Sports Links 05.12.08

And a wholly unnecessary Emanuelle Chriqui photo.

+ Lenny Dykstra’s high end mag for pro athletes is stuck in legal/ monetary disputes, as former Ram defensive back Ryan McNeil’s is. That “Nails never fails” article in the New Yorker is getting old already. Move it to the “fiction” section, people.

+ More of a peek into the private life of Marvin Harrison after the shooting near a bar that he owns.

+ Mike D’Antoni is the Knicks coach! Holy Crapcakes!

The beauty of NYC is such that the first article I read is “Bringing in Mike D’Antoni wrong move for the Knicks“. And it may be true, if only for the dead wood on the roster that needs to be dumped. This article is a little wrong though; the roster is missing a credible point guard, for certain, but the idea that the Suns put up good shots all the time because of their IQ is questionable. Their speed and spacing allowed them to get good looks early in the offense, and unlike other basketball coaches, D’Antoni has no problem with early shots. Jamal Crawford loves to take jumpers with 20 seconds left on the shot clock! He’ll be a freaking natural! (I’m not joking. I actually think that Nate Robinson and Crawford might be good in this system. Starbury, however, needs to be bought out.)

Though D’Antoni would have KILLED with the Bulls’ roster, no doubt. But they would never play defense, and GM Paxson wanted assurances that there would be defense played at the United Center.

+ Yesterday I glanced at the score of the Mets game and.. what the hot hell? It’s Oliver Perez’ good day! Which ended with a bad hiccup. From the Journal News:

The unsolved mystery that is Oliver Perez was back on display yesterday at Shea Stadium. There he was, sweeping breaking balls past the lefty bats of Adam Dunn and Joey Votto. There he was firing five innings of one-hit ball. Yet there he was giving up three runs in the sixth.

Suddenly, it was a Day at the Improv. He dropped his arm lower, trying to change speeds because he was tiring. It turned out to be a wild pitch, skipping past Brian Schneider to allow one of the runs to score. Perez also surprised the Reds with a bunt single. Before that, he walked and stole second.

“How crazy are you, Ollie?” manager Willie Randolph playfully asked, turning toward the 26-year-old lefty entering the interview room. “Do you have a full deck? They want to know. Inquiring minds want to know. I’ll take you anyway. I’ll tell you what, you can play on my team any day.”

Perez is good. Perez is bad. Sometimes in the same game. Good luck predicting the unpredictable. But after throwing three straight losing duds, the Mets will take the three-run, three-hit, eight-strikeout, four-walk, one-hit-batter work he gave them over six innings in beating Cincinnati 8-3 in the rubber game of the series.

+ Meanwhile, like me, Mets’ minor leaguer Fernando Martinez is allergic to lobster.

+ Uni Watch has lots of the Mother’s Day pink paraphernalia that MLB players and umps rocked.

+ Cablevision is buying Newsday? Isn’t there a limit to local media synergies? I guess not.

Will Long Island become one giant Cablevision bubble, where Jim Dolan is a cuddly teddy bear and the Knicks are everyone’s favorite? If I want to reach Long Island… will I have to go through Dolan? Will he manage Long Island’s media future?

+ The Devil Rays are winning baseball games? What is this world coming to?

+ Florida State player plans to play all 9 positions in today’s game. If the game goes extra innings, he should offer to umpire the game, just to add another layer of gimmick.

+ The 4 armed robbers accused of killing safety Sean Taylor will not face the death penalty.

+ One Droo Hill makes edits to the United Countries of Baseball region map, which was perhaps influenced by this unscientific but interesting attempt from 2007. The map does not reflect certain sports teams that roll deep in every city they go to like the Yank-These and Mets.

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Willie Randolph In Trouble?

The team is 71-71 since last June 1st and the management plans to sit down and evaluate Randolph’s performance at the end of the month. I am sure other teams do that, but ownership might just have a quibble. From Dan Graziano’s article at the Star-Ledger:

Where Randolph comes up short is in his failure to recognize what kind of team he has and manage accordingly. Randolph is a decent man who cares deeply about his team and his job and believes strongly in himself. But he’s also stubborn, and that’s what has him in trouble.

Randolph came from the Yankees, where the championship teams of the late ’70s and the late ’90s were packed with hard-nosed winners. He believes he shouldn’t need to motivate or fire up big-league players, because his teams never needed that.

In principle, he’s right. He shouldn’t need to remind major-league players that it’s important to raise their games in big spots, or not to take games or at-bats off.

But unfortunately for Randolph, his players are soft. His players are the types who don’t raise their games in big spots, who do take at-bats off. His players coast through long stretches of the season, assuming their talent will carry them through without any extra effort or emotion on their part. His players are not self-motivators, and they are a group that might respond well to being scared every now and then.

That’s not to say they need a Larry Bowa/Lou Piniella type of screamer. “Scaring” players like this would be as simple as letting them know their playing time isn’t guaranteed — that a long, languid slump by the $17 million-a-year center fielder isn’t going to be tolerated when there’s a hungry, energetic Angel Pagan around to man the position while Carlos Beltran gets his head together on the bench.

Randolph doesn’t do that. He does what Joe Torre used to do when his veteran players slumped. He tells them he believes in them and will stick by them until they come out of it.

But in the case of these particular Mets, it doesn’t work. These Mets get too comfortable. They can keep mailing it in at no threat to themselves or their lifestyle. You went 0-for-5 again, Carlos? No problem. You’ll be back in there tomorrow, have no fear. We’ll never embarrass you.

By now — after the playoff flop of 2006, the historic meltdown of ‘07 and the sleepy start to ‘08 — Randolph should understand this, and he should be doing something about it. He is not.

But does scaring players with the threat of losing playing time work? Or does it alienate the player? I hate watching Carlos Beltran’s at bats as much as anyone, but playing time is a blunt instrument to effect change. I think Beltran might be served by taking fewer stinking pitches, myself. How does one build the desire to get pissed off at each failed at bat like Paul O’Neill? And do the Mets want players that tightly wound?

Don’t get me wrong, I think Willie needs to do something more than sitting back in the cut. or the dugout, as it were.

This weekend: The Cincinnati Reds. Analysis here from Amazin’ Avenue.

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Mets 11, Dodgers In Hiding

The Mets are out in LA taking out some frustrations on Brad Penny, Joe Torre and their mediocre record. David Wright is the only regular who hasn’t crossed the plate, including starting pitcher John Maine, who knocked in 2 runs and is working on a 1 2 hitter in the 5th.

Links - A Slow St John’s News Day

We must be close to summer. Not so much to blog about.

* Did Paul Pierce throw up an LA gang sign or a Boston hood sign?

“Those of us from L.A. know that Paul Pierce went to Inglewood High, and we also know that means that B probably didn’t stand for Boston,” writes the Fourth Quarter blog.

Bostonians have another answer, whether it be accurate information or convenient homerism defending the Celtics star. “Paul was simply throwin his ‘3’s up’ - i.e. reppin Boston,” writes Sons of Sam Horn poster “Brookliner.” “Not reppin the bloods, not Ingelwood, not calling Horford names. I know most of us are ‘from Boston’, but nobody living in the ‘burbs will be familiar with the practice. The whole ‘3’s up’ thing is used by kids from the hood to rep Boston - simple as that.”

Indeed, an entry in Urban Dictionary defines “Throw them threes up,” as “a hand symbol representing Boston,” likely derived from the song, “3’s Up,” by local rap artist Stein. Ironically enough, another local artist, Benzino, lays claim to the song, “Throw Them 3’s.” It was Benzino bodyguard Trevor Watson who was convicted of stabbing Pierce in 2000.

* Karl Malone… you knocked up a 13 year old back in the day? Whoo-eee, Louisiana rolls dirty. The resulting child is Demetrius Bell, a draft pick of the Buffalo Bills. Even at age 20 and in college… that’s some ill sh*t.

* Speaking of drafts, here is an early peek at what the New York Jets will look like next year as the offensive line spending spree is designed to afford the skill position players more opportunities.

* As a fantasy owner, Yovani Gallardo-NOOOOOO! Not the ACL!

“Gallardo is probably out for the season, meaning you can drop him in all seasonal leagues. No chance he comes back and is effective this year after that type of injury, especially when you consider that he will likely have two surgeries — one on each knee — within the course of two months.”

* Dwyane Wade gets roasted for hanging out with Star Jones.

“Are y’all close friends?” [TNT's Kenny] Smith asked.

“We’re good friends,” Wade responded.

“Are you the kind of friends that drink out of one cup with two straws?” Smith persisted.

Even if Wade is doing some dirt behind his wife’s back… I think he can get someone less cougar-esque.

* Eli Holman - way to counteract talk that you’re a headcase (or “volatile” or “emotional” or any of those other euphemisms for “we don’t know wtf he might do”) with a temper tantrum as you announce your transfer from the Indiana basketball program. I smell junior college for you.

About Those Cubs Games…

The Mets came to town with a chance to once more let Chicago know they’re really the third or maybe fourth city by any metric, and get pasted, 7-1 last Monday and 8-1 Tuesday afternoon. I went to Monday’s game, though I didn’t meet up with the other Met fans here. Tuesday I had a chance for a free ticket but I decided not to take it (and get “sick” at work). Better that way. Grand slams by the other team make me ill.

Joe Smith let the fans know he’s got a special kind of heckling love for them, courtesy of the Home Run Derby blog.

We made fun of the Cubs fans too, what with their affinity for calling their team the “Cubbies”*, the jerks behind who were chanting Fukudome’s name as broken up in the most Americanized/ text-message language/ and puerile way, and the “Any Team Can Have a Bad Century” t-shirt I saw.

Lovable losers, indeed.

*My fiancee retorted with “Cubbies? Are we in kindergarten? I left my jacket and my bag in my CUBBIE! Waaaah!”

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reyes was safe (picture)

Mets (Last) Home Opener (At Shea)

Loss, 5-2, at the hands of the Phils. In the words of MetsGeek:

Last Shea opener
Brings back all our memories
Sadly, of last year

LOL! Land O’Lakes Park

This post is intended to both give exposure to the hilarity that is the Minnesota Twins possible new park name, and to show how the news media can get away with NOT crediting a blogger whose hard work brought the story to light.

My friend Carter Hayes posted this at SBG Nation:

Very early Tuesday morning I was avoiding coursework and shoveling out from the 400+ new posts in my Google Reader. As I skimmed through my baseball feeds I came across this post on Twins Ballpark 2010 which, in part, re-opened speculation about the naming rights for the new ballpark. That post got me poking around on the web, checking out the domain availability of my favorite potential names for the new place. Lo and behold, I came across the following nugget: the top-level domains www.landolakespark.com and www.landolakesfield.com have been purchased by the Minnesota Twins. According to my WHOIS searches (see graphics below), club itself is the Registrant and the technical contact given for the domain is John Avenson, the Twins’ Vice President of Technology.

Which became the lead on the local myFox 9 Minneapolis news. The article gives no credit and no link:

The Twins have already purchased a few domain names that could indicate where the name is swaying.

In February, a blogger found that Land O’Lakes Park dot com and Land O’Lakes Field dot come were taken by the Twins.

myFox 9 News, you officially get a Bag of Dicks.

The photo here? It’s from myFox Twin Cities. But really, go back and read Carter Hayes’ post and think about the commenter who thinks the team should invest in cheerleaders (gonna be great in April, they’ll be in coats!) called the LOLCats.

Pedro’s First Innings of the Year as a Met - Ouch!

From the AP:

Robert Andino’s first career home run with two outs in the 10th inning gave the Florida Marlins a 5-4 win over the Mets on Tuesday night after Martinez departed with a leg injury.

Already coming off two injury-plagued seasons, Martinez limped away with a strained left hamstring in the fourth inning, after just 57 pitches.

“He said he felt kind of a pop,” Mets manager Willie Randolph said.

Martinez, who was not available for comment, will fly back to New York on Wednesday for an MRI exam.

What happens next and aftermath? Read this post by Eric at Amazin’ Avenue.

And from Filip Bondy of the NY Daily News:

Just like that, the Mets’ rotation is unsettled, and the season appears as fragile as Martinez’s delicate tendons. Pedro and El Duque may be both endearing and enduring, but they are acting their ages, which is not a good thing.

Martinez was hurt throwing a pitch that resulted in a groundout by Matt Treanor to third. Long before that, however, he had provided reason for concern. Too many of his softer pitches were too straight and sailed right smack down the middle. He was hammered for two homers and four runs in the first two innings. He was the anti-Pedro, throwing baseballs in the wrong places at all the wrong times, taking forever to work through a weak lineup of Marlins.

My reaction: AAARRRRRGGGHHHHH. The whole Met roster is held together by nearly broken tendons and baling wire, and we all know it; having a team this old never bodes well, and the backup plans just don’t exist with Pelfrey already in the rotation, El Duque trying to get the doctors to roll back his odometer, and other possible pitchers in the Twins organization (but hell, I’ll take Johan over them any day). There is an organizational inability to stockpile capable pitchers at the AAA level… but we will see how this plays out, like Willie says.

phillies begin their nl east title defense…

…with a loss.

if tom gordon’s e.r.a. (135.00) was a bowling score, it’d be mediocre, a nice warmup game maybe, however, this is baseball and not bowling. so begins another season of reaching for the whiskey bottle everytime flash takes the mound.