It was nearing a late Thursday night hour, I believe in 1999, and I was fortunate enough to be sitting with the man and a good one (Bobby Thomson), as was the man (Ralph Branca), who threw the fateful pitch, that hit a 3 run pennant winning home run, that lifted the New York Giants to the National League Pennant 70 years ago, on October 3, 1951.
His name was/is Bobby Thomson and he hit the famed home run, off pitcher Ralph Branca, the same pitcher he had HR’d vs in the first game of an unscheduled playoff for the ’51 “flag,” eventually won by the Giants, 2 games to 1 over a great, but eventually under achieving Brooklyn Dodgers team/era. (Alas in a far better National League, one ahead of its American League counterpart in signing Black and Hispanic players, who in so many cases achieved excellence or better on the playing field, a bigger and broader issue regarding “playing field fairness” caused/causes a debate that rages and will rage on, the Dodgers won pennants 6 times, after signing baseball’s first Black player (the one and only Jackie Robinson) after years of a disgraceful ban by baseball of such PEOPLE) in Mr. (not Mrs, that “Mrs.” a beautiful, inside and out, lady named Rachel, is still alive at age 99. I saw her standing at the back of the cathedral at a memorial service for the great journalist, Dick Schaap, nearly 20 years ago. Now Phil Schaap, a famed “man of music” has also died, as in the situation with Dick, far too young and not yet 70–still and I will try to focus back–our # for today) Robinson’s 10 seasons. In two other seasons, 1950 and aforementioned ’51, the Dodgers suffered bitter last game defeats with 3 run homers, Thomson’s legendary blast 70 years ago today and Dick Sisler’s such the year before, being the key if not decisive blows. Most telling, in their so called under achieving, the talent laden, mostly right hand hitting “Brooks” (only Duke Snider, among their plethora of stars, batted from the left side, a distinct disadvantage, when playing at Yankee Stadium) won only one World Series in 6 tries, against the vaunted New York Yankees during that 10 year period from (1947-1956).
So what is my point and back to Thomson that night. Both he and I are (yes are, as I believe or at least fervently hope, that from a better place, Bobby is aware and against the theatrics, artificially induced and for a much lower prize (i.e. his team’s win made them one of two teams into post-season, juxtaposed with the 2 teams to enter either Tuesday’s or Wednesday’s “10 to 8” A.L. game, to be just that, one of eight post-season teams) are so opposed to the wild card presence.
I told him to get the next day’s paper and my quote of Russ Hodges’ immortal call of Thomson’s home run, would nowadays include an addendum that Brooklyn was the wild card team. Bobby liked that.
On we (must) go.
A specific post on the 1951 National League Pennant Race and its epic conclusion broadcast in epic fashion by Russ Hodges, can be read by clicking something called a link, below.
Remembering Russ Hodges’ Great Call on Bobby Thomson’s Pennant Winning Home Run on October 3, 1951
Left to right, Andy B. pictured with Bobby Thomson
Though one never knows for sure, the only real drama left in “reg” “whoreball,” involves the reason it is “whoreball,” namely the bogus wild card, that, to be discussed next.
The (105-54) Giants lead defending “bubble” champion, (103-56) L.A. (their projected win total was 103 and a fraction) by 2 games with 3 left to play. In real race ’62, L.A. led by 2 with 3 to play only to end up blowing a 2 run 9th inning lead in a decisive home third game of the unscheduled ‘off, rekindling memories of 1951 when Bobby Thomson’s 3rhr capped an incredible Giants comeback to win the pennant.
In both ’51 and ’62, after glorious rallies/comebacks to win the pennant, the Yankees denied the Giants in the subsequent World Series.
Speaking of the Yankees, they have won 8 of their last 9 games and with a 2 game “qualification” lead over both Boston and still 75:1 to win the A.L. “Sea” and 3 over Toronto, are so likely to make a tournament appearance for the 23rd time in the bogus entity’s 27 years. Add 29 pennants in years of one team from each league and a (4-1) record in ALCS, in years before the tournament and this would/almost certainly will be the Yankees’ incredible 57th post-season appearance.
The 4 Yankees’ “tournament misses” were all under Joe Girardi, who did guide them to their lone crown since 2000, that in ’09. The misses were in ’08, ’13,’14 and ’16.
Last night, both the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros, opponents in 4 “bastardized/division” series within the N.L., all but one won by Atlanta from ’97-2005, clinched one eighth divisions, the Braves’ title eliminating the Joe Girardi managed Philadelphia Phillies.
The Braves as the N.L. “3” will meet a team from their former city of Milwaukee, namely the “2” seed, Brewers. Meanwhile the Astros, very likely as the A.L. “2” and thus with home advantage in the best of 5 “bastardized/division,” will face their 2005 World Series conqueror’s, the Chicago White Sox.
Tampa Bay, an incredible achieving team with a relatively low payroll and disgracefully little fan support at home, is the A.L. one seed. The SF/LA div winner will be the “1” with the runner up, the N.L. “4” and an 8-10 game date vs the Cards on October 6th. The team from St. Loo has won 18 of 19 games.
Tonight in a battle of the ’19 college pig title tilt, quarterbacks, Joe Burrow’s team is again favored vs Trevor Lawrence’s team, this time by seven plus.
In the aforementioned ’19 title tilt, Burrow and his LSU team were about 5 point favorites? and covered, going away vs Lawrence and “Clem”son.
Tonight Burrow and Cincy, win but do not cover: Cincy 21 Jax 17
Next in a day or so a redux of the ’10 season Supe, same QB’s, Roethlisberger who has 2 wins and Rodgers, who won his only vs “Big Ben” and Pitts, in the above cited ’10 season Supe.
Sunday Rodgers and G.B. will win again, but unlike in the ’10 Supe when they covered as about 4 point favorites, they will not this time.
G.B. 24 Pitts 20
Baseball’s last week of the regular season is upon us, with the Giants leading the Dodgers by 2 games, in what is a “1 seed or 4 seed”race.
This is NOT 1951, 1962, same calendar 1971 or even spoiler 1934 and eventual spoiler (Joes won on a day Laura and Jeff Lovins wed– as Morgan’s spoiler home run lifted Mr. Torre to his first of 15 post-season appearances as a manager. A tremendous hitter, Torre never made one as a player) 1982, when there was no “safety net,” bogus wild card presence.
The eventual “4” will host the currently so hot St. Louis Cardinals, who eclipsed their 1935 version, with a record 16 game win skein.
If the S.F. lead holds and L.A. is the Cards’ “10 to 8” teams, one game ‘off opponent, –it will mean the two pretty glorious franchises will have met in 4 different types of playoffs, all within the N.L.
In ’46, the Cards won 2 straight in an unscheduled playoff vs the then Brooklyn Dodgers, to win the N.L. flag and eventually copped the title. In both ’85 and 2013 St. Louis won the NLCS vs the L.A. Dodgers.
The Cards have prevailed in 2 of 3 division series, winning in 2004 and 2014 and losing in 2009.
A “10 to 8” game would be the fourth level of ‘offs competition between the teams.
Really it only matters for money line, teaser, and survivor contest players, yet having cared about pro pig in 1970, I cite that when Justin Tucker set an NFL record with a 66 yard field goal, called somewhat blandly by one of the few good network announcers, Greg Gumbel, history repeated itself. (Ode to Mr. Santayana)!
In aforementioned ’70, Tom Dempsey booted a then record 63 yard field goal on the game’s last play lifting the Saints (19-17) vs the Detroit Lions.
Today Tucker’s record breaker was from 66 yards, again handing the Lions a (19-17) loss.
Click below to hear and see Dempsey’s historic field with an epic call by Don Criqui, the television announcer that day.
In this the third week of “Pro Pig,” there are three clashes involving cities/areas with likely or certain, upcoming baseball tournament teams.
The highlight football game also matches last year’s World Series opponent cities as L.A. (victorious in a 6 game World Series that culminated a “season” of only 10 times that many games) (Rams) meet the defending Supe champion, Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Tampa Bay houses the repeat NHL champion, Lightning while the L.A. Lakers, who titled for an NBA record tying (if you count their 5 George Mikan and Jim Pollard led Minneapolis crowns) with the Lightning in “bubble” 2020, were eliminated in the first round of the most recent NBA ‘offs.
Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays (0-2) in previous World Series, (the Bucs are (2-0) in Supes/NFL final round entities), will be the A.L. one seed while the L.A. Dodgers, at the moment, despite baseball’s second best record, could end up an N.L. “4” seed, as they trail the San Francisco Giants by one game in the 1 or 4 seed battle.
Joe Buck “presides” on Fox at 4:25 Eastern for Bucs (-2) at the Rams.
At night “Alfalfa” Michaels, who “presided” in 3 straight Tom Brady/New England Supes, in which Tom’s team only won 1, but with the “rotation” broken, enabling Mr. Michaels to call a Supe as his last tilt, is on Green Bay (plus 3 and a fraction) at San Francisco. Michaels should have been on the ’20 season Brady Tampa Bay win Supe, instead he gets a Supe, (Brady and T.B. are plurality “faves” but nearly 3 to 1 underdogs to be participants, at this point) in his last year.
In baseball, S.F. has the current (100-54) Giants (the Giants, still in New York won it all in “same calendar” 1954 beating the Indians, who last “titled” in “same calendar” 1948. The (99-55) Dodgers still in Brooklyn won the title in ’55 and also “titled” in “same calendar” 1965) while Green Bay/Milwaukee has the N.L. “2” seed Brewers.
“Plug,” as if they need it. The tilt is Sunday night on NBC, commencing at say 8:20 Eastern Time. I will opt for “American Rust” on Showtime.
The third “pig” clash between cities/areas with baseball ‘offs contenders/ in their cases current 2 game loss column leaders to be participants, is the “ho hum” (0-2) Atlanta Falcons at the (0-2) New York Giants, beginning at 1 P.M. Eastern Time, on a Fox regional ‘cast.
Atlanta’s baseball Braves are (81-72) one and a fraction up on the (80-74) Philadelphia Phillies in a bid to win the one eighth N.L. East/N.L. “3” seed.
Meanwhile the New York Yankees, 20 games over “break even,” at (87-67) lead both ’77 expansion teams, the losers of 4 out of 5, Toronto Blue Jays and the winners of 6 straight, Seattle Mariners by 2 games for ‘offs qualification.
There will be more updates as the eventual 10 team baseball “tournament” approaches. Please do not confuse it with the epic, no safety net/bogus wild card PENNANT (to be 1 of 2) races between the teams (Giants and Dodgers) in ’51 and ’62 or the one quarter division race of “same calendar” 1971. Even the “one team is the spoiler” events of 1934 and 1982 exceeds this Giants/Dodgers race to be the N.L. one seed, as the “reg” runner-up gets into the tournament, as the four seed.
Subsequently, said 4 seed, if it wins a 10 to 8 teams left, one game ‘off, a big if, vs historical rival St. Louis (Cardinals), who have won 11 straight games and have a 4 plus games lead for qualification, would play the other, for the first time ever in a scheduled post-season entity. More on it, as the season plays out over the final 11 days. Right now the Giants lead L.A. (the Dodgers) by 2 games and the teams have baseball’s two best records.
Butlers was a 5 and 10 store on Tuckahoe Road and in years, multiples of 5 from this one (2021), the Cards have great history, as yet again I realized too late, at least, a bogus wild card spot was “in the Cards.”
“St. Loo” made and won all 5 of its World Series appearances in the “multiples of 5 and 10 years” from 2021, doing so in 1926, 1931, 1946 and in two with lead broadcaster, Mike Shannon (2006 and 2011-we need the “20” in front of each, as there were World Series in 1906 and 1911) (Shannon in his 49th and final season as Cards’ broadcaster, is not a very good one, however he played ball in a great National League and is tolerable in a way, Ralph “King Kong” Kiner was–he really can not play by play that well, an actual downgrade from the extremely over rated Jack Buck, his mentor of sorts).
Of course there is Yankees’ presence in the “multiples” history, They won World Series in 1936, 1941, 1951,1956,1961 and 1996. All those teams were great, the ’36 and ’61 versions, among the greatest ever.
In five other “multiples” years, the Yankees won pennants, but lost the Fall Classic. (1921,1926,1976,1981 and 2001).
Two other “glory” franchises, the aforementioned Giants and Dodgers have “multiples of 5 and 10” history, the Giants with pennants in 1911,1921, 1936 and 1951 while the Dodgers took the N.L. crown in 1916,1941,1956,1966 and 1981.
Neither team fared well in those year’s subsequent World Series, as only in 1921 and 1981 did either team “title.”
The four teams cited above have accounted for 25 of the 46 World Series appearances in the 23 previous “multiples 5/10 from 2021” years.
Among others, the Red Sox, who lead by 3 games for qualification this year, have that many “multiples” W.S. appearances, winning with Babe Ruth and Smoky” Joe Wood (they traded the great Tris Speaker in April) and others in 1916 and losing 7 game World Series in both ’46 and ’86.
Five teams have 2 such appearances, the A’s (won in 1911, lost in ’31), Reds (won in ’76, lost in ’61), Cubs (won in 2016, lost in 1906), Orioles (won in ’66, lost in ’71) and Braves (lost both, doing so in ’91 and ’96). Among the five, only the Braves (up 3 in the div, 4 in the loss column) figure to be in the 2021 “tournament.”
Eight teams have one such appearance, the White Sox, an almost certain A.L. three seed in 2021, Pirates, Mets, Twins, Diamondbacks, winning while the Tigers, Rangers and Indians all appearing subsequent to the 5 one time winners, lost.
Also the 7 teams other than the Chi-Sox, all will fail to make this year’s playoffs/tournament.
In the “Twilight Zone” episode, “Cavender is Coming,” the great Carol Burnett is “Agnes Grep,” being “helped” by angel, “Cavender” played by Jesse White.
Ms. Grep, again played by Carol Burnett, has a job at a theatre, names are called for assignments and one of the names is “Burnett.”
Last night, (of course no football and put me down in the latter category as strong, strong dislike as “Awful Announcing” stated it is love or hate, regarding (my words) the abrasive, Gus Johnson.
What in my opinion was even worse than his ridiculous call of the Joseph “muff” FG, (spelling out FOX in his offensive, ridiculous, ABRASIVE way) was his narration on the 50 year anniversary of the Nebby/Oklahoma classic.
Again n opinion, that he, along with Trump and S.A. Smith are in my top 3, as to why or at least a strong indication of this crumbling society/exponentially lowered standards. Also not that more than a handful of the men announcers are good, but, and I am a feminist, who thinks women would have done far better than us men, running the world, does every broadcast or most, have to contain a woman?!! I emphatically opine, no and the fact they do is also absurd/offensive. Those women in almost every case, if not all, did not “live and breathe” sports, the way many men did, most of all, forever to be denied, me.)
Speaking of women, flipping channels and on to “The L Word/ Generation Q” on Showtime.
There is a character named “Pippa.” Quickly to the Twilight Zone on MeTV, and the great Jack Klugman’s character has a son named “Pip” in the episode “In Praise of Pip.”
I was watching “The Express,” about Ernie Davis and while learning eventual Browns’ player John Brown was portrayed, the internet/”informer of death” “told” me, the great offensive lineman, Dick Schafrath had died weeks back.
Thoughts and emotions flooded, recalling how my parents and grandmother told me about Ernie Davis dying, that the great Jim Brown, whose home I visited twice, so admired and liked Dick Schafrath and that on one glorious late December day in ’64 (no, unlike in “The Four Seasons” seminal “December 1963, which also evokes Bill Wade, ’twas not first time sex), nine year old me sat on an upholstered chair with my parents (Dad was a New York Giants fan) and grandmother, watching “my” Cleveland Browns win the 1964 NFL crown vs the great John Unitas and the Baltimore Colts.
Schafrath was a many time Pro Bowl and all league offensive tackle, who blocked for 3 Hall of Fame running backs, Jim Brown, Bobby Mitchell and Leroy Kelly.
In a highly emotional and beautiful moment cited here, those 3 greats wheeled another such, guard Gene Hickerson on stage, when Gene was inducted into the Pro Hall.
At the time, Jim Brown talked of Dick Schafrath being next. It did not happen while Dick walked the earth, a disgrace.
However, in reality, Dick’s greatness need not be affirmed by many who never saw him play and clearly a symptom of this greatly wounded society, know NOT what is good and what is NOT.
Rounding out that great offensive line, in addition to Dick and Gene, there were 3 Johns, the aforementioned Brown, (still with us and the Jack Buckley character, played by Omar Benson Miller in “The Express,” is based on him as he played at Syracuse with Ernie Davis), Wooten a superb guard also alive and center Morrow, whom we lost in 2017.
What a group, what a team. “Stone” and things said sometimes do hurt, but without him, add John Brewer, Gary Collins, Paul Warfield, Dr. Frank Ryan, an Ernie with Jim, named Green and of course #32, also the # address where I saw Dick Schafrath and the Browns win that title, now so long ago.
Of course the defense “bent but never broke” and that December 27th day, shutout the Baltimore Colts. I named only the offensive unit.
The superb player, Dick Schafrath, pictured above.
Today, in a “no matter what,” poor, poor imitation, television controlled, 11 or so start in Norman, Oklahoma, 23 point underdog Nebraska, visits Oklahoma, nearly 50 years after what my friend, college football expert, the late Beano Cook, called football’s greatest game ever (a same locale, 35-31 “Nebby” win, en route to a repeat, mythical, but clearly deserved, national crown), which was played on “Turkey Day” 1971, also the last time people came here on that day.
Jeff Kinney carried the ball 31 times for 171 yards, that day in ’71, and scored 4 touchdowns in that famed tilt, the last with about 90 seconds to play, putting Nebraska ahead to stay.
Apparently, there will be a reunion involving players from both teams at the half of tomorrow’s tilt, which I predict will be an Oklahoma win/no cover. Sooners 34 Huskers 21
An excellent article by Sam McKewon in The Omaha World-Herald follows.
Nebraska-Oklahoma provides irresistible memories and an intriguing opportunity
It is nostalgia, not my additions today. Click below to view the great Johnny Rodgers punt return touchdown, which opened the scoring (Nebby 7-0). Lyell Bremser, then the Huskers’ broadcaster makes the iconic “call.”
Mr. Rodgers, not Rogers, also had a punt return touchdown, as Nebraska claimed the title in a rout, Orange Bowl win vs Alabama, on New Year’s Night 1972.
Andy B Sports 