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Bar Chat

08/09/2017

Memories....

[Posted late Tuesday, due to lots of “stuff” going on Wed.]

*I was in New York City tonight for a dinner with friends (great lobster rolls at Pier i Café..sic...) on West 70th, plus buckets of beer (don’t worry, I trained it in), but this means I obviously wasn’t prepared to do my usual obit on someone like Glen Campbell, and I really need to post this now.  My other main column will occupy some time from here on once I get beyond the “stuff” I need to do tomorrow.

But for now on Glen Campbell, I’ve written a ton on him over the years and I’ve always loved the guy. If you’re my age (reminder, think Jack Ham), you literally grew up with Glen, and his first pop hits, and then appearances on every variety hour of the time, when every celeb imaginable had their own show, where the same comedians and artists would appear.

And then Glen Campbell got his own show, and he would end up with a lengthy career, resurrecting it in some ways in the end with his lengthy multi-year tour that after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, morphed into kind of a death march...buddy Jeff B. being one of the last to see him in concert (as Jeff was also literally, seriously, one of the last to see Paul Newman alive at a local restaurant....which is why I just realized I may never see Jeff again....seeing as how I want to live long enough for one more Mets World Series, though I know a Jets Super Bowl is out of the question....and I told you just the other day how North Korea works into this equation....but I digress).

I’ve long written how “Wichita Lineman” is in my top ten all time, and so a quick story I haven’t told before.

A lot of us associate certain songs with a moment in our lives. It doesn’t have to be anything particularly profound, and frankly I only have a handful like this (I associate Roger Miller’s “Dang Me” with a family trip out west when I was a mere tyke...and Jimmy Dean’s “Big Bad John” with the same extensive excursion). 

Like there is a particular Ambrosia song from spring of 1980 that I forever associate with a girl I dated a few times end of senior year at Wake Forest.  She was way beyond my league, but my fraternity had a little band that I played the piano with, and sang one song, pretty darn well I must say, “Take Me To The River” by the Talking Heads.

So we were good enough that the school invited us to play at the annual Springfest and I did my thing, but before the song started I announced to the crowd that I didn’t have a date for my fraternity formal (those things were big down South), so I said, “I’m lookin’....hope you are too.”

Oh, it was a stupid thing to say, but it worked.  At the party we had afterwards, a girl who I had never seen at our place before, but who I always had an eye for, comes up to me and says, “I’ll go with you!”

Goodness gracious.  She went with me to our formal, we had another few dates after, and hit it off.

But we were literally graduating in like two weeks!  So a lot of us went to Myrtle Beach the few days between final exams and graduation, and my group is at a bar there and I see her with another guy, which I knew would be the case (I knew him...great fellow from a different frat that I always assumed she was going out with), and it was OK....but this Ambrosia song was playing and forever after, well, you know, I think of her....[“Biggest Part of Me”....a hit that spring.]

That’s how music sometimes works, for good or bad.

As for “Wichita Lineman,” it’s such a simple deal but you all have one or two moments like this.

I was one of those who throughout school just wanted to sit in the back of the class, by the window, and day dream...and hope not to be called on, especially in college because, let’s just say I was never prepared.  [But darned if I didn’t have a good time my four years!]

So it’s fifth grade, winter of 1969, and I’m staring out this upper floor window, looking out to the horizon, and this huge snow shower is developing, and then it hits with a fury I had never seen before, but those things only last 5 or 10 minutes.  It just so happens that “Wichita Lineman” was a big hit then and somehow I have forever after associated the tune with that one little moment in time.

As for the girl at Wake, I last saw her at a reunion in 2005.  She was the same classy woman I knew 25 years earlier.  We shared a warm embrace.  Oh....memories.

I’ll have a few more bits on Glen Campbell next chat.

PGA Championship Quiz: 1) Name the only brothers to win it.  2) Name the only golfer to win two PGAs in the 1980s.  3) Name the only golfer to win two in the 1990s.  4) Who is the only winner from Asia, and the only Asian to win a major, period? Answers below.

MLB

--So I went to post Sunday before the Mets-Dodgers, and for good reason.  Needless to say, “Game of Thrones” was far more entertaining than my loser ball club.  The Mets were held to one hit, lost 8-0, and this gave the Dodgers their first sweep of a season series over the Metsies ever.  7-0, outscoring us by an astounding 57-15, with 25 home runs in those seven games, six by phenom Cody Bellinger.

--I didn’t have time Sunday to talk about Reds pitcher Homer Bailey and one of the worst contracts in the history of baseball.

In 2012, Bailey, at age 26, had a solid 13-10 record, 3.68 ERA, for the Reds, and followed it up in 2013 with an 11-12, but 3.49.  He threw 200+ innings each season and was deemed a centerpiece of the team’s rotation for years to come, so they signed him to a six-year, $105 million deal, which, while he may have been solid, seemed like an outrageous amount given the small sample size of relative success (that projected him as a 3 or 4 on any good staff, not an ace).

Well, from 2014 thru this season, he has made a whopping 40 starts, total, and he’s being paid $19 million this year, after receiving $18m in 2016, plus he is to receive $21m in 2018 and $23m in 2019, before the team can buy him out in 2020 for $5 million.

And what has he done this season?  Sunday, in a 13-4 loss to St. Louis, Bailey gave up 10 earned in 3 1/3. He is now 3-6, with an absolutely atrocious ERA of 8.86...42 earned runs in 42 2/3, giving up 67 hits.

Let this be another lesson to you all, boys and girls.  Unless you’re Clayton Kershaw, don’t overpay for starting pitching and get the most out of them in the “control years.”  Pitch ‘em until their arms fall off, by god!  They’ll still make some decent dollars they can retire on in the arbitration years if they are good.

--Mike Trout collected his 1,000th hit on Monday and then two innings later homered on his 26th birthday.  But the Angels lost 6-2 to Baltimore.  Trout has 23 homers and 52 RBIs, while batting .346 in just 68 games. [Baltimore got back to .500, 56-56, for the first time since June 29.]

--24-year-old Bryce Harper hit the 150th home run of his career on Monday in a 3-2 Washington win over Miami.  Harper is slammed 29 home runs and driven in 82, with a .327 average.

I’d say Harper and Trout are living up to their star-billing this season. Too bad Trout had that thumb injury that held him out a month.

--The Baseball World was  saddened to learn the passing of two All-Stars, Phillies catcher Darren Daulton, 55, and outfielder/DH and manager, Don Baylor, 68; both dying of cancer.

Daulton lost his battle with brain cancer after roughly four years.  A 3-time All-Star, he played virtually his entire 14-year career with the Phillies, with back-to-back 100-RBI seasons in 1992 and ’93, leading the N.L. with 109 in ’92.  Lifetime he hit .245 with 137 homers and 588 driven in.

Daulton first came up briefly in 1983, and then for good in 1985, but he didn’t become a regular until 1989.  In 1993 he was a key contributor to the Phillies’ World Series run with 24 homers and 105 RBI, though they lost in six to the Toronto Blue Jays; Joe Carter with the dramatic bottom of the ninth, game-winning walk-off home run against Mitch Williams in the decider.

Daulton was much-loved in the clubhouse and in Philadelphia overall for being a battler.  The Phillies’ chairman emeritus, Bill Giles, said in a statement: “He battled through five knee operations to become an All-Star.  I really enjoyed watching him for 14 years in uniform. Darren was a super human being. His teammates loved him, I loved him like he was one of my own.  In fact, he called me ‘Uncle Bill.’”

Phillies chairman David Montgomery: “All of us at the Phillies are saddened to hear of Darren’s passing.  From the day that we drafted him until today, he constantly earned our respect and admiration as both a player and person.

“Darren was the face of our franchise in the early 1990s.  Jim Fregosi asked so much of him as catcher, clean-up hitter and team leader. He responded to all three challenges.  One of my toughest decisions as team president was to approve his trade to the Marlins in July of 1997.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Amanda, his parents, his brother and his four children. Dutch was truly ‘one of a kind’ and we will dearly miss him.”

At least Daulton won a World Series ring with those ’97 Marlins, after which he retired.

Tyler Kepner / New York Times

“On the third day of the 1993 season, Dave Hollins went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts. Hollins, the third baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, would play about a thousand games in the major leagues, and that was his worst. He brooded in the Astrodome clubhouse after the game, even though the Phillies had swept the series.

“Hollins kept to himself on the flight home. Darren Daulton, the veteran catcher and team leader, said nothing to him. Before the next game, though, Daulton was waiting for Hollins in the clubhouse.

“ ‘He was staring me down,’ Hollins said on Monday, a day after Daulton died of brain cancer at age 55.  ‘He straightened me out, the right way. He had that way about him. I learned a lesson because I had the right guy to teach it to me.’”

Six months later, the Phillies, a wild bunch led by Daulton, got to the World Series; a team that longtime Phillies broadcaster, Harry Kalas, described as a “wacky, wonderful bunch of throwbacks.”  [John Kruk, Lenny Dykstra, Mitch Williams...]

Don Baylor had a 19-year career, six seasons each with California and Baltimore, three with the Yankees, and was A.L. MVP in 1979 with California when he led the league with 139 RBIs. Baylor amassed 2,135 hits in his career, with 338 home runs and 1,276 RBIs.

As a late-season pickup of the Minnesota Twins in 1987, he won a World Series title with them, going 5-for-13 (.385) in the Series against St. Louis.

Baylor also is No. 2 all-time among players whose entire careers were 1900 and beyond for being hit by a pitch 267 times, behind only Craig Biggio’s 285.

Baylor was the first manager for the Colorado Rockies and was at the helm from 1993-98 (440-469), where he was Manager of the Year in 1997.  He then managed the Cubs for 2 ½ seasons, 2000-2002, going 187-220.

Bil Shaikin / Los Angeles Times

“The Angels never really became a major league team until Don Baylor showed up.

“The Dodgers landed in Southern California in 1958.  From then until the time Baylor signed with the Angels after the 1976 season, the Dodgers had played in the World Series five times.  In Baylor’s first two years with the Angels, the Dodgers got to the World Series both times.

“ ‘We felt the burden of not being the Dodgers,’ Baylor wrote in his book ‘Nothing But The Truth: A Baseball Life.’

“ ‘Why the Angels wanted to be Dodger clones was beyond me, but the emulation never ended. With all that Dodger Blue bleeding around me, I instantly began to hate the mere mention of that team.’

“Gene Autry, the Angels’ founding owner and a Hall of Fame showman in his own right, had gotten tired of hearing about the Dodgers too. In the infancy of free agency, Autry struck.

“In 1976, Baylor had made $34,000 for the Oakland Athletics. Autry gave him a $580,000 check just to sign with the Angels, the bonus in a six-year, $1.6 million contract.  Autry also signed Bobby Grich and Joe Rudi that winter, traded for Rod Carew in 1979 and Fred Lynn in 1981, and signed Reggie Jackson in 1982.

“By then, the Angels had won.  In 1978, Baylor’s second season in Anaheim, they set a franchise record by winning 87 games.  In 1979, the ‘Yes We Can’ Angels won 88 – and the American League West, for the first playoff appearance in club history.

“The Angels drew 2.5 million to Anaheim Stadium.  Baylor was voted the A.L. most valuable player.

“He drove in 139 runs, a club record that still stands.  Mike Trout’s best is 111.

“The Angels won the AL West again in 1982, this time with 93 victories.”

But the relationship between Baylor and GM Buzzie Bavasi soured and after the 1982 season, the Angels let him go, and Baylor signed with the Yankees. He loved Gene Autry and wanted  to stay.

In 2014, the Angels brought Baylor back as part of a celebration with Vladimir Guerrero, then the only MVPs in club history. Guerrero threw out the ceremonial first pitch “and Baylor (went) to catch it. Guerrero’s throw was low and away, and Baylor’s right ankle gave way,” as Bill Shaikin described it.

“He caught the ball, but he could not get up. The athletic trainers rushed to help, and eventually he walked off the field – trying first on his own, then with the assistance of the trainers.  No one knew how severe the injury was; the Angels sent him to the hospital to find out.

“His legs had been weakened over a decade of battle with the cancer that eventually took his life Monday.  But, with the dignity and strength befitting a player who had been hit by more pitches than all but one in the modern era, Baylor will be remembered for walking off the field with a broken leg.”

RIP, Don Baylor.

--Finally, a frat bro from Wake, Myles T., commented the other day when I noted the 1927 Yankees and he said that to him, one of the more remarkable baseball stats was Lou Gehrig’s 173 RBIs that year, considering that as the cleanup hitter, Babe Ruth, batting third in front of him, cleared the bases 60 times, so just how many opportunities did Gehrig have and the percentage of times he was successful must have been off the charts.

So it is interesting to just play around with the numbers.  Leadoff hitter Earle Combs had 231 hits and 62 walks, for starters, and No. 2 batter Mark Koenig had 150 and 25, playing in 125 games, with Ray Morehart playing the rest of the time.

And Ruth had 192 hits and 137 walks.  So you add all those up, and subtract Ruth’s 60 homers, and Combs’ 6, and Koenig’s 3, add in hit-by-pitches, subtract caught stealings.  We don’t know how many times they grounded into double plays, just looking at Baseball Reference, but you get the overall picture.

You’d also subtract 47 of Gehrig’s RBIs because that’s how many times he homered.  So give this to your kids for a late-summer math project to keep their minds sharp.

One other important thing to keep in mind. The five Yankees starters all batted above .200 and had a collective 87 hits and 23 walks...33 runs scored. Gehrig would have come up with some of them on.

Bottom line, it was a helluva year for him

[For the record, starter Waite Hoyt hit .222; Herb Pennock, .217; Urban Shocker, .241; Dutch Ruether, .263; George Pipgras, .239.  That’s strong, sports fans.]

Of course among the other great stats about 1927 that many of you learned in your youth was the fact Ruth’s 60 homers were more than any other American League team’s total!

The top five in home runs in the A.L. that year were....

Ruth 60
Gehrig 47
Tony Lazzeri (NYY) 18
Cy Williams (SLB) 17
Al Simmons (PHA) 15

NFL

--It’s pretty clear the CTE discussion is going to be more prevalent this season than the last two years as you watch your games this fall.  It’s going to be interesting to see how the more high-profile broadcasters, such as Jim Nantz and new partner Tony Romo, and Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, for example, handle it.  Aikman sure had a history of concussions, and what will Romo say after looking at a vicious hit that knocks a player out of the game?

Monday morning on his “Boomer and Carton” radio show, former quarterback Boomer Esiason was rather candid in saying he may have CTE because he played football.  “Because I think all football players probably have it, the way I see it.  But we don’t know all the answers.

“If I died tomorrow and my brain was taken and researched, I will probably be found to have CTE, which most likely I have.”

--Us Jets fans are preparing for one of the most godawful seasons in the history of the NFL, at the very best 3-13, but potentially 1-15.

The odds of us going 1-15 just shot up as we lost our only experienced wide receiver, Quincy Enunwa, who had a solid breakout season last year with 58 catches for 857 yards and four TDs, to a season-ending neck injury...a bulging disc.

The fan base had been pissed before this for the team not re-signing receiver Eric Decker to give them some experience, but now the cupboard is bare and our quarterbacks either blow or are untested.

But it’s all about the 2018 NFL draft and the Sam Darnold Sweepstakes (or Josh Allen, or Lamar Jackson, or Josh Rosen, or Mason Rudolph, or Baker Mayfield...the other potential first-round QBs next spring in this loaded field for signal-callers).

--Christopher L. Gasper had a piece in the Boston Globe the other day on the Patriots’ dominance of the AFC East. “Entering his 18th season, (Tom) Brady’s regular-season record against the AFC East is 71-19 with an NFL quarterback record 14 division titles.”

And this season promises more of the same, with the Dolphins having their quarterback issues with the Ryan Tannehill injury, the Bills being their usual pathetic self, and the Jets.

Gasper:

“There is not a word in the English language to convey how deeply (Bill) Belichick detests the Jets. There also might not be a word that can properly convey how inept the Jets could be this season.  [Gasper wrote this before the Enunwa injury.]  The J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets, are going full tank, tank, tank this year in hopes of putting themselves in position to draft a franchise quarterback like USC’s Sam Darnold....

“Rookie safety Jamal Adams sparked controversy recently when he said that the football field was ‘the perfect place to die.’ That’s fitting because this Jets’ season looks dead on arrival.”

Ya got that right, Mr. Gasper.

World Track and Field Championships

--South Africa’s Wayne Van Niekerk...at 25, the first man in history to break 10 seconds in the 100, 20 seconds in the 200, and 44 seconds in the 400....won the gold in the men's 400 Tuesday with a 43.98.

Monday, America's Jenny Simpson took silver in the 1500 with a big stretch run.  You go girl!

Golf Balls

--The PGA of America formally announced what has been long rumored, that the Tour is moving the PGA Championship to May, beginning in 2019 when it will be held at Bethpage Black on Long Island, as part of a long-term plan that involves a major shift in the golf calendar, including moving The Players Championship back to its old March date.

The catalyst is golf’s return to the Olympics, plus the PGA Tour’s desire to wrap up the FedEx Cup playoffs before the NFL begins.

At first blush I like it...especially the idea of having the FedEx Cup wrapped up around Labor Day.

The Boston playoff event is likely to go, which I guess means three rather than four, and the Greenbrier Classic, now held in July, may move to the fall.

The PGA Championship has been in August since 1969 with two exceptions.  1971, when it was held at PGA National in South Florida, and last year when it was held the final weekend in July at Baltusrol to accommodate the Olympics in Rio.

Originally, the thought was to begin the change in 2020, when the PGA is scheduled for Harding Park in San Francisco in an Olympic year. 

By moving to May, more hot weather courses in August could be accommodated in May, such as Texas and parts of the Southeast.  Of course you could still have tornadoes (wrote Dark Cloud).

The only problem with The Players’ in March, of course, is that you are in the middle of March Madness, but NBC has it, not CBS.  It’s just that the audience gets split up.  Normally it has been held two weeks before The Masters...a tradition unlike any other...on CBS...so you would be deciding who goes to the Final Four the weekend of The Players.

I’d love the FedEx Cup Playoffs to end in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend. I like how the Boston tournament currently ends that Monday, which is a nice thing to watch that day, and you’d have a big college football game that night (the NFL not starting until the weekend after).

--As for the PGA Championship this weekend at Quail Hollow, I’ll go with Rory, in sudden-death against Jordan Spieth...or so us golf fans dream.  [They would be tied after a three-hole, aggregate score playoff format, after which it reverts to sudden-death.]

Premier League

The 2017-18 season gets underway this weekend, the first of 38 matches into next May.  Once again your editor is all in on Tottenham, which made very few changes in the offseason, compared with the others in the Big Six.

So a reminder on how we finished last season.

1. Chelsea 93 points
2. Tottenham 86
3. Manchester City 78
4. Liverpool 76
5. Arsenal 75
6. Manchester United 69

7. Everton 61
8. Southampton 46
9. Bournemouth 46

Hull City, Middlesbrough and Sunderland were relegated.

Brighton Albion, Newcastle, and Huddersfield move up to play with the big boys.

Following are the odds to win the title, as established by Sky Bet....

Man City 7/4
Chelsea 7/2
Man U 7/2
Tottenham 8/1
Arsenal 10/1
Liverpool 10/1
Everon 80/1
Leicester 250/1

[Ladbrokes has very similar odds for the first 7, with Leicester and Southampton at 200/1.]

At the bottom you have Brighton and Burnley at 1500/1, and Huddersfield at 2000/1.

Stuff

--Norman Chad, aka “Couch Slouch” / Washington Post

“The more you bowl, the less you brood.

“Every moment you are at the lanes is a moment you are not complaining about your job, not worrying about North Korea, not looking down at your smartphone in search of funny cat videos.

“Andrew Jackson always reasoned that the Civil War would’ve been avoided had there been bowling centers both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line. He knew that a nation that cares about dead wood could not be a nation divided.

“But the bowling industry is now beleaguered.  Somehow, the most family-friendly activity out there is no longer favored by families.

“America has lost its way.

“Over the past 30 years, one-third of bowling centers have shuttered. AMF Bowling, the world’s largest bowling center operator, has filed bankruptcy twice since 2001....

“To attract a younger-adult crowd, (bowling alleys) have turned facilities into mini-nightclubs, trying to get hip with loud music, laser tag and trendy bar food.

“With all that, the price of bowling has gone up; as a rule, a pack of cigarettes should not be cheaper than a game of bowling.”

Couch Slouch’s solution?  Since we hate the drudgery of going to the laundromat....

“Why not introduce bowling center-laundromats?

“There’s enough space in bowling alleys for lanes and laundry, plus air hockey!....

“Let’s Rinse ‘n Bowl! The beer frame could be the beer-and-bleach frame!”

--Researchers in California recently documented a rare case of a mountain lion from the Santa Monica Mountains successfully crossing U.S. Highway 101 and moving into a range less hemmed in by Southern California sprawl, according to the National Park Service on Monday.

The subadult male, dubbed P-55, crossed the 101 early July 30 about 45 miles west of downtown Los Angeles.  P-55 also had to cross State Routes 23 and 118 to reach the Santa Susana Mountains, according to a park service statement.

This would be only the fourth successful known crossing of the 101 in the 15 years researchers have been studying cougars in the Santa Monica Mountains.

There have been 17 documented deaths on roadways since 2002.

Mountain lions need vast ranges and they have been penned in in the Santa Monicas, which is leading to early deaths.  The average male is living to only a little more than 2 years in the range, according to the park service.  Males are competing for the few females.  Think MS-13.  Or something like that.

By the way...P-55 should be considered armed and dangerous.  Do not offer him a ride, nor should you let him into your home if he rings the doorbell, pretending he’s with the water company.

--Finally, Haruo Nakajima died.  “The man who first brought the beloved and feared monster Godzilla to life.”

I thought Godzilla was real?  A creation from the nuclear bomb testing of the 1950s in the South Pacific.  He was fake?  Geezuz, next thing you know someone will tell me the destruction of Tokyo wasn’t real, it was just an erector set, and that much of the movie was filmed in a large bath tub.....

.....I was just informed the producers used a tub and an erector set.

Well, now that my childhood belief system has been shattered, it seems that Nakajima, according to his obituary, was a stunt actor in samurai and war films including “Seven Samurai” by Akira Kurosawa.

He wore a Godzilla suit and then went on to play the character in sequels, as well as other beasts “including Rodan, Mothra and King Kong.”  [BBC News]

You mean to tell me Mothra wasn’t real? ......geezuz....What about Santa Claus? ......

Top 3 songs for the week 8/10/68: #1 “Hello, I Love You” (The Doors)  #2 “Classical Gas” (Mason Williams)  #3 “Stoned Soul Picnic) (The 5th Dimension)...and...#4 “Grazing In The Glass” (Hugh Masekela)  #5 “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (Donovan) #6 “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (The Rolling Stones)  #7 “Lady Willpower” (Gary Puckett and The Union Gap)  #8 “The Horse” (Cliff Nobles & Co. ...the bane of high school marching bands...)  #9 “Turn Around, Look At Me” (The Vogues)  #10 “Sunshine Of Your Love” (The Cream)

PGA Championship Quiz Answers: 1) Lionel Hebert won the PGA in 1957.  Brother Jay won in 1960.  Lionel won five PGA Tour events overall, Jay won seven.  2) Larry Nelson was the only one to win two in the 1980s; 1981 and ‘87.  3) Nick Price was the only one to win two in the 1990s; 1992 and ’94.  4) Yang Yong-eun defeated Tiger Woods in the 2009 PGA at Hazeltine  and is still the only Asian to win a major.

Next Bar Chat, Monday.

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