Sorry we didn't post last week.
Remember for my September 11th special when I talked about a couple of my friends who had kids graduating from high school in June? Well, last Saturday I got to celebrate one of those graduations.
I remember the day Brendan DePuy came home from the hospital a couple days after his birth . That little guy that I got the hold is now 18 and going to college. I got to celebrate with him and his family at Donovan‘s a bar owned by another friend of mine whose girl is graduating and going to college in September.
It was great seeing the crew and all the kids who are now getting so big. Kids I held when they came home from the hospital and now looking down to see me. I feel old, I feel short. HA!
But they are great kids. All of them.
Tim and I then headed to Citi Field for the Mets-Braves game. We stayed at Donovan's for the ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of the 1969 team. I consider those guys old, to Timmy they are probably biblical, (like Old Testament biblical).
And it was just as well they we missed it, because as soon as we got there, we had to sit through an hour long rain delay. A game that should have ended around 8 PM, went all the way to 10 PM. And as usual, our amazing bullpen blew it. More than one person said we would have been better off suiting up some of the guys from 1969. They sure as hell couldn't have been any worse.
I went to the game the next night with Karl (the Ace) Ludwig, (Razor) Ray McGarvey and Ed (Auggie) DePuy. Miracles of miracles they won that game, but the only drawback was we didn't get our 1969 replica rings because we weren't one of the first 15,000 fans through the gate. I was there early enough, but I was too busy watching Joey Chestnut surrounded by about 25 people in dancing hot dog suits singing "Who Let the Dogs Out?"
And while I'm ranting here, they couldn't produce more than 15,000 of these rings? This is why the Mets are considered such cheapskates. I guess if they weren't paying Bobby Bonilla, Yoenis Cespedis and JD Lowrie millions of bucks to not play, maybe they could have bought more rings.
Onto the news of the (past two) week(s)
BASKETBALL: Knicks strike out.
It was whilst I was on the train heading into Citi Field last Sunday that I saw the Nets had signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to max contracts. The outcry from my fellow Knicks fans was predictable. But lets put some of this into perspective.
Durant ruptured his Achilles tendon during the NBA Finals and will miss the entire 2019-20 season. When he returns, he'll be 32 years old. That's not old, but coming off an injury like that, that's more than a bit of a risk. Kyrie at least from where I'm siting, doesn't come off as a franchise player. But he's getting that kind of money. And remember something else... the last time the Nets brought two big shots in, it was the disastrous Paul Pierce Kevin Garnett deal. I think the Celtics are still drafting with the picks the Nets gave up in that deal.
I know, I know, this is just money, and Pierce and Garnett were on the back nine so to speak, but again, there are no guarantees with this kind of injury that Durant is going to be the player he was. As dysfunctional as the Knicks are, I can't really fault them here. They were smart to sign a few guys for short term contracts, and if they end up in the lottery again, maybe they can get another young stud. The Knicks have been irrelevant since the end of the Clinton administration, at this point whats a few more years?
The thing is, I think when James Dolan heard what happened to the Knicks, he immediately called John (JD) Davidson and said "Go sign somebody"..
HOCKEY: Rangers get the Breadman
Every year there is always a "Big fish" in every sports free agent pool. Kevin Durant was arguably the big fish in basketball (though you will get no argument from me if your choice is former Raptor new Clipper Kawhi Leonard.) Baseball last year had Bryce Harper.
This year in hockey the big fish was Blue Jackets winger Artemi Panarin. The Rangers reeled him in with a huge contract (7 years, $81.5 million. Average Annual Value AAV-11.4 million.) That's a lot of scratch for one player in a salary cap league.
I'm always kind of torn when the Rangers make a big splash like this in free agency. I love the idea that they can get a player with Panarin's talent, but I look at some of the guys they've signed in the past, and it's not a pretty picture. Kevin Shatterkirk has been injury prone. Before that there was Brad Richards, who was bought out. They traded for Rick Nash, but that was pretty much a sign and trade, and while he was a solid player for us, he wasn't the goal scorer we needed him to be. At least not consistently.
Panarin is 27 years old, he's just coming into his prime, and on a line with Mika Zabinajead, he could be s stud. But again, I feel like we sign these big star players, only to buy em out a few years later. Here is hoping the bread man delivers.
And if you thought it was werid that the Nets were able to sign Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, consider that according to multiple sources, the Islanders actually offered Panarin more money. When was the last time you heard the Islanders ponying up more dough than the Rangers?
I'm so fed up with the Mets these days. At least they beat the Yankees last Tuesday. Thank goodness for small favors. That, and Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil.
SOCCER- Women's World Cup
When they beat Thailand 13-0 in their World Cup opening match, my first thought was after two years of watching all my teams miss the playoffs and generally suck, it was nice to finally have a team to root for that dominates their sport.
But I'm not so sure I still feel that way.
Way back during the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, I was watching the third installment of the Men's Basketball Dream Team with a few of my friends at a bar. A couple of those guys told me they were rooting against the US team. My friends didn't like the way the team was acting, running up the score, just being jerks in general.
I could never do that, and I certainly didn't do that here. I'm happy that they beat the Netherlands today.
But I do have to admit, this incarnation of the US Women's Soccer team was a lot harder to root for than the team from four years ago.
The 2015 team was fun. Abby Wombach was one of the easiest people to root for. Hope Solo was a head case off the field but a warrior on it. The rest of the team, with something to prove after losing the 2011 World Cup to Japan, played their hearts out and gave us something to be proud of.
These guys seemed to have a chip on their shoulder.
I know, I know. Some of this has to do with the Big Mouth in the Oval Office, who really one would think would have more important things to worry about, such as Iran building nukes.
Now, he's in a twitter battle with star player Megan Rapinoe.
I want to like Rapinoe, I really do. Right now, she's probably our country's most recognizable athlete* She should be having the time of her life, starring for the best team in the world, dating an amazing woman and athlete in her own right in Sue Bird. You just knew when she was lining up for that penalty kick, that she was going to bang it home. She's as clutch as anyone I've ever seen in any sport. While I disagree with her not standing for the national anthem, I do respect her for trying to call attention to an issue dear to her heart.. LBGT rights.
But the way she carried on during that 13-0 trashing of Thailand? I mean that seemed like something if she saw Donald Trump doing, she'd be the first one to call him out on it. I have no problem with her not wanting to go to the White House. But lets burn that bridge when we get to it shall we?
And now she's complaining that there are two other tournament finals the same day (different times) as the World Cup Final. I'm sorry, I just find this annoying. It's like she's looking for $h-t to complain about.
I didn't have a problem with Alex Morgan pretending to sip tea after scoring against England. (Especially if as she explained it was a inside joke between her and her friend, Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner) I do have an issue with Morgan complaining that if a guy did that, there wouldn't be any complaining. Mike Vaccarro in his Open Mike column in today's Post pointed out several instances when men acted like that and got called out for it.
I just get the feeling these ladies are creating enemies, controversies and an Us Vs. Them attitude that's not totally necessary. I could be wrong. I never got that feeling 4 years ago. I felt like when they won, they allowed all of us to celebrate their good fortune. No matter what your race, gender or orientation, we were all Americans celebrating one of our teams winning. Here, I feel like this team has a persecution complex.
I'm still glad they won. It just doesn't feel the same.
POLITICS: Democrat Debate.
I couldn't get into the debate a couple weeks ago in Miami. I need the participants to be cut down from a full soccer match to a full court basketball game. 24 candidates is too much. When the Bill DeBlasios, Andrew Yangs, John Hickenloopers and a few others drop out, I'll start watching.
From the research I've done, limited as it has been admittedly,of the 24 or so people running, there are 10 I take seriously.... Biden, Booker, Buttigieg, Gabbard, Gillenbrand, Harris, Klobuchar, O'Rourke, Sanders, and Warren. There are a couple of others I respect, these 10 are the ones I feel have a shot.
I realize that this election is going to be the most important election in our history (I mean they all are, but this one is especially) and that the Iowa Caucus will be here before we know it. But right now there are too many cooks in this kitchen, and some of them need to drop out pronto. There are other ways to draw attention to yourself without muddying up the process.
OBITUARY-Steve Dunleavy
My first day at the Post, November 6, 2003, I was sitting in the area where the copy people sit and my head was spinning. I was trying to learn my job while not getting in anybody's way. At one point towards the end of the day, I saw someone looking over the shoulder of the metro editor. I had heard the term "death warmed over" before, but until I saw Steve Dunleavy for the first time at the Post, I hadn't known what it meant.
I had seen Dunleavy before when he was on A Current Affair back in the early 90's. I hadn't known that he was one of the Post's best reporters back when Rupert Murdoch first bought the paper in 1976. He cracked me up on A Current Affair with his thick Australian accent. I wasn't a big A Current Affair fan, but any time Dunleavy was on I had to watch.
Working with him wasn't always easy, actually it was mostly a pain in the a$$. He would dictate his columns (Usually from his barstool at Langan's) and between his accent and the fact that he was tying one on as his was making his column made taking it down damn near impossible.
Mario Cuomo summed him up this way.. "He's feisty, he's resilient, he's self-made, he stands up for what he believes in-and he even on occasion, be charming. "
I got to see all of that. And it was those times he was charming that I'll remember the most.
One time, he left his wallet at his desk, and he called Ruth the desk assistant and asked her to have one of us bring it down to him at Langans. It was an early Friday evening.
"And Bill, Ruth said to me, "if offers you a drink, you take it."
An hour later, I came back to work. With a beer buzz. At any other job, I'd be getting my resume together. Not here.
We chatted about the paper. He loved the fact that my last name is Gallagher. He talked about how much he won betting on the Yankees. He was a pisser.
There was so much I wanted to ask him. About how he chased the Son of Sam, or where he was the night of the 1977 blackout. (I later found out he was right there in the middle of all the looting in Bushwick) But I didn't ask him anything. I let him do the talking.
As I said, he could be tough to get along with, as are most old time newspaper people. But no matter how much of a dick he could be, I had to give him his props. His columns for the Post in the wake of 9/11, were exactly what the Dr. ordered. Yes, you read them now and you'll probably shake your head when he wrote "that we should turn Afghanistan into the world's biggest parking lot," but as I've said many times before, there are two emotions no man wants anybody to ever see from them. One is fear the other is sadness. I was feeling both. Dunleavy turned that into anger. And for better or worse, that's what got me through.
So another one of the greats is gone. Jimmy Breslin, Murray Kempton. There are those who will say Steve Dunleavy doesn't belong with those men. He sure does. As he once ended one of his columns I typed out for him....
Vaya Con Dios
The year is half over. Lets the make the rest of 2019 a good one.
and Have a Great Week
*well her and the aforementioned Joey Chestnut
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