Andy B Sports

Tonight the Texas Rangers host the Tampa Rays in a one game playoff with the winner becoming one of ten teams in the Baseball tournament.

It evokes Ed Asner’s great character “Axel’s” remark in “Rich Man Poor Man,” concerning his wife’s “religious,” attitude. Getting up from the marital bed of the 1950’s, he leaves saying there are “two saints in this bed, one too many for him.”

That is how I feel about the number of teams in baseball’s post season as there are way too many and so little reward is given to the teams that did the best during the 162 game schedule.

Anyway, play they will, and Texas hopes to eliminate the Rays from the playoffs for the third time in four seasons.

The Rangers prevailed in division series vs the Rays in both 2010 and 2011, clinching the series at Tampa.

The winner of tonight’s game visits the Cleveland Indians in the American League “play in” game on Wednesday night.

Cleveland won their last nine games while Texas won their last seven. The Rays, who had won 7 straight to take a two game “qualification” lead into the final weekend, lost the first two games at the Jays (Toronto Blue Jays) and had to hold on for dear life in winning the finale by a (7-6) score.

Recently I saw a truly gripping, excellent play called ” A Dish  for the Gods.” The words for the play’s title come from “Anthony and Cleopatra” (also Julius Caesar), both written by William Shakespeare, and refer to the queen’s beauty and overall appeal.

Those great qualities are certainly in Margot White, who stars as writer Julia Richards. Ms. White gives a strong performance having just the right intonation for Victor L. Cahn’s words about a writer, her career and one true romantic love.

She is a sight to behold and a presence from the time she enters from the back of the theatre (“Always look to the back” Robert Shaw’s “Lonnegan” says to Robert Redford’s “Kelly,” really “Johnny Hooker,” in “The Sting”) to start the play. She is riveting as Julia–A Dish for the Gods–even in what is supposed to be an old suit.

The great love interest appearing in flashbacks is “Greg,” played more than ably by Kevin Cristaldi. His brooding, suffering teacher/aspiring writer character eventually finds his way. Cristaldi captures his essence through his good and bad times.

“A Dish for the Gods” is directed by Adam Fitzgerald and runs through October 5th at Lion Theatre. The location is 410 West 42nd Street.  Click for Tickets, more info

It is virtually certain that the Cincinnati Reds will face the Pittsburgh Pirates in a one game “play in ” game on Tuesday October 1st.

The site of the game will be determined this weekend as the winner of a 3 game series between the two clubs in Cincinnati, will host the playoff game.

The Pirates lead the Reds by one game but Cincinnati holds the tiebreaker. Hence if they win 2 or more games this weekend, the Pittsburgh/Cincinnati clash will be in “The Queen City” of Cincinnati.

These two teams have staged some memorable games, particularly in the 1970’s, when they met four times in the NLCS.

Those series determined a berth in the World Series. The winner was to be one of two teams left. This year the winner will be one of eight teams still competing for the title. That is quite a difference.

The Reds won 3 of the 4 NLCS battles and three of the four series resulted in three game sweeps. The Reds swept in 1970 and 1975 while the Pirates swept the Reds in 1979.

The most memorable series was in 1972 when the Reds rallied in the fifth and deciding game to win the series and the pennant.

The great Reds’ catcher, John Bench hit a game tying, leadoff home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to tie the game.

The home run sailed over the head of the great Pirates’ outfielder, Roberto Clemente. Essentially, it was the last time the public saw Mr. Clemente, who died tragically on the last day of that year on his way to aiding earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

Oh do I recall the great hitters on both teams during the glorious 1960’s and 1970’s!

There was a great game between the two teams in 1966 that I read about yesterday in an old Sporting News Baseball Guide, sadly the only one I still possess.

The game was won by the Pirates by a score of (14-11) in 13 innings despite the exploits of future, 1969 World’s Champion New York Mets player, Art Shamsky, then with the Reds.

He entered the game played on August 12,1966, in Cincinnati’s Crosley Field, as a defensive maneuver in the top of the eighth inning. His two run homer in the bottom of the frame put Cincinnati up (8-7) going to the top of the 9th inning.

However, the Pirates tied the game and twice took leads in extra innings only to see Shamsky tie the game both times, first with a solo homer in the 10th and then with a two run shot in the bottom of the 11th inning.

Maybe there will be a great game this Tuesday. Surely these two clubs in the ’60’s and ’70’s provided some great thrills, each with a roster that featured some incredible talent.

First of all, I hope none of you took my football predictions too seriously. There were three predictions and all three were wrong.

Two of those picks involved two of the three NFL teams that are perfect both in their record and against the point spread.

One team, the Denver Broncos are (3-0) and almost even money to win the AFC and appear in the New York/New Jersey area Super Bowl.

The other team, the Seattle Seahawks are the overall NFC favorites though not quite as prohibitive as the Broncos are in the AFC.

Seattle visits the (2-1) Houston Texans this week. Houston though (2-1) is (0-3) vs the points.

Last week the Baltimore Ravens ripped the Texans in Baltimore. Last year, the Texans ripped the Ravens in Houston. The Ravens went on to win the Super Bowl.

It is virtually impossible to forecast what will happen next. However, unlike certain radio personalities with the “initials” Mike Francesa, I know my limitations.

The other (3-0) (3-0) team is Miami (Dolphins).

The Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints are also (3-0) in the league standings.

This week, the Saints are about a touchdown favorite, playing before their frenzied crowd vs the Dolphins in a clash of (3-0) teams. The game is to be played on Monday night.

Some of the final series of the baseball regular season begin today. This includes the two biggest as the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers both begin four game, season ending series today.

The Tampa Rays still lead the Indians by one game for the top wild card spot. In turn, the Indians still lead the Rangers by one game for playoffs qualification.

All three teams have won all their games this week. Now the Indians, who did what they had to do, winning all 7 games from incredibly weak Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox teams, visit the Minnesota Twins for the last four games.

The Rangers, after sweeping the (51-108) Astros, handing Houston its 12th straight loss in the series finale last night, now host the Angels in the last four games. Texas won 17 of 19 games from Houston this season, 18 of 19 after losing in the season’s first game.

The wild card leading Rays, bidding for their 3rd appearance as the/a wild card team in the past four seasons have one game left at the New York Yankees before journeying north of the border to face the Toronto Blue Jays in the final three games.

The two wild card teams meet in a one game playoff at the home of the higher seeded team. That game is scheduled for Wednesday October 2nd.

The tiebreakers are as follows: The Rays have it vs the Indians. The Indians, in turn have the tiebreaker vs the Rangers. The Rangers have it vs the Rays.

There are six days left in the regular season and though it pains me to do so, let’s look at the race for the two wild card positions in the American League.

Having just swept the Baltimore Orioles, all but eliminating Lee Lowenfish’s favorite team, the Tampa Rays lead the Cleveland Indians by one game in the race for the top wild card position.

The Indians, in turn, lead the Texas Rangers by one game for the second spot and tournament qualification.

The division winners are set. The Boston Red Sox and Oakland A’s have clinched titles while the Detroit Tigers have a magic number of 2 for a third straight A.L. Central title.

In the battle for better tournament seeding, the Red Sox lead the A’s by one game with the tiebreaker uncertain. At this point, since the teams split the season series it will come down to which team has a better divisional record.

Starting the week Boston is (43-30) in its division while Oakland is (42 -29). Detroit almost certainly will be the third seed and open the division series either in Oakland or Boston.

Only tournament seeding is up for grabs in the National League as the regular season enters its final week.

The Atlanta Braves, who won 14 straight divisional titles, (likely avoiding a failure to do so in 1994 by the stoppage) from (1991-2005) won their first one since that point, clinching at 99 year old Wrigley Field.

Yesterday I waxed (not so) poetic about over 100 year old World Series rematches involving the Pittsburgh Pirates.

How about a 99 year old redux between the Braves and A’s, the latter now in Oakland and like the Braves in its third city in franchise history.

Perhaps it is no small coincidence that the A’s also clinched a divisional title yesterday, the same day the Braves clinched in a 99 year old park.

In the seeding battle, likely it is the Cardinals in the Central Division. The “Redbirds” lead both the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates, each of whom is tournament bound, by two games entering the final week of the regular season.

Among the division winners/leader, the Braves lead the Cards by two and a half games and the Dodgers by three and a half games.

The half game is added by virtue of the fact that Atlanta owns the tiebreaker for higher seeding over both the Cardinals and Dodgers.

This is because Atlanta won the season series from each team. The Dodgers own the tiebreaker with the Cardinals for the same reason.