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Bar Chat

04/23/2018

No-no and more stuff....

[Posted Sunday p.m.]

Note: I wouldn’t have been able to do the following without the help of my brother.  Read the opening of my “Week in Review” column.  In terms of my work, everything was turned upside down, but Bro and I see a potential light at the end of the tunnel.  Scheduling of this column could nonetheless be impacted...and I make no apologies for the proofing.  Not a lot of time to do same.

NFL Draft Quiz: I’ve discussed this topic countless times before, the greatest draft of all time, 1974’s Pittsburgh Steelers draft, but Mark R. added a little twist, so identify the four Steelers selected in ’74 who went on  to be enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame.  2) Name the fifth player from this draft, a tight end, who went on to have a Hall of Fame career with a rival of the Steelers. Answers below.

MLB

--Chicago White Sox right-handed reliever Danny Farquhar suffered a brain hemorrhage during the sixth inning of Friday night’s game against the Houston Astros.  Farquhar passed out in the dugout and a ruptured aneurysm was discovered after he was rushed to the hospital.  He is said to be in stable but critical condition.

White Sox pitcher James Shields echoed the sentiments of everyone involved in the sport, including its fans.  “Nothing really matters baseball-wise when something like that happens.  When one of your brothers goes down, it’s not very fun to watch.

Farquhar faced four batters to finish the top of the sixth before he passed out.  He received immediate medical treatment from White Sox medical personnel and on-site emergency medical technicians.

Farquhar is 10-15 with a 3.93 ERA in 253 career relief appearances for four teams over seven seasons in the big leagues.

--Athletics lefthander Sean Manaea pitched the first no-hitter against Boston in almost exactly 25 years, with an overturned call preserving the gem Saturday night in Oakland’s 3-0 win over the sizzling Red Sox, Boston having started the season an otherworldly 17-2.

Manaea got Hanley Ramirez to ground out to complete the first no-hitter vs. the Red Sox since Seattle’s Chris Bosio did it on April 22, 1993.

Oakland’s last no-no was thrown by Dallas Braden, who tossed a perfect game against Tampa Bay in 2010.

But Boston looked like it had a hit in the top of the sixth when with two outs, Andrew Benintendi hit a grounder to the right side, tried to dodge the tag by first baseman Matt Olson and was called safe.  After the umpires conferred, however, Benintendi was ruled out for going wide of the baseline. Benintendi ran onto the grass in foul territory to get around Olson.

“Do I agree with it? No,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.  “It is what it is.”

Earlier, Sandy Leon reached in the Red Sox fifth when A’s shortstop Marcus Semien ranged into shallow center and dropped a popup trying to make an over-the-shoulder catch, but the play was scored an error.

Manaea, 26, is in his third year with the A’s, 22-21 lifetime with a 3.81 ERA.

Boston had won eight in a row, 17 of 18 since losing on opening day.  A stupendous streak.

Chris Sale took the loss and is just 1-1 in five starts, despite a 1.86 ERA.

[Oakland won today, 4-1, to move to 11-11, Boston 17-4.]

--The Yankees, off to just a 10-9 start, shook things up a bit by calling up top prospect Gleyber Torres on Saturday from AAA, hoping he’d provide a jolt before they fall much further behind the Red Sox in the A.L. East.

The 21-year-old Torres was acquired nearly two years ago from the Cubs and is being groomed to play second or third. He was hitting .370 at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

So Sunday, the Yanks won 5-1 over Toronto, New York now 11-9, as Torres, playing second, was 0-for-4, while Luis Severino improved to 4-1, 2.32 ERA.  [Fellow rook, Miguel Andujar, was 4-for-4 and is batting .308, playing third.]

--As for the Mets, following their best-ever 11-1 start, it’s been a mighty struggle since; big highs, dreadful lows.  At 14-6, they were rained out today in Atlanta. 

The big story of the past week was the continuing struggles of starter Matt Harvey, once one of the best prospects in the game after a super start to his career, but now one of the worst pitchers in the game following two serious operations over the years.

This year he is 0-2 with a 6.00 ERA after going 5-7, 6.70, and 4-10, 4.86 in his prior two.

After allowing six runs in six innings on Thursday in a 12-4 loss to the Braves in Atlanta, the Mets made a big move in sending Harvey to the bullpen. 

Harvey had said after his last performance, in response to a question whether he would accept going to the pen, “I’m a starter.”  To which manager Mickey Callaway said, “I don’t blame him. I think everybody wants to start.”

But then Callaway, who has a reputation for resurrecting starting pitchers after a stint in the bullpen, like Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar, said, “We can help guys, (but) guys have to be willing to be helped.”

And so we’ll see how Harvey reacts. If he doesn’t respond well, he risks being released, with the Mets most certainly needing to pick up nearly all of the $5.63 million tab.

Mike Vaccaro / New York Post

“We can probably all agree, all these years later, that the recipe for creating the Matt Harvey Mythology probably looked something like this:

“Two parts legit talent.

“One part media-machine overdrive.

“One part New York hype.

“One part willing participant.

“Mix all of those in the Gotham blender, and you have what is rapidly becoming one of the genuine Greek tragedies of modern sport: a $200 million Hall of Fame pitcher dropped from the rotation who will, unless things change rapidly and radically, fall many millions shy of that bank account and many, many miles short of Cooperstown.”

Vaccaro argues Harvey’s fall is as precipitous as any athlete in New York’s history.  You have the likes of Joba Chamberlain, but outside of baseball, Vaccaro mentions former New York Ranger Don Murdoch, while perhaps the best match is former Giants player Jason Sehorn, especially when you consider serious injuries and how that impacted their career arc.

The other apt comparison is to former Knick Jeremy Lin of “Linsanity” fame.

But Harvey’s is really in a class by itself, at least in this modern era.

--Friday night we had an historic matchup, Max Scherzer against Clayton Kershaw in Los Angeles, just the 13th time we’ve had a meeting of three-time Cy Young Award winners and the Nationals beat the Dodgers 5-2, Scherzer throwing six innings of one-run ball, 9 Ks, to move to 4-1, 1.36 ERA, while Kershaw, four runs in seven innings, fell to 1-3, 2.45.

The last duel between two three-time Cy Young winners was in 2006, Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens, both near the twilight of their careers. Friday’s game offered two at the height of theirs.

--The Cincinnati Reds fired manager Bryan Price since my last chat, after the team got off to a  3-15 start.  Price was 279-387 in his four+ seasons. Since becoming manager in 2014, he never had a winning record, having taken over for Dusty Baker, who was 90-72 in 2013.  The team has been miserable, with attendance dropping about 500,000 to 600,000 the past two seasons from what had been an average of 2.4 million.

Bench coach Jim Riggleman was named interim manager, with the team saying it would conduct a search for a permanent manager “later in the year.”

[Cincy is 0-3 under Riggleman, now 3-18 after a loss today to St. Louis, 9-2.]

--Geezuz, I’m tired of talking about Philadelphia...and success...but the Phillies are now 14-7 after beating the 12-10 Pirates 3-2. 

--San Francisco’s Brandon Belt had a record 21-pitch at-bat against Angels pitcher Jaime Barria, the Giants winning 4-2 today.

--Through the first 3 ½ weeks of the season, strikeout and walk rates have increased over March/April 2017 – with strikeouts accounting for 21.6 percent of all plate appearances last year and 23.0 percent this year (through Thursday), and walks increasing from 8.7 percent to 9.2.

That puts the game on a pace to set a record for strikeouts for a 12th straight year and produce an 18-year high for walks.

But the home-run rate is down from 3.1 percent of all plate appearances to 2.8, which if it continued over a full season would come out to a nearly 600 homer drop from last year’s all-time-high of 6,105.

This is not what baseball wants. If fewer balls are being put in play, you better at least get the home runs to please the fans.

So chalk it up, MLB hopes, to the dreadful early weather.  [Dave Sheinin / Washington Post]

--Jared Diamond / Wall Street Journal:

“When New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson first started working in baseball in 1981, his Oakland Athletics threw 60 complete games – or one more than every team in the majors combined last season.”

Shockingly, Diamond doesn’t add this was in a 109 game season, it being a strike year! Rick Langford, for example, completed 18 of 24 starts.

[1980, the A’s had 94 complete games in a full schedule, with Langford completing 28 of 35.]

But Diamond’s point is that 1981 was a typical 10-man pitching staff season, and most teams now are going with a 13-man staff on a 25-man roster, eight relievers.

--A 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps rookie card in mint condition sold for $2.88 million Thursday night, the second-highest price ever paid for a baseball card, ESPN reports.  The Mantle card came up just short of the record set in October 2016 when a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner card sold for a record $3.12 million.

Ten years ago, a Mantle card of similar scale (PSA 9) sold for ten times less.

Former NFL offensive lineman Evan Mathis, a huge card collector, sold it after purchasing the card two years ago.

NBA Playoffs

Philadelphia is now up 3-1 in their series with Miami after a 106-102 win on Saturday, Ben Simmons with a triple-double...17 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists...and 4 steals to boot, but 7 turnovers.

The Pelicans completed an easy sweep of the Trail Blazers, 131-123, as Anthony Davis went off for 47 points. CJ McCullum had 38 in defeat, but the story was the sub-par play throughout of Damian Lillard.

[As a Demon Deacons fan, though, I can’t help but note that Portland’s Al-Farouq Aminu had perhaps his two best games of the season in scoring 21 and 27 points the last two contests.]

The T’Wolves rallied for a 121-105 win at home on Saturday against the Rockets to move that series to 2-1, Houston, as Chris Paul was outplayed by fellow Deac Jeff Teague, which your editor loves.

And Washington evened its series with Toronto at 2-2 with a 106-98 win today.

In a terrific game, Milwaukee also evened its series with Boston at 2-2 following a 104-102 win.  I caught the last ten minutes and very entertaining.  [Up to this point, I have only watched Philadelphia games.]

--In the Warriors-Spurs series, coach Gregg Popovich was not on the sidelines of the Spurs’ Game 3 matchup with Golden State, following the death of his wife, Erin, who passed away Wednesday following a long illness. The two were married four decades. San Antonio fell to a 3-0 deficit with a 110-97 loss in San Antonio.

Popovich was also absent for today’s Game 4, but out of nowhere, the Spurs rallied for a 103-90 win to send it back to Oakland behind interim coach Ettore Messina. Good for them.

--On the college scene, I saw a piece in the Washington Post concerning a top player from DeMatha High School in Washington, Justin Moore, who is a major recruit for 2019.  I only bring this up because the four-star, 6-4 guard is said to be considering Villanova, Louisville, Maryland and...Wake Forest!

Of course no way he chooses the Deacs, but that shouldn’t preclude Wake fans from lighting a candle.  [Remember, our top recruiter is not dead-man-walking head coach Danny Manning, but rather assistant, and former star guard, Randolph Childress.]

NHL / Stanley Cup Playoffs

Tampa Bay beat New Jersey 3-1 yesterday to take their series 4-1.

Washington took a 3-2 lead in its series with Columbus with a 4-3 overtime victory.

Toronto staved off elimination with a 4-3 win over Boston, the Bruins still leading the series 3-2.

Pittsburgh, with an 8-5 win over Philadelphia today took that series 4-2.

NFL

The draft is coming, Thursday night...it will be exciting for Jets and Giants fans, and Cleveland, and a few others.

Meanwhile....

--The Eagles reworked Nick Foles contract, giving him a $2 million raise for 2018, but if he plays a lot, through various incentives he has the potential to earn up to $23 million.  And the Eagles and Foles have a mutual option for the 2019 season, with the Eagles having the option to keep him under contract for $20 million, but Foles can buy his way out by paying back his new $2 million signing bonus.

The question had been all along, would the Eagles give Foles a new contract?  And for Foles, why would he want to stay if he isn’t going to play, with Carson Wentz being the ‘franchise’?

It helped that Foles knows he’s with a great team and won’t be suddenly traded to the Browns, for example, and the $20 million potential salary for 2019 isn’t chump change should that happen.

At the same time, Foles can opt out for $2 million and just earn that back, and then some, in free agency.

Bottom line, this year he starts out making $9 million to sit, but no doubt he’ll be playing some, maybe a lot.  It’s a great deal for both sides.

--The Giants released veteran receiver Brandon Marshall, freeing up $5.3 million in cap space, making them a favorite to potentially sign new free-agent Dez Bryant, Bryant having expressed a desire to play for the Giants, along with one or two other teams.

--Eli Manning’s memorabilia fraud case is headed to court, a trial date set for May 14 after a New Jersey Superior Court judge issued a summary judgment decision on multiple claims brought by three memorabilia collectors against Manning, Steiner Sports, and others.

The gist of a civil lawsuit, first filed in January 2014, is collectors allege items such as helmets and jerseys that were passed off as game-used were fakes.

Manning has denied any knowledge of wrongdoing, but, significantly, his motion to waive the claim of consumer fraud was denied, according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell.

This is certainly very messy for Manning’s “clean” image.  [But look at his brother and his own messy past.]

Golf Balls

30-year-old Andrew Landry won the Valerio Texas Open in San Antonio for his first PGA Tour victory.

But I just have to note that CBS’ graphics were fantastic the final round, particularly on No. 16 when Trey Mullinax hit a terrible tee-shot on the par-3, the graphics showing he was at a point no one else had been today.  It’s the kind of great stuff fans eat up.

And I continue to praise the use of pro-tracer on second shots...invaluable for the viewer.

I’ll have something on 19-year-old Joaquin Niemann next time.

Premier League

They held the FA Cup semifinals this weekend, an event I never truly appreciated until a number of years ago, but it is indeed the coolest competition in all of sport.

Chelsea beat Southampton* 2-0 today, and yesterday Manchester United beat Tottenham 2-1.

*Southampton, as you’ll see below, is about to be relegated.

In Premier League play, it’s kind of anti-climactic, save for, maybe, Chelsea and Tottenham for the last Champions League slot.

Tottenham only tied Brighton 1-1 on Tuesday, while Chelsea beat Burnley 2-1 on Thursday, so as Yogi said, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

Standings...34/35 of 38....

1. Manchester City... 34 – 90
2. Manchester United... 34 – 74
3. Liverpool... 35 – 71
4. Tottenham... 34-68 ...Champions League line
5. Chelsea... 34 – 63
6. Arsenal... 34 – 57

17. Swansea... 34 – 33 ...Relegation line
18. Southampton... 34 – 29
19. Stoke... 35 – 29
20. West Brom... 35 - 25

--Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger is going to leave the club at the end of the season, ending a near 22-year reign as manager, and a year before his latest contract was due to expire.

The Gunners are set to miss out on a top-four spot and a Champions League berth for the second straight season, with their hopes of qualifying for the CL now resting on winning the Europa League.

Wenger, 68, won three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups, including the Double in 1998 and 2002.

Fans had turned on the Frenchman over the past two seasons as a result of their league performances. The 11 losses this year equal their worst tally in a campaign under him.

When they finished outside the top four last season (or “term” as they say across the pond), it was the first time since Wenger arrived at the club that they had, which is pretty remarkable.

--PL clubs reported record revenues of $6.3 billion (4.5bn pounds) in the 2016-17 season, according to a report by Deloitte this week. Clubs collectively reported $700m in pre-tax profit, also a record.

Wages were $3.5bn, up 9%, but revenues were up 25%.

The Premier League’s three-year TV deal which came into effect in 2016-17 was the main factor in revenue growth.

A record $7.2bn was paid to the league by Sky and BT for the 2016-19 UK broadcast rights.  But the latest domestic rights auction, for the 2019-22 cycle, brought in ‘just’ $6.25bn.

NASCAR

With so much going on in my life, I totally forgot NASCAR’s event this week was Saturday night at Richmond International Speedway instead of Sunday.  As Liz Clarke of the Washington Post wrote:

“At the height of NASCAR’s popularity, stock-car racing fans turned Richmond into the biggest sporting spectacle in Virginia, packing the grandstands 110,000 strong to cheer as the brightly painted cars roared past in a shimmering blur of speed.

“Then came the economic downturn of 2008, which snapped a streak of 33 consecutive sellouts. While the economy rebounded in the decade since, NASCAR’s tickets sales have not – even at Richmond’s three-quarter-mile oval, widely hailed as having hosted some of the most exciting competition on the circuit.”

So last night, Kyle Bush, starting 32nd, made it all the way to the front of the field and took his third consecutive race in the Joe Gibbs-owned Toyota.

Oh, and it’s no longer Richmond International Raceway...owners dropped “International” as part of the rebranding.

They also unveiled a Turn 4 party deck with the eyebrow-raising name of Climax Corner.  Sounds like a blast (especially if you’re Ubering it).  You get to sit on bar stools for just $25 a ticket to catch the action.  It helped that the weather Saturday night was good.

But there were still just roughly 40,000 in attendance, the track having been drastically downsized to a capacity of 60,000.

After nine races in the Cup Series this season, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick both have 3-race winning streaks.

Stuff

--I was reading a Bloomberg piece on the number of runners in the U.S., and its 64 million that went running or jogging in 2016, according to the latest figures. This means it is becoming increasingly difficult to get in the Big Six marathons – Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. For example, more than 5,000 runners who qualified for Boston the other day were unable to race due to space limitations, and roughly 100,000 applied for the New York marathon last November, but only 51,000 lined up.

Application fees are also rising. $185 for U.S. residents for the Boston Marathon, for example.

--We note the passing of wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino, 82.  A lot of us grew up watching Sammartino, the heavyweight champion of the World Wide Wrestling Federation for a record 11 years in the 1960s and ‘70s, long before the federation admitted that its matches were scripted and largely choreographed entertainment shows, as Robert McFadden writes in his obituary for the New York Times.

His death was announced by the WWE, the successor to the WWWF.

“In an era when the sports world, except for some die-hard wrestling fans, knew that professional matches were staged dramatizations, with heroes and villains, story lines and beefcake actors shamming the violence, Sammartino was one of the most popular performers in the business....often drawing crowds of 20,000 at Madison Square Garden, where he had more than 200 matches.

“Unlike many heavies on the pro wrestling circuits, he was a soft-spoken, gentlemanly connoisseur of grand opera, especially Verdi. And for one who had bench-pressed 565 pounds as an amateur, he was relatively small: under 6 feet tall and a trim 260 or 270 pounds, with bulging pectorals and biceps and a big head. He looked tiny beside giant rivals like Haystacks Calhoun, who topped 600 pounds.

“Sammartino often feuded with promoters who arranged his matches. But he insisted that he never took a dive and held his titles legitimately in two reigns... He lost a few matches: One foe threw salt in his eyes and pinned him while he groped about blindly; another leapt from the ring and ran off with his ‘diamond studded’ championship belt. But these did not count.”

Yes, some of us remember watching wrestling on local television growing up, with wrestlers such as Killer Kowalski, Ivan Koloff, Gorilla Monsoon, Professor Toro Tanaka, George (the Animal) Steele, Chief Jay Strongbow and Big Cat Ernie Ladd (the former NFL lineman).

Sammartino made good money, as much as $150,000 a year.  He was a “good guy,” the heroic Italian vs. a villainous Manchurian or a giant from Berlin.

McFadden:

“In February 1961, Sammartino body-slammed Chick Garibaldi to the canvas at Sunnyside Gardens in Queens. Garibaldi did not get up. The referee stopped the match and determined that Garibaldi was dead. A medical examiner later said he had suffered a heart attack. Sammartino was stricken with remorse for months.

“Sammartino himself almost died, of a broken neck, when Stan Hansen, in a match in New York in 1976, dropped him on his head. Sammartino spent weeks in a hospital.

“Sammartino did not dispute that professional wrestling matches were fixed. But he bristled at suggestions that he had ever taken a fall and said his injuries were proofs of his honesty.”

It wasn’t until 1989 when Vince McMahon, the owner of WWE, acknowledged for the first time that its matches were not contests, only entertainment shows.  “The admission was made to avoid taxes and licensing fees imposed by state athletic commissions.”

As for Sammartino, he was born on Oct. 6, 1935, in central Italy, in the town of Pizzoferrato, the youngest of seven children, four of whom did not survive childhood.

The father left for America in 1939, and the rest of the family fled invading German forces later during World War II, hiding in the mountains of Abruzzo for 14 months, before immigrating to the United States, where they were reunited with the father in Pittsburgh.

“Bruno, a sickly 90-pounder who spoke little English, was a target of bullies at Schenley High School and resolved to build his physique with weight lifting and wrestling. He weighed 225 pounds at graduation in 1953.

He worked out with Pitt’s wrestling coach and began competing locally, narrowly losing out on a spot on the 1956 Olympic weight-lifting team to Paul Anderson, who won the heavyweight gold medal in Melbourne, Australia.

--The U.S. Supreme Court could issue a ruling on New Jersey’s case for sports betting as early as this coming week.  In a positive sign, representatives for MLB and the NBA have met privately with New Jersey’s leaders in recent months to prepare...and ask for a cut.  The league’s first asked for 1 percent, but will accept less.

But Las Vegas gives up no revenue, and New Jersey’s leaders aren’t happy the leagues want a say in how the state writes regulations now that it seems like they may lose a court battle that has cost New Jersey $9 million.

--Rafael Nadal blasted Roger Federer for Federer’s skip-a-major sustainability format.  For the second straight year, the 36-year-old is skipping the French Open to keep his body fresh while avoiding his biggest rival in the clay court season.

The 31-year-old Nadal said Thursday he has no such plans to adjust his schedule in a similar fashion to stay healthy.

“Of course, when you get older, you need to adjust a little bit more the efforts and the calendar. But for me (it) is difficult to say I don’t play, for example, grass, or I don’t play hard (courts).  (It) is not in my plan, but I can’t say ‘never’ because I cannot predict what’s going to be in the future.”

Aside from the Grand Slam events, Nadal lists Mote Carlo (held this week) and Rome as the two other ‘musts’ on his schedule.

Last season, Federer won the Australian Open and Wimbledon, while Nadal claimed the French and U.S. Opens.  This year, Federer repeated in Australia.

Federer has won the French Open just once among his 20 majors, while 10 of Nadal’s 16 major titles are at Roland-Garros.

--The Kentucky Derby Championship Series is over and Magnum Moon, last week’s winner of the Arkansas Derby, was the points leader for Derby qualifying, followed by the likes of Good Magic, Audible, Noble Indy, Vino Rosso, Bolt d’Oro, Enticed and Justify.

While it’s too early to tell if there is a truly great horse in the bunch (though I’m going with Justify, the Baffert horse), it seems to me we have a more than competitive race lining up.

--When I get around to doing the next All-Species List, let’s just say it won’t be kind to ‘Man,’ who will fall further after a number of episodes.

One is a story out of Uganda, where a suspected poison attack has killed 11 lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park, a huge blow not just to the country’s economy, safaris and such being big, but also Uganda’s lion preservation efforts.

The carcasses of 8 cubs and three lionesses, all from the same pride, were found scattered in the fishing village of Hamukungu, in southwest Uganda, last week, according to Uganda’s Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities.

The lions are suspected of having eaten poisoned meat given to them by local villagers.  Local reports said the villagers may have killed the lions for attacking one of their cows.

The tourism and wildlife minister, Ephraim Kamuntu, said: “We condemn in the strongest terms possible such an act of deliberately killing animals.  It is...unfortunate that such an economically vibrant resource is maliciously being exterminated by selfish individuals that are negative towards the development of the communities and the country at large.”

How much does nature tourism contribute to Uganda’s economy?  Try $1.4 billion.

I’d put the perpetrators in a small enclosure with about 10 lions and 14 elephants...plus 74 hyenas...so we’re talking a little bigger enclosure, I guess.

--But then there was this disgusting, despicable tale.

“Visitors to a zoo in southeastern China killed one kangaroo and injured another by throwing bricks at them in an attempt to get a reaction from the big marsupials, state media reported.”

This incident occurred at the Fuzhou Zoo in Fujian province, China Central Television reported.  Some of you may recall that I’ve been to Fujian a number of times, where, let’s just say, I learned to [despise] certain natives of this country.  [Except my first trip, when I had an adorable interpreter, Dora.]

Now we hear a 12-year-old female kangaroo was struck by bricks “and concrete chunks,” the kangaroo dying days later. Then a few days after, another kangaroo was injured in a similar way at the same zoo, but this one survived.

The report did not mention if anyone was punished over the matter.

This is far from the first time we’ve heard of such behavior in China, where the zoos themselves are often abysmal as well, let alone the patrons.  It seems there isn’t a deeply ingrained notion of animal rights.  It starts with parents, of course, passed down through the generations, and these are the same parents who today allow their kids to urinate in public trash cans in malls (as I have documented in this space and elsewhere).

--A Louisiana woman was accused of breaking into a home, stripping naked and taking a bath while eating the homeowner’s Cheetos.

Evelyn Washington, 29, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with simple burglary and criminal damage to property in the home invasion.

According to a police report, a woman returned to her Monroe, La., home and found the naked Washington in the bathtub. Both the suspect and victim didn’t know each other.

No word on whether the victim had left a few Cheetos outside her home and Ms. Washington saw same.

--I noted this tidbit in my other column, the one I sign, that being an effective way to kill rats is to place dry ice in their burrows.  As it evaporates, rats asphyxiate and die.

--Finally, no criminal charges will be filed in an investigation into the 2016 death of Prince from an accidental fentanyl overdose, a Minnesota prosecutor said Thursday.

There is insufficient evidence to show how the musician received counterfeit Vicodin pills containing the fentanyl, with the prosecutor saying, “We have no direct evidence that a specific person provided the fentanyl to Prince.”

Carver County Attorney Mark Metz said that in all likelihood Prince was unaware that he was taking counterfeit pills.  Prince seemingly thought he was taking Vicodin, obtained illegally as he had no prescriptions for it, as pain medication, and didn’t realize it was far stronger.  This is sad.

Top 3 songs for the week 4/22/67: #1 “Somethin’ Stupid” (Nancy & Frank Sinatra)  #2 “Happy Together” (The Turtles) #3 “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” (The Monkees)...and...#4 “I Think We’re Alone Now” (Tommy James & The Shondells...every time I type their name, I get more pissed off they aren’t in the Rock Hall of Fame...beyond inexcusable...) #5 “Western Union” (The Five Americans) #6 “This Is My Song” (Petula Clark)  #7 “Sweet Soul Music” (Arthur Conley) #8 “Bernadette” (The Four Tops) #9 “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)” (Aretha Franklin) #10 “Jimmy Mack” (Martha & The Vandellas...another solid week, I think you’d agree...)

NFL Draft Quiz Answer: In 1974, the Steelers selected Lynn Swann (first round), Jack Lambert (second), John Stallworth (fourth) and Mike Webster (fifth round), all of whom went on to Hall of Fame careers.  2) The other player from that draft to be later enshrined in Canton was tight end Dave Casper, picked by the Raiders in the second round, the pick before Lambert.  Mark R. shamelessly points out that Casper was a Notre Dame grad, Mark picking up a sheepskin from same.

The first overall pick in the first round that year, by the way, was Ed Too Tall Jones.

Next Bar Chat, maybe just a little Thursday....don’t know yet.

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