MASH UNITS
Merging New York’s teams would create powerhouses
Mike Vaccaro mvaccaro@nypost.com
IT’S happened before in times of crisis, you know. It isn’t unprecedented. In 1943, as war raged around the globe, more than a few professional sports teams were hanging on by a thread. Two of those teams were the representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia’s Eagles and Pittsburgh’s Steelers. In order to survive, a plan was hatched: merge them.
And thus were the Steagles born.
It only lasted one year, but it was a grand experiment. The Steagles won their first two home games, at Philly’s Shibe Park (including a 28-14 win over the Giants). They won and tied their next two home games, at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. They lost the season finale, back in Philly against the Packers, which cost them a playoff berth.
“These guys were used to hating each other,” future Giants coach Allie Sherman, a backup quarterback on the team, told me once. “And yet we all had the time of our lives for 10 games.”
The Eagles had never before had a winning record on their own. The Steelers had but one. The Steagles wouldn’t be necessary by the time the ’44 season rolled around, as the nation’s economic picture began to brighten. It stands as a cool one-year experiment.
Now, we aren’t in that kind of crisis in New York. And look, even if we wanted to do something audacious like combine all of our sports teams into a single entity, that wouldn’t ever even make it out of brain of whoever hatched this insane scheme (Guilty!).
Still, we are title-less in what will soon be 11 years and counting in the four major professional sports. That sort of feels like an ongoing crisis. And just think: Would any baseball fan anywhere in New York have been unhappy with the following lineup across the 2022 season — notably in October?
1B: Anthony Rizzo
2B: Jeff McNeil
SS: Francisco Lindor
3B: Matt Carpenter
LF: Brandon Nimmo
CF: Aaron Judge
RF: Starling Marte
C: Jose Trevino
DH: Pete Alonso
SP: Jacob deGrom
SP: Gerrit Cole
SP: Max Scherzer
SP: Nestor Cortes
CL: Edwin Diaz
The Metkees aren’t half bad, are they? What about a football mash-up — let’s call ’em the Jints — where we simply take the Giants’ offense and add the Jets’ wide receivers, and a defensive matchup that would be a star-studded array of both sides — Dexter Lawrence, the Williams brothers, Leonard Williams, Xavier McKinney, Sauce Gardner and the rest?
How about this for an imposing starting lineup for the Knicknets? PG: Jalen Brunson SG: Royce O’Neale C: Mitchell Robinson SF: Kevin Durant PF: Julius Randle With a whole lot of firepower — Kyrie Irving, RJ Barrett, Seth Curry, Yuta Watanabe — off the bench?
Of course, the most intriguing is if we could toss all of the Rangers, Devils and Islanders into a pile — since all three of them are having seasons ranging from good to very good to epic so far — and maybe come up with a top-six that looks something like this: C: Mat Barzal W: Jesper Bratt W: Artemi Panarin D: Adam Fox D: Dougie Hamilton G: Let’s give 27 games apiece to Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin and Vitek Vanecek.
The biggest challenge would be figuring out what to call these guys. The Devislders? The Randevisles? The Islrangils? Maybe we could get really bold and brassy and just call them the Stanleycups.
Sure, this is a part fever dream, part hallucinogenic fit. But it beats watching one season after another end with a parade down someone else’s downtown, doesn’t it?
SUNDAY SPORTS
en-us
2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z
2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z
https://nypost.pressreader.com/article/282875144798838
New York Post