Girardi The Good Guy

The New York Yankees won the World Series last night, a win master-minded by their manager Joe Girardi.  Girardi made the gutsy gamble of starting his pitchers on 3 days rest (as opposed to the customary five) but the gamble paid off when Hideki Matsui fired them to a win in last night's Game 6 and to a 27th World Series title.

So well done Joe, right?  Sure, but I reckon that is only the second most impressive thing he did last night.  I quote an article on Yahoo Sports.


Girardi stopped in the wee hours Thursday to help a motorist who crashed her car into a wall after losing control on the Cross Country Parkway in suburban Westchester County.



The crash happened at a particularly dangerous section of roadway, so it not only surprised police to see Girardi on the scene jumping up and down and waving his arms to flag them down, but it also worried them.


The area is notorious for its blind spots and Girardi, who parked his car along the right side of the parkway, and then ran across the traffic to get to the injured motorist, put his life at risk, police said.


"He could have gotten killed," county Sgt. Thomas McGurn said, adding that responding police units take extra precaution in that area because of the blind curve and speeding cars. "Traffic goes by at 80 mph."


The driver was stunned from the accident and otherwise unhurt...The motorist didn't realize who was helping until police told her afterward.


"The guy wins the World Series, what does he do? He stops to help," said Westchester County police officer Kathleen Cristiano, who was among the first to arrive at the accident scene. "It was totally surreal."

Rush Not Wanted

I see that Rush Limbaugh is part of a group that is currently in talks to buy the NFL's St. Louis Rams.

For those of you unaware of Rush...I envy you.  At best he's a conservative talk radio host who is viewed by some as the voice of the Republican Party while to some he's an eveil right-wing rascist who uses said radio show to spout ills and evils to a worryingly large audience.  I'll let you decide which is most correct.

One thing that Rush has been accused of is being a rascist, particularly after one incident during his short but unforgettable tenure as an analyst on ESPN's NFL Countdown show in 2003.  I can't find a video of the incident but here is what he said of Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback, Donovan McNabb.

"Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."

He promptly resigned three days later, and rightly so.  McNabb isn't one of the game's greats but at that point he had led the Eagles to an NFC Championship Game and was one of the gane's better signal callers.


I don't know for sure whether the NFL has a fit-and-proper test for perspective owners but it wouldn't surprise me if they do.  I know, for example, that the Premier League does.  If they do, then I hope that these comments are levied at him and used to keep him out of the League.  American football is a fine sport and the NFL is the best spors league on the planet.  Neither needs Limbaugh or his ilk.

Brett Says Bye

The annual ‘will-he-or-won’t-he’ Brett Favre soap opera is no more. Allah Be Praised.

There’s been little more annoying for fans of American Football to see the sport’s headlines dominated by the retirement saga of Number Four. We want to read about off-season trades, the repercussions of the NFL Draft, the all-too-regular misdeeds of the players. We don’t want to read speculation and conjecture about the future of a man who unfortunately out-stayed his welcome.



In an alternative universe, Brett Favre hung up his helmet in the wake of the NFC Championship Game loss against the New York Giants. It would have been an ignominious retirement, but one that would have came with honour. Brett would have led the Packers to their finest season in many years, and would have walked away as the battle-hardened hero he always was. Most of all, despite his final play interception, we’d have all had respect for the gunslinger.

However, in this universe, Brett is a figure of mockery. He’s more annoying than amazing, and the respect held for him by American football fans, and possibly even more importantly, the love held for him by the Packers’ fans, has all but evaporated. The man who led the Packers to their first Lombardi Trophies since Vince himself is no longer beloved by the Cheeseheads. Yesterday’s decision to retire before an unpleasant return to Lambeau in a Vikings’ uniform perhaps saves the semblance of respect they have for him, but his intention to move down the road to Minnesota in the first place has most definitely left a sour taste in the mouths of some.

The ironic thing, for Favre, is that after all of his previous humming-and-hawing, there are a lot of people who don’t believe his announcement that he has given up the sport forever. Today, on NFL Total Access, pundits openly speculated that they almost expect him to line-out again while over on Sports Illustrated Peter King is of a similar opinion. I, for one, do believe that this is indeed it for Favre, but like The Boy Who Called Wolf, we’ll have to wait-and-see if this, indeed, is it.

***

Favre’s announcement overshadowed another bit of NFL-related news that emerged last night. A true football hero, Eagles’ assistant Jim Johnson lost his valiant battle against cancer. One of the best defensive minds of all-time, Johnson’s long-term influence within the Eagles’ organisation led to the increased influence of co-ordinators across the League. I hope that, within the League, Favre’s announcement does not stop people from remembering Johnson as the great he was.

Morning All

A quick post to send a melancholic thank you to the good people at ESPN America who’ve provided me with an interesting breakfast this morning. I’m sitting here eating a bowl of muesli and watching, for reasons best known to those at the channel formerly known as NASN, a re-run of the 1996 MLB Home Run Derby. 1996 is a couple of years before the height of the steroids era but it had begun, and it’s almost amusing to listen to Chris Berman and his co-commentator (I don’t know who it is) talk about players like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Gary Sheffield in positive terms. Looking back on it, it’s difficult to see how anyone was fooled.