Baseball Quiz: 27 different players have hit more than 50 home runs in a single season. Name the only one of the 27 to strike out fewer than 50 times in their 50-homer campaign. Answer below.
Bring It On!
Duke (33-4) vs. Michigan State (27-11)
Kentucky (38-0) vs. Wisconsin (35-3)
Yes, the college game is often all about the coaches and the four in Saturday’s semis are among the top 7 or 8 in all of college basketball.
Plus you have the two best players in the sport this year, Frank Kaminsky and Jahlil Okafor, in there as well. As CBSSports.com’s Gary Parrish noted, last year, the top two players, Doug McDermott and Jabari Parker, were out before the Sweet 16.
“(Let’s) be very clear about this: It isn’t about the kids. The kids are a vehicle. The kids are a channel. The kids are chess pieces. The coaches are the masters, because the coaches are the ones who stay year after year (as long as they move those chess pieces around proficiently).
“We know this. We’ve known this. It just hits home a little more this year, when you consider the four men who will reconvene next weekend in Indianapolis, a gathering that will be known formally as the ‘National Seminfinals’ and everywhere else as the ‘Kentucky Invitational.’”
Mike Krzyzewski…4 national championships…12 Final Fours…annual salary: $9.7 million
Tom Izzo…1 national championship…7 Final Fours…annual salary: $3.9 million
John Calipari…1 national championship…6 Final Fours…annual salary: $5.5 million
Bo Ryan…4 national championships (all at Division III)…6 Final Fours (2 D-I)…annual salary: $2.4 million.
“And here’s the thing: that last figure would seem to jibe nicely with the ones that came before. In a profession that rewards ambitious achievers, that generates millions of dollars, it is both unsurprising that these four men reached the Final Four, and difficult to argue they aren’t worth it.
“Yes: It is still the thousand-pound elephant in the room, the fact that as much as these millionaires praise their players, they still are utilizing their talents for the relative bargain of an athletic scholarship (not ‘for free,’ as is popularly said; anyone who ever had to go pay a student loan understands that).
“But in many ways, they are also the insurance policy the NCAA has for this gold mine of an event. As long as the same men are performing their jobs at the same level of excellence year after year, securing a preponderance of the talent and figuring out ways to squeak through the brackets, they are the stars.
“They don’t want you to call them stars. They want you to focus on the players, on the kids, on the student-athletes, the highly affordable workforce. Without the players, sure, the coaches would be highly popular history teachers. Fair. True. But it’s also no accident the best guys tend to wind up on the final weekend year after year, too. It’s good to be the king.”
–St. John’s is hiring legend Chris Mullin to be their next coach, even though Mullin hasn’t coached at any level before. As most are observing, though, the key will be who Mullin puts on his staff. He certainly has credibility as a legendary player for St. John’s (their all-time leading scorer), as well as a terrific NBA career and member of the 1992 Dream Team. [Mullin had five consecutive seasons with the Golden State Warriors where he averaged 25+ ppg.] He was also the Warriors’ GM for five years.
But not all believe this is a good move for the Johnnies.
“He will win the press conference, a hundred times over. Prominent St. John’s alumni and nostalgic New York sports columnists will trip all over themselves to declare this day a rousing success for the Red Storm, because this is a program in desperate need of fresh leadership and, well, did we mention that he’s Chris Mullin!
“Chris Mullin, the Brooklyn-born basketball superstar. Chris Mullin, the New York state ‘Mr. Basketball’ and top recruit for Louie Carnesecca. Chris Mullin, the three-time Big East Player of the Year and all-time leading scorer for the Redmen before most sensible people decided that Redmen was an offensive nickname for a college team.
“Chris Mullin!!
“Here’s the problem: That current 16-year-old power forward? The high school star who is looking at the one-and-done machine at Kentucky as his easy path to NBA riches? He doesn’t care about what happened in 1985 in Queens. He wasn’t alive in 1985. Chances are, his parents didn’t know or care what was happening in 1985.
“I know this because, sadly, it’s what’s happening with Eddie Jordan at Rutgers. There isn’t a soul with a Rutgers degree who didn’t think that Jordan was the perfect man to clean up the mess in Piscataway after the Mike Rice scandal.
“And he did clean up the mess. He set a great example for the young players on his roster. He demanded accountability and tried to teach his players the right way to behave. But he also lost 15 straight games to end last season, a situation that feels hopeless barring a recruiting miracle in the coming months.
“Mullin will inherit a similar situation at St. John’s, without the national scandal, given the current state of the depleted roster. It’s the kind of situation that calls for a shark, somebody already deeply invested in the recruiting scene in New York, and not somebody who has spent the past decade and a half in NBA jobs on the West Coast.”
I agree with Mr. Politi. I can see why St. John’s is making this move but it should have been Bobby or Danny Hurley, with their recruiting roots in the area.
“Mullin must surround himself with the best and brightest recruiters and X’s and O’s assistants. The good news is this isn’t the gladiator Big East he remembers. This can be an unforgiving town, where even legends are sometimes not forgiven. Chris Mullin is one of our own, and a royal honeymoon will be waiting for him. The coronation comes Wednesday.
–Tennessee didn’t waste any time after dumping coach Donnie Tyndall, hiring former Texas coach Rick Barnes, who was let go (resigned under pressure) just the other day.
–Georgia State’s R.J. Hunter announced he is going out for the draft. This one is a no-brainer for the junior, who is a likely a late first-rounder. After his heroics in GSU’s upset of Baylor in the tournament, his stock is unlikely to be higher if he came back for his senior year. The guy’s legit. 6’6” guard who can shoot the three, rebound and distribute.
–Mike Bresnahan / Los Angeles Times on a potential top 14 picks in the June draft given talks with lottery-bound general managers.
1. Jahlil Okafor, Duke, C
2. Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky, C-F
3. D’Angelo Russell, Ohio State, PG
4. Emmanuel Mudiah, no college, PG
5. Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky, C
6. Kristaps Porzingis, Latvia, F
7. Justice Winslow, Duke, F
8. Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin, F
9. Stanley Johnson, Arizona, F
10. Kelly Oubre, Kansas, F
11. Trey Lyles, Kentucky, F
12. Sam Dekker, Wisconsin, F
13. Kevon Looney, UCLA, F
14. Devin Booker, Kentucky, G
–I’ve read a lot the past few days and weeks on what a good guy Notre Dame coach Mike Brey is. My friend Phil W., who works ACC and NCAA tournament events when they are in the Greensboro/Charlotte area, said that he can vouch Brey is a good man given Phil’s contact with him. “If I had a kid who was looking for the total college experience and not a one-and-doner he’d be a great one to play for.”
–Derek Stevens is receiving a lot of publicity these days. Back on Dec. 5, he walked into the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino and said he wanted to make a bet on Michigan State to win it all and to make sure he’d win $1 million if they did. Stevens was a regular customer, but sportsbook director Tony Miller doesn’t take bets that could cause large losses, so he needed his boss’s approval.
At the time the Spartans were 50-1 to win it all, having just lost their third game of the young season, so Miller accepted Stevens’ $20,000 bet.
Now, the Golden Nugget is sweating. Big daily losses are $10,000 to $30,000, not $1 million.
[Stevens said in a phone interview on Tuesday he is likely to hedge, but he’d need to find a casino to place a far larger bet than $20,000, perhaps a $48,000 bet on Duke in the semifinal, according to Tony Miller.]
–In the NIT Finals, it will be Miami vs. Stanford.
–In the Women’s Final Four, it’s all chalk…1 UConn vs. 1 Maryland and 1 Notre Dame vs. 1 South Carolina.
–Here in the New York area there is a real buzz surrounding the Brooklyn Nets.
OK, maybe not…no one cares about the Nets…but the fact is they have suddenly won 8 of 10 and even I watched the fourth quarter of their win against Indiana on Tuesday. Center Brook Lopez has been playing like a true all-star, scoring 20+ points the last seven, while averaging 23 points, 9 rebounds during the 10-game streak.
So…the battle for the final two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference has heated up in a big way.
7.Miami 34-40
8. Brooklyn 33-40
9. Boston 33-41
10. Indiana 32-42
11. Charlotte 31-42
None of the Nets’ nine remaining games, though, is against these teams.
—LeBron James said he only has three close friends in the NBA, none of them current teammates: Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade.
–A lot of us are getting excited for Opening Day. ESPN.com’s David Purdum noted the odds on winning the World Series from MGM Resorts and as happens each year a lot of money is bet on the Cubs, whether they have a legitimate shot or not. At the MGM, the Cubs are down to 6/1 after opening at 30/1 in October. The Seattle Mariners have also taken a big leap from 22/1 to Tuesday’s 8/1. The Nationals are the lead at 5/1. The Red Sox at 6/1.
The Yankees have moved down from last fall’s 12/1 to 18/1, while the Mets have moved up from 30/1 to 15/1, which I think is realistic.
“The life expectancy of a ‘second elbow’ after Tommy John surgery is thought by some in baseball to be about eight years. One of the teams that believes it, not as dogma but as an important rule of thumb, is the Washington Nationals.
“And that explains a lot. Like why Max Scherzer arrived. Why Jordan Zimmermann almost certainly will leave after the 2015 season. And why, hold on, Stephen Strasburg is highly likely to depart D.C. after the 2016 season as well.
“First, we need context. The Nationals believe sports medicine is a serious competitive advantage in baseball. They love scouting and talk about it constantly. But they are just as serious about their best-practices medical philosophies. How seriously do they take them? How far will they go to follow them? You know. They shut down Strasburg for the 2012 playoffs with the whole world hissing.
“Most such protocols and theories are proprietary. But the Nats can’t hide their views on elbow ligament replacement surgery because it has clearly impacted or determined so many of their most important personnel moves. In doing this, we infer. But we’re also right.
“The Nats absolutely love Surgery No. 1 because they – and others – think it has about a 90 percent success rate. They will draft pitchers in the first round who are almost certain to need it, like Lucas Giolito in 2012 and Erick Fedde in 2014, that other teams are afraid to touch. It has paid off big. Both blew out almost immediately. Giolito, back throwing 100 mph, is the top pitching prospect in baseball, and Fedde started throwing again here in spring training.
“But the Nats hate and fear Surgery No. 2 because they – and others – think it has an awful chance of saving a career – perhaps 20 percent. Just last season, the Braves were devastated when stars Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy required a second elbow ligament replacement surgery. Atlanta gave up, releasing them both.
“With this as background, consider Scherzer. He has never had the surgery. So if needed, a second elbow awaits him someday. That thought helps owners and general managers sleep at night. It might be a false sense of security. But when they hand out $210 million guaranteed, even billionaires need security blankets.
“Also, fear of ‘TJS2’ is part of why Zimmermann is leaving after 2015…
“The Nats have made a satisfactory extension offer to Zimmermann, (but) it’s certainly not a ‘we just gotta have you’ offer.”
Zimmermann has probably been offered a $100 million deal, but if he had a monster 2015, he could get a $200M deal from someone.
As for Strasburg, 2016 will be his sixth season with his “second elbow,” exactly the same timetable as Zimmermann.
Boswell: “Who would logically slot as a Strasburg replacement? The No. 1 pitching prospect in the minors: Giolito, with less than two years’ mileage on his new elbow….
“One of baseball’s menacing trends is the glut of monumentally bad long-term contracts to pitchers 30 or older. Scherzer’s could be one; but at least he comes with that spare elbow.”
You read this, and if you’re a Mets fan see Matt Harvey’s seemingly remarkable recovery (though he was off 17 months rather than the traditional 12 months), and you can understand how management seemed almost giddy when they announced Zack Wheeler was undergoing TJ surgery. They’re thinking summer of 2016 he’s back and they get 4-6 years out of him; or a few years before he’s eligible for the big money, they then trade him for a big piece before he needs No. 2.
–As expected, the Chicago Cubs sent slugger Kris Bryant down to the minors rather than promoting him to the big league club for the start of the season, despite the fact he had nine home runs this spring in 40 at-bats. The Cubs can gain another year before Bryant would become a free agent if he spends 12 days or more in the minors at the start of the season.
The Major League Baseball Players Association said in a statement: “Today is a bad day for baseball. I think we all know that even if Kris Bryant were a combination of the greatest players to play our game, and perhaps he will before it’s all said and done, the Cubs still would have made the decision they made today. This decision, and other similar decisions made by clubs will be addressed in litigation, bargaining or both.”
Major League Baseball countered: “In accordance with long established practice under the Basic Agreement, a club has an unfettered right to determine which players are part of its opening-day roster. This issue was discussed extensively in bargaining in 2011, and the principle was not changed. We do not believe that it is appropriate for the players’ association to make the determination that Kris Bryant should be on the Cubs’ 25-man roster while another player, who, unlike Bryant, is a member of its bargaining unit, should be cut or sent to the minor leagues.”
–In what may prove to be the key acquisition of the offseason, the Mets picked up former Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long and he’s already had a heckuva impact on former pupil Curtis Granderson, who is hitting .452 with 3 HR 12 RBI this spring.
In an EXCLUSIVE early projection of his 2015 performance, we can now project that Granderson will hit .422 in the regular season, with 35 homers and 128 RBI. Free agent signee Michael Cuddyer, who has 6 homers and 9 RBI this spring, will lead the league in round-trippers with 64, besting Kris Bryant, who once he is called up will hit 58 in his first 62 games, before suffering an injury.
–Bill Francis of the Baseball Hall of Fame had a piece on Ann Meyers Drysdale. I have to admit, I totally forgot the great Ann Meyers, the first woman to receive a full athletic scholarship from UCLA to play hoops, and the same Ann Meyers who was a member of the first United States women’s Olympic basketball team in 1976, who then led the Bruins to a national championship in 1978, was married to the great Hall of Famer, Don Drysdale.
Ann Meyers’ fame exploded in 1979 when she became the first woman to be signed by an NBA team, the Indiana Pacers, who would cut her during a preseason tryout camp.
Back at UCLA, recall her brother was the Bruins’ David Meyers. Ann was a freshman when her brother was a senior during the 1974-75 season.
Ann Meyers: “When I was a freshman I was able to play for a guy named Kenny Washington, who was one of Coach Wooden’s players that won a couple of championships. Everything I learned fundamentally was during my freshman year with him. And during this time I could go into the men’s basketball coach’s office and they kind of took me under their wing. I was Dave Meyers’ little sister and they helped me with classes, just getting acclimated to the university and the campus. Just being able to talk to Coach Wooden made it an easy transition for me.”
As for her tryout with the Pacers, it didn’t go that well.
Meyers: “It was very difficult for Slick Leonard, who was the coach, because he came from a generation where women were in the home raising a family and not out on the basketball court with a bunch of guys….(After six practices) Slick told me, ‘Hey, you did great. We loved that you came out here but we’re going to move on.’ I was not happy. I was hurt, I was broken. I thought I had played well enough to go on to the next level [Ed. of free agent camp]. But it opened up so many doors and it gave me the opportunity to meet Don and my life changed.”
So Meyers, who admits she didn’t like baseball back then, met the older Drysdale when he was doing ABC’s “Superstars” show, which was in the 1980s for you younger folk. Talk about ‘made for television’ and reality TV, looking back, it was actually very entertaining. Athletes from all sports participating in all kinds of events.
Meyers, invited because of her own athletic prowess, says she didn’t intend to meet a partner there, but there was Drysdale (announcing the show with Bob Uecker) and they got married and had three children.
But it was a sad ending. He passed away of a massive heart attack in July 1986 in Montreal, where he was doing Dodgers games with Vin Scully and Ross Porter. Poor Vin couldn’t say anything on the air until the family had been notified.
I had gone to a card show the winter before in Morristown, N.J., specifically to get his autograph for both myself and a Dodgers fan/friend of mine. It’s a pretty cool possession. He was a classic.
But one last note on Ann Meyers, and the reason why I’m putting this in the baseball section rather than basketball.
Drysdale’s death was a shock to everyone in the Dodgers organization. Commenting on the time after her husband passed away, Meyers said:
“Eventually I moved closer to my family, to be up in Orange Country, and also to be able to go to Dodger Stadium. That was a huge healing process for me to be around the Dodgers. And Tommy Lasorda, he just basically took the kids in, and Peter O’Malley (Dodgers owner at the time), I just can’t say enough about the Dodgers organization.”
Meyers talked of her trips to Cooperstown over the years. The kids got older and then they went this past year and “they were all overwhelmed because now they could appreciate it and understand it a lot more. It’s an important piece of their life with their father there.”
–I saw a little blurb in USA TODAY Sports Weekly that is nothing but good news concerning the Rangers’ Prince Fielder, who is coming back from a serious neck issue that kept him out most of last season. He’s healthy and, just as importantly, happy. And a happy Prince Fielder can produce some big numbers.
But what I liked from the piece by Paul White and Bob Nightengale was this:
“Fielder, 30, isn’t ready to share details, but he finally has reunited with his father, former major league slugger Cecil Fielder. They had been estranged for almost half of his life, but they’re starting to pick up the pieces and share that father-son bond again.
“ ‘Yeah, it’s pretty cool,’ Fielder tells USA TODAY Sports.
“Fielder’s marriage to his wife, Chanel, also has been repaired after counseling.
“And though he was hurt for most of the year, he’ll tell you it was the greatest summer of his life, spending every day with Chanel and sons, Jadyn, 10, and Haven, 8.
“ ‘Looking back, getting hurt might have been the best thing that could have happened to me,’ Fielder says. ‘Just having that year off, everything is so good now. It’s just such a good feeling. I’m happy again.’”
Now there is someone to root for this season, baseball fans. I hope he totally kicks butt. Go Prince!
–Couch Slouch, aka Norman Chad of the Washington Post, notes MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s attempts to speed up the game of baseball, so Couch Slouch has 16 ideas of his own. Here are a few:
3. Bring back the bullpen car but make it a Ferrari.
8. If a foul ball is caught on the fly in the stands by a spectator or vendor, it is recorded as an out.
10. If a player makes an error, he is removed from the field until the next out is recorded. This will create the equivalent of a hockey power play and increase scoring.
12. When the bases are empty, the batter has the option of running toward first or third base after a batted ball. If he gets on safely, first and third base then are swapped for the rest of the half-inning, meaning the base paths will operate clockwise instead of counterclockwise. Note: In this scenario, second base is always second base.
13. Invoking my Uncle Stanislav’s No. 2 rule of life – “You got us into this mess, you’ll get us out of this mess” – no pitching changes in the middle of an inning.
14. Enforce the “No Pepper” warnings behind or near home plate.
15. The David Ortiz rule, to be applied to David Ortiz at-bats only: If he leaves the batter’s box for any reason other than a family emergency, he is automatically out.
1. Vanderbilt
2. Texas A&M
3. LSU
4. Florida
5. TCU
6. Central Florida
7. Louisville
8. USC
9. UCLA
10. Florida State
13. Dallas Baptist
“It’s Hammer Time in the NFL.
“If you think the punishments revealed on Monday against the Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns and a couple of their high-ranking executives sent a stern message in the name of the game’s integrity, imagine what could be coming around the corner.
“If the latest Ted Wells investigation determines the New England Patriots deliberately underinflated footballs during the AFC Championship, the Super Bowl champions better brace themselves for a big hit.
“Unlike the Falcons and Browns, the Patriots have acknowledged no wrongdoing after being publicly implicated.
“At the very least, however, the resolutions in the Falcons and Browns cases provide a template for future punishment.
“We knew that Browns general manager Ray Farmer, who drew a four-game suspension that begins at the start of the regular season, had it coming. He owned up to his infractions of sending text messages to the sidelines during games.
“Still, the fact that Farmer was suspended on top of the $250,000 fine levied against the team by NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent was the expected outcome.
“On the other hand, the suspension of Falcons president Rich McKay from the league’s powerful competition committee sends a much stronger message.
“McKay wasn’t personally implicated in the matter of pumping in artificial crowd noise during the 2013 and 2014 seasons. The finger was pointed at a guy named Roddy White, who has since been fired as director of event marketing. What an odd twist that the Falcons’ big-play receiver has the same name….
“How serious is pumping in crowd noise? Some people in NFL circles maintain that it can provide much more of an advantage than any edge Tom Brady might get from a football that happened to be under-inflated by a couple of ounces.
“What isn’t good for the Patriots is that the NFL is attaching individuals to the punishments.”
So as Jarrett Bell notes, both Bill Belichick and Tom Brady denied any involvement or knowledge of 11 of 11 footballs used by the Pats in the AFC title game (the other football was disqualified after being intercepted) were underinflated.
And the Patriots have to deal with their history…Spygate. Recall, Roger Goodell fined Belichick $500,000, largest for an NFL coach in history, plus the team $250,000 and they lost a first-round draft pick.
Bell: “At the time, Goodell said the punishment would be harsher if the Patriots were found violating the game’s integrity in the future.
“Well, the future is now – if the allegations stick – and the NFL has its hammer out.”
–Back to Couch Slouch and his $1.25 Ask The Slouch Cash Giveaway.
Q. With the NFL draft soon approaching, is it true that Mel Kiper Jr. has identified the Redskins’ biggest need at the ownership position? (Rory R.)
You too can win $1.25…just e-mail asktheslouch@aol.com and if your question is used, you win $1.25 in cash!
—NASCAR levied a huge fine and penalty on Ryan Newman and his team for doctoring tires during the March 22 race at Auto Club Speedway. Newman was docked 75 points and his crew chief, Luke Lambert, was suspended for six races and fined $125,000. Also suspended for six races was the engineer Philip Surgen and tire technician James Bender.
As noted by ESPN.com’s Bob Pockrass: “NASCAR has been on the lookout for teams bleeding air from the tires, likely by putting a small hole in them. Allowing air to bleed would increase grip, which typically decreases during a run as the tire begins to wear and air pressures build.”
The points deducted dropped Newman from sixth to 26th in the standings, meaning he will probably need to win one of the first 26 wins to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
—NCAA Men’s Hockey…Frozen Four…April 9
This is in Boston, so good local support for B.U. and Providence.
Meanwhile, remember North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname? They were forced to dump it in 2012, but they are still without a new one after the state (or courts, can’t remember) mandated a cooling off period until this year.
—Tiger Woods dropped out of the world’s top 100 golfers for the first time since 1996. At one point he was number one for a record 683 weeks.
But on Tuesday, he played 18 at Augusta National as he goes through his process of deciding whether his game is tournament ready again. He played with two Augusta members and his caddie, Joe LaCava, was in attendance.
Because he’s automatically entered he does not have to let the Masters’ folks know whether he is playing or not until Monday, with the pairings released Tuesday.
–Gordon Marino has a piece in the Wall Street Journal on the upcoming Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. bout.
“The rest of the civilized world is drawn to round numbers: 100th birthdays, 50th wedding anniversaries, .300 batting averages. But in boxing, which isn’t quite so civilized, an odd number has for decades held a special mystique: 147.
“When Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. step into the ring on May 2 in Las Vegas, they will fight at the welterweight-class limit of 147 pounds…. It is the most anticipated bout in years, yet it is just one of history’s great showdowns to take place at that seemingly random number.
“Roberto Duran’s upset of Sugar Ray Leonard; the no mas rematch, in which Duran quit in the eighth round; Leonard’s miraculous technical knockout of Thomas Hearns – all were fought at 147. A disproportionate number of pugilism’s crème de la crème were welterweights, including Henry Armstrong and Sugar Ray Robinson.
“Today, the welterweight class is the division heaviest in talent. Besides Mayweather and Pacquiao, boxing elites Timothy Bradley, Amir Khan, Juan Manuel Marquez, Keith Thurman and Kell Brook, the International Boxing Federation champion, all claim a 147-pound address.”
You also had other legendary fighters in the division: Pernell Whitaker, Oscar De La Hoya, and Felix Trinidad.
–We note the passing of Lt. Col. Robert L. Hite, the last survivor among eight crewmen who were captured by the Japanese when American bombers struck back at Japan in Jimmy Doolittle’s air raid in 1942; part of the response to Pearl Harbor. Hite was 95.
I have written a ton on the Doolittle raid, but a brief reminder: sixteen planes and 80 airmen took part in the mission, leaving the carrier Hornet on April 18, 1942. After completing their bombing runs over Tokyo and its suburbs, they were to fly to unoccupied bases in China; the Hornet’s deck being too short to accommodate their return.
But the planes encountered a storm on the way back, they ran low on fuel, and many crash-landed or bailed out with three of the 80 crewmen dying in this fashion.
Eight others, including Hite, were captured. Three, including Hite’s pilot and gunner, were shot by a firing squad. Another died from disease.
Hite was imprisoned for 40 months, 38 of them in solitary confinement. As an obituary by Sam Roberts in the New York Times noted, Hite’s weight “dropped to 76 pounds from 180 when the war ended.”
Hite’s imprisonment took a heavy physical toll and he retired at an early age of 51. He recalled the emotional toll was lifted while imprisoned because sympathetic jailers provided the remaining captured crew with a copy of the King James Bible.
“We were no longer afraid to the extent that we had been, at least,” Hite said in an oral history for the Air Force Historical Research Agency. “We no longer had the hatred.”
Only two Doolittle Raiders now survive: retired Lt. Col. Richard Cole and Staff Sgt. David Thatcher.
Top 3 songs for 4/4/81: #1 “Rapture” (Blondie…sorry, kids….was not a Blondie fan…found the whole act very depressing…) #2 “Woman” (John Lennon…this one was depressing because of what had happened four months before outside the Dakota…) #3 “The Best Of Times” (Styx…hardly…)…and…#4 “Kiss On My List” (Daryl Hall & John Oates…’Sara Smile’ and ‘She’s Gone’ my two favorites of theirs, which also happened to be their first two big hits, and my freshman year at Wake (1976-77), which was my best academically, though I still didn’t sniff the Dean’s List…but I digress wildly….) #5 “Crying” (Don Mclean) #6 “Hello Again” (Neil Diamond) #7 “Just The Two Of Us” (Grover Washington, Jr. with Bill Withers) #8 “Keep On Loving You” (REO Speedwagon…ultimate Big Hair group…) #9 “While You See A Chance” (Steve Winwood) #10 “What Kind Of Fool” (Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb…whatever….)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Johnny Mize, “The Big Cat,” is the only player to hit 50 home runs and strike out less than 50 times in the same season. Mize accomplished this in 1947 when he hit 51 homers and fanned just 42 times. Only once in his 15-year Hall of Fame career did he strike out more than 50 times despite hitting 359 home runs.
But Mize is one of those whose stats would have been far higher as he served three full seasons in the Navy during WWII, 1943-45. Conservatively, tack on 90 homers and 300 RBI to get his career stats to 449 HR and 1,637 RBI.
Talk about a charmed finish to his career. Mize had played 10+ seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Giants before in 1949, he was sold to the Yankees on Aug. 22. He went 2-for-2 in the ’49 World Series, helping the Yanks notch a 4-1 Series victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers, and then over the next four seasons as a part-time player, he picked up four more World Series rings…five in all. He ended up with three homers and a .286 average in the Fall Classic.
By the way, after the 1941 season, Mize was traded to the Giants for Ken O’Dea, Bill Lohrman, Johnny McCarthy and $50,000. To say this turned into a one-sided trade would be an understatement. Lohrman, a pitcher, was actually taken back by the Giants in May 1942 and had a respectable season for them, his last decent one in a 60-59 career. Ken O’Dea was a nothing, and Johnny Mac did little before becoming a heavy contributor to Bar Chat in his later years.
