Hi Folks:
OK, so it's looking more and more like I'm gonna have to change the name of this to bi-Weekly Mail, the truth is I have been working on our corona-virus special that I really didn't want to write, but have felt compelled to. I'm just about done with it, so sometime in the next few days we'll publish and post, and you can all have at it.
For now, lets see what's going on.
Well for starters, I did something this week I vowed I wouldn't do, and I honestly tried to avoid for as long as I could....... I joined Twitter.
I spend waaaay too much time on social media, I know that. Most of it is spent on Facebook, where I post this blog. I have Instagram, which I have yet to post a single photo, but also is like getting the SI Swimsuit issue every day of the week (didisaythatoutloud?) All kidding aside, I spend maybe two or three minutes a day on the Gram. A quick scroll through some pics and that's about it.
Twitter's got the potential to be an issue. I mean the dude who supposed to be running the country spends most of his time on it. The hosts on WFAN are always referring to their Twitter accounts. I can easily see myself surfing Twitter for hours at a time. It's going to take a tremendous amount of self discipline to make sure that doesn't happen.
I joined up because with this being Timmy's last year in grammar school, his school put profiles of the 6th grade class on twitter. One of my old friends from high school whose son goes to school with Tim, put their son's profile on FB. I saw it was on Twitter, so I bit the bullet and signed up so I could see his profile and those of his classmates.
Here's Timmy's profile if you haven't seen it yet:
Nice right? They did a nice job under tough circumstances.
FYI: My twitter handle is @WBillGallagher1. Don't be offended if I don't follow you, I'm being a bit of a commitment-phobe on this.
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April 1986. 7th Grade.
I had decided not to play CYO baseball in 6th Grade. I had a hard time hitting in 5th grade, and my best friend at the time wasn't going to be on my team anymore. So I didn't join.
But in 7th grade the coach was Ivan Cohill and he talked me into playing and promised me he get me hitting. Our team was awful. In 6th grade I'm not sure how many games they won, but it couldn't have been more than 1 or 2. This team of misfits I was on would lose all but one of our games. The biggest problem we had was that our best player that year was a ringer we only had for our first game.
Now, when most teams sneak a good player on the team, it's because they are older (Hey, check that kid's birth certificate!) But our ringer was two years younger than us. A 5th grader amongst us 7th graders, and wouldn't you know it, he got three hits that day. A few of us got one each. We got our doors blown off.
And Kevin (Buck) Ludwig went back to his 5th grade team. Leaving us to fend for ourselves.
Several years later, Kev's brother, my best bud and partner in crime Karl (the Ace) Ludwig, was coaching a team that Kevin was on. I was the assistant though that was more an honorary title than an official one. I watched Kev, who was catching that day, throw out every single runner who tried to steal. He practically threw from his knees. The man was a natural.
He could do it all.... He beat me in a foot race on the boardwalk in Rockaway (and never let me forget it) he could shoot like a two guard in basketball though he was built like a power forward. If Woodside had had a football team around, he could have been like Jerome Bettis, big, strong and fast.
But as I write about my friend tonight, as I mourn another friend lost to cancer way too young, it's the biting one liners and the funny stories that are coming to the fore.
Like the time Karl and I picked him up from work at Blockbuster and he kept saying "Lets go get some beers", but he was pronouncing it more like bearce. Every time he said it I cracked up, but Karl finally asked him "Why are you saying it like that?"
Kev shook his head, "You two idiots never saw Dumb and Dumber?"
Or the time we went to the basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA in 1992, and he bought a $0.10 key chain with a $50.00 bill. The look that the cashier shot him as she was handing him his $49.90 should have it’s own plaque up there between Russell and Chamberlain.
When you played him in basketball, he wouldn't tell you committed a traveling violation. He'd say "Hey, why don't you take the bus?" Every shot he took was “Money in the bank”
The night the Yankees lost to Seattle in the 1995 ALDS, I was on my way to Donovan's and I stopped into Blockbuster to see how he was doing. He must have thought I was in there to break his chops (I wasn't-I was rooting for them too) because he shot me daggers when I walked in. But I told him I'd buy him a consolation beer when his shift was over. A year later when they won it all, I went to see him a Shelley's. I reminded him of the year before and said "I wanted to be one of the first to congratulate you." He gave me a hug and as much as he could bust your chops, he said something that I'm sure he said to make me feel better.
"This is awesome. But 94 was better. "
That's right. The one team we had in common. The Rangers.
The last time I saw him was last year at Brendan DePuy's high school graduation party. I had just written my Father's Day special. "That was really awesome Wild Bill,: Buck Ludwig said that day, "You should keep practicing that writing. One of these days, you might be good at it."
I don't know about that. What I do know is that with this pandemic going on, there's never a good time to say goodbye. This just seems particularly cruel. Karl and Ray are my brothers. So Kevin Ludwig was more than a good friend. He's family.
RIP.
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On this Memorial Day: We remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Stay Safe.
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