Cavs, Cup, and MLB update

- John Quirk

So little to do, so much time… No really I’m not trying to be cute or bite Willy Wanka, I just graduated college and have no serious job yet so getting this blog done is the least I can afford mankind. Here we go.

Try as they might to will it to be, Nike couldn’t get their dream match-up between Lebron and Kobe. If you caught the ESPN piece on AAU coaches and the corruption that is taking place, maybe it is time to re-examine just how much we are letting this conglomerate get away with. Aside from the fact that it is running American joke that Nike uses slave labor to produce their ridiculously priced kicks, now we are looking at the overtake of a sport and possibly an industry. I’m not going to start a “in a time of economic despair” because this is a sports blog and my mind cares not to delve into such things, but let me just say that I am glad that both did not make it in, despite the fact that I probably would have watched every game.

From the pure basketball side of things my prediction rang true and no one was able to stop the new superman. Cleveland’s stagnant, rely-on-Lebron-for-everything offense was eventually exposed for what it was and a Zydrunas plus a Varejao did not equal a Howard, one of the first things they teach you in school. So what we are left with is a series that a few could probably say they had, but quite honestly not many really predicted. News outlets have had to scramble to break down match-ups for this series because not many people could see past those stupid muppets. We are still all witnesses to the greatness that is Lebron James, but if Cleveland wanted to cut a keep-Lebron-in-Cleveland video montage, it would not start with game film of his supporting cast during this series. This will only fuel the fire of talks to New York and citations of instances of the king donning a fitted Yankee blue. Regardless of the future, for right now he and Ovie will have to wait another year.

What a transition, I should be a writer…

On to the Stanley Cup finals, the culmination of what IS the most grueling schedule of any professional sports league. Anyone who has ever looked at an NHL schedule only to realize it is like a mini MLB schedule, then stopped to think about the physical abuse they have seen a hockey player take over the course of a game, can appreciate these guys stitching themselves together (quite literally sometimes) to play this bearded classic. Now two stand and I have to say despite my man crush on the great 8 from D.C. I am firmly pulling for the penns to pull the upset. First and foremost I despise Marion Hossa for leaving Pittsburgh last year only to sign for less money with the team who just beat him for the cup. That would have been like one of the Mighty Ducks jumping ship after a tough loss to an obviously superior Iceland team. What if Adam Banks had donned the Black and Blue instead of Ducks green? The world would be a very different place my friends… lucky for us all Banks is not near the turncoat that Hossa is and seeing him go down to the team he left, and that wanted to resign him for a big number, would make me warm inside. Second, despite the fact that the Red Wings play literally some of the best hockey I have ever seen, there is something about their perfect nature and the penguins upstart underdog attitude that makes me want to see them pull it off. Maybe as a young buck entering the workplace I’d like to see the young guys who don’t know any better pull it off… or maybe I just can’t stand everyone’s lack of personality on Detroit… either way I am not a fan, never will be, let’s go Penns. Crosby is still a whiner however and Ovie might score 70 next yr…

On to baseball now and so much is always made of New York baseball so why fix something that is broke? Because everyone else does it so let’s take a look around the league first, starting with the Rangers and Nolan Ryan and all that jazz. This team can straight up mash and that is scary when you consider the ballpark they play in and the seeming lack of pitching in the AL West. Accompanied with what Nolan Ryan is doing with the pitching and their attitudes, I really like this teams outlook for the rest of the season. Age may start to catch up to the Angels and despite Ichiro being out of this planet, The M’s starting pitching might be the most suspect in the division, despite their respectable ERA’s. And aside from the aforementioned stud, and other than Griffey and Branyan (who will strike out a lot) I hate Seattle’s lineup. Texas has one of my favorite players in the league right now in Ian Kinsler and a kid by the name of Scott Feldman who has an ERA under four and a whip of 1.18 he is pitching deep into games like the rest of this Rangers staff under Ryan’s new “no pitch count” philosophy. Assuming their young arms of Feldman 26 and Brandon McCarthy 25 can continue this trend and crafty vet Kevin Millwood can keep giving this team quality starts, I like their , speed and D, and I love their +36 run differential which is best in the league.

Looking at the standings 60 some odd games into the season, it is starting to become clear in the NL west that the Dodgers are going to be just fine Mannyless. His return should mark the end of the season for all other participants. San Fran can never get out of its own way and I find Arizona to be a disappointment because it seems like you go into every season loving their pitching until something gives, this year it hasn’t (despite the loss of Webb) they are just playing crappy ball and after pulling the fire your manager after 29 games move, they look to be a franchise that doesn’t know where it is going either. The Central is a 3 team race that we all thought it would be with the Cards, Cubs, and Brew Crew all within 5 games of one another. No clue who pulls this one out, but Carlos Zambrono’s ejection of the umpire that erroneously ejected him the other day was literally one of the funniest things I have ever seen, I called/texted at least 20 friends to ensure that they could enjoy in the hilarity. Truly brilliant, let’s go cubbies. Despite their close proximity in the standings, I feel like the teams in the AL central have done a bit more to separate themselves, at least in my mind. The resurgence of Dontrelle Willis could mean Detroit rises to the top, better one year late than never. I think Ozzie will keep them close, but with the AL’s Wild Card representative a sure bet to be out of the East, the White Sox will be going home early come October.

As for that AL East, let’s take notice of the fact that the Yankees have not stumbled out of the gate again and are actually a half game up on the hated Sawx. Remember the last two years when the Yankees had to try to close huge deficits to get into the playoffs? Yea well not this year, Smoltz is old, CC is as good as advertised and Texeira A-Rod is probably the best 3-4 in the league, the “new Manny-Ortiz” as Francesa put it. Boston takes the Wild Card, but the Yanks will be comfortably ahead I think when it is all said and done, it will be Boston’s turn to claw and scrape with the likes of Tampa and LA. This year and all that extra work, combined with Big Papi departing with steroids out of MLB, will mean that beantown sweats it out this summer.

And last but not least my Metsies, oh how I hate you. It’s really true I’ve come to despise this team. The antics and the dances are old, and they only fuel my fire to want to rip each base running blunder and lack of hustle in the field. Few times in my life have I seen such a collection of talent operate so haphazardly. And it starts right at the top. However Ralph Madoff coerced Fred Wilpon into giving him hundreds of millions of dollars to invest, you feel like the same tactic is used to convince everyone in met land that this team, this manager and this GM are doing a good job. People call up Mike Francesa all day long, and some make good points about the Mets and their many ineptitudes, people point to a lack of clutch hitting, loss of the fundamentals, and seeming lack of passion and or respect for this game that has made them famous and rich. All these things are true, yet not one is the root cause of the Mets problems, it starts at the top. The decision makers, and ultimately the authoritarians that govern this body are failing… miserably. How else can you explain all the lapses that people talk about? Have you ever looked at the mets lineup? It is a potential all-star team! Beltran, Delgado, Wright, Reyes, and now Sheffield are all mainstays in the Met dugout and all have a chance to be in the Hall of Fame.

Let that sink in.

Hall of Fame talent, not just all star talent, Hall of Fame talent. People say, well there isn’t a leader… no shit. There isn’t one in the front offices or at the helm, then why would there be one in the dugout? There isn’t and it’s too late now to try to break up this team to bring in someone who they old regime won’t respect anyway, this is the bed that has been made and Queens is laying in it. So for now we are left with this torture, watching this collection of gifted individuals fall flat on their faces. People call it mystique, tradition, it’s what makes the Yankees the Yankees and the Mets just don’t have it. It’s not some supernatural force however, or just that a Yankee hat looks cooler than a Met hat, it is a way of doing things that trickles down from the top. Think George Steinbrenner would have ever been had for hundreds of mills? Me neither, and it hasn’t taken one dollar away from the Mets, and they haven’t HAD to trade Carlos Beltran’s ridiculous salary, it’s just a way of doing business. It became so clearly evident when Fernando Martinez failed to run out a pop fly in only his second major league game with the Amazins. It wasn’t just that Fernando didn’t run out the pop up, while watching the game and play go down, I noticed that upon his return to the dugout Martinez was not berated. I understand there are different ways to skin a cat, but Manuel simply walked by Martinez and then as if he thought of a funny joke he thought the youngster to know turned a said a couple words before walking away. The same guy who ripped Ryan Church a couple weeks ago for making an honest mistake and missing third base trying to score in haste. It got better though in the post game when Manuel all but defended Martinez saying of the act, “"That was really an unfortunate thing for him, but it was a mistake."

Mushroom Cloud…

Unfortunate is what happens to you when you try hard but things don’t pan out. Lazy, boneheaded, stupid and wrong is what happens when you fail to run out a ball you put in play when you are 20 years old and in your second game. What makes Fernando Martinez’s actions “unfortunate” is what makes the Mets a second tier team. Things like this get addressed and handled by big boy organizations who are in the business of winning, not managing a bunch of egos. Fernando Martinez is not some phenom talent who should be above the law by any stretch of the imagination. What he is, is a stark revelation about what the Mets are through and through, a second tier team with a second class way of doing things.