Waxing Nostalgic, New York Giants Edition

With the New England Patriots on TV tonight, Shank gives us another walk down memory lane.

The Giants, remember, are a big part of New England football history

The New York Giants, who will play the 5-0 Patriots Thursday night at Gillette Stadium, are a big part of New England’s football history. Your awareness of Patriots-Giants linkage depends on your age.

If you are a Gen X or Millennial Patriots fan, you know that the Giants ruined the greatest season in franchise history, beating the undefeated Patriots in Glendale, Ariz., in February 2008. You know they beat the Patriots in another Super Bowl four years later in Indianapolis. This makes you hate Eli Manning, and curse the lucky catches of David Tyree and Mario Manningham.

Maybe you have read some history and are aware that Bill Belichick coached with the Giants for 12 seasons and won his first two Super Bowls in the Meadowlands.

Quite a few times, Shank!

Wide Right

Shank takes another shot at comedy, and fails miserably.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Welcome to Super Bowl 50, where the undefeated New England Patriots (18-0) will take on the .500 New York Giants (8-8 regular season) in the teams’ third Super Bowl matchup since February of 2008.

“We don’t care about what’s happened in the past,’’ Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Monday evening at the SAP Center, home of Joe Thornton and the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. “The only thing that matters is Sunday’s game against the Giants.’’

All true, of course. But the nation is agog over the prospect of this ultimate rematch. It was the New York Giants who derailed history with a 17-14 upset of the undefeated Patriots in Glendale, Ariz., in Super Bowl XLII eight years ago this week. Four years after that game, the Giants again beat the Patriots (21-17) in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.

Shank writes this column still pretending to like the Patriots, and this unclever ploy becomes clear when you read the rest of the column. Why, then, does he continue to mention Deflategate, Ernie Adams, Brady's appearance with Jim Gray at Salem State back in May, the fines paid by the Patriots, Brady's personal trainer, Judge Richard Berman and mocked coach Belichick's purposefully mangling the names of social media sites? Does he think these are still relevant topics, or is he just being a dick?

Better Late Than Never?

I wasn't able to connect to Blogger, Google or Bing for the past four days from my primary computer because I'd timeout trying to connect with IE and Firefox. The eventual fix was to refresh the DNS table on my modem, which has to be pushed through by the ISP or simply unplugging the modem for a minute & plugging it back in. Guess I need to figure out what information, exactly, is stored in the modem's memory; I suspect it's something besides a DNS table. And in case you're wondering, cable modems can be hacked.

What we don't need to figure out is Shank's last two columns. With the Patriots / Ginats game looming on Sunday, what more obvious angle was there for Shank to harp on?

FOXBOROUGH - You can say it was four years ago and has no bearing on today’s game. You can say that one has nothing to do with the other.

But that is no fun, and it is not true for most of us.

The New York Giants play at Gillette Stadium today, and this is no ordinary game between a pair of Northeast Corridor rivals with matching 5-2 records.

It’s the same two quarterbacks. It’s the same two head coaches. It’s the same two logos.

Obviously, a Patriots victory today won’t make up for what happened in the desert in Arizona in February 2008, but there’s no way this is just another game for the New England Patriots and their fans.

And if the Patriots didn't win (they did not), there's just more grist for Shank's mill:

But that is no fun, and it is not true for most of us.

The New York Giants play at Gillette Stadium today, and this is no ordinary game between a pair of Northeast Corridor rivals with matching 5-2 records.

It’s the same two quarterbacks. It’s the same two head coaches. It’s the same two logos.

Obviously, a Patriots victory today won’t make up for what happened in the desert in Arizona in February 2008, but there’s no way this is just another game for the New England Patriots and their fans.

A lot of the cast members were the same. Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin, Tom Brady, and Eli Manning all picked up where they left off four years ago in the Roman Numeral Game.

Just like last time we got a hard-fought game with limited offense that loosened up at the finish. The Patriots scored on a touchdown pass to take a 3-point lead late in the fourth, but they left too much time on the clock, and Manning somehow took the Giants down the field for a winning touchdown in the closing seconds. Brady got the ball back for a couple of desperation tosses as the clock wound down to zero.

Sound familiar?

Why, yes it does. It's because Shank throughly enjoys reminding us of it.

The One Where Shank Rips Off Felger & Mazz... Again

Shank's recent column on the upcoming Pats / Giants game, about an hour ago:

It’ll be different Sunday afternoon at 4:25 in the Meadowlands. The New York Giants probably won’t win the game, but they will not lose because their coach is overwhelmed or afraid of the Hoodie. The coach of the New York Football Giants is Tom Coughlin and he fears nothing. Including Belichick.

Coughlin knows almost everything there is to know about Belichick the coach. They spent some formative years together (1988-90) in the House of Bill Parcells when the Almighty Tuna was winning Super Bowls in East Rutherford, N.J.

Coughlin was the Giants wide receivers coach while Belichick was deep into his reign as the Tuna’s defensive coordinator. Coughlin was an even bigger football nut than Belichick. When Parcells called the Giants team offices on Christmas Day, it was Coughlin, not Belichick, who answered the phone. After two rings.

Now, go here, scroll down to Nov. 12th, Hour 1, and listen to the first twelve minutes of the show.

Eeerily similar, no? This game was discussed to death the past three days on local sports radio; either Shank is unoriginal (which we already know) or he copied & pasted the transcripts (which we also already know he's done in the past).

DHL Dan LX - David Price Update, Etc.

I'm wondering why Shank is going out of his way to stay positive with his coverage of David Price. Normally this would be the stage in the relationship with the player when Shank's trashing him, just before the one or two 'run him out of town' columns.

Picked-up pieces while wondering how things will end for the 2017 Indians and Dodgers . . .

■ So now the Red Sox are paying David Price $217 million to be Heath Hembree?

The Sox activated Price Thursday, and manager John Farrell announced that the sour southpaw will work out of the bullpen for the rest of this year. I hate this.

I'd rather he not reinjure his elbow. Price in the bullpen will insure he won't be throwing 100 pitches in a given day. This is logical. How Shank thinks otherwise is baffling.

Perhaps it’s rational given Price’s recovery from elbow woes and his potential value as a lefthanded power arm out of the pen. But I still hate it because it’s letting Price off the hook too easily.

As much as it might be dangerous for the Sox, I wanted to see Price get the ball for a playoff start in 2017 (with double-barrel action in the Boston bullpen during the anthem). It’s my thirst for great sports theater.

That, and pints at The Fours.

He still hates the Red Sox, in case you're still wondering:

■ Kudos to the New York Post for placing an asterisk next to “Boston” in its daily American League standings. Below the standings, the asterisk denotes, “Caught stealing.’’

When the Sox got caught cheating, how come nobody made the connection to “Damn Yankees”? The name of the devil in the famed Faustian show/movie is “Applegate.’’

One of my favorite readers reminds us, “You can’t hold a whole baseball team responsible for the behavior of a few sick, perverted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the whole major league system . . . ?’’

Shank realizes the movie 'Animal House' is almost forty years old, right?

He still hates the Patriots:

■ Hate to rub it in, but the New York Football Giants will salute their 2007 Super Bowl champs when they play their home opener in the Meadowlands Monday night against the Lions. Eli Manning and Zak DeOssie are the only players left from that squad. David Tyree currently works for the Giants as director of player development.

...and Federal judge Richard Berman, of Deflategate 'fame':

■ When it comes to the Yankees, Judge Sonia Sotomayor makes Fanboy Richard Berman look neutral. The Supreme Court justice donned a robe and sat in the “Judge’s Chambers” in right field (named for Aaron Judge) when the Red Sox visited New York last month. She cheered madly for her Yankees.

But that's different!

Shank Nails It

The New England Patriots won handily last night, 42 - 14, a result that concerns DSW commenter Monkeesfan:

Shank will become more insufferable now because he nailed this one - the Texans got crushed 42-14.

Lo and behold, the Boston sports columnist who hijacked the bandwagon.

Patriots look like they’re heading to Super Bowl

FOXBOROUGH — The Falcons don’t scare me a bit. The Niners could provide some resistance and we’ll get a look at them this weekend. But if you really want to know the truth, the team that scares me in Super Bowl XLVII is the . . . New York Giants.

Sorry for the buzzkill. But the Giants are on my mind today.

The Patriots are going to play in the Super Bowl Feb. 3 in New Orleans. Nobody in the AFC is better than New England. Not this year.

Insufferable is pretty apt here; the only thing missing is a few 'sons of Belichick' Shankisms to put it over the top.

Indiana Dreaming

What's this? A rare midweek column from Shank?

Go ahead and knock yourself out dissecting and analyzing Sunday’s conference championship games. Ravens vs. Patriots, followed by Giants vs. 49ers makes for a Sunday smorgasbord of playoff thrills and tension.

Not me. I’ve already moved on. These potentially spectacular title games are merely compulsory exercises; games that must be played in order for us to get to the game that everybody is really thinking about.

Super Bowl XLVI. At Lucas Oil (Can Boyd) Stadium in downtown Indianapolis. New England Patriots vs. New York Giants.

A better sentiment if it was made before all the other ones, but it's a decent column nonetheless. The cynical part of me thinks that Shank is angling for this rematch in order for the Patriots to lose (not a stretch for Shank) in order to write his new book, "The Curse of the Belichikbino" or some such.

A Journey To San Francisco

After the San Francisco Giants stake themselves to a 3 to 1 World Series lead, Shank bravely pulls for a Giants series win:

My heart's with San Francisco.

I love the Giants and I hope they win the World Series. They take a 3-1 Series lead into tonight's Game 5 in Texas against Cliff Lee.

A lot of folks don't care about this 2010 World Series. We don't have high-profile teams from New York, Boston, Los Angeles or Chicago. There's no Texas Ranger Nation and the Giants don't have a galaxy of Cooperstown candidates. Executives at Fox no doubt would prefer the Phillies and Yankees, but I'm into the Giants. I'm into the city by the Bay.

A word of advice - it is difficult to ape lamer song lyrics then Journey, even if they are from San Francisco. Next time, at least try a (semi) San Francisco band with balls.

Other than Journey lyrics (please) and the timing of this sudden support for the Giants, I don't see a problem with the column. Shank knows his baseball history extremely well and makes compelling points. Too bad this column was written a few hours before the Giants sealed the deal. To have written this column last week would have taken, well, balls.

Are The Tanks Rolling In?

After yesterday's brutal loss to the New York Giants, Shank's starting to wonder whether this is bad luck or New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick tanking the team:

Are the Patriots tanking? Bill Belichick is wired to win, but this hideous loss makes us wonder

Tank!

Tank!

Tank!

When is the last time a Patriots field goal kicker missed a 35-yard chip shot that would have sent a game into overtime?

It happened Sunday in the Meadowlands when rookie Chad Ryland hooked a 3-foot putt with three seconds remaining in a 10-7 loss to the Giants (a game that should have been flexed to April).

Wow. We haven’t seen a muffed kick like this since Baltimore’s Billy Cundiff’s 32-yard bunny sailed wide left in the 2011 AFC Championship game, delivering the once-great Patriots to yet another Super Bowl.

Was Ryland under orders to miss? Any chance the Pats, now 2-9, did not want to win to stay in position for a top-three pick in the 2024 NFL Draft?

A Time To Worry

Surely, I can't be the only person out there getting nervous about Shank making plans for the Patriots in the Super Bowl, right?

Which NFC team do you want the Patriots to play in the Super Bowl Feb. 5 in Houston?

The Dallas Cowboys? The Seattle Seahawks? The New York (gulp) football Giants?

First, dismiss the rest of the entire American Football Conference:

This is what keeps me awake these nights. I’ve got no time for the rest of the regular season or the Tomato Can Foxborough festival that will be billed as the AFC playoffs. Bill Belichick, Ernie Adams, Matt Patricia, and Josh McDaniels can game-plan for the rugged Jets and Dolphins over these next two weekends. I have moved on . . . to the Super Bowl.

While acknowledging that the Patriots could possibly play the Packers, Lions, Falcons or some other mystery guest in Super Bowl LI, I think we all know that it’s going to be Dallas, Seattle or New York, and those are clearly the most interesting prospective matchups for New England.

Here’s why:

Go forth and read the rest of the column, for it is boring and oh so predictable...

UPDATE, 12/22/2016 AT 1:20 PM - link added so you can 'enjoy' the rest of the article...

Prime Time

A few months ago Shank predicted seven wins for this year's New England Patriots. Currently sitting at eleven wins, his attitude towards the team has changed quite a bit:

Drake Maye, Mike Vrabel certainly have these Patriots ready for prime time

Back in prime time on “Monday Night Football,” the Patriots thrashed the New York Football Giants, 33-15, Monday at Gillette Stadium.

This means 10 straight wins for the 11-2 Pats — the best record in all of the NFL — and a legit shot at the top seed when the AFC playoffs begin next month.

“Players are coming in here each and every week and practicing and executing,” said first-year coach Mike Vrabel. “Ultimately, it’s on the players. We try to give them a plan they can execute. I’m proud of them and happy they can have some success.”

Extending Thanksgiving weekend an extra 24 hours, quarterback/MVP candidate Drake Maye (24 for 31, 282 yards, two touchdown passes) carved up the New York turkeys for another easy win against a pathetic NFL wannabe.

“Drake is ... realizing what he can be and the impact he makes on this offense,” said Vrabel. “We are very appreciative that he’s our quarterback.”

To some people, the Patriots have suddenly became a very good team. Then there's Shank:

The Patriots have a well-earned bye week. No game Sunday. The bad news is that the March of the Tomato Cans — easiest schedule in NFL history — is suspended for a couple of weeks. They will be legitimately tested twice in December, with a home game against the Bills on Dec. 14 followed by a rugged road trip to play the smashmouth Ravens in Baltimore.

And So It Begins

How many columns do you think Shank will milk out of this Super Bowl rematch?

FOXBOROUGH - Feeling 10 years younger today? You should. Your Patriots are going to the Super Bowl and it feels just like 2001-02, when the stars aligned and the Patriots were unlikely kings of the NFL.

A decade ago, we had the Tuck Rule, snow angels, and a bunch of overachievers who redefined the word “team’’ and carried their magic to the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

Now the Patriots are blessed with a no-name defense, cosmic attrition of NFL superpowers, and the indomitable spirit of Myra H. Kraft, who died shortly before an unlikely season that ends Feb. 5 in Indianapolis against the same New York Giants who derailed New England’s historic 18-0 season on Feb. 3, 2008.

Bonus Bill Buckner cheapshots included; what would a Shank column be without a Red Sox reference or two?

Mystery Solved

I was trying to figure out why Shank tweeted out an ancient column about Ernie Adams, the Patriots' director of football research:

Mysterious Ernie Adams is Patriots’ man behind the curtain https://t.co/31ixIpr1xm via @BostonGlobe

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) May 4, 2021

That's because he's now the Patriots' former director of football research:

Longtime Patriots director of football research Ernie Adams announced his retirement from the organization in a brief statement Monday night. Here’s how the statement reads, via ESPN’s Mike Reiss on Twitter:

“The last 21 seasons with the New England Patriots have been extraordinary for me. I am fortunate to have been part of a team with Bill Belichick, outstanding colleagues, patient owners, and a lot of great players. It is time for me to stop working and join the many wonderful fans who have been here for this run.”

Adams’ first job in the NFL came in New England as an administrative assistant from 1975-78. A longtime colleague and friend of Belichick’s, he served in various roles under Belichick for the New York Giants and Cleveland Browns before heading back to the Patriots as Belichick’s football research director in 2000. Belichick announced on Saturday that the 2021 NFL Draft was Adams’ final one with the team, and allowed him to make the team’s seventh-round selection, Central Florida wide receiver Tre Nixon.

Known for his mysterious nature and football intelligence, Adams was described as a “mythical creature” by Patriots center David Andrews on Tuesday. Belichick heavily credited Adams with having a major role in the Patriots’ draft process over the years.

Shank's Last Super Bowl LIII Column

Most of us were expecting other column themes from Shank - the paint-by-numbers quarterback comparisons, Shank's attempts at trolling major cities, etc., but we've seen none of that, which is a pleasant surprise.

Super Bowl week has been all about the Patriots

ATLANTA — Another Super Bowl . . . nine in 18 years . . . the Patriot Way is the only way . . . again.

This must be what it feels like to have more money than you can count. You have a garage full of Bentleys, multiple vacation homes around the world, and lose track of where you placed your Rolex watch.

So. Much. Winning.

The Patriots have been to so many of these mega-games that it becomes a little hard to remember specifics. The sites, the big plays, and the ancillary events start to blur. The Patriots have played Atlanta in Houston, and now they are playing Los Angeles in Atlanta. They have played Super Bowls against the New York Giants in two different cities. They played the Rams when the Rams were in St. Louis, and Sunday they are playing the Rams, who now hail from Los Angeles.

The other elements of a typical Shank column are there, of course - fake praise for the New England Patriots, hyperbole, and all that. I'll just note that this column's pretty good, and his other columns (three others) were as well. When compared to other Super Bowl run-ups for the previous two years, less is more.

Oh - one last thing:

...
The Patriots are only 2½-point favorites, but it feels like everybody’s picking New England. And all the money is being bet on the Patriots. This does not guarantee victory, of course, but given their experience in the big games (the Patriots have 37 players with Super Bowl experience, the Rams have four) and the momentum from wins over the Chargers and Chiefs, it’s hard to fathom the Patriots losing.

You folks know why that partial sentence is in there, correct?

Shank Roundup

Sit back, folks - in the span of one day we have not one, not two but three columns from Shank! Fifty years ago some guy named Bobby Orr scored a goal, some perspective on this goal from the man himself (and a bad kitty!), and Shank has another chance to take shots at the New England Patriots, specifically coach Bill Belichick:

It will be awkward as Bill Belichick chases Don Shula’s records

Awkward... for who?

Bill Belichick, still coaching the Patriots at the age of 68, will go into his 70s chasing the ghost of Don Shula, who died Monday at the age of 90.

Belichick is all about football history, and that makes him all about Don Shula. Shula is the winningest coach in NFL history with 328 regular-season wins and 347 including playoffs. Belichick is at 273 and 304. There can be no doubt Belichick wants the record.

That's reasonable speculation / supposition.

The Hoodie already came close to Shula’s “other” record. Shula’s 1972 Dolphins are the only perfect team (17-0) in NFL history. Belichick’s 2007 Patriots got to 18-0 before the bubble burst in Glendale, Ariz., against David Tyree and the New York Giants.

Dan Shaughnessy, always accentuating the positive!

The rest of this column's pretty good, with maybe a bit of iffy and non-iffy speculation here and there but still worth a read. What else are you gonna do under the bullshit lockdown anyway?

DHL Dan - XXX

Shank has this habit of mailing in about half of his Super Bowl columns, and today he comes through once again.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Welcome to Exit 16W off the New Jersey Turnpike; where the polar vortex was supposed to meet the Roman numeral; where sideline seats cost $100,000 and a 20-ounce cup of beer goes for $14; where you can’t be sure if gameday traffic might be caused by an angry governor.

Maybe you’ve heard, they are playing the Super Bowl outdoors at MetLife Stadium this year. They’re playing the game at the home of the New York Giants and Jets, in the state that gave us Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, and Tony Soprano.

It’s a nice matchup. We have the NFL’s best offense against the league’s best defense. The Denver Broncos vs. the Seattle Seahawks. The Broncos have been in six other Super Bowls, winning twice when John Elway was an old quarterback. Now Elway serves the Broncos the way Cam Neely serves the Boston Bruins and the old quarterback for the Broncos is Peyton Manning.

Don't waste your time with the rest of this garbage, unless you're a masochist. Anyone paying even scant attention to football already knows just about everything Shank talks about, and I don't see a single interesting thing in this column, which is the biggest offence a columnist can commit.

The Obligatory Super Bowl Day Column

Here it is, folks:

HOUSTON — Tonight the Patriots settle all family business.

This certainly is New England’s game plan as the Patriots take on the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI at NRG Stadium.

Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and Bob Kraft have been to six previous Super Bowls, but have never carried this much history or emotion into the ultimate game — not even when they tried to complete a perfect season against the New York Giants in February 2008.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say Shank just updated this column from a few weeks ago.

Programming note - No game updates to cover Shank's stupid coin toss tweets, etc., as I'm at a buddy's house watching the game. Go Patriots!

The Big Tuna

Former Patriots coach Bill Parcells will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend, and Shank pens a righteous column about him and his time with the Patriots.

Bill Parcells takes his rightful place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend, and there will be noise about his two Super Bowl championships with the New York Giants (remember Scott Norwood and wide right?), and his rebuilding of the Jets, Cowboys, and Dolphins. Parcells is the only man in NFL history to lead four franchises to the playoffs and he is one of only five men to take two franchises to the Super Bowl. He is renowned as the great, almighty Tuna, the quintessential Jersey guy who engaged reporters and insisted, “You are what your record says you are.’’

All swell. The Tuna deserves props and is overdue for a bust in Canton. But it is his four-year stint as head coach of the Patriots that matters most to us here in New England. Parcells is the man who rescued the Patriots from irrelevance and maybe from a move to St. Louis.

More than Bob Kraft, Tom Brady or Bill Belichick, Parcells is the man who changed the culture of football in Foxborough.

Troll Wars - Shank Wins Round 2

Our Man Shank continues to make friends and influence people:

Boston and Atlanta may not share much of a rivalry, but one could be brewing after a Georgia gas station banned the sale of Sam Adams until the Super Bowl.

The Brown Bridge Exxon gas station in Gainesville says it will keep Boston Beer Co.’s flagship beer off its shelves until after the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons meet on Feb. 5.

Earlier this week, the station’s manager, Hadji Chhadua, put a sign announcing the ban on a gas station cooler, blocking the shelf space that usually features Sam Adams Boston Lager. The image circulated widely on social media Thursday morning.

The move, he said, was a response to a column by the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy, which bemoaned that the Patriots would play the lower-profile Falcons in the Super Bowl, rather than the better-followed Dallas Cowboys or a historic rival like the New York Giants. “When it comes to Atlanta and its sports fans, we feel nothing. Maybe a little pity,” Shaughnessy wrote.

UPDATE, 5:26 PM - Typo in the headline has been corrected.

Shank's Trademark Optimism

...is on display in his weekly CNN / SI article.

Hope you all enjoyed the Super Bowl last night. There won't be any football for a while.

Maybe a long while.

NFL fans have learned to live a few months without football. But a lockout? What will a lockout do to draft day? How will we live without offseason conditioning camps? Summer two-a-days? Those criminally-priced preseason games?

And what if there is no football come Labor Day? No Sunday Night Football. No Monday Night Football. No (gulp) Sunday afternoon football.

He reminds us of previous strikes, lockouts and other 'work stoppages' in other professional sports further on in the column. My interest in baseball has never been the same after the 1994 strike. I thought at the time - 'That's rich - millionaires going on strike'.

Baseball's darkest hours since the Black Sox Scandal came in 1994 when commissioner Bud Selig canceled the World Series due to a work stoppage. Refusing to accept a salary cap, Players Association chief Donald Fehr took the players off the field on Aug. 12, and on Sept. 14 Selig called the whole thing off. It marked the first time the World Series wasn't played since the New York Giants refused to play the Red Sox of the upstart American League after the 1904 season.

The baseball strike of '94 extended into spring training in 1995 and baseball owners assembled teams of replacement players. The fraudulent prospect of scab teams playing big league ball was stopped by a court ruling near the end of spring training and the real games resumed on schedule in 1995. But the damage was done.

I still feel a diminished interest about baseball since that time, but I'll acknowledge a more forgiving attitude towards football and basketball because those are sports that I like more. This means the NFL will weather this storm better because it's much more popular; I don't know how the NBA will fare if it stops operations due (like the NFL) to an expiring collective bargaining agreement. At first glance, the NFL and NBA situations share some attributes, are different in some respects (NFL - increasing revenue stream; NBA - not as much). Maybe it just boils down to one simple truth:

Owners and players are fighting over a pile of money they made by enticing fans with vicarious delusions of grandeur, just like the baseball players of yore.

Their humanity is merely a manipulative calculation fueled by the flames of greed and then superimposed onto all those who follow.

Mea culpa time?

You can make a case that baseball's steroid scandal was aided and abetted by the baseball strike of 1994. The national pastime was desperate to get fans back after the cancellation of the '94 postseason and this might be why we all looked the other way during the roided-up Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run chase. Everyone was rooting for baseball to come back and the long ball was a big selling point. Cal Ripken's consecutive games streak and the home run chase of '98 were largely credited with "saving the game.'' We later learned that the homers were artificially enhanced. Rampant cheating was part of the post-strike fallout.

Somewhere, Shank absolved himself of this dilemma. I cannot find the article right now - help me out, dear readers!