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.
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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
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