Abbott Lines: 7/13 and 7/14
After the legendary Boston Garden closed in 1995, auctioneers looking for salvageable memorabilia found highly valuable pieces in out-of-the-way places: An abandoned darkroom was inches deep in vintage photos of Hall of Famers, while the arena’s original blueprints were stashed in a wooden trunk near the roof. It seems safe to say that no such hidden gems will be stumbled upon when Yankee Stadium closes after this season. There’s an entire company that’s been hunting down and selling vintage Yankees memorabilia at astronomical prices for years. Rather, the Yankees will be selling their stadium’s leftovers. If the team is so inclined, one prospective auctioneer says, it could get a couple hundred dollars for the trash cans. ~ Mac Montandon, New York Magazine, Harvesting Yankee Stadium, 7/6
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Did one of them outperform the other even to a small degree, or are they completely even going into training camp?
RT: Ugh…fuck…picture putting a ball in the center of giant empty room and then dumping two quadriplegics out of their wheelchairs and explaining to them that the only way they’d be placed back into their chairs and fed again was if they were to reach the ball. Then 72 hours later you came back and one of them hadn’t moved at all and was just drooling and flailing around all willy nilly while the other somehow managed to sashay themselves three inches closer than their original position. That one’s Rex. ~ Tirico Suave, What Coaches Really Would Have Like To Have Said: Ron Turner Edition, 7/14
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But it’s not important enough, apparently, for Alex Rodriguez to risk not living up to his own ego. How sad is that?
Some day, A-Rod wants people to watch him walk down the street and say, “There goes the real home run king.” Well, we hate to break it to him, but real home run kings think the Home Run Derby is part of their job description, not somebody else’s problem.
Especially when it’s a Home Run Derby in their very own town — and their very own temple of baseball. ~ Jayson Stark, ESPN.com, By passing on Derby, A-Rod comes up very small, 7/14
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And here’s the kicker, though we doubt Patrick was totally serious about it. Dan has offered not to do the NBC show if Curt Menefee of FOX and James Brown of CBS, both hosts of their respective networks’ pregame shows, have more knowledge about the NFL than Patrick. The flip side of the coin here is that, if Patrick has more knowledge than Menefee and Brown, then Whitlock will give up his column at FOXSports.com.
We understand where Patrick is coming from on this. But we also agree with Whitlock when it comes to passion, not knowledge.
One of our biggest criticisms of the NBC studio show has been that Costas and Olbermann, as baseball-first broadcasters, lack the proper love for the sport of football. And even though both are adept at telling viewers about the things that happen when a gathering of grown men is enhanced by the addition of a ball or varying shapes, sizes, and composition, neither project a Chris Berman-style enthusiasm for the game.
The folks watching at home pick up on that kind of stuff. If the people talking at us are naturally and genuinely excited about the things about which they’re talking, we tend to be more excited, too. And thus we tend to care more about the thing about which the folks on the television are talking about. And, consequently, we want to watch more of it.
We’re not suggesting that NBC needs a guy who’ll whoop and holler during the highlights, but we have believed since Day One that NBC’s show lacks passion. Unlike Whitlock, we’ll wait until the new show debuts before we decide whether Patrick’s presence changes our assessment. ~ Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk, Patrick Throws Down The Gauntlet, 7/14
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Favre has gone underground. My text messages for him and agent Bus Cook went unreturned Friday and Sunday, and he still has not come out publicly and said anything about his desire to return to football. Meanwhile, the Packers have spun their side of the story, making Thompson available to Wisconsin media Saturday and Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy to me on Sunday. …
Thompson said he still has not had a conversation with an NFL team expressing its desire to trade for Favre. He said Favre’s return to the Green Bay locker room “theoretically could be awkward. But football players usually figure out a way to make things work.” …
I talked to one GM the other day who told me, “Ted’s got no choice. If he doesn’t take Favre back, he’s an idiot.”
Oh really? And what if Favre plays one season, retires, and Rodgers tells the franchise to go fly a kite and that he’s never signing another contract with them? What kind of an idiot would Thompson be then? The village idiot, I’d say. …
The Packers’ first practice is two weeks from this morning. I don’t expect Favre to be there. Where will he be? My money’s on Tampa Bay at some time during training camp, but not at the start. We’ll see. The human dynamic is difficult to predict, but there’s no question Favre wants to play and the Packers are going to keep him from playing for a rival. Beyond that, it’s a wide-open field. ~ Peter King, Sports Illustrated, What’s next, Brett? No one knows how Favre-Packers drama will end
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Since I’ve started this site many people have lost their posts with various networks. I never really took joy in say Theismann being replaced on MNF, or Salisbury getting the ax, but I have to say that today I’m pretty happy with this move. For the second year in a row CBS has decided to make an amazingly smart decision for it’s March Madness broadcast (last year it was Gus Johnson in the Sweet Sixteen) and they’ve replaced 34-year veteran Billy Packer. …
In all honesty, I can’t believe he lasted this long. He was like the “Teflon Don” of Broadcasting. None of his controversial acts were ever punished because (and I’m just assuming here) they brought viewers to the Tournament. Only now, just three months after Packer told people to change the channel during the Final Four because the Tar Heels were down 20, is he being let go. This business continues to amaze me everyday. ~ Awful Announcing, After 34 Years, Billy Packer Has Called His Last Final Four With CBS, 7/14
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All I’m asking is that teams show a little fucking imagination. This fixation on the Suns model, which makes apositionality the goal, is too literal. What the Suns teach us is that imagination can get somewhere. Imaginative coaching just might have a shot in this league. It’s not about getting a team full of players who can do everything, but just about organizing what you’ve got in a creative manner. This can stem from having a franchise player whose singular talents demand this approach: That’s the tragedy of Garnett in Minny, probably Iverson in Philly, LeBron right now, and quite possibly Durant for a while. I may not be the ultimate coach, but it’s not so hard to imagine that, if the focal point of a team is a complex individual, the team’s (relatively static) structure must follow suit.
Or, on the most basic level, what about simply creating some new roles that translate across teams? The Anthony Randolph postulate is thus: There clearly now exists a long, springy brand of forward whose offense consists mostly of reaching, floating, and dunking. Very little in the way of polished moves. They grab boards without really banging, block shots, and have the foot speed to stay with the likes of Richard Jefferson or Melo (the former model for “three by elimination”). Of course, the fact that Randolph got drafted by a team that specializes in ignoring positions, not re-defining them, might obscure or impede his particular case.
Why exactly couldn’t this become a new type of SF, who would then be paired with a PF that has some outside shooting? (pressrow note: Like, say, Al Harrington?) Or be included on a team where the PG packs an offensive wallop? When I look at the Raptors this season—and yes, I am usually wrong about the Raptors—O’Neal’s arrival seems like a chance for Bosh to once and for all stop trying to be a “big man,” and instead embrace his legacy as the Next Garnett, in the sense that Young Garnett has only managed to make it as a “big man” because he is absolutely indomitable. ~ Free Darko, Artless Self-Sabotage and Other Pragmatic Vows, 7/14
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Brett Favre today is Derek Jeter tomorrow, a beloved icon synonymous with one of the most storied franchises in American sports. The Packers are eager to start a new life without their lionized quarterback, only their lionized quarterback is calling an audible that has left Green Bay fans rallying outside Lambeau Field and demanding a return of ol’ No. 4.
Now fast-forward to October 2010, with the newly signed LeBron James taking his first wind sprints in Knicks camp and fixing to hurdle A-Rod and claim Jeter’s vacated place as the market’s reigning sports prince. Listen to Cashman and Hank Steinbrenner explain how the Yankees need to get younger and more athletic. Listen to the executives tell the public why the 10-year, $189 million contract ol’ No. 2 signed in February 2001 represents the last nickel the Yanks ever will pay him.
He’s too smart to talk about an impossible situation to be named later. Yet the GM knows how it ended in New York for Patrick Ewing and for Mark Messier. He knows how it all ended for Phil Simms, who walked into Dan Reeves’ office one day thinking he was being summoned to sign footballs for charity, only to be told by Reeves that he was fired. ~ Ian O’Connor, Bergen Record / FOX Sports, No easy ending for Yanks, Jeter, 7/14
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Got any good lines from your favorite writer or blog—or maybe your own? Send them over.
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