Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jeremy Lin, omigosh!
I hate being so cynical. I can’t even stand myself. Furthermore, I’m probably as happy as anyone over our new point guard’s prowess on the court. Just to recap his game for the un-Lin-itiated, he dribbles, he sees the court, he drives and he scores. Let’s see…what else is there? Oh, he steals the ball a bit too.
But is it possible that all this hoopla won’t go to the man’s head? And can we just let things happen instead of predicting what kind of legacy he’ll have before his career is over? How great will he be? Why did everybody pass on him? Is he like or unlike Tebow? Will Carmelo’s return surely doom our local heroes?
Give the guy a break. Let him just play. Things are hard enough. After all, it took the man an awfully long time to get here. He shouldn’t be burdened by all these predictions. Besides, there are some other Knicks playing very well too and the ink runs out before anybody gets to them. And this is a team game after all. Just ask Carmelo.
Okay, this wasn’t meant to be all about the Knicks but what else is there?
Well, it’s hot stove season but I think all the cooking is pretty much done by now. Baseball will resume in a few weeks in Florida and Arizona and it looks as if the Yanks, Rangers and Angels and Phillies and even the Marlins are going to be much better. My Metsies are going to need a lot of luck. The waste of resources known as our legal system will pretty much make sure that the Mets will be in limbo for ages.
The saddest part of this off-season to me is that Justin Turner, the only Met who could drive in runs when it counted, and a guy who ably manned both second and third bases, is no longer being mentioned at second base. Nothing makes me sadder than a guy who outperforms expectations and then is seemingly punished for it. Turner is currently listed as the backup third baseman behind David Wright. Geez, maybe they really will trade David.
On the Yankees front, I hated to see them trade Montero. While I realize that the pitcher they picked up, Michael Pineda, is one of the best young pitchers out there, Montero could’ve hit 40 homers at Yankee Stadium. They seem to be getting away from their Bronx Bombers persona. It looks as if it’ll be still one more year of the pitcher. I can’t say it makes me happy.
All baseball needs to do to end this ridiculous pitchers dominance is enforce the strike zone. As long as the worst umpires in the world are allowed to call strikes 6-inches outside the corner of the plate, the pitching dominance will continue. And all the Jamie Moyers of the world (43-44 years old)will keep getting contracts.
I’ll be making my spring training pilgrimage once again so the Mets will be hearing from me early and often. I may even wear my Johan Santana shirt. If Santana can come back as strong as ever, the Mets might even contend.
One good thing, by the way, about the Mets failure to offer Jose Reyes a contract is that Jose can never be blamed for leaving New York because of money. Jose will always be a hero at Citifield. And I can imagine some big, big performances from Jose each and every time the Marlins face the Mets. In 18 games, Jose will hit ten triples and steal 20 bases. And he’ll be gunning down Mets baserunners with regularity.
We can look forward to loving and hating Bobby Valentine in Boston. We can root for Joba to come back from the knife and throw the way he used to. And yeah, Santana will make some headlines one way or another. Jason Bay might finally relax. I wonder if Granderson and Cano can do what they’ve done once again.
Yeah, I know, it’s just baseball. You have to admit though, that it’s a pretty interesting game. And it’s perfect for television. There are natural breaks between innings for commercials, ample time to pick up a bag of chips and a Coke, and some ice in a nice tall glass.
And there’re games going on every day. There’s no need to build up the next game as in football. Before you can say “Jackie Robinson”, the next game is upon you. If you play fantasy baseball, you’ll have something to look forward to every day, and, inevitably, some regrets for that bonehead pitching move that not only didn’t get you the win but also lost you the battle for ERA and WHIP.
So, while most New Yorkers are probably thinking about Jeremy Lin, and rightfully so, this fellow wil be thinking about baseball and, more specifically, the Mets. Having just heard Francesa’s interview with Sandy Alderson, I’m even more psyched up. With any luck at all, the Mets should be better. The starters will be more experienced, the relief acquisitions should help and the lineup should have a good deal of power.
And Sandy hasn’t forgotten about Justin Turner after all. But he is a little worried about defense. Some of the better hitters on the squad may be giving some runs back somewhere along the line. The pitching depth isn’t where he’d like it to be but he is hopeful of picking up some quality as spring training moves along.
If you would have told me last year that we needed to just worry about pitching depth, I think I would have danced a jig, or maybe even a salsa, as just one more honorarium to Victor Cruz. But that’s where the Mets are today.
Yeah, the Giants were great…. and lucky too. And the Knicks may be the most exciting team in basketball. But I’ll feel a whole lot better when April rolls around, spring is in the air and baseball is right around the bend.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
A Dink, a Dunk and a Funk
Dink, 5-yard completion, Brady to Welker….dunk, completion for 8 yards to Hernandez, just short of a first down….whoa….16 yard completion to a wide receiver for a first down. Seriously, they ain’t so baaaad. The longest Pats reception was for 21 yards to, of all people, Ochocinco. The Pats didn’t really stretch the field. They really couldn’t scare anybody with that popgun offense.
Eli and the rest of the red, white and blue didn’t really have to do too much. If they had to do more, they probably could have done more. And yes, the Pats receivers dropped a few passes and Gronk was playing hurt, but still, Brady and the Pats ain’t scaring anybody.
The Pats couldn’t really run the ball either nor show me an inspiring runner on that team. Woodhead was their biggest running threat and he did pretty well but he scored when Brady had just oodles of time for some reason, probably just that Fewell out-thunk himself. Why they dropped their best pass rushers into coverage makes no sense to me.
I’m happy the Giants won but, aside from the Manning to Manningham connection, there weren’t really any scintillating plays, or calls for that matter. The game was played like a championship game by two coaches who knew each other better than anyone else on the field. It was a game for football aficionados.
Not that it wasn’t an interesting game if you like that kind of thing but, really, I would’ve welcomed a few chances taken somewhere along the line. Surely one or two shots down the field wouldn’t have hurt anything. But that’s not who the Giants are these days, nor Eli either.
Eli’s great at that QB position. He’s all grown up. But he had just enough pizzazz when he needed it in that fourth quarter with time winding down. That pass to Manningham was perfect. That’s all you can say. And he wasn’t about to give anything away. Eli did a pretty good job of dinking and dunking himself.
But there was no pass rush as there had been in early ’08. I kept wondering how many sacks Rex Ryan would’ve got out of that group of the G-Men. It was a very conservatively-played defensive game too. The Giants played it as if they knew they were the better team and, if they just didn’t give anything away, they would win the game.
But they really shouldn’t have been so sure of themselves. Once again, I thought the Giants got lucky. How many Giants fumbles didn’t amount to anything? There were at least two, one by Cruz on which New England had too many men on the field and one by Nicks that got covered up by Hynoski.
But it all counts. Hynoski got there first by paying attention and running like hell after the ball. And procedural-type penalties happen to even the best of coaching staffs. All in all though, when you consider the New England drops, the meaningless fumbles and the Brady safety on the Pats first play, the Giants had good fortune lined up on their sidelines that Super day.
The 49ers game was scarier than the Super Bowl. But brain farts and fumbles won it for the Giants that day as well. It wasn’t just Eli and that defensive line that won this championship. It was truly everybody and yes, it was everybody just doing their job, as every Giants player seemed to mention in the aftermath of things.
And, speaking of aftermath, was there ever a more gracious winner than these Giants? Eli, Justin Tuck and just about every Giant was classy in their commentary about the game, about the season, and about their opponents. One notable exception was Brandon Jacobs’ harangue after the game but I’ll forgive him for now. After all, it was the “best of all time” Tom Brady and the brainiac Belichick that the G-Men beat on Sunday.
It’s unfortunate that so much time was devoted to whether Eli is truly an elite quarterback or not. Happily, Eli backed himself up by winning this game. God knows what things could’ve been like around here if the Patriots beat him.
For now, everybody’s happy, even me, but it wasn’t long after this game was in the books that all the prognosticators came out with all their prognostications. Who’ll be dropped next year, whose contracts are expiring, which teams will the Giants have to look out for next year?
I know two guys who’ll be coming back. They’d be Jason Pierre-Paul and Victor Cruz. Would the G-Men be here today without either of them? I don’t think so. They were both great, not just great for a rookie but truly among the best in the league. And they came out of nowhere, just like these Giants.
I hated that the Giants let Steve Smith and the tight end Boss go. I hated that they couldn’t have given in to Osi a little bit. But, in the final analysis, Jerry Reese, the GM, is the man, once again, maybe even more so than he was in 2007.
It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. Despite all the injuries these Giants suffered through this year, Reese’s players emerged as the best. Look around the roster, there’s that punter Weatherford and that Ballard tight end and that center wasn’t too shabby either. How about Devin Thomas? Oncce again, the man seems as if he knows something the rest of us just don’t.
I guess, like the rest of his team, Jerry Reese was just doing his job. But he really did one hell of a job….twice. This Super Bowl is as much his as anybody’s. Coughlin doesn’t have very many bad alternatives on that bench, or on specials, or anywhere.
But now it’s all over for 2011-2012. Now this amazing season and Giants run-the-table finish has run its course. Soon it’ll be just a memory, even if it will be one of the best ones ever.
Eli and the rest of the red, white and blue didn’t really have to do too much. If they had to do more, they probably could have done more. And yes, the Pats receivers dropped a few passes and Gronk was playing hurt, but still, Brady and the Pats ain’t scaring anybody.
The Pats couldn’t really run the ball either nor show me an inspiring runner on that team. Woodhead was their biggest running threat and he did pretty well but he scored when Brady had just oodles of time for some reason, probably just that Fewell out-thunk himself. Why they dropped their best pass rushers into coverage makes no sense to me.
I’m happy the Giants won but, aside from the Manning to Manningham connection, there weren’t really any scintillating plays, or calls for that matter. The game was played like a championship game by two coaches who knew each other better than anyone else on the field. It was a game for football aficionados.
Not that it wasn’t an interesting game if you like that kind of thing but, really, I would’ve welcomed a few chances taken somewhere along the line. Surely one or two shots down the field wouldn’t have hurt anything. But that’s not who the Giants are these days, nor Eli either.
Eli’s great at that QB position. He’s all grown up. But he had just enough pizzazz when he needed it in that fourth quarter with time winding down. That pass to Manningham was perfect. That’s all you can say. And he wasn’t about to give anything away. Eli did a pretty good job of dinking and dunking himself.
But there was no pass rush as there had been in early ’08. I kept wondering how many sacks Rex Ryan would’ve got out of that group of the G-Men. It was a very conservatively-played defensive game too. The Giants played it as if they knew they were the better team and, if they just didn’t give anything away, they would win the game.
But they really shouldn’t have been so sure of themselves. Once again, I thought the Giants got lucky. How many Giants fumbles didn’t amount to anything? There were at least two, one by Cruz on which New England had too many men on the field and one by Nicks that got covered up by Hynoski.
But it all counts. Hynoski got there first by paying attention and running like hell after the ball. And procedural-type penalties happen to even the best of coaching staffs. All in all though, when you consider the New England drops, the meaningless fumbles and the Brady safety on the Pats first play, the Giants had good fortune lined up on their sidelines that Super day.
The 49ers game was scarier than the Super Bowl. But brain farts and fumbles won it for the Giants that day as well. It wasn’t just Eli and that defensive line that won this championship. It was truly everybody and yes, it was everybody just doing their job, as every Giants player seemed to mention in the aftermath of things.
And, speaking of aftermath, was there ever a more gracious winner than these Giants? Eli, Justin Tuck and just about every Giant was classy in their commentary about the game, about the season, and about their opponents. One notable exception was Brandon Jacobs’ harangue after the game but I’ll forgive him for now. After all, it was the “best of all time” Tom Brady and the brainiac Belichick that the G-Men beat on Sunday.
It’s unfortunate that so much time was devoted to whether Eli is truly an elite quarterback or not. Happily, Eli backed himself up by winning this game. God knows what things could’ve been like around here if the Patriots beat him.
For now, everybody’s happy, even me, but it wasn’t long after this game was in the books that all the prognosticators came out with all their prognostications. Who’ll be dropped next year, whose contracts are expiring, which teams will the Giants have to look out for next year?
I know two guys who’ll be coming back. They’d be Jason Pierre-Paul and Victor Cruz. Would the G-Men be here today without either of them? I don’t think so. They were both great, not just great for a rookie but truly among the best in the league. And they came out of nowhere, just like these Giants.
I hated that the Giants let Steve Smith and the tight end Boss go. I hated that they couldn’t have given in to Osi a little bit. But, in the final analysis, Jerry Reese, the GM, is the man, once again, maybe even more so than he was in 2007.
It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. Despite all the injuries these Giants suffered through this year, Reese’s players emerged as the best. Look around the roster, there’s that punter Weatherford and that Ballard tight end and that center wasn’t too shabby either. How about Devin Thomas? Oncce again, the man seems as if he knows something the rest of us just don’t.
I guess, like the rest of his team, Jerry Reese was just doing his job. But he really did one hell of a job….twice. This Super Bowl is as much his as anybody’s. Coughlin doesn’t have very many bad alternatives on that bench, or on specials, or anywhere.
But now it’s all over for 2011-2012. Now this amazing season and Giants run-the-table finish has run its course. Soon it’ll be just a memory, even if it will be one of the best ones ever.
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