Daily Archives: February 2, 2009

MJ: double-nickel. Bernard: 60.

Kobe: 61 against the Knicks tonight:  no asterisk, son.  

19-31 from the field, 20-20 from the line.

The most points ever scored in an NBA game at the Garden.

Bow Down to a Player Who’s Greater Than You.

It was a terrific run, but Baseball Toaster is closing up shop.

This, from the always pugnacious Allen Barra:

We’ve mentioned Warner a couple times in this space during the postseason, but the lack of ink he got today after his amazing performance Sunday demands one more statement, and we’ll make it: Kurt Warner is the greatest quarterback in the game and, at his best, better than Peyton Manning, Tom Brady or Brett Favre. His postseason stats alone leave the others in the dust with an 8-3 record, not so gaudy as Brady’s 14-3, but Warner has thrown for as many TDs, 26, in 11 games as Brady has in 17, and Warner has averaged 8.4 yards per throw to Brady’s 6.6.

That was a good Super Bowl … but let’s get back to business …

• The Times‘ Tyler Kepner offers up a blog entry on Bobby Abreu’s unemployment, including a quote for his former GM in Philly:

… Wade was G.M. of the Philadelphia Phillies when Abreu played there, and he called him “one of the most underappreciated players in the game.”

“He’s a sabermetrician’s dream, from the standpoint of what he produces statistically,” Wade said. …

“Aaron Rowand came in there and in one year found the only exposed piece of metal in the ballpark and ran into it; some people wanted to build a statue in his honor,” said Wade, recalling the former Phillies center fielder who famously crashed into a wall at Citizens Bank Park.

“Aaron Rowand is an outstanding player and he brings that blue-collar type of energy to the field, and that’s great. Fans gravitate to that, especially in Philadelphia. Bobby’s so good at what he does and so smooth at doing it, he tends to be underappreciated.”

• Bill Madden critiques the Torre book, wonders what Joe “holds sacred”, and has this amazing excerpt:

Torre said he stands behind everything in the book, even though it is written by Verducci in the third person. That means, he fully approved Mike Mussina’s insensitive critique of Mariano Rivera on Page 312: “As great as he is, and it’s amazing what he does, if you start the evaluation again since I’ve been here, he has accomplished nothing in comparison to what he accomplished the four years before. He blew the World Series in ’01. He lost the Boston series. He didn’t lose it himself, but we had a chance to win in the ninth and sweep them and he doesn’t do it there. . . . That’s what I remember about the ’04 series.”

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