Starting Five

It’s an early steakateria morning, folks. Sorry for the brief entry.

1. Some Ware, Out There

Honk if you have yet to interview Kevin Ware. Sorry. He seems like a wonderful young man. This isn’t about him. It’s about the race by news organizations to head to Louisville to see which one can out over-sensitive-ize the other to share his story. Meanwhile — and, yes, the videotape does not lie — the more wrenching interview yesterday was the impromptu one that canned Rutgers coach Mike Rice gave outside his home.

Hard. Ware.

Did anyone ask Kevin Ware an actual soup question? Did anyone ask him WHY or HOW he thinks the injury occurred? Even if he replies, “I have no idea” or “It was just a freak accident”, don’t you at least ask? I know I’m in the minority here. We are all supposed to fall over ourselves fawning over the job that Rece Davis did (and I love Rece as much as you do; I have two throw pillows, one that reads “Rece” and the other that reads “Davis”; okay, I have a third that reads “Get Outta Town!” but that’s only because I love Steve Levy’s hair). After all, Kevin did cry. Rece did fine. It’s just that, well, aren’t there still five Louisville starters who have a job to do this weekend who we may want to discuss a little more? And, well, isn’t THIS the height of exploitation? And how much money will Kevin Ware see from this?

2. The New York Yankees will be at least six games under .500 by the end of April. If not by tax day. I’m not sure what the most games NYY have been under .500 during a season since the dawn of the Derek Jeter Era in 1996, but I’m going to fathom that they will break that mark this season. Overreaction after two games? Perhaps. But right now I’d keep Edgar Nunez, Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson and reliever David Robertson and throw away the rest of the team. And, by the way, how much value is Mariano Rivera when your team trails by three to five runs entering the ninth inning? Oh, and Hiroki Kuroda left with an injury in the second inning. And have you seen how empty the stadium has looked in each of the first two games in the late innings (granted, the weather has been colder than Yankee bats). The current era of NYY ended on the play that Derek Jeter broke his ankle in Game 1 of the ALCS. Everything beyond that is just wishful thinking and avoiding the inevitable.

And they’re only two games out of first place right now!

3. If you are Sports Illustrated, you have a dilemma on Monday. First, you had a terrific story by one of your top smiths of verbiage, Michael Rosenberg, on Tiger Woods. Also, you had one of the more iconic photographs shot in some time. The perfect cover, with clouds in the background that Rembrandt would have liked to have painted.

Pure perfection

The problem? You also have a compelling Kevin Ware story. And you know that your next week’s cover is going to come from the Final Four, so you cannot hold this Tiger cover for a week (and the Masters follows that). So, if you’re SI, you run this cover as a regional. And that cover actually receives more play because all the morning news programs use it when introducing their very special Kevin Ware interview. I feel for the editors of SI on this one. But it’s too bad this Tiger cover is not receiving more attention. It is sublime.

4. I think it is safe to say that Auburn alumna Selena Roberts will not be welcome at any class reunions any time soon.

5. ESPN’s Chris Fowler tweeted this two days ago. I don’t know how he got this photo (maybe this is how). It is “spectacular”, but as a New Yorker, it’s also a little eerie. Haunting. No?

Reserves

Erin Andrews and Michelle Beadle are actually both in New York City this week. However, I don’t see the two of them meeting for lunch at Per Se. Not after this, especially.

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