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Bar Chat

09/21/2017

Down the Stretch They Come....

[Posted early Wed. a.m.]

NFL Quiz: Seven coaches have won 200 regular season games.  Some of these are from the league’s first days, so I’ll give you the initials.  Put them in order, 1-7.  T.L., B.B., G.H., D.S., P.B., M.S., C.L. Answer below.

MLB

--The Yankees defeated the Twins at the Stadium on Monday, 2-1, behind Jaime Garcia’s 5 2/3’s of one-run ball, 9 strikeouts, and another solid bullpen effort, with a resurgent Aroldis Chapman (six straight clean outings) picking up a 5-out save. Aaron Judge hit his 44th home run.

Boston defeated the Orioles 10-8 in Baltimore.

Tuesday, CC Sabathia improved to 12-5, 3.81, with six strong in New York’s 5-2 win over Minnesota, Chapman picking up another save, so seven straight clean outings.

But Boston beat Baltimore in 11, 1-0, so the Red Sox’ lead over the Yankees remains three games.

--After the Dodgers had broken out of their horrendous slump, they lost Sunday night in Washington, 7-1 (after I posted), which I need to note because Stephen Strasburg threw a strong six innings, 1 earned, 8 strikeouts; proving he is ready for the postseason in running his record to 14-4, 2.60.

Strasburg, Max Scherzer and Gio Gonzalez are as good a top three as there is in baseball these days.

So Monday, the Dodgers moved up to Philadelphia and Clayton Kershaw lost, 4-3, as Phillie outfielder Aaron Altherr made history when he cracked a grand slam off Kershaw in the sixth, incredibly, the first grand slam ever given up by the future Hall of Famer.  It was the 290th game, and 1,923rd inning of his career.

Kershaw, since his return from injury, has been just so-so in four outings.

--The aforementioned Max Scherzer threw seven strong Tuesday night in Washington’s 4-2 win at Atlanta, Scherzer now 15-6, 2.59.

But the big news for the Nationals was Bryce Harper hit the field Tuesday afternoon for his first solid-looking workout since his knee injury.  He seemed to be jogging well (not running full tilt yet), but it’s looking good for a return come postseason.

With Washington’s win and another L.A. loss, the battle for home-field advantage is suddenly back to Dodgers by 4 ½.

--Kansas City’s Alex Gordon had the honor of hitting Major League Baseball’s season-record 5,694th home run of 2017, breaking the mark of 5,693 set back in 2000 at the height of the Steroids Era.
There were 5,610 homers last year, an average of 2.31 per game, and this year’s average of 2.53 entering Tuesday’s action projects to 6,139, which would be up 47 percent from 4,186 in 2014.

Lots of explanations for the surge, no real answers.

--I barely watch the Mets these days.  I mean, why would I?

Well, I do catch an inning here, and an inning there, mainly to hear what the Mets’ terrific broadcasters are saying of this desultory season and the future.

But I do have to note another abysmal performance by pitcher Matt Harvey, who allowed seven earned runs on 12 hits and two walk in four innings on Monday in a 13-1 loss to the Marlins, Giancarlo Stanton hitting No. 55 in the process.

Since his return from a 2 ½ month absence from a stress injury in his right scapula, Harvey has a 13.19 ERA in four starts.  [Overall, he is 5-6, 6.59 ERA.]

“There is nothing to say,” Harvey said after.  “It’s terrible, not fun, there is no reason for questions [from reporters], there are no answers.  You are going to write what you are going to write, anyway.  Obviously it’s deserved, so whatever you want to write, but there is nothing to say.”

Harvey is arbitration-eligible after this season, but will the Mets really offer him a contract?  It used to be a certainty.  I’m not so sure at this point.

--Some team pitching stats thru Monday’s play.

Overall MLB:

1. Cleveland 3.35 ERA
2. LA Dodgers 3.41
3. Arizona Diamondbacks 3.57

27. Baltimore 4.90
28. Mets 5.02
29. Cincinnati 5.17
30. Detroit 5.29...my sympathies to the great fans of the Tigers, an always likeable franchise going back to my youth.

Bullpen:

1. Cleveland 2.77
2. Boston 3.12
3. LA Dodgers 3.37
4. Yankees 3.47

29. Mets 4.77
30. Detroit 5.35

College Football

--Among the big games this weekend:

No. 16 TCU at 6 Oklahoma (3:30 ET ESPN)

11 Georgia at 17 Mississippi State (7:00 ESPN)

4 Penn State at Iowa (3-0) (7:30 ABC)

Also potentially interesting....

North Carolina State at 12 Florida State, as the Seminoles finally play their second game, barring a drastic change in the forecast path for Hurricane Maria. [12:00 ABC/ESPN2]

1 Alabama at Vanderbilt (3-0) (3:30 CBS)

7 Washington at Colorado (3-0) (10:00 FS1...lousy time...should be 9:00 and I’d watch at least a half...cuz it’s all about me...)

--Clemson, which plays Boston College Saturday, is halfway to the College Football Playoff, entering the season with four big tests: Auburn, Louisville, Virginia Tech and Florida State, and having won the first two against the Tigers and Cardinals.  [Clemson may match up a second time against Va Tech as well, as the Hokies could easily be in the ACC title game...it being between Tech and Miami in their division.]

--If 8 Michigan struggles at Purdue (2-1) (4:00 Fox), the Wolverines would deserve to fall out of the top ten.

--For Wake Forest fans, the biggie is Wake at Appalachian State.  You have to have gone to either school, or live in the area, to understand how huge this game is and the crowd in Boone will be going nuts, Wake Forest having avoided playing App State since 2001, and never in Boone.

--I didn’t know about the following when I posted last time; that Penn State coach James Franklin, who I’ve disdained for a while on this site, proved once again why he is worthy of such disapprobation (trying to come up with a lighter word).

In last Saturday’s 56-0 win at Beaver Stadium over Georgia State, in the finals seconds of the game, Georgia State’s Brandon Wright lined up for a 31-yard field goal. Wright drilled the kick, but it didn’t count.  Franklin called a timeout to ice the kicker, and then he missed on the second attempt, thus preserving the shutout.

Let’s face it. That’s outrageous, but I missed WFAN’s Mike Francesa and his screaming rant on the topic, as he called Franklin a “fool,” a “stooge,” a “jerk” and a “horse’s ass.”

“He’s got to try to block a kick at 56-0?  He’s a horse’s ass for doing that. That’s a quote.”

In his postgame remarks, after being confronted on the topic, Franklin said he wanted to be “as clear as he possibly could be.”

“That had nothing to do with it,” Franklin said of preserving a shutout.  “We had our fourth-team (defense) on the field and we don’t have a fourth-team field goal block that even knows how to get lined up with the mix-and-match guys we had in there. So we called timeout to get the second-team field goal block in there. That’s just kind of how it played out, to be honest with you.”

Francesa wasn’t buying it.

“He didn’t have a block team?  It’s 56-0!” Francesa said.  “Let him kick the ball.  And then to try to lie about it? What a stooge!”

Francesa added: “You iced the kicker and you got killed for it. Be honest.  You called timeout to ice the kicker.  That’s the bottom line.  If you got a penalty, what would be the end of the world?  It’s 56-0. You iced the kicker.  Be honest.”

And Francesa said: “ ‘We didn’t have a fourth-team field goal block,’ mimicking Franklin’s reasoning.  ‘What the heck do you need to block it for?  Let the ball go through the uprights, you jerk. He called timeout to get the second-team field goal block in there.

“What a bunch of garbage that is.  He sells you that, he’ll sell you anything.  The guy iced him.  Plain and simple. Because he wanted a shutout. He got some grief so he came up with some lame excuse the alums could sell somebody.”

And as Ryan Dunleavy of NJ.com noted: “By comparison, earlier this season, Western Michigan – down by 16 points – eased off to let USC score a PAT when blind long snapper Jake Olson delivered the ball in the final minutes of a game.”

NFL

--The New York Giants, who a lot of us thought were a lock playoff team, if not a Super Bowl contender, clearly aren’t after the first two contests of the season.

Monday night at the Meadowlands, the Giants lost to the Lions 24-10 as, once again, the offense was non-existent, with Eli Manning a very pedestrian, again, 22/32, 239, 1-1, 87.9 passer rating, while receiver Odell Beckham Jr. returned and had just 36 yards on four receptions, as the Giants, understandably, were cautious in their use of him.

[Overall, the Giants outgained the Lions 270-257, but this is deceiving.  It was 173-80, Detroit, as the Lions built up their insurmountable 17-7 lead at the half, partly on the strength of kicker Matt Prater’s amazing 12th consecutive field goal over 50 yards, this one from 56.]

One play kind of summed things up for the Giants. They were driving with 5:20 left in the third quarter, facing a fourth-and-goal from the Detroit 2-yard line, when head coach Ben McAdoo relayed a play to go for it.  But the play clock expired before the ball could be snapped, drawing a five-yard, delay-of-game penalty.

“Sloppy quarterback play,” McAdoo said.  “Quarterback and the center need to be on the same page there.  We’ve got to get the ball snapped.”

But McAdoo hesitated sending the play in, and there was less than 20 seconds remaining on the clock when Manning appeared to receive it.  Yeah, Eli probably should have still gotten it off, but share the blame, Coach.  Plus he had a time out.

After the penalty was assessed, the Giants converted a 25-yard field goal to make the score 17-10.  [Earlier in the drive, the Giants actually had first-and-goal at the 1-yard line, then immediately had a holding penalty take it back to the 11, which eventually set up the critical fourth-and-2 delay of game situation.]

Then early in the fourth, the Lions’ Jamal Agnew returned a punt 88 yards for the score and it was game over. 

Prior to that, though, with the score still 17-10, Manning lofted a perfect pass down the right sideline “that hit as softly as a butterfly, right between the 1 and the 5 on receiver Brandon Marshall’s jersey,” as the New York Post’s Mark Cannizzaro put it.

“The play was going to go for some 30 yards, move the Giants into Detroit territory and change the momentum in favor of the Giants, whose offense had been struggling all game (all season, really).

“Marshall had his man beaten – and the ball bounced off his jersey and to the ground.  The Giants still had a chance, but on third-and-8, Manning completed a 7-yard pass to tight end Evan Engram.  How perfect a metaphor is that for the Giants’ offense through two games.

“ ‘That was the moment,’ Marshall said, standing in front of his locker. ‘That was the biggest play of the game.’

On the next Giants punt, Agnew took it back, giving the Lions a 24-10 lead and shattering the spirit of the Giants and their fans.

Here’s the thing.  Brandon Marshall has done this his entire career!  Yeah, he’s got Hall of Fame numbers, but he’s never played in the playoffs in 11 seasons.  Coincidence?

Incredibly, the Giants have now gone 8 games, including last year’s playoff loss to Green Bay, without scoring 20 points.  They didn’t score 30 in a single contest all last year as well.  I mean that is hideous.  [And very Bengal-like these days.]

--I didn’t catch any of the Dallas-Denver game on Sunday, which was interrupted for over an hour by lightning and by the time it came back on, I was into news, “60 Minutes” and “Vietnam,” frankly.

So when I posted last time, this one was still going on and I only learned after that in the Broncos’ 42-17 drubbing of the Cowboys, running back Ezekiel Elliott had just eight yards rushing on nine carries.

8 yards from a guy who came in averaging 108 yards per game, more than 5 yards per carry.

But that wasn’t the worst of it.  Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson blasted Elliott after on the NFL Network.

“I didn’t like the way he quit today.  I didn’t like that. He absolutely quit on his team today.”

Really?

“First, his attitude on the sideline. Clearly, he didn’t have any communication with his teammates. But also, he didn’t want to talk to his teammates. Sometimes when things are going wrong, as a leader of that team, as a captain, you have to step up and rally the troops. You have to go to the offensive line and say, ‘I know it’s tough, but let’s keep battling, let’s keep fighting.’  You have to go to the quarterback and say, ‘Hey, man, I’m not getting it done today – you have to step it up.’  You have to rally the troops... (Everybody) is looking at him as the top dog.  So if you want to be the top dog, you have to do it on and off the field.’”

For one thing, Elliott failed to pursue a defender after an interception, a play that Sports Illustrated’s Peter King said Elliott should be punished over, for one.  I mean Elliott was five yards away from the guy after Chris Harris picked off a Dak Prescott pass and he just stopped and put his hands on his hips.  King called Elliott’s lack of effort “horrendous.”  All are in agreement, he can’t get away with this.

This is going to be interesting.  Ezekiel Elliott is not a good person.  We all know that.  Police may not have charged him in the sexual assault incident for which the NFL suspended him six games (now under appeal), but there is more than enough evidence something happened.  Plus there have been other bad episodes in Elliott’s life.

We’re going to learn a lot about his character this season, and what his teammates think of him.

--In the Sunday night game, Atlanta christened its new palace with a 34-23 victory over the Packers.

Matt Ryan was his usual steady self for the Falcons, 19/28, 252, 1-0, 108.0, while Aaron Rodgers had a 33/50, 343, 2-1, 90.7 stat line.

Rodgers became the fastest player to reach 300 career passing touchdowns in the process, accomplishing the feat in just 4,742 attempts.  Peyton Manning needed 5,306 attempts to reach 300.  Tom Brady needed 5,321, and Dan Marino 5,460.

--As follow-up to the J-E-T-S Tank-Tank-Tank 45-20 loss in Oakland (where Raiders coach Jack Del Rio pulled his own bogus late field goal maneuver, kind of a la Franklin, only the Raiders went for a meaningless last minute three), the New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro summed it up for Jets fans.

“Where, oh where, was Julian Goodman when you needed him?

“Goodman was the president of NBC on the afternoon of Sunday, Nov. 17, 1968.  It was Goodman who’d made the declaration earlier that week that no matter where that day’s Jets-Raiders football game stood at 7 p.m. Eastern time, the network would switch to ‘Heidi,’ a much-anticipated children’s movie.

“And it was Goodman who realized, late, that NBC would be making a terrible mistake. He ordered the game be broadcast to the end, but in 1968 playing a literal game of telephone could be problematic. And it was.  NBC switched up with a minute left in the game. The Jets, who were beating the Raiders, lost in heart-rending fashion.

“Nobody in New York saw it.

“Repeat those last six words again:

“Nobody in New York saw it.

“How blissful would that have been Sunday, if you’d been forced to look elsewhere for your late-afternoon entertainment...? ....

“If you’d been forced to miss Todd Bowles’ harsh (and point-perfect honest) assessment of his football team after two weeks: ‘We’re not good enough to correct our mistakes AND win the game.’

“(Who needs ‘Winning isn’t everything, it’s  the only thing,’ anyway?)

“Where was the precious sight of the beloved Swiss child playing on the mountainside when you really needed her? ....

“Or the Dolphins-Chargers game?

“Or a rerun of ‘M*A*S*H?’

“Or a test pattern?

“Yes, it was that bad.”

What was equally atrocious were some of the comments Jets players made after, such as that of Muhammad Wilkerson, the immensely overpaid defensive lineman, who said: “We did some good things and we can build on that.”

Or newly signed Kalif Raymond, who was to be the kick returner, until at least Jalin Marshall returns from a suspension.

Raymond, right before the half, with the Jets down just 14-10, muffed a punt on his 4-yard line and the Raiders scored a crushing TD to make it 21-10 at the intermission.

So Raymond said after that it was a lack of concentration.  “I kinda took it for granted, man.”

As Johnny Mac commented (ranted): “Took it for granted?! An undrafted nobody from nowhere who should be desperate to hang on to any pro job takes it for granted after muffing two the week before?!”

I then convinced Johnny not to pull out the sword, though if he had used it, he had explicit instructions to sterilize it before expressing it to me for my own use.

Tuesday, Kalif Raymond was released by the Jets. 

--In San Diego’s 19-17 loss to Miami on Sunday, Chargers tight end Antonio Gates caught his 112th touchdown pass, moving ahead of Tony Gonzalez to become the all-time tight end in TD receptions.  The pass, from Philip Rivers, was the 85th time the two had connected, the third-most for any quarterback-receiver duo.

Steve Young – Jerry Rice...92
Peyton Manning – Marvin Harrison...112 [In trying to verify this number, I saw anywhere from 112-118]

--Last Bar Chat, I noted the half-time scores in many of the games on Sunday, pitifully low, and now we learn that after the season’s first 30 games, as reported by the Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Beaton, teams are averaging 20.3 points per game, which is 2.4 fewer than a year ago.  “If it continues throughout the season, it would mark the largest drop-off in the Super Bowl era.”

Is it defensive coordinators finally catching up and understanding the throw-first mentality?

From 2008 through 2016, according to the Journal and Pro-Football-Reference, team scoring per game was 21.5 to 23.4.

--According to Forbes magazine, how bad do the Jets suck?  They are the only team that failed to appreciate in value in the 2017 rankings.  This as the Giants’ rose 6%, compared with an 8% average rise for an NFL team.

Forbes designated the Cowboys No. 1 for an 11th year in a row with a value of $4.8 billion, up 14% from a year ago.

The Giants are at $3.3 billion, ranked third in the NFL.  The Jets, at $2.75bn, were ninth.

The average team’s worth is now $2.5bn.

--Rick Maese / Washington Post

“(A) study, which was published Tuesday in the medical journal Translational Psychiatry, showed those who participated in football before age 12 were twice as likely to have problems with behavior regulation, apathy, and executive functioning – including initiating activities, problem solving, planning and organizing – when they get older.  The younger football players were three times more likely as those who took up the sport after age 12 to experience symptoms of depression.

“ ‘Between the ages of 10 and 12, there is this period of incredible development of the brain,’ said Dr. Robert Stern, the director of clinical research at Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center who co-authored the story.  ‘Perhaps that is a window of vulnerability....It makes sense that children whose brains are rapidly developing should not be hitting their heads over and over again.’”

According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, participation in tackle football among 6- to 12-year-old boys dropped 20 percent since 2009.

Golf Balls

--The PGA Tour’s regular season ends this weekend with the Tour Championship, the last event in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.  30 golfers for all the marbles, including the $10 million bonus.

For now, what you need to know is that if Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Marc Leishman, or Jon Rahm wins the tournament, they win the FedEx Cup. If it’s someone else, then it gets complicated.

--Barry Svrluga / Washington Post

“Ten years after Tiger Woods and his foundation essentially saved PGA Tour golf in Washington, his annual event here has no title sponsor, the Tour has terminated its contract with Congressional Country Club, and considerable uncertainty surrounds the future of professional golf’s highest level in the nation’s capital.

“In an email to Congressional members sent Monday, club president Rick Sullivan said the lack of a title sponsor was the driving force behind the Tour exercising its right to bail on an existing deal, which called for Congressional to host the event in 2018 and 2020....

“But representatives of both Woods and his eponymous foundation said they are actively pursuing a sponsor for the tournament, which has been known as the AT&T National and, more recently, the Quicken Loans National.” 

It’s still possible a new arrangement could be worked out with Congressional if the event lands a new sponsor.

Stuff

--We note the passing of Penny Chenery, aka Penny Tweedy, owner and breeder of Secretariat.  She was 95.

At a horrible time for our country, 1973, Secretariat offered the nation a much-needed feel good story, culminating in his phenomenal 31-length win in the Belmont Stakes to capture the Triple Crown, the first since Citation in 1948.  Secretariat was a huge celebrity.  Penny Tweedy,  as she was known then, went along for the ride, handling the horse’s fortune as the manager of her family’s Meadow Stable in Virginia.

But it wasn’t all roses for Ms. Chenery. She had an affair with trainer Lucien Laurin, and by the end of 1973, she had divorced her husband John Tweedy.

--Phil W. passed along more great news for Wake Forest basketball fans (of which there are a few of us).  We picked up our third top recruit for 2018, a 6-8 small forward, Isaiah Mucius out of Brewster Academy and Far Rockaway, NY, who is ranked a consensus 4-star recruit, and 68th in the ’18 class by the 247Sports composite ranking.

Mucius had 13 offers overall, but it came down to Xavier and Wake.  So he joins Jaylen Hoard and Sharone Wright, Jr. as commits.

Evidently the key for Wake and these recruits has been assistant coach, and former Deacon great, Randolph Childress.

--We note the passing of legendary pro wrestling manager Bobby “the Brain” Heenan, who died the other day from cancer complications at the age of 73, the WWE announced.  It has been a big struggle for him, dealing with throat and tongue cancer.

Heenan, born Raymond Louis Heenan, is considered to be the greatest pro wrestling manager of all time, first coming into prominence as the manager of Ray Stevens in the American Wrestling Assn., along with Nick Bockwinkel.

But his claim to fame came in the then-WWF, where he had a lengthy stint sending bad guy after bad guy to try to defeat Hulk Hogan, the long-time WWF heavyweight champion.

Heenan managed Andre the Giant, as well as Rick Rude, Paul Orndorff, King Kong Bundy, Ken Patera, and Big John Studd.

Heenan was forced to retire in the early 1990s after suffering a neck injury from the many bumps he took in the ring.  He then did color commentary alongside Gorilla Monsoon.

--Brad K. passed along this story from the Daily Mail’s Sebastian Murphy-bates:

Suprianto, a Shaman in Indonesia, died after a suspected crocodile attack in Kutai Kartanegara, Indonesia.

Witnesses reported that Suprianto was dragged under the water mid-mantra as he was swimming and chanting, having claimed supernatural powers.  He was looking for the body of another man attacked by crocs.

Police recovered both bodies the next day. The Shaman was convinced he was immune from the crocs.

It seems there have been other crocodile attacks in the region this summer, “And a giant python swallowed a man while in West Sulawesi, Indonesia, just four months before.”

And on that lovely note....

Top 3 songs for the week 9/22/79: #1 “My Sharona” (The Knack...can’t believe this actually was #1...and for six weeks!  Just shoot me)  #2 “After The Love Has Gone” (Earth, Wind & Fire...one of their best, and peaked at #2 because of freakin’ “My Sharona”?!...) #3 “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” (The Charlie Daniels Band...loved every song they ever did...except this one!...)...and...#4 “Rise” (Herb Alpert...far from his best but hit #1 four weeks later...another sign that music was sucking wind at this time...)  #5 “Lead Me On” (Maxine Nightingale)  #6 “Sad Eyes” (Robert John)  #7 “Lonesome Loser” (Little River Band)  #8 “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” (Dionne Warwick...me neither, I’m very old and crotchety....made even worse by being a Mets and Jets fan...) #9 “Sail On” (Commodores...not bad...for this particular week...)  #10 “Don’t Bring Me Down” (Electric Light Orchestra)

NFL Quiz Answer: Coaches: 200 regular season wins....

Don Shula (1963-95) 328
George Halas (1920-67) 318
Tom Landry (1960-88) 250
Bill Belichick (1991-2017) 238...including last Sunday
Curly Lambeau (1921-53) 226
Paul Brown (1946-75) 213
Marty Schottenheimer (1984-2006) 200

8. Chuck Noll 193
9. Dan Reeves 190
10. Chuck Knox 186

Next Bar Chat, Monday.

 

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