Hi There:
Last Wednesday night I attended a wake in Rockaway for a family friend.
I've gotten to a point in my life where wakes and weddings are the only places I get to catch up with people from a certain time in my life. It's one of those cruel twists of life that someone dying can bring so many people together.
I got to see some friends of mine I hadn't seen in years. Social media has kept some of us in touch, but not in person. As sad as the situation was, it was good to see them all. And I told them that.
It's cliche, and I felt as much of a dork saying it as I probably looked to the people I was saying it to, but on the other hand, I thought about the good times I had with all of them. And there were plenty of good times.
But life is what it is. Most of us live in different places now. Many of us have kids and our new friends are the parents our kids friends. New responsibilities new worries.
We were talking about getting a bunch of us together next summer and having a beach reunion. Just hanging out one weekend down in Rockaway like we did when we were kids. It's a nice thought, and it would be awesome if we pulled it off, but the chances are slim that we could.
I had dinner with Karl (the Ace) Ludwig and (Razor) Ray McGarvey on Friday night and that was cool. No wake, no funeral, no wedding, just getting together and having some laughs. Those nights are few and far between as well, but we try to get together at least a few times a year.
As Thanksgiving approaches, at a time where it's been pretty damn tempting to say What do I have to be thankful for? I can look back at the friends I have made, and the family that I have and despite the pain, realize I have been very blessed in my life. I'm sorry it had to take another wake to help me realize that, but as they say, He works in mysterious ways.
On that note, we press on...
BASEBALL: deGromination!
So I've been going back and forth on this.... Should I spend my time praising Jacob deGrom for winning a well deserved Cy Young award, or should I blast away at the one yutz in San Diego who didn't give deGrom a first place vote?
John Maffei of the San Diego Union Tribune gave his first place vote to Nationals star Max Scherzer. It goes without saying that I am biased for my man Jake, but was Maffei out of line for voting for Scherzer?
I have to be honest, I thought the voting would be closer. I thought more than one writer would look at deGrom's 10-9 record and say that was too few wins for a Cy Young Award. Scherzer and Phillies starter Aaron Nola both had very good years. In any other year I'd say Scherzer in particular was deserving. 300 strikeouts, a WHIP of 0.91, 18 wins. Those are fantastic numbers.
Also, critics of Maffei are saying that he "not embracing analytics." When I hear analytics, I think of Billy Beane, Moneyball and those obnoxious baseball executives with their Ivy League degrees. You all know how I feel about these geeks right? I say if you are smart enough to use math to figure out baseball, you should use that talent for something important, like curing cancer or ending world hunger or keeping the world out of war. Let us dopes who watch a lot of baseball and aren't particularly bright run the teams. Jeff Pearlman spent a lot of time in his USFL book saying how commissioners from Pete Rozelle right up to Roger Goodell vowed to never let Donald Trump have a football team. I say give him a football team, or a baseball team, (preferably the Braves or the Patriots) let him screw those teams up. Let one of these baseball analytics nerds run the country. If Maffei has a problem with analytics, well guess what so do I.
And having said all that, John Maffei can go bleep himself.
First of all did anybody get a load of the column he wrote for his paper explaining his vote? I'll post it here , but let me give you the cliff notes on this one.. He gave deGrom props for a fantastic season but then says
...the Mets did a great job sending out his facts and figures. Obviously, a 1.70 ERA over 217 innings is a fabulous accomplishment. But he had 10 wins and nine losses.
Yes, the Mets were a bad club, offensively and defensively. He didn't get run support. One emailer pointed out that if the Mets had scored two runs in DeGrom's starts, he would have been 20-6; three runs would have been 25-1; four runs 30-0.
But you know what they say about ifs and buts.
That's condescending enough, but this is where I blow my stack...
I spoke with Randy Jones, a man I greatly respect. He was 22-14 with a bad Padres team in 1976 and won the Cy Young Award.
In that conversation, Randy said, "Wins are the most important thing in the game. You need to pitch to the run support you get, whether that's one, two, three or 12.”
I hate Randy Jones. Hate hate hate. Why?
Let's put aside for a moment the idiotic comment, "you have to pitch to your run support" When you are shutting out the other team, and your team can't score, you can't pitch any better than that, right? Forget that. Here's my real beef..
June 22, 1982. Shea Stadium. I was 8 years old. I went to the game with Bob Reilly, his son Michael and one of Mike's friends. Before the game we got autographs from several Mets, including current Tigers skipper Ron Gardenhire-who was awesome, George Foster (who wasn't), and Craig Swan, then the Mets ace. I asked Swan if he was pitching that night, he said "No tomorrow. Randy Jones is pitching tonight.
I can post the box score that will back me up when I tell you that Randy Jones walked the ballpark that night. I actually don't think he threw one strike. He faced 4 Montreal Expos that night and walked them all. Baseball reference says he was 7-10 in 1982 and 1-8 in 1981. I have no idea how he won 7 games in 1982, I just remember he was awful.
And the year he won the Cy Young Award with the Padres, he also lost 14 games. And talk about a travesty, the second place vote getter that year, 1976 was Mets lefty Jerry Koosman, who had 1 less win, but 4 fewer losses, a lower ERA, and 107 more strikeouts. Shoot, there were three other pitchers that year more deserving than Jones: Koosman, Don Sutton of the Dodgers, and Tom Seaver.
Randy Jones, puhleeeeze! I'd take pitching advice from Star Jones before I'd quote that hump.
To make matters worse, (and he references this in his column,) Maffei came on the FAN to be interviewed ny Steve Somers, only to hang up on him when he felt Somers was breaking his chops too much. Fellow Postie Andrew Marchand actually took Maffei's side on this one, saying Maffei couldn't have known Somers, unlike someone like Craig Carton or Mike Francesa, was just having some fun. Baloney! Maffei was just a thin skinned fraud who obviously hates New York, like so many other people.
I feel bad that I'm focusing more one a-hole in San Diego than Jacob DeGrom himself, who was the only Met worth the price of admission this year. A 1.70 ERA, and 28 consecutive games allowing 3 or fewer runs are just mind blowing stats. That's what I should be focused on.
But what fun would that be? Besides what do you expect from an evil New Yorker like myself?
MOTHER NATURE- is really pissed off at us.
Snow in New York City (and the nearby burbs) anytime before New Year's Day should banned by the Geneva Convention. It took me nearly an hour from the time I left my office till I got home on Thursday. That's a trip that usuuly takes no more than 15-20 minutes.
And I still had it easy. I heard horror stories of commutes lasting 7-9 hours. I got home from Italy quicker than some people got home from work on Thursday. I can't even blame my usual punching bag Bill (the dope from Park Slope) DeBlasio for this, because nobody was prepared for what happened. The fearless weather forecasters all said a dusting to a couple of inches, and we ended up with half a foot. Thankfully warmer temps and rain washed most of it away by the next day, but the damage was done.
Still this was a Sunday stroll through the park compared to what is going on in California. That's just heartbreaking. I saw several celebrities lost their homes, including Miley Cyrus, Gerard Butler and Lady GaGa, and while it's tempting to say they all have the $$$ to rebuild, there are other people out there not in Malibu who may never be able to rebuild. I don't even know what to say to those people. Honestly, all I can do is just pray they can recover.
I know it comes off as insensitive when I suggest we all try to guess where the first report of Black Friday violence will come from, but again, in all seriousness, if they didn't hype up these sales as doorbusters, I really believe you'd avoid many of these issues. That's all I'm suggesting here.
My editorial staff is on my case to come up with more fun stories. So I think I may have found one, speaking of commerce...
CRIME-Free Love
According to the London Sun, three women in Australia are wanted for stealing $600.00 worth of sex toy merch from an adult store. (as opposed to lets say Walmart)
The owner of the Perth based Libido Adult Super Store, Garry Smith, told the paper that his store loses close to $2.5k every 6 months because of theft. His in store camera managed to capture footage of three women stealing, amongst other things 4 best selling vibrators, and my personal favorite, the Come Hither Rabbit Sex Toy valued at $280.00 (a bargain at any price if you ask me.)
So why not hire more security? Well, I think it takes a special kind of security worker to work at one of those places, would you want be known as the dildo police? My other question is why don't they hire a private dick to find the missing vibrators? (seewhatididthere?)
Smith has offered a $50.00 store voucher for any information that will lead to the arrest of the three hot crooks. Sounds like a deal, then you can get the Come Hither Rabbit Sex toy for a mere $230.00.
If anybody wants to know what to get me for Christmas... just sayin.
I might even show up at 5 AM on Black Friday to get one of those.
But I digress...
I have a favor to ask, if you are reading this on Facebook, can you give the link a like? (Or a laugh or if I said something you don't like an angry face) Used to be that the blog service I use recorded how many times the link was click on, but it's not doing that anymore, so I'm not sure if people aren't getting it. I may have to switch services, I just want to make sure it's still accessible. I'd appreciate any help on this.
Happy Thanksgiving
and Have a Great Week
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