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Bar Chat

04/20/2017

Animals Gone Wild

[Posted Wed. a.m.]

Baseball Quiz: The Atlanta Braves have two starting pitchers, Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey, who are 43 and 42, respectively.  What team is the last to have two pitchers 42 or older start 10 or more games?  Answer below.

NBA

--In playoff action Tuesday, Toronto rebounded against Milwaukee, 106-100, as Kyle Lowry (22 points) regained his shooting touch.  The Clippers evened their series at 1-1 with the Jazz, 99-91.  And in another shocker, Chicago whipped 1-seed Boston, 111-97, behind Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler, each with 22, Chicago heading home with a 2-0 lead.

Monday, the Spurs sent their second straight message to the rest of the league with a 96-82 win over Memphis, after winning game one 111-82.  The message is, “We’re back” after their end-of-season slump.  It’s been the Kawhi Leonard show thus far, 37 and 32 points.

Cleveland is up 2-0 over Indiana but in decidedly unimpressive fashion.  Suddenly, the Eastern Conference looks wide open...like for Washington.

--According to TMZ, La La Anthony split from hubby Carmelo.  The poor guy (well, very rich ‘poor’ guy) can’t get a break these days.  The TMZ story said the awful Knicks season and Phil Jackson’s targeting of Melo “has been extremely stressful on the marriage for several months.”

Actually, I take back my feelings of sympathy for Melo.  TMZ and other sources said he’s had a relationship with a stripper at a New York club who claims to be 6 ½ months pregnant with Anthony’s child. Anthony has been known to say, “La La is married...I’m not.”

--Didn’t have a chance last time to write of Danny Hurley’s comments in Sports Illustrated on his father and the closing of St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, N.J.  [He goes by ‘Dan,’ these days.]

“The only time my father, Bob Hurley Sr., came close to leaving St. Anthony High was when coach Pete Gillen offered him a job as an assistant at Xavier in 1985.  He and my mom, Christine, flew to Cincinnati, and they brought back real estate brochures for homes in northern Kentucky.

“Most kids would be in favor of their dad earning a pay raise, a promotion and moving into a bigger house. But my brother, Bobby, and I were crushed. We were in junior high, and all we’d ever wanted was to play for our dad at St. Anthony.  We didn’t have babysitters growing up – we took the No. 81 or 9 bus to White Eagle Hall and hung out at Dad’s practices.

“When my dad returned from Cincinnati, the allure of coaching his sons won out over going to the college ranks. I think it meant a lot to my dad to see just how much playing at St. Anthony meant to his kids.

“Dad never seriously considered leaving again. He ended up with a record of 1,185-125, with 28 state titles, four national championships and a place in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.  (My brother earned a scholarship at Duke and I got one to Seton Hall.)  But the news last week that St. Anthony will close after this academic year has been so crushing to our family because the school transcended basketball.  It feels like the reason I am where I am in life has been erased.

“It feels unfair and unceremonial the way it happened – a 10-minute meeting between my dad, school officials and members of the Archdiocese of Newark – closing a place that’s meant so much to so many people.

“My dad didn’t coach to produce first-round draft picks like Terry Dehere (1993), Roshown McLeod (’98) or Kyle Anderson (2014). The value of St. Anthony was giving kids from the inner city a better crowd of friends, improved academics and a chance to attend college.  The best success stories are the kids who became policemen, firemen and teachers.

“It would be impossible to replicate St. Anthony anywhere else.   We didn’t even have a gym*, and my dad kept a second job as a probation officer for many of his 45 years....

“Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if my dad had taken the job at Xavier.  Would he have climbed the ladder and coached in the Final Four?  Probably.  But if you gave him that choice right now – do what you’ve done or win in an NCAA championship – he wouldn’t change anything.”

*I recently wrote that I really did live directly across from St. Anthony when I was working in New York.  My roommates and I would comment, ‘that’s a different St. Anthony, it doesn’t have a gym.’  [We were long gone in the morning by the time school started, and then home long after school ended, so it’s not like we saw a bunch of very tall and athletic looking kids and had the chance to put two and two together.]

Yes, the bottom line is it’s all about the sexual abuse scandals in my church and the shelling out of $tens of millions in lawsuits within each diocese. It’s killed the schools, which, nationwide, have such a great track record for superior, inner city education.

MLB

--The surprising Yankees (9-5) had their 8-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday, 4-1 by the White Sox (7-6).  New York is getting surprisingly strong starting pitching, including last night when Luis Severino allowed three earned in eight innings, striking out 10.  If he is back to his 2015 form, that’s huge for New York.

[Meanwhile, the Yankees have their fingers crossed as rising star Gleyber Torres, currently in AA, exited Tuesday with a sore shoulder.]

--My Mets have been heading in the wrong direction.  I’ve said it was feast or famine with this group and after a strong 7-3 start, they’ve suffered four consecutive brutal late-inning losses, including falling to the Phillies (5-8) at Citi Field Tuesday, 6-2 in 10 innings when third baseman Jose Reyes, who is already killing the team with his 5-for-50 (.100) start at the plate, dropped a pop-up with two outs in the top of the eighth that led to Philadelphia tying the score.

--Starling Marte, a rising star outfielder with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who set career highs last year in batting average (.311), stolen bases (47), and slugging percentage (.456), while making his first All-Star team, was suspended 80 games on Tuesday after testing positive for nandrolone, a powerful steroid with a long history in sports.  The two-time Gold Glover’s play was so good in the outfield, that this season the Pirates moved long-time centerfielder Andrew McCutchen to right so Marte could take over in center.

So now McCutchen goes back to center, and it’s a huge blow for the Pirates.

Marte apologized to the team and the fans in a statement:

“Neglect and lack of knowledge have led me to this mistake with the high price to pay of being away from the field that I enjoy and love so much.  With much embarrassment and helplessness, I ask for forgiveness for unintentionally disrespecting so many people who have trusted in my work and have supported me so much. I promise to learn the lesson that this ordeal has left me.”

What a bunch of garbage.  Yes, into the December file he goes for “Jerk” and “Idiot of the Year” consideration.

College Baseball Rankings (Baseball America, 4/17)

1. Oregon State
2. Louisville
3. North Carolina
4. Texas Tech
5. Clemson
6. Arizona
7. TCU
8. Cal-State Fullerton
9. LSU
10. Auburn
17. Wake Forest
22. St. John’s

Golf Balls

--I saw the end of the RBC Heritage but didn’t have a chance to give more credit to Wes Bryan, who had a great reply to the question, ‘How did it feel to win on Easter?’

“I want this to be less about me, and more about our Savior.”

But when Bryan was in the tower with Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo after, it was his answer to the question on how he fought his nerves down the stretch of what would be his first PGA Tour title that had Nantz and Faldo at first giving horrified looks.

“Honestly, I just threw up a little in my mouth, and I was like, well, shoot, I guess this is what nervous feels like.”

Nantz visibly cringed.  Faldo seemed stunned, and then they burst out laughing.  It was great stuff.

Wes Bryan is definitely a guy to root for.

--But boy have I been naïve.  I thought Jason Dufner was someone to root for too!  But it turns out I should feel differently, as long-time golf writer Alexi Miceli writes in the Morning Read:

“I’ve covered only golf in my career, but according to many of the older writers who have chronicled other sports, professional golfers are the best athletes to cover.

“Any sport has its difficult personalities, but the vast majority of professional golfers understand that they are fortunate to be on the PGA Tour, and they act accordingly. They are the best of the best, playing for millions of dollars each week and with the opportunity to earn in one year what most people would earn in a lifetime....

“Which leads us to Dufner.

“Dufner, now 40, was a bit of a late bloomer in golf. At age 35, he won for the first time at the 2012 Zurich Classic of New Orleans and followed that victory three weeks later by winning at the HP Byron Nelson.  One year later, he won the PGA Championship.  In those two seasons, he earned more than $8 million. During that stretch, in May 2012, he also married the former Amanda Boyd.

“Dufner and his wife were a celebrity couple, making the rounds at big sporting events.  In 2013, Dufner became an Internet sensation when he was photographed slouching against a wall during a charity event at a Dallas elementary school, and the ‘Dufnering’ craze was born.

“Like most fads, Dufnering became short-lived. So, too, did his marriage, which ended in divorce in 2015. His game soured, and he finished 101st in earnings in 2015.

“Since the breakup, Dufner has done his best to shun the media, perhaps blaming us for his troubles. He’s among the very small minority of prickly players.

“Dufner instead walks the fairways every week as if someone were drawing blood from his veins, lifeless and without purpose.

“That’s his prerogative, but most players understand that professional golf is entertainment, so they do what they can to provide fans with excitement and enjoyment.

“Dufner? Well, look at what he did Sunday at the RBC Heritage.

“Starting the final round with a one-shot lead, Dufner struggled. After missing a 7-foot par putt on the par-5 sixth hole – which he had eagled a day earlier – he tapped in the 2-foot bogey putt, dropped his putter onto the green and walked away, leaving caddie Kevin Baile to clean up the mess.

“Twitter respondents called Dufner’s behavior disgusting.

“I’d go further and say it’s despicable.”

“Golf is a game of honor and integrity. Dufner’s actions were the opposite of those characteristics.

“Graham DeLaet, looking for his first victory on the PGA Tour, had the misfortune of being Dufner’s playing competitor and also was having a bad day. DeLaet didn’t display the childish emotions of Dufner.

“In the end, Dufner staggered to a 5-over 76 and a tie for 11th, with earnings of $114,045. That’s the amount that Commissioner Jay Monahan should fine the dolt for his actions.”

--At a news conference to announce his first public golf course, Tiger Woods said, “The back is progressing.  I have good days and bad days. I’ve had three back operations and that’s just kind of the nature of the business unfortunately.  That’s all I can say.” Whatever.

--Sagarin/Golfweek Men’s College Golf Ranking (Apr. 13)

1. Baylor
2. Southern California
3. Vanderbilt
4. LSU
5. Oklahoma State
6. Florida
7. Illinois
8. Stanford
9. Wake Forest
10. Oregon

Women’s College Golf Rankings (Apr. 12)

1. Alabama
2. Arizona State
3. Stanford
14. Wake Forest

Men’s College Tennis Rankings (Apr. 18)

1. Wake Forest...and it’s not even close
2. Ohio State
3. Virginia
4. Baylor
5. Oklahoma State

Go Deacs!!!

Champions League

In second-leg matches Tuesday, Real Madrid advanced to the semifinals with a 4-2 win over Bayern Munich 4-2 (6-3 aggregate), Cristiano Ronaldo with a hat-trick, the third his 100th Champions League goal, the first to do so.

Leicester City is out after a 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid, losing 2-1 on aggregate, but the Foxes did themselves proud in their first-ever CL competition.

Wednesday, it’s Barcelona v. Juventus; Monaco v. Borussia Dortmund.

Meanwhile, with six games to play for Tottenham and Chelsea in the Premier League, and the Spurs four points behind, these are the opponents the rest of the way for each, in order.

Tottenham: Palace (a), Arsenal (h), West Ham (a), Man U (h), Leicester (a), Hull (a).

Chelsea: Southampton (h), Everton (a), Middlesbrough (h), West Brom (a), Watford (h), Sunderland (h).

Decided advantage to Chelsea.

And this weekend we have the semifinals of the FA Cup: Chelsea v. Tottenham; Arsenal v. Man City.

Stuff

--The New York Rangers gave a gutty performance at the Garden on Tuesday, evening their series with the Canadiens at 2-2, with a hard-fought 2-1 win behind another stellar effort from goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

--Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez hanged himself in prison early this morning.  Good riddance.  There is zero more to say about this guy.

--Katherine Switzer, 70, ran the Boston Marathon on Monday, donning the same bib number, 261, that she wore in 1967 when then-race director Jock Semple tried to rip it off and stop her from finishing the race.  Switzer finished this time in 4:44:30, which is damn good for that age.

So congratulations, Katherine Switzer!

Meanwhile, Kenyans once again won both races, but some well-known American track athletes performed spectacularly well.

Galen Rupp, in his first big-city marathon after taking bronze at the Rio Olympics, stayed with men’s winner Geoffrey Kirui until the final stages, with Rupp finishing just 21 seconds behind Kirui’s winning time of 2:09:37.  Just two weeks ago Rupp had a cortisone shot in his left foot to treat the pain related to a nagging plantar fasciitis injury.  [I developed that myself last year for the first time in my running career...sucks.  But you can see from the high quality of these columns, it hasn’t impacted the writing!]

In the women’s race, Kenya’s Edna Kiplagat pulled in front with a few miles to go and won in 2:21:52, 59 seconds better than Rose Chelimo of Bahrain.  But I was shocked.  American Jordan Hasay, who I wrote of way back in 2008 from the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, placed third in 2:23:00 in her debut marathon!

Hasay, who was a high schooler in ‘08, is still just 25 years old and after struggling to find her way in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, she now intends to become the face of women’s long-distance running in the U.S. in the coming years.  Awesome, Jordan!

Desiree Linden, another American, finished fourth giving U.S. women two of the top four spots for the first time in Boston since 1991.

Back to Rupp, he is still just 30 and has more than a few quality years of marathon racing ahead of him.  [Matthew Futterman / Wall Street Journal]

Two more.  41-year-old Meb Keflezighi finished the marathon in 2:17:01, in what he said is his last appearance in Boston.  Keflezighi won the men’s division of the first marathon after the 2013 bombings, becoming the first American winner since 1983.  He has said his last marathon overall will be in New York next fall.

And 55-year-old Johan Otter of Escondido, California finished on Monday.  The significance?  Nearly 12 years ago, Otter survived a grizzly bear attack that left him with a fractured neck, six broken ribs, plus more than 20 open wounds.  In the mauling, “the bear ripped off nearly 80 percent of Otter’s scalp.”

Back when he was in a Chula Vista hospital recovering, he recalls he felt the presence of someone behind him and when he turned around, it was a nun, staring at his scarred head.

“Why did he save you?” asked the nun, who didn’t inquire about how Otter’s head was damaged.

“I don’t know, sister,” he replied.  “I think I’m still trying to figure that out.”

Said the nun before walking away, “He will let you know.”

Otter told Don Norcross of the San Diego Union-Tribune, that he knows his commitment to running helped save his life.

“Distance runners are renowned for their discipline, and Otter is no exception. He runs five days a week, awaking at 2:30 a.m. to get in a minimum five-mile workout with his regular training companion, his 50-pound Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Kai.  He first qualified for Boston in 2001.

But it was the early morning of Aug. 25, 2005, that Johan’s life changed.  To celebrate his oldest daughter’s graduation from high school, father and daughter, Jenna, headed to Glacier National Park.

As they set out for a hike, “With Jenna in front, they rounded a rock jetty. Staring at Jenna, no more than three feet away, was a grizzly. The bear was stunned.  Jenny stumbled back.  Instinctively, Johan stepped in front of his daughter.

“The bear leaped at Johan, biting into his left thigh.”

It got much worse, as Johan and the bear tumbled down a trail, the bear biting and clawing at his head.  The bear also attacked Jenna, who had broken her back in a fall, biting her in the head.  Today, she has a scar to the right of her lips.

Otter was hospitalized for 12 weeks to repair his broken neck.  Doctors said because he was a marathon runner, his fitness and determination were keys to his survival.

All these years later, Jenna is an emergency-room physician in Philadelphia.

--Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports said on Facebook Monday that he hopes the memorabilia Eli Manning gave him to sell is legit.

“When Eli Manning walks into your office and he says, ‘These are my game-used items’...I’d like to think that I can believe that,” said Steiner.

Steiner has had a deal with Manning since 2004 and said the quarterback had started sending in extra items in recent years.  As I noted last time, Manning appears to implicate himself in recently disclosed emails as part of a court case.

--Grayson Allen announced he is returning for his senior season, not that the guard really had any other choice because he certainly wasn’t going to be a first-round pick like he would have been following his sophomore campaign.  Last year was just a debacle for Allen, with his personal issues, and it will be interesting to see if he regains his former star status.

Duke is losing Jayson Tatum, Luke Kennard and Harry Giles to the NBA draft, while seniors Amile Jefferson and Matt Jones are gone.  But the Blue Devils have their usual super recruiting class coming in.

--This one is incredible...from Veronica Rocha / Los Angeles Times:

“A San Mateo County homeowner woke up early Monday to find that what’s believed to have been a mountain lion had entered her bedroom, snatched her pet dog and walked out, authorities said.

“The woman and her child were sleeping in her bedroom at about 3 a.m., when her 15-pound Portuguese Podengo, which was just feet away from them, suddenly started barking aggressively, according to Det. Salvador Zuno, spokesman for the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.

“She woke up and saw a shadow of an animal walk through her partially open French doors and enter her bedroom.

“The animal then took the small dog from the foot of her bed and walked out, he said.

“With a flashlight, the woman looked for her dog, but only found large wet paw prints at the entrance of her bedroom, Zuno said.

“Deputies searched the area and found paw prints similar to a mountain lion’s he said. They immediately notified the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“ ‘They are very shaken up about what happened,’ Zuno said.

“The woman and her child live in the rural, coastal town of Pescadero, where residents often come across wildlife.

“But even in Pescadero, Zuno said, this sighting of an apparent mountain lion is rare.  In the San Mateo County mountains, cougars usually eat deer and other wildlife, not pets.  “‘What’s so rare and shocking about this is that the animal comes up to the property and enters the home,’ the detective said.”

A Fish and Wildlife spokesman said they were still trying to determine if the animal was indeed a mountain lion.

I’m double-bolting my door until this animal is captured and brought to trial.

--Jennifer Kay of the Associated Press had a story on green iguanas in South Florida that have been proliferating wildly, though they don’t receive the press Burmese pythons do.  I mean, heck, these monsters, the iguanas, can grow to more than 5 feet, and even though they eat mostly plants and not native animals, it’s scary stuff.

“(Plus) their burrows undermine seawalls, sidewalks and levees, and they eat their way through valuable landscaping as well as native plants.  Their droppings can be a significant cleanup problem, as well as a potential source of salmonella bacteria, which causes food poisoning.”

Yuck!  And they love swimming pools, and as one condominium owner said, “Lately, there’s crap all over.  It’s terrible.”

One fellow who is hired to catch them sells their meat as a delicacy. 

The only thing that kills them is cold weather and prolonged cold snaps in 2009 and 2010 killed many of them off, but the population quickly rebounded.

By the way, on Grand Cayman Island, the adult green iguana population grew from 127,000 in 2014 to more than 400,000 last year!  A hunt took in 14,500, hardly making a dent.

--Brad K. passed this on, from the Daily Mail.

“An 88-year-old Wisconsin Walmart greeter was fired after a wild turkey wandered into the store.

“Bob T. (no need to give his full name) was working when the curious bird came into the store, WISN reported.

“(Mr. T.) told the ABC affiliate: ‘It starts and it goes back around and then it walks out.’”

The animal was eventually subdued by someone from the Humane Society.  No one was hurt.

So why was Mr. T. fired?  His supervisors told him he should have contacted a manager about the incident.  His wife Janet told WISN: “He never saw a book of rules that said if a wild turkey comes in here you better run and get management.”

This sucks. The poor guy had been working at the store eight years.  But I do hope if our mountain lion from above strolled in, he would have said something. 

--And B.K. had this from the Daily Mail’s Ekin Karasin:

“A South African hunter is believed to have been eaten by crocodiles after human remains were found inside two beasts.

“Scott Van Zyl, 44, vanished last week after going on a hunting safari with a Zimbabwean tracker and a pack of dogs.

“The father-of-two, whose company runs hunting trips for foreign clients, is thought to have been eaten by crocodiles on the banks of the Limpopo River in Zimbabwe.”

Two Nile crocs who were captured during the search were found to have human remains in them.  Van Zyl’s dogs had returned to camp.  The tracker had headed into the bush in a different direction, which is why he lost contact.

At least four people have been killed by crocodiles in Zimbabwe in the past month.

--SHARK!  Sadly, for the third time in less than 12 months in Western Australia (WA), a great white shark attack claimed a life, this time a 17-year-old teenage girl on Monday while she was surfing.  The government is being forced to take drastic measures, including a potential shark cull.

In 2014, the state tried a shark cull on seven beaches using drum lines, but it proved controversial and was halted by an environmental regulator.  More than 170 sharks were caught but none of them was a great white.

And last weekend, a French surfer was attacked by a shark on the island of Kauai, at Davidson’s Beach, and it resulted in part of his leg being amputated.  A friend told KHON-TV after he visited the victim in the hospital that he was in good spirits.  Reportedly it was a tiger shark.  Once again, it was a tourniquet that saved the man until paramedics could arrive. 

Top 3 songs for the week 4/20/74: #1 “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)”  (MFSB featuring The Three Degrees)  #2 “Bennie And The Jets” (Elton John) #3 “Hooked On A Feeling” (Blue Swede)...and...#4 “Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me” (Gladys Knight & The Pips...introduction of Coors Light...)  #5 “Come And Get Your Love” (Redbone)  #6 “Oh My My” (Ringo Starr)  #7 “Sunshine On My Shoulders” (John Denver)  #8 “The Loco-Motion” (Grand Funk)  #9 “The Lord’s Prayer” (Sister Janet Mead)  #10 “I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song” (Jim Croce...my favorite of his...)

Baseball Quiz Answer: In 1990, the Texas Rangers started Nolan Ryan and Charlie Hough, both 42 or older.  The incredible Ryan, 43, led the league that year in strikeouts with 232.  The year before, age 42, he struck out 301!  Knuckleballer Hough was 42 in 1990 and went 12-12.

Do yourself a favor.  Look up Ryan’s career on baseballreference.com.  It’s not as if the Mets didn’t give him enough of a shot.  His final season with them, 1971, age 24, he only struck out 137 in 152 innings, with 116 walks!  But then look at all those years with the Angels on, and imagine just how many pitches this guy was throwing each start.  1977...204 walks!  341 strikeouts!  Altogether now... “Goodness gracious!”

Next Bar Chat, Monday.

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