Quick hits

• I'm sorry, you get in a fist fight outside the family room where wives and kids are waiting you don't deserve any sympathy. K-Rod is an immature jerk.
• In the last 6 games the Yankees have scored twenty seven runs. Twenty six of them coming in just 3 of those games. Talk about feast or famine.
• All this Jet mania is fine, but has everyone forgotten they lost 6 of 7 mid-season and won their last two against teams that pulled their starters.
• Now there are rumors Melo may go to the Nets to play in Brooklyn. Who put this curse on the Knicks? Don't worry though, Isiah is available anytime old Chucky Dolan calls. 
• What has happened to the Giants pass rush? 
• Six weeks to hockey season and I still don't see how the Rangers have improved themselves.
• If the Devils were allowed to sign Kovalcuck for 20 years and he scored 50 goals next year, would he sit out to renegotiate a contract extension?
• Isles could be the most improved team this year if the kids start coming of age. Of course they do not need to win many games to be considered most improved.

Yanks Face Tough Choices

Image via Wikipedia

     The time is coming, very soon, when the Yankees will need to make some tough decisions. Right now the focus is on a twenty eighth championship  as it should be, but once the season is over, win or lose, let the hand wringing begin. There are not too many things that make the Yankees nervous, but when it comes to the core four you can start to see sweat trickling down the scalp of Brian Cashman. It will be decisions on the core four that must be made this winter and they will not be easy.

     Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are free agents. I expect both will be signed, but at what cost and for how long? Mo gas shown no signs of slowing down. I can see a two year contract without problems, but what if Mo wants four years or five? The question that will keep arising is, how much are you willing to pay for the past? Jeter has shown some signs of aging. He has lost a step and there are questions about his bat. He will still be a part of the Yankees in 2011, but where does he hit? It is time for Gardner to become the lead off hitter. Gardner has slumped recently but he is still hitting .279 with an OBP of .375, and has 31 stolen bases. Jeter is hitting .276 with an OBP of .340 and 12 thefts. Leading off with a much younger much faster Brett Gardner would be in the best interest of the team. Question is will Derek accept hitting eight or nine? If he does, it is not inconceivable that he plays a few more years as a Yankee. If he balks, once again, how much are you willing to pay for the past? And remember that payment will not only be in money but in success in years to come.
     Andy Petite will probably cause the least angst. He will either sign a one year contract or retire. I doubt he tries to get a multi year deal, although the way he has pitched this year he surely deserves one. It is his battery mate Jorge Posada that may be the toughest call of all. As has been reported on several Yankee blogs, Jesus Montero is tearing up the International league. It is hard to imagine that the Yankees can hold him down much longer. If he does not come up this year he will almost certainly be on the team next year. It is possible he splits time with Jorge next year, but in two years he should be the Yankee starting catcher. That leaves Posada to either accept the DH role or move on, not a pretty scenario.
     There is not a Yankee fan alive that is not eternally grateful to the core four. They have been great Yankees and class athletes. They have made Yankee fans all over the world proud. They are champions. They are also not as young as they used to be. There will come the time that they must be replaced, That time is coming soon. The only question is , how much are you willing to pay for the past?

Nightmare on 34th st. Isiah returns

      The whole thing is almost too bizarre to believe. As the story of the Isiah Thomas rehiring by Jim the sucker Dolan continues to unfold it gets stranger and stranger. Turns out Mr. Dolan did not want to hire Isiah back as a consultant. He wanted to hire him back as the gm. Tell me I'm dreaming. The only thing that stopped it was the fact Donnie Walsh, president of operations and current gm, went ballistic. And the only thing that will stop it from happening a year from now is a miracle, unbelievable. Let us take a small trip back in time to Isiah's first run on Broadway.
      Let us start with the Eddie Curry deal. From Knicks News in 05
NEW YORK, October 4, 2005 – "New York Knickerbockers President of Basketball Operations Isiah Thomas announced today that Eddy Curry and Antonio Davis have been acquired from the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Tim Thomas, Michael Sweetney, Jermaine Jackson, a conditional first-round draft choice in the 2006 NBA Draft" (turned out to be the second pick in the draft), "two future second-round draft selections and the opportunity to exchange a future draft choice" (became the #9 pick in '07' for the # 23 pick). Not to mention the team being saddled with Curry's contract for 5 years.
     Hey everybody makes a bad deal. as long as you follow it up with a good one and learn from your mistakes.
     "The Knicks acquired Marbury, Penny Hardaway and Cezary Trybanski from Phoenix for Antonio McDyess, Howard Eisley, Charlie Ward, Maciej Lampe, the rights to Milos Vujanic, two first-round draft picks and cash." One of those draft picks turned out to be a lottery pick in the 2010 draft. So lets recap. That is three top ten picks for Eddie Curry and Stephan Marbury, and all the salary cap space they ate up. We will not even bother to discuss the signings of Vin Baker,  Jerome James, and the Steve Francis trade. I don't know what I was thinking, with a track record like that how could Dolan not bring him back.
    OK so maybe it is not his ability to pull off great trades that endears him to Mr. Dolan. Maybe it is Isiah's great character. His strength in crisis. His sheer courage. His ability to stand up and take the hits for those around him. Let us go back to October of 2008. Isiah is rushed to the hospital after an overdose of sleeping pills. Well, considering how much thought went into the deals he made the man must have needed his sleep. So how does Isiah handle the news that an ambulance raced from his house to the hospital? He releases a statement claiming it was for his daughter.  He tries to cover it up by throwing his daughter under the bus. Now that is class. That is just the type of guy I want running my organization. Forget the sex scandal that followed. This story tells you everything you need to know about Isiah Thomas
     Jim Dolan is an idiot. We have known that for quite a while now. He has let Glen Sather stick around 10 years and deliver nothing. He hired Frank Layden and Isiah. And yes, maybe I am jealous I don't work for Cablevision. Apparently it is one of the most secure jobs around.  But bringing Isiah Thomas back to this organization, an organization he played a big role in destroying, is a slap in the face of every Knick fan, every sports fan in the city. If Isiah Thomas is rehired as gm of the Knicks I hope there is a bonfire outside MSG made of burning Knick tickets that reaches the tops of the skyscrapers. I hope every cable customer switches to Verizon. I hope Jim the moron Dolan loses all of daddy's money and has to get a real job. Just don't put him in charge of hiring.

Quick Hits

• The Knicks hiring Isiah Thomas back is like Custer inviting the Indians back to Little Bighorn.
• The Yankees get a split against the Sox they are fine. Anything more is gravy.
• Mets need 2 of 3 at the very least.
• When did R.A. Dickey become unhittable? The guy is a journeyman pitcher who has had little major league success.
• The Rangers added Alexander Frolov last week. Another 20 goal scorer with no physical game. 
• Why would Gary Bettman think that Ilya Kovalcuk can't play till 44? Maybe the Devs are abandoning their youth movement.
• Thierrry Henry is the real deal. He still has plenty of game left.  But Marquez might be the more important signing. Like most sports, successful clubs in soccer all have one thing in common, good defense. Marquez is a very good defender.
• Good new for Jints that Hakeem Nicks is OK. He could be looking at a breakout year.
• Now come on  guys, has anybody seen Darrelle Revis? Anybody? How helpful is it for Jet management, who are trying to negotiate a deal, that Ryan claims Revis can come back the day before the season begins and still start, brilliant Rex, just brilliant.

Quick hits

• Why does anyone out there believe that the Mets are more then a 500 team? I keep hearing all these stunned fans on the radio. They have mediocre talent. The ownership knows it. That is why they did not bring anyone in at the trade deadline. This team needs more then one player. The overhaul starts at seasons end.
• Someone will have to become a shut down starter if the Yankees want to repeat, Right now Sabbathia is not getting it done.  Petite was probably their best pitcher this year and no one knows how he will return from the injury. 
• Has anyone seen Darrelle Revis? Anyone?
• Has anyone found the Giants defense? It disappeared around the midway point of last season.
• All Knick fans, hang in one more year. Melo is on the way.  
• Is Amar'e Stoudrmire really that much of an upgrade over David Lee? If you look at the numbers I don't see a big difference here. 
• I heard after Brooklyn the Nets are moving to Moscow.
• When does hockey season start. I am starting to go through withdrawals.      

Welcome

     To anyone viewing this blog welcome and thank you for stopping by. This is my first blog and I ask for your patience as I build this site. I plan to write about NY professional sports on this page. I will not limit myself to any one team or particular sport. That being said, there are some teams a bit closer to my heart then others and I'm sure you will be able to figure them out rather quickly :).  I plan on covering all the major teams from baseball, football, hockey, basketball, and soccer. Some days I may write a short blurb about something that happened while other days I may write a longer piece about one situation.  I hope you find it interesting and fun to read.
Thanks, Mike

• Congrats to Arod on hitting number 600. I know it is from the steroid era and all stats from this era must be looked at differently from other eras, but it is still quite a feat. He becomes the seventh player to reach 600. Four are from the steroid years, Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Sammy Sosa, and now Alex. Three of the four admitted to using performance enhancing drugs.  To the best of my knowledge Jr. was never accused. Let us not forget that there were only three players in the history of baseball before this period,  Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron that hit 600.  That is three players in almost 100 years of baseball and four from a 20 year span. It is impossible to look at these players in the same light. That being said, you are measured against the players from your own era, and please don't tell me that the players named were the only ones using steroids,  and Arod stands out as one of the great hitters from his time.  He is entitled to his day in the sun.