Weekly Mail July 30, 2023

 

Hi Folks:

This week weather wise was brutal, even for July. Heat and humidity baked us here in NY from Tuesday all the way till the thunderstorm Saturday night. At least the storm broke the humidity and we had a warm but comfortable Sunday. 

We'll start out with some obituaries. I should have written the first one last week..

Tony Bennett- He may have left his heart in San Francisco, but the legendary crooner was born and bred in Astoria, a Queens kid. So many people I knew who lived or grew up in Astoria wore that fact like a badge. People my grandparents age or my parents age or my age and younger.

That’s because Tony Bennett was just one of those people that nobody had a bad thing to say about. He performed duets with musicians all over the different genres of music and at all different time periods. I mean, as I was looking up his discography on Wikipedia, the two most memorable albums he did was I Left my Heart in San Francisco in 1962, and MTV Unplugged in 1994. His music was timeless. 

And he really was the definition of the cool cat, wasn’t he? I mean if they had a coolness hall of fame, he’d get in on the first ballot. I was watching Pulp Fiction the other day, and in the last scene were Samuel L. Jackson’s character is telling the lady holding up the diner to be cool, he invokes the Fonz from Happy Days. 

But no one was cooler than Tony Bennett. He would have been 97 this coming Thursday. 

The author with a wax statue of Tony Bennett 2/21/2017

Sinead O’Connor- I was in Boston on October 3, 1992, with Karl (the Ace) Ludwig, Razor Ray McGarvey and Kevin (Buck) Ludwig. We had gone to that day’s Yankee-Red Sox game at Fenway Park, a rare year where both of those teams were long eliminated from the playoff picture (this was back in the two divisions in each league days). We spent the next several hours looking for places in Boston to have a few, problematic since none of us were 21. I mean Boston is a college town, why we were striking out, I really can’t remember. 

Long story short is we were back in our room watching that evening’s SNL. When Sinead O’Connor came on I kind of tuned out. Nothing Compares 2 U was an OK song that had gotten overplayed back in 1990, and she seemed to be more famous for things she was doing more than the songs she was singing. 

She stopped singing, yelled something out and by the time I was looking at the TV, she was glaring into the camera with a scowl. “What did she just do?” I asked Ray. 

Ray, knowing I was going to flip out as soon as he told me, answered as if he was cutting a hostage tape. “She just tore up a picture of the Pope” 

She did this she said, to protest the abuse of children in the Catholic Church. And let’s be honest, what the church allowed to happen and what they covered up is one of the most horrific things in the history of the world. No right minded person would dispute that. 

Many people have written these past few days that O’Connor was unfairly mistreated after her SNL appearance. That she was right all along. And maybe she was.

But I don’t think she did the victims of the abuse any favors by tearing up that picture. She didn’t shine a light on it, if that was her intention. Instead, the spotlight was on her for all the wrong reasons. 

My feeling at the time was that what she did was a form of religious intolerance. I’m not as convinced of that as I was back in 1992, but I’m not convinced I was totally wrong either. I admit I was an admirer of John Paul II, and I still believe that he did more good than harm. But the abuse scandal was on his watch. I would be less than fair if I didn’t acknowledge this. 

Sinead O’Connor was a lightning rod for controversy. I think most of that was by design, but some of it was a cry for help. As I’ve gotten older, especially as this world becomes more dog eat dog by the day, I try to focus more on the “why they did it” more than “what they did.”  It’s not always easy. My feelings about her are conflicted and I think she’d like it that way. But 56 is way too young for someone to die. Of that much I’m certain. 

RIP

And speaking of RIP....

BASEBALL: Mets Wave White Flag

When I first started writing this on Friday, I put a question mark after white flag. I wasn't as convinced trading closer David Robertson was a sign that the Mets were throwing in the proverbial towel on the 2023 season. Maybe, I just wouldn't allow myself to believe that they would do that.

But now that they just sent Max Scherzer to Texas for minor leaguers it looks like we won't see till near the end of the decade, it's clear that the Mets are folding. And that's just embarrassing. 

I've seen too much happen these last few years to say that at 7 games out of the Wild Card, that the Mets had no shot to make the playoffs. Of course there were many times I was tempted to say forget it, it's over, but I have also seen them have lousy Junes and Julys and then come alive in August. Pete Alonso is starting to hit homers again, Francisco Lindor has been more consistent of late, and even the starting pitching, save for Carlos Carrasco who has been awful, has started to come around a bit. 

But my guess is that Steve Cohen decided that just squeaking into the playoffs is not enough, especially if like last year they're out after 3 games. And one of his goals is to rebuild the farm system. And to me that may have been the biggest failure of the last ownership. With all the crappy teams we put out since 2001, we have a pathetically low amount of homegrown talent, especially when it comes to pitching. 

I'm not going to knock Cohen here, that would be insane. All we asked for as Mets fans is for ownership to invest in the team. He's done that. He's done everything we could ask of him, it's Billy Eppler who made some the worst deals in team history at last years deadline that deserves some of the blame. It's guys like Lindor who has been good but maybe not $300 million god, or Scherzer, who when he was on, was great, but when he was off, was pitching batting practice. Justin Verlander has been excellent of late, but even he had some issues when he first came off the injured list. 

The thought of going through August and September playing out the string, especially when hopes were so high going into the season, is really tough to take. My suggestion to the team or more specifically to SNY is that they make sure they have GKR in the booth, all three of them, as much as possible. They still can make meaningless baseball games enjoyable. 

’m not in Manhattan nearly as much as I was back in my younger days, but seeing the pictures and videos of that crane collapse the other day was a reminder of something Denis Leary said on his CD No Cure for Cancer… “there are so many ways to die in New York City” he went on to mention a few things and one of them, sure enough was construction cranes collapsing.  It’s almost a miracle that these things don’t happen more often given the amount of cranes that are in Manhattan at any given time. I remember walking through Grand Central after 9/11 and seeing all those National Guardsmen with their rifles out, just in case I forgot what happened at the World Trade Center. Collapsing cranes is just something I guess you have to put out of your mind, if you want to survive the city.

Thankfully nobody died and none of the injuries were life threatening.  

OK, we'll have a special blog coming out next Saturday then hopefully another one on Sunday, and then we wrap it up for the season on August 13. 

Can't believe the summer is half over. Goes by quicker every year.

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week 

Weekly Mail July 23, 2023

 

                                                                      Holy $h-t! 

Hi Everyone:

We took last week off as previously indicated. We're back this week, (obviously) hopefully next week, and then our special edition on the first weekend of August. Then we'll have our season finale on August 13. 

Hope everyone is having a good summer so far. 

CRIME (Part I): The Gilgo Beach Murders suspect in custody...

On July 13, police arrested Rex Heuermann a 59 year old architect from Massapequa Park on suspicion that he committed a series of murders on Long Island, and dumped the bodies in various spots along Gilgo Beach. Heuerman was arrested near his midtown Manhattan office. 

The murders were committed between 2007 and 2010. In 2020, new advances in DNA testing led forensic scientists to re-analyze hair that had been found on one of the victims. While that alone did not point to Heuermann, it narrowed down the field of suspects substantially. 

2 years later, in March of 2022, detectives first identified Heuerman as a suspect. Witnesses had reported seeing a pickup truck near where the bodies were found and Heuermann had a Chevy Avalanche registered to him in 2010. They were also able to determine that Heuermann had made purchases near where calls from burner phones to the victims and their families had been made. 

Now here is the most interesting part of how they nailed this guy...

This past January, detectives took a pizza box found in a garbage can outside Heuermann's office. They sent the crust of the pizza out to a lab in Suffolk County, who was able to link the DNA on file to Heuermann. 

Now they did a ton of other test and analysis, the amount they did was unreal to be honest. There are some who are questioning why this took so long. From where I'm sitting it seems like they wanted to make sure every i was dotted and t was crossed. I believe everyone is innocent till proven guilty just like the constitution says, but the case against this guy looks air tight, what with all the evidence that was painstakingly gathered and analyzed. 

Now in so many of these cops shows I've watched over the years, I can't tell you how many were solved based on a cigarette butt the perp was smoking right before they committed whatever heinous crime was the topic that week. 

Now we get a case solved in part by someone who didn't like the crust on his pizza. 

Not that I would ever dream of committing anything so heinous, for the obvious reason that I'm not a monster. But if they were to try to nail me for a crime, it wouldn't be off a cigarette butt cuz I find smoking disgusting. And I've never met a slice of pizza I didn't polish off crust and all. Years ago, they could have gone to Donovan's and collected all the empty Coors Light bottles I drank. But I digress. 

Again, give the police all the kudo's in the world for their patience, their focus and their tenacity. Looks like they nailed the sick f-ck. 

On the flip side of this...

CRIME (Part II) Manson Follower Freed

Leslie Van Houten, a former follower of Charles Manson, who participated in one of the gruesome murders carried out by the "family" was released on parole from a California prison on July 11th. Van Houten had been recommended for parole two other times, only to have governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsome reverse the decisions. Newsome's office released a statement saying that while he still disagreed with the decision to parole Van Houten he would "not pursue further action as efforts to further appeal are unlikely to succeed." 

Van Houten was 19 On August 10, 1969, when she, along with several accomplices, broke into the house of  Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. and slaughtered the couple, stabbing them dozens of times. The night before, Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, was killed in similar fashion, along with 4 of her houseguests. 

Now I'm all for people being rehabilitated and things like that, and I'm quite certain Van Houten, a month short of 74 years old, isn't going to go out and stab anyone, but I'm sorry, some crimes are just too awful to say, "Yeah I think they learned their lesson." I mean, these people weren't shot by a sniper where they never knew what hit them, they were tortured and sliced up in ways I can barely bring myself to imagine. 

And few things spook me more than seeing pictures and/or video of Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan Atkins are they are being led to court in 1970*, smiling and laughing as if they are heading off to a Crosby, Stills and Nash concert. That makes the hair on my arm stand up. 

I'm sure somewhere along the line she realized the severity of what she had done and felt regret for her actions. But as far as I'm concerned, they should have locked her up and thrown away the key. Nobody who participated in those murders should ever see the light of day again.  

All right, let's do a book review to lighten up the mood here a bit, especially if you root for that team in da Bronx... 

BOOK REVIEW: 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever

By: Jack Curry

I was all in on the 1996 Yankees.

The Mets had been bad for most of the 90's. There had been no post season baseball in NY since the Mets disastrous loss to the Dodgers in the 1988 NLCS.** The Yanks would have made the post-season in 1994 except for the strike, and they had squeaked into the playoffs in 1995, only to loss a heartbreaking 5 game series to the Mariners. 

When the Yanks beat the Rangers to advance to the 1996 ALCS, I was totally on board. And when they beat the hated Braves in the 1996 World Series I was over the moon. It wasn't quite the same feeling I had two years before, when the Rangers ended their 54 year Stanley Cup drought and I stayed out all night partying (on a Tuesday, oh the joys of my college years) but it was awesome just the same. 

By 1998 though, the shine was off the apple. I still rooted for the Yanks, but it wasn't the same. The Mets choked away a wild card spot and that had left a bad taste in my mouth. The Yanks winning their first World Series since 1978 was fun, but this was now, well, not so much. 

That being said, this look back at that Yankee season, by a guy who was there for all of it, Jack Curry, was a lot more fun than having lived through it. I won't spoil it for you, but I'll share a couple of things I found interesting..

1) We all know David Wells was hungover when he pitched his perfect game. You wanna talk about things that make my blood boil, how many times Tom Seaver, who was as disciplined and focused as anyone who ever pitched, came close to a no-hitter, only to have this fat boozehound pitch one after partying the night away in Manhattan. What I didn't know was that his drinking companion that night was none other than former SNL cast member and current Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon. I have to admit, I thought that was pretty cool. 

2) The Yankees opened up the 1998 season in Anaheim against the Angels. Before that, there were scheduled to play San Diego State in an exhibition game. For reasons I don't quite understand, (Curry tries to explain it but I don't get it) the plane wasn't allowed to make two stops in the United States. In order for the Yanks to get to San Diego, they had to fly to Tijuana and take a bus to san Diego. The story of that trip is one you have to read to believe. 

I really enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. It reminded me again yes I'm a Met fan first, but I really do love the game of baseball. Plus, there were some games I remember clearly. They went into detail about the game El Duque pitched against the Indians, Game 4 of the ALCS. They had lost Game 2 on Chuck Knoblach's bone headed play in the field, and lost Game 3 6-1 in Cleveland. For the first time, the Yanks were facing adversity. El Duque tossed a shutout in Game 4 and the Yanks didn't lose another game that year. 

Woodsy and I watched Knoblach's play at a bar near Grand Central. I watched the El Duque game at the Mug Shot Saloon on Third avenue, after a particularly rough day working at an OTB in Ridgewood, right on the border of Bushwick. That fall of 1998 wasn't a great time in my life, but reading about those games brought back some of the good times I had back then. 

4.5 Auggies. 

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS: Crappy Commute in Connecticut 

A tractor trailer that was carrying human waste caused a multi vehicle accident on I-95 near Bridgeport, Connecticut last Monday night. 

The driver was arrested by Connecticut state troopers because they believed the driver was aware that the truck was leaking and continued on anyway. 

The driver's name (I $h-t you not) is Shaky Joseph of Waterbury CT. The leak of the human waste caused multiple vehicles to skid out and crash, including the two arresting cops, and a motorcycle rider who was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and stinky clothes. The reports said he was treated, I'm hoping he was also showered, and released.  

All told, 10 vehicles were involved in this $h-t, the cops cruisers were wrecked when another truck skidded into them, but the cops were uninjured as they were helping others involved. The only injuries reoprted were that of the guy on the motorcycle, otherwise I wouldn't be making light of it as much as I am. 

Couple of things here... I'm never going to knock anyone responsible for taking care of getting rid of our crap. that's one of those "Someone's gotta do it" gigs that I suspect the majority of us aren't interested in. But if I in charge of hiring the drivers, I might hesitate to hire someone named Shaky to transport the poop from here to there. Fidgety maybe, Cranky probably, but not Shaky.

Shaky was arrested and charged with reckless driving, reckless endangerment and failure to secure a load. Or in this case multiple loads. 

I'm here all week folks. Don't forget to tip your bartenders. 

That's all we got for this week. 

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week 

*Krenwinkel has a parole hearing scheduled in November. Atkins died in jail 2009. Manson died in jail in 2017.

** Mike Vaccaro did a special in the Post a couple weeks ago about the 1988 Mets. 35 years later that still stings.

Weekly Mail July 9, 2023

 

                          Mets: 42-48 at the All Star Break

Howdy:

Saturday would have been my grandmother's 110th birthday. She passed away a couple months short of her 96th birthday in 2009. She got to meet two of her great grandkids, and she pretty much lived as full a life as you can. 

Walking through the city on Saturday though reminded me of something else.... her birthday was usually one of the hottest, stickiest days of the year. A lot of the time she came to Rockaway for her birthday, which was nice because we could enjoy the ocean breeze, but when we went into where she lived in Woodhaven, well, you felt that heat and humidity. This year was no exception. Another sweaty July 8th. 

On the upside, it did bring back good memories. 

On that note, I have a book review and a movie review....

BOOK REVIEW- Road to Nowhere-The Early 1990's Collapse and rebuild of New York Baseball

By: Chris Donnelly 

I highly recommend this book. To anybody who is a NY baseball fan actually. 

But I really recommend this book to a specific reader.. the one who is watching what is going on in the Bronx these days and saying "If George was still in charge....."

 Yes, if George was still in charge, Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone and about 30 pitching and hitting coaches would be on the unemployment line. Of that I have no doubt. 

But this book not so gently reminds us that kind of manic management is why the Yanks lost 87 games in 1989 and 95 more in 1990. It discusses one of my favorite Yankee memories... Andy Hawkins no-hitter against the White Sox, in which the Yanks lot 4-0. My litmus test if you are a true Yankee fan is if you can tell me which Yankee pitched a no-hitter and lost. 

It also goes into how Steinbrenner was kicked out of baseball for giving Howie Spira $40,000 to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield, and how that move paved the way for Gene "Stick" Michael and Buck Showalter to rebuild the Yanks from the laughingstock they were to the dynasty they would become at decade's end. Indeed the book ends with the Yankees wining the 1996 World Series. 

It also discusses the fall of the Mets, from losing the 1988 NLCS to the Dodgers, to the firing of Davey Johnson, the failed tenure of fan fave Buddy Harrelson, the worst team money could buy, the 1992-93 Mets, led by Jeff Torborg/Dallas Green, and symbolized by the man still collecting a 1.9 million paycheck every July 1st, as social media gleefully reported again last week, Bobby Bonilla. 

Yes, it was at times painful to read as a Met fan, but it did point out that the 1994 strike, which many felt cost the Yanks another World title, as they had the leagues best record at the time, also cost the Mets a shot at a Wild Card, as they had been playing well after a rough start that year. 

But again, the big takeaway from the book is how it took George's banishment from baseball to get the Bombers back to prominence. Many of my friends on here who are Yankee fans readily acknowledge this, I recommend this book for those who don't. 

3.5 Aces

MOVIE REVIEW-Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Starring: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Toby Jones

Saw it at: Regal Lynbrook. 

The Regal at Lynbrook is one of those movie theaters that have the huge recliners and a tray attached. A couple of times I saw movies there with Tim and I admit I fell asleep. For the price you pay nowadays for a movie, that's quite an expensive nap. But those chairs are comfortable. 

Fortunately, I managed to stay awake for this latest and supposedly final installment of the Indiana Jones franchise. Now, apparently this is movie number 5, I know I never saw number 4, and I can barely remember number 3, (the one with Sean Connery). And I didn't feel the need to catch up either. 

So I won't go into the plot too much as not to spoil it for those who haven't seen it. What I will tell you is that it takes place mostly in 1969, with our hero now a professor at Ace's alma mater Hunter College. Professor Jones is finishing up his teaching career the same day the Apollo 11 astronauts are being feted with a parade down the Canyon of Heroes. 

I pointed out to Timmy that Hunter on 68th and Lex was nowhere near where NY holds their ticker-tape parades. I also came to realize that would be the least of what you would have to suspend your common sense beliefs for. As several people have pointed out, the premise of the movie was an 80 year old man traversing the world looking for an ancient artifact. 

If you are looking for good chase scenes and suspenseful trips into underground/underwater caves, this is the movie for you. 

Ford of course is still amazing. I'm not a fan of Waller-Bridge, I've never seen Fleabag, but she hosted SNL once and I thought her monologue was lame and unfunny. But she was pretty good in this movie. Mikkelsen who played the bad guy in Daniel Craig's first Bond movie, Casino Royale, was a daunting bad guy here too. at one point, he tells someone "I am Professor Schmidt from Alabama" and I was the only one in the theater who thought that was funny. Was it because someone with a German accent was claiming to be from Alabama? Not really. My cousin Michelle is a Professor at Alabama-Birmingham and her maiden name is Schmidt. I just thought was quite a coincidence 

Small world right? 

4.0 Aces. 

————————————————————————-

The Knicks traded Obi Toppin to the Pacers last week for a couple of second round picks. I believe this trade will bite the Knicks in the ass. I still think Toppin will be a really good player. Unless the Knicks parlay those picks into something useful, this one will haunt them. 

The Mets, after winning 6 in a row to get themselves off the mat a little bit, dropped two to the Padres to limp into the All Star Break. Hopefully Pete Alonso wins the home run derby on Monday so we have something to hang our hats on this year. 

Stay Cool

Stay Safe 

and Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail July 2, 2023

 

Happy Half New Year!

Yes folks 2023, or as I sometimes refer to it, WB50, is halfway done. I hope it hasn't been too trying of a year for you. There are always new beginnings and sad goodbyes, and we've had our share so far. 

Now that summer is here, I'll let you know our tentative programming plan.. We'll publish next week, probably take off the 16th, publish the 23rd, and maybe the 30th. On the first weekend of August, we'll have a special edition that I think you will all get a big kick out of. One more after that, then we take our summer hiatus, with the caveat that if there is anything I must get off my chest, I'll come back sooner. 

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable summer. 

For now, let's get into some stuff going on around here...

Vanna White and Rolf Benirschke

TELEVISION- NO  G_TS   NO  G_ORY!

The producers of Wheel of Fortune announced this week that Ryan Seacrest, quite possibly the most overexposed person on television, will take over as host, replacing the retiring Pat Sajak who is hanging up the mic after 41 years come a year from September. 

I have nothing personally against Seacrest, I'm sure he's a nice enough fella, but you can't turn on the TV without seeing his mug on it. And it seems like he's the one everyone turns to when they need to replace a legend. To wit:

-He replaced Casey Kasem as host of American Top 40 on the radio. (Actually he replaced Casey the second time Casey left AT40, the first time it was Shadoe Stevens from Hollywood Squares who took over.)

-He replaced the guy who replaced Regis Philbin as the host of the ABC morning show Live. Michael Strahan replaced Regis, but Seacrest replaced Strahan. 

-And of course he replaced the legendary Dick Clark as host of New Year's Rockin Eve. The show still bears Clark's name, but Seacrest is the host. 

Now he replaces Sajak, in a move that from where I'm sitting took about as much thought and imagination as deciding how much milk to put in your cereal in the morning. 

Jeopardy at least tried out a bunch of different personalities to replace their own legendary host Alex Trebek. We can, (and I have) argued whether or not the Ken Jennings/Mayim Bialik combo has worked out, but at least I feel like that was a bit out of the box. This is as far in the box with the lid nailed on as you can get. 

Hell, I'm old enough to remember when Sajak got the unenviable task of taking on late night talk show deity Johnny Carson with his own CBS show. Back then there were two editions of Wheel, a daytime version produced by NBC, and the one that airs at 7:30 which is syndicated. Sajak hosted both, but when he got the talk show, they replaced him on the daytime version with Rolf Benirschke, a former NFL placekicker that even a football fan like me had never heard of.

Talk about outside the box! That took guts.

Alas, neither Sajak's talk show or Rolf's career as a game show host lasted, so maybe the higher ups had that in mind when they decided to give the gig to Seacrest. Seacrest is the Webster's dictionary definition of the term "safe choice." 

And in what can only be categorized as a miscarriage of justice, apparently Vanna White is saying she hasn't gotten a raise since 2005, making a paltry $3 million (in comparison to Sajak's rumoured  $15 million. I mean, when I think of Wheel of Fortune, I think of Vanna before I think of Sajak and certainly Seacrest. 

I just hope Vanna gets her $$$ without having to go to the Supreme Court, otherwise she may end up owing the show money. (More on that later) 

Last week, in my piece about the new Beatles song coming out later this year, I mentioned that a song had been created using AI, a mashup of Drake and the Weeknd, without either artists permission. Apparently the Weeknd has other issues on his plate, namely this show he's on with Johnny Depp's daughter.

MORE TELEVISION-The Idol

I had read this show as a "trouble plagued production". I also read that there were several scenes of  deviant sexual behavior.. So as a public service to you, my readers, and not wanting to put any of you through such trauma, I took it upon myself to watch a couple episodes.

There are some spoilers ahead if you think you are inclined to tune in, which trust me, I don't think you'll want to...

Lily-Rose Depp plays Jocelyn, a mega pop star who is dealing with the death of her mother amongst other trials and tribulations. (Think the early 2000's Brittney Spears). She meets Tedros (played by the Weeknd, but going by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye) at the nightclub he owns. They hit it off immediately, getting busy in one of the club's stairwells. He turns out to be a combination of Yoko Ono, Col. Tom Parker and David Koresh, moving in to her mansion, dictating her schedule and of course banging her nine ways to Sunday.

Yes, there is plenty of sex between Jocelyn and Tedros, with some of the worst dialogue I've heard  since I went to see Showgirls back in 1995. (At least Showgirls contained what Ace called the greatest movie quote of the century-I can't repeat it here, Here is the Quotes section from Showgirls IMDB page, go about 15 down, James Smith's quote) 

The problem for me is that there aren't many characters on the show I can get behind. I guess I'm supposed to feel bad for Jocelyn, but I'm not sure if it's Depp's not pulling it off, or if I'm not buying it, but I just can't. I actually really like some of the Weeknd's music, I ranked I Feel It Coming, as my favorite song of the 2010's in fact, but yeah, he might want to get back in the studio and cut a new album forthwith to save his reputation. 

It's also possible I'm getting too old for this shit. But I'd be really surprised if the youngins found this entertaining. It's really not worth your time. 

THE SUPREME COURT- Big Decisions

There were a few big decisions that came down from the Supreme Court this week, I'm gonna deal with two of them, the one regarding Affirmative Action in college, and the one ending President Biden's College loan forgiveness program. 

On Thursday, the court voted 6-3 (along party lines) to strike down Affirmative Action programs at Harvard and North Carolina. The new ruling overturned a 2003 decision that said race could be considered a factor on the admissions process so that universities could maintain diverse campuses. 

There was a time when I thought that affirmative action was an outdated premise. That we had made enough progress in making sure all of us got a fair shot at a better life that we didn't need these kind of programs. 

But the fact is we need them now more than ever, and the idea that everyone is on a level playing field is laughable. 

I mean they literally threw Felicity Huffman and Aunt Becky from Full House in the slammer because they bought their way into college. Yes, they got caught because they were particularly ballsy, but what about all the other rich and famous gaming the system? If that doesn't show you how bent the system is, I don't know what else would. 

And as far as the debt forgiveness plan being scrapped, well, that's a bit more complicated. I have no problem with people with loads of college debt getting out from under that. The thing is, it sounded like the Biden administration was using a provision in the Pandemic Relief act to push through an executive order, and the court was saying that was giving too much power to the executive branch? If that's the case, (and I'm not sure it is) I can almost agree with that. I'd rather see congress pass a bill to relieve college debt. I'm not naïve enough to think that would happen. 

But there are a lot of people out there who are saying "Take out a loan you have to pay it back.." who are getting millions of dollars in tax breaks, and government bailout money and they should really stick a sock in it. All the folks in Congress who took PPP loans and didn't pay them back? Some of them are the loudest critics of student loan forgiveness. 

More and more, the Court is ruling in favor of the little guy less and less. And when you have Samuel Alto and Clarence Thomas getting wined and dined by people they end up ruling in favor of, that just seems like the plot of a bad movie. But it's happening. It's why when they say you're vote don't count, they are full of $hit. 

BASEBALL- Cohen Addresses the masses. 

Mets owner Steve Cohen took to Twitter the other day to announce he would hold a press conference before Thursday's game. 

I was glad he did it. Some were questioning the wisdom or even the point, but I contrast him with the folks at MSG, particularly the Knicks, who upper management never speaks to the media. That a'int right.

Now I know there were people that weren't going to be happy unless he threatened that heads were going to roll, or even more severe, served up either Billy Eppler or Buck Showalter on a platter right then and there. Most of us knew THAT wasn't going to happen, but maybe a little more urgency was expected?

I think he did a good job. He said the onus was on the players, but also acknowledged that he believed they were playing hard and hadn't given up. He also said that he still wants to hire a president of baseball operations, someone between him and Eppler. I'm guessing that someone is former Brewers GM David Stearns, who he needs to wait out till his contract expires after this season. 

Cohen isn't the problem here. We wanted someone who was going to come in and spend money and he has, probably even more than he wanted to. The players are underperforming, pretty much all of them, but I don’t think any of them aren’t trying. 

Except Starling Marte. 

The other night, I mean, right after Cohen’s presser, the Mets loaded the bases in the 7th inning, and Marte grounded into a rally killing double play in which he didn’t seem in any particular hurry to get down to first base. Then in the 9th, Brewers pitcher Devin Williams walked Brandon Nimmo to load the bases. The score was 3-2 Brew Crew and again the tying run was 90 feet away. 

Marte struck out on three pitches. Two of them were out of the strike zone. It was like he had somewhere else to be. 

I have very rarely been as angry at a player as I am at Marte. He dogged it that night and that’s unacceptable. I respect the fact that Cohen is not going to call out players publicly orfire GM’s and managers on a whim ala George Steinbrenner, but he may want to have a chat with Marte, find out if he really wants to be a Met. Didn’t seem like it to me the other night., and if that’s the case, get him out of here, and if it means throwing some more $$ in there to get better prospects like they did with Eduardo Escobar, so be it.

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