Standing on a Pedestal: Is LeBron coming to New York?

"The New York Mets are awful! Omar needs to go."
"Please tell me LeBron is coming. I can't stand this team!"

Things have looked bleak for quite some time for New York's two orange-wearing squads, the Knicks and Mets, and callers aren't shy to talk about their crappy teams. But Knick and Met fans have handled their frustration in two different ways: either to vent about all the mistakes their team has made (Mets), or look to the future for better things (Knicks).

But it's always the bad teams that seem to get all the attention. Everybody loves to play GM; it's what makes rooting for a bad team fun. And with two prominently awful teams in New York, there are thousands of GMs calling into sports talk shows everyday. Here's a brief look into what New Yorkers think their terrible teams should do to fix themselves, and everything else that was talked about on New York sports radio this week:

The Buzz

There was plenty of Knicks talk, centering around two big topics: the rumors around Tracy McGrady possibly coming to New York (yippee) and whether the Knicks have a prayer of signing LeBron this summer (TBD).

According to sports radio, the more-or-less consensus is that LeBron might come to New York if Cleveland doesn't win the title this year. But that's based on pure speculation. Truth is, nobody seems to have a clue- and LeBron has offered no clues himself. 

A more interesting scenario discussed this week would be the Brooklyn-bound Nets getting James instead. LeBron's much-discussed connection to Nets part-owner Jay Z and a new arena in Brooklyn could bring LeBron to the five boroughs, at least according to desperate Net fans.

As for Tracy McGrady, I'm sure Knicks fans will be thrilled that an overpaid, aging superstar coming off major knee surgery  will now be the go-to guy on their team for the rest of the season, if this trade is finalized.

As usual, Mets fans continued to throw themselves a pity party in advance of pitchers and catchers reporting Thursday. A big on-air debate this weekend was whether or not the Mets should have signed John Lackey instead of Jason Bay. Spring training is supposedly the time of eternal optimism, but decades of unmet expectations and recent down the stretch collapses have whittled Met fans' optimism down to just about zero for this year.

A sprinkling of Tiger Woods, hockey and Jets talk also filled out the week.

Notable Quotable

"What Tiger really means is, I'm sorry I got caught," -Bonnie Bernstein, 1050 ESPN, Wednesday (discussing Tiger's press conference planned for Friday and what he's going to say)

I agree, Bonnie. Tiger Woods was busy messing around with 15 different women during his five years of marriage. Does anybody truly believe that if he hadn't smashed his Escalade into a tree that he still wouldn't be having sex with hot cocktail waitresses?

At least we can thank Tiger for bringing this photo of 
smoking hot mistress Rachel Uchitel into the mainstream.

Deplorable Quotables

Mike Francesa hasn't been on all week, so I only have three quotes this week as compared to the normal five. Francesa is usually good for a solid couple stupid quotes every week, so that's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it.

3) "You've got stellar game, bro." -Joe Benigno (saying this to co-host Evan Roberts), WFAN, Wednesday afternoon

No 56-year-old man should ever say this to a 26-year-old.

2) "Kei Igawa should get arrested, he stole money from the Yankees." -Adam "The Bull" Gerstenhaber, WFAN, Sunday afternoon

C'mon, you can do better than that...how about "Kei Igawa should get deported back to Japan and never be allowed to leave the country again." 

And that's why I'm not on-air, ladies and gentlemen!

1) "Bronson Arroyo isn't any better than any of the pitchers the Mets have." -Adam "The Bull" Gerstenhaber, WFAN, Sunday night

Oh really? Right now, the Mets' starting rotation after Johan Santana looks like this:

Mike Pelfrey, 10-12, 5.03 ERA in 2009
John Maine, 4.43 ERA in 2009 (missed more than half the season due to injury)
Oliver Perez, 3-4, 6.82 ERA in 2009
Jonathon Niese (rookie) or Fernando Nieve (8.44 2008 ERA) for the #5 spot

Bronson Arroyo's 2009 stats, you might ask? 15-13, 3.84 ERA in 2009. He's won 15 games two years in a row, he's gotten better the past three years, and most importantly, he's durable. 

Sure, it's an extremely sad statement on the Mets rotation that Bronson Arroyo is a major upgrade, but it's the truth. 

Spotlight on: The Michael Kay Show, 1050 ESPN

Better known in New York as the TV voice of the Yankees, Kay is now also the featured voice of 1050 ESPN's flagship program, The Michael Kay Show. In the year or so that he's been on air, Kay has become best known for his rather brash and strongly opinionated style. He offers great baseball knowledge, but he's often annoyingly arrogant (it's a theme in this industry).

Kay is honest and will tell you exactly what he thinks- sometimes a little bit too much. He's the kind of guy who stubbornly argues moot points to the death and won't concede an inch even if he's obviously wrong.

Kay's co-hosts include the calmer and more level-headed Don La Greca and the mediocre Bonnie Bernstein (yes, that Bonnie Bernstein), who are mostly fillers, though La Greca is not shy to take on Kay when he says stupid things. La Greca's role is especially crucial as he helps bring the arrogant Kay back down to earth.

I used to really dislike this show- as I've repeated, Kay is very arrogant and can be a total know-it-all- but La Greca has helped Kay come back down to earth quite a bit, and I've always been a fan of all-around sports insider La Greca's fantastic insight. Kay and La Greca have had some great arguments on interesting topics, though they do tend to be biased towards baseball. I can do without Bonnie Bernstein.

Judge for yourself: Kay is on 1050 ESPN between 2 and 7 PM weekdays.

Posted by Chris Bianchi at 2/17/2010 1:24 PM
Categories: mets, standing on a pedestal, lebron, mlb, nba, speculation nation
Tags: mets standing on a pedestal lebron mlb nba speculation nation
 

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