Not so fast, Rex

Before the pre-season began, coach Rex Ryan of the J-E-T-S, Jets Jets Jets, declared openly and vehemently that the Jets were going to win the Super Bowl. That’s great! No reason to play the season. No one gets hurt. Send the Lombardi Trophy over to the New York Jets and let’s wait until next year. There is only one problem. The pre-season is showing the rest of the NFL that the Jets need to step up if they want to be champs.

After last night’s lost to the Redskins, the Jets will now have to wait until their season opener on Monday night, September 13, against the Ravens to win their first game in the new Giants Stadium – oops, sorry, the New Meadowlands Stadium. Yeah! Sharing a stadium with the Giants. What a great idea!?!?!?

The offense looks terrible. Sanchez is making many bad reads and interceptions look more likely than touchdown passes. LT looks like he still has something left in the tank but memories of him on the sidelines 2 years ago in uniform when San Diego needed him in the AFC Championship game, doesn’t sit well with me. Greene has been unimpressive and McKnight carries the ball as if it wants to bite him. Can you say fumble, boys and girls. It took the offense to the end of the 3rd quarter to score a touchdown, I guess it’s easy to score against the Redskins when their first-team defensive is on the bench.

The defense looks good but losing Pitoitua, the gentle giant from Washington State, will hurt. I have no inside information but it is inconceivable to me that Revis won’t play. But, he won’t be the same player he was last year. Training camp is brutal and long but necessary. He won’t be in shape and the total shutdown of receivers on Revis Island will look more like trying to stop immigrants on the Mexico/Arizona border.

Are you confident with the kicker? Yesterday, Rich Folk, who had a 64.3% FG accuracy last year with the Cowboys, missed a PAT. Kickers are like baseball closers. There are very few good ones and a necessary evil. You live and die with your kicker. And, frankly, Rich Folk is not a good one. The only thing you really need to know about Folk is that the Cowboys cut him in December for a kicker, Suisham, who had been cut by the Redskins a few weeks earlier.

For what it’s worth, that’s Bubba’s SportsEye View.

What's up with the Pelf?

What is up with Mike Pelfrey?

A month ago, he was considered an ace and now, he's in the Ollie Perez category.

What a bummer!

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The Boss and The Voice

New York Yankees lost 2 legendary people the last 2 days; The Boss, George Steinbrenner and The Voice, Bob Sheppard.

Most people don’t remember that Bob Sheppard was also the voice of the New York football Giants. I would always got a kick out of him at Giants Stadium whenever Phil Simms was sacked. Bob Sheppard would announce, “ball carried by Simms, tackle by…!”. It was as if Simms was running for yardage instead of his life.

With Steinbrenner, you either loved him or hated him. I’ll say this about him though, he wanted the Yankees to be winners and he did everything he could to make that happen. And it happened. Seven times during his reign, the New York Yankees were World Champions.

For what it’s worth, that’s Bubba’s SportsEye View.

Please forgive me, Jeff Francouer

 

I play Fantasy Baseball. In our league, Jeff Francouer was available. He had hit in the first 10 games for the Mets this season.He was batting .457 with 3 homers and 7 RBI. He had 6 multiple hit games and was on a tear.

Then, I picked him up and put him in my lineup.

His first game in my lineup was Saturday’s 20-inning game against the Cardinals. He went 0 for 7 and dropped his BA from .457 to .381 in one day. In fact, since he has been in my lineup, he hasn’t gotten a hit yet. He is hitless in his last 4 games and is now batting .302.

I’m sorry, Jeff, but it’s all my fault! Please forgive me! And please, get a hit tonight.

BTW, I drafted Pelfrey but decided to drop him before the season because he had such a horrible spring. Currently, Big Pelf is 3-0 with a 0.86 ERA, 16 strikeouts and just for good measure, 1 save. You’re welcome, Mike!

For what it’s worth, that’s Bubba’s SportsEye View.

Derek Jeter

 

Monday night, I had dinner with my brother-in-law and we reminisced about a Yankee game we went to many years ago. On Sunday, he had gone to the new Yankee Stadium with a group from his job. He mentioned that you can purchase all kinds of memorabilia from Charley Steiner Collectibles being sold at the stadium. He said we should have kept the ticket stub from that day many years ago because it was an important day in Yankee history. Derek Jeter had come to New York.

As Mister Peabody would say, “Sherman, let’s set the Wayback Machine to June 2, 1995. That’s where we’ll find Derek Jeter playing his first game in Yankee Stadium.”

It was a cool June Friday evening. We had 4 tickets in the upper deck in right field for the game between the Yankees and the California Angels. It was the beginning of a long home stand for the Yankees after returning from the west coast. Jeter had been called up and played 3 games in Seattle before making his home debut. He replaced Tony Fernandez who was put on the DL. He was 3 for 11 with 1 RBI in Seattle but in his home debut, he was 0 for 3. He was sent back to the minors on June 13 and played 2 other games in a September call-up. He played a total of 15 games that year and batted .250 with 0 homers and 7 RBI.

In 1996, Jeter played in all 162 games, batted .314, won the AL Rookie of the Year award, and won the first of his 5 World Series Championships. And, the rest, they say, is history.

For what it’s worth, that’s Bubba’s SportsEye View.

As we enter week 3

 

I haven’t blogged for a week because I didn’t want to continue bashing the Mets. So, I laid low and now I’m calling for the firing of Jerry Manuel. As a manager, he’s not as bad as Art Howe, but he’s not nearly as good as Bobby Valentine.

Mets should fire him and Omar Minaya. It’s time for a change. Mets fans no longer think this team can win. Everyday, we look for signs of life but there is none.

They won the 20-inning game in spite of themselves. The Cardinals gave up using 2 position players as pitchers in the final 3 innings and all the Mets could manage was 2 runs. How bad is that!!

Ike Davis debuts tonight for the Mets and the fans are going gaga. He’s hitting great in AAA. But, this is the big leagues. We’ll see. But, at this point, it doesn’t look like the Mets are going to vacate the cellar this year unless they fire Manuel.

For what it’s worth, that’s Bubba’s SportsEye View.

Week 1 recap.

 

The first week of the baseball season is behind us and here are a few observations:

I don’t want to beat a dead horse but closing games has been horrendous. Trevor Hoffman has a huge banner in centerfield with the number of career saves. It reads 593. He may never get to 600. After blowing a game Friday night, Hoffman blew another one on National TV, last night. Pujols and Holliday went back-to-back with 2 outs to tie the game. Fortunately for Hoffman and the Brewers, they won it in the bottom of the 9th.

The Mets are overrated. They are much worse then they look.

The Astros are worse than the Mets

Roy Halliday is awesome and maybe unbeatable.

The Giants are looking good

Week two should be even better.