WBAI Sports Newswire

Stars Aligned At Garden

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:41:37 GMT

Synopsis

Knicks ready to face the Heat on All-Star selection night, Thursday January 27th.

Story

All eyes will be on Madison Square Garden tonight as the New York Knicks might have their first player named a starter to the all-star game for the first time since Patrick Ewing in 1992. That will be the backdrop of tonight’s nationally televised broadcast on TNT as the Knicks take on the Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and the Miami Heat. The third member of the Miami Thrice Chris Bosh will not be on hand as he is back in Miami nursing an ankle injury. TNT’s studio cast of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley will be in the building tonight which will only heighten the drama of the evening. It’s been years since there has been a buzz at Madison Square Garden this late in the season and a lot of credit has to be given to first year Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudamire who was the Knicks’ prize free agent acquisition this past summer and not Lebron James who spurned the Knicks for South Beach, Miami. Stoudamire incredibly is the second leading scorer in the NBA this season with an average of 26.1 points per game. Stoudamire is at the top of any MVP discussion and his teammates are looking forward to the night “it’s very exciting, the three guys Ray, Gallo, and Stat have put together a great season so far so it will be exciting for us.” Says first year Knicks forward Landry Fields who has to be on cloud nine right now as he is in the midst of a renaissance season at the Garden and knows nothing about the turmoil that took place in Knicks land the previous nine consecutive losing seasons.

Knicks point guard Raymond Felton will not be one of the starters for the all-star game but with a scoring average of 17.5 points per game and 8.9 assists, both career highs, Felton, the general of this Knicks team has a shot at being named a reserve to the all-star game a couple weeks from now “we will see what happens, I hear a lot of talk that I have a good chance but we will see what happens over the next week or two.” Says Felton. Going into tonight’s game against Miami the Knicks have a record of 23-21 which is good enough for the 6^th best record in the Eastern conference. This being a revival season for the Knicks every game against one of the elite teams in the league is always an interesting measuring stick of exactly where the team is at and if they are for real “You want to win against any top echelon team, Miami is a very good team so we have to make sure we are ready to go, we have to get our rest and be sharp on all cylinders.” Says Amar’e Stoudamire. Miami teammates Lebron James and Dwayne Wade are expected to be two of the five starters for the Eastern conference all-stars but despite the star power and two previous losses to Miami earlier in the season Felton says the team has played in a number of spotlight games this season and will be unnerved for this one “We’ve already had a lot of T.V. games so far so there is really no pressure about it being a TNT game, we just look forward to having a good game against Miami and hopefully get this win.” It’s going down tonight at the world’s most famous arena.

Vick Should Be NFL MVP

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:07:52 GMT

Synopsis

Why Michael Vick should be the 2010 NFL MVP and not Tom Brady.

Story

With the Super Bowl approaching and the league’s big announcement of season MVP coming any day now it seems to be a forgone conclusion everywhere you turn, look, or listen that that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will be the 2010 NFL most valuable player. Well, I am here to tell you that that is not the case; and while we are at it, was Andrew Luck really going to be the first quarterback selected in the draft this year over Cam Newton, had Luck chosen to enter the draft? Really? The madness must stop!
   Without a doubt football fans across the country will tell you that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick has been the most electrifying player to watch in the NFL this season: hands down! From the moment he was thrust onto the field in week 1 against Green Bay after starting quarterback Kevin Kolb was knocked out by Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews Jr., Vick came onto the field and dazzled in such a way that it left football fans in front of their television set every week yearning for more.
Vick came into that week 1 game towards the end of the 2nd quarter with his team down by double digits and began to wreak havoc on Green Bay; throwing for 175 yards and running for another 103, to bring Philadelphia back. It was an amazing performance but Vick and the Eagles fell just short losing 27-20. At the conclusion of that game Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews Jr. said he was exhausted from chasing Vick around for a half and hoped he never had to see Vick ever again.
From that moment Michael Vick had gained the attention of the Nation and eye balls across the country did not leave the television set all season long whenever Michael Vick was performing, and by the time the season was over a man who was cast as public enemy #1 among sports fans just months before had captured the imagination of the nation; even making headlines on national news telecasts i.e. CCN, MSNBC, and all the 6:30 evening news broadcasts on the local networks.
   Two performances in particular by Vick this season bested those of any other player this NFL season and should be placed in a time capsule to stand the test of time until we see another performance that equals it. On November 15th in front of a nationally televised Monday Night Football audience Michael Vick went on the road to Washington D.C. against the Redskins and threw for 333 yards connecting for four touchdown passes while also running for another 80 yards and two more scores on the ground. Vick single-handily put the game so far out of reach that midway through the third quarter Philadelphia head coach Andy Reid began to slowly call the dogs off out of respect to the opponent. The Vick led offense showed good sportsmanship and stopped attacking, or else the embarrassing numbers Vick put up that night would have been even more ridiculous. As it was Vick’s performance may well go down as the greatest single game ever played by a quarterback. The Eagles won 59-28 and the 59 points were the most scored in the 40 year history of Monday Night Football.
Then On December 19th, again on the road, down 31-10 with a little under 8:00 minutes to play in the 4th quarter against division rival New York with first place and the division on the line Vick rallied his team back, running for 94 fourth quarter yards and accounting for three touchdowns to tie the score at 31 all with 1:16 left on the clock. That set the stage for Philadelphia’s Desean Jackson to punctuate the “miracle at the meadowlands” part two, running back a game winning put return as time expired, ruining the season of their arch-rival in the process.
It is fair to say that Michael Vick is the most dangerous player in the National football league. Everyone is forced to admit this when he produces one of his incomparable performances. From station to station up and down the radio and television dial you hear the talking heads showering him with superlatives; especially all the former NFL quarterbacks, all of whom give it up to Mike Vick. After Vick’s six touchdown demolition of the Washington Redskins on November 15th everyone was asking the questions: “can Michael Vick be stopped?” “How do you stop Michael Vick?” Among those asking the question was the coach of the team slated to play Vick’s Eagles the following week: The New York football Giants head coach Tom Coughlin.
Coughlin spoke about how he was watching the Eagles-Redskins game from home, taking notes and preparing for the following week’s matchup. He confessed that while watching in astonishment, like the rest of the nation, he had to put down his pen and pad and simply take in the game as a fan! Vick was putting on such a show that even he got caught up in the moment.   Coughlin went on to say that what came next was a sudden feeling of sickness, knowing it was he who had to prepare next to stop Vick the following weekend.
When Coughlin and the Giants met Vick in front of another nationally televised audience six days later the Giants unleashed a relentless pass rush against the Philadelphia quarterback that comprised of a series of blitzes. Up until that point Michael Vick came into that game with zero interceptions, zero fumbles: zero turnovers. The Giants managed to rough Vick up that night, sacking him three times and hitting him many more, causing him to lose a fumble for his first turnover of the season. The rest of the NFL, like the nation at large, was watching; and since that game the book to defense Vick has been to blitz him, blitz him, blitz him!
Michael Vick is so dangerous an offensive weapon that defensive coordinators have been left to blitz him on what seems like every down. Anyone who watched Vick and the Eagles, and Tom Brady with the Patriots, this season clearly saw that Vick was up against a more vicious and concentrated pass rush. This was true week in and week out, and Vick took way more of a beating this season than Brady because of it!
No one likes to consistently blitz a great quarterback. Defenses do not like blitzing Brady and Peyton Manning for the fear that those quarterbacks will burn them. With Michael Vick defenses coordinators figure they have no choice but to blitz because if you don’t and you give him time to decide whether he wants to throw one his laser passes somewhere down the field or use his legs, the results will be devastating. That’s why the strategy to defense Vick has literally been to blitz him as much as possible, create chaos for him, and make him get the ball out of his hands as soon as possible, and hopefully get a sack or hit on him in the process.
Tom Brady led the New England Patriots to a 14-2 record this season, the best in the National football league. He threw for 36 touchdowns to only 4 interceptions and his last interception came all the way back on October 17th against Baltimore. He has in fact set the record for consecutive passes thrown without being intercepted; which to be fair comes with a little luck because he had a couple passes in a week 15 game against Green Bay that this writer saw with his own eyes that were primed to be intercepted only to bounce off the hands of the hapless defender.
Who knows how many other would be interceptions were dropped over this consecutive non-interception streak. Nevertheless the streak is very impressive. That streak, along with his team’s 14 wins and his 36 touchdown passes this season, are the biggest case for Tom Brady to win 2010 MVP. When the New England Patriots traded Randy Moss to Minnesota after a 41-14 drubbing of the Miami Dolphins on October 4th many believed the Patriots were pulling out a white flag and giving up on the season. No way could the Patriots compete with the vaunted division rival New York Jets who in week 2 buried the Patriots at the Meadowlands; despite a remarkable one handed touchdown grab by Moss on all-world defensive back Derelle Revis.
The Patriots lost just once more regular season game following that trade and a lot of credit has to be given to Brady, no doubt. But let’s not act as if the league’s golden boy was throwing to a collection of stiffs. The moment Moss was shipped out of town the Patriots reacquired Deion Branch who won 2004 Super Bowl MVP honors with Brady and the Patriots. Also left on the team was wide receiver Wes Welker who caught over 100 catches the previous three seasons. Brady also has the great master mind, head coach Bill Belichick, on his side. The Grim Reaper even won 11 games two seasons ago with Matt Cassel as his starting quarterback when Tom Brady missed the entire season with a knee injury.
Brady’s numbers this season speak for themselves. But do they really measure up to all the theatrics Vick has given us this season? Was Tom Brady really the NFL’s Most Valuable Player this season in every sense of the word? Has what Tom Brady done this season have more value than the lessons we can learn from the extraordinary story of redemption that Mike Vick has given us? It is the stuff of great morality play: The fallen hero emerges from one of the toughest federal prisons in the country at Fort Leavenworth Kansas, to a dramatic return to the of top the National Football League!
Was Tom Brady more valuable to his team than Vick was to his this season? Yes, Brady threw for 3900 yards and 36 touchdowns but Michael Vick threw for 3018 yards and 21 touchdowns plus he ran for another 676 yards and nine touchdowns giving him a total of 30 touchdowns on the season - six less than Brady’s total for the season. On average Brady threw for 243.8 yards per game while Vick bested that throwing for an average of 251.5 yards per game, and this from a guy who runs part of the time.
Then consider the fact that Vick missed four games this season, three to injury with busted ribs, after he practically juked out all 11 men of Washington’s defense in week 4 then paying the price at the end of the play. And he missed a game in week 17, when the team had nothing to play for, and you can see had Vick not gotten hurt Brady wouldn’t have a statistical advantage over Vick in anything except Interceptions and probably wins.
Brady has been with head coach Bill Belichick and that great Patriots system for 10 years now, a system that he obviously feels very comfortable in. In Philadelphia Vick was in his first year learning the system as a starter on the run, playing in front of a suspect offensive line while being pressured as much as any quarterback in the league. Lest we forget, he was supposed to spend this season as the back up quarterback. That’s why we say here: Michael Vick was the most outstanding and spectacular performer in the NFL this season and should be your 2010 NFL MVP!

Far From A Rivalry

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:08:52 GMT

Synopsis

Samori Benjamin says there has been no better leader in the NBA than Lebron James since he entered the NBA and despite the talk the new big three in Miami never built the same on-court rivalries the way their predecessors of the 80's did.

Story

When Lebron James was a senior in high school and ballyhooed more than any other high school athlete of his era, many raised eyebrows when James’ mother Gloria took out a loan to buy her son a hummer automobile halfway through the school year. A few months later Lebron became Nike’s chosen one and the billion dollar sneaker giant made James’ bank account $90 million fatter. A couple months after that James was drafted into the NBA by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Seven years later James has incredibly lived up to the immense billing he got coming out of high school, and more. Since his first game in November 2003 he carried a Cavaliers franchise that spent most of its NBA years before Lebron as either a bottom basement team or a team fighting to stay above mediocrity. Save for the Mark Price, Craig Ehlo, Larry Nance, Brad Daugherty Cavaliers of the late 80’s and early 90’s, the Cavaliers presence on the NBA landscape had been minuscule at best. Then Lebron came.

The NBA has a draft lottery system where the worse team in the league does not necessarily get the first pick in the draft. Since the lottery system was instituted in 1985 the team with the worst record in the NBA has only won and gotten the chance to select first overall four times. The Cleveland Cavaliers were one of those four teams. By his third season James had the Cavaliers in the playoffs and the following season he had them in the NBA Finals at age 22 where he ran into a San Antonio Spurs team that was winning its fourth NBA title in Nine years as they swept James and the Cavaliers. But no fault on James’ part. Lebron would have had to be Superman himself to lead the Cavaliers to four wins and an NBA championship over the San Antonio Spurs.

It would have been more spectacular than anything Jordan did in his career had he carried the Cavaliers and won that series because James did not have his Scottie Pippen. Which is the biggest reason why he has not made it back to the NBA Finals in the three seasons since. With his back to back MVP awards the last two seasons and the numbers he’s put up no one has accomplished more individually in the first seven years of their career than Lebron James has. He has carried the Cavaliers to 60 plus win seasons the past two seasons with a supporting cast that shows how much they ride on the coattails of their star and are unable to do much on their own once the late games of May roll around. Which is also the reason why he decided to part ways with Cleveland and Northheast Ohio.

James had a number of able and willing suitors who all presented him with intriguing opportunities. It would have been a bad career decision for Lebron to stay in Cleveland with a basketball team that has been unable to significantly upgrade their roster in the seven years since he’s been there. If he had decided to stay in Cleveland the story would not have been as intriguing as him going to start a new chapter with any of the number of cities that were after him. During his “Decision” show on espn in which he was interviewed by Jim Gray and told the country he was leaving Cleveland for Miami James stated that the biggest factor in his decision was going to a team where he could win a championships “immediately.” A lot of critics say until Lebron wins a championship his career will in a sense be a failure, but a lot of us have a certain criteria on how the great “King James” has to win a championship which would mean winning one without going and pairing up with someone almost as equally as great as he in Dwayne Wade. That’s because Lebron is so great that he has the game to one day be looked at as good or better than Michael Jordan depending on how the rest of his career goes and how many titles he wins, and even though Michael played with a hall of fame sidekick in Scottie Pippen, Pippen was not as great as Dwayne Wade who pulled off a Jordanesque performance in the 2006 NBA Finals while leading an aging Miami Heat team to a championship after falling down 0-2 in the series. But if James only truly cares about winning championships immediately then going to Miami to team up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh clearly gives him the best chance to do just that. Maybe the greatness of his championship victories will be hurt a bit in the minds of some when he wins his first or second NBA title because of the greatness of Wade but if Miami can run off four, five, six championships in a row then everyone will have to reevaluate the path James took with his career and the greatness of it. We all know James and Wade are students of the game, for all we know they could be sitting around talking about how they have the potential to be the greatest NBA basketball team of all-time. Does anyone doubt with the greatness of these three superstars that at some point during their time together on South Beach that they can challenge Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls’ all-time regular season record of 72-10 that they set in the 1996-97 season? If these things happen we will all have to reevaluate the legacy of Lebron James.

James, Wade, and Bosh were never the kind of rivals the way the prominent figures of the 1980’s NBA were. To denounce what the new Miami trio has done by saying that Magic, Larry, Issiah, and Jordan would have never teamed up with one another is a joke. It’s true that it would have been a wack move to see these guys team up in the prime of their careers rather than oppose each other the way they so often did in their careers. But these guys all faced off against one another in the NBA playoffs and built intense and at times bitter and nasty rivalries with each other. The playoffs are where rivalries are made. The aforementioned stars of the 80’s opposed each other many times in the playoffs which would have made a pairing of stars in that era impossible. In the seven years James, Wade, and Bosh have been in the NBA the grand total of times the three have faced each other in a playoff series is zero. Not once has Lebron matched up against Wade in a playoff, Or Wade faced off against Bosh or James faced off against Bosh’s Raptors. So these three never built up a serious on court rivalry against one another. Then on the flipside all three gentleman came out of the same 2003 draft class, have spent multiple summers together playing on the men’s National basketball team, so it’s natural to see how they built up such a friendship and how they could want to play together. And the best part about Lebron James’ espn “the decision” broadcast on espn is that he raised $5 million to the Boys and Girls Club. All the hate should cease with that simple number. Another note, when you look at the greatness of a player like Tracy McGrady who is a two-time NBA scoring champion with similar size and game to James, and see Mcgrady has never been able to get his team out of the first round of the playoffs while James has never failed to make it out of the first round then you begin to see the true greatness of what Lebron James has done over the first half of his career.

NBA's 10 Most Underrated

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:32:06 GMT

Synopsis

WBAI Sports takes a look at the 10 most under rated players in the National Basketball Association.

Story

10. Since entering the NBA straight out of high school Monta Ellis has made a strong case against the NBA’s new policy that mandates all high school basketball players spend at least one year in college after graduating. Ellis was a part of the last NBA draft that allowed players to come out of high school and he has been one of the more exciting guards since he’s hit the NBA. In this his fifth season Golden State Warriors’ Ellis is averaging 17.8 points for his career and is averaging career bests this season of 25.7 points per game and 5.3 assists per game. At age 24, Ellis has a chance to make his legacy special if he can continue to improve, keep those numbers where they’re at, and be a part of some winning teams.

9. Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves is just in his second NBA season but in limited playing time a season ago Love still led all rookies in double doubles. An obstacle that’s been in Love’s way early in his career is the fact that the team’s franchise player plays the same position as he. Because of this Love has bounced in and out of the starting lineup. But with averages still of 15.2 points and 11.4 rebounds in this his second season, Love is well on his way to an incredible NBA career.

8. Brother of Los Angeles Lakers all-star season center Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol was in the trade that sent Pau from Memphis to the Lakers two years ago. At the time many ripped Memphis for making the deal because at the time it was believed that Memphis got no talent back in the deal. But with averages of 14.9 points and 9.4 rebounds this season Gasol is nearly averaging a double double for the season and at age 25 Gasol can make a solid NBA career for himself.

7. Portland Trailblazers point guard Andre Miller has had a very solid career in his 11 seasons in the NBA. In his third season in the league with the Cleveland Cavaliers Miller led the NBA in assists with 10.9 for the season. Miller has held it down at the point position for five different teams and everywhere he goes he puts up solid numbers. Miller though has never been voted to an all-star team.

6. In his third NBA season Aaron Brooks of the Houston Rockets is averaging 19.4 points and 5.4 assists and made Houston comfortable enough last season to trade Rafer Alston who had manned the starting point position with the team for a few years. Brooks was close to having an all-star season this year and is a big reason why the Houston Rockets have remained in the playoff race all season long after not having Yao Ming or Tracy Mcgrady for the entire season.

5. David Lee of the New York Knicks might have been in the number one spot had NBA commissioner David Stern not handpicked Lee to be an eastern conference all-star after Philadelphia 76’ers guard Allen Iverson was not able to make the game. At 20.3 points and 11.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists Lee is having a tremendous season and is one of just three players in the NBA who are averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds on the season. After battling for minutes and a consistent role with the team Lee has outlasted all the other big men who were on the team when he arrived. Lee is actually the last man standing from the Knicks roster that was in his rookie season. The New York Knicks have more money under the salary cap this summer for the much anticipated free agent class than any other team in the NBA. The Knicks though must not sleep on their own man this summer.

4. Jamal Crawford has scored 50 points or more for 3 different teams during his NBA career. But until this season Crawford has had the stigma of a ball player who was strictly a gunner, not a team player nor a winning player and a guy that winning teams had no use for. Crawford who debuted in the league in 2000 has never played in a playoff game. Crawford has played in more games without reaching the playoffs than any other team in the NBA. This April however Crawford will be a part of the playoffs for the first time of his career with his Atlanta Hawks. Coming off the bench this season Crawford has added a huge lift for the team off the bench and is averaging over 17 points per game. Crawford has to be the leader for the NBA 6^th man award and this season he has proved that he is no doubt an all-star caliber player.

3. Michael Beasley of the Miami Heat was the only high lottery pick taken in the 2008 NBA draft who never got the opportunity to be a consistent part of his team’s starting lineup. Despite being the number two pick overall a season ago, Beasley came off the bench the entire season and had unimpressive numbers of 13.9 and 5.4 rebounds a game as a rookie. This season as a starter Beasley has pushed those averages to 15.8 and 6.7. In games that Dwayne Wade has missed for the Heat this season Beasley has taken more of a role on offense and put up big numbers in those games. It appears here as if Beasley is still learning to play alongside a superstar who dominates the ball like Dwayne Wade.

2. Before this season Zach Randolph was another player who had the stigma of being a guy who put up good numbers for bad teams but was not a winning player. Randolph was nicknamed the “black hole” and looked at as someone who was a bad locker room presence. All of that is hot air and now that Randolph is on a Memphis Grizzles team that has surprised many by being a team that has played over .500 ball this season, Randolph who is one of three players to average 20 points and 10 rebounds this season was awarded with his first ever all-star appearance this season.

1. Nate “The Great” Robinson is number one on the list of most underrated players in the NBA. When given the opportunity Robinson is a flat put playmaker. But at 5’9 Robinson still has not been given that opportunity and still is held back by others who think that he is too short to be a starting player in the NBA. Robinson also deals with the misnomer that he is not intelligent enough to be a point guard in the NBA. Nate Robinson is one of the most exciting players in the National Basketball association and was a source of excitement for Knicks fans who’ve had to struggle through a string of losing seasons the last few years. Now with the Boston Celtics Robinson will have his chance to gain recognition on the big stage.

No Go For The A.I. Show

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:39:02 GMT

Synopsis

After the Yankees won the world series the New York Knicks had a chance to keep the excitement going in NYC by bring in free agent Allen Iverson. They chose not to and that was absolutely the wrong move.

Story

At the end of Larry brown’s single season coaching the New York Knicks on March 31st 2006 his former player Allen Iverson, then with the Philadelphia 76’ers, came to New York where he faced a rookie who loves to tell people to this day, every chance he gets, that one of his greatest inspirations growing up was A.I. That night five foot eight Nate Robinson dropped 34 points against Iverson and the Sixers. After the game inside the visiting locker room Iverson spoke in front of a large media contingent who had waited patiently for him to appear in front of his locker for some postgame conversation.

Earlier that season on November 26th 2005 Philadelphia made their first trip to Madison Square Garden, and with the score tied in the final seconds New York had the ball for the final shot.   Coach Larry Brown designed the final shot of the game for Nate Robinson. Robinson was guarded by Iverson on that final possession and went down the court and nailed a three point shot over Iverson at the buzzer to give New York a 105-102 victory.

As Iverson spoke in front of the media on that night in late March he smiled and talked glowingly about the 34 point night Robinson had just had against him and told everyone that Robinson reminds him a lot of himself.

Earlier this week the future hall of famer Iverson was released from his contract with the lowly Memphis Grizzles and there was much speculation that the New York Knicks would sign him and bring him in for the remainder of the season. It would have been great to see Iverson and Robinson, a two-time dunk champion and easily the most popular player among the garden faithful, team up together in the Knicks backcourt for the remaining 70 plus games of the season. As the Knicks debated internally whether or not to bring Iverson to the team Robinson reiterated again his respect for Iverson at a Knicks practice earlier in the week by telling New York reporters the reason he wears a sleeve on his arm during games is because he watched A.I. do it first. The Knicks however chose to take a pass on Iverson, which is disappointing all the way around.

The Knicks are in the process of what will be a ninth straight losing season. Before this streak began the Knicks were one year removed from having a run of nine consecutive years of making it out of the first round of the playoffs. Knicks fans have had nothing to get excited about since. After four and a half years of Isiah Thomas running the franchise as president of basketball operations from 2004 through 2008 owner James Dolan showed Thomas the door and brought in longtime Indiana Pacers top basketball executive Donnie Walsh. Walsh’s mission statement from day one has been to get the Knicks far enough under the NBA salary cap where they will have a chance at signing one or two big name free agents in the summer of 2010. But if one of those two names who are brought in to help resurrect the Knicks next summer are not Lebron James and/or Dwayne Wade then Knicks management under Donnie Walsh will be batting .000.

The Knicks do not bring A.I. to the world’s most famous arena and they like to tell us their reasoning behind this is they don’t want to interrupt the development of their young players. But the only development the young players of the Knicks have experienced since wearing the orange and blue for most of the last decade has been losing. A condition that has marinated deep inside the franchise and has been apparent every time the team has taken the court over most of that time.      This losing environment more than anything else is a detriment to the young Knicks who the organization says they are trying to protect and who they want so badly to develop. The losing atmosphere has prevailed inside the halls of Madison square garden, and no matter what kind of talent the team has brought in on the court or on the sidelines the past few years the team has not been able to shake this losing mentality. It’s an atmosphere where the Madison Square garden fans who are tired of all the losing get down on the team quick at the first sign of bad play.   It’s an atmosphere that includes a locker room of players who have never won with the knicks, never won in the NBA, nor knows how or what it means to win in the NBA period. The franchise has been beaten down so much by losing that there is no real belief from anyone inside that Knicks locker room that they can be a respectable team because none of the current Knicks players have felt success like that with the team and none of them probably even remember a time when the franchise was respectable on the court. This has been the biggest factor for the Knicks dismal play the last five seasons.

Continuing to expose these young players to this kind of losing atmosphere will do more harm than help no matter how much time they get to play on the court the remainder of the season. Iverson is a proud competitor and would not have put up with being a part of a Knicks team who have rolled over many times over the last few years as the opponent embarrassed them on a nightly basis. If the Knicks had brought in Iverson he would’ve garnered more respect in that locker room than any Knick currently does. The moment he entered everyone would know the success Iverson has had and the winner he has been in the league despite never being a part of a championship team. Bringing in Iverson not only would have caused mass excitement among the fans but it would have brought a whole lot of excitement to the Knicks locker room as well. For all the baggage we hear that Iverson would have brought to the Knicks he may have been the best remedy for a locker room that has known nothing but losing and embarrassment since joining the organization. He would have brought a fight to the team and a fire that New Yorkers would have loved.

When Donnie Walsh came in last season and immediately traded Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph two weeks into the season after the club had gotten off to a good start with a winning record Knicks management made it clear that their plan was to have money available under the salary cap in the summer of 2010 so they can offer the world to Lebron James and/or Dwayne Wade. The organization sacrificed last season and this season and told us that winning ball games was not the top priority until the calendar hits the summer of 2010. The Knicks can say all they want about how not brining in Iverson will allow them to play their young players. If the Knicks were so worried about their young players playing then why is their 8th overall pick in the draft forward Jordan Hill hardly ever on the court? He has already had seven DNP's and the team has only played 13 games. Furthermore, the only other young players the Knicks have any real eye on keeping are Danillo Galinari, Wilson Chandler, and Tony Douglass, none of these men would have hardly seen their playing time affected. Galinari and Chandler would have remained in the starting lineup and Douglass would have continued his role off the bench and the Knicks could have banished current starting point guard Chris Duhon to the bench and sacrificed his minutes.

There is a rookie point guard, Brandon Jennings, playing for Milwaukee who a week ago came 3 points shy of Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time single game rookie scoring record with 55 points, who the Knicks had the opportunity to select in last June’s draft and passed. With the Knicks getting off to their worst start in franchise history Knicks management could have thrown the Knicks fans a bone by bringing Iverson to the team for the rest of the season. Iverson has never played in New York and has no association with the city, but he has that kind of swagger, respect, street cred, and game that New Yorkers have always admired and if the Knicks had given Iverson the keys to the Garden for the remainder of the season and let him start, the A.I. show would have been in full effect and Knicks fans would have loved it.

If Iverson played well there could have been a chance that the Knicks could have decided to bring the future hall of famer back for next season when the other stars come to town. There would have been more excitement at the garden this season than there has been in the building in years, but Knicks management chose to be conservative and not make a move that seemingly the overwhelming majority of Knicks fans wanted to see happen. The Knicks passed up making the popular move and if they don’t bring Lebron or Wade to the city next summer it’s hard to see Walsh and D’Antoni being popular with anyone who bleeds orange and blue.

Rising Black Stars

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:46:53 GMT

Synopsis

After just three African-American ball players made the major league baseball all-star game in 2008, ten made the team in 2009. They had a big impact on the game, possibly creating a revival of the many exciting African-American players seen in year's past.

Story

Last summer during the final season of Yankee stadium when Major league baseball held their annual mid-summer classic in the house that Ruth built there was a lot of magic in the air for a celebration that brought nearly every living hall of famer to the Bronx. The All-star festivities featured the greatest performance in the history of the homerun derby as Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton, making his first appearance in an all-star game, took a run at reaching the moon with a few of his monstrous shots into the Bronx night, as he set a home run derby single round record with 28 jacks.   Fans who packed into the most historic ball park in the game’s history, or watched at home on their television sets got to see all the baseball they possibly could have wished for as the contest ended with the American League winning in 15 innings over a time of 4:50 which set the record for the longest all-star game in terms of time, and tied the 1967 All-star game as the longest in terms of innings. But there was something missing, and the moment didn’t seem right to some of the games past greats who were in attendance.

Out of the 67 players on both the American league and National league rosters in 2008, just three were African-American, the lowest number of African-American ball players in an all-star game since 1948, one year after Jackie Robinson broke the sport’s color barrier, when there were none. Past stars of the game from Joe Morgan and Don Baylor to Ernie Banks all expressed to me their disappointment with the small number of African-American ball players in the all-star game. Joe Morgan who has been a part of the espn broadcast team, who brings the homerun derby to the nation, for years, spoke before Josh Hamilton’s all-time derby performance about how the 08’ derby would be different from any he ever covered because there were no African-American nor Latin ball players participating in the derby.

Derek Jeter, Milton Bradley, and Grady Sizemore were the only African-American ball players in the 2008 game, and only Bradley was born to two African-American parents. “You don’t want to T anybody off with anything you say, I’ve already done enough of that,” said Milton Bradley at last summer’s all-star game. “But right now who do they promote? ‘They promote Ryan Howard, but really you can’t think of anybody else, Barry Bonds the greatest homerun hitter of all-time gets crucified.”   Barry Bonds whether fair or not, has become the face of the steroids era because of the way he hit 73 homeruns in 2001 to set the single season homerun record, and then the way he surpassed Henry Aaron as the all-time career homerun king, all of which has been put into serious question with countless reports of Bonds’ steroids use over the latter part of his career.

Bonds and many other ball players of his era provided the long ball for fans at an all-time clip which many can argue helped attract excitement to the sport because the homerun is the most awe-striking play on a baseball diamond. The 2009 All-star game however, held in St. Louis Missouri, did not feature any of the top 10 active career homerun hitters, and the number of African-American players in the game rose from 3 a year ago to 10. Five were first time all-stars, ball players who can bring a lot of excitement to the baseball community and possibly generate some excitement with the young African-American demographic who seem to identify more with the athletes of the NBA and NFL than those of major league baseball. The increase of African-Americans in the2009 all-star game contributed to a focus of speed and defense in the game, and a number of the African-American ball players put their stamp on the game.

The game winning run was driven in and scored by African-American ball players Adam Jones of Baltimore and Detroit’s Curtis Granderson, and the MVP of the game for the American league, who won for the 13th consecutive time (2002 all-star game ended in a tie), was Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford who became the first position player to win All-star game MVP without driving in a run in the game since Willie Mays in 1968. In fact the speedy Crawford did not score a run in the game either and Jones, Granderson, and Crawford finished the game for the American league in the outfield, in large part because of their speed and athletic ability which made for a superb defensive outfield during the most critical part of the game. Crawford who went 1 for 3 in the game robbed Colorado’s Brad Hawpe of a potential go ahead homerun in the 7th inning which allowed Jones and Granderson to produce the go ahead run in the 8th inning that gave the American league the win. The catch was so spectacular and came at such an important time in the game that it prompted those in the press box to name him game MVP.

To close things out New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera polished off the American league in the 9th inning collecting his 4th all-star game save of his career which is an all-time record. This was preceded by Milwaukee Brewers star Prince Fielder winning the homerun derby the night before and President Barack Obama throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the all-star game. Rivera will be the last player to wear the uniform number 42 of Jackie Robinson, and the dream Jackie had for major league baseball sure looks a lot brighter after the 2009 all-star showcase.

Rose wit' a lil' Mayo

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:29:22 GMT

Synopsis

With two months to go in the basketball season, Chicago's Derrick Rose and Memphis' O.J. Mayo are the top two contenders for rookie of the year honors. They both speak with Wbai Sports about their new beginnings.

Story

Leading up to last June’s NBA draft, the overwhelming choice amongst NBA executives and media types over who was the best player in the Draft was University of Memphis point guard Derrick Rose. The Chicago Bulls agreed and selected the hometown product Rose with the first overall pick in the 2008 draft. Rose, like most high school ball players, was a relative unknown before bursting onto the national scene in his one and only year in college at the University of Memphis. Another guard selected 2 picks after Rose with the 3^rd overall pick by the Memphis Grizzlies, O.J. Mayo out of USC, has been widely known to basketball fans for a few years. Now, with about two-thirds of their rookie season complete, the two rookie guards are the leading candidates for NBA rookie of the year. Rose and Mayo resemble a similar connection with another pair of exciting guards who were selected early in the 1996 NBA draft, Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury. One is a typical point guard while the other is a cold blooded scorer.

When Iverson and Marbury came out of college in 96’, Marbury was a freshman and Iverson was a sophomore. Mayo and Rose entered the draft following their freshman seasons. In 96’ Iverson was as dynamic a guard the game of college basketball had seen in ages. In his two seasons at Georgetown, the six foot playmaker, with the size of a point guard, displayed great ball handling ability, but had the scoring mentality and game of a shooting guard. A man who rose up on seven footers in the lane and stuffed it down in their faces. Marbury was a star point guard from New York City who got all the hype of a New York City high school legend. He had a similar game and ability to Iverson, except Marbury didn’t rang up as many numbers in the points category but always dished out a heck of a lot more assists than Iverson. The point was that both guards could do both well but their strengths were slightly different.

Leading up to that 96’ draft, the big talk, surrounded over which one would end up having the better career. Many looked at Iverson as the guy who would put on a “highlight reel” type performance on a night in and night out basis, while Marbury, who was looked at as a true point guard who could make other players around him better, was widely considered the one who would be a bigger winner because of his ability to be a true point guard and get all his teammates involved. Iverson, the all-world scorer was selected first overall by Philadelphia while Marbury was taken fourth by Milwaukee, then immediately traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Ray Allen.

After Lebron James was coveted out of high school and later selected with the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft, O.J. Mayo took the role, along with center Greg Oden, as the next can’t miss future NBA prospect. Oden and Mayo were both covered by national publications early in their high school years, including by sports illustrated. Mayo was the guard who always had the rock in his hands which gave him the opportunity to dazzle and showcase his talents. O.J. who was raised in Huntington, West Virginia, made his rounds around the AAU basketball circuit which led to his rising national popularity. O.J. played the early part of his high school basketball career at North college Hill high school in Cincinnati, Ohio where he led his school to three consecutive AP poll titles. He also won Mr. Basketball of Ohio honors in his sophomore and junior seasons before returning to West Virginia and enrolling at Hunnington High School for his senior season.

Derrick Rose’s star on the national scene wasn’t born quite as early as that of O.J. Mayo, but he too had a standout high school career, winning two consecutive state championships at Chicago’s Simeon career academy. In 2007, he was named Mr. Basketball of the state of Illinois. He then moved on to the University of Memphis where his pure package of athleticism, power, speed, and smarts immediately grabbed the attention of the sporting nation. Following the recent success of NBA point guards Chris Paul, Steve Nash, and Deron Williams, and the positive effect they each had on their teams rapid rise up the standings, Rose was looked at early in his freshman season as a franchise changing player. However, aroud this time a year ago, before the start of the NCAA tournament, neither Rose or Mayo was really looked upon as the guy who would be the first player selected in the June draft. Instead it was Kansas State University rookie forward Michael Beasley. After march madness and the NCAA tournament, in which Rose led Memphis to the national championship game, and a heartbreaking loss to the University of Kansas in overtime, there was little debate that it would be Rose who be selected first overall.

Now in their rookie seasons, Rose and Mayo have reached the “The Show”, fulfilling a lifelong dream “It’s great,” said O.J. Mayo of his rookie season in the NBA “I had an opportunity to fight my whole life to get to this point, and to finally get here is pretty exciting for me and I’m just looking forward to getting better each and every night.” Mayo leads all rookies in scoring this season with an average of 19.4 points per game, while Rose is 2^nd with an average of 16.9 points per game but leads all rookies with an average of 6.4 assists per game. Guys like Rose and Mayo are no doubt basketball crazy, love the sport, and have never been ones to shy away from any opportunity to play the sport. But you would have to think that one of the biggest obstacles for any rookie would be adjusting their body to the physical grind that comes with playing a six month 82 game NBA schedule. “It definitely does” says O.J. Mayo “it’s a tough league and there’s really no easy nights. Every night is a fight, so you’ve got to just continue to work hard and get better.” Neither Mayo nor Rose has missed a game this season “I’m eating right, sleeping right, I’m just getting a lot of rest and I really don’t go out like that.” Derrick Rose tells Wbai Sports about how he’s been able to keep his body from breaking down during the long NBA season, “I’m just listening to all my vets and seeing what they do, taking ice baths and all that stuff, so right now I’m feeling good.”

Generally, in a high school or college season, the most games on a basketball schedule is somewhere between 30 and 40. “So many games in a short amount of time,” Mayo tells wbai Sports about his biggest adjustment to NBA life, “And every night having a tough player to compete against, there are no easy nights, no easy days, only the strong survive in this league.” Mayo acknowledges that in the off-season he has to get stronger so in his words he can hold his ground against “some of the stronger players in this league.” When asked who his toughest matchups are in the NBA Rose chuckles and says “Everybody,” “This is the best competition in the world, every night you’re playing against somebody good, so it’s hard,” he continued “everything is hard, all this new traveling, trying to eat and sleep right, learning the plays as a point guard, learning the opponents plays, all that stuff is hard.”

The NBA and the sport of basketball period, is all about the show. A game that’s mixed with a lot of showmanship in between the fierce competition. O.J. Mayo knows a thing or two about putting on a show and how to promote and draw attention to himself. Coming out of high school he choose to attend the University of Southern California because the school has forever been known as a football school, and Mayo wanted to step foot on campus under the L.A. lights, and make the basketball team a power as well. O.J. wanted to throw his name and talents into the mix under the L.A. spotlight, with the special USC football names such as; Matt Leinart, Carson Palmer, Troy Polamalu, Reggie Bush, and the rest. Mayo even considered doing something which would have been extremely big and ground breaking. Before deciding to attend USC he considered going to a historically black university, something we never see from the top black athletes of our time. If Mayo would have chosen this route, he sure enough would have created a lot of buzz, because again, the basketball masses knew this kid’s name all throughout his high school career.

Nevertheless, when it comes to some of the players who inspired him to want to make a living out of making incredible things happen with the rock, Mayo points to one of the finest products ever produced from a historically black university “Earl Monroe,” O.J. says, “I’m a really big fan of the older players because back then it didn’t matter if you were 6’4 or 6’2, they just played ball, whether it was point guard or two guard, they really just went out there and played hard and competed well so I’m a big fan of those players.” Interesting for a kid who was born seven years after the pearl retired from the sport “A guy in my neighborhood who really liked his game talked to me about him a lot when I was younger, he found some tapes for me to watch and once I saw those tapes I really became a big fan, the way he played real smooth with a bob to his game, he really had a lot of fun.” Mayo says.

Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls have the best chance of making the playoffs when it comes between them and O.J. Mayo’s Memphis Grizzlies. At the time of this article the Chicago Bulls are a game and a half out of the final playoff spot in the eastern conference with two months remaining in the season, while Memphis stands 18 games removed from the final playoff spot in the western conference, which has them looking towards next year and the future for any possible playoff talk. “We’re a young team, and us growing together is pretty interesting, we’re all going through the same difficult stages, it’s just trying to turn it around and become a good team, we have each other, it’s not going to be easy but I think we’re a team that can fight this uphill battle and become a good team.” Says Mayo. The Grizzles franchise which originated in Vancouver has only been in existence for 14 seasons and still has never won a playoff game. So Mayo and his fellow Grizzles have a long ways to go before they change the aura surrounding the Memphis Grizzlies. As far as individual awards go, if all things are pretty much even, they are usually given to the player whose team does the most winning. So if Rose is able to push the Bulls into the playoffs this spring he could come away with rookie of the year honors “If it comes with me winning I’ll take it but if we don’t make the playoffs then it really wouldn’t mean nothing.” As far as whether Rose speaks with his fellow rookies around the league he says “I don’t talk to them like that, we have a busy schedule.” Like Iverson and Marbury, Rose and Mayo will be linked together in NBA history. It will be fun to watch whether or not these two young guards will surpass the heights of the two who came before them in 96.’

Blame Commish and Media

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:42:53 GMT

Synopsis

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and the baseball writers of America must take the most blame for the steroids era, writes Samori Benjamin.

Story

With the allegation, and then, the admittance of steroid use from New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriquez, major league baseball has officially been tarnished, and to a certain degree ruined. None of the other major professional sports leagues in the United States have damaged their brand more than the protectors of the national pastime. The commissioner of Major League Baseball, Bud Selig, has to take the biggest responsibility in what we now know as the steroids era. An era that has contaminated and tainted the baseball record book. A record book that’s always been the most sacred among all the rest, in a sport that’s largely about the numbers.

Major League Baseball never had an official steroids test until 2004. The idea of no steroids testing was a joke. Professional sports is an arena where it’s the survival of the fittest. If you are not testing for a drug that enhances athletic performance, you have to expect players to use. Baseball players have to provide for their families like everyone else. The sport is the means by which they earn their living, and it’s a business. Baseball team executives want to win, and the best way to judge whether a player will help you win is by looking at their numbers. Numbers that are pulled out at the bargaining table when an athlete states his case for a contract. The bigger the numbers the more millions a ball player can command.   Steroids enhance the numbers. We all grew up as kids hearing and seeing steroids testing at the Olympics and knew it was a drug that would turn you into superman. A magical poison injected into your rear that would give you an unfair advantage. So what did the governing body of major league baseball and the commissioner think was going to happen?

The duties of the commissioner clearly states he must defend what is in “the best interest of baseball.” The commissioner and the governing body of major league baseball are the police of the sport. They are supposed to uphold the tradition and integrity of the game, and there is no way the commissioner’s office could not have known or at least had a high degree of suspicion that ball players were using the juice. To think anything else would be extremely naïve, and there is no way people who are around the game the way the commissioner and his officials are, could be that naïve. It starts at the top, and the commissioner and his executives presided over an era that’s now made the league look like a joke.

The biggest dynamic in the entire steroids conversation are the baseball fans. Baseball fans are the reason major league baseball has a steroids test in place today. For many years, it was not public knowledge that baseball players were not being tested for steroids. Baseball fans just always assumed major leaguers were being tested for steroids. Then everything changed with the Balco laboratory bust in the California bay area in 2003, where major leaguers from Barry Bonds to Jason Giambi were linked to steroids use, and more specifically a designer steroid, that was undetectable on a steroids test, which were being created and distributed to athletes by the company.

The Balco case was the first episode that revealed to the public that major league baseball had neither a steroids policy nor a test. If the public knew this before 2003, the suspicion level towards ball players would have been significant way before 03’, and the public would have demanded credibility and steroids testing in the sport. Which is what happened when the feds busted Balco in the 2nd half of 2003, and players were therefore linked to steroids, the evidence went to a grand jury, there was an indictment, grand jury testimony of New York Yankee Jason Giambi was leaked, which immediately caused the public to question every homerun hit in the major leagues over the preceding 10 to 15 years.

The public was outraged and wanted answers, and that is what got congress involved. In early 2005, America’s elected officials marched baseball commissioner Bud Selig and the director of MLB’s players association, Donald Fehr, up to Capitol Hill to explain why there had never been steroids testing in the sport. A few weeks later, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, Curt Schilling, and Sammy Sosa were called to the capital to discuss the degree of steroids use in baseball. After that embarrassment major league baseball and the players association agreed to enact a steroids policy in which a first positive test immediately resulted in suspension without pay. There is no doubt had the public known there was no steroids testing in the sport in 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa had their dramatic pursuit of Roger Marris’ single season homerun record, the whole thing would have been played under heavy suspicion, and whether these guys were cheating or not would have been a big part of the daily conversation. But that wasn’t the case, and there wasn’t a thought on anyone’s mind that these guys possibly could have been using.

So we watched the homerun chase day after day in that summer of 98’ like it was something magical.   Something that was saving the sport which had crippled itself with a mid-season strike in the summer of 1994. Then three years later, after McGwire set a new single season homerun record finishing with 70 homeruns, Barry Bonds comes along and shatters the record that had previously been held for 36 years before McGwire captured it, finishing the 2001 season with 73 homers. And still, during the whole time, both homerun chases were looked upon with amazement and as being great for the sport. There was no public outcry from anyone, that, maybe, possibly, it could have all been aided by steroids. Because the public was not aware that zero percent of major baseball players were tested for steroids.

Another critical aspect of the steroids discussion is the role or non role the baseball writers played. The baseball writers cannot go unscathed, they deserve blame for this era as well. The baseball writers of America are the ones who vote for the hall of fame. On the hall of fame ballot there is an integrity clause which a lot of writers like to point to whenever they give reasoning for why they left someone off their ballot who is worthy of induction. It is the baseball writers role to be the watchful eye over the game, to call out nonsense, to expose the truth, and to make the figures inside the sport accountable. If at any time during the steroids era the baseball writers would have written and informed the public that major league ball players were not being tested for steroids, they would have drawn a lot of attention to the subject which would have set the forces in motion that would have led to steroids testing in baseball. But instead it took the Balco scandal to begin to shed light on the entire issue. Did the baseball writers not know major leaguers were not being tested for steroids? Or did they know and decided to not make an issue of it? We cannot forget the influence and the power of persuasion that the media has over the public. As much as baseball writers and other members of the media love to get into everyone’s business and break bombshell stories, we didn’t hear a word from anyone in the media about the possibility of steroids use in the game.   The baseball writers let the entire era take place right under their noses, and missed the story.

The baseball players association did everything they possibly could to avoid their players to being subjected to steroids testing. But that’s what union’s do, they protect their players. Yes, this makes the players association very guilty as well for what took place over the last 15 years in the sport. The baseball owners knew what was going on as well, but they are about making money, and power and homeruns draw fans and their dollars to the game. No one can seriously expect the players and the owners to blow the whistle on something that was profitable for them both. This is why the baseball commissioner and those inside the major league offices are the ones who must take most of the blame for what went on in the steroids era. He likes to say that he was really unaware of the rampant steroids inside the game, and he likes to say that he wanted a steroids test in place a long time ago but that he never happened because the players union would not agree to it during negotiations of a new collective bargaining agreement. If the latter is true, then again, he could have used the baseball writers and the rest of the media to drive home the fact that his players were cheating. It’s as simple as that. Instead, the commissioner turned a blind eye, while those in the media slept the story entirely.

Lighting Rod

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:56:03 GMT

Synopsis

With the acquisition of closer Francisco Rodriquez, the New York Mets fill their biggest hole by adding a man who holds the single season saves record. Rodriquez also gives the Mets another guy who loves to dance on the field. Something they have not been able to back up. They've fired up division rivals in the process, and it has cost them.

Story

The Mets now sign closer Francisco Rodriquez to a $37 million deal over three seasons so he can finish what the Mets could not a season ago. When they blew 29 saves and surrendered 61 homeruns after the 7^th inning. Then found themselves one game out of a playoff spot when the final team crossed the finish line of the 162 game marathon. This after they had the worse mid-September collapse in baseball history in 2007. Rodriquez last season set a new saves record with 62 while pitching for the Anaheim Angels. No question the Mets filled their biggest off-season need, not only by landing Rodriquez, but also by trading for Seattle closer J.J. Putz, who saved 76 games between 2006 and 2007, before he missed a lot of last season with rib and elbow injuries. Putz will setup for Rodriquez, and the Mets hope this flame throwing duo can give the Mets the best late game bullpen in the sport since John Wetteland and Mariano Rivera in 1996.

Rodriquez, who has the nickname “K-Rod” because of his strikeout prowess, adds a lot to the Mets and upgrades the talent level, but Rodriquez sure brings another quality that will keep the fuel burning between them and their national league east division rivals.

In 2006 the New York Mets had themselves a great season. They ran away with the division from the start of the season and did not look back. Everything came together for a team who had tremendous talent sprinkled throughout the lineup. They danced and celebrated through every win all season long. Jose Reyes carried on with teammates inside and outside of the Mets dugout whenever he or a teammate did something special. It seemed as if the shortstop with the innocent mega mega-watt smile had a different handshake for each teammate. We looked at the surface of it and saw a team mixed with youth and veterans, and we thought all the theatrics the Mets exhibited on the field was good for team chemistry and represented a team united.

We took a look cross-town at the boys in the Bronx and saw them mired in their annual mid-season struggles, a team filled with veterans who had been together for awhile without accomplishing the World Series goal. The Yankees businesslike approach looked unenthusiastic and stiff, in a going through the motions type of way. They were hardly as outgoing as their 2006 counterparts over in Queens, and some of us used this as insight into where both teams were headed. Then we saw the Yankees go out listlessly in the first round to the Detroit Tigers. Unfortunately for the Mets, they were upset in the National league championship series against St. Louis and failed to make the World Series. The Mets failed to back up all the dancing they did at the feet of their opponents all season long. The only thing they accomplished that season was bad will directed at them from the rest of their division. Baseball is a game where too much outward emotion and chest boasting gets frowned upon. A sport where the old-timers insist, back in the day, a batter would've had a pitch thrown towards his neck had he or his teammates conducted themselves in such an animated manner.

Since last season there were rumors that the other teams in the national league east had a genuine dislike for the Mets in between the white lines. All because teams became annoyed by the Mets exploits on the field, and they all had their noses rubbed in it when the Mets were Kings of the division and steamrolling through everybody. After the Philadelphia Phillies won the world series this past October shortstop Jimmy Rollins noted to reporters that he believed a big reason for the Mets September collapse the last two seasons had to do with the fact that other teams in the N.L. East gave it their all against the Mets, even though they themselves had nothing to play for, because they had a dislike for the Mets resulting from all their on field shenanigans over the years.

Now the Mets bring in Rodriquez. A man who has no problem letting loose of his emotions in mound. After every strikeout he emotionally pumps his fists on the mound and shouts from his mouth. After each save the Venezuelan righty wails his arms emotionally towards the air with his head looking up at the sky as if he’s taking part in some sort of ritual ceremony towards the ancestors. Rodriquez even found himself in tension last season after opposing teams took offense to his animated and style, and words were exchanged. Rodriquez now becomes another member of the Mets who will draw haters to the new house of citi field, in the opposing dugout, come April 2009. His extroverted style will add more fuel to the fire of hate that burns in the belly of the Mets division rivals. It won’t hurt any that Rodriquez has already gone on record that the Mets will win the national league east division in 2009. How many more days until pitchers and catchers report to Port St. Lucie?

Not Worthy Of Cooperstown

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:17:43 GMT

Synopsis

Over his 18 year career Mike Mussina had some of the best "stuff" of any pitcher in the game. To bad he didn't pitch to the ability of his stuff because he was not a great pitcher.

Story

Last month New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina announced he was retiring from major League baseball at age 39 after an 18 year career. Even though there were reports that Mussina would bid adieu to the Yankees and Major League Baseball before the announcement became official on November 20^th, Mussina’s retiring is still a shocking one. After reaching the elusive 20 win mark for the first time in his career this past season, Mussina chose to retire to his home in Pennsylvania and spend quality time with the family, rather than continuing to chase a few career highlights, that if reached, would make him a sure shot hall of famer. Without it, it is very questionable whether Mussina should walk through the hallowed grounds of Cooperstown.

Mussina’s retirement is an admirable one. We can count on one hand the athletes who have left the game they love while still on the top of their game. Mussina leaves without winning a World Series championship, which all the great athletes chase to cement the legacy of their careers. Mussina also passes on the opportunity to play in the New Yankee Stadium which opens next season, an experience that’s worth hanging around for another season all in itself. The final carrot that made Mussina’s retirement surprising is the fact that he currently sits on 270 career wins, 30 shy of 300. Every pitcher who has won 300 games and is eligible for the hall of fame, is in. Without achieving these career milestones he should not be elected to the hall of Fame. In the end, Mike Mussina was a pitcher with great stuff but was never a great pitcher.

Mussina entered the 2008 season on the final year of a two year contract that paid him a little over $10 million per year. The season before in 2007, Mussina struggled all season long, this followed a few shaky seasons previous to that, and it appeared that the wheels to his career were finally coming off at the hedges. He pitched to a 5.15 E.R.A., the worst in his career by a whole lot. He lost his starting spot, and it looked as if the Yankees would have been better off to cut ties with him and eat their losses for what they owed him on the final year of the deal. Then out of nowhere in 2008, against much opposition from both media and fans alike, Mussina was brought back and had a fantastic season winning 20 games and posting a 3.37 E.R.A., his best since his first season in the Bronx in 2001.

The fact that 2008 was Mussina’s best season in pinstripes since 2001 is a damning testimony to his case for the hall of fame. Mussina won 17 games that season. His highest win total between then and 2008 was 18 in 2002. Mussina played for Yankee teams that had dominant lineups which were relentless in the regular season, winning their division year after year. But he was unable to post a 20 win season before 2008. A performance that had very little impact on the Yankees season. After all, they were sitting at home in October for the first time since 1993. Mussina never got close, really, to winning 20 games with the Yankees in any other season. With the Yankees, Mussina never had a season where he pitched to an E.R.A. under 3.00. The only time he did, in a season in which he started more than 12 games, was once in 1992. Mussina had his moments on the mound with the Yankees where he was brilliant, but he never looked like a pitcher who was capable of carrying his team to a World Series run, even with all the offensive muscle he had backing him up. Over this same period, the Yankees spent hundreds of millions of dollars on pitchers acquired from other organizations who they hoped would be the ace pitcher they needed. If the Yankees had felt they had themselves a big-time ace all along, they would have stopped the search along time ago and saved themselves many millions and aggravation from deals gone bad. I.e. Kevin Brown, Roger Clemens circa 2007, Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa, Jared Wright, and Randy Johnson.

Mike Mussina retires with a career record of 270-153. Almost every pitcher in major league baseball history who has won 100 more games than they have lost have been elected to the hall of fame. But numbers can deceive and mislead sometimes, thus the case for Mike Mussina. Far too many times he cried about having to pitch in less than ideal circumstances, whether it was the weather, some kind of interference in his pre-game routine, or having to pitch in Japan, there was always something. The Hall of Fame is a sacred place that should only belong to the best of the best. A player who is more than an all-star. Someone who was dominant on the field, approaching heights reached by only a handful of players in the history of the game. That pitcher is not Mike Mussina.

Mussina spent the first ten seasons of his career with the Baltimore Orioles where he made his name. He was often talked about in the same breath as the top pitchers in the game. He had tremendous stuff, including a Sl-urve pitch which was categorized as a half curveball, half slider. But Mussina never pitched up to the hype that others spoke of him. With the Orioles in the 90’s he pitched for a collection of teams who were good and competed with the Yankees for the American League East pennant. He matched up against the Yankees a few times in big games during his time in Baltimore and often failed to get the job done. Mussina never won 20 games in Baltimore, nor did he win the Cy Young award.

In 2001, Mussina was given a six year free agent contract by the Yankees, and was supposed to be the team’s next great ace. A pitcher who was going to pick up where the great Yankee pitchers of the late 90’s left off, and continue the legacy of championship success. Mussina’s first Yankee postseason saw him have what might have been his best start ever in Pinstripes. Down 2 games to none on the road against the Oakland Athletics and facing elimination from the first round Mussina was on the top of his game in the third game of the series. Unhittable. Throwing seven scoreless innings in a 1-0 victory which led to the Yankees rallying to win the series 3-2. The Yankees and Mussina would eventually go on to lose the World Series in seven games to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

A knock on Mussina’s game is that he was a pitcher with tremendous stuff but too often failed to fight through games in which he did not have his best stuff. On a rough night when he gave up a few early runs, he was more likely to continue to get rocked as opposed to fighting through the adversity and still being able to give his team six or seven innings. Mussina certainly was not a grinder. He either had it or he didn’t. One such moment however where this was not the case was in game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox. A performance that has almost gone down in Yankees lore. Roger Clemens was on the wrong end of a duel against his former team and Pedro Martinez, a pitcher who certainly will; be a first ballot hall of famer. Clemens was a first ballot hall of famer as well in 2003. But a lot has changed since then.

Clemens was knocked out of the game in the third inning down 4-0 with runners on first and third and no outs. Mussina was summoned out of the bullpen for the first time in his career. He proceeded to retire the Red Sox without allowing another run, and then pitched two more scoreless innings. The Yankees rallied to win the game 6-5 on Aaron “bleeping” Boone’s homerun, and they had Mike Mussina to thank for giving them another trip to the World Series, and another moment where they added to Boston’s 86 years of misery.

Mussina had 123 wins in his Yankees career. One could argue he was the beneficiary of a great Yankee team behind him, one that made the postseason 13 consecutive seasons. If Mussina were truly a pitcher worthy of being elected into the hall of fame, shouldn’t he have been able to post a 20 win season a lot sooner than before his final season in the Bronx? He was never even the best pitcher in the game or in his league. He never made an all-star team with the Yankees and he never had a moment in his career that defined greatness. Defining moments like Curt Shilling knocking off the Yankees in two separate post seasons that led to his team’s winning the world series. Both times he had a big hand in putting an end to long streaks. Or John Smoltz who has one of the best postseason resumes of all-time, with 210 wins and another 154 saves. These two contemporaries of Mussina will not have reached some of the historic milestones either, that Mussina failed to reach, whenever they decide to call it quits. But when Schilling and Smoltz were at their best they were great and as good as any pitcher in the business. They both have World Series rings to show for it. Something Mussina will never have. If he pitched like a true ace in Baltimore the Yankees might not have ever started their late 90’s dynasty with their first world series win in 96’, when Mussina’s Orioles lost to the Yankees in the ALCS. And if Mussina had pitched like an ace with the Yankees they might not be in a seven year drought of winning the world series. A drought that began the season he stepped foot in the boogie down.