Stupid Kids.

Though not any more stupid than many adults who constantly choose to ignore the "professional" in "professional sports."

I do lots of things for free every day. If I wanted to, I could play hockey or baseball for free every single day. Maybe by myself, maybe with some other friends who have nothing better to do.

So my advice to these children is to get some hockey sticks and pucks and play some hockey. For free. Gary Bettman is not stopping them.

Now, would you pay to watch these stupid kids play hockey? Ummm, probably not.

It seems like I've discovered a wrinkle in their plan to save the National Hockey League.


If this doesn't seem like a baseball post, just replace NHL with MLB. Same stupid commentaries when baseball threatens a work stoppage.

You see, there are no substantial Yankee articles today. Giambi returned to the lineup, Mussina pitched well, ARod had two hits and even another two-out RBI, the Yankees won, the Red Sox lost, the Yankees extended their lead to four games, and Scott Kazmir even beat Boston just to make the Mets look bad.

As a result, poor Mike Lupica has nothing to write about.

I might have to wait until Sunday for another Lupica "Shootin' From The Lip" article, but I guess it depends how the Yankees do against the Red Sox on Friday and Saturday.

I have a crazy hunch that Lupica will mention Yankee payroll, Boston grittiness, and find a way to compare ARod unfavorably to some other player in the big leagues (Dmitri Young makes less money than ARod, yet has a higher batting average against Boston, and ARod was brought here specifically to have a high batting average against Boston). All of is just part of the Lupica Template, regardless of what actually occurs on the field.

Maybe Lupica will once again inexplicaly refer to .291-hitting ARod a ".260 hitter." Whatever, it's just Mike Lupica utilizing his poetic license. What kind of anal-retentive readers or sports editors check the facts, anyway?

.291 is .260, more or less, just like a $194 million payroll is $180 million, more or less, just like the Mets are about to take over the baseball scene in New York, more or less.