U2 v. R.E.M.

I decided to compare U2 and R.E.M., which I regard as the two great bands of the 1980's.  For each band, I have taken the ratings of the albums that they released before 1995, according to allmusic.com.  Here are the ratings for U2 (five-star albums in bold):

Boy (1980):  4 stars

October (1981):  3

War (1983):  5

Under a Blood Red Sky (1983):  3.5

The Unforgettable Fire (1984):  4

The Joshua Tree (1987):  5

Rattle and Hum (1988):  3

Achtung Baby (1991):  5

Zooropa (1993):  4

Total albums: 9

Total stars:  36.5

Avg. stars per album:  4.06

Five-star albums:  3

Now here's R.E.M.:

Murmur (1983):  5 stars

Reckoning (1984):  5

Fables of the Reconstruction (1985):  4

Lifes Rich Pageant (1986):  4.5

Document (1987):  4.5

Green (1988):  3.5

Out of Time (1991):  2.5

Automatic for the People (1992):  5

Monster (1994):  3

Total albums:  9

Total stars:  37

Avg. stars per album:  4.11

Five-star albums:  3

When I started this entry, I had no idea how it would come out, and I'm fascinated at how close it turned out to be.  I would rate Murmer a bit lower, and Out of Time quite a bit higher -- and I never really paid much attention to Achtung Baby.  But on the whole, these results seem very fair to me.

For the sake of comparison, here are Bruce Springsteen's first nine albums:

Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973):  5 stars

The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle (1973):  5

Born to Run (1975):  5

Darkness on the Edge of Town:  4.5

The River (1980):  5

Nebraska (1982):  5

Born in the U.S.A. (1984):  5

Tunnel of Love (1987):  5

Human Touch (1992):  2

Total albums:  9

Total stars:  41.5

Avg. stars per album:  4.61

Five-star albums:  7

Again, that seems fair.  But it's harsh on U2 and R.E.M. to put them up against Springsteen.  Let's do Tom Petty's first nine albums:

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (1976):  4.5 stars

You're Gonna Get It! (1978):  3.5

Damn the Torpedoes (1979):  5

Hard Promises (1981):  4.5

Long After Dark (1982):  3

Southern Accents (1985):  3

Pack Up the Plantation:  Live!:  2.5

Let Me Up (I've Had Enough):  3

Full Moon Fever (1989):  4.5

Total albums:  9

Total stars: 33.5

Avg. stars per album:  3.72

Five-star albums:  1

Now that's a comparison that shows how good R.E.M and U2 really were.  Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were a great and successful band -- they were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, and have a huge fan base to this day.  But they were not at the same level as R.E.M. and U2.  And, indeed, very few bands were.

British Open -- Round Three Wrap-Up

When I was a kid, I used to make up my own imaginary golf tournaments, and I would invariably create weird, overly-dramatic situations of the kind that you virtually never see in real life.  But even I never came up with anything what happened at the Old Course in St. Andrews yesterday.  On a day that was cold -- but not windy -- the Old Course was back to yielding low scores, but not for everyone.  Dustin Johnson -- who probably should have won the U.S. Open, and who led this tournament for three days and two rounds -- was afflicted by whatever ailment afflicts him when he gets close to winning a major.  On a day when red numbers were all over the scoreboard, and there were stretches of time where no one seemed to miss a putt, Johnson managed to bogey the last three holes -- how do you bogey 18 at St. Andrew's? -- to finish with a three-over par 75.  That left him mired in a tie for 18th place with seven other men, including Rickie Fowler, who just barely made the cut but who shot a 66 to give himself a puncher's chance.

Johnson's collapse left the door open for everyone else to climb back into contention, and almost everyone did:

1.  Sergio Garcia shot a 4-under par 68 to move to 9 under, where he is tied with Justin Rose, Adam Scott, and seven others for sixth place.

2.  Padraig Harrington, who won this tournament twice back in the days when people were just starting to use smart phones (2007 and 2008), shot a 65 (7 birdies, no bogeys), to grab fifth place at 10 under par.  He's only two shots off the lead.

3.  Jordan Spieth, who said that he figured out something on the range after a fairly mediocre performance in the second round, shot a 66 (7 birdies, 1 bogey) to move into fourth place at 11 under par.  He's only one shot off the lead.  Lest we forget, the 21-year-old Spieth is looking to become the first man to win the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the British Open in the same year since Ben Hogan in 1953.  This is not something I ever expected to see in my lifetime, and now Spieth is right there with a chance at history.

4.  Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Day, who seem to appear on the Heath Post about as often as Coach Calipari, shot a pair of 67's to move into a tie for the lead at 12 under par.

5.  And Mister Paul Dunne, a 22-year-old Irish amateur who just finished his career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, matched Spieth's 66 with one of his own to tie Oosthuizen and Day for the 54-hole lead.  It was the lowest score ever shot by an amateur in the third round of the British Open -- beating out the 67's shot yesterday by American amateur Jordan Niebrugge (who's at 9 under) and English amateur Ashley Chesters (who is at 6 under).  It also means that Mr. Dunne is the first amateur to lead the British Open after three rounds since Mr. Bobby Jones in 1927.  (Mr. Jones was the last amateur to win the British Open, which he did in 1926, 1927, and 1930.  But in 1930, Jones trailed by one shot going into the last round.)

The British press tend to describe very dramatic sporting events as "real Roy-of-the-Rovers stuff" -- after this comic that I totally would have read had I grown up in Britain.  But even the boldest fiction writer from my childhood would have hesitated to make up a British Open featuring both a 22-year-old amateur from Ireland, and a 21-year-old Texan who is trying to win the Grand Slam.  I would never have believed that any golf tournament this year -- much less one without Rory McIlroy and where poor old Tiger missed the cut -- would include so much drama.  Lots of folks at work tomorrow will be checking the scores.

T1.  J. Day (AUS):  -12 (66+71+67=204)
T1.  Mr. P. Dunne (am) (IRL):  -12 (69+69+66=204)
T1.  L. Oosthuizen (RSA):  -12 (67+70+67=204)

4.  J. Spieth:  -11 (67+72+66=205)

5.  P. Harrington (IRL):  -10 (72+69+65=206)

T6.  S. Garcia (ESP):  -9 (70+69+68=207)
T6.  R. Goosen (RSA):  -9 (66+72+69=207)
T6.  Z. Johnson:  -9 (66+71+70=207)
T6.  M. Leishman (AUS):  -9 (70+73+64=207)
T6.  Mr. J. Niebrugge (am):  -9 (67+73+67=207)
T6.  J. Rose (ENG):  -9 (71+68+68=207)
T6.  A. Scott (AUS):  -9 (70+67+70=207)
T6.  R. Streb:  -9 (66+71+70=207)
T6.  D. Willett (ENG):  -9 (66+69+72=207)

Sunday at the British Open

Actually, this great picture is from Saturday, but we'll pick up with comments to this post tomorrow where we leave off in this one today:

Here are the tee times for Sunday at The 143rd Open Championship. #TheOpen http://t.co/kMz4svJw5W pic.twitter.com/ZnD5qyYPMw
— The Open (@The_Open) July 19, 2014

The United States Wins the Walker Cup

Hat-tip to Mrs. GoHeath, who draws our attention to the fact that the United States won the Walker Cup (a competition for male amateur golfers) in decisive fashion over the weekend, thumping Great Britain & Ireland by the score of 17-9.  It was the biggest margin for either team in the Walker Cup since 1997, when the U.S. won 18-6.  The matches were played at the legendary National Golf Links of America, in Southampton, N.Y., which is one of the best courses most golf fans never see because it rarely hosts significant tournaments.  You can read more about the National Golf Links here.

We love the Walker Cup, but we didn't check on it this weekend because we assumed the Americans would get beaten.  This was a reasonable assumption, as the United States has lost every recent golfing competition with Europe.  Back in the summer of 2010, the United States held the Ryder Cup (for male pros), the Solheim Cup (for female pros), the Walker Cup (for male amateurs), and the Curtis Cup (for female amateurs).  Here's what's happened since:

Ryder Cup:
2010 (Celtic Manor Resort, Wales):  Europe 14 1/2, U.S.A. 13 1/2
2012 (Medinah C.C., Medinah, Ill.):  Europe 14 1/2, U.S.A. 13 1/2

Walker Cup:
2011 (Royal Aberdeen G.C., Scotland):  Great Britain & Ireland 14, U.S.A. 12

Solheim Cup:
2011 (Killeen Castle Golf Resort, Ireland):  Europe 15, U.S.A. 13
2013 (Colorado G.C., Parker, Colo.):  Europe 18, U.S.A. 10

Curtis Cup:
2012 (Nairn G.C., Scotland):  Great Britain & Ireland 10 1/2, U.S.A. 9 1/2

So if you're keeping track at home, this was our first win over a European side in any of these competitions since the 2010 Curtis Cup, and it ended a string of six consecutive losses.

There's a Kentucky angle here, as one of the players on the U.S. team was Justin Thomas of Goshen, who played for Louisville St. Xavier in high school and then spent two years at the University of Alabama (where he helped win a team NCAA title.  Thomas has said that the Walker Cup will be his last event as an amateur, as he intends to turn pro.  He went out with a bang, winning an alternate shot match with Patrick Rodgers as his teammate, and then going 1-0-1 in his two singles matches, including a 6 and 4 thumping of Max Orrin in his last match as an amateur on Sunday.  So he took 2 1/2 of the 3 points for which he competed, which is very good.  We wish him all the best in the pros.

A Poem by Seamus Heaney

Today the Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who won the Novel Price in Literature in 1995, died in Dublin.  Here is a poem he published in 1966, when he was 27 years old:

Digging

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging.  I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.

My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper.  He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf.  Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.