Russell Roubin: Hater at Large (No Pun Intended. He Lost Weight.)

Can a Knicks/Suns/Mets fan really say anything to me? Yes the White Sox beat the Astros in the 2005 World Series and who cares exactly, right? A wise man named Ari Gold on Entourage once said "There are no asteriks in this life, only scoreboards!" Meaning the Rockets 2 championships of the 1990's aren't taken for granted just because Michael Jordan wasn't around. They still have two banners! Now the Suns...

They love to blame the Spurs for everything bad that's ever happened to them. I've heard it all before. The Amare & Boris suspensions when they jumped off the bench in the 2007 Western Conference Semifinals after Robert Horry launched Steve Nash into the scorer's table. Yeah yeah, they would've won the championship if not for that. Well...they didn't. Who won it that year in fact? The Spurs did. In the most boring NBA Finals ever. Yes Lebron you were there.

Don't forget about the 1993 Suns either. They had the best record in the NBA and were arguably better than any D'an-phony led Suns squad of the new millenium. But they fell to...the Bulls in the finals. Tough luck.

How do I know about these feelings? How do I know all this is true about Phoenix? I used to be a Suns fan myself! I used to blame everything on the Spurs and nothing on the Suns defense, or lack thereof rather. But I realized I needed to focus on the Bulls and just in time too: Every Suns fan should have been absolutely embarrassed when the Arizona Cardinals made the super bowl before any of the 21st century Suns teams made the finals. Ultimate kick in the chest, huh? So the Suns are still sporting a cool zero championships. Ouch.
The Knicks? Sigh. Well...

The bright side: Two championships!

Down side: Way back in the early 1970's.

Bright side: They play in New York...

Down side: Absolutely everything else about them.

Stephon Marbury. Isaiah Thomas. Nate Robinson. Latrell Spreewell. And that's just this decade! Back in the 90's, well...all I have to show is this; my favorite dunk of all time.

The Knicks have to be the stupidest organization in the Atlantic division even though the Nets are giving them some competition...so are the Raptors. This is actually a pretty dumb division. Anyway, they plan for Lebron even though it might not even happen. I remember the Suns were expecting Kobe to come to Phoenix via free agency earlier this decade. That didn't happen...obviously. If the Knicks were anywhere near smart, they would BUILD ON WHAT THEY HAVE. David Lee, Wilson Chandler; these are good pieces! Keep em. But instead they wanna give David Lee a one-year contract and I gurantee you he will not be back next year. Sorry Knicks fans.

Why Brandon “Mungo” Sanders is a Hater

It’s hard to go through High school with your favorite sports teams never winning anything. The called third strike in ’06 and the two collapses were the closes the Mets have been to being a world champion. The Jets haven’t won since the Joe Namath days. The Knicks are… The Suns can’t seem to pass the Spurs. And it’s a good thing nobody cares about hockey so the Rangers get a break. Ok yeah, my teams have sucked it up for a while but what gives Brandon the right to make fun of my teams?

Let’s start with a sport I know best, Baseball. It’s a good thing Brandon became a White Sox’s fan. Becoming a Cubs fan has been a bad investment for the past 100 years, but with the exception of 2005, so have the White Sox. Yes they did have an unbelievable run winning 99 games under second year manager Ozzie Guillen and Pitcher Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez became a magician in game 3 vs. the Red Sox. Then the World Series came and they beat the Houston Astros. But did they really win it? The answer is (hypothetically) no. A man who wasn’t even in the World Series beat the Astros, Albert Pujols. Game 5 of the NLCS that year might have changed then Astros closer Brad Lidge forever. He came into the 9th inning with a 4-2 lead and took the Cardinals to there last strike until he completely collapsed. First it was a two strike, two out base hit by David Eckstein. Jim Edmonds then walked and it left Albert Pujols to deliver the heart melting Three Run homerun (it hit the Roof of Minute Maid Park) that gave the Cards the win. The Astros did win the pennant the next game, but their All-Star closer could not return to form. In game two, the Astros were supposed to win that game. They brought in Lidge who gave up the walk-off home run to Scott Podsednik. SCOTT PODSEDNIK!!! Guess how many homeruns this guy had during the 2005 season? 0. Then in game 4, they bring Lidge back in to keep a 0-0 tie, but gives up the game winning hit that gave the White Sox their first world championship in 87 years. Brad Lidge was the losing pitching twice during the 2005 World Series, lost his closer role with the Astros two years later and was traded to the Phillies. The White Sox since then has been to the playoffs once, losing to the Rays in the 2008 ALDS. To recap, in 90 years, they won 1 World Series.

I saved the best for last, Brandon’s favorite team the Chicago Bulls. Now, this team does have a lot of it’s up’s and down’s. They did make the playoffs and had the best record for an expansion team in NBA history. They did win 6 rings when MJ lead the show. Now the down’s:
They did not pull the trigger on a trade that would have brought 11 time NBA All-Star Kobe Bryant.
They did sign Ben Wallace to a 4 year, $60 million contract that forced the trade of Tyson Chandler.
They did say Heads, missing the coin toss that would have landed Magic Johnson.
But what really bugs me about the Bulls fan is that they are convinced that they are great, but was it only because of Michael Jordan?

Jordan was drafted in the 1984 draft. It took 6 years, but the Bulls did win 3 championships from 1990-1993. Then MJ made a move that still confuses me too this day. He announced his retirement from basketball to presume a baseball career. It’s only last one year, but during the season of 1994-1995, the Bulls won no championship (thanks to the NEW YORK KNICKS!!!) After MJ failed at baseball, he came back to basketball and won 3 more championships from 1996-1998.

So… The Bulls didn’t win a championship before MJ came. They haven’t won one since. In fact, they have done some really bad trades (and non-trades) that were made to make a winning franchise. They traded star Elton Brand for the draft rights of Tyson Chandler and drafted Eddy Curry. Eddy Curry now is fighting to get play time for the Knicks and Tyson Chandler was traded when they acquired Ben Wallace. The before mentioned Kobe Bryant trade never happened. And after a season when rookie sensation Derrick Rose led the Bulls to the playoffs, they lose main swingman Ben Gordon to the Detroit Pistons. It seems to me that this franchise will always try to find the next MJ, but with poor management, it seems like they won’t be close to returning to the glory days anytime soon.

So there it is. Brandon, if you are reading this, put down the haterade and realize that my teams are not the only ones that goes through the dark days.

Vintage Pedro

What a season’s it has been. Not to long ago we were an elite team in the NL. Not to long ago we were a base hit from the World Serise. We are now 63-81, 20 GB in the NL East and trying to crawl (can’t afford crutches) to the finish.

But there are times that even in this losing season you just can’t even imagine. Yes the Bruntlett triple play hurt, but I think this is much worst. It’s Pedro Martinez shutting us out for 8 innings. It’s Philadelphia saying “Let’s Go Pedro”. It’s Pedro Martinez being 5-0, matching his win total from last year in 13 less starts. And it’s also how we didn’t even give him a look when he was trying to resign with somebody.

Instead we went with Oliver Perez (3-4, 6.82 ERA, 14 Starts, 3 Years 36 Mil) and Tim Redding (2-6, 5.52, spent time in the bullpen). To Redding’s credit he has pitched well recently but there seemed to be no effort when the season mattered.

Who knows if he would have been pitching like this for a who season. Most likely not. Just the fact we didn’t want to look at him because it seemed we thought he was washed up. He took a 1 Million, 1 Year contract to pitch half a season with the Phillies. Money was no problem. But last night, Pedro proved to us that he is not washed up.

I’m happy for Pedro. He gave us all his heart day everyday on the 4 seasons he spent with us. When he was hurt he tried hard to get back into shape to pitch when he could. We gave him the respect he deserved. If this was a pennant raise, I don’t know how much I would have liked last night. But since it wasn’t, last night was like when Pedro pitched at Shea: Magical.