Weekly Mail October 29, 2023

 

Hey:

While I was working at this, the news about Matthew Perry broke. We'll discuss that in a few minutes. 

So after 7 straight of rain, we finally had a beautiful weather day on Saturday. It actually felt like late August or early September, never mind the last weekend in October, three days shy of Halloween. Have to admit it felt good walking around Saturday afternoon. 

Sunday was a washout, which affected what passes for football around these parts. We’ll deal with that mess shortly. 

We’ll start with another mass shooting Happened Wednesday night,  this time in Lewiston, Maine. 

MASS SHOOTINING IN MAINE.-  A couple weeks ago, when the Farmingdale High School band's bus crashed upstate, killing two faculty members and injuring dozens of students, I spoke of that being one of my worst nightmares. The number one nightmare, of course, is a school shooting, which happens way too often in our country. 

It didn't happen this week either. 

Instead we had it happen at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, ME. 18 people dead, 13 more wounded. So yeah, now you have to worry about getting shot while bowling a few frames. 

And in what should come as no surprise to anyone, the shooter purchased his gun legally, no background checks, no waiting periods. Maine doesn't require either. 

Would that have even made a difference? Maybe, maybe not, but to me the overall point is that we had another mass shooting, another 18 lives lost, 13 more very easily could have joined them, and what's going to be done about it? 

Nothing. 

Oh, they'll be a lot of yelling and screaming and finger pointing, we've had plenty of that already. People will point out that the man was obviously mentally ill, and isn't that the problem after all? He could have done this with a car (which you need a license and insurance to drive) or a knife (seriously?). 

It's everything else, anything else, but that this creep had an automatic rifle. 

I tried hard not to read too much social media on this because that just causes my stomach to turn, but somehow on my Twitter/X feed I saw that Lauren Bloebert's big problem (well her other big problem. Her main big problem is that she gives hand releases in public theaters) is that people think that the AR in AR-15 stands for Automatic Rifle. (It stands for Armalite, the name of the company that created the rifle.) That's what she's worried about. And as much as I wish I could just dismiss Bloebert as the hand release idiot that she clearly is, the unfortunate truth is that more of her fellow House members think like she does than the opposite. And that kind of thinking is what led us to have finally gotten a Speaker of the House elected this week. 

POLITICS- The New Speaker of the House

So real quick- the GOP had earlier in the week put up Tom Emmer of Minnesota for nomination to be Speaker. Seemed like he had a decent chance of winning the gavel. That was until Captain Orange weighed in on social media and said he didn't want Emmer to be Speaker. That essentially killed any chance he had and he withdrew his name from consideration. A quick look at Emmer's record showed that he was anti-abortion, anti same-sex marriage and that he signed an amicus brief supporting Texas vs Pennsylvania, the lawsuit that contested the 2020 election. Emmer did go on to vote to certify the election which made him a non-starter for Trump as Speaker. 

So instead it was the guy who led the effort to have the house sign the amicus brief, who also voted to not certify the election who became the "compromise choice."

And I really thought I missed something here. Especially upon winning the vote he seemed gracious and polite. Thanking Hakeem Jeffries and promising to work across the aisle. 

Then I read HIS record. 

He seems to love Jesus and hate everybody else. Love thy neighbor, unless your neighbor is LBGT, then they can go to hell and take it up with the devil. He might not be the unhinged psycho Jim Jordan is, he may not be the slimeball Matt Gaetz is, he may not be fornicating in public like Bloebert, or threatening to kill fellow congresspeople like Paul Gosar. And her certainly isn't the attention whore that the one representing Georgia's 14th district clearly is. 

But he's as radical as they all are. He's just more polished. And that might make him more dangerous.

Maybe having the gavel and the big chair will lead him to be somewhat more reasonable. Maybe having to deal with both sides of the aisle will make him more accepting of folks who are different than he is.  Maybe I'll win the Powerball this week and retire. More likely he'll just be another empty suits offering thoughts and prayers to those who were affected by the shooting in Maine, without actually doing anything to fix it. 

I hope for the former, I strongly suspect the latter. 

UPDATE- Jamaal Bowman pleaded guilty this week to a misdemeanor offense for pulling the fire alarm at the Capitol. He was placed on probation, fined $1,000 and will write a formal apology to the Capitol police.

I maintain that he deserves to be punished for what he did, and the punishment is appropriate for what he did.  

Some Republicans are saying that Bowman should be treated the same as the January 6th rioters, including Nicole Malliotakis who represents Staten Island. Had I been living in the city at the time, I might have voted this pea-brain for mayor when she ran against DeBlasio. If she's not smart enough to see that breaking into the Capitol with the intention of harming members of Congress is different than pulling a fire alarm, she shouldn't be serving anybody. 

AIRLINE TERROR- Last Sunday, an off duty pilot on an Alaskan Airlines flight from Everett, Washington to San Francisco attempted to pull levers that would have cut off fuel to the aircraft's engines. 

According to ABC News...

Emerson engaged with the pilots in "casual conversation" before allegedly trying "to grab and pull two red fire handles that would have activated the plane's emergency fire suppression system and cut off fuel to its engines," prosecutors said.

He allegedly said, "I'm not OK," and reached up to grab the red fire handles, according to the criminal complaint.

He was scheduled to pilot another Alaskan Airlines plane out of San Francisco. He told prosecutors that he hadn't slept in 40 hours and had consumed "magic mushrooms." He also said he felt like he was dreaming and thought pulling the fire handles would "wake him up".

Yes, that this almost happened is terrifying. The 80 or so people on that flight have every reason to have sleepless nights the next few months. Yes, this guy obviously has mental illness issues. No question about it. 

But here's the thing. Everyone lived, including the perp. 

If he had an automatic rifle, at least half those people would have been cut down, and the other half would have died after the plane crashed. 

Nobody's disputing that there is a mental health crisis in America, the dispute seems to be is there a gun crisis. From where I'm sitting there definitely is. 

Back to this off duty pilot for a second... pardon my ignorance and I'm not making light of this, but I didn't know magic mushrooms were still a thing. Honest to goodness I hadn't heard of anyone taking shrooms in years. I think I believe the "no sleep for a day and a half" more than I believe the "took magic mushrooms" explanation. I know a blood and urine test will give the definitive answer on that one, but I'll be curious to hear about those results. 

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THIS JUST IN- Except for the Giants/Jets game recap, all of this has been written on Saturday night, as I have just gotten word that Matthew Perry has apparently drowned in a jacuzzi in his Los Angeles home at the age of 54. 

This is heartbreaking.

The first time I watched Friends, it had to be either the second of third episode, someone walked in and said "Guess what?" and Chandler said "The fifth dentist caved and now they all chew Trident?"

I was hooked. And it was mainly because of him.

Yeah I thought Rachel was hot (still do) thought Phoebe was funny in her ditzy way, I could take or leave Monica. Joey got progressively more stupid and less funny as the show went on, and Ross was for a guy who was an expert on dinosaurs, pretty dopey at everything else.

But Chandler was the one I could relate to. On a show where three of the six people were either un or underemployed, yet they could afford those huge a$$ apartments in the Village, he was the most real out of all of them. 

And every time I saw that Matthew Perry was struggling, with addiction or weight gain/loss I just felt awful for him. He had such talent. Sure someone else was writing those lines, but he had the delivery down pat. Just a terrific talent. 

When you are in a series that's as successful and iconic as Friends was, it's always going to be tough to duplicate that. Jennifer Anniston has become a box office star, but the rest have struggled to make it on TV. David Schwimmer did a great job as Robert Kardashian a few years ago, and Courtney Cox had a moderately successful sitcom called Cougar Town. 

Perry had a couple of decent movies and was in a reboot of the Odd Couple that while I enjoyed, I could never see him as Oscar Madison, (much the same way I can't look at Jay Hernandez and see Thomas Sullivan Magnum) 

Matthew Perry will always be Chandler Muriel Bing to me. And Chandler is right up there with Hawkeye Pierce, George Louis Costanza, Sheldon Cooper and Barney Stinson as the funniest TV Characters I have ever seen.

This is a huge loss this weekend. RIP. 

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FOOTBALL: Giants/Jets

At halftime of Sunday’s Jets-Giants debacle at Met Life Stadium, CBS’ Bill Cowher referred to Giants third string QB Tommy DeVito as Danny DeVito the diminutive actor and current sandwich shop pitchman. For the amount of times Giants head coach Brian Daboll allowed Tommy to throw the ball, he may as well had Danny in there under center.

And despite that, the Jets still needed OT and a couple of lucky breaks to win on Sunday. 

Having not made the playoffs in a generation, and having played 7 straight losing seasons, there should be no such thing as a “trap” game for Gang Green. A trap game is a game in which you are either looking ahead to a more formidable opponent, or coming off a win against one. The Jets beat the defending NFC champions two weeks ago, so this kind of felt like a trap game, though again you have to actually be decent to be in one of those. 

In defense of the Jets, they managed to lose two centers, which further depleted an already thin offensive line, but again the Giants are on their third string QB who they also decided was incapable of throwing a forward pass. He did manage to complete a few backward passes, leaving the Giants with a grand total of negative 9 yards passing. I didn’t even think that was humanly possible. When you have to do algebra to figure out a teams passing stats, it’s a bad day. 

I love Saquon Barkley and he nearly carried the Giants to a victory by himself offensively. 

And Zach Wilson gave all his critics plenty of material, what with his getting sacked for big losses and other head scratching decision making. But he also made two really nice throws at the end, and had the presence of mind to stop the clock to set up the game tying field goal. He screwed up with that two weeks ago. I take this as a sign of progress. 

This is one of those games that hopefully if/when football gets better around here ( and I realize that’s a huge if) we can all look back and have a big old laugh. For now it was an embarrassment. 

My team won. Sure didn’t feel like it. 

BASEBALL: The World Series

Before we discuss the 2023 World Series, have to quickly discuss the all Texas ALCS and the huge upset in the NLCS. 

In Game 7 between the Astros and Rangers, I kept saying to myself, it doesn't matter how many runs the Rangers score here in the top of the first, I'm sure Max Scherzer will give most if not all those runs back in the bottom of the inning. And damned if Jose Altuve didn't hit one of Scherzer's pitches so hard that it damage the scoreboard at Minute Maid Park.

But even Mad Max couldn't blow it for Texas as they blew Houston out to advance to the World Series. 11-4.

As for the NLCS, well, this was one of the biggest upsets in history. Like I said a couple weeks ago I couldn't name 5 Arizona players if you put a gun to my head. I still can't really. 

I wasn't the only one not givng the D'Backs any love. Now I have to admit I'll always have a soft spot for Christopher Mad Dog Russo, idiot that he is. 

I've told this story before.... back in 1989, right before he teamed up with Mike Francesa, he was doing the afternoon drive amid reports that an agreement had been reached between Pete Rose and baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti. Rose was being investigated for having bet on baseball in general and the Reds in particular. The evidence was becoming more damning by the day.

All that day Russo was saying that he was hearing that Rose would agree to be suspended 5 years. 

Right before I headed to work that night, Russo announced the agreement. Rose had accepted a suspenion from baseball, but according to the Dog, it was a one year suspension. ONE STINKIN LOUSY YEAR he screamed into the radio.

All that night at work, when I came home and watched Johnny Carson with my mother and probably a Kojak rerun with my father, I thought Pete Rose was suspended for a year. It wasn't till the next morning that I realized the one year was when he could apply for reinstatement. He was actually banned for life. 

Almost 35 years later, he's still banned from the game.

And the Mad Dog is still getting stuff wrong. He said if the D'Backs beat the Phillies in Philly he would retire on the spot. They did and he didn't. Instead he's going to wear clothes with something derogatory on them thanks to Howard Stern. 

As for the World Series, I don't like Tommy Pham and some of the $hit he's bee n talking about the Mets, but I also don't want to see deGrom and Scherzer win a World Series so I'm pulling for the no-name D'Backs to pull off the ultimate upset. 

I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween. 

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail October 15, 2023

 

                         Giants got robbed on Sunday 

Hey:

Another Saturday afternoon and another downpour. This is 4 Saturdays by my count. Actually, you could probably go back to Labor Day weekend for the last time we had decent weather on a Saturday. At least we had a nice Sunday. 

The biggest story in the world right now, obviously, is the war between Israel and Hamas. I know last week I said I would write more about it this week. And I've been going back and forth about it.

I mean, I have a definite opinion about who is in the right here. What Hamas did, kidnapping and killing the kids at that music festival last Saturday morning was just disgusting. And I believe Israel has the right and the obligation to defend themselves. Hamas is a terrorist organization and should be dealt with as such. 

I don’t want to see any innocent people suffer. I know that’s a fairly obvious statement to make, and the sentiments of most people of good will. 

This is just a situation that is going to get worse before it gets better. I see the families of those who were kidnapped on the news and my heart breaks for them. I really wish I had the words to say about all of it, but I don't. Like I said last week, people much smarter than me have tried to come up with solutions, and here we are all these years later, and it's still going on. 

So all I can really do is write about other things I don't know anything about.....

Like American politics

And sports

So that's what we're going to do.

BASEBALL PLAYOFFS: 

The league championship series are set. An all-Texas showdown in the ALCS between the Astros and Rangers, and an on-paper yawner between the Phillies and the D'Backs. 

I say on paper because this could turn out to be an entertaining edge of your seat classic, but right now it's hard for me at least to get excited about it. On a dare, I couldn't name 5 guys on the Diamondbacks. I know the Phillies pretty well because they are rivals with my Mets, but neither team really does anything for me. 

As for the ALCS, I mean I don't believe that anyone outside of the greater Houston area wants to see another Astros pennant, and the Rangers have Max Scherzer, who is in essence getting paid by my owner to pitch another team into the World Series. That's like watching some gal go home with another dude after you bought her drinks at the bar all night*. And I know he's not pitching because que surpresa, he's hurt, but Jacob deGrom is also on the Rangers. I don't need to see him getting a ring somewhere else.

So logic would dictate that I should dust off the old Arizona Diamondbacks hat I bought when Tara and I went to Chase Field back in 2007 and jump on the D'Backs bandwagon. 

But the next thing I'd have to do is go onto BaseballReference.com and find out exactly whose on that roster. Because I really don't know any of the players. And as much as I can't stand the Phillies, I was rooting for them to beat the Braves, and it's a bit harder than I thought to turn that switch right off. 

We'll see what happens if/when I actually sit down and watch the NLCS. 

Another issue came up this week with the baseball playoffs that I'd like to discuss. The Braves, Orioles and Dodgers all won over 100 games in the regular season, all three got shown the door in the LDS, with only the Braves managing to even win 1 game. The question now is, could this be a flaw in the system, a system that allows the top two division winners a bye into the second round of the playoffs. The flaw being that the teams get rusty and lose any momentum they may have had? 

The idea was that the teams that do well in the regular season can set their rotations and give their stars a rest. You can have your ace on full and then some rest starting the LDS. This year that notion bit the dust.

Of course it was grist for all the baseball writers to debate about, and yes it could be an aberration, but both the Braves and the Dodgers have spit the bit two years in a row. I'd love to chalk it up to both of those teams (who I can't stand) being choke artists, but could it be that the playoff format is flawed? 

I'm not sure that's the issue and what's more, even if it was the issue, I'm not sure what the fix is. Go back to the single game Wild Card perhaps? I know what they won't do and probably should, but go back to NOT having 12 teams make the playoffs. If anything, they'd water it down and have more teams come in before they would make the number less. 

Again I'm not sure this is even an issue, but I think it does bear watching the next few seasons. 

FOOTBALL: The End of an Era????

Tim and I went to The Tap Room in RVC for lunch last Sunday. They had the Sunday Ticket there, so in addition to the Giants-Dolphins disaster, we also got to watch the Steelers vs Ravens and the Patriots vs the Saints.

The Saints-Pats game was particularly interesting to me because for the second week in a row, New England got their doors blown off. They were shut out by the Saints and the week before they were blown out by the Cowboys. In the last two weeks, they've lost by a cumulative score of 72-3.  And I can't believe I'm writing this, but there are reports out of Boston that Bill Belichick is on the hot seat.

Can you imagine? 

And believe me, I'm glad to hear it. That man has tortured me for the past quarter century. From the time he weaseled out of his agreement to coach the Jets, to going to our arch-rivals and turning them into a perennial Super Bowl favorite, to his cheating by filming our coaches or underinflating footballs, even till today torturing poor Zach Wilson, Belichick has been my least favorite sports figure. I just find him despicable. 

And it does my heart good to know that his teams have struggled since they let Tom Brady go to Tampa. To me that settles that chicken vs egg argument. Brady played at elite level till he was 46 years old. He was a freak of nature we may never see again. Without Brady, how many Super Bowls do you think Belichick wins? 

And yes I know it was Belichick that drafted Brady, but he drafted him in the 8th round. At that point I don't care who you are, you are not looking to draft your franchise QB in the 8th round. That was pure luck. 

And having said all that, how can you think about firing him?

 Do I think he gets too much credit for the Pats success? Yes, but still, 7 Super Bowls is 7 Super Bowls. That should buy you some goodwill no? 

To me the fact that Pats owner Bob Kraft is thinking of sending Belichick packing tells you what kind of people both those guys are. They both want the credit for the success and none of the blame for the hard times. 

Don't get me wrong, I want to see the scumbag get fired, but if I was a Patriots fan, I'd be like, really? 

As for our local teams on Sunday, both games were exciting, down to the wire and totally unexpected. The Jets, sans Sauce Gardiner and DJ Reed, and going against one of the best Quarterbacks in the NFL, pulled off the upset against the previously undefeated Eagles. 

And the Giants, sans Daniel Jones, nearly did the same against the Bills. 

The Eagles committed 4 turnovers, including an interception at the end that gave the Jets, down by 2, the chance to take the lead. They scored on the very next possession play and faced criticism for giving the Eagles too much time on the clock. But to me, the way the defense was playing, I felt it was more important to get the points.  (which were coming at a premium) The Eagles missing that FG was a gift. No question about it. This was the first time the Jets ever beat the Eagles, which is amazing given that they used to play each other every year in the preseason. It’s taken 63 years, but the Jets have now beaten every NFL team at least once. 

As for the Giants, I wrote on FB that the Bills seemed determined to hand them the game. I didn’t mean that as a shot against the Giants, no way. They stepped up and held the Bills at bay most of the game. 

The reason I wrote, that was because on the Bills last possession, they had third and eight, and Josh Allen threw an incomplete pass. I kind of thought Bills should have run the ball and take more time off the clock. But now, in hindsight, I can see why they threw it. He completes that pass, the game is over. 

The Giants did a great job, marching down the field. When the Bills were called for pass interference, that’s when I wrote that trying to hand this game to the Giants.

And the fact of the matter is, they should’ve been called for pass interference on the last play of the game too. The Bills defender clearly had Darren Walker’s shirt.

Hopefully for the Giants, this close call gets them off the Schneid.

POLITICS: Still No Speaker:

On Wednesday, the House Republicans nominated House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, to be Speaker of the House. While far from ideal, I would rather have him as Speaker then someone, like for example, Jim Jordan.

Alas, Scalise's nomination lasted less than 24 hours. Unable to get the votes he needed, he withdrew his name on Thursday. And now, it's the aforementioned Jordan who is now up for nomination. 

The House GOP took a vote and Jordan only received 152 votes with 55 voting against. He needs 217 to win. 

I think we're going to be here for a while. The infighting is paralyzing important congressional business, not the least of which is another looming shutdown of the government on November 17th. 

Jordan would be a disaster. Scalise at least acknowledges that Joe Biden is the President. Jordan was one of the biggest 2020 election deniers. You know where I stand on election deniers. 

We need this nonsense like we need a migraine. Great job Matt Gaetz. 

That’s all folks

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week

* I know Justin Verlander is also getting paid by Steve Cohen to pitch for Houston. 

Weekly Mail October 8, 2023

 

                                     October 15, 1973

Hi:

For the third Saturday in a row, we had more rain. Not nearly as bad as last weeks, that left whole blocks underwater, but still, it was a nuisance. 

Many of us woke up Saturday morning to hear that Israel was attacked by rockets fired by Hamas. The death toll continues to grow by the hour. I don't want to not acknowledge what is going on, or act like I don't care, it’s a horrible situation that I really can’t find the words for. The Yom Kippur war was 50 years ago this week, it just never ends in the Middle East does it? 

It just never ends. 

With that, we move on to other things going on here.... we have issues of our own, namely the position of second in line to the Presidency was rendered vacant this week. Let's start there..

POLITICS: HELP WANTED-ONE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTITIVES

Last Monday night, Matt Gaetz-(R-FL) introduced a motion to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. On Tuesday, the vote was taken and by a count of 216-210, McCarthy was indeed removed.

All Democrats and 8 Republicans voted yea on Gaetz' resolution. 

My first reaction to all this was to ask if perhaps some Democrats may have considered keeping McCarthy in the Speaker's chair. After all, the reason Gaetz made his motion to vacate was that McCarthy had worked with Democrats to  come up with a stop gap spending bill to keep the federal government from shutting down Sunday morning. 

I can't stand Gaetz and would find it hard to support anything he sponsors. Him, along with Jim Jordan, Paul Gosar, Lauren (Hands) Boebert, and the whore representing Georgia's 14th Congressional District to me are the 5 biggest problems in the House on the GOP side. (The Democrats have issues of their own, which I will get to shortly.) And McCarthy? I'm no fan of his either, he's got the spine and makeup of a jellyfish, another guy who talks a lot without saying much of anything.

But at the buzzer, he came up with a plan that would keep federal employees working and saved millions of people who rely on federal funds to survive. Remember, while so many federal employees get furloughed, members of Congress still collect full salaries and benefits. How the hell is that fair? 

So for once in his life McCarthy does something constructive and for his trouble he loses his job. And again, observing here from the outside, I wondered if at least a few Democrats might have tossed McCarthy a proverbial bone.

Nothing doing, but why?

There was an article by Alexander Nazaryan, the senior White House correspondent for Yahoo News that answers that very question.

For starters, most of them, (rightly I may add), feel that McCarthy caved in on January 6th. At first, he condemned the attack, even angrily yelling at President Trump during a phone call that day that they were "trying to fucking kill me" and being caught on tape telling other Republican lawmakers he was going to ask Trump to resign because "I've had it with this guy."

McCarthy now acts as if that was someone else who said all that stuff and that January 6 was a big misunderstanding. He went on to oppose the the bipartisan commission to investigate the attack and also gave security footage from the Capitol to former Fox News stooge Tucker Carlson, who of course distorted it and presented it falsely. 

That was disgraceful behavior on McCarthy's part, and a prime example of what a gutless turd he is. 

But add to that the bogus impeachment inquiry he had authorized against President Biden, and the incentive to toss McCarthy a lifeline from the left became non-existent. 

Of course the issue now is who gets the gavel? A couple of the aforementioned Foolish 5 said that they would support Captain Orange as Speaker, and indeed the rules say you don't have to be a sitting member of Congress to be Speaker. (You do however have to not be under indictment for a felony-so that's a no-go). Two other possibilities are Jordan, who would be 100 times worse than McCarthy, and Steve Scalise of Louisiana. 

It's another big mess, and ultimately the ones who are getting screwed here are We the People. 

Now I meant to write about this last week, but I ran out of time and I didn't have all the facts straight. NY Congressman Jamaal Bowman pulled the fire alarm at the Capitol last weekend. He did this in order to delay the vote on the stop gap funding bill which not everybody had gotten to read. 

His defense was that the door he was trying to get through to get to the vote was locked and he thought pulling the lever would open the door. 

Sorry folks, I'm not buying that one either. 

And I would say, Bowman should be reprimanded by the House, (which is going to be tough without a Speaker) and should be subject to any civil penalties pulling a false alarm would entail. What I wouldn't do is expel him from Congress or have him arrested. Some of the same people that want Bowman arrested for pulling a fire alarm at the Capitol want the people who broke into the Capitol, attacked Capitol cops and threatened to kill people working in the Capitol to be let out of jail. 

Let that sink in. 

Onto less important but equally aggravating news...

BASEBALL: Bye-Bye Billy Eppler

Driving home from work Thursday, WFAN broke the news that Billy Eppler had resigned as Mets GM. Evan Roberts, the FAN's afternoon man said he didn't think it was a big deal since new head of baseball ops David Stearns was going to make the big decisions anyway. 

But I thought the timing was curious. What had changed between Stearns press conference, in which he re-iterated that he wanted Eppler to stay, and Thursday when Eppler said he wanted Stearns to have a "clean slate"? 

As usual with the Mets, the truth is a bit blurry.

Apparently Eppler is under investigation for using "the phantom IL" that is, he put guys on the injured list that might not have been as injured as they led the world to believe. If that's the only thing I can't imagine it being a big deal.

Which leads me to wonder what the hell is really going on? Did Eppler put a healthy player on the injured list or did he keep an injured player off the list? Is it either of these things or neither of them? 

And apparently MLB was alerted to whatever transgressions Eppler allegedly committed by an anonymous letter. OK, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the letter wasn't anonymous, but the league is protecting the whistle blower under the federal law. They have to damn well know who is making the accusations, otherwise we can all write letters to Rob Manfred and say whatever we want right? I'm curious as to who dropped the dime, but  suspect we will never find out. 

This is just more embarrassment in what has already been an embarrassing year with no end to the embarrassment in sight. 

That said, I’m not broken hearted to see Eppler gone, especially having read in the Post that one of the issues on which he clashed with Buck Showalter was over Daniel Vogelbach’s playing time, with Eppler insisting that Buck play the underperforming Danny Burgers while Buck wanting to play some of the younger players. Vogelbach was part of the Mets disastrous 2022 trade deadline, orchestrated by Eppler. 

He had his moments here, and to be honest, I’ll always be somewhat grateful to him for taking a job that nobody else seemed to want. But his record was spotty, and how he handled Buck (which in fairness was also Steve Cohen and David Stearns fault too) was a disgrace. 

As for the baseball playoffs, the four teams that advanced this week did so in the bare minimum of 2 games. The Twins and Phillies won their series at home against the Blue Jays and Marlins respectively. The D'Backs swept the Brewers in Milwaukee and the Rangers sent the Rays packing in front of a more than half empty Tropicana Field. I have never seen a baseball stadium that empty for a post-season game in my life.  I don't like to get on fans for not going to games, I know tickets are expensive and people are struggling, but that just looked very surreal. 

FOOTBALL: Jets, Giants wrap up 

I thought the Jets actually played better last week against the Chiefs and they did on Sunday against the Broncos. But a lot of what I saw on Sunday I liked. 

I suspect sports radio in New York is going to once again criticize Zach Wilson for the interception he threw in the 4th quarter and for not getting the play off before the end of the first half, but I thought he threw the ball with more confidence. 

It helped that Breece Hall had a tremendous game. If they get the running game on track, the passing game will be all the more easy. 

The Jets defense has played well late in the games, but gives still gives us an awful lot of yardage, especially in the run. Both Patrick Mahomes (which is understandable) and Russell Wilson (less so) had huge runs. That has to stop. 

A win is a win, and lord knows they needed it. 

As for the Giants, I didn’t get to see much of that game, but I was watching when Jason Pinnock picked off Tua Tagovailoa and took it 102 yards to the house. Unfortunately that was the lone highlight for Big Blue and for good measure, Daniel Jones suffered a neck injury. As of this writing, his condition is still unclear. 

HOCKEY: 

The new season kicks off this week. I haven't been less psyched for a season in a few years...

The Rangers did little to improve a team that got knocked out of the playoffs in the first round last year. They brought in a retread coach to replace the retread coach they already had. And not to put much stock in pre-season hockey, but so far, the Devils look like world-beaters. 

I mentioned briefly last week that I made my maiden voyage to UBS Arena at Belmont Park last Saturday night (thank you Ed, Mary Brendan and James). What a great place to watch a game! The seats were confortable and the sight lines were perfect. The lighting made the ice look brighter and it had all the modern amenities. 

And actually if I have one beef with the place, it's the modern amenities. 

After the 1st period, I went to get Tara and I some food, and to find just a place serving hot dogs, pretzels and popcorn was harder than sending someone to the moon. I walked by a Chinese food stand, a sushi stand, a craft hamburger joint, several bars, and a deli. I had the hardest time just findiong a place that serves the basics. Citi field had all that fancy shit too, but they are all together in one place. The easy standard stuff is right there when you leave your seats. At UBS, it's the other way around. 

But for watching an event? It's a really nice place. I can't wait to get back there.  

I know the term thoughts and prayers gets ridiculed around these parts sometimes, but I really don’t know what else to say regarding the attack on Israel over the weekend. It’s been going on for 2000 years, people much smarter than I haven’t been able to solve it. I’ll have more to say about it next week. 

For now, everyone hang in there.

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail October 1, 2023

 

        Ankle Deep Puddle Near My Car on September 29, 2023

Hey:

Another weekend, another washout. This one was even worse than last week. 

Driving home from work on Friday was, to put it mildly, an adventure. First of all there were puddles that resembles lakes in the parking lot. Then once I got on the road, there was more of the same. At one point there was a car going back and forth blocking the way I usually go home. I went down one block and came back up another and then I saw why they were blocking the road…. an entire intersection was under water. I mean it had to have been 3 or 4 feet deep. Unbelievable.

A trip that usually takes 15 minutes tool close to an hour.  And the pictures on the news showed places around the city that were even worse. 

And unfortunately, the rain and the floods led to a whole bunch of cancelations. Tara and I were supposed to do the brain tumor walk at Jones Beach on Saturday morning, but that got cancelled. Oceanside high school was supposed to have a ton of activities for their homecoming on Saturday, but most of them were canceled too. (They did play the football game though). 

And for the first time I can remember in my lifetime, a hockey game got “rained out” The DePuy’s had gotten me tickets to the Ranger/Islander preseason game at UBS Arena on Friday night, but at about 1:30 Friday afternoon, the Islanders announced that because of the state of emergency called by Governor Hochul, they were moving the game to Saturday night. Thankfully I had taken off from the Post or else I would have missed it. 

Cancelling and postponing these events was definitely the right call, it was still raining on Saturday morning and the streets were still in pretty bad shape. But still I felt bad because Tara had planned a fun day for the tumor walk and homecoming is always a fun day for a high school kid. You just hate to not have these things. 

And hopefully we can get back to just having manageable rain and not these biblical storms we keep seeming to have. Laugh at me all you want, but this is why we need to come up with a solution for climate change. 

Onto the rest of the news, such as it is….

BASEBALL RIP Yanks and Mets:

The Yankees finished the 2023 season at 82-80 and in 4th place. So the best thing you can say about them is that they finished above .500 and out of the AL East cellar. I know that for the World Series or bust Yankee fan those aren’t even considered consolations, even small ones. 

But the last time the Yankees finished under .500 was in 1992. That’s 31 years of having a winning record which to me is very impressive. And it was looking for a while there that the streak was going to end, as the Yanks floundered for most of the summer. 

I know. There is a ton the team has to do to get back onto contention, and right now the way they are built doesn’t offer much hope they can turn it around quickly either.   

It’s probably time (or even past time) to make a change at the top, but it seems like Brian Cashman isn’t going anywhere.  Again, 31 years in a row of above .500 ball is something any GM would want on their resume, but Cashman’s job isn’t to build .500 ballclubs, it’s to win championships, and he hasn’t done that in a long time. 

As for the Mets, well, when you finish 12 games under .500, lose the division by almost 30 games, essentially wave the white flag with two months to go, and do all of this with the highest payroll in the sport, it’s hard to defend anyone keeping their jobs. I also understand that having a new guy running baseball operations means bringing in new people. I get all that.

Still, it was hard for me to watch Buck Showalter taking the fall on Sunday for this disastrous Mets season. Even though Steve Cohen took pains to say he didn’t blame Buck, his actions spoke louder than his words did. 

With Buck, for the first time since Terry Collins, I felt the Mets had an adult running the show. I felt we had a guy who could handle NY, and who knew the ins and outs of the game as well as anyone. 

Also, I’m not sure how you can get rid of Buck and give Billy Eppler a pass as GM, to me this mess was a lot of his doing. He’s the one who left the bullpen short handed after Edwin Diaz injury and also was the one who insisted on sticking with Daniel Vogelbach as DH when it was obvious that he wasn’t coming through nearly enough. I’m not advocating firing Eppler either, I think a GM needs more than a couple of seasons to build a team, I’m saying if Buck has to go, why does Eppler get to stay? That just doesn’t sit well with me.

The Mets season started with Diaz going down while celebrating the WBC. I thought that hurt their spirit more than it would affect their bullpen, but it actually affected both even worse than I had imagined. I also should have known this season was going to go sideways when they called the home opener due to rain that never came, only to play the next day in much worse conditions. It just never really got better from there. 

We had two future hall of fame pitchers, one was inconsistent and the other started the season on the injured list and needed some time to find his groove. By the time they both seemed to be hitting their stride, they were dealt away. Pete Alonso while putting up impressive power numbers, disappeared too often and ended up with Dave Kingman/Rob Deer type stats. Jeff McNeil slumped most of the first half, and Francisco Lindor while ending up having a good year, also went missing for about a month with his bat. 

A few years back, I declared that year’s Mets team the worst I had ever seen. I immediately got some blowback on that one, being reminded that there were teams in the 1960’s that lost over 110 games, and teams in the late 70’s that were unwatchable. I get all that, and I’m not about to say that this team was worse than any of those. But the combination of the high payroll, high expectations and star power on this team, only to see us not only throw in the towel for the rest of 2023, but quite possibly 2024 as well, I can make a fairly strong case for this being the most disappointing season in Mets history. 

FOOTBALL: Jets just miss a miracle…

Last week was a tough one for Zach Wilson. 

He was clobbered in the press even more than usual, he had Joe Namath of all people demanding the Jets trade him away (that reminded me of the time Keith Hernandez was being overly critical of the Mets in the broadcast booth and Mike Piazza referred to him as “a voice from the grave).  Even I, who had been as patient with him as anybody, thought maybe the big bad city was too much for the kid from Utah. 

Something kept nagging at me though… Tony Romo sometimes drives me crazy because he often drones on too much about something while missing something obvious right in front of him. But he can still predict things before they happen, and he kept saying during last week’s game against the Pats that Wilson should just go for broke and throw the ball downfield. 

Well he did that Sunday night against Patrick Mahomes, Taylor Swift and the rest of the KC Chiefs, and damned if he didn’t almost pull off the biggest upset in the first month of the season right there. Only a fumble on the snap (which Wilson owned up to) and a couple of $hitty calls by the refs prevented the Jets from winning Sunday night. 

So I'm still going to be a glass half-full sort of guy and say that maybe Wilson has found his groove. I know, I know he has teased us before only to let us down, but a game like this can turn a team around. They need to go into Denver next week and beat a bad Bronco team or we'll be back to square one. 

And not that I want to make too big a deal out of all this crap, but news sites were reporting that people were buying tickets to the Jets-Chiefs game because of Taylor Swift. This was from CBSNEWS.com on Friday...

In an attempt to be in the presence of the pop star at Met Life Stadium, fans have apparently been scooping up tickets, with several ticket sales sites reporting a boost.

Can you imagine? People buying tickets to watch somebody else watching a football game? And did these folks think Swift was going to be sitting with Fireman Ed, or up in the nosebleeds? She was going to be in a luxury box, far away from the Swiftes in the cheap seats. 

And I mean I get it, she is a beautiful woman who can sing country, hip hop and rock and roll, and she has a relatively skeleton free closet. She's the best of what this country has to offer, I'm not taking any of that away from her. 

But the idea that you were on the fence about going to the game, but that Taylor Swift was going to be in the same arena, not performing mind you, just watching the game, and that made you decide to get tickets? That's one of the dopiest ideas I've ever heard of. 

The Giants are playing the Seahawks as we go to press tonight. As far as I know, Taylor Swift was not planning on going. 

That's all I have for now folks.

Stay Safe 

and Have a Great Week