by John Walters

Also, a VERY Happy Birthday to Phyllis, who keeps hearing from strangers how great she looks. She’s the head turner of Sun Lakes.

We don’t have an actual photo of Phyllis, but this is pretty close.

Starting Five

1. Murphy’s Lore

The MVP of Game 5, if not the entire NLDS, was the Mets’ (“Mess,” RIP) Daniel Murphy, who was responsible for all three of New York’s runs versus arguably the most dominant pitcher in baseball, Zack Greinke. Murphy tripled in Curtis Granderson in the first inning and hit a solo homer in the sixth, but it was his heads up baserunning in the 4th inning that was rightly the most memorable play.

With one out and the Mets trailing 2-1, Murphy stood on first. Pull-hitting lefty Lucas Duda was batting, so the Dodgers put on their heavy shift. Duda walked and Murphy slowly trotted toward 2nd, but then he noticed that all of the Dodger infielders were playing with dandelions and chewing the laces on their mitts and he raced to third. Nobody was near him. The next batter, Travis d’Arnaud (autocorrect hates you, dude), lofted a sac fly to right and Murphy scored.

The Dodgers plum gave away a run. Both they and the Rangers lost Game 5 due in part to fielding gaffes that would drive a Little League manager bonkers.

2. Pac-12 After Sark

Did you stay up to watch Stanford and white rushin’ stud Christian McCaffrey last night? Whoa. The Cardinal look dominant and McCaffrey, son of Ed, whose bio shows that he pretty much dominated Colorado high school football in 2012 and 2013, looks like a speedier version of Toby Gerhart. You know, because they’re both white and both attend Stanford and I’m a lazy sportswriter.

Last night against UCLA, an opponent who was a Top 10 team only a few weeks ago, McCaffrey rushed for a school-record 243 yards and extended his lead as the nation’s all-purpose yardage leader with a 96-yard kickoff return (in total, he had 369 all-purpose yards).

And, oh yeah, there was this amazing third-quarter touchdown catch off a flea flicker from Kevin Hogan to Francis Owusu (I hope the UCLA DB is also invited to the ESPYs, and that they reenact this pose as the award is handed to Owusu).

Stanford, which lost its season opener at Northwestern, 16-6, (West Coast teams should never agree to 11 a.m. local kickoffs two time zones away), looks mighty scary now. The toughest remaining games — Washington, Oregon, Cal and Notre Dame — are all in Palo Alto, while the Pac-12 title game is only 13 miles away. A one-loss Stanford team is headed to the college football playoff, and that seems entirely conceivable right now with the way McCaffrey and the rest of the offense (46 ppg the past 4 games) is humming.

3. Doc Drowns

A few days ago Jamie Zimmerman, a physician and medical correspondent for ABC News, drowned in Hawaii. Zimmerman, 31, slipped while walking along some rocks at the mouth of the Lumahai River in Kauai and was swept 200 yards out to sea (no one has yet reported if Zimmerman was knocked unconscious when she fell and if that played a role in her drowning). By the time rescuers arrived, it was too late to revive her.

The site where Zimmerman drowned was also used to film the musical number “I”m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair” in the 1956 film, South Pacific. That’s Mitzi Gaynor warbling.

4. Tip…of the Iceberg

So, Danny Meyer, restauranteur extraordinaire, plans to eliminate tipping from his restaurants. Meyer appeared on CNBC this morning and explained, “When I first started using Uber, I thought it was weird not to tip my driver. Now I kind of like it.”

Meyer’s plan is to eliminate tipping and then to just charge diners approximately 20% more for their meals. He cites the disadvantage that back-of-the-house staffers such as cooks and dishwashers are at because of the tipping policy. Well, hey, if cooks and dishwashers wanted to be tipped, they should’ve just been better-looking. Gah!

Honestly, though, it may not work in every industry, but this server can tell you that tipping HIGHLY incentivizes your server and that his tips trickle down to other members of the staff (runners, bussers, bartenders) who appreciate his motivation. If you want cooks and dishwashers (green card!) to earn more, pay them more, Danny.

Meanwhile, I can’t help feeling that somewhere between what Meyer will be paying his wait staff and the increase in his prices to diners will be a nice little windfall for the restaurant itself, i.e. Meyer himself.

You’ve lost me as a customer, Danny (I think you’ll survive)

5. Where In The World?

Yesterday: Seljalandfoss, Iceland.

Music 101

Boogie Nights

You can ask me what the Seventies were like, and I can just show you this video from the band Heatwave. This 1977 hit, which climbed to No. 2, is not only a signature song of the disco era, but it inspired the film title for one of the best movies not to win Best Picture nearly two decades later.

Remote Patrol

Saturday

No. 7 Michigan State at No. 12 Michigan

ESPN 3:30 p.m.

The Wolverines have pitched three consecutive shutouts. Sparty has beaten its last two foes, Purdue and Rutgers, by a total of 10 points. The momentum says Khaki, but the sharps say, “Not so fast, my friend.” My guess is that Corso goes green.