Hey:
We'll kick off with some good news first... Katie started up our American Heart Walk team Running for Rebecca again this week.
Two years ago, we all met downtown near the World Trade Center for the 3.5 mile walk (or run) on what was an absolutely perfect night. Last year due to the pandemic, we did it virtually.... a bunch of folks met up in Maspeth, Katie led a crew down in Rockaway, others walked in the Poconos, and Timmy and I did our 14 laps around Oceanside School 6's track. It was a bummer that we couldn't get together, but the good news was that Team Running for Rebecca was the number 1 Community Team for the entire event.
It would be awesome if we could pull that off again.
And now, as long as we continue to follow social distancing, wear our masks, and (if we can) get vaccinated, it looks like we can at least get our team together and do this at Maurice Park in beautiful downtown Maspeth. That's the game plan. Thursday evening May 20.
Now as far as fundraising goes, the site sets the default goal for you at $250.00. I decided to set it myself at $500.00 and sonofagun, we met that goal within hours. So, we've updated the goal to $1,000.00 As of this writing, we are at $860.00 a mere 140 clams away.
So if you are able, please do make a donation. We're still fighting this pandemic and times are still very hard, so really only donate if you can. But either way, please spread the word. And come down to Maurice on May 20, at 5:15 PM, and we'll all celebrate Becky's memory.
Here is the link to my page. If you want to donate, or join the team, there are links to do so here...
https://www2.heart.org/site/TR/HeartWalk/FDA-FoundersAffiliate?px=17407286&pg=personal&fr_id=5680
And from the bottom of my heart..... Thank you
Onto the week that was.....
AUTO ACCIDENTS.. Tiger Woods
So to start off, I'll say what should go without saying, but you never know in these nasty name calling times: I'm very happy that Tiger Woods survived the crash he was involved in on Tuesday morning in Los Angeles. With all the death that has been going on around us these past 13 months, another star dead before his time would have once against struck at our nation's soul, much the way Kobe Bryant's death last January did.
Like Kobe, I can't say I'm a big fan of Tiger, indeed I spent most of the little time I spend watching golf, rooting against him. But that's because I naturally pull for the underdog, and when Woods was at his best, no matter who he was playing against, they were the underdog.
Loyal readers of this blog know that I consider Wayne Gretzky to be the most dominant player of his particular sport. I usually get blowback from those who say it's Michael Jordan and/or LeBron James, or now Tom Brady and his 7 Super Bowl wins.
Gretzky owns 61 NHL Records and won 4 Stanley Cups. His name is atop the record boards for most goals in a season, most assists in a season, most points in a season and he leads those categories career-wise as well. For good measure, he has more career assists than the next NHL leading scorer, Jaromir Jagr has points. Take Gretzky's 894 goals away, and he still is the NHL leading point scorer.
The only other athlete I thought might dominate their sport the way Gretzky dominated hockey was Tiger Woods, from 1996 till 2008.* He was well on his way to catching, and surpassing Jack Nicklaus for most majors won. He was setting records left, right and center. 82 career wins, tying him with Sam Snead, along with 15 majors wins. In 2000, had he won the Masters, he'd have won Golf's Grand Slam. As it is, he's won each major at least 3 times.
It all went downhill for him in 2008, when he had his first auto accident. That time he was trying to get away from his enraged wife who had just busted him for cheating on her. Turns out he had an entire team of babes on the side.
That, as well as a slate of back injuries cut short what was to be not a matter of if, just when Woods would own the record book, and how far he would put those records out of reach.
At 45, the chances of him winning 3 more majors to catch the Golden Bear seemed slim, but not quite impossible.
Now it's hard to imagine him ever playing again, though in fairness, none of us are really sure what his condition is right now.
Which leads me to the crux of why I'm writing about this.... I'm in no way making light of what happened here, especially since we don't have all the facts.
But what I do want to shed some light on here is the media coverage of this accident.
I got out of work at 4 PM on Tuesday and I had my phone off. When I powered it back up, it was exploding with breaking news updates about the accident and for a short time between my office and the walk to my car, I wasn't sure if Tiger was dead or alive. One update I saw said they needed the "Jaws of Life" to get Woods out of his car. The last update I got as I was getting into my car was that he was having surgery on his legs.
I'm not a doctor, but I figured if they weren't doing surgery on his brain, neck or chest, than maybe his life wasn't in immediate danger.
But as I listened to CNN on the drive home, you wouldn't have thought that. No, they were talking as if Tiger was knock knock knockin on heaven's door.
I finally cried uncle when Wolf Blitzer had a "medical expert" on to explain the difference between "serious", "critical" and "stable" conditions! What? As a kid, watching Bill Beutel and Roger Grimsby, I knew the difference between critical, serious, stable and grave conditions. Grave condition meant it was time to get the priest.
It made me think of the book that Karl (the Ace) Ludwig encouraged me to read over the summer. Hate Inc. by Matt Taibbi. Taibbi a contributing editor for Rolling Stone, is pretty much as liberal a writer as you are going to find. But in one chapter of Hate Inc., he points out so many incorrect stories that CNN and MSNBC put out during the Meuller investigation into Russian collusion, that you would think he was auditioning for a time slot on FNC between Tucker and Hannity.
His point in that chapter, and in the book as a whole, is that cable news is not about reporting the news, as much as it is all about selling the news as a product. And the only objective they have is keeping your eyes on their screen. So if that means, telling everyone Tiger needed to be rescued by the jaws of life, (which wasn’t true) or that he was having his legs operated on, but maybe it was more than that, or to have someone come on and explain something a 4th grader could explain, than that's what they will do. They are selling, and if you're watching, you're buying.
And then there was Phil Mushnick's Friday Equal Time Column, which to be honest, he could have taken Friday off and I could have written the column for him. For years, his big beef with Tiger Woods has been how the media fawns over him to ridiculous heights. One of Mushnick's favorite rants is about Earl Woods, Tiger's late father, and how the media acted like Woods losing his father was so much more tragic than anyone else who had to bury a parent. He wasn't wrong about that, or how golf commentators praise Woods for his competitiveness when he acts out on the course, while giving out to others who act like that as ill tempered or unprofessional. Again, Mushnick's not wrong, but we've heard it all before.
I realize this has turned into a rant against the media, and well, I guess I just needed to get that off my chest. Bottom line is, I hope Tiger Woods at the very least will be able to walk again, if not play competitive golf anymore. Either way, it might be time to hire a chauffer. I'm pretty sure he can afford one.
HOCKEY: Baking the Bread man..
NY Rangers star forward Artemi Panarin took a leave of absence from the team on Monday, after a report surfaced that as a 20 year old player in Latvia in 2011, he struck an 18 year old girl at a bar after a game.
Naturally, the first instinct, with all that has come to light in the last few years about sexual misconduct was that Panarin was in big trouble and his career if this was accurate would be in jeopardy, and rightly so.
But then you realized this was coming from the Russian media, and had to be taken with more than a grain of salt. More digging into the story and you can see why Panarin felt the need to leave the Rangers for a bit.
The story it seems, was leaked by a former coach of Panarin's who right now, is looking to get back into coaching hockey in Russia, and is looking to curry favor with Russia's dictator Vladimir Putin.
Panarin, has been a frequent critic of Putin and a supporter of Alexi Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, currently a political prisoner in Russia after having survived a poisoning.
So Panarin's leave of absence is more about protecting his family, perhaps getting whatever relatives he has left over there out and to somewhere safe. What a horrible way to have to live.
All because of a dictator who will stop at nothing to hold on to his power, no matter how many lives are ended or ruined in it's wake.
Sound familiar?
And speaking of the Rangers, it sure was nice on Friday night to see actual fans sitting in the seats and not those creepy cardboard cutouts. You know things are getting back to normal when you heard all 1,800 of those Ranger fans chanting "F-ck you Marchand!" at Bruins creep Brad Marchand, one of the dirtiest players in the NHL. It was also nice to see the Rangers reward those fans by kicking the crap out of Boston.
So if you've read this far down, thank you. I hope I didn't bore you with the Tiger or Breadman stories, those are just my pointless points of view. The important part of this blog is the first item, Running for Rebecca. Anything you can do to help us out will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all again
Stay Safe, Wear a Mask
and Have a Great Week
*Serena Williams, in women's tennis is also in the conversation for dominating her sport, especially if she wins another Grand Slam event, which would tie her with Margaret Court for most GS wins all time.
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