[Note: Posted 12:30 p.m., Wednesday, prior to Cy Young Award announcements…and other stuff.]
1970 College Football Quiz: Mark R. was upset I didn’t mention in my Texas quiz the other day that his alma mater, Notre Dame, had defeated the 1970 edition of the Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl, 24-11, behind quarterback Joe Theismann. ND finished No. 2 in the AP poll behind Nebraska. Texas was third but was the Coaches Poll choice for No. 1. Anyway… 1) who led the NCAA in rushing that year? [Hint: think ACC] 2) Who was No. 3 in the country in passing yards, played at San Diego State, and went on to have a solid NFL career? 3) Who won the Heisman? [Theismann was second in the balloting.] Answers below.
Ball Bits
In a stunning trade, the Miami Marlins, fresh off an incredibly lousy season in a new ballpark that was met with very mixed reviews, traded star shortstop Jose Reyes, along with pitchers Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson, to Toronto in exchange for some of the Blue Jays’ top prospects. The Marlins also threw in catcher John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio.
Just a year ago the Marlins had signed Reyes, Buehrle and closer Heath Bell but then the Marlins finished last. Last July, the Marlins traded star Hanley Ramirez, Omar Infante and Anibal Sanchez. Plus you had the issues surrounding recently fired manager Ozzie Guillen. As the AP reported, imagine how pissed off Miami slugger Giancarlo Stanton is. [Actually, he tweeted, “Alright, I’m pissed off!!! Plain & Simple.”] On the other hand, Toronto slugger Jose Bautista is psyched.
Toronto hasn’t reached the playoffs since winning their second consecutive World Series in 1993 (something about the Yankees and Red Sox during much of this time, you see).
Major League Baseball will examine the deal, including all the money and contracts involved.
As for the players Miami is getting, Baseball America ranks three of them among Toronto’s top 8 prospects.
“The Miami Marlins pulled off the ultimate Ponzi scheme, getting South Florida taxpayers to pay for a new ballpark to watch a product that simply doesn’t exist.
“Bernie Madoff is spending the rest of his life in prison for his con job. Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and President David Samson get to walk free, enjoying the fine artwork, fish tanks and swimming pools in their $634 million facility.
“The Marlins, after a $190 million spending spree last winter to let their fans know they’ll forever be contenders, abruptly traded virtually their entire team across the border….
“After watching his employers dump $242 million in salaries since July, Stanton probably doesn’t figure he’ll be staying long, either.
“If you’re Albert Pujols and Ozzie Guillen, you should thank the baseball gods. Pujols, remember, didn’t buy the club’s phony act in December and turned down more money from the Marlins before signing for $240 million with the Los Angeles Angels. Guillen can laugh at the circus while collecting $7.5 million over the next three years after being fired.
“Wrap your mind around this: Guillen was fired in part for comments about Fidel Castro, yet the Marlins are acquiring Yunel Escobar, who was fined and suspended for wearing a homophobic slur on his eye black.”
–The Mets have a big decision to make with possible Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey (the announcement comes right after I go to post). They have him for 2013 at just $5 million and can either trade him now while his value is at a maximum or wait until mid-season when the Mets will presumably be in the cellar with Miami.
Or they could extend Dickey for two years, which is all he supposedly wants. Very tough call if that’s the case, though this is one time Mets fans will side with management if we get some hitting in return for R.A.
I’m leaning towards waiting until mid-season to either trade him or extend him.
—Mike Trout of the Angels and Bryce Harper of the Nationals will be linked for the next 15 to 20 years, health willing, and on Monday they both became rookies of the year. Trout, 21, was the youngest A.L. winner and Harper, 20, was the second-youngest in the N.L. next to the Mets’ Dwight Gooden, who was 19 in 1984 when he won the award.
Trout finished one stolen base shy of a stupendous 30-50 campaign, 30 homers 49 SBs, while Harper batted .270 with 22 homers and 59 RBI.
–Washington Nationals skipper Davey Johnson was named N.L. Manager of the Year, while the Oakland Athletics’ Bob Melvin received the A.L. honor over Baltimore’s Buck Showalter.
Sanchez and Eli
Particularly the last three weeks, New York area football fans have been treated to some of the worst quarterbacking the region has ever seen between the Jets’ Mark Sanchez and the Giants’ Eli Manning.
Eli has plummeted to No. 22 in the quarterback rankings out of 33, while Sanchez is No. 30.
“Mike Tannenbaum and Rex Ryan fell in love with Mark Sanchez during the month before the 2009 NFL Draft. The duo was wowed by the young quarterback’s presence during a clandestine meeting in Southern California, followed by a workout at his nearby high school field.
“Nearly four years later, that judgment call could be what leads to the downfall of both men with the Jets.
“Vince Lombardi used to say, ‘We can make a mistake on a player and lose a few games, but if we make a mistake on a quarterback, we’re getting fired.’
“The Jets’ decision makers made a mistake on a quarterback, and his name is not Tim Tebow.
“It has become clear now that Sanchez never is going to be a franchise quarterback. He was a capable one during his first two years when the Jets had a dominating defense and a strong supporting cast on offense.
“But over the past two years, Sanchez has been asked to elevate his own game and that of those around him. He has failed miserably, continuing to make the same mistakes he made as a rookie.”
Sanchez is guaranteed $8.25 million next season, so he’s coming back. But Tannenbaum, more so than Ryan, is the man who needs to walk the plank.
And then Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reported that some of the Jets are unhappy with Tim Tebow.
“Tebowmania may have captivated the NFL last season, but Tim Tebow’s new team doesn’t believe he’s a savior.
“More than a dozen Jets players and members of the organization painted a sobering picture of the player who rallied the Broncos to the playoffs last season. In their eyes, he’s simply not very good.
“The prevailing thought in the organization is that Tebow is nothing more than a gimmick.
“ ‘He’s terrible,’ a defensive starter told the Daily News.
“Although Tebow told The News last month that he has made improvements as a quarterback over the past few months, none of the people in the organization who spoke to The News shared that sentiment.
“Both offensive and defensive players admitted that they hadn’t noticed any appreciable improvement in Tebow’s quarterback skills in practice since he was traded to the Jets in March….
“Despite Mark Sanchez’s league-low 52% completion rate and league-high four red-zone interceptions, the players believe he should remain the starter over Tebow, who has accounted for only 132 total yards and averaged seven offensive snaps per game.”
I’m holding off comment on the Mehta piece until after the upcoming Rams game.
“The clock is ticking now on Mark Sanchez, and it is an alarm clock, with only 60 more minutes on it.
“Sanchez and the Jets are in free fall, and if they crash and burn Sunday in St. Louis with their old offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, in the house plotting revenge, Rex Ryan cannot possibly continue to stand by his man, the way he did yesterday, cannot continue to sell Sanchez as the Sanchize to his team and to a disgruntled fan base that is mad as hell and can’t take it anymore.
“Which should not be confused with Tebow Savings Time, because I remain firmly in the be-careful-what-you-wish-for department.
“You’re entitled to my opinion that Tebow is not a starting quarterback in this league.
“But you can easily make the case that any quarterback who completes only 52 percent of his passes should not be a starting quarterback in this league.
“Especially at a point in his career when he should be at 60 percent.
“Sanchez needs the game of his life, and he needs it now. One more disaster, one more game where he throws a catastrophic interception, or makes a head-scratching decision that fourth-year quarterbacks are not supposed to be making, one more lost fumble, one more game where he is a contributing cause of another defeat, and Ryan will not be able to look his team in the eye and pretend nothing is wrong. Sometimes, you have to look like you’re trying.”
But, boy, that offensive coordinator, Tony Sparano, he’s a piece of work. Why is he here?
But like some fans, if you aren’t going to give Tebow a fair shot, let us see third-string quarterback Greg McElroy! Geezuz, if the Jets lose in St. Louis this weekend and go to 3-7, at least give McElroy a few series in the following game, except that’s Thanksgiving Night against the Patriots so scrap that idea. Ain’t gonna happen.
One other Jet item. The team cut linebacker Cameron Maybin, who had six sacks last season and looked super at times, but didn’t have one sack this year. So typical of the season to date. Actually, the guy had just one tackle! In 119 defensive snaps! Geezuz, I could put on pads and just stand around for 119 snaps and maybe push a guy out of bounds one time.
As for Eli Manning, he has gone three straight games without throwing a touchdown pass, the first time since his rookie season in 2004, while the Giants continue to struggle in the second half of a regular season. The team is 13-21 in November during Tom Coughlin’s nine-year tenure and were 1-3 last November before ripping off six straight, four in the playoffs.
“My standard answer for last year was, ‘It didn’t come out too badly.”
As for Manning, offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said there is nothing to the dead-arm theory.
Manning himself said there is no self-doubt creeping into his head.
“You just trust your skills. You trust your past experiences. You just know that football is a crazy game. It’s tough. It’s hard. It is hard. It’s just a matter of keep fighting through it. Sometimes you need to be reminded of that. We’ve had a good reminder.”
–What an ugly Sunday in the NFL, what with quarterbacks Michael Vick, Jay Cutler and Alex Smith all suffering concussions. And then on Monday night, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger went down for a few weeks, it would seem, with a shoulder injury. So we get to see who has the best backups.
Chicago’s loss of Cutler in particular is a big blow if he’s out for any extended period. As for Vick, it doesn’t matter because the 3-6 Eagles are cooked but Coach Andy Reid did say it was a “pretty significant” concussion.
ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski “calculated that through the first eight games, Vick had been knocked to the ground an astonishing 134 times – and a concussion seemed inevitable.” [Judy Battista / New York Times]
–By the way, back to the 3-6 Jets, and other teams of that ilk, since the 1970 merger, only four teams that started with that mark went on to make the playoffs, the last one being the 1996 Jacksonville Jaguars, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
College Football
No. 13 Stanford at No. 2 Oregon is on at 8:00 p.m. eastern, so I’ll be glued to that one.
No. 18 USC and No. 17 UCLA face off at 3:00 in what should be an entertaining affair. If USC wins that sets them up for a rematch with Oregon in the Pac-12 title game.
No. 22 Rutgers has a crucial away contest at Cincinnati.
And, gulp, Wake Forest gets national airtime in going up against No. 3 Notre Dame in South Bend. This one could kill admissions down in Winston-Salem. Mark R. is salivating as it’s a certainty I’ll owe him a great meal in Philadelphia…not that there is anything wrong with this. [Mark, I’m not paying for Stan if he shows up.]
Ohio at Ball State and Toledo at Northern Illinois. Remember, the MAC has limited bowl opportunities.
Separately, the Los Angeles Times’ Chris Dufresne explains what is happening to the BCS in 2014.
There will be six major bowls as part of a four-team playoff, “with guaranteed access provided to the so-called ‘Group of 5’ conferences.
“A selection committee will determine the four playoff teams and also place other top teams into other access bowls. The Western Athletic Conference dropping football after this year will leave the sport with five major conferences: the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Pac-12 and Big Ten. The ‘Group of 5’ conferences will be the Big East, Mountain West, Sun Belt, Mid-American and Conference USA.
“Rather than create a seventh bowl to accommodate the ‘Group of 5,’ the selection committee will provide an automatic bid for the highest ranked team from those conferences….
“Yet to be determined is the name of the new system and how the national semifinal games will be rotated among the six bowls. Three of the six will be the Rose, Sugar and Orange with the leading candidate for the others being the Fiesta, Cotton and Chick-fil-A.”
The idea for the Group of 5 looks pretty cool. Lots of excitement in the final weeks to see which one emerges.
College Basketball
Following the preseason polls the first few weeks’ rankings are rather meaningless until the teams start playing a few quality opponents but this week we do already have a few upsets, with some decent tournaments coming up so the next poll will begin to establish the trends.
No. 9 Duke upset No. 3 Kentucky 75-68 on Tuesday, while No. 21 Michigan State beat No. 7 Kansas 67-64.
No. 13 UCLA survived an overtime scare against UC Irvine 80-79.
And in one of those box scores you just stare at, Kansas State defeated Alabama Huntsville 87-26, with A-H going 9 of 55 from the field, 3 of 33 from downtown. Good gawd.
San Diego State’s star freshman forward Winston Shepard was suspended by the NCAA for three games for violating an unspecified rule.
–Boy, sure looks like Phil Jackson was screwed as the Lakers opted for Mike D’Antoni to replace Mike Brown as coach in L.A.
“He said he was ‘physically much stronger,’ having spent the last few months in daily workouts with a trainer at a high-end gym near his home in Playa del Rey. He could handle the grind of an NBA season, and he was intrigued by the ‘excitement and talent of the team, and the attraction.’
“The Lakers, a team Jackson had coached to five NBA championships, had fired Coach Mike Brown after losing four of their first five games this season. The fans were calling for him, literally, chanting ‘We want Phil!’ at home games Friday and Sunday.
Jackson met with General Manager Mitch Kupchak and team vice president Jim Buss at his home for 1 ½ hours on Saturday, they shook hands, and Jackson, as reported by Bresnahan, assumed he had until Monday to come back to them with his decision.
“The Lakers woke up Jackson with a phone call near midnight Sunday to tell him that Mike D’Antoni would be their coach.”
Jackson said later Monday, “I wish it would have been a little cleaner….It seemed slimy to be awoken with this kind of news. It’s just weird.”
Kupchak issued a statement: “After speaking with several excellent and well-respected coaching candidates, Dr. Buss, Jim and I all agreed that Mike was the right person at this time to lead the Lakers forward.”
Jackson also said there was nothing to the media speculation that he wanted to skip road games.
D’Antoni’s reaction? Sometimes you get lucky. Like very, very lucky.
“We were told on Saturday it’s a 95% chance the ring master is coming back to coach, no one mentioning the 5% in the minority were apparently, Jerry Buss, Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak.
“The Lakers now tell us Buss, Buss and Kupchak were unanimous in opting to hire Mike D’Antoni but never say why the Unanimous Three steered away from Jackson.”
[It does need to be noted that the Lakers’ players, while universally wanting Jackson, don’t have a problem with D’Antoni.]
–The Knicks moved to 5-0 for the first time since the 1993-94 season with a 99-89 win over Orlando on Tuesday, while the Nets moved to 4-2 with a win over Cleveland. Ah yes, it’s early but the New York-Brooklyn rivalry is already setting up nicely. Are both 50-win teams headed towards a possible collision in the playoffs? That would be sweet.
–I missed the result of last weekend’s final PGA Tour event of the season, the last chance for golfers to qualify for a 2013 tour card by finishing in the top 125 on the money list. It turned out to be pretty dramatic, to say the least, as Charlie Beljan, 28, who came into the event 139th on the money list, won it, his first PGA Tour title, and moved all the way up to No. 63. He now has a two-year exemption as a tour winner, let alone an invite to the Masters.
“On the practice range Friday, before the second round of Charlie Beljan’s final chance to avoid having to requalify for the PGA Tour, his throat tightened and his heart began hammering.
“What happened next was one of the more frightening – and remarkable – rounds of golf ever caught on video. Beljan, 28, endured a five-hour stress test, staggering through 18 holes at the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. He sat down in the grass to catch his breath. Medical personnel in his gallery monitored his racing pulse. The fear of a possible heart attack dominated his thoughts.
“He carded a 64, the second-lowest score of his rookie season, to take the lead, then left the grounds in an ambulance.
“He spent the night in a hospital, with machines hooked up to his limbs and his golf shoes still on his feet. A battery of tests revealed nothing physically wrong with him. It was a panic attack.
“And when Beljan was released on Saturday, he decided to put his nerves to the test for the final 36 holes.
“When he returned to the course, he said, ‘I was crying on the range because I was so afraid these feelings would come back.’
“For the nest two rounds, Beljan fought bone-crushing fatigue and worry about his health to hang on for his first PGA Tour victory, a triumph over the most mental of games.”
—Jeff Gordon was fined $100,000 and placed on probation for intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer in Sunday’s NASCAR race at Phoenix International Raceway which led to a rather large brawl between the two pit crews. Last race for the Chase for the Sprint is Sunday, with Brad Keselowski needing just to finish 15th to take the crown.
But the Wall Street Journal’s Valerie Bauerlein writes NASCAR has a huge problems on its hands. Probably a good barometer is yours truly. I always watch Daytona, and normally 3 or 4 other races, normally the night ones in Charlotte and Bristol, but this year it was just Daytona.
Television ratings are down 21% since the peak in 2005.
More importantly, “Sponsors are fleeing. An iconic sponsor, Dodge, is leaving at the end of the season. Office Depot is dropping defending champion Tony Stewart and even Dale Earnhardt Jr. is getting a bit of a brush off from Diet Mountain Dew, which is dialing back the number of races it participates in. Long-time sponsors like UPS, Home Depot and Aflac have pulled back from NASCAR.”
One reason for the fan cooling could be the move to super tracks in California and Kansas as local venues like Rockingham (which I went to twice) were shelved. Ditto North Wilkesboro; Junior Johnson territory and another great spot to watch a race.
Attendance is falling. Every single race used to sell out. This September, Talladega had 88,000, down from crowds in the 160,000 range in the mid-2000s.
–So New Jersey is introducing sports betting. Steve Politi, the super columnist with the Star-Ledger, opines on a recent NCAA announcement concerning the move.
“Say this about the NCAA: It sure does a good job of making sure no one profits on the backs of its young athletes – no one, of course, but the NCAA.
“Oh sure, it’s considered ‘integrating athletics into the educational experience,’ as the association’s website boasts, to reap billions on a basketball tournament without paying the participants a dime.
“But if a state wants to help its bottom line by allowing legal gambling on those games? Forget it. The NCAA would rather host its events in states where organized crime takes all bets (and the profits) than the tournament.
“The announcement Monday was predictable, even if it was devastating for a state that needs some good news. The East Regional will not be coming back to Newark in the next two years, as everyone had once expected, and mostly likely never again.
“The governing body for collegiate sports wasn’t even subtle in its snub. This was its message: You want sports betting, New Jersey? Well, you can watch your neighbors get the benefits of our tournament – first at Madison Square Garden in 2014, then Syracuse in 2015, and rest assured someday soon at the Barclays Center.
“ ‘Consistent with our policies and beliefs, the law in New Jersey requires that we no longer host championships in the state,’ NCAA spokesman David Worlock confirmed in an e-mail Monday.
“So the Kings of Moral Outrage in Indianapolis, the ones who can’t enforce their own rules with any consistency, will decide what’s right and wrong for New Jersey. One month after pulling six minor events from the state – a petty decision that hurt only the athletes and the host universities – they’ve yanked away their biggest prize.”
The thing is, New Jersey’s rule doesn’t even allow betting on college games within the state.
State Sen. Ray Lesniak (know him) said, “The NCAA is not going to intimidate the state of New Jersey and stop us from reaping the billions of dollars that now go to organized crime, offshore game sites and the state of Nevada. It’s as simple as that.”
As Politi adds, sports betting is expected to generate $150 million a year in taxes and fees and should certainly help fill casinos during the biggest sports weekends.
“The NFL and its players’ association donated $1 million for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts around the region – a nice gesture, to be sure. But imagine the impact if the league dropped the lawsuit it jointly filed with the other three pro leagues and the NCAA against New Jersey’s law.
“That would be a real economic impact….The NFL is thrilled to showcase a game in Wembley Stadium, despite the fact that legal betting shops are practically on every corner in London, but they’ll fight to the final legal brief to keep them out of New Jersey.”
–Skier Lindsey Vonn has been hospitalized in Colorado with “severe intestinal pains”. She’s actually been to the hospital two or three times over the past two weeks, complaining she feels pain all over, but she was formally admitted on Tuesday.
–So we’ve now seen all these photos of Paula Broadwell and know she likes to keep in shape, but just how fast is she? I mean she talked of interviewing David Petraeus during fast-paced training runs.
Well, as reported by Kaitlyn Kiernan of the Wall Street Journal, according to race-result aggregator Athlinks, “Broadwell finished a half-marathon in her hometown of Charlotte last November in 1:36:26, for a pace of 7:21 minutes per mile. Out of 1,353 women, she finished 12th – which is pretty impressive.”
Boy, I’ll say. I’m running a half in Kiawah on Dec. 8 and will be very happy doing 2:10.
Petraeus, by the way, at the age of 54 in 2006 ran a five-mile race at a super 6:46 pace. I’m 54 and will be running a 10:00 pace for 13 miles. Eegads.
—Russia sentenced a hunter in the Far East to 18 months of community service and fined the guy about $18,500 for killing a tiger. This was a positive step for wildlife lovers. The dirtball killed one of the remaining 500 tigers in the Maritime and Khabarovsk territories.
Previously, between 1991 and 2009, only one person was convicted of killing a tiger in Russia.
Personally, it would be nice to allow a tiger court to rule on such matters, but this is a good first step.
Tigers are generally No. 3 on the All-Species List behind ‘Dog’ and the ‘gibbon.’ Beavers, remember, are on double-secret probation but this could be lifted come the spring if they stay on their best behavior this winter, when they should be hibernating anyway and not wreaking havoc by building Hoover-sized dams. At such time I’ll probably place them No. 6. [On the other hand, Oregon State’s Beaverettes are definitely not on probation.]
–I see where Caesars Palace in Vegas has signed Shania Twain for a two-year engagement inside the Colosseum, the venue built for Celine Dion.
I mean in all seriousness, Twain should be the perfect Vegas act. She’s still capable of turning out a hit or two, she’s gorgeous, sexy, and has a catalogue of 18 top 10 songs, including eight that reached No. 1. Her production designer, Michael Cotton, was working on Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” at the time of the gloved-one’s death.
Twain, however, is sharing some of her concerts with Dion, Rod Stewart and others. Why? Go solo, Shania!
–The Rolling Stones’ documentary, Crossfire Hurricane, debuts on HBO Thursday. Looks good.
–Finally, Major Harris, a former member of the Delfonics who had the 1975 solo hit “Love Won’t Let Me Wait,” died at the age of 65. That song is a classic, peaking at No. 5. [huh…huh…]
Top 3 songs for the week 11/18/72: #1 “I Can See Clearly Now” (Johnny Nash) #2 “I’d Love You To Want Me” (Lobo) #3 “I’ll Be Around” (The Spinners)…and…#4 “I Am Woman” (Helen Reddy) #5 “Nights In White Satin” (The Moody Blues) #6 “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” (The Temptations) #7 “Freddie’s Dead (Theme from “Superfly”) (Curtis Mayfield) #8 “Convention ’72” (The Delegates… huh?) #9 “Witchy Woman” (Eagles) #10 “Summer Breeze” (Seals & Croft…decent week…good variety)
1970 College Football Quiz Answers: 1) UNC’s Don McCauley led the nation in rushing in ’70 with 1720 yards; Cornell’s Ed Marinaro was second. 2) San Diego State’s QB was Brian Sipe. 3) Jim Plunkett of Stanford won the Heisman.
