Hey!
Saturday night I went to a surprise 49th birthday party.
This was brilliantly planned and coordinated by my friend Trina for her husband, my brother from another mother, Kevin Woods. What better way to surprise your husband for his 50th birthday then by throwing him a birthday party on his 49th?
It worked. He definitely was surprised!
The DJ said that the mike was open if anyone wanted to get up and say a few words about the guest of honor. Woodsy’s Dad volunteered me to be the first to speak. (DOH!)
I went up and talked about how Kev and I first met…. A rainy miserable day in August 1986. My friends on 112th Street decided to go over to 113th Street to Kevin’s house. I didn’t know who he was and he didn’t know who I was. “I can’t let this guy in!” Kevin said pointing at me. Somehow, my buddies negotiated my way in and we sat playing whatever was the big video console at the time (Nintendo maybe?) At one point Kevin’s sister came downstairs and one of my buddies had the idea to throw a blanket over me because that wouldn’t raise any suspicion. (When I told Nancy this story years later, she laughed and said “Yeah..YOU were we the one I was worried about out of that crew”)
From that day on though, Kevin and I hit it off. We ended up in high school together, where I wouldn’t have gotten through without him. Then after college I worked with his brother Jim for a few years, my first real 9-5 gig. I told everyone how much the Woods’s meant to me and how happy I was to see them all. I was a nervous wreck, but I’m glad I got to say that to them.
It was an awesome evening.
What wasn’t awesome? Well, this past weekend in sports.
FRIDAY NIGHT-Jacob deBum
Timmy broke the news to me on Friday that Jacob deGrom had signed with the Texas Rangers. Sure enough, there it was..a five year deal worth $185 million. On the surface, it’s a lot of money, but it’s actually 37 mil per year, which while not chump change, it’s also not what Max Scherzer is getting, and I was pretty sure he was going to want at least that much. Instead he gave up $$$ for years.
But it’s also quite obvious that he wanted out of New York. And a couple of years ago, I may not have blamed him, all those nights where he gave up 1 or 2 runs and got nothing to show for it? Yeah, I wouldn’t have blamed him for wanting to skip town either.
But the team now has an owner willing to spend, a GM who has an idea of what he is doing and a manager who is one of the best in the business. Not to mention he got paid handsomely the past couple of seasons not to pitch.
I just remember watching him warm up on the mound at Citi Field that Sunday in August, his first game back at home after his latest injury. I remember that ovation he got from the crowd, people I knew who were at the game getting emotional watching him warm up as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man played. He had already announced he was opting out of his deal as was his right, but I thought to myself, “Why would he want to leave here, knowing how much the fans here respected him?”
Of course I shouldn’t have been that naive.
Bill Madden often talks about Scott Boras’ strategy of finding “one dumb owner.” Just one owner who will overpay someone and set the market for the rest of the league. It seems like more than once, that one dumb owner resides in Arlington, TX. Remember A-Rod’s $252 million deal? That was also courtesy of the Rangers. By year 3 of that 10 year deal, the Rangers were looking to get out of it.
5 years for a guy with arm trouble is insane. I am glad the Mets didn’t bite on that.
I’m not going to insult you by saying that if deGrom had simply taken the better deal, I wouldn’t be upset, because of course I was going to be upset either way. I don’t begrudge the man for taking a 5 year deal if someone was dumb enough to offer it.
But what bugs me is that he seemed to have his mind made up and that his heart wasn’t in it at the end. I wonder how hard he rehabbed, how much he cared about getting back to the Mets in 2022, knowing he was on his way out the door? I hate to think like that, but I think it’s a legitimate question.
There may come a day where I appreciate what he did for the Mets, but for right now he just comes off as a fraud. I guess for $37 million a year, it doesn’t matter what we think of him. He’s laughing all the way to the bank.
SATURDAY MORNING- While My Qatar Gently Weeps…
So before I write about the US Men’s Soccer team’s loss to the Netherlands on Saturday, let me first shower them with praise. First, for beating Iran last Tuesday 1-0, and even more, for the classy way team captain Tyler Adams handled questions from the “Iranian Media”.
First the so called reporter reprimanded Adams for mispronouncing the name of the country. The correct pronunciation is Ear-Ron, but many of us ugly Americans call it I-Ran, basically we pronounce it as it is spelled. Adams apologized.
I would not have.
Then they asked Adams about discrimination in America, and Adams answered with the most dignified and classy answer, saying that discrimination exists everywhere, and that U.S continues to make progress every day.
Bullseye.
Again I wouldn’t have handled that nearly as well. Taking a question like that from a man representing a country that treats women like garbage. The World Economic Forum ranked Iran as 140 out of 144 countries in regards to gender parity. Is there racism in our country? Still way too much. But for someone from Iran to call us out? GTFOH!
It made the win on Tuesday all the more sweet.
As for the loss on Saturday, well, there was no shortage of good chances, we just couldn’t cash them in. The Dutch are really good and they made the most of their opportunities. It would have been great to keep going, but we can take the moral victory. A tie against a really good British team and a win over Iran. We get the world on our turf in 2026. We can all look forward to that.
SATURDAY NIGHT- Hockey Letdown
I won’t write too much about the Rangers now with everything else going on, but so far they have been a major disappointment. Coming off their trip to the ECF last year, they have been mediocre at best. Their inability to resign certain players because of the salary cap seemed to have come back to haunt them. It’s too early to panic, but not too early to be concerned. They lost a bad game to a bad team (the Blackhawks) 5-2 Saturday night at MSG.
SUNDAY- No Medals for Trying
It is a sign of progress that the Jets lost on the last play of the game and there was no solace in that.
The Vikings are one of the better teams in the NFL, now at 10-2. The Jets were trailing at halftime 20-6, but dominated on both sides of the ball in the second half. They did everything but score touchdowns, kicking 3 FG’s to come to within 20-15. Minnesota scored a TD to make it a two score game, and the Jets finally scored a TD, to get it to 27-22. They even had one more shot to win it after the defense held, but Mike White threw an interception in end zone on the last play of the game.
While there are no such things as moral victories when you are trying to make the playoffs, there were a bunch of positives, mainly, now that we have a competent QB under center, we can see just how good our receivers and running backs are. The running game was pretty good on Sunday, with Zonovan (Bam) Knight rushing for 90 yards, and Garrett Wilson looks like he’s going to be a star receiver.
And QB Mike White while maybe not as dominant as he was against the Bears, still made a few really nice throws. His biggest test yet comes this Sunday against the Bills in Orchard Park.
The Giants and Commanders played to a 20-20 tie. I heard a lot pf people saying that was akin to a loss and I may have agreed, but they are really banged up with injuries.
OBITUARIES
I’m a big Fleetwood Mac fan, so the death of Christine McVie was very sad. One of the most amazing and underrated voices in rock and roll. I always felt that Stevie Nicks got more attention (and she is an icon in her own right) but McVie to me was one of the best to ever do it.
And even though he lived to be 90, and I hadn’t watched him on TV in years, I was also sad to hear of the passing of Bob McGrath from Sesame Street. He was always my favorite, just one of those faces that everyone felt comfortable with. And from all accounts, just as kind a man off the air as he was on.
And Kristie Alley, who was hysterical on Cheers, passed away on Monday night at age 71.
RIP.
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As we go to press tonight, the runoff election in Georgia between incumbent Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker is taking place, the polls due to close at 7PM EST. That we are even at this stage with someone as unqualified as Walker is a sad state of affairs, but, well, here we are.
Sorry this was late.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
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