Daytona 500 Quiz: “The Great American Race” is Sunday. Yours truly will be tuning in for at least some of it (while also watching the golf action at Riviera). 1) Who won the first 500 in 1959? 2) Who won in 1990, initials D.C.? 3) Who is the only foreign born driver to win the 500? 4) Richard Petty won a record 7. Next on the list won 4. Name the only driver to do so. Answers below.
College Basketball
AP Poll (Feb. 16)
1. Kentucky 25-0 (65 first-place votes)
2. Virginia 23-1
3. Gonzaga 26-1
4. Duke 22-3
5. Wisconsin 23-2
6. Villanova 23-2
7. Arizona 22-3
8. Kansas 21-4
9. Utah 20-4
10. Notre Dame 22-4
11. Northern Iowa 24-2…very cool
21. SMU 21-5
27. San Diego State…if you carried out votes
29. Murray State (23-4, 13-0)…Have won 21 straight after starting off 2-4. But Ohio Valley Conference is very weak and the Racers are going to have to win their conference tourney to get into the Big Dance.
–Then Monday, Kansas lost to No. 23 West Virginia (20-6, 8-5) 62-61 in Morgantown as Perry Ellis missed a layup at the buzzer, the Jayhawks falling to 10-3 in the Big 12.
Virginia beat Pitt 61-49, Pitt falling to 6-7 in the ACC.
And Villanova destroyed Seton Hall 80-54, payback for Nova’s earlier loss to the Pirates. But the story in this one, aside from Seton Hall’s continued implosion since defeating Villanova in January, was guard Sterling Gibbs, who inexplicably hit Nova’s Ryan Arcidiacono in the face during a scramble for a loose ball. Gibbs not only was ejected, he should be suspended for the rest of the season, it was that blatant.
Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard, who earlier this year was seemingly a coach of the year candidate and now is likely to be fired, said, “I am extremely disappointed in Sterling’s actions tonight. Our student-athletes are entrusted to uphold the morals and values of good sportsmanship and personal conduct that we preach to them on a daily basis.”
Gibbs apologized to Arcidiacono in a series of postgame tweets. Arcidiacono, in a show of class, tweeted back: “Emotion sometimes get the best of us. Heat of the moment thing. We’re all good.”
Tuesday, Seton Hall suspended Gibbs for two games. It seems the Big East will accept this and not issue their own penalty.
–Also on Tuesday, Wake Forest lost to Notre Dame in South Bend, 88-75. The Deacs looked solid in the first half but once again got blitzed in the opening ten minutes of the second. I’m particularly ticked because I lost a six-pack of premium to ND alum Mark R.
And San Diego State remains in first place in the Mountain West at 11-3 after a nice 63-46 win over New Mexico at ‘The Pit’ in Albuquerque. Admittedly, though, this is not the Lobos’ best team, just 14-12, 6-8.
—Amar’e Stoudemire negotiated a buyout with the New York Knicks and was officially waived, freeing the way for him to go to Dallas. Stoudemire, 32, has stated he wanted to be with a contender and Dallas is 36-19; a tad better than the Knicks’ NBA worst 10-43. No doubt Amar’e can still contribute.
–Like I said prior to the contest, I didn’t watch a single minute of the NBA All-Star Game but did glance at the box score from time to time. For the record, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook handily won game MVP as he scored 41 points, the second-most in All-Star Game history, one fewer than Wilt Chamberlain in 1962, as the two teams combined for a record 321 points…the West holding off the East 163-158. Westbrook made 16 of 28 shots in 26 minutes.
Meanwhile, Carmelo Anthony, playing before his hometown crowd, was a pathetic 6-for-20 from the floor, 2-of-13 from downtown. Plus he played 30 minutes on his bad knee when he said he just wanted to go out for a few. Knicks fans have more than had it up to here with the guy. Anthony still hasn’t decided if he is shutting himself down for the rest of the season. As I said before, the fact is he’s afraid to go under the knife.
–As for the Knicks’ quest for Duke’s Jahlil Okafor, as the New York Times’ Benjamin Hoffman notes, just four teams in 30 seasons received the top pick after having the league’s worst record.
–Aside from pitchers and catchers reporting this week, the New York area is buzzing over an incredibly stupid move by Yankees ownership, so says this Mets fan, as the team announced it was retiring the uniform numbers of Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams, while erecting a plaque in Monument Park for Willie Randolph.
Talk about cheapening the honor for the likes of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle and Berra. [And the hypocrisy of PED Andy.]
So then you have the Mets. Only one former player’s number has been retired – Tom Seaver’s No. 41. The other numbers retired are managers Casey Stengel (37) and Gil Hodges (14).
I agree with those who say the Mets should retire Mike Piazza’s No. 31 and Gary Carter’s No. 8. And then the Mets would have to consider Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden.
—Jason Giambi announced his retirement…but it’s also about A-Rod. [The following is done in chronological order since last Bar Chat.]
“They made their offer to Alex Rodriguez a week ago, and still, are awaiting his response while their patience wanes.
“The Yankees want Rodriguez, their embattled star, to come to Yankee Stadium, have a press conference, and apologize to all of their fans and whoever else he chooses for all of his transgressions that resulted in a suspension that spanned the 2014 season.
“And they want it done before their pitchers and catchers report to spring-training camp Friday in Tampa, Fla.
“Oh, and sorry, they refuse to offer the use of their spring-training facilities, even with their fancy media tent that includes a picture of Rodriguez, for his use at any press conference.
“Really, what the Yankees want more than anything, is for Rodriguez to be just like Jason Giambi.
“Giambi…was a steroid user owed millions of dollars by the Yankees. He was ensnared in the infamous BALCO scandal, and testified under oath to a federal grand jury in 2003 that he used steroids.
“He made a vague apology the following spring, and in 2007 during an interview with USA TODAY Sports, was a bit more specific.
“ ‘I was wrong for doing that stuff,’ Giambi told me between games of a New York Yankees doubleheader in Chicago. ‘What we should have done a long time ago was stand up – players, ownership, everybody – and said: ‘We made a mistake.’
“ ‘We should have apologized back then and made sure we had a rule in place and gone forward. …Steroids and all of that was a part of history. But it was a topic that everybody wanted to avoid. Nobody wanted to talk about it.’
“Giambi, by simply being truthful, was called in on the carpet by MLB, and forced to cooperate with George Mitchell’s investigators in his report on performance-enhancing drug use. Giambi, who was threatened with a suspension and fine if he didn’t cooperate, simply told on himself.
“He emerged into one of baseball’s greatest role models.
“ ‘I wanted to grow from it, I didn’t want it to define me,’ Giambi told the Daily News. ‘I did the right thing; I stepped up and said I made a mistake. I’m truly grateful that the fans – and even the writers – gave me a second chance.
“ ‘When I got that second chance, I ran with it. I appreciated it from the bottom of my heart that I had that opportunity and that learning experience.’
Giambi was a true role model, as Nightengale writes, “and a shining example to every player who ever used steroids, never blaming a soul but himself.”
Many in the game believe he’ll be a manager in just a few years.
….Well, Tuesday he issued an apology. A handwritten apology, not in a press-conference at Yankee Stadium.
“I take full responsibility for the mistakes that led to my suspension for the 2014 season. I regret that my actions made the situation worse than it needed to be.”
In explaining why he decided not to hold a presser, A-Rod wrote:
“It was gracious of the Yankees to offer me the use of Yankee Stadium for this apology but I decided the next time I am in Yankee Stadium, I should be in pinstripes doing my job.”
“This is, always has been, A-Rod’s grandest failure: he specializes in half measures. He wants to be all things to all people at all times, and by playing it that way he too often is lacking in just about every way possible: as an athlete (neutralizing extraordinary talent with an inability or unwillingness to play clean, on talent alone); as a discovered cheat (unwilling to take what would have been a substantially smaller suspension than the 211 games he was originally handed or the 162 he received, inviting the blanket nightmare these last two years have been for him); almost always straddling the line between stubborn egoist and misunderstood victim.
“And now, the ultimate half measure: an apology, issued in cursive script the nuns at St. Thomas the Apostle would surely have approved of, containing precisely the kind of admission and apology that should have been a perfect welcome-back valedictory to baseball after a yearlong absence. Honestly? There was no need for a pretend press conference, where we in the media would fire necessary questions and Rodriguez would either have issued necessary non-reply replies or outright lies….
“He wants credit for the apology, wants to be lauded – and left alone – as a stand-up guy but only to a point. He can’t help himself, ever. He could have let the apology stand alone. He could have taken the Fifth from here to Tampa to eternity. But he didn’t. Because he can’t. Because it isn’t just that he can’t help himself from using dope.
“To the end with Alex Rodriguez you wouldn’t believe the guy if he told you water was wet, even if he wrote that out in the schoolboy cursive handwriting he used on Tuesday when he apologized to the fans for being a very bad boy.
“Maybe his handlers, the ones who have always done such a bang-up job for Rodriguez, thought he would look more sincere making it a handwritten note. Most fans reading it probably wanted to write one back: Shut up and get out.
“So this is the way Rodriguez decides to play it, deciding not to hold some kind of press conference before spring training, opting out of the visual of his lawyer sitting next to him and telling him which questions he could answer, and which ones would require him to exercise his Fifth Amendment rights, so as not to face self-incrimination. But then DEA informants – it is exactly what Rodriguez is – rarely want to tell their stories in public….
“It is one thing to tell his story to a writer or to the new commissioner, Rob Manfred, behind closed doors… It would have been quite another thing for Rodriguez to have answered questions out in the open without a lawyer present….
“ ‘I served the longest suspension in the history of the League for PED use,’ he writes.
“Notice the language here. Rodriguez never uses the word steroids, the way he never used that word back in 2009 when he begged everybody for his first second chance. He doesn’t say ‘my’ PED use. Just PED use. Alex Rodriguez remains as cute as his handwriting, and slicker than spit.
“ ‘I accept the fact that many of you will not believe my apology or anything I say at this point,’ he writes. ‘I understand and that’s on me.’
“There you have it, Rodriguez’ own weird version of accountability. He really is a beauty, a dream character, mostly in his own mind. Even as he asks the fans to believe how sorry he is for everything he’s done, he admits that the same fans to whom he is speaking probably don’t believe he’s really sorry. It will come out in the ESPN piece written by J.R. Moehringer [Ed. released after I go to post] that Alex is in therapy these days. Of course he is. It is about time, and better late than never, for somebody who really could be the buffet at a psychiatrist’s convention….
“He was going to be baseball’s all-time home run champ. Even after he admitted to being a drug user, he managed to have his best baseball October and lead the Yankees to a World Series. Judge me on what I do going forward, he said back in 2009. That is exactly what everybody has done.
“Now he is back, panhandling for redemption and another second chance, trying to make one last first impression, the richest drug informant in all of baseball history. One more record for Alex Rodriguez.”
Finally, the same day A-Rod was issuing his apology, Anthony Bosch, the former owner of the South Florida clinic that supplied PEDs to Major League Baseball players such as Rodriguez, was sentenced to four years in federal prison. He could catch a little break if he continues to cooperate with the still on-going investigation.
–Former Dodgers star Pedro Guerrero suffered an apparent stroke in the Dominican Republic. He is 58.
58?! How many of you remember this terrific hitter played his last game in 1992?! Yikes. When I first saw the headline I was thinking he was in his upper 40s.
Guerrero hit an even .300 for his career, with 215 home runs and 898 RBIs. He had injury issues that cost him big chunks of some campaigns or else he probably would have ended up with about 1,150 ribbies.
–The twin sons of Ernie Banks contend that his agent and caretaker “coerced” Mr. Cub into signing a new will giving her all of his assets.
In a statement on Monday, Jerry Banks said Regina Rice did not tell the family she had an attorney write up a new will. What a freakin’ mess.
–Twice I have written from Iowa of my trips to the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter, his hometown. But now, as a story by the New York Times’ Pat Borzi notes, the museum is going under; unable to make a go of it following Feller’s death in 2010.
I’ve told you of the extensive autograph collection he had (for sale), and of how the last time I was there, I was ticked off that I didn’t buy a signed Dave Kingman baseball.
“Every year, Feller invited famous retired ballplayers to the museum for fund-raising events. Guests included fellow Hall of Famers like Stan Musial and Yogi Berra and former Mets like Ron Swoboda and Ed Kranepool. Most waived or discounted their appearance fee as a courtesy to Feller. In return, Feller appeared for no charge at an event of their choosing.
“ ‘We would have a big autograph day, and people would come from as far away as Chicago,’ said Bob DiBiasio, a Cleveland Indians executive who served on the museum’s board of directors. ‘We made good enough money to keep the museum afloat for a year.’”
But following Feller’s death, players declined to appear for free without reciprocity and museum membership dried up. Van Meter, believe me, is a small town with no other attractions so there is no way the museum could survive.
So the museum’s members, including Feller’s widow, Anne – unanimously approved a plan to sell the museum to the city of Van Meter and it is being converted into its city hall. The move will be complete by mid-March.
Some of Feller’s artifacts will remain on permanent exhibit there, while the bulk of the collection will be displayed at Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians, in accordance with Feller’s wishes.
So it sounds like this is all being handled as well as possible. Nonetheless it is an end of an era of sorts. According to one of Feller’s sons, Steve, only two free-standing museums in the country devoted to a single major league baseball player remain; Babe Ruth’s in Baltimore, and the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Baseball Library in Greenville, S.C.
Others, such as Yogi Berra’s, are either housed at or supported by larger entities.
Well, if I make it back to Iowa one day, I’ll still stop by Van Meter (20 miles outside Des Moines).
–I was glancing at Baseball America’s College Top 25 after the first weekend of Division I play and Vanderbilt is No. 1, followed by LSU and Houston.
“A locker room attendant for the New England Patriots tried to introduce an unapproved special teams football into last month’s AFC Championship Game, the same game at the center of the ‘Deflategate’ allegations, four sources familiar with the investigation told ‘Outside the Lines.’
“One source said that the attendant assigned to the officials’ locker room, identified as 48-year-old Jim McNally, has been interviewed by investigators for Ted Wells, the attorney the NFL hired last month to lead an investigation into allegations the Patriots intentionally used underinflated footballs on offensive plays in the first half of that game against the Indianapolis Colts, which New England won 45-7.
“Three sources said that McNally has worked Patriots games for a decade, and has been in charge of the officials’ locker room at Gillette Stadium since at least 2008. In the first half of the AFC Championship Game, the sources said, McNally tried to give the unapproved football to an alternate official who was in charge of the special-teams footballs….
“The alternate official, Greg Yette, became suspicious when he noticed that the football McNally handed him did not have the proper markings on it, three sources said. One of those sources added that Yette found it surprising that the officials’ locker room attendant was on the field, trying to hand him a ball, because officials’ locker room attendants don’t typically have ball-handling responsibilities during NFL games. Once McNally tried to introduce the unapproved football into the game, the source said, Yette notified the NFL’s vice president of game operations, Mike Kensil, who was at the game in the press box.
“Sources said they are not sure at what point during the first half McNally tried to introduce the impermissible football to Yette. They didn’t know his motivation for doing so, either. Yette, when reached by Outside the Lines, declined to comment….
“It is not known if McNally is the same locker room attendant who reportedly ducked into a bathroom with a bag of footballs for 90 seconds before taking them out to the field before the start of the AFC Championship Game….
“A source told Outside the Lines that Kensil decided to personally go down to the officials’ locker room at halftime of the Patriots-Colts game to check the game balls, in part, because of the suspicions McNally’s actions raised.”
Kensil has yet to respond to requests for comment. Ted Wells’ investigation continues.
–One other note on the NFL…Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston both plan to throw for scouts at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis this weekend, which is a huge boost for the NFL Network. The past few years, many top QB prospects have opted to skip the combine; holding their own pro day instead.
Lesley Gore, RIP
No secret I was a fan of Ms. Gore’s. Just two weeks ago in this space, 2/2, in my Top Ten I noted she was “underrated,” especially as the years have flown by. Gore died of cancer on Monday at the age of 68.
Born Lesley Sue Goldstein in Brooklyn, she was raised in Tenafly, N.J., and was a Jersey girl through and through.
“While she remained best known for a song about being betrayed by her boyfriend, Gore also recorded one of pop’s sharpest early feminist declarations, ‘You Don’t Own Me.’
“And, in a mild bit of pop culture irony, she was gay.
“She maintained a remarkable degree of privacy, however, and in a 2005 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, she said she never made a big deal about her sexual orientation one way or the other.
“She also said that in spite of the music business being ‘totally homophobic,’ she never felt she had to pretend she was straight.
“ ‘I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do,’ she said. ‘I didn’t avoid anything, I didn’t put it in anybody’s face.’”
Picture that Lesley Gore was just 16 when she recorded “It’s My Party” in the spring of 1963. It topped the charts about six weeks later for two weeks.
I had forgotten that the man who discovered her was none other than Quincy Jones. Gore said Jones rushed her into the studio after hearing a piano-voice demo because he had heard Phil Spector was also thinking about recording “It’s My Party.” It was released a week later.
Gore turned 17 when the tune hit No. 1 and she said success was difficult.
“When the disc jockey on WINS or WMCA would say, ‘That was Lesley Gore, the sweetie pie from Tenafly,’ well, people just came to Tenafly. You know, I’d wake up and there were people camped out on the grass.”
Gore followed “It’s My Party” with “Judy’s Turn To Cry,” which peaked at No. 5, then came the No. 5 “She’s A Fool” (a terrific tune) and the No. 2 “You Don’t Own Me” in January 1964.
Gore had three more Top 20s in 1964-65…No. 12 “That’s The Way Boys Are,” No. 14 “Maybe I Know” and No. 13 “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows” (from the film ‘Ski Party’). All of these were produced by Quincy Jones.
Then in 1967, Gore had her last hit, and my favorite, “California Nights,” which was produced by the Four Seasons’ Bob Crew (and written by Marvin Hamlisch). This one peaked at No. 16.
All this time, Gore kept up her schoolwork while touring and she went on to Sarah Lawrence College, though she would later say that most of her college classmates “thought it was cooler to be Joan Baez than Lesley Gore.”
By the way, “You Don’t Own Me” lost out to No. 1 because these four boys from Liverpool had a tune “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”
When Gore died, she was reportedly in the process of bringing her life story to the stage.
SNL’s 40th Anniversary
I know I wasn’t alone in wishing there had been more clips of Belushi and Eddie Murphy, but the next day when I was thinking of the 3 ½ hour marathon, there really were some great moments, starting with Celebrity Jeopardy, Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds.
“(The SNL anniversary special) worked and was well deserved. The NBC show, which in 1975 seemed likely not to live out its decade, turns out to have great bones and enduring blood lines.
“The event had as many stars in the audience as onstage, and it also had many of the strengths and failings of ‘SNL,” which has been on television longer than any other sketch comedy or variety show. It remains a standard-bearer, even for people who never watch it….
“(The special) was…a high-spirited, generous tribute, self-mocking (there were several jokes about the show’s lack of diversity and overly drawn-out live skits), as well as self-congratulatory. Some of it was awkward. After a huge, minutes-long buildup by Chris Rock, Mr. Murphy didn’t try to amuse, and despite getting a standing ovation, said almost nothing before the show cut to commercial. Mr. Chase also seemed startled to be there. But it was the flashbacks to their youth that made it fun.
“One of the night’s best moments was a highlight reel of cast audition tapes, unvarnished shots of John Belushi, Dana Carvey, Amy Poehler and Jim Carrey (who famously didn’t make the cut), among others. The whole night boiled down to a parade of stars whose very presence reminded viewers what the show was all about.
“There has never been a comedy farm team like ‘SNL’: The series has been finding and nurturing talent for so many decades, waxing and waning in quality, but never ceasing to feed the movie and television systems with a next generation of standouts….
“ ‘SNL’ isn’t nearly as bold and cheerfully nihilistic as it was in 1975, nor is it as fueled by reckless behavior behind the scenes. (As Tina Fey put it: ‘Also joining us, one of the show’s original producers – cocaine.’) It’s also never as good as we remember it being. In real time, critics and viewers are always bemoaning how not-quite-funny-enough it is. And then, years later, the same voices complain that the current seasons and casts aren’t as good as previous ones. It was always thus with ‘SNL,’ yet it is hard to dismiss or overlook, even today in the era of YouTube, Comedy Central and Internet streaming channels.
“Last week, after Jon Stewart announced he would stop doing the fake news on ‘The Daily Show,’ his fans mourned, saying that he had pioneered a genre of political satire. He didn’t. ‘Weekend Update’ was already there….
“As is his wont, (Lorne) Michaels stayed out of the limelight until the end of the show, when he took the stage for a quick bow. He didn’t need to say or do more. ‘SNL’ is a comedy show born out of the irreverence and alienation of the 1970s that still matters four decades later.”
So back to Eddie Murphy, after his heartwarming introduction from Chris Rock, Murphy came out onto the ‘SNL’ stage for the first time in 32 years and asked the crowd after his standing ovation, “Isn’t this an incredible night? This show is a big part of whom I am and my life.
“I’m so happy to be back here. I feel like it’s going back to my old high school again. I will always love this show.”
That was it. Amazing. He always was a complicated person, at least so they say. But he is one of the iconic entertainers of his generation and as Chris Rock noted, Eddie Murphy single-handedly saved ‘SNL’ He was a guest host when still a cast member, for crying out loud.
Rock had one of the lines of the night when he said that without Eddie Murphy, he would be just a funny UPS man.
Anything Bill Murray does is funny…especially his autotrain bits, and this time his “Love Theme from Jaws.”
Celebrity Jeopardy and Sean Connery’s “Let’s start out with ‘The Rapists.’” Then “Whore Ads” and “Le Tits Now.” [If you didn’t see it, I’m not explaining…just wanted to get these down for the archives and my own enjoyment when I’m on my death bed.] Jim Carrey as Matthew McConaughey, Taran Killam as Christoph Waltz and Kate McKinnon as Justin Bieber were great; Alec Baldwin as Tony Bennett was terrific.
I thought Jerry Seinfeld was great…and I loved his bit with Larry David, who was only on the show one year as a writer before breaking away to do the single best comedy of all time; at least to some of us.
I know it wasn’t nearly as good as the original, but Dan Akroyd and the Bass-O-Matic brought back great memories of some of the over-the-top material “SNL” would bring, especially for its time.
By the way, according to the Nielsen ratings, the anniversary show garnered 23.1 million viewers, NBC’s most-watched prime-time entertainment telecast, excluding Super Bowls, in over 10 years (the “Will & Grace” finale in May 2006).
—Davis Love III is going to be selected as the 2016 captain for the U.S. Ryder Cup team next week, according to the Golf Channel. I’ll have more on this at that time, but the news is already stirring up a bit more controversy following last year’s disaster.
–Hey Wake Forest golf fans…freshman Will Zalatoris is going to make his PGA Tour debut this week at Riviera!!! He fired a 4-under 67 to win the inaugural Northern Trust Open Collegiate Showcase by five shots on Monday, earning an exemption into the event.
Fourteen college players representing 14 college programs teed it up Monday at Riviera, with Zalatoris the only one to shoot under par. The collegians played alongside a current or former PGA Tour pro from their respective school and two other amateurs.
Zalatoris played with Bill Haas, who may have to exit the tournament early this week as his wife is due to give birth shortly.
When I was at Lahinch last August for a little golf event there, one of the overseas members told me to watch for Zalatoris. Looks like he nailed it. The Deacs’ program is suddenly back. Could be a good spring.
–I admit it…I was stupidly duped. I chose to believe a Telegraph story that Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao had finally…finally…reached agreement on their long-awaited fight.
But Sunday at the NBA All-Star Game, Mayweather told TNT’s David Aldridge, “I haven’t signed yet, and he hasn’t signed yet, you know. It’s just been speculations and rumors, but hopefully we can make the fight happen.”
I believe Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum, who says it’s always been about Mayweather and his team constantly nit-picking a deal, just when one appears to have bene consummated.
–Final comment on the World Alpine Ski Championships. The U.S. team’s five medals were the second most of any country, next to Austria, which won nine. Pretty darn good. International ski officials were also impressed by the more than 200,000 fans who flocked to Beaver Creek and Vail over the course of the event. There were also record television ratings. Heck, I watched a lot of it. The camera angles were awesome.
So it bodes well for future World Cup events in the States. The big step up would be to hold an event in the Northeast. [Bill Pennington / New York Times]
Montador played for six teams in parts of 10 seasons. His last season he had 14 points in 52 games with Chicago but suffered a concussion in February 2012 and played in just one game the rest of the year.
–Congratulations to Miss P, a 4-year-old Beagle from British Columbia, for winning Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club all-breed dog show at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, beating out crowd-favorite Old English Sheepdog named Swagger and Charlie, the Skye Terrier that took the Reserve Best in Shows honors for runner-up, should Miss P not be able to fulfill her obligations.
Her handler, Will Alexander, said Miss P loves liver, which is probably the worst possible food you can eat. She is just the second beagle ever to bag the top prize and the $50,000 middle school scholarship that goes with it. Uno was first back in 2008, He is P’s great-uncle, by the way.
Yikes, talk about yet another example of how quickly time flies…Uno won seven years ago and I vividly remember it. Where did those seven years go?!
–Any time the weather is really bad in the northeast, I like to glimpse at the Mount Washington (N.H.) web cam and check out the wind chill readings. For those of you not familiar with the peak, it is known for having the highest recorded wind gust in the world, 231 mph, recorded on April 12, 1934. I haven’t been to the top of it since I was a kid (most choose to take a cog railway, while others hike it).
So after Sunday’s storm blew through the Boston area, I checked out Mount Washington and the wind was gusting in the 90s, air temp -15 and the wind chill -60!
I bring all this up because a Manhattan woman died while hiking alone in the White Mountains, of which Mount Washington is the highest. I’ll leave out her name but she was 32, born in Siberia, and a trader for BNP Paribas. Her husband dropped her off early Sunday morning at the base of the mountains, as she planned to hike Mount Washington.
Just why, knowing the weather forecast in particular, I’ll never know.
By Sunday afternoon she activated an emergency beacon that sent her coordinates to rescuers and search crews eventually found her, frozen to death. The temperatures were actually 30 below zero and where she was, the winds were gusting at more than 100 mph. Imagine the rescuers!
–Australia is funding a three-year, $1.8 million project to aid snakebite victims in Myanmar by upgrading care facilities and the quality and availability of anti-venom, as reported by the Associated Press.
But this wouldn’t really be a story fit for Bar Chat except for this fact: According to the University of Adelaide, “an estimated 2,000 people a year die from snakebites in Myanmar.”
–We note the passing of French actor Louis Jourdan, best known for his role in the 1958 Oscar-winning musical “Gigi.” This guy was the epitome of ‘cool.’ Jourdan used to describe himself as Hollywood’s “French cliché.” However, he later played the villain in the 1983 Bond film “Octopussy.”
So here’s a cool tidbit. “His early career in France was interrupted by World War Two. He refused to star in Nazi propaganda films and joined the resistance.
“In 2010 he was given France’s top award, the Legion D’Honneur.” [BBC News]
–“Fifty Shades of Grey” ended up grossing $94 million over the four-day weekend, a super number and the highest February debut ever, beating out 2004’s “Passion of the Christ.” The film, which only cost $40 million to produce, also earned an estimated $158 million overseas from 9,637 locations. Distributor Universal Pictures said 68% of the audience was female.
If you weren’t watching the SNL anniversary show, Dakota Johnson was on and she’s hosting Feb. 28.
Top 3 songs for the week 2/22/69: #1 “Everyday People” (Sly & The Family Stone) #2 “Crimson And Clover” (Tommy James and The Shondels….should be in the HOF…) #3 “Build Me Up Buttercup” (The Foundations) …and…#4 “Touch Me” (The Doors) #5 “Can I Change My Mind” (Tyrone Davis) #6 “Worst That Could Happen” (Brooklyn Bridge…great tune…) #7 “You Showed Me” (The Turtles) #8 “This Magic Moment” (Jay and The Americans) #9 “Proud Mary” (Creedence Clearwater Revival) #10 “I’m Livin’ In Shame” (Diana Ross and The Supremes)
Daytona 500 Quiz Answers: 1) Lee Petty won the first 500 in 1959. 2) Derrike Cope won in 1990. He won his second and last NASCAR race the same year at Dover. 3) Mario Andretti is the only foreign born driver to win…Mario winning in 1967.* 4) The only driver to win four (Richard Petty having won seven) is Cale Yarborough (1968, 77, 83-84).
*So good excuse to remind you all of the greatness of Mario Andretti. He remains the only driver in history to win Daytona, the Indy 500 (1969) and the Formula One Championship (1978). When you talk about records that will never be broken, put this one right up there. [Juan Pablo Montoya, an Indy winner, had a shot, I guess, but now he’s no longer in NASCAR.]
**And I can’t help but note Andretti is the last American to win the F1 title, the only other U.S. driver to win it being Phil Hill in 1961. Boy, when you talk about ‘underrated athletes’ in the truest sense of the word, a la my mention of Ted Ligety the other day, Phil Hill is right up there.
Pssst….while I’m a Dale Jr. fan, I’d love to see Tony Stewart win on Sunday. That would make for a helluva story. Also, obviously Jeff Gordon winning in his last trip would be pretty awesome as well.
