Weekly Mail January 24, 2021

 Hey:

We’re just about done with January, so I hope everybody is doing well.

This was going to be an old fashioned version of Weekly Mail. What I mean is, when I first started doing these about 20-25 years ago, I would go down to my basement around 9 PM on a Sunday night and just bang out an e-Mail. The first part was usually a recap of Saturday night, and the rest was my views on sports, politics, etc. 

As I got more sophisticated, I would write some stuff and save it as a draft, that way I wasn’t scrambling on Sunday night. Now, I write most of this on Saturday night and do my editing on Sunday.

But I didn’t get to write on Saturday, so after the Rangers loss to the Penguins on Sunday, I started writing about 9:30 PM. But around 10:30 I ran out of gas, hence the delay. 

Getting old is such a drag (to paraphrase the Stones)

Anyway....

POLITICS: Our new President

I woke up Wednesday morning knowing that there was going to be a change of command in Washington D.C. I should have been excited, but instead I was apprehensive and angry. Apprehensive because there was such talk of trouble brewing, both in our nation’s capital and in all the state capitals. 

Angry because while we always talk about a bloodless transfer of power, we already knew that wasn’t happening. That hope had ended after the terrorist attack on the US Capitol Building on January 6. 

And it bothered me that after all the trouble he caused, that now former President Trump was not even going to stick around to welcome his successor. 

Turns out, Trump skipping town Wednesday morning was a blessing in disguise. With him not there to screw things up, President Biden’s Inauguration Day turned out to be a very good day. 

The Inauguration went off without a hitch. President Biden’s speech was solid, if not one for the history books. Amanda Gorman’s poem will be what everyone remembers from this day (and that’s a good thing).

I could have done without J-Lo’s version of This Land Is Your Land, the first version I ever heard with the lyric “Let’s get loud” in it. 

Back to the President’s speech for a minute: I know many of the Trumpsters heard Biden’s call for unity and laughed. “We’ll treat him the way Trump was treated” I heard many folks say or post on social media. 

I’ve said it before, I think every new President deserves a shot, and whether you believe me or not, I’ve given every one a fair shot since I started voting back in 1992. I’m not optimistic that Biden’s going to get a fair shot from the GOP.  I remember when Nancy Pelosi said that he goal was to make Donald Trump a one term President, so I’m sure that the goal for the other side as well.

I’m hoping that reasonable and patriotic Republicans can see to it to support the new administration even if they don’t agree with some of the decisions that are made. I hope Biden can use the connections he has made over the years to get things done that will benefit all of us. 

I just fear that it’s the people who either supported or made excuses for the attack on January 6 that are going to be the ones trying to control the message. And that can’t happen. America still has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists. 

And BTW- It was actually Mitch McConnell who said his job was to make Barack Obama a one term President, not Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump. 

BASEBALL: Bad Week for the Mets:

One of the other reasons I woke up Wednesday morning not as giddy as I might have been, was that I went to bed Monday night to the news that the Mets brand new GM had sexually harassed a female reporter back in 2016. He was fired the next morning.

Then I went to bed Tuesday night right after hearing that George Springer was signing with the Blue Jays instead of the Mets. And I couldn’t help but think that the two stories were related. They weren’t,  but lets take them one at a time. 

Mets owner Steve Cohen totally did the right thing getting rid of Jared Porter. He said there would be a zero tolerance policy regarding that type of behavior and there shouldn't be. 

And not to make light of this, but I just want to say that I have done some stupid things in the name of trying to find Mrs. Right. But the thought of stuffing a camera down my undershorts, taking some pictures and sending them out never even crossed my mind. (We didn’t have smartphones or even digital cameras back then, so it would have been one of those Kodak disposables)  I have also never met a woman who said “You know I was on the fence about this guy, till he sent me a picture of his unmentionables and that sealed it. Ten years, two kids, and still going strong!” 

Let this be a PSA from WM to all you guys out there. Nothing good comes out of taking dicpics.  Forget the fact that it will ruin your career and rightfully so, just don’t do it because it’s gross and offensive and nobody, man or woman wants to see that.

Now as far as it goes with George Springer, the day may come when I can convince myself that not signing him to a long term deal was the right move.  That he might be good for the first couple years, but that you’ll eventually be paying $30 million to a guy who can no longer play CF and whose not hitting nearly enough to justify that money. I can convince myself that we can use what we would have paid Springer to resign Michael Conforto and newly acquired Francisco Lindor to long term extensions. I can convince myself that we needed upgrades to our catching (and we signed James MCann) lineup (and we traded for Lindor) and starting rotation (and acquired a pitcher in the Lindor deal) Eventually I will probably feel all of that.

But for now it bugs me that we are still getting outbid by the likes of the Blue Jays, Nationals (they just signed reliever Brad Hand) and whoever ends up with Trevor Bauer. I thought that the idea of having a bazillionaire owner was that we could sign an elite player or two. 

I mean as psyched as I am to get Lindor and Carlos Carrasco, we had to give up a couple of good young players to get them. I’m sure Lindor will be a great player for the Mets, and if the guys in Cleveland have nice carriers like I think they will, then maybe it will be one of those deals that everybody wins. I’d just would have liked to hold on to our young players.

Again, I know the old adage “The best deals are the ones you don’t make.” The best free agent deals, many more times than not, are the one’s you don’t make.” I just don’t like the feeling like I had with the Wilpons, and that’s how I was feeling with the Mets this week. 

FOOTBALL: Jets new coach 

On Thursday, the Jets came to terms with 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh to be their next head coach. I have to admit, I was a bit surprised how well received this hire was, even before his introductory press conference. 

The guy I wanted was Chiefs Offensive Coordinator Eric Bienemy. And the fact that he hasn’t landed a job yet, has once again began the rumblings that African-American candidates are getting screwed. I don’t know if this is the case, and I sure as hell hope it isn’t. The Jets have had two African-American head coaches, the Hermanator himself, Herm Edwards, who I loved, and Todd Bowels, who I didn’t (but is now headed to the Super Bowl-more on that in a minute) 

As I said, I would have loved for the Jets to give Bienemy a shot, I think he will be a very good NFL head coach.

And I’ve learned not to get too excited about Jet coaching hires.  I flat out predicted that Adam Gase would be a disaster, (which doesn’t exactly make me unique I admit) but since Bill Parcells left, none of these coaches have been anything to write home about.

From what I’ve seen and heard Saleh seems to be a good hire. He wants to be involved with both the offense and the defense, I have yet to hear a player say anything negative about him and plenty who think he’s the bees knees. He said all the right things, for what that’s worth.  

Maybe this is the guy who will finally end the Super Bowl drought, or at the very least get the team back into playoff contention. I’m glad the media and many of the fans are excited about him. I’ll take a wait and see approach on this one. I’ve been burned too many times in the past to fall for that old trick again.

And in any event, this is turning out to be just another crap football season anyway. Forget that my team went 2-14 and still couldn’t secure the number 1 pick in the draft. The playoffs have been a disaster.  I’ve been watching more football because I went almost 4 months with no live sports, but it’s the same old shit.

Tom Brady is once again heading back to the Super Bowl.  I suppose part of me is happy that the question has finally been answered, Was Brady a great QB because of Bill Belichick? Or was Belichick a great coach because of Tom Brady. Turns out the mistake wasn’t letting Belichick walk, it was not drafting Brady with one of the picks we got. 

Still I can’t root for Brady, and yeah, it’s out of pure jealousy. Shoot, last week after Tampa beat the Saints, a video went viral of Brady tossing a football to one of Drew Brees kids. I mean if Timmy wanted to catch a ball from Tom Brady, that’s one thing, I’m not an NFL QB, but when Brees kids would rather go play catch with Brady than their own future hall of famer father, I mean that just hurts. 

And the worst part is, it didn’t have to be this way.Green Bay with a little more common sense, could have won that game, or at the very least, sent it to OT.

Twice, on the Packers last possession, when they had goal to go yardage, Aaron Rodgers had ample room to run the ball in for  TD. Instead he threw two awful passes, one of which was nearly picked off. 

Then Packers coach Matt LaFleur decides to kick a meaningless field goal with his team down by 8. All that did was give the ball back to the greatest 2 minute QB in NFL history. With 2 minutes left in the game!

If the argument is “well what if we didn’t get the TD on 4th down, then we’d still be giving the ball back to Brady AND we’d be down by 8.”

Sure, but first you have the Bucs pinned down at the 10. Plus at that point 8 points or 5 points is the same difference (unless you got a bet with Fan Duel or something) in that you still need a TD. 

And that’s assuming that the Pack gets stuffed on 4th down. They may not have, we are talking about Aaron Rodgers here, probably the MVP this year. 

It was just a horribly coached, horribly executed, and for good measure, horribly officiated game. 

This will be Brady’s 10th Super Bowl. I’m no math major, but that means Brady has been in almost 20% of all Super Bowls. That’s just not fair.

Speaking of not fair.....

LOTTERY: Another Scam

Last week both of our Multi-State lotteries, the Mega Millions and Powerball, both had huge jackpots. Powerball was $731 million, and Mega Millions was over $1 billion.

In both cases, each jackpot was won by a single ticket. 

And if you look back at the history of these huge semi national lotteries, they are almost always won by a single player. 

You have millions of people playing the lottery and the winning number is just one person. That’s not a coincidence. 

These numbers aren’t picked at random, no way. This has to be a computer that sees all the numbers generated and finds the one that nobody has, and so on and so forth, until they chose the only number held by one or two players. 

But they don’t tell you that. They say Oh, it’s totally random. 

Bullshit! It happens too often to be random. Someone or something is manipulating these lotteries. 

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I would be remiss in my rantings if I didn’t mention the passings of Henry Aaron and Larry King. 

Larry King apparently wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. One of my FB friends wrote a beautiful post about how King had treated him kindly at a function they both attended. Another friend right below it wrote about what a lousy interviewer he was. 

He may not have been Mike Wallace, but King had to have done something right because he interviewed everybody. You had a movie coming out, you went on Larry King. An album? You went on Larry King. Running for President? Same deal. 

And it wasn’t only people who were plugging stuff either. Oprah Winfrey had her own show, but she came on. I even saw the Dali Lama himself on one of the retrospectives. I thought that was pretty cool. 

He definitely falls into the legends category, that’s for sure.

Many years ago, I read a feature article in Sports Illustrated about Hank Aaron and how he still had all the hate Mail he had gotten during the final days of his chase of Babe Ruth’s all time record. 

I couldn’t understand why he would want to hold on to that. 

But now that I’m older,  I often catch myself thinking about my younger days and convincing myself that they were always good. Some of the bad memories tend to fade away.

Hank Aaron never wanted to forget what he had to go through to get that record. As proud as he was to hold the home run record, he knew that was only part of the story. He wasn’t just facing pitchers trying to get him out, he was facing racism and death threats. Lesser men may have wilted under that pressure, Aaron persevered through it. 

He’s still the all time HR king from where I’m sitting. He hit his 755 without any PED’s. They are also talking about changing Atlanta’s team name from Braves to Hammers. I think that’s a great idea. 

RIP to both legends. 

Everyone take care.

Stay safe, wear a mask

and Have a Great Week 

January 20, 2021

 About 4 years ago, I wrote this......

So I got to watch some of the inauguration on Friday, we were able to catch President Trump's swearing in, and some of his speech. There were parts of the speech I liked and parts I thought he could have avoided.

       But more importantly, I always feel like Inauguration Day is one of the great days in America. I know there are plenty of Trump haters out there who thought this was the worst day of their lives, and his administration may turn out to be. But I'm always fascinated by the transfer of power, the graciousness of both parties (I know Michelle Obama grimaced and Trump took shots at Washington DC in his speech, but he also said the Obamas were "magnificent") and just the pageantry of it all. The music, the parades, I find it amazing. I know other countries have bloodless transfer of power, I still think we do it better than anyone.......

But as I prepare to watch Joe Biden become our nations 46th President, I do it knowing that this has not been a bloodless transfer. I watch as what is normally a day of celebration is now a day of tension. 

Washington DC is on lockdown. The crowds would have been smaller because of COVID-19. But now, because of the terrorist attack on the US Capitol, the only crowd in Washington will be National Guard troops. 

It’s the final shot, the final kick in the midsection from Donald Trump. 

Because of a nonsensical belief that the election was stolen from him, but mostly because he is a pea brained, soulless thin skinned crybaby, he has put a stain on what is usually our country’s day to shine. 

And I know what the Trumpsters are thinking, We’ll four years ago, you were saying “Not my President “ .

Maybe some people were, but I didn’t.

You know who else didn’t? Barack Obama. 

He welcomed President-elect Trump to the White House. He cooperated with the transition. Michele Obama gave Melania Trump a tour of the White House. 

He sat there and watched Trump get sworn in. Sat there and listened to Trump talk about American Carnage. 

(I consider 400,000 dead to be American Carnage, but I digress)

And before that, George W Bush welcomed Barack Obama, who had spent the previous two years saying everything the opposite of what Bush was saying. On January 20, 2009 that went out the door at least for one day. 

In fact, you have to go back to 1869, 152 years ago, to find the last time an outgoing President skipped town before the new President was sworn in. 

If there’s one thing Trump was good for, he forced us to go back to the history books. We saw things from this administration we hadn’t seen in decades. And most of it wasn’t good. 

Today should be all about new beginnings, fresh starts. And it will be. It just burns me up that because of one person’s pettiness, one person’s ungraciousness, one person’s utter incompetence, that it has to be celebrated differently. That we have to do so practically under martial law. 

A parting gift from the worst President if not in American history, then most definitely in my lifetime. 

Weekly Mail January 10, 2021

And we’re back..

So first of all, I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

We were delayed on this for a couple of reasons, not the least of which was a technical difficulty. I had most of this written on Saturday and then it disappeared when I went to save it. I was so besides myself after that, I almost just said screw it. But there were too many important things to discuss, so I had to go back to the drawing board. 

In any event....

 What I wrote last Wednesday in light of the events that happened in Washington DC was on pure emotion. As a writer, my first instinct is to capture the moment for posterity sake to write exactly what I was feeling as the events for unfolding.

But now that we’ve had a few days to cool off I’d like to try one last time to explain what I think went down last Wednesday at our nation’s Capitol. 

We often talk about trigger words.  I have a word that triggers me all the time. It’s not just the word it’s a place, actually. But you’ve heard about it so much these past 10 years that we forget about the details of it. 

Benghazi.

The reason that Benghazi such a trigger word for me is because no matter what side of the aisle you are on, if you happen to bring it up, it’s probably going to piss me off.

Many on the left take great pains to point out that Republicans ordered 10 separate congressional investigations into the events that led to the attack on the United States Embassy in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012. This was designed in part to try to derail President Obama‘s 2012 reelection campaign and failing that,  the expected 2016 run of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee for President.

And I do agree that if you can’t prove your point after one congressional investigation or 2 investigations  tops, you shouldn’t get eight more bites of that apple. 

But on the other hand, it also doesn’t sit well with me when Benghazi  is made out to be a big fat nothing burger. It bothers me just as much when I hear people say “Only four people died in Benghazi.”

And you hear it all the time. “We had 3000 people die yesterday of COVID-19, but only 4 died in Benghazi.”

Hell I even heard that this week. When it was reported that five people were killed at the capitol, numerous people pointed out that again “Only four people died in Benghazi.”

Why that bothers me so much is that what fails to get pointed out most of the time, is that one of those “only four” people  that were killed that night was the US ambassador to Libya at the time, J. Christopher Stevens. 

I have to imagine that protecting your ambassadors is right up there with protecting Senators, Representatives and the Vice President of the United States. I can’t imagine it’s too much further down that proverbial food chain.

It bothers me that Stevens death was minimized. 

One person who never minimized it and I give her credit for this (for all the differences I have with her) was Secretary  of State Hillary Clinton, who numerous times during her repeated  grillings  expressed extreme sadness over the death of her friend, Chris Stevens. 

Stevens assassination came to mind again for me this week as I witnesses the siege on Congress that took place January 6, 2021. We cannot be a country that allows our leaders to be attacked. If you are an American citizen, you can’t be cool with what went down last Wednesday afternoon. 

President Trump couldn’t get his Vice President to overturn the election (which as Pence pointed out, he had no authority to do) so Trump incited an angry mob to attack members of Congress including the President’s own number 2 man? I mean that’s Aaron Burr type shit there. 

The immediate response from many in the MAGA crowd was that we all turned a blind eye to the violence that took place during the George Floyd protests during the summer. 

I watched those protests as they happened, and while I believe much of those protests were peaceful, I watched too as cops, across the country had stuff thrown at them. That was absolutely disgusting. 

This blog gets posted to my Facebook every week. Several of my FB friends are police officers. I would trust my life with any one of them. And if any of my readers are ok with cops being attacked, they’re not going to see the light of day here, because I won’t be friends with anyone who thinks like that.

But that’s apples and oranges. 

What happened on Wednesday was nothing short of a terrorist attack on the United States, incited by the sitting President. We can disagree on policy or even some tactics, but there is absolutely no justification for this. This was, by the very definition of the word, sedition. I’m less angry now than I am sad and disappointed. That people can be so taken in by this con man that they are cool with an armed coup against our nation. 

I don’t know if this latest impeachment try is going to go anywhere. I believe it’s more important come January 21 that the Biden justice department indict the crap out of Trump when he no longer has the office of President to protect him. 

Why?

For me it’s mostly so that the Ted Cruz’s and Josh Hawleys and Matt Gaetz’s of the world don’t see this as a winning formula. Or worse, that some kid in college whose looking to get into politics doesn’t see the Trump way as the blueprint for political success. 

It needs to be a blueprint to end up in Federal prison for a long time. So nobody else ever tries it again. 

BASEBALL: Blockbuster 

I have to admit I was getting a bit antsy about the Mets off season. I realize that Steve Cohen didn’t get to be a 14 times over billionaire by bidding against himself, which is what he would be doing in this year’s free agent market. I also understand that Cohen and Sandy Alderson are pouring time and resources into rebuilding our dilapidated farm system as much as they are building the current big league team. I can dig it, I really can.

But I’ve also seen Jacob deGrom pitch well enough to win 50 games the last two and a half years and he doesn’t even have 1/2 of that to show for it, nor does he have any postseason appearances these past 5 years. So yeah, I was a bit anxious for some action.

And that action came on Thursday afternoon, as the Mets pulled off a blockbuster trade with the Cleveland Baseball Team, sending Amed Rosario, Andres Jimenez and a couple of minor leaguers, for SS Francisco Lindor and pitcher Carlos Carrasco.

I’ve seen it pointed out by a few of my fellow Met diehards, that the last two times we made big deals with Cleveland for all-star infielders that it did exactly work out in our favor. We traded Jeff Kent amongst others in 1996 for Carlos (one if by land, two if by sea, three if) Baerga, and in 2002, we traded for Robert Alomar. Baerga was OK, just not for what we gave up for him, and Alomar, a future hall of farmer, was a huge disappointment in Queens.

But Lindor is in his prime, is much more talented than either of the previously mentioned players and is also playing for a huge payday.  I was a big fan of Rosario and Jimenez looked good last year, so I’m sorry to see them go, but you have to give up something to get something, right? This is a really good thing, a happy day to be a Met fan. 

FOOTBALL: Gase Closed

It wouldn’t have mattered, since I never wanted him here in the first place, but I really was hoping former Jets coach Adam Gase would go out a winner last Sunday against a very beatable New England Patriots team. Instead, after beating two teams that made the playoffs this year, and costing themselves a shot at Trevor Lawrence, Gase and the Jets laid down like dawgs against those lowlifes from Foxborough. 

For what it’s worth, my choice for next Jets coach would be Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. 

Until last week, I was in the “Let’s get some weapons for Sam Darnold and see what he can do” camp rather than the “Let’s draft another franchise quarterback” camp. But after seeing how Darnold played against the Pats, I think it’s time to send him packing. He’s just another in a long line of Jet QB’s who likes to throw the ball to the guys in different colored jerseys. You know, Kenny O’Brien is often remembered as the guy we drafted instead of Dan Marino, but that dude had balls. He threw a total of 7 interceptions in 1985, less than half a pick a game. That he got hisself sacked 62 times that year just shows that he’d rather get clobbered than give up a possession. 

7 INT’s for Darnold is about 3 weeks of work. It’s time for him to leave along with Gase. Adios!  

As for the Giants, yes what Eagles coach Doug Peterson pulled last Sunday was absolute bush league garbage, and if it was my team he pulled that against I’d be screaming bloody  murder too.  Still, 6-10 should get you nowhere near a shot at the Super Bowl, so as much as I can’t stand Tom Brady, I’m glad he helped send the WFT home for the winter. Now at least everyone still playing has a winning record.

And of the 6 games that were played this weekend, the only one I watched was the Saints-Bears game, which I watched on Nickelodeon. They did a great job. Noah Eagle (Ian’s son) was the play-by-play man, Nate Burleson and 15 year old Gabrielle Nevaeh Green (star of the revival of All That) were the commentators. Eagle and Burleson were awesome explaining the rules of the game, and Gabrielle brought great humor and a bucket of green slime) to the proceedings. Fun, fun stuff, after a tough week.  

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I couldn’t believe how emotional I was Friday night watching Jeopardy, knowing that it was Alex Trebek’s swan song as host. Between that and that Montifiore Commercial  they play around 7 PM, I was an absolute puddle. 

And it’s weird, because I can best describe my relationship with Trebek as love/hate. Too many times he came off as the smartest guy in the room IMHO, but almost everyone who was a contestant on the show insists that he was more reassuring and calming than he was arrogant. I have to go by that. And as I said before, if you can be the best in the biz as something for as long as Alex was the best at what he did, that has to count for a ton. 

He’ll be every sorely missed, that’s for sure. RIP. 

Sorry again for the delay. 

Stay safe, wear a mask..

and Have a Great Week 

January 6, 2021

 

Before you start, stop.

Stop with ANTIFA

Stop with BLM.

Just fucking stop.

January 6, 2021. Remember this date, remember where you were, who you were with, what you were doing, when.....

Terrorists attacked the United States Capitol.

Terrorists attacked the United States Senate.

Terrorists attacked the US House of Representatives.

Terrorists, on orders by the President of the United States. 

Oh, wait, they’re just protesters?  They were just trying to make a statement? 

OK, answer me this, “Why were the 535 members of Congress ordered to shelter in place?” 

Or this...Why was the Vice President of the United States evacuated? Forget the Speaker of the House, or even the Senate Majority Leader. The Vice President, Donald Trump’s Vice President, had to be evacuated from the floor of the US Capitol because his boss incited his followers to storm said Capitol. 

Show me where ANTIFA stormed the Capitol and tried to attack the Vice President of the United States

Show we where BLM stormed the Capitol and tried to attack the Vice President of the United States.

You know the last organization to try to attack the Vice President of the United States was?

Al-Qaeda.

And what I wrote that night would probably get me arrested today. Something about turning their bases into parking lots. 

I’ve tried to take the high road. You know how I felt about Trump. But I listened to your defenses. 

No more. I’m done.

Bring it on, because you got nothing.

Nothing. 

You claim to be patriots, but you condone a physical attack on Congress? 

The man bragged about being the law and order President. That was as far from law and order as you can get. You’re OK with this?

This is on you. You supported an armed terrorist coup. You supported an attack on our leaders. 

That’s all I’ll have to say from now on. I don’t have to defend anything else anymore. 

Joe Biden’s a creep? You supported an armed terrorist coup.

Taxes too high? You supported an armed terrorist coup. 

ANTIFA? You supported an armed terrorist coup. 

You have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. 

You supported an armed terrorist coup against the United States of America. 

Weekly Mail Year in Review Part Two

 JULY

July 11, 2020

Live Aid was 35 years ago this weekend.

When I posted this, I enjoyed reading my friends memories of Live Aid. Especially one friend who talked about listening to it at the park down the block from where we grew up. I never would have done that 35 years ago, but all these years later, that sounds like the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening. 

July 18, 2020

OK, the cardboard cutout "fans" behind the plate is just freakin' weird amirite?

 It took a few weeks to get used to, but I have to admit, it freaked me out in the beginning. I can only imag9ne how the players felt having these cardboard pictures staring at them. I'd have nightmares. 

July 23, 2020

Mike Francesa's Third annual retirement will be this Friday

 When the FAN was looking to bring back Craig Carton in November, and were looking for someone to pair him up with, I thought maybe Mike "Sugar Ray Leonard" Francesa would be a solid choice. They ended up putting him with Evan Roberts, and the big guy stayed retired. (for now) 

July 25, 2020

We folded like a $12.00 suit on this one huh?  

Jamal Adams had been demanding a trade, tweeting Cowboy fans that he was trying to get traded to Dallas and just generally acting like a spoiled a-hole in the middle of a pandemic. I'd have hung the whiny baby out to dry, but they ended trading him for draft picks. Then we wondered why we lost our first 13 games of the season  

 AUGUST

August 4, 2020 

What a waste. Why did they bother going to Toronto if they were going to play like that?

 Hockey in August. Playoff hockey at that. And yes, I should have been grateful for that. But then the Rangers got swept out by the Carolina Hurricanes the night before my birthday and I lost my mind. (Some things never change)  I waited 4 1/2 months to see my team play 3 games. Aggravating 

August 25, 2020

Shut out by the Marlins. 

Twice

 In the Mets defense, the Marlins did make the playoffs.  

August 28, 2020

They get swept by the Marlins and then they sweep the Yankees. Go Figure.

And then on Sunday the 30th, they blew a 7-2 lead in the 9th and lost 8-7. To the Yankees. It was that kind of year. 

 SEPTEMBER

September 11, 2020

First Day of 7th Grade. Good luck in middle school buddy.

Timmy hadn't been in a classroom since March 13. Starting a new school is hard enough without having to navigate through hybrid learning. I really pray that all of our kids come out of this not totally ruined. 

September 29, 2020- The Presidential Debate

We had to know this was going to be a shit show going in. That’s how Trump operates. In 2016, Trump and Marco Rubio we’re comparing dick sizes. Should Biden have told Trump to shut up? Call him a clown? Maybe not, but if it talks like a clown, and keeps interrupting, why not?

Should they even have the next two debates? As Joe Cabot said towards the end of Reservoir Dogs, “What the hell for? It’s just gonna be more bullshit”

I’ve said this before.... there was a time in my life where I would have found this entertaining. I remember Lloyd Bentsen telling Dan Quayle he was no JFK. Back then, that was considered badass. That’s tame compared to this.

A CBS News poll said that the overwhelming feeling viewers had was annoyance. The sad thing is we knew that going in. The sad thing is, no one should be

 

I usually try to edit the bad words if I'm posting something on-line, but this was too much. I shook my head as I read people saying how shocked they were by all of it, I wondered aloud where they were 4 years ago. It's not that I couldn't believe a candidate told the President of the United States to shut up. It's not that I couldn't believe a candidate called the President of the United Sates a clown. It's that both of those things happened and I didn't bat an eyelash.  That was the heartbreak of it all. 

 OCTOBER

October 13, 2020

There may be more dysfunctional poorly run organizations in professional sports, but damned if I can think of any right now

Wrote this after the Jets waived running back L'veon Bell, a former all pro running back who was signed by a GM who was fired before Bell ever got to play a game for him, because the coach who didn't want him in the first place didn't utilize him correctly. Does that make any sense? Because my head started to hurt while I was typing it.

October 17, 2020

Dear Tampa Rays,

Thank you

Sincerely,

America

Wrote this after the Rays sent the lying cheating losing record Astros home from the ALCS. While the Astros going to the World Series would have been a perfect metaphor for 2020, it was a rare relief this year when they did not.

October 18, 2020

Not even a field goal? Beyond pathetic

The Jets were shut out by the Dolphins. We were on our way to 0-16 baby! 

October 27, 2020

Congrats to the Dodgers, but Tampa handed it to them.

Crappy managing by Tampa (pulling starter Blake Snell after 73 pitches) and Willie Adames making like Carlos Beltran in 2006. And not that Dodger skipper Dave Roberts was reminding anyone of Miller Huggins, but despite that LA finally got over the top. 

NOVEMBER

November 1, 2020

At the very least, it looks like we have a FG kicker.

Who as soon as I typed this missed a FG

November 3, 2020

The best way to describe how I’m feeling right now, it’s somewhere between Christmas Eve and the night before a liver transplant” - Jimmy Kimmel

No matter who you voted for, I would say most people felt the same way.

November 9, 2020

The Jets are going to win this game, aren’t they?

Spoiler alert-They didn't. NE 30-Jets 27  

0-9

November 18, 2020

Obi Toppin!!! Woo hoo!

I can't remember the last time the Knicks did anything that got me excited. This was a rare treat from them. Let's see if it pans out. 

DECEMBER 

Our parents had the Heidi Game.

It looked like the Jets were going to win this game against the Raiders. I was so confident, that I went and had dinner. When I came out of the kitchen, the Raiders were celebrating a win. 52 years earlier, a Jets-Raiders game was cut off to show Heidi. The Jets were winning that game too. (and lost) 

You know, I really didn’t want to go 0-16, but to go 1-15 and not get the number one pick would suck just as much.

This was being a Jet fan in 2020. Two weeks earlier, I was pissed that they lost. This day, I was kind of pissed that they won.

Heave-Ho! 2 in a row!

Break up the Jets!!!

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

So the reason I was delayed in posting this is that I had a really hard time coming up with something to put in this space.

Looking back over my posts from July-December, I saw too many RIP posts, and a bunch of my political commentary. When I do my year in review, the goal is that if I read in again in a few years, I’ll have a good feel for what was on our mind that year. 

This year though, no matter how one spins it, it’s going to be remembered as a year of anxiety, of angst, of uncertainty and of course sadness. Doesn’t matter what gender, race or political party you belong to. When 350,000 of your fellow citizens die that may have otherwise lived, that has to affect you. 

I’m trying hard to come up with a message of hope, a message of positivity that going forward things will get better. But as these years go on, that gets harder and harder, and that was before the pandemic. 

I’m glad we are going to have a new President in a couple of weeks, but we’ll still be a nation divided. I’m glad we have a vaccine for COVID-19, but that’s not bringing back those we lost. 

And if heaven forbid this happens again, I mean, we turned the simple act of wearing a mask into a national debate. Is there any chance things are really going to get better? 

My sister-in-law told me something on New Years Eve that might give us something to think about.... There was a deadly pandemic in 1918 that killed thousands of people. When it was over, the Roaring 20’s happened. 

So maybe.......