Sometimes we have days like this. Sometimes, it’s just about math. We have nine major professional sports teams in our area, so there is always the possibility of world crashes, MLB and NFL, NHL and NBA. These things happen. The news goes by. Crazy things happen. Edwin Díaz is jogging from a bullpen. A lot of things.
This one felt different, due to all the days, weeks and months before. Sports as we know them essentially closed on March 12, and we did what we could do to fill the void as sports fans. Sometimes that meant going to extremes; Some people got up early to watch baseball from Korea. Some people savored every second of the NFL draft. I still get a monthly invoice from Iditarod for the two days I tracked the dogs that wandered around Alaska for Election Night coverage.
We did the right thing. We saw more golf than usual, more car racing, maybe some UFC. There was an especially dizzying Sunday when I was dizzyingly declared a huge Liverpool fan (hey, I’m not a favorite: I own all the Beatles albums!) And I tuned in for his return to the Premier League … before I got hit. I immediately went 0-0 against Everton for my problems, which is the first time that the notion of starting an extra inning with a man at second base started to look really attractive.
But it was dry, folks. Maybe not dry desert. Still, my throat was parched. Sure, I make a living covering sports. But I also like to SEE sports. I like to worry about them. I like to talk about them and I like when things happen for them. And then I missed them.
And then on Saturday. Ah Saturday …
1:14 pm
Well then: The Knicks ended their search for a new coach and officially offered Tom Thibodeau a five-year contract. He was the favorite for the job. But he was also a favorite for the job when the search began hiring a new coach in August 2011 (OK, it just felt so long). The Knicks interviewed 11 people. The longer this lasted, you thought maybe NBA resident Dr. Evil Jason Kidd had performed a Jedi mind trick on Leon Rose and World Wide Wes. But no: Thibs is. Good choice. This will be the only thing people will talk about:
4:02 pm
Son of a gun: The Jets pulled the trigger on Jamal Adams. In hindsight, this shouldn’t be surprising because the Jets first developed the strange habit of unloading disgruntled Pro-Bowl caliber players in the summer of 1976, when they refused to pay John Riggins and he happily fell south toward Washington. The list of other exiles since then is as impressive as it is depressing: Keyshawn Johnson and John Abraham, Darrelle Revis and Sheldon Richardson and Mo Wilkerson and Damon Harrison and Jonathan Vilma and James Farrior and … and, well, Joe Douglas got quite a return Awesome. We can probably talk about the ramifications of that non-stop until Monday and—
6:43 pm
Remember back when we quickly laughed at Edwin Diaz jogging from the bullpen? Yes. Well. Here comes Edwin Diaz jogging from the bullpen. There are none of the usual murmurs that follow him because a) he was quite dominant the day before by firing the Braves and protecting a career lead and b) the cardboard cutouts have yet to figure out how to audibly replicate the Mets of absolute terror. Fans have felt to see every relay pitcher jog in baseball games since Tug McGraw. But Diaz is electric. Ozzie Albies strikes out. Mets killer Freddie Freeman is harmless. Diaz gets Marcel Ozuna to shake helplessly at a dirty 3 and 1 slider. No need to-
6:49 pm
Ozuna hits a 98 mph fastball in the outside corner on the wall to the right. Tie game.
7:05 pm
Additional tickets and, for the first time in New York, we see the new rules. Man in second. The braves write him down and two others. The Mets charge their free runner at the bottom of the tenth. That is all they get. Four thoughts: a) Get used to it. This will eventually become part of the game, whether we like it or not; b) I prefer to see the teams play on days 10 and 11, then start man to second on 12; c) if we need to start the trick at 10, let him be a man first, not second; d) if this is a permanent part of the future, the classification must adopt an NHL format: two points for a victory, one for an extra loss in the inning.
8:24 pm
Giancarlo Stanton maintains a 60-homer pace by erasing his second home run on so many nights, a gigantic 483-foot shot. This a few hours after he knelt for the national anthem, presenting a totally unexpected case for him as the newest Yankee.
8:44 pm
Wait, did the Nets beat the Spurs in an exhibition game in the NBA’s Orlando bubble? Is that a typographical error? Now we are becoming greedy. I know they have had trouble keeping a list intact; I wonder how many Levern Tart had …
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