[Posted Sunday p.m. prior to conclusion of some playoff action.]
Yankees Quiz: If you caught the Yankees-Red Sox game on Saturday you’re disqualified from participating. Last night, the Big Needle, David Ortiz, hit his 49th career home run vs. the Yanks in an 8-0 win over New York, after hitting one the night before in a 4-2 triumph. But who are the top five for home runs against the Yankees, the leader being at 70? Answer below.
NBA Playoffs
–Backing up to Thursday, Atlanta dispatched with the Celtics in Boston, 104-92, to take their series 4-2. The Hawks now face the Cavs, beginning Monday in Cleveland.
Friday, Indiana defeated Toronto 101-83 to force a Game 7 as the Raptors’ backcourt combination of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan had another awful game, 7 of 27 from the field.
Miami forced a Game 7 with a 97-90 win over Charlotte.
But Portland took out the Clippers 106-103 to win the series 4-2, as L.A. couldn’t recover in Games 5 and 6 without Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.
–In Game 1 of the Spurs-Thunder series on Saturday in San Antonio, the Spurs jumped to a 53-24 lead, hitting 21 of their first 27 shots from the field! San Antonio rolled, 124-92, as LaMarcus Aldridge was 18 of 23 (38 points) and Kawhi Leonard 10-13 (25 pts.). The Spurs ended up hitting 60.7% from the field.
–Sunday, the Heat wrapped up the series against the Hornets, 106-73, Charlotte getting blown out 29-11 in the critical third quarter.
Then in Game 1 of their series, the still sans-Steph Warriors easily defeated the Trail Blazers 118-106 behind Klay Thompson’s 37 points. Curry and the team are acting like he’s back for Game 3, but this seems absurd.
–The Lakers got their coach. Luke Walton.
Bill Plaschke / Los Angeles Times
“A chant from the past has become a cry for the future.
“ ‘Luuuuuuuke.’
“A smart, selfless benchwarmer with two championship rings as a player has returned to that bench, only this time in the main seat, the beloved working man from the last glorious Lakers era charged with hammering out a new one.
“ ‘Luuuuuuuke.’
“Is this cool, or what? A fan favorite who grew up on the Staples Center floor is coming home to command its sidelines. An average dude who went away to become a coaching star is bringing that star back to town in the hopes he can revitalize with its glow….
“In their most sensible coaching hire in the five years since Phil Jackson left town, the Lakers announced Friday they have pulled Walton away from his assistant coaching job with the glittering Golden State Warriors to replace Byron Scott less than a week after Scott’s dismissal.”
Walton won his first 24 games this season – an NBA record – while subbing for injured Warriors Coach Steve Kerr, and wound up going 39-4 until Kerr returned. Yes, he was handed something special, but he knew what to do with it.
Plaschke:
“Walton has the basketball smarts (and) the Lakers also need a credible leader who can attract free agents to an organization that has recently been shunned for being too stuck in the past. Walton has the basketball pedigree to do that.
“Walton has the youth and he has the bling, all of which gives him the right to tell someone like Kevin Durant, ‘If Steph Curry could thrive under me, so can you.’”
Walton is of course staying with Golden State until the postseason ends. He’s only 36, but he’s more than ready. Great get, Lakers.
—Ozzie Silna died. He was 83. Frankly, while I feel like I knew a fair amount about the American Basketball Association, I forgot Silna’s role, or rather his good fortune.
Silna and his brother, Daniel, owned the Spirits of St. Louis of the ABA, but when the ABA was in talks to merge with the NBA, as Daniel Silna recalled the other day:
“Logic was that you take six of the seven ABA teams and make the NBA a 24-team league. It would make scheduling easier. So Ozzie said, ‘Look, if one of the seven does not get taken into the league, they’re still our partners, so we should give them one-seventh of our TV revenues going forward.’”
Richard Sandomir / New York Times
“But the NBA absorbed only four of the teams: the New York Nets, the Denver Nuggets, the San Antonio Spurs and the Indiana Pacers. A fifth team, the Virginia Squires, was a financial wreck; a sixth, the Kentucky Colonels, took a $3.3 million payout and folded.
“That left the Spirits a team without a league and the Silnas angry. They did not expect to be excluded and had already started moving the team to Salt Lake City. But they fell back on the deal that Mr. Silna had proposed – one-seventh of the television revenue received by each of the surviving ABA teams – which was intended to survive as long as the NBA.”
Well, that one-seventh deal was really four-sevenths of the surviving teams and the NBA’s television revenue was about to soar as the likes of Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and others turned the league into a juggernaut.
Bottom line, by the time a settlement was reached with the Silnas…in 2014!…they had been paid nearly $300 million without ever fielding a team. The price to end the deal was a $500 million lump sum payment and a small annual stream of money.
But the brothers had long hoped to be part of the NBA.
MLB…Ball Bits
–A lot of us were shocked to see the headline that the Marlins’ Dee Gordon was suspended 80 games without pay for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs.
Gordon, 28, was a bit player for the Dodgers, 2011-2013, who then had a breakout season in 2014, batting .289, with 12 triples and 64 stolen bases, after which he was part of a trade to the Marlins that offseason.
So all he did in 2015 was win a batting title at .333, 205 hits, 58 steals and a Gold Glove.
I wrote more than once that I loved watching Gordon play (your editor getting to see him a lot because the Mets and Marlins are in the same division).
But then this, and the reason why the suspension hurts more than others as a fan is because you really just don’t know, years after we thought we were cleaning up the sport, just who is clean and who isn’t?
The thing is, as Mets announcer Gary Cohen and others point out, the incentive is there for the players to try and get away with what they can until they get that big contract. Gordon will not get paid on half his $3.3 million deal for this year, but he had signed a new one off his great 2015 that will pay him $7.8m next season, $10.8m in 2018, $13.3m in 2019, $13.8m in 2020, and then 2021 is an option year ($14.0m or a $1m buyout).
Did Dee Gordon cheat last season in winning the batting title? You’d have to say, yes.
Dylan Hernandez / Los Angeles Times
“When Miami Marlins Manager Don Mattingly spoke to reporters about Dee Gordon’s 80-game drug suspension for the first time, he didn’t sound irritated, as he often does when questioned about something unpleasant.
“Mattingly was heartbroken.
“ ‘I feel like he’s one of my kids, to be honest with you,’ said Mattingly, who also managed Gordon with the Dodgers.
“Mattingly almost certainly wasn’t alone. Gordon would be likable in any segment of society, but his personality especially stood out in baseball, where a number of players are self-absorbed and emotionally underdeveloped. The mistake was in thinking someone like this would be above cheating.
“Gordon’s positive test was a reminder of an uncomfortable truth about human nature, which is that everyone has a price. With millions of dollars at stake, it would be incredibly naïve to think only the complete scoundrels would cheat. Offer a reward that’s extreme enough and it will compromise even the most admirable of constitutions.
“Even Gordon’s, evidently….
“(When) Gordon emerged as a star last year in the wake of his trade to the Marlins, almost everyone in the game was delighted for him. He topped the National League in both hitting and steals, becoming the first player to do so since Jackie Robinson in 1949.
“One of the good guys had won.
“But now this happened.
“Gordon inflicted further damage to his reputation Friday when he released a statement saying he didn’t know how anabolic steroids entered his system, which is baseball’s equivalent of the-dog-ate-my-homework excuse….
“Gordon is now in the first year of a five-year, $50 million contract. His suspension will cost him only $1.6 million.
“Provided he didn’t start using drugs this year, his decision to run afoul the rules was a no-brainer business decision.”
The suspension also ironically comes in the first season of Barry Bonds’ tenure as Marlins hitting coach.
One thing isn’t totally clear…just how long Gordon played after testing positive. Toronto outfielder Chris Colabello, who was suspended 80 games the other day for PED use, was told on March 13 he had tested positive, but he wasn’t booted until April 22, after his appeal was denied.
Dee Gordon had also played for an unspecified period of time before he dropped his appeal.
That ticked off Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, who said on Twitter: “If u test positive u need to not play. You shouldn’t be allowed to effect games while appealing.”
Verlander said separately he doesn’t have a problem with steroids, “I have a problem with cheating.”
Speaking Friday about PEDs, Verlander said: “In my opinion, if you’ve tested positive, you have an advantage and you should be off the field. That’s just my opinion…(As) a whole, as major league players, we all agree that we want it to be a clean game. How you do that, I don’t know.”
–Cindy Boren / Washington Post
“Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta fired a little chin music at ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith over the way in which Smith used his name in a sentence with ‘performance-enhancing drugs’ without actually, you know, accusing him.
“Arrieta, last year’s National League Cy Young winner, has heard comments about how, at 30, he has become a dominant pitcher. Smith was just the latest, saying on ‘First Take’ that he wasn’t accusing Arrieta, ‘but I will say you shouldn’t just be laughing at those who are looking at you and saying, ‘Excuse me. What the hell is going on here?’ Because it’s not like they haven’t seen performance-enhancing drug users before.’ [Ed. this was before the Dee Gordon announcement.]
“Yet, Arrieta responded on Twitter, ‘Laughing is exactly what I will do. You continue to do your thing, though. No one will undercut my hard work.’
“Smith backed off, replying on Twitter: ‘I hear ya @JArrieta34. It’s your life/career. You’ve earned the right to do what you want. The best to you.’
“Arrieta went on a torrid run during the second half of the 2015 season, going 12-1 with a 0.75 ERA in 107 1/3 innings over 15 starts. Suspicions were aroused and just as he did with Smith, Arrieta is refuting them.”
Arrieta told USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale: “I eat plants. I eat lean meat. I work out. And I do things the right way.
“If there are guys still on it, I hope they get caught. I care about the integrity of the game. I wouldn’t want to disappoint my family, my friends, my fans. That’s a huge motivating factor in doing it the right way.”
Arrieta is 5-0, 1.00 ERA.
–Mets fans have a new home-grown star in outfielder Michael Conforto, who at age 23 burst on the scene last summer, contributing some big hits, and then this year, once manager Terry Collins inserted him into the three hole in the lineup, the kid has flourished, hitting .407 over 14 games in that spot with 14 runs scored, nine doubles, four home runs and 15 RBIs.
He also seems like a super kid with clearly the right makeup for Gotham.
[Sorry, wrote the above before Sunday’s game, where Conforto went 0-for-5 in a 6-1 loss to Madison Bumgarner (3-2, 3.03) and the Giants, ending the Mets’ 8-game winning streak. But Conforto is still at .342 for the season.]
For the archives, the Mets, in a 13-1 pasting of the Giants at Citi Field on Friday, scored a franchise-record 12 runs in the third inning. 15 batters, 66 pitches over 45 minutes. Yoenis Cespedes had a team-record six RBIs over the course of the third, including a grand slam.
–USA TODAY had a story on big matchups that have been mismatches.
Like Miguel Cabrera against the Indians’ 2014 Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber; Cabrera being 20-for-38 with five home runs.
But Bryce Harper is 0-for-20 vs. the Mets’ Matt Harvey!
–Then there are the Yankees, who just completed their worst April, 8-14, since 2005. That year they finished 95-67 and won the A.L. East before getting bounced in the A.L. Division Series. This year? No freakin’ way are they getting much better.
And as I’ve been writing, why you would waste your time and money to go to Yankee Stadium is beyond me; unless you are enamored with A-Rod and his quest for 700 home runs (he is now nine shy after hitting two this past week).
The Yanks are averaging 2.29 runs a game over their last 17. They entered Sunday’s action having scored the fewest runs in all of baseball.
[As an aside, when will ESPN/MLB recognize no one gives a hoot about Yankees-Red Sox on Sunday anymore? Then again, I’ll be asleep after “Game of Thrones” tonight because there is no reason to stay up.]
—Boston’s Rick Porcello threw seven shutout innings in the Red Sox’ 8-0 win over the Yankees Saturday to move to 5-0, 2.76 ERA.
—Detroit’s Jordan Zimmermann won again on Saturday, 4-1 over Minnesota, improving to 5-0, 0.55, giving up just two runs in his first 33 innings.
–Friday, Seattle defeated Kansas City 1-0 on a Seth Smith home run, the only hit of the game for the Mariners. King Felix Hernandez improved to 2-2, 1.38.
–Also Friday, the Marlins’ Adam Conley was taken out after 7 2/3 innings of no-hit ball against the Brewers, Miami’s relievers blowing the no-no but the Marlins going on to win 6-3.
Conley had thrown 116 pitches and no one can argue with Don Mattingly’s decision to lift the 25-year-old prospect when he did. There was no way Mattingly was letting him throw 130 or more that would have been required to go the duration.
–Sunday, Clayton Kershaw pitched a 3-hit complete game shutout against the Padres, L.A. winning 1-0 as Kershaw fanned 14 and walked none. He only threw 101 pitches in advancing to 3-1, 1.96.
–The 6-18 Braves defeated the 17-6 Cubs, 4-3, but Atlanta has hit just five home runs in its first 24 games. The lowest number of homers in a non-strike season since 1950 is 49 by the 1979 Astros.
–So despite the Cubs’ loss, the city of Chicago is now 35-14 after the 18-8 White Sox won 7-1 over the Orioles; ChiSox ace Chris Sale now 6-0, 1.66, after going just 5 1/3, one earned, but 112 pitches.
–The surprising Philadelphia Phillies are 15-10! after a 2-1 win over Cleveland on Sunday, young gun Vince Velasquez now 4-1, 1.44, after throwing six innings of shutout 2-hit ball.
NFL Draft Bits
—I couldn’t have cared less about this year’s draft. There is so much needless hoopla, for ratings, of course, when no one, especially the ‘draft experts,’ really has a freakin’ clue how these kids will pan out.
So Jared Goff out of California went to the Rams with the No. 1 pick and Philadelphia took North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz at No. 2 and forever after these two QBs will be linked; for better or worse, richer or poor, in sickness and in health, drinking domestic or premium, driving a Ford F150 or Tesla, ‘til North Korea catches our government with its pants down and we all go poof.
But I was flipping back and forth between the first round coverage, Thursday, and other stuff and saw the Laremy Tunsil drama after the video was released of him inhaling marijuana through a bong that was attached to a gas mask. Tunsil began to drop like a stone, even though there were no specifics as to when the video was recorded.
I mean this was a guy who just a few weeks earlier was the No. 1 overall pick before the trades by the Rams and Eagles to be able to draft Goff and Wentz.
But finally, with the 13th pick in the first, Tunsil was selected by the Dolphins. Miami GM Chris Grier said the team had been aware of the video’s existence well before the draft and said it was two years old.
The video probably cost Tunsil $10m+, not being in the top four vs. No. 13.
Tunsil’s coach from Mississippi, Hugh Freeze, was with him in Chicago and said Tunsil was at the center of some “unfortunate events” but “I assure you that’s not who he is.”
Yet around the time Tunsil was selected by the Dolphins, two sets of text messages were posted to his Instagram account; what appeared to be exchanges between Tunsil and an athletic official at Ole Miss, in which Tunsil asked for help paying bills.
Asked about it by reporters after being selected, Tunsil seemed to confirm taking money from a coach. ‘I’d have to say yeah,’ he said.
I was watching when after being selected, Tunsil told ESPN: “It’s a blessing just to be a part of the NFL. You go through adversity in life. It’s what you overcome.”
Asked about the video, he said: “I just know I got hacked. We’re going to try to find out who did it.”
Tunsil was sued this week by his stepfather, who alleged domestic violence and defamation. The two have had a few legal battles, plus Tunsil missed seven games last year after being suspended by the NCAA over receiving impermissible benefits.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said of Tunsil’s fall in the draft, “I think it’s all part of what makes the draft so exciting.” What a jerk. [Elon Musk’s SpaceX should strap Goodell to one of its reusable rockets just to see the impact on a human body from reentry while wearing nothing but a $2,000 business suit.]
Ian O’Connor / ESPN
“How would you feel if you were minutes from delivering a valedictory speech at your college graduation when a prankster posted a video on some oversized screen showing you celebrating a night of underage drinking by running naked around campus before urinating on the chancellor’s car?
“That’s what happened to Tunsil at the NFL draft, times 50. Just as he was about to settle into the night, his night, someone used his Twitter account to share what appeared to be scenes borrowed from an old ‘Breaking Bad’ shoot gone wrong. A young man in a black gas mask was shown enjoying an attached bong, and after the Miami Dolphins stepped in to cut off his plunge with pick No. 13, Tunsil admitted he was indeed the young man in question.
“Tunsil maintained that his account was hacked, and this was one time you could certainly take a sports star or celebrity at his or her word on that. He also swore his Instagram was hacked, another credible claim given that this account showed Tunsil’s apparent text message to an Ole Miss football staffer asking for money to cover his rent and his mother’s electric bill….
“Tunsil’s developing Greek tragedy was the more compelling human drama, and promised to rank with Dan Marino, Aaron Rodgers and Randy Moss among the epic draft plunges of the past. Of course, some of the same NFL decision-makers who were running 4.3 40-yard dashes to their draft boards to remove Tunsil’s name were probably, you know, quite familiar with recreational pot use in college. But that use wasn’t caught on camera and broadcast worldwide on the internet. So the prospect who was once considered the likely No. 1 pick in the draft became the prospect teams were afraid to touch….
“Tunsil said he has no idea who betrayed him or how the hacking went down. He has been engaged in a legal dispute with his stepfather, Lindsey Miller, who was quoted by TMZ denying any role in the incident.
“ ‘We know the story behind it,’ said Dolphins general manager Chris Grier, who said the bong video is 2 years old. Grier added that the team is comfortable with that backstory, and with the notion that Tunsil dearly loves the game he was just hired to play.
“ ‘This just gives me a chip on my shoulder when I get to the league,’ the tackle said.
“Here’s hoping that chip inspires Tunsil to become the best player in his draft class. He got screwed Thursday night, as in royally. He didn’t deserve to be humiliated for doing something that a lot of college kids minor in, if not major in, yet in Chicago he handled this ungodly and unscheduled mess like a grown-up – at least until an official unnecessarily rushed him out of a news conference….
“So you can go ahead and root for Jared Goff and Carson Wentz and Ezekiel Elliott, the skill position guys at the top of the first round. My favorite rookie just became the left tackle (for the Dolphins), a kid who did nothing to earn this vicious hit from the blind side.”
Personally, I see my job on some of the bigger issues to give both sides. I have no idea what kind of person Laremy Tunsil is. Many of us thought Dee Gordon was a good guy. Now we know he’s a dirtball, a cheat.
But in this case, I agree with Ian O’Connor. The biggest jerks are the lords of football, who’ve been hiding their own dark secrets for decades, directly complicit in the early death of some of their players who helped rake in the money for them.
I hope Laremy Tunsil proves to be a decent, law-abiding citizen and beyond that, well, I’m a Jets fan. You can’t possibly expect me to root for any Dolphins.
—I felt bad for UCLA linebacker Myles Jack, who didn’t go until early in the second round (fifth pick by Jacksonville) when he was initially among the top five players on everyone’s list.
The reason he fell from being the NFL draft’s premier defensive player was because he had suffered a knee injury last fall and teams were scared off by the findings of doctors that there’s more to Jack’s surgically repaired right knee than just a torn meniscus. There was talk he will eventually need microfracture surgery, which Jack conceded this week could be the case, and few have long careers after such a procedure.
But Jack insists he’s ready to go and he’ll be there at rookie mini-camp. “I’m 100% healthy, I’m cleared. The knee shouldn’t be a concern anymore.”
If he can just give the Jags three or four real good years, they will have gotten quite a steal. He’s a tremendous all-around athlete.
–Right before Jack was selected, the Dallas Cowboys rolled the dice on another damaged defensive star; Notre Dame’s Jaylon Smith, the 2015 Butkus Award winner as the nation’s top linebacker, who suffered a devastating knee injury in a bowl game against Ohio State.
–Alabama beat Clemson in the national championship game, but Ohio State placed five players in the first 20 picks. So coach Urban Meyer can claim, ‘You come to Ohio State and we’ll put you in position to get a nice NFL contract.’
—Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch was taken by Denver with the No. 26 pick. There is no way he is anywhere near being ready since he wasn’t in an NFL-type offense at Memphis. I’m guessing the Broncos start the season with Mark Sanchez and he’ll be OK.
–As for the New York Giants, all fans of the team in the area were rather surprised, some miffed, at the selection of Ohio State cornerback Eli Apple. Admittedly, offensive tackle Jack Conklin and linebacker Leonard Floyd were the Giants’ two primary targets, but they went 8 and 9. ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. had Apple going 29th (not that I give a hoot what Kiper thinks).
Steve Politi / Star-Ledger (NJ.com)
“So before we break down what (GM) Jerry Reese did do in the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday night, let’s take stock of what the Giants general manager didn’t do.
“He didn’t make a move to prevent two teams, the Tennessee Titans and the Chicago Bears, from trading up just ahead of the Giants to steal the two players, tackle Jack Conklin and linebacker Leonard Floyd, that his team had reportedly coveted the most.
“He didn’t take a gamble on the best non-quarterback on most draft boards, tackle Laremy Tunsil, and maybe that’s understandable – when even the NFL Network is cracking that a player went ‘full on Cheech and Chong’ in a gas-mask-bong video that would’ve made him a tough sell here in New York.
“He also didn’t gamble on the uniquely talented linebacker Myles Jack, and maybe that’s understandable, too, given concerns about his health and the Giants recent history of injury problems.
“But then he didn’t trade down out of the No. 10 slot when it was clear the player on the top of the Giants board was not nearly as highly valued around the league. That might be the most confounding part of Reese’s first night of the draft, one he absolutely has to ace.”
Reese overreached.
—My Jets? I have no problem with the selection of inside linebacker Darron Lee from Ohio State, but what the heck were the Jets doing in selecting Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg in the second round?! They passed on Paxton Lynch, which had been the rumor for weeks, to take this kid? [I didn’t want Lynch either.] Hackenberg sucked at Penn State. He came in with promise as a freshman and seemed to have the physical skills but then never improved. Actually, he regressed. [Granted, he didn’t have a lot to work with.]
It’s still assumed the Jets will re-sign Ryan Fitzpatrick, but they also have Geno Smith for one more year and last year’s fourth-round selection, Bryce Petty, who we’ve been hearing the team likes.
[If the Jets were going to take a QB, I wish it had been Dak Prescott of Mississippi State, who ended up being taken in the fourth round by Dallas.]
–They say these days, don’t take a running back early, but the Cowboys blew up the formula, taking Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott with the fourth overall pick.
But I think the steal of the entire draft, though, is a running back taken in the fifth round by the Bears…Indiana’s Jordan Howard, who I told you all college football season was a keeper. The Jets didn’t need him, having signed former Chicago back Matt Forte (and re-signed Bilal Powell), but Chicago more than replaced Forte with Howard.
—Michigan State QB Connor Cook didn’t go until the fourth round, selected by Oakland. He’s just not that good, and a lot of NFL folks couldn’t get past the fact he wasn’t selected a captain by his teammates.
—Navy’s All-World QB Keenan Reynolds was selected in the sixth round by Baltimore.
–On a college football note…Idaho is opting to drop down to FCS play at the conclusion of the 2017 season; this after the Vandals, along with New Mexico State, were voted out of the Sun Belt conference.
Since joining the Division I-A FBS, Idaho has sent just two teams to the postseason in 20 years, the last in 2009. In between these fleeting years of success, the program has averaged under 3 wins per season.
The Vandals are a football-only member of the Sun Belt, playing their other sports in the Big Sky, an FCS conference that could easily take in Idaho for football.
Having been to a Vandals football game in Moscow, Idaho a few years ago, I can tell you that with the crappy facilities they have, they should be in the FCS. But they say the students like to party, and at the end of the day….
Premier League
Leicester City wasn’t able to clinch the Premier League title this weekend, drawing with Manchester United 1-1 at Old Trafford. Second-place Tottenham can stay in it, barely, with a win at Chelsea on Monday, where the Spurs haven’t won since 1990. But the level of concern for Tottenham fans such as moi is not as great as it would have been had Manchester City not lost on Sunday to Southampton, 4-2; Man City clearly caring more about their next Champions League semifinal than attempting to move up in the Premier League standings.
On the relegation front, Sunderland picked up a critical point in tying Stoke 1-1 after receiving a gift penalty kick at the 92’ mark. I was watching and talk about pressure on a kick.
But Newcastle pulled out a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace, while Arsenal was defeating Norwich 1-0.
Standings…35/36 of 38 played….
1. Leicester 36 (games) – 77 (points)
2. Tottenham 35 – 69
3. Arsenal 36 – 67
4. Man City 36 – 64 [top four make Champions League]
5. Man U 35 – 60
17. Newcastle 36 – 33 [last three relegated, incredibly costly financially]
18. Sunderland 35 – 32
19. Norwich 35 – 31
20. Aston Villa 36 – 16
NASCAR
Talladega Superspeedway is NASCAR’s longest track at 2.66 miles, but in 23 races on the track coming in, Carl Edwards had zero wins and just three top-five finishes.
Edwards said prior to Sunday’s event, “I have wrecked about every way you can here. This place is deceptively tough and deceptively dangerous because there’s so much room to race and you get so comfortable and you get lulled into this sense of security.”
Edwards came in having won the series’ past two races – at Bristol, Tenn. and Richmond, Va.
Well he finished 35th as Brad Keselowski won his fourth, career, on the track; second Sprint Cup race of the season.
[I was watching the finish and there were two bad crashes the last 8 laps that in the old days, pre-Dale Earnhardt’s death, would have killed two drivers, but the safety improvements that have been made, both in the cars and with the SAFER Barriers, saved some lives today.]
So after 10 of 36 races, only six drivers have won.
Keselowski 2
Carl Edwards 2
Jimmie Johnson 2
Kyle Busch 2
Kevin Harvick 1
Denny Hamlin 1
Stuff
–ESPN released its latest fame index for the world’s 50 most famous athletes, using a formula that combines athlete paychecks – including endorsements – with social media fan bases and Google search popularity.
1. Cristiano Ronald
2. LeBron James
3. Lionel Messi
4. Neymar
5. Roger Federer
6. Kevin Durant
7. Tiger Woods
8. James Rodriguez
9. Rafael Nadal
10. Kobe Bryant
1, 3, 4 and 8 being footballers, in case you don’t follow soccer.
–A California man was surfing off the coast of Bali, Indonesia Monday morning and managed to ride a wave into shore after what is believed to be a bull shark, swam up behind him and chomped onto his elbow, his brother-in-law said.
Kevin Cradic said Ryan Boarman was losing blood fast.
“He was in just excruciating pain,” Cradic said. “He ended up surfing a wave into shore….then he passed out.”
Nearby surfers gave him first aid and took him to a hospital, where Boarman underwent hours of surgery. The shark bit through muscles to the bone, but the family said doctors were able to save his arm.
Unfortunately, Boarman is not receiving a terrific level of care, given where the incident occurred, and family members hope to get him medevacked to Singapore, but the trip is estimated to cost $30,000. [Los Angeles Times]
–Uh oh…Nyquist’s recent workouts haven’t been that good. Kentucky Derby next Saturday. I’m likin’ Gun Runner.
-A two-month-old baby boy died in Perth, Australia of a suspected spider bite. Parents found a spider bite on his hand. It’s not known what kind it was. I’m cancelling my trip to Perth. [Sydney Morning Herald]
—Kenyan authorities burned seized tusks and finished ivory products representing more than 6,000 dead elephants this weekend in a big move for the anti-poaching campaign that hopes to save the African elephant from extinction.
That’s 105 metric tons of confiscated ivory in what organizers say is the largest burning ever of the material.
From 1.2 million in the 1970s, the number of elephants roaming Africa has plunged to about 400,000, with 30,000 a year killed, which exceeds the animal’s annual birthrate.
But as Heidi Vogt of the Wall Street Journal reports, there is controversy in the kind of move that Kenya is making. Botswana, home to the world’s largest elephant herd, is boycotting the event. Rather than burning ivory, Botswana has used some of its recovered ivory in public art projects that memorialize the dead elephants.
Some in Kenya say warehousing it for potential sale makes more sense.
“It’s extremely unwise to get rid of your stocks. It’s a big bargaining chip in the future,” said Mike Norton-Griffiths, an independent consultant on conservation economics in Kenya. “The future of elephant conservation,” he said, “may rest not in destroying tusks and other ivory products but in a tightly regulated, legal market of the product.”
—Philip Kives died. He was 87. Pronounced KEY-vis, he was the influential pitchman whose company, K-tel, saturated North American airwaves for decades with record compilations (“25 Polka Greats,” “Hit Machine: 20 Original Hits, 20 Original Stars”), as well as a gaggle of gadgets (the Miracle Brush, the Veg-O-Matic).
Throughout the 1960s, 70s and beyond, K-tel commercials were ubiquitous. As Margalit Fox writes in the New York Times, in some markets more than 120 times a week on television and radio combined.
Many of the products were supplied to K-tel by Samuel J. Popeil, whose son, Ron, would found the direct-marketing company Ronco.
Kives had been a midway barker at county fairs and on the boardwalk of Atlantic City; one of the last living links between the “Step right up!” pitchmen of the early 20th century and the expansive electronic era.
It was in 1961 that Kives, who grew up on a farm in the Canadian prairie, made his way to Atlantic City to demonstrate pots and pans at a Woolworths on the boardwalk. The experience proved invaluable.
And he realized that while he could reach dozens at a time in person, he could reach thousands through the medium of television. Returning to Canada, he established K-tel and took to the airwaves.
His first foray into television advertising, a five-minute commercial for a nonstick skillet, was wildly successful, even though no operators were standing by…you had to go to a store to buy it, which Canadians did, by the thousands. [Forget that the product often didn’t work.]
And then there was Popeil’s “Pocket Fisherman,” probably my favorite.
But then Samuel Popeil deemed Kives too big and stopped furnishing him with product, so Kives branched off into recorded music.
K-tel suffered more than a few reversals of fortune. I forgot it invested in oil and gas at one point, and in 1984 it filed for Chapter 11 in the United States.
But he rebounded again, under a new concern, K-5 Leisure Products. K-tel then emerged from bankruptcy and today, the company mainly licenses its music library to films and television.
—Kelly Ripa is officially going in the December file for “Jerk of the Year” consideration. Friday she decided to take a swipe at co-host Michael Strahan’s divorces.
“There’s a great article in the paper, and I want to get your take on it ‘cause I don’t have a take on it, but I want yours,” Ripa said. “So, um, you’ve gotten divorced…”
Strahan wasn’t thrilled.
[Comedian Will Ferrell avoids the December file by deciding to shelve a film project that was going to make fun of Ronald Reagan’s Alzheimer’s.]
Top 3 songs for the week 5/1/76: #1 “Let Your Love Flow” (Bellamy Brothers) #2 “Right Back Where We Started From” (Maxine Nightingale) #3 “Boogie Fever” (Sylvers…ughh…)… and…#4 “Welcome Back” (John Sebastian) #5 “Sweet Love” (Commodores) #6 “Disco Lady” (Johnnie Taylor) #7 “Show Me The Way” (Peter Frampton…from such a cool album to this day…some of us have seen him do it live all these years later and Frampton still has it…) #8 “Fooled Around And Fell In Love” (Elvin Bishop…in my top three all time…peaked at #3…Starship’s Mickey Thomas did the vocals…) #9 “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Queen…Freddie Mercury simply one of the greatest entertainers of all time…) #10 “Love Hangover” (Diana Ross…talk about a diva….)
Yankees Quiz: Top five home run hitters against the Yanks.
Jimmie Foxx 70
Ted Williams 62
Manny Ramirez 55
Hank Greenberg 53
Carl Yastrzemski 52
As for Big Needle, he finished April with 5 home runs, 19 RBI and a .321 batting average, his second-best April in 20 seasons. Ortiz has announced he is retiring at the end of the season. He is officially 40, but unofficially 58 or 59 with 64 grandchildren.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
