2015 in 15 Quotes

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

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.

The Superior Sport?

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.

Playoffs!?

The sweet smell of….ice. The wonderful sound of….teeth being knocked out. The awe-inspiring sight of….a fistfight. These are the things that partly comprise the great sport of hockey. It doesn’t sound great, but come mid-April every year America is lit on fire with Hockey Fever. The final two weeks of the regular season shake down, and we enter perhaps the most exciting postseason play in any of the four major sports. Only the true fans watch the regular season, but even the most casual fan brings out their sweater to watch their team try to capture Lord Stanley’s Cup. But why? Why does everyone drop what they’re doing to watch what could be mistaken for Soviet Russia On Ice? Why did last year’s Finals average 5 million viewers a game when it was only two cities? Well, since Y is a crooked letter that can’t be straightened, maybe it’s time for some answers. Alexander Ovechkin, leading goal scorer in the NHL, and owner of one-too-few teeth.

Hockey is terribly brutish. This is the only league besides the NFL where hitting is not only allowed, but is vital to the game, and hits are actually kept track of. Fistfights are common on the ice, and as the crowd cheers, the referees let it go on even longer. The best thing about hitting in hockey is that they’re called “checks”, like a player is making sure that no one else is doing something wrong. Hipchecks, bodychecks, shoulder checks, forechecks, backchecks, crosschecks, bank checks. Just kidding on the last one, but watching nasty hits in hockey is just plain awesome. Which is partly why we as a race love and are drawn to hockey;  the brutality of it is human nature. Since the dawn of time, we’ve had to beat our prey in order to kill, eat, and survive. Many studies show that if placed back into the wild, a group of humans would resort back to this savagery (just read Lord of the Flies). The crunching and smashing in hockey tugs at some of our most guttural strings; those same ones that tie us back to nature. We love hockey partly because it reminds us of our natural state.

Hockey is also accessible. Almost every playoff game can be seen anywhere on some sort of major network. If you want to get a taste of your first hockey game on TV, it’s no problem. If you want to get your first crack at a live game, it’s not hard either. The cheapest tickets for a playoff game at Nassau Coliseum are around $100, and as the game gets closer, the team wants to sell them, so the price generally goes down. There have been times during the season where I have gotten tickets as cheap as $10. If you can’t afford a hundred bucks to go to a playoff game, stay home, turn on MSNBC, and enjoy. Maybe you want to try your hand at playing. No problem. Online, beginner’s hockey nets sell for as low as $30 brand new. A hockey stick costs $20, and if you’re playing in the street, a single street hockey ball is around 2 bucks. Not bad, considering getting started in baseball, our national pastime, costs well over $100. Hockey is economical and easily accessed by everyone.

Total estimated cost of hockey equipment in this picture: $130. Total cost of an Easton Mako Youth Baseball Bat: $250-$300.

Lastly, hockey is exciting. The nature of the game is fast-paced, with the fastest players racing down the ice at almost 30 miles an hour. A regulation NHL hockey rink is 200 feet long by 85 feet wide, much shorter than a 100 yard football field or a baseball field that can reach 410 feet to dead center field. This, obviously, leads to faster gameplay and more possession changes. Pucks are shot upwards of 90 miles an hour, so even down the the nuance of the game is fast. If there’s 20 seconds left in a game, you can’t just run out the clock, like in basketball or football, because if you just stand there with the puck someone is going to steal it and score, and you will feel like an absolute jerk. Playoffs are even more exciting than just a plain ol’ game of hockey, too. The 2013-14 opening rounds led to more lead changes than ever before. The LA Kings, down in the series 3-0 to the San Jose Sharks, came all the way back to win the series 4 games to 3, and ultimately were crowned champions of the NHL. The New York Rangers, who the Kings beat last year, played two seven-game series in their first two rounds of the playoffs. In total, 93 playoff games were played last year, breaking the previous mark of 92 set in 1991. There is never a boring moment in hockey, and there are plenty of moments to be had.

Whether you’re rooting for the Islanders, Rangers, Penguins, or Blackhawks this spring, just remember that this great game that the nation latches on to every year is something special. There isn’t a sport in the world where you need skills and smarts quite like you do to play hockey, let alone understand it enough to watch the game and scream at the television in support of your favorite team.