And the beat goes on

Back at .500. Now they just have to keep moving up. The Mets thrashed the Fillys tonight, moving within four games of first. The division is so tight that they are still in last place. Of course beating the Phils a second straight night won’t come easy, but what does. These Mets ain’t done, trust me.

In other news, the Giants will be fortunate enough to have a home game at the Super Bowl when the time comes in 2014. I feel bad for the Lions, who they will be playing. Haha.

Speaking of bad teams like the Lions, the Nationals are no longer considered bad. I would call them average, a step up from seasons past. They are shockingly a half game ahead of the Mets right now. And everyone is so excited to see Stephen Strasburg. I could have seen him in Syracuse, in the minor leagues.

DC is going to be disappointed when the quartet they are anointing as stars of DC (Strasburg, Ovechkin, McNabb and John Wall) don’t bring home titles. At least they’ll bring excitement. But that’s not too hard when you’ve got one team coming off a last place finish, another with a 4-12 finish (obviously last place too), a top team that was ousted in the first round, and a team with gun troubles. Talk about lifting spirits. Cheers to that!

S’aint it great to be marching!

In honor of the Saints winning the Super Bowl, I’ve decided to share some of my favorite headlines that were published in today’s media outlets.

ESPN: The Big Easy Does It

Washington Post: Lombardi Gras

New York Times: The Saints! Dat’s Who!

New Orleans Times Picayune: Amen!

A saint or a colt? I’ll ride the colt

I said this last year in my Super Bowl preview, and I’ll say it again. It is too hard to pick a definite winner in today’s Super Bowl. Either team could win, and either team could just as easily lose. The Colts have the better record and Peyton Manning, but Drew Brees isn’t too shabby himself. My gut is to go with the Colts, but I would not be surprised if the Saints won.

The Super Bowl is about the only event (besides Obama’s election) that brings the whole country together. Even if people don’t like the game itself, they watch for the commercials or the food at the parties. If you don’t watch the Super Bowl, what are you doing? The Super Bowl isn’t just a sports game, it’s the entertainment event of the year.

IT’S ON…tomorrow

2001: Not a Space Oddysey

This was a good year for Jason Kidd. He was traded to the Nets and would go on to lead the team to the NBA Finals. This was the year that I started to acknowledge sports, although it wasn’t until December. But I do remember a little pre-December.

I remember the Patriots winning the Super Bowl over the Rams and U2 performing. (Okay, so this was 2002, but it was with the 2001 season and I’d rather not mention who lost the Super Bowl in 2001 coughGiantscough). When I found out that the Patriots had won on a last second field goal, I though that they had simply been running around with the ball and some guy decided to punt it through the net. Little did I know.

2001 was also unique. September 11 happened, and the Yankees nearly managed to win the World Series for New York. Not to make a joke of the situation, but Yankee fans: your team was eight years late!

Again, Tiger was dominating. The golf course that is, not the gossip headlines.

Other than the above and a few accomplishments and championships here and there, 2001, which is actually considered the first year of the new century (not 2000) was pretty basic. It was nothing like the space oddysey movie.

Other non sports tidbits which I find interesting:

AOL and Time Warner merged (they separated just recently).

I hit double digits in age.

The whole Enron fiasco was happening.

And besides the major catastrophe of September 11th, I don’t remember much else besides what I learned in school. And neither me or you want to look back on that!

All I can say is, it has been about eight years since I saw my first NBA game (yes, I still have the ticket). Without that, you wouldn’t be reading this post!

2000: A whole new world…not

Thursday’s sports section of USA Today had an interesting feature on the decade in sports. Check it out.

I’m here now to talk about 2000. But since this is the year 2009, ’09 deserves some credit too. Which is why 2009 will be the last in the series (makes sense anyway since 2009 is the last year in the decade.)

Now back to the task at hand: 2000. The new millennium. I remember the Subway Series between the Mets and the Yankees. Tiger (dare I mention him) was getting good, and the Lakers won the NBA title. The Rams won the Super Bowl in January. Blah blah blah. You could look this stuff up online. I want to give you a more interesting take.

2000. A year stuck in between. They wanted to be new and exciting, but the year was really just a continuation of 1999. NBA shorts still weren’t that long, football helmets still had a vertical line through them, and Elton Brand was still on the Clippers.

Here’s some cool info about 2000. That current nine year old prodigy (whoever he or she may be) was born. In another nine years we will discover them. The Sydney Olympics were happening, and I watched more synchronized swimming and gymnastics than basketball.

Other than those tidbits and the factual scores, I have nothing more to say. Like I said in my previous post: at this time, I was not consciously aware of sports. I was chillin’ in the third and fourth grade and thinking that Kobe Bryant was Cobi Jones. True story.

It’s been a while…

The world has returned to normal. No, the economy is not fixed. No, Britney isn’t back. Well wait, maybe she is. Anyways, the reason why there is peace on earth (or lack thereof actually) is the Yankees. They are back in the World Series, a place where they annually belonged for much of my early childhood. It has been a long six years, full of collapses (2004) and messes (2008). 2003 was the last time the Yankees were in a World Series and 2000 was the last time they won a World Series. Let’s look back at 2003, the last time they were in the position they are in now. I was in 6th/7th grade, and didn’t even know who Josh Beckett was. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won best picture for 2003, with the event being held a year later. We went to war with Iraq (some things haven’t changed). Ohio State beat Miami for the title in college football. The Bucaneers beat the Raiders (some things have changed) in the Super bowl. And the Spurs beat my beloved Nets in the NBA Finals. LOST had not yet started. The human genome project was completed. Vancouver was announced as the host for next year’s Winter Olympics. Arnold Schwarzenegger was declared governor of CA. Technology was pitiful compared to how it is nowadays. There was no twitter and (gasp!) no Facebook. The first “Pirates” movie came out, along with 50 First Dates, The Passion of the Christ, Kill Bill, Holes, Finding Nemo (he was found), Freaky Friday (when Lindsay Lohan was normal), School of Rock, Bruce Almighty, Elf, The Matrix Reloaded, and Scary Movie 3 (This year had some good movies! And some not so hot ones too). That’s all I’m going to talk about 2003, because after all, it was only six years ago.

Tick-tock back and forth. Clocks are made of Steel, not feathers!

Some thoughts on last night’s game: Both teams had valid chances to win the game. The Steelers just happened to take advantage of their last one. The commercials were down. I was expecting more. Bruce Springsteen was pretty good, especially with his oldies. Read the first few paragraphs of the game article on the front page of the Post. That sums up the game quite well. Now, on to next season. Can never start too early! The Giants better rebound, but I’m not sure. The Cardinals could be really good, or mediocre. The Steelers will probably always be good with Big Ben and their D. Some other teams to watch: The Pats (but with Tom Brady this time). We will see if he returns healthy and gets back to his true form. If he does, then the Patriots will be good. Dangerously good. (But not 19-0). Peyton Manning’s teams are always consistently good. Also, the NFC East could very well be a four team race. The Skins will want to erase this year’s memories, and the Eagles and Cowboys will be very hungry. Grrr. Okay, I’ve had enough football for one week. Tonight in men’s college hoops, Louisville plays host to UCONN. UCONN is pretty beast, but Louisville is undefeated in Big East play and playing at home. Tough pick. I’ll go against the home team. In this week’s Sports Illustrated, will we see the ten millionth Steelers cover in the last month. Gosh, I am getting drowned in gold and black. The Giants had a run of three consecutive covers last year, but blue and red is alright. Or maybe it was the Giants that were alright. I actually enjoyed the dull brown cover of last week’s issue. But it would have been better if Jason Kidd was on the front instead of LeBron. Speaking of the all-star game (wait, I don’t think I was, but who really cares). Amare Stoudemire, Tim Duncan, AI? Come on. It’s wayyyy past their time. Let the youngins’ start the game.

Getting ready for the Bowl

Michael Wilbon hit it on the nail in today’s Post. It is too hard to pick a definite winner in today’s Super Bowl. Either team could win, and either team could just as easily lose. The Steelers are technically the better team with their amazing defense to go along with Big Ben, but the Cardinals have momentum similar to last year’s Giants, not to mention Larry Fitzgerald, Kurt Warner, and Anquan Boldin. At some points the Steelers are the logical choice, because they are just too good. But other times, you look at the Cardinals and what they’ve done this post season and say, “Why not for one more game?” So, I know the Cards could completely blow it and collapse against the Steelers’ secondary, but I’m going to take a chance and go with Arizona. But I don’t pick scores because they are always way off.                                                                                                                                  Here come the bandwagon fans. The Steelers are one of the most bandwagon-able teams in America, along with the Yankees, Patriots, and Lakers. The key to being a bandwagon-able team? Winning. That’s why the Cards don’t fit that description. The only new fans they have are the old ones that are finally coming out of hiding.                                                                                                                                                                                                    The economy is down, but the commercials shall still be great. There are always disappointing ads, but for all of those there are pretty good ones. I always wondered, do the pre-game ads count as being Super Bowl ads? Or do they pay a lot less money? Either way, all will be watched. This will be the most watched event this year behind all of Obama’s coverage.

Some thoughts and some college basketball finally!

The Super Bowl is coming up this Sunday. The thing about the Super Bowl is that the tv is constantly airing something worth watching. When the game is going on, you have that. When it’s not, the commercials are pretty good. And when neither of those are on, the halftime shows are usually pretty good.

All-star rosters for the NBA all star game came out yesterday, with few surprises. The Nets have Devin Harris representing them, but not all teams have a player. Unlike the MLB all star game, the NBA does not require each team to be represented by at least one player. So, there are many teams without a player, but those are mostly bad teams.

Manny Ramirez says no one wants him. You know what Manny, why don’t you just accept whatever a team is willing to pay you. There are as many people as your current salary (millions) that would take your check in a heartbeat, whether it be one million dollars or even 500,000 dollars.

The Steelers and the Cardinals are two very different teams. Either the Steelers pull it out, or the Cardinals grab the upset.

Wake Forest upset Duke the other day. I believe that the ACC has the best top teams, and the the Big East has the best teams in general, though the Big East is much bigger. The Big East has Pitt, UCONN, Marquette, Notre Dame, Villanova, Georgetown, West Virginia, Louisville, and Syracuse. Cincinatti is dangerous, as they showed in their upset of Georgetown. Georgetown, meanwhile, is on a downward spiral. And it’s not like they can rebound against poor teams, because they were beat by Seton Hall. Losing to Pitt, fine, Seton Hall, not so much. The ACC has Duke, Wake, and UNC all looking very strong. There’s a few other decent teams in the conference, but no one too special. The Big Ten has a lot of  ’good’ teams, and not much else. Illinois, Purdue, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio State are good. Penn State is surprisingly good, and Indiana is not surprisingly bad. Michigan State is up at the top with aforementioned Purdue.  The Big 12 is Oklahoma, Texas, sort of Kansas, and barely Baylor. The SEC is Kentucky, and they aren’t even that great. Florida is alright, but nothing spectacular. The PAC-10. UCLA has been alright. Stanford is missing the Lopez brothers, and Arizona State is pretty good because of James Harden and his crew. So, as of now, college basketball is being dominated by the East Coast, and their leagues (ACC/Big East), as it should be.