Indy 500 Quiz (admittedly not the hardest one…but every American should know the answers, by god!): 1) Name the two drivers who have won three Indy 500s since 2000. 2) Name the only three to win the 500 four times (neither of the drivers in No. 1 are part of No. 2). 3) Name the 500 winner who then gave Roger Penske his first win in NASCAR. Answers below.
NBA Draft Lottery:
The New York Knicks had the second-worst record in the NBA this season and thus the second-best shot at getting the No. 1 pick in the lottery. It was basically assumed the Knicks would at worst get one of the first two selections, and thus either Jalil Okafor or Karl-Anthony Towns; both of whom are capable of transforming a franchise.
Instead, the Knicks fell to the fourth pick, so in all probability, either Emmanuel Mudiah, D’Angelo Russell, or Justise Winslow. Far more on this in the coming few weeks, with draft night June 25.
As for Minnesota, the team with the worst record, they got the top selection.
But the team that truly lucked out was the Los Angeles Lakers, who jumped from No. 4 to No. 2. As the Los Angeles Times’ Mike Bresnahan wrote:
“The franchise that built its foundation upon George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal now has a chance to draft a promising big man next month….
“ ‘We played like crap all season so it’s only right we get the #2 pick HA,’ Kobe Bryant said on his Twitter account, adding the hashtags ‘laker luck’ and ‘good day.’”
Good day, indeed. Plus the Lakers have the No. 27 and No. 34 picks.
So the first five go to…
1. Minnesota
2. Lakers
3. Philadelphia
4. Knicks
5. Orlando
–In Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, Golden State defeated Houston 110-106 behind Steph Curry’s 34, which included 6-of-11 from three. Hawks-Cavs, Wednesday. Kind of pumped for this one…gotta take down LeBron.
—Post-mortems on the L.A. Clippers continue to pour in.
“The new owner stood underneath the basket with arms folded and jaw tight while his players trudged past without looking at him.
“The famous coach followed his team off the court with eyes glazed and head shaking, his swagger having long become a stagger.
“Doc Rivers and his championship pedigree didn’t matter.
“After undergoing a radical transformation, Los Angeles’ reborn basketball team added to its sordid history Sunday, struck down by a 31-year curse disguised on this day as the Houston Rockets.
“Mere weeks after the greatest victory in franchise history, they ended their season Sunday crushed by the weight of one of the greatest collapses in L.A. sports history. They blew a three-games-to-one lead and lost a deciding Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals to the Rockets, 113-100.
“It was a chance to advance to a conference finals for the first time in the franchise’s 45-year history, yet they didn’t lead the Rockets for even one second.
“It was the most important moment since this team arrived in Los Angeles in 1984, yet they bungled passes, kicked dribbles, blew one dunk so bad the crowd laughed, missed three-quarters of their three-point shots, and were congratulating the Rockets even before the game ended….
“Chris Paul, whose last-second shot won the series against the Spurs, couldn’t find his teammates in the right place. Blake Griffin, who elevated his game to an elite level during this postseason, couldn’t hold on to the ball. DeAndre Jordan, as usual, couldn’t even make one-third of his free throws.
“They lay for an owner who once shouted, ‘Nothing gets in our way!’ yet they just didn’t bring it? How does that happen? Though Rivers said he wants to keep his three stars together, expect the Clippers to make some changes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Stanley Cup Playoffs
–Yuck! The Rangers laid an egg in Game 2 of their conference finals at the Garden, losing to Tampa Bay, 6-2. Incredibly, as clutch as the Rangers have been in qualifying for three conference finals in four seasons, they are 2-10 in their last 12 Game 2s. Just very weird. And thus endeth the record 15 in a row, going back to last season, of one-goal playoff games.
“It wasn’t as much Tampa Bay’s talent, though it was abundantly clear just how plentiful it is, as it was the Rangers’ outright carelessness and lack of discipline that was infectious throughout the lineup and infected the performance pretty much from start to finish….
“ ‘It’s embarrassing,’ a furious Ryan McDonagh said in the wake of the 6-2 spanking the Blueshirts bent over and took from the Lightning that squared the series at one-all. ‘There are a lot of things you want to say right now but talking doesn’t do much.
“ ‘Our guys better figure it out quickly here and realize that stupid, selfish penalties are going to cost us against this team.’”
Meanwhile, the Chicago Blackhawks evened up their series with the Anaheim Ducks at 1-1 with a 3-2, triple overtime, win on Tuesday in Anaheim; the longest game in Chicago’s 89-year history, though it was the 50th triple-overtime game in NHL playoff history. The two have to play again on Thursday in Chicago. Both sides will be a bit tired.
–On a separate issue, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is considering penalizing the Russian national team for leaving the ice after their 6-1 loss to Canada in the final game of the Ice Hockey World Championship in Prague on Sunday, snubbing the Canadian national anthem and traditional post-game celebrations.
The president of the Russian Hockey Federation is the legendary Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretyak, who told Russian media that the team’s early retreat to the dressing room was not meant to be disrespectful.
The Russian sports minister said the players did not act correctly.
Two did, however. Interestingly enough, NHL stars Alexander Ovechkin and Yevgeny Malkin. They stayed on for the Canadian anthem. I was shocked to see Ovechkin rushed to play in this after having just suffered a defeat at the hands of the Rangers in a Game 7 days before. Good for him.
–I noted last time that the Marlins dismissed manager Mike Redmond after their loss on Sunday dropped them to 16-22. Miami owner Jeffrey Loria then hired General Manager Dan Jennings. Reaction was immediate. What?!
“The telephone started ringing in the early morning, from former players, managers, baseball executives, all with the same response.
“ ‘This is a joke, right?’
“ ‘Tell me this is a joke.’
“ ‘Come on, they can’t be serious.’
“You know it’s absurd when even the mother of Dan Jennings, the new manager of the Miami Marlins, asked him, ‘Have you lost your mind?’
“In the 139-year history of Major League Baseball, few, if any managerial hirings have been more shocking than the news Monday that the Marlins ‘demoted’ Jennings to become their new manager.
“This is more bizarre than Jerry Coleman leaving the San Diego Padres broadcast booth and becoming manager in 1980.
“Crazier than Paul Owens becoming the Philadelphia Phillies’ GM in June 1972, and five weeks later, becoming the manager for the rest of the season, which he did twice again later in his career.
“Yet, Owens was a player-manager in the minors, even if it was at Class C Bakersfield. Jerry Coleman played on six World Series teams with the New York Yankees, and was a pilot in Korea.
“ Well, he played baseball for Southern Mississippi, but never professionally, and his entire coaching experience consists of three years at Davidson High School in Mobile, Ala., before becoming a scout in 1986.
“Now, he’s the full-time manager of the Marlins, a team that underachieved under Mike Redmond, who just so happened to have a 13-year big-league career, two years of minor-league managerial experience, and 2 years, 6 weeks of big-league experience on his resume.
“Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, who told USA TODAY Sports that he was part of the organizational decision-making process to bring in Jennings, but says he did not make the call on his own, can’t understand the uproar.
“Loria, who could no longer stand watching his club underperform, believes this hiring makes perfect sense. Really.
“ ‘People like to say this is controversial, different, outside the box,’ Loria said in a telephone interview with USA TODAY Sports. ‘I can’t think of anyone better suited for this job than him. There was a tremendous lack of energy and fire in that clubhouse and dugout. We needed to bring some life in there.
“ ‘We needed more accountability, more energy, more fire, more communication, and Dan fills all of those roles.’
“And that simply wasn’t going to happen, Loria is convinced, under Redmond….
“No matter how the Marlins want to portray it, the decision to hire Jennings still is stunning. It drew an immediate outpouring of anger and resentment among the baseball hierarchy….
“The danger with this hire, of course, is that it’s a huge right-cross across the chops to every single major league manager, and minor league field personnel.
“You’re supposed to pay your dues before you get this opportunity….
“It’s safe to say the Marlins made few friends in the managerial fraternity with this stunt….
“(There) will be plenty of times Jennings may feel like a man on an island.
“Sure, Jennings certainly is a leader and motivator in the front office, and beloved by his scouts and assistants…. And he was largely responsible for helping convince Giancarlo Stanton to give up free agency, and sign a $325 million contract.
“You can’t just be a nice guy who comes to the clubhouse, offers encouragement, even with the power of trading you away with a single phone call.
“You got to have street cred….
“Now, Jennings must win the trust of a team whose heads are spinning. They just watched their manager and bench coach replaced by a guy who hasn’t coached a game since he was a high-school coach 30 years ago….
“Common sense and logic tells us this will be a disaster in waiting. It’s almost unfathomable that a man can walk downstairs, slip on a baseball uniform for the first time in three decades, and suddenly lead a team to the playoffs….
“ ‘We made great commitments to this team, so you know the talent is very high,’ (said Loria). ‘Dan is very imaginative, very creative, with a high baseball IQ.
–The Mets defeated the Cardinals 2-1 in 14 innings on Monday night, but Matt Harvey had to settle for a no-decision for a second straight start despite pitching 15 shutout innings over the two games.
Harvey, in his first 44 career starts, is now 17-11, 2.31. This season he is 5-1, 1.98, with 56 strikeouts and just 8 walks in 54.2. Thus far, a pretty good recovery from Tommy John surgery.
The Mets then lost to the Cardinals, 10-2, on Tuesday, and fell into a tie for first place in the N.L. East with Washington as…
–…the Nats defeated the Yankees 8-6 on a Ryan Zimmerman walk-off two-run homer off the Yanks’ Andrew Miller (the Bar Chat Jinx striking again). Miller had allowed just three hits to the 70 batters he had faced this season before Zimmerman’s clout. [Zimmerman has 10 walk-off home runs in his career, by the way.]
Bryce Harper also homered in the contest, his 10th in 12 games. I didn’t see where that stood in history, but the game before he hit one, giving him 9 in 11 games, the second-youngest to do so.
Joe DiMaggio, 1937 (22 yrs. 200 days), Harper (22 yrs. 213 days), Bob Horner, 1980 (22 yrs. 351 days), Reggie Jackson, 1969 (23 yrs. 31 days), Mark McGwire, 1987 (23 yrs. 231 days). [Fox Sports]
–The other day when the Braves Shelby Miller pitched a complete game two-hitter against the Marlins that led to Redmond’s dismissal, I didn’t realize it was his second “Maddux” of the season…a complete game with fewer than 100 pitches. No other pitcher has one this season. Miller, 5-1, now has an ERA of 1.33, and as the Washington Post’s Neil Greenberg put it, “has made the Braves front office look like geniuses after they acquired him and Tyrell Jenkins in exchange for Jason Heyward and Jordan Walden in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals this offseason.”
—Baseball America College Poll (May 18)
1. LSU
2. UCLA
3. Louisville
4. Illinois
5. TCU
10. UC Santa Barbara… “The girls…on the beach….” [Uh oh, oil spill there]
11. Dallas Baptist
24. Radford
Wake Forest failed to make the ACC Championship as they finish the season 27-26, 12-18. A very poor second half…and another disappointment for a Wake sports program.
So I’m adopting UCSB for baseball and possible graduate school. Are you allowed to fly out for a weekend, lounge around, and pick up a Masters? I’d kind of like that.
Back to Wake, senior Kevin Jordan, who received a kidney from coach Tom Walter a few years back, finished up his career just 7-for-42 this season, but he hit two home runs.
More importantly, Jordan picked up his degree on Monday. [I counted 23 Wake football players who also graduated, including first-round draft pick Kevin Johnson. Good for all of them.]
–Before Tuesday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter put out some tweets:
“Goodell-Kraft attended Sean McManus’ 60th birthday Sat. in NYC; they were spotted ‘on a couch, talking by themselves for quite a long time.’”
“The fact that Goodell and Kraft are on amicable terms could help cool tensions between the two sides and help lead to truce on Deflategate.”
So yesterday, Kraft said the Patriots would accept their punishment from the NFL…the $1 million fine and the loss of two draft picks, including a first-rounder in 2016.
“Although I might disagree with what is decided, I do have respect for [commissioner Roger Goodell] and believe that he’s doing what he perceives to be in the best interests of [all 32 teams],” Kraft said. “So in that spirit, I don’t want to continue the rhetoric that’s gone on for the last four months.
“I’m going to accept, reluctantly, what he has given to us and not continue this dialogue and rhetoric. We won’t appeal.”
Kraft added, “at no time should the agenda of one team outweigh the collective good of the 32.”
As for Tom Brady, he is appealing his four-game suspension through the Players Association, and it is now assumed that Goodell and Kraft reached some kind of agreement that in return for Kraft’s cooperation, Brady’s suspension will be reduced to two games.
–League owners gathered for their quarterly meeting in San Francisco had one big topic on the agenda and that was what to do with the extra point. Place-kickers converted 99.3% of PAT attempts last season, which was the eighth year in 11 where kickers have converted 99% of them.
So owners decided to snap the ball from the 15-yard line on PATs, while placing the 2-point conversion at the 2 and allowing the defense to return a turnover to the other end zone for the two points. The vote was 30-2.
The new PAT will result in a 32-yarder; though last year kickers converted 95.8% of field-goal attempts from 30-34 yards. But at least there will be a shred of doubt.
–Miami and quarterback Ryan Tannehill reportedly reached agreement on an extension that will pay him an average close to $20 million per season, which bodes well for the likes of Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson, or even the Giants’ Eli Manning, whose contract expires after this coming season.
Tannehill, age 26, signed for four years, $77M, $45M guaranteed.
Ben Roethlisberger, 33, recently received a four-year extension, $87.4M, $60.75M guaranteed.
Heck, Alex Smith, 30, received four years, $68M, $45M guaranteed.
“Bad Andy” Dalton is in a six-year, $96M deal, though only $25M guaranteed, according to Jordan Raanan of NJ.com. [I saw another figure on Dalton’s guarantee at just $17M.]
–On the college front, former Notre Dame QB Everett Golson announced he will play his final season with Florida State. Golson’s choice came down to FSU, Florida and Georgia. He’ll compete for the starting job with Sean Maguire.
—Derrick Gordon, the first openly gay player in Division I men’s basketball, has transferred from Massachusetts to Seton Hall. Gordon, who averaged 9.8 points and 4.9 rebounds as a junior last season at U-Mass., had no issues there other than from a basketball standpoint. “I wasn’t happy with my role,” he told USA TODAY.
But he claims a number of programs refused to take him simply because of his sexuality.
“During the recruiting process, a number of schools didn’t want me because I’m gay,” he told reporter Scot Gleeson. “To me, that’s blatant homophobia.”
Gordon earned his degree from U-Mass this spring which is why he’ll be eligible to play immediately as a graduate transfer.
Seton Hall’s program is a mess, but the school is near his New Jersey home.
–I didn’t realize when I reported on the NCAA men’s golf regional that Wake Forest flamed out in that the medalist was Stanford’s Maverick McNealy, who happens to be the son of former Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy. The father has been grooming his son for this moment and McNealy had a great year and is the No. 1 player in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.
Back to Wake, the reason why I was so hard on them last time is because they were No. 12 in the Sagarin Rankings heading into the regional, meaning they should have handily made the NCAA Championship field.
The team winner of the regional was Charlotte, which came in ranked No. 52.
Finally, Wake isn’t the only team that should be upset with its performance. Two-time champion Alabama failed to advance, marking only the fourth time the reigning champ won’t get to defend its title.
–From BBC News; “A lion in a Chinese zoo was shot dead after it killed one of its keepers and escaped its enclosure.
“The incident took place on Sunday in the eastern province of Shandong, at the Taian Tiger Mountain Park.
“Authorities said the 65-year-old keeper was cleaning the enclosure when the lion bit him on his shoulders and neck. He died later from his injuries.
“The lion was on the loose in the zoo for more than an hour before it was shot dead by police.
“Reports in Chinese media did not say how the lion managed to get out of its enclosure after the early morning attack.
“Officials put up steel barriers at the park’s entrance, while zoo staff as well as visitors who had arrived for a morning swim in a pond in the park were evacuated.”
Oh gross! There isn’t a single body of water safe to swim in all of China, let alone a zoo pond! Don’t they know where the run-off from the animal enclosures is going? What idiots.
“(A police) spokesman said they cornered the lion by a wall within the zoo grounds, and shot it dead to ‘ensure the safety of park visitors.’”
No doubt the other animals in the zoo are planning a rebellion to overthrow zoo staff.
I’m also guessing everyone who has been swimming in the pond just shortened their lives by 40 years.
I mean, seriously, that is as gross an act as I’ve heard of in years.
–Brad K. passed along the story of the hiker gored to death by a bull in France, as our gory week on the human-animal confrontation front continues.
“A hiker enjoying one of the most beautiful national parks in the French Alps was gored to death by a bull in front of his terrified wife….
“The horrific killing took place close to the idyllic mountain village of Reallon as the unnamed 59-year-old victim was enjoying a Sunday morning stroll.
“As he and his wife crossed a field full of cows in the Ecrins National Park, in southeast France, the bull came charging towards them.
“ ‘The victim was knocked over and then gored in the thigh,’ said a local police spokesman, who said the man suffered a severed artery.
“The scene became even more disturbing as the man was dragged along the ground for a full 20 meters.”
–So over the years, basically since the start of this column, I have written of how there should be a unified force of former SEAL type figures, Iraq and Afghan war vets, under one command to combat poaching in Africa.
Indeed there have been small groups doing just that, working with local game officials and park rangers. One former SEAL Team Six operator, Craig Sawyer, has extensive experience in the anti-poaching field and has been on Animal Planet’s series on same, including 2013’s “Battleground: Rhino Wars.”
I always just thought the effort should be even bigger.
Anyway, I’m reading the May 18-25 issue of Army Times and one small group of veterans got themselves in a heap of trouble and have been kicked out of Tanzania.
“A six-person team with VETPAW – Veterans Empowered to Protect African Wildlife – was ordered to leave the East Africa nation following a burst of controversy…
“According to VETPAW posts and comments online, the team had been accompanied by an Animal Planet film crew that was producing a show on the group….
“In a recent press conference surrounded by dozens of fatigue-clad Tanzanian park rangers whom VETPAW had come to train, the head of the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Natural Resources said he was ‘saddened’ by recent posts…(that included) pictures of ‘Tactical model’ Kinessa Johnson – a former Army diesel mechanic now with VETPAW – posing with various weapons and gear.”
Bottom line, the photos were ginned up to gain the small group a reality show and big dollars, it certainly seems. “We’re going there to do some anti-poaching. Kill some bad guys and do some good,” Johnson says in one YouTube video posted from the gun industry’s annual SHOT show in Las Vegas in January as the group was preparing to depart for Africa.”
In another clip, the heavily tattooed Johnson brags: “We’re going to go out, and we’re going to hunt them down.”
“The endangered animals need REAL defense, not tinseltown posers who make a mockery of the real cause and recklessly inflict damage upon those who do the real protection work,” Sawyer wrote in one recent Facebook post.”
This is a serious topic, as any Bar Chat reader knows. These animals are being exterminated. We don’t need folks like Ms. Johnson and her ilk screwing things up and taking away from the real do-gooders like Sawyer.
This is also why I always felt there needed to be a unified effort under the U.N. to give it full legitimacy across all the impacted jurisdictions.
–Finally, I stayed up to watch all of “The David Letterman Show” Tuesday, and am paying the price for it as I wrap up this column. I’ll also watch tonight’s finale.
I can’t say I’ve been a big Letterman fan the past few years because I only stay up a handful of nights these days.
But there was a time when I watched him a lot, dividing my viewership between his show and Leno’s, in those immediate post-Carson years.
But I’m one who remembers his very first show, his daytime gig in 1980 that lasted only four months. I had just graduated from Wake Forest and wasn’t doing anything until that September, and I thought his show was hilarious. Alas, I seem to be one of the few who tuned in, but Dave survived…survived to thrive.
Feb. 1, 1982: “Late Night with David Letterman” airs on NBC for the first time.
Oct. 3, 1983: Letterman debuts “Stupid Human Tricks,” a spinoff of the “Stupid Pet Tricks” segments he began on the daytime show.
Sept. 18, 1985: Letterman reads his first Top Ten List.
Aug. 30, 1993: After losing his bitter fight with Jay Leno, Letterman moves to CBS and launches “Late Show with David Letterman” opposite “Tonight.” Letterman was more popular than Leno the first two years.
May 19, 2014: Letterman’s last scripted show, once again with Bill Murray.
Top 3 songs for the week 5/20/72: #1 “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (Roberta Flack…think the flick “Play Misty For Me”…one of the more underrated movies of all time…#ClintEastwood…) #2 “Oh Girl” (Chi-Lites) #3 “I’ll Take You There” (The Staples Singers)…and…#4 “I Gotcha” (Joe Tex) #5 “Look What You Done For Me” (Al Green) #6 “Rockin’ Robin” (Michael Jackson…ughh…) #7 “Betcha By Golly, Wow” (The Stylistics…terrific tune…terrific group…) #8 “Tumbling Dice” (The Rolling Stones) #9 “Back Off Boogaloo” (Ringo Starr) #10 “Morning Has Broken” (Cat Stevens…which means it’s time to go to Dunkin’ Donuts, boys and girls…)
Indy 500 Quiz Answers: 1) Two 3-time winners since 2000: Dario Franchitti (2007, 2010, 2012); Helio Castroneves (2001, 2002, 2009). 2) Only 4-time winners: A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr., Rick Mears. 3) Mark Donohue*, the 1972 Indy 500 winner, gave Roger Penske his first NASCAR win in 1973 at Riverside.
As long-time readers know, Donohue grew up in my hometown of Summit, N.J., and he is buried literally a two-minute drive from my place. So a few times a year I swing by and pay my respects, as I will this weekend.
This coming Aug. 19 represents the 40th anniversary of Donohue’s death. He crashed during practice for the Austrian Grand Prix and died a few days after. Race fans from literally all over the world come to his gravesite and they leave little model cars on top of it. [It’s not as tacky as it sounds.]
