Ballgame’s Points

When all is said and done, Week 6 of the 2009 NFL season will go down as Statement Week. The Saints, Patriots and Broncos all made varying statements, and all were emphatic. Naturally, those statements led to some hefty changes in the power poll. 1. New Orleans Saints (5-0) The Saints — who are [Read More...]

Let’s get this straight.  The Angels are the only team with a winning record in the regular season (56-44) against the Yankees over the last decade.  They are the one club that has bumped New York from the playoffs twice in that same time period. Individually and collectively, they’ve gotten to the Yanks one [Read More...]

October is always the month in the NFL where the pretenders begin to get peeled away from the contenders. This happens because coaching staffs start to have a sufficient enough sample size to gather intel on certain fast-starters that have caught the league by surprise. Examples in 2009 are the Broncos, Bengals and Bears, among [Read More...]

With September in the rearview, it’s a good time to break out the first edition of the Power Poll. There are some huge games this weekend (BAL at NE, NYJ at NO, SD at PIT, GB at MIN), which means a shakeup is imminent. For the time being, here’s how the Top 10 [Read More...]

In exactly three weeks, on Oct. 16, we will arrive at the three-year anniversary of one of the great postgame podium tirades of all time.  That would be Dennis Green’s microphone-pounding, “THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE!” gem of a rant after the Cardinals dropped a Monday night game to the Bears in 2006. Alas, [Read More...]

As usual, Week 1 of the 2009 NFL season was full of things to talk to about. Here are a few thoughts: Mark Sanchez deserves his due for acting the part of a pro in his first NFL game, on the road, against a Texans team that is (again) rightfully hyped. His overall numbers [Read More...]

Admit it.  Football just wasn’t as interesting without Tom Brady in 2008. Whether you love or despise the Patriots (is there really any middle ground?), once the NFL’s Golden Boy crumpled in a heap before most West Coasters had even awakened last Sept. 7, the league was irrevocably altered — for one season at least. If you [Read More...]

With exactly one week before the MLB Trade Deadline, Roy Halladay — the biggest prize available — remains a Blue Jay, and general manager J.P. Ricciardi indicated Tuesday the club is unlikely to deal the ace. Naturally, that statement can be chalked up as GM jockeying, and Ricciardi is one of the best in the business [Read More...]

Bill O’Reilly was standing next to third base as the Mets were taking batting practice before Thursday’s game vs. the Dodgers at Citi Field. The real “no spin zone”, however, was a few paces away over in the visitors dugout, where manager Joe Torre was engaging a group of reporters — a handful of whom he [Read More...]

While it was seemingly predetermined that the Lakers would return to the NBA Finals for a second consecutive year and record 30th time overall, the Eastern Conference playoffs ended up leaving in its wake a long trail of what ifs. What if the baby Bulls had had the chops to knock off the Celtics in the [Read More...]