Hey:
So we are now into October. School year is in full motion, summer now a distant memory. My wife keeps saying that "We need to put the Halloween stuff up." She's been saying this since Labor Day.
I can't really blame her though, the stores have been stocking Halloween stuff since the end of August, which really pisses me off. Used to be you didn't see Halloween stuff till the first week of October, and Christmas stuff till the middle of November. Now Costco has Christmas trees next to their Halloween costumes and candy.
It's ridiculous.
I'm sure there had to have been a study conducted somewhere that shoppers want to get an early start on their Halloween and Christmas shopping, and we live in a monkey see/monkey do world nowadays where no bad idea goes uncopied. And now here we are.
I guess I should just get with the times, but I'm glad Tara and I held off on putting our Halloween decorations on the front door.
On Friday night though, Tara and I went to one of her co-workers houses for a Hocus-Pocus party.
Apparently the sequel to the 1993 Bette Midler/Sarah Jessica Parker flick came out on Disney plus on Friday, so Tara's friend and her hubby had a bunch of us over. You had the option of dressing up (Tara wore a witches hat) and thankfully you also had the option of going out back to the family's wood burning fire pit if you weren't up for the movie. I chose the fire pit option.
The guys there were good men and fun to chat with. None of them were huge sports fans, so I had to take a gander at my phone every few minutes for updates on the Mets Braves game in Atlanta, and I was relying on one of the kids friends to keep me updated on Aaron Judge's status.
We'll have more on that later, but first we have to talk about..
HURRICAINE IAN
Another year, another massive destructive storm.
Hurricane Ian made landfall on the west coast of Florida this week. The pictures we saw on TV were devastating. I've said that every year it seems like we have another storm of the century. This one looks like it may lay claim to the title.
To say that I have had my issues with Florida governor Ron DeSantis would be an understatement. I hate how he handled the pandemic. How he handles things down there now will be interesting to see. Will he show his compassionate side? Will he look to work with the federal government or will he use this to pick another fight with the President and try to improve his street cred with the Republican party?
I really hope he uses the skills he has to help his people and more importantly, to accept the help of others he would otherwise want to deal with, sort of like how Chris Christie worked with President Obama after Superstorm Sandy.
It may sound corny and it also may be a whole lot of wishful thinking, but this country works best when it works together. This storm was something else, and to help those poor folks down there, we need to put the BS aside and help them out.
YANKEES: JUDGE vs MARIS
On Wednesday night in Toronto, Aaron Judge hit a home run, giving him 61 on the year and a share of the American League home run record with Roger Maris, and as far as I'm concerned, a share of the all time single season HR record as well.
I saw a couple of interesting takes this week. One was from Deadspin.com, a website I often read and even more often find myself disagreeing with. Well, not so much that I disagree with them, often times, like in the case of taxpayer funded stadiums, steroids, and race relations, I agree with them. They just often come off as self sanctimonious* whether I agree with them or not.
The article I read this week was a perfect example of this. It basically took Roger Maris Jr. to task for suggesting that in his mind, Judge is now the true single season record holder, not Barry Bonds, or before him, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. The writer for Deadspin took pains to point out that Maris Jr. along with the rest of Roger Sr. kids and widow, backed McGwire in 1998. Indeed, they were there at Busch Stadium upfront and center, when McGwire became the first player to hit 62 homers in a season. After McGwire hugged his teammates, his young son, and Sammy Sosa, himself sitting at 58 homers that night, he made his way over to the stands to hug the Maris family. At the press conference after the game, he told the media that he told Maris kids that he got to "touch Roger's bat, that he used to hit number 61. And now my bat will lie next to his and I'm damn proud of that"
And now the Deadspin writer Eric Blum accuses Roger Maris Jr. of "whitewashing history" acting as if 1998 never happened. Shaming the Maris' for supporting McGwire in 1998.
That's bogus.
I didn't want McGwire, or Ken Griffey Jr. to break the record. (It was Griffey and not Sosa who was originally thought to be the favorite with McGwire to break the record) I had heard the stories of what Maris had gone through in 1961, even before the classic Billy Crystal movie came out.
My dad was always a Mantle guy. My Mom? She loved Roger Maris. I remember her being visibly upset when they announced during an ABC News brief (remember those?) one night in 1985 that Maris had passed away of cancer at age 53. "I always liked him" she said to me that night. She's not a huge baseball fan, so when she likes a player, I always figured he had to be all right.
But as the season wore on and it became clear that either McGwire or Sosa or both were going to break the record, I started warming to the idea of them having it. Both had positive attitudes, both seemed to respect each other, and most importantly both took the time to get to know Maris' family and to learn about the man whose record they were chasing.
I was in Ireland when they found the bottle of andro in McGwire's locker at Shea Stadium. WM co-editor Razor Ray McGarvey's dad was over there and tried to explain to me what was going on. I found a day old copy of USA Today (AKA McNewspaper as we Posties call it) somewhere in Dublin that had an article about it, and I'm not gonna lie, I didn't give it much thought.
Which leads me to another thing I came across on social media.
Jeff Pearlman as readers of this post know is my favorite author and I will be reading and reviewing his next book The Last Folk Hero about Bo Jackson.
He tweeted a video of McGwire paying tribute to Roger Maris the night he hit number 62, and wondered aloud:
"When Mark McGwire was spewing this bullshit in 1998 did he convince himself of his own authebnticity? Wast there ANY guilt over taking away something so precious and hard earned from the Maris family? Over cheating? Or we he just an asshole? A callous one? "
Listen, I could be totally naïve on this, but no I don't think McGwire is a callous asshole. Yeah, he cheated and no I don't think he deserves the record. I'm even less convinced than I was they he and Sosa saved baseball in 1998. But that being said, I do believe he cared about the Maris family, I still believe his emotion was genuine, even if his results weren't. I still think he has a heart.
Barry Bonds to me is the callous asshole who ruined everything. He utter contempt for the fans, the media, and most of his fellow ballplayers, teammates or otherwise, is what shined the steroids spotlight on all this. Nobody wanted this malcontent to be the face of baseball. Am I being a hypocrite? Possibly. A racist? That's horse$hit. I would have had no issue had Sammy Sosa passed McGwire (which almost happened) I would have had no issue with Ken Griffey Jr. passing Maris, especially since Griffey was clean. Are you kidding? Had Griffey been juicing, he probably would have avoided the injuries that hampeered the end of his career and went for like 800 HR's.
And I certainly have no problem with Aaron Judge passing Maris. Judge is clean, has been a tremendous ambassador for baseball, a credit to the Yankees and New York City.
Unfortunately, Judge didn’t homer this weekend against the Orioles in the Bronx, so if he’s going to pass Maris, it’s gonna have to be down in Arlington, TX against the Rangers. Not to far from where Mantle spent most of his post-baseball career.
METS: Dixie Disaster
Getting swept by the Atlanta Braves, especially in the Braves ballpark, while aggravating, really shouldn’t carry a whole lotta shame. The Braves have been playing out of this world baseball since June 1. Only the Dodgers have had a better record since that date, and not by a lot. The Braves, as much as I can’t stand the jerks, are the real deal.
My issue with the Mets is all the other games they lost in September, Two at home to the lowly Nationals, a sweep at home to the crappy Cubs, two losses to the Marlins and losses to the Pirates and A’s. They went 15-11 in September. Only two of those losses were to above .500 teams. They take just one extra win from the Cubs, Nationals, and Marlins, and they still are in first place, regardless of what happened in Atlanta.
Instead, all the great baseball they played up til September 1st had now gone to waste.
Now they are all but certain to end up playing in the Wild Card round against the Padres instead of getting a bye to the second round.
Can they turn it around? Sure they can, but having held first place all that time only to lose it at the last minute has to be deflating. Do these guys have the guts to pick themselves up and fight their way to the NLCS?
There were a few times in the beginning of the season where they were down and fought their way back. But that seems like a long time ago doesn’t it? Right now they just look defeated. Like they have no more fight in them.
I hope I’m wrong, but…
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I know several of you either live, have relatives in, or spent some time down in Florida. I hope you and your loved ones are all OK.
Stay Safe,
and Have a Great Week
*And if you want to say that me calling Deadspin that is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, please do so..............on your own blog thankyouverymuch
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