February 19, 2010 ,
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By MIKE VACCARO
Yes, the one story that really matters out of the Knicks trade-deadline blitz is the one that won't really be answered until July 1: will this help them land LeBron James ? Will this allow them to... Read on
February 18, 2010 ,
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By MIKE VACCARO
You know what I would like to see? I would like to see the three major wire services and the designated golf writers' association pool reporter show me something and boycott this ridiculous farce of... Read on
You know what I would like to see? I would like to see the three major wire services and the designated golf writers' association pool reporter show me something and boycott this ridiculous farce of a press conference that
Tiger Woodshas scheduled
tomorrowat PGA headquarters in Florida. For once, I would like to see those of us in the Fourth Estate dictate the rules to Tiger, and not the other way around.
Allegedly, there will be no questions permitted, only a statement. In that case, allow the most famous adulterer on earth to put his message out there on his Web page, a method increasingly used by athletes who like to keep on point without the messiness of journalists doing their jobs and asking hard questions. But to play along with Tiger's rules ... it makes me nauseous, truth be told. Journalists aren't transcribers. Those are the rules right now. It's atrocious.
Some people have thought the timing a little coincidental, that Tiger would hold this press conference at the same time the World Match Play event sponsored by Accenture -- one of Tiger's former benefactors which dropped him quickly after the scandal. That's silly. Of course there's no coincidence. And you know what? Accenture isn't the purest victim ever, either. Shed no tears for them.
Save them for those of us who play along with this awful charade tomorrow if it goes off as is.
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Why Not Dare to Dream?:You know what I found
refreshingactually? Both
David Wrightand
Johan Santanasaying they believe the Mets can win the World Series. Even if it seems a pipe dream, even if you think they have to say it, if the players on a team don't believe, who will? There is such a shroud of negativity that stalks this team, it's good to see someone thinks in another way. And why not the best pitcher and the best player?
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Must Reads I and II:I'm a little late to the party recommending these, but do yourself a favor and read
Chris Jones'marvelous
storyabout the great
Roger Ebert in this month's
Esquire, and then Ebert's
reactionto reading that story.
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Paging Rock Bottom:The sad part isn't just that St. John's looked hapless and rudderless during a 59-50
lossto Seton Hall last night at the crypt formerly known as Alumni Hall; it's that they looked that bad coming off a two-game winning streak. Something has to change. Quickly.
Please.
February 16, 2010 ,
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By MIKE VACCARO
We are quietly entering into a critical junction in the Donnie Walsh-Mike D'Antoni stewardship of the Knicks. Knicks fans have long testified that they will indeed buy into a rebuilding plan,... Read on
We are quietly entering into a critical junction in the
Donnie Walsh-
Mike D'Antonistewardship of the Knicks. Knicks fans have long testified that they will indeed buy into a rebuilding plan, contrary to the popular notion that New York is too impatient a place to create any kind of genuine rebuilding. But the populace has mostly been supportive in what has become an endless two-year positioning just to
get into positionto be in position to be competent again.
That's a lot of positioning. And a lot of posturing. And a lot of leaps of faith.
But you don't have to search very far to locate unhappiness among the rank-and-file. If Mike D'Antoni's public wars with
Stephon Marbury,
Nate Robinsonand
Larry Hughesweren't exactly the same as taking on popular icons like
Clyde Frazier,
Bernard Kingand
Patrick Ewing, they nonetheless make some wonder if it doesn't reveal a melalomaniac streak in the coach. And while others have tried awfully hard to buy into Walsh's long-term vision, the fact remains that if any progress at all has occurred under his watch it is this: the Garden is no longer the lawless frontier it was under
Isiah Thomas.
Is that enough? It is not. Same as it's not enough to get Knicks fans truly excited about the deadline
dealthat may yield them both Tracy McGrady and even more cap space for July 1. Walsh is doing what he can. He is trying. He is making every effort to turn July 1 into the most seminal offseason date in Knicks history. And that is fine. But the question still must be asked: will that matter? And can Walsh get done what needs to get done? Even this deal, as future-friendly as it might be for the Knicks, only serves as a reminder that Walsh -- no matter how much he tried to blame this on his underlings -- picked
Jordan Hill, now the cornerstone of the deal, instead of
B
randon Jennings.
He has some more decisions ahead of him. Knicks fans have no choice but to hope the result of all the noise is something they can finally wrap their arms around. But for now, that's all it is. Hope.
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Grand Slam:It is already
clearthat
Curtis Grandersonis the kind of guy you want to succeed in New York, if only so other athletes understand that you don't have to lose your sense of humor or sense of humanity just because you call the Big Town home.
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Big Beast:OK, so in the course of two days Rutgers beats Georgetown, Louisville beats Syracuse, St. John's lays a death knell on Notre Dame and now UConn beats Villanova, and depending on how you look at it that shows preciseley how deep and difficult the Big East is ... or just how overrated it's been all year. And frankly, I'm not sure which I believe anymore, especially after that Rutgers game.
February 15, 2010 ,
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By MIKE VACCARO
Through all of the craziness, all of the cartoon-like behavior of the '70s and the disappointments of the '80s and the return to glory of the '90s and the Gekko-like spending habits of the '00s,... Read on
Through all of the craziness, all of the cartoon-like behavior of the '70s and the disappointments of the '80s and the return to glory of the '90s and the Gekko-like spending habits of the '00s, there were always two constants around the Yankees:
George Steinbrenner, who created most of the chaos and financed all of the championships, and
Gene Monahan, the man who helped keep the Yankees fit and healthy and able to play.
If you watch the video of the Red Sox-Yankees playoff game from 1978 -- and it's only on about six times a week, between YES Network and the MLB Network -- you'll hear
Phil Rizzutocall Monahan "the best in the business" as he's applying cold spray to
Bucky Dent'sankle after Dent fouled a ball off his foot, seconds before he'd plant a
Mike Torrezfastball into the net.
He became a quiet yet highly visible member of the Yankees, enough so that last October, during the playoffs, he was eating breakfast quietly, and alone, in Minneapolis one morning when no fewer than five different fans recognized him, and approached him, and to each one Monahan offered a quiet word of thanks, a smile and an autograph. He has been every bit the important Yankee as the ones wearing the pinstripes, and perhaps nothing shows how important Monahan and his staff have been than watching what developed across town with the Mets and their cavalcade of hurt last year.
It is worth keeping Monahan in your
thoughtstoday, and in the days to come as he battles what is termed a "significant illness." LIfe around the Yankees won't be the same while he's away.
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T-Mac the Knife:I understand the need for
Donnie Walshto look
busynow, and for the rest of the year, because to stand around would be offensive to the handful of Knicks fans who still are paying attention to the newest seasonal train wreck to add to the collection. But at this point, with no deals in place for
Jared Jeffriesand
Eddy Curry, and none forthcoming, anything he does really does feel like rearranging the deck chairs on Team Titanic.
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A Father's Pain:We all deal with our grief in different ways, but when
Brian Burkeheld court last night in Vancouver to discuss how he is
dealingwith his son's death, it was a stark reminder that the men and women who play these games -- Olympic or otherwise -- and help accumulate the teams who play on them are anything but the automatons they often appear.
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A Mystery for All-Time:Let me get this straight: they can fix a gaping pot hole on the track at the Daytona Motor Speedway in time to get a race finished the same day, but they can't figure out a way to fix the one on the approach to the GW Bridge that's been terrorizing my car for three years?
February 08, 2010 ,
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By MIKE VACCARO
Do you believe in karmic payback?I do.Do you believe that while God, capital "G," couldn't care less. about the outcome of secular things, there are armied of gods, lowercase, that do prowl the... Read on
Do you believe in karmic payback?
I do.
Do you believe that while God, capital "G," couldn't care less. about the outcome of secular things, there are armied of gods, lowercase, that do prowl the grounds, searching to separate good from bad, right from wrong, deserving from unworthy?
I do.
And so I cannot help myself: this morning I find myself believig that while history and record books will forever show that the Colts lost their chance at a second Super Bowl last night when the Saints beat them, they really began the process two days after Christmas, when the Jets beat them, on day when they had no business losing.
I cannot help but laugh a little bit that the Colts -- who had no problem playing their regulars long enough a week later to reach personal milestones in the snow in Buffalo -- were so preoccupied with keeping themselves healthy, then saw two of their meal tickets -- Dwight Freeney and Reggie Wayne -- seriousl impacted by injuries anyway.
Mostly, I cannot help but feel that justice was done yesterday, despite my warm feelings for both Peyton Manning and the Colts as a whole, because of the unspeakably arrogant way Bill Polian, the man who built and who runs the Colts, went about this fance with history. Colts fans deserved better than that, and so did the game of football, whose own milita of gods exacted a measure of revenge last night.
Good.
*******
SOS for SJU: I don't like to sound like a broken record on these matters. But St. John's went from 14 upo to 19 down all in the space of a half the other day, and that is the kind of ineptitude -- especially at the Garden -- that simply cannot be tolerated if St. John's wishes to consider itself a legitimate Big Est program any longer.
*******
Where art thou, Eldrick?: Seriously, if the best the rest of earth's golfers can do is to get into hissy fits over square grooves, can't we all just declare him cured and get on with things?
February 04, 2010 ,
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By MIKE VACCARO
You know what would be refreshing, just once? If after a lousy season, an athlete would step in front of a microphone and announce, "Man did I just have a lousy season."Osi Umenyiora, that means you,... Read on
You know what would be refreshing, just once? If after a lousy season, an athlete would step in front of a microphone and announce, "Man did I just have a lousy season."
Osi Umenyiora, that means you, by the way.
A lot of times during this Giants season just ended, the only way you could tell Umenyiora had been activated -- after sitting out all of 2008 -- was after games, or during the week, when he would clear his throat and complain about this perceived unjustice or that. Yesterday, he went on the
radioand decided it would be a good time to offer an ultimatum:
“I am not going be a backup player, I’ll promise you that,” Umenyiora told WFAN. “I will stop playing football before I do that. This has been the worst offseason of my entire life. I can’t think of a time when things were this bad during the offseason. I am supposed to be relaxing, but I can’t because all I can think of is all the things that took place last season. For me, it’s not something that I am going to do. And if they ask me to do that, I will just stop playing football.”
This screed was two things:
1. Prepsoterously stupid.
2. The worst bluff of all time.
It also reveals that Umeyiora learned most of the bad things that
Michael Strahanbrought to his tenure with the Giants -- the clubhouse lawyering, the bent for complaining -- and few of the good -- namely, performing on the field. Because let's get one thing straight: you can blame anything you want for the cause -- recovering from the injury, new system, new coordinator (and Giants fans want to blame
Bill Sheridanfor everything short of global warming). But the fact is this:
Umenyiora was awful this year. He
earnedthat benching. He
earnedhis coach's scorn. And you can believe that if Umenyiora had been even a shadow of the player he'd been before his injury, the Giants' defense wouldn't have looked like the spaghetti strainer it ultimately became.
Now that Umenyiora helped chase away the old coordinator, he issues threats before the new one, Perry Fewell, can even start putting pictures on his new desk. Nice touch. Umenyiora should spend a little less time working his mouth this offseason, a little more re-learning how to be the kind of player a coach would be foolish to keep on the bench. He has a ways to go.
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McGuire the Gent:Wonderful retrospective
herefrom
Mark Jacksonand
herefrom
Marc Bermanabout
Dick McGuire, who passed away yesterday at 84 and represented a time when being a company man was about as noble a life as anyone could aspire to, no matter the field, no matter the profession. McGuire did, quite literally, everything for the Knicks, and next to Red
Holzmanmight have been the most important single employee the team has ever had.
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Finney the Fine:I do hope you've been reading the daily dispatches from former Postie Peter Finney Jr., whose tales of Saints-dom have been fascinating all week long. Here's today's
offering:
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The Final pride of the Pride:And here's
mine, on Marques Colston, who wanted to be a mentor for future Hofstra players and now only has memories.
February 03, 2010 ,
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By MIKE VACCARO
By now, it has to be abundantly clear to the men who run St. John's basketball what needs to be done. Nobody wants to see Norm Roberts, a good man who rescued the program from the depths of shame and... Read on
By now, it has to be abundantly clear to the men who run St. John's basketball what needs to be done. Nobody wants to see
Norm Roberts, a good man who rescued the program from the depths of shame and indignity, lose his job. Everyone would have liked to see him author a fairy tale story here, the Queens College kid who used to scrimmage against the great St. John's players of the '80s restoring the Red Storm to glory.
It would have made for a hell of a story.
But we're not getting that story. And it becomes clearer to everyone who cares about this program that under Norm, we're
nevergetting that story. It's been almost six full years now, time for Roberts to get a full class and a half under his belt. If it was going to get turned around on his watch, it would be turned around by now.
Instead, what we get is what may well be the most dispiriting loss of Roberts entire tenure last night, an 84-72
schoolingat Rutgers that confirms every pessimistic suspicion about the Johnnies, now 12-9 overall and 2-7 in the Big East: that their pre-Big East record -- though fortified by nice wins against Siena and Temple -- was mostly built on sand. And that right now, the only school in the entire league that the erstwhile Redmen can truly look down upon is their fellow Vincentians at DePaul -- which, by the way, has already fired
itscoach. When even Rutgers -- where the general assumption is that
Freddy Hillis a fired coach walking -- can beat you, you know you've reached a genuine nadir.
There are larger issues at stake here than simply firing the coach at St. John's, of course. At the top of the list is the question of whether
anyonecan get it done on Utopia Parkway any longer, whether the appeal of New York and the Garden even exists anymore, if the very notion of elite big-time basketball is even possible at a school that lost its greatest recruiting advantage -- the housing stipend -- years ago. At some point, we're all going to have to stop blaming the reign of error of
Mike Jarvisand wonder if the problems aren't too great for any one man to solve.
But first the men who run St. John's have to try and locate that one man. They simply cannot keep hoping that Roberts is the answer. His teams play very, very hard -- although a sure sign of a losing program is when the best thing you can say about it is that the players don't quit. He has made small recruiting inroads -- but, again, this is
six yearsnow. St. John's will never have to face the public scorn of having lost patience too quickly.
If anything, they've erred repeatedly on the side of patience. To the growing chagrin of the fans, alumni and local basketball junkies who used to follow this team as an extension of their own personal theologies. These are the people who've been all but shooed away as St. John's keeps bringing Norm back for more. It's beginning to border on athletic malpractice.
There will be no shortage of candidates to ponder. Some will call for
Mark Jackson, short on experience but long on local roots.
Jim Baron, a son of Brooklyn who's performed miracles at Rhode Island, was the best candidate when Roberts was hired and remains the best candidate still.
Tom Pecorahas been saddled with a maddening eligibility issue all year with one of his top recruits, which has probably kept Hofstra out of the CAA race, and he has a thousand local ties that would surely stabilize the listing ship. And whatever you may feel about the Ivy League, it's impossible to see what
Steve Donahuehas done at Cornell and not understand that
someoneis going to soon give him the chance to see if that transfers to a power conference. There are others.
Norm did what he was hired to do. He restored a measure of honor to St. John's, dissolved the dark clouds that for so long hovered over the program. He has some money coming to him, and a great reputation in the coaching community; he won't be out of work long. But the time has come for St. John's to tell him what saloon patrons have been told at closing time for years: you don't have to go home. But you can't stay here.
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R-E-X Rex! Rex! Rex!:One point I didn't get to in my
columnabout
Rex Ryanand the fine the Jets levied against him yesterday: those who don't buy into what he's selling have long suggested that his bluster is less than genuine; at the very least, you have to say the man is no phony. Look at that picture again. He is, very much, who he is.
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A Del of a way to go: So now
Del Harrisis
departing, leaving the Nets in the solo hands of
Kiki Vandeweghe, meaning the '73 Sixers just took 10 steps closer to packing their bags and evacuating the record books forever.
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It's just a Joba to do:I am maybe one of the last dinosaurs who still believes the Yankees are harboring a future ace in
Joba Chamberlain, but columns like
thisone from my man
Joel Shermancould ultimately change my mind.
February 02, 2010 ,
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By MIKE VACCARO
Sometimes, it can be awfully helpful to spend a few minutes whenever SNY or MLB Network is showing an "old" Mets game, and by old I mean any game played from 2006 through 2008, because it's then when... Read on
Sometimes, it can be awfully helpful to spend a few minutes whenever SNY or MLB Network is showing an "old" Mets game, and by old I mean any game played from 2006 through 2008, because it's then when it hits you in the face that of all the bad luck, bad tidings and bad karma that attacked the 2009 Mets, the body blow they were dealt that was absolutely impossible to recover from was the one that hacks
Jose Reyes'hamstring.
Reyes played all of 36 games for the Mets last year, none after May 20. It may be instructive to remember that on the last day when Reyes' played without a shadow of concer above his head, May 13, the Mets were 18-15, and they were also in first place by a game in the N.L. East. Of course, this being New York, Reyes was most remembered for the role he played in helping to lose that game, 8-7, to the Braves, and afternoon tilt at Citi Field.
Remember? In the seventh inning of a 6-6 game, Reyes hit aone-out double but was then thrown out at third when he foolishly broke for the base on a ground ball by
Daniel Murphy. Then, in the 12th, the Mets by then losing by a run, he led off with a double -- but it looked like a sure triple in spacious Citi, except Reyes either admired the ball out of the box ...
Or, you know ... was already hurting. Regardless: the stories the next day all focused around what was "wrong" with Reyes. Except that day Reyes was 3-for-5 with a walk and a run and every time he danced off a base it spooked the hell out of whoever was pitching for the Braves. What you see in that game is what you see in a lt of games in 2006, '07, and '08: you see the most important -- and, at times, frustrating -- Met.
People have long focused on the days Reyes frustrates them as opposed to when he thrills them, a comment on just how extraordinary his talent is. Reyes alone won't make up every inch of distance that formes between the Phillies and Mets last year; but by himself he sure as hell makes up a good chunk of it, something this
columnby
Kevin Kernan ought to reinforce. Have a read. And when you can have a look at what Reyes is at his best. It's worth it.
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Even Steven:Of course, for every positive vibe attached to the Mets there has to be a corresponding negative on (
Newton'sForgotten Law), and so there was
thisbit of lunacy reported by the departed
J.J. Putz, a reminder that for the Mets (and their image honcho,
Dave Newman), PR stands either for "Perpetually Ragtag" or (as Twitter correspondent
@NYSportzNutputs it) simply "Poorly Run."
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Life hasn't been a breeze for Brees:The Saints' quarterback has had a hand in reviving New Orleans and the Saints, too. But it's his own comeback that makes for as feel-good a story as there is in South Florida this week.
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Good-bye, Larry:Sorry: the fact that the Knicks have officially and for the foreseeable future returned to the Land of Irrelevance doesn't make
Larry Hughesand better a player than he was when
Mike D'Antonifirst benched him. His
whininghas grown almost intolerable as the Knicks' play.
February 01, 2010 ,
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By MIKE VACCARO
Look, we can probably agree that given the choice between publicly flipping the bird and not publicly flipping the bird, most of us would argue on the side of not flipping the bird. Given the choice,... Read on
Look, we can probably agree that given the choice between publicly flipping the bird and not publicly flipping the bird, most of us would argue on the side of
notflipping the bird. Given the choice, if you are coach of the New York Jets, between giving the finger to a growling pack of Dolphins fans and
notgiving the finger to a pack of growling Dolphins fans, it's probably smarter to keep the digit holstered ...especially when your career record against the Dolphins is 0-2.
Are we here to defend
Rex Ryan'sunique brand of communicating skills?
No, we are not. That was a dumber than "Jersey Shore."
Are we here to say Ryan buried himself once and for all?
No. We are not.
Nelson Rockefeller'sreputation survived may well have been the most famous flipped bird in history, when he saluted the crowd at a 1976 rally for
Bob Dole.
Johnny Cashdid it once and it became a poster staple on a million dorm-room walls for years to come.
John McEnroeused to use his middle finger so much it's surprising he didn't cook up a workout regimen for it; he's bounced back. So did
Jack McDowell.
Here's the thing though:
You can be disappointed in seeing Ryan do this. But you'd better not be stunned. If anything, what this proves to the world is that all the bluster for which Ryan became renowned this season was anything but an act. This MMA event was Rex Unplugged, Uncut and Unedited. What we've seem, clearly, is what we get, even when it's simply an arena of cell phone cameras picking up the act, not a bank of microphones.
Still not the smartest thing anyone's ever done. As a consolation prize, Rex isn't a phony. If nothing else, we've certainly learned that.
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Knot this year:Well, basketball season sure was fun while it lasted, wasn't it? Today is 150 days till July 1. That's the Knicks' next important date after last night's
fizzlein Minnesota.
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Pro Bowl fever!:It was a nice try. But there is nothing -- literally nothing -- that will ever get even the most rabid football fan interested in the Pro Bowl. Just never going to happen.
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Te-woe:Look, I saw
Tim Tebowstruggle in the Senior Bowl too. But I also saw the guy play quarterback for three-plus years in Gainesville. I'm no football savant by any stretch. But was Tebow's entire career really simply the product of
Urban Meyer'simagination?
January 22, 2010 ,
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POST STAFF REPORT
Post columnist Mike Vaccaro took all your questions before the AFC Championship game between the Jets and Colts. See what Mike had to say about Gang Green's chances of making it to the Super Bowl.... Read on
Post columnist Mike Vaccaro took all your questions before the AFC Championship game between the Jets and Colts. See what Mike had to say about Gang Green's chances of making it to the Super Bowl.
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