BRONX, NY – Autumn has officially arrived here in the Northeast, and it’s spectacular. As I say to others who reside in and around New York, “THIS, is why we live here.” With cooler temps and the corresponding explosion of leaf color come light jackets, brown liquor sipping, and just spending as much time outdoors as possible. It’s also a great time of year for sports. Along with the AL and NL championship series, you’ve also got NHL action (If you can call it that. Amirite, Rangers fans?), the start of the NBA season, and wall-to-wall college and NFL football. It’s a great time to be alive. Let’s talk about some of this stuff.
A Quick Word About the NY Giants. From OBJ to Old Man Eli, people are constantly analyzing the Giants’ myriad problems. So, I’m not gonna bother. The one thing I do find fascinating about this team though, is that ownership seems to have an interesting policy when it comes to hiring head coaches. Basically, it seems like one of their main prerequisites for the job is that the coach either look Irish or have an Irish-sounding name. So, hiring Tom Coughlin was like hitting the Daily Double. Anyway, new HC Pat Shurmur definitely fits the mold. Not sure what else he’s bringing to the party.
Baseball Playoffs. Usually I check out of baseball after any of the teams I remotely care about (and that definitely includes the Yankees), get eliminated. But these teams that are left in this year’s NLCS and ALCS are friggin’ entertaining, and all very different. I’d say the Astros and Brewers are probably slightly better than the Red Sox and Dodgers, respectively, but you know which World Series matchup the suits at MLB wanna see. I kinda do too. I’m in a crappy postseason contest with thousands of other people where you pick five postseason hitters, and the person who’s group of five has the most combined hits and the end of the post season wins a couple of thousand bucks. My five are all on the Sox and Dodgers and I’m only 5 hits off the lead. So let’s go Mookie Betts and Manny Machado and JD Martinez and Justin Turner and Xander Bogaerts!
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Tyreek the Freak. The new poster boy for the NFL is Kansas City Chiefs QB Pat Mahomes. As the hot young gunslinger playing the most high-profile position on the field, you can see why. But a huge part of his early success have been his explosive running back, his All-Pro TE and his receivers, particularly Tyreek Hill. If you haven’t seen this guy, you probably don’t follow football, because he’s a one-man highlight reel. At 5′ 10″ he’s undersized as far as NFL receivers go, but once he gets the ball in his hands, he’s virtually unstoppable. The guy scores ridiculously long touchdowns (including in the return game) from all over the field. The minute the ball touches his hands, the only chance the defense has is to turn and run as fast as they can in the other direction. Trying to take an angle on this guy is a lost cause. I’ve yet to see him take a huge hit. He could wreck some records if this keeps up. I’m not ready to call Mahomes to Hill anything like Montana to Rice, but so far it’s just as amazing to watch.
NHL Question. I’ll leave the hockey prognostications and analysis to our resident puckheads, Different Matt (preaching pucks, right)
and Cheesy Bruin (relieving himself, left), but I do have one question. Why are the Arizona Coyotes still and NHL team? Haven’t they sucked for an eternity. Do people in Arizona really give a rat’s ass about hockey? Contract this team right frogging now! It’s a blight on the frozen landscape.
OK, that’s all for this week. I’m not sure if DJ Eberle is writing something tomorrow but, if he does, it will probably be something controversial like “The Yankees should get Manny Machado AND Bryce Harper“ or “Nathan Peterman can flourish in the right system, especially if he joins Mike D’Antoni and Carmelo in Houston.”
