NEW YORK, NY – Happy Passover and/or Happy Easter! With two big holidays colliding, our rotation is all asunder. That means yours truly, who today is back to drinking, cursing and lying after 40+ days in a proverbial/figurative Lenten desert, has to toe the rubber. Yeah! Let’s get to our Easter/Passover Sports Special: Passed-Over Stars & Eggs Laid…
Passed-Over Stars
Michael Jordan
There are those that still think Sam Bowie was the right choice with the #2 pick in the 1984 draft. Those people happen to share the name Bowie. Following Houston’s pick of Akeem Olajuwan, Portland blazed a trail down a franchise-ruining path, passing on Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Ouch, babe. Samuel Paul Bowie had an injury-plagued, 10-year career with the Trailblazers, Nets and Lakers. Jordan became the NBA’s G.O.A.T.
Reginald Martinez Jackson
Does the name Steven Lynn Chilcott ring a [church] bell in your head? Probably not. Along with Brien McKeiver Taylor, he is on the short list as one of only two #1 MLB Draft picks NEVER to play in a Major League Baseball game. The catching prospect was picked by the Mets – first overall – in the 1966 draft. Chilcott proceeded to injure his throwing shoulder diving back to 2nd on a pick-off attempt in a minor league game. Would he have been any good/worthy of the pick? Only The Shadow knows. What we all know is that the Metsies passed-over Reggie Jackson to choose the Chilmeister, leaving a pock-mark on the franchise for decades. Indeed, Reggie’s (and JG Clancy’s) Oakland A’s beat the Amazin’ Mets in the ’73 World Series. NOTE: This one could easily have landed in the Eggs Laid category.
Eggs Laid
CitiField
In this category of eggs laid (epic blunders), the New York Mets make it 2-for-2 today! Take a bow, Fred Wilpon! Yes, you’ve heard me rant here before about the shrine that Wilpon built in Flushing for his long-lost Brooklyn Dodgers and the other douche-bags to abandon NYC, the NY Giants baseball team. With a chance to finally give Mets fans their own place, their own home in which to live and die with every elbow ailment, in the shadows of Yankee Stadium, the Wilpons laid the biggest of eggs. They chose to erect/punish us with a salute to the teams that ripped this city’s heart out in the cruel, stealth cover of night. This Amazin’ catastrophe is now with us, along with its Jackie Robinson Rotunda, until the next stadium replaces this one. See Friday’s column re the f***ing rotunda.
The House That Greed Built
I was at the last game of Yankee Stadium. The one across the street from the new whore emporium. I sat behind home plate, incredulous at the thought they’d actually tear that place down. Why not just pump 5oo mil and preserve the history? It made ZERO sense. As a METS FAN, I got goosebumps EVERY TIME I entered “The Stadium.” This new thing the Bronx Bombers call home is a disgrace. It nearly bothers me as much as the aforementioned Wilpon disaster – and I HATE THE YANKEES! Way to go, Stanks, your despicable, money-crazed greed wins the Eggs Laid category. Thank you.
And thank you for tuning in – hopefully this wasn’t too big an egg laid by yours humbly. Happy Easter and Happy Passover.
Feel free to chime in below and come back tomorrow for our Easter Bunny, Junoir Blaber.
