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.
There likely are no divisional races in the National League. Only one wild card berth appears up for grabs as the season heads into the final two plus weeks.
Though they were swept in a weekend series vs the 2nd place Atlanta Braves, the Washington Nationals still have a five and a half game lead in the N.L. East. The Nationals swept the New York Mets before being swept by the Braves. All six games were on the road.
The Cincinnati Reds have run away with the N.L. Central building up an eleven game lead over the defending World Champion, St. Louis Cardinals.
The San Francisco Giants have a seven and a half game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers and barring the unforeseen, will finish in first place for the 24th time which ties them with the Dodgers for the most such finishes in the National League.
While the Braves have a huge 7 game lead for the home wild card spot over the Cardinals, the Cardinals, in turn have just a one game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers for playoff qualification.
One, two, three in the three American League divisions. Those are the respective division leads for the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers with a little more than 2 weeks to play.
The Yankees had a (4-2) week winning 2 of 3 in Boston vs the Red Sox and then repeating that vs the Tampa Rays at home. In both instances, the Yankees bounced back to win the last two games of the series after falling in the series opener. The Baltimore Orioles remain one game back as they lost 2 of 3 vs the Oakland A’s at Oakland after sweeping the Rays at home. The Rays are now 5 games behind in the division and 4 games behind Baltimore for playoff qualification. In Game 5 of the 2008 ALCS Rays’ manager Joe Maddon, by all accounts a nice guy, let a right handed pitcher deliver pitches to left handed slugger David Ortiz of the Red Sox. This despite the fact Maddon had 3 left handers in his bullpen. Ortiz homered sparking a big Red Sox comeback win. The Red Sox eventually forced a 7th game before losing. However, the Phillies eased vs the Rays in the World Series. Maddon likely will fail to deliver the World Title again. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tampa Bay Lightning have league titles but not the more consistent Rays.
The Chicago White Sox took care of business winning all 3 games vs the Minnesota Twins on the road. Their lead was one and a half games when the 2nd place Detroit Tigers took a (6-5) lead to the bottom of the 9th at Cleveland vs the Indians. Then the Indians rallied for 2 runs to send the Tigers two games back. Carlos Santana had the key hit, a game tying, 1 out triple. Thus the Tigers travel to Chicago for a makeup game later today, 2 games out. The Tigers won 2 of 3 at Chicago last week before the series finale was rained out. They also won the first two games at Cleveland.
The Texas Rangers gained a big game on Sunday and lead the surprising Oakland Athletics by 3 games in the A.L. West. Texas won 2 of 3 vs the Seattle Mariners and Kansas City Royals at home while the A’s put a big crimp in the Angels’ wild card hopes by winning 3 of in Anaheim. The week before the Angels won all 3 in Oakland and in fact the road team won the first 6 games of the 2 series between the A’s and Angels.
The A’s, a truly great story, are still under General Manager Billy Beane. He achieved wide recognition as his story and philosophy were depicted in the movie, “Moneyball” (Brad Pitt portrayed Beane.) Oakland looks safe for at least a wild card berth with a 2 game lead over the Orioles for the home wild card and a four and a half game lead to qualify for the “tournament” ahead.
As we wait for another big weekend of “down the stretch” baseball and college and pro football some miscellaneous comments to follow.
On Thursday night, Rutgers University, just over a touchdown underdog, upset South Florida University. Rutgers lost its coach Greg Schiano to the southern Florida region as he now coaches the Dolphins but at least for a night Rutgers won against a team from the south Florida region.
Meanwhile the Green Bay Packers, who won it all in 2010, and then went (15-1) in the 2011 regular season had lost 2 straight meaningful games before a (23-10) win on Thursday night vs their old rivals, the Chicago Bears. The Pack of course were beaten in the divisional round by the Giants last season. Then the San Francisco 49ers, who also were beaten at home by the Giants in the post season, won the season opener vs the Packers. Both losses and last night’s win were in games played at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
A fantastic celebration of “Broadway on Broadway’s” 20th anniversary was held in Duffy Square on Sunday September 9th. I am so glad that I attended both because it was a rousing musical festival with songs from myriad Broadway shows and it got me out and away from the first full day of the vastly over exposed NFL.
The event was hosted by Kathie Lee Gifford (alas I loved the NFL when her husband Frank played and later did commentary on NFL games on CBS.) Now Kathie Lee’s numerous plugs for her upcoming show “Scandalous” are tame compared to the Sunday, Monday, Thursday NFL hype. Ms.Gifford kept a great pace introducing the numerous show songs. By the way, the preview number for “Scandalous” was fantastic. The event was introduced and “announced /voice over’d” by Valerie Smaldone. Her mellifluous tone was on display. Ms. Smaldone is attractive, pleasant (I talked with her after the show) and extremely talented. I saw her interview Tommy James (I believe a show about him is coming to Broadway) and it was most revealing.
The featured attraction was the music of many big time Broadway shows with cast members doing a number or in some cases, two numbers. Among the shows that had numbers with cast members performing were “Chicago,” “Newsies,” “Once,” and “Stomp.” A preview of the upcoming “Motown: The Musical” gave us 2 songs, I wish there were ten. I am really looking forward to seeing that show. It was quite a day as the sun was shining, the music was pumped out and the performers were sensational.
Finally, noting that the one and only Ed Asner came on stage to announce some of the great shows that are coming to Broadway in the new season. Included are David Mamet plays and Asner cracked “David Mamet you’ve heard of him.” Of course, most people there have seen and thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Mamet’s work. I look forward to anything Mr. Mamet does. Mr. Asner is rehearsing for “Grace” with a cast that includes Paul Rudd. Broadway; much there and even more ahead.
