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04/24/2017

Talkin' Baseball

Posted Sunday p.m.

NFL Draft Quiz: Name the first-overall pick in the last five drafts.  Answer below.

MLB

--So each of the Mets’ Big Three, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey, has pitched solidly in each of his first four starts.

Syndergaard...1-1, 1.73 ERA

6 innings 0 earned runs
7 – 1
6 – 1
7 – 3

deGrom...0-1, 2.55

6 – 0
6 – 2
7 – 2
5 2/3 – 3

Harvey...2-0, 2.84

6 2/3 – 2
5 2/3 – 2
6 – 1
7 – 3

Mets fans can’t complain about these 12 efforts.  The three have more than kept the team in each game.  Yet they are a whopping 3-2 combined.  The Mets overall entered Sunday night’s contest 8-10, losers of 7 of their last 8.  After a 7-3 start, the fan base is back in panic mode.

Jose Reyes, who was supposed to be the leadoff hitter, has started off 6-for-63, .095.  He is absolutely killing us.  The guys in the middle of the order, with no one setting the table at the top, feel too much pressure to hit home runs every time they’re up.

The other guy who can bat leadoff, Curtis Granderson, is off to another dismal start, 10-for-63, .159.

I’m looking for my sword.  Johnny Mac, you keep holding off on sending it.  I need it Tuesday.

[As I post the Mets trail tonight 4-3 in the fifth and Michael Conforto is doing a fine job in the leadoff position.]

--Meanwhile, the other team in Gotham, the Yankees, are playing exciting baseball, even without injured budding superstar Gary Sanchez.  Slugger Aaron Judge, with six home runs, is already must-see TV each plate appearance and very few in baseball command that.  Back in the old days for me as a young fan, it was this way with Willie McCovey and then Dave Kingman.  These days it’s guys like Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, I guess, but Judge, at least to locals, is already there.

But the Pirates shut the Yanks down on Sunday, 2-1, as New York fell to 11-7; the Pirates now 8-10.

--How good a manager is Buck Showalter?  Once again, his Orioles are outperforming expectations. After five straight seasons of .500 or better, including three playoff appearances, Showalter has the Orioles at 12-5, after a 6-2 loss on Sunday to Boston (11-8).

Pitcher Dylan Bundy, who was viewed as a phenom when drafted fourth overall out of high school in 2011, making his major league debut at age 19 a year later, only to suffer a series of injuries as he was in the baseball wilderness for years, is off to a sterling 3-1, 1.37 ERA start this season and we all need reminding he’s still just 24.  Great story.

--The Astros are off to a terrific start, 13-6, as ace Dallas Keuchel is back in 2015 Cy Young form, 3-0, 0.96 ERA.

[Keuchel went from 20-8, 2.48 in ’15 to 9-12, 4.55 last season.  There was legitimate cause for concern.  He’s allayed such fears thus far in ‘17.]

--The Pirates’ Starling Marte is an “Idiot of the Year” candidate for being suspended 80 games for using PEDs.  But how do you describe what San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner did, except to say he is even more of an idiot!  What the heck was he thinking, riding a dirt bike during the team’s off day in Denver on Thursday, and ending up with injuries to his ribs and throwing shoulder in an accident.

On Friday, the Giants said only that he was out of the hospital and would be re-evaluated next week, but the early word was he would be out one or two months. Team officials, however, are clearly concerned this will be prove to be far more serious.

Bumgarner, 100-70 in his Giants career and, more importantly, the world’s best postseason pitcher these days, 8-3, 2.11 ERA, is from Hickory, North Carolina, and should know of a certain former basketball player from the state who was paralyzed in a dirt bike accident (no need to list his name here).

As for potential penalties against Bumgarner, the Giants are going to lay off.  He’s been a loyal soldier, to state the obvious, going above and beyond, such as in the 2014 postseason, plus he’s underpaid.  San Francisco ownership will just suck it up and hope this doesn’t impact his career.

--After a 4-2 win over the Rockies in Los Angeles Wednesday night, the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw (3-1, 2.54) is now 10-0, 0.65 ERA, in his last 11 starts at home.  In those 11 he also has 96 strikeouts with just six walks.

--Pretty cool how Ichiro homered in his last at-bat in Seattle on Wednesday, as the Marlins played an interleague series finale against the Mariners.  Ichiro, 43, is just 4-for-21 thru Saturday in a part-time roll for Miami.

--Eric Thames played two seasons with Toronto and Seattle, 2011-12, and he showed a little pop, 21 homers in 633 at bats, but hardly extraordinary stuff.  So at age 25, Thames opted to play baseball in Korea, where he became a power-hitting legend.

Thames came back to the States in the offseason, signing with Milwaukee for four years, $22.5 million, and all the guy has done is hit 6 doubles and 8 home runs in his first 59 at-bats, thru Saturday’s play...a .373 batting average.  .881 slugging percentage.

While it’s early, there are already whispers going around the league.  No one has the guts to outwardly say they suspect PED use, but as Cubs pitcher John Lackey said the other day, “You watch film on recent stuff and try to figure out a way, you know, to get him out.  But I mean, really even the homer hit the other way, I mean, you don’t see that happen here very often.  That’s kind of one of those things that makes you scratch your head.”  Lackey* winked as he said “makes you scratch your head,” indicating he wasn’t that confused about the reason behind Thames’ success.

Other Cubs quickly noted that PED use still exists in baseball, witness Starling Marte.

You just wonder how a guy could be so brazen to come back to the big leagues and risk getting caught right away.  But if he’s clean, man, the Brewers may have cut one of the best contracts in baseball history.  [For his part, Thames says he just finally learned plate discipline.]

*Lackey should be more concerned about his own start, as he was shelled Sunday by the Reds, 7-5, and is now 1-3, 4.88.

--It looks like Josh Hamilton’s career is finally officially over.  Hamilton had a minor league contract with Texas and they released him after another knee injury.  This injury to his right knee occurred as he was rehabbing from surgery on his left knee.

Hamilton, who turns 36 next month, last played a full season in 2013, but when he was healthy, he was as exciting as they came, including his 2010 AL MVP season, when he hit .359 with 32 homers and 100 RBIs. He also had RBI seasons of 130 and 128.

But he left Texas, and his support system there (no need for me to get into the well-known history of Hamilton and substance abuse), and signed a five-year, $125 million contract with the Angels in 2013 and it was downhill from there.  The Angles are paying the Rangers $22m of the $24m Hamilton is being paid in the last year of the deal.  [Baseballreference says the Angels are paying $26m and the Rangers $2m, the other figures coming from the AP.]

--Follow-up to a story I noted the other day, the Yankees’ concern over their super prospect Gleyber Torres.  He just has mild rotator cuff tendonitis and won’t miss much action.  If it was the Mets’ training staff, we’d learn his arm was later cut off after the condition was misdiagnosed; the Mets’ not having a good reputation in this regard.

If you’re looking for an independent evaluation of any of your own medical issues, NEVER go to the Mets, boys and girls.

“Mommy, what did the doctors say?”

“The Mets said I’m fine, dear.”

“Noooo!  You went to the Mets?!”

--Back in 2000, 20-year-old Rick Ankiel was a pitching phenom for the Cardinals, going 11-7, with a 3.50 ERA, 175 innings, 194 strikeouts, though 90 walks.

But his life changed in a flash, as he made his first postseason start against the Braves and Hall of Famer Greg Maddux.  St. Louis manager Tony La Russa was so concerned about the pressure on Ankiel that he lied to the press and told them someone other than Ankiel was starting.

The story comes up in Ankiel’s new autobiography, The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch That Changed My Life, written with Tim Brown.

In a story for The Atlantic written by Will Leitch:

“Ankiel reports that on October 3, 2000, he didn’t know what the big deal was: It was just another game, right? Then, without warning and without reason, it wasn’t.”

Ankiel remembers the exact moment his life changed and everything fell apart: “Forty-fourth pitch of the game. Third inning.  One out.  A one-strike count to Andruw Jones.  Greg Maddux at first base.  Cardinals 6, Braves 0. Throw strikes, keep the ball in the big part of the park, nothing crazy, we win.  I win.  The future wins.”  He winds up.

“Everything was fine. I wasn’t tired.  Not too hot, not too cold... Head was clear.  No thoughts of anything other than a curveball, so natural there’d be no need to consider the mechanics of it.”

Leitch: “He released the pitch a little late.  Just a little late, but it went awry, a wild pitch, far away from the catcher, Carlos Hernandez.  ‘I stood near the front of the mound and watched all of it happen, sort of curious.’

“Suddenly, Ankiel could no longer pitch. He threw four more wild pitches in the inning, along with four walks. He left the field with, as he puts it, ‘one psyche forever hobbled.’  A friend of mine who was at Busch Stadium that day said the crowd’s reaction was akin to 50,000 people reacting as one to the sight of their child being punched in the stomach, five times, by a bully. In subsequent seasons, Ankiel attempted comeback after comeback.  But he couldn’t recover the old command.”

He threw just 24 innings at the big league level in 2001, striking out 27 but walking 25.  Then a few more games in 2004.  That was it.

But Ankiel, who was a good hitter, batting .250 with two home runs in 68 at bats in 2000, while on the mound, did launch a comeback as an outfielder in 2007 and hit .288 for St. Louis, 11 homers, 39 RBIs, following that up with 25 homers, 71 RBIs, and a .264 average in 2008.   But then his career once again began to slide and he just hung around a few more years.

But it’s an amazing story to look back on.  Older fans remember a similar thing happening to former Pirates pitcher Steve Blass.  Blass was one of the better pitchers in the National League, 1968-72, going a sterling 78-44 for Pittsburgh.  In 1972, he was 19-9, 2.49 ERA, an All-Star and second in the Cy Young Award voting.

Then in 1973, he goes to spring training and couldn’t find the plate.  That season, Blass was 3-9 with a sickening 9.85 ERA, and in 88 innings he walked 84.  He was just 31.  He threw 5 innings at the big league level (walking 7) in ’74 and his career was over.

Will Leitch, by the way, gives Ankiel’s book high marks.

--Leigh Montville has a review in the Wall Street Journal of a book by Marty Appel, Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character.  While there have been many books on Casey, this one sounds pretty good.

Montville: “Stengel would tell this story about himself for his next 55 years in the game.  As a player with five different major-league teams, and as a manager with four, he would win, lose, tip his hat and let a bird fly out, win, lose, mangle the English language, smile for the camera, win some more and lose more in record-breaking numbers, drink late into the night with his favorite sportswriters, and charm the American public as only a true eccentric can.”

As Stengel once said: “When you are younger you get blamed for crimes you never committed. And when you’re older you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed.  It evens itself out.”

Fired by the Yankees for being too old after they lost the 1960 World Series to the Pirates, Stengel said, “I’ll never make the mistake of being 70 again.”

And this oldie but goodie: “The secret of managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.”

And, “The trouble is not that players have sex the night before a game.  It’s that they stay out all night looking for it.”

And, “Most people at my age are dead, and you can look it up.”

--Baseball author Paul Dickson listed the five “baseball books that changed minds” for a piece in the Journal.

1. “Ball Four” by Jim Bouton (1970)...all of us young fans devoured this one when it came out, even if some (like those of us all of age 12) didn’t fully understand the implications of it at the time.  I mean it was about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, after all.

2. “Only the Ball Was White” by Robert Peterson (1970)...about the Negro Leagues.

3. “Veeck as in Wreck” by Bill Veeck (1962).  “In 1951, in a moment of madness, I became owner and operator of a collection of old rags and tags known to baseball historians as the St. Louis Browns.  The Browns, according to reputable anthropologists, rank in the annals of baseball as a step or two ahead of Cro-Magnon man.”

Dickson: “Besides offering a host of entertaining stories, the book reveals that Veeck actually had a clue as to the future of the game – he understood that it had to be entertaining and had to cater to families if it was to grow and prosper in the face of competition like television and the rise of professional football.”

4. “The Science of Hitting” by Ted Williams (1970).  Williams: “They talked for years about the ball being dead. The ball isn’t dead; the hitters are, from the neck up.”

Dickson: “Collaborator John Underwood tells us in the preface that Williams wanted the book to fuel the diamond dreams of those who believed, as he did, that hitting a baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in sport.  He wanted the book to be his legacy.”  It is.  “A new generation of Red Sox players are following Williams’ advice on batting – on matters like how a batter can get the ball he hits to clear the fence.”

5. “Moneyball” by Michael Lewis (2003).  “The pleasure of rooting for Goliath is that you can expect to win,” Lewis writes, adding: “The pleasure of rooting for David is that, while you don’t know what to expect, you stand at least a chance of being inspired.”  The book isn’t about David “but about a baseball general manager armed with statistics useful for discovering undervalued talent.”  [Dickson]

--Roger Clemens, one of the real dirtballs in the sporting world, was recently interviewed on “Undeniable with Joe Buck,” the latter’s show available on DIRECTV, and Clemens proceeded to trash former Sen. George Mitchell and his report on baseball’s steroid problem, describing Mitchell’s work as “shameful,” while also suggesting Mitchell gave a referral fee to the former chairman of a congressional committee that Clemens testified before in 2008.

Thursday, Mitchell, who works for a private law firm, issued a statement, the interview with Buck airing Wednesday.

The former senator from Maine, and foreign affairs jack-of-all-trades, slammed Clemens’ comments as “false.”

Mitchell also said he has never even met with Clemens, despite several requests to interview him when Mitchell was compiling the report on baseball’s doping culture in 2007.

In the interview, Clemens told Buck he “opened up my life to them,” referring to Mitchell and his investigators.  Clemens was one of dozens of ballplayers named in the report as having used PEDs during their careers, and Clemens’ former trainer Brian McNamee told Mitchell and his investigators that he personally injected Clemens in 1998, when Clemens was pitching for Toronto, and also between 2000-01, when Clemens was with the Yankees.

“His comment referring to me, and then saying that he opened up his life and said ‘Come check what you want,’ is totally false,” Mitchell said in his statement.  “Under Baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement I was required to make any request to talk or meet with any player through the Players Association. On July 13 and on October 22, 2007, I sent letters to the Players Association asking to meet with several players, including Mr. Clemens.  On August 8 and November 30, 2007, the Players Association responded in writing that all of the players, including Mr. Clemens, declined to speak with me.  As a result of his refusal I have never met or spoken with Mr. Clemens, and his suggestion now to the contrary is a complete fabrication.”

In the interview with Buck, Clemens also said that “they spent a lot of our taxpayers’ dollars,” referring to Mitchell and his team, but Mitchell said not one penny of taxpayer money went into compiling the Mitchell Report, saying he was "asked by the Commissioner of Baseball to conduct the investigation and was paid by Major League Baseball,” said Mitchell.  He added that Clemens’ comment in the Buck interview that Mitchell was paid “close to $40 million” is “far-fetched at worst.”

Clemens also trashed former Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in 2008, when Clemens and McNamee, his chief accuser, appeared before committee members in their infamous February 2008 hearing. Clemens testified he had never used steroids or PEDs in his career.

Buck tried to bring up McNamee’s name in the interview, but Clemens cut him off.

“I don’t even want to mention (McNamee’s) name, because it makes me sick to my stomach.  Like I told y’all, I look for the good in people.  I don’t think people are trying to get into my life.”  [ESPN.com]

I’m biting my tongue.  Clemens is just a bad person

NBA

--Talk about a good break, or bad break for Chicago, good one for Boston, as the Celtics learned prior to Game 3 that Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo was probably out for the series with a fractured right thumb sustained in Game 2.

Rondo had 20 assists for the Bulls in the first two games, both Chicago victories, but the Bulls were rolled at home on Friday, 104-87, with the Celts suddenly having new life.

This is a devastating injury at exactly the wrong time.

And what happens Sunday?  Boston evens it up at 2-2 with a 104-95 win.  Yup, Rondo’s absence is huge.

--Ditto the injury to Clippers forward Blake Griffin, out for the rest of the playoffs with an injured big toe, though Los Angeles had a huge win on the road at Utah, Friday, 111-106,  to take a 2-1 series lead.  Chris Paul led the way with a season-high 34 points.

--Friday, Oklahoma City got back into its series with Houston, winning 115-113 in OKC as Russell Westbrook had another triple-double, 32 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists, after his all-world, playoff record 51 points, 10 reb. and 13 assists in a 115-111 loss to the Rockets on Wednesday.

So the Thunder entered Sunday’s contest down 2-1, and it’s now 3-1, after OKC lost 113-109. James Harden had only 16, but veteran Nene came off the bench for 28 points on 12 of 12 from the field.  Westbrook had another triple-double...35-14-14 in defeat.  He was only 10 of 28 from the field.

--The Cavaliers didn’t have an easy time of it at all, but ended up sweeping the Pacers 4-0 with Sunday’s 106-102 victory in Indianapolis.

The first two games of the series went down to the wire, and then in Game 3, the Cavs staged one of the greatest comebacks in NBA playoff history, erasing a 25-point deficit, the largest halftime margin ever overcome in the postseason, to beat Indiana 119-114, with LeBron playing every minute of the second half and finishing with 41 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists; this while Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were benched in the fourth quarter.

Game 4 was the same.  I caught the last ten minutes and Indiana had a ton of chances, but in the end, Paul George went 5 of 21 from the field.  Game, and series, over.  [Lebron had the game winner, his lone three in the final minute.]

--The Warriors are up 3-0 over the Trail Blazers, following Golden State’s 119-113 win on Saturday.  Kevin Durant didn’t suit up due to a calf issue.

--Out of nowhere, after dominating Games 1 and 2, the Spurs lost the next two to the Grizzlies in Memphis and it’s tied 2-2.  Saturday, Mike Conley was superb, 35 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists.

--Atlanta won Saturday’s contest against Washington at home, 116-98, so the Bullets (sorry, Wizards...yes, that was uncalled for but it was in honor of former Washington/Baltimore great Phil Chenier, who broadcast his last game for the Wizards the other day....this guy was so smooth, and deadly, as us Knicks fans knew all too well)...where was I....are up 2-1 in their series.

--Toronto evened its series with Milwaukee at 2-2 on Saturday behind DeMar DeRozan’s 33, the Raptors winning 87-76.

NFL

--I wasn’t going to get into the release of the NFL’s football schedule, but I do have to note this general comment from Matt Bonesteel of the Washington Post.

Of the 17 ‘Monday Night Football’ games played on ESPN in 2016, just two featured teams that would both go on to make the playoffs.  NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ package, meanwhile, got five such games thanks in part to the network’s league-awarded ability to flex out less-appealing contests for more meaningful matchups.”

So ESPN wanted better games and, on paper, it looks like they do:

Lions at Giants; Cowboys at Cardinals; Redskins at Chiefs; Redskins at Eagles; Lions at Packers; Falcons at Seahawks; Patriots at Dolphins; Raiders at Eagles...these are a few I picked out that could be pretty good.

But this is a stupid exercise when it comes to the NFL.  Plus I seldom stay up beyond the third quarter for a Monday Night game anyway.

--One game everyone will watch, the 2017 NFL season opener, is New England hosting Kansas City, Thursday, Sept. 7

--The Jets suck, and they were rewarded for this by receiving no Monday Night games for the first time since 2007.  The Browns, Jets and 49ers should be battling it out for “Nation’s Worst NFL team” and the top draft pick that goes with it, which will probably end up being USC quarterback Sam Darnold.

--Giants quarterback Eli Manning responded for the first time to allegations he was selling fraudulent sports memorabilia through his representatives.  Manning told reporters he couldn’t go into specifics due to pending litigation, but he said, “I have done nothing wrong, and I have nothing to hide.”  He said his name and the Giants’ would be cleared of any wrongdoing.

“I’m angry more than anything.  I’ve done nothing wrong and I’m still being attacked.”

And, “My track record speaks for itself.”

But the court papers show Manning turning over an email from 2010 wherein he wrote equipment manager Joe Skiba, saying, “2 helmets that can pass as game used. That is it.  Eli.” 

Then less than 20 minutes later he wrote his marketing agent, Alan Zucker, who requested the helmets, saying: “Should be able to get them for tomorrow.”

Manning: “I will say that is taken out of context and there [are] some other filings that have gone on recently that will clear up a lot of things.”

The suit is set to go to trial on Sept. 25 in New Jersey’s Bergen County superior Court.

Eli, we want to believe you, but we need proof.

--Phil Simms is joining “The NFL Today” pregame show.  Simms will fill the slot left vacant when Tony Gonzalez decided to leave the program at the end of last season.  [I missed this.]

Simms broke his silence for the first time since he was jettisoned from the broadcast booth, in favor of Tony Romo, and the former Giant insists he was not blindsided by CBS’ decision to go in another direction.  He knew his fate by the end of March, but he didn’t know Romo was going to get the gig.

Simms did tell the New York Daily News Wednesday, “I’m not going to lie to you.  My first reaction was I was hurt. There’s no question. But I got over it.”

It helps he has years remaining on a contract, for sure, and now this new position isn’t a bad gig.

--I wasn’t going to say another word about the suicide of Aaron Hernandez, seeing that there was zero reason to do so, but because the story comes from Newsweek, and you assume has been vetted by a few folks there, for the archives I do have to note that they are reporting he may have murdered his former friend, Odin Lloyd, to protect a secret, that Hernandez was bisexual.  Newsweek also reports Hernandez left a suicide note addressed to a gay jailhouse lover, one of three notes found in Hernandez’s cell after he hanged himself Wednesday.

Cops have long believed that Lloyd had incriminating information on Hernandez that the player didn’t want to get out.

Law-enforcement sources told the Boston Globe shortly after his arrest that Hernandez feared Lloyd would rat him out in a previous double murder in 2012 – for which he was just acquitted last week.

NHL

--Wow, what a pleasant surprise for us Rangers fans!  We had such a lousy second-half of the season, with inconsistent play all year from our leader, goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, and I thought the Rangers would lose to the Canadiens in round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in five games.  Instead we won the last three to take it 4-2, the clincher a thrilling 3-1 win at the Garden on Saturday.

When the playoffs roll around, King Henrik often flips a switch and becomes otherworldly. 

Except last postseason, when in a five-game opening round loss to the Penguins, Lundqvist was pulled in the final two contests.  And then we had this rocky regular season.

Larry Brooks / New York Post

“End?

“Not so fast.

“This is just the beginning for the King and his court. Just the beginning for the Rangers after their 3-1, Game 6 victory over the Canadiens at the Garden closed out the Habs in an opening round in which the Blueshirts threw their weight around and in which their goaltender was the series’ pre-eminent goaltender, even if the guy at the other end was named Carey Price....

“ ‘We put a lot of effort into every game here. We didn’t get anything for free. Nothing was handed to us,’ Lundqvist said.  ‘This means a lot.’

“You better believe this means a lot to the 35-year-old Swede, even if he never will admit on a personal basis just how much it meant for him to outplay Price in the matchup of elite goaltenders pretty much everyone in the world had expected to tilt the Montreal netminder’s way....

“He finished it with his arms in the air raised in a playoff victory salute. He ended it, did Henrik Lundqvist, on the winning side of the handshake line.

“Business as usual for the King.”

Here are the numbers.  Lundqvist has a career goals against average of 2.32, but this past season’s 2.74 was by far his highest.  So there were real reasons for concern.

His career GAA in the playoffs, though, is now 2.25, after a 1.70 performance in the six games against Montreal.

--In other playoff series, Saturday, the Oilers advanced, winning their series with the Sharks 4-2, while the Blues took the Wild in five, 4-1.

Sunday, Ottawa defeated Boston 3-2 in OT to take their series 4-2...next up, New York.

Washington has a 3-2 series lead over Toronto as I go to post....but it’s third period in Game 6 and....the Capitals win it 3-2 in OT, and the series 4-2.

Golf Balls

--Great ending Sunday at the Valero Texas Open, as Kevin Chappell won his first PGA Tour event with a birdie on No. 18 in his 180th start, defeating Brooks Koepka by one stroke.  Chappell had four seconds last season.

--After I posted last time we learned that Tiger Woods suddenly had a fourth surgery on his back to alleviate the ongoing pain.

On his website Thursday, Woods said: “The surgery went well, and I’m optimistic this will relieve my back spasms and pain. When healed, I look forward to getting back to normal life, playing with my kids, competing in professional golf and living without the pain I have been battling so long.”

Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, described the procedure to ESPN as “something dramatically different than he’s done in the past.”

This was an anterior lumbar interbody fusion and was performed by Dr. Richard Guyer of the Center for Disc Replacement at the Texas Back Institute.

His three previous procedures involved microdiscectomy surgery.

Guyer said Woods’ rehab “will be geared to allowing him to return to competitive golf.”

Just the day before, as I wrote last time, Woods announced a new course design and said his back was “progressing.”

Steinberg, perhaps in as honest an assessment as he has ever given, seeing as he’s spent a career covering up for Tiger, told ESPN that Woods was suffering from “grueling pain” At times he was OK, but “[When the disc is touching the nerve], that’s when you go into these intense spasms that I don’t know how he was living with.”

--We learned this week that Jimmy Walker, the reigning PGA Champion, is suffering from Lyme Disease.   He initially thought his bouts of fatigue were due to mono, as he told reporters at the Valero Texas Open that he hasn’t “really felt good since Thanksgiving.”

“Basically feels like you got the flu.  No strength, just got nothing.  And it comes and goes in waves.  You never know when it’s going to pop up.”

Poor guy.  Some of us have been wondering why he’s been playing poorly this season, with just one top 10 in 13 starts. That said, including this week, he’s managed to make eight consecutive cuts.  And he finished T-13 Sunday.  Great job!

Walker said he’s awaiting further tests to determine a treatment plan.  Hang in there, Jimmy.

--Have to go back to the Masters one more time.  I was reading a piece in Golfweek by Jeff Babineau and it truly is puzzling how Henrik Stenson, one of the best players in the world, can’t play Augusta.  In 12 starts, he has 0 top 10s, 4 missed cuts and a best finish of 14th.  He missed the cut this time.

And if you thought the first hole seemed tough, this year the 455-yard par 4 played to a stroke average of 4.46, ranking No. 1 in difficulty.  Players had more doubles (16) and others (7) on that hole than any other.

By the way, the par-3 No. 12 played to a 3.23 average this past Masters, while the par-5 13th was 4.63, and the par-5 15th was at 4.94.

--Golfweek’s ranking of the Top Classic courses in America (before 1960).

1. Pine Valley
2. Cypress Point
3. Shinnecock Hills
4. Augusta National
5. National Golf Links of America (Southampton, NY)
6. Oakmont
7. Merion (East)
8. Pebble Beach
9. Fishers Island (Fishers Island, NY)
10. Chicago GC (Wheaton, Ill.)

11. Crystal Downs (Frankfort, Mich.)
12. Prairie Dunes (Hutchinson, Kan.)
13. Seminole (North Palm Beach)
14. Pinehurst No. 2

23. Old Town Club (Winston-Salem!)

Modern (Post-1960)

1. Sand Hills (Mullen, Neb.)
2. Pacific Dunes (Bandon, Ore.)
3. Friar’s Head (Baiting Hollow, NY)
4. Ballyneal (Holyoke, Colo.)
5. Old Macdonald (Bandon)
6. Whistling Straits (Straits course)
7. Sebonack (Southampton, NY)
8. Bandon Dunes
9. Shadow Creek (North Las Vegas)
10. Wade Hampton Club (Cashiers, NC)

13. Muirfield Village
14. Ocean Course (Kiawah)

72. Grandfather G&CC (Linville, NC)...right after I graduated from Wake Forest, 1980, my parents took me here to stay with friends from New Jersey who had a home at Grandfather Mountain. What a beautiful spot.  Unfortunately, I remember playing like total crap, which admittedly I am wont to do.

Premier League

--Due to FA Cup play involving four of the Premier League’s elite, there was a limited schedule of PL games this weekend, and the big ones involved the fight to avoid relegation.

Hull City had a huge 2-0 win over Watford, while Swansea gained a clutch three points with a 2-0 win over Stoke.  So it appears these two will battle it out for the 17th position, and the right to play another year at the top level.

So with just four games to play for both, here is the situation:

17. Hull 34 (games) – 33 (points)
18. Swansea 34 – 31
19. Middlesbrough 33 – 24...season officially ended with a 4-0 loss to Bournemouth
20. Sunderland 32 – 21

In games Sunday, Manchester United beat Burnley 2-0, and Crystal Palace had another stunning victory, 2-1 at Liverpool behind two goals by Christian Benteke, formerly of Liverpool.

Palace has now won 6 of 8, erasing doubts it might be relegated.  It’s also the first season, ever (over 100 years), that Palace has defeated Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in the same campaign.

At the top of the PL:

1. Chelsea 32 – 75
2. Tottenham 32 – 71
3. Liverpool 34 – 66
4. Man City 32 – 64
5. Man U 32 – 63
6. Everton 34 – 58
7. Arsenal 31 – 57

--Meanwhile, in the FA Cup semifinals, we had a terrific matchup between Tottenham and Chelsea at rockin’ Wembley Stadium, Chelsea pulling away for a 4-2 win with three terrific goals.

Actually, of the six scored, five were among the best seen in the entire football season (the sixth was a penalty kick), including goals by Willian (sic), Eden Hazard, and the clincher, an unbelievable kick by Serbian Nemanja Matic.

Earlier, the Spurs’ Harry Kane had a phenomenal header to tie the game at 1-1.  But the Spurs have now been knocked out in the semis of the FA Cup seven straight times.

Chelsea now goes up against Arsenal in the final, the Gunners a 2-1 victor over Manchester City on Sunday.

But does the loss to Chelsea, in such stunning fashion in terms of the manner of the goals scored against keeper Hugo Lloris, mean Tottenham will now crumble in its remaining PL games?  We’ll learn a lot when it travels to Crystal Palace on Wednesday.  [Chelsea hosts Southampton on Tuesday.]

One more on Tottenham...in their last nine games at Wembley, they have just one win.  They obviously aren’t comfortable with the surface, and the problem is, Wembley might be their home next season while their new stadium at White Hart Lane is being built.

--Manchester United forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic suffered serious ligament damage in his right knee and will likely be sidelined until January 2018.  Yikes.  The 35-year-old superstar sustained the injury during United’s Europa League quarterfinal victory against Anderlecht at Old Trafford on Thursday.

Ibrahimovic has scored 28 goals in 46 appearances for United since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain last summer.  His United contract is due to expire at the end of this season.

--I would never comment on a president’s children, until they turn 18, but I saw something cool about Barron Trump, age 11, who will soon be moving to the White House with mom.  He was at the White House for last Monday’s Easter Egg Hunt and the story emerged later he is an Arsenal football supporter, and was seen later decked out in Gunners red.

Good job, Barron.  Yes, I’m Tottenham, but I just think it’s cool an 11-year-old U.S. kid is such a Premier League fan.  At the Easter Egg Hunt, there were some members of local club, D.C. United, and he was seen talking with them, with United giving him a signed ball, welcoming him to Washington.  Seriously, if he’s seen at some of their games, that will be a great shot in the arm for them and the sport in America.  [Barron’s father would appreciate how it could improve NBC’s ratings of Premier League games as well.]

Stuff

--NASCAR’s race at Bristol on Sunday was rained out, which isn’t all bad for some of us.  Something to watch Monday afternoon!!!  Psyched.

--We learned Wednesday that Serena Williams is pregnant, and was so during her winning performance at the Australian Open.  She is engaged to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.  So it certainly means the French Open and Wimbledon are out of the picture, and I’m assuming the U.S. Open as well.

--Speaking of pregnancies, the last orca was born in captivity at a SeaWorld park in San Antonio just over  a year after the theme park decided to stop breeding orcas following animal rights protests and declining ticket sales.

SeaWorld said mother and calf both appear healthy.  The company has not collected a wild orca in nearly 40 years, and most of its orcas were born in captivity.

I didn’t know the gestation period for orcas is about 18 months.

The thing is, SeaWorld’s program has been incredibly useful to researchers, who over time have used the opportunity to gain further knowledge.

--But SeaWorld had a tragedy this week, with the death of a 21-year-old female polar bear, Szenja, in San Diego.  Her partner, Snowflake, has been on loan to the Pittsburgh Zoo for a breeding program there.  It will be weeks before a necropsy determines a cause of death.

PETA had voiced its objections when it became known Snowflake was being shipped away, saying it would leave Szenja “sad and alone.”

So...you can imagine PETA is not real happy now, with a spokesman saying, “Szenja died of a broken heart.”

--Bob S. passed along a horrifying story from Mount Pleasant, S.C., which is across the water from Charleston. 

As told by Bo Petersen of the Post and Courier:

Susie Polston had fallen asleep watching ‘Friends’ on television. She woke in the late night to a loud intruder on the porch outside her Mount Pleasant home.

“ ‘Somebody’s trying to break into the house,’ she told her family.  They secluded themselves in the master bedroom and called 911.  But then the racket quit. Ben Polston, 16, her son, snuck a look and started yelling, ‘Oh my God, I found it!  I found it!’

“He’d found it all right.  In the early hours of Easter, a nearly 10-foot alligator had clambered up the back stairwell to the second story porch of their home, crunched through the aluminum screen door and made itself at home between the sofa and  a swinging bench.  It lay there like a plastic prank, but when they rapped on the window glass, it lifted its head.”

Well, the monster wouldn’t budge, “even though a nuisance removal agent spent two hours trying to coax it out far enough from the porch to snare it safely.”

As Petersen writes:

Alligators wandering up to homes isn’t unusual in the Lowcountry, with its abundance of marsh.  Climbing a second-story staircase is.”

Mount Pleasant isn’t far from Kiawah Island, where yours truly has seen some monsters on the golf course, and in the water along the course of the half-marathon.  All depends on how warm it is.  Walking the resort grounds at night, it’s kind of spooky knowing they’re out there, looking for naïve northerners to devour.

Back to the Polston’s situation, the alligator had to be euthanized because it wouldn’t budge.

--A few weeks ago the awesome BBC America series “Planet Earth 2” wrapped up and I caught up on the final episodes after.

One-third of the world’s grasslands are harvested by insects.

Did you know a giant anteater eats 20,000 insects a day?

And that a caribou calf, all of a day or two old, can outrun a wolf?  [One of the great chase scenes ever filmed by the producers; shot from the air across the Arctic.]

--We note the passing of actress Erin Moran, age 56, cause unknown.  Moran was best known for playing Joanie in the 1970s sitcom “Happy Days.”  She also starred in the spin-off “Joanie Loves Chachi,” which began in 1982.  Joanie was the younger sister of lead character Richie, played by Ron Howard, and of course you had the Fonz, Henry Winkler.

In recent years Moran was reported to be living in an Indiana trailer park.

Top 3 songs for the week 4/26/75: #1 “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” (B.J. Thomas)  #2 “Philadelphia Freedom” (The Elton John Band)  #3 “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)” (Tony Orlando & Dawn)...and...#4 “Lovin’ You” (Minnie Riperton...chirp chirp...tweet tweet...)  #5 “Supernatural Thing” (Ben E. King)  #6 “Chevy Van” (Sammy Johns)  #7 “Before The Next Teardrop Falls” (Freddy Fender)  #8 “Emma” (Hot Chocolate)  #9 “What Am I Gonna Do With You” (Barry White)  #10 Walking In Rhythm” (The Blackbyrds...good tune...)

NFL Draft Quiz Answer: Last five first-overall picks...2016 Jared Goff (QB-Cal) Rams; 2015 Jameis Winston (QB-Florida State) Bucs; 2014 Jadeveon Clowney (DE-South Carolina) Texans; 2013 Eric Fisher (T-Central Michigan) Chiefs; 2012 Andrew Luck (QB-Stanford) Colts.

If you got Eric Fisher, you’re good...pour yourself a frosty, though don’t get caught drinking it at your cubicle.  That would be unfortunate.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.



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Bar Chat

04/24/2017

Talkin' Baseball

Posted Sunday p.m.

NFL Draft Quiz: Name the first-overall pick in the last five drafts.  Answer below.

MLB

--So each of the Mets’ Big Three, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey, has pitched solidly in each of his first four starts.

Syndergaard...1-1, 1.73 ERA

6 innings 0 earned runs
7 – 1
6 – 1
7 – 3

deGrom...0-1, 2.55

6 – 0
6 – 2
7 – 2
5 2/3 – 3

Harvey...2-0, 2.84

6 2/3 – 2
5 2/3 – 2
6 – 1
7 – 3

Mets fans can’t complain about these 12 efforts.  The three have more than kept the team in each game.  Yet they are a whopping 3-2 combined.  The Mets overall entered Sunday night’s contest 8-10, losers of 7 of their last 8.  After a 7-3 start, the fan base is back in panic mode.

Jose Reyes, who was supposed to be the leadoff hitter, has started off 6-for-63, .095.  He is absolutely killing us.  The guys in the middle of the order, with no one setting the table at the top, feel too much pressure to hit home runs every time they’re up.

The other guy who can bat leadoff, Curtis Granderson, is off to another dismal start, 10-for-63, .159.

I’m looking for my sword.  Johnny Mac, you keep holding off on sending it.  I need it Tuesday.

[As I post the Mets trail tonight 4-3 in the fifth and Michael Conforto is doing a fine job in the leadoff position.]

--Meanwhile, the other team in Gotham, the Yankees, are playing exciting baseball, even without injured budding superstar Gary Sanchez.  Slugger Aaron Judge, with six home runs, is already must-see TV each plate appearance and very few in baseball command that.  Back in the old days for me as a young fan, it was this way with Willie McCovey and then Dave Kingman.  These days it’s guys like Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, I guess, but Judge, at least to locals, is already there.

But the Pirates shut the Yanks down on Sunday, 2-1, as New York fell to 11-7; the Pirates now 8-10.

--How good a manager is Buck Showalter?  Once again, his Orioles are outperforming expectations. After five straight seasons of .500 or better, including three playoff appearances, Showalter has the Orioles at 12-5, after a 6-2 loss on Sunday to Boston (11-8).

Pitcher Dylan Bundy, who was viewed as a phenom when drafted fourth overall out of high school in 2011, making his major league debut at age 19 a year later, only to suffer a series of injuries as he was in the baseball wilderness for years, is off to a sterling 3-1, 1.37 ERA start this season and we all need reminding he’s still just 24.  Great story.

--The Astros are off to a terrific start, 13-6, as ace Dallas Keuchel is back in 2015 Cy Young form, 3-0, 0.96 ERA.

[Keuchel went from 20-8, 2.48 in ’15 to 9-12, 4.55 last season.  There was legitimate cause for concern.  He’s allayed such fears thus far in ‘17.]

--The Pirates’ Starling Marte is an “Idiot of the Year” candidate for being suspended 80 games for using PEDs.  But how do you describe what San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner did, except to say he is even more of an idiot!  What the heck was he thinking, riding a dirt bike during the team’s off day in Denver on Thursday, and ending up with injuries to his ribs and throwing shoulder in an accident.

On Friday, the Giants said only that he was out of the hospital and would be re-evaluated next week, but the early word was he would be out one or two months. Team officials, however, are clearly concerned this will be prove to be far more serious.

Bumgarner, 100-70 in his Giants career and, more importantly, the world’s best postseason pitcher these days, 8-3, 2.11 ERA, is from Hickory, North Carolina, and should know of a certain former basketball player from the state who was paralyzed in a dirt bike accident (no need to list his name here).

As for potential penalties against Bumgarner, the Giants are going to lay off.  He’s been a loyal soldier, to state the obvious, going above and beyond, such as in the 2014 postseason, plus he’s underpaid.  San Francisco ownership will just suck it up and hope this doesn’t impact his career.

--After a 4-2 win over the Rockies in Los Angeles Wednesday night, the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw (3-1, 2.54) is now 10-0, 0.65 ERA, in his last 11 starts at home.  In those 11 he also has 96 strikeouts with just six walks.

--Pretty cool how Ichiro homered in his last at-bat in Seattle on Wednesday, as the Marlins played an interleague series finale against the Mariners.  Ichiro, 43, is just 4-for-21 thru Saturday in a part-time roll for Miami.

--Eric Thames played two seasons with Toronto and Seattle, 2011-12, and he showed a little pop, 21 homers in 633 at bats, but hardly extraordinary stuff.  So at age 25, Thames opted to play baseball in Korea, where he became a power-hitting legend.

Thames came back to the States in the offseason, signing with Milwaukee for four years, $22.5 million, and all the guy has done is hit 6 doubles and 8 home runs in his first 59 at-bats, thru Saturday’s play...a .373 batting average.  .881 slugging percentage.

While it’s early, there are already whispers going around the league.  No one has the guts to outwardly say they suspect PED use, but as Cubs pitcher John Lackey said the other day, “You watch film on recent stuff and try to figure out a way, you know, to get him out.  But I mean, really even the homer hit the other way, I mean, you don’t see that happen here very often.  That’s kind of one of those things that makes you scratch your head.”  Lackey* winked as he said “makes you scratch your head,” indicating he wasn’t that confused about the reason behind Thames’ success.

Other Cubs quickly noted that PED use still exists in baseball, witness Starling Marte.

You just wonder how a guy could be so brazen to come back to the big leagues and risk getting caught right away.  But if he’s clean, man, the Brewers may have cut one of the best contracts in baseball history.  [For his part, Thames says he just finally learned plate discipline.]

*Lackey should be more concerned about his own start, as he was shelled Sunday by the Reds, 7-5, and is now 1-3, 4.88.

--It looks like Josh Hamilton’s career is finally officially over.  Hamilton had a minor league contract with Texas and they released him after another knee injury.  This injury to his right knee occurred as he was rehabbing from surgery on his left knee.

Hamilton, who turns 36 next month, last played a full season in 2013, but when he was healthy, he was as exciting as they came, including his 2010 AL MVP season, when he hit .359 with 32 homers and 100 RBIs. He also had RBI seasons of 130 and 128.

But he left Texas, and his support system there (no need for me to get into the well-known history of Hamilton and substance abuse), and signed a five-year, $125 million contract with the Angels in 2013 and it was downhill from there.  The Angles are paying the Rangers $22m of the $24m Hamilton is being paid in the last year of the deal.  [Baseballreference says the Angels are paying $26m and the Rangers $2m, the other figures coming from the AP.]

--Follow-up to a story I noted the other day, the Yankees’ concern over their super prospect Gleyber Torres.  He just has mild rotator cuff tendonitis and won’t miss much action.  If it was the Mets’ training staff, we’d learn his arm was later cut off after the condition was misdiagnosed; the Mets’ not having a good reputation in this regard.

If you’re looking for an independent evaluation of any of your own medical issues, NEVER go to the Mets, boys and girls.

“Mommy, what did the doctors say?”

“The Mets said I’m fine, dear.”

“Noooo!  You went to the Mets?!”

--Back in 2000, 20-year-old Rick Ankiel was a pitching phenom for the Cardinals, going 11-7, with a 3.50 ERA, 175 innings, 194 strikeouts, though 90 walks.

But his life changed in a flash, as he made his first postseason start against the Braves and Hall of Famer Greg Maddux.  St. Louis manager Tony La Russa was so concerned about the pressure on Ankiel that he lied to the press and told them someone other than Ankiel was starting.

The story comes up in Ankiel’s new autobiography, The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch That Changed My Life, written with Tim Brown.

In a story for The Atlantic written by Will Leitch:

“Ankiel reports that on October 3, 2000, he didn’t know what the big deal was: It was just another game, right? Then, without warning and without reason, it wasn’t.”

Ankiel remembers the exact moment his life changed and everything fell apart: “Forty-fourth pitch of the game. Third inning.  One out.  A one-strike count to Andruw Jones.  Greg Maddux at first base.  Cardinals 6, Braves 0. Throw strikes, keep the ball in the big part of the park, nothing crazy, we win.  I win.  The future wins.”  He winds up.

“Everything was fine. I wasn’t tired.  Not too hot, not too cold... Head was clear.  No thoughts of anything other than a curveball, so natural there’d be no need to consider the mechanics of it.”

Leitch: “He released the pitch a little late.  Just a little late, but it went awry, a wild pitch, far away from the catcher, Carlos Hernandez.  ‘I stood near the front of the mound and watched all of it happen, sort of curious.’

“Suddenly, Ankiel could no longer pitch. He threw four more wild pitches in the inning, along with four walks. He left the field with, as he puts it, ‘one psyche forever hobbled.’  A friend of mine who was at Busch Stadium that day said the crowd’s reaction was akin to 50,000 people reacting as one to the sight of their child being punched in the stomach, five times, by a bully. In subsequent seasons, Ankiel attempted comeback after comeback.  But he couldn’t recover the old command.”

He threw just 24 innings at the big league level in 2001, striking out 27 but walking 25.  Then a few more games in 2004.  That was it.

But Ankiel, who was a good hitter, batting .250 with two home runs in 68 at bats in 2000, while on the mound, did launch a comeback as an outfielder in 2007 and hit .288 for St. Louis, 11 homers, 39 RBIs, following that up with 25 homers, 71 RBIs, and a .264 average in 2008.   But then his career once again began to slide and he just hung around a few more years.

But it’s an amazing story to look back on.  Older fans remember a similar thing happening to former Pirates pitcher Steve Blass.  Blass was one of the better pitchers in the National League, 1968-72, going a sterling 78-44 for Pittsburgh.  In 1972, he was 19-9, 2.49 ERA, an All-Star and second in the Cy Young Award voting.

Then in 1973, he goes to spring training and couldn’t find the plate.  That season, Blass was 3-9 with a sickening 9.85 ERA, and in 88 innings he walked 84.  He was just 31.  He threw 5 innings at the big league level (walking 7) in ’74 and his career was over.

Will Leitch, by the way, gives Ankiel’s book high marks.

--Leigh Montville has a review in the Wall Street Journal of a book by Marty Appel, Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character.  While there have been many books on Casey, this one sounds pretty good.

Montville: “Stengel would tell this story about himself for his next 55 years in the game.  As a player with five different major-league teams, and as a manager with four, he would win, lose, tip his hat and let a bird fly out, win, lose, mangle the English language, smile for the camera, win some more and lose more in record-breaking numbers, drink late into the night with his favorite sportswriters, and charm the American public as only a true eccentric can.”

As Stengel once said: “When you are younger you get blamed for crimes you never committed. And when you’re older you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed.  It evens itself out.”

Fired by the Yankees for being too old after they lost the 1960 World Series to the Pirates, Stengel said, “I’ll never make the mistake of being 70 again.”

And this oldie but goodie: “The secret of managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.”

And, “The trouble is not that players have sex the night before a game.  It’s that they stay out all night looking for it.”

And, “Most people at my age are dead, and you can look it up.”

--Baseball author Paul Dickson listed the five “baseball books that changed minds” for a piece in the Journal.

1. “Ball Four” by Jim Bouton (1970)...all of us young fans devoured this one when it came out, even if some (like those of us all of age 12) didn’t fully understand the implications of it at the time.  I mean it was about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, after all.

2. “Only the Ball Was White” by Robert Peterson (1970)...about the Negro Leagues.

3. “Veeck as in Wreck” by Bill Veeck (1962).  “In 1951, in a moment of madness, I became owner and operator of a collection of old rags and tags known to baseball historians as the St. Louis Browns.  The Browns, according to reputable anthropologists, rank in the annals of baseball as a step or two ahead of Cro-Magnon man.”

Dickson: “Besides offering a host of entertaining stories, the book reveals that Veeck actually had a clue as to the future of the game – he understood that it had to be entertaining and had to cater to families if it was to grow and prosper in the face of competition like television and the rise of professional football.”

4. “The Science of Hitting” by Ted Williams (1970).  Williams: “They talked for years about the ball being dead. The ball isn’t dead; the hitters are, from the neck up.”

Dickson: “Collaborator John Underwood tells us in the preface that Williams wanted the book to fuel the diamond dreams of those who believed, as he did, that hitting a baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in sport.  He wanted the book to be his legacy.”  It is.  “A new generation of Red Sox players are following Williams’ advice on batting – on matters like how a batter can get the ball he hits to clear the fence.”

5. “Moneyball” by Michael Lewis (2003).  “The pleasure of rooting for Goliath is that you can expect to win,” Lewis writes, adding: “The pleasure of rooting for David is that, while you don’t know what to expect, you stand at least a chance of being inspired.”  The book isn’t about David “but about a baseball general manager armed with statistics useful for discovering undervalued talent.”  [Dickson]

--Roger Clemens, one of the real dirtballs in the sporting world, was recently interviewed on “Undeniable with Joe Buck,” the latter’s show available on DIRECTV, and Clemens proceeded to trash former Sen. George Mitchell and his report on baseball’s steroid problem, describing Mitchell’s work as “shameful,” while also suggesting Mitchell gave a referral fee to the former chairman of a congressional committee that Clemens testified before in 2008.

Thursday, Mitchell, who works for a private law firm, issued a statement, the interview with Buck airing Wednesday.

The former senator from Maine, and foreign affairs jack-of-all-trades, slammed Clemens’ comments as “false.”

Mitchell also said he has never even met with Clemens, despite several requests to interview him when Mitchell was compiling the report on baseball’s doping culture in 2007.

In the interview, Clemens told Buck he “opened up my life to them,” referring to Mitchell and his investigators.  Clemens was one of dozens of ballplayers named in the report as having used PEDs during their careers, and Clemens’ former trainer Brian McNamee told Mitchell and his investigators that he personally injected Clemens in 1998, when Clemens was pitching for Toronto, and also between 2000-01, when Clemens was with the Yankees.

“His comment referring to me, and then saying that he opened up his life and said ‘Come check what you want,’ is totally false,” Mitchell said in his statement.  “Under Baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement I was required to make any request to talk or meet with any player through the Players Association. On July 13 and on October 22, 2007, I sent letters to the Players Association asking to meet with several players, including Mr. Clemens.  On August 8 and November 30, 2007, the Players Association responded in writing that all of the players, including Mr. Clemens, declined to speak with me.  As a result of his refusal I have never met or spoken with Mr. Clemens, and his suggestion now to the contrary is a complete fabrication.”

In the interview with Buck, Clemens also said that “they spent a lot of our taxpayers’ dollars,” referring to Mitchell and his team, but Mitchell said not one penny of taxpayer money went into compiling the Mitchell Report, saying he was "asked by the Commissioner of Baseball to conduct the investigation and was paid by Major League Baseball,” said Mitchell.  He added that Clemens’ comment in the Buck interview that Mitchell was paid “close to $40 million” is “far-fetched at worst.”

Clemens also trashed former Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in 2008, when Clemens and McNamee, his chief accuser, appeared before committee members in their infamous February 2008 hearing. Clemens testified he had never used steroids or PEDs in his career.

Buck tried to bring up McNamee’s name in the interview, but Clemens cut him off.

“I don’t even want to mention (McNamee’s) name, because it makes me sick to my stomach.  Like I told y’all, I look for the good in people.  I don’t think people are trying to get into my life.”  [ESPN.com]

I’m biting my tongue.  Clemens is just a bad person

NBA

--Talk about a good break, or bad break for Chicago, good one for Boston, as the Celtics learned prior to Game 3 that Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo was probably out for the series with a fractured right thumb sustained in Game 2.

Rondo had 20 assists for the Bulls in the first two games, both Chicago victories, but the Bulls were rolled at home on Friday, 104-87, with the Celts suddenly having new life.

This is a devastating injury at exactly the wrong time.

And what happens Sunday?  Boston evens it up at 2-2 with a 104-95 win.  Yup, Rondo’s absence is huge.

--Ditto the injury to Clippers forward Blake Griffin, out for the rest of the playoffs with an injured big toe, though Los Angeles had a huge win on the road at Utah, Friday, 111-106,  to take a 2-1 series lead.  Chris Paul led the way with a season-high 34 points.

--Friday, Oklahoma City got back into its series with Houston, winning 115-113 in OKC as Russell Westbrook had another triple-double, 32 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists, after his all-world, playoff record 51 points, 10 reb. and 13 assists in a 115-111 loss to the Rockets on Wednesday.

So the Thunder entered Sunday’s contest down 2-1, and it’s now 3-1, after OKC lost 113-109. James Harden had only 16, but veteran Nene came off the bench for 28 points on 12 of 12 from the field.  Westbrook had another triple-double...35-14-14 in defeat.  He was only 10 of 28 from the field.

--The Cavaliers didn’t have an easy time of it at all, but ended up sweeping the Pacers 4-0 with Sunday’s 106-102 victory in Indianapolis.

The first two games of the series went down to the wire, and then in Game 3, the Cavs staged one of the greatest comebacks in NBA playoff history, erasing a 25-point deficit, the largest halftime margin ever overcome in the postseason, to beat Indiana 119-114, with LeBron playing every minute of the second half and finishing with 41 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists; this while Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were benched in the fourth quarter.

Game 4 was the same.  I caught the last ten minutes and Indiana had a ton of chances, but in the end, Paul George went 5 of 21 from the field.  Game, and series, over.  [Lebron had the game winner, his lone three in the final minute.]

--The Warriors are up 3-0 over the Trail Blazers, following Golden State’s 119-113 win on Saturday.  Kevin Durant didn’t suit up due to a calf issue.

--Out of nowhere, after dominating Games 1 and 2, the Spurs lost the next two to the Grizzlies in Memphis and it’s tied 2-2.  Saturday, Mike Conley was superb, 35 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists.

--Atlanta won Saturday’s contest against Washington at home, 116-98, so the Bullets (sorry, Wizards...yes, that was uncalled for but it was in honor of former Washington/Baltimore great Phil Chenier, who broadcast his last game for the Wizards the other day....this guy was so smooth, and deadly, as us Knicks fans knew all too well)...where was I....are up 2-1 in their series.

--Toronto evened its series with Milwaukee at 2-2 on Saturday behind DeMar DeRozan’s 33, the Raptors winning 87-76.

NFL

--I wasn’t going to get into the release of the NFL’s football schedule, but I do have to note this general comment from Matt Bonesteel of the Washington Post.

Of the 17 ‘Monday Night Football’ games played on ESPN in 2016, just two featured teams that would both go on to make the playoffs.  NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ package, meanwhile, got five such games thanks in part to the network’s league-awarded ability to flex out less-appealing contests for more meaningful matchups.”

So ESPN wanted better games and, on paper, it looks like they do:

Lions at Giants; Cowboys at Cardinals; Redskins at Chiefs; Redskins at Eagles; Lions at Packers; Falcons at Seahawks; Patriots at Dolphins; Raiders at Eagles...these are a few I picked out that could be pretty good.

But this is a stupid exercise when it comes to the NFL.  Plus I seldom stay up beyond the third quarter for a Monday Night game anyway.

--One game everyone will watch, the 2017 NFL season opener, is New England hosting Kansas City, Thursday, Sept. 7

--The Jets suck, and they were rewarded for this by receiving no Monday Night games for the first time since 2007.  The Browns, Jets and 49ers should be battling it out for “Nation’s Worst NFL team” and the top draft pick that goes with it, which will probably end up being USC quarterback Sam Darnold.

--Giants quarterback Eli Manning responded for the first time to allegations he was selling fraudulent sports memorabilia through his representatives.  Manning told reporters he couldn’t go into specifics due to pending litigation, but he said, “I have done nothing wrong, and I have nothing to hide.”  He said his name and the Giants’ would be cleared of any wrongdoing.

“I’m angry more than anything.  I’ve done nothing wrong and I’m still being attacked.”

And, “My track record speaks for itself.”

But the court papers show Manning turning over an email from 2010 wherein he wrote equipment manager Joe Skiba, saying, “2 helmets that can pass as game used. That is it.  Eli.” 

Then less than 20 minutes later he wrote his marketing agent, Alan Zucker, who requested the helmets, saying: “Should be able to get them for tomorrow.”

Manning: “I will say that is taken out of context and there [are] some other filings that have gone on recently that will clear up a lot of things.”

The suit is set to go to trial on Sept. 25 in New Jersey’s Bergen County superior Court.

Eli, we want to believe you, but we need proof.

--Phil Simms is joining “The NFL Today” pregame show.  Simms will fill the slot left vacant when Tony Gonzalez decided to leave the program at the end of last season.  [I missed this.]

Simms broke his silence for the first time since he was jettisoned from the broadcast booth, in favor of Tony Romo, and the former Giant insists he was not blindsided by CBS’ decision to go in another direction.  He knew his fate by the end of March, but he didn’t know Romo was going to get the gig.

Simms did tell the New York Daily News Wednesday, “I’m not going to lie to you.  My first reaction was I was hurt. There’s no question. But I got over it.”

It helps he has years remaining on a contract, for sure, and now this new position isn’t a bad gig.

--I wasn’t going to say another word about the suicide of Aaron Hernandez, seeing that there was zero reason to do so, but because the story comes from Newsweek, and you assume has been vetted by a few folks there, for the archives I do have to note that they are reporting he may have murdered his former friend, Odin Lloyd, to protect a secret, that Hernandez was bisexual.  Newsweek also reports Hernandez left a suicide note addressed to a gay jailhouse lover, one of three notes found in Hernandez’s cell after he hanged himself Wednesday.

Cops have long believed that Lloyd had incriminating information on Hernandez that the player didn’t want to get out.

Law-enforcement sources told the Boston Globe shortly after his arrest that Hernandez feared Lloyd would rat him out in a previous double murder in 2012 – for which he was just acquitted last week.

NHL

--Wow, what a pleasant surprise for us Rangers fans!  We had such a lousy second-half of the season, with inconsistent play all year from our leader, goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, and I thought the Rangers would lose to the Canadiens in round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in five games.  Instead we won the last three to take it 4-2, the clincher a thrilling 3-1 win at the Garden on Saturday.

When the playoffs roll around, King Henrik often flips a switch and becomes otherworldly. 

Except last postseason, when in a five-game opening round loss to the Penguins, Lundqvist was pulled in the final two contests.  And then we had this rocky regular season.

Larry Brooks / New York Post

“End?

“Not so fast.

“This is just the beginning for the King and his court. Just the beginning for the Rangers after their 3-1, Game 6 victory over the Canadiens at the Garden closed out the Habs in an opening round in which the Blueshirts threw their weight around and in which their goaltender was the series’ pre-eminent goaltender, even if the guy at the other end was named Carey Price....

“ ‘We put a lot of effort into every game here. We didn’t get anything for free. Nothing was handed to us,’ Lundqvist said.  ‘This means a lot.’

“You better believe this means a lot to the 35-year-old Swede, even if he never will admit on a personal basis just how much it meant for him to outplay Price in the matchup of elite goaltenders pretty much everyone in the world had expected to tilt the Montreal netminder’s way....

“He finished it with his arms in the air raised in a playoff victory salute. He ended it, did Henrik Lundqvist, on the winning side of the handshake line.

“Business as usual for the King.”

Here are the numbers.  Lundqvist has a career goals against average of 2.32, but this past season’s 2.74 was by far his highest.  So there were real reasons for concern.

His career GAA in the playoffs, though, is now 2.25, after a 1.70 performance in the six games against Montreal.

--In other playoff series, Saturday, the Oilers advanced, winning their series with the Sharks 4-2, while the Blues took the Wild in five, 4-1.

Sunday, Ottawa defeated Boston 3-2 in OT to take their series 4-2...next up, New York.

Washington has a 3-2 series lead over Toronto as I go to post....but it’s third period in Game 6 and....the Capitals win it 3-2 in OT, and the series 4-2.

Golf Balls

--Great ending Sunday at the Valero Texas Open, as Kevin Chappell won his first PGA Tour event with a birdie on No. 18 in his 180th start, defeating Brooks Koepka by one stroke.  Chappell had four seconds last season.

--After I posted last time we learned that Tiger Woods suddenly had a fourth surgery on his back to alleviate the ongoing pain.

On his website Thursday, Woods said: “The surgery went well, and I’m optimistic this will relieve my back spasms and pain. When healed, I look forward to getting back to normal life, playing with my kids, competing in professional golf and living without the pain I have been battling so long.”

Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, described the procedure to ESPN as “something dramatically different than he’s done in the past.”

This was an anterior lumbar interbody fusion and was performed by Dr. Richard Guyer of the Center for Disc Replacement at the Texas Back Institute.

His three previous procedures involved microdiscectomy surgery.

Guyer said Woods’ rehab “will be geared to allowing him to return to competitive golf.”

Just the day before, as I wrote last time, Woods announced a new course design and said his back was “progressing.”

Steinberg, perhaps in as honest an assessment as he has ever given, seeing as he’s spent a career covering up for Tiger, told ESPN that Woods was suffering from “grueling pain” At times he was OK, but “[When the disc is touching the nerve], that’s when you go into these intense spasms that I don’t know how he was living with.”

--We learned this week that Jimmy Walker, the reigning PGA Champion, is suffering from Lyme Disease.   He initially thought his bouts of fatigue were due to mono, as he told reporters at the Valero Texas Open that he hasn’t “really felt good since Thanksgiving.”

“Basically feels like you got the flu.  No strength, just got nothing.  And it comes and goes in waves.  You never know when it’s going to pop up.”

Poor guy.  Some of us have been wondering why he’s been playing poorly this season, with just one top 10 in 13 starts. That said, including this week, he’s managed to make eight consecutive cuts.  And he finished T-13 Sunday.  Great job!

Walker said he’s awaiting further tests to determine a treatment plan.  Hang in there, Jimmy.

--Have to go back to the Masters one more time.  I was reading a piece in Golfweek by Jeff Babineau and it truly is puzzling how Henrik Stenson, one of the best players in the world, can’t play Augusta.  In 12 starts, he has 0 top 10s, 4 missed cuts and a best finish of 14th.  He missed the cut this time.

And if you thought the first hole seemed tough, this year the 455-yard par 4 played to a stroke average of 4.46, ranking No. 1 in difficulty.  Players had more doubles (16) and others (7) on that hole than any other.

By the way, the par-3 No. 12 played to a 3.23 average this past Masters, while the par-5 13th was 4.63, and the par-5 15th was at 4.94.

--Golfweek’s ranking of the Top Classic courses in America (before 1960).

1. Pine Valley
2. Cypress Point
3. Shinnecock Hills
4. Augusta National
5. National Golf Links of America (Southampton, NY)
6. Oakmont
7. Merion (East)
8. Pebble Beach
9. Fishers Island (Fishers Island, NY)
10. Chicago GC (Wheaton, Ill.)

11. Crystal Downs (Frankfort, Mich.)
12. Prairie Dunes (Hutchinson, Kan.)
13. Seminole (North Palm Beach)
14. Pinehurst No. 2

23. Old Town Club (Winston-Salem!)

Modern (Post-1960)

1. Sand Hills (Mullen, Neb.)
2. Pacific Dunes (Bandon, Ore.)
3. Friar’s Head (Baiting Hollow, NY)
4. Ballyneal (Holyoke, Colo.)
5. Old Macdonald (Bandon)
6. Whistling Straits (Straits course)
7. Sebonack (Southampton, NY)
8. Bandon Dunes
9. Shadow Creek (North Las Vegas)
10. Wade Hampton Club (Cashiers, NC)

13. Muirfield Village
14. Ocean Course (Kiawah)

72. Grandfather G&CC (Linville, NC)...right after I graduated from Wake Forest, 1980, my parents took me here to stay with friends from New Jersey who had a home at Grandfather Mountain. What a beautiful spot.  Unfortunately, I remember playing like total crap, which admittedly I am wont to do.

Premier League

--Due to FA Cup play involving four of the Premier League’s elite, there was a limited schedule of PL games this weekend, and the big ones involved the fight to avoid relegation.

Hull City had a huge 2-0 win over Watford, while Swansea gained a clutch three points with a 2-0 win over Stoke.  So it appears these two will battle it out for the 17th position, and the right to play another year at the top level.

So with just four games to play for both, here is the situation:

17. Hull 34 (games) – 33 (points)
18. Swansea 34 – 31
19. Middlesbrough 33 – 24...season officially ended with a 4-0 loss to Bournemouth
20. Sunderland 32 – 21

In games Sunday, Manchester United beat Burnley 2-0, and Crystal Palace had another stunning victory, 2-1 at Liverpool behind two goals by Christian Benteke, formerly of Liverpool.

Palace has now won 6 of 8, erasing doubts it might be relegated.  It’s also the first season, ever (over 100 years), that Palace has defeated Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in the same campaign.

At the top of the PL:

1. Chelsea 32 – 75
2. Tottenham 32 – 71
3. Liverpool 34 – 66
4. Man City 32 – 64
5. Man U 32 – 63
6. Everton 34 – 58
7. Arsenal 31 – 57

--Meanwhile, in the FA Cup semifinals, we had a terrific matchup between Tottenham and Chelsea at rockin’ Wembley Stadium, Chelsea pulling away for a 4-2 win with three terrific goals.

Actually, of the six scored, five were among the best seen in the entire football season (the sixth was a penalty kick), including goals by Willian (sic), Eden Hazard, and the clincher, an unbelievable kick by Serbian Nemanja Matic.

Earlier, the Spurs’ Harry Kane had a phenomenal header to tie the game at 1-1.  But the Spurs have now been knocked out in the semis of the FA Cup seven straight times.

Chelsea now goes up against Arsenal in the final, the Gunners a 2-1 victor over Manchester City on Sunday.

But does the loss to Chelsea, in such stunning fashion in terms of the manner of the goals scored against keeper Hugo Lloris, mean Tottenham will now crumble in its remaining PL games?  We’ll learn a lot when it travels to Crystal Palace on Wednesday.  [Chelsea hosts Southampton on Tuesday.]

One more on Tottenham...in their last nine games at Wembley, they have just one win.  They obviously aren’t comfortable with the surface, and the problem is, Wembley might be their home next season while their new stadium at White Hart Lane is being built.

--Manchester United forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic suffered serious ligament damage in his right knee and will likely be sidelined until January 2018.  Yikes.  The 35-year-old superstar sustained the injury during United’s Europa League quarterfinal victory against Anderlecht at Old Trafford on Thursday.

Ibrahimovic has scored 28 goals in 46 appearances for United since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain last summer.  His United contract is due to expire at the end of this season.

--I would never comment on a president’s children, until they turn 18, but I saw something cool about Barron Trump, age 11, who will soon be moving to the White House with mom.  He was at the White House for last Monday’s Easter Egg Hunt and the story emerged later he is an Arsenal football supporter, and was seen later decked out in Gunners red.

Good job, Barron.  Yes, I’m Tottenham, but I just think it’s cool an 11-year-old U.S. kid is such a Premier League fan.  At the Easter Egg Hunt, there were some members of local club, D.C. United, and he was seen talking with them, with United giving him a signed ball, welcoming him to Washington.  Seriously, if he’s seen at some of their games, that will be a great shot in the arm for them and the sport in America.  [Barron’s father would appreciate how it could improve NBC’s ratings of Premier League games as well.]

Stuff

--NASCAR’s race at Bristol on Sunday was rained out, which isn’t all bad for some of us.  Something to watch Monday afternoon!!!  Psyched.

--We learned Wednesday that Serena Williams is pregnant, and was so during her winning performance at the Australian Open.  She is engaged to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.  So it certainly means the French Open and Wimbledon are out of the picture, and I’m assuming the U.S. Open as well.

--Speaking of pregnancies, the last orca was born in captivity at a SeaWorld park in San Antonio just over  a year after the theme park decided to stop breeding orcas following animal rights protests and declining ticket sales.

SeaWorld said mother and calf both appear healthy.  The company has not collected a wild orca in nearly 40 years, and most of its orcas were born in captivity.

I didn’t know the gestation period for orcas is about 18 months.

The thing is, SeaWorld’s program has been incredibly useful to researchers, who over time have used the opportunity to gain further knowledge.

--But SeaWorld had a tragedy this week, with the death of a 21-year-old female polar bear, Szenja, in San Diego.  Her partner, Snowflake, has been on loan to the Pittsburgh Zoo for a breeding program there.  It will be weeks before a necropsy determines a cause of death.

PETA had voiced its objections when it became known Snowflake was being shipped away, saying it would leave Szenja “sad and alone.”

So...you can imagine PETA is not real happy now, with a spokesman saying, “Szenja died of a broken heart.”

--Bob S. passed along a horrifying story from Mount Pleasant, S.C., which is across the water from Charleston. 

As told by Bo Petersen of the Post and Courier:

Susie Polston had fallen asleep watching ‘Friends’ on television. She woke in the late night to a loud intruder on the porch outside her Mount Pleasant home.

“ ‘Somebody’s trying to break into the house,’ she told her family.  They secluded themselves in the master bedroom and called 911.  But then the racket quit. Ben Polston, 16, her son, snuck a look and started yelling, ‘Oh my God, I found it!  I found it!’

“He’d found it all right.  In the early hours of Easter, a nearly 10-foot alligator had clambered up the back stairwell to the second story porch of their home, crunched through the aluminum screen door and made itself at home between the sofa and  a swinging bench.  It lay there like a plastic prank, but when they rapped on the window glass, it lifted its head.”

Well, the monster wouldn’t budge, “even though a nuisance removal agent spent two hours trying to coax it out far enough from the porch to snare it safely.”

As Petersen writes:

Alligators wandering up to homes isn’t unusual in the Lowcountry, with its abundance of marsh.  Climbing a second-story staircase is.”

Mount Pleasant isn’t far from Kiawah Island, where yours truly has seen some monsters on the golf course, and in the water along the course of the half-marathon.  All depends on how warm it is.  Walking the resort grounds at night, it’s kind of spooky knowing they’re out there, looking for naïve northerners to devour.

Back to the Polston’s situation, the alligator had to be euthanized because it wouldn’t budge.

--A few weeks ago the awesome BBC America series “Planet Earth 2” wrapped up and I caught up on the final episodes after.

One-third of the world’s grasslands are harvested by insects.

Did you know a giant anteater eats 20,000 insects a day?

And that a caribou calf, all of a day or two old, can outrun a wolf?  [One of the great chase scenes ever filmed by the producers; shot from the air across the Arctic.]

--We note the passing of actress Erin Moran, age 56, cause unknown.  Moran was best known for playing Joanie in the 1970s sitcom “Happy Days.”  She also starred in the spin-off “Joanie Loves Chachi,” which began in 1982.  Joanie was the younger sister of lead character Richie, played by Ron Howard, and of course you had the Fonz, Henry Winkler.

In recent years Moran was reported to be living in an Indiana trailer park.

Top 3 songs for the week 4/26/75: #1 “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” (B.J. Thomas)  #2 “Philadelphia Freedom” (The Elton John Band)  #3 “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)” (Tony Orlando & Dawn)...and...#4 “Lovin’ You” (Minnie Riperton...chirp chirp...tweet tweet...)  #5 “Supernatural Thing” (Ben E. King)  #6 “Chevy Van” (Sammy Johns)  #7 “Before The Next Teardrop Falls” (Freddy Fender)  #8 “Emma” (Hot Chocolate)  #9 “What Am I Gonna Do With You” (Barry White)  #10 Walking In Rhythm” (The Blackbyrds...good tune...)

NFL Draft Quiz Answer: Last five first-overall picks...2016 Jared Goff (QB-Cal) Rams; 2015 Jameis Winston (QB-Florida State) Bucs; 2014 Jadeveon Clowney (DE-South Carolina) Texans; 2013 Eric Fisher (T-Central Michigan) Chiefs; 2012 Andrew Luck (QB-Stanford) Colts.

If you got Eric Fisher, you’re good...pour yourself a frosty, though don’t get caught drinking it at your cubicle.  That would be unfortunate.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.