Hi Everyone:
So most important thing first: Once again, thanks to all of you who donated, walked, ran or passed the word around, Running for Rebecca was able to raise $5,750.15 for the American Heart Association. Team Weekly Mail was able to raise a cool $1,162.20, once again surpassing our $1,000.00 goal.
We did the walk on Thursday afternoon, and it's funny, this seems to happen every year: On the drive into Queens, there was clouds and even a little drizzle, but once we all got to Frank Princpie Park, the clouds went away and the sun came out. She's up there folks, and she's letting us know she appreciates us keeping her memory alive.
Shout outs to my sisters Krissy and Coach Kate and my brother in law Steve for getting this going again. And of course once again from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you
Here now, the news..
BASKETBALL: Knicks send Celtics packing
I'd be a lot less than honest if I told you that I thought the Knicks had any sort of prayer against the Boston Celtics in the second round playoff series that just concluded on Friday night. The Celtics were the defending NBA Champions but more to the point, the Knicks lost to them all four times they had played each other this season, and only one of the losses was the game even respectable.
And I get it, I can site multiple examples of instances where on team dominated another team in the regular season and that team turned around and knocked that team out of the playoffs. I saw the Mets be both the victim (1988 Dodgers) and beneficiary (2015 Cubs) of 2 such instances. The Rangers pulled an 0-fer vs the Flyers in 1985-86 in the regular season, then sent the Broad Street Bullies home in a best of 5 series that spring.
So I know it happens.
The issue here was that not only couldn't beat Boston, they also couldn't beat the Eastern Conference Regular season leader Cleveland Cavaliers, or the overall NBA best record holding OKC Thunder. In fact it seemed like they had issues with any really good team out there. They sort of feasted on the lower rungs of the league. And there's nothing wrong with that, except that none of those crap teams make the playoffs obviously.
The Knicks even had a hard time with the Detroit Pistons in the regular season, and though they had the better record and home court, that first round series was a struggle. My point is, it was easy to see how one might conclude the deck was stacked against our hometown Knicks as they went up to Boston.
And in both Games 1 and 2, the Knicks found themselves down by 20+ points only to pick themselves off the mat and come back. The Celtics didn't help themselves, as Karl (the Ace) Ludwig asked if they were aware they were allowed to shoot the ball from inside the three point arc?
The Celtics live and die by the three. When they hit, they're practically unbeatable. But heavens forbid they go cold.
Which is exactly what happened.
I realize I sound like an old man telling kids to get off my lawn when I say this, but the art of working the ball around and/or taking the ball to the hole is little to non-existent. But that's a discussion for another day. For now, congrats to the Knicks, for getting to the ECF for the first time since the Clinton administration. A rematch with the Indiana Pacers, who knocked off the aforementioned Cavs, is up next.
BASEBALL: Subway Series:
Editors Note: I have been promising to discuss Pete Rose and gambling in sports for a while. I was going to do so here too in light of the news that Rob Manfred has lifted the permanent ban on Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other members of the Black Sox this past week. I really want to do a special on this and I'm more determined to do it now. I can't any promises, but I will effort this project this week.
The Yankees took game one of the 2025 Subway Series up in the Bronx on Friday night, which as I pointed out on Facebook, was a lot easier to take since the Knicks were putting the smackdown on the Celtics around the same time the Yanks were putting one on my Mets.
What I wanted to discuss though was something that turned into an all show debate on the FAN on my drive into the Heart Walk on Thursday. Tiki Barber, the former Giant great running back and now co-host with Evan Roberts, couldn't for the life of him understand why Yankee fans would boo and harass Juan Soto upon his return to the Stadium on Friday night. "He led you guys to the World Series last year" Tiki kept repeating, "He didn't throw you under the bus. He took the best deal. Why would you boo somebody for doing that?"
Alas, Tiki was speaking as a former athlete. I'll speak as a fan, and one who has seen many a star athlete leave for greener pastures (see-Strawberry, Darryl; Messier, Mark, and coaches Keenan, Mike and Riley, Pat) the last freaking thing we care about is how much money they want to get paid.
If I was a Yankee fan, I would have booed the $h-t out of Juan Soto on Friday night. Just like I would have booed Daryl Strawberry had I gone to his first game back at Shea in 1991, or I would have booed Messier the night he came back in 1997*. Is it right? I don't know, to me it's human nature.
It would be nice, from where I'm sitting, if Soto would start hitting like he did for the Bronx Bombers last year. He made the last out of the game on Friday night and if he keeps doing things like that, getting booed at Yankee Stadium is going to be the least of his worries. I'm confident he will, I'm just sayin.
The Mets took the second game on Saturday afternoon. 3-2. We're going to press while the rubber game is going on.
POLITICS: DE PLANE!
I'm not going to get into the ethics and morality of whether Convicted Felon Captain Orange should accept a luxury jet from Qatar. I mean if you believe there's nothing wrong with that or that there would be no strings attached, well, you also voted for him, so me pointing this out to you is a waste of both our times.
But I had to laugh and some of the whatabouts I read this week when the topic came up. More than one person I saw actually said "Should we give back the Statue of Liberty? After all, that was a gift from another country."
I'm serious.
Someone actually compared a statue that is supposed to symbolize all this country is supposed to be about, and is also a tourist attraction that millions of people have come to see, to a plane none of us are going to ever be near, never mind aboard. CFCO isn't even going to share it with the next POTUS (assuming there is a next POTUS) as he says he's going to donate it to his Presidential Library foundation.
Right.
BTW: Congress had to and did vote to approve accepting the Statue of Liberty from France before President Grover Cleveland could formally accept it. Congress is supposed to approve any gift from a foreign country.
According to ABC News..
Attorney General Pam Bondi and other DOJ lawyers had determined that the acceptance of the plane was legally permissible if the Qatari government gifts it to the Defense Department and it is later turned over to the Trump Library Foundation.
A former senior DOJ official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that for the jet gift to violate federal laws barring the payment of bribes or gratuities to officials, the gift would have to be motivated by corrupt intent.
“Bribery requires a corrupt intent to influence an official act, i.e., a quid pro quo,” said the former official.
Again, I'm sure the government of Qatar is just doing this out of the kindness of their hearts and certainly aren't looking for any quid pro quo. And I'm also sure CFCO wouldn't offer any, especially any of those classified documents he's got stored in his Mar-A- Lago bathroom.
Go back and look at how they got their stadiums built for the last World Cup if you want to see what kind of humanitarians they are. You think they are doing this out of the kindness of their hearts?
Well, again if you voted for him, it doesn't really matter does it?
Once again, thank you for supporting Running for Rebecca.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
*I've told this story a couple of times.. Messier returned to the Garden on 11/25/1997, a few days before Razor Ray McGarvey got married. That night I was waiting for Ray to pick me up cuz we were going to pick up our tuxes for the wedding. I was watching the game with my dad and right before they dropped the puck, they played a video on the scoreboard set to Now and Forever by Carole King. When the video was over it said in big letters Thanks Mark. They then showed Messier on the ice sobbing uncontrollably. My dad who rarely gets emotional yelled at me "You still gonna boo him after that?" I ran from my house to Ray's car trying not to let either Ray or Karl see the tears streaking down my face as I got in. I still think he was a weasel for how he left, but yeah, that video got to me.
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