New York vs. Philadelphia In the Postseason

The New York Knicks won their 1st Round Playoff series, beating the Atlanta Hawks in 6 games, winning Game 6 by a Playoff-record-setting margin.

The Philadelphia 76ers won theirs, beating their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, in a Game 7 in Boston. Truly an epic achievement.

The Knicks and Sixers will now play each other in the NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals. They haven't been to the NBA Finals since 1999 and 2001, respectively. They haven't won an NBA Championship since 1973 (Knicks) and 1983 (76ers).

New York vs. Philadelphia In the Postseason

1905 World Series: New York Giants beat Philadelphia Athletics

1911 World Series: Athletics beat Giants

1913 World Series: Athletics beat Giants

1947 BAA Semifinals: Philadelphia Warriors beat New York Knicks

1950 World Series: New York Yankees beat Philadelphia Phillies

1968 NBA Eastern Division Semifinals: Philadelphia 76ers beat Knicks

1974 Stanley Cup Semifinals: Philadelphia Flyers beat New York Rangers

1975 Stanley Cup Semifinals: Flyers beat New York Islanders

1977 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals: 76ers beat Knicks

1979 Stanley Cup Quarterfinals: Rangers beat Flyers

1979 NBA Eastern Conference 1st Round: 76ers beat New Jersey Nets

1980 Stanley Cup Quarterfinals: Flyers beat Rangers

1980 Stanley Cup Finals: Islanders beat Flyers

1981 NFC Wild Card Playoff: Philadelphia Eagles beat New York Giants

1982 NHL Patrick Division Semifinals: Rangers beat Flyers

1983 NHL Patrick Division Semifinals: Rangers beat Flyers

1983 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals: 76ers beat Knicks

1984 NBA Eastern Conference 1st Round: Nets beat 76ers

1985 NHL Patrick Division Semifinals: Flyers beat Rangers

1985 NHL Patrick Division Finals: Flyers beat Islanders

1986 NHL Patrick Division Semifinals: Rangers beat Flyers

1987 NHL Patrick Division Semifinals: Flyers beat Rangers

1987 NHL Patrick Division Finals: Flyers beat Islanders

1989 NBA Eastern Conference 1st Round: Knicks beat 76ers

1995 NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals: Flyers beat Rangers

1995 NHL Eastern Conference Finals: New Jersey Devils beat Flyers

1997 NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals: Flyers beat Rangers

2000 NHL Eastern Conference Finals: Devils beat Flyers

2000 NFC Divisional Playoff: Giants beat Eagles

2004 NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: Flyers beat Devils

2006 NFC Wild Card Playoff: Eagles beat Giants

2008 NFC Divisional Playoff: Eagles beat Giants

2009 World Series: Yankees beat Phillies

2010 NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: Flyers beat Devils

2012 NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals: Devils beat Flyers

2014 NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: Rangers beat Flyers

2018 MLS Cup Knockout Round: New York City FC beat Philadelphia Union

2019 NBA Eastern Conference 1st Round: 76ers beat Nets

2019 MLS Cup 1st Round: Union beat New York Red Bulls

2020 Stanley Cup 2nd Round: Islanders beat Flyers

2021 MLS Cup 1st Round: Union beat Red Bulls

2021 MLS Cup Eastern Conference Finals: City beat Union

2022 NFC Divisional Playoff: Eagles beat Giants

2022 MLS Cup Eastern Conference Finals: Union beat City

2023 NBA Eastern Conference 1st Round: 76ers beat Nets

2024 NBA Eastern Conference 1st Round: Knicks beat 76ers

2024 National League Championship Series: New York Mets beat Phillies

2025 MLS Cup Eastern Conference Semifinals: City beat Union

Note: For soccer, I counted only Major League Soccer. I would have counted the North American Soccer League, but the New York Cosmos and the Philadelphia Atoms never played each other in the Playoffs. Nor did the Cosmos and the later Philadelphia Fury. I did not count the U.S. Open Cup, because that's an in-season tournament, not postseason.

MLB: New York, 4-2

NFL: Philadelphia, 4-1

NBA: Philadelphia, 7-3

NHL: Philadelphia, 11-10

MLS: Tie, 3-3

TOTAL: Philadelphia 27-21.

Yankees Mess With Texas, Enter May In 1st Place

The Yankees had to go to Boston to play the Red Sox? Then to Houston to play the Astros? Then to the suburbs of Dallas to play the Texas Rangers? Tough roadtrip.

Well, we took Seven of Nine. For those teams, resistance was futile.

Yes, that was a Star Trek joke in a blog post about the Yankees. It might not have been the logical thing to do, but it was the human thing to do.

On Monday night, the Yankees began that series at Globe Life Field (not to be confused with the Rangers' previous stadium, now named Choctaw Stadium, formerly Globe Life Park, Rangers Ballpark, Ameriquest Field and simply The Ballpark), and turned it, like the do any stadium, into "a little league field." Aaron Judge, Ben Rice and Jazz Chisholm hit home runs, to support 6 shutout innings by Max Fried. The Yankees ended up winning, 4-2.

Tuesday night was a battle between young Yankee sensation Cam Schlittler and former Met "legend" Jacob deGrom, recipient of the two least-earned Cy Young Awards of all time. Cody Bellinger doubled Aaron Judge home in the 1st inning. That would be the only run either man allowed.

In the top of the 7th, with deGrom relieved by Jalen Beeks, Austin Wells hit a home run. Brent Headrick worked in and out of trouble for the Yankees. Fernando Cruz did the same in the 8th. Judge hit a home run in the 9th, the 380th of his career, to surpass Orlando Cepeda and Tony Pérez with 379 on the all-time list. Next up: Albert Belle at 381.

And that "insurance run" turned out to be crucial: David Bednar did his best Aroldis Chapman -- or Boone Logan, or Scott Proctor, or Kyle Farnsworth -- impression in the bottom of the 9th, letting the Rangers get to within 3-2, before he finally slammed the door.

On Wednesday afternoon, Elmer Rodríguez, a 22-year-old righthanded pitcher from Puerto Rico, made his major league debut. Wearing Number 71, he went 4 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks, striking out 3. Presuming neither Gerrit Cole, nor Carlos Rodón, nor Clarke Schmidt comes off the Injured List in the next week (as seems likely), Rodríguez will probably get at least one more start before he gets sent back to Class AAA Scranton. The bullpen did well, allowing just 1 run over the last 5 innings.

But what may well be Brian Cashman's dumbest transaction as Yankee general manager came back to bite him, and us, again: Releasing Nathan Eovaldi after the 2016 season. Eovaldi allowed just 4 hits, and the Yankees never got going, losing to the Rangers, 3-0.

In spite of this last game, not only did the Yankees go 7-2 on the roadtrip, but they took 2 out of 3 in both Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth "Metroplex." They messed with Texas.

They leave April and enter May 20-11, with the best record in the American League. In the AL Eastern Division, they are a game and a half ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays, 5 ahead of the Baltimore Orioles, 6 ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays, and 8 ahead of the Boston Red Sox.

They had yesterday off, and tonight, they open a homestand with a weekend 3-gamer against the Orioles. Their manager, Craig Albernaz -- a former catcher who never reached the majors, and previously coached for Tampa Bay, San Francisco and Cleveland -- has not yet selected his starters for any of the games. Aaron Boone has selected Will Warren for tonight, first pitch 7:05 PM; Ryan Weathers for tomorrow, at 1:35; and Max Fried for Sunday, at 1:35, with all games to be broadcast on the YES Network.

Meanwhile, on this May 1, with the worst record in baseball, the Mets might want to shout, "Mayday!"

This photo, from their 14-2 loss to the Washington Nationals

on Wednesday night, sums up their season so far.

May 1, 1926: Hakoah at the Polo Grounds

Béla Guttmann

May 1, 1926, 100 years ago: A crowd of 46,000 files into the Polo Grounds in New York to watch an all-star team from the American Soccer League beat Hakoah Wien, 3-0. It remains the largest crowd to watch a soccer game in America until Pelé and the New York Cosmos move into Giants Stadium, 51 years later.

The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 4-1 at Yankee Stadium. This game was just across the Harlem River from the Hakoah match, and attracted 42,000 customers -- 4,000 fewer. Waite Hoyt outpitched Dutch Reuther. Babe Ruth went 1-for-3 with a walk. Lou Gehrig went 0-for-3.

Hakoah -- a Hebrew word meaning "strength" -- was an All-Jewish sports club based in Vienna, the capital of Austria. It was founded in 1909, countering the then-popular idea of "muscular Christianity" with "muscular Judaism." It sponsored teams in several sports, and in 1925, its soccer team won the national title. They went on a tour of the United States, including that game at the Polo Grounds.

Their best player was centerback Béla Guttmann. He was born on January 27, 1899 in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. He starred for the team now known as MTK Budapest. Escaping his homeland's anti-Semitism, in 1922 he moved to Vienna, and played for Hakoah Wien. In 1923, they went to London, and beat West Ham United, 5-1 at Upton Park in the East End. While the Hammers, who had reached the FA Cup Final that season, had played a largely reserve team against Hakoah, this still made Hakoah the 1st team from the European Continent to defeat an English team in England.

Their 1926 U.S. tour inspired some of the players to stay in America. Guttmann played for the Brooklyn Wanderers at Ebbets Field, and the soccer version of the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds; and founded New York Hakoah, who played at Dexter Park in Queens, and are still in existence today, albeit at a semipro level.

Losing everything in the stock market Crash of 1929, Guttmann returned to Europe, coaching in Austria, the Netherlands and Hungary. In 1944, he was captured by the Nazis, and sent to a concentration camp. Several members of his family were killed, as were 6 of his Hakoah teammates, but he escaped.

After World War II, he managed teams in Hungary, Romania, Italy, Argentina, Cyprus, Brazil, Portugal, Uruguay, Switzerland and Greece. He won League titles in Hungary with Újpest in 1939 and 1947; in Portugal with Porto in 1959, and Benfica in 1960 and 1961; and in Uruguay with Peñarol in 1962. With Benfica, he won the European Cup (now the UEFA Champions League) in 1961 and 1962. He was the Larry Brown of his sport, rarely staying at a club longer than two seasons, no matter how well he was doing, and was quoted as saying, "The third season is fatal."

After the 1962 title, he asked for a raise, didn't get it, and quit. Supposedly, he then said, "Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever be European Champions again." So far, 64 years later, he is still right: Between the Champions League and the UEFA Cup/Europa League, they have lost their last 8 finals in European competition. Nevertheless, a statue of him now stands outside Benfica's Estádio da Luz (Stadium of Light). He died on August 28, 1981, in Vienna.

Sportclub Hakoah Wien had been founded in 1909, but the Nazis dissolved it after the Anschluss with Austria in 1938. It was re-started in 1945, but it dropped soccer in 1949. It is still active in other sports.

April 30, 1986: The Steve Smith Own Goal

April 30, 1986, 40 years ago: Steve Smith turns 23, and has the worst birthday in hockey history.

In 1985, he made his NHL debut with the Edmonton Oilers. He played 2 regular season games, and was not put on their Playoff roster, as they won their 2nd straight Stanley Cup. But in 1985-86, he was one of the League's top defensive rookies. He looked like he had a good career ahead of him. On April 30, he took the ice with the Oilers against their Provincial rivals, the Calgary Flames, in Game 7 of the NHL Smythe Division Final, at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

The Flames stunned their Alberta rivals by taking a 2-0 lead, early in the 2nd period. But before that period ended, the Oilers tied the game.

At the 5:14 mark of the 3rd period, Smith took the puck near the side of his own net, and tried to pass it up the ice. But he made a mistake, and the puck went off the leg of Oiler goaltender Grant Fuhr, and into the goal.

Perry Berezan was the last Flames player to touch the puck, so he got credit for the goal. In soccer, the rule is different: Smith would have been "credited" with an "own goal."

The Flames' 3-2 lead held, and they won, eliminating the Oilers from the Playoffs. The Flames had lost to the Oilers in the Playoffs in 1983 and 1984, and would again in 1988 and 1991. This remains the only "Battle of Alberta" Playoff series that the Flames have won.

It is the most famous own goal in hockey history, and it produced the most devastating loss in the history of Edmonton sports. Oiler fans were outraged. But, led by Captain and superstar Wayne Gretzky, Smith's teammates stood up for him. The next year, the Oilers rebounded to win the Cup. When taking it from NHL President John Ziegler, Gretzky let Smith be the 2nd Oiler player to lift it, and the crowd at the Coliseum gave him a standing ovation. All was forgiven.

Smith would help the Oilers win the Cup again in 1988 and 1990, remaining with them for 1 more season. He joined the Chicago Blackhawks for the 1991-92 season, and helped them reach the Stanley Cup Finals, where they were swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins. He stayed with the Hawks through 1997, then closed his career with, oddly enough, the Flames, playing for them until 2000.

In 804 regular-season NHL games, he had 72 goals and 303 assists. And he reached 4 Stanley Cup Finals, winning 3. A decent playing career, with one awful moment. He has since worked as an assistant coach with the Flames, the Oilers and the Buffalo Sabres, and a scout with the Blackhawks.

But that one awful moment tends to stand out. Is that fair? Did he really cost the Oilers the 1986 Stanley Cup, and prevent them from matching the 1956-60 Montreal Canadiens' run of 5 straight? Probably not. The Flames went on to reach the 1986 Stanley Cup Finals, where the Canadiens beat them in 5 games. They might have beaten the Oilers, too.

The Oilers had Grant Fuhr in goal; and on defense, Paul Coffey and Kevin Lowe. All 3 were elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. And they had other good defensemen: Lee Fogolin, Charlie Huddy -- and Steve Smith. That defense allowed 25 goals, including 4 in Game 1, 5 in Game 2 (which the Oilers won anyway), 4 in Game 4 (which the Oilers won anyway), and 4 in Game 5 before allowing the calamitous own goal.

And what about the Oilers' offense? This was a team with Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri and Glenn Anderson, all of whom are now in the Hockey Hall of Fame. And yet, they scored only 1 goal at home in Game 1, 2 in Game 3, 1 at home in Game 5, and 2 at home in Game 7. The most potent offense in NHL history, and they didn't get the job done.

And, in a situation like this, it's tempting to say that the side that won was actually better. Certainly, the Flames weren't as talent-laden as the Oilers. But they did sweep their previous Playoff series, against the Winnipeg Jets. They won Games 1 and 5 in Edmonton, before winning this shocking Game 7 in Edmonton. And they won the Conference Final over the St. Louis Blues.

They had Hall-of-Famers Lanny McDonald, Brett Hull, Al MacInnis and Joe Mullen; plus All-Stars Mike Vernon, Joel Otto and Gary Suter; Doug Risebrough, who had won 4 Cups with the Canadiens in the late 1970s; John Tonelli, who had won 4 Cups with the New York Islanders in the early 1980s; and Nick Fotiu, who had reached the Finals with the 1979 New York Rangers.

They did lose the Stanley Cup Finals to the Montreal Canadiens, although 2 of their losses were by 1 goal. And a slightly revamped Flames team beat the Canadiens in the Finals just 3 years later. So it's not like the Oilers lost to an undeserving team.

April 30, 1956: The Boston Celtics Trade for Bill Russell

April 30, 1956, 70 years ago: The NBA Draft is held in New York. With the 1st pick, the Boston Celtics -- having just completed their 1st 10 seasons, and not yet having appeared in an NBA Finals -- selected Tommy Heinsohn, forward from the nearby College of the Holy Cross.

With the 2nd pick, the Rochester Royals selected Sihugo Green, a guard from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. "Si" Green was a decent player, but hardly the kind of star you would expect to go as the 2nd pick overall.

With the 3rd pick, the St. Louis Hawks drafted Bill Russell, a center who had led the University of San Francisco to back-to-back National Championships. It looked like the Hawks had gotten the best player.

But later that day, the Hawks traded the rights to the as-yet-unsigned Russell to the Celtics, for center Ed Macauley and forward Cliff Hagan.

Result: Over the next 13 seasons, Russell would lead the Celtics to 12 NBA Finals, and 11 NBA Championships. The Celtics became the most dominant team in North American sports history -- not winning as many World Championships as Major League Baseball's New York Yankees or the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, but winning more titles in a shorter period of time. 

Meanwhile, the Hawks won just 1 title, and were forced to move out of St. Louis, to Atlanta, where they have been a perennial letdown.

It is the biggest transactional blunder in the NBA's history. How could the Hawks have been so dumb? Well, maybe, they were not as dumb as we've been led to believe. As the biggest star coming out of college basketball, Russell was already believed to be ready to demand big money, which most NBA team owners didn't have. Hawks owner Ben Kerner didn't have it. Celtics owner Walter Brown did, because he also owned his arena, the Boston Garden, and the other team that played there, the NHL's Boston Bruins.

What's more, Brown owned the Ice Capades. At the time, it was a bigger moneymaker than the NBA or the NHL. So was the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. It came to New York every April, and so the Madison Square Garden Corporation gave them choicer dates. This forced the Rangers in 1950, and the Knicks in 1951, to play Finals games on the road, possibly costing them titles.

The Royals had a chance to select Russell, but passed on him. Why? Because Brown made a deal with Royals owner Les Harrison: Select somebody other than Russell, and I'll add Rochester to the Ice Capades' tour. It was an offer Harrison couldn't refuse. (And no heads -- human, horse, or otherwise -- were hurt in the process.)

It was a short-term fix for the Royals. But that's the way the NBA had to operate at the time. A year later, Harrison moved the Royals to Cincinnati. They won the NBA Championship in 1951. Through the 2025-26 season, 75 years later, this franchise, now known as the Sacramento Kings, has never been back to the NBA Finals. But Harrison did what he had to do to stay in business, and that meant giving up a chance at a man who could have become one of the NBA's greatest players ever, and did.

But he might not have. Until Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to 6 NBA Championships -- 3 with Bill Cartwright at center, and 3 with Luc Longley -- it was generally believed that you had to have a really good center, a big man in the middle, to win an NBA Championship.

But until Russell, Mikan was the only big man who was able to lead a team to an NBA title. Until Russell, the NBA's best players had been smaller guys who were good outside shooters, guys like Joe Fulks (1947 Philadelphia Warriors), Buddy Jeannette (1948 Baltimore Bullets), Bob Davies (1951 Rochester Royals), Dolph Schayes (1955 Syracuse Nationals) and Paul Arizin and Tom Gola (1956 Philadelphia Warriors).

Before Russell, there were 3 truly great "big men" in college basketball. Mikan, from DePaul University in Chicago, was one. Another was Bob Kurland of Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State). He never played pro ball, instead taking a job with Phillips Petroleum, with a great benefits package, including playing for their "semipro" team.

And the other was Clyde Lovellette of the University of Kansas. He had a good pro career, winning titles as Mikan's backup on the Lakers, and later as Russell's backup on the Celtics. But he was never a pro star: He's in the Basketball Hall of Fame, but mainly for what he did in college.

But there was, as yet, no model for what kind of college stars would become pro stars. Like I said, the NBA was only 10 years old at this point. In hindsight, Mikan was the model. Russell admitted that Mikan was his idol. Mikan enjoyed being thought of the progenitor of the NBA's big men.

But at the time, he was seen as a freak of nature, a happy accident that the Lakers had gotten their hands on. Big men were considered to be slow. Mikan was a good shooter and a strong rebounder, but he wasn't fast. Bill Mazer, the great New York sportscaster, compared him to a stampeding elephant. Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe, in a 1996 ESPN appearance celebrating the NBA's 50th Anniversary, said that, in the modern game, he would be "a good backup center. Deserved every accolade he got at the time, but he's Greg Kite with a hook shot." 

In 2021, at the NBA's 75th Anniversary; in 1996, at the 50th; in 1971, at the 25th... Russell seemed like the obvious player to both select and hang onto. In 1956, he wasn't the obvious pick to do that. Maybe he should have been, but he wasn't.

Then there's St. Louis to consider. It's not just that the Hawks were far behind baseball's Cardinals in terms of popularity in the city. It's that St. Louis was a racially segregated city, in Missouri, a racially segregated State. Cardinal stars like Bob Gibson and Curt Flood would chafe under the policies that segregation forced, until federal law broke it.

Russell -- who would eventually, very accurately, title his autobiography Memoirs of an Opinionated Man -- might not have adjusted so well, having been a boy in segregated Louisiana, and grown up in noticeably (but not completely) more racially liberal Oakland. He eventually had problems with race relations in Boston. In St. Louis, it might have been worse. As a result, he might not have won all those titles with the Hawks.

Anyway, it's not as if the Hawks blew it completely. In 1957, the Celtics and Hawks each made the NBA Finals for the 1st time. It went to double overtime of Game 7 before the Celtics won it. In 1958, both teams made it back, and Russell hurt his ankle in Game 3, and was out the rest of the way. The Hawks, led by the men traded for the rights to Russell, Hagan and St. Louis native Macauley, as well as Hall-of-Fame forward Bob Pettit, won the title in 6 games.

The 1958 NBA Champions.

Hagan is Number 16, Pettit 9, and Macauley 20.

In 1959, the Minneapolis Lakers won the Western Conference, and lost to the Celtics in the Finals. In 1960 and '61, the Hawks returned to the Finals, and lost to the Celtics both times. Still, at that point, the players the Hawks got for Russell had gotten them into 4 Finals, winning 1. It could have been better, but it was still better than anybody else except the Celtics were doing.

Still, it was a dumb trade. 

April 29, 1996: Kevin Keegan Would Love It If Newcastle Beat Manchester United

April 29, 1996, 30 years ago: Newcastle United defeat Leeds United, 1-0 at Elland Road in Leeds, Yorkshire, to remain in the race for the Premier League title. Newcastle had a huge lead in the table (or, as we would say, the standings) over Manchester United, but had blown it.

In January, "The Toon" -- that's "The Town" in the "Geordie" dialect of the North-East of England -- got knocked out of both the FA Cup and the League Cup. But, as of February 10, they had lost only 3 League games all season, all away: To Southampton, Chelsea, and Manchester United. They were 9 points ahead of Man U, and had a game in hand.

Then came an 8-game stretch where they won 2 (beating West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers at home), drew 1 (away to Manchester city), and lost 5 (away to West Ham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers, and, at home on March 4, 1-0 to Man United). They had now bounced back, winning 3 straight, home to Aston Villa and Southampton, and away to Leeds. Man U now led them by 3 points, although Newcastle still had a game in hand: 2 games remaining, to Man U's 1.

Interviewed on Sky Sports after the Leeds game, Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan, once one of the club's greatest players, went on an epic rant about Man U's manager, the master of mind games, Alex Ferguson. Ferguson stoked tensions when he cast doubt on the commitment of the likes of Leeds and Nottingham Forest to try as hard against Newcastle as they did against his Manchester United team, suggesting that Forest, who were due to play the Magpies for Stuart Pearce's testimonial, might even "let Newcastle win."

Keegan was incensed, and, when the opportunity arose after his side's hard-fought win over Leeds, he could not contain his fury:

When you do that with footballers, like he said about Leeds, and when you do things like that about a man like Stuart Pearce, I've kept really quiet, but I'll tell you something, he went down in my estimation when he said that.

We have not resorted to that, but I'll tell you, you can tell him now if you're watching it, we're still fighting for this title, and he's got to go to Middlesbrough and get something, and -- and -- I'll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them, love it!

Pretty much everybody who didn't love Man United loved hearing him say it. But pretty much everybody, regardless of how they felt about Man United, thought that King Kev had fallen victim to Fergie's mind games -- that he had, as they say in England, "lost the plot."

On May 2, Newcastle went to the City Ground in Nottingham, and could only manage a 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest, handing the League title to the idle Man United. On May 5, at home at St. James' Park, they closed the season by drawing 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur, while Man United beat Middlesbrough, 3-0 at the Riverside Stadium.

United won the title by 4 points, and went on to win "The Double" by winning the FA Cup Final on May 11, beating Liverpool, 1-0 at Wembley Stadium in West London. But it wouldn't have mattered if Newcastle had won those last 2 games, giving them 82 points, the same number as United: United would have won the title on the 1st tiebreaker, goal difference, +38 to +29 -- or, more accurately, +31, had Newcastle won those last 2 games by 1 goal each.

They would have needed a net improvement of 10 goals over those last 2 games to win the title, unless United had dropped points at Middlesbrough, who were in 12th place. Barring a tremendous upset by Boro, the title had already been lost in that February 21 to April 8 run.

Keegan was one of the great British soccer players of his generation, but he never reached the same heights as a manager. For many fans, this postgame rant symbolized his time as a field boss. And this was before the American football coaches Jim Mora, Herman Edwards and Dennis Green did their famous press conference rants. (Respectively: "Playoffs?" "You play to win the game!" and "They are who we thought they were!") 

All Right, You Primitive Screwheads...

In the words of the immortal Bruce Campbell, playing Ash Williams in the 1993 film Army of Darkness...

All right, you primitive screwheads, listen up!

An innocent man does whatever it takes to prove his innocence. He does not do whatever it takes to gain immunity from prosecution.

A President who has just faced an assassination attempt does not worry about his shoes, pump his fist, yell, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" or promote a ballroom project. A President who staged an assassination attempt does that.

When people tell you, "The Supreme Court is on the ballot," believe them.

Bernie Sanders was not robbed by the Democratic National Committee. Quite the opposite: Just by letting him into their Primaries, they bent over backwards to accommodate him. He wasn't robbed by the DNC. He was rejected by Democratic voters, who knew that he had been talking trash about their Party for half a century.

What Israel is doing is Gaza is bad, but it is not genocide. It is in response to an act of genocide.

What Russia is attempting in Ukraine is an attempt to not only conquer the country, but to wipe out its culture and impose its own. That is genocide.

The new Yankee Stadium is not a "little league park." The proof of this is that the Yankees can hit anywhere.

Derek Jeter was an excellent defensive shortstop. Your "defensive metrics" are meaningless.

Large amounts of money were never going to be enough to save the Mets.

"Wins Above Replacement" has no value. Actual winning has value.

No one has ever proven that Roger Clemens used steroids, and David Ortiz and Barry Bonds did each fail a steroid test.

The two biggest wastes of time that ESPN covers happen practically back-to-back: The Masters and the NFL Draft.

Aaron Rodgers may still be talented, but in the ways that matter, he is a bum.

The Liberty Mutual commercials -- both the ones at the Statue of Liberty and the LiMu Emu & Doug ads -- have run their course, and it's time to retire them.

Speaking of TV commercials: If it takes longer to mention the side effects of a drug than its benefits, and you need people to dance in your commercial, it's time to pull the drug. And the commercial. And do more testing on both.

That said, Zepbound has worked for me. I've lost 20 pounds. That said, I don't know if it, or any other drug, is right for you. Talk to your doctor.

Charles Barkley has lost over 100 pounds on a different GLP-1 drug, but just because a celebrity uses a product doesn't mean it's good. Shaquille O'Neal endorses Icy Hot, but it did nothing for me.

East Brunswick needs a Wegmans. I'll settle for New Brunswick, North Brunswick, Sayreville or Old Bridge. Manalapan, Woodbridge, Bridgewater and West Windsor are just too far.

It's "I couldn't care less," not "I could care less."

 
The past tense of "slay" is "slew," not "slayed."
 
Some of you literally don't know what "literally" means.
 
I'll relax when I'm ready. Telling me to relax makes me less relaxed.
 
And Dunkin tastes better than Starbucks. And it's cheaper, too.

As you were!