---

Bar Chat

02/02/2015

New England 28 Seattle 24

Baseball Quiz: Yup, football is over...time for pitchers and catchers. So to get back in the swing of things, name the top ten all time in home runs. It’s not really as easy as it first sounds. Answer below.

The Game

Prior to the contest, a Public Policy Polling survey of 612 voters had the country pulling for Seattle by a 36-29 margin in percentage. They were also adamant Belichick and the Patriots cheated. 41% of respondents believe New England intentionally deflated footballs in the AFC title game. Just 27% bought into the Pats’ claims of innocence, while 32% had no opinion.

Belichick’s favorability rating plummeted to 21%, while 34% view him unfavorably. Tom Brady is viewed favorably by 37%, unfavorably by 25%.

The Patriots had a favorability rating of 30%, unfavorable 38%.

Seattle had a 45% favorable, 20% unfavorable. [Kevin Clark / Wall Street Journal]

So then they played the game....and for a 14-14 halftime contest, I thought it was most boring, though all the points were scored after a 0-0 first quarter. And I do have to hand it to both Tom Brady and Russell Wilson for their respective 80-yard scoring drives in the last two+ minutes.

And, yes, we all wondered who the heck was Seattle wide receiver Chris Matthews! Zero catches on the season, but four for 109 yards and a touchdown today.

But then it was 24-14 Seattle after three, only to have New England narrow it to 24-21 on a Brady to Amendola pass with 7:55 left in the fourth.

Then it was Brady to Julian Edelman from the 3 to take the lead, 28-24, at essentially the two-minute mark. Game over, some thought.

But Russell Wilson takes Seattle back down and we have a miraculous, David Tyree-like catch at the five by Jermaine Kearse. Marshawn Lynch runs it to the one. And then Seattle tries a pass play instead of handing it off to Lynch at least two more times.

Malcolm Butler, victimized on the freak Kearse catch at the five, intercepts Wilson’s inexplicable throw at the goal line.

Brady and Belichick get their fourth Super Bowl. Brady ties Montana and Bradshaw. More next chat, including what the heck was Pete Carroll thinking?!

As for Katy Perry’s halftime show...I have liked most of these in the modern era. But this one was a huge miss, and I like her. I also like Lenny Kravitz and he got like 45 seconds of air time. Why advertise him then?! So I give the show a big ‘C’.

Among the commercials....

And Liam Neeson’s Sprint commercial.

Pierce Brosnan’s KIA ad... “Can I keep the car? I’m in.” [Very good.]

The Carnival Cruise Lines spot with JFK’s voice was terrific, but there isn’t a single young person, like under 35, who probably recognized it, which is very sad.

Kate Upton was strong.

Loved the TurboTax spot.

Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric worked well.

DeflateGate and Roger Goodell

In his annual “State of the League” news conference, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said no judgments had been made regarding Deflategate.

“We don’t know enough in this case to know who is responsible or if there was an infraction.”

“It’s been a tough year. It’s been a tough year on me personally. It’s been a year of what I would say is humility and learning.”

Goodell was later criticized for his treatment of CNN’s Rachel Nichols, with some saying if she were a male reporter Goodell would have responded differently.

Nichols suggested the image of the NFL has suffered, in part, because of conflicts of interest concerning outside consultants who investigate alleged wrongdoing.

“When you do something like hire an outside investigator like Ted Wells into the Patriots investigation, you’re still paying him and Robert Kraft who owns the Patriots is paying you,” she said. “What steps can you guys take in the future to mitigate some of those conflict-of-interest issues?”

I was listening in my car during the question, which is a good one, thus I didn’t see that Goodell was apparently visibly irritated as Nichols asked it.

“Well, Rachel, I don’t agree with you in a lot of the assumptions you make in your question. I think we have had people who have had uncompromising integrity,” Goodell said. “I think we have done an excellent job of bringing outside consultants in.”

Then Goodell said, “Somebody has to pay [the investigators], Rachel. So unless you’re volunteering, which I don’t think you are, we will do that.”

“NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell behaves like a man who believes, with the wave of his hand and the sound of his dismissive voice, he can create his own convenient reality. He acts like he expects everyone else will see what he wants them to see, even in the face of immediate evidence to the contrary. His actions violate the spirit of his talking points and buzzwords, sometimes moments after he says them.

“Goodell will tell you how much this year humbled him, and then he will disdainfully deflect a perfectly legitimately question about the NFL’s conflict of interest in regard to its investigations. Goodell will tell you how much he seeks input from players, and then he will trumpet the success of ‘Thursday Night Football,’ which is one of their biggest complaints. Goodell will tell you he makes himself available to the media ‘almost’ every day, and then a roomful of reporters will exchange confused glances....

“Goodell will need years to prove he can fix the damage caused over the past year, but he had a chance Friday afternoon to at least show he had changed. As he tried to tell you he had, the reality became clear.”

“So Roger Goodell stood in front of hundreds of reporters and was asked dozens of questions, about the Deflategate scandal, about the league’s inconsistent enforcement of its rules, and yes, about his own poor job performance. 

“And, as he answered them all in full robot mode for about 30 minutes just two days before Super Bowl XLIX, you couldn’t help but think that most of America had just one question for the guy:

“This, really, is the lasting lesson from 2015. No one person, not even a commissioner who bungled through the biggest crises that he faced on the job during a lousy year, can stop the NFL Machine.”

“There are larger issues. It’s possible the NFL has singled out the Patriots for scrutiny regarding football deflation and who knows what else because Belichick is imperious and grouchy and has cheated previously. It’s also possible that a large swath of the football-crazed public wonders how many times the Patriots have bent the rules and not been caught.

“So here stood Belichick last weekend at the same lectern where two days earlier he had denied any prior knowledge of deflated footballs. The coach, who commonly – but not always – works tirelessly to say nothing, talked endlessly about air pressure and the preparation of footballs. About Deflategate, Belichick said, ‘We try to do everything right. We err on the side of caution. It’s been that way for many years now.’

“Eight days before the Super Bowl, he sounded like a man who was trying to reshape his legacy. Or a coach trying to kill a distraction in order to win the Super Bowl. The second will be easier than the first.”

Linebacker Junior Seau, guard Will Shields, running back Jerome Bettis, wide receiver Tim Brown, defensive end Charles Haley, center Mick Tingelhoff, general manager Bill Polian and longtime NFL executive Ron Wolf.

Seau committed suicide in 2012 and was later found to have developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

--J.J. Watt was a unanimous selection as the Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year for 2014; first in all ballots from 50 members of the football media. He is the first unanimous choice for an AP award since Tom Brady won MVP in 2007.

Watt had 20.5 sacks, 78 tackles – 29 for losses, four forced fumbles and 10 blocked passes. [Plus three touchdown receptions.]

I didn’t realize he is the first with multiple 20-sack seasons, having had 20.5 in 2012, when he was the top defensive player too.

--But Watt finished second in the AP NFL Most Valuable Player voting behind quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers took the honor in 2011 as well. Rodgers received 31 votes to Watt’s 13

---Dallas running back DeMarco Murray took the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year award, rushing for 1,845 yards – nearly 500 more than any other player. He received 26 of 50 votes, Rodgers receiving 15.

--Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. took the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award with 42 of 50 votes.

--St. Louis Rams tackle Aaron Donald won the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year honor. Donald, out of Pittsburgh, drew 25 votes, seven more than Baltimore linebacker C.J. Mosley.

--Bruce Arians was AP Coach of the Year, his second time in three seasons (the other with Indianapolis), as he guided Arizona to an 11-5 record despite losing their top two quarterbacks to injuries. The defensive coordinator for the Cardinals, Todd Bowles, now head coach of the Jets, was named AP Assistant Coach of the Year.

--The NFL has been investigating the Atlanta Falcons for use of artificial crowd noise in the Georgia Dome over the past two seasons. Oh brother.

--In the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 37% of Americans would encourage their children not to play football, in line with the 40% who said the same thing in a survey before last year’s Super Bowl.

“Half of those surveyed who have post-graduate degrees said they would encourage their children to play a sport other than football, down from 57% in January 2014. Among people who didn’t graduate from college, 31% said they would be opposed to their kids donning helmets and pads.” [Wall Street Journal]

“If there’s a secret to how four buddies managed to beat the house 76 percent of the time during the NFL’s regular season to win a record-setting $736,575, they aren’t giving it up.

“The four sports bettors from Los Angeles and Boston achieved a feat that was unheard of in the annual Super Contest at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. Contestants and organizers have likened the betting tradition to the World Series of Poker before that card contest caught fire....

“For each of the regular season’s 17 weeks, contestants pick the team to beat the sports book’s point spread in five different games. When the regular season ended Dec. 28, the foursome that called itself the CH Ballers was the clear victor, picking correctly in 64 out of 85 games.”

1,403 teams and individuals paid $1,500 to take part. The CH, by the way, stands for Campbell Hall High School in Los Angeles. 

College Basketball

No. 4 Duke lost at No. 8 Notre Dame 77-73 as the Fighting Irish’s Jerian Grant had 23 points, 12 assists and 6 rebounds while the team shot 51.8% from the field. Jahlil Okafor had 22 points and 17 rebounds for Duke but he hit only 2 of 7 from the foul line, with the Blue Devils as a team going just 10 of 20 from the charity stripe

No. 24 Oklahoma blitzed Texas Tech 81-36 after Tech had upset No. 9 Iowa State.

Wake Forest suffered another devastating defeat, 82-76 in overtime to Florida State.

I watched the first half of Richmond at No. 14 VCU, with the Rams in control, 28-22, and then I was watching something else and look up to see Richmond (12-9, 5-3) pulled off a big upset, 64-55, dropping VCU to 17-4, 7-1 in the A 10.

But VCU also lost their leader, guard Briante Weber to a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus in the closing minutes; Weber’s career over as he was just 12 steals away from becoming the career D-I leader in the category. Just a horrible loss for the team.

I watched the first half of No. 13 North Carolina at No. 10 Louisville and Carolina was in control of that one, 36-25, but then I had to go to an event in town and missed Louisville’s turnaround and eventual 78-68 triumph in overtime, overcoming an 18-point second-half deficit in the process. What a super win for the Cardinals (18-3, 6-2), who were led by lottery pick Montrezl Harrell’s 22 points and 15 rebounds. Carolina drops to 17-5, 7-2.

So being at the event (a pleasant one...a retirement party for a friend of mine...I had some domestic in case you were wondering...) I also missed No. 4 Duke at No.2 Virginia, with the Blue Devils (18-3, 5-3) coming back from their Notre Dame defeat to hand Virginia (19-1, 7-1) its first loss, 69-63.

[Earlier, Duke dismissed junior guard Rasheed Sulaimon from the program in a stunning move, especially since it was the first time Coach K. had ever done this. In a release, Krzyzewski said: “Rasheed has been unable to consistently live up to the standards required to be a member of our program. It is a privilege to represent Duke University and with that privilege comes the responsibility to conduct oneself in a certain manner. After Rasheed repeatedly struggled to meet the necessary obligations, it became apparent that it was time to dismiss him from the program.”]

Speaking of Notre Dame, earlier Saturday they were stunned by Pitt (14-8, 4-5) in Pittsburgh, 76-72, dropping the Fighting Irish to 20-3, 8-2.

Something big happened for Seton Hall in their 90-82 win over Xavier. It marked the return of freshman standout Isaiah Whitehead from injury and he immediately chipped in 19 points. While the Pirates are now just 15-6, 5-4, Whitehead’s return ensures they’ll be going to the Big Dance...at least so says your editor, and coupled with Sterling Gibbs they could produce some outstanding backcourt play that is always a key come March Madness.

No. 18 Northern Iowa (20-2, 9-1) handed No. 12 Wichita State (19-3, 9-1) its first Missouri Valley Conference loss, 70-54.

My San Diego State Aztecs moved to 17-5, 7-2, with a 62-42 win over Utah State at Viejas Arena, holding the opponents to just 29.2% shooting from the field in the process. Once again, SDSU should be sniffing the Top 25 when the latest AP rankings come out Monday afternoon.

And, finally, my alma mater, Wake Forest, picked up its second ACC win of the season, 73-70 over Virginia Tech (9-12, 1-7). The Demon Deacons are now 10-12, 2-7. Somehow we have to find a way to finish 6-12 in conference play, which would salvage some positive feelings for Danny Manning’s first year and hopefully ensure our supposedly strong recruiting class actually shows up in the fall.

It seems it was about Sulaimon’s body language when things didn’t go his way and for not supporting his teammates while he was on the bench. After starting 50 games his first two seasons, he became a reserve and averaged 7.5 points per game.

[Seth Davis reported that Sulaimon had been tossed from practice a few times this season.]

--Finally, a shout out to Alex Poole, daughter of a good friend, for scoring 23 points the other day on 10 of 12 shooting from the floor for her Needham, Mass., school. She is gearing up for her AAU team, the New England Crusaders, who begin play in a month or so.

--On Wednesday, Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving had 55 points (11 of 19 from downtown) in a 99-94 win over the Trail Blazers, the Cavs playing without LeBron.

--Friday, the Atlanta Hawks continued their stupendous play in defeating Portland (32-15) 105-99 for their 18th straight win to go to 39-8. Imagine, at one point they were 7-6. 32-2 since! 32-2!!! Without the requisite superstar on the roster, or so we’re told.

With the streak at 18, they became the fifth to win at least 18 in a row before the All-Star break and 3 of the previous 4 won the NBA Championship.

1971-72 Lakers...33 straight
1995-96 Bulls...18
1969-70 Knicks...18

The 2008-09 Celtics, who won 19 straight before the break, are the exception. [Elias / ESPN]

Well, Atlanta made it 19 in a row, 33 of 35, to go to 40-8 overall with a 91-85 win on Saturday over the Sixers, who are now 10-38. [On Friday, in a titanic NBA Draft Lottery Pick Contest, Philadelphia defeated Minnesota (8-38).]

Speaking of the lottery, thru Sunday....

T’Wolves 8-39
Sixers 10-38
Knick 10-38...after defeating the 13-35 Lakers 92-80 on Sunday. Why? Carmelo Anthony, he of the supposed serious knee injury, played and had 31 points and 8 rebounds. What the [blank] is this about? Melo keeps saying he probably needs surgery, but then after sitting a few games, he plays and does OK. We’re tired of this [blank].

--And I can’t help but note the efforts of Brooklyn’s Jarrett Jack in a losing effort on Friday. The now-irrelevant Nets lost to Toronto 127-122 in overtime with Jack playing 52:13 of the 53 minutes, scoring 35 points, dishing out 13 assists and grabbing 8 rebounds while turning the ball over just twice out of the point guard position. Always liked this guy and said it was a good pickup when the Nets acquired him. Alas, the Nets have had injuries but also just aren’t playing well for new coach Lionel Hollins, who probably doesn’t last the season.

--Big blow for the Pistons as they lose point guard Brandon Jennings to a ruptured Achilles’ tendon in a loss to his former team, Milwaukee. Prior to this one, Detroit was 12-3 since waiving Josh Smith, with coach Stan Van Gundy giving Jennings more freedom to run the team. Jennings had responded with the best overall play of his career – 20 points, 7.2 assists, and 40 percent from three-point range.

--Houston may be without the services of Dwight Howard for a month due to knee issues.

--Klay Thompson, Chicago’s Jimmy Butler and Jeff Teague made the NBA All-Star team for the first time. Teague’s teammates, Al Horford and Paul Millsap, will be with him in New York

--It was distressing to see that Tim Duncan was a victim of fraud, another player sucked in by Atlanta-based financial adviser Charlie Banks. Duncan sued in Texas state court, claiming he was pushed into investments despite conflicts of interest that ultimately caused him “substantial loss,” as reported by Bloomberg.

In a statement, Duncan said in part that he had been assured over the course of 17 years that he was investing in a series of opportunities with Banks where “we were working together for my family’s long-term financial security. Banks exploited my good intentions and our relationship for his personal gain and my substantial loss. I’m saddened that my name will join the list of athletes to fall victim to this sort of misconduct.”

Banks met Duncan in his rookie year in 1998 and the two invested several million dollars in hotel, beauty products, sports merchandising and wineries that Banks owned or had financial stakes in. Duncan has accused Banks of defrauding him through a $7.5 million loan to Gameday, a company Banks controlled, “which subsequently obtained a $6 million bank loan with what Duncan alleged was his forged signature, the complaint stated.” [Scott Soshnick / Bloomberg]

Australian Open

Serena Williams won her 19th Grand Slam title and extended her total domination of Maria Sharapova in taking the Russian out, 6-3, 7-6 (5) on Saturday night, thus becoming at 33 the oldest winner of the Australian women’s title in the Open era. Serena is also now outright second to Steffi Graf’s 22 majors. [Open era...Margaret Court has 24 but, no offense to Ms. Court, Steffi is really No. 1.] Serena has six Australian titles.

As for Sharapova, a five-time major winner (1-3 in Aussie Open finals) and the No. 2-ranked player to Serena’s No. 1, she has now lost 16 straight matches to Williams, Sharapova not winning a head-to-head meeting since 2004. [Maria has also now won just one set against Serena in their last 12 matches.]

On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic made it 5-for-5 in Australian Open finals, defeating Andy Murray, who conversely is 0-for-4, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-0. It started out as an epic match and then Novak rolled. It was Grand Slam title number eight overall.

Roy Emerson, with six, is the only other man with five or more Australian titles.

--Well, CBS didn’t exactly get the ratings boost it was expecting with the return of Tiger Woods to the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Heck, last Bar Chat I did pose the question, “Will he make the weekend?”

Friday he shot the worst round of his career, 82! He was in last place, heading home to Florida, rather than sticking around for the Super Bowl as was his original plan. His game needs just a little more work, it would seem.

There are so many stats. Friday was Tiger’s 1,267th official round as a pro. [Doug Ferguson / AP] He had never missed the cut in consecutive PGA Tour events, the most recent one in August at the PGA Championship. Woods has now missed the cut just 12 times on the PGA Tour (13 worldwide). He holds the record of consecutive cuts made on Tour, 142 from 1998 through 2005, a phenomenal achievement.

His 44 on the opening nine tied the worst nine-hole score of his career. The triple bogey on the par-5 15th was only his second recorded triple or worse on a par-5 since 2000. [The other was the flagstick-drop fiasco on the 15th at The Masters in 2013.]

At least Tiger showed a sense of humor after his round on Friday, appearing before the media and saying, “I’m just doing this so I don’t get fined,” repeating Marshawn Lynch’s only line at Super Bowl media day. Woods was smiling.

The thing is, while some of his play is understandable given he’s in the middle of yet another swing change, it’s the short game that has been killing him. He could not suck more.

“There were moments this week when it was hard not to think of Willie Mays stumbling around in center field in his final season with the Mets.”

“As his round (Friday) unraveled, the greeting he received at each tee box grew louder and more prolonged. Fans repeatedly shouted, ‘Keep your head up, Tiger!’ and ‘Keep fighting, Tiger!’ By the final holes, Woods was getting a reception fit for the Olympic bobsledders from Jamaica or the female sprinters from Iraq.

“Gone is the golfer whose mere presence on the leaderboard Sunday seemed to send other contenders into a free fall. In his place is someone who looked frightfully familiar to the 20-handicappers in the stands. As one weekend duffer in Woods’ gallery mournfully noted, ‘Watching him makes me feel more normal.’”

Paul Azinger:

“(Tiger) seems to me like he has been over-engineered a bit. He’s gone from artist to engineer and he’s taken the feel out of his game,” Azinger said in an ESPN interview. “We are talking about the most physically smart athlete (and) golfer that has ever lived, for sure.

“These chipping and pitching problems can be fixed in minutes. Not days, not hours, not weeks, but minutes. Somebody like Tiger Woods should be able to fix all his issues in literally minutes.”

Azinger, in noting Tiger’s comment that he was rusty, took this as a sign he didn’t know what was wrong with his game.

“He is as confused as he has ever been in his career,” Azinger said. “Byron Nelson used to say that there are two kinds of players: those that need to know a little and those that need to know it all. Tiger is in a mode that he thinks he has to know it all. Technically and physically I think he felt like he peaked, (and) he needed more information to get better.

“(But) in this quest to get better, he’s actually gotten worse. And now he’s confused.” [Nick Masuda / Golfweek]

--Oh, Brooks Koepka, 24 years old, won the Phoenix Open, his first on Tour; first of many, we all agree.

--Rory McIlroy cruised to a three-stroke victory over Alex Noren in the Dubai Desert Classic.

Now this is remarkable. In his last seven European Tour starts*, he has won four times and been runner-up the other three. [Alistair Tait / Golfweek]

*I double-checked this...it’s true, but it’s tricky in that it includes the U.S. PGA Championship.

So, as Mr. Tait writes, Rory could be headed for an even better year than last year, as much as that doesn’t seem possible.

--Here’s something I didn’t know until reading Sports Illustrated this week. With his win at the Humana Challenge last week, check out Bill Haas.

Most PGA Tour victories since the start of 2010:

Rory McIlroy 9
Tiger Woods 8
Bubba Watson 7
Bill Haas 6
Dustin Johnson 6
Justin Rose 6

By the way, I amateurs pay $29,000 to play at least 54 holes in the Humana and are paired with a different pro for each round (I thought they had the same guy all three). Only six ams qualify for Sunday.

--I may have more on this next time, but I just saw where an author by the name of Shane Ryan, who has been working on a book titled, Slaying the Tiger: A Year Inside the Ropes on the New PGA Tour, blasts Patrick Reed, describing him as “golf’s remorseless villain,” only concerned with winning, many times at all costs.

I printed out the book excerpt (the book is coming out supposedly in May), which you can find on tobaccoroadblues.com, and haven’t read it yet but Golfweek’s Nick Masuda said Ryan writes of an episode where during a qualifying round prior to a tournament, “Reed hit a ball far into the rough. When he approached the spot, he found another ball sitting closer to the fairway, and was preparing to hit it when several of his teammates confronted him. Reed pled ignorance, but the other Georgia players were convinced he had been caught red-handed trying to cheat. That same fall, several items went missing from the Georgia locker room, including a watch, a Scotty Cameron putter, and $400 cash. When Reed showed up the next day with a large wad of cash, a teammate confronted him and asked how he’d come by the money. Reed said he’d played golf with a professor at the school and hustled him out of the cash. The player in question took this claim to the professor, who had no idea what he was talking about – it had been weeks since the man had played with Reed.”

According to the excerpt, Reed did not directly answer questions about the allegations when confronted.

Reed started his career at the University of Georgia, but transferred to Augusta State, where he won two national titles.

As Nick Masuda writes: “The reasoning for the abrupt transfer has been held close to the vest by those involved, including Georgia players currently on the PGA Tour.”

“ ‘It’s certainly no secret to us, but I’m not going to be the first one to blab about it,’ Georgia alum Brian Harman told Ryan in the book excerpt.”

Now this is serious stuff and I’m not commenting myself further except to say that anyone following the sport the past two years knows how intense Patrick Reed is, and he’s backing up his braggadocio with his play, including at the Ryder Cup.

I do have to add, however, that years ago, when I attended Q School as a spectator and walked six rounds with Bill Haas, I told you of a blatant cheating episode by one of Haas’ playing partners that only I seemed to see (because there was no one in the gallery of 3 or 4 that had the angle I did). That player, who is not on the Tour today, was said to be a known big-time cheat when I later asked around over the course of the event.

--Writing in Sports Illustrated, Joe Sheehan hopes that with the Washington Nationals’ signing of Max Scherzer that they really become “a great baseball team to follow all summer. Regular-season greatness is out of fashion these days, with the expanded postseason lowering the bar for entry and division titles reduced to what they are in the NBA, NFL and NHL: little more than a means to a better playoff seeding.”

After all, last year’s two World Series teams didn’t win 90 games. And 2014 was the third straight season without a 100-win team in MLB.   There actually have been only three the last nine years: the ’08 Angels, ’09 Yankees and the ’11 Phillies; and only one of those won even a single playoff series. [The Yanks won the Series.]

“(As Selig retires), consider how he steered baseball through its worst crisis. Twenty years ago, baseball was in a trough more dangerous than the one into which it tumbled during the Black Sox scandal, when some White Sox players colluded with gamblers to lose the 1919 World Series. Baseball’s solution was a prodigy who had come to baseball from a Baltimore orphanage – George Herman Ruth.

“In January 1995, baseball was prostrate. What began Aug. 12, 1994, lasted until April 2, 1995. The 232-day strike and lockout – the eighth work stoppage in Major League Baseball history and the third in-season stoppage in 22 years – canceled the remainder of the 1994 season and the World Series.

“When Selig became acting commissioner in 1992, baseball still had an economic model that antedated television, radio, flight and the internal combustion engine. Most revenue was generated locally, and little was shared. As local broadcast revenue grew, so did revenue disparities and competitive imbalances between the large- and small-market teams. Selig engineered a new equipoise that would encourage the teams’ competitive strivings while enhancing the essence of a sports league – competitive balance, wherein every well-run team has a regularly recurring, reasonable hope of playing in October.

“Since 1992, baseball has created four new teams, opened 21 new ballparks, adopted interleague play, instant replay and drug testing, expanded the postseason with two wild cards in each league, gone 20 years without labor troubles interrupting play and has vastly expanded revenue-sharing and has implemented a ‘competitive balance tax’ on team payrolls above a certain threshold. And on Sept. 1, 2014, in the last season of the Selig era, 17 of the 30 teams were within 5 ½ games of a playoff spot.

“The average attendance at MLB games last year was 30,437, compared with 13,466 in 1955, in baseball’s supposed golden age. Last year’s worst per-game attendance (the Tampa Bay Rays’ 17,857) was better than that of the 1955 World Series-winning Dodgers (13,423)....

“Baseball has a spring in its step as spring approaches, thanks to one of the four most important people in baseball’s history: Alexander Joy Cartwright (the genius who in the 1840s placed the bases 90 feet apart), Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson and a fan from Milwaukee. Which is what Selig has been, first and always.”

--Keith Law of ESPN Insider ranks all 30 farm systems and the Chicago Cubs are No. 1.

“The past 12 months have seemed more like a coronation for the Cubs than one for the teams that actually played in the World Series. The hype around their system is justified by the talent in it, with the strongest collection of top-shelf hitting prospects I can remember since I started working in baseball.”

2. Minnesota Twins
3. Houston Astros
4. New York Mets...ding ding ding!!!
5. Boston Red Sox
6. Atlanta Braves... “They were a bottom-5 system when the offseason started, but six trades later, they’ve built up a stash of prospects that makes up for five years of execrable drafts and very little production from their Latin American efforts.”
7. Pittsburgh Pirates
28. Milwaukee Brewers
29. San Francisco Giants... “The bottom two clubs on this list are here in large part because they use or trade what they get.”
30. Detroit Tiger... “They’ve traded five of their top 10 prospects from last year’s list...and made their top guy from that list, Nick Castellanos, their everyday third baseman.”

1. White Sox...Jeff Samardzija, David Robertson, Melky Cabrera, Adam LaRoche and Zach Duke...not a bad haul.
2. Cubs
3. Max Scherzer/Scott Boras
4. Padres
5. Red Sox

1. Rays... “Not only did they lose beloved manager (Joe) Maddon, resourceful GM Andrew Friedman, ultra versatile infielder/outfielder Ben Zobrist and young power-hitting (Wil) Myers, they continued to make no progress in their efforts to get out of The Trop, one of the two worst baseball stadiums still extant.”
2. A’s... “(Billy) Beane is one of the smartest people in baseball, and that is well established, and he’s had winters before that looked like he was rebuilding, and that didn’t prevent the A’s from contending.” But this year, after losing Josh Donaldson, Samardzija, Jon Lester, Jed Lowrie and Jason Hammel?

--The New York Daily News’ Mike Lupica wrote: “I believe Rob Manfred (the new commissioner) will be the one to reinstate Pete Rose, and get his name on the Hall of Fame ballot.”

--We note the passing of Rocky Bridges, 87. He was a largely reserve infielder for seven teams in an 11-year career spanning 1951-61, before becoming a major league coach. For his career he hit .247, but he did make the All-Star team in 1958 while playing for Washington as the team’s sole representative.

“I never got in the game, but I sat on the bench with Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and Yogi Berra,” Bridges told the Los Angeles Times in 1985. “I gave ‘em instruction in how to sit.”

As a long-time minor league manager for four teams, he won more than 1,300 games.

--And Charlie Williams died. He was 67. Williams was a pitcher best known for being traded for Willie Mays when Mays went to the Mets in 1972. The Mets had brought Williams up in 1971 and he pitched effectively, going 5-6 as a spot-starter/reliever.

But it was on May 11, 1972, that Williams was sent to San Francisco for Mays, along with $50,000, and Williams ended up going 23-22 in 268 games for his career, pitching with the Giants through 1978.

As for Mays, he hit 14 home runs over the next two seasons with the Metsies to finish at 660 and I’ve told you many times how I was in the ballpark at Shea Stadium when Mays homered in his first game in a Met uniform. I can still see it...a liner that cleared the 358-foot mark in left.

Premier League

So I watched the entire contest Saturday between Chelsea and Manchester City and the firsthalf was as good as it gets, with two spectacular goals, 1-1. But that’s where it ended. Not good for Man City, having drawn with Chelsea in September, so they don’t meet again. [I love the simplicity of the Premier League...20 teams, play your 19 opponents twice...no playoffs, but a lot at stake.]

With 23 of 38 matches complete...

1. Chelsea 53 points (3 for a win, 1 for a draw)
2. Man City 48
3. Man U 43
4. Southampton 42
5. Arsenal 42 (trail in goal differential)
6. Tottenham 40
7. Liverpool 38
8. West Ham 36

Huge game next Saturday, Arsenal vs. my Tottenham Spurs*. Yesterday, as Tottenham blitzed West Brom 3-0, my man Harry Kane emerged from his little slump to score twice.

*And then Liverpool and West Ham...tough stretch as they attempt to finish top four and get in the Champions League.

--Goaltender Martin Brodeur officially announced his retirement on Thursday, accepting a position to be a senior advisor with the St. Louis Blues. 

A three- time Stanley Cup winner during 21 seasons with the New Jersey Devils, he is the NHL’s career leader in wins (691), shutouts (125), and games played (1,226), while compiling a 2.24 goals-against average in regular-season play. In the playoffs, he was 113-91 with 24 shutouts, a 2.02 goals-against average.

Brodeur, 42, refused to believe his playing days were over when the Devils told him he was no longer in their plans, so he signed with St. Louis and played in seven games there, going 3-3, 2.87 GA.

Many in my area are wondering how it is Brodeur isn’t with the Devils’ organization, let alone why he didn’t retire as a Devil, but things ended poorly here and for Brodeur, it was the old story of an athlete believing he still had it. He did acknowledge someday he may return to New Jersey in some capacity.

--So I’m reading this piece in Smithsonian magazine on the number of domesticated tigers in the U.S. and while there are an estimated 3,200-4,000 or so wild tigers around the word, there are 5,000 in captivity here. But a representative of Big Cat Rescue, an animal sanctuary in Tampa, Florida, says that figure is based on the honor system “and we’re dealing with a lot of people that are really dishonorable.” The estimate from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is that the nation is home to more than 10,000 captive tigers, of which only 350 are held in facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Which means there are a lot of pissed off tigers in America, boys and girls. If they unionize, we’re in big trouble.

--Talk about a joke, I mentioned this the other day, that it would seem to be just Beijing and Kazakhstan for the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, everyone else dropping out. But as the Los Angeles Times’ Julie Makinen wrote on Saturday, the 2022 bid may go to Beijing by default; despite its main proposed ski venue being a five-hour drive northwest of the city center; a place bid organizers acknowledge receives “about 8 inches of snow annually.”

Almaty, Kazakhstan sounds like a pretty cool site...certainly the pictures of the surrounding area are wild, and it advertises all the venues would be within about 20 miles, but it’s been run by a dictator since 1991, Nazarbayev.

Then again, China sucks and we just had the Sochi Games, overseen by Vlad the Impaler, so give it to Kazakhstan.

--Congratulations to American Troy Bradley and co-pilot Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia for breaking the record for flying farther and longer in a gas balloon than anyone in history when they dropped down in the waters off Baja California on Saturday.

After taking off from Japan, they spent six days, 16 hours and 38 minutes, breaking the record of 137 hours set in 1978 by the Double Eagle crew of Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman in the first balloon flight across the Atlantic. They also exceeded the distance record of 5,209 miles set by the Double Eagle V team during the first trans-Pacific flight in 1981.

By the time they landed, Bradley and Tiukhtyaev had traveled 6,646 miles. 

Initially they intended to cross the Pacific and land in the Pacific Northwest but they encountered a wall of high pressure that forced them to make a right turn all the way down the California coast. [Susan Montoya Bryan / Associated Press]

--Reminder: If you do not want the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, call, toll free, 1-866-228-1175.

--Hey guys! “First-ever Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Fan Festival!” New York City, Feb. 9-10, Herald Square. Nashville, Feb. 11-12, Lower Broadway.

Reminder: If you do not want to attend the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Fan Festival, call, toll free, 1-866-228-1175.

--Speaking of being scared, as I go to post, I still haven’t heard New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plans for Groundhog Day at the Staten Island Zoo, a tradition. The mayor’s office says, “Ask the zoo,” while the Zoo has declined to comment.

You see, last year the mayor dropped the ceremonial rodent known as Staten Island Chuck and Chuck later died of his injuries. De Blasio should have been charged with murder and should be in Sing-Sing today rather than running the city.

But as reported by the Wall Street Journal’s Mara Gay, “Deepening the mystery over the mayor’s potential role Monday is a finding by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that the zoo violated the federal Animal Welfare Act in 2014. The agency cited the use of an ‘untrained person’ to handle the groundhog.”

The zoo also didn’t make Chuck’s death public until September, when it said the rodent likely died of injuries from his fall, though they were referring to a separate tumble.

De Blasio joked on Friday he had assembled a “task force of emergency preparedness officials” to ensure the ceremony was safe. 

This is no laughing matter. Of course the weather is going to be hideous Monday and Chuck no doubt won’t be happy about being dragged out of his shelter.

Top 3 songs for the week 2/1/64: #1 “I Want To Hold Your Hand” (The Beatles) #2 “You Don’t Own Me” (Lesley Gore...she’s underrated...) #3 “Out Of Limits” (The Marketts)...and...#4 “Surfin’ Bird” (The Trashmen) #5 “Hey Little Cobra” (The Rip Chords) #6 Louie Louie” (The Kingsmen) #7 “There! I’ve Said It Again” (Bobby Vinton) #8 “Um, Um, Um, Um, Um” (Major Lance) #9 “Anyone Who Had A Heart” (Dionne Warwick) #10 “For You” (Ricky Nelson...the Beatles were about to make their debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show”...and the pop charts would never be the same again...)

Baseball Quiz Answer: Top ten home runs....

1. Barry Bonds 762
2. Hank Aaron 755
3. Babe Ruth 714
4. Willie Mays 660
5. Alex Rodriguez 654
6. Ken Griffey Jr. 630
7. Jim Thome 612
8. Sammy Sosa 609
9. Frank Robinson 586
10. Mark McGwire 583

---