Back From A Boring Weekend

Good morning, Fackers. On Friday afternoon, Joe called this past weekend the best one in sports. There are some other candidates, namely the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, but I would probably give my vote to the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs. There are four games on, which start late Saturday afternoon and end at a reasonable time on Sunday giving you a healthy amount of meaningful, intense football to consume. Well, on paper anyway.

Just like the games Wildcard Round, there were three unwatchable tilts that were decided before the first half was over and the one game that was close featured only 10 points in the first three quarters. The average margin of victory through the first 8 games of the playoffs this season has been 17.1 points with only the two aforementioned match-ups being decided by less than one touchdown. Four games have been decided by 30 points or more. Last year, no playoff games were that lopsided.

According to this study, we've watched roughly 88 minutes of postseason football action thus far and I've venture to guess that about 10 of those have been worth paying attention to.

I'm not sure if other Yankee fans can relate, but I've felt detached from the NFL season this year. It was quite the opposite from 2008, the Giants had started off the defense of their Super Bowl victory 4-0 when the Yankees were clearing out their lockers. There was real excitement surrounding that team and although they bumbled a Monday night game against the Browns, they cruised to 11-1 before things fell apart. And when the Giants lost to the Eagles in the Divisional Round, it really hurt.

When the Yanks won the World Series this year, the Giants were already halfway through their season. At that point, their stock had already risen and fell. They were 5-3 after losing 3 in a row and ended up closing out the season a meager 3-5 including two disgraceful losses by more than 30 points in Weeks 16 & 17. They had been eliminated from the playoffs for three weeks so at that point, it didn't really matter.

Now that were halfway through a forgettable postseason and I couldn't care less about how the rest of it turns out. I just hope the Vikings lose this Sunday so we are spared the agony of the two week festival that will be known as "Favreganza" leading up to the Super Bowl.

There's good news, however. It's hard to believe, but pitchers and catchers report exactly one month from today. The Yankees' full squad will join six days later. It's more symbolic than anything since workouts in Tampa don't offer much entertainment to fans - even ones who attend them in person - but there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Digging Out From The Weekend

Good morning Fackers. Hopefully you have managed to shovel yourself out from the storm that buried much of the East Coast throughout the day on Saturday and into Sunday morning. Since it was the last weekend for people to roam the malls in search of Christmas gifts, retailers are predictably acting like they were just held up at gunpoint.

The Bears and Ravens ended up playing in Baltimore despite the fact that the Bears were stuck in Chicago until late Saturday night and M&T Bank Stadium being covered with almost two feet of the white stuff. The Ravens claimed it cost them almost $500,000 to remove all of it. According to the Redskins they've employed 1,200 workers to relocate the 25 million pounds of snow on FedEx Field before the Giants and Redskins play tonight.

Unfortunately, the storm didn't manage to put a damper on the opening weekend for that movie with the blue people that I refuse to name, which has been annoying us with their contrived promotions for two fucking months. Is there no justice in this world?

In baseball news, after waiting more than a week for Mike Lowell to take a physical for the Rangers, the Red Sox saw the trade that would have sent him and $9M to Texas in exchange for catching prospect Max Ramirez fall through. Lowell failed that physical because it indicated that the third baseman will need surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb. Recovery time is supposed to be 6-8 weeks and he should be ready for Spring Training in some capacity, but D.J. Short over at Circling the Bases thinks the Red Sox are pissed at Lowell, even if they aren't saying it:

...You have to understand how frustrated the Red Sox are with Lowell for not having the problem addressed sooner. Not only because of the nixed trade, but what might have happened had the Red Sox stayed with the status quo. Lowell likely wouldn't have had the thumb examined during the offseason at all had Texas not tentatively agreed to a trade. They have every reason to be be furious with Lowell, even if they will say otherwise publicly.

Lowell's injury also devastates his trade value when the Sox are finally able to move him. Even if the Sox are willing to eat $9M of his contract, almost every team is going to have committed to another option at third base by then. Furthermore, although the injury isn't assumed to be very serious, teams are likely to be skeptical that he will make a full recovery.

This turn of events has left the Sox in a very difficult spot. The easiest thing to do would be penciling in the Youkstah at 3B and allowing Casey Kotchman to man first. But over the past three years, Kotchman has been only league average at first base, hitting .279/.346/.421 (101 OPS+) in 1521 plate appearances. They could venture into the free agent market to find another third baseman, but it falls steeply after Adrian Beltre to guys like Joe Crede, Melvin Mora and Mike Lamb. Do they overspend to cover their asses for this year, or take their chances that Lowell can be productive at the plate and his defense will rebound from last year? Neither of those are very appealing options.

Lowell was signed for $37.5M over 3 years after his World Series MVP and hasn't played more than 120 games or been significantly better than league average offensively in either of the first two seasons of the deal. The third one doesn't look a whole lot better.

Big Day For Big Blue

The Giants are returning to action this afternoon following their bye week and four straight losses - two of them ugly, and the last of them a final minute stomach punch.

Today's game is an important one for the G-Men, not only to right the ship but also because today's opponent, the Atlanta Falcons, will be one of the Giants' principal rivals in fighting for playoff spots down the stretch. Dallas leads the NFC East by a game over both the Giants and Philadelphia. They, along with the Eagles, Packers, and Falcons are in a four way tie for the two wild card spots. The Giants still have a shot at the division, and a win today would not only be a step in the right direction as far as that's concerned but have the added benefit of giving them a leg up on of their chief competitors for the wild card spots.

The Giants will be without captain and starting middle linebacker Antonio Pierce who, according to the New York Daily News, is out indefinitely with a bulging disc in his neck. The Giant defense will have top cornerback Aaron Ross in the lineup for the first time all season, providing much needed help to a secondary that's been decimated by injuries all season long.

I'll be a bit torn today, seeing the Giants go up against one of my favorite BC Eagles of all time in Matt Ryan, but rest assured, I'm firmly pulling for the G-Men in this one. It's getting down to crunch time now - the Giants did their damage early this year going 5-0 against mostly mediocre competition and have been on a losing streak ever since. Today's game kicks off a pretty challenging seven game stretch, including a short rest Thanksgiving night game in Denver's high altitude. It would do the Giants a world of good to bank a "W" this afternoon.

Game is at 1:00 on FOX, with Moose, Goose, and Kenny Albert - unless 50 Cent has had Kenny knocked off. Let's hope it's an enjoyable one.

Giants Figure Out A Way To Win: Do Nothing

Good morning, Fackers. Typically, the bye week during the NFL season is a welcome break for a team, but as much for the fans. A Sunday after the baseball season has concluded and without your NFL team in action seems kind of empty and aimless. However, that extra healing and preparation time is incredibly useful to the teams. And this week was particularly advantageous to the Giants, although they had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Big Blue had their best week since since blowing out the Raiders back on October 11th and they didn't even have to get off their couches. As heartbreaking and inopportune as their last minute loss of the Chargers was last week, it was nearly neutralized by the way the cards fell this weekend.

The Eagles made a trip out to San Diego but lost to the Chargers behind a resurgent LaDanian Tomlinson (96 yards, 2 TDs). The Cowboys visited Lambeau Field and were held scoreless by the Packers until there was less than one minute left in the 4th quarter. This left the 'Boys at (6-3) and the Eagles at (5-4) meaning the G-Men (5-4) are one game out of first place in the NFC and hold the edge in a tiebreaker against the Cowboys (although they don't against Philly).

The Giants' next two opponents, the Falcons and the Broncos, both lost as well. Atlanta outgained the Panthers on offense but two interceptions by Matt Ryan proved to be costly, as the 28-19 loss dropped them to (5-4) - tied with the Giants going into next week's match up. The Broncos suffered a 27-17 loss to the Redskins -their third straight. Kyle Orton was also hurt in the game and is unsure whether he'll be able to play next week. Like the Giants, the Broncos got off to a perfect start but have since hit the skids against some tougher competition and suddenly don't look so hot.

The Saints (9-0), Vikings (8-1) and Cardinals (6-3) all seem to be safe bets to win their respective divisions, but the scrum for the final three playoff spots just got a lot more interesting. The Giants, Eagles, Packers and Falcons are all sitting at (5-4) with the Cowboys just one game ahead. Chicago, Carolina and San Francisco are (4-5) but seem like longshots to end up in the postseason.

The Giants were significantly helped by the way things played out yesterday but have their work cut out for them in the near future. They play the Falcons next week at the Meadowlands and then have to travel to Denver to play on short rest on Thanksgiving. The following two weeks feature showdowns with Cowboys and Eagles.

The picture looks a whole lot rosier for the G-Men than it did after their loss to the Chargers, but that isn't saying all that much. They're squarely in the middle of the pack for the NFC Wild Card spots and will need to distinguish themselves over the next four weeks against stiff competition under difficult circumstances.

Catching Up With The G-Men

In their final game of the 2008 season, the Yankees fell to the Red Sox 4-3 in 10 innings at Fenway Park. It was the only time in the previous 14 years that combination of events wouldn't have meant a heartbreaking loss in Game 7 of the ALCS, but since only one of those teams was going to the postseason, it didn't much matter how the game ended.

Earlier that day, Mike Mussina had won his 20th game of the season for the first time in his career so in the later game, Joe Girardi gave most of his regulars the day off. Sindey Ponson was the starting pitcher and the line up featured Cody Ransom, Wilson Betemit, Juan Miranda and eventually, Chad Moeller. The Yanks had played their last "meaningful" game of the year a week earlier, when they closed down the Old Stadium against the Orioles.

At that point, the Giants had begun their Super Bowl Title defense 3-0 and were sitting through a very early bye week. The fact that the G-Men had just pulled off a miraculous championship run and started off the new 2008/9 season on the right foot, it was easy to move past the forgettable campaign the Yankees just completed. Plus, it was apparent since the middle of August that a postseason berth was unlikely for the Yanks, so the process of detachment had begun long before October began.

While the Giants actually started off with a better record this year than last (5-0 to 4-0), it was apparent that the 2009 version wasn't as balanced as the previous year's.

Just as the Yankees were heading out to Anaheim for Game 3 of the ALCS, the Giants took their perfect record into the Superdome and watched Drew Brees and the Saints walk (or more appropriately, pass) all over it.

As the Yanks continued the march to the World Series, the Giants dropped two more games; a tough one to the Cardinals that took place at the same time at Game 6 of the ALCS and a blowout at the hands of the Eagles.

Although Big Blue is still in relatively good position to make the playoffsat 5-3, it's apparent that they are not the offensive force they were last year. Much of their success in 2008 revolved around their seemingly unstoppable rushing attack which netted them an average of 157 yards per game (5.0 yards per carry) last year.

The rushing attack has slowed to 141 YPG (4.4/attempt). Much od this can be tied to Brandon Jacobs', who had seen more carries per game, but gained fewer yards 83 to 68. His average per carry has dropped a full yard and looks to be lacking the explosiveness he had last year. Ahmad Bradshaw has kept the running attack afloat by averaging 5.3 yards/attempt and picking up and gaining nearly as many yards as Jacobs despite receiving 63% as many hand-offs.

Bradshaw has helped replace Derrick Ward in the ground game, but hasn't been able to imitate him on the screen passes and dump-offs that netted Ward an extra 25 yards a game at 9.4 yards per catch. These short passes were an effective third option the Giants offense employed last year, but have been largely absent 8 games in 2009. However, the rest of the Giants passing game has been a pleasant surprise.

Despite all the hand wringing over the wide receiving corps coming into the season, Steve Smith, Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks each have 4 touchdowns and are on pace to combine for nearly 3,000 yards receiving. Eli Manning is averaging more yards through the air than he did last year (or any other year of his career), but that might be more of an indictment of the running game since he already has almost as many interceptions (8) as he did last year (10) and the schedule is only half over.

Defensively, the Giants have been slipping as well. They didn't allow any team to score more than 35 points against them last year but the Saints and Eagles both eclipsed the 40 point barrier in the last three weeks. Jerry Reese made steps to shore up the defensive line with the additions of Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard but Canty has appeared in a grand total of one game while Bernard has been a relative non-factor in the 7 he's made it into. Their other major defensive free agent acquisition, Michael Boley, has played in only 3 games at linebacker.

The secondary is the Giants' most glaring weakness on either side of the ball. Kenny Phillips' season-ending injury was the most devastating, as his absence paved the way for "Bad, Bad C.C. Brown". Due to his flagrant suckitude, Brown has been relegated to third safety duties in favor of Aaron Rouse, a waiver wire pick up from the Packers. Cornerback Aaron Ross hasn't played a game all year with a hamstring injury and won't start today.

The Giants also have an uphill climb remaining. In addition to playing the second half of their divisional schedule, they'll face the Falcons at home and the Broncos and Vikings on the road.

More immediately, they'll try to snap a three game losing streak at the Meadowlands today against the Chargers before a much needed bye week.

In baseball, it's foolish to make a big deal out of one regular season game, but not in the NFL. If the Giants lose to (4-3) San Diego today at 4:15, they will likely have to win at least 4 but probably 5 of their remaining 7 games to make the playoffs. That will be a tall order considering those opponents are currently a combined 14 games over .500.

Conversely, if they manage to pull this one out, they'll be 6-3 heading into the the bye week on a positive note and will have two weeks to prepare for the match up against the Falcons, a team they are likely to be fighting for a Wild Card spot with.

Given the year the Yankees are coming off of, I'm not going to be crushed if the Giants turn in a disappointing campaign. But another trip to the playoffs would most certainly help bridge the gap until pitchers and catchers report. And a win today would be a big step in the right direction. Let's go G-Men.

What If George Steinbrenner Bought The Buccaneers?

One of the several big media stories Wednesday was that George Steinbrenner would be at Yankee Stadium for Game One of the World Series. Now 79 years old, The Boss's health has reportedly been in decline for some time. His public appearances have been few and far between, and the man who was once a daily quote machine for the New York tabloids now speaks only through rare and bland statements released through his public relations man. But without George and his dedication to expending every possible resource to win, it's unlikely there would be a new Yankee Stadium to visit, and equally unlikely there would be a World Series Game One to attend.

Thursday, a seemingly unrelated story broke. Tampa radio station WDAE reported that the Glazer family was putting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers up for sale, citing the family's reported two billion dollar debt as owners of the English Premier League's Manchester United as the cause for the Bucs hitting the market. The Glazers denied the report later Thursday afternoon.

The two stories falling on successive days made me think back to the mid-nineties, the last time the Bucs were up for sale. Original owner Hugh Culverhouse died August 26, 1994, and his estate decided to sell the team. Long the laughingstock of the league and playing in dilapidated Tampa Stadium, the franchise was ripe for relocation.

The Rams and Raiders were a year away from leaving Los Angeles, with the Raiders returning to Oakland and the Rams heading to St. Louis, which the Cardinals had vacated six years earlier. The Colts had moved to Indianapolis from Baltimore ten years earlier, and the Charm City was two years away from poaching the Browns from Cleveland to replace them. The Oilers were three years away from leaving Houston for Tennessee. In other words, plenty of cities were in the market for an NFL franchise.

As the bidders lined up for the Bucs, several potential ownership groups hung their hat on a promise to keep the team in Tampa. One such bidder was a Tampa resident with an extensive history as a sportsman in football, basketball, horse racing, the U.S. Olympic Committee, and baseball: George M. Steinbrenner III.

On January 17, 1995 the team was sold to Malcolm Glazer, another bidder who promised to keep the team in Tampa. Glazer's offer exceeded Steinbrenner's by about $12M and the sale included a provision for a $35M penalty if the franchise was moved within 10 years. Three years later the Bucs opened state-of-the-art Raymond James Stadium, less than a mile from the Yankees Spring Training complex and what is now George M. Steinbrenner Field. In his eighth season as owner, Glazer hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, a far cry from his team's current 0-7 state.

As the Yankees chase their seventh World Championship of the Steinbrenner Era, I can't help but wonder how the past 15 years of Yankee history would have unfolded had Steinbrenner bought the Bucs. At the time of the sale, baseball was embroiled in the worst labor dispute in its history. Steinbrenner was less than two years removed from returning from his second suspension at the hands of Major League Baseball, and since his return had taken a less active/disruptive role than he had in his heyday. He had owned the Yankees for more than twenty years at that point, and had often been criticized for running the franchise like a football team, likely stemming from his time as a graduate assistant at Ohio St and as an assistant coach at Purdue and then Northwestern in the 1950s.

At the time of the sale, the NFL had a bylaw prohibiting its owners from owning other sports franchises. Less than two years earlier, Wayne Huizenga, who already owned the Florida Marlins and the NHL's Florida Panthers, upped his minority share in the Miami Dolphins to a majority share. As a result of the NFL's bylaw, Huizenga was forced to place his Dolphins ownership stake into a trust until the league evaluated the situation. They eventually rescinded the bylaw, but not before Huizenga spent four years as an absentee owner.

No sooner did the NFL allow Huizenga to keep all three teams, the financial strain forced him to begin selling. His Marlins won the World Series seven months after the ruling came down, but he immediately gutted the team and the next year sold them to current Red Sox owner John Henry. Three years after that he divested himself of the Panthers as well.

We'll never know what would have happened had Steinbrenner bought the Buccaneers. But we do know that in light of the Huizenga situation he would have entered the purchase eyes wide open, knowing his ownership of the Yankees would have posed a problem to the NFL. Would Steinbrenner, a notorious control freak, have had the self-restraint to put his $180M investment in a trust for two years? Or would he have wanted to return to the sport that was his first love and play with his new toy right away? Steinbrenner had reduced his level of control with the Yankees and was already making threats about moving in his quest for a new stadium. Had he purchased the Bucs might he have put the Yankees up for sale? Or, if he kept them both would he have been forced to sell at some point, as Huizenga was? Would his sizeable investment in an NFL franchise have prevented the Yankees payroll from expanding year after year?

Thankfully we never had to discover the answers to those questions. In the fifteen years since Steinbrenner lost out to Glazer, the Steinbrenner Family has reaffirmed its commitment to the New York Yankees. They've captured seven pennants and four Championships, with a fifth just three wins away. They've built a brand new stadium in the Bronx and have invested close to two billion dollars in player payroll since then. Though George has faded to the background, his children have shown no signs of changing things. The organization appears to be in good shape for years to come.

Nightcap Links

Do you know anyone in this world who wears an actual nightcap? Grandparents maybe? What does it say about our culture that the drinking form of a nightcap is probably thousands of times more popular than the ridiculous thing you wear on your head to bed? Just thinking out loud here...

Unsurprisingly, the Yankees cleaned the Giants clock in the New York market last night, ratings-wise. Somewhat surprisingly, they also edged the NBC night game nation-wide. Oh, and enjoy that article from Neil Best because unless you live on Long Island it might be one of the last you get to read.

Rob Iracane at Walkoff Walk details the upcoming battle over New Jersey.

We used this song for a preview before Jeter started using it for his at bat music, and now it's going to be performed live before Game 1 of the World Series. (via BBTF)

Joe Girardi has made some highly questionable moves this postseason, but to label him the "#1 October Disaster" like Jon Heyman did is indefensible. (via Craig)

Ross from New Stadium Insider wonders how many Philly fans will be at the games at Yankee Stadium and based on secondary market ticket prices, there might be a lot.

FanGraphs looks at Andy Pettitte's season using Pitch f/x data. Over there as well, Dave Cameron suggests that Girardi go with a three man rotation in the World Series.

If Rob Neyer talks about the Yankees on a podcast, I will link to it.

Matthew Pouliot at Circling the Bases thinks the Angels should be embarrassed with their performance in the ALCS. David Brown at Big League Stew thinks they should still be proud of the season they had.

Some historical precedence on the rivalry between Philly and New York. (via BLS)

That's all for now. We'll be back at it tomorrow with some historical perspective and other good stuff. In the meantime, feel free to root for neither of the teams playing in Monday Night Football.

It's Official: CC To Start Game Four

Good morning Fackers. Well, that was one helluva weekend. Outside of the Giants getting blown out in Nawlins yesterday I don't know that we could have asked for anything more.

In the least surprising news of the weekend, Joe Girardi made it official last night: CC Sabathia will start Tuesday's Game Four of the ALCS on three days rest. This, and the improbable holding out of the storm system on Friday and Saturday, will allow the Yankees to use only three starters over the course of the series, with Sabathia's Game Four start being the only made on short rest.

A talking point entering the post-season was Sabathia's poor post-season track record with Cleveland in 2007 and Milwaukee in 2008. Last season, Sabathia made just a single start in the NLDS, lasting only 3.2 innings allowing ten baserunners and five earned runs.

Sabathia's outstanding performance in two starts this post-season has done much to alleviate those concerns. Last season's poor performance could be chalked up to being just one poor start, or it could have been because Milwaukee whipped Sabathia like the rented mule he was down the stretch. He made his final four starts, including his NLDS disaster, on three days rest. While the final one didn't work out too well, Sabathia was excellent in the previous three: 2-1 with a 0.83 ERA, a 0.88 WHIP, and 21:4 K:BB in 21.2 IP. In 2001, the rookie Sabathia made the only other start of his career on three days rest, giving up just one run, one hit, two walks, and fanning five in five innings work.

While Sabathia pitched 230 innings this year, sixth most in baseball, the Yankees handled him pretty well. Thirteen of his thirty-four starts came with at least one extra day of rest, including his final four regular season outings. Thanks to the sweep of the Twins in the ALDS, by the time Sabathia takes the mound Tuesday he'll have thrown just 226 pitches over the previous seventeen days. Asking him to make one start on short rest should not be taxing in any way.

Anything can happen in a given start. But if CC lays an egg Tuesday it won't because he's pitching on short rest and it won't be because Joe Girardi chose to run him out for the eighth inning Friday night. Pitching Sabathia in Game Four is the right decision.

Damning With Faint Praise

On the heels of yet another anti-Chip Caray piece, again by Richard Sadomir, the well-respected David Pinto tires admirably to find something good about the TBS broadcast:

TBS does deserve praise for one aspect of its coverage, however, keeping the broadcast about the game. There are no guests in the booth, no taking an inning to talk about the news of the game rather than the play on the field.

I can't recall any circumstances where there was a guest in the booth if a playoff game, but I could be wrong because if I was watching, I would have temporarily blacked out from rage. Guests in the booth inevitably subtract from the broadcast, with the only exception being Jimmy Kimmel, and he was banned forever as a result.

Praising TBS for not having guests in the booth is like congratulating Ryan Franklin for not giving up a home run against the Dodgers or patting the Red Sox on the back because they managed three singles against John Lackey yesterday. "Hey well at least they didn't fuck up in every way imaginable!" I never thought I'd say this, but the sooner the broadcasts are turned over to FOX, the better.

Hardball & Pigskin: A Meandering Musing On My Two Favorite Sports

It's hard to believe that only about 1/8th of the baseball season remains, isn't it? We've spent over 5 months drilling down into the minutiae of the Yankees' season for about 700 posts, give or take. Previews, recaps, updates, analysis, extrapolations, musings, dissection and ponderance. I'm not a big NBA fan so during that stretch, my focus has been pretty squarely set on the Yankees and if not them, other teams in the MLB or baseball in general.

Well, since we had the first game of the NFL season last night, I start thinking more about the differences between the two on a general level. I skirted around it in the last post I put up yesterday but wanted to take a deeper look today, while the Yanks' season is still in suspended animation. It's a bit long and winding, but there's no turning back now.

I'm sure you know the George Carlin bit where he looks at the a some of the quirkiness of baseball in relation to other sports then discusses the differences in language between the two, which color baseball as pastoral game and football as a deadly war.

A while back, when he was riffing off Carlin, Joe Posnanski said, about the language of baseball:

Just about every word or phrase — can of corn, bang-bang play, dinger, tater, gopher ball, round-tripper, sinker, slider, — sounds like something a small child came up with long ago.

I think Pos hits on something here. Baseball is childlike in a way, because you have to accept failure as a part of it. You can have the most well-behaved children in the world, but despite your best efforts, they are still going to mess up sometimes and you could get mad at them every time, but that would make you kind of an asshole. Likewise, you can have a great baseball team and they are still going to lose, at the very least, about 30% of the time. You can get pissed, but that probably means you are a little unstable.

The moment of impact baseball ultimately boils down to is when a round ball traveling at 90 or so miles per hour collides with a rounded bat being swung at about about 65. It's an impact that takes place so fast and is altered by such minuscule increments that neither the batter or the pitcher could ever hope to control it precisely. Being great at baseball is like excelling at poker or golf; regardless of how good you are, you're still going to ground into double plays, get busted on the river or make bogeys. You have to defy the odds over the long term by making solid contact, putting your money in with the best hand or hitting fairways and greens.

There isn't that kind of failure rate built into football because there is far less probability involved. There's no precise moment of impact that change drastically in a matter of millimeters. Players are held accountable for almost everything that goes wrong. If a pass is intercepted, it's usually because the quarterback made a poor decision or a bad pass. If a running back gets dumped in the back field, it's because someone missed a blocking assignment or he hit the wrong hole. Sure, fingertip catches first downs are missed by inches or less, but it's clear that the Football Gods have far less of a hand in the outcome of the game than do the Baseball Gods.

The upshot is that football meets our expectations far more often than baseball. The best team in the NFL is almost never going to lose one game to the worst team, let alone two out of three. However, the Yankees did just that to the Nationals when they played them earlier this year. The probability aspect is what makes the 162 game schedule necessary in baseball and a season only 1/10th that long the norm for the NFL.

So between the length of the season and the level of randomness inherent in each of the sports, it's obvious why football follows a much more predictable narrative arc; the season is distilled into fewer games played with less deviation from expectations. And people love predictable storylines (h/t Joe P). You can make sense and draw conclusions out of individual football games, and have a better idea of where things are going as result. You can't even do that with any degree of reliability after watching an entire series in baseball.

The reason for this, I believe, is the fact that football teams compete against each other, but in baseball it's really a team's offense squaring off against one pitcher at a time, with a giant expectation of probability wedged in between.

I think those things start get down to why the NFL is much more popular than the MLB. Sure, it also helps that the time in between downs is perfectly conducive for replays to be shown and dissected. It doesn't hurt that the game is physical and eye catching. The advent of HDTV has certainly made football more enjoyable to watch at home.

But watching a football game is inherently more satisfying than watching a baseball game. I love both and obviously watch more than my fair share of baseball games, but like I said yesterday, I almost never watch a game from beginning to end that doesn't involve the Yanks.

The NFL schedule is easier to digest, to follow and to understand. You feel like you know more about the league as a whole from watching a single game. It's a lot easier to be a knowledgeable football fan that it is a baseball fan because your assumptions based on small sample sizes are true more often.

And this is kind of odd, because in football, you get the feeling that almost all of the people with the greatest knowledge of the game are those working in it. In baseball, you've got a ton of outside observers coming up with interesting theories and new ways to look at the game. The nuts and bolts of the in-depth strategy is really only know to the coaches and players in football, while in baseball, even the most advanced maneuvers are fairly transparent.

So in a way, baseball is simpler, because so much of the information available is right there for you. But at the same time the elements of random chance and probability that are so fundamental to the game ensure that there will always be an elusive blind spot in our understanding of the game; certain things that can't be figured out. And that makes it more complicated. And that's why it's more of an acquired taste than football.

It's not that baseball is better than football, or vice versa. But as we progress into the time of year which the two sports cohabitate, it's interesting to explore why each sport is enjoyable in it's own right. At least for me and the three other people who made it to the end of the post.

A Good Day For An Off Night

Barring the occurrence of foul weather or some other act of God, the Yankees won't play on Thursday for the rest of the regular season. With the games coming in at even more sporadic intervals in the postseason, we are beginning to be weened off baseball, whether we like it or not. Fortunately, just as baseball season is winding down, football starts to gear up. Line drives are slowly supplanted by long drives, first innings by first downs, base hits by big hits, stolen bases by interceptions and pop ups by touchdowns.

Last year the advent of football season was a welcome relief because while the Yankees' season was in its final throes, the Giants were embarking on their first Super Bowl defense since I was in second grade. With the Yankees continuing to destroy everything in their path this year, it seems like football is here too soon.

Matt ushered in the College Football season a couple of weeks ago quite beautifully, but the pigskin doesn't grab my attention until the NFL schedule starts up. Today, Big Daddy Drew at Deadspin posted his first NFL Dick Joke Jambaroo of the year, a must read for any pro football fan.

I'm a baseball fan first, but I never sit in front of the TV on a Sunday and watch two or three games that the Yankees aren't playing in. Maybe it has something to do with the temperature outside or fantasy football or gambling, but I think all of those things speak to why football is more popular than baseball. It's inherently more compelling to the casual observer. Baseball might have more to offer to those who care to look deeper, but Football doesn't require that kind of commitment.

Tonight the ratings of the Steelers vs. Titans game will almost certainly squash those of all seven of the baseball games that are on, combined.

Way back in February, I made a hokey analogy equating baseball with friendship and football with love. I'd probably change a few things if I were to write the post again, but I think the point still remains. Football is electric and physical, baseball is cordial and cerebral.

It's probably a good thing that the Yankees season slows to a halt for tonight. We get to take a step back from baseball in general and Jetermania in particular.

If you're a football fan, enjoy the game. If you're a solely baseball fan, I guess you could watch the Mets? Either way, we'll be back tomorrow morning.

These Days Is Almost Gone

Good morning Fackers. It's another off day. While these are never enjoyable, the off day today and next Monday, bookending the Boston series, are functional in that they've allowed the Yankees to align their rotation just as they want it: lining up their three best starters for this series, skipping Joba to limit his innings, skipping Mitre because he's not a good pitcher, and getting Chad Gaudin some much needed work.

Yet these off days are also a harbinger of things to come. Last night was Game 121, meaning the season is now 75% over (74.7% for you math majors). We're less than two weeks away from rosters expanding, minor league seasons ending, and the pennant races hitting the home stretch. Summer's on its way out the door and it won't be very long before baseball isn't a daily luxury any longer (though of course, I hope that it is for the Yankees longer than it is for anyone else).

Already, as I drive home from work at night, I notice the baseball fields are empty. But yet when I get home, Pop Warner practices are in full swing in the fields across the stream behind my house. They seem to be ending a bit earlier with each passing night, as the daylight is fleeting. The Yankees just completed a series in which coaches and bench players were routinely seen in jackets and sweatshirts, on a field that has hash marks and yard markers painted on it. NFL camps are in full swing. I don't know if I'm football starved, or if it was just because the Yanks didn't start until 10, but I was bordering on excited to watch a meaningless Giants pre-season game Monday night.

College football, which I enjoy far more than the NFL, has its camps going as well, with most teams having one or two intrasquad scrimmages already complete. USA Hockey just concluded its orientation camp in preparation for February's Winter Olympics and NHL camps are only about three weeks away from kicking off.

In the meantime, it's still an off day, and we've got space to fill. As crazy as we are about baseball here in the northeast, they're likely crazier about college football in the south. Two years ago, as part of ESPN.com's E-Ticket (now Outside the Lines) series, Wright Thompson authored a feature about the south's love of college football. It's a great piece of writing, and one that I read again before last season and just recently in anticipation of the upcoming season. But it also reminds me of my own feelings about baseball, and the build up to spring training and Opening Day each year. So if you get bored with no Yankee baseball today, give it a read.

Soon, for the first time since the NBA finals wrapped in June, MLB won't be the only major sport that's in season. So enjoy these last few weeks where baseball has the national landscape to itself. These days is almost gone.

Baseball Is Your Pal, Football Is Your Gal

Early in the history of this blog, we established a tradition based on a quote from the 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli, who once said, "It is easier to be critical than right." It's relatively easy to eviscerate some one's stupid ideas. It's much more difficult to come up with original thoughts of your own.

Unlike Richard Justice stupidly contended, Baseball isn't better than football, nor is the inverse true. They are about as far apart as two sports can be, besides maybe golf and rugby. Just based on the duration of the season, I would consider myself more of a baseball fan right now, but I've been a die hard Giants fan since I was five or six years old.

One of my earliest memories is of the drive back upstate with my father from Giants Stadium after the GMen beat the Lions to improve to 11-0 back in 1990. My dad would rattle off uniform numbers, and I would respond with the corresponding player. "27 - Rodney Hampton, 85 - Stephen Baker "The Touchdown Maker", 56 - Lawrence Taylor, 70 - Leonard Marshall, 58 - Carl Banks, 11 - Phil Sims, 55 - Gary Reasons, 30 - Dave Meggett, 82 - Mark Ingram, 89 - Mark Bavaro, 76 - Jumbo Elliot". I probably watched Giants Among Men, and True Blue 50 times each.

We had a Super Bowl party that year and I can still remember Scott Norwood's kick sailing wide right and getting lost in the celebration in our family room. Conversely, when the Yanks won in 1996, my dad was away in Taiwan for business and I watched Charlie Hayes catch that pop-up by myself.

George Carlin of course has the seminal work in contrasting the two sports, and Joe Posnanski recently drilled further down into the differences in language between them, but I have a take that I haven't heard anywhere else.

It took me about a week after the Giants lost this year to realize it, but to me, baseball is like a good friend and football is like a girlfriend. After they were ousted I wore my blue and red Giants winter hat for three straight days and listened to Ben Folds on the walk to work. It was odd and pathetic sort of melancholy, almost like I got dumped.

Football is emotional, passionate and physical. Although baseball has the go-to sexual metaphor (rounding the bases), to me, "driving down the field","crossing the goal line", "settling for a field goal" or "having to punt" make more sense.

Brandon Jacobs running over LaRon Landry in the first quarter of Week 1 against the Redskins gave me a far greater sense of satisfaction than A-Rod hitting a home run against the Orioles in the second inning of a game in April ever could. Likewise, intimacy with a significant other can grant you satisfaction in a way a friend just can't. In football, the highs are higher and the lows are lower.

You hang out with baseball all summer long. On any given night, you can take it or leave it because you know it's going to be around the next day. Blow off football and you've gotta wait an entire week for the next game.

You don't put that much stock into every single baseball game. You don't analyze everything your friend says either, unlike how your lady picks apart the nuance in every word you use. The Yanks could roll into Kansas City next May, line up CC Sabathia against Brain Bannister and lose and still take the series. If your football team lays an egg against a team they should beat, it is literally 10 times more significant to their record.

Looking back at my Giants vs. Yankees posts, the former tend to be more fiery, and my "Fuck" To Other Word Ratio (FTOWR) is quite high. My stuff about the Yankees is more statistically grounded, objective and decidedly lacking in vitriol. Although, if Robinson Cano had done what Plaxico Burress did and Joba Chamberlain said what Brandon Jacobs said, that might not be the case.

And no, that's not my girlfriend. I would never date a girl with a tramp stamp! (It's this comely lass)

Diamonds

It's only natural that comparisons between baseball and football start to pop up this time of year. In recent years, Hardball and Pigskin have begun to separate themselves as the two most popular sports in the US, and writers are looking for a way to transition from the Super Bowl into Spring Training. As you may have noticed, all of the contributors on this blog are big fans of both sports.

Via IIATMS, Richard Justice gives 10 "reasons" why baseball is better than football. If they were good, I probably wouldn't have bothered to write this post.

2. Skill level

Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. Throwing a baseball from 60 feet, 6 inches is the second-hardest thing. The NFL has some phenomenal athletes. None of them is[sic] as gifted as Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt.

I would say getting past a guy who runs a 4.4 40 yard dash and catching a 45MPH pass in the corner of the endzone while still dragging both of your feet on the ground is probably harder than either of those things. This is just a dumb argument made by average-sized white people to explain to themselves that if they only were born with more skill, they could have cracked the Bigs. And Lance Berkman is a fat shit. If we are talking about being "gifted" Justin Tuck is Christmas and Lance Berkman is Easter.

3. Diamonds - It's[sic] still one of God's greatest creations. It's perfection on every level. Next time you walk into Minute Maid Park, take a moment to appreciate it. From the perfectly trimmed grass to the raked infield dirt to the chalked lines, it's about the base[sic] place on earth to spend a few hours. No matter how bad a day I've had, stress flows from me when I see a big league diamond.

Actual diamonds may or may not be "God's creation", but a baseball diamond is most certainly man's creation, unless there are some naturally-formed infields along a deserted stretch of the Chilean coastline no one has ever told me about. And you really picked Minute Maid Park, the same place with a fucking ramp in centerfield?

4. Ballparks - Baseball's worst parks are better than football's best. If you've ever spent an evening at Dodger Stadium, you'd understand. It's both tranquil and energizing if one place can be both. If you're really lucky, you'll someday stand on the right-field concourse at AT&T Park and admire the view of the bay, the odor of garlic fries, the majesty of the place.

So the HHH Metrodome or fucking Tropicana Field are better than Gillette Stadium or Qwest Field? Football stadiums sell out almost every game all season long, with crowds of about 70,000 people. I like baseball's venues better too, and hardly ever go to football games, but that is some ham-handed hyperbole. And I'm not quite sure "the odor of garlic fries" at one place really factors into a comparison between roughly 60 stadiums. There are probably NFL stadiums that have pretty good culinary options as well.

And you really put those two back to back? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you probably could have combined "Ball Park" and "Diamonds" (part of a ballpark) into one point.

7. Cheerleaders - Football has 'em. Baseball doesn't.

Rich... you're making the case for baseball, remember? Are the cheerleaders so offensive that you can't stand the 12 second clips they show of them coming in and out of commercials? And not every football team "has 'em"; the Giants don't. I'll take cheerleaders over fucking Cotton Eyed Joey twelve times out of ten.

Mark Schlereth Sizes Up The Giants Potential Opponents

Every so often we are lucky enough to have "Mark Schlereth" write an NFL column for us, jam-packed with meaningless cliches and the word "FOOTBALL".

Today's topic: Who the Giants most want to play out of the 4 NFC teams active this weekend. Take it away "Mark"...

I'll tell you what fellas, there's nothing I look forward to more than the Wild Card Round of the Playoffs in The National FOOTBALL League. This is when teams put all their chips on the table and all of a sudden its DO or DIE. You get players puttin' their hard hats on and goin' to work, because that's what it means to be a professional FOOTBALL player in the National FOOTBALL League. You get guys stepping up in the big moment, putting their team on their back and leaving it all out there on the FOOTBALL field. You figure out who the guys who know how to win are, and who doesn't have what it takes to get the job done.

In my opinion the New York FOOTBALL Giants are the best FOOTBALL team in the National FOOTBALL League right now. They can run the FOOTBALL down your throat or Eli Manning can pick you apart. Here's how I think the other teams match up with the New York FOOTBALL Giants, with the threat they pose to the Giants, on a scale of one to four FOOTBALLS "(l)".

The Falcons: (l)(l)(l)(l)

Here's a great story. You got Matty Ryan, throwin' the pigskin around out there like he's still playing FOOTBALL at Boston College, you got Michael Turner runnin' the FOOTBALL, and you've got a good, solid defense out on the FOOTBALL field. See what happens when a team gets rid of a QB with a low FOOTBALL IQ, and replaces with someone who can make good decisions with the FOOTBALL? These guys are dangerous.

Cardinals: (l)(l)(l)

The Cardinals have got a great veteran leader that knows how to galvanize the clubhouse in Kurt Warner. They've got two of the best wide recievers in the National FOOTBALL League. I'm tellin' ya, these guys can really catch the FOOTBALL and make some plays downfield. The problem I've got with the Cardinals is that they werre 5-1 against the National FOOTBALL Conference West, but only 3-7 versus the rest of the National FOOTBALL League including a loss to the Giants. But with a proven leader like Kurt Warner, you can never count them out of a FOOTBALL game.

The Eagles: (l)(l)

Here's a FOOTBALL team, that when I look at them, I say "If they could get over their issues at QB and get a guy in there like Brett Favre, they could really be a dangerous FOOTBALL team". Donvan McNabb just doesn't have the awareness or ability to read defenses to play quarterback in the National FOOTBALL League.

The Vikings: (l)

When I look at the Vikings, I see a FOOTBALL team that the New York FOOTBALL Giants nearly beat with DAVID CARR leading the troops in the second half of that FOOTBALL game. Like the Eagles, Vikings clearly have a QB problem because the FOOTBALL is being snapped to a guy like Tavaris Jackson. He's not my idea of a lunch-pail, hard hat sort of a guy, and he obviously lacks the awareness and intelligence to lead a FOOTBALL team in the National FOOTBALL League.

So If I'm the New York FOOTBALL Giants, I'm looking at the Minnesota Vikings and saying "Here's a FOOTBALL team that I can punch in the mouth and really move the FOOTBALL on".

Thanks "Mark", I'm sure we'll hear from you again soon.