Hello Everyone:
Sunday morning Tara, Timmy, and I did the Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk at Jones Beach. The three of us put in about 4 1/2 miles. The walk itself on the boardwalk was probably 3 1/2 miles, but by the time we got from the parking lot to all the concessions to the actual start of the walk on the boardwalk, it had to of been an extra mile or so.
No matter, it was a great experience. The weather was just about perfect. Bright sunshine and a little bit of wind.
Of course having worked late on Saturday night and having gotten up early on Sunday, I was pretty much toast for the rest of the afternoon. But that was OK, it was well worth it and getting to spend time with the family is always a good thing. When you’re also doing it for good cause it makes it so much better.
Can’t wait to do it again next year.
Now, time to catch up on the last two weeks…
BASEBALL: RIP 2021 Yankees
I know this is like the epitome of old news, since the LCS' have already started, but figured we had to give a wrap-up for the Yanks as well.
Let's start off with the play-in game itself. Two things jumped out at me.
1) I'm sure it's unfair to place so much blame on Gerrit Cole for the Yanks not getting out of the play-in game. But when you sign a deal the size that he did, and you go and spit the bit like he did, it really is part of the deal.
It's easy for me to sit here and say. "Hey, it's one game, I'm sure he'll earn his money eventually." But let's be honest, if he were on my team, and couldn't get out of the 3rd inning of a win or go home contest, you'd have to peel me off the ceiling.
Obviously it wasn't just Cole, the Yanks couldn't figure out Nathan Eovaldi either, their lack of clutch hitting once again biting them in the keister. And had they won the division, they could have saved Cole the trouble of having to pitch in the play in game, instead having him start Game 1 of the ALDS.
But if you have to win one game, and you are paying someone $324 million to pitch, he's gotta give you at least 7 innings. He's going to have to figure it out, or else it going to be a long 7 years for him here in the Big Apple.
2) Also at the risk of sounding like a Monday Morning Quarterback, Yankee third base coach Phil Nevin's decision to send Aaron Judge home on Giancarlo Stanton's double off the Green Monster was a colossal blunder. I felt it at the time too. It wasn't just that Judge was out by a mile, but now instead of 2nd and 3rd with only one out and the Sox starting to reel, now you have two outs and a runner on 2nd. I'm not buying the theory that Nevin sent Judge because they knew how bad Anthony Rizzo had been struggling.
Look, I love 3rd base coaches who send the runner. I'm a go for it on 4th down kind of guy, but I also know sometimes it's smarter to punt. You have to know the ballpark you are playing in. I had visions of Mike Ferraro as I watched that play develop.
Ferraro was the Yanks third base coach in 1980 and during that year's ALCS vs the Royals, he sent Willie Randolph home on a play similar to the one two weeks ago. When Randolph was nailed at the plate, the camera panned to an apoplectic George Steinbrenner in his box at Royals Stadium. Soon after the Yanks elimination from the playoffs, Ferraro and manager Dick Howser were fired.
And that leads us to the $64,000 question... What do the Yankees do about manager Aaron Boone and GM Brian Cashman? More than one really good Yankee fan I know, ones that have been around since the bad old days and aren't quick to call for anyone's head, are pushing for Cashman and Boone to get their pink slips. Nevin and coach Marcus Thames were let go this past Friday. Now if George was still around, we know Nevin would have had to hitchhike home from Boston. But Hal Steinbrenner isn't the maniac that his old man was. It's the classic chicken or the egg argument.. Does winning breed stability or does stability breed winning?
Boone's not doing himself any favors by saying that "the league's closed the gap on us"
Dude!
You were arguably the 4th best team in your own division. You haven't won or even been to the World Series in 12 years. Yes, Boone's winning percentage has been stellar, but the Yankees aren't about winning regular seasons, they are about winning in October. There hasn't been nearly enough of that.
It's looking more and more like Cash and Boone will be back in 2022. We'll see how that plays out. If it were me calling the shots, Cash would stay but be told that he has till the end of his current deal to get the team right. And I'd make a change at manager. Who would I bring in? Don't know, but I do think it's time for a new voice at the helm.
As for the current playoff situation, once again we are left with 4 despicable teams to choose from. It's either going to be Astros-Dodgers or Red Sox Dodgers. I can't even allow my brain to process the thought that the Braves could make it to the World Series. And I mean you can't root for the lying cheating Astros right? And I'll say till I'm blue in the face, Boston has met its quota for championships for the rest of the century.
Ugh!
Moving on then....
SPACE: The Final Frontier
The 1990 MLB All-Star Game was played at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Cubs ballpark had just gotten lights two seasons prior. Also, CBS had just began a 4 year deal to broadcast MLB including the entire post-season and the All Star Game.
So when the heavens opened over Chicago that night, CBS, which hadn't broadcast a baseball game since Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series, was forced to put on their regular Tuesday night programming, which included a show called Rescue 911, hosted by William Shatner. It was kind of like Cops, except with ambulances'.
William Shatner: Rescue 911
This led many baseball fans to light up the lines of WFAN, and complain to the host Steve Sommers. It was that night that Sommers delivered perhaps my favorite of his thousands of lines over the last 34 years...
"If you're going to show me Bill Shatner, he better be boldly going where no man has gone before"
Alas, Sommers and the rest of his fellow Trekkies got their wish this past Wednesday, as Shatner was a passenger aboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Rocket, along with three other lesser known, (but no doubt equally rich) passengers.
The four passengers spent 4 minutes in weightlessness, the whole trip lasted a little over 10 minutes, and the rocket took off and landed somewhere in the desert near Van Horn, TX about 100 miles east of El Paso.
Shatner was clearly moved by the experience. He spoke emotionally to Bezos upon his exiting the rocket.
Now some folks are saying that this just another example of rich men playing with expensive toys while the rest of us are scraping by.
Pish-posh I say.
I still believe that space travel and exploration is a worthy pursuit, and that there is still so much to be learned from going up above the atmosphere. Sure, Bezos letting the man who played Captain Kirk ride up there gratis was a publicity stunt. (I wondered aloud if perhaps Shatner had bid for his Blue Origin ticket on Priceline.com, but was told that Bezos himself covered the fare)
But, let’s face it, you have to start somewhere. And while I wouldn’t consider myself a Trekkie by any stretch, I dig where Bezos was coming from.
And as for the idea that this money could be better used for other things like helping the poor and the sick, I say I still think we can walk and chew gum at the same time. There are some really and truly unnecessary shit that people are blowing money on, both in the public and private sectors. You can redirect that money to help the less fortunate.
The more this is done and proven safe, the more likely it will be that us less moneyed folks will one day get to travel into space. Or more likely our kids and grandkids. I'm not gonna lie, I got a kick out of the whole thing. And as I've said before, I still believe that a successful space program is something that can unite all of us, no matter what side of the aisle you support.
Here's something we haven't done in a couple years....
MOVIE REVIEW: No Time to Die
Starring: Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Rami Malek, Ana de Armas
Saw it with: Timmy
Took the fam up to Fishkill for a couple days of R&R. There's a theater right next to where we usually stay, so I figured maybe it would be a good time to take in a picture. Our rules were simple; find seats that were at least 6 feet away from anyone else. If the theatre was so crowded that social distancing wasn't possible, we'd keep our masks on. That would mean no movie corn or drinks, but for this movie we figured it was worth it. Fortunately, the theater wasn't too crowded so there was enough room to spread out.
As for the movie itself, I don't want to give it away. I will make the following observations...
Craig has said this would be his final go as James Bond. I do hold out hope however that he and Jeffery Wright will do some sort of buddy-cop movie together some day. They are great together, more so in this movie.
de Armas was the supposed "Bond girl" or whatever the PC police say we should call them now, but she was only in the film for a few minutes. Her scenes were excellent, but she wasn't the love interest. I don't think I'm giving too much away with that info.
Remi Malek is an amazing actor. I thought he was brilliant as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, and he was brilliant here as the Bond villain.
I'm going to do a bar room BS about James Bond, where I'll give more details about the movie. I'll say this, it was a worthwhile 2 1/2 hours.
4.5 Aces
I think this is much ado about nothing, but I'm going to write about it anyway because well....
ROCK AND ROLL- McCartney vs Jagger and Lennon
Paul McCartney is one of those larger than life figures than when he speaks, it makes news, even if it really shouldn't.
For example, in on an upcoming episode of This Cultural Life on BBC Radio, McCartney states that it was John Lennon who broke up the Beatles, just like he told Howard Stern a couple years ago, just like he had said countless times over the years, and every time he says it, it gets breathlessly reported.
Here's what he says on the BBC programme..
"This was my band. This was my job. This was my life. So I wanted it to continue."
"Oh no, no, no. John walked into a room one day and said, 'I am leaving the Beatles'," McCartney said.
"And he said, 'It's quite thrilling, it's rather like a divorce'.
"And then we were left to pick up the pieces."
We've known this for 50 years folks. John said he wanted out, Allen Klein, the then manager who everyone but Paul wanted, asked them to keep it under wraps till they got Let it Be in theaters and the album into the shops. Paul went and recorded his self titled album "McCartney" and decided he had enough of the charade and released the album along with a press release that the Beatles were no longer.
What I'm sure Sir Paul didn't mention in the interview was that at one point John and George sent Ringo over to see if he could convince Paul to hold off on releasing the McCartney album. Paul apparently went bat$hit at that suggestion and told the drummer to take a hike.*
I'm also fairly positive that Paul is making the rounds here to promote the upcoming three part remake of the Let it Be Movie that Peter Jackson has completed. The Beatles Get Back will be on Disney Plus in November.
As for this apparent spat with Sir Mick, again to me it's a mountain out of a molehill. In a profile in the New Yorker magazine....
in which the ex-Beatle told editor David Remnick: “I’m not sure I should say it, but they’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are. … I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs.”
Then an interview Paul gave to Howard Stern resurfaced, in which he was more clear what he meant about the blues cover band line...
Their stuff’s rooted in the blues. When they are writing stuff, it has to do with the blues. Whereas we had a little more influences. There’s a lot of differences, but I love the Stones, but I’m with you. The Beatles were better.”
Ok, I could see "but I think the Beatles were better" maybe ruffling some feathers, but I mean what the hell is he supposed to say? I’m sure Mick thinks the Stones were better. I don't think so, but I know plenty of people who agree with him. I love the Stones, I've seen them twice in concert (and if I had half a brain in 1989, it would have been 3 times)
In his autobiography, Life, Keith Richards spoke ad nauseum about how the blues influenced him and Mick and the late great Charlie Watts. Both Keith and Charlie played in blues bands when they weren't touring with the Stones. They started out as a blues band that evolved into the rock and roll hall of famers that they became. I really don't think Paul was taking a dig at them.
Mick made a joke during the Stones show in LA the other night that Paul would be joining them "in a blues cover later."
What I would of said if I were Mick is that "Paul and his Little Richard cover band will be performing later", because if you look at Paul's early work with the Beatles, that's who he emulated. The Beatles I'm Down is essentially Good Golly Miss Molly.
According to Variety Magazine, after Mick cracked his joke, one of the fans at the show tried to start a F-ck the Beatles chant. When he was met with quizzical stares, he responded "Paul McCartney is a f-cking wussy"
Classy. I wonder who he voted for in 2020.
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The Jets should play all their games in London, or at least play their games at 9:30 AM. That way they can lose and I can get on with my day like I did last week. This week was even better, they're off.
BTW, speaking of the Jets in London, I know some of you saw it, but did anyone else see where Marisha Wallace had to sing our National Anthem? She was up on this tiny stage on top of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. I'd have tossed my tea and crumpets just standing up there, never mind singing in front of 60,000 people. Then to top it off, the RAF did a flyover as soon as she was done singing. I would have been hanging on for dear life at that point.
We’re halfway through October, a little over a month away from Thanksgiving. I hope you all are hanging in.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
*Ringo actually testified to that in a British court
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