Weekly Mail August 7, 2016

Sorry I missed last week.

On Saturday, we took Tim to the doctor because he had some swelling under his eyes. They suspected a sinus infection, but a further test revealed a peanut allergy. That sux. But he doesn't really eat peanuts or peanut butter, so it's not the worst thing in the world. Still I feel bad for the kid.

Saturday night, Tara and I left Tim with Lizzie, his awesome (despite her Islander loyalties) babysitter and we met my Rockaway crew (Patti-Ann, Mary, Ellen, Kerry and Maggie) at the Saloon in Long Beach. I hadn't been to the Saloon in years and never to eat. But the food was really good. The gang was all doing well and there were laughs aplenty. It was really cool to catch up with them. 

The DNC- For me the highlight was the speech given by Congressman Joe Crowley from my hometown of Woodside, NY. Not that I agreed with everything he said, but I've known Joe since. I was 8 years old, and it was a proud moment.

I thought some of the other speeches were pretty good and well. President Obama didn't disappoint, neither did VP Joe Biden. I enjoyed Cory Booker (though I wish he had stuck around to clean up Newark a bit more before going to the Senate)

Bernie Sanders got the crowd going with speech, my favorite part was when he asked what the average contribution to his campaign was, and the crowd answered 27 dollahs!

As for Hillary, her speech was better than Donald Trump's if for no other reason than that it was shorter. I also give her credit that she laid out more of a game plan than did Trump, but that really wasn't going to be hard to do.

Bottom line...She didn't do anything to drive anyone away who wasn't already driven away, but I'm not sure she inspired anyone to join up with her who wasn't already on board. The people who are joining team Hillary now are doing so because Trump keeps shooting his campaign in the proverbial foot.

Here is a tip for Trump: if you are running as the candidate of the party that claims to be the party who will properly defend the nation, it's not a good idea to go after the family of someone who gave his life defending said country.

Khzir and Ghazala Khan, whose son Humayan was killed in Iraq in 2004, stood on the stage at the DNC. Mr. Khan chastised Trump for his anti Muslim policies, questioning whether or not Trump ever sacrificed anything in his life. 

In response Trump said he's made several sacrifices and suggested that Mrs. Khan was being silenced because of her religion. And then he actually said this...

I'm being attacked by these people,. Don't I have the right to defend myself? 

No you don't. Not here.

On this you need to honor the Khan's for their sacrifice and move on. The idiocy of taking on the grieving family of a war hero goes without saying. More frightening is Trump's inability to take a punch. One year into this campaign, and he still doesn't get it. If he becomes President, half the country is going to think he's an a$$hole. Just like every President before. Of all his issues, that to me is the one that disqualifies him the most. 

SPORTS: A-Rod says Good bye

Sunday morning, Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez held a press conference to announce that he and the Yanks had agreed to amicably part ways come next Friday.

This brings an end to one of the most annoying careers I have ever witnessed. Sports radio, for better or worse (and mostly worse) was all A-Rod all the time, pretty much from the time the Yankees brought him in up until now.

And very little of it was baseball related. I could have lived with that.

Indeed, the baseball related numbers were plenty impressive. Multiple seasons of 50 homers, batting championships, RBI's, the man was an offensive machine.

But it was all the other $h-t that drove me crazy.... The ridiculous contract, the love hate relationship with Derek Jeter, (again I ask, has the relationship between two allegedly heterosexual men ever been so closely scrutinized?)  The mistresses, his divorce, and of course his steroid use. It was one mess after another way with this guy, and a while there was so much other good stuff going on in sports around here, it just seemed like we were fed all of A-Rod's crap all the time.

And the crazy thing is: some folks suggested that this was nothing more than a jealous Met fan complaining because my Mets didn't have anyone with the talent and skill of the Yankee star...

Except.....

I found that the folks who complained most about A-Rod were Yankee fans themselves.  Fans that remembered the good old days of Wade Boggs and Scott Brosius. Those marches down the Canyon of Heroes seemed to stop when A-Rod showed up and Yankee fans never let him forget it. That may have been unfair, but it was hard to feel bad for an overpaid primadonna who, let's face it, brought most of this upon himself.

So instead of cutting Rodriguez a 30 million dollar check and telling him to have a nice life, they announced they are releasing him at the end of the week and making him the highest paid roving instructor in baseball history. I was really hoping he would just go away. But for now, no dice on that.

THE OLYMPICS

Every two years, when we have these Olympics, especially lately, they seem to run into the same issues, namely lack of funding, incomplete venues and security concerns. I admit, I was bummed out when we lost our bid to host the 2012 Games that eventually were held in London, but in retrospect, that was probably a good thing.

The 31st version of the modern games, which kicked off last Friday in Rio de Janeiro, was no exception. However, in addition to the usual issues, Rio had to also deal with the Zika Virus, and their sailing and rowing venues making Newtown Creek look like a crystal blue Italian stream. Several prominent athletes chose to sit this one out, rather than  risk coming home with some icky diseases.

I have to confess I didn't catch any of the opening ceremonies, but I did see some of the swimming and some basketball. We've pretty much continued to kick a$$ in those sports.  Monday night, I got to see Lily King win gold in the 100 meter breast stroke.  What made that victory particularly tasty was that she did so while talking smack about her Russian opponent.

Yulia Efimova was one of several Russian athletes busted for doping. Initially banned from competing, Efimova had her ban overturned on appeal. To add insult to injury, Efimova won her semifinal heat, and waved her finger in the air, to the chagrin of King, who vowed to beat her clean.

And did so.

I don't believe the Russians should even be here. But since the IOC once again showed no guts, here they are. So the victories against them will be extra sweet.

Have a Great Week!