Hi
It was one of those days on Saturday where walking through the city, I saw some folks wearing hats, gloves and scarves, and others walking around in t-shirts and shorts. I had a windbreaker and jeans, it certainly wasn't cold enough to have to bundle up, but it didn't feel like shorts weather either. Of course it seems like our kids have decided that anything short of a blizzard constitutes shorts weather.
I know other parents have this issue because I see the social media posts, but getting Tim to put a sweatshirt on in the morning, forget a jacket, is a full time gig. I guess when we were younger we had our quirks, but I usually didn't think twice about putting a coat or jacket on when the weather started to cool off. When I drop Tim off at school, I see a bunch of kids going into the school in shorts and at most a long sleeve t-shirt.
Interesting.
Anyway, onto the week that was...
FISHING: And you thought they only cheated in baseball.....
On Tuesday, I heard them talking on the FAN about a couple of guys who were caught cheating during a fishing tournament.
So full disclosure here: I know next to nothing about regular fishing, never mind competitive fishing. The one time I went out fishing on a boat was a couple days after my 26th birthday. The night before I had been out celebrating with the Ace at Donovan's and the next morning I had completely forgotten I had told Kevin Woods I would go out on his family's boat.
I raced down to Rockaway and headed down with Woodsy, his parents, sister and future brother in law to the marina. The combination of the relative early hour, my previously night's/earlier that morning's consumption, and the rough seas*, and about the only thing I was good for was giving the fish some extra chum.
That's the extent of my fishing experience. Jamesy and I had gone crabbing in the bay when we were kids, but casting a line? Nope. So bear with me as I explain what happened here.
The Lake Erie Walleye Trail fishing tournament took place last Friday in Chagrin Falls, a suburb of Cleveland. Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky were the two fishing teammates who had their walleye catch weighed by the official Jason Fischer (sometimes the headlines write themselves don't they?)
Fischer the fisherman expert told CNN that walleye that size usually weigh in around 4 pounds, the ones entered for consideration by Cominsky and Runyan were over 7 pounds.
To confirm his suspicions, Fischer cut open the fish where he discovered weights and fish fillets inside the fish. "We have weights in fish!" he bellowed
Now this to me is where I can't help but laugh.
First of all, everyone else is wearing boots and Fischer is wearing slippers. Why I find that funny I don't know but I did. Next when Fischer discovered the weights and fillets, he looks at Runyan and channels he best Country Joe West impression and gives him the heave ho, like Runyan was arguing balls and strikes.
Now, not that I would ever do something as dastardly as this duo did, but let's say I had.... I would do one of two things either 1) I'd make like the guy from Casablanca and act like I had no idea how those weights got in there. I'm Shocked, SHOCKED! And for good measure, appalled.
The other thing I probably would have done is run.
I mean look at how fast those other guys closed in on him. He was probably smart not to run, lest he have a pack of angry midwestern alpha males chasing him down, and maybe I'm wrong to assume this, but I'm guessing being that this took place in red state Ohio, most of these dudes were packing heat as well.
Now in one of the videos I saw, and I'm still trying to find it, I believe Fischer implores the other fishers (seewhatididthere?) "Do not touch either one of these guys" I mean I hadn't heard that many F-bombs on film since Goodfellas.** I give Fischer all the credit in the world for keeping those two nuts safe from bodily harm. That's almost a miracle in and of itself.
Apparently, these guys have racked up almost $3 million in prize money. (This tournament alone was worth a cool $290,000 reportedly***) And now that's all up in the air.
Crazy story. Here's the full video https://www.tiktok.com/@walleyemafia1/video/7149542351537442091?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7149542351537442091
RIP: Bernard McGirk (1957-2022)
The self proclaimed bald headed stooge from the Imus in the Morning program and later the host of his own morning radio show, passed away this week from cancer just weeks short of his 65th birthday.
In fact he wasn't a stooge at all, actually by all accounts he was the brains behind the Imus in the Morning operation. As the executive producer, he was in charge of booking guests and making sure the commercials ran when they did to keep the money rolling in. Even as Howard Stern trumped the I-Man in the ratings, it was Imus show that for years brought in the most money from advertising. Due in no small part to the guidance of McGirk.
My favorite moments on the radio were him were his impersonations. He did a spot on Walt "Clyde" Frazier (masturbatin and procrastinatin over on the bench). He did both John Cardinal O'Connor, Edward Cardinal Egan and Timothy Cardinal Dolan with the same faux Irish brogue. (All 3 were of Irish decent but none of them had brogues in real life) And my personal favorite, and perhaps his most NSFW impression, former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin. Indeed that one was so controversial, that when Nagin was convicted of fraud and sent up the creek, WABC management told Imus, to his chagrin that they didn't want Bernie doing his Nagin impression.
This was very likely due to Imus and Bernard's most controversial moment.. the Rutgers Women's basketball team scandal. I'm not going to rehash it here like I did when Imus died. Imus in the Morning was ended on WFAN and all other CBS Radio stations and ended up 8 months later on WABC and eventually Fox Business Network.
When Imus retired in April, 2018, Bernie and Sid Rosenberg took over the morning show. Bernie and Sid in the morning was entertaining, but to me much of the humor was gone. I could live with it being a topical show, but when it joined all the other shows on the station as Donald Trump radio, I had to tune out.
And the shame of it is, despite the fact that he was a Trump apologist, I really did like him. I even got to meet him one day.
He lived in Long Beach, but he worked out at the same gym I did in Oceanside. I met him in 2016, when he and Sid had the show on after Imus. I worked up the courage to introduce myself and tell him what a fan I was of his and he could not have been more gracious. At the time Sid was supporting Hillary Clinton, (he would eventually toe the company line and go full throttle for Trump) Bernie told me that since Sid didn't like Trump, he could start a Jews for Ted Cruz chapter here in NY.
When Tara and I were leaving the gym, Bernie rolled down the window of his car and thanked me again for supporting his show with Sid. He introduced himself to Tara too. As much a gentleman off the air as he was a rascal on it.
I was real sad when I saw he had passed.
*******************************************************************************
I'm going to do a separate blogpost on the Mets. That will post sometime late Monday.
I'm not sure how I feel about this new playoff format yet, but what I can tell you is that if it means more afternoon ballgames then I'm all for that. How cool was it on Saturday to turn on the telly and see an outdoor afternoon baseball game in October? That it was the Guardians and the Rays wasn't important, what I dug about it was that it reminded me of the Saturday's of my youth. This Week in Baseball at 12 noon, the NBC pregame show at 12:30 and the Game of the Week at 1:00. (well 1:15 or so). Now the Game of the Week, (when its on) is usually at night and in late August and September when college football starts, it's on Thursday night. WTF?
That aforementioned game in Cleveland BTW was a classic. 14.5 innings of scoreless baseball ended on a walk-off home run by Oscar Gonzalez. Now the Guardians play the Yankees in the ALDS.
How bout them Giants and Jets! Giants kicking butt on two continents. The Jets blew out the Dolphins.
Break em up!
Let’s Go Mets!
Stay safe
and Have a Great Week
*23 years later, it's still up for debate how rough the seas actually were.
**According to multiple sources, it's actually another DeNiro/Pesci flick, Casino, that has more f-cks spoken.
*** Another of too many examples where I tell myself that I'm in the wrong line of work.
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