[Posted Wednesday a.m.]
Baseball Quiz: Name the last three pitchers in each league to win the pitching triple crown (wins, strikeouts, ERA). [Hint: All post-1990] Answer below.
College Basketball
AP Poll (Mar. 7…records as of Sunday)
1. Kansas 27-4 (63)
2. Michigan State 26-5 (2)
3. Villanova 27-4
4. Virginia 24-6
5. Xavier 26-4
6. Oklahoma 24-6
7. North Carolina 25-6
8. Oregon 25-6
9. West Virginia 24-7
10. Indiana 25-6
19. Duke 22-9
25. SMU 25-5*
41. San Diego State 23-8…if you carry out the votes
*I didn’t get to Michael Powell’s piece in the New York Times on the SMU basketball program and the recruiting of Keith Frazier until Monday, but what a scathing indictment of Larry Brown and some of the administrators at SMU; not that we didn’t already know about Larry’s history.
But with Frazier having moved on to North Texas, it also makes you wonder about many of the mid-majors.
If you haven’t read it, look it up.
–So on Monday I watched Monmouth and Iona face off for the MAAC title and the automatic bid and Iona prevailed 79-76. Jay Bilas was doing the game for ESPN and he kept saying Monmouth is in regardless. I beg to disagree. Those early season wins over UCLA, USC, Notre Dame and Georgetown, all on the road, just don’t look nearly as impressive today as they did before; none of these squads being in the top 25 and only ND probably making the tournament.
I said way back Monmouth had to run the table to be assured of a bid and instead they lost to the likes of Canisius, Army and Manhattan, plus twice to Iona (though that’s OK…it’s the first three that should kill the Hawks). At the same time, I agree with buddy Johnny Mac that we’d rather see a Monmouth than the number six or seven team in a power conference.
[Funny seeing Wake Forest transfer Aaron Rountree (sic) hit two clutch free throws down the stretch for Iona. Last week I got a kick out of seeing another transfer, Tyler Cavanaugh, playing for George Washington, where he had a very solid season. Which Wake transfers will I be talking about in two years?]
–Tuesday, Boston College completed its conference season 0-19 in losing to Florida State 88-66 in the opening round of the ACC tournament. The broadcasting team doing the game rightfully ripped school administrators for their lack of commitment to the program.
Meanwhile, Wake Forest finished 2-17 in losing 75-72 to North Carolina State. Our two seniors, Devin Thomas and Codi Miller-McIntyre, combined to go 10 for 30 from the field. They never tasted NCAA tournament play.
–Congrats to Fairleigh Dickinson for earning a bid in defeating Wagner for the NEC championship, 87-79.
—AP Women’s Poll (Mar. 7)
1. UConn 31-0…yawn…
2. Notre Dame 31-1
3. South Carolina 31-1
4. Baylor 32-1
5. Maryland 30-3
6. Oregon State 28-4…Go Beavers!
NBA
–So there is some fallout from the Warriors’ shocking loss to the Lakers on Sunday. Pretty simple story, though, when your two sharpshooters go 1-for-18 from beyond the arc. You’re going to lose. It’s why if you’re San Antonio you keep the faith. I’m very curious to see the game between these two Sat., March 19 (I love it’s on a Saturday night, and good for the NBA, but that’s a big night for the NCAA tourney too). I want to see just how the Spurs are defending Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.
But then these two also meet April 7 and April 10, the latter the next-to-last regular season game. How much do you want to reveal if you’re Popovich?
So if Golden State is to beat the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ record of 72-10, this could have been a critical defeat, especially when you consider that the Spurs will certainly win one of the three coming up, right?
It is kind of interesting that of the six losses suffered by the Warriors, four were at the hands of so-so teams, at best; the Lakers, Nuggets, Bucks and Pistons, with the other two being Dallas and Portland.
So Monday, the Warriors rebounded to defeat the Magic at home, 119-113, for their league record 45th consecutive win at home (surpassing the 1995-96 Bulls’ mark). Curry and Thompson returned to form, combining for 68 points on 12 of 24 shooting from downtown.
Curry, in going 7 for 13, now has 301 3s with 20 games to go. He had the previous single-season record, 286, set last year.
Meanwhile, the Spurs lost on the road to Indiana, 99-91, as San Antonio was just 4 of 28 from three. They rebounded at Minnesota, Tuesday, 116-91, to move to 54-10.
–You know, LeBron James really is turning into a jerk before our eyes. I used to think the guy was savvy and would be a pitchman for the ages, but now he’s become a bitter, sniping a-hole.
Witness his latest social media claptrap concerning his recent tweets and Instagram post.
As Dave McMenamin wrote for ESPN.com:
“On one hand, he downplayed the significance of the dispatches. ‘It’s just my mind working, that’s all,’ James said…in preparation for the Memphis Grizzlies. I don’t know if anything started it. Just my mind working. I got a beautiful mind and I want to use it sometimes in a social manner.’
“However, he was sure to relay that there’s a method to his messages. It’s not just haphazard raving to his combined 47 million-plus followers on the social media platforms.
“ ‘They’re for the educated mind,’ James said. ‘So if you have an educated mind, they hit home for you. [Sunday] night I tweeted that consistency and structure breeds perfection, and if you take a shortcut or if you don’t handle business, then you come up short…. You can’t shortcut being perfect or trying to be as perfect as you can, or trying to get to a point where you just feel like you can succeed. So, for educated minds, it should be fine.’”
Oh brother.
So it seems LeBron was addressing his teammate, Kyrie Irving., even though when he started these tweets last week he pretended they were to no one in particular.
It went back and forth, Sunday and Monday, with Irving catching on and doing his own tweets, such as “Control what you can control. Sounds so cliché, but it’s the bold truth.” [Ed. I edited this a smidgen.]
James then admitted that any tension his tweets might be creating within the locker room isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
This is the same jerk who I wrote last time went down to Miami during a two-day break in the schedule to visit with homie Dwyane Wade.
Why not try to gather a bunch of your teammates in Cleveland, or whatever was convenient given the travel schedule, to do some kind of bonding event with your teammates, LeBron, if you’re so upset with the trend of play?
NFL
–So after 18 seasons, no more Peyton Manning. As Ken Belson writes for the New York Times, the thing that separated Manning from the other great quarterbacks or players in the game, including Joe Namath, Roger Staubach, Joe Montana and John Elway, is that Manning transcended the game.
“(Manning) became a pop icon thanks to his many product endorsement deals, his ability to poke fun at himself on comedy shows like ‘Saturday Night Live’ and, coincidentally, the growth of the Internet, which fueled his popularity faster than it would have even a few years earlier, when fans got most of their information from television and newspapers.
“Manning also had a noteworthy lineage. His father, Archie, was an NFL quarterback as is his younger brother, Eli, who has won two Super Bowl titles with the Giants. Chosen first over all in the 1998 draft, Manning appeared to be groomed not only as a pro quarterback, but also as the face of an intense and cutthroat league.”
NBC Sports play-by-play announcer Al Michaels said, “He had a tremendous awareness of things going on around him. There are a lot of athletes who are insular and inward looking. The world revolves around them. Peyton is not at all that way.”
As for some of Manning’s recent baggage, he was asked about the sexual harassment allegation on Monday and again denied any wrongdoing.
“It is sad that some people don’t understand the truth and the facts,” he said, before cracking a joke. “This is a joyous day, this is a special day, and like Forrest Gump said, ‘That’s all I have to say about that.’”
As for the HGH allegation, it’s not known how hard the NFL will pursue it.
Scott Rosner, who teaches sports business at the Wharton School, told Ken Belson:
“More so than any athlete in NFL history, (Peyton) helped drive revenue to an entirely new level. The NFL like any sports league, is in the star-making business. He’s not a NFL player in that context, he’s a pop culture star. There’s absolutely going to be a vacuum for the league.”
But what of Manning’s twin issues?
Tim Evans / USA TODAY
“Either of the allegations against Manning, on its own, could be enough to bring down any number of professional athletes or celebrities, causing sponsors to flee, doors to close and networks to turn off the hype machine.
“But this is Peyton Manning. It isn’t Kobe Bryant, accused of sexual assault. Or Lance Armstrong, caught doping after an unbelievable run of Tour de France victories – and followed by a string of emphatic lies denying lingering allegations.
“This is the man who has earned widespread respect and admiration. It’s an image that the public has eagerly bought into and that has helped Manning amass a fortune estimated at more than $160 million by celebritynetworth.com.”
Manning is hugely popular, and market research shows seven out of 10 Americans know who he is, which is a huge Q rating.
But as Evans notes:
“(This) is a fickle world, a place where many people relish the idea of the high and mighty falling from grace.
“The question is, will Manning be able to stay in that stratosphere in the wake of the new claims?”
Look at Kobe. He bounced back. The guy is on a coronation tour (for no reason in my mind). On the other hand, Lance Armstrong is finished as a personality anyone will want anything to do with.
Nancy Armour / USA TODAY Sports
“(If) Manning wants his next career to be anywhere near as lucrative as the one coming to an end, he’s going to have to address the allegations. Apologizing for the actions of an immature 19-year-old during his news conference Monday would be a good place to start. [Ed. Of course he didn’t but Ms. Armour posted this at about 3:00 a.m. Monday. I just like what she says….]
“An apology is not an admission of anything. Even if what transpired was as innocent as Manning claims, though, it was crass and juvenile, and it’s a good bet he cringes when he thinks about it now. We all do things when we’re young and think we know it all that we come to regret with the perspective of age and experience, and that’s all Manning has to say.
“He has to say something, however. Otherwise he risks leaving not only those nearly 72,000 yards passing, 539 touchdowns and two Super Bowl titles, but a handful of question marks as well.”
I know some of you may be thinking, who gives a damn about all this?
The Tennessee case is a serious one because of the facts and the ways the Manning family tried to sweep it under the rug. They have a former college teammate saying publicly today that it was never a big deal, what happened that day with the trainer, but it turns out, according to many witnesses, he was never in the room! It’s that kind of thing going on.
And as for the HGH issue….we have never been given an explanation that holds water. That’s all I’m saying.
I agree with Nancy Armour. And it has nothing to do with Peyton’s amazing accomplishments on the field.
I also have to add that if one of the networks’ is looking to hire him as their lead color guy, they’d be foolish to do so before the truth is out on both issues.
[If I were him, I’d look for an executive job with the Saints as a stepping stone to either fully running the show there and/or becoming part owner. No one there would care about what he did in either of his situations. If his ego is such that he needs to continue building on his existing fortune by pitching product to the world, he can’t do same without coming clean. See below…Maria Sharapova…]
–So now we enter an exciting time for some fan bases, desultory times for others, with the beginning of the ‘new season’ and free agency; the league year officially getting underway today, March 9.
Monday, the Redskins released Robert Griffin III, thus ending his tumultuous tenure with the team; a move that freed up $16.155 million of cap space for the team to make upgrades through free agency, while giving Griffin a chance to revive his career. Talk about a ‘rise and fall.’
It’s easy to forget just what a great rookie season RG3 had in 2012. He threw for 3,200 yards, 20 touchdowns and just 5 interceptions, a 102.4 passer rating, plus he rushed for 815 yards in leading the Redskins to the playoffs.
But then there was that awful injury in the same playoffs, and in 2013-14, he was a combined 5-15 as a starter, 20 TD, 18 INT, a rating in the 80s.
Last season, he didn’t take a single snap all year, dressing just one game. He also earned a reputation as a bad guy in the locker room.
But for the right price he might be worth a shot. [On the other hand, his body just isn’t built for the rigors of the sport.]
–My Jets lost running back Chris Ivory to the Jaguars. We’ll miss him. No one I’ve ever seen ran ‘harder’ each carry and he kept his mouth shut. Ivory rushed for 2,724 yards and 16 touchdowns in three seasons with New York.
—Calvin Johnson officially retired after nine years. After 731 career receptions for 11,619 yards and 83 TDs, the humble Johnson simply released a statement:
“While I truly respect the significance of this, those who know me best will understand and not be surprised that I choose not to have a press conference for this announcement….I have played my last game of football.”
–So speaking of free agents, the Washington Post’s Master Tesfatsion (sic) had a list of the five best at each position, including….
QB
1. RG3
2. Brock Osweiler
3. Colt McCoy
4. Ryan Fitzpatrick
5. Chase Daniel
RB
1. Doug Martin
2. Lamar Miller
3. Matt Forte…hope Jets sign him, but no talk of this
4. Chris Ivory
5. Alfred Morris
WR
There isn’t anyone I’d be interested in.
Actually, looking at all the other positions, it is kind of underwhelming, save for the Broncos’ DL Malik Jackson, LB Danny Trevathan, and the Jets’ DL Damon “Snacks” Harrison, who us fans want the team to retain but it doesn’t seem likely.
College Football
–I didn’t note last time that Illinois fired coach Bill Cubit on Saturday because, frankly, I couldn’t care less.
But…I loved the hire on Monday of former Bears coach Lovie Smith. He’s a high character guy with major success in Chicago, while getting the shaft in Tampa Bay. Plus Smith has extensive college coaching experience, last at Ohio State (as an asst.) in 1995.
Cubit, who at the start of last season was given a two-year deal, will receive a $985,00 buyout.
A friend, who needs to go initialless on this one, says I’m nuts in liking the Lovie move, referring to Larry Brown and the pro to college experience.
Of course Brown’s career has taken him to Mars and beyond. In fact I really should have made this a separate quiz, and I still might, but since his first job in 1972 with Carolina of the ABA, he has coached 10 NBA teams and compiled a 1327-1011 record, with a title in Detroit, while he has coached at UCLA, Kansas and SMU in the college ranks with a 271-100 record (a/o Sunday) plus a title at Kansas.
That’s why he keeps getting hired. Dude can coach.
MLB
–Cuban officials are hoping to reach an agreement with their U.S. counterparts in terms of Cuban ballplayers playing in the U.S., with Cuba being compensated.
As reported by the Washington Post’s Aaron C. Davis:
“Currently, Cuban players have to defect, establish residency in another country and, once in the United States, sign affidavits that they are no longer welcome or that they do not plan to return to the communist island before they can join an American roster.
“Often, athletes flee with the help of smugglers or steal away when the team is playing in international tournaments. That’s how most of 20 Cuban athletes playing for U.S. teams found themselves guaranteed more than $130 million in salaries this year, including Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu, New York Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes and teenage Boston Red Sox shortstop Yoan Moncada, who received a $31.5 million signing bonus.
“In the 14 months since (President) Obama announced his intention to restore ties with Cuba, there has been a surge in the number of Cuban players – more than 100 – who defected, mostly to play in the United States.”
But it’s a perilous route. “Smugglers threatened to use a machete to cut off the arm or fingers of Dodger Yasiel Puig if he did not give them a share of his future major-league salary, Los Angeles Magazine reported.”
But there will be no agreement between the U.S. and Cuba until the MLB Players Association ratifies a new contract, which would need to specify how many Cuban players could enter the league and who would represent them.
Cuban officials want a deal like they have with Japan, which pays the Castro regime 10 percent as compensation.
MLB has a similar arrangement with other countries, but any agreement with Cuba is up to an office in the Treasury Department. MLB wants any funds to go to a Cuban-U.S. nonprofit-like entity that would funnel the money into new baseball facilities and youth sports programs on the island.
But there is another issue on Obama’s upcoming trip. The Cuban regime doesn’t want him to meet with true dissidents, and instead wants to handpick who he sees. As the Washington Post editorialized on Tuesday:
“Dissidents who tried to meet with Pope Francis during his recent visit were detained or beaten. Will those who try to approach Mr. Obama meet the same fate?”
Obama is slated to attend a baseball game between a Cuban team and the Tampa Bay Rays. Will this and negotiations over Cuban ballplayers playing in the U.S. trump far more important matters?
I agree with the Post. If Obama doesn’t get to see who he wants to, he should cancel the trip and baseball would be a loser, which is just fine.
Golf Balls
–I noted what a great job Donald Trump did with Doral and how the WGC-Cadillac Championship there has produced some great tournaments and Sunday was no exception. So as Jaime Diaz writes for Golf World, “It would be a mistake for the PGA Tour to leave Trump National Doral.
“Doral, which has held a tour event since 1962, is special in the way it challenges professional golfers and brings out their exciting best. The Blue Monster is not the most aesthetically pleasing layout – hampered like all of south Florida by flat topography. Among tournament courses, however, it possesses a magical blend of qualities evocative of Augusta National and precious few others.”
Donald Trump and Trump National Doral have a contract with the PGA Tour to host a WGC event through 2023, but with Cadillac leaving as sponsor, a new one can void the deal and move to another location.
Trump himself may have slipped up recently when he said he would make more money on the resort if he wasn’t hosting the event (which I can totally see), but you know he wants the prestige of holding the tournament there and it deserves to be.
As Diaz writes, though, “Presumably, a sponsor’s incentive to take the event elsewhere would be to avoid negative blowback from past and potential future public comments by Trump, who this time next year could also be the President of the United States….
“(That said), for reasons that put a high value on a superior arena for golf for the world’s best, the tour needs to find a way to stay at the Miami-area resort.”
Johnny Miller over the weekend paid the ultimate compliment. He said he has never seen “truer greens, ever” than those at Doral last week.
And Doral, as Jaime Diaz noted, “has the greatest claim to that hoariest of labels: the finest finishing hole in golf. Particularly for a contender on Sunday, the 476-yard 18th presents perhaps the hardest drive on the PGA Tour, often followed by the most nervous approach. The way Adam Scott teetered on a tightrope between a winning par and losing double bogey exemplified the tension of this challenging 72nd hole.”
–As for Donald Trump himself on Sunday, I hadn’t seen any accounts when I posted that evening but it seems Trump made his entrance in a helicopter and then took a golf cart to the driving range, where the final group, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson, were practicing.
Karen Crouse / New York Times
“Twenty minutes before he took aim at his 12th PGA Tour victory, Rory McIlroy sensed a fast-approaching atmosphere storm and glanced up from his spot on the range. Donald J. Trump, trailed by Secret Service agents, police officers, employees, photographers and golf reporters, was making his way toward him.
“McIlroy, a native of Northern Ireland, had begun his week at the Cadillac Championship fielding a local television news reporter’s question about whether it was a distraction dealing with the ‘political shenanigans’ stemming from having a World Golf Championships event at a resort owned by a presidential candidate. ‘He’s not going to be the leader of my country,’ McIlroy said, adding, ‘It doesn’t bother me too much.’ [Ed. But Rory crumbled.]….
“Trump also shook hands and held a brief conversation with Dustin Johnson, the only other player on the range when he blew through. Johnson, the defending champion, closed with a 79, suggesting that not everything touched by Trump…turns to gold.”
Commissioner Tim Finchem said Sunday before meeting with Trump: “I think early on in his presidential campaign, we were concerned at one point because he referred to, quote, golf being supportive of some more controversial positions he had taken. And we, as you know, with the other golf organizations, issued a statement in that regard.”
As Golfweek’s Alex Micelli wrote: “The statement was clear: golf would not be drawn into presidential politics.”
Sunday, Trump stated his case for keeping the tournament at Doral. Finchem said it will take a number of weeks to figure out what is best for all parties, let alone he needs to find a new sponsor.
It turns out winner Adam Scott received his trophy from Trump’s son Eric, a nice concession The Donald made to keep his presence from becoming “a Category 4 distraction,” as Karen Crouse put it.
Finally, one legitimate criticism of the WGC event is that apparently the ticket prices are very high, and you don’t see the throngs or enthusiasm in the galleries that you do at other major events.
Stuff
—Maria Sharapova announced Monday that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open in January. The tennis star and five-time grand slam winner said for 10 years she had been taking a drug known as meldonium to address a number of health issues, including low magnesium levels. Meldonium is a blood flow-promoting drug banned because it aids oxygen uptake and endurance. Sharapova, 28, said she was not aware when rules changed Jan. 1 to make the drug illegal, and that when the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sent an email in December about changes to the banned list, she did not click on the link showing the substance had been added to the list.
“I know with this that I face consequences,” she said. “I don’t want to end my career this way, and I really hope I’m given another chance to play this game.”
When an announcement was made that Sharapova was holding a press conference Monday, everyone thought she was retiring. She’s been struggling with injuries and just hasn’t been that good for a while, but a failed test could result in her being banned up to two years. She and her people clearly thought they better get out ahead of this before anything became public in an attempt to lessen the penalty, maybe to just six months because of their cooperation. We’ll see.
I always thought Sharapova should be banned from the sport for excessive grunting.
But before Sharapova learns of her penalty from the International Tennis Federation, she began losing her major sponsorships, Nike being first to chime in: “We have decided to suspend our relationship with Maria while the investigation continues. We will continue to monitor the situation.”
Tag Heuer followed by deciding not to renew their contract with her, which runs out end of the year. Porsche then dropped her.
If she receives a two-year ban, her career is over. Six months and you would expect her to come back. [Though that would be too late for the U.S. Open.]
But wait….there’s more!
Wednesday, a piece in the Irish Independent had some of the following:
“Maria Sharapova was warned at least five times in the month before she failed a drugs test that a substance she had been taking for almost her entire career was being banned….
“It transpires players were alerted to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s updated prohibited list on multiple occasions, from Dec. 3 all the way through to Dec. 29.
“WADA’s founding president Dick Pound, who led an inquiry into Russian doping that resulted in the country being banned from world athletics last year, said: ‘All the tennis players were given notification of it and she has a medical team somewhere. That is reckless beyond description.’
“Doubt was also cast on Sharapova’s explanation for taking meldonium for the past 10 years, leaving her career and reputation on a knife-edge….
“The five-time grand slam champion claimed the drug was ‘medicine’ her doctor had given her for a magnesium deficiency and irregular heart readings. She also cited a family history of diabetes.
“But her justification for the long-term use of meldonium, which was banned after WADA found ‘evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance,’ was called into question when the Latvian manufacturer said it would normally be taken for only four to six weeks at a time.”
Sharapova’s lawyer, John J. Haggerty, “refused to reveal the source of (the) meldomium, which he described as ‘an over-the-counter drug’ which could be purchased in many countries. ‘I do want to disabuse the fact that Maria took mildronate every day for 10 years because that’s simply not the case,’ he said….Haggery said Sharapova’s medical records would be shared with the International Tennis Federation and would ‘make it clear that the medical treatment was necessary and recommended by her doctor.’”
This story is just beginning. I’m guessing now she’ll receive far more than a slap on the wrist.
–A jury awarded Erin Andrews $55 million on Monday in her lawsuit against a stalker who secretly recorded her after taking the hotel room next to her.
But the stalker is responsible for 51 percent of the verdict, with two hotel companies sharing the rest, and as is always the case in these matters, who the heck knows what Andrews will end up seeing.
–Matt Higgins of the New York Times had a story on how the popularity of snowboarding has been plunging. For professionals this has made for very challenging times.
“According to the trade group SnowSports Industries America, snowboarding peaked in popularity with nearly 8.2 million participants in the 2010-11 season, declining in each of the next three years….snowboard equipment sales are down $60 million annually from 2007.”
With slower equipment sales, that means far fewer sponsorship opportunities for the professionals.
Television ratings for the Winter X Games are down compared with last year. “And NBC announced last month that it would no longer stage the Dew Tour, a winter sports competition featuring snowboarding that has been scaled back to one event, from three.”
Alpine skiing is also in free fall, with two million fewer participants than 20 years ago. The weather has had something to do with this.
–Finally, we learned today that the Fifth Beatle, Sir George Martin, had passed away at the age of 90. Time does not allow me to do his passing justice, so forgive me as I’ll have a few notes next time after I’ve gone through my many sources here.
Martin was an arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer and musician. But he will forever be known as one of the greatest record producers of arguably the greatest rock ‘n’ roll act of all time, with 30 number-one hit singles in the UK and 23 in the U.S.
Martin made his first recording with the group in September 1962 and played a key part in their early hits, including “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me.”
The Beatles had been turned away by Decca Records when Martin was first introduced to the band, quickly signing them to EMI.
Martin was actually first attracted to the boys by their wit more than musicianship.
As John Murray Brown writes in the Financial Times:
“At their first audition at Abbey Road Studios, Martin asked the individual Beatles if there was anything they personally did not like, to which George Harrison replied, ‘Well, there’s your tie, for a start.’
“Martin is credited with harnessing their raw talent, using his deep musical knowledge to create a sound that distinguished them from other groups of the period. It was his decision to put strings on ‘Yesterday’ with Martin playing the song in the style of Bach in a bid to convince an initially reluctant Paul McCartney.
“On ‘Penny Lane’ he featured a piccolo trumpet solo, and in ‘Eleanor Rigby’ there was a strings-only accompaniment.
“Interviewed in 2007, Martin said the score for ‘Eleanor Rigby’ was inspired by the music of Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Psycho.
“He composed and arranged a number of film scores himself including the music for A Hard Day’s Night in 1964 for which he won an Academy Awards nomination. He also produced two of the best-known James Bond themes – ‘Goldfinger’ sung by Shirley Bassey in 1964, and ‘Live and Let Die,’ a song by Paul McCartney and his band Wings.”
More next time.
Top 3 songs for the week 3/9/85: #1 “Can’t Fight This Feeling” (REO Speedwagon) #2 “Careless Whisper” (Wham! Featuring George Michael) #3 “The Heat Is On” (Glenn Frey)…and…#4 “California Girls” (David Lee Roth) #5 “Material Girl” (Madonna) #6 “Too Late For Goodbyes” (Julian Lennon…ya know, this one isn’t bad…) #7 “Neutron Dance” (Pointer Sisters) #8 “I Want To Know What Love Is” (Foreigner) #9 “Sugar Walls” (Sheena Easton) #10 “Misled” (Kool & The Gang…just tired…gotta go back to my youth next time…)
Baseball Quiz Answer: Last three pitching triple crown winners….
A.L.
2011 Justin Verlander (DET) 24-5, 2.40, 250 SO
2006 Johan Santana (MIN) 19-6, 2.77, 245
1999 Pedro Martinez (BOS) 23-4, 2.07, 313
N.L.
2011 Clayton Kershaw (LAD) 21-5, 2.28, 248
2007 Jake Peavy (SDP) 19-6, 2.54, 240
2002 Randy Johnson (ARI) 24-5, 2.32, 334
*In the modern era, the only 3-time triple crown winner is Sandy Koufax (1963, 65, 66).
For the record, Walter Johnson and Grover “Pete” Alexander also won it three times.
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
