Weekly Mail February 19, 2023

 

Happy President's Day Weekend!

Last week I spoke about how we usually get at least one warm day in February, sort of a teaser for the spring that is fast approaching. This week we got a few more unseasonably warm days. It really hasn't felt like February around here. I'm not complaining, but I am concerned that we're going to get hit with a cold March. I hope we're not freeeezing on St. Patrick's Day. 

SUPER BOWL WRAP-UP

I was starting to get the feeling that the Eagles were going to run away with the game and turn into one of those blowouts we got a lot in the 80's and 90's. Especially as I saw Patrick Mahomes hobbling off the field near the end of the first half. 

But alas, the Chiefs came out firing on all cylinders in the 2nd half, scoring on each possession and the Eagles couldn't stay with them. 

Just a couple of thoughts..

1) We can argue back and forth whether or not that was a hold on the Eagles on the Chiefs last drive. But what I don't want to hear is "How can they make that call at that point in the game?" That drives me crae crae. If it's a penalty, it's a penalty. I think this swallow the whistle stuff is just bull$h-t, and I've seen it happen too many times and too many folks just accept it as a matter of course. I thought it was a hold and the play was called correctly, but I also acknowledge that I was rooting for KC and was not the most objective observer. If you didn't think it was a hold, you could probably make a decent case for that too. But to say yeah it was a hold, but don't let the game be decided on a play like that? Sorry that don't fly with me. 

2) Rooting for Patrick Mahomes is pretty easy. He's a great QB and seems like a really good guy. Travis Kelce on the other hand is fast becoming a guy I can do without. There isn't a person involved with pro football who doesn't think this guy already has his ticket punched for Canton, and the Chiefs were considered by many to be Super Bowl favorites, yet all I heard out of Kelce's bug mouth was how disrespected the Chiefs were and how "Nobody gave us a chance!" Oh please STFU! I mean if you need to stand in front of a mirror and tell yourself that to get motivated, by all means. But spare us, the viewing public that tale of woe. There are few things in this life that burn my a$$ more than athletes, making more money in a quartier of a calendar year that many of us will see in our lifetimes, saying they are being disrespected. The Chiefs act could start getting old real quick if this keeps up. 

And now a look at the state of out teams here in NY...

THE RANGERS- 33-14-8 74 points.  Sitting with my dear friend Joann and her husband Joe at Woodsy's birthday party, we were lamenting our struggling Rangers, who would lose to the lowly Blackhawks that night and drop their record to a mediocre 11-10-5. Since that night, they have gone 22-4-3 and are a mere 6 points out of first place in the Metropolitan Division. They recently acquired Vladimir Tarasenko from the Blues, which has also ignited Artemi Panarin who up till then had been having a pedestrian season. They currently sit in third place behind the first place Hurricanes, and in second place

THE DEVILS- 35-14-5  75 points. I don't think I am going out on a limb here when I say that the Devils are the most surprising team in the NHL this season. They had a 13 game winning streak from October 25 till the night before Thanksgiving, and although they cooled off a bit in December, they are still in solid playoff position. Jack Hughes has become the legit superstar we all thought he'd be after being drafted first overall in 2019, and goalie Vitek Vanecek  is 6th in the NHL in GAA (the NHL version of ERA). 

THE ISLANDERS 28-24-7 63 pts   They have been consistently inconsistent all year, but still have a shot at making the playoffs. They are in a battle with the Penguins, Capitals, and Panthers for the last two playoff spots in the East. They just made a big trade with Vancouver, bringing in Bo Horvat a proven sniper. They also have gotten solid goaltending from Ilya Sorokin. I'm still not sure sending Barry Trotz packing in favor of Lane Lambert was a good idea, but I've questioned Lou Lamoriello before and watched his teams win. We'll see. 

THE KNICKS-33-27    Leave it to the Knicks to start getting red hot just as the All-Star break begins. The Knicks, like the Rangers, have benefited by trading for a solid player who complements one of the teams stars. For the Knicks, trading Cam Reddish for Josh Hart, a teammate of Jalen Brunson at Villanova, has been a godsend. The Knicks have been 3-0 since the deal and Brunson, who was snubbed (IMHO) from the Eastern Conference All-Star team, has had a 40 point game and a 38 point game since the trade. Mike Vaccaro in a column in Friday's Post, took great lengths to say that he wasn't comparing the Reddish for Hart trade to the 1968 trade that brought Dave DeBusschere to the Knicks from Detroit, but he did mention both deals in the same column. So do with that what you will. 

THE NETS-34-24     Unlike the en fuego Knicks, the Nets could probably use the time off the All-Star break provides to recover from all the drama they have endured this year. This was of course capped off by their dealing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving away to the Suns and Mavericks respectively. Durant while happy to be dealt to another contender seemed genuinely disappointed that he couldn't make it work in Brooklyn, while Irving, complained of a lack of respect, (see Kelce, Travis above for my feelings about athletes who complain about respect)  I still believe this will ultimately be addition by subtraction for the Nets.  The hope is that they take the draft capital they acquired and make the most of it. 

BASEBALL- RIP  Tim McCarver

Tim McCarver wasn't everybody's cup of tea, my two co-editors here at WM were forever complaining about him, but for me he was the voice of summer. 

As a kid I learned so much about the game from him, both the history of it and the in's and out's of it. Some people didn't like his voice, I thought it had a easy and welcoming tone to it. (I used to impersonate him by saying "If you were born in 1944, in 1988 you'll be 44") 

Living here in NY and rooting for the Mets, I was lucky enough to have him doing the games with Ralph Kiner and Steve Zabriskie (Zabriske was later replaced by Gary Thorne) I always liked him better when he did the Mets on Channel 9. When he did the national games to me is where he tended to belabor certain points. But him and Ralphie telling stories about their playing days, that's what baseball is all about. 

He ruffled feathers because he spoke his mind. It was always rumoured the reason he was let go by the Mets was that Bobby Valentine got fed up being second guessed all the time by McCarver. I don't know if that was true, but I do know that Deion sanders assaulted him with ice water when McCarver questioned Sanders commitment to the Braves during the NLCS as Sanders also played football at the same time. 

I felt bad when he hung up the mike after the 2013 World Series, and I don't think Joe Buck has been quite as good at calling baseball games since McCarver retired from FOX. (Buck now does Monday Night Football exclusively for ESPN). 

Us Met fans don't have a ton to brag about, but we hit the jackpot when it comes to our booth. Bob Murphy, Ralph Kiner and Lindsay Nelson for the first 16 years, Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez the past 16 years, and somewhere in between we had Tim McCarver, one of the best to ever do it.  Sad that he passed the same week pitchers and catchers reported.

RIP

The Greats of the Game-This is a show they would put on during rain delays or if Channel 9 had time to fill after Kiner’s Korner. The quality is not that good, but note the Lou Rawls version of Wind Beneath My Wings that is 100 times better than Bette Midler’s. 

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-I don't ever root for any athlete to suffer an injury, and as pissed as I was at Jacob deGrom, I don't want him to get hurt either. Still, upon hearing that he was being "held back a couple of days due to tightness in his side", I couldn't help but think "Not my issue anymore “

Enjoy the long weekend.

Stay Safe 

and Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail February 12, 2023 Halftime Special

 

Super Bowl I Halftime Show- January 15, 1967 Los Angeles Coliseum 

Welcome to the halftime edition of WM.

It’s very clearly an Eagles crowd there in Glendale, as evidenced by the cascade of boos that rained down on Dak Prescott when he was named the Walter Payton NFL man of the year. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before, but then again these are the same folks who booed Santa Claus. 

Each team’s second TD was a classic. And Jalen Hurts was responsible for both of them. The TD he threw was placed perfectly… the Chiefs cornerback couldn’t have covered it any better. 

But then he fumbled almost out of nowhere and kicked the ball away, allowing KC to recover and score the tying TD. He’s rushed for the other two Eagle TD’s.

And now Patrick Mahomes is hobbling off the field. Not good. 

My favorite commercial so far was the old man doing the Safety Dance near the water fountains (Turbo Tax). The Will Ferrell commercial was pretty good too. I suppose it was fun for Bradley Cooper to do a commercial with his Mom, but I thought that one was stupid. 

One again, I think the fact that we are playing this game on Lincoln's birthday is ridiculous. Football season should have been over three weeks ago. 

OTHER SPORTS: Big Week For Trades

I'm going to get more into the state of our non-football winter teams next week, but I'd be remiss if I didn't discuss the trades that were made last week by the Knicks, Rangers and especially the Nets. 

We'll start with the Nets-  Having dealt both Kyrie Irving (to Dallas) and Kevin Durant (to Phoenix) after having dealt James Harden last year (to Philly) it's been said that this was the biggest flop in NBA history. To have tried to create a dream team of future Hall of Famers to try and capture multiple championships and have that effort not only fall way short of the goal, but to see of the parts like so much scrap metal. 

While I agree this has to sting if you are a Nets fan, I still submit that the trade for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce was way more damaging. 

The Garnett/Pierce Nets team, like this Durant/Kyrie team won a grand total of one playoff series. But to acquire Garnett and Pierce, the Nets gave up a bunch of players and a slew of draft picks, the worst of which was a draft swap in 2017, that gifted the Celtics the overall first pick in the whole draft. 

At least for Kyrie and Durant, it just cost them money and they were able to recoup draft picks. They had absolutely nothing to show for Garnett and Pierce. 

Now of course the Nets could still screw this all up by drafting busts, or trading the picks for players who don't live up to the hype, but at least they are in a position to do remake the franchise. The Nets in 2017 were bereft of talent and also of a means to restock the cupboard as it were. 

As for Kyrie, my first thought was what Uncle Junior Soprano said of Jackie Aprile Jr. after Jackie Jr.'s funeral... 

"Kid was always a dumb f-ck though, wasn't he?" 

Between his refusal to get vaccinated for COVID-19 which cost him playing time, his endorsement of an anti-sematic movie, and his refusal to play in some games pre-COVID, his time here in Brooklyn was much more trouble than it was worth. He made it impossible to root for him. 

The easy thing to say is that the Nets organization should have known about all this crap before they signed him, as he pulled similar stunts in Cleveland and Boston beforehand, at one point suggesting the Earth was flat. I'd love to say I wouldn't want a dick like that on my team, but I also know that I root for a team that hasn't won since two months before I was born. (For those of you counting at home, that's 50 years this year). I get the notion of holding your nose as you hope these guys get you over the top. But when they flop, like is what happened here, it stings even more. 

As for the Knicks, they traded a guy who barely played in Cam Reddish, for a guy who looks like he can be useful in Josh Hart. From what I've read about him, he's a decent scorer, but is more known for his defense and rebounding. If Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett score like they are capable, then they don't need another guy scoring 20 ppg, they need a guy to clean up on the boards and get stops on the other side of the court. Sounds like they got just the guy for the job. 

Plus , it was nice for a change to hear people talk about the Nets as dysfunctional, as opposed to the Knicks who have been the definition of dysfunctional for most of the 21st Century. 

The Rangers meantime traded a guy whose always hurt (or so it seems) and a minor leaguer (albeit one with an amazing hockey name) for Vladimir Tarasenko and defenseman Niko Mikkola. Tarasenko has been a consistent 30 goal scorer, and is good friends with Ranger star Aretmi Panarin. The Rangers dealt the oft-injured, and inconsistent when healthy Sammy Blais, and a youngster named Hunter Skinner. I don't know much about him, but if you were on the ice, or anywhere else for that matter, would you mess with a guy named Hunter Skinner? 

Me neither. 

I’m wondering if Roger Goodell is going to ring up Adam Silver and politely request the NBA move their trade deadline a couple weeks out next year. 

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I like to consider myself somewhat social media savvy, but I have to admit I had never heard of the term thirst trap until this week when it was used in relation to recently retired QB Tom Brady. Brady took a selfie of himself in his underwear and posted it on his Instagram account, the same method he used incidentally, to announce his latest retirement. 

According to the Urban Dictionary-Thirst Trap. A sexy photograph or flirty message posted on social media for the intent of causing others to publicly profess their attraction.

Now seeing Brady in his underwear does nothing for me, but I will admit this, I'd rather see him in his draws than in full NFL uniform facing off against my Jets. He is quite possibly the main reason I haven't been able to enjoy football for most of this current century. 

Seems to me that for at least one or two days every February, you have spring like weather, almost a gift from Mother Nature. We had two days last week, Thursday and Friday that felt like late April. 

Of course we also get a couple days in March and April that feel like mid January. We'll see if that happens again this year. 

Stay Safe 

and Enjoy the Rest of the Game

Weekly Mail February 5, 2023

 

Hey Everyone:

So today marks the 6 month countdown to 50 years of Wild Bill. I feel like I just turned 49 last week, hell I feel like I just turned 21 last month. Actually, the way I ache after working out, I know that 21 was a loong time ago. 

We are also out of the dog days of January thank goodness. I really do consider January to be the roughest month. After New Year's Day there's not much going on besides the NFL Playoffs. It's cold, it's dark and we're all getting back to normal after the holidays. 

February, at least we have Valentine's Day and President's Day and the kids get a week off from school. Also pitchers and catchers report. 

This weekend was frrrrreeeezzzing here in NY. It was also the first time I got to take the LIRR into the new station in Grand Central Terminal.

TRAVEL: Grand Central Madison

I was off from the Post last week, so Saturday was the first time I got to venture into Grand Central Madison, the $11 billon long overdue project that allows LIRR riders the option of going to Grand Central. 

Living in Woodside and working in Midtown back in the day, I got to walk through Grand Central Terminal every day. I wouldn't call it a treat, but I had to admit it was a hell of a lot nicer than dumpy Penn Station, where the Long Islanders had to go to get their train from the city to points east. 

I never envied my Nassau/Suffolk friends having to spend any quality time in Penn Station. As a kid going to Ranger games with my father, I thought Penn was kinda cool, but waiting there to get my train on Saturday nights after work was a drag. I missed the walks through the huge waiting room in Grand Central Terminal. My friends from Westchester/Connecticut still got to wait in GCT. 

So I was excited to try out this new way in, if for nothing us to mix up the monotony of the trip. The problem was, as I mentioned above, it was freezing out, and there was a 23 minute wait at Jamaica for the train to GCT. 

I thought maybe I had a solution to that issue.... At Jamaica, I went upstairs to the waiting room for the Jamaica-JFK Airtrain, and at first I have to admit I was kind of stoked. I had no idea that they had a deli, a Tim Horton's Donuts, and a bar. Pre-gaming in Jamaica perhaps. 

Well, I believe that the original purpose of the bar was for folks who were flying to have a quick beer or vino before they go to the airport, where they can have another beer or vino before they get on their flight. Problem was the clientele at this bar didn't look like they were heading anywhere out of Jamaica, much less out of New York or the US. They looked like regulars, and the bartender was talking to them like she hung out with them all the time. Hey look, I'm spoiled, my home bars are some of the best in the world. Like they used to say on Cheers, "Sometimes you gotta go where everybody knows your name". Like I said, I don't think that was the idea behind this place. But what do I know?

I got a cookie and a bottle of water at Tim Horton's and decided to head back out into the cold. Luckily, by the time I had scoped out the AirTrain terminal, and got my Scooby snack, I had cut more than half of the 23 minute wait for the shuttle. Plus the train was there, so I could go get a seat and wait. 

We headed out as advertised and stopped at Kew Gardens, Forest Hills and Woodside. My usual train to Penn skips my hometown and goes from Forest Hills right into Penn, so that was annoying too,. 

But once we got into the tunnel to go under the East River, you could tell the difference. While the tunnel to Penn is dark, the one to Grand Central was well lit, And when we pulled into the station, it was all bright and clean.

"Some difference right? a fellow passenger said to me, obviously noticing my facial expression. It really was, and when I stepped off the train, it didn't smell like a sewer either. THAT was weird too. 

Arriving at Grand Central Madison

So then I took the elevator up to the mezzanine to try to figure out how to get the hell out of there. 

My former Post colleague Bill Sanderson had written an article for that other NY tabloid about the new station and he said that the escalator was amongst the tallest. Apparently, the trains are 17 floors down, and the escalator ride is 1 minute and 40 seconds. 

Stairway to Heaven? 

The woman on the other side coming down was actually an MTA employee and she said she could tell who was on this escalator for the first time because everyone on their maiden voyage was taking pictures/videos on their phones. You had time to shoot the $hit with folks on the escalators because it was such a long trip. I'm not complaining, but if you're running late for work during the week, that could be an issue. 

But it was Saturday and I had the place almost to myself. Until I saw this creepy thing when I got to the top of the escalator...

I supposed it was designed to give you the feeling that you are walking on the red carpet and getting gawked at. To me it was just weird, especially since as I said, I was really the only one there. 

I followed the signs to 48th Street, which I thought was cool since the Post is between 47th and 48th. I found another elevator that would take me to the street. It really is amazing how deep that train station is.

The elevator let me out on 48th between Park and Madison. So now I just had to walk three blocks west. A big difference from walking from 33 Street. 

It was really cool to see a train station that was brand new and didn't smell like a combination of urine, poop, pepperoni pizza and BBQ sauce. How long that will last is anyone's guess, but for now it is a treat. NYC and NYS gets a lot of well deserved criticism, they deserve credit for seeing this through. 

SPYING: The Chinese Spy Balloon

This is what we've waited for

This is it boys. This is war

The President is on the line.

As 99 Red Balloons go by. 

-Nena 99 Red Balloons.

A balloon widely suspected to be a Chinese spy mechanism entered US airspace earlier this week. On Saturday, on orders of President Biden, it was shot down over the Atlantic near Myrtle Beach, SC. 

When it was first reported on Thursday that the balloon had been spotted, the usual gang of idiots in Congress started blaming the President and insisting that Captain Orange would have never let such a thing happen on his watch. 

Of course he wouldn't, they don't need to send balloons to get information from  P-45, they can just let him build a golf course or a skyscraper in Beijing and they can get all the dirt they want. 

Biden had our military track the balloon, then shot it down in an area where there would be no damage to life or property. And also in a way that we could gather the most intelligence off of it. 

The best part of this whole situation was that we were able to watch it in real time on Saturday afternoon, with absolutely nothing else on.* Here in NY, where nobody wanted to venture outside and freeze their buns off, they could cozy up with a cup of their favorite beverage and catch all the action. 

FOOTBALL: Is this really the end for Tom Brady?

Last year when he announced he was retiring from the Buccaneers, I called it almost straight away that Tom Brady wasn't done. Now, I'll admit I was a bit surprised he reversed his decision so quickly, I thought maybe he'd sit out a year, or maybe closer to training camp, but either way I wasn't shocked or even mildly surprised he ended his retirement. 

This time though, I think he means it. This time, if he reverses his decision again, I will be shocked. 

I'm still convinced he could play till he's 50 and still compete at a high, if not elite level.  This was an off year for him, and he still got the Bucs into the playoffs. Much as I can't stand him, I have to give him his due. To play like that at 45 is beyond amazing. 

He has tortured me for 22 years now. But I'm glad he won a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick. The other way around would have been too much to bear. So there's that. 

As for last week's Conference Championship games, all I can say is that I hope that next week's Super Bowl isn't a repeat of those two stinkers. 

The Eagles-Niners game was non-competitive and unless you lived in Philadelphia, non-entertaining. Mainly due to the Niners wunderkind QB not being able to throw after getting his arm hurt. 

And the Chiefs-Bengals game, while a close down to the wire affair, was ruined by a combination of sloppy officiating, bad luck and head scratching plays. 

The late hit on Patrick Mahomes was clear, nobody can dispute that, and while I do have sympathy for Joseph Ossai who was clearly distraught after the game, that was really unacceptable. 

The whole mess with not stopping the clock after the incomplete pass which ended up giving KC an extra down, again, how does that happen in a game as big as this? That's not on the refs, it's on the stadium officials, but again un acceptable. 

The pass interference call on Mike Hilton seems to be the one that has convinced Bengals fans that the NFL was in the tank for the Chiefs. And while it's easy for me to sit here and suggest those fans get themselves fitted for tin-foil hats, I've been guilty of those kinds of theories myself. I'm still convinced for example, that Gary Bettman saw to it that Sidney Crosby ended up in Pittsburgh because he knew the league owed Mario Lemieux a ton of $$$, so they essentially gave him the franchise and a franchise player to go along with it. There are those who will swear up and down that David Stern did the same thing in 1985 with the Knick and Patrick Ewing, and I'm not sure if I don't believe it or I don't want to believe it. 

But I have a hard time thinking that the refs were advised to see to it that the Chiefs got to the Super Bowl, mainly because I think Joe Burrow looking for redemption after last year's game is every bit as compelling as Mahomes going for another win. 

In any event, like I said here’s hoping next week’s Super Bowl is less controversial and more competitive.

Weekly Mail next week at halftime 

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As we were going to press tonight, Kylie Irving was traded to the Mavericks as per his request from earlier in the week. I’m not sure this makes the Nets a better team on the court, but off of it, it is what is commonly known as addition by subtraction. 

Stay Warm

Stay Safe 

and Have a Great Week

*The NHL All Star Game was going on, and as much as I love hockey, even I would have tuned into the balloon 🎈 coverage over that.