I was at Doc Goodens no hitter in 1996.  It is very exciting, and a great moment, (especioally because in May 1996 we didn’t have our pink hat crew of fans yet) and I am sure it probably led off SportsCenter as well.  But last night we had Game 7 of the Spurs vs. Hornets and it took them literally 10 minutes to mention it after the start of the broadcast.  Thanks BSPN.  I didn’t want to know about playoff hoops anyways, I wanted to see a Mark Grudzielanek at bat.  Yep exactly.

As a kid who grew up in Connecticut I never remember EPSN being so biased.  Sure (and too my delightat the time) they always threw in some random Connecticut references, and made mention of the local high school scene, but on the professional level it was usually pretty level.  Now, since the 2004 Red Sox, all things Boston lead the show.  What pisses me off the most is that ESPN is in Bristol, right on the Yankee/Red Sox boarder for fandom in Connecticut.  Most of the personalities form the show live in Farifield or Westchester County too, clearly Yankee territiory.  Why the Boston bias? Here is a good map which ran in the New York Times. As you can see Brsitol is just over the border.  Thank god mom and dad chose the correct side of the line to live on.

A map indicating where the douchbags live in CT

1) The Giants Super Bowl Run spoiled me.  The Giants Super Bowl run In January and Febuary has made me soft.  Watching them march through the playoffs made me less intense as I finally had a championship for the first time in 7 years (2000 Yankees).  Capped off with the thrilling Super Bowl win (more on this in a minute) I have lost a beat in my fandom.

2) I am getting lame.  Starting with Super Bowl XXLI I have seen myself get lame.  For example I watched the most thrilling game in my life with Yankee Girl and her best friend….. as they were drinking wine, eating sushi and discussing their  sexual conquests.  So yeah I watched the greatest game of my life from a scene of “Sex and the City.” Wow. Now if I was Yankee guy circa 2002 or so I would have been at a bar screaming my head off, covered with beer head to toe, almost puking and hugging everyone in sight.  Oh yeah and then he would go punch 2008 Yankee Guy in the mouth. In fact I currently want to slap myself because of this.

3) I have become desensitized to our terrible starts.  Going back to my college years the Yankees have been notoriously slow starters.  In 2005 and last year they were especially bad and I it almost seems like a normal occurrence to have to make a run from June on to make the playoffs.  This is disconcerting because it is something you really can’t expect every year . 

Now because the deficit isn’t too big and because I have confidence in our players coming back from injury I feel the team will come together and jell this summer.  The team’s schedule is very favorable in June and July (July the Yankees leave NYC for all of 3 days)  and the PECOTA odds are still in our favor.

With all of this though I have one thought that mirrors that of Yankee Girl (I am sure):  “I am tired of the excuses, let win some F-ing games, enough with the bullshit!!”

Current record 20-24, Last Place

The new era of basketball excellence started versus Kansas on January 22, 2005.  As a senior I drove down to the Wachovia Center in a snowstorm to see my Wildcats, teetering on the brink of relevancy, as they faced #2 and undefeated Kansas.  Ignited by Kyle Lowry’s ejection after punching a Kansas player, and fueled by  a barrage of 3-pointers we destroyed Kansas 83-62, and it wasn’t even that close.  In that game I thought we had 5% chance.  In this upcoming one we are less talented, but are much more hot coming in and have jelled as a team.  I have confidence our team will rise to the challenge as they did in January 2005 (and as I did driving home from that game) and actually expect us to win.

There is no way that Jay Wright is sitting in his office (In his 10K suit) satisfied. He has improved as a game coach dramatically over the past two years, and his adjustments at halftime this year have been phenomenal.  Our comebacks this year versus Clemson, Syracuse, and LSU all speak to his improvement. We will have a plan and play to win.

The newspapers headlines on April 1st, 1985 read “Villanova Vs. A God.” Kansas is no god. They are beatable, and I know that regardless the outcome will play “Villanova Basketball.” I’ll explain this term later today.  I don’t bet on Villanova (or the Yankees) eve, but if I did, I’d bet the house on us +11.5.  That line is a joke.

Yankee Girl fell asleep reading this so shhhhhhhhhhhh.

Of course I am talking about the one and only Pete Sampras. Pete the Greek was a staple of my childhood. It seems like every Wimbledon Final in the 90′s I spent with my dad and my grandfather, cheering on our hero. He never lost one of those matches. I also remember one of the most nerve wracking sports events of my life being the 2002 US Open Finals. In his epic match with Andre Agassi I could barely watch, as he expended every ounce of energy to close his career with an improbable 14th Major. (He was actually seeded 17th for the Open and hadn’t won a major since Wimbledon in 2000)

Tonight’s Sampras match wasn’t for a Major, a tournament title, and wasn’t even an ATP tournament match. Instead it was an exhibition competition with the #1 player in the world, Roger Federer. Now going into this fun little event I was just hoping to see my hero play competitive, and maybe slam a few aces. I looked forward to seeing him do his little rituals, like picking up 5 balls before his serve and hitting four away, to serve with the ball he liked the best. I didn’t expect Pete to win the match or even a set….

Federer showed up wearing his modern all-black getup, while Sampras, in his old-school all-white outfit, and it felt like good versus evil, new school versus old school. For the first hour of the match Roger Federer showed why he is the best player in the world, and was really beating Sampras bad, with Pete showing his age of 36. But amazingly Pete came back to win the second set, and then strung together a stretch where he won 18 of 22 points in the 3rd set to go up 5-2 in the third set. Federer eventually came back to win a thrillingly close match, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6), but to me the loss doesn’t even matter.

Sampras still has the best serve in the world. He still uses his serve and volley effectively to this day, an art no longer used by young players anymore. He made Federer uncomfortable out there, even though it was obvious Pete’s lateral movement was a shadow of what it used to be (as well as his hairline), and no match to that of 26 year old Federer.  Sampras made Federer work in a way I wish my favorite current player, Andy Roddick could, but he never does.

There is no doubt in my mind that 1996 Pete Sampras would beat 2008 Roger Federer in Wimbledon 9 out of 10 times.  Tonight reminded me of the greatness of my hero, and how fun it was to root for such a humble and dominating champion.

Sorry you are about to lose this point, courtesy of Pistol Pete.

Needing a way to excite the fans during a 1975 playoff football game against the Baltimore Colts, Cope urged fans to take yellow dish towels to the game and wave them throughout. The Steelers always seemed to complete terrific plays when the towels were waving. The Steelers won that game 28-10,

The Steelers introduced gold towels with the words “Myron Cope’s Terrible Towel” in black on them just in time for Super Bowl X. The Steelers went on to win, “thanks to the Towels.”

Life in Pittsburgh must have been absolute shit in the 1970’s huh? Like seriously what was the average IQ of the fanbase, 75? “HMMMM when we wave our shitty ass dish rags, the players play good, they must be….good luck!” Only in Pittsburgh could they come up with such an idea and have the general consensus of the population back it. I guess when the options are wave the dish rag for fun, or go get black lung in the mine its an easy choice right? Also Mr Cope, you got lucky there huh? One good game and you get all the dish rags named after you. I tired naming things after me once too. After having some good sex with a prostitute I tried to name the herpes I gave her “Yankee Guy Super Sores.” Unfortunately she wasn’t so thrilled, and the name never stuck.

Today, though, you hit the bottom of the barrel.  We already knew that you were a dirty, money-hungry, purveyor of souls; but today New Yorkers realized they like you even less than Gary Sheffield. 

Gary Sheffield of “Joe Torre is a racist” fame thinks you’re a “Bad person” and we nod and agree as though he were a college professor. Gary Sheffield who throws old ladies into moving traffic for fun, wishes he never met you!  “Shouldn’t have ever introduced myself to him,” he says, “Period. Bad person.” (NY Daily News) 

“Derek Jeter spent his last weekend of freedom before flying to Tampa for spring training just as we’d hoped he would: living it up in Hollywood, hitting up day spas — and hitting on movie stars. Mariah Carey‘s ex was seen Friday night at Villa, trying in vain to hit on Sienna Miller, an insider at the club tells PageSix.com.

Sienna was with actor Scott Speedman and a few other people, and wanted nothing to do with the pin-striped playboy. “Derek was trying to flirt with Sienna Miller but she didn’t know who he was and could have cared less,” our spy reports. “Also, he asked that people not smoke cigarettes near him.”

Hmm… so our favorite major league ladies’ man struck out. Perhaps next time he should consult the scouting reports: Sienna has a serious boyfriend, Rhys Ifans, making her just a bit of a long shot. “

I wonder if ol’ Jeets is starting to feel his age a bit.  He’s not so young anymore.  Maybe he should stick with the random sluts so he doesn’t have to worry like a bad outcome like this.  I mean the guy can definetly still pull girls.  I just think he needs to temper the ego a little bit as he isn’t young anymore at the ripe age of 34.  i mean Sienna was only like 19 when he won his last World Series!

This interaction will undoubtedly cause a mixed reactions form Yankee Girl.  Her long time favorite Yankee hitting on one of her favorite movie stars.  In case you were all unaware Yankee Girl  isn’t a fan of “Shitsburgh”  either . 

Okay I’m out.

Yankee Guy here loves everything about baseball. The nuances of each battle between pitcher and catcher the excitement of being in the crowd in the late innings and the beer and the hot dogs. Yeah I love it all. But to be honest I’d rather Yankee Girl give me an 8 hour speech on skin care products than listen to 5 more minutes of the steroid and HGH BS. Seriously tell me all about exfoliation right now rather than making me hear about Brian McNamee and Roger Clemens, I’d prefer that 100 times out of 100.

So why am I even bringing this up. Oh just because my favorite player since I’ve been 13 has a little press conference discussing his HGH use.  Now obviously I have an extremely biased position, but I think that Andy came across as honest as can be in his presser today.  He showed a ton of humility, and his basic defense behind doing it was “Hey, I am human too we all make mistakes.”  Now for me, that is all I needed to hear.   Andy is a good guy who made a mistake.  He’s a just a humble, shy, hardworking, simple guy who made an error.  Let’s be honest if I had to admit some of the worst things I have ever done, it would be a lot worse than poor Andy.  Hopefully this will end all the talk about this crap and we can worry about things like Hughes fastball, the situation at first base, and what we are going to get out of Giambi this year.

All I know is that I will be wearing my 46 jersey in March when I am down at Spring Training and on opening day.  If March rolls around and this is still a story I am going to throw my remote through the TV. We are talking about crap that happened in 2002.  The girl I was dating then made me watch “Father of the Bride” instead of a deciding World Series game.  We all made mistakes back then.

I’d rather be injected with the Ebloa Virus than listen to this crap anymore.