The San Francisco Giants’ remarkable 3 titles in 5 seasons, and the recent Boston Red Sox run of titles (not as pronounced with 3 in 10 seasons) is cause for asking the baseball gods, why these teams and not some of their predecessors?!
First of all, both the Giants and Red Sox beat the teams they had to in achieving those titles. Yet, especially with one title each as a wild card team, I can not help but wonder and lament that these Giants of Buster Posey and even Madison Bumgarner have three titles and such Giants’ greats as Willie Mc Covey and Juan Marichal have none.
Similarly, why such fortune for David Ortiz of the Red Sox, who in my book is great, but why three titles for him and none for say, Carl Yastrzemski of Boston Red Sox fame?
Sticking with the Giants of the 1960’s, who at one time had 5 future Hall of Famers on their roster (Willie Mays, Mc Covey, Marichal, Orlando Cepeda and Gaylord Perry), they finished second in the National League from (1965-1968), and also in the first year of divisional play in 1969.
There was no wild card team and the National League, especially in that period, was really stacked with tremendous teams.
The (7-2) New England Patriots made it 5 straight convincing wins by routing the (6-2) Denver Broncos last week. The Pats lead the AFC East over the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, each of whom is (5-3).
Andrew Luck and the (6-3) Indianapolis Colts again have a very safe, two plus game lead over the (4-5) Houston Texans in the AFC South. The Colts won earlier in the season at Houston.
While the (5-2-1) Cincinnati Bengals lead the AFC North, Ben Roethlisberger and the (6-3) Pittsburgh Steelers have three straight convincing wins. It makes me wonder why the Steelers are only 4 point favorites for this week’s game vs the (1-8) New York Jets.
The Broncos still lead the AFC West with their (6-2) record. The Kansas City Chiefs are next with a (5-3) mark.
Recently I had a chance to see Alice Cooper speak at the 92nd Street Y. He is incredible and more on him, specifically, in a post very soon.
When he was speaking I realized two teams that are “Alice Cooper related,” are currently the top two in the NFC standings.
Those teams are the (7-1) Arizona Cardinals and the (6-2) Detroit Lions, who rank ahead of the also (6-2) Philadelphia Eagles due to a better conference record at this point.
Alice Cooper grew up in Detroit and cited the home town Lions as part of his being a “regular guy” before his shows, when as Cooper fans know, another type guy emerges.
He also lives in Arizona, the home of the top ranked Cardinals, whose (7-1) record is currently the best in the NFL, not just the NFC.
Since we are just past the halfway point in the NFL season it is not exactly “school’s out” for the rest of the NFC, but right now an “Alice Cooper related,” Detroit Lions vs Arizona Cardinals NFC title game is much more likely than anyone thought going into the season.
Alice Cooper
Four of the Top Five teams from the Southeastern Conference are from the Western Division. Yesterday, none of the four covered the spread in a game that was not against the other.
This is stretching the point as one team, Alabama, was idle and Auburn won as a slight underdog at Mississippi, handing “Ole Miss,” a second straight loss.
The other game was a real “no cover” as top ranked Mississippi State, likely looking ahead to their next game in two weeks at Alabama, struggled to beat Arkansas University.
Elsewhere, Oregon, derailed by Stanford two years ago, eased vs “The Cardinal” (Stanford) this time.
T.C.U. (Texas Christian University, where the great Sammy Baugh played) survived with a (31-30) win at West Virginia.
Brandon Crawford’s performance in game seven of the recently concluded World Series deserves a positive note.
He drove in the Giants’ second run in the 2 run second inning and also helped execute the key double play in the bottom of the third inning.
Most important, Crawford made an excellent “short hop” pickup of Juan Perez’ throw on the ball hit by Alex Gordon with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Without that play, Gordon scores and the Royals are at worst, the home team in an extra inning game.
Brandon Crawford
Three predictions for week nine of the 2014 NFL season:
Though the 11 point favorite Cincinnati Bengals will very likely win, I predict the Jacksonville Jaguars to play well, and call the result, Bengals by 5 points.
Last week for the first time this season, the defending champion Seattle Seahawks won but did not cover the spread. It will happen again this week as 15 point favorite Seattle will win by 10 points, vs their old AFC West rivals, the Oakland Raiders. Of course Seattle has been in the NFC West since 2002.
Finally on Monday night I predict the New York Giants will pull a slight upset and win as three plus point underdogs vs the Indianapolis Colts. I think the winning team will do so by a field goal, perhaps in overtime.
Another interesting week of college football began last night as defending champion Florida State again fell behind but came back to not only win, but cover the spread, for the second time in eight games.
The Noles (Florida State) were 4 point favorites but trailed at Louisville (21-0) and rallied to win (42-31). They have won 24 straight games.
Many people do not like them for various reasons, but I believe even with one loss, should they lose, they deserve to be in the four team playoff.
Last night seemed to be their toughest test and it certainly is the least amount of points by which they will be favored for the rest of the regular season.
The San Francisco Giants won the 2014 World Series crown winning the decisive seventh game at Kansas City vs the Royals by a (3-2) score.
It is the Giants’ third World Series title in 5 seasons. They came in the last three “even years” (2010, 2012 and 2014.)
World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner, who already had notched two series wins with dominant starts, hurled five scoreless innings to preserve the Giants’ eighth title. It’s their third in “SF,” the others were as the “New York” Giants.
The big defensive play was turned in by Giants’ rookie second baseman Joe Panik, who started a great double play in the bottom of the third inning. By all accounts, (especially the one from dental hygienist Lia, the mother of Joe’s friend Carl) Panik is a good guy and he certainly has worked hard in achieving his goals. The play in game 7 was vital and a strong case can be made for the fact it saved the game.
Other Giants’ heroes included Michael Morse, who had 2 RBIs in game 7 and Pablo Sandoval, in perhaps his last game as a Giant–winking into the Fox camera and reaching base to start both Giants’ scoring innings (2nd and 4th).
The Giants are the first team to win game 7 of the World Series on the road since the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979. Meanwhile the Royals fell just short in a bid for their first World Series title in 29 years.
The Fox television network got what it wanted, as the World Series between the Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants goes to a decisive 7th game tonight.
The Kansas City Royals won their only World Series title in 1985, going seven games. Their other previous World Series appearance resulted in a six game loss in 1980.
By contrast none of the Giants’ 7 World Series titles were achieved in a 7 game series, nor a six game one for that matter.
They did win a best of nine World Series in 8 games in 1921, but all six best of 7 World Series wins were in 5 games or less.
The Giants lost “winner take all,” games for the World Series title in 1912, 1924, 1962 and 2002.
If the field goal plus favorite Denver Broncos win at New England vs the Patriots in the late Sunday afternoon tilt this week, they will be a near certain AFC one seed for the third straight season.
The Broncos are now three to two favorites to win a second straight AFC crown. They are beyond prohibitive favorites to win the AFC West for the fourth straight season.
The 16 team AFC includes 4 teams (the New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders) which have virtually no chance to make the playoffs.
The other 12, three quarters of the conference’s teams, have legitimate chances to make the playoffs.
At this near halfway point in the season, I will predict the playoff teams.
Though there are many contenders only the AFC North is without a prohibitive favorite. My predictions for the division winners are all favorites: New England in the AFC East, Cincinnati Bengals in the North, Indianapolis Colts in the South and the Broncos in the West.
The wild card situation is far more cloudy. My predictions are the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins to make it.
The other six contenders are the Buffalo Bills (quite a story to this point), Cleveland Browns (also a bit of a surprise), Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, Houston Texans and already slumping as usual, San Diego Chargers.
