Is This the Start of a New York Year?

Well, well, well. What can you say about that? Is it the start of a New York year in pro sports? Do the Mets stand a reasonable chance at pulling off what those sneaky, nobody-saw-it-coming Giants did? Well, the Giants did something that was borderline unconscionable. They wrenched the spotlight of glory away from the Perfect Team. Oh, boo hoo. Say it isn't so. And they actually had pulled off two major upsets in a row on their way to the big game in Arizona.

The mighty Patriots proved they were actually human and not from Mt. Olympus after all. Go figure. In a football season where they were perfect, they were the farthest thing from it in Super Bowl XLII. The 10-6 Giants, led by the younger of the two Mannings once again managed one final upset of the season. Only this one was for all the marbles. And it may quite be the biggest upset ever in Super Bowl history since Namath guaranteed a victory over a far superior Colts team 39 years ago. So as a cynical interjection, let's just say that 4-0 equals perfection in my book, not 3-1.

The perfection-minded Patriots stubbed their toe on three different factors they hadn't envisioned as being a problem, especially after the season they had put together. They hadn't counted on the Giants offensive line containing their top-ranked defense. Even more so, they hadn't counted on Tom Brady being continually flushed out of the pocket and harassed throughout the game by a lesser quality Giants defense who enjoyed that music to the tune of five interceptions. But most of all, they hadn't counted on Eli Manning dismantling their hopes of that perfect (Super Bowl included) season with a mere :35 seconds left on the clock. Relax Miami. You are still the only truly perfect team in the history of the NFL.

The Patriots were 12 point favorites and brought their first-ranked offense (points, total yards, and passing yards) up against an outclassed Giants squad that was ranked 14^th in points, 16^th in total yards, and 21^st in passing yards. In the same categories on the other side of the football, the Giants ranked 17^th, 7^th, and 11^th respectively. But who really turned out to be David, and who was Goliath?

In a season where odds makers and sportswriters alike never figured that the Giants could possibly do what they did, they managed to get into the playoffs, and win three games on the road as the Wild Card. Beating Tampa Bay may or may not have been that big of a deal, and most said that either team could have won that game. But then those underrated Giants that so many lacked faith in did the absolute unthinkable. They knocked off Dallas and then the following week while visiting the frozen tundra of Lambeau, beat Green Bay in OT, leaving themselves one final piece to a puzzle that they hadn't been able to put together in 17 years since SB XXV.

For me it was sweet revenge in a lot of ways. As a Dolphins fan, it was sweet to find out that New England could actually lose. And lose they did, right when it counted the most. Sweeter still was the taste that's left knowing that Miami's perfect season is still the only true perfect season which is still intact after 36 years. But by far, the sweetest taste of all was Belichick's display of his total lack of class in front of all those fans, once again proving that he is nothing more than a slap in the face to the tutelage of a far classier mentor, namely Bill Parcells.

With only :02 left on the clock, he trotted briskly out onto the field for an unceremonious handshake, then headed towards the Pat's locker room, pouting like Pippi Longstocking after having her ego shredded from someone who had just cut off her pigtails. But Bill is just so cute when he frowns. Oh, but wait just a minute. I forgot that he never smiles anyway because he ran out of plaster for those cracks a long time ago. Too bad that camera subterfuge that got you in all that trouble in the first game of the season couldn't have been available for this Super Bowl. Maybe the outcome would have been a better one for you, Billy Boy.

But this whole issue with the Super Bowl has propelled my thoughts further ahead into the 2008 baseball season which is now right around the corner once again. And the first thoughts that come to mind are that I need to set the table with plenty of plates and silverware because there will be a lot of guests enjoying my famous "I Told You So" stew that I'm going to be serving up over the Johan Santana deal.

For Twins fans, once again it spelled the pending disappointment of a playoff post-season that always gets cut short, which is something that they have rapidly grown accustomed to since their last World Series title in 1991. For all practical purposes, it was Carl Pohlad demonstrating the modus operandi that he is so famous for --- having deep pockets and deliberately short fingers. And For Santana, he must have been feeling like a rubber band in the hands of Carl Pohlad, Bill Smith, his own agent, and the GM's of Boston and New York, getting stretched and snapped over and over again.

And the masses screamed emphatically, "He's going to Boston! He's going to New York! He's going to Boston! He's going to New York!" And so it continued, day in and day out for nearly three months. It got to the point where it was pointless to read the sports section because the only two stories that got any press vacillated between the disgust and devastation of the Mitchell Report and the soap opera of the Santana trade. But, I almost forgot something. That's right. Santana is going to New York, but not to the Bronx. He's headed for Queens.

All along, I said that Boston, with that series winning five-man rotation doesn't really need him and that the Yankees would eventually get sickened by Pohlad and Smith's antics and their stupid little game of "chase the dangling carrot." All along, I had calculated that Santana would land about a six or seven year, $160 million contract (in reality, it was six years and $137.5 million with an option for a seventh year that would bring the purse to $157. Damn, I'm good). And all along, I had warned everybody who had pooh-poohed what I was predicting (on numerous occasions) that there would be a place reserved at my dining table for that helping of "I Told You So" stew that I had been cooking and simmering ever so slowly on my stove.

So I guess now, the only thing left to transpire is that well guaranteed Detroit Tigers-New York Mets World Series match up in October for this upcoming 2008 baseball season. Well, according to all the Tigers and Mets fans, both the true ones and the bandwagoners, there is no other possible outcome for the season, so I guess it must be true. It's very obvious that the Tigers are bound to run away with the AL and the Mets are destined to have a miracle in place as well. Yeah right! Let me tell you why that's not going to happen either. And be careful how you confront me on this one, because I kept the recipe for that stew and can cook up another batch.

I'll begin by dissecting Detroit's future demise to start with. Don't they look tremendous on paper? That's all well and good except there has never been a team yet named the "Papers" or the "Contracts" that have won a World Series that I can remember. All you have to do is take a gander at the Yankees for the past six seasons to envision that one. The biggest assumption by Tigers' fans revolves around the Dontrelle Willis-Miguel Cabrera acquisition. This will be the one thing that bites them in the butt the hardest and leaves teeth marks for quite some time.

First of all, Detroit management gave away their "Future Hopes" for their "I Wanted It Yesterday" in that trade with the wholesale talent house known as the Florida Marlins. Here's the two main parts to that equation that are destined to fail. It seems that the consensus among Tigers' fans is that since Dontrelle Willis will be happier in the Motor City that he's bound to have a better year. Also being said is the fact that he's obviously due to rebound from his disappointing 10-15 season in 2007. Have people bumped their heads on this one? Did they forget that Willis moved from the NL to the AL? That transition always works best to a pitcher's and a team's advantage if it's done in the opposite way around.

Secondly, despite Miguel Cabrera having those ever expanding offensive numbers, his ever expanding waistline is getting pretty offensive, too. When the Tigers signed him to that contract, they should have put some "weight incentives" in the paperwork. And by weight incentives, I don't mean extra helpings of pancakes and sausage at breakfast. If it doesn't stop, and Cabrera hasn't been working out getting' cut and trim in the off-season, it will be interesting to see how his mobility is affected at the hot corner.

Finally, why is everyone overlooking Detroit's biggest obstacle? It's right there in the same division. Hello, McFly. Can anyone spell "Cleveland Indians?" What the Tribe did last year was no fluke, my friends. They have once again become a serious force in an already contender-constipated division like they were back in the '90s. Try not to overlook that issue. The bottom line is that some days, you're the windshield and some days, you're the bug. And contrary to popular belief, though these Tigers may not have wings, they have a season long appointment with PPG and a curved piece of window glass that has Cleveland Indians written all over it.

So let's look at the Mets. They managed to get away with one of the greatest burglaries ever in the post-season when they stole the precious Minnesota free-agent gem from the AL Central (hearts are now fluttering in the midst of swooning fans everywhere in Queens). Add to this the fact that Pedro is healthy according to Mets' sources. However it still equates to a huge amount of speculation on my behalf.

Though the pitching industry has been afforded the miracle of Tommy John surgery, such was not the case with Pedro. It's a whole different story when it comes to that Rotator Cuff and I will be pleasantly surprised if he has a good, injury-free season on the Shea Stadium mound. But I do have to chuckle one more time knowing that Pedro didn't really leave the Beantowners over money. He left because he got fed up with living in Boston while being owned by New York. As Alannis would oftentimes vocalize the words "Isn't It Ironic", so too is the fact that he really is owned by a New York team now.

For the most part the Mets now have a true number one starter and a good three out of four in their rotation with the likes of Santana, Martinez, and Maine. But their problems start from that fourth pitching spot and continue right through to the offense. If you look at their line-up last year, their OPS stats were quite respectable --- the lowest was Delgado with a .685 while the highest was their number eight batter, Milledge, at .843 --- numbers that are nothing to sneeze at.

If you're waiting for me to be as critical of the Mets' chances as the Tigers', don't hold your breath because it ain't gonna happen. I have way more faith in the possibility of those Samsons of Shea getting further into the post-season than those Kitties of Comerica. The only obstacle for the Mets is going to be staving off the Braves and quite possible, the Phillies. Where the Mets only have two teams to worry about Detroit has four --- Chicago, Cleveland, Minnesota, and most of all, themselves.

So the bottom line is this. Detroit gets a "thumbs sideways to a completely thumbs down", while the Mets get a "thumbs sideways to a completely thumbs up" for lack of defining the vote more clearly. Where Santana provides the Mets with a hopeful guarantee of success throughout the season and into the post-season, Willis and Cabrera have only supplied the Tigers with false hopes and extra breakfast portions --- nothing more.

Sources:

ESPN.com http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/mlb/index

Yahoo! Sports http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb