Tuesday, November 27, 2012

From Newsday.com: Source: Andy Pettitte to return in 2013 for Yankees

Taking a break from football and basketball and other fall sports - Looks like the New York Yankees will sign not only Pettitte but Mariano Rivera and Hiroki Kuroda for the 2013 season. I love Pettitte and I thought he did well when he wasn't injured last season, so I'm always happy whenever he returns. Mariano will be 43 but as a closer, age shouldn't be too much of a factor. Missed him last season. Kuroda was awful at the start of 2012 but turned into a dynamo - and with CC Sabathia also pitching, looks like the Yankees will have a formidable lineup.

Of course, pitching rotations always look great before the season starts. Ask me again a few months in when we know what injuries and mishaps we're REALLY dealing with.

Still, a Pettitte return would be a nice early Christmas present for this fan girl! :) If you're a Cablevision or Newsday subscriber, you can read the whole story here.

Monday, November 19, 2012

From NBC Sports: How I learned to stop worrying and love overtime

First, I just wanna point out how much I love this headline - I just rewatched Dr. Strangelove, one of my all time favorite movies, a couple of weeks ago (for those who don't know, the full title of Stanley Kubrick's classic movie is Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb).

Anywho, nice little article by Michael David Smith about the (somewhat) new NFL overtime rules. As a rule, I am a huge, huge opponent to sudden death as a way to end a game, or any other method (like the shoot out in tied soccer games) where a team wins or loses, and sometimes in very important games, based more on luck (such as winning a coin toss to gain first possession) than on skill. I still am not convinced of the NFL changes, which are still semi sudden death, in that once one team scores a touchdown, whether or not the overtime period is over, the game is over, but the fact that BOTH teams now get the chance to get their offense the ball and that the first team to have possession must try to march all the way down the field for a touchdown rather than half-ass it to midfield and settle for a field goal, I guess is better than nothing. Anyway, you can read the story here.

And yay for a New York Jets win - yay, FINALLY! - yesterday. With some pretty sweet Mark Sanchez passes to boot (my dad, a staunch Mark Sanchez defender, must have been really happy to see that)! With the New York Giants on a bye week, it was up to the Jets to get me my New York win, and they came through when I needed them the most. Thank god.

Next up: Turkey Day showdown between the Jets and the New England Patriots. Can't wait!

Friday, November 9, 2012

Big deal, she’s a girl: Football player’s video is just darn good

This video has already gone viral, so chances are, you've seen it, but I liked author Kavita Varma-White's take that what should make this video so appealing is not that Sam Gordon is a girl, but that this is a video of a kid - any kid, boy or girl - who is just that good.

Weeks like these, especially if you're in my area, which was hard hit by Hurricane Sandy and then 10 days later by a wintery nor'easter, you need to read stories that makes you smile.

You go, girl! :)

Big deal, she’s a girl: Football player’s video is just darn good

Friday, November 2, 2012

NYC Marathon cancelled in wake of Superstorm Sandy

Mayor Bloomberg's office announced this afternoon that the New York City Marathon would be cancelled this weekend, reversing his stand this week to keep the marathon on, saying it wouldn't divert resources from Sandy recovery efforts and that it would bring New Yorkers and racers from out of town together.

Personally, I think cancelling the marathon was the right call. The city and surrounding areas are in a fragile state right now. As someone who lives on Long Island, less than 25 miles from Manhattan and even closer to Queens and Brooklyn, three of the boroughs where the race would take place, I've been without power for four whole days now - no heat in the freezing cold, no hot water, no fridge or stove, no lights. I spend my mornings and evenings in the dark and my days lugging what I can to whatever nearby facility has electricity for me to recharge & catch up on the news - hotel yesterday, library today. My father's house flooded and was damaged, and many of my neighbors and friends lost everything they owned. Now, even though the winds have died down and the waters have receded, while many of us wait for the power to go back on, all of us are dealing with a severe gas shortage, limiting travel for all of us and generator use for others. We don't need a sporting event to rally around - for the most part, we've been rallying around each other. We have more important things to think about, like how we're going to stay warm tonight or where we're going to stay if we don't even have a home to go back to. And for families and friends of the approximate 100 people who were killed in Sandy's fury, there's a whole other set of emotional issues to deal with.

Hotels were facing the dilemma of evicting evacuees, those without homes, in order to honor reservations for those running in the marathon. While Bloomberg claimed no resources or manpower would be diverted from the recovery effort for the marathon, clearly there were supplies like generators being used for the marathon that could have been put toward those affected by the storm. So good on Bloomberg for finally having some common sense and making the only obvious decision regarding the race. There's always next year.

Thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by Sandy - hope things start/continue to get better for us all, soon!