A Sweet streak ... by George!

Is there anything more mind-boggling than watching a ball-player like Joe DiMaggio going for a base hit in his 57th straight game?

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Or, say, a college basketball coach like John Wooden trying to nail down his eighth straight national college championship?

Or, a discus thrower named Al Oerter winning the gold medal for the fifth consecutive time in the Olympic Games?

Sport rarely gets any better than this. But it happens. And when it does, you can hear the birdies sing. Just the way we did in the early fall of 1970 when the Oakland Raiders turned their new back-up quarterback loose for seven weeks in a row.

His name was George Blanda and he had been an All-American QB at the U. of Kentucky, followed by becoming a big star in the NFL with the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Colts, and then the AFL's Houston Oilers, where he led the team to two championships, before being traded to the Raiders in 1967.

The Raiders started slowly with two straight losses before putting their spry 43-year-old QB to work. He produced a nice couple of token wins over Denver and Washington ... and the miracle was on.

Here is what he showed in his next five appearances:

Oct. 25 vs Pittsburgh: Blanda comes in and gets right to the points: throwing three touchdowns passes and then kicking three extra points and a field goal--accounting for 24 of the Raiders' points in a 31-14 victory.

Nov. 1 vs Kansas City: With three seconds to play, Blanda kicks a 48-yard field goal to tie the score at 17.

Nov. 8 vs Cleveland: With 1:34 left and the Raiders trailing 13-20, Blanda tosses a 14-yard TD pass, kicks the extra point to tie the game at 20, and then with three seconds left on the clock, kicks a 52-yard field goal to win, 23-20.

Nov. 15 vs Denver: Comes off the bench with 2:28 to play and throws a 28-yard touchdown and kicks the point after to win the game, 24-19.

Nov. 22 vs San Diego: Same scenario, Blanda coming in with just 14 seconds to play and kicks a 15-yard field goal on the last play to win, 20-17.

But all good things must come to an end and it happened to Oakland and Blanda the following weekend when they lost to Detroit, 24-18. However, Blanda proceeded to guide the Raiders to the AFC Championship, becoming the oldest QB to play in a title game. Blanda accounted for all of his teams' points in a 27-17 loss to the Baltimore Colts.

Blanda just kept setting records until there were no more games to play. All in all, he played 26 full seasons, with 224 games in a row and 340 in all. He also played in 11 championship games and set records for most points, most field goals, and most passing yards.

When Blanda was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981, the question nobody asked was: "What took them so long?"