Weekly Mail September 27, 2020

 Hey Everyone: 

I spent a good chunk of the pandemic complaining about there not being sports on TV. And now that sports is back, I'm going to spend a good chunk of time complaining about the sports that are now ON TV. 

BASEBALL: 

The Mets not making the playoffs bothers me enough, especially in a year where half the league qualifies. What bothers me more is that the Miami Marlins made it. A team that is in perpetual rebuilding mode. A team that (pre pandemic) couldn't draw fans to a state of the art tax payer funded stadium.  A team that had more than half their players test positive for COVID-19. They lost 105 games last year and now they are in the playoffs.

And the thing is? They have made the playoffs twice in their 27 year history. They won the World Series both times. That would almost be poetic justice wouldn't it? That would prove just how convoluted this whole setup was.

As for the Mets, I cut them some slack because they were shorthanded in the pitching dept. They had two reliable starters, one of whom was a rookie. Seth Lugo was a somewhat reliable starter, but started the year as the closer.  Rick Porcello, Michael Waca, were disappointments and Steven Matz is washed up. Losing Noah Syndegaard to Tommy John surgery and Marcus Stroman who opted out was a big blow. 

But an unreliable bullpen (something new and different) and most of all, too many guys left on base were the biggest culprits this year.  

There's a few things to look forward to. The biggest is that we will hopefully have a new owner by Thanksgiving. Steve Cohen is now just awaiting to be approved by the other owners. That vote will probably happen sometime after the World Series concludes. I don't know if he is going to be the savior he being made out to be, but just getting the Wilpons out of town is addition by subtraction. 

Another positive was that Edwin Diaz started to show flashes of his 2018 self with Seattle as opposed to his 2019 disaster here. Don't get me wrong, he had his Edwin Diaz moments, and the jury is still out, but he also had moments of incredible dominance.  Hopefully in these 60 games, he's been able to make the adjustment to NY, and will continue to get better. 

Also Andres Jimenez had emerged as the SS of the future. I still think Ahmed Rosario could be a solid player, but Jimenez is a better fielder and he hits enough to justify his playing time. 

The Mets never should have allowed Yoeins Cespedes to make the team. His opting out was a blessing. It gave Dom Smith a chance to shine, and he did.

Pete Alonso was a disappointment, but hopefully a full spring training next year will help him. Also should maybe consider not trying to hit a grand slam when nobody is on base. 

Overall, they finished under .500 and that's just unacceptable. And in a year where you didn't even have to finish above .500 to make the playoffs, that's a disgrace.  

FOOTBALL: 

The Jets were blown out by the Colts on Sunday. They are unquestionably the worst team in the NFL this year so far. That’s 3 blowouts in 3 games. They were previously  blown out by the Bills and a depleted 49'ers team. 

Only the most optimistic Jet fan would have thought that the Jets would have a good season. They traded their best player for draft picks, and they didn't sign any significant free agents at skill positions. They have a young QB they are hoping to develop into a champion, but they gave him nobody to throw the ball to. 

Many people are blaming the coach, and while I have said often that he is clearly not the answer, I'm also not 100% sure he's the issue either. They don't have any talent. They traded away Leonard Williams and Jamal Adams, two top 10 draft picks they had the last few years. Two other top 10 picks, Quinen Williams and the aforementioned Sam Darnold haven't done nearly enough, and now there is even rumblings that the Jets might be so bad, that they'll end up with the number one pick and draft (hold on to your hats) another QB!

It never bleeping ends.

HOCKEY:

The Tampa Bay Lightning were on OT goal away from winning the Stanley Cup on Saturday night, but the Dallas Stars won in double OT, to force a Game 6. Tampa is clearly the better team, but I'm hoping Dallas can force a Game 7, for entertainment's sake. More likely, the Bolts will close out a very successful NHL restart on Monday night. Tampa has a bunch of ex-Rangers on their roster, so seeing the likes of Kevin Shattenkirk and Ryan McDonough skating around Edmonton with the Cup hoisted is just going to give me agita, but in the grand scheme of things, I guess it's not that bad.

BASKETBALL:

I have vowed to watch the NBA Finals, but I honestly don't know why I would, I can't stand either team. 

For old times sake, I was really hoping to see the Celtics and the Lakers play each other, for no other reasons as to relive my golden days of yesteryear. In 8th grade, a few days before we graduated, we took a class trip to a dude ranch in Fallsburg, NY. It was the day after Magic Johnson's last second hook shot to win Game 4 of the 1987 NBA Finals at the Boston Garden. It was a two hour bus trip and we spent a good 45 minutes talking about that shot. 

I rooted for the Lakers that time. If Boston would have made it this time, I'd root for them because I think the Lakers are just a bunch of mercenaries. I like LeBron James more than I liked Michael Jordan, but I respect Jordan more. Jordan didn't have to leave the Bulls to "learn how to win" and he didn't have to join the Lakers to try to win "one for the road." 

Problem is the team coming out of the East are the Miami Heat, and I have no use for them whatsoever. The Heat was the team LeBron had to join (along with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh) to get his first two rings. I never rooted for them for the same reason I'm not rooting for the Lakers now. 

I'm not going to rehash why I can't stand Miami as a sports city to begin with, but I'll really never root for the Heat as long as Pat Riley is involved with them. So it's really a catch-22. 

Wow, am I glad sports is back LOL

POLITICS: The Supreme Court.

On Saturday afternoon, President Trump held a Rose Garden Press Conference to introduce his nominee to the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett. 

So let me get this out of the way first.. Judge Coney Barrett is extremely qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice. She graduated first in her class at Notre Dame Law school, and clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia. Nobody can deny her qualifications nor question her intelligence. And from where I'm sitting, nobody has. 

The fear of course is that she will help to overturn Roe v Wade and strike down the individual mandate on Obamacare. Those concerns are legitimate and I'm not going to get into whether or not they should or shouldn't be overturned. 

No, my main issue is the Republicans pressing to get Coney Barrett confirmed after what they did in 2016 to Merrick Garland. 

Justice Scalia died on February 13, 2016, a little less than 9 months before that year's Presidential election. President Obama nominated Merrick Garland a little over a month later on March 16. The Republicans refused to give Garland a hearing, saying that it shouldn't be done in a Presidential Election year. 

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away last Friday night, September 18. And now the same folks who said that March 16 was too close to election day, think that September 26 is plenty of time to get a new justice confirmed. 

The hypocrisy is unreal.

If they had given Garland a fair shot, I could live with what they are pulling now. They didn't. This whole thing is horse$h-t. Pure and simple.  

BOOK REVIEW: 

Rage: By Bob Woodward

The last book the legendary Washington Post reporter wrote about President Trump was Fear. Trump didn't speak to Woodward in that book and felt like he had been railroaded. 

So he agreed to be interviewed for this book. Actually there were three main people Woodward interviewed. Besides Trump, he also spoke to former Defense Secretary James Mattis and former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. 

Mattis and Coats provide some solid insight to what went down with North Korea in the first two years of Trump's presidency. Mattis was so concerned that Trump and his big mouth was going to get us into a war with North Korea, that he literally went to church every morning before work to pray for a solution. 

But to me the most fascinating parts of the book were the conversations between the author and the President. You hear Trump talk all the time, and you read his tweets and as much as you think he sounds ridiculous, it's on a whole other level when you actually read on paper the way he talks. 

I mentioned Chapter 26 last week. Here is the leader of the free world, talking about meeting one of the world's most brutal dictators at the DMZ:

"This is me and him Trump said (showing Woodward a picture of him and Kim Jong Un) That's the line right? Then I walked over the line. Pretty cool. You know? Pretty cool. Right? That's the line between North and South Korea. That's the line. That's North and South Korea. That's the line. That line is big deal. Nobody has stepped across that line. Ever." (Woodward points out that Trump was not the first person to do so, but the first sitting President to do so). 

There a whole bunch of these barely coherent quotes. And then he has the audacity to say this.

"I don't know. I don't think Obama's smart. See? I think he's highly overrated. And I don't think he's a great speaker." 

OK, Obama, not a great speaker. Got it. I guess this is what constitutes a great speaker in Trump's mind..... 

"Hey look. I went to the best schools. I did great. I had an uncle who was a professor at MIT for 40 years, one of the most respected in the history of the school. For 40 years. My father's brother. And my father was smarter than he was. It's good stock. You know they talk about the elite. Really the elite. Ah they have nice houses. No. I have much better than them. I have better everything than them, including education."

OK I’m convinced. How about you?

Another interesting point in the book dealt with Lindsay Graham. Graham has been taken over the coals for his marching in lockstep with Trump, (as opposed to his friend the late John McCain who had no trouble telling Trump where to go and how to get there) My gut has told me then if/when Trump leaves office, Graham will explain himself by saying that he did all this to stay on Trump's good side so that he wouldn't do anything really stupid (like for example, start a nuclear war with North Korea) 

There may be some truth to that. Woodward points out a couple of times where Graham was able to convince Trump not to do or say something that would have been damaging. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not.

Can't say there are a ton of surprises here. Still fascinating 

4 Auggies.

Gayle Sayers, the Hall of Fame running back for the Bears died this week at age 77. He died just a little over 50 years after his friend Brian Piccolo died of cancer. 

Channel 13 played Brian’s Song with Billy Dee Williams as Sayers and James Caan as Piccolo on Saturday night. Almost forgot how great that movie was.

MAN CAVES

A hat tip to Ed Robinson for this: Three MTA employees converted an unused locksmith shop underneath Track 114 in Grand Central Terminal into a man cave, complete with a flat screen TV, fridge, microwave, futon and cot. 

I’m of two minds about this. I think they are brilliant for creating the space, but dopey for not covering their tracks (har har) as the WiFi powering the TV was in one of their names. I commend them for converting an unused space into something useful, but condemn them if they used MTA money instead of their own to build it. It’s not a bad thing if it’s used after work hours, it’s an issue if they use it and claim OT. 

Nobody appreciates a good hangout as much as I do, but I’m guessing these guys spent time they should have been working down their tying one on. With the fares constantly going up while service coming down, that’s a no-no. 

Me? I’d just be afraid of rats and mice coming in. I don’t think I’d use the microwave that’s for sure. 

Ok that’s all we gots. Captain Orange and Uncle Joe debate on Tuesday, I may live tweet. My Twitter handle is @W. Bill Gallagher 1. 

Stay safe

and Have a Great Week 

Weekly Mail September 20, 2020 (Season Premiere)

 

Hello Everyone:

Good to be back. I hope everyone enjoyed what they could of the summer in this unbelievable year we are in. 

We rebooted Weekly Mail 5 years ago, September 12, 2015. The first paragraph of the first blog post said this...

So look, no promises, but I'm going to make an attempt to write again.

I'm not patting myself on the back or anything, but I have to admit, I'm pretty impressed I've been able to keep this going for 5 years now. What helps is when people tell me that they are reading it, whether they agree with me or not. So, we'll keep going till it's not enjoyable anymore. For now it's still a kick.

Thank you for all your support and feedback. 

In the four weeks we were away, a lot of things happened. We had the virtual Democratic and Republican Conventions. We had all four major sports going on at once, and we had some notable people pass away. 

Let's work our way backwards with the obits.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg-1933-2020

The death of Justice Ginsburg has cast a pall over the nation. When President Trump was told of her death he called her "a great woman, whether or not you agreed with her". Some people gave him a hard time about the second part of his statement, but I give him a pass here, especially if he was being honest that it was the first he was hearing of her death. (and I have plenty to say about Cpt Orange and his big mouth coming up later in this broadcast)

Really though, as much as she was a liberal stalwart, it seems that nobody had a bad thing to say about her. Indeed it's been noted in many places that her closest friend on the court was the late Atonin Scalia who was as conservative as she was liberal. 

She ruled on many landmark cases, including writing the majority decision in 1996 in a case that overturned Virginia Military Institute's males only policy. 

While I'll give Trump props for his reaction to Justice Ginsburg's passing, the award for classlessness goes to Mitch McConnell, who didn't even allow the night of her death to pass before declaring that they would seek her replacement. 

How anyone can support this graceless prick is beyond me. I'm not even going to get into the hypocrisy of trying to push a new justice appointment in 6 weeks when he stalled a vote on Merrick Garland back in 2016.  That I'll probably do next week.

I just think telling the world you are going head first into replacing her on the court instead of allowing at least the weekend to honor her memory is a low blow. Some of my friends are considering donating to Amy McGrath's campaign in Kentucky in her race against that multi-chinned goober. I have never donated a penny to a politician in my life, but if you are someone who has in the past, this might be a good time to do so again. 

Kevin Dobson- 1943-2020

It may seem a bit werid, sandwiching an actor between a Supreme Court Justice and the person who I will write about next, but Kevin Dobson was a favorite actor of mine, seemed like a really good guy, and also I have some common ground with him.

Back in the early 1990's Channel 5 would air Kojak reruns at midnight, and during the summer my parents and I would stay up and watch them after Johnny Carson's monologue. Though most of it was filmed in Hollywood, some of it was shot in Manhattan, so I always got a kick out of seeing what the city looked like in the mid 70's. That's where I first got to see Dobson in action as Det. Bobby Crocker. 

I have to confess, prime time soaps weren't my thing, so I'd be lying if I told you that I watched him on Knotts Landing, but he was in a few good TV movies, including Money, Power, Murder, which was based on Mike Lupica's book Dead Air. 

But mostly, what I admired about Dobson was that he was a Queens kid like myself. He grew up in Jackson Heights, not far from my hometown of Woodside (three stops on the 7 train). He went to my high school for one year before transferring to Newton HS, where he played baseball. After graduating he was a conductor on the LIRR. I heard him once on Regis and Kathie Lee run through all the stops on the Babylon line. He was a consummate New Yorker. And that's why I felt bad when I heard he died September 6. 

Tom Seaver-1944-2020

One of the real bummers of watching the Mets celebrate the 50th anniversary of their 1969 World Championship, was that Tom Seaver wasn't there to partake in the celebrations. 

Early last year, Seaver's family announced that he would be retiring from public life. He had been diagnosed with dementia. The coverage that the announcement received almost felt like he had passed right then and there. In a way he had.

Because there is no 1969 Miracle with out him. Without him, the Mets would have remained a losing team. There was a reason they called him The Franchise. That's how much he meant to them.

I read a book a few years ago that made the argument that as great as Seaver was, and for all the accalades he received, he was still underrated. I don't know that I agreed with that assessment, but the evidence was compelling. 

Seaver's best season was in 1971. He was 20-10, pitched to a 1.76 ERA, and struck out 289 batters, the latter two stats led the National League. The Cy Young Award that year went to Ferguson Jenkins, who while winning 24 games to Seaver's 20, also lost 13, had almost a run higher ERA and 25 fewer strikeouts. 

Also Seaver pitched for a notoriously poor offensive team. Even the 69 Mets weren't going to be confused with Murderer's Row. Put Seaver on the 1970 Orioles or 1970 Reds, he may have won 30 games.  (Sounds an awful lot like a current Met pitcher we all know and love).

I spent most of the evening they announced that Seaver had died watching SNY, and the tributes that poured in that night reminded me of when Mickey Mantle died in 1995. So many grown men, guys in their 40's and 50's who had grown up watching the Mick, were just heartbroken. 

But that's the effect he had. As Howie Rose said (and he would know more than anybody) Tom Seaver made it clear that the lovable loser days for the Mets weren't going to happen on his watch. He made it so that Met fans could have a team to be proud of. 

I wasn't around for 1969, and I was a baby in 1973. I don't even really remember his getting traded in 1977 to be honest, but my father made sure we were at Shea that afternoon in 1983 when Seaver came back to the Mets. He was 38 at the time and the first thing he did was strike out 42 year old Pete Rose. I remember how loud it was was that happened. 

I was as pissed as anyone when they lost Seaver to that free agent draft pool in the winter of 1984, but I'm grateful that I got to see him pitch in a Mets uniform. 

I realize the Yankees have had so many superstars over the years. Dimaggio, Mantle, Yogi etc. But most of the Yankee fans I know were born after Babe Ruth died in 1948. I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say the Babe was the greatest player in Yankee history. 

Tom Seaver was the greatest player in Mets history, and many of us got to see him. It was a sad day when he died. A sad day for baseball. 

POLITICS: Did He Really Say That? 

An article in The Atlantic dated September 3, alleges that President Trump referred to fallen American soldiers as "losers" and "suckers". The article says that Trump canceled a visit to Aisne-Marne Cemetery outside of Paris because he didn't want to muss up his hair in the rain. The official reason was that there would be issues flying the helicopter in the rain. 

But the article says that 4 people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion Trump had with his senior officials that day claim that he said "Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers." On the same trip, the article alleges that Trump called the 1800 marines who died in the battle of Bellau Wood, a key victory for the Allies in WWI, suckers for getting killed. 

Trump, for his part, vehemently denied saying any of it. 

Part of the article's author, Jeffery Goldberg's defense in standing by his story is pointing out how Trump mocked Senator John McCain being captured by the North Vietnamese, and got into a spat with Khizr Khan, whose son Capt. Humayun Khan was killed in Iraq in 2004. 

But in those cases, Trump was going after people who he felt were attacking him. I'm not sayng he was right to do it, far from it. I'm just saying it's different then him mocking people who died years before he was born.

Does it sound like I'm defending him? I'm not. What I'm saying is I need more proof on this. 

Why?

It's not because it's going to change how I vote in November. Whether he said these awful things or not, I'm still voting for Joe Biden on November 3, of that you can be sure.

No this runs deeper with me than a mere vote. 

Because if he did say this stuff, if this is how he really feels, if he can't grasp why anyone would be willing to sacrifice their lives for their country, if he really feels that our men and women that go off to war are losers and suckers, well it's not him I have the issue with.

No, then the issue I have is with the people who will vote for this mutt on November 3. 

All along, I have said that while I can't stand him, I have not held it against his supporters. I have friends, family, coworkers who support him. Not that many, but enough. I know people that voted for him because, well, what was always the 2nd thing he said he'd do after getting Mexico to pay for the wall? Go back to his 2016 stump speeches......

We're going to build a beautiful wall. Mexico's going to pay for it. We're going to take care of our vets...

He said it every freakin speech. 

I've watched as my friend James Tubridy has started discussions on his FB with any of a number of Trump misdeeds, and watched as the Trumpsters have come out to defend their man. I've read so many of the responses and tried to at least understand where their defenses lie. Some of them have benefited financially.  Many are just misinformed. Either way, I try to understand where they are coming from. 

But how would they defend this? 

You know what? There is no defense. To me for the first time, it's personal. To me , if you are going to defend this? I want nothing to do with you. 

You're going to rip on athletes who kneel for the National Anthem, but you'll vote for a guy who calls dead soldiers losers? Who calls injured vets suckers? Really? 

You better hope to God Trump didn't say those things, because if it turns out he did and you are defending him, then screw you. I don't want to know you, I don't even want to look at you. 

And that's why I need more proof. I am always preaching unity and understanding on this blog. I don't want to lose any friends over politics, I've said that a million times here and I mean it.

But I also won't let Trump take shots at people like my dad, injured in Vietnam, or my grandfather, injured in WWII, or my father in law, a Bronze Medal winner. They are not losers. They are not suckers.

The losers and the suckers are the ones who will rationalize this and give this turd another 4 years. 

BTW: If he said those things or he didn't, do yourself a favor and read Bob Woodward's book Rage (review next week) If you are not inclined to read the whole book, at least read Chapter 26. If you can read that chapter, see how Trump speaks, and still think he's capable of running a lemonade stand, much less our country, then I really don't know what to tell ya. 

Before we went on hiatus, I said I was going to read Pete Hamill's A Drinking Life...

BOOK REVIEW: A Drinking Life 

By Pete Hamill

Some of the best books I've ever read are ones that make you feel like you are right there in them. 

When I read Joel Selvin's book about the Altamont Concert disaster, he described the scene so clearly, I felt like I was right in front of the stage where all hell was breaking loose. In Jonathan Mahler's book Ladies and Gentlemen The Bronx is Burning, I felt like I was transported back to 1977.  

And this is how I felt reading A Drinking Life, I felt I was transported back to Prospect Park in the 1940's and early 50's. That I could see the bars along the avenue from an apartment high above. 

You felt the excitement Hamill felt when he would go buy a comic book, or the pain he was feeling when his apartment had no heat.

It's not for the faint of heart that's for sure. This book was written in 1994, years before #metoo. Some of the language is harsh. It adds to the reality. 

The week I was off from work, I vowed to read 30 pages a night. There were nights I couldn't wait to get into it. I hadn't had a book like that in a while.

4.5 Auggies. 

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

It wasn't all piss and vinegar these past 4 weeks. We celebrated Tim's 12th birthday and he started middle school. And he's getting taller and taller. He's caught up to Tara, and he has me in his sights next. 

Last weekend, the three of us got together with my Mom and Dad, Katie, Krissy, Steve and Rachel and took family pictures at Juniper Park. I hadn't been to Juniper since I played CYO baseball there 30 some-odd years ago. Had an awesome time. 

And last but not least I became an uncle again. Tara's sister and her husband had a beautiful baby boy, and everybody is doing well. 

I hope all of you are well too. It's good to be back

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week 

Weekly Mail September 11 Special 2020

September 11, 2020

19 years on, here's what comes to mind as we look back on that horrible day....


Last month, I got a Facebook invite to join a group called Bring Back the Light Tribute.

On August 13, the National September 11th Memorial and Museum announced that they would not shine the two beams of light into the New York City sky because of concerns over COVID-19. According to the committee, it takes a crew of about 40 workers to install and operate the lights.
When the lights first appeared in March, 2002, 6 months after the attacks, I remember Mayor Bloomberg saying at the time that the city couldn't afford to have the lights come on every night. I remember there was an outcry over that as well. But that was nothing compared to what came from this decision.

Within hours of the announcement, that FB page was created, within days, it had close to 10,000 members. I was scrolling through my News Feed, and every post was someone putting in their $0.02 about this decision, and none of them were in favor of it. It got to be where the only posts I was seeing was about these lights. There were GoFundMe pages and Change.org petitions started.

By Saturday the 15th, the decision had been reversed.

Governor Cuomo announced that the state would provide the resources needed to ensure the health of the workers. Also, Bloomberg offered to pick up some of the costs.
I have two thoughts on this. First it's another example of how the worst of times can bring out the best of people. There was an issue, and instead of politicians making it worse, a couple of them figured out a way to fix the issue. I realize Bloomy writing a check is being done as a private citizen, but I also believe his having been mayor for 8 (um I mean 12) years gave him an understanding of why this was so important.

Which leads me to my second point.

If anything was going to push what happened 19 years ago today to the back burner, it would have been this pandemic. COVID-19 has killed over 180,000 people over the past 6 months. It had shut down businesses, schools, sports, movies etc. We are still nowhere near the end of it, and in many states, the numbers are going back up.

But we haven't forgotten, have we? Not even close.

The hurt of 9/11 is still as strong as it was 19 years ago. It's still stirs all the same feelings: anger, fright, patriotism. And sadness.

Always the sadness. It never goes away.

When I last looked, there were almost 200,000 members in that group. All these people, knowing that as bad as this pademic has been, we can never forget what happened that day. All these people who still feel that sadness to one degree or another.

And maybe I'm wasting my time here, but I feel it's worth mentioning again that if/when we ever get past this pandemic, that we can take lessons from how we acted after 9/11. The makeshiift staging area at Shea Stadium that helped get supplies down to Ground Zero, the blood banks that had to turn away donors because they were full, the general sense of togetherness that came about in those first few days after the attacks. I'm sure there are folks who will tell you that was just a figment of our imaginations.

It wasn't. It happened. We all saw it.

And when those lights go on tonight, that's what I'll be thinking about.

That's what I'll be praying for.

Shine on


God Bless all who we lost that day, and those who were left behind.
God Bless all who we lost this year due to COVID and all those who were left behind
God Bless the first responders and front line workers who were there for both
and God Bless America

Weekly Mail Returns next Sunday