The Basement View

What a run and I’m not talking about a run on the football field. My run on the blogger service has been just an absolute roller coaster ride. Starting on September 30 th , 2014 and spanning 781 posts (including this one), this blog has gone through several breaks, a year straight of articles, and just overall growth I am moving onto something different. This is something that I have been thinking about for some time and I finally am making the move over to Medium.com. I tested around with Medium throughout this past year and I enjoyed putting my articles on Medium and I’m trying out this experiment that I hope will be as enjoyable and as fun as this ride on blogger was. I’m making this move to better my blog, I think this move to Medium will just be an overall improvement for the display of my writing and getting eye balls to what I produce. I am an ever-growing writer because I don’t even know my overall voice yet. That will come and hopefully I can have an even better exper...

If you’ve watched the NFL at any point during this season, you’d know that the league has had its fair share on issues. From injuries, to anthem protests, baffling suspensions (and suspension corrections), commercial breaks, the level of play on the field and of course, replay reviews, it has just be a seemingly never ending horrible movie. Injuries are a part of the game and there really isn’t much the teams can do to help out this issue with the current CBA. Roger Goodell has too much authority over the league and changed the league practice schedule to the point where the players have a minimal amount of practice time in pads in tandem with short weeks for Thursday games you have injuries to high level players like Odell Beckham Jr. and Aaron Rodgers. Practice schedules and player safety will be at the top of the long list of requests the players and the players union has for the next CBA, but teams have to make do with what they have and just hope that the injury bug doesn’t h...

A couple of weeks ago following the home win against Kansas City I wrote that it was a culture building win. A week later the Jets just didn’t show up in the altitude against Denver and this week a hard effort in a loss to the Saints. The box score will say 31-19 but the score 24-19 late before Mark Ingram put the game to bed following a 50-yard touchdown scamper. The Jets defense played well despite the fact that they game up 31 points. The defense created three turnovers against the number one offense in the league. The secondary in particular had an amazing day. Buster Skrine might have played his way into another contract with five tackles and a forced fumble. Rookie Jamal Adams had a good game in his homecoming game with six total tackles and a forced fumble. However, the achilles heel for the Jets today was the amount of inexcusable penalties the team took throughout the game. The Jets had a few “too many men in the huddle” penalties to start off drives and had a un-spor...

It’s not often that I just turn a Jet game off in pure disgust, I’ve done it before but this is the first of 2017. It has nothing to do with what happened the week before against Kansas City. That is irrelevant as soon as the clock strikes midnight on Sunday night. Once Monday rules around the Sunday before doesn’t matter. After a 38-point performance against Kansas City the Jets get shutout by the struggling Denver Broncos. The game against Kansas City doesn’t matter at this point because it’s irrelevant—it’s in the past. This Jet performance just shows all the Jet fans that watched this game that the team didn’t get off the plane. The Jets just they’d come into Denver, walk in, and walk out with a win. That’s the ONLY way you can justify a performance like this. Because this team has talent, this team has beaten playoff teams and has been in games against playoff teams. They just played down to their competition. I said last week that the win against Kansas City was a cultur...

Trading a reigning MVP doesn’t happen often—and if it does it comes with a price. Yesterday that changed. The New York Yankees have traded for National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton. The Miami Marlins are going in a different direction from the previous management and we saw this front and center this week down in Miami. Friday afternoon, the Marlins trading their starting All-Star Second Baseman Dee Gordon. Gordon’s 5-year $50 Million contract will now be on the books of the Seattle Mariners. This Marlins team wants to go cheap and build from the inside and try to make a dynasty similar to what their new owner Derek Jeter went through early in his career with the Yankees. And, that is exactly what Jeter has done in his short tenure with the Marlins. In two days Jeter has been able to shed Stanton’s $325 Million contract and that $50 Million. That’s almost $400 Million coming off the books for the Marlins. If I was a Marlin fan, I would be jumping for joy because my team wo...

The NFL just can’t get out of their own way this year. After a week filled with concussion talks, changing the game, and maximum suspensions, the last thing the NFL needs is one of their stars getting a concussion. And, what happened… Alvin Kamara got a concussion early in the first half and didn’t return. Kamara is the odds-on favorite to win the Offensive Rookie of the Year after the injury to Houston’s Deshaun Watson. Kamara is one of the brightest young stars that looks like the next star running back. The time table for his return is un-known. The hit itself was not a dirty hit (like Schuster’s hit on Burfict) and it didn’t look like Kamara was hurt that bad. Kamara did immediately run off the field knowing something was wrong, but it didn’t look that bad. But, that is the thing with concussions, every person is different and concussions are just a scary thing. The game itself was an exciting divisional game that ended with a great ending. The refs did seem to lean in fav...

The wait for the next Ichiro and Matsui is over. Shohei Ohtani is going out West like he wanted. Ohtani is going to the Los Angeles Angles to team up with Mike Trout. The swish army knife of a ball player is landing in the lesser L.A. team. Where Ohtani will get his at-bats raises a big metaphorical eyebrow. With the Angeles resigning Justin Upton earlier in the offseason to a 5-year $106 Million extension, Kole Calhoun under contract and currently the everyday right fielder, along with Albert Pujols still under contract—where does Ohtani fit? Will the Angeles just use him as a long reliver to make the bridge to Blake Parker that much easier? Will they try to move Calhoun or Upton to first and trade C.J. Cron? The Angeles now have an embarrassment of riches on a cheap budget and an interesting dilemma on their hands. How Mike Scioscia will manage Ohtani and decide when he wants to give him at-bats and innings. This seems like a move that will propel them into a busy Winter Mee...

The laughing stock of the NBA is starting to flip. The Brooklyn Nets might continue to get overlook but the plan that Sean Marks has started to execute must be recognized. The trade between the Nets and the Boston Celtics will continue to dawn over this franchise until the turn of the decade, but the hand that Marks has been dealt has to be one of the worst in the NBA and he has completely flipped the script on the NBA. Brooklyn was the worst team in the NBA coming off the 2015-16 [21-61] and didn’t have a lottery pick to show for it. In just a season and roughly a quarter the Nets have flipped a 21-61 roster into a roster with now two former Top Three picks. The Nets this afternoon have finalized a trade that will send Trevor Booker to Philadelphia for Jahlil Okafor, Nik Stauskas, and a 2019 2 nd round pick. The Nets will release Sean Kilpatrick to make roster space for Okafor and Stauskas. This trade makes sense for Brooklyn because of the plan that they have set out fo...

The way this college basketball season is going is insane. I don’t remember when the teams in the Top 15 are so close together—it’s getting claustrophobic. It is extremely early in the season and this is to be expected with the amount of young teams in college basketball right now. The youth on the floor right now is at a level that college hoops has never seen before. There about 30 guys right now that deserve the player of the year. And every team inside the Top 15 are flawed in their own right; so every team can go down every single night. That’s why the Nova-Gonzaga game tonight in Madison Square Garden tonight is so attractive. With that said there is not much change in the Top 25 this week: 1.       Duke 2.       Kansas 3.       Michigan State 4.       Villanova 5.       Florida 6.       Wichita State 7.  ...

It’s not often that one game has multiple hits that cause for conversation. Both significant in more ways than one. The first one was a tackle that every linebacker makes hundreds of times and gets up no problem, but for Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier it was one of the biggest scares the game of football has gotten in quite some time. Shazier made a routine tackle on Bengals running back Giovani Bernard. Shazier went in and tackled Bernard’s waste and his legs went limp. Shazier knew immediately something was wrong and his legs did not move the entire time from when the medical staff looked at him to when he was carted off the field. This is a scary thing for the game because it was a routine play. Maybe this is just a freaky situation and is a one-time thing, but if Shazier ends up being paralyzed there is a conversation that will happen and rightfully so. I don’t know if there is anything we can do about plays like this and the NFL will be on a crash course with disaster. The ...

This is a step in the right direction. What a way to stick in the game and pull out a hard-earned victory. The Jets FINALLY finished a game grinding out the most impressive win of the season. There is a culture building here and this is a great win for the direction this football team is going. The offense did whatever they felt like doing because Josh McCown and the Jets offense dictated the pace of the game against the Chiefs defense. The way the team battled back into the game and didn’t quit after a slow start out the gate. Controlling the clock for 42 minutes compared to the 17 minutes that Kansas City had and going 13/20 on 3 rd down is the reason why the Jets won this ball game. The big play offense of the Chiefs didn’t rattle the veteran McCown as he charged on with long drives that ate up big chunks of the clock. This is a formula that the Jets could lean on moving forward. Everyone on the field is looking like they are growing and there is a clear culture building i...

 2-0 Greg Bird fly ball to George Springer ends Game Seven of the ALCS, a bitter ending with mixed emotions ends Joe Girardi’s stint with the ballclub, and now a month-long search for a new manager in the Bronx has come to an end. Aaron Boone. That’s right the hero from the 2003 ALCS who sent the Yankees to the 2003 World Series on a walk-off solo homer is now the new manager of the New York Yankees. Boone, who has recently been one of the color commentators on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball for the past two seasons. Boone seemed like the mainstay candidate throughout all the names being thrown around. Other than the 2003 walk-off heroics Boone hasn’t been linked much to the Yankee organization. But, he does fit the mold that Yankee General Manager Brian Cashman has wanted throughout this process. Boone is a fantastic person, he will report to upper management, and he is a new-aged manager who will use sabermetrics to win ball games. Boone did see the way the World Series wa...

What a way to comeback and show life in a season that has been anything but ordinary in Dallas. The Cowboys bounce back in a big way after not scoring over 10 points in their last three games (franchise record). A 38-14 rout of the Washington Redskins last night in Jerry’s World to try and pry themselves back into the playoff race. The Cowboys are 6-6 and are looking at the Giants, Raiders, Seahawks, and Eagles to finish off their schedule and this is a big win for them. That’s because the Redskins are now out of the playoff racing looking in. This season is to no fault of Washington because of how riddled with injuries they have become and quite frankly it is impressive that they hung around for this long with basically a team full of backups lining up week in and week out.  Kirk Cousins will get paid his money that he has rightfully earned after the season and the Redskins need to look themselves in the mirror and look over the roster. There is some business that needs t...

College basketball season is back! Thanksgiving Tournament schedules have come and gone, the Champions Classic has come and gone, and the official start of college ball season is underway.   The start of the new year is here and with it, there is a few buffer weeks to figure out what teams are going to compete this year and who the X-Factor will be. Something that has been extremely evident so far, this year, the Duke Blue Devils are going to you on a roller coaster throughout every game that they play. Duke has been in nail-bitters the last three games against Portland State, Texas, and Florida. This Duke team is a young team with eight freshman on roster. This Duke team is not the same as the old teams. The Blue Devils will have to grind out each and every game until they finally figure out their identity (and this might be it). After the first round of tournaments the Top 25 looks like this: 1.       Duke 2.       Ka...