The waiting is over!
I admit, the first thing I thought of when I typed that headline was this call by Sam Rosen:
The 1994 Stanley Cup run by the New York Rangers will always be one of my fondest memories as a sports fan growing up on Staten Island. But that is a blog for another time. (Mid-June sounds about right…)
Maybe when you read that headline, you were thinking that the waiting to see who was playing in Super Bowl LVIII was over, and in that case, you're getting warmer. Now we know it'll be the Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers, but now we have what amounts to a two-week pregame show heading into the game, which will kick off Sunday evening, February 11. Time for the endless stories of the chicken that picked the Chiefs and the horse that picked the Niners. Oh, and expect lots of Taylor Swift coverage. I get the sense it would be easier for me to buy Super Bowl tickets than it was to try buying tickets for her Eras Tour.
But here's what I really mean when I say the waiting is over: Thanks to the Super Bowl creeping further and further into the year following the regular season, we no longer have what I call the 'dead zone' between the end of the Super Bowl and the start of spring training. (Yes, I know the NBA and NHL are still chugging during that time, but it's mid-season and the playoffs are still months away.) For two decades, from 1980 to 2000, the Super Bowl was typically held on the last Sunday in January. That meant that, once it was over, there was roughly two and a half weeks of waiting for pitchers and catchers to show up for spring training. When it's cold, and snowy, and dark, those two and a half weeks might as well be two and a half months, because it took FOREVER.
Then, around the turn of the century (and by the way, can you believe it's almost been a quarter century since the turn of the century?), the Big Game started drifting into the first week of February. But when the NFL tacked another game onto the regular season in 2021, it meant the Super Bowl was going into the second week of the second month of the calendar.
Funny story: My wife, Allyson, and I have birthdays that are about two weeks apart - hers in late January, mine in mid-February. When growing up, many of her birthday parties wound up being combo birthday/Super Bowl parties. Now, I guess it's my turn, ha ha. (Happy birthday, Allie!)
In any case, now that we are at a mid-February Super Bowl, we will only have two or three days to wait for the start of spring training! Thank you NFL, for making the 'dead zone' almost nonexistent! Give it another few years, and I'm sure the NFL will add an 18th regular season game, and at that point they'll already be throwing the ol' horsehide around under the Florida and Arizona sunshine before the NFL season comes to an end. Hooray!
In other news…
In my last blog, I wrote about SUNY Cortland winning its first D3 football championship, and within that blog I mentioned Bengals QB coach Dan Pitcher, who was a QB at SUNY Cortland and a Cortland native, and that he figured to be a strong internal candidate for the team's OC job if it ever opened up. Well, just a few days ago, he was promoted to OC after then-OC Brian Callahan left to become head coach of the Titans. Given that SUNY Cortland is the Official College Football Team of the Throwing Bagels Podcast, we send a hearty congratulations out to Dan! (Oh and, Dan, if you're reading this, could you possibly spare a few minutes to chat with us on the pod? Thanks!)
What's up with the Mets removing the white drop shadow on their black jerseys? The white really made the logo pop on the jersey and the hat. If I had a choice, I'd get rid of the black jersey altogether, but this change is definitely a step in the wrong direction. The blue and orange look washed out on the black jersey and hat, much like how the orange Mets script washes out on a white pinstriped Syracuse Mets jersey. Just not a lot of contrast there, which is just not my cup of tea.
I will be eagerly anticipating the Mets’ first-ever City Connect uniform, which is set to debut in late April. They could be really good, or really bad. Either way, I'll be buying the cap and adding it to my seemingly endless collection of Mets hats. (Yes, I even own this one.)
Oddly enough, at the same time, there is news out of the Bronx that the Yankees are removing the white outline around NEW YORK and the number on the front and back, respectively, of their road jerseys. In essence, the Yankees are returning to the look worn by Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford and Babe Ruth and a host of other historic Bombers. Looks pretty good, actually.
Enjoy the Super Bowl!
But most importantly, only 16 more days ‘til New York Mets pitchers and catchers report to camp!!!