How many times in your life have these words come out of your mouth, "It seems like it was yesterday when...." Well, standing in the dugout, at Steinbrenner Field, on Opening Day of Spring Training in Tampa, Fla., summoned those words out of my pie hole. I turned to Joe Auriemma, the Godfather of YESNetwork.com, and said, "It seems like it was yesterday that we were standing at the Palace in the Bronx postgame after a Game 6 win equalled a 27th World Championship. It also feels like it as well.
Temperatures in Tampa are not very Tampa-esque. I talked to Tampa native, and Yankees fan favorite, Tino Martinez, before the game and he told me he's been wearing sweatshirts since Christmas and he can't wait to ditch the extra layers.
It is unseasonably cold, not cool, cold. The wind is whipping down here, and although our broadcast reported 55 as the game time temperature, it feels like it's about 35-40 with the wind chill. Yes, I said wind chill in Tampa.
Listen, I'm not complaining. I wouldn't trade being in Tampa covering the Yankees for anything in the world. I'm just saying, when I come to Florida, I don't expect old injuries to start acting up because of the cold weather. There I said it.
So the Yankees officially begin their title defense. Pitchers and catchers reported, then the rest of the team followed suit, now believe it or not it's the first game of Spring Training. Despite the loss of clubhouse favorite Johnny Damon, the clubhouse is brimming with enthusiasm and confidence. This is a team that lost some key players from last year's championship run, but it's also a team that added key ingredients to chase down yet another title.
I believe that would make it 28. Hey, before you know it we will could be saying, "It seems like yesterday we were freezing in Tampa, and now we're back in the World Series."
Dear Coach Ryan and the entire New York Jets team:
Over the past two weeks I have doubted all of the bravado. I scoffed at your comment coach, about how your team should have been the favorite in the "tournament." I thought you would lose to Cincinnati in Cincinnati. After that win, I thought you would lose and lose handily to the Chargers in San Diego. The Chargers were a team that won 11 games in a row and had offensive weapons of mass destruction. However, said "weapons of offensive mass destruction" never materialized. I can't remember where I've heard that before.
Anyway coach, I would just like to say from the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry. ***Shameless plug alert*** Not that you or anyone on your squad listens to the "Off the Wall" podcast here on YESnetwork.com, but just in case any of you do -- I'm sorry. I am not a man who is afraid to admit when he was wrong. The year the Giants went to the Super Bowl and beat the Patriots, no one saw that coming. I predicted the Giants to be 5-11 that year. I ate my words, literally at the end of that season. I had the record I predicted written on top of a chocolate cake. Being wrong never tasted so sweet.
Now coach it's your turn. You have one more obstacle ahead of you: Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. This is the same team that by giving up their undefeated season basically allowed you to make the playoffs. Now the pandemic of Gang Green that has spread throughout the tri-state area, will be making its way west toward Indianapolis. Not only would you have ended their bid for a perfect season, you can end their season!
How sweet would that be coach? How sweet would it be to shut everyone in this town up? Everyone who thought you didn't have a chance to win that regular season game if Mr. MVP Manning didn't exit.
The stars are aligning coach. The opportunity to be great, no, dare I say, Super, is within your grasp. You know before this past weekend, the hottest team in the playoffs was the Dallas Cowboys. Now it's your New York Jets.
A rookie coach and a rookie quarterback have a chance at immortality with just two more wins. It's been 41 years since the Jets brought legitamcy to the AFL with their only Super Bowl appearance and win. There was a leader on that team with a lot of moxy. You may remember him, Joe Namath? He too predicted the Jets would win it all. People laughed and scoffed at him. 41 years later people laughed and scoffed at your big-time bravado and your bold predictions. You've said so long to Cincinnati, you've given San Diego a Ron Burgundy send off, and now you get the chance to prove Week 16 was no fluke against the Colts. The same franchise it all started with for the Jets 41 years ago. Poetic justice? Absolutely. Go get 'em coach.
Mark McGwire came out yesterday and told us what we had known for years. This goes back to the late 1980s for crying out loud. I say this all the time. I was a sophomore in high school and my friends and I who were 15 at the time recognized McGwire and Jose Canseco were chemically enhanced. It didn't take a brain surgeon to look at McGwire's rookie card and then look at him 10 years down the road and say to yourself, "That isn't normal." Anyone who has worked out on a consistent basis knows there are some people who are naturally built and some people who've had some, cough-cough, wink-wink, help.
This admission, which we didn't really need because we all knew anyway, lends even further credence to anything that comes out of the mouth of Canseco. If you hung out with this guy at any point in your life, I would start lining up a legal team and a team of image consultants pronto.
McGwire told The Associated Press he only took steroids to recover from injury, doing it for health purposes, not strength purposes. Pardon me, but most of the stories you hear about guys taking steroids, they are taking them to get stronger and to get an edge. By the way, when you go from looking like a normal human being to looking like something Dr. Frankenstein created, you are looking to use a telephone pole as a baseball bat to crush home runs over 500 feet, not to prevent yourself from having a heart attack or come back from a heel injury.
So now the Hall of Fame discussion comes into play. Here is my answer, infinity times: NO. I am instituting the "Mattingly Rule" here. Some argue Don Mattingly isn't even close to being a candidate. There are some like myself who believe he is on the cusp. Want an argument? Two words, Kirby Puckett. That is another topic for another blog.
Here is the definition of my "Mattingly Rule." If all of these guys are using the excuse that they were using to come back from injury, then they were aided and abetted by the use of performance enhancing drugs. Donnie Baseball didn't turn to anything to enhance his brutal back situation. He had a run for six years where he was putting up Cooperstown caliber numbers, including between 1985 and 1987 where he hit 96 home runs and struck out only 114 times. Also throw in nine gold gloves, an AL batting title, an AL MVP, and six All-Star appearances.
The 1990 season is where it all started to go south with his back problems. Did Mattingly turn to PEDs to enhance his numbers? No. So how could you reward one of these cheaters, when a guy like Mattingly just succumbed to his injury the way a normal human being would?
In my book, the answer is you can't. Shame on the writers, and shame on the Hall of Fame if they ever immortalize any of these cheaters. Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa allegedly took PED's as well. Who knows if we'll ever hear from them.
So what do you do with these records that were broken? Here's a thought. Roger Maris had to deal with Ford Frick's decision to apply an asterisk to his single season record back in the Summer of '61. Now the asterisk next to his name should be defined as follows:
Single Season Home Run Leaders Barry Bonds 73 Mark McGwire 70 Roger Maris - 61* *Clean
One more for you: Career Home Run Leaders Barry Bonds 762 Hank Aaron - 755* *Clean
Excuse me Commissioner David Stern, does "Amazing" include players pulling guns on each other in an NBA locker room over a gambling debt? You all know the story by now, unless you don't like to watch TV, you don't know how to surf that super highway thingie, or hate getting ink on your fingers from reading the paper. Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton had a little dust up over Arenas' 25,000 dollar charter flight poker debt to Crittenton. Crtittenton allegedly told Arenas he wasn't "his punk" and Arenas allegedly took out a gun, in the locker room, and aimed it at his teammate. Crittenton, not to be outdone, took out his own gun and returned the aiming. They do call Arenas "Agent Zero". "007" had a gun, why not Arenas? It does give a new meaning to his position of "shooting" guard as well. Want another joke? The NBA's collective bargaining agreement allows for players to legally possess firearms, but prohibits them at league facilities or when traveling on league business! That is in the CBA?! Really?! It's not just common sense?
All kidding aside, deceased Wizards owner Abe Polan must be spinning around in his grave. This is the guy who changed the name of his franchise from the Bullets to the Wizards because he thought Bullets promoted gun violence. Apparently the Wizards themselves are promoting it now. This is just further proof that nothing is in a nickname.
Not since Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton dueled it out back on July 11, 1804, has there been such drama. The NBA, it's FANtastic. Especially for all of the young fans out there who follow every move these guys make.
Why is it always all about not being a punk? A lot of times, the crutch in this situation is the surroundings and upbringing some of these guys had to endure. I admit, my perception of their reality is a little off. Arenas was abandoned by his drug addict mother, and raised by a single father, Crittenton was raised by a single mother. My parents were there and are still there to this day. I know I can't relate to what they had to go through growing up, but there is no excuse to act the way they acted in the locker room over Christmas. These guys were blessed, and have worked hard, to play a professional sport and get paid handsomely to do it. They should stop, look in the mirror daily, and realize that they made it! They live in nice houses, they have nice cars, when they go to work, they are playing a game. When most of us go to work we are daydreaming about doing what these guys are able to do on a basketball court.
What a lot of these guys fail to realize is, they are revered, admired, and put on a pedestal by young fans all over the world. They idolize these guys, and what does this teach kids? When they are owed a dollar for borrowed lunch money and they don't get paid are they going to go to their locker and settle it by pulling a gun, because they aren't a punk?
These guys are making good money. Arenas is over 16 million a year this season and it goes up every year until the 2013-14 season where he will be banking over 22 million. Although if the Mayans are right he won't be making anything, in fact none of us will after December 21, 2012. Crittenton is making 1.5 million this season, the final year of his deal.
The investigation into this alleged incident is still ongoing. I don't know what NBA Commissioner David Stern will do when, and if its proven, but the penalty should be severe. You don't think so? If this did indeed happen, what if one of these guys actually pulled the trigger?
Hello boys and girls! Because I can't do a podcast every day (click here to listen to my Off the Wall Podcasts), and because there are things happening all the time in the world of sports, I thought it would be a great idea to do a weekly wrap up to discuss all things sports, filtered through my mind. Think of it as the sports world through Shearn-colored glasses, or think of me as a coffee filter, the grinds are my brains, and the sports news that comes in is the water being poured through said grinds.
Now that you have a good visual, we may begin.
Tiger Woods: Why does this shock people? Why is the fourth woman shocking people? Why did the first, second, or third woman shock people? This guy makes a ton of money, and he is one of the most powerful athletes on the planet. Michael Jordan once held that distinction, you think he was faithful to one woman? You think Julius Caesar was monogamous? How about John F. Kennedy? Bill Clinton? The line from Spiderman from Uncle Ben to Peter Parker needs to be amended, "With great power comes great responsibility, and a conga line of women."
Mark Mangino: The Kansas Jayhawks coach agreed to resign late last week amidst an investigation to see if he was too rough on his players. A football coach too rough on his players? A football coach getting too personal with his players? This is news? Where did these guys grow up? Why did they sign to play for Mangino? Why not transfer if he was too rough on them? He may have been a complete another word for donkey, but last time I checked football coaches get edgy sometimes. This is the product of kids growing up and always winning, even if they come in last place. As the late great George Carlin once said, "You aren't the last winner, you lost." Losing teaches you a lot of things. Trust me, I can speak from tons of experience in that department. It makes you appreciate the work you have to put in to actually win something. By the way, no one seemed to mind his coaching ways when the team went 12-1 and beat Virginia Tech in the Fiesta Bowl in 2007.
Nets first win: The New Jersey Nets finally won a basketball game. Kiki Vandeweghe took over for Lawrence Frank and will try to develop the Nets' young talent the rest of the way. Frank got a raw deal. He's a good coach and a great human being. He will land on his feet somewhere else. As for the Nets, they are headed for a lottery pick, and according to Rod Thorn they have a shot at being close to $27 million under the cap when the season ends.
Roy Halladay: The Blue Jays right-hander said he would approve a trade to the Yankees, and why not considering his former co-pilot A.J. Burnett will be sporting a very big ring with lots of diamonds in it come April. Halladay told the Jays he would not accept any trade after Spring Training starts though. Yankee fans who want Halladay at his cost need to stop the insanity. He is going to command CC Sabathia money or more and a multi-year contract. You want the Yankees to spend $23 million or more five years down the road on a 37-year-old starter? Twenty-three million? If you do, don't complain about the price for tickets. Would the Yankees be ridiculously stacked with starting pitching, YES! But at what cost? Mortgaging the future for what a guy has done in the past makes no sense. See the Don Mattingly years.
Premature Celebrations: First quarter - Cowboys vs. Giants 12:37 left - Marion Barber rushes for a first down and celebrates like he just won the Super Bowl. I have no issue with a big sack celebration to take a team out of field goal range at any point in the game. I have no problem with celebrations after first downs to seal the game. Too many times though guys, even when they are losing by 17 points, will get up after a tackle and act like they just won the game. STOP! ENOUGH! What happened to making a routine play and just acting like you've been there before. Barry Sanders, I miss you.
"Cleatus" The Fox Robot: Does FOX really need to continue with this thing? Does the NFL need to be sold by an animated graphic of a robot named Cleatus? Or can it stand on its own by the ratings it gets and the excitement that the most watched league brings to the table year in and year out? Dear Fox, Please take Cleatus out back and disassemble him. Yes that is a Short Circuit reference. Sincerely, Chris Shearn
Jersey Shore: Does it bother anyone else from New Jersey, besides me, that their is just one person on this show, just one, FROM NEW JERSEY?! Yet this is the stereotype branded onto people from New Jersey. Take a look at the cast. Take a look at where they are from. Maybe call the show the "Ferry hits the Shore" - nuff said. Thank you MTV, thank you for proving that the shore has plenty of bennies and the stereotypes could be deflected to other parts of the tri-state area.
Vantage Point: When you have a year old baby it's tough to watch movies when they come out. I wanted to see "Vantage Point" with Dennis Quaid in 2008, but couldn't get myself to the movies. Well recently, as luck would have it, during nap time, I found it on DirecTV and got the chance to check it out. Great movie. Interesting premise. Deserving of the Golden Globe for Best Thriller.
Well another week is upon us. What will transpire? What will filter through my noggin and be spit out in another Off the Wall Weekly? Tune in next week. Same Chris time, same Chris channel.
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