so the us hockey team just lost to canada. this sucks. not so much that they lost, but how they lost. mostly because i've already seen this movie. today's fail isn't even really a fail. if you listened to the hockey folks, the us shouldn't have even been there, but they were. and then they tied it up with less than 30 seconds left in the game. and then they lost. that hurt.
this caps off (or more appropriately adds to) the several year decline of my favourite sports teams.
the mets: in 2006 the mets were in the national league championship series. they were facing the cardinals who in all seriousness had no business being in the nlcs yet somehow pushed the series to game 7 at shea stadium. oliver perez, possibly the most hit or miss pitcher in baseball history gutted it out for five and two thirds innings before giving up what would have been the go ahead home run. "would have been" because endy chavez made one of, if not the best, catches in baseball post season history. (just google "endy chavez catch") you've never heard of it because the mets went on to kick destiny in the balls and lose. this loss was followed by chokes throughout the next two septembers that ultimately culminated in final day of the season losses against the marlins knocking us out of the playoffs each year.
like a husband who forgot his anniversary, the mets were completely ignorant about how badly they had hurt their fans feelings and threw a party for the closing of shea stadium immediately after the 2008 choke job.
this party was followed by the mets raping and pillaging their fans wallets to drain every last cent they could with increased ticket prices, a taxpayer funded stadium, and refusal to improve the team beyond getting a new closer. completely ignoring the fact that there were quality players who WANTED to be a met (re: orlando hudson) and the fact that they needed at least one more bat in the lineup.
2009 turned out to be an abortion of a season. the holes that weren't filled became gaping wounds, especially after a majority of the team began spending copious amounts of time on the disabled list.
for 2010 the mets have done, well not fucking much. they got the bat they needed last year, but didn't get another good starter for the rotation instead relying on 3 guys who they hope will live up to expectations but rarely do and a rookie. they didn't fire the medical staff who misdiagnosed injuries left and right causing most of the players on the DL to be there longer. oh, and to top it off the starting center fielder went and had surgery that will keep him out of action until june.
yeah, it's looking good...
the rangers: really shouldn't complain too much about the rangers. they've been ok. not great, not terrible. but can be either great or terrible for any stretch of time. they were in the playoffs last year until the nhl decided they wanted an ovechkin vs crosby match up and instructed referees to throw the series in favour of the washington capitals.
would they have beaten the penguins in the next round? honestly, i doubt it. but they outplayed washington in all but two games. while the better team did win that series, the team that played better did not.
the giants: i believe bill simmons' (aka the sportsguy) rule is that after winning the superbowl, an nfl team gets a 5 year grace period before fans can complain. i'm breaking that rule because it makes me feel better to bitch and because it fits the theme.
2 years ago, plaxico burress, the man who made the superbowl winning catch against the patriots, shot himself in the leg. he may have well shot the giants future while he was at it. the team fell apart in the aftermath and wound up being embarrassed in the playoffs.
the next year, following the model of the ever successful new york mets, the giants refused to fill their hole at wide receiver. instead choosing to rely on young guys who, while they may turn out to be good players, had no business starting for an nfl team. this flaw was hidden for 5 weeks as the giants used luck to beat the cowboys and beat up on 4 of the worst teams in the league. just as the flaws in the offense started to show, the defense was eaten alive by injuries and inept coaching.
wow, just like the mets.
the knicks: honestly, i don't give a shit about basketball. unless i'm at the game or have money on it the game is pretty boring. that said, i don't go to many games and i don't gamble on it because i don't know much about it. i'm a knicks fan in the sense that i'm from new york and if i was going to give a damn about a basketball team, it would be the knicks.
the knicks have been the model of how not to run a franchise. their problems began with the trade of their most notable star of the last couple of decades, patrick ewing. rather than letting ewing (who was in the twilight of his career) play out his last season with the knicks and move on, they traded him for some shitty contracts. this led to a cycle of trading for more and more bad contracts and the hiring of worse and worse people to run the team until finally david stern stepped in and forced them to hire donnie walsh who maybe possibly has a clue.
in order to clear space to possibly sign players worth a damn this summer, even walsh had to trade away to first rounders. a hallmark of the knicks incompetence. will it be worth it? maybe if we wind up with lebron james and dwayne wade. of course, if we do, we don't have any money under the cap to sign any other players who don't make the league minimum...at all.
usa hockey: and then there's today. like i said. the usa hockey team played their asses off and took a superior canadian team to overtime of the gold medal game. miller "stood on his head" in goal, parise had his endy chavez moment, but in the end fuckin cindy crosby scored in overtime to kill us.
complaint? coming into the game, america was undefeated. canada had one loss. to who? oh, america. over the course of the two games, one team scored 7 goals, one team scored 6. who scored 7? oh, america.
a silver medal would have been unheard of for team usa before the tournament started. and yes, we won the silver medal. yay us. the problem is to win the silver in any olympic tournament, you have to lose the gold. there is no triumphant moment for the silver medal team, their last memory is losing. even finland, who won the bronze medal got to celebrate a victory in their last game.
and that's why it hurts, just another loss for a team i gave a damn about. another sour ending for another sporting season.
fuck my teams.
(as a side note, that sexy as all hell redhead looks exactly like a bartender i used to love. and yet still didn't make me happy...but i'm sure she will tomorrow.)
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