[Posted Wednesday a.m.]
Baseball Quiz: [Courtesy of information contained in a recent Mike Lupica piece.] Name the four who have hit 500 home runs in the big leagues and won three World Series. Answer below.
Baseball Playoffs
–The Yankees were putrid in a 3-0 wild-card loss to Houston and Dallas Keuchel at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. 3 hits and out. Sayonara. Yankee starter Masahiro Tanaka yielded solo shots to Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez in five innings of work, while Keuchel pitched six scoreless on short rest, and the Houston pen held the Yanks hitless the rest of the way. What a pathetic way to go out.
The Yankees didn’t even start outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, the guy they stupidly gave $153 million to after the 2013 campaign – “the most they ever have bestowed upon a position player not named Rodriguez, Teixeira or Derek Jeter.” [Joel Sherman / New York Post]
This season, in 452 ABs he hit .257 with 7 home runs and 33 RBIs. Injuries limited him to 111 games, but he just turned 32 and the Yankees are obligated to him through 2020. What a disaster.
–Then there’s the story of Yankee lefty CC Sabathia. Sabathia stunned the Yankees on Monday in issuing a statement that read:
“I am checking myself into an alcohol rehabilitation center to receive the professional care and assistance needed to treat my disease. …It hurts me deeply to do this now, but I owe it to myself and to my family to get myself right. I want to take control of my disease, and I want to be a better man, father and player.”
Bob Nightengale / USA TODAY
“The pain must have been unbearable, or perhaps it was an ugly incident that frightened him and his family, for CC Sabathia to abandon his New York Yankees teammates.
“You don’t walk away, not on the eve of the postseason, unless there’s something terribly wrong.
“All we know now is that Sabathia won’t throw a single pitch, let alone set foot in Yankee Stadium
“Let’s turn our focus solely to Sabathia.
“Sabathia issued the stunning announcement Monday that he would be immediately entering an alcohol rehab program, and will be gone the rest of the postseason.
“Perhaps the Yankees’ postseason lasts only a day, anyways, and they lose Tuesday night in the wild card game to the Houston Astros. Maybe it lasts just a week, and they’re eliminated by the Kansas City Royals in the Division Series. Maybe they have a miraculous run, and are in the World Series for the first time since Sabathia helped them win it all in 2009.
“Anyone who knows Sabathia – and he perhaps has more friends than anyone in the game – realizes that something has gone dreadfully wrong for him to step away now.
“ ‘What CC is dealing with is a life issue,’ Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. ‘It’s bigger than the game (Tuesday).’…
“This is a man with an impeccable image, and the reputation as one of baseball’s ultimate teammates. He treats the clubhouse attendants with the same respect as Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner. He’ll invite rookies to dinner on the road, paying for the meals, and buying them new suits now that they’re in the big leagues.
“The media adores him. He’s always available, forever taking responsibility, and never offering excuses or ducking questions….
“He was from the old school, an ultimate competitor, who also happened to be a fun-loving guy, enjoying dinner out on the town, listening to music, and having a few drinks at a nightclub.
“He had no enemies….
“The most alarming facet of the news is the timing.
“The Yankees are in the postseason, and considering their season could be over by Tuesday night, why couldn’t Sabathia simply have waited, and quietly entered an alcohol rehab center later in October, perhaps without anyone ever knowing?
“He could have undergone his treatment, and spared his family, friends and the Yankee organization, the need for it to ever become public.
“This is what terrifies his friends. The unknown.”
There have been some incidents for sure, especially the last two months, including a shouting match outside a Toronto nightclub at 3 in the morning in mid-August.
From the New York Post:
“ ‘His drinking got really bad this weekend, and it put him in a really bad place,’ said a source close to the team.
“ ‘He was afraid. He felt that if I don’t do this now and go into rehab, I don’t know what is going to happen.’
“The last straw for Sabathia came during the team’s final regular-season series in Baltimore, where he spent most of his time pounding drinks at a hotel, the source said.”
CC checked himself into a Connecticut facility for at least 30 days.
Sabathia has been a workhorse since signing with the Yankees after the 2008 season.
2009…19-8
2010…21-7
2011…19-8
2012…15-6
He was also 7-2 in the postseason during these four seasons. But since then he’s been injured and/or largely ineffective when on the mound.
He’s also in the midst of a seven-year, $161 million contract that he signed after his first season and is owed $25 million next season and has a $25 million vesting option for 2017.
I think what surprises many of us in the timing is that he’s actually thrown the ball pretty well his last four starts and no doubt was going to get a start if the Yanks had continued beyond Tuesday. Oh well, that point is moot.
–Meanwhile, Mets vs. Dodgers…two of the best pitching matchups in baseball postseason history, especially in terms of sheer power.
Friday in L.A.
Jacob deGrom (14-8, 2.54 ERA, 191 IP 205 SO) vs. Clayton Kershaw (16-7, 2.13, 232.2 IP 301 SO)
Saturday in L.A.
Noah Syndergaard (9-7, 3.24, 150 IP 166 SO) vs. Zack Greinke (19-3, 1.66, 222 IP 200 SO).
The Mets and their fans are just praying for a split. I feel like our hitters can go yard twice in each contest and thinking both games could end up 3-2.
And the Dodgers’ recent playoff history has not been good, let alone Kershaw’s. As has been well-documented, despite his Hall of Fame regular season prowess, lifetime he is 1-5 with a 5.12 ERA in the postseason, including 1-4 the last two years. [Actually, 0-4 his last four starts with a 7.15 ERA.]
Bill Plaschke / Los Angeles Times:
“The team’s dreadful postseason streak extends far beyond the reaches of the Dodgers’ current group, dating to 1995. Since then, among the 19 teams that have played at least 30 playoff games, none has a worse record than the Dodgers’ 15-28. During that time, the Dodgers have made eight playoff appearances without reaching a World Series.”
It’s also not just Kershaw. Adrian Gonzalez batted .188 in his most recent postseason series; Andre Eithier has hit .148 in his last two postseasons.
The Mets, on the other hand, had to deal once again with Matt Harvey and his stupid antics. The pitcher showed up very late for a mandatory practice on Tuesday, once again putting his manager and teammates in a tough spot as they tried to make excuses for him but it was clear he’d have to face the music….When it was over, Terry Collins said, “He’s going to have to deal with his teammates.”
Mike Vaccaro / New York Post
“(All) you needed to know, all you needed to hear, was the way David Wright addressed Harvey’s inability to do what the other 27 men reporting to Citi Field for a mandatory workout Tuesday managed to do: Show up. On time.
“ ‘I’m concerned about the guys that are here,’ Wright said, each syllable 10 degrees colder than the one before. ‘The guys that are here, we had a great workout. We’re rolling. We’re clicking. Guys came in today, took care of business, did what they need to do to prepare for Friday.’….
“Harvey himself copped to his indiscretion: ‘I screwed up. There’s not really anything else to say. They know what happened. I told everybody and apologized to everybody and told them it’s not going to happen again. It’s never happened before. Unfortunately, it happened kind of at a bad time, a mandatory time. Truly, I just screwed up.’….
“But this is now twice in the past five weeks that Harvey has allowed his own personal drama to intrude with the Mets’ path to the postseason. There has always been a 24-and-1 vibe to him anyway, that only reaches fever pitch when something like this happens….
“Is this the worst transgression a teammate has ever committed? Of course not, not even close. But the fact is this is a horrible optic. Harvey has said time and again how he craves a leadership role on this team, has been emphatic about how he wanted to be a part of the solution when the Mets finally turned things around. And he has been.
“But the drama has to stop.”
Harvey gets the ball in Game 3. As Vaccaro concludes, it’s then he needs to “Show us you’re worth the hassle.”
[A source told the New York Daily News that Harvey was out Monday night watching Monday Night Football in Tribeca with his friends over dinner and drinks. He supposedly left the place at 11:00 p.m.]
–The Nationals wasted no time in firing manager Matt Williams and the entire coaching staff after their disastrous 83-79 season, especially given the $164 million payroll.
But while the likes of Jordan Zimmermann and Ian Desmond are likely to walk, the Nats still have a ton of talent. It should be an attractive gig.
So who will replace him? I like what Barry Svrluga wrote in the Washington Post about one candidate.
“Bud Black. For eight-and-a-half seasons he managed the San Diego Padres, often at times when the club didn’t have the payroll clout or development system to compete against the powers in the National League West, the Dodgers and Giants. Yes, he had only two winning seasons. No, he never won a division title or even reached the postseason, the high-water mark coming in 2010, when the Padres won 90 games and finished two games behind the Giants.
“But Black, who pitched in 398 big league games over a 15-year career, comes with two primary attributes that would be useful in Washington right now: a deep understanding of pitching and an ability to relate to his players. When Black was fired this season – a move made by new general manager A.J. Preller with San Diego standing 32-33 – longtime Padres spoke of their connection to a man they admired.”
There has been some talk about Cal Ripken Jr., but no way.
–The Los Angeles Angels are looking at the bright side, despite failing to make the playoffs. After a dismal 10-19 August, they at least went 20-10 in September and October and were in the hunt until the final day, only to run out of gas in a 9-2 loss to the Rangers.
–I didn’t have a chance to mention this last time, but Jayson Stark was handing out his various awards and I loved his term, “AL Cy Yuk”…the White Sox’ Jeff Samardzija.
Samardzija “did something this season that has only been done one other time in the last 75 years. He made three different starts in which he gave up at least nine earned runs. Three. Only Jamie Navarro (for the 1997 White Sox) joins him in that pantheon.”
But Samardzija also was the only pitcher in baseball to throw a complete-game shutout against the Blue Jays. And the game after he gave up 10 earned in three innings to Oakland on Sept. 15, he threw a complete-game one-hitter against the Tigers.
Overall, Samardzija finished 11-13, 4.96 ERA.
And that’s your A.L. Cy Yuk award winner. [Mat Latos was Stark’s N.L. Cy Yuk recipient.]
–The Dodgers led the major leagues in attendance for a third straight season, drawing 3.76 million. The Yankees drew 3.4 million and topped the A.L. for the 13th consecutive year. Tampa Bay drew a big league-low 1.25 million.
Those of in the New York area know the Yankees’ total is kind of farcical. Yes, it’s tickets sold, not who actually shows up for the games.
The Major League Baseball average of 30,517 fans this season, though, was the sport’s seventh-highest mark, bettering last year’s 30,454 and the most since 30,985 in 2012. The average peaked at 32,785 in 2007.
College Football
–Just a few big games on paper this weekend, with two at 3:30 ET, 4-0 Navy at No. 15 Notre Dame, and No. 13 Northwestern at No. 18 Michigan.
Later you have Miami at No. 12 Florida State, a game Hurricanes coach Al Golden desperately needs, and there’s a battle of undefeateds that is intriguing, No. 23 California at No. 5 Utah. Are the Golden Bears for real?
Lastly, in the Ferraro’s Lunch Bowl, Ferraro’s being a fine Italian establishment in Westfield, N.J., your editor’s Wake Forest Demon Deacons travel up to Beantown to face the Boston College Eagles…no points…the editor vs. Steve D., B.C. alum. Coupled with our bets on basketball, I’ve lost a bunch of lunches in a row and I’m really kind of torqued off.
–As I go to post, it still hasn’t been determined if South Carolina will be able to host LSU on Saturday due to the catastrophic flooding in the Columbia area. If the Gamecocks cannot host the game, they would lose out on $3.8 million in projected ticket sales, which was a big portion of the athletic department’s budget, with only a Nov. 28 game against Clemson bringing in more.
–No. 19 Georgia is at Tennessee, Saturday, and I forgot to note last time in talking about how Georgia coach Mark Richt has come up small in big games in recent times, like last week’s loss to Alabama at home, that the record is pretty plain.
Following are the last few years…the AP high ranking during the season and the final AP ranking and record.
2015…7 (AP high thus far)…?
2014…6…9 (10-3)
2013…5…unranked (8-5)
2012…3…5 (12-2)
2011…12…19 (10-4)
2008…1…13 (10-3)
Now to be fair, Richt, whose first season in Athens was 2001, did finish 3rd in the AP poll in 2002 and 2nd in 2007, and he has guided the Bulldogs to 14 straight bowl appearances, but they just haven’t gotten over the hump.
–Auburn dismissed receiver Duke Williams for failing “to meet the expectations of our program,” as Coach Gus Malzahn put it in a statement. Williams entered the season as one of the most highly regarded seniors at the wide receiver position.
After a junior season where he had 45 catches for 730 yards and five touchdowns, he was largely missing in action the first five games this year, with just 12 catches for 147 yards.
The Tigers are off to a disappointing 3-2 (0-2) start.
NFL
–So I didn’t stay up for the end of the Monday night contest between Seattle and Detroit, but heard of the ending first thing in the morning and, for the archives, here’s the report from Sam Farmer / Los Angeles Times:
“An apparent officiating blunder Monday night potentially helped the Seattle Seahawks avert a loss to the winless Detroit Lions.
“The play in question happened with 1 minute 51 seconds to play and Detroit trailing, 13-10, but on the verge of scoring a go-ahead touchdown.
“Receiver Calvin Johnson caught a short pass, ran through the defense and lunged for the goal line. The ball was poked out of his hands by safety Kam Chancellor [Ed. outstanding play!] just before it crossed the plane and bounced toward the back of the end zone.
“The infraction missed by the officials was linebacker K.J. Wright’s batting the ball out of the back of the end zone instead of allowing it to bounce out without his help.
“Officials mistakenly called it a touchback but replays showed that Wright should have been called for illegal batting, a 10-yard penalty.
“According to former NFL Gerry Austin, a rules analyst for ESPN: ‘The rule says the ball cannot be batted in either end zone by either team when it’s loose. The ball should have come back to the offense at the spot where it was fumbled, and [the Seahawks] should have been penalized half the distance [to the goal line]. So it would be first and goal for the Lions at the one-quarter yard line.’
“Instead, Seattle got the ball at the 20, drove downfield and ran out the clock.”
After the game, Dean Blandino, the league’s vice president of officiating, told the NFL Network that the question of an illegal bat is not subjected to replay review.
–I posted last time before the Sunday night game between New Orleans and Dallas and the Saints (1-3), behind Drew Brees, prevailed in overtime 26-20 to hand Dallas (2-2) its second straight loss without Tony Romo at the helm. Brandon Weeden has filled in admirably, going 16/26, 245, 1-0, 105.6, Sunday, but Dallas has other issues.
As for Brees, it was assumed he was finally finished, washed up, with a bum throwing shoulder, but all he did was go 33/41, 359, 2-0, 119.4, including an 80-yard TD pass to C.J. Spiller for the winner in OT. [Actually, a dink to Spiller who did the rest.]
The last effort was the 400th of Brees’ career, joining an exclusive club consisting of Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Dan Marino.
–The Miami Dolphins fired Coach Joe Philbin after the team got off to a miserable 1-3 start, including Sunday’s loss to the Jets in London. So at least he got a trip there out of the gig.
The Dolphins were 8-8 the past two seasons, fading from playoff contention late in the year. So they went out and spent money, including a fortune on defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh, while giving quarterback Ryan Tannehill a long-term contract. Plus they spent $400 million upgrading the team’s stadium.
But after beating the Redskins in their opener, they lost to the Jaguars in Jacksonville, and then were embarrassed by both the Bills and Jets, division rivals.
Philbin was 24-28 as coach in Miami and never led his team to the playoffs. Plus you had the scandal in 2013 involving the bullying of offensive lineman Jonathan Martin.
Dan Campbell, the team’s tight ends coach for the past five years, will take over as interim head coach.
–So I was watching the Steelers-Ravens game last Thursday and noticed Baltimore receiver Michael Campanaro take himself out of the game, walking kind of gingerly, but had no idea what his injury was and didn’t learn ‘til later that he is out for the season with a back injury. What a bummer. He was just beginning to come into his own and was clearly being increasingly counted on as a playmaker.
Wake Forest fans, with few players to cheer for in the NFL, can’t be happy, but then, ironically, the Ravens went out and traded for Rams wideout Chris Givens, another Demon Deacon, who had clearly fallen on the depth chart in St. Louis but has a world of talent…number one being speed. Wake insider Chris K. told me it was Campanaro who convinced Baltimore management to go after his former teammate.
I’m tellin’ ya, this could be one of the sleeper moves of the year. If Givens is healthy, he can fly, and Ravens QB Joe Flacco throws the best long ball in the league. It will be interesting to see if Givens takes advantage of his opportunity, and he’ll get a shot because not only is Campanaro out for the season, but Steve Smith Sr. is out at least a week with microfractures in his back.
–Speaking of Wake Forest, you know what I missed Sunday? Wake’s Nikita Whitlock, who starred in Winston-Salem as an undersized defensive lineman, making All-ACC his senior year, but had since turned himself into a fullback, had a sack late in the game for the Giants.
Here I was focused on his superb blocking, but I must have switched to the Mets briefly and missed it.
Whitlock is going to be playing fullback, defensive lineman and on special teams, but the Giants are going to parcel out his playing time to keep him fresh, especially for late in the game, where his quickness can be too much for tired offensive linemen. Very cool. Keep your eye on #49, who is quickly becoming one of the better stories of the year in the NFL.
–There were four missed extra-point attempts in the NFL on Sunday, while by the end of Sunday’s games NFL kickers had made 83.5 percent of their field goal attempts, which is the lowest conversion rate since 2011.
As Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post writes, the success rate on extra points, 283 out of 300 through Sunday, is the lowest success rate since 1982, which was the point of making the kick a 33-yard attempt this year. I still don’t like the change, though admittedly it could get exciting in some bad weather playoff games. [In bad weather, you’ll definitely see more two-point conversion attempts.]
–Finally, you have the scandal that blew wide open at daily fantasy sites (DFS) DraftKings and FanDuel.
Michael Colangelo, asst. director at the USC Sports Business Institute / USA TODAY:
“The companies have strict rules about employees playing on their sites, meaning that anyone employed by DraftKings can’t play on DraftKings. That doesn’t stop an employee of DraftKings from playing on FanDuel. The biggest concern is the hypothetical situation where a DraftKings employee takes his/her insider information from their place of employment and uses that information to gain an advantage on a competitor’s site. Is it fair that a DraftKings employee can see what the DFS sharps are setting for their lineups and then essentially copy said lineup in a FanDuel tournament? The answer is simple: No, it isn’t fair and protections should be put in place to make sure employees don’t have insider information or they shouldn’t be allowed to play on any DFS.
“Think this isn’t happening? A DraftKings employee recently won $350,000 on a FanDuel contest. Is there proof that this employee used nefarious means to gain advantage? No, not right now. However, the perception of impropriety isn’t good for an industry that already has a magnifying glass on its day-to-day operations.
“The average fan is going to have a hard enough time competing with DFS sharps as is. The increase in participation has essentially turned DFS contests (which include USA TODAY Sports’ FantasyScore) into a lottery. Now it’s possible that some people are rigging the lottery in their favor.”
As ESPN.com reports, “There are no allegations – or evidence – that the DraftKings employee used information about the percentage of players who drafted certain players in last week’s contest to finish in second place in the NFL Sunday Million contest run by FanDuel. The contest, which cost $25 to enter, featured $5 million in cash winnings, including $1 million to the winner.
“A DraftKings spokesman acknowledged that employees of both companies have earned sizable prizes playing at other daily fantasy sites….
“DraftKings and Fan Duel posted on their sites an unusual joint statement saying they have no evidence anyone misused information for profit….
“Chris Grove, who operates the Legal Sports Report site, said even the outside possibility of a rigged contest raises critical questions about the integrity of the daily fantasy industry.”
Daniel Wallach, a sports and gambling lawyer based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, told the New York Times:
“The single greatest threat to the daily fantasy sports industry is the misuse of insider information. It could imperil this nascent industry unless real, immediate and meaningful safeguards are put in place. If the industry is unwilling to undertake these reforms voluntarily, it will be imposed on them involuntarily as part of a regulatory framework.”
Nancy Armour / USA TODAY
“The daily fantasy sports industry has two choices right now. Take steps to regulate itself in strict and transparent fashion, or start writing goodbye notes.
“It’s that simple. Unless the powers that be recognize they’re no longer working out of somebody’s basement or the back room of a bar, where rules and regulations are more a suggestion than actual practice, the fallout over DraftKings’ recent data breach and the accompanying questions it raised about possible insider trading could be the demise of the industry.”
Congress is now moving in. New York State’s attorney general just announced an investigation into the fantasy sports business. And as I’ve written the past few weeks, you have major investors, including the professional sports leagues, who have placed big investments on future growth.
I don’t see the industry dying, but there will be changes.
Me? I’ll keep playing…just $3 a week, one entry. I know there are countless players like the one I described a few weeks ago from a BloombergBusinessweek article who uses all manner of algorithms to place sometimes hundreds of bets each week, trying to win small amounts that, over time, add up to big money. I’m just doing it for the entertainment value, plus I’m already writing on the games and tournaments. Thus far, in 11 bets placed between golf and the NFL, I’ve won twice.
–A Seattle teenager died of injuries suffered while playing for his school’s football team. The boy, 17, suffered internal bleeding during a game Friday night, spent the weekend in the hospital and died Monday. He is the fourth high school football player to die in the last month. I didn’t see if there was an autopsy report yet.
I also forgot to note that due to the awful weather here on Saturday, I did not go to my high school alma mater’s game…Summit’s first since it was involved in the third fatality, a player with Summit’s opponent the week before. From reports, the Summit players were in a major funk and lost 42-0 to Cranford, a rare defeat for this wildly successful program the last 7 years or so.
Stuff
–When I saw that SMU’s men’s golf program had been banned from postseason play by the NCAA, I thought, no way senior Bryson DeChambeau will stick around since he is unable to defend his individual title.
So Monday it was reported that DeChambeau will most likely leave by December. He had earned exemptions into the 2016 Masters, U.S. Open and British Open with his U.S. Amateur victory last summer and now it’s expected he’ll turn pro after the Masters to play in PGA Tour events on sponsor exemptions with the hope of earning playing privileges.
—Liverpool sacked its manager, Brendan Rodgers, just 8 games into the Premier League season It appears German Jurgen Klopp, former Borussia Dortmund coach, is the favorite to take over.
Rodgers led Liverpool to second place in the Premier League in 2013-14, but they were on top of the table with three games to play and ended up losing to Manchester City.
In his three seasons, he guided the team to 7th-, 2nd- and 6th-place finishes.
This year they were tenth…3 wins 3 draws 2 losses.
—Stephon Marbury, who is rolling out a renewal of his inexpensive Starbury shoe line, ripped Michael Jordan, Nike’s sneaker king, over violence that erupts with each new release of Jordan’s expensive, exclusive shoes over the years.
As reported by Cindy Boren of the Washington Post, “Marbury, who plays in China, was touting his shoes as a bargain on social media when a reader noted that he chose Starburys when they were going for $15 a pair rather than the latest edition of Jordan’s, which go for hundreds of dollars. The unveiling of the latest Air Jordan models always arrives with great fanfare. The arrival of limited editions of Jordan’s Nike shoes has been met with violence that Marbury finds unconscionable.”
Marbury tweeted: Real people know. I’m off the kids getting killed for Jordan’s. I hate that this dude won’t change that. Greedy!
“Another Twitter user responded that Jordan only cares about profits from the line’s sales, not the ‘troubling impact’ of those sales. Jordan, a billionaire, made $100 million in 2014 from Nike, Jumpman and Air Jordan, according to a PBS NewsHour report this month on the 2014-15 $34-billion sneaker industry. Nike and the Jordan Brand account for more than 90 percent of basketball shoe sales in the U.S., according to the report.”
Forbes reported: “The Jordan Brand commanded 58% market share of the $4.2 billion basketball shoe market last year, up from 54% in 2013. The Swoosh’s share jumps to 95.5% if you include Nike Basketball.”
LeBron James also has a shoe that sells with a huge markup. His signature brand goes for over $200.
–We note the passing of former NBA center Neal Walk, who died in Phoenix on Sunday at the age of 67. While no cause was given, he was known to be in poor health.
Walk was one of the first Florida Gators to play in the NBA and one of the better players in SEC history, averaging 19.8 rebounds a game in his junior season, leading the NCAA, along with 26.5 points. He was selected by the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the 1969 draft.
But, as Bruce Weber of the New York Times notes:
“In spite of his skills and achievements, he might be best remembered as a consolation prize. In the 1968-69 season, the Suns had been one of two expansion teams in the NBA – the Milwaukee Bucks were the other – and after that year, a coin flip determined which would receive the first pick in the draft. The Bucks won and selected Lew Alcindor, who became the greatest scorer and perhaps the greatest player in the history of the game. The Suns took Walk.
“Along with Connie Hawkins, Paul Silas and Dick Van Arsdale, Walk helped lead Phoenix to its first winning records, including a 49-33 finish in 1971-72. One of its wins that season, on Jan. 11, 1972, was a 115-114 squeaker against the Bucks in which Walk, a left-handed shooter, scored 42 points against Abdul-Jabbar, who had 27 and fouled out.”
Walk’s best year was 1972-73, when he averaged 20.2 points and 12.4 rebounds. For his career, which he ended with the Knicks, he averaged 12.6 points and 7.7 rebounds.
The Gators retired his jersey number, 41, in 1997. In 2006, he was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
–This isn’t good. From Matt Bonesteel of the Washington Post:
“The NHL and its players’ union are in talks to amend the league’s collective bargaining agreement to add cocaine and other similar drugs to the list of banned substances.
“A league official talked about the growing concern over the drug to TSN’s Rick Westhead:
“ ‘The number of [cocaine] positives are more than they were in previous years and they’re going up,’ NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told TSN in an interview. ‘I wouldn’t say it’s a crisis in any sense. What I’d say is drugs like cocaine are cyclical and you’ve hit a cycle where it’s an ‘in’ drug again.’”
Daly said, however, he felt like it couldn’t be more than 20 players.
The thing is, players are screened for recreational drugs under the league’s drug-testing policy, but they face almost zero chance of sanction unless they are convicted of a drug-related criminal offense.
The other three major sports all prohibit cocaine use by players and punish them if they test positive for it.
–The NHL announced on Monday that it had suspended Sharks forward Raffi Torres for 41 games – half of the 2015-16 season – for an illegal check to the head and interference on Anaheim Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg during an exhibition game last weekend.
This is the third-longest suspension in NHL history for an on-ice incident. It’s also the fifth time Torres has been suspended in his NHL career, the majority of which have involved hits to an opponents head.
–Jerry Tarde, Editor-in-Chief of Golf Digest, says in the October 2015 issue that he’s been trying to get Bill Murray to agree to do a cover (and/or interview) for decades, but to no avail. For their first-ever comedy issue, Tarde once again failed to.
So Tarde asked some of his young caddies if Bill Murray was still relevant. “I remember one reciting the ‘Caddyshack’ dialogue of Carl Spackler, who looped for the Dalai Lama.”
Well, you all know it…but it bears repeating.
“Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know? And he says, ‘Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.’ So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.”
–Jordan B. responded to my Bar Chat note I was going with my Rangers to win the Stanley Cup by taking to Twitter and basically saying, ‘no way.’ But that’s OK, he’s a Penguins fan. Good luck, Jordan.
–Brad K. passed along this tale out of Mahwah, NJ, one of Jersey’s bear hubs.
“The bear suspected of following numerous hikers at a New Jersey State Forest in recent weeks has been captured and euthanized Monday, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection announced.
“All access points to Ramapo Mountain State Forest remain closed through the end of the week as a precaution resulting from the black bear activity….
“Officials were notified of two encounters people had with the bear Saturday. Three women hikers said they were pursued by a bear and encountered a man with his dog; the four escaped unharmed.
“The bear also repeatedly approached and swatted at a man hiking on the park’s Yellow Trail Saturday. The hiker fought the bear off with pepper spray. The bear chased after the man but gave up near a pedestrian bridge that crossed Route 287, officials said.
“Two hikers, a 21-year-old and a 7-year-old said they were closely followed by a potentially aggressive black bear in the forest on Sept. 19. Another man said the bear came within 15 feet of him and his dog.” [Daniel Hubbard and Jason Koestenblatt / Mahwah Patch]
This is the same area where a Rutgers student was killed by a bear while hiking last year.
–A 20-year-old German woman died at a popular Thai resort island after being stung by a box jellyfish, the third reported fatality there in 14 months from one of the world’s most toxic creatures, as reported by the AP and the New York Times.
You can die within minutes from the sting as the venom quickly attacks the heart and nervous system.
Top 3 songs for the week 10/3/64: #1 “Oh, Pretty Woman” (Roy Orbison) #2 “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” (Manfred Mann) #3 “Bread And Butter” (The Newbeats)…and…#4 “Dancing In The Street” (Martha & The Vandellas…timeless…) #5 “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)” (The Shangri-Las) #6 “G.T.O.” (Ronny & The Daytonas) #7 “It Hurts To Be In Love” (Gene Pitney…great tune…) #8 “The House Of The Rising Sun” (The Animals…story about a house facing east…) #9 “We’ll Sing In The Sunshine” (Gale Garnett…incredibly depressing song…you ever really listen to it?…) #10 “Save It For Me” (The 4 Seasons…Beatles were on a brief break in terms of cranking out the hits…)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Four to hit 500 home runs and win three World Series: Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson and David Ortiz.
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
