Fair-weather fans

Dear everyone:

Can we all agree to stop pretending that the Yankees have some kind of monopoly on irritating fair-weather fans who buy their official team gear ten minutes before the parade? There’s no question that the streets of NYC are absolutely crawling with them…I’m not disputing that. What gets me though is the sheer volume of whining and bitching and moaning from fans of other teams sadly bemoaning either a) the amount of money the Yankees spent to win the championship and b) the existence of said fair-weather fans.

Before I go any further, let me make it abundantly clear that I am no Yankee fan – nominally, I root for the SF Giants but the reality of my current situation is that baseball is somewhere between water polo and curling among my list of favorite sports. I care infinitely more about soccer, hockey, MMA, etc. I speak from a position of more or less complete neutrality.

That said, as a thought exercise, pretend you’re walking down the streets of Kansas City right now. Take a note of the relative percentage of people wearing Kansas City Chiefs gear. If you prefer, replace that with the Royals – they both suck and they both aren’t expected to win a championship any time this millenium. Anyway, call that percentage (x). Now, say the hand of god comes down and their next season plays out like a sports movie. Despite the wacky personalities and underdog status, they go on to win the big game…the Royals or Chiefs are now the champions. Now, do that same thought exercise – walk down the streets of KC, note the percentage of Royals/Chiefs gear, and call that percentage (y).

Y IS GOING TO BE SIGNIFICANTLY FUCKING BIGGER THAN X BECAUSE PEOPLE LOVE WINNERS, YOU IDIOTS.

And, for the record, spending money doesn’t necessary correlate to winning. It’s a necessary part of winning, but you still have to do it right. If you’re a Mets fan and you bitch about the Yankees’ spending, you’re a moron. The Mets’ payroll could still fund the administration of Guam for 6 months, but the Yankees have historically been pretty good at identifying value for money. Yes, they spend big, but they spend big ON THE RIGHT GUYS. While my idiots are paying a king’s ransom to Barry Zito every season, while they pay big money to stiffs like Randy Winn and has-beens like Edgar Renteria, the Yankees have gotten the right pieces in place to consistently contend for a title every season.

That said, I don’t want to be too nice to Yankee fans. So, I will say that the people bitching that it took them 9 years to win can go fuck themselves, too. Seriously, if you look closely enough at King Tut’s tomb, there are hieroglyphs that translate to “The Yankees made the playoffs once again”. All you can ask of a regular season is to make it to the big dance at the end, and no one has done that with more consistency than the Bombers. The idea that losing in a short-series tournament means that their salaries aren’t justified is just the stupidest goddamned thing ever. The year they didn’t make the playoffs, you can somewhat argue that since they didn’t do their job well enough over 162 games. Over 5 games or over 7 though, it’s a fucking crapshoot and wacky things happen. While it’s not as loopy as a single-elimination tournament like March Madness or the FA Cup (whose final last season was contested between Portsmouth FC – fighting for their lives at the wrong end of the Premier League table this term – and Cardiff City, who are from the second division), you’re still 1 or 2 bad games away from going home. That can happen to anyone, and it often does.

Long story short – OHMYGOD, SHUT UP ALL OF YOU.

…Awful

So Mike Tyson is talking comeback, Fernando Vargas is talking comeback, and now Mirko Crocop is scheduled to face Ben Rothwell at UFC 110. A plea to fight promoters: if you have to raise the dead to fill out your cards, reconsider.

Armageddon

Apparently BROCK! has mono, and won’t be fighting until March at the earliest. If you’re scoring at home that’s Lesnar out with mono, GSP out with a groin issue (overuse?), Machida out with hand surgery, Thiago Alves out wit a busted knee ligament, Dan Henderson gone with strong rumors of having signed with Strikeforce, Matt Hughes out with not wanting to fight, Rampage Jackson out with butthurt, Anderson Silva out with an elbow issue- probably, Wanderlei Silva out with new face, and a million undercard guys like Todd Duffee and Kurt Pellegrino out with various injuries and issues. The second quarter of next year is going to be packed and a ton of fun, but I have legitimately no idea how they’re going to fill all of these shows between now and March. There’s talk about Cain Velasquez and Big Nog in January; I’m not sure that’s a main event (though it is a great fight), but it may be the best thing they’ve got. It’ll be interesting to see how UFC’s popularity explosion handles a slack period like this, whether buyrates snap back in March/April or whether a few months of minimal hype and mainstream coverage cools off some of the more casual interest.

Perspective

The NBA season is 5 games old, 10 games total for someone like me who follows both of the locals. We’re 1-9 on a regional basis. There’s 82 games each for the Knicks and the Nets, and if you anticipate between 20-30 wins for the teams each that projects out to a combined record of roughly 50-114.

I am basketball’s version of a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.

Denver 122, Nets 94: Unacceptable

I’ve caught the Nets twice now this year (the Charlotte game and this one), and haven’t written on them so far since there’s no real good reason to overreact to a few early games for a team with so many players out. That said, tonight was very telling: the Nuggies came out flat and disinterested and exhibiting all the symptoms of a good team which had this game circled on its schedule as a glorified scrimmage where a half-assed effort was likely to be good enough. To their credit the Nets more or less made them pay for this in the first half by keeping it close, but Denver got the hair dryer from George Karl at halftime and pulled away from there with ease to the point where the 4th quarter was entirely garbage time. In essence, one quarter in 4 of serious effort from Denver was good enough for a blowout. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the word is out that the Nets aren’t just a mediocre team, not just a bad team, but one who won’t even give you a game as often as not; a bit of a joke, really. There’s few things harder to watch than a team which is treated as a bit of a joke, and regardless of who’s out, the Nets are now officially into must-do-better territory.

No one expected them to be good this year, but there’s a level of respectability- professionalism, really-which they shouldn’t sink below either. This is two games in a row now where the wheels have come off entirely in the second half, not because of brilliant tactical adjustments by opposing coaches but simply because the instant the opposition began playing up to their actual talent level the Nets crumbled. They get spooked easily, they’re young and play like it, they’ve got a few incredibly selfish players (Hi Rafer), they’re (as of right now, not counting the Denver game I assume) 28th in the league in offensive efficiency, 18th in defensive, dead rat’s-ass-dirt-worst last in rebound rate, 26th in TS%, 23rd in TO’s… the list goes on and on. They’re not one of the uniquely or unusually bad teams which the league throws up sometimes, the kind who have a distinct flaw which can be addressed, or who are so bad that they’re guaranteed a top-3 draft pick; there’s too much talent here to finish with less than 20 wins, but so long as most of it is injured what’s left is a team which is pretty much bad at everything for the moment. All of which is to say: there’s no magic bullet here, and the only way this is going to get better is if the guys who are taking the court right now get together and learn how to play better as individuals and as a team in all phases of the game, out of pride if nothing else. Start with taking fewer contested 20 footers early in the shot clock without a single pass, and go from there. There’s just not much more to say: right now this is an ordinary average 20-25 win terrible basketball team, dreadful to watch.

Fun fact: CDR led the Nets in scoring in this game, and also finished with a team-worst -36 in 36 minutes. Make of that what you will.

AHHHHHHH

AHHHHHHHHH

Specifically: “–War Machine (not Rhino, but the MMA goof) is now doing porn.”

No, just no, fuck no, never no. No.

Too good not to share

OK, look. Goalkeepers in any sport are absolutely bonkers as a whole…I know this from personal experience. However, this has to be the wackiest thing yet – a hockey goalie in Finland gets down with his bad self after his team wins.

I have no words.

Ominous…

Hi all.

I’ve been busy lately (and as of yesterday recovering from a fairly nasty kick/knee to the head…not sure which it was). Anyway, I wish I could comment on Arsenal’s evisceration of Tottenham up at the Lane, but I sadly missed the match to play in a soccer tournament…the one where I picked up the aforementioned injury. I did see a GIF of Cesc’s goal to make it 2-0 though, and while there was some dozy defending and it did start with a horrendous going-nowhere square ball, the run and the decision-making from the Captain were sublime. The only other player on the squad who could potentially score that goal is Andrei Arshavin. What a finish, too…keep in mind that Gomes made some stellar saves before that, and Cesc didn’t give him a prayer of stopping that shot – near post or not.

But, of course, that’s not why I’ve titled this post in the manner that I have. It’s not even about the Canadiens, whose record is abnormally inflated with two heavy-weather wins over the Islanders combined with two wins over Toronto that had to go to OT or the shootout (Really? Conceding the tying goal in the last minute of the 3rd? Jacques Martin team, my bunghole). Instead, I refer to the New York Giants, who on the back of the last three weeks look in danger of having been sussed out by the rest of the league.

Today’s 40-17 loss to the Eagles highlighted the same old problems – the secondary, Eli Manning and special teams in that order – but I think we may have underrated just how deep those problems lie. It’s nice to thump Oakland’s skulls for them, but on the other hand, what does that prove? The Giants sit at 5-3 (albeit with a 3-game losing streak), but they have only played four teams with a pulse. They are 1-3 in those 4 games – a fortunate-in-retrospect win at Dallas; and losses at New Orleans, at home to Arizona and now away to Philly. The loss in Louisiana was expected in a lot of ways, as our troubled secondary was always going to struggle against the best QB in the league (and New Orleans is a tough place to play in general). But, the loss at home to Arizona was fucking DREADFUL, and may have been the first real sign that this team may not be what we thought they were.

Meanwhile, while there isn’t much shame in losing at Philadelphia, you would expect our guys to at least put up more of a fight than they did today. Going down 13-0 inside the first few minutes is frankly inexcusable for a team with Super Bowl pretensions. As for the DeSean Jackson TD pass, it says it all when at the time of the reception, the only other player visible on the screen was C.C. Brown – the safety on the other side of the field. There’s almost no point in wasting any further keystrokes on this – it was yet another awful performance on both sides of the ball.

Here’s where the visions of doom really start to kick in, though. As mentioned, we’re 1-3 in games against above-average or better opposition, with 94 points scored against 143 conceded in those matchups. The bye week is thankfully coming up in 2 weeks, but first our guys travel out to Cali to take on the San Diego Chargers.  They have some problems of their own, and they admittedly did just luck out to beat the same Oakland Raiders that we demolished so comprehensively. However, they have a quality QB in Phillip Rivers and a dangerous wideout in Vincent Jackson. Any team that is comfortable going to the air more than half the time is a terrible matchup for us at present, and that’s what the Chargers do. Any way you look at it, this is another one that we may struggle in. After the bye week, it doesn’t get any easier – home vs. Atlanta, away to Denver, then the return games against Dallas and Philly (both at home, thankfully). Two should-be gimmies follow against Washington and Carolina before a hellaciously-tough season finale away to Minnesota. Even if you assume victories in the Washington and Carolina tilts, the G-Men would still need to win 3 of the other games to get to 10-6, which I imagine will probably be the minimum to get into the playoffs. To win the division, they’ll probably have to win at least 4. Other than perhaps Dallas at home and perhaps Atlanta, where are those other wins coming from?

I don’t know, frankly.

Marbury

All that’s really worth saying about that situation is- it’s not funny anymore, and the people who care about Stephon need to help him.

Knicks-Bobcats

Apparently I am still in preseason form as a fan, because I only saw regulation of this one before my DVR cut out. C-, must do better for me. Anyway, based on what I saw- this was like a replay of the Miami game except that the Bobcats are far more inept than the Heat, the Knicks seemed to get their shit together relatively quicker, and the officials had one of those Donaghy-had-a-point nights where almost every call went for the Knicks in regulation, especially once the Charlotte lead got big. Overall it was some of the dirt-worst basketball you’ll see at NBA level. What can you do? The problems are the same, but the spirit seems to be improving, so that’s some progress anyway. Still, through two games, the offense is kind of busted: the team shot 38% and change from the field last night and 25% from three, and the reasons looked to be the same- a lot of guys taking mediocre shots early in the shot clock plus few focused plays happening in the half-court offense. The S/R with Duhon and David Lee is still very effective and those guys played a combined 106 minutes last night, but I don’t recall them running it seriously more than a handful of times in regulation. Why? Fucked if I know.

Oddly, it almost seems as though at the same time as the team has found a defensive identity based on holding shape and position with constant switching against all screens, they’ve lost it on the offensive end. There’s still some kinks in the former (like: why is Darko Milicic trying to guard guys on the perimeter?), but it’s progress; if they can find a way to combine last year’s more organized and intelligent offense with this year’s defense- and get better and sharper at both- there’s the makings of a passable team here.