The Basement View

Week 8 Thursday and Sunday game balls Is this NFL going to get any better any time soon? After tonight games we are officially half way through the 2016 season. On Thursday night, the worst Thursday night game of the season. I am not going to keep you guys long and get right into it. Thursday night’s game ball is Tennessee Titans running back Demarco Murray had twenty-one carries for 123 yards and a touchdown. The game as a whole was a disaster and just an overall mess. On Sunday, the games were better than Thursday and Oakland Raiders Quarterback David Carr had a career day. Carr had 513 yards and 4 touchdowns on 40/59 passing, in an overtime win against Tampa Bay. We will see if next week’s games are even a wink better than this week. Tonight’s ball game will be a blow out and it’s a shame the World Series isn’t on tonight. Sources:(nfl.com) Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share on your way out! 

NY 500 #11 Great weekend for New York sports and Sunday night as a sports fan. The Rangers are playing really well splitting the weekend going 1-1. Last night the Rangers played extremely well winning 6-1 against the Tampa Bay Lighting. Antti Raanta started at goalie for the Rangers and new addition Michael Grabner made hats fly onto the ice with the first Rangers hat trick of the season. Rick Nash had two points (one goal, one assist) and J.T. Miller and Jimmy Vessey scored as well and drove the Lighting out of the Garden last night. The Rangers also lead the NHL in scoring extremely early on in the season with 3.9 goals per game. The Islanders had one game over the weekend, on Sunday, and won against the Maple Leafs (5-1). Five different Islanders scored last night, and the Islanders are seventh in scoring in the league with 3 goals per game and have 8 points early on in the season. The Giants had a bye week this week and hope the Giant fans had a nice week off. The Jets scare

Fresh Start_70: Drink the “Hater”ade Is there too many revenge stories in the NBA? Let me give you just a few examples, Russell Westbrook on Durant, Anthony Davis against the league, and the Warriors against the Cavs. It seems like hate is at the roots at the excitement of every NBA game. Not saying that is a bad thing, it is just odd for the NBA. Lebron James was the “angry” player, the one looking for revenge against multiple people or teams in the league throughout the past six years. That Lebron has come and gone, like the monkey lifted off the shoulders of Cleveland thanks to that same man. This season and for the years to come, we will see a content Lebron James. There is nothing for James to do, then pad his Hall of Fame career, and build up his off court brand. James has done everything asked of him in his career, and will be care free playing the game he loves, and that in itself is scary. A peaceful Lebron might be more dangerous than the one that was on a mission. Wes

Honest Review #8- A Tale of two halves On my lord, what a typical Jet football game. In the first half, you wanted to rip the television in half with the way the team was playing. I said before the game if the Jets would lose to the Browns I wouldn’t watch the football for the rest of the year. It seemed like I would have to hold to that promise when the Jets entered the locker room. Coming out, the Jets got the football and went down the field and scored, thanks to the savior of the season—Quincy Enunwa. Enunwa broke a couple of tackles and ended up in the endzone, giving the Jets life in a quarter that has been an uphill battle for them all year. But the Jets were not done scoring in the third. Matt Fortè added a four yard rushing touchdown. Then, in the Fortè again scrambling into the endzone—this time for a two-yard score giving the Jets a 28-20 lead in the fourth quarter. I am happy about the win, because, well it’s a win. The heart attack that us Jets fans had to endure in

Fresh Start_69: Look at the blood on the walls I will tell you that what the Cleveland Indians are doing in the World Series is surprising and fun. I am one of the few people left that still doubt the Indians and don’t believe them. As I watching Game Four progress, I couldn’t stop and think how good the Indians where playing the game. EVERYTHING seemed to bounce their way. The where patient at the plate, played great defense, and pitched really well. This team is more complete than I ever thought before. Last year the mantra for this team was that they “were almost there”, well they’ve made it. The Cleveland Indians can play let me tell you. This Cleveland team is a complete team. There is not an aspect that the team is not good at. I had my doubts about Corey Klueber pitching on short rest, but he shut me up extremely quick in Game Four. Game Four was the biggest game of Klueber’s life and he was needed by his team, and the former Cy Young award winner delivered in the windy city

Fresh Start_68: Vegas Baby No it is not Wednesday, but grab your wallets and follow me to Vegas. These are not NFL picks, rather NBA win over/unders that I strongly believe in. I saw this yesterday after looking them after seeing the scores of the opening night of the Association. The two odds that just jumped off the page at me was the Lakers and Nets odds. I have already expressed my thoughts on the 2016-17 Brooklyn Nets. The Los Angeles Lakers without Kobe “Bean” Bryant looks to have a bright future, with D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, Brandon Ingram, and Jordan Clarkson on the squad with new head coach Luke Walton. I strongly urge you to bet the OVER on the 24.5-win line that Vegas has put out for this team. Walton is a more than capable coach as he displayed for us, leading the Warriors to the majority of their wins last season. This Lakers team is nothing like the two time defending West champs, but they are better than 24.5 wins. Russell seems to have emerged has the star

Fresh Start_67: 2012-2016 If you haven’t heard by now, within the past 24 hours a social media icon has passed away. Well not really, will within the upcoming months. That icon is the mobile app “Vine.” Vine was perfect for a generation of people who don’t want to wait a minute to see the funny part of a video. Vine enabled users to create six seconds videos and post them to share. The app exploded with millions of downloads and views by users. Some creators found, new-found fame with the hilarious, clever, informative way they used the platform. Some vines went viral and made a thirteen-year-old kid an internet sensation overnight. What Vine was able to do with the six second video, took the enjoyment of Youtube and crammed it into a short six second loop. The app that was launched in late 2013 and was bought out by Twitter the year before for $30 Million. You could say the app was popular. And, not only was popular among kids, but professional sports benefited from the app as

Fresh Start_66: Just keep believing What a difference a Cy Young award winner taking the mound makes. Kyle Schwaber has proved me wrong up to this point, he is one of those players that can just wake up and get four hits. Jake Arrieta was unhittable (literally) for five innings, only to get taken out two outs after the hit that broke the no hitter. Arrieta was getting up there in pitches with ninety-eight pitches, so as my dad and I put it “it was a blessing.” Trevor Bauer couldn’t escape the fourth inning, giving up two runs on eighty-seven pitches. Not having Andrew Miller in Game Two didn’t matter because of Mr. Drone Boy couldn’t out run the buzz saw that was the Chicago Cubs. Ben Zobrist continues to stay hot getting two more hits last night with an RBI. The ball is jumping off of his bat right now. The Cubs bats are alive and well for now. In Game Three, “The Professor” Kyle Hendricks goes for the Cubs, and the last time he took the mound for Chicago he was nothing short of

Week 8 Picks Week 8 Picks Overall not a great week, going under .500 again, going 6-8. The Browns and Texans killed me as my two upset picks and even the Jets proved me wrong when I pick against them (should maybe do that more often…) I know I say this every week, but I feel good about these picks this week. Sources:(nfl.com, footballlocks.com) Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share on your way out!

NY 500 #10 A nice weekend in sports in the city of New York. The Jets and Giants both won in exciting fashion. Geno Smith is out for the season with an ACL injury and didn’t look horrible in his short action Sunday going 4/6 for ninety-five yards and a touchdown. Ryan Fitzpatrick managed the game and did everything he was supposed to do and walked out of the building with a nice win. Landon Collins in London absolutely dominated the game against the Rams. He had eight tackles that was tied for the lead in the game and also had two interceptions. He returned one all the way back, and it was nothing short of the Top Play of the weekend and deservedly so was in the top ten on Sportscenter. Collins ran through the entire Ram offense in the pick six, breaking poor offensive linemen ankles and ran over a couple Rams falling into the endzone. The Giants defense was the story of the game, ending the Rams offensive possessions with three straight interceptions. Jeff Fisher and the L.A. Rams

Sunday and Monday Week 7 game ball and more… The NFL in many minds around the game say that the games this season and the season as a whole is just horrible. Some of the play on the field and the off-field issues have been just awful. The NFL has fumbled the handling of the Josh Brown incident and have put them in the same box that they were in just some maar months ago. Protecting their own brand has been damaged once again and the NFL PA has totally screwed up once again. Roger Goodell is just a buffoon and an absolute Moran, who is completely inept with handling his players when they break the rules. The commissioner needs to take a break from handing down rules about touchdown celebrations or going after a organization for deflated footballs, and focus on the real issues and enforce the policy THAT IS ALREADY IN PLACE, and get the players who deserve suspensions off the field and serving the time. Moving into the actual football Jay Ajayi had yet another career game. Miami Dol

Fresh Start_65: A Golden head scratch? This was expected. I predicted this months ago, I didn’t say they would lose opening night to San Antonio, but this team will have tremendous struggles this season. Kawhi Leonard lead the game in scoring with thirty-five points. LaMarcus Alridge also poured in a double-double with twenty-six points and twelve rebounds. The Spurs played Spur basketball like they always do every year. Kevin Durant in his Warriors debut, lead the team in scoring with twenty-seven points while also grabbing ten boards. Klay Thompson didn’t play so well only scoring eleven points on thirty-eight percent from the field. Draymond Green messed around and almost had a triple-double having eighteen points, twelve rebounds, and six assists. Steph Curry didn’t really play an all-around game. Curry scored like he always does, but only had four assists and three rebounds. The boards are not the big thing here, it’s the assists. Curry is a point guard, the raining MVP, and th

Fresh Start_64: You shouldn’t have done that… Right? Baseball fans rejoice, THE WORLD SERIES IS HERE! Tonight at 8PM EST on Fox the Cubs try to end their one hundred and eight-year World Series drought, while the Indians try and break their seventy-six-year drought. The Cubs are throwing Jon Lester on full rest against Corey Kluber on short rest. Lester has been here before and is on short rest, so the advantage on paper goes to the Cubs. Kyle Schwarber is in the lineup in the DH role after not playing the entire season due to a knee injury gets his first action against major talent in half a year in the World Series. I personally don’t agree with the move to bring Schwarber onto the World Series roster, because he is not truly ready to play at that level. I may be wrong and he might shock the world and win the World Series MVP. The move is extremely aggressive by Cubs management and based on history it better pay off! This is the team of destiny in Chicago and to mess up what Ch

Just want to put up a notice now, that if any articles are late on a specific day the next couple weeks, I apologize. I am doing my best to get every series to you guys at one time, I am currently in the middle of the semester and the work load is picking up. The Fresh Start series will always be here, just every other one might be a day off. NY 500 "X" will be out tomorrow along with the Sunday and Monday game balls for week 7. Thanks for understanding I didn't want you guys thinking I was disappearing again or anything. As always like, comment, subscribe if you haven't and share on your way out!

Fresh Start_63: Let them run There is something about a college game that is unlike any other in sports. I have been adamant about my new found love for college football, and on my Youtube channel I have a video series about college basketball. I have been lucky enough to go to a couple college games in my life. The highlight has to be seeing Coach K get his one thousandth win in Madison Square Garden against St. John’s. I am not a Duke fan by any means, in fact I strongly dislike Coach K, but you have to give props where it is due, and to a man of his stature in college basketball is well deserved. I compare my dislike of Coach K to Bill Belichick; “I hate them, but I respect what they do/ have done.” Part of the college game is the students of the schools and how passionate they are about their teams. The home fans in particular with fan bases like “The Twelfth Man” and the “Cameron Crazies.” These students make an environment for the opposition that is unlike anything in prof

Honest Review #7: A step in the right direction It is about time! It feels good to actually win a game and play the style of football that I knew this team was capable of playing. The season, while not looking good, isn’t completely over. I am going to be happy today, but conscious about the rest of the season. The division and wild card spots are not going to come easy. Next week in Cleveland I will be optimistic about playing the Browns. The defense finally showed how they can dominate the game, create pressure, and create turnovers. Matt Fortè actually showed up after I notified the NFL about him going missing. Fortè had one hundred and fifty-four yards combined and two touchdowns. Ryan Fitzpatrick wasn’t horrible, doing what he had to do in a backup role for the Jets, only throwing for one hundred and twenty yards with one touchdown. Geno Smith wasn’t that bad either in limited action, suffering a knee injury right before half. Buster Skrine showed up to play and balled out

Fresh Start_62: Raise the W all the way to Cleveland I have been so lucky in my life as a sports fan. I have seen so many great moments. During my life: The Yankees had a three peat, the Cavilers broke the fifty-two-year curse of Cleveland, an undefeated Patriots team lost to the Giants in the Superbowl, countless walk-off baseball, football, and basketball wins (highlighted by the Villanova National Championship last year), and now I have seen the Cubs win the National Pennant. I just talked about this on my podcast on Friday night; I said that there are generations of Cub fans have never seen the Cubs in the World Series, or win one. I couldn’t imagine the amount of happiness Cub fans are going through right now. I am a Jets fan and the Superbowl drought is close but nothing nearly as close to the Cubs World Series drought. Now, if there is something I know about Cub fans is, that they may be happy and going crazy now; but they will be conscious until the final out is recorde

Fresh Start_61: Ladies and Gentleman, may you please rise   With the NBA season starting up on Wednesday, Colin Kaepernick is back in the news again. And no, Kaep is not transitioning over to basketball, but his protest possibly is. The NBA’s Commissioner Adam Silver is hopeful that all of his players will stand for the National Anthem during the entirety of the season. The protest would really take off if a guy with the persona like Lebron James, Steph Curry, Carmelo Anthony took the stand if they would kneel during the anthem. The NBA has been the catalyst to ramp up the conversation of social issues, not any other league. Some of the players will take a stand in my opinion, but I am not sure if an all-star player would make the stand. Most of my reasoning behind saying this is because of what Wade, Lebron, Chris Paul, and Melo did at the ESPY’s with the topic of police brutality. This might be the second act for many players in discussing the issue, and get the conversation

Week 7 Thursday night game ball The snooze fest of a game, made me turn off the game and switch to the Cubs playoff game full-time. Aaron Rodgers was good not great, and threw the ball fifty-six times. The Chicago Bears lost their back-up quarterback Brian Hoyer and turned to the last active QB on roster Mr. Matt Barkley. Barkley was nothing short of terrible. Barkley went 6/15 for eighty-one yards and two interceptions. As you have seen already, I picked Chicago this week so I’m already in a rut this week for football. My game ball is Green Bay Packers Wide Receiver Ty Montgomery for having a great game rushing and receiving. The Packers have an extreme need for a running back and fast, and as the Packers have been known to do, are finding a solution in-house. Montgomery was in the back field at times in Week 6 against the Cowboys. Montgomery had nine rushes for sixty even yards. Through the air Montgomery was just as effective. Montgomery had ten receptions for sixty-six yards

Fresh Start_60: I love this game  I love the game of baseball, and last night was one of the many games that just reminds me of why I love the game. The game last night in Los Angeles was every bit of a roller coaster ride as ever. The game started as a pitcher’s duel until the six inning where Addison Russell hit a two run bomb to center giving the Cubs new life in the series and energizing the team to go on and have a five run eighth inning and going onto win the game and take the lead in the series. The first five innings were so tense and just everything a playoff baseball should be. Kenta Maeda was having some trouble in the first couple of innings, throwing seventy-six pitches in 3 2/3 innings. The Cubs were backed by a great performance by their best pitcher Jon Lester. The M.O. on Lester is that he can’t throw over to any base. It has been proven throughout Lester’s career, highlighted by Lester not throwing over throughout his stint with the Boston Red Sox. Lester has t

Fresh Start_59: The NBA’s worst And, the with the first pick in the 2017 NBA Draft the Brooklyn Nets select… Those are the words that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will be saying come June at the NBA Draft. As a Brooklyn Net fan I am not happy to be a fan of the new Philadelphia 76’ers. This Brooklyn Nets team will be a historically bad season, and how I am perceiving this team I mean the worst in NBA history type of bad. The roster is made up of a failed first overall pick, an old league shocking star, and former Michigan alumni. Not only that but a bad of misfit toys that have straggled on the island of Brooklyn and have happened to have a basketball jersey on. Brook Lopez is a boarder-line all-star and most likely will not be on the roster at the end of the season. Lopez is the thing of value on the roster at the moment, and could be a part a multi-pick trade that gives a team a nice center and give the Nets picks in the upcoming year. I understand that you have to tear down t

Week 7 Picks Week 7 picks Did that really just happen? After boasting about how I hit my roll and I was going to take off, I didn’t even go even. I ended up 7-9 and I got lucky thanks to a push in Houston. This week I am not as high or confident as I was last week, and I think I have some home runs. Sources:(nfl.com, footballlocks.com) Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share on your way out!

Fresh Start_58: The N o F un L eague No, the NFL isn’t dying, but it has it problems for sure. I haven’t been that vocal about my feelings toward the NFL or their PA department on this blog, but I certainly have on the Play by Play podcast. I have no trust in the NFL or their PA system what so ever. I’d have to say for me, this all started when the Ray Rice chase came out a few years ago and how the NFL handled it overall. I am not going to be shy about it, actually I encourage you to go over to the Youtube channel and get my exact words on the matter. And it hasn’t just been that incident, in fact, every year since the Ray Rice suspension—there has been at least one incident that the NFL has had to handle and done it in a matter that completely was, for a lack of a better term horrific. I am not condoning what Ray Rice did or saying it was right by any means. What I mean by this is, the NFL mistreated Rice in the process and pre-maturely suspended him before all the evidence wa

Week 6 Monday Night game ball I almost didn’t want to do this game ball due to the pain that it will bring up about last night’s game. As I’ve said already, the Jets performance was just awful and I’m going to just get right into it because I just want to stop thinking about the Jet season. Arizona Cardinals running back David Johnson is my Monday night game ball for week 6. Johnson carried the ball twenty-two times for one hundred and eleven yards and had a hat trick in terms of touchdowns. Usually the Jets defense is stout against the run, but not in Arizona last night. A large portion of Johnson’s yards came on his first touchdown run of fifty-one yards. The Jets missed at least three tackles on the touchdown scamper and that was the tread all-night long. The secondary looked better only allowing Palmer two hundred and thirteen yards on 23/34 passing. There was some pass rush with Mohammed Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson disturbing Palmer. One of the sole bright spots for the Je

Fresh Start_57: “ The Mets of 2016?” I will come out and say this: I was not a believer in this Cleveland Indians ball club at any point in this season. I apologize to my good friend Tim Haines for that. I can’t even give for credit to myself for the title of this article, my partner and co-host on the Play by Play podcast Nick Paradies for giving me this title from one of our podcasts. Everything has been against the Indians throughout the playoffs with their injuries that they have endured. The team has been so unconventional with the approach they have taken throughout the playoffs. For example, in the ALDS when Andrew Miller came in, in only the fifth inning. Or tonight, when, thanks to a bloody finger to Trevor Bauer the Indians put a pitcher in every over inning. The most a Cleveland pitcher threw last night was an inning and two thirds—by Bryan Shaw. Miller would ultimately come in and save Game Three going an inning and a third, but for everything that the Indians have g

Honest Review #6: Mercy Let me start off by correcting myself from week 3, THIS IS THE WORST GAME OF THE SEASON. I had so much confidence going into this game with the amount of the talent on both sides of the ball, plus the way Arizona was playing football. Ryan Fitzpatrick who I have loved since he made his first start last year in Week One. I backed him after his terrible performance in Week Three in Kansas City. I cannot back him after this performance in Arizona. Fitz’ final line was 16/31 one hundred and seventy-four yards and an interception. The white flag was flown when the Jets put in third year man Geno Smith in the fourth quarter. Geno, who I loved in his rookie season, and thought the Jets in 2013 were only one step away with Geno in the back field. Geno in this game went 4/6 thirty-one yards and an interception. Geno is not the answer for this offense and he never will, just plain and simple. In my opinion Bryce Petty is the answer for this offense. Unfortunately, that

Week 6 Sunday Game ball Good weekend of football that included Brady returning home, the Browns losing a heart breaker, a great comeback by Houston at home and Big Ben going down for now. The Jets didn’t play and are in Arizona tonight trying to save their season. Jay Ajayi had a career game going for two hundred and four yards and two touchdowns against a Big Ben-less Pittsburgh Steelers. Lamar Miller in Houston had two hundred yards combined with both a rushing and receiving touchdowns and helped will the Texans back to life against the rival Colts. For Indianapolis they have now fell to 2-4 and their season is pretty much over. Andrew Luck has graduated to the Philip Rivers caliber type of player where they need to find a better team than he is currently on. Luck played well throwing for two hundred and fifty-two yards a touchdown and a pick, while adding fifty-three yards on the ground with a score. Moving on to my game ball, which happened to participate in a game winning p

NY 500 #9 This is the weekend that happens every year, where the focus for New York sports fans switch their focus to football, hockey, and basketball. The Nets and Knicks are in the middle of their preseason, while the Rangers have officially started their season going 1-1 last week and have a game later today against a tough San Jose Sharks team. The leader in goals is Chris Kreider with two and new Ranger Mika Zibanejad leads in assists. From the few minutes that I have watched the Rangers, they have looked like an improvement from last year’s team, which lacked speed and play making ability. I will unfortunately not be able to watch tomorrow night’s game because I have class. I will also be late to watch the Jets game tomorrow for the same reason. For the Giants, they have just picked up a huge win against the Baltimore Ravens. The Giants needed to get this game to still be in the hunt for the NFC East. Odell Beckham Jr. had an incredible game grabbing eight balls for two hu

Fresh Start_56: Brady and Bledsoe Part II There is an interesting predicament in the city of Dallas. After the 30-16 win in Green Bay, the Dallas Cowboys are now 5-1 heading into their bye week. The fourth round rookie Dak Prescott had yet another good game going 18/27 two hundred and forty-seven yards and three touchdowns. Prescott has looked great through the first six weeks of the season, taking any challenge he has faced head on—cool, calm, and collected. The rookie has surprised many—me included—with his poise in the pocket and under pressure. Through the first six games of his career; Prescott has completed 69% of his passes, only throwing four touchdowns, but hasn’t thrown an interception yet. The low touchdown total is in part to his backfield partner Ezekiel Elliot leading the league in rushing with five hundred and forty-six yards. With all of this success, I have to give credit to the Dallas offensive line, which is the best in the league in my opinion. The O Line is a