A Difficult Journey to Triumph

Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

-Author Unknown

We watch professional athletes play sports on a daily basis, whether it’s baseball, basketball, football, golf, hockey, soccer or tennis. We cheer on our favorite players and our favorite teams. We cry when our team loses, we cheer when our team wins. We feel the heartache when our teams were so close and we revel in the joy when our team wins it all. We ask for trades, we analyze moves, we beg for new coaches and players as if they were trading cards. But behind every groan of frustration and every shout of approval we give, another person, or persons, is responsible for that emotion. Sometimes we forget that person is also human and they go through the same tribulations we do.

The date was January 6, 2013 and the NHL owners and players had reached a tentative deal for a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement. Excitement brewed with NHL players as a new season was now only weeks away. Free agent Dominic Moore, though, was not one of the players excited for the upcoming season. Moore's mind wasn't with hockey. He had left his teammates in San Jose, the previous season, to tend to his ailing wife. But her health continued failing as she battled liver cancer. By the time the deal was ratified a few days later Moore's wife, Katie, had passed away. Moore decided it would be best for him to sit out that shortened season.

Many athletes tell us they do the best healing when they’re doing what they love to do. In this case, though, Moore couldn’t do that. Healing wouldn’t take place on the ice for him. He needed time away. In July of 2013 he and the New York Rangers, the team who drafted him 10 years earlier, agreed on a deal to bring him back to the Blueshirts. It was a mostly unremarkable season for Moore, who picked up 18 points in 73 games, for the Rangers. His moment was coming, though. It’s often said that these things have a way of working themselves out. Tragedy oftentimes turns into triumph and Moore was badly in need of that triumph and today he finds himself four wins away from hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup because his moment came.

The Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens battled through five tough games of hockey. Each team lost players due to injury. Each team lost players due to penalty. Neither team was 100% by the time game six arrived but both teams played some of their best hockey of the postseason. The Rangers defense suffocated the Habs offense and replacement goaltender Dustin Tokarski was almost perfect, in fact, he was perfect against everyone except for Moore. With time ticking down in the second period Brian Boyle found Moore cutting in front of the net. A perfect pass and a perfect shot later, the Rangers had a one to zero lead. They wouldn’t need anything else. How true it is that these things have a way of working themselves out.

In January of 2013 Moore was going through perhaps the most difficult time in his life. Less than 18 months later, in the town where his career began, he scored the biggest goal of his life and sent his team to the finals. He knows, and the Rangers know, the job isn’t complete yet. They’re four wins from completing the ultimate goal.

The journey hasn’t been easy for Dominic Moore. Four more wins, though, and maybe it will have been worth it.

For more information about Dominic and Katie Moore or to donate please visit www.katiemoore.org

My Growing Passion for Hockey

My mindset toward the NHL has always been, at best, apathy. In my house baseball ruled sports, followed by basketball and football and somewhere down the road was hockey. I chose to root for the New York Rangers because I lived in New York and didn’t have an allegiance to anyone else. The truth is, though, that I didn’t really care about anything hockey. That mindset was changed because of one game; game seven of the 2001 Stanley Cup finals.

Without looking it up, I couldn’t tell you who played or who even won the Stanley Cup in 2001. The only reason I remember that it was 2001 is because I watched the game with my grandfather in a hotel lobby because we were visiting my cousin to celebrate his graduation. It was after that game that I became a fan of the sport of hockey. I watched the game, completely entranced in the action and emotion, with the biggest sports fan I’d ever known. After the game, I remember thinking that I’d never seen two teams play with such intensity and I loved every second of it.

Later that same year the New York Yankees lost game seven of the World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. While baseball is my favorite sport that game didn’t compare to one I’d watched months earlier without a rooting interest. Following the Stanley Cup finals in 2001 I began to pay attention to hockey and I would always see how the Rangers were doing in the standings. I would always try to catch game sevens in the playoffs because I loved the emotion from the players. But I still didn’t find hockey interesting enough to watch during the regular season.

When I made my decision to go to Plattsburgh State University, it had nothing to do with sports. The school was a Division-III NCAA program and didn’t get any national coverage but we had a great hockey program and I loved going to the games. I was crammed into the seats during the 2007-2008 SUNYAC championship when Plattsburgh’s men’s team won the conference. The little college town erupted that night and my hockey fandom grew a little bit more.

Following college I attended many minor league hockey games in Albany, NY. I watched the Albany River Rats and then the Albany Devils play many games at the Times Union Center and got the opportunity to stand right outside the ice. I loved watching the puck smash in front of the glass right in front of me. I loved feeling the boards rattle when players were checked where I was standing. I loved the speed of the game; the hard shots and the subsequent quick saves or fast goals fascinated me.

Little by little I became a bigger and bigger fan. Then during the 2011-2012 season the Rangers earned the first seed in the playoffs and made a run to the Eastern Conference Finals where they lost to the New Jersey Devils. That’s when I became hooked. Being so close and failing seemed like a travesty. The next season I attended my first NHL game where the Rangers beat the Capitals in DC. Then I went to game one of the Conference Quarterfinals where the Rangers lost 1-0 in overtime to the Capitals. Even though my team lost, the atmosphere in the Verizon Center that day gave me goose bumps. I loved it.

Now the Rangers are back in the Conference Finals and I’m so excited to watch them play. While I’ll always think baseball is the greatest sport in the world, there is no better sporting event to witness in person than a hockey game and there is no better sporting event to watch at home than a game seven in the NHL.

Death brings Life to the Rangers

The venue was Madison Square Garden on Mother’s day. Martin St. Louis’s had been uninspiring since joining the Rangers; in 19 regular season games he tallied one goal and seven assists. Then the playoffs came and St. Louis started with a bang with two goals and five points in the first three games. But then it was back to much of what had become the norm, zero goals and only one point for the next nine Rangers contests and that wasn’t the worst that happened to St. Louis. In the meantime his mother had unexpectedly passed away and all of a sudden all those scoreless games didn’t mean so much to St. Louis.

The Rangers traded their team captain to acquire St. Louis from the Tampa Bay Lightning. St. Louis had been known for his offensive prowess and was coming off a year that he led the NHL in points. With their goaltending situation secured for years to come and a strong defense, the Rangers knew the only way to the Stanley Cup was to add offense. St. Louis was supposed to be that last link to Lord Stanley. But he labored through a difficult adjustment with the Rangers. His pucks couldn’t find the net and Rangers fans were becoming irritated with his lack of offense.

A strong start to the playoffs for St. Louis gave fans hope that he was coming out of his funk but the notion was quickly squashed. St. Louis went through the next eight games with only one point from an assist and once again fans began voicing their displeasure with St. Louis’s play. St. Louis couldn’t have been happy about his play either but then in an instant, suddenly his play seemed to matter very little. After he learned of his mother’s abrupt death he flew home to Montreal to be with his family and the Rangers were left to wonder if he would be back for game five facing possible elimination. Under the circumstances no one would have blamed him for not playing.

After speaking with his dad and deciding that his mother would have wanted him to play, St. Louis headed back to Pittsburgh to help his team take on the Penguins and elimination. They conquered both that day winning five to one. The Rangers had scored two goals the previous three games in the series and were showing no urgency on the ice. Then, with the season on the line and a renewed determination, they destroyed the Penguins in Pittsburgh. St. Louis didn’t score in the game but his presence in the locker-room meant more than any point could have for his teammates. He hadn’t been with the team long but that day his commitment to his team proved he had become a New York Ranger.

Game six was at home on Mother’s Day and St. Louis was playing just days after his mother’s passing. The MSG crowd started chanting his name and he promptly replied to the cheers by being in the right place at the right time. At 3 minutes and 34 seconds into the game a Derek Stepan blocked shot ricocheted off St. Louis’s leg and bounced into the goal and the Rangers took a lead they would never relinquish. The Rangers won the game three to one and once again staved off elimination and sent the series back to Pittsburgh where they’ve already won twice in the series.

The Rangers are now one win away from making an improbable comeback a reality. They were down three games to one and were showing no signs of life. In an unfortunate twist of irony a death in their family may have given them that breath of life they’ve needed. They’ve rallied around a teammate that is hurting and are only one win away from reaching the Eastern Conference Finals and one step closer to the ultimate goal, the Stanley Cup.

AL East: A Beast or a Feast?

Every year, it is expected that four of the five American League East teams will compete for first place in the division. Between the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays and Orioles it seems to be a crapshoot who will eventually take the crown. This year the Blue Jays have jumped into the fray and are vying for first in the division. Notoriously the division has been considered one of the strongest in baseball and they’ve manhandled opponents seemingly at will. While MLB pundits predicted the same thing this year, a different trend is beginning to take place inside the powerful confines of the AL East.

Right now the Yankees lead the division with a 15 and 10 record, the O’s are second with a .500 record at 12 and 12, two-and-a-half games out and the Blue Jays (12-13), Red Sox (12-14) and Rays (11-14) respectively follow. At this juncture in the season, everyone expects division to be close as the good teams haven’t been able to separate from the bad teams. Things will change and one or two teams in the division will separate from the rest. While the Yankees are the only team above .500 currently, none of these teams have a positive run differential. This means each of these teams have given up more runs than they’ve scored.

Why is that interesting, though? Each team is within eight runs of each other. The Rays and Red Sox each have scored division low 105 runs and the Blue Jays have scored the most with 113. The fewest runs allowed by any team is 114 by both the O’s and the Jays. This means none of the AL East teams have scored more runs than any AL East team has allowed. This begs to question just how good this division really is.

Of the other ten American League teams, only three have a negative run differential making eight total AL teams with fewer runs scored than given up.  Of the eight teams, only two teams have a .500 record or better; the O’s and the Yankees. Those records might be indicative of the division though. The Yankees are 10 and 7 against AL East foes and the Orioles are 10 and 8. Those are hardly great numbers but they contribute to the idea that the only teams that are playing relatively well with a negative run differential are teams in a weak division. The Yankees have feasted on the Red Sox in the early season and are 5 and 2 against their rivals, including a 14 to 5 blowout.

The Yankees, Orioles and Rays have also played well in one-run games and while winning those games is good for your record they don’t really help out your run differential. A trend of winning one-run games though isn’t ideal for good teams because in those contests anything can happen. The old baseball adage of “a bloop and a blast” could quickly change your fortunes. Good teams need to win by a wider margin of victory than one run. It will lessen the wear on your bullpen of always pitching in high pressure situations and it also proves your offense is capable of carrying the load when needed.

As the season continues, this trend will almost assuredly change and all these teams need to hope it does. Only four teams since 2009 have a winning record and a negative run differential. Simply put, the rule is teams need to have positive run differentials to be competitive. Right now, the AL East is proving the rule true with the Yankees as the exception.

The AL East is notoriously known as the “Beast of the East” because it’s such a difficult division to win. One of these teams will win the division with a positive run differential but the rest of the league might continue to feast on the beast until one team can separate themselves from the pack.

Did Red Sox Manager Sabotage his own team?

By calling out the 25-year-old Michael Pineda and his obvious use of pine tar last Wednesday night, John Farrell, the Red Sox manager, won the battle against the Yankees. If Thursday’s game was any indication, though, he is losing his grip (no pun intended) on the war. The Red Sox started their own mid-20’s pitcher Felix Doubront, 26, in Thursday’s rubber game of the series and the young pitcher failed to make it out of the third inning. Doubront was largely ineffective in the contest and his team’s five errors didn’t help in the cause. Is it possible that by Farrell calling out Pineda the previous night he really only sabotaged his own ball club?

The only thing dumber than Pineda putting pine tar on his neck Wednesday night would have been Doubront or CC Sabathia, the Yankees Thursday starter, to have used pine tar during the game. Sabathia’s outing wasn’t spectacular but it was still very strong, he struck out eight Red Sox hitters in six innings and was certainly much better than Doubront. While this is complete speculation; is it possible that Doubront’s command was minimized by not using pine tar? Of course you can say Sabathia’s command should have been diminished also. While that’s true Sabathia has 14 years of experience, including a Cy Young award, to fall back on if he can’t use pine tar to help his grip. Doubront has five years of mediocre major league experience to fall back on when he is in trouble. Farrell knew who the following day starters would be when he asked the umpires to check on Pineda. He knew he had a young pitcher going up against a possible future Hall-of-Famer who doesn’t rattle easily. Why call attention to pine tar at that moment?

Doubront pitched 2-2/3 innings in his start. While only three of the seven runs he gave up were earned, he clearly didn’t have the control he needed. He walked two batters in the short appearance which by no means is terrible but he also surrendered two wild pitches when he’d only thrown one in his previous four starts combined. The Yankees also got six hits against Doubront in the outing suggesting the pitcher couldn’t hit his spots. One of those hits was a homerun by Mark Teixeira over the Green Monster in left field on a hanging breaking ball. On top of that homerun, of the eight outs he recorded only one came via strikeout.

It all boils down to one thing, Doubront couldn’t command his pitches. The question remains, though, why couldn’t Doubront control his pitches? Every pitcher has a bad game occasionally, there’s no getting around that. But Doubront was coming off a very strong outing against a powerful Baltimore Orioles lineup in which he only gave up two runs in 6-2/3 innings while issuing only two walks. Oftentimes when a pitcher has one strong start they’re able to push it into a second good start and get on a groove. Doubront wasn’t able to do that, though. Granted his defense failed him by making five errors, including one of his own. Five errors or not, though, Doubront still pitched poorly.

After Pineda’s ejection on Wednesday pitchers across the league, both retired and active, said that “everyone” uses some sort of agent to help get a grip on the ball to help their control. On Thursday night the Red Sox starter couldn’t get into the fourth inning. That could; of course, be a coincidence but the pitcher’s lack of command makes a coincidence seem unlikely.

On Wednesday, Farrell opened up a can of worms by having Pineda ejected. It may have helped his team win the game but the season is long and it’s quite possible the ejection will lead to sabotage instead of success.

Foreign Success making Baseball World's Pastime

There is no question that baseball is behind the times. It’s 2014 and they finally instituted a real system of instant replay to help with umpire decisions. In doing so though they’ve increased length of games which was always the concern from the beginning. In a county where people want immediate, fast-paced results baseball offers the exact opposite. It’s a game that is played at a slow pace and is worked through in methodical and deliberate ways. Baseball has always been known as America’s favorite pastime but if you look closely the sport has become too worldly to be called America’s anything.

Prior to the 2014 baseball season ESPN released a list of the top 100 players in MLB. Of the top-10 players five of them were born outside the United States and 35 of the top-100 were either born outside the US or of direct descent of another country. According to MLB, only 26.1 percent of major leaguers were born outside the country. Of every player in the league, only 26 percent are from another country while 35 percent of the top 100 are from another country. That’s almost 10 percent higher than the league average. That shows an increase in talent from other parts of the world.

Look at the three World Baseball Classics that have been played. The first two were won by Japan and the Dominican Republic dominated the third. In fact the USA has never placed above fourth in the event. Yes, there are outside reasons why US players don’t perform well in the event but the point stands that they haven’t ever medaled in the three tournaments. Baseball is being played all across the world. Teams are getting in bidding wars over prospects from Cuba. Teams throw heaps of money at players that have never played a big league game.

The top two free agents this past offseason were Masahiro Tanaka and Robinson Cano. Cano, a native of the Dominican Republic, landed a 10-year contract after proving to be one of the best players in the world. Tanaka on the other hand was given a seven-year deal worth $155 million and he’d never thrown a pitch in the major leagues. In fact, he played in a country (Japan) where they play with a smaller baseball. The point is that the best players in the world are not coming from the United States. Remember the numbers, 50 percent of the top-10 and 35 percent of the top-100 are of foreign descent. Teams are reaching out to other countries to find the next best talent.

Mike Trout is arguably the best player in the game and he is from New Jersey. But for how great Trout is Miguel Cabrera from Venezuela is right on his tail. Sure Clayton Kershaw is probably the best pitcher in the game and he’s from Texas. But right behind him is Yu Darvish of Japan and Felix Hernandez of Venezuela. Major League Baseball even went as far as to start the 2014 season in another country, Australia.

Baseball has realized their brand is failing in the United States. The reasons are quite simple, length of games and lack of action. Football has become, by far, the model sports business in the US and its left baseball behind. In order for MLB to find a way to compete they’ve realized they need a world market. The only way to get the world market is to get players from other countries and promote their sport in those countries.

Becoming a more worldly game might be the only chance baseball can compete with the ever-growing NFL. But by doing so it can never again be America’s Favorite Pastime, which might not be that bad after all.

When Opportunity Knocks, will Carmelo Answer?

Winning a championship in sports is an extremely difficult task in any level of competition. Winning a D1 college championship in basketball is extraordinarily difficult in the one-game playoff system that is March Madness. Winning an Olympic gold medal poses an even greater difficulty in the fact that you have to first be good enough to be selected to the team of the greatest in the world and still go out and defeat the best players from every other country. Winning an NBA championship may be the greatest difficulty because of the length of the season, postseason, the opponents and the wear and tear on the body. Only eight basketball players have ever accomplished the feat of winning all three and there is another that has an opportunity to do so.

LeBron James and Kevin Durant are arguably the two best players in the NBA today. While both have won an Olympic gold medal, neither will have a chance to win an NCAA title as LeBron never attended college and Durant played only one season, losing in the tournament. Their legacies will ultimately be defined solely by their careers in the NBA. Carmelo Anthony, on the other hand, has a chance to succeed anything those two men and almost every other NBA basketball player in history has ever done: win an NCAA title, an Olympic Gold medal and an NBA Championship.

While that in itself would be historic he already has two Olympic Gold medals and only one other man has ever won two gold medals as well as a college title and professional title. You may have heard of that man, his name is Michael Jordan. Carmelo has an opportunity to join Michael Jordan as the only people to ever win in all the biggest stages and twice for their country. But Carmelo doesn’t need to stop there. In two years, he will probably play in the Olympics again and go for a third gold medal which would put him in even more exclusive territory, his own.

Before we think about Anthony winning a third gold medal his current resume still lacks the NBA title and let’s face it, he’s not going to win in New York. Back in January Melo scored a career-high 63 points in a game, and no one batted an eyelash. LeBron scored 62 points last week, one fewer than Melo, and the story the next day was about how it was one of the all-time great performances. What does that tell you? No one cares about basketball in New York; no one cares about the Knicks. Carmelo needs a championship ring to be considered an all-time great player. His legacy will always be in doubt until he gets one, if he gets one.

At the end of this season he has a chance to leave New York and go elsewhere to win a title. But there is one thing that could truly hold that up, money. If Melo leaves New York he will be leaving a lot of money on the table. The question that he needs to ask himself is How much is it worth to win a ring? Carmelo has a ton of money and it’s still not like he will be playing for free no matter where he goes. As the incumbent team, the Knicks can offer him an extra year and $33million more than any other team. Leaving the Knicks would mean leaving that money and extra year on the table. Not only that but there aren’t many places he can go that give him a great chance at winning.

If he decides to leave the Knicks in search for a title and another big market, his choices will be extremely limited. In fact there may only be one choice, Chicago. The Bulls have put together a roster that plays hard every day. They’ve played the better part of two consecutive seasons without their best player, Derrick Rose—a former MVP—and have surpassed every expectation. They currently sit in fourth place in the Eastern Conference and last year they made it to the second round of the playoffs with a third string starting point guard. According to many news outlets the Bulls will go hard after Carmelo this offseason and it will be in both their best interests to join forces.

The Bulls went to New York last week and laid a beating on the Knicks; they jumped off to a 16 to one lead and never looked back and won 109-90. Anthony witnessed firsthand how good the Bulls can be without him and Rose. Imagine what they could be with him and Rose. The Bulls need Melo to get past LeBron’s Heat. Melo needs the Bulls to become a champion. They would make a perfect match.

Michael Jordan is the greatest player ever to wear a basketball uniform but one ring for Carmelo puts him in the same territory as Jordan. One ring and one more gold medal put him in his own exclusive territory. Carmelo has a choice coming up, he can continue losing in New York or he can win that elusive ring. To do so, though, he’ll have to wear the same uniform as the greatest ever.