Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

"I want to leave something that's going to stand for a long time. I want to leave a legacy." -- Isiah Thomas prior to another humiliating Knicks defeat. Isiah may have forgotten. His legacy has already been left in Madison Square Garden. The last shreds of the Evil Empire that was the Bad Boys Pistons were actually buried in that building on May 3, 1992 when they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by a Knicks team that had both hope and heart, two things that the current squad is pathetically lacking. The Knicks implemented a one-year program to win young fans back that year, bringing back the G.O. cards that my dad used to use to get into the cheap seats when he was a kid. They allowed you to get 2-for-1 deals on selected nosebleed seats if you were a high school student, so my friend Dan Gordon and I took advantage for that game. The record shows that the Knicks won the game 94-87 behind 31 points and 19 rebounds from Patrick Ewing, but that's not wh

I know that earlier this year I made a comparison of Rangers center Chris Drury to Keith Hernandez, but I think my initial instincts were correct. The better choice is Drury's teammate, Brendan Shanahan. I'm in need of a new favorite Met now that Paul Lo Duca has departed (the besmirching of his name via Mr. Mitchell didn't help either) and I think that role is well-suited for Shanahan. The thing that's great about Shanahan is that he's 38, but plays hockey like someone who is 28 (he also took a very reasonable salary to stick around, aiding the team in a time of salary cap issues). He is often not only among the best offensive players in the game when he's on the ice, but one of the best defensive players. He's someone who makes the smart play and the clutch play, the latter in evidence on Sunday when he scored his 12th career regular-season overtime goal (5th-most among active players). He's a leader, who got a standing ovation at a game I attended on