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Bar Chat

07/08/2020

Talkin' Baseball...maybe....

[Posted Tues. p.m.]

Track and Field Quiz: I’m pressed for time so a quick quiz.  Name the first man to run below 10 seconds in the 100 meters, fully electronic time.  [Bob Hayes had the first manual time under 10.0 seconds at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, but the electronic time was 10.06.]  Answer below.

MLB

--So here we go…MLB released its 60-game season schedule that begins in about two weeks, Thursday, July 23…Yankees at Washington, San Francisco at the Dodgers.  Barring complications, the regular season concludes Sunday, Sept. 27.

Bill Shaikin / Los Angeles Times

“In a pandemic-shortened regular season dedicated to risk management, with bans on everything from fans to spitting, the…schedule unveiled Monday arguably forces each team to take five more trips than necessary.

“ ‘You want to minimize travel, absolutely,’ said Dr. Dena Grayson, a Florida-based pandemic expert.  ‘That would help to decrease the risk.’

“Each team plays 10 games against each of the other four teams in its division.  However, rather than split those 10 games into a five-game home series and a five-game road series, the league has divided them into three series.

“And, even though each team plays a home and road series against no more than two interleague opponents during the traditional 162-game season, this 60-game schedule compels teams to play a home and road series against three interleague opponents.

“The Angels take two trips to Oakland and two to Arlington, Texas, for instance. The Dodgers play home and road series against the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners – in the latter case, playing the Mariners in Los Angeles on a Monday and Tues, flying to Seattle for games Wednesday and Thursday, then flying back to Los Angeles on Thursday night….

“Each trip means increasing the personal interactions that can maximize exposure to the virus, Grayson said.  The two-game series are particularly problematic, she said, because players can be infected before they are tested and unknowingly carry the virus to another city.

“ ‘You’re basically amplifying the ability of this virus to spread, which is the last thing that needs to get done,’ Grayson said.  ‘If Major League Baseball really wants to try to have a season, which I think is going to be challenging at best, it would be wise to reduce travel as much as possible.’”

MLB and the players’ union considered whether too many days in the same city might increase the temptation for a player to leave his hotel room, making it more likely he’d contract the virus.  They also considered whether fans would tune in for five-game series against opponents that aren’t rivals.

Bob Nightengale / USA Today

“It will be a Major League Baseball season like no other.

“Then again, with the pandemic showing no signs of easing up, and early glitches in the Covid-19 testing process, there may be a better chance of someone pitching a no-hitter on opening day than actually having one.

“The Washington Nationals and Houston Astros canceled their workouts Monday when their test results from Friday never arrived.  The Toronto Blue Jays took a chartered flight Sunday night to Toronto but had to leave 12 players behind at their spring-training complex in Dunedin, Florida, when one of their players tested positive and the others were in direct contact with him. And the Oakland A’s had still not had their first full-squad workout by Monday afternoon.

“Also on Monday, veteran outfielder Nick Markakis of the Atlanta Braves was the latest player to opt out, slugger Joey Gallo of the Texas Rangers was the latest star to test positive and Nationals GM Mike Rizzo was the latest executive to express his frustration with the testing process.

“Yet, with MLB acknowledging there have been ‘unforeseen difficulties,’ with players such as Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs openly wondering if it’s actually possible to keep everyone safe, a season still awaits.

“So, ready or not, here we come.”

The first nationally televised games on Fox will be Saturday, July 25, including Giants-Dodgers, Yankees-Nationals.  Then Sunday, July 26, ESPN will have a doubleheader, Braves-Yankees and Giants-Dodgers.

Will we even get this far?

Barry Svrluga / Washington Post

“The truth of the matter is that when team sports returned, the country was supposed to be heading in the right direction. We were supposed to have learned from three months of altering our behavior. Stay home. Wear a mask.  Don’t gather in large groups.  All the stuff the medical experts told us from the start.

“What we have learned is that, as a nation, we can’t be trusted to act in the public interest. And now, ‘Play ball!’

“At some level, this season is going to be about trust.  At least the players and team personnel don’t have to ask all of us to, say, not gather closely together at Mount Rushmore or on the Mall for Fourth of July fireworks.  Rather, each one has to avoid such situations himself – and trust that the guy next to him, who’s mostly six feet away, is avoiding such spots, too.

“The fundamentals as these camps open don’t have to do with getting a bunt down or hitting a cutoff man.  They have to do with personal responsibility….

“The truth is, we’re not back to normal.  Not close.  Only weeks ago, I thought the best part about potentially getting team sports back would be to create a diversion from the virus and the deaths it has caused, now more than 126,000 nationally.

“The reality, though, is if team sports are going to return, they have to be not a diversion from what we’re dealing with but a reminder of how serious this situation remains….

“There’s no telling whether baseball – or any team sport – can pull this off. What it can do is remind us that the pandemic is not over, the virus is still here and we all have to make adjustments so that we eventually earn the right to high-five and hug one another.”

NFL

--Patrick Mahomes is going to sign the richest deal in NFL history, a reported 10-year extension worth $477 million (potentially as high as $503 million) with a $140 million injury guarantee.  CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora reports Mahomes’ 10-year extension will be guided by a mechanism that ensures the quarterback’s annual salary never drops below certain cap thresholds.

The 10th overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, Mahomes was entering the final year on his original four-year, $16.4 million rookie contract.  The Chiefs then predictably picked up his fifth-year option in April, keeping him under contract for the next two seasons, for which he was owed $27.6 million - $2.8 million this year and $24.8 million in 2021.  All told he will earn $530.6 million over the next 12 seasons, running through 2031, at which point he’d still just be 36.

The highest-paid quarterbacks currently are Russell Wilson at an annual salary of $35 million, $34 million for Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers and Jared Goff at $33.5 million.

Mahomes is 24-7-0 in his 31 starts, 76 touchdown passes, 18 interceptions, with a 13-2 split in five playoff games and a Super Bowl triumph.

The contract surpasses the 12-year, $426.5 million deal Mike Trout signed with the Los Angeles Angels in 2019 as the most expensive contract in sports, though all of Trout’s deal is guaranteed.

Trump and NASCAR

For some incredibly stupid reason, President Trump decided to go off on NASCAR and driver Bubba Wallace on Monday, saying Wallace should apologize to those who stood beside him after his racing team discovered a noose in his garage stall at Talladega Superspeedway on June 21, describing the incident as a “hoax.”  Trump then added an assertion that the Wallace incident and NASCAR’s ban on the Confederate flag at its races have led to historically low television ratings.

After investigating the noose, the FBI announced on June 23 that no hate crime had been committed because the rope had been in that particular garage since October.

Wallace then told CNN he was angered that some were questioning his integrity and comparing him to Jussie Smollett, but Wallace neither saw the rope in the garage nor was the person who reported it to NASCAR officials.

Wallace added: “It was a noose. Whether tied in 2019 or whatever, it was a noose.  So it wasn’t directed at me, but somebody tied a noose. That’s what I’m saying.”

NASCAR investigated all of the garages at the tracks it uses on the Cup circuit, something like 29, and the garage at Talladega was the only one that had a noose as a pull-down rope.

Wallace then tweeted an indirect response to Trump on Monday afternoon, addressing his message “To the next generation and little ones following my foot steps.”

“You will always have people testing you. Seeing if they can knock you off your pedestal,” the driver wrote.  “I encourage you to keep your head held high and walk proudly on the path you have chosen….

“Always deal with the hate being thrown at you with LOVE!  Love over hate every day. Love should come naturally as people are TAUGHT to hate.  Even when it’s HATE from the POTUS.”

NASCAR driver Tyler Reddick took issue with Trump’s tweet, replying with a tweet of his own that read, “We did what was right and we will do just fine without your support.” But then Reddick deleted it, which he shouldn’t have.

Sen. Lindsey Graham also took issue with Trump’s claim that Wallace should apologize.

“I don’t think Bubba Wallace has anything to apologize for,” Graham said on Fox News Radio.  “You saw the best in NASCAR. They all rallied to Bubba’s side. I would be looking to celebrate that kind of attitude rather than being worried it’s a hoax.”

Ed Hardin / Greensboro Record

“The president is wrong.

“In a misguided tweet directed at NASCAR and its only Black driver, Donald Trump has stepped into a minefield of emotions in a sport that has done more for bringing its people together than any other.

“A sport with the worst history on race relations has been a guiding light for all sports since its return from a 10-week delay during the Covid-19 outbreak.  NASCAR has shown compassion in the face of angry fans, leading the entire nation in a process of removing reminders of the past and coming together to support Bubba Wallace.

“And then the president started tweeting.

“NASCAR has had a good run of races since its return, bringing in more first-time fans than any time in recent memory.  And it’s done it against a backdrop of social unrest.

“Whether ratings are up or down in a sport that has suffered declining numbers for years is difficult to assess in a year that has featured a two-month interruption, races rescheduled for weeknights away from their normal calendar slots and numerous weather delays.

“Still, for the sitting president to insert himself into a group of people trying to reconcile with their past, and to mock it and demean it, is just wrong-headed….

“There was no hoax.  A noose hung in the garage stall assigned to Richard Petty Motorsports. Wallace never saw it…

“NASCAR has a troubled past, but it has truly begun to come to terms with it and do the right thing.

“Some people simply have no understanding of what’s right and wrong.

“The president is wrong.  He’s the one who should apologize.”

[Phil W., who knows Ed Hardin well, told me his grandmother was a neighbor of Richard Petty’s so Hardin grew up knowing The King as a little kid.]

--NASCAR’s problem in reopening has been single-fold…the weather.  One delay after another which hurts ratings, though Sunday’s telecast at the Brickyard received very strong numbers, contrary to President Trump’s tweet, and Fox’s coverage segment of the schedule was up 8% over last year.

So Sunday’s race concluded after I had posted and once again it was Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin dueling it out.  The two traded victories and runner-up finishes at Pocono in the doubleheader there last week and it seemed we’d have a repeat at Indy, but with seven laps to go and Hamlin leading, he went careening into the first turn wall with a flat right front-side tire and Harvick then held off Matt Kenseth in the final restart to win his second straight Brickyard.

It was win No. 53 lifetime for Harvick, moving him to within one of tying Lee Petty for 11th on the all-time list.

Both Hamlin and Harvick now have four wins on the season,

Justin Allgaier, subbing for Jimmie Johnson who had to watch from home after testing positive for Covid-19, didn’t stick around as he was involved in a six-car pileup near the entrance to pit road on Lap 16 as one of Ryan Blaney’s crew members was pinned between two cars.  The victim was put on a stretcher and transported to a nearby hospital, condition unknown.

Golf Balls

--For those of us who study the Covid #s across the country, holding The Memorial golf tournament at Muirfield in Dublin, Ohio in two weeks with fans seemed like an impossibility given Ohio’s rising case figures and sure enough, Monday, the PGA Tour and tournament organizers announced they were scrapping plans to allow as many as 8,000 fans per day at the event. 

“While we embraced the opportunity to be the first PGA Tour event to welcome the return of on-site fans – and be a part of our nation’s collective re-emergence from the Covid-19 crisis, we recognize the current increase in positive Covid-19 cases across the country, and our ultimate responsibility,” Dan Sullivan, the tournament’s executive director, said in a statement.

Jay Monahan, the tour commissioner, referred to “the broader challenges communities are facing” and said the focus was now on “the health and safety of all involved.”

--So this coming week the tour is also at Muirfield Village Golf Club, the first of two consecutive at the home club of Jack Nicklaus in suburban Columbus after the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Ill., announced it would not be held because of coronavirus-related restrictions in Illinois.

For now, the challenge for the tour is to try to make both events look and feel different.  Eleven of the top 20 players in the world are playing this week in what is the inaugural Workday Charity Open.

Still no Tiger.  He is expected at Muirfield the following week.

--After I posted last Sunday following the conclusion of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, some stories emerged concerning the winner, Bryson DeChambeau.

DeChambeau’s career is off to a “brilliant” start, in his mind, and in the minds of most golf fans, but as Mike Purkey of Morning Read writes he has a lot to learn:

“(As) brilliant as DeChambeau is in understanding the mathematics of his golf swing, his education as a professional golfer barely has begun.

“DeChambeau’s stay-at-home experiment while the PGA Tour was shut down is now a qualified success, at least in his eyes, which to him is all that counts. He pounded Detroit Golf Club into submission and turned a Donald Ross classic into a drive-and-pitch, in the process winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic at 23 under par by three over fellow disruptor Matthew Wolff.  It was DeChambeau’s sixth career victory on Tour in four years.

“ ‘I wanted people to see a different playing style,’ he said afterward….

“(But) at the seventh hole on Saturday in the third round…DeChambeau hit a poor shot out of a greenside bunker, slammed his wedge into the sand and uttered a profanity when he missed the birdie putt on the par 5. The camera operator trained his lens on DeChambeau for every move.  After finishing the hole and on his way to the eighth tee, DeChambeau had a ‘testy discussion’ with the camera operator for a good 60 seconds, according to Golf Channel, complaining that the cameraman recorded his tantrum, which DeChambeau contended was egregious and out of bounds.

“DeChambeau’s reaction to the bad shot is entirely understandable.  It happens to the best and worst players.  However, his reaction to the cameraman was immature, at best, and petulant, at worst.’

“ ‘He was literally watching me the whole entire way up after getting out of the bunker, walking up next to the green. And I just was like, ‘Sir, what is the need to watch me that long?’’ DeChambeau said.  ‘I mean, I understand it’s his job to video me, but at the same point, I think we need to start protecting our players out here compared to showing a potential vulnerability and hurting someone’s image. I just don’t think that’s necessarily the right thing to do.’

“Simply put, the camera operator was doing his job, which was to record DeChambeau’s every move while playing a shot and – this should be emphasized – his reaction afterward.  Top athletes assume from the very first time they compete in a televised event that everything they do on the field, court or golf course will be recorded on someone’s camera.

“Apparently, this is a fact of life for a PGA Tour star that has yet to be explained to DeChambeau.  Yes, he’s only 26, but he’s been on Tour long enough that he should be well-versed in the fishbowl nature of playing this game for millions of dollars each week.

“Either he’s been told that it’s someone else’s responsibility to protect and enhance his image or he just sort of made it up.

“ ‘As much as we’re out here performing, I think it’s necessary that we have our times of privacy as well when things aren’t going our way.  I mean, we’re in the spotlight, but if somebody else is in the spotlight they wouldn’t want that, either,’ DeChambeau said.  ‘I feel like when you’re videoing someone and you catch Tiger [Woods] at a bad time, you show him accidentally doing something, or someone else, they’re just frustrated because they really care about the game.  It could really hurt them if they catch you at a potentially vulnerable time.’….

“DeChambeau should talk to Woods about privacy, which happens to be the name of his yacht.  Woods knows that from the time he leaves his house or hotel room, cameras are on him. It would be fun to know how many times Woods has been fined by the PGA Tour for swearing on golf telecasts.  But he wisely accepts it without public complaint.

“DeChambeau is either misguided or delusional to think that fame comes without a price.  It’s the cost of doing business on Tour.  If he can’t accept it or at least become insensitive to it, he should find another way to make a living.”

Eamon Lynch / Golfworld…written prior to the final round…

“It’s one of life’s more reliable axioms that if a man has to tell you he’s a good dude, there’s a fair chance he is actually an insufferable gobshite [Ed. Irish slang].

“During Saturday’s third round…DeChambeau – who prides himself on seeing things the rest of us simply cannot grasp – took issue with a camera operator for, well, operating a camera.  On the 7th hole, the surly pseudoscientist hit a mediocre greenside bunker shot and angrily threw his club – manufactured by Cobra and available from all good stockists – into the sand.  After marking his ball – brought to you by Bridgestone – he had a testy exchange with the camera operator who captured this, before storming to the 8th tee in a pair of stylish Puma shoes.”

[Lynch then repeats Mike Purkey’s account of DeChambeau’s explanation after.]

“Credit DeChambeau’s optimism in thinking that being shown acting like a jerk would hurt his image rather than merely solidify it.

“The world No. 10 – a ranking he has reached thanks in part to his Flight Scope – was sufficiently upset to keep talking after the round without bothering to note the hour on his Rolex timepiece.  ‘For that to damage our brand like that, that’s not cool in the way we act because if you actually meet me in person, I’m not too bad of a dude, I don’t think,’ he said.

“Seldom has the qualifier ‘too’ been so freighted.

“It was all so stressful that I’m sure Bryson could have knocked back a couple of cocktails – Grey Goose only, mind you – but the Bentley was probably purring outside the locker room.

“Having cameras follow him is something DeChambeau appreciates.  Just a few weeks ago, he posted to Instagram an intimate, 15-minute movie in which a camera caressed him as he ambled from his bedroom to breakfast, lingered over his form during workouts, and gazed adoringly at him as he cruised the neighborhood in his convertible.  It was a love letter to himself, part Narcissus, part-Pee-wee Herman, set in a hall of mirrors.

“DeChambeau paid for the cameras in his home, but not those at Detroit Golf Club.  But he seems to believe any lens has the same function: to celebrate his brand of data-crunching and protein-shaking, to showcase his prodigious distance but never his astonishingly shallow depth.  In short, to help him sling product.  And you, dear viewer?  Well, you’re just the mark.  That’s what his comments Saturday told you.

“In the first month since the PGA Tour resumed action, DeChambeau has sucked up more oxygen than a Trumper at Thanksgiving dinner.  Is it earned?  Who cares.  He provides fodder for fans who were starved of sport for three months, giving them license to cheer or jeer. And he is single-handedly hastening the day when untrammeled equipment advances will finally be reined in.  For that alone, he deserves gratitude.

“But every week is more of the same – showboating and gimmickry, punctuated with the slammed trunk (of a Bentley) as he leaves venues empty-handed. Trophies will likely come soon thanks to his fine play – that too will be good for the game, and also give him something else to enjoy his reflection in. But a touch of class will be harder won.”

Yes, I said last time of Bryson, which I regret, “I’m not a fan…but that doesn’t mean I can’t become one.  I want the best at the top of leaderboards to fuel interest…”

Well, I don’t like the guy. Never have.  I shouldn’t have written the above as I did.

Dr. W. gave me the name of “Bison” DeChambeau, which he got via Mike Golic and Trey Wingo (“Golic and Wingo” now history, unfortunately, which has nothing to do with this story), but I have my own new name for Bryson.  Dick Chambeau.

Now since I have new readers all the time, thankfully, to replace those who leave in disgust and with nasty notes, I can’t begin golf stories with “Dick Chambeau started the fourth round one shot back,” at least for now, because not everyone will understand what I’m saying, but we’ll see how Bryson acts over the coming weeks.

Stuff

--Bob Baffert has a problem.  A pretty big one.  Second samples from two horses trained by the legend confirmed the presence of a prohibited substance after they ran in the Arkansas Derby and an allowance race on May 2 at Oaklawn Park.

Charlatan, winner of one division of the Arkansas Derby, and Gamine, an undefeated filly who subsequently won the Acorn Stakes at Belmont, had samples retested by an independent laboratory and the results showed the presence of lidocaine, an anesthetic.  The sample results were first reported by the New York Times.

Baffert, through his attorney, issued a statement saying that they plan to defend their case before the Arkansas Racing Commission, which would first need to schedule a hearing.  Baffert was not in Arkansas when the horses ran but is still responsible for their condition.

Baffert could be suspended for up to 60 days and receive a fine of up to $1,000.  As a first offense, it’s unclear whether the maximum penalty of 60 days would be applied.  The suspension would carry over to all other states.  Others connected to the horses, including owners, would have to give up their shares of the purse.

But it would have no effect on the horse’s ability to race, though Charlatan suffered an injury and will not be available for the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5.  Gamine is expected to run in the Kentucky Oaks on Sept. 4.

According to the statement from Baffert’s attorney, a longtime assistant, Jimmy Barnes, who saddled the horses in Arkansas, broke his pelvis in 2017 and wears a patch on his back that contains lidocaine for his back pain.

“It is believed that lidocaine from that patch was innocently transferred from the employee’s hands to the horses through the application of tongue ties by the employee (who) was handling both horses leading up to May 2,” the statement said.

It also said that the amounts on Charlatan and Gamine would not have acted as a performance enhancer.

No date for a hearing has been announced.  [John Cherwa / Los Angeles Times]

--The aforementioned Dr. W., who previously brought me the Bunny Ebola story, reminded me that it’s not just wiping out the domestic rabbit market, but of course the wild population of rabbits and hares.  “Thus, if it continues to spread a lot of prey will go missing in the carnivore food chain.  In the Southwest U.S., that might mean that coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats and foxes have to expand their ‘game’ plan to include more chickens, chihuahuas (and other small dogs), Fluffy, the cat, and maybe even small children.”

Just another reason to stay inside, which means economic activity will not rebound to the extent the stock market is currently reflecting.

And time for rabbits to Mask Up! Granted, this isn’t going to be that simple, especially for those rabbits who don’t understand English…or can’t read.

--Back when I was at Wake Forest in the late 1970s, I was introduced to Southern Rock, really knowing only the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd in any great detail.  But at Wake in those days, the Charlie Daniels and Marshall Tucker Bands were big and I generally was more a fan of the latter than the former, though the two had very similar sounds.

Well, the legendary Charlie Daniels died on Monday in Nashville, age 83, his publicist saying the cause was a hemorrhagic stroke.

Daniels made his first mark as a session musician in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, playing guitar, bass, fiddle and banjo on Nashville recordings by Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr and Leonard Cohen.  He also produced albums for the Youngbloods.

But then he became the leader of the Charlie Daniels Band (CDB), a country-rock ensemble that hosted the Volunteer Jam, a big Southern music festival, established in 1974, that featured Roy Acuff, Stevie Ray Vaughn, James Brown and the Marshall Tucker Band.

Daniels’ band was modeled after the Allman Brothers, using dual lead guitarists and dual drummers in an improvisational sound that included elements of country, blues, bluegrass, rock and Western swing.

CDB was known for its outspoken countercultural bent, much of it written by Daniels.

“I ain’t askin’ nobody for nothin’ / If I can’t get it on my own,” Daniels asserted in a gruff drawl on the chorus of “Long Haired Country Boy” (1975), which unabashedly extolled the virtues of free speech and marijuana.  “If you don’t like the way I’m livin’ / You just leave this long haired country boy alone.”

Daniels had his first pop hit in 1973 with the #9 “Uneasy Rider,” then followed it up with “The South’s Gonna Do It” (#29) and his big smash hit, “The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” which peaked at #3 in 1979.  Actually, this one was my least favorite, even as it won a Grammy for best country-vocal performance by a group.

My favorite was “Carolina,” a rollicking celebration of….CAROLINA!  Actually, this is “Carolina” off “High Lonesome.”  CDB had a number of songs with Carolina in the title.

As the ‘70s turned into the ‘80s, Daniels’ politics increasingly became right-wing and his songs were played at many a conservative gathering, such as the Top 20 pop hit “In America,” written in response to the Iran hostage crisis of 1980.

In 1993 he wrote a book titled “Ain’t No Rag: Freedom, Family and the Flag.”  In 2003 he published “An Open Letter to the Hollywood Bunch” in defense of President George W. Bush’s Iraq policy.

“You people need to get out of Hollywood once in a while and get out into the real world,” he wrote.  “You’d be surprised at the hostility you would find out here. Stop in at a truck stop and tell an overworked, long distance truck driver that you don’t think Saddam Hussein is doing anything wrong.”

Charles Edward Daniels was born on Oct. 28, 1936, in Wilmington, N.C.  His mother was a homemaker, his father a lumberjack who played fiddle and guitar. Young Charlie followed suit, playing both while forming a group, the Jaguars, in the late 1950s.

Eventually, the Jaguars disbanded and Daniels moved to Nashville, where he made a career as one of the leading session musicians.

Among his many awards was his joining the cast of the Grand Ole Opry in 2008, and his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016.

--And we note the passing of Ennio Morricone, the Italian composer whose credits include the spaghetti Westerns that made Clint Eastwood a star.  He died in Rome at the age of 91. The cause was complications from a fall he suffered several days earlier.

The prolific Morricone also wrote music for “Once Upon a Time in America,” “The Untouchables,” and “Cinema Paradiso.”

In 2007 he received an honorary Oscar, and then in 2016 won one for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.”

In all, Morricone scored more than 500 films over seven decades.

But he is best known for the haunting melodies he wrote for the trilogy of 1960s westerns Sergio Leone made with the then little-known Eastwood.

“A Fistful of Dollars,” “For a Few Dollars More” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” centered around Eastwood’s taciturn gunslinger, “The Man With No Name.”

Leone described Morricone’s contributions as “indispensable” and would have him write the score before shooting so he could design his shots around Morricone’s contributions.

When Eastwood went on to direct his own westerns, including the Oscar-winning “Unforgiven,” Morricone did not write the music out of loyalty to Leone.  He later told the BBC he regretted this decision, having missed out on “a great opportunity.”

Now I just want to watch one of the trilogy, for like the fifteenth time.  I firmly believe “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” is one of the most underrated films of all time. 

--Ringo Starr, born July 7, 1940, in Liverpool, turned 80 today.  Like Sir Paul, Ringo has aged gracefully.  He did pretty good for a guy who initially wasn’t given a lot of credit for his role in the Fab Four’s success.

Top 3 songs for the week 7/6/74: #1 “Rock The Boat” (The Hues Corporation)  #2 “Sundown” (Gordon Lightfoot)  #3 “Billy Don’t Be A Hero” (Bo Daldson & The Heywoods)…and…#4 “Rock Your Baby” (George McCrae)  #5 “If You Love Me” (Olivia Newton-John)  #6 “Hollywood Swinging” (Kool & The Gang)  #7 “You Make Me Feel Brand New” (The Stylistics)  #8 “Annie’s Song” (John Denver)  #9 “You Won’t See Me” (Anne Murray)  #10 “On And On” (Gladys Knight & The Pips…bleh week….)

Track and Field Quiz Answer: The first fully electronic time under 10 seconds in the 100 meters was run by Jim (Jimmy) Hines, set at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Oct. 14, 1968, 9.95.  It took 15 years for Calvin Smith to best the mark.

Usain Bolt holds the world record at 9.58, set in 2009 in Berlin.  Bolt ran a 9.69 at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and memorably slowed down before the finish.  Most say he should have run under 9.55 that day.

I can’t believe that’s already 12 years ago! Where the heck did the time go?!  [And then the depression set in…]

Meanwhile, Jimmy Hines was a sixth-round 1968 NFL draft pick by Miami and he ended up being one of the worst football players of all time, earning the nickname “Oops.”  Two career receptions for 23 yards.

Next Bar Chat, Monday.

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