1. Football begins anew on Thursday night when the Colts host the Saints. I’m looking forward to watching Reggie Bush and Deuce McAllister run all over what might be one of the worst defenses in the NFL and I’m hoping the Saints win big in Indy. Nothing says Super Bowl hangover like getting your fannies kicked on national TV after a seriously lousy off-season. With the long list of defections from Indy’s “championship” defense, one would think the Colts are being run by Walt Jocketty of the St. Louis Cardinals.
2. Michael Strahan ended his retirement talk/contract holdout by reporting to Giants camp yesterday. In any other year I’d have been ecstatic to have the future Hall of Fame defensive end back in the fold. But after too many years of disrespectful, Tiki-like coach-killing bullshit, I can’t support Strahan’s return. Holding out because you’re supposedly on the fence about playing another season is just rubbish in my book. When you have all winter to ponder your future, you don’t suddenly decide that retirement is a real consideration on the night before training camp begins. Strahan was lazy, he didn’t want to go through the rigors of camp, and he simply decided to skip the humidity of upstate New York. What kind of leader bails on his teammates like that? I know Strahan isn’t the only one to flake out – Seattle’s Walter Jones has famously skipped camp in two of the last three years – but it irks me that in a year when so much is at stake, Strahan would decide this is the year to be sitting poolside in August.
The Giants deserve better from their marquee players. Unlike other ruthless teams like the Eagles or Patriots, the Giants take care of their veterans (probably too much). The least guys like Strahan – and Tiki before him – could do is give the same respect back.
FTB.
3. The Yanks swept Boston last week and followed it up by losing a three game series to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. To add insult to injury, Roger Clemens left yesterday’s loss to the Mariners with an elbow strain that, at this age, could mean the end of his illustrious career. The Yanks still have the inside track on the Wild Card but they’ll have to play a lot better than they’ve played since Friday. Not that it matters anyway: any way you cut it, the Yanks would face Anaheim in the ALDS and the Angels have owned the Yankees since 2002.
4. Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano had harsh words for the fans at Wrigley field yesterday after yet another stinker of a performance. A quick bit of advice for Zambrano: fat assholes with bad tempers might want to keep their mouths shut after they sign huge deals and then go out and stink away what should’ve been a healthy lead in the divisional race. Don’t whine about fans booing you, not when you haven’t earned a win or pitched a quality start since July 29th.
5. Today is the 14th anniversary of a really memorable period of time in my life. After enduring some wretched Yankee seasons while in high school, I got to St. Louis as a freshman as the Yanks were in the middle of a tight race for the AL East crown. Entering play on Saturday, September 4th, 1993, the Yankees were two games behind the Toronto Blue Jays. Although it’s hard to imagine now, this was a time before the internet. That made following the Yanks’ run for their first post-season berth since 1981 a near-impossibility. I relied on my dad to read the sports section to me every morning and on my weekly subscription to The Sporting News.
On that Saturday afternoon, just 10 days into my first time away from home, 25 year-old Jim Abbott pitched a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians. I remember feeling homesick for the first time that day, upset that I couldn’t see the no-hitter. It didn’t seem fair that all my high school friends were either in upstate New York or in Philadelphia while I was 1,000 miles away, sequestered from what was to be the first real pennant race of my life as a Yankee fan. Obviously I had no idea that a few years later the Yanks would finally win a title. At the time, it seemed like a championship was so far away and I was missing out on something special.
I bring this up because I had the pleasure of watching a replay of that game this morning while getting ready for work. It was amusing to see a young Kenny Lofton patrolling CF, a spry and agile Jim Thome playing 3B, and a much skinnier and baby-faced Manny Ramirez as the Tribe’s DH. Similarly, I liked seeing the still-in-his-prime Don Mattingly and the up-and-coming core of the dynasty with Bernie Williams in CF and Paul O’Neill in RF. It was a real joy watching that game and thinking back to my first disappointment of freshman year with greater perspective.
That’s why I love baseball so much. No matter what, a game or a season can bring you back to times in your life that you might’ve forgotten. Baseball is life.
2. Michael Strahan ended his retirement talk/contract holdout by reporting to Giants camp yesterday. In any other year I’d have been ecstatic to have the future Hall of Fame defensive end back in the fold. But after too many years of disrespectful, Tiki-like coach-killing bullshit, I can’t support Strahan’s return. Holding out because you’re supposedly on the fence about playing another season is just rubbish in my book. When you have all winter to ponder your future, you don’t suddenly decide that retirement is a real consideration on the night before training camp begins. Strahan was lazy, he didn’t want to go through the rigors of camp, and he simply decided to skip the humidity of upstate New York. What kind of leader bails on his teammates like that? I know Strahan isn’t the only one to flake out – Seattle’s Walter Jones has famously skipped camp in two of the last three years – but it irks me that in a year when so much is at stake, Strahan would decide this is the year to be sitting poolside in August.
The Giants deserve better from their marquee players. Unlike other ruthless teams like the Eagles or Patriots, the Giants take care of their veterans (probably too much). The least guys like Strahan – and Tiki before him – could do is give the same respect back.
FTB.
3. The Yanks swept Boston last week and followed it up by losing a three game series to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. To add insult to injury, Roger Clemens left yesterday’s loss to the Mariners with an elbow strain that, at this age, could mean the end of his illustrious career. The Yanks still have the inside track on the Wild Card but they’ll have to play a lot better than they’ve played since Friday. Not that it matters anyway: any way you cut it, the Yanks would face Anaheim in the ALDS and the Angels have owned the Yankees since 2002.
4. Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano had harsh words for the fans at Wrigley field yesterday after yet another stinker of a performance. A quick bit of advice for Zambrano: fat assholes with bad tempers might want to keep their mouths shut after they sign huge deals and then go out and stink away what should’ve been a healthy lead in the divisional race. Don’t whine about fans booing you, not when you haven’t earned a win or pitched a quality start since July 29th.
5. Today is the 14th anniversary of a really memorable period of time in my life. After enduring some wretched Yankee seasons while in high school, I got to St. Louis as a freshman as the Yanks were in the middle of a tight race for the AL East crown. Entering play on Saturday, September 4th, 1993, the Yankees were two games behind the Toronto Blue Jays. Although it’s hard to imagine now, this was a time before the internet. That made following the Yanks’ run for their first post-season berth since 1981 a near-impossibility. I relied on my dad to read the sports section to me every morning and on my weekly subscription to The Sporting News.
On that Saturday afternoon, just 10 days into my first time away from home, 25 year-old Jim Abbott pitched a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians. I remember feeling homesick for the first time that day, upset that I couldn’t see the no-hitter. It didn’t seem fair that all my high school friends were either in upstate New York or in Philadelphia while I was 1,000 miles away, sequestered from what was to be the first real pennant race of my life as a Yankee fan. Obviously I had no idea that a few years later the Yanks would finally win a title. At the time, it seemed like a championship was so far away and I was missing out on something special.
I bring this up because I had the pleasure of watching a replay of that game this morning while getting ready for work. It was amusing to see a young Kenny Lofton patrolling CF, a spry and agile Jim Thome playing 3B, and a much skinnier and baby-faced Manny Ramirez as the Tribe’s DH. Similarly, I liked seeing the still-in-his-prime Don Mattingly and the up-and-coming core of the dynasty with Bernie Williams in CF and Paul O’Neill in RF. It was a real joy watching that game and thinking back to my first disappointment of freshman year with greater perspective.
That’s why I love baseball so much. No matter what, a game or a season can bring you back to times in your life that you might’ve forgotten. Baseball is life.
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