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Bar Chat

07/31/2017

Baseball's Trade Deadline

[Posted Sun. p.m.]

Chicago White Sox Quiz: 1) Name the seven to hit 40 home runs in a season (all modern-day).  2) Since 1921, no ChiSox hurler has won 25 games in a season.  Name the only five to win 22 or more.  Answers below.

MLB

--The Yankees have been a Jekyl and Hyde act this season. After a 38-23 start, they went 10-22, but then won 8 of 9, including six in a row until their loss to Tampa Bay today, 5-3, to fall to 56-47, a half-game ahead of Boston, 57-49; the struggling Red Sox 8-14 their last 22.

So the Yanks, looking for help in the starting rotation, picked up veteran lefty Jaime Garcia from the Twins for two minor league pitching prospects.  Garcia is OK, nothing more, but he just needs to keep the team in the game, give ‘em six innings, and trust the solid pen.

--The Mets made a nice trade, acquiring reliever AJ Ramos from the Marlins for a Class-A pitcher and outfielder. Ramos had 32 and 40 saves the past two seasons for Miami (20 this year) and is under control for 2018.  They also dealt slugger Lucas Duda (a nice Met in his career) to the Rays for a minor league reliever with potential, and Duda slugged home runs for the Rays in his first two games, showing Yankees fans what they may be missing.

As for the Metsies’ play on the field, we don’t care anymore.  Today, in losing 9-1 to Seattle, we had nine singles.  Punch and Judy was more entertaining, albeit violent, and I hate puppets.

--Great move by the Nationals in obtaining veteran utilityman Howie Kendrick from the Phillies, with Philadelphia sending Washington some cash to pay for part of his remaining salary in 2017.

Kendrick has been hurt this season but is hitting .340 in 148 at-bats, and he gives the Nats even more depth for their postseason hunt for a Series bid.  Washington sent Philadelphia a minor league pitcher.

--In a deal that makes little sense, Baltimore acquired veteran pitcher Jeremy Hellickson from the Phillies, Hellickson 6-5 with a 4.73 ERA in 20 starts.  Philadelphia gets outfielder Hyun Soo Kim and a minor leaguer.  The only way this one makes sense is that Philadelphia is picking up some of the remaining $6.1 million on Hellickson’s salary.

--Boston starter David Price went on the DL with an elbow issue.  No offense, Red Sox fans, but now that Price has been exposed as a supreme jerk, I sure as heck couldn’t care less about the guy.  You’re the ones who gave him the absurd contract.

--Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal notes that since 1913, there have been only seven instances in baseball history where a player went through a calendar month with at least 100 plate appearances and batted .500.  Six of those times took place between 1913 and 1927, achieved by the likes of Shoeless Joe Jackson, Rogers Hornsby and Ty Cobb, but the only other player to do it since was Todd Helton of the Rockies, who hit .512 in May 2000.

This subject came up because as of a few days ago, Houston’s Jose Altuve was hitting .506 after back-to-back 4-hit games, but an 8-for-20 since, which is darn good, has nonetheless dropped him to .484 (46-for-95) after today’s play. The Astros do host the Rays tomorrow, 7/31, so you can do the math, a la Ted Williams and 1941 on the final day of the season (when he went 6-for-8 in a doubleheader to finish the season at .406). Altuve has seven walks, too, in case you were wondering about the 100 plate appearances...remember, you had the 4-day All-Star break in there.

--I love what the Chicago White Sox are doing, and if I was a ChiSox fan I’d be even more fired up.  As of Thursday they had made four trades in just over two weeks and have been bringing back a boatload of prospects. 

Actually, going back to December when they traded Chris Sale to Boston for a package including No. 1 prospect Yoan Moncada, and fireballer Michael Kopech, they have acquired at least 16 prospects, by my count.  [Plus they signed 19-year-old heralded outfielder Luis Robert out of Cuba.]

Suddenly, the White Sox have a top three ranked farm system, after being mired in the back.  So good for them. I hope they reward their fans’ patience.

[Moncada was recently called up and he’s off to a slow start...4-for-36, 15 strikeouts, thru today.]

Chicago is headed towards its fifth straight losing season but this should start to turn around next season.

But wait...there’s more!  Sunday, the White Sox traded Melky Cabrera to the Royals for two more prospects, two pitchers....so this is 18 or more, by my count, since December.  [Great move for K.C., who has had one of the better turnarounds this season in recent memory.]

--Toronto staged the greatest comeback in its history, scoring 7 in the bottom of the ninth today to beat the Angels 11-10.  Incredibly, Steve Pearce had his second walk-off grand slam in four days!  As Ronald Reagan would have told his good friend, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’ 

--The Rangers’ Adrian Beltre got his 3,000th hit today, but Texas lost to Baltimore 10-6.  He is the 31st in this exclusive club and as I’ve written before, a lock for Cooperstown.  [Nothing to say about today’s induction ceremonies there.]

--Thru Saturday, the Mets’ Tim Tebow was batting .298 with five home runs in 104 at-bats at High-A St. Lucie, including a three-run shot on Saturday.  Gotta hand it to the guy.  This is no Michael Jordan baseball effort thus far.  After his poor batting average at Low-A, I thought it was a joke to promote him.

Mets management keeps saying there is no way he is getting a September call up, but suddenly, Double-A ball next season doesn’t seem out of the question and he’ll no doubt get a look in some spring training games with the big club, and all those split-squad games.

--Michael Dell is chipping in $175 million towards Derek Jeter’s bid for the Marlins, according to Fox Business Network, with Dell giving himself preferred shares that pay a dividend; something that has met with the approval of Major League Baseball.  There are still two other competing bids, with owner Jeffery Loria looking for $1.2 billion.

NFL Bits

--Ah yes, training camps are open and in these parts that means one thing.  It’s Odell Beckham Jr. time!  OBJ just craves the limelight.  It’s all part of building the brand.

Beckham is in the fourth year of his rookie contract and will earn $1.8 million this season. The Giants have exercised Beckham’s $8.4 million fifth-year option for 2018 and could use the franchise tag on him in subsequent seasons, a la what the Redskins have been doing with Kirk Cousins.

But a few days before the first day of camp, OBJ had to make it about him.

“I believe that I will be hopefully not just the highest-paid receiver in the league, but the highest paid, period.”

So of course reporters had to weigh in.

Steve Politi / Star-Ledger (NJ.com):

“So Beckham guaranteed that nearly every question as the Giants wrapped up their first full practice was about his hopes and dreams of being the NFL’s highest-paid player, and just weeks after he insisted that his decision to skip OTAs had nothing to do with his contract....

“So this is the story Beckham wanted out there before stretching his hamstrings even once this summer. This is the story he delivered after the awful ending to the 2016 – the dreaded boat trip, the poor playoff performance in Green Bay and the hole he punched in that Lambeau Field wall.

“Jerry Reese practically begged him to ‘grow up’ in his postseason press conference, a topic the GM was not going to revisit on Thursday....

“Others won’t be so lucky, and it just circles back to the unending complaint about Beckham. That he can’t just seem to quietly do anything, even when it seems that this is the one thing the Giants want to see from him before signing off on that inevitable mega-deal.”

Steve Serby / New York Post

“Odell Beckham Jr. can express the hope to one day become the highest-paid player in football all he wants, and it is more probable than not that a good number of his NFL brothers are all for him carrying the pay-structure-level banner for them and raising it to the roof if at all possible....

“Beckham already may be the face of the Giants franchise, but there is no way he deserves more than $21 Million Man Eli Manning, who has won two more Super Bowls than Beckham, who has yet to win a playoff game.  Beckham most certainly knows it, but if for some reason he doesn’t, you can bet Giants ownership and management does.

“Beckham yearns to be legendary, and though he has done some legendary things in his first three seasons, his teammates are hardly surprised he yearns for a legendary contract.

“It is a harmless, pie-in-the-sky, Make A Wish, except in this regard:

“It puts another bull’s-eye on his $1.8 million back.

“ ‘This isn’t for me, this isn’t for Odell Beckham, this is for everybody in the league, people who deserve it,’ Beckham said.

“Except he is the one who will have to endure the snickers and cries of derision – ‘Ha, the highest-paid player in football doesn’t drop touchdown passes in a playoff game!’

“It obviously does not scare him.

“While he is on board with waiting patiently, with two years left on his contract, for that monster raise that could arrive well before next offseason, his obsession should be to perform like the best receiver in the game, because the Giants will make him the highest-paid receiver in the game if he does, especially with the salary cap rising to $167 million this season and heading north annually....

“The bottom line: Beckham may be a crackling lightning rod because he occasionally marches to the beat of an immature and fiercely independent drummer, but if he truly were the major distraction some portray him to be, there is no way (co-owner John) Mara would publicly announce he wants him to be a Giant For Life.

“Mara wants him to be a Giant For Life because he believes Beckham can be instrumental in delivering that fifth Lombardi Trophy to East Rutherford, because he hasn’t had a player this impactful since Lawrence Taylor.

“ ‘He certainly is a star in every sense of the word,’ Mara said. ‘That presents certain challenges, but I’ll live with those challenges every day of the week to have a player like that.’”

--After the latest study on CTE, needless to say some players are now talking retirement, and another took the step.

Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he has begun thinking about it, citing this week’s report from researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and VA Boston Healthcare System that found CTE in 110 of 111 former NFL players’ brains.  Roethlisberger said his wife is ready for him to give up football, and I would say it’s definite this coming season is his last.  Some of us are surprised he hasn’t done it sooner because no one has taken more big hits, including blows to the head, than he has.

Heck, remember his motorcycle accident?  That was a big hit to the head, too.  Mark R. and I were commenting at the time that that had to be the end of the road for him, and yet this was years ago.

But when you love the game, it’s tough to leave.

--However, Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel announced on Thursday that he was walking away after three seasons.  He has long had a second career lined up, Urschel being a doctoral candidate in mathematics at MIT, with nine published or accepted research papers to his name.

Ludmil Zikatanov, who taught Urschel as an undergrad at Penn State, told the Washington Post last year, “I have never had a student like him.”

Urschel has also never been shy about talking about the possible risks to his brain from playing football and there is no doubt, the release last week of the CTE study two days earlier was part of his decision to pack it in, even if he hasn’t said so publicly.  He had participated in all the team’s training sessions during the offseason, for example.

In his statement, Urschel said in part: “I guess the biggest thing I’d want to say is that I’m excited to focus on my mathematical career full time.  And to finally be at MIT full time....And when I really thought about it, it didn’t make sense to play this seasons, when the thing I’m most excited about is mathematics right now.”

Separately, in thanking the Ravens, Urschel said: “It wasn’t an easy decision, but I believe it was the right one for me.  There’s no big story here, and I’d appreciate the right to privacy.”

Urschel has said he had envied Chris Borland, who retired from the NFL at age 24 over concerns about CTE last year.[Marissa Payne / Washington Post]

Tuesday, 31-year-old receiver Andrew Hawkins, who had signed a one-year deal with the Patriots, also ended his career and pledged to donate his brain to CTE research in the future.  Hawkins recently earned his masters from Columbia University and plans to pursue his doctorate in business and economics.

[Sunday, Patriots’ long-time defensive end Rob Ninkovich announced his retirement, though at 33, he had been considering it for a number of seasons.]

--The Jets claimed wide receiver/kick returner Lucky Whitehead on waivers after the Cowboys had cut him following a shoplifting charge, in what was later proved to be a case of mistaken identity.

--Jon Gruden said he’s “preparing to come back” to coaching, so that will be an underlying story all season as he analyzes games on ESPN’s Monday Night Football.

Gruden told PewterReport.com, “I haven’t lost the itch...I miss the players.”  He said he’s had opportunities to return, but he’s just holding out for the perfect fit.  But he doesn’t want to coach in college because of all the recruiting restrictions.

The former Super Bowl-winning coach said he’s preparing every day to come back.  Heck, I’d love him to be the Jets’ head coach in 2018.

Golf Balls

--Jhonattan Vegas captured his third PGA Tour title at the RBC Canadian Open, back-to-back in this event, in a playoff with Charley Hoffman, who has had a helluva year but no wins.  [He has four in his career.]

--In the first round of the tournament, Matt Kuchar had a couple of dizzy spells and sought medical treatment during it.  But he managed to shoot a 71, then shot 68 in the second round to make the cut.  He finished T-32.

If you’re wondering why Kooch would play after his bitter disappointment just days earlier at Royal Birkdale, it’s because he has an endorsement deal with tournament sponsor RBC.  Give the guy a ton of credit for more than hanging in there.

--Bernhard Langer won the British Senior Open at Royal Porthcrawl in Wales.  Langer turns 60 in the coming month, yet he has now done something no senior has come close to...win five senior majors since age 58!

We’re talking Langer has a senior record 10 majors overall, and tied Jack Nicklaus with his 3rd of the year, no senior aside from Jack having ever done this.  [Jack got his three in four majors; the Champions Tour now has five majors.]

Royal Porthcrawl is one tough venue, with Langer winning at just -4, three shots ahead of Corey Pavin.  The average score on a stormy Friday was 78 on the par-71.

Wake Forest’s Billy Andrade finished tied for third with Fred Couples and Peter Lonard.

Tom Watson, 67, shot his age on Saturday and finished T-23.

Back to Langer, he now has 33 Champions Tour wins overall, 12 shy of Hale Irwin, but Langer has all the majors.

--Las Vegas businessman and gambler William (Billy) Walters was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison and fined $10 million for his involvement in an insider-trading case connected to Dean Foods.

Of course we only bring this up in this space because the case involved Phil Mickelson, who at the urging of Walters, began to trade in Dean Foods stock and made more than $931,000 in profits back in the summer of 2012.

Mickelson’s trading in the company was used as evidence against Walters, but Phil didn’t have to testify.

The government had no proof Mickelson knew where Walters got his information, and thus could not know he was violating laws against insider-trading.

Mickelson was, though, previously cited in a civil suit and agreed to surrender his profits, plus interest of more than $100,000, thus escaping far more serious consequences, which would have no doubt severely impacted future endorsement income, for starters.  He is one lucky dude.

I also believe that his caddie, Jim “Bones” McKay, left Mickelson’s bag in part because he didn’t want to be swept up in any future gambling / stock cases.  [Just my opinion, recognizing another big factor was Bones knew he had some television offers anytime he wanted them.]

NASCAR

--Kyle Busch won his first of the year at Pocono today, thus punching his ticket into the playoffs. There are only three open spots with five races left before the final 10-race Chase.

I have been obliterated in DraftKings the last two weeks.  Flattened like a squirrel who forgot to look both ways.  Freakin’ emasculated.  Don’t know how I’ll recover.  I face rehab.

--Meanwhile, the sport took a hit this week when Target announced it would not renew its partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing.  It was last season that Target left Ganassi’s open-wheel, IndyCar series team, leaving driver Scott Dixon in the process, even though Dixon is top five in the sport in all-time wins at 41 and was thus providing a ton of PR for Target.  [A.J. Foyt is first in IndyCar wins at 67, Mario Andretti second at 52.]

So now Target is leaving Kyle Larson, who at 25 (Monday) is a budding superstar and legitimate championship contender this season.

Why is Target leaving racing?  Soccer.  Target is becoming a Major League Soccer corporate sponsor, while emblazoning its distinctive logo across the jerseys of MLS franchise, Minnesota United FC.

It just seems that the demographics work better for soccer, in terms of players, fans and families.

Yup, NASCAR is in trouble.

Stuff

--Novak Djokovic announced he would not compete in the U.S. Open, as well as the rest of the 2017 season, to rest the sore right elbow that has bothered him for the past 18 months.

Djokovic hasn’t missed a grand slam event since he began competing in them in 2005.  He said all the doctors and specialists he’s consulted agree that the injury requires rest.

Djokovic had gone winless in his last five grand slams, after winning five out of six, and now it would seem it wasn’t just about a lack of passion or personal problems as to why he was struggling. The pain forced him out of his Wimbledon quarterfinal match two weeks ago.

Djokovic, No. 4 in the world rankings, will drop to 5 on Monday with the new rankings, and Stan Wawrinka will replace him, behind Federer, Nadal and Murray.  Being No. 4 ensures you do not have to face any of the top three until at least the semifinals in the Open.

Let that be a lesson to all of you, boys and girls.  Strive for fourth.  ‘We’re No. 4...we’re No. 4!”

--After I posted Wednesday, the United States that evening defeated Jamaica 2-1 for the Gold Cup title, former Stanford star Jordan Morris scoring the tiebreaking goal in the 88th minute.  Now it’s back to World Cup qualifying for Bruce Arena’s squad, Sept. 1 against Costa Rica in Harrison, N.J.  Four days later, the United States goes to Honduras.

--The new Premier League season begins the weekend of Aug. 11, and Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino was pissed at Chelsea boss Antonio Conte this week when Conte questioned the Spurs’ ambition ahead of the new campaign.

Conte said it would not be a “tragedy” if Tottenham failed to lift trophies next season as their expectations are not the same as rivals Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Man City.

Pochettino said, “I am not a manger who likes to speak about another club, another manager.  I like to show respect.  I expect the same from the people who compete with us.

“For different clubs who have spent a lot of money, the expectation and pressure is massive.  For us it is the same.  It is our own pressure and ambition.”

What Conte and Pochettino are referring to is the fact the Spurs, who have finished in the top three the last two seasons, but failed to close their first league title since 1961, haven’t spent any money in the offseason to improve themselves, whereas just about everyone else in the league has.

Pochettino said, “We have a plan.”

Hey, I’m a Spurs fan and I’m fired up Tottenham retained its key players – Harry Kane, Dele Ali and Christian Eriksen, plus Danny Rose, Eric Dier, Son, and Harry Winks.  And it remains a super young core.

Game on, Dr. W.!  [Dr. W. being a Chelsea fan...Chelsea having spent gobs of money on transfers this offseason.]

--I’ve already been looking forward to the coming Wake Forest hoops season, because despite the loss of star John Collins to the NBA, we have four quality guards returning, and a solid senior forward, Dinos Mitoglou, who would be playing a critical role and hopefully supply a double-double nearly every night.

But then Phil W. informed me today that Mitoglou was foregoing his senior year to sign a four-year, $2 million deal to play for reigning Greek champs Panathinaikos!

Noooo!!!

Just Wednesday, Mitoglou, who is from Greece, told the Wake staff, ‘don’t worry, I’m returning in a few weeks for start of school,’ Dinos having long expressed his desire to get a degree here.

But money talks.  Between Wednesday and Friday, it seems, he changed his mind.

This is devastating to the program because we literally have no other experienced front court players worth a damn and now it’s up to someone, including two freshmen, to step up bigly.

The thing is it’s too late in the year to grab one of those fifth-year seniors, or a transfer.  The only hope now is to figure out how to get in some experience from somewhere for the second semester and the bulk of ACC play.  But boy, this truly sucks for the Deacs.  I was convinced with the guards we were ready to surprise a few folks. No way now.

--LaVar Ball proved his jerkdom yet again...harassing a female official at an AAU game, after Ball attempted to pull his Big Baller Brand squad off the court until she was removed.  Ball told multiple media outlets the referee had a “vendetta” against him and “needs to stay in her lane because she ain’t ready for this.”

Just shut up, LaVar.

--“Firefighters in Ohio have rescued a woman who telephoned 911 in terror, pleading, ‘Oh, please!  I have a boa constrictor stuck to my face!’

“ ‘Ma’am, you have a what?’ the operator replied.  ‘You’re outside with a boa constrictor stuck to your face?’

“The terrified woman explained that the 5 ½-foot snake had wrapped itself around her and bitten her nose.

“She said she had ‘rescued’ the snake and another boa on Wednesday.”

So an ambulance arrives and there is a woman in her driveway in the town of Sheffield Lake with a snake around her neck, biting her nose, as the fire chief put it after, according to the local Chronicle-Telegram.

“They had to cut its head off with a knife to get it to let go of her face.”

The woman said she had 11 snakes.  Her injuries were said to be non-life-threatening.  [BBC News]

Our sympathies to the boa’s friends and family.

--Congratulations to Ryan Hopkins and Nathan DeWeese, who now share the Lake Poway, California record for the biggest catfish, 44-pounds, 8-ounce blue catfish, specifically.  44 pounds!  I saw a picture of this monster and let’s just say, if you saw this at your feet while wading in the lake, you wouldn’t have a good night’s sleep the rest of your life.

The reason why the two lads are sharing the record is because while Ryan hooked it, it took both of them to haul it to shore.

--Record producer Quincy Jones was awarded $9.4 million on Wednesday by a Los Angeles jury in a suit over royalties that pitted him against Michael Jackson’s estate.  Good for him.

The jury found that Jones had been underpaid his share of royalties for the use of music in the posthumous Jackson film “This Is It” and two Cirque du Soleil shows.

Jones said in a statement: “This lawsuit was never about Michael. It was about protecting the integrity of the work we all did in the recording studio and the legacy of what we created.”

But Jackson’s family pointed out that in the two years after Jackson’s death, when his music became enormously popular all over again, Jones made $8 million.

Jones, recall, produced the albums “Thriller” and “Bad.”  I’m a big fan of the guy and his work.  He’s a genius.  Regarding “Thriller,” Jones once said his role was crucial because he had sifted through 800 songs to find the material that ended up on the album, which included seven Top 10 hits.

“A great song,” Jones testified, “can make the worst artist in the world a star.”

Hey, the guy’s right.

--So the buzz over the coming solar eclipse, Aug. 21, is beginning to grow and it starts and ends in two of my favorite places...Newport, Oregon, and Charleston, S.C.

Newport is where I would go during the breaks in the schedule at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene.  It’s a small fishing village with a terrific little aquarium, that just so happens to have the most spectacular walking beaches I’ve ever seen...as in I used to walk five miles in one direction.  It’s where I told you I found the first wreckage to hit the U.S. coast from the Fukushima disaster...a big barge that was off limits a few days while scientists made sure there were no invasive species clinging to the hull.  It was amazing to think this massive piece of steel had broken off from a pier and floated all the way across the Pacific.  [Then the garbage started appearing on the Oregon and Washington coasts and that wasn’t as amazing...it was just disgusting.]

Anyway, I used to stay at this hotel high up on a bluff in Newport, overlooking the ocean (which Mark R. has stayed at since), and I imagine the place will be booked for that day, let alone the village totally swamped with traffic.

Only one problem...this part of the country doesn’t get a lot of sunshine and the fog can roll in when you least expect it.  That said the sky will still get very dark if it’s cloudy, and that’s cool.

The eclipse hits Newport at 10:15 a.m. local time, then swings across the mid-section, across Nebraska (where I’m guessing another favorite spot of mine, Scottsbluff, will be jammed...and they do get a lot of sunshine there) and on to Charleston at 2:50 p.m. Eastern.  The beaches at spots like Kiawah would be a spectacular place to witness it.  Hope you’ll be down there then, Dr. W.

But, remember.  The danger to your eyes is very real.  This is not some old wives tale.  If you are watching a partial eclipse, you must wear protective glasses for the entire event.

The reason why you’ll hear a ton about this in the coming days is because it is the first total solar eclipse to occur solely in the United States since the country was founded!  [There will be another opportunity, April 8, 2024, when it will start in Texas and move eastward, thru Pennsylvania and New York, on into Maine.  But as you’ll see below, we aren’t making it to 2024, so don’t start booking hotels just yet.]

A reason why this event is big for scientists, as Mark R., knows, is because it gives them a huge opportunity to observe the sun’s corona, which becomes visible when the moon covers up the sun.  It’s the corona that emits the ionized particles that one day will destroy our electrical grids and satellites and basically plunge the world into global anarchy and famine.  [Supposedly, scientists across the country are positioning their equipment so that they can create an unprecedented 90-minute video of the corona in action.]

So enjoy your favorite baseball teams’ playoff chases while you can, sports fans.  Not sure if we’ll make it through a full football season as yet.

--Lastly, from the Associated Press today: “Two girls are recovering from a lightning strike after their dog brought help to the mountainside scene in Utah.

“Authorities say the girls, ages 8 and 16, were crossing a meadow during a family camping trip when the lightning hit Friday morning.

“The Beaver County Sheriff’s Office says the dog ran back to the campsite and alerted family members. They followed the dog back to the unconscious girls.

“The Deseret News reports that a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter that happened to be in the area for a biological study flew the girls to a hospital.

“The 8-year-old suffered critical injuries, while the 16-year-old’s injuries were listed as serious.

“Authorities did not name the dog’s breed.”

Yes, there’s a reason why ‘Dog’ remains No. 1 on the All-Species List.  As Johnny Mac told me long ago, “There are no rescue cats!”

Top 3 songs for the week 7/31/65: #1 “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (The Rolling Stones)  #2 “I’m Henry VIII, I Am” (Herman’s Hermits)  #3 “What’s New Pussycat?” (Tom Jones)...and...#4 “Cara, Mia” ((Jay & The Americans)  #5 “Yes, I’m Ready” (Barbara Mason)  #6 “I Can’t Help Myself” (Four Tops)  #7 “What The World Needs Now Is Love” (Jackie DeShannon)  #8 “Save Your Heart For Me” (Gary Lewis and The Playboys...underrated...)  #9 “I Like It Like That” (The Dave Clark Five)  #10 “Seventh Son” (Johnny Rivers...as good  a Top Ten, top to bottom, as you’ll find in Rock History...)

Chicago White Sox Quiz Answers: 1) Seven to hit 40 home runs:  Albert Belle, 49 (1998); Jermaine Dye, 44 (2006); Frank Thomas, 43 (2000), Thomas, 42 (2003); Jim Thome, 42 (2006); Adam Dunn, 41 (2012); Paul Konerko, 41 (2004); Thomas, 41 (1993); Todd Frazier, 40 (2016); Konerko, 40 (2005); Thomas, 40 (1995-96).  2) 22 or more wins since 1921: Lamarr Hoyt, 24 (1983); Wilbur Wood, 24 (1972-73); Richard Dotson, 22 (1983); Jack McDowell, 22 (1993).

No way I would have gotten Dotson, let alone remembered that he was on the same team as Hoyt.  That club was 99-63 and then lost to the Orioles in the ALCS, the Orioles then beating the Phillies in the World Series.  Carlton Fisk, Ron Kittle, Greg Luzinski and Harold Baines were the hitting stars on that ChiSox squad.  Kittle, with 35 home runs and 100 RBIs, was the Rookie of the Year, but that was easily his best season in the big leagues.

Bazooka Joe says, “Ron was born in Gary, Indiana!”

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.

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