Tuesday, December 16, 2014

"3 Gens of Giant Fans" by Dad

     This 2gensportsden piece is actually about three gens – a sort of fitting wrap up as the boys and I complete this blog’s first year. We are all rabid fans of the New York Giants, as is my brother, which is a hard thing to be this year. The sad fact, though, is that long term fandom of any single team can be a hard thing. There are way more bad years than good, unless you have the great good fortune to be a Yankee fan born around 1990. And even this lucky fan may now be in for a period of paying some serious dues.
      But our Giant fixation (and giant it is) begins with my dad, the boys’ grandfather, who died a few years ago after decades of dedicated rooting. How dedicated? In the mid sixties, when I was very young, we lived in Westchester County, where we would be subject to broadcast blackouts of any Giant game not sold out. This was after the late 50s run of glory years – when the Tittle, Gifford, Shofner Giants played the famous 1958 NFL championship game against the Johnny Unitas Colts and helped launch the modern NFL. This was instead a wave of dreadful Giant teams who left many seats unsold and many games blacked out. But blacked out only on the New York CBS affiliate. Real fans knew that the game would be carried on the Connecticut CBS affiliate. So what did my dad and his buddies, the other dads on the block, do?
     The obvious answer might have been simply to buy a bloc of those unsold tickets. But they were young, those seats weren’t inexpensive, and they had a Plan B. On those blacked out Sundays, they would reserve a room at the Hi-Ho Motel in Fairfield, CT, just off the Merritt Parkway. You can still see it today, and it reminds me of my dad every time I pass it. On those Sundays, five guys would pack one of their woody station wagons with beer, of course, plus enough sandwiches and chips to feed what I enviously judged to be my whole Cub Scout troop. And they’d be off for the day, leaving their sons under the watchful eyes of our ditched and resentful moms. In all fairness, this was as bad as those boys got.
     Fast forward a few years, and now we were actually living in Connecticut. No more black outs – my dad, my brother and I could watch every game. And we did. In our new house’s family room, on a sectional couch on which the three of us could sprawl around the house’s only color TV, with my brother and I fetching firewood, we watched the Tarkenton Giants. He was good, they were bad, and those afternoons were gold. I do believe these were among my dad’s happiest times, watching his Giants with his two sons.  And I know the feeling, having now spent many, many Sundays back in Connecticut as the dad of two sons who have inherited the Giant fandom gene.
     One more game to recall.
     The NFC Championship game in January of ’08. My brother and I and our families had flown down to Fort Lauderdale to throw an 80th birthday party for our dad. That huge game’s Sunday night found us all at my Aunt Rosemary’s for football and an Armenian feast. There can’t be a better aunt, or many better cooks, than Rosemary. So there we all were for this game of games -- the Giants versus the Packers – my dad, his two sons, and two grandsons. Three gens. (There were also two granddaughters there, whom Dad loved dearly, but alas for the purposes of this story, not Giant fans.) It was a great game, won by the Giants 23-20 in overtime. It sent the Giants to the Super Bowl, where they would beat the Patriots and ruin the Pats’ undefeated season. And it was the last time I ever saw my dad that happy, and I’m not sure I ever saw him happier. He died three years later.
     For the last few years, both my brother and older son (byline Bojo) have been living in Vermont, and my younger son (byline CBoh) has been up at UConn. All living, ironically, in Patriots Nation. Our shared Giant experience has been game-long texting in lieu of watching together. But we are ferocious texters, and the tradition lives on.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

"Some Thoughts On The Knicks" by CBoh

     To start this off, the Knicks are not a good basketball team right now. It is Carmelo Anthony, a couple players who are at best fringe starters on good teams and a bunch of players who would be very good end of bench role players (Jason Smith, Samuel Dalembert, Quincy Acy, Pablo Prigioni) forced to extended minutes that they are not suited for. Take away Melo and they have one of the worst lineups in the league, on par with teams actively trying to lose games. However there is hope going forward for building a team around Carmelo that can compete for championships over the next couple years. 
     First, they actually have a collection of young talent. Tim Hardaway Jr. was the steal of the 2013 draft and if it were re-done today would be a top 5 pick (although in a historically weak draft). While he is still learning and needs to improve a lot of his game, especially on defense, he is an extremely talented offensive player, can flat out shoot the ball and is showing improvement as a playmaker. I definitely see him becoming an above average starting shooting guard with the ability to absolutely take over games – he is probably the closet thing to “untouchable” among their youth. Shane Larkin is definitely not a starting point guard, a role he has been thrust into because of injuries, but is definitely a quality player with a future in this league. He can be a great heat check guy off the bench who can be devastating in the passing lanes, causing turnovers and starting fast breaks. Iman Shumpert is back to playing the type of basketball we came to expect before his injury, a level of play that he never quite got back to last year, averaging 13, 5, and 5 while being their best on-ball defender. He is in a contract year, but if the Knicks can get him at a reasonable price, especially with the cap expected to go up, he could be another quality piece going forward, or used as trade bait at the deadline. 
     They also have a couple unknowns with their 2nd round picks this past draft in Cleanthony Early, who many analysts believed should have been a first round pick, and the athletic Thanasis Antetokounmpo, brother of the “Greek Freek.” While nowhere near as talented as his kin, he could develop into a solid defensive rotation player. It will be interesting to see how these players continue to develop, or if the Knicks try and package some in a trade to get somebody like Rondo. If Rondo makes it known he wants out of Boston, that could force their hand and allow him to be acquired relatively cheaply as his expiring contract would allow him to limit which teams he would allow a trade to by refusing to sign long-term with some organizations. And they also actually have their first round pick this year, and while their currently horrible record will improve once players start coming back from injuries, it will probably end up around the middle of first round in what is expected to be a pretty deep draft, where they can acquire another young, talented player on a cheap contract. 
      Another interesting thing to keep your eye on going forward is what they do with Amare Stoudmire. Fans have been actively counting down the time until his horrendous contract gets off the books and think it may be a foregone conclusion that this is his last year in NYC. Both are very fair thoughts, but Amare gets a bad rep because of his massive contract. The guy works extremely hard, does anything that is asked of him, is a great teammate, and in the limited minutes he can play shows while he is nowhere near the destructive force he once was, he is still a talented player. I think he does have a couple quality years left and I believe he loves New York and feels like he somewhat owes the team and the fans. I could see him taking less money to stay, somewhere in the range of 2 years for $5 million. His 12 points on 55% shooting and 6 rebounds in about 20 minutes a game would look great when he’s not making over $20 million a year. Where I see him fitting in if this team expects to contend is as a 6th man who can wreak havoc against second units.
     However, none of this matters if significant moves are not made in the offseason to acquire real talent to surround Carmelo. With some huge contracts coming off the books, the Knicks will have serious cap room to aggressively pursue free agents. But there is limited star talent available this offseason. I am putting all my eggs in one basket and allowing my hopes to get high that Phil Jackson will be able to use his Zen powers to convince Marc Gasol to leave the greener pastures of Memphis for a chance to bring a championship to New York. Marc Gasol could single handily turn the Knicks into a real contender. The 2013 Defensive Player of the year defends the hoop and anchors the defense as well, if not better than Tyson Chandler in his first year in New York, when the Knicks achieved their most successful season of the (not that) new millennium. Unlike Chandler he can actually score from outside 5 feet and can contribute to the offense on plays other than the pick and roll. His talents include a deadly midrange game and he is possibly the best passing big man in the game (either he or Joakim Noah), both of which would be perfect for the Triangle offense. It will be difficult though. Marc Gasol went from being Pau’s fat, unknown brother to an All Star in Memphis, and the team has built a winning culture in Memphis including some deep runs into the playoffs. They are currently 10-1 and look like a serious contender in the loaded West. We can only hope that the team is not as good as they look in the earlier part of this season and that a first round playoff exit is on their horizon. Then we have to hope Phil Jackson can do what they gave him the huge contract for and convince Marc to leave the Grizzlies, turn down what will be many other suitors (including reports the Spurs are interested) and take a risk to join him, his 13 rings (11 as a coach and 2 as a player), and Carmelo for a chance to make history and bring a title back to New York. 
     Rajon Rondo will also be a free agent they are expected to pursue who would be a perfect fit, but gets a little more confusing and less of a priority with Jose Calderon on the roster at about $7 million a year for the next 3 years. Jose Calderon knows how to run a NBA offense and is an elite 3-point shooter but is just dreadful on defense. Rondo would be a huge upgrade, he is an elite defender and true point guard born to hook up his teammates and values winning over everything, the exact opposite of what Raymond Felton was. He has proven he can be the point guard on a championship team and would be far and away the best point guard Carmelo has every played with. Getting both these players is a pipe dream with a very small chance of actually happening, but if there is one person I have faith can facilitate it, it has to be Phil Jackson. A starting line up of Rondo-Hardaway-Shumpert-Carmelo-Gasol would be an elite team on both ends of the floor. But Marc Gasol must remain the top priority. Without him they do not become a championship contender. Rondo is a great player but he does not elevate them to that level by himself. He is a player that makes a good team great, but a foundation of Rondo-Carmelo and the young players would be a nice start that does not turn this team into championship contenders. 
     If Phil Jackson cannot convince Gasol and/or Rondo to join the team, that is where things get tricky and their options get much less appealing. They are committed to Carmelo for four seasons after this one at pretty much a max deal, which I agree with and truly believe he is an elite player who can win a championship provided a quality team, but this forces the team to get talent on the roster immediately. Their options would include taking a chance and giving Greg Monroe the max money he wants but has not really proven he is worth it. He’s a talented offensive big man, but he needs the ball in his hand on the block to be effective and is a liability on defense. Or they could offer Roy Hibbert max money to try and steal him from the Pacers. He is a great defender but has very limited offensive game, slow feet and a reputation among some (including myself) as mentally weak. Paul Millsap will be a free agent coming off what has been one of the best contracts at 2 years, $19 million dollars that he significantly outplayed. He is definitely a very good player, but is a 6 foot 8, soon-to-be 30-year-old power forward who will probably be looking for a significant pay raise and longer contract. They could try to sign Jimmy Butler away from the Bulls, a 6 foot 8, elite defender with a developing offensive game who has looked ready to make the leap this year during Derrick Rose’s absence. However he is a restricted free agent who just turned down 4 years 44 million from the Bulls and it would be a huge surprise if the Bulls did not match any offers to keep Butler on the team. 
     So the options really come down to Phil Jackson convincing Marc Gasol to take a chance in New York and the team becoming contenders, overpaying for some quality players who will improve their team but not make them true contenders and tie up their future cap space, or doing nothing and wasting another year of Carmelo’s window. Unless Phil Jackson does something completely different that nobody see’s coming, which definitely could happen and probably would be awesome. 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

"11 Rings May Not be Enough to Surpass James Dolan’s and Carmelo’s Lunacy" by Bojo

While the Knicks regular season opener is tonight, I had the pleasure of attending their pre-season game last Friday night against Toronto. Despite the game taking place in Canada, neither Drake, or Phil Jackson, were sadly in attendance. And after witnessing what happened, perhaps that was for the best.

The game was highly entertaining, with no less than 10-12 alley-oops being completed, and a ton of other characteristics of high action, highly team-oriented  basketball were exhibited. 

Unfortunately, not a single one of those exhilarating plays were performed by the Knicks. Toronto was the team that looked like it has a bright future ahead of it. Kyle Lowry and Damar DeRozan looked like nothing short of All Stars; and all night those two pushed their team into a fast paced, fast break  type of defense transitioning to offense which was not slowed, also all night long. It was truly awesome to watch, except that they were balling out, all over the Knicks.


On the extreme opposite end of the spectrum from the young, seriously athletic Toronto team, was the Knicks. I was hoping to see an energetic, albeit early-season implementation of the Triangle Offense, and other Phil Jackson-ian, effective basketball concepts. But what we got, was the same plodding, isolation-based offense that has earned the Knicks exactly one playoff win in the past decade.
                          My average facial expression at the game, as exhibited by Knicks owner James Dolan


They literally looked exactly like they did last year. Instead of ball movement, iso- plays were run for Carmelo and JR Smith. Like, every time up the court. Instead of instinctually reading the defense, even my girlfriend observed that they “looked like they were thinking”.  There was not a single hint or flash of anything that would give me hope for this season as a Knicks fan. And with that, let’s get this season going! 

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

"Three Guys Named Bo" by Dad

      Variations on the nickname Bo are universal in our family.  My two sons use their nicknames, Bojo and CBoh, as their bylines on this blog of ours.  And growing up, my nickname was Bo, as was my dad’s.
     So I thought it would be interesting, at least to the three of us, to look at a handful of jocks and sports figures who have gone by this nickname, Bo.
     A quick Google search turns up at least three current jocks sporting the nickname.
There’s a pro wrestler named Bo Dallas.  And there’s a pair of quarterbacks – Bo Wallace at Ole Miss, and Bo Levi Mitchell with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.
     But the three Bo’s I want to talk about, in their sort of ascending order of interest to me, would be the Bo’s Shembachler, Jackson (of course) and Belinsky (about whom much more later).


     Bo Schembechler was for many years the University of Michigan’s football coach.  A quick Wiki look shows that he coached there from 1969 to 1989, ran up a truly impressive 194-48-5 record and won or shared 13 Big Ten titles, but never won a national championship.  A huge career, but not an especially colorful guy.  He was just a sort of bowl game presence for guys my age when we were growing up. Back when the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Cotton Bowls were the only bowl games anyone watched, Bo’s team always seemed to be in one of them.


     Now, Bo Jackson, the most natural and widely gifted athlete we may ever see. How good? How versatile? In 1985, playing baseball for Auburn, he batted .401 with 17 homers. And in that same 1985, he won the Heisman Trophy. Nike knew, and created “Bo Knows.” a shrewd marketing celebration of this guy’s amazing athleticism.  
     Only a chronic hip injury, one that taught most of us the word “necrosis,” cut short Jackson’s dazzling two-sport career. And for me, the most amazing thing about the two sports was that one of them was baseball and involved hitting curve balls, what many of us believe to be the single hardest thing in sports. Doubters need only consider the aborted baseball career of Michael Jordan, a pretty fair athlete whose baseball days were cut very short when he couldn’t hit even a low minor league curve ball. The only other athlete I can think of who made the majors in two sports with one being baseball would be Dave DeBusschere, and he was a pitcher. No one expected him to hit a curve ball, just to spin a few himself.


     And finally, the human train wreck worth waiting for… Bo Belinsky. He has become deservedly obscure, but in his early 60s hey day, he was one of the first great bad boys of big time sports. Imagine Joe Namath with absolutely no self control.
     A left handed pitcher, which somehow makes complete sense, Belinsky was a Jersey boy who had a huge beginning to his 1962 rookie season with the Angels. He won his first four starts, but it was the fourth win that represented the pinnacle of a short career, a no hitter against the Orioles in Chavez Ravine, the fabled Dodger stadium that the Angels were also using that year. On the strength of this game, and some real brashness and charisma, Belinsky catapulted to fame.
     He was never as good again as in that first month, finishing his rookie season just  10-11 with a 3.56 ERA, and winning just 18 more games in his whole career. But on the strength of that start, he started dating a list of Hollywood starlets (what a dated word) that included Ann Margret, Connie Stevens, Mamie van Doren, and Gilligan’s own Tina Louise.
     For me as a very young baseball fan, the greatest evidence of his great, if fleeting, fame would be his mention in a song on an Allen Sherman record. For the unfamiliar, Allen Sherman was the Weird Al of his day, except that he looked like your dentist and sang like you imagined your dentist would.
   Sherman was, however, wickedly clever. If he’s remembered at all today, it’s probably for “Camp Granada (Hello muddah, hello fadduh).”  But in a song I still remember called “Oh Boy,” there are these lines:

Oh boy
Igor Stravinsky
Oh boy
Bo Bo Belinsky
Oh boy
David Dubninsky
And Minsky
And Werner Von Braun
Oh boy
     
     Impressive company for a guy with a pretty unimpressive career. But the last words about Bo Belinsky should probably come from his obituary in the New York Times. Announcing his death in 2001, the Times’s headline read: “Bo Belinsky, 64, the Playboy Pitcher, Dies.”

     And there you have it – three guys named Bo.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

"Scout's Honor" by Dad


     Baseball scouts have been, at least since Moneyball, a subject 

of real debate within the greater baseball community. On one side, 

of course, are the stat heads, the sabermetricians who put their full 

faith in increasingly arcane sets of numbers. On the other side sit 

the traditionalists, who believe stats are no substitute for the eyes 

and experience of a veteran scout.

     As a guy who’s been a baseball fan since the 60s, and a stat-

driven roto ball player since the 80s, I don’t come out on either 

side. But I will say that sabermetricians will never be as truly 

funny, as witty and actually, quotably  wise, as scouts have been 

over the long years of their long road trips.

     This line of thought came to me the other day as I was reading

whatever I could find online about a pitcher named Hunter 

Strickland, a low minor leaguer the Giants made a September call 

up. In researching whether to make him a call up on my own roto 

team, I came across this: “The guy throws 98 and would strike out 

an orphan without feeling bad.”

     I’m not sure whether the line was from an actual scout, or 

simply from a blogger, but it struck me as a perfect example of 

classic scout talk.  And there are a few other examples I don’t 

think I’ll forget, even if I’m hazy on some of the specifics. 

To whit:

     Some six or eight years ago, the Nationals had a surprisingly

successful closer named Chad Cordero, the surprise being that he 

did as well as he did without a great fastball or a true out pitch. He 

seemed to succeed on guile and nerve.  All of this was summed up 

by a scout writing, “The kid’s got stones, but his stuff is short.”  

That’s almost poetic in its power and brevity.

     And now a scout on an outfielder whose name I can’t recall, but

whose lack of fielding prowess I’ll never forget. For the 

uninitiated, an outfielder is said to run a good or bad route to catch 

a fly ball based on how quickly and directly he runs to where the 

ball will come down. The straighter he can run his routes, the more 

balls he can reach and catch. Writing about one apparently terrible 

outfielder, a scout vividly and unforgettably wrote, “He runs his 

routes like a guy being chased by bees.” Bad outfield play will 

never be described better.

     Finally, Bill James has written about having seen a scouting 

report on Phil Plantier with the puzzling letters, “TSH.” When the 

scout was asked what the letters meant, he explained, “Toilet seat 

hitter.” Anyone who remembers Phil Plantier will likely also  

remember that he did stand at the plate as if sitting on the john.

    So I guess I have to say that I’m glad there seems to still be a 

place for scouts, because no numbers will ever replace their words.

Monday, September 1, 2014

"NFL Picks" by Bojo and Dad


Well, to quote the great Jimmy Cannon, nobody asked us, but… Here are 2gensportsden’s picks for the upcoming NFL season.
Interesting that when we started this whole thing, we wrote that we would disagree about “nearly everything.”  Turns out that, for at least the two of us weighing in here, we agree on way more than we disagree. We’ll see in February how right we were, but for now, here’s how we’re calling things:

NFC

North
BOJO: Packers
Reason: Jay Cutler, Matt Stafford, and whoever ends up
taking the majority of snaps in Minnesota will never surpass the A-Rod of football.

DAD: A-gree.

East
BOJO: Giants
Reason: I am a homer/Giants fan.

DAD: Eagles
Reason: I love the Giants as much as my dad did and my sons do (there’s 3 gens), but they’ve stunk up the pre-season, despite the 5-0 record. Plus, it’s hard to argue against Foles and McCoy.

South
BOJO: Saints
Reason: Carolina and Atlanta both take a step back, and Tampa isn’t ready to take that step yet.

DAD: Agree here, too. Only better coach/QB tandem than Payton/Brees would be Belichick/Brady.

West
BOJO: Seahawks
Reason: 49ers fall apart this year, you heard it here first.

DAD: Love the Seahawks. They’ve reinvented team defense.


AFC

North
BOJO: Bengals
Reason: I think Andy Dalton steps up and shows he is at least as average as Joe Flacco, and is capable of playoff wins.

DAD: Steelers
Reason: Roethlisberger has become a sort of “way smarter than he looks” heir to Bradshaw.

East
BOJO: Patriots
Reason: What else is new.

DAD: Yup. Brady is still Brady and they’ve invested picks and free agent money (see "Dollars for Darrelle") revamping the defense.

South
BOJO: Colts
Reason: Tennessee might reel off a couple wins but this division is pretty weak.

DAD: Agree, although you can only go so far on Luck.


West
BOJO: Broncos
Reason: Peyton will find a way.

DAD: Agree here, too.  Bronco off season story is much like the Pats. Knowing they have a superstar QB with limited time left, they went out and bought a defense to round things out.

NFC CHAMP
BOJO: Seahawks

DAD: Absolutely. Love this team.

AFC CHAMP
BOJO: Patriots

DAD: Reluctantly, yes. Hate this team.

SUPER BOWL WINNER
BOJO: Seahawks

DAD: A big yes.

#1 NFC QB
BOJO: Aaron Rodgers

DAD: Agree.

#1 NFC RB
BOJO: Adrian Peterson

DAD: Yup. Year after year, you can’t top this guy.

#1 AFC QB
BOJO: Peyton Manning

DAD: Tom Brady

#1 AFC RB
BOJO: LeSean McCoy

DAD: Agree.

NFL MVP
BOJO: Russell Wilson

DAD: Yes, and I hope we’re right. There’s everything to like about this guy.