Note: Posted Sunday p.m. prior to conclusion of Cards-Giants.
San Francisco 49ers Quiz: Name the six QBs to throw 100 touchdown passes in a San Fran uniform. [Hint: One played from 1946-52.] Answer below.
MLB Playoffs
What a postseason. The last few years, baseball has been terrific.
I’m giving the Cardinals, Giants, and A’s short shrift this time as I can only do so much, but I’ve watched a ton of the action and I was particularly taken by Friday’s Nats-Cards game. The Yankees’ dramatics are in a totally separate category.
After a dramatic 2-1 walk-off victory on Jayson Werth’s home run, Thursday, forced a deciding Game 5 in Washington’s series against the Cardinals, the Nats took a 7-5 lead into the ninth inning on Friday only to blow it. Even I, with zero rooting interest in the contest, felt so badly for Washington fans that I had trouble falling asleep that night. You cannot come up with a more bitter defeat. As the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell put it, “Ryan Zimmerman, perhaps the Nat who deserved the distinction least, made the last out at 12:29 Standard Hades Time.”
“The end came Friday, on a cold and unfathomably cruel night. The Nationals’ 9-7 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5 of the National League Division Series, in which a six-run lead dissolved over two excruciating hours, cut short their magical season….
“In the postgame clubhouse Friday night, players hugged and clasped hands. Some of them wondered whether they would come back next season. Others had ensuing appointments for offseason surgery. Stephen Strasburg could move beyond the unprecedented decision that shaped his season. None of them could shake the immediate sting, but neither could they ignore the 100 games they won or the N.L. East title they captured….
“The brutal finish to a magical season will invite second-guesses, starting with decisions Manager Davey Johnson made in Game 5. Johnson’s actions all season stemmed from showing confidence in using players in their established roles. In Game 5, as he tried to cobble together the final 12 outs, Johnson veered away from his usual tack.
“All year, Johnson had used Ryan Mattheus in the seventh inning against right-handed lineups. He had Game 3 starter Edwin Jackson available, in the same role Jordan Zimmermann filled brilliantly in their Game 4 victory. But Johnson made clear before Friday’s game that Zimmermann had pitched the day before because the Nationals’ bullpen was worn from a Game 3 beatdown. He said Jackson would pitch only if the game lurched into extra innings….
“But in the seventh inning Friday, Johnson chose Jackson over Mattheus, and Jackson allowed one of the runs that enabled the Cardinals to chip away at the lead….
“In the ninth inning, Johnson used closer Drew Storen on a third consecutive day, which could have been avoided earlier in the series. In a Game 3 blowout, Storen pitched the ninth and threw 11 pitches in an 8-0 loss.
“Storen had pitched on three straight days once all season, on Sept. 10, 11 and 12. But on Sept. 11 and 12 he threw five total pitches, recording just one out in both games. By using him in Game 3, Johnson enhanced the odds that he would trust Storen, who underwent elbow surgery in April, with a larger workload in three consecutive games than he carried all year.”
There were other decisions questioned, like failing to intentionally walk Pete Kozma after Daniel Descalso ripped his game-tying, two-run single in the ninth. Descalso stole second and first was open to walk Kozma and force the Cards to hit closer Jason Motte or bat for him. Johnson let Storen face Kozma, who hit the deciding two-run single.
As for the decision to shut down Strasburg, General Manager Mike Rizzo said, “I’m not going to think about it, no. We had a plan in mind. It was something we had from the beginning. I stand by my decision. We’ll take the criticism as it comes. We have to do what’s best for the Washington Nationals, and we think we did.”
All offseason they’ll be talking about this single topic.
“Bad things happened. The Cardinals chipped, chipped, chipped away. The Nationals walked too many batters and missed too many chances to pad their lead. And when it was over, a subdued and classy Nationals manager was apologizing to Washington fans.
“Apology not accepted, Mr. Johnson. Apology not called for. This was a spectacular year, a ‘fun ride,’ as he said, a season that vindicated everyone who worked so hard and so long to bring major league ball back to Washington. There were 45,966 people at Nationals Park Friday night – a record – and millions more rooting, and suffering, along with them. They know they have a team that is building for the future, doing it the right way and determined to get back to postseason play, for another shot at glory and another chance for despair. We will all survive the dark, cold and unforgiving night.
As for the Cardinals, they have won six postseason games in a row in which a defeat would have ended their season.
A-Rod and the Yanks
I have to go back to Wednesday and an historic moment in Yankee history as Alex Rodriguez was pinch-hit for, replaced by Raul Ibanez, who then proceeded to hit a game-tying home run in the ninth, and a game-winner in the 12th. Little did we know at the time that manager Joe Girardi was dealing with the death of his father, which he kept secret for six days.
“Honestly, did anybody really think Joe Girardi had it in him?
“The Yankee manager has come to be known, not so fondly, as Joey Looseleafs, for his devotion to the statistics in his famous binder on the bench.
“But pulling Alex Rodriguez for a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning was a decision that had nothing to do with numbers. It was the gutsiest thing he’s done as a manager, a move that no doubt will endear him to Yankee fans in a way that not even winning the World Series in 2009 did.
“Of course, the fact that Raul Ibanez saved the day, and perhaps the season…made Girardi’s decision look particularly brilliant….
“But perhaps most significantly, Girardi knew that in many ways, this isn’t the same A-Rod that Torre embarrassed in 2006. [Ed. When Torre batted him 8th in a playoff game.] He was still at the top of his game at that time, still the diva who cared only about his numbers and his status as perhaps baseball’s greatest player.
“These days he’s a battered 37-year-old who has been reduced by age and injuries to a singles hitter, and an elder statesman in the clubhouse who now seems to find satisfaction in being a team guy, whether by choice or not.”
A-Rod was totally supportive of Girardi, as Ibanez became the first player to hit two home runs in the ninth inning or later of a postseason game. Yup, as Nick Swisher said, “He just made himself a legend in Yankee eyes.”
Girardi said, “I just felt like this is what my heart’s telling me to do, and I’m going to do it.”
So that was Wednesday. Thursday, A-Rod was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the 13th inning with two outs, none on and the Orioles up one. Eric Chavez lined out to third base to end the game, a 2-1 Orioles win forcing Friday’s Game 5. Rodriguez had been moved from third to fifth in the lineup. This time, A-Rod was not happy at the treatment. Friday, A-Rod was benched as CC Sabathia hurled his masterpiece, a complete game, 3-1 victory. Rodriguez is under contract for five more years; a period in which the team will pay him at least $114 million.
On Saturday, as the high drama continued in the Bronx, in Game 1 of the ALCS the Yankees trailed Detroit 4-0 heading to the bottom of the ninth when Ichiro crashed a two-run homer to cut it to 4-2, and then with two outs, Raul Ibanez did it again, hitting a game-tying two-run shot to send it into extra innings. But the Yankees would lose in the 12th, 6-4, and they lost far more than the game when Derek Jeter, in fielding a ground ball in the same inning, broke his ankle and is done for the year.
“Now the Yankees have to do something they have never done, not since Derek Jeter first ran out to shortstop in 1996 as a kid, the year the Yankees started all the winning. Now, in October, they have to try to do it without him. Mo Rivera went down in the spring, in a heap, at the base of the outfield wall in Kansas City.
“Jeter went down in the 12th inning early Sunday morning, went down and stayed down…Done for the series, done for the season. Captain of the team. Not just one of the great Yankees of them all, one of the great postseason athletes any sport has ever seen.”
Well, on Sunday, the Yankees lost to the Tigers again, 3-0, as Anibel Sanchez and Phil Coke were lights out, and head to Detroit down 2-0. To say the Yanks looked listless would be an understatement. Plus some of their stars are truly mired in historic slumps. Collectively, it’s unreal. To wit.
Alex Rodriguez…3-23, .130, 12 strikeouts, in the postseason.
Curtis Granderson…3-26, .115, 14 strikeouts
Robinson Cano…2-32, .063…0 for his last 26, a MLB playoff record.
Nick Swisher…4-26, .154
Further, for the postseason, 2010-2012, A-Rod is now 12-73, .164, with zero home runs. And since he last homered on September 14, he has gone 91 at-bats, including the playoffs, without going yard and has but one extra-base hit. 91 ABs, one double, no homers.
Swisher, meanwhile, is now hitting .167 in the postseason for his career, spanning 150 at-bats! (25-150). For the Yanks, his career postseason average is .159, 20-126. I think I’ll pass on him when it comes to free agency.
Finally, don’t you love Miguel Cabrera?! He’s everything the above four Yankees are not. Anything to plate a run. And as Ron Darling mentioned during Sunday’s broadcast, look at how Cabrera didn’t bitch and moan when he was forced to change positions with the signing of Prince Fielder.
Oh, and as for that hideous call in the eighth inning on Sunday (I watched the entire game, not football), as Jesse Jackson would say, the point is moot. The Yankees couldn’t score one run so it doesn’t matter.
–Texas Rangers CEO Nolan Ryan questioned the timing of Josh Hamilton’s decision to quit smokeless tobacco this summer. It “couldn’t have been worse.”
“You would’ve liked to have thought that if he was going to do that, that he would’ve done it in the offseason or waited until this offseason to do it. So the drastic effect that it had on him and the year that he was having up to that point in time when he did quit, you’d have liked that he would’ve taken a different approach to that.”
It all makes perfect sense now. It was in August that Hamilton, who evidently began his quest to stop dipping in late June, admitted he was dealing with a “discipline” issue and discipline in “being obedient to the Lord in quitting chewing tobacco.” He hit .223 in June and .177 in July after belting 21 homers and driving in 57 in April and May.
Then you had the five games he missed in September owing to problems associated with drinking too much caffeine.
Ryan was asked by a Dallas radio show if he thought Hamilton had “quit” on the team down the stretch.
“He had an issue, he was under a magnifying glass and things didn’t go well. If he would have gotten a couple of hits in those key situations or if he hadn’t dropped that ball in Oakland, would people be saying that? No, they wouldn’t be saying that. It didn’t look good. But do I think he quit? I have no reason to think he quit….only Josh knows what was in his heart and what was in his mind.”
Bottom line, Texas won’t be sorry to see Josh Hamilton in a different uniform next spring, no matter what the team says about keeping the door open to re-sign him.
College Football Review
No. 1 Alabama destroyed Missouri, 42-10, holding Mizzou to just 129 yards total offense. 129! Geezuz, that sucks. I mean the Tigers had 3 yards rushing! 3! Take out your yard stick and lay if down on the floor three times. Then step back and look at this piddly distance and consider it took Missouri 28 carries to travel that far in the entire game.
No. 3 South Carolina went down to Baton Rouge and was stuffed by the No. 9 LSU Tigers, 23-21, holding the Gamecocks to just 211 yards…and running back Marcus Lattimore to only 35 yards on 13 carries.
In a startling result, No. 5 West Virginia found itself down to Texas Tech 35-7 at half, on the way to a 49-14 drubbing. It’s not as if Mountaineer quarterback and presumed Heisman Trophy winner Geno Smith played that poorly, 29/55, 275, one TD, no INTs. But Texas Tech’s Seth Doege threw for 499 yards and six touchdowns! 11 separate Red Raider receivers caught passes.
Next up for WVU is No. 6 Kansas State, which outlasted Iowa State in Ames, 27-21, as another Heisman candidate, K-State’s Collin Klein, ran for 105 yards and passed for another 187. It’s really a shame WVU stumbled. Nonetheless, the game in Morgantown should be good.
No. 7 Notre Dame defeated No. 17 Stanford in South Bend, 20-13, in overtime, on a classic goal line stand, with the Fighting Irish stopping the Cardinal twice on third and fourth down from the one. The last run by TJ Taylor was reviewed for a long time and I think the refs (replay official) made the correct call, for those who watched it. I thought the elbow was down.
No. 10 Oregon State had another nice win, 42-24 over BYU on the road, as Cody Vaz made his first start, subbing for the injured Sean Mannion, and went 20/32, 332, 3-0. As Ronald Reagan would have said of the performance, ‘Not bad…not bad at all.’
No. 13 Oklahoma destroyed No. 15 Texas, 63-21, as the Sooners outgained the Longhorns 677-289! By the way, this was the first time since 1999 that neither team was in the top 10 when they played each other.
I watched most of No. 20 Rutgers’ unimpressive 23-15 win over a crappy Syracuse team, a game in which the Orange outgained the Scarlet Knights 418-237, and let’s just say Rutgers is lucky they have terrific special teams, blocking a field goal attempt and returning it 75 yards for a score at a critical point early in the third quarter as Syracuse was about to take the lead. Syracuse had four turnovers to Rutgers’ zero so if nothing else, Rutgers proved to be opportunistic.
In an incredibly wild contest, No. 22 Texas A&M traveled to Shreveport to face No. 23 Louisiana Tech and the Aggies led by 27-0 and 39-13 in the first half, only to have the Bulldogs storm back, but fall short, 59-57. The two combined for 1,283 yards of offense.
5-1 Duke played Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in an attempt to prove it belonged in the ACC title chase and promptly stunned the Hokies in taking a 20-0 lead, only to see VaTech storm back to score the next 41. Final score…41-20…Duke was exposed as a pretender.
North Carolina (5-2) defeated Miami (4-3) 18-14, as Tar Heel running back Giovani Bernard had his second straight big game in rushing for 177 yards.
Those clamoring for undefeated Ohio (7-0) to enter the Top 25 may have second thoughts after a less than dominating performance against 1-6 Akron, at home, 34-28.
Wake Forest lost to Florida State 52-0 four weeks ago. Boston College fell to the Seminoles by a 51-7 margin on Saturday. Nov. 3rd, B.C. travels to Winston-Salem for what should prove to be a memorable match-up against the Deacs…a game for the ages! [Ages 3-6…since they aren’t likely to understand just what they’re watching.]
Two years after winning the national title, Auburn is 1-5 after losing 41-20 to Ole Miss.
And now…your new AP Poll…
1. Alabama 6-0
2. Oregon 6-0…Duckwear worn almost every day here at HQ (Oregon track and cross countrywear as much as football, to be honest)
3. Florida 6-0
4. Kansas State 6-0
5. Notre Dame 6-0
6. LSU 6-1
7. Ohio State 7-0…reminder, ineligible for postseason play
8. Oregon State 5-0…remember to hedge with Beaverwear
9. South Carolina 6-1
10. Oklahoma 4-1
15. Mississippi State 6-0
16. Louisville 6-0
17. West Virginia 5-1
18. Texas Tech 5-1
19. Rutgers 6-0
21. Cincinnati 5-0
25. Ohio 7-0…they get in!
And the first BCS Poll!…let the debate formally begin…
1. Alabama .9761
2. Florida .9092
3. Oregon .8993
4. Kansas State .8963
5. Notre Dame .8774
6. LSU .7522
Not too meaningful for another two weeks. And obviously no huge surprises, which is good.
Finally, we note the passing of college football commentator Beano Cook, 81. A graduate of Pitt, he started as a sports publicist at the school from 1956 to 1966 and eventually became a studio commentator for ABC from 1982 to 1985 before joining ESPN. Cook’s knowledge of the sport earned him the moniker the “Cardinal of College Football.”
As noted on ESPN.com, “One of Cook’s most famous quips came in 1981, after then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn offered lifetime passes to baseball games to U.S. hostages returning from Iran. ‘Haven’t they suffered enough?’ Cook said.
“He also was afraid to fly, often citing that one of the words associated with any airport is ‘terminal.’
“ ‘You only have to bat a thousand in two things – flying and heart transplants,’ Cook once said. ‘Everything else, you can go 4-for-5.’”
“When Beano Cook…was the Pitt sports information director, he got a call one day from a woman asking for a copy of the Panthers’ football roster. ‘But lady,’ Beano replied, ‘there are 120 guys out for the team right now. You really oughtta wait three weeks, till we make the cuts and are down to 75 or 80 kids. Otherwise, it’s really a waste of your time.’
“The woman, however, was adamant. She needed the roster. Pronto. ‘But why?’ Beano asked, dreading the hours it would take to round up the name of every tackling dummy cluttering up the practice field. ‘Because,’ she said, matter of factly, ‘I want to sleep with everybody on the Pitt football team.’
“Beano gasped. ‘Well,’ he said, clearing his throat, ‘in alphabetical order, starting at guard…Cook, Beano.’”
More “Beanoisms”:
“I’d like to do the last scoreboard show and then go. I don’t want to die in the middle of the football season. I have to know who’s No. 1 in the last polls.”
“You’ll never have a 16-team playoff in college football. The most that could happen would be four teams in the next century. But after that, I’m dead, so who cares?”
“(Cook’s) most audacious publicity stunt at Pitt was never pulled off. He had the idea of posing Pitt’s star basketball player alongside Jonas Salk, who had developed his polio vaccine at Pitt. His proposed caption: ‘The world’s two greatest shot makers.’ Dr. Salk refused to go along.”
Early in the week, Jets coach Rex Ryan said that Mark Sanchez is “our starting quarterback, this week.” The heat was on Sanchise and he came through against Indianapolis. While 11/18, 82, 2 TDs might not seem like WAC numbers (or Big 12 these days), he didn’t turn it over and with Shonn Greene finally breaking out for a career best 161 yards and 3 touchdowns, the Jets defeated Indianapolis 35-9 to even their record at 3-3. Even Tim Tebow was allowed to contribute.
Everyone in the AFC East is now 3-3, by the way, with New England losing to my man Russell Wilson and the Seahawks, 24-23 in Seattle, as Wilson, supposedly with his job on the line (though he’s just a rookie, for crying out loud), performed splendidly, 16/27, 293, 3-0.
Miami beat St. Louis 17-14, though here I’m talking about Rams rookie receiver Chris Givens, out of Wake Forest, who had three receptions for 85 yards and in the last three games now has five for 188, including receptions of 51, 52, and 65. You da man, Chris!
The Lions, in a must win situation, defeated the Eagles 26-23 in Philly. Michael Vick, who we learned earlier in the week owned a dog, turned the ball over another two times.
The Cowboys fell to 2-3 as they lost to the Ravens (5-1), 31-29, with Baltimore’s Jacoby Jones tying an NFL record with a 108-yard kickoff return.
Washington (3-3) defeated Minnesota (4-2) as Robert Griffin III, RG3, ran for 138 yards, including a 76-yard touchdown scamper (haven’t used this word in years) just a week after suffering a concussion.
The Giants got their pass-rush going with six sacks in an impressive win over the 49ers in San Francisco, 26-3, as both teams go to 4-2. The game was also one where New York rookie running back David Wilson impressed, both running the ball and on kickoff returns. Come playoff time, I’m guessing Wilson turns into a real star. [Reminder…I’ve picked the Giants to win another Super Bowl.]
“Karras, skinny legs and all, played with a murderous intensity that endeared him to me and many other fans in the bare-knuckle city of Detroit. He was known for hating all quarterbacks, even his own. He dismissed them as ‘milk drinkers.’ One story has it that after Lions quarterback Milt Plum threw a late interception, turning a 7-6 lead into a 9-7 loss to the despised Green Bay Packers, an infuriated Karras hurled his helmet across the locker room at Plum’s skull. He missed the target by 10 inches, give or take.
“As I was to learn later, Karras had another admirable characteristic: an abiding disdain for authority. He got along so poorly with his coach at the University of Iowa, Forest Evashevski, that the two wouldn’t speak to each other off the field. Even so, Karras was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 1957 and a first-round draft pick by the Lions. He did not have many kind words for the team’s front office, and he was furious and unrepentant when, in 1963, N.F.L. Commissioner Pete Rozelle suspended him and Packers running back Paul Hornung for gambling on games.
“ ‘I don’t like Pete Rozelle,’ Karras said in a 1977 interview, recalling his one-year suspension for placing half a dozen bets of $50 or $100.
“Hornung apologized, publicly and profusely. Karras never did. I always admired him for that, for his unwillingness to bow to authority, doubly so because it carried consequences. Hornung was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986. Despite four Pro Bowl appearances, despite being voted to the All-Decade Team of the 1960s, despite a consensus that he was one of the best defensive linemen ever to play the game, Karras was shunned by the Hall of Fame.”
Lance Armstrong
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme says there should be “no winner” of the seven titles Lance Armstrong won if the decision to strip him of his victories is upheld. Prudhomme said, “We cannot be indifferent to what Usada (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency) has unmasked this week, it’s a damning picture that’s been drawn.”
So it was on Wednesday that the USADA released 150 pages of allegations (1,000 pages total of evidence), naming 11 former teammates of Armstrong’s, including George Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis, as key witnesses.
Armstrong’s path to greatness “ran far outside the rules,” said the USADA. Armstrong said he would no longer fight the agency, but continues to insist he never cheated. USADA Chief Executive Travis Tygart said his group handled the case under the same rules as any other, and that Armstrong was given the chance to take his case to arbitration and he declined.
The evidence is overwhelming, with Armstrong’s ex-wife, Kristin, mentioned 30 times in the report. In one episode, Armstrong asked her to wrap banned cortisone pills in tin foil to hand out to his teammates.
“Kristin obliged Armstrong’s request by wrapping the pills and handing them to the riders. One of the riders remarked, ‘Lance’s wife is rolling joints,’” the report read.
Tygart said, “The evidence shows beyond any doubt that the U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”
All sports. 15 of the 26 giving testimony had knowledge of U.S. Postal riders and doping activities.
The USADA says specifically of Armstrong: “The evidence is overwhelming that Lance Armstrong did not just use performance-enhancing drugs, he supplied them to his teammates.”
While Armstrong has long protested his innocence, “retroactive testing found EPO in six of Armstrong’s urine samples from the 1999 race, according to the report.” [Jere Longman / New York Times] 1999 was the first of Armstrong’s seven Tour titles.
—Clint Bowyer won the Sprint Cup race on Saturday night in Charlotte and so with five races to go, Brad Keselowski, who finished 11th, leads Jimmie Johnson by 14 points and Denny Hamlin moved to third in the Chase for the title. Bowyer is in fourth.
But Dale Earnhardt Jr. saw his chances for a title fade away when he was forced to miss two races with a concussion, a result of the last lap crash at Talladega last week. At first Earnhardt drove his car away from the wreck, but he knew something “was not quite right,” in his words, and had himself checked out on Wednesday and got the diagnosis. Earnhardt had made 461 consecutive starts, fifth longest active streak in the sport.
—Jonas Blixt won his first PGA Tour event at the Frys.com Open as the rush to secure a tour card for 2013 continues.
–The United States avoided elimination in World Cup qualifying with a late second-half goal from Eddie Johnson in a 2-1 win over Antigua and Barbuda, held down there. With one game left in Group A play against Guatemala on Tuesday, it now appears the Americans most likely need just a draw to advance to the next round of qualifying for 2014. This is pathetic it has come down to the last match.
–But at least we aren’t Ireland. Picture a huge crowd in Dublin as the national team suffered the worst home defeat in Irish football history, a 6-1 thrashing from Germany in World Cup qualifying.
–The New York Daily News’ Mitch Lawrence reports that Jeremy Lin is still having knee issues. Now with the Rockets, Lin said the other day, “My speed and my explosiveness and my agility (are not) there yet.” In his first action since injuring his knee in March, Lin played in an exhibition game against Oklahoma City and Russell Westbrook and Lin looked horrible, with Westbrook torching him for 19 points in 16 minutes.
It’s not like Lin had catastrophic surgery. It wasn’t a torn ACL or microfracture surgery.
But I was on record as saying “Good riddance” when the Knicks let Lin walk and didn’t match Houston’s absurd $25 million offer for the guy. Said one NBA executive to Lawrence, “More than a problem with his knee, what I saw again from Lin is that he is limited as an athlete."
–As a pretty active jogger, I’ve been amazed, and heartened, by the number of people out exercising these days, including the massive growth in cycling, versus even just five years ago. Further proof of this is the Philadelphia Marathon (Nov. 18) where the number of entrants (16,000) is up 140% since 2007. Entrees for the long-established Marine Corps Marathon (Oct. 28) are up 45%. [Runner’s World]
–We note the passing of actor Gary Collins, 74, who is probably best known for being the host at the Miss America pageant. In fact in 1967, he married Mary Ann Mobley, Miss America of 1959, and the two remained together until last year, when, err, she left him because of his myriad of problems that aren’t worth mentioning at this point.
5. Nevada
4. South Dakota (think Pine Ridge Indian Reservation)*
3. Montana
2. North Dakota
1. New Hampshire (part of this is because Vermont and Massachusetts residents come there to purchase beer, N.H. having a lower tax on the stuff)
*Whiteclay, Neb., a little town on the border with South Dakota I’m very familiar with, sells 4.9 million cans of beer annually to Pine Ridge residents.
–And now our irregular feature… SEX CHAT…ripped from the pages of Men’s Health magazine. Model Hollie Witchey was asked to fill in the blanks…
“I wish more men knew…how to handle a woman. And that could be anything from guiding me on the small of my back into a car, to guiding me in the bedroom.”
“The biggest mistake men make in bed is…getting overly excited.”
Me: “R.A. Dickey is on the mound! R.A. Dickey is on the mound!”
“My definition of handsome is…a man who’s masculine enough to carry off long hair.”
–Cool dog story…from Meena Hart Duerson / New York Daily News
“An intrepid Golden Retriever channeled Lassie this week, finding his way home after a two-week ordeal in the woods and leading his owner to her other dog, who had gotten stranded in the wilderness.
“Massachusetts woman Penny Blackwell was devastated last month when her two beloved dogs Baxter and Bailey disappeared for two weeks.
“The Golden Retrievers got loose from their leash in Blackwell’s yard on Sept. 25, where they’d been tied up after going for a swim, according to the Cape Cod Times, and vanished.
“ ‘It was horrible,’ she told the paper. ‘The worst thing was not knowing if they were alive. It’s one thing to have a dog die. But to have them gone and not know, it was just awful.’”
After a massive search, a neighbor found one of the dogs wandering in the woods.
“Reunited with Baxter, Blackwell took the dog to the area where he’d been found, and he began to pull her into the bushes….
“ ‘Baxter kind of led me off the side through the woods,’ she told CBS. ‘I had twigs in my eyes and leaves in my hair.’
“It turned out that Baxter was leading her straight to Bailey, whose leash had become tangled in the brush.
“ ‘I could hardly get him untied because he was jumping on me and jumping all over Baxter, so happy to see us.’”
Both dogs lost a lot of weight but were otherwise fine.
Top 3 songs for the week 10/12/63: #1 “Sugar Shack” (Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs) #2 “Be My Baby” (The Ronettes…Phil Spector’s wall of sound at its best…also loved girls’ ’64 version of “Walking In The Rain”…) #3 “Blue Velvet” (Bobby Vinton…one of the last gasps for this kind of tune before the British Invasion hits)…and…#4 “Cry Baby” (Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters) #5 “Sally, Go ‘Round The Roses” (The Jaynetts…not aging well) #6 “Busted” (Ray Charles…he did better) #7 “My Boyfriend’s Back” (The Angels) #8 “Mean Woman Blues” (Roy Orbison) #9 “Heat Wave” (Martha & The Vandellas…peak of the girl group era) #10 “Donna The Prima Donna” (Dion…very underrated)
San Francisco 49ers Quiz Answer: 100 TD passes – Joe Montana, 244 (1979-92); Steve Young, 221 (1987-99); John Brodie, 214 (1957-73); Frankie Albert, 115 (1946-52); Jeff Garcia, 113 (1999-2003); Y.A. Tittle, 108 (1951-60). I forgot that Albert led the league in TD passes, 1948-49, with 29 and 27, respectively. Out of Stanford.
