Sports Bard

…for the sports writer inside.

The Super Bowl is over. But for me the football season ended a couple of weeks ago.

It ended on a sultry night in New Orleans when an aging and gimpy Bret Favre threw across his body one last time into enemy hands. Those hands, belonging to Tracy Porter, also brought us to the end of yesterday’s Super Bowl, when the Saint defensive back grabbed hold of an errant toss from Peyton Manning and ran it back 74 yards for the clinching touchdown.

Sure, yesterday’s Super Bowl was exciting, and competitive, and was decided in the fourth quarter after a pitching duel between two of the best throwers the league has ever seen.

But after the interminable build-up, the Game itself had little juice. I can’t stand the two week delay. The Super Bowl hoopla annoys me. And I will be grateful if I never again read a human interest story about an NFL player doing community work, or view a commercial with men walking around in their underwear.

(Editor’s note: The Bard’s ennui was evidently not shared by the public at large. Yesterday’s Super Bowl was witnessed by more viewers than any television show in history.)

Two years ago, when the Giants were in it, I felt differently. But unless you were a Saint or Colts fan, did you really feel any intensity in advance of yesterday’s encounter? I know my mind was elsewhere.

It was in Verizon Center, where in the past week, the Georgetown Hoyas have defeated Duke, lost to lowly South Florida, and then on Saturday, before more than 10,000 who defied a record snowfall, torched the number two team in the land, Villanova, 103-90.

It was in College Park, where the unpredictability and reversals of fortune which have characterized this 2009-2010 college basketball season were no better typified than by Maryland’s trouncing of North Carolina, 92-71. Not only was this the worst loss of Roy Williams’ coaching career at UNC, but the outcome left the Terps at 6-2 in conference and the Tarheels at, gulp, 2-6.

It was in Cincinnati, where the most surprising team in the land, Syracuse, ranked number 9 pre-season in the Big East, stretched its record to 23-1 with a come from behind blow-out victory over the tough Bearcats, 71-54. The Orangemen returned less than 20 ppg from last year’s starting team, which surrendered three players to the pros.

It’s been on the road in the Big Ten, where number 5 Michigan State suffered consecutive conference losses after starting 9-0, and now faces its biggest game of the season at Purdue Wednesday possibly without its starting point guard, Kalin Lucas.

It’s been in Lexington, where Kentucky hopes to ride rookie John Wall to an NCAA championship.

And tonight, I’ll be drifting to Austin, Texas, where the Longhorns take the Big 12’s last best shot at inflicting Kansas with its first conference loss.

Many ardent sports fans will tell you that they can’t “get into” college basketball until the Super Bowl is over. Then, a couple of weeks before Selection Sunday, they begin to cram. They watch a bunch of games on ESPN or FSN, and they scan the rankings. They get really pumped for the conference tournaments. By Selection Sunday, they’re experts.

But if you’ve waited this long to get on board, you’ve missed about 75% of the regular season. The revealing early season non-conference games are a blur, and you’ve no feel for the ebb and flow of conference play, nor for the development of individual players over the course of the season.

You’ve missed the back story.

Hard core college basketball fans don’t wait until the Super Bowl to watch games. We’ve been following play since November. We’re not just interested in the year-end poll standings. We want to know how a team got there.

Were they improving at year’s end? …Do they have injured players back? …Do they feature improving freshmen?… Do they hit their foul shots?…… And most of all, do they play with character and poise at crunch time?

And after all the analysis, one is startled to find that there is no transitivity in college basketball. You would think that if Team A beats Team B, which owns a decisive victory over Team C, then Team A will beat Team C on its home court. Wrong. In the space of one Big East fortnight in January, Pitt beat Syracuse, which clubbed Georgetown, which beat Pitt decisively in Pittsburgh.

Because of the high turnover in rosters and the growth and maturation of young players, no other sport exhibits the potential for change in a team’s performance over the course of a season as does college basketball. Teams advance, or regress, weekly, or from game to game. Michigan State was last year’s example of a team coming together late. Davidson shined two years ago. This year, the breakout team may be Syracuse.. or Wisconsin..or Baylor.. or BYU.

But the good news is that you don’t have to be an expert to enjoy college hoops, where the fans are rabid and the players put out every night. In fact, the latecomers, les arrividistes, often do better in their brackets than do the self-proclaimed savants, such as this writer, who are inevitably victimized disproportionately by buzzer beaters, blown calls, unlikely comebacks, or just plain bad beats.

If that sounds like sour grapes, it is. But I must leave you now. Villanova tips off at West Virginia at 7:00, and I’ve got to do my research.

Normally the big newsmakers in sports do their work on the field, on the court, in the ring, or on the course. Now they do it in automobiles, in the locker room, in the bedroom, or with their mouths.

These days the sports news is not about athletic achievement; it’s about underachievement. It’s not about won-loss records; it’s about prison records. It’s not about winning titles…It’s about entitlement.

Don’t tell me about the exploits of Chris Johnson on his way to a 2000-yard rushing season. I want to hear about the sexploits of Tiger Woods.

Don’t tell me about the exquisite play of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dewayne Wade and Kevin Durant. I want to hear about the gunplay of Wild Gil Arenas.

Don’t tell me about Nick Saban’s attempt to become the first coach to win an NCAA football title at two colleges. I want to hear about Mike Leach’s “imprisonment” of Craig James’ son or Urban Meyer’s meltdown.

And don’t tell me about the undefeated records of Kansas, Texas, Kentucky and Purdue when I can read about the arrests of four University of Tennessee basketball players for gun and drug possession, or USC’s self-imposed probation for recruiting violations.

Certainly the Internet and the consuming presence of the media have contributed to this onslaught of negativity. Arenas accelerated his downfall, and made certain his suspension, by his senseless tweets following the disclosure by the New York Post that he kept guns in his locker room. And once the lid popped off Tiger Woods’ bottle, the smutsters couldn’t wait to disseminate word of his conquests throughout cyber space.

But you can’t explain the proliferation of negative news solely by the Internet. The problem runs much deeper than that. You cannot blame the indiscretions, misdeeds and arrogance of Woods, Arenas, Tim Donaghy, Plaxico Burress, Mike Vick, Stephon Marbury, Dan Snyder, Tim Floyd (USC), and every gun-toting and girl friend-beating player in the NBA and NFL strictly on the fact that bad news travels fast.

The root cause of these men behaving badly may be beyond the scope of this column but it certainly has something to do with athletes of limited education, and less common sense, being thrust prematurely into positions of great wealth and power. And it may have a lot to do with players associations (and player agents) which are more concerned with expanding their share of the revenue pie than educating their members and clients on what to do and say.

Arenas, for one, should have been advised to shut up, or to express remorse, when his gun possession was revealed. Instead, he shot himself in the foot, no less than Burress did in that nightclub incident in November, 2008, by making flippant comments about his gun possession and dismissing it as “no big deal.”

Then, on Tuesday night during a timeout in Philadelphia, he laughingly arranged his fingers in a gun-shooting pose which was caught by the cameras. This worked for Clint Eastwood in “Gran Torino,” but Gil’s finger pointing sealed his fate with NBA commish David Stern who promptly suspended him “indefinitely.”

If the estimate of some NBA players that more than fifty percent of the league owns guns is even close to accurate, the NBA players association is doing a horrible job of counseling its members. Arenas is one of the few players without an agent, but someone from the players association should have stepped in immediately.

I see a concurrent deterioration in civility and common sense in major league front offices and in the athletic administrations of some of our great universities, which pursue top-level programs without regard to the rules of the recruiting game.

Is there a more despicable owner than Dan Snyder, who treats his fan base with contempt and his employees with disdain? Snyder has implemented draconian rules for parking, has banned critical signage from the game premises, and filed lawsuits against ticket holders who canceled their subscriptions.

Snyder undermined Jim Zorn’s authority by allowing head case superstars Portis and Haynesworth to communicate directly with him rather than through Zorn. Then he hung Zorn out to dry for three months, first by stripping him of his play-calling duties mid-season and then by interviewing assistant Jerry Grey for the head coaching job while he was still working for Zorn. Snyder’s hiring of Bruce Allen as head of operations may change things; but the first ten years of the Little General’s reign have been a professional and public relations disaster.

I also take issue with Bill Pollian, the revered head of operations for the Indianapolis Colts, who summarily deprived his team and its fan base of the chance for an undefeated season by yanking Peyton Manning and other regulars during the second half of their game with the Jets December 27th.

When one weighs the likelihood of Manning being injured (perfect field conditions, no Jets pass rush, Manning never hurt in twelve years) against the possibility of a perfect season and the importance to the fans and the league of preserving the integrity of the NFL regular season, the folly of Pollian’s decision becomes clear.

What of the USC athletic department, which has been embroiled in a three-year NCAA investigation of payments to Reggie Bush and a one-year investigation of the recruitment of OJ Mayo? Ex-coach Tim Floyd admitted making a $1,000.00 payment to a Mayo enabler, but it is suspected that Mayo or his conduit received tens of thousands more to secure the star’s attendance at USC for one year.

To stop the bleeding, USC last week announced that it would prohibit its team from post-season play this year. This high and mighty ploy drew criticism from announcer Jay Bilas, who suggested that long-time Trojan athletic director Mike Garrett be fired. I do not disagree.

And no discussion of NCAA excesses would be complete without mention of the State of Kentucky’s basketball programs. In the past year, Kentucky’s Billy Gillespie was bounced for public drunkenness and cavorting with coeds (as well as a mediocre record); Louisville’s Rick Pitino revealed that he had bedded (or more appropriately,”tabled”) the girl friend of his assistant in the back room of a restaurant; and new Kentucky coach John Calipari left Memphis with a trail of recruiting violations and a depleted roster.

When the rule-bending and unsavory practices are rampant at the top, is it any wonder that the star athlete perceives that he can operate without limitations on his behavior and in defiance of gun laws?

The gun culture among professional athletes threatens the NBA more than the NFL. Already reeling from the Donaghy revelations about corruption among referees and the big brawl in Detroit four years ago, the NBA suffers from a reputation for thuggery and is experiencing sharp declines in attendance and television ratings. Football players are in full uniform, but the tattooed arms and legs of many NBA players are open to view, which contributes to their unsavory image.

With NBA individual game prices among the highest in sports, the fan has a right to expect committed play and tough defense all the time. As any fan of the Wizards knows, tough defense is not the norm with the ‘Zards. Flip Saunders struck a welcome tone last week when he declared that the Wizards “couldn’t guard him..” Mike D’Antoni of the Knicks has also lashed out at his tardy players, often sitting them down.

After the Arenas suspension, one 20-year Wizard partial season ticket holder lamented: “ I spend $550.00/game and go to eleven games a year. I’ve spent over $100,000.00 following this team. I won’t renew next year.”

If Abe Pollin were alive today to witness the suspension of his star player for gun possession, the news would kill him.

As things stand now, he’ll be joined in that mortal state by Gilbert Arenas’ career.

On Wednesday afternoon, at a press conference at Madison Square Garden to commemorate the 75th anniversary of college basketball, a panel of sportswriters and local basketball insiders presented its list of the ten (10) greatest moments in the long history of college basketball at the Garden. That evening, freshman phenom John Wall of Kentucky, in the course of leading the Wildcats to an exciting triumph over UConn, made a strong case for an addendum to the list.

At the top of the panel’s selections was City College’s unique double triumphs in the NIT and NCAA in 1950. That feat, of course, was later scarred by the indictment of seven of their key players for point shaving in the 1951 college basketball scandal. Other memorable moments were Syracuse’s 6-0T thriller over Connecticut in the 2009 Big East tourney (2); Bill Bradley’s 41-point outburst in a losing effort against Cazzie Russell and no 1-ranked Michigan in the 1964 Holiday Festival tournament (3); and Oscar Robertson’s 57 point Garden debut for Cincinnati in January, 1958, when the Big O outscored the entire Seton Hall team (6).

Here’s the rest of the list.

#4 Gerry McNamara’s Big East Heroics, March 2006. McNamara, a four year starter at point guard, in the midst of a disappointing season, sparked no. 9 seed Syracuse to four victories and a Big East championship

#5 Walter Berry’s Buzzer Block, March 1986 . Trailing 70-69, with seconds to go in the Big East tournament championship, Syracuse’s Pearl Washington, the greatest penetrator in the game, drove hard to the basket . Walter “the Truth” Berry, not known for his defense, swooped across the lane to block the Pearl’s shot as the game ended.

#7 Legendary St. John’s Coach Joe Lapchick ends his career with an NIT Championship, March, 1965.

#8 St. John’s defeats Michigan, January, 1965. Having survived Princeton and Bradley in the semi-finals, No. 1 Michigan squandered a late 16-point lead in the Holiday Festival championship

#9 “The Sweater Game,” February, 1985 . With their teams ranked nos. 1 and 2 in the country, GU coach John Thompson mimicked Lou Carnesecca’s lucky red sweater by unveiling a T-shirt replica as the game started. More to the point, the Hoyas thumped St. John’s in the first of three late-season pummelings.

#10 Stanford snaps LIU’s 43-game winning streak, December, 1936. It’s hard to believe, but in the early days, LIU (Long Island University), NYU, and CCNY were among the best teams in the country. Brandishing the one-hand shots of Hank Luisetti and a frenetic pace, the Cardinal stunned the locals, who were accustomed to a walk-it-up pace and two-handed set shots.

It’s unclear whether Wall’s performance Wednesday will evoke such sacrosanct memories in the long term; but he certainly stunned the Garden crowd from start to finish. Early on, he staked the Wildcats to a 12-0 lead with two steals, an alley-oop assist, and a medium-range jumper. Then, he scored 12 of the last 15 Kentucky points, including a 3-point play late in the game through four defenders to secure the victory. Already, he’s being hailed by some overeager pundits as the best freshman point guard in history, a category which includes Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Chris Paul, and Derrick Rose.

In the tradition of classic point guards, Wall looks to pass first, but takes over at critical junctures. Already in his short career, he has registered four game-deciding plays (to ensure victories over Miami of Ohio, Stanford, UNC and UConn ); but against Indiana yesterday, he scored only 11 points while registering eight assists and seven rebounds, as he let his teammates do the scoring in a blowout victory.

Wall was the lynchpin of a talented recruiting class which John Calipari re-routed from Memphis to Kentucky when he took the Wildcat heading coaching job in May. Kentucky finished 22-14 (8-8) last year, and failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in eighteen years.

That may have been sufficient grounds by itself to can Cal’s predecessor, Billy Gillispie; but the ultra slick Gillispie openly cavorted with college coeds, was often seen drunk in public, and paid little obeisance to Kentucky boosters, who demanded his ouster. Notwithstanding Calipari’s spotty past, he represented a significant character upgrade over Gillispie, and he brought Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and Eric Bledsoe with him.

This talented threesome joins power stud Patrick Patterson to give Kentucky its best team in a decade. Three starters from last season now come off the bench. In the past week, they’ve registered wins over UNC, UConn, and Indiana, three storied franchises. Now, undefeated at 10-0, and ranked 3rd in the country, they’ve got some breathing room until their January 2 meeting with state rival Louisville, which is in the midst of a down season. The Wildcats are likely to remain undefeated at least until their home date with Florida January 12th.

Kentucky’s resurgence is joined by a revival of the SEC as a whole. Limited to three teams in the 2009 NCAA’S, the conference is poised to place six or seven teams in this year’s Dance. Tennessee, one of the most athletic teams in the country, will contend with Kentucky for the lead in the SEC East. Also in the East, Florida, with an early win over Michigan State and a dynamite backcourt, should win 25 games; and Vanderbilt, though starting slowly, has the talent to finish better than .500 in-conference, normally a guaranty of selection.

The surprise team in the conference will be Mississippi State, which features the nation’s top shot-blocker, Jarvis Varnado, and five starters in double figures. The Bulldogs should win the West, followed by Mississippi.

The Big East is also off to a fast start. Georgetown, Villanova, West Virginia and Syracuse are among the ten undefeated teams in the country. UConn is still UConn. Pitt, Louisville, and Marquette have taken a step back, but former doormats Cincinnati, St. John’s, and Seton Hall are much improved.

If history is an indicator, come Big East tournament time, someone among this group is likely to manufacture a Madison Square Garden moment comparable to the highlight reel produced by John Wall on this famous hardwood just a few days ago.

In the City That Never Sleeps, at a time when baseball, football, basketball, and hockey intersect, what animates the five-borough residents most of all during these late October nights are thoughts of the New York Yankees. Whether it be A-Rod’s prodigious blasts, Derek Jeter’s guile, Mariano Rivera’s unhittable cutter, or nightmarish reminders of the collapse of 2004…….it’s the stuff that dreams are made of.

Late season heroics by the Yanks have been on hold for the past five years, but they have been on full display during the past two weeks.

During their three-game sweep of the Twins in the Divisional Playoffs A-Rod hit game-saving homers in games two and three; Jeter lured Twinkie Nick Spanos into a desperate surge ‘round third before calmly throwing him out; and Rivera, by performing to his usual excellence during a week when fellow closers Papelbon, Nathan, Franklin, and Street failed miserably, cemented his standing as the game’s greatest closer.

Against the Angels in the just-concluded ALCS, the Yanks won with pitching and defense and generally outsmarted their past tormentors in convincing 4-2 fashion. The victory was not without its trepidations, however. The Yankees capitalized on Sabathia’s pitching and Angel errors to sprint to a 2-0 lead, but when the Bomber bull pen blew game 5 after storming ahead 6-4 in the top of the seventh, Yank fans started running scared.

The main objects of the scorn were relievers Hughes and Chamberlain, who were hit hard throughout the series, and Manager Girardi, who was charged with felony over-managing.

In Game 3, he relieved David Robertson with two out, nobody on, in the top of the eleventh. Robertson’s substitute Alfredo Aceves promptly relinquished a hard single and a game-winning double. Then in game 5, Girardi pinch ran Freddy Guzman for A-Rod with the Yankees trailing by a run in the eighth. The skipper was also roasted for allowing shaky starter A.J. Burnett to start the seventh.

In the words of Mike Francesa, a “Tension Convention” set in. The Ghosts of 2004 evoked eerie fears of failure among the faithful. So scared were Yankee fans going into game 6 that the ball game drew a “forty share” tv rating to the “eight share” registered by the Giants-Arizona game being played across the river in the Meadowlands.

The fans respect for the Angels was well grounded. With their combination of pesky contact hitters, daring base stealers, tight defense, and brilliant relief pitching, the Angels had managed to defeat the Yankees in two divisional playoffs (2002 and 2005) and five consecutive season series. They were hard to grab hold of, these Angels. Just when you had them down, they’d string three or four base hits in a row to grab the lead.

This year’s Angels, however, did not bring with them their traditional set of demons. For one thing, their indomitable closer, Francisco Rodriguez, now toiled for the Mets. His successor, Brian Fuentes, served up a tying ninth inning homer to A-Rod on an 0-2 pitch which turned game 2.

The Angels never got their running game going because Yankee pitchers stifled Angel table setters Chone Figgins and Bobby Abreu into 7-48 hitting and one stolen base. To top things off, the Halos committed uncharacteristic base running mistakes and made eight errors in the field, including an unforgivable 3-pointer launched by Scott Kazmir over the first baseman’s head on a Yankee bunt in the 8th inning of game six.

The Phillies pose a more tangible set of obstacles. They’ve got power pitchers and a band of sluggers who will pose as much of a threat to the short Yankee Stadium right field porch as the Bombers themselves. They’re not particularly fast, and their manager Charlie Manuel is old school. One through six in the batting order, they’re as strong as anybody in the majors. They’re the defending World Series Champs and have won their last five post season series, going 18-4 in the process.

Position by position, the Phillies stack up reasonably well against the Yankees. Notwithstanding the Phils’ triumvirate of Rollins, Utley and Howard, consisting of two recent mvp’s and the most productive second baseman in baseball, the Yankees hold the edge in the infield. Cano and Teixeira provide far better defense than Utley and Howard; and Jeter and A-Rod destroy Philadelphia’s left side offensively. The guess here is that a Howard miscue at first will figure prominently in a Yankee rally. Posada at catcher outshines the Phils’ Ruiz.

The Phils hold the edge in the outfield. Victorino is brilliant in center field, Werth possesses a powerful throwing arm in right, and Ibanez is better in the field than either Damon or Matsui. At the plate, the Phils are also slightly better, particularly with Swisher slumping.

Which brings us to pitching, where the Phillies have been in a state of flux. Neither the Phils’ rotation nor its bullpen bears much resemblance to the stellar crew which marched through the Brewers, Dodgers, and Tampa Bay a year ago. The only holdover in the rotation is Cole Hamels, last year’s NLCS and World Series mvp, but this year’s question mark. In three post-season starts, his E.R.A is 6.75.

Phils anchor, Cliff Lee, acquired in mid-season from Cleveland, has been unhittable this post-season. Through 20 innings, he’s 3-0 with an unthinkable E.R.A of .74. But the lineups he faced against the Rockies and Dodgers did not contain names like Jeter, Rodriguez, Teixeira and Matsui. Familiar with the left-handed Lee from his days in the American League, this foursome is lifetime 31-83 against him with good power numbers. Lee was a teammate in Cleveland of Yankee powerhouse CC Sabathia; and like CC, he’s a former Cy Young winner, but he does not carry the same warranty.

Pedro Martinez is scheduled to start game two at the Stadium. Martinez was acquired by the Phils in mid-August, did not pitch against Colorado, but twirled seven masterful innings of two-hit ball in game 2 against the Dodgers, who had not faced him during the regular season. The Yanks know Pedro from his seasons with the Red Sox and inter-league play with the Mets. They are unlikely to be so fooled by his off-speed medley as were the free-swinging, youthful Dodgers.

The Yankee starter in game 2 will be A.J. Burnett. Unlike his mentally-steeled teammates, Burnett has a fragile psyche. With runners on base, in a tight situation, Burnett is as likely to throw one in the dirt as on the black. Unlike Andy Pettitte, who manages to wriggle out of situations, Burnett never met an inning he could not mutilate. Game 5 against the Angels is a case in point. After surrendering four runs in the first, he pitched five scoreless, only to melt-down in the critical seventh inning. Nevertheless, he has enough pure stuff to outlast Pedro who will be hard-pressed to enter the sixth against the patient Yankees.

The Phillies have more depth in their rotation than the Yanks, but starters four and five are of little benefit in a seven game series. At the three hole, Pettitte holds the edge over Hamels. Going into the playoffs, the perception was that the Yanks’ bullpen was much better than the Phils’. Following the disappointing performances of Hughes and Chamberlain, and decent efforts by the Phils’ middle against Colorado and L.A., that conclusion is uncertain; but the Yanks hold a clear and convincing advantage with their closer, Rivera, over Brad Lidge.

The Yanks are likely to start left-handers in at least four, and maybe five, of the seven games. This is bad news for Howard, on whom the Phillies are dependent for their run production. Against lefties this season, Howard hit .207 compared to .319 against right-handers. He can be pitched to.

These historic franchises last met in the Fall Classic in 1950, when the Yankees swept the Whiz Kids. The Phils should do better this time.

Yankees in five.

Mark Teixeira applies Yanks’ finishing touch

I like football as much as the next guy. In the fall, a few weeks into the season, when the World Series is over, I’ll plant myself before the tube on an NFL Sunday, and there is no better action.

But not now, not when the temperature is in the ‘90’s, and the pennant races are in full force. Not now do I want to hear about the competition for back-up long snapper. Not now do I want to read front page stories about the turmoil of Jason Campbell;, and not now do I want to listen to thrice-hourly updates from Redskins Park.

If you listen to sportstalk and read the news coverage in any major eastern town other than D.C., then you know that this area’s fixation on its professional football team is out-sized…..and out of place.

I’m nauseated by the Redskin drivel dispensed by the local sportstalk hosts, and I’m bored by the Washington Post’s daily dose of three or more articles on Redskin training camp.

In Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and even in Baltimore, where the Orioles do not contend, the emphasis now is on baseball. There’s an appropriate nod to major developments occurring in the football camps; but the coverage is primarily about pennant races, rotations, pitch counts, wild card races, injuries, and home runs, The home team’s game is carefully scrutinized by the radio host, who has normally watched every pitch. On WFAN, in New York, Mike Francesa can spend hours analyzing Omar Minaya’s personnel moves or Joe Girardi’s handling of his pitching staff. It’s good listening, and it’s what the callers want to talk about, often intelligently.

ON ESPN 980, owned by Daniel Snyder, the mix is 80% Redskins and 20% other stuff. Vinnie Cerrato, executive director for player personnel, hosts one show. Several others originate from Redskin training camp. A recent show was centered around Fan Appreciation Day at the camp. The patter is constant. Redskin this…….. Redskin that. And this is for a team which has posted a 76-84 mark over the past ten years.

For years, I’ve maintained that the sportstalk in this town is the worst in the country. Snyder’s acquisition of ESPN 980 only made it worse. The real problem lies with the on-air talent, which is dull and unimaginative. At ESPN 980, where the local programming runs from noon to seven, the featured talent is Steve Czaban, a short, bald, fat guy who loves to hear his own voice. The pompous Czaban will often interrupt his co-host on the Sports Reporters, the sensible Andy Pollin, to relate a dull anecdote about his personal life.

Close behind on the “they must go” list is Kevin Sheehan who fills the noon to two slot with 120 minutes of sludge. Sheehan is incapable of making a declarative statement without issuing some type of qualifier, as in “He’s not the best tight end in the league, but he’s not the worst, either.” Doc Walker and John Thompson sling hash from 2-4, being careful not to disagree with each other. Then the Sports Reporters (Pollin and Czaban) take over. The station’s talent level was bolstered recently by the firing of Brian Mitchell and Al Kolken. It was called a layoff; but Mitchell was fired for poor grammar, and Kolken’s run-on sentences finally ran out of steam.

Every few months, ESPN 980 alters its lineup, matching and mixing its existing pieces, but rarely bringing in a new face. Just two weeks ago, the midday “Inside the Locker Room” was re-named the “Sports Fix” with Washington Times reporter Thom Loverro joining Sheehan. What exactly is being fixed is unclear since together they talk the same nonsense that Sheehan used to do himself. Loverro is bright and has a nuanced view of sports, but he’s overpowered by the blustery Sheehan and his (Loverro’s) voice sounds like Squiggy in Laverne and Shirley.

When I heard that 106.7 FM was going to a sportstalk format, I was initially enthused. But then I learned that one of their afternoon hosts was LaVarr Arrington. I tuned in anyway; and sure enough, it was more Redskin overload, but with a soft rock melody in the background. I turned that off soon enough, and went to scan.

My relief lies in the DirecTV baseball package, where I can watch eight games at once, or in the case of the Yankees-Red Sox series this weekend, one game with riveted attention. With the Yanks leading the Red Sox by 2.5 games in the AL east, but having lost all eight games this season to the Bosox, this four-game session was the first crucial series of the season.

The Yanks came into the series on a hot streak and with their rotation set up perfectly - Chamberlain, Burnett, Sabathia and Pettitte. Boston was in disarray. Injuries to Dice K and Wakefield have left the Bosox with only two sure pieces in their rotation - Beckett and Lester. 42-year old John Smoltz and young Clay Buchholz were entrusted to start games one and three.

In what would be his last appearance with Boston, and perhaps as a major league pitcher, the venerable Smoltzie offered little against the Yanks on Thursday. His fastball peaked at 86 and his slider had little bite. Chamberlain was only slightly less shaky - walking eight batters in five innings - but he got the big outs with strikeouts. Yanks win 13-6.

Game one would be the last noise made by Red Sox bats for 31 innings, or until Victor Martinez homered in the eighth inning of game four to give Boston a short-lived 2-1
lead. In between, Burnett, Sabathia, and Pettitte made Red Sox loyalists realize what they were missing with Manny Ramirez encamped 3000 miles away in Los Angeles. In losing 2-0 in fifteen innings Friday, and 5-0 Saturday, the Sox went 8 for 76 and 0-12 with runners in scoring position. The drought continued through seven innings Sunday.

What made Boston so formidable from 2003 to 2007 was their 3-4 combo of Ramirez and Ortiz. Ramirez’ antics made him hard to stomach; and many Sawx fans cheered his departure last July for Jason Bay. But with Bay slumping, and Ortiz on his last legs as a feared slugger, the hole in the middle of the Red Sox lineup is glaring.

Desperate for more punch, the Sox traded just before the 7/31 trading deadline for Indians all-star Martinez, who hits for power and can catch, play first base, and DH. They also acquired 1B Casey Kotchman from Atlanta. With Youkilis, Varitek, Lowell, Martinez, Ortiz, and Kotchman, the Sox have six quality players to fill third, catcher, first and dh.

Content with their regular lineup and with their pitching, the Yanks saw fit to add only utility player Jerry Hairston at the trade deadline. Hairston is the fifth player in his immediate family to play in the major leagues, and play he does. He can fill in at third base, shortstop and second, and at all three outfield positions. And he’s got some pop in his bat. Confident, with the hot Andy Pettitte on the hill, the Yanks sought to deliver the knockout blow to Boston in game 4 Sunday. A victory would stretch their lead to 6.5 games.

Through the first six innings, Lester and Pettitte were brilliant. Then Alex Rodriguez broke the ice with his second clutch homer in two days (his blast in the 15th inning ended Friday’s affair) to give the Yanks a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh. Lester’s pitch was 95 and down in the zone, but there are reasons why A-Rod is the most prolific right-handed home run hitter in the history of the American League. He can hit the other guy’s best pitch.

Surprisingly, Girardi chose to protect the lead with lefty Phil Coke rather than Phil Hughes, who has been the bridge to Mariano Rivera for two months. Girardi claimed later that he was committed to avoiding using Hughes on three straight days. But Hughes faced only two batters and made nine pitches on Friday and Saturday combined. Was Girardi over-managing? When Pedroia laced a hard single to left and Martinez smashed Coke’s weak offering deep into the left field seats, Girardi looked like a fool, and the Red Sox looked like they might escape the Bronx with their pride intact and the deficit just 4.5 games.

100 mph r-h reliever Dan Bard opened the eighth by blowing out Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter. Perhaps impressed by Bard’s velocity, manager Terry Francona left him in to face the lefty Johnny Damon. He had lefty Okajima available. Damon met Bard’s low heat with a perfectly-timed easy swing which sent the ball soaring on a line over the fence in right center field. Mark Teixeira followed with a high arching homer into the proximate right field seats. Yankees win, Yankees sweep.

Everything’s going right for the Yankees now. For once, their plunges into the free agent market have been fruitful. Sabbathia, Burnett, Teixeira, and Swisher are all having splendid years. Their core -Jeter, Rivera, Posada, and Pettitte - is healthy and performing at a high level. Cano, Damon, Cabrera and Matsui are all contributing. There are no soft spots in the lineup. Hairston fills out the bench. The bullpen has been stellar.

Can the Bombers be stopped? Never in their long history have they relinqusihed a pennant or division championship when leading by six or more games in August. They look like a lock to win the AL East, but Boston, with stoppers in Beckett and Lester, can still create problems in a short series. In the National League, Philadelphia looks like a juggernaut, and LA has a great regular lineup.

But these and other issues will not be resolved before the dog days of August and the pennant drives of September. This is when baseball is at its best, except for the Divisional Series’, the League Championships, and the Fall Classic.

Yeah, I like football as much as the next guy. Just not now.