It’s NFL draft time again and for those of us who live for the draft there are few weekends better than this! So OK, Super Bowl Weekend is better, especially if your team is in the game and wins it, you definitely have got me there! Casual fans just don’t get the whole pre draft hype and trying to figure out what your team needs VS. who’s on the board when you get there conundrum. I’ve been assessing all the various positions and accumulating facts and reading and viewing mock drafts for months now. I feel like I am going to have a Scanners moments and my head will explode in a Zapruder film like display.
The big question since Big Blue’s GM, Jerry Reese opened up the can of worms by saying they had in deed entertained some offers for #80, is just what to about this. It isn’t an easy question to answer. You start by assessing Jeremy Shockey’s athletecism and at that point you realize that nothing has changed in that department. He’s a rare talent who ALWAYS makes an opposing defense take him into consideration and game plane for the mismatches he creates. Do you try to get away with a linebacker and get burned by Shockey’s speed? Do you luse a corner or extra D Back and watch him get out muscled?
There are other considerations as well. How many players come along that capture a crowd and pump them up the way Jeremy Shockey does? He CAN change the nature of a game and CAN make the play that breaks the game open. We’ve all seen him do it, right? So it’s a no brainer that we keep him…right?
Well, hold on there because there are problems on the way to Canton. Shockey’s best year statistically speaking was his rookie year when he wasn’t’ asked to handle too much in the way of blocking. In Sean Payton’s world as the Offensive Coordinator, he mostly was asked to put his mismatch abilities to good use and that he did! Yes there were a few times when his dogged persistence to stay on his feet and drag guys had me saying the holy of holies…………BAVARO! BUT…..come on, this is football, there’s ALWAYS a big BUTT! There is this thing called blocking that tight ends have to do especially in the land of The Giants!
To his ever lasting credit, Shockey has made himself into more than a fair NFL blocking tight end. But in his world, Shockey doesn’t rhyme with Blockey! With time ticking on his career and the injuries mounting (more on this aspect a few yards ahead) I suspect that Jeremy would like to finish out his career in a place where he can use his best talents to his best ability and that is a team that is going to let him split out wide most of the time and “do his thing” without the encumbrance of blocking duties. You know, how you felt about having to take out the garbage when you were a kid. Catch ball, bulldoze a few guys, get up and Lou Ferrigno, get the crowd going and get back and suggest to the QB that he’s ready for more!
So now we’re at the crux of it and there is really no way to know the big truth of this. Shockey’s act cuts both ways. ADMIT IT! There’s times you want to get so pumped you could band your head on the coffee table in your living room, watch is shatter into a million little pieces and serve them to your buddies your so psyched up! Then again, when he’s throwing ice at the opposing team’s fans (Niners playoff game) you want to hide under that same table!
AND NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT INJURY THING! The guy always has something, right? I mean it’s like watching SAW or some such flick where you just cringe and want to look away! He is ALWAYS playing with something! And yet, you can’t get him out of the game which, to be fair, is pretty cool. Frustrating and complicated, right?
I suspect that the whole “The Giants are better without his diva routine and on field histrionics when Eli doesn’t throw to him” conspiracy theories didn’t play to well with Jeremy during the playoff run and can you blame him? He has a ton of pride in his game and deservedly so. His team mates you have cared enough to comment in the past several weeks all seem to want him to come back and that included your Super Bowl Champion QB, Eli Manning. What’s the truth of this? How much of this is just public preening and fear of saying what you really feel in case he DOES stay? No way to know and that’s the problem with all of this stuff. So much of the lead up to the NFL draft is a smokescreen to screw with the heads of other teams. Who knows? Maybe all of this is to get Shockey to pipe down a bit and quit being such an apparent pain in the ass!
One thing that has always bugged me is how he stays down in Miami and doesn’t come up to do the off season training with the team and most importantly with Eli Manning! Maybe The Giants realize that with all the blocking their offensive scheming utilizes they have a Porsche and they only need some tough minded pick up trucks. Is Boss that guy? Too little game time to tell right now but you have to admit he’s off to a good start. The jury is out on what Matthews can be but he has raw talent. He dropped some very catchable balls last year. Then again, let’s face it: Shockey has been known to leave some on the turf too! It isn’t always automatic with him tucking it away safely either.
I think it’s a classic 50 / 50. I think that if Shockey’s old coach Sean Payton in New Orleans has the opportunity and offers Jerry Reese and the Giants brain trust enough on the first day of the draft it just might happen. Shockey’s roll is not going to change and I believe he’s not enjoying what he has to do here. I think that General Manager Jerry Reese is adept at going out and finding the veteran he needs and maybe he’s thinking that he’ll keep Boss out there and let Darcy Johnson, who showed a ton of promise in training camp before getting injured, fight it out with Matthews for the second spot. He’ll find some veteran guy who gets let go for cap space during camp to have a steadying influence around to teach the young guys.
To Shockey or not to Shockey? At the right price, you can put that #80 right next to all of those old Seahorn jerseys in your closet. I’ll miss the excitement when he makes one of those catches and gets the crowd going that’s for sure!
SHEA HEY!
Opening Day. Two great words now made bittersweet by the occasion of the last one at Shea Stadium this afternoon. There will be few tears shed I suspect this time next year as Shea’s next door, art deco, state of the art cousin, Citi Field, will host it’s first Home Opener. I suspect that there is some version of a fire sale about to happen where in Mets fans will be able to bid on everything from seats to turf and beer taps and what have you before the wrecking ball does it’s job some time next year. There is a very sad photo of Dodgers luminaries gathered around the wrecking ball just before the fall of Ebett’s Field in Brooklyn the day the old stadium came crashing down. Truth be told, I don’t think that Brooklyn was ever the same.
I know that Shea Satdium is a dingy place now and there really isn’t too much affection for it. Most of us have had the experience of going to a Camden Yards or some other gorgeous throw back art deco ball park and we’re all looking forward to that feel for Citi Park when it opens one year from now. I’ve been to Shea Stadium every year since it has opened and I have been to countless opening days and I know that I will feel some grief for the old park when it comes down. I hqve mixed feelings about this impending fire sale of stuff for Mets fans. It kind of feels like The Old Man And The Sea to me with the denizens of the deep slashing away at the old park with nothing left when it reaches the shore. I guess it might be cool to have a few seats in the basement or fixed to cement in the back yard.
As fate would have it, the first time my Dad saw fit to keep me out of school and take me to Opening Day at Shea was the fateful year of 1969! The year of the miracle in Flushing did NOT get off to such a wonderful start at Tom Terrific did not have his best stuff that day, pitching a pedestrian 5 or so innings and giving up a bunch of runs. The Mets came back to tie it only to lose the game to The Expos and Coco Leboy 11 – 10. My Dad, sister Barbara and I went home with our heads hung low. Still, a pretty cool thing to do and to be out of school to see a home opener, not such a bad thing! I couldn’t even imagine what was in store for the rest of that season that day.
In 1070 I was able to talk my Dad into doing the Home Opener at She again to see the first World Series Flag hoisted up the flag pole in center field! I remember that it was freezing that day! The first of many days where I learned that it always seemed colder at Shea than it was at home! In point of fact it snowed later that day on the way home and stuck to the grassy surfaces! Lots of hot chocolate and the game was called early, I want to say in the 6th inning with the Mets losing to The Pirates 6 – 4 that day.
In 1974 a bunch of friends from Hicksville High School played hooky and went to the game on a sunny but breezy and chilly day. I wore shorts and a t-shirt with not jacket and froze my as off as the Mets beat the Cards that day 3 – 2. I was never so happy as to get into my friend Rich Goldberg’s metallic blue Firebird and get home!
So many of my memories of Shea are caught up with the memories my sister Barbara who was a rabid Mets fan. In 1977, when I was in school at Bighamton, Barbara purchased a bunch of tickets for me and some buddies from school and we took the bus down to see The Mets and Tom Seaver shout out the Cards 4 -0! It was a nice warm day and Seaver reached a strike out plateau that day with his 5 K’s in a nine inning performance! Think about that! Who goes 9 any more, right?
My last home opener with my sister Barbara was April of 1985. Sadly she would pass away shortly after her birthday in November of that year at the too young age of 40. To this day I an remember her shear joy when her new found favorite Gary Carter hit a home run off of our old buddy Neil Allen in the tenth inning to send the capacity crowd out onto the walk ramps and into the parking lots screaming “Let’s Go Mets!”. My sister will be on my mind all day today.
It was bitter sweet to be a Shea in 86 with a hole in my heart. My Dad and I and brother in law Norman sat and did our thing but it was difficult to be enthusiastic. The results, as in 1969, gave no indication as to what would lie ahead as The Mets lost to The Cards that day 6 – 2.
!998. Would you believe close to 90 degrees? I mean it was HOT! So was Schilling as he went 9innings and I was, through the good graces of my co-worker Capain Kevin, some where in the first 6 or 7 rows up from the plate! I remember the hiss coming off of Schilling’s fastball and I remember the Mets being able to do nothing with him all day long! The Mets won it on a pinch hit from Castillo in the 14th inning! The day that started out so warm had turned down right chilly with the shadows over taking the pitching mound at Shea. I was cold but happy on the way home. Shorts and t-shirt routine again with no jacket. Come on! It was 90 at first pitch!
2003. A sunny day but a howing wind! I mean it was J E T S JETS JETS JETS weather as some demon wind blew in over the centerfield fence. Glavine, one of those touchy feely guys had no grip and nothing to show The Cubs who slaughtered the Mets 15 – 2. I was in the second row behind home plate courtesy of my college buddy Mitch Lieberman. They all left me by myself for the last three innings but I figured when the hell was I going to be this close to home plate again and stayed till the bitter end.
So many great memories for me at Shea. I will be thinking of my Dad and my sister today somewhere around 1:10 when Oliver Perez fires off his first pitch, the last first pitch ever thrown at Shea on Opening Day. I will look towards heaven and hope that the Mets will make my Dad and sister happy. I will not think of the harpies that will feed off of the old stadium come next year…………I will think instead of Gary Carter’s home run and the 1969 World Series flag being hoisted up in center field. I hope for those able to take the day off and play hooky from school that you get a great day today and a big win! Opening Day, there’s nothing like it.
OH MY GOD! Billy Crystal, while the sacred cows were still mooing their long and loud displeasure, got up for one at bat against the Pirates yesterday during a Yankees spring training game and it did NOT, let me repeat this, did NOT send the Earth spinning off into the void! Nor did it signal the biblical End Of Days! No plague of locusts, rivers running red with blood, though many who hated that Billy Crystal got up at bat in a spring training game were seeing blood, no frogs running rampant, none of that! Imagine that!
You would have thought that civilization was coming to an end because The Yankees, those corporate creeps who NEVER HAVE FUN and ALWAYS are TOO STIFF, wanted to have some fun and let number one lifetime fan, Billy Crystal, wear a Yankee’s uni for a day and get one at bat to start the game. He got a couple of good whacks, hit a foul ball, then struck out on a full count. I watched it happen and it was fun. His buddy Robin Williams was in the stands cheering him on as were many Yankee fans in Tampa yesterday.
Now through the week as this press were alerted to this fact were horrified that the Yankee’s were allowing this great sin to happen. Somehow it stained the Yankee tradition and made a mockery of all that had come before. Oh B_ _ _ _ _ _ _!!! One Hundred years plus of being the most storied professional sports franchise of all time comes to some crashing end, doomed because of Billy Crystal? Go away! It was a FUN moment and that was all! Tell the truth, if YOU had the chance to get one at bat for your team you would do it in a heart beat right? Right! I called The New York Football Giants and proposed a one day contract for pre season in July up in Albany and was told that “they always need another tackling dummy”! Oh well, I tried!
These same stuff shirts had a field day this week as the rumor broke that perhaps the last sporting event in the storied history of Yankee Stadium could well be a hockey game, out doors, between The Rangers and Islander or Bruins? How cool would that be? You saw the game from Buffalo this past holiday season, right? Cool stuff, right? Everyone was talking about how great it was. Not for the parade of stuff shirts, the same crew who saw civilization ending with Billy Crystal checking his privates before stepping into the batter’s box, saw the universe collapsing into a black hole if the last event at Yankee Stadium was hockey game. Who cares! It’s up to THE YANKEES themselves to write the ending of the baseball part of Yankee Stadium! THAT’S what Yankee fans will remember. Lighten up, would you? Let the rest of us have some fun! Maybe Billy Crystal can play for The Rangers for one shift and probably get the snot kicked out of him! That sounds like fun to me too! Where do I sign up?
© 2008