I have heard so much publicity about today being Vin Scully’s last game as a baseball broadcaster and far worse about this being Verne Lundquist’s last season as a football broadcaster.
What about Dick Enberg, who while no Scully on the local level, was certainly as good or better, certainly in sports other than baseball, on a national level.
Today’s tilt in Arizona will be Padres’ broadcaster, Enberg’s last game.
Certainly doing a number of “P-Pads” games on television is not how I will remember Enberg.
He was the host of the show “Sports Challenge’s.” His introduction was as “the voice of the Rams and Angels,” (Scully of course was broadcasting the Dodgers’ games and richly deserves much, in my opinion, not all of this unanimous, gushing praise. Another great, Chick Hearn was broadcasting the basketball Lakers at the same time and many years after (what an L.A. trio, but Hearn died while still active and there was nowhere near the attention paid Scully) and was a very good, albeit at times, “soft” (really reluctant to criticize) network football and basketball broadcaster.
Enberg was more than tolerable on network baseball, intoning “it is his day of the week” after a Monday, decisive 5th game of the NLCS, top of the ninth, solo home run by Rick Monday gave the Dodgers the lead which they held at Montreal vs the Expos.
Today I will certainly try to hear Scully’s last moments as Dodgers’ broadcaster but certainly hope to hear Mr. Enberg’s as well.
Dick Enberg, pictured above, retiring after today’s Padres/Diamondbacks game, was superb as the host of “Sports Challenge.”
Click below to view Enberg hosting “Sports Challenge.”
It quite possibly will not be a good week regarding these predictions, as typically, I back off in my confidence level.
To this point, I am (0-2) on college predictions both preceding the (10-1-1) record I have “forecasting” pro pig outcomes.
Four games fit into the “take the outright and spread losing team the week before vs a team that won and covered the spread the week/game before and is the favorite” category this week.
I will suggest all four underdogs and add the Oakland Raiders plus three plus points at the Baltimore Ravens. Both the (3-0) Ravens and (2-1) Raiders won and covered last week.
The four “category” suggestions are both New York area teams, the shade under a field goal underdog, New York Jets at home vs the Seattle Seahawks and the New York Giants a 4 point underdog at (3-0) (3-0) Minnesota (Vikings).
I am less confident in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers plus three points at home, vs the (3-0) (3-0) defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos and the S.F. 49ers getting only two points at home, vs the Dallas Cowboys.
Though the late, great football specialist (that is what we lack in this country, a specialist, who believes in craft, honor, accuracy and effort in his work) Beano Cook, warned vs “teaser bets” (i.e. adding points, but having to win 2 games with those added points), I will do, I mean advise some “teasing,” involving those games this week.
Alas Beano did say “only idiots bet teasers,” and while lack of intelligence was/is not my problem, not finding a niche for all these notes and knowledge, no matter the reason, surely was/is the problem.
Be careful out there, best not to wager on this “drek,” (means something akin to garbage), but if you must, please do so within your financial and emotional means. ‘They’ are the near ultimate seductive temptress, today for example, presenting games, for what will be a duration approaching 15 hours.
Why editorialize by “ripping” the analysts, most notably Cris Collinsworth, that almost never stop talking?! The days of the great Ray Scott, pictured above, are gone.
He was precise and did so with a minimum of words. If he were broadcasting today I would tune in just to hear and often not hear him.
Where did it all go? The answer my readers is “blowin” in the mindset of televised sports executives, who present this “dreck” (that word again) knowing the public will allow it. I do not but it is tough to fight “windmills.”
Click below to hear Bob Dylan sing “Blowin in the Wind”
Blowing In The Wind (Live On TV, March 1963)
Before any of the 4 wild card teams were known, the 2 seed vs 3 seed division series matchup in both league’s was set.
In the N.L. it will be the 2 seed Washington Nationals vs the 3 seed Los Angeles Dodgers while in the American League, the home advantage has yet to be determined, but it will be the Boston Red Sox against the Cleveland Indians.
There is some history involving those franchises battling in post-season and before each series begins, I will detail some of that history.
Lou Boudreau of the Cleveland Indians and Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, pictured above.
It is virtually certain the WNBA Finals will match the defending champion and top ranked Minnesota Lynx vs the Los Angeles Sparks.
Each team has won and covered in decisive home wins to take (2-0) semi-final series leads in series in which they were big favorites at the start.
Minne leads the Phoenix mercury while the Sparks lead the Chicago Sky.
It is not likely either series will return to the venue in which it started.
The finals series I believe will not only be considered up for grabs, (Minne will be about a 7 to 5 favorite, maybe slightly more) but well worth watching. I look forward to it.
The Dodgers are scheduled to open their division series/quarterfinal series, almost certainly in Washington, vs the Nationals on Friday October 7th, 6 days hence, of course, weather permitting.
Continuing our exact date/calendar notes, bad weather caused the Dodgers not to play a post-season game exactly 28 years earlier, when game 3 of their 1988 NLCS, at the New York Mets, had to be postponed.
If as scheduled, the Dodgers play again an almost certain road post-season game a week hence on Saturday October 8th, it will correspond with their game 3 loss at the Mets, exactly 28 years earlier.
After that game A.B. Giamatti, then the National League President and eventually the commissioner whose passion vs Pete Rose, is the biggest of many horrible reasons a truly great player is denied entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame, suspended Dodgers’ reliever Jay Howell.
That night on my cable television show, (the game was in the daytime), I spoke with Don Drysdale, the great L.A. pitcher and then in his first year as a Dodgers’ broadcaster, and among other things, he voiced some optimism about the Dodgers’ chances to win that NLCS, despite being down 2 games to 1.
L.A. is scheduled to be at home (Wash needs one of four of theirs or L.A.’s decisions, to go their way to secure home advantage, in their upcoming series vs L.A.) for game 3 of the division series on Monday October 10th.
This will correspond with the Dodgers’ game 5 win at Shea Stadium giving them a (3-2) series lead in a series they would eventually win in 7 games, en route to their last W.S. win to date, exactly 28 years earlier.
The Brooklyn Dodgers’ lone World Series triumph achieved in (same calendar) 1955 not only was glorious but also a reminder of how early, relative to today with 4 tiers of post-season play,the season ended.
Though the Dodgers, in Los Angeles starting with the 1958 season, are in the post-season, there will be no corresponding exact day post-season game with 1955.
When John Podres pitched a complete game shutout and Gil Hodges drove in both Brooklyn Dodgers’ runs to finally lift Brooklyn into the “Promised land” the last game the 7th game of the World Series in which Sandy Amoros helped save the crown with a great catch on a ball hit by the great Yogi Berra, it was October 4th, as is the case this year, a Tuesday.
The Dodgers’ first game, a quarterfinal game, almost certain to be in Washington vs the Nationals, will not take place until Friday October 7th.
There will be some corresponding Dodgers’ post-season games with their 1988 title run. A look at some possible such games in my next post.
Among the contenders for the 4 remaining post-season spots, at least one, likely two, but very unlikely three, team(s) with a title in a year with the 2016 calendar, will qualify for post-season play.
Either the San Francisco Giants or St. Louis Cardinals, very unlikely both, will be in post-season play.
As the New York Giants, the Giants’ franchise won the World Series in 1921, a year with this calendar, beating the Yankees, in the latter’s first World Series appearance.
The Baltimore Orioles with a bigger qualification lead than the Giants going into the final weekend of play, twice before won titles in years with the same calendar as 2016. Those World Series wins were achieved in 1966 and 1983.
The Cardinals, trailing the Giants for post-season qualification by a game, with 3 remaining games, won the last title contested in a year with the 2016 calendar, a 7 game triumph vs a 2016 division winner, the Texas rangers.
The Seattle Mariners, trailing 2 teams by 2 games and another by a half game in a bid for one of two A.L. wild card berths, have never made a World Series.
Meanwhile none of the titles won by the three other contenders, the very likely to qualify New York Mets, and Toronto Blue Jays (2 each) nor the unlikely to qualify, Detroit Tigers (four) were won in a year with the 2016 calendar.
Click below to view Neil Sedaka’s sing the song, “Calendar Girl”
There have been 16 previous major league baseball seasons, since World Series play began in 1903, with the 2016 calendar (i.e. today September 30th, a Friday).
Among the six playoffs teams already known (all division winners, the 4 bogus wild card entries will be known after this weekend or perhaps beyond, and I will include the contenders for that and thus a title, which I believe to be so wrong, but alas the so called “law,” in this 2 part “calendar/who won the World Series” post), only the Dodgers have ever won the World Series in a year with this calendar.
The Dodgers won their lone title while based in Brooklyn in 1955 and won their last title to date in 1988, each of those years having the same calendar as 2016.
Of course neither the Texas Rangers (nee the expansion Washington Senators), nor the Washington Nationals (nee Montreal Expos), have ever won a title.
None of the combined 12 titles won by the Red Sox, Cubs and Indians (8 by the Red Sox and two each by the Cubs and Indians) were won in a year with the same calendar as 2016.
Given the obvious fact baseball fans want to see the World Series played and the pretty well known fact that largely due to their excellence over the years but also due to their at least perceived arrogance (at times they go hand in hand) a good number of fans truly dislike the New York Yankees, it is “safe” to say at this point in time, nearly half the World Series results in years with this calendar, have been highly disappointing to virtually all non Yankees fans.
16 previous baseball seasons have expired with this/the 2016 calendar, five ending with Yankees’ World Series wins (1927, 1932, 1938, 1949 and 1977, by the way the Yankees were (20-3) in those World Series games, as Yankees’ fan Larry David might say, “preeety good”) and two (1904 and 1994) with no World Series played.
Larry David, pictured above.
Did you notice I tried regarding ESPN?
I cited the fact that the monolith, originally a tame idea, but now a “Frankenstein type monster” set loose upon the good standards and practices of sports reporting, was televising a pair of WNBA games, on one of their many channels.
The fact I did so is good on both our parts, for them to televise and publicize the WNBA (“for a price Ugarte” or ESPN, too bad it will not cease to exist in the next, or near next scene as was the fate of “Ugarte,” played by the great Peter Lorre, in the film, “Casablanca,”) and for me to promote the giant network I despise, all to help the WNBA.
However, today the ESPN incompetence went too far. They actually put forth a graphic comparing the win percentage for the New England Patriots, in games started by the great Tom Brady, and those that were not.
The terrible concept became a beyond misleading attempt at disseminating information, when Wendy Nix (too bad we can’t NIX the idea of putting incompetent broadcasters on the air) the on air “talent”, proved what I already “guessed,” that she will read what it says without the acumen to know it is ridiculous, (poor Gail Gardner got caught, but so few of them, men included, know anything, save being able to get “made up” and read from a teleprompter) by stating the win percentage was about the same, with no regard to the number of games played.
Obviously, Brady has played many, many more games than his substitutes, enough said if you have even a kernel of knowledge.
A journey awaits me via bus, subway, automobile and then perhaps train, a long day, but those of you at home tonight are in for a treat, no not more “AndyB” posts, criticizing sportscasters, but the work of a comedic great, the recently deceased, Gene Wilder starting at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on TCM.
At that time, “Role Model. Gene Wilder” a tribute special will air. That will be followed by one of Mr. Wilder’s excellent roles, that in “Young Frankenstein” which will be shown starting at 9:15
The special will be repeated at 11:15, followed by two more good movies with Gene Wilder, “Start The Revolution Without Me” and “The Cisco Kid.”
Enjoy as TCM pays tribute to Gene Wilder, showing some of the great work he left us.
Maybe get some tootsie rolls to enhance your enjoyment, also evoking memories of Gene Wilder (pictured above) in their commercials. However, with this or just about anything, you will not get it from a “taker.”
Both seek and more important, be “givers.”
Andy B Sports 