Whitney Houston was a magnificent talent, who of course left us way too soon at age 48. I cherish my one meeting with Ms.Houston in 1999. She walked toward me for an interview and was a charming, lively and extremely polite interview subject. She called me Andy three times which really means so much to me. In this journey called life, I have encountered many people, a good number of them celebrated, and few if any were as warm as Whitney Houston. Whitney, ” I will always love you” but will not attempt to sing it.
Andy B
Whitney Houston
Howie Mandel, a much more “adult audience” Howie Mandel than I expected, wowed the audience in Staten Island at a recent performance. I marveled at his impeccable comedic timing especially when interacting with audience members.
While the old greats, working sans the excessive “adult” language or “adult” topics still rate highest with me, Mandel is a creative, beautifully timed performer, and gets a big plus rating from me.
Andy B
Howie Mandel
Rare editorial comments: but certainly they are backed by facts. The Baseball wild card St. Louis Cardinals and the Football 9-7 NY Football Giants won the biggest US Sports Titles this season with among the most exciting playoff runs ever by a pair of champions. They also were teams with less than stellar regular season performances.
These two glorious franchises in their sport repeated a feat they accomplished 77 years ago in 1934. Surely each team deserves its Title, having won it on the field of play, but each rolled a very ” lucky 7 ” as well.
I am a bit upset that great Giants Quarterback Y.A. Tittle failed to ” Title, ” losing in 3 consecutive Title games from 1961-1963, with certainly better records in all 3 than the last 2 Giants’ Title teams which had respectively 10-6 and 9-7 records. (The latter is the worst regular season record ever for an NFL champion.)
Andy B
Y.A. Tittle
Of course, the teams meeting in this year’s 46th Super Bowl met in the 42nd such sport’s finals when the Giants defeated an 18-0 New England team. This is the 6th Super Bowl matching teams that have met before in the Super Bowl. All 6 such games were or will be televised by NBC (Wonder if they know that and if they will cite it? Andybsports.com readers know it and if you have any interesting facts or trivia, for that matter any comments, please leave word in our comments section.)
New York and Boston have never met in a basketball finals series. The Boston Bruins have won both Stanley Cup Finals against the New York Rangers, one in 1929; 2 games to none. The other was Boston winning 4 games to 2 in the 1972 Finals. A key game, perhaps the key game, was the series opener. The Bruins had dissipated a (5-1) lead, the Rangers tied the game, (5-5) and then the Bruins got the game winning goal from Garnet “Ace” Bailey. Perhaps, we can all gain some perspective about this upcoming Boston vs New York sports final by remembering Bailey was killed on one of the planes on September 11, 2001.
Andy B
Garnet "Ace" Bailey
There is a glorious history, involving New York vs Boston major sports league finals. None of that history includes the Yankees vs the Red Sox, as they have both been in the same league for well over 100 years and baseball, thankfully, has never adopted an intra-league World Series. (They have implemented enough bad stuff but that is a subject for a different day.)
Twice, Boston and New York teams met in The World Series and those series, contested 74 years apart in1912 and 1986, were the first two World Series in which a team facing elimination and down to its last half inning rallied to win the game and eventually the championship. In 1912, when the Red Sox beat the New York Giants (yes there was a New York Giants baseball team until they moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season) in the decisive 8th game of the World Series, (one tie) they rallied facing elimination in the final game and won the Title right there. When the Mets staged their incredible 2 out, no one on rally facing elimination and down ( 5-3 ) in the bottom of the 10th inning, it was Game 6 of the World Series. The Mets still had to win Game 7, which they did two nights later, overcoming a 3-0 deficit as late as the 6th inning in that game.
Since then three more teams have rallied to win the Baseball title despite facing elimination in a potential last inning. First the 1997 Florida Marlins, a wild card team, scored a run down (2-1) in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 7 to tie the game before Edgar Renteria singled home the winning run vs the Cleveland Indians, a team still without a World Series Title since 1948. By the way, Renteria made the last out when the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years and was Series MVP when the Giants won their first Title in 56 years.
The Arizona Diamondbacks, joined the 1912 Red Sox as the only teams to face elimination down to their last inning and win the World Series in that inning. They did so in the 2001 World Series vs the Yankees and their great relief pitcher Mariano Rivera, as Tony Womack delivered the key hit. Finally, in the most recent World Series, the wild card St.Louis Cardinals, twice down 2 runs and facing elimination in their last potential inning, rallied to tie the score both times. Then Series MVP David Freese, whose 2 out, 2 strike triple tied the game in the bottom of the 9th, won it in the 11th inning of Game 6. The Cardinals, despite trailing 2-0 in the 1st inning, won relatively easily to win their 11th title in Game 7, the next night.
Andy B
NYC vs Boston
“The Mountaintop” was truly an extraordinary play. The technical aspect was superb as both Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson gave great portrayals. Their chemistry is beyond words.
They do this night after night, Angela Bassett telling a 92nd Street Y audience some weeks back with a determination needed to tell the story of what Dr.King may have been thinking the night before his tragic death in April, 1968.
Angela Bassett, Andy B
“Jersey Boys ” is a spectacular show bringing back some great memories with the music of “The Four Seasons.” The show also tells the story of the group in an interesting and certainly humorous way.
The cast with Jarrod Spector as Frankie Valli, was superb. His singing is extraordinary as one can truly close one’s eyes and hear the great Frankie Valli when Jarrod sings. One note, I happened to sit next to dancer Sharonne Vinokurov, and it turns out she went to grade school with Spector. She had a great reunion with Jarrod afterwards, telling him how proud she was of his extraordinary performance. They walked around the block and hope to stay in touch.
I highly recommend “Jersey Boys “for the great music and story it tells.” Jersey Boys ” is playing at the August Wilson Theater.
Andy B
Jersey Boys
This week’s Conference Championship games, with the winners going to Indianapolis for the 46th Super Bowl (I like Roman numerals, did well with them in school but the NFL has enough similarities with ancient Rome) feature four teams, all with some connection to Indianapolis. The Super Bowl favorite, New England Patriots have had a storied rivalry with the hometown Colts, featuring quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Their AFC Title game opponents, the Baltimore Ravens represent a city that lost the Colts to Indianapolis when the Colts left Baltimore and its storied franchise history and moved, literally in the middle of the night, to Indianapolis. The NFC Championship matches the Giants whose quarterback Eli Manning is Peyton Manning’s brother while the Niners’ coach Jim Harbaugh came so close to leading the Indianapolis Colts to the Super Bowl in the 1995 season playoffs. In fact, a “hail mary” pass by Harbaugh nearly connected on the game’s final play in the Colts’ Title Game loss at Pittsburgh. Incredibly, last week, the Giants connected on a last play of the first half, “hail mary” TD, (Manning to Hakeem Nicks), one of four TD catches this post season by the former North Carolina standout.
The Giants and Patriots are an astounding (10-1) in Conference Championship Games. The Giants, who won just 3 of their 14 NFL Championship Games in the pre merger years from 1933-1964 ,have not lost in 4 previous NFC Championship Games. The Giants beat the Redskins after the 1986 season, the Niners after the 1990 season, the Vikings after the 2000 season and the Packers after the 2007 season. New York/New Jersey allowed just 4 touchdowns in those games winning by shutout in the ’86 and 2000 Title Games. Other than the 2000 season game when the Giants won (41-0), scoring 5 touchdowns, the Giants scored just 4 Td’s in the other 3 games, getting all their points on 5 Matt Bahr field goals in the ’90 season Title Game win at San Francisco. The Giants went on to win in three of their 4 Super Bowl appearances including a win vs New England and a loss to the Ravens. If the Giants win this week there will be a Super Bowl redux against one of those teams.
The Patriots are a stellar (6-1) in AFC Championship games, their only loss at Indianapolis, (where they hope to be for the Super Bowl ) after the 2006 season. New England (3-3) in Super Bowls, won Conference Championship games at Miami in 1985 and at Pittsburgh in both 2001 and 2004. They are (3-0) in home Title tilts, winning vs Jacksonville and their coach,Tom Coughlin in 1996 and vs the Colts in 2003 and San Diego in 2007.
The 49ers will be playing in their 13th Conference Title game and 9th at home. San Francisco (5-7) in Title games, (4-4) at home, will be appearing in one for the first time since 1997. They are undefeated in 5 Super Bowl appearances. The Niners’
are (4-3) vs the Giants in post season winning a wild card round game in 2002 and divisional games in 1981,1984 and 1993. The Giants have one win at each of the three conference playoff levels. The “G Men” won a wild card round game in 1985, a divisional game in 1986 and the Conference Title Game in 1990.
The Ravens will be playing in their 3rd AFC Title Game, all three on the road. They split the previous two, winning at Oakland in 2000 and losing to eventual Super Bowl Champion, Pittsburgh in 2008. The Ravens blasted the Patriots ( 33-14 ) in a 2009 wild card round game, their lone previous post season meeting.
Andy B
Indy Bound?
Three teams in NFL playoff history won three road games and then the Super Bowl at a neutral site. All three of those teams lost in their next playoff game, which in all three cases was a home game. After the Steelers won three road playoff games after the 2005 season and then won the Super Bowl, they missed the playoffs in 2006. But in 2007, they lost a wild card round playoff game at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Giants, who are making another amazing run now, had the all time run in 2007. They were winners on the road three times and then beat undefeated New England in the Super Bowl. However, the next year as the NFC top seed, The Giants lost at home to the Eagles.
Now this year after winning three road games and The Super Bowl last year, The Packers lose in their next playoff game which was at home to the Giants. The Giants win at Green Bay stretched the streak to 34 out of 34 years, that the home team has not won all the games in both the wild card round and the divisional round.
NY Giants
The city of Baltimore hosted the first divisional round playoff game after the AFC/NFC configuration was implemented in 1970. With John Unitas (once called “Yoonitass” by Bennett Cerf on the great television show, “What’s My Line”) at quarterback, The Baltimore Colts defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in that game en route to a Super Bowl triumph. When The Baltimore Ravens take the field to play the Houston Texans in the earlier Sunday game this week, 165 divisional games will have been played without the city of Baltimore hosting a winning game for their team. Since that first divisional game, The Colts lost divisional home games vs Pittsburgh in 1976 and Oakland in 1977. The Ravens lost a home divisional playoff game to the Indianapolis Colts in 2006. The Colts went on to win the Super Bowl. The Ravens, whose records really should include those of the Cleveland Browns, have played 11 of their 13 non Super Bowl playoff games on the road. They are (2-4) in divisional round games, which includes a win at Tennessee en route to their Super Bowl win after the 2000 season. Meanwhile the Houston Texans are in just their 2nd playoff game, the first was last week.
The finale of the divisional weekend takes place in Green Bay as the defending Super Bowl Champion Packers, who are 15-1 meet the (9-7, regular season) but ever dangerous (see the 2007 season when they won 3 road playoff games and then beat undefeated New England in the Super Bowl), New York Giants. Fifty years earlier these two teams met at the same field (then I believe still called City Stadium and now named Lambeau Field after Packers’ legend Curly Lambeau) and Green Bay under coach Vince Lombardi and with star running back Paul Hornung granted a weekend pass from the Army Reserves by President John Kennedy, eased to a 37-0 victory. The next year, Jerry Kramer kicked 3 field goals to provide the difference as The Packers won 16-7 on a bitterly cold day at Yankee Stadium. A third field goal attempt, this one successful unlike the first two potential game winners by current Giants placekicker Lawrence Tynes, lifted the Giants to an overtime triumph at Green Bay in the 2007 NFC Title game. As cited above, The Giants went on to win the Super Bowl. Green Bay won the NFL Championship Game vs the Giants in both 1939 and 1944, while The Giants prevailed in the 1938 game. The Packers are hosting a divisional round game for only the 4th time. They won the previous three and are (5-6) in the divisional round playoffs. The Giants are(4-5) in this round, (1-4) on the road. The winner of the Giants’ divisional round game has gone on to win the Super Bowl six times. The Giants have done so three times (1986,1990 and 2007) while the 49ers twice (1981 and 1984) and The Bears in 1985 also went on to win it all after beating the Giants in the divisional round.
When Bill Belichick and John Fox meet in Saturday night’s playoff game, I believe it will be only the second time that coaches who met in a Super Bowl(Belichick’s Pats won by 3 points vs Fox’ Carolina Panthers in the 2003 season Super Bowl) will be meeting in the divisional round playoffs. The other time George Seifert’s team, the Niners again beat Dan Reeves team, this time the Giants in the 1993 divisional round. Seifert’s Niners beat Reeves’ Broncos in the 1989 season Super Bowl. Fox’ current team is the Denver Broncos. Finally early in Alabama University’s easy BCS Title game win vs LSU, I noticed Alabama had a player named Hanks (Darius Hanks ,who had receptions of 9 yards or more on four of the 5 Alabama field goal drives). Recall Tom Hanks’ as Forrest Gump played for a coach who was undeniably supposed to be Bear Bryant at Alabama in the movie. Truth, fiction, notes and enjoy the games.
Andy B
Johnny "Yoonitass" Unitas
Andy B Sports 