WORLD SERIES  //  NFL  // NBA

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WORLD SERIES, CARDS VS. RANGERS ---  IT was believed back in April that the Colorado Rockies would enter the post-season, next the World Series. It didn’t happen. The Rockies went down in May, recovered only slightly and tanked again. Also in April, few analysts thought that the St. Louis Cardinals could make it to the post-season, become National League champs and compete in the World Series. Now the Cards are tall for the WS shootout versus the American League’s best, the Texas Rangers, a team April’s pundits thought could be a post-season contender but would fail to reach the WS.

Over the weekend, the Rangers became the first AL champion of the past 10 years to be appearing at the WS two years running. So, is this an unusual outcome relative to April’s predictions? Not really. Were the MLB season of less than half its games, predictions about MLB franchises would probably hold up, but they rarely do in that baseball’s season of more than 160 games leaves lots of room for mishaps and also for the positive turnabouts that happened for the Cardinals, a team that months ago was expected to finish the 2011 regular season where the Rockies ended up, below .500.

From April through August and into early September, the Cards went up and down from marginal to lackluster, yet hardly ever into zones of the pathetic, staying at that line where a few new wins could propel a team toward wild card status. Thanks to other NL franchises suddenly on the skids in late August and after, the Cards 18-8 September record took on meaning, the team was quickly post-season bound, soon playing well enough to make the Atlanta Braves irrelevant and face the Milwaukee Brewers for the NL-LC.

Crucial during the LC series was manager Tony La Russa’s astute leadership regarding the Card’s limitations. Aware of the vulnerabilities among his starting pitchers, La Russa replaced them at the earliest signs of trouble. The Cards post-season relievers averaged a 3.55 ERA, forcing outs from the Brewers and edging the Cards toward a 6-game LC championship.

The Texas Rangers also won its 2011 LC in six games, from a well balanced combo of effective hurlers and competent hitters, much in evidence during game six, which the Rangers won, 15-5. From hitting prowess, the Rangers overcame a two game deficit in the LC series, with Texas batter Nelson Cruz finishing the LC series having hit six home runs and attaining 13 RBI’s. The Cards rotation and relievers will have to outsmart Cruz and also Texas sluggers Josh Hamilton and Michael Young, and Cards batter Albert Pujols will need to upgrade his post-season hitting so as to offset the Texas RBI’s. Too, La Russa is the more experienced manager when compared with most other MLB leaders; his ability to choose and order up the unexpected yet right action can make a huge difference for the Cards---such will certainly contribute to the WS avoiding boredom.

NFL  ---   A game to watch at mid-season when the Denver Broncos play Oakland after challenging the Miami Dolphins and the Detroit Lions will be the currently undefeated Green Bay Packers vs. the now 4-1 San Diego Chargers. If the Broncos should happen to beat Miami and Detroit and then the now 4-2 Oakland, and the Chargers lose to Green Bay, then the currently 1-4 Denver team won’t be looking uglier than ugly in the AFC-West, it’ll be a 4-4 franchise with seven weeks of the season left to rise above .500. Does this put pressure on new Denver starting quarterback, Tim Tebow? He might as well be chained to a chair underneath an elephant hanging by hooks from a low ceiling that lowers an inch every half-hour.

The above said and regarding any hopes for the Broncos finishing the NFL season among top teams, the possibility of it is there but way south of it actually happening. Right now, the competition for top positions in the NFL is high with the Packers at 6-0 and both the Lions and the San Francisco 49ers at 5-1, the Baltimore Ravens at 4-1, plus the New York Giants, the Buffalo Bills and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers each at 4-2. Of the eight remaining season games that the Broncos will play starting November 13, most will be against teams already in the year’s top half of NFL franchises, and, according to most NFL analysts, the likelihood of the Broncos beating Detroit and Oakland in November is slim. As of today, only three teams are in worse shape than the Broncos---the Minnesota Vikings and the Carolina Panthers, each at 1-5, and the Miami Dolphins, 0-5.     

NBA  ---  IT’s nearly that time of year when professional baseball beds down and pro-basketball appears on the horizon. But there may not be an NBA season for some time, so if you’re an NBA fan and can’t cotton to college basketball or to a hoop video game, then, while NBA billionaires (team owners) and millionaires (players) argue over revenue and percentiles during their lockout, you can gain enrichment from a good basketball DVD and some reading. Here are choices---DVD: The FIRST BASKET. It’s about the early days of basketball that led to what would be the NBA, a happening occurring less from business choices and more from pure athleticism as if basketball prowess was, like baseball, central to the nation’s evolution, with player and coaching smarts instilling among fans and promoters the idea of a national league. Though basketball began in Massachusetts many generations ago, it first seeded deeply in New York City by Jewish players who took to it from the streets, dominating the sport the way that African-Americans illuminate and strengthen basketball today. The FIRST BASKET tells this story with vivid glimpses of the game’s early greats, among them, Red Auerbach, who became one of basketball’s most winning and most esteemed head coaches (Boston Celtics) .  .  .   BOOKS:  I’d recommend two books year after year, for they bring back and reinforce those game essentials that we tend to shift onto back-burners when life’s other necessities distract. Sacred Hoops, first published in the mid-1990’s and written by legendary Chicago Bulls and L.A. Lakers head coach, Phil Jackson, has been re-issued, reminding that basketball is a game of mind and spirit joined, not just of rote-learned skills. Sacred Hoops also reminds that basketball is an opportunity for five men and their reserves to become a perfect force of one inside a domain of possibilities, each player preventing the invasion of ego-driven objectives. Yes, Jackson-led basketball is about teamwork through players able to balance and fuse their individual skills and contributions harmoniously .  .  .   At first, Sacred Hoops can seem old hat, but as you read on it stops being another kowtow to the primacy of teamwork---you meet up with Jackson’s insistence on meditation, self-understanding and centering, which became an extra edge enabling Michael Jordan, Scotty Pippen and other Bulls players to dominate basketball several years straight. According to Jackson, winning includes spiritual content, which allows aggression to expand coolly and actually improve player and team performances, no anger, no venom, no non-basketball thoughts getting in the way.

Published last year, Sports Illustrated writer Chris Ballard’s THE ART OF A BEAUTIFUL GAME addresses the numerous tactical skills that basketball players must master to compete effectively in the NBA, among them, and in addition to general shooting and the dunk, Ballard lists and discusses rebounding, passing, free throws, blocking, point guard leadership, one-on-one defense and double-teaming. Read this book and you will fathom basketball in a new way, you’ll enjoy the game with greater understanding of its challenges and of that which helps differentiate its winners from its losers.

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