[Posted early Wed. a.m.]
Green Bay Packers Quiz: 1) Name the three to rush for 5,000 yards in their G.B. careers. 2) Name the four to throw 100 TD passes. You have to get all seven before you can treat yourself to a domestic. Answers below.
World Series
–On to Game 7…the Cubs taking Game 6, 9-3, behind the hitting of Addison Russell, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, all homering, including a third-inning grand slam for Russell off Cleveland starter Josh Tomlin that busted the game open.
Manager Joe Maddon, though, was questioned for bringing Aroldis Chapman into the game in the seventh with a 7-2 lead, Chapman eventually throwing 20 pitches, but I can’t fault the skipper.
However, Chapman has now thrown 62 pitches in Games 5 and 6, though with a day off in between. That said, I’ll say Chapman won’t be effective beyond one inning tonight.
For Cleveland, Terry Francona has his big three relievers – Andrew Miller, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen – well rested for Game 7, so all he’s hoping is that Corey Kluber, again pitching on short rest, can just give him five strong, then he can turn the game over to the Big Three for the final four.
But Cleveland also needs to take the early lead off Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks.
The Cubs are hoping Kluber is ineffective and that Bryant, Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber, in particular, can do some damage to negate the Cleveland pen, with Maddon needing Hendricks to give him seven.
All baseball fans just hope it’s close, knowing that one fan base is going to be ecstatic, the other thrown into a state of depression.
—Game 5 Sunday night was a huge ratings success for Fox, with an average audience of 23.6 million viewers, the first time since 2013 that MLB’s fall classic topped NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” when the two have aired head-to-head. The Cowboys-Eagles game was watched by 18 million.
Sunday’s audience was the largest for the fifth game of a World Series since 1997, when 24.2 million watched the Indians play the Marlins.
This is impressive stuff given the ratings slide we are seeing in the NFL. More on their issues down below.
–The Mets received some distressing news on Monday. Closer Jeurys Familia, proclaimed by all to be one of the model citizens in the game and beloved by everyone in the organization for his character, was arrested on a domestic violence charge. Time to ‘wait 24 hours.’
College Football
–So we have the first BCS Poll…the only one that matters in terms of the playoffs, but I will continue to post the AP survey which makes for good contrast.
1. Alabama (1 AP rank)
2. Clemson (3)
3. Michigan (2)
4. Texas A&M (7)
5. Washington (4)
6. Ohio State (6)
7. Louisville (5)
8. Wisconsin (8)
9. Auburn (11)
10. Nebraska (9)
12. Penn State (20)
23. Western Michigan (17)
24. Boise State (24)
Don’t make too much of this first ranking. Texas A&M is above Washington just because of their strength of schedule, the Huskies having a weak one early on. But if Washington wins out, they’ll be in.
One thing to keep in mind is that Western Michigan has a shot at a New Year’s Six bowl as the highest-ranked Group of Five team. But they have to be Mid-American Conference Champs.
Tuesday night’s effort against Ball State didn’t hurt, a 52-20 triumph as Broncos receiver Corey Davis, a sure-fire NFLer, caught 12 of Zach Terrell’s passes for a conference record 272 yards and three touchdowns.
–This weekend’s big games are both Saturday night, 9 Nebraska at 6 Ohio State (a yawner but important for the Buckeyes’ BCS hopes), and 1 Alabama at 15 LSU, which has potential with the Tigers playing well under interim coach Ed Orgeron. Leonard Fournette had 286 yards and three touchdowns rushing in LSU’s last game against Ole Miss. Death Valley will be hopping, at least early in the contest.
And in a huge game in Winston-Salem, Wake Forest’s season is on the line as the 5-3 Deacs take on 2-6 Virginia, the latter having given Louisville more than it wanted last weekend.
–So here’s the deal with San Diego State running back Donnel Pumphrey. With four regular-season games, plus a certain bowl game for the 7-1 Aztecs, Pumphrey sits at 5,741 yards on the all-time list, #6, when you include bowl games. Bottom line…if he averages 150 yards per game the next four, he’d be #3 behind Tony Dorsett (6,526) and Ron Dayne (7,125).
—FCS Div. I-AA Coaches Poll (Oct. 31)
1. Sam Houston State 8-0
2. Jacksonville State 7-1
3. Eastern Washington 7-1
4. North Dakota State 7-1
5. James Madison 7-1
6. Richmond 7-1
7. Citadel 8-0
8. Chattanooga 8-1
9. Charleston Southern 5-2
10. North Carolina A&T 7-1…great for them
12. Villanova 6-2
21. Lehigh 7-2
22. Harvard 6-1
–Finally, we note the passing of former Ohio State lineman John Hicks, one of the great college football players of all time. He was 65 and died of complications from diabetes, according to his wife.
Hicks was a critical part of the Buckeyes under Woody Hayes when they won the Big Ten Conference championships in 1970, 1972 and 1973. Archie Griffin won one of his two Heisman Trophies running behind Hicks in ’73.
Hicks won the Outland Trophy for best interior lineman in college football in 1973 and was a first-round draft pick of the New York Giants, becoming rookie of the year in 1974, but then his pro career fizzled from there and he was out of football by 1979.
NFL
–I was glued to the World Series Sunday night and frankly didn’t pay attention to Dallas-Philadelphia. I just have to note for the record that the Cowboys improved to 6-1 with a 29-23 overtime win, dropping the Eagles to 4-3, as in the battle of the two rookie QBs, Dallas’ Dak Prescott got the better of Philly’s Carson Wentz. Prescott threw a game-tying TD pass to Dez Bryant with 3:04 to go in regulation, and then led his team all the way down the field on a 75-yard drive to begin OT, culminating in a 5-yard scoring strike to Jason Witten for the win.
For the game, Prescott had a slash line of 19/39, 287, 2-1, 79.8 rating, while Wentz was 32/43, just 202, 1-0, 91.4.
The Eagles did hold Cowboys rookie sensation Ezekiel Elliott to ‘only’ 96 yards rushing after Elliott had rushed for at least 134 yards in each of his prior four contests.
As for Dak Prescott retaining his starting job over Tony Romo, no one in Dallas has to worry. The job is Prescott’s.
“Winners are guys who get the job done even when they aren’t at their best,” said former Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy said on NBC after the game. “That was Dak Prescott tonight.”
Romo isn’t really close to being in playing shape anyway.
–Boy, I made some darn prescient comments concerning last spring’s NFL draft, if I may say so myself. Here’s some of what I wrote on May 2 in this space.
“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.”
So that very same Jordan Howard had a monster game Monday night for Chicago as the Bears (2-6) upset the Vikings (5-2) at Soldier Field; Howard with 153 yards rushing as well as four receptions for another 49. He’s a difference maker. The Bears were also helped by the return of Jay Cutler after a five-week absence, Cutler going 20/31, 252, 1-0, 100.5. Chicago outgained (manhandled) Minnesota 403-258 yards.
–The Patriots stunned a few fans by trading one of their best defensive players, linebacker Jamie Collins, to Cleveland for a third-round pick in next year’s draft. No doubt the Pats will then turn the pick into a usable player for the future, but why make this move now?
Well it seems Collins becomes a free agent this offseason and, due a big contract after a very solid season, the Pats didn’t feel they could re-sign him, or want to.
Coach Bill Belichick also wasn’t happy with Collins’ interest in a new deal while the season is going on, plus he apparently wasn’t doing what the coaches wanted on defense, and Belichick doesn’t tolerate such selfishness. Message sent…he hopes.
Meanwhile, Cleveland gets a very good 26-year-old and they have the cap space to sign Collins.
–The Jets picked up free agent running back C.J. Spiller. I like the move. When healthy he can contribute.
–Wide receiver Andre Johnson, #9 on the all-time receptions list with 1,062 catches, including five years with 100 receptions and seven years with 1,000 yards, announced his retirement from the Tennessee Titans, though his big years, which should eventually land him in the Hall of Fame, were with Houston. Johnson, 35, was in his 14th season, having played his college ball at Miami.
–The Josh Brown case isn’t going away, mainly because of a pathetic performance at a press conference by Giants GM Jerry Reese on Monday.
Steve Politi / Star-Ledger (NJ.com)
“The list of people in the Giants organization who didn’t want to address the festering Josh Brown situation but still did is long.
“Victor Cruz did, even though he has as much to do with the decision to re-sign the kicker as any MetLife Stadium usher. Eli Manning did, on multiple occasions and even on multiple continents. Most of the players, in fact, did answer questions about their former teammate, including a few who had to backtrack on previous comments when more information became public.
“They all have one thing in common, too. They had absolutely nothing to do with the faulty process that led to Brown remaining on this roster. That decision ultimately belongs to general manager Jerry Reese, who – surprise, surprise – wanted nothing to do with questions that he, ultimately, should have been answering all along.
Let’s be clear: This was a cowardly performance by the Giants GM on Halloween, one that reflects poorly on him and the entire Giants organization. Reese, speaking to reporters for the first time since July and the first time since the Brown saga began with his one-game suspension, said that he was ‘not taking any questions’ about the former kicker four times. Then he got angry.
“ ‘I’m not taking any questions in respect to Josh Brown, guys,’ Reese said. ‘Stop asking me. I’m not going to take any questions about that.’
“Stop asking me? This is the man in charge of the Giants personnel department, the one who had an opportunity to – finally – shed some light on the process that led to the team re-signing Brown to a two-year, $4 million contract despite knowledge of his abusive past and decision to keep him when new information made it clear that his problems were far deeper than he let on.
“Stop asking me?! This is how the GM of a team that once actually knew how to manage a crisis elected to address completely valid questions about a controversy that briefly swallowed the NFL whole. So much for leadership. So much for accountability….
“This is the GM who pointed out that ‘everybody is involved’ in roster-building decisions when his feet were, rightfully so, held to the fire in January after the Giants finished 6-10. The buck doesn’t stop here, not at this GM’s desk, no matter what the topic is….
“Not an hour after he was done, Manning was in front of his locker taking questions again, and once again, he spent five minutes addressing the Brown situation. Again: There are beer vendors who had as much input into the process as the Giants quarterback.
“But he’s a leader, and as a leader, he’s accountable. He is the opposite of what the man who is supposed to be setting an example in the Giants organization, the GM who should be ashamed of his cowardly display.”
Meanwhile, back to the issue of ratings and the NFL’s myriad of problems.
Sally Jenkins / Washington Post
“The NFL’s firm grip on the psyche is based in the fact that it’s the most real, live event on live television. Every game is a character-driven story and a high-speed chase in which the action and the stakes of a collision are genuine. But lately the NFL has seemed formulaic and lacking in a certain kind of authenticity. It’s no great mystery as to why the NFL’s ratings have been dropping: Viewers don’t especially like the stories they’re watching.
“The numbers are striking. Through seven weeks, ratings were off for every prime-time incarnation of the NFL: ‘Sunday Night Football’ by 19 percent, ‘Monday Night Football’ by 24 percent and the dreaded Thursday night game by 18 percent. A variety of factors may be contributing to this dive, from the election to so-called ‘fragmentation’ of mass media. But none of the explanations make as much sense as the simplest one: The NFL has put less appealing and more disturbing action on the screen, and viewers are turning it off.
“Historian Michael Oriard has observed that the great attraction of the league is that it’s ‘the true reality TV,’ in its most vital form. But the NFL is beginning to seem over-managed and over-staged. Constant commercials and interruptions by refs waving their arms do not produce ‘appointment viewing;’ rather, they produce punts, ties and stasis. Look at the standings: A cluster of 18 teams, indistinguishable save for the colors of their shirts, are at .500 or worse and five more at 4-3. In other words, 23 teams are not must-see-TV to anyone but their most fervent fans. The constant advertisements and hail of yellow flags from overly officious officials make a PBS series seem fast-moving, with a clearer story line. [Ed. “Frontline” is far better television than your average NFL game.]….
“(Even Sunday’s terrific Cowboys-Eagles game) was crushed in the ratings by Game 5 of the World Series….
“Obviously, viewers are not finding the NFL as meaningful and important as they have in other seasons. Games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday, plus a handful of overseas trips for novelty games in London, have numbed the viewer….
“Perhaps the most knowledgeable and acute observer of the NFL is Oriard, a former player for the Kansas City Chiefs* turned author whose highly regarded cultural history of the league, ‘Brand NFL,’ is essential reading. Oriard observed, ‘The job is to market the game, without letting marketing get in the way of the game.’ The league has let marketing get in the way of the game, and one expression of that is coming from the officials.
*If you look him up, it’s ‘Mike’ Oriard.
“The NFL’s overemphasis on ‘brand’ and ‘shield’ has meant increasingly petty attention to discipline and uniformity, which is sucking away dynamism and rendering it joyless. The league is picking apart its own product with stoppages, until it’s hard for the viewer to separate the major from the minor offense: According to NFLpenalities.com, officials have thrown 1,996 yellow flags, every one of which means a halt. An analyst at The Big Lead ran a database check of profootballrefence.com and discovered that offensive holding penalties have increased by fully 43 percent since 2011, and defensive pass interference is up by 45 percent over the same period….
“The NFL ratings malaise is being puzzled over by everyone from media executives to stock analysts, who offer a variety of speculative causes. Everything from fantasy football to Twitter live-streaming to the shorter attention spans and habits of millennials has been cited. But none of these entirely add up. Other sports aren’t suffering precipitous drops; NBA and Major League Baseball ratings have strengthened over the past year.”
Then you have the issues of concussions and domestic violence.
“The NFL always has been a form of ‘sanctioned’ violence and the ’most excessive of our sports,’ according to Oriard. That creates some delicate balance problems for the league: It has to justify itself morally as a sport of values, otherwise it’s just a slasher film…. (How) to keep the loyalty of viewers despite the tug of conscience when a man is carried off the field on a board, or violence spills over to league wives, is yet another….
“The league insists that its brand of controlled violence is important in the shaping of strong young bodies, important in the self-making of men and important in expressing something vitally American….
“ ‘I pose this as a question,’ Oriard said. ‘We’ve gone through 100 years of knowing football is violent, and the consequences of violence were always deemed to be acceptable, the benefits outweighed the cost. But that ended with Mike Webster’s brain. Are we watching with a greater sense of the danger? Can we still fully give ourselves over to the experience of watching, and of saying, ‘Wow, look at what these bodies can endure, what they do to each other’? Are we seeing a temporary blip in ratings or a kind of resetting of the NFL’s cultural power?’”
–Speaking of penalties, I missed that the Raiders set an NFL record Sunday by committing 23 accepted penalties in their 30-24 victory over Tampa Bay. The 23 accounted for 200 yards, which is the third-most all time for yards penalized in one game. Luckily for Oakland, Derek Carr set a franchise mark with his 513 yards passing.
Since 2001, the Raiders have been the most penalized team in the NFL, by the way.
–Back to Ms. Jenkins and the issue of concussions, Alex Smith of the Chiefs was knocked out twice, but allowed to return after the first hit to the head in the Chiefs’ win in Indianapolis on Sunday. Smith’s wife, Elizabeth, complained on Twitter throughout the game that the officials weren’t protecting her hubby.
“How many hits does he have to take before a flag is thrown,” she wrote.
However, Tuesday, Chiefs officials said there was miscommunication between team doctors and that Smith had not suffered a concussion with either hit, though he still has to go through concussion protocol and his status for next Sunday is unknown.
Also Sunday, Carolina QB Cam Newton complained after his team’s 30-20 win over Arizona, telling reporters that officials weren’t doing enough to protect him.
“It’s really taken the fun out of the game for me, honestly, because, at times, I don’t even feel safe.
“Enough is enough,” adding he intended to speak to Commissioner Roger Goodell. “I don’t think there’s a person that can go through what I go through, and still keep their head, you know what I’m saying? Hits to the head, that’s one thing, but when you’re not protected in the pocket, that’s another thing. The story of my life ever since I came in [to the league] is just, ‘Oh, oh, well, we missed that one, I’m sorry.’ That’s bull crap.”
[Newton talked to Goodell Tuesday. “Hi.” “Hi.”]
College Basketball…Preseason AP Poll
1. Duke (58 first-place votes)
2. Kentucky (2)
3. Kansas
4. Villanova (4)
5. Oregon (1)
6. North Carolina
7. Xavier
8. Virginia
9. Wisconsin
10. Arizona
18. UConn
30. San Diego State…if you carried out the votes
Golf Balls
–Golf World’s Tim Rosaforte stopped in at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge last week. Rick Roberts, the locker-room attendant, said, “It comes in waves. I look at the table (where Palmer held court) every once in a while and realize, there’s an empty seat there.”
“One month after his passing, Palmer’s desk remains as he left it. ‘It’s like time stood still,’ said close friend Bob Florio. ‘There’s still stuff for him to sign.’
“Michael Koribana, Bay Hill’s sous chef, felt the same emotional waves. He remembers Palmer walking through his kitchen during football season, talking about the Steelers, ladling some chicken-noodle soup on the way back to the condo and occasionally grabbing a knife to show the chef how he wanted the lettuce cut in the Palmer salad….
“It seems like everybody is a long-term worker at Bay Hill. It will be the job of Palmer’s daughter Amy and his son-in-law Roy Saunders, the resort’s vice president, to make sure the legacy continues.
“Making future decisions that must be made that much harder are the broken hearts left behind. ‘Everybody feels the same way,’ Amy told me Sunday. ‘They feel like they’ve lost a friend.’
“The time of year that Palmer was most visible at Bay Hill was early winter. When he came back for the season, immersed in preparations for the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, regular guests and members pretty much knew where Palmer could be found for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Roy Saunders recalled how Palmer would greet everybody ‘as if they were an old friend,’ how he would ‘put down a fork to sign an autograph.’
“ ‘There’s a void, but you’ll always feel his presence,’ Roy said. ‘The great thing about Bay Hill, it’s almost a museum in itself, with all of the wonderful photographs and all the people here. Everybody’s got an Arnold Palmer story. We’ve got a whole membership of people with Arnold Palmer stories.’….
“Amy Saunders will oversee the tournament, as well as Arnold Palmer Enterprises, the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, Arnie’s Army Charitable Foundation and Latrobe C.C. in Pennsylvania.
“ ‘It’s a little bit much to absorb right now,’ she told me before breaking down. ‘I never know when it’s going to hit me.’”
Boy, many a tear will be shed at Bay Hill next spring for the tourney. And then at Augusta.
–We still have Gary Player. The South African great turned 81 on Tuesday and still does about 1,000 sit-ups a day. All fans were urged to do 81 for him…so I did. [Yikes, I run but I’m out of shape!]
–I dissed Cody Gribble last time, winner of his first tour event at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Miss., because I simply hadn’t heard of him. So I do feel compelled to note that he was a teammate of Jordan Spieth’s in 2012 at Texas when the Longhorns won the NCAA championship.
—Rory McIlroy pulled out of this week’s Turkish Airlines Open, a big European Tour event, the first of three Final Series tournaments that close out the Euro Tour season, because of security concerns. Recent rocket attacks have been reported in the Antalya region, where the tournament is being played.
NCAA Men’s Soccer Poll – Coaches (Nov. 1)
1. Maryland 15-0-2
2. Wake Forest 12-2-3
3. Clemson 11-2-4
4. North Carolina 11-2-3
5. Charlotte 11-2-1
6. Denver 14-0-3
7. Syracuse 10-2-3
8. Indiana 10-1-6
9. Stanford 10-3-4
10. Louisville 11-4-2
Now it’s on to the ACC tournament. Do ya think the conference is stacked? But one of them needs to close the deal, which then makes recruiting for all in the ACC easier. “Hey, kid. You want to play against the best?”
Stuff
–I’m not pretending to follow the Champions League action in the group stage, but I do have to note that Manchester City had a nice 3-1 win over Barcelona on Tuesday. And Arsenal punched its ticket into the Round of 16 with a 3-2 win over Ludo Razgd.
Tottenham and Leicester City, the other two Premier League representatives, play today.
–Investors in DraftKings and FanDuel have been encouraging the two to tie the knot for months, as Bloomberg News first reported last June, and now it seems a certainty, with DraftKings co-founder Jason Robins running the combined entity, though as the combination would control at least 90% of the daily fantasy sports market, regulators will no doubt be a royal pain in the ass. Because that’s what they do.
Investors in DraftKings include Madison Square Garden Co. and the Kraft Group, which owns the New England Patriots. FanDuel is backed by KKR & Co. and Time Warner Inc., among others.
But of course the two have been struggling as regulators in several states questioned the legality of the games, and they’ve been fighting challenges and lobbying legislators ever since. In February, 21st Century Fox wrote down its $160 million investment in DraftKings by about 60%.
In early October, the two sites agreed with the New York attorney general’s office to pay $6 million each to settle false advertising lawsuits and both, according to the New York Times, have been strapped for cash.
As one who plays DraftKings for the NFL, PGA and NASCAR, it’s easy to see how much they are struggling by just observing the pots we are all playing for each week; nowhere near what they were, say, the early fall of 2015. [I took the first two weeks of the NFL season off and am 3 of 6 since; but getting my butt kicked in NASCAR after a nice streak. I’m in a slump for golf. I should take some time off there. Go to church and stuff.]
–The Breeders’ Cup Classic (and all the other Breeders Cup races) is being held at Santa Anita on Saturday and Nyquist will not be there. The once-brilliant career seemingly over as trainer Doug O’Neill said last weekend that the horse wasn’t right, had minor injury issues, and was running lackluster workouts.
It seems like so long ago but it was just last spring that Nyquist appeared destined to become the second straight Triple Crown winner after beating Exaggerator in the Kentucky Derby, Nyquist starting off his career with eight straight wins, including impressive performances in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, a duel against Exaggerator at Santa Anita, and then humiliating unbeaten Mohaymen on his home track in Florida before winning the Derby.
But that was the last race Nyquist won, as he finished third to Exaggerator in the Preakness, then, after some time off, finishing fourth at the Haskell Invitational in Monmouth, and a disappointing sixth in the Pennsylvania Derby.
Owner Paul Reddam said, “It’s possible to say he got cooked in the Preakness. He gave all that he had, maybe that broke him as a race horse.
So what happens to these great horses? John Cherwa of the Los Angeles Times tackled the topic, with some help.
“It remains a mystery why horses with seemingly unlimited potential can suddenly lose their edge after winning the most recognized horse race in the world.
“ ‘Let’s look at the last 20 years of [Kentucky] Derby winners,’ said Jerry Bailey, a hall of fame jockey and NBC Sports horse racing analyst. ‘Four of them were injured, four of them retired and went right to stud shortly after the race. Who does that leave? Only four – Animal Kingdom, Silver Charm, Real Quiet and American Pharoah – who went on to any kind of sustained success.’
“Even California Chrome, the presumptive favorite in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, won only one of his last four races as a 3-year-old after the Preakness. He followed that up with a disastrous 4-year-old campaign in which he ran only twice, losing both. As a 5-year-old, however, he has been nothing but spectacular with six straight wins against very good competition.
“Of the other Kentucky Derby winners in the last 20 years that weren’t injured or retired, four of them (Orb, Super Saver, Mine That Bird and Giacomo) never won another race. Funny Cide won only one of 13 races after winning the Derby and Preakness.
“ ‘They’re athletes, just like human beings and they have psyches,’ Bailey said.
“He drew a comparison to the decline of David Duval, who dramatically fell from being the No.1-ranked golfer in the world to a fringe player shooting in the 80s.
“ ‘Are the ones that are great for a while and then they lose, are they never the same mentally?’ Bailey said. ‘I think what happened to Nyquist in the Preakness [getting caught in an absurdly fast speed duel, leaving him vulnerable in the stretch] was a factor…and yet he battled back like crazy in mid-stretch. When the ones that are so good try and are beaten, do they lose their confidence? I think they do.’
“Looking at this year’s 20 Kentucky Derby starters, five, including Nyquist, have been retired and two more haven’t run a race since May.”
But owner Reddam and trainer O’Neill have lots of great memories of their horse. He was indeed special.
–Dr. W. tells me that the other day, an elk was spotted in Pickens County, South Carolina, the first siting in, oh, about 200 years! Elk, as the good doctor reminded me, were wiped out east of the Mississippi by about 1810, but 10 years ago were reintroduced into the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, and now they are spreading out, boys and girls. It would seem this particular elk is looking to party at Clemson University, one of the better schools for same in the nation.
—Potential Christmas gift for dog lovers. The Nov. 7 issue of TIME has a review of a new book, Secret Service Dogs, by Maria Goodavage, which highlights the “completely nonpartisan” agents that serve in the highest levels of government.
By the way, Emergency Response Team dogs are all Belgian Malinois…they are the ones trained to take down bad guys – the canine equivalent of a SWAT team; Explosive Device Team dogs (also frequently Malinois) check every vehicle that comes to the White House; and so-called friendly dogs (typically Labrador retrievers or springer spaniels), subtly sniff White House visitors for suspicious scents; all crucial parts of America’s national security, Goodavage writes.
As Sarah Begley writes for TIME: “In 2014, for example, a Malinois named Hurricane helped take down a fence jumper on the White House lawn. He was eventually given an award for valor – but first, a well-deserved hug from his owner, a big ‘Good boy!’ and two McDonald’s burgers.”
Top 3 songs for the week 11/3/73: #1 “Midnight Train To Georgia” (Gladys Knight & The Pips…can’t stand this one…) #2 “Angie” (The Rolling Stones) #3 “Keep On Truckin’” (Eddie Kendricks)…and…#4 “Half-Breed” (Cher…song about Elizabeth Warren’s heritage, so she would have us believe…) #5 “Paper Roses” (Marie Osmond…Marie lookin’ mighty fine these days…) #6 “Heartbeat – It’s A Lovebeat” (The DeFranco Family…middle instrumental is some of the worst music ever made…) #7 “Ramblin Man” (The Allman Brothers Band) #8 “Let’s Get It On” (Marvin Gaye…these last two save the week…) #9 “Space Race” (Billy Preston) #10 “All I Know” (Garfunkel)
Green Bay Packers Quiz Answers: 1) 5,000 yards rushing: Ahman Green 8,322 (2000-09); Jim Taylor 8,207 (1958-66); John Brockington 5,024 (1971-77). 2) 100 TD passes: Brett Favre 442 (1992-2007); Aaron Rogers 274 (2005-2016); Bart Starr 152 (1956-71); Lynn Dickey 133 (1976-85).
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
