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Bar Chat

07/12/2018

Sunday...France vs. Croatia!

[Posted minutes after England-Croatia]

Baseball Salary Quiz: Seven players have had a salary of $30 million or higher for a season.  Name them. Answer below.

World Cup

And then there were two.

Tuesday, France beat Belgium 1-0 in a vigorous game, but Belgium was just ‘off,’ despite having possession 64% of the time.   Kevin de Bruyne couldn’t get things going as team maestro, and the ‘Golden Generation’ missed some opportunities, while French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris made a spectacular save at the 21-minute mark that set the tone for the rest of the contest. 

Meanwhile, France (Dr. W’s pick before it all started, he keeps reminding me), had just enough to pull it out.

Rory Smith / New York Times

“They were only glimpses, fleeting and flickering and ultimately insignificant, but they were so tantalizing that they were impossible to miss.

“Kylian Mbappe, inside the first 10 seconds, burning Belgium’s Jan Vertonghen away, an express train speeding past a bewildered commuter. Paul Pogba striding forward, Antoine Griezmann dancing through challenges. Mbappe again, splitting Belgium’s defense in two with a blink-of-the-eye pirouetting drag-back.

“They were moments to drop the jaw and draw the breath, visions of the heights this French generation – now one win away from being crowned champion of the world – might yet scale, images of what this team of all the talents could, and perhaps should, be.

“But it was not those flashes of neon brilliance that took France past Belgium in a 1-0 win that sent thousands out to celebrate on the Champs-Elysees....

“(It) is there because of what it is: a team that always has much, much more than enough, but only ever does enough, and never any more.

“France has, somehow, reached the cusp of greatness without ever really having given the impression it has stretched itself.”

It had just two, one-goal wins against Australia and Peru in group play, and a goalless draw with Denmark.  It had a quick three-goal burst against Argentina in the round of 16, but still just won by a goal.

Only in the quarterfinal against Uruguay did it win by two, but that was thanks to a horrible error by Uruguay’s goalkeeper.

And then just now...gutty Croatia defeated England 2-1...in a match for the ages.

Trippier put England up 1-0 before five minutes had passed, curling in a gorgeous free kick into the top corner of the net.  Then it was largely a stalemate, neither team with many authentic chances, but Croatia, in the second half, was dominating time of possession.

Then suddenly at 68’, Perisic volleyed one in, thanks to a defensive screw-up by Kyle Walker (I told you last time, England gives it up way too much on ‘D’), and then three minutes later, Perisic hit the post.

Perisic also missed a wide open shot at 83’, with goalkeeper Pickford out of position.  The game was turning into a classic, headed for extra time....England spent, when it was Croatia that was supposed to have the dead legs because of all the extra time it had played of late.

And so we headed into extra time...the last 30 minutes non-stop stirring action, but all one-sided for Croatia.

Now I’m pissed...in the first 15 minutes of ET, the sideline ref missed two balls that were clearly out by Croatia, which would have been critical for England, and the referee missed two fouls on Croatia that were obvious.

And then at 108’, Kyle Walker screwed up again, couldn’t clear deep in England’s end, defender John Stones fell asleep, and Mario Mandzukic put it in...Croatia up 2-1.

Then the freakin’ refs missed a ball off Croatia off a free-kick... dammit....

England played the last eight minutes, including extra time, a man down as Trippier went off with an injury...a depressing ending for us fans of England (and Tottenham).

Crap.

But it will be one interesting final...Sunday. Croatia off to its first World Cup title bout.

--Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg / Wall Street Journal

“The final four teams at the World Cup all took wildly different paths to the final week of the tournament... But if their success so far has proven one thing it’s that they wouldn’t be here without the trait they all share: players based in England.

“Welcome to the World Cup semifinals, brought to you by the English Premier League.

“Of the 92 players still at the tournament, 40 of them spent last season at one of the Premier League’s 20 clubs.  Most of them were concentrated at powerhouse teams such as Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspur whose wealth, reach and ambition helped them bring global talent together in the first place.  But the number of Premier League clubs represented in the semifinals numbers 12 in all, from City at the top to West Bromwich Albion at the bottom....

“No other country’s domestic league soccer comes anywhere close to the Premier League’s representation.  Spain’s La Liga and France’s Ligue 1 have 12 players apiece left in the World Cup, the German Bundesliga has nine and Italy’s Serie A has eight.”

Yes, it would have been different had Germany and Spain not flamed out, “But even they were stacked with Premier League players, too.”

Well it only made sense that the richest of Europe’s league’s would become such a key to World Cup success.

It also helps that the Premier League has the game’s top tacticians.  “Coaches like Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, Manchester United’s Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte of Chelsea, and Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp not only transformed European soccer with new styles of play and tactical schemes, but also the players who train under them every day.”

Case in point, Kevin de Bruyne, who has evolved into the top midfielder in the world under Guardiola at Man City.

“By contrast, South America’s relative insularity has cost its teams in Russia. Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Peru still draw the vast majority of their players from their domestic leagues or from clubs in Southern Europe. They are rarely exposed to the sort of divergent systems on show at the World Cup. Argentina, for instance, couldn’t find a way past Iceland, whose defensive strength and reliance on set pieces makes them international soccer’s version of Stoke City.”

--Wow...it happened.  Cristiano Ronaldo agreed to a transfer from Real Madrid to Italian power Juventus.

So Ronaldo finishes his career with Real having scored a team-record 451 goals in 438 games, helping lead the La Liga powerhouse to four Champions League titles over the past five seasons to go with two league championships.

Juventus is paying Real Madrid a transfer fee of 100m euro, or about $117 million.  Ronaldo will then sign a four-year contract worth about $35 million annually.  The club has won seven straight Italian league titles, but it is eyeing a return to Champions League glory, which it hasn’t won since 1996, including runner-up finishes in 2015 and 2017.

MLB

--There is reason for panic in the Bronx among its fans. The Yankees are just 9-9 their last 18 games after a 6-5 loss to the Orioles, and Manny Machado, in Baltimore on Tuesday, 6-5; Machado with two home runs, while Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka was hardly effective, 3 runs in 4 1/3 in his first outing since June 8.

The Yankees need pitching, and their offense, for all its power, is inconsistent.

So the Red Sox have been taking advantage of this flat spell from their rivals, going 15-3 over their last 18, including their last eight in a row, and they suddenly sit 3 ½ ahead of New York.

Boston 64-29
New York 59-31... 3.5

And for New York, the embattled Sonny Gray hits the mound tonight against the Orioles.

--Meanwhile, we all know the Orioles are going to deal their superstar Machado in the next few weeks, since he’s a free agent end of the year, and now the Yankees are reportedly expressing interest, even though they need a top pitcher more than the All-Star shortstop, plus Machado is adamant he isn’t changing positions were he to go somewhere like New York; the Yankees already having Didi Gregorius at short.

Anyway, Machado said Monday following the doubleheader with the Yanks, “I ain’t here to talk about rumors...(but) I’m a shortstop. I play shortstop.”

Machado can be an ass.  Plus we know he has trouble hustling at times.

But according to USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale, the Dodgers, Brewers and Diamondbacks are the leading candidates to acquire Manny, with a high-ranking executive telling Nightengale talk of Yankees’ interest is overblown.

--Down in D.C., the Nationals have a problem similar to the Yankees.  Since Stephen Strasburg threw his last game June 8, before hitting the disabled list, the Nats were 10-19 thru Tuesday, with Tanner Roark 0-5, 7.76 ERA, in his six starts, and Gio Gonzalez winless with an 8.14 ERA in his six during this period.  As Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post noted, the Nationals can forget the postseason if this doesn’t change.  I mean the offense has had explosions of 17, 14 and 18 runs recently, but they are still just 46-45.

Even Max Scherzer is 1-4, 3.15 ERA in his past six starts.

Boswell:

“An old baseball saying, at least among contenders, is that a five-man rotation is made up of eight pitchers. Maybe two of them are hot prospects, almost ready, in the minors and one is a veteran stashed in the bullpen, like Roark was in 2015.  The Nats ignored that rule of thumb perhaps because their options to add an arm were either expensive, such as Jake Arrieta and Yu Darvish, or not quite up to their standards, such as Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb.

“In the end, Nationals ownership and the front office gambled that they didn’t need to acquire another quality starting pitcher. They’d go with Scherzer, Strasburg, Gonzalez, Roark – all so reliable and durable, except for the periodic Strasburg DL trip – then see whether they could fake their way through the rest.

“They’d pick up a veteran such as Edwin Jackson or (Jeremy) Hellickson to see whether one of them would suffice... Or wait for the return of Joe Ross (Tommy John surgery) by August or September. Something would work out. But, for one solid crucial month, nothing has. And it’s put the Nats’ season in jeopardy.”

--From 11-1 to 36-53.  A staggering turnaround for the Mets.  After Tuesday’s 7-3 loss at home to the Phillies, Zach Braziller of the New York Post summed it up best.

“Panic City has become Indifferent Island and there is no rescue party in sight. The only escape is the looming trade deadline for a select few.

“Anger is fast becoming apathy as the Mets seemingly find new lows on an almost daily basis. Crowds have thinned out, so much on Tuesday night you could hear idle taunts from individual fans because it was so quiet and the atmosphere church-like.”

How barren is the Mets’ farm system?  Having played a doubleheader on Monday, the Mets had to dig deep for a starter last night and it was 28-year-old career minor leaguer Drew Gagnon making his first major league start, and the poor guy clearly doesn’t have big league stuff; Gagnon shelled for 6 runs in 4 2/3.  At least he got his name in baseballreference.com for eternity.

The Mets have now lost 19 of their past 23 games at home!

--Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal notes that Baltimore first baseman, Chris Davis, he of the seven-year, $161 million contract signed in 2016, is on track to have the worst single season in the history of the sport.

No player who qualified for the batting title since 1900 has ever hit below .179, an ignominious honor belonging to Rob Deer with the 1991 Detroit Tigers and Dan Uggla of the 2013 Atlanta Braves.  Davis, thru Tuesday, is at .160.

--Clayton Kershaw threw six shutout innings in a win against the Padres on Monday, 8-2, as he continues his latest comeback from injury, though in four starts he has yet to go into the seventh.  That said, the Dodgers will take six strong every time out.

Kershaw is 18-6 lifetime against the Padres, by the way. As Ronald Reagan would have said, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’

--After posting Sunday, I watched the Dodgers-Angels game and that was a fun moment when Shohei Ohtani launched a 443-foot pinch-hit home run in the seventh that proved to be the game-winner in a 4-3 Angels win.  But pitching is out for him the rest of the season, so we’re told.

NBA

--NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he thinks the league is ready to scrap the system of requiring players to be out of high school for a year before becoming eligible to enter the draft.

“I’m not here to say we have a problem,” Silver said Tuesday during a news conference following the Board of Governors meeting.  “And I love where the league is right now. But I think we can create a better system.”

Personally, forget that ratings are up, the game sucks.  But that’s just me.

Silver knows he needs to revert back to the policy that allowed players to go right into the league from high school, which it seems should be in place for the 2021 NBA draft, though this hasn’t formally been announced.

“My personal view is that we’re ready to make that change,” Silver said. “It won’t come immediately.”

On the issue of parity, or lack thereof, especially with LeBron heading to the West, Silver said: “It’s on me and our labor relations committee ultimately to sit with the players and their committee and convince them that there may be a better way of doing things. By that, meaning change ultimately in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. I don’t necessarily think it’s, per se, bad that the Warriors are so dominant. We’re not trying to create some sort of forced parity. What we’re really focused on is parity of opportunity.”

Wimbledon

--We’re down to the semifinals on the women’s side, the matches Thursday, and it’s startling...not one top ten seed.

11 Angelique Kerber, 12 Jelena Ostapenko, 13 Julia Goerges, and 25 Serena Williams, Serena needing three sets to defeat Camila Giorgi in the quarterfinals.

Serena takes on Goerges, while Kerber and Ostapenko square off.

On the men’s side, their quarterfinals were today, and boy, we had an upset...32-year-old South African Kevin Anderson, seeded eighth, beat No. 1 Roger Federer, a record eight-time winner of the event, 2-6, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4, 13-11; Anderson advancing to his first Wimbledon semis.

No. 12 Novak Djokovic advanced into the semifinals...as did American and 9-seed John Isner, four-set winner over 13 Milos Raonic.

And then the semis were rounded out with No. 2 Rafael Nadal surviving a grueling five-setter against 5 Juan Martin del Potro, Nadal taking the last two 6-4, 6-4 after falling behind in the match.

Golf

--Big news...the PGA Tour released its 2018-19 schedule and, as previously reported, it contains some major changes. There are some new dates for some events, and new venues for others, but the big changes concern the shift of the PGA Championship from August to May, the Players Championship back to March from May, and the FedEx Cup Playoffs have been reduced from four to three events, with everything wrapping up before the start of the NFL season.

Boston is out of the annual rotation (it had been one of the FedEx Cup events), Greenbrier and Houston will be played in the 2019-20 season, the WGC event previously in Akron, Ohio, will now be in Memphis, Tenn., the Canadian Open has been moved to the week before the U.S. Open, and there are new events in Detroit and Minnesota.

So it all starts with the Safeway Open in Napa, Calif., Oct. 1-7, the beginning of a seven-week fall season, then a six-week break for the holidays, and then restarting in 2019 with the Tournament of Champions at Kapalua.

The first two months of the new year, Jan. and Feb., are the same as they’ve always been, but it’s in March that things change, with The Players, Mar. 14-17, the week after Arnie’s event at Bay Hill.

The Masters...a tradition unlike any other...on CBS...has the same date, but then we get the PGA Championship May 16-19, which this go ‘round is at Bethpage Black on Long Island.  Mid-May can be iffy in these parts...so conditions could be interesting for that one.

I would think the Canadian Open, which doesn’t have great fields to begin with, could be hurt being the week before the U.S. Open, which is out in Pebble Beach next year.

But I love the idea of the new 3M Open in Blaine, Minn., July 4-7, preceded by the new Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club June 27-30.

Not sure about one other move, though.  You have a WGC event in Memphis the week after The Open Championship...doesn’t make much sense to moi.

The FedEx Cup playoffs now run the first three weeks in August; the Northern Trust (Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey), the BMW Championship in Medinah (Ill.) and the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.

All in all, I like it.  Now I’m curious how the 2019-2020 season starts out, seeing as there have to be more ‘Fall’ events with the 2018-19 season wrapping up so early.

--John Huggan had a piece in Golf World on the state of golf in Scotland, as the eyes of the golfing world focus on it the next month, including the Scottish Open, The Open Championship, and British Senior Open.

Kind of hard to believe that only three Scots this century have made the European Ryder Cup team, for example – Colin Montgomerie, Paul Lawrie and Stephen Gallacher.  Only one Scot, Russell Knox, is in the current world’s top 100.

More importantly, Scotland has lost about 50,000 golfers in the past decade, those who have given up club memberships (a similar problem to the U.S.), with the Golf Participation Report for Europe 2017 showing a fall of 6,700 in Scotland over the prior year.

But there are some initiatives on the junior golf that are working, which is paramount, seeing as “Clubs in Scotland have fewer than 10,000 members under 25, but more than 100,000 over 55.  And only 13 percent are women.”

Andrew Coltart, a former Ryder Cup player, had an interesting take...Coltart being the last winner of the Scottish Boys Championship (in 1987) to then win on the European Tour.

John Huggan: “Coltart sees coaches justifying their own existence. Too often he feels they are swing technicians who coach a method that causes fun and imagination and feel to disappear.”

Coltart: “All too often we have coached the playing of the game out of lads with talent. Rather than understanding their own games, they spend far too much time on the range worrying about the swing. Jordan Spieth is a great example of someone who knows how to play more than swing.  In Scotland, Dustin Johnson’s left wrist position at the top would have been coached out of him. Today, he’d be off winning a club championship somewhere.”

Stuff

--Justify has an injury to one of his legs and the Triple Crown winner will not be running in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park (N.J.) on July 29, though the Travers Stakes at Saratoga, Aug. 25, remains a possibility.

Justify had been training since the Belmont, but trainer Bob Baffert said there has been some swelling in his left front ankle.

You’ve got to believe they really just need to get the horse healthy and race once, anywhere, before the biggie, the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs, which is the long-range goal for Justify.

--I’m not commenting on the situation involving Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy and injuries suffered by his former girlfriend in a home invasion because aside from McCoy denying any involvement, the facts of the case are far from clear.

--We note the passing of actor and singer Tab Hunter, 86, a matinee idol and 1950s heartthrob.

Discovered as a stable boy, he rocketed to fame in movies such as “Island of Desire” and “Battle Cry,” and he topped the charts with the hit “Young Love” (1957).  He became arm candy for the likes of Natalie Wood and Debbie Reynolds, all while hiding his homosexuality.

When he dared challenge his crafted persona, the industry then cast him aside.  He fought back to lampoon his former self in campy comedies, but gave up acting altogether to live in Santa Barbara with his husband of 35 years, Allan Glaser.  [Hunter collapsed in Glaser’s arms on Monday after a blood clot in his leg traveled to his lung.]

Hunter told the Los Angeles Times in 1976, “When you’ve been a product of Hollywood and been subjected to as much crap as I have, it’s not conducive to your own development. It’s see-through plastic of the worst kind.”

Hunter, in his youth in California, where he and his brother were raised by their mother, was a competitive figure skater and sang in the church choir.  But Hunter confessed his homosexuality to a priest, and, feeling shamed, joined the U.S. Coast Guard, lying about his age to get in.  But they eventually found out about the deception, discharged him, and Hunter moved to L.A., where he was discovered while working as a stable hand.

Having been born Arthur Gelien, an agent came up with the name Tab Hunter and he made his film debut at 19 in the 1950 western “The Lawless.”  In 1952, he earned his first starring role opposite bombshell Linda Darnell in the shipwreck romance “Island of Desire.”

After this picture, Hunter’s career took off, culminating in the 1955 military drama “Battle Cry,” beating out James Dean and Paul Newman for the part.  It was a box office success and earned him a seven-year contract with Warner Bros.

But in an example of the Hollywood of those days, and studio heads like Jack Warner, after Hunter knocked Elvis Presley from the No. 1 spot on the pop charts with “Young Love,” Warner was so upset Hunter did the song outside his studio contract that he launched Warner Bros. Records the following year just to keep the profits in-house.

Meanwhile, Hunter was hiding his relationships with championship skater Ronnie Robertson and actor Tony Perkins.  He was arrested when police raided a gay house party, but the studio scuttled the story.

Hunter in the late 1950s continued to have film success on the big screen, but he wanted more say in the roles he got so he bought out his contract, a move from which he never recovered.

He finally told his story in his 2005 autobiography “Tab Hunter Confidential.”  Partner Glaser said, “He was a tremendous human being. If he could do anything to better someone else’s life, he would.”

In his later years, Hunter was often quoted as saying, “I am happy to be forgotten.”

Top 3 songs for the week 7/10/71: #1 “It’s Too Late” (Carole King)  #2 “Indian Reservation” (Raiders)  #3 “Treat Her Like A Lady” (Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose)...and...#4 “Rainy Days and Mondays” (Carpenters)  #5 “Don’t Pull Your Love” (Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds) #6 “You’ve Got A Friend” (James Taylor)  #7 “Mr. Big Stuff” (Jean Knight)  #8 “Want Ads” (The Honey Cone)  #9 “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” (Jerry Reed) #10 “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It  Should Be” (Carly Simon)

Baseball Salary Quiz Answer: Seven players to be paid $30 million or more for a season, some multiple times.

Clayton Kershaw (the highest at $35.71 million for both 2017-18); Mike Trout, Zack Greinke ($34 million last three), Alex Rodriguez, David Price, Jake Arrieta, Miguel Cabrera

Next Bar Chat, Monday.

Thursday marks 25 years since the death of NASCAR’s Davey Allison.  I’ll have a few words next time.

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