New York Tri-State Area Sports: Dysfunction Junction, Winter 2019 Edition

Here are the 12 major league sports teams of the New York Tri-State Area, ranked in ascending order of current dysfunction:

12. New York Red Bulls.

The Good: For the 3rd time, all in the last 6 years, Metro won the Supporters' Shield for best MLS regular-season record, advanced to the Conference Finals, and qualified for the 2019 edition of the CONCACAF Champions League. This was a good performance by rookie manager Chris Armas.

Bradley Wright-Phillips continues to be a goal machine like his father, Arsenal legend Ian Wright. Luis Robles may be the best goalkeeper in the league. Kemar Lawrence and Alex Muyl have become genuine stars (by MLS standards). And work is well underway on the new Harrison PATH station, which should open during the 2019 season, eliminating what is, in a practical sense, the biggest Red Bulls problem.

The Bad: Metro still can't win the MLS Cup. In the last 4 seasons, 4 different teams, none of which played in MLS earlier than 2007, won it, leapfrogging the Red Bulls in MLS history. Also, attendance dropped to 18,601 fans per home game, a drop of over 2,500 from 2017.


Dysfunction Level: 4. It's more frustration than dysfunction. There may be less "wrong" with the Red Bulls than with any other team in the NYTSA. There are some teams here that would love to be no worse off than that.

11. New Jersey Devils.

The Good: GM Ray Shero and head coach John Hynes have the Mulberry Street Marauders much-improved. The Devils made the Playoffs last season, for the 1st time in 6 seasons, and while they are not currently in position for a Playoff berth this season, they have improved over the last week or so.

Captain Andy Greene, goaltender Keith Kinkaid, Travis Zajac and Brian Boyle provide talent and veteran leadership. Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier have already come good. The passion, missing for so long, seems to be back.

The ownership and finance issues, which for the 2nd time in 19 years raised the possibility (even with the Prudential Center) of the NHL allowing the Devils to be moved out of the Tri-State Area, have been put to rest. The arena situation is settled for the next 50 years: While we don't know how far, as far as the Playoffs are concerned (if at all), the team is going, the franchise isn't going anywhere.

The Bad: Despite clear improvement, the Devils have not proven anything yet. While not the fool that Peter DeBoer is, Hynes isn't exactly the most inspiring of bench bosses. And what was true in early 2004 is still true, 15 years later: There's no Scott Stevens on the team -- no great defender, no enforcer, no guy who will tell his own teammates that what they're doing is not good enough. Stevens was all 3, but they don't have any 1 of those.

Dysfunction Level: 5. The question marks are considerably fewer, but those that are left are looking a lot bigger. Like the Islanders, the Devils are no longer bad, but they still haven't shown that they are good enough to make a serious challenge for the Stanley Cup. This is in contrast to the Rangers, who have shown that they can make such a challenge -- but not that they can complete it.

10. New York Yankees. 

The Good: Aaron Boone seems to manage less with a binder and a pitch count than did Joe Girardi. There's great young talent in Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Didi Gregorius, Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar and Aaron Hicks.

The starting pitching is improved, with Luis Severino having come good, Masahiro Tanaka having straightened out, and CC Sabathia and J.A. Happ still have it. The bullpen is anchored by Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, and the returned David Robertson -- who, between them, mean that we don't have to count on any one of them as the closer. The stadium situation is settled for the next 50 years.

The Bad: The Yankees still need another starting pitcher. Even if Jordan Montgomery comes back from Tommy John surgery, and is as good as he was before, CC and J.A. aren't getting any younger, and CC is retiring after this season, so we may need 2 more starting pitchers. James Paxton could be one. So could Jonathan Loaisiga. But it's time to give up on Sonny Gray.

Greg Bird, once part  of that "great young talent," has been reduced to an injury-riddled question mark. Didi will be out for possibly the 1st half of the season, which means either Torres will move over to his natural position of shortstop, and we won't have a 2nd baseman, because Brian Cashman let Neil Walker and Ronald Torreyes go; or Torres will stay at 2nd, in which case we won't have a shortstop.

And after Chapman, Betances and Robertson, the bullpen is full of question marks: Chad Green, Luis Cessa, Tommy Kahnle, Ben Heller, Jonathan Holder and Chance Adams.

And, yes, Cashman is still in charge. How do we know he won't do something stupid again, like trade Judge, Sanchez, or Severino -- or Chapman again, or Robertson again -- for 25 teenagers who might never make the major leagues? If only we had a general manager willing to do whatever it takes within the rules to win the Pennant.

Oh yeah: The Boston Red Sox have one -- and, as we've seen, that team is willing to do anything to win, regardless of the rules.

Dysfunction Level: 6. Never has a team making the MLB Playoffs in 3 of the last 4 years been so riddled with problems.

9. New York City Football Club.

The Good: They finished 3rd in the Eastern Conference, and drew 23,211 fans per game, more than the Red Bulls. They have Barcelona legend David Villa. They have the billions of petrodollars of the Emirati royal family behind them, and can tap into the resources of their parent club, Manchester City.

The Bad: They finished a whopping 15 points behind the Red Bulls in the table. They got a 1-1-1 split with them in the League, but that included a 4-0 demolition. It did not include another 4-0 demolition by Metro that knocked City out of the U.S. Open Cup, so, in the 4 games, Metro outscored City 9-2.

Domenec Torrent did not prove himself a good manager. City beat the Philadelphia Union in the 1st round of the Playoffs, then lost to Atlanta United (who then beat Metro in the Conference Final).

Their attendance looks great when you say that their home field has a seating capacity of 28,743, but who's kidding who? It's Yankee Stadium: Not only are they playing in a place that was built for another sport, and in which they are the 2nd-most important team -- second-class "Cityzens," if you will -- but the actual soccer capacity is 49,474 (which I know, because I was in a crowd of that size for the 2012 Real Madrid-AC Milan match there). 23,211 doesn't even half-fill The Stadium. 

And let's not forget that they don't even know where they're going to be playing. They weren't forced out of Yankee Stadium this year, the way they were twice last year, once to Citi Field and once over 100 miles away to East Hartford, Connecticut. But they still can't get a deal for a site for their own stadium. The Bronx? Queens? Long Island? Westchester? It seems that nobody wants them.

Dysfunction Level: 6. Most of that is off the field. But even on the field, they're not exactly living up to their expectations.

8. New York Islanders.

The Good: The Isles are playing decently, and if the current standings were to turn out to be the final standings, they would be tied for the 7th Playoff spot in the NHL's Eastern Conference. They lured Barry Trotz, the head coach of last year's Stanley Cup winners, away to build a winner. And their general manager is Lou Lamoriello, who built the Devils' 3 Stanley Cup winners.

More than that, they look from the top down like they know what they're doing. They seem to have sound management in place in owner Charles Wang, GM Garth Snow and head coach Doug Weight. They have good young players that the fans believe in, led by captain John Tavares. They've got a little Playoff experience.

And the arena situation is settled: The Isles will split their time between the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the renovated Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale until the Belmont Park Arena can open in Elmont, probably in the Autumn of 2021.

The Bad: They haven't proven anything yet. Said Playoff experience is minimal. This is a team that, since the players from their early 1980s dynasty got old in the late 1980s, has never enjoyed prosperity for long, so their current good form could well be a mirage. And the reason they have Trotz and Lou Lam is that they just had to replace both the head coach and the GM. Again. And Lou hasn't built a good team since the Devils' 2012 Conference Champions: His last few Devils teams were weak, and he didn't do much with the Toronto Maple Leafs in between. His magic may be gone. 

Case in point: Name a good player on the current Islander team. If you said John Tavares, you may have forgotten that he signed with the Leafs. I know it doesn't work that way, but, essentially, the Isles traded their best player for a Hall of Fame GM who may be past it.

Dysfunction Level: 6. Had the arena situation not been settled, this would be at least a 7.

7. New York Mets.

The Good: The Mets were 77-85, 7 games better than in 2017. Manager Mickey Callaway took some heat this season, but he deserves credit for having gotten them this far. GM Sandy Alderson remains committed to building a winner in Flushing Meadow.

They still have Yoenis Cespedes, Michael Conforto and Travis d'Arnaud to hit; and Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz to pitch. The David Wright saga has finally been settled. And the stadium situation is settled for at least the next 50 years.

The Bad: The David Wright saga has been settled, but not in the Mets' favor. They have so many injury-prone players. They no longer have Matt Harvey, and he wasn't doing them much good, anyway. And can deGrom possibly give the Mets another season of a 1.70 ERA? And remain healthy? And can they hit for him, so he doesn't go only 10-9 despite his great performance?

Dysfunction Level: 6. By Met standards, that's not that bad.

6. Brooklyn Nets.

The Good: Significant improvement. They are 19-21, 2 games under .500, but good enough for the 7th seed in the East if the current standings hold to the end of the season. They have D'Angelo Russell, Jaret Allen, Caris LeVert and Spencer Dinwiddie.

Kenny Atkinson isn't a terrible coach. Sean Marks is a decent general manager. The arena situation is settled for the next 50 years. And... um... well, the Knicks, regardless of whether they're good or bad, are always big enough news to be a distraction.

The Bad: They still haven't made the Playoffs in the last 3 seasons, and in only 3 of the last 11, with a grand total of 1 series win in that span. By the standards that Mikhail Prokhorov set when he bought the team, this is unacceptable, especially since this is now his 9th year as majority owner, and their 7th season as the lead team in their arena. And, despite Brooklyn's reputation as a basketball hotbed, the Nets' average attendance is only 14,069, dead last in the league.

Dysfunction Level: 6. Indeed, like part-owner Jay-Z once claimed for himself, the Nets may well have 99 problems.

5. New York Rangers.

The Good: They have genuine stars in Marc Staal, Mats Zuccarello, Chris Kreider and Henrik Lundqvist. They're battle-tested, having gotten to a Stanley Cup Finals 5 seasons ago and 2 other Eastern Conference Finals, 4 and 7 years ago. At 36, Lundqvist is their oldest player, so they're a fairly young team. And they're financially stable: Whatever their problems, they will never have to sell players to make payroll or rent.

The Bad: Charles Dolan is still letting his son James be the operating owner, which is also the biggest problem with the Knicks. David Quinn has yet to prove anything as a head coach. Same for Jeff Gorton as general manager. Lundqvist is still a choker when it counts, and only an idiot would call him a "king." Not to mention that he'll be 37 when the regular season ends, so his window of opportunity to win a Stanley Cup may be closing.

If the current standings hold to the end of the season, the Rangers would be the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference, out of the Playoffs. And even that is an improvement over last season, when they finished 15th, dead last in the Conference.

And when they have made the Playoffs, the whole team showed a lack of heart in their losses. For all the talent that the Rangers have had since the 1994 Stanley Cup, in 25 years -- yes, a quarter of a century -- they have proven very little: The only banners they've hung in that stretch are a Division title in 2012 and the Conference title from 2014.

And the arena situation is up in the air for the Rangers and Knicks: The current Madison Square Garden's lease is up in 2023, and the City government wants a new Penn Station on the site of the Farley Post Office (across 8th Avenue from the current Garden and Station) very, very, very, very badly. And, having just spent more money to "transform" The Garden than (even with inflation factored in) it took to build the thing from scratch in the 1960s, even though they can afford to start all over again, the Dolans are not keen on having to do so -- which they might have to do within the next couple of years, given how long it generally takes to get sports buildings erected around here.

Still, even with the Garden question unsettled, the Rangers are better off than most teams in the Area. Dysfunction Level: 7. If we knew what was going to happen with The Garden, this would be no more than a 5.

4. New York Liberty.

The Good: Not much. They're a young team, with an average age of 26 1/2, and their oldest player, Shavonte Zellous, is only 32. With Tina Charles, Epiphanny Prince and Kia Vaughn, they have 3 of the best players in the league. And, best of all, if they do poorly, hardly anybody cares.

The Bad: No matter what they do, hardly anybody cares. The WNBA started with so much hope, but has become a complete afterthought. And they have done poorly: At 7-27, they were just 1 game better than the worst record in the league in 2018.

Katie Smith, a former star player for the Liberty, is now the head coach. She spent 4 years as Bill Laimbeer's assistant after retiring as a player, but she has not yet shown herself to be up to the job.

In 22 seasons of play, they have still never won a WNBA Championship. They haven't even reached the Finals in 15 years. And they're well out of The City, playing at the Westchester County Center in White Plains. It was built in 1930, and there's a difference between being historic and being just plain old. I get that they can't fill the 19,000 seats of Madison Square Garden, but the WCC only seats 5,000, and they can't even fill that.

Dysfunction Level: 7. Their problems are chronic and nagging, and the possibility that they could go under is rising. And, as the WFL and the old NASL proved, if the New York franchise fails, the league fails.

3. New York Knicks. 

The Good: Isiah Thomas, Phil Jackson, Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah? All gone. The team now has Kristaps Porziņģis, Tim Hardaway Jr., Frank Nkitilina and Enes Kanter. Head coach David Fizdale and new general manager Scott Perry seem to know what they're doing. And LeBron James is no longer in the Eastern Conference.

The Bad: Porziņģis got hurt late last season, and may miss this entire season as well. The Knicks are 10-29, tied for the 2nd-worst record in the East. And is there any player on the Knick roster, even Porziņģis, likely to make an opponent say, "Aw no, I don't wanna play against him"?

And then, of course, there's the question of where the Knicks are going to play when The Garden's current lease runs out. Can you imagine the Knicks playing a home game anyplace not named Madison Square Garden? Can you imagine the Knicks playing at the Barclays Center? Or in the Prudential Center -- the New York Knickerbockers in New Jersey? If the Dolans and The City don't come to some sort of agreement soon, it may come to that.

Dysfunction Level: 7, which is about as good as the Knicks have been for most of the 21st Century.

2. New York Giants.

The Good: Of all 9 franchises, since getting their house in order in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Giants have given off the greatest continuous aura of competence. Co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch are sound men, and not meddlers. The stadium situation is settled for at least the next 50 years, so there's no danger of the Giants moving.

They were 5-11 this season, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it looked: Of their 11 losses, 7 were by 7 points or less, and 5 were by 3 points or less. With a little more effort, they could have been 8-8; with that, and a little bit of luck, they could have made the Playoffs. Saquon Barkley is already a new NFL star, and Odell Beckham Jr. still is one. 

The Bad: Lots. Until now, general manager Jerry Reese has usually known what he's doing, but doesn't look like it anymore. Head coach Pat Shurmur, in spite of this being his 20th season as an NFL coach at any level, his 4th as a head coach looks every bit as in over his head as the much younger Ben McAdoo was.

I detailed the nature of the 11 losses, but it's worth looking at the 5 wins: Only 1 was by more than 3 points. The Giants may have been 6 touchdowns away from being 11-5, but they were also 4 touchdowns away from being 1-15. They won at home to Philadelphia and Chicago, and away to Houston, all Playoff teams; but also away to Washington, 7-9; and San Francisco, 4-12.

Eli Manning, a sure Hall-of-Famer, no longer looks like a competent quarterback. And the "institutional memory" is pretty much gone: Of the 53 players on the Giants' roster in Super Bowl XLVI, just 7 years ago, only Eli and long-snapper Zak DeOssie remain.

Dysfunction Level: 7. The Giants need work, lots of it. They'd done what's been needed before. But their aura of competence, as I like to put it, is seriously tarnished. This is the most dysfunctional the team has been since the brief Ray Handley era.

And yet, they're still not the most dysfunctional team, or even the most dysfunctional football team, in the Tri-State Area, or even at MetLife Stadium.

1. New York Jets.

The Good: Sam Darnold had a rough 1st season as an NFL quarterback, but he does look competent. Of the Jets' 12 losses, 6 were by 8 points or less. The current rumor is that the next head coach will be Mike McCarthy, who spent the last 13 seasons running the Green Bay Packers, making the Playoffs 9 times, winning 10 postseason games, reaching 4 NFC Championship Games, and winning a Super Bowl. So that's encouraging.

The New England Patriots are still AFC East Champions, but they have looked very mortal since the Philadelphia Eagles smacked in them in last season's Super Bowl. They may only have one more big season in them. And neither the Miami Dolphins nor the Buffalo Bills look like becoming the next team to take over the Division. There will soon be a vacuum, and the role of filling it is up for grabs.

The Bad: The Jets actually went backward, 5-11 to 4-12. They had next to no protection for Darnold. The running game wasn't so hot, either. The defense is about the same -- in other words, not good.

They need a new head coach, and if it's McCarthy, well, the Packers did miss the Playoffs the last 2 seasons, because he could no longer get along with a star quarterback (Aaron Rodgers). Can he get along with Darnold, who is already being treated like a star? So even the candidate with the best resume doesn't look great at the moment.

This week marks 50 years since the Jets played, and won, their one and only Super Bowl. Joe Namath is 75. He deserves to see his team make one more good run at it.

Dysfunction Level: 8. And for the Jets, that's about standard operating procedure.

*

So here's the rankings:

12. Red Bulls, 4 and getting a little better.
11. Devils, 5 and getting a little better.
10. Yankees, 6 and stalling.
9. NYCFC, 6 and stalling.
8. Islanders, 6 and getting a little better.
7. Mets, 6 and getting a little better.
6. Nets, 6 and getting a little better.
5. Rangers, 7 and getting worse.
4. Liberty, 7 and getting worse.
3. Knicks, 7 and stalling.
2. Giants, 7 and getting worse.
1. Jets, 8 and stalling.

If you're a gloryhunter, at the moment, your best bet is the Yankees. But, of all 12 NYTSA teams, only they and the Red Bulls have made their sport's last 4 in the last 3 years. Everybody else -- including the Mets, the last NYTSA team to reach their sport's finals -- is pretty far away.