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Bar Chat

06/14/2021

Nets Bad for Basketball? It's 2-2.

[Posted early Sunday p.m.]

***Folks, I hesitate to reveal too much of a personal nature (given all the dirtballs who read this site, looking to harm me, including from overseas), but we will lose our Dr. Bortrum in the next few days.  It’s heartbreaking.  Understand we also have a midweek family wedding!  My nephew, his grandson.  Sometimes life throws you a few curveballs.  No Bar Chat until next weekend.

Baseball/Dodgers Quiz: Name the 8 players in Dodgers franchise history to hit 40 home runs in a season.  Answer below.

NBA Playoffs

--Saturday, the Clippers, desperate for a win, whipped the Jazz 132-106 in Game 3 at the Staples Center, Kawhi Leonard (34) and Paul George (31) combining for 65 points.  For the first time this playoffs, Leonard and George had 30-point nights in the same game. 

So the Clippers trail in the series, 2-1, Game 4 Monday in L.A.

--Friday, Philadelphia took a 2-1 series lead over Atlanta with a 127-111 victory on the road, after a solid 118-102 win in Philly in Game 2.

The Sixers continue to get superb play from Joel Embiid, 27 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 blocks Friday, while the Hawks’ Trae Young has come back to earth, after his spectacular play in Round One against the Knicks and his 35 points in Atlanta’s opening Game 1 win over Philadelphia.

--Also Friday, the Suns took a 3-0 lead over the Nuggets, Chris Paul sloughing off his shoulder injury to play superb ball from the point, 27 points, 8 assists, 3 steals.

For Denver, NBA MVP Nikola Jokic had 32 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 assists.

--Meanwhile, the Nets got their comeuppance in Milwaukee Thursday, losing 86-83 after taking the first two games of their series with ease.  Brooklyn fell behind 30-11 after one, but cut the deficit to 45-42 at the half.

In the end, though, the normally clutch Joe Harris was just 1 of 11 from the field, 1 of 7 from three for the Nets and that’s your ballgame.  For Milwaukee, Khris Middletown (35) and Giannis (33) combined for 68 of the 86 points, which is rather remarkable. It was easily Middletown’s best effort of the playoffs as he also hauled in 15 rebounds.

So today, the Bucks whipped the Nets again, 107-96, and to compound matters, Brooklyn lost Kyrie Irving to a sprained ankle in the first half, severity at this point unknown.

This is after James Harden sat out again, though I’m guessing he’ll play in Game 5 back in Brooklyn, Tuesday, the series now tied at 2-2.

Wow.  You know I love Charles Barkley, but it was after the Nets took a 2-0 series lead that he said they were bad for basketball, scarfing up all the talent.

Well, not so fast.

Stanley Cup Playoffs

We’re down to four teams.  Today, the Islanders took on the Lightning in Tampa Bay in Game 1 of their semifinal and, whaddya know, the Isles won it 2-1.

Tomorrow, the Cinderella Montreal Canadiens go up against the Las Vegas Golden Knights in Vegas for their opener.

MLB

--Entering Sunday’s play, the Yankees had lost 12 of 17 to fall to 33-31, as star closer Aroldis Chapman suffered the loss both Friday and Saturday in Philadelphia, the Phillies with three consecutive walkoff wins, including yesterday’s 8-7, 10-inning affair.  Philly improved to 31-31, 4 games back of the first-place Mets.

Make that 32-31 for the Phils,  3 back of the Metsies, as they completed a sweep of the Yanks today, 7-0, behind Aaron Nola’s 7 2/3 of shutout ball, Jean Segura with his third straight 3-hit game, season average up to .339.

The Yankees blow.  When will heads roll?

--Speaking of the Mets…Friday night, they sent Jacob deGrom to the mound against the Padres and the best pitcher on the planet cruised his first six innings, yielding just one hit while striking out 10, the Mets building a 3-0 lead.

But then you saw the discussion in the dugout after the top of the sixth, and it was clear deGrom wasn’t coming out for the seventh despite having thrown only 80 pitches.  The Mets then released a rather strange, immediate, diagnosis…deGrom had right flexor (elbow) tendinitis.

DeGrom then appeared after the game, which the Mets held on to win 3-2, to say he wasn’t overly concerned, and that he knows what a serious elbow injury feels like – having had two elbow-related surgeries in 2010 and 2016.

And as of today, Sunday, we’ve told he might be able to make his scheduled start, Wednesday.

So Mets fans breathed a semi-sigh of relief, deGrom lowering his ERA to an otherworldly 0.56.  Oh, and he had a 2-run single, giving him 10 hits and 5 RBIs this season.

The Mets then had a nice 4-1 win Saturday, Marcus Stroman with 6 1/3 of one-run ball, improving to 6-4, 2.33 in the process.

But the Padres finally broke out today, Fernando Tatis Jr. with a grand slam as San Diego won 7-3, dropping the Mets to 32-25.

--The Dodgers were a tale of two teams, Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles against the Rangers.

Friday, L.A. whipped Texas 12-1, Clayton Kershaw with six strong innings, 0 earned, 9 strikeouts, to improve to 8-5, 3.39, the Dodgers pounding out five home runs.

Saturday, the Rangers turned the tables, winning 12-1 themselves, trashing Trevor Bauer, who yielded six runs (4 earned) in 6 1/3, Bauer falling to 6-5, 2.64 on the season.  The Dodgers also placed slugger Max Muncy on the IL with an oblique strain.

--The Angels are 32-32 and continuing to play well without Mike Trout, coming from down 5-0 to beat the lowly Diamondbacks (20-45) 8-7 in Phoenix, Saturday.

Friday, Shohei Ohtani went five innings, yielding two runs, striking out 8, as L.A. beat Arizona 6-5.  Oh, and Ohtani hit two doubles, giving him 15 on the season, to go with three triples and 17 home runs, a .966 OPS overall.

--The Mets’ announcers were talking Saturday night about the Colorado Rockies’ home/away splits, which are always interesting, given Coors Field and all.

But try .277 batting average, .802 OPS at home (20-14 W/L) vs. .202, .567 (5-26) on the road, entering today’s play.  Eegads.

--Toronto (33-30) hit eight home runs in today’s 18-4 win over Boston (39-27), including Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s MLB-leading 21st.

So if you were wondering what the MLB record is for homers by a team in a game, it’s also Toronto with ten in 1987.

--Heading into the College World Series, Vanderbilt and Stanford were the first to sweep their super regionals and punch their tickets to Omaha.

Jack Leiter, former major league pitcher Al Leiter’s son (from my hometown of Summit, N.J.) led Vandy to a 4-1 win over East Carolina to send the Commodores to the CWS for the fifth time since 2011.

Stanford, rather surprisingly, is headed to the CWS for the first time since 2008 after Alex Williams pitched a two-hitter and Brock Jones homered three times in a 9-0 win at Texas Tech.

The other six berths are being settled tonight, and potentially tomorrow.

French Open

--Saturday, in a final’s match only their parents and countrymen could love, as well as those whose last name ends in -kova, unseeded Barbora (sic) Krejcikova defeated 31-seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, both in a Grand Slam final for a first time.

Krejcikova, a 25-year-old from the Czech Republic, paid tribute to her former coach, Jana Novotna, the 1998 Wimbledon champion who died of cancer in 2017.

“Pretty much her last words were just enjoy and just try to win a Grand Slam. And, I mean, I know that, from somewhere, she’s looking after me,” Krejcikova told the crowd.

“All of this that just happened, these two weeks, is pretty much because she is just looking after me from up there,” Krejcikova said, lifting her left hand toward the sky.  “It was amazing that I had a chance to meet her and that she was such an inspiration for me. I just really miss her. But I hope she’s happy right now.  I’m extremely happy.”

Touching.

Krejcikova is the third unseeded women’s champion since 2017 at Roland Garros, after there were none from 1968 to 2016.

Pavlyuchenkova, a 29-year-old Russian, was in her first Grand Slam final in the 52nd major tournament of her career – the most appearances by a woman before reaching a title match.

Meanwhile, the women’s bracket was obviously a disaster in terms of interest, what with Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal, No. 1 Ash Barty having to retire in the second sound with an injured hip,  2018 champion Simona Halep didn’t play at all because of a calf issue, Serena Williams lost in the fourth round and defending champion Iga Swiatek lost in the quarterfinals.

--So then today it was No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. 5-seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was making his first appearance in a Grand Slam final.

Tsitsipas, the 22-year-old rising star from Greece, survived five-sets against Alexander Zverev of Germany in the first men’s semifinal Friday, and then Djokovic hooked up with Rafael Nadal in another classic.

Djokovic stopped Nadal’s bid for a 14th French Open title and handed the King of Clay just his third loss in 108 matches at the tournament by coming back to win a thriller, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2, in a match that lasted 4 hours, 11 minutes.  After trailing 0-2 in the fourth set, Djokovic rattled off six consecutive games to clinch the victory.

The third set lasted 1 hour, 33 minutes, the 5,000 in attendance (limited by Covid restrictions) allowed to stay until the end of the match, exceeding the 11:00 p.m. nationwide curfew.

So in the final, it was clear the semifinal against Nadal had taken a lot out of Djokovic, as he fell behind, 6-7, 2-6.

But then he rallied, taking the next three 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, for Grand Slam No. 19, one behind Federer and Nadal.  What an era for these three.

Djokovic won the French Open in 2016 and with the win joins Rod Laver and Roy Emerson as the only men to win each of the four Grand Slam tournaments twice.

The 34-year-old also now has seven wins after his 30th birthday, one more than Nadal, three more than Federer, Rosewall and Laver, who each had four.

Djokovic, the reigning Australian Open champ as well, is now set up to become the first to win a calendar year Grand Slam since Laver in 1969.

Euro 2020

What an awful near-tragedy at a Euro 2020 opener between Denmark and Finland on Saturday (Euro 2020 delayed a year by the pandemic).  Near the end of the first half, Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen (one of my favorite players from his days at Tottenham) collapsed on the field.

I did not see this live and picked up on it after he had been sent to the hospital, but Eriksen was walking toward the sideline and was struggling to make his way across.  As the ball was thrown in his direction, it hit him and he fell to the ground.  Two teammates rushed to assist him, with one beckoning furiously for medical assistance.

Medics ran onto the field to help the Inter Milan midfielder as he lay on the ground with his Denmark teammates in clear distress.

Eriksen received medical attention on the field for about 10 minutes as CPR was administered. 

The match was suspended at the 42-minute mark with the score 0-0.  After a crisis meeting, and once it was determined that Eriksen was “stable” and apparently able to talk to his teammates, action continued and Finland went on to win 1-0.

But today, at a news conference, the team doctor for Denmark, Morten Boesen, said Eriksen was “gone” before he was resuscitated after suffering a cardiac arrest.

“He was gone, and we did cardiac resuscitation.  It was a cardiac arrest,” Boesen said.  “How close were we [to losing Eriksen]?  I don’t know.”

“We got him back after one defibrillator, so that’s quite fast.  I’m not a cardiologist, so the details I will leave to the experts at the hospital.”

At last word he remains in “stable” condition.

But there’s a touching picture out there of goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel comforting Eriksen’s partner on the sidelines, Sabrina Kvist Jensen.  Schmeichel ran over to her to tell her that Christian was breathing.  She thought he had passed away.  I can’t imagine the feelings everyone had in the stands who witnessed this, let alone those on the pitch.

In other action, Belgium whipped Russia 3-0, and England beat Croatia, today, 1-0 on a Raheem Sterling goal.  Croatia had knocked out England in the 2018 World Cup semifinals.

--Separately, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson weighed in on the issue of soccer fans booing members of the England team who decide to take the knee in a stand against racism.  Asked by the BBC whether he would condemn those fans who boo them, Johnson said: “Well I think it’s totally wrong to boo the English team, I think we should cheer for England.”

Look, many British and European soccer fans in general are clearly racist.

Golf Balls

I have to admit…I didn’t give a damn about this week’s event, the Palmetto Championship at Congaree (Ridgeland, S.C.), a first-time location.  I literally caught the last hole, as third-round leader Chesson Hadley choked down the stretch, and South African Garrick Higgo, in just his second PGA Tour start, won it.

Actually, what I liked was that our old Wake Forest friend, Bill Haas, his game long in the wilderness, finished T25.  It’s been tough for him to even get invites.  Go Deacs!

But this week we have some juice…the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines…badly needed.

New Jersey’s Greatest Athletes of All Time

The Star-Ledger staff came out with a list of the top 99 athletes in this Sunday’s edition.

1. Carl Lewis
2. Mike Trout
3. Carli Lloyd
4. Shaquille O’Neal
5. Franco Harris
6. Milt Campbell
7. Rick Barry
8. Bruce Baumgartner (wrestler)
9. Joetta Clark Diggs (track)
10. Larry Doby

It’s not a bad top ten, except I take serious issue with Carli Lloyd at No. 3.

Some others…Joe Theisman (13), Kyrie Irving (25), Dick Button (27).

Sydney McLaughlin, the track star who should make noise in Tokyo is No. 15.  I love this budding superstar, but way too high, for today.

So where is Willie Wilson?  No. 42, which I’m not going to bitch and moan about.  If it was just a ranking of New Jersey’s Greatest High School Athletes, he’s top ten.

However, they rank bowler Parker Bohn III at No. 23?!  C’mon. 

The staff at the Ledger tried way too hard to be inclusive with the list, but I’ll bite my tongue rather than offer further commentary.

Stuff

--There seems to be a lot pressure to expand the College Football Playoff to 12 teams, which some estimate would increase the average annual value of the event from about $600 million to more than $2 billion, owing to increases in media rights.  Boy, I am totally against this.

--A son of legendary Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler said his father angrily ignored his account of sexual abuse by a university doctor in 1969.

Matt Schembechler, one of the coach’s three adopted sons, made the accusation in interviews with the New York Times and other news organizations almost one month after a university-commissioned investigation concluded that Robert E. Anderson, the team doctor, had “engaged in sexual misconduct with patients on countless occasions.”

“I felt betrayed,” Schembechler, 62, said Wednesday of his father’s dismissal of the complaints that Anderson had molested him during an examination in 1969 when he was 10 years old.  “I felt unprotected by someone I thought had taken on the job of protecting me in situations like this.”

There had been past issues between Matt and Bo Schembechler, who died in 2006, but Schembechler’s description of his encounter with Anderson is similar to accusations that others have made against the doctor, who died in 2008 and was not charged with any crimes.

Investigators, in a footnote, also wrote that multiple people who had worked alongside Bo Schembechler believed that “had he been aware of Dr. Anderson’s misconduct with patients, he would not have tolerated it.”

--At least one doctor at the Cape Cod hospital that treated the lobsterman who claims he was nearly swallowed by a humpback whale expressed skepticism, telling the New York Post:

“He reportedly ascended from a 45-foot depth in 20 to 40 seconds and didn’t have any evidence of barotrauma?” scoffed the emergency room doctor.

A person traumatized by such an encounter should expect more serous injuries, such as hearing loss, because of the sudden change in water pressure from that depth, noted the physician, who did not treat Michael Packard.

Packard, 57, was released from the Cape Cod hospital Friday afternoon, just hours after the incident, having suffered only soft tissue damage and no broken bones or other serious injuries.

The professional lobster diver said he was gulped up and spit out while diving off the coast there.  Packard said he was about 45 feet deep in the waters off Provincetown when “all of a sudden I felt this huge bump, and everything went dark.”

He thought he had been attacked by a shark, common in the area’s waters, but then realized he could not feel any teeth and he was not in any pain.

“Then I realized, oh my God, I’m in a whale’s mouth…and he’s trying to swallow me,” he told WBZ-TV.

“And I thought to myself, ‘okay, this is it – I’m finally – I’m gonna die.’”

Packard estimates he was in the whale’s mouth for about 30 seconds, but continued to breathe because he still had his breathing apparatus in.

Then the whale surfaced, shook its head and spat him out.

Well, do you believe it?  As soon as I first saw the story I was skeptical.  Yes, it’s conceivable that a whale, mouth open while feeding, could have swallowed him, but not to then suffer any severe injuries?  I can’t fathom that.

--A New Jersey golfer was struck and killed by lightning on the course the other day, becoming the nation’s first lightning strike victim this year.

Of those participating in sports who are struck and killed by lightning in this country, 38% of them are on the soccer field, while 31% are on the golf course.

--I was drooling over the dinner menu for Saturday at the G7 summit.

Scallops, Curgurrell crab claws and Portscatho mackerel, followed by sirloin and Newlyn lobster.  Afterward, the VIPs were offered baked brie, hot buttered rum and toasted marshmallows around firepits on the sand.  And to drink, Cornish sparkling wine, German Riesling, Australian Shiraz, Cornish beer and hedge row fizz cocktail.

Top 3 songs for the week 6/11/66: #1 “Paint It, Black” (The Rolling Stones…has moved into my top ten rock songs of all time)  #2 “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?” (The Lovin’ Spoonful) #3 “I Am A Rock” (Simon and Garfunkel)…and…#4 “When A Man Loves A Woman” (Percy Sledge)  #5 “A Groovy Kind Of Love” (The Mindbenders)  #6 “Strangers In The Night” (Frank Sinatra)  #7 “Monday, Monday” (The Mamas and The Papas)  #8 “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” (James Brown)  #9 “Green Grass” (Gary Lewis & The Playboys)  #10 “Barefootin’” (Robert Parker…some weak tunes keep this from an ‘A’…B+…)

*I told you I listen mostly to Country music on weekends, driving around, doing errands, and my current favorite is Miranda Lambert’s “Settling Down.”

Baseball/Dodgers Quiz Answer: 40 home runs….

Shawn Green, 49, 2001
Adrian Beltre, 48, 2004
Cody Bellinger, 47, 2019
Gary Sheffield, 43, 2000
Duke Snider, 43, 1956
Green, 42, 2002
Gil Hodges, 42, 1954
Snider, 42, 1953, ‘55
Roy Campanella, 41, 1953
Hodges, 40, 1954
Mike Piazza, 40, 1997
Snider, 40, 1954, ‘57

Next Bar Chat, Sunday, June 20.  Father’s Day.

 

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