Guest Post: Mets and Madoff

As football season draws to a close, Drawing Contact looks forward to the rest of basketball season and, of course, that magical summer of baseball coming up. Let's be honest, there are few things better on a weekend afternoon in the summer than being at the ballpark with friends, enjoying some over-priced food and really over-priced beers watching America's favorite past-time: greed.


*vinyl scratch*


Yeah, I said it. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love baseball. However, there is positively no country for franchises to profit from maintaining the streak for most consecutive losing seasons. Baseball financials have always been a bit shady, from top to bottom, and no where is this more the case than with the New York Mets. Below are some thoughts from good friend, loyal reader and suffering Mets fan, @JasonIsaacs1.

***

Recently, it was reported that Fred Wilpon, Chairman and CEO of the New York Mets was close friends with Ponzi scheme artist, Bernie Madoff. Madoff played a large role in big free agent deals during the last 15 years and was usually present during contract negotiations. Today, Mets owner’s Wilpon and President Saul Katz denied any allegations that they knew about the scheme and the $300 million profit the Mets somehow were able to make from it prior to Madoff’s arrest in late 2008.

It is time for a change. Wilpon’s access to the Mets should be revoked. Granted Enron had issues of its own but haven’t we learned from that already?? Seriously, dude.

The Mets are now looking to sell 25% of their shares (shout out to Mark Cuban). And until the time they settle this debacle I can only imagine what it will mean for the fans: higher ticket prices, $7.50 hot dogs and (dare I say) $11 Bud Lights. This does not bode well for me as a poor pseudo-college student who will be even poorer come baseball season when I do not have a job at all. So I say this, and I would like all Mets fans join in (all 3 of us):

Dear Mets:

Why do you build me up? Buttercup just to let me down….and make me pay more? And the worst of all, you never come through when you say you will. But I love you still.

Love,

A Once Again Disappointed Mets Fan

Unsportsmanlike Conduct?

I was looking forward to Sunday's Miami Heat/Oklahoma City Thunder game not only with fingers crossed for an OKC victory, but also for the display of raw basketball talent that would be on the court: Durant, LeBron, Westbrook and Wade on the floor at any given time as well as some guy named Bosh that everyone keeps talking about. Epic Game Potential (EGP) was sitting at about 60-70%.

And it was quite the game - hotly contested down to the end with Durant hitting some clutch shots down the stretch, but at the end of the day it was all for naught. With about 25 seconds left in the game, there was an interesting moment on the Miami offensive side of the ball.

After Wade missed a well contested 19-footer, Heat down 102-103, Mike Miller corralled a crucial offensive rebound and dished out to a completely open LeBron James - I mean COMPLETELY open, as in no OKC Thunder player was within 8-10 feet of LBJ. What happened next was fascinating: James started to go up with the shot, stopped, then dished to Eddie House who hadn't taken a single shot all game.

For you numbers people, LBJ for the game: 23pts on 7-14 shooting, and 2-5 from 3pt range - not too shabby, which makes his decision to pass even more interesting.

However, I don't find much use in speculating on what was going through LeBron's head at the time of the shot. I will point out that Eddie House drilled that shot, took a page out of Sam Cassell's celebration book, and was promptly fined $25,000 by the NBA. Check out the footage below:



Final score: MIA 108 - OKC 103.

Celtics v. Lakers

At some point in the halftime report of Sunday's Celtics/Lakers game, Mike Wilbon said something along the lines of the following:

"I hate the term 'statement game' - it's very cliche - but in the case
of this game, Celtics/Lakers, I think it's very appropriate."

But as the game went on, I had less and less to take away from it. In the first half, both teams played well at different times, the Celtics would take a sizeable lead then give up some ground to the Lakers as the 1st and 2nd quarters wound down. The game was shaping up to be a hotly contested battle with a lot of players playing truly incredible basketball, especially Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant.

Something happened late in the 3rd quarter and into the 4th with the Lakers that I can't really explain. It looked like Pau Gasol simply stopped trying. Andrew Bynum forgot that he was bigger than everyone else on the floor and decided to start giving up rebounds to Big Baby. Steve Blake simply forgot that he was guarding a guy named Ray Allen. Staples Center Security is still looking for Ron Artest.

There was a truly telling moment with around 7:20 left in the 4th quarter - Pau Gasol missed his second lazy 11-foot jumper in 30 seconds and apparently Kobe/Phil Jackson had had enough. The Lakers proceeded to run ELEVEN straight plays for Bryant, mostly just isolation drives and fade-aways that Allen guarded very well.

During this stretch, the score went from 89-80 Celtics to 105-91 Celtics; the clock went from 7:20 to about 1:29. Celtics players that scored in this span: Garnett, Ray Allen, Rondo and Big Baby - only one of these was unassisted. In other words, while Kobe was stutter-step, spin move, juke/shake and fade-away jumpshotting to keep his team in it, the Lakers defense was just downright lazy on the other end. Note that Paul Pierce didn't score during this stretch - he was guarded by Kobe Bryant.

For the record: Paul Pierce: 11-18, 32pts; Ray Allen: 8-12, 21pts; Kevin Garnett: 9-12, 18pts, 13reb; Rajon Rondo: 5-9, 10pts, 16ast. In other words, the "big four" shot 65% from the floor - sweet defense, LA.

Back to Wilbon's comment at half-time: what do we take away from this "statement" game? That Kobe Bryant is really good? That team basketball beats individual basketball 99.99999% of the time? That the Lakers look just like the Celtics did this time last year when they coasted the rest of the regular season? I don't really know.

I do know that the Lakers will not get far in the playoffs if Kobe is putting up 41pt losing efforts.

Brett Favre: Rise Up

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our long national nightmare is finally ending. Brett Favre recently filed retirement papers with the NFL. There are articles saying silly things like "Favre's legacy still intact" etc. that I will not dignify with a link because the four people that read this blog might actually click it.

The man singlehandedly ruined unquantifiable hours of my SportsCenter viewing over the past few years. The man has sent pictures of his penis to women that aren't his wife, and more accusations are coming out. He is not a "warrior" and I'm completely exhausted of the entire Monday Night Football crew worshipping the ground he walks on.

And now, here we are, basically where we started, except this time (fingers crossed, because with this loon, you never really know) it's finally over. As a parting shot, I give you Brett Favre, asking you a bunch of questions:



Thanks to @PhilJKowalski for the video.

Pats/Jets/Feet

My two roommates are both die hard Patriots fans, and as such they are quite excited for this game on Sunday. The trash talking from the Jets sideline has been constant, but the Patriots have remained a bit quiet.

That is until yesterday when Wes Welker (intentionally or not) dropped double-digit references to feet and toes in a mere nine minutes of press conference. Rex Ryan's foot fetish is hysterical - there's really no way around it. I mean, think about it - the guy hasn't seen his own feet not in a mirror in years. Kudos, Wes, you've added a hearty chuckle to my Friday morning.

The full video is below, but if you have the attention span of a goldfish, a 20 second version is on DeadSpin.

There's Not Much to Say Here...

... except just watch this video. Blake Griffin would be proud.

Tim Tebow

All hail and bow down before the great might and wonder of Tim Tebow! The most amazing person of all time has taken his talents (this phrase will never get old) to Denver after setting records and winning Heisman trophies at Florida. He will continue to show everyone that he is the best human being in the history of human beings.

Or at least that's what ESPN would have you think. On the home page this morning there was this weird advertisement on the right consisting of three different panels, announcing some new show that will air on the network tonight called "Tim Tebow: Everything in Between."

I haven't heard anything about this show. I don't know what the premise is. I don't know what it will be covering. However, I know for a fact that I could not begin to care less. Sure, I could try, but I know I couldn't. Tebow had a phenomenal college career, no doubt about it. But, news flash! It's OVER.

There's also no doubting that Tebow is a phenomenal athlete, but call me when he's done something. He played in nine games this year, attempting 82 passes and completing exactly 50% of them. For those of you counting at home, that's a lower percentage than Derek Anderson, Jimmy Clausen, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brett Favre and Carson Palmer. Those QB's had 327, 299, 441, 358 and 586 attempts respectively.

But the guy can run! He had 6 rushing touchdowns! Michael Vick completed 62.6% of his passes for 21 touchdowns and 6 interceptions while rushing for 676 yards and 9 touchdowns - make a TV show about this man's comeback.

I realize the show is likely about a college player transitioning to the NFL and especially the pressures of a QB in that situation, but Tebow? Come on! There are much better options out there. Until Tebow is putting a ring on his finger, or at least leading his floundering team to the playoffs (*cough* Matt Ryan *cough*), save the melodramatic advertisements for people who deserve the laurels.