Nick Swisher Renews My Faith
Nick Swisher has renewed my faith in baseball players. For years I’ve thought of most baseball players as being too busy, too focused, or too impressed with their large contracts to pay much attention to the fans. Yesterday I attended the Nick Swisher autograph signing at Sports Express in the Livingston Mall, where I waited [...]
Counting the Growth Rings
Sports fans most definitely mark time by sports seasons, and clearly associate events staggeringly good or bad with particular slices of our life. The 1969 Mets are what I remember from 1st grade; the 1972 Pirates-Reds National League Championship Series marked the beginning of understanding sadness in sports; the Devils won their last Stanley Cup [...]
One Shining Moment, Every Season
My friend Claire always wonders what makes us love sports so much. By “us”, of course, she means guys who have severe Claire-attention deficit problems when a game of even minor interest is broadcast over television, radio, internet, or via grunts and hand signals nearby. I’ve thought about her question for close to four years, [...]
The Bronx is Churning
It’s been a few days since Joe Torre’s implicit dismissal as the Yankee skipper, coming full circle with Joe Girardi’s filling the managerial jersey today. I’m still flabbergasted by this move: Torre was micro-managed from above (like he couldn’t figure out how to pitch Joba Chamberlain himself?), was given horrible resources to manage (his pitchers [...]
Lonely In The Slot
Vinny Lecavalier was quite lonely in the low slot, waiting for a pass from Prospal that turned into tonight’s game-winning goal. Listening to the game on XM radio (sometimes rental cars aren’t thoroughly horrible) I could only get the Lightning version of events, but it didn’t sound so great for the Devils. Sutter commented after [...]
Choking Into The Winter
Stick a fork in the Yankees. They’re doing their best Atlanta Braves imitation, consistently winning the division and then failing to advance in the post season. This season’s choke-fest, though, was spectacular: They went without a run for 20 consecutive innings. Want to call a turning point? How about A-rod failing to do anything – [...]
Ouch, Hideki
Ouch. I’m not normally too much of a wuss when it comes to seeing people get mangled on television, but watching Hideki Matsui fracture his wrist last night almost made me revisit my dinner. This is horrible for Matsui – here’s a guy who doesn’t complain, shows up to work hard and play great baseball [...]
A-Rod and 10 Year Olds
Yesterday was one of those very cool days when things just seemed to go right. Unless you were wearing pinstripes in the Metrodome, in which case they went wrong at the wrong times. We had our first Little League game yesterday, after losing a week to rain and school vacations. After opening up leads of [...]
Being a fan
I’ve received at least a dozen e-mails asking me if I’m donning the sackcloth and ashes now that the Yankees’ season is over. I’m not. Sure, I’m disappointed that the pinstripes looked like pinheads dropping four straight, but it was good baseball and rounded out an exciting season. I don’t own the Yankees; I don’t [...]