Hello All!
Friday night I had dinner with three of my favorite guys in the world. Indeed, I don't get to see Karl (The Ace) Ludwig, (Razor) Ray McGarvey or Ed (Auggie) DePuy as much as I'd like to, but when I do get to catch up with them, it's really awesome
The best part was they agreed to come out to Oceanside to visit. So I took them to JPaul's. I had been there with Tara and Tim in June to see Tara'a friend's daughter sing, and then a couple of weeks ago, I went there with my man Dan Unverzagt and his buddy Paul. That night ended with me nursing a wicked hangover for the next day and a half.
I took some precautions before heading out with the boys this time. I didn't pregame with red wine like I did two weeks ago, and we had a proper dinner as well this time. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast with Danny and Paulie, but man did I pay the price.
The Woodside crew decided to get the politics out of the way early so we didn't end up clobbering each other later. It's good because talking to them gives me ideas of how I want to take the blog. I was really planning to cut down on the political chat for a while, because quite frankly, between now and the debates, the only thing that's going to happen is more idiotic crap out of the mouth (and Twitter account) of Donald Trump. But the guys asked some interesting questions and made some excellent points that I'd like to explore. They really are cool like that, (though I never give them enough credit)
Otherwise we bitched about the Mets, bragged about our kids, complained about our jobs and reminisced on old times. And they loved JPaul's, which was packed.
I made it home. Before 11 PM, and relatively sober. A win all around.
SPORTS: BEAT THE METS:
So the good news was, I got to go to another Mets game last week. My brother in law, Steve, was nice enough to take Tara, Timmy, Becky, Big Bill and myself to last Wednesday's Mets-D'Back's game at Citi Field. The seats were great, the company was great, even the overpriced food was great.
But the baseball was awful.
Both teams sucked. The Mets sucked just a bit more. What made this loss especially irksome was the fact that the Diamondbacks are amongst the worst teams in the league The Mets are supposed to be contending for the World Series.
Not happening folks. Not this year.
Now, naturally you may want to direct my attention to last year, when the Mets were equally mediocre, and went on that miracle run that carried them to the World Series.
But that run started a few weeks earlier, they were really only duking it out with the Nationals, as opposed to several teams for the wild card.
Most importantly, the pitching last year was dominant.
If the Mets were losing these games 1-0 or 2-1, I'd say great, we'll get Yoenis Cespedes back, maybe even Lucas Duda, that will ignite Curtis Granderson and Jay Bruce, and we'll go on a couple of long winning streaks and get ourselves right back into this thing.
But the problem with that is that the pitching has been equally putrid. Noah Syndergaard has been a huge disappointment in the second half, Steven Matz acts like he's pitching in the Home Run Derby sometimes, and Logan Varett, well, Timmy's got a couple of good friends named Logan who I'd rather run out to the mound than that hump.
Jacob DeGromm has been solid as of late, and thank goodness for Bartolo Colon. That we have to depend on a 43 year old man with weight issues is a terrible indictment of this team. And don't get me started on the bullpen, (except for Addison Reed and of course La Familia)
They've been scoring some runs. Not a lot, and certainly not in key sports. (Granderson must lead the league in leaving guys on base) And I realize the pitching has been killed with injuries. Syndergaard and Matz have bone chips in their elbows, and that HAS to be having some effect. Matt Harvey once again, has spit the bit, having his season end early.
I figured that the Mets would have to win 20 of their 29 games in August to secure a playoff spot. After Saturday night's win, their record for August is 4-8. Is it conceivable they could get their injured guys back, and maybe Syndergaard and Matz figure it out and they go on a run. I guess. And of course , that's how I'm going to root. But it's hard to see it happening. As a former Met manager once observed, It's getting late awfully early.
RIP: John Saunders from the Sports Reporters...
Every Sunday morning, without fail, I tune into the Sports Reporters on ESPN. Or I catch it ASAP on the DVR. When I first started watching it, the legendary Dick Schapp was the host. Shortly after 9/11, Schapp passed away, and ESPN named John Saunders at his successor. I had nothing against Saunders, who seemed like a nice enough guy and a solid sports journalist, but I couldn't see how he could fill the shoes of someone like Dick Schapp.
Boy was I ever wrong.
Saunders not only took the torch from Schapp, he made the show his own. And he made it better.
This was no easy feat. For starters, the panel is usually made up of three of the following four sportswriters: The universally despised Mike Lupica, a bit of a loose cannon in Bob Ryan from the Boston Globe, the smarmy Mitch Albom from the Detroit Free Press, and the somewhat pretentious William C. Rhoden of the Times. If one of those guys aren't there, ESPN usually gets one of it's own to fill in. The anti NY Israel Gutierrez, Pablo S. Torre or Taraji P. Henson lookalike Jemele Hill.
And through it all, with that amount of talent and ego, and with ESPN limiting the topics generally to the sports they have contracts with, (Football, Baseball and Basketball) John Saunders made it work. He made it work by checking his own ego at the door, despite the fact that he had every reason to interject, he was as knowledgeable as anyone on the panel, but his job was to keep the conversation going and the debate raging. And he did that job superbly.
His parting shots were usually inspirational or thought provoking and generally both. One time, I think it was during the Don Imus controversy, Saunders mentioned in his parting shot that he had seen people "cross the street as he approached them." I found that absurd, being that I welcomed him into my home every Sunday on TV, and would have no problem doing so if he ever showed up personally. He just came off as that warm of a personality. Of course his point was that these people who were afraid of him, didn't know who he was. It drove a very important point home.
The outpouring of sympathy and sadness from his ESPN colleagues was heartfelt and also expected, he was every bit the gentleman off the air as he presented himself on it.
I hope that Jeremy Schapp takes over now that Saunders is gone. It would make the show come full circle so to speak. But I can understand if he doesn't want to. It's hard enough for him to fill his father's shoes. to have to fill those of John Saunders will be an extremely tall order.
He will be missed.
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I'm a summer kid. Always have been. My birthday is in the summer and now my kid's birthday is in the summer. Summer means no school, and unlike some people who will go nameless, I don't pop the champagne corks when Tim has to go back to school. September and January are still my least favorite months.
That said, this has been some last few days with all this heat and humidity! I mean I'll take this over 2 feet of snow any day, but man, it's been tough slogging through. Please be safe out there.
Have a Great Week
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