Hot enough for ya?
Man I love the summer, but it was 90 degrees at midnight Sunday morning. Brutal.
Anyway let’s get to it....
A TALE OF TWO ELECTIONS...
Tuesday as I was leaving work, I saw that amongst the electees to the hockey all of fame, amongst all time greats like Martin Brodeur, pioneers like Willie O'Ree and fan favorites like Martin St. Louis, there was Commissioner Gary Bettman.
Really?
The same Gary Bettman who presided over three lockouts, including one that shut down the game for an entire season? THAT Gary Bettman?
That man shouldn't be allowed in there unless he pays admission.
Now some of you will say look at the growth of the sport since he took over. OK, sure you've had Stanley Cup Championships in Dallas and Tampa Bay. I have a friend from Nashville who tells me what the Predators have done for that city is mind blowing. "Used to be all about football," he told me "now they are all hockey crazy down there." I guess i begrudgingly have to give him credit for that.
But what's happening in Phoenix is a sin. He allowed the Winnipeg Jets to move there and it's been nothing short of a disaster. And the only reason Winnipeg got the Jets back was because another southern based team went belly up (the Atlanta Thrashers). They ought to move the Coyotes either to Hamilton or Quebec City.
And maybe I could forgive him wiping out the 2004-05 season if he didn't end up locking out the league again a mere 8 seasons later. That time at least they played a partial season, but the other work stoppage, which happened in 1994, right after the Rangers won the Cup, killed the momentum that the Rangers win had brought to the league. Shoot, even OJ Simpson couldn't knock the Rangers off the back pages that month, but by not raising that championship banner in October, the commissioner of the NHL did!
Say what you want about Bud Selig, (and I don't think he belongs in Cooperstown either) but after HE wiped out the 1994 World Series, they have never had another work stoppage. 24 years of labor peace.
The only two commissioners I believe should be represented in their sports Halls of Fame are Pete Rozelle in the NFL and David Stern in the NBA. Sure both presided over costly work stoppages, but both had also developed their brands in leaps and bounds before said work stoppages. Rozelle in particular seemed like a good man, forever beating himself up for the decision to play NFL games two days after the Kennedy assassination.
Bettman getting voted into the HHoF burned my a$$ in the afternoon.
But not like the election that was called that night.....
A couple of weeks ago, I read somewhere that Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens Bronx) had skipped a debate against his primary challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I had a bad feeling about it because there were a lot of folks on social media who were up in arms over this, and you know what? Rightly so. After what happened in 2016, how could anyone take any election lightly?
But even with that, I figured he would still win. It might have been closer that he was used to, but
still, he'd pull it out. And if he managed to win in November, and the House went blue, he was a contender for Speaker of the House!
Now full disclosure here: I've known Joe Crowley since I was 8 years old.
He coached my first CYO basketball team at St. Mary's. There was an A team and a B team. Joe coached the B team. They had tryouts and at first I didn't make the A team. For some reason, after a practice or two with Joe's team, the coach of the A team took me and two other guys and said we could come to the A team. I'll never really know why he did this, but for some reason, Joe came over to me and asked "Do you want to stay on my team? I said yeah. He wanted to know how come?
I told him I had never played basketball before and I didn't know the rules. He went to other coach and then came back. "OK, you're with me." he said.
He was great, Taught me a lot about the game and made sure (as best he could) that the older guys didn't give me too much crap.
He also bonded with my dad, because Big Bill drove to all the road games. For years, whenever they'd bump into each other they'd always chat for a bit. Many years later, I ran into Joe at Donovan's, and he told me that my dad was one of his heroes. "Everything he went through and the injuries he suffered and never a complaint, never a bad word. He made me rethink how I felt about Vietnam." We were both pretty buzzed that night, but I'll never forget how genuine his admiration for dad was.
So you can understand why I was fit to be tied Tuesday night when I saw that he had lost, and not by a couple of votes either. Ocasio-Cortez won big.
I was ready to go on line and start ranting on about what a disgrace it was that a good man like Joe Crowley could get voted out at the hands of a 28 year old socialist*, who had been waiting tables just a year before. How the same folks screaming about how the knucklehead right elected a President with no experience just elected a candidate for the House with no experience. How maybe the people of Queens and the Bronx were getting what they deserved if they didn't have the sense to vote for a good guy like Joe Crowley.
But I didn't. Instead I let my cooler head prevail.
The fact of the matter is, it's a great story. And let's face it, it's democracy at work. For whatever reason, these people wanted fresh blood in there. Lord knows, I'm always railing on about Congress, and how we need to get fresh faces in Washington. Of course I was talking about goobers like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, and also the Chuck Schumers and Nancy Pelosi's of the world.
But I guess Joe was one of them now.
Of course, I'm not nearly as classy as Joe is, and while he immediately endorsed the woman who defeated him, I will do no such thing. I'm pulling hard for Anthony Pappas, the Republican who will go up against Ocasio-Cortez in November. Shoot, I'm going to be his biggest fan here in NY, which means he will probably get his clock cleaned on election night.
I hope Joe Crowley runs again, but he probably won't. It just would have been cool to say that I knew the person who was third in line to be President of the United States.
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Obviously the shooting at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis hit home for me on many levels, not the least of which being the squadron of anti terrorism cops greeting me at the doors of the Post on Saturday. walking through Grand Central in the weeks after 9/11 and seeing the National Guard standing there gave me the same jolting uneasy feeling. I suppose I'll get used to it like I did back then. Just kind of wish I didn't have to.
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For the record:
I think they should have served Sarah Sanders at the Red Hen.
I also think they should have baked the cake for those two dudes who were getting married.
I also think Joe Biden should have been able to get cookies at that bakery in Virginia.
I understand that you want to make a statement, but I'm not sure turning people away is the answer.
If I was a business owner, I'd try to avoid serving skinheads, white supremacists, al-Qaeda, ISIS and Bill Bellichick. Everyone else, I figure even if I don't like them, I'm still taking their money.
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I like to finish these things up on a positive note, but positivity and humour are in short supply this week. So thanks to Weekly Mail co-editor Karl (The Ace) Ludwig, here is a flashback story from Weekly Mail, June 29, 2004..
Actually had one of my proudest moments in my 7 month newspaper career on Thursday night. One
of the copy editors was reading a story about a judge in Oklahoma who was caught playing with his
bearded bagpipe while on the bench. Can you imagine going before a judge, who has the fate of your
life in one hand, and his pecker in the other?
We were all cracking up, but I asked if I could suggest a headline. The chief copy editor, Barry, said
sure and I said how about "here cums the judge"?
The guys loved it. It wasn't the headline, they used it as a photo caption, and they changed it to the
Flip Wilson version (Here come da judge) But the best part was that the chief managing editor and the
editor in chief, two men not noted for their sense of humor, laughed at my contribution.
I hate to toot my own horn...
what the hell? I love tooting my own horn. beep beep baby!
Editors note: unfortunately the photo and caption are not included in the story.
Hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane.
Have a Happy 4th of July. Happy 242nd Birthday America!
and Have a Great Week
and Have a Great Week
* I had it pointed out to me that Ocasio-Cortez isn't an actual Socialist. She's a Democratic Socialist, meaning she believes in things like single payer healthcare and other government run programs, but not a federal takeover of all businesses. Thanks to Ed Robinson and his friends for clarifying that for me.
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