by Stop Mike Lupica on August 28 at 3:19PM
Wow, these post titles are just getting silly now. Soon enough it'll
be football and basketball season, and the baseball playoffs, and I'll
be able to write about other things again. But through the dog days of
summer I've just been filling the time by talking about the media,
sports coverage by other blogs, silly rants about fantasy baseball,
soccer, and general filler crap. I'm pretty sure if stuff doesn't
start happening soon, I'll be writing about NYC back in the days, how
one could get a fake ID and watch kung-fu flicks back at the Deuce
(Times Square back in the day)... how downtown Brooklyn was gully, and
white people used to get robbed down there, but that's where you went
to get the hype gear... how the Black Israelites used to be mad
militant - yeah, they are actually watered down now compared to how
they used to be... how you could see a stabbing or knife-fight or
beatdown on the subway on a monthly basis... how hookers used to be a
common sites in midtown Manhattan... etc.
But that's for another time. I won't bore ya with it - old skool NYers already know these stories, and can share their own. New skool NYers (the gentrifiers) don't like hearing about what they missed. And non-NYers could give a rat's ass about any of this. So let's get back to the sports.
This weekend the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) held a tournament this weekend out at Coney Island (the AVP Brooklyn Open). Thursday a couple of the girls playing in the tournament ventured out to warm up a bit at the Water Taxi Beach court in Long Island City (the new home of SML). As a couple of the local players told me: "They played two on five. Two girls against five guys at a time. The two girls were huge - they were 6'2, 6'3, and spiking on everyone. They won five games in a row by 11-1 scores. Finally, they ended up splitting into teams.
The fan support at Coney Island was huge - thousands of people watched over the four days of the tournament, with the biggest crowd on Saturday for the Men's Finals. Also in attendance? The NJ (future Brooklyn) Nets dancers, Bruce Ratner, and Vince Carter.
Vince Carter was a crowd favorite, tossing volleyballs into the crowd. As a friend told me "He looked like a natural volleyball player". That's because he is - he was captain of his high school volleyball team, and one of the top high school players in Florida. Looking at the program for the event, the vast majority of the tour players hail from either California or Florida. And a couple from Hawaii. Though it's doubtful, I wouldn't be surprised if Vince Carter ended up giving volleyball a chance after basketball is over, particularly if he's still young enough (volleyball players play until their mid-40's). There was a rumor Carter was out there to support a former high school teammate of his, but I couldn't find any actually proof confirming that.
Bruce Ratner (and the Nets Dancers) had their own reasons for being out there. With the move to Brooklyn only two years away, Ratner wants to make as many inroads as possible in Brooklyn. Nets Daily has a detailed post on what Ratner is going to fill the Nets Arena (the Barclays Center) with during the calendar year. It includes 47 home games a year on average (including 5 playoffs games - an odd mix of over and under confidence in his team), 8 college basketball games (stealing St. John's or Big East games from MSG?), Major League LaCrosse, WWE wrestling, Harlem Globetrotters, and the circus, too (also stealing from MSG!). There is also 16 dates for "ethnic shows", which undoubtedly means ReggaetonFest 2009.
Also, keep in mind that Jay-Z is an investor in this enterprise, so expect quite a few hip hop concerts to be booked at the Barclay's. In fact, we would be surprised if any major hip-hop events took place at MSG instead of Barclay's come 2009. How exactly did James Dolan allow this move to happen again?
As for the Nets Dancers, this was their first public appearance since completing boot camp. Oddly enough, Vince Carter has also attended that same Boot Camp. So we found out this weekend that Vince Carter can qualify to be a future top level professional volleyball player and professional cheerleader. Um, draw your own conclusions.
Switching gears: I thought about blasting Lisa Olsen's piece in today's Daily News about Michael Vick (which is filled with lots of rhetoric), but we're done bashing lame beat writers. For a better example, check out JWeiler's post today at The Starting Five on how writers use little throw-away lines, lines you rarely think about, to change the discussion of hot button issues.
Instead, let's get back to the essense of SML: this Newsday article on a charity softball game tells a great story about Mike Lupica (found via Can't Stop The Bleeding):
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But that's for another time. I won't bore ya with it - old skool NYers already know these stories, and can share their own. New skool NYers (the gentrifiers) don't like hearing about what they missed. And non-NYers could give a rat's ass about any of this. So let's get back to the sports.
This weekend the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) held a tournament this weekend out at Coney Island (the AVP Brooklyn Open). Thursday a couple of the girls playing in the tournament ventured out to warm up a bit at the Water Taxi Beach court in Long Island City (the new home of SML). As a couple of the local players told me: "They played two on five. Two girls against five guys at a time. The two girls were huge - they were 6'2, 6'3, and spiking on everyone. They won five games in a row by 11-1 scores. Finally, they ended up splitting into teams.
The fan support at Coney Island was huge - thousands of people watched over the four days of the tournament, with the biggest crowd on Saturday for the Men's Finals. Also in attendance? The NJ (future Brooklyn) Nets dancers, Bruce Ratner, and Vince Carter.
Vince Carter was a crowd favorite, tossing volleyballs into the crowd. As a friend told me "He looked like a natural volleyball player". That's because he is - he was captain of his high school volleyball team, and one of the top high school players in Florida. Looking at the program for the event, the vast majority of the tour players hail from either California or Florida. And a couple from Hawaii. Though it's doubtful, I wouldn't be surprised if Vince Carter ended up giving volleyball a chance after basketball is over, particularly if he's still young enough (volleyball players play until their mid-40's). There was a rumor Carter was out there to support a former high school teammate of his, but I couldn't find any actually proof confirming that.
Bruce Ratner (and the Nets Dancers) had their own reasons for being out there. With the move to Brooklyn only two years away, Ratner wants to make as many inroads as possible in Brooklyn. Nets Daily has a detailed post on what Ratner is going to fill the Nets Arena (the Barclays Center) with during the calendar year. It includes 47 home games a year on average (including 5 playoffs games - an odd mix of over and under confidence in his team), 8 college basketball games (stealing St. John's or Big East games from MSG?), Major League LaCrosse, WWE wrestling, Harlem Globetrotters, and the circus, too (also stealing from MSG!). There is also 16 dates for "ethnic shows", which undoubtedly means ReggaetonFest 2009.
Also, keep in mind that Jay-Z is an investor in this enterprise, so expect quite a few hip hop concerts to be booked at the Barclay's. In fact, we would be surprised if any major hip-hop events took place at MSG instead of Barclay's come 2009. How exactly did James Dolan allow this move to happen again?
As for the Nets Dancers, this was their first public appearance since completing boot camp. Oddly enough, Vince Carter has also attended that same Boot Camp. So we found out this weekend that Vince Carter can qualify to be a future top level professional volleyball player and professional cheerleader. Um, draw your own conclusions.
Switching gears: I thought about blasting Lisa Olsen's piece in today's Daily News about Michael Vick (which is filled with lots of rhetoric), but we're done bashing lame beat writers. For a better example, check out JWeiler's post today at The Starting Five on how writers use little throw-away lines, lines you rarely think about, to change the discussion of hot button issues.
Instead, let's get back to the essense of SML: this Newsday article on a charity softball game tells a great story about Mike Lupica (found via Can't Stop The Bleeding):
The writers, meanwhile, had Daily News columnist Mike Lupica. In the bottom of the third Lupica slid into first, dust flying around him.
"I'm safe right?" he said.
He wasn't.
"Oh no. No. No. Damn!" he smacked the ground.
Heckling ensued.
"Who slides into first?" a spectator said. "He's a little intense."
"He's a writer," another spectator said.
Who the f*ck slides into first base, indeed! Seriously, Mike... time to give it up. Our guess? Mike Lupica was too tired from running to first from home, and his "slide" was actually him passing out on his way to first....
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when Christie Brinkley is out performing you, then it is WAAAY past time to hang up the sportswriting tablet...