Hey:
Tim told me that a couple of friends of his was going to the 2025 Governor's Ball at Flushing Meadows park this weekend. He was saying he was sorry he didn't get to go with them.
Riding the train into the city on Saturday, I was kind of glad he didn't go either.
A bunch of young ladies got on the train at Jamaica. The way they were dressed? Well, let's put it this way, they didn't leave much to the imagination.
They all got off at Woodside instead of taking the train all the way into the city, which I gathered meant they were either heading up to get the 7 train, or there was an LIRR heading to Willets Point.
I know I'm getting old. I know I'm closer to the age that people become grandparents rather than parents for the first time. But there were at least 30 girl's on the train on Saturday who looked like they had gotten a memo that clothes were optional at this governor's ball. And before you start calling me a perv, let me tell you, you didn't have to look very hard to notice this.
I'm a live and let live kind of guy, I really am. But I found myself saying to myself "I wouldn't let these girls out of my house dressed like that." I felt like the time on Seinfeld when Jerry was complaining about his neighbors being too loud and he asked himself "When did I turn into Fred Mertz?"
But it was worse coming home.
First of all, I missed my train. I got on the elevator with some older ladies who were walking with canes. I politely asked if I could get off the elevator first because my train was leaving in two minutes. Either they couldn't hear me or they ignored me because they went out first. My choice was either to turn into Jerome Bettis or wait till there was room to get past them. Since I'm not a total asshole (yet), I waited and by the time I got downstairs my train was halfway out the station.
So I sat in Grand Central Madison stewing. The next train pulled in and it started to fill with Yankee fans coming back from the Yanks-Bosox game at the Stadium. The fairly packed train pulled into Woodside which looked like Times Square on New Year's Eve except that those same scantily clad girls who I saw getting off the train at Woodside earlier in the afternoon were getting back on the train, and now many of them were still pouring out of their clothes and were now three sheets to the wind to boot.
To make matters worse, we had to switch at Jamaica. So I got to spend 15 minutes on the platform with all of them.
So that was my Saturday. At least I don't have to worry about any of my teams getting knocked out of the playoffs this weekend.
A team of mine who did get KO'ed made news this week. That is where we will start.
BASKETBALL: Knicks sent Thibs packing.
ESPN beat Tim by 3 minutes
I was still licking my wounds from the Knicks getting bounced from the NBA playoffs the previous Saturday night when Tim texted me this news on Tuesday.
Nothing should surprise me anymore, especially on a team that's owned by a slug like James Dolan, but I really didn't think Tom Thibodeau would take the fall for the Knicks not advancing to the NBA Finals.
To be fair, there were things that Thibs could have done better. The Knicks too often played defense as it was an option, not an obligation. And there was the seemingly perpetual debate as to whether or not he should have done a better job utilizing his bench, lest his guys run out of gas during the playoffs.
Those are legit beefs.
But I kind of felt myself going back to the early 90's NY Mets as I considered Thibs fate.
When the Mets dealt away Tom Seaver in 1977, it marked the first of 7 straight seasons of utter ineptitude. They lost 90 games in 6 of the next 7 seasons, and the only reason it wasn't 7 for 7 was due to the 1981 strike.
Then came Davey Johnson.
Yes, they traded for Keith Hernandez and drafted Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, but it was Davey that got the team back into contention. They went from 90 game losers to at least 90 game winners, with a pair of 100 win seasons in 1986 and 1988 respectively.
They went 87-75 in 1989 and rumours were flying that Davey was on his way out the door. As it was, he wasn't really getting along with GM Frank Cashen, and the team's choke job in the 1988 NLCS was still fresh on all of our minds.
Still, I felt at the time that Davey deserved a chance to fail. 87 wins, while below expectations wasn't awful, it was good enough for 2nd place and the Cubs didn't really run away with the division that year.
But 42 games into 1990, with their record at 20-22, Cashen gave Davey his pink slip and gave the job to poor Buddy Harrelson. I felt the same way that day I would feel 35 years later when Tim sent me that text.
Why not give Thibs the chance to fail?
The 7 years between the Seaver trade and the Davey Johnson hiring was a pit stop compared to the quarter century of ineptitude Knick fans endured between Jeff Van Gundy skipping town and Thibs hiring. The parallels aren't perfect. Thibs second season in NY was a backstep, but in his third, fourth and fifth seasons, the team improved each year.
And it wasn't until a few years later that I realized that the Mets were mostly tuning Davey Johnson out by 1990. Hernandez, Gary Carter and Wally Backman, three guys who Davey leaned on for leadership were gone, as were Mookie Wilson, Lenny Dyskstra and Ray Knight. A new voice was probably in order, maybe not Buddy Harrelson's (as much as we all love Buddy) but in my defense, I had only known winning baseball with Davey. It would be another 7 seasons, when Bobby Valentine* came to town that the Mets started contending again.
Does the same fate await the Knicks? Well, for Leon Rose's sake I certainly hope not. If this was his call (and in the World of Dolan, we never get a straight answer on this one) then his a$$ is most definitely on the line now. As my co-edior Razor Ray pointed out, it was Rose who constructed this roster, so some of the blame for their not getting past Indiana should fall at his feet too, no?
But like Thibs, I think Rose has earned the benefit of the doubt. He was able to sign Jalen Brunson and Isiah Hartenstein, and trade for Josh Hart and OG Anunoby. The team is markedly better than it was when he first got here. So I got no problem with him staying on board.
But there are three things he owns here: 1) he needs Karl Anthony Towns to become the franchise player, even more so than Jalen Brunson, that trade put the bullseye square on his backside. 2) He has to hope that Mikhail Bridges turns out to be better than he was this year and/or that none of those picks he dealt to the Nets to obtain Bridges ends up with a plaque in Springfield, or even on an all-star team. And now 3) the guy he hires to replace Thibs better bring the Knicks to the promised land. Otherwise, Rose goes out the door next.
CAPTAIN ORANGE VS, ELON MUSK
For everybody out there who is saying "Now the libs are in love with Elon again!" Well, as usual you are wrong.
Most of us still realize Musk is a piece of shit, another lowlife who got rich off the sweat and hard work of other people. Most of us realize that good people lost their livelihoods because of him. We also realize that he bought the election for CFCO, which is how CFCO was able to weasel out being tried for inciting an insurrection, stealing government documents and One would think that CFCO would be eternally grateful for all that, and maybe cut Elon some slack.
Ha ha! Yeah, I can't believe I wrote that last line either.
Elon has outlived his usefulness to the captain, so like so many before him, he's been cast aside. Trump can't just let someone sail off into the sunset, it's not in his DNA. It's why he keeps going back and woofing on Joe Biden. That always gets his minions fired up, and it covers up all the fuckups in his administration so far. Plus it makes him feel like a tough guy, when he is the biggest wuss going.
There is no way to root here. The Big Beautiful bill or whatever the hell its called is going to cut services for food banks and healthcare and education and so many other essential services. Musk wants to cut more. Neither one of these assholes gives one shit about anyone but themselves. If you can't see that, I don't know what to tell you.
Yeah, it makes for funny news copy (both the Post and the Daily News had fun with their Friday headlines (or woods, as we call it in the biz) and in some ways it goes to show what shallow thin skinned phonies they both are, but it's also our future and our country that is being kicked around like a soccer ball. And when all is said and done, we are the ones getting screwed.
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I'm hoping to have a couple of specials at the end of the month. I can't promise anything, but that's the goal. I promise they'll be no politics (or very little)
Sorry for the delay
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Night
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