The View from the Bleachers

To celebrate my joining the Bleachers, the Reverend has kindly allowed me to pick this week’s Saturday Classic.  After trawling the depths of the Youtube dungeons, I found this tribute to a legend for both my beloved Longhorns and Oilers (RIP) Earl Campbell, the Tyler Rose.

Although I don’t actually remember Campbell playing (I was just seven years old when the Oilers traded him to the Saints), older friends still talk about him like he was a god (that could’ve been Vince Young if the Texans had drafted him - sorry, that’s a gripe for another time).  Unfortunately, the Rose was so battered by the hits he took that his career ended prematurely, and he now has to spend a lot of his time in a wheelchair due to a back condition.  Despite this, Campbell is one of the true legends of Texas football, and a worthy member of both the Pro and College Halls of Fame.

Here’s it is, complete with fuzzy video and terrible 70s music:

The New York Times yesterday had a great little feature on one of the Mets’ minor league affiliates, the Brooklyn Cyclones, the best thing to come out of Coney Island since The Warriors.  The main angle of the piece was how a visit to KeySpan Park compares to a visit to Shea.  Personally, I just think it’s great that there’s some sort of professional baseball in Brooklyn, considering how much the borough has given to the game over the years, and how hardcore many of its baseball fans are.  Plus, as the article itself infers, the Cyclones are a nice diversion from the turmoil with the Mets.

Minor League teams, and team affiliations, often seem to come and go, but here’s hoping that not only are the Cyclones around to stay, but that the Mets keep their affiliation alive, considering how many of their fans come from the borough.

There has already been plenty written about the sacking of Willie Randolph across the press and the net, and I don’t have much to add.  Randolph spoke out in yesterday’s New York Daily News about his firing as Mets coach by General Manager Omar Minaya.  In the article Randolph stated that

“I won’t lie to you. I don’t like the way the Mets handled my firing. I think it was pretty weak. I think I would’ve deserved better if my record had been 0-555, not 302-253.”

I have to agree with Randolph to a certain extent.  The sacking of Randolph was terribly mismanaged, leading to a typically hyperbolic Daily News front page (below).  Minaya doesn’t come across as the smartest GM, and although I believe he was right to keep Randolph on after the cataclysmic collapse last season, he should’ve released Randolph earlier, probably after the dreadful road trip to San Francisco and San Diego.

I bet the free Yankees DVD helped soften the blow for Mets fans! (more…)

This week’s classic is a bit of a personal treat to myself.  Here the Jets pay tribute to one of my favorite players of all time, and one of the greatest players ever to pull on the fabled green jersey - Joe Klecko.  This video was made to honor Klecko when the Jets retired his number #73 jersey in 2004.  Klecko was one of the most fearsome defensive linemen ever to play the game, not surprising as he was an NCAA heavyweight boxing champion, and was a member of the infamous “New York Sack Exchange”* line of the early 1980s.  Hope you enjoy this video, and just be thankful that the current quarterback of your favorite team doesn’t have to worry about Joseph Edward Klecko.

The Jeremy Shockey situation at the New York Giants is threatening to get out of control at the Meadowlands.  Apparently, this week Shockey engaged in what Newsday.com reported was a “huge shouting match” with General Manager Jerry Reese at a three-day training camp.

There is no doubting Shockey’s obvious talents as one of the best tight-ends in football. The Giants’ offensive line wasn’t better when Shockey broke his leg last season, like some have suggested, that theory is pure garbage.  However, the line did learn to play smarter perhaps because of his absence, and the Giants learned that maybe Shockey wasn’t as vital to their cause as everyone thought.  Apparently Shockey wants assurances of a larger role in the offense, or to be traded.  I think the smart play would be the latter.

Before last season the Giants lost Tiki Barber to retirement - another player of huge talent, popular with the fans but also someone else who seemed to cause discontent behind the scenes.  I would say that the season worked out alright for the Giants without him, wouldn’t you?  I think it would benefit both the Giants and Jeremy Shockey if he was to run out in a different uniform next season.

The Yankees request for an additional £350million in tax-free bonds to help in the construction of the new Yankee Stadium has instigated a backlash from many New York politicians reports The Gothamist. Congressman Richard Brodsky went so far as to say:

“These decisions are being made in secret in these Soviet-style meetings and it is outrageous.”

Personally, I want New York teams to have stadia that befit the teams playing in the sports capital of America. However, I do believe that there needs to be a serious investigation in to how these new facilities are approved and funded. The sports representatives of New York have to realise that they aren’t bigger than the city, and that the opinions of the residents of the city, sports fans and non-sports fans alike, have a right to see that both the planning and funding of these new stadiums are above board and proper.

It seems the planning permission for the new Yankee Stadium and Atlantic Yards projects were granted without the considerations of the local populace of the South Bronx and Brooklyn respectively being taken into account, while there is much controversy over the funding of both Yankee Stadium and the Mets’ new Citifield. I believe that some sort of independent investigation should take place into the procedures for granting and funding new stadia within the five boroughs, however, there is a very long history of large-scale developments in New York City going ahead without proper public consultation and I hold out little hope for transparency in these cases.

Having a major sports franchise in your borough can bring immense benefits, as well as great pride for the residents, but these teams must realise that they are not more important than the neighborhoods in which they reside.

The New York Times has finally produced the definitive guide for the baseball fan, a culinary scorecard for all thirty major league stadiums. Some will be obvious (go for bratwurst in Milwaukee, fajita in Houston, Nathan’s hot dog in Shea), some rather more surprising (the cheese steaks in Philly apparently leave a lot to be desired, as does Atlanta’s BBQ), and, if this guide is accurate, some commiserations are in order for White Sox fans. Now, that’s what I call proper sports journalism… Check out the comments section of the related article as well for more tips for what to ingest and what to avoid.

Despite being a die-hard Mets fan, I’ve never liked the team’s mascot Mr. Met. To me, he doesn’t really symbolize the team in the way other teams’ mascots do. However, I don’t think I’d go as far as one native of Brooklyn did last weekend, as reported by the New York Post:

“Cops called out a rowdy baseball buff who tried to take on Mr. Met.

At a recent game, the drunken fan manhandled the Amazin’s smiling, giant-baseball-headed mascot, police said. He also allegedly knocked down kids and took a swing at a security guard.”

Worrying signs that things still aren’t all sweetness and light up at Shea…

To celebrate the end of the hockey season (congratulations Detroit) here’s the greatest game of hockey ever played - Ottawa Senators at Philadelphia Flyers on 5th March 2004. In case you don’t remember this game, the Flyers won the game 5-3, but the real fun was the constant fighting that erupted in the last two minutes of the game. The first 58 minutes and 15 seconds passed with no fights at all, then when the Flyers’ Donald Brashear pushed Rob Ray, chaos ensued, with four separate fights breaking out, including both goalies facing off.

When this was finally sorted out and the game could be restarted, it was just three seconds before fighting broke out again, this time between Radovan Somik vs Chris Neil, and Mattias Timander vs Zdeno Chara. Then, when play was restarted again, it was just three more seconds before Mike Fisher got it on with Michal Handzus. There was then a fourth set of fights featuring Mark Recchi vs Brian Smolinski, and John LeClair vs Wade Redden, before play was stopped one last time as Patrick Sharp and Jason Spezza traded blows, meaning there had been five fight stoppages in just thirty two seconds of play!

There were 21fighting majors handed out, including a double for Donald Brashear for instigating. The two teams shared an NHL record 419 penalty minutes, including a single team record of 413 for the Flyers. The bad blood between the two sides was probably due to the Senators’ Martin Havlat high-sticking two Flyers in previous games, ironically Havlat was not involved in the fighting as at the time he was sitting in the penalty box!

(more…)

The Gothamist reports how the streets of New York City will be invaded by forty-two 8½ foot reproductions of the Statue of Liberty to commemorate this year’s All Star Game at Yankee Stadium.  According to MLB, the statues will be covered in

“bold graphics and colors featuring each of the 30 Major League Baseball clubs, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the New York Giants, the American League, the National League, four All-Star statues and statues commemorating the final season of Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium, an additional version for the host Yankees, and one to be determined to be painted by the artist as a surprise.”

For your delectation, here’s Lady Liberty resplendent in Yankee pinstripe:

Courtesy of The Gothamist

You’ve probably noticed the tagline at the top of the page: “Sport is life. Everything else is just filler.” Normally, it would appear to people who know me that I live my life by that motto. Of course, it isn’t true, and there are things more important than sport.

That’s why I’m against the Atlantic Yards Development, at least as it stands. Believe me, as a Nets fan, no-one would be happier to see them return to Long Island, and nowhere deserves to have a professional sports team again more than Brooklyn. However, it shouldn’t be as part of a development that will further rip the soul out of the borough.

I am not against high-rise development (and like many of architect Frank Gehry’s previous projects). On the contrary, inside me beats the heart of an old-fashioned modernist who loves tall buildings. I love walking around Manhattan’s man-made canyons. Atlantic Yards, however, is something else. These plans, for 16 skyscrapers in the center of Brooklyn is simply too much. It would dwarf everything around it, dominate the surrounding community, and plunge large swathes of it into shadow for much of the day. (more…)

In a column on the SportsNet New York site today, Michael Salfino writes an interesting article which suggests the Mets aren’t as good as everyone, him included, thought (I think everyone’s beginning to figure that one out, Mike). The part that caught my eye though was the suggestion that Omar Minaya shore up the faltering offense with a certain out of work slugger:

“The team needs another bat desperately and Barry Bonds, who only had the second best OPS in baseball last year (1.045, just behind A-Rod), is sitting there for the taking.

Yes, I know he wears the scarlet “S” now that no longer stands for Superman. But it’s going to be a bigger spectacle for the organization to lose without him than it would be to win with him — and win with him they would.”

That’s who we need to sort out our crumbling locker room - Barry “You’ve Got a Friend” Bonds!

Yes, this is probably just the kind of peppering of controversy that writers like to sprinkle on their articles to spice them up and get people talking about them, but there is a serious point here. The Mets’ offense is struggling, and even if Wright and Beltran do follow Reyes in finding their form again, Delgado will still be in a rut, Alou will probably be crocked, and Church’s figures are likely to settle down to something a bit more, well, Ryan Church. Let’s not forget, Reyes aside, this week’s improvement in run production has been down to supersubs Tatis, Easley and Castro, and you ain’t building an offense around them. (more…)