World Golf Rankings: As we ready for The Open Championship at St. Andrews, give me the World Top Ten, thru last weekend. Hints: 5 are U.S. All are big names. [No Jimmy Walker, No. 12; J.B. Holmes, No. 13; plus no Phil Mickelson, No. 21, and Tiger Woods, now No. 226!] Only one in the top ten is over 40 years of age. Answer below.
For the record, since I didn’t have time Sunday to note the All-Star starters, as voted by the fans, thank god only four Royals, not the feared eight, were selected.
Miguel Cabrera, DET…1B
Jose Altuve, HOU…2B
Alcides Escobar, KC…SS
Josh Donaldson, TOR…3B
Salvador Perez, KC…C
Mike Trout, LAA…OF
Lorenzo Cain, KC…OF
Alex Gordon, KC…OF
Nelson Cruz, SEA…DH
Paul Goldschmidt, ARI…1B
Dee Gordon, MIA…2B
Jhonny Peralta, STL…SS
Todd Frazier, CIN…3B
Buster Posey, SF…C
Bryce Harper, WAS…OF
Giancarlo Stanton, MIA…OF
Matt Holiday, STL…OF
*Albert Pujols will sub for the injured Cabrera; Andrew McCutchen will start in place of injured Giancarlo Stanton.
The four Royals’ performances this season are far from the other ALers who were selected, but it’s not a travesty like it would have been had Omar Infante, for example, been voted in.
Meanwhile, Josh Donaldson garnered the most votes, while Bryce Harper led the NL selections.
When the reserves were added, Alex Rodriguez was not among them, not that anyone should give a damn.
No need to get into the reserves and pitchers who were tabbed, except it’s cool the Pirates’ A.J. Burnett, 38, and in his 17th and probably final season, was picked. [And for parochial reasons, glad Jacob deGrom made the cut.]
–In the fastest game in nearly four years, Chris Sale pitched a six-hitter to lead the White Sox to a 4-2 win over Toronto. Sale, though, struck out just six, the first time in nine starts he hadn’t fanned double figures, matching a major league record. But he’ll take the complete game victory. The game was played in 1 hr. 54 min.
–Big game for Jon Niese and the Mets on Monday as they defeated the Giants at AT&T Park 3-0, Niese throwing 8 scoreless (just 81 pitches), making it six straight quality starts as he lowered his ERA to 3.58 (even though his won-loss record is just 4-8). Should the Mets want to trade him, his value should be increasing. There are few rotations in baseball that couldn’t use a 4th or 5th starter like this.
[Then the Mets were shutout for a tenth time this season on Tuesday by the Giants and Matt Cain, 3-0.]
–After 10 seasons and 67 at-bats, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester finally got his first career hit Monday against the Cardinals. It was an infield single, Lester hitting it off Cards’ pitcher John Lackey and beating it out.
–Seattle second baseman Robinson Cano spoke about what could be a cause for his season-long slump. He said he’s been battling a stomach ailment since last August.
Cano told USA TODAY Sports: “It still affects me. Sometimes you drink water and it makes you feel like vomiting. I can’t eat the same way I did. It’s hard to deal with, especially being the first time this has happened to me. Sometimes I eat only once a day before playing, because I feel full. And you just don’t have the same energy.”
Cano said he’s no longer eating red meat in an effort to combat the issue, but “sometimes I play without any strength or energy, but you have to play, give the best of yourself.”
I also went back to see how he did last September and he hit just .265 in a year where he hit .314 for the full season.
–Some of today’s baseball stats are beyond absurd. [Some of the metrics finding their way into the NBA, like shooting percentage off catch-and-shoot, are rapidly heading that way. Can the guy shoot the jumper or not?! We know Kyle Korver is a catch-and-shoot player, and others are better at creating their own shot, but just give me the guy’s overall shooting percentage, and behind the arc. We know DeAndre Jordan scores his points down low, largely on dunks, and can’t hit a freakin’ foul shot. I mean it’s just not that difficult to see this stuff without stupid ‘metrics.’]
Now where was I? Oh yeah. So I’m reading this piece on the Washington Nationals pitching staff and the writer notes the Nats led the majors with a FIP (fielding independent pitching) of 3.18, “a statistic that controls for luck and defensive ability behind a pitcher.”
Just shoot me. What does this have to do with anything? The other day, a Mets broadcaster noted that Lucas Duda led the league in exit velocity off the bat, or something like that, yet he was hitting .250 at the time. To which Ron Darling immediately piped in, yeah, well he’s hitting into the shift and they’re being caught. Like, Lucas, you have to learn to go the other way.
Look, we all know there is overload. Sure, long before it was popular, I knew on-base percentage, the first real new-era metric, was super important. But that’s not the way the game was played when I was growing up (60s and 70s).
“WHIP” was always important, and we knew that, but someone slapped a label on it. Fine. But some of this other stuff is absurd. We always knew Derek Jeter had limited range. Any scout or GM already knew that….oh well.
To wrap this up, one metric I do love is the QBR for quarterbacks. That’s meaningful. It does a pretty good job of confirming what your eyes saw.
OK, back to the Nats’ pitching staff and what matters… walks, or lack thereof. On Sunday, the Nats walked two hitters, marking the 18th straight game* in which the Nationals have walked two or fewer opponents, tying a modern-era (since 1900 by this measure) record. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only the 1919 Pirates put up such a streak. [Jacob Feldman / Washington Post]
Now that’s impressive. And now the streak is up to 20 thru Tuesday (with the Nats yielding just 179 walks all season; the Mets having the next fewest at 205) . Except last night the Reds’ Johnny Cueto outdueled Max Scherzer, 5-0, with Scherzer giving up five earned in 4 2/3.
–Pete M. informed of a strange item from Sunday that I had missed. In the Boston vs. Houston game in Beantown, won by the Sox 5-4, David Ortiz started at first base in a non-interleague game for the first time since Aug. 5, 2006; his first start at Fenway Park since 2005. He played in place of slumping Mike Napoli.
But the rarity in the contest was that it marked the first time in the Red Sox’ 17,867-game history that Boston did not have a 1B record a putout, according to Elias. Two grounders ended up being putouts by the pitcher.
—Willie Wilson turns 60 on Thursday. Man, time flies.
As opposed to JPP’s stupidity (see below), what happened to Rory McIlroy over the weekend could have happened to any athlete, any place, anywhere.
McIlroy ruptured ligaments in his left ankle while kicking around a soccer ball with his friends (or what the Irish are calling a “kickabout”). It is the last thing the sport of golf needs at this time, a week before the British Open, where every fan was hoping for a duel between Rory and Jordan Spieth.
As of this post, McIlroy has not ruled himself out of competing, but it’s absurd to think he could. It’s the kind of injury that an athlete would normally take 2-3 months to recover from (you and I, like six months). Plus consider it’s his left ankle, where all the weight is placed for a righty golfer.
Again, this sucks big time. Rory was not only going to be defending champion at St. Andrews, but also at the upcoming PGA Championship, that he could miss as well.
This would be like Tom Brady or Peyton Manning rupturing their Achilles in Saturday walkthroughs the day before the Super Bowl.
John Feinstein / Washington Post: “McIlroy is one of the brightest athletes on the planet. He knows that long-term safety is far more important than short-term gratification. But he is also hyper-competitive the way all the true greats have to be. Here’s hoping someone in his camp – his Dad? – talks him into thinking about the next two decades rather than the next two weeks.”
–More fallout on the Donald Trump front after he said anyone south of the border is a rapist. ESPN is opting to move a coming celebrity golf tournament from Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles to another Southern California course (Pelican Hill…a very beautiful course(s) I played a few times in my days at PIMCO).
And the PGA of America has opted to pull the 2015 PGA Grand Slam of Golf from the same Trump course in L.A.
The PGA Tour said it is continuing to monitor the situation, meaning it is waiting to see what happens with Cadillac and the March tournament at Trump Doral.
–More than a few are questioning Jordan Spieth playing in this week’s John Deere Classic, a week before The Open Championship when he has the first two legs of the Grand Slam.
Spieth won the event in 2013 on a sponsor’s exemption and he’s just being loyal. But we’ll see. Yes, he’s young and he’s traveling first class, but flights across the pond can take a toll.
–3-time PGA Tour winner Scott Stallings turned himself into Tour authorities for taking performance-enhancing drugs and has been suspended 90 days, starting Tuesday.
Yes, you are reading that right. Stallings, who has never failed a drug test, turned himself in.
Stallings was suffering from fatigue and advised by his doctor to take DHEA, an anabolic agent that is the precursor to testosterone production and banned by the Tour. He then realized he had violated the policy.
“Whether I intended to or not, I took something that wasn’t allowed. I called a penalty on myself, that’s the best way to look at it,” Stallings told GolfChannel.com. “I did it immediately, so much so it took [the Tour official] by surprise.”
–USA TODAY Sports interviewed Lindsey Vonn at Wimbledon and Vonn was asked how she was doing a few months after breaking up with Tiger.
“I’m doing really well. I’m feeling good. I have a good support system around me and we ended on good terms. It just didn’t work. That happens: Two adults, sometimes, it just doesn’t work. But yes, we do (keep in touch).”
Vonn said she is going to get back on snow in July with the US team in New Zealand. She said she has no knee pain, and she’s looking forward to the 2018 Pyeongchang Games (which will “probably be my last year”).
–So last time I told you of how Chris Paul hindered the return of DeAndre Jordan to the Clippers and instead he went to the Mavs. Tuesday, Ananth Pandian of CBSSports.com had some of the following:
“While Jordan was clearly moved by the Mavs’ message to him, his poor relationship with Chris Paul may have also contributed to his departure from Los Angeles, according to ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz.
“The core of the team had been together for more than three years, and tempers were wearing thin….
“(Jordan) was tired of Paul’s constant barking and petty gestures, like distributing high-fives to the three other guys on the floor following a timeout but somehow freezing out Jordan. Optics aside, the biggest issue for Jordan was that, despite the leaps and bounds he made to be named first team all-defense, the Clippers always treated him like the player he was when he arrived in the NBA, and never like the player he’d become.” Good point.
–This didn’t take long. Manu Ginobili announced Monday he was returning to the Spurs, after over the weekend saying he was going to wait awhile to decide.
You know you see situations like LaMarcus Aldridge leaving Portland after a long stint there because he felt he was getting dissed, and DeAndre Jordan leaves after seven years because he felt he was getting dissed, and then you have Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili and all the years they’ve been together and seemingly happy. You never hear of issues with these three.
Why? I think Gregg Popovich has a little something to do with it.
And the Spurs added to their offseason haul, which included signing Aldridge, when they inked free agent David West for the veterans’ minimum. West opted out of a deal that would have paid him $12 million for next season had he stayed with Indiana and instead he’ll play for $1.5 million because he wants to be with a team that has a chance to make the finals as he prepares for his 14th campaign.
Man, this is a guy who can still play, especially in San Antonio’s system, and I admire what he’s doing. He’ll be driven.
So we want a Spurs-Warriors Western Conference Finals, and then the Spurs facing off against LeBron and the Cavs.
Since we all believe the NBA regular season can be excruciatingly boring, let’s just shelve the season and, instead, have Spurs-Warriors, and then that winner goes against the Cavs. No Eastern Conference playoffs whatsoever. The whole thing could be over in three weeks and should be run right after The Masters, a tradition unlike any other…on CBS.
For those of you desiring a full regular season, ESPN and TNT could just play out an entire Strat-O-Matic Basketball season. You could have the same studio guys, the games would be much quicker, and you’d still get a full season of stats to satisfy the record keepers and gamblers.
Since the results, though, will prove the above teams to be the best, then we start the playoffs with fresh players.
—Marc Gasol must really like it in Memphis, home of the Peabody Hotel and the Peabody Ducks, who put any NBA dance troupe to shame.
Gasol signed a max five-year, $110 million contract, with a player option after year four. Gasol grew up in Memphis, which means he knew about the ducks way back from his youth.
–Frank Isola of the New York Daily News is reporting the Knicks’ first-round pick, Kristaps Porzingis, has a hip injury, suffered during his predraft workout with the Knicks, which only lasted five minutes. Boy, this bears watching.
The women’s semis are set. Maria Sharapova against Serena Williams in one; 13 Agnieszka Radwanska vs. 20 Garbine Maguruza in the other.
Sharapova is a staggering 0-16 against Williams, but some believe this time she’ll finally break through as Williams has been struggling mightily, including in her quarterfinal 3-set win over Victoria Azarenka.
Earlier, Serena advanced to the quarters by beating her sister, Venus, in straight sets, giving Serena, 33, a 15-11 series lead over older sis Venus, 35.
As for the men, the top four seeds are playing their quarterfinal matches today: 1 Djokovic, 2 Federer, 3 Murray and 4 Wawrinka. Hopefully they all prevail to set up some rather compelling semis.
So I went to post hours before they finally started the Sunday night, rain-delayed race at Daytona, and it wasn’t until 2:41 a.m. that Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the checkered flag.
But as Earnhardt was doing so, behind him Austin Dillon got caught up in a horrific crash as the others crossed the finish line. No way he survived that one, but he did. The last driver to die in a series race was Dale Earnhardt Sr. at Daytona in 2001.
Sprint Cup driver Ryan Newman said afterward, “NASCAR got what they wanted. That’s the end of it. Cars being airborne, unsafe drivers, same old stuff. They just don’t listen.”
I’m not sure that’s a fair statement. NASCAR has made spectacular improvements, in both driver safety and the tracks themselves. That the catch fence held as well as it did was testament to this, even though five spectators were still hurt by debris, though none seriously.
Had Dillon’s car flown into the stands, well, we just don’t want to think about that.
Jason Pierre-Paul…Idiot
“The first and foremost concern, of course, is the true extent of the damage to his hand that Jason Pierre-Paul suffered on the Fourth of July. He has a life to live and the prime of a career ahead of him.
“Thankfully, his fireworks accident isn’t life-threatening, or apparently career-threatening.
“But where there is smoke there is fireworks, and a personal U-Haul loaded with fireworks and lighting them off leads you to believe this was risky behavior at best, and stupidity and mindlessness and selfishness at worst.
“First Sheldon Richardson, weed it and weep last week.
“Now JPP, apparently celebrating the holiday in Miami and severely injuring his hand, his financial future and his teammates’ chances to return to the playoffs in 2015 with a reckless disregard for common sense and for his New York Football Giants organization.
“If this is indeed the case – if this was the result of him putting himself in harm’s way by throwing caution, and a firecracker, to the wind, then he is JPPeabrain, and we would have no choice but to ask and answer:
“This is every owner, GM and coach’s nightmare, that unexpected call with the kind of news that causes sleepless nights.
“It is a reminder of how fortunate the Giants have been having Eli Manning as their franchise quarterback across these last 12 years, a reminder that they should sign him to an extension sooner rather than later.”
Audie Murphy
I’ve written a number of articles on this great American hero in the past, and any time I visit Arlington National Cemetery I make sure to pay my respects at his gravesite.
But in the July 6 / July 13 issue of The Weekly Standard, there is a review by Michael Dirda of a new book by David A. Smith titled “The Price of Valor: The Life of Audie Murphy, America’s Most Decorated Hero of World War II.”
As Michael Dirda writes, Murphy grew up in Hunt County, Texas, “one of many children of a feckless alcoholic father and a worn-out mother. Forced to quit school after the fifth grade, he learned to shoot partly to put food on the family table…Once the United States entered World War II, Murphy tried to enlist in the Marines, but they wouldn’t have him. He was just five-feet-five-inches tall and weighed all of 112 pounds. Lying about his age – he was only 17 – Murphy finally managed to join the Army.”
Murphy killed his first man in Sicily, actually, two. He later recalled in his bestselling autobiography To Hell and Back(1949), “I feel no qualms; no pride, no remorse. There is only a weary indifference that will follow me through the war.”
Murphy talked of being cool in battle, “things seem to slow down for me….Things become very clarified.”
But then his closest friend, Lattie Tipton, is shot by a sniper and Murphy goes on a rampage. As Smith writes:
“He counterattacked like a berserker, bursting from his foxhole firing his carbine. He killed the two Germans who had been shooting at him, grabbed their machine gun, and ‘holding it like a (Browning Automatic Rifle) for firing from the hip,’ Murphy found the gun crew that had killed Tipton and raked them with fire. ‘I remember the experience as I do a nightmare. A demon seems to have entered my body’ – a demon that led him to clean out the entire hill of Germans. When the stress finally passed and the rush of adrenaline left his body, his hands began to tremble and he sank to the ground exhausted.”
Michael Dirda: “He received the Distinguished Service Cross and would be wounded three times, earning a Purple Heart with two oak clusters. He once nearly died when gangrene set into his wounds, but he always survived to fight again….
“On January 26, 1945, near the small village of Holtzwihr, France, Second Lieutenant Murphy and his men were attacked by six German Tiger tanks supported by around 250 infantry in white winter gear. In short order, the Americans’ two tank destroyers were hit and disabled. Murphy then ordered his men to withdraw, while he stayed on to direct an artillery barrage. The Germans, however, kept on coming, ‘as though nothing would stop them.’ Smith then describes what was, to my young self, the most thrilling moment of the autobiographical movie [To Hell and Back]:
“Murphy scrambled back to the .50 caliber machine gun mounted atop the burning tank-destroyer to his rear. He did not know if the gun was still operable, but it was now the only chance he had to slow down the Germans. He dragged the phone over to it and climbed on top. The body of the lieutenant was half in and half out of the turret, his blood running down the side.”
“When he squeezed the trigger ‘the chatter of the gun is like sweet music. Three krauts stagger and crumple in the snow.’ He swept the gun across the field of fire, peering through the swirling smoke searching for more targets. He ‘killed them in the draws, in the meadows, in the woods – wherever he saw them,’ one eyewitness said later. Murphy knew that the German tanks would break off their advance if they had no infantry to accompany them, so he tried to take out as many soldiers as he could. The artillery phone continued to ring. ‘How close are they to your position?’ came the frantic voice. ‘Just hold the phone and I’ll let you talk to one of the bastards,’ Murphy shouted back, a retort that would soon become famous.”
As David Smith writes: “Those who were witnesses to Audie Murphy’s feat were incredulous at what had transpired. Some could barely believe what they had seen….It was, said a lieutenant who was one of the forward artillery observers, ‘the bravest thing I’ve ever seen a man do in combat.’”
Soon afterward, Audie Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor – one of 24 different medals, many of which he later gave to small children.
When he returned home, Murphy was celebrated as a great warrior, a great American. Life featured him on its cover, where he caught the eye of James Cagney, who had recently started his own film company.
Soon, Murphy was playing bit parts, like in John Huston’s The Red Badge of Courage (1951) and he ended up making about 50 movies in a career spanning 23 years. He wasn’t a great actor, but as Smith writes at the peak of his popularity he “received more fan mail than almost any other actor.”
But he had issues. Michael Dirda mentions some of them and I’m not going to parrot these, except to say that, tellingly, he always carried a gun, which he kept under his pillow at night. “He would frequently wake up screaming, reliving in his dreams the deaths of his buddies and the horrors of war,” writes Dirda.
David McClure, the coauthor of To Hell and Back, knew about his friend’s demons: “It is generally assumed that Audie easily readjusted to civilian life, making a fortune as a movie star, and living relatively happily ever after. Almost the reverse is true. Let us hope that God did forgive him. His battered nervous system never did.”
As Michael Dirda adds, “It’s clear now that he suffered deeply from post-traumatic stress disorder: ‘There was always,’ Smith says, ‘a profound melancholy just under his surface along with a fatalism that was completely at odds with his image.’”
In 1971, facing financial ruin, though hoping for a comeback, Murphy died in a small plane crash in Virginia, a month short of his 46th birthday.
So next time you go to Arlington and stop by Audie Murphy’s grave, remember not only his incredible bravery, but his suffering after. Maybe some of you will be inspired to help some of our current Vets. I imagine Audie Murphy would like that.
–The U.S.-Japan World Cup final set ratings records for Fox Sports, an estimated 15.2% of U.S. TV households tuned in to the coverage, surpassing the record 13.3% set during the 1999 Women’s World Cup final between the U.S. and China.
Separately, the U.S. girls go home with $2 million, which is $33 million less in prize money than Germany did when they won the last men’s World Cup, according to the BBC.
This is actually an improvement, as USA midfielder Megan Rapinoe said on Friday. “Since the last World Cup, we’re getting paid more, other teams are being paid more.”
In a piece by Drew Harwell of the Washington Post, we learn there was a very good reason why the men’s pool was far greater.
“Men’s teams played for a total of $576 million in World Cup prizes last year, compared to the $15 million up for grabs from women’s teams this year.”
An example of how you can have such a disparity is the fact Fox “grabbed an estimated $17 million in ads from corporate sponsors of the elite women’s matches – a tiny fraction compared to the $529 million ESPN pocketed in sponsorship revenue from last year’s tournament in Brazil.”
–I wasn’t going to comment again on Florida State quarterback De’Andre Jordan because in terms of the depth chart, he wasn’t going to be a factor for the Seminoles (which is getting lost in all the news stories that hit Monday). But because it became such a big deal, I have to note he was dismissed from the team after a video emerged showing him hitting a woman in a bar.
But the video itself is bizarre on so many levels. The people standing around the two don’t react in the least! And the woman, according to Johnson’s attorney, had uttered some racial epitaphs at De’Andre, which I can’t see her doing, but at the same time, you look at the video and she is clearly a jerk.
“Spiders can sail across water like ships, using their legs as sails and their silk as an anchor. It’s the kind of discovery that makes arachnophobes quiver.
“For the first time, British scientists have studied the way spiders maneuver themselves across water.
“ ‘We’ve now found that spiders actively adopt postures that allow them to use the wind direction to control their journey on water,’ said lead researcher, Morito Hayashi from the Natural History Museum, London.
“ ‘They even drop silk and stop on the water surface when they want. This ability compensates for the risks of landing on water after the uncontrolled spider flights.’….
“Spiders can travel up to 30 kilometers a day with the right wind conditions, allowing them to colonize new areas for food and other resources.”
Humans, on the other hand, blow themselves up with fireworks. Most spiders thus remain ahead of Man on the All-Species List.
“A café patron in the Siberian city of Tomsk was mauled by a bear that had spent years caged up as an attraction to draw diners in, the Gazeta.ru news site reported Sunday.
“The bears had long been kept in a cage in the café…
“A woman dining at the café went to get a closer look at the captive beasts as her husband ordered, when one attacked.
“Local media claimed the bear tore her arm off, but the account was not confirmed by police.
“Following the incident, Tomsk animal control specialists vowed to inspect whether the café owners had permits and other necessary documents to keep the bears on site.”
–You all saw the story of the grizzly bear at the Minnesota Zoo who picked up a large rock and shattered a barrier. But the fact he repeatedly did so was rather startling. The window broke but stayed in one place and no one was hurt, as first reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The rock, though, had to weigh 50 pounds, as one witness said. Kind of makes you want to respect No. 6 All-Species List ‘Grizzly’ all the more, doesn’t it?
[Also, contrast this behavior with that of chimps in a zoo, who are notorious not for throwing rocks at visitors but rather their own (stuff).]
—Coyotes continue to overtake my state of New Jersey and NJ.com relayed some examples of “how to act and what to do if you confront a coyote,” which has been my main fear these when I jog through my favorite park.
“Don’t turn your back on the coyote and run.” [I get that. I’m 57 and very, very slow these days.]
“If by some small chance you have a whistle, blow it loudly to scare away the coyote.” [I haven’t had a whistle since I outgrew the sailor suit my mother bought me.]
“Yell loudly and clap your hands to scare off the coyote.” [The Dave Clark Five’s “Bits and Pieces” would work…but you have to stomp while clapping and for some of you that might be difficult to do.]
“If you can grab a large stick and throw it at the coyote.” [Instead, call out for a Navy Seal. If said Seal doesn’t materialize, leave your business card on the ground so next of kin can eventually be notified. It will be a closed coffin wake, understand.]
–Most of us can’t get enough of this new rivalry, Joey Chestnut vs. Matt Stonie. They will be facing off against each other again on Sat. July 25, at the Hooters in Clearwater, FL, the “Hooters Worldwide Wing Eating Championship.” Last year Chestnut won with 182 wings in 10 minutes. Stonie was third.
But you’ve seen how Stonie has picked up his overall game.
For this coming contest, it’s about how much meat they can strip off the bone. As Stonie has said, “Wings are a very technical food.”
“With chicken wings,” he said, “it’s all about hand speed, being focused.” [Corinne Ramey / Wall Street Journal]
It’s kind of like NASCAR drivers going from an oval to a road track…at least that’s how I look at it.
$8,500 for the winner, by the way. Stonie got $10,000 for the wiener title on the Fourth.
They say that Beavers, by the way, are terrific wing eaters with their ability to strip the meat off in a flash.
–We should have figured this would be the case. Harry Shearer is returning to ‘The Simpsons’ after all. Shearer, the voice of Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, Waylon Smithers and more, had announced he was leaving the show in May.
“One of the last of Hollywood’s great old-school impresarios, Jerry Weintraub once said he had ‘the most important phone book in the world.’
“ ‘I can get anything done, anywhere, at any time,’ the legendary producer told The Times in 2012 in what amounted to a kind of personal motto.
“Weintraub was well-known for that kind of braggadocio, but it was hard to argue with him. In a career that spanned half a century, he proved a force in the worlds of music, film and television.”
Weintraub discovered John Denver. He was credited with helping to revitalize both Elvis’ and Frank Sinatra’s careers.
As a promoter he worked with the likes of Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin.
He produced the movie “Nashville” as well as such hits as “Oh God!,” “The Karate Kid” and the “Ocean’s Eleven” series.
His “first major foray into the music business came about when at 28 and after a year of cold calls, he persuaded Elvis’ manager, Col. Tom Parker, to let him produce and present Presley’s next national tour.” [Rottenberg]
Weintraub managed the Pointer Sisters, Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond. He even produced a documentary for HBO on George H.W. Bush.
–Finally, according to documents obtained Monday by the Associated Press concerning a 2005 court case, Bill Cosby admitted then that he got Quaaludes with the intent of giving them to young women he wanted to have sex with, and that he gave the sedative to at least one woman and “other people.”
According to the unsealed documents, that woman and a second woman testified in the same case that they knowingly took Quaaludes from him.
The AP had gone to court to compel the release of the documents from the deposition in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand. For years, Cosby’s lawyers have been objecting on the grounds it would embarrass their client.
Cosby settled that suit in 2006 under confidential terms.
Needless to say, this hurts Cos with relation to the recent slew of accusations leveled against him, but it’s not clear if any of this is admissible (unless the victims were underage).
Regardless, though, this should kill any future prospects, forever, of him even getting stand-up gigs, anything more already being out of the question.
I said from day one of this whole fiasco that I grew up a fan of Bill Cosby and always was. A few years ago I took my father to see him in Morristown, NJ. It was a fun night.
Us fans are just very disappointed. It’s also yet another example of how it’s foolish for any of us on the outside to act like we really know anything about such people.
But unlike the 1950s and 60s, these days virtually every celebrity will be found out in one way or another.
Top 3 for the week 7/7/62: #1 “The Stripper” (David Rose) #2 “Roses Are Red (My Love)” (Bobby Vinton…one of the more underrated artists of that era) #3 “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (Ray Charles…the one and only…)…and…#4 “Palisades Park” (Freddy Cannon…oh, how this one was a local favorite…and who composed it? Chuck Barris! As for the jingle for the place…Palisades from coast to coast…where a dime buys the most…Palisades amusement park…swings all day and after dark…) #5 “It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin’” (Johnny Tillotson) #6 “Al Di La’” (Emilio Pericoli) #7 “Wolverton Mountain” (Claude King) #8 “Snap Your Fingers” (Joe Henderson) #9 “Johnny Get Angry” (Joanie Sommers…one hit wonder…sang Pepsi-Cola jingles…) #10 “Playboy” (The Marvelettes)
World Golf Rankings: Top Ten…
1. Rory McIlroy 12.70
2. Jordan Spieth 10.85
3. Bubba Watson 7.34
4. Dustin Johnson 6.76
5. Jim Furyk 6.54 (age 45)
6. Henrik Stenson 6.49 (age 39)
7. Justin Rose 6.48
8. Jason Day 5.68
9. Rickie Fowler 5.66
10. Sergio Garcia 5.55 (still just 35)
