WORLD SERIES  // NFL  // NHL  

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           Sports Notebook will appear with new posts every Tuesday and Friday. Editor, Marvin Leibstone // Comments are welcome --- mlresources1@aol.com

WORLD SERIES, GAMES ONE AND TWO  .  .  .  SOME World Series games have been studies in how baseball should be when baseball is perfect and they are as rare as games so filled with errors and sloppiness that observers wonder how the teams playing ever got to the post-season. Most WS games range along a spectrum between the two types, closer from the center to the finer example. Games One and Two of the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals/Texas Rangers WS were surely contests above the margin. Both sides showed that, as in most baseball games, no matter how tight and effective a defense posture is, an imperfection will surface eventually for an offense to exploit, which happened for the Cards in the fourth inning of Game One when Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday became base runners and Lance Berkman’s single sent them home for a 2-0 ballgame. It happened for the Rangers top of the fifth when Mike Napoli punched a home run with a man already on base, score now 2-2. It happened again for the Cards bottom of the sixth when Cards manager Tony La Russa outsmarted Rangers boss Ron Washington by sending Alan Craig to pinch hit for starter Chris Carpenter. Washington countered with hurler Alexi Ogando on the mound, who, with Cards runners at first and third, threw the pitch that gave Craig the single that sent in the Cards game-winning run. The Cards bull pen then held the Rangers from scoring during the next three innings, endgame: 3-2, Cards. Game Two continued the pitcher dominance from both sides, the Cards holding a slight hitter’s edge, then came the ninth inning when La Russa’s bullpen choices couldn’t hold, opening opportunities that the Rangers were able to exploit, hits and base runners reaching home plate, Rangers 2-1, the series at one game apiece.    

Numbers certainly underscore the big role that hitting has played in bringing the Cards and Rangers together for the WS, but when competing teams have averaged, like the Cards, around 4.7 runs per game, and the Rangers around 5.4 per game, either has the power to put more runs on the board if pitchers begin to lose their mojo. This means that pitchers delivering outs consistently will prevail over hitters until, and if, arm control is lost, which is the midgame turnabout that managers fear greatly, it’s baseball’s witching moment, especially when a midgame component of an opposing team’s batting order comprises heavies such as the Card’s Pujols and Holliday, or the Rangers Josh Hamilton and Mike Young, translation: bull pen hurlers and closers picking up the slack at midgame could turn out to be the real heroes of this year’s WS if Rangers manager Washington adopts the bull pen/closer tactics that Cards manager La Russa has pursued throughout the post-season in order to compensate for having an essentially marginal starter-rotation. The trick here is that a bull pen has to remain strong and focused, for which there isn’t a guarantee. La Russa will probably pull starters out at the earliest sign of trouble in each upcoming WS game, no matter if it’s bottom of the third or top of the fourth, with no score yet or even if the Cards are ahead by one or two runs, though Game Two’s final inning showed that the ploy has its limits, that from any bull pen comes uncertainty---risk in a uniform jogs to the mound, and players, managers, coaches and fans can only cross their fingers.    

NFL: BRONCOS VS. THE DOLPHINS  ---   Make no mistake, those observing the Denver Broncos and Miami Dolphins battle on Sunday will be watching three events. First, whether the 1-4 Denver team can start winning again, even if it is against a bottom of the NFL 0-5 franchise. Second, tested will be whether the two teams can deliver an exciting and instructive football game in spite of their low standings. Third, viewed will be another chapter in the Tim Tebow saga, for Tebow is now the Broncos starting quarterback, in his immediate wake two questions: One, can he steer a win for the Broncos? Two, will Tebow prove to be the NFL QB that his having been a Heisman trophy winner has pointed to? Known right now is that Tebow excels at the running game; he can drive an offense forward mostly up the middle as good as, and sometimes better than many other NFL QB’s, but his expertise does not include the wider offense, plays based on horizontal, then angular movement. Unfortunately, denying Tebow the opportunity to do what he does best is something even the Dolphins could pull off if not repeatedly, forcing Tebow to lean on his weaker attribute, passing. As a passer, Tebow is beneath standards set by the NFL’s top QB’s. So, if the Broncos offense is to succeed with Tebow in charge, then the Broncos pocket and pass protection will need faster reaction time. And, with wide receiver Brandon Lloyd suddenly gone, there will be added pressure on running back/receiver Willis McGahee and WR Demaryius Thomas for the better Tebow/receiver connects. Crucial to a Broncos win, then, will be (a) the protection that Tebow needs to continue emphasis on a running game and not have to convert quickly and often to deep passing, and (b) the lightning-fast sack capacity vs. Miami’s QB, which Denver is now capable of.

NHL:   THE Avalanche returned to Denver from a triumphant trip, 5-0, but on Thursday, October 20, the Chicago Blackhawks, drawn for the Av’s second home game of the NHL season, cut them, 3-1, a reminder to the Av’s that a hold on first place in the Northwest Division of the league’s Western Conference, and second place in the WC, are indeed tenuous positions. Further, the vs. Blackhawks game pointed out that the Av’s Semyon Varlamov, like all NHL goalies, is vulnerable before opposing players that can gain sufficient initiative for shots that a goalie can’t block because he hasn’t recovered in time from a complex and successful save.

Possibly too eager to chase down and dominate the puck for an assault against the Blackhawk’s net, the Av’s seemed to avoid setting up hasty lines of defense half-circling their goalie, which is when the Blackhawks regained the puck, sustained direction and scored. In other words, the Av’s lost their own game; they weren’t victimized by canny Blackhawk plays. Fact: the best goalie on ice is often a second line of defense. By no means had Varlamov wimped out; it appeared that his territory was penetrated because a mobile Av’s barrier hadn’t encircled it, i.e., the Av’s goalie wasn’t screened quickly eough. Were points awarded to a hockey team for a goalie’s number of successful saves, the Av’s would have left the ice with NBA instead of NHL numbers when added to the high number of Av shots that almost penetrated the Blackhawk's net from fast escapes for the clear attempt.

But neither the Av’s nor the Blackhawks seemed to be running plays as much as they were being responsive to unexpected occurrences, the game belonging mostly to the man finding himself closest to the puck by chance, not by design, hard to avoid in a sport where plans go awry a lot sooner than during other sports. During their recent road trip, territorial control all sides of the rink seemed to be the Av’s advantage during each game won.     

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