The Mets PR department is being real shady with our guy Carlos Beltran these days. First they call his injury problems nothing more then having "sore knees." Things got a little more unscrupulous after that.

He goes on the 15 day DL. First impression - Ok, he's a little dinged up let's give him a few weeks off.

Omar Minaya "If we get him back for the second half, after the All-Star Break, I'd sign up for that right now." Um, sure now it's a gift if we can get a guy with sore knees back in a month.

Then this past Monday, Carlos was in Colorado visiting Dr. Richard Steadman, the guy who invented microfracture surgery. He is basically the Dr. Death/Dr. James Andrews of knee doctors.

Now the prospect that our star center fielder might have to get Microfracture surgery is in the picture. That comes with a minimum 4 month recovery time. That means Billy Wagner would have already logged 30 innings of relief before Beltran gets back.

But according the the PR team, the news gets a little sunnier. Dr. Steadman agreed with the team medical staff’s assessment that the center fielder is suffering from a bone bruise. Steadman recommends that Beltran remain inactive slightly longer than Mets doctor David Altchek initially suggested — until after the All-Star break.

I love how all the Mets injured players are supposed to be back "after the all star break." Let me get this straight. Beltran, Reyes, and Delgado, Wagner, John Maine, and Mo Vaughn are all supposed to be in the lineup on July 16th. Like July 16th is some magical day where butterflies fly around and little children hand you freshly picked flowers. It's fuckin' July 16th. It's the day after July 15th. It's a Tuesday. Does Bill from True Blood fit all the Mets in his calender that day? So they can drink vampire blood and be automatically healed? Does a gypsy perform some voodoo shit that makes Jose run like cracked out gazelle? Tell me whats going on people.

If I were to tell you that your favorite basketball team could have an athletic 6'11" PF/C that averaged 18 points, 11 re-boards, and 2 blocks
in the third best NCAA conference, would that be something you'd be interested in? Fuck yeah you would.

Arizona Wildcat Jordan Hill walked confidently towards the podium to accept his Knicks hat and shake David Stern's hand as the drunkard Knicks fans rained boos on him like it was June 2009. The thing is that Hill can take criticism like he takes a hard foul and1. Check out this 50 second vid.

I like his game for 3 reasons.
1) He plays D, i.e. blocks shots - which helps a team dead last in shot blocking last year.

2) He can score either facing the basket as well as posting up (although his post game can certainly use some polishing)

3) D'Antoni's high pick and roll based offense is a perfect fit for him as he can get roll the the basket quicker then the people guarding him and THROW IT DOWN.

The Knicks also traded 3 million dollars to the Lakers for the rights to Toney Douglas, a shooting guard from Florida State. I loved this. This kid has a nice skill set that should translate well to the NBA. He has what is seemingly unlimited range and a nice handle. Check out his video highlights

What did you think of the Knicks Draft?

My hockey team is the NY Islanders. They are not good. They haven't been good since I was born. They have an opportunity on Friday to draft a franchise player in Canadian John Tavares. He scored an astounding 73 goals in the Juniors last year and is being compared/scrutinized to other players from America's hat, Sidney Crosby and Eric Lindros. This would at a minimum put the Isles on the map and breathe some life in a team that has been labeled as one of the worst franchises in all of sports. Let's hope Isles GM Garth Snow doesn't fuck this up.

Side Note: Check out Islanders Point Blank authored by the former PR guy for the Islanders, Chris Botta. It's where I got this sweet photo from.

To the shock of no one, Long Islanders got drunk and screamed at the golfers this past weekend in Bethpage. The rain delays only perpetuated the fans' intoxication in addition to rendering Long Island accents virtually impossible to comprehend by non-New Yorkers. On Sunday they actually stopped selling beer because dudes were so shot. Here are actual quotes from the Joey Boombats and Scotty McEastIslips...

"We're on Long Island, baby, where men are men. Put that umbrella down!"

"Suck it up, you've got your own video game!"

"This Bud's for you!"

"You Suck!"

"You're fat" (referring to Phil Mickelson)

"Hey Tiger, you want half of this bacon egg and cheese on a poppy seed roll?"

I clearly made up that last one, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone vociferously yelped such a thing. What's funny is that all of these golfers, especially Tiger, will never voice there frustration about the fans acting crazy. That will only make things worse for them - not only for the rest of this tournament, but for any tournament in the tri-state area in the next ten years.

Tracklink/Comment
Newsday - Fans Heckle

Update: Here is a video of the confrontation

The photo above depicts the minor confrontation that occurred this past Sunday after Brian Bruney of the Yankees criticized Francisco Rodriguez for his excessive celebrations whenever he successfully saves a game.

Before they pretended that they might fight each other in the outfield, there was a war words going back and forth between them through the media.

Here is a transcript of exactly what they said to each other.

Unbelievable. I've never seen anything like that. I have, but in high school," Bruney said Saturday, and then sounded off on K-Rod. "It couldn't happen to a better guy on the mound, either. He's got a tired act. He gets what he deserves, man. I just don't like watching the guy pitch. I think it's embarrassing."

After Saturday's Mets win, K-Rod went on the offensive, blasting Bruney as an oft-injured pitcher who "better keep his mouth shut."




"If it was coming out from somebody big, like Mariano (Rivera) - somebody who's been around and is good at what he does - I will respect that comment...I'm not going to waste my time with that guy. Instead of sending messages through the paper, next time when you see me at Citi Field, come up to me and say it to my face.

"That showed me a lot. I respect a man that comes at you like that. In my opinion it's over."I probably shouldn't have said what I said, but I made that mistake and learned from it. The guy has had a great career. I don't have anything at this point to hang my hat on. I don't have a World Series title like he does. I don't have the save record like he does.

So what you can basically take away from this is that Bruney got an earful from someone in the Yankees PR dept and was basically ordered to rescind what he originally said about K-Rod. Or, he was afraid of the beef and figured he could avoid it by saying sorry as opposed to sticking to his original statement.

What's somewhat ironic about this is that Bruney's teammate, Joba Chamberlain has been called out for his excessive mound celebrations by multiple players. So if he has a problem with K-Rod celebrating after saving a game, wouldn't it make sense to think that he would have an even bigger problem with his own teammate celebrating after he walks the bases loaded then gets out of it by striking out the 7-8-9 hitters? Disagree?

NY Post