Today as “Decades” airs/aired “Family Affair,” which as was the case with the more action oriented “Star Trek,” “Mission Impossible” and “hey hey,” even “The Monkees” began around, or exactly this day, 50 years ago, (it is the same calendar as 1966), I thought of my father.
Some years after my father died, my mother told me he had worked with or at least knew, “Family Affair” star, Brian Keith.
My father was never as rugged as Keith seemed to be, nor was he ever as gentle as Keith was in a changed role for him, as “Uncle Bill” on “Family Affair.”
Yet he was my father and my mood brightened even amidst the darkening skies when he appeared on a 1975 audio tape, that included Manuel Orantes’ upset win vs Jimmy Connors, in the U.S. (Tennis) Open Finals.
My dad was talking however briefly, (if only there was more recording done. If you are lucky enough to still have your parents, cherish that fact and begin recording them. That is can’t miss advice!) about the need for a team to have speed in baseball.
Also it seems he paid 20 dollars of a 25 dollar bill I owed, or maybe it was to put gas in the car,( knowing the two of us I am surprised it was not all 25).
Someone else was there, still on this earth, and one who never paid what he owed. Maybe worse, that person did not show up for the funeral of either of my parents.
Yet hearing both of them at a point in time, put me in better spirits, hoping and knowing to go on.
Brian Keith, pictured above.
There is quite a clash in the WNBA tonight as the two highest ranked teams, the defending champion Minnesota Lynx and the Los Angeles Sparks play in Los Angeles.
The teams enter the game with identical (24-5) records and essentially are battling for the one seed with the other likely to be the two seed which correctly carries more weight in the WNBA this season.
Despite being in the same (Western) conference, if the season ended today the Lynx and Sparks would each have a bye until the semi-finals and would enjoy home court advantage, even as the second place team vs any team, even the probable league three seed, and Eastern Conference regular season winning, New York Liberty.
One NFL division in which it is easy to ascertain corresponding baseball teams’ tournament hopes is the NFC South.
There will be no corresponding baseball teams in the tournament.
Two teams/cities, the defending NFC champion Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints do not have baseball teams.
The Atlanta Falcons’ counterparts, the Atlanta Braves and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ counterparts the Tampa Bay Rays are both mired in last place in their divisions and will not be in the baseball tournament.
Each of those areas/cities hopes for better (can’t be too much worse), in the upcoming NFL season.
In a continuation of where the “corresponding” baseball teams to the NFC East football teams stand, the football division has a second almost certain divisional winner in the Washington Redskins’ counterparts, the Washington Nationals.
One team/city that will certainly not have a counterpart baseball team in the baseball tournament is Philadelphia. The Eagles start Sunday, with full knowledge the baseball Phillies, although improved to this point, will not be in the baseball tournament.
The final NFC East football/baseball tandem involves two glory teams, the most glorious of all the baseball New York Yankees and the football Giants.
You cancall them New York or New Jersey, but call them an all-time “value team,” with 3 close Super Bowl wins, achieved with an aggregate 7 excruciating playoff game wins, including those 3 Supe wins.
A fourth Supe crown was won by a dominant 1986 team. As stated here before, their coach, the revered, especially by the likes of Mike Lupica, who seems to always go with the NY sizzle, Bill “Willie Boy” Parcells looked the other way, regarding football great Lawrence Taylor’s problem with drugs and alcohol. It seems Taylor was in the news the other day, “oh boy!”
In a variation of the above referenced, classic Beatles’ song, “having read the book,” I refuse to look!”
Off my soapbox—this year’s Yankees are still in tournament contention, but unlike the other NY baseball team, the Mets, are facing tougher competition toward that goal.
“Crazed dogs” indeed.
Click below to view a video of “A Day In The Life” by The Beatles.
The Beatles – A Day In The Life
Dena Blizzard and her one woman show, “One Funny Mother,” which she wrote, is sensational. Performances are at New World Stages located at 340 West 50th Street in New York City.
Ms. Blizzard is a phenomenal presence on stage.
She displays impeccable comedic timing, as she delivers funny line after funny line, regarding being a mother and wife, all while folding laundry and perhaps evoking a similarly named great, Dean, as in Martin, with some brilliant use of alcohol? within the performance.
Both before and after the show, the audience is treated to Dena’s very creative videos.
Additionally and most important to me, Dena greeted the members of the audience in a kind, humorous way making each feel comfortable.
This includes me and she liked my “Bullwinkle and Rocky” shirt. She had me long before then. “One Funny Mother” is a superb show.
Dena Blizzard pictured above.
Click below for ticket information.
One Funny Mother – New World Stages New York NY Tickets.
The upcoming week brings the NFL back into action.
Today a look at the NFC East first week schedule and how the 4 teams/cities’ baseball counterparts are faring with about a month left to play in the season.
The NFC East, with Dallas,Texas and Washington D.C. teams, houses the areas in which the 1961 baseball expansion team, the Washington Senators played.
Those areas also have almost sure baseball division winners in 2016.
When the 1960 expansion franchise, the Dallas Cowboys open their 2016 season in a likely “Joe Buck” tilt vs the New York Giants, it will be with their baseball counterparts, the Texas Rangers nee the 1961 expansion team, Washington Senators well ahead in the A.L. West.
In future post(s), a look at the baseball counterparts of the rest of the NFC East.
Here is a “tie in” likely nobody but me is getting.
Yesterday one day after actor and former UCLA quarterback Mark Harmon turned 65 (we all should look like him at that age or younger), for the first time in 35 years as many as two of the top 5 teams in the opening Associated Press college football poll fell in the first week.
First Houston upset third ranked Oklahoma and then Wisconsin did the same to fifth ranked LSU.
That event (2 of the top 5 losing in the first week) also happened 44 years earlier, then 4th ranked Arkansas lost to USC which was eighth in the opening poll. The Trojans proved more than “99 and three quarters percent effective,” as that team was arguably the best in college football history and won the title that season.
In a night game that opening week, Mark Harmon was the quarterback as UCLA shocked two time defending champion and opening poll, top ranked Nebraska, certainly one of the great 3 year teams in college annals.
Tomorrow a post on a superb show, “One Funny Mother.”
Mark Harmon pictured above.
What follows was written by ESPN senior writer Mark Schlabach, concerning which team was the favorite in the CBS telecast of a Texas AM vs UCLA college football game yesterday.
It was Texas A&M, not UCLA, that was a three plus point favorite in the game. The favored Aggies dissipated a 15 point lead, but won and covered, in overtime, by a (31-24) count.
The error regarding which team was the favorite, by Schlabach is below.
“It wasn’t all bad for the SEC, though. Texas A&M upset No. 16 UCLA 31-24 in overtime, after the Aggies blew a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter. No. 18 Georgia came from behind to beat No. 22 North Carolina 33-24 in Atlanta”
The truth is often stranger than fiction. The only horse to ever win a race in which the great horse Man o War participated was named Upset, as pictured above.
The Cleveland Indians have won all 5 games since returning home, after losing three of four games to the top ranked Texas Rangers, last weekend in Arlington, Texas.
Meanwhile, the second place Detroit Tigers lost at Kansas City last night, which snapped their winning streak at 4 games. The Indians’ division lead is five and a half games.
When one thinks of streaks and Cleveland, the great 56 game hitting streak of Joe DiMaggio comes to mind.
It was in Cleveland that Indians’ third baseman, Ken Keltner made two excellent plays in the game, that ended the streak.
“The Great DiMaggio” as he was referenced in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea,” went on to hit in 16 consecutive games after the 56 game hitting streak ended.
Ken Keltner and Joe DiMaggio pictured, left to right, above.
In 1978, much of what happened regarding USC and Alabama the year before was reversed.
First of all, USC played at Alabama, was the underdog and led by running back Charles White’s brilliance (so many great backs played at USC, Orenthal James “O.J.” Simpson and Anthony Davis to name two) won the game.
USC lost a game at Arizona State while Alabama also had just one loss (of course it was vs USC) but they had the shot vs unbeaten, top ranked Penn State, a team coached by Joe Paterno.
While both Alabama (vs Penn State in the Sugar Bowl) and USC (vs Michigan in the Rose Bowl) won on January 1st (it was January 1st in 1979), the more recognized Associated Press poll voted Alabama its winner while the United Press International poll chose USC.
Tonight I “choose” Alabama, but not to cover: Alabama 29 USC 21.
Charles White was on the Sports Illustrated Cover after leading USC to victory at Alabama in 1978, The teams shared the mythical national title that season.
