Last night Alex Rodriguez hit the 661st home run of his career passing Willie Mays for fourth place on the all time “chart,” as Mr. Rodriguez called it.
Oh, I have so many problems with today’s baseball and broadcasting and yes, the perspective on home runs, steroids, the Hall of Fame and more than anything. the wild card presence in baseball.
Yet surprisingly, I am happy for Alex Rodriguez and truly appreciated his comment that though he had passed Mr. Mays on the “chart,” that there would never be another Willie Mays. By the way, Mays’ 84th birthday was the day before Rodriguez passed him on the “chart.”
Yes an emphasis on “chart” and the chart/ graph for Mr. Rodriguez is ascending, as he showed class and deference toward the great baseball player, Willie Mays. Congratulations to him for the home run and his comments.
All four NBA quarterfinal series are tied at one game apiece. In three of the series, the underdog road team won game one.
In the other, after losing game one, the heavy underdog Memphis Grizzlies won game two at the home of the top ranked Golden State Warriors.
That result made ABC/Disney happy as the nationally televised third game to be televised from Memphis in prime time on Saturday night is with the series tied at a game apiece.
Elsewhere and with an updated prediction: LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers got even vs the Chicago Bulls after losing game one at home. The Cavs will win at least one of the next two games in Chicago and regain the home court advantage.
Both the Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets rebounded from game one home losses to even their series vs the Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Clippers respectively.
The Chicago Blackhawks, who are being led by Patrick Kane’s goal scoring blitz, are almost certain to be in the NHL semi-finals for the 5th time in the last 7 seasons.
“Chi’ took a commanding 3 games to none lead vs the Minnesota Wild in their quarterfinal series, with a (1-0) win at Minnesota in game three.
Kane, who has 4 goals in the series, scored the game’s only goal.
This will almost certainly be the third straight year that the Blackhawks eliminate the Wild in the playoffs.
In the 4 semi-final appearances (’09.’10, ’13, and ’14) Chicago went (2-2). They won it all, in both finals appearances, in 2010 and 2013.
Last year the Los Angeles Kings won game seven of the “semis” in Chicago en route to winning the Stanley Cup.
Recently I thoroughly enjoyed “A Touch of Sinatra;” a humorous, beautiful tribute to Frank Sinatra and others’ incredible music. It was presented by “Friends of the Grinton I. Will Library” in Yonkers, New York.
Donnie Fararro sang as “Sinatra” and told numerous great jokes/stories. Joe Gilligan narrated as “Sinatra” and later sang as “Dean Martin” and “Johnnie Ray.” Mike Dellutri worked the sound and introduced the show.
The great selections “New York New York” and “My Way” by “Sinatra”/Fararro, “Cry,” the record breaking Johnnie Ray hit, and “Everybody Loves Somebody” by “Dean Martin”/Gilligan were sung in a beautiful fashion.
Some excellent pacing and humor abounded in the show. Both Gilligan and Fararro have great stage presence.
I found myself trying to remember punchlines/jokes along with the great hits and how Fararro and Gilligan worked them into a most enjoyable show.
For more info click here.
Once in a better time, ABC TV’s great sports anthology show, “Wide World of Sports” “scanned the globe” for unique sports events. Here is a scan, if you will, of factual errors by sports broadcasters in recent days.
One never has to look far, nor listen long, to get one from WFAN Radio and CBS Sports TV host Mike Francesa.
At the Washington Nationals low point, before their game on April 28th, Francesa said they had lost 5 straight games. In fact they had lost 6 straight games.
During a break, while giving an update during the Yankees/Red Sox game last Sunday, WFAN Radio update person Erica Herskowitz said the Warriors and Wizards had won their semi-final series openers. The games they won were CONFERENCE semi-final opening games, a big difference.
Concerning a pretty fair basketball player named Michael Jordan–maybe you have heard of him–the abrasive ESPN radio commentator Colin Cowherd stated Jordan went 8 years sans a title from his college title until his first one in the professional game. The correct number of years is nine, from 1982 until 1991.
None of these were “slip of the tongue” mistakes and show typical lack of homework, which is so evident in today’s broadcasting.
Surprisingly, alas, maybe not that surprisingly, the Tampa Bay Lightning have a (2-0) quarterfinal series lead vs the Montreal Canadiens.
Certainly a surprise, but not a shock, is the fact the Lightning won both games in Montreal.
Last year the Canadiens won the first two games in Tampa en route to a 4 game, first round sweep of the Lightning.
This year the Lightning, (7-0) vs Montreal counting 5 regular season games, are trying to return the “favor.”
The gloried Canadiens have not won a Stanley Cup since 1993, which was also the last time a team from Canada won one.
Other than the Canadiens, only one of the five Canada based teams that qualified for this year’s playoffs–the Calgary Flames, remain in the playoffs.
In the Flames’ quarterfinal series, as expected, the favored Anaheim Ducks have a (2-0) series lead.
In a great game seven (it would have been so much more enjoyable to watch if Marv Albert, not the ubiquitous Kevin Harlan, was the lead announcer) the Los Angeles Clippers advanced to just their 4th quarterfinal series, ousting the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, winning by 2 points (111-109).
Chris Paul’s shot was decisive for the Clippers, who now face the Houston Rockets in the quarterfinal round.
Meanwhile the Spurs are out, which is (sadly) something Disney/ABC is happy about because despite the Spurs being a great team, they are not a ratings bonanza for the all powerful network(s.)
Tim Duncan, not a great free throw shooter, but a great, great player and a classy individual, showed me so much, making two pressure free throws with the Spurs down by two points, and 8 seconds remaining.
Subsequently, Paul hit the winning shot but I hail the Spurs: Duncan with 5 titles, bearded coach Gregg Popovich also with 5, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili with 4 each. Even the networks and face it the fans perception, can not take that away from the Spurs.
Last night the Atlanta Hawks advanced to the quarterfinal round of the NBA playoffs by routing the Brooklyn Nets to win their first round series in six games.
Saying the Hawks have had problems in the NBA quarterfinals is a vast understatement. Incredibly, the Hawks have lost 15 straight quarterfinal series, last winning in 1970.
They will face the Washington Wizards and are about 2 to 1 series favorites. This will not be an easy series for the East top seed Hawks.
However, in a reverse of sorts from 1979, when a heavy underdog Hawks’ team battled the defending champion Bullets (now the Wizards) to 7 games before falling, my prediction is Atlanta to win the upcoming series in 7 games.
Click on photo to enlarge.
1970 Atlanta Hawks
I am pretty sure I have tomorrow night’s Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao much hyped title fight in perspective, both socially and from a historical point of view.
The 100 million dollars Mayweather will earn–win, lose or (can you imagine a draw!!)–is another sign of societal decay.
Yet the market dictated it and far be it from me to tell Mayweather not to take the money. A suggested donation to earthquake victims in Nepal is as far as I will go.
This is so far from Muhammad Ali/Joe Frazier and not just for sociological reasons, but also for boxing reasons, as not to even compare it.
Certainly both are very good fighters, Mayweather perhaps a great one. “Sugar Ray” Robinson he is not, and Pacquiao is not Jake La Motta.
Having said that, the 2 to 1 favorite Mayweather does have reason to be concerned, as this could be a very competitive fight.
Styles make a fight. My opinion that Pacquiao has no “style advantage,” plus that Mayweather appears to be the better, bigger fighter, I predict Mayweather to win a unanimous, fairly hard fought decision.
Tomorrow will be quite a sports day with the Kentucky Derby and the big Mayweather/Pacquiao boxing event scheduled, and now add a game seven matching the San Antonio Spurs and L.A. Clippers.
Both the Spurs and Clippers have won 2 of 3 games on the road in the series. Game 7 is in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile though it was a nice season for the Milwaukee Bucks, improving from the NBA’s worst record to the “6” seed, albeit in the far weaker NBA East, last night’s Chicago Bulls (120-66) win, which eliminated the Bucks, has to be a bit humiliating.
It also produced interesting notes you know I had to cite.
Playing on the 44th anniversary of their lone NBA title (the 1971 NBA playoffs ended on April 30th, now television and greed, almost the same thing, push the season well into June), the Bucks managed just 33 points (33 being their great player Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s number) in each half.
Additionally and forgive the “stretch,” the 66 points, a disgracefully low point total for an NBA game, can be juxtaposed with the 66 wins, a great NBA season victories total, that the 1971 NBA champion Bucks’ team achieved.
1971 Milwaukee Bucks
Andy B Sports 