Hi everyone:
This is going to be our season finale.
It may also be the end of Weekly Mail for a while, at least in its present form.
I realize that weekly has become a bit subjective, as I haven't really put out a consistently weekly blogpost. More and more, it comes out every other week or every three weeks.
More times this past year, I have started writing, had one ready to go, and then either posted it late or not posted at all. Because I didn't feel like I fact checked it enough, or just didn't feel like it was otherwise publish worthy.
I've had more writers block this past year than I have had in a long time.
My birthday was two weeks ago. So many people reached out to wish me a happy happy, and a lot of them were friends who may not share my beliefs that our current president is an incompetent buffoon who should be behind bars and not behind the resolute desk. Do I really want to isolate those folks over an a$$hole who doesn't give two flying f-cks about either one of us? Or do I feel like everyone else is entitled to their $0.02 so why shouldn't I be?
So that's the dilemma, amongst other things. And I'm giving myself at least a month to figure it out.
This week, there is no writers block or anything. There is definitely a bunch of things I want to discuss. We will start with some breaking news, an obit of someone who I owe a huge debt of gratitude to.
I was out with Tara on Friday when I saw one of my Postie pals posted on FB that Myron Rushetzky had passed away. Myron was my first supervisor at the Post. He was the one who showed me the ropes around the newsroom, where it wasn't always easy to navigate. He was patient and kind. And at a time in my life where my confidence wasn't great (and by that I mean even less than it usually is) he helped get it back for me.
I've often said that my first year at the Post was the most exciting, fun and proud time I've had professionally. Lots of people were responsible for that, but Myron was the steady hand in that mix. He didn't let my head get too high when things went great, (the news business can turn on a dime) but more importantly, he didn't rake me over the coals when things went south (again, that could happen in an instant). There was a time when two editors in the newsroom made a scene because of something kind of involving me, and Myron could see how shaken up I was. He didn't pull me aside or anything, just came over to where I was sitting and said quietly but firmly "You didn't do anything wrong here." By the end of the night, the other two editors told me the same thing. But it was Myron who put my at ease initially.
I can tell this story now, that most of the parties involved are gone, but a couple months before we got married, Tara and I met Fr. Pete at his table at Elaine's. That night, former and future NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton came over to say hi to Fr. Pete, who told him that Tara and I were getting married soon. He congratulated us in his thick Boston accent and went on his way.
A few minutes later, Bill Boyle, who was then the managing editor of the Daily News, came and sat with us. Pete introduced us and told Boyle that I worked at the Post. he asked what I did and I told him that I mostly worked in the office, but I had run on some stories. When I told him I did the phones on Saturday and Sunday, he said "So you're Myron on the weekends."
Everyone in the business knew Myron. Everyone.
A few months ago, when Mike Hechtman died, I told you about the book Paper of Wreckage, the oral history of the Post in the Murdoch era. I mentioned that Mike should have been all over the book. (he was mentioned 3 times) Myron was not only all over this one, the two authors dedicated the book to him. His memories and insight were invaluable.
Much like Carl, the janitor from The Breakfast Club, Myron was the eyes and ears of this institution. This institution of course being the oldest continuous newspaper in America. That's how we will all remember Myron Rushetzky. There are a lot of worse ways to be remembered.
And he will not be soon forgotten. RIP.
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BASEBALL: Another Mets Collapse
When Ace, Razor and I left for the west coast on June 17, the Mets were in first place with a 45-27 record. They had just lost 3 games in a row, which I figured was a mere hiccup. When they proceeded to lose 4 more in a row while I was out in LA, I figured as soon as I came back, they would straighten out.
Well, that hasn't happened. Their record since our trip to the left coast is 19-30. And no, I am not taking responsibility for this. I travel about as often as Hailey's Comet comes around, so there have been plenty of times they have pooped the bed with me right here in NY. And let's also not forget, I was in Disney World last October, sans shirt, shoes and glasses, when Pete Alonso hit that go-ahead three run homer against the Brewers in the Wild Card round.
No the blame for this mess lies at the feet of one David Stearns, the Mets president of baseball operations. He's the mastermind of this game plan, the one in which he patched together a starting rotation of guys off the scrap heap, and thought he could ride that all the way to the Canyon of Heroes.
I know what you are thinking... hold on there Gallagher, you were the one who said last winter, he did the same thing last season, and they were two games shy of the World Series. He deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Yes I did. And yes he does. But also as Sam Elliot said at the end of the Big Lebowski... "sometimes you eat the bar, sometimes the bar eats you."
The bar has so far had David Stearns for lunch and dinner in 2025.
We have a rotation of stiffs who can't pitch past the 5th inning, and now an overtaxed bullpen who can't close down any leads. And I won't even mention a lineup that had been too inconsistent, because as of late they are all starting to hit again.
This past week was a microcosm of the entire season. On Tuesday, they beat the Braves the way they should beat a bad team. They scored 13 runs and the Polar Bear broke Darryl Strawberry's 35 year old Mets home run record. Even as nice as that story was, they still blew a 5-1 lead because that night's starter, Clay Holmes pitched a mere 3 2/3 innings allowing 5 runs 6 hits and 5 walks. Thankfully that night, our bullpen held it together.
The next night, we were up 6-0 after 3 innings, with David Peterson, the only Met pitcher who normally doesn't act as if pitching 5 innings is more difficult than putting a man on the moon, couldn't make it out of the 4th, giving all 6 runs back to the Braves. Reid Garrett gave the Braves three more runs to cap a 9 run inning. The Mets lost that one 11-6.
Tim and I went to our annual family game on Wednesday. Along with my Dad, Katie, Steve and Rachel. That is always one of the highlights of our summer. Win or lose.
It's 2025, so of course it was lose.
Kodai Senga, miracles of miracles, went an unheard of 5 2/3 innings and left with a 3-2 lead. This time it was one of Stearns big trade deadline pickups, Ryan Helsley who spit the bit, albeit with a little help from new outfielder Cedric Mullins, who misplayed a ball off the wall allowing the go-ahead run to score.
I didn't bother watching the game on Friday, the highlight of which was probably the Beatles cover band who played pregame, honoring the 60th anniversary of the Fab Four playing at Shea Stadium. They won on Saturday.
As I said before the bats took a good part of the summer off, but seem like they are starting to come around. Their runs scored this week were 13-6-3-9-3. They lost the games in which they scored 6 and 9. That's crap pitching.
And that leads us back to President Stearns. Again, he hit the jackpot last year with Luis Severino, Sean Manaea and Jose Quintana. He tried to pull the same trick this year, letting Sevy and Quintana go, and bringing in the aforementioned Holmes who was a reliver the last few years, and Frankie Montas who was lousy the last few years.
I realize this is the classic second guess, and if Montas and Holmes had been able to turn things around the way Sevy and Quintana had, we'd be singing his praises and nominating him for a Nobel Prize in physics. And who knows? Maybe sometime soon, these pitchers will figure out how to pitch deeper into games, the bullpen will not be taxed and therefore will be a lot more effective. Maybe they have another big winning streak in them.
It don't look that way right now. Right now, it looks like another lost summer. But at least we got the Jets and the Giants to look forward to.
It looks like blogger has added a feature in which it automatically creates hyper links to newsworthy terms I write. Let's see how this goes. If it's annoying, I'll figure out how to get rid of it.
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I wrote this on June 15, but I never posted. I thought it was worth mentioning and remembering..
Two legendary musicians, Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone, and Beach Boy founder Brian Wilson both passed away this week. Both of these guys were geniuses in their own way. Stone brilliantly blended Jazz, funk, rock and psychedelic music into some of the most amazing music of the late 60's and early 70's. And Wilson blended regular pop and surfing music with orchestras and synthesizers that also created never previously heard sounds on a record. Paul McCartney has said time and time again that the Beatles drew inspiration for Sgt. Pepper from the Beach Boys Pet Sounds album.
Both Sly Stone and Brian Wilson battled drug and booze addictions. Wilson had serious mental health issues. These are always sad and extra tragic when they happen in the public eye.
In the mid 90's, Toyota used Sly and the Family Stone's classic Everyday People in an ad campaign that I felt ran about 1000 times a night. I got sick of that song for a while, but since that campaign ended, I gotten back to enjoying it.
God Only Knows is one of my favorite love songs of all time. Good Vibrations, Sloop John B, Wouldn't it be Nice, they still sound awesome all these years later.
Sly Stone and Brian Wilson both lived into their 80's, which forgive me if I sound crass, but may not have been the way to bet back in the late 70's. But to their credit, they fought through their issues. That is something their loved ones can hang their hats on.
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And this past week, I saw that Danielle Spencer, who played Rog's smart ass little sister Dee on What's Happening, died at age 60. After her acting career ended, she studied marine biology at UCLA and received her doctorate in veterinary medicine at Tuskegee Veterinary School. From 1996 till she passed last week, she was a veterinarian. You hear so many hard luck stories about child actors, it did my heart good to know that she was able to have a successful career and life outside of Hollywood. Dying of cancer at 60 is obviously a heartbreak, but it sounds like she loved what she did, and what's better than helping people keep their pets healthy. RIP Dee.
Ok folks, that’s all he wrote for this 10th volume of Weekly Mail. Thank you all for reading and commenting. There are two more weeks till Labor Day, so I hope you all make the most of it. And hopefully, I’ll be back with more content in the not too distant future.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great rest of the summer.
Weekly Mail will return in the fall.*
*Maybe
