Logo of hockey’s Quebec Nordiques, who played in the World Hockey Association and were absorbed into the NHL when the 2 leagues merged. A proud franchise, the Nordiques were a competitive team, and their roster over the years included standouts like Michel Goulet, the Statsny brothers – Peter, Marion and Anton, J.C. Tremblay, Rejean Houle, Marc Tardif, Real Cloutier, Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin and Owen Nolan. The franchise was relocated to Denver in 1995 and became the Colorado Avalanche.
1963 Topps baseball card of New York Mets first baseman Gil Hodges. Hodges was a fan favorite of the old Brooklyn Dodgers so when the Mets entered the National League as an expansion team in 1962, they added Hodges, and manager Casey Stengel, a former Yankee skipper, to try and capture the Dodgers old fans’ attention. The Mets were a laughingstock in their early years but Hodges would later lead the franchise into their most glorious moment, managing the “Amazin’ Mets” to an unbelievable World Series win over Baltimore in 1969.
In an earlier post handicapping the National League West division race this season, I had the surprising young San Diego Padres fighting off the competition in what at that time was a 4 team race, and winning the division. I cited the team’s strong pitching, exciting young lineup and manager Bud Black as reasons they would win, and so far they’ve come through. I also said that their strongest competition would come from the Los Angeles Dodgers, but instead, another team with great pitching, the San Francisco Giants, have stayed neck and neck with the Padres. I had the Giants, and also the Colorado Rockies, falling out of the race eventually. At this point the Padres and Giants are even in the standings, and the Dodgers and Rockies are still within shouting distance of first place, so anything is still possible. With veteran Jon Garland and youngsters Mat Latos and Clayton Richard, the Padres have the best pitching staff in baseball that nobody’s ever heard of. Of course having Black, a former pitching coach, as manager is the reason why this staff has been so consistent, and it helps that the Padres have one of the game’s top closers in Heath Bell. Adrian Gonzalez has supplied the power all year, but the acquisition of Ryan Ludwick from St. Louis at the trade deadline added some more pop to San Diego’s lineup. The Padres’ roster has the right sprinkling of seasoned veterans, like David Eckstein, Jerry Hairston, Jr. and now Miguel Tejada, to help guide the youngsters. The Giants, with Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathon Sanchez and the rejuvenated Barry Zito, probably have a deeper pitching staff than San Diego, and their lineup has more power, although it is spread out over the entire roster. The two teams open a huge three game series tonight in San Fran that will go a long way toward deciding the race. Between the Dodgers and Rockies, I’d have to pick Colorado as the team most likely of the two to stay in the race, despite picking L.A. to battle the Padres earlier. The Dodgers just have too many problems with the ownership divorce battle and getting next to nothing from Manny Ramirez. Of course, the bottom line is I expect only one team from this division to qualify for the post-season, and I’ll stay with my original pick, the Padres.
The original logo of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL, used from 1976, when they entered the league as an expansion team, until 1996. Expansion teams generally start out slowly and endure losing seasons for their first few years, but the Bucs set a new standard for futility as they lost the first 26 games of their existence. That futility led to this classic line from their head coach, John McKay, when asked at a press conference about the execution of his offense: “I’m in favor of it.”
1957 Topps hockey card of “The Chief”, long-time Boston Bruins left winger John Bucyk. Bucyk played on some of Boston’s bad teams in the 1960s, but was the team captain when they won the Stanley Cup in the early ’70s. Bucyk has been with the Bruins’ organization for over 50 years, serving in various capacities including broadcaster and in the front office. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1981.
Perhaps the most interesting divisional race in major league baseball just completed its’ latest chapter as the St. Louis Cardinals completed a three game sweep of the upstart Cincinnati Reds, re-establishing their place, for now, as the dominant team in the NL Central. The series was highlighted by a huge brawl in the second game that will likely result in suspensions. The brawl got ugly, but it might be the spark that ignites a new rivalry in the division. The Cards, one of baseball’s best and most storied franchises, have long dominated this division and have had a long-standing rivalry with the Chicago Cubs. In recent years the Cubbies have been the strongest challenger to manager Tony LaRussa’s team but the Cubs once again have drifted completely out of the race as manager Lou Piniella’s career winds down toward his retirement at the end of the season. The Reds have hung tough all year, holding onto first place until being knocked off that perch by the Cards. Cincinnati still has the horses to recover, but it had to be deflating to get swept by the team they’ve described as “complainers and whiners”, one of the comments that helped ignite the brawl. The Cardinals may be complainers and whiners but they are also winners, something the Reds still have to establish. Brandon Phillips, the trash-talking all-star second baseman for Cincinnati, was in the middle of the tussle. But he was 2 – for- 14 in the series and was basically a non-factor. Phillips has got to find a way to back up the talk with some consistent play if his club is going to somehow climb back ahead of the Cards. St. Louis has the game’s best hitter in Albert Pujols, a tremendous pitching staff anchored by Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, a seasoned manager in LaRussa and most importantly a veteran post-season tested team. The sweep of the Reds should give the Cardinals the boost they need to not only stay on top of the division but start to move away from the pack. I still like Dusty Baker’s Reds to make a run at the post-season, but they may have to start targeting the wild card.
Logo of the old Buffalo Braves NBA franchise, which began play as an expansion team in 1970 and played in Buffalo until 1978. Then team owner John Y. Brown swapped the Braves franchise for the Boston Celtics, who were owned by California native Irv Levin. Levin proceeded to move the team to San Diego, where they became the Clippers. The team had some success in Buffalo, led by coach Jack Ramsey and star players like Bob McAdoo, Ernie DiGregorio, Randy Smith, Adrian Dantley and Billy Knight.
Football card of NFL Hall of Fame legend Ollie Matson, whose career began in 1952 and lasted until 1966. He was a 7 time All Pro selection in his career as a halfback, which began with the Chicago Cardinals. Matson’s main claim to fame is being traded by the Cardinals to the Los Angeles Rams – for nine players. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972.
I wrote a blog back in July handicapping the pennant races in major league baseball and so far, looking back at that post, I haven’t been too far off the mark, with one exception. I made the mistake of buying into the hype instead of trusting my gut instincts, and picked the New York Mets to win the NL East. It looks like the Mets are repeating recent history and slowly falling out of the race, hovering around the .500 mark while the Braves and Phillies battle for the division lead. I had originally picked the Phils to win the wild card and the Braves to drop out of the race, so even though they are a couple games behind at this point, I feel the defending NL champs will overtake Atlanta and win the division again. The Braves suffered a big blow when starting pitcher Kris Medlen went down with an elbow injury (he was 6-2, and the team 13-1 in his starts). Also, all-star Martin Prado is on the disabled list, and Chipper Jones and rookie sensation Jason Heyward have battled knee problems. They’ll get no sympathy from the Phillies, as they have had injury troubles all year and still stayed in the race. Chase Utley, Placido Polanco, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard have all had stints on the DL this season. Waiver-wire trade acquisition Mike Sweeney, who has helped fill the gap in Howard’s absence, could be a factor in helping keep the Fightin’ Phils afloat as the season wears down. The race will probably be decided when the 2 teams meet for a total of six times in late September and early October. I’ll say that Philadelphia’s playoff-hardened experience of the last 2 years will overcome the emotional lift the Braves should get from playing out the last of retiring manager Bobby Cox’s career, and the Phillies will win the NL East crown.
Logo of the Milwaukee Braves, who played in that city from 1953 until they moved to Atlanta in 1966. The Braves won the World Series in 1957 and the franchise has had some of the greatest players in the history of the game on its’ roster, including Henry Aaron, Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews and Lew Burdette. In fact, Babe Ruth ended his storied career with this team when they were in Boston, so the Braves can boast that they once had the 2 greatest home run hitters ( non-chemically enhanced ) of all time on their team.