Baseball Quiz: On Saturday, Adam Dunn became the 50th in baseball history to hit 400 home runs. All the articles I’ve read said he is also now the 11th “active” player to do so, but to be fair, two of them have been released from their organizations the past few months, so I wouldn’t exactly call them ‘active,’ the two being Manny Ramirez and Vladimir Guerrero. But name the others. Answer below.
Ball Bits
–About two hours after I posted my last column, I learned of the Melky Cabrera 50-game suspension for elevated levels of testosterone. The story took a strange twist on Sunday but I’m leaving that for last in this telling of the tale.
“Melky Cabrera tested positive for testosterone, which means this is a tainted season. His season? Well, sure. Cabrera’s season is tainted.
“But I was talking about the Giants’ season.
“Games illicitly won. Postseason opportunity unfairly attained.
“Nothing can be done about it now, of course. Bud Selig isn’t about to change the rules on the fly – dock the 2012 Giants a handful of games, declare them ineligible for the postseason – even if the Giants don’t deserve to play in October. Not after getting 113 dishonest games out of a player who ranks second in the league in batting, fist in runs, hits and triples, and in the top 10 in on-base percentage, OPS and sacrifice flies. Cabrera is having a career year, and the Giants have unjustly reaped those rewards.
“Seriously, what good would it do the Giants in May, as Melky Cabrera was embarking on the hottest month of his mediocre career, to wonder aloud how in the world he was doing it? That month Cabrera hit .429…Hone in a bit more, and from May 4 to June 1 he hit .445. For a month, middling Melky Cabrera was Mickey Freaking Mantle. When the month was over, Cabrera’s batting average – for the season – sat at .376….
“It could be any team that wouldn’t want to know, of course, but this isn’t any team. It’s the Giants. Steroid Central. The Giants looked the other way when Barry Bonds was doing the (legally) impossible. They looked the other way when employing 12 other players who would make their way onto the Mitchell Report….
“No team should be able to reap the rewards of a cheating payer. Not anymore. Not in today’s baseball, which claims to be trying so hard, and caring so much, about the integrity of its game.
“You want to show integrity, baseball? Don’t just punish the player when he gets caught cheating. Punish the team that won all those games unfairly.”
Former major leaguer Doug Glanville / New York Times
“There is something transformational about connecting with the game at the right time in your life – almost always in youth – when you learn to fully embrace its character and every potential: the patience and endurance required, the long season, the triumph, the forgiveness. When you fall in love with this game, there is no doubt.
“Even as childhood fades, we still believe in what the game can impart. That youthful affection can be kept alive even in the face of a midlife crisis or bad news at the doctor’s office….
“Given all that, the game and its magic appear indestructible. It gives rise to a kind of faith. But even the most faithful at times experience doubt.
“Melky Cabrera is no icon. And so his positive drug test and 50-day suspension from baseball this week isn’t the kind of news that evokes a head-shaking nod of recognition. Instead it’s the kind of news that forces us to accept that the culture of drugs touched all levels of our game, from the journeyman outfielder, to the megastar, to the 25th guy to make the team. It’s the kind of news that plants a seed of doubt, not only about Cabrera – or in another recent case, the 2011 National League MVP, Ryan Braun, whose positive test result was ruled invalid upon appeal – but about the essential nature of the game….
“(I) can’t help but wonder if baseball has a finite currency of some kind. Can it expense its way into irrelevance? Does the resiliency ever wane? Is there some tipping point at which one too many players is accused of drug use, and it is not the player who is blamed, but the game?
“I suppose it is a battle we face in most endeavors, where the perception of the individual threatens the collective, when the choices of a Cabrera, a McGwire or a Bonds come to represent the game itself.
“This is why I never bought one of the arguments in support of Pete Rose regarding his ban from baseball and the Hall of Fame for gambling on the sport. In comparing him to some of the less admirable men who were in the Hall, the argument goes that gambling was less offensive than, say, Ty Cobb’s racism. But gambling destroys the game itself, to its core. People question if what they see is real because anyone and everyone could be on the take. Was that error intentional? Was that strike really a ball? Cobb reflected a culture of his times, one that through today’s lens seems disturbing and unfortunate, even dangerous. But the game can shrug that off. Cobb was not baseball…But gambling on the game is considerably bigger. It brings into question every play, every player and his ability to directly influence the game….
“The true danger is in spiritual doubt. The kind of doubt that creates an existential threat to the game. The day when a critical mass of fans decides that the game is really an incubator of these problems…
“Maybe the game can absorb Cabrera as it has done with a litany of marquee players before.
“Still it is probably safe to say that no currency, no matter how magical, is infinite. Eventually, enough players, or a certain kind of player, could send the game downhill, brakeless and irretrievable. We could reach that point where one player’s choice is the final, and fatal, element of doubt that creeps into the game.
[This is the same point some of us have been making about the sport of football and concussions. There can easily be a tipping point.]
Meanwhile, back to Cabrera. So much for his commanding $50 million or so in the offseason with his impending free agency. Oh, someone might give him a decent contract, but not nearly the pact he could have received. For this, Melky Cabrera’s name goes in the December file for “Idiot of the Year.”
And this is depressing. BALCO co-founder Victor Conte told USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale that there’s a huge loophole in MLB’s testing program, that players can take testosterone at night, and the next day still register lower than the required 4-1 ratio of testosterone to epistestosterone. MLB’s lab uses the sophisticated and expensive IRMs and CIR testing only if the T/E ratio is higher than 4-1.”
So for all the talk that baseball has finally cleaned up its act, you get the strong feeling the problem is still pervasive.
And then…on Sunday morning, the New York Daily News’ I-team, Teri Thompson, Bill Madden, Christian Red, Michael O’Keeffe and Nathaniel Vinton reported the following:
“In a bizarre attempt to avoid a 50-game drug suspension, San Francisco Giants star Melky Cabrera created a fictitious website and a nonexistent product designed to prove he inadvertently took the banned substance that caused a positive test under Major League Baseball’s drug program.
“But instead of exonerating Cabrera of steroid use, the Internet stunt trapped him in a web of lies. Amid the information-gathering phase of his doping case last month, his cover story unraveled quickly, and what might have been a simple suspension has attracted further attention from federal investigators and MLB, the Daily News has learned.
“Famed steroid cop Jeff Novitzky, a criminal investigation agent for the Food & Drug Administration, and agents from MLB’s Department of Investigation have begun looking into Cabrera’s associates and his entourage, including trainers, handlers and agents, as they search for the source of the synthetic testosterone that appeared in a sample of the All-Star Game MVP’s urine.”
So this associate of Cabrera’s, Juan Nunez, “is alleged to have paid $10,000 to acquire the phony website. The idea, apparently, was to lay a trail of digital breadcrumbs suggesting Cabrera had ordered a supplement that ended up causing the positive test, and to rely on a clause in the collectively bargained drug program that allows a player who has tested positive to attempt to prove he ingested a banned substance through no fault of his own.
“ ‘There was a product they said caused this positive,’ one source familiar with the case said of Cabrera’s scheme. ‘Baseball figured out the ruse pretty quickly.’….
“MLB’s department of investigation quickly began asking questions about the website and the ‘product’ – Where was the site operating from? Who owned it? What kind of product was it? – and quickly discovered that an existing website had been altered, adding an ad for the product, a topical cream, that didn’t exist.
“As the website alibi imploded, so did Cabrera’s hopes of getting off and leading the Giants to the World Series.”
There will be far more on this case and the distribution of PEDs to players in the future, of this you can be sure. So reread Glanville’s remarks.
–Former major league pitcher Tommy John, he of Tommy John surgery fame, on the topic of shutting down the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg in an interview with ESPN Radio.
“Here’s the thing, go back and Wikipedia Tommy John and see how many innings I pitched in 1976, my comeback year.
“From the time I came back until I quit in 1989, I never missed a start in 13 years. Now, we were archaic back then, but here’s my take on the thing: There’s no guarantee (if) you shut him down. The Yankees screwed Joba Chamberlain over. I mean, this poor kid has had all kind of problems, and they had Joba Rules….it didn’t help him a bit. He still had to have Tommy John surgery.
“So there’s no guarantee that you’re shutting Strasburg down, that he’s going to be healthy down the road….
“You’ve got a chance to win now. Now, I don’t say you trash the kid, but you pitch him. And maybe somewhere down the road you skip his turn, you give his arm a little rest. But if I were a fan of the Nationals, I would be SO upset. That I’ve got a chance to be in the playoffs, maybe in the World Series, and you’re taking that away from me?
–Joshua Prager of the New York Times has a piece on Derek Jeter this weekend and it’s pretty amazing to think he has a legitimate shot at 4,000 hits, and maybe even Pete Rose’s 4,256. Jeter, thru Saturday, was No. 13 on the all-time hit list at 3,248 with Eddie Murray (3,255) and Willie Mays (3,283) next up.
The thing is, Jeter is 38, after all, even though he’s having one of his better seasons (leading all of baseball in hits with 160), and “only one man had 1,000 hits after turning 38: Rose himself.”
But Jeter is obviously in super shape and has had only one major injury in 18 seasons. What it comes down to is where do you play him? He can’t play shortstop effectively forever. But that’s a debate for another time. For now, just appreciate his greatness (as much as I totally can’t stand the rest of his club).
–Back on 7/16 I wrote of the Mets’ various disasters in the second half or in September. This year is proving to be no different and in looking at the prospects for 2013, it looks even bleaker. As in we don’t have a single everyday outfielder! Pathetic.
2006…Carlos Beltran looks at a called third strike in Game 7 of the NLCS
2007 and 2008…September collapses, 2007’s historic until what happened in MLB in 2011.
2009…42-45 at All-Star break…28-47 after
2010…48-40 at All-Star break…31-43 after
2011…46-45 at All-Star break…31-40 after
2012…46-40 at All-Star break…11-24 after
—Johan Santana became the first pitcher in Mets history to allow at least six runs in five consecutive starts, going 0-5 with a 15.63 ERA, while giving up 43 hits and 33 earned runs in 19 innings. It is believed, according to the people at Elias, that this is the worst five-game stretch for a starter in baseball history, going back to 1900. You are reading that right. One of the best pitchers of his era, Johan Santana, has sucked that bad. In the ten starts since his no-hitter, his ERA is 8.27.
Again, the Mets owe him $25.5 million next season with a $5.5 million buyout for 2014. I’d commit hari-kari but I have the sword in storage behind all my furniture and don’t feel like driving over there.
—David Wright has 5 homers and 16 RBI in his 35 games since the All-Star break. 78 at bats without a roundtripper. Geezuz, it sucks being a Mets fan.
—Cleveland was 45-41…but has gone 9-26 since. Oh well, there’s always the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
–The New York Times’ Tyler Kepner after Felix Hernandez tossed the third perfect game of the year, just the 23rd in baseball history.
“Historically, the outbreak of perfect games defies explanation. In the entire decade of the 1970s, only three pitchers carried perfect games into the ninth inning. Jim Palmer and Pittsburgh’s Ken Brett gave up hits; the Chicago Cubs’ Milt Pappas issued a two-out walk before retiring his final batter.
“There were no perfect games in the 1890s, 1910s, 1930s or 1940s, either. But the most recent extended stretch came from May 8, 1968 (Catfish Hunter), to May 15, 1981 (Len Barker), a period that covered the prime years of some of the game’s most durable and celebrated arms.
“Nine pitchers threw 2,400 innings in the 1970s: Gaylord Perry, Phil Niekro, Steve Carlton, Jim Palmer, Ferguson Jenkins, Tom Seaver, Bert Blyleven, Don Sutton and Nolan Ryan. All are in the Hall of Fame. None pitched a perfect game.” [Ed. great trivia question.]
As an aside, as the New York Times’ Benjamin Hoffman pointed out, the longest stretch between perfect games was 34 years; between Charlie Robertson’s perfecto for the White Sox in 1922 and Don Larsen’s perfect game for the Yankees in the 1956 World Series.
–Ah, Mr. Chairman? I’d like to revise and extend my recent remark that Bobby Valentine will be back as Boston manager next year…one of the stupider comments of mine in quite some time. As one of the writers put it this weekend, with Boston in town to play the Yankees, Bobby V. is a dead manager walking. He’s defeated. But he does have his defenders.
“Understand something about how things have worked out for the Red Sox this season: Blaming it on Bobby Valentine would be like blaming the Mets on Terry Collins.
“The two men came into this season with completely different levels of expectations. But both have done as much as they could have playing a bad hand.
“This is not the way it was supposed to work out when Valentine became the manager of the Red Sox, when he was asked to come in and clean up the oil spill of last September. Somehow, though, a couple of weeks before another baseball September for the Boston Red Sox, the president and CEO, Larry Luchino, has to go on the radio in Boston and New York and say that Valentine will at least keep his job through the season….
“ ‘I don’t know if it’s more than I expected,’ Valentine said Friday at Yankee Stadium, ‘but it’s been challenging.’…
“Guess what? When Valentine goes, he will probably be glad to go. He will be happy to get away from some of the players who act as if last September happened on its own in Boston, get away from arrogant and entitled members of his coaching staff who sometimes have acted like they aren’t required to talk to the manager or even acknowledge his presence in the room; coaches who should have been fired months ago.”
The Red Sox have had 29 players on the disabled list this year, far more than anyone else in baseball. The five best hitters coming into the season – Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford, Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Gonzalez, David Ortiz – have not been together for a single game. His two best pitchers, Jon Lester and Josh Beckett, are a combined 12-20, both with ERAs over 5.00 [prior to Beckett’s start Sunday night in one of those interminable Yankees-Red Sox contests. Would someone please tell ESPN the rest of Baseball Nation would like to see someone else aside from these two!!]
“It just turned out to be the wrong job for him. Wrong job, wrong team, wrong place, wrong time. He probably misses the Mets.”
–The Astros fired Brad Mills, along with hitting coach Mike Barnett and first base coach Bobby Meacham. Surprisingly, he’s the first big league manager to be fired this year. In his first season, Mills went 76-86, but then a franchise-worst 56-106 last year.
This year they got off to a 32-43 start, but as I noted the other day went through a stretch that was the second-worst in baseball history and were 7-39 before Mills’ dismissal Saturday night following a 12-4 loss to the Diamondbacks.
Heck, the Astros’ payroll is down to just $21.3 million! That’s about $3 million more than the Mets are paying Jason Bay!
College Football
I’m ready….Sept. 1, sports fans! And I’m ready for the NFL, too. This is what happens when your baseball team, i.e. the Mets, couldn’t blow more.
1. USC
2. Alabama
3. LSU
4. Oklahoma
5. Oregon
6. Georgia
7. Florida State
8. Michigan
9. South Carolina
10. Arkansas
Sports Illustrated
1. Alabama
2. USC
3. LSU
4. Oregon
5. Oklahoma
6. Wisconsin
7. South Carolina
8. Michigan State
9. Georgia
10. West Virginia
First six is a consensus for every poll…including ESPN and USA TODAY. [USC No. 1 in the ESPN poll; LSU No. 1 in USA TODAY]
As far as the schedule, before they start playing the games….two dates stand out. Meaning don’t bother me those days…as in I’m already storing up the Chex Mix and Domestic.
Oct. 6…Georgia at South Carolina
Nov. 3…Alabama at LSU and Oregon at USC
Oh, you’ve got Alabama at Arkansas on Sept. 15, but the above two dates are all you need to know. Cancel the dinner parties. Blow off the Bar mitzvahs. Tell your kids you couldn’t give a damn about their soccer games that day; that one can’t make any money off of soccer as a profession anyway unless you’re from Latin America, Africa or Europe, and they’ll be poor all their life.
Montee Ball (RB) Wisconsin
Landry Jones (QB) Oklahoma
Marcus Lattimore (RB) South Carolina
De’Anthony Thomas (RB/KR) Oregon
Denard Robinson (QB) (Michigan)
Geno Smith (QB) West Virginia
Matt Barkley (QB) Southern California
—Tyrann Mathieu’s father told a New Orleans television station that his son checked into rehab and would not attend another college or play football this season. Mathieu is being mentored by former NBA player and coach John Lucas at his Right Step center in Houston. Evidently Mathieu kept testing positive for marijuana while at LSU.
Meanwhile, about 20 schools asked LSU for permission to speak with the All-American cornerback and return man, Weed 101 being a core offering at these fine institutions.
–I was flipping back and forth Saturday night between the Jets-Giants exhibition game and the Mets-Nationals. Ordinarily I wouldn’t watch a minute of an NFL exhibition game. I used to have Jets season tickets and was furious I’d have to pay for these games, which I would blow off except Jets-Giants…which even for me became old because it was nothing more than an incredibly obnoxious booze fest.
But let me tell ya…after two games this preseason the Jets really, really suck. The defense will be good, but the offense is beyond hope.
There are fans on talk radio in these parts who think the Jets are a playoff team. I don’t care how easy their schedule is. They’re going 6-10 and Rex Ryan will be fired within a week of the final game. The Mark Sanchez-Tim Tebow quarterback controversy will also be at the forefront of discussion all season, unless Sanchez gets hurt in the opener, a distinct possibility because we have a gaping hole in the offensive line.
Anyway, Tebow, despite going 5 of 14 thru the air Saturday night, actually threw some good balls.
–Other Jets Bits:
Punter T.J. Conley shanked two for 19 and 23 yards. I kid you not. We’ll see if T.J. still has a locker Monday morning.
Rookie defensive lineman Quinton Coples out of North Carolina is one of those who branded his arm…think Omega Psi Phi…if you catch my drift. This cracks me up. It’s incredibly idiotic. But as long as he plays well, no problemo, Quinton!
–Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins had a reminder of just how good the Lakers have been with some of their marquee trades over the years…the latest of course being the acquisition of superstar Dwight Howard from Orlando in the four-team blockbuster; Howard joining the newly acquired Steve Nash, Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant in what will easily be the most entertaining, and best, team in basketball. [Bar Chat is guaranteeing they take it all.]
The Lakers gave up an excellent center in Andrew Bynum, though he’s oft-injured, and nothing else, when it was assumed they wouldn’t be able to retain Gasol, who you all saw just how good he can be in the gold medal game, USA vs. Spain.
“NBA history is littered with lopsided trades featuring unfulfilled superstars, and the Lakers have benefited from many of them: Wilt Chamberlain for Jerry Chambers, Archie Clark and Darrall Imhoff; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for Junior Bridgeman, Dave Meyers, Elmore Smith and Brian Winters; Shaquille O’Neal for Caron Butler, Brian Grant, Lamar Odom and draft picks. But from Orlando’s perspective, this might have been the most cockeyed ever, because three All-Stars were moved, and it reaped none of them. The Lakers didn’t buy Howard. They couldn’t even lure him with their banners, beaches and celebrities. Yet they walked off with the big prize again, a booming pick-and-roll partner for Nash, and an imposing fly-swatter behind a leaky defense.”
–So I was waiting for my golf magazines to start coming in following the PGA Championship to see what they said about the logistics of getting 30,000 fans on and off the Ocean Course at Kiawah with only one two-lane road, and Golfweek’s “The Man Out Front” said he had a few 2-hour shuttle-bus “odysseys” and “came across a long line of folks who found this PGA a rather forgettable week as an overall fan experience.”
–The Kremlin awarded each Russian athlete who won gold at the London Games an Audi A8 (which sell for $120,000), an Audi A7 ($75,000) for silver, and an Audi A6 ($50,000) for bronze. There was a big ceremony on Red Square. The gifts were considered to have come from the president.
Needless to say, this has stirred up Russia’s bloggers, including one who commented, “Why are the gifts considered to come from the president? The money isn’t his – the cars have been bought using our taxes, so these gifts are from all Russians. Second, why are they giving them foreign-made cars?”
Actually, the Moscow Times reports 15 of the nation’s wealthiest businesspeople financed the purchase; it’s only that Putin gets the credit.
–Pretty incredible it took the U.S. 75 years to beat Mexico in Mexico in soccer as the Americans defeated their host at Azteca Stadium, 1-0, on Wednesday night. Michael Orozco Fiscal had the winning goal. Tim Howard picked up the shutout.
The U.S. had been 0-23-1 in 75 years of games at Mexico, including 0-19-1 in Mexico City, where they had been outscored 81-14.
–Pssst…don’t tell anyone, but my GPA in college was about the same as Julius Peppers’. But I never received a free grade, kids!
—India’s supreme court recently ruled that the gates to all the country’s wildlife reserves would be shut and on Monday is to decide whether the ban is to be made permanent. Imagine, that’s thousands and thousands of resort owners, waiters, guides, suddenly thrown out of work.
But as a story by Francis Elliott of the London Times noted, the tourist lobby argues “that the effort to curb the boom (in tourism) threatens to be more harmful to India’s critically endangered national animal (the tiger) than the industry’s worst excesses.
“ ‘A total ban on tourism will be disaster for wild tigers. If this goes ahead the authorities will not be able to protect the tigers from poachers or the reserves from encroachment,’ said Belinda Wright, a leading tiger conservationist.”
Francis Elliott writes: “The tourist ban was imposed after a number of state governments failed to implement a directive from Delhi to create so-called buffer zones around the reserves,” which would provide core areas for the tigers to escape the cameras.
–Former NBA star Yao Ming is being placed in the December file for a “Good Guy” award; Yao is doing his best to fight the poaching of elephants for their tusks and telling those back home in China to stop buying ivory.
Yao traveled to Kenya to see some of the elephants that had been killed by poachers, as well as observe the herds, and commented to the London Times. “Here, next to a group of elephants, it feels like you are walking into your neighbor’s house – just we are different animals. We are humans, they are elephants. That’s how I feel.”
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species has warned that the number of elephants killed each year “is likely to run into the tens of thousands.” China remains the main destination for ivory.
–Brad K. passed along a piece that researchers from Stanford University have loaded a fleet of self-propelled surfboards with electronics to track great white sharks off the coast of California. In the first week the team reported picking up five of ‘em. I’m assuming Whitey then tried to eat the evidence.
And a number of you passed along the story of a 6-foot thresher shark that was caught by a kayaker about 200 yards off Ocean City, New Jersey the other day. The fellow brought it on shore for pictures and then released it back into the ocean.
“Wildlife experts tell WMGM-TV that Thresher sharks are not known for attacking people.”
Au contraire, mon frères. These are the very sharks that are believed to have killed the tourists about a year ago in the Red Sea.
Anyway, Director of Shark Attacks and senior vice president of food services for Bar Cat, Bob S., is on the case, which puts him at risk from the goons who work under the auspices of the International Travel Cartel, who like the International Resort Operators Union don’t want you knowing the true extent of the carnage. Of course both the ITC and IROU are in cahoots with the International Shark Attack File out of the Univ. of Florida, which understates the number of attacks on humans by at least 11,000. I’m still waiting for “60 Minutes” to do an expose on the topic to blow it wide open.
–I get the Sierra Club magazine (yes, I paid a few shekels to join…call me John Muir) and the publication is pretty good. The latest issue also has a recommendation that may save your life.
“When it comes to bears, go big!”
“The best anti-bear pepper spray is the largest canister you can find with the longest spray duration and distance. [Experts recommend sprays of at least six seconds that reach at least 25 feet.] Too many tales of bear-on-human attacks involve ‘trigger lock’ – a panicked person holds the trigger until the can is drained, at which point the bear comes back.”
“Counter Assault meets the size, length, and distance recommendations. Pricey, but cheaper than a ride in a medical chopper. $55 for 10.2 ounces. Counterassault.com.”
–So after telling you about my weekly diet of salmon on Sundays…here’s what I have for lunch every day…yogurt with a dollop of peanut butter thrown in.
Now I bring this up because I am making a product recommendation for you peanut butter lovers. I just got my latest shipment from Saratoga Peanut Butter…yopeanut.com. I’m tellin’ ya, it’s great. Get some.
Kind of intrigued by Mitt Romney’s peanut butter and honey sandwiches, by the way. Might try that this week. Kind of worried, though, about what it will do to my digestive system the first time…my stomach going ‘What the f—!’….so I’ll only do this while near a bathroom.
Of course at each meal I also work in a domestic or two. [Kids, don’t try this at home. I’m a professional.]
–The one and only Frankie Valli, who I recently saw in Morristown, N.J., and told you sounded darn good, is finally getting his wish.
“I’ve performed around the world in every size theater imaginable, but it has always been my dream to play Broadway.”
So this fall, the 78-year-old is debuting seven shows at the Broadway Theatre from Oct. 19 to 27. Tickets go on sale, Thurs., Aug. 23.
Yup, he’ll be going up against Jersey Boys, which has now been seen by over 13 million people across the world and grossed over $1 billion. [Crain’s New York Business]
Top 3 songs for the week Aug. 25, 1973: #1 “Brother Louie” (Stories…she was black…as the niiight…) #2 “Live And Let Die” (Wings…favorite of Trader George and your editor) #3 “Touch Me In The Morning” (Diana Ross…but brush your teeth first, know what I’m sayin’?…)…and…#4 “Let’s Get It On” (Marvin Gaye…after which, yes, get it on) #5 “The Morning After” (Maureen McGovern…oops, guess you got it on last night! My bad!) #6 “Delta Dawn” (Helen Reddy…better than Delta Down when it comes to air travel…) #7 “Get Down” (Gilbert O’Sullivan…going down seems to be a theme this week…or is it me?) #8 “Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose” (Dawn featuring Tony Orlando…shorten up the titles, will ya?!) #9 “Uneasy Rider” (Charlie Daniels…totally forgot this one…surprised it made it this high…kind of sucks) #10 “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” (Jim Croce…should have been Bad, Bad Leroy Kelly…former Browns great who between 1966 and 1968, rushed for over 1,100 yards each season and averaged 5.0+ per carry…a true Hall of Famer for his era…but on the halfback option he was just 3 of 16, though two of the completions went for scores…now where was I….)
Baseball Quiz Answer: 11 ‘active’ players with 400 home runs. [Figures thru Saturday’s play]
1. A-Rod…644
2. Jim Thome…611
3. Manny Ramirez…555
4. Albert Pujols…472
5. Chipper Jones…467
6. Vladimir Guerrero…449
7. Andruw Jones…433
8. Jason Giambi…429
9. Paul Konerko…416
10. David Ortiz…401
11. Adam Dunn…400
Next Bar Chat, Thursday (Wed. p.m., highly abbreviated)
