Why the Timing of the Jeremy Shockey Trade is… Not Shocking

No one is surprised by the Jeremy Shockey trade. It’s been in the works for months and everyone knows why it happened, but people are a little confused as to why it happened now only 3 days before training camp. After all they got the same deal they could have had before the draft, so why do it now? Why not do it before the draft and get a replacement tight end through the draft or free agency?

All these questions can be answered fairly easily when you look a little closer at the situation. Who’s actually being traded here? Well we’re talking about Jeremy Shockey a multi-time Pro-Bowl tight end. Players like Shockey with speed, and toughness don’t come along every day. If you were the Giants wouldn’t you want to try to hold on to him? Then you consider the giants TE situation. They have Kevin Boss, no Jeremy Shockey certainly, but he made huge plays for the Giants in their Super Bowl run including an enormously important 45 yard reception in the Super Bowl itself. So while you’ll be downgrading at TE you have a guy who can block, and make the occasional big play. In other words you don’t necessarily NEED a replacement should things not work out with Shockey.

Now you consider how Shockey has acted this offseason. Instead of trying to help his teammates out during the super bowl run, he was sitting in the stands doing his own thing. I didn’t kill him for this as I figured he didn’t want to be a distraction, but it raises some questions. Then he skips the Super Bowl Parade and Ring Ceremony. Its not like he wasn’t part of the team, he made 57 fricken catches for them in the regular season, so there’s no reason he can’t get a ring, but he skips these events. In doing so to me it shows a complete lack of support for your teammates. Even if you feel you don’t deserve the ring yourself because you didn’t help them in the postseason wouldn’t you want to go support your teammates? Its not like you weren’t invited.

He also asked for a trade because he was worried about his role on the team. Last I checked his role was the same as it is on every team… HELP THE TEAM WIN. Apparently he was worried more about his stats then playing for the Super Bowl champs.

Will they win again this year? Probably not, but at least they have the talent to get it done.

Then he gets in a shouting match with the GM and I can only imagine what else was going on behind the scenes.

So why wait so long? Simply put because he’s a talented player who you don’t want to get rid of, you don’t neeeeed a replacement for him and you’re hoping things will work themselves out. When it became clear they would not and training camp was fast approaching they realized it was time to cut bait. So to me all the media types (and Plaxico Burress) expressing shock over the time, need to calm down.

Here's to You Ken Singleton

Many of you have never had the privilege of hearing Ken Singleton broadcast a baseball game, never mind the privilege of hearing him on a regular basis. As a Yankee fan in the NY area, I get the pleasure of hearing him quite often and I want to write a tribute to one of my favorite broadcasters out there.

Why is Ken Singleton so good? Well let’s start with that he’s completely unpretentious. He doesn’t speak down to you, and never comes off as self-important. At the same time he’s clearly very articulate. He doesn’t talk about things he doesn’t know about and keeps the focus on the game itself.

He’s completely self-deprecating and you’d never know he was really a quite good player, unless well… you knew was quite a good player. (No he wasn’t hall of fame material, but he was no slouch.) All these things allow him to work seamlessly with a multitude of partners, from Cone, to Lieter to Flaherty to Kay; he doesn’t miss a beat no matter who is in the booth.

But the best part about getting to listen to Ken Singleton? The little sayings you’ll hear every game.

One particular game a pitcher threw a curveball and they were showing the replay of said curveball and Singleton describing the brake on the pitch goes, “WEEEEE” like a school child going throwing his hands up and jumping down a slide. It was unexpected, enthusiastic and quite simply great.

Another game a Yankee (probably Jeter) made a high throw to first and Giambi has to jump up to grab it, lands on the bag and gets the out. Singleton says, “Giambi proves you gotta get up, to get down.” Once again unexpected, enthusiastic and great.

So here’s to you Ken Singleton, keep doing what you’re doing.