Weekly Mail March 10, 2019

Hey:


Saturday was a picture perfect March day, sunny and not too chilly. Took Timmy to the park for a bit. He's getting to the age where he's not going to want me to take him to the park, or maybe just to drop him off at the park. So I'm enjoying these trips.

Now we have Daylight Savings Time. We'll be discombobulated for a few days, but the extra sunlight will be nice.


Anyway, need to start with a couple of obits....



Luke Perry-  Beverly Hills 90210 made it's debut in my senior year of high school.

I wouldn't have given it a second look, but Karl (the Ace) Ludwig told me he stumbled upon the series premiere and he got a kick out of it. So I watched a few episodes myself. It was fairly entertaining. The theme music was awesome.

But when Shannen Doherty, who played Brenda Walsh, went on a show and said "People like this show because it deals with real issues and real problems..." well, that's the station where 17 year old Wild Bill jumped off the BH bandwagon. Was she kidding? Even the geeks on that show were getting action. Nothing like that was going on in Woodside 11377. At least not in my neck of the woods.

Nevertheless, when I heard that Luke Perry had succumbed to the effects of the massive stroke he suffered last week, I had that feeling you get when someone from your high school class dies. Not someone you were close to, but maybe a guy you just knew.

Maybe it was because the show started while I was still in high school. Maybe because Perry, from what I read, was nothing like Dylan McKay, the brooding James Dean like stud he portrayed on 90210.  He was just an actor who took his craft and not himself, seriously. (See-Buffy the Vampire Slayer-the film version)

Maybe because 52 is way to young to have a stroke, much less die from one.

It's probably all of the above, but it was a gut punch when I heard this news. Too sad.


King Kong Bundy- Phil Mushnick often writes about professional wrestlers who have died young. Of course most of the ones he writes about are the ones who most likely died from overdosing on 'roids.

King Kong Bundy didn't have that problem. His body was all natural. That's probably the best thing you could say about it.

Bundy was big but not exactly cut, if you know what I mean. Still for a (how shall I put this) heavy set dude, he could move about the ring with decent speed.

One of the cool things that YouTube has provided me is clips like the show Kayfabe Corner, where a guy interviews wrestlers I watched growing up and listen to them spill the secrets of the trade. George the Animal Steele gave a great one. So did King King Bundy.

He described how he and Hulk Hogan planned their steel cage match at Wrestlemaina 2.  "Hulk asked me if we should use color." (Blood). I said nah we don't need no color for this one." He talked about what a (jerk) Randy Savage was. Even as a kid I knew the wrestling was scripted, but man some of these guys were really convincing. King Kong Bundy was as convincing as any of them. He died Tuesday at 61.

Tom Seaver- OK technically this is not an obit, but the outpouring after his family announced he was suffering from dementia and was retiring from making public appearances sure did feel like one.

I was not yet 4 years old when Seaver was traded to the Reds in 1977, still considered the darkest day in Mets history some 42 years after the fact. But I was there, opening day 1983, at Shea, when the Franchise came back.  I can remember that as if it was yesterday. Pete Rose of the Phillies was his first batter faced and he struck him out swinging. The older I get, the more I get a kick out of telling people I saw Tom Seaver strike out Pete Rose. Two of the all time greats.

That Seaver is now not going to get to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Mets 1969 championship is one of the true unfortunate twists of fate life too often throws at you.

And yes, he needs to be honored with a statue outside of Citi Field. I have no issue whatsoever with the Mets having the Jackie Robinson rotunda, there aren't enough tributes baseball can give Jackie Robinson for what he did for this game. But Seaver means so much to this franchise, there needs to be a statue in his honor. The sooner the better.

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In other news...


R Kelly: CBS This Morning has become my go to morning news program.  So I was watching as R Kelly went batspit the other day in his interview with Gayle King.

I have to give King all the credit in the world, she did not bat an eyelash as Kelly was flipping out.  And if the rapper felt like he did himself a favor by acting like that, well, I think not.

I had almost forgotten about this, but I actually had my own run in with Mr. Kelly. It was back in 2004.

I was sent out by the Post to help cover his release from St. Vincent's hospital downtown. The night before, he had been performing with Jay-Z at the Garden when he thought someone was pointing a gun at him. He walked off the stage and was proceeded to be maced by someone in Jay-Z's entourage.

My job that night was to get Kelly's attention so that we could get a photo of him. As he was leaving the hospital with his crew, I yelled out (as instructed) "Jay Z says you are jealous of him." Kelly shot me a look and said "Tell him I love him. I love 'em."  I will be the first to admit I wasn't as cool as Gayle King was the other day. But my colleague was. She got right in R. Kelly's grill and demanded to know if he would show up the next night for the final show. He said he would. I have no idea if he did.

Read all about it here.   I didn't get a byline on this, but take my word for it. Please.




I saw that Jussie Smollett was charged with 16 felony counts for his false police report arrest. And while I still think he should pay for what he did, and I still crack up at the liberals defending him, I will give my left wing friends this: If Smollett ends up doing more time than Paul Manafort does, I'll agree that maybe it's time for us to tweak our criminal justice system a bit.


A-Rod and J-Lo are apparently engaged. Just what the world needs, right? Their egos are so big, they could declare it as a tax deduction.


That's all from here folks.

Have a Great Week