Baseball Update and Notes

Last night the Los Angeles Dodgers stayed in first place in the National League West with a (2-1) home win vs the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds had ended the Dodgers six game win skein, all since the All Star break, with a win the night before.

L.A. has a ten game road winning streak going, which is topped only by the legendary Brooklyn Dodgers of 1955, in franchise history.

That 1955 team, the only World Series winning team in Brooklyn history, won 11 straight road games. The Dodgers will try to equal that record in a night game at Wrigley Field in Chicago vs the Cubs on Thursday August 1st. One thing is for sure any Brooklyn Dodgers at Cubs 1955 games were day games. There were no lights at Wrigley Field.

The Tampa Bay Rays have won 20 of 23 games and like the Dodgers lead their division (the AL East) by a half game. I think they are a remarkable organization, staying in contention without buying players and despite losing players.

Elsewhere, the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers and Oakland A’s are all nice favorites to hold on to their divisional leads. The Braves lost a top pitcher, one time Oakland A’s pitcher, Tim Hudson for the season.

Both the Braves and Athletics are in their third big league city in franchise history. The Braves played in Boston, and Milwaukee before going to Atlanta. (Yesterday I heard Marie Martini, a splendid woman of nearly 90, recalling Tommy Holmes and Braves Field in Boston. Great memories!) The A’s stared in Philadelphia and played in Kansas City before moving to Oakland.

The “miracle” Boston Braves won the 1914 World Series vs the heavily favored and great Philadelphia Athletics. 99 years later, it is far too early to predict a Braves/A’s World Series redux (there has not been one since 1914). However, I think the two franchises will comprise one fourth of the final 8 in, face it, what has become the major league baseball tournament.

Tommy Holmes

1955 Brooklyn Dodgers