Thursday, December 8, 2011

Movies, Chinese Food, and most importantly, BASKETBALL

This Christmas will be the best one ever.

Needless to say, I am THRILLED about the return of the NBA. The labor situation was really looking bleak and I was very nervous that basketball season was a lost cause. I remember the 2004-2005 NHL lockout and the dip in fan interest and league success that followed. It really would have been such a shame to lose the NBA season coming off such a phenomenal and exciting one (one of the most exciting seasons in years, in my opinion). To lose all that was gained this past year would not be good for the future of professional basketball. From a personal standpoint as a full-time sports fan, it's always tough when the baseball season ends since football games are only a few times a week. Basketball fills that void and provides the excitement, drama, and heartbreak that us sports fans live for. It would have been a sad, sad winter without the NBA.

Thankfully, owners and players learned to compromise, and did so with enough time to squeeze in a 66-game schedule. The market is as busy as ever right now as players, agents, and teams are frantically looking to make deals in this crunched period of time before the season. Can't think of a better way to hype up basketball fans for an great season soon to come.

Can't wait for 5 back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back basketball games starting with Celtics at the Garden. LET'S GO KNICKS!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

My team's color isn't pink.

There are few things that bother me more than pink hats. Now, I'm not referring to the breast cancer awareness stuff or the Victoria's Secret clothes. I'm talking about the pink team logo hats scattered throughout the crowd at every sporting event in America. Coming from a woman's perspective, this clearly isn't a sexist knock on women at games, since, of course, I am one of them. HOWEVER, I am not one that will ever be found in a pink hat.

Wearing a pink hat is a red flag to the common sports fan, and the connotation is not positive. The highest rated definition of "pink hat" from urbandictionary reads as follows:

An overzealous, bandwagoner typically female fan of a recently successful local pro sports franchise. Characterized by the brand spanking new officially licensed pink team hat. Typically spends majority of game chatting on cell phone, waving to tv camera, asking idiotic questions & being a stupid annoying nuisance in general.

By wearing a pink hat, you're essentially acknowledging the fact that you are wearing it because your husband/boyfriend is a fan or because being a fan is "trendy" (something of that sort) and you don't actually know anything about the team.

Now, I understand why the pink hats are made. Most women like the color pink, a girl at a game would be drawn to the pink hat and a man would think of it as a nice gift for his wife/daughter/etc. There's no doubt that the items sell. However, I think the pink hats conflict with the brand. That might seem like a silly thing to say, but there's no doubting the role color plays in brand recognition. When you see a robins egg blue jewelry box, you know its from Tiffany's. It's so recognizable that the "Tiffany & Co" on the box is really unnecessary. Team colors are vital to the image and recognition of the team brand. When you see a shamrock green jersey, you can immediately identify it as a Celtics jersey without even seeing the logo. Picture that shamrock green jersey in your mind, and now make it pink. Taking away the team colors eliminates a very important aspect of a team's image and brand.

Personally, you will never find me wearing a pink hat. There's a reason my football team is often referred to as "Big Blue" and not "Big Pink". Pink is not a team color, so wearing it does not best represent the team.

You can color me a more serious fan.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

MLB 2011: Epic Beyond Measurable Proportions

I've been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to write this blog post but I'm truly at a loss for words. I think that speechlessness accurately expresses what I witnessed last night. Mind blowing. The best night of baseball I've ever seen, and I don't think I'll see anything quite like it ever again.

The collapses of the Boston Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves are unprecedented. No team in MLB history has blown a 9-game lead in the month of September, and on September 28, 2011 TWO teams did just that. Now, it's no secret that I am a diehard Yankees fan to the maximum, you won't find a bigger fan. So needless to say, I wanted to the Red Sox to lose. In fact, I found myself in the interesting position of very badly wanting the Yankees to lose (if Mark Teixeira doesn't hit in the ALDS, I might lose my mind). But this is beyond just my own personal satisfaction with the epic demise of my least favorite team in sports. Objectively, as a baseball fan, this was the best night of baseball I have ever watched.

The Rays were down 7-0 and I'm thinking, the Orioles have to come back or the Sox are the AL Wild Card. As much as I wanted the Rays to come back, I didn't even consider that to be possible. Allow me to go on a tangent, but the Yankees by no means surrendered this game-- I WISH THEY DID! The criticism I've heard about the Yankees not playing their starters into extra-innings two days before the ALDS is simply unfair. The Yankees had a 7-0 lead in a game that meant nothing to them and were starting the playoffs two days later, not to mention they hadn't had a day off in two weeks. Girardi brought in two relievers, Luis Ayala and Cory Wade, with sub-2.00 ERA's going into last night's game, two relievers that will be on the postseason roster, and it was those two relievers who gave up the runs that put the Rays back in the game. So as much as the Yankees may dislike the Red Sox, this game was by no means thrown.

I can only imagine how the Red Sox felt, watching the Rays comeback just minutes before taking the field again after a rain delay in Baltimore, with a 3-2 Sox lead in the 7th inning. The rest goes something like this: Papelbon struck out the first two batters, followed by two doubles to tie the game, and a single by Robert Andino that Boston's $142 million dollar left fielder Carl Crawford couldn't come up with. Just minutes later the Red Sox, in their clubhouse, watched Evan Longoria's second home run of the game hook inside the left-field foul pole for the walk-off win that ended the Red Sox 2011 season and completed arguably the worst collapse in baseball history.

My final point of all this: MLB is seeking to add a second wild card to each league. With this addition, this night would have never happened. The Red Sox, Rays, Braves, and Cardinals would be lining their players up in preparation for a one-game playoff and the incredible 162nd games of the 2011 season would have been absolutely meaningless.

POSTSEASON BASEBALL HERE WE COME!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Football days are here again

After a long CBA-filled offseason, the NFL is finally back in action, and Week 1 certainly wasn't lacking in the drama department. While I love a good defensive battle, I think Thursday's opening game was exactly what us football fans were looking for. Super Bowl MVP Quarterback vs. Super Bowl MVP Quarterback.. is it really shocking that the score reached a 76 point total?! And with the final play at the goal line, you couldn't have written a much better script to launch the NFL season.

Unfortunately, Week 1 didn't leave me with much to smile about. I spent all offseason trying to forget about the Giants late season collapse, fighting to erase that ice cold December 19th game from my memory. The Giants floundered in the offseason, failing to resign TE Kevin Boss and WR Steve Smith--2 of Eli's favorite targets--not to mention the DELUGE of injuries during preseason that left the Giants looking rather limp. But the team still has many strong points, strong enough to beat the Redskins right? Wrong. The Giants depleted defense looked lost, making Rex Grossman look like a good quarterback (let's be real, he's not). And while the offense looked promising to start the game, they quickly declined as the Redskins defense simply owned them.

While the eventual returns of star defensive ends Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora should ignite the D, this performance from Big Blue making it very difficult for us Giants fans to be optimistic. Here's to hoping they'll prove me wrong!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Jeter's Return

I've observed over the last 24 hours, the Yankee Twitterverse has been hyper critical of #2 and I am struggling to understand it. Without even touching on what he's done for the franchise throughout his career (which is A LOT), why is the guy getting criticized after one game off the DL?? My dad and I strategically purchased tickets to the Yankees last game before the All-Star break hoping to see the big DJ3K, with the assumption that it might take Jeet a couple days to get back into the swing of things, pun intended. He had only 2 rehab games after a calf injury.. not saying it wasn't enough, but I certainly wasn't expecting a 4-4 performance fresh off the DL. And I know there are solid arguments that can be made for why Jeter should be moved down in the batting order,  but honestly, do you really think it would make a huge difference one way or the other? I personally don't think so.

Maybe I'm biased because of my extreme loyalty to my hero, but I think last night's game was lost because of AJ being AJ, not Jeter leading off.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Stat & Melo

NBA playoffs, this is new territory for me. I don’t remember the last time I watched the playoffs with real rooting interest. The addition of Amare Stoudemire (M.O.T.) caught my interest and the team began the season looking semi-competitive. With the mid-season addition of Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks now have a foundation of 2 real stars to build off of.. and don’t count out my boys Landry and Toney (and Chauncey’s not chopped liver either!). They actually have a real shot to pull a big upset and make it through the first round—after all, beating Boston isn’t an unusual occurrence in the Big Apple. But whether they survive the first round or not, this team has a future and I’m looking forward to see what’s yet to come for my Knickerbockers. NYC BASKETBALL IS HERE TO STAY!


One of these things is not like the others.

7pm Sunday night. Think Spike is making the trip up to Boston?

ps. The Red Sox are 2-10. I know we’re talking basketball but it just had to be said.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The day I met the guy who runs the Yanks.

I walked into the back room at WFAN's Breakfast with a Champion event when an average-height, middle aged man with big blue eyes shook my hand and said, "Hi, Brian Cashman."  ...as if he needed any introduction. A surreal moment, shaking hands with the man who is not only a hero of mine but has probably shaken the hands of all of my heros when welcoming them to the greatest franchise in the history of sports.

Brian Cashman and I
You would expect a Yankees executive to be rather intimidating and standoffish, but Brian was nothing of the sort. He was extremely friendly, kind, funny, and honest. Cashman passed around his STUNNING 2009 World Championship ring, took pictures, and shared many different stories with us in those 30 minutes in the back room, from memories of George to thoughts of the players to the jokes he likes to tell his kids. (He didn't seem to be such a fan of Kei Igawa--I don't blame him.) During the event, Cash and Mike Francesa discussed many different aspects of the Yankees. He was very honest the entire time, and even though it may have gotten him in a bit of trouble with the press later on, I really appreciated it and enjoyed it greatly.  (also, fascinating how a small hypothetical comment can turn into headline news.)

Cashman seemed very calm for a guy with such a high pressure job. Brian Cashman may be the General Manager of the New York Yankees, but he's also just a regular guy. No act, no BS.  Just a real, genuine, nice, and clearly very intelligent guy.  And for the record, Bill Madden doesn't know what he's talking about, Cashman refuted everything said in that article.

I certainly hope that Cashman will stay in New York for many, many years to come. Meeting him was an honor and a great experience, and I hope to meet him again some day sooner than later.