It seems as though the AFC North is the most wide open of the 8 NFL divisions.
The defending AFC North champion Cincinnati Bengals and their 45 year division rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, are considered co-favorites to win the division.
Baltimore’s Ravens are considered close to favorite status while the Cleveland Browns, 50 years removed from the city’s last title, are considered a long shot to win the division.
My prediction is Cincinnati will win a tight race with a mediocre (9-7) record.
None of the teams are that good, but on paper, going into the season, other than the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots, who is in the far weaker AFC?
Elena Delle Donne scored 34 points including the decisive and final basket with 8 seconds left to lift the underdog Chicago Sky to a victory over the Atlanta Dream in the decisive third game of their WNBA first round series.
Next, the Sky will take on the Indiana Fever in the Eastern Conference finals, which also will be a best of three series. Incorrect on three of four first round predictions, I will take the Fever to prevail in three games.
The 2014 WNBA champion likely will be the winner of the Western Conference final series between the Phoenix Mercury and Minnesota Lynx. I predict the Mercury to advance to the WNBA finals with a three game series win over the Lynx.
The show “Modern Family” was chosen as the best comedy series at the Emmy Awards last night. This was a slight surprise. A bigger surprise is that “thoroughly not liking modern shows, me,”(not Millie), truly likes this one.
“Modern Family” is not only funny but provides some good messages about sticking together as a family and certainly regarding differences among people.
The writing and the cast are both excellent. Really, they all should be mentioned but I will cite three standouts.
One is Ed O’Neill, who plays dad, grandfather, and husband of a much younger woman. “Jay” is a more mellow, less base character than that of “Al Bundy” whom O’Neill played on “Married… with Children.”
Next is the adorable Julie Bowen as “Claire,” a wife and mother of three. She is so good that I do not mind the ad that runs during each rerun with the real Julie Bowen as a mom getting her son “somewhere” on time. I say somewhere (probably to school) because I do not pay much attention to the ad.
Finally, one of the show’s creators is the incomparable Christopher Lloyd, best known as “Jim” on “Taxi,” and for his role in “The Back to the Future” movies.
The performance of Mr. Lloyd that resonates most with me was as one of the patients in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” With Modern Family, Lloyd continues his fine work.
The unfortunate injury suffered by St. Louis Rams’ quarterback, Sam Bradford leaves the Rams with inexperienced Shaun Hill as their starter at the position.
In other days, the Rams had “quarterback controversies” because there was more than one good candidate for the position.
In the 1950’s, there were two great choices to play “QB” for the then Los Angeles Rams. One was Bob Waterfield, so great, so dashing, and married to the beautiful star, Jane Russell. The other choice was the equally great and in other ways just as colorful, Norm Van Brocklin.
The two alternated at the position on the Rams championship team of 1951 and their runner up team of 1950.
Some excellent Rams’ teams in the mid 1970’s had different good choices at quarterback including Pat Haden and James Harris.
For the Rams’ sake in 2014, hopefully Hill or another quarterback will fill in ably for Sam Bradford, to whom we wish a full recovery.
Bob Waterfield with Jane Russell
The Minnesota Lynx led by Lindsay Whalen’s 31 points defeated the San Antonio Stars in game 2 to sweep their best of three WNBA first round series. This result ends the playing career of the Stars’ Becky Hammon, a true WNBA great.
Becky will now move on to be an assistant coach with the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, the first woman assistant coach in league history.
It was nice to see the Lynx players congratulate Hammon and there is great appreciation for all Ms. Hammon has done for women’s basketball.
The current weekend series between the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins evokes memories of the 1987 ALCS between the two teams.
The Twins upset the Tigers in that best of seven series, winning in five games. They went on to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games to capture their first world title as the Minnesota Twins. The franchise won the World Series in 1924 when they were the Washington Senators.
The 1987 team featured such players as Gary Gaetti, Frank Viola and the great Kirby Puckett. The team was managed by Tom Kelly, who also guided the Twins to the 1991 crown.
This weekend the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim take a 2 game AL West lead into their series at Oakland vs the second place A’s.
The teams are playing a three game series. Of course there is not so much drama because in all likelihood the second place team in the AL west will qualify for the post season as one of the two American League wild card teams.
The Angels are in first place for the first time in well over three years. They are a viable title threat though they lost a top pitcher, Garrett Richards for the rest of the season due to injury.
Kevin Durant, who has won no championships and only one “finals game” win, will likely get the obscene amount of 26 million dollars per year for a sneaker endorsement.
His basketball salary of 25 million per year is actually less money. I never knew it was this crazy.
If the fans would wise up and stop watching and certainly stop buying basketball sneakers, this might go away.
I will not hold my breath until this happens. I also will not watch the games. If I can do it, after years of sustained watching, so can you.
The WNBA playoffs get underway tomorrow night with two games, one in each conference. There will be two more games on Friday.
These are first round, best of three series with the higher ranked team opening at home and having the potential third and series deciding game at home as well. My predictions on the four series follows.
In one East series which begins tomorrow, I predict the lower seed Washington Mystics to upset the Indiana Fever in 3 games.
The other East series begins Friday night with the Michael Cooper coached Atlanta Dream facing the Chicago Sky. Atlanta to survive, with a close win in game 3.
In the West I predict a shocking upset: the San Antonio Stars, with future San Antonio Spurs assistant coach, Becky Hammon, to win in 3 games, vs the 9 to 1 favorite, Minnesota Lynx.
No upset in the other series as I say it will take just two games for the record breaking Phoenix Mercury to dispatch the Los Angeles Sparks.
In thinking about the one game showdown between the Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles for the 1982 A.L. East title, a sickening reality became evident.
As stated yesterday, then Brewers owner, Bud Selig relished the dramatic victory in such an important game.
The current, horrible reality is that the presence of wild card teams in baseball, that precludes the possibility of such games, came about under Bud Selig’s “watch” as baseball commissioner.
Further insult is that Selig strongly supported the wild card presence and considers the regular season finish of 2012 as a great moment in baseball history. That is about 170 degrees (not quite 180, but almost there) from my opinion.
