Jozy Alitdore-We Hardly Knew Thee

As you know I have an ongoing love affair with the New York Red Bulls. A couple months back I wrote about the team, I explained why you should love them too. One of the reasons I gave was Jozy Altidore, the 18 year old stiker with European-League level talent, a rare talent in the MLS. Earlier this month Altidore was signed by Villareal, one of the top "clubs" in the Spanish Premier league. Not only did Villareal sign an American born player, but they signed him to the largest contract ever given to an MLSer. This post is not just an "I told you so" on my part, but another chance for me to ask you to please give the Red Bulls a shot. As they pull into the middle of the season (the all-star game is in a couple of weeks), the Bulls are only four wins out of first place in the Eastern Conference. With Altidore gone, Angel has become an even bigger part of the Red Bulls offense, and he now has 19 goals on the season, second best in the league. Clearly scoring is not an issue for the Bulls, and their games are not the boring contests you would normally think of when considering watching an MLS match on TV. And if you are one of the few who do consider watching MLS matches, good for you, to the rest of you give it a shot, just one, it will be fun I promise. And if you don't have a good time, I know that D. Spell's mom is available every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 6 to 10...and that is always a fun time.

-Mose

TODAY IN SPORTS (MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2008)

• Mets at Cardinals 7:05 p.m. (SNY) - The Mets try to bounce back to .500 as they officially begin the second half of their season.
• Rangers at Yankees 7:05 p.m. (YES) - Could Scott Feldman be a fellow Jew?

- D. Spell

NBA Draft: Semi-Live Blog

8:02

So I am coming in a little late, but in time for the Knicks pick. Rose and Beasley went 1 and 2 obviously followed by OJ Mayo. The fucking Sonics took Russell Westbrook so that dream is over and Memphis took Kevin Love.


8:05
And now it is time for the Knicks to pick...the options as I see them are Eric Gordon, Jerryd Bayless, Joe Alexander and the dreaded Italian. I am hoping for Gordon or Alexander in this situation, Gordon from the point guard angle and Alexander from the lovable, face of the franchise angle.

8:07
And here comes Stern

8:07
1 minute left on the clock, the fans at the Wamu theater do not look pretty happy, seem to know that the Knicks are going to take Mr. Italy

8:08
And of course the Knicks take the fucking asshole from Italy. Danilo Gallinari, the face of the New York Knicks. If someone could please just rip my heart out now.

8:08
Stu Scott just went over the Knicks 2 other international picks (Nene and some dude named Frederic Weis) those both worked out very well.

8:09
Oh great his nickname is "The Rooster" and he is, according to ESPN he will "not be a superstar", excellent!

8:10
Danilo's favorite player? Tayshaun Prince! Can this get any better?

8:12
Just like that my enthusiasm for the upcoming season has waned to close to nothing.

8:13
And the Clippers take...Eric Gordon. At the end of the year let's see who has a better season. E Gordon or The Rooster.

8:14
Now what happened to Brook Lopez? He went from the 3rd pick in many mock drafts to sitting here for the 8th pick.

8:15
According to the bottom-line, Donnie Walsh is going to be speaking soon. I want to see how he is going to explain the selection of Cock-a-doodle-doo

8:17
Donnie just looks like he is stoned out of his mind on some prescription pill...great

8:21
Marc Jackson just summed it up perfectly, Knicks fans are not going to wait for The Rooster to develop, I know that I am already impatient. I can only hope that the Knicks make another move tonight to counterbalance this pick.

8:30
Time for the Nets pick and they take Brook Lopez, putting himout of his misery and getting one of the best prospects in this draft. That is a really great pick for the Nets after trading away Richard Jefferson earlier in the day they needed a solid presence in the middle of the court. If only I was a Nets fan and not a Knicks fan, damn you fandom.

8:35
So the next Gotham related pick is the Nets second 1st round selection, 21st overall. Until then I can do nothing but watch uncomfortable Stephen A. Smith player interviews.

-Mose

Tonight is the Night

As you most likely know, tonight is the NBA Draft. The Knicks have the 6th pick precluding them from selecting either of two supposedly "can't miss" players of the draft-Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, but there is still some talent available. I would love for the Knicks to trade up, potentially with the TWolves at 3 and select OJ Mayo, but if that doesn't happen and they stay pat (which we know they will), they better not take Danilo Gallinari. I don't care what the analysts say about his athletic ability or his differences from all of the recent European prospects who were hyped up and then dropped out of sight within a season or two. I don't care that he has a great shot, and a lean body whatever that means. And I don't care that he and Mike D'Antoni are both Italian (Chad Ford seems to believe that all Italians are in some sort of blood pact, certifying that D'Antoni will select Gallinari). No matter how much information I am supplied with saying how great Gallinari is I still do not want him on the New York Knicks. And the real reason is simple. I want the Knicks to draft someone who I have heard of, who can become a fan favorite around New York. Could you imagine Gallinari being the iconic player on this Knicks team? No matter how great he becomes he will never be embraced by the media and he will never become the fan favorite that the Knicks are in desperate need of. Yes, David Lee and Renaldo Balkman are fan favorites, they play hard and hustle like no other. But deep down I know that Lee and Balkman can never be the faces of the New York Knicks franchise because they simply are not talented enough. Lee nor Balkman can carry a team by themselves, they are role players, excellent role players but nothing more. In this draft the Knicks have a chance to select someone who can be a star, someone who can carry the team, while still being someone who the average fan can like.

And there is one player in this draft who the Knicks can feasibly select that will fulfill this role. Russel Westbrook is the man that the Knicks must select 6th overall in the NBA Draft tonight. He fits a need (point guard), he is young enough, but experienced enough to build a franchise around, he has a great work ethic and he plays defense better than the entire Knicks roster combined. How the Knicks can even consider taking a nobody forward over a eye-catching point guard is beyond me. Tonight when I am watching the draft I will sit and hope that they make the right decision and make Russel Westbrook the new face of the New York Knicks.

-Mose

TODAY IN SPORTS (THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2008)

• Yankees at Pirates 7:05 p.m. (YES) - Mike Mussina could have more wins (10) than walks (13) this season.
• 2008 NBA Draft 7:30 p.m. (ESPN) - Imagine the boos you're going to hear in MSG when David Stern utters these words: "With the sixth pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, the New York Knicks select...Danilo Gallinari."

- D. Spell

Jerry Manuel and the Infamous Ump Bump

The Jerry Manuel-Brian Runge saga finally appears to be over. Runge formally apologized to Manuel last night for bumping him after his ejection on Tuesday night while arguing Runge's strike zone. I did not personally see the bump, but from the coverage that this received from the local media and ESPN I have come to the conclusion that not only did Runge bump Manuel but he also stuck his finer in his eye and broke his nose. Never have I seen so much coverage over something so minimal. Managers and players bump umpires all of the time, is it really such a big deal that one finally decided to bump back? If anything Runge's bump was helpful to the Mets as it took some of the attention away from the fact that they had just lost to the worst in baseball Seattle Mariners with their ace Johan Santana on the mound. This was followed up by an 11-0 shellacking
and yet people were still talking about the goddamn bump. Runge saved Manuel from a potentially thunderous storm of negative reporting. But now that the bump incident is behind us, the focus can return to The Mets and their pitiful play. Manuel better hope that another umpire is in a bumping mood, otherwise he might end up like Willie, jobless in a California hotel.

And the True Auteur Has Returned

So yes, we came back this week, and yes the great D. Spell has shepherded you through the beginning of this week. But we all know what you have been waiting for, my return to the blogosphere. I had a pretty good break sleeping and going to the bathroom, as Spell so eloquently put it, is a pretty huge time suck, but I am anxious to get this show back on the road.

A lot of Gotham sports events have occured during my absence, and I would write about all of them, but I want to look ahead not behind, forward not backward, so the only event I would like to write about is Jared Lorenzen's release from the New York Giants football team.

As I wrote last month, it did not look good for Jared Lorenzen's return to the Giants for this upcoming season and two days ago my worst fears were confirmed, as Lorenzen was released from the Giants. It was merely one line on the ESPNews fancy new-and-improved bottom ticker, it was not on the front page of ESPN.com, it was certainly not to be found anywhere on sportsline.com or si.com and it was a mere three sentences in the New York Times. Just like that Jared Lorenzen's career as chubby quarterback poster boy was over. So I would like to use my return post as an opportunity to remember Lorenzen's career and hope that David Carr and Anthony Wright both suffer the karmic consequences for depriving us of Mr. Lorenzen.

Anyway I am glad to be back and I will be back posting on a regular basis for the foreseeable future.

-Mose