Weekly Mail September 20, 2015

       Saturday morning was Timmy's first soccer game of the season. Back in the days when I was whiling away the hours at Donovan's or Shelley's or the Irish Circle, even in those rare moments in which I thought there was a remote chance that I may one day become a father, I never thought I'd be a Long Island Soccer dad.I mean, growing up in Woodside, playing CYO ball, it was strictly baseball and basketball. Soccer in Woodside, was unheard of.

        But the organization that runs the soccer program in Oceanside, the Oceanside United Soccer Club, (OUSC) is a brilliantly run program serving hundreds of boys and girls throughout our town. Whether you have the second coming of Pele or a kid who just likes to run around, it's got something for everyone.

        Last year, Tim and I showed up for the first night of practice, and the coach and the assistant coach were handing out the uniforms. The assistant coach was the dad of one of Timmy's classmates, and he told the head coach that I'd be a good candidate to help out when the assistant couldn't make it. I disagreed, being that I knew not a thing about soccer, but said I would gladly help out. As it ended up, the assistant had to quit because of work, and I ended up getting promoted, even though once again, I know nothing about soccer.

         There's no score keeping and no standings because it is intramurals. (The kids and the parents know the score) Timmy is actually a pretty good player. He runs like the wind and he's aggressive. In Saturday's game, he started in goal and made 4 saves without allowing a goal. (Not that I was keeping any stats.) The biggest challenge is getting them to all spread the field, they all go towards the ball, making it tough to push the ball ahead. Still, it's a ton of fun, and you are bound to run into someone you know. Just the social aspect of it, makes it worth it.

          A soccer dad? Never in a million years. A soccer coach? I'd have laughed you off the bar stool if you laid that one one me those many years ago. As John Lennon once wrote. "Life is what happens to you  while your busy making other plans." Ain't that the truth.



SPORTS: Unhappy Harvey Day;

        I'm a couple of weeks late on this one, but just thought I would weigh in on the Matt Harvey innings fiasco. To me there are two factors at work here. 1) It's not so much that Harvey is looking to limit his innings, it's the fact that all the while he was rehabbing last year, all he did was say he was going to come back early and pitch, defy all expectations and medical advice. Of course he didn't, but he spent so much time and energy bellyaching about it, that now when he is pitching, and his arm is healthy, he comes off like a spoiled kid just doing the apposite of what his parents tell him.
The other thing that I think got fans all peeved was that he said "Scott has my back." referring to his scumbag agent, Scott Boras. Boras, one of the most reprehensible people in sports, doesn't have anybody's back but his own. Met fans have hated Boras since he steered A-Rod away from the Mets in 2000. Harvey, of course, can erase all this animosity, by shutting up, pitching well, and keeping a leash on his agent.


On another sports note: One week after I wrote about how down I was on the NFL, I went 15-1 on my football picks. 15-1! 30 years of picking games, I've never had a week like that. Figures right?


POLITICS: Jeb defends his brother, and gets clobbered for it.

          Last week during the CNN Republican Debate,  Jeb Bush took much heat from liberals when he said that his brother, President George W. Bush. "kept us safe." Bush haters everywhere lined up to remind the world, that it was Jeb's big brother who was in charge on 9/11 when the attacks happened. So really, he didn't keep us safe.
Right.
      Because we all know that Osama Bin Laden and crew started planning 9/11 on 1/20/2001, the day Bush took office. They would have started planning for it sooner, but they were waiting to see how things shook out in Florida, back in November of 2000. The attack on the USS Cole, the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, and the first attack on the WTC, all took place while Bill Clinton was President. But no, 9/11 was all on Bush.
       I'm not absolving Bush of all blame for what happened that awful day, but he alone wasn't asleep at the switch. Face it, very few of us, if any, thought something like that could possibly happen. And since 9/11, we have been kept safe. And yes, yes, YES, I give President Obama all the props in the world for what he has done to keep us safe. His administration's record on knocking out al-Qaeda, especially the takeout of Bin-Laden, is exemplary. Whatever my differences with the man, I'll always tip my hat to him on that. (Though I have some serious issues with this Iran Nuclear deal, but that's for another day.)
         I'm loathe to revisit the whole mess with President Bush, especially on Facebook. I know most of you think his administration was a disaster, and it's hard to argue otherwise. Between Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and the economic fiasco in 2008, his record is full of failures. Maybe Jeb Bush shouldn't have said that he kept us safe. I just don't think hanging the entirety of 9/11 on him is right.

Hope you guys are enjoying these. Please feel free to respond on Facebook, or at WildWill45@aol.com.

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to publish a special series of stories. Will let you know when they are ready to roll.

Have a Great Week