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04/22/2019

Talkin' Baseball

[Posted Sunday p.m.]

NFL Draft Quiz: A quarterback has been the first overall pick seven of the last ten years.  Name ‘em.  Answer below.

MLB

--The Yankees defeated the Royals at the Little Bandbox that Ruth Didn’t Build yesterday, 9-2, slamming four home runs, three that literally cleared the fence by no more than two feet.  This park is a travesty.

Aaron Judge, though, after hitting one of the home runs, was forced to leave late with a left oblique that is of major concern, Judge the leader of the club in so many respects.  He becomes the 14th Yankee placed on the injured list this season, 13th on the IL currently.

So consider this.  When the Yanks took the field Sunday, they were missing their starting outfield to injury...Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks and Judge...as well as their third baseman, Miguel Andujar, shortstop Didi Gregorius and catcher Gary Sanchez, among others.  And we learned today Judge will be out at least a month.

But the Yanks won today to move to 11-10.  James Paxton pitched his second consecutive outstanding game, six shutout innings, 12 Ks, leaving the contest up 5-0.  But then the bullpen blew it, only New York won 7-6 in the bottom of the tenth on an Austin Romine hit.

--My Mets started out 9-4, but are now 11-10 after losing in St. Louis today 6-4.  Shortstop Amed Rosario has had a horrid week in the field, five errors, including another two today.

St. Louis closer Jordan Hicks finished things up today, throwing one pitch 104 mph, which is still way short of Sidd Finch’s best, 168.

At least Jacob deGrom, who we learned Friday needed an MRI on his elbow, appears to be OK, though he missed a start Saturday and won’t be eligible again until next weekend, having been placed on the injured list as a precaution.

--It’s been a rough early season for some high-profile pitchers, like Washington’s Max Scherzer, who was shelled by the Marlins on Saturday, 9-3, Scherzer giving up 6 earned and 11 hits in 5 1/3, falling to 1-3, 4.45 ERA.

But I’ve written in glowing terms of how Scherzer has fulfilled his massive contract thus far, and I’m sure by end of this season we’ll be saying the same.

So I have to make note of Arizona’s Zack Greinke, who received his own ginormous deal after the 2015 season, signing with the D’Backs for six years, $206.5 million.  No way this was going to be a good deal for Arizona, but here are the facts.

2016...13-7 in 26 starts
2017...17-7 in 32 starts
2018...15-11 in 33 starts

Thus far in 2019, after throwing six scoreless in a 6-0 win over the Cubs Saturday night, he’s 3-1.

Greinke is also 5 for 10 at the plate this year, with two doubles and two home runs!

So he’s 48-26 in his 3+ seasons thus far.  Nothing to sneeze at.  He’s earning $34.5 million this year and will receive $70 million for 2020-21.

--The Twins had a blast Saturday in Camden Yards (speaking of bandboxes), sweeping the Orioles 6-5, 16-7, while hitting eleven home runs in the two games, including eight in the nightcap, equaling a single-game club mark set back in 1963.  Having watched Minnesota against the Mets a week ago, they are a fun team.  I’d be pumped if I were a Twins fan.

Today, the Twins completed the sweep 4-3, but no home runs.

--In the Angels’ 6-5 loss to Seattle Saturday, Albert Pujols surpassed Babe Ruth for fifth place on the all-time RBI list with his 1,993rd; Pujols passing Ruth on a solo homer off Anthony Swarzak.  He had tied Ruth in the third with an RBI-double.

Next up Lou Gehrig (1,994) and Barry Bonds (1,996).  Then it’s Alex Rodriguez (2,086) and Hank Aaron (2,297).

However, this is a bogus record for Pujols, because Ruth really had 2,214, MLB not recognizing the RBI until 1920, but baseballreference is able to go back prior, Ruth’s career beginning in 1914.  Baseballreference also has Gehrig at 1,995.

I do not recognize Cap Anson’s 2,075, not recognized by MLB, because it was all pre-1900...but that’s me, and Ken P. gets irate every time I mention this.

Anyway, technically, if you have Anson on your list, Pujols is seventh currently.

But what all this rambling about the ribbie shows you is just how great Hank Aaron was.  Of all his statistics, it’s being No. 1 all-time in RBIs that I admire most.

--Moving on, in the Dodgers’ 5-3 win Friday night in Milwaukee, Brewers’ star reliever Josh Hader went 0-2 on L.A.’s Enrique Hernandez in the eighth inning.  In the prior 82 times a batter had gone 0-2 vs. Hader, the relief ace had never issued a walk.  He had also allowed just four hits, one for extra bases, a double.

But Hernandez turned on a 96-mph fastball up over the plate and, to the shock of the Milwaukee faithful, deposited the ball over the left-field wall for the go-ahead three-run homer.

Saturday, the Brewers rebounded 5-0, with Christian Yelich hitting two more  home runs, giving him 13, all at home, on the season in the team’s first 22 games.

Yelich, in his first 13 games at Miller Park, had 13 homers and 29 RBIs in just 49 at-bats, a .435 batting average, and a 1.868 OPS.  He is hitting .270 with two RBIs on the road, but it’s just nine games.

But today Yelich was 0-for-2 in a 6-5 loss to the Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw with six solid innings, two earned, though another no-decision for L.A.

--After the Red Sox dropped to 6-13, pitcher David Price didn’t mince words when asked what will happen if the team doesn’t turn things around.  He told reporters, including Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, that the front office could blow up the team.

From Speier:

“If we don’t start playing better, J.D. Martinez, Mookie Betts, maybe myself, we could get traded,” Price said.  “We’re, what, 30th in minor league systems?”

Price was referencing Baseball America’s recent organizational evaluations that did indeed rank the Red Sox with the No. 30 farm system.  “We’re dead last,” he said.  “We don’t play better, Mookie Betts will be traded, J.D. Martinez will be traded.  It will be tough for a while here.”

The Red Sox had a very good farm system, but as Baseball America notes, they have “cashed in their best prospects to bolster the major league club (through trades).”

It’s unlikely the Red Sox would find a market for Price and Martinez due to contract restrictions.

But Betts and some of the others?  Absolutely they could be dealt.

There is a single July 31 trade deadline now – with August trade waivers a thing of the past.

Since Price spoke, however, the Red Sox swept the Rays (14-8) to move to 9-13.

--The late singer Kate Smith was cast as a racist for performing two songs entitled “That’s Why Darkies Were Born” and “Pickaninnies’ Heaven” in the early 1930s.  Both songs contain racist language and references, though the former has been characterized as satire and was also performed by Paul Robeson, who was black.

The Yankees last month became aware of Smith’s history when a fan informed them, and have now switched to a keyboard version of “God Bless America,” which has been played in the middle of every game since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the insistence of owner George Steinbrenner.

Kate Smith was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor in 1982 by President Reagan when her health was declining.  She had been credited with helping sell $600 million in war bonds during WWII.

Kate Smith’s family said they are “heartbroken” that the Yankees and Flyers distanced themselves from the singer, saying when Smith performed the songs she was in her 20s and just “trying to make her mark as a singer,” adding that Smith sang the pieces but did not write them.

“It’s somebody who found the words to two songs that she sang, out of 3,000 that she recorded, and tried to make a case out of it,” Bob Andron, who is married to Smith’s niece, said. “And my heart goes out to them, too.  Because they’re misguided. They don’t understand what kind of person Kate Smith was.”

Suzy Andron, the niece who helped take care of Smith in North Carolina before she died, said she never had any talks with her aunt about those particular songs.

“[I’m] saddened that a woman who has been dead for almost 35 years would be attacked in this way.”

Editorial / New York Post

“The ridiculous excesses of political correctness have now stretched all the way to Yankee Stadium and Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center.

“Both the Yankees and the NHL Flyers have banned Kate Smith’s famed 1943 recording of Irving Berlin’s classic ‘God Bless America.’

“The Flyers – for whom the recording had long been a good-luck charm (Smith herself sang it live during the 1974 Stanley Cup final) – went even further: They’ve actually covered up a statue of the singer that stands outside the arena....

“The problem? Two other songs Smith recorded during the 1930s contain lyrics and words that demean black people.

“But the case isn’t clear-cut on one of the songs, ‘That’s Why Darkies Were Born.’  Apart from the now-objectionable title, the lyrics – ‘Someone’s got to pick the cotton/Someone had to plant the corn’ – can also be seen as an ironic and satirical comment on racism. That’s why noted African American singer and civil-rights activist Paul Robeson also recorded the song.

“The other song Smith recorded, ‘Pickaninny Heaven,’ clearly is demeaning. Sad to say, such songs once were all-too-commonly heard.

“But they were also a product of their time and place. And if the nation bans everyone who ever sang such songs and pretends they never existed, it would have to wipe out pretty much the entire history of American film and music.

“In pulling the Smith recording the Yankees claimed to be ‘erring on the side of sensitivity.’  They certainly erred – by caving to hysterical excess.”

NBA Playoffs

--I watched a lot of the Sixers 112-108 win over the Nets yesterday in Brooklyn, Philadelphia going up a seemingly insurmountable 3-1, after losing the opener.  And one thing I learned, again, is that Joel Embiid is good, as in really, really good when he’s healthy.

The Sixers shook off a brawl that saw the Nets’ Jared Dudley and Philly’s Jimmy Butler ejected, Embiid also called for a flagrant foul, his second of the series.

The Nets have let their emotions get the best of them since the first game and that was clearly the case again in Game 4.  And Joe Harris, who hit 47.4% from three during the regular season, missed all six of his attempts from downtown and that proved to be the difference.

But Embiid was phenomenal (when he wasn’t being a ‘jerk’), with 31 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists, and 6 blocked shots, including making the key pass to find an open Mike Scott in the corner for the go-ahead 3-pointer with 18 seconds left.

--James Harden had an interesting game Saturday against Utah.  The superstar missed his first 15 shots from the field and went 3-for-20 for the game, but he was 14 of 16 from the line and dished out 10 assists, the Rockets prevailing over the Jazz 104-101 to take a 3-0 lead in their series.

--Today, the Celtics completed a sweep of the Pacers, 110-106, as Gordon Heyward, who is a shell of his former self, came up big with 20 points off the bench.

--The Warriors went up 3-1 with a 113-105 win over the Clippers.

--In college basketball, St. John’s settled on former Arkansas coach Mike Anderson to become the Johnnies’ new head coach, after the Razorbacks had fired him following an 18-16 season.

The 59-year-old has extensive experience, having been the head coach at UAB, Missouri and then Arkansas.  He has a 369-200 career mark and took his teams to nine NCAA tournament berths.  His teams have also never finished below .500.

Anderson takes over for former St. John’s star Chris Mullin, but he was really the third choice, Loyola-Chicago’s Porter Moser reportedly turning down an offer, while St. John’s had initially targeted Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley, who had too big a price tag.

Anderson was an assistant coach at Arkansas for 17 years under Nolan Richardson, helping the Razorbacks win the national championship in 1995.  His first test now is holding onto the players who had previously announced they were headed to the draft, but could easily return.

--Billy Witz / New York Times

“A proposed rule aimed at restricting the movement of graduate transfer athletes by levying penalties on the colleges that accepted them was voted down on Friday by the NCAA Division I Council.

“The proposal, which applied only to football and men’s and women’s basketball, would have docked teams a scholarship for an additional year if a graduate transfer did not earn his or her secondary degree within one year – even though most graduate degrees take two years to complete. The loss of an additional year’s scholarship was meant to discourage colleges from accepting graduate transfers.

“The proposal was put forth last year after 18 months of study by a task force seeking to stem the increase in graduate transfer students, who since 2011 have been able to transfer and play immediately if they have earned their undergraduate degree.

“Even though there were about 125 graduate transfers in men’s basketball, they accounted for a small portion – about 3 percent – of all Division I players.  But a number of them were prominent. Texas Tech relied on two graduate transfers – Matt Mooney and Tariq Owens – to reach the NCAA men’s basketball championship game this month.”

--One other note from the college hoops scene. Wake Forest freshman forward Jaylen Hoard announced he is remaining in the NBA Draft, an incredibly stupid move.  Hoard, no doubt, has an NBA future ahead of him.  You can see how he moves on the court, and he has the physical attributes of, say, a Jimmy Butler, once he fills out, but he is in no shape or form ready for the NBA now!  No freshman in America would have benefited more from staying in school just one more year than Hoard (Duke’s Tre Jones earlier recognizing he needed another year of seasoning).

No telling where Hoard plays next, but if he had taken a step up (from his 13.1 points, 7.6 rebounds) averages his freshmen year I believe he would have been a lottery pick in 2020.  Tre Jones knows that when he looked at his own game.

As in for starters, Jaylen Hoard doesn’t have a shot...as in, he has no outside shot!  He has a good mid-range game, but he needs to prove he can shoot from outside and he sure as hell hasn’t done that yet.

Well, any hope the Deacs had at a respectable campaign next winter is officially out the window.

--Finally, this from Will Hobson of the Washington Post.

“During a practice for the University of North Carolina’s women’s basketball team in the fall of 2017, Sylvia Hatchell, the longtime coach, grew visibly frustrated about four injured players sitting out, according to parents of five players who later described the incident.

“Three of the players were recovering from knee surgeries, but Hatchell expressed doubt they weren’t able to practice, the parents said.  Lashing out in anger, Hatchell screamed at an assistant to take the injured players out of the gym, according to the parents.

“ ‘Get them out of my sight...they make me sick,’ Hatchell said, according to the accounts players gave their parents.

“A few months later, one of those injured players called her parents, in tears, and said the coaches had forced her to run sprints even though she hadn’t healed, her parents said.  She reinjured her knee and missed the entire season.  After the season, the player’s parents said, Hatchell’s top assistant criticized their daughter’s ‘lack of commitment to the program,’ and blamed her for the team missing the NCAA tournament.

“Hatchell resigned Thursday, according to a release the university sent out overnight, after an independent investigation ‘led us to conclude that the program needed to be taken in a new direction,’ according to Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham.  North Carolina announced the move hours after The Washington Post informed officials about the contents of this story.

“Hatchell’s decision to resign, the university said, came after an independent investigation by an outside law firm found she made racially insensitive comments, but ‘is not viewed as a racist,’ according to attorneys at the Charlotte-based law firm Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein.”

Ms. Hatchell goes in the December file for all the wrong reasons.

NHL Playoffs

--Boston forced a Game 7 against Toronto this afternoon with a 4-2 win on the road, despite Auston (sic) Matthews’ fifth goal of the series for the Maple Leafs.

Toronto, which lost to Boston last year in seven, hasn’t advanced to the second round since 2004.

Game 7 is Tuesday in Beantown.  Much watch TV.

[Toronto fans will riot if their boys lose.]

NFL

--The Draft is here...Thursday.  More next chat, but this is going to be fun, especially for Jets and Giants fans to see what they do with the 3rd (Jets) and 6th (Giants) overall picks, at least as of today, both capable of trading them  on draft night.

--Yikes, in looking at the 2019 schedule for my New York Jets, the season could easily be over after Week 7.

After opening with Buffalo at home, the Jets host Cleveland, are at New England, at Philadelphia, home to Dallas, and home to New England, with a bye week sandwiched in between.

So after the first six games, if the Jets were 3-3, that would be super, but something worse is likely.

The Browns game is a “Monday Night Football” affair, as is the second New England game.

--Former NFL and Tennessee Volunteers running back Reggie Cobb died Saturday.  He was 50. No cause has yet been announced.

Cobb served as a scout in the 49ers organization for ten years after an NFL career with four teams.

Cobb starred at Tennessee for three years, rushing for 2,360 yards and 29 touchdowns and was drafted in the second round of the 1990 NFL draft by Tampa Bay, where he played four seasons, before finishing out with Green Bay, Jacksonville and the Jets.

In seven seasons, Cobb rushed for 3,743 yards and 25 touchdowns, including 1,171 and 9 in 1992 with the Buccaneers.

--Michael Powell / New York Times

“The University of Colorado hired a new football coach in December, and as coaches are wont to do, he talked tough.

“ ‘Our team, we will be physical,’ Coach Mel Tucker said at his introductory news conference.  ‘My dad always told me the name of the game is hit, hit, H-I-T.  There is always a place on the field for someone who will hit.’

“He was preaching that old-style pigskin religion. Unfortunately, Tucker, who came from the University of Georgia, runs a football program that has produced at least a half-dozen players – including several who played in the NFL – who have killed themselves.  Other former players are alive but afflicted by severe post-concussion problems.

“Two university regents, dissenters from the Church of Hit, Hit and Hit, read Tucker’s remarks and shook their heads. A few days later, these heretics voted against his five-year, $14.75 million contract.  They could not block the contract, but another cannon had been fired in the football concussion wars....

“The nation’s universities face a more ticklish problem (than even the NFL) known as morality.  These institutions were founded with the purpose of developing and educating young minds.  It is difficult to square that mission with the fate of those like running back Rashaan Salaam, who ran so beautifully for the University of Colorado and then as a pro, and like Drew Wahlroos, a fearless, rampaging Colorado linebacker.  Both men suffered emotional and cognitive problems that friends and family and even university officials related to thousands of hits taken over the course of their careers.  Each killed himself.

“There are, too, those like Ryan Miller.  I wrote about him Wednesday, an intelligent and introspective giant of a young man and a former stalwart offensive lineman for the University of Colorado who at age 29 suffers migraines and the shakes and once in a while gets into his car and has to think many minutes before recalling where he intended to go.

“I came to Boulder because of these outspoken regents and because of Bob Carmichael, a long-ago player at Colorado, who has taken upon himself the role of moral goad and pushed others to speak out.  ‘I try to tell players that risking your future when you are in your early 20s is a stupid concept that many players, myself included, regret,’ Carmichael said.

“Thanks to them, the University of Colorado has come closer than most institutions to wrestling with an urgent question: Is running a college football program unconscionable?

“ ‘We should move in the direction of offering lifelong insurance and medical care for football players who become badly damaged,’ said John Kroll (one of the two regents) who voted against the coach’s contract.  ‘But to do that is an implicit acknowledgment this game is incredibly dangerous to play.’”

Yes, football is dying, right before our eyes, and as Michael Powell notes, defenders need only go back to the Boston University study from the chronic traumatic encephalopathy center, “which found evidence of degenerative brain disease in 99 percent of brains obtained from deceased NFL players and 91 percent of college football players and 21 percent of those who played high school football.”

But come the fall, I’ll be watching the action again, with most of you, rooting for my teams, but also with eyes wide open.  It’s that inevitable death on the field, in a major college contest or the NFL, that will officially be the beginning of the end.  We all know it’s coming...a coach or medical staff that allows an already concussed player to go back on the field, only to suffer a final, devastating blow.

Golf Balls

--Taiwan’s C.T. Pan won his first PGA Tour title at the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head today by one shot over Matt Kuchar.

--Nice story on Tiger Woods and caddie Joe LaCava.  LaCava stayed with Tiger through all of Woods’ trials and tribulations, and Tiger has rewarded him, no doubt, monetarily for doing so.

But as golf fans know, Tiger never referred to longtime caddie Steve Williams as “we” like most tour pros do today. 

After his final tap-in Sunday at the Masters, though, the new, softer side of Woods emerged in an exchange with LaCava, “we did it!”  Something that was inconceivable with the Tiger of old.

In a piece with The Caddie Network, LaCava dished to Garrett Johnston on a few more exchanges between he and his boss after the victory.  One came in the scorer’s tent, where LaCava and Tiger didn’t even have to say anything to convey what they were thinking.

“We just kind of looked at each other and soaked it all in,” LaCava said.  “Nothing was really said.  He basically said, ‘we did it,’ again.  But we got to share in the moment and smile at each other.  It was such an achievement...Nothing needed to be said because we could read each other’s minds.”

Woods later sent LaCava a text.

“We did it, appreciate you hanging in there with me, I love you like a brother,” LaCava said.

LaCava added that his former boss, Fred Couples, was texting him all week and after Sunday’s finale wrote, “I’m just so excited for you. If not more excited than when I won in ’92.”  As LaCava said, “That’s just who (Freddie) is.  And he’s always loved Tiger throughout the years.”

LaCava, a huge New York Giants fan (as well as the Rangers) said he wore a Saquon Barkley shirt underneath his caddie bib Sunday.

Premier / Champions League

In the Champions League, Tottenham pulled off a stunner Wednesday in its second leg with Manchester City at Etihad Stadium. The Spurs lost in one of the most exciting games in Champions League history, 4-3, but advanced on away goals, having defeated Man City at home 1-0 in the first leg.

Understand it was 3-2, Man City, after the first 21 minutes!  And after City took a 4-2 lead in the second half, the Spurs’ Fernando Llorente scored the critical third goal at the 73-minute mark, making it 4-4 aggregate.

City then had a late goal that was ruled no good due to Aguero being offside following video review, a fitting end to an incredible game.

Kevin De Bruyne, my favorite non-Tottenham player, was outstanding for Man City, while the Spurs, playing without injured superstar Harry Kane, relied on the superb play of Son Heung-min.

So Tottenham now faces Ajax in the semifinals, after the latter failed to qualify for the UEFA competition the year before.

The first leg is Tuesday, April 30, Tottenham playing host. The next day, Barcelona is at home for Liverpool in their first leg.

In the Premier League...

Saturday, Tottenham had to go back to play Manchester City for a critical PL contest, and the Spurs lost 1-0, despite having some great chances to pick up a point, which could be a decider come the end of the season.  City, though, lost De Bruyne to a potential season-ending injury.

So temporarily, the standings at the top prior to Sunday’s play had...

1. Man City 34 – 86
2. Liverpool 34 – 85

Then Sunday, Everton, now seventh in the standings, played one of its finest games in years in defeating Manchester United 4-0.  Ever since Man U signed interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to a long-term deal, United hasn’t been the same after an inspiring run following his hire.

And Crystal Palace shocked Arsenal at Emirates Stadium, 3-2, a potentially devastating blow for the Gunners.

But Liverpool, after a slow start, prevailed at Cardiff City, 2-0, Cardiff in the battle for its lives to climb out of the last relegation spot.  So Liverpool climbs back over Man City, temporarily.

The standings....

1. Liverpool 35 – 88
2. Man City 34 – 86
3. Tottenham 34 – 67
4. Arsenal 34 – 66
5. Chelsea 34 – 66
6. Man U 34 – 64

17. Brighton 34 – 34
18. Cardiff 35 – 31

Liverpool has Huddersfield, Newcastle and Wolverhampton remaining.

But Man City has a huge one this Wednesday at Manchester United, plus Burnley, Leicester, and Brighton.

It’s going down to the final weekend...the greatest battle for the Premier League title ever.

And it’s going down to the final weekend for the third and fourth Champions League spots.

Tottenham’s last four are home contests against Brighton and West Ham, away at Bournemouth, and then home to Everton in the finale.  But they also have Champions League legs in the midst of their stretch run to secure a place in the CL for next year.  In terms of who manager Mauricio Pochettino plays, he’s going to have to be very strategic.  Tottenham will desperately need a PL game where they get off to a big lead so they can rest their stars.

Stuff

--James Holzhauer brought home $131,127, Wednesday on “Jeopardy!”, breaking the record he set last week by over $20,000 and winning his 10th straight episode.  He then won twice more through Friday’s broadcast, and holds the top five spots for the single-game winnings record.

Holzhauer, a 34-year-old professional gambler from Las Vegas, has won over $850,000 on the show.  He is second to “Jeopardy!” legend Ken Jennings, who amassed $2,520,700 during his 74-game winning streak.

Holzhauer has taken the show by storm with his strategy of aggressively going all in on Daily Doubles.

The Chicago-area native has revealed that he studied children’s books to supplement his trivia knowledge before appearing on the show.

Meanwhile, host Alex Trebek, who has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, gave a positive health update on the last day of taping the current season of the show.

“I’ve always tried to be straight with you and I’m not going to stop now, so despite what you may have heard, I’m feeling good, I’m continuing with my therapy and we, by we, the staff, is already working on our next season, the 36th year of ‘Jeopardy!’

“I look forward to seeing you once again in September with all kinds of good stuff.”

--A Sumatran tiger named Sanjiv mauled a zookeeper at the Topeka Zoo Saturday, attacking the worker in a secured, indoor space.  The zookeeper’s condition at last word was stable.

The zoo was open at the time and there were some witnesses, but the zoo reopened after just 45 minutes.

Sanjiv was not put down, zoo officials said, the Sumatran tiger being a very rare species, and, after all, he was just acting like a tiger.

‘Tiger’ remains No. 3 on the All-Species List.  ‘Man’ is 432.

--A golfer in Connecticut was attacked by a bobcat (No. 96 on the ASL) on the Mohegan Sun Golf Course in Baltic, Conn., with another member of the golfer’s group able to drive the bobcat off.

The man’s condition was unknown, but he suffered multiple lacerations.

Thankfully, the bobcat was located and euthanized, according to officials. It was found to have rabies.  It was then learned the bobcat had attacked a horse earlier in the day.

I forgot how prevalent bobcats are in Connecticut, but this is scary.

--There was a very cool story that emerged amid the tragedy of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral.

Some 200,000 bees, living in three hives on the roof, had been initially thought to have perished in the blaze, but the cathedral’s beekeeper confirmed they are alive and buzzing.

The hives were installed in 2013 as part of an initiative to boost the bee population across Paris.  They sit on top of the sacristy by Notre Dame’s south side, 98 feet below the main roof.  As a result, said the keeper, they remained untouched.

European bees, according to a story in BBC News, “unlike other species – stay by their hive after sensing danger, gorging on honey and working to protect their queen.

“High temperatures would have posed the biggest risk, but (beekeeper Nicolas Geant) explained that any smoke would have simply intoxicated them.

“ ‘Instead of killing them, the carbon dioxide makes them drunk, puts them to sleep,’ he told AP.

“Beekeepers commonly use smoke to sedate the insects and gain access to their hive.”

“Thank goodness the flames didn’t touch them,” Geant told CNN.  “It’s a miracle.”

Top 3 songs for the week 4/21/79:  #1 “Knock On Wood” (Amii Stewart...ugh...)  #2 “I Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor) #3 “Heart Of Glass” (Blondie...couldn’t stand this song...)...and...#4 “Music Box Dancer” (Frank Mills...dreadful...)  #5 “What A Fool Believes” (The Doobie Brothers...try vainly to salvage the week...)  #6 “Reunited” (Peaches & Herb...slow dance staple in the day...heh heh...)  #7 “Stumblin’ In” (Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman)  #8 “Tragedy” (Bee Gees...just shoot me...)  #9 “I Want Your Love” (Chic) #10 “Sultans Of Swing” (Dire Straits...just went on and on and on...one of the worst weeks in the history of music...including the years when Stravinsky dominated the charts...back to the 60s, lads....)

NFL Draft Quiz Answer: Quarterbacks who have been the first overall selection the last ten years.

2018 – Baker Mayfield (Cleveland)
2016 – Jared Goff (L.A. Rams)
2015 – Jameis Winston (Tampa Bay)
2012 – Andrew Luck (Indianapolis)
2011 – Cam Newton (Carolina)
2010 – Sam Bradford (St. Louis Rams)
2009 – Matthew Stafford (Detroit)

1969 Mets, cont’d:

April 19: The Mets won the first of two in St. Louis, 2-1; Seaver outdueling Bob Gibson, both with complete games of course.
April 20: The Mets completed the sweep, 11-3, with Nolan Ryan getting the win with 4 2/3 of one-hit ball in relief of starter Jim McAndrew.  Cleon Jones had another three hits to move his average to .426, while Jerry Grote drove in four with a pair of doubles.  Kevin Collins also contributed with a two-run homer for the Metropolitans, who are now 5-7.  I’m feeling a little better about things.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.



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Bar Chat

04/22/2019

Talkin' Baseball

[Posted Sunday p.m.]

NFL Draft Quiz: A quarterback has been the first overall pick seven of the last ten years.  Name ‘em.  Answer below.

MLB

--The Yankees defeated the Royals at the Little Bandbox that Ruth Didn’t Build yesterday, 9-2, slamming four home runs, three that literally cleared the fence by no more than two feet.  This park is a travesty.

Aaron Judge, though, after hitting one of the home runs, was forced to leave late with a left oblique that is of major concern, Judge the leader of the club in so many respects.  He becomes the 14th Yankee placed on the injured list this season, 13th on the IL currently.

So consider this.  When the Yanks took the field Sunday, they were missing their starting outfield to injury...Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks and Judge...as well as their third baseman, Miguel Andujar, shortstop Didi Gregorius and catcher Gary Sanchez, among others.  And we learned today Judge will be out at least a month.

But the Yanks won today to move to 11-10.  James Paxton pitched his second consecutive outstanding game, six shutout innings, 12 Ks, leaving the contest up 5-0.  But then the bullpen blew it, only New York won 7-6 in the bottom of the tenth on an Austin Romine hit.

--My Mets started out 9-4, but are now 11-10 after losing in St. Louis today 6-4.  Shortstop Amed Rosario has had a horrid week in the field, five errors, including another two today.

St. Louis closer Jordan Hicks finished things up today, throwing one pitch 104 mph, which is still way short of Sidd Finch’s best, 168.

At least Jacob deGrom, who we learned Friday needed an MRI on his elbow, appears to be OK, though he missed a start Saturday and won’t be eligible again until next weekend, having been placed on the injured list as a precaution.

--It’s been a rough early season for some high-profile pitchers, like Washington’s Max Scherzer, who was shelled by the Marlins on Saturday, 9-3, Scherzer giving up 6 earned and 11 hits in 5 1/3, falling to 1-3, 4.45 ERA.

But I’ve written in glowing terms of how Scherzer has fulfilled his massive contract thus far, and I’m sure by end of this season we’ll be saying the same.

So I have to make note of Arizona’s Zack Greinke, who received his own ginormous deal after the 2015 season, signing with the D’Backs for six years, $206.5 million.  No way this was going to be a good deal for Arizona, but here are the facts.

2016...13-7 in 26 starts
2017...17-7 in 32 starts
2018...15-11 in 33 starts

Thus far in 2019, after throwing six scoreless in a 6-0 win over the Cubs Saturday night, he’s 3-1.

Greinke is also 5 for 10 at the plate this year, with two doubles and two home runs!

So he’s 48-26 in his 3+ seasons thus far.  Nothing to sneeze at.  He’s earning $34.5 million this year and will receive $70 million for 2020-21.

--The Twins had a blast Saturday in Camden Yards (speaking of bandboxes), sweeping the Orioles 6-5, 16-7, while hitting eleven home runs in the two games, including eight in the nightcap, equaling a single-game club mark set back in 1963.  Having watched Minnesota against the Mets a week ago, they are a fun team.  I’d be pumped if I were a Twins fan.

Today, the Twins completed the sweep 4-3, but no home runs.

--In the Angels’ 6-5 loss to Seattle Saturday, Albert Pujols surpassed Babe Ruth for fifth place on the all-time RBI list with his 1,993rd; Pujols passing Ruth on a solo homer off Anthony Swarzak.  He had tied Ruth in the third with an RBI-double.

Next up Lou Gehrig (1,994) and Barry Bonds (1,996).  Then it’s Alex Rodriguez (2,086) and Hank Aaron (2,297).

However, this is a bogus record for Pujols, because Ruth really had 2,214, MLB not recognizing the RBI until 1920, but baseballreference is able to go back prior, Ruth’s career beginning in 1914.  Baseballreference also has Gehrig at 1,995.

I do not recognize Cap Anson’s 2,075, not recognized by MLB, because it was all pre-1900...but that’s me, and Ken P. gets irate every time I mention this.

Anyway, technically, if you have Anson on your list, Pujols is seventh currently.

But what all this rambling about the ribbie shows you is just how great Hank Aaron was.  Of all his statistics, it’s being No. 1 all-time in RBIs that I admire most.

--Moving on, in the Dodgers’ 5-3 win Friday night in Milwaukee, Brewers’ star reliever Josh Hader went 0-2 on L.A.’s Enrique Hernandez in the eighth inning.  In the prior 82 times a batter had gone 0-2 vs. Hader, the relief ace had never issued a walk.  He had also allowed just four hits, one for extra bases, a double.

But Hernandez turned on a 96-mph fastball up over the plate and, to the shock of the Milwaukee faithful, deposited the ball over the left-field wall for the go-ahead three-run homer.

Saturday, the Brewers rebounded 5-0, with Christian Yelich hitting two more  home runs, giving him 13, all at home, on the season in the team’s first 22 games.

Yelich, in his first 13 games at Miller Park, had 13 homers and 29 RBIs in just 49 at-bats, a .435 batting average, and a 1.868 OPS.  He is hitting .270 with two RBIs on the road, but it’s just nine games.

But today Yelich was 0-for-2 in a 6-5 loss to the Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw with six solid innings, two earned, though another no-decision for L.A.

--After the Red Sox dropped to 6-13, pitcher David Price didn’t mince words when asked what will happen if the team doesn’t turn things around.  He told reporters, including Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, that the front office could blow up the team.

From Speier:

“If we don’t start playing better, J.D. Martinez, Mookie Betts, maybe myself, we could get traded,” Price said.  “We’re, what, 30th in minor league systems?”

Price was referencing Baseball America’s recent organizational evaluations that did indeed rank the Red Sox with the No. 30 farm system.  “We’re dead last,” he said.  “We don’t play better, Mookie Betts will be traded, J.D. Martinez will be traded.  It will be tough for a while here.”

The Red Sox had a very good farm system, but as Baseball America notes, they have “cashed in their best prospects to bolster the major league club (through trades).”

It’s unlikely the Red Sox would find a market for Price and Martinez due to contract restrictions.

But Betts and some of the others?  Absolutely they could be dealt.

There is a single July 31 trade deadline now – with August trade waivers a thing of the past.

Since Price spoke, however, the Red Sox swept the Rays (14-8) to move to 9-13.

--The late singer Kate Smith was cast as a racist for performing two songs entitled “That’s Why Darkies Were Born” and “Pickaninnies’ Heaven” in the early 1930s.  Both songs contain racist language and references, though the former has been characterized as satire and was also performed by Paul Robeson, who was black.

The Yankees last month became aware of Smith’s history when a fan informed them, and have now switched to a keyboard version of “God Bless America,” which has been played in the middle of every game since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the insistence of owner George Steinbrenner.

Kate Smith was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor in 1982 by President Reagan when her health was declining.  She had been credited with helping sell $600 million in war bonds during WWII.

Kate Smith’s family said they are “heartbroken” that the Yankees and Flyers distanced themselves from the singer, saying when Smith performed the songs she was in her 20s and just “trying to make her mark as a singer,” adding that Smith sang the pieces but did not write them.

“It’s somebody who found the words to two songs that she sang, out of 3,000 that she recorded, and tried to make a case out of it,” Bob Andron, who is married to Smith’s niece, said. “And my heart goes out to them, too.  Because they’re misguided. They don’t understand what kind of person Kate Smith was.”

Suzy Andron, the niece who helped take care of Smith in North Carolina before she died, said she never had any talks with her aunt about those particular songs.

“[I’m] saddened that a woman who has been dead for almost 35 years would be attacked in this way.”

Editorial / New York Post

“The ridiculous excesses of political correctness have now stretched all the way to Yankee Stadium and Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center.

“Both the Yankees and the NHL Flyers have banned Kate Smith’s famed 1943 recording of Irving Berlin’s classic ‘God Bless America.’

“The Flyers – for whom the recording had long been a good-luck charm (Smith herself sang it live during the 1974 Stanley Cup final) – went even further: They’ve actually covered up a statue of the singer that stands outside the arena....

“The problem? Two other songs Smith recorded during the 1930s contain lyrics and words that demean black people.

“But the case isn’t clear-cut on one of the songs, ‘That’s Why Darkies Were Born.’  Apart from the now-objectionable title, the lyrics – ‘Someone’s got to pick the cotton/Someone had to plant the corn’ – can also be seen as an ironic and satirical comment on racism. That’s why noted African American singer and civil-rights activist Paul Robeson also recorded the song.

“The other song Smith recorded, ‘Pickaninny Heaven,’ clearly is demeaning. Sad to say, such songs once were all-too-commonly heard.

“But they were also a product of their time and place. And if the nation bans everyone who ever sang such songs and pretends they never existed, it would have to wipe out pretty much the entire history of American film and music.

“In pulling the Smith recording the Yankees claimed to be ‘erring on the side of sensitivity.’  They certainly erred – by caving to hysterical excess.”

NBA Playoffs

--I watched a lot of the Sixers 112-108 win over the Nets yesterday in Brooklyn, Philadelphia going up a seemingly insurmountable 3-1, after losing the opener.  And one thing I learned, again, is that Joel Embiid is good, as in really, really good when he’s healthy.

The Sixers shook off a brawl that saw the Nets’ Jared Dudley and Philly’s Jimmy Butler ejected, Embiid also called for a flagrant foul, his second of the series.

The Nets have let their emotions get the best of them since the first game and that was clearly the case again in Game 4.  And Joe Harris, who hit 47.4% from three during the regular season, missed all six of his attempts from downtown and that proved to be the difference.

But Embiid was phenomenal (when he wasn’t being a ‘jerk’), with 31 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists, and 6 blocked shots, including making the key pass to find an open Mike Scott in the corner for the go-ahead 3-pointer with 18 seconds left.

--James Harden had an interesting game Saturday against Utah.  The superstar missed his first 15 shots from the field and went 3-for-20 for the game, but he was 14 of 16 from the line and dished out 10 assists, the Rockets prevailing over the Jazz 104-101 to take a 3-0 lead in their series.

--Today, the Celtics completed a sweep of the Pacers, 110-106, as Gordon Heyward, who is a shell of his former self, came up big with 20 points off the bench.

--The Warriors went up 3-1 with a 113-105 win over the Clippers.

--In college basketball, St. John’s settled on former Arkansas coach Mike Anderson to become the Johnnies’ new head coach, after the Razorbacks had fired him following an 18-16 season.

The 59-year-old has extensive experience, having been the head coach at UAB, Missouri and then Arkansas.  He has a 369-200 career mark and took his teams to nine NCAA tournament berths.  His teams have also never finished below .500.

Anderson takes over for former St. John’s star Chris Mullin, but he was really the third choice, Loyola-Chicago’s Porter Moser reportedly turning down an offer, while St. John’s had initially targeted Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley, who had too big a price tag.

Anderson was an assistant coach at Arkansas for 17 years under Nolan Richardson, helping the Razorbacks win the national championship in 1995.  His first test now is holding onto the players who had previously announced they were headed to the draft, but could easily return.

--Billy Witz / New York Times

“A proposed rule aimed at restricting the movement of graduate transfer athletes by levying penalties on the colleges that accepted them was voted down on Friday by the NCAA Division I Council.

“The proposal, which applied only to football and men’s and women’s basketball, would have docked teams a scholarship for an additional year if a graduate transfer did not earn his or her secondary degree within one year – even though most graduate degrees take two years to complete. The loss of an additional year’s scholarship was meant to discourage colleges from accepting graduate transfers.

“The proposal was put forth last year after 18 months of study by a task force seeking to stem the increase in graduate transfer students, who since 2011 have been able to transfer and play immediately if they have earned their undergraduate degree.

“Even though there were about 125 graduate transfers in men’s basketball, they accounted for a small portion – about 3 percent – of all Division I players.  But a number of them were prominent. Texas Tech relied on two graduate transfers – Matt Mooney and Tariq Owens – to reach the NCAA men’s basketball championship game this month.”

--One other note from the college hoops scene. Wake Forest freshman forward Jaylen Hoard announced he is remaining in the NBA Draft, an incredibly stupid move.  Hoard, no doubt, has an NBA future ahead of him.  You can see how he moves on the court, and he has the physical attributes of, say, a Jimmy Butler, once he fills out, but he is in no shape or form ready for the NBA now!  No freshman in America would have benefited more from staying in school just one more year than Hoard (Duke’s Tre Jones earlier recognizing he needed another year of seasoning).

No telling where Hoard plays next, but if he had taken a step up (from his 13.1 points, 7.6 rebounds) averages his freshmen year I believe he would have been a lottery pick in 2020.  Tre Jones knows that when he looked at his own game.

As in for starters, Jaylen Hoard doesn’t have a shot...as in, he has no outside shot!  He has a good mid-range game, but he needs to prove he can shoot from outside and he sure as hell hasn’t done that yet.

Well, any hope the Deacs had at a respectable campaign next winter is officially out the window.

--Finally, this from Will Hobson of the Washington Post.

“During a practice for the University of North Carolina’s women’s basketball team in the fall of 2017, Sylvia Hatchell, the longtime coach, grew visibly frustrated about four injured players sitting out, according to parents of five players who later described the incident.

“Three of the players were recovering from knee surgeries, but Hatchell expressed doubt they weren’t able to practice, the parents said.  Lashing out in anger, Hatchell screamed at an assistant to take the injured players out of the gym, according to the parents.

“ ‘Get them out of my sight...they make me sick,’ Hatchell said, according to the accounts players gave their parents.

“A few months later, one of those injured players called her parents, in tears, and said the coaches had forced her to run sprints even though she hadn’t healed, her parents said.  She reinjured her knee and missed the entire season.  After the season, the player’s parents said, Hatchell’s top assistant criticized their daughter’s ‘lack of commitment to the program,’ and blamed her for the team missing the NCAA tournament.

“Hatchell resigned Thursday, according to a release the university sent out overnight, after an independent investigation ‘led us to conclude that the program needed to be taken in a new direction,’ according to Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham.  North Carolina announced the move hours after The Washington Post informed officials about the contents of this story.

“Hatchell’s decision to resign, the university said, came after an independent investigation by an outside law firm found she made racially insensitive comments, but ‘is not viewed as a racist,’ according to attorneys at the Charlotte-based law firm Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein.”

Ms. Hatchell goes in the December file for all the wrong reasons.

NHL Playoffs

--Boston forced a Game 7 against Toronto this afternoon with a 4-2 win on the road, despite Auston (sic) Matthews’ fifth goal of the series for the Maple Leafs.

Toronto, which lost to Boston last year in seven, hasn’t advanced to the second round since 2004.

Game 7 is Tuesday in Beantown.  Much watch TV.

[Toronto fans will riot if their boys lose.]

NFL

--The Draft is here...Thursday.  More next chat, but this is going to be fun, especially for Jets and Giants fans to see what they do with the 3rd (Jets) and 6th (Giants) overall picks, at least as of today, both capable of trading them  on draft night.

--Yikes, in looking at the 2019 schedule for my New York Jets, the season could easily be over after Week 7.

After opening with Buffalo at home, the Jets host Cleveland, are at New England, at Philadelphia, home to Dallas, and home to New England, with a bye week sandwiched in between.

So after the first six games, if the Jets were 3-3, that would be super, but something worse is likely.

The Browns game is a “Monday Night Football” affair, as is the second New England game.

--Former NFL and Tennessee Volunteers running back Reggie Cobb died Saturday.  He was 50. No cause has yet been announced.

Cobb served as a scout in the 49ers organization for ten years after an NFL career with four teams.

Cobb starred at Tennessee for three years, rushing for 2,360 yards and 29 touchdowns and was drafted in the second round of the 1990 NFL draft by Tampa Bay, where he played four seasons, before finishing out with Green Bay, Jacksonville and the Jets.

In seven seasons, Cobb rushed for 3,743 yards and 25 touchdowns, including 1,171 and 9 in 1992 with the Buccaneers.

--Michael Powell / New York Times

“The University of Colorado hired a new football coach in December, and as coaches are wont to do, he talked tough.

“ ‘Our team, we will be physical,’ Coach Mel Tucker said at his introductory news conference.  ‘My dad always told me the name of the game is hit, hit, H-I-T.  There is always a place on the field for someone who will hit.’

“He was preaching that old-style pigskin religion. Unfortunately, Tucker, who came from the University of Georgia, runs a football program that has produced at least a half-dozen players – including several who played in the NFL – who have killed themselves.  Other former players are alive but afflicted by severe post-concussion problems.

“Two university regents, dissenters from the Church of Hit, Hit and Hit, read Tucker’s remarks and shook their heads. A few days later, these heretics voted against his five-year, $14.75 million contract.  They could not block the contract, but another cannon had been fired in the football concussion wars....

“The nation’s universities face a more ticklish problem (than even the NFL) known as morality.  These institutions were founded with the purpose of developing and educating young minds.  It is difficult to square that mission with the fate of those like running back Rashaan Salaam, who ran so beautifully for the University of Colorado and then as a pro, and like Drew Wahlroos, a fearless, rampaging Colorado linebacker.  Both men suffered emotional and cognitive problems that friends and family and even university officials related to thousands of hits taken over the course of their careers.  Each killed himself.

“There are, too, those like Ryan Miller.  I wrote about him Wednesday, an intelligent and introspective giant of a young man and a former stalwart offensive lineman for the University of Colorado who at age 29 suffers migraines and the shakes and once in a while gets into his car and has to think many minutes before recalling where he intended to go.

“I came to Boulder because of these outspoken regents and because of Bob Carmichael, a long-ago player at Colorado, who has taken upon himself the role of moral goad and pushed others to speak out.  ‘I try to tell players that risking your future when you are in your early 20s is a stupid concept that many players, myself included, regret,’ Carmichael said.

“Thanks to them, the University of Colorado has come closer than most institutions to wrestling with an urgent question: Is running a college football program unconscionable?

“ ‘We should move in the direction of offering lifelong insurance and medical care for football players who become badly damaged,’ said John Kroll (one of the two regents) who voted against the coach’s contract.  ‘But to do that is an implicit acknowledgment this game is incredibly dangerous to play.’”

Yes, football is dying, right before our eyes, and as Michael Powell notes, defenders need only go back to the Boston University study from the chronic traumatic encephalopathy center, “which found evidence of degenerative brain disease in 99 percent of brains obtained from deceased NFL players and 91 percent of college football players and 21 percent of those who played high school football.”

But come the fall, I’ll be watching the action again, with most of you, rooting for my teams, but also with eyes wide open.  It’s that inevitable death on the field, in a major college contest or the NFL, that will officially be the beginning of the end.  We all know it’s coming...a coach or medical staff that allows an already concussed player to go back on the field, only to suffer a final, devastating blow.

Golf Balls

--Taiwan’s C.T. Pan won his first PGA Tour title at the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head today by one shot over Matt Kuchar.

--Nice story on Tiger Woods and caddie Joe LaCava.  LaCava stayed with Tiger through all of Woods’ trials and tribulations, and Tiger has rewarded him, no doubt, monetarily for doing so.

But as golf fans know, Tiger never referred to longtime caddie Steve Williams as “we” like most tour pros do today. 

After his final tap-in Sunday at the Masters, though, the new, softer side of Woods emerged in an exchange with LaCava, “we did it!”  Something that was inconceivable with the Tiger of old.

In a piece with The Caddie Network, LaCava dished to Garrett Johnston on a few more exchanges between he and his boss after the victory.  One came in the scorer’s tent, where LaCava and Tiger didn’t even have to say anything to convey what they were thinking.

“We just kind of looked at each other and soaked it all in,” LaCava said.  “Nothing was really said.  He basically said, ‘we did it,’ again.  But we got to share in the moment and smile at each other.  It was such an achievement...Nothing needed to be said because we could read each other’s minds.”

Woods later sent LaCava a text.

“We did it, appreciate you hanging in there with me, I love you like a brother,” LaCava said.

LaCava added that his former boss, Fred Couples, was texting him all week and after Sunday’s finale wrote, “I’m just so excited for you. If not more excited than when I won in ’92.”  As LaCava said, “That’s just who (Freddie) is.  And he’s always loved Tiger throughout the years.”

LaCava, a huge New York Giants fan (as well as the Rangers) said he wore a Saquon Barkley shirt underneath his caddie bib Sunday.

Premier / Champions League

In the Champions League, Tottenham pulled off a stunner Wednesday in its second leg with Manchester City at Etihad Stadium. The Spurs lost in one of the most exciting games in Champions League history, 4-3, but advanced on away goals, having defeated Man City at home 1-0 in the first leg.

Understand it was 3-2, Man City, after the first 21 minutes!  And after City took a 4-2 lead in the second half, the Spurs’ Fernando Llorente scored the critical third goal at the 73-minute mark, making it 4-4 aggregate.

City then had a late goal that was ruled no good due to Aguero being offside following video review, a fitting end to an incredible game.

Kevin De Bruyne, my favorite non-Tottenham player, was outstanding for Man City, while the Spurs, playing without injured superstar Harry Kane, relied on the superb play of Son Heung-min.

So Tottenham now faces Ajax in the semifinals, after the latter failed to qualify for the UEFA competition the year before.

The first leg is Tuesday, April 30, Tottenham playing host. The next day, Barcelona is at home for Liverpool in their first leg.

In the Premier League...

Saturday, Tottenham had to go back to play Manchester City for a critical PL contest, and the Spurs lost 1-0, despite having some great chances to pick up a point, which could be a decider come the end of the season.  City, though, lost De Bruyne to a potential season-ending injury.

So temporarily, the standings at the top prior to Sunday’s play had...

1. Man City 34 – 86
2. Liverpool 34 – 85

Then Sunday, Everton, now seventh in the standings, played one of its finest games in years in defeating Manchester United 4-0.  Ever since Man U signed interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to a long-term deal, United hasn’t been the same after an inspiring run following his hire.

And Crystal Palace shocked Arsenal at Emirates Stadium, 3-2, a potentially devastating blow for the Gunners.

But Liverpool, after a slow start, prevailed at Cardiff City, 2-0, Cardiff in the battle for its lives to climb out of the last relegation spot.  So Liverpool climbs back over Man City, temporarily.

The standings....

1. Liverpool 35 – 88
2. Man City 34 – 86
3. Tottenham 34 – 67
4. Arsenal 34 – 66
5. Chelsea 34 – 66
6. Man U 34 – 64

17. Brighton 34 – 34
18. Cardiff 35 – 31

Liverpool has Huddersfield, Newcastle and Wolverhampton remaining.

But Man City has a huge one this Wednesday at Manchester United, plus Burnley, Leicester, and Brighton.

It’s going down to the final weekend...the greatest battle for the Premier League title ever.

And it’s going down to the final weekend for the third and fourth Champions League spots.

Tottenham’s last four are home contests against Brighton and West Ham, away at Bournemouth, and then home to Everton in the finale.  But they also have Champions League legs in the midst of their stretch run to secure a place in the CL for next year.  In terms of who manager Mauricio Pochettino plays, he’s going to have to be very strategic.  Tottenham will desperately need a PL game where they get off to a big lead so they can rest their stars.

Stuff

--James Holzhauer brought home $131,127, Wednesday on “Jeopardy!”, breaking the record he set last week by over $20,000 and winning his 10th straight episode.  He then won twice more through Friday’s broadcast, and holds the top five spots for the single-game winnings record.

Holzhauer, a 34-year-old professional gambler from Las Vegas, has won over $850,000 on the show.  He is second to “Jeopardy!” legend Ken Jennings, who amassed $2,520,700 during his 74-game winning streak.

Holzhauer has taken the show by storm with his strategy of aggressively going all in on Daily Doubles.

The Chicago-area native has revealed that he studied children’s books to supplement his trivia knowledge before appearing on the show.

Meanwhile, host Alex Trebek, who has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, gave a positive health update on the last day of taping the current season of the show.

“I’ve always tried to be straight with you and I’m not going to stop now, so despite what you may have heard, I’m feeling good, I’m continuing with my therapy and we, by we, the staff, is already working on our next season, the 36th year of ‘Jeopardy!’

“I look forward to seeing you once again in September with all kinds of good stuff.”

--A Sumatran tiger named Sanjiv mauled a zookeeper at the Topeka Zoo Saturday, attacking the worker in a secured, indoor space.  The zookeeper’s condition at last word was stable.

The zoo was open at the time and there were some witnesses, but the zoo reopened after just 45 minutes.

Sanjiv was not put down, zoo officials said, the Sumatran tiger being a very rare species, and, after all, he was just acting like a tiger.

‘Tiger’ remains No. 3 on the All-Species List.  ‘Man’ is 432.

--A golfer in Connecticut was attacked by a bobcat (No. 96 on the ASL) on the Mohegan Sun Golf Course in Baltic, Conn., with another member of the golfer’s group able to drive the bobcat off.

The man’s condition was unknown, but he suffered multiple lacerations.

Thankfully, the bobcat was located and euthanized, according to officials. It was found to have rabies.  It was then learned the bobcat had attacked a horse earlier in the day.

I forgot how prevalent bobcats are in Connecticut, but this is scary.

--There was a very cool story that emerged amid the tragedy of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral.

Some 200,000 bees, living in three hives on the roof, had been initially thought to have perished in the blaze, but the cathedral’s beekeeper confirmed they are alive and buzzing.

The hives were installed in 2013 as part of an initiative to boost the bee population across Paris.  They sit on top of the sacristy by Notre Dame’s south side, 98 feet below the main roof.  As a result, said the keeper, they remained untouched.

European bees, according to a story in BBC News, “unlike other species – stay by their hive after sensing danger, gorging on honey and working to protect their queen.

“High temperatures would have posed the biggest risk, but (beekeeper Nicolas Geant) explained that any smoke would have simply intoxicated them.

“ ‘Instead of killing them, the carbon dioxide makes them drunk, puts them to sleep,’ he told AP.

“Beekeepers commonly use smoke to sedate the insects and gain access to their hive.”

“Thank goodness the flames didn’t touch them,” Geant told CNN.  “It’s a miracle.”

Top 3 songs for the week 4/21/79:  #1 “Knock On Wood” (Amii Stewart...ugh...)  #2 “I Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor) #3 “Heart Of Glass” (Blondie...couldn’t stand this song...)...and...#4 “Music Box Dancer” (Frank Mills...dreadful...)  #5 “What A Fool Believes” (The Doobie Brothers...try vainly to salvage the week...)  #6 “Reunited” (Peaches & Herb...slow dance staple in the day...heh heh...)  #7 “Stumblin’ In” (Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman)  #8 “Tragedy” (Bee Gees...just shoot me...)  #9 “I Want Your Love” (Chic) #10 “Sultans Of Swing” (Dire Straits...just went on and on and on...one of the worst weeks in the history of music...including the years when Stravinsky dominated the charts...back to the 60s, lads....)

NFL Draft Quiz Answer: Quarterbacks who have been the first overall selection the last ten years.

2018 – Baker Mayfield (Cleveland)
2016 – Jared Goff (L.A. Rams)
2015 – Jameis Winston (Tampa Bay)
2012 – Andrew Luck (Indianapolis)
2011 – Cam Newton (Carolina)
2010 – Sam Bradford (St. Louis Rams)
2009 – Matthew Stafford (Detroit)

1969 Mets, cont’d:

April 19: The Mets won the first of two in St. Louis, 2-1; Seaver outdueling Bob Gibson, both with complete games of course.
April 20: The Mets completed the sweep, 11-3, with Nolan Ryan getting the win with 4 2/3 of one-hit ball in relief of starter Jim McAndrew.  Cleon Jones had another three hits to move his average to .426, while Jerry Grote drove in four with a pair of doubles.  Kevin Collins also contributed with a two-run homer for the Metropolitans, who are now 5-7.  I’m feeling a little better about things.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.