Hoping for a Historical Repeat

Some sports shorts heading into the final weekend of April:

In 1979 the New York Giants stunned their fans by selecting a little-known quarterback out of Morehead State with the 7^th overall pick in the NFL Draft.  The Giants took Phil Simms in what would be the last draft not shown live on TV as ESPN began broadcasting it the following year.

Giants fans in attendance at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York booed loudly and asked,” who is Phil Simms” when his selection was announced.  Turned out to be a pretty good pick as Simms spent his entire 15-year career with the team, won a pair of Super Bowls and had his #11 jersey retired.

Forty years later Giants fans are scratching their heads over the drafting of another quarterback with a high draft pick.  Last night in front of about 150,000 fans in Nashville, Tennessee Commissioner Roger Goodell came to the podium to announce who the team had taken with the #6 overall pick and probably about 99% of Giant fans were expecting it to be a game-changing defensive player.

They were left shocked when they heard the choice was quarterback Daniel Jones of Duke who many so-called experts rated as a late first-round selection.  Fans of Big Blue can only hope for a repeat of what happened 40 years ago.

As a Mets fan it’s often hard for me to say anything nice about the Yankees. It’s just not in my DNA.  However you have to give this team credit for the way they have performed in the wake of what has to be a record number of early season injuries.

Outfielder Clint Frazier is the 13^th Yankees player currently on the injured list and despite having to use guys even their most loyal fans never heard of the team has won 8 of their last 10 games and is only two games out of first place in the AL East. Very impressive.

And on a local baseball note, Central stunned the Shore Sports Network’s top-ranked team Jackson Memorial 4-3 on Thursday.  It was just the third win of the season for the young Golden Eagles and the second loss for the powerful Jaguars.

Most importantly it means Jackson and Toms River North both have two losses in Class A South and sets the stage for some big division games in the weeks to come.