New York sports fans are quick to defend their city as the capital of the professional sports world, but with the Yankees on the precipice of disaster, the sports scene in the Big Apple doesn’t look all that ripe. I am not saying the city is hopeless, but when you look at every city in America with a professional team in the three major sports, New York does not stack up very well, especially considering that there are five entries rather then the customary three. I base this observation on a review of the past year and each cities prospects for the year ahead. Let’s begin by taking a look at New York. If you ask me, the Jets are probably the brightest spot on the local sports scene as they are unquestionably a playoff contender going forward. But the same cannot be said for the rest of the locals. The Yanks look to be in complete disarray and if 05 is a loser, 06 will be a disaster. The Mets are on their way up, but I can’t see them making the playoffs this year. Meanwhile, the Giants are a mess and the Knicks are a disgrace. For the sake of this argument, the Nets don’t count since they play in New Jersey and are less popular then the local indoor football team.
So when it’s all said and done, if you are a Giants-Yankees- Knicks fan, you have a drought on the horizon. The Yankee story is busted and will probably need a couple years in the shop, the Knicks currently reside in the Abyss and the Giants are at least a couple years away and that is assuming Eli turns out to be something. Things are a bit better out on the Island for you Mets-Jets fans, but it will still be a while before either truly contends. The Jets are fairly close, but how many of you think Chad is the man to deliver the Jetsons to the Promised Land? Those of you raising your hand are dreaming. As for the Mets, things are definitely on the mend, but these things take time. There is a solid young nucleus there, but it won’t be this year. In sum, the New York sports scene has some decent stories, one legitimate playoff team, one up and comer, and a bag full of garbage. So how does this rank with the other cities in America? Here are my rankings which are based on performance over the past year and the immediate prospects ahead.
1) Boston – No explanation needed. Things are so good in Beantown that Boston Rob Mariano may win the Amazing Race giving Boston five major championships since the Pats took out the Rams back in 2002.
2) Miami – The Fish are legitimate WS contenders and the Heat are right in the mix.
3) Atlanta – The Braves are rock solid and the Falcons were in NFC Championship. Not bad although no one in that city cares about anything other then UGA football.
4) Minnesota – M/STP has both the rock solid Twins and the improving Vikes. Wolves are a drag, but that could be fixed relatively quickly.
5) Chicago – Stuck with the woeful Bears, but the White Sox are on fire and the Bulls are a year away from being real good and two away from the Final Four. (Upon further reflection, I probably have ChiTown to high.)
6) Detroit – The Pistons have one ring and could have another coming. Lions are improving. Bonus points because Mike Phelps is swimming at Michigan and the Wolverines should be plenty good in football next year.
7) Philly – The Phillies are terrible but Eagles should win the NFC again. Sixers don’t help or hurt.
8) LA – The Lakers are a mess and no pro football hurts, but two pretty good baseball clubs and the best college football program in the country. That counts for something. Bonus points for Derby winner - Giocomo - running on the Southern California Circuit. LA also gets boost from that Pepperdine win in the NCAA mens volleyball championship Saturday night. UCLA gals go for Water Polo win this weekend.
9 Tie) Jets-Mets-Knicks. Can the kids mature quick enough to back Pedro?
9 Tie) Dallas - Mavs are still alive and Rangers have outside shot at the West. Parcells could have his team back in the Playoffs. Lets hope that doens't happen.
11) Phoenix – Suns have a good shot at a title and DBacks could win a weak West. Cards will be better although 2005 will not be a playoff year. 2004 was one of the worst years any city has ever had to endure but things are looking better in 05. I can't go crazy on Phoenix until I see the Dbacks do a little more.
12) Seattle – The Sonics are still alive and the Seahwaks are presentable. M’s are lost right now. Washington Husky basketball helps but early defections cost UW a spot in preseason top-5. Seattle isn't even a good music town anymore.
13) Yankees – Giants – Knicks. Yanks are the only hope for this sorry triumvirate.
14) Washington – There are some problems, but the Wizards are a team on the rise and I am still letting Washington take credit for the Birds until the Nationals are sold to local ownership. Skins drag this down because it’s a Skins town and that organization is horrendous. Case would be helped if Rehnquist gave up his head coaching spot at the court.
15) Houston – Rockets early exit hurts and Texans are average, but Astros did play in NLCS last year. Future is uncertain for all three, but at least $50 oil is gunning the local economy.
16) Wisconsin – The Packers are sliding, the Bucks are painful to watch and the Brewers can’t afford to compete. A bad 2005 for Favre will cost this State a couple slots.
17) Denver – There is a disgrace playing at Coors and the Broncos are in decline. The Noogies are improving but early exit confirms this team isn’t close. Barnett’s mess up the road at CU doesn’t help.
18) Cleveland – Things don’t look too good right now, but there is Lebron and Tribe is probably a year away. Can Romeo and Phil Savage turn around the Brownies by 2010?
19) Bay Area - Niners are stuck in Nowheresville, the Warriors stink and both the Gyros and A’s are stuck in mediocresville (That is being generous for the As in particular). The only thing the Bay Area has going for it is Bonds upcoming trial and next weekend’s NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championships where Stanford is seeded number two
In sum, New York isn’t the worst spot to be, but it is hardly the best. I would put it somewhere in the middle although I don’t think there is much upside for the next couple years. I guess I am a bit jaded by the fact that I don’t believe in Chad so I am not going to give the Jets serious Super Bowl consideration and I think the Yankees are toast. I could be wrong on both and in that case, my rankings go to hell, but as on May 9th, 2005, this is my story.
Notes from the National: It was not a pretty weekend for the Assholes who were outscored 38 to 8 over a four game set down in Atlanta. I am not sure what was worse – the thumping the Astros took or the ass beating that the Rockets took Saturday night in Dallas. Things haven’t been this bad in Houston since oil was twenty dollars a barrel. Mike Hampton had the huge game on Sunday for the Braves, pitching a two hit shutout while also blasting a dong. I’ll say this again – why does this .350 hitter not pinch hit on his off-days? In fact, why doesn’t he just play first base? Meanwhile, the Assholes are a complete mess right now – they finally got Berkman back but giving up nine runs a game to the pea shooters down in Atlanta is unforgivable. This could be a real long summer in Houston, especially if Lee Harvey Oswalt pitches like he did Friday night. Colorado actually won a road game Sunday, beating Al Leiter and the Florida Marlins. Florida was looking for the sweep after the D-Train threw seven scoreless on Friday and Beckett followed with seven more on Saturday. The Fish are obviously getting great pitching from their young hurlers but you have to wonder whether these kids will eventually wilt under such heavy workloads? The Mets were looking for a nice sweep at Milwaukee on Sunday, but Tom Glavine came up lame once again. He is like a cancer that goes into remission but comes back every fifth day. Pedro got a cheap win on Saturday, but he’s entitled to a few of those. How long will it be before Mets third baseman David Wright starts hitting cleanup between Beltran and Floyd? Brewer manager Ned Yost got the “prick move of the weekend” award when he lifted Wes Obermueller on Saturday with two outs in the fifth and the score tied at three. Ned, why not give the kid a chance to close the fifth and get the win? Los Madres took two of three in St. Louis, but Sunday was ugly as they gave up eleven in the first and went down 15-5 against Jason Marquis. Tim Redding was the victim and at 0-5, his days in San Diego would appear to be numbered. The Cubs avoided a sweep and ended a seven game slide on Sunday as Carlos Zambrano gave up only a single run over nine. Were those pre-game festivities yesterday at Wrigley held to honor the 60th anniversary of V-E Day or the 60th anniversary of the last Cubs team to have played in the World Series? Things have gotten so bleak at Wrigley that Ben Grieve got the start yesterday in left. What is next – trading for Jose Offerman and having him play short? The Gyros avoided a sweep and ended a four game slide on Sunday, but whatever happened to Jason Schmidt? He got torched again on Saturday night. The Gyros are only 15-15, but their next ten are against Pittsburgh, Houston and Colorado. Outside of the perhaps the NFC Central, it doesn’t get much easier then that. Hey Yankee fans – Nick Johnson is hitting .318 and slugging close to .500 for Washington. The Steelers have won five of six after they scored two touchdowns and a safety at Phoenix yesterday. Oh wait, that was the Pirates. Admiral Halsey took the loss for the Dbacks who gave up twelve in the final two frames. The Dodgers and Reds played an exciting series this weekend where the closest game was decided by six runs. Eric Milton gave up two more Jacks for the Reds last night, giving him 13 on the year. At this rate, he may give up 60.
Airmail from the AL: This story on the South side of Chicago is getting downright ridiculous. The White Sox swept the Jays in Toronto this weekend and have now won 24 of 31. They now only have to go 70-65 to win 94 on the year. Moral to the story is the Sox will be in this thing until the end. Mark Buehrle was pretty ordinary for Chicago yesterday, but he did enough to win his fifth. The Sox have now won eight straight while slugger Paul Konerko has been ice cold. He is hitting just .150 during the winning streak. Terry Francona did his best Grady Little impression last night when he inserted Cla Meredith into a 2-2 tie in the seventh. Meredith was making his MLB debut after pitching only a couple months above A ball. In fact, he was throwing for Virginia Commonwealth at this time last year. So what did Meredith end up doing? He gave up a game winning slam to Richie Sexson. The Sox did get some good news as Wade Miller looked pretty good pitching five strong innings. It was only Seattle, but Miller’s outing was encouraging and his return should help stabilize things for the Sox. The Yanks got a couple of shutouts that were long overdue, but let’s remember they came against the pitiful A’s. That Oakland offense is absolutely putrid so let’s no go crazy and claim Kevin Brown has suddenly found himself. His next start will be at Oakland but he has to do a lot more then blank the A’s before I am ready to say he is credible. The same goes for Mike Mussina whose two “BIG” wins have come against Tampa and Oakland. After all, throwing inside to Tejada and Texeira is a lot idffiernet then throwing inside against Scutaro and Sanchez. Baltimore failed to get the sweep over KC on Sunday as ace Rowdy Roddy Lopez got hammered. The O’s now must face Radke, Johan and Jon Garland on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Kenny Rogers gave the Rangers another great start yesterday and he now has a 21 inning scoreless streak working. He would have to throw four more complete game shutouts before he sniffs the MLB record that is held by his current pitching coach. Alfonso Soriano had a huge week, hitting .458 and slamming five Jacks. If the Rangers truly want to dump this guy, the time to do it is now. It looks like Justin Morneau is for real. Despite a stint on the DL, he is hitting over .400 with 20 RBI in just 16 games. Sorry Yankee fans, he won’t be unrestricted until at least 2008. Things are about to get real ugly down in Tampa. The Rays have the streaking White Sox coming for three and they then go out on the road for 22 of their next 28. The Angles Jared Washburn got smacked around yesterday and even though they are 18-13, the Angles have to have some concerns with their offense. They are 10th in AL runs, 10th in AL slugging and 13th in AL OBP. The Angles pitching has been great, but how long can that spotty staff carry this slumbering offense? My sense is the offense will pick just about the time the pitching reverts to the mean.
It was mentioned above, but this story has thus far not received a ton of attention. Not many people know this, but Boston Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich are about to complete a huge CBS reality show double – winning both Survivor and the Amazing Race. For those of you who aren’t Survivor fans, Rob carried Amber to victory in Survivor All-Stars (he finished runner up) and now the two of them have made it all the way to the final three on Amazing Race. The winner will be crowned on a two hour finale airing on CBS tomorrow night at 8:00. I haven’t watched much of the Race this year, but word has it that Boston Rob was absolutely devious in some of the early stages. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since he made a habit of screwing people over on Survivor. It is because of all the lying and cheating that Rob is a member of my reality show Hall of Fame. And let’s not confuse the issue. Rob makes this team go. Amber is hot, but Rob is the diesel that motors this train. He carried her on Survivor and I have been told he is doing it again on the Race. And given the fact that aside from the Celts, no team from Boston has lost in over a year, I gotta think this team is a lock to cross the finish line first. So where will this team rank if they can pull off this incredible double. Well, it certainly gives them the greatest accomplishment in reality show history. That is a no-brainer. The more important question is whether a victory gets Boston Rob up on the Boston Mount Rushmore alongside Orr, Bird, Ballgame, Russell and Brady. That is a tough call.
Did Steve Nash win the NBA MVP award because he is white and Shaq is black? Of course he did and that begs the question of why are we even debating this fact? Had Nash been just your typical black Canadian, like Ben Johnson or Grant Fuhr, there is no way he would have gotten his hands on that hardware. Everyone knows that because everyone knows the Basketball Writers of America is the most racist organization in America outside the Indiana State Republican Party. What a bunch of garbage. Nash won for one reason and one reason only. He turned an average team into one that had the best record in the NBA. His team got off to a blistering start, yet went 0-5 during a brief stretch that Nash Was out. When he returned, they won eight of ten on the road. Nash won because he made his team a whole lot better then they were the year before and in many people’s minds, this represents value. I am not suggesting this was a clear cut race since Shaq certainly compiled a worthy resume. There is no doubt he had a great year and deserved consideration. In fact, I would have voted for Shaq if I had been given a vote. But I cannot get too excited by his loss and it seems ludicrous to me that people are suggesting Nash won because he is a white dude. These theorists have this tortured idea that the NBA somehow orchestrated this in hopes of throwing a bone to suburban Americans who are tired of seeing the league dominated by blacks. Sorry, having a white MVP isn’t going to change that and the NBA knows it. Those voters left the party a long time ago and the stars will have to align before they return. Nash won because he had a very good year, his team had a very good year and a majority of voters felt he was the difference maker. With that said, it didn’t hurt that the majority of writers happen to be from north of the border. For that exact reason, I am taking Justin Morneau to win the AL MVP award.
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