Indy 500 Quiz: From 2000-2011, three drivers won at least two Indy 500s. Dan Wheldon was one of them. Name the other two. Answer below.
Dan Wheldon Dies
Friends, I subscribe to a number of breaking news alerts and it was after 5:30 p.m. on Sunday that I got one about the death of two-time Indy 500 champion Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a horrific 15-car crash on lap 11 of the Las Vegas 300, the final IndyCar Series race of the season.
It takes awhile to put together the weekend Bar Chat and you can imagine news like this hitting at the hour it did does not allow me to do the story justice. I’m not the auto racing fan I was in the past, but I know what’s going on in the sport and I’ve been to the Indy 500, numerous Can-Am and IndyCar races, as well as more than a few NASCAR events so I have the ultimate respect for these guys and gals (Danica Patrick among those escaping injury on Sunday).
If you haven’t been to a top-flight auto race, go. I know many of you catch a glimpse on television and think it’s incredibly boring, but unless you’ve actually been there you just don’t get it. These guys are incredible athletes (as I’ve long opined in this space) and as brave as any you’ll come across.
I’ll have more on this next BC, as appropriate, but for now, understand Dan Wheldon was one of the most popular drivers in his sport. A truly good guy. A great family man, with a wife and two kids, ages two and 8 months.
Modern day racing goes years and years without tragedies like this. But I grew up following the sport in a far different time, the 1960s and 70s, when a top driver or two was killed every year. My older brother, who introduced me to the sport, and I used to talk about how I’d pick a favorite to follow and soon he’d be dead, Pedro Rodriguez and Bruce McLaren being but two. In my office I have a picture of myself and Denny Hulme (who died racing, though of a heart attack while in the car) at a time trial for the British Grand Prix in 1968! I was just ten years old and had access to the pits in Formula One racing’s greatest era, thanks to my dear Aunt Jean. In fact I’m staring right now at a picture of my brother and Jochen Rindt, also from 1968, who would become the only one to win a World Driving Championship, in 1970, posthumously! And as I’ve told you, I live a mere mile from the burial site of the great Mark Donohue, another Indy champion who later died in a Formula One crash. I pay my respects to the man quite often.
In the immediate moments after learning of Wheldon’s death I turned on ABC Sports, which was still broadcasting live from Vegas, and saw the incredibly moving 5-lap ceremony to honor Wheldon (and the others seriously injured).
But I also went on the ESPN.com site and began to read some of the comments posted there. For those who wonder why I have never had a comment section on this site, understand it is the smartest thing I’ve ever done. Or maybe you don’t understand. It has hurt me from a business standpoint, but I want nothing to do with the incredible jerks who people the Internet. Some of what I read, by those with ‘handles’ that even I won’t repeat, should be thrown in prison.
In the meantime, God bless Dan Wheldon, his family, and his many fans.
Us Wake Forest Demon Deacon fans are awful proud of our two big golfers on the PGA Tour these days, Bill Haas and Webb Simpson. I mean here’s the deal. These are the only two Deacs who are competing regularly on the main circuit and yet, if you include Haas’ FedEx Cup $10 million bonus, as of today, these two are No. 1 and No. 2 on the official (and unofficial) PGA Tour money list! I imagine you won’t find this factoid anywhere else.
On the official list, Simpson, who lost a playoff on Sunday to Ben Crane (missing a virtual gimme), nonetheless moved ahead of Luke Donald at $6,200,243 to Donald’s $5,837,214. Donald missed this week’s Fall Series event because he was attending the wedding of his caddie.
[Haas, if you include the $10 million, is over $14,000,000 total, but, again, that’s unofficial, except to Mrs. Haas, who thinks it is very official.]
Now I realize all of this is for golf junkies only, but just understand, you casual fans, that the money list competition never comes down to the last week, or hasn’t since 2003 when Vijay Singh had his spectacular year.
I mean the Fall Series is for those guys trying to get into the top 125 on the money list and thus retain their tour card for 2012, little else. The elite never perform in these final four events. No reason to.
But Simpson wants the money belt badly (it’s the Arnold Palmer award, after all, speaking of Deacs) and he’s gunning for it.
Folks, it’s one thing to say each week you’re out to win on tour, everyone says that, after all, but until Simpson missed the easy putt on the second playoff hole he almost pulled it off. You can’t help but respect the hell out of the effort. [For his part, Crane, at one point, was 8 strokes back on Sunday so kudos to him.]
So now Luke Donald heads to the Disney Classic for the final event this week. He’s just as competitive as Simpson, if not more so.
Donald needs to finish solo second or higher (according to Golf Channel), obviously assuming Simpson doesn’t win, to grab the money title. The Disney folks couldn’t ask for more in promoting their event, let alone the other issues going on back at the 125 cut line. [Organizers would also have to be idiots not to pair them the first two rounds and hope it stays that way on the weekend.]
Uh oh…I have a concert next Sunday afternoon I must attend. It’s family, you understand. But my Palm Pre will be handy. There are 8 of us left in the world who still own one.
And one last thing on Webb Simpson. He has two wins and three seconds this year. Out of freakin’ nowhere. Plus he is one classy guy. He wears his religion on his sleeve, and I totally respect that, just as long as he doesn’t start saying it was God’s will when he misses a putt, though he’s too smart to play that game. Simpson is best friends with Crane, a man of similar beliefs, and if you saw the end of Sunday’s event, the warm embrace the two gave each other after Simpson blew it, well, let’s just say it was a refreshing change from the a-holes that make up the NBA.
College Football Review
Darren Everson / Wall Street Journal…before Saturday’s action…
“Saturday is going to be ugly across college football….
“The top five teams…are (all) expected to deliver brutal beatdowns this weekend – even though all five are playing conference games, four of them on the road. Top-ranked LSU is a 17 ½-point favorite at Tennessee…
“No. 2 Alabama is favored by 26 ½ at Ole Miss. No. 3 Oklahoma is a 36 ½-point favorite at Kansas. No. 4 Wisconsin is a whopping 40 ½-point favorite over visiting Indiana. Meanwhile, the line on No. 5 Boise State’s inaugural Mountain West Conference game at Colorado State is a mere 33 points.
“This college football season has felt very top heavy, with the teams at the top of the polls dominating the competition. But this is as bad as it gets. If the five aforementioned favorites win by those point spreads (an average of 30.8 points), it would represent one of the most lopsided Saturdays in recent college football history.
“Over the past 15 years, the most noncompetitive day for the AP’s top five (during conference play) was Nov. 2, 1996. That day, Florida, Ohio State, Florida State, Arizona State and Nebraska won their games by an average of 39.6 points. This Saturday may not match that, but it’s going to be grim.”
1. LSU 38 Tennessee 7
2. Alabama 52 Ole Miss 7
3. Oklahoma 47 Kansas 17…Jayhawks beat the spread!!!
4. Wisconsin 59 Indiana 7
5. Boise State 63 Colorado State 13
We started the weekend with 13 undefeateds. I thought only one would be go down, but it turns out three did.
No. 11. Michigan lost to No. 23. Michigan State, 28-14, as Wolverines QB Denard Robinson sucked big time.
No. 12. Georgia Tech lost to Virginia in Charlottesville, 24-21.
And No. 16 Illinois lost to Ohio State, 17-7, as the Buckeyes were just 1 of 4 passing (the lone completion went for a score), opting to run the ball 51 times just like days of yore, when we all walked to school in blinding snowstorms, uphill both ways.
As for the other undefeateds…
6. Oklahoma State defeated 22. Texas, 38-26.
7. Stanford 44 Washington State 14
8. Clemson 56 Maryland 45…Clemson coming back from a 35-17 third quarter deficit.
17. Kansas State 41 Texas Tech 34
25. Houston..idle…
In other games your editor was mildly, if not totally, interested in…
Miami had a nice win over North Carolina in Chapel Hill, 30-24, sending the Tar Heels to 5-2.
Rutgers went to 5-1 in defeating Navy, 21-20.
Georgia goes to 5-2 in defeating Vanderbilt 33-28 (I don’t need to tell you anymore why what Georgia does is important for Boise State).
Utah beat Pitt, 26-14, as the Panthers continue to implode and had but 120 yards total offense (9 of 30 passing…good lord!).
No. 21 Texas A&M (Booooo!) beat No. 20 Baylor, 55-28, as the two teams combined for 1,161 yards in total offense and both quarterbacks passed for over 400.
Duckwear is still a viable option for your editor this fall as No. 9 Oregon defeated No. 18 Arizona State, 41-27, though the Ducks lost their QB for an indeterminate time, this after LaMichael James sat out with an elbow issue. Quack Quack!!…sorry, that came out of the sportswear drawer.
Back to Boise State’s win at Colorado State, the Broncos had 476 yards of offense at half! [And a school record 742 for the game.]
And this is absolutely amazing, B.S. quarterback Kellen Moore, a Heisman contender going back two years ago, has now completed 75.9% of his passes this season (151-199, 21 TDs 4 INTs…his TD/INT ratios for 2009 and 2010 were 39-3, 35-6, respectively).
I mean while all the talk is about Stanford’s Andrew Luck, and rightfully so, nonetheless, with both QBs being seniors, I hardly think whatever NFL team drafts a quarterback second next spring is going to be unhappy with Moore.
On to the New AP Poll….
1. LSU*
2. Alabama*
3. Oklahoma*
4. Wisconsin*
5. Boise State*
6. Oklahoma State*
7. Stanford*
8. Clemson*
9. Oregon
10. Arkansas
12. Kansas State*
15. Michigan State
21. Houston*
I have Michigan State in there because they are involved in the only high-profile game this coming weekend as Wisconsin travels to East Lansing. [No. 19. Auburn goes to No. 1. LSU but Auburn will be destroyed.]
But…we have our first BCS Poll!
1. LSU .9522
2. Alabama .9519
3. Oklahoma .9301
4. Oklahoma State .8568
5. Boise State .8027
6. Wisconsin .7708
7. Clemson .7582
8. Stanford .7484
9. Arkansas .6263
Well, you can see it pays to be undefeated and there are zero surprises up top (Wisconsin’s BCS ranking understandable due to strength of schedule…ditto Stanford). More on all this next time…and in weeks to come because this is why the U.S. Constitution, in the 37th Amendment, states “Neighborhood taverns are to be used for topics such as BCS polls and bowl game debates. The Second Amendment is repudiated in such circumstances.”
Lastly, my Wake Forest Demon Deacons hosted then No. 19 Virginia Tech (now 16) and after the Deacs took a 10-0 lead, your editor, huddled over the computer watching the action on ESPN3 while quaffing domestic and eating chicken parm, was beginning to dream of a New Year’s holiday down in Miami for the Orange Bowl.
But then reality hit and the freakin’ Hokies rolled 38-17. By the end the home office was a mess, cans strewn on the floor, tomato sauce on the ceiling….
OK, major exaggeration. This loss wasn’t really upsetting at all, we’re just not that good, but hopefully we can still go 7-5 and get into the Swiffer Dust Bowl.
So, sports fans, bottom line it’s still about two ballgames…
Nov. 5…LSU at Alabama
Dec. 3…Oklahoma at Oklahoma State
I went online Saturday, curious just to see what tickets were going for to attend the Sooners-Cowboys game and, frankly, it was exactly as I suspected; an average of about $450 per ticket. As George H.W. Bush would say, “Ain’t gonna do it…wouldn’t be prudent…”
Speaking of OK State, I’d love them to win it all. There has been no more loyal alumnus at any university in the land than T. Boone Pickens, who has basically funded the entire school’s athletic program. I’ve always liked the oil man and he doesn’t have too many years left, so, what the heck…Win One for the Booner!
On the conference realignment front, sources tell the New York Post that no invites for the Big East have been extended yet because the conference doesn’t want to take away from basketball media day on Wednesday. That said, the Big East is confident it will land Boise State, Air Force, Central Florida, SMU and Houston. Navy is supposedly locked up as well.
The key is the exit fee the Big East wants to impose, increasing it from $5 million to $10 million, and once approved, Boise State, Air Force and Navy will be granted football-only invites with the other three granted for all sports. And then you’d have two divisions.
East: Rutgers, UConn, West Virginia, Central Florida, South Florida and Navy.
West: Boise State, Air Force, Houston, SMU, Louisville and Cincinnati
Talk about losing all control. The NCAA always talks of the “student-athlete,” but look at some of the road trips for, say, baseball. You think these kids are going to lose a little class time? Totally asinine. And, wow, aren’t some of those above football matchups attractive? You couldn’t pay me to go to 90% of the games you’ll be seeing in the future.
Meanwhile, the Mountain West and Conference USA announced they would merge into a 22-team super conference, convinced they can persuade Air Force, Boise State and Central Florida to say no to the Big East. And, remember, Air Force and Boise State need to find a conference for their other sports if they move to the Big East, so, they could move back to the WAC!
I think we’ll all be glad when this crap is finally over and we can move on.
Separately, the NCAA said it found no major violations committed by Auburn regarding Cam Newton or other pay-for-play allegations and that the investigation is closed. Then again, the NCAA said the investigation could be reopened if evidence surfaces that is different from what they had.
And lastly, back to the play on the field, I have to note that South Carolina’s great running back, Marcus Lattimore, is out for the year with a knee injury. This kid is a stud. Huge loss for the Gamecocks.
“The Detroit Lions, with more winless seasons than playoff appearances over the past 10 years, would have made $450,130 for a bettor who wagered $100 on the club in December and stayed with it.
“Undefeated through five games this year for the first time since 1956, the Lions are 13-0-1 against the point spread in their past 14 games, including preseason, according to RJ Bell, founder of the handicapping information website Pregame.com. That means a $100 bet on the team starting Dec. 5, 2010, with winnings continually reinvested, would have grown 4,500-fold. The Lions are 4 ½-point favorites over the 49ers.”
[Of course then the Lions proceeded to lose, 25-19, but it was still an interesting tidbit.]
By the way, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Nevada sports books took in $1.2 billion in professional and college football wagers during the fiscal year ending in June 2010, with NFL bets accounting for roughly 66 percent of the total. I can’t tell you how much I really want to go to Vegas just for a Saturday of college football and wager a few Washingtons. [Hey, the economy is tough!]
Once again the NFL gets short shrift in the Sunday Bar Chat, but a few comments.
The Eagles finally played a little ball and beat the Redskins, 20-13.
Green Bay, your editor’s Pick to Click this year, goes to 6-0 in toying with the Rams, 24-3, as St. Louis goes to 0-5. [I’ll cover the Andrew Luck Stakes next time.]
The Pats beat the Cowboys, 20-16, with Dallas moving to 2-3.
And the Falcons defeated the Panthers, 31-17, as Carolina’s Cam Newton threw three interceptions, while Wake Forest’s Ovie Mughelli had a touchdown reception for Atlanta. Go Deacs!
–In 2009, Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry was selected No. 4 overall in the first round by Seattle. Clay Matthews went No. 26 in the same round to Green Bay. Curry has not lived up to the initial hype of him being the perfect linebacker and after almost 2 ½ years, and just 5 ½ career sacks, he was traded from Seattle to Oakland this week, with the Raiders then installing him in the starting lineup. [He had three tackles.]
Seattle defensive end Red Bryant summed it up best. “I don’t feel like he was probably as ready as he could have been. He’s the fourth pick, gets $34 million guaranteed, you’re the first linebacker taken in a class of Clay Matthews, Brian Orakpo, Brian Cushing….To who much is given, much is expected.”
–On Monday night, the Jets are adding Larry Grantham, Gerry Philbin, Freeman McNeil and Al Toon to their Ring of Honor, joining Coach Weeb Ewbank, Joe Namath, Don Maynard, Winston Hill, Curtis Martin and Joe Klecko.
I didn’t realize this about Toon. “In his first five seasons, Toon…had more receptions, 355, than anybody in his era, even Jerry Rice.” [Dave Anderson / New York Times] Toon was all-NFL in 1986 and ’87 and led the league in 1988 with 93 receptions. But then in 1992, he was flattened by a Denver linebacker.
“It felt like a cannonball hit me in the back of the head,” he said then. “When I came to, I remember thinking it wasn’t all that bad, but then it got worse.”
By his count, Toon said it was his ninth concussion. “Still dizzy, still nauseated, on the day after Thanksgiving, he retired suddenly at 29.” [Anderson] Thankfully, he says “I’m not suffering major issues, but the long range will tell.”
Al Toon is a classy guy and has made his impact on the Madison, Wisconsin business community, as well as serving on the Green Bay Packers’ board of directors.
And Freeman McNeil was one classy dude, too. McNeil had 8,074 yards with the Jets.
As for Grantham and Philbin, it’s interesting looking back at their size. Philbin was a 6’2” 245 defensive end and Grantham a 6’ 210 linebacker, both of whom starred on the Super Bowl III team. My times have changed. Philbin would be a linebacker today and Grantham a safety.
So as I go to post at near midnight on Sunday, it’s going to be St. Louis vs. Texas in the World Series. Fox is just thrilled…not.
What a staggering ALCS for Texas’ Nelson Cruz…a record six homers in six games, a record 13 RBI, and an awesome throw to nail Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera at the plate in a critical moment of the series. And as the New York Times’ David Waldstein pointed out, what makes this all the more remarkable is the fact that when the Rangers “placed him on outright waivers and sent him to the minor leagues in 2008 after 10 uneven seasons in professional baseball,” none of the other 29 teams claimed him.
Cruz, 31, is obviously a late bloomer but he’s always had immense potential, many calling him the best minor league hitter of the past decade or so. It took awhile but going back to last year’s Rangers run to the World Series, he has 12 postseason homers in 26 games.
And, as Johnny Mac keeps reminding me, Cruz was originally signed at 18 by the Mets. I’m having nightmares, though, to be fair, a lot of teams ended up waiting for Cruz to blossom. Yet it was in the summer of 2000 that the Mets’ general manager, Steve Phillips, traded Cruz to Oakland for Jorge Velandia. [Velandia would go on to hit .189 in 244 big league at-bats.]
—Rugby World Cup Final next Sunday….
France vs. New Zealand…in Auckland.
France defeated Wales; the All Blacks (New Zealand) defeated Australia.
[Might have to get me an All Blacks jersey…very cool. Been to Auckland, after all….and this just in, I did indeed order one, but in white…a spiffy jersey that says All Blacks and is bound to drive the chicks wild. Really, I swear. I mean getting it in black would have been too obvious a statement. Now I have a white shirt that says All Blacks! Girl No. 1. “Hey, why does your white shirt say all blacks?” “Funny you should ask, Miss…can I buy you a drink and explain it to you?” Ahem…sorry, guys, it didn’t work.]
So can you imagine how cool it would be to be in Auckland for the final, especially if they win? Good gawd, the premium would be flowing!
—Sign of the Apocalypse…
“On a recent Thursday night in Hollywood, NBA player James Harden was holding court, but there wasn’t a basketball in sight.
“The second-string guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder was partying at Roxbury, celebrating his 22nd birthday with several hundred of his closest friends.
“Jammed into a circular corner booth with roughly 40 others, Harden took swigs from a bottle of Patron as hip-hop music blasted and leggy ladies in short dresses filled the dance floor. The $13,000 moment came when a parade of runway-ready ‘bottle servers’ sashayed toward his table carrying his order of 22 bottles of Moet & Chandon.
“The economy may be troubled, but decadence is still in style.”
Vankin and Donnelly write about the “lucrative micro-economy within the L.A. club scene,” which is echoed in Vegas, New York and Miami, among other places, specifically bottle service. “Club goers routinely pay $500, $3,000, up to $10,000 to avoid waiting in line and to get a private server, a choice of liquor and a premier table.”
Then there are the “whales,” the “elite class of partiers (that pay) from $20,000 to $100,000 a night to satisfy their every whim. That might mean bodyguards, protection from unwanted media attention or a steady stream of beautiful people ushered to their table. One client enjoyed a white-gold encrusted jeroboam of Dom Perignon, according to one club manager.”
What the [expletive] is a jeroboam? Glad you asked, because I just looked it up. A jeroboam is an oversized bottle of wine holding about three liters. Sad to say I personally don’t hang around a jeroboam crowd, but if you do, invite me! I’ll wear my white All Blacks shirt!
“We have athletes that are supposed to be sick and at home and they want to go out and party without anyone knowing,” said Princeton Afeez, founder of eVita Parties, a night life concierge that caters to out-of-towners. “They go in the back entrance, have fun and no one finds out they were there.”
[I would have been the perfect night life concierge. Should have dropped out of Wake to become one.]
There are said to be 10 whales in L.A. that all the clubs are vying for.
–As Mike Lupica points out, it really is amazing how Theo Epstein is getting a free pass as he heads to the Cubs, this after as Red Sox GM he was directly responsible for the signings of John Lackey and Carl Crawford.
–Golf Digest had its latest survey of “America’s 50 Best Teachers” and the top three are:
1. Butch Harmon…charges $1,000 / hour
2. David Leadbetter…$3,500 / 3 hours
3. Jim McLean…$2,500 / half day
Dave Stockton made the list for the first time at No. 13, but Tiger Woods’ teacher, Sean Foley, enters at No. 35.
—Matt Kenseth won the Sprint Cup race in Charlotte on Saturday night and in NASCAR’s Chase for the championship, Carl Edwards now leads Kevin Harvick and Kenseth.
But five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson saw his chances for a sixth title suffer a big blow as with 17 laps remaining he made contact with Ryan Newman and went headfirst into the wall, sending him to 34th and dropping him to eighth in the Chase standings.
—Sebastian Vettel won another race, the Korean Grand Prix. It was Vettel’s 10th of the year, three off Michael Schumacher’s 2003 single season record of 13, and the 24-year-old already has 20 career triumphs. You might just say the kid has the world by the….
–21,000 showed up at the Smith Center on Friday night to watch the North Carolina Tar Heels practice. The season’s already over. If I were you, and you were going to, say, Georgetown, I’d cash in my student tickets for beer money because you have no chance of winning it all so why go in the first place?
–My high school alma mater, Summit, is off to a 6-0 start in football and is something like 27-1 the last 2 ½ seasons, but every now and then you see a stat or two from a high school game that kind of boggles the mind. And so on Friday night, in Union, New Jersey, about 15 minutes from where I live, we had this.
“In one of the more stunning performances by a running back against a ranked team, sophomore tailback Jamauri Bogan of Union carried 50 times for 376 yards and six touchdowns to lead his unranked team to a shocking 43-21 victory over heated rival Elizabeth, No. 13 in The Star-Ledger Top 20.”
Union has a storied program and is now coached by Brian Sheridan, a former great linebacker there who also starred at Rutgers. Awhile back, the same high school produced running back Tony Stewart, who starred at Iowa during the period 1987-90.
So little Mr. Bogan, all of 5’9” 165, is a kid to keep an eye on. [He had another 300 yards the week before against top competition.]
–Ever wonder how much those sponsorships cost on Premier League soccer jerseys? Like when Manchester United was sponsored by AIG (which was so embarrassing for yours truly to wear after the 2008 financial collapse that I shipped mine to Yap)? ManU approached Ryanair to see if it was interested and wanted about $35 million, but the discount airline’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, is a Manchester City fan and turned it down. O’Leary also didn’t like the format of the sponsorship offer. [AON replaced AIG. Last I looked, Manchester City is actually in first in the Premier League…but it’s early.]
–So I’ve been reading various stories on Brazil’s preparations for hosting the 2014 World Cup, or rather lack thereof, and here are a few facts courtesy of an AP story over the weekend.
“As of September, renovation work had not begun in 5 of the 13 airports that will be used…7 of the 12 host cities had yet to begin other infrastructure work, and only 9 of the nearly 50 transportation projects scheduled for the World Cup were under way.”
Understand, Brazil was awarded the Cup in 2007. Four years later the government has largely just been sitting on its hands. And here the IOC also gave them the 2016 Summer Olympics!
Note to Brazil…get your act together or your nation will never recover from the aftereffects for decades when it comes to your reputation and future investment.
[A big issue in the Rio area is flooding. You’ve seen just this year how flash floods there can turn deadly. If this happens during the World Cup or Olympics, the disaster will be magnified 100 times by the world media.]
–New research shows that during the Black Death, the great epidemic of 1348-49, no less than 55 percent – and as many as 65 percent – of London’s populace died. Just sayin’. [BBC History Magazine…had to put this subscription to use.]
—Director of Shark Operations for Bar Chat, Bob S., who had to take time off to defend himself from the Occupy Wall Street crowd, Bob being an innocent victim of the protesters, first notified me of the Oregon man, Doug Niblack, who was surfing off Seaside, Oregon, when “he actually stood atop a thrashing Great White shark for several terrifying seconds,” as reported by NBC Bay Area’s Greg Wilson.
Initially, Niblack “thought (it) was a rock. But when he looked down, he saw a dorsal fin and soon realized he was directly on top of the world’s most fearsome shark. Then, the beast’s tail began thrashing and Niblack jumped off and paddled to shore.”
“It was pretty terrifying just seeing the shape emerge out of nothing and just being under me,” he told the Associated Press on Wednesday. “And the fin coming out of the water. It was just like the movies.”
Wilson writes: “Jake Marks [Ed. no relation to Karl, which is spelled differently anyway so there shouldn’t have been any confusion], an off-duty Coast Guard officer who was nearby, said he saw Niblack suddenly standing up, with water churning around him. Although he didn’t see the shark, he did see a large shape swimming off between them just beneath the surface.”
“I have no reason to doubt there was a shark out there,” said Marks, in response to my query. “With the damage to his board, the way he was yelling and trembling afterwards – there is no other explanation for that.”
Niblack said he was standing on the shark for as long as four seconds before it swam away.
“I’m just screaming bloody murder,” he said. “I’m just yelling, ‘Shark!’ I thought for sure I was gone.
“There was a moment there when everything was going on, I just kind of made my peace,” he added. “I honestly thought I was going to die. Then paddling back in, I was praying the whole time. Like, ‘Don’t let it be following me.’”
In all seriousness, no way would I have been able to paddle back in. I would have been paralyzed with fear while hoping a cruise liner would pull up alongside and bring me in; something like the Queen Mary with top shelf accommodations, ten bars, a nightclub and a casino. Plus an upgrade to the top dining room.
–My girlfriend Shelby Lynne (well, I do have a poster of her in my office, which I think qualifies me to call her my girlfriend, right?) has come out with a new album, “Revelation Road,” which is another stripped down affair like her “Tears, Lies and Alibis” album which I liked.
–Bet you never thought of this. “The Sound of Music” has never played in Salzburg. The 1938 tale of the von Trapp family fleeing the city has been taboo in the country that gave overwhelming support to Hitler.
But now Salzburg’s state theater is staging its first ever production, which will be in German with English subtitles. It opens next Sunday and runs through June. 90 percent of the seats have been booked until January [in a 700-seat theater.]
Karl-Phillippe von Maldeghem is the artistic director and as he told the Telegraph:
“Salzburg, like most of Austria, was unable or unwilling to confront its past for a long time. For those who were alive at the time, the war was too close.”
Way back in 1968 (same trip I went to the British Grand Prix), my family and I stayed at a great hotel overlooking Salzburg and we hiked in the same fields where the movie was filmed, which was very cool. But I’ve also told you of my more recent trips to Vienna where there is definitely a Nazi undercurrent to this day, especially if you travel into the suburbs.
Top 3 songs for the week of 10/11/69: [As the Mets were winning the World Series] #1 “Sugar, Sugar” (The Archies…eegads!) #2 “Jean” (Oliver…no relation to Pirates and Rangers great Al Oliver) #3 “Little Woman” (Bobby Sherman…his records used to be on the back of Post cereal boxes…you could cut out the ’45)…and…#4 “I Can’t Get Next To You” (The Temptations …finally, some sanity) #5 “Hot Fun In The Summertime” (Sly & The Family Stone…easily top 50 all time…but peaked at #2) #6 “Everybody’s Talkin’” (Nilsson…from “Midnight Cowboy”) #7 “Easy To Be Hard” (Three Dog Night…another great one) #8 “Honky Tonk Women” (The Rolling Stones) #9 “This Girl Is A Woman Now” (Gary Puckett and The Union Gap…another solid effort from Mr. Puckett…no relation to Kirby) #10 “Green River” (Creedence Clearwater Revival…eliminate #1 and #3 and you have one of the better weeks in the 60s)
Indy 500 Quiz Answer: Aside from Dan Wheldon, Indy champion in 2005 and 2011, the other two to win at least twice between 2000 and 2011 are Helio Castroneves (2001, ‘02, ‘09) and Dario Franchitti (2007, ’10). Both Franchitti and wife Ashley Judd were overwhelmed by Sunday’s crash, more so than any others it seemed. Just imagine the conversation those two, and every other racing couple, are having today.
