BASEBALL: the STANDINGS; HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES.

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . NOTE TO READERS: VACATION PERIOD--- NEXT POSTING, AUGUST 19: . //. . . BASEBALL: the STANDINGS; HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES. . . MLB---THE AL West’s Oakland A’s are atop their division and above both MLB leagues today with 65 wins, the first franchise to have more than 60. Of the five other division leading clubs, the NL West’s L.A. Dodgers and the NL Central’s Milwaukee Brewers are close with their 59 wins each, and the AL East’s Baltimore Orioles have 58 wins, while the NL East’s Washington Nationals and the AL Central’s Detroit Tigers have 57 wins per. And, the AL West’s second place club, the L.A. Angels, they have 63 wins, second best within the AL and re. both leagues. But the Tigers are the most secure among the division number one teams, from a five game edge over second place team, the K.C. Royals. Of the six leading club edges from the top, the A’s is precarious, just two up over the Angels. Most in danger of a drop back are the AL West’s Dodgers, only one win above the S.F. Giants. As for division third place teams, three are above .500, in worst condition the NL West’s 46-58/.447 San Diego Padres, 12 games back of first place and which has more losses and the same low number of wins accrued by the AL Central’s last place team, the 47-57 Minnesota Twins, and two wins less than the AL East’s last place club, the 48-57 Boston Red Sox, a team that’s 10 games back of first place. Best shape third position teams are the NL Central’s 55-49 Pittsburgh Pirates and the AL East’s 54-50 N.Y. Yankees, three and four games back of first respectively. Lowest number of wins to date? That record belongs to the AL West’s last place team, the Texas Rangers---41 wins, a win below fourth position team, the 42-63 Houston Astros, and a win below the NL Central’s last place club, the 42-61 Chicago Cubs. . . Hall of Fame---AMONG this year’s Hall of Fame inductees were several managers and a baseball writer, Roger Angell, highlighting two facets of the game of baseball, that its teams need effective leadership 24/7, and that the game needs a direct line to its fans that is as true as true can be. The year’s chosen inductees seem the perfect manifest for a flight to remembrance of baseball’s greatest practitioners, to their time-capsule: Tony De La Russa, Joe Torre, Bobby Cox, Gregg Maddux, Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine, and writer, Roger Angell. A picture in a Sunday newspaper shows De La Russa, Torre and Cox arm-over-shoulder and smiling comfortably, one beside the other as if a kind of singularity, sort of three-musketeerish, tres amigos; yet afield each had a very different approach to managing a baseball team, and they were highly competitive one against the other, but that newspaper photo reminds that while winning meant a great deal for each of the three managers, at the same time the values of the game meant even more to each. Study their records and it’ll be clear that this holding together of two understandings helped to leverage and upgrade their individual team-standings year-after-year. As for Roger Angell, he’s never had a plate appearance, yet Angell understands baseball as well as any manager or player and so could define and characterize the game as if their surrogate, sure to praise the game’s positive attributes and to lean hard against the negative. Angell connects the dots, he colors in the blanks with the right colors, he’s been a detective unveiling and explaining the mysteries of the game, at the same time an ambassador for baseball and just as much so an ambassador for the game’s fans; he’s been a man in the middle keeping two forces in proper balance---if you love the game of baseball, then read Angell’s books and his New Yorker magazine articles, it’s then you’ll know lots more about why. REMINDER: NEXT POSTING, AUGUST 19 // END/ml.

NFL: LEADERSHIP & THE DENVER BRONCOS "PAT BOWLEN."

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . //. . . NFL: LEADERSHIP & THE DENVER BRONCOS “PAT BOWLEN” LEADERSHIP resonates---it isn’t necessary that you meet and follow a CEO, the VP-Operations, the law firm’s managing partner, the army battalion commander, the factory foreman or the hospital administrator to sense how well or how badly an organization is being led. This applies to any owner of a National Football League franchise, and surely in large measure when one considers all of the facets of an NFL team that require leadership 24/7. There’s careful selection of players, coaches and front office managers, and there’s spending money judiciously and for sufficient profit so that a team can endure. Add that there’s respecting the fan’s expectations and the fan’s responses to team losses, by seeking team improvements. There’s interacting with print, broadcast and electronic media wisely, and joint-venturing with stadium ownership + management if one isn’t a stadium owner. There’s the leasing of stadium sites, and providing the best training areas + locker room + food service + the latest football-related technologies & equipment. Without question, then, the announcement that Pat Bowlen has stepped down as team owner of the Denver Broncos has highlighted leadership as an overarching virtue, since all other virtues for team success evolve from it. And, it’s been reported that since Pat Bowlen took ownership of the Broncos more than 30 years ago that his leadership has been exemplary, coolly architectural and also compassionate, so that his team, and also every individual within, could have the support needed for organizational and personal success. Relatedly, the city of Denver is a highly spirited and serious sports town---it doesn’t take long for even visitors to get it that the city’s spirit and Broncos fandom are nearly one and the same. Who hasn’t tagged Denver more than once as, “Broncos Country?” And, as acknowledged and appreciated by the city is that its town/team relationship is largely from Mr. Bowlen’s leadership. In the “resonance stream” of this leadership, we can see easily the Broncos NFL and league championships, and stars John Elway, Jake Plummer, Peyton Manning, Champ Bailey, and head coaches Mike Shanahan and John Fox. And, of course, there’s been effective damage control when things went wrong, for instance, after demonstrating courage by bringing on that not-ready-for-prime time fellow from New England as head coach, and also Tim Tebow, who failed to be “the engine that could,” Pat Bowlen put that to rest by crafting the trio Elway/Fox/Manning under longtime Broncos President and confidant, Joe Ellis, now Pat Bowlen’s successor. But a curtain is dropping---Alzheimer’s disease, the reason for Pat Bowlen’s sudden departure from the Broncos, a terrible sadness in that Pat Bowlen will forget much if not everything about all of his franchise accomplishments, a sadness that is being met with understandable rage. Could it be that the greater the collection of good memories, the more painful is sight of the fade? It’s a climber coming down from a clean ascent of Mt. Everest, arriving at bottom without recollection of the climb or the descent. A disease can seem like a Devil’s best trick, it can make the good in us want to howl and throw hatchets at the sun. But we know of the necessity to regain composure, to commiserate. While praying for Pat Bowlen to beat down Alzheimer’s and return to the Broncos, the football world and all Broncos fans could join his family and close friends in remembering the franchise’s best moments for him, keeping those moments alive. END/ml.

MLB: "FOR LOVE OF THE GAME"---COLORADO ROCKIES & "KEEPING ON!"

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . //. . . MLB: “FOR LOVE OF THE GAME”---COLORADO ROCKIES & “KEEPING ON!” --- “FOR LOVE OF THE GAME,” it’s a meaningful phrase that we hear from professional athletes quite often, translation: “It’s why I do what I do, it’s who I am,” usually said sincerely. I thought about this while in the Press Box at Coors Field last night, watching the NL West’s currently 40-59 Colorado Rockies lose to the NL East’s now 54-43 Washington Nationals, 7-2, a game in which the Colorado franchise was being shut out until mid-game, which is when the Rockies put two runs on the board. Hope lifted when that happened, more so in a later inning when the Rockies managed to load the bases, though the team’s two outs were constricting, especially so with Rockies LHP, Franklin Morales, about to take a turn at the plate. So, Rockies manager, Walt Weiss, went with the traditional option, he selected a pinch hitter, OF Brandon Barnes. It was then the PH’s chance for a single, an extra base hit, or a grand slam HR, whatever could drive in one or more runs. But Barnes couldn’t exploit the situation; his plate appearance became a third out. Next half inning, the Nat’s gained another run, game just about over for the Rockies, the club’s sixth loss in a row, keeping the team in last place of the NL West and last within the full NL, tied with the NL Central’s 40-57 Chicago Cubs and the AL West’s 40-59 Texas Rangers for last place both leagues, a slightly favorable difference for the Rockies being that the Rangers are now 21 games behind first place within their division. The Rockies are 15 games behind first place, but the Cubs are in better shape now than the Rockies are, they are 13 games back of first within their division. As for that phrase, “LOVE OF THE GAME,” when leaving the stadium I heard numerous fans cursing the Rockies vehemently. It struck me, then, that these fans were possibly only “fans of ‘a team,’” not really “fans of ‘the game,’” and I say this largely because, in spite of the loss to the Nat’s, the Rockies played as best they could last night, and the game produced excitement surely for “fans of ‘the game,’” not just for “fans of ‘a team,’” a point being that “fans of ‘the game’” never leave a stadium feeling that they didn’t get their money’s worth. OKAY, LET’S FOCUS ON THE ROCKIES AND THEIR CHANCES FOR A RESPECTABLE MLB-2014 FINISH, ON THEIR ENDING THE CURRENT SEASON AS A .500 TEAM. A big question, then, is, “Can the Rockies get to .500 from where they are today---.404?” Here’s the troubling news: for the Rockies to reach .500 by the end of this MLB season, they have to win 41 of the 62 games that the team has have left to play, allowing for closeness to 81 wins, 81 losses, thus a .500 record. Of those 62 games, while 31 will be against teams that, like the Rockies, are now under .500, all have better records than the Rockies have, except for the Cubs that the Rockies will challenge during seven of the 31 games, which implies opportunity for some wins. This said, the remaining 31 games of the 62 to be played starting tonight will be against teams that now hold high above-the-margin records, among them, division leading clubs, e.g., the NL West’s 55-44 S.F. Giants and the 56-45 L.A. Dodgers, the NL Central’s 54-45 St, Louis Cardinals, the AL Central’s 54-41 Detroit Tigers. Sadly for the Rockies, should they from tonight on become a .500 team, in other words win half of the 62 games that they have left, they’d still finish the year with a double-digit deficit and a finish below .500. A variant of the earlier question is, “Can the Rockies actually win the 41 games that could deliver a .500 finish?” True is that no-one can throw a knockout punch at the theory of probability, so we have to say here, “Anything can happen,” but creating doubt is that of the Rockies last 41 games played, they’ve won only 12, which is a less than .400 record. So, what may be left here? This: no matter how much goes into a strategy to win baseball games, something quite valuable will always remain for fans and for a ballclub to experience, and that’s the existence of players being afield simply for “LOVE OF THE GAME,” good reason to be at the ballpark no matter where one’s favorite MLB team is in the standings. END/ml

MLB: After the All Star Break; "Standings & The Rest of the Season" // NBA: (Revised:) "How About those Superstars?"; Dreams & Fears."

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . //. . .MLB: AFTER THE ALL STAR BREAK; "Standings & The Rest of the Season // NBA “STANDINGS & THE REST OF THE SEASON” // NBA: (In case you missed these, slightly revised--) “HOW ABOUT THOSE SUPERSTARS?”. . “DREAMS & FEARS” . . . //. . MLB---IT’s not quite crunch time but we’re more than halfway through a baseball season, at a sharp turn when some MLB teams re-set their sights for goals a lot more achievable than those they decided to go for in April. Right now, 12 franchises have won more than 50 of 162 games that each MLB team plays during regulation. That’s less than a third of the 162, another way of saying that the 12 have lost from 36 games, as have the AL West’s Oakland A’s, up to the 44 games lost by the NL Central’s St. Louis Cardinals and also by the AL West’s Seattle Mariners. Noteworthy is that 10 of these teams with more than 50 wins are holding either first or second place positions within their respective divisions and only one of the second place clubs is more than four games behind first place, the AL Central’s K.C. Royals being six back of the 53-38 Detroit Tigers. The rest are but one or two games back. The two other clubs of 50+ wins are third place holders, and only one and two games behind first in their divisions. This tells us that as mid-summer approaches, nearly half of the 30 major league clubs still have a shot at post season selection as their division’s number one team Of these, the best lead belongs now to the Tigers and their six games ahead of the Royals, while the top team in either league, the AL West’s 59-36 A’s, are ahead of second place L.A. Angels by only one game. Of teams probably lowering their sights out of necessity, the AL East’s Boston Red Sox stand out, in that last year they won the WS. The Red Sox are now 43-52/.453, last place, nine games back of division leading team, the 52-42 Baltimore Orioles, a proper goal for the Red Sox being a grab at .500 and holding on. And, the same objective seems appropriate for another team that finished well last year, the now AL West’s 38-57/.400 Texas Rangers, last place and 10 games behind the A’s. The Rangers are now worst in the MLB, behind the two clubs usually holding the keys to baseball’s dark dungeon, the AL West’s 40-56 Houston Astros and the NL Central’s 40-54 Chicago Cubs. . . USING number of won games as the indicator, were the WS being held today it would be the AL’s A’s vs. the NL West’s 54-43 L.A. Dodgers. But within the NL it could be different in a week’s time, for the Dodgers are only one game ahead of the NL Central’s top team, the 53-43 Milwaukee Brewers and two ahead of the NL East’s numero uno, the 51-42 Washington Nationals, while the A’s are six games ahead of the AL Central’s Tigers and seven above the AL East’s number one team, the Orioles. . . . . // . . NBA: (Revised:) “How About Those Superstars?”---LeBron James will be back with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Carmelo Anthony will be staying with the New York Knicks, Dywane Wade will re-sign with the Miami Heat. Could this mean that “the ride of the Superstars” is over, that the gathering of top guns isn’t how to always win an NBA championship title? Is the concept of NBA pseudo-Gods vs. the rest of the competition no longer the franchise-development strategy that NBA owners should invest in to win? Has the concept gone from sure thing to a “well, maybe.” Or is it that today’s superstar prefers being solo, that he likes the challenge of going to a team where he alone can make the difference---Wyatt Earp coming to town by himself, whipping Dodge into shape? But we don’t think so. Undoubtedly, the San Antonio Spurs showed this year that the “teamwork team” can outperform the superstar team, and no matter the thoughts that James, Anthony and Wade might have had about this it’s a good guess that the “free” in “free” agency dominated their thought processes for lining up choices for where to be. Surely the three have seen free agency as advantageous to what is personal, linked to that pressing question, “What is it that I should be doing with the rest of my days in the NBA?” Certainly NOT to prove the worth of any strategy. Instead, the three deserve credit for going with what they’ve believed is best for themselves in the long run, and so their considerations have surely been about more than basketball, e.g., family, preferred town to be living in, money, and definitely for James “what to be after basketball, possibly a go at community leadership.” And, great for the NBA is that the decisions made by James, Anthony and Wade could help to guarantee the existence of more “teamwork-teams,” of less quirky experimentation than if each chose only to be partnered with another superstar. . . “DREAMS & FEARS”---NOT one of the 30 National Basketball Association franchises is without two or three vulnerabilities, and so it could never be that the association that binds them to a degree of sorts, the NBA, would lack vulnerabilities, that which could hurt the sport. One of these NBA vulnerabilities is being highlighted this off-season, “the impact of superstars as free agents and how that affects the rest of the NBA.” Another is “the sleaziness of the L.A. Clippers for sale-battle that emerged from owner Don Sterling going foot-in-mouth and revealing a racist undertone within his particular practice of boss-employee relations. The danger of the former vulnerability is in superstar-dom causing the NBA to exist as a lop-sided enterprise, with just a few teams lucky enough to afford the very best, the rest either copy-catting them and failing or unable to rise up against them in the standings year after year for financial reasons. Competed here, then, are two franchise-development concepts, (1) Win repeatedly because you’ve paired a LeBron with an Anthony, or a Durant with a Paul George, or (2) Win because you’ve built a team that puts “teamwork” above everything else, with say a roster including 11 above-the-margin teammates who can make playing for each other paramount, this via a combination of finely sharpened skill-sets, though none of the 11 could ever reach the athletic heights of the superstar. Yes, it’s a battle that’s been going on since James, Wade and Bosh joined the Miami Heat, between (a) the Heat idea, and (b) that which a no-superstar team like the Denver Nuggets coached by George Karl and now Brian Shaw can do by replacing ego-dominated athletics with the notion “teamwork wins best.” Also, it can be said that players like James, Durant and George are at a premium in the basketball world, there can be just so many of them. Rather, only a few “greats” appear in any decade. To copycat the Heat turned out to be a blunder for a lot of teams that went for it, e.g., that which has happened to the L.A. Lakers from constructing a post-Phil Jackson team of superstars has been sad indeed, and believing in the teamwork-team, in all players equally capable of leadership as well as having a broad array of skills, like the San Antonio Spurs led by Gregg Popovich, can be the answer for an NBA comprising competitive franchises, all with a chance of prevailing one over the other, in effect, an NBA with sufficient parity for any team to come up big in the post-season. Maybe there could be a comeback Orlando Magic, “and take note of LeBron James just announcing his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, possibly from a lesson that he learned this year, that a teamwork-team like the Spurs could be the better answer for himself and the NBA all-around.” . . . AS to the Sterling-Clippers affair, it’s junk food for persons who have an appetite for the gaudy, who snap, crackle and pop over what the reported low-ends of human behavior can present for them, tabloid-stuff. Unfortunately, this affects “growth of false perceptions” within our country of what the NBA can be about; such nonsense taints the NBA as if Sleaze, Inc. Yes, the NBA has managerial, administrative and leadership flaws, but by-and-large it works, it has kept more to the side of decency and growth for one of the world’s most captivating sports, “but there’s a corner of media that likes to cover only the megalomania, mendacity and dumb + dumber.” Should the matter worsen, one hopes for some NBA damage control. END/ml

MLB: MORE ABOUT THE ALL-STAR GAME // NBA: HOW ABOUT THOSE SUPERSTARS?

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . //. . .MLB: More About The All-Star Game // NBA---How ‘bout those Superstars? . . // . . MLB---FOR MLB’s All Star game watchers, there’s much to see where the corners of Remembrance Boulevard and Statistics Avenue intersect, for instance, there’s a huge sign that says that the All Star event is eighty-one years old and has been held back only once, in 1945, due to WW2 issues. Another big sign points out that the first of the 81 All Star games held since 1933 was held at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, won by the American League. Enter a café called “the Babe’s,” and anyone there will tell you that the AL won the next two All Star games and five more of the 12 held between 1933 and 1945. When in their “suds,” patrons will poke fingers at your chest and repeat that, to date, the AL has won 37 All Star games since 1933. And never mind that the National League has won 44 All Star games. “Heck,” an AL fan will shout, “the AL has had more streaks than the NL, eleven versus the NL’s eight.” But down the street from “the Babe’s,” at “Pete Rose’s Café,” Pete himself will remind that the NL has had the longest All Star win streak, 11 games from 1971 through 1982. Was there ever a tie? Yes, just once, 2001, at Boston’s Fenway Park. Now, travel further and enter the AL Library and you can learn that the AL had the most runs in any single All Star game, 13-3, 1983, at Comiskey Park, and 13-6, 1992, at Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego, now Petco Park, and 13-8, 1998, won by the AL, at Coors Field, Denver, Colorado. Of the four All Star games that closed at 2-1, the AL won two, the NL two, but of the eight All Star events that have been shutouts, the NL was at the losing end in seven. Was there ever a 1-0 All Star game shutout? Yes, 1968, won by the NL at Houston’s Astrodome. And, the highest score differential among the shutouts? That was 8-0, won by the NL in 2012, at Kaufman Stadium, Kansas City. Also of note is that at every All Star game, the MVP is almost always of the league that has won, and though there have been multiple winning streaks, not once has the MVP been the same individual that won the award in the previous year. But there have been multiple All Star game MVP’s, among them, Willy Mays, Steve Garvey, Cal Ripken Jr. Another rare occurrence is the All Star game MVP also being the regular season MVP, both leagues. Another odd fact is that not since the All Star concept kicked in during 1933, has there been a game during which both the AL and NL accrued double-digit runs. Last year’s winner? The AL, 3-0, game held at Citi Field, New York Last year’s All Star game MVP? The great NYY closer, Mariano Rivera. . . NBA---The choices have been made: Le Bron James will back in Cleveland, Carmelo Anthony will be staying in New York, Dywane Wade will re-sign with Miami. Could this mean that “the ride of the Superstars” is over, that the gathering of top guns, the way that the Magnificent Seven of movie fame came together to defeat a ruthless gang, isn’t how to always win an NBA championship title? Is the concept of NBA pseudo-Gods versus the rest of the competition no longer the team development strategy that NBA owners should bank everything on to win? Has the concept gone from sure thing to a “well, maybe.” Or is it that today’s superstar prefers being solo, that he likes the challenge of going to a team where he alone can make the difference, you know, Wyatt Earp coming to town by himself, whipping Dodge into shape. No doubt, this year the San Antonio Spurs showed that the “teamwork team” can outperform the superstar team, and no matter the thoughts that James, Anthony and Wade might have about this it’s free agency that dominated their thought processes for lining up choices for where to be. Surely the three have seen free agency as advantageous to what is personal, linked to that pressing question, “What is it that I should be doing with the rest of my days in the NBA?” Certainly not to prove the worth of any strategy. Instead, the three deserve credit for going with what they’ve believed is best for themselves in the long run, and so their considerations have surely been about more than the game itself, e.g., family, preferred town to be living in, money, and for James what to be after basketball, possibly a go at community leadership. And great for the NBA is that the decisions made by James, Anthony and Wade will help to guarantee the existence of a league somewhat closer to a level playing field than if each chose only to be partnered with another superstar. END/ml

MLB: ALL STAR Game-2014 // NBA: "Dreams & Fears"

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . //. . .MLB: “ALL-STAR Game, 2014” // NBA: “Dreams & Fears”. . . // . . MLB--- IN THE coming week, the American League and National League of Major League Baseball will meet for the year’s All-Star game, a tradition since July 6, 1933, thus another chance for the one league to decide that it is better than the other. Not a very accurate measure, of course, for how could just one game give us the answer? Truth be told, not even the World Series can prove which of the 30 MLB clubs is best, and surely the most meticulous handling of data, i.e., “Metrics,” cannot get the job done accurately. Baseball is incredibly subjective in all of its directions of offense and defense, possibly as complicated as particle physics. Yet believing that a team of choice can always dominate, prevail, can high-five along a victory path game-after-game, that never hurts, hey, maybe so can we within our own endeavors. So, let’s look at the numbers anyway, see what they have to say, and then wonder greatly in coming days how come the other league won? For example, let’s observe total number of won games since the current season began. As of today, the AL has 693 wins, the NL 683 wins, a differential of only 10 wins favoring the AL, which the 15 NL Clubs could turn around in a week or two. Besides, the NL has five franchises each with 51 or more games while the AL has four in this category, starting with the AL East’s 50-41 Baltimore Orioles. But the AL is ahead here with the AL West’s Oakland A’s having 58 wins versus. best in the NL, the Milwaukee Brewers, having 52 wins. Oops! The AL has the worst team in both leagues re. won games, the AL West’s Texas Rangers having 38 wins over 54 losses. Do we have the question about which is best solved now? No way, because the NL has three teams with but 39 wins, they are the NL West’s Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks and the NL Central’s Chicago Cubs, while the AL has just one team with 39, all other AL teams having from 41 on up. That AL worst is the AL West’s 39-54 Houston Astros. But neither the AL nor the NL has a division leading all others, in that the AL West and the NL Central are tied today at 238 wins apiece. Lowest division re. won games is the NL East, with 226 wins, but that’s just one less win than the AL East’s 227 wins. Get the big picture in all this? It’s that as soon as you think one league is best, the other comes up on top? Players, managers, owners and fans are always reminded that as soon as we think we’re about to win again, we can drop one, maybe another and then another; then, whoosh! we’re back, breaking the opposition. Now note that during the past 10 years, the AL has put down the NL seven times during All Star events, but the three All Star games won by the NL in this period were during the last four held, and if we go by “streaks” the AL has never been able to match the 11 All Star games won in a row by the NL, 1972 -1981, although the AL could have achieved 10 in a row were a streak not interrupted by a tie game during 2002. An upshot is this: If there is anything close to a real fact here, it’s that the AL and NL keep dancing close to parity, the one leaping ahead of the other and then going behind the other, which is a good thing, it makes for a team’s need to strive, compete, improve, while delivering the tension and the outcomes that make baseball + other sports so necessary and so enjoyable for the culture-at-large, ditto re. the All Star game itself. . . NBA---NOT one of the 30 NBA franchises is without a vulnerability or two, and so it could never be that the association that binds them to a degree of sorts, the National Basketball Association, would lack a vulnerability, that which could hurt the sport. One of these NBA vulnerabilities is being highlighted this off-season, the impact of superstars as free agents and how that affects the rest of the NBA. Another is the sleaziness of the L.A. Clippers ownership “sell”-battle that emerged from owner Don Sterling going foot-in-mouth and revealing a racist undertone within his particular practice of boss-player relations. The danger of the former vulnerability is in superstar-dom causing the NBA to exist as a lop-sided enterprise, with just a few teams lucky enough to afford the very best, the rest either copy-catting them and failing or unable to rise up against them in the standings year after year for financial reasons. Competed here, then, are two team-development concepts, (1) Win repeatedly because you’ve paired a LeBron with an Anthony, or a Durant with a Paul George, or (2) Win because you’ve built a team that puts “teamwork” above everything else, with say a roster including 11 above-the-margin teammates who can make playing for each other paramount, this via a combination of finely sharpened skill-sets, though none of the 11 can ever reach the athletic heights of the superstar. Yes, it’s a battle that’s been going on since James, Wade and Bosh joined the Miami Heat, between (a) the Heat idea, and (b) that which a no-superstar team like the Denver Nuggets coached by George Karl and now Brian Shaw can do by diminishing ego-dominated athletics with the notion “teamwork wins best.” Also, it can be said that players like James, Durant and George are at a premium in the basketball world, there can be just so many of them; rather, only a few “greats” in any decade. To copycat the Heat turned out to be a blunder for a lot of teams that went for it, e.g., that which has happened to the L.A. Lakers from constructing a post-Phil Jackson team of superstars has been sad indeed, and believing in the teamwork-team, in all players equally capable of leadership as well as having a broad array of skills, like the San Antonio Spurs led by Gregg Popovich, can be the answer for an NBA comprising competitive franchises all with a chance of prevailing one over the other, in effect, an NBA with sufficient parity for any team to come up big in the post-season. Maybe there could be a comeback Orlando Magic, “and take note of LeBron James just announcing his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, possibly with a lesson that he learned this year, that a teamwork-dominant team like the Spurs could be the better answer for himself and the NBA all-around.” AS to the Sterling-Clippers affair, it’s junk food for persons who have an appetite for the gaudy, who snap, crackle and pop over what reported low-ends of behavior can present for them, tabloid-stuff. Unfortunately, this affects perception-growth within the country of what the NBA can be about, taints it as if Sleaze, Inc. Yes, the NBA has managerial, administrative and leadership flaws, but by-and-large it works, it has kept more to the side of decency and growth for one of the world’s most captivating sports, which, as seems to be happening, a corner of media that likes to cover megalomania, mendacity and dumb + dumber could care little about. Should the matter worsen, one hopes for some NBA damage control. END/ml

MLB; COLORADO ROCKIES, STILL ON THE SLIDE; MLB STANDINGS PAST THE HALFWAY MARK

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . //. . .MLB: COLORADO ROCKIES, STILL ON THE SLIDE // MLB STANDINGS PAST THE HALFWAY MARK. . . // . . COLORADO ROCKIES--- THE reasons why a team’s losses have pushed it well below .500 and close to last position within its division can be shrouded in mystery for some time. You just don’t sort out the problems behind a lousy season in a day or two, along with solutions for a fast climb back up. Only a miracle could pull the Colorado Rockies up from the damage that the team has caused to itself, of course unwittingly, and while there really are tears in baseball there are no miracles when beyond the season’s halfway mark a team’s record is 37-53/.412 + 13 games behind division first place, which is where the Rockies are today within the NL West. You can think slump, bad management and/or poor coaching, and/or diminishment of player skills, and doubly perplexing can be some of baseball’s ironies, nagging truths that say, “It shouldn’t be, the Rockies ought to be higher in the standings,” truths that remind us of how unfair baseball can be, in spite of it being the amazing game that it is. Here’s what we mean: On Sunday, Rockies SS Troy Tulowityzki and OF Charlie Blackmon were selected to be All Stars for this year’s All Star Game, and Rockies 1B Justin Morneau is likely to be selected soon for that role. Presently, Morneau is second among NL players re. number of season RBI’s, 59. And, Rockies OF Corey Dickerson’s .402 OBP is eighth within both leagues, and of 65 of Dickerson’s hits 28 have been for extra bases. Also, as of yesterday the lowest Rockies batting average for a starter was .272, four others being above .300, highest being Troy Tulowitzki’s .348. And, more than half of the Rockies won games to date have included eight or more runs. Moreover, against two teams ahead of the Rockies within the NL West, the S.F. Giants and the S.F. Padres, the Rockies have been 7-4 and 4-4 respectively. Across the year so far, the Rockies have been averaging more than three runs per game, which equals and bests some teams that are presently holding higher slots within their divisions. During the Rockies last 10 games (most of them losses), the team put up 43 runs, thus a 4.3 run average for the 10, far better than several teams that are fewer games behind first within their divisions. Is it that the skills and power-thrusts within the Rockies batting order are assets poorly distributed, causing a kind of yo-yo appearance, that is, batters exceptional and winning for a few games here and there and then as if numbed and unable to contribute for an almost equal number of playing days? Why this see-saw effect? And of course, a pitching staff ERA above 5.0 hasn’t been of much help to the Rockies. Still, the drivers behind the Rockies downward slide are probably more than the lows in hitting that follow the high numbers, more than the abysmal starter + bull pen ERA. The Rockies 21-23 home record is only a win behind that of the NL West’s first place team, the 22-23 Dodgers, but the Rockies away from home record is poor, 16-30 (Ugh!). The Rockies are of only three teams today with 50 or more losses, and 30 of the Rockies losses have occurred on the road. What is it about away-games that trip up the Rockies? Is it asset management on the road or something else, maybe the lack of a component during spring training? Tulowitzki is a superb shortstop and great hitter, but how effective is he as team captain? Frontline leadership has its subtle drivers for the win, is Tulowitzki aware of them and good at their execution? And, on the road what about the right pre-game starter/bull-pen teaming, or is the selection for a reliever post-starter based first on availability factors only, on who’s rested, who isn’t? Is a Monfort (owner)/ Dan O’Dowd (Exec VP-Ops)/ Bill Geivett (GM)/Walt Weiss (Mgr) a quartet with attributes that withdraw rather than provide appropriately, maybe the three above Weiss are too much upon Weiss? Can Weiss think out of the box more for the situation at hand? These are matters that no-one knows much about, and which are valid questions. In a recent column, Denver Post columnist Woody Paige addressed the idea of ownership selecting a new VP-Ops and/or a new GM, it worked for the Denver Broncos and the Denver Avalanche, not the only solution but it could be a solution helping other solutions to come about . . . MLB---THE MLB half-season of 81 games is gone, and most of the AL and NL teams are 10 or more in for the back 81, only three having won 50 or more, the AL West’s leading team, the Oakland A’s having 55 wins, the NL Central’s number one, the Milwaukee Brewers, 52, the NL West’s top club, the L.A. Dodgers, 51, and the AL West’s number two, the L.A. Angels, also 51. Lowest number of won games among the six division leading clubs belongs to the AL Central’s Detroit Tigers, 48, reflecting a seven game differential between top and bottom of MLB’s six division leading franchises. But, of these leading clubs today not one has a substantial lead over a second place franchise. The best edge belongs to the 55-38 Brewers, ahead of second place team, the 48-42 St. Louis Cardinals. The weaker division lead is the NL East’s 49-40 Atlanta Braves one win above the 48-40 Washington Nationals. At the season’s 81-game halfway mark, the Nationals were above the Braves by one win, and the AL East’s Toronto Blue Jays were leading the Baltimore Orioles by four wins. Today, the 49-40 Orioles are leading the AL East, two wins above the Blue Jays. At that halfway mark, the A’s were second in both leagues, with 48 wins; today, the A’s are first from a 55-33 record. Three teams since 81 games were played this year have gone from fourth position within their respective divisions to last, the now AL East’s 39-50 Boston Red Sox, AL Central’s 39-45 Minnesota Twins, the NL East’s 38-51 Philadelphia Phillies. Worst records to date are that of the AL West’s Houston Astros, 37-54, and that of the NL West’s Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies, tied at 37-53. Of note is that at 81 games played and at 40 games played, the same teams leading divisions today, or that are close at the number two slots, they were in those positions then, implying power of and significance of consistency among teams that win more than others. Implied, too, is that should this value prevail, the same teams that today seem likely to achieve post-season berths will comprise that category as the end of September rolls in. The Gods of Sustainment advise that the Brewers and the A’s could be today’s best bet for a WS match-up. END/ml.

SPORTS & AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE DAY // OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM, ROLLER DERBY & THE DENVER ROLLERDOLLS (Repeated from Tuesday last)

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner . . . // . . SPORTS & AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE DAY // OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM, ROLLER DERBY & THE DENVER ROLLERDOLLS(Repeated from Tuesday last)---SPORTS, INDEPENDENCE DAY--- SURELY we are “Sports-Nation America,” which millions of Americans prove during a July 4th weekend with their presence at games, “Land Of The Free, Home Of The Brave,” followed by, “Play Ball.” And, there’s a powerful current beneath this, “Independence,” a gift that’s been nourished and built upon by Americans since 1776. Where’s the sports connection? It rides and reflects that current. Not only does America surpass all other countries in number of “private sector” sports associations (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHA, others), America’s sports speak to that which we are as a nation. It’s likely that during our Civil War and a cease fire, soldiers from both sides would have sneaked onto a meadow to play baseball, teams made up of both blue and gray, no guns or swords drawn. Perhaps a more explicit example of America’s love of, and need of, independence being expressed by an American sport is that after the Nazis were defeated in Europe in 1945 an American baseball game was played at the Nuremburg, Germany, stadium where Hitler had once had thousands of Germans gather to listen to his anti-independence gibberish. But many cynics say that America’s sports underscore a dark side of independence, they argue that within our freedom, our style of democracy, exists the unpleasant fact of “losing XXX-Large,” that an organization or an individual will definitely lose in America no matter the endeavor while others will win. Well, these cynics just don’t get it, they don’t realize that in America’s sports is a basic principle that most Americans cherish, this: “Sports are more about how a game should be played ‘win or lose.’” There’s plenty of win in this, no matter the final score, a fact to be remembered and honored on July 4th, for it is a subset of the freedom that we cherish. This year, America’s soccer team failed to go all the way during the World Cup, but Team USA did its best. There’s no sulking among its players now, their new mantra is, “Wait ‘til 2018.” Yet the cynics keep rollin’ in, which can overshadow that Team USA “dared greatly,” going up against great soccer (futbol) clubs, which reminds of the following statement made by U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt, (year, 1910), which surely all cynical and habitually-complaining sportswriters and analysts need to read several times a year. A survey would prove that the statement fits well with how most Americans prefer to think, even if many of us fail to live up to it 24/7, whether about sports, other occupations or our personal wishes, (paraphrased:), and the statement certainly resonates for America’s athletes and sports fans, “IT is not the critic who counts. . . the credit belongs to the person who is in the arena. . . who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who at the end knows the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he or she fails at least fails why ‘daring greatly’. . .” Let’s distill this, “Home of the brave!” . . . // . . ROLLER DERBY; DENVER ROLLERDOLLS (Repeated, last posting)---IT SN’T EVERY DAY that this page’s correspondent gets to watch and hear his daughter sing the National Anthem prior to a sports event, which happened for him on Sunday at Denver’s Glitterdome. Stephanie delivered the essence of our National Anthem superbly, causing attendees to re-experience true love of country, while her Dad added a few tears + smiles of pride in her. And, it isn’t every day that this page’s correspondent gets introduced, no “re-introduced,” to a sport that deserves a lot more interest and bigger audiences than it has received of late, which is what followed the cherished National Anthem and Stephanie’s fine rendition of it. The sport? “Roller Derby,” which lost large audiences decades ago due to the staged violence that is still seen during America’s televised wrestling matches. Well, that nonsense is gone from skating. On Sunday, I watched sub-sets of the Denver Roller Dolls defeat a visiting team’s like units from another region of the country. The competition that these teams engaged in was definitely “serious sport,” not the craziness that existed long ago. In other words, Roller Derby has cleaned up its act, “it’s been civilized.” Here’s how it goes now, no longer scripted mainly for low-end Jerry Springer-type entertainment---Two opposing teams of five skate in the same direction for a series of matches upon a circular track, one team assaulting, the other defending. Each team takes its turn in offense-mode to score points by having a team-member, the “Jammer,” skate through or around the defending five. Imagine football or rugby on wheels without the use of a ball, the “Jammer” being a sort of running back attempting to crash through or get around a defensive line. . . Roller Derby, a sport that became part of our culture in the 1930’s and grew an audience greater than 4.5 million, got “suckered” in the 1950’s and 1960’s by promoters wanting to keep the dollars rolling in via planned phony jabs, kicks, elbows in the eye, knocks on the head and hammerlocks, a phoniness that became tiresome and the sport’s near-demise. But a new millennium overhaul has recreated the Derby into pure competition, worthy of interest from the IOC. If there can be “curling” in the Olympics, why not today’s version of Roller Derby? Presently, there are more than 1,200 Roller Derby athletes worldwide, approximately half from the U.S., the lion’s share being women, and ranked high in U.S. and world competition are Denver’s “Roller Dolls,” seen regularly at Denver’s Glitterdome, 3600 Wynkoop St., denverrollerdolls.org

Sports, The National Anthem & Athletes On Skates // NBA: Denver Nuggets & A Skills+Power Addition

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner . . . // . . Sports, the National Anthem & Athletes On Skates // NBA: Denver Nuggets & A Skills+Power Addition . . . // . . Our Anthem, Skates---IT ISN’T EVERY DAY that this page’s correspondent gets to watch and hear his daughter sing the National Anthem prior to a sports event, which happened for him on Sunday at Denver’s Glitterdome. Stephanie delivered the essence of our National Anthem superbly, causing attendees to re-experience true love of country, while her Dad added a few tears + smiles of pride in her. And, it isn’t every day that this page’s correspondent gets introduced, no “re-introduced,” to a sport that deserves a lot more interest and bigger audiences than it has received of late, which is what followed the cherished National Anthem and Stephanie’s fine rendition of it. The sport? “Roller Derby,” which lost large audiences decades ago due to the staged violence that is still seen during America’s televised wrestling matches. Well, that nonsense is gone from skating. On Sunday, I watched sub-sets of the Denver Roller Dolls defeat a visiting team’s like units from another region of the country. The competition that these teams engaged in was definitely “serious sport,” not the craziness that existed long ago. In other words, Roller Derby has cleaned up its act, “it’s been civilized.” Here’s how it goes now, no longer scripted mainly for low-end Jerry Springer-type entertainment---Two opposing teams of five skate in the same direction for a series of matches upon a circular track, one team assaulting, the other defending. Each team takes its turn in offense-mode to score points by having a team-member, the “Jammer,” skate through or around the defending five. Imagine football or rugby on wheels without the use of a ball, the “Jammer” being a sort of running back attempting to crash through or get around a defensive line. . . Roller Derby, a sport that became part of our culture in the 1930’s and grew an audience greater than 4.5 million, got “suckered” in the 1950’s and 1960’s by promoters wanting to keep the dollars rolling in via planned phony jabs, kicks, elbows in the eye, knocks on the head and hammerlocks, a phoniness that became tiresome and the sport’s near-demise. But a new millennium overhaul has recreated the Derby into pure competition, worthy of interest from the IOC. If there can be “curling” in the Olympics, why not today’s version of Roller Derby? Presently, there are more than 1,200 Roller Derby athletes worldwide, approximately half from the U.S., the lion’s share being women, and ranked high in U.S. and world competition are Denver’s “Roller Dolls,” seen regularly at Denver’s Glitterdome, 3600 Wynkoop St., denverrollerdolls.org . . . NBA---WHILE the future of the Miami Heat’s Le Bron James and the N.Y. Knicks Carmelo Anthony has been occupying the minds of sports fans, the Denver Nuggets have quietly traded Evan Fournier and a draft pick to reinforce a Nuggets team with Arron Afflalo back from the Orlando Magic, a team that Afflalo had gone to after three years with the Nuggets (2009-12). With the Magic, Afflalo completed NBA’s 2013/14 season having averaged 18.2 points per game, which included 128 successful three-pointers. Had Afflalo stayed with the Nuggets for the 2013/14 season and this was his contribution, surely the Nuggets would have made the playoffs for a tenth straight year. Afflalo will bring seven years of NBA experience to the Nuggets upcoming season, and he’s ranked sixth in the NBA re. three-point FG percentage-differentials per season. Noteworthy and promising is that Afflalo’s shooting percentages have increased each season of his NBA tenure. From listening to Afflalo at a Nuggets press conference held yesterday, it seemed clear that Afflalo has had in mind the idea of becoming “the Complete Player,” expert shooter and playmaker as guard but also being above the margin re. assists and rebounding, and at transitioning to defense swiftly and to defense itself (Afflalo is six-five, 215 pounds), which is what the 2013/14 Nuggets needed more of. END/ml