Thursday, Dec. 26…AM
Note: Since the next formal Bar Chat isn’t until Monday, Dec. 30…and I will wait until the full NFL playoff picture is known…I want to clear the table of a few items that will have aged too much by then.
Dallas vs. Philadelphia
As of Thursday morning, it is still assumed Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo will not play, though on Wednesday, coach Jason Garrett said Romo was feeling better but not “overly comfortable.” Romo has not practiced this week after it was learned he needed back surgery to repair a herniated disk. He had an epidural on Monday to help alleviate the pain.
So assuming Romo can’t play, Kyle Orton will get the start, while 41-year-old Jon Kitna was signed yesterday to be a backup. He last threw a pass in the NFL, with Dallas, in 2011.
As for Orton, he has 69 career starts and is 35-34. He hasn’t started since 2011.
Meanwhile, aside from Green Bay at Chicago for the NFC North title, the Jets at Miami is setting up to be a great one. Miami can wrap up the final wild-card slot with a win, while the Jets, who profess to love playing for coach Rex Ryan, can get to .500 with a victory and there is no one they’d rather knock out than Miami (if it couldn’t be New England). I expect a great game. A tension convention.
And if Ryan guides this pre-season awful club to .500, fans would be in an uproar if he was then dismissed. Regardless of the outcome of the game, Rex deserves to stay.
—Peyton Manning, who already has the new TD pass mark at 51 this season, is only 266 yards shy of breaking Drew Brees’ single-season passing yards record at 5,476, set in 2011. Manning is at 5,211,
–The Buffalo Bills have a franchise record 56 sacks, while Miami has given up a franchise-worst 58 this season (including seven when the two teams met on Sunday).
College Basketball: Men’s AP Top Ten
1. Arizona (63 first-place votes)
2. Syracuse (2)
3. Ohio State
4. Wisconsin
5. Michigan State
6. Louisville
7. Oklahoma State
8. Villanova
9. Duke
10. Wichita State…a Final Four surprise last year, this is the highest the Shockers have been ranked in the AP poll since 2006
12. Oregon
20. San Diego State
We have had a holiday lull, but this Saturday sees two biggies; Villanova at Syracuse and Louisville at No. 18 Kentucky.
Ball Bits
–The Rakuten Golden Eagles relented Wednesday morning and will post right-hander Masahiro Tanaka so that all 30 major league teams can bid on him. Several are now expected to hit the $20 million ceiling, after which Tanaka can negotiate with those clubs.
The 25-year-old Tanaka was 24-0 last season (yes, 24-0), 1.27 ERA, in leading the Golden Eagles to the Japanese Series championship.
In past signings of Japanese pitchers, Boston paid Daisuke Matsuzaka’s Seibu Lions $51.1 million for the right to negotiate with him, after which he received a six-year, $52 million contract.
Texas paid Yu Darvish’s Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters $51.7 million and then gave him a six-year, $56 million deal.
So some of the contracts can work out (Darvish being an example of this), while others don’t.
Such as the five-year, $20 million contract the Yankees gave Japanese left-hander Kei Igawa, prior to the 2007 season. The Yanks had to pay the Hanshin Tigers $26 million for the rights to negotiate with him and Igawa proceeded to win all of two games for New York.
But the Yankees are really under the gun to sign Tanaka. They need starting pitching, but as I’ve mentioned in the past concerning the hurler, some Major League scouts are concerned he has been overworked, including throwing 160 pitches in a complete-game loss in Game 6 of the Japan Series, only to come back in Game 7 and earn a save.
—Mike Hegan, a former Yankee – two different stints – and longtime broadcaster with the Cleveland Indians, died Wednesday. He was 71.
Hegan was a radio and TV broadcaster for the Indians for 23 years, retiring after the 2011 season. He spent 12 seasons prior to that as a broadcaster with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Hegan had a 12-year career and hit .242 with 53 homers and 229 RBI. He made the AL All-Star team with the Seattle Pilots in 1969.
New York Basketball
Boy, the two New York teams sure put on a scintillating display of hoops on Christmas Day, didn’t they? The Nets lost at home to the Bulls, 95-78, as they shot 35% from the field and had 16 turnovers to just 11 assists. Then the Knicks took the court at the Garden only to get shelled by Oklahoma City, 123-94, the worst Christmas Day loss in NBA history.
–Army hired former Navy assistant Jeff Monken as its new football coach. Monken spent the past four seasons as the head coach at Georgia Southern, where he had a 38-16 record. He replaces Rich Ellerson, who was fired last week after his fifth straight loss to Navy.
–The San Diego Zoo witnessed a murder on Monday. A female Malayan tiger was fatally mauled by her intended mate during an attempt to breed.
“The female tiger, named Tiga Tahun, died Saturday of neck injuries…the zoo said. It was the first breeding encounter for either animal, the only Malayan tigers at the facility. No visitors saw the attack.
“(The encounter) began with positive interaction between the two big cats. Unfortunately this changed quickly and zookeepers were unable to separate the two animals, the zoo said in a statement.” [AP]
There are 60 Malayan tigers in captivity in North American zoos, with fewer than 500 believed to be living in the wild worldwide. Tiga Tahun’s intended mate, Connor, is one of seven Malayan tigers born at the San Diego Zoo since 2005.
Because of this incident, I am placing “Tiger” on probation for two weeks and fining the species $40,000. By January 10, it will go back on the All-Species List at No. 6.
–Shooting is finally going to begin in Miami in January for the “Entourage” movie after the cast members all agreed to their contracts. The apparent hold up had as much to do with resentment over Jeremy Piven’s (Ari Gold’s) larger salary as anything else.
The opening scene, according to the New York Post’s Mara Siegler, will be shot in Miami Beach on a yacht packed with beautiful people. A source told the Post, “Producers are casting 60 sexy beach bodies to appear…”
–Finally, I was watching PBS’ “American Masters” series on Johnny Carson (excellent) and was reminded of the 1969 Tiny Tim-Miss Vicki wedding on “The Tonight Show”, which not only had 45 million Americans watching (Wiki says 40, I go with PBS’ 45), including yours truly, but captured an unfathomable 85% of the late-night audience, a record that will never be broken. [You can watch it on YouTube.]
