The score was already tied. That’s what too many fans forget. The Mets had already tied the score 5-5 in the bottom of the 10th at Shea Stadium when Mookie Wilson’s slow roller dribbled between first baseman Bill Buckner’s legs and into infamy.
But, you know, print the legend.
On Sunday, the last full day of Bill Buckner's life, 16 major leaguers struck out at least three times. Buckner played 22 seasons and never did it once.
Buckner, who died at the age of 69 from complications related to dementia yesterday, played 22 Major League seasons, collected 2,707 hits, and won the National League MVP (with the Cubs) in 1980. In the 1970s and 1980s, only one player had more hits than Buckner: Pete Rose.
SI(gh)
The magazine I grew up dreaming I’d one day write for (as did everyone with whom I worked there), Sports Illustrated, has been sold for $110 million to a company called Authentic Brands. This company owns the “brands” of dead iconic figures such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, which suggests they’re more interested in what SI once represented than in what it can represent.
Much like Norma Jean Baker and that kid from Tupelo, SI came around in the 1950s and had quite a run. Goodbye, Norma Jean?
Wrong Turn In Boulder
Hiwot Yemer defeated Meseret Tola, for those of you keeping score
At the 41st Bolder Boulder, the extremely popular Memorial Day 10-K race in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies, one Ethiopian woman beat another because the latter made a wrong turn after entering Folsom Field for the final lap of the 6.2-mile race.
She should have stopped and asked for directions.
Oakland Is “The Land”
Matt Chapman (14 HRs this spring) has been swinging mighty lumber for the A’s during the streak
The Golden State Warriors may be the best team in all of professional sports, but their sports complex neighbors, the Oakland A’s, are the hottest. The Dubs have won six straight games and are headed to their fifth consecutive NBA Finals, which begin Thursday in another country! The A’s have won 10 straight games, though, and the last time they went on such a run Aaron Sorkin wrote a film, adapted from Michael Lewis’ book, about it.
However, this is baseball, where asterisks exist, so you do need to know that since Oakland’s 10-game win streak began, the A’s have played a game versus the Detroit Tigers that was suspended due to rain. That May 19 game will not be completed until both teams have an open date in early September. If the A’s, who were leading, hold on to win the victory will be added to the streak (it would thus stand at 11 games right now). If they lose, however, the streak will have ended at seven games.
This explains why Brad Pitt’s agent is not hyperventilating about a prospective Moneyball 2 right now.
Speaking Of Streaks And Californians
Over the weekend a few southern Californians gathered to pay homage to Jon Sutherland (above), whose streak of running EVERY DAY hit the 50-year mark. As you can tell from the photo, Sutherland is still quite the athlete and he possesses the type of steely resolve and, yes, me-first-ness to a degree, that is needed to maintain such a streak.
We profiled Sutherland for our final story in Newsweek. We were working on it on a May afternoon two years ago when the managing editor emailed and asked us to come in and meet the next day at 10 a.m. He’d never asked to meet before so we knew what that was about. But we really liked Sutherland, having spoken to him at length on the phone, and we wanted his story (which is full of a youth spent in rock-and-roll in the late Sixties) to be told. So we soldiered on and completed the story, filed it, then went in and got the guillotine.
We’re honored to be a tiny, tiny part of Jon’s story. He’s an impressive figure.
*The judges will also accept “PM Gone” or “Come What May”
Theresa May, the British Prime Minister who staked her entire leadership of parliament on the ideal of Great Britain departing the European Union, announces that she will now herself depart. Reason? She never could win support in parliament for Brexit, as it failed all three times it came up for vote.
Why didn’t she just declare it a military emergency and force Brexit through, the way we do here? Anyway, we’re not entirely sure how British succession works, but we think that the UK’s next PM will be Meghan Markle.
The North Star
Erstwhile San Antonio Spur Kawhi Leonard has played in two NBA Finals, being named Finals MVP once (in 2014, when he led SAS to the title). It’s beginning to look like the difference in the Bucks-Raptors series, as Kawhi scored 35 points and led The North to a Game 5 win over Milwaukee.
Here’s what would be intriguing, if Toronto wins: The last time Kawhi was on the court in a playoff contest versus Golden State was in May of 2017. The Dubs, fully loaded with KD and Co. at the time, trailed San Antonio by 22 at the half, at Oracle. Then Za Za slid into Kawhi, Leonard was lost for the rest of the series to an ankle injury, and the Dubs swept the series 4-0.
Leonard would sparingly play in nine games for SAS the following season before calling it over and trading the Riverwalk for Lake Ontario.
Tyree Commits To Irish
Yesterday afternoon Chris Tyree, a 5’10” running back from Chester, Va., who supposedly possesses sub-4.4. speed, verbally committed to Notre Dame (simmer down now, he’s still more than a year away from even suiting up for the Irish, and more likely two seasons).
Still, Brian Kelly is entering his 10th season in South Bend, a time by which many a Notre Dame football coach has either flunked out of the job or burned out of it (Lou Holtz left after 10 years). Instead, Kelly is surging and may be putting together his top recruiting class, for 2020, as the Irish have now landed verbals from three players in Rivals’ Top 60: Tyree, 60th; 6’8″, 275-pound lineman Tosh Baker (51), and wideout Jordan Johnson (59).
Look around and only Clemson, Alabama and Miami have landed as many 4-star products (while the Tigers, Tide and LSU have also reeled in at least one 5-star; Clemson has a ridiculous recruiting class with nine 4-stars and five 5-stars, which just isn’t fair). Notre Dame is going to likely finish with a Top 6 class (remember when national columnists were writing that the Irish were irrelevant?).
Defensive end Rylie Mills, the 7th player in Rivals’ top 155 to join the Irish, committed last week
Here’s the point that Irish fans should take away: Beating Clemson or Alabama in the CFB Playoff remains a “What tho the odds be….small” prospect for the Irish, but Notre Dame has more than enough talent, and far superior talent, to continue kicking Trojan and Wolverine ass year in and year out. And don’t you remember a time when that’s all you wanted?
Brian Kelly may never get a statue outside Notre Dame Stadium, the way Knute, Leahy, Ara and Lou have (though he may), but he’s now worked his way into being the next name on the list after that quartet as far as the school’s greatest football coaches (with all due respect to Jesse Harper, who went 34-5-1 immediately before his protege, Rockne, took the gig).
Montauk Bummer
Just in time for a sunny Memorial Day weekend (our very favorite weekend of the year in NYC because of the HOPE it inspires), here’s a New York Times story about the faraway aspirational beach haven at land’s end that is Montauk, about a septic system that is unable to handle the flood of millennials, and how a lovely pond was polluted. It’s all about infrastructure, kids (and beer).
More Redactions
We missed All In The Family/The Jeffersons Live two nights ago, but it sounds as if they pulled it off. Bully for them and what a nice tribute to Norman Lear, 96, to illustrate how timeless his writing and insights were (meanwhile, there’s a stage version of Network starring Bryan Cranston playing on Broadway right now, too). I’d advise not to wait for live recreations of Welcome Back, Kotter or WKRP In Cincinnati, though I’d love to see the latter.
Anyway, the sole misstep of the other night, and this is not on the casts or Lear, is that ABC’s censor bleeped out the N-word when George Jefferson (Jamie Foxx) spoke it. In the original 1975 episode, the dry cleaning magnate had used it to illustrate that his biracial couple neighbors, if they ever got into a domestic spat, would resort to calling one another “honky” and “nigger.”
That aired in 1975. It did not air Wednesday. Which, I’m sorry, I think is kinda sad. It’s a play. It’s not a Starbucks. You should be able to say whatever you like. If the audience is offended, turn the channel.
By the way, you may already know this, but the actress who played Helen Willis in the original TheJeffersons, Roxie Roker, was the mother of Lenny Kravitz.
Gleyber Torres, who has hit 10 home runs versus the O’s this season, is likely fine with the schedule as is
Changeup
This afternoon the Orioles and Yankees will meet for the 12th time this season—and it would be the 13th were it not for a rainout last week that has yet to be made up. It’s not even Memorial Day yet and neither team has played its 50th game.
In short, the Yanks and O’s have spent more than 25% of their seasons playing one another and the season is nearly one-third over. And they still must play each other seven more times. There’s got to be a better way, baseball.
Chalk it up to the vicissitudes of the schedule? Perhaps, but why must interdivisional foes meet NINETEEN times per season? It’s 2019, here’s a better idea. Every team from both leagues plays each other at least one series per season. Here’s the breakdown:
–Intradivisional foes: play 14 times per season. There’s four interdivisional foes in each division thanks to baseball’s six-division, 30-team symmetry, so that’s 56 games.
–Interdvisional foes in same league play six times per season. There’s 10 such foes for every team so that’s 60 games.
–Interleague foes meet at least three times per season. There’s 15 teams in the other league so that’s 45 games.
That’s 56 + 60 + 45 = 161.
That leaves you one game short. Fine. Everyone play the Mets one more game. Or something. It’s still better than what we have now.
And for that person among you who’s going to ask, “What about the designated hitter?”, our answer is, “What about it?” Interleague play is already here. We just want to expand it.
The Walkout
The president was supposed to have a meeting with Senate Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi about one of the “I” words (Infrastructure? Immigration?) but instead stormed out of the room because what was really on his mind was a third “I” word (Impeachment). Then he addressed reporters on the South Lawn behind this just-happened-to-be-there sign.
By the way, the president has cost taxpayers more than $100 million via his golf habit in just a little over two years in office. Is there a sign for that?
Don’t Blame The South (-ern Hemisphere)
Jakarta is the largest city in the southern hemisphere
We heard one of those Doomsday/Man’s Fault analogies the other day. Goes like this: If the lifetime of the planet were one day, then civilized man came along in the last four minutes before midnight and he basically destroyed the earth in the final 10 seconds.
Think about it: the Industrial Revolution began less than 200 years ago, as did the introduction of fossil fuels and plastic. All of these three “innovations” have done far more harm to the planet than all those centuries of silly little wars.
But we are here to basically absolve the folks of the southern hemisphere. Of the planet’s 20 largest cities, only three are south of the equator: Jakarta, Indonesia; Sao Paolo, Brazil; and Buenos Aires, Argentina. And all the inventions that have, at least for a time, made life easier while slowly choking the planet, have come from folk above the equator. So we’d like to pretty much absolve the southern hemisphere.
Think about that the next time you don your “We The North” t-shirt.
Everest To Eternal Rest
Up for a little news about another death on Mount Everest? Of course you are. American Don Cash, 55, became the third climber to die on Everest this climbing season, but at least he reached the summit first.
Cash lost consciousness shortly after reaching the summit and two sherpas carried him 200 feet down to the Hilary Step (“Lock her up!”). However, the HS is infamous as a bottle-neck point on the trio had to wait two hours for climbers heading up the HS to clear before they could proceed down. In that time, Cash died.
He may have died anyway, of course. But whether you’re atop the world or in an ambulance on 9th Avenue at rush hour, there’s only so much first responders can do to save you if there’s traffic.
The Winklevi Revisited
Twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the famed “Winklevi” of The Social Network,are getting an image-polish from the very man who first turned them into a dual 6’5″ dumb-hunk punchline: Ben Mezrich.
A Harvard alum (’91) himself, Mezrich is the author who wrote TheAccidental Billionaires, which Aaron Sorkin turned into The Social Network.
Mezrich
Now Mezrich is back with a tome on how the Winklevi took much of their payout from nemesis Mark Zuckerberg in Facebook stock, then saw the stock soar, then invested a couple of hundred thou of that windfall in Bitcoin back in 2013, and now have become billionaires themselves. The book, out this week, is titled Bitcoin Billionaires.
We’ve read four of Mezrich’s books. He’s entertaining and definitely prolific, but he readily admits in this one and in another book of his we’ve read (Once Upon A Time In Russia) that some of the scenes in his books are IMAGINED. Not a good look for a non-fiction author. Basically, Mezrich tells the stories (almost all of them based around Harvard figures; he lives in Boston) that Michael Lewis doesn’t have the time to write about but would do a better job with.
Go directly to about 1:30 for the former high school “scr-emo” band and thank us later
Starting Five
Deer In The Headlights
The Milwaukee Bucks took a detour from being the club Charles Barkley predicted will win the NBA championship to lose their second game in Toronto in three days. The Eastern Conference finals are now tied 2-2 while the Warriors enjoy the 10-day break between clinching the West (4-zip) and Game 1 of the NBA Finals on May 30.
Yes, that’ll be the Dubs’ longest break since before the season began. Golden State will start out on the road regardless, which may actually be to their advantage. They’re 6-2 on the road in these playoffs and whichever East teams plays them will probably have those opening night jitters compounded by playing in front of its own fans (see: the 1993 Phoenix Suns, who went 0-3 at home in the NBA Finals versus Michael Jordan and the Bulls).
At least Charles is making new friends in Happy Days territory
These are nice teams, these Kawhi Leonard-led Raptors and Giannis-led Bucks. But as the past four games have shown, neither is dominant against each other and the reward is playing the best basketball team since at least the late Nineties Bulls. The Warriors’ toughest foe next weekend is going to be rust.
And Then What Happens?
Last night we tuned in to Rachel Maddow for the first time in what was probably at least a year. She still looks the same, still wears the one of two outfits she likes to wear on air (it’s always dark blue or black), and is still repeating the same line that she’s been using for two years now. Literally, she said about the president and the network of investigations that never seem to entangle him, “This is all moving very, very fast.”
Except that, of course, it is not. Don McGann and William Barr have ignored subpoenas to appear before Congress. Hope Hicks was subpoena’d yesterday and she’ll probably spend the month on Nantucket. The Treasury Dept. is ignoring a request by a House committee to turn over the president’s tax records even though Maddow spent a lot of time last night spelling out the fact that it is MANDATORY they do so.
Here’s the question that no one, not even Maddow, is answering: How exactly do you enforce these rules when the president and all of his cronies are the ones breaking them? Who actually marches up to Steve Mnuchin (Treasury Sec.) and arrests him for contempt?
Let me explain this in terms that at least I can understand. Everyone in your 3rd-grade class agrees that when lining up for lunch or recess, etc, there are “NO BACKSIES.” But then the wormy, sycophantic pal of the class bully lines up right in front of you (this would be Stephen Miller) and he grants that class bully (Trump) backsies. Now Trump is standing right in front of you and you say, “You CAN’T do that.” And the class bully says defiantly, “What you gonna do about it?”
That’s where we are, sadly, as a nation. So who’s gonna be the one to take a swipe at the class bully? A real swipe, not some high-minded MSNBC guest or commentator fulminating on what needs to be done. Related, Jeff Daniels appeared on Nicolle Wallace’s show yesterday afternoon and, unaided by an Aaron Sorkin script, said what we’ve been saying for a couple of years now: When it all comes down to it, the support of Trump in the face of all previous claims about integrity and character and family values and religion, etc., from Republicans, is about that one last gasp of white supremacy.
Yes, the dude from Dumb and Dumber is actually very smart
And we also agree with Daniels that what may be needed in order to end Trump’s presidency is for someone on the other side to play just as dirty as he does. The American who leaks the unredacted version of the Mueller Report to the Washington Post or New York Times will be this era’s Daniel Ellsburg, who was the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the The New York Times. If you’re not familiar with that story, watch The Post (nowhere near as good a film as All The President’s Men, but it’s got Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep so it doesn’t exactly suck).
If you’re wondering why they made a film about the Pentagon Papers and named it The Post instead of The Times, well, I don’t have all day to explain inexplicable Hollywood manuevers. I have tables to serve and cocktails to make…
The Uh O’s
In last night’s 11-4 loss to the New York Yankees, Baltimore Oriole pitchers served up one home run balls to Gary Sanchez and two to Clint Frazier. The third home run was the 100th the O’s have given up this season, after only 48 games. The previous fastest pitching staff to 100 homers? The Kansas City Royals in 2000, who allowed 100 in 57 games.
By the way, this passage below from espn.com’s game story is why sportswriters should not do math. Can you spot the error?
Nearly a fifth of New York’s 47 games thus far have been against the Orioles, who are 6-17 at home and 15-33 overall, the worst record in the AL. The Yankees are 8-2 against the Orioles…
It Isn’t Brain Surgery
Once upon a time Dr. Ben Carson was a highly-regarded brain surgeon (as opposed to poorly regarded brain surgeons?). Now he’s the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) because he’s the only black person Donald Trump knows and likes (besides Kanye). But the hypothalamus and housing projects have little to do with one another, as this exchange on Capitol Hill yesterday illustrated…
What’s so sad about this is that, as an SNL sketch, we’d skewer it for being little more than a pun. You can see Chris Redd (or bring back Jay Pharoah to reprise the role!) as Ben and Aidy Quinn as Katie Porter without either having to stretch.
Mama Said Knock You Out
We should have shown this on Monday or Tuesday. Our bad. Here’s 6’7″ heavyweight Deontay Wilder ending opponent Dominic Breazele’s night in the first round Saturday night. We haven’t seen a first-round heavyweight KO with this much raw violence since 1980s Mike Tyson. Wow.
Wilder, 33 years old, won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics and is 41-0-1 as a professional. A Tuscaloosa native, he dreamt of playing for the Crimson Tide out of high school but a girlfriend’s pregnancy (I’m not going anywhere near an abortion law line here) changed his plans. He could’ve been the Crimson Tide’s version of Jadeveon Clowney. Nicknamed the “Bronze Bomber,” Wilder remains an avid supporter of the Tide and even spoke to the team last August.
Music 101
Radioactive
If Asia thought it was a supergroup in 1981, then The Firm decided to do them even better three years later with guitarist Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) and lead singer Paul Rodgers (Free and Bad Company). The song was released in the spring of 1985, almost exactly one year before the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. For the axe geeks out there, Page is playing a red doubleneck 1971 Gibson EDS-1275.
Remote Patrol
All In The Family/The Jeffersons Live
8 p.m. ABC
Of course we’re dubious, but appreciate the inspiration behind this. Norman Lear, who produced both CBS sitcom classics that ran in the 1970s, will turn 97 later this summer. He’s teamed with Jimmy Kimmel to re-produce one episode from each show and tape it live. You already know the written material is timeless; the trick is to see if the casts can hold up their end. They’ve assembled some heavyweights: Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei as Archie and Edith Bunker; Jamie Foxx and Wanda Sykers as George and Weezy. If you’re not happy with those leads, we suggest you STIFLE!
In the five games since Kevin Durant was lost, Curry has scored 33, 36, 37, 36 and 37 points
Championship Mode
Once again the Warriors fall behind at Portland by at least 17 in the first half, and once again behind Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and some fabulous offensive rebounding by role players, they reel in the Blazers and win.
The Dubs are returning to the NBA Finals for a fifth consecutive time, something no NBA squad has done since the 1960s Celtics (the ESPN SportsCenter graphic decided to only go back 50 years and thus did not include Bill Russell & Co. because as we all know sports were not a thing before ESPN existed…or at least they often like to think so).
Leonard led the Blazers in points and boards (12) as Bill Walton watched from the Blazer sideline
Meyers Leonard of Portland scored a career-high (as in the NBA AND college) 30 points. Make of that what you will.
Disaster Guru
This is Craig Mazin. He’s the creator, writer and executive producer behind HBO’s Chenobyl. If you’re wondering how a kid from Brooklyn comes by being an expert on natural disasters and meltdowns, you should know that Mazin was also the freshman year roommate of Ted Cruz at Princeton.
Remember the dude who kept tweeting about Cruz before the 2016 presidential election informing people what a clown Cruz is? That was Mazin.
Not Out Of His Depth
Sorry, Sports Twitter, but the most impressive “deep dive” of 2019 will belong not to some writer from The Ringer or Wright Thompson, but to Victor Vescovo, above. The Dallas native, 53, recently set the world record for the deepest dive in maritime history, piloting his submersible to a depth of 10,298 feet in the Mariana Trench.
Vescovo has previously summited Mount Everest. The resume on the private-equity titan/multimillionaire: Stanford, MIT grad school, Harvard business school. Yes, but has he ever assumed the loan debt for an entire graduating class?
Farewell To A Legend
A farewell to Formula One racing champion Niki Lauda, a three-time F1 series champ and the only man ever to do it racing both for Ferrari and McLaren. Lauda passed away yesterday at the age of 70.
If you’ve never seen the Ron Howard film Rush, about Lauda’s return to the sport after a fiery crash in 1976 nearly killed him and severely burned him, well, it may be Opie Cunningham’s best film. Worth knowing: Lauda won the F1 season series title in 1975 and 1977, or in the years directly before and after the crash.
Below, a favorite scene that aptly illustrates the way Lauda thought.
Twister The Night Away
There may be nothing more visually spectacular in nature than a tornado, deadly as they are. More than 20 touched down yesterday in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and Missouri. Also, and perhaps related, the period between April 2018 and April 2019 was the wettest on record in some East Coast cities such as Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
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*Gotta truncate this; the restaurant world never rests.
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