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07/05/2017

It's Officially Over for the Mets

[Posted late Tuesday afternoon...so I can relax tonight.  I have some Fourth of July tidbits at the end...]

Houston Astros Quiz: 1) Name the four to have 120 RBIs in a season (some did it multiple times).  2) Name the eight Houston pitchers to win 20 games in a season.  Answers below.

MLB

--If my Mets were to have even the slightest chance of remaining in the playoff conversation, they needed to take 2 of 3 in Washington this week, and then 2 of 3 in St. Louis ahead of the All-Star break, and it started badly Monday night, the Mets losing 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth after Curtis Granderson hit a dramatic two-out, two-strike, two-run homer to tie it 2-2, the Mets earlier wasting seen shutout innings by Steven Matz, matching Stephen Strasburg’s seven scoreless.

In recent weeks, Mets broadcaster Ron Darling has been hammering away at the team’s poor defense, which is driving up the pitch counts of their starters, and he’s so right.  [With solid ‘D’ behind him, Matz should have been able to get through 8, for example.]

The Metsies then lost today 11-4, with outfielders Yoenis Cespedes, Granderson and Michael Conforto out with injuries.  T.J. Rivera had to make his first start in left field.  He then hurt himself running to first, like at least four other Mets players have done this year.

Yes, the Mets are officially “sellers” come the trade deadline. We just hope management can get something in return aside from a bag of balls and some kielbasa.

--The Yankees turned it around for one game on Monday night, defeating the Blue Jays 6-3 at the Stadium.  Masahiro Tanaka once again showed how critical he is to the team’s fortunes, allowing one earned in 7 innings.  He has a godawful 5.25 ERA, but is 7-7.  To beat a dead horse, unless he is consistently good the rest of the way, the Yankees will not even get a wild card slot.

So of course they lost today, 4-1, to Toronto and ahead of the Red Sox-Rangers game later tonight, they are 3 ½ behind the A.L. East leaders.  That makes it 21 games in which the Yankees have not won two in a row.

--I guess I have to put the home run derby on next Monday in Miami as part of the All-Star Game festivities, now that the two rookie phenoms, Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers and the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, have committed.  I’ll do so grudgingly because this competition just goes on and on and on.....and you fall asleep, drooling all over yourself at the keyboard like an old fool....

Giancarlo Stanton and Miami’s Justin Bour, along with Gary Sanchez of the Yanks and a few others are also in it, and I’ll say Bour wins, not that I’ll be awake when that occurs.

--I posted Sunday night before I looked at the All-Star Game rosters, and before the reserves were announced, and I do just have to say that Michael Conforto does not deserve to be the Mets’ representative.  Should have been Jacob deGrom.

But then with Kershaw, Scherzer, Strasburg, Greinke, and Carlos Martinez as starters, I can see why he wasn’t selected, though a couple of these won’t be available for Tuesday’s game.

Mike Trout also announced he won’t quite be ready from his rehab to play in the contest.

This year is the first in 15 that the winning All-Star team won’t be awarded home-field advantage in the World Series, which was a ridiculous stunt born out of desperation by then-Commissioner Selig after the embarrassing suspended game controversy.

Now they play for money...$20,000 to the winners. Zero to the losers.

--The Cubs traded catcher Miguel Montero to the Blue Jays on Monday for either a player to be named later or cash.  Personally, I’d take a year’s supply of Tim Horton’s donuts.

I made a mistake last time in saying the Cubs had released Montero when he was designated for assignment, which can lead to the same thing, but in this case Chicago got something for all their trouble.

--Angel Hernandez has always struck me as a bitter guy, Hernandez the veteran major league umpire.  He has also long had a reputation for really sucking at his profession.

So it comes as no surprise that the guy has sued Major League Baseball for alleged race discrimination.

Hernandez, 55, filed his complaint in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati on Monday, alleging MLB chief baseball officer Joe Torre “has a history of animosity towards Hernandez stemming from Torre’s time as manager of the New York Yankees.”

As evidence of the alleged discrimination, the suit cites Hernandez’s lack of World Series assignments in the past decade and baseball not promoting him to crew chief.

MLB declined comment.

Hernandez cites comments by Torre from 2001, when he said Hernandez “seems to see something nobody else does” and “I think he just wanted to be noticed over there.”

Hernandez worked the World Series in 2002 and 2005 but not since.

Again, he is known by any casual baseball fan to be a lousy umpire, that’s the bottom line.  And a true jerk to boot.

In other words, he’s no John Tumpane!

--ESPN announced Dan Shulman is leaving “Sunday Night Baseball” after the season, per his request; Shulman saying he wanted “to strike a better balance between my personal life and professional life.”  Hey, who doesn’t? 

He’ll continue to work some baseball telecasts and call all rounds of the MLB playoffs on ESPN Radio, plus do some basketball games for the network.

ESPN’s Sunday night team is atrocious, though I don’t blame Shulman.

NBA Bits

--No shortage of drama with the Knicks these days.  Now it seems that Carmelo Anthony will waive his no-trade clause if the Knicks can work out a deal with Houston (where his buddy Chris Paul is), or Cleveland.

But of course the Knicks would have zero leverage then with, say, Houston, and New York wouldn’t get anyone worth a damn in return.

And word today is the Knicks are parting ways with point guard Derrick Rose in a possible sign-and-trade with Milwaukee.  Yippee!

Then again, should Rose and Anthony go, and with Justin Holiday having signed with Chicago, I think we have four players left on the roster.

--Gordon Hayward, one of the big prizes of the free-agent field, was to decide today, Tuesday, on whether he will sign with his former Utah team, the Miami Heat, or the Boston Celtics.

As I go to post, it appears it’s Boston!...though NOT official yet.  [Shoot], the rich get richer, wrote the Knicks fan bitterly.  [Though congrats to my Celtics friends, should this prove to be the case.  Super addition. And about time the East got an All-Star from the West.]

--Chauncey Billups shocked the Cavaliers in turning down owner Dan Gilbert’s offer to be the new team’s president and director of basketball operations.  Instead he said he would continue to broadcast and participate in the new Big3 league.

Bad sign for the Cavs, after general manager David Griffin, a favorite of LeBron James’, split with the team recently over terms of a new contract.  And James himself has been strangely silent, seemingly an ‘I don’t give a [hoot] attitude’ about what the Cavs do in the off season.  He can opt out next summer and this story is going to suck a lot of the oxygen out of the sport all this coming season, of this you can be sure.

--We note the passing of long-time former NBA player Darrall (sic) Imhoff.  He was 78.  The cause was a heart attack.

Imhoff was a two-time All-American center who led Pete Newell’s University of California team to the 1959 NCAA title and then played alongside Oscar Robertson and Jerry West on the 1960 Olympic team – also coached by Newell.

Imhoff was selected third overall by the Knicks in the 1960 NBA draft – behind Robertson and West, and averaged 7.2 points and 7.6 rebounds in 12 seasons for six teams.

But after the ’68 season, he was involved in one of the more high-profile trades of that era, going to Philadelphia with Jerry Chambers and Archie Clark for Wilt Chamberlain.

Back in 1959, Imhoff scored 22 points and had 16 rebounds in a semifinal NCAA championship game against Robertson’s Cincinnati team, and then scored the game-winning basket in a 71-70 victory over West’s West Virginia squad in the final.

Hot Dogs

As I gear up to catch the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest to see if nine-time winner Joey Chestnut can make it ten, Steve Rushin had a piece in the current Sports Illustrated in celebration of the cased meat, and its role in sports.

“Last season alone, 19.4 million dogs were eaten in major league parks according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, a meat lobby that has, one hopes, an actual meat lobby on the ground floor of its headquarters in Washington, D.C.  Of course the NHDSC is in our nation’s capital, for the hot dog is an edible e pluribus unum (‘out of many, one’), a comestible [Ed. ‘edible’] made of cast-off parts, the whole greater than its constituent components, like the American ideal from which it sprang.

“The hot dog has been emblematic of our hopes and dreams since the 19th century.  ‘It was absolutely part of a deliberate program by nationalists and reformers to integrate the new immigrant population,’ says the cultural historian Bruce Kraig, author of Man Bites Dog: Hot Dog Culture in America and a man who has lectured on the subject at Oxford and the Library of Congress.  ‘Part of that integration involves baseball games.  By 1900, the working class guy can go on a Sunday – his only day off – to the cheap seats, the 10-cent seats, and the guy next to him is speaking Italian, and maybe he himself is from Ireland, and they’re all eating hot dogs. You get cheap meat – usually a nickel – that you can eat standing up, chanting ‘Go Giants!’ or ‘Go Sox!’  We’re all New Yorkers now...or Chicagoans or Cincinnatians.  We’re all Americans.   So hot dogs serve a critical function.  People eating together, as anthropologists will tell you all the time, is an integrative thing.  It keeps the community and the body politic together.’

“So the hot dog doesn’t just contain connective tissue.  It is connective tissue, binding us to one another, at ballparks in particular, where their consumption has become almost compulsory.”

And Mr. Rushin points out: “The hot dog is central, in fact, to the stories of two of our more celebrated athletes.  When Cassius Clay returned to Louisville from the 1960 Olympics in Rome with his gold medal, he went straight to a downtown lunch counter and asked for a Coke and a hot dog – America on a place mat.  ‘We don’t serve negroes,’ the waitress said, to which Clay replied, ‘I don’t eat them.’  He would later say that it was in this moment, denied a hot dog and his humanity, that he resolved to convert to Islam – its proscription of pork notwithstanding – and become Muhammad Ali.

“As a child at St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys in Baltimore, George Herman Ruth and his pals were rewarded with three ‘weenies’ for Sunday morning breakfast.  Those three weenies stoked a legend of a bottomless (if often mythical) appetite for dogs.  Later, Ruth’s pregame routine...was a couple of hot dogs, washed down with bicarbonate soda.... (Ruth’s only real rival as an American icon of excess, Elvis Presley, had hot dogs soaked in sauerkraut smuggled into his own hospital room.)”

And there is this one I know I wrote of long, long ago.

“According to legend, seldom-used Tiger slugger Gates Brown was preparing late in a 1968 game to eat two hot dogs in the dugout, as was his custom, when his manager, Mayo Smith (a man conspicuously named for a condiment), summoned him to pinch hit.  Brown discreetly stuffed the franks down his uniform shirt and promptly doubled, requiring a head-first slide into second.  ‘I had mustard and squashed meat all over me,’ Brown claimed.  In another version of the story, the sauce was ketchup, and the umpire said, ‘Stay there, Gator.  You’re bleeding.’”

So it’s on to today’s contest, and Joey Chestnut did it, becoming a 10-time champion in defeating a game Carmen Cincotti, 72 hot dogs and buns to Cincotti’s 62.  Chestnut broke his own Nathan’s Famous Contest total of 70, but didn’t hit his record 73 ½.

That said he is now just one behind....

Bill Russell 11 NBA titles
Henri Richard 11 NHL titles
Joey Chestnut 10 Hot Dog eating titles

As promoter George Shea put it, Chestnut “is the Granite Rock that is America...He stands at the highest point in the land...He sees both oceans...He is freedom and he will never falter!”

Shea also said of one of the losing contestants, “He has the body of Adonis, but the eating habits of Homer Simpson.”  And of another, “His dream is to crush your dream.  His contribution is to crush your contribution.”

If you haven’t caught his act in past Nathan’s contests, George Shea is one of the funniest people on the planet.

[Miki Sudo won the women’s title with 41 dogs and buns.]

Competitive Eating Records...courtesy of Major League Eating, the official keeper of all such data.

I picked out a few you can long admire and potentially begin giving your children the dream of one day breaking.

Matt Stonie...182 strips of Smithfield Bacon in 5 minutes.

Don Lerman...6 pounds of baked beans in one minute, 48 seconds.

Don Lerman...7 quarter-pound sticks of butter, salted, in 5 minutes.

Marcos Owens...34 large cannoli at the San Genaro Festival in 6 minutes.

Sonya “Black Widow” Thomas...80 chicken nuggets in 5 minutes.

Sonya Thomas...46 Philips (Baltimore) Crab Cakes in 10 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...55 glazed donuts in 8 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...141 hardboiled eggs in 8 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...103 Krystal Burgers in 8 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...73 ½ hot dogs at a Nathan’s Famous qualifier in 10 minutes.

Oleg Zhornitsky...4, 32-oz. bowls of mayonnaise in 8 minutes.

Patrick Bertoletti...42 PB&Js in 10 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...165 Pierogi in 8 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...45 pulled pork sandwiches in 10 minutes.  [I could challenge him on this.]

Joey Chestnut...53 soft beef tacos / Taco Bell in 10 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...121 Twinkies in 6 minutes.

These are some of the greatest records in the history of sports.   Men and women to admire.

Golf Balls

--I missed the French Open last weekend and Tommy Fleetwood’s win.  Fleetwood, from England, finished fourth you’ll recall at the U.S. Open and the 26-year-old has actually been one of the hotter players in the world, so suddenly he is a legitimate contender for the upcoming Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.  I mean the kid is suddenly 15th in the world.  He now has two wins, two seconds and another five top-10 finishes in his 16 starts this season.  [He was second to Dustin Johnson at the WGC Mexico Championship.] 

So if I was over in the U.K., hitting the betting parlors for The Open, I’d probably be placing a few quid on the lad.

[There was a bizarre controversy, probable scandal, at the French Open.  Some of the players who were leaving their clubs at the course between rounds say they were being altered!  As in one described example that seems to be the truth, the driver head was adjusted and the player involved said whoever did it even readjusted the grips.  The player took it to Callaway after hitting the driver poorly and had it readjusted. There were similar complaints.  Apparently, this happens more than you would think...which is why you see a lot of players yanking their clubs out of their courtesy cars when the cameras find them in the players’ parking lot prior to their round on a Saturday or Sunday.]

--Tiger Woods tweeted Monday that he has completed his treatment for dealing with his back pain and medications (and sleep issues).

“I recently completed an out of state private intensive program,” Woods said.  “I will continue to tackle this going forward with my doctors, family and friends.  I am so very thankful for all of the support I’ve received.”

--Last week Charles Howell III picked up his 16th second-place finish for his PGA Tour career vs. just two wins in losing the playoff of the Quicken Loans event to Kyle Stanley.

I’ve been meaning to note Howell’s career as an example of how some guys have just carved out a niche over the history of the game.  They grind out one Top 125 money list season after another (or FedEx points) to retain their Tour card.

And so I looked up Howell’s record and with his 2016-17 wraparound season earnings now at $1,974,000, that makes every year since 2001 that he has earned at least $1.25 million.  He’s had a few years where he’s been Top 30, but mostly he’s been somewhere around 50 or so on the money list...just grinding away.

He’s got all the talent in the world, though, and you can tell golf broadcasters and commentators at this stage are tired of talking about how he just keeps coming up short at key moments in a few events each year.  Howell was even disparaged in the current issue of Golfweek for his failure to close.

--Finally, the other day I mentioned that I might have something more to say about the anchoring of the putter issue, after USGA officials confronted Bernhard Langer last weekend at the Senior Open and it clearly shook him up, as his play after was awful.

So Monday, Golf Channel’s outspoken Brandel Chamblee chatted with Golf World’s Tim Rosaforte.

“As a player, I certainly wouldn’t want any hint of impropriety attached.  And I can’t imagine why somebody who’s played their entire career with so much integrity attached to everything he’s done to have his career marred by any hint of impropriety,” said Chamblee in speaking of Langer.

While the USGA let him off the hook at Salem Country Club, video evidence from the tournament does suggest Langer’s stroke comes dangerously close to being anchored.

“Anybody who sees what Langer and Scott McCarron and Ian Woosnam are doing knows it’s questionable,” Chamblee said.  “The whispers are out there.  All of the players look askance whether they say it openly or not. I’ve talked to enough of them to know – and many have contacted me – they all look askance at what’s going on out there.

“And intent, I think there is apprehension on the governing body’s part not to ruffle feathers further. When it’s time to dig in, they’re reluctant to do so.  Their acquiescence is to pass this rule, but the only violation is the intent to break this rule.”

As Joel Beall of Golf World adds, “Chamblee was reminded of a story about Arnold Palmer, one that he believes should be the guiding light on this anchoring ambiguity.

“The King, playing with former PGA Tour pro Gibby Gilbert, asked Gilbert if he thought a green indentation was a ball mark.  Gilbert wasn’t sure, but told Palmer he’d give him the benefit of the doubt.

“ ‘I don’t want the benefit of the doubt, I want to know what you think,’ Palmer replied, according to Chamblee.  ‘Is it or is it not a ball mark?’

“To Chamblee, the implication is Palmer didn’t want any doubt to what he was doing.

“ ‘That’s part of Palmer’s legacy when it comes to his conduct on the golf course,’ Chamblee said.  ‘It was above reproach. And what Langer and McCarron are doing is not above reproach.  It’s not right what they’re doing.’”

This is just getting started, folks.  I’ve always liked Langer, but it’s time for some real truth telling.  What is your intent?

Stuff

--Six weeks ago, Gisele Bundchen told “CBS This Morning” that her husband, Tom Brady, had a concussion last season that wasn’t listed on the Patriots’ injury report, and Brady just addressed the issue, but in a Bill Belichickean way, i.e., rather obtusely.

“[Gisele] sees the hits, she was vocal about that, most recently on CBS about the concussions, how much do you talk to her about those hits that you take?” ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi asked Brady during an “E: 60” interview that aired Sunday and that I didn’t pick up on until Monday.

She’s there every day,” Brady said, via CBS Sports.  “I mean, we go to bed in the same bed every night, so I think she knows when I’m sore, she knows when I’m tired, she knows when I get hit.  We drive home together. But, she also knows how well I take care of myself. She’s a very concerned wife and very loving.” [CBS Sports transcribed the interview.]

Don Yee, Brady’s agent, has insisted Brady was not diagnosed with a concussion last season.

--Wow, what a fish story out of Pensacola, Fla., as reported by USA TODAY.  Ben Arnold caught the big one.  After a 3 ½-hour fight, Arnold and the crew of Reel Addiction, hauled in a massive blue marlin that tipped the scales at 771.40 pounds, becoming the big catch during the 46th annual Pensacola International Billfish Tournament.

The catch earned him and the crew an award of $10,000.

It took four men to haul the massive marlin out of the Gulf of Mexico inside the boat.  The marlin was estimated to be between 30 to 35 years old.

But according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state record is 1,046 pounds, and, according to Field & Stream, the world record marlin catch was set in 1992 in Brazil with a weight of 1,402.2 pounds.  Goodness gracious!

Arnold’s catch is being donated to the Museum of Osteology in Oklahoma City, where it will be mounted on a wall at the facility.

Osteology?  Man, I had to look this one up.  It means “the study of the structure and function of the skeleton.”

And then I looked up the museum in OKC and, wow, this looks way cool.  I’ve been to this great city many times and never knew about this place.  Check it out.

So Mr. Arnold is doing a most admirable thing with his donation once you see where it is going.

Top 3 songs for the week 7/5/75:  #1 “Love Will Keep Us Together” (The Captain & Tennille)  #2 “The Hustle” (Van McCoy...for a song that helped introduce us to the disco world, this one is actually pretty good...at least ‘the bridge’ is....)  #3 “Listen To What The Man Said” (Wings)...and...#4 “Wildfire” (Michael Murphy...I’m a sap...liked this one...)  #5 “Love Won’t Let Me Wait” (Major Harris...huhhh....huhhh....)  #6 “Magic” (Pilot)  #7 “I’m Not Lisa” (Jessi Colter...I’m not either...)  #8 “When Will I Be Loved” (Linda Ronstadt)  #9 “One Of These Nights” (Eagles...my favorite of theirs...)  #10 “Please Mr. Please” (Olivia Newton-John...forgetting this one, pretty good week....)

Houston Astros Quiz Answers: 1) 120 RBIs: Lance Berkman, 136, 2006; Jeff Bagwell, 135, 1997; Bagwell, 132, 2000; Bagwell, 130, 2001; Berkman, 128, 2002; Bagwell, 126, 1999; Berkman, 126, 2001; Moises Alou, 124, 1998; Richard Hidalgo, 122, 2000; Bagwell, 120, 1996.  [If you got Hidalgo, pour yourself a Shiner Bock!]  2) 20 wins: Mike Hampton, 22, 1999; Jose Lima, 21, 1999; Joe Niekro, 21, 1979; Larry Dierker, 20, 1969; Dallas Keuchel, 20, 2015; Niekro, 20, 1980; Roy Oswalt, 20, 2004; Oswalt, 20, 2005; J.R. Richard, 20, 1976; Mike Scott, 20, 1989.

*Every Fourth of July, we should be reminded of the amazing story of our 2nd and 3rd presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, and how they both died on the Fourth of July, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Adams’ last words were reported to have been, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” He had no means of knowing that Jefferson had died the same morning at 9:50 AM, an hour or two before him.

For his part, Jefferson had ten days earlier declined an invitation to attend the ceremonies in Washington marking this golden anniversary. Barely able to hold pen in hand, he wrote his last testament to the American people:

“All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their back, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”

--The other day I saw a blurb in The Atlantic, with the question asked: “What is the best exit of all time?” and many would come up with Jefferson and Adams dying on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

[One guy suggested, “The last man on the moon, the astronaut Eugene Cernan, left his daughter’s initials behind for eternity.”  Now that’s cool as well.  Another... “Socrates: crushed his persecutors’ arguments, took his poison, and left a legacy that has lasted through the ages.”]

But Jerry Weaver suggested the best exit was by George Washington in leaving the presidency.

“He provided the example of serving only two terms, a precedent that was followed by every president until 1940, and later was written into the Constitution.  In his farewell address, he warned the country against becoming involved in the internal affairs of foreign countries, advice that is as valid today as it was in 1796.”

--Editorial / Washington Post

Katharine Lee Bates, a 33-year-old English literature teacher at Wellesley College, was on ‘a merry expedition up Pike’s Peak’ in Colorado in 1893 when she looked out ‘over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies.’

“In an instant, she said, ‘the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.’ Those lines became ‘America the Beautiful’....

“The full hymn is more than just a poetic appreciation of the country’s wonders of nature.  It evokes the vitality of an ever-widening America, celebrates its storied past and – most important – evokes its limitless future potential.

“It hails the pioneering forebears who beat ‘a thoroughfare of freedom... across the wilderness,’ and pays tribute to the nation’s defenders in war, the brave ‘heroes...who more than self their country loved.’....

“In 1979, Pope John Paul II recited its fervent prayer – ‘America, America, God shed his grace on thee’ – as he descended from his plane on his first trip to this country....

“The music plays a large part in the song’s mystique. Samuel Howe, a church organist, composed it during an 1882 ferry ride from Coney Island to his home in Newark – for an entirely different hymn.  It was attached to Bates’ words in 1904 after his death.”

Happy Birthday, America!

Next Bar Chat, Monday.

 



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Bar Chat

07/05/2017

It's Officially Over for the Mets

[Posted late Tuesday afternoon...so I can relax tonight.  I have some Fourth of July tidbits at the end...]

Houston Astros Quiz: 1) Name the four to have 120 RBIs in a season (some did it multiple times).  2) Name the eight Houston pitchers to win 20 games in a season.  Answers below.

MLB

--If my Mets were to have even the slightest chance of remaining in the playoff conversation, they needed to take 2 of 3 in Washington this week, and then 2 of 3 in St. Louis ahead of the All-Star break, and it started badly Monday night, the Mets losing 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth after Curtis Granderson hit a dramatic two-out, two-strike, two-run homer to tie it 2-2, the Mets earlier wasting seen shutout innings by Steven Matz, matching Stephen Strasburg’s seven scoreless.

In recent weeks, Mets broadcaster Ron Darling has been hammering away at the team’s poor defense, which is driving up the pitch counts of their starters, and he’s so right.  [With solid ‘D’ behind him, Matz should have been able to get through 8, for example.]

The Metsies then lost today 11-4, with outfielders Yoenis Cespedes, Granderson and Michael Conforto out with injuries.  T.J. Rivera had to make his first start in left field.  He then hurt himself running to first, like at least four other Mets players have done this year.

Yes, the Mets are officially “sellers” come the trade deadline. We just hope management can get something in return aside from a bag of balls and some kielbasa.

--The Yankees turned it around for one game on Monday night, defeating the Blue Jays 6-3 at the Stadium.  Masahiro Tanaka once again showed how critical he is to the team’s fortunes, allowing one earned in 7 innings.  He has a godawful 5.25 ERA, but is 7-7.  To beat a dead horse, unless he is consistently good the rest of the way, the Yankees will not even get a wild card slot.

So of course they lost today, 4-1, to Toronto and ahead of the Red Sox-Rangers game later tonight, they are 3 ½ behind the A.L. East leaders.  That makes it 21 games in which the Yankees have not won two in a row.

--I guess I have to put the home run derby on next Monday in Miami as part of the All-Star Game festivities, now that the two rookie phenoms, Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers and the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, have committed.  I’ll do so grudgingly because this competition just goes on and on and on.....and you fall asleep, drooling all over yourself at the keyboard like an old fool....

Giancarlo Stanton and Miami’s Justin Bour, along with Gary Sanchez of the Yanks and a few others are also in it, and I’ll say Bour wins, not that I’ll be awake when that occurs.

--I posted Sunday night before I looked at the All-Star Game rosters, and before the reserves were announced, and I do just have to say that Michael Conforto does not deserve to be the Mets’ representative.  Should have been Jacob deGrom.

But then with Kershaw, Scherzer, Strasburg, Greinke, and Carlos Martinez as starters, I can see why he wasn’t selected, though a couple of these won’t be available for Tuesday’s game.

Mike Trout also announced he won’t quite be ready from his rehab to play in the contest.

This year is the first in 15 that the winning All-Star team won’t be awarded home-field advantage in the World Series, which was a ridiculous stunt born out of desperation by then-Commissioner Selig after the embarrassing suspended game controversy.

Now they play for money...$20,000 to the winners. Zero to the losers.

--The Cubs traded catcher Miguel Montero to the Blue Jays on Monday for either a player to be named later or cash.  Personally, I’d take a year’s supply of Tim Horton’s donuts.

I made a mistake last time in saying the Cubs had released Montero when he was designated for assignment, which can lead to the same thing, but in this case Chicago got something for all their trouble.

--Angel Hernandez has always struck me as a bitter guy, Hernandez the veteran major league umpire.  He has also long had a reputation for really sucking at his profession.

So it comes as no surprise that the guy has sued Major League Baseball for alleged race discrimination.

Hernandez, 55, filed his complaint in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati on Monday, alleging MLB chief baseball officer Joe Torre “has a history of animosity towards Hernandez stemming from Torre’s time as manager of the New York Yankees.”

As evidence of the alleged discrimination, the suit cites Hernandez’s lack of World Series assignments in the past decade and baseball not promoting him to crew chief.

MLB declined comment.

Hernandez cites comments by Torre from 2001, when he said Hernandez “seems to see something nobody else does” and “I think he just wanted to be noticed over there.”

Hernandez worked the World Series in 2002 and 2005 but not since.

Again, he is known by any casual baseball fan to be a lousy umpire, that’s the bottom line.  And a true jerk to boot.

In other words, he’s no John Tumpane!

--ESPN announced Dan Shulman is leaving “Sunday Night Baseball” after the season, per his request; Shulman saying he wanted “to strike a better balance between my personal life and professional life.”  Hey, who doesn’t? 

He’ll continue to work some baseball telecasts and call all rounds of the MLB playoffs on ESPN Radio, plus do some basketball games for the network.

ESPN’s Sunday night team is atrocious, though I don’t blame Shulman.

NBA Bits

--No shortage of drama with the Knicks these days.  Now it seems that Carmelo Anthony will waive his no-trade clause if the Knicks can work out a deal with Houston (where his buddy Chris Paul is), or Cleveland.

But of course the Knicks would have zero leverage then with, say, Houston, and New York wouldn’t get anyone worth a damn in return.

And word today is the Knicks are parting ways with point guard Derrick Rose in a possible sign-and-trade with Milwaukee.  Yippee!

Then again, should Rose and Anthony go, and with Justin Holiday having signed with Chicago, I think we have four players left on the roster.

--Gordon Hayward, one of the big prizes of the free-agent field, was to decide today, Tuesday, on whether he will sign with his former Utah team, the Miami Heat, or the Boston Celtics.

As I go to post, it appears it’s Boston!...though NOT official yet.  [Shoot], the rich get richer, wrote the Knicks fan bitterly.  [Though congrats to my Celtics friends, should this prove to be the case.  Super addition. And about time the East got an All-Star from the West.]

--Chauncey Billups shocked the Cavaliers in turning down owner Dan Gilbert’s offer to be the new team’s president and director of basketball operations.  Instead he said he would continue to broadcast and participate in the new Big3 league.

Bad sign for the Cavs, after general manager David Griffin, a favorite of LeBron James’, split with the team recently over terms of a new contract.  And James himself has been strangely silent, seemingly an ‘I don’t give a [hoot] attitude’ about what the Cavs do in the off season.  He can opt out next summer and this story is going to suck a lot of the oxygen out of the sport all this coming season, of this you can be sure.

--We note the passing of long-time former NBA player Darrall (sic) Imhoff.  He was 78.  The cause was a heart attack.

Imhoff was a two-time All-American center who led Pete Newell’s University of California team to the 1959 NCAA title and then played alongside Oscar Robertson and Jerry West on the 1960 Olympic team – also coached by Newell.

Imhoff was selected third overall by the Knicks in the 1960 NBA draft – behind Robertson and West, and averaged 7.2 points and 7.6 rebounds in 12 seasons for six teams.

But after the ’68 season, he was involved in one of the more high-profile trades of that era, going to Philadelphia with Jerry Chambers and Archie Clark for Wilt Chamberlain.

Back in 1959, Imhoff scored 22 points and had 16 rebounds in a semifinal NCAA championship game against Robertson’s Cincinnati team, and then scored the game-winning basket in a 71-70 victory over West’s West Virginia squad in the final.

Hot Dogs

As I gear up to catch the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest to see if nine-time winner Joey Chestnut can make it ten, Steve Rushin had a piece in the current Sports Illustrated in celebration of the cased meat, and its role in sports.

“Last season alone, 19.4 million dogs were eaten in major league parks according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, a meat lobby that has, one hopes, an actual meat lobby on the ground floor of its headquarters in Washington, D.C.  Of course the NHDSC is in our nation’s capital, for the hot dog is an edible e pluribus unum (‘out of many, one’), a comestible [Ed. ‘edible’] made of cast-off parts, the whole greater than its constituent components, like the American ideal from which it sprang.

“The hot dog has been emblematic of our hopes and dreams since the 19th century.  ‘It was absolutely part of a deliberate program by nationalists and reformers to integrate the new immigrant population,’ says the cultural historian Bruce Kraig, author of Man Bites Dog: Hot Dog Culture in America and a man who has lectured on the subject at Oxford and the Library of Congress.  ‘Part of that integration involves baseball games.  By 1900, the working class guy can go on a Sunday – his only day off – to the cheap seats, the 10-cent seats, and the guy next to him is speaking Italian, and maybe he himself is from Ireland, and they’re all eating hot dogs. You get cheap meat – usually a nickel – that you can eat standing up, chanting ‘Go Giants!’ or ‘Go Sox!’  We’re all New Yorkers now...or Chicagoans or Cincinnatians.  We’re all Americans.   So hot dogs serve a critical function.  People eating together, as anthropologists will tell you all the time, is an integrative thing.  It keeps the community and the body politic together.’

“So the hot dog doesn’t just contain connective tissue.  It is connective tissue, binding us to one another, at ballparks in particular, where their consumption has become almost compulsory.”

And Mr. Rushin points out: “The hot dog is central, in fact, to the stories of two of our more celebrated athletes.  When Cassius Clay returned to Louisville from the 1960 Olympics in Rome with his gold medal, he went straight to a downtown lunch counter and asked for a Coke and a hot dog – America on a place mat.  ‘We don’t serve negroes,’ the waitress said, to which Clay replied, ‘I don’t eat them.’  He would later say that it was in this moment, denied a hot dog and his humanity, that he resolved to convert to Islam – its proscription of pork notwithstanding – and become Muhammad Ali.

“As a child at St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys in Baltimore, George Herman Ruth and his pals were rewarded with three ‘weenies’ for Sunday morning breakfast.  Those three weenies stoked a legend of a bottomless (if often mythical) appetite for dogs.  Later, Ruth’s pregame routine...was a couple of hot dogs, washed down with bicarbonate soda.... (Ruth’s only real rival as an American icon of excess, Elvis Presley, had hot dogs soaked in sauerkraut smuggled into his own hospital room.)”

And there is this one I know I wrote of long, long ago.

“According to legend, seldom-used Tiger slugger Gates Brown was preparing late in a 1968 game to eat two hot dogs in the dugout, as was his custom, when his manager, Mayo Smith (a man conspicuously named for a condiment), summoned him to pinch hit.  Brown discreetly stuffed the franks down his uniform shirt and promptly doubled, requiring a head-first slide into second.  ‘I had mustard and squashed meat all over me,’ Brown claimed.  In another version of the story, the sauce was ketchup, and the umpire said, ‘Stay there, Gator.  You’re bleeding.’”

So it’s on to today’s contest, and Joey Chestnut did it, becoming a 10-time champion in defeating a game Carmen Cincotti, 72 hot dogs and buns to Cincotti’s 62.  Chestnut broke his own Nathan’s Famous Contest total of 70, but didn’t hit his record 73 ½.

That said he is now just one behind....

Bill Russell 11 NBA titles
Henri Richard 11 NHL titles
Joey Chestnut 10 Hot Dog eating titles

As promoter George Shea put it, Chestnut “is the Granite Rock that is America...He stands at the highest point in the land...He sees both oceans...He is freedom and he will never falter!”

Shea also said of one of the losing contestants, “He has the body of Adonis, but the eating habits of Homer Simpson.”  And of another, “His dream is to crush your dream.  His contribution is to crush your contribution.”

If you haven’t caught his act in past Nathan’s contests, George Shea is one of the funniest people on the planet.

[Miki Sudo won the women’s title with 41 dogs and buns.]

Competitive Eating Records...courtesy of Major League Eating, the official keeper of all such data.

I picked out a few you can long admire and potentially begin giving your children the dream of one day breaking.

Matt Stonie...182 strips of Smithfield Bacon in 5 minutes.

Don Lerman...6 pounds of baked beans in one minute, 48 seconds.

Don Lerman...7 quarter-pound sticks of butter, salted, in 5 minutes.

Marcos Owens...34 large cannoli at the San Genaro Festival in 6 minutes.

Sonya “Black Widow” Thomas...80 chicken nuggets in 5 minutes.

Sonya Thomas...46 Philips (Baltimore) Crab Cakes in 10 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...55 glazed donuts in 8 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...141 hardboiled eggs in 8 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...103 Krystal Burgers in 8 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...73 ½ hot dogs at a Nathan’s Famous qualifier in 10 minutes.

Oleg Zhornitsky...4, 32-oz. bowls of mayonnaise in 8 minutes.

Patrick Bertoletti...42 PB&Js in 10 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...165 Pierogi in 8 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...45 pulled pork sandwiches in 10 minutes.  [I could challenge him on this.]

Joey Chestnut...53 soft beef tacos / Taco Bell in 10 minutes.

Joey Chestnut...121 Twinkies in 6 minutes.

These are some of the greatest records in the history of sports.   Men and women to admire.

Golf Balls

--I missed the French Open last weekend and Tommy Fleetwood’s win.  Fleetwood, from England, finished fourth you’ll recall at the U.S. Open and the 26-year-old has actually been one of the hotter players in the world, so suddenly he is a legitimate contender for the upcoming Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.  I mean the kid is suddenly 15th in the world.  He now has two wins, two seconds and another five top-10 finishes in his 16 starts this season.  [He was second to Dustin Johnson at the WGC Mexico Championship.] 

So if I was over in the U.K., hitting the betting parlors for The Open, I’d probably be placing a few quid on the lad.

[There was a bizarre controversy, probable scandal, at the French Open.  Some of the players who were leaving their clubs at the course between rounds say they were being altered!  As in one described example that seems to be the truth, the driver head was adjusted and the player involved said whoever did it even readjusted the grips.  The player took it to Callaway after hitting the driver poorly and had it readjusted. There were similar complaints.  Apparently, this happens more than you would think...which is why you see a lot of players yanking their clubs out of their courtesy cars when the cameras find them in the players’ parking lot prior to their round on a Saturday or Sunday.]

--Tiger Woods tweeted Monday that he has completed his treatment for dealing with his back pain and medications (and sleep issues).

“I recently completed an out of state private intensive program,” Woods said.  “I will continue to tackle this going forward with my doctors, family and friends.  I am so very thankful for all of the support I’ve received.”

--Last week Charles Howell III picked up his 16th second-place finish for his PGA Tour career vs. just two wins in losing the playoff of the Quicken Loans event to Kyle Stanley.

I’ve been meaning to note Howell’s career as an example of how some guys have just carved out a niche over the history of the game.  They grind out one Top 125 money list season after another (or FedEx points) to retain their Tour card.

And so I looked up Howell’s record and with his 2016-17 wraparound season earnings now at $1,974,000, that makes every year since 2001 that he has earned at least $1.25 million.  He’s had a few years where he’s been Top 30, but mostly he’s been somewhere around 50 or so on the money list...just grinding away.

He’s got all the talent in the world, though, and you can tell golf broadcasters and commentators at this stage are tired of talking about how he just keeps coming up short at key moments in a few events each year.  Howell was even disparaged in the current issue of Golfweek for his failure to close.

--Finally, the other day I mentioned that I might have something more to say about the anchoring of the putter issue, after USGA officials confronted Bernhard Langer last weekend at the Senior Open and it clearly shook him up, as his play after was awful.

So Monday, Golf Channel’s outspoken Brandel Chamblee chatted with Golf World’s Tim Rosaforte.

“As a player, I certainly wouldn’t want any hint of impropriety attached.  And I can’t imagine why somebody who’s played their entire career with so much integrity attached to everything he’s done to have his career marred by any hint of impropriety,” said Chamblee in speaking of Langer.

While the USGA let him off the hook at Salem Country Club, video evidence from the tournament does suggest Langer’s stroke comes dangerously close to being anchored.

“Anybody who sees what Langer and Scott McCarron and Ian Woosnam are doing knows it’s questionable,” Chamblee said.  “The whispers are out there.  All of the players look askance whether they say it openly or not. I’ve talked to enough of them to know – and many have contacted me – they all look askance at what’s going on out there.

“And intent, I think there is apprehension on the governing body’s part not to ruffle feathers further. When it’s time to dig in, they’re reluctant to do so.  Their acquiescence is to pass this rule, but the only violation is the intent to break this rule.”

As Joel Beall of Golf World adds, “Chamblee was reminded of a story about Arnold Palmer, one that he believes should be the guiding light on this anchoring ambiguity.

“The King, playing with former PGA Tour pro Gibby Gilbert, asked Gilbert if he thought a green indentation was a ball mark.  Gilbert wasn’t sure, but told Palmer he’d give him the benefit of the doubt.

“ ‘I don’t want the benefit of the doubt, I want to know what you think,’ Palmer replied, according to Chamblee.  ‘Is it or is it not a ball mark?’

“To Chamblee, the implication is Palmer didn’t want any doubt to what he was doing.

“ ‘That’s part of Palmer’s legacy when it comes to his conduct on the golf course,’ Chamblee said.  ‘It was above reproach. And what Langer and McCarron are doing is not above reproach.  It’s not right what they’re doing.’”

This is just getting started, folks.  I’ve always liked Langer, but it’s time for some real truth telling.  What is your intent?

Stuff

--Six weeks ago, Gisele Bundchen told “CBS This Morning” that her husband, Tom Brady, had a concussion last season that wasn’t listed on the Patriots’ injury report, and Brady just addressed the issue, but in a Bill Belichickean way, i.e., rather obtusely.

“[Gisele] sees the hits, she was vocal about that, most recently on CBS about the concussions, how much do you talk to her about those hits that you take?” ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi asked Brady during an “E: 60” interview that aired Sunday and that I didn’t pick up on until Monday.

She’s there every day,” Brady said, via CBS Sports.  “I mean, we go to bed in the same bed every night, so I think she knows when I’m sore, she knows when I’m tired, she knows when I get hit.  We drive home together. But, she also knows how well I take care of myself. She’s a very concerned wife and very loving.” [CBS Sports transcribed the interview.]

Don Yee, Brady’s agent, has insisted Brady was not diagnosed with a concussion last season.

--Wow, what a fish story out of Pensacola, Fla., as reported by USA TODAY.  Ben Arnold caught the big one.  After a 3 ½-hour fight, Arnold and the crew of Reel Addiction, hauled in a massive blue marlin that tipped the scales at 771.40 pounds, becoming the big catch during the 46th annual Pensacola International Billfish Tournament.

The catch earned him and the crew an award of $10,000.

It took four men to haul the massive marlin out of the Gulf of Mexico inside the boat.  The marlin was estimated to be between 30 to 35 years old.

But according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state record is 1,046 pounds, and, according to Field & Stream, the world record marlin catch was set in 1992 in Brazil with a weight of 1,402.2 pounds.  Goodness gracious!

Arnold’s catch is being donated to the Museum of Osteology in Oklahoma City, where it will be mounted on a wall at the facility.

Osteology?  Man, I had to look this one up.  It means “the study of the structure and function of the skeleton.”

And then I looked up the museum in OKC and, wow, this looks way cool.  I’ve been to this great city many times and never knew about this place.  Check it out.

So Mr. Arnold is doing a most admirable thing with his donation once you see where it is going.

Top 3 songs for the week 7/5/75:  #1 “Love Will Keep Us Together” (The Captain & Tennille)  #2 “The Hustle” (Van McCoy...for a song that helped introduce us to the disco world, this one is actually pretty good...at least ‘the bridge’ is....)  #3 “Listen To What The Man Said” (Wings)...and...#4 “Wildfire” (Michael Murphy...I’m a sap...liked this one...)  #5 “Love Won’t Let Me Wait” (Major Harris...huhhh....huhhh....)  #6 “Magic” (Pilot)  #7 “I’m Not Lisa” (Jessi Colter...I’m not either...)  #8 “When Will I Be Loved” (Linda Ronstadt)  #9 “One Of These Nights” (Eagles...my favorite of theirs...)  #10 “Please Mr. Please” (Olivia Newton-John...forgetting this one, pretty good week....)

Houston Astros Quiz Answers: 1) 120 RBIs: Lance Berkman, 136, 2006; Jeff Bagwell, 135, 1997; Bagwell, 132, 2000; Bagwell, 130, 2001; Berkman, 128, 2002; Bagwell, 126, 1999; Berkman, 126, 2001; Moises Alou, 124, 1998; Richard Hidalgo, 122, 2000; Bagwell, 120, 1996.  [If you got Hidalgo, pour yourself a Shiner Bock!]  2) 20 wins: Mike Hampton, 22, 1999; Jose Lima, 21, 1999; Joe Niekro, 21, 1979; Larry Dierker, 20, 1969; Dallas Keuchel, 20, 2015; Niekro, 20, 1980; Roy Oswalt, 20, 2004; Oswalt, 20, 2005; J.R. Richard, 20, 1976; Mike Scott, 20, 1989.

*Every Fourth of July, we should be reminded of the amazing story of our 2nd and 3rd presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, and how they both died on the Fourth of July, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Adams’ last words were reported to have been, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” He had no means of knowing that Jefferson had died the same morning at 9:50 AM, an hour or two before him.

For his part, Jefferson had ten days earlier declined an invitation to attend the ceremonies in Washington marking this golden anniversary. Barely able to hold pen in hand, he wrote his last testament to the American people:

“All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their back, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”

--The other day I saw a blurb in The Atlantic, with the question asked: “What is the best exit of all time?” and many would come up with Jefferson and Adams dying on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

[One guy suggested, “The last man on the moon, the astronaut Eugene Cernan, left his daughter’s initials behind for eternity.”  Now that’s cool as well.  Another... “Socrates: crushed his persecutors’ arguments, took his poison, and left a legacy that has lasted through the ages.”]

But Jerry Weaver suggested the best exit was by George Washington in leaving the presidency.

“He provided the example of serving only two terms, a precedent that was followed by every president until 1940, and later was written into the Constitution.  In his farewell address, he warned the country against becoming involved in the internal affairs of foreign countries, advice that is as valid today as it was in 1796.”

--Editorial / Washington Post

Katharine Lee Bates, a 33-year-old English literature teacher at Wellesley College, was on ‘a merry expedition up Pike’s Peak’ in Colorado in 1893 when she looked out ‘over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies.’

“In an instant, she said, ‘the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.’ Those lines became ‘America the Beautiful’....

“The full hymn is more than just a poetic appreciation of the country’s wonders of nature.  It evokes the vitality of an ever-widening America, celebrates its storied past and – most important – evokes its limitless future potential.

“It hails the pioneering forebears who beat ‘a thoroughfare of freedom... across the wilderness,’ and pays tribute to the nation’s defenders in war, the brave ‘heroes...who more than self their country loved.’....

“In 1979, Pope John Paul II recited its fervent prayer – ‘America, America, God shed his grace on thee’ – as he descended from his plane on his first trip to this country....

“The music plays a large part in the song’s mystique. Samuel Howe, a church organist, composed it during an 1882 ferry ride from Coney Island to his home in Newark – for an entirely different hymn.  It was attached to Bates’ words in 1904 after his death.”

Happy Birthday, America!

Next Bar Chat, Monday.