The Washington Nationals, who host the Philadelphia Phillies in the season’s final three games, have a magic number of one to clinch the NL East. They have a magic number of three to clinch the NL top seed. Davey Johnson’s team has already clinched the first post-season appearance for a Washington D.C. baseball club since 1933. The Atlanta Braves are in Pittsburgh to face the Pirates and only three Braves’ wins and three Nationals’ losses and then a Braves’ playoff win would net the Braves a division title. Atlanta undoubtedly will be the four seed and host a one game “play in” on Friday.
The Braves’ opponent in that game almost certainly will be the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals lead the Dodgers by 2 games with 3 game to play for each team. St. Louis won 2 of 3 vs both the Houston Astros in Houston and the Washington Nationals in St. Louis in the past week. Hence the Cardinals, very likely will be in some kind of post-season play for the 25th time. The Cincinnati Reds will be at least the two seed and the one seed if they gain a game on Washington in the final three games.
The Nationals host the Phillies while the Braves go to Pittsburgh to play the Pirates. The Reds play in St. Louis while the Giants visit the Dodgers. This year is the same calendar as 1951 and again the Giants are playing the Dodgers on Oct 1, 2 and 3. That year the Giants won the pennant on Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round The World.” Now, very likely, the game on Wednesday October 3rd, 2012, will be meaningless in determining post-season berths.
On Friday, Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds pitched a no hitter vs the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was the 7th no hitter of this season tying the modern record which had been achieved in both 1990 and 1991. There were 8 no hitters in 1884 (I put that note in because I am reading Norman Macht’s book about Connie Mack and realize the wonders in baseball before 1900).
The last time the Pirates were no hit, the pitcher was the great, Bob Gibson. As in the case with Bailey’s no hitter, the game was in Pittsburgh. The year was 1971. That was the only no hitter of Gibson’s career and it occurred in the Pirates’ first full season at Three Rivers Stadium. Before then they had played for nearly 62 seasons at Forbes Field. There was never a no hitter pitched at Forbes Field. The Pirates won the World Series in 1971 just as the New York Mets won the World Series in 1969, a year they were “no hit” by the Pirates’ Bob Moose. Both Gibson’s and Moose’s no hitters were on Saturdays.
Meanwhile, the no hitter by Bailey was the first by a Reds’ pitcher since Tom Browning pitched a perfect game against the eventual world champion, Los Angeles Dodgers in 1988 (that year Kirk Gibson hit some big post season home runs for LA and with the Dodgers 3 behind St. Louis with 5 games left in the wild card race, it is very likely it will be 25 years and counting since a Dodgers’ World Series win or even an appearance in the “Fall Classic”). That perfect game was also pitched on a Friday night.
The Reds have as good a chance as any team in the upcoming “tournament” while the Pirates added to their North American sports league record with their 20th consecutive “non winning” season after being no hit by Bailey. They were in contention for a while and as was the case with the Mets faded in the 2nd half of the season. However, both teams won more games than expected by the “experts” in Las Vegas, the Mets clinching that “distinction” with 5 games left Friday night in Atlanta. Speaking of the Braves, they clinched at least a wild card spot (that is all it will be as they trail the Washington Nationals by 4 games with 5 left) when Freddie Freeman hit a game ending home run on Tuesday night. Last year, Freeman hit into a double play that ended the Braves’ season which completed their collapse and gave the Cardinals entry into the 8 team tournament. The Cards took that “entry ticket” and hit big, winning their 11th World Title. Almost certainly the Braves will get a chance for revenge next Friday as they will host the Cardinals in a one game playoff, the winner becoming one of 8 teams vying for the 2012 Title.
Last year Allan “Bud” Selig, who allows 2 wild card teams in each league and continues in conspiracy with other baseball brass to keep the great Pete Rose out of the Baseball Hall of Fame, had his “blank’ dream when the race for the wild card spot in both leagues culminated with 3 exciting games on the final day of the regular season. The next day I foolishly listened to Selig “gushing” about it with Mike Lupica, on the latter’s radio show. Lupica, by the way, “bailed” on his opposition to the wild card when the “local,” long time Lupica family team, the Yankees, made a run to make the wild card in its initial year in 1995. There are so many reasons to be against the wild card but I will address only one.
Last year was no doubt exciting but at least one factor produced by the wild card race and its exciting conclusion was not addressed. The tying home run by the Rays’ player (I know about Hartnett in 1938, Aaron in 1957, Dick Nen in 1963 and of course Bobby Thomson in 1951 but “fight the windmills” me has no desire nor inclination to remember wild card races and thus do not recall who hit the tying home run) was not hit vs Yankees’ relief star Marianno Rivera. The Yankees had nothing to gain by winning. In the days when a team had to finish first in its entity (league or division) to make the post season, no team that had clinched said entity had any games of consequence remaining in the regular season.
Looking ahead, if the Orioles win all 3 vs the Boston Red Sox and then play spoilers vs the Yankees would the Orioles finish first? That would not eliminate the Yankees but force them into a one game playoff just to be one of 8 teams left? A rare prediction here is that the Orioles will at best win 2 of 3 vs Boston as was the case last week. I think the Toronto Blue Jays( 5 of 7 relevant Jays’ games have gone in the Yankees’ favor) might start helping the O’s by winning 2 of 4 vs the Yankees. However, that is at best, I predict. If that happens the Yankees will lead the Orioles by one game with 3 left. The Yankees would/will not sweep Boston but would the Sox win 2? The Orioles close in Tampa and at best win two. The Yankees now are only a half game behind Texas in the loss column (Texas is up 1 in the loss column but the Yankees have the tiebreaker) are far more likely to be the 1 seed than not win the division. So for the record, the Yankees split 4 in Toronto and the Orioles win 2 of 3 vs Boston. Yet that proves not to be enough for the Orioles. The Yankees will win the division and very well could be the AL one seed.
While the big talk around the NFL is about the replacement officials, especially regarding the Monday night ending which also affected the point spread result, only three teams are unbeaten after three weeks. After the Minnesota Vikings denied the “anointed” San Francisco 49ers in an early Sunday game, three teams won in late games to raise their records to (3-0). Two of the teams won vs other (2-0) teams, the Atlanta Falcons (at San Diego) and the Arizona Cardinals, who won at home vs the Philadelphia Eagles. Both teams represent areas starting with the letter “A,” have “bird” nicknames and were 3 point underdogs. The other (3-0) team and they will be “anointed” this week; the Houston Texans, who won as 2 point favorites in Denver vs the Broncos. The Texans’ seemingly easy division (they are 35 to 1 favorites to win the AFC South) and schedule make them a logical choice to be the AFC top seed. They are very good but let’s not put them in the CBS broadcast “Supe” just yet. Why cite CBS as to the Super Bowl so early? I can just see lead announcer Jim Nantz and his Houston “friends” really enjoying themselves in nearby New Orleans. Paraphrasing “Archie Bunker,” I can live without seeing that spectacle.
The outburst regarding replacement officials is now officially “viral” as the kids say and typical of our virtually doomed society as I wish I could tell those who are so disproportionally outraged by it. Sure it was the improper call at the end of the Seattle Seahawks’ upset win vs the Green Bay Packers. Also I truly feel sorry for anyone who lost a big bet on the result, but if one has to gamble, one has to be aware of the financial and emotional risk. There have been worse “gambling burns” than this one where while like most of the populace, I agree it was the wrong call it was not a totally blown call. Also this was the 2nd last play “Hail Mary” that went for a touchdown in this 3rd week of NFL action. The Packers also allowed such a play right before the half of their division round loss to the Giants. This type of play really should never work and certainly not twice in a week and also in a playoff game. The pass defense was worse than the officials’ calls and those are not replacement players.
Alas all the furor will cause the greedy NFL owners and league brass to do as the big, big stockholder and exert its real power. Thus the “regular” officials will be back within 2 weeks. That is my opinion and so is the above. You know what they liken “having an opinion” to. One more such opinion or really a feeling: and that is I sometimes wish Marty Glickman, Ray Scott and others were not such great broadcasters. Also that Jim Brown, John Unitas, Bart Starr, Lance Alworth and others were not such great players. See they were of football past and I was young and not aware. Football became a big part of my “emotional landscape.” Now it is all too clear that the NFL has a few too many “warts” to love or perhaps even like/watch. I will not stop but I have already severely cut back my time spent watching and will decrease said watching by an even greater margin. I will review it here so stay tuned and most of all, please keep it all in perspective.
As stated in a recent post, both the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants clinched divisional titles on the same day. Meanwhile the Washington Nationals, who have already clinched the first post season appearance for a Washington D.C. baseball team since 1933, have a four and a half game lead over the Atlanta Braves in the NL East. The Nationals have 10 games left while the Braves, who are almost certain to at least host the wild card playoff game, have nine games remaining.
The Braves have a 6 game lead over the Cardinals for the home wild card spot. In turn, the Cardinals lead the Milwaukee Brewers by two and a half games (just 2 in the loss column) for playoff qualification. The Cardinals won all three at home vs the (50-103) Houston Astros and then won the final two games at Wrigley Field in Chicago vs the Cubs. The Cubs had tied the series opener with a 2 out, 2 run home run by Darwin Barney, before winning the game in the home 11th inning. But the Cardinals bounced back in the next 2 and likely will be in post season as a wild card team for the second straight year
The Nationals lead the Reds by a half game (the teams are even in the loss column) for the NL top seed. The Nationals own the tiebreaker. Thus if the two teams tie the Nationals would be seeded ahead of the Reds.
The Texas Rangers have a 4 game lead over the Oakland Athletics in the AL West. Each team has 9 games left to play with six vs each other. The Rangers salvaged the series finale in Seattle vs the Mariners holding on for a (3-2) win on Sunday while the A’s also won a one run, series finale road game (at the New York Yankees) to salvage one of three games over the past weekend. However, the Rangers have the lead so it was an advantage in division play for Texas. Their lead for the top seed in the American League is one and a half games over the Yankees in the loss column. I state it that way because the Yankees own the tiebreaker vs the Rangers and would be the top seed if the two teams tie at the end of the season.
The Yankees are still far from winning the AL East as they maintained a one game lead over the Orioles with each team having 10 games to play. Both teams won their first 5 games of the week before each lost by a run on Sunday. On Saturday, first the Orioles won their 16th straight extra inning game (the record for one season is 18 by the 1949 Cleveland Indians, set a year after they won their last World series in 1948) but they were denied a first place tie when, incredibly, the Yankees scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 13th inning to tie the game before beating the A’s on an error in the 14th inning.
Meanwhile, despite losing all three games at the Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels park this weekend, the White Sox still have a one game lead over the Detroit Tigers. On Sunday the Minnesota Twins, who entered play 27 games under .500 and over two to one underdogs in each game, won both ends of a day/night doubleheader at Detroit. On Monday past, the White Sox won the makeup game vs the Tigers by a run to go up 3 games. However, while the Tigers won two of 3 games at home vs Oakland, the Kansas City Royals won 2 of 3 at home vs the White Sox. The Tigers did win the series opener vs the Twins on Saturday after the Friday game was postponed. Each team has 10 games to play.
The Orioles lead the A’s by one game for the home wild card while Oakland, in turn, leads the Angels by 2 and a half games for playoff qualification.The Tampa Bay Rays are 3 and a half games behind Oakland.
Both the San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds clinched their one eighth division titles on Saturday September 22nd. The Reds are managed by Dusty Baker and the Giants were once managed by Dusty Baker. Unfortunately Baker missed the Reds’ division clincher as a precaution due to the discovery that Dusty has an irregular heartbeat. The Giants’ current manager is Bruce Bochy.
The Reds, Giants, Nationals, Braves, Rangers, Yankees and Orioles almost certainly will be in post season play and the first three listed have already clinched “tournament” berths. It is likely the A’s, Cardinals and the White Sox/Tigers AL Central winner will join them. Only Baker and Ron Washington of Texas have managed in post season, won a series, and not won a title among the likely post season managers.
Davey Johnson, now managing the Nationals, won with the Mets, Bruce Bochy won with his current team the Giants, in 2010. A year earlier, Joe Girardi guided his current team the Yankees, to their 27th world title. If Jim Leyland and his Tigers get in he will be the 4th manager in this post season who won a previous title. Leyland guided the wild card Florida Marlins to the 1997 world title.
Fredi Gonzalez managing Atlanta, Mike Matheny at the Cardinals’ helm and Bob Melvin who manages the A’s, would be making their first post season appearance. Robin Ventura of the White Sox, who are battling Detroit for the AL Central title, is in his first year as manager. Buck Showalter, who manages the Orioles has been in post season once but lost in his only series.
“The Fifth Dentist” is a funny and also heartfelt, largely autobiographical, one man play starring Mike King. Mr. King tells his life story as a dentist (the” fifth” dentist, not one of the 4 out of 5 dentists who famously recommended a certain gum) and a comedian.
King is also the son of a colorful strip club proprietor in the Denver area named Sid King. There were great stories of having strippers getting their own receiving line at Michael’s Bar Mitzvah and of course how popular Sid’s line of work was with the other kids. There also is a love Mike has for his parents (his mom worked at the club) that came across as well.
Mike King delivered the ups and downs of his life in a low key, funny style. He is a dentist and joked about his profession including the fact dentists would be a “press one” on the suicide prevention hot line. “The Fifth Dentist,” a thoroughly enjoyable look at a complicated but fruitful life is at the Producer’s Club located at 358 West 44th Street.
“Normalcy” is an incredibly, well written play with excellent performances by the actors involved. The characters were interesting and the performance was truly moving, hard hitting and hopefully inspirational. The exceptionally well written work did its part now the rest is up to me.
The writing of Bennett Windheim is superb. The story is about a financially comfortable couple that wants to complete an interracial adoption. That provides for many good twists and turns. What really moved me were some of the comments on our society and about ourselves. This is especially true of the character, “Jules Ehrlich” (the father) played by Harvey Guion. He delivers his character’s skeptical views on people with great skill. Concerning the thanking or praying to God for success in a sporting event (this is entirely different than praying for safety) his character asks what happened to “the separation of church and stadium?!”
The couple Sarah and Peter Ehrlich played very well by Aleisha Force and Judson Jones respectively are in a good life and marriage but seem to want more. Without giving away the story which has a really intense twist in the 2nd and final act, I was moved by the issues the play brings out that are relevant in any adoption. Certainly the intensity of those issues increases with an adoption across racial lines which still has huge outside repercussions in our society. I also thought about what we have and what the couple had developed. Ultimately there is a need to realize how precious that is and a need to protect that place in our hearts and psyches.
Normalcy is at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater and is presented by Theatre East, a non profit theater company that emphasizes the attempt to provide understanding of ourselves and those around us in their productions. In “Normalcy” they have succeeded doing so with crackling dialogue that had my head spinning with stimulation.
First of all, a mixed bag on last week’s observations. I “built up” the (6-0) first week record of the teams playing on Thanksgiving this season, but in the second week those teams went (1-5). However, I talked of karma and New England Patriots’ coach, Bill Belichick’s decision to kick a “rub it in” field goal vs the Tennessee Titans. In the second week, with the game in the balance, New England kicker, Stephen Gostkowski missed a 42 yard field goal and the “6 to 1” underdog, Arizona Cardinals had a (20-18) win at Gillette Stadium in New England. It was the first time in 11 home openers that the Pats lost at their corporate, at best “company named” stadium.
Six NFL teams have started by winning their first two games, four of those teams from the NFC. The Philadelphia Eagles are the first team in NFL history to win by one point in each of their first two games after their (24-23) win vs the Baltimore Ravens. The Atlanta Falcons have a road win and one vs the highly touted Denver Broncos (the latter a redux of the 1998 season Supe won by Denver) to their credit. The San Francisco 49ers have two quality wins, the opener at (the) Green Bay Packers, who went (15-1) last season. Then the Niners had a home win vs a supposedly good Detroit Lions team. The Cardinals won at New England as stated above, and also as an underdog vs the Seattle Seahawks.
The two AFC (2-0) teams, the Houston Texans and San Diego Chargers represent the cities that clashed in the second AFL title game after the 1961 season. The city of Houston also met the Los Angeles Chargers in the first AFL Title game in 1960. Both of those title games resulted in wins for the Houston Oilers. (George Blanda was the Houston quarterback.) The Los Angeles Chargers moved to San Diego after the first AFL season. The current (Houston) Texans are an expansion team that entered the league in 2002. The Houston Oilers had moved to Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans.
Additionally, the Houston Oilers were denied a third AFL title in as many AFL seasons when a team called the Texans (the Dallas Texans, who later became the Kansas City Chiefs) beat them in the 6 quarter, 1962 AFL title game. Meanwhile, the Chargers, denied titles in the first two AFL title tilts, won big as the San Diego Chargers in the 4th AFL title tilt which was after the 1963 season. Of course that year the AFL had the “no brainer,” good sense and compassion not to play football 2 days after President Kennedy was killed. Sadly, the same can not be said for the NFL.
Andy B Sports 