Football Quiz: [Taking care of basics] Name the top five in rushing yards, career. Answer below.
Rory…four Majors at 25
Yes, as Jim Nantz said, there is one man in control of the sport of golf today. His name is Rory.
The Tiger era is officially over. Us fans now can’t wait for Augusta.
Rory McIlroy is King. Long live King Rory!
McIlroy -16
Mickelson -15
Stenson -14
Fowler -14
I can’t imagine there has ever been a better leaderboard in the history of the sport for a major, given world rankings and standing in the game at a particular moment. All of them with clutch shots on a Sunday.
So Rory becomes the third youngest, along with Tiger and Jack, to accumulate four big ones.
“It depends on what he feels his priorities are,” said Jack, “and that’s his call – but I think Rory has an opportunity to win 15 or 20 Majors or whatever he wants to do if he wants to keep playing. Yet you just don’t know what the guy’s priorities are going to be in life 10 years from now.”
—Rickie Fowler’s four majors this year…
5th Masters
2nd U.S. Open
2nd The Open Championship
3rd PGA
–Some big boys failed to make the cut. Like Martin Kaymer, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth, and K.J. Choi. Oh, and Tiger Woods. Almost forgot.
64-year-old Tom Watson missed the cut by only 2…72-73. Another great effort.
And congratulations to Colin Montgomerie for making the cut.
But my man Jerry Smith, 50, couldn’t get it done… 80-78. Here’s to you, though, Jerry. You done well to qualify in the first place.
Back to Spieth, I sense he is just burned out. He seems to have played an awful lot and he just hasn’t been that good recently. He had five Top 5s thru May 11 (The Players Championship) but has had just a T7 since.
–Totally concur with Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News that “Tiger needs to go get healthy, and then go get a new coach….just put his pride and arrogance aside and go back to working with his old coach, Butch Harmon.”
Sally Jenkins / Washington Post…after the opening round
“The really bad news for Woods was that the old gent he trailed was Tom Watson, the Ryder Cup captain who shot 72, two strokes better than Woods’ 74. And who would be guilty of both treason and sabotage if he picked Woods now to represent the United States against Europe next month. It’s time to give up the pretense Woods is an important factor in golf at the moment and admit he’s a back-spasming, lurch-swinging wreck who doesn’t appear anywhere close to regaining his form….
“When Woods won the 2000 PGA Championship here at Valhalla, it was one of six victories overall for him that season. This season, he hasn’t even been able to play six complete tournaments.”
Woods’ season is over. He didn’t qualify for the FedEx Cup. He won’t be on the Ryder Cup team. It will be very interesting to see if he plays any of the fall events that mark the start of a new wraparound season.
—Bubba Watson did his image no favors, acting like a baby on Friday when he was forced to deal with the same wet playing conditions everyone else had to. With a PGA microphone following his group, which included Rory, Watson was heard complaining all morning, at times using expletives.
“Water on the club face, bro…water on the club face. I’ve got no chance,” Watson said to his caddie, Ted Scott.
After Watson missed the green at 16, he said: “I can’t play golf, man. I got nothing.”
Then at 18, he said: “It doesn’t matter what I do, man. It doesn’t matter. It’s [bleeping] horse [bleep].”
Watson was ripped on social media. Later in the day he tweeted: “Sorry for my actions today! Trying to get better as a person. Thanks to all who support me.”
–According to reports, Wayne Gretzky told Dustin Johnson to clean up his act or the Great One will halt the wedding to his 25-year-old daughter Paulina. A report by FOX411 in Los Angeles also says the Gretzky family has known about Johnson’s lifestyle for some time and that Wayne sought to be a “positive influence.”
Meanwhile, Golf Digest is reporting Johnson hasn’t been seeking professional help as he said he would when he announced his leave of absence from the Tour. Instead, he has been spending time with Paulina at the swanky Gozzer Ranch Golf and Lake Club in Idaho. Dustin has been playing a lot and shot a 61 on the Tom Fazio layout. [Hank Gola / New York Daily News]
A Death on the Race Track
Three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart loves to drive sprint cars and on Saturday night in upstate New York, near Watkins Glen, site of Sunday’s Sprint Cup race, Stewart was racing at Canandaigua Motorsports Park. A year earlier, Stewart had broken his leg in a sprint car race in Iowa, which cost him the second half of the NASCAR season. Saturday turned tragic in unthinkable ways.
Driver Kevin Ward Jr., 20, hit the wall after being spun out by Stewart, and then got out of his car and walked down the track to show his displeasure when he was struck by Stewart’s car as it rounded the track on a caution flag, as video clearly shows. Ward’s body was hurtled 50 feet in the air and he was motionless when he landed back on the track.
A video showed Ward to the right of Stewart’s car, which seemed to kick out from the rear and hit Ward.
The track canceled the remainder of Saturday’s race within five minutes.
Stewart was involved in a July 2013 accident at Canandaigua that seriously injured a 19-year-old driver. He later took responsibility for his car making contact with another and triggering a 15-car accident that left Alysha Ruggles with a compression fracture in her back.
Ontario County (N.Y.) Sheriff Philip C. Povero confirmed the driver was pronounced dead on arrival and that an investigation was ongoing. Stewart was “fully cooperative” and the investigation is not a criminal matter, Povero said. Stewart appeared “very upset” over what happened.
Following the race, a team spokesman for Stewart said in a statement:
“A tragic accident took place last night during a sprint car race in which Tony Stewart was participating. Tony was unhurt, but a fellow competitor lost his life. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. We’re still attempting to sort through all the details and we appreciate your understanding during this difficult time.”
Sunday morning, a director for Stewart-Haas racing (SHR…which fields cars for Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick) announced Stewart would not race Sunday, replaced by Regan Smith.
Greg Zipadelli said of Stewart, “He’s going through a tough time. It’s emotional for him….
“[Stewart] feels strongly this is the right thing to do. We at SHR support it and agree with it. It’s a difficult time for both parties.”
NASCAR said in a statement: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, friends, and fellow competitors of Kevin Ward Jr. We support Tony Stewart’s decision to miss today’s race…and will continue to monitor this situation moving forward.”
Ontario County Sheriff Povero said: ‘When the investigation is completed, we will sit down with the district attorney and review it.” [As of Sunday afternoon, authorities didn’t seem to finding any reason to file charges.]
Stewart himself then issued a brief statement that read in part: “There aren’t words to describe the sadness I feel about the accident that took the life of Kevin Ward Jr.”
The Ward family issued a statement: “We appreciate the prayers and support we are receiving from the community, but we need time to grieve and wrap our heads around all of this.”
Even though Stewart didn’t race and thus gets zero points for the week, he can still qualify for the Chase if he wins one of the four remaining races after today.
–On a totally different matter, but while we’re on the topic of NASCAR, the National Guard announced Wednesday it will not return as a sponsor for Dale Earnhardt Jr., though it’s not clear when this takes effect, as Hendrick Motorsports said the team “has a contract in place to continue the National Guard program at its current level in 2015.” The Guard thinks they can pull out at the end of this year.
I’m thinking the Guard thinks it’s on Obama’s timetable for Afghanistan, but they need to understand the two aren’t comparable.
The Guard said it spent $32 million as a sponsor for Earnhardt this season. [$12 million for Indy Car Racing’s Graham Rahal, who the Guard is also pulling back from.]
It turns out Congress, and specifically, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) doesn’t want the Guard “wasting a bunch of money on a very expensive sports sponsorship.”
Seems like Ms. McCaskill doesn’t understand how sports marketing works. The head of Army Guard marketing said in a statement this week, “As part of a broad recruitment marketing strategy, motorsports partnerships – including NASCAR – played an important role in helping the National Guard build strong brand awareness and in turn helped us achieve extraordinary recruiting and end-strength objectives over the past decade.”
Strange timing for the Guard to make this decision, seeing as Earnhardt is having his most successful season in a decade and will be right there in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Ball Bits
—Derek Jeter got hit No. 3,431 on Saturday to move into 6th place all time, ahead of Honus Wagner. Seeing as Tris Speaker is next, but with 84 more, 6th is where Jeter will end up.
–Highly touted prospect Javier Baez made his major league debut this week for the Cubs and the 21-year-old did something that hadn’t been accomplished since 1954…hit three home runs in his first three games, including two in the third contest, a 6-2 win over the Rockies. Baez had homered in his first plate appearance on Tuesday.
The last to hit three in his first three games was Joe Cunningham, who did it for the Cardinals. I never heard of the guy, but in looking him up he had a serviceable 12-year career, 1954-66, batting .291 with 64 homers. He actually made the All-Star team in ’59 when he batted .345.
Back to Baez, who is playing second now but could eventually play third, if not short, thru Sunday he is 8 for 29, .276, but with 12 strikeouts and no walks. [Still those three homers.]
—Albert Pujols hit a game-winning home run for the Angels against the Red Sox, Saturday night/Sunday morning, in the bottom of the 19th…6 hours and 31 minutes, the second-longest in terms of time in Angels’ history. Pujols’ shot bounced off the right-center field wall and went straight up before landing on the warning track and was confirmed by video review.
–Some are questioning what happened to Miguel Cabrera’s power. After back-to-back 44 homer seasons, he has just 17 this year. By his own admission he hasn’t recovered from off-season surgery to repair a torn core muscle.
–Boy, Stephen Strasburg certainly has been very ordinary. After giving up four homers to the Braves on Friday in Atlanta’s 7-6 win over Washington (two more than his previous career high), Strasburg is 8-10, 3.68, though he does have 186 strikeouts in 156 innings.
But here’s the bigger thing. He is 1-8, 5.25, in 12 road starts this year. At home he is 7-2, 2.41.
—Clayton Kershaw seems a cinch to win the Cy Young Award, maybe even the MVP, which will make him just the sixth since 1993 to win either after spending any time on the DL that season, according to Stats LLC. [Pedro Martinez won the Cy Young in both 1999 and 2000 while spending 15 and 17 days, respectively, on the disabled list.]
Kershaw spent 44 days on the DL early this year. He’ll probably end up with just 27 starts. [Andrew Beaton / Wall Street Journal]
Sunday, though, he went to 14-2, 1.78, with eight innings of one run ball in a 5-1 win over Milwaukee.
—Mets fans’ long regional nightmare is over as the team finally designated outfielder Chris Young for assignment, essentially eating the rest of his one-year, $7.25 million contract…one of the worst signings in team history, and, frankly, the history of the free world.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Bartolo Colon earned his 200th win as the Mets defeated the Phillies 5-4.
He’s the third active pitcher to reach 200…joining CC Sabathia and Tim Hudson, and the third Dominican-born pitcher to reach the mark, after Juan Marichal (243) and Pedro Martinez (219).
–Cleveland pitcher Corey Kluber is on quite a roll…4-0, 0.68, since the All-Star break, including having allowed just one run in his last 31 1/3, including six shutout innings in a 3-0 win over the Yankees on Saturday. Overall, Kluber, who showed signs last season in going 11-5, is 13-6, 2.46.
–Speaking of great Ohio pitching performances, Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto moved to 14-6, 2.05, on Sunday as the disappointing Reds are 60-58 after defeating Miami 7-2.
But what about Devin Mesoraco? The Reds catcher now has 20 home runs, 61 RBI, after smashing two roundtrippers, including a grand slam, today.
—Jeff Samardzija has given Oakland what it wanted when they traded for him. 3-1, 3.08 in seven starts.
–How about Kansas City? They started out 0-4 after the All-Star break to drop to 48-50. Since then they have gone 15-3, now 63-53….in the second wild-card slot and just ½ game behind Detroit, who were 19-inning losers to Toronto on Sunday.
–I went to a Trenton Thunder game Saturday night, the Thunder being the Yankees’ AA franchise. Hadn’t been there in years. Very cool place.
Anyway, the Thunder were playing the Bowie Baysox, who have Carl Yastrzemski’s grandson, Mike, on the roster. I met Denise D. at the game and it wasn’t until I got home and checked the box score that I realized we missed Mike’s home run! That’s what happens when you’re getting beer, kids. Talk about embarrassing. I wrote earlier I was going to see Yaz’s grandkid and then didn’t even know he went yard.
–The consensus is that if the Tony Bosch / Biogenesis case goes to trial, a number of ballplayers, including Alex Rodriguez, will be called to the stand by the defense, especially if Bosch claims he injected the athletes with performance-enhancing drugs.
The Daily News’ Teri Thompson and Michael O’keeffe also point out, “The Justice Department didn’t bring heavy-hitting prosecutor Patrick Sullivan into the biogenesis case just to file relatively low-level criminal charges against Anthony Bosch and six other defendants…and that could be bad news for Alex Rodriguez, sources familiar with the case have told (us).”
If, for example, A-Rod put up money for the drug ring’s operations, he’ll be a major target.
–We note the passing of Pete Van Wieren, the last surviving member of the broadcast team that carried Atlanta Braves games over Ted Turner’s “Superstation.” He was 69. The cause was cancer.
Van Wieren spent 33 years with the Braves before retiring in 2008, shortly after the death of his longtime partner Skip Caray.
I didn’t realize Van Wieren was calling games for what was then the Mets AAA franchise, the Tidewater Tides, when the Braves hired him before the 1976 season to join Caray and Ernie Johnson Sr.
NCAA Rulings
It was a big week for college athletics and I need to clear the table of the main issues. Final resolution on both, though, is down the road.
“The first step toward an informal aristocracy in college sports was codified Thursday, when the 5 richest conferences and their 65 universities were awarded the right by the Division I board of directors to make their own rules on several issues affecting athletes and competition.
“If the endorsement passes through a 60-day comment period, the so-called Big 5 – the Southeastern Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Pacific-12, the Big Ten and the Big 12 – will receive the power to raise the value of scholarships, improve health insurance, allow players to consult agents and more.
“If 75 universities express disapproval during the 60-day period, the board will reconsider its decision. If 125 universities object, the model’s implementation will be suspended pending that reconsideration. If the board subsequently reaffirms its decision, all Division I universities will vote, with a five-eighths majority required to overturn.
“The strongest supporters of the autonomy model say it allows the Big 5 to provide more benefits to athletes.
“ ‘What it means is the ability to provide student-athletes with things that meet the 21st-century model of how we think about intercollegiate athletics,’ Mike Slive, the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, said last month….
“The NCAA has appeared to be broadly supportive of autonomy. Although only five of the board’s 18 members are presidents of Big 5 universities, the steering committee that refined previous proposals last month into the current model was dominated by those five.
“NCAA staff, including Mark Emmert, the president of the NCAA, also worked on the proposal.
“Approval by the board was widely seen as a foregone conclusion, in part because the Big 5 had threatened an even more severe alternative: breaking from the NCAA and taking their massive revenue streams with them….
“Some officials at universities outside the Big 5 have voiced concerns that offering lower scholarships and withholding various perks will cause them to fall further behind in the arms race for recruits, victories and championships.
“At the same time, the Big 5’s rules would apply equally throughout the group, maintaining regulation over areas in which schools can use athletic resources to beat their rivals. As before, Michigan will not be able to offer a prospective athlete more money than Ohio State could (for example).”
“How is it fair that the richest conferences would be allowed to set and play by their own rules, widening the already yawning gap in college sports between the haves and have-nots?
“As it stands, the financial bar in college sports is so embarrassingly high that most university sports programs, particularly the ones outside the Big 5’s world of lucrative TV contracts, can’t come anywhere near it. Top programs are already spending millions, or even tens of millions, on luxurious high-tech locker rooms, like Oregon’s, which features hand-woven Nepalese rugs and doors unlocked with biometric thumbprints, or Ohio State’s new $2.5 million catnip for recruits, which has a waterfall that upscale spas might envy.”
“Thursday’s vote puts an effective end to the suggestion that all 351 Division I programs operate on a level playing field. Although administrators at some small schools were leery about what the new landscape means, many correctly predicted the vote would carry….
“Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said approval would give freedom to all schools to customize their athletic departments to their own needs and restrictions. If one program believes in one rule change or benefit more than another, for instance, it can adopt it as its needs dictate.
“ ‘Mostly in the student-athlete welfare category, where high-profile universities want to do more and can do more, there may be differences,’ Delany said. ‘But even in that respect, [smaller schools are] not precluded from doing those things. You can just resource up, they can fundraise, they can do more at the gate. They can do more institutional support, if they want to do it.’
“He said initial discussions about athlete benefits might not take place for months; he estimated that ‘substantial changes in the student-athlete experience’ could be brought to vote in the next 18 months and could go into effect by the beginning of 2016.”
“These ‘Power Five’ leagues had grown frustrated by being overruled by the larger Division I membership of 351 schools.
“Thanks to huge football television deals and other revenue streams, the richest leagues have pocketed a disproportional amount of money but lacked the muscle to use the funds as they saw fit….
“Immediately, Thursday’s NCAA vote allows the Power Five to move forward on legislation to offer ‘full cost of attendance’ to athletes. Full cost is a federally established figure that calculates the cost of college education beyond tuition and board (incidental expenses a normal student might incur). The proposed stipend would raise current athletic scholarships to that threshold.
“Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott anticipates stipends at his schools will annually range from $2,000 to $5,000 per student.”
Then you had the other ruling on the so-called Ed O’Bannon case, and the NCAA’s rules barring student athletes from seeking a share of its $800 million in annual broadcast revenues. The lawsuit was initially filed in 2009 by ex-college basketball player O’Bannon, challenging the treatment of students as amateurs in college basketball and football.
Ben Strauss, Steve Eder and Marc Tracy / New York Times
“The federal judge who on Friday declared that the NCAA’s longstanding amateurism rules were a violation of antitrust laws left no uncertainty in her ruling about her views of the organization’s arguments. She bluntly dismissed them.
“The judge, Claudia Wilken, left the college sports world with anything but clarity, however, with one seemingly critical portion of her 99-page ruling: a suggestion that universities might pay athletes via a trust fund that the athletes would gain access to once their college playing careers were complete, and that the NCAA could put a cap on how much the institutions could offer each player.
“In what was long regarded as a landmark case for college sports – a challenge to current rules that prohibit athletes from earning money from the use of their names and images in video games and television broadcasts – Wilken gave NCAA officials hope that any required changes might not be the death knell that seemed imminent.
“The limit on payments to athletes could be as little as $5,000 a year, the judge said….
“By Saturday, university leaders and conference commissioners were trying to sort through the ramifications of the ruling….
“Wilken issued an injunction Friday invalidating NCAA rules that prohibit top-level football and Division I men’s basketball players from being compensated….The move came a day after the NCAA granted autonomy to the five richest conferences in college sports to set some of their own rules, a signal of the drastic changes coming to college sports.
“Though the decision sets a new standard in college athletics – one in which athletes can now share in the profits of a billion-dollar industry – Wilken tempered the blow to the NCAA.
“The ruling…does not mandate that universities immediately pay players; it says only that the NCAA’s current rules are illegal. Wilken allowed the trust funds as a less restrictive alternative to the current rules.”
The NCAA convened the latest in a regular series of conference calls on Saturday with all 32 conferences and as one commissioner put it, the NCAA doesn’t have any answers yet.
The NCAA said Sunday it would appeal, but for now the issue is the trust funds and the kinds of caps that would be in place.
Then you have the issue of the big five conferences, who have long said they can’t discriminate among their athletes and that they have to give to athletes in more than just football and basketball.
“Financial aid is part of the Title IX framework,” said Gerald Gurney, the president of the Drake Group, which pushes for educational improvements in college athletics. “They must apply the cost of attendance to all athletes – or look for more lawsuits.”
No doubt a result of the week’s rulings will be a downsizing of many athletic programs to pay for football and basketball; the likes of cross country, swimming, wrestling, track and field, probably being casualties.
Finally, legendary Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder said last week on the opening of fall camp:
“It’s changed. I mean, college athletics, football in particular, has changed dramatically over the years. I think we’ve sold out. We’re all about dollars and cents.
“The concept of college football no longer has any bearing on the quality of the person, the quality of students. Universities are selling themselves out….
“It’s no longer about education. We’ve sold out to the cameras over there, and TV has made its way, and I don’t fault TV. I don’t fault whoever broadcasts games. They have to make a living and that’s what they do, but athletics – that’s it. It’s sold out.”
—Johnny Manziel looked OK in his debut for Cleveland on Saturday night. He was 7 for 11 for 63 yards through the air, and ran for 27 yards on six carries.
—Michael Vick played well for the Jets in their first preseason game, better than incumbent Geno Smith, so while there seems little doubt Geno will start in the opener, as Steve Politi of the Star-Ledger put it:
“Say the Jets are 2-3 to start the season and coming off a three-turnover game from Smith, who had 21 interceptions as a rookie. Does anyone really think that (Coach Rex) Ryan, who has never had a better Plan B at the most important position on the field, won’t turn to the guy with the big arm and electrifying talent in hopes of saving the season?
What fans, and coaches, were kind of amazed with in the preseason victory over the Colts was how quick the 34-year-old Vick was.
–Following his first preseason game, a 26-24 loss to the Saints, Rams rookie Michael Sam said there was no doubt “I can play in this league.” The defensive end had some quarterback pressures and stopped a running play for no gain.
But scouts in attendance told USA TODAY Sports they were unimpressed, one saying, “I don’t think he has very good quickness.” Another said, “He’s a good hustle player. I just wonder if that’s enough.”
Bottom line, at least for one week…Michael Sam is nothing special. But will he make the team? To be continued….
College Football
1. Florida State
2. Alabama
3. Oklahoma
4. Oregon
5. Auburn
6. Ohio State
7. Michigan State
8. UCLA
9.South Carolina
10. Stanford [reminder…according to Princeton Review, the favorite school of transgender students…]
–Now ESPN The Magazine listed all 128 Division I programs and according to their computer rankings (different from the power rankings from which they get the top ten), Wake Forest is a surprising 97. I would have had us around 120. But I was right on one thing. ESPN ranks both offense and defense and Wake is 118 out of 128 for offense (70 for defense).
–USA TODAY Sports listed five teams likely to break into the top 25 this season, though four of them are hardly ‘surprises’…Iowa, Northwestern, Virginia Tech and Boise State.
But I liked the fifth…Marshall, which went 10-4 last season and enters 2014 “as the clear-cut favorite in revamped Conference USA.”
Marshall bounced back from a surprising loss to Rice in the league championship game to beat Maryland in the Military Bowl.
The leader of the Thundering Herd is Rakeem Cato. I had no idea this guy had 39 touchdown passes with just nine interceptions in 2013 and he’s a dark horse candidate for the Heisman Trophy.
–As expected, the trade between the Cavaliers and Timberwolves is set, though it can’t be formally announced until Aug. 23.
Kevin Love to the Cavs for Nol. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins, 2013 No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett and a protected 2015 first-round draft pick.
Cleveland has committed to then re-sign Love next summer for five years and $120 million after opting out of his contract.
However, the Cavs and Love can’t make such an arrangement, even verbally, without violating the league’s collective bargaining agreement. In fact such discussions aren’t supposed to take place until Love becomes a free agent next summer.
As for Wiggins, throughout this whole non-deal, deal, he has adopted the right attitude.
—Kevin Durant withdrew on Thursday from the U.S. national team. Durant claimed fatigue. No one can blame him. [Rudy Gay replaced Durant.]
–Former No. 1 Greg Oden was arrested by police in Indianapolis for punching his ex-girlfriend in the face during a fight at his mother’s home. Hope he never plays in the NBA again.
“Christie axes N.J. sports betting”
“With his veto pen, Gov. Chris Christie all but ended New Jersey’s efforts to institute sports betting at its casinos and race tracks.
“Christie’s office announced yesterday that he nixed S2250, a bill that would have allowed New Jersey to circumvent the 1992 federal law that bans sports betting in most states, after New Jersey’s challenges to the law in court failed.
“In doing so, Christie called federal law ‘sacrosanct,’ while the sponsor of the bill, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak, said Christie ‘stuck a dagger in the heart of Atlantic City and our ailing horse-racing industry.’”
The bill would have allowed private companies to open up operations in AC and the state’s harness racing tracks.
Christie said he still favors sports betting, but that the state needs to “determine if a different approach towards sports wagering would comply with federal law.”
“While I do not agree with the Circuit Court’s decision, I do believe that the rule of law is sacrosanct, binding on all Americans,” he wrote. “That duty adheres with special solemnity to those elected officials privileged to swear an oath to uphold the laws in our nation.”
—Olympic pole vault champion Jenn Suhr was injured when her pole snapped during a practice session at her home outside Rochester, N.Y. Her husband and coach, Rick Suhr, said the pole shattered halfway into her ascent while she was trying to clear 15 feet. You just know that was an awful moment. No word on the extent of the injury. We wish her well.
–So the other day when I noted that Syracuse University was rated No. 1 party school in the nation by Princeton Review, you wouldn’t expect the administration there to be as proud of their students as I was.
Nope…Chancellor Kent Syverud (sounds like a vodka) certainly isn’t happy. Syverud, who just took over in January from Nancy “Party Down” Cantor, sent an email to the student body Tuesday.
“It is not a good thing for a school to be labeled as number one in partying,” Syverud said. “To put it bluntly, the hundreds of thousands of alumni, students, faculty, and staff who have poured their lives into building Syracuse University did not do so primarily to create a party.”
Alas, graduate Nick Southard didn’t see it that way, as reported by USA TODAY’s Jarrad Saffren.
“He tried to take the fun out of an amazing accomplishment. It won’t change anything though.”
Syverud explained the “party school label” should be a “wake-up call” for the Syracuse community to improve in two areas. The first, as reported by Mr. Saffren, “was making the world more aware of SU’s prestige as an educational institution.” When he took over as chancellor, Syverud openly emphasized the importance of improving national rankings that dropped under “Party All Night” Cantor.
The second was doing more to combat social impediments to student success in the classroom.
“High-risk use of alcohol and other drugs (not unrelated to a party culture) ranks number one on that list,” said Syverud.
“My belief, which I hope some of you share, is that to be labeled the number one party school is to be told those boundaries need more attention. With your help, they will get it this year.”
[Mr. Saffren is an intern at USA TODAY and a senior at Syracuse, incidentally.]
Well, you know what happened after the email. 10,000 students immediately sought to transfer to No. 2 party school, Iowa. I’m guessing within two years, the only students at Syracuse will be the “student-athletes” (cough cough) on the basketball team (looking for their trust funds), plus one or two team managers.
“Nearly 3,000 residents in the Kaliningrad region were left without electricity Friday due to the ‘natural shenanigans’ of a stork and beavers in the area, Interfax reported.”
At first 34 electrical substations were wiped out when a stork “unwisely landed on a power line.”
“The bird died and caused problems for engineers,” Interfax cited a spokesman for the electricity company as saying.
Meanwhile, the beavers (‘Beaver’ being currently suspended for one year from the All-Species List following numerous attacks on humans) left 600 residents without power as they gnawed down a tree that hit a power line. Rather handy work, I must say.
This is how beavers get back at The Man for their suspension.
–“A woman was reportedly attacked Thursday by an alligator at Hillsborough County wilderness park in Florida.
“Initial reports indicate two women visiting from Ohio were canoeing in the Hillsborough River around 1:45 p.m. when a 6-foot gator jumped out of the water and bit one of the women in a thigh and calf. The animal then went back into the water. The other woman called 911.”
Well, the County Sheriff’s Aviation Unit initiated an aerial search and spotted the women in the canoe. Rescue crews got into their own canoes and were able to perform first aid.
The victim was taken to Tampa General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
“It’s uncommon, specifically because as we know so far it was unprovoked,” said a spokesman for the Florida Wildlife and Conservation Commission.
Trappers were heading out to attempt to capture the terrorist.
–Finally, I’ve written before how good friend Jeff B. (Old Man Tennis League legend) was one of the last to see Paul Newman drinking beer before that Great American died, Jeff having had dinner at a table next to Newman (and Joanne) in the Norwalk, CT, area.
This time, Jeff and wife Kathy, celebrating their 30th at the swanky Ocean House in Watch Hill, R.I., spotted a lot of commotion three doors down the street. Jeff and Kathy knew who lived there. Taylor Swift!
“There were cars coming and going, bodyguards all over the place,” which if you know this area is not necessary. Jeff and Kathy assumed Taylor was in town.
That night, they opted to have dinner in Westerly, about 15 minutes from the hotel, and halfway through the meal, the owner/chef went over to the table next to Jeff and Kathy and was chatting them up when the chef said, “Taylor, is there anything else I can get you?”
They had no idea she was right there, having dinner at a table for eight with her family. “Aside from her high heels, she wasn’t dolled up at all. And when a few people went over to chat up her dad, she very politely introduced herself saying, ‘Hi, I’m Taylor.’ We eventually realized a very burly bodyguard was in the middle of the small dining room, keeping tabs on everyone. I was literally an arm’s length from her back, but if I had reached out I’m sure the guy would have snapped my arm in two like a twig. They left about a half hour before us and we learned the whole group went to the Ocean House for an after dinner drink. But they had already left by the time we returned.”
So who do we want Jeff and Kathy to have a brush of fame with next year? I’m going for Johnny Depp.
Top 3 songs for the week 8/10/68: #1 “Hello, I Love You” (The Doors) #2 “Classical Gas” (Mason Williams) #3 “Stoned Soul Picnic” (The 5th Dimension)…and…#4 Grazing In The Grass” (Hugh Masekela) #5 “People Got To Be Free” (The Rascals…another excuse to say this is Bill Murray’s favorite group…) #6 “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (Donovan) #7 “Lady Willpower” (Gary Puckett and The Union Gap) #8 “Turn Around, Look At Me” (The Vogues) #9 “Sunshine Of Your Love” (The Cream) #10 “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (The Rolling Stones)
Football Quiz Answer: Top five rushing….
Emmitt Smith…18,355
Walter Payton…16,726
Barry Sanders…15,269
Curtis Martin…14,101
LaDainian Tomlinson…13,684
