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Bar Chat

05/29/2017

A First for Japan

[Posted Sunday p.m., prior to Mets-Pirates and the rain-delayed Charlotte 600.]

Baseball / Dodgers Quiz: 1) Name the only six Dodgers, including Brooklyn, to hit 200 home runs, all post-1945.  2) Name the only four to have 1,000 RBIs in a Dodgers uniform.  Two are part of No. 1, while with the other two, one played from 1909-26 and is a Hall of Famer, the other finished up in 1960.  Answers below.

Indy

So I watched the entire 500 and if you were with me, how could you not have enjoyed it, even if for a moment you thought Scott Dixon couldn’t have possibly survived one of the biggest crashes in auto sports in recent memory.  Yes, 20 years ago, Dixon dies instantly, as the look on his wife’s face showed right away.  If you haven’t seen it, YouTube it.  Watching it live, I didn’t realize exactly what happened to the car until seeing the replays and you just want to say, “God is great!”

Dixon not only escaped unscratched, like the cool, calm former Indy winner he is, his comments afterwards were remarkably nonchalant.  This Australian just won millions of new fans and for years to come, we will be hoping he wins again.

The race itself was exciting.  There were other big crashes, including with just 11 or so laps to go that took out essentially the drivers that were running 4-7, but in the end, 40-year-old Takuma Sato, from Tokyo, became the first Japanese driver to ever win the race, driving for Michael Andretti’s team, and any time an Andretti is involved in the win is a good day for me.

But Sato, in some terrific racing down the stretch, took the lead from 3-time winner Helio Castroneves with about three laps to go and held on.

As for rookie Fernando Alonso, the two-time Formula One champ, he went out with engine trouble at lap 179 (of 200), but what a race he ran, top ten the whole way, leading at times, and as one of the Fox broadcasters put it, Alonso “put his prestige on the line and came through.”  Most importantly, the guy was thrilled by the crowd response after he went out and there seems little doubt he’ll be back.

[I’m also kind of proud I said the “sleeper” in the race would be rookie Ed Jones and he finished third.]

Finally, back to Scott Dixon, imagine this.  He was the guy I wrote of last time who after winning the pole, went out for fast food with Dario Franchitti and friends and was the victim of an armed robbery, a gun pointed at his head.  And then today!  You can’t make this up. 

You also, as a sports fan, can’t help but give a prayer of thanks to the Lord that Scott Dixon is alive and with his family tonight.

MLB

--The Mets continue to reel, having inexplicably lost their last two at home to the Padres, Wednesday and Thursday, taking the first game in handy fashion in Pittsburgh, Friday, 8-1, behind Jacob deGrom, but then suffering another brutal loss Saturday night, 5-4 in ten, as the bullpen once again gave it away, and the Mets left the planet on base in the early innings when they could have put the game away.

Entering Sunday’s action, the Mets were 20-27, 9 ½ back of the Washington Nationals in the N.L. East and it wasn’t even Memorial Day, the day when all baseball fans with underperforming teams say the same thing, “OK, boys.  Time to get serious.”

Us Mets fans had every right to have high expectations for our club this season.  An All-World starting staff and a solid lineup, bolstered by the re-signing of star Yoenis Cespedes.  We were dreaming of meaningful games in October, and with good reason.

Today?  Can we really say we’ll be playing meaningful baseball by mid-June? Talk about depressing...the thought that the two key months for baseball, July and August, when they have the sports stage basically to themselves, along with a little golf, the Mets will be irrelevant and I can stomach the Yankees, as solid as they are, only in small doses.

And as for our long injury list, freakin’ Yoenis has been out since April 28 with a hamstring issue, after the team stupidly rushed him back from a strain, and then on Thursday, in Cespedes’ first rehab game he played six innings. Some of us wondered ‘why just six innings?  I guess the team wanted to ease him in.’

Wrong.  It was six because we learned later he told the club in St. Lucie he had “quad soreness” and now instead of coming back Monday or Tuesday, it’s looking at least ten days.  There is good reason to believe the rest of his career will be this way.

Can the Mets medical staff get their freakin’ act together?!

One more, an example of how team management, including the field general, also need to get their acts together.

As Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote, on Wednesday night, as the Mets were losing to San Diego 6-5, blowing a 5-3 lead in the seventh, Fernando Salas, in relief of starter Robert Gsellman, who pitched an effective six innings and could easily have gone out in the seventh, got two quick outs, then loaded the bases – single, walk, walk. 

“(Manager Terry) Collins saw the wildness and a dip in velocity and summoned Neil Ramirez to face (Wil) Myers. On April 29, pitching for the Giants, Ramirez had allowed a three-run homer to Myers. He was designated for assignment the next day. I asked Collins if he knew that and he said he did not, that he had not seen the matchups.  In this data-driven baseball age, how could the manager and his entire staff not be aware of what occurred less than a month ago?

“Myers smashed a ball off the top of the wall in right-center, missing a homer by perhaps three inches.  Myers trotted it into a single, but a game-tying, two-run single.”

Oh well, there’s always Trump to no doubt keep things interesting this summer, I guess.

--Strange stretch for the Yankees.  After starting out 21-9, they have gone 8-9 since thru Sunday.  Friday night, for example, Masahiro Tanaka returned to form, striking out 13 in 7 1/3, but the Yankees’ pen lost it for him, 4-1, to the lowly Athletics. Saturday, the Yankees managed only two hits yet won, 3-2, as Matt Holliday’s two-run homer was the big blow; CC Sabathia with a solid effort and Dellin Betances a five-out save.

Today....the Yanks won 9-5 as Aaron Judge hit his MLB-leading 16th home run, and first grand slam, with Michael Pineda improving to 6-2, 3.32 ERA, with six innings of 3-run ball.

--The White Sox signed 19-year-old Cuban prospect Luis Robert for a reported $50 million – which includes a $26 million signing bonus to Robert and the rest to MLB for overage taxes.

--We note the passing of all-time baseball great and Hall of Famer, pitcher Jim Bunning, 85; the only member in Cooperstown who also served in Congress, including 12 years as a U.S. senator from his native Kentucky.

Bunning pitched 17 seasons in the big leagues, 1955-71, making eight All-Star teams, and was the second pitcher to win 100 games in each league (118-87 with Detroit, and then 106-97 in the N.L., 224-184 lifetime), with a 3.27 career ERA and 40 shutouts.  At the time of his retirement he was second all-time in strikeouts.

Bunning only won 20 games once, 20-8 in 1957 with Detroit, but he won19 four times, including three consecutive seasons in Philadelphia, 1964-66.

But Bunning’s greatest moment came on Father’s Day, June 21, 1964, at Shea Stadium, when he threw the National League’s first perfect game since 1880, striking out 10, as the Phils beat the Mets 6-0 in the first game of a doubleheader.  [The shell-shocked Metsies lost the nightcap 8-2.]

Sen. Mitch McConnell, a fellow Kentucky Republican, said, “Jim Bunning led a long and storied life. This Hall of Famer will long be remembered for many things, including a perfect game, a larger-than-life personality, a passion for Kentucky and a loving family.”

Baseball union head Tony Clark hailed Bunning for his work in creating the players’ union back in 1966.

“Recognizing the need to ensure that all players receive fair representation in their dealings with major league club owners, Jim...helped pave the way for generations of players,” Clark said.  “All players – past, present and future – will forever owe Jim a debt of gratitude.”

Bunning was a rabid conservative and controversial legislator, and aside from his time in the Senate, he spent six terms as a Congressman.  He was an ornery type and Republican leaders forced him to not seek re-election in 2010.  That February, he singlehandedly held up a $10 billion spending bill in Congress because it would have added to the deficit.

Earlier, Bunning had declared that athletes who use steroids should be kept out of the Hall of Fame and their records nullified.

He was elected to the Hall by the Veterans Committee in 1996.

--My brother alerted me to a piece I had somehow missed by Bill Madden in the New York Daily News on my hero, Tom Seaver, who is a happy vintner in Napa Valley, California these days, and a Hall of Famer who doesn’t watch much baseball anymore.  [Seaver’s GTS cabernet is a top-scored product by Wine Spectator.]

Seaver told Madden he doesn’t read box scores like he used to because he is increasingly aggravated at how hardly anyone completes a game anymore.

“Tom Terrific” hasn’t been following the Mets and Madden told him about the ‘lat muscle’ injury to Noah Syndergaard.  When told he was throwing 100, No. 41 said:

“What’s with these guys and this obsession today with velocity?” he exclaimed.  “How about just pitch!  Learn how to pitch!  Because eventually that velocity will be harder and harder to maintain on a consistent basis....

“Late in my career, with the White Sox, I didn’t throw as hard as I did with the Mets, but I knew how to pitch and I was still winning games.  I did win 300, you know....So this one game, I come back to the dugout after the first inning and Dave Duncan, our pitching coach, comes up to me and says: ‘You ain’t got s—t today.’ I said to him, ‘I know that’ and then I pointed to the other dugout, and added, ‘but they don’t know that!’”

And then Seaver told Madden, “you gotta know how to get through” days like that, adding the one phrase all Mets fans grow up with, “The most important pitch for a pitcher?  Strike one!”

Seaver, by the way, is very proud of his wine (the GTS standing for George Thomas Seaver).

“I’m out there every day with the vineyard workers.  I’m looking at this glass of wine here and I’m very proud of the fact that every single grape that went into it was touched by me.”

Yes, Tom Terrific was a perfectionist.  And a darn good role model for us kids to follow in our youth, looking back.  

--Despite the Yankees’ early-season success, as reported by the New York Times the team is on pace to finish the season with a stupendous $166 million less in ticket and suite sales compared  with 2009, the team’s last World Series season.

The Yankees didn’t dispute the figures but say 2009 was an once-in-a-lifetime, sky-high money maker for any club, because the team, for one, was christening their new ballpark and went on to win their 27th world title.

That said, the Yankees’ humongous ticket prices have long been a polarizing topic in these parts.

NBA Playoffs

--So the Cavs took out the Celtics in Game 5 on Thursday, 135-102, in a game that was beyond embarrassing and emblematic of the incredibly sh---y play us pseudo fans have been forced to endure for weeks now.

But for the record, I do have to note LeBron James passed Michael Jordan as the NBA’s all-time playoff scoring leader, which I have to admit is about the stat I least give a damn about as I sleep with one eye open over Pyongyang’s growing missile threat...but I digress.....

[MJ’s per-game scoring average of 33.45 in the postseason is ahead of Allen Iverson’s 29.73, with James fifth at 28.25.]

Now we have to wait until friggin’ Thursday for Game 1, Warriors-Cavs.  Yes, it’s been much anticipated, basically the entire season.  Let’s hope it lives up to the hype.

--Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter faces an arrest warrant issued by the Turkish government over allegedly ‘being a member of a terrorist organization’ blamed for a failed coup last year, a newspaper in Turkey reported on Friday.

Turkish prosecutors have sought an international ‘red notice’ from Interpol, according to the Daily Sabah.  Interpol would have to approve the notice and even if they did, the chances the U.S. would extradite Kanter are very unlikely.

Kanter is basically telling Ankara to blank-off.

--The NBA announced that Charlotte will host the 2019 All-Star Weekend after the league took this year’s game away from the city because of North Carolina’s so-called “bathroom Bill.”  The state recently repealed enough of it to satisfy the league and Commissioner Adam Silver.

Stanley Cup Playoffs

--Thursday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins advanced to the Finals against Nashville with a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final; won by Chris Kunitz at 5:09 of the second overtime.  I have to admit, I went to bed after the first OT.

Kunitz scored twice in the game, his first two of the playoffs.

So now the Penguins are trying to become the first team since Detroit in 1998 to win back-to-back titles.  Game 1 in Pittsburgh on Monday.

Great piece in Sports Illustrated by Alex Prewitt on hockey-mad Nashville.  Yeah, it’s a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon...great!  Awesome for the city.

And as opposed to the minor celebrities the Knicks normally draw at Madison Square Garden, Nashville has all of Country Music to draw on, starting with Carrie Underwood being married to Predators captain Mike Fisher.

Underwood belted out the National Anthem for Game 3 of the first round.  Vince Gill is a big heckler of opponents.  Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Luke Bryan, Little Big Town and Kelly Clarkson are others who’ve lent their talents for the anthem.  Dierks Bentley is a huge fan.

The Bridgestone Arena has a built-in stage and the other night, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame keyboardist Felix Cavaliere of the Rascals made a surprise appearance alongside Kansas front man John Elefante and during the second intermission, fans in the stands were treated to Elefante singing his group’s hit, “Carry on Wayward Son.”  Now that’s great fun.

So, yes, for one series I’m climbing on board the Nashville bandwagon.  Go Predators!

Golf Balls

--33-year-old Kevin Kisner, one of the five or so grittiest players on tour, picked up his second career win at the Dean & Deluca Invitational at Colonial on Sunday, finishing one shot ahead of Jordan Spieth, Sean O’Hair and Jon Rahm.

Your editor, after a lengthy losing streak, picked up his second consecutive win on DraftKings and is celebrating mightily tonight.

--Bernhard Langer broke Jack Nicklaus’ senior major record with his ninth triumph at the Senior PGA Championship at Trump National in Washington, D.C., Langer winning a tourney long duel with Vijay Singh by one stroke.

[Don’t tell Gary Player about this record. He disputes it...it’s complicated.]

--I thought we wouldn’t hear from Tiger Woods after his most recent surgery for a number of months, but with all those endorsements, he has to keep his name out there and so he wrote the other day on his website:

“It has been just over a month since I underwent fusion surgery on my back, and it is hard to express how much better I feel.  It was instant nerve relief. I haven’t felt this good in years....

“I could no longer live with the pain I had,” he continued.  “We tried every possible nonsurgical route and nothing worked.  I had good days and bad days, but the pain was usually there, and I couldn’t do much.  Even lying down hurt....I consulted with a specialist, and after weighing my options, that’s when I decided to go to Texas to have surgery.”

But Woods made it clear he isn’t anywhere close to returning to the sport, acknowledging he “can’t twist for another two and a half to three months.”

So sounds like in the fall we’ll hear he’s on the range again, and then we’ll hear how he’s making his comeback at one of the California events.  And then we’ll hear how he’s hoping to play in the Masters...a tradition unlike any other, on CBS...and we’ll all go, ‘whatever.’

--Joel Beall of Golf World had a piece this week that may help some of you who play fantasy golf.  After Si Woo Kim and Billy Horschel recently won The Players and AT&T Byron Nelson when neither was the least bit ‘hot’ going into the event, like Horschel having missed the cut in his previous four tournaments, Golf World did a study of the 41 tour winners starting with Jordan Spieth’s triumph at the 2016 Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial, and explored four weeks of results prior to each victory to see if momentum really is non-existent.

Well, Horschel and Kim were the exception.  In 95 percent of the 41 cases, “a winner logged at least one top-25 finish in one of the four events leading up to his victory.  In fact there were only two instances where that didn’t happen: Horschel, and Billy Hurley III’s W at the Quicken Loans National.  (The former serviceman REALLY came out of nowhere, with six missed cuts, a T-41 and T-52 in his previous eight tournaments before winning at Congressional).

But since anyone can step into a top-25, Golf World cut it down to a top 15, a finish that shows, while not necessarily in the mix on Sunday, the player was working his way  into contention.  82.9 percent indeed had a top 15 before the win in his prior four events.

More than 63 percent had at least one top 10.

[Kisner was second in New Orleans three tournaments ago.]

--Rory McIlroy withdrew from next week’s Memorial Tournament, which was to be his final warm-up for the U.S. Open, due to a rib injury.  He said all focus now is on being ready for Erin Hills.

--Ernie Els participated in last week’s BMW PGA Championship at Virginia Water, England, one of the top events on the European Tour, and it emerged that his opening 71 could have been two shots better were it not for Ernie’s integrity.

You see, Els decided he’d not acted properly on the par-5, 12th hole.

From Alistair Tait / Golfweek

“Els felt his ball had plugged near a greenside bunker, and told his partners he was going to investigate.  He marked and lifted the ball to check, replaced it and then chipped it into the hole.  Els should have been elated at making eagle.  Instead, he sensed something wasn’t quite right.

“ ‘I thought it was plugged, so I asked my guys (playing companions Justin Rose and Matthew Fitzpatrick) if I could check it and they said yes,’ Els explained.  ‘I put it back and hit my chip shot, and I just felt uncomfortable by the way the ball came out. The ball came out too good. So I felt I didn’t quite probably put it exactly where I should have.’

“Els consulted chief referee John Paramor.

“ ‘JP explained to me that under the rules you try to put it back the way you think it should be.’

“In other words, only Els knew how his ball had originally been lying.  He could have said he replaced the ball as close to where it was originally, and was within his rights to accept the eagle.

“That did not sit right with his conscience.  He decided to invoke Rule 20-7, Playing from a Wrong Place, which incurs a two-shot penalty....

“Somewhere up in that great clubhouse in the sky, the golfing gods are smiling.”

Football Bits

--Giants receiver Odell Beckham skipped the first two offseason training activities this week (OTAs) and even though they weren’t mandatory, Beckham made sure he got maximum press out of his absence as he spent the time training with bad-boy Johnny Manziel.  Then, two days later, when he could have shown at a third OTA, he was seen in L.A. with Iggy Azalea.  The New York press being what it is had a field day on the back pages.

Odell did say he would be at the mandatory minicamp in mid-June. 

In the meantime, he is populating his Instagram account with dozens of photos of his performing with Manziel, this after he picked up a lot of press for his largest-ever deal with Nike.

--Terry Bradshaw caught some heat for his totally honest, and correct, comments concerning Alabama football coach Nick Saban’s total compensation of $11 million for next season, making Saban one of the highest-paid public employees in the country, according to USA TODAY Sports.

Bradshaw called Saban’s income “shameful” this past week on a sports show, explaining that Saban’s pay represented the “entire athletic budget” at Louisiana Tech, his alma mater, though La. Tech’s budget is actually $22 million.  Anyway, point made.

Bradshaw, speaking on the Paul Finebaum show, also said he liked Steve Spurrier better as a coach because he had a better personality.

“If he has the personality of Steve Spurrier, then I would like (Saban).  Spurrier, now you’re talking about a great coach.  That’s a great coach...not Saban. Saban hates people.  The man doesn’t even like people.”

Well who does?  ‘Man’ is No. 368 on the All-Species List!

--Some broadcast hires are just too funny.  ESPN signed former coach Chip Kelly on Friday to a multiyear deal to do college football games, Kelly having coached at Oregon and then the Philadelphia Eagles.

The thing is, Kelly will mostly be doing pregame, halftime, and post-game shows on ESPN2, as well as some NFL analysis on Sundays, so it doesn’t matter this guy was about the worst interview around, because he didn’t like to communicate with anyone, including, sometimes, his players.

Premier League

--Arsenal defeated Chelsea 2-1 in a thrilling F.A. Cup final at Wembley on Saturday.  I caught the second half and it was great fun, the perfect ending to what was a highly successful Cup competition overall with some big upsets along the way, just what this oldest competition needed, a real shot in the arm.  The Cup has lost some allure over the years, as the Premier and Champions League competitions have taken center stage, but don’t tell the players, managers and team owners they don’t want to win it.  I mean this tournament goes all the way back to 1872!

Longtime Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who saw his club fail to make the Champions League for the first time in 20 years, has made clear he believes he deserves to come back after 21 years in charge.

The F.A. Cup title was Wenger’s seventh, by the way, making him the most-successful manager ever in the world’s oldest cup competition.

--Wednesday, Manchester United helped pick up the people of its city with a 2-0 win over Amsterdam’s Ajax in the Europa League final in Stockholm.  I was trying to come up with a good analogy for the Europa League competition and it’s like college basketball’s NIT.  It’s very nice to win, and with each game the team (or school) can pick up decent cash, but it’s not the Champions League or NCAAs.

Nonetheless, it’s kind of ironic that the two teams who disappointed in the Premier League this season, Arsenal and Man U., failing to reach the top four in the final standings and a Champions League berth, still closed their respective deals.

United also deserves credit for recognizing their city, following the terror attack, deserved a 100 percent effort and they gave it.

Monaco Grand Prix

Always a fun one to watch, an event that is on every race fan’s bucket list for sure, and for the first time since 2001, Ferrari took it, with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finishing 1-2 in their gorgeous red vehicles.  It was also the first 1-2 for Ferrari since the 2010 German Grand Prix.  Vettel now leads Lewis Hamilton for the championship by 25 points, Hamilton finishing seventh.

Jenson Button, appearing in his last F1 race before retiring, and in Fernando Alonso’s car while Alonso performed at Indy, made a stupid mistake, clipping Pascal Wehrlein’s rear tire, which sent Wehrlein into the wall, car on the side, Wehrlein pinned up against it. Thankfully, the car didn’t catch fire or this could have been tragic.  He ended up being OK, but he said his head did touch the wall. 

Memorial Day

The current issue of Army Times has some tidbits on “The Making of Memorial Day,” which didn’t officially become a national holiday on the last Monday of May until 1971.

Back in 1866, though, the citizens of Waterloo, New York, lowered their flags to half-staff and decorated the graves of fallen service members at three area cemeteries on May 5.  A century later, Congress recognized this as the birth of what would become Memorial Day.

In 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery, 5,000 people attended a Decoration Day observation at which former Union major general and Ohio Rep. James Garfield gave a speech.  He would be president 13 years later.

Also in 1868, Maj. Gen. John Logan, head of  a national group of Union war veterans called the Grand Army of the Republic, declared Decoration Day would be held nationwide May 30.

Today, every American is asked to spend a minute reflecting on our fallen service members at 3 p.m.

Army Times had a list of those who died in the past year serving overseas.  The following were killed in combat or died in service-related incidents in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Army Staff Sgt. Matthew V. Thompson, Army civilian Michael G. Sauro, Navy Chief Petty Officer Jason C. Finan, Air Force Staff Sgt. Austin Bieren, Army Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, Army Staff Sgt. Christopher A. Wilbur, Army Sgt. Douglas J. Riney, Army Staff Sgt. Adam S. Thomas, Army Capt. Andrew D. Byers, Army Sgt. 1st Class Ryan A. Gloyer, Army Sgt. First Class Allan E. Brown, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott C. Dayton, Army Pfc. Tyler R. Iubelt, Army Sgt. John W. Perry, Army Pfc. Brian P. Odiorne, Army Sgt. 1st Class Robert R. Boniface, Army Sgt. Joshua P. Rodgers, Army Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas, Army 1st Lt. Weston C. Lee.

[There was another reported death in Syria today, but I’m not comfortable reporting the name until I see all the details.]

Stuff

--So much for the Belmont Stakes being the least bit meaningful.  Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming will skip it, as will Preakness winner Cloud Computing.  The only reason to watch now would be to see if Classic Empire, who is running, could finally nab one of the Big Three, which if he did would set up potentially intriguing races this summer and perhaps in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

--In the Men’s Lacrosse Championship, Maryland defeated Denver 9-8 in one semifinal on Saturday, while Ohio State prevailed over Towson, 11-10, so it’s the Buckeyes vs. the Terrapins for the title on Monday.

--On Sunday, No. 1 seed Angelique Kerber became the first woman seeded No. 1 to lose in the French Open’s first round in the professional era.  What an embarrassment, Kerber losing badly, 6-2, 6-2, to 40th-ranked Ekaterina Makarova of Russia.

Kerber hasn’t been playing well this year but she inherited the top spot in Serena Williams’ absence.

--A giant of the Los Angeles entertainment industry, billionaire “Jerry” Perenchio, died the other day at the age of 86.  He was a leader in media events, a collector of masterpiece artworks and one of the richest men in L.A., an enigmatic Bel Air mogul of everything he touched.  He even lived in a mansion that was home to the fictional Clampett clan of “Beverly Hillbillies” fame.

Perenchio in late 2014 announced he would leave much of his $500 million art collection, that contained works by Claude Monet, Edouard Manet and Picasso, to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; a bequest that was scheduled to go into effect after his death – but with a major string attached: The museum must complete construction of a new building and, in 2016, he promised $25 million to that effort.

As Meg James writes in the Los Angeles Times:

“As a talent agent in the late ‘50s and ‘60s, Perenchio’s firm represented such stars as Andy Williams, Glen Campbell and Henry Mancini.  As a promoter in the ‘70s, he staged the historic clash of heavyweight boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, then orchestrated the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.

“A successful film producer in the ‘80s, Perenchio helped bring to the big screen such iconic films as ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Driving Miss Daisy.’ He briefly owned the Loews theater chain and became Malibu’s largest landowner. During the ‘90s, he transformed a cash-strapped TV company, Univision Communications, into the nation’s dominant Spanish-language media conglomerate.  When he sold Univision in 2007, Perenchio had parlayed his initial $33 million investment into a $1.3 billion payout.”

Perenchio had 20 “Rules of the Road,” a list of business maxims that he demanded his executives follow.  They included:

No. 1: Stay Clear of the Press.  No interviews, No Panels, No Speeches, No comments.  Stay out of the Spotlight – It Fades Your Suit.

No. 3: Never Rehire Anyone.

No. 8: Take Options, Never Give Them.

No. 12: When you Suit Up Each Day It’s to Play in Yankee Stadium or Dodger Stadium.  Think Big.

No. 20: Always, Always take the High Road.  Be Tough but Fair and never Lose Your Sense of Humor.

Perenchio gave $10s of millions to scores of candidates and political action committees, and served on the board for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute. He was one of the largest backers for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Perenchio also donated $10s of millions to projects such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

--So last time I blasted the parents of the girl who was grabbed by a sea lion in British Columbia, and then two days later, the father said the girl and her grandparents have been falsely blamed for feeding the animal.

“There was somebody beside them that was trying to feed them. Also, they weren’t trying to take pictures or anything,” he told CBC News.

Well, he’s lying. The father, who was identified only by his last name, Lau, said: “My daughter went to the front to try to see the sea lions, to get a closer look.”

Lau admitted the girl had been too close, though.  “That’s a lesson she took and she has taken that lesson in a hard way.”  Ah, she was posing for pictures, you jerk.

Remember how I told you authorities were pissed off at the family for not seeking medical treatment because a bite from a sea lion can be highly infectious?  Well, guess what?  The girl suffered a superficial wound on her lower body, according to the father, and she is being treated with antibiotics, a specific form of treatment associated with sea lions.  [The family did seek attention right after, it turns out.]

We learned it was the girl’s grandfather who jumped in and saved the girl’s life.  The father said, “If he had one- or two-second doubt about that, my girl could have been gone by then. That reaction makes him a hero,” he said.

Meanwhile, re the All-Species List and ‘Man’s’ ranking of 368, Dr. Whit noted we rank only above Ebola, because “Ebola also causes problems for other ‘higher order’ primates.”  Good point.

--Finally, we note the passing of the great Gregg Allman, 69, leader of the Allman Brothers Band, which he founded with brother Duane, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley and the drum duo of Butch Trucks and Jai Johnny Johnson back in Macon, Georgia in 1969.  The band popularized Southern Rock and growing up, I, like everyone else was captured by the unique sound of 1973’s “Ramblin Man” and “Jessica,” my two personal faves, and then when I got to Wake Forest, I discovered Charlies Daniels and Marshal Tucker, who became two staples on the stereo in my dorm room (along with Earth, Wind & Fire, I hasten to add).

The Allman Brothers persevered through the deaths in 1971 of Duane, and then the following year, Oakley, both in motorcycle crashes, and through various iterations Gregg and company stayed together and were a staple at New York City clubs for decades.

Allman told the Los Angeles Times in 1987: “Sure, there have been [difficult times], but I’ve had lots of good times, too, and that’s what I think of when I look back.  If I just thought about the bad things, I’d probably be in the rubber room.

“There’s a great comfort in the music itself. It’s a shame that everybody in life doesn’t have something like that...so that if they fail in business or get your heart broken...you can still play your music.  It helps get you through the darkest times.  I hope on my death bed that I’m learning a new chord or writing a new song.”

The Allman Brothers, and Gregg as a solo artist, were liberal about where they played – from large arenas to biker clubs.  He averaged more than 150 shows a year late into his career.

Gregg Allman was born on Dec. 8, 1947, in Nashville, the younger son of Willis Turner Allman and his wife, Geraldine Alice Robbins.  His father, who stormed the beaches of Normandy during World War II, was murdered by a hitchhiker when Allman was only 2 and the family moved to Daytona Beach, where he and his brother were inspired by late-night blues broadcasts they’d pick up from a Nashville radio station.

Gregg said he was the first in the family to start playing music, buying a Silvertone guitar at Sears for $21.95, money he had collected doing a paper route.

As the Allman Brothers Band eventually came together in 1969, with a critically acclaimed self-titled debut album that had abysmal sales, the second album, “Idlewild South,” which featured “Midnight Rider,” had a much better reception and then the group really exploded on the scene with their third album, the monster LP “Allman Brothers at Fillmore East” – recorded at the legendary New York venue.  The group was midway through the recording of their fourth, “Eat a Peach,” when Duane was killed in his crash, which took a big toll on Gregg and put the band in a state of flux.

Duane to this day is ranked among the best guitarists of all time, Gregg saying he was the best slide guitar player ever.

Duane and Berry Oakley, by the way, are buried next to each other in Macon, Georgia.  Gregg will be buried at the same Rose Hill cemetery, though haven’t seen if he will be besides the other two.

I’ve been meaning to get to the Allman Brothers’ “Big House” in Macon one of these days.  Now even more so.

Top 3 songs for the week 5/30/64: #1 “Love Me Do” (The Beatles)  #2 “Chapel Of Love” (The Dixie Cups)  #3 “My Guy” (Mary Wells)...and...#4 “Love Me With All Your Heart” (The Ray Charles Singers...huge hit with Mom and Dad’s easy listening station back in the day...but this is another reason why the 60s were so great...that a song like this, amid the British Invasion, could be a top ten...)  #5 “Hello, Dolly!” (Louis Armstrong)  #6 “(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet” (The Reflections...has held up very well...wouldn’t have thought it would...)  #7 “A World Without Love” (Peter and Gordon)  #8 “Little Children” (Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas...great tune...)  #9 “It’s Over” (Roy Orbison)  #10 “Walk On By” (Dionne Warwick...loved this one growing up...still do...)

Regarding last week’s ‘five most famous classical composers list,’ Ken P. duly noted that Chopin’s camp will be pissed the pianoforte was underrepresented in the group.

Baseball / Dodgers Quiz Answers: 1) Six with 200 home runs: Duke Snider, 389; Gil Hodges 361; Eric Karros, 270; Roy Campanella, 242; Ron Cey, 228; Steve Garvey, 211.  2) Four with 1,000 RBIs: Snider, 1,271; Hodges, 1,254; Zack Wheat, 1,210; Carl Furillo, 1,058.

I forget just how great Hall of Famer Wheat was. The leftfielder played from 1909-26 with the Dodgers, with a final season in ’27 with the Athletics.  He had 2,884 hits in his career, but what stands out is that his two 100-RBI seasons were when he was 34 (1922), 112, and at age 37 (1925), 103.

I mean Wheat hit .375 in both 1923 and ’24!  And .359, at 37, in ’25.

So we celebrate the great Zack Wheat this holiday weekend with a Brooklyn Lager.

Furillo, a two-time All-Star, played from 1946-60.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.

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