Girardi being honored by Knicks
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Nov 20, 2009 
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Hoping some of that championship glow will rub off, the Knicks are going to honor Yankees manager Joe Girardi for being a generally good guy in the hours after the World Series win. Here’s the press release.
KNICKS TO HONOR JOE GIRARDI WITH “CITY SPIRIT” AWARD
Yankees’ Manager Wins “City Spirit” Award For Heroic Efforts After World Series Win
NEW YORK, November 20, 2009 – The New York Knickerbockers have announced that Yankees Manager Joe Girardi is the winner of the Sweetwater Clifton “City Spirit” Award for the month of November. The award, named in honor of Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, the first African-American to play for the Knicks, recognizes individuals who have made a significant difference in the lives of others. Each month, a winner is chosen by members of the Knicks front office staff and honored at center court during a Knicks game with a $2,000 donation in his or her name made out to a charity of their choice.
After leading the New York Yankees to the 2009 World Series crown on Nov. 4, Girardi served as a good Samaritan by stopping to aid Marie Henry, who had a car accident on the Cross County Parkway in Westchester County. Ms. Henry, 27, lost control of her automobile and crashed into a wall in the early morning hours. Girardi, who was driving home, came to her assistance and flagged down police. Luckily, Henry sustained only minor injuries, but Girardi’s efforts on and off the field that night embodied the essence of what the “City Spirit” Award means.
At Sunday’s game versus the Boston Celtics, Joe Girardi will accept the City Spirit Award at Madison Square Garden. Girardi will donate the award money to Catch 25, a foundation he created to support families and individuals who have been affected by ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and fertility issues.
To nominate your hero, or to read more about this month’s winners and other past winners, please visit nyknicks.com.
Girardi shouldn’t associate himself with that second-rate organization.
Let me be the first to say that Joe Girardi will be the only member of a winning New York team in the Garden on Sunday, for sure. At least he won’t have to watch the abomination that will be Nets/Knicks tomorrow afternoon.
Will this be the only notable thing the Knicks do this year?
Congratulations to Girardi.
But isn’t it sad that the Knicks are having to rely on all kinds of outside help to stir interest?
Well done by the Knicks organization.
And a special kudos for doing this before a gam against the Celtics!
(not that basketball fans have the same passion for a rivalry like baseball fans do)
The only thing more pathetic than the Knicks franchise is the Mets’ ownership thinking they are the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Does everyone have a charity of there own?
I mean damn….does every players charity actually make enough money to do stuff? I know each player donates to their charity regularly (and no i know they care and it is not just a tax write off)….but besides that there must be so many…
Or maybe it is just the Yankees…i don’t know.
it’s all good until Girardi removes all the candy from the Knicks locker room.
I bet even Brett Gardner has one.
The Brett Gardner “Steal a New life” campaign.
— Helps out kids who are caught stealing at an early age by reaching out and trying to get them on the right basepath to a new life. Soon enough those kids are swiping the bags of life with no throw/tag effort in their way and continue to bat .270 the rest of their life!
Knicks bright spots = gallanari’s shooting and Toney Douglas. I still can’t stomach they won’t get their first pick in the draft.
Do the Yankees still have more wins than the Knicks in November?
Peter R most of the successful players and managers have causes. When you make as much money in a career as these guys do, it is pretty common to be philanthropic, and since they are real-live human beings, they all go through different life experiences that push them in certain directions with their charity. In Girardi’s case, I’m pretty sure his family was specifically affected by either one or both of ALS and Alzheimer’s, hence the nature of his foundation.
Correction: The Yankees have the same number of wins (2) in November as the Knicks (2), Nets (0), Giants (0) & Jets (0), COMBINED!!!
I wonder if we could get Chad/Sam/Josh to come up with a list of all the Yankee player/manager charities so that I can figure where to do some Christmas donations to.
THATS BULL…I think scioscia, gardenhire or wakamatsu showed much more city spirit than joe….what a crock!!
What are the Knicks?
Andrew- Girardi’s dad has Alzheimers.
Doreen- hope your weekend improves.
sab
November 20th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
THATS BULL…I think scioscia, gardenhire or wakamatsu showed much more city spirit than joe….what a crock!!
———————-
Nah, you need to look at CSAR(City Spirit Above Replacement) to evaluate them.
Anything yet on who’s been added to the 40 man?
upstate kate -
Thanks. Longterm outlook, however, is dismal.
Bob (the original) & sab -
Thanks for the laugh. Hit the spot.
The Knicks still play in NYC??
Who knew!
91 days until pitchers and catcher report.
Nice “award” but does this mean Joe actually has to sit through a Knicks game?????? ugh……lol
It probably gives him fond memories of watching NU basketball from his undergrad days. Without Coble, we generally perform about as well as the Knicks do these days.
46fan
November 20th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Nice “award” but does this mean Joe actually has to sit through a Knicks game?????? ugh……lol
**************
He can do it. Alex, CC and company sat through one a couple weeks ago
Does Scoscia show Los Angeles city spirit or Anaheim city spirit!
Gardenhire should get double credit, he has to show Twin Cities spirit!
He can do it. Alex, CC and company sat through one a couple weeks ago
but wasn’t James someone playing that day???
Uncle Ellsworth (much adieu about nothing)
November 20th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
He can do it. Alex, CC and company sat through one a couple weeks ago
but wasn’t James someone playing that day???
********************
Oh, you’re right-I forgot about that.
Im just wondering if Lebron should just buy the Knicks and make them the minor league team for Miami or wherever he ends up?
LeBron will be a Knick. It’s one of the most poorly held secrets in sports history.
Phil,
Why would he go to a team that has a roster that resembles the Clippers? Unless he convinces players like Bosh to join him, he wont even glance into that direction. I think he will be in Miami.
Here in socal, the radio shows are trying to stir up rumors of him taking less to play with Kobe. What a waste of time.
lebron will definitely be a knick. i know he wants them to sign d-wade too. every game will be 2 on 5.
PeteAbe J.D. Drew turned 34 today. No word on whether he tweaked his back blowing out the candles. #redsox
___
aww he still has a little sense of humor after all.
CONTEST TIME!!!!! Still 20 minutes to get in…
Guess What Free Agent The Yankees Will Sign First
I’ll accept posts until 5pm tonight. (I have company coming later and more baking to do). Here’s the only rule- the named free agent MUST come from the Yahoo list of 131 Free Agents (linked below from reference).
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/ne.....;type=lgns
Sorry for the delay- I decided to go for that nap after all
Erica-did you get mine?
Here are the Free Agent Guessers I have…. Guesses until 5
Hideki Matsui Tex’s Friend 2:46
Andy Pettitte NYYROC 2:50
Andy Pettitte Erin 2:51
Johnny Damon William Buckner 2:59
Andy Pettitte Upstate Kate 3:01
Andy Pettitte Patrick from CT 3:16
If the knicks don’t land lebron they have basically failed on a plan 3 years in the making with their clearing of payroll and long term deals (note, Lee couldnt even get a multi year deal). The reasons why Lebron would be a knick? He gets poetic about MSG and playing there, it’s the biggest market, he’d go from star to icon and his marketing dollars would double; there are also dismissive pluses like being tight with CC and a big yankees fan.
The knicks roster of next year could easily have as few as 4/5 returning players (PS the clippers roster is 5x better than the knicks)
tex’s friend,
How often do you visit extra bases?
I try to avoid it as much as possible, but sometimes the antagonization of sox fans is too tempting.
haven’t been in a while.
for the most part, it seems like its mostly people from this blog going over there to brown nose on him and tell him how wonderful he is.
he’s not THAT wonderful.
Erica I say Damon
didn’t someone pick mitre??
Erica– Matsui–if i’m not too late
Uncle Ellsworth (much adieu about nothing)
November 20th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Erica I say Damon
didn’t someone pick mitre??
*******
The Mitre entry is disqualified because Mitre did not rank on the Yankee list
And Uncle E-
I like the way you are thinking
Erica – always OPPC
November 20th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Uncle Ellsworth (much adieu about nothing)
November 20th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Erica I say Damon
didn’t someone pick mitre??
*******
The Mitre entry is disqualified because Mitre did not rank on the Yankee list
DOH!
I meant to say Mitre did not rank on the YAHOO list! We already know where he ranks on the Yankee list….
erica – sorry I’m late. bend the rules for me. I love beer bread.
I’ll say Jeter, Arod, Posada and ummmmm…… Cano.
I feel my first Novemner GTLU win. I just know it.
The Knicks are a joke, an embarrassment. They don’t have a 1st round pick in the upcoming draft, so a few extra wins wouldn’t have killed them. They just told the fans that they don’t care about them….Alan Iverson might have put a few more fannies in the seats and maybe given Knick fans something, anything to get excited about. Why on earth would Lebron come to this mess of a franchise? Why would anyone?
One problem I have with the NBA is the way they run their draft. It’s ridiculous that the worst team in the league doesn’t automatically get the 1st pick. The 7th worst team has nearly the same chance as the worst team does of getting that pick.
Wow, good for Swisher for calling Kay out. This is how Nick is – and good for him. I’m sure Nick doesn’t care if Kay likes him or not. An act? My word, I think Kay is a decent guy, but boy – he acts like he’s got a stick up his behind half the time.
Doreen-
Some writers assume a lot of things about what happens in the clubhouse and once they have formed a biased opinion about something it’s hard to change that. We all know that Jeter is the kind of leader in the Lou Gehrig-mold who prefers to lead by example rather than be in-your-face vocal about things. He also prefers to handle clubhouse issues behind closed doors, so those writers will just do a lot of speculating on what might have happened to make a story out of it. Every single teammate who came and went from the Yankees over the years (except maybe Chad Curtis, although even he has revised his opinion about Jeter) have said that he was a great leader and have nothing but good things to say about Jeter as a leader, player and human being. They can’t all be lying about that, can they?
Look here are some recent quotes from former Yankees about Jeter (of course it’s easy to find plenty of similar quotes out there):
Sox’s Nick Green:
“He was great,” said Green. “He was more than happy to help you out. You could talk to him about anything. He’s definitely good with everyone in the clubhouse. To be able to talk to a guy like that with his track record is pretty fun.”
“Hey, he’s a leader, man,” said Phillies infielder Miguel Cairo, a teammate of Jeter’s for three seasons. “He’s the man. He’s one of the best players I ever played with.”
Former teammates, who are no longer part of the team, have no reason to fawn over him like that if he wasn’t really like that.
The MVP voting in 2006 was close enough between Jeter and Morneau (78% to 82%) that something small like that could certainly have tipped the scale in Morneau’s favor.
It’s a pity that there are too many people with biases voting and that they are able to influence voting results to such an extent, not just in this case, but in general it’s always sad to see an obvious deserving winner miss out.
For those who missed the link of Jeter’s stats in 2006 compared to other MVP candidates that year here it is again:
http://www.waswatching.com/arc.....rs_mv.html
DT-
You got it. I’ll let you in, but no beer bread for you. I only have two loaves and its really yummy.
So tell me… how’s your “Novemner” going?
SOS, this isn’t like a movie premier….lol, I would never (for ANY movie) wait in line for hours (or days) just to have the priviledge of seeing it first. I like Star Wars a lot and I love the music….but I’m no Star Wars geek. I don’t dress up in Chewbacca costumes and I don’t carry a light saber with me. It should be great fun,though.
Upstate Kate, SW movie marathon? Sounds cool…..I remember when Empire Strikes Back came out, the line around the movie theater wrapped around the movie theater. My father paid someone ahead of us so we could jump ahead (or was this for Superman II? I keep forgetting, lol).
Uncle Ellsworth, at the very least it’s something different. I’m looking forward to it.
Re CMW: he has always struck me as a fine human being and I’d be ecstatic if he could return to his best form and be a useful member of the starting rotation.
That said, his 8-2 W-L record in ’08 before the foot injury does not convey nearly the whole story about how well he was actually pitching at the time.
Last five starts in ’08 before injury:
7.2 IP 7 ER L
6.1 IP 5 ER ND
5.1 IP 5 ER ND
4.1 IP 6 ER ND
7.1 IP 1 ER/7H W
Only one good start out of 5. And, of course, he had pitched very poorly in the ’07 postseason.
Even before the lis franc setback, there were a lot of signs that Wang was not his previously dominating self. Which, unfortunately, diminishes the likelihood we will see that form again.
You’re not wrong, timo, Wang wasn’t on a hot streak when he hurt his foot, but he had started the season 5-0 (I think) — there’s no way to know how his season would have finished.
“So tell me… how’s your “Novemner” going?”
That’s it, cut me off. I can’t even spell November right.
I wonder if this is how it started for GB?
I’ll blame it on inebriation. I knew I shouldn’t licked the beer bread batter bowl clean. (say that three times fast)
Wang was mishandled. Yanks and Wang hopefully can work out a deal. He is a ground ball pitcher and would do well with the Yanks infield defense, especially having Tex at 1st base.
If he can come back to his 19 wins or even 15, he will be a welcome addition to the pitching staff.
Yes, Nick, no way to know for sure. Just some counter to the “he was 8-2 so the Yanks must have done something wrong” post-injury.
I would like the Yanks to bring Wang back; I also think there’s a decent chance he was mishandled after the injury.
The point — or my point — isn’t so much that his pre-injury record proves that that Yanks screwed him up, but that there could be a lot of potential still there if he can get healthy and regain his form.
It would be a gamble for sure.
Oops.