I don't often find myself admitting this - at least not in public- but there are worse things than being a Mets' fan.
BEING A JETS' FAN!
With the acquisition of Tim Tebow finally complete, Jets' fans can now officially kiss the 2012 season goodbye. In one of the most ridiculous and befuddling moves of all time, the Jets managed to bring to New York, not one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history in Peyton Manning, but the quarterback Manning displaced in Denver. In so doing they undermined their current number one quarterback, Mark Sanchez, who not only will have to deal with the chorus of boos when he stinks up the joint next season, but will now have to contend with an onslaught of chants for Tebow every time he throws an incomplete pass.
Can you spell STUPID?
At least Mets' fans have the satisfaction of knowing their ownership just doesn't give a shit; the moron who owns the Jets - Woody Johnson - apparently spent so much of his time as a boy going to the circus, he can't resist the urge to turn his team into the NFL equivalent of Ringling Brothers.
Here's a trivia question for Jets' fans. What do you get if you put Tim Tebow and Mark Sanchez together? A quarterback who still can't throw a spiral more than 30 yards!
Yep, I am SO looking forward to September.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Two Wild
So baseball has finally figured out what every fan has known for years: that having a single wildcard team doesn't make for a more exciting home stretch in September; it actually has the unintended consequence of being about as interesting as watching a tied hockey game in the third period.
So to fix it they've decided to add a wildcard team to each league. Both wildcard winners would then meet in a one game playoff. The hope is that the wildcard contenders - rather than coast knowing that they have a playoff berth in the bag - will pull out all the stops looking to win their respective divisions and avoid a winner take all playoff game.
Baseball hasn't done many things right over the last few years, but this one they nailed right on the head. It's about time.
With that in mind, maybe the NFL should tinker with their playoff format, too. Given that three of the last five Super Bowl winners have either been wildcards or lower seed division winners, I'm thinking that the playoff Bye should be eliminated altogether. By adding two wildcards per conference you would simply have the first seed play the eighth, the second play the seventh and so on, just like the NHL. The division winners would host the wildcards in the first round.
While not perfect it would deal effectively with the one nagging issue which has plagued the league for the last few seasons: rustiness. While taking nothing away from the Giants' playoff drive, the simple truth was that the Green Bay Packers looked like a team that hadn't played a meaningful game in a month. They were out of synch pretty much the whole game against New York and Aaron Rodgers looked nothing like the MVP he had been throughout most of the season.
I'm not saying that a first-round playoff appearance would've guaranteed a different result - who knows maybe they would've lost that game too - but it's quite clear that the present playoff format isn't working as intended. Instead of being a reward for a season of excellence, the playoff bye ends up being an anchor that drags the supposedly better team down to the same level as their opponent. These teams end up discovering the hard way that you just can't turn it on like a switch. As the old saying goes, "You snooze, you lose."
Something to think about...
So to fix it they've decided to add a wildcard team to each league. Both wildcard winners would then meet in a one game playoff. The hope is that the wildcard contenders - rather than coast knowing that they have a playoff berth in the bag - will pull out all the stops looking to win their respective divisions and avoid a winner take all playoff game.
Baseball hasn't done many things right over the last few years, but this one they nailed right on the head. It's about time.
With that in mind, maybe the NFL should tinker with their playoff format, too. Given that three of the last five Super Bowl winners have either been wildcards or lower seed division winners, I'm thinking that the playoff Bye should be eliminated altogether. By adding two wildcards per conference you would simply have the first seed play the eighth, the second play the seventh and so on, just like the NHL. The division winners would host the wildcards in the first round.
While not perfect it would deal effectively with the one nagging issue which has plagued the league for the last few seasons: rustiness. While taking nothing away from the Giants' playoff drive, the simple truth was that the Green Bay Packers looked like a team that hadn't played a meaningful game in a month. They were out of synch pretty much the whole game against New York and Aaron Rodgers looked nothing like the MVP he had been throughout most of the season.
I'm not saying that a first-round playoff appearance would've guaranteed a different result - who knows maybe they would've lost that game too - but it's quite clear that the present playoff format isn't working as intended. Instead of being a reward for a season of excellence, the playoff bye ends up being an anchor that drags the supposedly better team down to the same level as their opponent. These teams end up discovering the hard way that you just can't turn it on like a switch. As the old saying goes, "You snooze, you lose."
Something to think about...
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Somebody Up There Must Hate Me
So Davy Jones is dead, Snooki is pregnant - my condolences to the father - and the Wilpons intend on keeping ownership of the Mets for "a very long time." Thanks for the warning Fred. Now I know what I'm going to be doing this summer: rooting like hell for you to lose as much money as is humanly possible.
I mean really if it wasn't for the ten suckers who ponied up $20 million each for the privilege of owning part of a losing team and the fact that the commissioner is your buddy, you'd be up a creek. I am so praying that the Madoff trustee cleans your clock but good in court. Maybe then you'll do the right thing.
I've never wished for my team to tank it as much as I have going in to this season. Not even during the late '70s and early '80s when the team really sucked and Steve Henderson, Lee Mazzilli and Craig Swan were basically it as far as talent went did I root against the team.
But your continued ruination of this franchise has been an embarrassment to the city and the millions of Mets fans who toil year after year hoping for some ray of light to shine down upon them from the heavens. It's bad enough being the second team in a town that has the Yankees as its number one, but the only reasonable goal this team has this year is NOT to finish in last place.
You're joking right. That's what we have to look forward to? You lose your shirt in a Ponzi scheme and the rest of us get stuck with the bill. Well not me; not this time. This time when I turn on the channel and I see those men in blue and orange, I will be rooting for the other team - unless of course it's the Phillies (fuck them and their shit-ass city).
Now I know what it's like to be a Jets fan. Well almost. At least my team won a championship since 1969! Ah, 1986! That was a great year. We owned this town. But back then Nelson Doubleday was the majority owner, and you were the kid from Brooklyn. He cared about winning. Maybe you did once, too. These days I don't know what you care about. You say you love this team. Prove it. Sell it to somebody who can rebuild it into a contender.
It's not too late to save your precious legacy. Somewhere out there is someone with the money and the passion to turn this franchise around. You owe it to the throngs of loyal fans to swallow your pride and find him or her.
Do the right thing, Fred.
I mean really if it wasn't for the ten suckers who ponied up $20 million each for the privilege of owning part of a losing team and the fact that the commissioner is your buddy, you'd be up a creek. I am so praying that the Madoff trustee cleans your clock but good in court. Maybe then you'll do the right thing.
I've never wished for my team to tank it as much as I have going in to this season. Not even during the late '70s and early '80s when the team really sucked and Steve Henderson, Lee Mazzilli and Craig Swan were basically it as far as talent went did I root against the team.
But your continued ruination of this franchise has been an embarrassment to the city and the millions of Mets fans who toil year after year hoping for some ray of light to shine down upon them from the heavens. It's bad enough being the second team in a town that has the Yankees as its number one, but the only reasonable goal this team has this year is NOT to finish in last place.
You're joking right. That's what we have to look forward to? You lose your shirt in a Ponzi scheme and the rest of us get stuck with the bill. Well not me; not this time. This time when I turn on the channel and I see those men in blue and orange, I will be rooting for the other team - unless of course it's the Phillies (fuck them and their shit-ass city).
Now I know what it's like to be a Jets fan. Well almost. At least my team won a championship since 1969! Ah, 1986! That was a great year. We owned this town. But back then Nelson Doubleday was the majority owner, and you were the kid from Brooklyn. He cared about winning. Maybe you did once, too. These days I don't know what you care about. You say you love this team. Prove it. Sell it to somebody who can rebuild it into a contender.
It's not too late to save your precious legacy. Somewhere out there is someone with the money and the passion to turn this franchise around. You owe it to the throngs of loyal fans to swallow your pride and find him or her.
Do the right thing, Fred.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Nash Stashed
Now that the Columbus Blue Jackets have decided to keep Rick Nash rather than trade him, I'm inclined to say good. While I was rooting for the New York Rangers to work out a deal to land the explosive winger, the more I find out about the negotiations, the more relieved I am that Glen Sather didn't get the chance to pull the trigger.
While the Rangers are hardly the offensive powerhouse the Bruins, Penguins and Flyers are, their defense is first rate and the goaltending championship caliber. Nash would've certainly made them more dangerous on the power play and given them another scoring winger to go along with Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan, but gutting the team to acquire him would've been subtraction by addition. And that's exactly what would've happened had Columbus gotten its way. For once, Sather didn't get what he was after.
Forget the cap issue, which would've been challenging but hardly insurmountable, the asking price for Nash would've cost the Rangers a package that likely would've included Brandon Dubinsky, prospect Tim Erixon, a first-round draft pick, Derek Stepan and either Ryan McDonagh or Michael Del Zotto. While Dubinsky's stock has gone down a bit this year, he is still a proven 20-goal scorer; McDonogh and Del Zotto anchor a defense that is the envy of the league; and Stepan currently centers Gaborik, the team leader in goals. In the end it was way too much to give up even for a wheeler and dealer like Sather.
I guess it's true that sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make, or can't.
While the Rangers are hardly the offensive powerhouse the Bruins, Penguins and Flyers are, their defense is first rate and the goaltending championship caliber. Nash would've certainly made them more dangerous on the power play and given them another scoring winger to go along with Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan, but gutting the team to acquire him would've been subtraction by addition. And that's exactly what would've happened had Columbus gotten its way. For once, Sather didn't get what he was after.Forget the cap issue, which would've been challenging but hardly insurmountable, the asking price for Nash would've cost the Rangers a package that likely would've included Brandon Dubinsky, prospect Tim Erixon, a first-round draft pick, Derek Stepan and either Ryan McDonagh or Michael Del Zotto. While Dubinsky's stock has gone down a bit this year, he is still a proven 20-goal scorer; McDonogh and Del Zotto anchor a defense that is the envy of the league; and Stepan currently centers Gaborik, the team leader in goals. In the end it was way too much to give up even for a wheeler and dealer like Sather.
I guess it's true that sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make, or can't.
Cleveland Rocked
As if the Blue Bird of unhappiness hasn't shit enough on the city of Cleveland, while looking up the list of Super Bowl teams, I came across this little tidbit of information about the once venerable NFL franchise in that city.
Okay, the NFL has seen its share of franchises pull up stakes and move from one city to another. There was Robert Irsay's contenious departure from Baltimore to Indianapolis in 1984 - 15 vans literally cleared out everything but the kitchen sink in one night. Two years earlier there was the infamous move of the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles, which was basically Al Davis telling Pete Roselle to go fuck himself. And then there was the Los Angeles Rams bolting to St. Louis in 1995, the same year that the Raiders skedaddled back to Oakland, thus leaving the second largest sports market in the country without an NFL franchise.
But while all those cities went through a period of mourning, none has had to endure the anguish of Cleveland. The Browns were a proud franchise with a storied history. Jim Brown played for them. Their four NFL titles in the pre-Super Bowl era are rivaled only by the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. Their loss to the Denver Broncos in the 1986 AFC Championship game still ranks as one of the great upsets in football history.
When Art Modell decided to move them to Baltimore in 1995 that was bad enough, but what the NFL did next only added salt to a deep wound. It's one thing to lose your team, but imagine after all was said and done you found out that the team you lost went on to win a Super Bowl while all you got to keep was the lousy name that now belongs to a decrepit expansion team. And then the league that sanctioned the move had the balls to tell you that your franchise was "one continuous franchise" that "suspended" operation from 1996 to 1999.
Bullshit, I say.
I'm no Cleveland fan, but no other city has been fucked over more than this one. If there's any justice in the world, Cleveland will one day get its real Browns back and Art Modell will wind up roasting in hell alongside Robert Irsay, Al Davis and Georgia Frontiere.
- Cleveland Browns, NFL champions four times in 1950, 1954, 1955, and 1964; appeared in six other NFL championship games in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1957, 1968, and 1969; and appeared in three AFC Championship Games in 1986, 1987, and 1989[63] (The Browns are officially viewed as one continuous franchise that began in 1946 as a member of the All-America Football Conference, joined the NFL in 1950, suspended operations from 1996–1998, and resumed play in 1999.[64] The Baltimore Ravens were an expansion team created in 1996 with former Browns players.)[65]
Okay, the NFL has seen its share of franchises pull up stakes and move from one city to another. There was Robert Irsay's contenious departure from Baltimore to Indianapolis in 1984 - 15 vans literally cleared out everything but the kitchen sink in one night. Two years earlier there was the infamous move of the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles, which was basically Al Davis telling Pete Roselle to go fuck himself. And then there was the Los Angeles Rams bolting to St. Louis in 1995, the same year that the Raiders skedaddled back to Oakland, thus leaving the second largest sports market in the country without an NFL franchise.
But while all those cities went through a period of mourning, none has had to endure the anguish of Cleveland. The Browns were a proud franchise with a storied history. Jim Brown played for them. Their four NFL titles in the pre-Super Bowl era are rivaled only by the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. Their loss to the Denver Broncos in the 1986 AFC Championship game still ranks as one of the great upsets in football history.
When Art Modell decided to move them to Baltimore in 1995 that was bad enough, but what the NFL did next only added salt to a deep wound. It's one thing to lose your team, but imagine after all was said and done you found out that the team you lost went on to win a Super Bowl while all you got to keep was the lousy name that now belongs to a decrepit expansion team. And then the league that sanctioned the move had the balls to tell you that your franchise was "one continuous franchise" that "suspended" operation from 1996 to 1999.
Bullshit, I say.
I'm no Cleveland fan, but no other city has been fucked over more than this one. If there's any justice in the world, Cleveland will one day get its real Browns back and Art Modell will wind up roasting in hell alongside Robert Irsay, Al Davis and Georgia Frontiere.
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