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Monday, June 02, 2003

By Dan Gigler, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

They call it the Garden State, but anyone who has had the pleasure of flying into Newark International Airport and has taken in an aerial view of the wasteland of chemical factories, smog, shipping containers and landfills, would contest that the only gardens in the state of New Jersey are the ones where native stoners Jay and Silent Bob grow their snootchie bootchies.

Nonetheless, the land affectionately known as the "armpit of America" has had a hefty application of Right Guard lately, at least as far its sports teams go: the New Jersey Devils hold a 2-1 lead in the Stanley Cup final, and the New Jersey Nets are set to make their second consecutive try for an NBA championship Wednesday night.

Plus, anyplace that gave the world the gift of Bruce Springsteen and the Soprano family can't be all that bad ...

10. Jersey Joe Walcott. Until the big, bald guy who sells kitchen grills came along, Jersey Joe (born Arnold Cream in Merchantville in 1914) was the oldest heavyweight champion when, at the age of 37, he knocked out Ezzard Charles in 1951.

9. Light and Beer (but not light beer). Thomas Alva Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in Menlo Park in 1879. The first brewery in America was established in Hoboken in 1642. Why are these important to sports? Because one of the greatest simple pleasures in this world is drinking a cold beer at a baseball or Monday night football game. Thank you, New Jersey!

8. Giants Stadium. A lousy facility that's "stuck in the mud somewhere in the swamps of Jersey ..." it is the only stadium in America where one of the home teams (the Jets) plays in a place named for another team, and fans in section 107 can sit on the remains of Jimmy Hoffa.

7. Amos Alonzo Stagg. Before JoePa, Bowden and the Bear, this West Orange product amassed the most coaching wins in college football history -- 314 -- primarily at the University of Chicago, which was a football power from the late 1890s to the early 1930s. He has been credited with the invention of the modern bowl game, the numbered jersey and the use of the forward pass. The NCAA Division III title game is named in his honor.

	New Jersey natives Franco Harris and Frank Sinatra were on the same team after Sinatra was inducted as a one-star general into "Franco's Italian Army" in 1972.

6. Franco Harris. He belongs to us now, but the greatest running back in Steelers and Penn State football history hails from Mount Holly. And, as the legendary story goes, fellow New Jersey native Frank Sinatra was inducted as a one-star general into "Franco's Italian Army" by Myron Cope and Tony Stagno at a Steelers practice in Palm Springs, Calif., in 1972.

5. Yogisms. Forget that the Montclair native Berra was a Hall of Fame catcher for the Yankees, his turns of phrase are enough to make him an American legend: "If you can't imitate him, don't copy him." "Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical." "You can observe a lot by watching." "The future ain't what it used to be." "A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore." "It's deja vu all over again." "We made too many wrong mistakes." "It ain't over 'til it's over." "Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hitting." "It gets late early out there." "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

4. Carl Lewis. The greatest American track star since Jesse Owens calls Willingboro home. His Olympic achievements for Team USA are enough for us to let him slide on his ear-stabbing renditions of the national anthem.

3. Basketball. The first professional game was played on Nov. 7, 1896, at the Masonic Temple in Trenton. The Brooklyn YMCA lost to the Trenton Basket Ball Team in a 16-1 barnburner. How exciting? Immediately after the game, Trenton's high man Fred Cooper, who scored six points, was signed by Nike to a then-unheard-of $10 endorsement contract.

2. Baseball. Like the true identity of William Shakespeare, the origin of the national pastime is a subject hotly debated by historians. Popular credit is given to Abner Doubleday for inventing the game in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1839. But the city of Hoboken, hometown to that other American icon Francis Albert Sinatra, lays claim that the first organized professional baseball game was played there at the Elysian Fields on June 19, 1846, when the New York Baseball Club defeated the Knickerbockers, 23-1.

1. College Football. On Nov. 6, 1869, Rutgers University played host to Princeton in what was the first intercollegiate football game played in America. With 25 men on a side and rules that were more rugby-like in nature, the game bore little resemblance to its modern incarnation, but it would evolve into the autumnal religion practiced Saturday afternoons on college campuses across America. Rutgers won that first game, 6-4. It is also believed be the last time that Rutgers fielded a competitive college football team.