We all know about the great athletes in New York sports history – Babe Ruth, Tom Seaver, Lawrence Taylor, Joe Namath, Mark Messier, Walt Frazier – and even the busts – Ed Whitson, Mo Vaughn, Roberto Alomar, Stephon Marbury, Scott Gomez. But what about the slightly-to-highly-above-average athlete? The kind-of-great but not all-timer? They may not have been Hall-of-Famers, but they were All-Stars, fan favorites, cogs on a championship team or maybe even just pretty darn good. They’re the little brother that didn’t hog all the attention. But they’re certainly worth talking about and remembering. So when do they get their due? Well, now they will. Here is a series of the not-quite-legendary in New York sports history.

On December 20th, 1996, John Olerud was traded to the Mets for Robert Person. It was one of the greatest trades in franchise history (New York’s, not Toronto’s). The big first baseman was cool and calm, had a sweet, graceful swing and rode the 7 train to Shea (and refrained from …

The only good thing you can say about last night’s game was at least the Rangers didn’t embarrass themselves. After 156+ scoreless minutes, Artem Anisimov came through with a goal, and we all let out a sigh of relief. But, as usual, the Blueshirts fell to the Penguins (0-4 against them this season). It looks like they’re back to the days of if Henrik Lundqvist makes one mistake and Marian Gaborik doesn’t score, the Rangers don’t have a chance (where have you gone, Marian? Ranger fans turn their lonely eyes to you).

Like clockwork, after the Rangers teased us with those 6-2 and 8-2 victories, they followed them up with the “Carcillo Incident” game, the complete shellacking in Montreal and last night’s “well, we played better” game. They may slip into the playoffs, but it’s doubtful there will be any “getting on a roll” or “turning it around” or “finding themselves” this season. A little successful stretch is always followed by a disaster, or at least a losing …

I’m not a Jets fan, but Rex Ryan has everyone in this city so inspired and pumped up, even I’d run through a wall for him. In fact, I tried to do just that. Unfortunately, I slipped on a bag of Funyuns and flew through the plate-glass window in my living room. Now I have cuts and bruises all over my face and body, one of my ears was sliced off, my wife is furious at me and it’s really, really cold in our living room. Ryan’s infectious motivating style is being packaged into a new self-help, confidence-building program, with books and DVDS – The Rex Ryan Method: Swaggering, Boasting and Eating Your Way to a Newer, More Confident You. Here are his three top keys to turning yourself into a more successful person:

       1. Declare yourself the favorite in any situation; and then make yourself a nice, big sandwich.

       2. Declare that you will be invited to the White House and meet the President; he will …

We all know about the great athletes in New York sports history – Babe Ruth, Tom Seaver, Lawrence Taylor, Joe Namath, Mark Messier, Walt Frazier – and even the busts – Ed Whitson, Mo Vaughn, Roberto Alomar, Stephon Marbury, Scott Gomez. But what about the slightly-to-highly-above-average athlete? The kind-of-great but not all-timer? They may not have been Hall-of-Famers, but they were All-Stars, fan favorites, cogs on a championship team or maybe even just pretty darn good. They’re the little brother that didn’t hog all the attention. But they’re certainly worth talking about and remembering. So when do they get their due? Well, now they will. Here is a series of the not-quite-legendary in New York sports history.

After starring in Juniors and one year in the minors, New York Ranger left winger Steve Vickers burst onto the NHL scene in the 1972-’73 season by scoring 30 goals and winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as the rookie of the year. He netted 30 or more goals in his first four seasons, with a career high of 4…

Wade Redden’s fighting. Chris Drury’s scoring. They totaled six goals. In one game. They’re relentless. They swarm to the net. They’re physical. They stand up for themselves. Who are these guys? Are they the Rangers? Or are they imposters? Ok, we now know they can play a game like they did vs. Montreal and even one such as last week’s contest against the Devils. But then they squeeze in a couple of snoozers in St. Louis and against Ottawa. They have multiple personalities. They have an identity crisis. Not every team is consistent night in and night out, but this is ridiculous.

The Rangers are a team filled with a mix of young and old, and part of the learning curve for inexperienced players is learning to be consistent on a nightly basis, and for the crusty vets on the team, let’s face it, they periodically, and sadly, can’t be bothered to try every single game at this stage of their careers (I don’t think I need to name …

Confidence. The Jets have it. In fact, the Jets are so confident after whooping Cincinnati’s butt on Saturday, that Rex Ryan feels his team should not only be the favorite in the Super Bowl but also in the NBA playoffs. The first-year coach has his players believing that they can accomplish anything. He’s dispatched Dustin Keller to solve the Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien conundrum. The offensive line is drafting a health-care bill that will make everyone happy. And Bart Scott will be stepping in to replace Simon Cowell on American Idol. To paraphrase Yogi Berra: Sports are 90% mental, the other half is physical. And the Jets are not having any problems with the mental aspect of the game right now (nor the physical side either). Some feel there may be a little too much braggadocio in Jet land, but so far it’s working. Sitting at the other end of the confidence meter is the Nets. They do nothing but lose, and can’t even sniff a victory. Do …

The calendar says it’s 2010, but for the Mets 2009 keeps on rolling along. To the surprise of the Mets (or maybe not), Carlos Beltran had knee surgery yesterday. He may not be able to resume baseball activities for up to 12 weeks. I’m no math whiz, but 12 weeks is about three months, which puts us into April. And only then can he start running, hitting and not sliding, so it looks like his return to the lineup wouldn’t be until May. But like last season, I’ll believe he’ll be back when I actually see him on the field.

And since this is the Mets we’re talking about, this news comes with controversy. Beltran’s agent, the always honest Scott Boras, claims, “This was necessary surgery, necessary surgery to work.” But the Mets feel it was done without their permission, though they were kept abreast of the center fielder’s condition since the end of last season, and they are even threatening to take some sort of action with …

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with my five-year-old daughter about whom our favorite players on the Rangers are. Granted, she can only name about four on the whole team, and thinks Guy Lafleur is one of them, but she’s a Brandon Dubinsky girl. I think it’s the funny sounding name that won her over (and I recently found out that Marian Gaborik’s first name is a laughfest for the kindergarten set). I mentioned that Ryan Callahan was my favorite. And when she asked why, it was easy to sum up in one simple sentence: Because he tries the hardest.

Callahan’s the one guy who hits everybody in sight, forechecks like a demon, gets back on defense and does all the little things a player is supposed to do. And ever since PRB (post–Redden benching), the Rangers are starting to follow his example and play like him (with the exception of the Flyers debacle, of course). Last night’s thrilling game was exhibit A. They did everything …

The great David Wright power outage of aught-nine has a precedent in New York baseball history. From 1969 to 1973, Bobby Murcer hit 26, 23, 25, 33 and 22 home runs. The next season, the Yankees temporarily moved to Shea Stadium while Yankee Stadium was being renovated, and the 28-year-old sunk to 10 homers. In the four seasons before 2009, Wright blasted 27, 26, 30 and 33 long balls. In ’09, the Mets moved into shiny new Citi Field, and the 26-year-old could also only muster 10 dingers for the season. Both players were in their prime. Neither were/are considered home run bashers in the true sense of the word, with both being more all-around hitters who also happen to hit for power. But both players saw their home run totals drop dramatically after moving into a new stadium.

Murcer tailored his swing to old original Yankee Stadium and that inviting short right-field porch, and was one of the best outfielders in the American League in the first …

We’re only one week into 2010 and I’m already dropping the ball on my resolutions. In the past I’ve been more successful, such as the year I resolved to quit smoking cigarettes. I used one of those quit-smoking programs, with the patches and the gum and the whole nine yards. Unfortunately, the side effects included nausea, dizziness, vomiting, disorientation, hallucinations, agitation, hostility, amnesia, blindness, a hacking cough, lung cancer, throat cancer, the sudden loss of one’s extremities, and addiction to cigarettes, chewing tobacco and cigars. Sure, now I can’t see, I’m always falling down, I have no idea who I am, I have a hole in my throat and I’m constantly having hallucinations that Art Howe is standing beside me trying to sell me a time-share, but at least I don’t smoke anymore. This year I decided to stop being so humble, demur and shy and to play up my strengths, which means wearing more tank top shirts to show off my impressive shoulder and back hair and to stop hiding my disgustingly smelly feet, …

Last night’s game belonged to Sean Avery. He finally shook off the milquetoast imposter that’s taken over his body and returned to being the love him, hate him Sean Avery we’ve all come to love or hate. And it resulted in his best game of the year, as he led the Rangers to a 5-2 victory. He gained some revenge against his former team, and when you get revenge against Texas, not only is it sweet, it tastes like BBQ. The agitating left winger scored a power-play goal and assisted on three others. And that last assist looked like he was doing his Brian Leetch impression. He was also sent to the penalty box for a cross-checking penalty and a 10-minute misconduct. Move over Gordie Howe Hat Trick; we now have the Sean Avery Hat Trick – a goal, an assist and a 10-minute misconduct. Avery happily went to the box to serve his misconduct penalty because the refs were scheduled to whistle him for a four-minute roughing minor in …

Jason Bay is officially a Met. He passed his physical, had his press conference and is now the new left fielder for the Amazin’s. He’ll essentially replace Carlos Delgado in the middle of the order (or will he? Please tell me Delgado will not be back; he needs to make his “clubhouse presence” present in another clubhouse). The Mets need all the infusion of new blood they can get – in the clubhouse and on the field. And they need a home run hitter in the middle of the order, and Bay hits home runs. So what’s not to like?

It took awhile to finally dot the i’s and cross the t’s, but Omar Minaya waited out Bay’s nonexistent bidding war and the “mystery” teams that were never really out there and signed the outfielder to a pretty reasonable contract. Boston was the only team that had an offer on the table, so Minaya had to better that one, but he didn’t blow it out of …