Sunday, March 29, 2009

Off The Bench (or "There's Thunder and Lightning, so Be Quick!")

Sean Adams (once and forever, "The Son") will play for the Phillies this year. That means, I will be coaching the Phillies this year.

Mets fans smile and say "it figures."

People have asked what I would do if I had to coach a team named the Mets. Simple - I'd do my job, not wear the hat/uniform, and try to ignore that my poor son would have to wear one.

Just one more thing on the topic. If my son had to play for the Mets, he'd go nuts. Should have seen him today in Target when a kid walked by wearing a Mets T-shirt.

NCAA's - I got two out of four. Villanova and North Carolina made it for me. Damn you, Michigan State.

I really enjoyed the experience of the NCAA hockey tournament in Bridgeport on Friday. Sadly the games were not so good. Michigan fell to Air Force and in the nightcap, in front of an excited crowd, Yale absolutely laid an egg.

Give Sean Patrick Bowley some love for the writing. I still think he looked like he reigned supreme at the center of press row in the Arena at Harbor Yard, despite his denial. Of course, yesterday's regional final was pretty good.

Vermont hockey fans were rather cocky sorts. And a memo to them about us not doing the wave (and I was sitting right next to them):

Many people HATE the wave. That's right. Despise it. Abhor it. It's amateur hour. I consider it to be "Mets behavior." So I don't think people weren't doing it because Yale was losing. I think they weren't doing it because it's, you know, LAME!

I enjoyed seeing Sean Backman play for the Bulldogs. I called some of his games back in the day at Greenwich High.

Kudos to the Arena for a good show (not such great food, but so be it). Take marks away for the parking situation. I left my car about two blocks from the arena on the street because the lots were mostly full. Kudos to the city of Bridgeport for not ticketing me and every other soul who parked in the same area when our meters expired.

Did I mention I'm starting a talk show tomorrow? I did? OK then.

"Family Guy" just did a "Calvin and Hobbes" reference. Simple...awesome.

"Monsters and Aliens" gets twelve thumbs up - two each from the six people in my party that went today. But why oh why did it not show in 3D in Danbury, CT? Weak.

Do we really have two mall cop movies coming out? First it was the "Paul Blart" thing with Kevin James (I don't get his appeal - sorry, folks) and now "Observe and Report" with Seth Rogan (who I do get). Yet the simple question is this: why?

This is just funny, and so...wrong


Interesting take from JoePo on Curt Schilling re: the Hall of Fame. I don't think JoePo is making a case for Schilling per se.

My take? Schilling to me is borderline. That means "no." But the voters (and I really think it's time to have more people than just writers voting) will put him in simply for his quotes and f*&%k$#2 bloody sock.

Just an FYI (as a reminder). In the 2001 World Series, Schilling did the following:
Game 1 - 7 IP, 3H, 1 ER, 8 K's (this, boys and girls, is a great start)
Game 4 - 7 IP, 3H, 1 ER, 9 K's (another fine start and he leaves with the lead but Arizona LOSES thanks to Mssrs. Martinez and Jeter as the clock strikes midnight on 11/1/01)
Game 7 (OK, this is where my head explodes) - 7.1 IP, 6H, 2 ER, 9 K's. Ladies and gentlemen, the co-MVP of this here World Series was THREE OUTS AWAY FROM BEING THE LOSING PITCHER IN GAME SEVEN! He spit the bit by allowing a bomb to Alfonso Soriano in the eighth and would have certainly lost had Randy Johnson not come on bailed his ass out.

My point? Perception, people. Perception. If Mariano finishes the job in the ninth (oh, the nightmares) the space-time continuum might be different.

Gotta go. I have a show to do tomorrow. But you knew that already.

4 comments:

Sean G. Kilkelly said...

I don't think the press will put Schilling in because he's been pretty outspoken over the years.

It's a tough call because 4 world championships and an 11-2 post-season record are very impressive. He also has the highest ratio of strikeouts to walks. I know many people point to him winning 216 games in the regular season and say that's not enough, but I think that stat doesn't always tell the whole story. I mean Kenny Rogers has more wins than that and he's not half the pitcher that Schilling was. Very tough call with Schilling. I always admired his tenacity. That 2001 season was special for Schilling: 22 wins, undefeated in the playoffs with something like a 1.10 ERA.

Rob Adams said...

Hey Sean, Good morning.

I think they will put him in exactly for that outspokenness. Heck even Mikey Francesa has him as a lock. I get the post-season stuff, and that can't be denied. I understand it all. So do I think he'll get in? Yes. But I'm not as sold on him being a no-brainer. Save for the post-season, how's he that much better than Mike Mussina?

Oh but you're completely correct - there's no comparing Schilling to people like Kenny Rogers. That's just foolishness.

Sean G. Kilkelly said...

Schilling is really a sparkplug in many ways. He's really ticked off some guys like Dan Shaughnessy and I remember he had a problem with a writer in Arizona also.

Mussina is an interesting case because he was below .500 in the playoffs but pretty consistent in the reglar season. Mussina played on better teams, though, than Schilling. Some of those Philly teams were awful except for maybe one year - I think it was 1993. Baltimore definitely had better teams when Moose was there. The other thing is that although he came real close to some perfect games, he'll never be remembered as a dominant pitcher like Schilling or Pedro.

Having said all that, I think they both go in. The MLB Hall has become a bit watered down. But I think the press will stick it to Schilling and won't put him in his first year of eligibility.

I always thought you would have liked Schilling after all he is a big Steelers fan.

Rob Adams said...

Schilling's sons name is "Gehrig", named after the Iron Horse, of course of course.

I respect him as a competitor, and he's certainly a winner. He didn't exactly make himself look great in the congressional steroids hearings, but McGwire et al just looked so bad by comparison.