To the 5 Boroughs

(Sip will not be contained today. Below find pieces about the Braves' odd negotiating strategy with Tom Glavine, and another about the Yankees' winning bid for Kei Igawa.)

NEW KNICKS! OLD GIANTS!!! COOP'S RANGERS!

Not sure if anyone else caught it, but the Knicks topped LeBron and the Cavs last night. A lot of good came out of this game.

Eddy Curry and Q played their best games of the season. The Knicks held LeBron under 30 despite playing zero team defense. Oh, and, Nate Robinson officially cemented himself as a circus act with ihs failed showboat dunk attempt.

But these Knicks are so back!

After being embarassed in a home and home with the Bulls, the early jokers of the Leastern Conference, they go on to beat the East's best.

It doesn't make a lot of sense.

But neither does the NBA.

I'm with the boys in Section 423. Give me Balkman and I will give you my heart back.

That guy is the rarest combination of terrible basketball player and ugly dude. I mean, at least Sam Cassell can shoot the basketball.

NEW GIANTS!

When the New Mets sit so far out of the spotlight (the biggest thing happening to them is a potential movie starring Jose Reyes and Jake the Snake Roberts: "Black Hammer White Lightning II"), my attention shifts to the men in Blue.

I wrote earlier in the week how this team has fallen apart.

Pretty obvious there, Sip.

But last night I saw an amazing stat: Over the last three seasons the Giants are 21-10 in games where Michael Strahan plays and 1-10 in games that he doesn't.

Stated simply, they are an 11-5 with the Gap tooth captain and the worst team in football without him.

The focus of this GIANT meltdown has been Eli, Plax, Coughlin and even Tiki opening his mouth.

But, as much as we New Yorkers hate excuses, there has been little mention of the unjuries.

Osi 5 Games. Strahan 3 games. Amani 3 games, Big Luke 2 and change.

It's not just a coinicidence that without their 2 pro bowl ends, the pass rush has stalled.

And it's no coincidence that without our left tackle and #2 possesion receiver our offense has stalled, especially considering that the backups are Big Bobby Whitfield and Tim Carter.

The Giants' strength on D was always their pass rush, which has been non-exsistent. On offense they had balance.

I really think a Giant turnaround can take place. We need to get lucky this week against Dallas and get some of our boys back.

Most importantly to me, though, I HATE the Eli bashing. It is the epitome of New York fans being fickle.

He's had a rough stretch. The kid is young. We all expected Montana this year and through 8 games we were very happy.

He's had a bad stretch. Take a look at Big Ben and then just calm your horses.

This kid will be back and we will all love him again.

VCD,

Sip

Oh, and the Rangers lost in a shootout the other night. GET THE PUCK TO BEUKEBOOM!

A Brave Mistake

(Note: Second piece of the day from Sip. The first, about the Yankees winning the Kei Igawa sweepstakes, is available immediately below this piece, or by clicking here.)

I don't think the Braves are as bad as they were last year. In fact, going into 2007, like any other year, the Braves still scare me. I have not forgotten that they are the Braves.

They still have John Smoltz. They still have the Jones'. They have their kids, Francouer, Laroche, McCann.

Let's just be thankful that for some reason, it appears that they are not interested in Tom Glavine.

Reports from Espn.com are that the Braves have yet to offer Glavine a contract.

Glavine, who in one of his many handshake agreements with the Mets, agreed to make a decision on next year by the winter meetings (starting this coming Monday), appeared to prefer Atlanta over a return to Shea. At least that is what I have heard and that is my gut.

And yet, Atlanta is yet to pass along an offer.

There has been discussion with regards to John Scheurholz's book, Built To Win, in which he slanders Tommy for a difficult contract negotiation back in the winter of 2003.

But if Glavine wants to return to Atlanta, at a discount price of around $8 mil per, the Braves would be foolish not to want him back.

Put Smoltz and Glavine at the top of the rotation and you have the best starting pitching in the division. The Braves would have a legit shot at taking back the East.

It's a scary thought.

Which makes me wonder.

I've been to Turner Field and the original Momo works there. I know they aren't putting too many fans in the seats. And I definitely know that Major League Baseball is less popular than Georgia football, Falcons football, Macon County High School football, Maretta Pop Warner football and even the newly formed WNFL, but still.

Is this team just broke?

While they have been shedding payroll over the last couple of years, is Glavine really out of their price range?

With the chaotic spending going down in baseball over the last couple of weeks, I cannot imagine that this is the case.

Which means that this appears to be a personnel decision.

Which to me doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. If the Braves fail to bring back Tommy, I would welcome him back with the most open of arms.

We need to bring back Glavine. He is the core of our pitching staff.

Without him and with the uncertainty of that surrouns acquiring Barry Zito, our opening day starter right now is El Duque. Our #2 is John Maine. I guess that makes Oliver Perez our #3.

These guys were in the MLBDL last year.

We have three days till Tommy makes a decision. Let's hope the Braves make the decision for him.

VCD,

Sip

Say What?!!

Welcome to Hypocrisy City, USA...

This week, those crafty Yankees won the posting rights to Japanese fireballer Kei Igawa after mustering the very cute winning bid of $26,000,194 (194 was his strike out total -- how adorable is that).

It was less than two weeks ago that the Red Sox were being scolded for posting a winning offer of $51.1 million for the rights to negotiate with the surest thing to come out of Japan since the Spicy Tuna Roll, Daisuke Matsuzaka.

New York newspapers killed the Red Sox. I mean $51 million dollars just to talk? Come on right?

I wrote a while back how I loved the move and thought the juice was worth the squeeze. Matsuzaka, a combonation of Elvis Presley and Michael Jordan in Japan, is supposed to be an ace. I am no scout, but everything that we read and everything that we remember from the World Baseball Classic suggests that the Red Sox got their hands on a real gem.

For 5 years and roughly $100 mil, the Sox had their Ace. They got a #1 at best and at worst #2 starter for the next 5 years. But, potentially of greater significance, the Sox got their hands on the biggest thing in Asia. They immediately put themselves on the map in the growing market of the Far East, and might have become the face of MLB in Japan on the heels of this move.

This is the equivalent of Real Madrid's paying over 40 million euros a few years back for the rights to David Beckham.

And now we have our beloved Yankees.

This move, at least on paper, takes the cake as potentially their dumbest move yet. Maybe they were jealous of the Sox. Maybe like my boys Team Facelift, they too wanted to be "Famous in Japan."

(Plug -- check out teamfacelift.com, the official white rap group of Y2k)

Whatever their reasoning, it just seems like it was unbelievably flawed.

Having paid a "smudge" over $26 mil for his rights, and likely to pay him around $4-$5 mil per season over 4-5 years leave the Yankees paying this guy somewhere around 4-5 years at about $11 million dollars per season.

That's $11 million dollars per season for a back of the rotation guy.

Take a minute and realize how much money that is, and then take a look at your cubicle or around your office (if you're lucky). I just looked at the banana peel and empty cup of coffee on my table and shed a tear.

But $11 mil per.

Even in this ever so crazy market, $11 mil is worth something.

The Yankees just paid Mussina about $11 per to stick around the Bronx for two more years. He was a top 10 starter in the AL last year.

Then there is Igawa. My main man Kei Igawa. The newest of Yankees.

Apparently this guy is a #4 starter at best.

Remember a couple of days ago when our jaws dropped after seeing the Phils pay $24 mil over 3 years ($8 mil per) for Adam Eaton, a PROVEN #4 and maybe even #3 starter?

Well the Yankees just paid $11 mil per, for potentially two more years, for an UNPROVEN #4.

I am scratching my head here. I am just really confused.

David Wright seems to be too: "I just don't know. I'd have to see him when he's in midseason form. You send a guy up there after a month layoff and you can't get a handle on a guy."

Wright saw this guy when He, Glass and Coach Julio went over to Japan. He was apparently unimpressed.

The move makes very little sense to me.

It's like asking, would you rather spend $20 mil on Johan Santana or $11 mil on Steve Trachsel?
I'm not saying Igawa is Trachsel.

They could only be so lucky. Trachsel is a 15 game winner in this league. How many #4's can say that?

Who knows what this guy will become, but early indiciations are that the Yankees got flossed here.

Wouldn't you rather spend that $50 mil on Jeff Suppan? A scary thought considering that guy is Jeff Suppan, but seriously?

I can see the headlines now:

"We need to lock this guy up and throw away the KEI!"

Vaya con dios,

Sip

If Not Now, When?

(Note: The latest in our Section 423 series on the Knicks appears immediately below this post by A.F.O.M.G.)

An uneasy quiet has descended upon the Mets' offseason. It's the kind of quiet many Mets fans had probably forgotten about given the offseason bounties of 2004, when Omar Minaya swooped up Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran, and 2005, when he strung together Carlos Delgado, Paul Lo Duca, and Billy Wagner.

So what do you do for an encore? Well, so far the answer has been not a hell of a whole lot. Basically the Mets' offseason acquisitions come down to Moises Alou, Jose Valentin and Orlando Hernandez.

Moises Alou? I think it's a great signing. He's a bit long in the tooth, but the guy can rake, and his specialty was the Mets' weakness in 2006. He punishes lefties. Our deficiency in this area had to be addressed. It was a good move (RIP Cliff Floyd).

$3.8 million for Jose Valentin? Geez... that's a lot of money. It's more money than I would have thought was necessary, but the truth is I wasn't in love with any of the free agent second basemen, and would have been wary of handing over a long-term deal.

Two years for El Duque? Well, one would have been better, but if it took two to get the job done, so be it. I liked what he showed us last year, and if he can stay healthy (a big if, considering he was injured twice in four months as a Met), he's worth the money.

And that's about it. Sure, there have been other moves along the way, but nothing splashy like when the Mets landed Pedro or Delgado.

And for a lot of people that's just as well. Look at the market, they say, it's crazy out there right now.

You know, they're right. It is crazy out there right now. I find myself wondering though whether the Mets wouldn't do well to check into the asylum.

Look, I'm glad the Mets didn't go 8 years for Alfonso Soriano -- 1 year of Alou is a much better deal. And believe me, I think the people who gave that kind of money and those kind of years to Juan Pierre and Gary Matthews Jr. have no business running a professional baseball team.

But that's all in the past now, and all that's left is the reality that the market is out of whack. Unfortunately for the Mets, that reality is at loggerheads with the reality of the club's construction, and ultimately, I think it's the latter reality that needs to loom largest.

This is a team that's built to win now. We made it to Game 7 of the NLCS last year, and I doubt there's anybody reading this who thinks we weren't the best team in the National League in 2006.

But we've also got some pretty glaring holes. We just lost one of our set-up men (Chad Bradford), it appears we have no interest in re-signing our long man (Darren Oliver), and it looks like we may well lose our only healthy ace pitcher (Tom Glavine) to his long lost love.

Where does that leave the Mets? We've still got $50 million invested in four players. We've still got an offense that's built to win now.

We've also still got a shoddy pitching staff. Right now there's El Duque and John Maine, neither of whom is exactly a known quantity. Beyond them, well, there's promising kids like Mike Pelfrey, Phil Humber, and Oliver Perez, but is this really the group we want to go to war with?

When we as fans think about the price tag that will come along with Barry Zito, I think we should bear in mind the constitution of this team.

Think of Delgado, who mashes dongs now but for how much longer? Think of Lo Duca, who picks winners by day and takes pitches by night -- how many more years are left in those knees? Think of Wagner -- how long before he tends to those alpacas full time?

And think of the Mets. Sure, we've got guys like Jose Reyes and David Wright. Yes, Beltran should have many good years left. And OK, there's talented young pitching in the Mets' system.

But this is a team that came close to a championship last year; isn't there an obligation to build on that?

They're saying it's going to take between 5 and 7 years and $75-110 million to get Zito. That's $15 million per for a lot of years, and I get that he's probably not worth it in and of himself.

But this isn't just about him, it's about the Mets, too. It's about the team we are right now and the team we would be with him in the fold. We all know how much more better this team would be with Zito in the fold.

And let's none of us forget that this is a guy who has won a Cy Young Award, who would be going to the National League, and who would be reuniting with the pitching coach whose departure coincided with the onset of his "struggles" three years ago.

It'd be a somewhat different story if there were a major free agent pitcher available in 2008 that I was excited about, but there isn't, or there isn't one who I think will be available to the Mets. Carlos Zambrano is the name that stands out the most to me, but somehow I just don't see it happening.

There are always trades to be made and smaller signings to measure, but crazy market and all, I think the Mets have to be prepared to throw everything but the kitchen sink at Barry Zito.

And I think when they do, we as fans should appreciate how close we came last year, and how 15 million dollars for one pitcher may ultimately make good on the 90 million dollars spent on 24 other guys.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Section 423: Is There a Light at the End of the Tunnel?

(Note: A piece by A.F.O.M.G. will be available later this afternoon, so keep checking in for that.)

Unless David Lee (whose rebounding average just goes up and up and up), and Marty Collins (if the folks at MSG had any soul, there should be a drink named 'The Marty Collins' at the Garden -- Hennessey and Pineapple) clone themselves, then the Knicks are in for another abysmal journey to the depths of the NBA.

After spending close to $450 bucks on 4 decent seats for Saturday night's game vs. Los Torros, and another 50 clams on some watered down jack and cokes and a rubbery hot dog (someone has to pay for Shandon Anderson's buyout, right?), I got to witness one of the least inspired, laziest, and down right depressing Knicks showings in years.

Coming off the Boston win, I assumed the guys would be on some type of high. The wheels may still be on the track? Well the train crashed like an Amtrak Saturday night, and to be honest folks, even for an eternal optimist like me, I don't think this train is making it to the station.

The Knicks are flawed on every level. Coaching. Injuries. Attitude. And worst of all, skill level. They're a lot like the 2003 Mets in that way, except instead of Art Howe, a broken Mr. Glass, and Tony Tarasco, it's Isiah, Jeffries, and Steph (or fill in the names as you so choose).

But back to the Knicks -- when you play home and homes with a team, usually you're able to split. You learn something in the first game, make an adjustment, and win the second, even if it is on the road.

However, the only adjustment made, and this is to Coach Zeek's credit, was that he put Balkman (2 of the top 10 dunks of the year so far?) in the game in the first half Tuesday on the road in the house that Jordan built, instead of letting him twirl his dreads until the 2nd half like he did Saturday night.

Balkman has been a pleasant surprise. Yes, he dribbles like a 6th grader. Yes, he makes you hold your breath on every 18 footer from the corner. However, he is unique, athletic, and ultimately does something that very few NBA players are capable of, even the good ones: he tries.

Night in and night out, the guy brings the pain like Method Man (great song). If Isiah can do a better job of when he puts him in the game, he might actually make an impact in the Knicks' favor. You can't play him zero minutes 1st half, then 24 in the second.

I'm also ashamed to say it, but I think the time has come for Stephon to move on. The prodigal son has fallen. How the basketball gods have deceived us. It's been close to 15 years since Steph was carried off the Garden floor a PSAL champion for Lincoln High School.

Now, he is benched and booed every time he touches the ball. It really breaks my heart. You can see the sadness in his soul as his ten dollar shoes squeek and slide up the hardwood.

What's the answer to the Steph situation? Bench and embarass him more? You can't trade him or buy his 15 mil a year out. What to do?

Here is the solution. Isiah should NEVER have Steph, Crawford, and Francis on the court at the same time. Ever. This isn't a Don Nelson sleep away camp. Start Steph and Francis, and about 6 minutes into the first quarter, pull one of them for Crawford.

Then with about 7 mins to go in the 2nd, right after the TV time out, put one of them back in. This will also help Crawford take fewer crazy shots, which he seems to do every other time down the floor.

Nate has been great, the block on Yao going down in history as an 'NBA moment', but he needs to start taking things seriously. I'm glad he is having fun, but honestly, when your team is an abysmal 1-6 at home, stop talking to Brooke Shields and Boomer Esiason in the front row, and win a ball game.

Saturday night in the Garden, all the big names come out, and the Knicks make Luol Deng, Nocioni, and Malik Allen look like Jordan, Pippen, and Ho Grant. Just atrocious. They held Gordon to under ten points and cut a 20 point lead down to 5 with 2 minutes left. Too little, too late, and too much stuffing and gravy on Turkey Day.

You laugh, but I really think that's what happened. The guys looked sluggish until Balkman gave them a much needed lift, and possibly the dunk of the year as he soared baseline for a thunderous stuff. Wow. Now I'm sounding like Walt Clyde...

So getting back to Steph, what do you do? He didn't take a shot Saturday night, the first time that had happened in his entire career. He sat the whole second half, even with Q Rich injured.

So what to do? The way this plays out will determine how long Isiah lasts. After all, that his golden boy. He is New York's golden boy. I don't question his desire, and while I know his skills have diminished, I just think he is lost right now. His role is not defined, and for the first time in his life, he is playing scared.

Nonetheless, at 5-11, the team somehow finds itself only 1 game out of first place in the Atlantic. At first I was excited about this, the mediocrity of the division proving false playoff hopes. Now I wish the struggling Nets and Sixers could get it together and pull away so a sense of panic and despair overwhelms the franchise and Isiah is fired and replaced with Kenny Smith, Greg Anthony, or even Mark Jackson.

From the booth to the sidelines. Those guys understand today's NBA player, while Isiah seems to be off in Neverland.

To end on a positive note, shout out to David Lee. Keep the double doubles coming, and keep yelling at the refs. New York hasn't seen this kind of fire since a young Bobby Valentine. They hear you young buck....

- Mase & Chris

RIP The Chad

(A couple pieces by Sip for you today. Following this piece about Chad Bradford's signing with Baltimore, Sip tackles the decline of the Yankees through to 2009, when all will be right with the baseball world.)

Word on the street is that Chad Bradford is joining the rest of baseball's free agent relievers for some crabcakes and football down in Baltimore, having signed a three-year contract to join those pesky O's.

The Chad will be missed.

Was anyone on the Mets more consistent in the postseason than Bradford? I had more confidence when this guy was on the hill than when it was Aaron Heilman or Sandman time.

Bradford's postseason line: 5 games, 5.1 IP, 0 ER

Bradford's success was often disregarded. But, he sure did an awesome job. Along with Pedro Feliciano, Bradford formed one of the better early inning righty/lefty combos in recent time.

So, take care of Cousin Schubert down in B-More, The Chad.

The one positive: this frees up a spot for a right handed specialist at Shea. You might say that one of my spare time activities has been working on my arm angle.

VCD,

Sip

Why the Yankees Will Suck in 2009

For those of you asleep for the last two weeks, well, you have missed a lot of freaky things.

Wake up to the world where the New Orioles are paying over $11 million per year to have Jamie Walker and Danys Baez setup for the showstopper Chris Ray (congrats J Schubes).

Adam Eaton, a potential #4 starter gets an $8 mil per deal and even those asleep know about Juan Pierre and Gary Mattews Jr.

The new collective bargaining agreement, signed about 3 weeks ago, combined with the overall financial success of the game has left baseball owners with such deep pockets that Manny Ramirez's 37 million dollars owed to him over the next two years is being talked about all over ESPN like it is cheaper than my local bodega.

It's nice to see these athletes get paid a lot. Their lives aren't already sweet enough.

But there is one reason why I could not be happier with what is going down in baseball. Simply put, the Yankees will suck in 2009.

This is not 2002 anymore.

The Yankees can no longer simply outbid other teams for the top players' services. Three years ago is there a chance that Matsuzaka doesn't end up in the Bronx? No way! And that is just with regards to the Red Sox.

But what has happened in Baltimore is the perfect indicator of the Yankees' eventual failures.

Last year, the Yankees were willing to pay Kyle Farnsworth "closer" dollars to "setup" in the Bronx. The Yankees and only the Yankees could afford to do this.

This year, the bottom feeding Orioles gave Baez 3 yrs and $19 mil to do the same ($1 mil more than the Yanks paid Farnsworth).

Another example comes with the Indians' David Delluci signing yesterday. This guy would be the perfect fit as the Yankees' utility guy and #4 OF heading into next sesaon. Unfortunately, the Indians gave him $11.5 mil to protect Big Pronk and co. in Wahoo Land.

The perfect example, though, is Barry Zito. The Yankees always need pitching. Last year they had only two dependable starters in Mussina and Wang. Of course they would want to get their hands on an ace like Zito.

Only now, so do 10 other teams with cash to burn.

There is simply too much money spread around baseball for the Yankees to purely outbid other teams. This is Part 1 for the Yankees' soon-to-be demise.

Part 2.

The Yankees are no longer the most attractive team to play for in New York.

Over the last six years America has witnessed a dynasty crumble. In 2000 the Yankees were led by a Hall of Famer in the making, Derek Jeter, 27, who would go on to lead the Yankees to many more titles.

All the big names wanted to join this dynasty, and join them they did.

But every year something new went wrong.

In '01, Mariano faultered.
In '02, there were those damn rally monkeys
In '03, they couldn't overcome those pesky kids in Florida
In '04, need I say anything here

In '05, that is when it truly unravelled. A-Rod's a bum; so is Big Unit (that's $41 mil worth of bum).

Finally there is year. The wheels totally spun off. The '06 Yankees were more of a soap opera than that show with the little midget that everyone loves.

Everyone was looking to pass the blame somewhere else.

One day it was that A-Rod is a bust. Another day it was that the invincible Torre had lost control. Even Jeter caught some blame.

All of a sudden the Yankees are a circus.

And why would a player want to jump in with the clowns when he could show up in Queens?

The Mets '06 look a lot like the formation of a dynasty. Not 1 but 2 marquee kids, Reyes and Wright.

A clubhouse filled with smiles and camaraderie.

And all of a sudden, a team that looks like it could be winning for the next 5-7 years.

So, not only are the Yankees unable to outspend their opposition to land the marquee players, they are not even the most viable option in their own city to land a big name.

Funny too, I was reading something the other day about how Henry Blanco wouldn't come to the Mets in '03, that he took less money to go elsewhere.

Funny how things change.

Part III: The Old Get Older.

Mussina:37
Johnson:43
Rivera: 36
Posada: 35
Giambi: 35
Jeter: 32
A-Rod: 31
Abreu: 32
Damon: 33
Matsui: 32

The entire Yankee team outside of Cano, Cabrera and Wang is passed its prime. Who knows where they will be in two years?

Rivera should be long retired as will Unit and Mussina.

Jeter's little inside-out swing will be a step slower and result in a few more pop ups and strike outs.

Unless Balco makes an even more potent steroid than is already on the market, than Giambi is done.

This is a team on the decline. With the Red Sox and Blue Jays continuing to reload, both young and old, I honestly believe that the Yanks might finish third this coming year in the East.

If not this year, well certainly in '09.

The Yankees have been doing everything that they can to stock up their empty farm system.

The trade for Humberto Sanchez is a nice start. But he has arm troubles. Pretty much the entire future of the Yankees rests in the shoulder of their prized pitching prospect, Phillip Hughes.

While Hughes is supposed to be as legit as they get, he really makes up 100% of their top notch prospects.

When the old get older, when there aren't enough young bodies to bring in, and when your bank account can no longer get you out of trouble, bad things start to happen.

I love baseball.

Vaya con dios.

Sip

A Heck of a Time to be a New Yorker

This weekend was just one giant kick in the balls. It started with a monsoon filled Thanksgiving and then carried right on in to our favorite New York City sports teams.

Friday

On Friday I spoke with my inner circle about the Spy. Will Tommy come back or will he go to Atlanta?

In a sports world filled with dirtbags and egos, Tom Glavine appears to be the classiest of the classy. He has carried himself with a level of professionalism like few of his contemporaries and has been an integral part of the Mets resurgence. While we thank Pedro for starting the chain of big names that would call Shea home, it was really Tommy the Spy that was the first.

So now Tommy has a decision. The Mets or Braves? $28 mil or $20 mil? Contender or Pretender? No trade clause or potentially shipped to Seattle?

Using strictly baseball logic, this should be a no brainer. Tommy should be a Met. He would make more money on a better team with the guarantee that he would not be shipped off.

But Tommy isn't your typical baseball player. He is also a good guy.

And while all the talk is about Tommy's family being in Atlanta I do not believe that this is the real reason Tommy would want to go. Family is the perfect excuse, but I believe that Tommy will go to the team where he wants to win his 300th game.

Glavine is a baseball historian and loyalist. He spent the better part of two decades with the Braves, dominating the National league and staking a claim as one of the game's all time greats.

It may just be that in his heart of hearts, Glavine wants to win his 300th game in a Braves uniform. That the picture of him in Cooperstown has his Braves teammates hoisting him on their shoulders as he wins his number 300.

Either way you could not fault the guy.

But in MY heart of hearts I believe Glavine will be back. What is happening at Shea is too special for him to leave. And at the end of the day, this guy craves another ring. Next Stop Shea.

Saturday

Saturday was a treat. My favorite E! correspondent and Y2K author of Section 423 scrounged up some purple seats to check out the Bricks at the Garden.

I root for the Warriors now. I admit that. A buddy of mine is slowly being hidden on their bench and if he goes I would soon follow, but for now, I remain on board.

At the same time, the Knicks are family. I often compare them to my mom. The woman drives me absolutely nuts and there are times when I wish she would just spend all of her time in Connecticut, but at the end of the day, I will always love her and she will always be my mom.

I will always love the Knicks. But man are they a joke.

After going down by 20 points in the first half to the White Hot 3-9 Bulls, I found myself sneaking to the bar to watch the ND-USC game.

The second half was a different story.

I got to see 24 minutes straight of Renaldo Balkman -- I AM SO ON BOARD -- and about 21 more of my blackjack nemesis David Lee -- he cool too.

The Knicks have a ton of holes, they are a bad basketball team and have ZERO future for the next three years.

But on Saturday I found myself in a weird place.

It was my first moment since his arrival that I had something nice to say about Isiah.

Assuming Isiah understands that this team is going nowhere, I really believe he is handling the '06 Knicks decently.

That is, he is letting his kids play. We are seeing a ton of Lee, Frye, Balkman and Robinson but not in the way we see saw them under Coach Brown.

Isiah is letting these kids make mistakes and more importantly, he is letting his kids play through their mistakes.

David Lee had about 14 turnovers on Saturday, but Isiah stuck with him.

Renaldo Balkman was chucking 3's when he has less range than a 14 yr old Sip. But Isiah stuck with him.

It may just be that Isiah is too dumb to realize these mistakes. That is a strong possibility. But assuming this is not the case, then tip a bit of your cap to Zeke. He is doing SOME developing.

And with a team with absolutely no shot, that is the best thing he can do.

He is getting the Knicks one step closer to being a decent team in 2011.

More importantly, Isiah is NOT the worst coach in New York.

Sunday

Oh Man!

Let me say it again.

Oh Man!

What happened in Tennessee was the last straw. It is not like me to go with the public. I hate the public and more so, I hate it when the public jumps to immediate and impulsive conclusions.

(Remember guys when the Giants were 6-2 and the whole world had them in the NFC championship game?)

But like the rest of the world, I am on board.

FIRE COUGHLIN.

I got about 92 calls after the Giants loss last night. There were a ton of unhappy people that I have a ton of respect for.

I was pissed.

But this loss belongs to nobody buy Coughlin.

Everyone will highlight two key plays. The Pacman Jones interception where Plax gave up on his route and the "sack" by BC alum Mathias Kiwaunaka.

These were bad plays. Plax's more so.

I was telling my father after the failed sack that Kiwaunaka must have thought he heard a whistle.

If this were the case, and he threw Young into the ground then there is 15 yards and an automatic first down.

But as my cousin Dan put it, this was a team that gave up on its coach. There wasn't a person on the sideline that rallied behind their headman, who was shown prancing arond the sideline like a high school cheer leader.

In hindsight you can doubt the guys playcalling in the second half. That is pretty easy.

But this is more of a bigger picture. Giants players hate the Giants Coach.

While we heard our typical annual sound bytes out of Jeremy Shockey earlier in the year, last week Tiki spoke out.

Has Tiki ever spoken out?

The answer of course is no. Which infers how bad this situation is.

Amazingly, the Giants are a win at home against Dallas away from being atop the NFC east. There is a Giants fan in the area that likes our chances against the Mr. Jessica Simpson led Cowboys, but still, this game is in our hands, in our stadium.

My solution.

Fire Coughlin today!

It is the only way to spark up this team.

With Strahan and Osi coming back soon and the eventual (hopefully?) return of LT Luke Pettigout, the Giants could get healthy at the right time.

But this team needs something more. We need Plax and Shock playing for their coach.

We need Eli to all of a sudden believe. (He really does look like the kid who gets mugged on the 79th street crosstown bus right now)

As my good pal KFC pointed out, Charlie Weis has an out in his contract that lets him become the coach of the Giants. Can you say "bringing sexy back." Could you imagine what he could do for the Giants offense with all of these weapons. And so we pray.

Either way. We need a fresh start.


Monday

Surprise, surprise. Sip is wearing warmup pants and a hooded sweatshirt, sitting in his sleek red chair.

It's a new week. We can finally say, Next week is now.

Apparently Yankee fans are complaining about Saturday's column on ESPN message boards.

As much as we here at Y2K write for you guys, our NYC brethren who love the Mets and hate the Yankees, I really get a kick out of pissing off Yankee fans.

Trapped in the bubble that is the YES Network, Yankee fans just don't get what is going on in the rest of the baseball world.

If just once we get the chance to remind them of that, then this is all worth it.

Happy monday all.

Vaya con dios.

Sip

A Defense of Joe Cowley

Remember back in 2002 when Gary Matthews Jr. was our 6th OF coming out of Spring Training? Well, a lot has changed.

I want to talk a lot more about this topic on Monday so I am going to spare you guys too much detail, but, basically, in short, baseball has up and gone wacko.

$330 mil for Soriano, Lee, Pierre and Gary Matthews.

I honestly don't know if any of these guys would crack the Mets top 4 hitters.

That's just me though, the same crazy guy that said Derek Jeter should be 7th in the AL MVP voting.

Apparently, claiming Jeter 7th was the worst thing to happen to America since the Jon Benet Ramsey saga.


Most things that most journalists write bother me. I find that only a tiny percentage of the media really knows they are talking about while the rest are simply out to attract readers.

But the fact that this dude from Chicago, Joe Cowley, is getting nationally scolded for putting 6th on his ballot is just about the worst thing that I have seen in sports media coverage.

Ladies and Gentleman. This is DEREK JETER.

This guy did not hit 100 home runs this year.

He did not hit .400.

He did not steal 150 bases.

He did not play on a team where he and only he was good enough to get the team a victory.

His team was not a 116-win team, instead, it stumbled for most of the season to make it atop the AL East.

Not a person in baseball views Jeter as the team's most talented player (A-Rod).

Not a person in baseball views Jeter as the Yankees most dangeroud hitter (Giambi, Sheffield, Matsui, A-Rod).

He was not the team's table setter (Damon).

I can continue the list.

I'm not saying Derek Jeter did not have a great season and I am certainly not saying that Derek Jeter is not a great player.

But there are a million reasons to vote this guy 6th on your MVP ballot. I have a million more to vote him 7th.

The players that were ahead of him were all marquee players. They all had tremendous seasons for top of the league teams.

It's not like Cowley just up and squeezed in Jake Taylor because they liked the way he called games.

So the fact that he has been nationally scolded for his voting is a travesty.

Fact is, Joe Cowley, without knowing anything about him, has jumped up towards the top of the list of my favorite journalists.

In a nation where Derek Jeter's cock floats somewhere near the mouths of half of baseball's writers, someone got up and just said "wait a minute, why?"

Baseball doesn't owe anything to Derek Jeter. He has been rewarded for his good service by being surrounded with all star talent for the last 10 years.

And so there is no reason why it is wrong to not think Jeter was an MVP.

That Vinny in the Bronx hates this dude from Chicago means nothing. Vinny is a moron.

If anyone really watched baseball, instead of watching their local team and rooting for their local market, they would know how many amazing players our game has. Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau are awesome for baseball.

Frank Thomas' resurgence was an incredible story in baseball.

Johan Santana may be the most dominant pitcher of the new millennium.

And Big Papi may be the most likable player, well, ever.

I'm with Cowley. Jeter just doesn't belong in a list with these players. If his name wasn't Derek Jeter, NO ONE would be having this conversation.

But because he is Jeter and because he is a Yankee, we as fans are supposed to give him a little added love.

And that is just dumb.

In Cowley we trust.

VCD,

SIP

PS: We went an unimpressive 7-8-1 using the fade The Sports Guy model last week. I will take my chances again this week.

Unfortunately the two games I like, the Bengals and the Panthers, are ones he likes so I'll have to think harder about playing those.

But once again, replace the "over" with "will not cover against" and you should be in good shape:

RAVENS (-3) over Steelers
BILLS (+3) over Jags
Bengals (-3) over BROWNS
Cards (+6.5) over VIKES
Niners (+6) over RAMS
Saints (+3) over FALCONS
Panthers (-4.5) over REDSKINS
Raiders (+13) over CHARGERS
PATRIOTS (-3) over Bears
TITANS (+2) over Giants
Eagles (+9) over COLTS
SEAHAWKS (-9) over Packers

Thanksgiving Turkeys

I'm up in Buffalo for Thanksgiving, giving thanks that the streets so recently denuded of their trees are not also covered in snow. That's the usual state of affairs around the holiday -- most backyard football traditions are made possible by the deep, fluffy layer of powder sitting on the lawn next to the gnomes and the patio furniture somebody forget to take in.

None of that this year, which is both fine and unsettling. Of course, there's a couple of other things on my mind that could be producing this uneasy feeling, some of which are baseball related.

But not all. At dinner last night, I actually enjoyed a dish of brussels sprouts. Stranger still, I went back for seconds. These little babies were golden browned with a tugboat full of garlic and copious amounts of lemon and lime juice. Unbelievably good stuff.

What's more, for some reason, our 19-pound bird was curiously meatless. Not dried out or cooked wrong. The turkey just had more "other stuff" inside than actual, delicious white meat. He was big-boned, like Kelly Clarkson. Anyway, my dad salvaged what he could, but it was still a relatively spare haul, which forced us to concentrate on your sweet potatoes and stuffings of the world.

What of the sporting world? Glad you asked. I enjoyed taking in the football games yesterday on the fam's new HD set. It wasn't the first time, but the feeling is different when you're straight chilling in the living room you grew up in, and there's a marvel of technology (it's the mirrors, I've heard) sitting atop the counter in all its majesty.

And so I saw Jo-ey Harring-ton get his revenge on Detroit, Marshall Mathers-style, and Tony Romo increase the odds that he'll upgrade from Jessica Simpson to a Playboy model by like a thousand percent. I didn't see LJ put the first nail into Jake Plummer's career -- that game was on the NFL Network, and like most of the people in the world, I'm not thought highly enough of by my cable operator to have that game available.

Giving me more time, sadly, to think about the nonsense going on in the baseball world, and the havoc playing out in the managerial halls of the baseball class. Everybody said all along that front offices lousy with Advanced Media and broadcasting cash were going to go hog-wild this off-season, and they were right to a point.

But this isn't just hog-wild -- it's pig-foolish.

(No? Ok.)

Take Mark DeRosa, for example. A Penn guy (there you go, Sip) and lifelong utility infielder. A guy who was ran out of Atlanta during the fat years, and couldn't hold down a job with the Rangers until last year. A career 273/.331/.404 hitter.

But hit .296 with 13 HR at age 31, and suddenly you're on board for three years and $13M? Why?

Gary Matthews Jr. to the Angels for five years/$50M is no different. Mr. Matthews, as George Feeny might call him, had a couple of things going for him. The Web Gem of the Year, certainly, and a solid .313/.371/.495 year in center field. Those are good things.

But they're not likely to happen again, much less for five more seasons. Last year was his age-31 campaign. You've signed him for 32-36, when most top-notch centerfielders slow down anyway. Matthews has been, before 2006, a tremendously disappointing fantasy team killer who never had 500 at-bats in a season. And you want him for five years? Why?

Neither of these deals is as egregious as the Juan Pierre deal, touched upon earlier. But the uneasy feeling referenced earlier comes in when I think about what's coming next. Both Sean McAdam and Buster Olney have speculated that in this hyperactive market, trades will become a far more active option.

I think they're right, and thinking of the potential trades out there makes me a bit uneasy.

Here's the Man last week, to ESPN.com:

"I don't think there's enough in the free-agent market to fulfill those needs,"
said Mets GM Omar Minaya, "so the only option is for trades. And I think there's
going to be a lot of activity there."

Well. This has several implications worth hashing out.

1. Heilman is likely to be gone

Yeah, probably. A guy widely viewed as starting material is too valuable in this market to keep around as a second setup guy. Your pen with Wagner-Sanchez-Hernandez-Oliver-Feliciano-Vargas et al can afford to take a hit, if you get back a solid starter.

Given the names out there as bait (Javy Vazquez, Jason Jennings, the D-Train), the Heilman-Blastings package makes more sense than it ever has. And I say that as someone who still thinks the Thrilledge is going to be a star.

2. Barry Zito's price tag grows by the minute

Where will it stop? Five/$75M was thought to be the old ceiling for the lanky lefty, but in this market, what can Boras get him? Is six years so ridiculous for the premier pitcher on the market if some asshole is willing to give Soriano eight? What about $17M per instead of $15M?

I say it is. But I'm not an agent with a major piece of talent, or a panicky GM with a crowd to placate and an overstuffed wallet.

Look for Zito to eventually sign with New York for a pocket-busting deal that has everyone outside the Mets' fanbase shaking their heads in disgust. We'll have to keep our heads low for a while after that one.

3. Pat Gillick is a fucking idiot

We all jumped on it at the time, from Mike and the Mad Dog to Sports Illustrated to the untamed blogosphere to the elite baseball analysts. We were right to do so. It was total and complete asshattery from top to bottom.

Plus, it helped the Yanks, which precisely nobody liked.

But now, given the current market, how bad does the Bobby Abreu trade look? There really aren't words to describe it.

Giving up on one of the best players in the league, a five-tool on-base machine with declining but still present power, because you didn't want to pay him $23M over the next two seasons? That shouldn't play in a big-market town like Philly seven days a week, but now, I doubt the worst teams in either league would cut bait on him at that price.

A guy far superior to Soriano at no cost. No, sir, the playoff-missing Phillies wouldn't want any part of that. But at least Matt Smith threw eight strong innings toward the end of the year...

More coming as I get angrier and angrier.

A Thanksgiving Tribute to 2006

We have a little tradition here at Y2K. In the spirit of the holiday today, we like to take some time out and reflect on the year that was before we up and stuff our faces.

Last year the tribute was devoted exclusively to the Mets. Don't worry, they'll be the predominant theme this time around as well, but they'll have some company. So in no particular order and without further ado...

1. A Year to Remember

How 'bout those new guys, huh? After three years of shittiness, the Mets finally started turning things around in 2005. In 2006, they arrived.

I'd never experienced anything quite like 2006 before. I can't remember 1986 or 1988. The Mets had excellent teams in 1999 and 2000, but we didn't dominate the way this team did. Hell, we didn't even win our division in those years.

But 2006 was one of those years where everything just came together. And you know what, fine, it didn't end the way we wanted it to. It was still a great season, one I'll always remember.

I'll remember it because the Mets were really great this year.

I'll remember it because it was the first year in quite some time that I was able to watch virtually every single game without the hindrance of homework, tests, or what have you.

And I'll remember it because I'm young enough for the Mets to feel like the most important thing in the world to me, and for 6 months they really made me happy.

So no, they didn't go all the way, and hopefully some year soon a Mets team will come along that makes me remember it even more than this bunch in 2006 did. But as for now, cheers to the 2006 New York Mets. We've come a long way, baby.

2. Chris Cotter

I was going to devote one of these tributes to SNY, but you know what, I did them last year. I'm still thankful as all hell for the network. SportsNite is everything I need in a sports broadcast. Mets Weekly owns my DVR list. I sing/hum/emit the SNY theme music several times a week.

So I've got nothing but love for the network, and a big part of the reason are the people associated with it. The Mets broadcast team is a special group, it really is. Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling are a joy to listen to throughout a game, both for their insight and for their humor.

Matt Yallof, Brian Custer, Julie Donaldson -- love 'em all.

But then there's Cotter, the resident frat boy of SportsNet New York. Simply put, the man is a legend. What other sideline reporter can ask the tough questions and go a minute-plus on a keg stand?

I mean, come on, look at that smile.

I grew up on Matt Loughlin, but Cotter's going straight to the Y2K Hall of Fame. Here's to you, pal.

3. My friend, Mr. Glass

Remember last offseason? Remember all the dopes out there calling into talk radio saying we gotta trade Reyes, or we gotta bat him 8th?

What a difference a year makes. Reyes had the kind of season in which he was pursuing records held by Wille McGee and Honus Wagner. He had the kind of season that had people talking about him being the MVP of the National League. He had the kind of season that made him possibly the most popular player in New York.

He did it through some combination of getting on base, stealing bases, dancing in the dugout, concocting complicated high fives, and flashing the brightest smile in the city.

I won't bore you with the numbers, even though they were damn good. Really though, what makes Reyes such a pleasure is just watching him play the game. It's rare to see a ballplayer take such joy in what he's doing, and it's fun to see.

How many times have we said to ourselves, "don't these guys realize they get to play baseball for a living?" Reyes realizes it, and we as fans get to share that joy every time he breaks into one of his little jigs or emerges from a cloud of dust at third base to clap his hands and show that toothy grin.

4. Citi Field

Really, I'm less thankful for the name that it is than the name that it isn't. I mean, this could have been really bad. Meineke Stadium. The Depend Adult Undergarment Colliseum. You never know with these corporate sponsorships.

Enter CitiGroup. Sure, I wish MetLife had won the bidding, but for all I know they didn't even bid. Besides, as the Hound was quick to point out, with CitiGroup you're talking about a very profitable, very reputable, very stable company.

That's good for us because it basically ensures we won't have the kind of situation like they had out in San Francisco, where the stadium has changed names 3 times in 5 years or however long it's been.

So Citi Field it is. You know, there's a part of me that's certain I'll always find occassion to say I'm heading out to Shea. All things considered though, I can live with Citi Field.

5. Moises Alou

There's been some chatter in the blogosphere about how this wasn't a good pick-up. Let's just say I respectfully disagree. This guy was exactly what we needed. A powerful righthanded bat who can punish lefties -- sound like something we were missing last year, doesn't it?

I think this move helps our team immensely going into next year not only because of the player Alou is himself, but also becuase of the effect I expect him to have on David Wright.

In the first half of 2006, Wright killed lefties, in the second half he struggled mightily against them. I have to think that part of the reason was that with the X-Man (RIP) gone, it was basically Wright's responsibility to win games for the Mets when we faced lefties. That's a lot of pressure. Next year the job won't be his alone, and that should be to his benefit as much as anyone else's.

I also love the move because, my god, have you seen the going rate for outfielders these days? 50 million for Gary Matthews Jr.? Are you kidding me? I'll tell you what, the Mets have doled out some awful contracts in their day but I don't think anything tops that one.

For us to pay $8.5 million for one year to a guy who brings exactly what we need was a good move, even if he does piss on his hands.

6. First Impressions of Earth (The Strokes), It's Never Been Like That (Phoenix), Everything All the Time (Band of Horses)

The three CDs that defined my year. The first one should come as no surprise; the third CD from my favorite band, I swooped this one up the day it hit shelves. I couldn't give it a heartier endorsement.

"Red Light" and "Electricityscape" are in my personal Strokes pantheon, and there are 5 other songs from this disc that make my "Essential Strokes" compilation, plus three B-sides ("I'll Try Anything Once," "Hawaii," and "Mercy, Mercy Me") from the album. Anyway, First Impressions of Earth, buy it.

The other two though I'm really pleased I found. I'd never heard of either band before coming across them on Pandora, so really it was just dumb luck.

The Phoenix CD, It's Never Been Like That, is really superb. Go on iTunes and listen to any of songs 2 through 6 -- if you like rock music, you'll be glad you did, and you'll be glad if you take the next step and just buy the whole CD. So f'ing good.

As for Band of Horses, this one is not the upper that the other two are, with the exception of the excellent "Weed Party," but honestly, it's just a really beautiful CD.

7. Carlos Beltran

We've come a long way with old Beltran, haven't we? I wasn't one of the people booing him last year or in those first 10 at-bats this year, but yeah, it was pretty frustrating watching our 119 million dollar man look like Gary Matthews Jr.

The guy looked lost at the plate, but even worse, he looked miserable in the dugout. Without the cajoling of Old Man Franco, things might have gone on that way. Luckily, Beltran took his curtain call and from there the sky was the limit.

The owner of the awesomest theme music in New York, the guy had an MVP-caliber season, and all of a sudden you started seeing little kids wearing Beltran t-shirts everywhere the way you used to see shirts with "Piazza" on the back.

That's not to say he's the face of the franchise or even its most popular player. But no two ways about it, Beltran was our best all around player in 2006. We're lucky to have him.

Just remember though, Carlos, that it's never too late to have that massive facial wart removed.

8. Readers like you

This little site of ours has really come a long way. On November 1, 2005 we got 36 hits. 36 god damn hits. On November 1, 2006 we got 444, to say nothing of the 4500 people who checked out the site the last three days. For my money that's some pretty good progress.

I know I speak for Sip and Cheddar when I say that we're extraordinarily appreciative of everyone out there who takes the time to read this website. The Mets blogosphere is a crowded place, and for everyone who takes time out of their day to read our content, our thanks go to you.

And that's all I got.

Gobble, gobble.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Jeter For Runner-Up... On His Own Team

(Note: Our weekly Knicks column "Section 423" appears immediately below this piece by Sip. Also, please note that we will be updating as per usual tomorrow, Friday and Saturday.)

When I was a freshman for my high school baseball team I hit .426. I led my team in runs scored and stolen bases and played a pretty decent SS while hitting in the #2 spot. My team was something like 15-2. It only made sense then, right? Sip for MVP.

The only person this really made sense to was Sippy Sr. Why the cheering section of one? Because batting behind me were the greatest 3-4-5 in the history of New York City private schools.

Our #3 hitter went yard once a game and was our best pitcher. Our #4 hitter, the team clown, was our Big Papi and then the big fella hitting 5th was New York City's Adam Dunn: he hit bombs or struck out.

If you took me off this team, we would have still dominated. Sure I brought the intangibles and made the ladies of Central Park go wild, but we won because we could mash. I was just there to be driven in.

Derek Jeter is a great player. He has had a tremendous career. To be so consistent year-in and year-out with the pressures of New York City in the foreground is really a tremendous feat.

Derek Jeter is a great talent. He has always been one of the top players in the game and at his position. He routinely hits .300, scores 100 runs, steals 20 bases and plays solid defense.

But Derek Jeter did not make a name for himself because of his talent. It isn't his .317 BA that has him going to the HOF. Derek Jeter is a star because he is a leader and a winner.

As a young player in New York, Jeter emerged as the clear cut leader of the Yankee dynasty. He was a playoff monster and an on-field inspiration.

As much as all Met fans hated him, you saw something special in this kid. I think it is safe to say that Derek Jeter is the Most Valuable Player of baseball over the last 10 years. I really do. What other player has been so solid for one team over such a long stretch of time?

At the same time, Jeter had ZERO business whatsoever being thought of as an MVP candidate this season. I have him no higher than #7.

For one thing, Jeter is not leading his team to championships anymore. I know, I know -- the writers vote on the MVP before the playoffs. Fine. One way or another, that big part of the Jeter mystique is gone. He is no longer the guy that you assumed would win, just because he was Jeter.

And that was what always made him great. In the late 90's he was a clear #3 in terms of talented SS' in baseball. A-Rod and Nomar were 1 and 2 by far. They were better hitters and back then, better fielders. But Jeter had his rings. He had four of them. But in six years since he's garnered no more.

The Yankees have not won in 6 years, cursed some have argued, and yet Jeter receives none of the blame. He received all of the praise in the world for them winning, but yet he receives none of the criticism when they lose.

So if he is not an MVP for his leadership and winning then we have to look at the MVP as an award for how his talent and numbers affected his team. Take the talent that is Derek Jeter off the Yankees and where do they end up.

The answer: The exact same place.

With a lineup averaging $14 million dollars in salary per year, the Yankees have no one position player that they cannot live without. They lost Sheffield and Matsui for large stretches this year and were still the best offense in baseball. BY FAR!

Jeter hit behind the best leadoff man in the game and hit ahead of the best 3-4-5 in the game. Why is it fair to say Paul Lo Duca's number's were inflated hitting behind Reyes and in front of Beltran-Delgado-Wright, but not say the same for Jeter?

Fact is, hitting #2 is the best place in the lineup to inflate your numbers. You have your speed guy on base distracting pitchers and you have your mashers behind you intimdiating them. No one is scared of Jeter hitting the ball out of the park. So here, take a single, they say.

I truly believe Jeter is the #7 MVP in the American League. Here is my order for what it should have been:

1. Frank Thomas

If you took Frank Thomas off the A's this year, then you'd be facing a minor league offense. Their lineup was flat out terrible without him. Nick Swisher's numbers appeared solid (.254, 35, 95) but 16 of those homeruns came before June 1st.

The A's had two starters that hit over .275 (Jay Payton and Jason Kendall) and the one player they counted on to hit, Eric Chavez, hit .241 with 72 RBI.

Then there is Frank Thomas (39 HR, 114 RBI, .270 AVG, .381 OBA). For those not living in the Bay Area, you missed yet another amazing Oakland A's second half. This team went 47-26 after the break to dominate the AL west.

Only this was not the Oakland A's of old. Rich Harden was hurt, Barry Zito and Action Danny Haren pitched solidly and Loaiza looked pretty good the last 6 weeks. But it was not pitching that carried this team.

It was Frank Thomas and Frank Thomas only. This guy was a MONSTER in the second half. He was the one sure thing every night. After July 1 he hit for a .291 average with 23 HR and 75 RBI). The guy carried his team.

Take him out of the A's lineup and your best hitter may be Jay Payton. Remember him? Five tools and everything? Without Thomas, the A's go nowhere. He defines value for this year.

That he got such little recognition is baffling. Maybe it's because people were so shocked that he came back like this. Maybe it's because they didn't believe it. Or more likely it is because he played in Oakland, a team that no one cares about, and in which everyone assumes that it is pitching and Billy Beane that win it for them every year.

I really don't think it was close this year. That is, unless we are counting pitchers in the balloting.

2. Johan Santana

The Twins won the Central because of Santana. As great as Morneau and Mauer were, without Santana, this team is a middle of the division club. Every 5th day you knew you would get a dominant start. He was by leaps and bounds the best pitcher in baseball this year. He was the one true ace in the game.

While the MVP traditionally goes to hitters, Santana is not a traditional pitcher.

Consider this: the second best pitcher in the AL was Chien Ming Wang. Wang was good for 7 innings and 3 runs a start.

This guy was 19-6, 2.77 ERA, 1.00 Whip, 245 K's.

No one was even close to him this year. Take him off the Twins and they are an 83-win team.

Value.

3. David Ortiz

The Sox totally faded in the last 6 weeks of the season. But on August 15th he was everyone's clear cut AL MVP. This guy combined insane numbers (54, 137, 287) with his Jeter-esque clutchness.

He powered the Sox in a somewhat off-year for Manny (35, 102) and in a year where the Sox really had little pitching outside of Jonathon Papelbon.

He was the team's leader, the heart of a city and the face of baseball. He was Jeter '99.

The Red Sox' collapse was not Papi's fault. The team simply forgot how to pitch. But take Papi out of that lineup and the Sox really have one threat, Manny Ramirez, a guy that even the people of Boston are starting to lose a ton of confidence in.

4/5: Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau

I'll be the first to admit that Justin Morneau should not have been the MVP of the AL. I think the guy was the 3rd or 4th most valuable player on his team.

But Morneau and Mauer were monsters this year forming maybe the greatest housemate duo of all time (they actually live together).

Both guys had career years.

Mauer (13, 84, .349) as a catcher. As a former high school catcher, my knees tired after game 7. This guy caught over 130 games.

Morneau's numbers are equally impressive (34, 130, .321). He came out of nowhere to lead the Happy Will Recap to a win in my bottom half payroll fantasy league.

Unfortunately, I think it is impossible to distinguish between these two. I really do. Mauer is the golden boy of the Twins. He is their leader, their #3 hitter and their homegrown baby. Yeah, Morneau had better power numbers but Mauer was the heart of that lineup.

I really believe these guys should just cancel each other out. That is why I was shocked that Morneau won.

Now we get to #6. Logically this should be Jeter. Only this is Y2K so it makes sense that we would want to slight Jeter. We would want to put anyone else up there, right?

In my opinion #6 was someone I despise more than Jeter. Not only is he a Yankee but he corrupted baseball. Still, in our generation of Steroids and dollars, this guy was a monster.

6: Jason Giambi

Giambi had Giambi-esque numbers this season (31, 113, .413 OBA). But more importantly, he carried the Yankees' lineup. With Matsui and Sheffield down and A-Rod sunning in Central Park before games, Giambi was the one expected power source in this lineup. The guy hit bombs to the short porch and wiggled his tongue while doing so.

Without him there is only A-Rod to protect Jeter. You pitch to Jeter and pitch around A-Rod and then what?

Without $50 mil worth of Giambi, Shef and Mastui, the Yankees lineup looks almost pedestrian.

So there you have it. I'll give Jeter the #7 spot just because I don't feel like writing more. But it sure would be easy to make a case for a bunch more players (Jermaine Dye, BJ Ryan, Jim Thome, and the list goes on and on).

I think Jeter is a great player. He was the MVP of baseball in '99 and got robbed.

He is quite possibly the most important player of our generation -- a generation filled with steroids and corruption.

But Jeter is no MVP.

Take away his rings and Jeter is nothing more than A-Rod with shittier numbers and a better personality.

And Jeter hasn't gotten a ring since I was in high school.

Yankees 2000: Promote the Curse!

Vaya con dios,

Sip

Section 423: Ain't No Place Like The Road

(Note: Sip will be in with a piece about Derek Jeter's failed bid for the AL MVP later this afternoon.)

Why does the NBA, the master of manipulating schedules for their own marketing purposes (think Jordan coming out of his 2nd retirement at MSG, or 3 years in a row of Kobe vs. Shaq on Christmas), stack the odds against our beloved orange and blue right out of the gate?

Of their first 11 games, only two were against teams that did not make the playoffs a year ago (Celts and Hawks, and of course the squad lost both).

It would seem to me, if I were David stern, that I would do everything possible to get the Knicks winning again. But even the commish can't help a team that for some reason plays its best ball on the road, and looks like a junior varsity team at home.

Why do the Knicks have a better record on the road, (3-3) than they do at 'the world's most famous' (1-4)? Let's discuss.

One reason the Knicks play better on the road is that Jamal Crawford can't go to Marquee, Bungalow 8, or Tenjune when he is in places like Memphis. The Knicks are club rats, and if you hit up the meat packing district the night before you guard Paul Pierce, chances are he's going for 39pts.

The Knicks caught a break in Miami as the Heat still have a championship hangover. The help side defense is still atrocious, but they do have something this year that they lacked all of last...a routine. We know who the bench guys are, who the starters are. There is some semblance of order.

The next two games are critical. On the road in Minnesota, where again, as Starbury knows all too well, not much popping on Thanksgiving eve in the land of 10,000 lakes....and then Saturday night in NYC vs Los Torros.

I will be in attendance for the Knicks and Bulls Saturday night in the Garden. Ten years ago, over a holiday weekend, that would have been the hottest ticket in town. Now, it's Wicked on Broadway. My how things have changed.

The Knicks need to start protecting the honor and history of Madison Square Garden. Isiah said others teams and players who are visiting feel as if they can put on a show in the Garden. That is disgraceful. Let's get a David Lee dunk in the open floor, or a Channing Frye 11-14 from the field night to get things going.

While things are obviosuly not good, considering the strength of schedule, 4-7 isn't the end of the season just yet. The Atlantic division is so awful, the Knicks may just have a chance of sneaking into the playoff hunt.

Lee averaging over 8 boards a game has been a tremendous positive this season, and that block Lil' Nate had monday night on Yao is the highlight of the season so far.

I'm still not comfortable with Q Rich as the leading scorer, and one of the Crawford-Starbury-Franchise 3-headed monster needs to go. It's just too much dribbling. When they move the ball and use the low post, they are effective. When they watch Stevie dribble as hard as he can (how does he bang the ball so hard and go absolutely nowhere?), they are a mess.

Good to see Pat Ewing courtside the other night. Why can't he come back and teach Eddy Curry how to play basketball?

Allan Houston is better on camera than an E! Correspondent, and I love having Kenny Smith call the games over Clyde. Sorry, but it's true, he is so in touch with today's NBA lifestyle, and he can enjoy a good Jadakiss song and a glass of Chianti.

So two in a row is the goal; if they can manage that, the squad will be a game under .500 and only half a game out of first place. With the team struggling at home, this Thanksgiving, let's be thankful they only play half the season on 32nd and 7th.

- Chris & Mase

The Year of Moises

Fat Ryan Howard takes the MVP trophy over Pujols and the gang? Not a travesty, but certainly not the right thing. Those voters sure love them a good story.

Still, nobody else in the NL rested on their laurels waiting for the judgment to come on in. Omar, especially, had a busy day. Thoughts? Verily.

Mets sign Moises Alou to 1-year, $8.5m contract

On a day that saw big money and big years thrown around by the likes of Ned Colletti and Jim Hendry, this was the savvy move. Only a one-year commitment to a guy with major pop in his bat, a souped up Cliff Floyd who happens to be right-handed and usually kills lefties. Big pluses there.

In the minus column, he's old and pretty bad defensively, and his durability is a major question mark. Games played in the last three seasons – 155, 123, 98. Ages – 38, 39, 40. As trend lines go, this one is relatively direct.

More to the bad – the injuries that plagued him during May and June were back and ankle woes, of the recurring genus. More to the good – they were largely cleared up by July, and a rejuvenated Alou played the second half of the season with a hot bat.

I'm split on the whole “peeing on his hands” thing. Really could go either way on that. Informed commentary from winos, vagrants, fashion designers and long-distance runners would be appreciated.

But in the context of this market, it was a great signing. Another righty leftfielder with a power bat the Mets were linked with – you may have heard of Alfonso Soriano – got an insane eight years out of Chicago in the fifth-biggest contract of all time. It's just crazy, giving a guy whose game is completely dependent upon athleticism a contract through his age-38 season, plus a no-trade clause. Why not just get a Denny Neagle tattoo?

I've always been relatively down on Soriano, .351 OBP in 2006 included, but at these prices, everybody should be off the wagon.

In case you missed this, Juan Pierre may have bilked a 5-year, $45m contract out of the Dodgers despite the fact that he's been more or less useless for the past two seasons and is vastly overrated defensively.

Reliable, sure, but as a guy who relies on extra-base hits for what little power he provides (12 career homers, baby), Dodger Stadium is going to kill him. And for five years! So much for Matt Kemp.

As Buster Olney pointed out, this is going to drive the market for J.D. Drew and Carlos Lee into the stratosphere. Great. Let other teams waste their dough on those two clowns. He also says it increases the chances of the Angels going after Manny, which I'm not sure I disagree with. Fine.

But look at the other madness going on. Nomar and Frank Thomas, brittle as they are, each got two years. So did Henry Blanco (?) and Jim Edmonds, another injury risk.

The Mets got a guy who falls just short of the superstar class with only a one-year hook, and that's to Omar's credit. This right after heisting Ben Johnson (non-steroids edition) from the Padres. Nicely done.

This also sends Spliff packing for sure, not that we were confused about the likelihood of that. You'll be missed, old friend.

Mets decline $14m option on Glavine

More evidence, in my eyes, that they're giving Tommy a chance to go back to Atlanta. It's probably the fair thing to do. If not, and again, I say this in the context of a market that just gave Justin Speier four years and $18m, the Mets would have pulled the trigger on that baby.

Moose goes to the Yanks at a discount, damn it. Who else is excited to see how much Jeff Suppan signs for? I'm practically tingling.

Mets trade RHP Henry Owens and RHP Matt Lindstrom to Florida for LHP Jason Vargas and LHP Adam Bostick

Owens was a product of Barry University, whose head coach, the scrappy Marc Pavao, doesn't trust AFOMG worth a damn. Long story, he's got his reasons. I don't blame the guy for a second.

Anyway, Owens has a long history of being pretty decent and went out and produced a completely dominating year at AA last year, of the 0.73 WHIP, 1.58 ERA variety. Unfortunately, he was 27, making him less of a prospect than a last-chancer.

He certainly could be a late-bloomer, a righy Mike Remlinger situation, and Florida's right to give him a crack at it where the Mets couldn't. Lindstrom is of no concern to anybody not named Ma Lindstrom.

As for the two guys the Mets got back, Bostick will be a 24-year-old lefty with a decent strikeout rate and a low professional WHIP of 1.43. Blah.

Vargas is the real haul, a former second-round draft pick out of Long Beach State. He had great years in '04 and '05, moving through the ranks from Sally League Greensboro all the way to the Florida rotation two years ago. He was good enough there (4.03 ERA in 77 IP) as a 22-year-old that the Marlins kept him there to start the season.

Then he fell off a cliff, sucking out a 7.33 ERA in 43 innings split between the rotation and the pen. He was fine the first time they sent him down to AAA, good enough to be called back up, but after going down for the second time on July 29, it was done. He gave up 38 runs in just over 31 innings, and the Fish didn't even call him up when rosters expanded.

All that said, he's exactly the type of guy you take a risk on for the pen. A three-pitch (fastball, changeup, slider) repertoire, middling size (6-foot, 215) ... sounds like a bullpen lefty to me. Let the spring training battle begin!

DC United F Freddy Adu to Manchester United for two-week trial

It doesn't look like he's going to be training with the first team, which had already left for the Champions League match in Glasgow. Instead, he's going to be with the youth team until, I don't know, Thursday. Salt.

Anything other than reps with the first team is useless. Let's let Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo have a crack at him, and see how he does. Even if you're bearish on Freddy, you want to see how he would fare.

The Y2K Interview: Julian Casablancas

As regular readers are probably aware, I'm a huge fan of The Strokes. They're my musical orange and blue.

About a year ago, I was at their website, thestrokes.com, when I saw a little news item about how the guys in the band had gone to Shea Stadium to celebrate lead singer Julian Casablancas' birthday.

Knowing that he was a Mets fan, I thought it was worth asking if Julian would be so kind as to agree to an interview with Y2K, so I contacted his management team. The following is the result of the conversation I had with him about the Mets, music, and what have you.

I'd like to thank Julian again for participating in this interview. I'd also like to thank everyone at Wiz Kid Management who helped arrange for me speaking with Julian; Juliet Casablancas in particular. Without your help this interview may never well have happened, so many thanks to you.

Yankees 2000: When did you become a Mets fan? Were you a fan as far back as you can remember or did it sort of grow over the years?

Julian Casablancas: I had a long period of kind of not caring about sports at all, but before that, one of my first memories was the Mets winning the World Series in ’86.

I can also remember the first game I ever went to was with Nikolai [Fraiture, bassist for The Strokes] and his dad. I remember it was against the Astros, and that it was in the late 80s.

This would have been one of the years after they won the World Series. By that point Mookie was the last man standing, most of the team that won in ’86 was gone by that point.

So growing up, if I was rooting for anyone it was the Mets, but then I got into music, and sports kind of fell by. I continued watching basketball because of Michael Jordan but I don’t know, it’s just such an investment you make of yourself when you’re watching sports.

Whenever your team loses you get so depressed – speaking of which, I’m still fucking hurting from that Game 7; I almost don’t want to talk about it, but I know it’s gonna get to that point eventually.

Anyway though, growing up I loved basketball mostly, but then in the late 90s I started played these MLB videogames. I got into the pitching aspect in particular and got really into baseball again.

It got to the point where I wanted to play it in the park whenever I could, and I’ve been watching the Mets for the past, I don’t know, the last 7 or 8 years, since the Bobby Valentine era – that’s when I got back into it.

Y2K: Your bandmates took you to Shea for your birthday a year or two ago – whose idea was that and what was it like?

JC: That was my wife’s idea actually. We try to get to games when we can and that was a birthday idea she’d been planning for a long time. It was amazing, it was like in one of those suites they have there, and that was a different experience watching from one of those.

Actually, the game itself was not so great. It was a game started by Kris Benson where he allowed 6 runs in the first inning.

But what was good about that game though was that, and I love Carlos Delgado, but that was the Mike Jacobs’ first game and he hit a homerun, so I took a little extra something out of that experience because he went on to do so well for us and we were able to trade him for Delgado, and I got to be there for when it all started.

Y2K: You guys were on tour for much of the past year. Were you able to follow the Mets in that time or not so much?

JC: It was really cool because I got that MLB.com package and I had a laptop so I could watch games on the road.

Y2K: How about the other guys in the band, are they Mets fans?

JC: I think because of me they all root for the Mets, but they’re kinda not so into it. I kind of always want to play catch or pitch to someone – I think pitching’s really cool. If I could go back in time I’d be a minor league pitcher, a failing type of guy out there just struggling to make it by.

Y2K: Did you get to go to any games this year?

JC: I saw about 5 or 6 games, we were touring a lot though so it was tough. I was at Game 6 and Game 7 of the NCLS though.

Y2K: Have you ever seen the 1986 Mets Tape?

JC: No.

Y2K: Why the Mets and not the Yankees?

JC: Besides the fact that Yankee fans are kind of dicks? No, I mean, I don’t know, I just think they’re kind of mercenary.

There was actually a little moment in time when I didn’t really like the players, but when we went to Japan the first time the only thing on was Yankee games and, I don’t know, this was maybe 3 years ago, when they lost against Boston, I watched, and the Red Sox had a few come from behind victories when I was watching. Being in Japan I didn’t mind watching them, I don’t care what anybody says.

It’s funny though, I know a guitar tech guy, he was from Scotland and was really into soccer, football, whatever it is, but he was like “fuck the Yankees!” and he was like “change that shit!” whenever I was watching it.

Y2K: In your years as a Mets fan, is there one event or any games in particular that you remember?

JC: I mean this year does, and I don’t know think it’s because it just happened or whatever. The Mets were kind of like, watching the last few years before 2006, they would get ahead and you still would feel like, like somehow they’d kind of let you down. They’d blow the lead and crush your spirit.

This year though it was like the complete opposite. They’d be down and you’d feel like they could come back, and they did! I saw them do it a bunch of times.

Y2K: Do you have any favorite all time Mets players? How about members of the current team, any favorites in that group?

JC: I remember when I was really young it was probably Darryl Strawberry. Now though it’s hard to pick a favorite. I guess I’d say Beltran, but I like a lot of different players. It’s kind of a group thing with them, with Reyes, Wright, Delgado, Beltran and Lo Duca too, those five guys.

Beyond them, it’s funny because I never cared for Pedro before he came to the Mets, but when I watch him locate his pitches I just think he’s the most remarkable pitcher I’ve ever seen, as an individual performer it’s exciting to see him pitch.

Y2K: What are your thoughts on the 2006 season? Are you left disappointed by falling short or satisfied by how great the season was?

JC: Well, I was disappointed with how it finished, but immediately after we lost I really wished Detroit would have won.

What was consoling me after the fact was thinking that with the injuries we had maybe it just wasn’t meant to be, and maybe Detroit was the best team this year, and maybe it’s better to lose in the NLCS because losing in the World Series sucks. Losing in the finals sucks in any kind of sport, you know?

But then with them having a week off I guess a mediocre team like St. Louis was able to beat Detroit, and it kind of hurt me – it’s slowly crushing me to this point, actually.

Can I just ask you: as a Mets fan, do you think leaving Heilman in there for the 9^th inning was the right move?

Y2K: I did actually. I mean, it was tough, he’d only thrown 9 pitches or something like that, and the bottom of the order was coming up, but it was an elimination game and it clearly didn't work out, so I don’t know.

JC: I know hindsight’s 20-20 or whatever but I just feel like I saw him in situations like that all year where he was in for 2 innings and something would go wrong.

Y2K: So will you be booing him if he’s still a Met next year?

JC: No, no. And I honestly, I hope he’s not messed up, because Jesus, I would be messed up. It’s the kind of thing you think of forever, you know, the backyard dream – Game 7, 9^th inning, everybody thinks of that. It’s the fantasy.

Then to come up short like that I think that would potentially psychologically wreck me, and I just hope he’s ok. I think from the sounds of it, he seemed like he was OK. But man, redemption, I hope it’s in his future.

I’ll tell you, sometimes the New York fans are too much. I was at a Jets game, they were winning by 3 or something, so it’s not like they were losing. Then such a minor thing happened and it’s like “you suck Pennington!” and I’m like, I don’t know about whether the guy sucks just because of one missed pass or whatever.

It’s just strange, the fans they’re so eager to fucking pounce, but it cuts both ways, and they appreciate the guys who perform well. I feel like Beltran has a bright future ahead of him even though that’s the kind of treatment he got his first year.

Y2K: You’re talking about the New York/East Coast fan intensity. Do you find that the crowds you perform to are different here than they are elsewhere in the country or the world?

JC: I think it’s different for sure. For us though, we started here, so New York is kind of like where our fanbase started so we’ve always felt really welcome here.

It’s probably true for bands not from New York though, that the fans here can make them like intimidated – people here are different for sure. The crowds are obviously well informed and there’s a lot of fans to please.

So yeah, the fans are different here. For us it’s been great but for others it can be hard I’m sure.

Y2K: Every year the Mets play a song after the home team wins, like L.A. Woman (The Doors), Heroes (The Wallflowers), Who Let the Dogs Out (the Baha Men).

JC: Taking Care of Business…

Y2K: Exactly. If you could choose one song to play after the home team wins, what would it be?

JC: That’s a tough one, We Are the Champions is running through my head. I don’t know, I’m thinking of a chorus that goes “FUCK YEAH!!!” or something like that but I can’t… I can’t think of one right now.

Y2K: Are you in to any other New York area teams?

JC: No, it’s pretty much the Mets for me. The Jets I guess, but nothing compares to the Mets.

Y2K: When can fans expect a new album? Is there talk of going back into the studio?

JC: Well, we just finished touring and I’m still kind of couch-ridden at this point. I was just a week ago feeling like I was back and that I could get to work, but then I went to LA because I promised some friends I would help with their record, so I’m a little tired.

Anyway, we haven’t talked about anything specifically. We talk casually but there are no plans at the moment.

Y2K: Thoughts on Albert Hammond Jr.’s album [Yours to Keep]?

JC: It’s great. He’s my bro and I’m rooting for him. I like the album a lot, I think it’s cool. When you’re in a band it’s kind of hard to bring stuff that five people agree on, but it’s cool because he wanted to do this, he wanted to do his own thing.

I’ll tell you though, I don’t know how he does it, going straight from our tour to his tour, I think he’s gonna crash after this.

Y2K: Do you have any favorite Strokes songs? Or if you’d rather not speak to that, are there any songs in particular you like playing live?

JC: When I do it right, Ize of the World. I look forward to the easy ones [laughs].

No, I don’t know, there’s been times when we’ve talked about that. Especially when there’s a new record, the problem is with a new record, you wish you could play the songs and then see what people really like, then release whatever it is as a single.

Thinking about it more, Hard to Explain, it was the second single from our first album, it wasn’t like a hit or whatever, it wasn’t a bomb or anything but it wasn’t a hit, and that one when we play it live it’s always like one of the best ones received, so that’s our underground hit I suppose.

Y2K: What are you listening to now?

JC: It’s a little all over the place. Arctic Monkeys are great. Magnetic Fields stuff I always liked. I don’t know, it’s all over the place.

Y2K: Do you find that any part of the Mets finds its way into your music?

Probably not, no. But I always wanted to make like a baseball music video, some kind of story with some slo-mo action, maybe end with some bench-clearing brawl, something like that.

I also really want to sing the National Anthem before a game at Shea some time. I got clearance from the people at RCA but it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe I should record a version and shop it around to the people at MLB.

Y2K: Thank you for speaking with Yankees 2000.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Saturday Afternoon QB

(Note: A piece by A.F.O.M.G. follows Sip's Saturday football picks.)

Live from Tempe, Arizona aka the land of girls named Brandy...

When I found out my buddy Coach was dating a girl named Brandy I freaked out. I freaked out almost as much as I did when I saw that the two games that I really like this week are games that the Sports Guy picked the other game.

What is better to me though is that the man has conceded.

He did not even write his weekly NFL picks column, instead choosing to go to his "Mailbag." That's funny to me.

My favorite piece of mail:

Q: Your NFL picks suck. I feel like the guy in the phone booth toward the end of "Two For The Money."
--John, New York

SG: Still in pain.

Funny that the dude is from NY. Shocked that this did not say "--Sip, NYC."

More importantly, though, I have 15 locks this week of which you are guaranteed to hit at least 8.

CHIEFS (-9.5) over Raiders
COWBOYS (+1) over Colts
Bengals (+3) over SAINTS
BROWNS (+3) over Steelers
Titans (+13) over EAGLES
RAVENS (-4) over FALCONS
Rams (+6.5) over PANTHERS
Bills (+2.5) over TEXANS
PACKERS (+6) over Patriots
Redskins (+3) over BUCS
JETS (+7) over Bears
NINERS (+3.5) over Seahawks
DOLPHINS (-3) over Vikings
Lions (+2) over CARDS
BRONCOS (-2.5) over Chargers
JAGS (-3.5) over Giants

Take the picks above, only reverse them. Instead of "over," insert "under" or maybe "will not cover the spread against."

J Schubes told me that he has given up gambling on the NFL. I'm down with that. Cold streaks will do that, I guess.

But there are a couple of games that I see value in this week. Bet them, I don't think I will, but I do see value...

Bears -7 over Jets.

The Jets are just hype city USA these days. People see Mangini as a fatter, younger Belicheck and while that may be a fair enough comparison in the future, I think it is still way too premature.

When the Bears win, they blow teams out. When teams stay with the Bears, they do it in the air with 15-20 yd passes down the field.

Chad just doesn't do that.

I just can't see the Jets getting past the 50 yard line on the Bears D.

Colts (-1) over Dallas.

This game is essentially a pick. Everyone is waiting for the Colts to lose a game, sure. That does not mean they HAVE to lose a game.

What's to say that the Cowboys can stop the Colts offense? Bill Parcells may love defense, it does not mean he has a good one.

Like the Jets, Tony Romo is about as hyped as anyone in football. At first blush, the dude looks pretty good. But he has not been playing against Peyton Manning and yet somehow people think he has a chance now that he is. Let's see how he does under the spotlight.

The Colts could go into Dallas and lose. But I would take them six times out of ten in this game which is why I see some value here.

It is 80 degrees without a cloud in the sky right now. About to hit the pool pre-Michigan vs. Ohio St.

Living the dream.

Have a good weekend all.

VCD,

Sip

Of Airplanes in Flight and Champagne at Night

When I left a lot of things made sense.

The winning bid for Daisuke Matsuzaka was expected to be somewhere in the $30-40 million range.

Jose Valentin wasn't being paid $3.8 million to be the understudy for the guy we really want to play second base (whoever that may be).

Tom Glavine looked certain to return to the Mets.

Zoom forward five days and... well, you already know, it's me who's catching up here. It reminds me of returning from my week at Martha's Vineyard over the 4th of July. When I left a lot of things made sense, then I returned and North Korea had launched a bunch of missiles, Ken Lay had died, and Pedro Feliciano had talked shit about Willie.

The world, it seems, goes on without me paying it any attention.

Well, that's just fine with me if it means a week off from the world in a place like San Miguel de Allende. Never heard of San Miguel? Yeah, neither had I. In short, it's a place somewhere between Mexico City and Guadalajara; you know, South Central Mexico? It's an hour-and-a-half's drive from Leon Airport.

A Friend of Mrs. Glass' and I stayed at the beautiful Casa Quetzal hotel, right there in the heart of the city. Over the course of five days we saw some of the most beautiful Catholic Churches you'll ever see; we went horseback riding around the Mexican countryside; we took a cooking class; we went to a massive art gallery located in a former textile mill (take that Mass MoCA!); we ate more guacamole than you could shake a stick at; we had sunny skies and 75 degrees all day long. And it was glorious.

About this time you may be wondering what gives with the title of this post. Well, great as the vacation was, there was one major downside for the Glass Man.

See, I have a massive fear of flying. I know it's nuts. I know how safe air travel is... and why do I know? Because in an anxious panic I searched the internets, intranets and everything in between looking for reassurance.

The two stats that most resonated with me were the following:

1. You have a 1-in-11 million chance of being in a plane crash.
2. You would have to fly every single day for 15,000 years in order to have a realistic shot at being in a plane crash.

Also encouraging was Lister's roommate's Phil sage counsel.

"A.F.O.M.G.," he told me, "I think you've got a better chance of getting fucked by a Nazi on top of a unicorn than you do of being in a plane crash."

Luckily, shit never went down with the be-unicorned Nazi, but nevertheless, after four BIG flights, here I am.

When I got home last night I was exhausted from a long day of travel, but my palms were no longer sweating, and my heart was no longer racing. I felt like celebrating just a little.

So in to my refrigerator I went, and pulled out my long-chilling half-drunk bottle of Korbel. You don't remember my half-drunk bottle of Korbel. It was the night something beautiful happened. The night the Mets clinched the NL East, September 18, I sat in front of my television set, choked up, and popped open a bottle of Korbel champagne. I got through half the bottle before I called it a night.

Rereading my post just now from the day after the celebrating, one paragraph sticks out in particular:

"I'll be the first to tell you that we have larger, more important goals left to accomplish this year, that this is a team that needs to make (win?) the World Series to be considered a success in every sense of the word."

You know, reading that sentiment again after what happened in the playoffs, I still think it's kind of true. I still think the Mets left money on the table.

But last night I didn't care. As I sat there at the kitchen table devouring some Brio I thought back on my trip to San Miguel de Allende, and as I sat there sipping the rest of that bottle of Korbel I thought back to the Mets clinching the NL East.

And I thought back on the massive anxiety that accompanied my four flights, and sitting there, good food and drink in front of me and good memories behind me, I thought Cot damn, sometimes it's just good to be alive.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Hyphen-to-hyphen

[The scene: New York City, 6 West 25^th St. The 40/40 Club, ESPN on the screen. Owner Jay-Z sits in comfortable chair in his private room at rear of club, joined by Yankees superstar third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Both are taking a break from their celebrity charity poker tournament taking place in front of the building. Rap music blares from off-stage. Atmosphere is tense.]

Jay-Z: ...all I'm saying is...

A-Rod: I hear you, darn it!

Jay-Z: Yo, don't you fucking take that tone with me, son. I'll slap you back down to the port of Miami. You wan' try me?

A-Rod: Oh, god, no! I'm sorry, Jay! Forget I said anything.

Jay-Z: That's better. Now sit your silly ass down.

[A-Rod sits, awkwardly folds legs.]

Jay-Z: Now, as I was saying, we've got ourselves a problem here.

A-Rod: I really do know how to play poker. That's not an act. Seriously, I win money all the time. I'm going to be fine out there.

Jay-Z: Not the cards, you mother ... with you, Alex. With your image. With your public image. Maybe you noticed, but we ain't doin' very well with all that.

A-Rod: Yeah, I know.

Jay-Z: Damn right you do. The whole city knows, not to mention all your chicos back home on the island. They be laughing at you all the time. I seen 'em.

A-Rod: I was born in New York, actually.

Jay-Z: Yeah, whatever. Don't interrupt me. As I was saying, you got a major public image debacle going on, and I'm very much a part of it. [Gestures off-stage.] They know we close. They know we talk about all this shit. They know I got that counsel, that role. I'm starting to look like I can't get you up to speed, and that's reflecting poorly on my own talents, you know.

A-Rod: Well, I wouldn't ...

Jay-Z: I swear, just open your mouth again. One more time. My point is that there's some changes coming up between me and you, some very ... sizable changes. Okay?

A-Rod: Can I talk?

Jay-Z: Yes

A-Rod: Um, what kind of changes?

Jay-Z: For one thing, this it with the dual ventures and such. I ain't goin' down with a dude getting' run out of town by his own fans. That ain't me. I'm the CEO of a record company. Fuck the charities, they can have the money. I got to keep up appearances.

[Enter poker tournament host Cedric the Entertainer, who walks to wine rack and selects bottle. Walks back toward door, pauses and turns. Looks at both men, and begins to cackle loudly for 10-15 seconds, slapping thighs and stomping feet. A-Rod buries head in hands. Cedric hoots several times, composes self and departs.]

Jay-Z: Hah. That's some funny shit. Anyway, like I said, I'm cuttin' you off until you learn how to act like a damn man. Letting people get up in your face, crying in the back of the club, just watching Memph Bleek jack your chain. That's weak, dog. It's weak. We talked about this for months, how to stand up for yourself, and I don't see nothing in return. It's like you deaf or retarded or something.

A-Rod: I really like the material on the loveseat. It's chamois, right?

Jay-Z: [Sighs] Yes, Alex. Yes it is

A-Rod: Well, it's just lovely.

Jay-Z: Okay. Okay. I set up a deal last week with Scott and them. You gonna be traded to Anaheim for, for ... [Checks list in pocket.] ... some dudes named Ervin Santana and Brandon Wood. It's gonna go down like a month from now, and we can talk on the phone then. You gonna like California. Lot of, you know, colors and shit there. Lot of sun and fun. Lots of ladies. [Chuckles.]

A-Rod: It's just ... I'm not sure I'm ready to go.

Jay-Z: No. No, you ready.

A-Rod: Look, I know I've been screwing up, right? We talked about the pressure, and it's not even that any more, although Jason keeps laughing at me about the sweat stains on my Under Armor. They're all black and smelly, and Don was yelling at me during batting practice all during the playoffs. He said I smelled like John Kruk's feet.

Jay-Z: Ew.

A-Rod: But it's not the pressure any more. I figured out a way to deal with that. I don't read any newspapers, I don't listen to talk radio, and nobody talks to me about it, either. I don't go online to look at anything other than fabrics, and I have ear plugs in when I'm up to bat. I can't hear anything. I don't care about the boos.

Jay-Z: So what?

A-Rod: So, it doesn't matter about that, Jay! The bigger problem is that I still want everyone to like me. And they don't! They're not going to like me any more in Los Angeles, either. Going there won't solve anything! Plus, I'd have to find a new dry cleaner, and cancel the renovations, and fly my tailor out there all the time, and that's just a big hassle. Maurice won't fly coach either, or at least that's what Meredith tells me. He just hates the meals. Oh, and the flight attendants' outfits.

Jay-Z: You're right.

A-Rod: I am?

Jay-Z: Yeah. Nobody is gonna like you no matter where you go. I see that now.

A-Rod: Oh, it's hopeless! [Throws self onto floor.]

Jay-Z: Naw, not yet. We got one more thing to try.

A-Rod: [Looks up with watery eyes. Mascara has run.] What? What could it be?

Jay-Z: We gonna have to freak it to the other side. That's cool. We ain't tried that yet.

A-Rod: I don't understand.

Jay-Z: Look, you got to see it like this. You want everybody to like you, right? Well, if they won't do that, then you got to go in another direction. You got to make everyone respect you instead of love you. You got to ... switch it on them.

[Busta Rhymes bangs through door with glass in hand, appears drunk.]

Busta: Flipmode! Flipmode is the greatest!

Jay-Z: What did I tell you? Get the fuck out of here!

[Busta Rhymes stumbles backward, off-stage.]

Jay-Z: You got to just seem like you in complete control at all times. And you can be whatever. You can be a crazy bastard, or rude, or just come off like a straight asshole. And it's cool, because you doing something else, you giving people a different side of you. Even if they don't go with it, it's something else.

A-Rod: Do you really think that could work? [Sniffles.]

Jay-Z: Man, I don't think so. But how about this? We gonna give it one more shot here in New York.

A-Rod: Fabulous!

Jay-Z: Now, you get out there any you just do some nonsense and be a dick. I don't care. Act like you don't give a shit what anyone thinks about anything, and you gonna punch a motherfucker who looks at you funny. Go tell them reporters 'Fuck Derek Jeter' and 'I ain't goin' nowhere' and 'You gonna have to kill me first.' Be hard. Let them hate you. It's gonna be like playing a character.

A-Rod: I really think I can do it. Maurice was telling me he reminds me of this actor he knows, and that I have very similar features. And I've really always liked the theater. Remember that time we went to see 'Jersey Boys' together?

Jay-Z: You know that wasn't me. Alright, we done here. Go try something. We'll talk later.

A-Rod: Thank you sooooo much, Jay. I owe you big time.

Jay-Z: Yeah. Damn. [Pulls out Treo, calls office.] Linda. Set up an appointment for Beans to go fuck up Derek Jeter. Yeah, legs are gonna be fine. And the face, if you can. I'm trying to help Alex get his ... alright. You're the best, Linda.

A-Rod: Here we go!

[Exeunt.]

The Stove is Getting Hot, Hot, Hot

First sign of the Apocalypse.

Renaldo Balkman leads Knicks with 18 points in a convincing 20-point victory over one of last year's better Eastern Conference teams.

I have said it before and I will say it again. ISIAH THOMAS IS A GENIUS!!!



Yesterday was a special day for the Sip. It wasn't special because of my nomination for Sexiest blogger at the Bloggy awards in February. Nor was it the tomato steak I shared with Senior over a nice pleasant meal at Y2K favorite La Caridad, on 78th and Bway.

Nope, yesterday was different because it was the same.

It was the same as it is most days of the years, but hasn't been since the Mets were eliminated from playoff contention.

Yesterday, my friends and I really started talking baseball.

The topic of conversation was Lastings Milledge. Young Blastings apparently isn't playing winter ball this year, pleasing no one, and further digging himself into the doghouse of the Mets organization.

My buddy Nails doesn't like the kid. I thought Nails was being a little harsh, but to an extent this kid hasn't done much to make us like him.

But that is where I brought it to the next level. If this kid wasn't an African American with cornrows and a big chain, would he be receiving such harsh criticism? Would people be making excuses for his shortcomings, and instead choosing to focus on his many talents?

I don't know the answer to that, but the thought has crossed my mind.

But while Blastings is yet again contraversial, so is the rest of the baseball.

There is Matsuzaka's $51 million dollar price tag. Personally, I love the move. When the Sox sign this guy for 5yrs, 50 mil making his total cost 5yrs, $100 mil, they are going have the last laugh, under one condition.



Assuming this guy performs like a legit #2, the Red Sox made a great move.

If Barry Zito is getting $75 mil(at least) over the same amount of time then you don't think Matsuzaka signing with the Sox won't earn Boston $25 mil over five years in overseas deals?

This guy is the biggest thing in Asia, where baseball is continuing to grow. The Yankees, who were once the global identity of baseball now have major competition. The streets of Japan will be flooded with Red Sox hats. Japaneese people will learn of Big Papi and fall in love with a far more likable team than the Yankees.

Yes its a lot of money, $51 mil, but this is professional sports.

Athletes make an insane amount of money. That is the business. And in the opinion of this unemployed/unqualified blogger, this is a really smart business decision...

If. This kid is any good.

Then there is Frank Thomas. A year ago people thought this guy may be dead.

Now he is getting $30 mil from the Blue Jays.

Baseball is out of control. There is too much wacky shit going down for a quiet guy like myself.

But I guess I will have to adjust to the times. If the Mets sign Zito it will be nothing less than 5 years and $77 million dollars.



That's a lot for a #2, but guess what? Someone is going to pay it.

And finally, the first Manny talks showed up on Espn.com

Manny for Milledge and Heilman according to Buster Olney.

Is it me or is Milledge and Heilman officially being packaged for every player in baseball? Could you think of two more polar opposite people to be constantly talked about in the same sentence?

While a bat like Manny's would be great, this team needs arms. Unfortunately, I am not as high on Dontrelle as everyone else. The sad truth is that this is just an unbelievably weak market in every possible way.

So we are going to have to overspend. We do every year and when it works we are happy but when it doesn't we are not.

Back up the truck. Back it up.

Sip

Section 423 Vol. 4

[Editor's note: Cheddar Ben hits on Manny Acta and Daisuke Matsuzaka below. Enjoy.]

"Eddy Curry is Rumi Udai"

There was an Indian-American PF/C a year younger than me on my hoops team in high school. He was always ahead of his age group coming up in the ranks of the tenacious middle school ball scene. He was taller than most heads, jump hooks with both hands, lots of man-girth, decent 10-12-footer...

But this kid was the laziest fuck ever. He was a shitshow. And that's what the Knicks have this year with Eddy Curry. Watching him get sonned by Yao was the final straw. (Yao f0r 2-week MVP? Have you seen his calves and amish chin beard?). In order for the Knicks to ever regain order and a semblance of a team philosophy, Curry needs to be the first to go.



He is in his sixth year and is only 24. Some nights he is Moses Malone. Other nights, Roy Tarpley (go blue). He does not know how to post up, often times has less than four rebounds going into the 4th quarter. He routinely doesn't finish, and loves getting blocked. Time to go fat ass....Marque will miss you.

Second on the list that needs to leave in order for the team to actually go up in the "Nowhere To Go But Up" campaign is Steve Francis. I don't care how hard he dribbles the ball or how good his suit game is, I am convinced his best days are behind him.

Not playing in the Houston game was a sign to me that he has lost that explosiveness and desire that once fueled his competitive fire (I sound like Walt Clyde).



Shoutout to Walt Clyde who, during the Cleveland game Monday night, let the audience know that he still receives residual checks for $4 from his 'role' in the hoops classic "Eddie". Way to bounce back strong Clyde! He has been doing a much better job this year.

With that said, let's continue to try and dig deep and find some positives to discuss. Isiah screaming at Bowen and Greg 'The White Manuel Noreaga' Popovich was probably the first cool thing Zeke has done since destroying the franchise. Same goes for Ro-Ro Balkman, who has played with tenacity, hustle and swagger. He is the west coast RonnyTuriaf, minus the cool dances.

Another positive is the resident fly guy, Q-Rich...he has luckily been BALLING. Keep it up young blood....(R.I.P. to his brother)

So 2-6 is obviously pretty awful, but we expected this, at least at first. The Knicks have had arguably the toughest schedule in the league, playing all playoff teams from last year, except for the Atlanta Hawks (which was on the road and the second of back-to-backs). So hopefully as the Milwaukees, Bostons and Portlands start to pop up, the Knicks might be slightly improved from playing against the top teams.

I really would have liked to have seen them hold on against Cleveland. That's the first really disappointing loss of the season, the rest have been kind of expected. When you have Bron-Bron on the ropes (those Nike commercials suck), especially at home, you have to deliver the knockout punch.

That's another problem for the Knicks. Who gets the ball at the end of the game to make something happen? Unfortunately it has been Jamal Crawford who is probably the top 5 most overrated players of all time. He is either Earl Monroe, or Sippy Gulati, and you never know which one you are going to get.

At the end of games, Stephon should have the pill. Period. He can get in the lane, get fouled, kick out, he's not afraid of pressure....he once again needs to be our leader.

Where the fuck is Jared "Brace Face" Jeffries!!!!!?????!!! [Editor's note: Hurt. Shockingly.]

Acta News Team

First, a tribute to the departed Manny Acta, off to manage the Mets' NL East rivals in Washington.

Manny, we hardly knew ye. Actually, check that.

I hardly knew ye.




But that's a good thing. As Sip's nemesis TSG has pointed out several times, you only really get to know third base coaches if they're screwing up. Boston's Dale Sveum was a textbook case of this phenomenon a couple years back.

All I know about Acta is that he never made it to the Show as a player, everyone seemed to like him, and he's only 37.

Bingo, and godspeed.

Next, a list of names rejected by the boys in marketing up at 399 Park:

Citi Stadium
Citi Colliseum
Citi Polo Grounds
Citi Shea
Citi Pavilion
Chipper Jones Park
The House That Smart Corporate Governance Built
Sandy Weill Don't Work Here No More Field
Straight Cash, Homey, Stadium
Salomon Smith Barney's Fun-Time Queens Bigtop
Jackie Robinson Field at Mile High
Estadio Minaya
The Metropolitans' Opera House
Art Howe Memorial Stadium



Chuck Prince Park
Sarbanes-Oxley Place, w/ Spitzer Rotunda

I think it was Clyde Haberman in the Times who especially appreciated the mayor telling everyone that the name of the stadium was too valuable to be sentimental with. Hizzoner, needless to say, didn't play those type of games with the name of his company.

It's only a little more dignified with the space in there, despite the needed boost of even a little bit of added dignity. Without the space, if you had been treated to a purely corporate, language-rending title - "CitiField" - you would really feel like you were at the top of a bank statement.

Now, you can picture yourself on the second page of the statement, down with the transactions and the threats from the branch manager. Only marginally more civilized, but every little bit helps.

Finally, the holy shit take on Matsuzaka.

Let's be frank -- $52 million can buy a lot of baseballers. For $51.1 million, you can sign every minor-league free agent in the Northern Hemisphere, add in a crapload of Taiwanese prospects, build a couple of academies in the DR and buy off the Pirates of the Caribbean.

With dollar bills left over to tip your waitress, who just loves how much money you're throwing around.

The stuff on ESPN about the staff you could pay with the $50 mil. figure (Santana, Carpenter, Webb, Halladay, Oswalt, etc..) is amusing, and a fun way of hitting ourselves in the face with the enormity of the dollar figure.

Still, it doesn't help the Mets much at this point. Whether the Sox are going to ever pay that amount, or are engaged in a risky and potentially counterproductive blocking mechanism, is not known at this point. TBD, as they say.

Daisuke is either going to Fenway, or back to Pacific Rim for another year. Not to the site of the future Citi Field.

"I'm very comfortable with the bid that we made," Mets general manager Omar Minaya said, sidestepping whether he would have topped Boston's offer now that he knew what it was.

I imagine. The Mets and the Sox are in different situations, with different priorities, and a straight comparison isn't fair. Boston loses out far more under a Yankees-get-Matsuzaka scenario than the Mets would, and they have a different obligation there.

Even though, at $38 mil., the Amazins were clearly in it to win it.

Gammons sez the Sox want the Japanese marketing boost. I'm sure there's money there, notwithstanding Bill Madden's idiotic contention that there's no room left in Fenway for Japanese-language signage. Good god, the signs aren't Mount Rushmore, Madden. They can be, you know, altered and moved around. Like posters.

Still, the Mets clearly didn't see enough marketing money coming in to justify an over-the-top, monsted bid. They've already had a second-tier star from the land of the rising sun, and they may know something about the ancilliary revenues that the Sox don't.

Maybe there's a virgin ground boost, given that Boston's never had a Japanese star and New York has. Clearly, we out here in the public aren't in the know.

As I've said in the past, I think that you're looking at a Nomo-quality debut from Matsuzaka in 2007, should it happen. Possibly a season for the ages. There's scads of risk involved, but everyone who looks at this guy comes away raving.

All the same, it's a a lost opportunity, and one that narrows the Mets' focus to Zito, Schmidt, Zito, and Zito. Damn.

New panicky, subjective and totally unimposing projected rotation for 2007, given that I have zero faith in Glavine re-signing – Zito, Maine, Perez, El Duque and Pelfrey, with Humber, Bannister, Zambrano and Dave Williams looking in over the window sill.

Drink up.

The Future Mr. Spears

As big as sports are to our society they do not outman popular culture. Not every person in the country can name you Peyton Manning, but I’m pretty sure that everyone can name Britney Spears.

Which is why last week’s divorce of Brit and K-Fed may be the biggest news of all of 2006. The queen of pop ditching the showstopper K-Fed, making her yet again a free agent.

The failed marriage to K-Fed has analysts speculating Spears’ next match. We here Y2K, well, we do sports.

So today, the top 10 athletes with a shot at becoming the future Mr. Britney Spears.

10. Marques Colston
Colston has the surprise factor. Here’s a guy that came out of nowhere (aka Hofstra) to emerge as many the NFL’s brightest young superstar. His meek background may remind Brit of K-Fed, but she would also have to be impressed with his own personal rise to fame. Colston is a hot commodity these days. Fantasy owners with the chance to start him at TE are already reaping immediate benefits. Will Spears catch on to #12’s newfound hype?

9. Evgeni Malkin
I don’t watch hockey but this dude apparently scores a goal in every game. He seems quick to seize his opportunities, jumping straight to the top of the NHL in his first year, leading us to wonder -- has Evgeni seized this opportunity as well? Word out of Pittsburgh is that Malkin has been spotted making some shady phone calls and taping old Tiger Beat magazines to the walls of his locker. The Russian tabloids are already going nuts. Could Malkin score yet again with the teen pop princess? Either way Malkin should be getting his prayers. He only made this list cause I wanted to throw in a hockey player and apparently Adam Graves retired like 10 years ago.

8. Brody Croyle
Just a good old boy, Croyle dons the same Chiefs uniform as Y2K hero and former fantasy legend Marc Boerigter once did. Croyle possesses not only a rocket arm but a heck of a southern drawl, allowing him to play the southern card, maybe driving Brit to return to her southern roots. When asked about a possible relationship with Spears, Croyle responded: “Heck, I don’t know.” He then put the DVD of Friday Night Lights into his DVD player and requested silence.

7. Mike Dunleavy
Mike D has two things going for him. He plays for the most exciting team in all of pro sports, your Golden St. Warriors. And, just bought some shiny new digs in Los Angeles, the town where Spears resides. Unlike our first three contestants, Mike had his pay day and can afford those pricey bottles at Hyde in case Spears is looking for a hot night in Hollywood. He is also known for his "pop a shot" game in which he holds the all time leading score at a # of the Bay Area’s hottest night spots. [Ed's note: Not quite sure what Sip is going for here. It sounds interesting, though, so...]

6. Chris Henry
The bad boy factor. Chris Henry is a thug. He is scary, he gets arrested once a month on SportsCenter and yet he is still making plays. The guy scores a TD a week while unable to practice. If Spears thought K-Fed would shock the world, imagine seeing Brit in a #15 Bengals jersey. The Pitt native was picked up this morning trying to rob an Ohio jewelry store hoping to pick up a gift for his new love, Brit. He offered the officers the three blunts that he had rolled in his license plate-less Escalade, resulting in 3 more arrests. When Ocho Cinco came through for 15 and posted bail, Henry looked ready. If this guy can turn it back on come Sunday, then these legal distractions don’t need to hurt his courtship.

5. Zarko Cabarkapa
Our second warrior to make the list, Cabarkapa is a real wild card. He has the second biggest head in the NBA to Ha Seung Jin and he is also known for his suave eastern European charm and elegant fashion sense. The possible jealousy of fellow Warriors frontline mate Andres Biedrins, who is often spotted after the games looking for his good friend Zarko, may get in the way. But otherwise, could Spears resist his Serbian and Montenegrian charm?

4. Shawn Kemp
Straight out of retirement, Kemp, who has fathered half of our nation's population, would be a perfect fit for the baby-crazy Spears. Unlike his free throw %, Shawn Kemp shoots out successful sperm at an uncanny 97.2%, making him a perfect match for the already mother of 2.

3. John Daly
Daly joins the list as our second southern boy. Unlike Croyle, Daly is a little more rough around the edges. As we have seen Spears resort back to her trashier self, she may see Daly as her perfect compliment. A man who can pound a 30 rack, drive the ball 350 yds and then gamble away the childrens' college fund on a game of bingo.

2. Bronson Arroyo
Bronson has proven that he can pitch the baseball. And, he has survived this harsh world with a name like Bronson. But what gives this flame thrower a real shot is his very successful singing career. With his debut album, “Covering the Bases” tearing through the charts, Arroyo could serve as the Johnny Cash to Spears’ June Carter and form one heck of a singing duet.

1. Jose Reyes
Most Mets fans would peg David Wright as the possible winner here. But David is currently married to one thing, baseball, and is not yet ready to go steady with a girl for the first time. Reyes, on the other hand, would jump at the opportunity. As baseball’s newest IT guy and owner of a megawatt smile that has already won over the women of Puerto Rico, Reyes brings his Latin flavor to the table, which no woman could ever resist. Despite being married with children, Reyes remains poised for the task at hand. When I caught up with him earlier this week, Reyes had this to say about the Spears-Federline divorce:

“What can I say, I am happy to be here.”

We know you are Jose, now go make all of us Mets fans proud.

So there you have it. The 10 athletes with a shot. While Spears could turn to someone who wears a uniform for a living, there is heavy word out of Spears’ camp that she is instead interested in a man from a crazy little place known as the Blogosphere. With my gal Coop nudging Brit in my direction, a solid family and some sweet digs living in my parents house, could Spears really resist the Sip’s charm?

Lets just say that if you read about us on Page 6, it wouldn’t be shocking to anyone I know.

Vaya con dios.

Sip

Too Much Going On

I caught some really funky disease, maybe even Typhoid, in the cold rain of Giants Stadium last night.

It didn't help that I sweated thru intense nightmares of Devin Hester, taking 3 seconds to fart and then running angry down the field for his bi-weekly 100+ yd TD.

Props to the Edgemont drinking team, Danny D, Kurt, Utah and Co., and the rest of the Giants faithful. Giants Stadium was a pretty sweet place to be last night.

Pretty sweet indeed, just like my new football gambling theory. Putting all of my personal preminicions aside and instead going with the "Fade the Sports Guy" approach, it was a succesful 9-5 week.

Real shocker, by the way, that the games I liked and immediately didn't like -- talking about the Ravens and Colts -- barely squeaked out wins against bad teams, and then the Giants get killed.

As always, nice work Simmons. Great writing, but even greater knowledge.

Shockingly, however, this was a somewhat important weekend for the New Mets. Two stories broke in the last 48 hours.

First, starting in 2009 we can spend our sunny afternoons and hard earned cash at the newly named: CitiField.

Pretty amazing shit here. These guys pay $20 mil a year for that. I guess that is what it is worth.

There have been a lot of talks about the stadium's new name. While we are all attached to beloved "Shea" as a good pal points out, Shea is Shea and always will be. But it is inevitable that we would move on.

Shea will always be a fond place in our hearts and now we can talk to our kids about Shea as our parents have told us about Ebbets Field.

But CitiField...

If we are going to have a corporate sponsor, I'll take the name CitiField.

Most New Yorkers -- people from New York City -- refer to New York as "The City" and usually claim to be from "The City."

It is almost a badge of authenticity.

You know someone is actually from New York City if they say they are from the city.

You know you're talking to someone from Long Island when they tell you they are from "New York."

So CitiField. I'll take it.

You know what else I'll take?

One more year of Waluigi, himself, Jose Valentin.

A report out of ESPN.com this morning claims that the Mets are going to give our surprise 2B of 2006 a 1-year extension for around $3 million bucks.

Pretty good for Jose. The guy had a really nice season.

This is also a pretty clear indication that the Mets will not be going after Julio Lugo.

This is expcted for two reasons.

First, Lugo is going to cost a ton. One of the Sox or the Blue Jays will give this guy 5-6 years at 9-11 mil per. This guy just isn't worth that much.

Saving money on a 2B is furher indication that the Mets are gunning for either a corner outfielder or a stud pitcher.

The more I think about it the more I want Barry Zito on this team. He is pretty much the one sure thing.

While he will be paid No. 1 starter money to be a No. 2, in Zito you know what you're going to get.

You'll get a guy who will throw 200 innings, win 15 games and have an ERA under 4.00. With so many questions in the rotation, the Mets desperately need a guy like that.

He is the one pitcher in the market without issues of age (Schmidt), arm problems (El Duque, Mulder) or insane contract demands (Padilla- seeking 4 and 40).

More on that to come.

For now, we are one step closer to CitiField and we are another step closer to knowing who are 7-8-9 will be in the lineup this season.

Give me that and some morphine and maybe I can get over the 107 fever running thru my body.

Vaya con dios,

Sip

Rutgers and NFL Picks

It has taken me two days to put into perspective what I witnessed on Thursday night. It was everything that was right with sports. It really was.

The classic underdog from our nation's armpit.

A team that hasn't been good ever.

A state that is known more for its smell and its malls than it is for anything athletic.

Then I had my cousin, one of the better people in the world. This kid bled red and black since his first day at RU. It always seemed sorta bizarre.

So there we were, 4 p.m. on Thursday. Me, Goat and J Schubes entering Cousin's domain, the Rutgers tailgate. Normally Jersey comes to NYC. Not this time.

I watched my cousin and his friends in their element. It was a beautiful thing.

Jersey shore music blasting, ping pong balls flying, and tons of dudes that look exactly the same talking to tons of girls, all named Lisa that, well, looked exactly the same.

Everyone was hoping, praying that Rutgers would put up a good fight.

No Rutgers people at the game were predicting a 42-6 Louisville win. Pound the Cardinals is all I heard.

The rest was kind of magical. It was the real life Major League.

After the first quarter it looked like Louisville would put up 100 points. Rutgers didn't have a chance.

A late 2nd quarter TD made it 25-14. Rutgers still had no chance.

Then something happened. Coach Schiano must have given a Johnny Moxon-like speech, because when Rutgers came out in the 2nd half they were a different team.

Rutgers kept fighting. They tied the game with about 10 minutes left. Then they got the ball back with about 4 to go.

It was time for the magical drive. And it happened.

Rutgers ran the ball down Louisville's throat. They had the huge screen pass to Leonard. Then they had their chance at magic.

But Jeremy Ito missed the kick.

Pretty shitty ending to our movie here right.

Offsides.

And Ito wouldn't miss again.

Watching the state of New Jersey storm the field. The only word I could use to describe it was "nice."

It was just a really nice thing.

My cousin and all of his friends in absolute euphoria. I smiled.

Yesterday, Cousin compared the plight of Rutgers fans to that of the Mets. It's a nice analogy but it is giving Mets fans too much credit and Rutgers fans not enough.

Rooting for Rutgers over the last 10 years is about the dumbest way to spend your Saturday afternoons. They just never had a shot. They were the Jersey of college football.

But my cousin always stuck it out. He never missed a game even when they never had a shot.

There hasn't been a season in our life times where we thought the Mets has ZERO shot.

So kudos to Rutgers. Kudos to my cousin, Wayne, James, Kev and the rest of the Scarlet Knight faitful. Let's just say that you guys have the support of Y2K.

Now to the gridiron.

Sunday night I'll be at the Meadowlands. My good buddy Danny D, flying in from Chicago and the Edgemont drinking team will all be there as well.

It should be pretty fucking sweet.

So the Giants are pretty banged up. No Osi, no Strahan. That kind of sucks. The way to beat the Bears is simple. Get to Rex and make him make mistakes.

The Bears offense has shown last week and in Arizona that they are very turnover prone.

Force two turnovers and the Giants win this game.

Colts v. Bills

I like the Colts laying 12 in the dome. Buffalo has no Mcgahee, we know, and they also have JP Losman. This is officially the one guy in the NFL that has no business being an NFL QB.

Ravens v. Titans

I'll take the Ravens laying 7 on the road in Tennessee. I don't really know why but J Schubes is pretty fired up about this one and that is all I really need. If Baltimore can get ahead with the run, I would take my chances making Vince Young out throw you.

Otherwise, I am slowly developing a fool proof system of gambling on the NFL.

FADE THE SPORTS GUY.

That guy is just one big circus animal. I will be the first to say that I think he is an incredible writer. His writing style just communicates well with the masses.

I like the Sports Guy in the same way I love Kornheiser and Wilbon.

They are amazing at talking about sports. They can talk to the people and make you feel like they are one of us.

But like the PTI boys, the Sports Guy knows NOTHING about sports. He knows a ton about Boston. So does everyone from Boston.

But this guy when he tries to write about sports, it's just so transparent that he doesn't know what he's talking about. The guy is an average fan who happens to be great at writing about it.

It'd be like asking me to pick the Tony awards.

Yes, I hear great things about Chicago and Bye Bye Birdie, and with the millions and millions of the People's writer here to listen, I might even be able to comvince some people into thinking I know what I am talking about.

But god knows I don't.

And neither does the Sports Guy.

If you take all of his picks and go the other way, you are guaranteed to be above .500.

With that in mind, the Sports Guy likes the Ravens and the Colts this week. So you should probably avoid them.

Oh, and he really likes the Giants.

Looks like I just wasted $150 bucks on a ticket.

Great weekend all.

Vaya con dios,

Sip

A Potential Huge Step for the Banks... And a Step Back

(Note: A beautiful post by Cousin Tonks about the Scarlet Knights' victory yesterday appears immediately below this piece by Sip.)

I wrote yesterday that I was praying the Yankees didn't get Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Early indications are that my prays were answered, and then god did me one more favor. Buster Olney is reporting that the Red Sox were the winners of the Matsuzaka posting sweepstakes.

This is awesome.

Not only do the Yankees not get him but the Sox do. Let's hope Olney is right here.

The Sox had an uneven and ultimately mediocre season in 2006, but I will take my chances on the Sox in 2007 with Schilling, Beckett, Matsuzaka, Papelbon, Wakefield, Lester (if he gets healthy). That is a pretty unreal rotation to complement the monsters in the middle of that order.

Unfortunately, in true Yankee form, when some bad news came for them, they go ahead and make themselves some really good news.

The Yankees traded Gary Sheffield to the Tigers for three minor league arms, including Humberto Sanchez.

Humberto Sanchez, for those who do not know the name, was considered beyond untouchable about 6 months ago.

Tigers brass held this guy at or above the level they hold Justin Verlander. This kid is supposed to be just unbelievably sick, a top 5 prospect in baseball and a potential top of the line starter.

The Tigers were obviously obsessed with acquiring a monster middle of the order bat, which in Sheffield, they hope they are getting.

But this is a lot to give up for a guy like Sheffield. A guy whose swing is as violent as K Fed on the microphone, and is coming off an injury-plagued year. Oh, and he turns 38 in a week.

Let's hope that Sheffield pans out and Sanchez is a bust. I love when bad things happen to the Yankees.

But while I usually spend most of my time destroying any Yankee move made, I really do like this one.

For some perspective, everyone in baseball likes Sanchez more than they like Mike Pelfrey. Salt.

Vaya con dios,

Sip

The Appreciation of Winning

I was there when we got blown out on our home turf in the rain against bottom dweller Temple with well under 1000 fans total.

I was there when we returned for our first home game of the season after upsetting Michigan State only to lose to Division 2, New Hampshire.

I painted my face in negative 10 degree weather and stayed til the end for a blow out loss to Notre Dame.

I have seen the opposing quarterbacks take a knee in the early moments of the fourth quarter of an 80-7 blow out by West Virginia.

I still talk about the 3rd down quick kick that went backwards by Mike McMahon in a blow out loss to Virginia Tech.

So last night as I charged the field in a 28-25 comeback victory to celebrate my Scarlet Knights, I really was able to appreciate the victory. I have been through the trials and tribulations of a losing program. A program that had to fight just to stay in the Big East.

I had about a billion thoughts racing through my head as I walked off the field and through the parking lot to the RV my friends rented so that we could tailgate before the game last night. A specific epiphany I recall having among this stream of consciousness was that of feeling fortunate about being a Mets fan.

Seems like a weird thing to ponder as ANOTHER one of my teams had the biggest win in their entire history; I think it may have been related to the fact that I brought Young Sip and other of my fellow Mets fans to the game.

They were excited with me before the game, and celebrated with me after. They understood what it is like to have to struggle to get to the next level. If cell phones even remotely worked I would have called Young Sip and said, “You will one day understand how I feel right now when the Mets inevitably win it all.”

If I didn’t loathe them so much, I might feel bad for Yankee fans, for this exact reason. As most of them have been rooting for the team since circa 1996, they will never know what it is like to struggle. Consequently, they will NEVER be able to appreciate a win.

It's like that awful saying that the Yankees use, which I don’t even think they realize is ironically a mock of their free spending, “We Don’t rebuild, We Reload.”

For a Mets fan as it is for a Rutgers fan, winning generates happiness and excitement. For a Yankee fan it is relief.

As I watched Beltran watch strike 3 from the uppers I was sad. I left Shea down the tunnels with 10s of thousands of fellow sad Mets fans. The next few days the Mets Community supported each other and reminisced about the exciting points of the season.

When the Goliath Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers the Yankee “faithful” ran through excuses, and spewed anger. It was Who’s head has to roll for this? and what billion dollar baby has leave to right this pathetic ship?

I have seen the worst of the worst with my Mets and Scarlet Knights. And I’ll take that ten time out of ten over being a Yankee fan. Because 200 million dollars will never buy the feelings I had last night.

- Cousin Tonks

Howe Low Can You Go?

(Note: A piece by Sip, 'Why We Hate the Yankees,' appears immediately below.)

Man, am I in a poor mood. Don't quite know why.

The elections were fine. Charlie Rangel in charge of the House Ways and Means committee? Hoo, boy. Harlem is going to be in the building.

It's not school, and it's not the weather, which seems to be holding off. Being from Buffalo, I'm used to using the second week of November as a time to salt down the streets and gas up the snowmobiles, so all this 50-degrees shit is just fine with me.

Sometimes, though, you're just in a funk. And one of the things that gets me out of these gloomy states is a hacktastic sports columnist trick called "Item-Take." You've all seen this before.

If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, this nonsense tactic is the last refuge of a bored-ass old writer with no desire to formulate a meaningful story structure or interview anyone at all. With this, you can just repeat something you heard on the news, give your quick, inevitably lame take on it, and call it a day.

Hey, just like blogging! But with that old man smell, most of the time.

Anyway, with Matsuzaka in a holding pattern, a few days before the free-agent signing period can start and molecular biology taking up the healthy part of my brain, I'm out of gassed-up story ideas. Let the word go forth -- sometimes, a crap columnist has the right idea.

Sometimes, not. Moving on.

Item: Mets talk to former Angels 2B Adam Kennedy.

Cheddar: Weak. This is not a guy you want to be targeting in the early days of the off-season. He's clearly going to be moving on, what with Howie Kendrick taking his job, but the guy only hit .273/.334/.384 last year, with pretty poor defense. In 2005, when he hit .300, his slugging percentage was even lower (.370), which should tell you how much power this guy brings to the table (somewhere around Anderson Hernandez levels).

Even if you think Jose Valentin won't have the same season he had this year, which is entirely possible, he don't cost nothin' and he still has more pop in his bat. I'd rather give somebody like Jeff Keppinger (whom Omar traded for no good reason) a shot at the job than overpay this guy.

Incidentally, lot of second base news early on -- Josh Barfield traded to Cleveland, Biggio going back to Houston. Sure.

Item: Iwamura bids due

Cheddar: This guy has sort of flown under the wire thanks to Matsuzaka's higher profile, but bids on Japanese 3B Akinori Iwamura are due by 5 p.m. tomorrow. The guy is pretty good -- three straight .300/30 HR seasons, five consecutive Gold Gloves, hitting .389 in the WBC last spring.

Now, you can't rule out a KazMat situation coming into play here, and the guy shares Kaz' slight build (5-9, 175). But this is the thing -- MLB.com says these teams are looking at him: Padres, Indians, Red Sox, Phillies, Cubs.

I call bullshit on at least three of them -- the Sox have Lowell coming off a great year and can move Youkilis there regardless, the Indians have Andy Marte, the Cubs aren't going to make a pre-emptive bid before they know how the Ramirez situation is going to play out. The Padres, sure.

But if the Phillies put in a solid bid and win this guy, that's a huge coup for them. Recall that their 2006 production from third base ranged between awful (David Bell's Kennedyesque .278/.345/.398) and legendarily bad (Abe Nunez, busting his ass to wind up at .211/.303/.293).

Iwamura would give Philly a boost, and we don't want that.

Item: Athletics move to Fremont, Calif.

Cheddar: Fremont is not a city. It's a Silicon Valley strip mall town in between San Jose and Oakland. It has no downtown. Cisco Systems is allegedly going to build the team a "high-tech" stadium, but what exactly does that mean? Holograms? Robot ushers? Are we talking about the arena from the Jetsons here?

Nobody serious thinks a stadium has any real economic impact on its host community (for the money spent, anyhoo), but by the same token, centering a baseball stadium in an urban area has clear benefits for that neighborhood, at least. The A's' owners are counting on people coming out to a parking lot in the middle of suburban hell without a five-story building in the zip code.

Item: Arizona Diamondbacks unveil new uniforms.

Cheddar: Not bad, not bad. Of course, I liked them more the first time ... when they were called the Nationals' uniforms.


Item: Spears-Federline split rocks stunned nation

Cheddar: This is a real blow. The best part, if you can settle on one, is how far this guy's standard of living is going to plunge. He's already begging photographers to buy him shoes, for god's sake. Who's next, Larry Brown?

There could be some real ugly stuff coming down soon. Y2K remains eager.

Item: Giants WR Amani Toomer out for year

Cheddar: Ouch. No more Toomer, Blaxico's still on the shelf, Chicken Tika Barber's got one foot out the door. Shockey had a great game last week, which means he's going to be out to lunch this coming Sunday. No Strahan. The Bears coming off an embarrasing loss.

How do you think this weekend is going to go for the Giants? Me too.

(Of course, like I should talk. Shudder.)

Item: Texas hires Art Howe as bench coach

Cheddar: This is clearly what's been holding back the Rangers all these years -- a crushing lack of Art Howe. Nice of new Texas manager Ron Washington to hire the guy who was his manager in Oakland, I suppose, getting Howe out of Philly.

Still, he's putting an awful lot of faith in ol' Art. Here was Wash at his introductory presser:

"Being a first-time manager, I may be here, and that's pretty darn good," Washington said then, holding his hands about a foot apart, then putting them on an even plane. "But I want to get up here. ... I know he can bring me from here up."

Sure, fella. Whatever you say. Just so you know, Washington's managerial record at this point consists of two seasons with the Columbia Bombers of the South Atlantic League (Mets' single-A affiliate, don't you know) back in '93 and '94, where he led the likes of Jeff Tam and Enrique Wilson to a losing record. Bam!

Alright, I've had it. See you soon.

Why We Hate The Yankees

Thursday is a huge day in New York City baseball. At 5 p.m., the identity of the team that “posted” the most money for the right to negotiate with prized Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka will be announced.

The posting process is a bidding war. Teams post silent bids, the team bidding the most gets the exclusive rights to sign Japan’s next big thing.

I'm going to break the suspense for you all right now; if you don't want to know which team will win the bidding, stop reading here.

*Spoiler Alert*

The winning team will inevitably be the Yankees. Yes my friends, the Yankees.

The number is likely to be over $20 million dollar, or more than $5 million dollars more than the Marlins' entire payroll in ’06. Call it ESP or woman's intuition, but somehow I doubt the Marlins are getting this guy.

The usuals remain interested. Us, Boston, both LA teams and everyone’s sleeper, Texas, all desperately seek starting pitching and in the case of Boston and New York, do not want to see the other team win.

Unlike other free agents, there is no draft pick compensation for Matsuzaka. This is simply a question of which team wants to spend the most money.

Unlike with other free agents, Matsuzaka does not know much about the culture of baseball. For Matsuzaka, it will be a matter of dollars and exposure. To the rest of the world, the Yankees are baseball.

It is terribly unfortunate that maybe the most coveted pitcher in baseball happens to be so out of the loop. Matsuzaka has not seen what we have seen with the Yankees over the last couple of months: a team that is finally cracking.

I have a new hero in Gary Sheffield. In an interview Wednesday, Sheff finally said it:

"My situation, honestly, the truth about it, I never was comfortable," Sheffield said. "I was always feeling a little insecure about where I fit here and where I belonged, or do they want me here? And I had to play on those terms, and I was being a man about it and going out and trying to do my job under the conditions."

For the first time one of the Yankees' giant egos has spoken out against the “Pleasantville” that the Yankee organization tries to convey to its fans. Here’s a guy who should have been MVP in 2004 and for ’04 and ’05 he was far and away the Yankees scariest hitter.

And now he is angry. He is saying everything that we all see, but no will admit.

Simply put, the Yankees are a joke.

They are a failed attempt at meshing too many huge egos. You can’t have this many superstars and expect them all to be happy. It just isn’t baseball. But that is what the Yankees are. Just a collection of the last year’s big free agents.

"Everybody knows when they go out and make moves,” said Sheffield. “They make moves based on who's hot at the time or who's the top free agent. Who's this or who's that?"

It is unfair that this is the case, but this is also the reason why baseball makes so much money. Baseball loves the Yankees and their free spending. Revenue sharing leads to the Yankees generating millions for other teams with both their national and worldwide appeal.

Unfortunately for them, the rest of baseball is smarting up.

America is finally being exposed to the Yankees that we all know and hate. A miserable clubhouse; a struggle for the spotlight; a clash of egos; and most significant, a place where the best player in baseball is the scapegoat, blamed for everything.

Yes, I know A-Rod has struggled in the postseason. But for 29 other teams in baseball, just getting to the postseason is more than sufficient.

There isn’t a team in baseball that wouldn’t want A-Rod right now, especially at a tad over $16 mil a season. But the Yankees, their fans and their media are ready to throw him to the curb.

There isn’t a team in baseball that would bench Gary Sheffield or Jason Giambi in a playoff series, against a lefty and righty, respectively, for that matter, even if they aren’t swinging a hot bat.

And there isn’t a team in baseball that can lose with so much more talent than everyone else, year in and year out, and still retain their manager and their general manager.

Other then the Yankees.

Baseball is waking up to all of this. The Bronx is where egos go to burn and stars turn second fiddle.

The Yankees are less a sure thing to win it all than they are a sure thing to blow up in the postseason and blame the whole entire world, except of course Derek Jeter.

Three years ago, every player dreamed of the chance to don their pinstripes. This is no longer the case.

So now comes time for Daisuke Matsuzaka, the one guy out of the loop. If he ends up in pinstripes and he is as good as advertised, that would be a big hit to us all.

Which is why we need to hope that someone else “posts” a higher bid. Yeah it would be nice if it was the New Mets, but with a $20 million post and a salary starting between 12-15 mil, we are talking about a $17 million dollar a year pitcher. That is a lot to spend on some dude from Japan, even if he has his super-secret “gyroball” that is unhittable and physically impossible.

So let's send this guy to Texas or send this guy to Anaheim. Hell, let him play for the Dodgers.

But if he ends up in the Bronx, well, pray he suffers some freak body malfunction, in which he is completely fine other than in his pitching shoulder.

It sure would be fun to continue to watch these assholes crumble.

Vaya con dios.

Sip

Know Your Blogosphere: Y2K Interviews the Brooklyn Met Fan

(Note: The second installment of our Section 423 series on the Knicks appears immediately below this interview.)

Yankees 2000 recently had the chance to speak with fellow Mets blogger, the Brooklyn Met Fan. I'd like to thank BMF for taking the time to speak with Y2K.

Y2K: How did your blog begin? How did you decide to become a Mets blogger?

Brooklyn Met Fan (BMF): Well, I’m an indie filmmaker at heart, but I bartend at the sports bar Blondies. Through Blondies connections I was offered the chance to cover the Mets for a small paper in Harlem, the Beacon, and I jumped at the chance.

Through my work at the Beacon I got a press pass, and my life as a blogger kind of evolved from there. I was looking at the Mets blogs, just being a Mets dork basically, and though I liked a lot of what I saw, many of the sites out there were a little heavy for me in terms of number crunching – I was looking for something a little bit more like shooting the shit about the Mets. So that’s where the idea for my site came from.

Y2K: Do you have a background in journalism?

BMF: Not formally. I was a Psych major at Syracuse, I’m a writer as far as movies go, but until I joined the Beacon I didn’t have any formal journalism background.

I still write for the Beacon; I occasionally do a little Jets coverage but I’m much more of a baseball guy. The big thing about the job at the Beacon was that it gave me access to Shea Stadium.

Y2K: How did you settle on ‘Brooklyn Met Fan’ as your name? Were there any other names in the running?

BMF: There weren’t any other options for the name, no. As for where it came from, I actually grew up in Manhattan, my dad in Brooklyn, and my mother’s from the Bronx. So I’m not a native of Brooklyn, but I do have the family ties, and what’s more is that I’ve always had this kind of romantic conception of Brooklyn and the Dodgers.

I was always fascinated with anything Dodgers related, so between that, the family ties, and the fact that the Mets are the descendents of the Dodgers and the Giants as well, I thought it was a cool hook.

I also looked at it this way: the Bronx belongs to the Yankees; Manhattan, for better or worse, is more the Yankees’ because it’s more corporate; Queens, definitely, is Mets territory; Brooklyn though, I wanted to stake the flag for the Mets, I wanted to plant the flag in Brooklyn and establish it as a Mets borough, which is what it rightfully should be given its National League history.

Y2K: What compels you to blog? What drives you to update every day?

BMF: There’s just something about baseball – it’s such a beautiful sport and I think it’s unique in that people want to talk about baseball 365 days a year.

So I think what compelled me to blog originally, and what continues to compel now in the offseason, is wanting to tap into that desire and providing that outlet for people so they can just go somewhere and talk about the Mets.

Y2K: When you think of people who would enjoy your blog, what kind of people do you have in mind?

BMF: Beyond just appealing to Mets fans, obviously, and Brooklyn Mets fans more specifically, the readers I’m looking for are passionate fans, but they have a sense of humor about the whole thing.

Whether it’s wisecracking about SNY’s crappy mistakes or Jose Valentin’s porn mustache or any of that, I appreciate the comedic element to a season’s worth of baseball, and I think my readers do too.

We appreciate a home run by Beltran or a triple by Reyes as much as anyone else, but we also appreciate the randomness of a season, and we try to keep things lighthearted even as we live and die with the team’s ups and downs.

Baseball is fun and it’s entertainment, and people who can appreciate the entertainment value of the whole thing, they’re the ones who make up our audience.

The essence of BMF hopefully is opinion, attitude and fun. We give the nuts and bolts and statistics, but what I’m trying to do is complement that with attitude, opinion and fun.

Y2K: What do you think makes your site unique? Or put another way, what do you hope to contribute to the Mets blogosphere or offer to Mets fans via your blog?

BMF: Without disrespecting any other bloggers, I've noticed that many other sites are news-based sites, or they’re numbers-crunching sites. What I hope to provide is something a little beyond that, I hope to provide the full service fansite.

What I think makes my site unique is that I give people a whole bunch of stuff, and that’s why I call it an “Authentic Fansite” right in the banner.

So what do I mean by that? It means I ask people to submit pictures of their pets dressed up in Mets gear. I have the Yankee Hater Page, and there’s the BMF tattoo parlor where fans who have crazy tattoos can show them off.

I have one fan who photoshops pictures of her parrot in Mets chains and hats – she even taught the parrot to say “Let’s go Mets!” and I want to provide audio on that. The point is, I want to provide a site that’s not just a blog, and something that gives you more than just news.

Y2K: When was BMF started?

BMF: April 3, 2006

Y2K: How many hits a day does your site get?

BMF: It’s a little sketchy, but this month I’m up to about 1500 hits a day.

Y2K: Explain the relationship between Brooklyn Met Fan and Brooklyn Jet/Giant Fan?

BMF: Well, I’m nowhere near as big a football guy as I am a baseball guy, but there was enough success with the Mets site that I figured I’d give a chance to the football teams as well. It was just a matter of saying why not? Why not try to keep building the product and get better? I also figured it was natural that if I was going to do the Jets, I might as well do Giants as well even though I’m not a Giants fan at all.

Y2K: Yankees 2000 not included, what sites do you read on a daily basis (mainstream media and blogs)?

BMF: “Baseball Tonight” is a daily must for me. I hate to admit it but I watch and monitor Mike and the Mad Dog, whether at home on YES or in the car on radio.

Every day I do a morning scan of all the local periodicals, the Post, Newsday, the New York Times, the Daily News, even though I hate them [the Daily News]. I think they’re a Yankee homer newspaper. Their sports editor is an enormous Yankees fan – he’s from Australia so what do you expect – and my modicum of revenge is listing them fourth on my blog roll.

I’m on Metsblog constantly and I wish I had more time to monitor more Mets blogs on a regular basis, but I don’t.

Y2K: What's the hardest part about being a blogger in your opinion?

BMF: Just the daily grind. During the regular season it means being a slave to 162 games, East or West Coast. The offseason is a bit different because I can write something and have it posted by 6:30 at night.

Y2K: What’s the best/most rewarding part of being a blogger?

BMF: Honestly, it’s the fact that you give yourself a voice, the fact that you can get your frustrations off your chest. For me, the exhilarating part is less the celebrating the victories and commenting on that; really, it’s more rewarding when you clear your chest and get the frustration and aggravation out there after a tough loss.

It’s like a cathartic exercise, and it’s rewarding to have people read your stuff and comment back. I have a core of fantastic people who comment on my site, people who are friends of mine and people who came across the site one way or another, and it’s a real pleasure interacting with them.

Y2K: Do you have any goals for the future of Brooklyn Met Fan?

BMF: I want to get bigger. I know it sounds crazy but I want to have a TV show. I don’t want to be on camera, but I want to expand into television somehow. There’s no definitive plan for that, but I have a few concepts for TV show pitches. In a perfect world that’s what Id like to do; a TV show on SNY would be the ideal thing. A book deal in which I could turn the site into a book would be excellent as well.

Y2K: Thoughts on the 2006 season? Do you consider it successful or disappointing?

BMF: I consider it a runaway success. Look, I was devastated watching Beltran take that third strike, but I caught my breath after that and I was able to say to myself, hey, it was a fantastic year.

I thought the Mets took a quantum leap forward as a franchise. In addition to their success, I loved that the Mets proved themselves to be the better team in New York for the first time in god knows how long.

So I have no complaints about the season. It was a beautiful year, a magical season to be a part of, and I feel very lucky that I had it documented.

Y2K: Thoughts on offseason priorities?

BMF: They need pitching. It’s amazing that throughout the postseason their pitching didn’t get exposed. It wasn’t pitching that beat them. I would love to get that Japanese pitcher, Diasuke Matsuzaka.

We need a leftfielder. I love Shawn Green, I wrote a whole thing about the Jewish boy coming back, I was jazzed about getting him, but I hope Omar moves him.

I love Lastings Milledge, I don’t want to trade him. I would love to have Lastings in left and another outfielder in right. What I want to know is why don’t people talk about Carlos Lee?

At second base, I would love to get Julio Lugo. I’m a big fan of his, and he’s from Brooklyn. When he’s healthy he’s fantastic, it’s second base though so, whatever, it’s not a huge priority.

Y2K: Best Mets memory?

BMF: One great memory was last year, 2005, I happened to be in the locker room on my Beacon pass after the Mets had been eliminated, when the Yankees and Red Sox were playing each other in the last weekend of the series.

The Red Sox beat the Yankees that day, and I’m watching the very end as Pedro walks past me. He asked me who won, and I just got such a kick out of being the guy to tell him “Boston won, dude” – Pedro just has an aura about him, it’s hard to explain. That’s less a Mets memory than a Pedro memory, I guess.

I remember my first game ever. I went with my dad. I don’t remember what year it was, but I remember it was the Mets and the Giants, and they beat us and I remember the crowd booing the Giants.

This year, Game 6 of the NLCS was the game to be at; that was the sickest game I’ve been to. I was also there this year when Wright beat Mariano to beat the Yankees, that was the Mets throwing down the gauntlet.

Y2K: Favorite Mets team?

BMF: I have a soft sport for the old late 70s teams with guys like John Stearns and Dough Flynn, even though those teams were terrible. I have romantic notions of those teams just because they were so pathetic and terrible.

Obviously I loved this team in ‘06 and of course ‘86, but I definitely have a special spot in my heart for the Joel Youngblood days.

Y2K: Favorite Mets player?

BMF: I was definitely a huge John Stearns and Doug Flynn, those guys were All-Stars when the Mets were the worst team ever. I loved Ellis Valentine. More recently I absolutely love Oliver Perez, I had him on my fantasy team a couple years ago, I see the potential in that kid.

I was a huge Lenny Dykstra fan, I’m a huge Lo Duca fan, of course. He’s a Brooklyn boy, and as much credit as he got, I still think he’s underrated for what he did to that clubhouse.

I love Delgado and it’s funny thinking back on how much we all hated him two years ago. Pedro’s one of my favorites.

And of course Doc Gooden; he’s one of my all-time favorites. With Doc Gooden there was something so magical about that guy. I have more a special place for him than I do for Straw, and it kills me he couldn’t be there for the reunion this summer.

Y2K: Thank you for speaking with Yankees 2000.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Section 423: Lucky to Be 1-3

(Note: A.F.O.M.G. will be in later with a special interview with the Brooklyn Met Fan, so be sure to check in this afternoon for that.)

Uffff. 1-3, lucky not be 0-4, and really should be 2-2 (the only reason they lost in Atlanta is because of the Momo curse that has now morphed from the world of baseball, and now infects hoops as well).

The Knicks are back, and not much has changed under coach Isiah. Their help side defense has been amateur at best, Francis has already lost interest, Nate the Great only plays well the last 7 minutes of the game, and Channing Frye has hit a legit sophomore slump. But hey, at least Mo Taylor is watching the games on league pass, and not from the bench.

The team has a lot of soul searching to do as a collective unit if they wish to achieve any type of positive success or benefit from the season. NBA games are 4 quarters long, and in true Knick fashion, this year’s team has yet to play an entire game from start to finish.

Whether it’s giving up a double digit lead in the 4^th quarter to Memphis (only to hang on by the skin of their gold fronts in 3 overtimes), or going down 20 heading into the final quarter vs. the ‘style-less’ Spurs, only to go on a 20-2 run and lose.

Who goes on a 20-2 in the 4^th quarter of a game, and loses? Only in New York…only in New York.

A big question/problem/nightmare for the Knicks is actually very simple: Who is the leader of this team?

Stephon is no longer the player he once was, and it’s not even an ‘attitude’ thing, or a ‘leadership’ issue.

I think Isiah is a breath of fresh air for Steph compared to the evil emperor Larry Brown. That said, he simply does not have the skills that would carry him through locker room meltdowns in years past, or on the streets of Coney Island.

Tony Parker made him look foolish Monday night, Steph looked slow, and Andre Miller will provides a strong test in Denver.

He is just barely the 15^th best point guard in the league. Think otherwise? Here is a list of 14 pg’s better than Steph, who I would rather have on the Knicks: (in no particular order)

- Jason Kidd

- Chris Paul

- Steve Nash

- Mike Bibby

- Chauncey Billups

- Tony Parker

- Jason Terry

- Sam Cassell

- Kirk Heinrich

- Jameer Nelson

- Andre Miller

- Baron Davis

- Gilbert Arenas

- Luke Ridinour

I have never once questioned Steph’s will to win, as many other critics over the years have, especially here in New York. I know he wants it. The New Yorker in Steph wants nothing more to bring glory back to the Garden.

However, I just feel like he can’t do it, no mater what the help is around them. Yes he won a PSAL in the Garden while at Lincoln. Yes he won 3 EBC titles at the Rucker as a member of Fat Joe’s Terror Squad team. But in the show, when the pressure is on, he just hasn’t been able to deliver, and I don’t think he ever will.

The reason I call out Stephon as the first major disappointment of the season is because as Steph goes, so go the Knicks.

It’s nice to see Q-Rich back to his usual Omega self. With Brandy out of his life and his jump shot back, he is having a nice season so far. Shooting over 54%? Not bad for a streaky shooter.

Problem is, he is a 3^rd option at best on a good team. Now he is the Knicks’ scoring leader. He can’t create his own shot, so with Steph not doing his thing this year, his 19pg go wasted.

But, I know Q-Rich is back for real because he is hitting the boards…hard. He is a beast with almost 7 per game. That’s dope. That shows heart. That shows hard work. Why he is grabbing those type of board numbers, and Crawford is getting just over 2 a contest?

Crawford has been simply awful this year. Less than 10pg and shooting 32%? Come on dude…step it up.

Why the Knicks offense at the end of close games has morphed into 4 guys standing around watching Jamal “The Black Gumby” Crawford try and shake tough defenders like Tyron Lue and Jamal Tinsley, only to be forced to jack up fade away 18 footers, is just confusing to me.

So two of the Knicks’ “Big 3” are struggling, and the other is out with an ankle injury. So basically all 3 (Steph, Franchise, and Crawford) are having terrible seasons.

Hey Jamal!! Do me a favor dude…PICK UP A WEIGHT! Why is this dude built like me in the 10^th grade?

Also, why does Nate the Great average 1 assist per game? That is atrocious for a backup point guard. Even when I was rocking the #1 and subbing in for Charlie ‘Mel Gibson in hightops’ Ward, I was able to rack up 4 or 5 dimes a night.

It’s just a lack of court vision, and a certain level of selfishness as he is dropping 14.5pg and playing close to 25 minutes a night. One assist every 25 minutes? Come on, unacceptable.

We have taken up a lot of intranet space talking shit about the shitty guards, but as I stated very clearly in my season preview, the Knicks will have a much improved front line this year, and so far, they have only kind of let me down, not entirely.

David Lee was the only bright spot in the Memphis affair, but he has struggled since. I wish Isiah would bring him in sooner and for longer stretches.

It seems he plays in spurts, and a guy like Lee can really make his impact name over a course of a game if he is on the court at the right time, and not just a lot of time. Every time he seems to be getting into gear, Isiah pulls him. Let Lee Live!!

Eddy Curry on the other hand, is a perfect example of how NOT to play the c enter position. His defense has been comically catastrophic. How does he not know how to post up? Can somebody get him an afternoon with my boy A.Mason and Coach Voelkel? Does this man not know what a V-Cut is? Or how to lock up his defender?

He is arguably the laziest player in the league, arguably all organized basketball on the planet earth. He is dropping 18 and 8, but what the Knicks really need from the Human Heart Attack is 22 and 10.

I know it seems like a tiny difference, but who would you rather have? Kevin Duckworth, or Moses Malone?

That’s the situation here. Curry could be that good, but from missing out on some serious college coaching, this guy has ZERO fundamentals. Look at what makes Tim Duncan the truth…he is the BIG fundamental.

Sticking with the frontline, I’m glad to see Balkman out there hustling, his block on Duncan is probably the Knicks’ only real ‘highlight’ of the season so far. Looking forward to seeing Jarred Jeffries in the mix. (It’s so depressing because it’s true).

So what next? Is there anything to look forward to this season? I hope so, or else it’s going to be a long, long winter in the City of Angels.

Let’s keep the faith, try and win some of these road games on the infamous Texas swing, and pray to god that our golden boy Starbury can find some magic in those ten dollar kicks.

- Chris Childs & Anthony Mason

Sip's Return to the Garden

(Note: A piece by A.F.O.M.G. about Dawson's Creek, among other things, follows below.)

Monday night marked my return to the Garden for the Knicks and Spurs. As much energy as I have spent making fun of the Knicks, I was skeptical about my return.

Many of my fondest childhood memories were spent there. As I think most New Yorkers can attest, New York is never better than when the Knicks are winning. It's the one team that all New Yorkers share (not including your Golden St. Warriors) and they play in the greatest venue in the world.

Before the game started I got the chills. I live for the chills. But that is what happens to me when the lights go out in the world's most famous arena.

I saw Brandon Jacobs, the biggest man in the world walk his way to center court and got fired up for Sunday night.

I had a ton of energy.

For two minutes I thought back to my childhood when the Knicks were the toughest team in town. A bunch of goons that defended and rebounded and won. It was cool.

Unfortunately, these Knicks are not the Knicks of old. They are the Isiah Thomas-sculpted New Knicks.

And it is amazing to me how bad they are.

Watching the Spurs toy with the Knicks for most of Tuesday night's game was almost laughable. Move the ball. Inside to Duncan. Penetration with Manu. Then Brent Barry or Tony Parker hit open jumper after open jumper.

The best part of my night except for the Knicks 3 minute run in the 4th quarter were the four Argentinians sitting next to me going nuts for Manu and Fabricio Obierto. Man that dude has sweet hair.

But the Knicks have no future.

The Spurs showed exactly how you win. A dominate big man, a solid guard and a bunch of role players. The spurs have the luxury of having two solid guards which is why they are next level. But everyone on that team has a role. They know where the ball should go and when. They know who will be on the court and when. Every day is the same. And that is why they are so consistent.

The Knicks have no semblance of anything. They have four shoot-first pg's (Marbury, Francis, Crawford and Robinson). No one on this team plays any defense.

It is just embarasssing.

I never thought I would notice transition defense until I watched this game. It was pretty simple. The Spurs got back on D. The Knicks did not.

I'm sorry to go off on this one here. But it was really just too sad. Isiah played Renaldo Balkman at the end of the game, not because he should, but because he is obviously praying that just once this guy does something that justifies Isiah wasting the 20th pick on him.

I just don't see that time coming. He is a 6'7 forward that can defend. Bruce Bowen is that but he can also hit an open jump shot. I have no problem saying that I am a better shooter than Balkman. Oh well.

As shitty and dark as the next 6 months will be for the 14-win Bricks, things are already starting to look good for the new guys.

Carlos Delgado waived his right to demand a trade. Makes sense. Sure. But he did it and now it is one less thing to worry about. This one can only be spun positively and now is a time where positive things can lead to happy free agents.

One happy free agent the Mets are looking at is Mark Loretta. This guy looked very solid in Boston this past season.

Hitting 2 in front of Big Papi and Manny, he threw up some nice numbers (.285 AVG, .345 OBP). But more importantly, Loretta is the guy that plays like he looks he should. He fields well and plays smart. He can bunt when he needs to and would be a perfect fit in the 8 hole at 2b.

There is so much talk about Julio Lugo. I've spent many an obscure fantasy baseball season with Lugo, this the result of playing in leagues filled with D-Rays and Rockies.

Lugo is a nice player. But he is not this $9-10 million guy that people are building him up to be. He can run, is a decent fielder and a solid hitter. But he doesn't blow people out of the water.

My main man Buster Olney describes Loretta as a cheap short-term solution at 2b. I have no idea where the Mets are looking to cap their budget at, but assuming they are looking to make at least one big splash I don't know if Lugo is the move.

Unfortunately for us, this year's crop free agents is so weak that overspending will be a neccesity.

I can't get over how bad the Knicks are. I am sorry if this seems like another one of my rants, but this game was just unreal.

Yeah, they got close, but that was the classic result of NBA teams not trying.

Which brings me to my last point.

The NBA should make its regular season 20 games. No one in this league tries at all and for good reason. For Tim Duncan, a game in November means absolutely nothing. The Spurs will make the playoffs every year and teams only focus on home court come April.

200 million dollars worth of athlets played on Tuesday night, and the only players really trying were the kids without contracts. They know that after three years they will get their big fat pay day and they too can not try until April.

But seriously, David Stern should start the season in March or have his teams play one game a week on Tuesday's.

You think LeBron James is losing to the Charlotte Hornets if the game means anything? Probably not.

But he sure did Saturday.

I am angry. I need baseball back.

Sip

Sick Day

(Note: Sip will be in with a post later this afternoon.)

I'm sick. Call me at the office, no answer will you get.

It's not all bad. It frees me up to watch a lot of election coverage as the day progresses. But that's what's happening tonight. What about this morning?

Delgado

The offseason's most bizarre subplot came to a close yesterday with the news that Carlos Delgado would not, repeat not, exercise his right to demand a trade.

More a ploy to get the Mets to exercise their team option for 2009 than a calculated bid to board the first train out of Flushing, Delgado's demand was nonetheless pretty hard to figure.

I think everyone's first response when they heard that Delgado might exercise his trade demand was "what the hell?" It didn't seem possible. Carlos Delgado? The fist-pumping, cool-handshake-doing, last-cookie-eating first baseman Mets fans had come to know and love? The guy looked like he was having the time of his life in 2006.

And so it was. Delgado's attempt to milk a fifth year out of his contract went to pot, and Delgado will stay. He never really wanted to go anywhere to begin with, so I say, good to have you back on board, Carlos -- don't pull that shit again.

The Knicks

I caught some of the Knicks game last night. I gave a knowing chuckle as I returned to the television after dinner with the Knicks down 19 points, then I watched in near disbelief as they pulled within 1 point of a tie with San Antonio.

But then something happened. After Tim Duncan booted his third attempt in a row, the Knicks charged down the floor. The crowd was in their corner, and the crowd was vocal. "New Knicks!" they seemed to cheer.

But something happened on their way to a 1-point lead. Stephon Marbury had scored the Knicks' last 4 points on smooth jumpers from the perimeter. The Knicks had moved the ball around well on those two possessions, and it stood to reason they would at least attempt to run the same play.

But no. The Knicks raced down the floor, and before he could even plant his feet, Starbury had up and shot a 3-pointer.

Clank.

In a moment that demanded poise, Marbury looked like a kid let loose in a candy store, so unable was he to contain his enthusiasm.

You can't fault a guy for playing with passion, I guess, but when that passion leads to stupid mistakes, you're damn right you can criticize him for it.

Simply put, Steph blew that game for the Knicks, I'm fairly convinced of that. There's no assurance that if the Knicks had taken their time they would have scored the go-ahead basket, but there's no way a hard-fought possession would have had a worse outcome.

Everything changed so quickly, that was the trouble with Steph's failed 3-pointer. One moment the Knicks have everything going in their favor, the next Marbury is chucking up a 3, and the next the Spurs have the rebound, and the next they've built on their lead.

This sequence might have taken 10 seconds. The sense of the wind leaving the Knicks' sails was palpable.

I don't watch enough basketball to really know one way or another, but maybe plays like that are why Steph's teams never do well. When the pressure's on, he flubs it up. Is that inaccurate?

The Creek

Easily the highlight of my day so far was watching an episode of Dawson's Creek: The College Years.

Like every other 9th grader in that fateful fall of 1997, I watched the first season of the Creek. I might have watched some episodes in the second season but I can't recall doing so one way or another.

So I was no big fan of the show. Then the summer before my senior year of college came along. Me and Cheddar Ben were working as sports writers for a local paper near the WC, which pretty much kept our mornings free.

Back then, TBS would show episodes of the Creek back-to-back at 10 and 11. I can't say we watched every day, but we watched our fair share. Hell of a show.

Anyway, I have the following thoughts based on the episode I just watched:

1. Pacey (aka, Patchie).

I hate this guy. I know everyone's sister loves him, and your high school girlfriend wanted you to be more like him, and on and on, but this guy always bugged me. He was always just a little too smooth -- at a point you cross from smooth to smarmy, and Patchie, as my mother called him, was smarmy.

Anyway, in this episode he basically ruined some restauranteur's career, bringing her literally to the brink of suicide, and then still somehow ended up with her admitting she really liked him. What the fuck? You don't ruin someone's life and then get them to fall for you. Come on now.

2. Jack and Jen.

Oh just fuck already.

3. Joey Potter.

Remember Katie Holmes in the pre-TomKat days? Girl next door who's broke as shit, really smart, kinda pouty, but also really hot? Joey Potter had it all.

Anyway, Katie Holmes' life has really gone off the deep end, I don't care how plentiful baby Suri's hair is. But back in the day she starred in the most famous love triangle this side of McDreamy-Pompeo-McVet.

Who would she end up with? Dawson or Pacey? I was always rooting for the Creek Man in this contest -- seriously, did you see their chemistry in those scenes from Dawson's room?

The question of who Joey would choose defined a generation. In the end she chose Patchie. It was complete bullshit.

4. Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson.

I'm fairly certain he cries when he masturbates.

* * * * *

Anyway, that's all I got. Sip will be in later so keep checking in for that.

Vote or Die,

A.F.O.M.G.

We Laugh and We Cry

This weekend, Borat stampeded into our hearts. For those who didn't see it, I won't spoil anyhting.

But this movie did not disappoint and that's saying a lot considering that I was basically expecting one of the funniest movies ever.

The film grossed over $26,000,000 in less than 1000 theatres, a formula that normally just doesn't add up.

Two years ago there were two other things that didn't add up: the Mets and winning.

I laughed with Borat, I cried with Pedro. Not actually, but I make no guarantees for Happy will and his little bro Cheddar.

Pedro announced over the weekend that there is a chance that he will be forced to retire. That major reconstruction on his shoulder may be too much for a 5'11, 155lb man with a violent throwing motion to ever overcome.

This is not shocking. Pedro is old and he is tiny. He does not just reach back and throw. He does not just bend the knees on his 240lb body.

He almost defies human body physics to reach back and just dominate batters. And so it is that the task that lies ahead of him may prove too tall for even the most gifted of men.

When the Mets signed Pedro Martinez after 2004 for 4 years, $54 million, I was immediately skeptical.

He looked hittable in the second half of 2004 and was very hittable in the 2004 postseason. Say what you will about Game 4 of the World Series, but if Manny doesn't make that throw in the first on a foolish coaching decision by Jose Oquendo (or whoever their third base coach was then) the flood gates could have opened. Chalk that one up to excellent Red Sox karma.

But 4 years for a guy on the decline.

$54 mill for a guy who could break down.

As it turns out all my worst fears came to fruition. Pedro broke down around the 30% completion mark of his contract.

Even ultimate Mets pessimists did not see this one coming. After all, this was a man who for most of his career avoided serious injury. Instead, I thouhgt that Pedro might be good in '05, a little worse in '06 then a little worse in 'o7 until he platooed at around a No. 3 starter by '08.

But we only got Pedro for a year and around 2 months.

And in my opinion, the $54 mill was the smartest investment the Mets have made since they gave Jose Reyes $20,000 and a pack of gum to sign with them however many years back.

So many of the arguments have already been made, but they are all universally true. Pedro changed the Mets.

He brought excitement to Shea. He brought the Mets their first true superstar since Mike Piazza, who had been on the decline for a bunch of years by the fall of 2004.

He brought the Mets their first dominant starting pitcher since Mike "I hope you step on a rusty screw driver" Hampton, 4 years earlier at the time.

But most importantly he gave the Mets a face. He gave the Mets a smile. And he gave the Mets an ambassador to the rest of the major leagues.

What was fortunate was that Pedro's arrival coincided with the emergence of budding stars, David Wright and Jose Reyes.

But the thought of playing with two great young players is not what attracted players to Shea.

Yes, we gave Beltran the most money, but I still don't believe in my heart that he comes to Shea without Pedro.

With Pedro, Beltran and year 2 of Wright and Reyes we were competitive. The rest is now history.

Pedro deserves praise for what he has already brought us. '06 was the first excitement at Shea in 6 years, and the first time we fielded a team good enough to win its own division in 18 years.

So Pedro did more than just deliver us some stars. He changed the culture at Shea. Pedro made the Mets fun.

His energy and excitement, even while leading an 83-win team, was unmatchable. We all wanted to see Pedro pitch in September '05 and we all wanted to see his face on the jumbotron.

Pedro allowed us to "catch the energy" that our awful slogan makers had been pushing for so long.

He made next year now.

He allowed us to buy one Carlos, and get the next one free.

Pedro made the Mets who they are today.

Not enough is mentioned of the Mets clubhouse. We read from time to time how much players love playing for this team though, and that will only attract more players to want to be a part of this group.

When you're the superstar of the team, the high profile guy, as Pedro is, you steer the ship. Pedro steers the ship with jokes, smiles and clever one-liners. His teammates then follow.

Then you can take a look at the Bronx. Derek Jeter and A-Rod competing to see who can fold their socks better and look more perfect. Two guys competing for the spotlight when there are 10 other guys in the room who think they are the star.

If the Yankes were smart, they would trade for the injured Pedro now. He would do more for those stuffy assholes than the $100's of millions of dollars they plan on throwing at other pitching this winter.

While I hope Pedro comes back, I am prepared for him not to. Still, as a diehard like the rest of you, I am personally indebted to Pedro.

As AFOMG and my other buddies can attest, I always viewed the Mets with a sense of negativity. Even in '99 and '00 when we had a shot, I did not think so.

But something happened over the last couple of years. All of a sudden, my smile was just a bit bigger and I felt that the Mets could actually win.

Sure, they didn't. But I thought we could. And it's a lot better to live happy then to live cynical.

For that, a big thanks to Pedro.

Vaya con dios,

Sip

The Moose, the Old Knicks and Some Unfounded Picks

Mussina the Met?

Anything the New York Post says has to be true. Hopefully this is just super agent Arn Tellem trying to pressure the Yanks into banking up. Clever one, Sip.

Would I want Mussina in a Mets uniform? I would not. Fuck that guy. He is a Yankee. As a matter of facf, he was a part of The Curse being initiated, signing right in 2001 when the Yankees became a walking cash machine.

He sounds like a pretty good guy and all, but honestly, fuck him. Of course, I'm sure we all said the same thing about Tommy the Spy four years ago, so stay tuned.

New Knicks

The Knicks gave their beloved fans three quarters of optimism this season. Three reasons why people could imagine an 8th seed.

Those dreams should now be gone.

Friday night, the Knicks entered Atlanta, home of the NBA-worst Atlanta Hawks, fresh off an embarassing opening night 13 point loss to the defunct Philadelphia Dalembert/Korver's that reminded Sip and all other Hawk optimists that the Hawks should yet again disappoint.

The Hawks then went on to MURDER the Knicks.

I sat over some pitchers and wings with Cousin and KFC. Little did I know that this would lead to one of the dumber fights of all time.

I paid attention to most of the game, but these are the Knicks, not the new-look Warriors. So I didn't really care.

What I did see was Joe Johnson chucking uncontested three after contested three. I saw Josh Smith dunking. I saw Tyron Lue. That's right, a team with Tyron Lue dominated the guard-centric New York Shitterbockers.

What came out of this game was pretty simple: the Knicks are just horrible.

They have 7 guys that want to score yet they don't have a single reliable scorer. They have 0 guys that want to defend.

David Lee may try hard, but just because he is big, white and athletic does not make him Bill Russell.

Then to compound all of this, they have the dumbest man in sports running their team.

I think this team might out-win 2005. But it may be very close.

"With the, uh, first pick of the 2007 NBA draft, the Chicago Bulls (via NY) select Ibrahim Jaaber, Guard, UPenn."

Football

Last Sunday I delivered. 2-2 baby. All I wanted was to come out even. For those of you that played the Titans, well then you were 3-2. Not too bad but not too great.

I called my homie J Schubes on Thursday. He and I do a 4x4 league and we needed to figure out our 4 NFL picks. In most weeks there are one or two games that I like.

This week, there are none.

But here are a few to boot.

Kinda like Dallas laying 3 in Washington. Not cause I am buying into all of this hype as much as because I think the Skins are terrible. Still, the Skins are coming off a bye, and Mark Brunell's career is on the line.

Wouldn't touch this one, but if you need to play it, take the Boys. Santana Moss isn't playing. The little red thing next to his name in fantasy shows that he has more catches and yards than all of the other Redskins receivers combined.

Wait, didn't these guys spend like $50 million bucks for Antawn Randle-El and Brandon Lloyd. The new Skins are slowly becoming the Baby Knicks. Which makes me kind of like them.

The Bears -13 at Soldier Field against Joey Harrington and the very bad Miami Dolphins. Like last week with the Niners, the bears could be up by 40 at halftime. Their D could kill Harrington. The only way Miami will stay in this game is if their defense or special teams makes a big play. Otherwise, the Bears could win this game by 30.

The Falcons laying 5.5 in Detroit seems to be everyone's sexy pick. America seems to think that in two weeks Mike Vick has turned into Steve Young. I don't know about that. The Lions happen to be bad.

This is not a game I would touch. The Lions offense, especially Jon Kitna is pretty underrated, especially in the dome. If you are a gambling man then sack up and gamble. Like with most NFL games, flip a coin.

And that takes us to this week's most unbettable game.

The Colts vs. New England. It is my philosophy that you never bet on a game where there are two really good teams. You just never know who is going to show up. If you pick the right one you assume you were smarter. If you pick the wrong one, it is because something out of the ordinary happened. Sounds a lot like poker huh?

My gut tells me that this will be a high scoring game. The Colts can't stop anyone and no one can really stop the Colts. The fact that the rest of America is thinking that makes me think this game will end 6-3.

All the experts are talking about the Colts nonexistent run D compounded with the Pats newfound running attack spelling disaster for Indy.

However, after going into Denver last week and putting up 34 on the NFL's stingiest scoring D, it may just be impossible to shut down the Colts.

The low in Foxboro tomorow night is 31. Not too bad. The Patriots are also coming off a short week.

I would never in my life play this game. But if I get drunk enough tomorrow during the day and feel the urge, I would take the points (Indy +3).

That's all I really got in me on this Saturday Morning. The Giants game should be pretty boring. Everyone is talking trap. You can't call a trap. It's a trap after the fact. People that call games a trap in advance make the correct call 1 in 50 times. Then once they nailed it, they call all of their friends about it. Would I give -13 tomorrow? No. But the Giants will win this game.

I'm off to see Borat now. Pretty fired up.

Good weekend to all.

Vaya con dios.

Sip

A Million Little Moments

I find myself feeling nostalgic the last day or two. I'm not quite sure what triggered it, maybe it was watching the Knicks' season opener Wednesday night, maybe it was the article over at Faith and Fear yesterday.

For a guy like me, I can't fake it when it comes to sports enthusiasm. I can't get into the Knicks, the Giants, the Rangers, whoever, the way I get into the Mets.

Hockey I just can't get into altogether, so that's that.

Football, I enjoy watching the Giants, but I would never read an article about the Giants during the offseason, nor would I pine for the start of the season. Moreover, I could just as easily root for the Jets, frankly, and god knows that's not how I feel about New York's baseball teams.

As for the Knicks, maybe I just don't have the energy to root for two teams that always disappoint. I'll watch their games, hope they do well, but I won't live and die with them.

The Mets are different though, and I've been reminded how much I miss the season lately. It started with the Knicks opener, which I watched half-interested through the first three quarters.

By the time the fourth quarter came around I was on the phone with my girlfriend, interjecting our conversation with a periodic "Oh my god, they're going to lose." It got me to thinking of how I would have felt if the Mets blew a 4-run lead in the 9th in their home opener, and that's what brought me back.

See, there are a hundred different things to love about baseball, but in season when your team is winning there's more like a million.

I remember Opening Day. Opening Day for me really began some time in November, 2005.

I was about four months into my job and I hadn't taken any vacation days. Then the 2006 schedule was released and I saw it. April 3, 2006 -- the Mets' home and season opener. I instantly sent an e-mail to my bosses requesting the day off; kindly, they acquiesced.

The next four months were a blur of cold weather, longing for baseball, and Sundays at Blondies. Then March rolled around and you could hardly contain how anxious you were.

On April 2 I was as excited as a 23-year-old guy can get. Two days earlier I had written my final post of the offseason, a piece about the top 10 songs I associated with the Mets. I burned the songs onto a CD before I went to bed, and then first thing in the morning I was off to get the car, pick up Sip, Steamin', a couple others as well.

We listened to the CD on our way out, listened to some Strokes as well. When we got to the ballpark it was about 3 hours to game time. We were parked there with our Yankees 2000 poster, a reference to a website which no one had ever heard of, so naturally we got a bunch of "Fuck you's" and "Fuck the Yankees" thrown our way.

Mostly though we had a bunch of people come up who were excited to just be outside Shea Stadium again, excited that a few hours from then they'd be watching the Mets play for the first time in months.

It's the same excitement I felt that time when I raced around the Lower East Side trying to find a bar to watch the Mets beat the Braves in extra innings. I watched the first few innings at Lister's place, then depended on text messages from Sip to keep me updated through the middle innings.

The Mets fell behind 6-2 but came back to even the score in the late innings. I threw 60 bucks down and went running from bar-to-bar on the LES, looking for a place that had the Mets game on, as spaghetti bolognese bounded around my stomach.

Finally I found a bar that had them on, and I spent the next hour talking with a middle-aged dude named Ken, who was frustrated that he couldn't score with any white chicks, but who nevertheless encouraged me that the Mets would win the game.

When the Mets won on a hit by David Wright I high fived the people in my immediate vicinity and burst out of the bar, my Mets hat feeling great upon my head.

But even that didn't compare to the night after the first Mets-Yankees game of the year, the one where we came back from a 4-0 first inning deficit to beat Randy Johnson and the Yanks.

Wearing my Mets t-shirt around town that night was electric. People were shouting things from outside car windows, honking their horns. I wore it to one of my favorite lounge/bar type place where at least 10 other dudes were wearing Mets gear, each of us desperate to talk about the game with one another.

Not all the memories are as good as those ones. The next night after that game on May 19 was the one where Wagner blew the 4-run lead. That was a bad one. The season ended on a sour note of course. No forgetting that one either.

But that's the thing about basball. Somewhere in the midst of those 162 games are a million little moments that just make every part of your day-to-day life better. And when it's over it's really shitty.

But that's just the way it goes I guess. Since the Mets were eliminated I've seen the Killers in concert and went to Saturday Night Live. Tonight I'm seeing Albert Hammond, Jr. (that's the guitarist from the Strokes, the one with the moppy hair) perform songs from his solo CD. Hopefully I'll see Borat some time this weekend. I'm going to Mexico the week after next.

As for now though all I've got is the concert tonight and the Hot Stove, and that's just not the same as a Mets game.

Especially when the Post reports the Mets are mulling signing Mike Mussina. Like the Yankees would ever let that happen.

- A.F.O.M.G.

The Y2K Interview: Tim Marchman

[Note: A post by Sip about Guillermo Mota and the New Knicks follows. Enjoy.]

The day has turned, and we've entered the cruel period known as the baseball off-season, where no infield flies or ground-rule doubles dare to tread.

To keep you readers focused on baseball matters, Y2K brings you the first in a series of inteviews with the writers and commentariat who follow the sport full-time. Today, the New York Sun's excellent baseball columnist Tim Marchman.

Y2K: How did you get into writing about baseball?

TM: I was the fiction critic of the New York Sun when the paper was launched. The paper didn't have much of a sports section for a while and, being a big fan of Bill James and Baseball Prospectus, I suggested that I could write some articles about baseball from an outside perspective, which had the twin advantages of being different from what the competition was doing and not requiring a lot of reportorial resources.

People liked the articles I was writing, so I eventually dropped the criticism and focused on the baseball. It was kind of an ass-backwards way to get into writing about baseball, but I think we could use a bit more ass-backwardsism.

Because the column was conceived from the start as being distinct from what other papers do, I've always had a lot of freedom to zero in on whatever interested me, be it intense focus on actual games or windy speculations about the nature of the game, which isn't something I at all take for granted.

Y2K: As a baseball writer in the off-season, is there enough hot-stove talk and strategizing to keep you engaged? Or does your attention turn to other sports, pursuits, etc.?

TM: The offseason is always a great deal of fun, as I'm allowed to focus less on what teams will do than what they should do, and if I want to bring in some abstruse research someone's done to support my argument, I'm allowed to do so.

Baseball is, aside from mixed martial arts, the only sport in which I'm at all interested, so my attention doesn't get zapped in the winter — whatever part of my brain is reserved for rich jocks chasing around a sphere is always reserved for the only sport worth paying attention to.

Y2K: Back in 2005, Willie Randolph seemed to make a completely infuriating and inexplicable move at least four times a week, resulting in countless bottlecaps being thrown at the TV. Not so in 2006. Is that just the difference a year makes, or did he attend winter classes or something?

TM: I think people were far too hard on him in 2005, as I didn't see what he was doing wrong. He was managing a developing club in the way it should be managed — let the players play, and take some risks.

It's easy to take things like the development of Reyes and Heilman for granted, but those were no sure things when he was hired. The most important things for a manger to get right are big-picture decisions involving roles and how to develop young players, and he was fantastic at both from the jump.

Tactical decisions can drive people insane, but his were always defensible and I don't think they really make that much difference over the course of a season anyway.

Y2K: You laid out your position on the Mets lineup last week -- we're top-heavy, Valentin and Lo Duca aren't sure things, and trading young Blastings and a righty reliever for a bigger bat in a corner outfield slot makes sense. How likely do you think a trade is, and who would you target?

TM: It's pretty tricky — the National League is so mediocre that teams have no real incentive to trade quality players, and in the American League it seems you either have teams that are in contention and thus have no reason to trade a good player, or don't have players the Mets could use.

I would overpay for Carl Crawford — young, durable, well-rounded, and signed to a cheap contract, which is a pretty good set of attributes to have.

With Manny Ramirez's contract winding down, I also think he's a viable option—if he implodes, you're not on the hook for very long.

Realistically, I think it's a lot more likely that you'll see a hodgepodge than that you'll see a blockbuster — Omar Minaya has proved quite willing to go with mystery men if the right deal isn't available, which is probably a good thing.

Y2K: If he'll come (Atlanta looks mighty good with kids in high school), is bringing Glavine back a no-brainer?

TM: I'm not clear on what kind of unspoken agreements there are, but if it wouldn't violate any understandings the Mets should exercise that $14 million option. People vastly underestimate how valuable a guy who's a lock for 200 innings and a 4.00 ERA is for a team in the Mets' position. Basically, if Glavine's open to coming back he's worth any even semi-reasonable price for a one or two-year deal.

Y2K: Most likely outcome for Oliver Perez — 200 strikeouts, middling-to-solid season in the rotation next year, unceremonious demotion to New Orleans, or out of baseball entirely? And honestly, would you be surprised by any of those results?

TM: In an actuarial sense the most likely outcome is probably that he'll be a league-average starter. My gut tells me he'll be a strong no. 2 starter — I think his problems have been down to correctable mechanical flaws and a losing environment. The only thing that would truly surprise
me would be him leaving baseball.

Y2K: You agree with us that Joe Torre's handling of the A-Rod situation was absurdly poor, but what about Derek Jeter? Doesn't the esteemed captain bear quite a bit of responsibility for letting the clubhouse situation get out of hand?

TM: I think it says a lot about Jeter that he hasn't just told the fans to lay off of Rodriguez, which certainly couldn't hurt, wouldn't cost Jeter anything one way or the other, and might actually have some impact. Rodriguez is unusually thoughtful and aware of the context within which he operates — good qualities in a human being, bad ones in a baseball player.

Y2K: On A-Rod, you wrote "Ship him to the Cubs for a box of rocks and do away with the embarrassing distraction." It's early yet, but Boras says he ain't going nowhere. If they hold him, what could we be in for?

TM: I like Scott Boras immensely, but I wouldn't take his negotiating posture very seriously as far as being predictive of future events. If A-Rod comes back, fans will make asses of themselves, he'll have another productive season, and his reputation will be tarnished further by circumstances. It was a bad fit from the beginning, and a player of his class doesn't deserve to be treated like a trophy wife.

Y2K: In the infamous SI article, A-Rod claimed he comes in for criticism for being bi-racial. That's just Joel Sherman, right?

TM: I'm not touching that one with a ten-foot pole.

Y2K: Plenty of prospects floating around the New York scene: Pelfrey, Humber, Blastings on the Mets' side; Phil Hughes and Duncan for the Yanks. Anyone you're particularly bullish on?

TM: Hughes is the real deal, and I like Pelfrey quite a bit. The rest look like chaff to me — Humber's starting to look rather injury prone, Duncan is a future bench player, and Milledge, if he develops to his full potential (which I don't think he will), will be adequate in a corner outfield spot.

Milledge should be traded while he still has some trade value. Keep in mind that I was saying the same thing when he was hitting like Ty Cobb in April, and that nothing would please me more than if he proved me wrong — any time I predict doom for a ballplayer I root for him
to make me eat my words.

Y2K: Which other baseball writers out there do you consider must-reads?

TM: Nate Silver is the best baseball writer in the country right now. He's the one guy who truly understands which questions to ask and how to answer them, and — at least as important — understands the limitations of his methodologies. He's just fantastic.

Alan Schwarz is truly excellent as well. Ben McGrath and Roger Angell are always worth going out of your way to read. I love the work Chris Dial does on defense, and I'm a beyond-religious reader of the New York Post and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Guillermomo, the New Knicks and More

A quick shout to our guy Guillermo. It is almost too easy. Dude sucks. Takes steroids. Gets good.

But just like Jobu didn't help Cerrano hit a curve ball, steroids didn't really help Mota throw one.

Game 2 goes our way and we could be planning out victory parade. Oh well. Anything Shawn Merriman does is cool by me.

But Wednesday was a big day for other reasons. For those who have been on board with Y2K, you know my feelings about the Knicks. I loved Chris and Mase's piece yesterday, think it was relatively spot on.

The big difference, I have no resaon to be optimisitc. I just don't care enough.

And all I can say about this team. They SUCK.

They went to three OT's against a team that prominently featured Chucky Atkins, Hakim Warrick, Jake Tsakalidas and 2 rookies.

Their go-to player was Mike Miller.

The Knicks almost earned the Trojan Ends Boner of the Week Award by nearly blowing a 19-point lead.

Thank god they didn't.

But as unimpressive as this win was, there is something to me that is more impressive.

How is it possible to have as high of a payroll as the Knicks and still have Jamal Crawford be your go-to guy at crunch time?

It is really scary that he is the best choice. What's next. Iso for Jerome James?

They'd be a lot better signing Happy Will to a 10-day. They didn't call him "Little Fundamental" for a reason.

As for the rest of the sports world, let the Alfonso Soriano sweepstakes begin. I think he ends up in Philly. They want to dump Pat the Bat and after having freed up a certain $17 million dollar unmovable salary last summer, they have some room to maneuver.

You can start printing your Dwight Howard MVP tshirts. Maybe even at Fratbucks.com where prices and value are what we've got.

This kid could average 30 and 15 and the Magic seem to be everyone's up and coming squad.

Me personally, I'm on board with the Warriors.

My boys covered their first over/under Wednesday night (203.5) in a 110-98.

This despite both teams combining to miss 29 free throws and go 8-for-36 from three point land. Sip's advice: play this every night till the number hits 210. This team just refuses to rebound or defend. All they do is run. It adds up.

With every passing day and every new steroid scandal it makes me wonder why these things are banned. If all these guys are going to do them, doesn't it make it unfair to D Wright who obviously does not?

Imagine young David on steroids. He would have the king kong arms that the Monster craved when Juan Gonzalez was potentially coming to town.

Speaking of the Monster, the Padres declined his option. If this guy wants to come back as a backup catcher, let's bring him back.

It wouldn't feel right winning a championship without him.

That's all I got.

Vaya con dios,

sip

One Up, One Down

(Note: Immediately following this post is our first Section 423 column about the Knicks, which will appear every Wednesday.)

There were two major stories regarding the Mets' pitching staff next season, one positive, one negative.

Let's start with the bad. About an hour ago now it was revealed that Guillermo Mota was in violation of MLB's drug policy. It is unclear as of now whether Mota was using recreational drugs or performance enhancers, but it's probably safe to assume he was roiding.

Like we didn't see that one coming. Seriously, it didn't seem the least bit suspicious to you that the guy was lit up all year until he came to the Mets and magically started dominating? Please. Most obvious juicer this side of Yusaku Iriki.

Anyway, the immediate assumption in the blogosphere is that Mota's suspension essentially assures that Aaron Heilman, who figured to be dangled in trade discussions, will return to the Mets' bullpen in 2007.

I'm not as sure as everyone else seems to be. Don't get me wrong, I think that's probably likely, but if Dontrelle Willis could be had for a package including Aaron Heilman, I don't think the bullpen uncertainty would dissuade Omar one bit.

Remember that both Duaner Sanchez and Juan Padilla, who was excellent for the Mets in 2005 before being lost for the season in 2006, figure to be back in the mix in 2007. Both are coming off injuries, and to that extent both are question marks, but they do provide flexibility.

Besides those two, there's always a number of relievers available in the offseason, and even if none of them would be as good as Heilman, one could probably come close.

So what's it all mean for Heilman? For my money, it means he's more likely to stay, more certain not to start, but equally as certain to be included in any offers for a frontline starting pitcher.

That may not sound earthshattering, but coming into the day I'd have said that our bullpen next year was likely to center around a Mota-Sanchez-Wagner triumvirate, but now I think we're back to Heilman-Sanchez-Wagner.

Personally, I'm more interested in seeing what kind of market there is for a free agent like Mota now. Has there ever been a free agent staring down a 50-game suspension who was the subject of a bidding war? What happens to Mota's value now? It'll be interesting to watch.

Meanwhile, the Daily News reported today that the Mets were in negotiations to lock up Tom Glavine for another season, at $12.5 million. What's that? Oh, it's a 2-year deal? Strange.

Yes, from the same people who brought you Julio Franco's bidding-against-ourselves 2-year contract comes Tommy Ballgame's rumored 2-year pact. Morons!

Actually, I'm fine with this deal. I'll concede that I find it a bit odd that it's going to take $12.5 million annually to lock up Glavine (I was thinking something more in the 10-11.5 range).

But the guy's hungry, he's proven he can handle New York (even if it took a couple years for him to do so), and the truth is that he basically has the same season every year, and with a good team around him, that season is good for 15-plus wins.

I think Glavine answered all questions about his second half dropoff (really, it was a July swoon more than anything) with his strong September/October.

More important than anything, the guy is a rock. He's the leader of the staff and a leader in the clubhouse. Barry Zito's a lot of things, but between his personality and the transition to New York, I doubt he'd have been either in 2007.

Assuming the Mets lock up Glavine, I don't think that takes us out of the Zito sweepstakes altogether, but it changes things somewhat. It's been reported that there's a feeling in the organization that Zito isn't worth ace-type money, and that there is little benefit in having two crafty pitchers at the top of your rotation.

Put simply, my sense is they want a guy with some fucking heat. Zito isn't that guy. Retaining Glavine doesn't change the pitcher Zito is, of course, but it probably does change how highly the Mets organization values him.

If we get edged out of the Daisuke Matsuzake sweepstakes, then I could see us making a strong push for Zito. But as for now, with Glavine back in the mix, look for the Mets to make finding themselves a hard thrower their top priority.

Anyway, so much excitement for a Wednesday in early November, just wait until things really start heating up. There's life after the postseason after all.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Section 423: The "Nowhere to Go but Up" Season Preview

(Note: A piece by A.F.O.M.G. will be up later this afternoon. Now, it is our pleasure to introduce the newest addition to Y2K, our weekly Knicks columnists coming to you from section 423, Chris Childs and Anthony Mason.)

Fellow Knicks fans, welcome to the first installment of Section 423, where diehards like you can talk freely and openly about our beloved orange and blue (without fear of the tyrannical GM/Coach/Failed Accountant Zeek Thomas screening our e-mails and postings).

After I punched Kobe Bryant in the face on national television and became second All-Interview team material, I realized I had a place in the hearts of Knicks fans around the world.

Same goes for my mink-coat-wearing writing partner, the original point-forward Anthony Mason (have you seen him dancing with Charlize Theron in Woody Allen’s Celebrity?). There will be additional familiar faces dropping by from time to time, so stay tuned…

Let’s get into the 2006-2007 “Nowhere to Go but Up” Season Preview. Even though I graduated from Boise St. in 1989, I have a strong love f or the University of Michigan, so it is with great sadness that I say goodbye to the one and only #5 and Hip Hop Video cameo whore, Jalen Rose.

While his time with us was short, I have to say I did enjoy having him around the Garden. Nobody knows more rappers than Jalen, and he could still go for 15, 5, and 5 on any given night…peace out J, tell your dead beat dad we say what up!

What can we honestly expect out of our guys this year? What would allow us to walk away with a satisfied feeling come April (if we are still playing in May, or can you imagine, June, then of course we will be dancing in the streets, but let’s stay focused)?

After a team wins 23 games, and not only loses 59, but loses many of them by 20-plus points, oftentimes getting blown out in the first 6 minutes of the 1st quarter, it’s really tough to pick up the pieces and lace them up again.

But instead of focusing on the negatives, I’d like to point out a few positives that Knicks fans can focus on in the up-coming “Nowhere to Go but Up” campaign.

I hope Isiah learned from ol’ Larry Brown that with a new starting lineup every night, the team will suffer.

People need to feel comfortable in their roles, and if, for example, Q-Rich (how bad does that guy suck?) starts one night, he shouldn’t play 4 minutes the next night… hopefully they can find a starting five, and stick with it.

Look at the good teams in the league. San Antonio. Detroit. Miami. Phoenix. They have a routine and a system, guys know who the starters are, who the key role players are, and barring injuries, they stick to it… the absence of role definition KILLED the Knicks last year.

Second, Maurice Taylor is no longer on the team. I know I said I love Ann Arbor guys, but that dude has been a loser his whole life. He added nothing.

Taylor’s departure will free up more time for younger guys like E Curry, D Lee, Chan Chan, Ro Ro Balkman and Jarred “I wear braces but I am an adult” Jeffries to hopefully grow and improve. Hopefully.

Now that he is out of the mix, and Malik Rose is basically dead, the Knicks’ front line is very, very young. That’s a good thing. “Nowhere to Go but Up”.

According to Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, Balkman is the truth. Yes, he has a Pervis Ellison haircut. Yes, he is undersized. But he plays hard, and in the NBA, that is a rare thing. Let’s hope he keeps it up.

Yes, Kelvin Cato is 32 and coming off injury but everyone in the Garden, from Spike, to the bitter 70 year old Irish security guards, knows that dude won’t be around by Jan 1st.

Also, Mo Taylor’s contract of course sucked, but I don’t want to focus too much on contract talk, because let’s face it, everyone is overpaid except for the three rookies from last year.

Speaking of the rookies, they are the key to how good the Knicks will be this year. The development of Nate The Great, Chan Chan, and D Lee will be under a microscope this year, and I hope that the Knicks can keep all three.

Nate is a special player, a young ‘Robert Pack’ type. All he needs to do is sloooooooow down. Instead of always making the exciting play, how about the smart play? (I sound like my high school coach, so wack, but so true).

Channing Frye had a great 60-game season last year, and just broke down towards the end. If he can step up and be a 15 and 8 guy, then I say he stays.

David Lee is the truth, and until Zeek sees that, the Knicks are going nowhere. He is a workhorse, and the best white dunker in the league… hands down.

Of course the big question is how long before Steve Francis and Stephen Marbury kill each other? Why can’t these dudes just go to the club, get a bottle of Crys, and party with Jim Jones and The Diplomats and just squash all of this? It’s stupid.

They are really should be Earl the Pearl and Walt Clyde (who is getting worse and worse announcing the games; I for one love the combo of Kenny Smith and Mike Breen).

Add in Crawford, who has put on some much needed weight this summer, and you’ve got 4 solid guards (Steph, Franchise, Nate and Jamal). That rotation, with the Knicks young and improved frontline, could mean we have a .500 ball club on our hands and the 8th seed in the playoffs come the spring time.

Obviously this is all very, VERY optimistic, but why not? Why not have some faith and some hope, if not in November, then when?

These Knicks, (and this is entirely on Isiah) need to understand just how fortunate they are, and not just financially. They get to play in the Mecca of hoops, the world’s most famous arena, for one of the most storied franchises in professional sports.

When the Knicks are playing well, New York as a city is doing well. The bars are crowded, the streets are talking (what up Hov, welcome back), and there is just a good feeling in the hearts and minds of the people of the rotten apple. Let’s at least wait until December before we start with the depression and the demons.

Without further ado, presented for you here are Chris Childs and Anthony Mason’s suggested starting five:

Center: Eddy Curry. The big guy’s heart keeps on ticking, so keep dumping the ball in down low. Some nights he’s Pat Ewing, some nights he is Eddie Lee Wilkens. Foul trouble is always an issue, but he is still young and is so large that he really could become one of the premier big fellas in the league with a little more seasoning.

Forwards: Channing Frye and Jarred Jeffries. With that frontline, that’s 3 guys 6’10 and up… not bad. Both are long and athletic, and should be each dropping between 12-15 a night, as well as over 7 boards each. A little soft on defense, but that’s what some of the hustle guys on the bench are for. Balkman and Lee can provide some defense and energy off the bench.

Guards: Fuck it. Let’s roll with Starbury and Franchise. Crawford is the perfect 6 man as he is neither a true 1 or 2. Steph is the heart of New York. Hate him all you want, but he wants it. After spending the summer selling $10 shoes, he is more focused than ever.

Stevie never felt comfy with Larry, but nobody did. He is a proven competitor, an underdog his whole life, he loves his grandmother, and can jump out of the gym. Trust me, give them some space and a month or so to hit the clubs together, and these two really could be Isiah and Dumars…how dope would that be?! A good thing about Stevie too is that the guy can rebound…

It’s going to be a tough year for the new Knicks. As members of the Knicks Nation, we ask you to keep the faith, there is light at the end of the tunnel…and we’ll see you in Section 423 all year long…Go NY, Go NY, Go!

- Chris Childs and Anthony Mason