STARTING FIVE
Fred Armisen may be the star of “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
1. Paging Stephon!
Okay, so it was only the first night, but the little I watched of Seth Meyers’ debut on “Late Night”, he looked uncomfortable. Again, I only watched up until the break before Amy Poehler, but the monologue was flat and the Venn Diagrams bit, while not awful, was desultory. The best moment was when Fred Armisen explained the premise of his show, “Recent History”, about things that happened within the last day.
Seth’s going to want to lean on Fred a lot the first month or two. He’ll find his voice, and Lorne Michaels did him no favors by having him work on SNL up until two weeks ago, but right now Meyers is a diffident host. Then again, it was only the first night.
2. Court Stormers: Head Coaches Edition
Turgeon was nearly this far out onto the court last night
Like most rules/laws that are enforced in a lax or capricious manner (speeding, traveling, investment bank rate-fixing, 9 o’clock bed time), those who defy the rules will never cease testing the limits. The latest abrogation that has become a trend: coaches standing on the basketball court during play. I hate this, because it’s the basketball equivalent of a dude leaning too close to your girl at a bar. He’s just seeing what he can get away with.
Anyway, Maryland coach Mark Turgeon took this to another level in last night’s game versus Syracuse. At least when Jim Boeheim stormed the court at Duke on Saturday, he knew that he was getting tossed.
Oh, and by the way, and I’ll never be able to prove it, moments before Louisville’s Kevin Ware gruesomely snapped his lower leg in half during last spring’s Elite Eight game, his coach, Rick Pitino, was standing almost on that same spot on the court. Did Ware instinctively correct for his jump because of Pitino’s presence? Again, I’ll never be able to prove that he did. But I’ll always wonder.
3. How Gr$$n Was My Valley
At least three of the five men pictured should be Indian in order for this group to be demographically accurate
HBO’s new show, “Silicon Valley”, as The Big Lead suggested, looks like a cross between “Entourage” and “The Big Bang Theory.” So what’s wrong with that? Personally, I’ve been a T.J. Miller fan ever since he played Stainer in She’s Out of My League, so I’ll watch just to see him. Dig it: the reason we don’t loathe Silicon Valley billionaires as much as we do Wall Street millionaires is because the former are actually way smarter than we are. It’s like, What do you call a roomful of lawyers? Guys who failed organic chemistry.
Sunday nights, come April, will have this and “Game of Thrones” back to back? You had me at HBO.
4. Raymond Felton Arrested
I thought he was a point guard. Apparently, he’s a shooting guard.
5. Sachs Entertainment
The man behind the Goldman Sachs Elevator Twitter feed has been unveiled, and his name is Jason McIntyre! Wait, no, that’s not it. Okay, wrong unveiling, wrong year. However, he has been found and it turns out Goldman Sachs will not fire him. Know why? Because he has never worked for Goldman Sachs.
The Hall
Charter Inductees: Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner
1937: Tris Speaker, CF; Cy Young, P ; 1938: Grover Cleveland Alexander, P; Eddie Collins, 2B;1939:Nap Lajoie, 2B; Joe Jackson, LF; 1940: Billy Hamilton, OF; Cap Anson, 1B; 1941: Wee Willie Keeler, RF; George Sisler, 1B; 1942: Rogers Hornsby, 2B; Pie Traynor, 3B; 1943: Mickey Cochrane, C; Frankie Frisch, 2B 1944: Ed Walsh, P; Old Hoss Radbourn, P 1945: Lou Gehrig, 1B; Kid Nichols, P 1946: Ed Delahanty, LF; Lefty O’Doul 1947: Pud Galvin, P; John McGraw, INF 1948: Carl Hubbell, P; Addie Joss, P 1949: Harry Heilman, OF/1B; Monte Ward, P/SS
Christy Mathewson
1950: Cool Papa Bell, CF; Jimmie Foxx, 1B 1951: Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, P; Josh Gibson, C 1952: Paul Waner, RF; Charlie Gehringer, 2B 1953: Mel Ott, RF; Hank Greenberg, 1B1954: Eddie Plank, P; Dan Brouthers, 1B 1955: “Wahoo” Sam Crawford, OF; John Clarkson, P1956: Chief Bender, P; Bill Dickey, C 1957: Sam Rice, RF; Joe DiMaggio, CF 1958: Bill Terry, 1B; Heinie Manush, LF 1959: Dizzy Dean, P; Tim Keefe, P 1960: Gabby Hartnett, C; Mickey Welch, P1961: Bob Feller, P; Ducky Medwick, LF 1962: Luke Appling, SS; Jesse Burkett, LF 1963 Jackie Robinson, 2B; Zack Wheat, LF 1964: Jake Beckley, 1B; Rube Waddell, P 1965: Ralph Kiner, 1B, Lefty Grove, P 1966: Ted Williams, LF; Smoky Joe Wood, P/OF
1967
Roy Campanella, C; 1948-1957, Brooklyn Dodgers
In his 10 seasons, before being paralyzed in an automobile accident, Campy was named to play in the All-Star Game eight times and won the National League MVP award three times. In each of his three MVP seasons, Campy hit over .300 with 30 or more home runs and 100 or more RBI.
Max Carey, OF; 1910-1929, Pittsburgh Pirates
Carey
The National League’s top base-stealer before the era of Maury Wills and Lou Brock, Carey led the Senior Circuit in swipes 10 of his 18 full seasons. His 738 career thefts are still ninth on the all-time list and only Ty Cobb stole home more times (50) in his career than Carey, who had 33. He also hit 419 doubles.