At the All Star break, the Baltimore Orioles hold a nice lead in the A.L. East. What follows is a quick look at their history and a prediction regarding this season.
The O’s won 5 of the first 6 “one quarter” A.L.East titles (1969-1974) and won 7 in the first 15 years of divisional play from (1969-1983).
Baltimore won two World Series and 5 American League pennants in that span.
Since 1983, they have finished first but once and made just three playoff appearances. This is despite the fact the number of playoff participants increased from 2 to 4 in 1996 and from 4 to 5 in 2012.
With the fact they currently have the lead being the determining factor, I predict the Orioles will win the A.L. East this season.
I have a distaste for the All Star Game and never even considered watching it. The reports on the telecast indicate that things for the true baseball fan are getting worse.
Of course it was all about the retiring Derek Jeter, apparently a class guy, who knows he is not Willie Mays but the hype regarding him, as I expected, was out of whack.
Making that hype so much worse was the fact that Joe Buck, who still is the all time winner in the “lucky birth” club, did not even report the many substitutions in the 7th inning of the game.
Worst of all, there was no tribute to any of the baseball people who died since the last All Star game. That list of people includes Tony Gwynn, Ralph Kiner and Don Zimmer.
Kiner and Gwynn are in the Baseball Hall of Fame while Zimmer was so often mentioned when it behooved Fox during the ballyhooed Yankees/Red Sox ALCS.
All were telecast by Fox taking place in 1999, 2003 and 2004. With no hype needed, there was no mention of Hall of Famers, “baseball lifer,” Don Zimmer and others.
Joe Buck: “Lucky Birth Club” Member
At the All Star break, which is now 4 days long, the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, both in the A.L. West, have the two best records in baseball.
What could have turned into a stirring race manifesting in first place or “go home,” now has so much less drama.
The reason is because in all likelihood, the second place team in the very likely A’s/Angels battle for first place, will be one of two American League wild card teams.
At the moment the A’s have a one and a half game lead over the Angels.
In turn, the Angels have a nine game lead for playoff qualification. It is not very far I wander “on the limb” to predict each will be in the baseball tournament.
The 85th Major League Baseball All-Star game will be played tonight in Minnesota between teams from the National and American Leagues.
Once the All-Star game had real emotional meaning to me. But for a long time now, It has not.
It does have meaning, but not for a good nor logical reason.
The meaning is that the winner of this game will be the league given the home field advantage in the World Series.
The team/league with that home field advantage has won an incredible 23 of the last 28 World Series.
One nice All Star Game/World Series link involves another All Star game played in Minnesota.
In the 1965 game, Sandy Koufax was the winning pitcher for the National League. The World Series ended in Minnesota with Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers triumphant in game 7 of that now long ago in so many ways, 1965 season.
Germany won their fourth World Cup in soccer/futbol winning (1-0) in extra time vs Argentina.
Mario Gotze was the hero, scoring a brilliant and clutch goal, in the second half of extra time.
Germany is now tied with Italy for second place in World Cup victories with four. Brazil has the most World Cup victories with five.
This was Germany’s first World Cup victory since 1990 while Argentina has not won one since 1986.
It is the second time Germany has denied Argentina in the World Cup final with a (1-0) win. The other time was in 1990. Argentina won a final vs Germany in 1986.
The favorite won all 15 ”elimination” games as the field of 16 was left with an outstanding team from Germany as World Cup champions.
Mario Gotze
It was a beautiful evening and a fun time watching the New York Mets vs the Miami Marlins on Friday night at Citi Field.
I took the time to watch batting practice, view the beautiful field, and look at the many remembrances of past baseball around the park.
The fan friendly atmosphere was great. I checked out the restaurants behind the outfield and liked the between innings fun.
David Wright played an outstanding game, going four for four, including a two run home run, as the Mets beat the Marlins 7-1. Pitcher Zack Wheeler was impressive, giving up just one run in his 6.2 innings.
The Mets are playing very well on this extended home stand, and it seems to have boosted their confidence. The crowd was very pleased and is hoping for more as they move into the second part of the season
David Wright
Tomorrow is the World Cup soccer final matching Germany and Argentina.
Germany, which routed the host country, Brazil (7-1) in the semi-finals is about an eight to five favorite in the match.
All 14 matches after the group round have been won by the favorite.
Argentina won on penalty kicks (a shameful way to decide these sometimes epic matches) against The Netherlands in its semi-final match.
One for the underdog, as I predict Argentina to win, say (2-1) in extra time.
Let all the so called insiders sort out LeBron James and the impact of his decision to now play for the Cleveland Cavaliers again.
He has officially “double dipped,” within his right, but now twice has chosen where he will play, vastly affecting a 5 player sport.
Suddenly I am Michael Jordan’s biggest supporter. Did he leave Chicago? Maybe he had no choice but he stayed with them and won 6 titles, never losing in the finals.
With your (2-3) finals record and on to your third team, good luck even coming close to matching that, Mr. James.
The greatness of the 1970 – 1976 Cincinnati Reds, aka “The Big Red Machine,” grows and is appreciated more with the inexorable passage of time.
Though their two World Series wins were surpassed by the A’s of (1972-1974) and the Yankees of (1996-2000), Cincinnati was easily better than those Yankees (the ’77 and ’78 Yankees were as well) and I believe better than those truly great, Oakland teams.
Really there were two years of the Reds at their peak, the teams I believe to be the best I ever saw.
In 1975 and 1976, they not only won it all but beat out very good L.A. Dodgers teams by approximately 20 and 10 games respectively.
Cincinnati had outstanding teams from (1970-1974) but did not win it all. Their peak teams came about with the insertion of George Foster into the lineup in May of 1975.
Pete Rose, a player who belongs in a special pantheon of greats at the Hall of Fame and is denied admission, unselfishly moved to third base to accommodate Foster’s entry into the lineup.
The rest as Casey Stengel (now his 5 straight World Series winning Yankees, may have been better than Cincy and were before my time) said “you can look up.”
Sure it was a lopsided defeat (Germany advanced to a record 8th final, routing Brazil 7-1) and I certainly have problems with conditions in Brazil, but they are still THE country in soccer/futbol.
They have won a record 5 World Cups and this time were without two key players, including the great Neymar, when routed by Germany.
One thing Brazil has never done is win a World Cup that they hosted, but they have only hosted twice. In 1950, the only other time they hosted a World Cup, Uruguay upset them in the final.
That inspired a 9 year old Pele, heartbroken by his country’s home defeat in 1950, to the greatest career in the sport. He led them to 3 World Cup victories.
Pele
Andy B Sports 