by John Walters
A Medium Happy 52nd to Russell Crowe, who will be hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend.
Starting Five
DeChambeau is in select company with Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore
Do You Know/Bryson DeChambeau?
The Masters just teed off and I’m rooting for this guy (above). He’s a physics major from SMU who won both the NCAA title and the U.S. Amateur last year. DeChambeau is considered a “mad scientist” of the game, soaking his golf balls in Epsom salts, using irons that are all the same lengths, 37 1/2 inches (the last Masters golfer to do this was Bobby Jones, who only co-founded the event).
DeChambeau, 22, discovered a book written by a Seattle-based aeronautical engineer called “The Golf Machine” that has some unorthodox, but highly logical, ergonomic ideas about swing and so forth. He has memorized excerpts of the book the way a zealot would verses of the Bible. Interesting cat, making his debut at Augusta.
2. “Cano, It’s Me…
When a future Hall of Famer voluntarily leaves the Yankees…
…I’ve thought about us for a long, long time”
Still blaming Jay Z for persuading one of the greatest Dominican ballplayers to leave the city that may have the most Dominicans outside the DR. Anyway, Robinson Cano clouted (blasted?) two two-run home runs yesterday, giving him four HRs in this nascent season. He’s batting .308 with 7 RBI after three games.
Castro is convertible from a Cub to a Yankee….
Meanwhile, the Yankees may have finally found a replacement for Cano: “All-” Starlin Castro had four hits in last night’s 16-run barrage for the Bombers. Castro is batting .625 with 7 RBI after two games.
3. Was This About the ‘Crying Jordan’ Meme?
Props to the students at Jagannah University for not backing down
In Bangladesh, the term “hacking” when used in the same sentence as “blogger” has nothing to do with binary code. Students at Jagannah University are protesting today after one of their own, Nazimuddin Samad, was hacked to death with machetes after blogging about reality. Samad wrote on a Facebook post, “Evolution is a scientific truth. Religion and race are invention of the savage and uncivil people.”
Well, duh.
I’ve said this before: My least favorite Muslims are delusional Muslims holding machetes.
Kudos to the students in Bangladesh. They’re not whining about “not feeling safe.”
4. Merle Haggard
Adding Haggard to the All-Aptly Named Team
A couple of things about country legend Merle Haggard, who passed away yesterday on his birthday at age 79: He passed away inside his tour bus even though he was on his property (street cred) in Bakersfield, California; his manager of 54 years, Fuzzy Owen (of course), was with him; he’d predicted a few days earlier that he would die on his birthday; he served a stint in San Quentin; and he also recorded 38 songs that went to No. 1 on the country music charts between 1966 and 1987.
Song you may know best: “Okie from Muskogee” or “Today, I Started Loving You Again.”
Note: Haggard was not married to Susan in Eight Is Enough. That was Merle the Pearl. Another Californian named Merle, just not Haggard.
5. Where In The World?
Hint: one of the harder cities on the planet to get to….
Yesterday: Milan Cathedral
Kobe Watch
Mamba scored 17 points last night, giving him 33,521 in 1,342 games. That gives him an average of 24.978 points per game in his career. Four games remaining. He needs to score 129 points, or average 32 points per game in his final four to reach 25.00 ppg. Don’t see it happening. Meanwhile, Basketball-Reference.com has those totals on its site (33,521 and 1,342) but still has him at 25.0 ppg. Oversight or propaganda?
Music 101
Wild Safari
This infectious tune closed the latest episode of Vinyl, in which former Yale Whiffenpoof Clark, the dorky white guy who to this point has seemed like a young tool headed nowhere, gets invited to a party/social club in Harlem or the Bronx and discovers the Latin beat. The band is Barabbas, a group from Spain that actually released this song in 1971. So if, like me, you’d never heard of it, then you’ve been living in Clarksville, too (you can take the last train there).
p.s. Did Steve Winwood later pilfer this opening percussion beat for “Higher Love?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWE1M1uqw8A&nohtml5=False
Remote Patrol
Spurs at Warriors
10:30 p.m. TNT
kWh Leonard is the goods
There’s no more wiggle room for the Dubs, who have four games remaining and must win all four to finish 73-9. Will Pop rest his starters? Do you realize that technically San Antonio could still finish ahead of GSW for first place in the West, the prize of which is avoiding OKC in the second round?