Johan's Debut

I had lunch in a sports bar today so that I could I witness the first pitches thrown by Johan Santana as a Met. His debut was not too impressive - three runs allowed on a homer in the first, although he followed it with a scoreless second. Thoughts:

1) What if he's a disappointment? That would suck. 

2) Holy crap, I'm actually watching spring training baseball! I'm not sure I've done this since I was in elementary school. I haven't been this excited about a baseball season since I was 8 or 9 years old. Of course, that would heighten the pain if the season ends up being a disappointment.

On the other TV in the bar, they were showing some bad ESPN mid-day show, and Brandon Jacobs was on, wearing an Under Armour sweatshirt. On the one hand, I was annoyed. He couldn't put on a polo shirt to be on TV? On the other hand, I now know there's no chance he'll ever retire early to do the last hour of the Today show.

Another victory

Signal to Noise directs our attention to a note in this article that LT (the original, better one, that actually showed up for playoff games, Ladainian) took 18 grand off Michael Jordan in golf last week in Palm Beach. Why is this notable? LT was, of course, the leader of the great Giants defense of the 80s, the last great defense I got to cheer. MJ was the premier villain of the NBA in the 90s, constantly stopping the progress of those good but never quite good enough Pat Riley Knicks. So less than a month after the Giants toppled the Evil Empire in the Super Bowl, LT takes money out of Jordan's already depleted (thanks to the divorce) pockets.

Oh, and did I mention Johan is pitching tomorrow? It's been a good month.

Counting Crows and the NBA

Spending a pleasant Friday afternoon on the couch watching a DVD of a Counting Crows show from Tulsa last year. They've really had the mojo going the last year or so, ever since Duritz lost weight and went back to the "August..." era dreads as opposed to the pineapple head thing. I got the show from Crowstown, which remains the best place to make use of the wonders of bit torrent and listen to some live Crows. Their show from a couple of weeks ago at the Bowery Ballroom was/is incredible - two sets, two+ hours, a set of classics and a large-scale unveiling of their new album, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings. It's shaping up to be their best work since at least Recovering the Satellites, and possibly since August. Duritz says it's an exploration of his disintegration and the process of putting himself back together. Pre-order currently available from Amazon.

Also, my buddy Beaneball has a huge post about all the NBA deadline deals. I'm just starting to get back into the NBA after recovering from the NFL season (have I mentioned that my favorite team won the greatest Super Bowl ever in the biggest upset ever?), but this Western Conference looks like one of the greatest assemblages of talent ever in a single season. It's a shame that one of these teams will have to miss the playoffs (please let it be the dull Rockets and not the super-awesome Warriors). I'm pretty excited to check out the Suns with Shaq on Sunday against Detroit - as much as everyone has bashed that trade, it was (apparently) obvious that the Suns didn't particularly like each other, and shipping out Marion may improve them by subtracting his attitude. I loved that Suns team, but as long as they basically maintain their pace, this isn't selling out their principles, as some have suggested; it's an upgrade that makes them a better contender. More on Sunday if I can actually make it through a full basketball game for the first time this season.

A Little Politics

No political rambling from me (you can get a fairly good approximation of my views by reading Andrew Sullivan's blog), but I was directed to something pretty cool today: a Harvard implicit association test which tests your subconscious feelings about the candidates. I'm apparently equally fine with Obama and McCain, which is not much of a shock. Interestingly, I'm apparently not very offended by Huckabee (which I guess makes sense - he seems like a nice guy, and I'd probably find some of his politics aligned with mine, but he's a crazy Christian nutjob and all, so there's no way I'd vote for him). Lagging very far behind them was Hillary, who I apparently hate with exceptional passion (while taking the test, I actually recoiled at seeing pictures of her after a while).

Anyway, the test only takes a few minutes and is worth a try.

Greatest Ad Ever

Remind to buy some Reebok.

OH. MY. GOD.

I've been sort of beyond words for an hour now, but I want to get a few things down.

I can't believe this. And that's not a cliche - I actually had to ask my friends a few minutes after the game whether or not what I was seeing was real.

Everything from the Tyree catch onwards was pure hysteria. My dad, probably correctly, told me I'd see highlights of that in 20 years and tell my kids about seeing that.

I will remember seeing the ball fall into Burress' hands for the touchdown forever.

I spent the fourth quarter slugging wine because of how anxious I was. I thought it was over with the Moss TD. The part of me that had watched almost all of Eli's starts could feel the mistake coming. The throw to Samuel was almost that. But when he slipped free and found Tyree (a rhyme!) I think something may have changed. Either way, I'll always have a place in my heart for the guy. I've watched more football the last four years than at any other point in my life, and so my love and appreciation of football has grown with him. He was flawed, but flawed in an exciting way - he would always suck it up for three quarters but find Super Eli in the fourth, leading furious comebacks. Sometimes they won, sometimes they fell short. But he was exciting, even if we were never sure he'd be a winner.

Tonight, Eli produced the exciting five minutes I've ever had as a sports fan.

Eli to Tyree.

Eli to Burress.

17-14.

18-1.

ELI!