Hope Springs Eternal

Maybe the Giants really started something that Super Bowl Sunday in February. Those incredible men in blue and their nasty defensive linemen, and most heartening of all, a host of new guys to lay low the "greatest team of all time" Patriots, guys making their bones, if you will.

I'll never forget Steve Smith, a big name at USC but new to the NFL, finding still another hole in a Pats zone and dancing down the sideline to make sure his team got that critical first down. That was immediately preceding that beautiful Eli floater to a wide-open Plaxico versus another ill-fated Belichick blitz.

But Smith certainly wasn't the only new face to shake the halls of the great this past football year. There was a seventh round draft choice named Ahmad Bradshaw who dragged a huge Pats defensive lineman for a few more yards that day, and a big kid from East Orange who did his best to see if Tom Brady's navel could touch his spine. And what about that huge tight end out of Western Oregon, of all places, getting open and deftly turning upfield for a 45-yard gain.

Yes, there were six rookies who made that Giants team , all of whom made their presence felt in the playoffs, and even that wasn’t the end of it. Those G-Men also made some key pickups outside of the draft, most notably a fullback named Hedgecock and a kick-returner named Hixon, whose efforts couldn’t be missed in that run of runs.

And we had a new and totally unlikely Super Bowl Champion.

Of course, none of that had been expected. And if it had been expected, it couldn’t have been so incredible of course, all of which brings me around to some new heroes on the baseball diamonds of the Major Leagues, and the hard courts of the NBA, still other new faces or names you never heard to shake the countenances of the powerful.

Looking at today’s standings in the American League this morning, I see Baltimore and Tampa Bay leading the American League East, the Rays having just swept the World Series Champion Red Sox. Their winning streak couldn’t have been accomplished without Evan Longoria, fresh out of the minors. He hits for average and power, plays a nifty third base, and can steal a base if there’s a need. But he joins a team that already had developed B.J. Upton and the hard-throwing right-hander James Shields.

In the AL Central, the “Pale Hose”, those Chicago White Sox are surprising the Indians and in the West, those Billy Bean Oakland A’s are tied for first with the Angels. The White Sox are doing it with re-treads who seem to have re-discovered their games, names like Crede and Pierzynski. The A’s are doing it with guys like pitcher Dana Eveland, a 25-year old southpaw, and still another over-achieving re-tread named Emil Brown. Emil presently leads the A’s with 25 rbi’s, a figure that is second only to still another new face, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers.

On the senior circuit, the National League, the Florida Marlins lead the East, 1 ½ games over the Mets and Phillies. Hanley Ramirez is once again tearing it up with 8 home runs, 22 runs scored and 18 rbi’s from the LEADOFF position. He also sports 8 stolen bases, and despite having shown this fearsome production for over two years now, he is still not exactly a household name. The Fish also can boast of Josh Willingham, a former Met batting .341 and two pitchers doing very well, Mark Hendrickson with 4 wins already and Scott Olsen, who leads the team in ERA at 2.06.

In the NL Central, there are the Cubbies, finally, in first place with a 16-9 record. And, although old names such as Derrek Lee and Carlos Zambrano are leading the team in batting and pitching, they wouldn’t be there without Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol finishing games for them.

While Wood had been a household name as a starter before his injury, his closer role is new and one he seems quite comfortable filling. Marmol sets him up and, in only his second year, mystifies batters with his combination of heat and breaking balls, not unlike the more ballyhooed Joba Chamberlain of the Yankees.

In the West, the Diamondbacks of Arizona lead the way, and, although some “woulda thunk it”, what with pitchers like Brandon Webb, Dan Haren and Randy Johnson, who really expected a fella named Micah Owings to start out 4-0 with 28 strikeout’s and only 9 walks. And only the baseball-savvy could’ve foreseen still another Upton named Justin to sport a .323 BA along with five dingers.

In NBA basketball, how good was it to watch a kid like Josh Smith tear up the mighty Celtics twice in a row? Smith was a human wrecking ball, with 28 points and 7 blocks in their latest game. The 6’9” 235 pound Smith seems unstoppable in closing out his fourth year in the league. In Saturday night’s Hawks win, he was even more dominating, hitting 11-17 from the field while grabbing 9 rebounds, dishing off 6 assists and pilfering the ball twice.

Meanwhile, seasoned but unheralded veteran Joe Johnson, originally drafted by the Celtics back in 2001, grabbed the spotlight last night. Joe hit for 35 points, going 14-24. The Celtics seem to be reeling after their two relatively easy wins in Beantown and will undoubtedly welcome a return to their home court after suffering two rather decisive beatings in Atlanta.

In every sport, the beat goes on. We watch the great either hang on or tumble, but it’s always intriguing, and most of us root for that new blood to have their day. And yet, if the veterans still hold sway, we recognize and appreciate their dominance, be it either in teamwork or defense, pitching or long home runs. It’s the good fight that’s appreciated.

<>As I gaze out my window, I see the snow has stopped falling. Ah yes, hope springs eternal.<>

Hooray for the Draft !

After watching about five hours of mostly boring baseball between the Yanks and Boston, then the Mets and Nationals, my mind began to wander. Surely, there must be something more exciting going on in the sports world. With the NBA playoffs still on the horizon, and little enough interest in that anyway, being that the Knicks and Nets have played themselves out of them, I suddenly remembered that the NFL Draft is April 26th, and, lo and behold, April 26th is next Saturday!

I find myself totally unprepared. But I look forward with relish to my annual exercise of figuring out who my New York teams will select. What do they need, will they draft for need at all or will they select the best player available? Will they trade up, trade down, make a last-minute trade? Will some of our favorite players find themselves in a different uniform this July? What players were lost or acquired in the off-season through free agency?

Surely, the Giants will just draft for need, the spanking of those "best team of all time" New England Patriots fresh in their minds. It's a good thing too, because the reward for their pluckiness is the 31st pick, not a position that would ordinarily yield a perennial All-Pro type of player. The Jets get the 6th pick, of course, for their alarming return to mediocrity or worse last season.

The Jets were truly deserving of their fate in 2007, it must be said. Mike Tanenbaum, the GM, destroyed the team's offensive line by playing hard ball with one of their best men in the trenches while Eric Mangini tried to disguise that stupidity by changing quarterbacks, implying that their offensive futility was due to less than inspiring play by Chad Pennington.

Of course, this was total nonsense, and I don't think Jets fans were fooled. Nor was Woody Johnson, I suspect, because the Jets came right out of the box and picked up the best offensive lineman available in free agency. In Alan Faneca, they now have one of the toughest, and reportedly meanest, guards in the NFL. That move alone buys that management team untold indulgences with me. In one fell swoop, they undid their foolishness and more. Everyone in a green jersey, on the field and in the stands, appreciated that one.

Then, as if to convince Jets fans everywhere that Christmas was still here, they picked up a giant of a defensive tackle in the person of Kris Jenkins, a poor man's Ted Washington, a run stopper extraordinaire, thus plugging up the huge hole in their defensive front. But they weren't done yet. They spent even more money on Calvin Pace, a 6'4" 270 pound linebacker, who should help stop the passing game as well.

With those moves, the Jets certainly went a long way in fixing their infrastructure, their core, if you will. One other glaring weakness last year, however, was at wide receiver. The Jets made their one good wideout, Laveranues Coles, happy by guaranteeing the last years on his contract. That still leaves Jeremy Cotchery as their only other decent wideout though, and I’ll be hugely disappointed if the Jets don’t get a couple of wide receiver prospects in this draft.

As the wide receiver prospects in this draft are generally not considered strong enough to warrant a number 6 pick, the Jets will probably try to make a move downward. They’ll pick up some extra draft picks that way, and maybe land a few good prospects. They’ll also relieve themselves of another big salary obligation.

The Giants did lose a great safety in Gibril Wilson to free agency, and, despite their successes last year in the playoffs and the Super Bowl, they do not possess great speed at the linebacker position. Indeed, that they were able to beat Dallas and New England with the existing linebacker group makes the play of that defensive line all the more remarkable.

The play of rookie TE Kevin Boss last year may make Jeremy Shockey expendable, thus either enabling a trade for a move up in the pecking order, or for the acquisition of additional picks. Dealing from a position of strength can be a wonderful thing.

Whatever position the Giants are able to negotiate, it would be hard to believe that they could draft better than they did last year. The Giants rookies were absolutely instrumental in the incredible Giants playoff run last year.

WR Steve Smith made crucial catches in just about every game, showing an ability to get open and elusiveness after the catch. TE Kevin Boss showed a great mix of speed and hands for a very big man. Number 1 pick Aaron Ross was everything that could have been expected at the corner, both in coverage and tackling ability. Ahmad Bradshaw added another dimension to the running game, Michael Johnson ably filled in at the safety spot and who can forget DL Jay Alford’s crushing hit on Tom Brady in the Super Bowl!

As the Giants got Bradshaw at the 250^th overall pick, it’s hard to believe that position really matters that much for what must be a great group of scouts. Six of their seven 2007 picks not only made the team but helped drive them to victory in the biggest game of them all.

With the injuries suffered by Plaxico Burress all year and with the age of Amani Toomer, the G-Men will also probably grab a wideout or two. But I would expect the higher picks to be spent on linebacker and safety spots.

One thing does worry me, though, and that would be the possibility of making the big mistake. The Jets especially seem to have a talent for it. I can still recall their trading two Number 1’s for Johnny Lam Jones, a receiver who couldn’t catch.

That mistake could be in the form of Chad Johnson, the very mouthy but talented wide receiver from the Bengals. Please, Jets geniuses, don’t make things any worse.