Hi Folks:
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
It takes a big man to admit when he's wrong. I am NOT a big man!- Elmer Fudd Gantry-from Fletch Lives (1989)
So I had predicted mass chaos on Black Friday. With prices of goods having gone up and the supply chain issues and just a general feeling that everyone around here has gone just a tad crackers, I expected to see lots of trouble around the country on Friday morning.
Thankfully there were a few factors I hadn't taken into account. For one, almost every major retail store closed on Thanksgiving. That was a welcome change, probably a result of the pandemic, but hopefully something that sticks around. Secondly, even though the stores were still flooding the airwaves with Black Friday deals, the deals themselves weren't that great. Nothing worth getting into a fight for.
The only real violence I read about took place outside of a Durham, NC shopping mall, and not that I'm downplaying it, but it appeared to be gang related and not a fight over a flat screen TV.
So that's the first bit of crow I'm happy to eat. Here's the second..
BASEBALL: Mets New Pitcher
I sent those texts to my co-editor Karl (The Ace) Ludwig the day Noah Syndergaard signed with the Angels. Ace had suggested that if the Mets signed Max Scherzer maybe it would soften the blow of Thor catching the last train for the coast.
I believed that Scherzer was hell bent on staying out in Cali, either resigning with the Dodgers, joining Thor in Anaheim, or heading south to San Diego. Back at the trading deadline, the buzz was that he wanted nothing to do with NY.
Scherzer now claims that to be fake news, that it was the Nats who didn't want to trade him within the division. Who knows? Personally I think they're all full of crap. At least he had the good sense to say all the right things on his zoom call on Thursday.
I remember years ago, the Rangers signed Theo Fleury to an (at the time) ridiculous $7 million a year contract, and at his press conference, he said that the next best offer he got was from the Kings at $2.5 million. The way he said it made it appear that had LA offered him a penny more, he'd have stayed out west. (He played for Calgary and Colorado previous) I respected his honesty, but on the other hand, I had a bad feeling this wasn't going to work out. (It didn't... Fleury had a lousy first season in NY, and when he started off well in his second, he left the team to deal with a substance abuse issue)
Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that Scherzer is coming here. I really believe he is going to do everything he can to help the Mets win, I don't think he's coming here just to cash in a paycheck. (albeit a ridiculously large paycheck). I could just be a cock-eyed optimist, but I mean, I've been so down on them since the end of the season, they needed to so something to start restoring some faith. Signing Scherzer, along with Starling Marte, Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar, was a nice first step.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Kelly to the Bayou
Now, it's a good thing nobody asked me on Monday afternoon, "Hey Bill, do you think the coach of Notre Dame is going to quit that job so he take over at LSU?" Because that would have made me 0-3.
I've said this before, there have been 2 times in sports I have been shocked.. the first was when Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Oilers to the Kings and the second was when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson. Have I been surprised after that? Sure, but never shocked.
Brian Kelly leaving ND to go to LSU was a real big surprise. And it puts me in a bit of a pickle...
I've also mentioned many times that I essentially copied my father's teams and took them as my own. All this great material you get about me ranting on about the Mets, Jets, Rangers and Knicks? You can thank Bill Sr. for that. We also both root for St. John's (and more importantly, against North Carolina-Big Bill had little use for Dean Smith, and the more kids I went to school with who loved NC, the more that came in handy)
But there is one sport where we are not simpatico- and that's college football.
I root for Notre Dame.
He roots for LSU.
Now look, I would classify myself as a casual Notre Dame fan. Besides their QB, I'm not even sure I can name any other players. I did get to see most of their games this year, and as opposed to the disaster that usually awaits me on Sunday afternoons, they actually win most of their games. Until the Bowl season starts of course.
But I wasn't raised in a house where Notre Dame football ruled supreme, and believe me, I've been in many a friend's house where that was the case.
The Ludwig's used to have a BBQ on the Saturday before Labor Day, which to me was a good way to stay sober in preparation for the next night's Hat Party in Rockaway. In 1994, Notre Dame was opening up that night against Northwestern. Pretty much the entire party shifted from the back deck to the living room. "My family treats this like it's the Super Bowl. It's the first bleeping game of the season." Ace said to me before he and Mary decamped for McBarretts on 69th Street, leaving her future husband, future in laws, her brother and myself amongst others, home to watch. That was also the first night I heard this line "It's the best recruiting class we've ever had."
A guy used to bring his granddaughter to Baskin Robbins, he'd be wearing a Notre Dame hat and he would tell me "Best recruiting class we've ever had." I heard that in 1995 and in 1996 right before they hoisted my apron to the rafters.
We used to hang out at a place called Good Sports down in Long Island City, which was another shrine to Notre Dame Football. One Saturday afternoon, I watched ND play with my good friend and McClancy classmate Joe Siscaretti and his Dad. Mr. Siscaretti, like his son, a class act. But while the game was on, he was all focused on that.
Then there was Pete McGuiness.
I've mentioned Pete before here on these pages. We lost him a few years ago at age 70, but there was no bigger ND fan than he was. He once rattled off the schedule and results of the 1966 Fighting Irish football team. And this was after about a dozen Miller Lites, most mortal men couldn't do that sober. And many a night he'd grab me by the arm and tell me "This is going to be the best gadam recruiting class we ever had for crisake!"
Then I met Tara.
OK, Tara is not a college football fan, but she might be the only one in the family who isn't. My late father in law was a die-hard, but like my father, not a Notre Dame fan.
That would be Tara's Uncle.
In early 2005, I went to Tara's parents house for dinner, to meet two of her Aunt's and Uncles, and her cousin Heather and Heather's husband and baby daughter The very first conversation I had with Tara's Uncle Shawn was about, you guessed it, Notre Dame. And he assured me that the 2005 recruiting class was going to be the best in school history.
After Tara and I got married, I was again talking ND with Uncle Shawn and once again he told me This was going to be the best recruiting class ever" I said to him, "I feel like I hear that every year."
My father in law said "I got news for ya Billy. You DO hear that every year."
And for all these wonderful recruiting classes ND has had over the years, the last National Championship they've had was in 1988, my sophomore year of high school.
In that time, guess who has won 3 National Championships? Yes, my Dad's LSU Tigers.
And now, they have poached the Irish's head coach, while ND still had an outside shot of making the playoffs nonetheless.
I guess there is no way to go out gracefully under these conditions, if this really was an offer Brian Kelly couldn't refuse. But he took it to a whole new level of obnoxious.
As the story was leaking, he sent out a text to the team that read....
"Men …Let me first apologize for the late night text and, more importantly, for not being able to share the news with you in person that I will be leaving Notre Dame. I am flying back to South Bend tonight to be able to meet with you in the morning but the news broke later today and I am sorry you found out through social media or news reports.
"I will have more to share when we meet tomorrow at 7 a.m. but for now, just know they my love for you is limitless and I am so proud of all that you have accomplished. Our program is elite because of your hard work and commitment and I know that will continue. I will share more in the morning when we meet. Again, my sincere apologies for not being able to be the one to share the news directly with you."
OK, 7 AM in college is an ungodly hour, unless things have changed since I was in school. Of course I didn't play football, but I digress.
Then when he did show up, he talked to these poor kids for a mere 3 1/2 minutes before high-tailing it to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. To top it all off, he gave a speech at the LSU Men's basketball game on Thursday with the most ridiculous fake southern accent I've ever heard. He sounded like Mitch McConnell.
I would always root for LSU unless they were playing Notre Dame, but how the hell can I root for them now? I know this $h-t goes on all the time in college sports, and trust me, I've gotten used to it. But this just seemed especially shady. I mean, this couldn't wait till after Notre Dame's season ended? In the NFL, you can't start talking to coaches while their team is still alive, I can't believe they don't have that rule in college. Notre Dame finished the regular season ranked 5th in the country just missing the CFB playoffs. As it is, they’re going to play the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma State with a 35 year old rookie head coach. How the hell is that fair?
And I'm sure someone's going to point out that ND got either Kelly or Lou Holtz or Knute Rockne under similar circumstances. Maybe, maybe not. All I know is the system is bent. And as long as the $$$ keeps a flowin, nobody's going to straighten it out.
EDITORIAL NOTE I- I've made the decision to no longer mention the name of the Congresswoman representing Georgia's 14th Congressional District. I always thought NY's own Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was an attention hog, (and I still do), but she's a wallflower compared to this one from Georgia. There are people in Congress I may not agree with, but I feel like at least they are trying to accomplish something. And that's on both sides of the aisle. All this one wants is attention, either the far right kissing her a$$, or the rest of us shaking our heads and bashing her for her outrageousness. Well, she'll get no more oxygen here. The next time I write about her, it will be either when she gets voted out or expelled from Congress. I'm not expecting either of those things to happen.
RADIO-Another WFAN shakeup
WFAN announced this week that starting in the New Year, Brandon Tierney and Tiki Barber will take the time slot held by Mark (the Moose) Malusis and Maggie Gray. It was basically a swap, as Gray will move to CBS Network Radio, where Tiki and Tierney had been. But it can also be seen as a demotion as you either have to stream or have a satellite radio to hear Maggie's new show.
This brings to an end the bizarre and turmoil filled career of Maggie Gray at the FAN, through as far as I'm concerned, no fault of her own. She was hired along with Chris Carlin and former Jet Bart Scott, to replace the retiring Mike Francesca. Francesca of course came back a mere 4 months later, forcing CMB out of afternoon drive. Carlin was fired, and Scott left (wisely) for ESPN Radio, and Maggie was paired with Malusis for the FAN's midday show.
While all this was going on, morning man Craig Carton was tried, convicted and sent to jail for embezzlement, and a worldwide pandemic shut down sports for 4 months. Not to mention how the station hung her out to dry after she dared challenge MSG Boss James Dolan.
Add that all up and I thing Maggie got a raw deal.
I had no issues with her. She knew her stuff, didn't berate the callers and did a nice job interviewing various athletes and the occasional celebrity. I didn't see any reason she had to go.
I listen more to Boomer and Gio now, since I gave up on Bernie and Sid on WABC. Gio is a riot, especially when he is impersonating other people at the station, but sometimes they get on non-sports topics that force me to turn to music.
Carton and Roberts, too often, just seems like Craig and Evan yelling at each other over stupid stuff. How many times have I heard Evan yelling at Carton "I agree with you!" Then why are you yelling? There too I find myself changing the station.
Moose and Maggie is the one show where you knew you were going to get good honest sports talk.
Now I have nothing against BT, I honestly don't know much about him, but did we really need another ex-football player on the FAN? I'm sure Tiki knows more about baseball and basketball than Scott did, but that's a pretty low bar. Plus I don't know, I don't get the feeling Tiki is that great of a guy.
I've been a fan of the FAN since day 1, I suspect I always will be. But they have been making it harder and harder to stay listening. I think the way they treated Maggie Gray was disgraceful, I don't think Tiki and Tierney is that much of an improvement if they're an improvement at all. We'll see what happens.
EDITORS NOTE II- After today's post, we'll have two more including our Fall Finale. Then we’ll see about a year end special.
That’s all we got for this week my friends.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
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