[Posted Sunday p.m.]
Cincinnati Reds Quiz: 1) Post-1920, who holds the single-season record for runs scored at 134? [Hall of Famer] 2) Who am I? I had 209 hits in each of 1938 and ‘39? 3) Who is the only Red to hit 50 home runs in a season? 4) Who holds the Reds single-season RBI record? 5) What hurler struck out 274 batters in a season, tops for the franchise? Answers below.
–It was a heckuva Saturday in baseball, with Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels, in probably his last start as a Phil, throwing his first no-hitter, defeating the Cubs, 5-0, at Wrigley Field.
The 31-year-old was part of a combined no-hitter with three relievers last season. Hamels struck out 13 and walked two, throwing 129 pitches.
But the no-no was not secured until center fielder Odubel Herrera tracked down a deep drive by Cubs rookie Kris Bryant on the warning track, Herrera initially overrunning the ball before lunging forward to snag it.
Max Scherzer and Giants rookie Chris Heston have the other no-hitters this season.
For Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz, it was the fourth no-hitter he has caught, the most in National League history and tied with Jason Varitek for most in MLB history.
But now, where is Hamels going? He’d be such a key pickup for all manner of teams, especially the Dodgers, Hamels also being from southern California.
–Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, Alex Rodriguez hit three home runs for the fifth time in his career (one shy of the record held by Johnny Mize and Sammy Sosa) Saturday night in an 8-5 Yankees win over the Twins.
A-Rod turns 40 on Monday and he became the fifth-oldest player to hit three in a game, trailing Stan Musial (age 41), Jason Giambi (40), Reggie Jackson (40) and Babe Ruth (40). Not bad company.
It was also A-Rod’s 62nd multi-homer game, which ranks sixth all-time. Babe Ruth leads with 72.
But, most importantly, Rodriguez now has 23 home runs and 58 RBIs in this stunning comeback season. He is also suddenly at 677 for his career.
Hell, assuming he stays healthy, he’s freakin’ passing Babe Ruth by mid-season 2016! Drat!!!
A-Rod sat out Sunday, but the Yanks won again, 7-2, behind Nate Eovaldi, now 10-2 despite a 4.27 ERA.
–Wednesday (after I posted), the Mets suffered a devastating loss to the Washington Nationals, blowing a 3-1 lead in the eighth in a game that would have gotten the Metsies to within a game of the Nats in the N.L. East, but instead dropped them three back as they headed home to face the Dodgers for a four-game series as part of this brutal post-All-Star break stretch.
In one of the more predictable results of the last half century, the Mets were then shutout by Clayton Kershaw (8-6, 2.51) on Thursday 3-0, as Kershaw ran his scoreless innings streak to 29 in tossing a 3-hitter, no walks, 11 strikeouts.
Friday night, the Mets then lost 7-2 to a journeyman making his first major league start, Ian Thomas, as former Met Justin Turner had two doubles and a homer. Earlier in the day, the Mets brought up outfielder Michael Conforto to replace the injured Michael Cuddyer and the highly-touted Conforto was 0-3 with an RBI groundout in his major league debut. So that left the Mets 2-6 since the All-Star break.
But a funny thing happened on Saturday. Conforto went 4-for-4 with 4 runs scored, while Kirk Nieuwenhuis was 4-for-4 as well with 4 RBI and the slumping Lucas Duda had two homers, the Mets romping 15-2 behind seven strong innings by Matt Harvey, now 9-7. For his part, Harvey had two RBIs and thus became the first pitcher since Andy Messersmith in 1976 to have two RBI in three consecutive starts.
As Ronald Reagan would have said, ‘Not bad…not bad at all.’
I do have to add that Saturday night, I was in Trenton to watch the AA Binghamton Mets take on the Yankees’ affiliate. Originally, I thought I’d see Conforto, but it was a pleasant surprise to see catcher Travis d’Arnaud rehabbing there. He played well and Mets fans can now look forward to his imminent return.
[And I got to see prospects Gavin Cecchini, SS, and Brandon Nimmo, OF. I also got to see a woman fan clocked with a flying bat three rows in front of us. Thankfully, she saw the bat, as did D. and I, coming our way and she put her hand up. It still hit her in the forehead, but no bleeding. EMS was on the scene quickly and took her away. We were seated like five rows behind the Mets’ dugout, the most vulnerable spot for such a thing. So remind your kids to pay attention!…to be honest I was mid-sip with my beer, which could have caused a different kind of problem.]
OK…on to Sunday and the Dodgers’ Zack Greinke, who missed Friday’s start due to the birth of his son, but returned to New York for today’s contest, and the Mets’ Jacob deGrom, as good a matchup as you’ll have in the sport all year.
Greinke came in with 43 2/3 scoreless innings, a 1.30 ERA, while deGrom had the second-lowest ERA in the league.
But thanks to an awful play by Dodgers center fielder Joc Pederson, who bobbled a base hit, allowing a runner to go to third, Greinke’s streak ended in the third and the Mets went on to take a 2-0 lead into the ninth.
Greinke went 7 innings in all, allowing the 2 earned, while deGrom went 7 2/3 of scoreless ball to lower his ERA to 2.05. [Greinke’s rose to a whopping 1.37.]
But Mets closer Jeurys Familia blew it in the ninth and we went to extra frames. The Mets then won in the tenth as newcomer Juan Uribe had the game-winning hit…a huuuuge triumph, and, for now, a season saver.
Coupled with Washington’s loss at Pittsburgh, the 51-48 Mets are just two games out of first.
Not for nothing, but the Mets are also now a MLB-leading 25-9 in day games.
For the record, Orel Hershiser had five straight shutouts in the middle of a pennant race in 1988, capped by 10 scoreless innings in his final start of the season, as he was racking up his record 59 scoreless, whereas Greinke didn’t complete any of the six+ games during his streak, and pitched as many as eight innings only twice.
[Hershiser, by the way, actually extended his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 67 in a playoff opener against the Mets. He would go 3-0 in the playoffs that year, with a crucial save, including two complete game victories against the A’s in the World Series. A true season for the ages.]
–The Pittsburgh Pirates, desperately needing infield help due to injuries to Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer, acquired veteran third baseman Aramis Ramirez on Thursday, 12 years to the day they sent him to the Chicago Cubs.
Ramirez, 37, who was playing for Milwaukee in what he has said will be his last season, is psyched. He got off to a very slow start but was hitting .340 in his last 15 games for the Brewers and it was a great move by the Pirates.
But he was 0-for-4 in his debut, Saturday, as the Bucs lost to the Nationals 9-3. And he was 0-for-3 Sunday, but the Pirates defeated the Nats 3-1 behind Gerrit Cole, now 14-4, 2.24.
—Scott Kazmir was traded by the A’s to the Astros for two minor leaguers and all he did was throw seven shutout innings in his first start for Houston Friday night in Kansas City, the Astros beating the Royals 4-0. It could be the key move of all the ones taking place in baseball at the trade deadline.
Kazmir is healthy, for now, after missing two starts earlier in the year with shoulder stiffness, and he lowered his ERA to 2.24.
–The first-place Royals acquired Cincinnati ace Johnny Cueto for Brandon Finnegan and two minor leaguers, the Royals’ starting staff underperforming this season. Cueto has had arm issues this year, but, like Kazmir, if he stays healthy it’s a huge pickup.
—Mike Trout had a spectacular day on Sunday, 4-for-4, 5 RBI, with two home runs, to lead the Angels to a 13-7 win over the Rays. Trout now has 31 homers, 64 RBI, while the future Hall of Famer behind him, Albert Pujols, has 29 home runs and 62 RBIs. We haven’t seen a duo like this since Mantle and Maris, quite frankly.
–With Baseball’s Hall of Fame inducting Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, Pedro Martinez and Craig Biggio this weekend, you have another slew of articles on Barry Bonds and why he should have already joined them.
“In 2006, Fay Vincent, the former baseball commissioner, told us: ‘We are a terrifically forgiving country, in part because we have such a low standard of morality. But I’ve thought about this question a lot, and I believe that people would have forgiven Barry Bonds.’
“The people, Vincent apparently meant, who were already cheering the admitted steroid user Jason Giambi for launching parabolic home runs at the old Yankee Stadium; the baseball executives in St. Louis and Los Angeles who ultimately welcomed a belatedly contrite Mark McGwire back into the game as a hitting coach; and the many, including a new commissioner, Rob Manfred, now making nice with Alex Rodriguez as he powers his way to the kind of season Bonds had in 2007 – 28 home runs, a .480 on-base percentage – while turning 42, before the sport lost his number and he moved on to stubbornly stare down the government….
“Finally, after an expensive, decade-plus chase of Bonds, baseball’s record-holder for home runs in a career (762) and single season (73), even the government gave up trying to pin the rap on Bonds. A one-paragraph motion by the United States Department of Justice announced last Tuesday Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. would not ask the Supreme Court to review an appellate decision that overturned Bonds’ obstruction-of-justice conviction in 2011.
“Consider this latest development a metaphorical walk-off blast off the bat of Bonds, but also a possible way forward for a sport still trying to find a road less potholed on the subject of performance enhancement….
“Baseball’s original sin wasn’t that it had – and certainly still has – athletes surreptitiously seeking an edge. It was management’s willful neglect of the problem for the sake of profits along with an obstructionist union wrongfully working to shield the guilty at the expense of the innocent….
“This is not to condone the use of performance enhancers, or to rewrite the damage done by their past infestation. But such vague or draconian Hall of Fame standards have resulted in implicated players being judged by virtue of their personality – for better or worse – or punished solely on the basis of suspicion.
“To the latter point, can there be any other explanation why Mike Piazza isn’t already in the Hall?….
“For many, it would no doubt be painful to hear an induction speech from Bonds, Clemens and the like. But wasn’t the notion of A-Rod again circling the bases after all that went down equally distasteful just months ago? Now what you hear is that he’s a great teammate who served his time, paid his dues.
“So, in many ways, has Bonds, albeit with a smirk or a sneer. But how he has acted is not the point in the grand scheme. He deserves to be in the Hall, and baseball deserves to have him there, to deal more realistically, or honestly, with the industry’s original sin.”
I don’t agree, unless he has a come to Jesus moment, which no one expects out of the dirtball.
Golf Balls
—Jason Day captured his fourth PGA Tour title at the Canadian Open over local David Hearn and Bubba Watson. Talk about a gutty performance. After his heartbreak loss last week at St. Andrews, for him to come back and win a very solid tour event is amazing, and yet another reason why the Aussie has so many American fans, including moi.
–In just four events on the PGA Tour this year – the Masters, the U.S. Open, the John Deere Classic and the British Open – Jordan Spieth, by virtue of his three wins and a second, had winnings of $4,906,377. His prize money for the year is $9,170,215.
—Marco Dawson, who never won on the PGA Tour, won the British Senior Open over Bernhard Langer.
—Sang-Moon Bae, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, lost a court ruling in South Korea last week that will force him into a mandated two-year military stint in his native country.
“I am sorry to those who have supported me, including all my fans and South Koreans, for causing anxiety,” Bae told the Yonhap news agency. “I completely respect the court’s decision, and I humbly accept the judgment by the law.”
South Korean men between the ages of 18 and 35 must complete two years of military service since the country technically remains at war with North Korea.
Bae, 29, was charged in February with violating that rule by not securing an extension that permits overseas travel. He’s been a U.S. resident since 2013, so he challenged the decision in court, saying he didn’t qualify as an overseas resident because he hadn’t spent enough time outside of South Korea in 2014. [It didn’t work.]
Bae is currently 29th in the FedEx Cup points rankings.
PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem has the ability to grant an eligibility extension for the tour after his service term is up.
South Korean K.J. Choi, who has 8 PGA Tour wins, didn’t turn professional until after his military service.
—Robert Allenby, playing in the first round of the Canadian Open, had a heated confrontation with his caddie, which led to the caddie walking off mid-round, after which Allenby enlisted a fan to jump in for the last nine holes.
Allenby and Mick Middlemo had a discussion before his fourth shot on the par-5 13th (they started on No. 10). Allenby wanted a 7-iron, but the discussion focused on the 8-iron, which was about 150 yards out.
Allenby’s shot fell short of the hole and into a creek and he proceeded to triple the hole.
Allenby, after finishing with an 81, later told ScoreGolf.com:
“I said to him, ‘You know this happens every week. This has happened for like the last three or four or five months. We keep making bad mistakes, and you’re not helping me in these circumstances,’” said Allenby, 44. “And he just lost the plot at me. He just told me I could go eff myself.
“And I said, ‘Look, you need to slow down. I mean just calm down.’ And then he just got right in my face as if he wanted to just beat me up. I said, ‘Stop being a such and such and calm down and get back into the game.’ And he just got even closer and closer, and I just said, ‘That’s it, you’re sacked.’ I said, ‘I will never have you caddie ever again.’ And we never spoke for the rest of the (first nine), and when we got to 18, we walked off, and he said some smartass remark to me, and I said, ‘You don’t deserve to be caddying out here.’ And he just got right in my face and threatened me, so I said, ‘Go.’ So he left.”
Middlemo didn’t dispute much of this, but told ESPN.com that Allenby “is again using the media to make himself look like the victim.”
Middlemo said that after Allenby hit his “bad shot,” “He said, ‘I can’t believe this fat c—t,’ loud enough for everyone to hear. There’s a lot as a caddie I can take but a personal attack like that. …If this was an office in any country in the world, that would be considered bullying.”
Allenby, after conferring with officials, allowed a fan to offer his services for the back nine. Allenby withdrew after the round, but said of the fan, Tom Fraser, a 61-year-old local school principal, “He did a great job. He did everything he was told. He was a nice guy. I’m really thankful that he helped me out.”
It has been one long, awful year for Robert Allenby. See also disputed “mugging” in Hawaii.
American Pharoah
The countdown is on for next Sunday, Aug. 2, the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on the Jersey Shore.
American Pharoah turned in his second sparkling workout last Thursday at Del Mar, and trainer Bob Baffert is so pleased, he’s having him do another on Tuesday before shipping east.
But as the New York Times’ Joe Drape wrote, Pharoah is giving “racing executives across the county high levels of anxiety,” as well as Baffert.
Baffert claimed after the Belmont he was going to do everything in his power to prevent the Triple Crown champion from getting beat. But Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed, the last three Triple Crown champions, won only five of their combined 11 races as 3-year-olds after the Belmont.
Pharoah’s stallion rights have long been sold to Coolmore, an Ireland-based international racing and breeding operation, which wants the colt to retire immediately to begin his career at Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., for a fee as high as $150,000 per mating.
Drape: “Do the math: Dates with 200 mares in American Pharoah’s first year will add up to $30 million, or more than twice what Coolmore paid for the stallion rights, according to two people familiar with the deal.
“The colt’s owner, Ahmed Zayat, however, has the right to race American Pharoah through the end of the year and says he wants to share him with fans of the sport.”
In terms of the field for the Haskell, at the moment there are just five competitors, none of which is very good.
It is now estimated 60,000 will converge on Monmouth Park (a record), including your editor. A mammoth crowd for this place….and yet another reason why I booked a hotel room less than a mile walk from it.
[I’ve read some stories and I really could sell my package for a boatload.]
NFL News…days before training camp starts!
–The Seattle Seahawks have reportedly offered quarterback Russell Wilson a deal worth close to $21 million per season, with a “significant” amount of guaranteed money, according to a report from ProFootballTalk.com.
But Wilson reportedly wants more than what was offered. He is entering the last year of his rookie contract and is slated to make $1.54 million this season and if Wilson doesn’t sign an extended deal, the Seahawks can slap the franchise tag on him for 2016 and he would make over $20 million, but then they could just trade him, or franchise him another year. So, like Russell, sign the freakin’ thing!
In terms of big money deals for QBs, Aaron Rodgers leads the NFL with $22 million per season, Ben Roethlisberger is next at $21.85m, then Cam Newton ($20.8m), Matt Ryan ($20.75m), and Joe Flacco ($20.1m).
–The late Junior Seau is among those being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton on Aug. 8 and his family has been planning on what to say when they learned of this at the Super Bowl.
But the Hall of Fame does not plan to let his daughter, Sydney, or anyone else speak on Seau’s behalf. Instead, it will show a video commemorating his career, while avoiding questions about his suicide in 2012 at age 43. Subsequently, it was found that Seau had been suffering from a traumatic brain injury brought on by his playing football.
Nor will the video mention the family brought a suit against the NFL. Hall of Fame officials want to keep the focus on his football playing days and his family isn’t happy.
Sydney claims, “I just want to give the speech he would have given. It wasn’t going to be about this mess. My speech was solely about him.”
The Hall is running a five minute video tribute for Seau, two minutes longer than normal, and is including an interview with Sydney, but from before she learned she wouldn’t be allowed to speak.
Seau’s former wife, Gina, says neither she nor Sydney “were going to use the Hall of Fame as a platform.”
The family will be in attendance, but it will be a bittersweet moment.
On this one, I agree with the Hall, and by implication the NFL.
–Buffalo running back LeSean McCoy was holding a private party in the Philadelphia area, today, Sunday. It was no ordinary party and the Bills, while allowing him to hold it, asked him to take down an ad which featured their logo.
You see, LeSean, who really is a jerk (and is already in the December file already for same), is holding a “Females Only” party. Confidentiality agreements are to be signed upon entrance, after submitting pictures, proving the girls are 21, etc.
From the Associated Press: “A woman watched her father being mauled to death by a large shark Saturday while the pair were diving off the Australian island state of Tasmania, police said.
“The adult woman had returned to their boat with scallops that the pair had collected, then became concerned that her father, in his late 40s, had not surfaced after her, Inspector David Wiss told reporters in Hobart, the state capital.
“ ‘His daughter went down and checked on her father. She saw a very large shark; she saw her father being attacked by the shark.’
“The attack happened off the east coast near where a 15-foot great white shark was seen on Friday.”
In a story in Tasmania’s The Mercury newspaper, the victim’s family said they are opposed to a shark cull. The man was killed near a popular tourist and fishing spot.
The shark is now making its way to North Carolina, seeking U.S. media attention.
–Spectacularly, Kyle Busch, who missed 11 weeks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit with a broken leg and foot, has now won three races in a row, 4 of 5, in taking the Brickyard 400. Busch is now almost assured of making the Chase for the Cup field, despite all that lost time.
—Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller told SI.com that he is switching to wide receiver and that he has been catching passes from J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones since the end of spring and is planning on playing an H-back receiver role and punt returner.
Miller is a two-time Big Ten Player of the Year at quarterback, but he missed the 2014 season with a shoulder injury, allowing Barrett and Jones to step up.
Miller said, “It’s a long process to get back totally to throwing and throwing every day. This is the smarter thing for right now….I’m going to have fun with that and still score a lot of touchdowns and help the team out and be dominant.”
But it seems coach Urban Meyer told The Columbus Dispatch that Miller is “jumping the gun” and that he doesn’t know how he’ll use the kid.
Here’s what we do know. Ohio State is loaded as they prepare to defend their national title.
—ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd was let go after disparaging comments he made on air about Dominican Republican baseball players.
Cowherd said on Thursday that he didn’t believe baseball was complex, saying a third of the sport was from the D.R., which had “not been known, in my lifetime, as having, you know, world-class academic abilities.”
Major League Baseball on Friday said Cowherd owed Dominican players an apology for the remarks, and the MLB Players Association also condemned his comments.
“I could’ve made the point without using one country, and there’s all sorts of smart people from the Dominican Republic [See Pedro Martinez, you idiot!]. I could’ve said a third of baseball’s talent is being furnished from countries with economic hardships, therefore educational hurdles. For the record, I used the Dominican Republic because they’ve furnished baseball with so many great players.”
“I understand that when you mention a specific country, they get offended. I get it. I do. And for that, I feel bad. I do. But I have four reports in front of me…where there are discussions of major deficiencies in the education sector at all levels. …It wasn’t a shot at them. It was data. Five, seven years ago I talked about the same subject? Was I clunky? Perhaps. Did people not like my tone? I get it. Sometimes my tone stinks.
“I think when you host a radio show, just like Jon Stewart hosts a show, I think sometimes I bring up stuff…that makes people cringe.”
Cowherd had earlier announced he was leaving ESPN and was said to be in discussions with Fox Sports.
–The New Jersey Devils announced that longtime general manager Lou Lamoriello was leaving the Devils to become GM for the Toronto Maple Leafs, after 28 years with New Jersey, during which time the team won three Stanley Cups.
–While it’s never happened before that an NBA division winner didn’t finish within the top eight, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver nonetheless said the league is leaning towards a format that would not guarantee a playoff spot for a division winner in order not to displace a team that had a top-eight record.
So change is coming, but the competition committee and the board of governors need more time, said Silver, though it still could be for this coming season…to seed teams 1 thru 8, rather than award a division winner with no worse than the No. 4 seed as is the case today.
–The WWE killed its contract with wrestling icon Hulk Hogan on Friday, ostensibly for a racist rant on a sex tape that is the center of a multimillion dollar lawsuit with the gossip site Gawker.
Hogan said in his apology: “Eight years ago I used offensive language during a conversation. It was unacceptable for me to have used that offensive language; there is no excuse for it; and I apologize for having done it.”
According to a transcript obtained by Radar Online and the National Inquirer, Hogan said on the tape, referring to his daughter…
Actually, there is zero reason for me to write it here. It’s incredibly ugly.
The bottom line is, Hulk Hogan’s (Terry Bollea’s) career has been scrubbed clean from the WWE website and his merchandise removed.
–Racism has long been rampant in Russia’s Premier League and the other day, FC Ufa midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong – who is black – made an angry gesture toward Spartak Moscow fans who were racially taunting him. However, as Matt Bonesteel of the Washington Post reported, however, the Russian Football Union suspended Frimpong for two games, but fined Spartak Moscow all of the equivalent of $350…because its fans threw objects onto the field, not because they’re terrible racists.
The Associated Press reported the racial taunts can be heard on the video of the match, but the RFU found no evidence of it. Typical Kremlin B.S. [Just my opinion… since everything in Moscow is Kremlin related when it comes to the many racists there. Racists of all kinds, mind you. I know the place.]
It’s not the first time the Russian league sanctioned a black player but did nothing to Spartak. FC Rostov midfielder Guelor Kanga was banned for three matches for making an obscene gesture toward Spartak’s fans, but the team was fined just $1,300.
Last October, European soccer’s governing body forced CSKA Moscow to play a Champions League game in an empty stadium, punishment for racist behavior from its fans.
Remember, Russia is hosting the 2018 World Cup.
–Speaking of 2018, the Americans received a favorable grouping in terms of their qualifying draw. The U.S. will face Trinidad and Tobago and the winners of matches between St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Aruba, and Antigua and Barbua and Guatemala.
If the United States finishes as one of the top two teams after its group concludes home-and-away round-robin play, it will advance to the final round of qualifying, which pits six teams against one another in another home-and-away round robin. Three guaranteed spots in the World Cup are available, with a fourth-place team entering a playoff with a team from Asia. [Sam Borden / New York Times]
–But, in the Gold Cup semifinals Wednesday night, Jamaica stunned the United States, 2-1. The “Reggae Boyz” scored their two goals in a five-minute span in the first half and held on.
U.S. goalie Brad Guzan made a dumb play on the second goal, getting caught outside the penalty area on a routine throw (his arm crossed the line) that gave the Jamaicans a dangerous free kick that they converted.
The Reggae Boyz are the first Caribbean nation to reach a Gold Cup final, while the Americans, who had played in five straight Gold Cup finals, had to settle for the third-place game, which they then lost on Saturday to Panama on penalties after tying 1-1! We suck!
Mexico is playing Jamaica for the title as I go to post.
Bottom line, the U.S. better get its freakin’ act together.
–Brad K. passed on the story of the black bear who was found in Washington state, sleeping off a “major buzz, with three dozen empty cans of Rainier beer close by.”
As Rick Couri reported, Sgt. Bill Heinck said, “This is a new one on me. I’ve known them to get into cans, but nothing like this.”
Mount Baker campground employee Lisa Broxson told NBC News, “He drank the Rainier and wouldn’t drink the Busch beer. It definitely had a preference.”
Employees confirmed the bear tried one can of Busch, but ignored the rest.
Eventually, workers were able to trap the bear by offering donuts, honey, and two more cans of Rainier beer. He was then taken to another location.
Personally, I haven’t had Busch since college. But I’ll have to try and find some Rainier to see if it qualifies as a “premium domestic.”
–As part of his trip to Kenya, President Obama announced new legal changes intended to help protect endangered wildlife in African nations. The sale of African elephant ivory across state lines in the U.S. will be restricted, which, when added with existing laws, amounts to a near total ban on the commercial trade of African elephant ivory in the United States.
This is good. The U.S. had become the second-largest consumer of poached ivory, behind China.
For the likes of Kenya, which relies on tourism (12% of its economy), this is also good.
Americans can still sell ivory across state lines but only if it meets the strict criteria of the antiques exemption listed in the Endangered Species Act; which means it has to be at least 100 years old.
–Speaking of poaching, Robyn Dixon of the Los Angeles Times reported from South Africa and South Africa’s Rhino Orphanage. More than 1,200 rhinos were killed by poachers in South Africa last year, a sickening toll and up from just 13 in 2007. By May 6, 550 rhinos had been slaughtered in 2015.
South Africa is home to three-quarters of the world’s rhino population.
As for the orphans that are saved, it is gut-wrenching stuff as they call out for their mothers. The staffers stay with them around the clock in a warm shelter when they first arrive at the orphanage until it’s safe to let them out in the large enclosure to bond with other rhinos that have been saved.
You’ve seen much of this on a “60 Minutes” story from a few years ago. But we have to kill these poachers…soon.
–Some of us in the New York City area are mourning the imminent closing of legendary biker bar Hogs and Heifers, which Trader George introduced me to ages ago. After more than 20 years on Washington Street in the Meatpacking District, owner Michelle Dell said she couldn’t afford to stay when her landlord jacked the rent to $60,000.
Dell said, “I sell Pabst Blue Ribbon for $3. I still sell beer for $5 or $6. I am not a business that can sell a bottle of beer for $12 and margaritas for $15.”
“Songwriter Wayne Carson was on the phone with his wife in the early 1970s, apologizing for being away from home so much for work.
“ ‘I said, ‘Well, I know I’ve been gone a lot, but I’ve been thinking about you all the time,’’ Carson said in a 1988 interview with The Times. ‘And it just struck me like someone had hit me with a hammer. I told her real fast I had to hang up because I had to put that into a song.’
“The result was the wistful ballad ‘Always on my Mind,’ which was one of Willie Nelson’s most enduring hits….and won Carson a Grammy for Song of the Year in 1983.”
[For the record, Carson had help on the song, needing a bridge that Mark James and Johnny Christopher helped him come up with.]
Carson also wrote “The Letter,” a No. 1 song for the Box Tops in 1967, which was later on the charts again in a version by Joe Cocker.
Top 3 songs for the week 7/29/67: #1 “Light My Fire” (The Doors…one of the great summer pool songs of all time…) #2 “I Was Made To Love Her” (Stevie Wonder) #3 “Windy” (The Association…underrated group…)…and…#4 “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” (Frankie Valli…ah yes, “The Deer Hunter” scene…) #5 “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” (Procol Harum) #6 “Little Bit O’Soul” (The Music Explosion) #7 “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” (The Buckinghams) #8 “White Rabbit” (Jefferson Airplane… story of a fluffy white rabbit that loved to frolic in the meadows with other rabbits…or maybe not…) #9 “Up – Up And Away” (The 5th Dimension) #10 “C’mon Marianne” (The 4 Seasons…now that is a darn good week…)
Cincinnati Reds Quiz Answers: 1) Frank Robinson holds the single-season runs scored record at 134 in 1962. 2) Frank McCormick had 209 hits in each of 1938-39. ’38 was his first full season at age 27. McCormick was actually N.L. MVP in 1940 with modest numbers…19 HR 127 RBI, .309 BA. 3) George Foster is the only Reds player to hit 50 home runs, 52, in 1977. 4) ’77 was also the year Foster drove in a franchise-record 149. 5) Mario Soto holds the single-season strikeout mark with 274 in 1982.
