[Avalon, N.J.]

Day Two...Ryder Cup...U.S. leads 9 to 7

N.L. Playoff Chase... 2 of 3 get in. [As of Saturday]

Phillies...87-68
Mets...86-68
Brewers...84-71

*Ichiro tied Willie Keeler's ancient major league record of 8 straight 200-hit seasons.

 

College Football Quiz: Last time we looked at the career rushing progression. Today, career passing. Jim Plunkett was the career Division I passing leader with 7,544 yards when he finished his career at Stanford, 1968-70. How many of those who succeeded him can you name? Here are the initials…in order. J.R., J.T., M.H., J.M., B.B., D.F., K.S., T.S., T.D., T.C. Answer below.

 

Dom Guida

 

I’ve been lucky to have a great week here at the shore and this is one of the better spots around if you’re into walks on the beach and such. Folks who have never been to New Jersey’s coastline just can’t imagine that we have some of the best beaches in the country. And the first few weeks of September you often get the best weather of the year.

 

Alas, with the historic movements and news involving our financial markets, CNBC has been on non-stop as I attempt to put together material for that other column I do.

 

And on a personal note, I just have to make mention of a man from my youth who I just learned died today….Dom Guida.

 

Dom ran the recreation sports leagues for us kids in Summit, N.J., and I played in the basketball and baseball programs that he oversaw. It was a great time, and he was real good people.

 

Last spring I sponsored an event for Summit’s Willie Wilson and at the last moment I realized Dom should be there. As Willie said that night, it was Dom who convinced a young Wilson to get into organized sports, especially baseball. Looking back, my event turned out to be as much a tribute for Dom as it was for Willie.

 

I bring this up because a lot of us that evening had a chance to hug and thank Dom Guida one last time. You all know someone like that in your own community. Next time you see them, make a special point to thank them. Or drop them a note.  It’s people like these who truly make this country special.

 

Yankee Tidbits

 

--On this the last week for Yankee Stadium, built in 1923, it’s interesting to note it took all of 284 days to construct and cost under $2.5 million. It was designed by the Osborn Engineering Co. of Cleveland – the same folks that would redesign Fenway Park a decade later – and built by the White Construction Co. of New York, principally with 140,000 sacs of concrete from Thomas Edison’s cement company. It cost a nickel to ride the subway from Manhattan to the new facility in the South Bronx.

 

--The first game was April 18, 1923 against Boston. Babe Ruth, who had said he would give a year of his life to hit a home run on Opening Day, became the first to do so in the third inning. Ruth, though, also made the first error, muffing a fly ball in the fifth. A Yankee Stadium grandstand ticket cost $1.10…and the average U.S. salary was $1,393 per year in ’23.

 

[Speaking of ticket prices, the cost of a field level box seat rose from $3.50 in 1967 to $10.00 in 1987. But by this year it was $250.]

 

--A baseball glove from the Sears Roebuck catalogue was $4.20 in 1923.

 

--It’s kind of cool that Derek Jeter can claim to have the most hits of any player in Yankee Stadium history.

 

Jeter…1,271 (thru Tuesday)

Gehrig…1,269

Mantle…1,211

Williams…1,123

DiMaggio…1,060

 

--Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech, July 4, 1939

 

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

 

“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.

 

“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies – that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body – it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that’s the finest I know.

 

“So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”

 

Gehrig died less than two years later.

 

Stuff

 

--Some of us Mets fans won’t be able to cope with another September collapse. Stop the bleeding, Metsies…now!

 

--The Hall of Fame Veterans Committee meets Dec. 8. A player needs 75% to be elected – with the 64 living Hall members voting in the category of those playing post-1943: The nominees  are…

 

Joe Torre, Ron Santo, Gil Hodges, Dick Allen, Jim Kaat, Luis Tiant, Tony Oliva, Al Oliver, Vada Pinson, and Maury Wills.

 

--Arnold Palmer on putting touch: “Somebody told me drinking hard liquor was bad, so during tournaments I stopped having a cocktail with dinner and switched to having a beer. That only made my touch worse, because the extra calories made my hands feel puffy. Next came a tip I’d heard from Ben Hogan: Drink ginger ale every day. That one actually seemed to work, probably because ginger ale has a diuretic property that drains you of excess fluid and can make your hands feel wiry. Another thing that helped me was lots of sleep. I rarely had good feel the day after I’d gotten to bed late, or tossed and turned all night.” [Golf Digest]

 

--What’s the best time to tee it up? As reported by Jeff Patterrson of Golf Digest, “Experts say there are two times a day when the body typically functions at peak performance. If you want to shoot your best scores, consider booking a tee time between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. or in the late afternoon, says Darrel Drobnich, chief program officer for the National Sleep Foundation.

 

“ ‘There are two periods of the day when the body has less alertness,’ he says. ‘One is midnight to 6 a.m., the other is 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.’ Drobnich cautions that these cycles are thrown off if you aren’t getting enough sleep.”

 

Kids, it all comes down to sleep…of which your editor only gets about five hours.

 

--I was perusing an AP piece by Sam Dolnick on the Sunderbans, the swampland/mangrove forest that divides India and Bangladesh and which is the home to the largest population of wild tigers in the world.

 

“Nearly everyone has a friend or a relative who was attacked by a tiger.” There are 250 tigers on each side of the border.

 

“Madhusudan Mondal saw a tiger kill his father and two other men while they were looking for honey in the forest six years ago. Still, he enters the woods every spring to collect honey, which can earn him thousands of rupees, compared with the 70 rupees – about $1.75 – per day he makes working the fields.”

 

Remember when Monty Hall on “Let’s Make A Deal” would start a prize package with a year’s supply of Sue Bee Honey? But I digress….

 

“Honey collectors such as Mondal walk barefoot into the knotted woods, armed only with a thick branch and a mask worn on the back of the head in hopes of scaring away tigers that folklore says always attack from behind.

 

“To ward off tigers, villagers beat drums and shine floodlights at night. Electrified dummies shock animals that get too close.

 

“Most people feel their best defense is the blessing of Bon Bibi, the forest goddess, who controls the tigers, snakes, sharks and crocodiles that roam her kingdom. Before venturing into the fickle woods, which are reshaped constantly by the tides and shifting sands, they visit her shrine and ask for her protection.”

 

Bon Bibi has a lot on her plate, don’t you think? And next time you feel like complaining about your job, just remember you could have it worse. You could be running through swamps, barefoot, looking for Sue Bee Honey while fearing an attack from behind.

 

--A 1995 study for New York City by the Army Corps of Engineers found that during a category 3 hurricane, Lower Manhattan would immediately be flooded, as it was in Sept. 1821, when the eye of a hurricane passed over the city, just east of what would have been the most disastrous track, as reported by the New York Daily News’ Michael Daly. One place you don’t want to be in during a storm is a subway or tunnel. The ’95 study said “The possibility of voluminous floodwaters rapidly filling several roadway tunnels and a larger percentage of the rail network raises the specter of catastrophe.” For example, a cat 3 could generate a storm surge of 21 feet at the Lincoln Tunnel…25 feet at JFK Airport.

 

Being here at the Jersey Shore this week, I’ve boned up on my weather history and according to a story in the New York Times, the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut area has been struck directly by eleven hurricanes since records have been kept, but New Jersey itself only one and that was back in 1903. We’ve had some Northeasters, however, that have done major damage to beach communities.

 

--Wake Forest may be ranked #18 in the AP poll, but it’s a 4 ½ point underdog to unranked Florida State. Go figure. [I’ll start with my football picks next week.]

 

--Wake’s men’s soccer is #1 once again after having won the NCAA title last spring.

 

--It’s Ryder Cup time! Captains Nick Faldo and Paul Azinger really don’t like each other and there could be some intense gamesmanship between the two. I hope the U.S. takes back the Cup, but I’m going with Europe…handily.

 

--From the Philadelphia Daily News:

 

“Accusations that a soccer player was using witchcraft during a match in eastern Congo sparked a riot that killed 13 people, a U.N. funded radio station reported yesterday.”

 

Call it….witch-craft….

 

--Awful story out of Tulare, California. Max Corbett, 61, an expert dairy farmer who educated scores of area school kids on the business over the years and was a beloved figure, was gored to death by a bull that suddenly attacked him. 

 

--Rick Wright, a founding member of Pink Floyd, died at the age of 65. The cause was cancer. Wright shared writing credits on my two favorites tunes from the group, “Us and Them” from “The Dark Side of the Moon” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” from the album “Wish You Were Here.”

 

Top 3 songs for the week 9/18/82: #1 “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” (Chicago) #2 “Abracadabra” (The Steve Miller Band) #3 “Eye Of The Tiger” (Survivor)…and…#4 “Jack & Diane” (John Cougar) #5 “You Should Hear How She Talks About You” (Melissa Manchester) #6 “Even The Nights Are Better” (Air Supply) #7 “Hold Me” (Fleetwood Mac) #8 “Hurts So Good” (John Cougar) #9 “Eye In The Sky” (The Alan Parsons Project) #10 “Take It Away” (Paul McCartney)

 

College Football Quiz Answer: Career passing progression.

 

John Reaves, Florida (1969-71) 7,549 yards

Jack Thompson, Washington State (1975-78) 7,818

Mark Herrmann, Purdue (1977-80) 9,188

Jim McMahon, Brigham Young (1977-78, 1980-81) 9,536

Ben Bennett, Duke (1980-83) 9,614

Doug Flutie, Boston College (1981-84) 10,579

Kevin Sweeney, Fresno State (1982-86) 10,623

Todd Santos, San Diego State (1984-87) 11,425

Ty Detmer, Brigham Young (1988-91) 15,031

Timmy Chang, Hawaii (1999-2004) 17,072

 

Next Bar Chat, Monday.