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Bar Chat

08/28/2017

DJ Is Back...and "Money" Got His Money

[Posted 8:00 PM ET, Sunday...prayers for Houston and the rest of Texas....]

Pittsburgh Pirates Quiz (1882-1890, Pittsburgh Alleghenys; 1891-2017, Pittsburgh Pirates):  1) Who is the single-season RBI leader with just 131, since 1882?  2) Name the players to hit over 40 home runs in a season. 3) Name the two pitchers to hold the record for wins in a season, post-1930, at just 22.  4) Who had more hits in a Pirates uniform, Paul or Lloyd Waner? Answers below.

Golf Balls

I was going to lead with the big fight, but for sports fans, what a phenomenal finish to today’s golf tournament.  This is how I was writing it.

After 36 holes of the Northern Trust Open at Glen Oaks Club, Old Westbury, N.Y., the first of the four playoff events for the FedEx Cup, you had quite a leaderboard.

Dustin Johnson -6
Rickie Fowler -6
Jordan Spieth -6
Jhonattan Vegas -6
Matt Kuchar -5
Bubba Watson -5

That’s about as good as we’ve had all year.

But after 54, Spieth was threatening to run away with it:

Spieth -12
DJ -9
Casey -7
Reed -7
Rahm -7
Kuchar -7

So the final round started out with Spieth going -2 in his first five holes, and it was...

Spieth -14
Johnson -9

But DJ fought back, Spieth played so-so, and after 15....

Spieth -13
DJ -13

And it was that way heading to the par-4 18th.  Johnson hit his drive way right, Spieth’s was in the fairway.  DJ could only chip out.  Spieth hit a poor second off the green.  DJ’s third wasn’t much better, leaving him a long par putt. 

Spieth lagged up to just 2 feet or so, and then out of nowhere, DJ sank his bomb for par.

So we were on to a playoff, back to No. 18, and while Spieth hit his drive solidly in the fairway, Johnson blasted the longest drive of the entire week, leaving himself just a short wedge.  Spieth’s third left him a long putt, and then DJ stepped up and stuffed it.  Spieth couldn’t produce any more magic and it was Dustin’s 16th PGA Tour victory, 4th this year, and a real sign that DJ is back.  Back to No. 1 in the world form after his mishap at Augusta, and just in time.  You know he is thinking of that $10 million bonus that goes to the FedEx Cup winner.  [Paulina sure is.]

The way it works is you want to be in the top five in points heading into the final Tour Championship, then you control your own destiny. 

This is exactly the finish golf needed heading into the final three events, the field now 100 as we move on to Boston, where it will be reduced to 70.

--Phil Mickelson is angling to be a captain’s pick for the Presidents Cup.  Lefty has been in every one thus far, 11 in all, with the U.S. at 9-1-1 in this competition.  [He’s also been on 11 straight Ryder Cup teams.]

But entering this weekend, Mickelson was 18th in the point standings and captain Steve Stricker told him, “Show me something.”  Stricker also said, “I will probably leave it up to Phil at some point telling me if he thinks he can be ready to play, if he’s capable of helping out and then I’ll ask the rest of the team.”

Mickelson had the first two playoff events to earn his way via the top ten automatic, or rely on gaining one of Stricker’s two picks.  He made the cut this weekend, but finished just T-54.  Hardly impressive.

--In the Champions Tour’s Boeing Classic, a big event for them approaching the Schwab Cup playoffs, it came down to Jerry Kelly and an old friend (loosely defined), Jerry Smith, with Kelly pulling it out by one for his first senior win.

[Smith is the fellow I walked 36 with long ago when I was with Bill Haas as he tried to qualify for the Tour at Q-School.  I really got to know Smith’s lovely wife in those 10 hours or so.  There were zero crowds and we had many a chat, ditto me and Bill’s mom, but that was over all six rounds. A fun experience.]

--Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler went out to Shinnecock Hills, site of the 2018 U.S. Open, while on Long Island for the Northern Trust event and both shot 65s.  “It was soft and slow,” said Thomas.  “I’m almost like upset that I did that because I know it’s going to be so impossible next year.”

Yes, it will.  This is one of the toughest tracks in the world once the USGA toughens it up. 

--After toying with going straight to the business world after an All-American college career at Stanford, Maverick McNealy is turning pro after all, making his debut at the PGA Tour’s Safeway Open, Oct. 5-8.

McNealy, the son of entrepreneur Scott McNealy, of Sun Microsystems fame, said he was afraid he’d look back in 30 years and regret not having given golf a shot.

He also recognized it has to be now, and he can’t just give it a go, say, when he’s 34.

McNealy tied Tiger Woods and Patrick Rogers for the most school wins at 11.  He was College Player of the Year as a sophomore.  Maverick admitted that watching Pac-12 rival Jon Rahm of Arizona State and his success on the Tour, McNealy having played against him for three years, it made his decision easier.

--Billy Payne announced he was retiring from his role as chairman of the Masters Tournament...a tradition unlike any other...on CBS.  Payne, 69, did a lot to extend golf’s reach around the world, and helped create the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship, while making important changes to Augusta National.

One of the many things Payne deserves credit for, aside from the 2012 admission of the first female members, Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore (IBM’s Ginni Rometty became the third in 2014), is what he did from a media standpoint, the Masters having by far the best tournament web site, for one.

And it was Payne who persuaded Arnold Palmer to become an honorary starter in 2007, adding Jack Nicklaus in 2010 and Gary Player in 2012.

He also restored the tradition of PGA Tour winners from the preceding 12 months qualifying for the field, while adding a new practice facility and Tournament Headquarters and Press Building this year.

Payne will be succeeded by Fred Ridley, 65, a former USGA president who is the first chairman to have played in the Masters himself, three times, while he also won the 1975 U.S. Amateur and played on a U.S. Walker Cup squad.

On Ridley’s short-term radar is the expansion of the 13th hole, Augusta National having purchased land just behind the 12th green and 13th tee.

Mayweather-McGregor

Yes, I was in bed long before this fight started, but for the archives, Mayweather won, as virtually the entire world knew he would, a tenth round TKO, though some will argue McGregor did well by lasting as long as he did, to which I’d say, whatever floats your boat.

George Willis / New York Post

“It took a minute, but eventually Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather proved the greatest boxer of all-time wasn’t about to lose to someone in his first professional boxing match, even if his name is Conor McGregor.

“After all the hype, all the talk and all the profanity, it simply was unrealistic to believe McGregor, the UFC champion, could beat Mayweather in their pay-per-view showdown Saturday night. So no one should have been surprised when Mayweather methodically broke down McGregor before scoring a 10th-round technical knockout.

“Referee Robert Byrd stopped the fight at 1:05 of the 10th as McGregor was absorbing repeated blows from Mayweather, who was starting to connect with everything he threw.

“So what did we learn from this exercise?  Well, it was entertaining from the very beginning, when the fight was announced in June until Byrd stepped in to stop it.

“The best boxer on the planet and the UFC superstar brought a lot of attention to their respective sports, and those who spent $100 on pay-per-view and thousands to witness the bout in person should not be ashamed to say they did so.” Whatever.

Mayweather said after, as he retired again, having improved to 50-0, “He’s a tough competitor.  I think we gave the fans what they wanted to see.  I came straight ahead to give the fans a show. He was better than I thought. He came from awkward angles.  But I was the better man tonight.”

McGregor (21-3 in MMA) was a gracious loser.

“He’s composed,” McGregor said of Mayweather, who he had vowed to stop within four rounds.  “He’s not that fast and not that powerful. But boy, is he composed. What can I say? I had a bit of fun.”

The fight did start slowly, Mayweather saying after that he knew MMA fights only last 25 minutes, max, and that McGregor would wear down after, and it’s reflected in the judges’ scorecards.

Judge Dave Moretti: 87-83, Mayweather...McGregor winning first three rounds.

Judge Burt Clements: 89-82, Mayweather...McGregor winning just the first.

Judge Guido Cavalleri: 89-81, Mayweather...McGregor winning just the first.

In the punch stats, Mayweather landed 170 to McGregor’s 111.

The T-Mobile Arena crowd was just 14,623, 6,000 shy of the capacity crowd for the Canelo Alvarez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. bout in May – but the promoters did get away with charging $10,000 for floor seats, and nothing in the lower bowl for less than $3,500. 

Despite it not being capacity, the live-gate was a record at just shy of $80 million.  I haven’t seen a pay-per-view tally yet.

As for Las Vegas’ bookies, they were no doubt sweating for a while, but they won big after Mayweather put it away.

Had McGregor prevailed, it would have been a disaster, as at Westgate, 87 percent of the tickets were in favor of McGregor, but 85 percent of the money was in favor of Mayweather.

Caesars Palace, for one, reported a $2 million win on the fight, as the bout drew record-breaking betting at the sportsbooks.

There were six reported $1 million bets, all on Mayweather, vs. only one million-dollar bet at Nevada’s books on Super Bowl LI.  [David Purdum / ESPN.com]

And at least we know the fight wasn’t fixed, some wondering beforehand if a McGregor upset was cooked into the result in order to generate a huge money-making rematch.

MLB

--The Yankees lost to the Tigers in Detroit on Thursday, 10-6, but the story was the series of bench-clearing incidents that would result in suspensions for key players, in the Yankees’ case, as they are in the playoff hunt, not the Tigers.

So it was stupid, and the biggest culprit was catcher Gary Sanchez.

The trouble started after Sanchez hit a home run early in the game (his 10th in 16 games) and then Tigers starting pitcher Michael Fullmer hit him with a pitch in the top of the fifth inning.  No warnings were issued, which became a point of contention for the Yankees.

The Yanks’ Tommy Kahnle threw his first pitch to Miguel Cabrera in the bottom of the sixth behind the slugger’s back.  Kahnle and manager Joe Girardi were ejected, and then after Aroldis Chapman, who had replaced Kahnle, completed his warmups, Cabrera and Romine had words and the first of three bench-clearing brawls/incidents commenced.

But it was during the Romine-Cabrera tussle, with Cabrera wrestled to the ground, that Sanchez threw two sucker punches at the future Hall of Famer.  And Sanchez threw a sucker punch at Nick Castellanos.

Delin Betances then hit Tigers catcher James McCann in the head with a 98 mph fastball in the seventh inning, which led to the benches clearing anew, Betances ejected.

Tigers reliever Alex Wilson hit Todd Frazier in the eighth, and the teams met at home plate a third time.

Cabrera said of Sanchez, “He can do whatever he wants to.  But if he wants to punch me, let it be face-to-face.”

So Major League Baseball announced the next day that Sanchez had received a four-game suspension and Romine two games for fighting, while Cabrera was suspended seven games for inciting the first bench-clearing incident and Tigers reliever Alex Wilson got four.  Detroit manager Brad Ausmus got one game.

All but perhaps Ausmus were set to appeal.

As for Sanchez, he now forever will have a reputation as a cheap shot artist and opponents will remember this, especially Detroit.  Luckily for New York, these two don’t face each other again this season.

Friday, the Yanks clearly hadn’t recovered from all the noise the day before, as they sleep-walked through a 2-1 loss in 11 innings to the Mariners at the Stadium, Yonder Alonso with a pinch-homer off Aroldis Chapman (now 4-3, 4.23 ERA), thus wasting 7 strong innings from CC Sabathia.

But they rebounded Saturday, defeating the Mariners 6-3 behind Sonny Gray’s 7 strong, one earned run, 9 strikeouts, and Jacoby Ellsbury’s home run and 4 RBIs.

And they won again on Sunday, 10-1, as Masahiro Tanaka continued his up and down season, now 10-10, 4.69, after 7 innings, 1 run, 10 strikeouts.

With Boston losing 2-1 to the Orioles, their fourth straight, the Yankees have suddenly sliced the lead to just 2 ½.

Boston 73-57
Yankees 70-59

--The Dodgers are taking aim at the best record in baseball history, post-dead ball era.

1. Indians...1954...111-43, .721 winning percentage
2. Mariners...2001...116-46, .716
3. Yankees...1927...110-44, .714

Since June 7, L.A. was 56-11, thru Friday, the best 67-game stretch since the 1912 New York Giants went 56-11 from April 17-July 10. The Dodgers were 52-14 at home, 91-36 overall, .717.

But they lost Saturday to Zach Davies (15-7, 3.91) and the Brewers, 3-0, to fall to 91-37, .711, and on Sunday, what’s this?  Another loss?  Say it ain’t so...3-2, dropping L.A. to 91-38, .705.

The problem is L.A. will clinch the N.L. West shortly, and then how do you keep up the motivation the rest of the way. At that point, the most important thing is setting up the rotation for the playoffs, especially with Clayton Kershaw returning soon.

Speaking of Kershaw, he pitched in a rehab game on Saturday in Oklahoma City, the OKC Dodgers selling out all 13,106 tickets, the largest crowd in the ballpark’s 19 seasons and Kershaw didn’t disappoint, going five innings, giving up just one run on two hits with 8 strikeouts.

“This was fun,” Kershaw told reporters after the first triple-A appearance of his 11-year pro career.  “I hope I don’t ever do it again, but it was fun.”

He’s ready to come back soon.

--What a startling couple of days for the pathetic Mets.  After telling you last time about their latest pitching woes, and how of seven starting pitchers in spring training, only Jacob deGrom has avoided a stint on the disabled list, in back-to-back contests the Mets lost their two best hitters, Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes, to season-ending injuries as well.

This is a true horror show.

Cespedes was helped off the field after suffering his injury running the bases in the first inning of the Mets’ 4-2 win over the Nationals in Washington on Friday, while Thursday, Conforto suffered a tear to the posterior capsule in his left shoulder (which was also dislocated) while swinging and missing at a pitch!  He crumpled to the ground, writhing in pain, and this budding star’s future is suddenly in great doubt.  This is serious stuff, major surgery, from which few pitchers, for one, have ever recovered, and no one seems to recall the recovery time for a position player.  Plus in the case of Conforto (27 HR, 68 RBI, .279), if you’ve done it once, you could do it again*.  Absolutely sickening for us Mets fans, having penciled him into our starting lineup for the next decade.

*Conforto said after that he had dislocated his shoulder in both high school and college, but no other issues.

I mean he’s out until probably mid-season next year and from here on we’ll be waiting for him to grab his shoulder after each swing.

Anyway, at least deGrom (14-7, 3.39) has had an outstanding season for a really lousy ball club, now 57-72 after Sunday’s first game win in a day-night doubleheader vs. the Nats.

--Friday, Giancarlo Stanton slammed two more home runs, giving him 49 on the season, as the Marlins defeated the Padres at home, 8-6.

That gave Stanton 16 homers in August, 23 since the All-Star break.  He also had five RBIs to give him 105 on the season.

Make that 17 in August, 24 since the break, as Stanton hit No. 50 on Sunday in a 6-2 Marlins win over San Diego, Stanton now with 108 ribbies as Miami moves to 66-63, just 4 ½ from a wild card slot, after a 14-27 start to the season.

--Philadelphia rookie Rhys Hoskins started off his career with four games at home against the Mets, so that meant I was watching.  The 24-year-old left-fielder had his family in the stands, as well as his girlfriend, and the Mets kept showing them each time he came to the plate, waiting for him to get that first major league hit.

Well, he was 0 for 10 in his first three games, finally got a hit in his fourth, so 1 for 13, all against the Mets.  All the guy then did after was hit nine home runs in his next 43 at bats, through Friday.

The nine homers in 56 ABs overall is the quickest a player had ever reached nine, according to MLB.com.

So on Saturday, as the Phils were obliterated 17-2 by the Cubs, Hoskins hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first, accounting for Philadelphia’s scoring...10 home runs in his first 57 at-bats.

Sunday, in a Philadelphia 6-3 win, Hoskins did it again!  11 in 18 games.

As Ronald Reagan would have said, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’

Yes, Mark R., get fired up for 2018, and possibly passing the Mets this season! 

--I have to note that on Thursday, the Indians whipped the Red Sox 13-8, which was noteworthy because Chris Sale gave up 6 earned in 3 innings to fall to 14-6, 2.88.

--And after I posted Wednesday, we had one of the few recent Dodgers losses, 1-0 to the Pirates at PNC Park, notable because the Dodgers’ Rich Hill threw a no-hitter for nine innings, only to lose in the bottom of the tenth on a Josh Harrison home run.  Hill thus enters baseball lore in not qualifying for a no-no, ala Harvey Haddix, who threw 12 perfect innings for Pittsburgh in 1959, only to lose to Milwaukee.

Never before had a no-hit bid ended on a walk-off homer*, according to Elias Sports Bureau.  It was the 19th time a pitcher took a no-hitter into extra innings.  Hill had a perfect game until an error in the ninth by third baseman Logan Forsythe.

*In Haddix’ game, Joe Adcock of the Braves cleared the outfield fence in the 13th, but it was ultimately scored a double, because Hank Aaron, representing the second run in a scoreless game, didn’t see the ball clear the fence and crossed the diamond back to the dugout, while Adcock ended up passing him on the base paths.

--Finally, the other day I mentioned former Wake Forest pitcher Parker Dunshee and his spectacular start to his professional career, not yielding a run.

Well, Friday, Baseball America cited him after he threw another four scoreless on Thursday, making it 35 1/3 innings, no runs, 42 strikeouts, 6 walks.  The scouting report from BA was: “Dunshee’s not overpowering but commands his fastball and slider well.”

Go Deacs!

College Football

--We had our first games of the new seaon on Saturday.

No. 19 South Florida fell behind San Jose State 16-0, but roared back for a 42-22 victory.

Colorado State ravaged the visiting Beavers of Oregon State, 58-27.

In a game I watched some of on an extremely slow Saturday night for sports, Colgate defeated Cal Poly 20-14 in San Luis Obispo.  I can’t believe the stated crowd was around 8,400.  It looked like 16 or 17. But great first win, Pete M.!

The University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors flew clear out to Amherst, Mass. to face UMass and thank god for them they emerged with a 38-35 win.  I can’t say I understand this scheduling.  I mean they have a home game next Saturday.  Talk about jet lag.

Actually, the Rainbow Warriors host Western Carolina, an equally difficult trip for the Catamounts, but in their case they are out to par-tay!  Have fun, boys.

One other, what would have been a big FCS (Div. I-AA) early season matchup, Richmond at Sam Houston State, was postponed by Harvey.

--Dabo Swinney’s first contract to become Clemson’s head coach was back in 2008, $800,000 that first year.

“I told (then-athletic director) Terry Don Phillips just to leave me on the contract I’m on; I’m making more money than I’ve ever made.  I’m good,” said Swinney.

“I had a longevity clause – if you’re still here in five years, we’re going to give you $100,000 or something like that – and I said, ‘Beautiful.  Let’s go!”

Well, he’s had an 89-28 record since then, including 70-13 the past six seasons, plus last January’s national title.

So no surprise Clemson rewarded Swinney with a new eight-year deal worth $54 million, or an average of $6.75 million per year through 2024.  [He made $5.33 million last year.]

Swinney is thus the third-highest paid college coach, trailing only Alabama’s Nick Saban and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh; $8.1 million and $7.6 million, respectively.

Quite a statement by Clemson.

NFL

--I watched a lot of the Jets-Giants annual exhibition game Saturday night, with J-Lo having jetted off to Vegas with A-Rod for the big fight.  She knew I had no interest in it.  Really.

So I hadn’t watched a lick of exhibition football this year and for good reason.  But I wanted to see just how much Jets quarterback Christian Hackenberg sucked and boy, he is in no way ready to play in a real NFL game. 

Hackenberg was 12/21, 126, 1-2, and didn’t even look that good. He was beyond awful.  I said the minute the Jets drafted this guy two years ago it was a highly questionable pick, Hackenberg having regressed each year at Penn State, but now the Jets appear insistent on playing him.

I’ve always felt Bryce Petty could be respectable and he got to play in the second half, after the Giants built up a 29-3 halftime lead, so, granted, it was against the Giants second-teamers, while Petty was surrounded largely by second-teamers himself, but he was 15/18, 250, 3 touchdown passes and a perfect 158.3 passer rating.

Except in classic Jets-Mets form (why I ever picked these two back in my youth, I’ll never know), Petty injured his knee late and we’re waiting to see how serious it is.

Yippee!  Just an MCL sprain...he should be available for the opener, if the Jets were to opt for him.

--Huge early blow for the New England Patriots, as they lose receiver Julian Edelman to a torn ACL in Friday’s preseason game.  He caught 98 passes last season for 1,103 yards.

--And the Chiefs lost their leading running back from last season, Spencer Ware, to a season-ending knee injury.  Every coach, GM and fan’s nightmare...the exhibition season.

--I’ve always been a Jim Brown fan.  Yeah, the Hall of Fame running back, and best NFLer of all time, in my book, has had some issues, but I have greatly admired his work with inner-city youth both in Los Angeles and across America.

Brown has also been a civil rights activist and a man of conviction so I have to make note of his comments on the Colin Kaepernick, national anthem controversy.

“I want to be in his corner,” said Brown, “and I do think, ‘God bless him.’  I’m going to give you the real deal: I’m an American. I don’t desecrate my flag and my national anthem.  I’m not gonna do anything against the flag and national anthem.  I’m going to work within those situations. But this is my country, and I’ll work out the problems, but I’ll do it in an intelligent manner.”

Brown added, in an interview with ThePostGame: “If you have a cause, I think you should organize it, present it in a manner where it’s not only you standing or sitting on one knee but a lot of people that is gonna get behind each other and do something about it.  If I ask you one question: Who is Colin calling on to follow what he’s talking about?”

Brown said that when Kaepernick commits to playing, he needs to focus on being an athlete.

“Colin has to make up his mind whether he’s truly an activist or he’s a football player. Football is commercial.  You have owners.  You have fans. And you want to honor that if you’re making that kind of money....

“You have to understand there’s intelligence that’s involved, OK?  I can’t be two things at once that contradict each other.  If I sign for money, then the people I sign with, they have rules and regulations.”

Then there is Bills running back LeSean McCoy, who said Kaepernick isn’t good enough to be worth the “distraction.”

“It’s a lot more than just he’s not on the team because he doesn’t want to stand for the national anthem,” McCoy said Thursday.  “That may have something to do with it, but I think also it has a lot to do with his play.  I’m sure a lot of teams wouldn’t want him as their starting quarterback.  That chaos that comes along with it, it’s a lot.  [Ed. This has been my point all along.]

“As a team, trying to win and not have a distraction on the team, I just take that as a player – there’s certain players that could be on the team with big distractions, and there’s other players that it’s not good enough or not worth it.  I think his situation is not good enough to have him on the team with all the attention that comes along with it.”

--Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina had a list of the best NFL broadcast teams.

1. Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, NBC: “Al Michaels is the G.O.A.T.  Plain and simple. He keeps viewers up to date on the two most important stats in an NFL game: the point spread and the over/under.”

Mr. Traina has Joe Buck, Troy Aikman No. 2; Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts No. 3.  I agree with him.  Buck gets a raw deal in some circles.

U.S. Open

Play gets underway this week at Flushing Meadows, and one of the headlines in Friday’s draw ceremony was a first-round match between second-seeded Simona Halep and five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova.

Sharapova hasn’t played in a Grand Slam event since the 2016 Australian Open, where she tested positive for a banned substance and then served a 15-month suspension.

She was then denied a wild card entry to the French Open and pulled out of Wimbledon with a thigh injury.

No. 1 seed on the women’s side is Karolina Pliskova, in this Serena-less event.  Venus Williams is No. 9.  The women’s side is hurting for entertainment value.

Is Anna Kournikova still around?!

The buzz on the men’s side, even without Novak Djokovic and last year’s champ, Stan Wawrinka, both out due to injury, surrounds Rafael Nadal at 1, and Roger Federer at 3.

Andy Murray, the 2-seed, has been struggling with a hip injury and on Saturday afternoon, a distraught Murray announced he was pulling out, too.  The way the rules work, No. 5 seed Marin Cilic takes on Murray’s scheduled opponent, but stays in the 5-8 bracket.  I think I’m reading this right, not that I’ll give a damn if I didn’t.

Meanwhile, if all goes well, Nadal and Federer would meet in the semifinals.

So without Wawrinka and Djokovic, the No. 4 seed on the men’s side is Alexander Zverev, a rising 20-year-old German. This is his highest seeding in a Grand Slam event.

The highest-seeded American men are No. 10 John Isner and No. 13 Jack Sock.

Lastly, Lukas Lacko is the player who benefits by Andy Murray’s last-minute withdrawal, Lacko the next eligible player from the qualifying event.

It all starts Monday.

Premier League

--In Saturday’s action, newbie Huddersfield stayed undefeated with a 0-0 draw against a solid Southampton squad, while Newcastle picked up its first win, 3-0 over West Ham.

But in a bizarre ending, Manchester City pulled out a 2-1 road win over Bournemouth, Man City’s Raheem Sterling scoring 7 minutes into extra time, when some of us felt the game should have been over.  Bournemouth fans were crushed.

Sunday, Chelsea defeated Everton 2-0, while Liverpool whipped Arsenal like a rented mule, 4-0, and the calls for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger’s head will be at a record level after the second loss of the young season. Everyone following the sport knows he should go, but ownership stupidly gave him a new contract.  Now they’ll no doubt be forced to eat it.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.

But then there’s my Tottenham Spurs, who blew another at their temporary home, Wembley Stadium, allowing a late goal by Chris Wood of Burnley for a 1-1 draw, so the Spurs still have never had a Premier League victory at Wembley.  And Harry Kane still doesn’t have an August goal in PL play.

I noted last week after a 2-1 home loss to Chelsea that this could simply be a lost season.  I believe that now more than ever.

Or maybe they’ll have a big run in the following....

--....We had the Champions League draw for the group stage, which commences Sept. 12-13, and boy, did Tottenham get a raw deal, matched against two-time defending champion Real Madrid, Dortmund and APOEL of Cyprus.  Madrid is a heavy favorite to win a third straight title.

[In group stage, it’s home-and-home against each, with two of the four advancing.]

Six British teams qualified for the group stage, the most since 2007-08...Tottenham, Chelsea, Man U, Man City, Liverpool, and Celtic.

Chelsea, grouped with Atletico Madrid and Roma, has a dreaded trip (energy-sapping) to Azerbaijan to play Qarabag.

As Dr. W. keeps reminding me, the problem with the Champions League is that while it’s great to qualify, if you aren’t going to win it, or at least get to the final, you are sapping your strength for the Premier League, and trips to Serbia or Russia, for example, do take a lot out of you when you have PL games the following weekend.

Stuff

--So, the Isiah Thomas-Kyrie Irving mega-trade may not come about, after Thomas underwent a physical exam Friday, according to ESPN.

Thomas had a physical with the Cavaliers, and there was “uncertainty over the fitness of his injured hip,” with Cleveland officials reviewing the medical information and “considering possible ramifications,” according to Adrian Wojnarowski’s report.

This has been the issue all along.  Thomas suffered a serious hip injury end of last season, forcing him to miss the last three games of the Eastern Conference final, with doctors concluding he didn’t need surgery, so he opted for rest and rehab instead.

No further word as I go to post, but Cleveland could just be looking for another draft pick.

--They had the running of the Travers Stakes on Saturday at beautiful Saratoga Race Track in upstate New York, a very cool spot where the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame is as well, and it was only the third time in the 148-year running of this iconic race, the “Mid-Summer Derby,” that the three winners of this year’s Triple Crown were all in it; Derby winner Always Dreaming, Preakness champion Cloud Computing and Belmont winner Tapwrit, who was the morning line favorite, only to drop back by the start.

Good Samaritan ended up going off as the favorite at 3-1, while Always Dreaming and Bob Baffert-trained West Coast were at 5-1 as they headed to the gate.

And it was West Coast going wire-to-wire, stunning in that we had been told jockey Mike Smith would hold him back for the stretch.  Or as Johnny Mac said, West Coast went, err, “coast to coast.”  Johnny, who appears nightly at the Keg and Bacon, also said, “I was going to bet on Lookin at Lee, but apparently one can’t look at Lee these days.”

So Bob Baffert is now pointing both Arrogate and West Coast to the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November at Del Mar, the track Arrogate doesn’t seem to respond to, and Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith has to choose between the two.

Actually, Gary West, owner of West Coast, said, “He’s not going to be on my horse.  If he is, I’ll have his head examined,” Arrogate deemed to be one of the best of all time and winner of the Classic last year.

--Phil W. passed along great news for Wake Forest hoops fans yesterday.  Out of nowhere, we landed just our third 5-star recruit in program history, Jaylen Hoard, a 6’8” French wing, who committed to Wake over the likes of USC, Arizona and Louisville.

Hoard is the No. 19 prospect in the class of 2018 by ESPN and joins Chris Paul and Al-Farouq Aminu as the only other 5-star pickups.

--We note the passing of actor Jay Thomas, best known for his roles on “Murphy Brown” and “Cheers.”  He was 69.

I always liked this guy, especially his work on “Cheers.”  [Then again, there wasn’t a single character I didn’t like on that show.]

Jay Thomas just seemed like a cool guy...a regular sort. And that’s what actor Rob Lowe said: “He was fantastic, an underrated dramatic actor.  And a great guy.”

--So I’m reading a piece in Bloomberg by Adam Popescu on narwhals, the almost mythical creatures with the 9-foot long unicorn-like tusks.

It turns out NASA is utilizing them to explore the ice and waters of Greenland as part of climate change experiments, last winter being the warmest on record in the Arctic and Greenland being a key for research.

“Narwhals are oceanographers,” said Kristin Laidre, a University of Washington marine biologist.

The study titled Oceans Melting Greenland, or OMG, is designed to measure the seasonal ebb and flow of the glaciers using a combination of the whales, satellites, and temperature probes.  Ultimately, it is designed to determine how quickly Greenland’s ice will disappear.

“Will it take 1,000 years, a few hundred, or will we lose most of it in 50 years,” asked project head Josh Willis of NASA

The narwhals are fitted with censors and as they can dive to depths of 1,800 meters, they are ideal for surveying the sea floor, and they like to feed off the bottom of glaciers so researcher can pick up readings they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

So it’s time to think about the All-Species List.  There hasn’t been a lot of news from the Animal Kingdom, recently, but Narwhal, heretofore No. 67, should shoot up into at least Top Ten consideration. Stay tuned.

--From Crain’s New York Business: “New York City has a staggering 25,000 bars and restaurants with liquor licenses and some of the country’s most lenient liquor laws, starting with the fact bars can open at 8 a.m. and don’t have to close until 4 a.m.  Based on 2016 sales figures, locals and visitors drank 1.75 billion pints of beer, 230 million bottles of wine, 100 million bottles of liquor, and 20 million pints of cider.”

--We have us a ‘Jerk of the Year’ candidate, though no names.

Prittlewell Priory is a museum and park in Southend-on-Sea in Britain, about 40 miles east of London, featuring gardens, buildings and exhibits depicting what life was like there centuries ago.

Online, visitors praise the site for being attractive and inviting.  Too inviting for one family, however.

An 800-year-old sandstone coffin was damaged last Sunday when a family put a child into it for a photo and knocked off a small piece, museum officials said later in a statement.

Closed-circuit television cameras were recording in the museum, but did not clearly capture what happened. The family left without reporting the damage, but it was discovered later.  I saw a picture of it and it was significant.

‘Man’ is deserving of his No. 367 ASL status.

--Ordinarily I’d catch some of the VMA awards, but not with the “Game of Thrones” season finale.

Top 3 songs for the week 8/25/73:  #1 “Brother Louie” (Stories)  #2 “Live And Let Die” (Wings...great one...)  #3 “Touch Me In The Morning” (Diana Ross...cough cough...)...and...#4 “Let’s Get It On” (Marvin Gaye...see #3...) #5 “The Morning After” (Maureen McGovern...geez, now she won’t leave...)  #6 “Delta Dawn” (Helen Reddy)  #7 “Get Down” (Gilbert O’Sullivan)  #8 “Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose” (Dawn featuring Tony Orlando)  #9 “Uneasy Rider” (Charlie Daniels) #10 “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” (Jim Croce...incredibly overrated tune...hasn’t aged well but oldies stations keep playing it...)

Pittsburgh Pirates Quiz Answers: 1) Single-season RBI leader at 131 is Paul Waner, 1927.  Ralph Kiner is next at 127, which he did twice.  2) Kiner and Willie Stargell are the only two in the entire history of the Pirates to club 40 home runs in a season, each doing it multiple times; Kiner hitting 50 twice, (54 and 51), while Stargell’s peak was 48.  3) Since 1930, only two Pirates pitchers have won as many as 22 in a season, Bob Friend (1958) and Doug Drabek (1990).  4) Hall of Famer Paul Waner had 2,868 of his 3,152 lifetime hits in a Pirates uniform, 1926-40.  Brother and fellow Hall member Lloyd had 2,317 hits as a Pirate (1927-40, 4 at-bats in ’41), 2,459 overall.

So the point is that with all the Pirates’ history, it’s just shocking how low some of the single-season records are.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.

 

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