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“Alright, good afternoon everybody… Mike Francesa back with ya here on the Fan, on a beautiful day in New York… and folks — we’ve reached the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals.”
“Now… you couldn’t have scripted it any better. The New York Rangers… 156 and 6. Let me say that again — 156 wins, six losses. Against the Chicago Blackhawks… 142 and 20. This is as good as it gets. This is a rematch of the ’01 Finals… the one the Rangers still feel they should’ve won. They didn’t… Chicago stole that one, got their only championship. And the Rangers? Well… they’ve got ten. They’re looking for number eleven.”
“Let’s go through it… 1985, ’86, ’87, ’88, ’89… five straight Cups. Then ’91, ’92, ’95, ’98, and last year in ’02. That’s dominance, folks. That’s the Yankees in the 90s, that’s the Celtics in the 60s — that’s what we’re talking about here.”
“Now, the numbers… the home run totals from the Rangers’ nine starters — 112, 83, 117, 125, 126, 122, 104, 64, 55. It’s absurd. It’s laughable. That’s production you don’t see — not in this league, not anywhere. The Blackhawks? Still very strong — 116, 112, 117, 106, 34, 16, 25, 34, 62. Those are great numbers… for anyone else. But when you stack ‘em up? They just can’t match New York, top to bottom.”
“Pitching’s about the same, except for one guy — and you know who I’m talkin’ about. Seong Gi-Hun. The ace. 32-and-0, 0.96 ERA, 454 strikeouts. Those aren’t baseball numbers, those are a kid playing a video game with the difficulty turned all the way down.”
“So here’s how I see it — Rangers get their revenge for 2001. They repeat as Stanley Cup Champions. And I’ll tell ya right now… I got ‘em in six. Four games to two. That’s the pick.”
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