Melancholy Musings of an Apathetic NY Sports Fan
Baseball, Basketball, Football, Major Sports
Posted by Russell A, January 31, 2008 - 9:29 am
I find myself with a lot of free time these days. And quite honestly, I’m not sure what to do with it.
Having grown up around the NY sports scene over the last 25 years, we’ve been spoiled. The Bronx gave us that dominant Yankee’s run in the late 90’s – early 2000’s. To pass time between the triumphant summers under the placid leadership of Joe Torre, we were able to fill the colder months of the year with the glory of the The Riley and JVG Lunchpail Knicks. It wasn’t always pretty, but the boys in Blue and Orange kept us on top of the standings. No one in NY will ever be able to forget the Rangers finally winning in 1994. I still get chills when I hear Howie Rose’s famous call from Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.” “Matteau Matteau Matteau… And the Rangers have one more hill to climb baby!!” Even the Parcells’ led Jets made it to an AFC Championship and were 30 min away from taking Gang Green to Superbowl XXXIII in Miami. It was truly the best of times for this Yanks/Knicks/Jets/Rangers Fan. 
Then gravity took hold. Dolan bought the Knicks and gave control of the team over to NY’s own version of George W Bush. He put all of Knick Nation in a collective sleeper hold by giving the keys to the Garden to a man who just finished driving a successful Basketball league into the ground. As if sinking the Knicks was not enough, Dolan also managed to sink the Rangers into a banal level of mediocrity usually reserved for teams with payrolls 1/3 their size. If Daddy Dolan ever decided to spin off his MSG holdings, the stock chart would look something like this.
George Steinbrenner came back from his forced exile, stopped letting people who know baseball run the team and started doing his best Peter Angelos impersonation trying to build a good fantasy team rather than a solid lineup card. The Yankees became the land where overrated, overpriced, over the hill players went to die. Yes, they kept winning, but it was getting boring. And some upstart team always seemed to capture the magic and win it all this year leading to another frenzied off season to find the next overrated former superstar to pay $20MM a year
Conditions have hit bedrock this winter. The Knicks are the undisputed laughingstock of the league. The star player just walks away from the team, only to come back to start 3 games later, much to the chagrin of the rest of the “team”. Isiah Thomas might be up for an Emmy for best comedic performance when he went in front of the cameras to say that, “Eddy Curry is still the cornerstone for this Franchise”. Wow. Just…. Wow. Meanwhile, after first being forced to watch the douchebags from Boston trample to another Series victory, now we are forced to see these assholes donning their Red Sox hats all over the streets of Manhattan. And we can’t do anything about it. They are even selling Red Sox hats with that vile “B” on the front at local sporting good stores. At one time that would have been met with the same indignation as hitting on women at a “Take Back the Night” Rally. (Trust me, it’s been done).
Let’s not even start on the Superbowl. The Patriots are on their way to a perfect season, being led by a coach who left us at the altar less than a decade ago. Who are they playing? Only the team whose name adorns the Stadium my beloved Jets play in on Sundays. This Superbowl cuts hard. Now, here I sit trying to avoid the Mediabowl highlights for the big game this Sunday. But it’s hard to avoid. If I have to see another shot of Strahan’s face (Queue up Dr Dre’s famous line from “Dre Day”) or Marsha Brady’s nauseating smile all over the airwaves I am going to die. So here I am, wasting away time writing all you loyal fans of DeepSlant Nation hoping you understand this NY Sports fan’s pain. As I continue to long for the days of yester year…
Holler if you hear me.
Share