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Bar Chat

11/21/2019

Still About Oregon and Utah

[Posted Tues. p.m.  Friends, I woke up Monday morning to a ‘failed hard drive’ on my key device for all things StocksandNews and it’s been chaos the last two days (super time consuming).  My backup device sucks and let’s just say I was at various locations using their PCs to print stuff out I need, especially for that other column I do.  I hope Geek Squad does their job quickly…like tomorrow.  Anyway, I threw this together while I had the chance, hoping it goes through.]

NCAA Men’s Division I Soccer Championship: The tournament started in 1959.  Name the three schools to win at least seven titles.  Answer below.

College Football / CFP Rankings…the latest…

1. LSU 10-0
2. Ohio State 10-0
3. Clemson 10-0
4. Georgia 9-1
5. Alabama 9-1
6. Oregon 9-1
7. Utah 9-1
8. Penn State 9-1
9. Oklahoma 9-1
10. Minnesota 9-1
11. Florida 9-1
14. Baylor 9-1
16. Notre Dame 8-2
17. Iowa 7-3
18. Memphis 9-1
19. Cincinnati 9-1
20. Boise State 9-1
23. USC 7-4
24. Appalachian State 9-1
25. SMU 9-1

The big game this weekend is 8 Penn State at 2 Ohio State.

And 6 Oregon and 7 Utah have interesting road games at Arizona State (5-5) and Arizona (4-6), respectively.

[I do not expect Texas A&M (7-3) to pose a threat to 4 Georgia.]

But in the Group of Five, New Year’s Six bid contest, 20 Boise State at Utah State (6-4) is a classic trap game.

--Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa had successful surgery on his right hip Monday morning in Houston, and Tide coach Nick Saban said he wasn’t second-guessing his decision to play his star quarterback at the end of the first half in Saturday’s 38-7 victory over Mississippi State.

Tagovailoa dislocated his hip, ending his season and most likely his college career.  Tua also suffered a posterior wall fracture.

This is serious stuff.  Last time I mused about the similarity to Bo Jackson’s career-ending injury and Monday morning, Boomer Esiason on his radio show highlighted the dangers involved, citing Jackson’s debilitating experience. 

“Tua’s prognosis is excellent, and we expect him to make a full recovery,” Alabama orthopedic surgeon Dr. Lyle Cain said in a statement. “He will return to Tuscaloosa in the next several days to begin his rehab.”

Cain told ESPN’s Laura Rutledge that Tua will be on a partial weight-bearing recovery plan for six weeks and will be rehabbing daily in Tuscaloosa.  In three months he will be able to begin athletic activity again, and by the spring should be ready to begin throwing.

The hip wasn’t the only injury Tagovailoa suffered on the hit.  He was concussed and broke his nose, which doctors also repaired Monday.

Coach Saban continued to defend his decision to keep Tua in despite a 35-7 late first half lead, and I agree with him.

“The guy was healthy.  He didn’t have a problem with his ankle, and it certainly didn’t look like he had a problem with his ankle, which would have been the only reason not to play him in the game.  It’s an SEC game. Typically, you play the best players on your team at every position. So why wouldn’t you play him?  If I knew he was going to get hurt, I wouldn’t have played him.”

Saban said he didn’t know the severity of the injury until he was told at halftime that the hip was dislocated.

“I feel bad, I’m hurting,” Saban said.  “I called him Saturday night to cheer him up, and he cheers me up.  I called him Sunday night to cheer him up, and he cheers me up.  This is a guy that has great spirit. …I don’t think there’s any way that any of us can say that we won’t miss that spirit that he has.”

Saban said it is too early to talk about Tua’s future, but he said the following about the quarterback’s impact on the ‘Bama program.

“You want to be fair and honest with all players, and you’d like to say that you treat them all the same, but that’s probably not the case,” Saban said.  “I can think back to four or five players that I actually truly could say that I really love those guys as people, [and for] the way they did things, their contributions and how they affected other people.  Tua would be one of those four or five guys.”

It’s a long road back for the kid.  We wish him the best.

NFL

--Boy, what a disappointing season for the Chargers, now 4-7 following their 24-17 loss Monday night to the Chiefs (7-4) in Mexico City.  Philip Rivers threw another four interceptions, on top of three the week before, giving him 14 for the season.

Rivers had an outstanding 2018, with 32 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions (after going 28-10 in 2017).

But Rivers is now 37 and Chargers fans have to be a bit depressed as their fearless leader has a 15-14, TD/INT, ratio this season, they aren’t making the playoffs, they don’t know what their future holds, or where they are really going to be playing, and it’s just kind of a crappy situation.  It’s nuts they didn’t stay in San Diego.

--I have to go back to the Jets-Redskins game on Sunday, whether you like it or not.  As you’ve seen I’m always scrambling on Sundays during football season.  I make no apologies for following my favorite teams extensively, to the detriment of other games. And at a certain point in the day, I have to move on.

So I didn’t get to mention the extent of the heroics from Jets safety Jamal Adams.   Last week, in the win over the Giants, he led the team with nine tackles and two forced fumbles.  Against the Redskins, I didn’t realize Adams had become just the second defensive back in the past decade with three sacks in a game, matching what Mike Hilton of the Pittsburgh Steelers did in 2017.

But Adams, with six sacks now, total, set the Jets single-season franchise record for the most by a defensive back.

Yes, this is the same Jamal Adams your editor, and scores of others, were ready to run out of town because of his attitude, and then he puts together two monster games, both wins.  So, yeah, suddenly you want management to throw some bucks at him.  Why he and Sam Darnold should be the faces of the franchise.

And now the Jets play the Raiders at home Sunday, with Cincinnati and Miami to follow.  As in, hey, why wouldn’t a Jets fan be tuned in this coming weekend?  I will.

As the New York Post’s Mark Cannizzaro pointed out:

“When you find a $100 bill lying on the street, you don’t ask why it was there; you pick it up, slip it in your pocket and revel in your good fortune.”

I love that story because a few years ago, I was jogging on a well-traveled trail in my area when I found a $20 bill off to the side.  Having been raised the right way, I asked the folks I came across, coming and going, if they had dropped a $20, they all said no, and at the end I let out a Homer Simpsonesque “Woo-hoo!”  Free beer.

College Basketball

--AP Poll

1. Duke
2. Louisville
3. Michigan State
4. Kansas
5. North Carolina
6. Maryland
7. Virginia
8. Gonzaga
9. Kentucky
10. Ohio State
13. Seton Hall…your ‘Pick to Click’ for the national title
23. Colorado…Bar Chat’s official “sleeper team” to make noise come March

Literally, there is only one game that has made a difference thus far, Evansville’s upset of Kentucky.  As in the season is getting off to a rather slow start.

NBA

--What’s this? The Knicks are 4-10? Well shiver me timbers.  Lately, for every godawful game they play, they come up with a nice 123-105 effort like they did Monday against the Cavs and actually look like a professional squad.

Golf Balls

--The rain-delayed Mayakoba Golf Classic in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, wrapped up Monday morning and Brendon Todd, a guy who made only two cuts in 35 events on the PGA Tour over a three-year period, fully in the golf wilderness with the yips, has shockingly won the last two events he’s entered.

Vaughn Taylor tied for second with Adam Long and Carlos Ortiz; Ortiz was trying to win his first PGA Tour event before a home crowd in Mexico.  [Abraham Ancer finished eighth, giving Mexico two in the top ten.]

“It’s just amazing how fast this game can turn,” Todd said.  “It turned fast in the wrong direction for me in 2015, it turned fast the other direction for me, so I’m enjoying it and I’m just going to keep grinding.”

So Brendon Todd, now with three PGA Tour wins overall, returns to the Masters for the first time in five years, and he’s atop the FedEx Cup standings with this week’s final event at his home in Sea Island before the tour takes a short winter break.

Your editor pulled out a win in DraftKings, despite the fact Tony Finau blew up at the end of his second round, missing the cut, when it looked like I was destined for a big win.  As Charlie Brown would have said, “Drat!”

NCAA Men’s Division I Soccer Championship

As alluded to above, the tournament is starting this week, with a whopping 10 ACC teams in it.

The top four seeds are: 1. Virginia 2. Clemson 3. Georgetown 4. Wake Forest

The seeding is interesting in that the Coaches Poll released Tuesday has it:

1. Virginia
2. Georgetown
3. Clemson
9. Wake Forest

Wake is being rewarded for its strength of schedule and now the Deacs have a bye, playing the winner of Maryland, the defending champion, vs. Iona.

MLB

--Gabes Lacques / USA TODAY

“As Major League Baseball peels back the curtain on perhaps its most widespread ‘cheating’ scandal since performance-enhancing drug use warped the field of play, there’s a key point it must ponder.

“Just how much does it want to find out about electronic sign-stealing?

“As media scrutiny and the slow drip of MLB’s investigation into the Houston Astros turns up more bread crumbs leading to a possible trail of widespread organizational malfeasance, the league will face a push and pull within the game.

“The push: Heads must roll in Houston – be it a penalty of stripped draft picks or somebody taking the fall.  Such obvious rules-flouting cannot go unchecked.

“The pull: Well, what if everybody is/was doing it? ....

“Consider one of the guiding principles of any investigation – what did they know and when did they know it?  Almost any cheating scandal can happen in a vacuum, but at this point, it seems there are fewer corners of the Astros organization that couldn’t have known about it.

“Players, accepting the signs. Managers and coaches, who if they made the trip from dugout to clubhouse could practically trip over a bunker with a table, TV screen and a moat of sunflower-seed shells, shielded from public view by strategically placed towels.

“And now, front office members, perhaps  too eager to glean one of the last remaining edges in the game.

“MLB’s investigation ramped up last week and will continue apace….

“It would be surprising if the Astros somehow avoided significant penalties, be it draft picks, a hefty fine or an actor or two assigned to take the fall for the group.

“And then what? ….

“Perhaps the Astros are the club all others want to see go down.  At the same time, if retribution sets back one organization, why not rat out another?  And perhaps this scandal ends up resembling the final scene from Reservoir Dogs.

“Or maybe it ends in Houston, where the shamelessness was palpable and the rule-bending too easy to call out.

“Either way, MLB may discover a new landscape throughout this journey – one in which the witnesses may be far willing to flip.”

Stuff

--My friend Jimbo told me the other day that he and the missus had gone to see David Byrne’s “American Utopia,” and that it was unlike anything else he had ever seen and they totally liked it.

So I saw in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal that Byrne is packing them in and the Broadway production is outdoing the likes of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” “Mean Girls” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” according to trade group Broadway League, even though Byrne only does six shows a week vs. the eight the big boys do.

While “American Utopia” features many of the artist’s popular songs from both his Talking Heads days and solo career, it is a highly theatrical event.  Byrne and the musicians are in constant motion, presenting the songs like a marching band from an alternate universe, which is what blew Jimbo’s mind.

The show runs through Feb. 16, after an extended initial run in Boston.

Top 3 songs for the week of 11/20/65: #1 “I Hear A Symphony” (The Supremes)  #2 “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)” (The Byrds)  #3 “1-2-3” (Len Barry…song has aged terrifically…now a standard…)…and…#4 “Let’s Hang On!” (The 4 Seasons…one of their top 3)  #5 “Get Off My Cloud” (The Rolling Stones…my second ’45 as a kid after “Dominique” by The Singing Nun…which I just hope God will reward me with a case of Coors Light…)  #6 “Rescue Me” (Fontella Bass)  #7 “Taste Of Honey” (Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass)  #8 “Ain’t That Peculiar” (Marvin Gaye)  #9 “I Got You (I Feel Good)” (James Brown)  #10 “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” (The Silkie…easily one of the top three weeks all time…I’ve always argued 1965 and 1967 are the best years  ever…this is an ‘A+’….)

NCAA Men’s Division I Soccer Championship Answer: The three who have won at least seven titles, the tournament starting in 1959, are…Saint Louis, 10 (the last of which was in 1973); Indiana, 8; Virginia, 7.

Next Bar Chat, Monday.  Assuming I get my system back, I need to include some stuff I would have otherwise today, like from Mark R., Phil W., and Brad K.

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