Happy President's Day Weekend!!!
So did anyone else get caught in that winter squall or whatever they call it? I had the misfortune of getting caught in the crosswinds at the crossroads of the world.
When I was coming up the escalator coming out of Penn Station, the sky was a clear blue and the sun was out. It was chilly, but hey, it's February in New York right? So far so good.
I stopped in a deli on 38th and 7th to get something to eat and by the time I came out 10 minutes later, the sky had turned gray and the winds were whipping.
Just as I was getting to 42nd Street, all the phones started to beep with the alert that there was going to be a Snow Squall till 3:45 PM. Thanks for the tip.
I don't want to say people were panicking because they weren't, but that was a definite urgency to get inside. A couple of those ladies who were dressed like Minnie Mouse were yelling at each other in Spanish. I'd say about 90% of the people had their phones out taking videos of all this. I thought about doing it myself but then I realized how much of a dork I'd look like and decided against it*
The National Weather Service was right about one thing, it pretty much was over by 3:45, at least the snow portion of it.
SUPER BOWL WRAP UP
I must have been in Conference Room B when the Sopranos commercial came on because that would have been my favorite commercial of the first half of the game, with the Schwarzenegger/Hayek Electric Avenue duet bumped down to second. My favorite commercial of the second half was the one with Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen for Lays Potato Chips. Lord forgive me, I laughed out loud when they showed that Rogen was marrying the evil ghost. Nobody's ever going to confuse either one of those two for Sir Laurence Olivier, but they are damn good at what they do.
As for the game itself.... look as a Jet fan, I am the absolute last person in the world to give any other fanbase guff about their football team, but this was the third Super Bowl the Bengals played in and they have not only lost all three, but they lost them almost the exact same way. I don't remember much about Super Bowl XVI (though I know I watched it) but I know it was a close game. (Actually it looks like Cincy was down big to the 49ers and their rally fell short)
I remember clear as day Super Bowl XXIII, also Bengals-Niners, also a close game, and like the game last week, the Bengals had the lead for most of the 4th Quarter, only to have the Rams come down and score. I know I shouldn't rag on professional athletes, but I could have done a better job of coverage on that last TD than Eli Apple did. I think he was the only one of the 80 million or so people watching the game that had no idea the football was heading his way.
So yeah, once again I went to bed on another Super Bowl Sunday disappointed, though not nearly as much as I used to when the Patriots had won. I learned to simply not watch those games after a while. I really don't like the Rams though either, I still think what they did to St. Louis was awful, and what they did to Los Angeles before that too. I'm sure all is forgiven in LA, another one of their teams won a championship, which gave them a reason to go out and riot.
I read somewhere that the NFL settled a lawsuit with the city of St. Louis in the amount of $790 million. The suit was brought by the city claiming the NFL violated it's own relocation guidelines when they allowed the Rams to move back to Los Angeles after 20+ years in St. Louis, leaving St. Louis taxpayers to pay for a stadium that no longer had a professional football team playing in it. And the more I read about Rams owner Stan Kroenke, the more of an a$$hole he comes off as. And being that he also owns my father's favorite soccer team, Arsenal F.C., he's an a-hole on two continents.
I was also glad to see that I wasn't the only one off-put by Dewayne (the Rock) Johnson's utterly useless appearance at the Super Bowl. A number of folks commented on it on social media, and even Boomer and Gio on Monday morning were complaining about it. My old friend Ed Robinson nailed it when he said that having The Rock come out after honoring a true pioneer in Billie Jean King, was especially lowbrow.
But, as my co-editor Karl (the Ace) Ludwig pointed out, the Rock has several projects going with NBC, so they felt the need to have him come out there. Every network does it, but NBC takes it to an art form. Remember, they are the ones that can turn a two second flick of a light-switch into a 3 hour extravaganza/infomercial. I get why NBC did it, and I'd respect them more if they were just honest about it. But you know someone, somewhere said "We thought he'd get the crowd fired up!" Dude, if after shelling out thousands of dollars, going through all that security, then sitting for 3 or 4 hours pregame, and being at the biggest sporting event in the country if not the world doesn't get your juices flowing, Dewayne Johnson aint gonna do anything for you either.
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And now it's time for our annual February look at sports around here..
THE RANGERS-Currently sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division, three points behind the Carolina Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. After going on in the off-season and picking up some grit in the names of Ryan Reaves and Barclay Goodrow, the Rangers are no longer being pushed around. Chris Krieder has finally put it all together and is having the best season of his career. Though he's still a tremendous skater, he has learned to park his a$$ right in front of the net and use his size to create scoring chances. Igor Shesterkin has become an elite goalie and like his predecessor Henrik Lundqvist, has won some games for them they may have otherwise lost. The question for them now is, do make a big deal at the deadline to go on a run, or do they stand pat and continue to develop? I honestly don't know.
THE ISLANDERS-Currently sit in 6th place in the Metropolitan Division, 16 points out of a playoff spot. The Isles were just dealt a crap hand this season. They played like a month of games on the road while their new arena at Belmont Park was being finished, then half the team ended up in COVID-19 protocol. That led to an 0-8-3 streak in November that they are still trying to dig out of. They are 13-10-1 since their 11 game winless streak. On the upside, I hear their new digs are real nice.
THE DEVILS- Are currently in last place in the Metropolitan Division and 2nd to last in the conference, 21 points out of a playoff spot. As usual, I haven't followed them enough to give you a birds-eye assessment, but my guess is they will once again be in the lottery this year. Jack Hughes, who I was real high on a couple years ago, is one of their leading scorers, albeit with 30 points.
THE KNICKS- There have been many many lousy seasons since Patrick Ewing skipped town 22 years ago, but this one is beginning to look as if it may be the most disappointing. After a year where they exceeded expectations and made the Garden rock again, this year they have gone back under .500, back out of playoff contention and back to finding imaginative ways to lose. Their last game before the All-Star Break, a 111-106 loss to the Nets (more on them coming up) was the latest, hardest kick to the shins from our Knickerbockers, on account of they blew a 28 point 1st half lead.
And now, according to the Post, senior advisor William (World Wide Wes) Wesley is laying all this at the feet of coach Tom Thibodeau, even though it was WWW and team President Leon Rose who went out and signed a couple of free agents Thibs didn't want. And now I can just see that knucklehead James Dolan sitting there saying "You know, I fired all those Rangers executives last year and look how that turned out." I'm not sure that's in order here, but they need to figure this out and finish up strong.
THE NETS- from WM one year ago this weekend....On January 13, the Nets traded 4 players, three number one draft picks and what they call draft swaps to Houston (and Cleveland) in exchange for James Harden.
All I can say is the Nets better win a championship or two in the next couple of years, or this trade will be talked about in sports management college courses for how not to run an NBA team.
The Nets pretty much conceded defeat in that trade last week, as they shipped Harden and a couple other players to the Sixers for Ben Simmons, two players and two draft picks. In what was essentially a swap of head cases, the Nets ridded themselves of Harden, who had bellyached his way out of Houston to come to Brooklyn, only to force the Nets to trade him to Philly. In return the Nets get Simmons, 7 years younger, not quite as talented, but seemingly just as temperamental.
Now one good thing about Simmons is that he seems to be more of a ball distributor. That's good when you have a team like the Nets with scorers Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and now Seth Curry (one of the guys acquired in the Harden deal-and not the guy in the Subway commercials) Of course Durant is hurt, Kyrie is being his usual difficult self and before they ran into the perfect elixir (AKA-The Knicks) the Nets had lost 10 in a row. Amazingly, they are still considered a favorite to come out of the Eastern Conference. That's assuming Durant gets healthy and Kyrie behaves himself. I don't know folks, from where I'm sitting, this looks an awful lot like NY taking back it's title as the place basketball dreams go to die.
Because even though they have been playing better of late, ST. JOHN'S has been a big disappointment as well. They probably won't make it to the tournament, unless they win or come close to winning the Big East. That's not bloody likely.
LAWSUITS-Sarah Palin vs The New York Times
Former VP Candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin had filed suit against the New York Times for libel. Last Tuesday, a jury rejected the suit. The day before, the judge in the case said that regardless of how the jury ruled, he would dismiss the case because Palin did not meet the burden of proof she needed to prove she had been defamed by the Times. Why the judge waited till the jury was deliberating to decide this is something I will leave to you legal eagles out there to discuss and decide.
As a recreational writer and part time employee of a newspaper, I should be a lot more interested in the nuts and bolts of this case then I am. I'm sorry, but I'm guessing that reading through the transcripts of this trial would be a great way to cure insomnia.
No, my interest in this case was piqued when I saw the former governor and the running mate of perhaps my all time favorite Presidential candidate, sharing a trial break lunch with one of my earliest athletic idols, number 10 in your program, but # 1 in the hearts of many female fans (hockey or otherwise) former Ranger Ron Duguay.
The Daily Beast confirmed that Palin and Duguay were indeed an item.
There were few things more exciting when I went to games at the Garden with my dad, or even watched them on Channel 9, then seeing Duguay, helmetless, with that long mane of hair flying up and down the ice. The hair probably made it look like he was skating faster than he was, but what did I know. I was like 7 or 8 years old and just getting into sports.
He could score goals and also wasn't afraid to drop the gloves every once in a while.
He scored 40 goals in 1982. The next year when he didn't even score 20, coach Herb Brooks, afraid Doogs was going to party himself out of the NHL, had him traded to Detroit, for, amongst other players, a 6'5 230 lbs. defenseman who refused to hit anybody. Duguay meanwhile had two of his best seasons for the Red Wings.
Of late; Duguay worked for MSG as a pregame/postgame analyst. He still looked like he could play if he wanted to.
I never thought I'd say this in a million years, but it might be a good time for Sarah Barracuda to throw her Elmer Fudd hunting hat back into the Presidential Ring. Hopefully 16 years after the fact, she'll pick up a newspaper now and then, (though presumably not the Times) and maybe get herself up to speed on stuff going on outside Alaska.
I know it's wishful thinking, but I just think having Ron Duguay as America's first First Gentleman would be the type of thing that can bring us all together.
Unless of course you're an Islander or Flyer fan.
BTW: Ron Duguay was born on July 6, 1957. Your trivia question for today.. why is that considered a significant date in Rock and Roll History????????????
And since I’m discussing Rangers present and past, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the passing of former GM/coach Emile (the Cat) Francis on Saturday at age 95. Though he never won a Cup on Broadway, to judge his success one just needs to see what the Rangers record was before he took over and what it was after he was let go. The Rangers teams he built and coached in the early 70’s were a bit like the Knicks of the 90’s…great teams who ran into a juggernaut. For the Knicks it was Jordan and the Bulls. For the Rangers it was Bobby Orr’s Boston Bruins. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the best executive the team ever had, and that’s with all due respect to Neil Smith and whoever was in charge back in the 1930’s.
Two of the all time great Rangers, Rod Gilbert and Emile Francis, gone within months of each other. RIP.
THE XXIV OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES
OK, here's the sum total of what I watched during this latest Olympiad.
The US Men's hockey team beating Canada.
and the US Men's hockey team losing to Slovakia.
That's it.
I was furious that they lost to Slovakia, especially after how good they looked against Canada. I had to literally tell myself that this team was hastily put together after the NHL pulled out of the Olympics, that they were literally playing on the other side of the world, (I don't care how good of shape you are in, that jet lag has to be brutal) and that most of the team were either kids under 20 or old guys over 30 looking for one more shot at glory.
Still it burns my a$$. They really had a great shot at least at a silver, if not a gold.
I really didn't follow the whole mess with the skating. For one thing, I can't stand figure skating. Like gymnastics in the summer, it's totally arbitrary and I just can't get into it. The last time I cared about figure skating was when Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding squared off in Lillehammer, Norway, after Harding's people literally put the hammer in Lillehammer to Kerrigan's knee.
I mean not for nuttin, but doesn't this $h-t happen every 4 years? And again not that I watched it, but in 2002, didn't they award two gold medals because even IOC thought the judges were too unfair? There's always something
I'm not sure it's all the bad stuff China does, or the 13 hour time difference...
Trapper: What times is it back home?
Hawkeye: It's 2 o'clock next Thursday
I just had no interest. Doesn't look like I missed much either.
The highlight of the Olympics for me was the goalie for the US Men, Strauss Mann. What a great name right? Reminded me of when my sister got a teddy bear from A&S department store (remember them?) for Christmas in the 80’s. Abearham the bear, and his friend Strauss the Mouse.
