Baseball Quiz: Who was the last pitcher with 10 shutouts in a season? Answer below.
World Cup
Germany 1 Argentina 0
Well, your Bar Chat “Pick to Click” prevailed, one of your editor’s very few accurate predictions over the years…like only 4 or 5. Mario Gotze scored the game winner, and lone goal, in the 113th minute on a spectacular individual play and Germany – with Angela Merkel in attendance, milking it for all it was worth – prevailed for its fourth title, tying Italy for second most. Host Brazil has five…but was a total embarrassment this go ‘round. Including in the consolation game, which the Netherlands took, 3-0.
Back to Argentina, their superstar, Lionel Messi, had some nice moments in the finale but couldn’t find the net (or assist on his teammates’ attempts).
So that’s the end of the World Cup. I watched as much of it as I ever have, but am very glad it’s over.
Finally, the Wall Street Journal asked its reporters in Brazil to comment on all 32 countries’ fans. Here are just a few snippets.
Colombia: “Loud, colorful and seemed to be having the time of their lives.” Drew lots of attention for wearing Carlos Valderamma-style wigs. One panelist assumed that the wigs are “issued to everyone who leaves the country.” One observer noted that some Colombians “seemed inclined to fight,” but that they made up for it by being “quite possibly the most insanely good-looking fan base in international sports.”
England: Lived up to their lofty expectations for being “sophisticated football watchers” who are “self-deprecating.” But are also prone to “overdrinking and being just very loud.”
Japan: The Japanese were “the cleanest of the World Cup fans” who “impressed the world” by cleaning up after themselves at the stadiums. They were “very organized” in the stands, but “very excited, too.” They also earned accolades for having the “craziest costumes” which “usually involved masks, face-painting and some sort of elaborate headgear” including “some dressed as sushi” which one panelist found “terrifying.”
Netherlands: The Dutch were “my favorites – sophisticated, cool and fun. Plus they have their endearing ‘Hup’ chant.” Dutch fans were “always easy to spot in their bright orange jerseys, hats, socks, sports coats, ties and, yes, underpants.” At campsites “the Heineken flowed” and the bitterballen (Dutch meatballs) were plentiful. Other panelists found them “astonishingly reserved during their team’s matches” and not as thickly massed as usual.
Russia: In a relatively small number of encounters, our panelists described Russian fans as mostly “big men” who “looked like security guards” and were “unhappy.”
Speaking of Russia, the Moscow Times reported that a Russian woman won $6,557 on a $2.94 bet that Germany would defeat Brazil 7-1. The odds were 2,230 to 1.
The British newspaper The Guardian reported four Brits won on the game at 300:1 to 500:1. No word on how much those particular Brits bet.
One more…Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan star who was suspended from all soccer activities for four months after biting an Italian player during the Cup, will be moving from Liverpool to Barcelona after his ban is over.
The two heavyweight clubs settled on a transfer fee of $128 million and Suarez agreed to a five-year contract with the Catalan club.
LeBron [As told to Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins]
“Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio. It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried. It’s where I bled. It holds a special place in my heart. People there have seen me grow up. I sometimes feel like I’m their son. Their passion can be overwhelming. But it drives me. I want to give them hope when I can. I want to inspire them when I can. My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now….
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d obviously do things differently, but I’d still have left. Miami, for me, has been almost like college for other kids. These past four years helped raise me into who I am. I became a better player and a better man. I learned from a franchise that had been where I wanted to go. I will always think of Miami as my second home. Without the experiences I had there, I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing today.
“I went to Miami because of D-Wade and CB. We made sacrifices to keep UD. I loved becoming a big bro to Rio. I believed we could do something magical if we came together. And that’s exactly what we did! The hardest thing to leave is what I built with those guys. I’ve talked to some of them and will talk to others. Nothing will ever change what we accomplished. We are brothers for life. I also want to thank Micky Arison and Pat Riley for giving me an amazing four years….
“When I left Cleveland, I was on a mission. I was seeking championships, and we won two. But Miami already knew that feeling. Our city hasn’t had that feeling in a long, long, long time. My goal is still to win as many titles as possible, no question. But what’s most important for me is bringing one trophy back to Northeast Ohio.
“I always believed that I’d return to Cleveland and finish my career there. I just didn’t know when…. But I have two boys and my wife, Savannah, is pregnant with a girl. I started thinking about what it would be like to raise my family in my hometown. I looked at other teams, but I wasn’t going to leave Miami for anywhere except Cleveland. The more time passed, the more it felt right. This is what makes me happy….
“To make the move I needed the support of my wife and my mom, who can be very tough. The letter from Dan Gilbert, the booing of the Cleveland fans, the jerseys being burned – seeing all that was hard for them. My emotions were more mixed. It was easy to say, ‘OK, I don’t want to deal with these people ever again.’ But then you think about the other side. What if I were a kid who looked up to an athlete, and that athlete made me want to do better in my own life, and then he left? How would I react? I’ve met with Dan, face-to-face, man-to-man. We’ve talked it out. Everybody makes mistakes. I’ve made mistakes as well. Who am I to hold a grudge?
“I’m not promising a championship. I know how hard that is to deliver. We’re not ready right now. No way. Of course, I want to win next year, but I’m realistic. It will be a long process, much longer than it was in 2010. My patience will get tested. I know that. I’m going into a situation with a young team and a new coach. I will be the old head. But I get a thrill out of bringing a group together and helping them reach a place they didn’t know they could go. I see myself as a mentor now and I’m excited to lead some of these talented young guys….
“I want kids in Northeast Ohio, like the hundreds of Akron third-graders I sponsor through my foundation, to realize that there’s no better place to grow up. Maybe some of them will come home after college and start a family or open a business. That would make me smile. Our community which has struggled so much, needs all the talent it can get.
“In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.
“No gratuitous television special. No hour-long spectacle at the Boys and Girls club. In his own words, as told to SI’s Lee Jenkins, LeBron is going back to Cleveland a changed man – a realistic man – with all the maturity and leadership that come from two championships….
“To be fair, LeBron has been working to this point for a few years now. As Larry Brown Sports noted in May, LeBron (and his management team) had made it a point to mention whenever possible that he’s ‘just a kid from Akron.’ It’s really quite incredible how successfully he’s managed to rehabilitate his image among Ohioans, especially given the seemingly insurmountable vitriol Cleveland fans held toward him. Even Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, he of the comic Sans hate mail, has completely reversed his position.
“Of course, the prospect of welcoming back the best player on the planet has a funny way of obscuring all those feelings of hurt and betrayal. Gilbert is no doubt ecstatic about the impact LeBron will surely bring to the historically downtrodden franchise. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that the star’s presence could possibly almost double the Cavaliers’ worth, pushing the team’s valuation past the billion-dollar mark….
“LeBron, we thought, is most concerned with his legacy, his place in the pantheon of NBA greats, his name next to Michael’s and Kareem’s and Kobe’s. That may well require a third ring at the very least, we thought, if not two or three more.
“We were right about one thing: LeBron is thinking about his legacy – he’s just not as shortsighted as we all thought. He’s prepared to hold out for as long as it takes, to take charge of a roster full of baby-faced yet promising talent and a coach with no NBA experience and bring them to the big show. If he succeeds, LeBron will go down as Cleveland’s greatest hero, the hometown kid who came back a man and built a championship team from scratch in a city that could use a celebration. If he fails, he’ll still get credit for trying….Not all championships are created equal, but LeBron hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy in Quicken Loans Arena a few years down the line? That’s a storybook ending. That’s ‘bigger than basketball.’”
“Every night 20,000 fans cheer and/or boo him; ESPN yakkers deconstruct his every word and grimace; women eye him and draw in their breath; and agents whisper man-you-are-sooo-great into his ear daily.
“Yet, even taking into account that he was working with the skilled and guiding hand of the Sports Illustrated writer Lee Jenkins, James offered a rather stunning display of soul-baring from a man who should, by reasonable expectation, possess a dirigible-size ego.
“And that made the native son’s return from South Beach to the city by Lake Erie more mysterious, and moving, than you might have guessed….
“The man knows his region, and his audience, and his life. Even as the news broke on television, you could hear out your window Cleveland residents loosening more or less random whoops. Car horns beeped. Strangers exchanged bro-hugs and palm slaps….
“The same talk-radio jabberers who threatened to stomp him like a snake if he rejected Cleveland again proclaimed themselves exorcised Friday. ‘Don’t hate on LeBron!’ warned a sports anchor who only the day before was badmouthing him….
“James should not be viewed as tossing alms to the poor. He returns at a propitious time. Cleveland is well stocked with talent, of the distinctly adolescent variety. The dominant team demographic is 19 to 22, and several of its players have the bravado and swagger of those who just don’t know better. James cavorted with 30-something adults in Miami, everyone acutely aware of his role.
“James could well end up feeling like a homeroom teacher riding herd on a bunch of middle-schoolers….
“No less fascinating is the relationship between James and Dan Gilbert, the Cavaliers’ owner. Gilbert is a billionaire several times over and runs Quicken Loans with a cult-like ferocity. When James left four years ago, Gilbert delivered a brat’s tantrum, likening his former star to the traitorous Benedict Arnold….
“The Gilbert and James relationship comes packed with layered wariness. Gilbert led the hard-line opposition to the players union a few years back. He tends to talk as if his is a tar-paper shack of a franchise.
“James was no less insistent, leading the opposition to the contract that reduced the players’ revenue share to 50 percent. Tears are not in order for this wealthy young man. But it’s worth noting that for all the talk of how he held the NBA hostage to his decision, James will end up signing a contract that will reflect, at best, half his value in an open market….
“Anyway…it was difficult to walk the sidewalks of downtown Cleveland and not feel the joy. Residents repeatedly say that Northeast Ohio is ‘the best-kept secret in the Midwest,’ and who feels like arguing?
“For now we have an athlete who seems intent on shouldering a burden his fellow stars tend to sidestep.”
“James got his ring in Miami – two, in fact – but anyone who knows James will tell you he has never had Michael Jordan’s cutthroat mentality, on or off the court. James not only cares what people think about him, he also can admit a mistake, which very few superstar athletes or coaches can.
“James knew ‘The Decision’ was a disaster, probably before the TV show was over. Former NBA commissioner David Stern begged James and his ‘people’ not to turn that decision into a circus. They didn’t listen. James knew that the over-reaction to his departure in Cleveland was as much about how he left as that he left.
“It bothered him to be thought of as a traitor in his home state and his home town….
“James decision to go to Miami was vindicated: He went there to win – not for the money – and he won: four trips to the Finals and back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013….
“Even the most durable athletes – James has never missed more than eight games in a season in 11 years – hear the clock ticking. James will be 30 in December, hardly old for someone built like a tank, but this will be his 12th NBA season. It he was going to go home to finish the job, this was the time….
As for the story behind the story…Sports Illustrated getting it….
“By being the first to report on Friday that LeBron James is returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sports Illustrated beat a journalistic pack that included 15 on-air people at ESPN.
“Yet armed with the biggest news of the day, the magazine presented it as a 952-word statement on its website from the King, not a full-blown news story with context and breadth.
“James got the byline for his first-person account (or was it an open letter, an essay or a news release?), while Lee Jenkins, a top writer for the magazine who got the scoop, received an ‘as told to’ credit.
“News value aside, the approach cast Sports Illustrated more as a public-relations ally of James than as the strong journalistic standard-bearer it has been for decades….
“It was Jenkins’ idea to put the story in James’ mouth, as the magazine had done with Jason Collins last year when he announced that he was gay.
“ ‘I’d been in contact with some of LeBron’s people and mentioned that it was something we’d done, and if it was something they were interested in, we could explore it,’ Jenkins said.
“Jenkins was comfortable with the approach. And what athlete does not want a direct line to fans with his words in a major outlet like Sports Illustrated….
“Jenkins is in Cleveland, working on a lengthy story about James’ decision for next week’s magazine….
“Jenkins, who wrote the 2012 Sportsman of the Year cover story about James for Sports Illustrated, said he did not fashion James’ article/statement so much as stitch it together from quotes given during an interview Thursday night at James’ hotel room in Las Vegas.
“ ‘I was able to get those quotes and present the news to readers,’ Jenkins said. ‘It’s a feat of editing, to put it together in a simple structure that made sense.’….
“Armen Keteyian, a former Sports Illustrated writer who is a correspondent for CBS News and Showtime’s ’60 Minutes Sports,’ agreed with the way the magazine handled the story.
“ ‘I think they presented it in a way that was incredibly professional,’ he said. ‘From a competitive standpoint, it was a coup, and it re-establishes, in many ways, the imprimatur of the magazine.’”
James imposed no conditions on Jenkins and had not been paid, according to Jenkins’ editor at SI, Christian Stone.
Meanwhile, at first it was assumed James would be paid the max $88 million in a four-year deal. But then we learned he signed for only two seasons, $42.1 million; the reason being he wants to sign a new contract with the Cavs before the 2016-17 season when a new television deal is expected to lead to a large jump in the salary cap and a much higher maximum for the elite players.
So what will Minnesota’s Kevin Love do, he being eligible for full free agency after next season? He wants to go to the Cavs now and sign long-term, but Minnesota is demanding Andrew Wiggins as part of any package in return and Cleveland has assured Wiggins he is staying. The T’Wolves need to trade Love now when they can get maximum value or he’ll just walk after what will undoubtedly be another sorry season in Minnesota.
After losing LeBron, Pat Riley quickly offered Chris Bosh a max contract, with Bosh accepting after a serious overture from Houston.
Carmelo Anthony, who was deciding whether to bolt to Chicago, opted to go with the money and remain a New York Knick for what is believed to be a little less than the max offer, five years, $129 million.
As I’ve said before, Anthony is a very good player, and he gives you a consistent effort, but he is not turning this current Knicks squad into a winner next season and this will prove to be an albatross contract by the third year. I really believe, longer-term (read two years from now), the Knicks would have been better off without him.
But I’ll support the guy. No doubt he can score, though I’ve documented how he’s no Joe Johnson when it comes to crunch time, like the final minute of close games.*
*Specifically, in 2013-14, he was 0-for-8 in the final 10 seconds of games that are within three points. 1-for-13 in the last 30 seconds of games within three points and 3-for-22 in the final minute of games within five points. [Kevin Pierce / New York Post]
Now if Phil Jackson can find Anthony a true running mate for the 2015-16 season, us Knicks fans would be fired up, but there isn’t anyone on the scene today and the Knicks seem to be pegging everything on landing a big free agent next off-season and that just isn’t happening. [Love will be gone, Aldridge is staying in Portland…and good for him.]
Elsewhere, after the Bulls realized they were going to lose out on Melo, they quickly turned to Lakers free-agent center Pau Gasol and the two reached agreement on a multiyear deal.
After losing Trevor Ariza to the Houston Rockets, the Washington Wizards kind of shocked the hoops world in signing Paul Pierce, a great move for the club…Pierce getting a two-year deal for $10.8 million, with a player option for the second year. Pierce will add his veteran presence to a team being built around young stars John Wall and Bradley Beal.
The Rockets traded Jeremy Lin to the Lakers. Then Houston shockingly let Chandler Parsons go, deciding not to match his three-year, $46 million offer sheet from Dallas (while bringing in Ariza instead). Next to Timmy D. and Kawhi Leonard, Parsons is my favorite player. Very dumb move, Houston.
The Brooklyn Nets acquired a solid point guard in Jarrett Jack from the Cavaliers in a three-team deal, which was part of the Cavs efforts to clear cap space for LeBron. Nice move by Brooklyn, having lost Shaun Livingston to Golden State. The Nets also received a 20-year-old Russian swingman, Sergey Karasev, who had been Cleveland’s No. 19 overall pick in 2013 and has played well in the D-League.
Lastly, I’m more than tired with Donald Sterling and won’t waste my or your time until there is some real news to report, even as he insists in the trial to determine his wife’s right to make a $2 billion deal to sell the Clippers that “I will never, ever sell this team and until I die I will be suing the NBA for this terrible violation under antitrust.”
When Shelly tried to approach him in the front row of the courtroom after she was done testifying, Donald shouted, “Get away from me, you pig!”
Ball Bits
–The Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka had started the season 11-1, 1.99 ERA, and was looking indestructible. But then he allowed 14 earned runs in 29 2/3 over his next four starts, going 1-3, and it was discovered he had a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament and will undergo non-surgery rehab that will keep him out until September, with Tommy John surgery still a distinct possibility, meaning that at this stage in the year, given the recovery period, he would probably miss all of 2015.
The sport is changing rapidly before our eyes. What team is going to want to risk giving a hurler, no matter how great a star that pitcher might be, a massive contract? The Yankees invested $175 million in Tanaka.
—Clayton Kershaw’s scoreless inning streak ended on Thursday at 41, though he threw a complete game three-hitter with 11 strikeouts against San Diego, winning 2-1 to go to 11-2, his eighth straight win.
His 41 scoreless is the fifth longest in the expansion era (1961) and the best since Arizona’s Brandon Webb hit 42 in 2007.
Kershaw became the third pitcher in the last 100 years to win eight straight starts in one season while striking out at least seven batters in each one. The others were Sandy Koufax (1966) and Juan Marichal (1967).
–The Milwaukee Brewers have been reeling, seeing their once 6 ½-game lead in the NL Central evaporate amidst a seven-game losing streak. After loss No. 6 on Friday night, the team also learned that shortstop Jean Segura’s 9-month-old son had died Playing the Cardinals, both teams then played with a heavy heart on Saturday as Segura went back to the Dominican Republic. The child had been ill, but before Friday’s game, Segura had received word his son was getting better.
–St. Louis Cardinals All-Star catcher Yadier Molina tore a ligament in his right thumb that required surgery and he’ll miss 8 to 12 weeks, a huge blow, to say the least. Molina had been named to his sixth straight All-Star squad.
—Let’s Go Mets! 8-2 homestand. Very strong.
—Babe Ruth’s 1918 contract with the Boston Red Sox was sold at auction Saturday for $1.02 million. The document, which paid Ruth just $5,000, was signed by the Babe, American league president Ban Johnson and Red Sox owner Harry Frazee, who then famously agreed to sell Ruth to the Yankees in December 1919.
The $1.02 million winning bid represents the highest price ever paid for a sports contract. The previous record was $996,000 in 2005 for the document that sent Ruth to the Yankees.
Yes, I’d say the Babe still captures the fascination of sports fans 100 years later. Pretty remarkable. Will we say the same 100 years from today about one of our current athletes?
Other items that sold at this auction, by the way, included a glove believed to have been used by Mickey Mantle in the mid-1960s ($180,000!), and the bullpen phone used in 2013, from which came many calls for Mariano Rivera in his final season ($5,000).
Back to Ruth, the other day Johnny Mac was reminding me of the anniversary of Ruth’s first appearance, July 11, 1914, and the Los Angeles Times’ Chris Dufresne had some of the following:
“It is easy now to identify the most famous name from the baseball box score dated July 11, 1914.
“However, one hundred summers ago at Boston’s Fenway Park, the annotation ‘Ruth’ was not historically significant.
“The baby-faced pitcher, only months out of reform school, must have been crippled with nerves in his major league debut.
“The star power that afternoon belonged to Red Sox outfielder Tris Speaker and a Cleveland Naps lineup led by ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson and Nap Lajoie.
“Ray Chapman, the Cleveland shortstop, batting sixth, was killed six years later when he was struck by a Carl Mays fastball at New York’s Polo Grounds.
“The baptism of George Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth, Boston’s rookie lefty, was efficient but ordinary. He scattered eight hits in Boston’s 4-3 triumph, helped at the end by two shutout innings from Dutch Leonard.
“Cleveland left fielder Jack Graney, the first batter Ruth ever faced, singled. Ruth, in his first major league at-bat, struck out. He was later pinch-hit for (imagine that) by Duffy Lewis, a career .284 hitter.
“Nothing on that day hinted at immortality, or the notion that a century later we’d still be talking about Ruth as perhaps the most iconic figure in sports history.
“Twenty-one years after his debut, on May 30, 1935, a worn-out Ruth, wearing the alien clothes of the Boston Braves, struck out in his final plate appearance at Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl.
“Between those monumental bookend whiffs he whipped up quite a dust storm.”
Golf Balls
—Colin Montgomerie captured his second Champions Tour major of the year, the U.S. Senior Open, in a playoff with Gene Sauers, who was so close to being the feel good story of the year.
Sauers, you see, almost died of a rare skin disorder that required extensive skin grafts. The 3-time regular PGA Tour winner just couldn’t close the deal on No. 18 in regulation.
—Brian Harman picked up his first PGA Tour title in capturing the John Deere Classic over Zach Johnson, and thus grabbing the final slot in this week’s British Open.
—Justin Rose won his second consecutive start, this time at the Scottish Open, so he’s in rare form for this week’s major at Hoylake. Phil Mickelson, last year’s winner of both the Scottish and then The Open Championship, finished T-11 after a strong final round 65.
Back to Rose, it’s kind of staggering this was his first win on the European PGA Tour since 2007.
–According to the book “Blood Sports,” by Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts, between September 2008 and October 2009, Tiger Woods paid Canadian human growth hormone guru Anthony Galea and an associate, Mark Lindsay, almost $200,000 for 63 visits to the golfer’s home. The book cites a Florida Department of Health investigation that found Lindsay charged Woods more than $118,000 for 49 visits, with Galea receiving $76,000 for 14 visits.
This is the same book that said Alex Rodriguez was given a testosterone exemption by Major League Baseball prior to his spectacular 2007 season (54-156, MVP).
The New York Times reported in 2010 that Galea had treated Woods at least four times. “Blood Sports” quotes Woods’ former swing coach, Hank Haney, saying he did not know the specifics of Galea’s meetings with Woods, but when pressed by Golf Digest, Haney said he never saw anything illegal occur during the doctors’ visits to Woods’ Florida home.
Haney added, “Even if he did (use something illegal), I’m not sure how it would help him. He’s bigger and stronger from all the working out he does, but he’s not faster or longer because of it. And it’s not like he’s avoiding injuries.”
Woods and Galea have both maintained the golfer was never treated with performance-enhancing drugs but with platelet-rich plasma injections, which are legal, to promote healing, and to be fair, if that statement is true, this is the kind of treatment that Masahiro Tanaka will be undergoing.
—Brad Keselowki completed a sweep at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, winning both Saturday’s Nationwide race and then Sunday’s Sprint Cup event. It was Keselowski’s third win of the year in the Sprint series.
But late in Sunday’s race, 72-year-old Morgan Shepherd took out Joey Logano, who was in the hunt, and there are many (but not NASCAR) saying Shepherd, who extended his mark as the oldest entrant in a Sprint Cup race, shouldn’t be racing.
“It’s going to be really fun to watch Johnny Hungover try to play quarterback in the NFL with nightclub-baked eyes and the shakes. Johnathan Paul Manziel appears to be engaged in a contest within a contest: Can he beat the game? Can a footloose, sleep-deprived carouser take his Saturday night attitude into the NFL and win on Sundays?
“What it boils down to is whether juvenile defiance can succeed in a man’s league. Manziel insists he can chug champagne from an inflatable swan on his personal vacation time, and treat the NFL like a five-day job, and survive. ‘I’m not changing for anybody,’ Manziel has said. He refuses to be cramped by what he obviously considers the NFL’s overly grim mold of year-round professionalism. It’s the attitude of a summer intern, who swears he’ll never wear a suit to work.
“It’s impossible to predict whether Manziel will turn out to be the next Joe Namath, or the next Lindsay Lohan. But watching this war of wills, Manziel against the NFL nags, has been one of the high entertainments of summer. Does the Cleveland Browns’ first-round pick have a permanent address? In just the past week or so, we’ve seen Johnny dancing the Nae Nae on a stage in Vegas, Johnny partying with Justin Bieber and Floyd Mayweather in Beverly Hills, Johnny in a bathroom rolling a $20 bill into a shape convenient for inserting up his nose, with a plastic cup of whiskey at his elbow. Most recently, on Wednesday night, there was Johnny yet again, 600 miles from Cleveland at a Boston Red Sox game surrounded by four college cheerleaders, or Hooters waitresses, or whoever they were….
“Namath managed to pull off that act because he was an immediate all-star as an AFL rookie, and was ‘the most beautiful, accurate, stylish passer with the quickest release I’ve ever seen,’ according to Bill Walsh. Also, it was a more indulgent and colorful era in some ways, with a lot less corporate money at stake.
“Manziel has yet to throw a pass as a professional; unlike Namath, he hasn’t proved he can burn the candle and win at the same time. He is 23, and he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.
“Among the things he doesn’t know is how the NFL changes guys against their will – how quickly it can ruin youth, and illusions of self-determination, and how badly it can crush joints, or damage brains. He doesn’t know how few players learn to use the league, without being used up by it.”
–Swimming legend Ian Thorpe, a nine-time Olympic medalist, came out of the closet and revealed in an Australian television interview that he is gay. Thorpe picked up five of the nine at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Just in 2012, in his memoir, “This Is Me,” he addressed his treatment for depression and alcohol abuse but denied longstanding rumors he was gay. He had tried a comeback in 2011 for the 2012 London Games, but failed to make the finals at the Australian trials.
Thorpe had been an inspiration for Michael Phelps as he pursued excellence in the sport.
–Good news on the wildlife front. The Adelie penguin population in Antarctica is surging, up about 50% in the past two decades according to extensive research. These are the relatively little guys, 30 inches tall, max.
What makes this bigger news is that it was long feared the Adelie penguin would fall victim to climate change and rising temperatures.
“Cops are on the hunt for one slippery suspect: a 20-foot-long boa constrictor haunting a New Jersey lake.
“State police are investigating reports of the serpent slithering in Lake Hopatcong.
“People are being warned to watch their pets and small children after a dozen sightings.”
I recommend area residents put Flex-Seal all over the edges of the outside of their homes. And, just like that recent case in Santa Fe, New Mexico, if your car suddenly stalls out…run…do not look under the hood. The boa that caused the stall will strike and then strangle you, though they take their time devouring you.
–Just saw from a piece by Robin Abcarian of the Los Angeles Times that the Oakland Raiders’ “Raiderettes” cheerleading squad won their ‘wage theft’ lawsuit and will now be paid $9 an hour, which doesn’t sound like much but it means their annual compensation will rise from about $1,250 to $3,200, plus some will earn overtime over and above that amount, while others get separate appearance fees.
Always liked the Raiderettes and their skimpy silver and black….you know, I really need to stop here. I’m in enough trouble as it is with the International Web Site Association.
–The Garth Brooks concert fiasco in Dublin continues. At last word, the various sides are still trying to reach a late agreement to allow Brooks to hold five consecutive concerts for a total of 400,000 ticket goers the end of the month. The Dublin City Council came back with a proposal for two matinee shows that would require Brooks to do the five concerts in three days. No way, said the country superstar. Negotiations are ongoing.
—Lorin Maazel, who conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Vienna State Opera, among others, died on Sunday. He was 84.
–Finally, we note the passing of Tommy Ramone, the last surviving member of the seminal U.S. punk band The Ramones. Tommy was 62 and died of bile duct cancer.
It was Tommy who started the group with three friends from a New York high-school in 1974 and the band was credited with the invention of punk rock.
While they never met with huge commercial success, hit songs like “I Wanna Be Sedated” and “Blitzkrieg Bop” earned them an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Tommy Ramone was the group’s drummer from 1974 to 1978 and co-produced their first three albums.
Top 3 songs for the week 7/14/84: #1 “When Doves Cry” (Prince…hey, a real song…) #2 “Dancing In The Dark” (Bruce Springsteen…what’s this? Another one!) #3 “Jump (For My Love)” (Pointer Sisters…ughh…) …and…#4 “Eyes Without A Face” (Billy Idol) #5 “The Reflex” (Duran Duran) #6 “Self Control” (Laura Branigan… make her stop…) #7 “Almost Paradise” (Mike Reno and Ann Wilson) #8 “Ghostbusters” (Ray Parker Jr.) #9 “The Heart Of Rock And Roll” (Huey Lewis and the News) #10 “Legs” (ZZ Top…OK, for the 80s, as good a week as you were going to find, overall, but one more from this decade and I’m back to the 60s…maybe 50s!…)
Baseball Quiz Answer: John Tudor had 10 shutouts in 1985, the last to hit double figures in the category. Tudor finished the season 21-8, 1.93, but lost out in the Cy Young voting to Dwight Gooden, 24-4, 1.53. Gooden had 8 shutouts that year.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday. Baseball mid-season review and a special prayer for the British Open, aka The Open Championship.
