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Bar Chat

04/03/2017

Gonzaga-North Carolina

[Posted Sunday p.m.]

NBA/College Quiz: Name the school the following NBA Hall of Famers went to.  Only one played at a Power Five football conference school.  Dolph Schayes, Bob Pettit, Bob Cousy, Elgin Baylor, Willis Reed, Sam Jones.  Answer below.

Final Four

Gonzaga 77 South Carolina 73

North Carolina 77 Oregon 76

What a terrific tournament!  Just a ton of down-to-the-wire contests, including Saturday’s affairs.

In the first game, Sindarius Thornwell needed to step up big for the Gamecocks and I don’t know if he was still impacted by the flu, or the fact Gonzaga put Johnathan Williams on him, but Thornwell came up small, 15 points, 5 rebounds.  Overall, South Carolina was 25 of 66 from the field, 37.9%, and 7 of 20 from three, 35%.

For the Zags, Nigel Williams-Goss had 23 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists, while rising star Zach Collins, the freshman 7-footer, had a monster game in just 23 minutes...14 points, 13 rebounds (10 offensive) and 6 blocks.

In the nightcap, Oregon’s Jordan Bell, as good as any player in the entire tournament, had another big game, 13 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks, but you’ll see below he didn’t get it done, twice, when it most mattered.  Tyler Dorsey only shot 3 of 11 from the field, but amassed 21 points largely because of a 12-for-12 performance from the free throw line.  Dillon Brooks sucked...10 points, 6 rebounds.

For the Tar Heels, it was all about Kennedy Meeks’ 25 points, 14 rebounds (more on this below), while Isaiah Hicks (1-12), Theo Pinson (2-8) and Joel Berry II (2-14) were a combined 5 of 34 from the field.  Last weekend’s star, Luke Maye, was 0-for-3.  Yet they won.  It helped that ACC Player of the Year Justin Jackson chipped in with 22.

Adam Kilgore / Washington Post

“As the dust settled Saturday night inside University of Phoenix Stadium, an easy storyline emerged.  Monday night’s national championship will pit a natural underdog against a towering blueblood.  It will be Gonzaga out of the mid-major West Coast Conference, the little-school-that-did, appearing in its first championship game. It will be North Carolina, the program of Dean and MJ, of 20 Final Fours and five national championships.  You will hear the theme constantly over the next 48 hours. And it will be woefully wrong.

“Ask Frank Martin, the South Carolina coach who has spent 11 years combined as a head coach in the Big 12 and SEC, whose Gamecocks gave Gonzaga everything it could handle and still exited the tournament.

“ ‘It’s not 1997 anymore,’ Martin said.  ‘They were Cinderella and all that pretty stuff in ’97. They’ve been in this thing for 20 consecutive years. They’re as high-major as high-major can get.’

“Martin’s memory is a hair off – it was  1999 when Gonzaga marched to the Elite Eight and began its run of 19 consecutive NCAA tournaments. But he’s exactly right.  The title is not David vs. Goliath. It’s Goliath vs. Goliath.

“The real storyline of Monday night is so much better, anyway.  It’s not every year we can say the best two teams play to decide the national championship.  This year, the best two teams will play to decide the national championship....

“Since November, many experts formed the consensus that North Carolina possessed more talent than any team in the country.  The Tar Heels start three juniors and two seniors.  They have rebounding muscle in Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks, more than enough scoring punch from Justin Jackson and Joel Berry II and an intelligent Swiss Army knife in Theo Pinson.  They have a powerful singularity of purpose, having reached the title game last season and lost on Kirs Jenkins’ last-second three-pointer....

“Since November, Gonzaga has accomplished more than any team in the country.  The Bulldogs plowed through a challenging nonconference schedule, dominated the WCC and will arrive Monday night with a 37-1 record.  They spent four weeks ranked No. 1.  They play eight or nine players, and those who come off the bench are enormous and offer scant drop-off. They are light years from a fluke, having been a 1 or 2 seed in three of the past five NCAA tournaments.”

Chuck Culpepper / Washington Post

“Some 362 wincing, striving days after a rapid-eye-movement nightmare flooded their brains and seeded their determination, North Carolina clung onto the last rung of a 10-point lead Saturday night and began clanging free throws.  A dreary, formless national semifinal with Oregon had wound its way into something oddly stirring.  A bloated University of Phoenix Stadium crowd of 77,612 had finally taken to gasping.

“When the Tar Heels finally did wind up exhaling and exulting, they had added to the array of inconvenience they had collected and surmounted in their bid to return to the final Monday night of the season and carve out some less haunting memories.  Their 77-76 win over a band of Ducks that couldn’t shoot well but kept trying will be remembered for its clunky closing sequence....

“Kennedy Meeks, their immense big man who had an immense game, missed with 5.8 seconds left.

“Joel Berry II, their floor leader with the 2-for-14 game, missed two more with four seconds left.

“On both occasions, something weird happened. Jordan Bell, the Oregon monster in the middle who had rebounded and enforced his way through this NCAA tournament, wound up sobbing heavily in the corner after missing two rebounds in a game in which he had 16.  ‘I lost this game for us,’ he said sadly later.  On the first, North Carolina’s 6-foot-6 Theo Pinson soared to bat the ball out and necessitate another foul.  On the second, Meeks outfoxed two opponents with scant contact and took that thing and North Carolina’s season-long mission in his considerable hands.

“ ‘Nobody wins a game like that,’ Pinson said.  ‘Well, I guess we did.  But it was definitely the weirdest game.’”

Zach Braziller / New York Post

“It didn’t hit Kennedy Meeks until he was on the bench. This could be it. This could be how his career ends.

“It was the Sweet 16 against Butler, and Coach Roy Williams benched him for missing a box-out.  Meeks promised himself he couldn’t have any regrets in his final NCAA Tournament.

“ ‘I just knew that it’s important for me to help my team out in any way I can,’ Meeks said.

“He couldn’t have done any more Saturday night. The 6-foot-10 senior forward from Charlotte, N.C., equaled a career high with 25 points and added 14 rebounds....

“Meeks was coming off a monster performance, hauling in 17 rebounds and blocking four shots in a memorable South Region final victory over Kentucky....

“Meeks missed just two shots from the field, throwing down big dunks and scoring with ease in the paint.  He also had three steals and made the game’s biggest play, hauling in a Joel Berry II missed free throw with 4.0 seconds left and the Tar Heels up just one, enabling North Carolina to run out the clock....

“Without his supreme performance, North Carolina isn’t back in the national championship game for a second straight season.  It doesn’t get a chance at redemption.”

Tidbits....

--I sure hope Zach Collins stays in school one more year, though he clearly has NBA star written all over him.  But he’s still very raw...where he would go in the draft, should he opt to go out, is a total unknown.

--Meeks became the fifth player in the last 40 years with at least 25 points and 14 rebounds in the Final Four.  The others?  Carmelo Anthony, Ed O’Bannon, Danny Manning and Larry Bird.

--The Oregon cheerleaders looked absolutely spectacular... possibly the best-looking group of women in NCAA Tournament history......moving right along...

--I give Jim Nantz and Bill Raftery credit Saturday night for addressing the elephant in the room when it comes to North Carolina; the unending investigation into academic fraud and the impact on the school’s athletic program.  The problem is the NCAA needs to get off its butt and issue a ruling.  It’s outrageous how long this has dragged out.

Michael Powell / New York Times

“Such glorious days these are for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. The basketball team is in the Final Four, a championship so close as to put the campus into a state of vibration. And Roy Williams, their down-home coach, finds himself celebrated for hill-country wit and hoops acumen.

“Rival coaches bow as his acolytes.

“ ‘When it all shakes out,’ Gonzaga Coach Mark Few said, ‘he’ll be one of the Mount Rushmore types in college coaching.’

“I’d genuflect myself, if only I could administer a mind wipe.

“Amid the blue-and-white pompoms, few are so rude as to mention that the University of North Carolina, the Microsoft of college basketball, remains enmeshed in a scandal of spectacular proportions.  Put simply, for two decades until 2013, the university provided fake classes for many hundreds of student athletes, most of them basketball and football players.

“Coach Williams’ longtime man Friday, Wayne Walden, a former academic counselor, played switchman, steering basketball players to these classes.  A touch of plagiarism, a no-show, were O.K. if it gave the young man more time to work on his drop step.  There was one goal: Keep those grade-point averages at the minimum needed to compete for the university.

“The NCAA gumshoes have recently awakened from their slumber and, in December, filed a tough set of accusations against the university, the latest in an investigation bending and twisting – some might say stalling – during the past few years.

“University officials take great umbrage at this.  They claim to have investigated thoroughly. This is nonsense.  I waded through their reports, and it was like watching a reluctant striptease.”

Well, this story has been going on so long, everyone knows the details, as first exposed by the News & Observer’s Dan Kane.  Historian Jay Smith wrote a book, “Cheated,” on this case.  He taught a class: “Big-Time College Sports and the Rights of Athletes, 1956 to the Present.”  Students at Chapel Hill ate it up. Last fall, the university canceled it for a year.

Smith told Michael Powell: “It’s very disillusioning to live through the last six years here. The university is operating like a crime family, and it shows the lengths to which they will go to protect their athletic machine.”

Yes, the tale goes on and on, while the school claims it has addressed all the shortcomings.

--Meanwhile, Friday night, the unthinkable happened...in the NCAA Women’s Final Four, Mississippi State ended UConn’s 111-game winning streak, 66-64, on Morgan William’s overtime buzzer beater.

Williams hit a 15-footer to cap it, moments after a replay review awarded UConn two free throws for a flagrant 1 foul call that tied the game with 26.6 seconds left.  But while UConn still had the ball, it then turned it over and William held it at the top of the key before dribbling to her right and pulling up for the winning shot.

UConn had rallied from a 16-point deficit.

Mike Lupica / New York Daily News

“Sports happened.

“It happened early, when Mississippi State put UConn in a hole, and it happened late, when they got to overtime, and even after the refs tried to bail out Geno Auriemma’s team.

“And as great as Geno’s team is and has been, when it got to overtime, and when they were finally being pushed and the season was on the line, they panicked, and turned the ball over, and then Morgan William made as famous a shot as any woman has ever made in the history of college basketball.

“A year ago UConn had beaten Miss. State by 60 in the Sweet 16

“This time it was 60-60 after regulation.

“The worst thing that should have happened at the end of overtime, because UConn ended up with the ball after a flagrant I call against Miss. State, was the Lady Huskies went to a second overtime.

“But Saniya Chong forced a play too early in the clock. Then Morgan William made a shot that made history.

“Sports history.  Sports happened.”

Mississippi State is playing South Carolina for the national championship, the Gamecocks having defeated Stanford 62-53 in the other semi Friday night.

And it’s South Carolina!  The Lady Gamecocks’ first title, 67-55.  [Sorry, didn’t catch any of this.]

--In the NIT final, TCU (24-15) defeated Georgia Tech (21-16) 88-56.  Those three games in the Garden were hideous.

NBA

--Huge loss for Miami at home against the Knicks Friday night, 98-94, a Knicks team playing without Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose*.  Knicks fans were apoplectic.  We’re supposed to be losing to improve our lottery chances!  [Miami had defeated the Knicks in the Garden on Wednesday 105-88, as Wake’s James Johnson had 18 points and 7 rebounds off the bench.]

But the Knicks resumed their losing ways, thank god, falling to the Celtics at the Garden on Sunday, 110-94.

*It was announced Sunday that Rose has a torn meniscus.  Just what an oft-injured player entering free agency doesn’t want.  [Four knee injuries since 2012.]

As for Boston, the win over the Knicks was their 50th of the season, and now look at the Easter Conference standings....

Boston 50-27
Cleveland 49-27...these two have a HUGE game on Wednesday in Boston.

Western Conference....

Golden State 62-14
San Antonio 59-17

The standings for the final wild-card position in each conference are fascinating...I’ll get into it next time.

--The Trail Blazers’ surge into playoff contention suffered a big blow with the loss of emerging star, center Jusuf Nurkic, to a broken leg.  He’ll be out at least two weeks. After being acquired from the Nuggets in February, he has averaged 15.2 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.0 blocks.  Portland has gone 14-6 with him in the lineup.  But then they defeated lowly Phoenix, 130-117, Saturday in their first game without the 7-foot 22-year-old from Bosnia.

You know, I can’t keep up on all the young post stars these days...there is a bunch of them.

--Since last chat, I need to also note a few things....

Wednesday, Russell Westbrook entered the record books with a triple-double of 57 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists in Oklahoma City’s 114-106 overtime win over the Magic.  This was the most points ever in a triple-double, topping James Harden and Wilt Chamberlain, who each scored 53.

Westbrook also joins Harden for the most 50-point triple-doubles in a season, two.  Before this season, a 50-point triple-double hadn’t been achieved since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975.

--Also Wednesday, Golden State had a big road win over San Antonio, 110-98, after falling behind 29-7 early.  Message sent to the Spurs....

MLB

--Opening Day...and the Yankees’ supposed ace, Masahiro Tanaka, came up way small, the worst opener for a Yankee hurler since 1973...7 earned in 2 2/3...as the Yanks lost down in Tampa Bay to the Rays 7-3.  Evan Longoria (who Mets fans would love in a huge way for our third base hole...no talk of this, I hasten to add...) and Logan Morrison went yard.

And then in an amazing opener in Arizona, Giants ace Madison Bumgarner opened the season with five perfect innings, 3 earned in seven innings overall, 0 walks and 11 strikeouts ...PLUS ...two home runs, the first pitcher EVER to club two homers on Opening Day.

But...the Diamondbacks prevailed 5-4 with two in the bottom of the ninth off new San Francisco closer Mark Melancon, signed for 4 years, $62 million.  It was the pen that cost the Giants dearly last year, an ‘even year,’ when they were expected to win it all once again.

--I was a little surprised by the Quinnipiac University poll released Friday that showed the Mets are favored over the Yankees by New York City baseball fans, 45% to 43%

But upstate, the Yankees dominated 53% to 14% (Red Sox fans filtering in), while the Bronx Bombers picked up 49% in the suburbs to the Mets’ 44%.

As reported in the New York Daily News, just three years ago, the Yankees would have been backed by 59% to 37% among New Yorkers.  Yes, a lot of fair weather fans in my area.

The phone poll also showed that 50% of the men asked and 63% of the women said they were not interested in baseball at all.  They’re all jerks.

--Boy, Chipper Jones trashed agent Scott Boras in his autobiography, “Ballplayer.”  Jones described his first meeting with Boras ahead of the 1990 amateur draft.  It lasted all of about five minutes, a span during which Jones claims Boras was “brash, abrasive, smug and cocky.”

“My meeting with him did not go well,” Jones wrote on Twitter Friday, “and I was not going to listen to another word from a guy that I know wasn’t going to rep me or my family the way we wanted him to.”

Jones tells the story of how Boras was representing Texas pitcher, Todd Van Poppel.  While Jones was taken first overall by the Braves, Van Poppel, a hugely touted prospect, was not taken until 14 by the A’s because of the contract demands.

Van Poppel signed the first multiyear deal given to a high school player as part of a then-record $1.2 million entry-level contract that included a $500,000 signing bonus.

A day before the draft, though, the Braves met with Jones at an Olive Garden.  They reached an agreement on a signing bonus and a day later, they selected him rather than Van Poppel.

Jones on Twitter: “The Braves passed on him because of the asking price.  Who was responsible for the asking price?  Scott Boras!  What makes you think they wouldn’t have passed on me as well?  I was gonna make my money in the big leagues for many, many years – not on some signing bonus that was gonna piss off the club that wanted to draft me.”

So while Jones’ overall contract and signing bonus was dwarfed by Van Poppel’s, Jones made $168 million in his 19-year career.  Van Poppel played 11 seasons but was a stiff and made about $7.5 million.

It all started at Olive Garden for Jones and the Braves.

--Speaking of the Braves, at the end of the 2012 season, they handed Melvin Upton Jr., who had had just an ‘OK’ season with Tampa Bay, $72 million over five years and he proceeded to suck mightily for first Atlanta and then San Diego.  Today, Toronto released him, with San Diego responsible for all but $1 million of his $16.45 million salary in 2017.

--Mike Lupica / New York Daily News

“In the end, and even when the punishment handed down because of another time when a wife or girlfriend called the police because of the behavior of a professional athlete seems reasoned and fair, it still always comes down to this:

“Guys being asked to make determinations about the bad behavior of other guys towards women.

“And so you know?  I believe Commissioner Rob Manfred got it right with (the Mets’) Jeurys Familia, giving him 15 games instead of the 30 he gave Aroldis Chapman a year ago because of an incident involving the mother of Chapman’s child.  There was a gun involved with Chapman, even if all he did was, according to police reports, fire off shots in his garage. Doesn’t matter. He could have taken aim at the moon. A gun being anywhere near a domestic argument presents both the opportunity and the danger of a far greater tragedy.

“But it is worth pointing out, and even as all professional sports try to become more and more vigilant about domestic violence and abuse in the modern world, that in two consecutive seasons, New York’s baseball teams started without their closers.

“And the Mets’ starting third baseman, Jose Reyes, was also suspended at the beginning of last season, when he was still with the Rockies, because he had been arrested by police in Maui the previous October...over an incident involving his wife.

“The case was finally dropped...after Reyes’ wife refused to talk to prosecutors and refused to return to Maui....

“Reyes got 51 games from Manfred, anyway....They are all different, and yet all the same, because always things got bad enough on the nights in question there was a call made to the police....

“Through it all, Manfred was the one who had to decide what he thought justice was in Familia’s case, the same as he had with Reyes and Chapman before him.  He is a smart guy, ruling on dumb guy behavior that, in the cases of Reyes and Familia, involved domestic violence incidents.”

Manfred, in a statement, said in part: “The evidence reviewed by my office does not support a determination that Mr. Familia physically assaulted his wife, or threated her or others with physical force or harm, on Oct. 31, 2016.  Nevertheless, I have concluded that Mr. Familia’s overall conduct that night was inappropriate, violated the Policy, and warrants discipline.”

Familia’s wife was “steadfast in her wish that the matter be dismissed and that the defendant not be prosecuted for simple assault,” said prosecutor Arthur Balsamo.

--We note the passing of Ruben Amaro Sr., longtime shortstop for the Phillies (1958, 1960-69) at the age of 81.

Amaro spent 58 years in the game, most with the Phillies. He would become a first base coach and picked up a ring as part of the Phillies’ first World Series in 1980.  [So his death comes days after that of the manager of that 1980 squad, Dallas Green.]

Amaro won a Gold Glove in 1964, a year that will live in infamy for Phillies fans.  [For you younger folk, one of the 2 or 3 greatest collapses in the sport of all time.]

Golf Balls

--The Shell Houston Open is seen as a perfect tune-up for The Masters because the course is set up to replicate conditions at Augusta.  This being the case, you can’t be happy to miss the cut and have negative vibes heading into next week, but MC is what the likes of Adam Scott, Ernie Els, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, J.B. Holmes, Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar did.

The winner was Russell Henley, the soon-to-be-28-year-old’s 3rd PGA Tour triumph.  Henley won by three over Korea’s Sung Kang, easily his best career finish.  Kang came in No. 202 in the world.

--I caught the end of regulation and then sudden-death in the Champions Tour event in Biloxi, Mississippi (oh, do I have some personal stories from there, circa 1982...but we continue...).  Miguel Angel Jimenez, the Most Interesting Golfer in the World, choked like you wouldn’t believe on the 18th hole in regulation, taking five shots from 154 yards out to cause a playoff with Gene Sauers, but then Miguel got it together for a birdie on the first playoff hole and his fourth win on the Champions Tour.  This guy is so great for the sport.

--I have to note it for the record...as boring as this has become.  Tiger Woods confirmed he will not be fit for The Masters...a tradition unlike any other...on CBS.

Woods now hasn’t played since Dubai on Feb. 3.  It’s the 20th anniversary of his historic first Masters win and he said: “I did about everything I could to play.”

“My back rehabilitation didn’t allow me the time to get tournament ready,” Woods said.  “I have no timetable for my return, but I will continue my diligent effort to recover, and want to get back out there as soon as possible.”

Premier League

Play resumed in a big way, with a shocking home loss for Chelsea at the feet of a suddenly resurgent Crystal Palace, 2-1, as Sam Allardyce’s boys won their fourth in a row when relegation once seemed like a real possibility.  [Now it’s just a small one.]

So my Tottenham Spurs took advantage and in defeating Burnley on the road 2-0, cut Chelsea’s lead to seven points, with Chelsea having a huge match with Manchester City on Wednesday.  But Tottenham has major injury issues, losing some more key players Saturday on top of the earlier loss of Harry Kane for another few weeks.

Also, Liverpool beat Everton 3-1 in their Merseyside brawl, the two being neighbors.

Leicester City won its fourth in a row with undefeated manager Craig Shakespeare, 2-0 over Stoke, so they no longer have to worry about relegation.  What a turnaround.

Manchester United and West Brom played to a 0-0 draw, awful for Man U.

Sunday, Arsenal and Manchester City squared off and they played to a 2-2 draw, while in a game with relegation implications, Swansea and Middlesbrough fans had a miserable time while a 0-0 stalemate broke out.

Standings....

1. Chelsea 29 (matches out of 38)...69 (points)
2. Tottenham 20 – 62
3. Liverpool 30 – 59
4. Manchester City 29 – 58
5. Manchester United 28 – 53
6. Arsenal 28 – 51

16. Crystal Palace 29 – 31
17. Swansea 30 – 28...relegation line
18. Hull City 39 – 27
19. Middlesbrough 29 – 23
20. Sunderland 29 – 20...these last two fan bases’ are about to commit hari-kari.

Stuff

--Brad Keselowski won this week’s Monster Energy NASCAR event at Martinsville, an entertaining affair (yes, I watched a lot of it, because I knew the Houston Open golf result hours ahead).  It was his second win of the year, first to take two in the 2017 season.  Kyle Busch was second.

--In two key Kentucky Derby prep races Saturday, favorite Gunnevera was taken out in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park by a Todd Pletcher horse, Always Dreaming, Gunnevera third.

According to the track, Always Dreaming’s run was the fastest 1 1/8-mile at Gulfstream since Alydar in 1978.

In the Louisiana Derby, another huge favorite, Girvin, fulfilled its promise, winning impressively to take the lead in the Kentucky Derby points standings.

Next weekend, four more big prep races, the Santa Anita Derby and Arkansas Derby, along with the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct and Blue Grass at Keeneland.

--There seems to be a groundswell of support for having Dallas quarterback Tony Romo retire and move into the CBS broadcast booth, replacing Phil Simms.  If CBS doesn’t do it, Romo could replace Fox No. 2, John Lynch, who is now the 49ers GM.

Yes, Romo still wants to play, but people in the know seem to believe he would be super in the booth and Simms gives you nothing at this stage in his career.

--Kelyn Soong of the Washington Post had a story on the running of Washington’s Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run today.  There is a special participant, Katherine Switzer, 70.

In a few weeks, Switzer will run in the Boston Marathon to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her life-defining moment by running the race for the first time since 1976.  Sunday’s race is a tune-up for Boston.

It was in 1967 that Katherine Switzer was the first woman to formally enter and complete the Boston Marathon, launching a revolution.  60 percent of the runners in today’s Cherry Blossom Ten-Miler will be women, and according to data collected by the organization Running USA, female finishers have annually outnumbered males at all U.S. running events combined since 2010.  Certainly I see that from personal experience at my annual half-marathon on Kiawah Island.  And boy do I love it!  I’ve only been finishing my last few pathetic years because of you.....

In 1984, Switzer successfully campaigned for the women’s marathon to become an Olympic sport, a pivotal moment.

Back in 1967, the 20-year-old finished the Boston Marathon in 4:20:02, except the race co-director later disqualified her for a list of reasons, including running with men.  The same guy, Jock Semple, tried to rip her bib off miles into the race.  Cue Jeff Spicoli.

--Olympian Brian Oldfield died. He was 71. His sister said the cause was heart and lung disease associated with diabetes.

Richard Sandomir / New York Times

“Oldfield brought a fresh approach to shot-putting.  Between throws he sometimes puffed on a cigarette. At the 1972 Olympic trials, he wore a uniform of Speedo-like shorts and a fishnet top – and beat out Randy Matson, the gold medalist in the 1968 Summer Games, for a spot on the United States team that went to Munich.

“But more than anything, he was a huge, easy-to-find physical sight: his head a mop of tousled blond curls and an impossibly thick neck that topped an etched-from-granite physique that stood 6 feet 5 inches and weighed around 275 pounds.

“ ‘When God invented man, he wanted him to look like me,’ Oldfield reportedly said, reflecting the personality he brought to track and field: a boastful athletic giant known for partying and having fun.

“ ‘On my baddest day,’ he once said, ‘I’m better than anyone else.’”

He finished sixth at the Summer Olympics in Munich and then he turned professional and had a running battle with Olympic officials because this was before professionals were welcomed into the Games.

In 1975, Oldfield set an indoor world record in the shot at 72 feet 6 ½ inches and then established an outdoor world record of 75 feet. But they weren’t considered official because he had joined a professional circuit, the International Track Association.

--Brad K. passed along a disturbing tale.  From the Associated Press:

“A herd of elephants has attacked a group of wildlife park employees in South Africa, trampling one to death and seriously injuring another.

“South Africa’s national parks service said Friday that the incident occurred Thursday afternoon near a camp in the flagship Kruger National Park.”

So what to do with ‘Elephant’?  The ultra-secret All-Species List High Court (ASLHC) is convening in remote Kazakhstan.  It will take a while for their decision to reach us.  The Court is accessible only by pack mule and doesn’t have Verizon FIOS.

For now, ‘Elephant,’ perennial No. 2 on the ASL, has been fined $1,400 and issued a stiff warning not to harm those trying to protect it.

--Great news...Florida panther kittens have been discovered in a part of the state where they had not been before...it’s expanding its range!!!

Trail cameras captured photographs of a female panther with two kittens in Charlotte Country north of the Caloosahatchee River; a river long considered a barrier to the expansion of the species.  [This waterway flows along the northern edge of the Everglades, and empties into the Gulf of Mexico about 10 miles southwest of Fort Myers, so Fort Myers residents need to start locking their windows, panthers preferring to enter through that route rather than knocking on the door.]

But the panthers do need some protected land.  The population was once thought to have declined to 20 or 30, and is now estimated at a maximum of 180 to 230.  They kill deer, hogs and other animals, like humans, if given the opportunity.  OK, I’m stretching a little on this last one, but I wouldn’t want to be an escaped convict in the same territory as a panther, know what I’m sayin’?

Unfortunately, many panthers get killed on Florida’s roads.

--China is planning on a panda reserve that will be three times the size of Yellowstone National Park.  I maintain pandas are overrated because they haven’t learned to diversify their diets.  No. 84 on the ASL.

--Locally, we have television ads for a resort and water park in the Pocono Mountains, Kalahari Resorts & Conventions, and every time I see it I think, ‘I can’t imagine anything more gross than an indoor water park like this.’  Like you know those old hotels who thought it was a good idea to put an indoor pool in the atrium, with the rooms all around?  That awful smell?  The germs that come from an indoor facility with kids?

Anyway, this week the Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pa., reported four children were taken by ambulance to the hospital after they were apparently sickened on a water slide at Kalahari.

The kids were coming off coughing and hacking (spreading germs) and it seems the chlorine levels were way too high. 

Just hit me...we’ll call it “Germahari Resorts and Conventions.”

--Watching CMAs...love this awards show...go Thomas Rhett!

Top 3 songs for the week 4/5/69: #1 “Dizzy” (Tommy Roe)  #2 “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In” (The 5th Dimension)  #3 “Time Of The Season” (The Zombies)...and...#4 “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” (Blood, Sweat & Tears)  #5 “Galveston” (Glen Campbell ...number three on my all-time Glen Campbell list behind “Wichita Lineman” and “By The Time I Get To Phoenix”...)  #6 “Run Away Child, Running Wild” (The Temptations)  #7 “Only The Strong Survive” (Jerry Butler)  #8 “Traces” (Classics IV featuring Dennis Yost) #9 “My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)” (David Ruffin)  #10 “Proud Mary” (Creedence Clearwater Revival...what an awesome week!)

NBA/College Quiz Answer: Hall of Famers...Dolph Schayes (NYU); Bob Pettit (LSU...embarrassed I didn’t remember this...); Bob Cousy (Holy Cross); Elgin Baylor (Seattle); Willis Reed (Grambling); Sam Jones (North Carolina Central)

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.

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