Weekly Mail February 29, 2020

Hi Everyone:

So I'm posting this on Saturday instead of Sunday, because Saturday was a rare (as in once every four years) February 29, and why wait till boring March 1st when you can do something to commemorate Leap Day (sorry anybody born on March 1st). If I had posted this on Sunday, I was going to date it February 30th, just to see who was paying attention. But I figured the ones who would have called me out on it were the folks who I know read this and who are eagle eyed. So we're publishing early this week.

I'm hoping we have the results of the South Carolina Primary by the time we go to press. I'm also hoping to have a special after Super Tuesday, where I'm pretty sure we will have an idea who will be facing Captain Orange come November. If we don't know for sure, at least there will be some we know have no shot.

That's a discussion for Wednesday. For now, here's what we got.....


WALL STREET- Stocks get their bell rung...

I don't mean to make light of either the Coronavirus or the plunging stock market, but there's something that always cracks me up whenever there's a bad day on Wall Street, and since every day this week was a disaster, it came to mind more often.

When they report on the news about how the DJIA did that day, many of the newscasts show the closing bell being rung. And no matter how bad the Dow dropped that day, these people stand there smiling and clapping as if they're watching their kids graduating from kindergarten.

They plan this months in advance. You can Google up NYSE Bell Calendar and it will tell you who and what company is ringing the bell that day.

On Thursday, the Dow dropped close to 1,200 points, the biggest one day drop in history. Yet, there was Neal Froneman, CEO of Silbayne-Stillwater, along with some of his workers, ringing that bell with big smiles, like it aint no thang.

Silbayne-Stillwater was celebrating getting a new ticker symbol. I know nothing about stocks, but looking at their weekly chart, I see their stock price went from $11.30 on Monday to $8.46 on Friday. I don't know how bad that is, but even a dope like me knows it's better when the price goes up than when it goes down. In other words, I'm sure Mr. Froneman wasn't as happy as he appeared whilst ringing that bell.

I guess if you are into this stuff, ringing the bell on Wall Street is like throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. But to me this is more like having someone come out while Liza Minelli is singing New York New York after a Yankee loss and throwing the ceremonial last pitch. Who the hell wants to do that?

If I ever had the honor of ringing the closing bell, I'd hope it would be on a day where the Dow finished up. If I'm ringing it on a day where the stock market takes a dive like it did this week, I'd go out there with a paper bag over my head. I don't want anyone associating me with a bad day on Wall Street, it's bad enough I root for the Knicks and the Jets, I don't want to be the schmuck who rang the bell the day the stock market crashed.

On a serious note, I've lived through some serious pandemics recently, swine flu, bird flu, SARS, but this one is really scary.

Now normally, I would defend Trump's decision to make Vice President Pence in charge of the Coronavirus Task Force. Putting the Vice President in charge of anything to me shows that you are taking the situation seriously enough that you are putting (theoretically anyway) the person you trusted the most to help you run the country in charge of it.

To me, the issue isn't that Mike Pence doesn't have any medical experience or even some of his puzzling decisions he made while Governor of Indiana. It's that the administration has slashed numerous programs and agencies that would deal with pandemics.

According to Chris Morris in Fortune Magazine...

The cuts started in 2018, as the White House focused on eliminating funding to Obama-era disease security programs. In March of that year, Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, whose job it was to lead the U.S. response in the event of a pandemic, abruptly left the administration and his global health security team was disbanded.

That same year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was forced to slash its efforts to prevent global disease outbreak by 80% as its funding for the program began to run out. The agency, at the time, opted to focus on 10 priority countries and scale back in others, including China.

The two words that jump out at me there are the last two...including China.  China, where this whole thing started. That's what's got me nervous, that the people in charge have done such a bang up job with this in the first place.

I really hope someone comes up with a cure if not an actual vaccination. I just feel like if we do, it will,be in spite of ourselves.


POLITICS: The South Carolina Debate-

The South Carolina primary is going on as of this writing, so hopefully we'll have results soon. I watched some of the South Carolina debate on Tuesday, hosted by CBS News.

You know, I still read Mike Lupica's Shooting from the Lip Column every Sunday, and every once in a while he comes up with a good line. From last Sunday's paper...

There has to be a better way to pick a Presidential nominee than having a bunch of 70-year old men and women raising their hands and nearly begging moderators to pick them

It came to mind again as I watched seven candidates, Mike Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Amy Klobochar and Tom Steyer, waving their hands like Arnold Horshack.  I love Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King, but they really had no control over this thing. If I were moderating these debates, I'd tell them all to "put their f-cking hands down and wait till I call on you. You wanna act like a bunch of spoiled brats, that's how I'll treat you."

Years ago, Imus moderated a debate between the Senator Al D'amato and Robert Abrams and when the two of them refused to stop talking over each other Imus screamed "That's it! Shut up!"

I guess you can't do that on national TV, and yes I realize the stakes are high here, but knowing that, as a viewer, I really want to hear the candidates views and hear the answers to the questions. This seemed to be all about who could yell the loudest. As I've said before, there was a time in my life I may have enjoyed the fireworks. Not now. There is too much at stake.


BTW: (And h/t to David K. Li for bringing to my attn.) remember 4 years ago when I wrote about how Nevada used high draw cards to break caucus ties? It happened at one caucus site in Vegas last week. There was a tie between Buttigieg and Sanders that was broken when a Mayor Pete supporter drew a 3 and a Bernie supporter drew a 2.

ABC recently brought back the game show Card Sharks with Joel McHale taking over the hosting role from the late Jim Perry. Maybe that's how they should break the tie next time around.


THIS JUST IN..... With almost 0% of the precincts reporting, former VP Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the South Carolina primary by most news outlets. Go figure. They couldn't call Iowa with 99% of the precincts reporting, and they didn't call New Hampshire until the wee hours of the next morning, but they called this one 7 minutes after the polls closed. I'm not saying they are wrong, (or that I'm not happy about this-because I am) but am I the only one who finds all this strange?



HOCKEY: SMH

It figures that almost as soon as Chris Kreider signs his huge extension with the Rangers, that he goes out and gets his foot broken on a slap shot, coming just a few days after their star rookie goaltender was hurt in a car accident. (In Brooklyn-go figure)  My former colleague at the Post, Billy Gorta once went through a list of Ranger injuries that he convinced himself cost them the Stanley Cup in a particular year. The famous ones are obvious.. Jean Ratelle in 1972, Ulf Nilsson in 1979 (Potvin Sucks!) but there were ones even I had forgotten about. The Mets have had them too. I still think if Bobby Ojeda had hired a gardener or if Duaner Sanchez ordered in delivery, we would have won the World Series in 1988 and 2006 respectively.

The kicker to all this is that the Rangers weren't expected to make the playoffs this year and there was some folks thinking they may have benefited from another trip to the draft lottery. But lately they have been on fire, and with two 30 goal scorers already and Krieder possibly joining them before he got hurt, it was beginning to look like they could make a nice little run.

And they still might. It's just going to be a lot harder without their star goalie and one of their better scorers.



UPDATE- OK now 50% of the precincts are reporting and Uncle Joe had a commanding lead, I think WM will join everyone else and put SC in the W column for Biden, with Bernie coming in 2nd. From what I'm seeing it looks like Tom Steyer is going to finish third, with Buttigieg fourth and Warren fifth. Now I'm hearing Steyer is dropping out. I thought this unusual being that he finished ahead of Buttigieg and Warren, but after consulting with my political expert and reading some articles, it seeems like Steyer was counting on a stronger showing in SC. So now we are down to Bloomy, Mayor Pete, Bernie, Warren, Biden, Klobuchar and Tulsi Gabbard. It's onto Super Tuesday.


RANDOM NOTES- The Islanders are officially done with the Barclay's Center, as they will now play the rest of their games at the Nassau Coliseum till their new place at Belmont Park opens up in 2021. Hockey in Brooklyn was an experiment gone awry. 

Plastic bags will now be considered a relic here in New York. I told some of my Post co-workers about this old Bud Light commercial which is now a reminder of days gone by.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDZB6W71-f4


OK, if this isn't one of my better ones, it's because I didn't give it it's usual Sunday editing.

Hopefully we'll post a special Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

either way Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail February 23, 2020

Hello there:


Hope all of you had a wonderful weekend. The days are getting noticeably longer, and this weekend weather had that feel of warmer ans sunnier days to come, which was nice.

Anyway, lets get to it...



PETS-Adventures in Dog-Sitting.


I'm not a dog person.

Wait wait wait.... before you go on Facebook and click that unfriend button, before you call and cancel your Weekly Mail subscription, before you recommend me for a job in the Trump administration, hear me out. I don't hate dogs. I'm not Michael Vick.

I never had a pet growing up and never had any desire for one. When I was a kid, dogs made me nervous and cats creeped me out. Tara had a dog growing up and she kind of taught me how to get dogs to trust you, but then I heard the stories about how shattered they were when their dog died. I've seen people in mourning after their pets died. It's really sad. Life offers you enough heartache and grief that I don't feel the need to go sign up for it.

Tara, Tim and I have had the discussion before, and I've been in the firm no camp since day one.

But when my cousin and her husband was having trouble getting a dog sitter, Tara graciously offered to watch him for them. Thus we had a tenant in our house for President's week.

   
                                                                          Wally


A couple days before, my cousin Deirdre and her husband Chris brought Wally over to meet us and get acclimated to the house. He ran around sniffing everything, and I was convinced he was going to find either a dead body or several kilos of cocaine that the previous owners of the house had left behind. No spot in our house went unsniffed by Wally. Thank God the place was relatively clean.

Deirdre and Chris put Wally in a kennel for the couple of days we couldn't take him. We went and picked him up on President's Day from the kennel in Woodmere. We brought him home where he once again gave the place a good sniffing.

Now Deidre and Chris are both teachers, so they didn't leave us with instructions as much as they left us with a syllabus. She titled it, "Watching Wally". I called it Introduction to Wally 101. Deidre knows I never had a dog, so she spelled everything out: what time he eats, what time he goes for his walks, how to put his leash on, his favorite TV shows, his thoughts on the Astros cheating scandal, David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar, and who he was endorsing in the upcoming South Carolina primary. Whatever we needed to know about Wally, it was in the syllabus.

Wally gets walked three times a day: once at sunup, once in the afternoon/early evening and a late night walk. For the morning and night walks, we bundled him up like Nanook of the North.

Denis Leary talked about opening his own restaurant on his classic album No Cure for Cancer. He said there would be no men's room, "you have to piss, you mark your spot like a wolf!"  Well, Wally kind of did the same thing, we walked outside and he would sniff all over, then he'd stop and lift his leg. I don't know what he smelled or didn't smell that let him know this was a good place to tinkle, but that's what he did. And he sprinkle like a squirt or two in several different places, unlike us humans who get it all out in one shot.

If you're reading this while eating skip the next paragraph.

Wally was also particular about where he dropped a deuce too.  His favorite spot in Oceanside was outside of Liberty Travel Agency next to the 24 hour bagel shop. Three trips to Liberty Travel, three times he fertilized their grass. That might be worth a discount on our next vacation. One of the things I dreaded about taking care of Wally was having to pick up his contributions to society, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Years ago, the people who lived next door to my grandmother in Woodhaven had a dog that looked like it should have been pulling a buggy through Central Park, with poop size to match. And this was before it was against the law to leave it on the street, so you had to be careful where you stepped. The only thing was you'd have to be Mr. Magoo to miss where this dog had done his business. Wally, on the other hand, being that he's a tiny thing, dropped little poop. So again, it wasn't as painful as I imagined. But it's not pleasant either.


Wally had a variety of things to eat.. there was his dog food, which kind of looked like a TV dinner gone wrong, there was his kibble, which he kind of picked at, and there was his treats, which of course he loved. We were instructed to limit the treats to when they were necessary, but hell, he was as much on vacation as his owners were, so we spoiled him a bit.

The issue was when the three of US ate. He stand there at your feet, desperately waiting for you to drop whatever you were having for a meal, and when he got tired of waiting, he'd climb up on his hind legs and put his front paws on my thigh. The first couple of times, this was very disconcerting, but after a day or so I learned to ignore it. It cracked Tara up that Wally hung around the one person in the house who was least inclined to share food, which I have to say was a fair point. When that would happen, we'd call him Wally the Beggar.

But we also called him Wally the Protector, because when he thought someone was coming to the door, he'd bark his head off. He fancied himself a guard dog, all 8 1/2 pounds of him.

The first night he was with us he didn't come upstairs, he just laid on the couch. I don't imagine he slept much that night. The next night again he stayed downstairs, but when I went down to check on him around 3 AM, he followed me up. I thought maybe he'd go back down, instead he hopped into bed right between us. The next night, he spent the night in our bed again, but down towards the end of it. The next few nights I convinced Wally to sleep with Timmy, which I think was a win-win for all parties involved. Timmy said he didn't mind and I didn't have to worry about crushing the poor thing.

I also worried about one night forgetting that he was there, and upon seeing him, having to be rushed to South Nassau Hospital. Fortunately, that didn't happen as I was always fully aware we had a visitor.

                                                         Wally and the Beaver (I mean Timmy) 


So after all this, . the $64.00 question is have a changed my mind about getting a dog? The answer is no. They are too much work. Wally is a beautifully trained dog, does all his business outdoors, doesn't bite or scratch and is a lot of fun. But even the best behaved dogs like Wally have to be walked, fed and cleaned up after. Not to mention you have to find someone to take care of them if you want to take any kind of trip.

But I had a good time with him and I'm going to miss the little bugger. I understand the appeal now more than I had last week. It's nice when they come greet you at the door when you come home from work. They really can make you smile.

To all you dog lovers out there, I can dig it.

Here's a PSA for the Muttigrees Curriculum starring Nell (Renee Felice Smith)  from NCIS Los Angeles

Nell Jones for Muttigrees



POLITICS-Bloomy's bad night.

I didn't watch as much of the debate from Las Vegas the other night as I probably should have, but to me it was cringe worthy on multiple levels.

We'll start with the obvious. Like almost everyone else who tuned in, I was perplexed at how a guy as smart and successful as Michael Bloomberg could be so woefully unprepared for that debate as he was. If a dolt like me could figure out that the other 5 candidates were going to be gunning for him, why couldn't he figure that out?  Anytime they took shots at him, which they did unrelentlessly, he either looked surprised or annoyed and mostly surprised and annoyed.

Look I'm not defending Bloomberg here, but we need to put this in perspective. I don't know what he did or didn't say, but I'm willing to bet that all of these off color jokes he made occurred many years ago. Not that it was ever right, but something that is super offensive now, may not have been say 30-40 years ago. Grab 'em by the pu$$y is offensive in any era, and Trump said that on TV 15 years ago. It's not the same thing.

Now, if Bloomberg said something offensive while he was mayor? Then I think you have a case. But for Elizabeth Warren to compare him to Donald Trump? That was below the belt.

And I'm really trying with Warren, but if she's gonna frame this whole election as "Men have been f-cking things up for 250 years", then I think she's going to find herself on the outside looking in. I realize that one of her strengths is firing up her base, which is why she was my pick to win the nomination. But now I feel like she's going scorched earth to get there. She's already got the "I'll only vote for a woman" vote, but that's not going to be enough. As I said, she has some good ideas that I can get behind. But if she's going to lump Bloomberg and Trump together, she might end up giving the Orange man another 4 years.

Then there was the silliness of Amy Klobochar and Pete Buttigeg arguing about forgetting the name of the President of Mexico. Yes, if you are running for President, you should at least know who the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada are. At least Klobochar was willing to admit she had a brain cramp the day she drew a blank on that question. Also on that point, Joe Biden showed why I have so much respect for him and why I'm afraid his time may have come and gone. He said he was the only one up there who had dealt with a number of Mexican Presidents, but also didn't name a single one.

Now while I thought Warren was unfair comparing Bloomberg to Trump as an overall louse, Bernie Sanders was unfair comparing Bloomberg to Trump because of his $$$. Trump inherited most of his millions and has spent most of that money on getting his name on things. Bloomberg is legitimately self made, and has spent a ton of money on charitable causes.

Look, there are legitimate concerns about Bloomberg, and I'm not saying that the others shouldn't have gone after him. You want to attack his flip-flopping on stop and frisk? Or question his multiple party switches? That's legit. You want to take him to task for manipulating the rules to get himself a third term as mayor, hey, I've said it before, under normal circumstances that's a disqualifier for me. And while I will always respect a person who is willing to spend his own money to run a campaign rather than spend so much time fundraising, I do share Bernie's concern that more and more, it's less the best and the brightest than the richest and most connected that decides these elections.

I just think saying that Bloomberg is another version of Trump is inaccurate. And by painting him as such, you are not doing the Democrats any favors. As Bloomberg himself said, the winner of the debate that night was Donald Trump.

FWIW- Looks like Bernie Sanders won the Nevada caucus.


HOCKEY-Trade Deadline Thoughts

The hockey trading deadline is always a fun day in sports. Of all the trading deadline days, it usually has the most action. Baseball's July 31 deadline is fun, but to me it was always watered down by the fact that even after it passed you could make deals with players who cleared waivers. (that's now changed.)

The last couple of years the Rangers have been sellers which sux because it pretty much means you are mailing it in. I kind of figured they would be sellers again, but they have been playing well as of late, and now have a shot at getting in.

What it really comes down to is can they/will they sign Chris Kreider to a new deal. If not they will probably deal him. It's complex with him, when he's on, he's an all star talent. But he too often disappears. I'm hoping they sign him, and that he clicks with Artemi Panarin and Mike Zibanijad. If his demands are more than they can fit under their cap, I hope they get a couple first rounders for him.

I'm also really hoping the Rangers solve their goaltending conundrum too. Right now they have three goalies. Igor Shesterkin who has done nothing but win since they brought him up, Alexandar Georgiev, who is young and talented, and the King, Henrik Lundqvist.

Shesterkin is a keeper, he could be our goalie for the next 10 years. Georgiev could probably bring back a decent haul in a trade.

It's Hank that I'm torn on. He has a no-trade clause and even if he waived it, it's hard to believe anyone would trade for a 38 year old goalie making $8.5 in a salary cap league. There's a part of me that wishes he would so they could free up that money. Especially since he's probably going to ride the pine here the rest of the way.

But I also have a soft spot for him. Let's face it, the Rangers have been the only one of my teams that have been consistent championship contenders. Since Hank came up in 2006, the Rangers have been in contention. It's only been the last couple of years since they decided to rebuild that they haven't had a shot.

And he's the main reason why they have been so good.

He's unfortunately not going to win a Stanley Cup here in NY. Small minded people will hold that against him. I won't. Are you kidding? He's kept us in games we had no business being in, helped win playoff series we had no business winning. I've said it a million times, if not for some of the $hittiest officiating I have ever witnessed, his name would have been on the Stanley Cup that instead went to LA in 2014.

It pains me to see him sitting at the end of the bench, but it's clear his time had come and gone here in NY. He might have a shot on a good team with a solid defense. But if he wants to end his career in a Rangers uniform, I can dig that too. Whenever he decides to pack in in, he will get a well deserved send off. He will always be one of my all time favorite athletes


BASEBALL

The Astros cheating scandal continues to dominate the news, which while I totally understnd, I fear that it's becoming as much of a distraction for the rest of baseball as it is for the guilty party Astros. Last week for example, almost every prominent Yankee was asked to give his $0.02 about the whole thing, and each time the players comment seemed to make it the back page headlines. If I'm Aaron Boone, I pull the team aside and say "Hey, I know you guys feel like you were robbed, but the only way we can make this right is by going out there and dominating. We have the horses to do that, so forget about what happened and lets go out there and make this right by kicking their a$$es."

Some members of the press have also gone above and beyond with some of their takes on this. Last week, Daily News baseball columnist Bill Madden actually argued that what the Astros did was worse than what the 1919 White Sox did during the Black Sox scandal.

What?!

I'm not saying what the Astros did was insignificant, but to me there is nothing worse than intentionally losing a game. Cheating to get an edge, especially on the scale that the Astros did it was bad, losing games intentionally for the benefit of gamblers is 100 times worse. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'm sorry, that's about as dumb an argument as I have heard in a long time.



Hope you all enjoyed the stories about Wally. Thanks to Deirdre and Chris for letting their pooch be part of the story.

and everybody Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail February 16, 2020

Hi There:

Well we made it to President's Day weekend, 6 weeks into the New Year. That first day back to work after New Year's Day is tough, sort of like a colder version of the day after Labor Day. I usually console myself by saying that I just have to plow through the next 6 weeks, then I get (usually) a couple of days off. There's a certain accomplishment to making it to President's Day. Also, it usually means that you are about 6 weeks away from April, which theoretically at least is when the weather is supposed to get nice.

Except that so far, well, I don't want to jinx it, but let me put it this way: Saturday morning, all the weather people here in NY were saying "Be careful it is really cold out there." Well it's February, it's supposed to be cold. 28 degrees in February isn't supposed to be abnormal. But so far, it has been.

So we will see how the rest of the winter plays out. Like I said, I'm happy we got through the first 6 weeks and now we can take a deep breath and push on.


Now lets see what's going on....



POLITICS: The New Hampshire Primary

Bernie Sanders scored the first solid win this season. Solid in the sense that nobody is disputing he won. It was close, only about 1.5 percentage points separated Bernie from Pete Buttigieg, and because of the rules that award delegates based on percentages, Bernie and Mayor Pete get the same number of delegates from New Hampshire. And I know I say this every 4 years, but I'll be able to explain the meaning of life before I can explain the rules and regs of the Democratic Nominating process.

Amy Klobuchar came in third, Elizabeth Warren 4th (in a state bordering her home) and Joe Biden a distant and disappointing 5th. Now Biden is hoping to get a kick start from South Carolina in two weeks. Right now, folks are saying he and Warren are in trouble, and maybe they are. But I'm not declaring anyone of the top 5 in trouble till after Super Tuesday.

There are way too many delegates at stake that day to say that nobody has a chance to climb back in. Well, I mean those who haven't left already. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Businessman Andrew Yang dropped out after New Hampshire.

I felt bad for Patrick, as it seems like a family illness is what kept him from declaring earlier. He may try again in the future. I didn't feel bad for Yang, except when I heard someone refer to his followers as "The Yang Gang."  I love that stuff. I considered myself a McCainiac back in 2000 and 2008. In 2012, there was the Herman Cain Train, and even though I couldn't stand the guy, Howard Dean had his Deaniacs in 2004.  The Yang Gang.: I'm sorry man, whatever you thought of his policies, that's freakin brilliant.

Bennet probably should have dropped out earlier, but who am I to tell people what to do?  It probably didn't help that he got stuck in Washington on the Trump impeachment trial, the other three US Senators running, Sanders, Warren, and Klobuchar already had national profiles so I don't think it hurt them as much.

Of course the X-factor in all of this is former NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who is counting on dominating Super Tuesday to catapult him into the lead for the nomination. The idea is to let the others slug it out in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, while he spends a zillion dollars on ads. To me that will be the most interesting thing to watch come March 3. More and more and more I am hearing his name.

On the GOP side, I heard this week, much to my chagrin, that Joe Walsh ended his campaign to unseat Captain Orange at the head of the Republican ticket, meaning I'll either have to vote for William Weld, or write someone in. If Walsh is still on the NY Ballot, I still may vote for him, just so I can tell everyone I voted for Joe F-cking Walsh.

And again, as much as I may goof off during the primaries, I will vote for whoever the Democrats put up. I haven't made that decision so early in the process in a LONG time. But these are special circumstances.

BTW- If you need any other reasons to see why I'm not considering voting for Trump, observe the shenanigans going on in the whole Roger Stone mess. 4 top prosecutors resigned this week because the justice department is trying to reduce the sentencing guidelines for Stone, who was convicted in November on 7 counts of interfering in the Mueller investigation.   Prosecutors had recommended a jail sentence of 7-9 years, but now the DOJ is saying that is "excessive" and will let the court decide with no real guidelines, if I'm understanding this all correctly-which it's possible I'm not. What I do know is that Stone is a guy that makes me feel the need to reapply my deodorant when I see him. Just an overall lowlife. I know you can't go to jail for being a creep, but Mueller found enough dirt on this dirt-bag to send him away for a while.



TRAVEL: To Recline or not to Recline...

A passenger on an American Eagle flight from New Orleans to Charlotte is suing the airline and looking to press charges against a passenger who repeatedly punched the back of her seat after she put the seat in the reclining position.

Wendi Williams is claiming that she suffered head and neck injuries due to the repeated punches to the back of her seat, but she's suing American Airlines (owner of American Eagle) for slander. American Airlines told TMZ that Williams knocked over the male passenger's drink.

I watched the video, and while I agree there was a much better way to handle the situation besides punching the seat, I have a very hard time believing that she suffered any sort of serious injury because of this. She kind of comes off as someone trying to cash in on 15 minutes of infamy. As I've said before, I fly very infrequently, so I may not be up to date on my ettiquitte, but I generally ask the person behind me if it's OK for me to come back. If you ask, 99 times out of 100 they'll say yes, I would imagine.

Sounds like you had two angry a-holes in this situation. I don't believe the woman was hurt as bad as she says she was, and I believe the guy overreacted. And of course you have your standard frivolous lawsuit.  Just another day in paradise.



BASEBALL: Say it a'int so.

The Post's Joel Sherman reported this week that MLB is discussing expanding the baseball playoffs from 10 teams to 14, making an extra round of playoffs , with an even more bizarre twist...

From the post article:

In this concept, the team with the best record in each league would receive a bye to avoid the wild-card round and go directly to the Division Series. The two other division winners and the wild card with the next-best record would each host all three games in a best-of-three wild-card round. So the bottom three wild cards would have no first-round home games.

The division winner with the second-best record in a league would then get the first pick of its opponent from those lower three wild cards, then the other division winner would pick, leaving the last two wild cards to play each other.

I'll try to explain this using last year's records. The two best teams in each league, the Dodgers and Astros, would get a bye to the second round. The two other division winners, the Braves and the Cardinals and in the NL, and the Yankees and Twins in the AL, would then get to pick from the 3 teams from the bottom with the next best records who they will play in the opening round.

In the NL the Braves would get to pick first between the Brewers, the Mets and the Diamondbacks. The Cards would pick second. The Nats by virtue of having the best record of the non-division winners, would play whoever is left.

In the AL, the Yanks would get to pick between the Rays, Indians, and Red Sox. The Twins would pick second and the A's  by virtue of having the best record of the non-division winners, would play whoever is left


Here's how I think this would go..


NL- Dodgers (bye)

Braves vs. Mets -best of 3 all games in Atlanta.

Cards vs. Brewers-all three games in St. Louis

Nats vs D'backs. all three games in Washington since the Nats had the best wild card record.


AL-Astros (bye) also (CHEATERS)

Yanks vs Indians-best of 3 all three games in the Bronx

Twins vs Red Sox-all three games in Minnesota

A's vs. Rays- all three games in Oakland

They would have a selection show, similar to the NCAA basketball tournament, televised. With the GM's of the four teams making their selections.

There are a bunch of things wrong with all this...

For starters, 7 teams in each league to make the playoffs are too many. When I first started watching hockey, there were 21 teams. 16 teams made the playoffs. Playing a whole season to eliminate 5 teams? That was asinine.

You are not quite there yet doing this, but you are getting closer. With this you'll have 14 of the 30 teams in the playoffs. That's too much. I think it's too many as it is now, but I can live with that. This would water it down. Baseball is the only sport to never have a sub .500 team make the playoffs. I'd like to keep it that way.

And having teams pick their opponents? I mean that's just asking for trouble. Curt Schilling was on with Marc Malusis and Maggie Gray the other day, and while calling the whole concept bull$hit, (which the producer managed to cut off) also said "As an athelete, I would love to have a team choose my team to play. What better motivation do you need? Love or loathe Schilling, that's a great point.

All of this of course has nothing to do with the good of the game and everything to do with $$$. Something new and different I know, but still. I really hope this goes the way of New Coke. I guess we'll wait and see.



Hope you enjoy the weekend. And if you are lucky enough to have a few days off, enjoy that too

either way Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail February 9, 2020

Hey There:

January is behind sand now we are that much closer to spring. Hope 2020 has been good to you so far.

Onto the news...


POLITICS: Rough Week

So, Monday was the Iowa Caucus. Something that is on my bucket list, but I'll probably never get to do, is to spend the month before the Iowa Caucus hanging out in Iowa, talking to the people. I wouldn't follow the candidates around, I'd go into the greasy spoon after the candidate left and talk to the diners. I'd just like to see how they feel about having their state inundated with candidates and media.

I say I'll probably never get to do this because 1) I'd have to quit my job and 2) there may not be anymore Iowa Caucuses. Not after last weeks debacle.

First of all, between Trump's impeachment trial and the sudden death of Kobe Bryant, I don't remember an Iowa Caucus having such little fanfare and news coverage. With the stakes as high as they are, you would have thought there would be more buzz. Again I understand there were mitigating circumstances here, but still.

And then there was the actual voting. They made some adjustments to the rules, which a) I'm not sure I understand, and b) don't think I could explain even if I did. But then they decided to have the votes reported through an app that didn't work properly. Mike Francesa's app was more successful.

Politics and technology don't seem to go hand in hand right? Wasn't one of the big issues with Obamacare was that the website kept crashing?  Two years ago, the state of Hawaii thought they were about to be obliterated by Kim Jong Un because the governor couldn't get into his Twitter account to alert his constituents that it was a false alarm.

And now a faulty app has thrown the Iowa Caucus into disarray. As of this writing, I still don't know who won. Right now, I'm calling it for Pete Buttigieg, with Bernie Sanders second, Elizabeth Warren third, Joe Biden fourth and Amy Klobochar fifth.

Because of this, and for other reasons, many are calling for the elimination of the Iowa Caucus, suggesting that either 1) they should just have a primary like the rest of us 2) not always be the first in the nation or 3) all of the above. I'm a traditionalist and like I said, I'd love to go to a caucus site or two to see how it all works. I really would like to see Iowa still kick off the primary season. And maybe instead of relying on apps, they should just count them the old fashioned way.

This wasn't the way to start this cycle of Election 2020. Especially with what happened the rest of the week.

On Tuesday, President Trump gave the State of the Union address. There were a couple of nice moments, watching Sgt 1st Class Townsend Williams reunite with his wife and young kids was a heart tugging moment, I don't care what side of the aisle you are on. The young girl getting the scholarship was also a nice touch, even if it seemed like it was turning the SOTU into The Price is Right.

But the rest of it was everything that is wrong with America IMHO. First of all, Captain Orange not shaking hands with Nancy Pelosi was bush league bull$hit. He also didn't shake hands with Vice President Pence, but the message was clear. Pelosi came right back at him by introducing him without saying, "It is my distinct pleasure to introduce..." she simply said Members of Congress, the President of the United States."

Then the Republicans chanted 4 more years as if this was the RNC. Lame.

He presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh. You know, on Saturday, a friend of mine posted that Gary Sinise had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his work with veterans. I already had in my brain the scene in Forest Gump where Lt. Dan confronts Forest outside the studio where he was interviewed by Dick Cavett (along with John Lennon) and started giving out about Gump having won the Congressional Medal of Honor. I substituted Presidential Medal of Freedom for CMOH..



"They gave you, an imbecile, a moron, who goes on (the radio) and makes a fool out of himself in front of the whole damn country, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Well, that's just perfect! I have one thing to say to that. Goddam Bless America!




That's what was going through my mind as Melania was putting that medal around Rush's neck.

And at the end of the speech, Pelosi tore up her copy, sending Republicans into a tizzy, calling her all sorts of names. Once again forgetting that he dissed her in the beginning.

Now under normal circumstances, I would give the House Speaker all sorts of grief for a stunt like that. If Pelosi had done that to George W. Bush, or Paul Ryan to Barack Obama.

But these aren't normal times. And whatever you thought of Paul Ryan, or John Boehner or any other House Speaker, they were always respectful to the President during the State of the Union. And that's because the President was always respectful of the Speaker. Obama and Ryan couldn't stand each other, but they shook hands. That'w what normal people do.

I don't blame Pelosi for what she did. But that's not how things are supposed to be done. Trump has brought out the worst in everybody and that's not good.

And it only got worse.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment. A few thoughts..

1) Mitt Romney was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump. He voted to convict on Article I, abuse of power.  Because I'm a registered Republican, I get e-mails all the time from Republican sites, namely people looking for campaign contributions. But on Friday, I got an e-mail from Tea Party.org breathlessly reporting that when Mitt Romney was at Bain Capital, he helped bankrupt millions of American workers. I pictured the Tea Party sending the following e-mail:

Dear President Obama:

Can we borrow your 2012 Campaign playbook?

TIA

The Tea Party. 


2) Susan Collins, who likes to portray herself as a Republican with a conscience, voted to acquit on both articles even though she admitted she thought what Trump did was wrong.

"I believe that the president has learned from this case," she told CBS News earlier this week. "The president has been impeached — that's a pretty big lesson . . . I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future."


My question for Collins would have been, What makes you think he's learned his lesson, when he admits he did it, and said he'd do it again? I mean shoot, even OJ had the good sense to tell Judge Ito he didn't do it.

But because of spineless senators like these, he could say he did it, because he knew he'd get away with it. I swear, the most honest thing the man ever said was "I could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and people would still love me."

3) Yeah, I called them spineless. The whole lot of them. Because they were afraid of what, getting called names? Losing their seats? I would have asked Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, "Marco, he called you little Marco, Ted he said your father was involved in the Kennedy assassination, but you were willing to look the other way with all that?

I have tried to consider the argument that while what Trump did was wrong, it didn't rise to the level of removal from office. I can't do it. More importantly, how can he get away with defying subpoenas? That to me is just as bad. Again if you are I ignored a subpoena, they'd toss us in the slammer.

And in case you thought I was being too harsh on Susan Collins, one only needed to watch Trump's press conference on Thursday afternoon to realize he didn't learn any lesson. Instead he bragged about being acquitted, insulted Pelosi, Romney and Adam Schiff amongst others and vowed political payback. At one point he sounded an awful lot like Robert DeNiro's version of Al Capone in 1987's The Untouchables......

"Now I have done nothing to harm these people but they are angered with me, so what do they do, doctor up some income tax for which they have no case."

Sounds just like Trump right? Substitute impeachment hoax for income tax. It's scary.


Just one more thing before we move on from politics for now... not that I ever didn't take a Presidential election seriously, but I have always also tried to have fun with it, to almost treat it as another sport. And to crack jokes along the way.

But after the last election in 2016, when I heard Bob Schiffer compare it to a banana republic, I'm having a hard time getting into the fun stuff.

Part of it is that there is so much as stake. There hasn't been an election yet that I haven't heard is the most important in our lifetime. This one is that times 100.

I still want to enjoy it and still want to have some fun with it, but please understand that I know what the stakes are here. There probably won't be as much joking around as I write and I promise I will discuss the positives of the candidates when appropriate and the negatives when I need to.

But the endgame for me is to have someone win in November who will bring some decorum back to the White House. Who will make sure that he or she reaches out and shakes the hand of their opponents, who won't sling insults and act like the whole thing is an MTV reality show. There hasn't been a President yet where I have agreed with everything they did. But never has there been one that I felt lowered the dignity of the office. When all this is said and done, I really want to look at whoever is sitting there in the Oval office and knows what THAT represents.

That's all I want.

The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday. We'll update our board when (or if) the results come in.


SPORTS: It was nice while it lasted...

From WM December 15, 2019- I'd love to get excited about hedge-fund honcho Steve Cohen buying out the Wilpons. People were going bananas comparing it to New Years Eve. And look, I'd love to send those three bozos (Fred, Jeff and Saul Katz) packing. But shoot a LOT can happen in 5 years. The three stooges could change their minds, Cohen could end up in the slammer (apparently his company has been investigated by the Feds) and according to Forbes, there's a chance MLB wouldn't approve the sale, though I find that hard to believe. My point is 5 years is a looong time. Tell me this is the last off-season I have to worry about those idiot Wilpons running the Mets, and then maybe then I'll celebrate. 

So word came down this week that the Wilpon's deal with Steve Cohen has pretty much died. There was much handwringing over this but again, should anybody really be surprised?

I never understood the idea that Cohen would invest all this money and still not have the final say in baseball matters for 5 years.

It reminded me of about 20 years ago, when George Steinbrenner was in discussions with the Dolans to sell them most of the Yankees. Steinbrenner insisted that part of the deal included that he would remain as Yankees President. James Dolan heard that and said, "No no no, the idea is that I get to ruin yet another New York sports franchise." (If I was a Yankee fan the thought of Dolan owning the Yanks would cause to wake up in a cold sweat every once in a while.) Steinbrenner thought the better of it, and instead started the YES Network.

According to several sources, the hangup on this deal is that Fred Wilpon wants to make sure that Jeff Wilpon would be involved in the new ownership. According to the Post's Thornton McEnery

At the late stages of his agreement to buy 80 percent of the franchise for $2.6 billion, Cohen was informed by Fred and Jeff Wilpon that their plan was for Jeff to maintain total operational control of the Mets throughout the pre-agreed-to five-year transition period and then maintain a senior role within the organization even after Cohen took over.

While it is unclear whether the Wilpons, who said Thursday night they still plan to sell the team, sought to keep the COO title for Jeff after the transition, sources uniformly agree Jeff wanted to be part of the decision-making under Cohen’s ownership.

But in the same story, this is the quote that burned my ass.

However, one former Mets employee told The Post that it was almost inconceivable to think that a deal would have been struck without a role for Jeff.

“This guy has never done anything in his life other than play a week of minor league baseball and work for his dad,” said the former Mets staffer. “The Mets are his life. He can’t do anything else.”

By all accounts, Jeff’s current leadership of the organization is extremely hands-on. Every facet of the team, from baseball operations to marketing, is known to be under his purview.

“He is the owner and the de facto general manager,” said one source close to the team. “He does not want to give that up, even if everyone around him does. 

Jeff Wilpon is 57 years old or so, and is about to collect the better part of $2.5 billion. He doesn't need a job. And the fact that he's the "de facto GM" of a team who has had so little success this century should tip him off that maybe he's not cut out for this. To me he has no discernable skills except he was born into a wealthy family. he's no better than Dolan.

No better than Trump.

If I'm looking to buy the Mets, I make it implicit in any deal that all the Wilpons and all the Saul Katz people are out. If Fred wants to be stubborn and hold on, than MLB needs to step in. I can't have another one of my teams run by a ne'er do well son of privilege. It's bad enough my hockey and basketball teams,  as well as my country is being run by one.


ROCK AND ROLL- Another Stones Tour..

"We have to get tickets. This is going to be history!" Karl (the Ace) Ludwig was insisting that we get tickets to see the Rolling Stones. "You never know man, this could be the last time (no pun intended) that we get to see them. This might be their last tour."

That was during their Steel Wheels tour. 31 years ago.

And now word comes out this week that Mick, Keith Ronnie and Charlie and planning another trek through North America. The 2020 No Filter Tour will start in May and conclude in July. They won't be coming to NY, the closest they'll be is Buffalo.

But to me the big news that came out about the Stones this week is that Keith Richards hasn't had a cigarette since October. Can you imagine that?

I have rarely seen Keith without a smoke, either in his hand or his mouth. The man is a human chimney. He had to have smoked a couple of cartons a day. He has single handidly kept the economy of North Carolina afloat.

But he did indeed tell Q104.3's Jim Kerr that he quit back in October. "Done that, been there" he said.

Listen I'm happy for him, I detest smoking. I support anyone who quits. He told Kerr quitting smoking was harder than kicking heroin. I believe him. I really thought the only times Richards didn't smoke was when he was asleep. (if then). I hope he can keep up the good work.



RANDOM NOTES-

Very happy the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. Very enjoyable game. It really looked the 49ers were going to win it. I know the Chiefs made it their MO to have come from behind wins in the playoffs, but that Niners defense was tough. Pat Mahomes a die hard met fan, may be the closest I'll come to having a Super Bowl championship.

Much was made of the halftime show, starring 43 year old Shakira and 50 year old Jennifer Lopez. can you believe a 50 year old can look like that? yeah I can, when she's worth hundreds of millions of dollars and is engaged to a man worth hundreds of millions of dollars, you have time to work out and stay in shape.



Have no interest in the Oscars. The last movie I saw was The Rise of Skywalker and I didn't even get to see the end of it because right in the middle I got up and yelled..   Where the hell..


If you are watching the Oscars, enjoy. I'll be fast asleep when the best picture award is announced.

and Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail February 2, 2020

So the last few years I’ve used Super Bowl Sunday to catch up on my programs. But since Tom Brady and the rest of those scumbag Patriots aren’t playing, I figured I’d tune in.

Been a good one so far. It’s nice to see teams that can actually complete a pass, after watching our crappy NY teams all year.

The Niners running game has been awesome so far. They are picking up huge yards on every handoff. And Patrick Mahomes is hitting guys all over the place.

My two favorite commercials so far have been the Hyundai Boston commercial and the MC Hammer Cheetos commercial.

*****************************************************************************


This afternoon we went down to Long Beach for the Polar Plunge to benefit the Make a Wish Foundation. I didn’t plunge, but Timmy did. As well as thousands of others. It really was a sight to see.

Proud of my guy. He and a couple of his buddies dove in. This event may have had colder days or days with snow on the ground, but it was cold enough down there today. A great way to spend Super Bowl Sunday as opposed to watching 12 hours of pregame shows.

******************************************************************************

I try not be that a-hole who blames a whole generation for the problems of the world.

For example, I'm not going to blame baby boomers for screwing up the country, although the last 4 Presidents have been boomers (3 of them born within weeks of each other). My parents are baby boomers, and my Mom is the most amazing person I know of, and all my Dad did was nearly sacrifice his life for our country, as did many other men his age. We're very fortunate to have these people in our lives.

I'm also not going to bitch about how lazy and spoiled millennials are because that's a load of crap too. One of my sisters is a millennial and she works her a$$ off. And at both my jobs, Mercy and the Post, I'm on teams that are made up of millennials, and I can tell you right now, if I were starting my own business, I'd hire the three from the Post, and the four from Mercy in a heartbeat. They are smart, hard-working and kind. And I'm fortunate to have them as co-workers.

And of course I'm not going to take the blame for the world's problems, nor lay it at the feet of my fellow Generation X'ers. My other sister is Generation X, as are my wife, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law  and about 95% of my friends.

But whoever is the next generation after the millennials will have to explain who the hell thought this TikTok Penny Challenge was an idea of fun?

Now some might say that me writing about this is promoting this stupidity, but I know anybody who is reading this tonight is smart enough not to try it. So I won't even bother stating DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME (OR ANYWHERE FOR THAT MATTER)

Per GlobalNews.ca-

...prompting young people to slide a coin between a phone charger loosely plugged into an outlet and record the results.

It’s being called the #OutletChallenge or the #PennyChallenge, and several videos of it have been shared to the platform in recent days.

Most of the videos show coins being dropped between a charger and a wall outlet, causing large sparks of electricity. The people trying the challenge, typically kids or teens, can be seen jumping back or shrieking in response.

Look, I realize we have all done stupid stuff out of boredom. Karl (the Ace) Ludwig once figured a job he was on was punishment for something he had done in his impetuous youth. He then told me he realized in less than 5 seconds, my brain had come up with about 50 things he had done and he TMIA for not sharing any of them. Why would I? I was probably involved in 49 of them.

But I never f-cked with fire or electricity, and I don't know anyone who has.

A couple of years ago they had the Tide Pod Challenge. Kids were biting into pods filled with laundry detergent, to the point where Tide had to put Do Not Eat on the box. WTF?


I know I'm going to sound like an old fart here (which I am) but you have iPads and computer games out the wazoo, there's a million things to read, or watch, or play that don't involve bodily harm. Maybe I'm just a big wimp. (That's not really a maybe) But even when I started boozing, I knew enough not to touch fire or electricity. And the closest I came to eating a Tide Pod was getting hammered at Hickey's and going across the street for a slice of pizza at Sludgies.




Every year before the Super Bowl, CBS has a show (Usually hosted by WFAN morning man Boomer Esiason) that shows some of the upcoming Super Bowl Commercials. Two thoughts

1) A show about commercials? That's like Kramer's coffee book table book about coffee tables.

2) Isn't part of the fun seeing the commercial for the first time DURING the game?

Now since I haven't watched the Super Bowl in about 5 years, the show is kind of fun for me. But now that I'm kind of into this game, I'm glad I didn't see the show first.



Enjoy  the rest of the game.

and Have a great week

Weekly Mail Saturday Night Special

Hi Everybody:

Sending this out tonight so that I can do a more light-hearted blog for my annual Super Bowl Halftime post.




What I wrote last Sunday about the death of Kobe Bryant dealt more with what was going through my mind than actual reporting. I realize that besides Kobe and his daughter, 7 other people died in that horrible crash.

Ara Zobayan was the pilot and by all accounts an experienced and well respected one at that.  The helicopter was taking Kobe's daughter Gianna to her basketball game, and two of her teammates died with her. Alyssa Altobelli and her parents, college baseball coach John Altobelli and his wife Keri. Another teammate Payton Chester also died with her mom Sarah.
Christina Mauser was a coach at Gianna's school.

5 families torn apart. In an instant.

That's the thing isn't it? Just how quickly a routine day can turn tragic. Three girls on their way to play a basketball game on a Sunday afternoon. Of course because one of the people who died was one of the greatest players in the history of basketball, it becomes worldwide news.

But whether you are a hard core hoops fan or not, this is still a heartbreaking story. Because we can all relate, especially if you have kids.  We are constantly running our kids to sports, scouts, martial arts, dancing etc. Sure most of us are driving and not taking a helicopter, but still it hits home.

Without knowing who the other victims were, it hit me as a sports fan because I knew how much Kobe Bryant meant to the world of basketball. But reading about the other people on that helicopter, it hit me as a dad, it hit me as someone who lost a niece not much younger than Gigi Bryant and her friends.

It hit me as a human being. That's how it hit us all.



Another issue that has come up since last Sunday was how to broach the rape allegation against Kobe Bryant from 2003. I deliberately didn't mention it on Sunday, I felt it was neither the time or place. I stand by that.

I also realize that you can't talk about all the great things Kobe did for his sport and not mention this.

I'm not going to speculate on what happened because we don't know what happened that day in Aspen. At best, he cheated on his wife, which is detestable enough. At worst, he committed a crime that should have sent him to jail.

The fact of the matter is that he wasn't charged, and that he settled with the young woman out of court on her civil lawsuit. That's all we have to go on.

From where I'm sitting, he seemed to reassess his life and rededicate himself to his marriage and his kids. I do believe there is something to be said for that. And that's where I will leave that.



It's funny....as I was watching all the coverage last week, Timmy was asking if we could watch something else. Even when I came home from work on Monday, he was asking, "Are they going to talk about Kobe again?"

As I've mentioned before, that's kind of how I felt in December of 1980, when the Iran Hostage Crisis and the transition between the Carter and Reagan administrations, all went to the back-burner when John Lennon was killed. The shock and the pall that came over everything was eerily similar, as was seeing the impeachment trial, the election, and the Super Bowl all kind of get pushed off the top of the newscast/sportscast.

Now I'm not really sure it's fair to compare John Lennon to Kobe Bryant, but I also learned that you can't tell folks how to feel. I write what I feel, but I know that we all feel differently. Maybe the comparison is unfair, but you look at the outpouring of grief from all over the world, some of the biggest toughest men you'd ever see openly crying, the tributes from basketball arena's to hockey rinks to the Grammy's to the Super bowl. If you watched all that and not realized how much Kobe Bryant transcended his profession, you're not seeing the whole picture.

It's tough to transition from life and death to other things going on in sports, but here we go.....

Jeter to the Hall of Fame- Derek Jeter fell one vote shy of being the second person in history to be unanimously voted into Cooperstown. That didn't seem to bother most people, but I'm sure if I was a Yankee fan it would have bothered me because I let stupid $h-t like that annoy me.

I can tell you that if I was a HOF voter, I would have absolutely put Jeter on my ballot. He is one of the main reasons my Mets didn't win the 2000 World Series. I can still remember standing in the Beach Club on 116th Street in Rockaway that October night in 2001 when he made that play against the A's in the playoffs. (You KNOW the play I'm talking about)  When you needed a big hit, he got it. Maybe more than any player I've ever seen. He was in a word, clutch.

But where would you rank him in terms of all time shortstops? My father in law used to always say, Mariano was the best ever at his position. Think about it, as great as Willie Mays was, you could argue that he wasn't even the best center fielder in New York, with Mickey Mantle across the Harlem River. Was Derek Jeter the best SS of all time? The best of his era? You can make a case for best of his era, but it's not a slam dunk.

Again, he belongs in Cooperstown, only an idiot would say otherwise. But I wouldn't get myself worked up because he didn't get in unanimously. (well I might because that's what I do-I mean normal people).

Speaking of the Hall of Fame...


Eli Retires- It sucks that in his last season in the NFL, that Eli Manning was a backup. The good news was he got to play one final game-a win over the Dolphins, in front of an adoring crowd at met Life Stadium.

I believe Eli picked the perfect time to hang them up. Maybe he could have helped another team get to the playoffs, but now he goes out a forever Giant, and an icon here in New York. The only QB we've had to start and win 2 Super Bowls, both against the hated Patriots, including one year where the Pats went into the Super Bowl undefeated.

He'll be elected to the Hall of Fame. But can it be argued he doesn't really deserve it?

Take the two Super Bowl runs away after all, and his career was merely very good. His record as Giants starter was 111-103. especially after Super Bowl 46, there were a bunch of losing seasons in there.

But there's a QB in Canton who had a much worse W-L record than Eli, who threw many more interceptions than touchdowns, and who only won a single Super Bowl.

But that one Super Bowl that Joe Namath won only changed the NFL forever.

And those two Super Bowl's Eli won were two of the most unforgettable upsets in football history, especially the first one.

As much as I believe the Hall of Fame should be reserved only for the greats, I also believe in something Mark Kreigel once said, ironically speaking of Namath.. "It's called the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Stats."

I always felt Roger Maris should have been in there. He was baseball's all time single season HR leader for 37 years, and still quite possibly the last one to hit 61 HR's without using PED's. When Maris had the record, it was considered the greatest record in sports. That has to count for something.

I also believe that Paul Henderson should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was a very good, not great player. But he scored what many Canadians believe to be the greatest goal in their country's history.. the series winning goal in the 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series. Statistically, he's nowhere near Grtezky, Lemieux, Howe etc. But he's just about as famous as they are.



Eli's going to Canton. And he deserves it.



Impeachment Hearings- Luckily for me, the trial started at 1 PM EST, coinciding with my lunch hour.  So I got to see some of the shenanigans.

Ken Starr was one of President Trump's defense attorneys, and I actually heard him say that we have become an impeachment nation. yes, he was lamenting that we were having another impeachment, as if it was someone else's report that triggered the last impeachment trial we had here in Merica.

It reminded me of the Denis Leary skit in which he was astounded by the fact that Keith Richards was doing anti-drug commercials. (You did all the drugs Keith-we have to wait till you die and smoke your ashes) Ken Starr thinks we shouldn't have any more impeachment trials. Go Figure

Then there was Alan Dershowitz, who claimed that even if Captain Orange was bribing the Ukraine with taxpayer money to get dirt on the Biden's, it wasn't wrong because Trump figured he was doing us all a favor by getting himself a second term.

"Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest and, mostly, you're right — your election is in the public interest," Dershowitz said. "If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment."

Trump must have done the Ickey Shuffle when he heard that one!    Ickey Shuffle


The question and answer part of the trial was a joke. As CNN described it, it was the equivalent of putting a ball on the tee. I'm sure there were some good questions in there, but the ones I heard produced scripted predictable answers.

I watched as much of the trial as I could on my lunch hour, listened to some of it on my way home from work and watched some of it when I got home. Look, I am by no means defending the Republicans here, but I do understand the argument that we can't make impeachments standard operating procedure.  They need to be held in cases of gross misconduct, criminal or otherwise. I hope upon hope that I don't see another one of these for a long time.

Having said that, bribing another country with aid money that was congressional approved in order to get dirt on a political opponent in my mind is definitely an impeachable offense. And as much as I don't want impeachment trials every four years, I sure as hell don't want politicians using foreign governments as campaign operatives.

Mitt Romney and Susan Collins were the only two Republicans who voted in favor of witnesses. Gotta say something about Mitt: When he ran against Obama, I thought he was a bit out of touch and really only cared about people as wealthy as he. And that still may be the case, but he also said some things during that campaign that made a lot of sense, like for example that Russia was our number one geopolitical enemy. As governor of Massachusetts he had a health care system that was similar to Obamacare. (Even as he ran as an opponent of Obamacare) I'm not saying he should have replaced a 2nd Obama term, but I don't think he would have been a bad President. He sure as shit would have been better than who we have now.

So now it looks like this all wraps up Wednesday afternoon at 4 PM, with a final Senate vote. I'm just glad it will be after the State of the Union address. We don't need to hear Trump use the night he updates the nation on where we stand to crow about how he got over on everybody.



Here are the links to my breakdown of the Democratic race for President and the Primary/Caucus Calendar, which I will update as necessary.

pointers-and-predictions-2020



2020 Schedule and Results


Tomorrow night, we'll have our Super Bowl Halftime Edition.


Have a Good Night.