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6/6/08 - Great Equalizers...Clay...Distance et al.
2008-06-06 19:18:00
All week I have been amazed by the French Open tennis action, and what a difference the surface has made in the outcome of matches and tournaments. Thank God for clay, I thought. The great equalizer will be the distance, of course, in the Belmont not that there aren?t other variables to consider. But there are equalizers in all sports, in football-injuries, in baseball-pitching, and in basketball-home court, unfortunately.
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6/3/08 - No Stuff Is No Stuff
2008-06-03 20:53:00
Pettite said with regard to Joba's start tonight "...Stuff is stuff and Joba's got great stuff." It's also true that "No stuff is no stuff" and Heilman and Farnsworth are examples. The Yanks should pick up an 8th-inning pitcher. The Mets should use the onethey have.

5/30/08 - Down on the Farm
2008-05-30 20:30:00
There I was last night knowing what to expect; "here it comes," I thought to myself, Feliciano can?t do his job, and now Willie calls in, not Joe Smith or Duaner Sanchez, but instead a fellow named Muniz. Muniz and Vargas for the Mets, as well as Darrell Rasner for the Yankees, have had an effect on their respective teams beyond their performance.
More About: Farm

5/27/08 - Throwing It In...
2008-05-27 19:50:00
Keeping Willie at this point really makes no sense though. The Florida Marlins are leading the NL East with a 30-20 record, which puts them on a pace to go 97-65 for the season. The Mets, currently at 23-26, would have to go 74-39 for the rest of the season in order to tie the Marlins That means they'll have to win 2 out of 3 games for the rest of the season in order to take the division. Very unlikely.

5/23/08 - A Clean Sweep All Around
2008-05-23 12:07:00
Are we having fun yet, Mets fans? How much of this bad baseball do we have to watch? For whatever reason, and maybe it isn't FAIR, Mets management must make a move. Two moves, perhaps, eventually. Willie has to be fired now. I know he's sorry, but that has nothing to do with it. I know he's black, but that has nothing to do with it. I know his players aren't playing good baseball, and that has EVERYTHING to do with it.
More About: Clean , Sweep

5/20/08 - A Tale of Two Carlos's
2008-05-20 21:33:00
Willie Randolph will take his beginning-to-be-performing Mets team into Atlanta this afternoon, no doubt hoping for a continuation of some hot hitting from his two Carlos's, Delgado and Beltran. When these two buddies from Puerto Rico are hitting, there isn't too much else that has to go right, or Wright even.
More About: Tale

5/16/08 - The Big Mistake
2008-05-16 20:28:00
The Mets and Yankees will meet for the umpteenth time in still another Subway Series (yawn) this weekend, and was there EVER a Subway Series with less at stake? The under-performing Mets go into this latest matchup in 3rd place in the NL East while the Yankees have been even worse overall, inhabiting last place in the AL East. But given all that, it sure seems as if the Yankees are the better team. I t would be hard to imagine a worse loss than the Mets had last night. This seemingly rudderless bunch made the big mistake again, this time losing the game on the basepaths, but it's always been something with them, either horrible relief pitching or batting slumps or just bad decisions.

5/13/08 - D'Antoni Sono Buoni
2008-05-14 00:23:00
After hearing a lot of nonsense about the hiring of Mike D'Antoni as the new Knicks head coach, I was assured by the latest interview by WFAN and YES with both D'Antoni and Donnie Walsh, the new GM.
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5/9/08 - Still More Ado About Nothing
2008-05-09 22:01:00
Well, here we go again! The Lords of Discipline in all their wisdom are once again attacking my favorite pitcher, Joba Chamberlain, for pumping his fist and yelling . It doesn't seem to matter to them that Joba is young and naturally exuberant, that he just struck out the guy who had nailed his first pitch fastball for a 3-run homer on Tuesday, or that he had had to listen to a potpourri of self-important analysts giving their two cents on whether he'd be able to handle it emotionally.

5/6/08 - Going to Church
2008-05-06 21:07:00
In a season full of surprises for the Mets, Ryan Church has been the most pleasant surprise of all.

4/29/08 - Hope Springs Eternal
2008-04-29 18:54:00
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. 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.
More About: Hope , Eternal

4/25/08 - Omar's Home for the Aged
2008-04-25 22:18:00
Omar Minaya has put together an experienced but very old team. Delgado and Castillo especially have shown their age. A team this old needs a manager who will recognize when a change is needed and then make it. Can Willie manage?
More About: Home

4/22/08 - Go Get 'Em Hank !
2008-04-22 20:53:00
I say kudos to Hank Steinbrenner for his blustery attack on the Yankees decision to keep Joba Chamberlain in a relief role. He sees his franchise going down the tubes this year, he knows who is leading his bunch of planning miscreants, and he doesn't like it. Not one little bit.

4/18/08 - Hooray For The Draft !
2008-04-18 20:13:00
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?
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4/15/08 - Paper Tigers?
2008-04-15 23:05:00
In this topsy-turvy world of the 2008 Major League Baseball season, perhaps no statistic is more anomalous than is the 3-10 won/loss record of the Detroit Tigers . The Tigers were the pre-season favorites of quite a few pundits to be World-Series bound in October, but, with their heavy hitters off to a bad start and their pitching looking horrendous, the band-wagons are empty....everyone's jumped off. But not your intrepid reporter. Not yet, I won't.
More About: Paper

4/11/08 - Put A Lid On It ?
2008-04-11 21:38:00
After Joba Chamberlain struck out Jose Guillen for the final out in the 8th inning last night, he simply walked off the mound. That was right around the time Jose Reyes, the mercurial shortstop for the Mets, scored the winning run against their nemesis, the Phillies, and, although he couldn't totally wipe that infectious grin off his face, the celebration was a bit subdued for Shea, especially in light of the occasion.

4/8/08 - "Self"-Made Men vs. the Pre-Anointed
2008-04-08 21:04:00
Memphis Coach John Calipari had pooh-poohed foul shots all week long. He intimated that it wouldn't come down to the foul line. His team was too good, too athletic, too composed. He referenced 16 points that made a championship team and said his team had them all, that his was a "dream team". Bill Self gave his team a good feeling about itself, let them know that they were already the best team Kansas had ever seen...that if they just did everything they had done all season, they had a good chance to win this game. But he instilled an image in his team's collective consciousness, that of winning a Championship. It was the kind of speech you'd wish for your son to receive before the biggest game of his life.
More About: Made

4/4/08 - 2010 - A Cap Odyssey
2008-04-04 22:54:00
If anyone can bring the Knicks back to respectability, it's the gentleman named Donnie Walsh. Seemingly the perfect fit for this franchise under seige, he brings a lifetime of basketball experience and a New York legacy to the Knicks top-ops spot. And unlike Larry Brown, who had similar qualifications, he'll have the power to mold the entire basketball operation to his liking. But he has taken on a prodigious challenge. The Knicks have the highest team salary in the NBA and will finish this season with one of the worst records in the NBA

4/1/08 - A "Lastings" Impression
2008-04-01 19:46:00
As happy as I was with the performance of Johan Santana in the opener, I marveled more at the performance of players we gave away such as Lastings Milledge and Carlos Gomez.
More About: Impression

3/28/08 - Not Just Three Musketeers
2008-03-28 20:40:00
God knows I was pulling for West Virginia last night.But it wasn't meant to be. There were Musketeers all over the place.It was really a lot like all those "Three Musketeers" movies, one for all and all for one and all that. But it wasn't just three guys. If you were clad in white last night, and only eight players were, you were touched by the angels.

3/25/08 PLAY BALL !!
2008-03-25 18:51:00
No matter what country to which MLB may send its season-opener, it'll still be a great game. As if to solidify that truism, the World Champion Boston Red Sox came from behind to beat the upstart Oakland A's 6-5 this morning in Japan to serve notice that they will have to be reckoned with once again in 2008. Whether baseball will remain "America's game" seems open to question. With both hero and goat candidates from the home country of Japan and with the biggest slugging exhibition coming from a man who hails from Latin America, that particular moniker would seem to be highly problematical.
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3/21/08 - A Return to the Good Ol' Days
2008-03-21 22:39:00
A Lakers-Celtics rivalry this year in the NBA Finals could be the beginning of a new rivalry, matching the great Eighties rivalries featuring Magic and Larry Bird.
More About: Days , Return , Good , The Good

3/18/08-The Times They Are a Chaaangin...
2008-03-18 20:23:00
Nowhere is change more evident than in baseball this year. The Dodgers are moving out of Dodgertown. The Red Sox are on their way to Japan. The Dodgers went to China. Pitchers can't throw inside anymore. You can't run over the catcher in March. And Hanley Ramirez is the likely Number 2 pick overall in your fantasy draft.
More About: Times , The Times

3/14/08 - The Joys of Spring
2008-03-14 22:58:00
Anything's possible in the Spring . This year, even the Tampa Bay Rays (nee Devil Rays) are being touted as a playoffs-contender, and not without good reason. At this time of year, it?s easier to count the teams that don?t have any realistic expectations. Yes, the Spring brings us lily of the valley, crocuses, tulips and high hopes. But, shhh, they don?t make it to the summer.

031108-An Embarrassment of Bitches
2008-03-11 09:04:00
The onset of Spring that usually means the excitement of March Madness, followed closely by some nail-biting NBA Playoffs action. But not this Spring, not for New Yorkers at any rate. What a wasteland has been this 2007-2008 basketball season for New York fans. Every New York area men's basketball team is mediocre to bad, whether you're talking professional or college teams. That would include the Knicks, Nets, Seton Hall or Rutgers.
More About: Bitches

031108-An Embarrassment of Bitches
2008-03-11 09:04:00
The onset of Spring that usually means the excitement of March Madness, followed closely by some nail-biting NBA Playoffs action. But not this Spring, not for New Yorkers at any rate. What a wasteland has been this 2007-2008 basketball season for New York fans. Every New York area men's basketball team is mediocre to bad, whether you're talking professional or college teams. That would include the Knicks, Nets, Seton Hall or Rutgers.
More About: Bitches

3/4/08 Greetings from Spring Training
2008-03-05 05:22:00
Armed with my Mets baseball jacket, my Mets socks and Johan Santana authentic jersey, your intrepid reporter descended upon Roger Dean Stadium in sunny Jupiter, Florida today to watch the Mets take on the local Florida Marlins.
More About: Spring Training , Training , Spring

3/4/08 Greetings from Spring Training
2008-03-05 05:22:00
Armed with my Mets baseball jacket, my Mets socks and Johan Santana authentic jersey, your intrepid reporter descended upon Roger Dean Stadium in sunny Jupiter, Florida today to watch the Mets take on the local Florida Marlins.
More About: Spring Training , Training , Spring

Nets Kids Make the Point
2008-03-01 03:37:00
If it had been Devin Harris's object to make the Jason Kidd deal look smart last night, he certainly made his point ! Devin deftly knifed through a seemingly outmatched Milwaukee Bucks defense last night to score 21 points in 21 minutes in a 120-106 Nets victory.
More About: Kids , Make , Point

Nets Kids Make the Point
2008-03-01 03:37:00
If it had been Devin Harris's object to make the Jason Kidd deal look smart last night, he certainly made his point ! Devin deftly knifed through a seemingly outmatched Milwaukee Bucks defense last night to score 21 points in 21 minutes in a 120-106 Nets victory.
More About: Kids , Make , Point