[Posted: Sunday PM, before Dodgers-Braves]
NFL Quiz: Name the ten Oakland / Los Angeles Raiders to rush for 1,000 yards in a single season. [This, to me, is ridiculously hard because of some of the names from the last 20 years.] Answer below.
College Football
It was a week of ‘almosts’…as in Nos. 4 to 6 almost went down, but didn’t.
—No. 1 Alabama defeated Georgia State, 45-3. Whoopty-damn-do.
—No. 2 Oregon destroyed Colorado in Boulder, 57-16. The Ducks have now scored at least 55 points in each of their five games under new coach Mark Helfrich. Heisman candidate Marcus Mariota threw for five touchdowns and ran for another two, all in just 2 ½ quarters.
—No. 3 Clemson beat Syracuse 49-14. I can’t believe the spread was only 14 on this one.
—No. 4 Ohio State rallied to defeat No. 16 Northwestern 40-30, the 19th straight win for the Buckeyes, who you’ll recall were ineligible for a bowl game last year. Running back Carlos Hyde was the star, 168 yards and three touchdowns.
But for those of us watching at home, understand we all knew the spread was 7 and at 34-30, Northwestern, on the final play, was lateralling the ball around, and Ohio State picked up the loose ball in the end zone…ergo, final score 40-30, thus shattering the dreams of those who took the Wildcats.
Doing the game for ABC, Brent Musburger alluded to the point-spread and the final score without actually saying so in what was one of his better moments. Classic stuff.
—No. 5 Stanford staved off No. 15 Washington 31-28.
—No. 6 Georgia eked out a 34-31 win in overtime at Tennessee. Quarterback Aaron Murray threw a touchdown pass with five seconds remaining in regulation to tie it at 31, and then in OT, Tennessee back Alton “Pig” Howard lost control of the ball as he was reaching out to the goal line in a play that will be talked about for a long time in Knoxville. Georgia then kicked a winning field goal on their possession.
—No. 7 Louisville beat winless Temple 30-7 behind Teddy Bridgewater, 348 yards and two touchdowns. But as I said a few weeks ago, Louisville needs to annihilate every one of its weak opponents if it is to be part of the BCS conversation come season end, which doesn’t seem possible now. This Thursday, though, they have a chance on national television to show just how good they are when they take on a decent Rutgers squad, which moved to 4-1 in defeating SMU in Dallas, 55-52 in triple overtime.
[Louisville just can’t catch a break with its schedule. Hapless South Florida defeated Cincinnati (3-2) on Saturday, so the Cardinals’ final contest against the Bearcats is even more meaningless in terms of influencing the pollsters.]
—No. 8 Florida State took on No. 25 Maryland and to say the Terps were exposed would be an understatement. Freshman quarterback Jameis Winston threw for 393 yards and five touchdowns as the Seminoles rolled 63-0.
—No. 10 LSU whipped Mississippi State 59-26 as QB Zach Mettenberger, who looked so impressive against Georgia the week before, completed 25 of 29 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns.
—No. 11 Oklahoma was favored by 9 ½ over TCU but won by only 20-17. Remember, at the end of the day, boys and girls….
–On Thursday, No. 12 UCLA (4-0) picked up a big win at Utah (3-2), 34-27. But the Bruins have an absolutely brutal schedule, with games against No. 5 Stanford and No. 2 Oregon, back-to-back, Oct. 19 and 26, plus Washington, Arizona State and USC.
—No. 17 Baylor annihilated West Virginia 73-42 in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score. Baylor had a 56-14 halftime lead, with 617 yards, on their way to a Big 12 record 864 yards of offense.
Baylor has scored at least 69 points in each of its four games, but we’re talking Wofford, Buffalo, La.-Monroe and a West Virginia team that had lost to Maryland, 37-0, which then got blasted by Florida State.
—No. 20 Texas Tech moved to 5-0 with a 54-16 win over Kansas. The Red Raiders still have games against Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor, so they have a shot at vaulting into the conversation.
—Notre Dame picked up a much-needed win over No. 22 Arizona State to move to 4-2.
–Talk about a dismal day for Penn State (3-2), they lost for the first time ever to Indiana (3-2), which broke a 16-game losing streak to the Nittany Lions, 44-24. Indiana held Penn State to just 70 yards on the ground in 38 carries.
—Ball State (5-1) handed Virginia (2-3) a bad loss.
—Virginia Tech moved to 5-1 with a 27-17 win over North Carolina, dropping the Tar Heels to a putrid 1-4.
—Fordham moved to 6-0 in defeating a solid Lehigh team, 52-34.
–Phil W. insisted I note Charlotte’s stirring win over Gardner-Webb, 53-51, after the 49ers trailed 45-24 in the fourth.
—Maine is now 5-1, the Black Bears’ only loss is at the hands of Northwestern and by only 35-21. There’s your Div. I-AA champion for 2013, folks.
—Miami of Ohio coach Don Treadwell became the third D-I coach to be fired this season, again, an unheard of occurrence for the college game…three after just 4 or 5 games. The RedHawks were 0-5, 8-21 under Treadwell. I mean in this sport, you make it through the season before you’re canned.
–I will comment on South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney next time. Let’s just say his coach, Steve Spurrier, is not pleased Clowney opted not to play on Saturday in the Gamecocks’ 35—28 win against Kentucky. I want to gather all the facts first.
–Finally, out of nowhere, my Wake Forest Demon Deacons (3-3) played a terrific game at home in whipping North Carolina State (3-2), 28-13. Receiver Michael Campanaro, the second coming of Wayne Chrebet, had another huge game, 12 receptions for 153 yards and two touchdowns.
–And now…the latest AP rankings….
1. Alabama 5-0 (55…first-place votes)
2. Oregon 5-0 (5)…quack quack….
3. Clemson 5-0
4. Ohio State 6-0
5. Stanford 5-0
6. Florida State 5-0…at Clemson in two weeks!
7. Georgia 4-1
8. Louisville 5-0…gonna be tough for them to move up at all
9. Texas A&M 4-1
10. LSU 5-1
11. UCLA 4-0
15. Baylor 4-0
21. Fresno State 5-0
23. Northern Illinois 5-0
MLB Playoffs
–Just watched the Pirates take care of the Cardinals 5-3 to take a 2-1 series lead in Pittsburgh. Great stuff. Hopefully they wrap it up Monday afternoon, weather permitting.
–Oakland’s Sonny Gray outdueled Detroit’s Justin Verlander as the A’s scored the lone run of the game Saturday night in the bottom of the ninth, thanks to Stephen Vogt’s bases-loaded single. For Gray it was just his 11th career start. The series is tied at 1-1. Gray struck out nine in eight super innings, while Verlander fanned 11 in just seven.
Gray and Verlander were following in the footsteps of the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, who in L.A.’s opening 6-1 win over the Braves fanned 12 in seven innings, while for Detroit, Max Scherzer had 11 strikeouts in seven in their opening win over Oakland. Great to see Kershaw and Scherzer come through. I like seeing the best perform when it counts.
–But back to L.A., Dodgers manager Don Mattingly is often questioned for his late-game strategy and he did once again raise some eyebrows with his decision Friday night in Game 2 against the Braves to walk Reed Johnson and pitch to Jason Heyward, who promptly singled in two runs to give the Braves a 4-1 lead as they went on to win 4-3 and even the series at 1-1.
–On Saturday, Boston moved to 2-0 over Tampa Bay with a 7-4 win as the Big Needle, David Ortiz, had two homers.
–In Cleveland’s wild-card loss to Tampa Bay, 4-0, Nick Swisher went 0 for 4, thus extending his career postseason batting mark to 26-158, .165. And with just 8 RBIs. Go ahead. Project that over a ‘full season.’ With the Yankees, Swisher was .162 in the postseason.
[By comparison, with a home run and 3 RBI in Sunday’s loss to the Pirates, Carlos Beltran has 16 home runs and 31 RBIs in 136 playoff at-bats.]
Ball Bits
–The Reds fired manager Dusty Baker after his team once again underperformed in the playoffs. He has $4 million remaining on his two-year, $8 million extension.
Baker’s Reds won at least 90 games in three of the last four seasons, but losing the final six games of this season, including the wild-card playoff to the Pirates, did him in. It was also the third time they failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs.
Baker is one of only six managers to win at least 300 games with three different teams. He took the Giants, Cubs and Reds to the playoffs seven times without winning a World Series. He’s 19-26 all-time in the postseason.
—Albert Pujols sued Jack Clark on Friday over comments Clark made on a local radio show accusing the three-time N.L. MVP of using steroids. It was on Aug. 2 that Clark said he knew “for a fact” that Pujols used steroids and PEDs, calling Pujols “a juicer.” Clark also claimed Pujols’ personal trainer “shot up” the young slugger and also offered Clark steroids. The trainer, Chris Mihlfeld, has publicly denied the accusations.
–The Mets’ Matt Harvey has opted to have Tommy John surgery after all and will miss the 2014 campaign, which sucks, but many of us are glad he’s going ahead with the procedure. Data shows 85% to 90% of the pitchers undergoing TJ surgery return to full strength in 12-15 months, so Mets fans will be eagerly awaiting spring training 2015.
“In the end, Mariano Rivera pitched 1,283.2 innings and gave up 1,284 hits and walks combined. In other words, if Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte had not gone out to the mound last week so they could dramatically remove Rivera from his final game as a Yankee, the greatest reliever in the history of baseball might have finished with an immaculate WHIP measurement of 1.0000….
“As it was, his WHIP – walks and hits divided by innings pitched – came out to 1.0003, which, in the record books, will often be rounded to 1.000 anyway. But 1.0000, of course, is just a little bit better.”
At the top of the WHIP list, all time, is Addie Joss (1902-10), with a WHIP of 0.968, and Ed Walsh (1904-17), whose WHIP was 0.9996.
Pedro Martinez finished his career at 1.0544; Christy Mathewson, 1.0581.
Alex Rodriguez filed a lawsuit against Major League Baseball and Commissioner Bud Selig, terming Selig’s efforts to suspend A-Rod a “crusade” and a “shameful endeavor.”
Attorney Joe Tacopina said MLB gave Tony Bosch, the former director of Biogenesis, $5 million for his testimony. A-Rod’s legal team claims that MLB is trying to make an example of Rodriguez “so as to gloss over Commissioner Selig’s past inaction and tacit approval of the use of performance-enhancing substances in baseball ( not to mention his multiple acts of collusion), and in an attempt to secure his legacy as the ‘savior’ of America’s pastime.”
MLB countered: “This lawsuit is a clear violation of the confidentiality provisions of our drug program, and it is nothing more than a desperate attempt to circumvent the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
“While we vehemently deny the allegations in the complaint, none of those allegations is relevant to the real issue: whether Mr. Rodriguez violated the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program by using and possessing numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, including Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone, over the course of multiple years….”
As for Bosch, who testified all week as MLB’s chief witness in A-Rod’s appeal of his 211-game suspension before arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, a spokeswoman said he hasn’t been paid “$5, let alone $5 million.” A ruling is not expected until after the World Series.
“Alex Rodriguez desperately needs to be good at something now, because he isn’t much good at baseball anymore, even though that isn’t his fault because nothing ever is. So he has settled on two areas of possible self-improvement:
“Professional victim.
“He’s not yet the kind of liar we found out Lance Armstrong, another professional litigant, turned out to be. But Rodriguez – you can’t call him A-Rod anymore, A-Rod was the guy we thought was one of the great ballplayers of all time – does become more and more like Armstrong by the minute. Or by the lawsuit.
“Armstrong attacked everybody who attacked him, and often sued them. Armstrong never cared whom he hurt. Armstrong accused anybody who came after him of being on a witch hunt….pretty much until he sat down with Oprah Winfrey….
“Rodriguez keeps saying that he longs to tell his truth about all of this, even as he has never once denied being a user of baseball drugs, though he never calls them drugs, he calls them ‘substances.’ He says he especially wants to tell his version to his ‘supporters.’
“You know who Rodriguez’ supporters are at this moment? All the people on his payroll.”
“Baseball didn’t make Alex Rodriguez visit Tony Bosch at his shady anti-aging clinic. It didn’t put the needle into his arm and give him testosterone and human growth hormone injections, charges from the investigation that he has refused to deny despite numerous chances to do so.
“It didn’t force A-Rod to break the rules he promised – cross-his-heart, hope-to-die, stick-a-needle-in-his-eye style – that he’d never break again.
“That’s what this is about. Rodriguez was the only one of 13 players disciplined by MLB on Aug. 5 for their ties to the Biogenesis clinic to appeal his suspension. Baseball had them dead to rights, and they wisely accepted their penalties so they can get on with their careers.
“A-Rod decided to fight, but instead of attacking the charges, he’s attacking the accuser.”
–Wow, Denver remained unbeaten at 5-0 as they outlasted Dallas (2-3) 51-48 in a regular season classic. Dallas was seemingly in control at 48-41, but once again, Tony Romo threw a critical interception, after playing spectacularly well, and Peyton Manning did all the right things down the stretch. Manning, who threw his first interception of the season, had 414 yards through the air with four touchdowns, giving him 20 in the first five games. Romo threw for 506 yards and five touchdowns, but also the critical mistake.
–So I watched the entire Giants-Eagles contest, a battle of 0-4 and 1-3 squads. After Michael Vick injured his hamstring, Nick Foles came in and engineered four scoring drives as Philadelphia won 36-21 to send the Giants to their first, non-strike season 0-5 start since 1979. Eli Manning had another three interceptions, all in the fourth quarter, to give him 12 on the year (7 in the fourth quarter).
I do have to say that for the Eagles, tight end Brent Celek and cornerback Brandon Boykin made absolutely spectacular plays in the fourth, the former on a touchdown pass in the end zone, the latter on an interception.
The Giants, in giving up at least 31 points in each of their first five games, matched a record held by the 1954 Chicago Cardinals.
–Meanwhile, New Orleans moved to 5-0 in defeating the Bears (3-2), 26-18, while the Chiefs, winner of two games all of 2012, also went to 5-0 under Andy Reid in beating Tennessee (3-2), 26-17.
—Green Bay (2-2) handed Detroit (3-2) its 23rd straight loss in Wisconsin, 22-9, extending the Lions’ NFL record road losing streak.
–The Colts (4-1) handed Seattle (4-1) its first loss in Indianapolis, 34-28.
–My choice to win the Super Bowl, the St. Louis Rams (cough cough), beat winless Jacksonville (0-5) 34-20 to go to 2-3. Sam Bradford at least had a decent afternoon at QB with three touchdown passes.
—Cincinnati moved to 3-2, handing New England (4-1) its first loss, 13-6, as the Bengals limited the Patriots to 248 yards of total offense. Tom Brady had his consecutive game streak with a touchdown pass snapped at 52, as he ended up with a quarterback rating of 52.2…hideous.
–And on Thursday, totally out of nowhere, the Browns have won three straight to go to 3-2 as they beat the Bills (2-3) 34-20, though Cleveland lost QB Brian Hoyer for the season.
–In an interview with the Associated Press, President Obama said: “If I were the owner of the (Washington Redskins) and I knew that there was a name of my team – even if it had a storied history – that was offending a sizeable group of people, I’d think about changing it.”
But local polls still have a majority saying the name should remain the same.
–Gary M. Pomerantz, writing in the Wall Street Journal, had the perfect description of “The Steel Curtain,” following the death of L.C. Greenwood; the other members being Mean Joe Greene, Dwight White and Ernie Holmes.
“Greene played with rage, Holmes radiated danger, White never stopped yakking and Greenwood remained calm, cool. White yowled about his opponent, ‘He’s gonna have a bad day!’ And Holmes screamed across the line of scrimmage, ‘I’m comin’ right over you’re a–! Yo’ mama gonna see you!’”
But for lone survivor Mean Joe, as he said the other day in preparing for Greenwood’s funeral, “It’s not going too well.” The four of them had made an everlasting connection.
–Rolling Stone magazine gave a super review for a new sports book, Nate Jackson’s “Slow Getting Up,” the former Denver Broncos’ tight end’s “chronicle of the real experience of the NFL: the sex, the drugs and the constant anxiety.”
“Stars like Tom Brady are the tippy-top of the mountain,” Jackson says. “They help sell the product, but there are far more guys like me.” Such as the time when as a rookie he was forced to help pay a $26,000 champagne-and-steak bill for active teammates like Clinton Portis.”
—PBS’ “Frontline” program is airing its long-anticipated documentary on the NFL and head injuries, Tues., 9:00 PM. This is the single best show on television when it comes to serious topics so if you don’t watch it Tuesday, PBS will have the full video online shortly thereafter.
I’m sure they will be referring to the work of Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, whose book, “League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions, and the Battle for Truth,” is excerpted in the current issue of Sports Illustrated. It’s not pretty.
–I watched a little of the Presidents Cup on Saturday and Sunday (actually, a fair amount Sunday after I saw there was a chance the U.S. might choke), but the Americans, up 14-8 heading into the singles, prevailed for a fifth straight time, 18 ½ -15 ½, and are now 8-1-1 in the competition against the Internationals.
It was hardly exciting, but for golf junkies what the Ryder’s Cup and Presidents Cup are really good for is elevating the ‘Q’ rating of some of the first-timers and this year I’d say the player who most benefited was Canada’s Graham DeLaet. Jordan Spieth’s Q rating was helped by him just making the team.
–Bad break for Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum, the 10th overall pick in this season’s NBA draft by Portland. C.J. injured his left foot again. He will have surgery and is out indefinitely.
–I watched the last five rounds of the Wladimir Klitschko-Alexander Povetkin heavyweight title fight on Saturday from Moscow. What a bore. Holmes-Norton it wasn’t, as Klitschko won a unanimous decision, though the surprise was Povetkin lasted 12 rounds.
I write about this, though, because it was the 37-year-old Ukrainian Klitschko’s 15th title defense, placing him third on the all-time list behind Larry Holmes’ 20 and Joe Louis’ 25.
The ring girl was also rather striking, I have to add, as were many of the females sitting in the front rows, it being Moscow, you understand.
[One other side note…the referee was atrocious and let Klitcschko get away with way too much, such as Wladimir kept slinging Povetkin to the canvas.]
–That was incredible that 3-time Indy 500 champ Dario Franchitti survived his crash on the last lap of the Houston Indy Car race. He suffered a fractured spine, that will not require surgery, a concussion and broken ankle. 13 spectators suffered minor injuries.
—Kevin Harvick won the fourth Chase for the Sprint Cup championship race, this one in Kansas City. He moved to third in the standings, behind leader Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson. Jeff Gordon, the ‘13th driver,’ added amid controversy, is fourth. Six races to go.
–We note the passing of former Russian basketball star Sergei Belov, who helped lead the Soviet national team to its controversial gold medal over the United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Belov was the first international player to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.
“When the Soviets met the Americans in the cold war confrontation on Sept. 10, 1972, Belov’s shot did not fail him. With 20 of the Soviets’ 51 points, he led all scorers, often shooting while hanging in the air.
“He did not score the final, stunning basket that gave the Soviets the gold. That was a layup made by his teammate Aleksandr Belov (no relation), and its legitimacy, coming after a string of strange calls in the last seconds, continues to be questioned. It was the first time the United States did not win gold in basketball since it became an Olympic sport in 1936. The United States team has continued to refuse to accept the silver medal from those Games.”
For an HBO documentary in 2002, Belov said the Americans “lacked courage.”
A number of years ago, on a related topic…from the Bar Chat archives.
Alexander Gomelsky, legendary coach of the Soviet basketball team, died the other day. Known as the “Silver Fox,” he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995. NBA Commissioner David Stern called Gomelsky “one of the greatest basketball coaches on the world stage.”
Gomelsky served three stints as head coach of the national team – 1958-60, 1962-70 and 1976-88. But despite successes, as you can see he was demoted a few times and he attributed this to the fact he was Jewish. “The KGB thought I would go to Israel,” Gomelsky once told the Los Angeles Times.
Gomelsky also guided the Red Army Club, CSKA, to European titles in 1969 and 1971. One of his star players was Sergei Belov, who noted back then that “All talented people, including artists and ballet dancers, had problems with the KGB. But he knew how to survive the system.”
Of course it was during the Olympics that Gomelsky became a figure on the world stage, coaching the Soviets to a gold medal in Seoul in 1988 after defeating the United States in the semifinals. That squad was led by Sarunas Marciulionis, Arvydas Sabonis and Rimas Kurtinaitis.
But the most difficult moment for Gomelsky was the 1972 Munich Olympics, when the Soviets defeated the United States 51-50 in the most controversial basketball game ever played. You’ll recall that was the contest when the Soviets were trailing 50-49 with three seconds remaining but were given three chances to inbound the ball. The first two failed, but the FIBA secretary general gave the Russians a third try, whereupon they scored on a full-court pass for the lay-in.
According to the Moscow Times:
“Gomelsky, who always referred to that Soviet team as ‘my boys,’ watched the game from his Moscow apartment, having been removed as head coach after a disappointing bronze medal at the 1970 World Championships.
“Gomelsky told the Los Angeles Times that he cried after watching the historic game and poured himself a glass of vodka. ‘It is something I have had to live with. It is the biggest scar on my heart.’”
He got redemption in Seoul.
–Interesting story in the New York Times by Mary Pilon on how distance race organizers are eschewing appearance fees for top athletes, which for many runners is their major source of income. Specifically, a private equity firm, Calera Capital, has a unit, Competitor Group, that is now organizing 80 high-profile races around the world and they are being run for profit, of course. With entries skyrocketing at many of these events, there’s no need to pay the elite runners.
—Lindsey Vonn’s surgically repaired right knee is coming around so quickly, she may be racing by the end of the month in the season-opening World Cup event in Soelden, Austria. Last month she trained in Chile with the rest of the U.S. Ski Team. This would be rather remarkable, seeing as she shredded her ACL and MCL just last February.
“A tiger tore the arm off a woman working at an exotic animal park in Oklahoma on Saturday morning….
“Witnesses said the woman was trying to either place or remove a lock on a smaller cage that was holding the tiger….
“Park owner Joe S. posted a statement on Facebook saying the worker ‘placed her hand inside an adult male tiger cage. She was wearing a large goose down jacket which got bunched up inside the cage wire not allowing her to get her hand back outside the cage wire fast enough and the tiger grabbed her hand pulling her left arm through a 4-inch square hole.”
[An update: The woman’s arm is still attached and she will survive, thanks to quick medical care.]
“Swarms of giant hornets have killed 42 people and injured more than 1600 in China’s Shaanxi province in recent months.
“Government officials have yet to figure out why the attacks have been so widespread and so deadly….
“The brown and gold Asian giant, or Vespa mandarinia, is the world’s largest hornet species. It can grow up to five centimeters (2 inches!) long and its stinger can extend 6 millimeters.”
–This is scary…from the New York Daily News’ Jennifer Cunningham:
“Masked bandits are stalking commuters at two Bronx train stations, jumping out of nowhere to terrorize riders before beating a hasty retreat.
Sergio Marquez, head of the local Environmental and Sanitation Committee, said, “The people are afraid, because the raccoons are just jumping out of the trees.”
–Ah, guys? Did you see who George Clooney is hanging out with these days? “Croatian sensation” Monika Jakisic. Now discuss amongst yourselves.
–The other day, Director of Shark Attacks for Bar Chat, Bob S., wondered why Congress appeared to be covering up a most disturbing development – the fact that two bull sharks had been caught in the Potomac River over the past few months. Why no hearings?
Well, this wouldn’t be the first time bull sharks wreaked havoc in our nation’s inland waterways. So following is an oldie but goodie from the Bar Chat archives.
The International Shark Attack File notes that there have been 5 fatalities in New Jersey since 1670, more than all but three other states; Hawaii, Florida, and California. But four of them took place in one 12-day period in 1916.
Three years ago [Ed. now about ten], Peter Genovese of the Star-Ledger reviewed two books that had come out then, one titled “Twelve Days of Terror” by Richard Fernicola, the other “Close to Shore” by Michael Capuzzo. I saved the story but kept forgetting to use it until now. It certainly makes for a good, if gory tale as many of you head to the beach.
For those of you who travel the Garden State Parkway, at milepost 119.4, about six miles from the Raritan toll plaza, you’ll notice a non-descript body of water that is an authentic historic site. It was here that two victims met their fate in Matawan Creek on July 12, 1916 and the New York and Philadelphia papers ran headlines such as “HUNDREDS SEEK TO SLAY SHARK THINK MONSTER TRAPPED IN CREEK SKIPPERS SAY SEA ALIVE WITH SHARKS ”
As it turned out, this was near the end of the story, one that started on July 1. Charles Vansant, a 23-year-old vacationer from Philadelphia, was staying at the Engleside Hotel in Beach Haven when he was attacked in three feet of water.
“The first to reach him was Alexander Ott, who later became a swimming showman with Johnny Weismuller. Ott hoisted Vansant under his arms and started pulling him to shore, only to discover, to his horror, that he was in a tug of war with the shark over the body.” [Genovese]
A human chain was formed as they dragged the body onto the beach, but the shark managed to get away and disappeared.
Vansant’s leg was hanging by a thread and he died a half-hour later. Victim #1.
This initial attack actually didn’t receive much play in the news. That would begin to change on July 6 when Charles Bruder, age 28 and bell captain at the Sussex & Essex Hotel in Spring Lake (on the ocean, for those of you not familiar with the area), went for a swim on his lunch break. He was about 100 yards out when all hell broke loose.
“The shark tossed him repeatedly in the air – (his) body pinwheeled above the water – between strikes.”
Bruder screamed. “A shark bit me! Bit my legs off!”
Mortally wounded, Bruder was dragged onto the beach. Women fainted at the sight of his ravaged body.
An alarm immediately went up and down the Jersey coastline. Within 30 minutes, communities 30 miles away cleared the beaches. According to author Capuzzo, “For the first time in American history, people en masse were afraid to enter the water.”
While the media had basically ignored the Vansant attack, Bruder’s finally lit the fire. It didn’t help that Bruder was killed in front of hundreds of tourists, including the upper crust of society.
Amazingly, there were some scientists who refused to believe the two were victims of a shark. An assistant curator of the Museum of Natural History said it was a killer whale. The director of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries said it was a swordfish. Personally, had I been asked back then, I would have said barracuda, just because it sounds cool.
We now move to July 11. Renny Carten is splashing about in a swimming hole in Matawan Creek when he is badly scratched and scraped by something neither Renny nor his friend could identify.
The next day, July 12, Lester Stillwell and five buddies decided to go swimming in the same spot. “One moment, Stillwell was floating peacefully on the water. The next, he was screaming, his arm held fast in the mouth of what one of the boys, Charlie Van Brunt, called ‘the biggest, blackest fish’ he had ever seen.” [Genovese]
“Young Stillwell ‘was shaken, like a cat shakes a mouse, and then he went under,’ according to one of the boys. For one terrifying second, he reappeared, shrieking, then disappeared under the water for good.”
The police were called and a group of men was rounded up. They entered the creek repeatedly. But as they were giving up the search, Stanley Fisher, 24, strong and athletic, gave it one more try.
“Suddenly, Fisher screamed; he had found Stillwell’s body. The next moment, the shark, lolling nearby, attacked. Three or four times, it pulled Fisher under. He finally worked himself free, but most of the flesh between his hip and right knee had been ripped off.” [Genovese]
Now this part is stupid. A doctor didn’t believe Fisher would survive the trip in a car to a hospital in nearby Long Beach, so he was placed on a stretcher and the group attending him waited for an hour at Matawan Train Station. When the train arrived, it was another 2 hours to Monmouth Memorial Hospital. Fisher died five minutes after getting there.
Well, you can imagine the furor in Matawan after seeing two of their citizens ripped to shreds. Dynamite was thrown into the creek. The New York Times wrote of women toting shotguns, patrolling the banks. The mayor offered a $100 reward for the shark. What the folks didn’t know, though, is that the shark had fled.
[And remember, this shark had been in a creek, not even close to the ocean. I also should have noted that the first attack in Beach Haven was way down south, then it moved north to Spring Lake, and then further north into the waters that fed into Matawan Creek.]
The press was in a frenzy at this point and it was time to kill all the sharks. Down in Maryland, a State Police schooner reported “big sea monsters” in Annapolis harbor. A Tampa, FL, boater said the Gulf of Mexico was thick with sharks. President Woodrow Wilson even ordered his Treasury Secretary to lead “a war on sharks.”
Then on July 14, Michael Schleisser and John Murphy, two fishermen from South Amboy, were out on Raritan Bay when their boat suddenly slammed to a halt. Something gigantic was in the net.
“Shark! It rose out of the net and onto the stern, snapping its jaws. With a broken oar that he had thrown as an afterthought into the boat, Schleisser, a renowned animal trainer and big game hunter, clobbered the shark to death. He and Murphy towed it back to South Amboy.” [Genovese]
The shark was cut open and it was later confirmed there were human remains in it. The monster was then placed in the front window of a New York newspaper and 30,000 gathered to look at it. But a few days later it disappeared. No one seems to know what happened to the carcass. Perhaps it was relabeled Red Snapper.
By the way, the 5th New Jersey fatality occurred at Seaside Heights in August 1926. The decapitated body of Charles Burke, 18, washed ashore. Well, hell, that could have been the work of a giant squid! [The editor has nightmares that he will one day meet his untimely demise at the tentacles of such a monster.]
–The Black Hills of South Dakota gets some mammoth snowstorms but what is unusual is many of them occur in October and April. I’ve been through two of them myself in October the past ten years, but on Friday, the Rapid City/Deadwood/Lead area received a truly historic storm. USA TODAY said Deadwood “picked up 4 feet snow”! Rapid City, which is at the foot of the Black Hills, got 23 inches, it’s second-biggest snowstorm on record. At least 80 people were stranded in their cars overnight.
And then you had at least 12 tornadoes pummel northeast Nebraska from the same system.
–LT gave “Captain Phillips” a rave review. “After it was over no one even moved from their seats – it was breathtaking. Please just give Tom Hanks the Oscar now, so we don’t have to sit through another awards show.”
“Gravity” is also receiving spectacular reviews. And I just heard it had the strongest October opening…ever!
Top 3 songs for the week 10/5/85: #1 “Money For Nothing” (Dire Straits) #2 “Cherish” (Kool & The Gang) #3 “Oh Sheila” (Ready For The World)…and…#4 “Take On Me” (a-ha) #5 “Dress You Up” (Madonna) #6 “Saving All My Love For You” (Whitney Houston) #7 “Freedom” (Wham!) #8 “Lonely Ol’ Night” (John Cougar Mellencamp) #9 “Dancing In The Street” (Mick Jagger / David Bowie) #10 “Part-Time Lover” (Stevie Wonder… time to go back to the 60s…bored to tears…)
NFL Quiz Answer: Ten Oakland / L.A. Raiders to rush for 1,000….
Marcus Allen (1,759 is the franchise mark, 1985)
Mark van Eeghen
LaMont Jordan (2005)
Napoleon Kaufman
Harvey Williams (1995)
Tyrone Wheatley (2000)
Darren McFadden
Justin Fargas (2007)
Marv Hubbard
Clem Daniels
*No, Hewritt Dixon never ran for 1,000. Nor Pete Banaszak, for you old timers out there.
