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Bar Chat

03/20/2017

ACC Goes Down...bigly....

[Posted late Sunday p.m.]

FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Quiz: This weekend, American Mikaela Shiffrin became the fifth American ski racer to win the overall World Cup crown.  Who are the other four [men and women]?  Answer below.

March Madness

Thursday and Friday, they say there was little drama in the NCAA Basketball Tournament but you still had some intriguing finishes.  Thursday, the higher seeds went 14-2, the least eventful opening day of the tournament since 2000 when the higher seeds went 15-1.

--But No. 12 Princeton, squaring off against 5 Notre Dame, had a good look with 0:07 seconds in the game for a three and the lead, but it clanged off, the Fighting Irish prevailing 60-58.

--And you had  8 Northwestern claim its first-ever NCAA tournament victory, 68-66 over 9 Vanderbilt, after Vandy guard Matthew Fisher-Davis inexplicably grabbed Wildcats guard Bryant McIntosh on purpose, sending McIntosh to the free throw line for the go-ahead points with 15 seconds left.

Fisher-Davis said he thought Vandy was down by one point, not leading, after Riley LaChance had made a layup with 18 seconds to play giving Vandy a 66-65 lead. When Commodores coach Bryce Drew pointed for him to pick up McIntosh, Fisher-Davis thought he was saying to foul him.

McIntosh calmly sank his free throws, LaChance missed a 3, and Northwestern got another free throw.

--Friday, Arkansas scored the final 7 points, while benefiting from both awful play by Seton Hall down the stretch and a controversial flagrant foul call that simply wasn’t, though that’s not the reason the Hall lost, 77-71.

But the flagrant call on Desi Rodriguez was beyond atrocious, yet J.D. Collins, the NCAA’s national coordinator of men’s basketball officiating, defended the officials’ decision afterward in an interview on TNT, saying that any time a player “puts two hands in the back and doesn’t make any attempt to play the ball or the player in front of him,” it’s a flagrant-1 foul.

Hey, Collins, it’s the NCAA-freakin’ basketball tournament, not the Diamond Head Classic.

Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard: “If you’ve been around the game long enough, you’ve got to know time, score – you’ve got to know what’s going on,” Willard said, adding, “But they reffed a good game all night.  So I can’t really complain about whether I agree or not.  I’m always going to disagree with it.  That’s what coaches do.”  Willard showed class.  [Ben Shpigel and Zach Schonbrun / New York Times]

--USC has been impressive, first coming from a 15-point halftime deficit (17 early second) to defeat Providence in Wednesday’s play-in contest, then they edged 6-seed SMU 66-65, Friday, when the Mustangs’ final shot clanged off the rim.

SMU (30-5) had entered the Big Dance as one of the hottest teams – having won 16 in a row, and they left it as one of the most depressed, not only giving up a double-digit second half lead but looking like a junior high team its last three possessions of the game.  AAC coach of the year Tim Jankovich had three timeouts left but chose not to use any.

This program has underachieved, dealt with major controversy starting with then-head coach Larry Brown, and now this.

In 2014, SMU was snubbed by the selection committee, going on to be runner-up in the NIT.

In 2015, they lost as a 6-seed to UCLA on a controversial goal-tending call.

In 2016, they were banned from postseason play due to NCAA violations under Brown, this after the Mustangs started the season 18-0 and finished 25-5.

--7-seed South Carolina rode the play of Sindarius Thornwell (29 points and 11 rebounds) to a 93-73 win over 10 Marquette, the Gamecocks first win in the NCAA tournament since 1973!

--No. 10 Wichita State won a slugfest against No. 7 Dayton, 64-58.

--And No. 11 Rhode Island beat 6 Creighton 84-72, the first win in the tourney for the Rams since 1998.

As an ACC fan, I was of course following our conference performance, Wake Forest having lost the Tuesday play-in game to Kansas State, and the ACC was 3-1 on both Thursday and Friday with the remaining 8 teams, Virginia Tech losing to Wisconsin 84-74, and Miami getting waxed by Michigan State, 78-58.

But I thought heading into Saturday-Sunday, we were in good shape with our remaining six teams. Wrong!

--5 Notre Dame lost to a simply better 4 West Virginia, 83-71, with ND coach Mike Brey saying after that the Mountaineers were “men...they were older.”  Not a lot of one-and-doners at WVU, for sure.  They stick around and learn to play together.  I’ll talk about my affinity for Bob Huggins next Bar Chat.

--4 Florida blasted 5 Virginia 65-39.

--11 Xavier slaughtered 3 Florida State 91-66.  Embarrassing and pathetic.

ACC 0-3.  Ugh.

--But of course the big game was 1 Villanova and 8 Wisconsin, and the Badgers pulled off the upset, 65-62.

Here’s the thing.  Villanova choked.  The nation’s best free-throw shooting team hit just 3 of 6 down the stretch, with Josh Hart, Eric Paschall, and David DiVincenzo all hitting 1 of 2, and Hart turning it over with 0:48 left.

But it was still 62-62  with 0:37 left after DiVincenzo’s 1 of 2 at the line, and then Wisconsin’s Nigel Hayes scored with 0:14 to play, All-American Hart got stuffed driving in traffic at 0:05 for his second turnover in the final minute and it was game over, after a last free throw. 

So much for the defending national champions.  A disappointing ending, no doubt, though some are making excuses Wisconsin was underseeded and, indeed, the last AP poll had them 25, so maybe they deserved a 7, plus the Badgers had beaten Minnesota twice, yet the Gophers were a No. 5 seed, but [stuff] happens.  It’s the annual dance with Wichita State’s absurd seeding that is the true travesty...but I digress....

--Then you had 1 Gonzaga vs. 8 Northwestern.  It was 38-20 Zags at the half, as the Wildcats hit 9 of 30 from the field, 1 of 11 from three.

But Northwestern hit 18 of 36 in the second half, 7 of 13 from three, and the Wildcats mounted a comeback.  They cut the lead to 63-58 when with 4:57 remaining, Northwestern’s Dererk (sic) Pardon went up for a layup that was rejected by Gonzaga’s Zach Collins.  The Zags got the rebound.

But the referees failed to note that Collins’ arm went through the rim to block the shot – a clear infraction.  Goaltending.

Northwestern Coach Chris Collins stormed onto the court, drawing a technical foul. Gonzaga converted its two free throws, and it was essentially game over, Gonzaga prevailing 79-73.

Collins was right in pointing out it would have been a three point game, with Northwestern having all the momentum, and afterward the NCAA released a statement saying that the referees had blown it.  But he was reckless in getting a ‘T’ the refs had no choice but to give him.

On to Sunday....

--Another ACC team went down...No. 2 Louisville, 73-69 to 7 Michigan, after the Cardinals had a 36-28 lead at the half.  This is getting serious.  Mo Wagner had 26 for the Wolverines.

--In another terrific 65-62 game, 2 Kentucky held off 10 Wichita State.  Three years ago it was 1 Wichita State vs. 8 Kentucky and the Wildcats won 78-76, in what was easily the worst seeding by the NCAA Tournament committee ever.  But this year’s seeding of the Shockers at 10 rivals that.  It’s just not fair.

Meanwhile, kudos to Kentucky freshman sensation Malik Monk, who sank a critical three, blocked a shot, and made two free throws down the stretch.

--No. 1 Kansas ran away from 9 Michigan State, late, 90-70.   Another freshman superstar, Josh Jackson, had 23 points for the Jayhawks.  [But dude has character issues.]

--1 North Carolina finally picked up an ACC win, 72-65 over 8 Arkansas, but we’re talking the Tar Heels were down 65-60, before going on a 12-0 run the final 3 ½.  Kennedy Meeks had a key putback at 68-65.

--3 Oregon advanced, 75-72 over 11 Rhode Island, as guard Tyler Dorsey was 9 of 10 from the field, 4 of 5 from downtown including the decider down the stretch, 27 points in all.  Very tough loss for Danny Hurley’s Rams, who were up 72-68 with 2:00 to play and couldn’t score the rest of the way.

--3 Baylor ended 11 USC’s Sweet Sixteen dreams, 82-78.

--And the ACC choked again...just one of nine advancing to the Sweet Sixteen...as 2 Duke lost to 7 South Carolina 88-81, after being ahead 30-23 at the half. 

But the Gamecocks and coach Frank Martin deserve a ton of credit, especially after shooting 7 of 35 in the first half!  In the second they were 20 of 38.

I’m posting before the final game, Cincinnati vs. UCLA, but we’ll break down all the conference noise next chat.  By then you’ll already know the SEC was 3 of 5 reaching the Sweet Sixteen, which is my ultimate test when following conference performance, the Big 12 3 of 6, the Big Ten 3 of 7, the Big East 2 of 7 and the ACC’s abomination.

NIT

As I’ve written over the years, this can still be a significant tournament for some programs.  So I note some first-round victories.

Akron 78 Houston 75; UT-Arlington 105 BYU 89; Illinois State 85 UC Irvine 71; Syracuse 90 UNCG 77; Oakland 74 Clemson 69; Georgia Tech 75 Indiana 63; CSU-Bakersfield 73 California 66.

So good for Akron, UT-Arlington, Oakland and CSU-Bakersfield in particular.

Saturday, Ole Miss defeated Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, 85-80.

Sunday, Georgia Tech defeated Belmont 71-57.  Richmond beat Oakland 87-83.  [Caught the very end of this last one and sounded like a terrific game.]

--North Carolina State hired UNC Wilmington’s Kevin Keatts to replace Mark Gottfried as its men’s basketball coach.

Keatts had led the Seahawks to the NCAA tournament the past two seasons, losing to Virginia in the first round Thursday.

The six-year deal with the Wolfpack is for $2.2 million annually, according to ESPN’s Jeff Goodman.

Keatts had been an assistant under Rick Pitino at Louisville from 2011 to 2014 before getting the job at UNC Wilmington

Pitino told ESPN’s Andy Katz: “He is absolutely awesome. He is a great recruiter, he is a tremendous coach, and he has a very difficult style to play against.  He’s like a little brother to me. ...I can’t say enough superlatives about him. 

“NC State got themselves a great one in him. Now they’ve got to just sit back and let the guy coach and recruit. ...And go for longevity. Let’s not make any coaching changes for about 10 years.”

Keatts was 72-28 in his three seasons at UNC-W, improving the win total each season.

--Illinois hired Oklahoma State’s Brad Underwood to be its next head coach.  This one bothers me...a lot.

Underwood, 53, coached at Stephen F. Austin, making the NCAA tournament in all three of his seasons, going 89-14.  Terrific.

So then he goes to Oklahoma State, goes 20-13 in his first year, gets them to the Big Dance, where he loses to Michigan 92-91 on Friday, and leaves!!!

Officials in Stillwater are stunned, having been given no notice.  Into the December file he goes.

--Indiana fired head coach Tom Crean mere minutes after the NCAA Tournament tipped off Thursday afternoon.

Crean spent nine seasons at Indiana but only made the NCAAs four times, never advancing past the Sweet 16.

This year’s team was No. 3 in the country in late January, but then they swooned and finished 18-16, with Georgia Tech beating them in the NIT. 

Crean’s final mark was 166-135, including three truly terrible seasons at the start of his tenure that weren’t his fault; Crean inheriting a program beset by recruiting scandals under former coach Kelvin Sampson.  The Hoosiers were a program-worst 6-25 in 2008-09, 10-21 in 2009-10 and 12-20 in 2010-11.  No successor for Crean has been named as yet.

--And then we have the situation in Syracuse. Talk about bizarre...and fast moving.  First I see that coach-in-waiting for Jim Boeheim, Mike Hopkins, expected to take over after Boeheim’s last season next year, suddenly took the Washington job.

So within hours, Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack announced: “Mike accepting the position at Washington has put us in a unique position.  The circumstances are different now than they were when he was named head-coach-in-waiting.”

Boeheim had been waffling all season on his commitment to depart after next year, which was one of the reasons why Hopkins left, to relieve his friend of the pressure of having to retire.

Boeheim said in a statement: “Mike received a great opportunity, and we thank him and wish him the best.  I’m happy to stay on to help the program and to continue the staff’s devotion to success.”

Boeheim has been at Syracuse 41 years.  He also announced Adrian Autry has been promoted to lead assistant.

Hopkins had been Boeheim’s associate for 22 years. ESPN reports he is receiving a six-year contract.

--Charles Barkley was on the CBS set Friday night wearing a Kent State jersey.  When asked why all of a sudden he was showing such strong support for the Golden Flashes, Barkley said of their opponent, UCLA, “I’m going to wear a jersey ‘til they lose.  He’s (LaVar Ball) going to be following the camera around. So I need them to lose so we quit showing him.”

LaVar Ball, of course, being the father of UCLA freshman star Lonzo Ball.  LaVar, as I told you last time, is already in the December file here at Bar Chat for being a primo jerk.

Barkley has been going off on LaVar for his outlandish statements such as his son is already better than Steph Curry, which Barkley called “stupidity.”

Frank Isola / New York Daily News

“LaVar Ball is quickly becoming the sideshow of the NCAA Tournament and his presence will only increase as long as UCLA keeps winning.

“Already this week, Lonzo Ball’s father has been admonished by Steve Kerr and mocked by Charles Barkley. And that was before LaVar made the outrageous claim that his oldest son, the outstanding UCLA freshman guard, is better than both LeBron James and Russell Westbrook....

“Last week, LaVar said Lonzo was better than Stephen Curry, the reigning two-time MVP.  That drew an immediate response from Kerr, who said that LaVar’s constant yapping about his son, including prep standouts LiAngelo and LaMelo, isn’t ‘helping his kids.’”

Yes, Lonzo could be the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft, but as Isola points out:

“The question is how much LaVar, the Air Force One of helicopter parents, impacts his son’s draft status.  Of the half dozen NBA coaches and executives interviewed by The News, the feeling about LaVar and Lonzo was generally the same.  LaVar may be overbearing but not enough to prevent them from wanting to select Lonzo in the draft.

“ ‘I give the kid credit for being as grounded and focused as he’s been with a father who is terrified of his own inadequacies and starved for reflected glory,’ said one general manager. ‘I think it will be nothing more than an annoyance as long as he is drafted by an organization that is strong enough to control LaVar’s presence from Day one.’”

NBA

--We note the passing of Dave “The Rave” Stallworth, beloved member of the 1969-70 championship New York Knicks.  He was quite a story.

An All-American forward out of Wichita State, Stallworth was selected in the first round by the Knicks in 1965 and his first two seasons he averaged 12.6 and 13.0 points per game, along with six rebounds a contest, all off the bench. It was the start of a long career.

But then he had a heart attack at the age of 26!  Doctors doubted he would ever play again.  This was also 1967, remember.  Medicine wasn’t what it is today.  Professional basketball if you recover?  No way.

But Stallworth rejoined the Knicks in October 1969 and he was a vital member of what was known as the “Minutemen,” the strong Knicks bench that also featured Mike Riordan and Cazzie Russell.

Richard Goldstein / New York Times

‘His signature moment came at center, though, when he matched up against Wilt Chamberlain late in Game 5 of the 1970 NBA finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.  Willis Reed had left after injuring his thigh in the first quarter, and Nate Bowman and Bill Hosket, backup big men, had been unable to contain Chamberlain

“Dave DeBusschere, a rugged forward who was only 6 feet 6 inches, was more effective against the 7-foot-1 Chamberlain after that.  But Stallworth, a spindly 6-7 and 200 pounds, replaced DeBusschere in the fourth quarter when DeBusschere got into foul trouble.

“Stallworth limited Chamberlain’s offense and scored 10 points in the fourth quarter on jump shots and drives around Chamberlain, one of which was ‘the shot of Stallworth’s life,’ as Reed described it to Harvey Araton of the New York Times in his book ‘When the Garden Was Eden’ (2011).

“Chamberlain was stunned.  ‘I guess it’s hard to believe,’ he said afterward on how he had been bested despite Reed’s departure.

“The Knicks won, 107-100, giving them a series edge of three games to two.

“The Lakers won Game 6, with Reed still out.  But Reed returned for Game7, his limping from the players’ tunnel for warm-ups becoming an indelible image in Madison Square Garden history. He hit his first two shots and did not score after that, but his overall play and Walt Frazier’s 36 points took the Knicks to a 113-99 victory and the NBA championship.”

It was magical for this 12-year-old, that’s for sure.

Stallworth remained with the Knicks until November 1971, when he was traded with Mike Riordan for star Earl Monroe, Earl “The Pearl” teaming with “Clyde” Frazier to help the Knicks to another title in 1973...the last freakin’ one for the team to this day!!!

Stallworth retired during the 1974-75 season, having averaged 9.3 points a game over eight NBA seasons.

--As for Stallworth’s former team, the Knicks, they are closing out the season in dreadful form, having lost to the Brooklyn Nets twice the past ten days or so.  It’s an unintentional tank job as they haven’t won two in a row since December!

What makes things worse is that you have comments from the likes of free-agent-to-be Pacers point guard Jeff Teague, indicating Phil Jackson’s beloved triangle offense isn’t well-suited for a penetrating guard like himself. 

But the Knicks will get a lottery pick and you never know, they might get lucky with the ping-pong balls. 

I’d love to see former Demon Deacon Teague in New York, but that ain’t gonna happen, it would seem.

--Standings...Western Conference....

Golden State 55-14
San Antonio 53-16

MLB

--In the World Baseball Classic, Puerto Rico defeated the United States 6-5 to guarantee itself a berth in the championship round on Friday.  Team USA starter Marcus Stroman was hit hard, allowing four runs in the first inning.  For Puerto Rico, the Mets’ Seth Lugo picked up the win with 5 2/3 of effective ball.

So the U.S. squared off against the Dominican Republic Saturday night in San Diego...the winner advancing to the championship round, the loser going home...and the United States eliminated the defending champion D.R. 6-3 to earn a spot in the semifinals.  Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer into the third-floor balcony of the Western Metal Supply Co. building in the left-field corner at Petco Park, giving the U.S. a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning.

Three innings later, San Diego native Adam Jones made a spectacular, leaping catch over the fence in the deepest part of the park in right-center to rob Orioles teammate Manny Machado of a home run.

Robinson Cano homered to pull the Dominican Republic to 4-3.

But then Andrew McCutchen gave Team USA some breathing room with a two-run double in the eighth, and Luke Gregorson pitched a perfect ninth to close it out.

I watched the replays and it’s great stuff.  Yes, you can see why the players get psyched for this event, even as their Major League ball clubs cringe.

So it’s Netherlands v. Puerto Rico in one semifinal on Monday, USA v. Japan on Tuesday.

--Details about the crash that killed Miami Marlins star pitcher Jose Fernandez have emerged.  After a six-month investigation, it has been concluded that Fernandez was operating the vessel when it crashed into a jetty just off the coast of Miami on Sept. 25, and that drugs and alcohol were a factor.

The report also concluded his SeaVee was going 65.7 miles per hour – just 0.2 miles less than its documented maximum speed – when it struck the jetty.  Investigator Christina Martin wrote, “I observed the throttles to be in the forward, full throttle position.”

All three were ejected and the cause of death was blunt trauma and drowning.

The report notes Fernandez had obtained so much trauma to his face that he had to be identified by a tattoo of a baseball surrounded by gears located on his left calf.  He had alcohol and cocaine in his system.

At a bar the three spent just under two hours at prior to the boat ride, “Fernandez purchased two bottles of ‘Don Julio’ tequila, and three other alcoholic drinks.”  His blood alcohol level was over the legal limit at 0.147.  The other two had lesser levels, with one having cocaine in his system as well.

Fernandez had been arguing with his girlfriend that night.                                                                       

--Paul Dickson, author of “Baseball’s Greatest Quotations,” just wrote a biography of one of baseball’s all-time characters, “Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son,” that Edward Kosner reviews in the Wall Street Journal.

Kosner:

“Leo Durocher lives on in baseball lore and Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations for having proclaimed, ‘Nice guys finish last.’  In fact, Durocher’s 51-year career as a player and manager was an emphatic refutation of his famous words. He was the antithesis of a nice guy – a combative, self-destructive monster of ego – and he finished last once anyway. He thrived in a lily-white baseball world as vanished as Rinso, Checker cabs and the Andrews Sisters – long train rides for five-game series in Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, baggy flannel uniforms, bean balls and spitters and clubhouses teeming with mobbed-up gamblers.  But Durocher was a legend in his own time as well as in his own mind.

“He was a Zelig of baseball, uncannily present at many of the game’s classic moments.  A compact shortstop with quick reflexes and a quicker mind and mouth, he won the 1928 World Series with Babe Ruth’s Murderers’ Row Yankees and endured obloquy for stealing the Babe’s watch; he was the raucous captain of the 1930s St. Louis Cardinals’ ‘Gashouse Gang’; at Ebbets Field in 1939, he played in the first baseball game ever televised.

“With Branch Rickey, he broke the major leagues’ color bar for Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He was the manager of the 1951 New York Giants when Bobby Thomson hit the ‘shot heard round the world’ against Ralph Branca to win the National League pennant against his old team, and he was the skipper in the first game of the 1954 World Series against the Cleveland Indians when Willie Mays made his back-turned catch off Vic Wertz 450 feet from the plate at the Polo Grounds.  His career finally began to unravel in 1969 when his Chicago Cubs, ahead by nine games in mid-August, epically choked in the stretch and lost their bid for the pennant to the ‘Miracle’ Mets....

“Stars like Babe Ruth had appeared in occasional movies, but Durocher, always dapper and reeking of cologne, had a decadeslong parallel life in show business.  He married a gorgeous movie star, Laraine Day, and palled around with Frank Sinatra, George Raft and Danny Kaye....

“A brawler, vicious bench jockey, umpire baiter and compulsive gambler, Durocher was such a regular in baseball’s hall of infamy that he wasn’t named to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown until 1994, three years after he died....

“Now he’s getting the kind of biographical treatment usually reserved for movie idols and successful pols.  Strenuously researched and studded with footnotes, Paul Dickson’s ‘Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son’ is an unflinching portrait of a brilliant bastard.  Mr. Dickson gives the devil his due and leaves no doubt why so many people could respect Durocher’s baseball genius and still hate his guts.  For younger baseball fans unacquainted with Durocher, think Billy Martin on steroids....

“He was, by all accounts, a brilliant fielder, routinely turning plays that dazzled fans and other players.  At bat, he was a banjo hitter.  Babe Ruth called him ‘The All-American Out’ and said that he would hit .400 as a switch-hitter - .200 as a lefty, .200 as a righty.  Still, Durocher could come through in the clutch, wining one key game by throwing his bat at a pitch and hitting a blooper into short right field.  Teammates loved him, and opposing teams despised him for his relentless, profane bench-jockeying.  [Ed. I looked up his stats...despite a .247 career average, with only 24 home runs, he had some nice RBI seasons.]

“It was as a manager that Durocher’s talents and demons combined into a tragic, combustible brew... Unreliable, disrespectful, insubordinate, a shameless liar, hated by the umpires he cursed and kicked dirt on, Durocher survived because he could fire up a mediocre team and draw fans to the ballpark with his antics.  He managed the Dodgers, Giants, Cubs and Astros over 24 seasons, winning three pennants and one World Series and, yes, finishing last in 1966 with the Cubs....

“Many of his own players hated him, too.  His 1943 Dodger team mutinied on him.  His Cubs clubhouse was a war zone. He called one star pitcher, Fergie Jenkins, ‘a quitter’ and another, Ken Holtzman, ‘a kike’ and ‘a gutless Jew.’  He once provoked fan favorite Ron Santo into trying to choke the life out of him and relentlessly demeaned ‘Mr. Cub,’ Ernie Banks....

“When he wasn’t screaming ‘Dummy, dummy, dummy’ and much, much worse at the veteran ump Jocko Conlan, he was alienating the newspaper writers and broadcasters who covered his clubs, even legends like Chicago’s Jack Brickhouse.  Managing the Dodgers, he once banned 27 of the 30 writers on the beat....

“Gambling was his vice. Unlike Pete Rose, who later admitted to having bet on baseball as a manager but not on his own Reds, Durocher claimed never to have bet on baseball, but he played poker for high stakes, cashed in on tips on fixed horse races, and liked to hit Las Vegas with his buddy Sinatra.  He had a nodding acquaintance with mobsters like Bugsy Siegel and Joe Adonis.”

Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler suspended Durocher for the 1947 season over his familiarity with gamblers and mobsters, “and Durocher carried the stain for the rest of his life.”

NFL

--The Giants signed defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul to a four-year contract, after initially putting the franchise tag on him for a one-year deal worth $16,934,000.

But JPP has long wanted a longer contract and it works out for both parties, Pierre-Paul receiving $66 million, $40 million guaranteed, while the Giants recover some cap space.

Last year he reestablished himself after the July 4, 2015 fireworks accident that could have cost him his life, as he lost one finger and parts of others.  He had seven sacks and eight batted passes.

Heck, I’m happy for the guy.  He’s a good person, by all accounts.

Meanwhile, I have some Giants fans writing me on the move the Giants are expected to take to sign former Jets quarterback Geno Smith, assuming he passed a physical this weekend.

This is fascinating.  Smith tore his ACL after getting his job back with the Jets, underwent surgery in November, but the Giants clearly believe he’ll be healthy in time for training camp and he’s still just 26.

--A municipal court judge in Pittsburgh dismissed all charges against Darrelle Revis stemming from a fight in the city on Feb. 12. 

The judge dismissed four felony charges against the future Hall of Famer after hearing testimony from Rashawn Bolton, a childhood friend of Revis’ who said that it was he, not Revis, who had knocked out two men during a confrontation on Pittsburgh’s South Side.  Bolton has not been charged.

The cornerback was released by the Jets this month.

Golf Balls

--Marc Leishman captured his second PGA Tour title Sunday at Bay Hill, the first year without Arnold Palmer.  Leishman won by a stroke over Kevin Kisner and Charley Hoffman, Leishman with an eagle on 16 and a terrific chip and putt for par on 18.

--Palmer’s grandson, Sam Saunders, failed to make the cut this weekend, but he played well in spots, 74-74, to miss by two shots.  It was tough with him having multiple duties, but one thing is for sure, he has the support of every golf fan out there and we just hope that one day he’s holding a trophy for his PGA Tour victory. 

No one wanted success for Saunders more than Arnie, but he insisted Sam always carry the most important Palmer trait.

“Sam is a very polite young man,” his late grandfather said a couple of years ago.  “That’s one thing I’m proud of.  He has conducted himself very well through the early stages of professional golf and it isn’t easy.”

--The other day, Ernie Els held his annual pro-am at Old Palm Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., an event which benefits his school for children with autism.  Els and his wife, Liezl, established their charitable foundation in 2009 after discovering that their son Ben, now 13, had the developmental disorder.

But I mention this because Jack Nicklaus participated and the 77-year-old shot a 71.

“Just when I was getting my handicap up there, I had to go and not only shoot just my second round under 80 since November, but better my age by six shots with a 71,” Nicklaus wrote in a post Wednesday to his Instagram account.

Jack’s group finished second. First went to a foursome that included professional golfer Branden Grace, as well as Rudy Giuliani, Rush Limbaugh and Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher of Cigar Aficionado.

By the way, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the official mark for most strokes below a golfer’s age is 17, twice accomplished by 89-year-olds who shot rounds of 72.

World Cup / Alpine

22-year-old American Mikaela Shiffrin wrapped up the overall women’s World Cup ski title this last weekend of the 2016-17 season, a truly remarkable feat for her age.

Shiffrin finished second in Saturday’s slalom to Petra Vlhova of Slovakia, but the title had been clinched earlier when Ilka Stuhec, her only competitor for the title, withdrew from the race.  Shiffrin was well ahead in the standings anyway, and she also picks up the Slalom title.

So Shiffrin already has 31 individual World Cup victories, which, as the New York Times’ Bill Pennington points out, is three more than Ingemar Stenmark had at this age, Stenmark holding the World Cup record of 86 victories, and 27 more than Lindsey Vonn, at the same age.  [Vonn has 77...and counting...she isn’t hanging it up yet, at 32.  She finished second in the final downhill race of the season in Aspen and is vowing to compete through the 2019 world championships.]

But on to the 2018 Olympics for Mikaela.  U-S-A...U-S-A!!!

I do have to add that on the men’s side, Austria’s Marcel hirscher won his record sixth consecutive overall title!

Premier League...and more...

Leicester City’s amazing comeback from possible relegation continued on Saturday as the Foxes defeated West Ham in a terrific contest, 3-2.  So that’s four out of four (all leagues) for interim coach Craig Shakespeare after he replaced Claudio Ranieri.  Incredibly, this was Leicester’s first away win all season.

Crystal Palace won its third in a row, 1-0 over Watford, as it tries to stave off being relegated.

Everton defeated Hull City 4-0, dealing Hull a big blow as it sits ensconced in the bottom three.

Chelsea continued its dominance of non-top six clubs, 2-1 over Stoke.

Sunderland could only manage a draw at home against Burnley, 0-0, so Sunderland seems virtually assured of being demoted, after finishing 16 and 17 the last two seasons.

But as for the elite, Arsenal suffered a 3-1 loss at West Brom as the Arsene Wenger death watch continues, the Gunners having lost four of five league games...a top-four, Champions League berth in question.

Sunday....

My Tottenham Spurs defeated Southampton 2-1 at White Hart Lane, despite playing without injured star striker Harry Kane. The Spurs have now won 10 straight at home.

Manchester United defeated lowly Middlesbrough 3-1, while Manchester City and Liverpool played to a 1-1 draw.

So the standings, heading into the International Break....

1. Chelsea 28 (games...of 38) – 69 (points)
2. Tottenham 28 – 59
3. Manchester City 28 – 57
4. Liverpool 29 – 56
5. Manchester United 27 – 52
6. Arsenal 27 – 50
7. Everton 29 – 50
8. West Brom 29 – 43

15. Leicester City 28 – 30
16. Crystal Palace 28 – 28
17. Swansea 29 – 27
18. Hull 29 – 24
19. Middlesbrough 28 – 22
20. Sunderland 28 – 20

[Last three relegated...Currently, it looks like Newcastle United and Brighton & Hove Albion are two of the three Championship League teams that would be moving up to the Premier League.]

--Meanwhile, the quarterfinals are set in the Champions League, home-and-homes set for April 11-12 and 18-19. 

Atletico Madrid v. Leicester City
Borussia Dortmund v. Monaco
Bayern Munich v. Real Madrid
Juventus v. Barcelona

Last year, Real Madrid defeated Atletico Madrid in the final.

NASCAR

Ryan Newman won his first race in 127 starts at Phoenix International Raceway, Kyle Larson finishing second for a third consecutive week.  [Your editor won some coin for a second straight week on Draft Kings, though I had a highly disappointing loss in golf.]

Stuff

--Steve Penny resigned as president of USA Gymnastics following intensified pressure on the organization for its handling of sex abuse cases.

Penny joined USA Gymnastics in 1999 and was named the organization’s president in 2005, overseeing one of the greatest runs in Olympic history.  The women’s program under team coordinator Martha Karolyi has produced each of the last four Olympic all-around champions and team golds in 2012 and 2016.

But the All-American image took a major hit in recent months following an in-depth investigation by the Indianapolis Star that portrayed USA Gymnastics as slow to act when it came to addressing allegations of sexual abuse.

--Scott Eyman has a review in the Wall Street Journal of a new book by Marc Eliot on actor Charlton Heston.  [“Charlton Heston: Hollywood’s Last Icon”]  If you were always a fan, you’d be even more so after reading this.

Eyman:

“Heston got an Oscar for ‘Ben-Hur’ (1959), but he never got much respect. Tall and commanding, with a profile that could have been chiseled on an Etruscan coin, critics assigned demerits to Heston for his stoicism, lack of humor and insufficient flash at a time when Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and James Dean were the rage....

“But Marc Eliot’s biography is a welcome event if only because it restores a sense of balance, offering some overdue appreciation to an actor whose belief system mitigated against a full appreciation of his worth.

“The man that emerges from Mr. Eliot’s book is earnest, hard-working and unfailingly decent: Heston was married for 64 years to his wife, Lydia, and seems to have been a deeply responsible father to his two children.  Professionally, he approached his characters through voluminous research, which meant he found them intellectually, with emotion trailing behind.  Although never a laugh riot, he was capable of irony, as in his delicious Richelieu in Richard Lester’s ‘The Three Musketeers’ (1973).”

He was born John Charles Carter in 1923 in the backwoods of Michigan and after his parents divorced and he moved with his mother to Chicago, she remarried Chet Heston and told her son he would now be known as Charlton Heston, which was his name at Northwestern, where he met his future wife.  And it was his name as a radioman during World War II and when he became a movie star after.

Heston had as good a batting average as any movie star of the post-war generation.  “Besides ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ (1952) and ‘The Ten Commandments’ (1956) for DeMille, there is ‘Touch of Evil’ (1958), ‘The Big Country’ (1958...one of your editor’s all-time favorites), ‘El Cid’ (1961), ’55 Days at Peking’ (1963), ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’ (1965), ‘Major Dundee’ (1965), ‘The War Lord’ (1965), ‘Khartoum’ (1966), ‘Will Penny’ (1968) and ‘Planet of the Apes’ (1968).  Not all great or even good films, but all united by Heston’s determination to tell epic stories.”

“When Heston’s politics migrated from liberal to conservative in the mid-1960s, mostly over Vietnam and what he came to regard as the appeasement wing of the Democratic Party, he remained, at all times, a good citizen. He participated in Martin Luther King’s March on Washington in 1963, served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1966 to 1971, helped set up the American Film Institute in the late 1960s and lobbied President Ronald Reagan to preserve funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (in both his liberal and conservative periods, Heston believed in the value of government support for the arts.)  He never took a dime for his activities with the NRA because he believed he was fighting for principle.

“The blowback within Hollywood over Heston’s alliance with the NRA was considerable. He told the head of the AFI, Jean Firstenberg, that if she wanted to take his name off the AFI’s masthead, he would understand.  She didn’t but there is no question that his support for the NRA cost him the honors that would otherwise have been his due in his last years: the AFI Life Achievement Award, and so on.”

But one day in 2002, “he was driving to Paramount, a studio he had worked at since 1950, when he got lost.  Soon afterward, he was diagnosed with dementia.  Typically, his concern was for others. ‘I have lived the life of two people,’ he told his family.  ‘I’m sorry for you, for what you’re going to have to experience.’  He died six years later, a gentleman to the last.”

--Last Monday night, Florida officials began a search for a highly venomous cobra that had apparently escaped from its enclosure at a home in Ocala.  The snake’s owner, who is licensed to keep venomous animals, called police after it leapt out from its cage.

But owner Brian Purdy thinks one of his pet lizards may have eaten the snake.  Purdy told officers that one of his large venomous pet lizards had an unusually large stomach and that he would have a vet take an X-ray to see if the tan and yellow suphan monocle cobra is inside, the Ocala Star Banner reported.

Neighbors were freaked out, but officials think the cold-blooded snake would not have gone far due to cold weather.

The Washington Post had a story on the search on Saturday, though, and the snake hadn’t been caught, but there was no mention of whether the lizard did indeed eat it.

Or for that matter, where the lizard is!  Run for your lives!!!

--Brad K. passed along this story from the Daily Mirror.

Louie Smith:

“A lucky goldfish called Nemo survived for 20 minutes out of water after being mauled by a cat. The 12cm-long fish was snatched from a garden pond and dumped on the doorsteps of a nearby house.  Rescuers believed he was dead but carried him in a shoebox to a nearby vet.

“Nemo had suffered damage to his fins and scales but an x-ray showed he had no broken bones or internal injuries.

“Livia Benato, exotic animal specialist at the vets, said: ‘It’s lucky that he was still quite wet. The moisture was probably enough to keep him alive for long enough before we got him back into water.

“ ‘We took an x-ray and it showed no signs of fractures which is quite remarkable.’”

Now if you’re wondering how this is all possible, the vet’s office said people who live walking distance from them brought it in, thinking it was dead.

Of course I would probably have flushed it down the toilet, like I did all the dead goldfish from my youth.  But enough about me.

Left unsaid in this tale is the fact the goldfish was given an x-ray.  I hope the folks at the vet are prepared for the day when they open up for the morning and find they have a Godzilla on their hands from the radiation, as we learned from the destruction of Tokyo in the mid-1950s, and at other times thereafter.

‘Goldfish,’ by the way, is No. 184 on the All-Species List.  ‘Cat’ falls to No. 98.

--Finally, we note the passing of Chuck Berry, 90.  The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll, the Inventor of Rock, a Pioneer of Rock...all apply.

Dave Lewis / Los Angeles Times

“In hits such as ‘Maybellene,’ ‘Johnny B. Goode’ and ‘Sweet Little Sixteen,’ Berry paired clarion guitar riffs and a relentlessly rhythmic blend of blues and country with buoyant vignettes celebrating teenage life and the freedom of 1950s America.

“ ‘He laid down the law for playing this kind of music,’ Eric Clapton once said.  John Lennon’s succinct summation: ‘If you tried to give rock ‘n’ roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.’  ‘The Encyclopedia of Popular Music’ states that Berry’s influence as guitarist and songwriter is ‘incalculable.’

“At a time when rock ‘n’ roll lyrics were secondary to the sound of the records, Berry’s sophisticated depictions of adolescence – school, cars, growing up, courtship, the onset of adulthood – showed for the first time that the music could mirror and articulate the experience of a generation.  In the mid-1950s, only the songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoler worked similar territory.

“Despite his profound musical influence, Berry’s legacy is forever entwined with three high-profile scrapes with the law – he served time for armed robbery when he was a teenager, a violation of the Mann Act in 1962, and income tax evasion in 1979....

“He wrote an autobiography in 1987 and performed regularly for most of his life, but Berry granted few interviews and rarely revealed much of himself...

“Berry had six Top 10 hits from 1955 through 1964, and was a dynamic force on the frenzied rock ‘n’ roll tours of the ‘50s, with his piercing gaze and famous ‘duck walk,’ in which he crouched low and scooted across the stage with one leg extended and his guitar held high.

“A host of followers embraced his sound and songs. The early albums and concerts of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were peppered with such Berry works as ‘Rock & Roll Music,’ ‘Roll Over Beethoven,’ ‘Carol’ and ‘Around and Around.’ Their British Invasion peers, including the Animals and the Kinks, were similarly under his spell.

“His fellow Americans were no less impressed.  Berry’s ‘Memphis’ became a hit for both Lonnie Mack (an instrumental version) and Johnny Rivers. The rapid phrasing and energy of ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ was a model for Bob Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues.’

“The honor wasn’t always acknowledged.  The Beach Boys’ 1963 hit ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’ was a near-copy of ‘Sweet Little Sixteen.’  Berry, watchful over every dollar due, sued and won co-writing credit.

“Similarly, the opening lines of the Beatles’ ‘Come Together’ were close enough to a lyric from ‘You Can’t Catch Me’ (‘Here come up flattop, he was movin’ up with me’) that Berry brought legal action and won a settlement.

“Berry was part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s inaugural induction class in 1986. He received a lifetime achievement Grammy in 1984....

“A recording of ‘Johnny B. Goode’ was included among the cultural artifacts installed on the two Voyager space probes launched in 1977.  On a subsequent ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch, comedian Steve Martin reported on the first communication from distant aliens: ‘Send more Chuck Berry.’”

Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born Oct. 18, 1926, in St. Louis, one of six children.  His father, Henry, was a carpenter, with a deep love of poetry that made an impression on his children.  His mother, Martha, was a teacher and superintendent.

The family lived a relatively comfortable life in a black neighborhood known as the Ville.

When Berry was 17, he and two friends stole a car and robbed three businesses in Kansas City, Mo.  Berry received the maximum sentence of 10 years.  Inside his reformatory school, he sang in a gospel group and learned to box, and was released after serving three years.

Berry went back to St. Louis and worked at an auto plant and as a hairdresser, supplementing his income by playing guitar in local bands.

Berry was a fan of traditional pop standards and the music of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, and he loved the big-band sound.  He also admired blues stars Muddy Waters and T-Bone Walker.

Berry joined the Sir John Trio in 1952, teaming with pianist Johnnie Johnson, who would become a sideman on Berry’s records.  As they started drawing bigger crowds in East St. Louis, Ill., at the Cosmopolitan Club, the band’s name changed to the Chuck Berry Trio as he asserted his dominance, being the singer-guitarist.

In 1955, after meeting Muddy Waters in Chicago, Waters told Berry to contact Leonard Chess, the head of the famed blues label Chess Records.

Dave Lewis:

“Berry did, and returned in a week with a demo tape. Chess took the trio into the studio and drove them through repeated takes of ‘Ida Mae,’ Berry’s reworking of the folk tune ‘Ida Red.’ Chess thought it had potential, but he had problems with the title.  A box of mascara on a windowsill gave him his inspiration, and he renamed the tune ‘Maybellene.’

“The record came out in July 1955 and reached No. 5 on the pop singles chart. The success was accompanies by a cold slap of reality.  The songwriting credit on the record went not to Berry alone, but also to influential disc jockey Alan Freed and to the owner of the building that housed Chess Records. Such maneuvers were common in the record business then, but Berry was taken aback. After a long fight, though, he was finally granted sole credit in 1986.”

After “Maybellene,” the hits flowed.

But in 1959, Berry opened a successful nightclub and was riding high when he was charged with violating the Mann Act, a federal law that prohibits the interstate transport of women for “immoral purposes.”  The prosecution stemmed from his relationship with a 14-year-old, Janice Escalante, whom he had met in Juarez, Mexico, and brought to St. Louis. When he fired her from her job as a hat checker at the club, she went to the police.

Berry’s first conviction was voided, but he was convicted in a second trial and sentenced to three years in prison in October 1961. He was released after 20 months and returned to the charts with three more notable songs, “Nadine (Is It You?),” “No Particular Place to Go” and “Promised Land.”

[That was the end of his significant record making, his only No. 1 hit would come in 1972 with the risqué novelty “My Ding-a-Ling”.]

With the British Invasion bringing attention back to his work, Berry appeared in the all-time classic concert movie, the TAMI Show, in 1964, and then toured on-and-off afterwards. He also served four months in federal prison in 1979 for income tax evasion.

Berry played 209 consecutive monthly shows at the Blueberry Hill club in St. Louis, from 1996 until 2014.

Jon Pareles / New York Times

“While Elvis Presley was rock’s first pop star and teenage heartthrob, Mr. Berry was its master theorist and conceptual genius, the songwriter who understood what the kids wanted before they did themselves.”

The Jacksons tweeted: “Chuck Berry merged blues & swing into the phenomenon of early rock’n’roll. In music, he cast one of the longest shadows.  Thank you Chuck.”

Singer-songwriter Huey Lewis described Berry as “maybe the most important figure in all of rock and roll.”

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr quoted one of Berry’s lyrics on Twitter, saying: “Just let me hear some of the rock ‘n’ roll music any old way you use it.”

Mick Jagger said that Berry “lit up our teenage years and blew life into our dreams.”

Bruce Springsteen: “Chuck Berry was rock’s greatest practitioner, guitarist, and the greatest pure rock ‘n’ roll writer who ever lived.”

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In lieu of a “Top Three” this week...Chuck Berry’s main hits....

1955 – Maybellene #5
1956 – Roll Over Beethoven
1957 – School Day #3
1957 – Rock & Roll Music #8
1958 – Sweet Little Sixteen #2
1958 – Johnny B. Goode #8
1958 – Carol
1959 – Almost Grown
1959 – Back In The U.S.A.
1964 – Nadine (Is It You?)
1964 – No Particular Place To Go #10
1964 – You Never Can Tell
1972 – My Ding-A-Ling #1
1973 – Reelin’ & Rockin’

RIP.

FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Quiz Answer: Other Americans aside from Mikaela Shiffrin to win the overall World Cup title....

Phil Mahre (1981-83), Tamara McKinney (1983), Bode Miller (2005, 2008) and Lindsey Vonn (2008-10, 2012).

I love the first three men to win the overall title, the first being awarded in 1967.

Jean-Claude Killy (1967-68)
Karl Schranz (1969-70)
Gustav Thoni (1971-73, 1975)

For those of us of a certain age (read ‘old’), these names bring back fond memories because you saw them frequently during the heyday of ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.”

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.

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