NHL Quiz: With Jaromir Jagr becoming the seventh player in NHL history to reach 700 goals on Saturday (I already had a quiz on the all-time list), the following is for old folks, like old as me, or older. In 1970-71, Phil Esposito set a then single-season record with 76 goals for the Bruins. Name the rest of the top ten that season. Here are their initials in order of finish. I’m thinking one or two may be tricky. J.B., B.H., K.H., D.H., D.K., G.P., Y.C., B.O., D.B. Answer below.
College Basketball
—No. 1 Florida (27-2, 16-0) defeated LSU (17-11, 8-8) 79-61.
—No. 2 Wichita State (31-0, 18-0) became the first team to ever go 31-0 in the regular season with its convincing 68-45 win over visiting Missouri State (19-11, 9-9). It was last Jan. 11 in Springfield, Mo., that the Bears blew a 19-point, second-half lead and lost in overtime, 72-69, preserving the Shockers’ undefeated season, and they’ve run the table since.
So now Wichita State has a first-round bye in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament and, assuming they win it, they’ll get a No. 1 seed for the Big Dance.
—No. 4 Syracuse (26-3, 13-3) lost to No. 12 Virginia (25-5, 16-1) in Charlottesville as the Cavaliers clinched their first ACC regular season title in 33 years, back when Ralph Sampson manned the middle, and the top seed in the conference tournament. What a Cinderella season for them thus far. UVA held the Cuse to 35.7% from the field (20 of 56), while shooting 50% themselves (27 of 54).
—No. 5 Kansas (22-7, 13-3) fell to Oklahoma State (19-10, 7-9) 72-65 in Stillwater to keep the Cowboys’ NCAA tournament hopes alive. Marcus Smart had 20 of his 21 points in the second half.
—No. 21 Memphis (22-7, 11-5) completed a season sweep of No. 7 Louisville (24-5, 13-3), winning 72-66.
—No. 8 Villanova (26-3, 14-2) will move up a spot or two after a 73-56 win over Marquette (17-12, 9-7) on Sunday.
—No. 9 Creighton (23-5, 13-3) lost to Xavier (20-9, 10-6) 75-69 as Doug McDermott (27 points, 10 rebounds) received no help from his teammates who were a combined 14 of 41 from the field. Xavier boosted its NCAA hopes big time.
–My Pick to Click VCU Rams (22-7, 10-4) handed No. 10 Saint Louis (25-4, 12-2) their second straight loss as the Billikens should tumble in the polls. But in winning 67-56, VCU’s shooting woes continued, just 38.7% from the field.
—UConn (23-6, 11-5) had a nice win over No. 11 Cincinnati in Hartford, 51-45.
—No. 13 San Diego State (25-3, 14-2) defeated Fresno State (15-15, 8-9) 82-67 as guard Xavier Thames regained his shooting touch, 7 of 12 from the field (including 3-4 from downtown), 22 points. The Aztecs as a team also broke out of a shooting slump in a big way, hitting 60% from the field (and 60% of their threes, 9 of 15).
But the win also represented the 41st straight against a team from California, the second-longest active streak for a Division I team against in-state opponents. And it’s not like they haven’t beaten some big-name competition… five wins against Pac-12 schools UCLA, Cal and USC.
Connecticut has the longest streak against in-state opponents, 68, having last lost to Hartford way back in 1986. Admittedly, there is virtually zero competition for the Huskies in-state.
–And down in Winston-Salem, my Wake Forest Demon Deacons laid another egg of epic proportions, losing to Boston College (8-21, 4-12) 80-72. Wake fell to 15-14, 5-11, and it’s clear Coach Jeff Bzdelik will be fired immediately after the last game. The Deacons were outrebounded 36-21! At home! Geezuz.
You know you have problems when Coron Williams, the grad-student transfer from Robert Morris, said after the game, “Guys are just walking around here like zombies, and I don’t know what it is.” Williams added that only three or four Deacons show up to play every game. What the heck are we giving these guys scholarships for then?
More importantly, I lost another lunch bet to B.C. alum Steve D., which really sucks. It’s at least three in a row, including our football bets. The only consolation is that I eat veal cutlet at these repasts in Westfield, N.J., world headquarters of SRD Capital Management.
–In high school hoops, Chicago Curie Metropolitan High School’s basketball team, ranked No. 2 in the nation, has forfeited this year’s games because seven players were academically ineligible from the start of the 2013-14 season.
That’s pathetic. The Chicago Public Schools district suspended Curie’s head coach.
Ball Bits
–The Angels signed Mike Trout to a one-year contract worth $1 million, the largest pre-arbitration contract for a player, this as Trout and the Angels continue working on a multiyear deal.
Trout is four years away from free agency, so as USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale put it, “Why pay him like an unrestricted free agent on the open market? Angels owner Arte Moreno isn’t going to just make a hand-out when there’s no need.
“This is why the Angels renewed Trout’s contract for just $510,000 last season, despite his runner-up finish in the 2012 American League MVP race.
“It’s also why his agent, Craig Landis, went ballistic, while knowing he had no recourse.
“The Angels could have done the same thing again this year after another historic performance and MVP runner-up award. Trout knows they could have paid him $550,000, which would have been in line with their policy not to double the contract of a player not yet eligible for arbitration.
“Yet, if you’re about to make Trout a business partner through 2020, making him the second highest-paid player in franchise history, why save a couple hundred thousand bucks now?
“ ‘There are performances that force you to break a rule,’ Angels GM Jerry Dipoto told reporters in camp. ‘What Trout did for two consecutive years forced us to break our own rule. There is nothing in the game that’s hard and fast. We felt like his performance certainly merited treating him different than the others.’”
But soon you’ll hear of Trout’s six-year, $150 million that locks up his services beyond the four until he is a free-agent.
–Mets fans are psyched with the potential of 6’ 6” hurler Noah Syndergaard, who impressed in his first outing the other day. But if he has a great spring, how is management going to keep him from making the trip to New York on opening day? Especially when GM Sandy Alderson said the Mets should win 90 games this year.
Now us fans are scoffing at such a notion. 90 wins? NFW. Las Vegas sports book, Bovada, released its over/under proposition bets and put the number for the Mets at 73 ½.
Speaking of Bovada and the Mets, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman noted:
“Now is a good time for a recent history lesson: In 2010, Bovada pegged the Mets at 81.5, the Mets said they were better and finished with 79 wins. In 2011, Bovada weighed in at 77, the Mets said they were better and the Mets won 77. In 2012, Bovada’s number was 73.5, the Mets said they were better and the Mets won 74. Last year, Bovada set the line at 74.5, the Mets said they were better and won 74.”
Yup, as Sherman adds, following the Mets in spring training is like watching “Groundhog Day.”
[Bovada has the over/under on the Dodgers at 92 ½….the best in the majors. I’m not sold on them, unless you tell me Matt Kemp comes back in a big way.]
–The retired Tim McCarver is being replaced on Fox Sports’ baseball telecasts by Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci. For Reynolds, this completes a comeback from a high-profile sexual harassment case going back to his days at ESPN. Good for him. Verducci is a terrific reporter/writer with Sports Illustrated.
Actually, McCarver unretired and is going to do 30 games for the St. Louis Cardinals on Fox Sports Midwest.
NBA Fever
–There is zero reason for the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony to re-up with the team as he approaches free agency. The extra money can’t be worth it, seeing as the Knicks are headed to a 15-67 mark next season and could easily fail to win 30 this year.
Thursday night was a classic example. They were down just five to the Heat in Miami at half, but ended up losing 108-82. The next night they got shelled by the Golden State Warriors in New York, 126-103, as the boos rained down on the Knicks and “Fire Woodson” chants echoed into the restrooms. [Steph Curry had his fourth career triple-double for the Warriors: 27 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists in just 30 minutes. Oh, if only he was a Knick.]
Sunday, the Knicks lost to the Bulls in Chicago, 109-90, to fall to 21-39.
“The answer to all of Carmelo Anthony’s problems is right here, with Pat Riley, LeBron James, a proven championship blueprint in place and none of the idiotic maneuvers that Anthony has to put up with back in New York, such as wayward teammates like Raymond Felton….
“It makes so much sense, from a basketball standpoint. The Heat would be the best place for Anthony to land, especially when you consider what has been going on with the Knicks this season and how their future is unsettled, at best….
“He’d be plenty happy down here, taking passes from James and finding out what it’s like to play for a team that, from ownership on down, knows what it’s doing and understands how to win NBA titles.”
But chances are the Heat can’t afford Melo, what with the contracts for LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
–My “Pick to Click”, the Brooklyn Nets, are 28-29, having gone 4-3 on a tough 7-game road trip. Don’t count ‘em out yet!
–I like these comments from Mike Lupica / New York Daily News:
“In the rush to make even big things in sports bigger than they are, somehow people act as if Jason Collins is Rosa Parks, and he’s not.
“Collins is both brave and dignified and honest, and it is a good thing that he gets to end his NBA career on his own terms, for however long the rest of his career lasts.
“The hope, now that he has come out and Michael Sam has come out, is that perhaps they can empower young athletes across the country to lead un-closeted lives in sports.
“But sometimes you wonder if we congratulate somebody like Collins to the extent we do because it is a chance for us to feel high-minded – and open-minded – ourselves.”
–This is funny. Central Florida quarterback Blake Bortles, who has rocketed up the NFL draft board the past few months and could yet be the No. 1 selection overall…certainly top six or so…dates swimsuit model Lindsey Duke. But as Bortles told Dan Patrick on the latter’s show, when Bortles was interviewed at the NFL combine, Duke’s name came up more than once.
As Bortles told Patrick, “It was kind of awkward… You know, ‘If we come to town, will she be there for dinner?’ and stuff like that.”
Yikes. Bortles said it didn’t bother him and that he assumed various team officials were just testing to see how he would react.
–Interesting piece in the Star-Ledger by Dan Duggan on the Rutgers football program. So much is made of recruiting 3- and 4-star players out of school, yet Rutgers has 11 former “two-star recruits” currently on NFL rosters.
Said All-Pro defensive back Devin McCourty of New England, “I think one thing about guys that are two stars or lower, they come in with a certain work ethic and they know what’s in front of them. I think that’s how I went in there. It wasn’t just me – we had a bunch of guys that came in around my time that were great football players for Rutgers, and we were all low (in the rankings).”
–What a chaotic Sunday at the Honda as Rory McIlroy blew it, losing a fourth-round lead with a 4-over 74, though managing to scramble into a four-man playoff, won on the first hole by Russell Henley, who picked up his second tour win (the other two participants being Ryan Palmer and Russell Knox). Rory will be fine. He’s back.
But there was another story…Tiger Woods. After barely making the cut, Tiger fired a 65 in the third round to stay in touch with the leaders heading into Sunday, only he started the round five-over and withdrew after 13, the victim of back spasms.
–Nice story out of Furman University. The school announced it was shutting down the men’s golf program due to costs, but former players and supporters kicked in to save it, including 1983 graduate and PGA/Champions Tour player Brad Faxon.
–Last week’s match-play won by Jason Day was the 50th official World Golf Championship event, the series beginning in 1999. Tiger has 18 victories and next is Geoff Ogilvy with but 3. That’s quite a record…18 wins out of 42 starts, specifically. Of course next week you have another WGC event at Donald Trump’s revamped Doral. The reviews on the course have been great. But now, what of Tiger?
–And we have to note Paula Creamer’s spectacular win at the HSBC Open in Singapore, an LPGA Tour event, with an unbelievable 75-foot putt that you can easily see online. It was her first victory in four years and a big one for the tour.
—Kevin Harvick won the second NASCAR Sprint Cup event of the year, the 24th of his career, defeating Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Phoenix.
—Manchester United had 68 points in its first 27 Premier League games last season. This season it has 45. New manager David Moyes, who had the impossible task of replacing legend Sir Alex Ferguson, has just 11 league games left to turn it around or he’s no doubt gone.
—Carlos Gracida, 53, was a star Mexican-born polo player who died in a tragic accident at a match in Florida. The Palm Beach Post reported Gracida was playing at Everglades Polo Club when another player accidentally hit his horse. The horse banged heads with Gracida, who fell off. The horse then rolled on top of Gracida, a five-time player of the year.
–It is very sad that former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher may never recover from his skiing accident. After two months in a Grenoble, France, hospital, Schumacher remains “deeply comatose and in critical condition,” as reported by the New York Times’ John F. Burns.
–We note the passing of longtime “The Dating Game” host Jim Lange, 81. Lange hosted the show from its debut in 1965 until 1980, one of the faves of your editor when I was growing up, home sick, or on school vacation.
“The Dating Game” was created by Chuck Barris and ran, in various incarnations, on and off for decades.
“The show’s premise was simple: a contestant, usually a young woman, read scripted questions, awash in gentle double entendres, to three men. (Q. ‘If you were a holiday, how would you like to be celebrated?’ A. ‘I would love to be Arbor Day, and be potted.’)
“The men, known as Bachelors Nos. 1, 2 and 3, were seated behind a screen, visible to the audience but not to the contestant. (‘And h-e-e-r-e they are!,’ Mr. Lange ritually intoned on introducing them to viewers.).
“Based on their answers, the contestant chose one of them to be her date on a romantic getaway, furnished by the show. In a nod to the mores of the times – or, more accurately, to those of a somewhat earlier time – the trips were chaperoned, sometimes by Mr. Lange, sometimes by Mr. Barris.”
And a few times the roles were reversed, a male contestant selecting among three bachelorettes. A young Michael Jackson and a youthful Arnold Schwarzenegger took the contestant’s chair.
Farrah Fawcett was a contestant, introduced by Lange as “an accomplished artist and sculptress.” John Ritter was on a panel as “a college student majoring in drama.” Steve Martin, Andy Kaufman, Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck also appeared.
Lange was a popular host on KSFO-AM radio in San Francisco when he first went on the air for “The Dating Game.” His daughter, Romney Lange, said, “He used to do the 6-to-10 morning drive time at the radio station, then three days a week he would get on a plane, fly to L.A., tape five ‘Dating Game’ shows and fly back.”
Lange later bemoaned the fact he was so attached to the show he wasn’t even considered for commercials “because he was identified with that one image,” as he told The San Francisco Chronicle in 1991. But he eventually reconciled to his legacy.
“It’ll be on my tombstone,” he told The Chronicle: “And h-e-e-r-e he is! With an arrow pointing down.”
“There are only a few true masterpieces that debuted in my lifetime: the ’64 Mustang; Sandra Bullock’s perfect chin; and ‘Caddyshack,’ whose director, Harold Ramis, passed the other day at age 69, too damn soon, as if only on life’s 14th hole.
“From the snickering hiss of the fairway sprinklers to Rodney Dangerfield’s bug-eyed dancing, ‘Caddyshack’ mixed all that was right about sports and movies into one great comedy overture. Though panned by critics at the time, the 1980 movie remains a classic by any measure, and the funniest sports movie of all time, hands down.
“Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper now about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac… It’s in the hole! It’s in the hole!” ….
“Walk into any clubhouse in America and you’ll find some wiseguy – he may be 28, he may be 58 – who can quote ‘Caddyshack’ the way we all wish we could quote Shakespeare or Twain.
“ ‘So we finish 18 and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, ‘Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know?’ And he says, ‘Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.’ So I got that going for me, which is nice.’ “
–Two seagulls just flew by my window atop global headquarters for Bar Chat. That always cracks me up, seeing as how I’m a good 20 miles from the coast as the crow, err, gull flies.
But I often muse, how many birds have died this winter? It’s been brutally cold, substantially below normal, after all, and the snow cover makes it more difficult for birds to get food. [They learn quickly where the bird feeders are.]
So I was reading a piece by Rob Zimmer of The (Appleton, Wis.) Post-Crescent, via USA TODAY, and he quotes a wildlife official in Wisconsin who says that there is a serious problem for animals in hibernation. As Zimmer writes:
“Hibernating animals must dig below the frost to survive…. This season, the frost line is much deeper than normal, meaning some critters may be frozen.
“Fortunately, abundant snow, serving as insulation, likely offset some of the trouble because it slowed the cooling off the ground.”
–Brad K. passed along this horrific tale from Florida and the Daily Mail.
“A Florida man has spoken of how he managed to pry himself free from the clutches of a large bear after he was attacked in his front yard last night.
“Josh Hennessy, 36, was sitting on a folding chair under an awning outside his father’s trailer in the Oak Springs Mobile Park in Sorrento about 9:30pm Thursday.
“When he heard rustling in the bushes, he went to investigate.
“ ‘I actually saw a shadow go by the side of my face,’ he said.
“ ‘(I) kind of looked over (and) thought it was somebody walking through the yard (and) I just wanted to go over and see who it was real quick because I don’t really like people in the yard.
“ ‘As soon as I got into the dark, he just came out at me. It was a black bear, so I didn’t see it until he was there.’
“Hennessey had cuts and scrapes on his hand, arm, hip and leg – mostly from being dragged on the road – but was not seriously injured.”
A resident in the neighborhood said there are four black bears living among them and “a bunch of idiots here” feed them.
If the attack is confirmed, it would be the second in Central Florida since December.
Florida’s bear hotline had 6,700 complaints in 2013, the most ever!
Good lord! You have millions of pythons in the Everglades, black bears marauding all over the state…giant iguanas…ugly tourists…. It’s just not the great place it’s cranked up to be. [Except in winter.]
–The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey controls the area’s airports, among other things as the nation has come to learn with Bridgegate, and one of the duties of the PA is to keep runways clear of engine-jamming birds and such.
So Kate Briquelet of the New York Post had a story tallying up the carnage… “Animals killed by the Port Authority in 2012-2013 at area airports.”
Laughing gull…5,729…that’s no joking matter…
European starling…3,203
Herring gull…2,445
Mourning dove…1,908…these guys are irritating…
Canada geese…997…wish it was 425,000…
Mallard…331…Noooo! Fight back!!!
Woodchuck…62…still a rodent…
Mute swan…51…not real smart…
Raccoon…21
Norway rat…12…clearly should have never left home
Coyote…11
Snowy owl…5
Wood duck…1…Wood Duck Nation not happy
Now I left off a lot of other members of the Animal Kingdom on the list that were taken down in a hail of bullets, but there were no grizzly or Kodiak bears on the list, nor Siberian tigers, or rhinos, so at least it appears the general population doesn’t have to worry these threats are prevalent as they go through curbside check-in.
Top 3 songs for the week 3/2/74: #1 “Seasons In The Sun” (Terry Jacks…can’t believe this was #1…and for three weeks…) #2 “The Way We Were” (Barbra Streisand…Laaaaa!…) #3 “Spiders & Snakes” (Jim Stafford…terrific entertainer…)…and…#4 “Boogie Down” (Eddie Kendricks) #5 “Jungle Boogie” (Kool & The Gang…these local boys from Jersey City were underrated…) #6 “Rock On” (David Essex) #7 “Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” (Aretha Franklin…one of her 3 or 4 best…) #8 “Love’s Theme” (Love Unlimited Orchestra…conducted and arranged by Barry White…we miss you, Barry!) #9 “Dark Lady” (Cher) #10 “Put Your Hands Together” (The O’Jays)
NHL Quiz Answer: 1970-71 goal scoring list.
Phil Esposito, 76*, Boston
John Bucyk, 51, Boston
Bobby Hull, 44, Chicago
Ken Hodge, 43, Boston
Dennis Hull, 40, Chicago
Dave Keon, 38, Toronto
Gilbert Perreault, 38, Buffalo
Yvan Cournoyer, 37, Montreal
Bobby Orr, 37, Boston
Dave Balon, 36, New York Rangers
This was such a great era to grow up with the sport. Thanks to my father being part of a plan at work, we would go to three or four games each season through high school.
*It was 1981-82 that Wayne Gretzky exploded for 92, still the single-season record.
