Happy Tuesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for October 20, 2009 from www.LenBermanSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
The Angels live. They beat the Yankees 5-4 in 11 innings in game 3. The Yankees lead the series two games to one.
The Phillies take a stranglehold on the Dodgers with their dramatic 5-4 win. They lead 3 games to 1.
Today's schedule: Game 4 Yankees @ Angels 7:57 ET FOX
The surprising Denver Broncos are now 6-0 after winning in San Diego last night, 34-23.
Brazil's President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, vows to clean up the drug and gang violence that led to 21 deaths this past weekend. The pressure is on after Rio won the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Rubbing salt. StubHub offered Mets playoff tickets yesterday so their fans can "be there as the Mets chase immortality." StubHub called it an "email glitch" and "regrets the error."
2. Not so Average Joes
It was a rough night for a couple of Joe's. Yankee manager Joe Girardi is being questioned for "micro-managing." In retrospect, he used one reliever too many in last night's loss to the Angels. Dodger manager Joe Torre made the safe call. He had his closer on the mound in the bottom of the 9th. The Dodgers were one out away from evening the series when Jimmy Rollins hit a game winning two run double. As a result of all this, hold off on that Joe Torre return to Yankee Stadium for the World Series.... if there is a World Series at Yankee Stadium.
3. Inflation
I went to game 2 Yankees/Angels the other night. I was a guest in a suite. I thought back to the first Yankee postseason game I ever attended. Quite different. I took the subway (round trip 30-cents) to game 2 of the 1961 World Series, bought a $2.10 bleacher ticket, and just walked in. A bleacher seat the other night went for $25.00. Tolls and parking ran $40. The share each Yankee got for winning the 1961 World Series was $7,389. This year $7,389 almost bought you 3 regular season seats for one game, right behind home plate.
4. For God's Sake
Ya gotta love it. When The Knicks played Maccabi Tel Aviv the other night, Maccabi coach Pini Gershon got two technical fouls so he was "outta there." But he didn't want to leave the bench. A rabbi came onto the court to plead his case with the refs. The rabbi explained that kids were watching and it was important to teach peace and forgiveness. Oy. The refs didn't buy it. Good thing Tel Aviv doesn't have a hockey team. There would be no need for a penalty box.
5. Broadcast 101
The other day while discussing an ointment players use to keep warm, former Yankee pitcher David Wells said the smell in the TBS studio wasn't the ointment. He joked on the air that "he had farted." In all my years, that's one phrase I never used on the air. Hey, if I had, maybe I'd still be on TV?
Happy Birthday: Mets World Champion and current broadcaster Keith Hernandez. 56.
Bonus Birthday: My hero, Mickey Mantle, would have been 78 today.
Today in Sports: The Cincinnati Reds pulled off their shocking World Series sweep of the powerful Oakland A's. 1990.
Bonus Event: Brilliant move! The New York Nets sell Julius Erving to Philadelphia. (The Nets haven't won a title since.) 1976.
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Roger I. Abrams: Blame it All on the Umpires
The Alice-in-Wonderland performance of the men in blue has increased demands for instant replay. Baseball purists explode in response that, after all, the game is not football. What are we to do?
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The Mets were an "email glitch" this season.
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