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Bar Chat

07/27/2017

Kyrie and LeBron

[Posted early Wed. a.m.]

Golf Quiz: How many in the Official World Golf Rankings’ top ten can you name? [Thru The Open Championship] Answer below.

MLB

--The Dodgers are losing Clayton Kershaw for a second straight season to a lower back injury. Last year he lost ten weeks.  While there is no definitive word, most reports have him at 4-6 weeks this time.

L.A. has to be more than a bit concerned that it’s the back again.  Kershaw is owed $105 million, 2018-20, for starters.

So now the Dodgers, 12 ½ games up in N.L. West, need to hope Kershaw is back by mid-September to get some work in before the playoffs.  At the same time, it seems clear they’ll be in the Yu Darvish sweepstakes at the trade deadline.

--So the Mets started the season with a rotation of Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler, with Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo in reserve, and when spring training began, manager Terry Collins said, paraphrasing, ‘If these guys stay healthy and give us 150 starts, I’ll take my chances.’

Well the Big Five have given the Mets 63 starts thru Monday, and that’s all you really need to know about how the season has panned out since, with six of the seven, the only exception being deGrom, appearing on the disabled list at one time or another.  Plus our closer, Jeurys Familia, was first out with an MLB-mandated suspension, and then he went on the DL.

Zack Wheeler was placed on the DL the other day for a second time and is probably out for the year, and no telling when or if Syndergaard and Harvey will be back in ’17.  Most of us just want the team to tell them, ‘See you in spring training’ and hope for a major reboot.  We’re stuck with this staff, come hell or high water, for 2018.

But at least deGrom continues to excel, winning his eighth straight start on Monday in San Diego, 5-3, giving up 2 earned in 8 innings.  [His ERA over the eight games is 1.61, and he’s now 12-3, 3.30, overall.]

And Tuesday, the Mets won again, 6-5, as Yoenis Cespedes went 3-for-3, including his first home run in 87 at-bats.

--The Yankees defeated the Reds at the Stadium last night, 4-2, so with Boston losing out in Seattle in 13, 6-5, the Yanks, despite going 14-23 their last 37, are just one game back.

Boston 55-47
New York 52-46....1
Tampa Bay 52-49....2.5

Monday, Boston called up prize prospect Rafael Devers, among the consensus top-5 prospects in the game, to play third and he made his debut last night against the Mariners, going 0-for-4  with two walks.

But the Red Sox acquired veteran infielder Eduardo Nunez from San Francisco to act as insurance.  Good move for Boston, Nunez a solid player who was hitting .308 with 17 stolen bases this season.

In return, the Giants received two minor league pitching prospects, Shaun Anderson and Gregory Santos, as San Francisco officially begins its big rebuild.

--Giancarlo Stanton blasted two home runs Monday in the Marlins’ 4-0 win at Texas, Stanton tying Aaron Judge for the major-league lead at 32.  Stanton has never hit 40 in a season.

--Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal had a piece on the greatness of Texas third baseman Adrian Beltre, who is nearing 3,000 hits (2,993 as I write).  As in Beltre could go down as the greatness third baseman of all time.

George Brett, for example, is the all-time leader at third with 3,154 hits, which Beltre should pass next season.  Beltre, at 453 lifetime homers, won’t pass Mike Schmidt’s 548, but he is just 20 behind Chipper Jones’ 1,623 RBI, for the most ever for a player whose primary position was third base.

And Beltre has won five Gold Gloves.

--David P. passed the following on from Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, concerning an ugly incident that has recently come to light.

“I’ve been covering professional sports teams for 40 years. Orioles, Celtics, Red Sox. In the first 15 years of my career, beat reporters often flew team charters.  My first trip to Seattle was on a Baltimore Orioles team charter and somewhere over Montana, I was the target of some alcohol-fueled hostility from one of the Orioles relief pitchers. I was 24 and it was one of the first flights of my life. The pitcher was not much older than I was, and we’d barely met. This had nothing to do with anything I’d written. When he lit into me, his teammates tried to calm him down and diffuse the situation.  I remember first baseman Tony Muser playfully hollering, ‘Put a seatbelt on that mouth!’

“The next day the pitcher pulled me aside in the Kingdome’s visitors’ locker room and fumbled through an apology. I was later told that Brooks Robinson – then in the final days of a 23-year career – had suggested the apology, telling his teammate, ‘That’s not what we do here.’ Nevertheless, the pitcher was sincerely sorry and embarrassed and none of us spoke of it again.

“I was reminded of this when I heard the unfortunate tale of David Price verbally blasting Dennis Eckersley on a Sox charter when the Sox flew from Boston to Toronto at the end of last month....

“While in California, I spoke with six people who witnessed the Price-Eckersley incident and another handful of folks close to the situation.  Few would agree to be quoted – Eckersley and Price would not comment – but here’s the narrative of what went down:

“Sportswriters stopped flying with ball clubs a quarter-century ago, but 10 ancillary team employees (two WEEI broadcasters and eight members of NESN) still fly with the Red Sox.  NESN’s longtime color commentator Jerry Remy is recovering from cancer surgery and has not been with the team since June 21. Steve Lyons typically fills in for Remy on the road, but he has curiously disappeared from all NESN broadcasts, citing a ‘personal situation.’

“Eckersley does not like to travel with the team. He’s a recovering alcoholic and seeks to avoid the trappings of the road. He’s also aware that many Sox players dislike his blunt, sometimes critical style. One would think that his Hall of Fame resume and 24 major league seasons (which included two divorces, getting released, career-threatening injuries, and being a stand-up guy after epic failures) would insulate him from the anger of today’s players. That would be incorrect....

“Players being sensitive about commentary is not unique to the Red Sox. Friends and wives of ballplayers often relay remarks heard on television. At Fenway, there has been clubhouse disgruntlement about Eckersley’s style for some time.

“For Price, the tipping point came when he learned Eckersley said ‘Yuck’ when Eduardo Rodriguez’s poor stats were flashed on the NESN screen after a rehab start in Pawtucket June 29.

“On the day of the episode Price was standing near the middle of the team aircraft, surrounded by fellow players, waiting for Eckersley. When Eckersley approached, on his way to the back of the plane (Sox broadcasters traditionally sit in the rear of the aircraft), a grandstanding Price stood in front of Eckersley and shouted, ‘Here he is – the greatest pitcher who ever lived! This game is easy for him!’

“When a stunned Eckersley tried to speak, Price shot back with, ‘Get the [expletive] out of here!’

“Many players applauded.

“Eckersley made his way to the back of the plane as players in the middle of the plane started their card games.  In the middle of the short flight, Eckersley got up and walked toward the front where Sox boss David Dombrowski was seated. When Eckersley passed through the card-playing section in the middle, Price went at him  again, shouting, ‘Get the [expletive] out of here!’

“When Price was asked about it the next day, he said only, ‘Some people just don’t understand how hard this game is.’

“After his next start, Price said, ‘I stand up for my teammates.  Whatever crap I catch for that, I’m fine with it.’

“Did the Red Sox know they were getting such a thin-skinned player when they signed Price for $217 million? What has been the response from the Sox front office?

“ ‘We handled it internally in Toronto,’ said Sox CEO Sam Kennedy. ‘David met with Dave Dombrowski and (manager) John Farrell. It was dealt with at that level.’”

There has been no apology from Price or Farrell.

“Price, who suffered a 7-3 loss to the Angels Saturday night, is still angry and believes he has the support of his teammates.

“Swell. But where’s Brooks Robinson when you need him?”

David Price is now firmly ensconced in the December file for “A-Hole of the Year” consideration.

The Open Championship, Part II

Sunday’s spectacular finish, courtesy of Champion Golfer Jordan Spieth, certainly warrants more commentary, for the record, than just my thoughts in the immediate aftermath.

When it came to the 13th hole and the world’s worst tee shot, the key to Spieth’s whole finish on Sunday was knowing the rules.  As Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal sums up:

“It’s hard to overstate just how bad Spieth’s tee shot was...It would have been highly difficult for Spieth to make strong contact with the ball as it lay – mired in thick, tall grass. And with so much rough to clear to get back to the fairway, he needed the ball to carry a long way.

“To the rescue: the unplayable lie rule, which allows players to declare a ball unplayable and, with a one-stroke penalty, drop it in another spot no closer to the hole. But where?

“The rule gives players three options. The simplest, and the one most other players likely would have chosen here, is to play the ball from its previous location, which in this case would have been the tee box. Another would have been to drop the ball within two club lengths of its lie, which in this case was no option at all, since Spieth was surrounded by treacherous rough.

“The third option allows players to take the ball back as far as they want on a straight line running from the flagstick through the original lie. But as Spieth looked further down the hill, past a walkway and over a gate, he spotted an oasis of pristine, short grass, someplace he had hit from just a few hours earlier.

“It was the driving range.”

And so Spieth got the ruling the range was in bounds.  After a few more rulings involving the television trucks, the rest was history.

Spieth was unstinting in his praise of caddie Michael Greller, who six holes before the near disaster at  No. 13, and needing to exorcise any demons from his collapse at the 2016 Masters, reminded Spieth of his recent vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where he posed for a group photograph with, among others, Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps.

Greller told Jordan he belonged in that photograph.

“You’re that caliber of athlete,” Spieth recalled Greller saying.  “But I need you to believe that right now, because you’re in a great position in this tournament.”

It also turns out that at No. 13, Spieth thought he was 270 from the green with his third, sitting on the practice range, which would have been a three-wood, but Greller convinced him he was 230 to the pin and a three-iron.

There’s a reason why Spieth was so effusive in his praise of his caddie, saying the trophy “is as much yours as it is mine.”

Meanwhile, runner-up Matt Kuchar, playing in his 47th major, knows that at age 39 he’s not likely to be in such a good position for that elusive major as he was this weekend.

“It’s crushing,” he said after, adding, “To be this close, to taste it with five holes to go, it’s a hard one to sit back and take.”

Finally, back to Spieth, you have to love his total honesty and candor.  Whereas virtually every other top golfer uses what Golf World’s Jaime Diaz describes as “psychological self-protection,” Spieth offers up his candor as “one of his gifts to the game.”

Yes, Jordan was totally thinking of The Masters and his big collapse all through his final round at Birkdale.

“Before the round,” Spieth said after, “I thought I have a reputation as being able to close, but I was hesitant in saying ‘majors’ to myself, because there was a lot of – I put a lot of pressure on myself unfortunately, and not on purpose, before the round today, just thinking this is the best opportunity that I’ve had since the ’16 Masters.  And if it weren’t to go my way today, then all I’m going to be questioned about and thought about and murmured about is in comparison to that, and that adds a lot of pressure to me.

“After four holes it was even more so. And I wasn’t questioning myself as a closer, but I was questioning why I couldn’t just perform the shots that I was before.  I was just as nervous yesterday (Saturday) during the round, and I knew the conditions were harder, but I just wasn’t executing.  And sometimes you just can’t really figure it out, put your finger on it. Am I pulling it?  Pushing it?  Am I doing both?  What’s going on with the stroke?  It’s just searching. And during the round today I definitely thought while any kind of fear or advantage that you can have in this moment over other individuals, not just Matt Kuchar today, but other people that are watching, that’s being taken away by the way that I’m playing right now. And that was really tough to swallow.  And that kind of stuff goes into your head.  I mean, we walked for two minutes, three minutes in between shots. And you can’t just go blank.  You wish you could, but thoughts creep in.”

--Do you know who has the most consecutive cuts made in majors in the game today? If you said Steve Stricker, go to the head of the class!

I mean that’s pretty remarkable.  For a guy who never won a major, and had a major slump in the middle of his career when it was seemingly over, you gotta hand it to the guy.  He did win 12 times, and so it’s time for my latest “career barometer.”

If you are a PGA Tour player and you win three times, you’ve had a “solid” career.  Five wins, “good.”  Ten wins, “very good.”  15 wins, “super.”

But think of what Stricker, again, at 50, has done this year.  T-16 at both the Masters and the U.S. Open (where he had to go thru a grueling qualifier just to get in), T-37 at Royal Birkdale, and a T-5 the other day at the John Deere.  He’s supposed to be focused on the Champions Tour, solely, but who can blame him for sticking around with the young guys.

He’s playing in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, and, having qualified, will play in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, but then he turns into captain for the U.S. Presidents Cup team.

NBA

--Yippee!  Derrick Rose is no longer a Knick, the free-agent point guard reaching a one-year, veteran minimum $2.1 million contract to play in Cleveland this season, after which he hopes to get one last big contract next offseason if he can stay healthy.

So with Kyrie Irving wanting out, Rose is insurance of some sorts, though Rose is hardly the ideal point guard, especially for LeBron.  Knicks fans are just happy to be rid of him and glad the new front office didn’t do something Knick-like and sign him to a long-term deal.

But, bigger picture, as Cindy Boren of the Washington Post writes:

“Where do you even start with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that has been to the NBA Finals the last three years and yet now finds itself in the midst of the kind of implosion more common to teams like, oh, I don’t know...the New York Knicks?

“The latest bit of ridiculousness to come out of Cleveland involves Kyrie Irving’s request for a trade because evidently playing alongside one of the world’s best basketball players isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, or something.  It’s a move that the Washington Post’s Tim Bontemps says comes straight out of the Kobie Bryant playbook and places Irving’s name front and center in the league’s rumor mill because he wants to escape the shadow of LeBron James.  [Ed. Bryant clashed with Shaquille O’Neal in his early days in the league, and wanted the spotlight for himself.]....

“The Cavs have been almost Knicks-like in their Dysfunction, so that alone might make a player uneasy. The team failed to keep the popular David Griffin as general manager, then whiffed in its quest to hire Chauncey Billups to replace him.  It couldn’t seal the deal on a trade for Paul George or Jimmy Butler. The team seems content to relax, perhaps mistakenly confident that it remains the best in the Eastern Conference.

“James has attempted to be the voice of reason, with repeated social media posts that use the hashtag #striveforgreatness, but there’s uncertainty surrounding his future, too.  Will he leave his beloved home town next summer?  He hasn’t said one way or another and against the backdrop comes the nastiness.”

Irving doesn’t like that James hogs the ball more than any forward in league history, though Irving took more shots per game than LeBron did, the first time in LeBron’s career he didn’t lead his team in shots.

But according to an extensive ESPN report, with multiple writers: “(There) were ancillary issues that bothered Irving, too, such as how James’ good friend Randy Mims had a position on the Cavs’ staff and traveled on the team plane while none of Irving’s close friends were afforded the same opportunity. Irving chafed about how peers such as Damian Lillard and John Wall were the center of their franchises and catered to accordingly.”

But unlike these two, Irving has been to three Finals and has a championship.

[Monday, the Cavs announced interim general manager Koby Altman would become the full-time GM at just 34.]

NFL

--A big story broke on Tuesday, release of a new study from researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and the VA Boston Healthcare System that examined 202 brains that belonged to men who played football at all levels and were later donated for research.  They found CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in 177 of them – 87 percent.  Of the brains that were donated by families of former NFL players, the number was 99 percent, all but one of 111 brains belonging to ex-NFL players.

It’s important to note that for the most part, it’s mostly families who had reason to be concerned about their loved one – exhibiting symptoms or signs that weren’t right and thus concerning, or if they committed suicide, for example, so this can skew the results.

That said, as neuropathologist Ann McKee, credited with some of the most high-profile CTE diagnoses, said, the study does provide “overwhelming circumstantial evidence that CTE is linked to football.”

But Dr. McKee added: “To me, it’s very concerning that we have college-level players who have severe CTE who did not go on to play professionally. That means they most likely retired before the age of 25 and we still are seeing in some of those individuals very severe repercussions.”

The researchers distinguished between mild and severe CTE, and the majority of college (56%) and professional players (86%) exhibited severe pathology.

Researchers are also quick to point out that the study has many limitations, an important one being the game is played so much differently today, with different equipment, rules and protocols, to say the least, while many of the brains studied belonged to players who played in the 1960s or later.  That said, it’s not going to be helpful to the future of the sport with evidence overwhelmingly in favor of America’s best young athletes selecting a sport other than football.  [Rick Maese / Washington Post]

--The Colts have been very worried all offseason as to the health of franchise quarterback Andrew Luck, who is recovering from right shoulder surgery, and the team announced he would miss the start of training camp this week.

But GM Chris Ballard told reporters Monday: “I want to make this very clear; Andrew has not had a setback. This is all part of the process.  The long-term prognosis is very good, and that is very positive.  We are going to follow the doctors’ orders and the process.”

--John Elway was in the last year of his contract as GM and EVP of Denver, but he just agreed to a new five-year contract.

--The Dallas Cowboys released kick returner/wide receiver Lucky Whitehead after reports surfaced he had been arrested on a shoplifting charge in Virginia.

But less than 24 hours later, Whitehead was exonerated by Prince William County police, saying he had been mistakenly charged, the victim of identity theft.

The Cowboys have to invite him back to camp, but they had filed all the paperwork to release him so this could take a while to unwind.

Soccer

Kevin Baxter / Los Angeles Times

“For a decade and a half, the U.S. and Mexico have been the region’s unchallenged soccer powers.

“The Americans have won the last three World Cup-qualifying tournaments, a competition Mexico leads this year.  Mexico has won three of the last four Gold Cups, beating the U.S. in the final twice.

“But that exclusive club is expanding. Because when Jamaica’s Kemar Lawrence scored in the 88th minute of Sunday’s Gold Cup semifinal at the Rose Bowl, it not only knocked Mexico out of the competition, 1-0, it served notice that the tiny Caribbean nation is beginning to elbow its way into the conversation.

“ ‘The best way I could put it is the biblical story, David slew Goliath,’ Jamaica coach Theodore Whitmore said.  ‘It’s overwhelming. Words can’t explain.’”

So Wednesday night in Santa Clara, the U.S. and Jamaica square off for the Gold Cup.  Jamaica upset the U.S. in the semifinals of this one in 2015.

Stuff

--I went to post Sunday before the finish of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor speedway, so for the record, Kasey Kahne picked up his first win since Aug. 31, 2014, at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a span of 102 races.

Kahne entered the race 22nd in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings, but thanks to the win, he’s into the 16-driver, 10-race playoff.

--This didn’t take long...and was totally predictable. Dale Earnhardt Jr. signed a multi-year deal with NBC Sports to join their NASCAR team beginning next year.  NBC broadcasts the second half of the season, after Fox (with the great Jeff Gordon...best analyst of any sport, period) does the first.  I would expect Dale Jr. to be a natural.  He has the enthusiasm, number one, and he said as part of his statement that he was thrilled this was a way to stay connected to the sport and, just as importantly, his fan base.

--Katie Ledecky won the 1,500-meter freestyle at the world championships in Budapest by 19 seconds, her 12th world championship gold medal, breaking her tie with Missy Franklin for most in women’s swimming history. She’ll end up the meet with at least 14, I’m guessing.

--Mike Tyson, in an interview this week, said Conor McGregor is “going to get killed boxing.”

“I got mad because I thought they were going to use MMA rules against boxing because that’s what it’s all about: Can the boxer beat the MMA guy?” Tyson said.  “McConor (Tyson kept fumbling the name) put his dumbass in a position where he’s gonna get knocked out because this guy’s been doing this all his life since he was a baby.  McConor can’t kick and grab and stuff, so he won’t stand much of a chance.”

--Finally, we note the passing of Barbara Sinatra, 90. Always liked her. She was Sinatra’s fourth wife and was a leading philanthropist, raising millions to help abused children, founding the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center in her home of Rancho Mirage, California.

Ms. Sinatra was a former model and Vegas showgirl who Frank married in 1976.  They remained together until his death in 1998. 

Top 3 songs for the week 7/25/64: #1 “Rag Doll” (The 4 Seasons)  #2 “A Hard Day’s Night” (The Beatles)  #3 “I Get Around” (The Beach Boys)...and...#4 “Memphis” (Johnny Rivers)  #5”The Girl From Ipanema” (Getz/Gilberto  #6 “The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)” (Jan & Dean)  #7 “Can’t You See That She’s Mine” (The Dave Clark Five)  #8 “Dang Me” (Roger Miller)  #9 “Wishin’ And Hopin’” (Dusty Springfield)  #10 “Keep On Pushing” (The Impressions...great week....)

Golf Quiz Answer: Official World Golf Rankings thru 7/23....

1. Dustin Johnson 11.87
2. Jordan Spieth 9.35
3. Hideki Matsuyama 7.76
4. Rory McIlroy 7.61
5. Sergio Garcia 7.02
6. Jason Day 6.58
7. Jon Rahm 6.53
8. Henrik Stenson 6.48
9. Alex Noren 6.38
10. Brooks Koepka 5.76

11. Rickie Fowler 5.75
12. Matt Kuchar
13. Justin Rose
14. Justin Thomas
15. Tommy Fleetwood

Next Bar Chat, Monday.

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