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I like the college game much more than the pro one. I like college football better, too.
That does not mean that I dislike pro football or pro basketball, though I have to admit I tend to only like them a lot after the regular season is done.
And I do like college baseball, but you need familiarity with one of the rare "good" programs to get the best quality. Even then, a good born to toss the pill pitcher is a wonder at any stage or age. (I just wish they would get rid of that nauseating and fowl sounding bat.)
In the summer time, if I, driving by what looks to be a halfway good game of ten year olds playing baseball, I'll stop and watch. Something about the game permeates to the bones and leaves you feeling wholesome and full like nothing that comes on a TV can.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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Hey PCola77 I'm a College hoops junkie. Unfortunately my favorite team is St. John's and they are horrible. The garden should be rockin' on thursday with both teams being undefeated and all the NYC players that Pitt suits up. Have a great time!!!!
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Im with you Bdgee a on that one.(baseball and kids) I do like college sports also.
To bad there isn't some decent competition for our West Coast teams.
Isn't going to Madison Square Garden to watch two teams like that kinda like going to a minor league college game. This should draw blood. Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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No, going to Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks is like going to a minor league college game
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Kind of like putting up with the side show of the Lakers over the Phil Jackson years.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by IWISHIHAD: Kind of like putting up with the side show of the Lakers over the Phil Jackson years.
Except for the fact that the Phil Jackson's teams win, his players don't quit on him and continue to make the playoffs. Don't get me wrong I can't stand the Knicks and I get a good laugh out of the soap opera they have become.
The evidence is rolling in, and it's looking overwhelming, powerful, convincing and almost undeniable. The Knicks, these Knicks, your Knicks, the entire organization from A (Anucha Browne Sanders lawsuit) to Z (Zach Randolph) is an embarrassment approaching epic proportions.
And now, this must be asked: Are the Knicks dangerously becoming the biggest joke of all time? They are badly owned, managed and priced. Given the talent and salaries, they've been massive underperformers the last three-plus years. They're a public relations disaster in the largest, most demanding and important market in the country. Oh, and they're losing. Those are six rather strong signs suggesting the Knicks have no peer when it comes to lunacy, and it's certainly no stretch to conclude that no team in any sport at any time has been this horrible across the board.
There have been teams that lost more games. There have been owners who didn't care. And some teams were bigger blights to the local sports community.
But when it comes to being bad, the Knicks are filling up the boxscore. They're getting poor marks for everything, and it's tarnishing a once-proud franchise and tuning out a once-happening arena. It's torturing loyal fans who are watching their heavy emotional investment being thrown away like another careless bounce pass, or more to the point, an $11.5-million settlement to a former high-ranking woman who wasn't treated like one, according to a jury.
The Knicks are running away from the competition going the wrong way, and starting to put distance between themselves and the runner-up. As long as Jim Dolan owns them and Isiah Thomas runs them, there's a serious chance the Knicks may lap the field, which, upon closer inspection, was never this bad.
Only a few NBA teams can even be placed in the same company, including the Cavaliers under Ted Stepien, a more notorious owner than Dolan. In three years, Stepien had five coaches, never had a winning season and mortgaged the Cavs' future by dumping first-rounders for mediocrities, including trading the No. 1 pick that eventually became All-Star James Worthy. The league had to save the Cavs from their own owner and create the Stepien Rule, which prevents teams from trading consecutive No. 1 picks and committing basketball suicide. Might the league create the Dolan Rule, which prevents teams from hiring Isiah?
The Clippers in the early going under Donald Sterling had no direction, either, having gone 15 straight years with no playoffs. But the difference is the Clippers and Sterling hardly spent the kind of money being wasted by the Knicks. Sterling got the results he paid for. The Jail Blazers had their legal problems in Portland a few years back but did win every now and then as a consolation.
Who else? The Bengals were bad throughout the 1990s but at least they waited until the recent rash of lawlessness to become threats to society. The current Dolphins are just hapless on the field, nothing more. Victor Kiam was a wreck of an owner with the Patriots but did have the good sense to sell; don't hold your breath on Dolan, who doesn't need the money, doing the same. The Cubs? Lovable. Maybe the Blackhawks have made hockey irrelevant in Chicago, but they just lose games. The losses of the Knicks amount to more than that.
Two years ago they hired Larry Brown and delivered the least satisfying season in sports history, all things considered, given the pedigree of the coach, the payroll and the realistic expectations of a team that choked out just 23 wins. Sadly, things haven't taken a turn for the better since. Your hunch says the Knicks haven't hit rock bottom just yet. That's the scary part.
In his reign, Dolan has fired Marv Albert, hired Isiah, dumped Brown, refused to settle out of court initially in the image-damaging Browne Sanders lawsuit and gives the impression, by not firing Isiah, that he cares more about playing the blues on his beloved guitar than resolving them at the Garden. The Knicks' record under Isiah is 123-196 and his record as a personnel man is mixed at best.
"I'm confident we have the right players, I'm confident we have the right people," Thomas insisted the other day.
Why, then, is nothing quite right?
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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"Are the Knicks dangerously becoming the biggest joke of all time?"
Nope, that distinction will forever be the original Mets.
As for the Knicks, Thomas is the problem, not the Knicks. The joke will end when he is gone.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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Though the 62' Mets were before time I have heard plenty about them and I guess it depends on your definition of a joke:
A team in their first year with no expectations that's roster was made up mostly of players that were picked up in the expansion draft or- A team with the 2nd highest payroll and 2nd highest avg ticket price with a coach that blames fans, cost the company 11.5M in a sexual harassment lawsuit, fights with players, etc and an arrogant owner who's more to blame because he not only condones this but defends it.
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by bdgee: Like I said, it ain't the Knicks, it's Thomas.
Thomas is an idoit but Dolan's the one to blame.
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Blame him for Thomas. He hired a supposed expert on basketball and got a racial and sexual bigot that is also an ego maniac. Get rid of Thomas hire another and the problem will largely disappear. No need to change owners....he already admits he isn't the one to handle basketball, that's why he hired what he thought was an expert.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
A supposed expert with a history of bad decisions at Indiana , toronto, not to mention the CBA.
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Back in 88 or 89, Thomas was running around telling people that Larry Bird was only getting all star votes because he is white and that no white player was the equal of black players because they weren't born with the required athletic ability and didn't understand the game.
It was only a year or two before that Al Campanis was drummed out of baseball forever for suggesting that black people lacked the "necessities" to succeed in managerial positions.
Not doing the same with Thomas in basketball was clearly a mistake.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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My father-in-law went to St John's (and St John's Prep), and yeah, they're in a rough patch the last few years. Can't believe they'll stay down forever though!
quote:Originally posted by J_U_ICE: Hey PCola77 I'm a College hoops junkie. Unfortunately my favorite team is St. John's and they are horrible. The garden should be rockin' on thursday with both teams being undefeated and all the NYC players that Pitt suits up. Have a great time!!!!
Posts: 5508 | From: Southeastern PA | Registered: Jan 2006
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Sadly, I grew up a Knicks fan. Cut ties with them a few years ago. hard to be a "fan" of a team that has no players that you like...
Posts: 5508 | From: Southeastern PA | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by bdgee: Back in 88 or 89, Thomas was running around telling people that Larry Bird was only getting all star votes because he is white and that no white player was the equal of black players because they weren't born with the required athletic ability and didn't understand the game.
It was only a year or two before that Al Campanis was drummed out of baseball forever for suggesting that black people lacked the "necessities" to succeed in managerial positions.
Not doing the same with Thomas in basketball was clearly a mistake.
I remember those comments very well. As much as I dislike Thomas that is not a fair comparison. Campanis was a GM and in position of hiring while thomas was a player. Isiah's comments were backing up original statements by dennis rodman that Bird was very overrated. These were his comments: "Larry Bird is a very, very good basketball player, but I'd have to agree with Dennis. If he was black, he'd be just another good guy"
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Hopefully they can turn it around but not likely when they keep getting beaten out by other schools in recruiting the top NYC high school players.
quote:Originally posted by PCola77: My father-in-law went to St John's (and St John's Prep), and yeah, they're in a rough patch the last few years. Can't believe they'll stay down forever though!
quote:Originally posted by J_U_ICE: Hey PCola77 I'm a College hoops junkie. Unfortunately my favorite team is St. John's and they are horrible. The garden should be rockin' on thursday with both teams being undefeated and all the NYC players that Pitt suits up. Have a great time!!!!
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by bdgee: Back in 88 or 89, Thomas was running around telling people that Larry Bird was only getting all star votes because he is white and that no white player was the equal of black players because they weren't born with the required athletic ability and didn't understand the game.
It was only a year or two before that Al Campanis was drummed out of baseball forever for suggesting that black people lacked the "necessities" to succeed in managerial positions.
Not doing the same with Thomas in basketball was clearly a mistake.
I remember those comments very well. As much as I dislike Thomas that is not a fair comparison. Campanis was a GM and in position of hiring while thomas was a player. Isiah's comments were backing up original statements by dennis rodman that Bird was very overrated. These were his comments: "Larry Bird is a very, very good basketball player, but I'd have to agree with Dennis. If he was black, he'd be just another good guy"
You are remembering only the mildest of Thomas' comments at that time. The jerk is a racist and a gender bigot. What's more, he IS in a position to hire and fire.
Even were he only a player, it is as a player and a hero to millions of kids that these guys have the most influence. I wonder just how many of the little boys that adored him back then and grew up wanting to be just like him are now in positions of authority and refusing to hire white people or dumping on black women because he taught them it is ok?
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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I guess I was only remembering the mildest comments. i would like to see the others. Also remember that even though Thomas was the leader and best player on the Pistons the best quotes came from Salley, Mahorn, Laimbeer, and Rodman even before he started his "crazy" act. I'm not and never will defend Thomas he is a racist and sexist scumbag I just think the Campanis comparison is a weak. Thomas IS in a position to hire and fire people NOW but he wasn't when the comments you were referring to in the late 80s were made. Any kid who is looking to emulate an athlete for anything other than what they do on the field, court, etc has more problems to worry about but that a didn't story for a different time.
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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"Any kid who is looking to emulate an athlete for anything other than what they do on the field, court, etc has more problems to worry about but that a didn't story for a different time."
No doubt that is true, but anyone that thinks kids don't want to emulate athletes, whatever we tell them, is lying to himself. It is going to happen. Look at the numbers that we know about doing steroids and growth hormone. Stop by a high school and count the number of pro and college team jerseys that are the normal wearing apparel of kids on the way to class.
We need to be admitting the truth to ourselves and acting accordingly.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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I completely agree with you. It is a sad and unfortunate fact that kids need a positive influence that leads by example and not many are willing to take on that role.
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Most kids growing up imitate these athletes especially in styles. It has just become such a hugh marketing dollar in the last 20 years that these big companies cannot let it go. They try and brainwash the younger generation into believing these guys are the greatest thing to come along since... not sure what to put in there.
Then we have these problems arise with these athletes that these marketing giants do not want any part of and rightfully so, they just move on to another player. Some how these kids are suppose to be un-brainwashed pretty much on their own.
As parents if we have done our job right we hope they know better. Unfortunately parents have less amd less time to push the right morals and to watch their kids closely. Some of these kids feel whatever these athletes do is the right thing to do and not much can happen if they follow their example.
These atlethes and their bad habits are a coaches and parents nightmare.
Baseball might be the hardest sport for a coach of young kids to teach the right fundamentals. Once these kids have watched these pro's for years it can be a nightmare to correct what pros can get away with and kids cannot. That can be interpreted in several different ways.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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Pitt on a 12-0 run...Man, Blair looks good... Flipping back and forth between the Panthers, Steelers and Penguins...Sydney Crosby has a goal two assists and got in his first fight tonight...He actually landed a few before they both fell to the ice...
Posts: 2383 | Registered: Apr 2006
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Pitt wins 65-64...Your Panthers came to play tonight PCola...I think Blair had 20 boards before he fouled out...Kinda makes ya forget all about Aaron Gray...lol...Great Game!!!
Be a good night in the Burgh if the Pens can get by the Bruins in OT after giving up a 4-0 lead...
Edit: Pens win in a Shootout... Posts: 2383 | Registered: Apr 2006
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Great game!!! Pitt came up big. That injury was nasty. Cook will be a tough loss for the team. Fields is playing very well and is in better shape this year. Blair was a monster tonight.
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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The guy sitting next to me said "Levance Krauser is going to lose this game for us". (Carl Krauser was our previous gurad, who although often spectacular, often played 1-on-5 when he got fired up.
I tell you what, I am still in shock that Fields hit tha step-back 3 to win it. Wow.
And Blair is an animal. Not sure if it played thta way on TV, but the dude is ALWAYS smiling. You can just tell he loves to play. Hope he never loses that enthusiasm.
Oh, and his mom was in front of us in line at the parking garage:
Posts: 5508 | From: Southeastern PA | Registered: Jan 2006
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"Levance Krauser" lol...This team is whole different beast then the Carl Krauser, Chris Taft, Chevon Troutman, Aaron Gray etc. etc. etc. teams...The rest of the Big-East is not happy after watching that game last night...lol
Posts: 2383 | Registered: Apr 2006
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Some huge games tomorrow, including G-Town Memphis. After that we have a bit of a lull before things really start to pick up again the second week of January.
Posts: 5508 | From: Southeastern PA | Registered: Jan 2006
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Georgetown-Memphis should be an interesting game. If the Hoyas can slow down the tempo, contain Derrick Rose and keep him from getting his teamates open shots they should be fine. But that's easier said than done. Also interested to see how Hibbard handles Dorsey trying to muscle him around. Georgetown hasn't faced much competition so far a Memphis has one of the toughest schedules
Another good matchup should be Texas-Mich St. A battle of 2 of the best guards in the country DJ Augustine and Drew Neitzel. Texas has to keep Mich St off the boards and put a lot of pressure on the MSU guards bringing the ball up the court. MSU has to stop Augustine from penetrating and spreading the offense for easy open Jumpers
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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