Once a Yankee, Always a Yankee

Bobby Mercer 1946-2008

You will be missed.

- The Mountain Cat

Willie Got Canned!

- The Mountain Cat

Congratulations Ken Griffey, Jr.

On hitting your 600th Home Run last night!

We assume you did not take steroids to get there. Way to go Junior!

The 600 Home Run List

- The Mountain Cat

Baseball is so beautiful I could just cry...

Last night the Braves and Nationals opening game was on ESPN. While I was watching the game, a sense of calm trickled through my body. I was suddenly at peace. Yes baseball is back. There are no wars. There is no recession. There are no more Hollywood lollipops in rehab. All is now good again. Right with the world.

Innocence. Purity. Utopian.

The pace of baseball relaxes me. I could smell the green grass through the television set. And I could taste the hot dogs and peanuts. It was as if I have a scratch and sniff TV these feelings are so vivid in my mind.

Yes, I know, the players are obscenely over paid. Also, they probably all take illegal or borderline illegal pituitary Flintstone-like vitamins. But my love affair with baseball is still aflame and has yet to flicker.

My New York Yankees open up this afternoon at Yankee Stadium. The best arena mankind has ever known since the Roman Coliseum. Only with better concessions. I am salivating.

The planets are aligned. The Dow is up. And my beer stein has been filled. Play ball.

- The Mountain Cat

A very quick plea to Roger Clemens

The opposing Rook is on the corner. The Queen is in front. And the Horsey...I mean the Knight is hovering at the side. Hey Roger, do you hear what I'm saying to you??? Or do you want Congress to move their Bishop just before checkmate on Wednesday?

- The Mountain Cat

SHEER WILL

As I write this blog, it has not set in my mind yet that the New York Giants are the Super Bowl Champions. I am in shock and in euphoria! They beat the previously unbeaten New England Patriots 17 to 14. They did not give up after giving up the lead late in the fourth quarter. Our field general Eli Manning decided to take the ball down field for 83 yards in the most intense 12 plays of football you will ever see. Sheer will. The Giants willed this victory. With just over a minute to play, Eli Manning is virtually sacked by the Patriots defense, but somehow gets away, scrambles and OVERTHROWS 32 yard to David Tyree. But Tyree, out of SHEER WILL, somehow jumps up and grabs the ball on his helmet, while getting mauled by a Patriot defender, and completes the pass for the first down. SHEER WILL! If I could read David Tyree's mind at that point, he was telling himself, 'I AM CATCHING THIS BALL. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DEFEAT ME!' We will see this Manning to Tyree pass on the highlight reels for a very long long time. Four plays later Manning connects with Plaxico Burress for a touchdown to take the lead for good. The Giants are the Super Bowl Champions. This is one of the most amazing victories of all time.

- The Mountain Cat

GO GIANTS !!

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a huge Carolina Panthers fan and don't really pull for anyone else. However I really can't stand the New England Patriots and their smugg-ass coach Bill Belechick. My wife's family are big Giants fans and so is the Mt. Cat. So of course I am supporting the NY Giants in the SuperBowl. I actually went out and bought a NY Giants hat yesterday (it was 75% off) to wear during our party. However last night as I was going to bed ESPN was running the NFL films highlights of all the Super Bowls and they happened to be showing the year that my beloved Panthers came up short against those Patriots and seeing that galvanized my will even more... NEW ENGLAND MUST GO DOWN TONIGHT!!!

Enjoy the SuperBowl everyone. I hope the Giants win 100-0.

-Doc

Can someone explain to me

How Jim Brown or anyone else for that matter can tell Tiger Woods how he should have reacted to recent comments by golf channel announcer Kelly Tilghman? People (and the media) keep trying to perpetuate this very minor story and create something that is just not there. Why can't anyone just accept what Tiger is saying that he knows Kelly and he did not take offense to her comments because he knows that she is not racist and didn't mean him any harm? Good grief people. In my opinion America needs to grow a little thicker skin about some things. Sometimes people just say dumb things and that doesn't make them racist. How can we be the country who is so willing to forgive and forget cheating politicians, drug addict musicians, and athletes who abuse women but we are so offended by a silly remark said in jest by a golf TV announcer who obviously had no racist intent? Let's save our outrage at racism over real racism and stop trying to tell others when they ought to be offended or dig up racism when it's not there. I think Tiger is more qualified than the media or Jim Brown to know when he himself should be offended.

Just something for ya'll to think about.

-Doc

Gisele Bundchen .....

Is going to ruin Tom Brady just like Jessica Simpson did to Tony Romo!
She took Tom Brady to a club where her ex boyfriend Leo DiCaprio just HAPPENED to be there as well!
click to read article: http://www.pr-inside.com/bundchen-amp-dicaprio-avoid-each-other-r398510.htm

Tom Brady is frazzled already!!!

Go Giants!! Superbowl XLII champions!!

- The Mountain Raisin

IT'S RAINING GIANTS!!!

In one of the greatest (and sloppiest) football games I have ever seen, the New York Giants defeated the Green Bay Packers and are going to Super Bowl XLII against the New England Patriots! Wow!!! I was a bar watching the game and completely lost my voice from screaming at the TV for 3 hours.

The Patriots are undefeated and have an 18 and 0 record. So my rally cry for the next two weeks before the Super Bowl will be '18 and 1! 18 and 1!'

If the New York Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, it will be the greatest victory in the history of mankind! WHOOAAAAHOOO!!!!!!!!

- The Mountain Cat

I am feeling very BLUE this morning

My Monday morning begins with sheer euphoria over my New York Giants fantastic win over those hated Dallas Cowboys last night. It was the very first playoff game between these two teams believe it or not. This is one of the greatest rivalries in sports, so this win is completely satisfying. But now I have a very important personal decision to make and I need the help of my fellow readers. There are a couple of rabid Cowboys fans in my office that I have engaged in verbal battles with over this past season. I am debating on taking the high road and just smiling when I see them, OR running up to them yelling 'Yeah baby!! Giants win!! Cowboys suck! Tony Romo's gotta a big ol' butt, oh yeah! Whoop, whoop, whoop!' What should I do my friends? I am learning towards the former with quite, dignity and grace.

I watched the game in Hoboken with some friends including fellow blogger Uber. After the game Uber and I hailed a cab in the pouring rain. As we get in the taxi feeling high on football, ironically the first song we hear on the driver's radio is 'It's Raining Men' by the Weather Girls! Now it is said that music is associated with good memories. So unfortunately, this Giants victory will be associated with this song! Ugh, the horror!! I am unable to block the song out of my head now. Oh well, to make lemons with lemonade I turned to Uber and jokingly said 'Whenever I think about this day again my friend, I will remember this moment we shared together in this cab'. Uber just shook his head and ignored me.

- The Mountain Cat

The final word on Roger Clemens and steroids

All we hear is did Clemens do it? Is he lying? Why would his trainer Brian McNamee lie? No, no, no, no, NO! Stop it please! I am tired of this back and forth as I am sure most of you are. There is one thing and one thing only to indict Roger Clemens at this point and I am surprised that this key point has not brought to attention more by sports talk radio and writers: Roger Clemens is guilty by association. Period. Sorry Roger but you are. Look I can slightly believe that you did not do steroids and HGH. But in no way do I believe that you did not know that Brian McNamee was a supplier of these illegal substances. McNamee is consider 'family' according to Clemens' own words.

Roger Clemens should have seen this one coming a long long time ago. He is a public figure and did watch his associations carefully. Sure he can argue all he wants that he did not get these injections from him. But if Brian McNamee injected other players (Andy Pettitte, et'al), the court of public opinion will always associate you with a drug dealer. It is like saying I don't steal but I hang around thieves. So wouldn't you think I was a thief too? It is all about choices you make. And this goes for all the other players wrapped up in this scandal. The problem is I don't think we will ever find the proverbial 'smoking gun' to prove that Clemens is innocent or guilty. So I predict his reputation will forever be tarnished.

But when it is all said and done, Roger Clemens is still a Hall of Fame pitcher. But people will just snicker and just link him with this scandal in their minds when they look at his Gold Plaque in Cooperstown someday.

Now how do we get final closure on this baseball steroid scandal? Maybe we need to embrace it? Sounds ironic but maybe the Baseball Hall of Fame should have a display acknowledging the steroid era? That may be unfair to those great players who did not do steroids. But lets face fact here, 100 years from now we won't remember names. Just the whole lot who played during this time period was involved in one form of the other since it was so wide spread. But we all turned a blind eye. The baseball executives, the players, and us the fan knew something had to be going on illegally. Yes, us the fan. We all enjoyed seeing the homerun records broken even though we knew some of these players looked like massive Belgium Cattle (Mark McGwire, et'al). We perpetuated the sport into riches they never dreamed of. We are all to blame for letting this manifest to the colossal imbroglio we see our beloved sport in now. So like Senator George Mitchell stated in his speech when he released his report, lets accept this and move on. Otherwise this stink will just linger indefinitely.

- The Mountain Cat