Again The Coach is Blamed for the Team's Failure

Yesterday the Knicks fired coach Derek Fisher as the team has stumbled to a 23-31 record.  At the time of Fisher's firing the Knicks had lost 9 out of 10 games.  The Knicks have certainly improved over last year's 17-65 record.  Last year General Manager Phil Jackson dumped some good players in the middle of the season to save money on salary.  I think many of the player moves in the off season were beneficial.

Derek Fisher was hired without any experience as a coach or assistant coach at any level.  He was also given a 5 year contract for $25 Million.  I presume that the team must pay him that amount or come to an agreement on a buyout.  Kurt Rambis has been made the interim coach, but likely will not be hired permanently.  At the end of the season Phil Jackson will evaluate what experienced coaches are available.  I am rooting for Patrick Ewing to get the job as he has several years experience as an assistant coach in the NBA.

New York Islanders 8 Edmonton Oilers 1 at Barclay Center on Super Bowl Sunday

We really wanted to see at least one hockey game at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn this season.  Karen wanted to go in the daytime so I picked Sunday February 7th a few months ago not realizing that it was Super Bowl Sunday.  The Islanders were really hot as they scored 3 goals in the first 11;24 of the game driving out starting goalie Anders Nilsson.  It seems to be unusual when a team changes goalies in the middle of the game. Islanders scored 5 more goals including a hat trick by Kyle Okposo.  Fans did throw their hats on the ice after he scored his third goal.  It was the Islanders biggest offensive performance since they beat Pittsburgh 9-3 in February 2011.

Game recap

We left the arena as the game ended and arrived arrived home at about 6:45 missing a few minutes of the Super Bowl.

Remembering Super Bowl I in 1967

Let's turn back the clock to January 1967 when I was a senior at Forest Hill High School.  Earlier in the 1960s there was a rivalry between the NFL and the upstart AFL which was resolved by an agreement to merge.  In 1967 the merger had not been completely consumated, but there was an arrangement to play a game pitting the champion of the AFL vs the champion of the NFL.  The moniker Super Bowl came a few years later.

Back then color TV sets were not common as my family still had only black and white TVs.  My mother played Mah Jongg in a group including Shirley Dule who live across the street.  Her husband Irving invited my father and I to see the AFL-NFL Championship game on a color TV in his apartment.  The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10.

Irving and Shirely Dule had two daughters, Ellen and Linda.  Years later they moved to Arizona.  I have kept in touch with them through Facebook.

Random Comments of the Day

There was about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground today as I drove with Lee to Cunningham Park.  Since the basketball court was still snow covered he couldn't play.  There was a pathway around the path, but there were too many icy spots.

Karen and I went to the Ridgewood Bank and renewed some CDs that came due this week.

We walked over the the Flushing branch of the Queens Library and saw a performance of Indian music.  The only two instruments were a tabla and harmonium.  I wonder if the sitar is still a popular instrument after the passing of Ravi Shankar.  I stopped off at Modells and got a pair of sneakers.

I watched the NJIT Men's basketball team play Kennesaw State on ESPN 3.  The Highlanders won 78-59 and are now 14-11 overall and 5-4 in the Atlantic Sun conference.

After dinner I saw one episode of the Adventures of Superman and one episode of Batman.

I am listening to Cousin Brucie as I am writing this journal entry.

I Bought a Package of 13 Games at Citifield Today

For the last several seasons I purchased 10 game packages for Met games.  At the end of last season they announced packages for 20, 41, and 81 games which were just too much for me.  At that point I thought I would buy tickets for single games.  When tickets first went on sale I bought ticket for the games against the Yankees and Kansas City Royals figuring that those games would be sold out quickly.  I was going to wait until February to buy more tickets.  I found out a few days ago that the Mets were selling 13 game packages which are discounted.  So I took the plunge and bought the package.

See you at the ball park.

Some Minor Radio News in the New York Area

Back in the 1960s when AM radio predominated WWRL was a big R&B and soul station.  Some major DJs like Bobby Jay and Frankie Crocker worked there.  For the last few years the format has been Mexican music.  Just now they have changed to a format featuring talk and music for Indians.  This seems to make sense as there is a large Indian population in the NYC metropolitan area.

WFAS at 1230 AM is now broadcasting the CBS Radio Sports Network.  Until now it could only be heard in NYC at WCBS-FM HD3.  This station is aimed at Westchester County.  I could get it very weakly on my GE Superradio in Queens.

WNLK (1350 AM) and WSTC (1400 AM) in Connecticut are for sale by Sacred Heart University.  Both are airing oldies as a placeholder format.  It does seem that AM radio is fading all over.

Old Snow is Ugly

Since we got 26 inches of snow on Saturday January 23 the weather has been mild.  Today the temperature went up to the 50s melting much of the snow that remains.  Snow looks nice for a few days, but after that it looks plain ugly.  The piles created when the Sanitation Department moves snow can take a long time to melt.  Today alternate side of the street parking in NYC was back in effect so the sanitation trucks could smash some the mounds of snow and spread it out so it could melt faster.  Hopefully the rain predicted for Wednesday will wash the rest of it away.