6th Ave. D Train to Manhattan and by May 1958, they had their first big hit, “I Wonder Why,” which peaked at #22. By October, Dion and the Belmonts were touring with Buddy Holly, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Darin and others.
Then in January 1959, Dion and the boys started off on the “Winter Dance Party” with Holly, Valens, and The Big Bopper. During the February 2 concert in Clear Lake, Iowa, Mastrangelo played drums on Holly’s last set because his regular drummer was suffering from foot frostbite because of the unheated bus that they all were touring in.
It turns out that Dion had an opportunity to fly with Holly and the other two but it was going to cost $36, a month’s rent. So but for the lack of a few dollars, we almost lost Dion, too, that tragic night.
I mean think of these hits that Dion had after the crash.
#5…A Teenager In Love
#3…Where Or When [Dion then split to pursue his solo career]
#1…Runaround Sue
#2…The Wanderer
#8…Little Diane
#2…Ruby Baby
#6…Donna The Prima Donna
#4…Abraham, Martin and John
[Just an aside, both “Runaround” and “Wanderer” were co-written by Ernie Maresca. In the spring of ’62, Maresca then recorded his own top single, the #6 “Shout Shout (Knock Yourself Out),” one of the great tunes of that era.]
And when it comes to Waylon, you wouldn’t have had #1 country hits like the following:
This Time
I’m A Ramblin’ Man
Good Hearted Woman
Luckenbach, Texas
Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys
Amanda
Jennings, by the way, took years to recover from the events of 2/3/59. A few years ago, Rolling Stone’s Jonathan Cott had this account of that fateful night.
“On the bus ride to Clear Lake, Buddy Holly decided he’d had enough of the road. The boys hadn’t had their laundry cleaned for days. And he envisioned a comfortable bed and a good night’s sleep if only he could fly after the Surf Ballroom show to Fargo, North Dakota, just across the Red River from Moorhead, their next destination, some 400 miles northwest of Clear Lake.
“Upon his arrival there, Buddy asked the Surf Ballroom manager to charter a flight from the nearby Mason City airport to Fargo. Dwyer’s Flying Service contacted one of their pilots, Roger Peterson, to fly a red, single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza four-seater. The flight was to cost $108, and Buddy first offered one of the seats to Dion for $36, a third of the price.
“ ‘When Buddy said, ‘That will be $36,’ he hit the magic number in my head,’ Dion told me. ‘The rent for my parents’ apartment was $36, and they argued all my [f’n] life over that $36 because my father was a beautiful guy, but he was an emotional 13-year-old, and he never worked.’
“Two of the Crickets, Tommy Allsup and Waylon Jennings, were the next to be asked. But the Big Bopper had come down with the flu, and Jennings graciously gave him his place. Valens asked Allsup for the other seat: ‘Are you gonna let me fly, guy?’ ‘No,’ Allsup replied. ‘Let’s flip a coin for it,’ Valens said. As Allsup recounted to Philip Norman, ‘I don’t know why, because I’d been telling him no all evening, but I pulled a half dollar out of my pocket. I’ve never understood what made me – it just happened. I flipped the 50-cent piece and said, ‘Call it.’ Ritchie said, ‘Heads,’ and it came down heads.’
“Just after 12:30 a.m., Tuesday, February 3rd, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper climbed into the back seat of the plane with all of the musicians’ dirty laundry, and Buddy sat next to the pilot. The barometer was falling, the ceiling and visibility were lowering, light snow was falling, the winds were blustering, the runway dimly lit.
“Shortly before 1 a.m., the plane slowly moved down the airport’s runway and took off, made a 180-degree turn and headed north. There was no definite horizon…..
But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep.
I couldn’t take one more step.
–Don McLean, “American Pie”
Don McLean was a 13-year-old paper boy back then in New Rochelle, New York, “and I was carrying the bundle of the local Standard-Star papers that were bound in twine, and when I cut it open with a knife, there it was on the front page.”
While at the Surf, I picked up a copy of the Mason City Globe-Gazette from Tuesday, February 3, 1959. There was a big, bold front-page headline that day:
Four Killed in Clear Lake Plane Crash
Nationally-Known Rock ‘n’ Rollers, Lake Man Victims
“Four persons, three identified as nationally famous rock ‘n’ roll singers, died early Tuesday in a plane crash five miles north of Clear Lake….
“Other members of the troupe which appeared at Clear Lake left after the show by chartered bus for Fargo. They are Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie Sardo and the Crickets, of which Holly was the singing star….
“The single-engine, four-place Beechcraft Bonanza left the Mason City Municipal airport shortly after 1 a.m. It crashed about seven miles northwest of the airport….
“The trip to Fargo was expected to take about 3 ½ hours. When no word of the plane’s arrival was heard, Jerry Dwyer, owner of the flying service, set out to look for the party. He was delayed several hours because of early morning fog.
“Dwyer discovered the wreckage on the Albert Juhl farm at about 9:30 a.m.
“It was obvious that the pilot had been flying on a straight northwest line and was at a very low angle to the ground when he hit. The field slopes slightly toward the northwest.
“The left wing of the plane seemingly struck the ground and plowed a furrow for about a dozen feet before it crumpled and the body of the plane hit. It dug a shallow depression in the stubble field and the wing fell off as the rest of the plane bounced. It struck the ground again about 50 feet farther northwest and then skidded on the ground about two city blocks until it piled up against a fence.
“The wreckage was a jumbled mass which would not have been recognized as a plane….
“One body was broken and entangled in the wreckage. Two bodies were lying about 12 feet south and southwest of the plane. Another body was lying about 40 feet northwest of the plane. No bodies were positively identified at the scene.”
Officials later believed ice formed on the wings or windshield making a forced-landing necessary.
There were some gruesome photos in the paper from the crash scene. They are very grainy but one has two of the bodies in it.
After visiting the Surf Ballroom last Thursday, I drove the five miles to a dirt road, and then another, and easily found the marker for the path that takes you to the site. It’ a pair of large horn-rimmed glasses. The path is indeed cut through a cornfield and I was the only one there on a perfect summer day. Had it been rainy it would have been very muddy, so things worked out perfectly. It is indeed a full half-mile (not a quarter as some guides say) from the road. An incredibly peaceful spot, marked by a small, modest memorial; the three rockers’ names on a metal guitar, and off to the side a marker for pilot Roger Peterson. There is a small photo of Holly and on a post, some Brits wrapped around an Everton scarf, Everton being a Premier League Football club. The scarf says 1979. Not sure how long it has actually been there. Being alone out there made the little walk all the better. I took some good photos and when I get some time will post them somewhere. [I’m not able to on this particular part of the site.]
As for the Surf Ballroom itself, it retains its vintage look to this day. Picture it is like a molded series of 4-6 person booths, attached to each other, and it’s big enough that it can accommodate 2,100 with a 6,000-square foot dance floor. It looks just like it did in 1959. The now annual “Winter Dance Party” in February, usually the 2nd-5th, brings an estimated $4 million to the local economy, so Clear Lake has no problem trading on the tragedy. For the residents it’s an honor to be remembered for the day the music died. A woman working there said I have got to come back for the party someday. I’d love to but would be worried the weather would create real problems, especially with Clear Lake being 100 miles north of Des Moines. All along the interstate up to Clear Lake, you can see the spots where officials close the highway when blizzard-type conditions blow through.
A huge reason to go to the Surf if you happen to be in the area, though, is the photo collection, both from before and after 1959. Lawrence Welk played the Surf! Cab Caoloway, Lionel Hampton, Les Brown, Duke Ellington, “Abbe Lane with Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra” (Abbe Lane was hot). The Skyliners! Oh, how I would have loved to see them at the Surf perform one of my top ten all-time songs, their rendition of “Pennies From Heaven.” The trumpet opening is one of the best ever…but, incredibly, this 1960 tune only hit #24 on the Pop Chart.
In the 70s, the Surf played to Santana, REO Speedwagon, Kansas, the Doobie Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd…others performing there included Waylon Jennings, Johnny Rivers, Peter Frampton, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Merle Haggard, Montgomery Gentry (gotta see them in person someday), Ricky Nelson, Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Jan & Dean, Conway Twitty, Little Richard…on and on and on…
You also have some great posters, including, obviously, from Feb. 2, 1959. Admission was $1.25 that evening.
But you also discover that the 24-day “Winter Dance Party” tour was a total mess from an organization standpoint. Whoever set it up had these poor guys crisscrossing various states in the Midwest, instead of orderly going from one stop to the other. You look at the map and it was nuts, and of course it led to Holly’s fateful decision.
One last item, when the rest of the tour arrived in Fargo on Feb. 3, 1959, the show had to go on, and word went out locally for fill-in musicians. A fellow by the name of Bobby Velline, with his group, The Shadows, stepped forward. Bobby Velline was Bobby Vee…and now you know, the rest of the story…
Had he lived, Buddy Holly would have turned 75 this September.
“It’s useless to project what he might have become had he lived: Would he have undermined his own legacy as Presley did? Or continued to do good work as Roy Orbison did, and to enjoy an audience spanning generations? By age 22, Holly had already created an enduring body of work – enough to have filled a much longer life.”
Death of Some Music Legends
Jerry Leiber, half of the legendary songwriting duo Leiber and Mike Stoller, died the other day at the age of 78. Leiber was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. And what did the two write?
“Hound Dog” for Elvis; “Love Potion No. 9” (the Clovers), “Ruby Baby” (the Drifters), the Coasters’ “Searchin’,” “Yakety Yak,” “Poison Ivy,” “Charlie Brown,” “Down in Mexico,” and “Little Egypt.”
The duo’s most oft-recorded tune is the bluesy “Kansas City.” And in 1995, a musical based on Leiber and Stoller songs, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” opened on Broadway and ran for more than 2,000 performances.
Leiber and Stoller (never were their names mentioned in the opposite order) met in Los Angeles in 1950 as teenagers and they each described it as “spontaneous combustion.” They could write a song in a matter of minutes.
“Hound Dog” gave them their first No. 1 hit in 1956, but the two didn’t like the way Presley sang it…too fast and nervous. Plus they were upset Presley picked up some erroneous lyrics: “You ain’t never caught a rabbit, and you ain’t no friend of mine.”
“I’d never write such a dumb line,” said Leiber. Ah, but Leiber and Stoller would learn to admire Presley. Elvis would record “Jailhouse Rock,” “Treat Me Nice,” “Love Me,” “Fools Fall in Love” and others of theirs.
In the 1960s, Leiber and Stoller moved to New York and became part of the celebrated “Brill Building,” working with other songwriters such as Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, and Cynthia Weill and Barry Mann. With the last two, Leiber and Stoller collaborated on the Drifters’ “On Broadway.” Later, Leiber and Stoller did the group’s “There Goes My Baby.”
Boy, did the Drifters have a body of work, or what?! “On Broadway” is musically brilliant. I also do a very good “Saturday Night at the Movies,” if the vocal chords are properly lubed up…just sayin’.
Leiber and Stoller would tire of the rock and roll tunes they were producing so in 1969, kind of out of nowhere, they came up with “Is That All There Is?” for Peggy Lee, one of the more depressing tunes of all time, but, let’s face it, she performs it brilliantly. And later it would be baseball announcer Tim McCarver, if I recall correctly, who was the first to speak of a pitcher having a Peggy Lee fastball… “Is that all there is?” Baseball fans ever since think of this line when watching someone throw less than overpowering ‘heat’ at, say, 85 mph.
The other notable death in the music world was that of Nick Ashford, who along with wife Valerie Simpson formed one of the definitive R&B duos, both as songwriters and performers. Ashford, he of the great hair, was 69.
It’s easy to forget, as I did, that Ashford & Simpson penned and produced almost all of the 60s hits for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “You’re All I Need to Get By” (awesome tune), “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “Your Precious Love.”
I mean to tell you, Ashford & Simpson were as prolific as they come, writing for Chuck Jackson, the Shirelles, Maxime Brown, the Fifth Dimension, Ray Charles (“Let’s Go Get Stoned”), Diana Ross’ “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand),” and Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman.”
The couple was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.
And of course as a duo they had the No. 12 hit themselves, “Solid.” Can’t believe this only hit No. 12! That’s bizarre. [It did hit No. 1 on the R&B chart.]
Verdine White, of Earth Wind & Fire, a Bar Chat fave and great friend of Nick Ashford (and now Verdine’s own hair makes sense!), said of Nick and his tunes with Valerie:
“They had magic, and that’s what creates those wonderful hits, that magic. Without those songs, those artists wouldn’t have been able to go to the next level.”
Think of this. In 1964, Ashford was homeless when he went to White Rock Baptist Church in Harlem, whereupon he met 17-year-old Valerie, a recent high school graduate who was studying music. So they started writing tunes together.
[And just to go off track, but when I saw the name Chuck Jackson, for a second I confused him with Deon Jackson. Chuck Jackson had “Any Day Now.” But Deon’s sole hit was the 1966 No. 11 “Love Makes the World Go Round,” easily in my top 20 all time. YouTube it. Super tune.]
–Here’s a shocker…golfer J.B. Holmes needs brain surgery to treat a condition that causes vertigo-like symptoms and is undergoing it Sept. 1 at Johns Hopkins Univ. Hospital. His condition is called Chiari malformations, “which affects the part of the brain that controls balance. Symptoms include dizziness and problems with vision and coordination. Holmes began experiencing vertigo-like symptoms at the Players Championship in May, the PGA Tour said.” [Dex McLuskey / Bloomberg]
Evidently it is a “relatively low-risk surgery” with a high success rate.
Heck, just the other week I talked about having vertigo on the golf course in Ireland, yet hit my best shots ever there while under the influence! The Vertigo then went away and I sucked, as usual, after. We wish J.B. the best.
–Ha! Last time I wrote of the stupid new trophy for the winner of the annual Iowa-Iowa State football showdown, an incredibly corny depiction of an Iowa farm family, and organizers have now scrapped it as of Tuesday. The sponsors, the Iowa Corn Growers Association, had to concede they kind of missed the mark on this one and that the trophy had nothing to do with football, for crying out loud!
–Four LSU football players are under investigation for their involvement in a bar brawl, including starting quarterback Jordan Jefferson, though none have been charged as I go to post. “Multiple witnesses have told police that one of the players kicked one of the four victims in the head while he was on the ground.” [USA TODAY] All four practiced on Monday, though, and the backup quarterback, Jarrett Lee, said he’s ready should Jefferson be suspended. Understand, No. 4 LSU plays No. 3 Oregon on Sept. 3 in Arlington, Texas.
Sometimes, there’s only so much a coach can do when so many of his players are jerks.
–Speaking of jerks, Miami President Donna Shalala said the university is now looking into the eligibility of 15 athletes who might have accepted improper benefits from rogue booster Nevin Shapiro. Of the current football players named by Shapiro in his interviews with Yahoo Sports, all were expected to be major contributors on the team this season. The status of the players is to be determined by week’s end. Miami’s first game is Sept. 5 vs. Maryland.
Isn’t college football great these days?! Hopefully the action on the field more than makes up for the other crap.
–The Wall Street Journal’s Darren Everson had an interesting bit involving Auburn. With an AP preseason ranking of No. 23, it is the first time since Colorado in 1991 that a defending champion started outside the top 10! “And even 23rd might be generous, considering the Tigers’ unforgiving Southeastern Conference schedule, the departure of (Cam) Newton and star defensive lineman Nick Fairley to the NFL and the overall youth of this year’s Tigers team.”
Since 1990, 22 of the 24 teams that won a share of a national title finished in the AP top 20 the following year, with more than half in the top 10.
Auburn has seven preseason top-25 teams on its schedule.
–Phil W., Appalachian State fan because the alternative, his alma mater, Wake Forest, is so tough to stomach, passed along some potentially distressing news. A committee at App State is now looking into seeking a football conference that would elevate the program to Division I status vs. the current I-AA that they are consistently in the top five in the country in. I couldn’t agree more with Phil that the Apps should stay where they are. They own the region, they send players to the NFL, they can pull off the occasional upset against a D-I opponent, and they sell out a good-sized stadium. It’s a great program. But trying to compete with, say, Clemson and South Carolina, would be a mistake.
Then again, for years Wake Forest has been afraid to play App State. Maybe the two could flip-flop.
—University of Richmond football coach Latrell Scott was dismissed just two weeks from the start of the season after being arrested for DWI a second time in a 5-10 year period. Evidently, the Spiders’ athletic director had an agreement with Scott…one more offense and you’re out. Scott was 6-5 in his only season, an injury-riddled one, to be fair.
–Once again the Mets’ season is in free-fall after teasing their fans this year with inspired, albeit .500, play from a club riddled with key injuries and the loss of Carlos Beltran in a trade to San Francisco. Andrew Keh of the New York Times also had a telling stat after the Mets’ 10-0 loss at Philadelphia on Monday, followed by a 9-4 loss on Tuesday. The Phils went up 23 ½ games on the Metropolitans, whereas five years ago on the same date, the Mets were 13 ½ ahead of Philadelphia.
Yup, much has changed in the interim. For us Mets fans, it has been nothing but a nightmare.
Consider, as Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal pointed out, thru Tuesday, since Sept. 12, 2007, the Mets have a combined record of 303-328 (.480), with no playoff appearances. In the same span, the Phillies are 378-252 (.600) and have won four division titles, two National League pennants and one World Series.
–Washington Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg made his fourth rehab start pain free in going 3 innings and consistently throwing in the 94-96 mph range. It’s still looking like he’ll pitch for the big club around Sept. 10. Again, I’d keep him out until next spring, but I can understand from a marketing standpoint that for the Nats it’s important to get him out there.
I swear, just as a baseball fan, wanting to see the kid become the superstar the sport could use, especially in the D.C. area, I’m going to be nervous watching the guy!
–As a story by Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY points out, many of the teams that made big trades at the deadline in July are having major regrets today. Like the Cleveland Indians, who gave up their top two pitching prospects to Colorado for Ubaldo Jimenez, who has proceeded to give up 17 earned runs in his first 21 innings for the team.
Or San Francisco, which has gotten a whopping two RBI out of Carlos Beltran since getting him from the Mets. I thought both trades were the right ones, incidentally. The Diamondbacks got pitcher Jason Marquis, who sucked before breaking his leg. The Cardinals faded after getting pitcher Edwin Jackson and shortstop Rafael Furcal.
–Interesting tidbit from the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Nicole Pappas concerning the Phillies Hall of Fame ace Robin Roberts. On Aug. 24, 1954, Roberts departed a game against the Braves in the seventh inning after giving up six hits, five runs and one walk. Milwaukee, and their own future Hall of Famer, Warren Spahn, won the game 5-1.
The significance? Roberts had pitched 13 consecutive complete games, going 12-1, against the same Braves going back to 1952. The only loss came when the Braves’ Jim Wilson threw a no-hitter!
–Boy, it is threatening to be an awful season for the football Giants, who lost another key player in Monday’s exhibition game against the Bears; cornerback Terrell Thomas to an ACL injury. This is why NFL players have to get as much guaranteed money as possible when they sign their contracts. Thomas, a potential Pro Bowler after an excellent season last year (5 INTs, 4 forced fumbles), was in the last year of his contract. Earlier this preseason, the Giants’ No. 1 pick, Prince Amukamara, broke his foot and will miss the first month, at least. Another reserve corner, Bruce Johnson, is out with a ruptured Achilles. And then d-back Brian Witherspoon left Monday’s game with a knee injury.
So, if you have good lateral movement, like on the dance floor, why not call Coach Tom Coughlin and ask for a tryout!
–Incredibly, former New York Jets defensive end Vernon Gholston blasted coach Rex Ryan for not giving him a chance. Gholston, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2008 draft, didn’t record one freakin’ sack in his three years…and he was given a chance! Ryan took the high road. Gholston is now the Chicago Bears’ problem.
–So you know how I quoted the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Plaschke the other day, who did not want the Oakland Raiders to move back to Los Angeles as one of the teams in the new stadium proposed for downtown L.A.? Plaschke said the bad element, even if small percentage-wise, in the Raiders’ fan base wasn’t worth the trouble.
Well look what happened in San Francisco surrounding a 49ers-Raiders exhibition game. Two men were shot and another severely assaulted in separate incidents. Following the game, a man was shot in the stomach outside Candlestick Park. A man wearing a Raiders jersey was detained. Another shooting victim was found in the parking lot with superficial wounds to his face and was in stable condition. And the third man was beaten unconscious in a Candlestick Park bathroom.
The next day, the 49ers said they would discontinue the traditional exhibition game between the two teams. Raiders Nation…you can have ‘em.
–It’s official…New Meadowlands Stadium will be MetLife Stadium for the next 20+ years. Thus watch out for MetLife, given the “Members of the Corporate Naming Rights Hall of Shame,” as noted by Aaron Elstein of Crain’s New York Business.
MCI WorldCom, which bought the naming rights to a new hockey and basketball arena in Washington, D.C., before collapsing into bankruptcy in 2002.
CMGI. This dot-com-era play once owned the naming rights to the New England Patriots’ stadium.
Wachovia. Think Philadelphia and the hockey, b-ball arena before nearly disintegrating in 2008.
United Airlines. It bought the naming rights to Chicago’s hockey and basketball arena before filing for bankruptcy in 2002.
Enron…Think Houston, before the company’s collapse in 2001.
–Legendary Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt announced she is suffering from the early onset of Alzheimer’s, but that she planned on continuing to coach, even though in a videotaped statement she admitted to forgetting things at crucial points in games last season. Summitt said her doctor at the Mayo Clinic told her she should continue to coach as long as she felt up to it, but is this the best thing for the school? After eight national titles, I guess Vols’ officials believe she can do whatever she wants. Good luck, Pat.
–NASCAR star Kyle Busch had all driving privileges revoked for 45 days as a result of a May incident where he was clocked going 128 mph in a 45 mph zone on a rural road near Mooresville, N.C. Busch was also fined $1,000 and ordered to do 30 hours of community service. But he can continue to drive for the Sprint Cup title, for which he is in the points lead thus far.
By the way, Busch was driving a 2012 Lexus LFA high performance sports car valued at around $400,000. Didn’t know Lexus made such a vehicle.
–Chicago, New York and Dallas were the U.S. cities hoping to bid on the 2020 Summer Olympics, but the USOC pulled out of the process because it couldn’t work out a long-simmering revenue-sharing deal with the International Olympic Committee.
The last games on U.S. soil were the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002 and the last Summer Olympics were the Atlanta Games in 1996. So the next hope for us would be the 2022 Winter Olympics, but the same revenue-sharing issue would need to be resolved soon for Denver and Reno/Tahoe, the two who would like to bid on the slot. Of course the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi are likely to be the last Games of any kind. Expect disaster.
–Some of you may have seen the fire caused by lightning that destroyed part of Richard Branson’s resort on Necker Island in the Caribbean. I only make note of this because it’s been a dream of mine to someday have enough money to be able to afford a week or two there (a mutual deal a friend of mine and I have if a certain China stock we own lots of triples from current levels).
Oh well….looks like Branson will be rebuilding for a number of years. The story gained international prominence because in the “Great House” that was destroyed, where 8 of the bedrooms are, actress Kate Winslett actually helped save Branson’s 90-year-old mother from the conflagration, Branson himself being on another part of the property.
So now I have to pick a different dream property. Note to Jeff B. Nothing wrong with Ocean House, mind you, but it’s not the Caribbean.
“A badly decomposed whale carcass has washed up at a northern Sydney beach.
“The seven-meter corpse, which is yet to become fully beached, is washing around in the wave zone at Palm Beach, prompting shark fears.”
–The Herald also had a funny story on the history of stewardesses, or air hostesses back in the day. In fact in 1948, a job application for this position stated that should an air hostess decide to get married, she would be required to resign and “hand in her uniform.”
In the route from Australia to Britain, during this time, hostesses were expected to change into a fresh uniform at any of the stops along the way, and do so in those little bathrooms! “Many of the hostesses remember…reaching the point of almost passing out through the effort.”
In the 1930s, the handbook read: “Passengers who wish to remove their shoes should be assisted and the shoes cleaned by the hostess before returning them.” Good lord!
–As you know, singer Glen Campbell is fading from the scene, a victim of Alzheimer’s. Rolling Stone has an interview with him, and Campbell is releasing his final album, “Ghost on the Canvas,” next week. Now I’m not sure RS is just being kind to him, but they really like it, “a return to that (unique) sound, all soaring vocals, big, orchestra-laced production and killer guitar.”
Heck, I’m going to get it. “The songs touch on every part of his epic life, from battles with personal demons – three failed marriages, years of cocaine and alcohol abuse…”
I mean think of this guy’s career. The casual fan/listener doesn’t even know that he was one of the great session artists of all time. Leon Russell said, “He was the best guitar player I’d heard before or since.”
I’ll always remember how when Brian Wilson had a nervous breakdown late in 1964, the Beach Boys replaced him with Glen Campbell for six months! Wilson used the time off to write “Pet Sounds,” in which Campbell plays on five songs.
Campbell is going on a farewell tour, indefinitely, as he put it. Sounds like he’ll just keep performing until it’s impossible to do so. Rolling Stone said he definitely has trouble with some lyrics.
I have such great memories of Campbell growing up, including his variety show, and not a week goes by when “Wichita Lineman,” in my all-time top ten, doesn’t pop into my head (especially wintertime), that I’m not sure I want to see him if the performance is shaky.
Top 3 songs for the week 8/29/81: #1 “Endless Love” (Diana Ross & Lionel Richie…good lord, this sucked) #2 “Slow Hand” (Pointer Sisters…how did this get to #2? Just awful…) #3 “Theme From ‘Greatest American Hero’ (Believe It Or Not)” (Joey Scarbury…just shoot me)…and…#4 “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers…ughhh…I don’t even want the cryonics crap at this point) #5 “Jessie’s Girl” (Rick Springfield…time for Ronnie to do something about this year) #6 “Queen Of Hearts” (Juice Newton…oh gawd…but did you watch ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ on Sunday and Larry ‘juicing’?) #7 “(There’s) No Getting Over Me” (Ronnie Milsap…c’mon Randy Travis…please save us!!!) #8 “Urgent” (Foreigner… whatever…it’s too late…) #9 “Lady (You Bring Me Up)” (Commodores…honestly, this is the best song of this sorry bunch) #10 “Who’s Crying Now” (Journey…actually, this was OK…)
Baseball Quiz Answer: All-time franchise leaders in home runs.
Angels: Tim Salmon, 299
Dodgers: Duke Snider, 389
Arizona: Luis Gonzalez, 224
Atlanta: Hank Aaron, 733
Baltimore: Cal Ripken, 431
Boston: Ted Williams, 521
Cubs: Sammy Sosa, 545
White Sox: Frank Thomas, 334
Cincinnati: Johnny Bench, 389
Cleveland: Jim Thome, 334
Colorado: Todd Helton, 333
Detroit: Al Kaline, 399
Florida: Dan Uggla, 154
Houston: Jeff Bagwell, 449
Kansas City: George Brett, 317
Minnesota: Harmon Killebrew, 559
Milwaukee: Robin Yount, 251
Mets: Darryl Strawberry, 252
Yankees: Babe Ruth, 659
Oakland: Mark McGwire, 363
Philadelphia: Mike Schmidt, 548
Pittsburgh: Willie Stargell, 475
St. Louis: Stan Musial, 475
San Diego: Nate Colbert, 163
San Francisco: Willie Mays, 646
Seattle: Ken Griffey Jr., 417
Tampa Bay: Carlos Pena, 144
Texas: Juan Gonzalez, 372
Toronto: Carlos Delgado, 336
Washington: Vladimir Guerrero, 234 [think Montreal]
Next Bar Chat, Monday…your EXCLUSIVE college football pick to click!
