Stadium & Arena Finales Update

Opening Day: As I type this, One-nil to the Pinstripers, on a cracker of a goal by Nicklas Bendtner.

Sorry, I was "speaking English" there: As I type this, one-nothing Yanks, on a towering drive by Nick Johnson. Now that I've got that out of the way...

Now that the Nets have finally bid adieu to the Meadowlands Arena, I can update this piece that I did following the death of Giants Stadium in January:

Stadium and arena farewells listed here begin with the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the baseball version of the New York Giants in 1957. While I could have mentioned the football Giants’ last game at the Polo Grounds in 1955, nobody really cared. Except maybe baseball Giants owner Horace Stoneham, who sure missed Tim Mara’s rent checks.

Dodgers' last game at Ebbets Field: September 24, 1957, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0. Did not seriously contend for the National League Pennant. Team owner Walter O'Malley may have been the least sentimental person ever involved with New York Tri-State Area sports, and so no closing ceremonies were held. The game was on a Tuesday night, and only 6,702 fans turned out. No Dodger legends were invited, although several of the "Boys of Summer" were still on the squad.

Organist Gladys Gooding, "the only person to 'play' for the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Knicks and New York Rangers," must have ignored any memos she got from Lord Waltermort, because she played several farewell-type songs, such as "Am I Blue." At the game's conclusion, somebody cued up the record of the team's theme song, "Follow the Dodgers," which Gooding wrote. This was in terrible taste, and she knew it, and took it off, and played "Auld Lang Syne." But at least they won, with Danny McDevitt pitching a shutout.

Performance: 9. Ceremony: 1 (and even that 1 is credited to Gooding). Total: 10.

Baseball Giants' last game at the Polo Grounds: September 29, 1957, lost to the Pirates 9-1. Did not seriously contend for the National League Pennant. The same Pirate team that couldn't hit McDevitt pounded the Jints. But at least Stoneham – who infamously said, "I feel sorry for the kids, but I haven't seen too many of their fathers lately" – understood the weight of the moment, and invited back several Giant legends, including Carl Hubbell, Bill Terry and Larry Doyle. Also invited was Blanche McGraw, who said of her husband, "If John were here, this would break his heart." Although he wasn't a retired Giants great, Bobby Thomson had recently been reacquired, and posed for photographers, pointing to the spot where his 1951 "Shot Heard 'Round the World" landed.

Still, only 11,606 came out, many of them singing, to "Good Night Ladies," "We want Stoneham, we want Stoneham, we want Stoneham, with a rope around his neck!"

Performance: 2. Ceremony: 6. Total: 8.

Mets' last game at Polo Grounds: September 18, 1963, lost to the Philadelphia Phillies 5-1. Lost 111 games. Only 1,752 came out to see the last baseball game at 155th Street and 8th Avenue, on the site where professional baseball had been played since 1890, and in that particular stadium since 1911. One Met fan was quoted as saying, "Not many really cared, did they?"

Even the Met organization, including former Giant board members Joan Payson and M. Donald Grant, didn't make an effort to include any New York baseball legends, although Casey Stengel was the manager, and Gil Hodges and Duke Snider were now on the Met roster.

Performance: 2. Ceremony: 0. Total: 2.

Jets' last game at Polo Grounds: December 14, 1963, lost to the Buffalo Bills 19-10. Missed AFL Playoffs. In their first year as the Jets, after 3 seasons as the New York Titans, it was the city's AFL outfit that played the last event at the old Harlem Horseshoe.

But they were awful, and the game was nothing to write home about, and there was no ceremony. Why would there be? This was a team in its 4th season, so who were they supposed to bring back, Al Dorow?

Performance: 4. Ceremony: 0. Total: 4.

Knicks' last game at the old Madison Square Garden: February 10, 1968, beat the Philadelphia 76ers 115-97. Lost in East Semis, also to 76ers. This was mere months after Wilt Chamberlain, Hal Greer & Co. won the NBA Title with a then-record 68 wins, so even in the Knicks' own building, beating the Sixers by 18 points was no mean feat. But as far as my research can reveal, there was no ceremony.

Performance: 10. Ceremony: 0. Total: 10.

Rangers' last game at the Old Garden: February 11, 1968, tied the Detroit Red Wings 3-3. Lost in Stanley Cup Quarterfinals to the Chicago Blackhawks. The Wings weren't an especially good team at the time, but they did still have Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio. And, this time, there was a ceremony. Following the game, there was a "final skate," featuring NHL legends, and not just from the Rangers: There was the still-active Howe, Montreal god Maurice Richard, even Boston old-timer Eddie Shore.

I can’t find any word as to whether any New York Americans were invited. Some should have been, as the Old Garden was their house – and it was theirs first, in 1925-26, and it was their success that season (at the box office, anyway) that led to the creation of Garden owner/promoter George "Tex" Rickard's team, "Tex's Rangers."

Performance: 5. Ceremony: 9. Total: 14. In this instance, the Rangers most certainly did not suck.

Giants' last game at Yankee Stadium: September 23, 1973, tied the Philadelphia Eagles 23-23. Missed NFC Playoffs. With all the recriminations between Giants owner Wellington Mara and New York Mayor John Lindsay – leading to Lindsay not allowing the Giants to use City-owned Shea Stadium until the Meadowlands could be ready, forcing them to spend the remainder of '73 and all of '74 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven – it was probably for the best that there was no ceremony.

There was, however, a ceremony with Giant greats at the Giants Stadium opener in 1976. Lindsay's successor, Mayor Abe Beame, let the Giants play at Shea in '75, along with the Mets, Jets and temporarily exiled Yankees, but I'm not including the Yanks' and Giants' Shea farewells, especially since both later played regular-season games at Shea.

As for the Giants' Yankee Stadium farewell: Performance: 5. Ceremony: 0. Total: 5.

Yankees' last game at pre-renovation Yankee Stadium: September 30, 1973, lost to the Detroit Tigers 7-5. Were in Playoff contention until August. Not much of a game, and not much of a ceremony. About all the Yankees did was pull up home plate, to give to Claire Ruth, and 1st base, to give to Eleanor Gehrig.

They did, however, invite a lot of big names to that season's Opening Day, as it was The Stadium's 50th Anniversary; and to the Stadium's reopening in 1976. Both times, the first ball was thrown out by Bob Shawkey, who started and won the 1st game at The Stadium in 1923.

At the '76 opener, guests included Mrs. Gehrig (Mrs. Ruth was dying and unable to attend), Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, football Giants star Frank Gifford, and Joe Louis, who defended the heavyweight title at The Stadium several times, most notably against Max Schmeling. But if The Stadium in 1923 opened with a bang (from the bat of the Babe), in '73 it closed with a whimper. 

Performance: 3. Ceremony: 0. Total: 3.

Nets' last game at the Nassau Coliseum: April 1, 1977, lost to the Indiana Pacers 89-88. Missed Playoffs, and at 22-60 went from being the final ABA Champions to having the worst record in the NBA in just one season – which is what happens when you have to sell the ABA's best player, Julius Erving, to pay the Knicks a $4.8 million territorial indemnity fee, on top of the $3.2 million they had to pay to get into the NBA in the first place. That's $8 million, or over $30 million in 2010 dollars.

There was little point in saying goodbye to the squat little building on the Hempstead Turnpike, although they almost won the game, and it was appropriate that their last game as the New York Nets was against the other team that could have been called the pride of the ABA: Between the two of them, the Nets and Pacers played in 6 of the 9 ABA Finals, including the 1972 Finals against each other (the Pacers won).

Performance: 4. Ceremony: 0. Total: 4.

Nets' last game at the Rutgers Athletic Center: March 28, 1981, lost to the New York Knicks 90-88. Missed the NBA Playoffs, with a horrible 24-58. They did come close to winning the game and beating the team that should have been their arch-rivals, and they did get better the next season, starting their Meadowlands tenure with 5 straight Playoff seasons. But they didn't really show it here, and there was no ceremony to mark their leaving of the building now known as the Louis Brown Athletic Center (but still usually called "The RAC," pronounced "rack"), on RU's Livingston Campus in Piscataway. Performance: 4. Ceremony: 0. Total: 4.

Jets' last game at Shea Stadium: December 10, 1983, lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-7. Missed AFC Playoffs. The Jets did hold a ceremony with former greats, including Joe Namath, but this frigid finale was more notable as the last NFL game for Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw.

Performance: 1. Ceremony: 6. Total: 7.

Devils' last game at Meadowlands/Brendan Byrne/Continental Airlines Arena: Regular Season, April 8, 2007, lost to the New York Islanders 3-2; Playoffs, May 5, 2007, Game 5 of NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals, lost to the Ottawa Senators 3-2. The Devils are the only Tri-State Area team ever to have an official farewell knowing they were going to play at least one home Playoff game in the building.

After 25 years in the arena soon to be renamed the Izod Center, the Devils didn't have a whole lot of "greats," but the 3 Stanley Cup teams did give them plenty of names to bring back, including Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko and John MacLean. A few other big Devils names couldn't make it, as they were still playing, such as Scott Niedermayer, Brian Rafalski, and, ugh, Scott Gomez. (Did I mention that the Rangers suck? Well, they do.)

The Devils opened their history with a home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but it was somewhat appropriate that the regular-season finale was against the NHL's superteam of the early 1980s, the Isles, who stunk in the late 2000s, but, for whatever reason, usually managed to beat the Devils. It didn't matter that much, since there were still Playoffs to be held, and while the Devils did beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the Playoffs, those pesky Senators filibustered their season to death.

Performance (actual finale): 3. Ceremony (official finale): 6. Total: 9.

Yankees' last game at the old Yankee Stadium: September 21, 2008, beat the Baltimore Orioles 7-3. Stayed in contention for the Playoffs until just before then, and officially eliminated in their next game.

The ceremony brought back Yankees dating back to 1947 with Yogi Berra. Although the actors portraying Babe Ruth and the rest of the 1923 Stadium-openers was a tacky touch, the guy playing Casey Stengel, complete with mismatched socks, was a hoot. It was the 1st time I'd ever seen all 3 Stadium perfect game pitchers (Don Larsen, David Wells and David Cone) together. Whitey, Reggie, Guidry, O'Neill, and the huge ovation for the last announced former star, Bernie.

It was very nice to bring back the widows of Phil Rizzuto, Thurman Munson and Catfish Hunter, the daughter of Elston Howard, the sons of Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin and Roger Maris, and the family of Bobby Murcer. Especially the Murcers: Bobby had died shortly before that season's Old-Timers' Day, and it was too soon for them to come back, the wound still too fresh, so this was the right way for the fans to say goodbye and thank you. Anybody who wasn't touched by David Mantle hugging Kay Murcer in center field, and by Mariano Rivera escorting Cora Rizzuto out to shortstop, has no heart.

The Babe's 91-year-old daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens, throwing out the first pitch to the injured Jorge Posada (had to work him into the ceremony somehow) was a nice touch. The Yankees won the game, although it was touch-and-go for a while. Derek Jeter's short speech after the final game was a proper sendoff.

I was actually glad that the Yanks hadn't made the Playoffs, to take the suspense away – see the next entry. Performance: 9. Ceremony: 10. Total: 19.

Mets' last game at Shea Stadium: September 28, 2008, lost to the Florida Marlins 4-2. As a result, for the second straight season, they missed the Playoffs due to losing a season finale. Had the Mets won that day, or the Milwaukee Brewers lost, there would have been a 163rd game, and it would have been at Shea the next day. Instead, well, what did you expect: They're the Mets!

The postgame ceremony was nice, with most of the living '69 Mets, and most of the '86 Mets, on hand, though it’s still hard to think of Yogi and Willie Mays as Mets. And what about who wasn't there? Rest in peace Mrs. Payson, Casey, Gil, Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy, Tommie Agee and Tug McGraw; but Davey Johnson, the only living human to lead the Mets to a World Series win; and Mookie Wilson, one of the most popular Mets ever, and the man who made the Game 6 win happen. Compared to that, Dave Kingman was a poor substitute.

Tom Seaver couldn't reach the plate to get the last pitch to Mike Piazza. I realize he was 64, but Julia Stevens wasn't that much further off the plate a week earlier, and she was 91! (Seaver did throw a perfect strike to Piazza for the Citi Field opener, though.)

And what was with that walk out to the center field fence? I understand that Seaver represents the 1969 and 1973 memories, and Piazza 1999 and 2000. But there was no representative of 1986. The right way to do it would have been to have Seaver, the team's 1st Hall-of-Famer, flanked by Gary Carter, the team's 2nd HOFer, and Piazza, who will likely be the team's 3rd HOFer (unless it ends up being proven that he was yet another steroid freak). You would have had the '69 and '73 postseasons, with the '86 and '88 postseasons on one side and the '99 and '00 postseasons on the other. What about 2006? I guess the wound from Yadier Molina, and the fact that the '06 Mets were roughly the same teams that shredded their fans' hearts in '07 and '08, were still too fresh to have anyone represent them at the end.

Performance: 2. Ceremony: 6. Total: 8.

Giants' last game at Giants Stadium: December 27, 2009, lost to the Carolina Panthers 41-9. As a result, missed the NFC Playoffs. (They still would've needed to win the next week, which they didn't.) Despite having brought back several greats from the 1976 to 2009 era, the current G-Men dropped a major league stink bomb – as if the Meadowlands area needed any more bad smells. 

Performance: 0. Ceremony: 5. Total: 5.

Jets' last game at Giants Stadium: January 3, 2010, beat the Cincinnati Bengals 37-0. As a result, made the AFC Playoffs, where they got as far as the AFC Championship Game before losing to the Indianapolis Colts. Granted, the Bengals didn't exactly put up much of a fight, but, still, thirty-seven to nothing. This was the kind of game the Giants should have put up in their Giants Stadium finale.

Now, the Jets' years at Giants Stadium, 1984 to 2009, contained some great memories (Jets 51, Dolphins 46 in '86; Parcells' '98 masterwork; the Monday Night Miracle in 2000; Herman Edwards bringing them back from the brink with "You play to win the game!" for the '02 Division Title; the beginning of the Mark Sanchez era). But they also contained some disasters (Dan Marino's fake spike comes to mind), and, let's face it, Giants Stadium was never the Jets' home – not even when they were the official home team in games against the Big Blue Wrecking Crew. The new stadium that opens next door will officially be just as much Gang Green’s home, if for no other reason than it won't have another team's name on it. (Although that's not why the Giants left Yankee Stadium).

The Jets brought back a few members of the New York Sack Exchange, plus Wesley Walker, Freeman McNeil, Al Toon, Wayne Chrebet and Curtis Martin. They even brought back some Shea guys like Namath. But the best thing the Jets ever did at Giants Stadium was get the hell out – and they went out in a blaze of glory. (They needed a blaze of something, because it was an icebox that night!)

Performance: 10. Ceremony: 7. Total: 17.

Nets' last game at the Meadowlands/Brendan Byrne Arena/Continental Airlines Arena/Izod Center: April 12, 2010, lost to the Charlotte Bobcats, 105-95. Missed Playoffs due to the worst season any Tri-State Area NBA team has ever had. There was no ceremony; hopefully, there will be something in 2 years when they play their last game in New Jersey, at the Prudential.

Performance: 4. Ceremony: 0. Total: 4.

*

1. 2008 Yankees 19
2. 2009 Jets 17
3. 1968 Rangers 14
4. 1968 Knicks 10
5. 1957 Dodgers 10
6. 2007 Devils 9
7. 2008 Mets 8
8. 1957 Giants (B) 8
9. 1983 Jets 7
10. 2009 Giants 5
11. 1973 Giants 5
12. 2010 Nets 4
13. 1977 Nets 4
14. 1981 Nets 4
15. 1963 Jets 4
16. 1973 Yankees 3
17. 1963 Mets 2

The Islanders are the only one of the Tri-State Area's 9 major league teams still playing in their original building, and if the 'Lighthouse Project' ever moves forward, they will remain in the Nassau Coliseum for the foreseeable future. If it doesn't, there is a chance they'll move into the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and once again share a building with the Nets. Of course, that thing has to get built first. Newark is a basketball town, Seton Hall University draws well there, and the Nets would probably sell out The Rock more than the Devils do.

I wonder what the Nets will do when they finally get the Barclays Center nearly ready to go, and can officially, finally, schedule their last home game in New Jersey – which, presumably, won’t be a Playoff game, even if it takes another 5 years to leave the old barn at Exit 16W. I wonder if new owner Mikhail Prokhorov will care enough to bring back Buck Williams, Mike Gminski and Albert King?

Who knows, by the time the damn thing is finally built at Atlantic Yards, the Nets will be able to bring to the Meadowlands finale Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson – they might all be retired, and I don't mean early due to injury. This team has already been a lame duck franchise longer than the Montreal Expos were (5 years as opposed to 4). The New Jersey Nets can’t even die with dignity.

Then again, neither did Shea Stadium. At least organist Gladys Gooding tried to host a proper funeral for Ebbets Field.

Nets Out of Izod, Yanks Back Home

So the New Jersey Nets will never stink up the Meadowlands again. Or vice versa.

They lost last night, 105-95, to fall to 12-69, at the building now known as the Izod Center, in front of a crowd announced at 14,118. That many? In the immortal words of North Jersey native Jim Bouton, "Yeah, surrrre!"

Larry Brown was the Nets' coach in their 1st game in the Brendan Byrne Arena, on October 30, 1981, a 103-99 loss to the New York Knicks. Brown was the Bobcats' coach in the last Nets game at the big drafty barn on Exit 16W -- and, once again, has worked his magic, taking what was essentially still an expansion team to their 1st Playoff berth, just as he took the Nets to back-to-back Playoff berths in 1982 and '83.

Next season, the Nets move into the Prudential Center for 2 years. I wonder, when the new Russkie owner sees the big crowds, will he stay?

UPDATE: There weren't big crowds, and he still made the move to Brooklyn.

*

The Yankees are amazed at what's left of the old Yankee Stadium as they return home: Not much.

It will be very hard for me to see my 1st live Yankee game of this new season, with my old playpen in ruins.

Then I'll compose myself, and watch the Yankees win again.

Angels, Matsui, rings, Pennant, Bernie Williams throwing out the first ball, and all that jazz. (No, we're not playing Chicago. Though I wouldn't mind if Catherine Zeta-Jones took a break from appearing with Angela Lansbury in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music and took in a game at the new Stadium.)

Andy Pettitte starts against Who Cares. Play Ball.

Lefty Beats Tomcat

I hate golf, but I'm glad Phil Mickelson won the Masters. I just hope that, with all that he and his family have gone through, Sports Illustrated does not make him its Sportsman of the Year. They'd have to put his entire family on the cover with him, and they do NOT need The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx.

So, Tomcat Woods... Did you learn anything?

I wonder if the right-wingers, with their hypocritical braying about "family values," will use the white family man Phil Mickelson as an example of a "good American," and the black/multi-racial/foreign mother/cheating-on-his-wife Tiger Woods as an example of a "bad American."

I hope they do. Because it means they'll be cheering a man whose nickname is "Lefty," and then they'll really look like a bunch of morons. Because they've done things even worse than what Tiger has done, from cheating on Elin to desecrating his own father's memory with that commercial. Tiger has hurt people, a lot of people, but he hasn't hurt this country the way the wingnuts have.

In the Daily News this weekend, both Bill Gallo and Mike Lupica ripped Tiger for comparing his comeback to that of Ben Hogan, whose car was hit by a Greyhound bus in 1949, then he came back and won the Masters in 1951.

As Gallo, who actually knew Hogan, put it, they had one thing in common: Both were driving Cadillacs when they crashed.

Hogan threw himself in front of his wife to save her life from a bus. Woods repeatedly "threw his wife under the bus."

Imagine... Elin finds out just how bad it was, and she says, "That's it. I'm sick of you sucking up to your sponsors. Time to make a choice, big shot. Dump Nike and Gatorade, or I walk, and take you for half your dough. Either they go, or I go."

Make him choose between her, or his sponsors. Would he say, "Okay, honey, you're right. I'll call my lawyer, and we'll sever the connections in the morning."

Or would he say, "Here's your Samsonite, bitch, what's your hurry?"

If he chooses the former, we'd know that he actually had learned something. And that he actually was sorry.

I wouldn't bet his winnings, or even a plugged nickel, on that, though.

*

So the Yankees won another one yesterday, beating Tampa Bay again. Tonight is their "welcome home dinner," and tomorrow, they host the Angels in their home opener, raising their 27th World Championship banner, and giving out their World Series rings -- including one to Angels DH, last year's World Series MVP, Hideki Matsui. I hope he gets a huge standing ovation.

Seeing the photos of Yankee Stadium, the one I knew, demolished, is heartbreaking. But seeing the footage of Texas Stadium being imploded, I love it.

The Hole Bowl. A stadium with a hole in its head, and fans to match. Cowboy fans liked to say that Texas Stadium had a hole in the roof "so God could look down on his favorite team."

A, The Green Bay Packers only made occasional visits to that dump.

B, If God is such a Cowboy fan, why have they won fewer NFL Championships than the Packers, the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants? True, they started winning Super Bowls in the 1971-72 season... but the Pittsburgh Steelers, also an old team, have won more Super Bowls in that same span, and the San Francisco 49ers as many in a shorter span. Corollary to B: Newsflash, NFL Championships won before the NFL Campionship Game was called the Super Bowl still count. Just as fans of the British equivalent of the Cowboys, Manchester United, refuse to concede the truth that Football League titles won before it became the Premier League count just as much -- and they should, since their team did win a few of those, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s.

C, If God is such a Cowboy fan, why did He not tell "God's Coach," Tom Landry, to get his drug-addicted, boozing, philandering players off the field and into treatment? And why, then, did He let Jerry Jones buy the team, and hire a corrupt college coach, Jimmy Johnson, and turn Texas Stadium into a bigger Sodom & Gomorrah Southwest than Southfork Ranch ever was?

D, Since when can God not look through a stadium's dome?

Cowboy fans = Idiots. Like Man United fans, like Notre Dame fans, like Penn State fans, they are idiots first, and glory-hunting cunts second.

*

Tonight is the Nets' Meadowlands finale. I have the time, and I have the money. Do I really want to go? On WFAN last night, they were joking about whether 500 people would show up at this wake. I don't know, but the Prudential Center seats 18,500 for basketball, and I'll bet you the price of a ticket that the Nets' 1st game there, next November, will sell out, no matter how bad the team still is.

The Devils won the Atlantic Division again. That's their 11th Division Title, all in the last 13 seasons (14 years, minus the 2004-05 cancelled season, thank you Bettman you goddamned troll).

It should be noted, though, that, of the 3 Stanley Cups the Devils have won, only 1, 2003, came when they also finished 1st in their Divison. They finished 3rd, 5th in the Eastern Conference, in 1995; they finished 2nd, 4th in the East, in 2000. On 9 of the first 10 occasions when they won the Division, they did not win the Cup.

Then again, the Rangers would love to have the Devils' problems, wouldn't they? All they had to do to clinch a Playoff berth was hold a 1-0 lead for 13 more minutes, and they fucked it up.

Good. Means the Broadway Boozehounds are off playing golf (and not as well as Lefty and Tomcat), and the Devils get to play the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round. The last time these teams played was in 2004, when the Flyers embarrassed us. Revenge time. Of course, that's probably what the Flyers thought in 2004, as they avenged their ignominious defeats (do the Flyers have any other kind of defeat?) in the Conference Finals of 1995 (Claude Lemieux vs. Ron Hextall) and 2000 (Scott Stevens vs. Eric Lindros).

WFAN is bubbling with anger from Ranger fans, and Met fans. At least Met fans have another 156 games for their team to possibly get out of this hole. Ranger fans? Hell, they're in a hole no matter what their team does.

I'm not saying that the Rangers suck... then again, it doesn't matter whether or not I say it, does it?

Yeah, I know, that last link is from the Islanders. Well, they have some taste.

You know what, yes, I am saying it: RANGERS SUCK!

Hard to Justify "What Ifs" with the Nets

Man, the Spurs suck. They suck so much, they can't even beat the New Jersey Nets anymore!

I hope I have some English fans reading this, so that they think that, by "Spurs," I mean Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, a.k.a. "Spurs," or, as they're known to my fellow Arsenal fans, "The Fucking Spurs," "The Scum" or "The Spuds."

(They're also known, due to an alleged Jewish fan base, by some anti-Semitic nicknames that I won't print here. Though they have no moral high ground, as they have some of the most notorious hooligans in the world. Ask fans of Rotterdam-based Feyenoord, along with Ajax Amsterdam and PSV Eindhoven one of the big three of Dutch soccer: They've got a pretty nasty firm as well, and from European competition dating back to the 1970s, they think Spurs fans go too far.)

No, I mean the San Antonio Spurs, winners of 4 NBA Championships since 1999, and, like the Nets, one of the four teams absorbed from the American Basketball Assocation in the 1976 merger. (The other two are the Indiana Pacers and the Denver Nuggets.)

The last NBA game I saw live was on March 2, 2008, when the Nets hosted the Spurs, and, despite holding tough much of the way, lost 93-83. To make matters worse, the Nets have rapper-business mogul Jay-Z as a co-owner, and the Spurs have Tony Parker as a player, and neither Mrs. -Z, singer-actress Beyonce Knowles, nor Mrs. Parker, the non-singing actress Eva Longoria, appeared to be sitting courtside. (Scott Clark's sports report on that night's Channel 7 Eyewitness News did show Eva, but not Beyonce.) That night, the Spurs, led by Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Parker, pretty much did as they pleased against the Nets.

Not last night: The Nets beat the Spurs, 90-84, to reach a record of 10-64 on the season. Pathetic, yes, but that 10th win means they will not finish with the worst, or tied for the worst, single-season won-lost record in NBA history. In the 1972-73 season, the Philadelphia 76ers, not that long before and not that long until they were again one of the league's top teams, finished 9-73.

The Nets have now won 3 of their last 4, and have looked better lately. They have 8 games left in the regular season: Tomorrow night, home to the Phoenix Suns (almost certainly a loss); this Saturday night, home to the New Orleans Hornets (probably a loss); Sunday night, at the Washington Bullets, I mean Washington Wizards (could be a win, the Wizards have injury issues); a week from tomorrow night, in Milwaukee against the Bucks (probably a loss); the following Friday night, home to the Chicago Bulls (probably a loss); the next night, at the Indiana Pacers (probably a loss); the following Monday, against the Charlotte Bobcats (should be a win, as they've beaten the 6th-season-expansion Cats twice this season, although the Cats have clinched their first-ever Playoff berth); and they close it out on Wednesday night, April 14, at the Miami Heat (probably a loss).

If those predictions come to pass, the Nets will finish 12-70, the 4th-worst record since the NBA went to an 82-game schedule. The 1993 Dallas Mavericks and the 1998 Denver Nuggets went 11-71.

*

Monday night, April 12 against Charlotte, will be the last regular-season NBA game, and probably the last-ever regular-season major league sporting event, that will ever be held at the Meadowlands Arena/Brendan Byrne Arena/Continental Airlines Arena/IZOD Center/Swamp/Drafty Old Barn at Exit 16W.

Like a lot of facilities built in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, the 20,089-seat (19,040 seats for hockey) arena at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford was designed to bring one or more major league sports teams into a city/state/region -- or keep it there, to stop it from moving to another place with a new stadium or arena -- and served its purpose. But it is time for the place to go.

That dreary night against San Antonio, when I looked at and heard and felt the Meadowlands Arena for what will almost certainly be the last time, I realized just how much of a gem its replacement, the Prudential Center in downtown Newark, is.

The Nets will play the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons at the Prudential, and then, assuming the Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn is ready, move in there for the 2012-13 season and thereafter, bringing New Jersey's original major league sports team to an end after 35 seasons (1977-2012, and, remember, as long as the Giants and Jets continued to call themselves "New York," they are not "New Jersey teams," no matter where they play their games, practice for their games, or have their corporate offices).

*

My last 3 blog items have been what-ifs about the Mets. Well, I'm not going to do those for the Nets. What could I do?

* What if they'd stayed in Long Island, at the Nassau Coliseum? Staying there, instead of moving to New Jersey -- first to the even more inadequate 9,000-seat Rutgers Athletic Center in 1977 and then to the Meadowlands in 1981 -- wouldn't have helped. They still would've become overshadowed by a great hockey team in their own building. It just would've been the New York Islanders instead of the New Jersey Devils.

* What if they hadn't sold Julius Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers just prior to their entry into the NBA for the 1976-77 season? They would have had to go out of business. They needed that money just to pay the NBA's entry free and a territorial indemnification fee to the Knicks. There was no way around it: It was either the Nets without Dr. J, or no Nets at all. Come to think of it, that might have been a better option.

* What if Micheal Ray Richardson had stayed drug-free? Guess what: He wasn't that good even when he was clean.

* What if they hadn't made some truly awful first-round draft picks over the years? In 1986, it was Dwyane Washington, the Syracuse star who went on to prove that the nickname "the Pearl" should have been retired for Knicks legend Earl Monroe; Dell Curry and Scott Skiles were still available, but with the Nets' luck, they probably would have underachieved in East Rutherford, too.

In 1987, it was Dennis Hopson of Ohio State, when they could have drafted Scottie Pippen, Reggie Miller, Horace Grant, Kevin Johnson or Mark Jackson; but with the Nets' luck, anyone they drafted would have gotten hurt.

In 1989, it was Mookie Blaylock, who helped Oklahoma get to the previous season's National Championship game, and did turn into a good player... after the Nets traded him to the Atlanta Hawks; others available included Tim Hardaway, Dana Barros, Shawn Kemp, B.J. Armstrong, Blue Edwards, Vlade Divac; except for Armstrong (who was very good but only for a short time) and Divac (who played a long time but was frequently injured), all of those guys would eventually, to put it politely, have issues.

In 1993, it was Rex Walters, a sharpshooter who got Kansas into the Final Four, but did next to nothing in New Jersey; the next-best pro career in that draft, after Walters was chosen, was Sam Cassell, whom the Nets briefly got anyway, but didn't get much out of.

In 1994, it was Yinka Dare, the 7-foot-2 Nigerian from George Washington University, who played 3 minutes his first season and became known as the Three-Minute Egg, and eventually set an NBA record for most minutes logged without an assist; but it wasn't a very deep draft, as the best player drafted after Dare was Temple star Aaron McKie, who went on to a servicable career with his hometown 76ers. Actually, the biggest name in that draft was Charlie Ward, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who led Florida State to the National Championship, but went undrafted by the NFL.

In 1995, it was Ed O'Bannon, who'd just led UCLA to the only National Championship it's won under a coach other than John Wooden (Jim Harrick Sr.); it wasn't an especially deep draft, as the guys taken after O'Bannon weren't a whole lot better, though Greg Ostertag was the starting center on two Utah Jazz teams that reached the NBA Finals.

In 1996, it was Kerry Kittles, a very good player from Villanova, but, to paraphrase Nelly Furtado, his game was not MVP like Steve Nash (like Furtado, from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), whom the Nets passed on, along with Peja Stojakovic, Jermaine O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Derek Fisher, Malik Rose, and, oh yeah, Kobe Bryant. Except, if they'd drafted any of those guys, they might not have been able to draft Kenyon Martin or Richard Jefferson, or later trade for Jason Kidd. And, let's face it, if Kobe could have that much of an ego in Los Angeles (and get into that much trouble in Colorado), what could he have done in, for all intents and purposes, New York (with all its accompanying trouble spots, from Times Square all the way down to Atlantic City)?

No, fixing any of those draft picks still might not have helped the Nets; fixing all of them might not have helped. Let's move on:

* What if Kenny Anderson hadn't gotten mugged by that fucking little coward John Starks? I never hated the Knicks before Starks clotheslined Anderson in the nationally-televised (NBC) game at the Meadowlands on February 28, 1993. The Nets destroyed the Knicks, 102-76, at a time when the Knicks were probably at their highest level since their last title in 1973, and also at a time when the Nets being on national TV was a very big deal. But Starks effectively destroyed Anderson's career, knocking him to the floor, breaking his wrist. Before that, Anderson was a nice kid and a very good player; afterward, he was a moody jerk who poisoned the atmosphere of every team crazy enough to acquire him.

* What if Drazen Petrovic hadn't been killed in a car crash after that season? The Nets still made the Playoffs the next season, but got beat 3 games to 1 in the first round. By the Knicks. Then it all fell apart, leading to Derrick Coleman's "Whoop-de-damn-do" remark and his "Waaaaaah!" cover of Sports Illustrated. (The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx? As if the Nets didn't have enough problems! http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/9468/index.htm) Then again, maybe, with Anderson having been turned to the Dark Side, and Coleman following him, maybe a living Petro would've wanted out, too, and the Nets would still have become what they became until the Marbury-for-Kidd trade in 2001.

* What if Bruce Ratner hadn't bought the team and held a fire sale in anticipation of building the Brooklyn arena? Maybe the Nets would have stayed competitive. Maybe they'd still have Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson, if not Kenyon Martin. Then again, Kidd has been one of the moodier pro athletes of his generation, so maybe he would have forced a trade anyway. He brought the Nets to 2 NBA Finals and within 2 wins of an NBA Championship (getting swept by the Lakers in the '02 Finals and losing the '03 Finals to the Spurs in 6), but he's never led any team he's been with any closer than that. Still better for the team, any team, than Stephon Marbury, the man we traded away to get him, has ever been.

That was pretty much it for the Nets. They became a lame-duck team in 2005, when Ratner bought them and announced his plans for the Atlantic Yards project, including the Barclays Center. They have now been a lame-duck team for 5 years; even the Montreal Expos were only one for 4, and it will eventually be 7 years before the move is actually made, unless new owner Mikhail Prokhorov decides he likes the 18,000 fans who will come out every night to the Prudential Center, realizes that Newark is a great basketball city (as proven by the 2 sellouts crowds at The Rock that these same awful Nets got in the preseason), and tells Ratner to get another team or else go fucksky himself.

It'll all be over in 2 years, whether "it" turns out to be the cloud over this seemingly cursed franchise (the Curse of Doctor J? The Curse of the Secaucus Seven?), or the franchise itself as we have known it. One thing is for sure: I will never, ever root for the New York Nets, or the Brooklyn Nets, or whatever the Ratner Team ends up calling themselves.

It's not like there will still be anybody I currently like on the team by November 2012. Maybe President Obama, as he is re-elected that month, will still be saying, "Yes we can," but the Nets? If they're not the New Jersey Nets, then, as Atlanta Hawks fan Margaret Mitchell would have said, "My dear, I don't give a damn." (The "frankly" was written into the movie's script, but it wasn't in the original novel.)

*

Days until Opening Day of the 2010 baseball season: 5, the Yankees playing the Red Sox at Fenway this Sunday night on ESPN. It's so close, I can smell the Sox... and boy, do they smell! (Old joke, almost as old as the Sox' last legitimate World Series win, 91 1/2 years.)

Days until the Devils play another local rival: 11, Saturday night, at home against the Islanders, wrapping up the regular season the next day at home against the Buffalo Sabres. There's still a chance they could play the Rangers, or, more likely, the Flyers in the Playoffs.

Days until the last Nets game at the Meadowlands: 13, against the Charlotte Bobcats as previously said.

Days until the Yankees' 2010 home opener: 14. Just 2 weeks!

Days until the next North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham: 15, as it was moved back to Wednesday, April 14, due to Spurs' having advanced to the FA Cup Semifinals the preceding Saturday -- it was supposed to be Arsenal that did that, not the fucking Spurs! Come on, Portsmouth, do something good in your last month in the Premier League (for a while, anyway)! Play up, Pompey, Pompey, play up!

Days until the 2010 World Cup begins: 72. A shade over 10 weeks.

Days until the World Cup Final: 103.

Days until Rutgers plays football again: 158.

Days until East Brunswick plays football again: 164.

Days until the new Meadowlands Stadium (still unnamed) opens: 166, with the Giants playing first, and the Jets playing the next night on Monday Night Football.

Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge Thanksgiving clash: 240.

Days until Derek Jeter collects his 3,000th career hit: 428 (estimated).

Days until the Rutgers-Army football game at Yankee Stadium: 592.

Days until the last Nets game in New Jersey: 740 (estimated).

Days until the 2012 Olympics begin in London: 860.

Snow Job for New Jersey's Teams

On Wednesday night, for the 2nd time in 3 nights, the Devils played the Philadelphia Flyers, the Broad Street Bullies – or, as I prefer to call them, the Broad Street Bozos. And the result was the same on Wednesday at the Prudential Center as it was on Monday night at Whatever Bank Owns This Season's Naming Rights Center in Philly: Two-nil, and the Devils fucked it up, and lost 3-2 on Simon Gagne's overtime goal. Rats!

But that's not the worst of it: The worst of it is that they played despite a 15-inch blizzard. Did they learn nothing from the January 22, 1987 game with the Calgary Flames, when only 334 people came out to the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands? (Nope, that's not a misprint: Three hundred and thirty-four. Had you been Number 335, you could have counted the rest during a single power play. The Devils won, 7-5.)

The attendance on Wednesday night, for an opponent with a nasty rivalry and a fan base that, despite being almost as evolved as the Geico Cavemen, travels well, was 5,580. I’ve been to high school basketball games with bigger crowds. (Not many, a couple of Middlesex County Tournament "final four" games at the Rutgers Athletic Center, but it has happened.) The Devils would have been better off postponing the game, and trying to get a sellout of 17,625 at another time.

Speaking of high school basketball games, that's what the Nets said it felt like, playing at home the same night against the Milwaukee Bucks. At the Byrne… no, Continental… no, Izod Center… it is still the "Izod Center," right? Or is that "IZOD Center"?... they lost 97-77, and the attendance was 1,016.

I have seen quite a few games at East Brunswick High School's gym with bigger crowds than that. (It can hold about 1,800.) Long-time lame-duck franchise (as contradictory as that sounds) + historically bad season (still on pace to surpass the 1973 Philadelphia 76ers' 9-73 as the worst record in NBA history) + bad building + no rivalry with opposing team + no marquee star on opposing team + opposing team not having a lot of traveling fans + economy still in the early stages of recovery from a dreadful recession = pathetic attendance. One thousand and sixteen. I've been on New Jersey Transit trains with more people than that on them!

So New Jersey's 2 major league sports teams (remember, it's the New York Giants and the New York Jets, regardless of their inability to pass a geography class) both played at home at the same time (impossible until the Devils' 2007 move from East Rutherford to Newark), and got a combined 6,596 fans.

Oy vey. Sounds like a serious underbid in the Showcase segment of The Price Is Right. Twenty years ago, when Bob Barker was not only still the host, but still dying his hair. (Speaking of which, yesterday morning, in anticipation of this Sunday's NBA All-Star Game, NBA legends Bill Walton and James Worthy guest-starred in the Showcase segment, offering a trip to said All-Star Game, although the woman bidding on it lost.)

The same night: The Rangers (who suck), home to the Nashville Predators (who?), did not sell out Madison Square Garden, filling only 13,128 of 18,200 seats; the Montreal Canadiens, no strangers to cold and snow, sold out the Bell Centre with 21,273 seats in defeating the Washington Capitals (who, to be fair, are leading the Eastern Conference and do have Alexander Ovechkin); and the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins, also within range of the blizzard, got a sellout of 16,980 at the Civic Arena (excuse me, the Mellon Arena) in a win over the Islanders. There were 3 other games that night, none of them hit by the blizzard.

The NBA the same night? Only 1 other game was played anywhere near the blizzard, and it was in Toronto, where the Raptors hosted the Philadelphia 76ers, and won in front of 16,651, not a bad crowd considering the Raptors are the city's 4th team (behind the NHL's Maple Leafs, the CFL's Argonauts and MLB's Blue Jays – maybe even the 5th behind MLS' Toronto FC).

Ranger and Flyer fans, drunken animals that they both are, like to joke about the Devils' attendance. This has to stop. And we, the fans, can do some things about it.

One way that Devils management can help it to stop is that they can pay attention to weather reports, and acknowledge the fact that playing in the winter does, sometimes, mean you have to postpone games due to snow and icy roads. If you have the Black & Orange Bastards scheduled, and you're told to expect a foot and a half of snow (we got 15 inches in East Brunswick, they may have gotten 18 in Newark, and they got at least that much in Philly, Baltimore and D.C.), don't wait to see how bad the snow actually turns out to be: Lou Lamoriello, get Ed Snider and Gary Bettman on a conference call and reschedule the damn thing!

*

Tonight, the Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver, and the NHL goes on a break. Hopefully, it'll be less stressful than Ross and Rachel’s infamous "break" on Friends.

But I wouldn't bet on it: Paul Martin of the Devils is already off the U.S. team due to an injury, and Zach Parise may also be hurt.

It' in Canada, so Team Canada will play like they don't just want the Gold Medal, but as if they have to have it. I wouldn't mind if they did, but I want it for the U.S.

At least we don’t have a situation like we had in 1998 and 2002. Remember? There, in blue, were Brian Leetch and Mike Richter. There, in red, were Scott Stevens and Martin Brodeur. So far, so good. Except, on those occasions, Leetch and Richter, both of them Ranger Scum, were playing for the U.S., while Scottso and Marty, the 2 greatest and most important players in Devils history, were playing for the team that stood in the way of us winning the Gold, and I had to root for Leetch and Richter, and against Stevens and Brodeur.

Canada won, so Scottso and Marty got their Gold Medals. In all honesty, the Canadians worked harder to win that game, and deserved to win. It remains the only Olympic hockey game the U.S. has ever lost on home soil. (We didn't enter a team in Lake Placid in 1932, we won the Gold at Squaw Valley in 1960 and at Lake Placid in 1980, and we got all the way to the Gold Medal Game at Salt Lake in 2002.)

On the U.S. team: 5 from Michigan, 4 from Minnesota, 3 from New York State (but none further east or south than Ithaca), 2 from Connecticut (Chris Drury of Trumbull and Jonathan Quick of Hamden, both closer to Boston than to New York), and one each from Massachusetts (Ryan Whitney of Anaheim, from Scituate, smallest Bruin State total ever, I think), California (Brooks Orpik of Pittsburgh, from San Francisco), Missouri (Paul Stastny of Colorado, born when Slovakian-born father Peter played for St. Louis), Pennsylvania (Ryan Malone of Tampa Bay, from Pittsburgh), and, for the first time ever that I know of, New Jersey (Bobby Ryan of Anaheim, from Cherry Hill, outside Philly).

On Team Canada: 8 from Ontario, 4 from Quebec (including all 3 goaltenders: Brodeur, Roberto Luongo and Marc-Andre Fleury), 3 from Saskatchewan, 2 from Manitoba, 2 from Alberta (Jarome Iginla and ex-Devil Scott Niedermayer, like Iginla born in Edmonton, but raised in Cranbrook, British Columbia), 2 from British Columbia (they, along with Nieder, are thus playing in their home Province, not just their home country), 1 from the Maritime Provinces (Cindy, excuse me, Sidney Crosby from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia), and Dany Heatley, born in Germany when his Calgary-born father was playing there and married a German woman, so that sort of makes 2 from Alberta and 3 from B.C., if you put Niedermayer where he grew up rather than where he was born.

When we get to February 22, the 30th Anniversary of the 1980 victory over the Soviets, I'm going to show you why it was not a "miracle." No, seriously, it wasn't a miracle. Stay tuned.

*

Hours until the 2010 Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, right here on this continent, if not in this country: 4.

Days until the NHL's Olympic break ends (at least for the Devils): 18.

Days until the Devils play another local rival: 26, Wednesday, March 10, at home against the Rangers (a.k.a. The Scum).

Days until Opening Day of the 2010 baseball season: 51, the Yankees playing the Red Sox at Fenway for the ESPN Sunday-night season-opener. Just over 7 weeks.

Days until the next North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham: 57.

Days until the Yankees' 2010 home opener: 60. Two months.

Days until the 2010 World Cup begins: 118. Less than 4 months.

Days until the World Cup Final: 149.

Days until Rutgers plays football again: 204. Less than 7 months.

Days until the new Meadowlands Stadium (still unnamed) opens: 205.

Days until East Brunswick plays football again: 210.

Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge Thanksgiving clash: 286.

Days until Derek Jeter collects his 3,000th career hit: 474.

Days until the Rutgers-Army football game at Yankee Stadium: 638.

Rating the Stadium & Arena Finales

I should have done this on Sunday night, or on Monday, but the home computer is operating with all the efficiency that the Jets usually offer – but not on Sunday!

I don’t know who embarrassed the Giants more: Themselves, with their putrid performance in their last game at Giants Stadium; their opponents in said game, the Carolina Panthers; or the Jets, for a spectacular, Playoff-clinching performance in the actual last game in Giants Stadium.

Stadium and arena farewells listed here begin with the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the baseball version of the New York Giants in 1957. While I could have mentioned the football Giants' last game at the Polo Grounds in 1955, nobody really cared. Except maybe baseball Giants owner Horace Stoneham, who sure missed Tim Mara's rent checks.

Dodgers’ last game at Ebbets Field: September 24, 1957, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0. Did not seriously contend for the National League Pennant.

Team owner Walter O’Malley may have been the least sentimental person ever involved with New York Tri-State Area sports, and so no closing ceremonies were held. The game was on a Tuesday night, and only 6,702 fans turned out. No Dodger legends were invited, although several of the "Boys of Summer" were still on the squad.

Organist Gladys Gooding, "the only person to 'play' for the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Knicks and New York Rangers," must have ignored any memos she got from Lord Waltermort, because she played several farewell-type songs, such as "Am I Blue" and "Give Me Five Minutes More."

At the game's conclusion, somebody cued up the record of the team's theme song, "Follow the Dodgers," which Gooding wrote. This was in terrible taste, as no one wanted to follow them to L.A., and she knew it, and took it off, and played "Auld Lang Syne." But at least they won, with Danny McDevitt pitching a shutout.

Performance: 9. Ceremony: 1 (and even that 1 is credited to Gooding). Total: 10.

Baseball Giants' last game at the Polo Grounds: September 29, 1957, lost to the Pirates 9-1. Did not seriously contend for the National League Pennant.

The same Pirate team that couldn't hit McDevitt pounded the Jints. But at least Stoneham – who infamously said, "I feel sorry for the kids, but I haven't seen too many of their fathers lately" – understood the weight of the moment, and invited back several Giant legends, including Carl Hubbell, Bill Terry and Larry Doyle. Also invited was Blanche McGraw, who said of her husband, "If John were here, this would break his heart."

Although he wasn't a retired Giants great, Bobby Thomson had recently been reacquired, and posed for photographers, pointing to the spot where his 1951 "Shot Heard ‘Round the World" landed.

Still, only 11,606 came out, many of them singing, to the tune of "Good Night Ladies"...

We want Stoneham!
We want Stoneham!
We want Stoneham
with a rope around his neck!

Performance: 2. Ceremony: 6. Total: 8.

Mets' last game at Polo Grounds: September 18, 1963, lost to the Philadelphia Phillies 5-1. Lost 111 games.

Only 1,752 came out to see the last baseball game at 155th Street and 8th Avenue, on the site where professional baseball had been played since 1890, and in that particular stadium since 1911. One Met fan was quoted as saying, "Not many really cared, did they?

"Even the Met organization, including former Giant board members Joan Payson and M. Donald Grant, didn't make an effort to include any New York baseball legends, although Casey Stengel was the manager, and Gil Hodges and Duke Snider were now on the Met roster.

Performance: 2. Ceremony: 0. Total: 2.

Jets' last game at Polo Grounds: December 14, 1963, lost to the Buffalo Bills 19-10. Missed AFL Playoffs.

In their 1st year under the Jets name, after 3 seasons as the New York Titans, it was the city's AFL outfit that played the last event at the old Harlem Horseshoe. But they were awful, and the game was nothing to write home about, and there was no ceremony. Why would there be? This was a team in its 4th season, so who were they supposed to bring back, Al Dorow?

Performance: 4. Ceremony: 0. Total: 4.

Knicks' last game at the old Madison Square Garden: February 10, 1968, beat the Philadelphia 76ers 115-97. Lost in East Semis, also to 76ers.

This was mere months after Wilt Chamberlain, Hal Greer & Co. won the NBA Title with a then-record 68 wins, so even in the Knicks' own building, beating the Sixers by 18 points was no mean feat. But as far as my research can reveal, there was no ceremony.

Performance: 10. Ceremony: 0. Total: 10.

Rangers' last game at the Old Garden: February 11, 1968, tied the Detroit Red Wings 3-3. Lost in Stanley Cup Quarterfinals to the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Wings weren't an especially good team at the time, but they did still have Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio. And, this time, there was a ceremony. Following the game, there was a "final skate," featuring NHL legends, and not just from the Rangers: There was the still-active Howe, Montreal god Maurice Richard, even Boston old-timer Eddie Shore. In this instance, the Rangers most certainly did not suck.

I can't find any word as to whether any New York Americans were invited. Some should have been, as the Old Garden was their house – and it was theirs first, in 1925-26, and it was their success that season (at the box office, anyway) that led to the creation of Garden owner/promoter George "Tex" Rickard's team, "Tex's Rangers."

Performance: 5. Ceremony: 9. Total: 14.

Giants' last game at Yankee Stadium: September 23, 1973, tied the Philadelphia Eagles 23-23. Missed NFC Playoffs.

With all the recriminations between Giants owner Wellington Mara and New York Mayor John Lindsay – leading to Lindsay not allowing the Giants to use City-owned Shea Stadium until the Meadowlands could be ready, forcing them to spend the remainder of '73 and all of '74 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven – it was probably for the best that there was no ceremony.

There was, however, a ceremony with Giant greats at the Giants Stadium opener in 1976. Lindsay's successor, Mayor Abe Beame, let the Giants play at Shea in '75, along with the Mets, the Jets and the temporarily exiled Yankees, but I'm not including the Yanks' and Giants' Shea farewells, especially since both later played regular-season games at Shea.

As for the Giants’ Yankee Stadium farewell: Performance: 5. Ceremony: 0. Total: 5.

Yankees' last game at the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium: September 30, 1973, lost to the Detroit Tigers 7-5. Were in Playoff contention until August.

Not much of a game, and not much of a ceremony. About all the Yankees did was pull up home plate, to give to Claire Ruth, and 1st base, to give to Eleanor Gehrig. They did, however, invite a lot of big names to that season's Opening Day, as it was The Stadium's 50th Anniversary; and to the Stadium's reopening in 1976. Both times, the first ball was thrown out by Bob Shawkey, who started and won the 1st game at The Stadium in 1923.

At the '76 opener, guests included Mrs. Gehrig (Mrs. Ruth was dying and unable to attend), Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, football Giants star Frank Gifford, and Joe Louis, who defended the heavyweight title at The Stadium several times, most notably against Max Schmeling. But if The Stadium in 1923 opened with a bang (from the bat of the Babe), in '73 it closed with a whimper.

Performance: 3. Ceremony: 0. Total: 3.

Nets' last game at the Nassau Coliseum: April 1, 1977, lost to the Indiana Pacers 89-88. Missed Playoffs, and at 22-60 went from being the final ABA Champions to having the worst record in the NBA in just 1 season – which is what happens when you have to sell the ABA's best player, Julius Erving, to pay the Knicks a $4.8 million territorial indemnity fee, on top of the $3.2 million they had to pay to get into the NBA in the first place. That's $8 million, or over $30 million in 2009 dollars.)

There was little point in saying goodbye to the squat little building on the Hempstead Turnpike, although they almost won the game, and it was appropriate that their last game as the New York Nets was against the other team that could have been called the pride of the ABA: Between the two of them, the Nets and Pacers played in 6 of the 9 ABA Finals, including the 1972 Finals against each other (the Pacers won).

Performance: 4. Ceremony: 0. Total: 4.

Nets' last game at the Rutgers Athletic Center: March 28, 1981, lost to the New York Knicks 90-88. Missed the NBA Playoffs, with a horrible 24-58.

They did come close to winning the game and beating the team that should have been their arch-rivals, and they did get better the next season, starting their Meadowlands tenure with 5 straight Playoff seasons. But they didn't really show it here, and there was no ceremony to mark their leaving of the building now known as the Louis Brown Athletic Center (but still usually called "The RAC," pronounced "rack"), on RU's Livingston Campus in Piscataway.

Performance: 4. Ceremony: 0. Total: 4.

Jets' last game at Shea Stadium: December 10, 1983, lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-7. Missed AFC Playoffs.

The Jets did hold a ceremony with former greats, including Joe Namath, but this frigid finale was more notable as the last NFL game for Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw.

Performance: 1. Ceremony: 6. Total: 7.

Devils'’ last game at Meadowlands/Brendan Byrne/Continental Airlines Arena: Regular Season, April 8, 2007, lost to the New York Islanders 3-2; Playoffs, May 5, 2007, Game 5 of NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals, lost to the Ottawa Senators 3-2.

The Devils are the only Tri-State Area team ever to have an official farewell knowing they were going to play at least 1 home Playoff game in the building. After 25 years in the arena soon to be renamed the Izod Center, the Devils didn't have a whole lot of "greats," but the 3 Stanley Cup teams did give them plenty of names to bring back, including Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko and John MacLean. A few other big Devils names couldn't make it, as they were still playing, such as Scott Niedermayer, Brian Rafalski, and, ugh, Scott Gomez. (Did I mention that the Rangers suck? Well, they do.)

The Devils opened their history with a home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but it was somewhat appropriate that the regular-season finale was against the NHL's superteam of the early 1980s, the Isles, who stunk in the late 2000s, but, for whatever reason, usually managed to beat the Devils. It didn't matter that much, since there were still Playoffs to be held, and while the Devils did beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1st round of the Playoffs, those pesky Senators filibustered their season to death.

Performance (actual finale): 3. Ceremony (official finale): 6. Total: 9.

Yankees' last game at the old Yankee Stadium: September 21, 2008, beat the Baltimore Orioles 7-3. Stayed in contention for the Playoffs until just before then, and officially eliminated in their next game.

The ceremony brought back Yankees dating back to 1947 with Yogi Berra. Although the actors portraying Babe Ruth and the rest of the 1923 Stadium-openers was a tacky touch, the guy playing Casey Stengel, complete with mismatched socks, was a hoot.

It was the first time I’d ever seen all three Stadium perfect game pitchers (Don Larsen, David Wells and David Cone) together. Whitey, Reggie, Guidry, O'Neill, and the huge ovation for the last announced former star, Bernie. It was very nice to bring back the widows of Phil Rizzuto, Thurman Munson and Catfish Hunter, the daughter of Elston Howard, the sons of Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin and Roger Maris, and the family of Bobby Murcer.

Especially the Murcers: Bobby had died shortly before that season's Old-Timers’ Day, and it was too soon for them to come back, the wound still too fresh, so this was the right way for the fans to say goodbye and thank you. Anybody who wasn't touched by David Mantle hugging Kay Murcer in center field, and by Mariano Rivera escorting Cora Rizzuto out to shortstop, has no heart.

The Babe's 91-year-old daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens, throwing out the first pitch to the injured Jorge Posada (had to work him into the ceremony somehow) was a nice touch. The Yankees won the game, although it was touch-and-go for a while. Derek Jeter's short speech after the final game was a proper sendoff. I was actually glad that the Yanks hadn't made the Playoffs, to take the suspense away – as the next entry proves.

Performance: 9. Ceremony: 10. Total: 19.

Mets' last game at Shea Stadium: September 28, 2008, lost to the Florida Marlins 4-2. As a result, for the 2nd straight season, they missed the Playoffs due to losing a season finale to a weak Marlins team. Had the Mets won that day, or had the Milwaukee Brewers lost, there would have been a 163rd game, and it would have been at Shea the next day. Instead, well, what did you expect: They're the Mets!

The postgame ceremony was nice, with most of the living '69 Mets, and most of the '86 Mets, on hand, though it's still hard to think of Yogi and Willie Mays as Mets. And what about who wasn't there? Rest in peace Mrs. Payson, Casey, Gil, Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy, Tommie Agee and Tug McGraw. But Davey Johnson, the only living human to lead the Mets to a World Series win, wasn't there. Nor was Mookie Wilson, one of the most popular Mets ever and the man who make the Game 6 win happen. Compared to that, Dave Kingman was a poor substitute.

Tom Seaver couldn't reach the plate to get the last pitch to Mike Piazza. I realize he was 64, but Julia Stevens wasn't that much further off the plate a week earlier, and she was 91! (Seaver did throw a perfect strike to Piazza for the Citi Field opener, though.)

And what was with that walk out to the center field fence? I understand that Seaver represents the 1969 and 1973 memories, and Piazza 1999 and 2000. But there was no representative of 1986. The right way to do it would have been to have Seaver, the team's 1st Hall-of-Famer, flanked by Gary Carter, the team's 2nd HOFer, and Piazza, who will likely be the team's 3rd HOFer (unless it ends up being proven that he was yet another steroid freak). You would have had the '69 and '73 postseasons, with the '86 and '88 postseasons on one side and the '99 and '00 postseasons on the other. What about 2006? I guess the wound from Yadier Molina, and the fact that the '06 Mets were roughly the same teams that shredded their fans' hearts in '07 and '08, were still too fresh to have anyone represent them at the end.

Performance: 2. Ceremony: 6. Total: 8.

Giants' last game at Giants Stadium: December 27, 2009, lost to the Carolina Panthers 41-9. As a result, missed the NFC Playoffs. (They still would've needed to win the next week, which they didn't.)

Despite having brought back several greats from the 1976 to 2009 era, the current G-Men dropped a major league stink bomb – as if the Meadowlands area needed any more bad smells.

Performance: 0. Ceremony: 5. Total: 5.

Jets' last game at Giants Stadium: January 3, 2010, beat the Cincinnati Bengals 37-0. As a result, made the AFC Playoffs, where their final status remains to be determined.

Granted, the Bengals didn't exactly put up much of a fight, but, still, thirty-seven to nothing. This was the kind of game the Giants should have put up, but, instead, got put on them.

Now, the Jets' years at Giants Stadium, 1984 to 2009, contained some great memories: Jets 51, Dolphins 46 in '86; Parcells' '98 masterwork; the Monday Night Miracle in 2000; Herman Edwards bringing them back from the brink with "You play to win the game!" for the '02 Division Title; the beginning of the Mark Sanchez era).

But they also contained some disasters. Dan Marino's fake spike comes to mind). And, let's face it, Giants Stadium was never the Jets' home – not even when they were the official home team in games against the Big Blue Wrecking Crew. The new stadium that opens next door will officially be just as much Gang Green's home, if for no other reason than it won't have another team's name on it. (Although that's not why the Giants left Yankee Stadium).

The Jets brought back a few members of the New York Sack Exchange, plus Wesley Walker, Freeman McNeil, Al Toon, Wayne Chrebet and Curtis Martin. They even brought back some Shea guys like Namath. But the best thing the Jets ever did at Giants Stadium was get the hell out – and they went out in a blaze of glory. (They needed a blaze of something, because it was an icebox that night!)

Performance: 10. Ceremony: 7. Total: 17.

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1. 2008 Yankees 19
2. 2009 Jets 17
3. 1968 Rangers 14
4. 1968 Knicks 10
5. 1957 Dodgers 10
6. 2007 Devils 9
7. 2008 Mets 8
8. 1957 Giants (B) 8
9. 1983 Jets 7
10. 2009 Giants 5
11. 1973 Giants 5
12. 1977 Nets 4
13. 1981 Nets 4
14. 1963 Jets 4
15. 1973 Yankees 3
16. 1963 Mets 2

The Islanders are the only one of the Tri-State Area's 9 major league teams still playing in their original building, and if the "Lighthouse Project" ever moves forward, they will remain in the Nassau Coliseum for the foreseeable future. If it doesn't, there is a chance they'll move into the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and once again share a building with the Nets. Of course, that thing has to get built first. There's even talk that the Nets may leave the Meadowlands and play at the Prudential Center in Newark, sharing it with the Devils. Smart. But only until the Barclays Center, on which construction still has not begun, is ready. Dumb. Newark is a basketball town, Seton Hall University draws well there, and the Nets would probably sell out The Rock more than the Devils do.

I wonder what the Nets will do when they finally get the Barclays Center nearly ready to go, and can officially, finally, schedule their last home game in New Jersey – which, presumably, won't be a Playoff game, even if it takes another 5 years to leave the old barn at Exit 16W. I wonder if new owner Mikhail Prokhorov will care enough to bring back Buck Williams, Mike Gminski and Albert King? Who knows, by the time the damn thing is finally built at Atlantic Yards, the Nets will be able to bring to the Meadowlands finale Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson – they might all be retired, and I don’t mean early due to injury. This team has already been a lame duck franchise longer than the Montreal Expos were (5 years as opposed to 4). The New Jersey Nets can’t even die with dignity.

Then again, neither did Shea Stadium. At least Gladys Gooding tried to host a proper funeral for Ebbets Field.

Throw a Net Over Us

The New Jersey Nets set a new NBA record, most losses to start the season, 18. This breaks the record of 17 set by the 1988-89 Miami Heat (an expansion team, no surprise there) and tied by the 1999-2000 Los Angeles Clippers (the Clippers, so no surprise there, either).

Appropriately, it was the Dallas Mavericks who provided the defeat. The team that features Jason Kidd. When Kidd arrived at the Meadowlands in 2001, he turned the team from one of the biggest joke franchises in all of North American sports into a genuine title contender, winning the Eastern Conference in his first 2 seasons, the Atlantic Division in his first 3, and winning a 4th Division Title in his 5th. From 2002 to 2006, the Nets were one of the best and most entertaining teams in the NBA.

But when Bruce Ratner bought the team, he started breaking them up. First Kenyon Martin was traded. Then Richard Jefferson. Then Kidd himself. Finally, Vince Carter, not a part of the '02 and '03 seasons but a sensational player obtained thereafter, but by the trade his time had gone and thus his trading away was somewhat justified.

There is no longer any reason to watch the Nets. They are a horrible team. They have terrible injuries and who knows when the injured players will return. They play at the Brendan Byrne Arena... check that, the Continental Airlines Arena... check that, the Izod Center, one of the worst arenas in North America. They fired coach Lawrence Frank and replaced him with Kiki Vandeweghe, the general manager who helped put them in this situation; the only nice thing I can say about Kiki is that his father, Dr. Ernie Vandeweghe, was a pretty good player for the near-miss Knicks teams of the early 1950s (3 straight trips to the NBA Finals, 1951-53, but lost them all).

What do the Nets have going for them? A new arena in Brooklyn, which we now think will open in time for the 2012-13 season. It was supposed to open this season. The Nets have now been a lame-duck franchise longer than the Montreal Expos were. Whatever they're going to be called when they move to Brooklyn, if they do, they won't be my Nets any more than their 1977 move to New Jersey (first to Rutgers, then to the Meadowlands in 1981) meant that they were still the New York Nets that Long Islanders loved in their ABA days.

What else do the Nets have going for them? Space under the NBA's salary cap. Yeah, that helps. If, that is, they know what to do with it. If there's one thing the Nets have proven in their 32-year New Jersey existence, it's that they are one of the most incompetent personnel-movers in basketball.

What do the Nets have going for them right now? Uh, great seats available! In a lousy building in the middle of nowhere...

Anybody who pays to watch the Nets now is just putting money in Ratner's already deep pockets, and for what? A lousy product with no hope of ever getting better. Face it, the Knicks are dreaming if they think the enormous cap space they've cleared is going to get them LeBron James or Dwayne Wade -- and Chris Bosh isn't exactly an enticing Plan C. The Nets don't even have that hope.

So maybe the people who pay to watch the Nets should have a net thrown over them. I've paid to watch the Nets one time in the Ratner era. (It was against the then-defending NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs. No sign of Tony Parker's wife, Eva Longoria, although she was shown at the game on the 11:00 news. No sign of Nets part-owner Jay-Z and his squeeze -- now wife -- Beyonce, either.)

I will not be paying to watch the Nets again, unless the Russian trying to buy the team from Ratner tells him to take his Atlantic Yards and shove them up his ass, and moves the team to the Prudential Center in Newark where they should have been from the day that place opened in October 2007. At least then, they'd have one of the best arenas in the land, instead of one of the worst, and it wouldn't be in the middle of nowhere.

They'd still be a bad team, though. Throw a net over us.

10 Things I Hate About the Meadowlands

I bought some milk this morning. On the carton was a picture of the Giants' offense, saying, "Have you seen me?"

Nope.

The NFC Championship Game will be between the Philadelphia Eagles (who looked dead just three weeks ago) and the Arizona Cardinals (who have looked dead, in Arizona, St. Louis and Chicago, for the better part of 60 years). The only two NFL Championship Games in Cardinal history were against the Eagles: 1947, a 28-21 Card win at Comiskey Park on the South Side of Chicago, and 1948, a 7-0 Eagle win in a blizzard at Shibe Park in North Philly. From 1949 to 2007, the Cards played in a grand total of 4 Playoff games. The Eagles at least won another Championship in 1960, but haven't won one since; and have reached the NFC Championship Game in 1980, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and now 2008, reaching the Super Bowl in the 1980 and 2004 seasons, but losing both times.

The AFC Championship Game will be between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. I knew the Ravens were going to beat the Tennessee Titans. You know how I knew? Because the Titans' quarterback is Kerry Collins, and Kerry Collins is what he has always been: A bum.

Could it be an All-Pennsylvania Super Bowl? If so, I hope they don't "compromise" and let Ratface Joe Paterno flip the coin to start the game.

*

Speaking of the Super Bowl, today is the 40th Anniversary of Super Bowl III. January 12, 1969, at the Orange Bowl in Miami. New York Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7.

The Jets have gone to two AFC Championship Games since (1982-83 and 1998-99), but haven't returned to the Super Bowl. Forty years in the wilderness.

Fast fact with which you can amaze your friends, and I'll bet more than half of all Jet fans don't know it... or maybe they know it, but they've never really thought about it: How many touchdown passes did Joe Namath throw in Super Bowl III? The answer is... zero.

And yet an entire generation of New York and New Jersey football fans grew up thinking Broadway Joe invented the position of quarterback. As much as anything else, these kids were the reason I didn't become a Jet fan.

I have never properly thanked them.

Frankly, I'm not sure the Jets even have a reason to exist anymore. That 40-years-ago Super Bowl is beginning to seem more and more like a movie, one that didn't really happen. Namath is still alive to tell us about it, but how often does he do so anymore?

*

The new Meadowlands Stadium is coming along quite nicely. But I never thought the Giants needed a new stadium. The Jets, sure, because they were sharing with the Giants -- and will still be sharing with the Giants, even if the lease will be more favorable to them than at Wellington Mara's tin can on Route 3.

I just hope the place doesn't have the same wind problems. In fact, I'd like to present to you...

10 Things I Hate About the Meadowlands Sports Complex.

10. Horse Racing in the Winter. Isn't that considered cruelty to animals?

9. The Corporatism. "I was immortal for 15 years," said former Governor Brendan Byrne, an original investor in the Devils who got the Arena built and had his name put on it by a Democratic legislature in 1981. In 1996, a vengeful Republican legislature took his name off it. Why? Because Continental Airlines was offering a truckload of money for naming rights? That was a bonus. The GOP took Byrne's name off it as soon as legalities allowed because Byrne established the State's first income tax. The man had to balance the budget, something New Jersey's Republicans never seem to understand.

And while the Devils won their 2nd Stanley Cup while playing at the Continental Airlines Arena, and actually clinched their 3rd at the Continental Airlines Arena, and the Nets continue to play at the IZOD Center (a.k.a. "the I," a terribly doofy name), the Devils' 1st Stanley Cup was won at the Brendan Byrne Arena. And no shameless politician can ever change that fact.

8. Giants Stadium. Football player turned broadcaster and mystery novelist Tim Green called it "football in a tin can. Curse the Giants for ever leaving Yankee Stadium."

The stadium is big, but it's hardly an architectural marvel. It's not Soldier Field. It's not the Los Angeles Coliseum. You don't sense greatness in there, even if you know it's been home to Bill Parcells, Lawrence Taylor, or the 2007-08 miracle. It's ordinary. In fact, just about the only truly distinctive thing about Giants Stadium is...

7. The Wind. Also known as "The Hawk." Inside Giants Stadium, it turns field-goal attempts into pinball shooting, and it takes napkins, plastic cups and hot dog wrappers and sends them swirling around in a total mess.

In the parking lot, the wind blasts off the Hackensack River and sweeps through the parking lot with no trees to block it. It's terrible. (Yes, the wind can blast off the Passaic River and make coming out of a Devils game at the Prudential Center pretty bad in the winter as well, but it's not as bad as the wind at the Meadowlands.)

6. The Bus Service. It stinks. To get there by bus, you first have to get to Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York. Now, this isn't too bad if you're a fan of the New York Giants or the New York Jets. But suppose you're a fan of the New Jersey Nets? Or, from 1982 to 2007, you were a fan of the New Jersey Devils? Why should you have to change in New York? Especially when you're so close to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden? Home of the Knicks! And... oy... the Rangers? (Did I ever mention that the RANGERS SUCK? Well, they do!) And most of the people in Port Authority -- upstairs from the basement where Greyhound passengers go -- are fans of either the Knicks, or the Rangers, or both. Do you really want to mix with these people if you're a Nets or Devils fan? No, you do not!

And they don't even let you off within a short walk of either the Stadium or the Arena. You've got a ways to walk! Through that windswept parking lot! Oh, well, at least New Jersey Transit also provides rail service to the Meadowlands, right? Right?

5. The Train Service. Actually, there isn't any! Not yet, anyway! NJT is planning a spur of the Pascack Valley Line to the Complex, to open in time for the new stadium to open in 2010. Why couldn't they do that in time for Giants Stadium and the Racetrack to open in 1976? Or for the Arena to open in 1981? Or at any time in the last 35 years, from construction to today (which involves more construction)?

At least we can now get from just about anywhere in New Jersey to Newark's Penn Station and walk the 3 blocks to the Prudential Center to see the Devils, or Seton Hall basketball. And if Nets management has any sense, they'll abandon that might-never-happen Brooklyn boondoggle and move in at 165 Mulberry Street with the Devils and Pirates. Newark is a basketball city, and they'd love to have the Nets there.

Brooklyn is a basketball place, too, sure. But don't take our team! Have you forgotten what it's like to have someone else steal your team? (See "Dodgers")

4. The Parking Lot. The Meadowlands Complex was built for drivers. But the parking situation stinks. Not to mention that, when there's a Giants or Jets game, it's always sold out, 78,741 fans, and it turns Route 3, Route 120, Paterson Plank Road, Route 17 and the Western Spur of the New Jersey Turnpike into parking lots. So it's not so good for drivers, after all.

3. The Arena's banners, post-Devils. It looks a lot emptier without the Devils' banners. And the Seton Hall basketball team took its banners to the Prudential Center as well. When all that's left is the Nets' banners -- and they have as many title banners (ABA, NBA Eastern Conference and NBA Atlantic Division) as retired number banners, 6, which is a little off-putting -- and a banner honoring Bon Jovi, it's, it's, it's, how can I put this... lame. Almost as lame as Bon Jovi's music.

2. The Arena's Design. The seating area is bad enough, with the sound not carrying down to the court/rink, and the fact that it gets kind of drafty near the top. (Open windows? Not that I can see.) But they apparently designed the place after the Nassau Coliseum, 38 miles to the east. Two levels of seating, one level of concourse. You can't do that!

Even when the seating area is only half-full, it's like the concourse is jammed. It's bad enough when there's 16,234 fans, which would be a sellout on The Island. But when a full house of 20,049 is on hand at the Byrne Arena (it was 19,040 for hockey), forget it!

When the Prudential Center was built, they copied the new arenas in Philadelphia and Montreal: Three levels of seating, three levels of concourse. It works so much better. And while the wait for the food can be a little frustrating at The Rock, the wait for the bathroom isn't so bad. Contrast that with at the Meadowlands (or the Nassau Coliseum). It's interminable. (It's not quite as bad at Madison Square Garden, though. How come nobody ever copied that design?)

And the Number 1 thing I hate about the Meadowlands Sports Complex:

1. The Pedestrian Bridge. That creepy overpass over Route 120, connecting the parking lots of the Stadium and the Arena. It's now part of the Xanadu project, which might make it less creepy. But I wonder how many people got mugged there. It could also have been a shooting location for a horror film.

Well, I don't ever have to worry about that bridge again. Let's go Devils! And... please stay Nets?