Playoffs? We're talking about the playoffs?

Most of the statistics for the following blog were taken from Wikipedia. The blogger is responsible for one change.

Updated to improve accuracy.

          Peyton Manning is a superb quarterback. From everything you see and read about him the guy is a terrific human being, too, but the discussion here is about football.

          Manning has won multiple Most Valuable Player awards. His attention to detail is legendary and that makes his physical talents all the more potent. He is probably the quarterback opposing coaches least want to play.

          And yet…

          Manning has a losing record as a starting quarterback in the playoffs. He is a Super Bowl champion, but he has also lost the big game. His career record in the post season is nine wins, 11 losses, a 45 percent success ratio.

          Peyton Manning is a sure-fire Hall of Famer, a first-ballot cinch. But if he does not win the Super Bowl this season, he will still have a losing record as a playoff quarterback. Hard to believe? Sure, but nobody said things are easy in the National Football League.

          The winningest playoff passer, as of now, is Tom Brady of the Patriots. Brady’s 17-7 record includes three Super Bowl wins and two losses. His winning percentage in the playoffs is 70.8.

          Of the quarterbacks with at least five playoff starts, Bart Starr has the best record, 6-1, which is 85.7 percent. Six of Starr’s playoff games were NFL title games. The other was a special playoff against the Colts in 1965 when the teams had to have a play-in game to break a regular-season tie and determine which team went to the championship game. The Packers beat the Colts on a foggy day. Starr started the game for Green Bay but was injured during the contest and did not finish.

          John Unitas, Colts passer who did not play for Baltimore when they lost to the Packers in that special playoff game (he was injured), finished his career with a 6-2 playoff record. Three of those wins were in title games.

          The most active playoff quarterback has been Brett Farve. Farve’s 24 starts resulted in a 13-11 record and one Super Bowl win (plus a Super Bowl loss).

          Tobin Rote has an interesting place in playoff history. Rote won a title as the starting quarterback with the Detroit Lions in 1957, then won another title with the Chargers in the AFL in 1963. Few quarterbacks have won titles in two leagues. Otto Graham did it. Norm Van Brocklin won the title with two NFL teams.

          Kurt Warner tried to win titles with two different teams, splitting two Super Bowls with the Rams and then narrowly losing the title game with the Cardinals. Warner’s post season record is 9-4, a 69.4 percent success rate.

          Do you know what Joe Namath’s all-time career post season record is? If you are old enough to have seen Joe Willie Whiteshoes, Hall of Famer and all-time passing gunslinger, play the game, then you know how great he really was. His Jets beat the Colts in Super Bowl III, one of the biggest upsets in football history.

          Namath was 2-1 in the playoffs. He and the Jets beat the Raiders in the 1968 AFL title game and then beat the Colts in the Super Bowl. A year later, Namath and the Jets lost the AFL title game to Kansas City and Namath never reached the playoffs again.

          There was no playoff system as we have it now when Namath and Starr played in the 1960s. You had to win your conference title in the regular season in order to get to the championship game. When the AFL and NFL merged in the 1960s and the Super Bowl was invented, that added one playoff game and the most a team could in a season was two.

          Don Meredith’s record as a starting quarterback in the playoffs in the 1960s was 1-3, all with the Dallas Cowboys. Tony Romo, another Cowboys passer, is also 1-3. Of the two, I’d prefer to have Meredith on my team.

          Tim Tebow is 1-1 in the playoffs. So are Jay Cutler, Alex Smith, Russell Wilson and Matt Schaub.

Your loyal blogger notes that it is impossible to lose a playoff game without first reaching the playoffs. The statistics above are not meant as a negative judgment of any quarterback. Still, the stats are interesting.

Y.A. Title, a great player in the 1950s and 1960s, played in the championship game-only playoff era and he went 0-4 as a starting quarterback in the post season.

If it was easy, it wouldn’t be the playoffs.

The top five quarterbacks, from Wikipedia’s list, are below. Thanks for reading.

Tom Brady, 17-7 (70.8 %), 3 championships.

Joe Montana, 16-7 (69.56 %), 4 championships.

Terry Bradshaw, 14-5 (73.68 %), 4 championships.

John Elway, 14-7 (66.66 %), 2 championships.

 

Brett Farve, 13-11 (54.16 %), 1 championship.

Chickamuaga: Questions, answers and thoughts

          Even today, a century and half -- plus a day -- after the Battle of Chickamauga, there are questions about what happened over the course of those three days.

          For one thing, most historians refer to the Battle as a two-day engagement. At the risk of being labeled a revisionist, the last thing your loyal blogger ever wants to hear thrown his way, the armies involved came into contact in the area of the battlefield on the 18^th of September, 1863. The battle ended on September 20, 1863.

          That’s three days. The heavyweight killing occurred on the 19^th and 20^th, but the shooting started on the 18^th and so it is termed here a three-day fight.

          Then there is the question asking why the Confederates failed to press their advantage the morning of September 21^st. Why did they not try to chase the Union soldiers out of the important city of Chattanooga?

          They should have, no doubt, had they been able. But Confederate commander Braxton Bragg did not order his men to attack Chattanooga on the 21st. The Confederate Army of Tennessee was shot to pieces during the previous three days. Most Confederate units, especially at the regiment and company levels, had lost officers.

          Command and control, the procedural processes that run an army, were terrible weaknesses under Bragg before his army suffered the stunning losses at Chickamauga. With so many officers dead or too badly injured to be useful, the Confederates would have struggled to mount anything beyond a demonstration at Chattanooga in front of the equally shot up Federals.

          Bragg had regiments which were not badly hurt during the battle, but he probably did not know it the night of September 20/21. On top of that, even the regiments not badly shot up were exhausted, thirsty and hungry. Most of Bragg’s regiments were out of ammunition or nearly so at the end of the fighting on the 20th.

          Finally, the Confederates did not know the Union army had run as far as Chattanooga until a cavalry unit reported as much the next morning. For all the Confederates knew on the night of September 20/21, the Army of the Cumberland would attack the Confederates when the sun came up on the 21^st.

          Bragg’s Confederates were somewhat like George Meade’s Federals on July 4, the day after the end of the Battle of Gettysburg: Capable of an attack, perhaps. Ready to attack? No.

          One of the key controversies of Chickamauga is over what happened between the commander of the Confederate right wing, Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk, and Major General D.H. Hill, a commander serving under Polk.

          Bragg’s plan for the 20^th was for Polk’s right wing to attack at dawn. Hill’s forces were to lead the attack. Longstreet’s left wing would attack when it heard Polk’s forces engage the enemy.

          But the right wing did not attack because Polk did not make certain his subordinate, Hill, was informed of the plan. Neither Polk nor Hill liked serving under Bragg and twice within a period of 10 days the two acted like petulant children, refusing to follow orders.

          Bragg deserves his share of blame. At such an important time as the night of Sept. 19/20 at Chickamauga, Bragg should have given his senior commanders their orders all together in order to iron out any questions. Bragg did not do that.

          One problem Bragg faced was the arrival of Longstreet and his force of about 12,000 on loan from Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Bragg did not know when Longstreet might arrive, although he knew Longstreet would be at the battlefield that night.

And that brings us to another key question: Why did Bragg decide to change the shape of his command structure in the midst of a major battle? Why did he decide to place Longstreet in command of the Confederate left wing before Longstreet even arrived?

It’s a good question. Here’s another: What else could Bragg do with Longstreet? Obviously, Longstreet had to be in command of something and the commanders Bragg had on hand before Longstreet arrived were not following orders.

Maybe Bragg just wanted someone who might follow orders on the left side. If so, he chose well. Longstreet, who arrived about midnight and accepted wing command without having seen the ground he was supposed to attack in the morning, managed to have his wing ready to attack when the time came.

The right side wasn’t ready and the Confederate attack was delayed for hours.

Bragg’s decision about the command of his left wing was unconventional, given the situation. But an unconventional decision can still be the right one.

Then, of course, there is a real mind-bending question: Should the battle have taken place at all?

Rosecrans already had the biggest prize in that part of Tennessee, the city of Chattanooga. Some students of the battle would argue that the battle never should have happened, that Rosecrans should have been satisfied with the capture of Chattanooga and should not have been chasing after Bragg at that point in time.

But students who argue that side of the question forget that Rosecrans’ commander in chief, Abraham Lincoln, had long told his army commanders that the job of the Union army was the destruction of the Confederate armies, not the capture of areas or cities.

Thus, Rosecrans was following orders when he chased after Bragg. Following orders is an excellent idea, especially when the orders come from the President of the United States.

Chickamauga is a battle known for ferocity. It is known for its controversies. But it should also be known for its famous – in some cases infamous – roster of combatants.

On the Federal side, General George Thomas, who earned his nickname The Rock of Chickamauga on Horseshoe Ridge, and General Phillip Sheridan were there. Longstreet and General John Bell Hood were on the Confederate side, as was the 15^th Alabama Infantry Regiment, the same group that gained fame for attacking, and failing, at Little Round Top during the fight at Gettysburg. The commander of the 15^th, William Oates, was later elected Governor of Alabama.

Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate cavalry commander who later became an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan, served at Chickamauga.

Federal General John M. Palmer and Confederate General Simon Buckner joined together as the Democrat Party’s nominees for president and vice president in 1896. Palmer served as Governor of Illinois and Buckner was elected Governor of Kentucky prior to that presidential effort.

Rosecrans moved to California after the war and became a US Senator. James Negley, another Federal general, was also elected to Congress after the war.

 

Rest assured that your loyal blogger is not running for Congress. Still, he thanks you for reading.

 

Gracie at Horseshoe Ridge

          Today marks the 150^th anniversary of the final day of the American Civil War Battle of Chickamauga. That means that 150 years ago this afternoon, the fighting along a string of hills now known as Horseshoe Ridge turned into a maelstrom of iron and lead. The hillsides became packed with dead and injured and the ground was slick with their blood.

          The weaponry of the day, both handheld and artillery, threw a lot of sparks. Small fires dotted the Ridge and some of the wounded on both sides must have suffered burns.

          What did it sound like? It must have been the standard battlefield mix: The occasional deep boom of artillery, the never-ending rattle of small arms fire, the infrequent cheers of Union soldiers as a Confederate group retreated down the hillsides or the haunting Rebel yell as a fresh attack by southerners began. There were shouted orders from officers and the moans of the injured.

          By late afternoon, neither commander was in the field. The commander of the Federal Army of the Cumberland, William Rosecrans, fled earlier in the day after witnessing a Confederate breakthrough. Confederate boss Braxton Bragg, the leader of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, believing his side was losing, was in his headquarters, a mile or so away.

          The Federals smartly spent the previous night cutting down trees and building defenses at the edge of the Ridge. The Confederates spent the night listening to the trees falling, understanding the meaning of the noise.

          Horseshoe Ridge was on the Federal right and the Confederate left. And at about noon General James Longstreet, the right wing commander for the Confederates, decided to commit his final reserves to the effort to remove the Federals from their perch on the Ridge.

          Longstreet’s wing first attacked the Ridge about 1:15 p.m. when a group of South Carolinians chased retreating Federals in that direction. The defense was spirited and some of that spirit was elevated by the use of repeating rifles by most of the soldiers in the 21^st Ohio regiment. Repeating rifles were new at that time. Those used by the 21^st Ohio were not supplied by the Army. Rather, the rifles were donated to the regiment by private backers.

          Longstreet’s reserves consisted of a division led by Brigadier General Robert Preston. That division included three brigades commanded by Brigadier General Archibald Gracie, Colonel Jon Kelly and Colonel Robert Trigg.

          Gracie’s Brigade consisted of Hilliard’s Legion, an Alabama outfit, plus the 43^rd Alabama Infantry Regiment and the 63^rd Tennessee Infantry Regiment.

          By the time Gracie’s Brigade reached the Ridge, roughly 4:30 p.m., it was defended by a conglomerate of Federal regiments including (from their right) the 35^th Ohio, 2^nd Minnesota, 87^th Indiana, 9^th Ohio, 19^th Illinois, 11^th Michigan and parts of the 58^th Indiana, 17^th Ohio and 31^st Ohio.

          Gracie attacked Hills 2 and 1. Federal artillery to Gracie’s far right pounded the attackers and the rifle fire from the top of the Ridge was deadly. Gracie’s initial attack was stalled. But after some shifting of his forces, Gracie eventually drove the defenders away from the crests of Hills 2 and 1 of Horseshoe Ridge.

          Now using the fortifications built by the Federals to repel them, Gracie’s men exchanged long range rifle fire with the Union men. A few of Gracie’s men went over the fortifications, possibly in search of food from the Snodgrass farm. After an hour, Gracie’s men started running out of ammunition, a frustrating development. Believing a relief regiment was on its way, Gracie gave the order for his men to pull back from the top hills they had charged up 90 minutes earlier.

          Some of Gracie’s men, members of the 43^rd and the Legion, stayed the night up on the crest. The Unionists did not return. They were out of bullets, too.

          One of Gracie’s men is an ancestor of your loyal blogger. Wounded in the ankle during the rush up the side of the Ridge, he never again walked normally. Still, he survived and lived a long life. Good thing, that. Otherwise, you would not be reading this blog.

 

          Thanks for reading this blog.

150 years ago this week

          It was 150 years ago this evening that a group of roughly 2,500 men crossed a creek in northern Georgia, crossed by a farm and bedded down in a wooded area for the night.

          These men were Confederate soldiers in the Army of Tennessee. This particular bunch was under the command of Brigadier General Archibald Gracie. Gracie’s Brigade was in Brigadier General William Preston’s Division and a part of Major General Simon Buckner’s Corps. General Braxton Bragg commanded the Army as a whole.

          Bragg’s men had spent the previous months retreating without fighting much

The present day South Carolina
monument on a hill near
Horseshoe Ridge.

and had largely given up the state of Tennessee to the Federal Army of the Cumberland led by General William Rosecrans. But now, near the banks of Chickamauga Creek, the Confederates stopped to fight.

          The ensuing battle of Chickamauga was a brutal, costly affair. Few units paid a higher price than Gracie’s Brigade.

          On the evening of the 18^th, Gracie’s brigade crossed the Chickamauga at Dalton’s Ford, which sounds like the name of a car dealership. That night, Gracie’s men were Preston’s only soldiers across the creek. The following day, Preston’s other brigades crossed the creek.

          There was some scattered, small scale fighting in the area on the 18^th, but the fighting was in earnest on the 19^th and 20^th. This was a brawl, a vicious heavyweight bloodletting that resulted in roughly 35,000 killed, wounded and missing. The casualty count at Chickamauga was the highest of the war, outside of Gettysburg.  

          Gracie’s men were mostly held in reserve on the 19^th and much of the 20^th. Few had combat experience and General James Longstreet, who commanded the Confederate right wing on the 20^th, hesitated to use the untested men.

          Finally, Gracie and his command were committed. Longstreet had done them no favors. They were sent to attack the Federal position atop Horseshoe Ridge.

          By the time Gracie and his men started toward the Ridge, US Army General George Thomas was the senior Federal commander still on the field. Rosecrans and others had left earlier in the day.

          Thomas’ men had spent the night of the 19^th/20th knocking down trees to create

Today's view of the top of Horseshoe Ridge.

breastworks which protected them from the Confederate advance on the 20th. It was an informal fortress, but a stout one.

          Gracie’s brigade included three components: The 43^rd Alabama Infantry Regiment (the only unit in the brigade which had seen fighting), the 63^rd Tennessee Infantry Regiment and Hilliard’s Legion.

          The Tennessee regiment did little fighting on the 20^th but the 43^rd Alabama and the Legion (which was made up mostly of Alabamians) stormed up the side of the Ridge and dislodged the Federals. The Federals, a combination of several regiments, fell back from the berm of the Ridge to a wooded area and continued shooting at their attackers.

          For about an hour, Gracie’s men engaged in a rifle duel with the Federals. Eventually, both sides exhausted their ammunition. Gracie finally ordered his men to pull back down the hill as they ran out of bullets, but some stayed at their hard-won posts as darkness fell. The Federals also started pulling away, but hundreds were captured by a sweeping, two-pronged attack made by two Florida outfits commanded by Colonel Robert Trigg, another of Preston’s Brigade commanders.

          For reasons too complicated to detail here, about 50 of Gracie’s men, members of both the Legion and the 43^rd Alabama, were part of Trigg’s Floridian encirclement.

          Buckner wrote in his report, “Few troops who have suffered so heavily have been victorious on the field of their losses.”

          Regular readers of this blog know of the interest here in the fighting on Horseshoe Ridge. It was a hard place to be a soldier on either side.

          We’ll be thinking about them this week.

         
          Thanks for reading.

The museum piece

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – When you travel to this city, even for the purpose of attending an NHRA drag race, you do so knowing you are in the heart of NASCAR country.

          Your loyal blogger spent part of the day at the drag strip and then went looking for the compound where Hendrick Motorsports houses its garages, administrative offices and museum. The general public is allowed to enter the shops where cars are prepared for Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne, I am told.

          I went to the museum, intending to buy a shirt for Mrs. Leeway. The shirt was eventually purchased but not until after yours truly was slapped with a racing memory after walking in the door.

          The second car on the left after entering the museum is a deep red stock car,

Tim Richmond's final winner.

once sponsored by Folgers Coffee. The car was number 25 and I knew immediately what I was looking at. In order to be sure, I walked to the right side of the car to look for the dry brake, which is what you call the fuel filler apparatus for a stock car.

          Yep, there it was. Suspicion confirmed. A road racer.

          This was the car Tim Richmond drove at Riverside International Raceway when he earned his final racing victory on Father’s Day, 1987. I covered that race.

          Tim Richmond! Now there was a talent, proof that sometimes charisma and ability can come together and create a special opportunity.

          Richmond drove for the Hendrick organization (which is how the car ended up in the Hendrick museum, right?) and brought some added excitement to racing. He was talented in the car, funny during an interview and, apparently, he was very appealing to women.

          That last victory, on the twisting Southern California road course, came after Richmond had been seriously ill for a time. There were all kinds of rumors about the source of his illness. To be honest, I don’t enjoy talking about some of the things that were said.

          What I remember is that there was a hamburger stand-type food spot in the infield at Riverside and you could sometimes find drivers there grabbing a burger or a soda. Things were much more relaxed then than they are now in terms of driver availability.

          Richmond was drinking a soda, sitting by himself at a picnic table in the small

This car is also in the museum, the remains of a terrible
wreck from which driver Ken Schrader walked away.

shaded area next to the window where you bought the food. I asked him if he minded my sitting there, which he did not, and I asked him a few questions.

          I don’t recall now if this was in 1987 or earlier, but what I do recall is that Richmond was very friendly and he answered my questions comfortably. Finished with the interview, I bought something to eat and returned to the table and Richmond was still there, still by himself. So I sat again and we chatted briefly before he had to get back to his car before the next practice started.

          Whatever people say now about Richmond’s exceptionally active social lifestyle, I still remember the guy who chatted easily with a reporter from small-town newspaper in the heat of the day at Riverside.

 

           Tim Richmond died of AIDS in 1989.

Fast Facts for philosophers

            “Well, anyway, I was just philosophizing,” Mrs. Leeway said this morning.

          I gave her my I-don’t-think-that’s-a-word look, a look I perfected when the kids were young. That look has many uses. It has conveyed, “No, you can’t have the car tonight,” and “No, you can’t have ice cream.”

          Today, it meant that I didn’t think philosophizing is a word.

          Ignoring my look (something which even the kids do now), Mrs. Leeway continued, “Maybe that’s not a word, but that’s what I was doing.”

          You have to be quick on the uptake in our family. I stepped in immediately.

          “I am generally fearless,” I said, “but if I were afraid of philosophizing, I would have philosophi-phobia.”

          Mrs. Leeway laughed, which always brightens my day. I am pleased with life when she smiles and anytime she laughs out loud, it’s like angels singing.

          “Maybe,” Mrs. Leeway opined, “it isn’t a word. Maybe I’m just getting old.”

          “That would be ancient philosophy,” I said.

          “Yes,” she said. No laugh this time.

          Needing to regain momentum, I charged ahead.

          “If it was fake, it would be faux philosophizing,” I proposed.

          That drew another laugh and I was rolling again.

          “Know what you have if you were afraid of a fake philosophy,” I asked.

          Mrs. Leeway admitted that she did not.

          “Faux-philosophi-phobia.”

          Our neighbors probably wondered why we were laughing like loons when we opened the garage door and climbed into the Mustang.

          Well, what they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em. That’s my philosophy.

          Thanks for reading.

 

Monday Monday: It was all I hoped it would be

          Your loyal blogger was present at Dodger Stadium when Chicago Cubs outfielder Rick Monday rescued the American flag from two creeps during a 1976 baseball game.

          The anniversary was noted by the Dodgers this week.

          My recollection of those years is that the Dodgers tried for two years to trade for Monday, who was a terrific player, without success. But after Monday saved the flag IN DODGER STADIUM, the Dodgers did whatever they had to do to acquire the outfielder.

          They finally landed Monday and he helped the team win a World Series. Heck, he put them in the Series with a dramatic home run that won the National League Championship Series. All these years later, Monday is still with the Dodgers. He is part of their radio broadcasts now.

          A few years ago, when he was still playing, Monday signed his autograph on a piece of paper for my mother on her 50^th birthday. So, yeah, I have great memories of Rick Monday: Classy guy, tremendous player and outstanding broadcaster.

 

          Monday’s old team, the Dodgers, have put together the best long string of games I can recall. They’ve had strong pitching, good fielding and timely hitting.

          One of the pitchers who has made a major contribution during the blazing string of wins has been Zack Greinke. Your loyal blogger wrote about the decision to sign Greinke before the season started, and it was written in this blog that the Dodgers spent too much money on the deal.

          I was wrong.

          Greinke started slowly and suffered a broken collarbone during a brawl with the Padres early in the season. His era at the time was 4.22.

          In their last 59 games, the Dodgers have won an amazing 47 times. In his last 13 starts Greinke has a record of 10-1. He has a strike out-to-walk ratio of about 3-1 in that period and his era now is 2.86.

          Greinke has been one of the reasons for the Dodgers’ resurgence. Give credit where it is due: The Dodgers were smart to sign him.

 

          The issues between Time Warner Cable and the leadership at CBS have resulted in Los Angeles baseball fans missing a lot of Dodgers games they would otherwise be able to see on television.

          One of those games was on Rick Monday bobblehead night, when fans were given bobbleheads of the flag-saving outfielder. A lot of fans were looking forward to reliving the famous moment during the broadcast, but they were locked out by the CBS-TWC squabble.

 

          It’s a shame the people of Southern California have to pay the price while two large corporations argue.

          Thanks for reading.