And we're back.
I hope you all enjoyed the WM Christmas Eve Special, which I literally started writing about 7:30 AM on Christmas Eve, continued on my lunch break (which I cut short so I could leave early) and finished about 10 minutes before 8, the time I promised to publish it. I wrote it between my iPhone and iPad, which is why it was so sloppy and full of typos. I cleaned it up a bit on Saturday between Christmas and New Year's, and I dug a little more into some of the things I discussed.
I had heard on the radio on the way into work Christmas Eve that it was going to snow, which gave me the idea to research White Christmases in NYC. Luckily, I found that chart, which got my noggin to remember the Christmases where there was snow on the ground. 1995 was foggy, but then I remembered the Giants-Chargers fiasco. If I could remember math equations like I remember notorious New York news stories, I could probably cure a life-threatening illness.
Be that as it may...
So, here we are here in 2025, unbelievably, we are a 1/4 of the way through the 21st Century. (I guess technically that would be at the beginning of next year but whatever). Now for a myriad of reasons, I'm not real optimistic that 2025 is going to be a good year, some of those reasons I can get into, some I can't/won't, and while the fact that Captain Orange the Convicted Felon is 15 or so days away from becoming the president again is one of the reasons I'm thinking this isn't going to be a real good year, it's far from the only one.
For starters, 2024 ended with a flurry of deaths. On Friday the 27th, there were a couple of social media posts hinting that one of the editors at the Post who had sent me out on stories back in the day had passed on. While I was waiting on that official word, sportscaster Greg Gumbel, actress Olivia Hussey, and HBO/Cablevision founder Chuck Dolan had died. Then after I confirmed the first passing, actress Linda Lavin, and most newsworthy, our nation's 39th President, Jimmy Carter. As well as a couple of former Mets.
Then we had a pair of attacks to kick off 2025. One on Bourbon Street in New Orleans and one in Las Vegas.
So, let's start with the obits..
In last Sunday's Post, the headline on page 26 read: Postie Gets Obit Against His Will. That Postie was Michael J Hechtman, for years he was the night metro editor. I just got done reading a book called Paper of Wreckage, and oral history of the New York Post. It covered the last couple of years that the paper was owned by Dorothy Schiff, all the way through the years the paper was owned by Rupert Murdoch.
Hechtman told me that he had started at the Post the week Richard Nixon resigned as President. So that was August 1974 (the same week yours truly turned 1) His name should have been all over that book. Instead, it was mentioned 3 times, (twice by long-time reporter, rewrite and chess columnist Andy Soltis).
But that was Mike, he didn't want anybody reading about him in a book.
But there are a whole bunch of us who got to go out on our first stories thanks to him. And many of those who he gave a start to are still working in media or public relations.
When I worked at OTB, I was told by one of my mentors that what goes on behind the door stays behind the door. I think Mike would want the same courtesy, so as tempted as I am to write about some of the crazy shit he said in the 15 or so years I got to work with him, I'll just go with these two harmless but still funny stories.
As my pal Perry Chiaramonte wrote in his tribute to Mike, Mike had a couple of rules of journalism, first one being you are never too good to cover a fire.
So he sent me out to cover a fire. He called me about an hour later and told me it wasn't going to make the paper. But he also told me to write it up and he would edit it for me.
So, I came back and wrote a few paragraphs. When the edition ended, I sat with Mike while he cut my story to shreds. "Why the f-ck would you write that?" he asked as he cut one line. "Oh, nobody gives a f-ck about that" as another line bit the dust. Of the 6 or 7 lines I wrote, maybe a line and a half survived.
"Not a bad job, Bill" he said quietly when he was done. He meant it too. But you wouldn't have known.
The other story I can tell took place after the 2005 baseball season. The Yanks had lost to the Angels in the ALDS. Mike had no use for baseball or any sport for that matter. Myself, Ed Robinson and Cynthia Fagen were sitting late on a Sunday night talking about the Yanks loss. Ed partially blamed the fact that the Yanks had to make two cross country flights in less than 48 hours as a contributing factor to the series loss, to which Mike retorted "Oh, call the UN Commission for Human Rights." We didn't even think Mike was paying any attention to us.
A few minutes later, Cynthia asked Ed and I if Joe Torre might be in trouble with George Steinbrenner for this latest playoff flop. We both didn't think so, but with George, you never could quite tell. Mike suggested that perhaps the Yankees could "get Snoopy Dogg Dogg" as their next skipper. Whenever I hear "What's My Name" or Gin and Juice, I think of that line.
I had taken a couple of screen shots of baseball scores that read 4-3 top 6, for the eventuality of Mike's passing. I kept it as my FB profile picture. Anytime in the newsroom someone asked for a score, no matter the sport, that was Mike's answer. A couple years ago, he told me why he said that. I can't remember it verbatim, but the gist of it was that he was riding in a car with a friend of his who was putting on the radio to get the Yankee score. Again, the sports resistant Hechtman wanted no part of listening to a ball game on the radio, so he told his pal the score was 4-3 top of the 6th. "How the hell do you know that? You don't even follow baseball?" Mike insisted that was the score and bet his friend a couple hundred bucks that was the score.
Sure as shit. And no, Mike had no idea. He just liked that expression.
He'd kill me if he knew I was writing this much about him. And the truth of the matter is, there are hundreds of people, who are much better writers than me, who knew Mike Hechtman better than I did, who are more qualified to write about him than I am. He was just one of those characters that come around in your life that you never forget. We had our share of dustups, he could be nasty at times, but it will be the stories he told, the mentoring he gave, and most of all, the trivia questions he asked that I'll remember when I think of him.
Here is one of his classic NY trivia questions...
How many bridges can you take from Queens to the Bronx? Answer below..
James Earl (Jimmy) Carter 1924-2024
I've told this story many times.... The 1980 Presidental Election took place when I was in 2nd grade. It was a three horse race, with incumbent President Carter running against former California Governor Ronald Reagan and independent Iliioiis congressman John Anderson. Reagan would win the Presidency and he also won my second grade election. The final score (and keep in mind this is 44 freakin years ago and I still remember this) was Reagan 17, Carter 15, and Anderson 2. I of course starting off my life long habit of picking underdogs, was one of the 2 votes Congressman Anderson received. And that had more to do with Anderson having snow white hair and thick rimmed glasses than anything else. To me, he just looked like he should be the President.
Carter had a plethora of things working against him in 1980. Namely the hostage crisis in Iran, and a slumping economy. However, he also brokered a peace deal between Israel and Egypt that has held for almost 50 years. When you look at what's going on in the Middle East these days, especially in Israel, that accomplishment is nothing to sneeze at.
I highly recommend a book that I have referenced here many times. Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents: by Bob Greene. Greene a Chicago Sun Times columnist who also did a book with Michael Jordan, set out to meet and speak to President Nixon, which he did in October 1980 (he never mentions the dates he met any of the Presidents, but he dropped hints that you could Google. I did-because,. well, that's what I do) He never published his chat with Nixon, until upon rediscovering the tapes of the conversation, decided to see how many of the living former Presidents he could have similar conversations with.
Now to be clear, his conversation with Nixon was nothing like the ones David Frost had, nor were the ones he had with (in order) Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush and Gerald Ford**. He met Carter at the Carter Center in Atlanta. What I remember most about the Carter section of the book was not so much what Carter said, but how Carter acted. He spent over an hour posing for pictures with staff members of the Carter Center, taking time to shake hands and thank the workers. There were no airs about him.
The stories of his generosity and his humanity post Presidency are legendary. The Carter Center has worked to eradicate Guinea Worm Disease. Between 1986 and 2014, the number of cases of the disease went from 3.5 million to 148, over 98% eradication, thanks to the efforts of the Carter Center.
Jimmy and his late wife Roslynn Carter worked closely with Habitat for Humanity, according to the NY Times..
Habitat says it has built or improved homes for roughly 62 million people. Mr. Carter, who died on Sunday, and Mrs. Carter, who died in November 2023, personally helped build or remodel 4,447 homes in 14 countries. Mr. Carter gave signed Bibles to families at the end of a home build.
A truly amazing couple. A truly remarkable man. His funeral started on Saturday. I'm glad he is getting an almost full week send-off. We were truly lucky to have a man like him.
Greg Gumbel- I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Greg Gumbel.
The summer between 8th grade and freshman year of high school was one of enormous anxiety for me, and I'm sure for many other kids in that situation. But one of the things that happened that summer was the advent of WFAN, which came on the air at 3 PM July 1, 1987. For someone who loved sports as much as I did, and not having access to ESPN and (at the time) Sportschannel, WFAN was a gift from the heavens.
I loved it.
I loved the updates every 15 minutes (most people hated it) I loved the hearing the people call in. Before WFAN, Art Rust Jr. had a show on WABC that was maybe an hour or two (feel free to fact check me on that). WNBC in 1985 had legendary DJ Jack Spector host a nightly sports show, that was eventually taken over by new Yankee play by play man Dave Sims. (I actually called in to Dave Sims as a 13-year-old in the spring of 87 to talk about the Rangers.) But that was from 7-12 at night. There was nothing during the day and certainly nothing in the morning.
Till WFAN came around. And Greg Gumbel was the morning drive host.
History will suggest that Gumbel may have been out of his element. His younger brother was hosting the most popular TV morning show in America at the time with Jane Pauley. Steve Sommers, the long time FAN overnight host said that Gumbel did nothing but recite AP copy over and over. And it's pretty much acknowledged by friend and foe alike, that WFAN would have never survived as a station if not for the takeover of the 660 AM frequency and inheriting the show that occupied said frequency, Imus in the Morning.
That's all fair.
But as far as I'm concerned, Greg Gumbel and his WFAN morning show was one of the few highlights of my day back in the school year of 1987-88. I was happy that he went on to bigger and better things. Namely hosting NFL Studio shows and the NCAA Tournament Studio show, as well as NFL play by play, at one time the number one team with Phil Simms.
When he hosted the NFL Today on CBS in the early 90's, he was a guest on Bob Costas Sunday night radio show (heard on WFAN) Costas coast to coast. Costas at the time was the host of NBC's NFL Pregame show NFL 90 or whatever year it was. Gumbel said to Costas, "I bet what would surprise most people is that you and I are good friends. That the competition between our shows isn't some blood feud." Both Costas and Gumbel are/were decent men. And yeah, to read about it in the press, it seemed like it was a war. But Gumbel reminded Costas audience that it really wasn't. I was sorry to hear of his passing.
Quickly about the others who passed.
Chuck Dolan made have been an innovator, but as far as I'm concerned he is one of the reasons we have to shell out big $$$ to watch sports these days. Plus his son James, is a thin skinned wuss in the mold of our former and now future convicted felon orange President. He lived to be 98, and while I'm not one to pick on someoene who just died, I wasn't breaking out the hankies either.
Linda Lavin was a fantastic actress of stage, film and TV, the lead character in the classic TV show Alice. I'd be lying if I told you that I watched a lot of her work, but to have a resume as long and illustrious as hers, you have to be really damn good at what you do.
Olivia Hussey was most famous for portraying Juliet in the 1968 film version of Shakespeare's most famous tragedy. And I was positive that we watched this in school sophomore year, Miss Collins Honors English class. A couple reasons I'm not sure this is accurate. 1) Looking through the IMDB pics, there was an awful lotta nekkedness in this flick, which I know wouldn't fly in a 10th grade Catholic School classroom, especially an all-boys high school. And 2) I remember sneaking a note over to my friend Jim (Can't remember his last name-he wasn't valedictorian or salutatorian, but he might have been third of fourth in line) that the guy playing Tybalt looked just like Gregg Jeffries. Maybe Miss Collins was able to rent out a version that cut out all the sex (and kept in all the violence) and maybe it was another character I got mixed up with Tybalt (Michael York-of Logan's Run fame-looked nothing like Gregg Jeffries) I've gotten off topic here-Olivia Hussey, talented actress and beautiful woman, gone at 71.
The two ballplayers who died this week were the most interesting man in baseball, Lenny Randle, and Mark Bradley, who got a cup of coffee with the Mets in 1983. I could have sworn I was at a Met game in 1983 where I saw Bradley hit a home run, but according to baseball refeeence.com, I wasn't. I read that Randle punched out his manager Frank Luchese, while with the Texas Rangers, which led to his being traded to the Mets in April of 1977. Two months later, Tom Seaver and Dave Kingman were traded away, leaving the Mets gutted and perhaps making Randle wish he had kept his hands to himself. Mostly I remember watching Randle try to blow a bunted ball foul, a highlight shown on This Week in Baseball with Mel Allen about 1000 times.
The there was a terror attack, and a truck bombing.
New Orleans- A 42-year-old man intentionally drove a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year's Day, killing 14 people and injuring several more.
Despite several MAGAts blaming this terrorist attack on an open US Border, including the convicted felon elect himself, the attack was actually carried out by a US citizen from Texas. There was an ISIS flag in the back of the truck, though ISIS has not claimed any responsibility for the attack.
The terrorist exited the car and opened fire on the crowd, three responding police officers returned fire and shot the terrorist dead.
Anyone who has been to Bourbon Street knows what a great time that is. The bars are almost 24 hours, the music is always bopping and it's just supposed to be one of those places where you go to get away from the complexities of life for a few days. But because it's always so crowded with people doing just that, it's also a target for a scumbag with bad intentions. The Sugar Bowl, which was supposed to be played later that night between Notre Dame and Georgia, was moved to the following night.
Las Vegas-Just a few hours later, an active-duty US Army Special Forces master exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside of the Trump International Hotel. The driver died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before the truck blew up, and 7 people were injured during the explosion. All are expected to recover.
At first authorities though there was a possibility that the attacks were linked, but it appears that the truck explosion was less an attempt to kill as it was a message about US military operations that the Special Forces master had been involved in. By no means am I justifying what happened or questioning any military operations, I'm just reporting was investigators have uncovered so far.
Either way, this was not the way any of us needed 2025 to start off. Especially after how 2024 ended.
Sorry, this was so late. There was a lot to write about.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
*Most people will answer 3 bridges and have no issue naming the RFK (Triborough), Throgs Neck and Whitestone bridges. Mike pointed out that the Rikers Island Bridge also connected Queens and the Bronx.
**Ronald Reagan announced he was leaving public life because of his advancing Alzheimer's disease days before Greene was due to meet with him in California.
