Rained Out

Today is the second straight Mets rainout. It's driving me slightly crazy because I bought MLB GameDay Audio the other day in an effort to keep in better touch with the 'politans, but I guess this is how it goes. Doubleheaders later in the season are exciting for us fans but fuck up pitching rotations and off days and all that shit, especially when you have four-day rest freak show Tommy Glavine on your staff. Nevertheless, this weeks post is both one day late and lacking a coherent focus. I thought of doing a Knicks season in review, but the fact of the matter is I really didn't watch more that fifteen games this whole year. I also thought of putting together an argument for why Keith Hernandez should be elected to the hall of fame, in response to something my professor said in Baseball class last week. I will eventually get to all of this, but first I have some disturbing news:

Piazza hints pinstripes would fit him [NY Daily News]

MOTHER FUCKER! I have nothing but all the respect in the world for this 'man' and what he has done for my people (lord knows we hadn't seen facial hair that awesome in quite some time), but seriously, what the fuck? It's so shitty that nobody has respect for rivalries anymore (Bill Simmons wrote the same thing like a few months ago, I know). Does Mike really not remember this shit? ^^^

Honestly, it would KILL me to see him in a Yankees uniform. Thankfully, this is just one of those stupid fucking Daily News articles that in reality means nothing, but it sucks so much to hear Mike say "I''ll never say never."

Knicks Season in 'Review'
I have to say I am generally underwhelmed with this season. It started out kind of crappy, I know but I was optimistic at the outset: With Dolan's ultimatum I could appreciate every win as a satisfactory moment and I could appreciate every loss as one more game closer to Isaiah getting fired. I was ready to lose many many games, but also excited to see Channing, David, RENALDO(!), Mardy, and to a lesser extent Nate, as well as watching Jamal and Eddy play under a coach they actually respected.

So the season started slowly, and I was content just to ride along and wait until the playoffs (again, but whatever), but all of a sudden we became a pretty exciting team to watch. Now, I have to explain this by saying that me getting excited about the Knicks pretty evenly coincided with coming home and being able to watch the games with regularity (and of course the razzling/dazzling commentary of my second-favorite Just for Men spokesman).

But seriously, I got to see some of the SICKEST games this winter: Marbury's lay-up at the buzzer to beat the Jazz, David Lee's FUCKING UNREAL tip-in against Charlotte (and the priceless shot of Michael F. Jordan getting sassed by Knicks fans after), and the HUGE triple-overtime win over Detroit were easily three of the top ten basketball moments I've had the pleasure to watch on television. Suddenly, in an admittedly second-rate Eastern Conference, the Knicks were in position for a playoff spot. Isaiah's job was safer, but I really didn't care - we were winning and it was so god damn fun to watch.

When I got back to school I almost immedietly missed watching them 'succeed' - I would have died to watch Jamal's 50 point game against Miami (vengeance, finally!), and I also missed Stevie 'Lottery Team' Francis's* buzzer beater at Washington. (I ended up falling ass-backwards into free NBA-League Pass for about six weeks, which turned out to be pretty sick.)

The final turning point in the season came with Isaiah's extention. I can't say that at the time I was upset: the players liked playing for Isaiah, the team seemed like they were getting on the right track, and we were - gasp - positioned to make a run for the playoffs. Playoffs? Seriously? (I would have died to see us lose to Detroit next week, especially now that it would have been four straight instead of three.) Things were looking up too: Indiana was tanking fast and Wade just dislocated his shoulder and Shaq was fresh off his offseason. (On a tangent, I hope Pedro's sabbatical leaves him as refreshed and rejuvenated as Shaq has looked since he started really playing.) But alas, reality seeped in slowly, with injuries and perhaps some complacency on Isaiah's part.

Eddy had a really interesting quote the other day that pretty much sums up how I feel about the season. I can't find it right now, but he explains that he's frustrated at the way the season is ending, mostly due to the injuries and what could have happened if everybody didn't go down all at once. It all start with Crawford's ankle injury, which came as a shock seeing as he was playing out of his mind at the time. Francis came in at the 2 and had some success (we all knew he loved to shoot), but my lasting memory of his performance this season will not be the buzzer-beater at the Wizards, it will be him turning his back to the basket (and the clock) with three seconds left against the NOOCH a month ago. (From our $10 seats Andrew and I had a perfect view of how that shit fell apart.) Next thing you know, David Lee has some mysterious bone bruise or something (ruining his chance to follow in John Stark's footsteps and be 6th man of the year), followed by Q's inevitable season-ending ailment. Marbury's toe injury and Renaldo's flu don't even mean anything anymore, but you have to think how different things would be if our rotation was a healthy Marbury, Crawford, Q, Channing , Curry, with Lee, Jeffries, James, Balkman, Collins and - sigh - Robinson and Francis off the bench.

The low point of the season had to be the Big-Mac debacle. When I first saw the headline on RealGM I thought maybe they were making fun of Eddy's fat ass, but seriously folks, our 'attitude' is getting a bit annoying. Mostly, I feel it's just fellow blogger Nate Robinson being an overagressive moron, but it's hard to tell how much of this unfounded braggadocio is a result of Isaiah's influence on the team. At first I thought it was cute that he was sticking up for the team against that classless asshole Bruce Bowen, and I was totally in support of the brawl with Denver (Carmelo really sealed his fate as a gutless prick for me there), mostly because George Karl is a fat shithead. But this last thing kind of embarrassed me. Also, it pissed me off that Scott Skiles found it necessary to be a dick about it afterwards. He seems to be showing the same class as a coach as he did at Michigan State. (I'm relying entirely on his depiction in "A Season on the Brink" for this, by the way, and its possible that Knight and Feinstein were exaggerating shit in the book, but consider me officially rooting against this asshole in the playoffs. More on this next week.)

Garnett next year? I dont really know if I'm as excited as some are for that possibility: first off, it will reunite KG and his old friend Stephon, and I'm not sure either of them really want that to happen. It would be weird to see how Eddy would react to playing with KG too, but mostly I don't like the idea because it would mean Channing, David and Renaldo could all be gone. My suggestion: draft Josh McRoberts (selfish reasons), drop Francis and Malik 'worthless' Rose as fast as possible and go for it again next year with pretty much a similar cast. Also, Randolph Morris sucks, I think.

A Side Note: I was awfully critical of Isaiah last June when after the draft he said he would rather have Eddy Curry than any of the players available. Now, it seems like the Curry trade - yikes - wasn't that bad for the Knicks. Stop Mike Lupica makes the case that Curry has made considerable strides this season alone, and the Bulls are left with moron dickhead Tyrus Thomas and a pick in this year's lottery. I pray though that our pick does not fall in the top two. That would be a fucking disaster. But honestly, what are the chances?

Keith for President
After giving it a lot of thought, (besides being probably the coolest cat to ever grace the) the three biggest things Keith has going for him are:
1) 11 straight Gold Gloves (which is really fucking impressive, honestly)
2) He was the only Captain in Mets team history (maybe not for long)
3) He seriously has the best moustache in the history of Western Civilization

His batting stats are not particularly impressive, as his power numbers were fairly low (not many dingers, never 100 rbi), and his career batting average tanked due to a pretty shitty performance his last few years with the Mets and hitting at the Mendoza line in Cleveland. On top of this, his image as a bad-boy coke-head who corrupted two potential SUPER stars (Darryl and Doc) has only hurt his chances. But seriously, if Mattingly ever makes it, Keith absolutely cannot be left out.

Any discussion of getting Keith in the Hall would be incomplete without a look at Quest For Keith. See for yourself; the evidence is irrefutable.

Miscellany
Islanders and Buffalo Game Three tonight. It's good to have DiPietro back in goal, but let's see how long they can keep this shit up. (UPDATE: DiPietro makes 32 saves and the Isles lose).
This is an awesome look back at multi sports athletes from josh q. public. Complete with appropriate lyrical outbursts.
I have nothing cool to note about music this week. Jack has a good read on the oddly facinating success of Snoop Dogg. Also, this is almost unlistenable but still amusing.


This ended up being pretty long. I apologize to anyone who actually read any of it.


Next Week: NBA Playoff Preview

* Ted came up with that.