Weekly Mail Year in Review Part One

 DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020

December 31 2019

St. John’s just choked. Rangers are getting blown out. Happy New Year New York

I start off this 2020 year in review with a post from New Year's Eve 2019.  As pissed as I was when both the Red Storm and Rangers lost (Rangers were down 6-0 and cut it to 6-5 before losing) at least on December 31, 2019, I HAD games to watch. For a good part of 2020, none of us did. 

January 4, 2020

OMG am I going to be able to actually enjoy the Super Bowl this year?

The Patriots dynasty comes to an end. On a Tom Brady interception nonetheless. 

January 12, 2020

Took the kid to the 112 for old times sake

An unusually balmy Sunday afternoon, Tim and I headed to Rockaway to see OLPH's Niamh McGarvey take on Kate Tubridy of St. Frances De Sales. Then went to visit Mom, Dad and Kate at the apartment.  I also showed Timmy the old block.   So many awesome memories there. Lifetime friends. 

January 22, 2020

In the mascot's defense, I don't think this is against the law in Philadelphia

Philadelphia cops were investigating a complaint that Gritty, the Flyers mascot, punched a 13 year old boy named Brandon Greenwell at a season-ticket holder's meet and greet. Sure enough, on February 2, the cops cleared Gritty of all charges. In this Philadelphia Inquirer article, some Phildelphians agree with my above take. 

https://www.inquirer.com/business/gritty-flyers-assault-philadelphia-13-boy-no-charge-20200203.html

January 26, 2020

Horrible News. RIP Kobe

I hoped this was the worst news we were going to get in 2020. As bad as this was, how wrong was I? And again, I wasn't a Kobe fan, but when I saw this that Sunday afternoon, it shook me to my core. 

FEBRUARY 

February 2, 2020

Wow, that halftime show was a
big a$$ production!

Confession, I stole this line from former Post sports editor Hondo, who wrote in his football column that the reason J-Lo and Ben Affleck called off their nuptials was because the latter decided he didn't want a big ass wedding. HA! In other news that night, the Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV 

February 12, 2020

Whoever invented the Girl Scout's s'mores cookie should be thrown in the jail cell next to El Chapo!

I bought a couple boxes of these from my co-worker Katie Miller. Neither box made it out of my office alive. 

February 23, 2020

So I saw the first two words in the headline and thought, "Well that was fun while it lasted." 

The headline was Cespedes Breaks Silence.. In my typical Met fan the sky is falling attitude, I saw Cespedes Breaks..... and automatically assumed the next word would be arm, leg, neck etc. And while I don't wish injuries on anybody, he probably would have been better off exercising his right to remain silent.  

February 25, 2020

. 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. -Mike Lupica

I rarely agree with the little guy, but he nailed it there, and this $h-tshow in Charleston is a prime example

Took this from Daily News blowhard Mike Lupica, whose Sunday column I must confess I still read religiously. That he was 100% in this assessment doesn't change the fact that he's a dweeb. 

MARCH- And here is really when 2020 started...

March 3, 2020

Goodbye Super Tuesday

I played the Rolling Stones Ruby Tuesday to mark the end of Super Tuesday, usually the day we start to get an idea of who is going to be each party's Presidential nominee. That night, there were 15 contests. Joe Biden won 10 of them, Bernie Sanders won 4 of them, and Mike Bloomberg, bless his heart, won American Samoa. If only that was the biggest thing to happen in March...

Hello The Coronavirus

On February 23, they announced that the James Bond film No Time to Die, which had been scheduled to open in April, was being pushed back to November. Right then and there, I should have known the shit was about to hit the fan. 

On March 11, Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for the Coronavirus, and the NBA Suspended their season. The next afternoon, I was leaving the ophthalmologist's office when I heard that the NHL was doing the same, and that the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament was canceled. Now I knew we were screwed. 

My wife and I still had to go into our places of work...

 

which we tried to deal with as humorously as we could. But there was little to make light of. 

We will write more about COVID-19 later, for now, let's go on to April. 

APRIL 

April 2, 2020-

I was really worried he wasn't going to find a place down there....

With the world going to hell in a handbasket, ESPN reported that the Tampa Bay Bucs new QB, one Tom Brady, was going to lease Derek Jeter's Tampa mansion. I wouldn't give a $hit where Tom Brady was going to live in Tampa if there wasn't a global pandemic going on. 

April 5, 2020

Is anyone else watching Wrestlemania? I can't believe I just asked that question.

Timmy is a wrestling fanatic. The next day was supposed to be his 6th grade overnight trip to Frost Valley, but that along with the rest of his last year of grammar school was now over. So I bought him Wrestlemania on PPV.

It sounds dumb, but this was the first well, entertainment event, usually performed in front of many thousands of people, that I saw in front of absolutely nobody. If you are old enough to remember Hulk Hogan-Andre the Giant at the Pontiac Silverdome, to see these guys wrestle in a ring with nobody there to watch was jarring. They didn't even have the sense to pump in fake crowd noise. It was weird, and the weirdest was yet to come. 

April 24, 2020

I’m sitting here waiting for the Jets to draft, and they go and trade the damn pick? Screw this, time to watch MacGyver.

The Jets never disappoint do they? And in fact that wasn't even their first round pick, I was watching the 2nd round of the NFL Draft, and that should tell you right there about the dearth of programming during these times.

MAY

May 6, 2020 

Our Rebecca's story has been featured in the first ever American Heart Association Community Teams Newsletter.

Missing you always, Becks! Please continue to watch over all of us!

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10100503393272912&set=pcb.10100503393362732

May 15, 2020

Dad and Katie are in a NY Mets ad! With

Bill Gallagher

and

Katie Gal

21Steve El, Ray McGarvey and 19 others

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I was just browsing through FB one day when I saw the above ad. At first I thought it was just something my sister posted, till I saw it was posted by the Mets themselves. Good for them, they are as loyal a fan as any team should have. 

May 20, 2020

I’m gonna watch Game 3 of the 1986 World Series now, since I had to miss the beginning of it when it actually happened.

Hard to imagine anything good coming out of not having live sports to watch, but this was close. Game 3 of the 1986 World Series took place on October 21, 1986, the night I made my Confirmation. I had never seen the first inning of that game. For almost 34 years. SNY replayed all the Mets postseason games. (Yankee fans, save your comments.) 

May 27, 2020

There is an actual professional frisbee league? I’m watching an old playoff game on FS2 right now. This is insane!

As I said, not a lot to watch during this pandemic...

JUNE 

June 10

Our buddy is done with grammar school and is on his way to middle school. Congratulations Timmy, we’re proud of you and we love you.

I've said it before, my heart breaks first for the families that lost someone, second for the front line workers. Then for the kids who are losing out on the things we took for granted. Graduations, proms class trips etc. Tim's school did the best they could, but the graduation celebration was subdued. Still, onward and upward for our man!. And for everyone who graduated during these strange times. 

June 13

Well this sux....

Director Peter Jackson is taking never before seen footage from the Beatles Let It Be film sessions and making a brand new movie, called The Beatles Get Back. It was supposed to open September 4, 2020, but will now open August 2021, another pandemic setback. Hopefully, this and James Bond will be able to open. 

June 19

And we're off!

3.5 miles in the books! We love you Becks!

Running for Rebecca, usually takes place downtown. Instead Team Rebecca walked or ran wherever they might have been. Timmy and I went to Oceanside School 6 and did our 14 laps around the track for a total of 3.5 miles. We did it in an hour and twenty minutes or so. 

June 20

A guy I worked with at OTB used to say of the guys yelling at the TV’s “They think the f-cking horses can hear them”

Today, they probably could.

I was told in no uncertain terms that what went on behind the counter at OTB stayed there. I've worked for lawyers (attorney-client privilege) and doctors (HIPPA)  so I know the importance of confidentiality. I also had a front row seat for a couple of things at the Post I've never told anybody. One day when I'm old and I'm sure the principals are no longer with us, I may write about some OTB Stuff. The guy who said the above was one of the funniest people I ever met. 

I wrote this watching the Belmont Stakes, on a day where the place that usually holds over 100,000 was empty, save for horses, jockeys and trainers. 

NEXT WEEK: JULY-DECEMBER