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Bar Chat

04/13/2017

Last Word on Augusta

[Posted Wed. a.m.]

Baseball Quiz: Borrowing from one of George Will’s annual baseball quizzes.  It’s an easy one.  Name the four pitchers with four or more Cy Young Awards. [The Cy Young was first awarded in 1956, one joint award, until one for each league was named beginning in 1967.]  Answer below.

Masters’ Postmortem....

As always with major events, and Sundays, I can’t complete a story without everyone else’s opinion on Sergio Garcia’s big win and duel with Justin Rose.  If you want to nitpick what I thought was one of the better Masters ever, it’s that it was just two golfers, and not the mad rush on the back nine that you would have thought Saturday evening’s leaderboard foretold.  Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth flat-out choked, bigly.  And I would have thought Rory or Jon Rahm would have made an early move and that didn’t materialize either.

But Sergio and Justin was one for the ages.  That’s what we’ll all remember.  It just makes many of us await the U.S. Open even more, especially with what will be a healthy Dustin Johnson, as long as he’s not walking around his strange rental in socks, testing the stairs.

James Corrigan / Irish Independent

“No major-winner has ever had so many attempts before tasting the glory and no golfer has even been so honest in the moment of fulfilment. Sergio Garcia called himself ‘stupid’ for railing the gods for not allowing him to reach his Augusta destiny.

“Garcia, 37, beat England’s Justin Rose on the first hole of a playoff. Yet the mere simplicity of that sentence does not begin to do the occasion, or the gripping duel, justice.

“It would have been the birthday of Severiano Ballesteros, Garcia’s countryman and mentor, and the two-time Augusta winner would have been so impressed with his persistence and application.

“This was the 74th major in which Garcia competed, the most of anyone without a triumph. But as he pointed out in humor, all that ‘if only’ wondering is finally at an end.  ‘I guess I’m now the best player to only have won one major,’ Garcia said.

“But in the post-victory euphoria, after a once hostile U.S. crowd had chanted ‘Sergio, Sergio,’ there was real and commendable candor.  It was not that long ago when he declared he could not win at Augusta and neither did he much like it.

“ ‘How stupid I really was trying to fight against something that you really can’t fight,’ he said.  ‘I needed to just accept things,’ Garcia said, reflecting on all those close calls which made him so bitter.

“ ‘When I first came here as an amateur in 1999, I felt like this course was probably going to give me at least one major.  But I’m not going to lie, that thought kind of changed through the years, because I started feeling uncomfortable here.

“ ‘But I kind of came to peace with it the last three or four years and I accepted what Augusta gives and takes.  And I think because of that I’m able to stand here today.  But it never felt like a horror movie.  A little bit of a drama maybe, but now with a happy ending.’

“When receiving the trophy, Garcia looked up to the heavens and thanked Ballesteros, who died six years ago.  ‘Seve did come into my mind today,’ he said.  ‘I’m sure he helped a little bit with some of those shots and some of those putts.’  But there was also a nod to Jose Maria Olazabal, the other Spaniard to win the Masters.

“ ‘To do it on Seve’s 60th birthday and to join him and Olazabal, my two idols in golf my whole life, it’s something amazing.  Jose sent me a text on Wednesday night telling me how much he believed in me and what I needed to do.  And just pretty much believe in myself and being calm and not letting things get to me that I’ve done in the past.  And he said I’m not sharing my champions’ locker with anyone but you.’

“Garcia is getting married this year to his fiancé, Angela Akins, and he gave credit to her influence. ‘I’m happy in my life and that helps enormously,’ he said.

“Garcia also paid tribute to Rose and revealed that the Englishman told him when they hugged on the 18th green, ‘nobody deserved this more than you.’”

For his part, the classy Rose said he took out the positives coming with his second runner-up finish in the Masters in three years.  “This is a tournament I am going to win one day,” Rose said.  ‘I’ve been in the last group a couple of times and shot 14-under when Jordan [Spieth] won.  I feel really confident here, this is my favorite tournament of the year. I still have a bunch of good years in me and feel this is one I can still knock off.

“ ‘Lots of good things happened today.  It was a wonderful battle and if there is anyone you want to lose to it’s Sergio.  He deserves it, he’s had his fair share of heartache.’”

George Willis / New York Post

“He was a precocious teenager when we first met him all those years ago, when Sergio Garcia hopped and skipped down fairways while battling Tiger Woods before barely losing a PGA Championship.

“He turned moody during his 20s, becoming a target of fans for his waggles and sour attitude. He complained the golf gods always were against him, never sending the good breaks his way.

“Then the Spaniard mellowed in his 30s, content with being a Ryder cup hero and resigned to the fact he might never win a major championship.

“But all the baggage, all the past heartbreak and self-doubt didn’t mean a thing Sunday after a 15-footer for birdie on the first playoff hole rimmed around the left edge before falling in, giving Garcia his long-awaited victory.  He finally is a major champion, a Masters Champion.  Ole, ole, ole. 

“At age 37, Garcia came to his 19th Masters a new man – calmer, engaged to be married and not looking for demons in every corner.  Yet, his final round on a sun-splashed Masters Sunday was a microcosm of his often-tortured career.

“There was great hope in the beginning after sharing the 54-hole lead with England’s Justin Rose, followed by adversity early on the back nine and later heartbreak from a putter that cost him a victory in regulation.  It looked like it might be Carnoustie 2007 again, where he missed a putt to win the British Open and lost in a playoff to Padraig Harrington.

“But potential tragedy turned into triumph.  Garcia made his winning birdie on the famed 18th green launching a celebration that had to be felt all the way to Spain and ended his streak of 73 majors without a win....

“Now we can fully embrace Garcia’s career instead of feeling sympathy for him.  With his Ryder Cup success and now a major championship, he stands shoulder to shoulder with his countrymen Jose Maria Olazabal and the late Seve Ballesteros as Masters champions from Spain.”

Thomas Boswell / Washington Post

“No golfer wears the misery of his game’s constant disappointments on his face more clearly than Sergio Garcia.  Every gray whisker in his stubble stands for a day he wishes he could forget but can never let go of.

“That beard will never regain its youthful color, but the expression on the face behind it is forever changed.  On Sunday, in his 74th attempt to win a major golf title, Garcia won the Masters. That trip to a contented expression has taken nearly two decades.

“At first, many years ago, Garcia suffered from bad bounces and spike marks in his putting line, just like all of us.  But with time, he came to distrust sparrows that had not yet chirped, trees whose limbs conspired when his ball entered their domain and fans who might be deciding whether to heckle him.  He was skeptical of entire continents – for example, North America.

“Many doubted that a man so weighed down with self-doubts and suspicions that others – or the fates – were against him, would shed his emotional swings from competitive elation to utter woe-is-me.  Now those questions are answered.  Garcia won his Masters with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff with Justin Rose in one of the tensest, most dramatically swinging final Sundays ever.

“Garcia has won 30 pro tournaments and dozens of millions of dollars and has had more gorgeous endorsements and lucrative girlfriends – no, that’s backward – whatever, he has had it all. But he as lacked the thing he wanted most and has chased for 22 years since he played in his first European Tour event as a 15-year-old prodigy – the major title that would prove he wasn’t a major choker.

“Garcia, who calls himself ‘the same goofy guy,’ loves horror movies.  ‘But I don’t feel like this [pursuit of a major] was a horror movie,’ he said after a 9-under-par 279 finish.  ‘More like a drama – with a happy ending.’....

“This final round – if Garcia had lost – would have been described as Pure Sergio but in the worst sense of that phrase. Garcia, as has so often been his curse, saw his putting fail.  He missed a five-foot birdie putt at the 16th to tie for the lead and, excruciatingly, missing a four-foot putt to win on 18.

“But his whole day was full of the kind of flubs that have unhinged him in the past.  He held a three-shot lead after five holes but saw it disappear by the time he reached the ninth tee....

“When Garcia bogeyed the 10th and 11th holes, then drove into the woods off the tee at the 13th and had to take a penalty stroke, the Georgia pines themselves must have thought, ‘Goodbye, Sergio.’

“Then, the other side of Garcia came into view.  Suddenly, the great match-play battler, who has a 19-11-7 record in the Ryder cup, showed up to duel with his friend Rose, one of Garcia’s teammates for Europe.

“ ‘I was much calmer than in any major championship on Sunday,’ Garcia said.  ‘I have done better recently in accepting that if [a major title] never happened, my life would go on, and it would not be a disaster.

“ ‘But it happened!’”

--Justin Rose tweeted after: “Congrats @TheSergioGarcia Incredible battle out there. Sport in the moment can be tough.  But it’s just sport. Hope you guys enjoyed it.”

Jack Nicklaus wrote on social media: “I though Sergio played very composed, played very well, and he played like he wasn’t going to be denied – even after he made a couple mistakes. He fought his way back into it.  Sergio was just very composed all day; he played very nicely; and played well within himself.  Sergio should be very proud of himself.  He played like the champion that he is.”

--I’m a little surprised, or maybe I shouldn’t be.  Ratings for the final round Sunday on CBS fell about 11% despite the big duel.  No doubt the nice weather in the northeast, finally, cut into viewership some, but there’s one big reason...no Tiger.  It’s a simple fact.  Had Mickelson been in the hunt that would have helped, too.

That said, the Masters easily remains the most popular of the four majors.  CBS’ 7.6 rating far outpaced that of last year’s U.S. Open on Fox (3.8), British Open on NBC (3.3) and PGA Championship on CBS (3.4).

NBA

--After I posted last time, Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Russell Westbrook closed out another historic evening with a three-pointer at the buzzer to give OKC a 106-105 victory over Denver.  The three gave him a record 42nd triple-double with 50-points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, thus becoming the first player with three 50-point triple-doubles in a season.  He had eight with at least 40 points.

But the final three was a dagger into the hearts of the Nuggets in that it ended their playoff hopes, with Portland clinching the last spot in the West.

Then Monday, in the battle for the last playoff spot in the East, the three fighting it out, Indiana, Chicago and Miami, all won their games, the Heat with a 124-121 overtime win over Cleveland, though the Cavs played without LeBron and Kyrie Irving.

So entering Wednesday night’s finales, we have....

7. Indiana 41-40
8. Chicago 40-41
9. Miami 40-41

Miami needs to beat Washington at home, and have Indiana (home to Atlanta) or Chicago (home to Brooklyn), lose for the Heat to get in.

Meanwhile, the Celtics beat Brooklyn Monday to move back ahead of Cleveland for the 1 spot in the East.  Boston (52-29) clinches with a win Wednesday against Milwaukee.  But if Boston loses and Cleveland (51-30) beats Toronto, the Cavs are the 1-seed.

--In college basketball, San Diego State coach Steve Fisher finally decided to hang it up, announcing his retirement (though it wasn’t official yet).  Finally, head coach-in-waiting Brian Dutcher will get his opportunity and be introduced as Fisher’s replacement.

Fisher, 72, had a year remaining on his contract though this was the right thing to do after a disappointing 19-14 season.  But what an 18-year ride at SDSU, taking a program that was beyond dead and turning it into a perennial Top 25, with 11 straight seasons of 20 wins prior to this one, 8 NCAA tournament bids, including 6 in a row, 2010-15, and a record number of sellouts. 

Fisher was 386-209 at SDSU, after going 185-81 at Michigan, including famously coaching the “Fab Five,” before that program imploded in controversy.  He then re-emerged with the Aztecs three years later.

Enjoy retirement, Coach.  You done good.

MLB

--I’ll start writing more about the season next time, including early surprises (nice start Arizona!), but Mets fans have no problem figuring out how our season is going to go.  We are now 5-1 in games started by Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey, after Tuesday’s 14-4 shellacking of the Phillies, with Yoenis Cespedes going yard three times, and 0-2 when our other starters pitch.  We need a healthy Steven Matz.  The Mets have also scored 4 or more runs in their five wins, and 1 or 2 in their three losses and that’s the way it should be all season.  Feast or famine with this lineup.

--The Yankees had a spectacular home opener on Monday, the best Opening Day weather at the stadium since 1960, as Michael Pineda rewarded the fans with nearly seven perfect innings, going 7 2/3 in an 8-1 win. Pineda is like Andy Dalton...Good Andy, Bad Andy...Good Michael, Bad Michael...you never know which Pineda is going to show up. 

--I do have to note the Padres’ Wil Myers hitting for the cycle in Colorado on Monday in a 5-3 San Diego victory.  Startlingly, this was only the Padres’ second cycle ever, Matt Kemp having the other on Aug. 14, 2015.

--Tim Tebow is 4-for-20 in his first few games for the Class A Columbia Fireflies, hitting a second home run on Sunday, and Columbia Manager Jose Leger told The State, “I saw him in spring training and the way he went about his business, but I’ve seen even more progress here. He made a couple of plays in the outfield today where it seems like he’s been playing there for a while.  He works on things every single day.”

The Fireflies, by the way, averaged 6,501 fans in their first four contests, all at home, after averaging 3,785 fans for 69 home games last season.

--The Phillies announced that Pete Rose will be bestowed with the team’s highest honor.  On Saturday, August 12, Rose, a four-time Phillies All-Star, will become the 39th inductee into the Phillies Wall of Fame during an on-field ceremony before that night’s game against the Mets.

--I was reading a piece from the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Alex Coffey on Opening Day, 1966, for the Atlanta Braves, their first game in Fulton County Stadium after moving from Milwaukee.  50,900 showed up to see the Braves host the Pirates and Pittsburgh won 3-2 in 13 innings, as Willie Stargell hit a two-run homer in the top of the 13th off Tony Cloninger, while Joe Torre hit his second solo shot in the bottom of the inning.

Now some old-time baseball fans might be thinking, Tony Cloninger in the 13th?  Yup.  First game of the season and the Braves starter went the distance...13 innings.  He gave up the three runs on 10 hits, with 3 walks and 12 strikeouts.

Opening Day!!!  Goodness gracious.  They don’t make ‘em like that anymore, boys and girls.  I can’t imagine how many pitches he threw, especially with a lot of hits and strikeouts.

Bob Veale started for the Pirates, by the way, and went 8 2/3.  The game was played in 3 hours and 27 minutes...not bad for this long an affair.

--Forbes annual survey of the most valuable baseball franchises has the Yankees tops at $3.7 billion, followed by the Dodgers ($2.75bn), Red Sox ($2.7bn), Cubs ($2.675bn) and the Giants ($2.65bn).

Do you think the Ricketts family made a good investment in the Cubs?  They bought the team and a piece of a local sports network for $845 million in 2009, a record for an MLB franchise, which many at the time thought was ridiculously high.

Of course the Steinbrenner family bought the Yankees from CBS for just $10 million in 1973, which was $3.2 million less than it had paid for the team.  [Darren Rovell / ESPN]

College Baseball

Baseball America’s Top 25 [April 10]

1. Oregon State
2. Louisville
3. TCU
4. North Carolina
5. Clemson
6. Texas Tech
7. Arizona
8. Cal State Fullerton
9. Louisiana State
10. Auburn
20. Wake Forest*
24. St. John’s

*Wake dropped three spots this week in this poll, but it was because they lost 2 of 3 at Louisville.  Check out the scores...2-1 (W), 7-5, 7-6.  What a series for a college baseball fan that must have been.  Wake certainly proved they are for real, but there is nothing harder in college sports than winning your opening regional in the NCAA tournament.

NHL

I have to admit, I will barely follow the Stanley Cup Playoffs unless the Rangers do well and I don’t expect that...the Rangers starting their playoff series at Montreal tonight, Wednesday.

But Canadian hockey fans have something to cheer about this postseason, after all seven teams from the Great White North failed to get in last year, a shocking experience for all involved.  This season five made it...Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary.

As a New York Times piece noted, picture how happy Sportsnet is.  Ratings last year plummeted for the parent company, Rogers Media, which has the broadcasting rights for the NHL in Canada.

Asked how it felt to have no Canadian teams in the postseason, President Scott Moore of Sportsnet said, “Ask NBC how they would feel about an Edmonton-Montreal Stanley Cup final.”

Premier League / Champions League

--Huge win Monday for Crystal Palace, a 3-0 thrashing of Arsenal. I caught a lot of this and it was the best of the Premier League in terms of an underdog beating one of the kings of the sport before a home crowd that was absolutely going nuts.  Oh, to have been there. So CP, sudden winners of 5 of its last 6, is six points clear of relegation and seemingly secure for another season.

--So I’m reading a piece on the BBC site about one of my favorites, Tottenham’s budding superstar Dele Alli, who compliments Harry Kane beautifully, and check out some of these stats.

The BBC asks: “Could Alli be ‘The Greatest’?”

This guy, who just turned 21 on Tuesday (yesterday), “has been involved in as many Premier League goals, 40, before turning 21 as Frank Lampard (15), Steven Gerrard (13) and David Beckham (12) combined.”

Less than two years ago, Alli was playing for the MK Dons.  Today, as an attacking midfielder, he has 19 goals in all club competitions this season, following the 10 he managed in his debut season for Tottenham.  Alli’s 16 for Tottenham in the Premier League specifically is the most for any under-21 player in Europe’s top five leagues!

But, some experts would say, and probably correctly, that to be considered truly “world class,” you have to do it in the big games, such as in the Champions League, or obviously the World Cup.

Ah, but if somehow Tottenham can hang on to both Alli and Kane, who is all of 23, the future for that franchise is spectacular.

--Speaking of the Champions League, the quarterfinals started Tuesday....at least one of two scheduled matches.  Juventus whipped Barcelona 3-0 in the first leg of their series.  That’s Barcelona, with Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.  But they’ve proved they can come back from huge deficits before.

The other match, Borussia Dortmund vs. Monaco, was delayed until later today for good reason.  Three bombs exploded on the Dortmund team bus as it set off for their stadium in Dortmund.  Unbelievable tragedy was avoided, however, as just one of Dortmund’s center backs, Marc Bartra, suffered a fractured arm and shrapnel wounds, and was operated on last night.  Police later said one of their motorcyclists, who had been escorting the bus to the stadium, had also been injured, though the injuries weren’t life-threatening.

Details are still sketchy, but a letter was found and there appears, initially, to be an Islamist connection.  I just can’t imagine global reaction if this had been worse.  Needless to say, the team said it is going to be strong against Monaco.

The other first legs of the quarterfinals are Atletico Madrid v. Leicester City and Bayern Munich v. Real Madrid.

Stuff

--A lot of World War I anniversaries have been commemorated in recent weeks, and this past Sunday, April 9, was the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the critical Battle of Vimy Ridge, “a turning point in the war and for Canada, when Canadians acted – and fought – as one,” as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in tribute at a ceremony in northern France on Sunday, appearing alongside French President Francois Hollande, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

The battle, near Arras, was part of a wider British-led offensive that acted as a diversion from a French attack to the south, and proved successful in its aim.

The battle across a 4.3-mile ridge began in heavy snow and sleet and lasted four days.  Four Canadians went on to earn the Victoria Cross, the British military’s highest award for bravery.

About 3,600 Canadian died in the battle, the first time different Canadian military divisions had fought together under one command.

This was just 50 years after Canada became an independent dominion, and just as the Battle of Gallipoli represented the first time Australian and New Zealand forces fought in a world conflict (which is why ANZAC day is a day of remembrance in both), Vimy Ridge is long noted by Canadians, and some 20,000 traveled to France for the ceremonies Sunday.  That’s awesome.

Yours truly can claim to be one of the few in the world to visit the war museums of Turkey, Australia and New Zealand, the key players along with Britain at Gallipoli, and I went to a terrific Canadian war museum in Calgary a number of years ago, while attending the Calgary Stampede, a major bucket list item.

Anyway, at Gallipoli, some 8,700 Australians and about 2,700 New Zealanders died.  The battle itself was not an allied success (bad moment for Churchill), but it gave these two their identities.

Gallipoli is where a hero of mine, Ataturk, (Mustafa Kemel), the founder of the Republic of Turkey, achieved great victory for the Ottoman Empire and then set about modernizing it.  I made a pilgrimage to his tomb in Ankara once.  [That’s where longtime readers will remember I used to go to a German restaurant across from the Iranian Embassy and flip off the cameras outside the gate...a foolish lad at the time.]

Unfortunately, the current leader of Turkey is sliding backwards from the secular ideas Ataturk promoted.

Anyway, there’s your little World War I snippet for the week.  The PBS “American Experience” documentary on the Great War is super, by the way.  Started Monday.

--University of Maryland President Wallace Loh was caught on audio by the News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., of saying, “For the things that happened in North Carolina, it’s abysmal (referring to the academic scandal).  I would think that this would lead to the implementation of the death penalty by the NCAA.  But I’m not in charge of that.”

Joel Curran, the vice chancellor of communications at UNC, wrote in an email to the newspaper, “We were surprised that a sitting university president with no direct knowledge of our case would choose to offer such uninformed and highly speculative opinions.”

Still no word on a final ruling by the NCAA.

--Yes, Mark R.  New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Phillies fans “bitter” and Citizens Bank Park “not safe,” and even though this was a while ago, you are right.  Gov. Christie goes into the Dec. file for “Jerk of the Year” consideration.

Mark R. wanted to emphasize he has been to numerous Phillies games over the years with his grandson and never felt unsafe in the least.  Of course if you are a Mets fan, like Gov. Christie, and you went and started shouting at the top of your lungs that the Phillies suck, chances are you’d have a problem.

Hey, I’m a Jets fan and I think our fans are the worst in the country in terms of behavior.  I’ve been among them many a time.  We can be disgusting pigs.

--I was reading a piece from the Rapid City Journal (South Dakota) on a certain fish in Lake Sharpe, and it was kinda exciting...conservationists finding a shovelnose sturgeon that had made a “dull thump against the aluminum hull.”  “The same basic fish could have been pulled from a river 70 million years ago.”

And this particular sturgeon does indeed look prehistoric, with its bony plates forming a sharp ridge down its spine.

There are about 27 varieties of sturgeon in the world that have changed little since the time of the dinosaurs.

The shovelnose sturgeon is listed as threatened, partially because it looks like a pallid sturgeon, which is critically endangered and the fish and wildlife service doesn’t want any anglers mistaking them for shovelnose sturgeon.  If an angler were to catch either, they’d have to throw it back.

Both species are native to the Missouri River.  But when the damning of the Missouri occurred, that impacted the pallid sturgeon because it can’t reproduce without lots of moving water.  Picky, picky, picky.

But shovelnose sturgeon can spawn in Lake Sharpe, so I respect the shovelnose far more, know what I’m sayin’?

What’s really cool, though, is that there are some sturgeon that can live 50 years!  The shovelnose’s lifespan is more like 20, which is still quite impressive and means that a shovelnose born, say, in 2000, can tell its great, great grandkids that it saw all five of Tom Brady’s and Bill Belichick’s Super Bowl titles.

And that’s how you can tie the story of the shovelnose sturgeon to Brady and Belichick for your own kids!

Fun with sturgeon...another free feature of Bar Chat.

--Brad K. passed on some disturbing stories, one of out of Chevy Chase, Maryland, where a live scorpion was found in a salad mix from a Giant grocery store.  The couple bought the salad last Friday evening. On Monday afternoon, the wife opened the bag to make lunch when she noticed something unusual.  [The couple shot a video.]

“I saw something inside the bag crawling.  I thought it was a cricket...and then I noticed when it was [in] the bottle [that she managed to get it in], it was a scorpion.”

They took it to the store and told them to pull all the salad, which Giant did, but only after being contacted by News4.

Last weekend there was a similar report.  A Fresh Express salad mix was recalled after a dead bat was found inside a container sold in a Florida Wal-mart, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Good gawd....I just bought a Fresh Express salad mix yesterday morning before reading this.  Now I’m afraid I’ll open it later today and find a coiled cobra, lashing out at my face!

Speaking of cobras, Brad also passed along a piece from the Daily Mail’s Dinest Dubey.

A snake charmer in India was attempting to put a cobra around a tourist’s neck while other people watched and the tourist in Jodhpur, northwestern India, “was bitten on the face while posing for pictures.

“The man does not immediately notice he has been poisoned, as he carries on posing for the camera.

“Moments later he seems to sense that something is amiss, asking the charmer to check whether he has been bitten.

“But the entertainer ignores him and carries on with the demonstration.

“A few minutes later the man begins losing consciousness, but rather than take him to hospital, onlookers took him to a medicine man.

“Within an hour he had died from the poison, according to witnesses.”

Well, like I always say, medicine men are overrated.  Let that be a lesson to you if you need care while going through the Sioux Reservation.  Medicine men aren’t required to take regular courses learning the latest procedures like regular doctors are.

But you know how I had a guy place a snake around my neck in Morocco years ago?  I had no idea what kind of snake that was, ditto at a snake park in Australia.  Ask me if I’ll ever do this again.

--A great white shark was spotted breaching the water off Huntington Beach the other day, right near about 20 surfers, but the video doesn’t show the aftermath.  If you know a surfer who hasn’t returned, that might be your clue.

Long Beach State University Shark Lab director Chris Lowe told the Orange County Register that with all the shark sightings recently, it looks like a “sharky summer.”

Hopefully so.

--Lastly, we note the passing of John Warren Geils Jr., the founding guitarist behind the 1970s and ‘80s rock powerhouse J. Geils Band.  He was 71.  Police said he died of natural causes.

The band – with singer Peter Wolf – was known for its bluesy guitar work.  After touring with the Byrds and the Allman Brothers, the band achieved its breakout success in the ‘70s and early ‘80s with the release of hit singles like “Must of Got Lost,” “Give It To Me” and “Love Stinks.”

But in 1982, its album “Freeze-Frame” was an even bigger smash on the strength of the hit single “Centerfold,” which spent six weeks atop the pop charts in the U.S.  [The single “Freeze Frame” peaked at No. 4.]

Top 3 songs for the week 4/15/72: #1 “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (Roberta Flack...in the movie “Play Misty For Me”...one of the more underrated flicks of that era...)  #2 “A Horse With No Name” (America...one of the stupider, nonetheless good-sounding tunes...)  #3 “I Gotcha” (Joe Tex)...and...#4 “Rockin’ Robin” (Michael Jackson...easily his worst...save for those godawful duets he did with McCartney and others...)  #5 “Heart Of Gold” (Neil Young)  #6 “In The Rain” (Dramatics...good one...)  #7 “Puppy Love” (Donny Osmond)  #8 “Betcha By Golly, Wow” (The Stylistics)  #9 “Day Dreaming” (Aretha Franklin...one of her best...)  #10 “A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done” (Sonny & Cher...ugh...)

Baseball Quiz Answer: Four with four or more Cy Young Awards...Roger Clemens (7), Randy Johnson (5), Steve Carlton (4), Greg Maddux (4).  Clayton Kershaw already has 3. 

Next Bar Chat, Monday.

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