[Posted Wednesday a.m.]
Cleveland Browns Quiz: Name the five to rush for 5,000 yards in their Browns’ careers, all modern era, ergo, Marion Motley is No. 6. Answer below.
World Series Postmortem
I have friends who are non-Mets fans asking me how I’m holding up…how I’m accepting the team’s choke job in the World Series, and I’m still ticked off days after. Monday, a leading sports talk guy in New York, who is a Yankees fan, was on trying to convince us we should just be happy we made it, which is the reasoning of Tyler Kepner down below as well.
But we should have won the Series in five!!! The Mets led in all five games and were the first to lose three after leading in the eighth (one in the eighth, two in the ninth).
I don’t know if I’ll ever experience another World Series, let alone win one, in my lifetime. Sure, we have an awesome starting staff as a foundation, but I agree with manager Terry Collins (whose contract was extended). He’s already concerned about what kind of shape Harvey, deGrom and Syndergaard will be in come spring training. All three were extended well beyond what is deemed prudent these days.
So, no, I’m not satisfied. If we lost in five getting our butts kicked, that would be one thing. But it was there for the taking…and we blew it.
Other opinion….
Tyler Kepner / New York Times
“The Mets’ history is not as bleak as their fans sometimes suggest. But this much is true: Blue-and-orange joy rides, like the one just ended, should be treasured.
“Remember that night in July when the Mets used John Mayberry Jr. and Eric Campbell to bat fourth and fifth against Clayton Kershaw? No Mets fan would have refused this deal, if offered then: Your team will reach the World Series and hold a late lead in four of five games, but from there, you take your chances.
“Somehow, that really happened. Somehow, Wilmer Flores went from crying on the field, when he thought he had been traded, to standing at home plate, in Mets blue, as the final hitter of the 2015 major league season.
“It was a rollicking season – the Mets were no-hit twice at home! – and a bizarre little World Series. Closer Jeurys Familia pitched five innings, allowing three hits with no walks, no hit batters and no wild pitches. Yet he became the first pitcher in history with three blown saves in a World Series.
“ ‘I understand baseball,’ Familia said. ‘This is a crazy game.’
“The Kansas City Royals left no doubt about which team was best. Yes, the Mets had their chances, but the Royals were professional agitators. They never let up.”
Michael Powell / New York Times
“So a glorious run of a Mets season, a trip deeper into the terra incognita of the postseason than anyone had reason to expect in midsummer, ended in an improbable string of sorrows.
“It was as if the Kansas City Royals made a margin call on the joy and luck the Mets experienced this autumn, and not just in that endless and deadening 12th-inning denouement.
“The second baseman who stroked home run after home run in October could not pick up a grounder on a critical play; the fearless young closer who had given up not a run all postseason surrendered a crushing homer; the Mets’ alpha dog of a staff ace pitched an artful, dominating final start, only to see one of his fastballs reach the left-field wall in what was to be his triumphant final inning.
“Manager Terry Collins, who was on a golden postseason roll, went with sentiment and let Harvey pitch the ninth inning. ‘He said, ‘I want this game in the worst way,’’ Collins said. ‘So obviously I let me heart get in the way of my gut. I love my players.’
“ ‘It was,’ he added, ‘my fault.’
“So a night that seemed to offer a stay of execution instead became a delayed execution.”
K.C. won 11 games in the postseason, and in seven of them trailed by at least two runs at some point, before coming back to win. No team had ever done that, as well as the above-mentioned three in the eighth inning or later. They also led just 13 of the 53 innings in the Series, but, without any real stars, they are indeed relentless and have a superb bullpen. Not a bad combination.
–The Mets face a ton of off-season questions and challenges. As they no doubt let Yoenis Cespedes and Daniel Murphy go, they have a middle of the infield issue, the need for a right-handed power bat, insurance for David Wright at third (signing Juan Uribe for a year is a solid option), questions over Juan Lagares’ throwing arm, and bullpen issues.
They also have to decide what to do with their starting staff of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz. It behooves the organization to begin to try and lock some of them up for a spell, even though they are all under team control for years to come (Harvey being the first to hit free agency after the 2018 season).
—Game 5 was seen by an average of 17.2 million viewers on Fox, nearly 37 percent better than the average for last year’s Game 5 between the Royals and the Giants.
As Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reports, the average for the Series was 14.7 million, 6 percent better than the average through five games last year, when the Giants won in seven.
“Sunday Night Football” provided strong competition, attracting 23 million viewers for Denver-Green Bay. This is actually a better performance by baseball than I would have expected.
But with the Series only going five games, there was no bump for a Game 6 or 7. Last year’s Game 7 had an audience of 23.5 million.
–Incredibly, the Washington Nationals blew their negotiations with Bud Black, who was to become their new manager, and hired Dusty Baker instead. The deal for Black wasn’t going to be announced until after the Series ended and it was just assumed by everyone (including all the Washington beat writers) that it was a done deal. But the talks collapsed over the weekend and everyone realized when there wasn’t an announcement Monday morning, the Nats were looking elsewhere.
According to James Wagner of the Washington Post, a source familiar with the negotiations said Black was “deeply offended” by the Nats’ first offer and the talks didn’t get back on track after that. A tweet from an account believed to belong to Black’s wife said the initial offer was for one-year, $1.6 million.
The offer supposedly got to as high as two years, with team options, but USA TODAY reported the total offer was for less than $2 million.
In the past, the Nationals didn’t give more than two-year deals with options, which Matt Williams, Jim Riggleman and Manny Acta signed. Riggleman made just $600,000 his final year as manager in 2011. Williams, fired the day after the 2015 season ended, was due to make $1 million in 2016.
As for Baker, he reportedly made $4 million his final year managing the Reds and is receiving a two-year contract worth about $3.5 million from the Nats, or less than half what the Reds were paying him.
Bob Nightengale / USA TODAY
“The Washington Nationals boast to us about all of the World Series championships they’re going to win each spring, doing everything but getting ring sizes and finalizing the parade route.
“They lectured us on the proper way to handle Stephen Strasburg and every other Tommy John patient, insisting that everyone else is doing it wrong.
“Now, they’re preaching to us on the decorum of hiring managers…
“ ‘We were looking for a manager to help us achieve our ultimate goal of competing for a World Series championship,’ Nationals owner Ted Lerner said in the club’s press release. ‘During our broad search process, we met with many qualified candidates, and ultimately, it was clear that Dusty’s deep experience was the best fit for our ballculb.’
“Funny, weren’t they just saying the same thing last week when they hired Black, only forgetting to tell him that they planned to humiliate him in contract negotiations?”
As an aside, Don Mattingly reportedly signed a four-year deal with the Marlins for $10 million.
–We note the passing of former first baseman and outfielder Norm Siebern, 82, who played for a number of teams in the American League from 1956-68, including three seasons with the Yankees (1956, 1958-59). Siebern was a three-time All-Star and 1958 Gold Glover who hit 132 home runs and drove in 636 while batting .272 (.369 on-base percentage).
But he’s probably best known for being part of the trade that brought Roger Maris to the Yankees from the Kansas City Athletics after the 1959 season. Maris, then just 25, won the A.L. MVP Award in both 1960 and 1961, including his then-record 61 home runs that second year.
Siebern was a solid player for the A’s, though the team never finished higher than eighth in the A.L. in the four seasons he was there, driving in 117 runs in 1962, his best year.
College Football
And now the first College Football Playoff (hereafter CFP) poll….
1. Clemson 8-0
2. LSU 7-0
3. Ohio Sta 8-0te
4. Alabama 7-1
5. Notre Dame 7-1
6. Baylor 7-0
7. Michigan State 8-0
8. TCU 8-0
9. Iowa 8-0
10. Florida 7-1
11. Stanford 7-1
12. Utah 7-1
13. Memphis 8-0
14. Oklahoma State 8-0
15. Oklahoma 7-1
16. Florida State 7-1
22. Temple
24. Toledo…then lost 32-27 to Northern Illinois…bye-bye
25. Houston
OK, no one should make too much of this first one. As the ESPN folks noted upon the release, Ohio State was 16 in the first poll last year. I will just note the following.
Alabama’s loss is to Ole Miss 43-37.
Notre Dame’s only loss is to Clemson, 24-22.
Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma now begin their round-robin and this will work itself out. They don’t poll higher in the CFP simply because of their strength of schedules. [Recall, Baylor is No. 2 in the AP poll, TCU No. 5.]
Obviously the LSU-Alabama loser on Saturday s/b out…unless we are talking a titanic 17-16 contest with LSU on the short end.
Memphis at 13 is a pleasant surprise for those of us who like underdogs.
Wake Forest plays both Clemson and Notre Dame, which hurts them both.
–Chris Dufresne / Los Angeles Times…prior to release of the poll…
“Hours removed from eight wacky laterals at the end of Miami at Duke, it’s time to lateral the rest of this carnage to the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.
“The season is hitting the committee, which convenes in Dallas in advance of Tuesday’s first ranking release, like a sledgehammer trying to ring a carnival bell.
“The panel will be briefed on events and handed portfolios that will help members evaluate this year’s top teams.
“One of those schools is Duke, which dropped out of the polls after ‘losing’ to Miami in a game the Atlantic Coast Conference, on Sunday, declared a mistrial.
“The ACC officiating crew messed up so badly it probably got a sympathy card from the Pac-12 officiating crew.
“The ACC suspended its crew and replay officials two games for allowing a touchdown in the final seconds to go on the books for a Miami win.
“Replay wasn’t around to save Stanford from Cal’s ‘downed knee’ on that crazy kickoff return in 1982.
“Replay was available Saturday to rescue Duke, yet still the ACC punted, passed and botched it.”
OK, I see it as my job to set your Saturday schedules for you (free of charge, of course…though you know where to contribute…) and once again you can safely do other things until 3:30 ET…save for look-ins at Duke vs. North Carolina (ESPN2) which begins at noon.
Otherwise, to paraphrase Vin Scully, time to pull up a chair at 3:30 for 17 Florida State (AP rank) at 3 Clemson (ABC) and 5 TCU at 12 Oklahoma State (Fox). Assuming they both run kind of long, you should still have time to walk the dog and then settle in for 4 LSU at 7 Alabama, 8:00 (CBS).
*Yes, this time of year is confusing. I’ll no doubt mix up AP and CFP rankings, but this is part of the formula that creates controversy later…which is good for the sport!
—FCS (Div. I-AA) Poll….
1. Jacksonville State 7-1
2. Illinois State 7-1
3. Chattanooga 7-1
4. Eastern Washington 6-2
5. Richmond 7-1
–More on the retirement of Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer. Since he took over in 1987, he has guided the Hokies to a 235-120 record with 22 straight bowl appearances (1993-2014). In those same 22 years, his team was ranked in the Top 25 at one point each season, finishing in the final AP rankings 16 times. I mean this was a program that was nothing when he came on the scene and he turned it into a regular power. He is also a class act.
NFL
—Remaining undefeateds….
New England 7-0
Cincinnati 7-0
Denver 7-0
Carolina 7-0
—NFC East…sucks
Giants 4-4
Washington 3-4
Philadelphia 3-4
Dallas 2-5
—AFC South…blows
Indianapolis 3-5
Houston 3-5
Jacksonville 2-5
Tennessee 1-6
–Sunday night I was watching Mets-Royals and not football, so I just need to get down for the archives that Denver handed Green Bay its first loss, 29-10 in Denver, as the Broncos outgained the Packers 500-140, limiting Aaron Rodgers to 77 yards through the air, the lowest of his career in a game where he wasn’t knocked out. Peyton Manning threw for 340 yards but no scores.
–Monday night, Carolina remained undefeated with a 29-26 overtime win over Indianapolis in Charlotte. The Colts’ Andrew Luck just doesn’t look good, 23/47, 231, 2-3, 50.9 rating. Lots of controversy on how Indy is handling his shoulder injury, including in withholding information from the league and the Colts’ opponents.
But the game was only part of the story. You had the anarchists hanging from the roof.
Gregg Doyel / USA TODAY
“While the Colts were trying for three quarters to figure a way to stop tripping over their own tongue, the anarchists had found a way to bring mountain-climbing gear into a heavily guarded NFL stadium – and then get onto the roof, unfurl a banner and hang it there while 74,136 people watched.”
It wasn’t until late that local authorities snagged the protesters. Beyond embarrassing.
–Some awful injuries on Sunday, with Pittsburgh’s Le’Veon Bell and his torn MCL, and Baltimore’s Steve Smith tearing his Achilles after stating before the season started this was the final year of a Hall of Fame career. [Psst…hey, Wake Forest fans…this gives Chris Givens a real opportunity. Does he grab it?]
And then we learned Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen, who was off to a superb start, was placed on season-ending injured reserve with a lacerated kidney suffered in Sunday’s game against the Ravens. Allen will make a full recovery in about six weeks but San Diego’s season, at 2-6, is over.
Through his first 8 games, Allen had 67 catches, tied for third best in NFL history. Julio Jones has the mark with his 70 this season.
Meanwhile, Seattle lost receiver Ricardo Lockette for the season as he underwent surgery for ligament damage in his neck suffered in Sunday’s game against the Cowboys. While he is remaining in the hospital for a few days, the team said he would be up and moving around the next day (today), “and his neurological signs are all positive.”
This was a close call. He has full motion and feeling in his extremities, according to the team, after being hit by Dallas safety Jeff Heath while performing on punt coverage.
–Tennessee Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt was fired after going 3-20, 1-6 this season. I’d say that’s a pretty crappy record.
But don’t cry for Ken W. He signed a five-year contract prior to the 2014 season and whatever buyout agreement there is will be quite substantial.
“Honey, let’s go to Paris for a few months,” he’ll tell the missus. [Actually, I have no idea what his situation is in this regard.]
The Titans have lost a staggering 16 of their last 17. Change was more than warranted.
NASCAR
So the finish to Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway is still reverberating through the sport, as Matt Kenseth turned Joey Logano hard into the wall and the fans erupted in cheers, Logano being Public Enemy Number One these days. Jeff Gordon then took advantage of the move to win the race (93rd of his career, third on the all-time list) and secure his place in the championship down the road, a title he wasn’t won since 2001, in this his last year.
But Kenseth’s move sullies the sport’s reputation and calls into question its credibility.
Logano is 28 points behind fourth-place Kevin Harvick in the standings of the Eliminator Round, with two races to go before the last one at Homestead. Gordon is in…three more spots remain and if you win at Texas or Phoenix, you’re in as well.
Well, on Tuesday NASCAR suspended Kenseth for two races.
Brant James / USA TODAY Sports
“In parking Kenseth for what the series deemed an intentional wreck of race-leading and title-contending Joey Logano, NASCAR got it about half-right. Five races would have stung a little more, especially because the ‘behavioral penalty’ – would have curled into 2016 when points mattered again for Kenseth, who was effectively knocked out of the Chase two weeks ago when Logano wrecked him while both were racing for the win. After all, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell cited Logano’s title viability and Kenseth’s lack of it as elements of the decision.
“The series had the power to make this right, just as it did in making it wrong by not parking Jeff Gordon for intentionally crashing Clint Bowyer – who was still in the title hunt – at Phoenix in 2012 or reacting with force to other on-track incidents.”
So there has been no consistency in doling out penalties, but this was the right decision on Kenseth.
College Basketball
Just another week or so before hoops season starts and so here is the AP’s first official poll….
1. North Carolina (35 first-place votes)
2. Kentucky (10)
3. Maryland (14)
4. Kansas (5)
5. Duke
6. Virginia (1)
7. Iowa State
8. Oklahoma
9. Gonzaga
10. Wichita State
19. Notre Dame
20. UConn
Receiving a few votes was my closet team, San Diego State, who I’d go all in with out of principal, but they have this dark cloud of possible NCAA penalties looming.
So while I always want my alma mater, Wake Forest, to kick ass, they’ve sucked for years now and this season, which to me once looked fairly promising (8-10 at worst in the ACC, which would be a step up), doesn’t look as much so with the loss of our point guard for at least the first 7 or 8, and the announced suspension of a solid forward, Cornelius Hudson (plus a less important player) for reasons of conduct detrimental to the universe, or something like that.
One team I’ll be rooting for is Wichita State, who should frankly be America’s Team. Number one, coach Gregg Marshall could have had just about any top job in the sport but has opted to stay in Wichita (granted, don’t worry about Marshall’s welfare….he’s doing fine). That’s to be commended.
Second, all hoops fans are well familiar after the last three seasons with guards Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet and they are both back for their senior seasons, when the latter, in particular, could have been a first-round draft pick last spring.
But they lost a lot from last year’s great squad so how are they No. 10? The Shockers took advantage of the increasingly controversial graduate transfer rule, where a player who graduated from one school can transfer to another and play immediately as long as he has another year of eligibility left and Marshall snagged a real good one…Anton Grady out of Cleveland State.
Wichita State is lacking a down-low presence and Grady gives it to them, he having averaged 14.3 ppg and 7.9 reb last year.
So I’ll likely write a lot about the Shockers this year…being a fan of Marshall, Baker and VanVleet…but I’ll also hang with Steve Fisher and the Aztecs as long as they are allowed to play for something.
NBA
—Tim Duncan had 16 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in the Spurs’ 94-84 win over the Knicks on Monday, marking a milestone for him as it was his NBA-record 954th victory with one team, passing John Stockton, who went 953-551 in his years with the Utah Jazz. Duncan’s record is 954-381.
Duncan, in his 19th season, said he’s still getting acclimated to the new lineup, with LaMarcus Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard clearly the focus.
Bazooka Joe says: “Timmy D. went to Wake Forest!”
–I do have to note that in the above Spurs-Knicks contest, rookie Kristaps Porzingis scored 13 points with 14 rebounds in just 24 minutes, as the 7’3”, 20-year-old is making rapid progress, way ahead of schedule. As one local sportswriter put it, this is the guy that free agents will want to play with, not Carmelo Anthony. For his part, Anthony slammed into Porzingis in Monday’s game, injuring Kristaps, but it would appear he’s OK.
I noted after he was drafted that Porzingis said all the right things in addressing his critics…how he loved being drafted by New York and was pumped over the opportunity. This guy is going to be a huge fan favorite shortly.
–We not the passing of former ABA/NBA guard Ticky Burden. He was 62. Knicks fans will remember him for his solid play off the bench in 1976-77, but he ended up playing only 2+ seasons of pro ball after being a first-team All-American in 1974-75 while at Utah, averaging 28.7 points per game.
Burden was out of the NBA in 1977 after playing just two games for the Knicks that season. In 1981 he was convicted of taking part in a bank robbery in Hempstead, N.Y., the previous summer, but after serving two years of a 6-18 year sentence, his conviction was overturned by an Appellate Court, which ruled his arrest was illegal because police had searched his home without a warrant.
Burden lived in Winston-Salem, N.C., his last 20 years.
Men’s Division I Soccer Rankings (Nov. 2)
1. Wake Forest!!!
2. Clemson
3. North Carolina
4. Stanford
5. Akron
The ACC Championship is up next and Wake is hosting it.
–Some Champions League results from Tuesday’s Group Stage, matchday four of six….
Real Madrid 1 Paris Saint-Germain 0
Manchester United 1 CSKA Moscow 0 (yippee!)
Manchester City 3 Sevilla 1…Real and Man City have advanced to the next round. Man U leads its Group.
–My Tottenham Spurs won their Monday Premier League contest against Aston Villa 3-1 to move into fifth place. Harry Kane scored again, his 4th in two games after a dreadful start.
Stuff
–So let me be the first to say, American Pharoah should be Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsman of the Year.” Yeah, I know…you can’t give it to a horse. But we ask the horse to win, which is what we ask of humans, and it became the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. And then Pharoah followed up with the Breeders’ Cup Classic, thus becoming the first to win horse racing’s “Grand Slam.”
But if you don’t want to give it to a horse, then give the award to Victor Espinoza, Bob Baffert, and the Zayats…which would make for a great cover photo in its own right.
I’m serious. Who else deserves it? Jordan Spieth is worthy for not only being a two-time major winner, but also being the epitome of a great “sportsman.” So I will have zero problem should he win it.
But in baseball, football, basketball, hockey? Nope. Olympic sports? I could build a case for Usain Bolt…but only after he wins the 100 and 200 in the 2016 Games. [And then SI is crossing its fingers like the rest of us who care about the sport, re doping. Anyone remember Lasse Viren? I sure do….awesome distance runner who we didn’t know until far later was probably blood doping, though to be fair it wasn’t illegal back then.]
Anyway, Tom Brady and Tim Duncan have already won it, in case you were wondering. I only bring up Duncan because of his body of work but he’s been so honored.
Actually, I’ll throw out one more. A dual cover of Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic, both of whom won three majors. More likely, Serena solo.
Since I’m rambling…I now realize Serena could be the pick over Spieth. Now discuss amongst yourselves.
–From J.D. Gallop / Florida Today: “A 28-year-old woman was bitten by a shark while wading in waist-deep water in the Atlantic Ocean off Cocoa Beach Sunday.” The bite was described as being to the bone of her ankle and she faced surgery.
Officials didn’t know what type of shark bit the woman, but there are bull sharks, black tip and spinners in the area.
Top 3 songs for the week 11/4/72: #1 “I Can See Clearly Now” (Johnny Nash) #2 “Nights In White Satin” (The Moody Blues…overly dramatic ending….) #3 “My Ding-A-Ling” (Chuck Berry)…and…#4 “Freddie’s Dead (Theme From ‘Superfly’)” (Curtis Mayfield…this guy was brilliant…) #5 “Burning Love” (Elvis Presley) #6 “Garden Party” (Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band…great tune. Seriously, you younger folk if you don’t know the background, look it up…) #7 “I’ll Be Around” (The Spinners…as I’ve said many a time, their “Greatest Hits” album is as good as any…) #8 “I’d Love You To Want Me” (Lobo) #9 “Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues” (Danny O’Keefe…huh?) #10 “Ben” (Michael Jackson…just a bizarre song on so many levels…actually hit #1…it’s a freakin’ rat!!!)
Cleveland Browns Quiz Answer: Top five rushers in Browns’ history.
1. Jim Brown (1957-65) 12,312…5.2 avg.
2. Leroy Kelly (1964-73) 7,274…4.2
3. Mike Pruitt (1976-84) 6,540…4.1
4. Greg Pruitt (1973-81) 5,496…4.7
5. Kevin Mack (1985-93) 5,123…4.0
6. Marion Motley (1946-53) 4,712…5.7!
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
