Josh Curtis

David Wright is miscast in a Met uniform.

His youth, affability and seemingly boundless enthusiasm are, by themselves, sufficient to draw a sharp contrast to the gaggle of older, often listless imports that surround him. Add the fact that he’s not only the best player on the Mets but also one of a scant few whose career remains on the ascent, and you begin to understand that by nearly every metric, Wright is the anti-Met.  read more »

This weekend, as Mets and Yankees reprised their biannual rivalry, the familiar summer smell of sizzling hot dogs and grilled hamburgers was trumped by the cloying stench of mutual desperation. After 40 games and more than $347 million in payroll, the Mets and Yankees entered the series a combined 40-42. Worse still, they saw their respective divisions led by the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, two teams whose payrolls rank last and next to last in Major League Baseball.

So what’s the problem?  read more »

On Saturday, the New York Jets used the sixth overall pick in the 2008 NFL draft to select Ohio State defensive end Vernon Gholston.

By most accounts, Gholston is a talented if somewhat inconsistent prospect who projects as a fine player in the NFL. Nevertheless, this weekend’s draft may ultimately be remembered less for the picks the Jets made than for the one they didn’t: Arkansas running back Darren McFadden. Despite the public-relations spin, the fact remains that the Jets desperately needed McFadden. Chad Pennington needed him. Kellen Clemens needed him. Eric Mangini, too. But above all, their bedraggled, tempest-tossed fans needed him. They needed him both to jump-start a moribund offense and to redefine a staid, faceless and increasingly boring organization. As is their wont, the Jets missed the opportunity, ignoring the overwhelming fan sentiment for McFadden. They knew better.  read more »

On April 26-27, the NFL will conduct its 72nd annual college entry draft. For the third time in five years, the Jets are the owners of a top-10 selection.

Here’s a look at their likely targets:

VERNON GHOLSTON, Defensive End, Ohio State

Last season, the 6’3” 266-pound Gholston followed his respectable 2006 season by shattering the Ohio State single-season sack record with 14. He turned in highlight-reel performances against Wisconsin (four sacks) and Michigan (three sacks) before impressing scouts at the famous Indianapolis Combine by running the 40-yard dash in 4.66 seconds and totaling a combine-best 37 repetitions on the bench press. Although he was primarily a defensive end in a 4-3 scheme at Ohio State, some feel that he may project as a 3-4 outside linebacker as well. He is considered a hard worker and a low character risk.

Why you want him:  read more »

By handing out nearly $140M in free-agent contracts this offseason, the New York Jets have sent a bold message to the rest of the league: they’re one of the worst-run teams in football.

Unsurprisingly, their moves have met with general approval in New York, where even the most ill-advised spending sprees are typically embraced with open arms by people who believe that buying is trying. Amazingly, the nearly endless array of high-priced free-agent flops over the last 15 years has done little to dent this illogic. Now, as then, the quick-fix allure of free agency remains strong.  read more »

When last we saw the New York Mets, they were a defeated, injury-laden bunch that had just completed a historic collapse. Worst still, they were rife with overpaid, underproductive mercenaries more notable for what they had accomplished on other teams than anything they had done for the Mets. Curiously, Met brass concluded that the solution to the team’s troubles lay in exchanging most of the organization’s top young prospects for even more mercenaries. The net result is that owner Fred Wilpon and GM Omar Minaya have placed a large wager on what is, in some respects, the same horse that failed so miserably in 2007.
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As the Jets and Chiefs trudged through yesterday’s season finale amid freezing rain and a sparsely populated crowd, Chad Pennington stood stoically on the sideline, donning a team-issued raincoat and watching his heir apparent, Kellen Clemens, struggle to muster 13 points against a Kansas City team that entered yesterday’s contest having lost eight consecutive games.

And so it had come full circle for Pennington, whose star-crossed tenure as the Jets’ starting quarterback began in the fourth game of the 2002 season, when he faced the same Chiefs team at Giants Stadium.  read more »

On Sunday afternoon, the Jets will close out their most disappointing season in recent memory when they face a hapless Kansas City Chief team at the Meadowlands. And unless you’re motivated by lingering resentment stemming from the sudden departure of Herman Edwards in 2005, chances are that you’re going to have a difficult time finding reason to watch the last scene of a rather tired act. The bad news, of course, is that the Jets’ season has been lost for two months. But here’s the good news: like virtually every other NFL team, the Jets aren’t far removed from having a playoff-caliber club in 2008. Here’s how they can do it.  read more »

If there was anything remarkable about yesterday’s 10-6 loss to a profoundly mediocre Tennessee Titans team, it was the eerie similarity with which the usual events unfolded. Once again, the Jets found themselves in an eminently winnable game against a favored club. And once again, they self-destructed, throwing crippling interceptions, showing no credible running attack, allowing six quarterback sacks, missing field goals and extra points, and otherwise securing defeat where most clubs would have managed victory.  read more »

If the Jets had an eye on the second-greatest upset in franchise history yesterday afternoon, the stars were aligned. The weather was terrible; the field in Gillette Stadium was drenched; their spirits were high. And after the Patriots’ first drive ended in a rare punt, that faint glimmer of hope grew brighter.  read more »