On Sunday night October 7th last year, but during this football season, both the Baltimore and San Francisco major league baseball teams hosted divisional round playoff games. Both home teams, the Baltimore Orioles and San Francisco Giants lost those games.
Due to a rain delay in Baltimore, the game won by the New York Yankees at Baltimore was on as the later scheduled game, a Cincinnati Reds victory vs the SF Giants commenced. The Yankees went on to win that series in the maximum five games while the Giants bounced back to not only beat the Reds in five games, but win the World Series.
Later today, the city of San Francisco “hopes” to become the fifth city to win the World series followed by the Super Bowl. The city that offers the opposition, Baltimore, was the first to accomplish the feat back in 1970 when the Orioles won the World series followed by the then, Baltimore Colts winning the Super Bowl. The Orioles are still that city’s baseball team but its football team is called the Ravens, who came to Baltimore from Cleveland after the 1995 season.
The 49ers, San Francisco’s only football team, have never played against a Baltimore team in post season. There has never been a Giants vs Orioles World Series though a “stretched” link is the great New York baseball Giants manager, John Mc Graw starred as a player for the original Baltimore Orioles.
The closest to a San Francisco vs Baltimore post season clash and this is very close, was in the 1975 NBA Finals. In that finals series, Rick Barry and the Golden State Warriors, just four years earlier known as the San Francisco Warriors, swept the Washington Bullets, just two years earlier known as the Baltimore Bullets, to win the NBA crown. The Warriors played their home games in Oakland but actually played both home finals game at the legendary, Cow Palace (The Rolling Stones’ last North American concert before Brian Jones’ death was there in 1966) in San Francisco.
1970 Baltimore Colts
1970 Baltimore Orioles
1975 NBA Finals, Warriors vs Bullets
I had mixed and powerful feelings after seeing “Silver Linings Playbook.” First of all, it was an extremely entertaining movie that dealt with mental illness. However, it was done largely in an unrealistic way reminiscent of ’50’s situation comedies where problems were solved in roughly 27 minutes. In “Silver Linings Playbook” it took about two entertaining hours to solve problems.
Hopefully people will realize how severe bipolar disorder is and can be. The need to support people with such an affliction is great.
Having said that, the movie featured fine performances by the entire cast. Jennifer Lawrence, who played the symmetrically named “Tiffany Maxwell,” gave a magnificent performance and likely will win the Academy Award for best actress. Robert DeNiro as the father who bets and roots for the Philadelphia Eagles, and Bradley Cooper as his son, who battles bipolar disorder, both are outstanding.
DeNiro and sports: Of course, he won the Academy Award portraying Jake La Motta in “Raging Bull.” He also referenced green clad Michigan State in “Analyze This.” As was the case in that movie, his role wearing Philadelphia Eagles’ green in this movie is humorous.
There is a wonderful, uplifting story in “Silver Linings Playbook.” The wish is that the happy ending(s) were more prevalent in real life.
Though the New York Giants have been dethroned as NFL champions, they are the defending champions. That is the situation until either the Baltimore Ravens or San Francisco 49ers replace them after the 47th Super Bowl on Sunday.
I note that from the time that the San Francisco Giants won the World Series on October 28, 2012, both the football and baseball Giants were League Champions at the same time for the first time in history. That history goes back until at least 1933 when the first NFL Championship game was played.
Currently two all time great college programs: Alabama, in football, and Kentucky in basketball, are champions simultaneously for the first time in history. Since the advent of “mythical” college football titles with the Associated Press vote starting in 1936, Alabama University has claimed nine titles. There were five under Paul “Bear” Bryant and three under current coach, Nick Saban. The other was with Gene Stallings as coach in 1992.
The Kentucky basketball team has won eight titles, four under legendary coach “Baron” Rupp and one each with four different coaches. The four are Joe B. Hall, Tubby Smith, Rick Pitino and the current one under John Calipari.
Alabama won AP titles in 1961, 1964, 1965, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011 and 2012 while Kentucky won the NCAA Basketball Tournament in 1948, 1949, 1951, 1978, 1996, 1998 and 2012. So this is the first time these two great programs have been champions at the same time.
There is one meaningful football game left (the total on the meaningless Pro Bowl is 85 points which tells you all you need to know about that game’s intensity) and then no more football.
Of course the meaningful game is the 47th Super Bowl being telecast by the AFC network since 1998, and the NFC/NFL network from before 1966 and the first Super Bowl until 1993, namely CBS.
This will be the 18th Super Bowl telecast (one was shared with NBC, something as NBC broadcaster that day, Curt Gowdy, said you very likely will never see again) by CBS. The NFC/NFL teams went (8-5) in the CBS televised games, three of the five losses coming to powerful repeat AFC champions (the Miami Dolphins in 1973,and the Pittsburgh Steelers in both 1975 and 1979). The AFC team has won three of the four previous Supes telecast by CBS since it became the AFC network in 1998.
Returning to the shared telecast by CBS and NBC of the first Super Bowl, played after the 1966 season, and referring to the competition caused, pressure between the two networks, the late Charlie Jones got off a great line. He said “After the first verb, we’ll be fine.”
Charlie Jones
So much of not all that distant sports history was not preserved. What I would not give to be able to see and hear the actual telecasts and broadcasts of sports events just since 1960 or so. However, most if not all of the great games of the ’60’s and ’70’s was not preserved. What a sin!
I look at “You Tube” and see some of what does exist in its original form and sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. Yet there is no real play by play of the “Ice Bowl,” the classic 1967 NFL Title game nor most of the World Series games of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Some were preserved but so few that it is both sad and pathetic.
Here are some notes regarding the Monday Night Football highlights narrated by Howard Cosell on September 28, 1970. First off, one can enjoy these on “You Tube.” This was just the second regular season Monday Night Game on ABC (by the way the NFL on CBS had at least one Monday Night Game and I recall the late, great, and at a time homeless, Travis Williams returning a kickoff for a Green Bay Packers touchdown in the contest.) The once AFL, and now AFC, Kansas City Chiefs lead the NFL and also now AFC, Baltimore Colts (31-7) at halftime. The Chiefs went on to rout the Colts but KC never manifested as the team of the ’70’s. After winning the last NFL vs AFL Super Bowl after the 1969 season, the Chiefs have not made the Super Bowl in the 47 seasons since. They have made only one “semi-final” losing to the Buffalo Bills in the 1993 AFC Championship game. The Colts went on to win the first NFC/AFC format Super Bowl that same 1970 season.
31 was an operative number at that early point in Monday Night Football. The Cleveland Browns had won the first Monday night game (31-21) vs the New York Jets. As mentioned the Chiefs had 31 points at halftime and one of the highlighted games as narrated by Mr.Cosell, was the Jets’ (31-21) win vs the then, Boston Patriots in the second game of the 1970 season.
Ice Bowl
“Relevant Octogenarians, Stars of the Entertainment World,” a panel discussion at the 92nd Street Y proved to be a fascinating, funny and informative event.
Joel Grey, a quintessential performer (a Tony and Academy Award winner), and Barbara Cook, a Kennedy Center honoree and a great performer for over 50 years, were the panel’s “out front” stars.
Equally fascinating and great, “behind the scenes” giants: Sheldon Harnick, a lyricist on many Broadway hits including “Fiddler on the Roof;” and screenwriter, playwright and lyricist Sherman Yellen rounded out the panel. The moderator was Leonard Lopate of WNYC Radio.
Each octogenarian, all of whom look many years younger, talked of looking forward to each day and the mystery of what will be.
Certainly all four people are highly successful and that does help. However, each spoke of going forward and enduring as a way to deal with the vicissitudes of life. It was really inspiring.
Oh the stories, history and accomplishments of Joel Grey, Barbara Cook, Sherman Yellen and Sheldon Harnick. Grey wants to direct, Cook has a CD out called “Loverman” while Yellen working “inward” plans more work about Josephine Baker. He also talked of understanding his father as the years have passed. His insights certainly resonated with me.
Harnick,who joked he regrets smoking and will really regret it when he is 115 years old also keeps going as a lyricist and producer. Evoking a great Harnick work, if we take the four stars’ advice and live each day fully, we truly will be and not have to say “If I were a Rich Man”/Woman because we will be.
http://new.livestream.com/92Y/RelevantOctogenarians
Joel Grey
It will be the San Francisco 49ers, who are (5-0) in Super Bowls vs the Baltimore Ravens, who won in their only Super Bowl appearance, meeting for the NFL Title on February 3rd in New Orleans.
Each team coached by a Harbaugh brother (Jim with the 49ers and older brother John with the Ravens) lost a gut wrenching Conference title game last year but won this year.
This is only the second time since Conference title games began in 1970, that both of the previous year’s losing teams each won in the conference title games the following season.
The other time, ’94/’95 also involved Jim Harbaugh. In the 1995 AFC Title game, the Steelers beat quarterback Jim Harbaugh and the Indianapolis Colts. In the ’94 AFC Championship game the Pittsburgh Steelers had lost to the San Diego Chargers. The Steelers ’95 Super Bowl opponent, the Dallas Cowboys, had lost the ’94 NFC Championship game at San Francisco versus the ’49ers. In ’95, Dallas came back and beat the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game.
Jim Harbaugh and the Colts had played gallantly as an underdog at Pittsburgh in the ’95 AFC Championship game. That defeat (the game ended when Harbaugh’s hail mary pass was ruled incomplete in a questionable decision) plus the one vs the Giants in overtime last year leaves Jim with one more tough title game loss than brother John. John’s Baltimore Ravens lost a heart breaker last year versus the New England Patriots.
Jim’s 49ers certainly had a tougher time winning last week, overcoming a (17-0) deficit and having to “hold off” (was there defensive holding by SF on the last key play?) the Atlanta Falcons while John’s Ravens scored 21 unanswered second half points to knockout the Patriots.
Each Harbaugh brother coached team trailed at the half, scored 28 points and held their home team opponent scoreless in the second half.
It is only the third time in 43 years of two conference title games that both road teams won. In 47 years of two games to determine the Super Bowl participants, it is the fourth time both road teams prevailed. Starting with the AFL’s first season in 1960, this is the fifth time in 53 years of two title games, that both road teams won. In a humorous note, it is the third time of the five that the year or season had a two as its last digit. The years are 1962, 1992, 2012, 1966 and 1997.
On a day I saw baseball great Willie Mays speak at a program honoring the current World Champion San Francisco Giants, news came that two baseball Hall of Famers, first manager Earl Weaver, and then Stan “The Man” Musial had died.
Weaver managed some great Baltimore Orioles teams including the (1969-1971) vintage which won three straight pennants but stumbled as favorites in two of those World Series. In 1970, in a World Series considered a tossup and without home advantage, Weaver’s Orioles beat the Cincinnati Reds in five games. Earl won another pennant with the 1979 Orioles but again with home advantage and as the favorite, Weaver’s Orioles lost the World Series. The Orioles also won divisional titles under Weaver in 1973 and 1974 losing the ALCS to the eventual World Champion Oakland A’s.
Stan Musial was “The Man:” a wonderful man and among the greatest of the great as a player. His plaque in Cooperstown reads “holds many National League records” because they could not come close to listing all of them. Growing up, I heard Stan held the record for holding the most records.
Musial’s career and some of his records and legacy got lost as he retired in 1963. Stan’s last hit, number 3630, then a National League record (1815 hits at home, 1815 hits on the road), went past the 1963 rookie of the year, Pete Rose, who would break Musial’s record 18 years later, just after a baseball strike ended.
Less than two months after Stan’s last game, John F. Kennedy, for whom Musial campaigned in 1960, was assassinated. Soon, new kinds of records and “setting records for records” was happening with the Beatles.
Musial’s baseball achievements were incredible and his class was overwhelming. I saw Stan once at a conference in 1997, honoring Jackie Robinson 50 years after he broke the “color barrier” in baseball. Stan was holding “court” and had mentioned he played with Ken Griffey’s father, the grandfather of Ken Griffey Jr. I suddenly thought of the clear line that sent National League control east from St. Louis (the Cards won four pennants in Stan’s first five full seasons and made a run in 1941 after Musial was brought up from the minors) to Brooklyn (six pennants and two excruciating near misses) in the ten seasons Jackie Robinson played. I never got the chance to ask Stan about that as a loud, no nothing, blurted out a foolish comment and Stan was on his way.
History, and what a great history, is what Stan Musial is about.
Stan Musial
Earl Weaver
For the second time in a two year period the world champion San Francisco Giants honored their New York beginnings and still loyal New York fans by bringing the World Series trophy to Manhattan.
At a wonderful breakfast program, CEO Larry Baer; former owner Peter Magowan; and General Manager Brian Sabean talked to members of The New York Giants Preservation Society and The New York Baseball Giants Nostalgia Society, thanking them for their great loyalty.
Next the crowd exploded with joy as the great Willie Mays talked of his love for the Giants in New York where he played from 1951-1957. In that span, the Giants won two pennants (and the Giants’ last title, until 2010). One was a four game sweep of the heavily favored 111 win (154 game season) Cleveland Indians’ team. Mays also loves the San Francisco Giants, for whom he is still a prominent member of the organization. The Giants have won two of the last three World Series titles going (8-1) in the Fall Classic.
The event which clearly illustrated the Giants organization’s commitment to its glorious New York history was a great success. In addition to Mr. Baer at the top, I would like to cite the great effort of both Staci Slaughter and Shana Daum from the Giants public relations and community relations departments in putting together the event. They are two, among many, who did so much from the tremendous Giants’ organization.
Additionally, Gary Mintz and Steve Rothschild, who head “The New York Giants Preservation Society,” also put forth a great effort and helped the event be the success it was.
Steve Rothschild, NY Giants Preservation Society
The promotion for the Off Broadway play, “Old Jews Telling Jokes,” reads “What’s not to like?” After seeing the performance, I use the bigger “L” word. “What’s not to love?!”
It was a ninety minute, great experience of hearing and seeing three supposedly old Jews and two younger ones rattling off some superb jokes. Also some very funny skits and songs. In all cases, the performer’s timing was impeccable.
The joke tellers/stars were Marilyn Sokol, Lenny Wolpe, Todd Susman (he was the public address announcer on eight seasons of “M A S H”) as the older joke “dispensers” while Bill Army and Audrey Lynn Weston were the younger performers.
The director is Marc Bruni. Peter Gethers and Daniel Okrent are both the conceiver/producer.
My best testimony is I left the performance saying… “a man goes into a psychiatrist’s office…” and repeated it many times as I truly enjoyed “Old Jews Telling Jokes.”
Now playing at the Westside Theatre (407 West 43rd Street) in New York City.
