(Long Island, NY) Well, the big game is approaching. Break out the junk food and cold beverages for another Super Sunday. Too bad the real football fans and the players have to take a back seat to rock stars performing a ridiculously long halftime concert, a bunch of stupid commercials, and pool boxes being cared about more than who won. What happened to the marching bands? Now we get Brittney Spears doing a duet with Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, wardrobe malfunctions and who knows what’s next. Believe me I enjoy Mick and Stephen Tyler when I want to hear some good rock. But I don’t like mixing my stuff up like that. It’s like watching a pick-up game on stage at the Garden in between acts at a concert. It just does not belong. The Seahawks and Steelers are 2 really good football teams that will be overshadowed by amplifiers, strobe lights and smoke machines…..
New stadium ideas are chic these days. We have the Mets planning a retro style with a rotunda to emulate Ebbet’s Field, the Yankees with a front that reminds us of the pre-furbished legitimate ‘house that Ruth built’, the Nets with an idea to bring the team back to New York (Brooklyn to be exact), the Devils in a new joint in Jersey, the Islanders hoping for any of the following: a refurbished Nassau Coliseum, a new Nassau Coliseum, or a new Suffolk Coliseum. And let’s not forget the new Giants Stadium out in Jersey after Woody had his West side dreams shattered and now he’s going in ‘halfsies’ with the G-Men to play second-banana once again to another team.
All of these ideas sound and look great in those neat little models. But I’ll believe it when I can fit in the seats and not one of my kid’s toy soldiers…..Hey, did Pay-Rod make up his mind yet if he’s playing in the World Baseball Classic, or who he’s playing for? The saga was dragged out for so long my disinterest took on a lifelessness of its own…..
Speaking of the WBC, I hear now that Barry Bonds is pulling out. I’m sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the Olympic drug tests that will be administered to all the participants. Mere coincidence, don’t you agree?…..How ’bout them Cowboys. They re-upped the Tuna’s contract only to set themselves up to be left standing at the altar just as he’s done to every team that he’s coached….. When will ‘The Poker Channel’ be launched so they could stop taking up valuable time on sports networks with card games? All of those loyal followers can have 24/7 excitement of hoping that fat guy with the cowboy hat draws an inside straight…..Isn’t that Coors Light commercial mixing in the old Super Bowl film clips great? I like it so much that I promise not to group it with the ‘stupid commercials’ when they show it during the Super Bowl…..
Who else out there misses Mike Piazza already?….. Anna Benson- we hardly knew ‘ya. Best of luck in your “career”, whatever it may be…..We finally got to see Rick Peterson during the Mets winter caravan without his warm up jacket on and the collar turned up. Hey Rick, it was cold outside and no one would have chastised you, unlike we do in the sweltering August heat…..By the way, Rick (” I knew there was a by-the-way in there somewhere Alice!”- R.K.) your 10 minutes is up with Zambrano. Let’s just admit it was mistake and trade this guy for that bag of used batting practice balls already…..Memo to Mike and the Mad Dog: I love your show and have listened religiously since the beginning. But I know I’m not the only one reaching for the dial to switch to ESPN Radio when the two of you start playing that ‘guess the ratings’ game…..Too bad WFAN lost the Jets. They could have had the monopoly on all the New Jersey teams i.e. 🙂 Nets, Devils, Giants and Jets. Well excuse me for being geographically correct…..I love Joe B. in the mid-days on the ‘FAN. I think that he can handle the chores solo just fine as he did for us on the overnights. But I have to admit that I miss the way Sid and Joe did the show together…..Boy, Cold Spring Harbor’s Wally Szczerbiak would have looked so much better in orange and blue than he does in green and white…..And speaking of that trade, the T’wolves were so desperate to rid themselves of Michael Olowokandi-a** that they parted with their second best player just to do so in return for not a heck of a lot…..Kudos to the Los Angeles Clips for letting the Kandy Man walk when his contract was up. All-time cheapskate owner Donald Sterling could have just resigned him to fend off some criticism because the guy was an overall number 1 pick and had a half-way decent walk year. But he did the right thing by closing his wallet for once…..Watching the Knicks get taken to school by the Pistons recently at the Garden with them running around aimlessly reminded me of Ken Reeves’ first practice at Carver in the pilot episode of “The White Shadow”…..There was one difference. Salami had better moves than a lot of the Knicks…..’Hoosiers’ is such a great movie. I just had to say that…..Davey Johnson had his Rolaids. Jeff Van Gundy has his Diet Coke…..
Speaking of the Van Gundy’s, I am reminded of that certain film star Ron Jeremy every time I see brother Stan…..I hate the 3 man booth….. Last Call: Here’s to a memorable year in college football. A great regular season followed by some classic bowl games. Things got back to the way they ought to be with Notre Dame and Mr. Paterno. And we saw a ‘one for the ages’ championship game called by the one-and-only Keith Jackson. Salute’, fellas. “Take us out of orbit, Mr. Chekhov”.
