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Back in a few….

So they said farewell last night to Yankee Stadium. Some people could care less others in my opinion care a little too much. I could go on about feeling sentimental for concrete and steel but that is not what I am here for today. Yesterday was a farewell to “The Stadium” and all that came to pass there. A chance to look back and reflect on all the wonderful moments in its history and a chance for fans to not only show their appreciation but for the Yankees organization to thank its fans as well as stick out their chest a big and blow some hot air.

I just have one question:

Last night a Salute to the Stadium? A Proper SportsRoids Salute to Joe Torre

Where was Joe Torre? I know he is in L.A. taking the Dodgers to the post season but where was Joe Torre? There was no Joe Torre in the video montage. No one even mentioned his name. How do you say goodbye to Yankee Stadium, recognize everyone that came from start to finish including all of Joe Torre’s players who won those 4 World Championships and all the celebrated managers that came before him and NOT MENTION HIM?

That is just terrible. I mean they dragged out a bunch of stiffs to represent every dead Yankee legend as well as spouses and children of deceased players. They had some of the oldest living Yankees in attendance and no Torre? Even Mattingly was missed if you blinked. That is a disgrace to me, one of Joe Torre’s biggest and toughest critics. The man gave the team everything he had. Opened his entire personal life up to the team and its fans. Ate slept and breathed NEW YORK for 12 seasons and that is how you say goodbye?

Ye 'ole Yankee Stadium. Majestic, but a Proper Farewell?

by The Boinger

Joe Namath

What is the identity of the New York Jets? Answer: They have no identity. Not Joe Namath, not the sack exchange and not Fireman Ed. Not even the great Brett Favre is not going to fix nor change that. The Tuna couldn’t fix it and even Belichick saw the writing on the wall and bolted for New England. There is no long succession of great QB’s. There is no history of a strong run/pass oriented offensive/defensive juggernaut. It is just not there. The sack exchange? They have long since been forgotten. No one has stepped up to carry on that tradition. The front office has had one bad draft after another and continues to try pull the wool over the fans eyes with big NO NAME head coaches. They even tried to fool everyone into thinking that they were serious about moving back to NY. Them sharing a stadium with the Giants further entrenches them as the “second team” in this city. When Donald Trump has lunch with Bill Gates do they share a salad? NO! So why should the Jets be sharing a stadium with the Giants that is no where close to their fan base?

The New Meadowlands Stadium

It gets harder and harder to even want to root for them anymore. If you are lucky enough to get tickets you still have to drive out to that hole in the swamp they call home. They need a major change. New ownership would be great. A new home IN NEW YORK would be even better. Perhaps they could find some empty space in the Bronx?

by The Boinger

New York Jets

Imagine heading into the Bronx to watch the game. You get down to 161 and River, walk along the L and down through the gates. You peek out through the tunnel and see the field and the palyers and as you emerge from the belly of the cement cathedral your ear ear drum rumbles when you hear the crowd chant J – E – T – S JETS JETS JETS!!! Come on think about it. The New Bronx Bombers! A whole new stadium for gang green. No more crossing over the bridge (or two) no more sitting in traffic (on the NJTP) and no more “Lets go Yankees”?

The Jets need a new place to call home. A place to call their own. Who knows maybe even new uniforms and a new name. They could call themselves the Bronx Bombers and change their logo to the stealth fighter and make their uniforms black or maybe even camouflage. The “old” Yankee Stadium site would be perfect. Forget about midtown what a bad idea that was. Imagine showing up in the boogie down for some FOOTBALL! How awesome would that be? A new stadium complete with all the fan friendly amenities. The Weeb Ewbank Rotunda. The Emerson Boozer bar. The Gang Green Gridiron Grill. The Mark Gastineau Promenade. O’Brien’s Irish Pub where they only serve green beer. Vinny’s Pizza. Joe Namath Plaza. They could even put in a gay bar and call it the “Sac Exchange” HA!

Tom Brady as well as SportsRoids Salutes Pink Hat Nation

We’ve been doing alot of work here at SportsRoids over the past month. It has been pretty demanding keeping up on and creating new content for our readers, but I would say that is the bulk of what we do. We get you new ideas new stories, and we never “copy and paste” like many other websites do. It is all to often that you’ll see a blog whose owner no doubt is only trying to make money on clickthroughs or Internet advertising campaigns and has devoted no time to producing original content for thier page. This is a sad concept but many people use it. SportsRoids will never just regurgitate some other sites content, because we believe that takes away from what we are, which is ourselves. We want you the reader to get chance to really know us. I am very happy to report that we at SportsRoids have found another blog which share this “original content only policy”. That blog is call Pink Hat Nation. These guys knew how a great sports blog is supposed to be run, yet they must have been chewed up by the rigors of running the site. Pink Hat Nation was a great friend to Sportsroids.com our beginning stages, We will leave up this salute in Memory of the late great Pink Hat Nation. I suggest that everyone clicks through here and pays their respects to this site, while it is still up. Pink Hat Nation’s articles and posts were top notch. Pink Hat Nation we Salute you!

Go Sox!!

The only disgrace in Boston is Boston is itself! The organization, both ownership and front office personnel,  the media and team. Especially Curt Schilling the most outspoken advocate in the world for egregious acts of wrong doing against athletes who mysteriously remained quiet during his entire tenure as a teammate yet somehow found a way to delicately trash Manny on “The Big Show with Glenn Ordway”. Are we to believe that they suffered for the last 8 years with Manny Ramirez? The guy was a disgrace to the uniform before they brought him in. He loafed and complained and could not play LF when he was in Cleveland, what made you think it would be any different in Boston? Now that he is hitting .400 yes FOUR HUNDRED in L.A. and single handedly carrying that team to the playoffs they want to throw him under the bus and claim somehow they are the victim here. You did it to yourselves!
Now certainly we all know that this guy made the Red Sox. When they all embraced him and his idiocy in 2004 they made that their identity calling themselves the “idiots”. That was their mantra; HELLO? Earth to Boston. You did not create the monster, you let it out of the cage. Here we are four seasons and two World Championships later and somehow all of the sudden he’s not worth it anymore. Why?
Shawn Chacon shoved Astros GM Ed Wade to the ground and was immediately suspended from the team. Let me repeat that: IMMEDIATELY SUSPENDED FROM THE TEAM! A day after his suspension the Astros put Chacon on waivers so they could release him and terminate his contract. Now who knows what really happened or why it happened. It does not matter. You shove a team official to the ground and your are out of here. Imagine going to work one day and just shoving the guy who hired you to the ground would you expect to be back the next day?
A week later in Houston Manny Ramirez shoved traveling secretary Jack McCormick to the ground over an “unfortunate misunderstanding” regarding tickets. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is the same Manny Ramirez who took a swing at Kevin Youkilis in the dugout in Boston just a few weeks prior. Why was he not immediately suspended from the team and sent on his way? WHY? Why was Boston even allowed trade this guy and get something back in return for him? If this were the NFL do you think Roger Goodell would have stepped in regarding “personal conduct”? Where was Curt Schilling during all this? Oh right he was still talking about leaving Boston and going to pitch for the Yankees because he was upset with the organization too. I guess they must have kissed and made up.

Manny was always just Manny

by The Boinger

David Wright and Jose Reyes of the New York Mets.

Lately, I have heard a lot of talk about breaking up the “Big 3″ or as one local sports icon calls them the “troika”. Jose Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Beltran are hardly “big” these days. However, I am not going to get on them for the Mets woes this year. The Mets lost their sub par 13 million dollar closer and have been piecing together a run at the division with nothing short of smoke and mirrors since. This team was much better than they played before Willie Randolph was fired and proved that they had quit on him since then.
“Breaking up the big 3″ I must say it is an interesting proposition. Yet, this is not Milwaukee. The likelihood of that happening is close to nil if not less. There is no foreseeable fire sale ala Florida Marlins. Oh and there is no way Omar Menaya is going to ever give in to letting anyone think anything he did was not “genius”. Let’s think about this though. All the talk about “breaking them up” suggests that only one of them must go. That somehow some way all that is wrong with the NY Mets falls squarely on the shoulders of one of if not all three of these young men. Almost to suggest that they are somehow in it together, conspiring to fail. That just is not the case.

David Wright of the New York Mets

David Wright goes out every night, parks his lunch pail at third base and gives you everything he has got. Then, win or lose, goes back in the clubhouse and takes it on the chin in front of the cameras and the dingo dog NY media. In the midst of all this “pressure” he quietly and without ceremony puts up MVP like numbers and delivers his share of game winning hits. Trade Wright? No way! This guy is the face of the franchise. This is the guy that Yankees fans wish they had at 3rd base most nights. Heck the Jets wish he could play QB. Bottom line this guy could get you back big dividends but its hard to replace the guy that leads the team in rbi’s every year in hopes of fixing what’s wrong with everyone and everything else. He is not going to be your three hitter or clean up hitter. Leave that to Omar’s next high priced prima donna. Any team would welcome a guy they could roll out there every single day in the 5th spot and not have to think twice about it.
Carlos Beltran goes out every night and gets as close to Citi field as he can. Either he is really excited to play there next year or he is intent on scaling the wall and escaping into the hat with the big apple. Perhaps he will pull another rabbit out of is ass and start hitting again like he did when he “earned” himself his current contract. Now he just may be able to do that if the Mets can get over the hump and into the playoffs. Are you willing to wait for that? Can you find someone to eat his contract? Maybe you can work out a deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for Gary Matthews Jr. When the Mets are down to their last strike and need a base hit who do you want up in that spot? Carlos: “SWING THE BAT MARY”

Jose Reyes of the New York Mets

Jose Reyes. Jose Reyes. Jose Reyes. Jose Reyes goes out there every day and I just don’t know what he’s doing. People say “he’s exciting”. Why because he’s fast? Those are the same people that love to hate the Yankees and kill Derek Jeter any chance they get. The same ones who used to say “the Yankees are boring”. Well if losing is exciting I would rather be bored to death! If throwing a tantrum on the field, acting like a baby and laughing at your teammate when he makes an error in your stead are “exciting” then I surely would rather have died from boredom then to have had witnessed that from a Major Leaguer. I know what you are thinking. That I want the Mets to trade Jose Reyes. Not the case. Could they? Yes. Could they get anything back for him? Yes. In fact they could get a lot. Though I do not think this is the right move. Trading Reyes must yield a star in return. A guy that can lead off, set the table, steal bases, score runs etc. Nate Mclouth?

By Madison Mad’nuff

Pittsburgh Panthers Coach Dave Wannstedt.

As the Pitt Panthers continue their season one has to wonder if Wannstedt was the right choice for  the University.  To me Waanstedt is just another big name hire that most people knew would not work.  When you are a Pittsburgh guy like Wannstedt is, and are beloved by the city it makes it easy for Pitt to hire the guy, but why?  This is eerily reminiscent of the Nebraska Cornhuskers the only difference is Wannstedt has not been fired yet.  But if he does not produce this year I would expect him to be. When you remove a guy like Walt Harris who (I will admit) couldn’t go all the way or recruit the best but still had the ability to build a program; and replace him with a big name you better have that guy deliver and Wannstedt has not. So when do you pull the plug? I say now before Pitt loses 6 more games. Walt Harris was able to come up with some big time names at least, Larry Fitzgerlad, Antonio Bryant, Latiff Grim,  Keavan Barlow, and Wannstedt has not .  To Me Waanstedt was on his way out last year but then Pitt pulled of the miracle and bet WVU. Which earned Wannstedt another shoot to win 5 or 6 games and get fired.  Walt Harris at least had a winning record, Pitt needs to end this and pick up or hire a proven coach from a smaller school, “Frank Solich anyone”? “I’m just sayin”

I sit here scouring the free agent list for a back up QB , TE and “FLEX OPTION”. Diligently examining the statistical analysis of J.T. O’Sullivan, Tony Scheffler and Chansi Stuckey, when suddenly it hits me – my daughter’s left fist! HA! She caught me pretty good too right across the side of my head painfully knocking my glasses into the bridge of my nose. After I sent her upstairs sobbing from a fairly ogre like verbal lashing I realized this article had been spawned. Why DO we care so much about sports?
Perhaps, like me, the rest of you are former athletes of some sort. You played sports at any cost from the minute you were old enough to swing a stick and hit a rock right up to either a realization of it having passed you by or a minor/major disappointment of some sort. At which point your passion for video games took over and you became a “gamer” or madden junky like me. Which later evolved into fantasy sports. Chances are somewhere in between there you were and maybe still are a beer league softball player or even a flag football coach or an assistant on the local varsity squad. At any rate even if it is just watching your favorite team on television every night for some reason we all care a great deal about sports.
Even as I sit here writing this I must have some form of sports entertainment channel siphoning in on the television. But why? It really makes no major difference in our lives does it? Sure it feels good to root for a winner. It is nice to see your team win. Even better to see them win a championship. But do they care as much about you? They would not play for free I guarantee you that. None of us would work for free, would we? Although the satisfaction you get from the feeling of accomplishment after actually playing and practicing and earning a win is second to none.
Now if you are out there playing and having fun regardless of the outcome and enjoying getting some physical release then good for you. You are way ahead of the rest. Yet there are still those of us who throw a bat in disgust when making an out in softball. I mean the ball is the size of a grapefruit and is practically put on tee for us it comes in so slow. We are the same ones who throw the “joy stick” down and hit the reset button when our life expires or digitally enhanced QB throws an interception. We were the same ones who broke a broom stick in half wrapping it around a pole after striking out in a stick ball game in the 5th grade. Hopefully we have all outgrown that stage or at least recognize that at some point that behavior is just plain silly even unnecessary.
Well, however it was you came upon this I just hope you can keep it all in front of you. Enjoy it. Have fun with it. Play to win but keep what is important in the foreground. Okay I have to go now and apologize to my daughter and teach her how to sneak an elbow in underneath the basket when boxing out.

p.s. I picked up Tony Scheffler and dropped Todd Heap.

It might be time to say goodbye to Todd Heap as a Starting Fantasy TE.