 Saturday, December 29, 2007
NFL Week # 17 Picks
Last Week's Recap: I was 2-0 in my picks and 24-11 on the season. This Week's Fearless Picks: The Boston Sports Apocalypse continues as the Patriots march to another Super Bowl and beat the Giants at the Meadowlands on Saturday night to complete a perfect 16-0 regular season. Steve agrees with me that the Patriots are cheaters. The Patriots were warned by the NFL last season but still cheated anyway. The Bills lose to the Eagles. This is a tough game to pick, avoid it if you can. The Jets beat the Chiefs in former Coach Herm Edwards' homecoming. Written by The Tank and posted by Steve in NY.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Why the Patriots must lose
The New England Patriots are on course to win 16 straight games and finish the season a perfect 16-0. Normally most sports fans would be cheering them on, wanting to see some history. There are a few reasons why nobody wants the Patriots to win. First they are cheaters. In Week 1, Jets head coach Eric Mangini caught a Patriots cameraman trying to tape Jets signals from the sidelines. The Patriots got off easy with a $250,000 fine, coach Bill Belichick got a $500,000 fine, and the Patriots lost a first round draft pick. (Got off easy? They cheated and Belichick should have been suspended. Just look at all the hoopla with Barry Bonds now.) Now Bill Belichick knows that the Patriots are a much better team than the Jets and can win normally, so why would he cheat? They cheated because they are not nice people and want to win at all costs. This leads into point number two, the Patriots are not classy, they put themselves above all else. They cheat, they run up the score, they leave in their starters up until the last minute with a 50 point lead. That is not classy, it is saying "We rock, you suck, get out of our way." Last reason why the Pats have to lose is because the NFL is boring for the rest of us. The Patriots always win. I thought salary caps were suppose to prevent dynasties from forming. The Yankees made baseball boring for the rest of us in the late 90s, and as proof the last time the Yankees won a world series in 2000, it was the worst rated world series since they started keeping statistics. Memo to the NFL-most of the country will still watch the Super Bowl, but they probably will channel surf when Belichick starts to run up the score. Posted by Steve in New York
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Meeting Ozzie Smith Shows That The Baseball Hall of Fame Is More Than A Collection Of Plaques
I recently had the pleasure and privilege of meeting The Wizard of Oz, Ozzie Smith. It was quite a thrill as I attended his 2002 induction ceremony near my home town of Cooperstown, New York.
Upon his retirement from baseball, Ozzie has become a Baseball Ambassador. He participated in a Baseball Hall of Fame exhibition named "Baseball: The Ultimate Educational Tool" that I recently attended in Midtown Manhattan. The seminar lived up to its billing as baseball is a common identifying point across different generations, ethnic, religious, racial backgrounds, and socio-economic backgrounds.
Ozzie was a 13 time Gold Glove Winner but homework always came first at the insistence of his Mom. After he finished his homework, she played catch with Ozzie. She raised Ozzie and five sisters.
The exhibition illustrated that baseball teaches many things like statistics, civil rights, special abilities, cultural diversity, physics, leadership, honor excellence, preserve history, connect generations, mathematics, the business of baseball, character, education, American history, fine art, communication arts, geography, industrial technology, labor history, women's history, milestones and history makers, interaction with legendary leaders.
He almost quit playing baseball but his Mom and high school coach talked him out of it. Two weeks later, the starting shortstop hurt his ankle and Ozzie stepped in. The rest is history.
When facing adversity, Ozzie wisely said that no one faced anything like Jackie Robinson did. Keeping that in mind got him through the tough times like being traded from San Diego to Saint Louis. "Turn the other cheek and keep moving," he said.
Ozzie was also in a video showing the history of WWII Japanese-American internment in Manzanar, California. The interned Japanese-Americans played baseball in the camps. They had leagues and watched baseball movies like "Pride of the Yankees", a classic in any day. They had to make their own bats. It was fascinating. It showed that baseball got people through the hardest of times.
Posted by a grateful and enlightened Tank reporting live from Midtown Manhattan.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The Talk Around the Christmas Dinner Table
A fly on the wall reporting from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners: - Many New Yorkers are counting down the days until the NJ Nets move to Brooklyn.The Knicks are so bad that we are just ready to toss in the towel and become Brooklyn Nets fans.
- Its time to check out the Devils new home. The Devils moved to Newark, NJ, and anytime a new arena opens in your sports radius, you have to go see it, even a High School field.
- Yankee fans are still in denial about Clemens. While I want to believe, I know in my heart that he is guilty, just as Barry Bonds is. Andy Pettette came clean, time to come clean Roger. Too much circumstantial evidence and the confession by your best fiend only hurts you.
- The Yankees need to make an offseason move. All they did was spend a lot of money keeping the status quo.
- Mets fans are mad as hell. All Mets fans want just one thing for Christmas: a starting pitcher.
- Steve's Uncle thinks the Mets pitching is ok. While the rest of the family will trade the farm for Santna and others. Uncle Joe defends Omar saying that the Mets payroll will balloon and that you can't give up too much. The rest of the family thinks that he is crazy, time to win man!!!
- The Mets should swap Orlando Hernández and Aaron Heilman. Heilman just whines about wanting to be a starter and lacks the 90s needed to be a big league closer. He is young and has enough arm strength to give 175-200 quality innings. El Duque is getting too old to give you 200 quality innings.
Posted by Steve in a food coma.
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 Wednesday, December 26, 2007 8:08:33 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Dreaming of a Kobe Christmas
Kobe Bryant scored 39 points at the Garden on Sunday to become the youngest player in NBA history to score 20,000 points.
In the post-game news conference, Kobe was asked if he wanted to be a Knick. Kobe said he didn't want to get in trouble but he did say that the Garden was his favorite arena.
Kobe coming to the Knicks would be like KG going to the Celtics. It would be worth trading seven or more of the current Knicks to the Lakers for Kobe. If Knicks fans are going to have to suffer with Isiah coaching the Knicks for the rest of the season or longer (God forbid), we should get appropriate compensation for our pain and suffering.
Merry Christmas and Happy Basketball Holidays to all.
Posted by a hopeful Tank in NY.
Monday, December 24, 2007
The Rocket Responds
Roger Clemens responded to his critics including Steve yesterday on his website in a one minute and 48 second address shown on ESPN and posted on YouTube.
I am giving the Rocket the benefit of the doubt and some time to let this situation play itself out just as Derek Jeter said a few days ago at his annual children's charity benefit shown on NBC 4 New York.
I am not in denial as Steve noted the other day but I still believe in the old fashioned values of "innocent until proven guilty". This country has unfortunately become "guilty until proven innocent". When elected President next year, I promise to lead the change the culture of people being judged in the court of public opinion.
I am looking forward to Rocket's interview with "60 Minutes" Mike Wallace in two weeks. The LA Times issued a front page apology a couple of days ago for naming the Rocket as a steroids user in 2006. Time will tell if Senator Mitchell and/or Brian MacNamee will have to apologize in the future.
Posted by an open-minded and traveling Tank in Tampa, FL.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Long Island Mike's Russian Ice Hockey Missives
Long Island Mike writes on many historical, political, and sporting topics. Though a huge Red Sox fan, he is still a friend of The Tank. As hard as NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman may try to run hockey into the ground in North America, his and other owners' greed and stupidity during the recent lockout will never extinguish Long Mike's love for the great sport of hockey. Please find this latest hockey gem. See you at the rink. Written by The Traveling Tank and posted by Steve in NY.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
NFL Week #16 Picks
Last Week: I was 2-1 including the Giants choke job in the winds of the Meadowlands. I am 22-11 on the season. This Week's Fearless Picks: To make the playoffs, the Giants have to win this week at the Bills in a hard fought game because they are going to lose next week against New England. The Jets lose at the Titans. Written by The Tank and posted by Steve in NY.
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