Rooting For The Laundry

Over at The Great Baseball Blog, Bryan is three parts into an infinite-part series on his thoughts on being a Red Sox fan.

He's covering a lot of ground, but I think the series also hits on the general question of what it means to be a fan. At some point it's natural to question why the heck you care so much about one random group of 25 baseball players. What are you rooting for exactly? Is it the owner? The manager? The players? The truth is it's none of those things. As my fellow SH blogger has said, "we root for the laundry."

Not only do we root for the laundry, we're so sure we're right to do so that we scoff at anyone who has the nerve to say they root for both the Mets and the Yankees. Anyone who switches allegiances any time between childhood and death is derisively labeled as a "front runner," something that is considered the exact opposite of a "real" sports fan. But on the surface, it's perfectly logical to root for the Marlins because Hanley Ramirez is your favorite player, or the Dodgers because Joe Torre is your favorite manager, or the A's because Billy Beane is your favorite GM. And it's perfectly reasonable to have equal pride as a New Yorker in all the teams that play here. What isn't logical is rooting for the Mets your entire life because that's who you chose to root for when you were 7-years old, based on little more than a whim.

Despite all that logic, almost everyone still agrees that a serious sports fan picks a team and sticks with it for a lifetime. A real fan roots for the laundry. Why?

Obviously there must be more to it than just the laundry. What exactly ties us to our team? For a lot of people, there's the geographical connection. Rooting for your team is attached to rooting for your city – it’s about civic pride. And if you leave the city, that may be magnified even more. If you’re from Cleveland, rooting for the Tribe (and Browns and Cavs) keeps you linked to your roots even if you're no longer physically there.

There's also often a family connection - a parent or other relative took you to games as a kid and some day you'll take your kids to the game. Rooting for a particular team can link multiple generations of a family together in a way that other cultural interests can't. Recently, a transplant from Cincinnati told me about his plan to go to a Bengals game with his family while he's home for Christmas. Watching your team every Sunday at the same time the rest of your family does wherever they are helps you feel close to them even if you’re geographically far, and being able to associate it with a future family get-together helps even more.

There's also a general sense of community with other fans of the team. This gets somewhat tied into geography for most people (less so in New York, where we have so many teams and so many transplants), but is also relevant on another level. Say, you come to New York from Alabama and don't know anyone. Maybe they exist, but I'm not aware of any general "people from Alabama" get-togethers. But, every Saturday during football season, you can go to a bar filled with U. of Alabama fans, or to a bar filled with Auburn fans. You chant together, exchange high-fives, and constantly answer the question, “where [in Alabama] are you from?”

Sometimes the connections can be more subtle. Whether it's giving a high five to the random dude sitting next to you at the game or the bar, or having something to talk about with your boss, the common bond of being a Mets fan often allows you to connect with someone who you might have trouble bonding with otherwise due to differences in age, socioeconomic status, cultural background, etc. Whatever other differences we may have, we share the common experience of being Mets fans. We’ve had the same moments of joy and pain over the years. We remember Robin Ventura’s “grand slam” in game 5 of the NLCS and Kenny Rogers walking in the winning run in game 6.

Now that I reflect on it, rooting for the same team over the years also keeps us closer to ourselves. We change a lot during a lifetime and the world around us changes even more. Family members die, friends come and go, things that seem important at one time seem irrelevant a few years later. Rooting for the same team, year after year, in a religious-like manner gives us a constant in our lives and helps link the 8-year-old version of ourselves with the 80-year-old version.

“Laundry” means more than just the uniform, it means the sense of connection with our family, our city, and all the random people who make up our fan community.

Let's Go Mets!

News Flash! Knicks' Future Aint 2 Bright.

ESPN's Chad Ford broke wind last week with completely unsurprising news concerning the Knicks "rebuilding plan."

Here's a sample of his insights, "[a]s we get closer and closer to the summer of 2010, the undertaking seems aptly named. The salary cap is shrinking, the Knicks' top free agents are demanding huge contracts, and they are still without a solid talent base to lure top free agents next summer. So the Knicks' championship-contending restoration appears to be on shaky ground."

When was the plan ever on solid earf? Donnie Walsh's Plan A was to cash in on a decent but not great run in Indiana. Plan B was sign LeG.O.D.D., Plan C was sign LeG.O.D.D., Plan D was sign LeG.O.D.D., Plan E was to sign one of the fake members of the LeBron family from those mildly amusing Nike commercials. Plan F was to sign Dwayne Wade. Plan G was to sign Chris Bosh. Plan H was to quit smokin' Kools.

At least Plan H has worked out.

Now, he's done a decent job of clearing out pricey contracts. Hasn't translated to lower ticket prices or a lower cable bill.

And trading pricey contracts for nothing in return isn't exactly rocket-scientific-mapp. Rebuilding means actually rebuilding. It means seeking out extra draft picks. It means scouring Europe for young players that have sound backs. It means trading for or signing scrappy young players that may not be stars but perform actual basketball tasks besides chucking up 3's. It means being patient.

Rebuilding does not mean pinning your hopes on signing one free agent and wasting two years in the process. Buildings are built by digging into the earf, establishing a foundation and building up from there, not by half-heartedly jamming a bunch of sticks together in quicksand, then buying the best load-bearing beam in the world from Cleveland and stuffing it in there.

Thankfully, potential deals for Grant Hill and Jason Kidd fizzled this summer. I'd rather see the team bottom out and get high draft picks than tread the path of borderline playoff competitveness. I'd rather see the team lose with Wilson Chandler, Chris Duhon and David Lee and wait for other youngsters to join the squidad then see Dwayne Wade be the latest to make a mockery of John Starks' number. No offense to Flashy, but those knees will be shakier than Barbaro's by 2011.

Time and time again, the media and N.Y. G.M.'s would have the rest of the country believe that New Yorkers are not patient, that they will not tolerate a rebuilding club. Yet non-Yankee NY sports fans have had to endure more shiznit than almost any fan base in the country. The greater NY area has 10 teams in the 5 major team sports (Yanks, Mets, Gints, Jets, Knicks, Nets, 'Gers, Devs, Isles, and the Red Bulls, bro). Of those 10 teams, 2.5 are consistent winners/seem to have a clue as to what they're doing (the Yanks and Devs and sometimes the Gints). The rest have all at one time or another ignored building ground-up success in favor of the buy-the-ageing-star route.

If anything, New York sports fans have more patience then Slash stroking his snake in a roomful of whores. Give peace, and Patrick Ewing, Jr., a chance.

Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish

According to Baseball America, the Mets spent less money on the first 10 rounds of the draft than every other team in baseball. I realize that the Mets lacked a first-round pick, but that doesn't fully explain the paltry sum.

The Mets spent a total of $1.9 million on signing 7 of the 9 players they drafted in rounds 2-10.

Here's a comparison: the Red Sox had a first round pick and spent $1.1 million on him. After that, they picked a few spots after the Mets for the rest of the draft. They spent a total of $4.6 million in rounds 2-10, signing 8 of 9 players.

A Hypothetical Scenario

As you may be aware, the National League Wild Card race is tight. The Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants and Florida Marlins could go neck and neck all year right to the bitter end. It wouldn't be farfetched to assume it could even come down to a game or two.

The Giants, prior to Saturday's game, had struggled against the Mets, going 1-4 while getting pummeled by David Wright to the tune of a 1.340 OPS. Matt Cain, a fine pitcher in his own right -though overshadowed by Tim Lincecum of course- must have simply twitched or slipped when throwing a four seam fastball, because it fired straight towards Wright's batting helmet, knocking him down cold. The Mets, already missing three of their top five players had now lost another, and while they mounted an exciting rally to tie the game in the eighth inning, ultimately ran out of gas and lost 5-4. So what if the Giants win the next two games in the series against a team fielding Daniel Murphy, Anderson Hernandez and Fernando Tatis in the infield and the likes of Corey Sullivan in the outfield? Those two games could be the difference in the race, and if they are, I hope the Giants perform one of their classic postseason gag jobs - hey it could give Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo another chance for a classic tirade.

On that note, while Johan Santana's attempt at knocking Giants' third baseman Pablo Sandoval on his feet was admirable, it invariably turned into another embarrassing moment for the Mets, as Johan laid a spicy meatball right over the middle of the plate that landed over the newly placed pennants in left field. It's going to be really difficult putting up with Santana's declining stuff over the next five years, isn't it? How do you give up four straight hits to the Giants lineup anyway?

EDIT: All rendered meaningless by LUIS' COMET (second year in a row I witness one in person) and a Murphy frozen rope -good things happen when you can pull the ball hard!

Not quite Soccer-Watching Weather Yet But....

Why Didn't Youkilis Appeal the Suspension?

With only a half game lead in the Wild Card race, this weekend's Red Sox-Rangers series seems like a bad time to be without one of the team's best hitters.

Better Late Than Never

per Adam Rubin:

"The Mets have begun installation of photographic imagery of famous players and historic moments in team history on the Field and Promenade Levels as well as the display of team championship banners on the left-field wall."

I've said all along that a lot of the problems with CitiField can be easily solved, so I'm glad to hear there's some effort underway to do so.

The More Things Change...

The infamous Adam Rubin reported today that John Ricco is the most likely successor to Omar Minaya. Matt Cerrone said the same thing yesterday.

I admit that I know very little about John Ricco, but this is a horrible idea. As I feared, it sounds like the Mets are planning on Jim Duquette v2 (or Al Harazin v3). Ricco's lack of scouting experience will give Jeff Wilpon all the more reason to rely on the committee-approach to decision making.

Rubin's article says that the Wilpons like the idea of promoting from within "because much of the front office and other staff can remain intact if Ricco ascends to the role, avoiding the type of costly overhaul that could ensue if a new general manager is hired from outside the organization and wants to replace 12 front-office members, plus dismiss the on-field staff."

The Mets need a costly overhaul! They need to replace prominent front-office members! The last thing they need is to keep the front office intact. I'm not an Omar fan, but it's clear that the problems with the Mets organization run too deep to be solved by replacing one man. The Mets desperately need to bring in an outsider from a well-run organization, and give that outsider full autonomy to restructure everything, top to bottom. Firing Omar and promoting Ricco will just result in a front office with all the flaws of the Omar era, but lacking Omar's one strength: his ability and courage to pull the trigger on big moves. Do we really believe that a Ricco-led committee could have pulled off the Johan trade?

I Ch-Ch-Ch-Chooz...Who?

Waaaay back in New Yawk in the 1990's, when the Gints and Jets sucked hard, the joke was that Charlie Ward was the best quarterback in town. It was funny cuz it was true. He also ranks 7th all time on the Knicks assist list.

Those days ended once Kerry Collins and Vinny turned around each teams' fortunes. Then Eli came to town and not only became the best QB but the cutest of the pies too. Not without some serious comp from Chad.


But now, well, it's a whole new battlefield. With each passing day Eli grows more and more into a Manning, and looking at the road ahead, well, that road looks fairly goofy judging by the punched-in faces of Peyton and Archie. Plus, the Jets just drafted a hunk of brahsomeness in Mark "Clean" Sanchez. A face carved out of the Santa Monica Mountains. Skin as soft as the Santa Ana wind. Curls as gnarly as the Malibu riptide. Chest as broad as the Valley. Trained in Board-Shortz-All-Day-and-Red-Dixie-Cup -Bro-ing-The-Fuck-Down-All-Nite by no less a brothority as Matt Leinart. YIKES! How's a gurl to chooz? But we must. Comments to decide. Eli or the 'Chez.

A Lil More Eli F.T.A.

The Last Word on this Eli Nonsense

Lots of bitching and moaning about the lucrative contract the New York Giants handed to their quarterback, Eli Manning. No, he's not as efficient as his brother Peyton or Tom Brady, nor is he a fantasy football numbers hanger like Drew Brees. But he's as capable as Ben Roethlisberger, civil sexual harassment suit notwithstanding, has also battled bouts of erratic play like Eli throughout his career.

Does he deserve to be the highest paid player in the NFL? Probably not. But is that 250 square foot studio in SoHo you're renting worth the ridiculous rent? What about the $40 entree at a nearby restaurant? New York City adds a premium to the cost of everything, and athletes' contracts are no different, much to the chagrin of some.

Go Play Inside

The Arena Football League is dead (Long Live the AFL2!!!). Amurricah loves football, but we are generally satisfied with college football on Saturdays and the NFL on Sundays. This is primarily why the many leagues that have come and gone over the years, such as the WFL, the USFL and the XFL, have failed. They tried to feed an over saturated market and tried to compete with the NFL on its own turf.

In fairness, indoor football was/is a decent idea. The AFL offered a product that was at once familiar and different. It brought football to smaller markets eager to watch a team of their own at prices families could afford. A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting the AFL's commissioner, David Baker. Baker had presided over a period of major growth for the league, and at the time, 2006, it seemed like only better times laid ahead. He made the kinda forced analogy that AFL football was more like the football most people play in parks, I guess in his mind he thought those Brett Favre Wrangler ads were real. In any event, arena football wasn't the greatest, but judging by the decent crowds and decent ESPN ratings, it didn't deserve to fail.

Aside from Kurt Warner and Jon Bon Jovi gleaming teeth, the league leaves behind a treasure-trove of teams. Here are a few. Mourn them till u join them.

The common man does not appreciate the long days and tedious months that go into professional graphic design. The common man saunters into his local Modell's or Big 5 and demands a XXXXL shirt bearing the logo of his favorite squadron so that he may saunter around town flaunting his team affiliation. Meanwhile, an army of nearsighted, carpal tunnel syndrome affected, burrito-fed graphic designers hunch over their screen, squinting, using Microsoft Paint to painstakingly cut and paste the outline of Texas and curve the words "Dallas" and "Texans" around it. Actually, that's only half of this logo's story. Making the Texas state flag wave like that required bringing in Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists and using NASA's backup servers. You have no idea how much processing power was needed to make that flag flutter just so. You ungrateful bastards.

This rare picture of Toucan Sam was taken after three days at Woodstock '94. Tripping balls on bad acid, raging on speed-cut cocaine and out-of-his-skull with euphoric rage after Primus' set.

aaaand Boom goes the dynamite. Butt seriously, simple always works best. Who wouldn't want this logo on the back of their teal Starter Jacket?

Not bad, not bad at all. Except, well, the logo already exists as that of the Shelby Cobra.

MATRIX: [reading about Boy George in a pop magazine] Why don't they just call him Girl George? It would cut down on the confusion.
JENNY: Oh, Dad, that is so old.
MATRIX: Ha Ha. You know when I was a boy and rock'n'roll came to East Germany, the communists said it was subversive.
[thinks and smiles]
MATRIX: Maybe they were right.
Hmmm? What's that? Oh, sorry, I was just trying to not let this piece of shit logo ruin my memory of an amazing movie.

"Haaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Yoo-hoo. Wanna play a little football sailor? You look like a natual tight end to me. Oooooo, are you wearing white after Labor Day? See ya later, alligator!"

Thankfully Drew Carey came along to set the record str8 on which Ohio town pumps KISS the loudest.

That would make a sick tattoo on my bicep...............bro.

(Sticky copies of Maxims litter the floor. P-Funks fill the ashtrays. The air hangs heavy with with the scent of Axe Body Spray. KTU blares loudly on the radio)."Bro, if you diss the Gladiatuhs one more time, I will gut you like the fuckin fish that you are."
"Eeeeeeeasy, bro, easy. Sip dis. Relax." (takes sip of Sparks). "You're right, I dunno why I tweaked. Let's go to the City and get laid."

I can't front on this one. It rules. It's the Fonz, in cat form, and he's stoned. I'd pay good money to watch a movie of this dude and the O.G., Heathcliff, go on a road trip and just chill the fuck out, discussing life in all of its intricacies in a droptop on the open road in between scenes of them throwing down in some honky-tonk saloon. It'd be the Y2K+9 "Easy Rider," or "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man" 'cept a zillion times radder.

Thanks to Chris Creamer and Sportslogos.net for the logos.

Women's Tennis Superstars from Back in the Dizzay: Hot or Not?

Last week's most controversial Shea Hey discussion begets this entry. Marinate. I have combed the vaults, dug in the crates (D.I.T.C 4-eva) to bring you the Women's Tennis Superstars from back in the dizzay; to the innocent days when a classy product like Virginia Slims could endorse the biggest Non-Slam tourney at MSG. Now, no e-z task this, but....who is the hottest? And who--the nottest? Obvi, outside entries are ok.

UNNNNGGHH!!! Monica Seles. Frankly, the discussion should stop here. And clearly, time has been kind. She stole a young Coachie's heart at the Virginia Slims Finals back in 1991. Young S-Boomz was also thrrr, he led us on a successful mish from the 400s all the way down to the third row.

This here is Tracy Austin. A tad before my time. But a fave of D-F-Dubbs aka David Foster Wallace. Yowee! More tennis players should play in nighties.

The Shark knows you don't have to hunt in shallow waters. The hottest American?

A chameleon. Is it the, ummm, fierce competitor on the left? Or the creamsicle on the right? We'll call it Advantage: Agassi.

Is she daydreaming of Matthew Perry on the right?The Mza and Bryman both have their points. Basically she's a diesel Alyssa Milano. And while she had a fairly ruff patch in her life, she still got crazy paid at age 13, think about that the next time you consider artificial NBA and NFL age limits.

Mary Pierce. A forgotten queen. Formed one the more bizarre sporting couples with Roberto Alomar, especially in light of recent allegations. The O.G. candidate for Proactiv. But still, braydz for dayz.

Conundrum, Jodie Foster would be the obvi doppelganger to play Martina in her biopic (title? "Pleez Hammer, don't hurt 'em!" or "Iron Curtain Munching" (sorry)) but Jodie Foster is attractive. A riddle. But seriously, rispekt, she's still playing and kicking a lot of ass.

Hana Mandilkova. Nothing special. Nice Bad News Bears look here tho. And I think she may have screwed around with Bjorn Borg. And we know that M.F.er only dipped his Swedish Meatballs in the finest.

The Swiss Miss. Paved the road for R-Fedz. Was I alone in my down-ness? Still down. Secretively saucy she-devil look to her.

Now here's a serious challenge. Gabriela Sabatini. It's crazy-bone-thugs that a babushka like Anna Kournakova was lionized when genuinely talented Amazonians like Sexy-Sabs were toeing the court. And she appears to have aged gracefully into Giada de Laurentiis, only the hottest chick in the saute game.

Finally, we have Arantxa Sanches-Vicario. I dunno. I'm strangely in the mood for a gyro tho.

Perhaps, in the interest of fair play, I will post a sequel featuring the starry racket-wielding studs of yesteryear. Personally, tho, I don't think there's much of a point. My mans Jimmy C has got that shit on lock:

If his rackets are on top of the bag, then what the hell is inside? Condoms? Coke? Champagne? The question, US Weekly style, is who rocked the bowl harder, Connors or Pete Rose?

Revenge for '93 Series Loss?

Quick thoughts on the deadline deals -

Winner: Phillies
Cliff Lee will probably have the biggest playoff impact of any player added near the deadline. No, he's not as great as Roy Halladay, but he's roughly 90% as good, costs less money, and probably cost a lot less in prospects. Lee makes the Phills a much tougher team in the playoffs and the clear favorites in the NL East next year. And the organization didn't have to part with any of their 3 top prospects (according to Baseball America). Great move.

Loser: Blue Jays
It's always hard to know how much to believe about all the rumored deals, but it seems like the Blue Jays overplayed their hand in the Halladay negotiations. The Indians were probably right to start rebuilding, but there's a reasonable argument that they should've kept Lee & Martinez and made a run in a weak division next season. On the other hand, there's no reason to think the Blue Jays can compete in the toughest division in baseball next year (the last year of Halladay's contract). They may still be able to pull off a better deal in the offseason, but for now, it seems that they blew their chance to start building for the future.

Winner: A's
Brett Wallace was the only prospect in Baseball America's recent top 25 included in any of the deadline deals. It's impressive that the A's got him in exchange for two months of a player having a mediocre season. The A's pretty much had to deal Holliday (it might've been risky to offer him arbitration) and didn't seem to have a lot of takers, but still managed to get a very good package in return. I still think it was a mistake for the A's to acquire Holliday in the first place, but Billy Beane still managed to do okay in the end.

Winner: White Sox
Special props to Ken Williams, who always seems to pull off surprising trades. Jake Peavy may not pitch again this year, but he's a great pickup for the next 2-3 years of his contract and there's a decent chance he'll return in September. Peavy may not improve Chicago's odds of reaching the playoffs, but if they do make it (probably a 30% chance right now), he could be a big help.

Naff

American sports fans find it bewildering that soccer matches can end in a penalty shootout. What to make of skipping a game entirely and proceeding straight to a bowling contest in cricket, then? Essentially it's the equivalent of a baseball game being decided by giving pitchers from each team 10 pitches at a batter-less home plate; whichever team throws more strikes out of 10 wins.

This week featured the quarterfinals of England's Twenty20 Cup, the shortest version of cricket. Heavy rain twice forced postponement of the match between the Lancashire Lightning and the Somerset Sabres. Both teams are scheduled to compete in other matches this weekend. Rather than postpone the game to a later date, after all the semi-finals aren't scheduled until August 15th, the two teams took part in a bowl-off behind closed doors at an indoor practice facility.

Each team got ten chances to hit the stumps, Somerset prevailed 5-1. Succinctly summing up the situation, Lancashire's captain Mark Chilton said, "It’s a naff way to go out of a competition."

Here is the "thrilling" video of the bowl out.

The Beer to Have When You're Having More Than One

President Obama will soon be hosting Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. of Harvard and Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley for beers at the White House to discuss Gates' controversial arrest.

The New York Post comes throo with the important question, what beer will they sip on?

We've already seen, at the All-Star Game in St. Louis, that Obama knows how to dress to appeal to the average American, so will he go with a kiss of the hops? Or the beer to have when you're having more than one?

I ask you, readers and fellow boozehounds, what should they drink? And how many beers before they're blasting The Boss' "Glory Days," scarfing pizza, sharing cigs and hugging each other?

The House that David Dinkins Built

Jimmy C. and John Got Theirs Back in the Dizzay.

I love tennis. But, like many other tennis fans, I only watch the Grand Slams, save for cherished memories of seeing Monica Seles in her prime as a young lovelorn lad at the Virginia Slims at MSG. Marketing the non-slams is a thankless job.

This week sees start of the L.A. Tennis Open, an event in its 83rd year that can boast past champions such as Pancho Gonzales, "Hot" Rod Laver, Stan "You can do anything but lay off my ill white kicks" Smith, Jimmy "Chris Evert? Yeah, I hit that" Connors, John "Tatum used to be a prime P.O.A. back in the dizay, eh?" McEnroe, Arthur "Tite 'fro, tighter shorts" Ashe, Michael "Fuck You Ivan" Chang, "Dead Yo Shit" Edberg, Andre "Advantage:" Agassi, Boris "Gurl, I'll freak you in the restaurant's broom closet" Becker, Jim "The Great Ginger Hope" Courier, and Pete "Yawn" Sampras.


This year the tourney doesn't feature one player from the Top 10. Can't be e-z trying to sell L.A. on seeing the Bryan "aren't they just zany??" Bros., Mardy "Go" Fish, Sam "Nobody Asked" Querrey, and Tommy "We Must Protect Zis" Haas. At least they got a little Legends tourney going with Sampras, Chang, Dedberg, Courier and Marat "Nobody pays to see me hit a backhand or move around the court" Safin.

Speaking of Safin and tuff sells, his sister headlines the upcoming L.A. Women's Tennis Championships. Now rankings mean something in men's tennis, but in the women's game today, the rankings mean absolutely nothing. The Williams sisters don't play the minor tourneys so their rankings suffer, but then they show up at the Slams and rip shit up. Now Dinara Safina may be the world's #1, on paper, and it's fine to play up her appearance at the tourney. But it takes some set of balls, and complete ignorance, to have your ad read "Better than Serena, Better than Venus, Better than anyone in the world!!!!" when Safina lost in the French Open final, 6-4, 6-2, and got absolutely annihilated by Venus in the Wimbledon Semi-final 6-1, 6-0. So how can their ad read that Safina is better than Venus? The worst part is, this kind of tournament only appeals to hardcore tennis fans, the kind of fans who know very well that Venus absolutely beat down Safina, why insult your loyal fan base's intelligence with an ad like this?


Back when the U.S.T.A. was threatening to pull the U.S. Open out of N.Y.C. unless a new stadium to replace Louis Armstrong was built, part of the argument was that rotating the host city for the Open would bolster grass-roots tennis in our country. I can partly see the point. Then again, on the flip side,if being able to see the stars in person inspires kids to pick up a racket, shouldn't the NYC area have produced more stars than just McEnroe? In any event, David Dinkins stepped to keep the action in Queens, leaving tennis with the situation it has today where cities like L.A. get the impossible-to-market scraps.

A Reminder to all Tabloid Writers & Columnists

Make what you will of Omar Minaya's broadside shot at Adam Rubin and the Daily News, but never forget the muckdruggery of Dick Young -yup, at the News- that drove Tom Seaver out of the city in 1977 amidst speculation, scuttlebutt and innuendo. I'm certain Mr. Rubin has his facts, but what is he hiding? A bad experience -did Tony Bernazard overhear?- whilst speaking to Jeff Wilpon about a job in the organization probably gave him several axes to grind. Granted, some reporters are unapologetic about burning bridges -Larry Brooks and Peter Vecsey to name two- but I don't think they've filed for jobs with any local sporting club.

Tony Tony Tony

Many Mets bloggers have opined on the Tony Bernazard situation, and we have been asked to do the same. I'm hesitant to do so; let me explain why. Over the last few years, I've read some negative things about Bernazard. I've never read anything positive about him. Based on my limited knowledge about Tony Bernazard's job performance, I'd say he should be fired. But, I have to acknowledge that my knowledge is very limited, and very small in comparison to the knowledge that the Wilpons and Omar Minaya have about Tony B. I blog about baseball and express opinions, but I try to limit my opinions to topics I have some knowledge about. When I criticize a trade, I do it based on information, even though I probably have a little bit less information than the Mets' front office. I don't have detailed scouting reports on Jeff Francoeur, but I do have access to data - Jeff Francoeur had played in over 630 Major League games at the time of the trade and there is extensive data available about how he has performed in those 630 games. I can see that he has performed very poorly, and based on the available data about every other player in MLB history, I know that it is extremely unlikely that a player who has performed as poorly as Francoeur over such a long period of time will suddenly perform well. Therefore, I'm willing to criticize the trade despite the small deficit in information.

With the Bernazard situation, I suffer from a huge deficit in information. Omar Minaya interacts with Bernazard on a regular basis and (I assume) has a much, much clearer idea of what exactly Bernazard's responsibilities are and how well he performs them. I have a few second-hand anecdotes and opinions. It seems to me that Bernazard brings little to the table, but it's possible that if I had a frank discussion with Minaya about it, he could quickly rattle off a list of valuable contributions Bernazard has made to the organization, as well as explanations for why the seemingly sorry state of the farm system isn't Bernazard's fault. And he might be able to tell me that what happened in Binghamton didn't go exactly as it's been portrayed in the Daily News.

I'll also note that it often seems that the Wilpons are overly concerned with how the media portrays the organization. Firing Bernazard would be portrayed positively by the press and give the organization a chance to publicly show that they're shaking things up. I think that's a stupid reason to fire him. If Bernazard has done a bad job, he should be fired. If his presence in the organization is destructive, he should be fired. It seems to me that he has done a bad job and is a destructive presence in the organization, but I'm basing my opinion on very limited information, so there's a decent chance I'm wrong.

When the Man Comes Around

Knowledge Body....Wisdom Godd.
The O.G. Masterpiece for the O.G.
This weekend, the Hall of Fame welcomes one of the greatest.