Weekly Mail November 17, 2019

Hey Everyone:

We're halfway through November and getting closer to the real kickoff for the Holiday season. I know stores are already slamming us with Black Friday commercials and Lexus is making us feel like failures for not putting one of their cars in our suburban driveways Christmas morning, but really, with a week and a half to go before Thanksgiving, this will really start to ratchet up. Fasten your seatbelts folks, it's about to go down.



NEWS:

There were two school shooting this past week. One in Santa Clarita, CA and one at a high school football game in Camden, NJ.

The images from the Jersey shooting were jarring, seeing the players running for cover and the refs flat on their stomachs.

The images from Santa Clarita have almost become commonplace, and that's the saddest commentary of all.

I've made my case many times previous, that the only way to come up with a solution to this horror, is for everyone from all sides of the gun debate to come together, put differences aside and realize that we are destroying our most precious resource. But it's the same thing over and over, name calling, finger pointing and nothing gets done.

It's our national shame.


HOCKEY: Cherry Buried

I was too young to remember Don Cherry when he coached the Boston Bruins or even the Colorado Rockies (soon to be New Jersey Devils). But I do remember the first time I saw him on TV.

I was with my parents and sisters at a BBQ at my mom's friends house. I had snuck into their basement because 1) they had cable and 2) the 1991 Canada Cup Final between Canada and the USA was going to be on. But before the game, they showed Don Cherry's Grapevine. His guest that night was Bruins all-star Cam Neely. I can't even call what I saw that night an interview. It was more like something you'd see in one of those pre-Guliani theaters on 42nd Street. A verbal porno.

Neely's qualifications for appearing on the Grapevine were (in order from least to most important) he had talent, he could fight, and he was Canadian.

Indeed European players need not apply to appear on the Grapevine. As he also did on his Coaches Corner segment on Hockey Night in Canada, Cherry railed against European players, starting with Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nillson from Sweden in the late 70's, right up to the Russian 5 in Detroit. And look, I'm all for supporting you fellow countrymen, I'm the last person who should be scolding anyone for that, especially around the Olympics, but I also appreciate the different talents that players from other countries bring. And here's a little known fact....the 1994 Rangers leading point scorer in the regular season was not names Messier, Leetch or Graves. It was Sergei Zubov (as Casey Stengel would say, you can look it up.) So if it wasn't for those pesky Europeans we might be on an 80 year drought as opposed to the 54 year one we had (and the 26 year one were working on now)

But alas, that's not what got Cherry in trouble last week on Coaches Corner. Speaking about Remembrance Day (Canada's version of Veteran's Day) Cherry said the following...

"You people love... that come here whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love out milk and honey at least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppy or something like that."

If Cherry was speaking to Canadians as a whole, and reminding them to honor their vets, then I don't think there would have been an issue. But "you people come here" was a clear singling out of  immigrants. That couldn't stand.

And here's the thing....

Here in the States, there were plenty of folks, liberal, conservative, pacifist or hawk, that took time out on Monday to salute our vets. Poppies aren't as big here as they are up north, but Facebook was filled with pictures of family members who served, there was a huge turnout for the parade down 5th Avenue and even our knucklehead politicians were able to put their differences aside and not say anything dopey that day.

I'm all for calling people out who don't honor our vets. But I don't think it was necessary. I think the overwhelming majority of people in America, regardless of whether or not they were born here, took some time out to honor those men and women who served. I imagine it was the same in Canada.

I've heard that Don Cherry was Canada's equivalent of Rush Limbaugh. I've also heard Don Cherry referred to as beloved. I always thought that was an oxymoron, as I wouldn't called Limbaugh beloved by any definition of the word. This week as I saw Cherry fired from HNIC, I realized how much he really wasn't loved.


BASEBALL: Houston, We Have a Problem

Oakland A's pitcher Mike Fiers, told the Athletic last week that in 2017, his former team, the Astros used a camera in center field to steal the catcher's signs, and then used a code system to let the hitter know was pitch was coming. The system included banging on the dugout's garbage can to alert the hitter.

Now these alleged shenanigan's have impacted both our local teams. The Yankees are crying foul because all this went down in 2017, when the Bronx Bombers were versing the Astros in the ALCS.

One anonymous Yankee told the Post...

“To actually have somebody hitting a garbage can, pretty much the whole game, that’s pretty much your job, whoever is doing that. It stinks. You wish you could go back in time and figure that out earlier, because we thought we were the better team. We probably were the better team.”


Well I don't know about that, but I don't blame the Yanks or their fans for being pissed off. Shoot, I had that scumbag Bill Bellichick stealing signs from my Jets, and I convinced myself that had they not done that, we would have only lost by 2 touchdowns instead of 3. So if I were a Yankee fan, I'd no doubt be telling everyone who would listen that there should be a 28th banner atop the facade.

As for the Mets, well apparently one of the Astros involved in this caper was none other than our brand new manager (who again I begged the team not to hire) Carlos Beltran.

Right now, this all under investigation by MLB, so we don't know what repercussions if any, Beltran and the Astros will face. For the sake of my fellow Met fans, hopefully any punishments will go to the higher-ups and not the players. The Astros not only lost the World Series, they also were forced to fire a team exec who made offensive comments to female reporters. They have become a very hard team to root for.

In other Mets news, Pete Alonso and Jacob deGrom won NL Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award respectively. Both were one vote short of winning unanimously. Which of course led to an editorial dilemma here at WM. Do I praise Alonso and the deGrominator? Bash the two idiots who didn't vote for them? Both? Does even mentioning their names lend them credibility that they don't deserve?

Well, here's what I will say....neither of these two dudes were nearly the a$$hole that the guy who didn't vote deGrom for Cy Young last year was. To my knowledge, they didn't punk out on WFAN, or consult Randy Jones on their votes. The guy who voted against Alonso, tried to be funny about it, asking Met fans to to hate him for his vote. Both men actually made solid points about their votes. The ROY voter voted for Braves pitcher Mike Soroka saying that his stats in a year where many felt the ball was juiced was more impressive than hitting a bunch of home runs. The Cy Young voter said that he voted for Dodger pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu  because he only had 4 bad starts in the middle of the season that took his ERA from 1.43 to 2.41. To be honest, it's kind of hard to argue with either case.

And yet, here I go, because I'm THAT obnoxious idiot..


I think Soroka is a stud, and it pains me to think he's going to be in the Mets division for the next several years. The Braves once again are loaded with young talent. and Soroka is going to be a thorn in the Mets side. His numbers were impressive.

But 53 home runs is 53 home runs, especially in a pitcher's ballpark. Met players have had a hard time getting to 40 homers, 50, honestly I didn't think I'd see that in my lifetime. Alonso was unquestionably the best rookie in the game, or at least in the NL. Not voting for him was just plain dumb.

I have to admit, I was getting nervous when I saw Ryu's ERA hovering around the 1.40 mark around the All-Star break. As I've stated previous, Bob Gibson's 1.12 ERA will most likely never be approached, so I'm going to consider Dwight Gooden's 1.53 ERA the torchbearer. And that has only been approached a few times since Doc did it in 1985. Yes, if Ryu hadn't had those 4 bad starts, even if they were halfway decent, he would have had an awesome ERA, and therefore, even I would have to condede him the Cy Young.

But you know who else had a few rough starts this season? Jacob deGrom, Had he not had HIS rough starts, he's be sporting a pretty low ERA. So that argument is bollocks as well.

I can't help but think that if Alonso and deGrom pitched anywhere but NY, they'd have been voted unanimously. I also think these two guys just wanted the attention, which is why I was reluctant to say anything about it, also why I'm not using their names. At the end of the day, nobody's going to remember how many votes they got (or didn't get), 2019 will be a year to remember for two awesome Mets. And that's how it should be.


FOOTBALL: Assault in Cleveland

Woke up Friday to hear all news outlets talking about Thursday night's Browns-Steelers game. Had no idea what the big deal was till I saw Steelers QB Mason Rudolph getting clobbered with his own helmet by Browns DE Myles Garrett.

You've heard me rail on about football these last few years. A league made up of wife beating, gun carrying miscreants. Where the most talked about player is one who hasn't played in 4 years. Whose best coach and arguable best player are both convicted cheaters.

Yet we tune in. Week after week. I'm guilty. I watched the Jet Giant game last weekend. I don't know how people watch 14 straight hours of football (9:30 AM if there's a game in London, all the way till the end of SNF around 11 PM Sunday night.) It's, as Mike Vaccaro wrote a few year's back, our national addiction.

And we're going to watch after this incident too. But even for all we put up with, all we turn a blind eye to, all we've been desensitized to, this was a shock to see.  This was something that made you wince.

The NFL came down hard on Garrett suspending him for the rest of the season, at least. Garrett appeared to be genuinely embarrassed by his behavior (though not enough that he won't file an appeal). But I really don't think there is going to be the type of wholesale change needed till the game gets hit in the wallet.


POLITICS: Decisions, Decisions....

Former NYC Mayor and multi Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, filed papers in two states last week to get on their democratic Presidential primary ballot. He still hasn't formally announced whether or not he will enter the race.

I understand the decision to run for President is not one that should be taken lightly, but I'm wondering if Bloomy is this indecisive about even running, how is he going to be when he has to make Presidential Decisions. I felt the same way about Mario Cuomo back in 1992.

I had my ups and downs with Bloomberg. As mayor he was a classier version of Guliani. he kept crime low and improved the schools. He also improved as he went along, realizing that even though he could navigate the city through a blizzard from his house in Bermuda, didn't mean that he should do that.

I thought his forcing his way to a third term as mayor that he was not legally allowed to do was bush league. I wouldn't have voted for him, but I had moved to the burbs that year, so I didn't get the chance. But overall, At times he was out of touch, but I think he tried.  And overall, I think he cared.

So yes, I would welcome him into the race. Not sure he'd be m first choice as a Democrat, but I wouldn't write him off either. I just wish he'd say one way or another what the hell he's going to do.


I didn't see enough of the hearings this week that I can give you a fair and honest opinion on them. I did happen to catch Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) woofing on House Intelligence Committee  Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) after the hearings were over. I'm not sure what worries me more... that in 20 years scholars will look back and shake their heads at this or that in 20 years, this will all be considered the political norm.


Sorry I was light on laughs this week. Hopefully next week we can lighten it up some.

Have a Great Week.