#Crazy day in New York sports was so badly needed

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Edwin Diaz; Tom Thibodeau; Jamal Adams
Corey Sipkin; Getty; Paul J. Bereswill

We get days like this sometimes. Sometimes, it’s simply about mathematics. We have nine major pro sports teams in our area, and so there’s always the possibility of worlds colliding, MLB and NFL, NHL and NBA. Stuff happens. News happens. Crazy things happen. Edwin Diaz comes trotting in from a bullpen. Lots of stuff.

This one felt different, because of all the days and weeks and months that came before. Sports as we know it essentially shut down on March 12, and we did what we could do to fill the void as sports fans. Sometimes that meant going to extremes; some folks got up early to watch baseball from Korea. Some folks savored every second of the NFL draft. I am still getting a monthly bill from the Iditarod for the two days in which I tracked dogs mushing across Alaska like election night coverage.

We made due. We watched more golf than usual, more auto racing, maybe some UFC. There was one especially giddy Sunday when I giddily declared myself a huge Liverpool fan (hey, I’m no front-runner: I own every single Beatles album!) and tuned in for its Premiership return … before promptly being given a 0-0 game against Everton for my troubles, which is the first time the notion of starting an extra inning with a man on second base started to actually seem appealing.

But it was dry, friends. Maybe not desert dry. Still, my throat was parched. Sure, I make my living covering sports. But I also like WATCHING sports. I like caring about them. I like talking about them, and like when stuff happens because of them. And so I missed them.

And then, Saturday. Ah. Saturday …

1:14 p.m.

Well then: the Knicks ended their search for a new head coach and officially offered Tom Thibodeau a five-year deal. He was the favorite for the job. But he was also the favorite for the job when the search began to hire a new coach back in August of 2011 (OK, it only felt that long). The Knicks interviewed 11 people. The longer this lasted you thought that maybe the NBA’s resident Dr. Evil, Jason Kidd, had performed a Jedi Mind Trick on Leon Rose and World Wide Wes. But no: Thibs it is. Good choice. This will be the only thing people are talking about to —

4:02 p.m.

Sonofagun: The Jets pulled the trigger on Jamal Adams. In retrospect, this shouldn’t be surprising because the Jets first developed the odd habit of unloading unhappy Pro-Bowl caliber players in the summer of 1976, when they refused to pay John Riggins and he tumbled merrily south toward Washington. The roster of others who’ve been exiled since is as impressive as it is depressing: Keyshawn Johnson and John Abraham, Darrelle Revis and Sheldon Richardson and Mo Wilkerson and Damon Harrison and Jonathan Vilma and James Farrior and …. and, well, Joe Douglas did get a pretty impressive haul back. We can probably talk about the ramifications of that nonstop until Monday and—

6:43 p.m.

Remember before, when we went for the quick laugh about Edwin Diaz trotting in from the bullpen? Yeah. Well. Here comes Edwin Diaz trotting in from the bullpen. There is none of the usual murmuring trailing him in because a) he was pretty dominant the day before in dismissing the Braves and protecting a one-run lead and b) the cardboard cutouts have yet to figure out how to audibly replicate the sheer terror Mets fans have felt watching every relief pitcher trot into baseball games since Tug McGraw. But Diaz is electric. Ozzie Albies strikes out. Mets killer Freddie Freeman flies out harmlessly. Diaz gets Marcel Ozuna to wave helplessly at a filthy 3-and-1 slider. No need to—

6:49 p.m.

Ozuna slams a 98 mph fastball on the outside corner over the wall in right. Tie game.

7:05 p.m.

Extra innings and so for the first time in New York we see the new rules. Man on second. Braves score him and two others. Mets cash their free runner in the bottom of the 10th. That’s all they get. Four thoughts: a) Get used to it. This will be eventually be a part of the game whether we like it or not; b) I’d rather see teams play it out in the 10th and 11th, then start man-on-second in the 12th; c) if we need to start the gimmick in the 10th, make it a man on first, not second; d) if this is a permanent part of the future, the standings must adopt an NHL format: two points for a win, one for an extra-inning loss.

8:24 p.m.

Giancarlo Stanton stays on a 60-homer pace by obliterating his second homer in as many nights, a mammoth 483-foot shot. This a few hours after he knelt for the national anthem, making a wholly unexpected case for himself as the newest lightning-rod Yankee.

8:44 p.m.

Wait, the Nets beat the Spurs in an exhibition game down in the NBA’s Orlando bubble? Is that a typo? Now we’re just getting greedy. I know they’ve had a rough go keeping a roster intact; I wonder how many Levern Tart had …