Note: Posted Sunday p.m., as the Saints-Chargers game is starting, awaiting Drew Brees’ first touchdown pass, which would be an NFL record 48 games in a row, breaking the mark he shares with Johnny Unitas. And as the rain-delayed Orioles-Yankees contest finally begins, let alone Giants-Reds later.
Cleveland Browns Quiz: 1) Name the four quarterbacks in Browns history to throw for 100 touchdowns. 2) Name the receiver who holds the franchise mark with 70 touchdown catches, yet he’s just No. 5 in career receptions and it’s not Paul Warfield. This one surprised the heck out of me. Answers below.
Talkin’ Baseball
Detroit has jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Athletics with 3-1, 5-4 wins in Detroit. But if I was an Oakland fan, I’d keep the faith. They’ll bounce back.
In the first contest, Justin Verlander dominated for the Tigers, fanning 11 in seven innings, while in the second, Oakland recovered from a 2-run Coca Crisp error in the outfield to take a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the eighth, only to see the Tigers score one to tie and then one in the ninth on a Don Kelly sacrifice fly to send it back to Oakland.
In St. Louis, the Nationals scored two in the eighth on a Tyler Moore pinch-hit single to prevail over the Cardinals, 3-2 in Game One of their division series. The Nats survived a five-inning, seven walk performance by Gio Gonzalez, while Cardinals rookie shortstop Pete Kozma misplayed a grounder in the top of the eighth that opened it up for Washington to rally and take the lead.
Earlier in the week, prior to the one game wild-card playoff between the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals, Cards Manager Mike Matheny said of the format, “We’re ecstatic. We’d be home right now and we’d be spectators. So we’re exceptionally happy about it.”
Braves second baseman Dan Uggla said, “I’m not for this new playoff thing at all…It just kind of messes things up for everybody. Especially the team that won the division, they gotta wait four, five days before they get to start playing. And even though they won home-field advantage they really don’t get home-field advantage.”
Well, you can see how perhaps the difference in attitude between the Cards and Braves helped lead to the St. Louis victory, 6-3, as the Braves committed three errors. Yes, the crazy infield fly rule call that will be talked about for decades might have impacted the result, but the fact is the Braves’ three throwing errors led directly to some of the Cards’ runs, with Chipper Jones, in his last game, throwing away a double-play ball in the fourth that led to three of the six.
The Braves now haven’t won a playoff round since 2001, and since then have gone 0 for 7 – including six decisive losses at Turner Field. To add injury to insult, it was St. Louis that made the playoffs last year at the Braves’ expense, coming from 10 ½ games back to pass Atlanta on the final day of the season.
Back to the wild-card format, Tony La Russa, who serves on Commissioner Bud Selig’s special committee that came up with it, said, “The priority is back to teams concentrating on winning the division. They’d gotten away from it because you really weren’t penalized much for being a wild card…Now, everybody wants to win the division because nobody wants to go into that one and out, or one and in, playoff spot.”
“They get to wait. That’s what they wanted. That’s what everybody wanted. It’s the desired slot. That one-game do-or-die wild-card playoff might be entertaining for fans and television executives, but for teams, it’s for the birds. This one really is for the birds: Baltimore’s Orioles, who play Texas in Texas on Friday. The winner gets to host New York on Sunday. Why the Yankees must begin a Division Series on the road against a team they had a better record than, I have no idea. Apparently it has to do with the new, two wild-card playoff format, and the rushed nature of it, and the complicated travel schedule, and it is believed that hosting the final three games of a best-of-five series is preferable to opening with the first two. I don’t know about that. Sure, it’s nice to be assured that Game 5 will be in your place. But the home team holds, and they only have to take one of three on the road. I still don’t completely see the logic. At the very least it’s debatable. Welcome to baseball.”
I say we have to wait another year before we conclude anything. I’m guessing the races are stupendously good next year in terms of far more teams being involved the last three days.
The Oakland A’s
“If you like your sports with a morality play attached – the team of destiny, the team that refused to lose, the team that overcame adversity, and so on – then root, root, root for the New York Yankees and the Oakland Athletics.
“The Yankees spent the most money on players this season. The Athletics spent the least.
“If the Yankees and A’s advance to the American League Championship Series, the story line will be all about the money. The David-vs.-Goliath cliché will be working overtime….
“The A’s spent about $59 million on their 40-man player payroll this season, the Yankees about $222 million, according to figures compiled last week by the commissioner’s office.
“The three other biggest spenders – the Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox and Angels, in order – failed to make the playoffs.
“Of the 10 postseason entries, five came from the top 10 in player payroll, four from the middle 10, and the A’s from the bottom 10….
“If other teams are paying attention, they can learn from the A’s….
“The A’s had nothing to lose, of course. No one was watching them play anyway, the residual effect of their ‘new ballpark or bust’ strategy.
“With the freedom to try something different, the A’s did. They have been burdened by ‘Moneyball’ – by the book, by the movie, by the misguided notion that General Manager Billy Beane fancied himself the second coming of Abner Doubleday.
“In the old-school baseball world, ‘Moneyball’ became shorthand for ‘on-base percentage good, stolen bases bad.’ Not quite what the book said, but never mind.
“Of the 10 playoff teams this season, which one has the lowest on-base percentage?
“Which one has stolen the most bases?
“Which one had the courage to trade perhaps its three best pitchers last winter?
On June 30, the A’s were 37-42, 13 games back of Texas, and go 57-26 thereafter; just the fifth team in baseball history to make up a 13-game deficit, and the first to ever come from five back with just nine games to go.
Their rookie hurlers won a record 54 games.
Ball Bits
—Mike Trout was the only rookie in MLB history to have a 30-40 season…139 G, 129 runs, 30 HR 83 RBI, .326 BA, .399 OBP, .564 SLG, 49 steals (caught only five times, including in the last game as he went after the stupendous 30-50). I will just say I had noted awhile back how he was slowing down on the stolen base front and he did indeed only have 7 in his last 30 games, further evidence of the wear and tear as a season goes along. Only two rookies in baseball history, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, scored more runs than Trout did. [Every now and then it does the heart good to look up Williams’ career on baseball-reference.com. So outrageously phenomenal in so many ways.] Trout is also the first major leaguer to hit 30 home runs, score 125 runs and steal 45 bases and to hit .320 or above with 30 home runs and 45 steals. And the Angels were also 83-59 after he was called up vs. 6-14 prior.
–For the record, Miguel Cabrera’s triple crown line reads 44 HR 139 RBI .330. He was amazingly consistent all season, too, with 20-27 RBI in each month, April thru September, never hitting less than .298 as well. He also saved his three best RBI months for the second half. And of his 44 homers, 23 were hit to left field, 10 to center, and 11 to right. [Also kind of getting lost in the shuffle of Cabrera’s remarkable year is the fact he now has back-to-back batting titles.]
By the way, major kudos to Kansas City Royals fans; 20,000 of which showed up to buy tickets the day of the last Royals-Tigers game in K.C. to view history. The number sold before it was clear Cabrera could wrap up the triple crown was just 12,500.
–In all the talk about Mike Trout, it’s funny to say that the season the Nationals’ 19-year-old rookie Bryce Harper had kind of fallen under the radar a little but it was more than a solid rookie campaign…139 games, 22 HR 59 RBI, .270, 9 triples, 18 steals, 98 runs.
–What a comeback for San Francisco’s Buster Posey after his horrific injury in 2011. Posey wins the unofficial batting title (I’m still viewing Melky Cabrera as the winner) at .336 with 24 HR and 103 RBI.
–San Diego’s Chase Headley won the N.L. RBI title with 115; this after having only 58 and 64 in his two previous full seasons. Sorry if I kind of find this suspicious, even more so than Friday’s jobs report. [Just kidding! On the latter….]
–The Red Sox fired manager Bobby Valentine, as expected, following their dreadful 66-93 season, the worst for Boston since 1965. Valentine blamed internal sniping but immediately after he was hired to right the ship following 2011’s historic September collapse, Valentine proceeded instead to alienate his club.
And while the Red Sox blew a nine-game lead in the A.L. wild-card race last year with a 7-20 September, the club this season went 7-22 in September and October. Red Sox Nation is disgusted. But they do have terrific clam chowduh up there!
–The Cleveland Indians hired former Boston manager Terry Francona, in one of those stupid coaching moves you see endlessly in all four major sports. Sandy Alomar Jr., who had been with Cleveland the past three seasons as coach and had taken over on an interim basis the last week of the season, was dissed.
–It’s going to be fascinating to see what happens to Josh Hamilton, a free agent at age 31 with a most troubled past who got off to a spectacular first two months of the season, hitting 21 homers and driving in 57, but then proceeded to hit just .202, 8-27, the next two months and his effort was questioned by team president Nolan Ryan. “There’s a lot of at-bats he just gives away,” said Ryan.
Hamilton righted the ship in August and September from a power standpoint and finished 43-128, but then in the final game of the season, as the Rangers were trying to avoid the one-game wild-card playoff, they lost to the A’s with Hamilton misplaying one fly ball and committing a crucial, inexcusable two-run error on another, as well as having three strikeouts at the plate, as the A’s clinched and then Baltimore won the wild-card in Arlington, Friday, 5-1, as Hamilton went 0-for-4 with two more strikeouts.
Everyone seems to think he’ll still get an offer of up to six years, $120-$125 million. No way. I seriously doubt he receives three years/$75 million, another potential contract being tossed about.
I’ve given my idea a few times this year. Because of his addiction history, give him something like two years/$40 million with a rolling third year based on performance measurements, on and off the field.
And remember, he’s not only 31, he is a very old 31 because of his drug abuse history.
—A-Rod had an extra-base hit in his final regular season game, breaking a career worst 67 at-bat streak without one. He had only 3 home runs in 111 ABs following his return from injury.
–If I were the Dodgers, I’d be a little concerned with Matt Kemp and his shoulder surgery, though it’s his non-throwing left shoulder. It’s just that those who go through this procedure (torn labrum) take a while to get their power back.
–In 2011, shortstop Jose Reyes won a batting title with the Mets, .337, but the team allowed him to go the free agent route and the Marlins gave him a huge contract. This year, Reyes played 160 games, but hit .287 with 37 doubles, 12 triples, 11 homers, 57 RBI and 40 steals. Very solid, but not worthy of the $22 million per he’ll be making on the back end of the deal. He only scored 86 runs. Advantage Mets, as they are developing a solid, everyday shortstop of their own in Ruben Tejada.
–The Mets were 46-40 at the break. 28-48 after. Very strong.
–The Mets’ Jason Bay finished his injury-riddled campaign at .165 (32-194) with 20 RBI. It was the worst average for a Met position player in their history, breaking the 1968 mark of infielder Al Weis who hit .172. In 986 at-bats over three seasons for the Mets, Bay has 26 HR 124 RBI and for this he is making $66 million over four years.
–Including buyouts, the Mets will be shelling out $50 million next season for Bay and Johan Santana, but then our long, New York metropolitan nightmare will be over.
—Major League Baseball drew 74.9 million fans during the 2012 regular season, 2 percent over 2011 and the most since the league drew 78.6 million in 2008. The league record is 79.5 million, set in 2007. For the second consecutive year the Phillies led all clubs in attendance, with 3.57 million, followed by the Yankees at 3.54 million. Texas set a franchise record at 3.46 million.
The Mets, in drawing 2.24 million, had their lowest total since 2003.
The Mets need outfield help. Send your resumes to Citi Field, Queens, New York.
–If you went to the season-ending series between the visiting Astros and Cubs, you are a better man than me. You’re also nuts.
You see, it was the first time in baseball history that teams with 100 losses faced off against each other. Houston finished 55-107, the Cubs 61-101.
It was the worst season in franchise history for the ‘Stros, this after they lost 106 the year before and thus becoming the first team with 106 or more losses in consecutive seasons since the 1964-65 Mets.
The Cubs’ 101 losses were the most for them since dropping 103 in 1966.
I can smell the stink emanating from Wrigley Field and this series all the way here in New Jersey as a cold front moves in from the west.
Oh, and after the last game, the Cubs fired third base coach Pat Listach. Yup, had to be all his fault. Personally, I blame Bush.
College Football
Wow…the rankings will be officially shaken up in a big way. [For the record I write all the following before the new AP poll is released. For convenience sake, I also use ESPN rankings in summarizing the action.]
No. 1 Alabama idle
No. 2 Oregon defeats No. 23 Washington, 52-21. De’Anthony Thomas is officially out of Heisman race with another unspectacular (for him) game. Doesn’t matter. The Ducks are loaded.
No. 3 Florida State is upset in Raleigh by North Carolina State, 17-16, on two late TDs by the Wolfpack.
No. 4 LSU goes down to defeat at the hands of No. 10 Florida, 14-6, as the Tigers manage just eight first downs (1-13 on third down). Pathetic. And talk about a snoozer. I watched virtually the entire contest, with look-ins at baseball, and there were just 437 yards total offense between the two teams.
No. 5 Georgia gets crushed by No. 6 South Carolina, 35-7, as the Gamecocks hold the Bulldogs to just 224 yards. Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray, fresh off a 2011 campaign with 35 touchdown passes, was 11-31-109. Didn’t exactly step up. S.C. running back Marcus Lattimore had a workmanlike 109 yards on 24 carries.
So Nos. 3, 4, 5 lose.
Another highly entertaining West Virginia contest as the No. 8 Mountaineers traveled to No. 11 Texas and won a 48-45 shootout with quarterback Geno Smith further enhancing his Heisman hopes (though as I told you last week, he has already locked it up) with a 25-35-268 effort, 4 TD passes, though he did fumble twice, while running back Andrew Buie had a career day, 31-207.
No. 9 Notre Dame destroyed Miami, 41-3; outgaining the Hurricanes 587-285 and having 34 first downs to Miami’s 13.
It is pathetic that Erin Andrews is in the Fox studio after moving over from ESPN. Yes, I know she thought this was a career advancement, but geezuz, at least stand up now and then, know what I’m sayin’? Otherwise the focus is on her voice, which is rather irritating. Very whiny.
No. 14 Oregon State continued to roll in besting Washington State, 19-6, limiting the Cougars to 227 yards total offense. Suddenly, regardless of a stumble or two along the way, the Civil War contest between the Beavers and the Ducks is something to look forward to in a big way. I’m wearing Duckwear now, but I reserve the right to switch to Beaverwear at halftime of that contest if warranted.
Duke is off to its best start since 1994, 5-1, as they whip Virginia, 42-17.
Louisiana-Monroe defeated Middle Tennessee State, 31-17, in a key Sunbelt Conference contest.
North Carolina trashed Virginia Tech (now just 3-3), 48-34, as running back Giovani Bernard went off for 262 yards on 23 carries.
In a critical battle between two 0-4 teams, Gardner-Webb Simpson was leading Liberty 28-10 in the third quarter, but then the school founded by Jerry Falwell looked to the heavens for inspiration and roared back, eventually prevailing 42-35. The two quarterbacks combined for 52-63-756.
Ohio goes to 6-0 in defeating Buffalo, 38-31. Ohio would roll in the ACC, witness Boston College’s disgraceful loss to Army, 34-31. Not that we don’t love to see Army do well, but c’mon, B.C. Alum Steve D., my betting partner for Wake-B.C. contests in football and basketball, is ready for hockey. Alas, the Deacs have no ice presence.
Speaking of the Deacs, six of our players, including four starters, were suspended for the game against Maryland…supposedly for failing drug tests (according to a source)…and my alma mater fell to the Terrapins, 19-14, as quarterback Tanner Price continued his mystery swoon, completing just 13 of 38. Yes, our receivers totally blow, especially with Michael Campanaro out with a broken hand, but Price is misfiring as if he’s channeling Mark Sanchez. And our kicker, Jimmy Newman, is just 2 of 6 on field goals, including 0-2 on Saturday, when this is a guy who was 17-22, 12-13, his prior two seasons. Nice senior leadership, Newman!
But Wake did beat the spread! And at the end of the day, boys and girls, that’s what really matters.
Iowa State (4-1) defeated No. 15 TCU (4-1) as the Horned Frogs played without quarterback Casey Paschall, suspended due to drug issues and other stuff.
No. 17 Oklahoma defeated Texas Tech, 41-20, making that guy who had the Red Raiders No. 3 in his computer poll look like an idiot.
Back to the ACC, two soon-to-be members, Pitt and Syracuse, played an incredibly boring game with the Orangemen prevailing, 14-13, as the Panthers racked up just 27 yards rushing. I’m tellin’ ya. When these two join the conference, coupled with all the other smegma in the league, our power rating will be below that of the Patriot League.
On Thursday, No. 13 USC made its first trip to Salt Lake City in 95 years and proceeded to defeat Utah, 38-28, as quarterback Matt Barkley got his act together, throwing for 303 yards and three scores. His spectacular receiver duo of Robert Woods and Marquise Lee combined for 18 catches and 261 yards.
Penn State won its fourth in a row, 39-28 over No. 24 Northwestern, as Jerry Sandusky is sentenced on Tuesday.
And finally, New Jersey’s only Division I-A entrant, Rutgers, went to 5-0 with a 19-3 triumph over UConn; the Scarlet Knights picking off four Huskie passes. Wait, that didn’t come out right. Four lame passes thrown by the Huskie quarterback. Actually, the QB responsible, Chandler Whitmer, is just 190 lbs. so he’s really not husky, but he’s a Huskie. It’s all just very confusing, especially to readers.
Rutgers’ defense appears to be for real (I watched this entire game) and now with Syracuse, Temple, Kent State and Army up next, Rutgers could be 9-0 heading into its final three vs. Cincinnati, Pitt and Louisville. So it could get exciting in these parts. I’ve never been a Rutgers fan and am not about to exchange my Duck or Beaverwear for Knightwear, but it’s just more fun when the locals are doing well.
1. Alabama 5-0
2. Oregon 6-0
3. South Carolina 6-0…very cool
4. Florida 5-0
5. West Virginia 5-0…country roads, take me home, to the place, I belong…
6. Kansas State 5-0
7. Notre Dame 5-0
8. Ohio State 6-0…alum Jack Nicklaus huge Romney supporter
9. LSU 5-1
10. Oregon State 4-0…unreal
12. Florida State 5-1…whatever
18. Louisville 5-0
20. Rutgers 5-0
21. Cincinnati 4-0
23. Louisiana Tech 5-0
Finally, back to Wake Forest and coach Jim Grobe, who had this to say about the player suspensions.
“I’ve been a dad and I’ve had two sons who have given me some interesting situations…Kids are going to make mistakes.
“But when you get to football season, it’s time for football to take precedence. What’s really disappointing to me is we’ve got a chance to be a pretty good football team and we didn’t need this….
“I told our team, if football is really, really important to you, you take care of your business off the field as well as on the field. It’s not enough to just be a Saturday guy. You need to be a guy that does all the right things in the class room and socially and everywhere else.
“It’s a good learning experience, which will probably stick with us for two or three years. And then once all these kids are out of the way, then somebody else will do something really stupid and that will teach them a lesson. So we’re all about just doing the right thing for the kids. I’m much more concerned about where our kids are going to be in 10 or 15 years than where they are today playing football.”
NFL…Week 5
Andrew Luck showed why he was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft in throwing for a team rookie record 362 yards (31-55) and two scores as the Colts (2-2) pulled off a dramatic 30-27 upset of the Packers (2-3) in Indianapolis. Wide receiver Reggie Wayne caught 13 of Luck’s throws for 212 yards (second-highest in team history). Of course the win was all the more meaningful because it was the first game without coach Chuck Pagano, diagnosed last week with leukemia and now in an Indianapolis hospital.
The Giants (3-2) overcame an early 14-0 deficit and turned it on at the Meadowlands, whipping the winless Browns (0-5), 41-27, as Victor Cruz caught three touchdown passes from Eli Manning and Ahmad Bradshaw ran 30 times for an even 200 yards. Cleveland fans should take heart that rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden threw for 291 yards and two touchdowns. He throws a sweet ball, just needs more experience, witness another two interceptions.
Pittsburgh (2-2) defeated the Eagles (3-2) on a Scott Suishan 34-yard field goal. Michael Vick lost two fumbles and said “it wasn’t meant to be.” Very nice copout, Michael. Very nice.
Atlanta moved to 5-0 in beating Washington (2-3) 24-17 as Falcons QB Matt Ryan threw for 345 yards and two scores, while Robert Griffin III was knocked out of the game and suffered a reported mild concussion.
Chicago and Minnesota both moved to 4-1; the former blasting the Jaguars (1-4), 41-3, while the latter beat Tennessee (also 1-4), 30-7. Titans star running back Chris Johnson is averaging just 2.9 yards per carry the first five weeks.
And in the worst contest of the day, Seattle (3-2) held Carolina (1-4) to 190 yards total offense in winning 16-12 in Charlotte as Panthers quarterback Cam Newton sucked wind, going 12-29-141.
–The New York Daily News’ Gary Myers said of the Jets’ head coach Rex Ryan:
“Ryan has gone from guaranteeing Super Bowl victories to simply guaranteeing the effort will be there. He has transitioned from saying he goes into every game thinking he can win, to now saying the Jets may get beat again, but he’s not going to question the character of his players. He says he’s confident, but doesn’t sound it.”
“The Jets awakened Wednesday to Life After Santonio [Ed. Santonio Holmes, the injured wide receiver], one week after they awakened to Life After Revis, which means they are now Dead Team Walking….
The nation gets to see the Jets in action, Monday night, against the undefeated Houston Texans. This could get very, very ugly. For starters, I expect Sanchez and inevitably Tim Tebow to be sacked 15 times.
–We have so little to cheer about these days at Wake Forest. The only alum playing offense in the NFL, for example, is rookie receiver Chris Givens of the Rams. He had some bad drops Thursday night against the Cardinals, plus he ran some poor routes, at which point I went to bed and failed to see his 52-yard touchdown reception from Sam Bradford, his only reception of the game. The week before Givens caught one ball for 51 yards against Seattle. So maybe he turns into Warren Wells, which wouldn’t be all bad.
I do need to note that in the Rams’ upset of the previously undefeated Cardinals, St. Louis had nine sacks. And give first-year coach Jeff Fisher (returning to the game after a sabbatical) a lot of credit. The Rams won just two games all of last year and now sit at 3-2.
–The New York Times’ Ryan Basen had a nice piece on the 50th anniversary of the integration of the Washington Redskins, the last NFL franchise to do so, Sept. 30, 1962. Bobby Mitchell, John Nisby and Ron Hatcher.
The Redskins were owned by racist George Preston Marshall, but the league and its new commissioner, Pete Rozelle, and a member of President Kennedy’s cabinet, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, convinced him he had to finally do so.
Marshall once told the Times in 1961, “We take most of our players out of Southern colleges and are trying to appeal to Southern people. Those colleges don’t have any Negro players.” Back in 1957, the N.A.A.C.P. picketed outside a hotel where NFL owners were honoring Marshall for his service to the league. And as the December 1960 NFL draft approached, Washington Post writer Shirley Povich wrote that Marshall’s racial prejudice was “a disservice to all his coaches,” and that most fans wanted the team to integrate.
Holding the second and third picks over all, Washington selected a white quarterback and a white offensive tackle.
“In modern pro football, Marshall is an anachronism, as out of date as the drop kick,” Povich wrote in response. “The other club owners have passed him by. Marshall, with his dedication to white supremacy on the football field, is still hearing a cry that doesn’t exist.”
The Redskins went 1-12-1 in 1961 and the draft was Dec. 4. Ernie Davis, winner of the Heisman Trophy, was projected as the top prospect. Davis, black, wasn’t expected to be taken first by Washington, but it did, and then a few weeks later traded his rights to Cleveland for a package that included Bobby Mitchell.
Washington finished a much improved 5-7-2 in ’62, with Mitchell leading the NFL in receptions (72) and yards (1,384), to go along with 11 touchdown catches. Mitchell would follow that up with 69 catches for a league-leading 1,436 yards in 1963.
In what would become a Hall of Fame career, Mitchell would average 15.3 yards on his 521 receptions with 65 touchdowns. But he was also a great running back and picked up another 2,735 yards, good for a 5.3 average and 18 TDs on the ground. [Much of this yardage was with Cleveland, including his rookie year when he ran for 500 yards on just 80 carries…a 6.3 average.]
And Mitchell returned 8 kicks for scores. Yup, he was awesome…and one of my favorite early football cards.
So we salute Bobby Mitchell, who was inducted into Canton in 1983. As for George Preston Marshall, he died in 1969.
Golf Balls
–Yes, that was truly remarkable…Michael Phelps’ 153-foot putt at the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland on Friday as he was in the team play with partner Paul Casey. It’s also true that not only has Phelps given up swimming for good, he is also now full-bore into golf. One has to wonder just how much he can improve, and how quickly, Phelps supposedly being about a 16-handicap today.
–And some final, final thoughts on the Ryder Cup, now that all my magazines have rolled in.
Following are some of Golf World’s Report Card snippets.
Captain Davis Love III…C…”Mandatory benchings for everyone (especially Bradley-Mickelson), keeping the same pairings in team sessions, leaving an unguarded rear flank in the Sunday lineup. Let the second-guessing begin!
Phil Mickelson…B-…Captain Love’s tactic of sitting everyone at least once to avoid a fifth-match letdown in singles only works if you actually close the point Sunday.
Matt Kuchar…C+…You rank top 20 this year on the PGA Tour in pre-cut and third-round scoring average but 37th on Sundays. You lost here in singles. See a connection?
Steve Stricker…D…You led only seven holes all week and trialed for 48, lost 1-down three times and surrendered the clinching point. Good thing it’s time for Oktoberfest.
Tiger Woods…D…When readers ask how difficult it is to write a comment for someone who stunk up the joint as badly as you did, we have a pat answer: It’s a process.
Captain Jose Maria Olazabal…A…Columnists and historians will romanticize the massively inspirational role the late Seve Ballesteros fulfilled in this win. That’s unfair, because you deserve an enormous share of the credit for this stunner.
Ian Poulter…A+…So that’s what it looks like when someone stores up 103 weeks’ worth of adrenaline and burns through all of it in a wild-eyed, three-day binge.
Golf World had a list of the winner’s bags, for those of you looking for equipment ideas. For example, here are the drivers used…Callaway RAZR, TaylorMade RocketBallz, TaylorMade R11S (and R11), Cleveland Classic 290, Titleist 913D3, Nike VR_S, Cobra ZL Encore, and Ping G10. TaylorMade is the most popular.
With putters, the Odyssey White Hot XG was the most popular, followed by the TaylorMade Ghost Tour model.
Poulter used a Titleist Pro V1x ball, the Cobra driver, and an Odyssey White Hot putter.
The Ryder Cup ratings, by the way, were the best since 1999. The next host is Gleneagles, Scotland, Sept. 26-28, 2014. David Toms could be selected U.S. captain as a former PGA Championship winner. The next Euro captain will be either Thomas Bjorn, Darren Clarke or Paul McGinley.
World Golf Rankings
1. Rory McIlroy 12.536
2. Tiger Woods 9.580
3. Luke Donald 9.260
4. Lee Westwood 7.107
5. Justin Rose 6.429
6. Adam Scott 6.357
7. Bubba Watson 6.210
8. Webb Simpson 6.073
9. Brandt Snedeker 5.941
10. Jason Dufner 5.922…my early pick to win next spring’s Masters….a tradition unlike any other.
—Ryan Moore won his second PGA Tour event at Justin Timberlake’s event in Las Vegas this weekend. John Daly, who started out 69-63, shot 86-77 to finish last.
–Finally, we note the recent passing of former PGA Tour player, and North Carolina State All-American, Vance Heafner. He was just 58. Heafner was a regular presence on tour in the 1980s, playing 258 events. His best year was 1982 when he finished 33rd on the money list.
–The great Formula One racer Michael Schumacher retired a second time at the age of 43, essentially because he was pushed out by Mercedes, which hired Lewis Hamilton to replace the seven-time champion.
Schumacher claimed titles in 1994 and 1995, and then five straight from 2000 to 2004, before retiring for a first time in 2006. He came back in 2010 but failed to win a race in three seasons.
So does the last three years, in which Schumacher had just one podium finish in 52 races, tarnish his legacy in any way? Unfortunately it probably does, seeing as we live in an era where we have the attention spans of a gnat.
But consider this. From 1991 to 2006, Schumacher was in 250 Formula One races and won a staggering 91 of them in gaining his seven world titles. 154 times he was in the top three. It’s one of the great records of achievement in the history of sports, period.
But the Wall Street Journal had a piece on athletes who attempt comebacks after a lengthy first retirement, including the likes of Gordie Howe, Andy Pettitte, Michael Jordan, Bob Cousy (5 points in 7 games in 1970), and Mark Spitz (didn’t qualify for ’92 Olympics).
You know who stands out? One man…George Foreman, who won the heavyweight title in 1994, thus cementing his legend forever.
–The National Hockey League canceled the first 82 games of the season through Oct. 24 as the two sides in the labor dispute show zero signs of ending it. NHL Players’ Association head Donald Fehr said, “If the owners truly cared about the game and the fans, they would lift the lockout and allow the season to begin on time while negotiations continue. A lockout should be the last resort in bargaining, not the strategy of first resort.”
It’s clear the owners are, per usual, the total a-holes in this situation.
Bloomberg’s Eben Novy-Williams had some interesting stats on the four major sports.
“Before the start of the 2011-2012 season, the average NHL player salary was $2.4 million, up from about $1.5 million when the (last labor) agreement began at the start of the 2005-06 season.
“The average NBA player salary was $5.15 million…for 2011-2012. The average salary for a National Football League player was $1.9 million…with Major League Baseball’s $3.3 million average ranking second behind the NBA.”
–I have to admit I didn’t know much about the “Harrison twins” of Fort Bend Travis High in Richmond, Texas (outside of Houston) until reading the headline the backcourt stars are heading to Kentucky. So talk about the rich getting richer. What was surprising is that the other two schools in the running were SMU and Maryland. Terrapins fans are very pissed because the father evidently had said all kinds of favorable things about the school and its coach and seemed to insinuate they were the top choice. Needless to say this would have put Maryland back on the college basketball map in a big way.
“The kindness of strangers and a pack of loyal family pets have helped save a four-year-old boy with Down syndrome, who went missing and spent the night in the bush on NSW’s [Ed. New South Wales] mid north coast.
“Cold and covered in scratches, Riley Martin was found sitting on the ground in bushland near Shelley Beach just after 7am today (Thursday).
“He and his three pet dogs – two fox terriers and a kelpie – hadn’t been seen since midday yesterday when he disappeared from his home at Nambucca Heads.
“A couple from Kempsey, Leif O’Brien and Sally Pratley, saw an appeal for assistance on NSW Police’s Facebook page and immediately drove to the area to help with the search.
“They found Riley with one of his dogs, the Nambucca Guardian reported.
“ ‘We heard a dog bark, we almost stood on him,’ the couple told the Nine Network.
–My brother passed along the awful story out of Montana that seven black bears were euthanized over the past week because “an individual had been feeding them and many others – reportedly for years.”
“The last thing we wanted to do is remove these bears,” Lee Anderson, a warden with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, said in a statement Wednesday by the agency after five bears were killed in recent days. “But we had no choice because of the danger they pose to local residents.”
Barbara Sweeney told a local paper that she had been feeding the bears as a way of “teaching them to survive in the wild.”
“Montana does allow seasonal hunting of black bears, which are not an endangered species.
“The department said it could not find a zoo willing to take the bears and that releasing them somewhere else could pose new problems.”
Oh c’mon. They could have been released in Central Park, like during network sweeps week. That would have been great fun. Better yet, the Hamptons.
–It really is remarkable that James Bond’s “Dr. No” and the Beatles’ first single, “Love Me Do,” were released on the same day, 50 years ago, Oct. 5, 1962.
Adele is singing the title tune for the next Bond flick, “Skyfall.”
–The Star-Ledger here in New Jersey ran the story that the Stones may play Newark’s Prudential Center as part of their upcoming short tour, specifically Dec. 16 and 17. I know I’ll have no shot at getting tickets.
–You know what looks great? Soprano’s creator David Chase has a film coming out on Dec. 21, “Not Fade Away,” his first movie, which is about bickering Italian-American families revolving around a teenage boy who forms a rock band – much to his father’s disgust. James Gandolfini is the angry dad. It’s set in the 1960s and as an early preview in the Star-Ledger had it, “the real star of the music is the curated – and sometimes, recreated – ‘60s tunes, often played by the actors themselves.”
But here’s another reason this could have real potential. Steve Van Zandt is the music director. He says of the movie group, “Literally, they’re a band now, they can perform at a party tonight. It took me, like, 10 years what they learned in three months.”
Man, I’m pumped. Aside from “The Hobbit,” I might actually go to a few flicks in the next few months. Really. I swear.
–It’s time for my twice a year rant concerning the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame. It is a tremendous museum. I can’t wait to get back. But the direction it’s taken the past few years in welcoming rap artists is beyond absurd.
The latest example is this year’s list of nominees, as released the other day, which includes Public Enemy and N.W.A. The rest of the list, which includes Deep Purple, is so pathetic it’s not worth getting into.
What ticks me off is that some groups such as Tommy James and the Shondells (8 Billboard Top 10s) don’t even get on the ballot. I can name at least 25 of ‘em, as I have in the past.
Top 3 songs for the week 10/4/86: [only because Jeff B. asked for one more in the 80s, as he does all his quarterly fund manager reports] #1”Stuck With You” (Huey Lewis and the News…ehh) #2 “Friends And Lovers” (Gloria Loring & Carl Anderson…oh god, make it stop!) #3 “When I Think Of You” (Janet Jackson…I can’t criticize every tune…this was OK, for its kind…plus I always thought she was very hot…)…and…#4 “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)” (Glass Tiger…you just can’t come up with garbage like this and be able to get away with it…) #5 “Dreamtime” (Daryl Hall…big fan of his…but this sucked…) #6 “Two Of Hearts” (Stacey Q….Madonna wannabe…but I would not have been embarrassed to be seen in her company, if you catch my drift…) #7 “Throwing It All Away” (Genesis…the kind of music my dentist always seems to have on in the background…and that’s not a compliment…) #8 “Walk This Way” (Aerosmith/Run-D.M.C…. stupid idea…Steven desperate for money to fund his addiction …) #9 “Typical Male” (Tina Turner… so-so…a fan from the waist down…) #10 “Dancing On The Ceiling” (Lionel Richie…easily one of his worst…like crappy wedding reception music…)
Cleveland Browns Quiz Answers: 1) Four QBs with 100 TD passes: Otto Graham, 174 (1946-55); Brian Sipe, 154 (1974-83); Frank Ryan, 134 (1962-68); Bernie Kosar, 116 (1985-93). Bill Nelsen had 71 (1968-72). Sipe has more career yards, 23,713, than Graham, 23,584. But while I remembered Frank Ryan as being good, I forgot just how good, particularly 1963-67, when he led the league in TD passes twice and was third in another. Plus, Ryan had a career record of 52-22-2 in games he started. Sipe was just 57-55-0 and Kosar 53-51-1. 2) Gary Collins, 1962-71, had 331 receptions in a Browns uniform, good for 5,299 yards, 16.0 avg., but 70 of them went for TDs! I mean that’s awesome. Jerry Rice, for example, had 197 but he needed 1,549 receptions to get there. Plus Collins led the league in punting one year.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
