Material Guy A Bust in The Bronx

Material Guy (sung to the tune of Madonna’s Material Girl)
Some guys come through in the big spot
But that’s not my way
I get tight, I strike out
Or worse a double play
Fans can boo and they can plead
But they don’t see the light
Cause guys like me with cold hard cash
Are always mister right
….cause we are [...]

Olympics: And The Winner Is….China

The final medal count for the 2008 Olympics shows the United States as the overall winner with 110 medals, to 100 for China.
However, as noted in an earlier SportsLifer blog, weighing the medals to give more points for gold than silver or bronze changes the equation.
For instance, awarding three points for a gold, two [...]

My First Baseball Game

Fifty years ago, August 23, 1958, I saw my very first baseball game.
I still remember it like it was yesterday. A seven-year-old kid, walking into Yankee Stadium with my Dad and seeing the immense ballfield, the green facade, the monuments in center field. The pinstriped legends on the field.
That Saturday afternoon, the Chicago White [...]

Woodstock: Better Late Than Never

“The thing the sixties did was show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.”
– John Lennon

Well, I finally made it to Woodstock, 39 years too late.
Back in the summer of ‘69, just out of high school, I was on [...]

The Best of Yankee Stadium: Everything But Baseball

Posted on August 19, 2008 by sportslifer | Edit
Soon we’ll be seeing all sorts of retrospective pieces on Yankee Stadium. Here we take an early look at the moments that shaped Yankee Stadium, New York and the world of sports.
Overall, there will be three categories — anything but baseball, baseball regular season, and baseball post-season.
This [...]

Give China Props: Time to Fix Olympic Medal Count

Never quite understood the Olympic medal count. Shouldn’t gold count for more than silver or bronze?
After all, the objective is to win the gold, not finish second. The silver medalist is like being the Super Bowl runner-up; nice try but quickly forgotten.
This ain’t no apples-to- apples comparison. Gold is the silver dollar; silver the 50-cent [...]

While I Was Away

SportsLifer is in the midst of summer vacation. Just spent a week on the beautiful, yet underrated, Jersey Shore. It’s a tough life, making decisions like whether or not to bring the suntan lotion, when to go in the ocean and where to buy the ice.
Gave me some good ideas about the wireless cabana of [...]

1958: One Golden Year

Fifty years ago, two events changed the landscape of professional sports in America forever.
In 1958, the Dodgers and the Giants left New York behind, kicking off baseball’s presence on the West Coast and ushering in an era of expansion in baseball and eventually other sports. Shock waves were felt from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and [...]

Matty And The Jinx

My friend Matty and I have known one another since the ’60s. We’ve gone to some great sports events together, including the Super Bowl, World Series and the Olympics.
For the most part , we cheer for the same New York teams. We’ve seen a few wins, but more often than not, we’ve seen the ugly [...]

Brett The Jet Faces Weight of History

Are the Jets a better team with Brett Favre at quarterback? Of course. But let’s not start printing Super Bowl tickets just yet.
In Green Bay, Favre had history on his side. Winning history. Not so with the Jets.
The Jets have gone this route before, with mixed results. They’ve had a history of picking up veteran [...]