Starting Five

1. Homer Holds ‘Em Hitless…Again

Fun Facts About Homer Bailey’s No-Hitter Versus the San Francisco Giants Last Night (collect ’em all, or trade with friends!):

1. Like his boyhood idol, Nolan Ryan, Bailey hails from Texas, wears No. 34, and has now thrown two no-hitters while no other MLB pitcher threw one in the interim (Ryan performed the feat in 1974 and 1975). Bailey’s other no-hitter took place last September 28.

2. Three other current Major League pitchers have thrown multiple no-hitters. All have two in their career. The trio are Mark Buehrle, Justin Verlander and Roy Halladay.

3. Bailey’s was that rare no-hitter in which a batter actually reached first base on his hit and there was no error. So what happened? A fielder’s choice. Buster Posey, the reigning National League MVP, fisted a one-hopper that dragged Red first baseman Joey Votto, the 2010 NL MVP, far off the bag. Bailey was late off the mound to cover first. Posey likely beats him there. However, Gregor Blanco, who had walked earlier in the inning and advanced to second base on a groundout, strayed too far off second base. Votto threw to third base and picked off Blanco. Posey reached first base safely, but since it was a fielder’s choice, officially it is not a hit. Domo arigoto, Joe-Joey Votto.

4. Bailey becomes the first Reds pitcher to throw a no-hitter and share a name with a character from the Queen City’s own “WKRP in Cincinnati” since Johnny Vander Meer. The latter actually tossed a pair of no-hitters in consecutive starts, which no other pitcher has ever done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, this isn’t a fact but it’s worth mentioning. The no-hitter may be what sets baseball apart from other sports. What other sport provides the opportunity for such a spectacular event every time out, something that happens once to four times annually but yet most fans know they will never see? Is there a football or basketball equivalent?

2. Coachella? Bonnaroo? No, It’s an Egyptian Protest

For the second time in 2 1/2 years (“yeaarrrrs”), Egyptians are gathering by the hundreds of thousands in Tahrir Square to protest an oppressive political regime (imagine that: an oppressive political regime! I know!). The people are protesting the Islamic government of president Mohamed Morsi, whom they elected only last year.

On Monday the military, which is now backing Morsi’s opponents (that, as Tywin Lannister could surely tell you, is not a good sign for Morsi), gave the president 48 hours to come to a power-sharing agreement with the other side. But Morsi went all Tom Petty on them, singing, “I won’t back down.” Which, of course, may lead to his free falling out of the presidency. Last night 23 people died during protests at Cairo University.

Apparently, Morsi has run an increasingly authoritarian and dictatorial government since being elected president. We point out, for no particular reason, that Morsi earned a PhD at the University of Southern California.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on overseas, where people gather en masse for other things besides music festivals and cronuts.  Now back to the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin trial…

3. A “Wrecking Ball” Across Europe

Granted, foreigners will gather by the tens of thousands for a good band or show, too. Bruce Springsteen, for example, who is currently invading Europe for the second time in the past two summers. David Fricke has a terrific profile of the current tour in Rolling Stone, and I mention it because The Boss gives a quote that should be every live performer’s creed. It reads:

“The (fans) are here to hear their favorite songs. But what they really pay you for is to be as present and alive as you can be, to have a band that is as present and alive as it can be. If it’s an act of replication, you are failing. It has to be a rebirth on a nightly basis.”

On a recent night in Milan, Springsteen’s show clocked in at three hours and 25 minutes. The encore alone was 45 minutes long and the album “Born In The USA” was performed in its entirety.

Bruce has 12 dates remaining on his European crusade, including tonight’s show in Geneva. It wraps up on July 28 in Kilkenny, Ireland. Whaddaya say, Barry? Cardiff, Wales, on July 23?

3. Worm Turns

The magazine Sports Illustrated just released its “Where Are They Now?” summer double issue, which is industry code for “The Editorial Staff Wants a Week Off In the Summer, Too.” I thought I’d do a little “Where Are They Now?” of former members of “The Bullpen”, which is what we referred to the Reporters Group at SI, back when it was actually large enough that you could play a hand of bridge with the assembled members. It no longer is. Not all of the following toiled in the Bullpen, checking facts, simultaneously, but I ran across all of them at some stage of my tenure. This is not an exhaustive list, just a list of many:

1. Steve Rushin: Still the greatest talent to emerge from the red-pencil crew. Currently residing in north central Connecticut with a lovely and lanky wife and four children. He had left SI, but now is back. Smart move, SI. Besides being an incomparable talent, Rushin was arguably the best basketball player on staff. Also, he is Exhibit A. of the Seinfeld doctrine that  being irritated is necessary to produce humor. Steve had a temper, although I imagine Steve would say, in a Rushinesque way, that having kids has tempered his temper.

2. Tim Crothers: Currently the most popular journalism professor at the University of North Carolina, his alma mater. Has written some terrific books and his story on Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan chess prodigy –which SI rejected a couple of years ago — ran in ESPN the Magazine and was nominated for a 2012 National Magazine Award. Crothers, whom I consider the most talented writer outside of Rushin that the Bullpen produced in my time, can be spotted almost daily playing roller hockey with his good friend Anson Dorrance. I kid you not. (also, on that Mutesi piece: Crothers flew from North Carolina to Uganda to Siberia, which must be the strangest expense report itinerary in the history of sports writing).

3. Chad Millman: Currently the managing editor of ESPN the Magazine. Good guy, but dribbles too much.

4. Christian Stone: Currently the managing editor of Sports Illustrated. My scouting report? Get it in writing. And notarized.

5. Josh Elliott: Was always too handsome for press boxes. Currently a co-host on “Good Morning, America.” Never worked a local market. Like a few other extremely good-looking people I’ve met, he was adopted.

6. Seth Davis: Currently an on-air analyst for CBS’ college hoops coverage while still writing for SI. The dream job that this Dookie probably could not even have dreamed of. Good egg. I used to attend his open-mic comedy attempts in Manhattan and Seth would even told you that I wrote the joke that he’d use to open his act.

7. Jeff Bradley: Great guy, younger brother of soccer coach Bob Bradley and hence uncle of Team USA soccer player Michael Bradley. Currently enjoying the Jersey shore and raising his brood.

8. Paul Gutierrez: The only martial arts black belt I ever came across in the Bullpen. Currently covers the A’s and Raiders for Comcast Sports Net California.

9. Jeff Pearlman: Currently writes his own blog and best-selling sports books. One of the more talented writers the Bullpen produced. His secret? An innate curiosity about everything and a willingness to ask any question, no matter how bold or brazen. He also pioneered, as a hoopster, the idea of leaving your soles but not your toes on a shot fake. More often than not the refs called him for traveling, and then he’d question them about what they missed. Jeff learned to apprise refs of his move before games, as if he were a football coach informing a referee about a trick play during warm-ups.

10. Dave Fleming: One of the most affable guys you’ll ever come across. Currently writes for ESPN: The Magazine and wrote a terrific story on poop a few years back.

11. J.B. Morris: Born and raised in State College, Pa., where Jay Paterno was one of his closest childhood friends. Currently the college football editor at ESPN: The Magazine.

12. Ashley McGeachy (now “Fox”): Currently covers the NFL for ESPN.com and is occasionally fisked by Deadspin. Another good egg.

13. Candace Putnam (now “Murphy”): Married to San Francisco sports radio host Brian Murphy. Candace is definitely  the only Alaskan native, Yale alum, former “Faces in the Crowd” subject (swimming) to ever work for SI. There’s piss-and-vinegar coursing through Candi Sue’s veins, and I mean that as the highest form of compliment. One of my all-time favorites, and she knows it.

14. Loren Mooney: Former editor-in-chief at Bicycling, now an editor at Sunset magazine. An Alabama-raised Cornell alum who, like Putnam, previously appeared in “Faces in the Crowd” (as a middle-distance runner).

15. Dave Gabel: The coordinating producer of NBCOlympics.com. Obsessions include Rush (the band, not the windbag), tennis, The Simpsons and fantasy baseball.

 

16. Steve Hymon: Of everyone mentioned, “Hymo” is my hero. He once stormed into a particularly out-of-touch, Princeton-alum, editor’s office (that doesn’t really narrow it down much, I realize) after having returned from filing a piece on the road and seeing his copy butchered, and said, “Don’t f___ with my copy!” Hymo was maybe 25 at the time.

Steve’s problem –and this will get you killed in corporate life –is that he cared too damn much about the quality of the product. On the other hand, he was the first and maybe only fact-checker to submit a “Point After” column that was used (He advocated for a two-point conversion after the touchdown in the NFL; and what ever became of that idea?).

Eventually, Hymo left the magazine and moved to Los Angeles with his girlfriend. A few years later as a court reporter for the Los Angeles Times, he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize. The LA Times eventually laid him off — and almost everyone else–and now Steve lives a serene and happy Krameresque life, playing pick-up hockey and camping and skiing in California’s big, bold and beautiful backyard. He’s living the dream.

 

5. The Los Angeles Lakers Do NOT Understand Dating, At All

As Dwight Howard enjoys the ego stroking that is unrestricted free agency, his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers, are sounding a lot like the desperate Lara Flynn Boyle character in the original “Wayne’s World” movie. The “Stay” billboards are sad and desperate, and the thought of them must make Kobe Bryant — who will someday make an outstanding NBA analyst, if he chooses to go that route — howl in scornful laughter.

Dwight Howard is a terrific NBA center. But he has never won an NBA championship and he has never been happy, no matter how much coddling has been afforded him. If I were the Lakers, I’d play the “You Got Lucky” (yet another Tom Petty song reference? Yeah, you got a problem with that?) card. Hey, Dwight, we are the Lakers. Laker Girls. Hollywood. The franchise of Mikan, West, Wilt, Baylor, Kareem, Magic, Worthy, Shaq and Kobe. We’re gonna be just fine with or without you (okay, so maybe they are also playing the U2 “With or Without You” card). We’d love to have you, and we can pay you more than anyone else, but if you can’t see what we’re worth, good riddance (also playing the Green Day card).

Reserves

This should — will? — be a much larger story. Michael Sondheimer, an associate athletic director at UCLA who had been an employee in the Bruin athletic department for more than 36 years, resigned amidst allegations that he used the internet to inappropriately contact minors. In this local CBS piece, which has shades of a Carl Monday exclusive, reporter David Goldstein confronts Sondheimer about messages such as “Love ghetto girls” and “Want to do anything to your hot body.”

Ironically, Goldstein found Sondheimer at a local library, using the internet.

Sondheimer is a ’77 UCLA alum, though you will no longer find his profile page on the internet.

A couple of years ago I spoke to former UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel, whom I’ve known for 20 years. He told me that one of the difficulties of working at UCLA is that so many athletic department staffers have been entrenched there for decades, and that there’s no sense of hustle or ambition in them. It’s as if, We’re UCLA, and excellence will just happen. Granted, it’s a fabulous school with arguably the most successful overall athletic program in NCAA history, but there is a lot of dead wood there. Looks like the Bruins just lost one piece of old lumber.

Not sure why the national media has yet to pick up on this. Is it because it’s the slowest sports week of the year? Or, like me, were they just unaware of this development (thanks to my tipster)? I’ll await Gregg Doyel’s “Shame on UCLA” column. And I’ll wonder, if Sondheimer was at UCLA for three-plus decades, if this is the first that most of his colleagues knew about this bizarre habit of his.

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Yet another former colleague, and easily the most fearless female sportswriter I know of, Sally Jenkins, takes Rush, Geraldo and other to task for painting all NFL players with the Aaron Hernandez brush. I’d put myself in that miserable lot, as I too suggested that every NFL locker room has a guy (or a few) who walk a thin line between All-Pro and incarceration.

My lone beef with Sally’s data: To compare NFL players with males 22-34 for your crime rate comparison (3% to 10.8%) is to overlook or ignore the tremendous economic disparity between pro football players and that age group in general. And I’d argue that the crime rate among males aged 22-34 would drop precipitously if their median income was, say, $500,000 per year.

I’ll speak for myself here, and not for you, but what I hear over and over again in the wake of Hernandez’s arrest is, “What an idiot.” Just like I heard after Chicago Bear wide receiver Sam Hurd was arrested for allegedly being a major cocaine dealer (Hurd, while out on bond, twice failed drug tests and will now receive a minimum sentence of 10 years). These are men who seemingly have everything, but they risk it all for what? Pride? Ego? Excitement? Can we categorize it as a “Hurd Mentality?”

 

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Here is a quick piece on Brendan McDonough, 21, the lone survivor of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. His 19 comrades all perished in Sunday’s Yarnell Hill fire.

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Here are your new Fox Sports 1 lead duo, Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole. They’re the Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann of Canadia.