psmealey's profile

psmealey
1023
Name: Pòl S. McNealey
Location: A small outpost of Red Sox Nation in Yankee Territory
ZIP: 06877
Gender: M
Member since: February 15, 2004
Last visit: July 22, 2009

psmealey has posted 10 links and 411 comments to SportsFilter and 0 links and 0 comments to the Locker Room.

Sports Bio

The most famous sporting event I ever attended was the Bucky Dent playoff game at Fenway park on October 2, 1978 (I was 11 years old at the time and cried like it afterwards). I used to be a fierce supporter of the New York Giants when I was a kid, but my interest waned by the time I went off to college in 1985. When the Giants won the Super Bowl the next season, I cheered for them heartily, but had all but completely lost interest in the NFL from that point forward. It was in 1986 that I began attending school in France, so I think my passion for American Football was replaced by my passion for the world's game. So, Favorite Teams, home sides, all: MLB: Boston Red Sox (home team, grew up in New England) National Football Side: Engerland (lived in London for 1 year) Ligue 1: Paris-St. Germain FC (lived in Paris for 2.5 years) EPL: Arsenal Serie A: AS Roma (lived in Rome for 1 year) NBA: Sonics (lived in Seattle for quite a while)

Recent Links

FanNation | The Republic of Sport: It was bound to happen. A fully-featured social networking site for Sport Fans, includes, ability to track community events on a regional basis, hot topic tracking, blogging capability, player tracking, and ability to gather articles and stories from favorite news sources. Overall, a nice set of functionality, even if at launch, it is only focused on US Sports. Our beloved SpoFi probably doesn't have much to worry about until this site builds a following, but it does seem to have something new to offer sports fanatics. [also posted to MeFi]

posted by psmealey to culture at 09:24 AM on March 03, 2007 - 32 comments

Kalifornia Klinsy to manage US Soccer Team: And thus a new era begins.

posted by psmealey to soccer at 08:34 AM on December 06, 2006 - 10 comments

Lance Armstrong runs NYC Marathon in less than three hours: Impressive, considering. Says Armstrong, ""For the level of condition that I have now, that was without a doubt the hardest physical thing I have ever done, I never felt a point where I hit the wall, it was really a gradual progression of fatigue and soreness."

posted by psmealey to other at 05:12 AM on November 06, 2006 - 24 comments

Marat Safin to retire: ... in four years. Aiming, apparently, to become the Yogi Berra of his sport, Safin added, "The season has been very tough. If I had won half the games I should have, I would have a different ranking."

posted by psmealey to tennis at 04:18 AM on October 05, 2006 - 1 comment

Nice tribute to Arsene Wenger: by Lee Dixon, of Arsenal's (Dixon, Winterburn, Adams, Keown) "Famous Back Four". Almost more than anything else, Wenger introduced the concept to the Premiership that not going out the pub every night and going on the piss wasn't cheating.

posted by psmealey to soccer at 06:07 AM on October 01, 2006 - 6 comments

Recent Comments

Top 10: Hardcore Fans

Right you ahhh, Howard_T, right you ahh.

posted by psmealey at 05:03 AM on March 14, 2008

Top 10: Hardcore Fans

At least we don't try to pass off some tomato soup concoction as "chowdah". I think that so-called "Manhattan Clam Chowder" was a failed experiment from the 1970s. I remember it from when I was a kid, but have not seen it since. When you ask for Clam Chowder any place in Manhattan, you get the cloudy white variety.

posted by psmealey at 12:30 PM on March 13, 2008

Top 10: Hardcore Fans

Chowdahheads ah roughneck guys from tha Nawth Shaw... not much of anything to do with the Sox. The Fenway Faithful, I grant you, but the so-called "Red Sox Nation" to me, means people that live in places like LA, SF and New York that pretend to be Sox fans, wear the gear, but don't really have that die hard pathos and life long love-hate affair with the Sox that the true fans do.

posted by psmealey at 05:23 AM on March 13, 2008

Giants Win Superbowl!

I have always been an outspoken proponent for letting games end as draws (except baseball, however, that would be sacrilege). The hockey shootout is always unsatisfying, NFL sudden death seems wrong sometimes, soccer shootouts are an abomination before God and the NCAA college football shootout is a freakshow, it's exciting as hell, but you might as well flip a coin to decide who wins. To my mind, look, you left it all out on the field after 60 minutes of play, and the score is tied it's a tie. Sometimes that's how it goes.

posted by psmealey at 12:20 PM on February 05, 2008

Giants Win Superbowl!

I can't really argue with them being called the team of the decade. I don't think anyone can. I fully expect them to do better than 12-4 next year and again go deep in the playoffs. As for claims of being "overrated" or "chokers", those are ridiculous. Given all this team has achieved in the past few years, particularly in view of how much parity there is in the league now (compared with the Packers in the 60s and Steelers in the 70s). The Patriots of this era certainly deserve a mention alongside the greatest evar. Just questioning the greatness of the single season team that fails to win the big one.

posted by psmealey at 12:05 PM on February 05, 2008

Giants Win Superbowl!

Come on. The patriots simply did not play well in their last game. Defensively, they were just a sharp as the Giants, and offensively, they looked great on their first offensive possession as well as their final drive. I don't think you can say that they did not play well, they did play well against a very tough and committed team. The Giants just played a little bit better when it counted.

posted by psmealey at 11:33 AM on February 05, 2008

Giants Win Superbowl!

Call me crazy, but I still say they are arguably the best single-season team in history. Ok, you're crazy. You are not a championship team unless you win the championship game. And non-championship teams do not qualify for consideration for the pantheon. The Pats had a great season, but you gotta bring home the bacon. And Superman would totally kick Batman's ass.

posted by psmealey at 10:57 AM on February 05, 2008

Giants Win Superbowl!

Having been a Giants fan since the Joe Pisarcik days, the '86 victory was thrilling, the '91 victory was surprising, but this one was enormously satisfying.

posted by psmealey at 10:26 PM on February 03, 2008

Giants Win Superbowl!

That use-my-helmet catch by Tyree was the play of the game. Agreed. Particularly at such a critical point in the game, he did everything he could to come down with the ball any way he could. That play more or less symbolized the team's overall effort: unexpected, unlikely and all about heart.

posted by psmealey at 09:25 PM on February 03, 2008

Giants Win Superbowl!

Brady's drive to pull ahead 14-10 was a monster, I really started to have my doubts at that point. But after Peyton hit a few clutch passes, The G-men's victory started to feel inevitable. Glad that the winner went to Burress, who was mostly hobble and invisible all game long. They could not have gotten this far without him. I think mostly, this victory was about the Giants' defensive preparation. They were almost perfect, save the Patriots' first and (second to) last possessions.

posted by psmealey at 09:16 PM on February 03, 2008

Superbowl: Patriots vs. Giants 2.0

Coughlin's an odd bird, man. There's no such thing as a gimme field goal at any distance in 0 degree temps. When he come onto the field to berate his kicker after the first miss, I had to remark that that was the first time I had ever seen that at any level. At any rate, it was good to the Giants play some tough, defensive (and opportunistic) football in the 4th quarter and OT, they earned the win.

posted by psmealey at 09:40 PM on January 20, 2008

Giants down Cowboys 21-17:

How many people workout in a hyper-baric chamber or pedal a stationary bike underwater to get themselves back into shape after an injury? I don't think ANYONE could EVER make a case that TO is not a world class athlete, and that is exactly the sort of commitment and effort W/C athletes put in in order to stay W/C athletes. His problem has always been off the field, the locker room stuff and ego that alienates him from his teammates. TO probably is growing up (at least until the darker angels of his nature show up again), but what you offer in support of that doesn't cut it.

posted by psmealey at 04:42 PM on January 14, 2008

Giants down Cowboys 21-17:

OTWTF Moment: much like watching Joe Buck call a Yankees playoff game. Joe Buck a Yankees homer? News to me. Joe and his family have deep ties to the St. Louis Cardinals organization. If anything, he's probably a closet Cards homer, but I haven't heard much of that in his broadcasts.

posted by psmealey at 11:58 AM on January 14, 2008

Double Amputee Can't Run in Beijing Olympics

Like when Rocky broke his arm on purpose in that Nazi soccer movie? It was the Irish goalkeeper that broke his own arm so that Rocky could take his place in the lineup and lead the heroes to escape.

posted by psmealey at 11:29 AM on January 14, 2008

Bombed: New York Yankees Make Another Early Exit from Playoffs

I'm always glad to see the Yankees go out early, but I definitely don't think the problem is Torre. The problem is not enough Paul O'Neill/Tino Martinez/David Cone type guys on the team. The last time the Yankees were great, they had a bevy of clubhouse leaders who would push the other guys to be better. While they do have a number of very good players, they are just lacking that essential quality.

posted by psmealey at 05:48 AM on October 09, 2007