Perhaps it's true that I have a Sean Avery fetish these days. But you can't blame me for having Avery on the brain with the Rangers up 3-1 on the Devils in the first round ... thanks mainly to Avery and his goal scoring. Of course, all anybody will talk about is Avery's face guarding of Martin Brodeur during Game 3, which was a gallant attempt to help the Rangers win (and until the next day, not against the rules ... so take that, establishment.)I once compared Avery to Endy Chavez, in terms of pure record when the two are in the lineup. Now, the more apropos comparison would be Jose Reyes. Avery hacks people off on the ice with his nastiness and ornery nature. Jose Reyes ticks some people off in the baseball establishment with his exuberance ... hand slaps and dances.
That is of course until the beginning of the season where Reyes, in response to some in the baseball community poo-pooing his natural "high on life" state, decided to tone it down. And where did it get him? It got him a .205 average after nine games.
He learned a lesson. He learned that part of being effective is to not deviate from who you are. So guess what? The old Jose Reyes is back. And in two games, he's upped his average 87 points with six hits and a home run. So the whiny, easily offended portion of America's baseball establishment that wants to complain and be envious of Jose's hand slaps and dances and act like baseball is in the 1950's with firm handshakes at home plate is just going to have to deal with it.
(I'm looking at you, Hanley Ramirez.)
7 comments:
You lost me metstra.
I follow hockey as much as I follow Brazilian Jui-Jitsu.
I guess its my loss.
Did I miss something, or wasn't it Willie who suggested to Reyes that he tone it down in the first place?
If so, and if it's true that Beltran went to Reyes to urge that he tone the biotch back up a couple of notches, isn't this really a very giant FU by two star players of the manager?
But perhaps I'm wrong.
I'm so so so glad that Jose is back to his crazy self...well sorta crazy self. He was a blast to watch and was by far the most exciting guy in baseball...up untill the last few games he was well...boring. It was sad.
Now I'm happy again.
Plus a 14 inning win...gosh I couldn't feel better tonight!
"Gallant attempt to help the Rangers win"! Please. It was within the rules (at the time) but was really stupid. You want hockey to be recognized for sharp play, not fights and ridiculous antics. It may be the only time that the general public will see or pay attention to hockey highlights. If so, you want them to see better. Middle fingers to the local press also doesn't help.
Hey Denis!
Why was it ridiculous? The only difference between what Avery did and what Ryan Smyth does on a regular basis is that Smyth has his back to the goalie. Nobody has ever tried it before, so why not ... especially when it's just so tantalizingly easy to get into Martin Brodeur's head especially when you wear a Ranger sweater? I've got no problem with the league putting the rule in after the fact, because it was a bit odd. But I tend to think that if Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin or someone else tried it they would have been seen as innovative and creative (and yes ... trying to help the team win), and not the jerk that everyone is making Avery out to be because it's easy and its fun.
And I don't know all the details about the middle finger, but I do know that if I played a sport that never got any coverage in a town with loyal fans, but I got plastered on the front page of the local paper for being in the black book of a prostitute even though it turned out not to be true without so much as a retraction and apology, I'd have more than a middle finger for the press, but that's just me.
By the way ... I've heard you suck, is that true?
[Sorry. You call yourself "Denis Potvin", you kind of open yourself up for that. :)]
THe middle finger thing came because NBC was video taping the Rangers practice. And obviously, had the camera on Avery. And for no reason (no one was around him) he started randomly re-inacting the "famous" and now illegal move he did to Broduer. And then he looked up (looking for attention? Who knows) and saw that the cameras were on him and gave them the middle finger.
Thank you, Sandra Dee.
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