The WNBA swung back into action after the Olympic break with five games last night.
There were two big upsets as the teams with the two best records each lost.
First the three and a half to one underdog, Connecticut Sun won at home vs the defending champion, Minnesota Lynx.
Later last night the four to one underdog, Seattle Storm with Sue Bird leading the way, upset the top ranked Los Angeles Sparks.
Why not vs these teams as this was the first game after the Olympic break making the games all the more unpredictable. A parlay on the two underdogs would have paid roughly 21 to 1.
The late college football expert and my friend, Beano Cook is looking down on me both figuratively and literally (he did always say I was a great guy) and asking why didn’t you do it?!!
This is a rare weekend in New York sports as all four local baseball and football teams are playing games in their home venues.
As cited in a previous post, the football Jets and Giants are clashing this weekend (Again Vivid Cabaret, located at 61 West 37th Street, is a great place to watch that game) at the home the two teams share, Met Life Stadium.
Additionally, both the baseball Mets and Yankees are home for weekend series vs the 1983 World Series opponents, the Philadelphia Phillies and Baltimore Orioles respectively.
Wonder if this schedule configuration has ever happened before?
It is down to four and a half games, the Cleveland Indians’ lead in the A.L. Central that is.
Additionally while the second place Detroit Tigers are hosting the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, (why do I fear that the over rated but still good Angels’ manager Mike Scioscia, especially with a change of scenery, could end up in New York next season?!), the Indians are in the midst of a four game series at Texas vs the current A.L. top seed Rangers.
Cleveland is favored to win tonight with the great (I am being sarcastic) Kluber pitching. The Indians can begin to panic if Kluber lets them down again tonight.
I still believe in the “wood,” great managers and chickens usually do, thus I still say Cleveland in the A.L. Central. Then we eat the cuisine, but at times choke on it!
While the vaunted New York Yankees of the Babe Ruth/Lou Gehrig era, had a far longer run of greatness, thus for history sake are rightfully considered better, few teams including those Yankees could match the (1929-1931) Philadelphia Athletics’ teams.
The greatest testament to their greatness is that for those 3 consecutive seasons, they denied the great Yankees the American League Pennant.
The Athletics won it all in both 1929 and 1930 before being denied by Pepper Martin and the St. Louis Cardinals in a seven game series in 1931.
While the (1921-1924) Giants were managed by an all-time great manager, John McGraw, the same can be said about the (1929-1931) Philadelphia Athletics managed by Connie Mack.
Great and near great players adorned the A’s roster including Lefty Grove, who won 31 games and lost but 4 in 1931.
Another of the many great A’s players was Jimmie Foxx, pictured above. For so long, including years when I was young and was absorbed by the home run totals in “Player’s Targets” in Street and Smith’s Baseball Magazine, the 534 home runs by Mr. Foxx had him trailing only Babe Ruth, in that department.
In an earlier post, two teams that each won three consecutive pennants with an overlap, the (1906-1908) Chicago Cubs and the (1907-1909) Detroit Tigers.
Today a look at two glory teams with all-time great managers who at least began their pennant streaks in the 1920’s.
The New York Giants are the only National League team to ever win 4 consecutive pennants, doing so from (1921-1924).
They split in the 4 World Series after those two pennants, handing the New York Yankees defeats in their first two W.S. appearances.
However after sharing or more precisely being tenants in the Giants’ Polo Grounds home, Yankee Stadium opened in 1923 and the Yankees won their first World Series and it was vs the Giants.
In 1924 the Washington Senators won their only title as the Senators and the only World Series ever won by a team from the nation’s capital when they 7’d the Giants, winning the last game in 12 innings, the longest a decisive, winner take all, World Series game ever lasted.
Next a look at the 3 time American League champion (1929-1931) Philadelphia Athletics, a team so great and yet so under rated.
The Jets square off against the Giants Saturday, August 27th at 7:30pm. It’s still pre-season but this game has more than the usual interest for some due to the crosstown rivalry.
A great suggestion on where to watch the game: the Vivid Cabaret gentlemen’s club in midtown Manhattan has a giant theater style screen, and many hi-def TVs throughout their 3 floors. They also have dozens of beautiful Vivid Cabaret girls, which insures that if and when the game gets boring there is a lot to keep you happy!
Vivid Cabaret New York, 61 West 37th Street. It’s a favorite spot for pro athletes from all the major sports who like to “make it rain” on the club’s lovely dancers. It is the sister club to the world famous Rick’s Cabaret NYC, located just four blocks away.
While, as referenced in my last post, the Chicago Cubs, the only team sans a World Series win longer than them, need not play that hard for the rest of the “reg,” the Cleveland Indians surely do.
Cleveland’s lead over the Detroit Tigers in the A.L. Central is down to five and a half games.
Additionally, the Indians are in a battle for seeding position with among other teams, the Texas Rangers, with whom, they open a 4 game series in Arlington Texas.
Speaking of Arlington, Texas, in “11/22/63,” a work of fiction, but also largely accurate historical facts, by author Stephen King, on that date in the book, the city (Arlington) is cited as the future home of George W. Bush’s Texas Rangers.
No matter that, due to events on that date, John F. Kennedy ended up in another “Arlington,” a cemetery near Washington D.C.
Unlike President Gerald Ford (a Ford actually called and portrayed by a Chevy), perhaps Mr. Bush’s father could give us more insight into events of that day. He was with the C.I.A., after all.
No accusations, just some “information please,” not found in the almanac.
As I recall, almanacs such as the one above, would have reviewed the year before, as is obvious by the fact there is nada, regarding the assassination of President Kennedy on the cover.
Sadly, as time goes on, I wonder where other information regarding that event might ever be found.
My advice to the Chicago Cubs is to stop winning so much, in what now are virtually meaningless regular season games.
The Cubs’ record is (81-45) so there is no “danger” of a truly great wins total, but if I were them I would slow down.
Long before their title drought got out of hand (it is almost 108 years since they won The World Series), the Cubs won an incredible 116 games in 1906. They only lost 36 games, easily the best record in modern baseball history.
That record earned them a berth in the World Series. They lost that World Series to the Chicago White Sox 55 years before White Sox fan and current U.S. President Barack Obama was born.
Soon in the last days, certainly month or so before Mr. Obama’s status is overshadowed by a newly elected president, the Cubs, no matter how many games they win under “I still say he is a loser,” (takes one to know one, but at least I would never have been too lazy to bring in a lefty pitcher to face the great David Ortiz as he was in game 5 of the 2008 ALCS), Joe Maddon, will be one of eight teams in the baseball tournament.
The 116 win, 1906 Cubs failed to title, as one of two teams!
Click below to view Wayne Newton perform “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast”
1972-Wayne Newton – Daddy Dont You Walk So fast.
It really bothers me that once again, though this seemingly is not as important concerning the league competition, that an all powerful sports league commissioner has stepped in, abusing his power and suspended a player.
The player, a great one, and believe it or not I am not a New England Patriots’ fan) is Tom Brady.
He did nothing wrong yet he, his team,his fans and especially “anti-fans,” are made to suffer.
This seemed settled last year when Brady fought the suspension and won. Yet powers like Goodell (was not there a call for his resignation?!! by the hypocritical media after an incident involving violence, one of so many regarding the NFL?!) are not so easily turned aside.
Thus when the NFL, its NBC cameras turned on in Arizona, a state that for so long fought honoring Martin Luther King, Roger Goodell a resident of Bronxville, New York still a town where there is nary a Hanukah light, will gloat in the fact Tom Brady will not be present.
Wake up people, forget your “trophies,”( they will not walk away in/or from any case) and cut your watching, by at least thirty percent!
“Senior” really never let me play, but he came to my door and gave me the trophy saying you were part of this.
I did tip a pass but got no credit and even if I had, then and now I urge you to beware of “Trophies” in all their forms.
In the current issue of AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), there is a segment with comments from Bob Costas.
One such comment revealed by Costas, who just hosted the Olympics yet again, is that he can not fall asleep with any light in the room, in which he is attempting sleep.
In the same issue, suggestions for better sleep include making the room as dark as possible.
Speaking of sleep, despite my great admiration for Mr. Costas, I watched none of the Olympics. Sleep in a pretty dark room was a much better choice.
As I said, I did not watch so I do not know if the horrible fact that Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, pictured left to right above, were denied participation in the 1936 Olympics, was cited.
Andy B Sports 