BRONCOS //  MLB

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BRONCOS & QUARTERBACK TIM TEBOW     ---   LOTS of athletes with national attention have managed to reach and sometimes surpass their potential. We don’t know yet if the Denver Broncos new starting quarterback, Tim Tebow, can be one of them. We do know this: if a Heisman trophy, already observed skills on NFL playing fields, the determination to win and devotion to practice mean anything, Tebow could be joining the elite among active NFL QB’s, even if he fails to light up on Sunday, October 23, when the 1-4 Broncos challenge the currently 0-4 Miami Dolphins, even if in the next 11 Broncos games he fails to be behind the seven that Denver needs to be a .500 team (2011 would be his first nearly complete go get it year, a forgivable period).

No way to hide it: the pressure to shine brightly during the Broncos/Dolphins game could keep Tebow from being what a top NFL QB should be. Yet if he does what he’s supposed to do instead of trying his utmost to meet the probably embellished expectations of his fans, then surely Denver running back Knowshon Moreno, receivers Brandon Lloyd and Willis McGahee, and Tebow’s pass protectors, they will be sharing the spotlight, spreading the stardust that should not mean much to Tebow if he’s the real thing and not taken by notions that all is his show and no-one else’s.

On the subject of expectations surrounding Tebow, while he is ranked number 28 among the all-time best college QB’s hurling touchdown passes with a total of 88 while at Florida U., there’s a Broncos supporting QB listed as number 18, having accrued 95 TD passes when at Notre Dame---Denver’s choice for back-up QB Brady Quinn, who within the top 25 college QB’s for greatest number of passing yards also ranks 18th, a list where Tebow is not to be found, though countering this is that Tebow leads Quinn in TD’s achieved directly with 57 TD’s, ranked 21 of 25 for all-time. In other words, Tebow is in the top percentage of America’s QB’s but he isn’t among the top 12, he isn’t a super-special gift to Denver from the football Gods (not yet, anyway), he hasn’t compared with 4-1 San Diego’s Philip Rivers or 5-0 Green Bay’s Aaron Rogers, QB's that helped tear the Broncos apart this season.

Enter Broncos head coach, John Fox, surely doing his utmost to see that it is never just a QB’s show, knowing that the rest of the Broncos offense must be the right match-ups for Tebow’s handoffs and throws. And, should Tebow reach his promise versus Miami by driving his offense for lots of points on the board, it’ll be up to the Broncos defense to keep from giving those points away, which has been a lot more of a problem for the Broncos in their 2011 plight than starting QB Kyle Orton has been. By the way, in no way should what happens in Miami after Bye week be a referendum on Orton. The Broncos have been losing as a team + coaches, not as the result of a single player’s spotty record.

MLB & WHAT THE POST-SEASON HAS TO SAY

WITHIN professional baseball there are big rays of envy that reach out from the post-season, invading those teams that stopped short in September, today wondering, “Why not us? Why didn’t we make it?” As always, the answers show up in the AL and NL LCS competitions, sometimes old news, other times new info and refreshing. Here’s what I mean: the four teams competing for LC’s (the Brewers, Cardinals, Rangers and the Tigers) are not the big market teams of the MLB that usually show up in the post season and get to the World Series---that’s new and indicative of greater balance in professional baseball, good for the sport nationally. Both the Yankees and the Red Sox, and last year’s WS winning team the SF Giants, they’ve been blown away by smaller market/smaller budget teams comprising low ERA rotation depth, plus relievers to be counted on, and closers that usually close triumphant, which offsets any weaknesses among fielders, except there are no field weaknesses of the continuing variety in the four teams that made it to the top.

Too, (not new) the batting orders of the four teams keep exploiting that rare opportunity that appears when scores are low due to the effective pitching, with just enough heavy hitters for those extra base hits and the now and then home run. Then there’s the intangible, that unseen attribute that can make a big difference in critical moments, this: for whatever reason, situational factors appear to be looked upon by the four LC contending teams as chances to prevail against their opponents, not as impenetrable obstacles, example: bases are loaded, there are two outs, and the hurler on the mound says to himself, “Here’s my chance to show what I’ve got, I’ll strike the next dude out in three throws.”

Ideally, in baseball each new batter adopts a new and appropriate strategy, based on number of outs and if any bases are manned, but this is extremely difficult to sustain when coming toward batters are balls thrown faster than 90 MPH. Immediate batter-improvisation is what usually happens after a batter’s first swing, he makes things up as the minutes pass, unless special moves are signaled to him by a manager or coach. The players of those teams now vying for LC’s seem to follow set courses of action a lot longer than those players of most teams that failed to make the post-season this year.

Whichever two of the four teams get to be in the WS this year, it’s an informed guess that their WS iterations will be fiercely controlled inning after inning---a seven game 2011 WS is quite possible.

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