Sports this 'n' that

You wanna know how fickle fans are in New York? Consider the last two days for Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton.

In the delayed home opener vs. Tampa Bay on Tuesday, Stanton struck out five times. In baseball parlance, a player gets a "golden sombrero" if he fans four times in a game. What would five K's mean? I don't know, and I don't think I want to find out. All I needed to read were headlines that noted that Stanton was booed out of the building in his first home game. The Yankee fans should've known what to expect from Stanton, who, like their own blossoming star, Aaron Judge, is prone to striking out more often than hitting homers.

Wednesday was a different story. Stanton homered, as did Judge & Gary Sanchez, in the Yanks' 7-2 win, and all was forgiven, at least for now. However, what would it take for the Bronx faithful to accept the good with the bad? Or are they only interested in the tape measure homers, like the one he hit Wednesday? Knowing these front-runners, it's probably the latter.
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It's funny how things work. I picked Philadelphia to finish in between the Nationals & Mets. As New York visits Washington for the first time today, the Mets are in first place, with Washington tied with Atlanta for 2nd, a 1/2 game back, after sweeping a truncated two game set from the Phillies. At this rate, Gabe Kapler's club may be fighting to stay out of the cellar with Miami. Stay tuned.
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You have to pity high school beat writers like James Allen of the Albany Times-Union & Spectrum News. Every year at this time, first week of the spring sports season, and along comes Allen to lament the fact that many high schools in Section II dread the winter-like weather the first month of the season. Some schools have the resources to train out of state and prepare for the season, while others, such as Troy High, don't. As noted yesterday, Troy's baseball team either didn't play on Tuesday, or the road opener vs. Burnt Hills wasn't reported. Today's games vs. Averill Park were moved from the original starting time of 12 noon (ET) to 4:15, which would be the regular starting time when classes are in session.

For what it's worth, the T-U hasn't updated its lacrosse standings yet to reflect games already played, and don't have pages up yet for baseball & softball.
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Speaking of the Times-Union, a front page headline in today's edition reports that Siena men's basketball coach Jimmy Patsos is being investigated for verbally abusing a sophomore student serving as the team manager under Patsos. The youth has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which has some harsh side effects, and the article states that Patsos was aware of the youth's condition in the first place.

There's been cases across the country of coaches abusing players for various reasons. After a dismal 8-24 campaign this season, the abusive behavior demonstrated by Patsos may be his ticket out of Loudonville, whether he likes it or not. Again, stay tuned.