Hi Everyone:
Hope you all had a Happy Easter.
So we took last week off because it was St. Patrick's Day in RVC and I usually march in the parade, but the weather was a washout, so I stayed home and watched college basketball all day. There are much worse ways to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon.
We have a lot to get to, so we'll start with the bad news, the worst news actually.
RIP: Officer Jonathan Diller
Any time a cop is killed in the line of duty, it's a bad time in NY. This one hit closer to home than usual, for reasons I won't go into here. Everything about this is awful, from having a little boy who will never remember meeting his father, to the young widow, to the fact that the animal charged in the shooting had been arrested 21 times previously.
NYC and the greater areas are united in grief, sadness and anger. The outpouring for Officer Diller has been something to see. I was in Massapequa on Friday morning and almost every house and business had a blue ribbon or some symbol of support for him and all his fellow police officers. The sea of blue that lined up along Merrick Road on the way to St. Rose of Lima in Massapequa on Saturday morning, I mean, if that didn't move you, you can't be moved.
I'm consider myself blessed and fortunate to have many police officers and fire fighters amongst my family and friends. Many of you that see this on FB are NY Finest and Bravest. You may not agree with some of the things I write on here but please know this.., You are appreciated, respected, prayed for and supported here. The cold-blooded murder of Officer Jonathan Diller is heartbreaking. I always end this blog by saying Stay Safe. That goes for everybody but especially for our heroes in blue.
Please.
Now, onto much less important matters.....
It's been a few weeks since some of these things took place, but I kept the WM from two weeks ago St Patrick's Day themed and we didn't publish last week, but there are a few items I need to spill about.
FOOTBALL: Saquon to the Eagles.
A lot of the baloney that was written and discussed about Saquon Barkley signing as a free agent with the archrival Philadelphia Eagles concerned the back and forth between Barkley and former Giant all-pro and current WFAN afternoon drive co-host Tiki Barber. I'm not going to get into all that.
But even though I'm not a Giant fan, I think no matter what team you root for, you've had this experience, a player you've rooted for flying the coop for greener pastures, such as they are. It doesn't much happen to the Yankees, but it has even happened to them.
The two instances that stick out to me happened in 1990 and 1997 respectively.
First was Darryl Strawberry leaving the Mets. He had had a crappy year in 1989, lowlighted by a spring training fistfight with Keith Hernandez. But he bounced back in 1990 and almost carried the Mets by himself to the playoffs. But he also spent a good part of the season threatening to leave. In hindsight, the Mets should have dealt him at the trade deadline, especially since they had no intention of re-signing him. Young and innocent as I was in 1990, I didn't understand the concept of the low-ball (or in more modern profane terms- the f-ck you) offer. Mets GM Frank Cashen offered him a 4-year deal for a total of $15 million. The Dodgers offered him the same 4 years for a total of 20.25 million and that afternoon's Mike and the Mad Dog Show opened up with Randy Newman's I Love LA.
In those pre internet days, if something pissed me off enough, I went down to my Apple word processor and typed and printed out my rants. My audience for those classics were Ray and Karl, and both of them thought my anger was misplaced.
7 years later, the Rangers had made an unexpected run to the conference finals, only to lose to a loaded Flyers team. Mark Messier an impeding free agent had said he expected the Rangers to make a couple of free agent depth pickups, then would work with the Rangers on his new deal.
Around the first week of July a report in the Sunday Daily News said that talks between Messier and the Rangers were progressing and that a deal was imminent. The next day, Messier angrily denied the Rangers and he were close to a deal and suggested he was about to start talking to other teams. The day after that, Mike Lupica, who barely writes about hockey during hockey season, wrote a column basically calling Messier an ingrate, much the way Dick Young had done to Tom Seaver 20 years prior. By the end of the week, Mess had signed with the Canucks. Apparently, Messier was miffed that the Rangers had given Patrick Ewing a huge 4 year deal despite the Knicks not being able to close the deal in the NBA Finals a week after the Rangers had done just that in the Stanley Cup Finals. I was on AOL by that time and I'm sure he was the subject of that week's WM.
Now why these two stick out so much is that both the early 90's Mets and the late 90's Rangers were at the tail end of very successful runs and the departures of Straw and Mess both begat hard times for both franchises. The Mets won 91 games in Straw's last year, they won a mere 77, the year he left, 70 the year after that and by 1993 were the Worst Team $$$ Could By at 59-103. The Rangers had won the Cup in 1994, and as I said went to the conference finals in 1997. That conference final run would be their last playoff appearance for 9 years (8 plus the lockout year)
Now the Giants have been mostly awful during the time Saquon has been here (one playoff win) but to me Saquon's big sin wasn't so much that he left Big Blue, but that he signed with an archrival. At least Strawberry and the Captain had the decency to go to the West Coast. Giants fans are going to see Saquon at least twice a year.
I was pretty pissed when Jacob deGrom split town for Texas, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise as he's been hurt, and to be honest, he may never pitch again. My point is I understand that visceral reaction when someone you root for decides to go play elsewhere. Saquon has had issues staying on the field, maybe those will continue down in Philly. Also the Giants made a couple of nice pickups in the wake of Barkley's departure.
But yeah man I get it. It's a shitty feeling, like when the person you've been chatting up all night leaves with someone else.
You when else I get that awful feeling? When my brackets start to fall apart.
MARCH MADNESS:
Now I've had a full two weeks to cool my jets over what happened to St. John's (in particular) and the Big East Conference (in general) on Selection Sunday.
I can't remember ever sitting there watching the bracket reveal and having that feeling of expecting to see my team make it, only to have them left out all together. All the years St. John's didn't make it, I knew they weren't going to get in. This time around, I really felt like they deserved a berth in the dance. But they weren't even in the first four out. (Not that that really matters much, but still)
Picking on the NCAA selection committee is like the epitome of low hanging fruit. I'll make my second Mike and the Mad Dog reference on this broadcast here by saying that used the Monday after the brackets were announced to trash the committee every single one of the 19 years they were on the air together.
But the way the committee chairman came off after speaking to the CBS Studio guys just made me even more pissed off than I already was. What an arrogant jerk. And he couldn't explain how 6 teams from the Mountain West Conference could be chosen while St. John's, Providence and even more egregiously, Seton Hall could be left home. It made no sense.
WFAN midday host Brandon Tierney suggested that because the Big East has a contract with Fox Sports and CBS broadcasts the tournament, that maybe THAT had something to with the selection committee's decision making. I'm not going down that rabbit hole, but
Now, as for the tournament itself, as pissed as I was, and even though I told my dad I was going to fill out my brackets and not look at them again so that I wouldn't get hung up on rooting against the Cinderella story.
But alas I wasn't able to keep that promise, and son of a gun wouldn't you know I had one of the best opening weekends of my life. 14-2 on Thursday, 13-3 on Friday. And the games I lost didn't destroy my bracket. I managed to get 13 teams in the Sweet 16. If I ever did do that (and I'm not sure I ever did) it hadn't been since I was in high school and could discuss my bracket with Greg Hearn and Chris Lawrence my two classmates who I still consider the best bracketoloigists I've ever met.
Shoot even this past Thursday I felt like the bishop from Caddyshack when Alabama beat North Carolina. With UCONN beating San Diego State, and the Fighting Illini beating Iowa State, that was three teams in the Elite 8.
But all good things must come to an end. On Friday, my National Champion bowed out when Houston lost to f-cking Duke (of all teams) and Crieghton lost to Tennessee. Half my Final Four sent packing.
That Duke-Houston game was an eyesore, even if the Cougars would have pulled it out. 23-22 at the half? I've seen better played CYO games.
I’m proud that I picked 2 Final Four teams in UCONN (not exactly going out on a limb) and Alabama (which was a bit more ballsy) Purdue and 11th seeded NC State were the other two Final Four teams.
BASEBALL-Opening Day
Right now, I'm reading a book called Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and the Last Glory Days of Baseball by Keith O'Brien. I've read a couple of books about Pete Rose in the last 10 years or so, including his most recent autobiography. The other book was by former SI writer Kostya Kennedy (which I should probably re-read for comparison's sake.) Something about this latest book told me I should pick it up, and to be honest, I've been looking to do I write up about sports gambling and athletes, even before all this crap about Shohei Ohtani came down. I'm going to finish this latest Rose book, and maybe by then more info will come out about Ohtani and his former interpreter and we'll be able to have a good discussion about all of it.
For now, we'll focus on our two teams here in NY.
I caught the last couple of innings of the Yanks-Astros game on Thursday and if you are a Yankee fan, that had to be a great feeling. Coming back from 4-0, taking the lead, then preserving the lead with a rocket launcher throw courtesy of new pickup Juan Soto. Even I got a kick out of that. I realize Opening Day is one game out of 162, but again how exciting.
Then there were the Mets. They too were supposed to open on Thursday, but that was a washout, so they played on Good Friday. I had put in for March 28 way back when and I wasn't able to get the day off. Good Friday is a holiday for CHS, so I thought I had lucked out. Instead, I watched my boys pick up right where they left off last year, getting one -hit by the Brewers, I realize that Opening Day is one game out of 162, but again right where we left off last year. Playing like sh-t!
I have two teams preparing for the playoffs with the Rangers (who have already clinched) and the Knicks who are well on their way (their loss to the lowly Spurs the other night notwithstanding). I can't get too worked up over the Mets when it's not even April yet.
Still I like it when we win on Opening day.
Again, if you celebrate Easter, I hope you had a happy and a blessed one. I really don’t like when Easter falls anytime before April 1. It’s way too early and the weather is usually too cold.we were pretty lucky that the weather was nice on Sunday.
Stay Safe especially our Finest and Bravest
and Have a Great Week
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