Curiouser and curiouser. The story of how NYC's two teams -- with the most potential revenue in baseball -- could have been shut out of deals involving the three best free agent pitchers in baseba...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Mets Shut Out in Halladay Contest For Distance" [...]By now you may have heard about the huge three-team swap involving the Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies, and Seattle Mariners. All the details aren't in -- and until they are, the whole th...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Roy Halladay to Philly, Cliff Lee to Seattle --'" [...]We can sum up all the nuttiness and overreaction to the Tiger Woods scandal with Hank Gola's column in Friday's New York Daily News. "We've heard condemnations from [Swedish golfer] Jesper Pa...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Does Golf, With Its Rotten History, Have Any Business Investigating' [...]So how does the deal for Curtis Granderson shape up for the Yankees? Pretty good, we think. The Yankees lose Ian Kennedy, who never struck us as much with a 6.03 ERA in 14 major league games, all...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Curtis Granderson Traded to the" [...]With five games to go in the season, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has already locked the league's MVP award. But how good is he doing compared to other great passers over the last 20 ...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Is Drew Brees Having the Best" [...]Surfing the web for the best post-Tiger Woods car crash humor, we have to go with Craig Ferguson in his Monday monologue: "Economists are saying that so far holiday sales are down, but that doesn...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Will Tiger Woods Bounce Back After This Car Crash [...]No disagreement that Jets' rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez is having a rough patch right now, but shouldn't we be cutting him a little slack while he goes through his learning process? Or stated a...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Reasons to be Thankful for Mark Sanchez This Thanksgiving" [...]As the Giants get ready for a crucial four games that will probably seal their fate for the 2009 season -- the Falcons this Sunday in the Meadowlands, the Broncos at Denver, then the Cowboys and E...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Giants at a Crucial Juncture" > [...]"A lot of folks who went to bed early tonight are going to wake up awfully surprised tomorrow morning when they see this score," said NBC color man Chris Collinsworth at the finish of last night's...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: The Bad Call of the Night in'" [...]Sifting through the rubble of the Giants' devastating 21-20 loss to San Diego yesterday, one statistic jumps out big: the Giants -- playing at home -- had nine penalties for 104 yards to the Charg...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Just How Bad Was This Giants Loss?" > ' [...]First of all, on behalf of those at the Village Voice who are Yankee fans, let me thank Roy Edroso for the headline on his piece, "Congratulations Douchebag Yankee Fans." We accept your congratul...
Continue reading "Jockbeat's World Series Wrap" > [...]We want to make this clear before tonight's game: We're not second guessing Joe Girardi's decision to pitch A.J. Burnett on three days rest Monday night. We called it before the game. It was fooli...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Yanks Chances for Finishing Things Tonight" > ' [...]The First Fall Classic: The Red Sox, the Giants and the Cast of Players, Pugs and Politicos Who Re-Invented the World Series in 1912 By Mike Vaccaro Doubleday, 290 pages, $26.95 Game Six -- Cinci...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Some Jocklit to Tide You Over Until Game Six" > [...]World Series notes: -- Did Johnny Damon's dash to third base in the ninth inning of last night's game take away Brad Lidge's slider and thus force him to throw the fastball at Alex Rodriguez whic...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Allen Barra's World Series Notes" > [...]First off, we'd like to thank the New York tabloids for getting the Phillies all worked up. In particular, we'd like to thank the New York Post for putting a photo shop image of Shane Victorino in...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Allen Barra Sizes Up the Yankees" [...]As Roy Edroso pointed out the other day, most children's programming in the New York area during the early and mid-1960s was dreck. There were exceptions: Chuck McCann, who read the funnies to us ...
Continue reading "Allen Barra Remembers Soupy Sales" >It's October, and the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson once again haunts the autumn breezes. In Chicago, two attorneys with ties to the Chicago Baseball Museum organization are claiming that Eliot As...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: As Another World Series Looms, A Look Back at a Tarnished" [...]"You want a comparison?" writes Mike Lupica in today's Daily News about Alex Rodriguez's 2009 postseason. "All of a sudden he is the Yankee version of Ryan Howard." Wrong comparison, Mike. What A...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: A-Rod Edging Past Mr. October" > [...]Who had the worst day on Sunday? The Giants or the Jets? Let's review: -- The Giants played perhaps the best team in the conference, the surprising New Orleans Saints, gave up 48 points and lost...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Giants or Jets? Whose Loss Sucked More?" > [...]As rivalries go, the Yankees and Angels have been overrated by the media. Since 2002, the first time they met in the playoffs, the teams have played 54 times. The Angels have won 31 of those game...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Why The Yankees Should Beat the" [...]The Catch: One Play, Two Dynasties, and the Game that Changed the NFL By Gary Myers Crown, 252 pages, $26.00 "To this day," says Joe Montana in the forward to Gary Myers's The Catch, "the Cowbo...
Continue reading "Jockbeat on Gary Myers: Catch This Book" >There's a perception that Alex Rodriguez has finally "turned around" his postseason hitting with three good games. But he's still not in the same league as Reggie Jackson as a postseason hitter, t...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Who's the Real 'Mr. October'?" > [...]Several million words have been written in the last few years about why teams win in the playoffs -- or more precisely, why the playoffs are different than the regular season. Most of it can be su...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: How the Yankees Can Win It" [...]"This is not meant to disparage Brian Bruney, Chad Gaudin, and Sergio Mitre," writes George A. King III in today's New York Post. "But who would have thought Joba Chamberlain would be in a fight ...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Think Sending Joba to the Bullpen is' [...]Since the Giants and Jets are both undefeated after three weeks -- and since the opportunity may never come again -- let's compare the two unbeatens at this point: -- The Giants have scored 80 p...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Which is the Best Undefeated NYC Football" [...]Be afraid, Yankee fans -- be very afraid. A couple of weeks ago everything seemed all sewn up -- the Yankees had vanquished the Red Sox, and all everyone wanted to know was if this year's editi...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Why Yankees Fans Should Worry" [...]Dizzy Dean said it right: "If you say you're going to do something, and you don't do it, that's bragging. Bt if you say you're going to do something, and you do it, that's just plain ole' predic...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: More Great Jets Defense, and [...]We join Joe Namath and Daily News writer Gary Myers in applauding the debut of Mark Sanchez (18 of 31 for 272 yards) in the Jets' rousing 24-7 opening day victory over Houston. We would, however...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Sanchez? The Jets Win Was All About'" [...]The Giants have paid Eli Manning in a manner worthy of the best quarterback in football ($106 million over seven years). The problem is that Eli isn't the best quarterback in football -- in fact, ...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Giants Season Preview" >As everyone knows, the Jets' chances this season hinge around the new franchise quarterback, Mark Sanchez, and how quickly he develops. His former coach at USC, Pete Carroll, made some exceedingly...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Jets Season Preview" >Back on February 25, Philadelphia's City Paper declared war on our National League team in an article entitled "An Incomplete List of Reasons Mets Fans are Douchebags." (Grudgingly, we admit to o...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: It Must Be September in Queens" > [...] Though it was related to page 70 in this morning's Daily News, Wednesday's decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is going to have a huge impact on future reporting of p...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Judge says Feds Improperly Obtained Steroid Data, Just" [...]If Yankee fans thought the team's post All-Star game run -- 27-10, best in the major leagues -- and overall performance -- .624 W-L, best in the majors -- is too good to be true, they might be ri...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Yankees Looking at a" [...]Don't know if you've heard the story, but they're saying that if you're traveling down Nicaragua way, you can see bunches of kids wearing "21-0" shirts - those were the ones printed up for New Eng...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Maybe Favre's New Gig is Really About" [...]Everybody knows that Albert Pujols is the favorite to win the 2009 National League Most Valuable Player award, but who in the American League? We took an informal poll this week of newspaper and ...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: How About Teixeira for MVP?" > [...]We all know what Lord Acton said about being doomed to repeat history, so while the fifteenth anniversary of the 1994 MLB Strike (August 12) is still fresh in everyone's mind, let's do some revi...
Continue reading "The Baseball Strike, 15 Years Later: What Was That About?" > [...]Do you remember where you were 15 years ago today? Wherever you were, you probably woke up, like me, to the startling revelation that "There's no baseball today!"In fact, as we'll never forget,...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Baseball's Striking Anniversary" > ' [...]After sweeping the big four-game series with the Red Sox, are the Yankees now favorites to win the AL East -- and to go on and win the World Series? You betcha, but let's not print those World ...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Yanks With Best MLB Record," [...]Since Selena Roberts's February 7 Sports Illustrated story broke the news that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003, we've maintained that there's no mystery as to how and why these na...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Lupica's Precious Sox Juicing? He Blames the Union, Naturally" > ' [...]Every few weeks, in this age of big-money, drug-riddled sports, comes a piece that is so mind-numbing irresponsible that it takes a while to know how to properly respond to it. Such a revie...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: What Is It with the New York Times and the Yankees?" [...]For many years, there's been a feeling that SportsBusiness Journal is a publication only for insiders. Well, the web has changed the definition of "insiders," expanding it to heretofore unthought of ...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Barra Bemoans Shrinking (Print) Sports Sections; Ortega Tells Him To Stop Whining" [...]Are the French finally softening towards Lance Armstrong? Our correspondent in Paris, Bill Strickland, editor-at-large of Bicycling Magazine and co-author of We Might as Well Win (which ch...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: French Liking Lance Armstrong More This Time" > [...]Last Thursday the Daily News' back cover told us in huge letters that the "Heat Is On" Roger Clemens and "Pressure on Rocket grows as grand jury subpoenas Houston gym owner, others." This was the...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Another Roger Clemens Bait-and-Switch in the Daily News" > ' [...]The Mets aren't going to win anything this year. That's what you really want to know, so we'll give it to you right off. They're only four games under .500, but the problem now isn't just that t...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: The Mets at Midseason" > [...]Let's start with the obvious -- or at least what should be obvious: the new Yankee Stadium is not helping the Yankees. While the Yanks lead MLB in home runs at home with 79 and are on track to b...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: The Yankees at Midseason" [...]Can the Yankees get Roy Halladay? Of course they can. Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi says, "We're not inclined to move him, but we're going to see what's out there." That means: "Yes, we're willing t...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Can the Yanks Get Halladay? Of Course They Can"'" [...]Mets fans, the smart ones anyway, are alarmed about the swift turnaround in Johan Santana's performance. As recently as May 27 he was 7-2 with an ERA of 1.77. Since then, he's 2-5. His ERA over his...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Is Johan Santana Pitched Out?" > [...]Arguello-Pryor, Fight of the DecadeAlexis Arguello -- three-time professional boxing champion, mayor of Managua, Nicaragua, and friend of the Voice -- died this past Wednesday, apparently by his own h...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Making Sense of Alexis Arguello" > [...]As the Mets prepare for what looks like a rough seven game road trip -- starting tonight with the first of three games against the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers and ending with three against th...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: The Mets are in Worse Shape Than You Think" [...]First off, anything written about St. Louis Cardinals' first baseman Albert Pujols should begin with a sentence along the lines of "He's the greatest player in the game today, and the best player so ...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Why is Jerry Crowe Such an Asshole?" > " [...]The late great Dodgers and Yankees announcer Red Barber once called Major League Baseball Players Association founder Marvin Miller "one of the three most important men in baseball history, right up t...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: How Important Was Don Fehr to Baseball?" > " [...]Let's take the issues connected with the outing of Sammy Sosa's 2003 drug test results one at a time: -- First, the New York Times broke the news on June 16 with a story stating that Sosa had tes...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Why You're Just Now Hearing that'" [...]From our Friday Jockbeat on the Yankees-Mets: "The odds seem pretty good that the Yankees can take at least two of three, most likely the first two. Joba Chamberlain ... has been pitching very w...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: What We Did, and Didn't Predict about the Mets/Yankees' [...]It isn't just the economy and the ticket prices that will produce all those empty seats at Yankee Stadium tonight. The Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies have taken much of the wind out of this ...
Continue reading "Our Subway Series Prediction: Yankees, Yankees, Mets" > ' [...]You haven't been reading much about the beginning of the NFL's labor talks, and that's a pretty good indication that you're going to be reading a lot more about it by this time next year. So get prime...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Class Struggles at the Scrimmage Line" [...]At the end of Zev Chafet's incisive Cooperstown Confidential, he points out that there is "No proof at all that steroids ... improve baseball performance in a way that challenges the competitive balan...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: The Book Clemens Slimers Should Have Read" >Did Sonia Sotomayor save baseball or didn't she? All week long the press has been heatedly debating the extent to which President Obama's Supreme Court nominee impacted the national pastime with...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Did Sonia Sotomayor Save Baseball Or Didn't She?" > [...]Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York promotes itself as the place fans go for an escape from the often ugly realities of the game. But as veteran journalist and former New York Daily News ...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Chafets Gets Underneath Cooperstown" > [...]Everyone associates New York Giants football with comedy, and the funniest Giant of all - with the possible exception of Tom "Take My Wife Please" Coughlin -- is David Diehl. David recently put it a...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: David Diehl Does Comedy" > [...]With Michael Vick home in Virginia and set to be released from federal custody on July 20 -- after which time he presumably could try out for an NFL team -- the trial-by-tabloid that has now bec...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Vick is a Dog - on the" [...]No, that hasn't been Soupy Sales sneaking onto the field at the end of the last three Yankee games. It was A.J. Burnett "pieing" Melky Cabrera on Friday night, Alex Rodriguez on Saturday, and ...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Yankee Wins Easy as Pie" >The more Roger Clemens's story stays the same, the curiouser and curiouser the whole matter gets. Clemens has engaged a firm, Washington-based outfit Levick Strategic Communications, that guides high-...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Clemens Won't Budge" >Selena Roberts's credibility is dropping faster than attendance at Yankee Stadium. According to a report by the Sporting News, A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez, is being panned all over t...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: A-Rod, A-Rod, Selena Roberts, and all that Chass" >No wonder the New York Times wants to destroy the Boston Globe - it's the only paper on the East Coast that dares to print something good about Alex Rodriguez! Friday's Daily News came up with yet ano...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: A-Rod Revelations Continue to Underwhelm" > [...]If you were planning on dropping 50 cents to pick up Thursday's Daily News because of the headline - "A-Rod Book Bombshell" - let us save you the change. The first of two front page revelations,...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Daily News 'revelations' about A-Rod are hardly that" [...]There are two definitely good things to be said about the Jets obtaining Southern Cal quarterback Mark Sanchez. The first is that he's probably the best prospect available. The second is that he looks...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Will Jets fans have patience for Sanchez to grow?" > [...]Yes, OK -- we get it: John Madden was a cultural phenom who did funny beer commercials, "wrote" ghosted bestsellers, and gave his name to a popular video game. He was, as Harvey Araton sai...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: John Madden's Final Score" > [...]No one put it quite this way, but you get the feeling that the old guard boxing culture understands that with Oscar De La Hoya's retirement -- and this time it would appear to be for real -- that an e...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Boxing Takes an'" [...]Everybody talks about how every spring baseball can make you feel young. What we often forget is how baseball can also make you feel old. If you're a fan of the game, you'll mark important points in y...
Continue reading "Kalas, Fidrych: So Long, Friends" > [...]Although most of the circumstances surrounding the third Ali-Frazier fight have been told in books, Thrilla in Manilla (narrated by Liev Schreiber and produced and directed by John Dower) puts all the...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: HBO Film Rights a Boxing Wrong" > [...]The writers in the current issue of Sports Illustrated -- including Ben Reiter, whose name is on the Yankee section -- seem to feel everything will go great in the Bronx this year - or almost great. T...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: A Look at Yankees Batting for" [...]As usual, the New York Mets ignored my advice and didn't sign Manny Ramirez. They could have done it, you know. If the Dodgers talked him into a two-year deal, the Mets could have done it, too. I know...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Will the Mets have the'" [...]For all the funk the Yankees engendered by not making the playoffs last year after 13 straight seasons, it's important to note that Chien-Ming Wang missed 15-19 starts because of that June 15 foot inj...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: A Look at Yankees Pitching for 2009" > ' [...]Here's an incredible thought. If the 2009 Mets play like they did through 145 games in each of the last two seasons, they could win the National League's Eastern Division title -- or at least make the...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: A Look at Mets Pitching for 2009" [...]A chance for redemption dropped into the New York Jets' laps yesterday, but there's no sign yet that they know it. Newsday's Wallace Matthews does. For those of you focusing only on March Madness...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Why Jets Should Care What Happens in Denver" >It isn't so much that the use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs in the NFL gets less attention than it does in baseball -- it's more like it's invisible. On Wednesday, the Jets announc...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: The NFL's Invisible Steroid Problem" >Who's the most complete player in baseball? According to baseball writer Dave Fleming, he's the only guy of the 2008 season who batted above .275, hit for power, drew at least 60-70 walks a year...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: The Real MVP of Baseball, Going by Stats" > [...]Come on, NFL GMs. Isn't there anyone out there interested in signing Terrell Owens? Like maybe the Giants or Jets or some other team that has recently lost a key wide receiver? A team that maybe think...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Come on, Jets, Giants -- take a'" [...]It's getting crowded on the Giants defensive roster, but when things sort themselves out, New York will have upgraded themselves with the acquisition of Cowboys defensive end Chris Canty. Canty is lis...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Giants Get A Defensive Upgrade" >According to reliable NFL.com blogger Adam Schefter, the Jets, after having signed former Ravens linebacker Bart Scott, are now "hosting a visit" for Baltimore's free agent cornerback Corey Ivy. Can t...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: How Ray Lewis Is Like Brett Favre" > [...]New York Giants GM Jerry Reese sounded like Yogi Berra a few days ago when he talked about the possible future of Plaxico Burress: "We're going to move forward as if he's going to be here," he told re...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Giant Reasons For Welcoming Back'" [...]For years, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have been locked in a bidding war for baseball's highest priced free agents. And now it appears that the Red Sox have finally blinked.According to th...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Red Sox Cry Uncle After Yanks Spend Half" [...]Is Mets manager Jerry Manuel serious about moving Jose Reyes into the second slot in the batting order in back of Luis Castillo, or is he just making spring training chat? According to Ben Shpigel in ...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Is Manuel Down on Reyes's Thievery?" > [...]How about a drug test for everyone commenting on the A-Rod scandal? Let's start with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, who according to USA Today, says that he's " 'just heartsick' about Alex Rodrigue...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: A-Rod And The Record Books" >In the middle of this storm of anti-Rodriguez hype, a calm voice from sabermetrician J.C. Bradbury presents the case that the two steroids A-Rod took most likely had no impact on his performance: "It'...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: A-Rod's Juice Didn't Buy Him Much" >On the day when the Senate votes on a stimulus package to attempt to remedy the most serious financial crisis in U.S. history, the New York press got their priorities right: the lead stories are all a...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: What The Press Is Getting Wrong About" [...]Over at New York magazine, Will Leitch seems hard up for material. The current issue contains a feature, "Buzz, Bob, Projectile Spittle, and Me," which recounts last year's legendary confrontati...
Continue reading "Jockbeat: Will Leitch Not Done Milking Buzz" > ' [...]There were two Super Bowls played yesterday, the one we saw and the one written about in today's New York Times by William C. Rhoden. The game Rhoden saw "Posed a great matchup and a timeless question...
Continue reading "Jock Beat: Timeless Super Bowl Blather From the [...]First, we're going to start our post-Super Bowl coverage by telling you what nobody else would: the Arizona Cardinals didn't belong in the Super Bowl. The Cardinals were not, as some point...
Continue reading "Jock Beat: This Seals It - Kurt Warner Is The Best QB Ever" [...]Our initial reaction to The Yankee Years by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci is puzzlement. As you may have heard by now, the book isn't written in first person, but in the third. It reads like an impersona...
Continue reading "Jock Beat: What was Joe Torre Thinking?"' [...]Where are the stories in the local press urging the New York Mets to grab Manny Ramirez? So far Filip Bondy in the Jan 24 Daily News is the only one to jump on the story in a big way. The head a...
Continue reading "Jock Beat:" [...]Author, boxing official, champion prize fighter, and friend to the Voice José Torres died of a heart attack on Monday, January 19, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. RIchard Goldstein has a lengthy obit at the Ti...
Continue reading "Jock Beat: José Torres, Friend to the Voice" > [...]Many a sore butt, wrote W.H. Auden, finds a sorer one to kick. No sooner did the Philadelphia Eagles lose to the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC championship game than the New York press turned around to...
Continue reading "Jock Beat: NY Writers, Predictably, Pounce on McNabb" [...]How is it, in an era when more and more information and analysis is readily available, do Hall of Fame voters keep making dumber and dumber selections. Of course, Rickey Henderson, the greatest ...
Continue reading "Jock Beat: Another Dumb Hall of Fame Choice" > [...]Did the Giants simply lose Sunday's divisional playoff game to Philadelphia, or is there at least a slight chance that the Eagles were the better team? I was wondering, because the latter possibility,...
Continue reading "Jock Beat: Giants Choke? Don't Fall For That Football Fantasy" > [...]Watching the New York Giants' offense spit and sputter against the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday, I had a thought: How much different would this postseason be for New York fans if one of the NFL's two...
Continue reading "Jock Beat: The Answer to Favre and Manning? Kurt Warner." [...]Florida's Tim Tebow is the best college quarterback I've ever seen. Not the best looking, the smoothest or the most classic, but the best, as in the one I want to quarterback for my team in the ...
Continue reading "Jock Beat: Lord Help Tim Tebow" > [...]"I don't think it was one thing," said Jets owner Woody Johnson after firing head coach Eric Mangini last Monday. "There's nothing specific. It's just a call we made. Hopefully, it's correct." Wro...
Continue reading "Allen Barra: Mangini Wasn't the Problem -- Favre Is" >
