BRONX, NY – Welcome to the middle of the totally unofficial last week of summer. I sincerely hope everyone got out there and made the best of it. I saw a few ballgames, caught up with some friends I hadn’t seen in a while, had a full week of alone time (which I’m no longer GOOD at), and spent so much time at the pool I developed webbed feet and will be smelling like chlorine up until Christmas. But, hey, let’s talk some sports as we transition into the most wonderful season of all, Autumn.
BaBaez Booey. So much was made of the Mets’ Javy Baez/Francisco Lindor/Kevin Pillar anti-booing thumbs-down brigade this week, that I hesitate to address it at all. On the one side you had the players and their supporters fed up with all of the negativism, which was kinda silly. And on the other side you had all the pearl-clutching executive types and their supporters who think it’s a mortal sin to bad mouth the fans. Honestly, they all kinda looked like dopes. Rather than dissecting here, I’d like to direct your attention to a pretty perfect piece Will Leitch wrote for New York Magazine. Even though he’s a Cards fan, I think he kinda nailed it.
Are You Ready for Some Football? Yesterday Ben Whitney laid out a best/worst case scenario for the New York Football Giants and New York Alcoholic Jets. *Spoiler Alert* Worst case scenarios for both. Same for my Vikings. They have talent but you can’t overcome stupidity from the top. They just signed safety Harrison Smith to a nice big four-year extension. The same Harrison Smith who is now 32 and three years ago could not cover or tackle anyone in a blowout NFC Championship loss to eventual SB Champ Philadelphia. Smooth move. Let’s talk positives though… The Cowboys are most likely gonna suck. You cannot overcome a coach like Mike McCarthy. If you feel bad for the people of Buffalo, which almost everyone does, the Bills are a legit Super Bowl contender. There’s also an extra game this year! More money for the cash-strapped whiteboy owners, one more lousy Thursday Night game, and one more opportunity for Kirk Cousins to contract #Covid. So much to root for!
Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants. I swear, every time I look at the standings I think of one of my favorite lines from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: “Who are those guys?” The frogging Yankees rattled off a whopping 13-game winning streak and, as of this writing, are STILL 7 games behind the Rays. The Giants are up a game and a half on the highest payroll in baseball in the Dodgers and are 14.5 up on the Padres, another free-spending team. Hard not to root for these clubs, even though Tampa Bay plays in the worst stadium in the worst city on Earth.
Okay, that’s close enough to 500 words, I guess. Guess I’ll have to save my scathing U.S. Open Tennis takes until next week. Come back tomorrow for everyone’s buddy, Buddy Diaz.
