[Posted early Wed. a.m.]
Baseball Quiz: On Sept. 18, 1956, Mickey Mantle became just the eighth player in MLB history to tally 50 home runs in one season. Name the other seven. Answer below.
College Football
–Only games I’m interested in this week are Michigan State (3-0) at No. 22 Notre Dame (2-1), just to see if the Spartans are worth a damn; Auburn (3-0) at No. 6 LSU (3-0), ditto re Auburn; and the biggie, No. 23 Arizona State (2-0) at No. 5 Stanford (2-0). Hoping ASU brings their full cheerleading squad, having been tipped off by Steve G.
–In two games against Alabama, Johnny Manziel is 52/71, 717 yards, 7 TDs, 2 INTs, plus 190 yards rushing. He is also 16-26 on third downs. Against everyone else last season, Alabama limited opponents to under 29% on third down conversions.
And as Bruce Feldman of CBSSports.com points out, Manziel “all by himself has accounted for 21 percent of the offensive yardage Alabama has allowed in its last 16 games (907 of 4,340).
—Nebraska has given up 70 points, 45 points, 34 points, 13 points and last weekend’s 41 against UCLA. The 13-point effort was against an awful Southern Miss team.
–Texas coach Mack Brown is under the gun big time following 40-21 and 44-23 losses the past two weeks to Brigham Young and Ole Miss. In fact since the BCS title game after the 2009 season, the Longhorns are 23-18, and 11-15 in the Big 12.
–Some big spreads this weekend. Miami is favored by 60 points over Savannah State, UCLA by 42 over New Mexico State, and Ohio State by 51 against Florida A&M.
As the Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Bachman points out, the largest in college football history was last year; Florida State by 65 over Savannah State, with Savannah covering easily…at 55-0. That game ended 9 minutes early due to a storm. [Ah, the beauty of my archives. Ms. Bachman didn’t note this.]
–I admit to being very uneasy about this NFL season. I can already tell I’m not going to enjoy it as much as I used to, and it’s not because my Jets are headed to another awful season, though at least they might be competitive in a few games.
No, it’s of course all about the concussion issue, or as New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden put it as he was driving up to Foxborough the other night to see the Jets play the Patriots:
“I contemplated various ways out of a moral quandary: how to continue to cover these weekly NFL spectacles, knowing that in 15 to 20 years some of the participants will probably be disabled, or worse….
“The NFL has not come close to admitting its possible culpability in the debilitating injuries sustained by former players. Because of (the $765 million settlement with more than 4,500 plaintiffs who had sued the league), it probably won’t have to.
“By accepting the league’s settlement offer, the former players – and by extension current players – have spoken: they know what they signed up for and are willing to take the risks….
“The settlement has put all of us who watch pro football on a moral hot seat. Former players have taken the money, leaving the fans three ways to rationalize their addictive zeal for these weekly spectacles.
–You love the product and don’t really care about its costs.
–You are troubled by football but will continue to watch.
“I will continue to cover football as one who appreciates the opportunities the game has provided… But the moral pendulum has swung from the owners, the executives and the players who produce football’s violence to the millions who consume it.
“The league wins again, and fans are left to find their way out of a deepening moral and ethical quandary.”
–Remember, the Redskins (0-2) started last season 3-6, before running the table and gaining a playoff berth. But this year’s defense is horrid.
–I didn’t have a chance to comment on Eagles coach Chip Kelly and his understanding of the rules at the end of Philadelphia’s eventual 33-30 loss to San Diego at home. From Will Brinson of CBSSports.com:
“When Michael Vick hit Desean Jackson for a 25-yard gain to the Chargers 14-yard line, the Eagles were trailing 30-27 and looked primed to score a winning touchdown and escape with Kelly’s first home victory. Then Kelly forgot where his brake pedal was.
“On the next play, Vick snapped the ball with 2:09 remaining in the half – Kelly eschewing letting the clock run down to the two-minute warning in favor of getting another play in – threw an incomplete pass to Brent Celek and got absolutely drilled. He had to leave the game, meaning stone-cold backup Nikc Foles entered on second down with 2:03 left in the game and the clock stopped.
“He threw an incompletion. Suddenly it was third down, the two-minute warning had passed, the clock was stopped and Vick was coming back on the field to try for the touchdown. He threw another incompletion and Kelly was forced to send Alex Henery onto the field for the game-tying field goal. Hennery hit the attempt, which is great, but when he did there was nearly two minutes left on the clock.”
Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers then drove the field to put San Diego in position for Nick Novak’s game-winning field goal.
But…Will Brinson missed the importance of the above sequence. [As did other reporters.]
“Vick was plowed into the ground by San Diego’s Jarius Wynn with 2:09 left in the contest. Somewhat dazed, the Eagles quarterback was slow to his feet. The official blew the whistle for an injury timeout and Vick was forced to leave the field for a crucial play with his team down three and faced with a 2nd-and-10 from the San Diego 14-yard line.
“Vick said he was fine. He wanted back in the contest for the crucial play. Instead, Nick Foles took the crucial snap and threw the ball out of bounds on a pass to DeSean Jackson in the corner of the end zone.
“ ‘The referee said I had to come off,’ Vick said. ‘I was back up and standing, ready to play. The referee told me to come out.’
“Kelly thought Vick was obligated to sit out the play. In reality he could have called timeout and put his quarterback back in the game without missing a snap. It appears he didn’t know the rule. The professional rules differ from the college rules.
“ ‘It’s an injured player,’ Kelly said. ‘Didn’t matter who it is. If it’s a left guard or center or whatever, they have to go out for a play because the ref determined they were injured.’
“Asked whether there was an option of calling timeout to seamlessly reinsert Vick into the game, Kelly simply said, ‘no.’ He was wrong.
“According to Rule 4, Section 5, Article 3 in the NFL rulebook:
“When an injury timeout is called, the injured player must leave the game for the completion of one down. The player will be permitted to remain in the game if:
(a) either team calls a charged team timeout;
(b) the injury is the result of a foul by an opponent; or
(c) the period ends or the two-minute warning occurs before the next snap.
“Kelly had option A at his disposal. The Eagles could have called timeout and had Vick back in the game. They had all three timeouts remaining. Kelly still has one in his pocket….
“Having Vick in the game might have made a difference. Foles was dead cold, having not thrown a single warm-up pass. Vick was in the midst of a strong afternoon. He finished with a career-high 428 yards passing.
“It could have been more if Kelly and his staff had called timeout.”
—Eli Manning and Geno Smith have combined for 11 interceptions. 11 interceptions in two games between the two of them. New York/New Jersey football teams are thrilled.
–While Eli is 0-3 against older brother Peyton, it’s never too early to remind Broncos fans that Peyton is 9-11 in his playoff career. [Eli is 8-3, when he gets there.] Plus you got the two ring thing going if you’re Eli.
–But wait…there’s more! The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Salfino points out that “Eli Manning’s quarterback rating of 80.3 in his last 12 games ranks 21st out of 27 current starting quarterbacks with at least 200 passes over that period, according to Stats, LLC. The Giants are just 5-7 in these games.”
Over this same 12-game stretch, Aaron Rodgers is tops at 113.2, followed by Peyton at 111.1 and Russell Wilson at 106.9.
—Only 11.5% of the teams that started 0-2 since the playoffs were expanded to six teams per conference in 1990 have made it to the postseason. Just three teams have started 0-3 since 1990 and made the playoffs. [Gary Myers / New York Daily News]
–No doubt Darrelle Revis was a great player with the Jets, but he was also always a royal pain in the ass, especially come contract time. Now, after signing with Tampa Bay in the offseason following a torn ACL early in 2012, he’s once again unhappy, this time with Bucs’ coach Greg Schiano, who is employing zone coverage while Revis prefers man-to-man.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay QB Josh Freeman is also unhappy with Schiano, who has lost seven of his last eight going back to last season, and is expected to demand a trade.
–According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, club-level seats in the mezzanine at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, which include access to indoor restaurants, may go for as much as $2,600 for the Super Bowl.
The listed price on the cheapest seats is $500 next year, down from $600.
–We note the passing of former Chicago Bears fullback Rick Casares, 82. Casares played with the Bears from 1955-64 and accumulated 5,657 yards on the ground, including a league-leading 1,126 yards in 1956, at the time the second most in NFL history.
Casares played in five consecutive Pro Bowls, from 1955 to 1959, and remains third on the Bears’ career rushing list.
Ball Bits
A.L. Wild Card
Texas 82-68
Tampa Bay 82-68
Cleveland 82-69… .5 GB
Baltimore 80-70… 2
New York 79-72… 3.5
Kansas City 79-72… 3.5
N.L. Central
St. Louis 88-63
Pittsburgh 87-64… 1 GB
Cincinnati 86-66… 2.5
N.L. Wild Card
Pittsburgh 87-64
Cincinnati 86-66
Washington 81-70… 4.5 GB
Give Washington credit. It was over when they were 69-68, but they’ve won 12 of 14, and if nothing else will have a big say in the N.L. Central race with three road games against St. Louis next week.
Also, awful loss for the Yankees on Tuesday as R.A. Dickey threw seven shutout innings in a 2-0 Toronto win. The Yankees have now lost four in a row at the worst possible time, as A-Rod chokes again…1 for his last 14.
—Miguel Cabrera, playing with all sorts of ailments that would have shelved just about anyone else, finally hit home run No. 44, his first since Aug. 26, in a 6-2 Tigers win over the Mariners on Tuesday. Baltimore’s Chris Davis hit No. 51 the same night. Davis now has 92 extra-base hits.
–New York Mets fans are keeping their fingers crossed as pitcher Matt Harvey is going to give rehab a go for up to two months before deciding on whether or not to have Tommy John surgery; this after Dr. James Andrews, who gave one of the opinions on Monday, told Harvey that when it came to his elbow, “nothing was moving in places it shouldn’t.”
So he’ll go through a throwing program and then the team and Harvey will reevaluate. At least this way if he still needs surgery, he’ll have it before December and ‘only’ miss 2014, rather than starting out 2014 on the roster, finding out, say, in May, he needs the surgery after all, and then missing well into the 2015.
In 26 games for the Metsies this season, Harvey had a 2.27 ERA.
–The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s Mike Trout and his remarkable first two seasons. [2013 stats thru Monday]
2012 – 139 G…129 R…27 2B…8 3B…30 HR…83 RBI…67 BB…49 SB… .326 BA, .399 OBP, .564 SLG
2013 – 146 G…106 R…39 2B…9 3B…24 HR…89 RBI…100BB…33 SB… .331 BA, .436 OBP, .564 SLG
As Scott Miller of CBSSports.com points out, Trout this year became the first player in major-league history with at least 50 homers and 70 steals before turning 22, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. And he is one of just four players all-time with at least 50 homers, 200 runs scored and a .320 batting average in his first two full seasons.
With 183 hits and 12 games to play, Trout also has a shot at 200 hits. No one in his age 21 season (he turned 22 in August) has ever produced 200 hits, 25 homers, 30 steals and 100 runs in a season.
Too bad the Angels have failed miserably and not made the postseason the last two years so that the entire country could see Trout in the spotlight.
–Baseball can’t help but be concerned with some of the crowds in the likes of Oakland and Tampa Bay. As USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale points out, there were a mere 10,786 on hand to watch the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays battle it out for the wild-card lead at Tropicana Field the other night; while Oakland, despite being on the verge of clinching its second consecutive AL West title, finished off a three-game sweep over Texas last weekend and returned home to a crowd of 14,629.
Cleveland, shockingly, is averaging just 19,435 this season despite being in the thick of the wild-card hunt. [And unlike the A’s, who have an embarrassing stadium situation, with another sewage leakage on Tuesday, Cleveland’s Jacobs Field (now Progressive) is one of the best in baseball.]
Cleveland’s issue, to be fair, is more about the local economy. I didn’t realize just 13,000 residents remain downtown and there no longer is a Fortune 500 company there. Unemployment continues to rise.
FedEx Cup / TOUR Championship
Zach Johnson fired a 65 in the rain-delayed final round of the BMW Championship on Monday to take his 10th PGA Tour title. That’s a helluva career these days…winning double figures. Johnson moved to fourth in the FedEx Cup standings as the cut was made to the final 30 for the TOUR Championship, the playoffs finale that determines the FedEx Cup title and the $10 million bonus.
So the way it stands, the top five in the points standings heading to Atlanta this weekend at East Lake control their own destiny. Any player inside the top five wins the FedEx Cup title by winning the TOUR Championship.
The final five…1) Tiger Woods; 2) Henrik Stenson; 3) Adam Scott; 4) Johnson; and 5) Matt Kuchar.
Nick Watney started the week 34th in points but in the final round shot a 7-under 64 to vault into 12th in the FedEx standings, finishing second in the BMW behind Johnson.
Luke Donald entered the BMW 54th, but moved to 29th and a spot in Atlanta after going 67-66 in his final two rounds to finish T-4.
Dustin Johnson claimed the 30th and final spot.
Jim Furyk, by the way, blew another final round lead and remains winless in three years, plus he has now failed to win the last six times he has had at least a share of the lead going into the final round. He is 11th heading to the TOUR Championship.
–Separately, and far in the future, Bethpage Black was selected to host both the 2019 PGA Championship and the 2024 Ryder Cup, as announced by the PGA of America on Tuesday. The course was the site of the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens, won by Tiger Woods and Lucas Glover, respectively. [Phil Mickelson was runner-up in both.]
It would be a good sign if I’m around to view the 2024 Ryder Cup on television. It would be a very bad sign if I can’t watch the 2019 PGA.
–And…as to the issue of viewers of PGA Tour events calling in infractions on the players, Commissioner Tim Finchem said the Tour is reexamining the policy, in light of the fact that some players like Tiger Woods are on all the time and it’s unfair to them versus the rest of the field. Finchem, though, said he hasn’t made up his mind just how far the policy should go.
Peter Jacobsen, seven-time winner on the PGA Tour, endorsed the status quo.
“When we have fans calling in after watching it on TV, it only strengthens the rules of the game and how good we have to be. I don’t mind people calling in,” adding that integrity was “one of the measuring sticks out here on tour.”
The Tour is also going to reexamine the FedEx points standings to look at the issue of perhaps too much volatility in the playoff events (see Donald and Whatney), vs. rewarding consistency during the rest of the season. [Mike Tierney / New York Times]
–So talk about the wrong kind of headline…from AFP:
“Americans let their racist side shine post Miss America announcement”
I didn’t watch the Miss America pageant but it is pathetic there are some deriding the winner, Miss New York, Nina Davuluri, because she is of Indian origin.
All manner of racist tweets have been unleashed against her. Such as:
“9/11 was 4 days ago and she gets miss (sic) America.”
“It’s called Miss America. Get outta here New York you look like a terrorist.”
And some of you expect me to treat ‘Man’ better when I note his position on the All-Species List?! Are you kidding me?!
Nina Davuluri is beautiful, intelligent and sexy. I couldn’t give a damn what her origin is. But glad she’s American.
–DRAT! From the AP:
“A federal appeals court dealt another blow to New Jersey’s efforts to legalize sports gambling Tuesday, upholding a ruling that the state’s betting law conflicts with federal law and shouldn’t be implemented.
“The case was heard by a three-judge panel at the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, and the state could seek to have the case re-heard by the full appeals court. But Tuesday’s ruling more likely means New Jersey’s last chance to legalize sports gambling is to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.”
The appellate ruling was by a 2-1 majority and in the dissenting opinion, Judge Thomas Vanaskie issued a rebuttal regarding the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which continues to be the main sticking point.
So maybe Gov. Chris Christie, who didn’t comment yet, will indeed go to the Supreme Court as he has said he would.
All my buddies and I want to do is be able to go to Atlantic City on a weekend and have some fun placing bets on college basketball or football…let alone the NFL.
–So the guy from my town of Summit that I told you about the other day, the casino card cheat busted in Louisiana but on the lam, was charged early Sunday with cheating, conspiracy, criminal impersonation and being a fugitive from justice when he was caught cheating at the Mohegan Sun Casino in eastern Connecticut; using the same ink-like substance to mark the cards. A computer check of his fingerprints identified him this weekend. The man is being held on a $510,000 bond in Norwich, Conn.
He lives two blocks from me which is why I won’t identify him. Wouldn’t want him showing up at my door with marked cards, you understand.
–Johnny Mac passed along a piece from ABC News of Australia.
“A booze-stealing feral pig that is wreaking havoc in the Pilbara has prompted a reminder for travelers at camp sites and rest stops to ensure their food and alcohol is secured.
“It is believed the animal has drunk up to 18 cans of beer at the DeGrey River rest area over the past few days….
“One camper named Merida recounted the tale told to her by fellow campers.
“ ‘It was in the middle of the night and it was these people camping opposite us and they heard this crunching of the can and they got their torch out and shone it on the pig and there he was scrunching away at their cans,’ Merida said…..
“It was initially thought the pig stole just a six-pack, but Merida is certain it was a lot more.
“ ‘It wasn’t six cans, it was about 18 I believe it crunched.’”
The pig was last seen near the river, under a tree, undoubtedly nursing a hangover.
–I’m not happy about this…AMC is keeping “Mad Men” around an extra year by dividing up the final 14 episodes into seven next spring and another seven in 2015. Previous “Mad Men” seasons spanned 13 episodes. Series creator Matthew Weiner said the two-part season will enable “a more elaborate story” to be told.
Top 3 songs for the week 9/20/80: #1 “Upside Down” (Diana Ross) #2 “All Out Of Love” (Air Supply) #3 “Another One Bites The Dust” (Queen)…and…#4 “Fame” (Irene Cara) #5 “Lookin’ For Love” (Johnny Lee) #6 “Give Me The Night” (George Benson) #7 “Late In The Evening” (Paul Simon) #8 “Drivin’ My Life Away” (Eddie Rabbitt) #9 “One In A Million You” (Larry Graham) #10 “Emotional Rescue” (The Rolling Stones…pretty crappy week…)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Players who hit 50 home runs prior to Mickey Mantle in 1956…Babe Ruth (four times), Jimmie Foxx (twice), Ralph Kiner (twice), Hack Wilson, Hank Greenberg, Johnny Mize and Willie Mays.
*Mantle won the Triple Crown that year – .353, 52-130.
