CLASS-LESS CANADIAN FANS BOO U.S. NATIONAL ANTHEM

The resurgent Boston Bruins are one game away from moving to the second round of the NHL playoffs. Last night the Bruins fought off Montreal's initial onslaught, overcoming a one goal deficit and ultimately winning 4-2 . Chuck Kobasew iced the game with a last minute empty net goal which sent the unruly, disgraceful Montreal fans homes to a well deserved night of misery. Fans flooded the exit gates after the 4th goal and are now looking at a three game to none deficit against their arch rival Bruins.



The behavior of the classless Montreal fans came early- before the game as a matter of fact. The Montreal fans once again booed the US National Anthem as it played. It has become customary for Montreal fans to BOO the anthem of our great country before all playoff games against the Bruins.... Where does this animosity come from? What ever happened to the graceful, classy Canadian players and fans? The link below is from a game in Montreal a few years back but the message is the same- disrespect the US our neighbors to the south--


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2qFfuLy_fs


Sac re bleu Mon Ami!!! ( Is that how you spell that?)



Perhaps no-one needs to look further than the photo above or click the link to another YouTube video below to find an answer as to why Montreal cannot hold a stick- no pun intended -to the US and its cities like Boston and New York.

Don Cherry a Canadian citizen and hockey analyst who once coached the B's understands the class of the Boston sports fan, "sticks it " the Canadian fans:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TxpxFqAV4I&feature=related





Lets' face it the guys in the photo will not be bringing the potato salad to the next Mensa meeting. I wonder where they got those really cool hats....... ( Mensa is an organization of people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population of the world)





I guess one cannot expect much from a country who's second most popular sport behind hockey involves two nitwits with brooms sweeping ice so that a rock can glide to its intended destination. Who the hell ever thought Curling was a sport to begin with? The Maids of Montreal?
Hey Montreal it looks like it may be time to go cry in your Maple syrup.
Hey-- don't forget our next show is on Sunday April 26th. We'll be on for two hours from 9-11 PM EST. We are on WGBB 1240 AM in NY or on the web at: http://www.sportsradiony.com/
Click on the "listen now" graphic at the top of the sportsradiony link and check us out. Call us up at and take us on at (631) 888- 8811 to talk New York and New England Sports.

Our guests will include:Ralph Vacchiano of The NY Daily News, we'll talk a little NFL draft, Big Blue, and NFL topics. Additionally Brian Monzo from WFAN and contributing blogger to www.snyrangers.comwill join us to discuss the NHL playoffs and the Rangers. Looks like a great show- we'll see you on the radio....

- Steve

CITI FIELD: “SHEA" OR “NAY” ?

The Mets ushered in a new era in the history of their franchise when the gates were finally opened for the first regular season game at the new $ 800+ million dollar Citi –Field this week. The new Mets’ home is beautiful and has many of the modern amenities now found in the new “modern retro look stadium”. Wide open concourses, every concession from hot dogs, to sushi, to “five-star” restaurants. HD televisions are everywhere. Brand new bathrooms into which one may enter and use without fear of contracting an illness are now available.

To be sure the stadium is a huge upgrade and big difference from Shea Stadium. Ebbetts Field was used as a starting point to design the new digs. Citi-field is a place that Met fans can be proud of—that’s if they can afford a ticket a snack and maybe a souvenir. With an average cost of a family of four of almost $260, or an increase of over 3% from last year, one has to wonder how many families in an economic downfall will make such a commitment of their entertainment dollar. Sadly, even the home opener against San Diego was about 1000 short of a sell out. Opening day, in a new park, and not even a sell out? What does that say about the economic conditions and ticket prices?

I had an opportunity to be at Citi-Field for the first of two exhibition games versus the Red Sox.
A beautiful facility to be sure but there are many new features to the park that have this writer scratching his head.

Fans enter the park through the Jackie Robinson rotunda: a beautifully designed homage to the first African American to cross the color barrier in MLB. Pictures of Robinson adorn the walls and a huge “42” is on display in front of which many fans have their photo taken. I think remembering Robinson’s feat- as MLB has done by retiring his number throughout the majors - is a tribute which Robinson has obviously earned. Robinson’s achievement was truly remarkable and its impact on baseball and American culture cannot be ignored nor overstated. My question is: why would the Mets have the entrance of their new facility dedicated to a player who never played in a Met uniform? Where are the tributes to the likes of Gil Hodges, Tom Seaver, Tommy Agee, Darryl Strawberry, Doc Gooden and other Mets who actually contributed to World Series championships? The only tribute I saw to actual former Metropolitans was a series of banners hanging from the wall outside of the park to the right of the rotunda entrance, shown in the photo above.

The park has an inordinately high number of seats with “blind spots” or obstructed views of the playing field. One would think with the all the modern technology used such as CAD ( Computer Aid Design) to design new buildings, that each seat would have a view of the entire playing area. For the price a fan pays, shouldn’t the whole field be in view?

Another problem I have with the Stadium is that nothing really “brands” the park as the home of the Mets (except if you want to count the new HR apple and portion of the old score board which is located atop a concession stand in deep center field.)
All the seats are green. One sees orange and black on the outfield wall – the colors of the former NY and current SF baseball Giants. No-where does one see the colors of orange and blue- the Mets colors.

Nooks, crannies, and planned peculiarities of the playing area are now part of all new parks and Citi Field is no different. The right field area ( check out the video) where the field juts out and the wall rises at about a 40 degree angle goes straight then falls about 40 degrees as well as the color of an advertisement matching the color of the orange line trimming the top of the wall will make HR calls a challenge! There are also many small poles in that area which the ball can hit and carom in a million different ways. To me it’s too much “trickeration”. The right field second level harkens back to the old Tiger stadium where porch actually hangs over the field of play. A ball hitting the façade in that area can bounce off and back into play – it is not a HR.

I did not have the chance to buy any concessions as the lines for food were waaay too long. The five star restaurant looked like it had empty seats though. By the way, when did the American pastime go from $10 seats and a hot dog to $250 seats and five star restaurants?

Is Citi-field an upgrade over Shea? Of course – at a cost of over $800 million much of which is taxpayer dollars—it should be. Could it have been designed better with the average fan, the backbone of baseball in mind? Absolutely!

To that we say: "Pay ball"! Errrrr Play Ball!

-- Steve

Starting NYNE 3-22

Paul, Alex and Steve cover the WBC and Red Sox with Boston Herlad columnist Sean McAdam. Then switch over to some NCAA Tournament talk to finish out the show. Click here to listen to last night's show.

WBC- It May Not Mean Much To Fans, But It Does To Players

One of the best scenes you could see on a baseball diamond occurred 3 days ago. Team USA squared off against Team Puerto Rico. The same Team Puerto Rico that mercy ruled the boys in Red, White and Blue the previous game. But this was a new game although Team USA was staring down the barrel of another loss to Puerto Rico.

With his team down by a run and on the brink of elimination, David Wright strolled to the plate in the bottom of the 9th, with the bases loaded. Wright proceeded to drop a single directly down the right field line, scoring 2 runs and advancing the USA into the Semi-Finals of the WBC.

The players rushed the field as if they had just won the World Series. It was dog piles galore. And I'm sure every owner from every team those players were on, let out a collective gasp when the ruckus ensued.

Alot of people around baseball and a majority of baseball fans don't seem to care much for the WBC. I've been wondering, why? In the picture above, it shows 4 players celebrating victory. Those 4 players are David Wright(a Met), Shane Victorino(a Phillie), Derek Jeter(a Yankee) and Kevin Youkilis(a Red Sock). Only because of the WBC would you ever see this happen. Players from teams who quite literally hate each other, jumping up and down like little leaguers for one cause. But unfortunately for the players, they had only themselves to celebrate with. Only 30,000 fans attended this game and although the majority were face painted with red, white and blue colors, it was for Puerto Rico. Kevin Youkilis to notice of this:

“I don’t think we have enough pride in this,” Youkilis said yesterday at Team USA’s workout. “It’s kind of a sad day - and I know it’s a tough time (economically) to buy tickets - when you see that. I don’t think there’s as much pride in the USA as there is for these other countries. There was a whole section of Dominican fans (Sunday) night just here to watch baseball. I think we’re losing a little bit of pride for, quote, ‘America’s national pastime.’ ”

Youkilis went on to say:

“It definitely hurts a little bit to know that you’re always the away team in your own country,” he said. “There are some good people out there, but it would be nice to have a lot more of those people chanting ‘USA,’ holding up American flags. That’s the one thing we didn’t see much of the other night - there were more Puerto Rican flags than American (flags).”

Hopefully, after such a dramatic win and such an exuberant celebration, these players will get the fans they deserve.

-Alex

The Steroid Era: Blame This One on the Players and the MLBPA

Many of baseball historians will tell you the sport has evolved in the past century and can be broken down into different eras. The Dead-ball Era, “The Pre Jackie Robinson Era” the time period before African Americans were allowed into MLB , The WW II era during this period many of the sport's greatest players, including Joe Dimaggio and Ted Williams went off to fight in the war while in the prime of their careers. In 1968 Bob Gibson recorded a 1.12 era the lowest ever for any pitcher pitching 300 or more innings in a year. The following year the mound was lower thus decreasing the pitcher’s advantage. Now we are stuck with The Steroid era.
This era I blame on the players. Previous eras were not in the players control. Societal factors and rule changes incorporated by MLB forced all players to play “on the same level playing field”, and the statistics of those eras were by products of the influences outside the players control.

But steroids are different- no-one was putting a gun to these guys’ heads to take a needle and stick it in their behind. Players voluntarily looked for and administered these performance enhancing drugs to increase their chance to make it to the big leagues, inflate their stats, and cash in. Anyone using steroids after 1991- yes-1991violated the edict sent out by Fay Vincent, placing steroids on the banned substance list.

I fell in love with the game of baseball in 1967 - the “Impossible Dream” season of the Boston Red Sox,when a guy named Carl Yastrzemski – “ Big Yaz Bread” as we called him- was winning a Triple Crown and carrying the Sox single handedly on his back

The first memories I have of watching any sporting event are from the second to last game of that season when Sox and Twins tangled for the AL title It must have been a big deal I was almost seven; my bigger brother all my uncles, my grandfather and even my mother ans sisters were watching it.

The Sox were a game behind the Twins and needed to win the last two games of the season and pray for a Detroit loss to win the AL pennant. Yaz went 7 for 8 in those last 2 games with a HR and 6 RBIs. Even though the Sox went on to lose the WS to Bob Gibson and Cardinals in 7 games against I was hooked on baseball.

For my First Holy Communion gift I had to have a baseball uniform. I wore it every time we would play pick up games. I probably looked rlike a real idiot but I didn;t care I was Yaz in that uniform!

Since then I have gone to hundreds of games , burned away hours of emotional energy. and spent enough money on tickets, MLB merchandise, tv game packages, and other MLB licensed products to fund the payroll of a small market team.

Much of Baseball’s heritage and history is in its records and numbers. More so than any other sport Now In the midst of this steroid era, with the all the records being challenged and broken by cheaters like Barry Bonds Mark McGire Roger Clemens, and now AROD I think it’s fair to say that you and I- the fan- have been “Bernie Maddoffed”


We’ve been victims of a fraud perpetuated by the players, owners, the Players union and those two crooks who run the union Gene Orza and that fat pant load Donald Fehr.

Chicks dug the long ball so everyone looked the other way when HR numbers were escalating at rate faster than my 401 (k) is plunging. We fans were duped by the great HR race of 1998 featuring Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire who now doesn’t want talk about the past.

Bonds going on trial for perjury pertaining to steroid testimony is our new HR king. Clemens was supposed to be the greatest pitcher of his generation is looking at a similar fate. Now AROD, who was supposed to be the guy to put a clean face on the sacred HR record has admitted to using steroids. I don’t know about you but I as a fan am pretty ticked and feel like I have been screwed and ripped off by MLB- now MLB’s credibility ranks right up there with that of professional wrestling. At least with wrestling everyone knows it’s staged.

Bernie Madoff and mlb: two peas in a pod

Somehow those day from 1967 seem even longer ago than they really are and for that I am really pissed off. I want a refund! Mr. Obama, can you send me a stimulus check and bail me out too?
- Steve

Starting NYNE show February 22

This past week's show featured a special bonus hour of "The Starting NYNE". WIth Paul and Alex, two keys members of the team, out due to illness Steve Rogan and Mike Carver welcomed in special guest host Tom Goren to join the show for the evening.

To listen to the show click here:

http://www.carverradioproductions.blogspot.com

In the first hour the guys went back and forth on the AROD steroid story and included clips from the press conference he held at Yankee camp. Chris Carlin of SNY, pre and post game host for the Mets broadcasts this year, and co-host of Loudmouths and Beer Money joined the program to talk about AROD as well as the upcoming Met and Yankee seasons.

In the second hour the guys talked a little NCAA hoops and the upcoming Tournament in March. Dave Goren, 2008 North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year and NCAA expert chimed him with his opinion of the potential final four, dark horses, and possible players of the year.

In the second half of the hour the guys played a little "on-board/over-board". During this segment current topics are mentioned and each member of the "NYNE" either agree or disagree. Complete with sound effects from our crack engineer MIke Carver, the segment is always informative and fun.

Steve and Mike would like to extend a special thanks to Tom and his brother Dave for coming on the show on such short notice. The NYNE is looking forward to getting Paul and Alex back snd being at full strength on March 8th, the date of their next show.

Steelers The Best This Year; But Have They Transplanted The Pats as "The Team of the Decade"?

As the curtain of the NFL 2008 season has fallen for the last time (not including the Pro-bowl which garners as much interest as C-Span re-runs) we are left pondering an incredible finish to a Super-bowl which gives the Pittsburgh Steelers an unprecedented Sixth Championship ring.
Kudos and congratulations to the Steelers, its coaching staff, the Rooney family and the city of Pittsburgh.
With the sixth Superbowl win, Pittsburgh now holds sole claim to the team with the most victories in the Big Game. The greatest team in NFL history? If the sole criterion is number of SB victories then of course The Steelers have to be on the short list. One could not complain if such claims were made by the Pittsburgh faithful and pundits far and wide.

Now I see there are writers, who obviously have nothing left to write about, crowning the men of Steel as the greatest Team of this decade prying the Patriots away from the top spot.

The decade began in 2001 ( not 2000 as the rest of the world would like to mistakenly believe) and still has two years to NFL seasons to go before it is over. Since the 2001 season let’s begin with the most obvious facts:
1. The Patriots have won 3 Super-bowls the Steelers have won 2. The Pats won back to back titles.
2. The Patriots have been to 5 AFC Championship games of which they won 4. ( Only loss was to Indianapolis). They also appeared in 4 Superbowls and won 3.
3. The Steelers have been to 4 AFC CHampionship games and went 2-2 in the same time span. Since Heinz Field has opened the Steelers are 1-2 in AFC Championship games.
4. Of the 4 AFC Championship games won by the Pats, 2 were won against Pittsburgh IN Pittsburgh. The second win was a blow-out by the Pats.
5. What a difference a year makes; last year the Pats went 18-0 before losing to the Giants in the SB and The Steelers bowed out of the Playoffs in the first round to the Jaguars.
6. OH yeah- let’s not forget the regular season........ in 2003-2004 the Pats won 18 games in a row- in 2006-2007 they broke their own record by winning 19 in a row, This accomplishment after the Pats had lost Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis- the Defensive and Offensive coordinators through the 2004 season.
7. Since 2001 season the Pats have won 97 games in the regular season- a winning percentage of 76% and the Steelers have won 85 games or 66%.

8. The Pats have made the post season 6 times with as record of 14-3 while The Steelers have gone to the post season with an 8-2 record.

The best team in NFL history? The Steelers have won the most SB’s and should be considered the elite franchise in the historical context of the league- but this decade? Puh-lease can we wait until the end of the decade and objectively look at the numbers. Right now The Pats are without question, still the Team of the Decade.

PS- For all the "Patriots Cheated" readers let’s remember that the Steelers of the 70's have already been "outed" as to using steroids- perhaps all teams used steroids back then. But at the same time we know many teams also illegally videotaped other teams.

- Steve