3 Days till Opening Day : Get out Your Brooms 1999 Championship

1999 was the 2nd Year OD.  A number of big free agent resignings in typical Steinbrenner fashion and the addition of alleged roid head Roger Clemens made the team a lock to repeat as champs.  They're such a lock, they barely even change the World Series Logo.  Derek Jeter hits .349 in the regular season and the Yanks sweep the Braves in 4, winning their 8th consecutive World Series Game in doing so.

Clinching game 4: Alleged Roid-O Roger versus John Smoltz.  Jimmy Leyritz hits another huge homerun in a pretty uneventful Game.  Mariano Rivera gets the save, and wins the MVP honors.  The Yankees repeat as Champions and have won 3 of the last 4 world Series.

What Else?  Derek Jeter has an MVP Caliber year.  The Yankee Clipper - Joe Dimaggio passes away during the season and the Yankees wear a special arm band for him.  David Cone throws a perfect game.

Napster is absolutely awesome and I'm personally downloading at least 20-30 songs a night over my 56K modem.  Y2K is a big deal but ends up being a total waste of time.

4 Days Till Opening Day : 1998 Title Season

1998 should be forever known as the 1st year OD (Of Dynasty).  This really is the season where the Yankees hit their stride and the core 4 takes form complimented by true champions: Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, and Tino Martinez.

Game 4 Clincher: Andy Pettitte outduels eventual Yankee goat Kevin Brown and the Yanks complete a sweep of the Padres.  Mo earns the save and Scott Brosius is dominant at the plate, earning MVP honors. 

What else?  The 98 season was arguably the best in MLB history for the Yankees team.  They won 114 regular season games, and steamrolled through the playoffs and eventually, Tony Gwynn and the lowely San Diego Padres.  Derek Jeter is hitting his stride as one of the best shortstops in MLB and the core 4 is really taking form.  This also marks the 24^th World Championship for the Yankees, tying them with the Canadiens for most in all sports.  They would smash this record just 12 months later.  David Wells tossed a perfect game and Chuck Knoblauch is the gritty second basemen.  Shane Spencer is electric in his first season with the club, and only further adds to the Yankees dominance of the league. El Duque Hernandez also goes 12-4 and is dominant on the mound with his high socks and crazy leg kick.  Tino Martinez is a offensive force at 1B and even Daryl Strawberry hits over 20 dingers.  1998 is also the 75^th anniversary of Yankee Stadium. 

The stock market is pure gold with the S&P returning 28.6%.  You could turn 10 grand into 100 in no time in the tech IPO bubble.  Life is good in NYC.

MLB Ban on Tins is Pointless

NBC Sports
So wait, players are now completely banned from carrying tins on their person while playing the field or batting.  They can, however, still throw in a fat lip before they get to plate or take the field as long as there is no 'circular tin' impression anywhere on their body.  And now, there's a way crazy people can rat players out online for it?  Carrying a tin and playing baseball is like playing basketball and wearing high tops.  You start out with big league chew, move on to seeds (BBQ was always my personal favorite) and you ultimately throw in your first lip and vomit.  After the first time, it's not that bad, and the buzz is reasonable.  Certainly not a hobby of mine, but a favorite past time of nearly every college and professional baseball player.  I can only imagine a thousand crazed soccer moms out there logging online and calling out sonny boys favorite player for having a fat skoal tin on his butt while batting.  This is just too much.  They going to ban basketball players from stupid tattoos?  Ban hockey players from smashing in each others skulls and knocking out teeth?  The worlds got bigger issues than a 30 year old grown man packing a lip.  This needs to go away.

This Will Look Good Salsa Dancing

So this whole uniform unveiling was a bit of a dud.  The Seahawks look like they're the biggest winner here.  Naturally teams such as the Giants (teams generally referred to as the Old Guard) didn't change much.  If those are the spikes that Victor will be Salsaing in in endzones across America than that would mean the NFL is letting up slightly on their cleat policy.  The gloves are pretty sexy too.  I'm looking forward to more Nike Creep into the league and seeing some teams make some more drastic changes over time.  One important thing to note is, there is an NFL rule that doesn't allow teams to change their uniforms in a certain manner more than once every five years.  Thats pretty stupid but I can role with it.  Certainly not leaving my cube for another 5 so I can sit here and wait...

Is This Quite Possibly the Best Week in Sports?

This has to be arguably one of the best weeks in Sports.  The weeks kicks off with the NCAA National Championship.  If you're like me, you're a couple hundo richer when it's over.   Today you get the NFL Nike Uniform unveiling at 11AM, which is long overdue.  I can’t even remember the last time I owned something by Reebok (Except my mint Eli Manning Super Bowl 42 jersey).  I am actually really pumped for this, and I don’t even know why.  I know, I know, we’re not going to see a uni change as sweet as the above, but we can hope for it.

 Then Thursday through Sunday, you get 4 days of uninterrupted, real time streaming Masters Golf.  Is there any better time in cubicle monkey world than streaming the greatest golf tournament of all time to your desktop and getting away with it?  Everyone knows the guy who actually spent hours figuring out a way to get live shots of Amen Corner while working (hah!) and everyone secretly crowns him monkey of the month for making their lives that much better.  Typical conversation usually goes something like this: "Do I use IE?  How about Chrome?  No?  FireFox is where it’s at?  Should I type HTTPS instead of HTTP?  Do I need to download Quicktime?  How about Flash?  What the hell are Admin rights?" The guy who figures this out is an instant celebrity.

Then it’s Good Friday.  The Yankees get the Rays at 3:10 PM.  Pretty much the perfect post hangover time - right after you wake up still drunk on your day off, hammer down the greasiest seamless gourmet grub of your choice,  and flip on YES with your now filthy, near lifeless paws for 3+ hours of Yankee Baseball while the commercial-less Masters streams to your laptop directly in front of you.

Sunday still counts as the same week to me, and you get to spend all day drinking scotch and crushing beers with your pops and grandpops while you know every single Masters stat because you’ve secretly been watching it all week.  Brilliant.  

So yes - this is absolutely one of the best weeks in sports.

Ahmad Bradshaw has Procedure : Will Miss OTA's

NY Post
Sir Shifty had himself another procedure on them feet of his.  Seriously this guy has got to be 80% terminator.  The other 20% is talking about how he misses Brandon Jacobs (which I find incredibly difficult that anyone will really miss him, despite two rings and memorable audio clips.)  It's April, I'm not that worried, but yea, I'm a little worried.  Ahmad's had so many problems with these feet of his that at some point they're just going to go and he's not going to be able to walk anymore.  Dude probably needs a note when going through the airport with all the nuts/bolts/screws he's got in there as it is.  Don't get me wrong,  I love seeing him stiff arm people to the floor and break out, but this could be a problem.  DJ Ware and Darelle Scott are reasonable #2 backs but aren't goal line or 3rd down guys.  Hopefully, the Giants consider a big, bruising RB in the draft.  They typically go with the Best Player Available, so if a solid RB is on the board at the end of round 1, it would be pretty nice to see them step up and potentially find Ahmad's future replacement that he can be a big brother to.  In the meantime, Get Well Soon Ahmad Bradshaw.  It's your turn to carry the rock full time.

Eli Posts up In South Beach with a Couple Smokes

SocialiteLife
Just kidding.  Everyone's favorite 2 time Super Bowl Champion, and 2 Time Super Bowl MVP took some time to hit the beach with wife and child while waiting for his second Super Bowl ring to be forged. (Don't worry - there are no nude child images) Is that a starfish bathing suit?  Sure hope so.  At least it's not a pair of cut off 20 year old Zubaz pants ala Gronk.  Although I can not tell a lie, I had an epic pair of of Jr Zubaz pants I used to rock with a Starter Jacket and a neon cap.  90's to the max.  After a long day chasing all the girls on the block and making all the dudes look silly in street ball, I'd post up and watch Inspector Gadget and drink milk and eat Chips Ahoy till I was drunk.  Pretty sure I had swag before it even existed. 

In other exciting news today, the Giants brought on another Free Agent safety, Stevie Brown.  This guys got wheels and can compete for a job on special teams with the departure of Devin Thomas.  From Michigan Big Blue to the real Big Blue.  Welcome on board Stevie Brown.

And in Jets Land, Woody Johnson admitted he would seriously consider bringing back Hard Knocks, officially confirming he is the worst owner in the NFL.  Adding to it, the Jets are trying to sign a free agent rugby player to play Tight End.  Something they would obviously do since they already have the more than competent Dustin Keller.  Keep up the good work in Jet Land!

Yankee Media is Bored : If Kentucky Wins it Does Not Mean a Championship

ESPN NY
I'm sitting pretty in my bracket having both Kentucky and Kanas in the National Championship.  Just casually swiping a couple hundo from Fraternity brothers turned Cubicle Jockeys like myself.  Then I come across this correlation between the Yankees and the Kentucky Wildcats.   Whomever actually recognized this fact and told Cashman and the Yankees Media, should get a hobby.  Correlating basketball National Championships to World Series Championships makes zero sense.  The fact that Cashman is biting on this is also pretty awful. I hate when Cashman tries to be cool and pulls publicity stunts like this. He should be following Michael Pineda around the cafeteria and weight room and shaking his head in disgust.  'No Michael - mac and cheese does not contain protein', 'Sorry Mikey, even ARod's GF can bench 135' and on and on.  Anyway how could you not have Kentucky going all the way?  These dudes are HUGE.  Men amongst boys out there.  Even Bill Self knows he's in for it.  Called this team possibly the 'best' he's ever seen.  Writing's on the wall people.  When an elite caliber Kansas coach says something like this and you've got the greatest uni-browed baller out there in Anthony Davis, you're going to win the National Championship- or at least be playing for it.

5 Days of Championships Before Opening Day : 1996

We're 5 days from opening day.  I'm going to pull together a little throwback summary of each clinching game, and some information on the run to the Championship.  We'll start in the first year BD : 1996.(BD = Before Dynasty).  Hope this brings backs some memories for some, and enlightens some of you younger whippersnappers who still couldn't spell your own names when this went down.

Game 6 Clincher: Jimmy Key against the Braves' Greg Maddux in the Bronx.  1996 Greg Maddux is not 1995 Maddux, but is still sporting a 2.72 ERA.  Nobody wants to face Greg Maddux. Not even in Ken Griffey Jr. baseball for SNES.  He's that good.  Jimmy Key on the bump for the Yanks.  This would hands down be the most important moment of Jimmy Key's career.  He's lights out against Maddux, and wins the game.  John Wetteland was still the Yanks closer and would win the series MVP.  Mariano Rivera is the setup man.  Vintage Mo is not yet a term, but he shuts down the Braves.  Joe Girardi, is the man who breaks the tie with a flukey triple. This is still pre-Jorge Posada.

What else? Derek Jeter is the 22 year old ROY after hitting .314.  Chicken wing eating beer pounding Wade Boggs held down 3B, but it was Charlie Hayes who made the final out down the 3B line in foul territory.  Jim Leyritz, in his heydey and before the whole manslaughter rap, hit that bomb in Atlanta to keep the Yankees hopes alive when down 2-1.  A kid from Jersey, Jeffrey Maier, who I actually played against when he was @ NVOT HS in Jersey (he was overrated), catches the most controversial home run in MLB playoff history as the Yankees get by the Orioles (yes they were good) en route to the pennant.  Everyone in NY knew it was a Home Run, no doubt about it.  Bernie is in Center and Paul O'Neill is the RFer.  He is an absolute fan favorite for hating on Gatorade coolers and snapping baseball bats against dugout walls. He probably has the best non-self given nickname of all time.  The Warrior.

Finally - George Costanza dragged the Trophy behind his car in order to get fired.  Seinfeld is still funny and new episodes are being made when this all went down.

Cowboy CB Thinks He Will Stop Cruz : It's a Little Early For This?

NY Post
Brandon Carr, a 6 foot 200 lb corner for Dallas (formerly KC) thinks he's going to stop Victor Cruz in his tracks.  Napoleon here just inked himself a fresh 5 year $50m deal with Dallas and now he's going to stop Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks. Thinks both will have to go 'through him' to score.  Pretty confident both could literally go over him, but I'll leave that for opening night.   At the end of the day, it's just too early for this. This is just silly.  I'm just going stick by my guns and keep staring at the Super Bowl Ring posted a couple days back.