Happy Mother's Day Everyone!
Hope everyone is having a nice weekend. Sorry we didn't publish last week, but that just gives us two weeks worth of stuff to kvetch about, and there is plenty of that to go around.
But first....
RUNNING FOR REBECCA- Team Wild Bill currently is at 659.60, roughly 65% of our $1,000 goal.
Thank you to all who have donated so far and to all who are coming to walk or run with us on Thursday. If you can help out with a donation, that would be awesome. I'm 340.40 away from my goal as of Sunday evening . Anything you can give would be appreciated.
Here again is the link to donate.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled kvetching...
Once again, The Worlds Most Famous Arena is now the Worlds Quietest Arena...
RIP THE RANGERS
It's been almost three weeks now since the Devils sent my Rangers packing, and I'm pretty much just as pissed off as I was the night it happened. The thought of a team not showing up to play in Game 7 of a playoff series just blows my mind.
And I have really tried these past couple of weeks to come off that stance. Keep telling myself it's easy from my couch to sit there and criticize and all that crap. I get it.
But I know what the hell I watched. And what I saw was three games where the Rangers were out-hustled, out-worked and out-classed by a very good but not great Devil team.
After winning the first two games handedly, Game 3 was a toss-up. Both teams played well and the game went into OT. A win in that game and we go up 3-0 and probably put NJ away in 5 or 6 games. But they lost and proceeded to take the next two games off. Coach Gerard Gallant himself said the team no-showed in Game 4. But then they got shut out in Game 5! You can't make this stuff up.
Then they showed some fight to win in Game 6 at the Garden. They gave you some hope that they could maybe find whatever they had in the first two games. I mean, who can't get up for a Game 7?
Apparently these Rangers couldn't because they ended up getting shut out again.
1) The most embarrassing thing for me as a fan was hearing the Devil fans at the Rock chanting "Igoor, Igooor" taunting the one man on the team who didn't deserve it, the one guy on the team who, to quote Bill Parcells, "brought a lunch pail." The Rangers lost for a bunch of reasons, goaltending was not one of them, and if I was a Ranger that night, hearing the fans giving out to the one guy on the team that broke his a$$, I'd be walking out of Newark with a paper bag over my head.
2) He has a no trade clause and he makes a $hit-ton of money, so it's going to be almost impossible, but they need to explore the possibility of trading Artemi Panarin. I was stoked when they signed him, and in the regular season he has been very good, but this is the second year in a row he disappeared in the playoffs, and it's becoming apparent that he's not built for the grind that is the NHL Playoffs. George Steinbrenner referred to Dave Winfield as Mr. May as opposed to Reggie Jackson's Mr. October. Panarin is Mr. October, which in hockey is not a good thing. Sadly, we're stuck with him, so either he needs to figure it out and make me look like a fool, or we are stuck with another overpaid, under achieving waste.
3) Gerard Gallant wondered aloud how someone who in two seasons had led his team to 110 and 107 points respectively, with a trip to the conference finals to boot, could possibly be considered to be in job trouble. When I saw that I said to myself "Welcome to the Big Apple pal" Well, he found out the hard way didn't he? Last Saturday, as I was procrastinating writing this Rangers obit and watching the Knicks get destroyed by the Heat (more on them later in this broadcast) word came down that Gallant and the Rangers "mutually agreed to part ways" Translation-they fired him and he agreed to collect his money without coaching. As pissed as I was at the team, and as much as I do say it's the coaches responsibility to make sure the team is ready to play, (and they clearly were not) I still think maybe firing him was a bit hasty. Mostly because there's nobody out there that gets my juices flowing as a replacement.
To sum it up, this wasn't a colossal upset by any definition of the word. The reason Game 7 was in Jersey and not at the Garden was that the Devils had the better record. In many ways there should be no shame in losing to the Devils. Jack Hughes is going to be a legit star if he's not already. But the Rangers made Akira Schmid look like Ken Dryden. They also made a couple of deadline deals with the sole intention of going for it this year. Patrick Kane was obviously damaged goods (and to add insult to injury-the Blackhawks won the Connor Bedard lottery) and Vlad Tarasenko didn't do enough to justify our trading for him.
I was pissed when they lost to the Lightning last year, but some time over the summer, I came to appreciate what they had accomplished. That's not going to happen this summer.
This season was a colossal and epic failure.
RIP THE KNICKS
I didn't read the entire article, but the lede in Mike Vaccaro's Saturday NY Post column regarding the Knicks in the wake of their elimination at the hands of the Miami Heat, suggested that the only Knick to show up in Miami Friday night was Jalen Brunson.
Don't get me wrong Brunson was far and away the best player on the floor for the Knicks, not just Friday night, but throughout the series. But unlike the Rangers, I feel like the Knicks simply ran out of gas as opposed not showing up.
Julius Randle was banged up, that ankle he hurt towards the end of the season had to have been bothering him. RJ Barrett had some really good games, I still have faith in him.
Yes, I feel they were on paper at least better than the Heat. Yes, this loss hurts because the Heat are one of my least favorite franchises in all of sports. Starting with them poaching Pat Riley from us back in 1995, to the battles we had with them from 1997-2000, to LeBron taking his talents down to South Beach, (and the bush league way he handled that whole thing) to their overrated coach Eric Spoelstra, they are right up there with the Patriots, Braves and Penguins as teams that can't lose enough games to suit me.
Honestly though, the only game in this series I felt like they really no-showed for was last Saturday's Game 3, the first one in Miami. They got their doors blown off and never had a prayer in that one. The most aggravating game was the first one, losing at home coming off the big win in Cleveland. In their defense though, the Heat were coming off one of the big upsets of all time, knocking off the league best Milwaukee Bucks.
The good news is that I feel the Knicks are on the rise. Maybe I'm just setting myself up for another letdown, (I'm almost positive I'm doing just that) but I really didn't think the Knicks were going to get past Cleveland, so while I wouldn't call getting to the second round gravy, I do think they have something to hang their hat on. It eats at me more that they lost to a team I can't stand rather than the belief that they underachieved. I still have faith in coach Tom Thibodeau, but he has to figure out how to better utilize the team's depth.
The season was not really a success, but I can't really call it a failure either. But they do need to go deeper next year.
The Devils were sent packing by the Hurricanes this week too. So all the NY area winter teams are done. At least we have baseball to look forward too.
Oh goody.
WTF? The Mets and the Yankees
Over the past two weeks the Mets have played such big market, big spending contenders as the Detroit Tigers, Colorado Rockies, Cincinnati Reds, and this weekend, the Washington Nationals.
The Tigers lost 96 games last year, the Rockies 94, the Reds 100 and the Nats a whopping 107.
So it would stand to reason being that we have a payroll that could be the GDP of a small to midsize nation, that we should have had no trouble with these 4 teams. Well you'd be wrong.
The Mets were swept by the Tigers, and lost 2 of 3 to the Rockies and Reds. After going almost to the All Star break last year with out losing a series, they have already lost 6 and split 1.
It's embarrassing.
The offense has been sputtering. But it's the starting pitching that has been the team's downfall. Max Scherzer is either hurt, ineffective, suspended or all three. What he hasn't been is any good. All that for the low price of $43 million. Carlos Carrasco has also been hurt, and also has stunk when he was healthy. We just got our other $40 million man Justin Verlander back, and he's the only reason we didn't get swept by the Reds (who again lost 100 games last year). Kodai Senga got lit up in Cincinnati the other day and Karl (the Ace) Ludwig pointed out at our staff meeting that he's averaging a walk per game.* And the young guns in our rotation, David Peterson and Tylor McGill have been disappointing, especially Peterson, who I'm really close to giving up on.
Like I said, I believe Francisco Lindor is just going through his usual early season slump, I expect him to come out of it. Pete Alonso is leading the majors in home runs and is second in the NL in RBIs. Lindor is actually right behind him in ribbies, which I didn't know. Brandon Nimmo made a baserunning error last week, but other than that has been fairly solid. Jeff McNeil I berlieve will come around too.
But Starling Marte has been awful. And they are getting bupkis out of the DH position, I'm starting to wonder if the NL should just go back to letting the pitchers hit.
The Yankees are currently taking up residence in the cellar of the AL East, albeit with a winning record. Part of the issue is that the Tampa Bay Rays have gotten off to a tremendous start. They look like the real deal. Giancarlo Stanton (whodathunkit) is once again on the injured list. Besides Gerrit Cole, who unlike Max Scherzer is earning his money, the Yanks pitching has been shaky at best. Nestor Cortes hasn't been as good as he was at this time last year.
But really the Yankees biggest issue is that they are playing in the toughest division in the sport. I thought and hoped the NL East would be there, but they are the definition of mediocre. I realize it's way too early and that panicking on Mother's Day is a waste of time and energy. But it's not too early to be concerned that's for sure.
A couple of Obituaries....
Gordon Lightfoot- The ultimate 70's soft rocker who passed away last week at age 81. Of all the tributes to him, this was my favorite.
In 1976, Lightfoot had a hit called The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a heartbreaking true story about a ship carrying iron ore from Wisconsin to Detroit (the song says it was heading to Cleveland) that sank during a storm on Lake Superior November 10, 1975. All 29 men on board the ship drowned and their bodies were never recovered.
In one of the last verses of the song, Lightfoot references the Maritime Sailors Cathedral, which is actually Mariner's Church of Detroit. He sings...
"In a musty old hall in Detroit, they prayed in the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral. The church bell chimed 'til it rang, 29 times, for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald."
The day after Lightfoot passed, the church rang it's bell 30 times. 29 for the lost sailors of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and once for the man who helped keep their memory alive and their story told..
Gordon Lightfoot.
Vida Blue- A few years ago I read a book called Dynastic Bombastic Fantastic, about the Oakland A's dynasty of the early 70's. There was a part in there that detailed Vida Blue's 1971 season. Stats don't do it complete justice, but I'll give them to you anyway.
24-8, 1.82 ERA, 301 strikeouts 24 complete games, 312 innings pitched 8 shutouts a 0.952 WHIP.
And he didn't turn 22 till July 28th that season either.
Keith Hernandez compared him to Dwight Gooden and it's actually pretty scary how accurate that is. Both had one unworldly season at a young age, followed by a couple of all-star seasons followed by several mediocre seasons mixed in with substance abuse issues. Vida's starts in 1971 sounded an awful lot like Doc's 1985 starts, starts you wanted to be there for, or at least somewhere in front of a TV for.
He pitched twice against my Mets in the 1973 World Series, the Mets won both games, though he didn't factor in Game 2 loss which went 12 innings and was a hard luck loser in Game 5 at Shea.
And if you want to stump your friends, give 'em this trivia question.. who is the last switch hitter in the American League to win the MVP.
At my bachelor party, I mistakenly asked the question as "Who was the only switch hitter in the AL to win the MVP?" Someone pointed out that surely Mickey Mantle had won an MVP, to which my father incredulously said "Are you freakin kidding me? He won it 3 times!"
and yes we did baseball trivia at my bachelor party.
RIP.
HASTA LA PASTA- I wanted to do this story last week.
500 pounds of pasta was found dumped next to a creek in Old Bridge, NJ two weeks ago. It was thought that the spaghetti, noodles and shapes had already been cooked, but it appears that the rain and other elements had softened it up.
If you love spaghetti and meatballs as much as I do, stumbling upon a sight like that may have you thinking you died and went to heaven. Imagine if you will a flowing stream and next to that stream all the spaghetti you can eat, right there on the floor.
There were several different reports as to how the pasta got there, the latest I read was that it was dumped there by someone whose mother had died and had boxes upon boxes of uncooked pasta in the house. I don’t know. There weren’t any food pantries is this person’s neighborhood? I guess grief makes you do strange things. This whole affair brought new meaning to On top of Spaghetti.
Again to all the Mom’s out there, especially my Mom and my wife, I hope you had a wonderful weekend.
Stay Safe,
and Have a Great Week
*At the same meeting, Ray and I had a lengthy discussion over whether or not I should put in that I felt Eric Spoelstra is an overrated coach. Though Ray made a compelling argument with facts and figures as to why I should not, I’m afraid that his efforts were all for naught
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