Afternoon Baseball

It's strange how people condemn you just for producing 21 points in an NFL game -- even if it's for the wrong team.

Deadspin says, just let him go already, bringing up the old NYT Magazine story that basically called Eli a legacy admission. Fair, but a more valid point when the entire Manning family had yet to win a big game.

Bill Simmons, in his marathon Jimmy V chat where he was blatantly oversimplifying the brain of Hank Steinbrenner, he did offer this thought on Eli:

Kate (New Jersey): Are the NY Giants ever going to win a Super Bowl with Eli as quarterback?
SportsNation Bill Simmons: I can't see it. Even if they got a No. 1 or No.2 seed, he'd have to play 3 good games in a row and it appears as if he's incapable of doing so, right? I love the way it worked out - he could have been just as inconsistent as Phil Rivers in San Diego, and instead, he pouted his way to the Giants and he's getting raked over the coals. Meanwhile, nobody cares that Phil Rivers is just as shaky.

I don't follow the NFL as much as I used to, so I can't say Eli was a bad move (especially since Phillip Rivers looks terrible whenever I see him), or that he should be dumped. But I agree with the no-Super-Bowl-while-he's-QB thoughts.
I would, though, be ecstatic with a Giants team that can be at least solid (a la the Packers since 1993) without flaming out completely every four years. Yes, the Giants tend to stay one year too long with coaches, which doesn't help, but Favre has had terrible teams (or had bad years himself) yet gotten 7-8 wins on the board.
If Manning can't provide at least that, then he's really no better than Kerry Collins, post-1986 Phil Simms, Jeff Hostetler and the rest. That's not terrible, mind you, but is that was you want for the next 8-10 years?