Los Angeles Dodgers Quiz: Got the idea for this one based on a recent Los Angeles Times article. The 1977 Dodgers were the first team in baseball history to have four players hit 30 home runs in a season. Name them. Answer below.
J-E-T-S…JETS! JETS! JETS!
Yup, 2-14 here we come! So I watched the Giants-Jets exhibition game on Saturday, somewhat curious to see how Geno Smith would look, and Smith, given the start in his first big audition, looked dreadful, tossing three interceptions while committing a boneheaded safety where he just ran out of the end zone, totally oblivious to where he was on the field. Jets fans all thought, OK, the job is Mark Sanchez’ after all.
But then coach Rex Ryan inserted Sanchez into the game with 11 minutes 21 seconds left in regulation (the Jets would win 24-21 in overtime, which of course is totally meaningless), behind the second-team offensive line, and Sanchise lasted two series, getting blasted by Giants tackle Marvin Austin with an apparent serious shoulder injury.
“Ryan was defensive after the game when pressed on why he would put Sanchez in harm’s way when he appears to be the team’s best option at quarterback to start the season. Ryan said the Jets were trying to win the game, a dubious stance considering the cast of players around Sanchez. Ryan repeatedly said the Jets were competing and that is why he played Sanchez.”
“It could have been worse for the Jets. Maybe Geno Smith could have thrown four interceptions in his first seven drives Saturday night against the Giants, instead of only three. Maybe Mark Sanchez could have shredded both knees, instead of just injuring his right shoulder, playing in the waning minutes of a meaningless game after appearing to secure the Jets’ starting quarterback position by virtue of Smith’s struggles.”
“(The) inquisition of Wrecks Ryan began in earnest: Whose decision was it to play Sanchez in the fourth quarter?
“ ‘That was my decision all the way,’ Ryan said. ‘All week you talk about winning the game and competing. That was my decision.’
An opposing NFL executive late Saturday night told ESPNNewYork.com’s Rich Cimini, “That was gross mismanagement of the quarterback position. I’d be pissed if I were Sanchez.”
Ball Bits
–Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun apologized. In a statement, he said in part:
“Now that the initial MLB investigation is over, I want to apologize for my actions and provide a more specific account of what I did and why I deserved to be suspended. I have no one to blame but myself. I know that over the last year and a half I made some serious mistakes, both in the information I failed to share during my arbitration hearing and the comments I made to the press afterwards….
“Here is what happened. During the latter part of the 2011 season, I was dealing with a nagging injury and I turned to products for a short period of time that I shouldn’t have used. The products were a cream and a lozenge which I was told could help expedite my rehabilitation. It was a huge mistake for which I am deeply ashamed and I compounded the situation by not admitting my mistakes immediately.
“I deeply regret many of the things I said at the press conference after the arbitrator’s decision in February 2012. At that time, I still didn’t want to believe that I had used a banned substance. I think a combination of feeling self-righteous and having a lot of unjustified anger led me to react the way I did….I am beyond embarrassed that I said what I thought I needed to say to defend my clouded vision of reality….
“I have privately expressed my apologies to Commissioner Selig and Rob Manfred of MLB and to Michael Weiner and his staff at the Players’ Association…I sincerely apologize to everybody involved in the arbitration process, including the collector, Dino Laurenzi, Jr….
“I support baseball’s Joint Drug Treatment and Prevention Program and the importance of cleaning up the game…I am hopeful that I can earn back the trust from those who I have disappointed and those who are willing to give me the opportunity. I am deeply sorry for my actions, and I apologize to everyone who has been adversely affected by them.”
“Ryan Braun is not especially important to the baseball world anymore, except to those people who work or root for the Milwaukee Brewers. As a national figure, Braun is all but ruined. Most people will place him off in a corner of their minds – in a jail cell with giant syringes for bars, let’s say – with all the other drug cheats.”
“On the leaderboard of baseball scoundrels, Braun currently ranks a distant second to A-Rod, but being a smart guy (though maybe not quite as smart as he thought), he knows he has work to do to separate himself further from baseball’s poster boy for steroids.
“The statement was great, all of it except the excuse. There’s no good explanation for taking PEDs, and a still undisclosed ‘nagging injury,’ one that apparently didn’t impair him too much in that MVP season, certainly doesn’t qualify as something worth mentioning now. That comes under the heading: too little, too late.
“He’s the one who took the drugs, by cream and lozenge, as he revealed in his statement.
“One of the questions we’d love to have answered is why did he do it? By the timeline he provides, he was already a great and consistent superstar. He’d already signed a big contract (actually two of them), so you wonder why then?
“Why start taking drugs after $200 million had been banked?
“It seems like a strange choice when he already was a God in Milwaukee. Some won’t believe him that it was limited to part of ’11, but he brought that on himself….
“It does seem hard to understand why Braun would play clean, then – after signing two big deals – suddenly start to cheat. But that’s all baseball has on him, and that’s all he’s admitting to.”
–Thru Saturday, the St. Louis Cardinals were still hitting .328 with runners in scoring position. How good is that? According to STATS and USA TODAY Sports Weekly, in the past 40 years only 14 teams have averaged .300 with RISP. The best were the 2007 Tigers and 1996 Rockies at .311. The only team in the 1970s and 80s, by the way, was the 1975 Red Sox at .308. This season the Tigers are second in baseball at .285 with RISP. The major league average is .254.
–Detroit’s Max Scherzer moved to 19-1 as the Tiger defeated the Mets on Saturday at Citi Field, 3-0. The only others to win 19 of their first 20 decisions are Roger Clemens in 2001 and Rube Marquard in 1912. Staggering. I hadn’t seen more than snippets of Scherzer this year but, boy, his stuff is great.
The loser, though, was Matt Harvey, now 9-5, 2.27, who gave up 13 hits in 6 2/3 but allowed just two runs. Despite that sterling ERA, the Mets are now 13-13 in games Harvey has started and 16-20 for his career despite a 2.39 ERA. So right there you get an idea of how it really blows being a Mets fan.
Harvey admitted afterwards that after tossing 178 innings this year, he is running out of gas. It doesn’t help that when you come to the ballpark, you know you have to toss a shutout to have a chance of winning.
Harvey, by the way, has 191 strikeouts and just 31 walks. Scherzer has also pitched 178 innings and his splits are 196 / 42.
–Meanwhile, Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera was a one-man wrecking crew against the Mets this weekend as they swept us. He finishes play on Sunday at .360, 42-128, in his attempt to become the first to have consecutive Triple Crowns. Last year he was 44-139, .330.
–Talk about a great story…Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay had major shoulder surgery on May 16 and on Sunday, basically three months later, he pitched six innings, allowing two earned runs, in picking up the win for the Phils, 9-5, over Arizona. This is totally unheard of. He is making a ton of money, guaranteed, yet did his best to return quickly. That’s a role model, kids.
–Hey, no A-Rod news! He told his ‘people,’ like Loud Joey Tacopina, to shut up until the season is over, seeing as A-Rod’s appeal of his 211-game suspension isn’t going to be heard until after the World Series.
–Tampa Bay’s David Price has matched up with the Yankees’ CC Sabathia nine times and Price is 6-1 with a 2.41 ERA in these starts. In a 4-2 loss to the Rays and Price on Saturday, Sabathia fell to 11-11, 4.81 for the season.
–So the other day, Ichiro Suzuki reached 4,000 hits for his professional career; 2,722 in the major leagues, 1,278 in Japan. It was worthy of mention, but no more. The Yankees, though, made a big deal of it for PR purposes, but no one in his right mind believes Ichiro’s 4,000 rival those of Pete Rose and Ty Cobb, the only two to reach the mark in the majors. It certainly isn’t going on Ichiro’s plaque in Cooperstown five years after he retires.
[Rose, by the way, said if we are counting Ichiro’s professional hits in Japan, then you have to include the 427 Rose had in the minor leagues. “I was a professional then, too,” says Charlie Hustle.]
–I agree with the Daily News’ Mike Lupica that in a year, Rose will be on the ballot for the Hall of Fame.
—Vin Scully announced he is returning next season for his 65th year broadcasting Dodgers games.
–Nate Taylor had a nice piece in the New York Times on the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City that has made a comeback and turned a nice profit in 2012. I’ve been there a few times but never had a chance to give it the full treatment. [I was there for Willie Wilson-related events years ago.] The museum had been on the verge of bankruptcy but under new leadership, specifically Bob Kendrick, a friend of the late Buck O’Neil, who was the longtime face of the shrine (the only one of its kind in America), attendance is rising nicely.
Johnny Football
“If the investigation continues to drag on toward opening day on Aug. 31, Texas A&M will be facing an excruciating decision whether to play the defending Heisman Trophy winner.
“Play him and A&M faces the possibility of having to vacate every win Manziel plays in. Sit him – with the anticipation Johnny Football might be guilty – and Mr. Darnell – the Manziel family attorney – could have an injunction or two to throw the NCAA’s way….
“Nothing to see here: The NCAA finds no credible evidence and clears Manziel. At least in the short term, there would be an outcry of whitewash from some doubters. The NCAA is working to substantiate media reports that the defending Heisman Trophy winner took money for his signature. Is four weeks enough? Manziel has a powerful lawyer and plays in a powerful conference.
“Unethical conduct: If Manziel took money, he also most likely signed a document that all players are given at the beginning of camp. That NCAA document asks players if they are aware of any NCAA violations? If Manziel checked ‘no’ and is charged with breaking NCAA rules, then he’s got a further problem – misleading the NCAA.
“If that’s found to be the case, he might be done for the season. In 2009, Oklahoma State’s Dez Bryant was found to be lying to the NCAA when asked if he had been in the house of Deion Sanders. Bryant was gone for the season.
“Suspension: If the case isn’t resolved by kickoff, the school would have to decide whether to declare Manziel ineligible, then apply later for reinstatement.
“If Johnny Football cops to taking money or the NCAA discovers that he took money, he could be back on the field at some point by paying restitution. There’s a loose NCAA guideline that mandates a player sit out 30 percent of games if he accepts more than $1,000 improperly.”
Assuming the NCAA rules this week, I’ll stick by my prediction from a few weeks ago that Manziel is suspended for three games, including the Sept. 14 title bout with Alabama.
Golf Balls
—Adam Scott fired a 66 (-5) in the first round of the FedEx Cup playoffs, The Barclays, and then watched as one player after another failed to match his -11 total. It was Scott’s 10th PGA Tour victory.
But the big story was a gutty performance by Tiger Woods, who finished one behind, despite major issues with back spasms. So I guarantee you will see all kinds of articles Monday morning about the damage Tiger has done to his body over the years. Think about the long-term damage he was doing back in his youth with that vicious swing, and the torque it created. It adds up. And then you have all his knee issues, and lately elbow problems.
Think of Davis Love III and Fred Couples, for starters.
So it will be interesting to see what he does the next month as the playoffs continue. And then you have the Presidents Cup.
But back to Scott, it was ironic that he partied last weekend in the Bahamas with Justin Rose, and then on No. 18, Sunday, Rose blew a short putt that would have forced a playoff with Scott.
–I feel for Caroline Wozniacki, who we’ve learned just broke up with Rory McIlroy, at his request, and Caroline is said to be “utterly distraught.” As an article in the Irish Independent put it, it’s just sad. We all knew this was coming, but reality sucks, right, sports fans?
The two had been dating since 2011. Rory has not made the break-up public yet. On Friday, he told the New York Post, “it’s all good,” when asked about the relationship. McIlroy recently bought a home in south Florida, where he is setting up a base that is more convenient to the extensive U.S. schedule he plans on playing in the future.
The Future of Track and Field…and Jamaica
According to the Daily Telegraph (and Sydney Morning Herald), the World Anti-Doping Agency has warned Jamaica “it risked expulsion from major competitions if it failed to address failings highlighted by a former senior employee.
“WADA director-general David Howman urged the island’s government to investigate claims by the former executive director of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission that its drugs-testing program was completely inadequate.
“Renee Anne Shirley accused Jamaica’s politicians and administrators of ignoring her warnings that the positive tests returned by Asafa Powell and four other athletes were a ‘disaster’ waiting to happen, saying: ‘They believe Jamaica does not have a problem.’
“Mr. Howman warned that if the country refused to take its responsibilities seriously, WADA could deem JADCO non-compliant with the WADA code, which could have dire consequences for the country’s elite athletes, including world record-breaking sprinter Usain Bolt.”
“Doping experts have long known that drug tests catch only a tiny fraction of the athletes who use banned substances because athletes are constantly finding new drugs and techniques to evade detection. So in 2011, the World Anti-Doping Agency convened a team of researchers to try to determine more accurately how many athletes use performance-enhancing drugs.
“More than 2,000 track and field athletes participated in the study, and according to the findings, which were reviewed by the New York Times, an estimated 29 percent of the athletes at the 2011 world championships and 45 percent of the athletes at the 2011 Pan-Arab Games said in anonymous surveys that they had doped in the past year.
“By contrast, less than 2 percent of drug tests examined by WADA laboratories in 2010 were positive.”
But, under pressure, the study was never published. A spokesman for track’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, said in an e-mail that the original study “was not complete for publication,” and that blood tests from the world championships this month in Moscow would be combined with the previous research to produce what the I.A.A.F. believes would be a more comprehensive study, as Rohan reports.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency reportedly notified sprinter Tyson Gay that his sample tested positive for a banned steroid. No official announcement, however, has been made pertaining to sanctions, with the normal penalty being a ban from the sport for two years.
–Quick…who has the most wins on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit this year? Matt Kenseth, who won his fifth of the season at Bristol, Tenn., on Saturday night.
–Knicks fans mourn the passing of Dean “The Dream” Meminger, who died the other day at the age of 65. He had battled drug addiction since his playing days.
“What Willis Reed liked to call ‘Dean’s game’ was remarkable not only because the Knicks handed the Celtics their first Game 7 playoff defeat on their home floor. It was also because the great Earl Monroe never got off the bench after Dean Meminger replaced him at the start of the second quarter.
“On that date, April 29, 1973, Monroe took a seat and never so much as frowned while watching Meminger ignite the Knicks in a 94-78 victory that pushed them into the NBA finals. Soon after, they won their second and last league title, in five games over the Los Angeles Lakers.
“ ‘Dean was my friend,’ Monroe said, recalling his so-called benching a couple of years ago. ‘I was happy for him.’:
The two had a 40-year friendship, and just days before he died, Meminger paid a two-hour visit at Mount Sinai Hospital to visit with Monroe, who is recovering from a painful infection/blood clot that stemmed from knee surgery.
Meminger grew up a product of Rice High School in Harlem and starred at Marquette, before the Knicks selected him in the first round in 1971. He played six seasons in the NBA and was a quality backup point guard, super on defense.
Sources told the New York Post, Meminger’s death was probably cocaine related.
—Chris Paul was elected president of the National Basketball Players Association. I remain the only Wake Forest alum who will forever hold a grudge against the guy for costing us a No. 1 seed in the 2005 NCAA tournament.
“A 24-year-old man was snatched by a crocodile in front of at least 15 onlookers as he swam across a northern Australian river with a friend, police said Sunday.
“Northern Territory police said the man was with a group celebrating a birthday at the Mary River Wilderness Retreat, about 70 miles from Darwin, when he decided to plunge into the water.
“ ‘They were watching him swim across,’ senior sergeant Geoff Bahnert told AFP of the group.
A search for the guy was unsuccessful. Saltwater crocs, which can grow up to 23 feet and weigh more than a ton, are plentiful in these parts.
–Update: The German woman who lost her arm in a shark attack while snorkeling off Maui died on Wednesday. She had been on life support for a week. No witnesses saw the shark so no word on what species it was.
Hawaiian officials are investigating the spike in shark attacks. Normally there are just three or four each year, but there were 10 in 2012 and have now been eight thus far this year.
–One of Queen Elizabeth’s swans was killed and apparently barbecued.
“The bird was butchered, burnt and stripped of its flesh before the carcass was dumped on a riverbank near Windsor Castle, police and an animal charity said on Wednesday.
“All wild mute swans in Britain are considered the property of the crown and it is an offense to kill one.” [AFP]
–Speaking of a-holes, a 68-year-old New Jersey man was arrested and faces charges of shooting at least 40 hawks from his home in Atlantic County from December 2012 to April 2013, as reported by the Star-Ledger. All of the birds he shot are protected by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
–In USA TODAY Sports Weekly’s look at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, they highlight the Mitch Moreland specialty, a $26 behemoth. “Mitchwich Wild.”
“The Rangers’ Mitch Moreland loves to hunt. This item has ground buffalo and elk meat, chorizo, jalapenos, bacon, black-bean spread and fried onions on a sourdough bun.”
—Sid Bernstein died. He was 95. I met the man years ago, in 2000, after he wrote a memoir with Arthur Aaron. Bernstein was the promoter who brought the Beatles to Shea Stadium in 1965. Over the course of his career, he worked with everyone from Duke Ellington to ABBA.
But it was his genius with the Beatles that ushered in the stadium-concert era, even if the sound quality was awful that night, let alone having to deal with 55,000 screaming fans to play over.
Bernstein heard about the Beatles in 1963, but the agency he was working for, General Artists Corporation, wasn’t real interested so Bernstein called the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, directly and proposed they perform at Carnegie Hall. But at the time, the Beatles’ records, released on small labels in the U.S., were getting no airplay, and as intrigued as Epstein was by the offer, he didn’t want to bring the Beatles to America to fail.
Bernstein offered $6,500 for two shows, three months away, but Epstein said he wouldn’t bring the Beatles to the States until 1964, assuming they were making headway in the American market by then. They then settled on two shows, February 12.
As it turned out, Ed Sullivan had booked the group for three consecutive appearances, the first being Feb. 9. The single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was released in Dec. ’63, Capitol Records agreed to commit a large sum to promote the group and its album “Meet the Beatles,” and Bernstein’s Carnegie Hall shows sold out quickly.
Bernstein went on to book the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Animals and other British bands at various theaters in New York. Authorities at Carnegie Hall, though, were none too pleased when Stones fans trashed the place.
As for the Aug. 15, 1965 show in Shea Stadium, Bernstein says that after expenses he made a profit of only $6,500. [Richard Goldstein / New York Times]
Top 3 songs for the week 8/25/73: #1 “Brother Louie” (Stories…She was black…as the night…) #2 “Live And Let Die” (Wings…great one…) #3 “Touch Me In The Morning” (Diana Ross…where…oh, sorry….)…and…#4 “Let’s Get It On” (Marvin Gaye…he should get together with Diana…just sayin’…) #5 “The Morning After” (Maureen McGovern) #6 “Delta Dawn” (Helen Reddy) #7 “Get Down” (Gilbert O’Sullivan) #8 “Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose” (Dawn, featuring Tony Orlando) #9 “Uneasy Rider” (Charlie Daniels) #10 “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” (Jim Croce)
Los Angeles Dodgers Quiz Answer: Four to hit 30 home runs for the 1977 Dodgers…Steve Garvey, 33; Reggie Smith, 32; Ron Cey, 30; Dusty Baker, 30.
Baker hit his 30th the last day of the regular season, Oct. 2.
But as Diane Pucin of the L.A. Times wrote last week, teammate Glenn Burke did something that was history making as well.
“As Baker rounded third to the roar of the Dodger Stadium crowd, Burke, a rookie outfielder, ran from the on-deck circle, jumped up and gave Baker an over-the-head hand-slap in celebration.
“And, the high-five was born.
“Most people don’t remember Burke for that moment – or, frankly, any other moment – during his two years with the Dodgers. The onetime Oakland prep basketball star would be gone from the Dodgers a year later. Two years after that, he was out of baseball.
“Burke was mostly forgotten as a ballplayer. But, it was also forgotten that he was a trailblazer for something far more significant than the high-five.
“NBA player Jason Collins recently came out as being the first active U.S. professional male athlete in a major team sport to announce he was gay. But Collins was not even the first athlete with Los Angeles ties to deal with this issue.
“In thanking all the people who came before him, Collins never mentioned Burke, who never held a news conference to say he was gay. He neither hid it nor advertised it. He spent his playing career as a guy who could keep the clubhouse light, make teammates laugh and make friendships that would last.”
Burke died in 1995 at the age of 42 of AIDS-related pneumonia. And as Pucin notes, former running back Dave Kopay was another professional athlete from the 1970s who was gay, though he didn’t reveal this until his 1977 autobiography, “The David Kopay Story,” writing that playing pro football would have been “impossible” as an openly gay player.
