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Bar Chat

11/06/2017

Baseball Is Over....for three months....

[Posted Sunday p.m.]

NBA Quiz: Name the eight ahead of LeBron James, as of Friday, on the all-time points list.  Answer below.

Shalane!

I can’t help but start out with Shalane Flanagan’s win in the New York City Marathon, the first American woman to capture it since 1977! [Miki Gorman]

Flanagan, a Bar Chat fave since 2008 when I first saw her at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, and then subsequent events, is now 36 and had announced before the marathon that if she won, she’d call it quits.  If so, what a remarkable career, including being a four-time Olympian at various distances, with a silver medal in the 10,000 in 2008.

Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya won the men’s race, holding off countryman Wilson Kipsang for his first major victory.

American great, and 2009 New York winner, Meb Keflezighi completed his 26th and final marathon, collapsing at the finish line.

World Series Game 7

Time to wrap up the season.....

Unfortunately, the final game was decided early.  The Dodgers left six men on base in the first three innings, and for a second straight Series start, Yu Darvish lasted just 1 2/3, giving up five runs (four earned...same as Game 3), and Houston went on to win 5-1.

Houston’s A.J. Hinch didn’t allow starter Lance McCullers to go far, just 2 1/3, scoreless, though he had hit four batters!  [I was tempted to turn off the television...afraid he would hit me!]  Then Brad Peacock for 2, and Charlie Morton would finish it off with four terrific innings, giving up the lone run.   

L.A. wasted four shutout innings from Clayton Kershaw out of the pen on two days’ rest.  But for those who said after he should have started, you’re nuts, though it was legit to question Manager Dave Roberts for staying too long with Darvish in a Game 7.

How did the Dodgers really lose?  Try these averages in the seven games.

Cody Bellinger, .143, a record 17 strikeouts [and a record 29 for the playoffs]
Corey Seager, .222
Chris Taylor, .222
Justin Turner, .160
Yasiel Puig, .148

Those are the five key hitters in the lineup.

For Houston, the MVP ended up being George Springer, five home runs in the Series, joining Chase Utley (2009) and Reggie Jackson (1977) as the only ones to do this, and as popular a selection as you’ll ever find.  He’s a great guy, by all reports, and a UConn boy!

So congrats to Houston...what a progression....

2011...56-106
2012...55-107
2013...51-111*
2014...70-92
2015...86-76
2016...84-78
2017...101-61

*After a third straight 100 loss season, Sports Illustrated famously proclaimed in a cover story: “Your 2017 World Series Champs,” featuring a picture of Springer.  [Though this year its MLB preview touted the Dodgers.]

Jose Altuve has been on the team since 2011, the only Astro to have stuck since then...in rather spectacular fashion in his case.  Like I think we can all agree the folks in Cooperstown can make the top of his plaque...and fill in the number of seasons with 200 hits and batting titles later.

What a great shot in the arm for baseball this postseason has been.  Last year with the Cubs’ story wasn’t that bad either.  This sport is poised to grow.  Terrific ratings.  A plethora of great teams...just think about it....Houston, L.A., Yankees, Cleveland, Cubs, Washington...just for starters.  It’s almost a lock that the playoffs are going to be exciting for years to come with these powerhouses, all stacked with young stars (except Washington will lose Bryce Harper to the Yanks after next season).

Thomas Boswell / Washington Post

“It takes a long time for trend lines to cross. We may be talking about a 10- or 15-year process here.  But after a thrilling seven-game World Series for the third time in four years, baseball, a sport that was never far ‘down,’ is headed back up, with just a handful of problems, most of them manageable.  Meanwhile, the NFL has more intractable issues than a junkyard mutt has fleas.

“For the third time in four years, baseball had one of the all-time best World Series, each with a completely different flavor. In 2014, the Giants won on the back of Madison Bumgarner vs. the world; then last year, the Cubs grabbed their first title in 108 years.  Now we now have the ‘Houston Strongest’ Series featuring two games that stand among the 10 best World Series games ever played, plus a jubilant, exuberant young champion that will bring power, energy, advanced critical thinking and athleticism to the sport for years.

“This World Series was so good that when Game 7 was just a decent 5-1 game, it was not just anticlimactic but a shock that two teams so close – 34-34 total score – did not go 11 innings, change leads five times and hit 10 homers....On Sunday night, Major League Baseball’s TV ratings stomped the NFL by a third.  Yes, of course, it’s the World Series, so it should. But it did.

“This World Series cast baseball in sharp relief against an NFL season that so far is drab, injury-filled, controversy-laden and so full of parity that almost nobody is worth watching. However, the difference between the directions of the two sports is deeper than that and follows long trend lines.

“These days, baseball is smart, innovative, in love with change and so dynamic you can hardly keep up with it, while the NFL has been asleep for decades, collecting cash and becoming sclerotic....

“The NFL hasn’t had a new idea in 15 years, unless Bill Belichick had it. The NFL is just formulaic frat-house-on-the-lawn touch football with conservative five-yard passes that you could throw when you were 14 years old.  Bubble screen, shallow pick route, draw, stretch sweep, quick hitch, punt.  Yippee!

“Hard licks, once the pride of the game, have become just another CTE crack in the wall. What Night Train Lane and Dick Butkus once did to make us pump our fists now turns our stomachs because we know every player is just human fodder with an expiration date on his brain, except he doesn’t know what year it say yet. We all sacrificed knees to football, but nobody told us that ‘practice in pads today’ was just a couple of hours of killing brain cells for early-onset everything....

“This World Series, and this entire postseason, which had six winner-take-all games, crystallized what baseball has become. It’s the sport where we talk about civilized issues such as how to improve pace of play by, maybe, holding each team to two mound visits per game.

“Meanwhile, the NFL, with TV viewership down 18.7 percent from two years ago at the same season midpoint, waits each week for its latest current or recent star to announce the damage football has done to his whole life.

“Baseball is the sport where we tsk-tsk about too many whiffs and, oh, isn’t it terrible that two players hit more than 50 homers.  NFL teams keep the police scanner on 24/7 with lawyers at the ready.  Baseball looks like it might have a pretty good commissioner. Football still has Roger Goodell and – this tells you everything you need to know – thinks that is the good news.

“The NFL didn’t need another problem.

“Now it has to cope with 5-foot-6 Jose Altuve’s smile.”

--Just a note on Yu Darvish.  His World Series performance hurt him big time in terms of his free agency.  He did a nice job once the Dodgers acquired him at the trade deadline, 4-3, 3.44, in 9 starts, and he came up big in the NLDS and NLCS, but the last two duds cement what should be his reputation.  He’s a #3 starter, at the very best.

Darvish does deserve mega credit as a human being, though, for his classy handling of the Yuli Gurriel mess, and his thoughtful, tearful comments after Game 7.  Here’s hoping the Dodgers find a way to keep him (though their payroll is already sky high).

--The Yankees’ don’t have to worry about a hole in their starting rotation, as Masahiro Tanaka opted to stay for the final three years of a contract that will pay him $67 million.  He could have gone the free agency route, but as I wrote before, first off, I just don’t see anyone offering him a better deal as he is damaged goods.

Plus, while he was terrific in the postseason, in the regular season he went 13-12 with a 4.74 ERA.

So it will be Luis Severino, Tanaka, Jordan Montgomery and Sonny Gray, while the team waits to see what 37-year-old CC Sabathia opts to do in free agency.  The Yankees would bring him back on a one-year deal, but not two. They do have some terrific arms on the way down in AAA.

--The Angels re-signed Justin Upton to a five-year, $106 million contract, extending the slugging left fielder’s agreement another year to keep him out of free agency.  Upton, 30, could have opted out of the four years and $88.5 million left on his deal.  Playing with both Detroit and L.A. this season, he hit .273, with 35 homers and 109 RBIs.  He also had a .361 OBP, and Angels GM Bill Eppler loves that, having mandated everyone on the team needs to be above .330 (in case you were thinking of trying out for them this winter).

Nice move by L.A. as they try to figure out a way to put a strong lineup, and pitching staff, around Mike Trout (whose current contract expires after 2020).

College Football Review

*Following written prior to release of latest AP Poll...CFP Rankings come out Tues.

Another crazy Saturday...and the Big Ten is in serious danger of getting shut out of the playoffs.

So to run down the Top Ten and more...using CFP Rankings....

No. 1 Georgia (9-0) defeated a solid South Carolina squad (6-3) 24-10, outgaining the Gamecocks 438-270.

2 Alabama is 9-0 after a hard-fought win against 19 LSU (6-3) 24-10, the Tigers outgaining the Tide 306-299.

3 Notre Dame won its seventh in a row to advance to 8-1 with a convincing win over Wake Forest (5-4), 48-37, though the Deacs, with two late touchdowns, showed some real fight...and beat the spread!  At the end of the day, boys and girls....

Wake was playing without its top receiver, its No. 2 and 3 running backs, and its best D-back, but the normally stout defense gave up 710 yards to the Fighting Irish, which was inexcusable, ND quarterback Brandon Wimbush with 390 yards of total offense (the exact same total as Wake QB John Wolford), Notre Dame rushing for 380 yards on 46 carries and four touchdowns, even though Heisman hopeful (no longer) Josh Adams was held to 22 yards, playing just briefly in the first half, owing to “weariness” issues.

Wake now needs a win at Syracuse next week to become bowl eligible.  This won’t be an easy task. Then they finish at home against N.C. State and Duke.

4 Clemson (8-1) remains in the CFP hunt with a 38-31 win over 20 N.C. State (6-3), whose only losses are to the Tigers, Notre Dame and the opener to South Carolina.  The Wolfpack outgained the Tigers 491-415.

In an unbelievable game, 5 Oklahoma (8-1) is very much in the CFP conversation  after a thrilling 62-52 win at 11 Oklahoma State (7-2), the Sooners’ Baker Mayfield perhaps wrapping up the Heisman Trophy (especially with the other ‘underperformances’ around the country yesterday), a superb 24/36, 598, 5-2, while Rodney Anderson chipped in with 111 yards rushing.

OSU’s Mason Rudolph was also terrific, 28/54, 448, 5-2, and he’s going to be an interesting first-round selection in his own right, but he had two costly turnovers in the second half.  He also had clear sailing on a fourth and 8 at the end to pick up the first down on the ground and threw an incomplete pass.

Justice Hill ran for 228 yards and two scores for the Cowboys as the two teams combined for over 1,400 yards of offense, the craziest game in the history of this great rivalry.

Speaking of Heisman candidates, just a week ago, 6 Ohio State was on top of the world after a 39-38 win over Penn State, quarterback J.T. Barrett spectacular and thinking end of season hardware, but then the Buckeyes (7-2) traveled to Iowa City to face the Hawkeyes (6-3) and Ohio State got waxed, 55-24, its CFP hopes up in flames, Barrett’s Heisman hopes as well as he threw 4 interceptions, while Iowa’s Nathan Stanley was 20/31, 226, 5-0.

And then 7 Penn State’s fleeting hopes of a CFP bid were crushed in a strange game at East Lansing against 24 Michigan State (7-2), 27-24, in  a contest delayed 3 ½ hours by thunderstorms, Matt Coghlin kicking a 34-yard field goal as time expired for the win, sending the Nittany Lions to 7-2, PSU having now lost fourth-quarter leads the last two weeks in crushing fashion.

So suddenly, Michigan State is in the drivers’ seat in the Big Ten East, which does Wisconsin no favors.  More on this later.

Continuing....

8 TCU (8-1) beat Texas (4-5) 24-7 and now heads to Norman to face Oklahoma next weekend.

Aforementioned Wisconsin, ranked No. 9, is 9-0 after a 45-17 win over Indiana (3-6...and much better than its record), as Jonathan Taylor was back on the beam, 29 carries for 183 yards and a score.  The Badger offense is only as good as he is.

10 Miami remained undefeated at 8-0 with a solid 28-10 win over 13 Virginia Tech (7-2) in Miami, the Hurricanes outgaining the Hokies 429-299 in a turnover filled game, 4 for VT, 3 for Miami.

Now Miami gets set to host Notre Dame next weekend.  Gigantic contest for both.  If the Hurricanes win, they’ll vault into the top five in the CFP.  If Notre Dame wins, the Fighting Irish are in.  Book it.  [They sure aren’t losing their finale to Stanford.]

12 Washington (8-1) is on the fringes of the CFP conversation after a 38-3 win over Oregon (5-5).  For the Huskies, Dante Pettis had a 64-yard punt return for a touchdown, his fourth of the season and NCAA record ninth of his career.  Pettis is the son of former outfielder Gary Pettis, who just picked up a World Series ring as a coach for the Astros, Gary being one of the great defensive outfielders of his era, winning five Gold Gloves.

15 Iowa State’s dreams of a Big 12 title went up in smoke, 20-16 losers to West Virginia (6-3), ISU now 6-3 as well.

18 UCF remains undefeated at 8-0, following a 31-24 win at SMU (6-3), Mackenzie Milton with 412 yards passing for the Knights, who remain very much in the Group of Five, New Year’s Six running.

21 Stanford (6-3) saw its Pac-12 title hopes die out, 24-21 losers to 25 Washington State (8-2), as Luke Falk was 34/48, 337, 3-1 for the Cougars.

For Stanford, bye-bye Heisman for Bryce Love, as he rushed for just 69 yards on 16 carries.

17 USC is now 8-2 and should move up smartly in the rankings, following a 49-35 win over 22 Arizona (6-3), Sam Darnold with a fine night, 20/26, 311, 2-1, and the incredibly underrated Ronald Jones II rushing for 194 yards and three scores.

For Arizona, quarterback Khalil Tate rushed for 161, but was shaky through the air, just 14 of 31, with two interceptions.

Friday night, 23 Memphis (8-1) rolled over Tulsa (2-8) 41-14, as Riley Ferguson threw for 298 yards and four touchdowns.  So it’s Memphis against UCF down the road for the Group of Five bid (assuming South Florida doesn’t get in the way, as they play UCF 11/24 for the right to play Memphis in the American Athletic Conference title game...and thus the Group of Five bid).

Lastly, how ‘bout Rutgers?!  The Scarlet Knights are now 4-5, 3-3 in the Big Ten, after a 31-24 win over Maryland (4-5).  This is three wins in four Big Ten contests, after Rutgers had lost 16 straight in the conference.  Good for them!  Being New Jersey’s state school, the overall vibe in these parts improves when Rutgers wins.  [New Jerseyans need to start getting pumped over Seton Hall basketball...more and more I’m thinking they are Final Four material.  Very experienced. Battle tested.]

And now the new AP Poll!

1. Alabama 9-0 (56)
2. Georgia 9-0 (5)
3. Notre Dame 8-1
4. Clemson 8-1
5. Oklahoma 8-1
6. Wisconsin 9-0
7. Miami 8-0
8. TCU 8-1
9. Washington 8-1...Washington State on 11/25, Stanford next week
10. Auburn 7-2*
11. Ohio State 7-2
13. Michigan State 7-2**
14. UCF 8-0
15. USC 8-2
16. Penn State 7-2
20. Memphis 8-1
22. South Florida 8-1

*I’ve been ignoring Auburn, but now they are a huge player in this story, hosting Georgia next week, and then Alabama 11/25.

**Michigan State is at Ohio State next week, and then has Maryland and Rutgers, so if it beats OSU, it’s then onto the Big Ten title game against Wisconsin, which does the Badgers zero good.

More next time.

NFL

--As if the NFL didn’t have enough problems, football fans lost Deshaun Watson for the season to a torn ACL suffered during a non-contact play during practice Thursday.

This sucks, royally.  Anyone who wants to see good playoff football at  yearend was getting excited over the prospects that Watson just might lead Houston into the postseason, at which point anything can happen.

What a start to his career, throwing for 1,699 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions in seven games.  In last Sunday’s exciting 41-38 loss at Seattle, Watson threw for 402 yards and ran for 67 more.

While the Texans were just 3-4, there was no reason to believe Watson couldn’t propel them into a wildcard slot.  And he’s just a tremendous person. The very role model the league so desperately needs.  And then this.

So today, Houston fell to 3-5, 20-14 losers to the Colts, 3-6, as Indianapolis quarterback, and New England castoff, Jacoby Brissett, was 20/30, 308, 2-0, 122.6 PR.

But Watson’s replacement, Tom Savage, was not good...19/44, 219, 1-0, 66.4.

--And what a mess the NFL is in with regards to the Ezekiel Elliott situation.  A court ruling on Friday ruled him eligible to play against the Chiefs today, after a different court ruled twice, Monday and Tuesday, that he was not eligible.

The NFL is trying to enforce a six-game suspension against the star running back for alleged domestic violence, for which Elliott was never charged, and with everything else the NFL is dealing with these days, this just compounds things.

Next week, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals will rule on the case.  I actually feel for the Cowboys, their fans and, even Elliott.

Today, Dallas improved to 5-3, 28-17 winners over Kansas City (6-3), Elliott rushing for 93 yards.

--It is really pathetic that the Indianapolis Colts were forced to shelve quarterback Andrew Luck for the season, placing him on injured reserve on Thursday, with obvious questions about his long-term health and future in the NFL.  And it’s the Colts who are to blame.

As Wil Brinson of CBSSports.com writes:

“Getting Luck is like getting a high-paying government job. You grab that thing with all your might and make someone pry it out of your cold-dead hands.  Protect it with your life. The entire premise of building the Colts roster should have been centered on one singular question: ‘How do you help and protect Andrew?’ At all costs, the Colts had to make sure that Luck stayed healthy and that he had weapons around him.

“ ‘Your job is to protect the franchise. Everything else is superfluous,’ former Colts general manager Bill Polian said Thursday after the news broke that Luck was headed for injured reserve.  ‘That wasn’t the case when Andrew first came in there and that contributed to this.’”

Luck’s career got off to a great start, making three straight Pro Bowls, with a career high 40 TD passes and a career low in sacks (27) in 2014.

But three games into the 2015 season, Luck suffered a shoulder injury against the Titans, the same injury he is still dealing with.

From 2012-14, the Colts were 33-14.  2015-17, 18-22...0 playoff appearances up to today

The malpractice was the Colts’ organization allowing Luck to continue playing as he struggled with the injury to his throwing shoulder. They also elected Luck to rehab between the 2015 and ’16 seasons instead of undergoing surgery. By April 2016, Luck was still admitting publicly that he was not completely healthy.

He actually played well last season, missing just one game, with 31 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, but according to Pro Football Focus, Luck was the most pressured quarterback in football, “coming under fire for a whopping 44.4 percent of his dropbacks.”  [Wil Brinson]

Yes, the Colts have done a terrible job surrounding Luck with offensive line support.

And it was in the offseason we learned Luck was still suffering from his shoulder issues, only it was worse.  He didn’t progress in training camp, he didn’t start the season, and now he’s officially out.

Wil Brinson writes, the Colts should have shut Luck down two years ago, “and hindsight goggles are not even required – just a little bit of common sense and a modicum of responsible treatment toward a franchise quarterback.”

But as noted above, the Colts improved to 3-6 with the win over the Texans.

--The New York area is apoplectic over the play of the Giants, now 1-7, after an atrocious 51-17 loss at home to the surprising Rams (6-2), as L.A. quarterback Jared Goff threw four touchdowns, on just 14 completions, a 146.8 rating; the Rams scoring on a 3rd and 33, to give you a sense of just how bad this was.

The Giants must make immediate changes, and they have to decide whether to give backup QB Davis Webb an opportunity to show the organization what he has.

--The Eagles have the best record in the NFL, now 8-1, after Carson Wentz tossed another four touchdown passes in Philadelphia’s 51-23 win over Denver (3-5), which gave Brock Osweiler his first start since rejoining the team in September.  He was mediocre at best, 19/38, 208, 1-2.

The Eagles had 197 yards rushing, led by newcomer Jay Ajayi’s 77 on just 8 carries, including a 46-yard TD scamper.

--Tennessee is 5-3 after a 23-20 win over Baltimore (4-5).

--Carolina improved to 6-3 with a 20-17 win against the Falcons, who are now a puzzling 4-4.  For the Panthers, Cam Newton had 86 yards rushing and a score.

--Steve G.’s Jaguars are a shocking 5-3 following a 23-7 win over the Bungles, now 3-5.

--And what’s this?  New Orleans has won six in a row, now 6-2?  Party down.  The Saints defeated the Bucs 30-10, Tampa Bay now a pathetic 2-6.  Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston exited with an injury in the first half, but was on the sidelines in the second when, showing his true jerkdom, instigated a fight.

Arizona is 4-4 after a 20-10 win at San Francisco (0-9), Adrian Peterson rushing for 159 yards.

--Washington may have saved its season, 17-14 winners at Seattle, the Redskins 4-4, the Seahawks 5-3 as Russell Wilson threw two picks.

--Going back to Thursday night, the shockingly competitive Jets defeated Buffalo (5-3) at the Meadowlands, 34-21, in a totally dominating performance; New York rushing for 194 yards, and the defense sacking Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor seven times.

Some Jets fans are even dreaming of the playoffs, at 4-5, which is what happens when you were expected to go 1-15 at best, where I thought we would end up.

But as I keep saying, hey, this is much better than watching a tank job...it’s fun...they’ve been in almost every game to the end, and as for the upcoming draft, who the hell knows how the highly-rated college QBs of today will eventually pan out?

Coach Todd Bowles, the much-maligned one, deserves a ton of credit for keeping his players focused and playing hard.

As for playoff starved Buffalo, this was not a good loss for them.

NBA

--A few games of note from Friday....

--My Knicks defeated the Sun 120-107, as Kristaps Porzingis had 37 for New York, 4-4 heading into tonight’s game against the Pacers.

--LeBron James scored 57 in an amazing effort in the Cavs’ 130-122 win over the Wizards, 23 of 34 from the field, in the second-best output of his career (61 being the most, set against Miami on March 3, 2014).

In the process, LeBron became the youngest to reach 29,000 career points.

--The Lakers hosted the Brooklyn Nets Friday, with L.A. emerging the winner, 124-112. But rookie Lonzo Ball was just 3 of 15 from the field and is shooting .308 thus far.  LaVar has been pretty silent of late.

--And in Philadelphia, the Sixers defeated the Pacers, 121-110, with J.J. Redick going off for 31, including 8 of 12 from three.

But what was the significance of this one?  Philly improved to 5-4, the first time in nearly four years they have been over .500!

--Tonight, the lowly Hawks (a team unlikely to win 20 games this season) improved to 2-8 with a 117-105 win over the Cavs, in Cleveland, as LeBron had 26 points and 13 assists, but the team is now 4-6.

For Atlanta, former Demon Deacon, and rookie, John Collins had 12 points and 13 rebounds in just 24 minutes.  I said at the time of the draft that Collins was a steal and he’s playing well at the start...at age 20!

Golf Balls

--At the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, Patrick Cantlay took his first PGA Tour title in a playoff with Whee Kim and Alex Cejka.  More on Cantlay’s inspirational journey next time.

Also inspirational, A.J. McInerney, playing on a sponsor exemption as he was at the concert the night of the Vegas shootings, finished T-10!

--Tiger Woods, in a podcast with UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma (“Holding Court with Geno Auriemma”) said he is feeling good again and hitting the ball far, but this isn’t necessarily good for the sport...the distance bit.

“We need to do something about the golf ball,” Woods said.  “I just think it’s going too far, because we’re having to build golf courses, if they want to have a championship venue, they’ve got to be 7,400 to 7,800 yards long.

“And if the game keeps progressing the way it is with technology, I think the 8,000-yard golf course is not too far away. And that’s pretty scary because we don’t have enough property to start designing these type of golf courses and it just makes it so much more complicated.”

Woods said the USGA is already looking into the issue and thinking of rolling the ball back 10, 15 or 20 percent.

Tiger is seeing the impact of the ball on his own practice shots.

--There is mystery surrounding a 68 that was posted for President Trump on the official Golf Handicap and Information Network, which is maintained by the USGA to calculate each golfer’s handicap. The score was posted sometime in October.  Prior to this, the lowest score listed for Trump on the GHIN website was a 70 in August of 2013.

So the round was in October, though the club isn’t listed, nor the exact date, and a White House official told the Wall Street Journal that the president did not post it himself.

But as Brian Costa of the Journal points out, this wouldn’t be the first time a mysterious score was posted for a celebrity or political leader.  According to North Korean state media reports, “The late leader Kim Jong Il tried golf for the first time at a course in Pyongyang in 1994.  The reports said he shot a 38-under par 34 that included multiple holes-in-one.”

Breeders’ Cup Results

Gun Runner and Arrogate went off as 2-1 favorites in the Classic, but Gun Runner (Shu’s pick) won wire-to-wire by 2 ¼ lengths over Collected (my pick), the two racing together the whole way, while West Coast finished third.

Gun Runner is a Steve Asmussen horse, while Collected and West Coast are Bob Baffert’s.  Baffert’s Arrogate (sorry, J. Mac) finished in a disappointing dead-heat for fifth.

So Arrogate retires as horse racing’s cash king.  Gun Runner had been beaten by Arrogate two other times they went up against each other.

Meanwhile, in the Juvenile, the big race for 2-year-olds, Bolt d’Oro went off as the odds-on favorite, undefeated for the season, Kentucky Derby already in its sight, and lo and behold, it was upset by Good Magic...Solomini second, Bolt d’Oro third.

I was anxious to see this one, assuming I would be witnessing Bolt d’Oro in a rout, hoping for another super horse to root for next spring, and the horse got the worst freakin’ ride from the jockey I’ve ever seen.  Dude had it running way wide the entire race; Bolt d’Oro, instead of the 1 1/16th mile it was supposed to travel, probably going about six.  OK, slight exaggeration, but you get the picture.

Champions / Premier League

This week I have to start with the Champions League, the ultimate for European football, and after four of six matches in Group Stage, the Premier League is kicking butt, all five teams currently in line to make the knockout round.

Last week, the PL was 4-1, the only loser being Chelsea to Roma...Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham winning.

And, yes, it was all about my Tottenham Spurs, shocking winners over Real Madrid, 3-1!  Striker Harry Kane was back after his hamstring injury, and Dele Alli took his star turn, propelling the Spurs into the lead after 27 minutes, then doubling in the second half with a shot that took a deflection off Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos.

Christian Eriksen scored the third from Kane’s pass and while Cristiano Ronaldo scored for Real with 10 minutes left, it was too little, too late.  A powerful statement made by Tottenham about their European aspirations, after failing last year to advance from the group stage.

And they continue to exorcise their demons at Wembley.

Real Madrid had gone 30 games without a loss in Champions League group stage play.

But Tottenham did lose key defender Toby Alderweireld for a few weeks with a hamstring injury.

Alli, who has had an uneven Premier League season thus far, became the first Englishman to score two against Real Madrid in the Champions League since Steven Gerrard in March 2009.

--So we then had Premier League action Saturday and Sunday.

Liverpool whipped West Ham 4-1 yesterday, and then today, as Spurs fans feared a mighty letdown, they managed to eke out a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace, which hardly played like a cellar-dweller at Wembley.

For Tottenham, Son Heung-min’s brilliant shot from the edge of the area was the decider, while because of injury, the Spurs were forced to go with their No. 3...No. 3...keeper, Argentine Paulo Gazzaniga, making his debut for Tottenham, and he came up huge a number of times.

Also today, Man City beat Arsenal 3-1, Chelsea had a stirring 1-0 win over Man U, and Everton beat Watford 3-2.

--In college soccer, we are nearing the start of the NCAA Tournament, with conference championships decided over the coming days.  No. 1 Wake Forest beat Virginia Tech today, 3-0, in the quarterfinals of the ACC Championship.  Getting a 1-seed would be very important for the “College Cup.”

NASCAR

Kevin Harvick won today at Texas Motor Speedway, thus punching his ticket into the finale for the Cup  in two weeks at Homestead, Martin Truex Jr. also qualifying by points.  So just one spot left among five drivers next week in Phoenix.

At Homestead, you have four drivers battling for it all, the highest finisher among the four then getting the big prize.

College Basketball

It’s back this week, virtually every school opening up on Friday.  I’ll have your official “Pick to Click” next time.

But Phil W. passed along a Wake Forest recruiting note for 2018 and we picked up a top point guard, who had initially committed to N.C. State, giving the Demon Deacons a four-man class that should be ranked top 15 in the country when all is said and done.  As Ronald Reagan would have said of this smallest of the Power Five schools, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’

However, regarding this year, in our final exhibition tune-up the other day, we beat a Division II school, Queens, 76-74.  Uh oh.

Stuff

--While the New York City Marathon continues to have no problem filling its 50,000 strong field, with only 17 percent of those entering a drawing that fills a third of the field being selected this year, as noted in a piece in the New York Times today by Jen A. Miller, the running boom has peaked.

“Road races have hit the wall. The number of finishers in events in the United States has fallen from a peak of about 19 million in 2013 to just over 17 million in 2016.

“High fees, a glut of race options and competition from other fitness activities have shrunk the fields at many races.”

Road races had witnessed a 300 percent growth in the number of finishers from 1990 to 2013, with a concentrated boom from 2008 to 2013.

But while the above can’t be questioned, in terms of the stats, all I can say is I’ve never seen more people jogging in my area than there are today. Whether they are actually then entering races is a different matter. As Jen Miller notes, in 2006, the average marathon cost $69.97.  Today it’s $123.  That’s not cheap.

Heck, it costs $79.99 to run in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon series 5K in Las Vegas this year.  $80 for a 5K?! That’s usury.  Now if there is ample free beer at the end.....your editor being known to quaff quite a few after a race, well......

--I was reading a review of a performance by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra from last Thursday, written by James C. Taylor in the Star-Ledger, and the only reason I did so was the article was titled “Soloist’s misfortune saved by NJSO’s rousing performance of Beethoven.”

I mean if you saw this headline, wouldn’t you be curious to see what the issue was?

In describing a work by Bela Bartok, that was sandwiched in between the two Beethoven numbers, Mr. Taylor writes:

“The allegretto ended with (pianist Conrad) Tao and the woodwinds combining to create wonderful, whirling arpeggios that perfectly set up the slow movements that followed.  It was all going so well, until a cellphone started ringing in the orchestra section. And ringing. And ringing.

“The spell was broken.  The movement continued and it sounded fine....but it didn’t come together as the Beethoven pieces did.”

So Tao received a nice ovation and at the end played an encore: “Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in A major. A great choice, until a child started wailing way up in the rafters of Prudential Hall just as the work came to a close.

“It wasn’t Tao’s day.”

I would have had to riot had I been there.

Top 3 songs for the week 11/9/74:  #1 “You Aint’ Seen Nothing Yet” (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)  #2 “Jazzman” (Carole King)  #3 “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” (John Lennon with the Plastic Ono Nuclear Band)...and...#4 “Tin Man” (America) #5 “Back Home Again” (John Denver)  #6 “Me Melody Of Love” (Bobby Vinton)  #7 “Do It (‘Til You’re Satisfied)” (B.T. Express)  #8 “The Bitch Is Back” (Elton John)  #9 “Life Is A Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)” (Reunion)  #10 “Carefree Highway” (Gordon Lightfoot)

NBA Quiz Answer: All-time points list as of Friday.

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 38,387
2. Karl Malone 36,928
3. Kobe Bryant 33,643
4. Michael Jordan 32,292
5. Wilt Chamberlain 31,419
6. Dirk Nowitzki 30,376
7. Julius Irving 30,026
8. Moses Malone 29,580
9. LeBron 29,049...prior to tonight

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.

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