My Two Cents Worth III

As far as I'm concerned this year's NBA playoffs are very similar to College Football's Bowl games. While an individual series may have some excitement and drama, there are only two teams who have a chance at winning a championship. If the Lakers and Cavaliers are not there when the conferences are decided it will be a major upset.

Give the Jets and Mike Tannenbaum credit for getting Mark Sanchez. They wanted Sanchez from the start, and had the conviction to do whatever it takes to bring him in. Now, they have to hope they turn out to be right about the Q.B. or Tannenbaum will be looking for a job.

I'm a bit disappointed that the Giants didn't end up with Anquan Boldin. I hope the reason they didn't pull the trigger has to do with the salary cap and not the Draft picks. Receiver is the only glaring weakness on the team, a third round pick wouldn't mean a whole lot for a team with that much talent.

With that said the first pick of WR Hakeem Nicks is a good one. Eli Manning is not exactly the most accurate thrower, and needs someone who can catch the ball even if it's not between the numbers. Hicks has huge hands - glove size of 4XL - so he can reach out and catch anything in the vicinity.

Apparently the Mets' issues from last year had nothing to do with the Manager or Stadium. As a club they still can't hit with runners-in-scoring position, and the starting rotation has one reliable pitcher in Johan Santana.

There have been an unusual amount of home runs hit to right field in the new Yankees stadium, and many people have been screaming and yelling "how could the Yankees let this happen." Will everyone please calm down. Number one we only have a week to judge by. Two if it is a long term issue don't you think the team will do something to cut down on the wind in that direction. What does need to be fixed is the fact that the fans sit right up on the wall and can easily interfere with a ball still in play.

As far as the Yankees on the field are concerned, the team will go as far as the pitching carries them - A-Rod or no A-Rod. Both the starting and relief pitching have been terribly inconsistent. Brian Bruney going on the DL is going to hurt. And no, there is still no reason to be worried about Mariano.

The Devils and Hurricanes are going to Game 7 which is exactly where the series belongs. It has been such an even match-up and both goalies have been so good, it would have been a shame had this series not gone the distance.

However, Game 7 is not where the Rangers should be. With a 3 games to 1 lead, the team has been flat for games five and six. This has been a one man team all year, if Henrik Lundqvist is on top of his game there is a chance otherwise it is all but an automatic L.

Is John Tortorella the epitome of do what I say not what I do? Torts benches Sean Avery for Friday night's game for being undisciplined, sure enough in the third period of that game the coach squirts a fan with water and then throws a bottle into the stands. The NHL suspended him for game 6 and rightly so, no league can afford its players, coaches etc. to interact with fans that way. We have all seen what happens when it gets out of hand.

My Two Cents Worth II

March Madness may very well be the best sports tournament we have in this country. 65 teams insure that big parts of America are involved, it's win or go home so there's drama in every game, and when it's all over there won't be any debate as to whether there should be a shared championship.

The six overtime game between Syracuse and UConn was an all time classic. It was not a "great game" because after the third extra session the teams were so drained that the quality of play fell off, but as far as effort is concerned, we may never see a game where so much was left out on the court. Special mention to Jonny Flynn who played an incredible 67 out of 70 minutes.

As a die hard Yankee fan who can't stand A-Rod, the dream for this season is that the hip doesn't heal properly and he's out for the season. With a replacement third baseman the Yankees get back to their old ways of playing baseball, winning with pitching, defense and timely hitting. And when the team celebrates the first World Series title in the new stadium, A-Rod is left watching it on TV somewhere.

For those of you who only follow the N.H.L. once the playoffs start, you can start a little earlier this season. There are so many teams who still have a shot at making the postseason, and so much riding on each game, that it's hard to tell that it's still the regular season. Emotions are at playoff levels, so should your interest.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the N.B.A., while there is a race for the eighth spot in the eastern conference, it's more of a battle of futility, as all the teams battling for the final seed are well under .500. And to be honest you can probably tune out pro basketball for quite some time, as there shouldn't be a whole lot of doubt in the western conference as Kobe and the Lakers run away with it. And in the East the drama will begin in the conference finals as the Celtics go up against the Cavaliers.

Does anyone really care about the World Baseball Classic. Let's be fair any sporting event that has a mercy rule is a joke. The teams get together about a week before they start playing games, the players are not in game shape and there is a pitch count that pitchers cannot cross. The problem is that there is no better time to have it, pitchers log too many innings during the course of a season to play it in November.

The thing that upsets me most about the current President is not his policies per se, it's the fact that most of his idea's were tried before and have proven to be ineffective. What kind of arrogance does it take to see something fail time and time again but still believe that you can do it the right way. Government run health care, and significant government involvement in the economy has been a major disappointment wherever it was tried, I'm not ready to say that Mr. Obama has the special formula to make them work.