Backing Down

As if the Knicks' collective performance against the Celtics Friday night wasn't bad enough: now Amar'e Stoudemire doesn't know if he'll suit up for Game 4. Tell you what, Amar'e... don't bother.

The Knicks are paying Stoudemire nearly $100 million on a five-year contract. At this point, no one knows the severity of the injury to his back, or whether playing on it tomorrow afternoon will cause any long-term damage. But you know what? I'd rather not find out.

This series was lost last night. After two hard-fought, nail-biting, back-and-forth affairs with the Celtics that made Knicks fans believe that they were one good shot or one big stop away from victory, the Knicks turned in the kind of turkey that brought back memories of the teams that hadn't been to the playoffs in seven years. A 17-point first quarter hole. A 19-6 Celtics run in the 3rd. Extensive gar-bage time for most of the 2nd half.

No NBA team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series. Even with a win tomorrow, the Knicks would be forced to hobble back to Boston to face an unruly TD Garden crowd for Game 5. Better to get it over with now, and save the possible wear-and-tear on Stoudemire.

Better luck next year.

Whither Rachel Phelps?

I know it's not nice to make fun of others less fortunate. And if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing. But has anyone seen the Mets lately? Seriously.

It's not just that they're a bad baseball team. They are. It's the way they're losing. In bunches. Under awful circumstances. The near-comic events surrounding not only their play on the field but the off-field circus is reminiscent of another sad-sack team: those Cleveland Indians.

It's gotten so bad, in fact, that Mets' manager Terry Collins is starting to sound an awful lot like Lou Brown:

"I can tell you, we’re going to break out, and when we do we’re going to win a lot of baseball games."

Whatever you say, Terry. Maybe he even believes it. But maybe the Mets just need a naked cardboard cut-out of Bernie Madoff in the locker room.

Fantasy Baseball

This is an end-around hosting solution. Let's see how it works.

Here is the logo for Nobody Beats The Azz, my fantasy baseball team.

Patience...

So Rich Rodriguez has been fired. Finally! Wait, not yet, apparently.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't put much stock in rumors. However, this time it looks like only the timing is the issue. No one seems to be disputing whether or not Rodriguez will be gone; it's only a matter of when the university can make it official. If that's the case, then it's the news Michigan fans have been waiting to hear since not long after RichRod's first disastrous season.

Unfortunately, part two of the dream scenario doesn't appear likely: a Michigan man may not be coaching Michigan next season, either. According to John Harbaugh, Jim's brother and an NFL coach himself, don't look for Jim in Ann Arbor any time soon:

"I don't know what he's going to do. I think the Michigan thing is done now. I think that's over. I don't think he's going to have anything to do with that."

Simply based on how much effort Harbaugh put into ducking any questions about next season following last night's Orange Bowl, he would appear finished with Stanford. So if he's leaving Stanford, and not going to Michigan, then the NFL will be his next destination. That's too bad for Michigan, but I'll be all smiles anyway if the search for Michigan's next coach begins this week.

Legends and Leaders and Buckeyes, oh my!

The Big Ten came up with names for the newly-minted, 12-team, two-division football league that will begin play next season. No big deal you say? Ordinarily I'd agree. Except for the choice of names: "Legends" and "Leaders". Really.

So some team next season will be the "Big 10 Leaders leader"? We already know that there aren't any highly-ranked officials in the Big 10 that can count, so why should their grasp of language be any better? Predictably, it didn't take long for public outcry to begin building against these ill-advised names. Suprisingly, though, is how quickly the Big 10 brass, specifically Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, has reacted to the bad reviews:

"I think we have enough experience with names, and expansion and development of divisions, to know that you never, rarely, get 90 percent approval rating. But to get a 90 percent non-approval rating was, you know, really surprising."

If Michigan had a guy who could backpedal that fast, they wouldn't have the nation's 111th-ranked pass defense. The most remarkable result of the backlash is that Delany is already talking about changing the names. That's just short of convening a committee.

I agree that by randomly shuffling the teams to create the divisions it makes it difficult to use geographical designations. I also don't think Delany is wrong in thinking that Wisconsin wouldn't want to compete in the "Hayes" or "Paterno" division.

That said, the men who run the Big 10 are all highly-paid executives at major institutions. Someone go grab some English Lit majors, put them in a room and check back in a few hours. You'll have some new division names in no time.

Captain Cash

Well, the Yankees finally got their man. After much public negotiation, Derek Jeter and the Yankees have agreed on a 3-year, $51 million contract. While it may have been much ado about nothing, it's a relief all across the board to have the deal done.

Sure, the Yanks are grossly overpaying Jeter. And I'm not sure what he'll be doing in three years, let alone the fourth year of the contract which has an option he'll almost certainly pick up. But as it's been said, the Yankees are probably the one team in baseball that can afford to overpay a player like Jeter.

In the end, this was a deal that had to be done -- neither side would have come out looking good had the two not come to an agreement. At the same time, Jeter was able to hold his ground and make the statement, at least from a salary standpoint, that he's still one of the top players in the game. For the Yankees, they win the PR contest, as they were willing to pay whatever it took to keep the face of the franchise in the Bronx.

Throughout this "free agency" period, much attention has been focused on where Jeter will end up playing as his defensive skills continue to erode. Oddly enough, that doesn't concern me at all. With A-Rod to his right and Robby Cano to his left, Jeter is sandwiched between some good defenders. And with Mark Teixeira cleaning up anything thrown his way, the Yanks can afford to have an again Jeter manning the middle, at least for another couple of years.

Even on offense, perhaps last season was just an aberration, considering how well Jeter played in 2009. Besides, the Yankees have such a talented cast -- and the ability to replenish it -- that even with declining skills, Jeter won't slow the Yanks down.

All told, it's great to have the Captain back in the fold. Considering how it could have gone down -- Ken Griffey, Jr. in a Reds uniform or Joe Montana playing for KC? -- it's nothing but good new for the Yankees and their legion of fans.

What happens if the hostage dies?

It seems all but inevitable that the Rangers are going to win the 2010 ALCS. The Yankees aren't dead yet, but beating the Rangers twice, in Arlington, with one of those games being pitched by Cliff Lee, is a very tall order. So I'm not holding out hope. But it's not as though the Yankees would be the only losers here.

Take FOX. The Yankees are the marquee jewel of the post-season. The Rangers are a nice story, but they're not the Yankees. If the Giants should hold on in the National League, FOX will be left with the two teams they didn't want to be playing.

But it gets worse: FOX is currently embroiled in a skirmish with Cablevision. In an effort to hike their subscriber fees, FOX pulled the plug on their affiliates seen in 3.1 million Cablevision homes. Why now? Because thousands of Yankee fans would be faced with the prospect of missing the World Series unless Cablevision forked over the dough. Now that the Yankees may miss the Series, the pool of FOX hostages drains away. Are you really that upset over missing "House" this week?