Hero Ball

Posted on by DylanHornik

I had known Alex for all of 15 hours before I decided that we’d be friends until the Earth split in two. In the fuzzy mid-day malaise that accompanies a Caribbean vacation in the dead of winter, I realized that I didn’t even know his last name as we sat in the jacuzzi on a cruise ship; an American and a Brit sharing an infinite amount of idiotic smiles at the outset of a much-needed vacation as the new decade dawned.

We were the same age, yet our lives were dramatically different, tethered together by the barest of threads — a joke here, a round of drinks there, a scheduled 6 p.m. workout each night — as we desperately tied them together, hour by hour, just searching for a connection to make a 10-day jaunt worthwhile. He worked for Siemens, boasting about the voice-activated electronics he helped devise, while I pulled out all the stops in making my 9-to-5 desk job seem like more than just a throwaway scene from The Office. Separated by three thousand miles and a lifetime of completely different experiences, the initial inquisition into a potential friendship with Alex and his two siblings felt incongruous, like that age-old Sesame Street song. One of these things was definitely not like the other.

Until we were exactly the same.

That realization didn’t come from an hours-long dive into the inner recesses psyches (which came much later in our trip), or even from a shared love of anything, from music to movies to what kind of clothes we wore (I marveled at Alex’s brand-new, spiked Louboutin shoes every night as I sheepishly hid my mud-tattered Vans slip-ons). That afternoon, in the midst of lazing away on the high seas, we simultaneously took the garbage collected from an afternoon of nothingness, jab-stepped, and executed the perfectly-imperfect trash-can fadeaway practiced by millions around the world in the wake of basketball’s global explosion, all while shouting the unmistakable name of the greatest NBA player of our childhood.

“Kobe!,” we both squealed at the apex of our hopelessly flawed jumpers as the refuse of two completely different people, joined together totally by circumstance, floated into the garbage can at the same time.

I looked at him with astonishment — I simply did not expect him to understand such a classically American ritual. Since I was a toddler, it was frowned upon if someone didn’t shout the name of the Lakers legend as they chucked their detritus into the nearest receptacle. Grade-school milk cartons, teenage fast-food wrappers and indiscriminate beer cans alike have all been given the dignity of falling through the sky as the name of an NBA legend reverberates through the surrounding airwaves. Looking back now, it almost makes you feel bad for the junk that was tossed before 1996.

Alex simply smiled and said, “I know that you should yell ‘Kobe’ when you’re going for precision and accuracy. Kobe is insane, mate.”

Kobe Bryant, USA Olympic Men’s Basketball player, shoots a jump shot against players from the Dominican Republic during the a pre-Olympic exhibition game on July 12, 2012, at the Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nev. Team USA only has a couple more weeks of practice before the 2012 Summer Olympics begin in London, England. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Daniel Hughes)

***

Kobe Bryant died on January 26, 2020, in a helicopter crash. He was 41. His 13-year-old daughter was with him. It was not supposed to happen like this. He was supposed to be the father figure for the young, talented athletes in the NBA. He was supposed to run a team. He was supposed to mentor the next generation of men’s and women’s basketball stars. He was supposed to grow old. He was supposed to be a living legend. He was supposed to be invincible.

To a certain group, he is invincible. His spirit will live permanently in those that were born and raised between generations, at the borderline of the Millennials and Generation Z. We saw the iconic purple and gold “8” on Sportscenter‘s Top 10 Plays while getting ready for school, but also heard the “ping” of our iPhones when No. 24 hoisted up back-to-back titles at the onset of the last decade and retired with a 60-piece in 2016.

Bryant taught us the Mamba Mentality — to not back down, to be relentless, to constantly seek that which we do not know. He showed us what an ultimate competitor should look like, no matter the discipline. Even for a stocky white kid that mustered all of four at-bats on his varsity baseball team, Bryant taught me how to chase what I want, and then continue the chase until I found something that I wasn’t looking for — which ended up being exactly what I needed.

Above all else, though, Bryant gave us, a lowly sub-generation just beginning to navigate its way through the murky waters that constitute our early life and times, something even greater than the Mamba Mentality — something above the titles, above the Most Valuable Player Award and even above the respect and adoration (in a strictly athletic sense) of a vast majority of Americans.

Bryant gave us a reason to connect.

His stature across the globe was mightier than the picture-perfect jumper that carried him to legendary status. He was more than just a hooper, more than just a state of mind, more than just a legend — he became the culture, as intertwined with the early 21st-century lexicon as anyone. He reached the kind of status that we all dream about when we’re filling out fifth-grade questionnaires: I want to be a princess. I want to be an astronaut. I want to be Kobe. 

That culture spread far and wide, from China, where basketball is undoubtedly one of the most popular sports, to Slovenia, where a kid named Luka Doncic dominated the local circuit before becoming an international superstar before turning 20, to a small city three hours north of London.

***

Often, we don’t really know who our heroes are until they’re gone; until their passing reminds us of the smallest moments that make us feel something beyond the ordinary. Sometimes its an otherwise insignificant moment — a single name simultaneously shouted, the tacitly shared impact of a man, the foundation of a friendship — that paints a heroic picture.

Kershaw, Bumgarner, and the subject of dominance

Posted on by DylanHornik

I have had the opportunity to play baseball with some really talented players. In fact, at the time that this piece goes to press, one of my former long-time teammates is just one win away from leading my alma mater to a second  Suffolk County title in three years (shout out West Islip Varsity Baseball). This particular player has dominated all levels of competition at  the plate, but more impressively, on the mound. No stage was too big for him, not even the county championship game in 2014, his sophomore year and first year on varsity (when he went undefeated with a sub-2.00 ERA as well). If anyone asked any team or coach that ever had to prepare or play against this player, there would be one common thread, one repeated adjective used to describe him: “Dominant.”

Obviously, it is really, really hard to be called dominant on a day-in, day-out basis. Of course, that’s the way it is supposed to go in sports, especially in baseball and on the mound. An old, well-known adage goes “If it was easy, everyone would do it.” That’s exactly right. True dominance, it all of its consistent, persistent, and incredulous nature, is  to be saved for the kinds of ballplayers that make even the casual fan turn on a television to watch a game because, for pitchers, any start could be historic.

We are seeing that kind of dominance from several pitchers, I think, in Major League Baseball right now. Jake Arrieta in the last 365 days is 27-2 with an ERA of 1.36 and a WHIP of .810. Chris Sale won his first nine starts in 2016. Noah Syndergaard’s ERA is below 2.00 and is striking out over 11 batters per nine innings. All of these arms in the league, and then some, could mean we are, at this very moment, witnessing one of the Golden Ages of pitching.

None of the aforementioned pitchers, however, are the most dominant pitcher in the MLB in a whole, historical sense. Clayton Kershaw’s career right now is shaping up to be on the best in baseball history, and he is not even 30. Just this season alone, he leads the big leagues in ERA, innings pitched, walks per nine innings, strikeouts, WHIP, and complete games. And he’s a notoriously better second half pitcher (his ERA, winning percentage, WHIP, and hits allowed are all lower in the second half of the season).

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Photo: Flickr/Arturo Pardavila III

What encapsulates the kind of pitcher he’s been in his nine MLB seasons is this simple: Zero.

Yes, going into last night’s contest against the New York Mets, there was a stat column that had a goose egg for Kershaw. He had not been visited by his manager, Dave Roberts, or pitching coach, Rick Honeycutt, once in 2016. That ended last night when Roberts went out to chat during the later innings of last night’s game, but even still, the conversation was brief.

Kershaw is 121-57 in eight-plus big league years and is 28 years old. That means he is 179 wins away from the golden number 300 and, assuming he pitches until he is 40, has 12 seasons left. That math leaves him needing just a hair under 15 wins each year to be the 25th pitcher to reach 300, a hallmark of extraordinary, dominant pitching. In seasons where he has made at least 27 stars, Kershaw has only dipped under 15 wins twice, but has made up for both of them with two 21-win campaigns. He has the best chance of any active pitcher to reach 300 wins, which would all but ensure his place as one of the most dominant pitchers in MLB history.

If you compare him to another dominant Dodgers lefty, Sandy Koufax, through 250 career starts (which Kershaw surpassed just a couple of weeks ago), his ERA is half a run lower (2.41 to Koufax’s 2.96), has more strikeouts and less walks, and has given up 59 less homers than Koufax, although Koufax was only in the second year of his famous five-year stretch at the end of his career where he just completely bowled over hitters (for reference: Koufax’s highest season ERA in those five years was 2.54. His lowest? 1,73 in his final MLB season).

That’s dominance, right? Actually, the case could be made that Kershaw is not even in the conversation as the most dominant pitcher in baseball right now. And he still has not been mentioned yet.

This is the flip-side of the “dominance” debate. The term is so subjective that it can be tossed around on a whim without too much gravitas behind it. However, a guy that has a 2.14 ERA in 88 career postseason innings, is currently riding a 14-inning scoreless streak in October, has three World Series rings, an NLCS and World Series MVP, and came into a decisive Game Seven on two days of rest and casually tossed five scoreless innings in relief after throwing a complete-game shutout in Game Five to get the save and win the World Series, all before the age of 26? That has to be dominance, too.

The pitcher with all of that to show on his résumé is Madison Bumgarner. The San Francisco Giants lefty almost seems as if he does not care about the regular season (although a hurler with a 2.98 career ERA is no slouch). His chief concern is doing whatever it takes to will his team to victory in October. Bumgarner has been the focal point on two of the Giants’ three “Even Year Magic,” World Series-winning teams in 2010, 2012, and 2014. He does not have the regular season accolades, like the five-time All-Star, three-time Cy Young winning, one-time MVP winning Kershaw does, but Bumgarner succeeds when Kershaw utterly fails: October.

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Photo: Wikipedia

Kershaw’s playoff stats are downright ugly. He sports a 4.59 ERA and a WHIP of almost 1.20. He’s also given up eight homers in 13 postseason games, a pace far worse than his 101 homers allowed in 255 career regular season starts. Bumgarner’s WHIP, on the other hand, is under .890, and has pitched into the seventh inning or later in all but three playoff starts, while Kershaw has only sniffed the seventh five times in his playoff career.

If we continue with the Kershaw/Koufax comparison, then it is not even close as to which pitcher is (or was) more dominant. In eight postseason appearances, Koufax has an ERA of 0.95. Yes, 0.95. He gave up six earned runs in 57 playoff innings, won a pair of World Series MVPs, and three rings to boot. Kershaw? Well, that’s another zero in a stat column for him.

The argument that can be made is this: If a pitcher’s dominance also includes his ability to thrive in pressure situations, then how can one be the so-called “most dominant” if he falters when it matters most? If there was one game, a do-or-die, winner-take-all scenario, and a Clayton Kershaw is not the clear choice to get the ball, how can he be considered one of the all-around dominant forces on the hill in the MLB?

Now, the notion of naming a single pitcher as the most dominant pitcher on baseball, while attempted fairly often, is a notably impossible notion because at any given moment in the history of the game, there are a plethora of really, really good pitchers (see: Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, etc.). However, the simple fact that fans and media do attempt it means that it should be done in toto. That’s why an Arrieta, or a Sale, or a Syndergaard, or a Max Scherzer can be considered.

Like Kershaw’s over-the-top delivery and Bumgarner’s half-sidearm, gunslinger motion, there are a million different approaches to answer the subjective nature of “dominance” in baseball. And like the four-tenths of a second that their fastballs are suspended in the air between the mound and home plate, the answer to this question may forever hang in limbo.

 

Syracuse: The Least Endearing Cinderella

Posted on by DylanHornik

Four teams in NCAA history have made the Final Four as a double-digit seed: LSU in 1986, George Mason in 2006, VCU in 2011, and Syracuse this year. The ‘Cuse is in the midst of a run that literally no one predicted; there was a more than good chance that they would even make the tournament before Selection Sunday.

They eked by as a 10 seed and blew by Dayton and Middle Tennessee State, straight into a matchup with the talented Gonzaga Bulldogs. Freshman Tyler Lydon blocked a jumper with two seconds left to seal a 63-60 victory and conjure images of Hakeem Warrick’s championship-winning block in 2003. They then staged a 29-8 run in the final ten minutes to come all the way back to a 68-62 victory against top-seeded Virginia and secured a trip to the Final Four, the only team not seeded first or second to get there this year.

This scrappy Syracuse team has effectively become the team to root for this coming weekend as they face ACC compatriot North Carolina for a berth in the National Championship. The fact that the program has been punished for various infractions over the past decade this season is not lost on the minds of the public, either. The team self-imposed a postseason ban last year, lost twelve scholarships over the next four years, starting this year, and Head Coach Jim Boeheim was suspended for nine games earlier in the year, which is partly to blame for his team’s downswing this season. America’s motto for the Final Four should be “All for one, and one for Orange!”

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I’m definitely going to root for Syracuse, no doubt about it, but not because they’re the darlings of the dance. They’ve impressed me all season long, even in defeat (shout out: St. John’s University for taking them down this winter). Besides that, my bracket is busted anyway, especially after Michigan State wet the bed against MTSU, so why not root for competitive games?

The one thing that Syracuse is not, to me, is shocking. We need to remember that this is the same Syracuse team, coached by the same Jim Boeheim, that has been to 32 NCAA tournaments during his reign and dominated the BIG EAST for almost 40 years before switching to the ACC three years ago.

On the court, it’s nearly impossible to bet against Boeheim’s patented 2-3 zone, which he has perfected over the course of his lifetime at the helm. This season, with Boeheim absent from the sideline for about a quarter of his team’s games, the Orange still ranked in the top 25 in the country in scoring defense. They allow their opponents to shoot the ball at just under 41 percent, and just under 31 percent from three, absurdly low numbers even for a team that doesn’t have one nationally recognized talent (yet-keep an eye on Richardson).

It’s a foregone conclusion that a Syracuse team will, at the very least, play defense, and that’s what wins championships: 18 of the last 20 national champions had a defense that held opponents to either under 44% shooting or under 65 points per game (note: this information is not available for the 2000-2001 Duke Blue Devils, who ranked 11th in the nation in defensive efficiency). That takes a great amount of the magic out of their ongoing Final Four run.

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The only way anyone could be shocked by a Syracuse tournament run is if they think that the roster was that depleted by the infractions. Let’s face it, though. Syracuse is a national powerhouse, and they’ll still find a way to get the talent that they need. Even still, most of their major contributors are graduate students and seniors, like Michael Gbinije, who averaged nearly 18 points per game, and Trevor Cooney, who plays 36 minutes per game.

The Orange were still able to land four-star recruit Malachi Richardson, who scored 23 points and led the second-half comeback against Virginia, and Lydon, who has had at least five blocks in three of the four NCAA tournament games he’s played in so far. Syracuse, despite the scholarship loss, has recruited and will continue to recruit some the best talent in the Northeast, and some of the best in the country.

It comes as little surprise that Syracuse came out of the Midwest after Michigan State embarrassed themselves against MTSU, either. The top four seeds in that region that survived the first round- Virginia, Utah, Iowa State, and Butler- have made a combined 81 appearances in the NCAA tournament. That sound pretty good, but Syracuse itself has made 39 appearances in the Big Dance in school history, far better than the pace set forth by the other three schools. The Midwest Region had one of the weaker number one seeds (UVA), but perhaps the strongest number two seed (MSU), with whom Syracuse would’ve had a date with in the second round. Once Middle Tennessee miraculously took care of business, Syracuse’s odds for victory increased.

For the mainstream media, the Syracuse “cinderella” run is a great story. Lyon, Richardson, Gbinije, and the rest of their cast of characters will get more than enough screen time on ESPN and FS1. However, the glass slipper never has, doesn’t currently, and never will, fit the program run by Boeheim because of the culture they’ve been able to create.

One year of the Underdog!

Posted on by DylanHornik

I don’t know if anyone realized it, but 365 days ago today I published the first post on this site. I came in the with idea that maybe my mom would read it (she actually didn’t know about it until about three months in) and a couple of my friends would skim it and patronize me (which probably still happens). Little did I know that The Underdog would amass well over 10,000 views in the last year across 56 countries (these are real numbers!!) and it would lead me to the opportunity to write on other websites (shoutout to Gotham Sports Network and Bronx Pinstripes). Basically, I would like to thank anyone who’s ever read one of my articles for helping me out so much.

Anniversary week got me thinking about the very title of this site. What does it mean to be an underdog? It doesn’t necessarily mean winning when the odds are stacked against you. To me, it means showing courage, determination, passion, and grace in the face of adversity, and making a lasting impact on everyone around you.

The underdog spirit is embodied perfectly, I think, in former Butler center Andrew Smith, who passed away earlier this month after a two-year battle with cancer.

Smith was on the two Butler teams that made it to back-to-back Final Fours in 2010 and 2011. He wasn’t the star, though. He was a reserve for the first team in his freshman year, then started as a sophomore for the 2011 team that lost to Connecticut. Smith averaged 8.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game in 32 starts, far from “star” caliber numbers that Matt Howard had that year, who averaged 16 points and eight rebounds per contest. However, by all accounts, Smith was the heart and soul of the team. Now, that is said about a lot of athletes, but not usually about a guy that went on to work for a financial services company after his time in college.

Celtics coach Brad Stevens, who coached Smith at Butler, left his team to go down to Indianapolis for the funeral. He tweeted this of Smith:

When Smith was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in January of 2014, it went largely unnoticed by the world of basketball because of his minute stature in the game. That shouldn’t be. Team sports pride themselves on being a brotherhood, a fraternity of sorts, but for the most part the guys like Smith, who are deserve the respect that comes with being a basketball player because of how he inspired his teammates and touched the basketball world at his death.

We love college dropouts. We cherish and laud the basketball players that never get a degree, then make millions for being naturally blessed with athleticism that 99 percent of people don’t have. Children grow up to try to be like the three-hundredths of one percent of high school seniors who make it to the NBA, instead of going to college to focus on their academics and future career paths. Andrew Smith needs to be a model of what kids should try to be; he got to play, got his degree, got a job, and lived life the way he wanted to for 25 years. Not only did he have his priorities in order, but he was able to live life to the fullest because of his priorities.

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Smith wasn’t a rags-to-riches story like LeBron James or Caron Butler (who’s story is also really interesting). He was born and raised in a small town in Indiana to loving parents and got a good education. His underdog story lies in his backseat role on the Final Four teams, his arduous and courageous battle with cancer, and his impact on everyone around him. Courage, passion, and grace in the face of adversity. Smith was definitely an underdog in his time with us.

“As an Academic All-American, he represented the best of Butler in the classroom and on the court,” Butler said in a statement after Smith’s passing. “Above all else, what made Andrew special was the way that he genuinely cared for others. Within his large frame was an even larger heart. He is, was, and always will be a Bulldog.”

Smith was, and always will be, a superior role model and underdog who did everything the right way. I’m honored to be able to keep part of Smith’s spirit alive through this website, and I hope the next 365 days are as fruitful as the last.

The Immortal Memories of Mike Piazza

Posted on by DylanHornik

It finally happened.

After three tantalizingly close calls, Mike Piazza was finally elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday. For scores of Mets fans around the country, the blue and orange number 31 floods the mind with memories of clutch hits, postseason success, and a promising time for the New York Mets.

Take the 2000 season. Piazza, in what would become his last great year, produced the finest numbers of his career. He hit .324 with 38 homers and finished third in the MVP voting. He took the Mets, with a long track record of disappointment since their inception, from a Wild Card berth to the National League pennant. His name could conjure up images of the tense frenzy that New York was in that October, when the Mets squared off against the mighty Yankees and pitted coworkers, friends, couples, and family members against each other. The Yankees may have won, but Piazza established himself and the 2000 Mets as one of the best stories of the turn of the century.

Then there was 2001. Piazza belted 35 mundane, run-of-the-mill homers that any eventual legend would demolish over the course of a season. There was one, though, that will stand out in baseball lore as one of the most recognizable dingers in history, and lifted a city’s spirits like no other round-tripper had until that point, and none has since then. On September 21st, 2001, ten days after the attacks on the World Trade Center, with a city in ruins and millions in despair, Piazza stepped to the plate down a run in the 8th inning. He belted a 2-run bomb to centerfield and led the Mets to a 4-3 win. This homer has become synonymous with the aftermath of 9/11 and drove the city to pick themselves up and grow back stronger. This memory, shrouded in dismay, is the bright spot that changed the course of emotion in New York.

Maybe you’re thinking of May 5, 2004, when Mike Piazza passed Carlton Fisk for the most home runs by a catcher in MLB history. The Mets were just awful for a three-year stretch from 2002 to 2004, when they didn’t win more than 75 games in a season. Piazza continued to be a bright spot, though, clobbering 64 homers in two-plus seasons, (he played in only 68 games in 2003) including this one to put himself among the legends of the game. The record-breaking homer recalls memories of what could otherwise be forgettable; a really bad baseball team with a future Hall of Famer hitting third.

Above all of this, however, I think that Mike Piazza brings back memories of a simpler time. For many of the people who care the most about his career, especially his stay in Queens, the reign of Piazza is eternally linked with memories of grade school, recess, and a spark of interest in baseball. This time frame, for a lot of fans around my age, was a time of baseball purity. We didn’t have real affiliations with a certain team, we didn’t have complicated views on the designated hitter or Pete Rose. We watched baseball with our parents at night, which made us inexplicably happy, and we were amazed at the feats of guys like Piazza (and Ken Griffey, Jr. who was also elected this year) on a nightly basis. We were in awe at the sport, we wanted to be surrounded by it, and we fell in love. Players like Piazza made us want to join Little League and be pro ballplayers. Everyone had a Mets number 31 shirt in elementary school, and it wasn’t just because the last name looked like “pizza.” I looked at mine as a symbol of my new favorite team.

Above anything else, looking back on Mike Piazza’s career bring nostalgia that reignites my love for the game. There aren’t many other players that can do that. Congratulations Mike Piazza and Ken Griffey Jr. on well-deserved Hall of Fame calls. I hope that they can serve as models to younger players to play with a passion that can connect to the fans, like they did.

2015 in 15 Quotes

Posted on by DylanHornik

In the immortal words of Borat Sagdiyev, 2015 was a “great success. Very nice.”

New York saw some of the greatest storylines of the past 365 days in sports. It truly was a roller coaster year, there were the highs of playoff races, the lows of teammate quarrels, and everything in-between. An historic year like 2015 surely dished out its fair share of quotes as well. These snippets will always remind us of the Big Apple’s big year in sports. The quotes are in no particular order.

  • “He struck him out! Tears of joy for the 2015 Mets!”-Gary Cohen

An extremely appropriate call of the Mets’ division-clinching final out against the Cincinnati Reds in September. After 9 long years filled with tears of agony, this team was special. After acquiring Yoenis Cespedes and Tyler Clippard, this team rolled through the second half of the season right into October, where they beat the Dodgers in a scrappy 5-game series and swept the Cubs at Wrigley Field to win their first pennant in 15 years. They lost the World Series in 5 games but gave fans hope for the future.

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The Mets were the best New York sports storyline of 2015. (Photo: Getty Images)

  • “It just went off in my hand” -Jason Pierre-Paul

It was a strange year for Jason Pierre-Paul. He blew off parts of three fingers on his right hand in a July 4th fireworks mishap, and poignantly stayed silent on the details of the accident for months. He finally opened up this month to Michael Strahan in a Fox Sports interview and this quote just about sums up his situation. Pierre-Paul missed the first half of the season for the Giants, who will miss the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.

  • “Going forward, we’re going to be a tough team. We’re going to be an intelligent team. We’re going to do things the right way.” -Todd Bowles

In a drastic regime change, Jets owner Woody Johnson fired the boisterous Head Coach Rex Ryan and General Manager John Idzik and hired the reserved Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan. After missing out on the playoffs the last four years, Bowles and Maccagnan have the Jets in position to earn a wild card berth with a Week 17 win against Ryan’s Bills. Maccagnan has pushed the right buttons, acquiring Pro Bowl receiver Brandon Marshall and gritty quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to complement their tenacious defense. Bowles has gotten his team to play inspired football after calling them out for a lack of hustle mid-season.

  • “This is hard.” -Derek Fisher

In his first year as the Knicks head coach, Derek Fisher could only sum up their 65-loss season in three words. They didn’t have the roster depth to be competitive in 2014-15, and Phil Jackson unsuccessfully tried to implement his Triangle Offense. Carmelo Anthony played in only forty games before knee surgery shut him down. It wasn’t all bad for the Knicks, though, as they used their high draft pick to select Kristaps Porzingis, who has helped to turn the fortunes of the team around (see below).

  • “Hitting home runs doesn’t make you a good father, it doesn’t make you a good friend, and it certainly doesn’t make you a good teammate.” -Alex Rodriguez

After sitting out the entire 2014 season due to a suspension for performance-enhancing drugs, Alex Rodriguez seemed to have found the Fountain of Youth. In his age 40 season, he bashed 33 homers and had an OPS of .842 in 151 games, easily his best season since 2008. He kept a low profile off the field as well, straying away from scandals or weird magazine photo shoots. He was a key part of the Yankees’ run to the AL Wild Card game.

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Alex Rodriguez hit 33 homers this year, including his 3,000th hit. (Photo: Getty Images)

  • “Holy S***!” -Victor Espinoza

While not a New York sports team story, it happened on the dirt track of the Big Apple, so it fits right in. Racehorse American Pharoah won the first racing Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978. Pharoah led wire-to-wire in the Belmont Stakes in Elmont, winning by over five lengths and giving trainer Bob Baffert his first Triple Crown on his fourth try. Espinoza, the jockey in the final race, was caught candidly expressing his elation over his triumph ny national TV cameras.

  • “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”-Yogi Berra

An iconic expression from a baseball legend, Berra passed away this September at the age of 90. Berra, a three-time MVP and 13-time World Series champion, was known for his off-color witticisms as well as his stellar on-field production. The Hall of Famer hit .285 over his 20-year career, managed both New York teams, had a cartoon bear created in his honor, and left us with sayings like “It’s deja vu all over again,” and “when you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

  • “Wow. It’s great to be home.” -Chris Mullin

The Golden Boy of the Red Storm returned this spring. Mullin, a Hall of Fame basketball player and the greatest player in St. John’s history, came back to his alma mater to become its next head coach. It will be an uphill climb for Mullin with no prior coaching experience and no recruiting foothold in the five boroughs, but he enlisted in the help of fellow HOFer Mitch Rochmond and recruiting genius Barry Rohrssen. The young Red Storm have played well in a win against Syracuse and a tough loss against Indiana.

  • “Well, you’re not going to do anything about it.” -Geno Smith

The phrase heard ’round MetLife. After supposedly improving his game all offseason, Geno Smith uttered this sentence to IK Enemkpali over not paying a $600 plane ticket, which led to Enemkpali breaking Smith’s jaw with a right hook. This led to Ryan Fitzpatrick’s coronation as the starter, and his consistent play has led the Jets to double-digit wins. Smith, meanwhile, has rode the bench since recovering from his injury and doesn’t look like a part of the team’s future plans. Enemkpali, meanwhile, was cut by the Jets and signed by the Bills, led by, of course, Rex Ryan.

  • “They thought, skinny white guy, he’s not going to be physical. But I still fight for those rebounds.” -Kristaps Porzingis

After the dismal season last year, the Knicks drafted Porzin-God, who is playing like the Rookie of the Year and a breakout star in the league. The team is playing competitive basketball in the Eastern Conference along with a healthy Carmelo Anthony. Porzingis so far has averaged 13 points and eight rebounds per game, and the Knicks are within four games of a playoff spot at this point.

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Kristaps Porzingis is outplaying every rookie so far this year for the Knicks. (Photo: Brad Penner/ USA Today)

  • “We didn’t always agree, but we never departed from one another without a hug and a handshake. I’m going to miss him, I won’t forget him.” -Bill Torrey

Torrey, the former General Manager of the Islanders, said this about legendary coach Al Arbour. Arbour passed away this August at the age of 82. He led the Islanders to four straight Stanley Cups in the early 80’s and is hailed as a legend by Islanders fans. It came as the Islanders were about to move from their original home in Uniondale to their sparkling new digs at the Barclays Center. Arbour will forever be linked to the original Islanders, and the lore of his dynasty will be forever remembered in the rafters of the arena.

  • “Being an adult means being accountable. Being a baseball player means that others look up to you.” -CC Sabathia

In an announcement that shocked the baseball world, CC Sabathia announced at the end of this season that he would check himself into an alcohol rehab facility. Sabathia finished with a 5.90 ERA in 2015, but a weekend road trip to Baltimore with the team let the wheels fall of for him. The baseball community should be proud that a fallen star, like the former Cy Young Sabathia, was able to step away from the game and see a bigger problem for himself. Manager Joe Girardi has said that he sees Sabathia in the rotation for 2016.

  • “We just ran out of juice” -Derek Stepan

That’s exactly what the Rangers did in the 2014-15 playoffs. They won and lost each of their first 13 games game by one goal, winning their first two series 4-1 and 4-3. However, they lost the conference finals to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 7 games, and looked pretty tired doing so. Their final two losses were shutouts at home to give the Lightning a berth in the Stanley Cup. The veteran defensemen have led the Rangers to the sixth-most pints in the Eastern Conference this season and a 14-5-1 home record.

  • ” I think we can truly give something for the fans in New York City to cheer about.” -Josh Saunders

If you don’t know who Josh Saunders is, that’s understandable. He’s the goalie for NYCFC, who played their inaugural season this season at Yankee Stadium. They played to an audience that was top-five in the MLS in attendance, and gave the established Red Bulls a true rival. While NYCFC failed to make the playoffs, they have star power in Frank Lampard and David Villa. The Red Bulls were one step away from the MLS Cup Final, showing that soccer is one the up-and-up in New York for the first time in a long time.

  • “I know it’s been 15 years since the Bills made the playoffs. Well get ready, man, we’re going.” -Rex Ryan.

Rex Ryan stayed in state after being fired from the Jets in January, going to the division rival Bills and bringing his braggadocio with him. An improved roster in Buffalo (they added star running back LeSean McCoy to go along with big-play threat Sammy Watkins) and a quarterback change led to a glimmer of hope. This season hasn’t really gone as planned for Ryan and Buffalo, thought, who will miss the playoffs yet again. However, he does have a chance to play the ultimate spoiler role when he faces the Jets in Week 17 while they vie for a playoff berth.

There you have it. 2015 was a great year and, in the words of DJ Khaled, Let’s hope for “another one.”

The Historic Holiday Season

Posted on by DylanHornik

Cue the Andy Williams song, because it’s the holiday season. That means stretching the buttons on your reindeer-patterned cardigan to their absolute limits while taking 25 shots for Kobe Bryant’s 25 shots. It also means wearing in your favorite spot on the couch while watching Peyton Manning wear in his favorite spot on the bench.

This holiday season is one we haven’t seen in almost 20 years. While athletes like Bryant and Manning, the all time greats that have graced our TV’s this generation, are still making headlines, they’re not doing so with their wildly impressive play. Instead, these fading giants are speaking about their farewell tours (Kobe) and their desires to continue to play the game they love (Manning).

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Peyton Manning, benched in favor of the younger Brock Osweiler, plans to play in 2016 even though sports moves towards a younger crowd of athletes (RantSports Photo).

What does it all mean? The season of giving is bringing its philanthropy to a whole new level, handing the reins of superstardom from one generation to another, albeit gradually and deliberately. The guys that I grew up watching, the ones that set all the records and established new styles of play, don’t want to give away what they’ve worked so hard to build just yet. It took Kobe two injury-plagued seasons plus a slow, retreating start to the season for him to realize that maybe, just maybe, this should be his last go. Peyton Manning still hasn’t figured that dying quail spirals out of an ailing shoulder attached to a surgically repaired neck are a telltale sign of retirement and front-office leadership. It’s just too hard for them to think that they aren’t the spritely 19-year-olds that they were when they began their rise to the top.

Speaking of young bucks, now is the time. Not 2014, not even 2015, but 2016 will be, mark my words, the year of the under-25 athlete. We saw flashes throughout the summer and fall, with Bryce Harper’s meteoric rise to the MVP and the hype around the Chicago Cubs’ baby-faced corps of hitters. Now, we’re seeing the likes of the Latvian Liberator, Kristaps Porzingis, the wizard of Os(weiler) grinning and winning in Denver, and even studs like Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel skating through the NHL.

As these teenagers learn directly from the greats, Osweiler from Peyton, D’Angelo Russell from Kobe, Kristaps from Carmelo Anthony and Dirk Nowitzki, I can’t help but wonder if we will ever see another generation of athletic prominence that we have witnessed since the late 1990’s. Seven of the top 20 scorers in NBA history played a significant amount of their career in the 2000’s. Five of the most prolific QB’s ever (Brady, Manning, Brees, Favre, Rodgers) did their damage in the Disney Era. In a period of baseball marred by PEDs and a lack of top athletes in the sport, we saw on of the most naturally talented players ever, Alex Rodriguez, start his career as the second coming, only to be caught up in the dark side of his times.

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Kristaps Porzingis is two years older than me, 18 inches taller than me, exponentially more talented than me, and got to learn from Carmelo Anthony and Dirk Nowitzki. (NYDN Photo).

This is exactly why I love the holidays; the season really is about giving. The aging are giving what they can to the young and talented, the young and talented are giving excitement and free air to the fans, but can this new generation of hyper-athletic, hyper-selfish athletes give back to the sports that give them a home in the same way we’ve recently seen? Only Father Time will tell.

When a Friendly meets Hostility

Posted on by DylanHornik

Leon Trotsky once said, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”

Tragedy struck the city of Paris, France in the same vein on Friday. Radical militants attacked six different locations in and around the city, killing over 120 people. The bloodbath is the largest attack on France since World War II.

One of the sites that faced a spine-chilling, life-threatening scenario was outside Stade de France in Saint-Denis. During an international friendly between France and Germany, two suicide bombings and a third explosion went off just outside of the stadium. The match ended in a 2-0 victory for France, but by that time hundreds were already dead.

Sporting events are supposed to be a sort of safe haven for the human race. In these instances, we’re allowed to forget about the myriad problems that we face on a daily basis, not to mention those that loom larger than us that are out of our control. What happened on Friday night is nothing short of a cataclysm on all fronts, but the very fiber of life that keeps millions of us level-headed was ripped, just a little bit, for a short time.

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While the soccer match continued, an unfathomable horror went on outside the gates of Stade de France.

When the explosions were heard inside the stadium, around the 15th minute, it was met immediately with an uproar from the crowd, a mixture of excitement, fear, and a pure adrenal reaction that comes from an event of that nature (a video can be seen here). President Francois Hollande was taken away from the area. From there, it wouldn’t be long before the fans inside the confines of Stade de France were aware of what was happening so harrowingly close to them. The haven of sports, if only for a split-second, was breached by something unimaginable.

Then, match officials and executives made a controversial, but what turned out to be ingenious, decision. They decided to withhold information about the attacks on Paris from the players and fans until the match concluded. They decided to use the inherent comfort, a virtual bubble secluding the match from the outside world, to their advantage to prevent fear and panic from striking the fans and players. They made it seem as if  nothing was happening, and the fans went along with it, cheering and booing normally and appropriately, even doing “The Wave” at one point. Officials saved their fans from clouding their own heads with nightmarish scenarios of what was happening, and let them enjoy themselves as much as they can.

After the match was over, the blinders that shade spectators from reality retracted, and everyone in the stadium knew of the sheer horror that, at that time, fully infected the entire country. Some exited under their own volition, players retreated into their locker rooms to check in on family members and friends, but something interesting happened. Many fans flooded the pitch and stayed there long after the match ended. They hugged one another, checked cell phones, and generally loitered under a haze of controlled panic.

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Thousands of fans went on the field after the game in reaction to the attacks on Paris.

The safety net that sports naturally provides is on full display. Instead of attempting to wrap their head around what just happened in their city, they stayed inside the arena, conferred with fellow fans, and decided to sidestep real-life tragedy, just for a little while longer. In that moment, the human race needed sports as much as sports needed the human race. A soccer friendly turned tragic became friendly again, with thousands of fans helping each other cope.

We have seen it happen before. Sports have an uncanny ability to heal in times of tragedy and loss. Whether it’s Mike Piazza’s go-ahead home run in the first game after the September 11th attacks, David Ortiz’s “Boston Strong” speech after the Boston Marathon bombing, or Steve Gleason blocking a punt and scoring in the first game in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, sports can soften the blow of extreme adversity.

I, and everyone sound of mind and spirit, feel the pain of the massacre in Paris. During the pain and suffering, soccer provided an alternative for several thousand people. I hope everyone affected by these attacks has something to lean on to lighten the immense weight of loss that they carry.

The Superior Sport?

Posted on by DylanHornik

I love sports.

So do you. That’s probably why you’re reading this blog (except for you, Mom). That means that you probably watch more than one sport, which is good, because all of them are great, but which one is the best? That’s what I’m going to try to decide here.

I’ll be using a complicated (not) grading system based on four factors. Each factor, excitement, popularity, clarity, and live experience, will be graded out of five, and the total results will be converted into a score out of 100. I’m only going to grade the four biggest sports in America: football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. Hopefully, this will all go according to plan, and the top dog in the wide world of sports will showcase itself.

Football: 

Excitement: 4/5- Football is pretty damn great, let’s be honest. There’s at least one mildly exciting game every Sunday, and the really exciting ones go down in sports history, like last year’s Super Bowl between the Patriots and Seahawks. However, to truly understand a lot of the weight that some football games carry, you need to know some background context about each team. On top of that, the time between plays is not well-used and there are too many commercials for (now illegal) daily fantasy companies.

Popularity: 5/5- The top 21 most-watched TV programs in American history are all Super Bowls, so that should say something about the draw of watching grown men run into each other. In 2014, 35 percent of sports fans called football their favorite, the largest portion of any sport in America, according to a Harris poll released by ESPN. That means the sport gets big points in this category.

Clarity: 3/5- Other than the obvious, “run-to-the-end-zone-and-don’t-get-tackled” concepts, football is very, very difficult to understand. To be a casual fan is to barely understand half of the penalties that could get called over the course of one game. Not to mention all of the complex play calls that most fanatics try to understand, but can never accurately predict when watching from their couches.

Live Experience: 4/5 Football excels when it comes to this. there’s never a bad seat in any stadium, and the camaraderie between like-minded fans is at an all-time high in the friendly confines of the glorious home stadium. Heckling opposing fans is even nastier than most other sports, which is just as entertaining as the actual game. The only knocks are that it can be absolutely frigid in the middle of the season and sitting in below-freezing temperatures during timeouts, commercial breaks, and quarter and halftime breaks is unenjoyable.

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Total: 16/20 or 80/100

Baseball:

Excitement: 3.5/5- The biggest knock on baseball is that it’s so slow, especially on TV. Not many people want to watch a game that could easily surpass three-and-a-half hours, but fanaticism is as fanaticism does. However, baseball is unique in that it is the only sport that allows for a walk-off scenario multiple times in a game. There’s nothing like a come-from-behind win in the bottom of the 9th…or the 16th.

Popularity: 4/5- Baseball ranks second behind football in the same ESPN/Harris poll, but has around 100 million more fans according to sporteology.com. Their big grade comes from the fact that it may be the most international sport on this list, with fans from Japan to America and the Caribbean to its budding life in Europe. As the national pastime of our country already, it’s more potent in its ability to travel globally.

Clarity: 3.5/5- There’s a basic understanding of the game like their is in football, but there isn’t such a deep understanding that’s vital to watching the game like in football. Superfans are crazed with sabremetrics and pitching matchups, but it’s not completely necessary because the basic stats can get you by.

Live Experience: 5/5- Going a baseball game is so great that there’s even a song about it. That alone is enough to give it a perfect grade. There’s something about ballpark food, although overpriced, that’s just magical, and watching a homer fly through the air live is more graceful than anything else in sports.

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Total: 16/20 or 80/100

Basketball:

Excitement: 4.5/5- Basketball, along with hockey, is constant action, which makes them the most exciting sports of the four. In addition, breakaway dunks and long three-pointers are pure ocular ecstasy. Buzzer beaters are right up there with walk off homers as far as game-ending drama. Plus, the NBA Finals always have at least one great game. Like the NFL, however, there are too many commercials that break up the continuity of the contests.

Popularity: 4/5- Like baseball, basketball is also multi-national, with leagues in China, the Philippines, Australia, Spain, and more. China is becoming a hotbed for fans and pretty decent players. Basketball shoes might be the most popular footwear item in the history of western civilization, and everyone knows Jordan, LeBron, and Kobe, amongst others. Every suburban driveway has a basketball hoop, not field goal posts or a pitcher’s mound.

Clarity: 4/5- Every sport has its technicalities, but basketball also might be the easiest to understand. Run, dribble, put the ball in the hoop, and try to stop the other team without getting too touchy-feely. Travels are pretty self-explanatory, and if a player scores a lot of points, then they’re good. Stats are really unnecessary to be a huge fan of basketball, save for the “per game” stats (points, rebounds, assists).

Live Experience: 3/5- Arenas may be the most aesthetically pleasing venue except for baseball stadiums. Aside from that, basketball gets pretty boring live, watching the two teams trot back and forth, save for the occasional breakaway, which I guess is why someone would want to watch an entire contest live. The potential for late-game dramatics is also the draw for going out to a game. Overall, it’s not much of a spectacle, like football or baseball.

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Total: 15.5/20 or 77.5/100

Hockey:

Excitement: 4.5/5- High marks for hockey for its intense level of play and the rarity of goals. When someone scores, every fan goes crazy like they already won the game. Fights are exhilarating too, and it’s the only sport where they’re allowed, if not encouraged. It’s also another game where play is nearly constant, and there are less frequent commercials. The half-point gets taken off for the short stoppages of play every time the whistle blows.

Popularity: 3/5- Outside of Canada and parts of the northern U.S., most sports fans on this continent don’t care for hockey all that much. You’ll find some hotspots of fandom, but overall real hockey fans are few and far between. That being said, hockey is huge in northern Europe and Russia, which is what drags this rating over the halfway mark.

Clarity: 3/5- There are a lot of rules that are confusing to the casual fan (what the hell is icing?), but once you watch long enough, you’ll get the most salient points. Still, there are some rules that are always in effect that won’t usually be at the forefront of a game, like where the goalie can and can’t handle the puck, or penalty box time for each infraction committed.

Live Experience: 4/5- Hockey arenas are great because you won’t get overheated wearing a nice sweater and a hat because, you know, it’s played on ice. They’re also really loud which makes it even more enjoyable, because the energy spreads around the seats. Plus, high-fiving that random guy next to you after your team scores is awesome, because that guy is probably drunk.

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Total: 14.5/20 or 72.5/100

So there you have it. Baseball and football are the best sports ever, followed by basketball and hockey. I know it’s kind of anti-climactic, but that numbers never lie. Just be grateful that we have these four sports, though, every time you sit down to watch ESPN and billiards is on. Blah.

The 2015 Mets: Do Not Look Back

Posted on by DylanHornik

Keep your heads high, New York Mets fans. This team was special in more ways than one, from keeping themselves alive with an anemic offense for the first half of the year to storming past the rest of the National League in October, this was a dream season in reality.

The World Series was a bit of a debacle, but New York can take solace in the fact that if they played their best baseball, they easily would’ve won it all. It was just the wrong combination of slow offense and untimely errors that led to the team’s demise, if you can even call it that. The Mets blew past 28 other teams, but couldn’t close against the 29th.

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In what became the pinnacle of the Mets season, they defeated the Dodgers in a 5-game NLDS, then swept Chicago Cubs in the NLCS (Getty Images).

Now the team will look ahead to what will be one of the most interesting offseasons in recent memory. They will look to wash the taste of a bad finish out their mouth, like they have tried to do for the last decade, but they’ll do so as real contenders and probably the favorites to repeat as National League Champions. The Wilpons and General Manager Sandy Alderson will be in a position unique to the franchise, where they’re already a very good team, but they need to replace or re-sign some key players to stay as competitive as they were this year.

The nucleus of the team under contract can probably get them back to the playoffs again next year. The starting pitching will return, as will most of the lineup, but two significant pieces could be missing come April. Yoenis Cepsedes and Daniel Murphy are free agents that got them to October and kept them in the postseason. Cespedes hit .291 with 35 homers in the regular season, for sure a career year for a talented player. Murphy hit seven homers in the first two round of the playoffs, one off the record for the most dingers in the playoffs ever.

The two were key pieces in 2015, but neither of them should be re-signed. Cespedes was the ultimate streaky hitter for the Mets. He was cold for the first part of August, went on a torrid hot streak to urge the Mets past the Nationals in the NL East, then cooled down towards the end of the year. He hit just .222 in the postseason, including .150 in the World Series. The Mets do not need an extreme Lucas Duda (who is another notorious consistently inconsistent hitter) in the middle of their lineup. Reports have already surfaced that the team won’t try their hardest to bring him back, and for good reason.

Oct 21, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy hits a two-run home run against the Chicago Cubs in the 8th inning in game four of the NLCS at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports ORG XMIT: USATSI-245774 ORIG FILE ID: 20151021_jel_ca2_052.jpg

Daniel Murphy played above his normal value for most of the playoffs. Mandatory Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports

Anyone who watched the Mets play in the regular season knows that the playoff version of Daniel Murphy is definitely not the same one you’ll get from April to September. Even he cooled off in the World Series, showing that the pressure of the biggest stage in baseball can affect the hottest of hitters. His defense is also a liability at best, and nonexistent at the worst. With the incredible pitching corps that the Mets have, they need a better defender than Murphy, whose errors were direct causes of multiple World Series losses.

Then the question is; who should they sign? It would be a uniquely ironic situation if the Mets were able to sign pending free agent Ben Zobrist, who just beat them as a member of the Royals. He is the prototype of what the Mets need at the second base position: he hits well, plays good defense, and can be moved around the infield in case someone in the infield (David Wright) isn’t 100 percent healthy. He won’t be the power bat, averaging 17 homers a season, but he’ll be the perfect fit in the second spot of the lineup, where Wright has been miscast all year.

What about Cespedes’ spot? It’s very possible that the Mets don’t sign an outfield bat, with the trio of Juan Lagares, Michael Conforto, and Curtis Granderson playing well. However, Lagares played with an injured arm for most of the year, and making a big signing will take the pressure to play off of him. If they do sign a free agent, they’ll probably go with someone that can play centerfield or right field, giving them the option to move Curtis Granderson around.

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Mets fans are appreciative of what Yoenis Cespedes did for the team, but in all likelihood he will not be back come March. (Photo: Getty Images)

If they sign an outfielder, it will be someone with power to give them a middle-of-the-order presence not named Duda or d’Arnaud. That’s why Justin Upton is a viable option, albeit one with a high price. He hit .251 with 26 homers while playing in the worst offensive ballpark in the major leagues. He’s shown flashes of raw hitting potential and many think he’s on the verge of a breakout year if he’s given the opportunity to be the guy.

There are numerous possibilities, but the biggest realization is that the team can NOT go back to the way they were just a few months ago. Every player who’s coming back next year now knows what it feels like to have the greatest prize in the sport taken away from them. They’ll know that they need to finish. They know that they can’t be complacent with mediocrity, like they have been for so long. the front office also knows that it’s up to them take them to the next level, like they did moments before the trade deadline in July.

Remember, this is all looking forward, which is exactly what the Mets should do now. It was a great season, no doubt about it. There were countless memories made and history happened, so it’s understandable that fans and players are upset. The future is high, though, and this won’t be the last time we’ll all be in this position.