The Basement View

All is right in the NFL again… I think so. The Pats, Steelers, and Chiefs all won, Dallas beat the Redskins, the Seahawks won a shoot-out. This is the NFL I have come to know and rely on for the past five years. Ending the midway point in the season, the Chiefs and Broncos had a defensive battle, kinda. Both defenses played well, the Broncos kept Alex Smith under 300 yards (he barely got over 200), kept Kareem Hunt under 100 yards (46 yards), forced turnovers (one just happened to be a Tyreek Hill pick), and kept the Denver offense in the game. The only problem was; the Denver offense didn’t show up for the second consecutive week. After being shutout in Los Angeles against the Chargers (still weird), Trevor Siemain looked like a 7 th round pick again. While it was a good-hearted story for the first basically hour of his NFL career, the reasons for Siemain being a 7 th rounder are showing (maybe at the wrong time), and these signs are telling. Yes, he did beat Brady in D...

On a rain soaked Sunday of football, we have a clearer picture of who the contender are, of who might win MVP, Offensive/Defensive Rookie of Year, and ultimately the Super Bowl. Five of the 11 games were in the middle of monsoon throughout Sunday and it made for some interesting football. We saw Matt Ryan fumble two snaps in North Jersey, Tom Brady dominate the Chargers yet again, LeSean McCoy run all over the Raiders, and the Colts and Bengals play a great game that nobody cared about. The Cowboys, Seahawks, and Panthers edged their way back into the NFC playoff race; while the Bills kept pace with the Patriots and look to sweep the season series with the Jets on Thursday Night Football. Carson Wentz continues his candidacy for MVP with 211 yards and two more touchdowns. Tom Brady continues to look like he is 32 with 333 more yards and a touchdown against the Chargers. Brady might be a real dark horse favorite for MVP (can’t believe I’m actually saying Brady is the dark horse...

Honest Review 2.8: “A bad weathere dome team” The Jets just got out played on special teams by a dome football team. The Jets played a 45-minute game against the defending NFC Champions. The Jets turned the ball over yet again in the 4 th quarter in a crucial situation. All in all, just another typical Jet performance. I’d rather the Jets get blown out by 50 than stick around in these close games, and slowly wither away because they don’t have the mental fortitude or conditioning, or whatever to finish all 60 minutes of a football game. On top of that, the Jets are playing a bad weather football game against a DOME team, who is on the road for the second straight week. The Jets are now 3-5 and have to turn around on a short week to play a very hot Buffalo team who just rolled over the Raiders at home. Special Teams (while being my second favorite thing about football) is extremely important part of a game. And, to allow Matt Bryant to go 4/4 on field goals and Matt Bos...

  How can you grab more headlines as a sport in the last 12+ months than the NBA has? From the Russell Westbrook MVP run that saw the Oklahoma City guard average a triple double, the passive aggressive tweets from Lebron James about the Cleveland roster, and the complete dominance that Steph Curry and Kevin Durant showed in the Finals. And then, the offseason happened. In that offseason, we got a collection of “W.T.F” moments that brought Twitter and the NBA media to its knees. From the Paul George trade about 10 minutes into the new NBA calendar year, the Gordon Hayward saga, the Woj bomb that made Twitter stand on its head at midnight EST after finding out that the 76’ers traded for the number one overall draft selection. After that you have the Jimmy Butler trade on draft night. Lonzo Ball and Jason Tatum lit the NBA Summer League on fire (yes, Summer League, people actually cared about Summer League basketball). Instagram watched as Carmelo Anthony transformed into “Hoodie...

That wasn’t what anyone was expecting last night in Baltimore. From the 40-point shut-out from Baltimore to the head scratching performance by Miami’s offense, to the chippie nature that this game got after the Kiko Alonso hit on Joe Flacco. The hit happened in the 2 nd quarter when Flacco was trying to extend a 3 rd and 10 into a first down. Flacco started his slide when he received a vicious forearm from Miami’s Line-backer Kiko Alonso. Flacco’s neck snapped to the left, forcing his helmet to rip off, and cut his ear. Immediately if you are watching the play or the replay, you can see that Flacco has no idea where he is and that is flat out terrifying. Miami was flagged for the late hit, but conversation started to stew up about the hit during the half, when the public learned that Flacco was put into concussion protocol, and was getting stitches in his ear. Flacco would be diagnosed with a concussion following the game, and the reaction from Miami’s locker room is just a bit ...

The news broke this morning that the Yankees will not bring back Joe Girardi will not return in 2018 to manage the team. Apparently, there has been some riffs between Girardi and the upper management of the Yankees this season. All of this is a shocking reason not to bring back Girardi because there didn’t seem to be any tension between the Steinbrenner’s and Girardi. Whatever the real reason is doesn’t have to be released tomorrow, and doesn’t have to be made public. The Yankees decided to go a different direction and that’s just the business side of baseball. The Steinbrenner’s have to make money and the product on the field is the main source of revenue. If the fans don’t fill the seats, buy beer and food, and a possible a jersey or a hat, then the Yankees don’t make money. It’s the manager’s job to make the product on the field preform at the absolute highest of the players potential. That is something that Girardi has done well throughout his career. From his first ye...

Week 8 picks I finally went positive. Thanks to a great performance by Carson Wentz and the Eagles I went 8-7 barely edging my nose into the green. Hopefully with this week’s picks, I can continue to trend positive, and trying to get back into the green for the year. The contenders look like they are showing themselves half way into the year and maybe that will make picking games easier. Also, I cannot believe we are half way through the season already, it doesn’t feel like football has been back for that long. However, enjoy your week, hope your team does well, and let’s aim for green! 

That Monday Night football matchup last night is a good example of what playoff football might look like this year. Last night was a fantastic game in every fascist of the game except for penalties. You can blame the players, but the officiating crew is known for throwing a huge number of flags because that is just who Ed Hochuli and his crew is. Kirk Cousins and Carson Wentz looked like two of the best quarterbacks in the league, and just lit Lincoln Financial on fire last night. Both defenses and teams in general lost huge pieces last night due to injuries. I went on my podcast today and just pleaded that something needs to change in the NFL in terms of these injuries because it’s gotten to the point of ridiculousness at this point. Every week you see a guy getting carted off the field and it’s just awful for the league. That will be addressed, but what a game it was last night. You saw the Eagles defensive line like “relief pitchers in baseball” according to Jon Gruden....

Honest Review 2.7: Déjà vu yet again If losing at home on the heels of a terrible call, losing like this is just worst. I didn’t write this article last night because I was just crushed from this past weekend. Losing a little bit of money at the track yesterday afternoon didn’t help, but the Yankees losing in back to back games in Houston, to Michigan being blown out in Happy Valley on Penn State’s White Out game, to the Jets grabbing defeat out of the hands of victory. An absolutely awful sports weekend for me, and I don’t know if I want to watch sports next week. If the Jets lose in a rough way at home against this bad Atlanta Falcons team—I don’t know if I can take it. For the Jets to take a 21-14 lead into the locker room at half, a 28-14 lead into the 4 th quarter, and to lose the game like they did—it’s the same old Jets. I’ve seen Jet quarterbacks throw a key interception in the 4 th quarter to change the momentum and ultimately lose the game like they always do. ...

I don’t know what to say about Week 7. I mean three shut-outs in a week? Six teams didn’t score more than seven points. The Falcons continued to looked to be hungover after the Super Bowl, losing 23-7 in New England, and should be 1-5 instead of 3-3. Colin Kaepernick needs to be in the NFL now, with the injury to Carson Palmer, the showing that Jacoby Brissett had on the field yesterday, and the zero-point effort from Denver in Los Angeles against the Chargers (still feels weird). The Chiefs lose for the second week in a row, the Chargers have a three-game winning streak, Cam Newton throw up and dud in Chicago, and the Saints/Rams might be the two best teams in the NFL. I am not going to make any more predictions, I am even with my picks this week [7-7], and I need the Eagles to cover at home tonight to finally go positive. I am just going to go through the motions and try to make any sense of this. Trying to make predictions this year is like try to go through a minefield bli...

In Between the Pinstripes_45: It just wasn’t our year Watch the confetti fall, sit and watch it rain red as the Astros celebrate their second pennant in franchise history. Soak in this feeling of being so close and falling up just short. Watch the players that you’ve cheered until you couldn’t speak all season long have long faces as they watch the team they had on the ropes going into yesterday afternoon celebrate and drink champagne. Rethink everything that went wrong in this series, and reimage how you think the Yankees would have the series. None of it will change the outcome—to that point, the game of baseball will humble you like nothing else. The Yankees needed to go through this, they needed to come up just short to get to the summit of the mountain top. Don’t believe me? Well history will tell you different. The 1995 Yankees watching Ken Griffey Jr. race around third base and slide in safe to knock out the Yanks. A year after they celebrate since 1978 (and three in the...

In Between the Pinsripes_44: A missed opportunity Bottom 7 runners on first and second and no outs. Aaron Hicks has a 10-pitch at-bat against Houston starter Justin Verlander. Hicks would strike out and Yankee folk-hero Todd Frazier steps to the plate. Frazier comes to the plate and in his previous at-bat he looked like a two-year-old toddler picking up a baseball bat for the first time against a Verlander curveball now walks into the batter’s box. Frazier works a good at-bat against Verlander, then crack, Frazier hits a long fly ball to dead center, heading for the center field wall. As the camera switches from the center field camera to the behind home plate camera, you see Houston’s centerfielder George Springer racing toward the wall, leaping and robbing a “would be double,” that probably scores one run at least. This comes off the heels of a comeback inning by Chad Green who shut down the Astros after the 6 th where they tagged Luis Severino for three runs. The 7 th was ...

Could you get any crazier than two un-timed downs to end the Thursday night game. Last night’s thriller was what Roger Goodell envisioned when the NFL dawned Thursday night football to the NFL Network. Last night was a divisional matchup that meant something, was exciting, and will affect the playoff seeding down the road. From Marshawn Lynch’s ejection for pushing a referee, to Kansas City losing its second straight game, and Oakland gaining some life back into the season with Derek Carr’s bounce back performance. This game had everything you wanted from a mini brawl, to a shootout between two young quarterbacks, and two good defenses trying to stop two dynamic offenses’. Alex Smith had 342 yards, no picks, and three touchdowns, Derek Carr had 417 yards, no picks, and three touchdowns as well. On the defensive side of the ball Terrance Mitchell had seven total tackles, with NaVorro Bowman validating his contract with the Raiders (at least for one week). None of this was u...

In Between the Pinstripes_43: Masa-terful The bombers are going back to Houston with a chance to close it out against Justin Verlander in Game 6 on Friday. Tonight’s game was as picturesque as you could get. Tanaka went 7 strong, only allowing three hits, striking out eight, and handing the ball off to Tommy Kahnle for two more scoreless innings to shout-out the Astros. Tanaka was just too much for the Houston hitters to handle, baffling every hitter with what they didn’t expect. When the Astro hitters were expecting something hard, they got a breaking ball, and vice versa. Tanaka has looked lights out since mid-late August, and has been worth every penny this postseason. Tommy Kahnle helped out by going two innings (again) helping out the Yankee bullpen heading back to Houston for two very tough games. The Yankee bats also need as much credit as Tanaka. Every hitter was patient and aggressive against Keuchel and learned from the embarrassing Game 1 performance against Keuchel. ...

Week 7 Picks I know I’ve said I can’t pick games this year, which is true, I can’t but I feel confident about this week. I feel like I have a grasp of the craziness in the league and can at least go positive after going 5-9 last week. I didn’t do so bad through the 1 o’clock games on Sunday, but once the clock hit 4PM EST my picks went home like Cinderella running back to her pumpkin chariot at midnight. I didn’t pick a game right until the Monday Night game, and one of the only reasons I got the game right was because there was no line on it. This week is as confident as I’ve been all year and I think I can finally go positive for the first time all year.

In between the Pinstripes_42: Back from the dead I love this team. This game was one of the greatest games I’ve ever witnessed. The ups and downs of this game were like any other. The only game that compares to this is the game in May against the Orioles. The Wild Card Game doesn’t hold up, I can only really say is “WOW.” From a great start by Sonny Gray going 5+ scoreless only to walk George Springer, have Josh Reddick reach on catcher’s interference call, to being pulled after ball one to Jose Altuve. David Robertson gave up a ringing double down the left field line to go down 3-0. Starlin Castro (my favorite Yankee) had two key errors including one in the top of the 7 th to go down 4-0. After that Judge homers, Didi triples, and Sanchez hits a sac-fly in the bottom of the 7 th . After a scoreless 8 th by Chad Green, it gets crazier from here. In the bottom of the 8th, Frazier walks, Headley pinch hits for Romine (which is important) then doubles, falls down, BARELY get...

In between the Pinstripes_41: The Stopper C.C. Sabathia is the Andy Pettitte for this generation of Yankee fans. Yes, C.C. is 37-years-old but he is as clutch as you can get in the postseason. If the Yankees want to advance to the World Series, they will ride the coattails of Sabathia. Before we get too far, last night was a great overall win by the bombers. From C.C’s three hit, five strike out, six scoreless innings, to the defense of Aaron Judge, to the offense finally showing up (oh, and that laser-beam by Judge), this is just the win the Yankees needed to get back in the series. One of the only negatives things that came out of this win—is the fact that the bombers had to use Tommy Kahnle out of the pen in the 9 th last night. Dellin Betances yet again was wild, and walking in a run in the 9 th . Betances came out of the pen and threw four straight balls to Marwin Gonzalez. Right then and there Girardi should have went to the bullpen and went to Chasen Shreve, and not...

What a wild week of football. As I’ve said all year—none of this makes any sense. How do the Lions almost come back from a 45-10 deficit? How do the Cardinals almost blow a 31-7 lead at home? How are the Cardinals 3-3? How do the Raiders lose at home against the Chargers? Who is the Giants number two receiver? All these questions are racing through my head along with dozens of other NFL fans, the answer is because, again, THIS DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. This is the craziest, most non-seneschal, utterly insane football season we have ever had. I don’t get it, and I have just given up on trying to come up with answers. This year in the NFL is comparable to the Trump presidency so far—meaning what possibly could be next? Getting to the game balls, we had some great candidates this week because of all the craziness that took over our TV sets on Sunday. From Adrian Peterson “I’m still relevant” 134 yard and two touchdown game, to Kirk Cousins “YOU LIKE THAT!” come from behind 330 passing ...

Honest Review 2.6: Robbed ­­ It’s tough enough playing the New England Patriots any given week—it’s even harder to battle the refs. You cannot tell me that Austin Seferian-Jenkins fumbled the football with 8:41 to go in the 4 th quarter. The Jets got absolutely robbed by the refs and I will always put an asterisk on this loss because of the absolutely ludicrous call that just proves why the Patriots are the golden children of the NFL. With this call reversal it just furthers my confusion of what a catch is. It all started with the Calvin Johnson “catch.” You can pull up example after example of what you consider a catch, just add this one on the long list.   Everything goes the right way for the Patriots and furthers my hatred for the Patriots. Now, while the call was one of the worst calls in NFL history, there were other mishaps that gave the edge to New England. The Jets stalled out in the middle of the 2 nd quarter with three 3 and outs and an interception that hel...

In Between the Pinstripes_40: We’ve been here before This seems all too familiar to Yankee fans. A Game 2 walk-off win going against the bombers to shatter the hearts of Yankee fans and put the Yanks in an 0-2 hole going back to the Bronx. The only thing that could have changed the outcome of this game is the last play of the game where Gary Sanchez couldn’t handle relay throw from Didi. People say that baseball is “a game of inches” and that is exactly what Game 2 of the ALCS was for the bombers. A ball hits off the roof, Headley misses a home-run by a few inches, Gardner gets thrown out at 3 rd by a couple of inches, Severino gets tagged on his left arm by a come backer that forced Girardi’s hand to go to the bullpen, and Judge missed timed his jump to let a young Houston fans day. All of the bounces went Houston’s way, and if a few of those situations switch, who knows what the outcome. This start by Justin Verlander, other than the fact that it was superb, it reminded m...

In between the Pinstripes_39: Keuchel’d There is not much you can do when you get completely dominated by Keuchel like that. Keuchel went 7 easy innings and stroke out 10 Yankees. The one thing that I can say is; LAYOFF THE BREAKING BALL IN THE DIRT. There is nothing you can do against Keuchel after that—if you catch a guy like Keuchel on a good day, you can only hope the bullpen gets in as soon as possible. The bullpen came in in the 8 th in the form of Houston Astros closer Ken Giles who pitched 1.2 innings after Chris Devenski who came in the beginning of the 8 th to get Todd Frazier and walk Brett Gardner. Giles threw 37 pitches [a season high] and gave up a solo homer off the right field foul pole to bomber first baseman Greg Bird. One of the only positives that comes out of this game is that the Yanks worked the count against Ken Giles who will be running on fumes for Game 2. Another is that the Yankees have seen the breaking ball in the dirt enough times, that hopef...

I’ll be completely honest; I didn’t completely pay attention to this game with the magical clinching game in our Nation’s Capital with the Cubs and Nationals. With the craziness that happened in this game, the only way I would stop and watch this game is if this was the Super Bowl. But getting to the game it was a decent game. To have Cam Newton throwing three interceptions and only losing by five points is a pretty good game. Newton did throw the ball 52 times (which you almost never want to do), and showed why he has fell off since the shoulder surgery this offseason. Carson Wentz played well going 16/30 for 222 and three touchdowns, adding 25 yards on the ground. Wentz is showing week after week why he is a similar quarterback to Ben Roethlisberger—when Big Ben was coming up through the ranks with Pittsburgh. However, the game ball without a doubt goes to Mychal Kendricks. Kendricks had 17 combined tackles, which is almost unheard of in a football game. Kendricks had 12...