Weekly Mail November 24, 2024

 

Hi Everyone:

Thanksgiving as we all know is the 4th Thursday in November. The earliest it can be is November 22, and the latest is November 28, which it happens to be this year. And even with the extra week, it still seems to have snuck up on me. 

The All-American Christmas Tree

Outside the Post, the All-American Christmas tree is already up and fully lit in Fox Square. No fancy, schmancy three-hour production like they do over at NBC. Tree goes up, lights go on, tourists take pictures, wash, rinse, repeat. 

There were some young-uns having their picture taken with one of those spinning cameras. The song blasting during the photo session? All I want for Christmas is You. I don't care how late Thanksgiving is, it is waaay too early for us to be inundated by that song. 

But here we are. 

All right, let's get to much less pressing matters

FOOTBALL: The beat(ings) go on...

In last week's non-political blogpost, we made the case that we are living in what can only be described as the dark ages of what passes for NFL Football here in NY. I not only believe I made a pretty compelling case, I also believe it was strengthened by events that took place this past week.

First on Tuesday morning, the Jets buffoon owner, Woody Johnson, fired beleaguered GM Joe Douglas. Since Douglas contract was expiring at the end of the season, and after this monstrosity of a season, I guess the powers that be decided to get a head start on finding a new suck-, um, I mean person to take this most prestigious of gigs.

It almost actually makes sense. 

But I'm not willing to give Woody the benefit of the doubt. 

There's no point in regurgitating what a football dunce Woody Johnson is. If you're still on the fence about that, go read the reports about him in the Athletic that came out this week I can't even take solace in the fact that Captain Orange will probably give him a plumb job in his administration, because all that means is that Woody's equally incompetent brother, Christopher, will take over the Jets.

But I would like to say a couple of things about the outgoing Douglas.  It's next to impossible to defend a man whose record as GM was more than 30 games under .500. And yet, there is a part of me that feels like he was run out of town too quickly. 

One can argue that perhaps the 2022 draft could have bought Douglas a little more time. Garrett Wilson, Sauce Gardner and Breece Hall came out of that draft. As well as serviceable tight end Jeremy Ruckert. Yes, I realize the counterargument is that he drafted Zach Wilson with the number 2 pick the year before and set the franchise back 5 years, which is even more glaring in light of the fact that the QB they sent packing to make room for Wilson, Sam Darnold, is having a solid season for the Vikings. 

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter does it? The problem with the Jets isn't poor coaching, or poor general managing, or even poor scouting. It's that their ownership is clueless. And about the only way they are going to be able to get past that is that someway, somehow, one of the Johnson brothers stumble onto a guy (or gal) who can get the team turned around relatively quickly, before the sharks on WFAN and ESPN radio, start calling for their heads again.

As hard as it is to believe that could ever happen, it is possible. 

This was a little before I started watching sports, but in 1979, then NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, seeing that the Giants co-owners, Wellington and Tim Mara couldn't get out of each other's way, strongly suggested they hire George Young to be their GM. It took a few years, a few drafts, and hiring (and more importantly NOT firing) Bill Parcells but the Giants ended the 80's with one Lombardi Trophy in hand, and another shortly on it's way in 1990. 

I told you guys about a Mike Lupica Shooting from the Lip Column in 1986 in which he strongly insinuated that someone else besides Wellington Mara would be a better owner of the Giants. His suggestion was a certain future two-time President of the United States (and also future convicted felon) went by the name of Trump. I'm sure Lupica pretends someone else wrote that column, but the point of the matter is that perceptions change when you win. As Ted Turner said (and I quote here often) There's a fine line between being colorful and being an asshole. It's simple here in NY, it's winning.

And speaking of the Giants, they didn't exactly have a banner week here either. They gave the starting job to last year's hero, Tommy (Cutlets) DeVito. I got no issue with that, indeed I think the fans will get a kick out of it, especially if he does well. I'm rooting hard for him myself. (He didn’t do much today-a 30-7 loss to Tampa that wasn’t even that close) 

My issue is with the shoddy way they treated Daniel Jones, the incumbent starter, whom they demoted all the way to 4th string, before mercifully cutting him by the end of the week. 

There had to be a better way to handle this. I know Mark Cannizaro in the Post wrote a column imploring us not to weep for Danny Dimes, since the Giants aren't getting any of their $82 million back. But in light of the way Jones stood up there, took total responsibility for his failures (which truth be told were not entirely all his fault) and was genuinely distraught over his career with the Giants ending the way it did, when he could have taken the money and ran, I can't help but feel that has to stand for something. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, maybe if he was my QB, I'd feel differently. Or maybe I realize I'm living in a country where accountability means squat nowadays. Whatever the case, I wish Daniel Jones the best, and I hope he does well on another team. 

BASEBALL-Anti Mets bias-Alive and well!

MLB gave out its major awards last week. The Yanks did particularly well. 

Pitcher Luis Gil won Rookie of the Year, almost kind of by default. The runner up, Oriole outfielder Colton Cowser, (whose name I can't pronounce without sounding like Max Casella's character in Doogie Howser MD), was good but not great. Gil himself looked like he might not only waltz to the R of Y, but also contend for the Cy Young Award at the beginning of the season, winning his first 6 decisions. Even after he cooled off, he had a 15-7 record with a solid if not spectacular 3.50 ERA. 

And of course, Aaron Judge deservedly took all 30 first place votes for AL MVP, as he was clearly the best player in baseball in 2024. Only a slight power slump in the dog days of August prevented the Judge from besting his own AL Home Run record. As it was, he hit 58 dingers and drove in 144 runs, while hitting .322. In many years, numbers like that could garner you the Triple Crown.

If Judge was baseball's best player, Shohei Ohtani was the clear runner up. I'm sure there are those that will argue Ohtani was better, that his 50+ homer and 50 + stolen bases season was more an accomplishment than was Judge. I take points off for being a DH, while Judge plays the field. Unfair? Maybe, but it's my f-cking ballot, OK?

Now, I'm not suggesting that Ohtani getting all 30 first place MVP votes over Met SS Francisco Lindor was in any way unfair, but I will guarantee this.. If the roles were reversed, and Ohtani accomplished his 50-50 season in Queens, and Lindor was the guiding force in leading an over-achieving Dodger team to the post-season, more than one of these left coast sportswriters would have given Lindor a first place vote. You could take that to the freakin bank. 

It happened with both Jacob deGrom in 2018, and Pete Alonso in 2019. In both cases, it took one dickhead sportswriter to deny Jake a unanimous Cy Young vote and the Polar Bear a unanimous Rookie of the year vote. If you don't think that's ant-Mets bias, you are kidding yourself. 

And where that was most obvious and egregious was in the NL Manager of the Year voting. Carlos Mendoza received one first place vote, and six second place votes. Brewers manager Pat Murphy, received 27 of the 30 first place votes, with the other 3 going to runner up Padres manager Mike Shildt, Mendoza, and Phille manager Rob Thompson. Shilt received 19 second place votes. 

What?!

I realize that the Mets advancing to within two games of the World Series means squat in the Manager voting, being that these votes are taken before the playoffs begin. But the Mets weren't expected to be anywhere near playoff contention. Not to mention that they got off to an awful start, only to have an amazing second half. As one of my St. Mary's classmates who will go nameless (Blondie) pointed out, the Mets rotation was comprised of number 3 starters. Nobody thought they would win 89 games. 

Now in fairness, the Brewers weren't expected to do much either, after losing both their GM to the Mets and manager to the Cubs, but there was still plenty of talent on their team. I could see some consideration for Murphy, but there is no way he did a better job of managing the Brewers than did Mendy skippering the Mets. And to even put the Padres manager ahead of him? See my remarks about west coast bias in the above paragraphs. 

But this is just the way it's going to be around here peeps. With Steve Cohen and his deep pockets, the Mets are always going to get screwed by the out-of-town media. Which is why it is imperative that they win it all in the next couple of years. If the media is going to stick it to the Mets, the Mets need to stick it to the rest of the National League. Nobody bats an eye when the Dodgers spend a billion dollars on players from Japan, but it's a whole scandal when the Mets spend $$$. Now, its time to get Juan Soto and really drive the country batshit*. 

SOCIAL MEDIA: TO Unfriend or NOT TO Unfriend...

That is the question.

And this question comes up every once in a while, especially after a major news event, such as an election, for example.

I obviously was in a bad state on Wednesday November 6th. There were other things going on that I won't get into here, but yeah, I was beside myself that morning. On Facebook, I had one friend bragging that people were unfriending them, one friend bemused that people were unfriending them, and one friend who seemed genuinely upset that people were unfriending them. Those were people obviously who had voted Red in the days before. 

A couple of my friends who had voted blue with me were talking about unfriending people. I was so pissed off (again-not just about the election) that I actually considered either shutting down my FB altogether or doing a lot of unfriending too. To make my MAGA friends feel better, I was going to call it Mass Deportation as opposed to unfriending.

I ended up not cutting anyone loose, though I reserve the right to do so at a later date if I so choose. Some of the people on the multiple threads chided anyone who clicked the unfriend button. I saw words like immature, childish, narrow-minded and loser. 

Look, I think I made it quite clear this past Tuesday that my faith in humanity took quite a hit on November 6, 2024. I make no apologies for that. Nor has my attitude changed any. 

I chose not to dump Trump (seewhatididthere?) supporters because for the overwhelming majority of them, I have other things in common, other subjects we can discuss. Some of them are friends I had lost contact with for one reason or another, and in some small way, reconnecting has been a blessing. Some of them are friends I have had my whole life and as pissed as I am, and as much as I can't understand why they did it, it's on me to accept it. 

But all that said, I don't agree that making changes to your social media is necessarily immature or childish. Let's face it-in life we can't always choose our co-workers, we certainly can't choose all of our relatives, and even if you end up in a large group of your choosing, like a church or a book club or things of that nature, not everybody is going to agree with you, not everyone is going to share your values or beliefs. And yes, I agree in many ways that's a good thing. We're not robots, we are all entitled to our beliefs and our values.

But social media is one place where you CAN choose who you want to connect to. You can control who you let in and who you keep out. Differences of opinion are what makes us grow and learn, but also as Col. Sherman T. Potter once opined on M*A*S*H, when it comes right down to it, about the only thing a (person) can truly call their own, are their values."

And if you feel that your values and beliefs are so much the opposite of someone else's, I believe you have the right to at least limit your association with that person. 

I very rarely have unfriended anybody. There were a couple of co-workers at a previous job who I didn't want to stay in touch with, another former co-worker was ragging so bad on one of my teams, I sent them virtually packing. There were a few people I somehow got connected with that I ended up not knowing, so I cut them loose. I don't believe that I have ever unfriended anyone strictly over politics, but as I said in a previous post, there have been a few who have done so to me. In some cases, I felt kind of bad, in others not so much, but in all of them, I wouldn't take back anything I may have said. If they felt that strongly that I was wrong, then I respect their decision. I'm not going to be surprised if someone read my Tuesday night post, and decided to give me the heave-ho. Again, I stand by what I wrote. 

When all is said and done, and until we are told otherwise, (and we just might be told otherwise in the not-too-distant future,) we are still entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If part of that pursuit means not associating with people who would make said pursuit more difficult, then that's a decision you are entitled to make. 

**********************************************

Governor Hochul signed a bill on Friday that repealed a law here in NY that made adultery illegal in the state. 

The obviously not enforced law dates back to 1907. So all you louses out there cheating on your spouses were not only living in sin, you were technically breaking the law the last 117 years. 

I guess that’s one less things scumbags across the state have to worry about, though I suppose if you are lousy enough to do that, it was probably low on your list of concerns to begin with. 

I also have a call out to God to see if in light of Governor Hochul’s  decision, He is considering a repeal of the Sixth Commandment. He hasn’t gotten back to us yet. We’ll post it here when we get an answer.

We’ll also keep an eye on any Black Friday violence. Thankfully that seems to have become a thing of the past. But if anything happens we’ll have it for you. 

Probably won’t post next week. 

Everybody have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Stay Safe 

and Have a Great Week

*It wouldn't break my heart if Soto ended up back in the Bronx, but for the love of all things holy, please do not let him go to the Dodgers, Padres, or Phillies

Weekly Mail Election Special (Part 2)

 

Ain’t that America 

Elections matter.

Elections have consequences.

Those are phrases we hear all the time. The second phrase is definitely true, and unfortunately, we are all going to find out the hard way what the consequences of this election are soon enough. I will get to that shortly.

But the first phrase? Well, I have to be honest with you here, as it pertained to this past election, I'm not sure about that. 

I was on my way out to a wake one evening in the late spring of 2021. We were on Sunrise Highway, driving past the Merrick LIRR station, and it looked like there was a flea market or something going on in the parking lot. I found that unusual, flea markets or famers markets usually happen on the weekends. This was a Thursday night if I recall correctly.

But it wasn't a market. It was a bunch of people with Fuck Joe Biden and Let''s Go Brandon and other pro Donald Trump stuff. This was 6 months or so after Trump had left office, after he had organized a terrorist attack on the US Capitol. After he had unsuccessfully tried to overthrow the government. 

And these people were still protesting. I thought to myself "Don't these people have better things to do?"

You might want to say that I should admire their passion and their commitment to a cause. They stood up for what they believe in. Even if you disagree with them, you have to credit them for that.

Please.

They're in a cult. All of them. 

And to be honest, even if Kamala Harris had won the election two weeks ago, there still would have been those people yelling and screaming and carrying on. Their racism and sexism and homophobia still on display. 

But forget that for a minute. We should have never been here in the first place. 

There was a time where trying to overthrow the government of the United States got you a lengthy prison sentence. A long time ago, a conviction on those charges could get you the death penalty. Instead we took a man who tried to do just that and put him back in office. 

There was a time where we went after terrorists, and those who plotted their attacks. Now we elect them to the presidency, and watch as they let the terrorists themselves go free.

How did we get here? 

Well, we got here because the ultimate conman played the ultimate con. 

And because you fell for the con, because you decided you wanted to "own the libs", because he convinced you that the 2020 election was stolen from him and that the real enemy are the migrants, most of who are just doing the jobs we don't want to do, or the LBGQT communities, who are statistically speaking, a lot less likely to harm your kids than your local priest, pastor or rabbi, because of all that, we are, once again going to have a wannabe dictator in office. A man whose real motivation was twofold. To avenge his enemies and more importantly to stay out of jail.

Congratulations America, you gave a criminal,  a traitor to our nation, a get out of jail free card. 

My mom was a parent coordinator in the NYC Public School system. Her mantra for her job was “Every parent loves their kids as much as I love mine”  And I believe that is true of almost everybody. I believe we all want what's best for our children.

That said, how could you have voted for Trump and think you were doing right by them? 

I could try explaining to you that the reason prices have been so high lately are because they were too low during the pandemic, a pandemic, while not caused by Trump, was made worse by his lack of leadership, and now those people that lost money are trying to recoup those losses, and some more unscrupulous folks are trying to maximize profits. That has nothing to do with Joe Biden and you will find out soon enough that Trump can't fix that, and if his tariff plans go through, it will be so much worse.  

You're not going to buy that. Either you're too far down the rabbit hole, or you just don’t want to accept it. I get it.

But how do you explain to your kids that you can commit crimes and still be elected to the highest office in the land? You can brag about assaulting women, shit, you can be found liable for assaulting a woman, and still be elected President. You can steal top secret documents, admit you took them, and not give them back, and still be elected commander in chief? 

How do you explain that to your kids?

All the parents I know teach their children to be kind, respectful and solid citizens. I think Tara and I have done a pretty good job. I taught CCD a couple years back and those kids were polite and respectful. Tim’s classmates and teammates are really good kids. And that comes from good parenting.

But to what end?

If we are going to reward bad behavior, what's the point here? 

There was an episode of the Simpsons many years ago where Lisa felt like she has been robbed of an award. At the end of the episode, President Clinton (or a cartoon version with an impersonator of him) showed up and gave Lisa the award himself. He thanked her for "teaching kids everywhere a valuable lesson. If things don't go your way, just keep complaining until all your dreams come true." 

They really should update that episode, make Trump the president. Who better to convey THAT message? 

Marge Simpson told Bubba, "That's a pretty lousy lesson."

I'd like to think so, but it got Trump another four years. 

That, and perjury, and theft (who do you think he was getting those documents for?) and of course treason. 

Not to mention sexual assault. 

A lousy lesson for our kids indeed. But here we are. 

I'll let the economic experts tell you what his tariff plans are going to do for the economy. I'll let health care experts explain what some of these new laws are going to do to rape victims. They can also tell you that putting an asshole like Robert Kennedy Jr in charge of anything is a bad idea. And now Matt Gaetz, a credibly suspected pedophile, is going to be our Attorney General? 

Seriously? 

Here’s a question for the MAGAts: 

Trump said his election will “ help the country heal” Is that really what you want? To see everyone get along? To bury the hatchet and work together? Obviously I don’t believe for one second he wants the country to heal, hate and divisiveness is what got him here in the first place. It’s more bullshit. Did you realize that and not care? Or did that upset you? 

I’ll tell you what upset me, the fact that President Biden agreed to have Trump over to the White House to help ensure a smooth transition. 

What?

I was more pissed off about that than I was about the election itself. A peaceful transition of power? Just like what we had the last time, right? 

Absolutely not.

I’d do everything within legal limits of making Trump’s transition as difficult as possible. Having him at the White House, sitting with him, for what? To me that just normalizes him, normalizes his movement. Normalizes his cult. After all the shit Trump said about Biden?  Dragging his family through the mud, while Trumps family are pieces of shit who stole from charities. For Biden to make like this was a normal election, acting like this was George W handling the keys off to Barack Obama, that was just disgusting. Watching Biden and Trump shake hands made my skin crawl.

I'm thinking that might be the one thing we agree on, right? If Biden was such an incompetent, why would Trump need to go to the White House to meet with him? That had to have driven you crazy, no?

Captain Orange becomes the first President since Grover Cleveland to win two non-consecutive terms in office. He will now be both the 45th and 47th President of the United States. 

More importantly, he will be the first person convicted of a felony to be elected President.

He is also the first President ever impeached to be reelected President. Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 but failed to be nominated for a second term later that year. He was elected to the Senate later on in his career. 

Trump is the only President to have faced two impeachment trials. No doubt he'll go for the hat trick sometime in the first two years of his new administration. Remember, he could shoot somebody in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose any votes.

He just proved that theory correct again. 

8 years ago, the first time Trump won, I went back and found the excerpt of the speech Al Gore gave the night he conceded the 2000 election to George W. Bush. Gore, who certainly had more right to claim a stolen election than Trump ever did, said the following that night.

"I've seen America in this campaign and I like what I see. It's worth fighting for and that's a fight I'll never stop."

Eight years ago, I felt the same way as Gore did.

Now?

Now I see a country, already torn apart, about to be broken, if not permanently, for a very, very long time. I see a country where hate triumphed over love, where division defeated unity. A friend of Tara's and myself, who does mindset motivations, reminded her IG Followers that the country is called the United States of America. She urged everyone to celebrate if they wanted, mourn if they felt the need, but to not rub it in anyone's faces either way. 

I responded that I thought that was normally good advice and that she was amazing at what she did. I also told her I had no intention of following said advice. 

Like I said in my last post, it was somewhat understandable if you fell for it last time. This time? We had four years of him in office to see how incompetent he was. We've had eight years to see that he's a thin skinned, dictator worshipping, mental flyweight. And just in case I haven't mentioned it in the last 27 seconds, he organized an insurrection against the United States. 

There was no excuse this time. 

You can hate me, unfriend me, never speak to me again if this upsets you. But it has to be said. 

This isn't the United States of America anymore. When you voted for Trump, you saw to that. 

Congratulations.

Weekly Mail November 17 2024

 

Mike Tyson, Rosie Perez and Jake Paul

Hi Everyone: 

I haven't spent much time on social media the past two weeks.. well, let me rephrase that. I haven't spent much time posting on social media the past two weeks. I acknowledged Veteran's Day, and I acknowledged some birthdays. I've gone out of my way to avoid politics, either posting, or commenting or even liking certain posts. This blogpost as well, will be politics free. 

That will change on Tuesday.

On Tuesday night, two weeks post-election day, I will publish my election wrap up special. And let's just say, the gloves will officially come off. 

Two weeks ago, we published our election preview. And I wanted to write about the World Series. Last week I took off to spend some time with my best buds out near the Hamptons. We had dinner at a BBQ place, then found a dive bar down the block. It was like old times, and the three of us had some rippin hangovers on Sunday. So writing was out of the question.

Time to play catch up...

WORLD SERIES WRAP UP

On WFAN’s Evan and Tiki show, both Evan Roberts and producer Shaun Morash, at different times, have referred to themselves as IBO’s. Usually they are discussing basketball so it’s independent basketball observers (neither one of them are Knicks fans) but it also works for baseball too. 

Since my Mets were sent packing by the Dodgers a few weeks ago, I’ve become an independent baseball observer. Yes, I was pulling for the Yankees in this 2024 World Series, but no my heart and soul and emotions weren’t in it nearly as much as they would have been had the Mets been in there. That probably goes without saying, but I figured it’s worth a mention.

So having watched all but Game 1 of this recently completed Fall Classic, I feel I can safely say to my friends across the proverbial baseball aisle, I feel your pain.

Because the last two times my Mets were able to make it to the Series, they have lost In eerily  similar fashion to how the Yanks lost this one to the Dodgers. 

Bone-headed base running, sloppy fielding, a leaky bullpen, a lack of fundamentals, getting to the big stage and shitting the bed, acting like they basic rules of the game are different just because there is some extra bunting around the stadium. 

Go back and look at the 2000 Subway World Series and the 2015 World Series against the Royals. In both instances, the Mets did themselves in with all the above mentioned issues. In 2000, both rookie Timo Perez and to me more egregiously veteran Todd Zeile made baserunning blunders in Game 1 that the team was never able to recover from. 

In 2015 it was poor relief pitching in Game 1, and poor fielding in Game 5 that handed KC the commissioner's trophy on a silver platter. The Mets had those games in the bag but for the disturbing lack of fundamentals. 

All that was on display here for the Yankees, especially in Game 5. 

Aaron Judge misplaying a routine fly ball, Justin Volpe not making a strong throw to third, Gerrit Cole not covering first base (or Anthony Rizzo not being more aggressive). The game went from 5-0 and as Aaron Boone said during his dugout interview at the time "back on the bird" to LA, to a 5-5 tie and eventual 7-6 loss. 

As an IBO, it's easy for me to tell you, the Yankee fan to ease up on Aaron Judge, for you would not have made the playoffs, much less gotten to the World Series without his accomplishments. He put up near Triple Crown numbers, was 5 homers short of breaking the American League Home Run record (which he currently owns) and really seems like a genuinely good guy. 

But I also know that after Artemi Panarin had an awesome MVP type regular season, his production slipped as the NHL Playoffs progressed to the point where he was nowhere to be found in the ECF's. I need the Breadman, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad to score in June like they do in October. You guys need Judge to hit in October like he does in June. 

See, I get it. 

I'm also curious to hear your thoughts on the Yanks not getting swept. For some, it was a small consolation that they won Game 4. "At least we didn't get swept." I heard from some precincts. For others, especially the World Champs or Bust crowd" it didn't matter.

So, you can't go by me, but I'm at the point where a 5 game loss in a championship series is worse than a sweep, ok not worse but definitely just as bad. 

It's as pathetic as it sounds, I know. But in the past 25 years, I have had 4 teams advance to the championship rounds of their sports. 

1999 Knicks

2000 Mets

2014 Rangers

2015 Mets

All of them lost. In 5 games.

The Knicks, and the two Mets teams lost the first two on the road, won Game 3, and lost games 4 and 5 at home. The 2014 Rangers lost the first three games, (two of them in double OT) won Game 4 at home, then lost the Cup on the road in Game 5 (also in double OT FWIW). The last team of mine to NOT lose in 5 games was the 1994 Knicks, who thanks to John Starks, and Pat Riley, lost Game 7 to the Rockets in Houston.

So to me losing in 5 games is as bad as getting swept. But as my (Yankee fan) wife likes to say to me, "That's your issue pal." 

Yep.

I didn't think the Mets were going to have a winning record, much less make the playoffs and get to the LCS. And most Yankee fans I know weren't feeling too hot in July and August as their lead in the AL East dwindled. But alas they both made the playoffs, both went on nice runs and both ultimately lost to a juggernaut. 

It sucks. And for the Yankee fan friends and family of mine who supported my Mets, I say to you thank you and also to hold your heads high. Getting to the Series is an accomplishment. And you gave NY an extra week of fun.

H/T to my sister-in-law Kerry for this article about how us fans seem to be getting along better these days.

And for the ones who broke my balls. (and there were very very few of you.) I leave you with this..

At least we got 2 off of 'em.  

P.S. I hope no matter who you were rooting for in the World Series, that you found what those two fans did to Mookie Betts was deplorable. Any fan who puts his hands on an athlete deserves what they get, whether that means a lifetime ban from the stadium, or having Mike Milbury beat you with your own shoe, (actually, Milbury went into the stands to do that, so that's a bad example). Fans need to keep their hands to themselves and athletes need to stay out of the stands. 

BOXING (if you want to call it that)- Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson

I let Timmy rope me in to watching this disaster. 

I know, blaming my 16 year old kid for this shows a complete lack of guts on my part. The truth of the matter is, many different outlets were hyping up this match, and with everything else going on, the trip back to the golden days of yesteryear was a welcome respite.

And no, I'm not talking just about watching Tyson get into the ring again. I'm talking about growing up in the 70's and 80's and even into the 90's where big time championship fights had some real buzz. 

The middleweight division in the 1980's had as much glamour and buzz as the heavyweight division, and in the years immediately before Tyson's emergence, even more so. Between Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas (the Hit Man) Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Roberto Duran, there were a slew of tremendous fights between the four of them. Duran and Leonard fought in the famous "no mas" fight in 1980. (Duran uttering that phrase seemingly out of nowhere in quitting in the 8th round). Then Hagler and Hearns fought the greatest fight I've ever seen, beating the crap out of each other for three rounds before Hagler knocked the Hitman out. Hearns and Leonard started and ended the 80's decade with a pair of classics, the latter of which ended in a draw, Perhaps the most famous and controversial of all was Hagler and Leonard's 1987 bout, which Leonard won in a controversial decision and also drove Marvelous Marvin into retirement. 

Those fights were not only great fights, but the hype and buzz were similar to Super Bowls. you kinda had to be there to know what I mean. 

And of course, when Tyson fought it was always an event. In the summer of 1986, my parents were going to a wedding, and they dropped my sisters and I at my grandmother's house. ABC's Wide World of Sports was going to show Mike Tyson fight against Marvis Frazier, (son of former champ Smokin Joe Frazier). We left about 20 minutes before the fight was scheduled to start, I figured I catch the 2nd or 3rd round. By the time I got to my grandma's house, not only was the fight over, the arena was empty and they were scrambling to find something else to show on WW of S. Tyson knocked Fraizer the younger out in 30 seconds. If you sneezed, you missed it. 

And this was before Tyson was the champ. All of Tyson's fights were big deals after that. 

So yeah, besides Timmy telling me we could watch this on Netflix, I guess I got caught up in the nostalgia of how much fun the lead up to those great fights were. 

Now, at the risk of sounding like a Monday Morning Quarterback, I had no illusions that Tyson was going to come out and knock this kid into next week, the way some people were predicting. The last time I saw Tyson fight was in 2002 against Lenox Lewis, and while Lewis could make any fighter look bad, he made Tyson look awful. If he was that bad 22 years ago at age 36, what made anyone think he'd be any good at 58? 

I've seen Jake Paul fight a couple of times, and considering he's only taken up the sport very recently, he's not bad. Don't get me wrong, the pre prison, Kevin Rooney trained, Bill Cayton-Jimmy Jacobs managed Mike Tyson would have done to Jake Paul what he did to poor Marvis Fraizer back in 1986. In fact any decent boxer back then would probably have no issues fighting Jake Paul. But no sport has suffered such a loss of significance as has the sport of boxing. As Karl (the Ace) Ludwig asked in our production meeting on Friday night before the big fight, Does anybody actually know who the heavyweight champion of the world is? There was a time, as I've heard many old timers say, that you could name the heavyweight champion of the world, just as quickly as you could name the President of the United States or (if you were catholic) the Pope. 

Jake and his brother Logan Paul, are apparently a couple of dudes who got famous by making You Tube Videos, in other words, kind of like the Kardashians and the Hiltons, famous for being famous. A lot of people don't care for the Brothers Paul for just that reason. I guess why there was so much hope that Tyson would find the fountain of youth and send this punk back to making You Tube Videos. But alas, in one of the most insomnia curing fights I have ever seen, (I literally fell asleep at least twice during the bout), Paul won a unanimous decision. One judge gave Paul all 8 rounds and the other two giving Tyson one round. 

Besides the boring fight, the other complaint I saw (and I was kind of glad it wasn't just me) was Netflix's glitchy production. Several times, the picture froze and was buffering. I thought it was my Wi-Fi or that I forgot to pay my cable bill, but no it was happening to everybody. If they are going to do more live sports, they better FITFO soon. 

I also thought the announcers left a lot to be desired. The blow-by-blow guy, Mauro Ranallo, was particularly annoying. Phil Mushnick likes to complain about announcers who scream on every play, his two biggest offenders in that category are (Hollerin) Kevin Harlan and Gus Johnson. This dude made those two guys sound like Andy Warhol. The only thing that kept me from falling completely into La La land during the fight was Ranallo screaming at the top of his lungs, and Timmy laughing at his old man passed out on the couch. I should have known this guy was a clown when he claimed that this was the biggest event he had ever covered, surpassing his original BEEC, WrestleMania 32, coincidentally also held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX.

The two commentators were Roy Jones Jr., fair enough, and you're reading this right, actress Rosie Perez.  Many years ago, my dad and I were watching a Met game on WHT, a movie network that also carried all Islander home games and occasional Met and Yankee Sportschannel Simulcasts. The Met game got rained out and they instead showed the famous Mohammed Ali-Chuck Wepner fight that legend has it inspired Sylvester Stallone to pen the script for Rocky. In any event, the blow-by-blow announcer for that fight was Bob Sheridan. The commentators were Red Foxx and James Brown!  Fred Sanford himself, and the only other time I saw James Brown involved in boxing was when he sang Living in America before the ill-fated Apollo Creed Ivan Drago fight. So, having actors calling fights is not a new thing, but still Rosie Perez? That went about as well as you might have imagined. 

Kate Scott hosted the "studio show" between fights. Father forgive me for saying this,  but she is very easy on the eyes, and has a sexy British accent to boot. Amir Tyson, Mike's son, was on the panel with Scott, and also interviewed his dad before the fight. After a couple of softball questions, Amir thanked his dad, to which Mike replied, I love you son and gave Amir a kiss. It was actually a very heartfelt moment, till the elder Tyson walked away to reveal his shorts were cut out in the back, revealing his 58-year-old ass to all viewers. That would have been a good time for the Netflix picture to go blank. 

The co-main event was a super lightweight championship bout between champion Katie Taylor from Ireland and Amanda Serrano of Puerto Rico. Now this was entertaining, both fighters threw good solid punches and there was plenty of action. Taylor won and retained her title by a single point. Many felt Serrano was robbed, and though I was pulling for Taylor I can’t say I blame them. 

FOOTBALL- NY Disasters

On December 20, 1969, the Jets lost a playoff game to the eventual Super Bowl Champs Kansas City Chiefs 13-6, at Shea Stadium. That would mark the last playoff game either one of our teams would play in until 1981. Indeed no NY football team played in an NFL playoff game during the 70’s. That is almost hard to imagine.

And yet, I believe we are living in an era that even dwarfs that 12 year run of ineptitude. 

I know, I know, the Giants had that playoff win against the Vikings two years ago. I’m not taking that away from them, except to say this.. off that one game, the Giants gave Daniel Jones a huge contract. And that contract is now looking like one of the worst deals in the nfl.

But it not the worst

No that would be the contract given to Aaron Rodgers of my NY Jets, who are as far as I’m concerned the worst team in the NFL. I don’t give a shit if there are teams with worse records, the Jets are the most poorly run, poorly coached, underachieving overrated overpaid franchise perhaps in North American team sports. 

Last week, the Giants lost to the team I previously figured was the worst team in football, the Carolina Panthers, in Munich. (Someone suggested to Mike Vaccaro that sending the Giants and Panthers to Germany could be viewed as an international act of aggression) The talk began of perhaps the Giants tanking for a better draft pick. 

Well now I think the Jets should join them. Because at least then we can spend part of April guessing which bust they will both draft in the first round. It beats the hell of watching either one of them try to play competitive football. 

As bad as the Jets no show loss in Arizona was last week, their loss to the Colts at the Meadowlands on Sunday was worse. Indy did everything but hand them the game on a platter, and the Jets said no thank you. The Jets tried that ridiculous play where you try to draw the other team off sides (a play that only seems to work when someone tries it on the Jets) and instead of taking the penalty and kicking the FG, Aaron Rodgers called time out. A time out the Jets could have used after their overrated defense allowed the Colts to march down the field and take the lead. 

Both teams are very dangerously close to pushing both of their fan bases into apathy. Want to know what’s worse for a franchise than listening to fans calling into WFAN and woofing on the team? Listening to fans calling into WFAN and talking about other teams. The reason there are so many Cowboys, Steelers, and Raiders fans around here is that NY fans adopted other teams during that long post season drought in the 70’s. We are well on our way to that happening again. 

And it would serve both of our franchises right. Because both of them are a disgrace. 

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WEATHER-No Rain

And I don't understand why I sleep all day
And I start to complain
That there's no rain-

From No Rain-by Blind Mellon

Got this alert on my phone last Saturday....

So there's your answer my friends. What was the question?  The question was after terrorist attacks, superstorms, pandemics and Choking Smog caused by Canadian forest fires, what was the next calamity to strike our fair city? If you had a drought, congratulations!

Per nbcnewyork.com...

Since 1869, when records started being collected in Central Park, we have never gone an entire calendar month without measurable rain. On Tuesday, 29 days into the month, we finally managed to accumulate the minimum amount of measurable rain: 0.01 inches.

That’s all we’re going to get for the month, and it makes Oct. 2024 the driest calendar month on record, edging out June 1949, when we got 0.02 inches.

The good news is that we have had some really spectacular days here. And not to keep bringing this back to sports, but how many times have the Mets (or more to the point-the Yankees) have had playoff games rained out? In 1986, the rain nearly screwed the Mets. Game 7 of the WS was supposed to be on Sunday, against Oil Can Boyd, who we had hit around pretty well in Game 3. But the rain pushed it back to Monday, giving Bruce Hurst an extra day of rest, so he could go in Game 7 instead of the Can. Fortunately we figured out how to hit Hurst, something we couldn't figure out in Games 1 and 4. 

I know the Yanks had rainouts in 96 and a couple in 98. 

My sister pointed out that the last day it really rained was September 29, the day her and Tim watched the Jet game at Met Life Stadium. There was enough rain that day for three weeks. But now it’s been over a month.

Anyway, October is usually pretty wet around here. Not so much this year and already it's causing issues. There were several forest fires in New Jersey, and a major brush fire at Inwood Park in Upper Manhattan. Add me to the list of people who never equated Manhattan with brush fires. But like I always say, if it can happen it will happen. 

They pumped water from the Harlem River to put out the fire. I get it could have been worse, they could have used the putrid East River water to do the job. 

In any event, we need to have some rain here. Or else we'll have more forest fires in places we didn't realize had forests. And instead of getting choked by smoke from Canadian Wildfires, we'll get choked by our own wildfires. And we'll all have to wear masks and get pissed off and the wheels of the bus go round and round, round and round. 

All I can say
Is that my life is pretty plain
You don't like my point of view
You think that I'm insane
It's not sane... it's not sane.

Wait till Tuesday if you think I'm not sane now. 

 

Election Special Coming Tuesday at 8 PM EST on Facebook. Till then..

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week. 

Weekly Mail 2024 Election Special

 

November 3, 2024 Island Park, NY

Every September, as I'm getting ready to start another season of Weekly Mail, I go back to the very first post I made when we started up again in 2015. On that post, I wrote the following paragraph...

There are a lot of things that I like about Donald Trump and his run for the Republican Nomination. He's self made, so he's not beholden to special interests to raise money, He's also not beholden to the party line, as his plan to raise taxes on the wealthy have his fellow Republican's breaking out in hives, and although I realize he has had his share of business failures, he's also had some very huge successes.

There have been many times I have considered deleting this post, just pretending I started writing the following week. Most people would be none the wiser. But there's two big reasons I wouldn't do that. One because it's intellectually dishonest. 

But also, it kind of serves as a lesson, as we once again, for the third time have to see the person I nicknamed Captain Orange, run for the highest office in the land. And the lesson is this..

It's not too late.

It's not too late to realize that everything about him is a charade, that at the end of the day, he's nothing more than a carnival barker, a street hustler.

A conman.

Look, I bought into it. Look at that paragraph, folks. He's self-made? Wrong, he inherited all that $$ from his old man. The money he has now is from slapping his name on things other people built. Just like he slapped his name on the tail end of the Obama economy. And from being a game show host. 

Not beholden to special interests to raise money? For Christ Sake, every time he gets indicted, the first thing he does is ask "How can we fundraise off of this?"  (And not for nothing, there are very few people on earth I can use the phrase every time he gets indicted about. Most mere mortals get indicted once or twice and then their careers are done.) 

Not beholden to the party line? The party line for as long as I've been alive was making abortion illegal. Yeah, silly me, I figured the guy who cheated on his first wife with his second wife and his second wife with his third wife, and his third wife with a porn actress, and who knows how many others in between, would want to make sure, in case he slipped one passed the goalie, that at least they could have an abortion. But there he is, taking credit for appointing the three justices that helped overturn Roe v Wade, while whining that all he did was leave it up to the states. Right. States that want to make all abortions, no matter what, illegal. 

I get it. Washington DC is dysfunctional. It seemed like a great idea at the time, to have someone come in from the outside, someone who had never run for office, someone who didn't need the job, to come in and clean it all up. 

I get it.

Here's what I don't get.

How can anyone look at what he has done, both in the four years he was in charge, and the four years since he has left, and say-"That's the guy we need."

Again, forget what you thought before he won in 2016. Many of us were guilty of that. I was, at least in the very beginning. I thought maybe an outsider is what the country needed.

But not this guy. At this point, he is everything you wanted to get rid of in D.C.

And about a million times worse. 

If you are being honest with yourself, you can't help but see it. 

But too many people aren't being honest with themselves. Too many people are clinging to the idea that Trump was the guy who was going to "drain the swamp." when all he did was bring in his self-serving flunkies, who were either unable or unwilling (and usually both) to accomplish anything. 

Too many people look at the list of indiscretions this man has committed and convinced themselves that the media has made the whole thing up. Fake news, they yell. Liberal bias they scream.

Guess what. I agree there is liberal bias. There is a great book called Media Inc written by Matt Taibi who makes the case that all cable news is about is selling a product. In the case of CNN and MSNBC, that product is left-leaning news. In FOX's case it's right wing news. 

But here's the thing. There's a big difference between liberal bias and fake news. 

You think the media is making up all of this? 

They're making up how he has acted around Vladimir Putin? Taking Putin's word over that of his own intelligence team about Russian election hacking? And his letters to Kim Jung Un? Two dictators who he says himself he admires?  

They're making up all the numbers of people who died because of the pandemic? I mean some of you think they actually made up the pandemic! Ask those families who lost loved ones or who are still recovering from long term COVID. Ask people who were working in the hospitals trying to save people or at the very least make them more comfortable before they passed. A lot of those doctors and nurses were wearing garbage bags instead of scrubs. I know because I saw it myself. But to you, I'm full of shit. Me and the liberal media.

 I guess they are also making up the fact that Trump, in maybe one of the few things he managed to get right, was able to get funding to get the vaccines up and running. Only after his minions told him that some of his supporters were anti-vax did he act like someone else came up with that.

They're making up what happened on January 6th. Making up stories about cops getting killed, politicians running for their lives, our government being attacked by nothing less than domestic terrorists?  They're making up the fact that several people, including Kevin McCarthy and even his own kids pleaded with him to call it off and he did nothing? They're also making up the fact that Trump wants to pardon the very same people who were determined to kill Vice President Pence, Speaker Pelosi and anyone else who stood in the way of overturning a free and fair election? 

And of course, they are making up the fact that the 2020 election was free and fair in the first place. That every legal challenge was overruled, even by judges appointed by Trump himself. That Dominion voting systems was paid almost $1 billion by Rupert Murdoch and Fox News,  that two election workers in Georgia can move into Rudy Guiliani's swanky apartment in Manhattan pretty much anytime they want because he falsely accused them of election impropriety. 

It's all bullshit?

All of it?

And these are just the big ones. And in years past any one of these indiscretions would at the very least disqualify you from seeking the White House again. Shoot, in a sane world, it would land you in prison. 

Yet, here we are.  Just hours away from the 2024 election.

Kamala Harris isn't perfect. Neither is Joe Biden. I don't agree with everything she says or all of her policies. Same with him. But I do believe that they care about this country and that they are not bigger than the office they are seeking/currently holding. 

I felt the same way about Barack Obama.

And John McCain

And George Bush, both of them.

And both Clintons. 

Even Richard Nixon. For all the crap he pulled, nobody ever questioned his love and honor for his country. I once read a book where the author asked someone about Richard Nixon, and the person being interviewed answered. "An absolutely brilliant mind. One of the brightest, most well-read people I have ever met."

The person being interviewed who gave that answer was Jimmy Carter, the man who was elected to the presidency in part because of Americans anger towards Watergate. Jimmy Carter was another man who put his country before himself. As did the man he defeated for the White House, Gerald Ford. 

Ronald Reagan too. 

Trump isn't just the worst President in my lifetime. (I've mentioned all the people who have been President in my lifetime above, and some who ran against them) He's the worst to ever hold the office. 

By far. 

In 2016, he ran as a lark. In 2020, he ran because he was power drunk. He's running now because it's the only way he knows for sure he won't be going to jail. He's running because it's the only way he knows he can definitely make himself richer. You think you are making America Great Again when you donate to his campaign, or buy his hats, and sneakers and whatever other shit he's selling you. All you are doing is giving your money to him. 

And you think he's insulting other people. You think he's insulting the libs. 

You think he's insulting me.

He's playing you for a sucker. There's no bigger insult than that. 

I was really going back and forth on this. I know most people have their minds made up, had them made up a long time ago. I also think the idea of losing friends and fighting with family over politics is generally stupid. Every once in a while, I look at my FB memories. I see some of the heartfelt messages I received after particularly hard times. Some of the kindest messages I received are from people who have Add Friend next to them. Meaning they were FB friends of mine and now are not. I can't say for certain, but I believe most of those former connections, became former connections because of things I've said about Trump. 

It's too bad, but it is what it is. 

There are some people whose posts I see and to be honest, I couldn't care less if they clicked the unfriend button. They're so far down the rabbit hole, they are beyond being rational with. They're the basket of deplorables Hillary talked about. There's some guy who drives up and down Long Beach Road between Long Beach and RVC with four giant flags on the back of his truck. Two of the flags say Fuck Joe Biden, the others say Let's Go Brandon and one says Trump 2024. But Joe Biden calls that guy a steaming pile of garbage and he's supposed to apologize for that? 

I saw a meme saying that some of these people have gotten so bad, you wouldn't tell them where Anne Frank was hiding. 

I'm not writing this blog to them. 

I'm writing this to you. The Trump supporter who thinks Trump is simply the lesser of two evils. Who thinks he's just a big mouth but not a criminal. Who still thinks he's an outsider, a self made man who is self funding his campaign. Who mean tweets but still gets things done, unlike Biden who make nice tweets but gets nothing done. To those who probably wouldn't invite him to your house or let him alone with your daughter but shit, he's better than Kamala or Sleepy Joe. 

It's not too late. 

Please think logically. You really don't think it's all made up do you? 

All of it?

Do you?  

 

  

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As far as who else I'm not voting for.. It's pretty much the same thing as it was in 2022. Anyone who supported the big lie in 2020, I a'int voting for. I don't care if they are running for President, Congress, Assemblyperson or, pooper-scooper. That's an automatic disqualification. 

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PREDICTION

I wisely (if somewhat gutlessly) declined to make a prediction in 2020, lest I end up with egg on my face ala 2016. I won't declare a winner here either, but I will offer this: I believe the election will come down to two states. Georgia and Pennsylvania. I don't think Harris will hold Arizona and Nevada, and I don't think Trump can flip Minnesota, Michigan or Wisconsin. I feel that there are enough folks in Georgia still pissed about what Trump/Rudy tried to pull down there to overcome the fact that someone like the whore representing the 14th Congressional district will waltz to re-election. But failing that, it will come down to PA. Whoever wins PA will be our nation's 47th President.   

If you haven't done so already, please vote.