A big day for SU Intergalactic on the Comments front with 4 of you chiming in. For starters, long-time subscriber J. Levine believes that youngsters would be better served opting for basketball or baseball as a career: “You really wonder why anyone goes into the NFL any more- careers are short, the money is generally not guaranteed, and the evidence about the lasting serious health effects is mounting- seems a lot more secure to try MLB or the NBA instead.” SU says for you younger subscribers out there: Raise your boys to be left-handed relief pitchers. And if you have girls that can pitch, all the better. Guaranteed longevity and a nice living.
Equally long-time SU subscriber T. Potter puts the official over/under out there for A-Rod:
BA .244
HR 15
RBI 57
SU says these are likely in the ballpark. I say he falls short of the .244 (but it will be close), exceeds the homeruns with 18 but is lower on rbis with 49. His production will be hurt by the oblique injury coming up soon on some unusually cold night in Oakland.
D. Green, passionate Duke booster, is already in mid-season form predicting another NCAA championship for the Blue Devils as they retool with some McDonald’s All-Americans. SU says do not get too cocky too soon my friend. They have lost a lot off this year’s team (including SU fave Winslow) but will certainly be in the mix next year per usual.
Finally, SU’s most prolific life-time commenter, A. Grossman, has these pearls to offer on the Rangers’ playoff series chances:
“With a deep bench, a great goaltender ( one who is beginning to run out of time as he approaches the last quarter of his playing days) and the same focused attitude throughout the team the Rangers will find a way to win. We were short a couple of big guys which we have now filled. Playoff hockey is usually more low scoring with both teams playing extra hard. The bad/good bounce here and there or the odd ricochet usually becomes more and more the key for a goal to be scored. Yes, you make your own breaks and that’s what fans like with the 110% effort made by everyone. Because most of your SU readers, including myself only have skated a little I find it fascinating that on only a very thin blade how these guys have so much balance and can still stop on a dime when they have to. We all take that for granted. Let me known the next time you go out onto the ice, pick up warp speed and then try a hockey stop. Unbelievable athleticism.”
It’s a good time of year: baseball; NBA and NHL playoffs; and the NFL draft. Why get off the couch?
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Great comment Andy. While my favorite team will always be the Giants, I think the 2014-2015 Rangers are my favorite squad on a single-season basis. I’ve watched quite a bit of them and I can say that they put in more effort, collectively, than I’ve seen from any other New York team. It is incredibly difficult to skate full speed all the time, let alone wearing hockey pads. I tried out for hockey in high school once and switched to basketball pretty quickly thereafter… It’s not easy. Another aspect that makes hockey so great in general is that with all of these 1-goal games in the playoffs (as noted by Andy), each player knows that if they take even one play off, it could be the difference between winning and losing. Every single player puts in 110% effort, and I think game 4 of the first round is when I realized this squad is my favorite. The Rangers were already up 2-1 in the series and down 1-0 2 minutes into the game. They were playing with house money and could have easily phoned it in with 2 more games in NY ahead of then. Instead of phoning it in, they came back pissed off and scored a gritty goal, bringing the game to OT and ultimately winning it there, in Pittsburgh. Even if you don’t like hockey, and it’s not for everyone, I’ve never seen guys work harder every second of every game than the Rangers this year.
And with that I’m off to Stout to watch Rangers-Caps game 1. It’s always a great series with the Caps, and this one won’t be any different!
I think that some of these athletes at some time want to play another sport (Terrell Owens, Manny Pacquiao) but they are locked into where they have the most opportunity to succeed. Look at someone like Russell Wilson. Football is not a bad choice for him. With the O-Line around him, the offense run by Seattle, and the rules to protect the QB, he is basically playing flag football out there. Yes, he may have had a shot for baseball before choosing football (his numbers are actually not that bad for a 2B) but he will eventually cash in playing football (and will use baseball as a bargaining chip). For those kids that are 6’5″ and 315 pounds in high school their choices are limited. College football teams have 85 guys. College basketball teams have 14. Certain athletes get bored with baseball and don’t want to play it… not to mention hitting a baseball is a lot harder than people realize (same with fielding one).
I see A-Rod’s production being higher than our SU experts expect. The average is about right, but HR/RBI totals will exceed expectations.
As for hockey… it does not make its way down south and I had not even realized the Flyers were not in the playoffs… but there are few things more exciting than a Game 7 playoff hockey game. However, I am sticking with the NBA playoffs – especially as they heat up in round two.
Distractions can lead to disaster.
Let the Met’s have a good portion of the back page. It’s always fresh for the public to see something fresh… not the same ole news. The manager’s job right now is to keep the team focused on the task at hand. This is new for all of them. The Yanks, however have enough veterans and a very conscious manager to keep things just moving along. The Yanks have already matched what Las Vegas gave them back in April in the win column. It appears they will most likely exceed that number by at least 5 which means they need to play 500 ball the rest of the way. Besides the Toronto series I expect the other opposing teams which are out of the race will experiment now with pitchers coming up from Triple A. Unfortunately we will need to keep our pedal to the metal. This coming series against the Bluejays will determine how far down on the pedal we will need to go.
PS I do not want to stain this reply so no talk about how the NY Giants set an NFL record by opening up a season with two 10 point leads going into the 4th quarter and losing both games. Congrats “Pale” Blue