Weekly Mail November 30, 2025

 

hi:

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. 

This was of course, the first one without Mom. The next big day coming up will be what would have been her 75th birthday, December 10. And of course Christmas and New Years after that. You feel that piece of you that is gone even more on holidays and milestones. But the love and support you get from family and friends really does help. A lot. And that is what I was thankful for this past Thursday. 

Now back to my regularly scheduled kvetching. 

BASEBALL: Losing Nimmo

While watching the Jets and the Giants once again pooping the bed last Sunday, the news came over that the Mets and Rangers were finalizing a deal that would send Brandon Nimmo down to Texas in exchange for second baseman Marcus Semien. 

I'm trying to take my feelings and emotions out of this one. Nimmo was one of my favorite Mets. He was drafted by them and came up through their system. He was also one player who I never had to worry about not showing up or giving 100% every day. All my fellow Mets fans, even the members of Fans Against God Squads, loved watching him play. And I always got a kick out of him thanking our Lord and Savior every time he got on base. 

Another RBI for Jesus

So yeah, it's hard to be objective. But even being objective, even considering how unacceptable last season was and how changes needed to be made, I really don't see the upside to this deal. 

Semien is 35 years old with declining numbers. Nimmo hit .262 with 25 homers and 92 RBI's. Semien hit .230 with 15 homers and 62 RBI's. Plus Nimmo is 3 years younger. I'm being told that part of the reason for the deal is that Semien's contract is shorter than Nimmo's, which leads me to ask, why are we worried about contracts? I thought our days of worrying about contracts were over? 

I'm also hearing that Semien is a tremendous fielder, which I will admit he has that over Nimmo, who was, well lets say not a tremendous fielder. Semien had better be a great fielder for the amount of offensive production we are giving up in this deal. 

Now, my co-editor Karl (the Ace) Ludwig has assured me that this is a good deal for the Mets. He was as much a Nimmo fan I as am, but he puts a lot more stock in defense than I do. He also pointed out that Semien just three seasons ago hit 29 homers and drove in 100 runs. Looking at his 2023 season, he also led the AL in hits and runs scored. Hey, if he finds the fountain of youth and comes up with those numbers here in Flushing, I'll be glad to come back here next Thanksgiving and have a little crow with my Turkey and stuffing. 

I should probably hold out judgement to see what else David Stearns has up his sleeve for the rest of the off season. He now has to add an outfield bat to his list of needs. 

But as a stand alone deal, this one looks like a stinker from where I'm sitting. 

FOOTBALL: Giants kick over the Daboll

I have nothing but respect for John Mara.

 He seems like a genuinely good guy. Unlike the knucklehead who owns my football team, I think Mara cares about his players and the fans. I have never heard anyone who played for the Giants ever say anything bad about him, and many of them sing his praises. 

Now having said all that, I think he did his team a tremendous disservice at the conclusion of last season. 

And I know some of you are going to call me a hypocrite for saying it and that's fine, hopefully I can explain myself to show you why I feel the way I do.

When Mara announced he was bringing back GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll for a 4th season, he put them squarely on the hot seat.

“It’d better not take too long because I’ve just about run out of patience,” Mara said after he and team co-owner Steve Tisch opted to bring back the duo.

Of everything Mara said Monday, that quote was the most telling about the expectations for Schoen and Daboll in 2025. It’s win or else.

“Not good enough” was the common refrain from Daboll and Schoen as they spoke with members of the media after Mara’s remarks. Though ownership brought the duo back in large part to maintain some consistency and avoid moving on to a fifth head coach and third GM in a decade, there is no doubt the stakes have been raised for Daboll and Schoen.

“I’m going to have to be in a better mood this time next year than I am right now,” Mara said. (New York Times- January 7, 2025)

Now I guess here is where the hypocrisy comes in. I know I am forever and for always demanding that the people coaching and general managing my teams are being held accountable. And let's face facts- since the Giants won that playoff game vs the Vikings almost 3 years ago, things have not gone well. Mara has the right to expect better for his money.

But it was pretty obvious that it was going to take more than one off season to fix what ailed this team. They brought in a washed up Russell Wilson and a mediocre Jameis Winiston to serve as bridge QB's after they drafted Jaxon Dart. Dart looks like he might be a winner eventually, if the Giants have enough patience and thick skin to overcome the media yahoos calling for his head. 

I guess my question to John Mara would have been, "What exactly would put you in a better mood this time next year?  A .500 record?  A playoff spot? To borrow and paraphrase from former Met owner Fred (coupon) Wilpon, "meaningful games in (December/January)?" 

Again I don't mean to pick on the man, because I think he meant well, but he put both Schoen and Daboll in a really bad spot. This may be the perfect case of hindsight being 20/20, but he probably should have done what (dare I say it) Woody Johnson did and send the two of them packing last year.

That, or set a more reasonable expectation. When they drafted Dart, maybe come out and say he would give them the chance to develop him. Especially since Schoen didn't draft the last Giants would be savior. Daniel Jones. 

Now maybe Mara will keep Schoen on and let him hire another coach, but I really don't see that happening. I know this is a results business and the results haven't been there, believe me, I know all about lack of results. I just think John Mara needs to look in the mirror and own up to the fans that he screwed up too, much the way Steve Cohen did at the end of the baseball season. 

The fans would respect him more if he was honest like that. 

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I've been going back and forth whther or not I should chime in about that thing who represents the 14th Congressional District in Georgia deciding to resign from the House of Representatives come January 5. I really don't like writing about her and giving her more attention, and I've gone back and forth on whether or not she was demanding the release of the Epstein files because she suddenly developed a conscience, or as AOC suggested, she was pissed the her hero, Convicted Felon Captain Orange wouldn't support her run for the Senate. 

Here is all I'm going to say about it, I don't believe for one second she is going to go quietly into the night on January 5th, 2026. The fact that she is threatening to sue Time Magazine because they reported that she was considering running for President in 2028, leads me to believe she is considering running for POTUS in 2028. She has spent the last 4 years doing everything she can to draw attention to herself and now we are expected to believe she is going to make like Howard Hughes? C'mon! 

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I consider myself a traditionalist when it comes to sports, so I still watch the Lions game at 12:30 and the Cowboys game at 4:30 on Thanksgiving, usually with Timmy and my nephew Connor and my brother in law Brian. I skip the Thanksgiving night game unless the Jets are playing, and since the infamous butt fumble took place on Thanksgiving night, I probably wouldn't watch it even if they were playing. 

But watching the two games during the day, since John Madden called Thanksgiving Day games on both CBS and Fox, both networks have dedicated their broadcasts in his honor. Which reminded me that I read a book recently about the legendary broadcast team of Pat Summerall and the aforementioned Madden..

BOOK REVIEW- Madden and Summerall: How They Revolutionized NFL Broadcasting

By: Rich Podolsky

What was great about this book for me was not only the things they discussed that I remember, but also learning things I never knew about. 

Whenever I think about Pat Summerall, the first expression that comes to my mind is "Montana to Rice!" a call I feel like I heard him make hundreds of times (it wasn't but it sure seemed that way)

What the author points out is that Summerall learned from legendary Packers broadcaster Ray Scott was to use an economy of words. Scott would call a Packers touchdown like this: "Starr, to Dowler. Touchdown!" That was it. That's all he had to say, the TV told the rest of the story.  Montana to Rice. Touchdown!" Done.

The book describes the road each man took to get to their partnership. Madden, of course, coached the Raiders from 1969-1978. In those 10 season, he made the playoffs 8 times, made it to the AFL/AFC Championship game 7 times. and won the only Super Bowl he coached in. Amongst his playoff losses was the Immaculate Reception game against Franco Harris and the Steelers, which the author said haunted Madden for the rest of his life. As a coach, he never had a losing record and never finished lower than second place. The author also said it was claustrophobia and not fear of heights/flying that led him to retire from coaching and avoid flying. 

Now as for Summerall, he played for the Giants back in the day, and after his playing days were over, held a variety of broadcasting jobs, football or otherwise. Before he was paired with Madden, he had another long time broadcast partner, former Eagle Tom Brookshier 

Now, the book someone needs to write is about that pairing. These two guys couldn't stand each other during their playing days, but became fast friends when they started working together. According to the book, they prepared for their broadcasts the same way; namely by going to the hot spot in whatever city they were broadcasting from that week and tying one on. Apparently, the final straw for Summerall-Brookshier was Super Bowl XIV in Pasadena. According to one of the producers, they spent most of the two weeks before the game drinking at the hotel pool. The broadcast was panned by several news outlets and the decison was made to split them up.

Madden prepared for the broadcasts the same way he prepared for games he coached. Watching film, studying scouting reports, etc. Putting them together rubbed off some on each of them. 

I hope I didn't give too much away, it really is worth reading, if you grew up watching them like I did, or you get a kick out of TV history, this was a fun read. 

BOOK REVIEW-Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur

By: Jeff Pearlman

If you ever look at the list of books Bob Woodward wrote, they are almost entirely of the political variety. It stands to reason, as one of the two Washington Post reporters who broke open the Watergate scandal, politics was/is Woodward's wheelhouse.

But there's one book on his list that has nothing to do with politics. 

In 1984, Woodward wrote Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi. Looking at the Wikipedia page about the book, it seems many of Belushi's friends, even those who Woodward interviewed complained the book was exploitive, that it painted an unfair and incomplete picture of the legendary comic actor. I'm not sure if the experience led Woodward to stick to political books, but from what I can see, he rarely if ever ventured out of the political arena. 

Jeff Pearlman, who I have written about several times on these pages, has written nothing but sports books. Since he and I are around the same age, the things he is interested in are usually the things I am interested in. His first book was about the 1986 Mets, of course, one of my all time favorite teams. And it's gotten to the point where even if I'm not that interested in what he is writing about, I still buy the book because I know I'll enjoy his writing style.

Still, this one was not a slam dunk. 

He wrote books about Bo Jackson and Walter Payton, guys I respected but didn't follow that closely. He wrote books about Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Brett Favre, the first two are guys I can't stand and the third who turned out to be a POS. But at least I was familar with all of them.

Here's what I knew about Tupac Shakur. He was shot after the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight on September 7th, 1996*.  He died almost a week later from those injuries on September 13. 

I also knew that his aunt was convicted in the shooting death of NJ State Trooper Werner Foester and escaped from prison. She fled to Cuba, where she lived until her death this past September. 

That was it.  I could only name one of his songs, (California Love-which they play on SiriusXM 90's on 9 every once in a while) I never saw any of the movies he was in. Shoot, the first time I even heard his name was during the first ski trip I took with Ray and the Cooper Union peeps. That was the nickname they gave our buddy Shahar Harel. (Tupac Shahar- get it? You kinda had to be there). 

I went into this book, totally blind. I trusted Jeff Pearlman to tell the story.

And like every Pearlman I've read, there were times I didn't want to put it down. 

I don't want to give too much away in case you are interested in reading this, but I will tell you a couple of things. 

1) Pearlman never mentions Assata Shakur, which I was wondering if he would. He does write about Tupac's mother, who was a very interesting character to say the least.

2) Tupac's musical interests are not what you might expect from someone who specialized in rap and hip-hop. At one point, Pearlman wrote about Tupac's hatred of Vanilla Ice, not merely because he was a wannabe, but because his hit song Ice, Ice Baby, sampled from Queen/David Bowie's classic Under Pressure, "a song Tupac loved"

This book has something else in common with Woodward's Belushi book: people who knew Tupac or claim to be Tupac fans or experts, have taken Pearlman to task over the book. I follow Pearlman on social media, so he has gone into detail on some of the criticism he has received.  According to Pearlman, much of the guff he is getting is coming from people who haven't read the book. 

All I can say is, if it made it to the book, it had to have happened. Pearlman usually takes two years to interview, research, write and publish his books. This one took three years. I am positive the man left no stone unturned here. 

Both books get 4.5 Auggies.

That’s all we got this week folks

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week

*September 7, 1996, I have often said was one of the best days I have ever had. It was just a random Saturday, but I spent the first part of the day hanging with Ace at Belmont Park, and the second part of the day at Rory Dolan’s (my maiden voyage). 1996 had been a rough year, but things started to turn around for me that day. 

Weekly Mail November 9, 2025

 

Hey There:

This past Tuesday, in addition to being Election Day, also was Mom and Dad's 53rd Anniversary. It was the first of the milestones/holidays that we are going to have to get used to celebrating without her. 

Scott Shannon, who built the Z-100 Z Morning zoo back in the day, and later was the morning DJ/program director at WPLJ, started his own internet oldies radio station called the True Oldies Channel. (TOC). You can get it here in NY at 92.3 HD Channel 3. Anyway Katie e-mailed Scott and asked if he could play their wedding song, Never My Love by the Association, and dedicate it to Dad and in memory of Mom.

Sure enough at 11:20 on Tuesday, he read a little dedication and played the song. I played it at work and my co-worker started crying. 

It made a tough day a bit easier to get through.

And now as promised, our Election Day Wrap-up. We'll start in the city

NYC MAYOR'S RACE-You Don't Mess with the Zohran

In a hotly contested 3 way race that really was a two way race, 34 year old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani overwhelmingly defeated Democrat turned independent former governor Andrew Cuomo and Guardian Angel founder/radio talk show host Republican Curtis Sliwa by a wide margin to become the next mayor of New York City. 

I've lived in Nassau County now for over 16 years, so I didn't have a vote in this mess, but if I had, my vote would have gone to Andrew Cuomo. Somewhat reluctantly, but nevertheless.

I'm less concerned that Mamdani is some global jihadist sent here to finish off what al-Qaeda started 25 years ago, than I am that at age 34, Mamdani might not have the requisite experience for a gig as big as mayor of one of the world's most important cities. I'm guessing the same folks who think Mamdani is the second coming of Osama Bin-Laden, probably felt the same way when Barack Hussein Obama was elected POTUS. All Obama did was take Bin Laden out in his own house in Pakistan and dismantle what was left of al-Qaeda. 

Mamdani has his work cut out for him. I don't agree with outgoing Mayor Eric Adams on much, but Adams suggested that Mamdani visit every police precinct in the city to assure the cops that he has their back. He is also going to need to appoint a FDNY commissioner who will command respect from the rank and file. 

I'm nervous about Mamdani's youth, but on the other hand, does a 34 year old who has never been, give NY a better shot at prosperity than a pair of 70 somethings that are has beens or never were? 

Like I said, I would have voted for Cuomo. I called for him to resign after the allegations of misconduct came out against him as governor, but.in the meantime, the country decided to re-elect a 34 times over convicted felon who is keeping the federal government shut down in part to stop the release of the Epstein files. To say nothing of that fact that he organized a terrorist attack on our nation's capitol in 2021.  If you have a problem with my saying I'd vote for Cuomo, but you giddily voted for Convicted Felon Captain Orange, a man who was legally found liable for sexual assault, you can sit down and STFU thank you very much.

As for Curtis Sliwa, honestly, I don't really have anything personal against him. He's been married four times, which is one more than CFCO and twice more than Cuomo, (Mamdani is still on wife number one). To me he's as much of a carnival barker as our current President is, with not nearly as much baggage. There had to have been someone in the Republican party in NYC more qualified than poor Curtis was, no? 

Curtis never had a chance, despite some folks on my social media feeds breathlessly screaming that the polls were unreliable. After they said,  all the same polls had Kamala Harris waltzing (no pun intended) to the Oval Office, only to see Captain Orange sweeping the swing states. The polls here in NY pretty much had it dead on. If I have one regret, it's that Curtis did so poorly, I can't even blame his supporters for giving Mamdani the keys to City Hall.  The final score was 50.4% for Mamdani, 41.6% for Cuomo, and 7.1 % for Curtis. Cuomo and Curtis combined votes still wouldn't have caught Mamdani. 

Shucks. 

NJ GOVERNOR'S RACE-Mickie Sherril flies to victory

Living in NY, we are unfortunately inundated with political ads from New Jersey that makes one feel the need to shower after they are done. If I thought moving to Oceanside was going to cure me of that I was sadly mistaken. 

As bad as it is in NY, I feel like those New Jersey races are the ultimate in mud slinging. This last race between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli was no different. 

Ciattarelli's commercials made Sherill out to be some dingbat, while Sherill's commercials made Ciattarelli out to be a MAGA't along the lines of JD Vance and Mike Johnson. Sherrill was a Navy pilot and combat veteran. Ciattarelli, at one time a Trump critic, does appear to have embraced many MAGA talking points. 

The race was thought to be a tight one, but Sherrill pulled away, winning by 450,000 votes. To both of their credits, despite the fugly campaigning, Ciattarelli told his supporters that he called and congratulated Sherrill and wished her luck, while Sherill acknowledged Ciattarelli's concession and called him a "stand up guy" If Ciattarelli used the MAGA playbook to run his campaign, he must have skipped the chapter where they tell you not to admit you lost. 

NASSAU COUNTY RACES- 

If the GOP was looking for a place to hang their red MAGA hats, they could come out to my neck of the woods. Bruce Blakeman was re-elected County Executive, Anne Donnelly was re-elected District Attorney, Elaine Phillips was re-elected County Comptroller and John Ferretti was re-elected Town of Hempstead Supervisor. I of course voted against all four of them, making my ballot look an awful lot like my NCAA Tournament bracket. 

Blakeman interestingly enough was once married to Nancy Shevell more commonly known as the third Mrs. Paul McCartney. Blakeman and Nancy had a son, Arlen together before going splitsville.  If I had it my way, I'd have Paul as Nassau County executive and send Bruce out on tour with whosever left in Wings. 

In Virginia, the governor's mansion was flipped blue, and in California, a proposition to redraw the congressional map to give Democrats more seats passed. I'm not a fan of gerrymandering, but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. 

While I felt a lot better about the results this year than I did on November 6, 2024, I can't say I was as giddy as some people were. Did it do my heart good to see people losing their $h-t because NY elected Mamdani? Yeah it did.  But there is no guarantee that the gains that the Democrats made are going to carry over to next years midterms, a year is a long time. (just look what a difference a year made this time) It's going to take years to fix what was broken last year. This election was a band aid where stiches was needed. A good start? Yes, but also, a long way to go. 

DICK CHENEY- 1941-2025

When getting into debates over the state of our union, one of the toughest positions I have defending is the idea that "you're saying the same things about Trump you said about (George W) Bush. You called him evil too. 

Well I didn't. But yeah, they called him a lot of things. And let's face it, even myself, a guy who defended that administration more than occasionally, had to admit that things weren't going well by the time Dubya shuffled back to Texas. 

Dick Cheney was the VP in the Bush 43 administration, and more than perhaps any other VP, helped shape much of his boss' agenda. As people are fearing that NY just elected a pinko commie for mayor, and Captain Orange has said more than once he'd like to be a  dictator, Cheney was someone who really wanted to expand the power of the executive branch. 

And here's the thing... I didn't always agree with the man, I probably disagreed with him more than not. I watched the report of his death on the CBS Evening News the other night, and one of the clips they showed was Cheney saying "It's clear that Saddam Hussein is in possession of weapons of mass destruction." The reporter, Major Garrett, quickly reminded us viewers that no WMD's were ever found in Iraq. 

But I also felt that Cheney did what he did, and believed what he believed, because deep down he felt it was best for the country. He himself never ran for the top job, but he served as White House Chief of Staff under Gerald Ford at age 34 (hey there's that magic number again), defense secretay under George HW Bush (and the first time we went after Saddam Hussein) and of course Vice President under George W Bush. I'm a checks and balances sort of guy, so consolidating power isn't necessarily something I think is a good idea, but I also don't think Cheney wanted to be a dictator. Not even for a day. 

He leaves behind two daughters, one, herself a Congresswoman, was one of the few Republicans who didn't kiss the Orange ring, and who had the guts to call January 6 what it was, an attack on our democracy. His other daughter, Mary was the center of some controversy in 2004. During their vice presidential debate, when they got the "say something nice about your opponent" question, Senator John Edwards complimented the Cheney's on raising two successful daughters and being loving parents to a gay daughter. Couple weeks later, when the subject of homosexuality came up, John Kerry once again pointed out that Mary Cheney was gay. 

My $0.02 was that Edwards was sincerely trying to complement the Cheney ladies. Kerry was trying to make a point, and came off as gratuitously dragging Mary Cheney into the debate that wasn't necessary. 

In any event, Dick Cheney passing away a day before Election Day got him back in the news for what was probably one of his favorite times of the year. RIP. 

FOOTBALL: Jets trades

I decided to go have lunch in my car on Tuesday when Brandon (BT) Tierney and Sal Lacotta broke the news that the Jets traded Timmy's favorite player Sauce Gardner, to the Colts for the Colts next 2 number one draft picks. They later on traded Quinnen Williams to the Cowboys for the Cowboys 2027 number one draft pick.

BT & Sal were estatic over the Sauce deal, and later Joe Beningo came back with his former partern Evan Roberts to praise the two deals going so far as to say both Sauce and Williams were overrated. The next morning Boomer Esiason said "Any Jet fan in their right mind has got to be thrilled about these deals."

I'm not necessarily in my right mind so there's that, but I'm not as over the moon about these deals as the FANdroids would like me to be.

For starters, while Sauce may not have been as spectacular as he was in his rookie year, he is still a very good corner, and good corners are hard to come by. As Roberts pointed out on the FAN, the Jets let Darrele Revis go to the Patriots and then drafted a highly regarded cornerback to replace him. You guys ever hear of Dee Millner? No? That's because he was another in a long line of NYJ draft busts.   

We’re trading guys we drafted who, in an occurrence more rare than Hailey’s Comet coming around, actually worked out, for draft picks were more likely than not going to screw up. 

Now the Jets won the other day,  (speaking of rare occurrences) without Sauce, without Williams and with little output from Garrett Wilson. They play the Patriots on Thursday which will probably be another loss. Maybe I’m being too negative, maybe the guys on the FAN are right. I just don’t see it. 

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It is always a horrible day in New York when we lose a firefighter or a cop in the line of duty. The loss of Patrick Brady hits harder because we’ve known his family for a long time. That was horrible news to wake up to on Sunday morning. May God Bless Pat and the entire Brady family, and as always, for all of those who protect NYC. 

And of course Happy Veterans Day to all who served to defend our nation. Especially my dad, my father in law and my brother in law Brian. 

Thank you all. 

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail November 2, 2025

 

Hey There:

Last night we turned the clocks back one hour. That was cool, I could use the extra hour of sleep. But it's always a bit of a drag when you look out the window that first Sunday after around 5 PM and see that it is middle of the night dark outside. It's been 2 months since Labor Day and about 6 weeks till the official start of winter.

It's can be a bit depressing.

But I was going through some pictures recently, and I came across one  that  was taken 4 years ago. 

That was taken on November 7, 2021 at 5:02 PM, on my parent's terrace in Rockaway. It was that first Sunday after the clocks went back, and it was mostly dark. Except for that fiery sunset over Brooklyn in the background. Mom really wanted Tim and I see to see that. She really was so happy down there, and views like that were one of the big reasons why. As the sky went dark tonight, I thought about that late afternoon, early evening 4 years ago and smiled. These are the kind of memories that keep me going as we navigate through these difficult times.  

Again, next week, we will go over the Election results. I voted on Saturday in Island Park. 

For now, we have a couple things to discuss.

AIRLINE ISSUES:

A Paris to JFK Delta Airline flight that was diverted to Boston's Logan Airport due to the heavy rainstorms in NY on Thursday nearly collided with a Cape Air plane that was taking off. 

Per CBS News.. 

As the Airbus 330-900neo came in for a landing at Logan at about 4:15 p.m. Eastern Time, air traffic control told the flight crew to "go around" to keep a safe distance from a smaller plane that was taking off, according to audio recorded by LiveATC.net.

"Air traffic control instructed Delta Air Lines Flight 263 to perform a go-around at Boston Logan International Airport because Cape Air Flight 548 was cleared to takeoff from an intersecting runway," the FAA said in a statement.

A go-around is a procedure in which a pilot discontinues a landing approach at the direction of air traffic control and returns to altitude, according to the FAA. It's not clear exactly how close the two planes got to each other. Air traffic control audio recorded by LiveATC.net captured the reaction from pilots on both flights.What the heck?" the Cape Air pilot is heard saying.

"That was close," the Delta pilot responds after being told to maintain an altitude of 3,000 feet.

"Yeah man, not cool," the Cape Air pilot then says.

Not cool indeed. Thankfully the Delta plane landed and the Cape Air plane took off without incident. 

Passengers on another flight weren't quite as lucky. 

A Jet Blue flight from Cancun to Newark suddenly dropped altitude causing injuries to at least 15 passengers. 

Now I first heard about these two incidents on Friday's ABC World News Tonight as I was waiting for trick or treaters to come to the house. They reported on the near collison at Logan before they reported on the altitude drop on Jet Blue. To me the Jet Blue story was the big one, because there were injuries.

The ABC News report showed damage to the ceiling of the plane. A passenger told the network that the flight attendant pushing the snack cart was ""jerked to the left and then flew up with the cart, and you heard a big bang."

I wasn't planning on any big trips anytime soon anyway, but now, with air traffic controllers not getting paid, it's even more scary than usual. 

We mentioned the weather on Thursday here in NY and I’m hoping all of you are all right. Two people died due to the flooding, one drowned in his basement apartment and another was electrocuted as he tried to turn off his power in a flooded room. I saw some pictures from Bushwick and Bed-Stuy and of course several videos from Rockaway. This was 13 almost to the day of Superstorm Sandy, and while the damage was nowhere near what we went through that time, it was a rough reminder.

Who did suffer a storm even worse than Sandy were the people of Jamaica who were slammed by Catgeory 5 Hurricane Melissa. As of this writing, there were 28 people dead in Jamaica and 60 dead in all of the Caribbean. That total is expected to rise.

This was the first time in a few years that a major hurricane did not strike the mainland US. But Jamaica and Cuba are dealing with devastation.

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2025 WORLD SERIES

It’s funny, back in 1992 and 1993, I was rooting as hard against the Blue Jays as I was rooting for them here in 2025. I really didn’t want to see a team from Canada win a championship in our national pastime, which sounds as stupid as is. Even more ironic the two teams the Jays beat those years, the Braves and Phillies respectively, are two my least favorite teams in baseball.

But 32 years later it was the Dodgers who I considered public enemy number one in baseball. Before Game 7 of the ALCS, I read someone post that game would decide which team would lose to the Dodgers.Talk about presumptuous!

The Jays gave LA a hell of a World Series and quite frankly I feel they should have won it. Taking a 3-2 lead back to your ballpark, I mean you gotta close that deal, no? 

I was a lot more annoyed that the Dodgers won than I thought I would be. Again, I don’t have any real love for the Blue Jays. And I realize that me complaining about a team spending their way to a World Series is awfully rich (har har) from a guy whose team is owned by Steve Cohen. 

But that contract Shohei Othani signed was awfully fugazy. And also, baseball’s CBA is expiring after the 2026 season and the rumors are that the small market owners are banding together to force the league to come up with a salary cap, or force a lockout. 

I’m not naive enough to think that the Blue Jays knocking off the Dodgers would have stopped these rumors, but I’m sure it added some fuel to the fire. That’s a problem for down the road.

The game that Karl, Ray and I attended at Dodger Stadium back in June was decided, in a harbinger of things to come, on a Will Smith walk off homer. Smith hit what proved to be the World Series home run, after the Jays gave up the game tying home run in the bottom of the ninth to the Dodgers 9th place hitter. Inexcusable. 

Still, despite the lousy outcome, despite the hated Dodgers repeating as champions, it was a very exciting, very evenly played World Series. Pissed off as I am, I can’t dispute that. 

Please if you haven’t already done so, get out and vote. As much as I have lost faith after last year, the only way the flame of democracy can stay alive is if we don’t let them extinguish it. We keep it alive by voting.

Other than that…

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week