I’m not a basketball coach, nor do I play one on TV, but …
Is Mike Woodson a good coach? Was he the Knicks’ scapegoat? The pickle in the middle? A lame duck, soon to be toast? Did he get a raw deal, a bum steer? Was it a case of Angus management? Thought for food, it was debated all week on radio and TV.
As a professional couch potato, I only know what I see. Or saw. And on Feb. 28, I saw this:
The Knicks, at home, were down 20 to the Warriors with six minutes left. Yet, they continued to walk the ball up in search of Carmelo Anthony or J.R. Smith, from deep.
This same plan in large part was responsible for the Knicks being down 20 with six minutes left. Anthony and Smith shot a combined 14-for-45. Having chosen to stay their course, the Knicks lost by 23.
Best as I could see — and that goes for the entire season — there was no other plan. And it worked (at 37-45) 45.1 percent of the time.
Ignoring Sori play
So, after Alfonso Soriano strolled a triple into a double at Fenway Park on Tuesday, YES/Ch. 9’s Michael Kay, Al Leiter and David Cone — over tape of Soriano fashion runway-modeling to first — finally concluded all this time we hadn’t been imagining things: Soriano doesn’t run out fly balls.
But in Soriano’s next at-bat, an inning later, he struck out on a pitch in the dirt, then waited for the catcher to tag him out. That was the second time in a week that he couldn’t be bothered to at least run a few feet to force a throw.
Yet, the fellas who scolded him for not running to first in the third inning, ignored the same thing in the fourth. (Incidentally, Robinson Cano, who had seven triples in 2011, is still stuck on one since then.)
♦ It keeps coming up roses for Kevin Burkhardt, who Post colleague Don Burke reports will leave SNY after this season to be a Fox full-timer.
In 2003, his broadcasting dreams stalled, Burkhardt sold cars for Pine Belt Chevrolet in Toms River, NJ. Now? He’s the TV spokesman for Pine Belt Cadillac in Toms River.
♦ What MLB Network presented as a “Live” look at Monday’s Marlins-Braves game wasn’t. As Fantasy League game-trackers knew, the inning already had ended.
♦ Good news, motorists. Police in several NY and NJ municipalities have been instructed to consider “John Sterling Road Rage” as a legitimate, involuntary condition, thus an admissible defense.
“But officer, first he said it was a Mark Teixeira home run to win the game, then he said it was caught to end the game!”
♦ Mr. Met is suing Bartolo Colon for a copyright infringement.
Can’t keep it simple
While we knew where MSG’s Al Trautwig was headed Tuesday, we couldn’t figure why he chose to go that way.
Instead of the short-form — “With the series tied, stay tuned for Game 3 of Rangers-Flyers” — he went with ESPN’s GPS: “Now, what happened on Sunday was that, for the first time in this series, the home team did not win.”
The first time in this series? That was Game 2!
Trautwig continued: “So the Rangers have to make sure that happens in the next two games in Philadelphia.”
Remind me never to ask him for help with my math homework.
♦ “Bristol Bail Bonds, please hold.” Now Keyshawn Johnson, who was a risky character when he played for the Jets, is busted for domestic violence. Why doesn’t ESPN just install a police precinct off the lobby?
Reader Patrick Fergus suggests Johnson may now be eligible to star in a new ESPN Monday Night Football feature, “She Got Jacked Up!”
♦ Any stat, any time. Tuesday, with the Rangers up, 2-0, in Game 3 vs. the Flyers, radio analyst Dave Maloney told us in other newsworthy matters, it’s a tie game: “The hits are all even, 8-8.”
♦ Reader Bill Chase of Albany, having listened to John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman bash Michael Pineda for being ejected Wednesday, recalled Sterling’s defense of Alex Rodriguez upon the latter’s return last season: “It’s not like he murdered someone.”
♦ The Mets are so starved for patrons that they’re considering a reduction of Subway $5 Foot-Longs from $14 to $10.95. (Sorry, no measuring.)
♦ So the Yankees disallow beards, yet Pineda can wear his Yankees cap like a subway punk? Makes sense.
He doesn’t always rip callers, but when he does …
Stay Stupid, My Friends: Another strong week from The World’s Most Intelligent Man.
First, Mike Francesa authoritatively declared that there’s absolutely nothing illegal about the Yankees’ Michael Pineda applying a foreign substance to the ball. Naturally, he rudely dismissed dissenters. Pineda, in his next start, was ejected for applying a foreign substance to the ball.
He also harrumphed that the Hawks, in their series vs. the Pacers, had no shot; they’d be easily swept. An eight-point road underdog, the Hawks won Game 1 by eight.
Yesterday, as the Mets played the Cardinals at Citi Field, “Let’s Be Honest” puffed that no one — “not even Albert Pujols!” — would hit a homer to left on this windy day. Roughly 90 seconds later, wham!, Chris Young put one into the second deck in left.
At that point, Francesa credited and blamed his source: He said he heard Keith Hernandez say it on SNY. Until then, it was Honest Mike’s usual, ultimate inside-guy info. He’s as shameless as he is transparent.
♦ Common sense is so rarely heard it can startle you. When Jacoby Ellsbury batted at Fenway Park for the first time as a Yankee on Tuesday, Michael Kay noted the booing, saying: “But the Red Sox didn’t offer him a contract. Did they want him to retire?”
♦ Phil Ivey, TV poker superstar as regularly seen on ESPN, is being sued for $9.6 million by Atlantic City’s Borgata for “edge sorting” – a gray-area card-recognizing process that casinos regard as cheating (unless the player’s losing) — at baccarat. Ivey is suing a UK casino for withholding millions he admittedly won via edge sorting.
♦ With ESPN having been added to the NFL’s playoff mix this January, ESPN’s pregame show will begin next Tuesday.
♦ Ready, Fire, Aim! The shot-callers (Joint Chiefs of Staff?) at the Outdoor Channel will allow ads to appear for medical marijuana dispensaries. Thus, the commercials will air within and around shows such as “Gold Fever,” “NRA Gun Gurus,” “Bow Madness” and “Greg Zipadelli’s Drop Zone.” Seriously.