E-mail banter #3

It's KG's world, we just live in it.

It’s another week, and another installment of e-mail banter.  In the unofficial and unsponsored e-mail banter standings the score stands at Jeremy 54, Mike 0.  Will Mike bust the goose egg?  Read on to find out.

Question One: As an ardent Red Sox fan and straight-up hater of the Yankees, you can’t bear to see the A-Rods win the World Series.  But after attending UDelaware with every Philly asshole who didn’t go to Temple, you HATE Philly with an unabiding passion not seen this side of Palestine.  So which is it?  Who’re you pulling for?

Mike: Ok, I’ve been asked this riddle maybe two dozen times and my answer has left each and ever questioner unsatisfied.  Here’s how I’ll break it down.

Fan Bases: Fans of the Philadelphia Phillies are quite possibly the most irratating people walking this earth.  The majority of them have no idea what’s going on, didn’t  go to Citizens Bank Park before 2007 unless it was dollar dog night (1$ hot dogs throughout the evening. Actually quite an understandable reason to watch Ryan Howard swing and miss at 45 pitches and leave 38 men on base) and the towels. Don’t get me started with the towels.  This is a baseball game people, where you’re team is trying to focus on slapping a tiny white ball coming 90 mph full force right at them.  Why would you think it’s a good idea to wave a WHITE flag every 30 seconds? What on earth is the logic in that? I know Philly isn’t the only team that does it (L.A. and Denver) but those aren’t baseball cities so they get a pass (plus they don’t shine laser pointers in the face of opposing players, throw batteries or murder opposing fans in the parking lot.)

Ok so now onto Yankee fans.  Before 2004, I wanted to punch every person in the face that I saw wearing either a Yankees hat, t-shirt or tattoo.  Hell, if I saw a New York license plate driving around my neighborhood I figured it was a perfectly logical egging situation.  Post the Red Sox winning two world championships before I got to be 21, I started to mellow out a little bit with them.  They could talk about 26 titles all they wanted but I knew deep down they felt like I feel whenever I bring up the Bill Russell era in a basketball argument.  I wasn’t alive then and it was 50 years ago so it’s a little irrational to bring up.  Actually never mind, there is no “deep down” in a Yankees fan, I recant that statement.

Now since I hate both teams on the field, I’ve decided to poke out individual players in the series and not necessarily root for them, but admit that they’ve earned my respect.  On the Yankees, the list goes like this: Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.  That’s pretty much it. On the Phillies, we’ve got Cliff Lee…and yup he only makes the list becuase he’s been a Philly for about three months and he was unwillingly traded there.
Lee has been without a doubt the best pitcher of the postseason.  He’s the bizarro A.J. Burnett and his non chalant pocket catch in Yankee Stadium for game one was beyond legendary.

Jeter and Mo are respected for obvious reasons even though I hate them both with a burning passion.

So I guess to answer the question, I’m not rooting for anybody.  Go Celts!

As an add-on, I also respect Pedro Martinez who is undoubtedly the best pitcher of my lifetime. I was at Fenway Park for the 1999 all-star game and besides Ted Williams making everyone cry for five complete minutes, Pedro’s dazzling performance was what I remember the most.  He struck out Barry Larkin, Larry Walker and Sammy Sosa to end the first, making him the first pitcher in the all-star game’s 140 year history to do so.  He then came out in the second and promptly struck out Mark Mcgwire.  That’s four K’s in a row to start an all-star game (a record), two of them were Sosa and McGwire.  THe most intimidating hitters in baseball (who happened to be on steroids at the time) looked helpless against the 160 pound Dominican protecting Fenway Park like it was his home, which it was.

Jeremy: As far as the World Series goes: it’s taken me a long time to figure out how to turn “2000!” into a “1918! 1918!”-style chant that we Sox fans could use as revenge, and I really don’t want that time to go to waste.  Like the rest of my life.

Question Two: Will we have to wait until the inevitable extended Garnett injury or the NBA Finals before the Celtics are actually tested?

Mike: I don’t think Garnett will have an extended injury this season and even if he does, I feel like our bench this year is stronger than it was in 2008 and that things shouldn’t be a problem.  Shelden Williams is playing out of his mind, Big Baby will be back before you know it, Sheed and Marquis are going to finish one and two for the NBA’s sixth man award.  I think the Celtics, because of their insanely intense defensive focus, will win 70 games this season barring injury.  They beat down teams that they should beat down which allows them to sit nearly every key player for the fourth quarter, and in legitimate battles against L.A., Orlando, San Antonio and Cleveland, I think the Celtics are the best squad and should be able to weather the best that’s thrown their way.

Jeremy: I do think that the Celtics need to prepare as if they’ll lose Garnett for significant amounts of time and/or will be operating without a fully healthy Garnett for the postseason.  While of course there’s no way to predict injuries, Garnett has put a TON of miles on those legs, and he’s still playing slightly gingerly on that injured knee.
It sure does seem like the Celts are the class of the league at this point! Admittedly it’s early, but the Celts are beating everybody big and it doesn’t look like they’ve really clicked yet.  No team in the league, or in recent memory, can match their defensive intensity or know-how (thank you Tom Thibodeau who remains the assistant coach most tragically in need of a head coaching position since Romeo Crennel…uh, Charlie Weis…uh, Josh McDaniels.  Yeah! Josh McDaniels.)  The top 8-12 teams in the NBA are creating a huge buzz about the league and instead of standing pat as they might have in recent years have made major moves in efforts to better themselves for this year’s campaign.  Only the Celtics’ moves, especially Sheed, have panned out the way top brass hoped they would.  So far.

Mike: I don’t know how they’d “prepare” as if they’d lose him. The guy is fine, knocking the cobwebs off a little bit still, but healthy.  He’s going up for Rondo alley’s and running the floor pretty well. He’s not in game shape yet but not too many in the league are.  As for the miles on his legs, Kobe’s got miles, Duncan’s got miles, Shaq’s got miles, it’s all good.

Jeremy: A team would never prepare as if they’re going to lose one of its stars.  Good teams, however, prepare in case they lose one of their stars while also doing everything they can to insure they won’t.  For the Celtics, this started in the front office, trickled down through their coach and is manifest at every turn of the game.  One of the biggest reasons to replace Mikki “Ashley Olsen” Moore with Rasheed Wallace was to take a large burden off of Garnett’s shoulders in every single game.  Doc is integrating Sheed and Shelden Williams into games in order to give Garnett time to rest the Creakers on the bench, and to prepare in case he has to miss significant time.  Heck, I wouldn’t be absolutely shocked if the Celtics voluntarily left KG in street clothes on the second end of some road back-to-backs.

Every star has miles, especially those who’ve brought multiple teams to, and far into, the playoffs.  Which is why Vince Carter still has leaps.

Mike: Garnett’s not human and doesn’t get tired.

Alright now onto question numero tres.

Question Three: With two weeks to prepare for a mediocre Miami team, I love the Pats’ chances this weekend.  But should I start the Pats’ D on my fantasy team?

Mike:  The Miami Dolphins aren’t that terrible, but they aren’t special either. Their running attack for starters, while everyone knows it’s coming, is at some points unstoppable no matter what.  When Ronnie Brown or Ricky Williams get the ball and look to run, there are 11 tacklers and 10 blockers which is one more than a standard quarterback handoff running play has.  When the quarterback splits out wide, he brings a corner with him and in effect makes it a mano v. mano battle.

Jarvis Green isn’t playing which sucks a lot. Now for the first time in the season we’ll see how the Pats do with a thin defensive line and against a running team none the less.

The Dolphins can’t score with their passing game so really what they depend on is big plays on special teams and a stout, tough, consistent running attack.  Of course with all that being said the Patriots will win the game. They’re coming off a bye and realize that with this win they’ll seriously start to pull away in the division.

Jeremy: The old adadge will ring true this week: Give Bill Belichick two weeks to prepare and he’ll make you feel like you just called a tv station to say that your 5-yr old is trapped in a spaceship. And he’ll beat your football team.
So let’s just say I’m confident of a Pats’ W this week.

But this defensive matchup intrigues me.  The Dolphins’ running game is pretty scary.  A solid offensive coupled with two premier (Well, one and a half anyway) backs will do that.  And Sparano and Co. popularized The ScaredyCat in the NFL against the Patriots in a shocker last year.

Once again, Bill Belichick says “you won’t like me when I’m angry”.  Aside from having a decided coaching and preparation advantage, I think the Pats actually matchup well against the Dolphins.  Their defensive secondary has been playing out of its collective mind and should allow for the team to concentrate on stopping the run.  They’ve been getting stellar play out of their Safeties who should be able to help out against the rush.  And I’m most excited to see my man Ron Brace hopefully get some playing time on the D-line in an effort to play three, big, hole-filling tackles that won’t over pursue to give the Dolphins’ backs cutback lanes.  And, of course, the Pats will be disciplined which is absolutely crucial against the Wildcat.

Oh yeah, the best defense is a good offense.  The Pats have that.

Tags: Celtics, Patriots