This year in sports (or how I want to bang my head against a wall)

Well, the Baltimore Ravens win last night on Monday Night Football eliminated the New York Jets from the playoffs, officially making this the Worst Year Ever for New York Sports. ::Sigh:: I'm not a Jets fan, but they were my last hope to root for any New York team in any sport to have a shot at maybe not the title, but at least a postseason appearance. I know Jets and Mets fans are used to this kind of disappointment, but in addition to those perennial losers (no offense intended), we saw the Yankees suck and miss the postseason, we saw the Giants suck and miss the playoffs...hockey and basketball are in the middle of their seasons but the Islanders are in last place, the Rangers are middle of the pack, and the Nets and Knicks aren't looking good either. What's a sports fan to do? I'm tempted to take up some other pasttime, such as needlepoint or taxidermy. I'm just glad my daughter is too young to remember this year in sports - I want her to be proud of being a New York sports fan, not want to bang her head repeatedly against a wall in frustration. Although she does seem to be leaning toward being a Jets fan, which might cement her as her grandfather's favorite grandchild (she's his only grandchild) but might mean she'll have to get used to banging her head repeatedly against a wall in frustration.

Here's looking forward to 2014!

Just because there is nothing good to write about New York sports at the moment...

From Sports-Funny Page on Facebook...this cracked me up. Even though the New York Giants (just barely) won this week, I am overall in need of a good laugh to get me through this entire year, across the board, sports-wise. Although I'm a New York fan first and foremost, I do love me some Peyton Manning. I have 3 Manning jerseys, and only 2 of them are Eli, but I think my most favorite member of this tongue-in-cheek but really quite accurate list is Uncle Rico. Dude spends so much time taping his passing practices instead of watching his nephews Kip and Napoleon, he best be on this list!!

For those of you who didn't give up and kept watching...

 

They did it, they did it! The New York Giants finally won their first game...it's only the end of October, after all... My daughter wore her Giants onesie for the first time this season in the hopes that it would bring our team good luck (we're Irish...we can't help but be superstitious...), and whaddyaknow, it worked! Good thing she has three of these cuz she's gonna be rockin' them every Sunday for the rest of the season.

Of course, it was a really sloppy win, but at this point, I'll take it...anything that gets the players over what seemed to be an insurmountable obstacle of simply, y'know, winning. Maybe now we can start to look forward to seeing more Victor Cruz salsa-dancing and not having to hide our faces in shame in public anymore!

From TelevisionWithoutPity, a post tailor-made for this blog: Throw Like a Girl: My Boys, Friday Night Lights and Sports Night‘s Fiercest Females

I couldn't have written this post better myself, though the idea of a round-up of some of TV's fiercest sports-loving females is one I plan on stealing and expounding on in the future. Since Aly Semigran's post is so spot-on, I'll just let you read it at TelevisionWithoutPity.com here, and just add that My Boys used to be one of my favorite shows, and P.J. Franklin is one of my favorite characters and totally makes me want to be a sportswriter. I AM in need of a job, so maybe that's something I should look into - I have a background in journalism and a love of sports, if anybody reading this is hiring! ;)

The cast of My Boys

There are worse things than starting your season 0-5. Oh, wait...

...when it comes to sports, at least, there really aren't. I guess maybe starting your season 0-6. Not to jinx the New York Giants' season or anything...but seriously! They're looking less like former Super Bowl champs out there and more like pee wee players who have yet to learn the fundamentals of the game. There's still hope, though. In theory. They can still turn it around. The thing is, though, that each week that goes by without winning a game, the more pressure there is the next week to get that first win, and the more pressure there is from both coach and management and themselves and oh my lord, the fans, the more likely the team is to keep shooting itself in the foot. I mean, there's playing under pressure and then there's playing UNDER PRESSURE. One gets you to the Super Bowl. The other gets you lynched by a mob of angry blue shirts. And the more winless weeks there are, the more wins in a row you have to get, the less leeway you get if you want any hope at making it to the postseason. And pretty much every team in the NFL makes it to the postseason. But not if you can't win a game...

On a brighter note, the New York Jets are actually making their fans happy. And probably even some non-fans. We need SOMEBODY to win in New York, people! Watched Monday Night Football last night and they had a pretty exciting win over the Atlanta Falcons. Nothing like winning it at the very last second. Couple of bad calls throughout the game, but the Jets played well besides that. Those calls helped but didn't hand them the win. I hate to say it, but Giants, take note...this is what a winning team looks like...

This New York sports fan has the blues

The New York Yankees are almost done. It's a sad day for this sports fan when there's no October baseball to care about. The New York Giants are 0-3 to start the season. I can't even put into words how disgusted I am with their performance this past weekend. I could've played better football than that. My 5-month-old daughter and I could have shown up better than those Giants did. Ugh. You know things are bad when the New York Jets are your go-to team to brighten your cloudy sports day. Mariano Rivera is retiring. Andy Pettitte is retiring. I know this totally dates me, but those guys are the Yankees to me. Oh, along with Derek Jeter. Who is out for the rest of the season. Which doesn't so much matter now that the season probably won't be heading into October anyway, but he's out because he's injured, and he's injured because he's old. I'm glad I didn't go to any games this year, what with Derek out for most of them, and the Yankees just not being very Yankee-like, but I would liked to have seen Andy and Mo pitch one last time. Oh well. I'll have to bring my daughter to a Yankee game next year, because with him turning 40 next summer, I wouldn't be surprised in the least for Derek Jeter to announce that next year will be his last. Or if he doesn't retire, I could see him giving up playing short stop and becoming the permanent DH, a la David Ortiz. But to keep harping on the Yankees' terrible season - not for nothing, but they did it to themselves. My five-month-old daughter and I could manage that team better than Cashman and the Steinbrenners. This season is EXACTLY what happens when you rely on older, burned out, faded, former super stars, both homegrown and acquired - when they get injured, as old men are wont to do (and in baseball, anything upwards of 35 is an old man), you have to bring in your young, green, immature, and inexperienced players, and when that transition isn't gradual, when you just throw them into the game, when you don't give them a chance to learn side-by-side with the seasoned former superstars, who have the experience to show and teach them a thing or two, when you don't look two years down the road and realize that hey, eventually you're going to HAVE to go with new players or else be the only team in the league featuring 50 year olds on the field, then your team fails to make it to the play offs. End of story. So baseball is a bust. Here's hoping the Giants shape up or I'm going to have to start rooting for the Jets. Or look forward to basketball season...

Must be autumn...football season is here again, with a new sports fan!

These crossover seasons, when it's the end of one sport but the beginning of another, can be tough. Usually when both your teams, if you have a team in each sport, are doing well. With a new baby in the house, I haven't really watched any baseball this season, but from what I can glean from the little I have seen, the New York Yankees are well on their way to having a well-rested October full of plenty of free time. Ay-yai-yai... thankfully, football season is upon us again. It officially started Thursday night but today was the big day, the first football Sunday of the 2013 season. Today my five month old daughter watched her first football game - New York Jets vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers with her hardcore Jets-fan grandfather. Because of that, and because today was Grandparents' Day, Elena rocked her Jets onesie, even though Mama is a hardcore New York Giants fan. I told my dad that I would never buy her Jets gear, but if he did, she would wear it when we watch football at his house. And so he called my bluff...oh well. She looked cute, and apparently it was good luck, as the Jets somehow pulled off a win in the last seconds of the game. Now tonight I will be rockin' my Giants Super Bowl jersey as we take on the hated Dallas Cowboys...this is the way to start a football season!

And yes, in case you were wondering, my daughter does have Giants onesies. But they're size 9 months, as opposed to the 3-6 month size of her Jets onesies. Which means she doesn't fit into them yet, but she'll be able to wear them for more of the football season and show her real fan colors! (Sorry, Dad!):)

Jets fan and granddaughter

Jets fan and niece. And Trooper.

Mama in her Giants jersey and baby in her Jets onesie

J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets! That's for Grandpa...

Trooper wanted to get in on the photo-taking fun. #totallyhoggingthespotlight