Category: Sports

Baseball fans in general and fans NewMexiKen’s age in particular should appreciate the HBO documentary on Mickey Mantle, which premiered tonight. I wasn’t a Yankee fan — indeed I was a Yankee-hater then — but he was a hero in the 1950s of a type that no one today seems to approach (ill-deserved as much of it may have been). It’s a well done program.

I saw Mantle play twice, 53 and 49 years ago. I can remember both games and especially his out-of-the-park homerun at Tiger (then Briggs) Stadium in 1956 — over the third deck’s 94-foot-high roof in right field — June 18, 1956.

The following describes a homer Mantle hit in the same park in 1960.

Mantle unloaded a tremendous homer over the right-field roof through a light tower (which it may have grazed) and out of the park. The pitcher was Paul Foytack. Years later researcher Paul Susman, Ph.D. found eyewitnesses who confirmed exactly where the ball landed on the fly. Dr. Susman then measured the distance, which turned out to be an astonishing 643 feet! This was almost certainly the longest home run Mickey hit in a regular season game that could actually be measured to the spot it landed, and probably the longest homer anyone ever hit in a regular season game that could be measured to the actual landing point. This homer is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest homer ever “measured trigonometrically.”

Mickey Mantle: Frequently Asked Questions

Same Tiger pitcher served up both of these (1956, 1960) — Paul Foytack.

An article in today’s New York Times describes the appeal of Major League Baseball broadcasts on XM radio.

“Because of the length of the season, the pace of the games and the soap-opera quality of baseball, listeners get to know announcers very well and become very close to them,” Gary Cohen, the radio voice of the Mets, said. “But what I like best about XM is that you can also listen to other broadcasters. You can get a point of comparison.”

Harry Kalas has been calling Philadelphia Phillies games in his unique baritone for 34 years, but only now can he be heard all the way to California. Jerry Coleman has been tripping over his words in San Diego for 34 years and can finally be laughed about in the far Northeast. But the main attraction seems to be Scully, the Dodgers’ Hall of Fame announcer who is generating better reviews on XM than Beyoncé. Fifty years after Scully narrated Brooklyn’s only World Series championship, New Yorkers can again listen to his lyrical broadcasts of Dodgers home games.

Bobby Abreu of the Phillies his 41 homeruns tonight to win the Major League Baseball All-Star Homerun Derby. His first round was 24, breaking the old single round record of 15. His total of 41 beat the old record of 27.

Abreu is from Venezuela. Each of the eight players tonight represented their native country.

Those who have seen Field of Dreams or read the book on which it was based, Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella, will remember the character “Moonlight” Graham, played by Burt Lancaster in the film.

Archibald Wright Graham (1876-1965) was an actual player, and a doctor. Graham played in one game for the New York Giants on June 29, 1905 (in the movie it was the last game of the season in 1929). Graham played two innings in the field but never batted in the major leagues; he was on deck when his one game ended.

Danica Patrick got another phone call from Bernie Ecclestone, and she remains puzzled by this series of exchanges after the Formula One boss likened women to “domestic appliances.”

“He said that … he didn’t mean to be harmful to me,” said Patrick, who received a phone message from Ecclestone when she got off a plane. “He said, ‘I wasn’t trying to insult you. Quite the opposite, really.'”

SI.com

What he reportedly first saPOSTID: “Women should be all dressed in white like all other domestic appliances.”

At The New Yorker David Remnick has a brief item on Mike Tyson and his “last” fight. An excerpt:

When he became champion, his renunciation of poverty was absolute. During one thirty-three-month period in the mid-nineties, he spent $4,477,498 on cars and motorcycles. (Over the years, he owned a red Lamborghini Countach, a Bentley with a bumper sticker reading “I ♥ Allah,” and a Lamborghini “jeep” that had been built for the Saudi king.) He spent ninety-five thousand dollars a month on jewelry and clothing, $411,777 on pigeons and cats, and an untold amount on pet lions, tigers, and “royal blood” Shar-Peis. When he was not training, he redirected his energies. For one erotic marathon, a satrap lined up twenty-four women for the night. His cultural influences were various. When all the tattooing was complete, his face was that of a Maori warrior; Mao smiled murderously from one biceps, and the pacific tennis ace Arthur Ashe was portrayed on the other. Ashe’s widow, Jeanne, once said, “If I could sue a body part, I would.”

According to Consumer Reports, for the third time this year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has fined Nautilus, maker of Bowflex, for failing to report serious injuries and safety defects.

Photo taken (with a cell phone) just moments before the first pitch in today’s Washington Nationals game against the Florida Marlins at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. The Nats won 6-3.

This was NewMexiKen’s 14th major league ballpark (ten of them still in action).

For the first time since 1933 a major league baseball team with the name Washington is in first place this far into the season.

U.S. and international soccer officials are puzzled over acting governor Richard J. Codey’s outrage that “The Star-Spangled Banner” was not played before a match between England and Colombia.

Codey attended Tuesday’s match at Giants Stadium and became annoyed when the U.S. national anthem was not played along with the anthems of the countries in the match — even though that is the normal protocol.

He said he immediately asked game organizers why it wasn’t played and was told, “Governor, we’re really very sorry. The British people don’t want to hear it,” The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., reported in yesterday’s newspapers.

The Washington Post

NewMexiKen has never understood why the anthems are made such a part of sports contests to begin with. What’s the connection?

Ever since Janet Guthrie became the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 in 1977, the story line for women at Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been how she, Lyn St. James and Sarah Fisher made the starting field — not about their chances to win.

Danica Patrick has changed that.

America’s newest racing find, a 23-year-old rookie driver from Roscoe, Ill., earned her place among the favorites for the May 29 race last Sunday when she qualified fourth — and came within a bobble of winning the pole for the 89th running of the 500.

She might seem too tiny — barely 5 feet 2 and 100 pounds — but she knows how to control a 650-horsepower machine at speeds up to 230 mph around a 2 1/2 -mile race track as well as any man here.

She will start fourth in the 500, right behind pole-sitter Tony Kanaan, last year’s Indy Racing League champion, but in her mind she should be on the pole. A sideways twitch in one of former winner Bobby Rahal’s cars as she entered the first turn of a four-lap qualifying attempt made the difference between her time of 2 minutes 38.5875 seconds and Kanaan’s 2:38.1961 for 10 miles.

Los Angeles Times

Afleet Alex on his knees

From Reuters

Can’t yet locate a photo of Afleet Alex stumbling, but this is a great shot from SI.com.

Katie Brownell, we assume, doesn’t get many you-throw-like-a-girl catcalls from opposing dugouts.

Brownell, 11, pitching for her Dodgers Little League team in Oakland, N.Y., had the ultimate putdown for the boys on the opposing Yankees team in an 11-0 victory last Saturday: 18 batters up, 18 down — and all 18 via strikeouts. In fact, she didn’t even go to a three-ball count.

“As far back as I can remember, I don’t ever recall hearing of a perfect game,” Eric Klotzbach, president of the Oakland-Alabama Little League, told The Daily News of Batavia.

And her performance was no fluke, either. She threw five innings of one-hit ball — with 14 of the 15 outs strikeouts — in the season opener, and she’s hitting .714 after three games.

“She had older brothers, and we were always outside,” said her mother, Denise Bischoff, “so the minute she could pick up a ball, she was [playing].”

With rumblings that this thing could go Hollywood, Tatum O’Neal is reportedly warming up in the bullpen.

The Seattle Times: Sideline Chatter

Update: Sideline Chatter’s Dwight Perry informs NewMexiKen that Miss Brownell plays in the Oakfield, N.Y., little league, not Oakland, and that she is the only girl in the league.

You’ve probably been wanting to read the latest from Barry Bonds.

Every penny NewMexiKen bet was on Giacomo, how about you?

And I had a mint julep, too. My first I think. Usually I prefer to keep my salads and my drinks separate, or did I just get a poorly made Albuquerque mint julep?

Hey, the jockey is from New Mexico. Viva!

The golf pros agree: You should size up the green closely, address the ball squarely and hold onto your club firmly.

Very firmly, if you’re playing golf in parts of the San Gabriel Valley.

A rash of golf club thefts at public courses there is leaving authorities frustrated and golfers downright furious.

On Friday, thieves even struck one course during a Los Angeles Police Department tournament and stole more than $2,500 worth of clubs from officers.

Los Angeles Times

A month ago, Mark McGwire was hauled before a congressional hearing and lambasted as a cheater for using a legal, performance-enhancing steroid precursor when he broke baseball’s single-season home run record.

A week ago, Tiger Woods was celebrated for winning golf’s biggest tournament, the Masters, with the help of superior vision he acquired through laser surgery.

What’s the difference?

The Beam in Your Eye – If steroids are cheating, why isn’t LASIK? By William Saletan at Slate.

According to Saletan scores of athletes have had their vision improved to 20-15 or better.

A provocative column.

“The U.S. Postal Service files a request seeking a two-cent raise in the rate for regular mail,” noted David Thomas of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Atlanta Hawks players respond by requesting cost-of-living raises so they can continue mailing it in.”

Sideline Chatter

Here’s The Shot seen ’round the world (60-second WMV).

From Jaffe Juice via Ed Bott.

It was poignant that nearly every time CBS cut to the defending champion Phil Mickelson, he was far less than what he was last year. “Wow!” Lundquist said, as Mickelson double-bogeyed the 16th. “The defending champion with a four-putt.”

From that moment until Mickelson wrapped up, the Amazon.com ranking of his book, “One Magical Sunday,” fell to 372nd from 329th.

The New York Times