7 Things I Learned – Goodbye NY!

It was an Easter Weekend packed with plenty of playoff sports, and one major city is left with just baseball for the next few months.

1. The Knicks proved that two out of three are not good enough. When point guard Chauncey Billups injured his leg at the end of the second game, New York's playoff chances were finished. It didn't help when star forward Amare Stoudamire injured his back. The Boston Celtics made it look easy against the Knicks and ended the dream for superfan Spike Lee and the rest of Gotham.

2. Ditto New York Rangers, who blew a three goal lead in game four and never recovered in their 1st Round Eastern Conference Series against the Washington Capitals.

3. Keep Mike Leake out of Macy's. Even thoough the young Reds pitcher makes $425,000 a year, apparently he was a little short of some cash or credit cards when he wanted to purchase 6 t-shirts worth $59.88. According to the story, Leake took off all the price tags and tried to sneak all 6 shirts out of the store. Later, a source said he was trying to exchange them and it was a big misunderstanding. Leake still made his scheduled start for the Reds the next day against the D-Backs, but his reputation took a hit much bigger than the $60 t-shirts .

4. The 4 UTEP quarterbacks battling for the starting job are all tiny. Three of the four signal callers are listed at 6-1 and the other is only 5-11. Mike Price has never had a small QB since he arrived at UTEP. Although they all lack size, each one them played well Saturday and combined to throw 10 touchdowns in the scrimmage at the Sun Bowl.    

5. Seagulls are a real pain in the ass at Wrigley Field. Here's the link to my Friday column. Enough said.

6. Nobody cares about the 2011 NFL schedule. Released earlier this week, the upcoming NFL season has some potential great games, we just don't know whether or not they will be played. 

7. Major League Baseball plans to expand their playoffs in 2012 from 10 to 12 teams. I hate this because sooner or later all sports will become the NHL where it seems like everybody makes the postseason.