by Stop Mike Lupica on August 16 at 9:03AM
Okay, so the reason you didn't see any posts yesterday is because I took the day off from my real job to do nothing. No real job = no need to go on the internet or work on posts, so, yeah, and day off is bad news for the site. And yes, I get a lot of time off. I've already called in "sick", called in "thunder", and called in "laundry" in the past two months. Yesterday I essentially called in "lunch special". But in case you are wondering what sports were on during the day on a freaking Wednesday...
Both the Mets and Yankees had day games. I watched neither. The Yankees were down 3-0 everytime I checked, until Shelley Duncan tied it up in the bottom of the 9th. All for naught, though, as Mariano Rivera blew the game in the top of the 10th.
That lead to today's column by Bill Madden in the Daily News. It's so preposterously lame it warrants mentioning. It's called "Yankees have no choice except to cry a Rivera" (nice pun... what was the original working title, "Mo Blows"?), and is basically another "look out, Mariano is falling off" article by the Daily News. Where to start?
What happens when Mo is no longer Mo?
But as Mariano Rivera himself admitted yesterday, "I'm only human", after a demoralizing third straight rocky performance, the question is out there now - like it or not.
Nah, sport. The question ain't out there. Maybe if Mo hadn't just finished off a streak of, what, 19 saves in a row dating back to April, then the question might be out there. But this is just a lame writer trying to make a story out of not much, because he doesn't know what else to write about. Bottom line is this: if Mo was really struggling (keep in mind his last two "rocky" outings before yesterday involved a lot of broken bat bloopers falling in for hits), maybe we could have this conversation. But overreacting to a bad outing (can't even call it a blown save because it wasn't that), with no other information? Maybe if you had reason to suspect that Mo was hiding an injury, or if there was some loss of velocity, but a couple of bad outings in August does not warrant sounding the alarm.
I remember reading this same column back in April, when Mo blew back to back saves. Then he ran off 19 in a row. But now he has back to back bad outings, and here we are again. Is Bill Madden aware of some injury? No. Is he aware of any loss of velocity? No. So he's basically throwing darts at the board, ain't he? How does that make him any different than a blogger? What exactly makes him a "reporter"? Like Lupica, he's probably not in the locker rooms talking to players or any sources.
Bill Madden is a glorified blogger, with better marketing.
On ESPN Classic yesterday, they were showing - I sh*t you not - the 1998 NCAA Slam Dunk contest. You know ESPN Classic was in "shuffle" mode. I've never seen a NCAA Slam Dunk contest air lived; we're not even sure they televise them live. I'm pretty sure that if I tune in to ESPN Classic next Wednesday (I might call in "lunch special" again, it was that good) that it'll be showing like the 1993 4th of July Hot Dog Eating contest at Coney Island.
The Slam Dunk contest was incredibly awesome, though. It came down to Felipe Lopez, my freaking hero, against Ruben Patterson.
Felipe Lopez, the Dominican kid who was the #1 high school star in the country in 1994 (just a few years too early to jump straight into the pros), the one with the SI cover story. The guy I saw play live in high school (against Shamgod at LaSalle) and was the most athletic 17 year old I ever saw. He was playing defense off his man; the guy pulled up for a jumper. Despite being about five feet in front of him, Felipe sky up and blocked his shot into the seats. That's how far ahead of the rest of his age group he was.
Never the less, Felipe's career went downhill as soon as he got to St. John's. He never became great at anything; instead he was good at everything - decent defender, decent jumper, decent rebounder, but not really good at any particular thing. He had a short NBA career, and played quite a bit in the CBA.
Anyway, in 1998 he was a slam dunker. So was Mike James, another local guy. He's from Amityville, LI, and played ball (and was schooled a bit, supposedly) by one of my boys.
Also a 1998 dunk contest participant - Corey Brewer. Wait, what? The first-rounder this year? He went to Oklahoma in 1998? Did the T-Wolves really pick a 28 year old in the first round? Was he a red shirt freshman for like 10 years in a row? Would it surprise anyone if McHale picked him knowing that?!?
Actually, it's Corey L. Brewer, who was drafted 51st in 1998. Still, that was pretty confusing to me, okay?
I also caught some Premiership soccer! The 2:45 Man U-Portsmouth game was not televised; instead it was Chelsea-Reading.
Man U ended up drawing again in their game. They now have two draws to open the season against so-so opponents. Even worse, because of a red card headbutt, Cristiano Ronaldo might be suspended for the next three matches. The defending league champs, Man U, are already short Wayne Rooney. This pretty much means it all Carlos Tevez going forth. Which makes us happy, actually.
Carlos Tevez played well in the draw. He's still getting used to playing in that weird one striker offense of Man U. He did help set up the opening goal (15 minute mark) by Paul Scholes, which is actually the only goal they have this season. After receiving the pass from Nani (another Portugese player on Man U), Tevez dumped it off quickly to the attacking Scholes, who blasted it in from 15 yards away. Check it out:
The game we actually watched was Chelsea-Reading. I like Chelsea as a whole - they buy the best players, are very exciting, and everyone else hates them. They might be the Yankees of the EPL. Reading, the team that tied Man U last week, looked very legit. They dominated the first half, scoring one goal when Chelsea's goalkeeper misplayed an attack, jumped into his own men, failed to get the ball, which rolled past him and into the foot of Reading's Andre Bikey, who slammed it home for the easiest goal of his life.
Reading had several other opportunities to score in the first half, but failed. The looked legit, especially coming off last week's draw with Man U, and we even wrote down "Reading is legit" in our notebook. Chelsea's defense looked awful in the first half, and Reading had at least two or three other solid scoring opportunities.
So when the second half started, we were not expecting what we saw, but Chelsea got their act together and quickly scored two goals to put Reading away. Guess Reading wasn't as "legit" as we thought. On the flip side, Chelsea is for real. They are off to a four point head start already on Man U.
One last odd note on the Carlos Tevez and Man U: Boca Juniors (Tevez's old club in Argentina and our favorite club team in the world) wants their cut out from West Ham for the transfer of Tevez. Don't you love how international soccer works?
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Both the Mets and Yankees had day games. I watched neither. The Yankees were down 3-0 everytime I checked, until Shelley Duncan tied it up in the bottom of the 9th. All for naught, though, as Mariano Rivera blew the game in the top of the 10th.
That lead to today's column by Bill Madden in the Daily News. It's so preposterously lame it warrants mentioning. It's called "Yankees have no choice except to cry a Rivera" (nice pun... what was the original working title, "Mo Blows"?), and is basically another "look out, Mariano is falling off" article by the Daily News. Where to start?
What happens when Mo is no longer Mo?
But as Mariano Rivera himself admitted yesterday, "I'm only human", after a demoralizing third straight rocky performance, the question is out there now - like it or not.
Nah, sport. The question ain't out there. Maybe if Mo hadn't just finished off a streak of, what, 19 saves in a row dating back to April, then the question might be out there. But this is just a lame writer trying to make a story out of not much, because he doesn't know what else to write about. Bottom line is this: if Mo was really struggling (keep in mind his last two "rocky" outings before yesterday involved a lot of broken bat bloopers falling in for hits), maybe we could have this conversation. But overreacting to a bad outing (can't even call it a blown save because it wasn't that), with no other information? Maybe if you had reason to suspect that Mo was hiding an injury, or if there was some loss of velocity, but a couple of bad outings in August does not warrant sounding the alarm.
I remember reading this same column back in April, when Mo blew back to back saves. Then he ran off 19 in a row. But now he has back to back bad outings, and here we are again. Is Bill Madden aware of some injury? No. Is he aware of any loss of velocity? No. So he's basically throwing darts at the board, ain't he? How does that make him any different than a blogger? What exactly makes him a "reporter"? Like Lupica, he's probably not in the locker rooms talking to players or any sources.
Bill Madden is a glorified blogger, with better marketing.
On ESPN Classic yesterday, they were showing - I sh*t you not - the 1998 NCAA Slam Dunk contest. You know ESPN Classic was in "shuffle" mode. I've never seen a NCAA Slam Dunk contest air lived; we're not even sure they televise them live. I'm pretty sure that if I tune in to ESPN Classic next Wednesday (I might call in "lunch special" again, it was that good) that it'll be showing like the 1993 4th of July Hot Dog Eating contest at Coney Island.
The Slam Dunk contest was incredibly awesome, though. It came down to Felipe Lopez, my freaking hero, against Ruben Patterson.
Felipe Lopez, the Dominican kid who was the #1 high school star in the country in 1994 (just a few years too early to jump straight into the pros), the one with the SI cover story. The guy I saw play live in high school (against Shamgod at LaSalle) and was the most athletic 17 year old I ever saw. He was playing defense off his man; the guy pulled up for a jumper. Despite being about five feet in front of him, Felipe sky up and blocked his shot into the seats. That's how far ahead of the rest of his age group he was.
Never the less, Felipe's career went downhill as soon as he got to St. John's. He never became great at anything; instead he was good at everything - decent defender, decent jumper, decent rebounder, but not really good at any particular thing. He had a short NBA career, and played quite a bit in the CBA.
Anyway, in 1998 he was a slam dunker. So was Mike James, another local guy. He's from Amityville, LI, and played ball (and was schooled a bit, supposedly) by one of my boys.
Also a 1998 dunk contest participant - Corey Brewer. Wait, what? The first-rounder this year? He went to Oklahoma in 1998? Did the T-Wolves really pick a 28 year old in the first round? Was he a red shirt freshman for like 10 years in a row? Would it surprise anyone if McHale picked him knowing that?!?
Actually, it's Corey L. Brewer, who was drafted 51st in 1998. Still, that was pretty confusing to me, okay?
I also caught some Premiership soccer! The 2:45 Man U-Portsmouth game was not televised; instead it was Chelsea-Reading.
Man U ended up drawing again in their game. They now have two draws to open the season against so-so opponents. Even worse, because of a red card headbutt, Cristiano Ronaldo might be suspended for the next three matches. The defending league champs, Man U, are already short Wayne Rooney. This pretty much means it all Carlos Tevez going forth. Which makes us happy, actually.
Carlos Tevez played well in the draw. He's still getting used to playing in that weird one striker offense of Man U. He did help set up the opening goal (15 minute mark) by Paul Scholes, which is actually the only goal they have this season. After receiving the pass from Nani (another Portugese player on Man U), Tevez dumped it off quickly to the attacking Scholes, who blasted it in from 15 yards away. Check it out:
The game we actually watched was Chelsea-Reading. I like Chelsea as a whole - they buy the best players, are very exciting, and everyone else hates them. They might be the Yankees of the EPL. Reading, the team that tied Man U last week, looked very legit. They dominated the first half, scoring one goal when Chelsea's goalkeeper misplayed an attack, jumped into his own men, failed to get the ball, which rolled past him and into the foot of Reading's Andre Bikey, who slammed it home for the easiest goal of his life.
Reading had several other opportunities to score in the first half, but failed. The looked legit, especially coming off last week's draw with Man U, and we even wrote down "Reading is legit" in our notebook. Chelsea's defense looked awful in the first half, and Reading had at least two or three other solid scoring opportunities.
So when the second half started, we were not expecting what we saw, but Chelsea got their act together and quickly scored two goals to put Reading away. Guess Reading wasn't as "legit" as we thought. On the flip side, Chelsea is for real. They are off to a four point head start already on Man U.
One last odd note on the Carlos Tevez and Man U: Boca Juniors (Tevez's old club in Argentina and our favorite club team in the world) wants their cut out from West Ham for the transfer of Tevez. Don't you love how international soccer works?
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2 Comments
Comments
stopmikelupica
said
That was a great comment, Tom. Excellent points all.
Yes, one of my main gripes with the sports press is the need to amplify everything, the need to turn everything into a sound bite. It's like reporting a story isn't good enough anymore. Just tell me the facts, and if you have some inside info, or some knowledge, share it with me. But when you write like a caller on WFAN, talking about "What's wrong with Mo?!", I have to shake my head. It's embarrassing. Is that what the journalism degree got you?
I do believe that a good amount of "bloggers" are better writers and even "reporters" than 75% of the sports press.
As for the Yankees - they lost a game started by Karstens because Clemens was still suspended, and a day game that followed a night game (in August) in which they played sluggish. They couldn't hit anything yesterday until Duncan gave them a second chance (youth is the only cure for the dog days of summer, as Brian says). Considering their performance since the All-Star game (a 40+ game stretch), they are definitely in good position to make the playoffs.
Consider that their starting pitching is finally set, without Igawa and Karstens. Mussina is starting to find his way after a rough start to the season.
It is possible that the Mariners could beat the Yankees out for the wild card, or some other team. But I think the smart man would put his money on the Yankees.
Steve Philips is a joke. It cracks me up how quickly he's gone from insider in baseball to another loud-mouth sports talkie.
In support of your criticism of Bill Madden, I just wanted to say that nearly every writer for the major NYC newspapers are hacks that aren't talented or clever enough to do anything besides sensationalist, instant-history "reporting".
Every loss is the end of the world. Every win means the team is a World Series contender. It's awful "reporting" like this that leads a newspaper to declare a team "finished" when there are over 100 games left to play (I forgot whether it was the Daily News or the Post that ran that headline on their back page, referring tothe struggling Yankees, in the middle of May). Lo and behold, three months later the Yankees are tied for the Wild Card lead.
There is no "big picture" point of view to these writers. And unfortunately, a majority of sports fans out there still sop this shit up with a biscuit and treat it as gospel.
And unfortunately, we as sports fans have to be subjected to this drivel from ESPN, which is far more wide-reaching than the Post or the Daily News.
Yesterday, Steve Philips went on SportsCenter and put together a flimsy argument to explain why the Yankees won't make the playoffs. Of course, they had just lost two games in a row (keep in mind that 2 games represents exactly 1.2% of the entire season). He tried to argue that the offense can't stay as hot as they've been (which is true), and that they "Don't have the pitching to compete with the other teams".
First off, let's address the hitting. The Yankees are the top scoring team in the major leagues. Even if they regress to their average (or slightly below) and stop averaging 7 runs a game and instead average say...5.5 runs a game, that still makes them one of the best offenses in baseball, if not the absolute best. Phillips seems to be assuming that just because the Yankees won't continue scoring 7-8 runs a game, they'll end up scoring 2-3 runs a gamne, which is not likely to be the case over a 40-game sample (25% of the entire fucking season).
As for the pitching...I dont know about you, but I think a rotation of Wang, Mussina, Clemens, Pettitte, and Hughes is pretty damn good.
The top 4 guys have a combined ERA of 4.12, and it's 4.14 if you include Hughes. For reference sake, that's lower than the team ERAs of all AL teams except the Red Sox, A's (not a contender), Blue Jays (not a contender), and the Angels
Here's another stat that I'm sure Phillips didn't bother to look up: Yankees record in games not started by the 5 starters named above: 20-19 (.513 Win %). Record in games started by the full, healthy rotation: 47-34 (.580 Win %)
Plus, there are three legitimately good arms in the bullpen in Rivera, Chamberlain, and Vizcaino. Plus, whichever starter gets left out of the postseason rotation (probably Hughes) will be in there too.
Phillips then said that the Mariners will win the Wild Card. 5 seconds after saying the Yankees won't make the playoffs because of their lack of pitching, he picked a team with a starting pitching ERA of 5.02!!! That's even higher than the Yankees if you include the Yankees shitty pitchers (Karstens, Igawa, etc.)! Seattle's team ERA is 10th in the AL. TENTH!!!! Of their 5 starters, two have ERAs right around the Yankees average starter ERA, one is better (Felix Hernandez) and two are positively awful (Jeff Weaver and Horacio Ramirez).
So, in summation, Steve Phillips thinks the team with the best offense in baseball will lose out to a team with much worse hitting and worse pitching. Makes perfect sense...
The Mariners have outscored their opponents by a grand total of 6 runs this year. Six. The Yankees have outscored their opponents by a grand total of 149 runs. The Mariners are the very definition of a team that has gotten lucky and has a much better record than they should have. I can almost guarantee that the Mariners go .500 or worse the rest of the way.
One last thing: baseballprospectus.com has a thing that they do daily where they run a simulation of the rest of the season 1 million times, and it's used to determine an approximation of a team's chances of making the playoffs. It's based on runs scored, runs allowed, strength of schedule played, and strength of schedule ahead. According to their system, the Yankees have a 69.5% chance of making the playoffs, while the Mariners have a 26.6% chance of making the playoffs. In fact, if you take away the Mariners 17% chance of winning their own division, the Yankees are more than 6 times as likely to win the Wild Card than the Mariners are (60.9% to 9.6%.)
Steve Phillips: Well known for being both a GM and an announcer, and being terrible at both.
Sorry for the long, kinda-sorta off-topic rant. But, I guess it's loosely connected, in that we're both writing about how guys who get paid for a living to "analyze" baseball are considerably worse at their jobs than people who do it for free.