First of all... let's give a shout out to our new pals at The MetsPolice.com Blog. Their September 21 column featured my column about Yankee Stadium which is kind of odd because they are a Mets blog and I'm a big Met fan! And how can a Met fan do a whole column about Yankee Stadium without doing one about Shea?? Today we will rectify that as part of our Baseball Quarterly Report.
The Yankee Stadium column was a lot easier to do because I have not been there anywhere near as often as I have been to Shea. It is hard to pin point the best memories that I witnessed in person, since many of the games I have been to have been run of the mill games or losses to the Yankees where those annoying Yankee fans booed the Mets on their own home field. The most exciting game that I ever saw in person was June 30, 2000 when the Braves took an 8-1 lead into the 8th inning only to see the Mets come up with a huge 10 run rally capped off with Mike Piazza's 3 run homer off Terry Mulholland. Otherwise the games that I ended up attending were relatively uneventful....
My first ever ball game was at Shea in the early 70s... and I think it was a day game against The St. Louis Cardinals. I went to legendary YAC Camp which has now been immortalized on Facebook. I really dont remember anything about the game... however I didn't know bubkis about baseball... my dad was not a fan so I really had no formal introduction to the sport. I did know the rules to the game and as a little 6 year old pisher I actually thought the fans bat in the game too. What did I know? Years later I was a CIT at that same camp and took a bus to the city with another Met fan who worked there. We went to the Banner Day Double header which really was a fertile ground for any pharmaceutical salesman selling ADD medication since the twinbill and the between games Banner Parade seemed to go on and on.
Back in my college days my college radio station was able to get press passes to cover games which was pretty cool. I became a Met fan in the early 70s... around 1973 but really got into the game in the late 70's during the lean years. Things started really looking up for the Mets in '83 when they called up Darryl Strawberry and after that traded for Keith Hernandez in an absolute steal of a deal. The arrival of Davey Johnson in 1984, and then Gary Carter in '85 completed the turnaround and for the first time in my generation, we Met fans had something to cheer about. That is why it was fantastic that Met PR Director Jay Horowitz was nice enough to give us press access to batting practice.. (no press box or post game locker room though), but we got a pair of tickets in the stands so who could complain? We got to chat with the players! . I actually have photos of myself on the field with my microphone asking the players questions.
I also still have a tape of an interview I did with Pete Rose that showed what a Jerk he was.... I asked him a question right after he was traded to the Reds to be their player/manager about his reaction to the idea of that transaction and he kind of twisted it around a bit just to be a shmuck. From that day forward I could see that Rose was unlikeable... and that attitude is probably why the media has not made a bigger deal about his being left out of the Hall of Fame. His arrogance seemed a bit toned down on Bob Costas fantastic HBO show at the All Star Break which also featured Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, so maybe Rose has eaten about 19 years of humble pie since he was banned from the game. I also recall Bobby Valentine was a Met coach back then and he accidentally spit some chewing tobacco right on my tape recorder. Good thing I didnt have access to the urinals!
Those early college days were the era of Darryl and Doc and believe me I would have chills going down my spine every time I got to speak to them. Doc Gooden was also the first player who was approximately my age to make the big leagues. I used to know who was the first major leaguer who was younger than me; I think it is Al Leiter but I am not 100% sure.. Now only a handful of the active players are actually older than me!
In 2003 I went to a Mets Marlins game with a buddy of mine who got awesome tickets from a friend of his - we were in the first row right behind first base. It was a late season clunker against the Marlins and Shea was rather empty that weekday afternoon. We were just a few feet away from the first base coach's box and he could hear most of the wisecracks originating from our seats. At one point he actually looked in my direction and chuckled when I yelled..."Hey down in front... you're blocking my view!" Over the last few years, we have been going with my buddy Adam and his lovely wife. He takes a notebook with him and must keep score for every game. He literally sits there the whole time with a pen and notebook jotting down every single out while I sit there gearing up for Carlos at bats so I can do my Jon Miller impression and yell out.... Beltraaaaaaaan!~
I was kind of curious what the Shea finale would be like after seeing the great show that was put on at Yankee Stadium the previous week. It was neat to see Yogi Berra who had a key role for both franchises participate at both Stadium Closing ceremonies. Perhaps Yogi should be hired for other closings.... like bank closings? Hey join us this week as we close the doors on Wachovia... with a special appearance by Yogi Berra!!
I was really hoping that if the Mets didnt make the playoffs that they would at least get eliminated before Sunday so the closing ceremonies would not be affected by a Met elimination. I just never imagined how excruciatingly sudden it would be with the late inning loss combined with the Brewers late win. But the decision to do the closing after the game.... combined with the emotionally draining game made it very tough to get excited for the ceremonies. Nonetheless, the players got their game faces on and it was quite exciting to see all the old timers and not so old timers. Although Howard Johnson who was a Met coach this year looked like a deer caught in the headlights when he was introduced because he was still numb from the results of the game...
My Met fandom stretches a little more than 30 years and it was great to see the Mets especially from the crummy years... such as Dave Kingman for example.. It was also great to see the post Kingman '86 crew including Hernandez, Gary Carter, Doc Gooden and Sid Fernandez who looked nothing like I had expected. It would have been nice to bring Bill Buckner along since that game is the consensus favorite for the most incredible game in Shea's history... but I actually think winning it all in Game 7 was more exciting!.. Even though the Yankee Stadium ceremonies were more historical.... I felt emotionally detached from it... except for when Willie Randolph came out... and for that incredibly touching moment when Mickey Mantle's son comforted the recent widow of Bobby Murcer in Center field. But the Shea ceremonies carried a lot more meaning because being a Met fan has been a big part of my life for so long,
Willie Mays was there... he really had gone downhill by the time he arrived at Shea. And George Foster was at Shea Sunday too... even though he was cut early on in '86 and wasn't on the team when they won it all... but many credit his acquisition in '82 as being the first stepping stone to the '86 season. I still cant believe Dave Kingman was there! Jesse Orosco was also on hand... but the two real stars of the day were the best hitter and best pitcher to ever put on a Met uniform... Mike Piazza and Tom Seaver. I mentioned last week I hoped the Mets would give those 2 a very prominent role and to me the way they were utilized made it a very touching evening.
Even though the Yankee Stadium event was very well choreographed.....Shea's had a much different feel.. You could tell by the numerous missed camera shots that they must have made some late changes to the way it was presented.... It appeared to be put together on the fly, and I am very curious how different the event would have been had the Mets made the playoffs. The fans would have been quite happier, but it would not have been a true farewell to Shea. But, the Mets painful end to '08 gave the ceremonies a true sense of finality to the Goodbye Shea ceremonies.
The former Mets players who were involved emerged from behind the Center Field fence and lined up along the 1st and 3rd base lines. After the intros, which seemed to move along quite quickly maybe due to rain concerns.... each player was invited to touch home plate en route to leaving the field. No current Mets were involved in the ceremonies by the way..but I think a few of them deserved to be there for it. They were probably still worn out from the game. The Mets all touched home plate until the 2 Best Mets were remaining: Seaver and Piazza. At that point it was time for the last pitch - an incredibly clever idea which Tom tossed to Mike. The two then walked to the outfield to In My Life by The Beatles... don't forget The Beatles concert was an important part of Shea's history - and strolled to the center field wall... at which point they closed the wall behind them essentially closing the Stadium.
It would have been nice if right before that, they would have tossed a grenade into the bullpen and just blow it up... but that was not meant to be.
Now it's time to revisit my preseason picks and see where I messed up and where I was right.
Obviously my Mets predictions were wrong, but before they go and break up the whole team... let's consider one player's injury - Billy Wagner. If Wagner had been pitching, the Mets post season fate would have been sealed way before the final weekend, but losing your stopper when the rest of the pen is lousy was just too much for The Mets to overcome. The starting pitchers and offense is in pretty good shape although they could still use a new second baseman and a corner outfielder. Otherwise just fix what is broken - blow up the pen - get some different arms there and get ready for 2009.
In the National League preseason preview, I was two bullpen choke jobs from hitting on all 4 predictions. Back in April, I originally had the Division Winners being the Phillies, Cubs, D-backs with the Mets as Wild Card. We also picked the Astros as our surprise team, and they almost pulled it off but their late season hot streak (which came despite a season ending injury to slugger Carlos Lee) was derailed when Hurricane Ike moved 2 "home" games against the Cubs to Milwaukee where Cubs fans got the chance to hop in a car for a short trip to root for the Cubbies on "the road". The Astros lost those games and were never the same after that.
Over in the AL I predicted the end to the Yankees post-season run picking Boston, Detroit and Seattle as the division winners with Cleveland as the wild card. Whoda thunk how far off those picks were going to be - I even picked the LA Angels as my big disappointment. I did predict the White Sox as my surprise AL team for 2008.
As for the 2008 post season, I am going to predict that the Cubs will lose to LA - The LA Angels in the World Series!
Here are my other picks
Phils-Brewers - I couldn't care less
Cubs over LA - Not to poke fun at Torre but he has blown a post season series lead in the past.
LA over Bahsten - Angels look to be the class of the AL.
Tampa over Chicago White Sox. The Chi Sox pitching could be running outta gas.
And then LA over the Cubbies in the Fall Classic
Here are my predictions for the Post Season Awards:
NL Cy Young - I gotta give it to Johan Santana just ekeing it out over Brandon Webb. Both teams had crummy bullpens and should have won more games this season, but Santana strikes me as having had a better season despite fewer wins.
NL MVP - I have come to the conclusion that if Billy Wagner had not been injured that the Mets would have won the division weeks ago. That is how valuable a bullpen stopper is... which is why I think that Brad Lidge deserves it.
NL ROOKIE - Edinson Volquez of the Reds. 17-6 3.21 ERA, 206 strikeouts. This guy was amazing on a crummy team. Do you realize the Texas Rangers traded away Volquez (for Josh Hamilton) and released Armando Gallaraga who will be a runner up for Rookie of the Year?
AL CY YOUNG - I would rather see K-Rod get it for saving more than 60 games but Cliff Lee had one of those years - another Ohio pitcher who had an outstanding season for a sub par team!
AL MVP - This is a toughie! Who really earned it? I would have given it to Carlos Quentin but he missed the last few weeks and coincidentally his team started to slump. Nonetheless, what the heck? I'll give it to him.. although that is another award K-Rod might deserve.
AL ROOKIE - Evan Longoria - he went from being an Eva Longoria pun to a baseball star!!
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK: Pumpy won with the Jets last week improving to 3-1. This week we go to The Nation's Capitol as all eyes were on Washington as Congress passed the bailout bill...(till the next bunch of banks go under!) This week The Redskins are 6 point Road Doggies to the Eagles. Sayeth The Pump: "Thursday Night Sarah Palin kept talking about "Maverick" which starred James Garner who was also in the movie "The Last Debate" and the 1973 movie "One Little Indian" The Redskins it is!"
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICK OF THE WEEK: Last week we ran the table go to 3-0 for the first time ever. The record is now 6-6.
GIANTS 7 1/2 over Seattle - Not a big fan of spreads more than one td after a Giant bye.. but The Giants have been looking fantastic this season.
Bengals 17 doggies to DALLAS - Cincy played pretty well against the Giants 2 wks ago... are they really that much worse than Dallas?
Redskins 6 doggies to PHILLY - I don't know about Pumpy's logic but I like seeing The Eagles and Cowboys rack up the losses.
CLIP OF THE WEEK PART ONE
The most incredibly shocking moment in Shea's history recreated in a legendary 1980s video game.
CLIP OF THE WEEK PART TWO
From WFAN's website - The Top 25 Memories in Shea History.
Click Here to Relive these Moments
Friday, October 03, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thoughts for 5769
If the Mets annual September swoon continues and they don't make the playoffs - Sunday will mark the final game at Shea Stadium. And as we say goodbye to the site of so much happiness in '69 on Sunday.... on Monday Night, we will say hello to another '69.... 5769!!
I like welcoming in the new as we say goodbye to the old. Yankee Stadium had its big closing party last weekend with an event that even the Mets fans enjoyed. Next season they move to the New Stadium across the street, although can you imagine the embarassment if the new stadium is not ready and they have to go back to the old one after that grand goodbye party?
I thought it was odd they made such a big deal about Bernie Williams grand return since he departed with a big chip on his shoulder and his "letting go" of that chip should not have overshadowed the historical implication of the final game at The House That Ruth Built that will be replaced by The House That The Taxpayers Built. To me, THE highlight of the evening was the "copied from the All Star Game" gathering of players and their families in the very spot that those stars roamed for all those many years. CF seems to be the big position for the Yankees starting with Joe DiMaggio and culminating with the 4 World Series won by Williams. But the moment that I thought was the best... better than The Willie Randolph slide and better than Yogi standing behind home plate in that vintage uniform.... took place in centerfield when the son of Mickey Mantle embraced the recently widowed wife of Bobby Murcer in a comforting gesture at a moment that surely was emotionally quite overwhelming.
The Mets probably can't top that and if they can make the playoffs it will be hard to plan in advance for when the final Shea game will take place. Nonetheless, the regular finale is Sunday and it will be nice to see Tom Seaver and hopefully Mike Piazza among others who excelled at Shea. I'm not sure about the first pitch for Sunday - how do you top the 90-something year old daughter of Babe Ruth? - but maybe Ralph Kiner who has been with the Mets as an announcer since Day One might be a good pick; he is probably the only person who has bridged the gap from Day One to 2008.
Hopefully there won't be any one game playoff Monday so I can enjoy Rosh Hashanah without any baseball distractions. I have heard that a lot of Conservative Rabbis will be addressing The Agriprocessors situation in their High Holy Day sermons, as this kosher food supplier company seems to be the polarizing issue between the Ultra Orthodox who blindly support the Ultra owners of that company, and the rest of us who are disgusted and embarrased by what has been going on there.
Agriprocessors, in Iowa manufactures what we see in the stores as The Aarons/Rubashkin meats. They were caught in a bust a few months ago for having hundreds of illegal and underage workers in their slaughtering facility. And the subsequent reactions to this news, which has led to approximately 9000 chargese seems to be a good starting point for this years New Years column.
With the election coming up shortly, I am very bothered by The Christian Right Wingers who want to impose their religious beleifs on everyone else. Exhibit A is that incredibly hot Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin. But beneath that va va voom and those little eyeglasses is a lifestyle that she and her other right wingers feel should be imposed on All Americans...such as laws to deprive rape victims the right to "choose". Thankfully, my ultra orthodox Jewish brethren are not missionaries, and do not try to convert people from other religions. They only want to see that other Jews become more observant, and God bless them for it! Their incredible work has kept Judaism alive and cut down on attrition due to intermarriage. They really do a terrific job. They only take issue with other religions whose morals allow the acceptability of advertising billboards with sexy cleavagey babes posted on highways where their young boys can accidentally get their first post nursing glimpse of gasp - boobies! But while a bustline is a no no, why is the Iowa bust ok?
I actually knew a very religious Christian woman who found out about the death of one of my relatives and sweetly and sincerely asked me if this person accepted Jesus prior to leaving this Earth. It might have sounded like an offensive question but in reality she was so convinced that Jews who don't accept Jesus will not go to Heaven that her question actually had some good intentions behind it. And of course theres that point made by Rabbi Shmuely Boteach who questions if a Nazi officer who accepted Jesus would go to Heaven while the little Jewish girl he murdered went to Hell.
But the line in the sand seems to be drawn by this Iowa raid. The owner of the company, Aaron Rubashkin is in a heap of trouble. And a well meaning relative who would like me to read religious right wing perioidicals instead of my usual stuff featuring sexy ads, started sending me a periodical that has some interesting editorials. The blinding support for Rubashkin in those editorials is actually embarassing. And some of them are slamming Obama's candidacy for the silliest reason! They reject him because of "slanderous" comments he made to the media criticizing Agriprocessors, when he was questioned by a reporter after the raid at that horror filled slaughterhouse. They contend that Rubashkin is innocent until proven guilty... and they feel Obama is more wrong for his comments about Rubashkin than Rubashkin is for what did!
Rubashkin does not appear to be too remorseful and through his lawyer has defended himself by blaming the victims for fibbing about their ages. Keep in mind that if every one of those young girls was caught in that Slaughterhouse doing the ol' hoochie mcscoochie with a male immigrant older than 18... not only would the jail bait defense "Oh she said she was 18" not fly.. but Rubashkin would throw those guys under the bus quicker than the next bus load of illegals would pull into the gates leading into his slaughterhouse.
And as I mentioned in this blog a month ago, the Conservative movements attempt to strengthen Kosher laws by not giving a stamp of approval to a Kosher food company that mistreats its employees has been met with sarcasm and derision by the Rubashkin supporters. But when it comes to those editorials, take it with a grain of salt. 99.9% of these right wingers are truly wonderful people, but the few who write these editorials come up with issues that make absolutely no sense. One such editorial writer recently criticized the wonderful Hillel organization on college campuses because the original Hillel would not approve of the activities that go on there. That is just pure silliness. My dad used to write for The Brooklyn College Hillel Newspaper although I think he did it to meet chics.
One more point about these polarizing issues amongst my fellow Hebrews and Shebrews. The other day on The People's Court a woman got into a parking lot fender bender with a religious guy. She said he backed into her car and didnt want to call the cops and then reneged on his offer to pay for the damages so she sued him for the approx, 2000 bucks on the estimate. The guy came to court and said she smacked his car to which the woman who was also Jewish pointed out that she expected more of a religious guy than to lie under oath. And there was a twist - unbeknowst to this guy, she got a cheaper repair job done for approx $200, and in her complaint said she didnt want to tell him, but also didnt want to collect anything more than she actually paid out of pocket. This not-as-religious woman came out smelling like a rose and she obviously won the case.
I thought the religious guy came out looking very bad. But others who saw the same case may have reacted differently saying that the Jewish woman should not have sued her fellow Hebrew and taken the case to a Jewish court - a beit din instead. Whatever the case may be... whoever we are and whatever we represent... it is important for us as we enter 5769 to take more responsibility for our actions and how things reflect on us.
Our economy is in deep trouble because people arent paying their loans and finger pointing banks don't want to admit that they made some poor decisions in who they made loans to. Yet, a few years ago, people came to me with mortgage applications and if I dared to tell them that they couldn't afford the payments. 5 brokers representing 5 other banks were standing right there ready to take the loan instead. Yet now the banks point fingers at everyone else - and many people thought nothing of jumping on the big banks bandwagon and borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars.... even though they knew their repayment habits were so bad that they would not even loan themselves 5 bucks.
And if we do something wrong and get caught.. we admit to it... and dont blame 9000 charges on immigrant children who do not belong in a slaughter house!! But fessing up, and taking responsibility is the start. Take responsibility for your credit and think twice before you buy something. And most importantly, take responsibility for who you vote for on Election Day. Do you want to vote for a ticket that has a woman on it that wants to take away a woman's right to choose... and force a woman to have a baby, while that same candidate's party imposes tax cuts that take away the same programs that will help that baby that they want to force that woman to give birth to! And carrying ourselves in a proud manner and treating our fellow workers/employees in a proper respectful manner is a great resolution for '69.
Now if only the Met relievers can take some responsibility, Shea could look like '69 all over again... Thats 1969, not 5769!
Happy New Year to all my Jewish pals.
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK:
Last week Pumpy improved to 2-1 after he picked the Bengals who covered the spread. Eagled eyed readers will note that I said the Bengals would cover but in a senior moment I typed in the wrong pick! This week we go to Shea where the Jets used to play! The Jets are 1 point favorites over The Arizona Cardinals. Sayeth the Pump: "I am going against McCain in November so this week I will go against his home state of Arizona!"
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICKS OF THE WEEK
Last week we went 0-3 and we are now 3-6.
Washington 11 point doggies over DALLAS - The NFC East looks very very strong this year. Its a good week for the Cowboys to taste defeat.
THE BEARS 3 point doggies to Philadelphia - Maybe this will also be a celebratory weekend for Chicago and a bad weekend for Philly in football and baseball?
THE JETS 1 point faves over Arizona - The Jets only 1 point faves at home to the Cards? Have the Cards really improved that much? I'll go with Pumpie this week.
I like welcoming in the new as we say goodbye to the old. Yankee Stadium had its big closing party last weekend with an event that even the Mets fans enjoyed. Next season they move to the New Stadium across the street, although can you imagine the embarassment if the new stadium is not ready and they have to go back to the old one after that grand goodbye party?
I thought it was odd they made such a big deal about Bernie Williams grand return since he departed with a big chip on his shoulder and his "letting go" of that chip should not have overshadowed the historical implication of the final game at The House That Ruth Built that will be replaced by The House That The Taxpayers Built. To me, THE highlight of the evening was the "copied from the All Star Game" gathering of players and their families in the very spot that those stars roamed for all those many years. CF seems to be the big position for the Yankees starting with Joe DiMaggio and culminating with the 4 World Series won by Williams. But the moment that I thought was the best... better than The Willie Randolph slide and better than Yogi standing behind home plate in that vintage uniform.... took place in centerfield when the son of Mickey Mantle embraced the recently widowed wife of Bobby Murcer in a comforting gesture at a moment that surely was emotionally quite overwhelming.
The Mets probably can't top that and if they can make the playoffs it will be hard to plan in advance for when the final Shea game will take place. Nonetheless, the regular finale is Sunday and it will be nice to see Tom Seaver and hopefully Mike Piazza among others who excelled at Shea. I'm not sure about the first pitch for Sunday - how do you top the 90-something year old daughter of Babe Ruth? - but maybe Ralph Kiner who has been with the Mets as an announcer since Day One might be a good pick; he is probably the only person who has bridged the gap from Day One to 2008.
Hopefully there won't be any one game playoff Monday so I can enjoy Rosh Hashanah without any baseball distractions. I have heard that a lot of Conservative Rabbis will be addressing The Agriprocessors situation in their High Holy Day sermons, as this kosher food supplier company seems to be the polarizing issue between the Ultra Orthodox who blindly support the Ultra owners of that company, and the rest of us who are disgusted and embarrased by what has been going on there.
Agriprocessors, in Iowa manufactures what we see in the stores as The Aarons/Rubashkin meats. They were caught in a bust a few months ago for having hundreds of illegal and underage workers in their slaughtering facility. And the subsequent reactions to this news, which has led to approximately 9000 chargese seems to be a good starting point for this years New Years column.
With the election coming up shortly, I am very bothered by The Christian Right Wingers who want to impose their religious beleifs on everyone else. Exhibit A is that incredibly hot Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin. But beneath that va va voom and those little eyeglasses is a lifestyle that she and her other right wingers feel should be imposed on All Americans...such as laws to deprive rape victims the right to "choose". Thankfully, my ultra orthodox Jewish brethren are not missionaries, and do not try to convert people from other religions. They only want to see that other Jews become more observant, and God bless them for it! Their incredible work has kept Judaism alive and cut down on attrition due to intermarriage. They really do a terrific job. They only take issue with other religions whose morals allow the acceptability of advertising billboards with sexy cleavagey babes posted on highways where their young boys can accidentally get their first post nursing glimpse of gasp - boobies! But while a bustline is a no no, why is the Iowa bust ok?
I actually knew a very religious Christian woman who found out about the death of one of my relatives and sweetly and sincerely asked me if this person accepted Jesus prior to leaving this Earth. It might have sounded like an offensive question but in reality she was so convinced that Jews who don't accept Jesus will not go to Heaven that her question actually had some good intentions behind it. And of course theres that point made by Rabbi Shmuely Boteach who questions if a Nazi officer who accepted Jesus would go to Heaven while the little Jewish girl he murdered went to Hell.
But the line in the sand seems to be drawn by this Iowa raid. The owner of the company, Aaron Rubashkin is in a heap of trouble. And a well meaning relative who would like me to read religious right wing perioidicals instead of my usual stuff featuring sexy ads, started sending me a periodical that has some interesting editorials. The blinding support for Rubashkin in those editorials is actually embarassing. And some of them are slamming Obama's candidacy for the silliest reason! They reject him because of "slanderous" comments he made to the media criticizing Agriprocessors, when he was questioned by a reporter after the raid at that horror filled slaughterhouse. They contend that Rubashkin is innocent until proven guilty... and they feel Obama is more wrong for his comments about Rubashkin than Rubashkin is for what did!
Rubashkin does not appear to be too remorseful and through his lawyer has defended himself by blaming the victims for fibbing about their ages. Keep in mind that if every one of those young girls was caught in that Slaughterhouse doing the ol' hoochie mcscoochie with a male immigrant older than 18... not only would the jail bait defense "Oh she said she was 18" not fly.. but Rubashkin would throw those guys under the bus quicker than the next bus load of illegals would pull into the gates leading into his slaughterhouse.
And as I mentioned in this blog a month ago, the Conservative movements attempt to strengthen Kosher laws by not giving a stamp of approval to a Kosher food company that mistreats its employees has been met with sarcasm and derision by the Rubashkin supporters. But when it comes to those editorials, take it with a grain of salt. 99.9% of these right wingers are truly wonderful people, but the few who write these editorials come up with issues that make absolutely no sense. One such editorial writer recently criticized the wonderful Hillel organization on college campuses because the original Hillel would not approve of the activities that go on there. That is just pure silliness. My dad used to write for The Brooklyn College Hillel Newspaper although I think he did it to meet chics.
One more point about these polarizing issues amongst my fellow Hebrews and Shebrews. The other day on The People's Court a woman got into a parking lot fender bender with a religious guy. She said he backed into her car and didnt want to call the cops and then reneged on his offer to pay for the damages so she sued him for the approx, 2000 bucks on the estimate. The guy came to court and said she smacked his car to which the woman who was also Jewish pointed out that she expected more of a religious guy than to lie under oath. And there was a twist - unbeknowst to this guy, she got a cheaper repair job done for approx $200, and in her complaint said she didnt want to tell him, but also didnt want to collect anything more than she actually paid out of pocket. This not-as-religious woman came out smelling like a rose and she obviously won the case.
I thought the religious guy came out looking very bad. But others who saw the same case may have reacted differently saying that the Jewish woman should not have sued her fellow Hebrew and taken the case to a Jewish court - a beit din instead. Whatever the case may be... whoever we are and whatever we represent... it is important for us as we enter 5769 to take more responsibility for our actions and how things reflect on us.
Our economy is in deep trouble because people arent paying their loans and finger pointing banks don't want to admit that they made some poor decisions in who they made loans to. Yet, a few years ago, people came to me with mortgage applications and if I dared to tell them that they couldn't afford the payments. 5 brokers representing 5 other banks were standing right there ready to take the loan instead. Yet now the banks point fingers at everyone else - and many people thought nothing of jumping on the big banks bandwagon and borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars.... even though they knew their repayment habits were so bad that they would not even loan themselves 5 bucks.
And if we do something wrong and get caught.. we admit to it... and dont blame 9000 charges on immigrant children who do not belong in a slaughter house!! But fessing up, and taking responsibility is the start. Take responsibility for your credit and think twice before you buy something. And most importantly, take responsibility for who you vote for on Election Day. Do you want to vote for a ticket that has a woman on it that wants to take away a woman's right to choose... and force a woman to have a baby, while that same candidate's party imposes tax cuts that take away the same programs that will help that baby that they want to force that woman to give birth to! And carrying ourselves in a proud manner and treating our fellow workers/employees in a proper respectful manner is a great resolution for '69.
Now if only the Met relievers can take some responsibility, Shea could look like '69 all over again... Thats 1969, not 5769!
Happy New Year to all my Jewish pals.
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK:
Last week Pumpy improved to 2-1 after he picked the Bengals who covered the spread. Eagled eyed readers will note that I said the Bengals would cover but in a senior moment I typed in the wrong pick! This week we go to Shea where the Jets used to play! The Jets are 1 point favorites over The Arizona Cardinals. Sayeth the Pump: "I am going against McCain in November so this week I will go against his home state of Arizona!"
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICKS OF THE WEEK
Last week we went 0-3 and we are now 3-6.
Washington 11 point doggies over DALLAS - The NFC East looks very very strong this year. Its a good week for the Cowboys to taste defeat.
THE BEARS 3 point doggies to Philadelphia - Maybe this will also be a celebratory weekend for Chicago and a bad weekend for Philly in football and baseball?
THE JETS 1 point faves over Arizona - The Jets only 1 point faves at home to the Cards? Have the Cards really improved that much? I'll go with Pumpie this week.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Memories of Yankee Stadium
Today's column is about Yankee Stadium.. but we will start with a trivia question about Shea. The answer is at the end of the column.
Back in 2006 when Endy Chavez made "The Catch"... what advertisement was on the fence right in front of where he leaned over to take away that home run. That sign was actually discussed in a column in this very blog 2 yrs ago.
Stadiums fascinate me. They are almost like a rock musician's ego booster. Here in New Jersey we are a bit spoiled... being the home state of the immensely talented Bruce Springsteen and the not quite as talented Jon Bon Jovi. (Good thing Trophy Wife never reads my blog - she wouldn't be thrilled with that comment, so we will keep this our little secret..:) Rock stars take to the stage at the big staduims and proclaim...."Look at me... I'm so popular I can sell out a stadium!". Other musical acts who are not quite as popular perform in arenas while others take their act to smaller venues.
I actually live near the new and improved Rutgers Stadium and it is pretty cool to drive past it during a game. The stands are positioned so that the fans appear to jut out almost on to River Road and as I drive by I see the fans cheering (well maybe not this season) and I can almost imagine them saying... "Great driving job Nate!... Great footwork on the gas pedal!"
This past Wednesday, I celebrated another birthday, and once again Trophy Wife was absolutely wonderful giving me a day filled with surprises. I was told to be home at 5pm at which point we departed for parts unknown. We first went to dinner at the most famous restaurant in New Brunswick and had an absolutely incredible meal. I'm not really a good food writer... but I will say that the meal was fantastic and well worth the price tag. After that I was led through the streets of New Brunswick... and right into the State Theater whose marquee did not display what show was on for that night. Trophy Wife picked up the tickets at the will call window, and held on to them and it was quite amusing that here I was in a lobby filled with people just minutes away from the curtain and I was the only person there who had no clue what I was about to see. Could it be the road show of Mamma Mia with another Pierce Brosnan musical performance?
Actually, it was the road show for NBC's Last Comic Standing featuring 5 comedians who had appeared on the show. The show was quite entertaining and you have to give stand up comics credit who perform in that type of setting since comedy clubs' ever flowing liquor gives the audience beer goggles that make the jokes funnier. The sobriety of Wednesday Night's audience forced the performers to work that much harder. After the show, I looked at the program and discovered that the show was co sponsored by The Stress Factory Comedy Club which meant that this tour had gotten so big - it had now graduated from comedy club to theater. Would an arena be next? Or a stadium in the future?
When I was growing up in the 1970s, it was interesting to watch as baseball teams opened new stadiums that were built to be filled by crowds of 50,000+ paying customers. The stadiums were "multi purpose"... which means they could also host NFL teams. However, now that we are 30 years past the 70s it seems as if the NFL's popularity has soared... while baseball has decided that the 70s style stadiums were designed in such a way that the fans felt "too distant" from the action, and the response has been a 21st century building of smaller more intimate baseball only stadiums. Sunday we will say goodbye to Yankee Stadium... and if the Mets make the post season, that tacky ol' Shea will close for good sometime in October. And if the Mets don't make the playoffs, they will close it on September 28th.
Today I will present some of my memories of Yankee Stadium. You will note that I have dates for most of the games, yet I did not keep the stubs nor did I keep a scoreboard. However I have discovered that if you have a good memory of certain events at a game, you can actually find the details of that day's game by utilizing a couple of excellent websites. I also noticed that I went to the Stadium a lot during my college years when my buddies were Yankee fans.. but I stopped going after graduating. I resumed in the late 90s when interleague play started... and then stopped going after I got married in 2004.
I believe my first game was actually a road trip organized by my former synagogue. Back in the 70s they used to have all kinds of youth group activities and I remember going there as a young kid although I remember nothing about the game except for the fact that we were way out there in the outfield and I really wasn't paying attention to what was going on. I also recall a Yankee Blue Jays game in 1998 that was organized by a buddy of mine and about 100 of his closest friends. He was dating a woman at the time who I met that day, and we are still friends to this very day! One of the girls there was drooling over the nice Jewish Blue Jay outfielder Shawn Green. As I recall, we were supposed to meet near the big bat, and that was the year Chuck Schumer was running for the US Senate. He was campaigning right near the bat, and some wiseguy got him a little flummoxed when he said... "Hey... your name is Chuck? What's that short for?"
Here are some other memories:
GAME 1 2000 WORLD SERIES - I include Game 1 of the 2000 World Series for Honorable Mention even though I was not there. It was the Jewish Holiday Simchas Torah and I trekked into the City for my annual tradition of attending services at Bnai Jeshurun. That year, I also went to the Carlebach Synagogue, where they were partying like it was 1999. As usual, they went to the wee hours of the morning. I hadn't been watching the time as well as I should have, and with the last train back to NJ leaving at 1:40 AM I had to forego taking a subway to find a cabbie that would get me down to Penn Station in time. As luck would have it, I could not find a cab anywhere although it was about 1:20 on a Saturday Night. Ultimately I found a cabbie who got me to Penn at exactly the time the train was set to depart. I ran like a maniac down the stairs to the departure board, found my track and ran like hell praying that the train would not leave without me because if it did, I was going to have to sleep in the waiting room with the bums. As I got down those steps, the train was there... and it was not pulling away! It had not left yet.. and it actually sat there for about another hour because thanks to Armando Benitez's blown save, the Met Yankee game went extra innings and the last train was not going to leave until all the fans were back from the game. The game went 12 innings and got the ball rolling for the Mets in the wrong direction. To this day I have never missed the last train, but that night was a close call, and if the Mets had better pitching than Benitez, this story and that World Series may have had a different ending.
RICKEYS FIRST GAME - APRIL 23, 1985. This was another extra inning affair that went 11 innings. I was in college and they were sponsoring a trip to the game so I hopped on a bus and figured, hey maybe I'll pretend to care about the Yankees and hook up with some hot babes. No such luck as far as I recall. It was Rickey Henderson's first game in NY after he had been aquired in the offseason by Oakland. He had missed the first few weeks due to an injury but that was the night he made his debut. He went 1 for 6 in a game that dragged on for 11 innings and I don't even remember if the bus left at a specified time or waited for the game to end.
THE "H" GEORGE STEINBRENNER INCIDENT - JULY 29, 1987. My buddy (I'll call him "H" in honor of the upcoming season premiere of CSI: Miami) got tickets to a Yankees Royals day game. We took his little sister and her young friend along with us... and off we went to a matinee game. H went to get a hot dog as soon as we got there, and the long lines and the scoreless duel that ensued found us in the 6th inning of a scoreless tie. And H still was not back! Where the heck could he have disappeared to for 6 innings? He finally came back nonchalantly with his food and was surprised how much of the game he had missed but he really didnt seem upset about it. The Yankees scored 1 in the 7th and 3 more in the 8th on Mike Easler's bases loaded double to win the game 4-0.
A few months later that summer a few of us took a road trip to Action Park aka Traction Park along with H. If you recall the water park, they gave you little lockers to store your dry clothing and each visitor was issued a little key to open the aforementioned locker. H's key appeared to not be working correctly, and he couldn't seem to open his locker. I could see he was getting very frustrated over the stupid little key and at one point he just kicked the locker and said..."God damn... that f'ing George Steinbrenner". Another buddy of mine who was with me looked towards me with the same puzzled look and in this moment of frustration over a malfunctioning key H finally came clean that he had been quite ticked off all this time at how poorly Yankee Stadium's concessions were run that he missed most of the game a few months earlier. All it took was a silly key to get down to the bottom of this.
CLEMENS STREAK ENDS - June 6, 1999. This was the first Met Yankee game I attended at Yankee Stadium... and I later decided I would not attend any of these game at Shea or Citi Field because I do not enjoy seeing my team booed at their home ball park. However, I did not find anything wrong with booing the Yankees at the Stadium. Clemens got the start for this one and came into the game with an incredible 20 game winning streak. But on that Sunday night's ESPN game, Nate booed and Clemens tasted defeat as The Mets knocked Roger out in the 3rd inning as they built a 7-0 lead en route to a 7-2 win. Piazza also homered off Clemens... perhaps that planted a seed in Clemens mind to retaliate. Too bad Action Park had closed down - I would have rather he threw a baseball at a locker instead of at Piazza's head!
THE MET YANKEE DOUBLE HEADER FEATURING THE CLEMENS BEANING OF PIAZZA - JULY 8, 2000. This was the first of what has now been three 2 stadium same day double headers. I went to both games that fateful July day with two seperate sets of friends! The first game was at Shea and the Yankees took former Met Dwight Gooden off the scrap heap to beat the Mets. Then it was off to the subway and a leisurely trip to Yankee Stadium. This was of course the infamous episode where Roger Clemens hit Mike Piazza in the head with a wayward fastball. This was before our cell phones had internet access, so we didnt really know how bad the injury was, and the buzz in the stadium was that Piazza was hurt so badly that he would be out for the season. As it turned out, Piazza was not quite that badly injured, but that game started the spark that led to Met fans anti-Clemens sentiment that carried on into the World Series and probably still continues to this day.
SINGLES GROUP TRIP AGAINST THE INDIANS - JUNE 3, 2001. I signed up to go to a Sunday Indians day game with a singles group that had an interesting twist. It was sort of a like a Big Brother Big Sister event where each of us singles was matched up with an under priveleged child who we would take to the game. My little brother didnt seem too interested in the game nor me for that matter and spent most of the time hanging out with his buddy, but otherwise it was a terrific event and it made the local Jewish paper too. I was actually interviewed for an article about the big brother aspect of the event, and I believe I said something along the lines of this was a great event for young kids since baseball played a big part of my youth and it was important for kids who don't have a lot of stuff to get an opportunity to get out to the ballpark so they will have happy baseball memories too. Andy Pettite who starts the finale Sunday took the loss in that game.
MY LAST TIME THERE - JUNE 27, 2003. Amazingly I haven't been back since that night when I went with Trophy Wife who is a Yankee fan and Pumpstradamus. Poor Pumpy was working in the city and they would not let him bring his work bag into the Stadium, and finding a place to leave it was quite a pain in the neck. One would think Pumpy could predict that this was going to happen. The Yankees jumped out to a 5-3 lead and held on to win 6-4. Amazingly Jose Reyes batted 8th in that game! Incidentally, I had a hard time racking my brain to get the year for that game... but luckily Trophy Wife saved the ticket stub which confirms that indeed was the last time I set foot into the Stadium. Pumpy is totally clueless about sports but we still had a good time despite the results and Trophy Wife's endless Yankee cheering. Pumpy's wife who is not a sports fan later made a terrific observation that baseball is a bunch of out of shape people eating junk food watching a game played by people in excellent shape.
MY HAPPIEST YANKEE STADIUM MEMORY - TOM SEAVER WINS 300 -AUGUST 4, 1985 - The all time best game I have ever attended! It was just a couple of months after the Rickey Henderson game. I had won tickets on WABC a few weeks earlier, and nobody at the time realized what a historical day this was going to be. I even made a banner that said "NY LoVES ToM" with the o's lined up and a 3 running vertically creating a 300. Off I went to the Stadium to cheer on Seaver... my favorite player at that time... as he went win #300 for The White Sox. It was also Phil Rizutto Day where The Scooter was knocked over by a live cow during the pre game festivities. As for the game, Tom went all the way for the win... We sat in the left field stands, but our view of the left field corner was obstructed so I actually did not see Don Baylor catch the ball to record the last out! But it was still quite a day seeing Tom Terrific win his 300th, even though it would have been nicer had he won it with the Mets.
Sunday Night will be quite a big night for the Big Ball Orchard in The South Bronx as Art Rust Jr. used to call it. A pre game ceremony will preceed the game featuring Yankee greats from the past including Bernie Williams, Reggie Jackson and Yogi. I saw on Newsday's Neil Best blog this week that 90something PA announcer Bob Sheppard will not be able to announce the game. In the Newsday interview, Sheppard said he had been sick since late last year, and that illness combined with his age has made him feel that he does not have the stamina to conduct his announcing duties. The interviewer said Sheppard sounded great on the phone. However, as we get closer to the ceremonial "first pitch", I would hope that Bob has enough energy to be driven to the game, and ride to the Yankee Stadium mound in a car and surprise the sellout crowd by emerging from the vehicle, walking up to a microphone on the mound, and announcing that Bob Shep pard Sheppard (echo effect) will throw out the first pitch. Is there anybody more deserving?
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK - Last week Pumpie took a loss when he went against the Giants, and evened his record at 1-1. For today, we go to Yankee Stadium where The NY Giants played from 1956-1973. This week The Giants are 13 1/2 point favorites over the Bengals. Sayeth The Pump: "Since Little Pumpie is learning about animals and learned to say meow when he sees a pussycat, we will have to take The Bengals."
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICKS - Last week we went 2-1 to even things out at 3-3.
GIANTS 13 1/2 faves over The Bengals - I like the Giants, but the spread scares me. I think Cincy is going to cover.
GREEN BAY 3 doggies over Dallas - The NFL's incredible popularity should make for some interesting TV ratings results since this game will air opposite the Stadium finale.
Steelers 3 doggies over PHILADELPHIA - I'm going to a bbq Sunday at an Eagles fans house. Hope they don't cry on the hot dogs!
And the answer to the trivia question is - Endy Chavez caught the ball behind the AIG sign!
Back in 2006 when Endy Chavez made "The Catch"... what advertisement was on the fence right in front of where he leaned over to take away that home run. That sign was actually discussed in a column in this very blog 2 yrs ago.
Stadiums fascinate me. They are almost like a rock musician's ego booster. Here in New Jersey we are a bit spoiled... being the home state of the immensely talented Bruce Springsteen and the not quite as talented Jon Bon Jovi. (Good thing Trophy Wife never reads my blog - she wouldn't be thrilled with that comment, so we will keep this our little secret..:) Rock stars take to the stage at the big staduims and proclaim...."Look at me... I'm so popular I can sell out a stadium!". Other musical acts who are not quite as popular perform in arenas while others take their act to smaller venues.
I actually live near the new and improved Rutgers Stadium and it is pretty cool to drive past it during a game. The stands are positioned so that the fans appear to jut out almost on to River Road and as I drive by I see the fans cheering (well maybe not this season) and I can almost imagine them saying... "Great driving job Nate!... Great footwork on the gas pedal!"
This past Wednesday, I celebrated another birthday, and once again Trophy Wife was absolutely wonderful giving me a day filled with surprises. I was told to be home at 5pm at which point we departed for parts unknown. We first went to dinner at the most famous restaurant in New Brunswick and had an absolutely incredible meal. I'm not really a good food writer... but I will say that the meal was fantastic and well worth the price tag. After that I was led through the streets of New Brunswick... and right into the State Theater whose marquee did not display what show was on for that night. Trophy Wife picked up the tickets at the will call window, and held on to them and it was quite amusing that here I was in a lobby filled with people just minutes away from the curtain and I was the only person there who had no clue what I was about to see. Could it be the road show of Mamma Mia with another Pierce Brosnan musical performance?
Actually, it was the road show for NBC's Last Comic Standing featuring 5 comedians who had appeared on the show. The show was quite entertaining and you have to give stand up comics credit who perform in that type of setting since comedy clubs' ever flowing liquor gives the audience beer goggles that make the jokes funnier. The sobriety of Wednesday Night's audience forced the performers to work that much harder. After the show, I looked at the program and discovered that the show was co sponsored by The Stress Factory Comedy Club which meant that this tour had gotten so big - it had now graduated from comedy club to theater. Would an arena be next? Or a stadium in the future?
When I was growing up in the 1970s, it was interesting to watch as baseball teams opened new stadiums that were built to be filled by crowds of 50,000+ paying customers. The stadiums were "multi purpose"... which means they could also host NFL teams. However, now that we are 30 years past the 70s it seems as if the NFL's popularity has soared... while baseball has decided that the 70s style stadiums were designed in such a way that the fans felt "too distant" from the action, and the response has been a 21st century building of smaller more intimate baseball only stadiums. Sunday we will say goodbye to Yankee Stadium... and if the Mets make the post season, that tacky ol' Shea will close for good sometime in October. And if the Mets don't make the playoffs, they will close it on September 28th.
Today I will present some of my memories of Yankee Stadium. You will note that I have dates for most of the games, yet I did not keep the stubs nor did I keep a scoreboard. However I have discovered that if you have a good memory of certain events at a game, you can actually find the details of that day's game by utilizing a couple of excellent websites. I also noticed that I went to the Stadium a lot during my college years when my buddies were Yankee fans.. but I stopped going after graduating. I resumed in the late 90s when interleague play started... and then stopped going after I got married in 2004.
I believe my first game was actually a road trip organized by my former synagogue. Back in the 70s they used to have all kinds of youth group activities and I remember going there as a young kid although I remember nothing about the game except for the fact that we were way out there in the outfield and I really wasn't paying attention to what was going on. I also recall a Yankee Blue Jays game in 1998 that was organized by a buddy of mine and about 100 of his closest friends. He was dating a woman at the time who I met that day, and we are still friends to this very day! One of the girls there was drooling over the nice Jewish Blue Jay outfielder Shawn Green. As I recall, we were supposed to meet near the big bat, and that was the year Chuck Schumer was running for the US Senate. He was campaigning right near the bat, and some wiseguy got him a little flummoxed when he said... "Hey... your name is Chuck? What's that short for?"
Here are some other memories:
GAME 1 2000 WORLD SERIES - I include Game 1 of the 2000 World Series for Honorable Mention even though I was not there. It was the Jewish Holiday Simchas Torah and I trekked into the City for my annual tradition of attending services at Bnai Jeshurun. That year, I also went to the Carlebach Synagogue, where they were partying like it was 1999. As usual, they went to the wee hours of the morning. I hadn't been watching the time as well as I should have, and with the last train back to NJ leaving at 1:40 AM I had to forego taking a subway to find a cabbie that would get me down to Penn Station in time. As luck would have it, I could not find a cab anywhere although it was about 1:20 on a Saturday Night. Ultimately I found a cabbie who got me to Penn at exactly the time the train was set to depart. I ran like a maniac down the stairs to the departure board, found my track and ran like hell praying that the train would not leave without me because if it did, I was going to have to sleep in the waiting room with the bums. As I got down those steps, the train was there... and it was not pulling away! It had not left yet.. and it actually sat there for about another hour because thanks to Armando Benitez's blown save, the Met Yankee game went extra innings and the last train was not going to leave until all the fans were back from the game. The game went 12 innings and got the ball rolling for the Mets in the wrong direction. To this day I have never missed the last train, but that night was a close call, and if the Mets had better pitching than Benitez, this story and that World Series may have had a different ending.
RICKEYS FIRST GAME - APRIL 23, 1985. This was another extra inning affair that went 11 innings. I was in college and they were sponsoring a trip to the game so I hopped on a bus and figured, hey maybe I'll pretend to care about the Yankees and hook up with some hot babes. No such luck as far as I recall. It was Rickey Henderson's first game in NY after he had been aquired in the offseason by Oakland. He had missed the first few weeks due to an injury but that was the night he made his debut. He went 1 for 6 in a game that dragged on for 11 innings and I don't even remember if the bus left at a specified time or waited for the game to end.
THE "H" GEORGE STEINBRENNER INCIDENT - JULY 29, 1987. My buddy (I'll call him "H" in honor of the upcoming season premiere of CSI: Miami) got tickets to a Yankees Royals day game. We took his little sister and her young friend along with us... and off we went to a matinee game. H went to get a hot dog as soon as we got there, and the long lines and the scoreless duel that ensued found us in the 6th inning of a scoreless tie. And H still was not back! Where the heck could he have disappeared to for 6 innings? He finally came back nonchalantly with his food and was surprised how much of the game he had missed but he really didnt seem upset about it. The Yankees scored 1 in the 7th and 3 more in the 8th on Mike Easler's bases loaded double to win the game 4-0.
A few months later that summer a few of us took a road trip to Action Park aka Traction Park along with H. If you recall the water park, they gave you little lockers to store your dry clothing and each visitor was issued a little key to open the aforementioned locker. H's key appeared to not be working correctly, and he couldn't seem to open his locker. I could see he was getting very frustrated over the stupid little key and at one point he just kicked the locker and said..."God damn... that f'ing George Steinbrenner". Another buddy of mine who was with me looked towards me with the same puzzled look and in this moment of frustration over a malfunctioning key H finally came clean that he had been quite ticked off all this time at how poorly Yankee Stadium's concessions were run that he missed most of the game a few months earlier. All it took was a silly key to get down to the bottom of this.
CLEMENS STREAK ENDS - June 6, 1999. This was the first Met Yankee game I attended at Yankee Stadium... and I later decided I would not attend any of these game at Shea or Citi Field because I do not enjoy seeing my team booed at their home ball park. However, I did not find anything wrong with booing the Yankees at the Stadium. Clemens got the start for this one and came into the game with an incredible 20 game winning streak. But on that Sunday night's ESPN game, Nate booed and Clemens tasted defeat as The Mets knocked Roger out in the 3rd inning as they built a 7-0 lead en route to a 7-2 win. Piazza also homered off Clemens... perhaps that planted a seed in Clemens mind to retaliate. Too bad Action Park had closed down - I would have rather he threw a baseball at a locker instead of at Piazza's head!
THE MET YANKEE DOUBLE HEADER FEATURING THE CLEMENS BEANING OF PIAZZA - JULY 8, 2000. This was the first of what has now been three 2 stadium same day double headers. I went to both games that fateful July day with two seperate sets of friends! The first game was at Shea and the Yankees took former Met Dwight Gooden off the scrap heap to beat the Mets. Then it was off to the subway and a leisurely trip to Yankee Stadium. This was of course the infamous episode where Roger Clemens hit Mike Piazza in the head with a wayward fastball. This was before our cell phones had internet access, so we didnt really know how bad the injury was, and the buzz in the stadium was that Piazza was hurt so badly that he would be out for the season. As it turned out, Piazza was not quite that badly injured, but that game started the spark that led to Met fans anti-Clemens sentiment that carried on into the World Series and probably still continues to this day.
SINGLES GROUP TRIP AGAINST THE INDIANS - JUNE 3, 2001. I signed up to go to a Sunday Indians day game with a singles group that had an interesting twist. It was sort of a like a Big Brother Big Sister event where each of us singles was matched up with an under priveleged child who we would take to the game. My little brother didnt seem too interested in the game nor me for that matter and spent most of the time hanging out with his buddy, but otherwise it was a terrific event and it made the local Jewish paper too. I was actually interviewed for an article about the big brother aspect of the event, and I believe I said something along the lines of this was a great event for young kids since baseball played a big part of my youth and it was important for kids who don't have a lot of stuff to get an opportunity to get out to the ballpark so they will have happy baseball memories too. Andy Pettite who starts the finale Sunday took the loss in that game.
MY LAST TIME THERE - JUNE 27, 2003. Amazingly I haven't been back since that night when I went with Trophy Wife who is a Yankee fan and Pumpstradamus. Poor Pumpy was working in the city and they would not let him bring his work bag into the Stadium, and finding a place to leave it was quite a pain in the neck. One would think Pumpy could predict that this was going to happen. The Yankees jumped out to a 5-3 lead and held on to win 6-4. Amazingly Jose Reyes batted 8th in that game! Incidentally, I had a hard time racking my brain to get the year for that game... but luckily Trophy Wife saved the ticket stub which confirms that indeed was the last time I set foot into the Stadium. Pumpy is totally clueless about sports but we still had a good time despite the results and Trophy Wife's endless Yankee cheering. Pumpy's wife who is not a sports fan later made a terrific observation that baseball is a bunch of out of shape people eating junk food watching a game played by people in excellent shape.
MY HAPPIEST YANKEE STADIUM MEMORY - TOM SEAVER WINS 300 -AUGUST 4, 1985 - The all time best game I have ever attended! It was just a couple of months after the Rickey Henderson game. I had won tickets on WABC a few weeks earlier, and nobody at the time realized what a historical day this was going to be. I even made a banner that said "NY LoVES ToM" with the o's lined up and a 3 running vertically creating a 300. Off I went to the Stadium to cheer on Seaver... my favorite player at that time... as he went win #300 for The White Sox. It was also Phil Rizutto Day where The Scooter was knocked over by a live cow during the pre game festivities. As for the game, Tom went all the way for the win... We sat in the left field stands, but our view of the left field corner was obstructed so I actually did not see Don Baylor catch the ball to record the last out! But it was still quite a day seeing Tom Terrific win his 300th, even though it would have been nicer had he won it with the Mets.
Sunday Night will be quite a big night for the Big Ball Orchard in The South Bronx as Art Rust Jr. used to call it. A pre game ceremony will preceed the game featuring Yankee greats from the past including Bernie Williams, Reggie Jackson and Yogi. I saw on Newsday's Neil Best blog this week that 90something PA announcer Bob Sheppard will not be able to announce the game. In the Newsday interview, Sheppard said he had been sick since late last year, and that illness combined with his age has made him feel that he does not have the stamina to conduct his announcing duties. The interviewer said Sheppard sounded great on the phone. However, as we get closer to the ceremonial "first pitch", I would hope that Bob has enough energy to be driven to the game, and ride to the Yankee Stadium mound in a car and surprise the sellout crowd by emerging from the vehicle, walking up to a microphone on the mound, and announcing that Bob Shep pard Sheppard (echo effect) will throw out the first pitch. Is there anybody more deserving?
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK - Last week Pumpie took a loss when he went against the Giants, and evened his record at 1-1. For today, we go to Yankee Stadium where The NY Giants played from 1956-1973. This week The Giants are 13 1/2 point favorites over the Bengals. Sayeth The Pump: "Since Little Pumpie is learning about animals and learned to say meow when he sees a pussycat, we will have to take The Bengals."
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICKS - Last week we went 2-1 to even things out at 3-3.
GIANTS 13 1/2 faves over The Bengals - I like the Giants, but the spread scares me. I think Cincy is going to cover.
GREEN BAY 3 doggies over Dallas - The NFL's incredible popularity should make for some interesting TV ratings results since this game will air opposite the Stadium finale.
Steelers 3 doggies over PHILADELPHIA - I'm going to a bbq Sunday at an Eagles fans house. Hope they don't cry on the hot dogs!
And the answer to the trivia question is - Endy Chavez caught the ball behind the AIG sign!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Collateral Damage: Did We Just Solve the Mortgage Crisis?
While everyone is wondering how you get lipstick on a pig....has anybody else noticed how the NBC News political coverage has gone downhill since the sudden death of Tim Russert? All this craziness going on involving the sniping between the MSNBC hosts is just absurd. And kudos to the NBC bigshots who finally decided to take Keith Olbermann off the anchor chair for election news coverage! Olberman is a goofball whose most notable accomplishment was ESPN's Sports Center where co-anchor Dan Patrick knew how to draw out the good quailities of his nutty co host. The two have reunited on NBC's Sunday Night Football show where they do the highlights, as Olbermann's ego maniacal mind spins in circles wondering why he is not replacing Bob Costas as the host of The Football Show... and The Olympics,... and Deal or No Deal.... and The Price is Right... and American Idol... and American Top 40.... Who knows how long this gimmick will last? I still think NBC Sports down the road will "reunite" Mike Francesa and Mad Dog Russo on that show.
One of the things I noticed about Russert was his terrific relationship with his dad who he used to lovingly refer to as "Big Russ". It was interesting to see how Big Russ instilled a sense of hard work to help support his family by working his butt off to keep a roof over their heads. This sense of entitlement so prevalent today was never a concept for Tim Russert when he was growing up.... That ethic of hard work was passed on to Tim who earned a well deserved reputation of being one of the most prepared interviewers on TV. And its that concept of not taking reponsibility that may be a major reason for the horrific collapse of the real estate and mortgage industries.
Last week I jumped on the Republicans for absurd comments by a right wing talk show host that health care and food are a privilege and not a right. However, when it comes to home ownership.... that is a privilege and NOT a right.... and anybody who thinks that they are entitled to own a house needs a serious reality check.
The way mortgages are bought and sold is extremely complex, but for the purpose of this column, I will try to simplify it. I think the ball started rolling towards the mortgage meltdown a few years ago when Congress changed the bankruptcy laws. Of course I am extremely sympathetic to people who are hit with a hardship like an illness or a death that wipes their savings out and causes them to file for bankruptcy. However, under the old laws, a lot of people felt that they could get a mulligan when they piled up a stack of credit card debt. They would file for bankruptcy and choose the Chapter 7 option which wipes the slate clean... as opposed to the Chapter 13 option which makes the person pay his debts spread out over a period of a time through payments paid out to a bankruptcy trustee. The new laws however made it very difficult to file for 7... and a lot of people who thought they were going to get a do over got a rude awakening when they realized that the bankruptcy courts were not going to give them a magic wand. How many of these people who thought they were getting a break with a 7 and ended up in a 13, ended up falling behind on their mortgage payments because they budgeted in a Chapter 7?
As a result of all these late payments and subsequent foreclosures banks have been forced to tighten up their lending rules.... even for those with good credit. That has made it even more difficult for home buyers to secure financing. Many banks are requiring higher down payments and stricter income documentation. These tougher rules are making it harder for sellers to find qualified buyers, forcing them to settle for lower offers. This creates a ripple effect, since homes are only as valuable as the sales price of similar homes.
A few months ago, I got a call from a woman looking for information about refinancing a mortgage for her parents who refused to learn English and only spoke Spanish. My mortgage application interview consisted of me asking questions, and then waiting for her to translate the question and translate the answer back to me. The concept that people move here and don't learn English boggles my mind...especially since my father came over from Europe after spending the Holocaust in hiding, and he took great pride in becoming "Americanized", a foreign concept to those immigrants who steadfastly refuse to learn the language.
Anyway, this woman said she was calling because her mom was hoping to get a better interest rate on her mortgage.... and I told her that if her credit was good... she might be able to accomplish that. But that possibility was shortlived when she told me that her parents had recently filed for a Chapter 13. I looked back on my notes and noticed that the mother had a lot of equity in her home... I asked her to ask her mother why she filed for Chapter 13 instead of taking a cash out refi to pay off those debts. Her translated answer... "That is the way she wanted to do it".
Amazingly, this was not the first time I had heard this and I don't understand why people who have built up all this equity don't tap into it to pay down their debt instead of going through the hassle of a credit wrecking bankruptcy? Doesn't anybody have any sense of responsibility anymore... or are we just gonna sit around screwing our lives up and waiting for the government to bail us out?
This is why I think the time has come for banks to rethink how they offer mortgage loans. If somebody borrows 20 bucks.. I give them 20 bucks and they pay me back. If it's a bigger loan, the borrower offers collateral to ensure that they will lose something of value if they do not pay back the loan. Banks have this concept that using a home as collateral is going to be a good threat to keep people from not reneging on their mortgage payments. If you don't pay... we take your house. Maybe it is time for banks to rethink that idea. Nowadays, people whose homes are worth less than their mortgage balances are just walking away. Also, a lot of people bought investment properties with little or no money down... and then decided to walk away. Now the banks find that this great idea of holding the house as collateral is forcing them to turn into realtors by selling these houses... for a loss.
A lot of people in America live from check to check. If they don't get a paycheck or their paycheck bounces... they're screwed. Obviously with people racking up billions of dollars in credit card debt, we are not really a society that is living within our means. It seems that the banks have been doing this too. The last day of the month rolls around.. and the banks discover that many of the mortgage checks they were counting on... never show up. And as the months of delinquent payments started to add up.... the banks were forced to shut their doors. According to the Mortgage Implode o meter Website 282 lenders have shut down since this crisis started.
Here is my plan:
Forget the idea of using the home as collateral. Instead, convert the equity in the home into collateral and turn that into cash.
The bank counts on the interest payments to make their money. If the last day of the month comes in, and the interest is not paid to them.. they lose money they were counting on... Keep in mind that a borrower has signed a legally binding contract to pay that money to the bank,. (There are always going to be extenuating circumstances where families are going through unexpected financial hardships and I am sympathetic to that.) Under my plan...at the closing of a purchase or refinance, the bank would set up an amortization chart that shows how each monthly loan payment is broken down..... and how much of that payment goes to interest. Then, before they allow the loan to be finalized, the bank would set up a home equity line of credit for the equivalent of 8 months of interest payments. So if the amortization chart shows that 8 months of interest would be $16,000... that would be the amount set aside for that line of credit. That line of credit would then be frozen, and the person borrowing the money would not be allowed to touch it for the lifetime of that loan.
As the months go on.... the borrower pays his bill on time... Lets say one month the person doesn't make his payment. The last day of the month arrives and there is no check. Instead of the bank saying..."Oh crap... Jones didn't pay us"... they tap into the line of credit and take one month of interest. The problem with banks is... they were not getting their checks, and they would get almost no warning that a payment was going to be missed. Then the last day comes along with no payment... and the bank is screwed because x amount of people didnt pay their loan payment that month! Under this plan, when the late payment ultimately comes in after the 30 day mark... the interest is repaid to the line of credit and the "missed" payment can always be tacked on at the end of the loan.
And why do I choose 8 months of interest payments? Nowadays, if you are 4 months late, the bank starts to initiate foreclosure. But the way things are going right now, the bank has already had the sting of four months of unexpected missed payments. Under this plan.. they would start the foreclosure 4 months after the 8th month... which would be after 12 months of missed payments. Now, the bank will not be caught by surprise by the non payments of the soon to be foreclosed borrower, because after 3 or 4 months of dipping into that line of credit.. somebody better be making some phone calls to explain why the loan payments have fallen this far behind. This gives both the lender and the borrower more time to open the lines of communication... and takes away the surprise from the bank which will no longer have to camp out at the mailbox on the 31st waiting for all these non arriving checks to come in.
I think if the banks had counted on a plan to get their interest payments for those missed months and had not counted on a depreciating house as collateral... many of these closed lenders might still be alive and thriving.
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK
Pumpy is off to a 1-0 start... which is one more win than Rutgers has. This week we go to Secaucus.. the home of the Giants, and also the city where the Porn Expo show was booted out this week.... That show is now headed over to Edison in Middle sex County! The Giants are 8 1/2 point faves over St. Louis. Sayeth The Pump who predicted the Porno Show's move to Edison: "I gotta go with The Rams in honor of all the Rammin'!" (Note to self: Find a new psychic who works clean)
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICKS OF THE WEEK
I recently commented that The Ledger dropped their National Baseball Sunday column. Now it occurs to me that they have also dropped Kimberly Jones NFL column AND the weekly staff football picks! What is going on with what used to be a terrific sports section? Last week we went 1-2.
Giants 8 1/2 point faves over ST. LOUIS - The Giants road winning streak continues.
New Orleans pick 'em over WASHINGTON - The Saints pick worked for Pumpy last week, so why not?
Philly 7 point doggies to DALLAS - The lesser of 2 evils. How does Tony Romo memorize a playbook yet have a relationship with that airhead girlfriend of his? She cooed to Letterman last night that she likes to look at football player's uniforms because she can see their shmeckles.
CLIP OF THE WEEK
With all the hullaballo about Mad Dog Russo going over to satellite radio, here is a very amusing short segment of Dog appearing on Howard Stern's satellite show... This is the first time I have heard Howard Stern's show since his defection to satellite radio a few years ago. It is broken up into 7 segments on You Tube, but this particular segment was the most amusing!
One of the things I noticed about Russert was his terrific relationship with his dad who he used to lovingly refer to as "Big Russ". It was interesting to see how Big Russ instilled a sense of hard work to help support his family by working his butt off to keep a roof over their heads. This sense of entitlement so prevalent today was never a concept for Tim Russert when he was growing up.... That ethic of hard work was passed on to Tim who earned a well deserved reputation of being one of the most prepared interviewers on TV. And its that concept of not taking reponsibility that may be a major reason for the horrific collapse of the real estate and mortgage industries.
Last week I jumped on the Republicans for absurd comments by a right wing talk show host that health care and food are a privilege and not a right. However, when it comes to home ownership.... that is a privilege and NOT a right.... and anybody who thinks that they are entitled to own a house needs a serious reality check.
The way mortgages are bought and sold is extremely complex, but for the purpose of this column, I will try to simplify it. I think the ball started rolling towards the mortgage meltdown a few years ago when Congress changed the bankruptcy laws. Of course I am extremely sympathetic to people who are hit with a hardship like an illness or a death that wipes their savings out and causes them to file for bankruptcy. However, under the old laws, a lot of people felt that they could get a mulligan when they piled up a stack of credit card debt. They would file for bankruptcy and choose the Chapter 7 option which wipes the slate clean... as opposed to the Chapter 13 option which makes the person pay his debts spread out over a period of a time through payments paid out to a bankruptcy trustee. The new laws however made it very difficult to file for 7... and a lot of people who thought they were going to get a do over got a rude awakening when they realized that the bankruptcy courts were not going to give them a magic wand. How many of these people who thought they were getting a break with a 7 and ended up in a 13, ended up falling behind on their mortgage payments because they budgeted in a Chapter 7?
As a result of all these late payments and subsequent foreclosures banks have been forced to tighten up their lending rules.... even for those with good credit. That has made it even more difficult for home buyers to secure financing. Many banks are requiring higher down payments and stricter income documentation. These tougher rules are making it harder for sellers to find qualified buyers, forcing them to settle for lower offers. This creates a ripple effect, since homes are only as valuable as the sales price of similar homes.
A few months ago, I got a call from a woman looking for information about refinancing a mortgage for her parents who refused to learn English and only spoke Spanish. My mortgage application interview consisted of me asking questions, and then waiting for her to translate the question and translate the answer back to me. The concept that people move here and don't learn English boggles my mind...especially since my father came over from Europe after spending the Holocaust in hiding, and he took great pride in becoming "Americanized", a foreign concept to those immigrants who steadfastly refuse to learn the language.
Anyway, this woman said she was calling because her mom was hoping to get a better interest rate on her mortgage.... and I told her that if her credit was good... she might be able to accomplish that. But that possibility was shortlived when she told me that her parents had recently filed for a Chapter 13. I looked back on my notes and noticed that the mother had a lot of equity in her home... I asked her to ask her mother why she filed for Chapter 13 instead of taking a cash out refi to pay off those debts. Her translated answer... "That is the way she wanted to do it".
Amazingly, this was not the first time I had heard this and I don't understand why people who have built up all this equity don't tap into it to pay down their debt instead of going through the hassle of a credit wrecking bankruptcy? Doesn't anybody have any sense of responsibility anymore... or are we just gonna sit around screwing our lives up and waiting for the government to bail us out?
This is why I think the time has come for banks to rethink how they offer mortgage loans. If somebody borrows 20 bucks.. I give them 20 bucks and they pay me back. If it's a bigger loan, the borrower offers collateral to ensure that they will lose something of value if they do not pay back the loan. Banks have this concept that using a home as collateral is going to be a good threat to keep people from not reneging on their mortgage payments. If you don't pay... we take your house. Maybe it is time for banks to rethink that idea. Nowadays, people whose homes are worth less than their mortgage balances are just walking away. Also, a lot of people bought investment properties with little or no money down... and then decided to walk away. Now the banks find that this great idea of holding the house as collateral is forcing them to turn into realtors by selling these houses... for a loss.
A lot of people in America live from check to check. If they don't get a paycheck or their paycheck bounces... they're screwed. Obviously with people racking up billions of dollars in credit card debt, we are not really a society that is living within our means. It seems that the banks have been doing this too. The last day of the month rolls around.. and the banks discover that many of the mortgage checks they were counting on... never show up. And as the months of delinquent payments started to add up.... the banks were forced to shut their doors. According to the Mortgage Implode o meter Website 282 lenders have shut down since this crisis started.
Here is my plan:
Forget the idea of using the home as collateral. Instead, convert the equity in the home into collateral and turn that into cash.
The bank counts on the interest payments to make their money. If the last day of the month comes in, and the interest is not paid to them.. they lose money they were counting on... Keep in mind that a borrower has signed a legally binding contract to pay that money to the bank,. (There are always going to be extenuating circumstances where families are going through unexpected financial hardships and I am sympathetic to that.) Under my plan...at the closing of a purchase or refinance, the bank would set up an amortization chart that shows how each monthly loan payment is broken down..... and how much of that payment goes to interest. Then, before they allow the loan to be finalized, the bank would set up a home equity line of credit for the equivalent of 8 months of interest payments. So if the amortization chart shows that 8 months of interest would be $16,000... that would be the amount set aside for that line of credit. That line of credit would then be frozen, and the person borrowing the money would not be allowed to touch it for the lifetime of that loan.
As the months go on.... the borrower pays his bill on time... Lets say one month the person doesn't make his payment. The last day of the month arrives and there is no check. Instead of the bank saying..."Oh crap... Jones didn't pay us"... they tap into the line of credit and take one month of interest. The problem with banks is... they were not getting their checks, and they would get almost no warning that a payment was going to be missed. Then the last day comes along with no payment... and the bank is screwed because x amount of people didnt pay their loan payment that month! Under this plan, when the late payment ultimately comes in after the 30 day mark... the interest is repaid to the line of credit and the "missed" payment can always be tacked on at the end of the loan.
And why do I choose 8 months of interest payments? Nowadays, if you are 4 months late, the bank starts to initiate foreclosure. But the way things are going right now, the bank has already had the sting of four months of unexpected missed payments. Under this plan.. they would start the foreclosure 4 months after the 8th month... which would be after 12 months of missed payments. Now, the bank will not be caught by surprise by the non payments of the soon to be foreclosed borrower, because after 3 or 4 months of dipping into that line of credit.. somebody better be making some phone calls to explain why the loan payments have fallen this far behind. This gives both the lender and the borrower more time to open the lines of communication... and takes away the surprise from the bank which will no longer have to camp out at the mailbox on the 31st waiting for all these non arriving checks to come in.
I think if the banks had counted on a plan to get their interest payments for those missed months and had not counted on a depreciating house as collateral... many of these closed lenders might still be alive and thriving.
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK
Pumpy is off to a 1-0 start... which is one more win than Rutgers has. This week we go to Secaucus.. the home of the Giants, and also the city where the Porn Expo show was booted out this week.... That show is now headed over to Edison in Middle sex County! The Giants are 8 1/2 point faves over St. Louis. Sayeth The Pump who predicted the Porno Show's move to Edison: "I gotta go with The Rams in honor of all the Rammin'!" (Note to self: Find a new psychic who works clean)
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICKS OF THE WEEK
I recently commented that The Ledger dropped their National Baseball Sunday column. Now it occurs to me that they have also dropped Kimberly Jones NFL column AND the weekly staff football picks! What is going on with what used to be a terrific sports section? Last week we went 1-2.
Giants 8 1/2 point faves over ST. LOUIS - The Giants road winning streak continues.
New Orleans pick 'em over WASHINGTON - The Saints pick worked for Pumpy last week, so why not?
Philly 7 point doggies to DALLAS - The lesser of 2 evils. How does Tony Romo memorize a playbook yet have a relationship with that airhead girlfriend of his? She cooed to Letterman last night that she likes to look at football player's uniforms because she can see their shmeckles.
CLIP OF THE WEEK
With all the hullaballo about Mad Dog Russo going over to satellite radio, here is a very amusing short segment of Dog appearing on Howard Stern's satellite show... This is the first time I have heard Howard Stern's show since his defection to satellite radio a few years ago. It is broken up into 7 segments on You Tube, but this particular segment was the most amusing!
Thursday, September 04, 2008
My New Pal Palin - Not!
Hey look Rudy Giuliani just left little smoochies on Governor Palin's Facebook Page!
Monday evening, as I listened to Jerry Lewis wrap up Labor Day with "You Will Never Walk Alone".... I looked back at last weeks baseball column, and it occured to me that despite my sentimental pick of the Mets going all the way, it is very possible that we could see a Chicago Cubs - Chicago White Sox World Series. If Chicago ends up being the hotbed of sports action this October, isn't it ironic that Windy City media personality Jay Mariotti decided to suddenly quit his Chicago Sun Times newspaper gig. Jay announced that newspapers are becoming extinct, even though he had recently signed a new contract, and then took an all expenses trip to the Beijing Olympics. Roger Ebert who is unable to speak due to a bout with cancer, is still writing for The Sun Times and he was quite displeased with Mariotti's departure. Ebert wrote a recent column about his now former colleague and wrapped it up with a little love note to Jay stating: 'On your way out, don't let the door bang you on the ass."
Football season starts tonight.... you can see all the scores right here on NWOW on the CBS Sports widget on the left. Today, Pumpstradamus will start his 3rd season of NFL picks... The game is actually starting early tonight - 7pm so it can be over in time for NBC to broadcast the John McCain speech from the Republican Convention.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been amused by the goings on with both political conventions... although I haven't watched too much of them... As was the case during the Olympics.. I watch the Met game first and after the last out I have been flipping between the US Open and the Convention. Last Tuesday's Met game went extra innings so I never had the chance to see Hillary Clinton's speech but I have been staying up into the wee hour watching CNN's late night replay which kicks off after Larry King's live midnight show... a nightly exhibition of watching poor Larry try to stay awake!
Last week during the Democratic convention, Larry King pulled a Fox News on us with a gaggle of GOPers kvetching about the Democrats. Monday he had a Rush Limbaugh wannabe named Lars Larson who was offering his take on Senator Ted Kennedy's speech. I'm not a fan of Senator Kennedy but I give him credit for delivering a rousing speech against doctor's orders while he fights with brain cancer. Larson seemed to find it interesting that Kennedy made a comment that Health Care is a right not a privelege. "Not so" said Larson who hopefully was not speaking for the rest of the Republican Evil Empire. Health care along with food are privileges and NOT rights were the words that poured out of his ugly mouth.
Oddly enough, Larson is actually right. In 1991 Magic Johnson announced he had HIV and 17 years later he is alive and apprarently well. Yet back in '91 the average person diagnosed with HIV was lucky to remain healthy 17 months much less 17 years. But in the world of Republicans where health care is a privelege not a right, isn't it ironic that a multi millionaire like Johnson has done so well for so long? I recently heard that a guy who I briefly worked with in the mid 90s was diagnosed last year with an extremely rare form of cancer. Now, one year later I hear that this fellow has racked up 2 million dollars in medical bills, 250,000 dollars out of pocket and incredibly..... the lender foreclosed on his house. What kind of craziness is this? How do we vote for people who just sit there not giving a crap if a guy loses his house due to a medical condition, while at the same time spending millions of dollars helping Iraqis build new homes after they were displaced by a war that President Bush had no business getting involved in in the first place! But that is the Republican party folks. The party of rights vs. privelege where only the priveleged seem to have the rights... where the almighty tax cut is created to help the rich at the expense of school boards where members clamor to design drastically cut budgets because state aid is being cut out of their districts!
There were other highlights from the CNN coverage. Tuesday, Larry King had a big Hillary fan as a guest who was upset that she was shunned by her fellow Democrats at the convention. She claimed the Obama contigency mocked her in the hotel lobby because she was wearing her not too popular Hillary For President accessories. After a few minutes it was obvious that this woman was obviously mentally disturbed and that interview should not have gone on as long as it did.
CNN also had a Governor join them at their Democratic Convention... I don't recall who it was... and he was asked point blank by Geography Expert John King if certain all white counties of his state that oridinarily vote Democrat would support Obama because he is black. That politician replied that civil rights violations and prejudice have never been a problem in those districts.. but then again there are NO blacks living in those districts either so there has never been much of a chance to fill the police blotter with anti black crimes. Is the whiteness of the community the reason people live there? And will some people vote for a person they would not want as a neighbor?
Also John King has his amazing little election map that he smacks with his hand..... you almost wish he would yell Big Bucks, No Whammies and Stop beforehand,.... to show how each area has voted. It was cool to see him at his map talking to Governors who might have lost a Geography Bee to King about regions of their own state. He even let some Governors touch the map....which they seemed to find very exciting. I wonder if he takes that map home at night.. throws fellow CNN colleague/fiance Dana Bash on top of it and does the ol' Hoochy McScoochy right on top of it. If Dana positions herself correctly on the midwest.. one could see Ebert making more wisecracks about being banged on the ass....
As for those people we call The Republicans...
So far this week, the big story has been Governor Palin.... John McCain's odd choice to be #2 on his ticket bypassing the more popular Rudy Giuliani... But Giuliani's pro choice stance knocks him out of contention amongst the right wing nutjobs running the GOP. I thought Minnesota Governor Pawlenty was going to be on the ticket and I had reams of material about his shortcomings as Governor. Nonetheless, I hear that Governor Palin is against abortion in all cases including cases of rape and incest.... She also is part of the lunatic fringe that wants to teach the kids about abstention as an integral part of their school education.
I watched Palin Friday and the first thing that came to mind was she was wearing Amy Winehouse's hair. (If you were born before 1970... she was wearing Ruth Buzzi's hair). Now she has let her hair down and looks pretty hot. That 18 year old boy who impregnated her jailbait daughter probably had a few "Stiffler's Mom" shrieks during his evenings of passion with the first daughter.
I was a little bothered watching the shots of the little baby on that daughter's lap.... this baby had been diagnosed with Down Syndrome a few months into the pregnancy and Palin opted to not abort but keep the child instead. If God Forbid John McCain is elected and God Forbid he dies in office, I can't wait to see Palin question potential Judges abortion stances by marching out her Down Syndrome child and bellowing how she knew from prenatal testing that the child had Down... but she kept her baby! And how can you as a judge vote otherwise?
Now on Labor Day we heard that the older 17 year old daughter is pregnant by an 18 year old boyfriend whose hockey abilities obviously include being able to slip one past the goalie. The Republicans who think that pregnant teens only exist on The Maury Povich Show quickly announced that this girl's pregnancy has no relevance.
So I guess I should end the column here, and get to the football picks.
But I'm not.
What kind of a mother is Sara Palin? It's nice that she is ambitious and wants to be a heartbeat from the Presidency, but she knew how the media would react to the news of her daughter's pregnancy and she still agreed to jump on the McCain ticket even though she knew that this kid's pregnancy would become a huge national news story. It's hard enough for a 17 yr old high school girl to go through a pregnancy but how much harder will it be because her mother decided to drag her name through the headlines just because she has a chance to be VP? Maybe if Sara was a better mom she would have said no to McCain to spare her daughter from all this attention... Some bloggers already were speculating that the daughter was the mother of the Down Syndrome baby too. Obviously these people have been getting too many conspiracy theories from Desperate Housewives. Is Palin supposed to be Bree?
I was speaking to a Republican co-worker.. just to see how the other side lives... and he feels that the media should take a hands off approach to this story. But then I asked him if the child should also be shielded from media commentary if she had chosen to have an abortion. He felt that if she had had an abortion... then she was fair game amongst the media and the bloggers and the facebook status wisecrackers. Imagine that... the wacko right wingers would have had a field day if the daughter of a VP candidate had a legal procedure performed on herself, but because she kept the baby, she is entitled to a hands off policy.
By the way, I have no issue with this kid. She's a kid and she made a mistake and deserves to not be thrown into the limelight. I think its nice that this girl has a financially supportive family who will embrace her and support her and her baby. But emotional support? Can you imagine the conversations in that house when she told Mom and Dad that she was preggers? How soon did they tell the kid she MUST marry the baby's daddy... to avoid embarassing the Governor? And aren't 17 and 18 year olds a little too young to get married? And look at this poor guy... last week he was hoping to get overtime at the local WalMart to support his baby... now one week later he's parading around the stage at the Republican Convention. And if McCain wins... doesnt that mean that Mom moves to Washington? Will Dad stay in Alaska? Will this pregnant high school girl have to switch schools to go to DC to be with her mom? Will the parents live seperately? And will that daughter move to DC in the middle of the school year? Do you think the other kids are going to pick on this girl who will be a new mother by the time the inauguration rolls around?
In reality, as "lucky" as young Miss Palin is to have this family, the Republicans should realize that this situation is the exception rather than the rule. A lot of young pregnant girls dont have homes to go back to... no money from Mom and Dad to help them out.. and they really have nothing... except the choice to decide if terminating the pregancy is the route to take. Of course, it would be nice if these girls would keep their babies and/or arrange for another family to adopt their babies. ..Unfortunately. a lot of these girls deliver sick babies due to poor prenatal care because as the Republicans have pointed out that contrary to what Senator Kennedy says,...in America, health care is a privilege and not a right.
The party could have chosen the more experienced Rudy for the ticket... but he is pro choice.. and Palin is not. And as long as Republicans continue to embrace candidates who are anti choice, I will continue to choose to vote against them.
Pumpstradamus Pick of the Week...
He's back! Pumpy resumes his weekly picks today. Last year his brilliant start foshnizzled into losses in each of the last 5 weeks to finish at 10-7. This week we go to New Orleans just like Hadassah will next summer for the annual convention. The reason I mention Hadassah is because this Sunday... as the NFL opens its season....Trophy Wife's Young Women's Group will sign an official Hadassah Charter and will officially become part of this wonderful organization. Trophy Wife started this group from scratch a little more than 2 years ago, but she and the other terrific women have done an incredible job and I am proud of all of them. Last year they wrapped gifts for hospitalized children on the same dining room table where my mother used to peck away the Linden Hadassah newsletter on her electric typewriter back in the 1970's. This week the New Orleans Saints host the Tampa Bay Bucs and The Saints are 3 and a half point favorites. Sayeth The Pump:
I'm going with the Saints, in honor of all the sanctimonious pricks in attendance at the RNC this week.
Unbiased Giants Fan Picks of the Week: (Last Year - 26-23-2) Home Teams are in Caps.
GIANTS 4 points faves over Washington - The Super Bowl Champs will pick up right where they left off.
CLEVELAND 5 1/2 doggies to Dallas. - The Maid of Honor at my wedding now lives in Cleveland and Friday is my wedding anniversary - so Go Browns!!
COLTS 9 1/2 faves over The Bears - Could be a big weekend for both Manning Brothers, as the Colts will probably bang the Bears right on their Chicago asses. Personally.. I think Roger Ebert and Pumpstradamus should clean up their language!
CLIP OF THE WEEK
Here is the classic clip taped right after last year's Fantastic Super Bowl where my buddy continues to hold his stance that the Giants did not make a good trade when they got Eli Manning!
Monday evening, as I listened to Jerry Lewis wrap up Labor Day with "You Will Never Walk Alone".... I looked back at last weeks baseball column, and it occured to me that despite my sentimental pick of the Mets going all the way, it is very possible that we could see a Chicago Cubs - Chicago White Sox World Series. If Chicago ends up being the hotbed of sports action this October, isn't it ironic that Windy City media personality Jay Mariotti decided to suddenly quit his Chicago Sun Times newspaper gig. Jay announced that newspapers are becoming extinct, even though he had recently signed a new contract, and then took an all expenses trip to the Beijing Olympics. Roger Ebert who is unable to speak due to a bout with cancer, is still writing for The Sun Times and he was quite displeased with Mariotti's departure. Ebert wrote a recent column about his now former colleague and wrapped it up with a little love note to Jay stating: 'On your way out, don't let the door bang you on the ass."
Football season starts tonight.... you can see all the scores right here on NWOW on the CBS Sports widget on the left. Today, Pumpstradamus will start his 3rd season of NFL picks... The game is actually starting early tonight - 7pm so it can be over in time for NBC to broadcast the John McCain speech from the Republican Convention.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been amused by the goings on with both political conventions... although I haven't watched too much of them... As was the case during the Olympics.. I watch the Met game first and after the last out I have been flipping between the US Open and the Convention. Last Tuesday's Met game went extra innings so I never had the chance to see Hillary Clinton's speech but I have been staying up into the wee hour watching CNN's late night replay which kicks off after Larry King's live midnight show... a nightly exhibition of watching poor Larry try to stay awake!
Last week during the Democratic convention, Larry King pulled a Fox News on us with a gaggle of GOPers kvetching about the Democrats. Monday he had a Rush Limbaugh wannabe named Lars Larson who was offering his take on Senator Ted Kennedy's speech. I'm not a fan of Senator Kennedy but I give him credit for delivering a rousing speech against doctor's orders while he fights with brain cancer. Larson seemed to find it interesting that Kennedy made a comment that Health Care is a right not a privelege. "Not so" said Larson who hopefully was not speaking for the rest of the Republican Evil Empire. Health care along with food are privileges and NOT rights were the words that poured out of his ugly mouth.
Oddly enough, Larson is actually right. In 1991 Magic Johnson announced he had HIV and 17 years later he is alive and apprarently well. Yet back in '91 the average person diagnosed with HIV was lucky to remain healthy 17 months much less 17 years. But in the world of Republicans where health care is a privelege not a right, isn't it ironic that a multi millionaire like Johnson has done so well for so long? I recently heard that a guy who I briefly worked with in the mid 90s was diagnosed last year with an extremely rare form of cancer. Now, one year later I hear that this fellow has racked up 2 million dollars in medical bills, 250,000 dollars out of pocket and incredibly..... the lender foreclosed on his house. What kind of craziness is this? How do we vote for people who just sit there not giving a crap if a guy loses his house due to a medical condition, while at the same time spending millions of dollars helping Iraqis build new homes after they were displaced by a war that President Bush had no business getting involved in in the first place! But that is the Republican party folks. The party of rights vs. privelege where only the priveleged seem to have the rights... where the almighty tax cut is created to help the rich at the expense of school boards where members clamor to design drastically cut budgets because state aid is being cut out of their districts!
There were other highlights from the CNN coverage. Tuesday, Larry King had a big Hillary fan as a guest who was upset that she was shunned by her fellow Democrats at the convention. She claimed the Obama contigency mocked her in the hotel lobby because she was wearing her not too popular Hillary For President accessories. After a few minutes it was obvious that this woman was obviously mentally disturbed and that interview should not have gone on as long as it did.
CNN also had a Governor join them at their Democratic Convention... I don't recall who it was... and he was asked point blank by Geography Expert John King if certain all white counties of his state that oridinarily vote Democrat would support Obama because he is black. That politician replied that civil rights violations and prejudice have never been a problem in those districts.. but then again there are NO blacks living in those districts either so there has never been much of a chance to fill the police blotter with anti black crimes. Is the whiteness of the community the reason people live there? And will some people vote for a person they would not want as a neighbor?
Also John King has his amazing little election map that he smacks with his hand..... you almost wish he would yell Big Bucks, No Whammies and Stop beforehand,.... to show how each area has voted. It was cool to see him at his map talking to Governors who might have lost a Geography Bee to King about regions of their own state. He even let some Governors touch the map....which they seemed to find very exciting. I wonder if he takes that map home at night.. throws fellow CNN colleague/fiance Dana Bash on top of it and does the ol' Hoochy McScoochy right on top of it. If Dana positions herself correctly on the midwest.. one could see Ebert making more wisecracks about being banged on the ass....
As for those people we call The Republicans...
So far this week, the big story has been Governor Palin.... John McCain's odd choice to be #2 on his ticket bypassing the more popular Rudy Giuliani... But Giuliani's pro choice stance knocks him out of contention amongst the right wing nutjobs running the GOP. I thought Minnesota Governor Pawlenty was going to be on the ticket and I had reams of material about his shortcomings as Governor. Nonetheless, I hear that Governor Palin is against abortion in all cases including cases of rape and incest.... She also is part of the lunatic fringe that wants to teach the kids about abstention as an integral part of their school education.
I watched Palin Friday and the first thing that came to mind was she was wearing Amy Winehouse's hair. (If you were born before 1970... she was wearing Ruth Buzzi's hair). Now she has let her hair down and looks pretty hot. That 18 year old boy who impregnated her jailbait daughter probably had a few "Stiffler's Mom" shrieks during his evenings of passion with the first daughter.
I was a little bothered watching the shots of the little baby on that daughter's lap.... this baby had been diagnosed with Down Syndrome a few months into the pregnancy and Palin opted to not abort but keep the child instead. If God Forbid John McCain is elected and God Forbid he dies in office, I can't wait to see Palin question potential Judges abortion stances by marching out her Down Syndrome child and bellowing how she knew from prenatal testing that the child had Down... but she kept her baby! And how can you as a judge vote otherwise?
Now on Labor Day we heard that the older 17 year old daughter is pregnant by an 18 year old boyfriend whose hockey abilities obviously include being able to slip one past the goalie. The Republicans who think that pregnant teens only exist on The Maury Povich Show quickly announced that this girl's pregnancy has no relevance.
So I guess I should end the column here, and get to the football picks.
But I'm not.
What kind of a mother is Sara Palin? It's nice that she is ambitious and wants to be a heartbeat from the Presidency, but she knew how the media would react to the news of her daughter's pregnancy and she still agreed to jump on the McCain ticket even though she knew that this kid's pregnancy would become a huge national news story. It's hard enough for a 17 yr old high school girl to go through a pregnancy but how much harder will it be because her mother decided to drag her name through the headlines just because she has a chance to be VP? Maybe if Sara was a better mom she would have said no to McCain to spare her daughter from all this attention... Some bloggers already were speculating that the daughter was the mother of the Down Syndrome baby too. Obviously these people have been getting too many conspiracy theories from Desperate Housewives. Is Palin supposed to be Bree?
I was speaking to a Republican co-worker.. just to see how the other side lives... and he feels that the media should take a hands off approach to this story. But then I asked him if the child should also be shielded from media commentary if she had chosen to have an abortion. He felt that if she had had an abortion... then she was fair game amongst the media and the bloggers and the facebook status wisecrackers. Imagine that... the wacko right wingers would have had a field day if the daughter of a VP candidate had a legal procedure performed on herself, but because she kept the baby, she is entitled to a hands off policy.
By the way, I have no issue with this kid. She's a kid and she made a mistake and deserves to not be thrown into the limelight. I think its nice that this girl has a financially supportive family who will embrace her and support her and her baby. But emotional support? Can you imagine the conversations in that house when she told Mom and Dad that she was preggers? How soon did they tell the kid she MUST marry the baby's daddy... to avoid embarassing the Governor? And aren't 17 and 18 year olds a little too young to get married? And look at this poor guy... last week he was hoping to get overtime at the local WalMart to support his baby... now one week later he's parading around the stage at the Republican Convention. And if McCain wins... doesnt that mean that Mom moves to Washington? Will Dad stay in Alaska? Will this pregnant high school girl have to switch schools to go to DC to be with her mom? Will the parents live seperately? And will that daughter move to DC in the middle of the school year? Do you think the other kids are going to pick on this girl who will be a new mother by the time the inauguration rolls around?
In reality, as "lucky" as young Miss Palin is to have this family, the Republicans should realize that this situation is the exception rather than the rule. A lot of young pregnant girls dont have homes to go back to... no money from Mom and Dad to help them out.. and they really have nothing... except the choice to decide if terminating the pregancy is the route to take. Of course, it would be nice if these girls would keep their babies and/or arrange for another family to adopt their babies. ..Unfortunately. a lot of these girls deliver sick babies due to poor prenatal care because as the Republicans have pointed out that contrary to what Senator Kennedy says,...in America, health care is a privilege and not a right.
The party could have chosen the more experienced Rudy for the ticket... but he is pro choice.. and Palin is not. And as long as Republicans continue to embrace candidates who are anti choice, I will continue to choose to vote against them.
Pumpstradamus Pick of the Week...
He's back! Pumpy resumes his weekly picks today. Last year his brilliant start foshnizzled into losses in each of the last 5 weeks to finish at 10-7. This week we go to New Orleans just like Hadassah will next summer for the annual convention. The reason I mention Hadassah is because this Sunday... as the NFL opens its season....Trophy Wife's Young Women's Group will sign an official Hadassah Charter and will officially become part of this wonderful organization. Trophy Wife started this group from scratch a little more than 2 years ago, but she and the other terrific women have done an incredible job and I am proud of all of them. Last year they wrapped gifts for hospitalized children on the same dining room table where my mother used to peck away the Linden Hadassah newsletter on her electric typewriter back in the 1970's. This week the New Orleans Saints host the Tampa Bay Bucs and The Saints are 3 and a half point favorites. Sayeth The Pump:
I'm going with the Saints, in honor of all the sanctimonious pricks in attendance at the RNC this week.
Unbiased Giants Fan Picks of the Week: (Last Year - 26-23-2) Home Teams are in Caps.
GIANTS 4 points faves over Washington - The Super Bowl Champs will pick up right where they left off.
CLEVELAND 5 1/2 doggies to Dallas. - The Maid of Honor at my wedding now lives in Cleveland and Friday is my wedding anniversary - so Go Browns!!
COLTS 9 1/2 faves over The Bears - Could be a big weekend for both Manning Brothers, as the Colts will probably bang the Bears right on their Chicago asses. Personally.. I think Roger Ebert and Pumpstradamus should clean up their language!
CLIP OF THE WEEK
Here is the classic clip taped right after last year's Fantastic Super Bowl where my buddy continues to hold his stance that the Giants did not make a good trade when they got Eli Manning!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Holy Pavano! Pedro to the Pen? The Baseball Quarterly Report
Well the Chinese drummers have gone home, and the Olympics are over and I wrote only one paragraph plus this sentence on this blog about the Summer Games! I watched 'em every night after the Met game was over, which will be my viewing habits these next 2wks when the US Open is on. Maybe they should have the ball girls wear beach volleyball bikinis? Is there anything dopier than those silly bikinis and how Bob Costas hyped the Finals taking place on a rainy wet day?
Well... here we go with another sports column.... and amazingly at the end of next wk, it will be time for our first week of NFL picks... featuring the very popular Pumpstradamus. And as we wind down into the last week of August on that dreaded path to Labor Day, it is time once again to revist the baseball scene with our Baseball Quarterly Report.
First... I gotta admit I was wrong with last weeks column speculating on the possibility that Mad Dog Russo's departure from WFAN was engineered by Mike Francesa. Doggie's quick jump over to satellite radio to not only host his own show, but also to program his own channel makes it obvious that Dog really felt it was time for a change and this whole transition had been in the works for many months. I actually am starting to think of subscribing now that I have realized that I can get satellite radio on my cell phone. We'll have to see how many shekels that is going to cost. As for Francesa.. I hope he hires a good sidekick/update person because he really doesn't have it what it takes to carry a 5 1/2 hour show by himself. Granted he knows his stuff, but its hard to maintain a Mad Dogesque stamina running a talk show solo over that long a period. Maybe the FAN should hire Warner Wolf to do the same stuff he does for WABC/ESPN.... do sports updates with a weekend show tossed in. That would inject some personality into the show. Sid Rosenberg would be a good addition too... he could be the Artie Lange of the Francesa show.
Baseball coverage fascinates me. When it comes to the NFL I'm really more interested in the Giants and Jets than the other teams. Yet when it comes to baseball... even though we hear a lot of Mets and Yankees talk here in NJ... fantasy baseball players like myself develop a keen awareness of the national baseball scene. I actually follow the national baseball scene more than the out of town NFL games... and its quite disappointing that the Newark Star Ledger seems to have dropped its long running Sunday Baseball column. Yet they have enough resources to deal with that crappy NJ.com website and its dastardly bulletin boards?
Anyway, we will first start with the locals...
The Yankees - it's over folks. They have no shot at passing Tampa Bay and Boston for the division title, and just to get the wild card they would need to not only finish 2nd in the East but still end up with a better record than either the White Sox or the Twins. Ain't gonna happen as the post season streak will come to an end. But they did get Carl Pavano back!
Speaking of Pavano.. isnt it interesting how we work in a society where workplace signs are posted mandating employees to report an injury no matter how minor it is. Then in George Carlin-esque irony, we have baseball... which has a website boldly announcing all the on field injuries. I can't understand why the fans were busting Pavano's chops these last few years... the guy was hurt on the job! (Granted he did suffer some injuries in a car accident he kept hush hush) If you were on the job and cut your finger you would make a whole case out of it. Pavano suffered an on the job injury that required major surgery. And in the NFL.... if you suffer an on the job injury... you don't have a guaranteed contract... they cut you - you're fired! Maybe Gene Upshaw's replacement can change this. Can you imagine getting hurt at work and then getting fired for it?
The Mets - Here we go with my controversial idea for the Mets.. especially in light of John Maine's possible season ending injury. I became a big Pedro Martinez fan on October 11, 1999 during Game 5 of the best of 5 playoff series between the Red Sox and Indians. Pedro was getting over an injury and was not even supposed to pitch in the game. He was unable to start, but surprisingly came in from the bullpen in the 4th inning of an 8-8 pitchers duel, Pedro pitched 6 innings of hitless relief to help the Red Sox win the game 12-8 and the Series 3 games to 2. He also did have a crummy relief appearance in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS when the Red Sox beat the Yankees after being down 3 games to none... but that game was so surreal and bizarre that you gotta take that appearance with a grain of salt.
I think about that 1999 game when I realize that the Mets have an outstanding rotation, and a pretty decent offense that has been able to compensate for shaky corner outfielders and a not so Beltraaaaaanish season by Carlos Beltraaaaaaaaaaan. Nonetheless, the starters and offense are quite outstanding compared to the other NL teams which puts them in a great position to win the division, except for the fact that the Billy Wagner-less bullpen has been awful. The Mets have gotten a couple of bandaids by acquiring Luis Ayala and Anthony Reyes from Tampa Bay. Ayala has been ok and Reyes was the Rays stopper in 2007... but who knows how much he has left in the tank. It would be cool to see him pitch in a mop up game batting 9th so that the Mets could go into an inning with Reyes, (Jose) Reyes, and (Argenis) Reyes due up. Has a team ever had 3 guys with the same last name bat consecutively?
Anyway, going back to that Pedro appearance mentioned before, could he be a 9th inning option after the manager opined about having a starter move to the pen? Pedro might not have the overpowering heat he had back in the old days, but a stopper only needs a strikeout if he has a runner on 3rd with less than 2 out. Plus he is a seasoned veteran with post season experience. The Mets got a break in the schedule these last few weeks playing a bunch of sub par teams, but now that that stretch has come to an end, its time to enact a battle plan to avoid the same late season tumble the Mets endured last year. Perhaps Pedro to the pen might be the answer.
As for the playoffs there are a few races left:
In the AL, the Angels have sewn it up and the only question is will K-Rod break the all time saves record. Over in the East, the Rays have been hanging tough despite injuries to rookie sensation Evan Longoria, outfielder Carl Crawford and stopper Troy Percival, The Red Sox traded away Manny but Jason Bay is a very underrated player who could develop into a big star. The Sox now have an outfield of JD (Drew) JE (Jacoby Ellsbury) and Jay Bay. The rest of the division could all finish above .500. Over in the Central the White Sox and Twins battle it out for the division with the 2nd place finisher trying to get the Wild Card. These 4 teams could battle down to the wire.... with only 3 making the post season, but I am going to go with Tampa succumbing to its injuries but icing the wild card with the Red Sox winning the division, and the Twins winning the Central with their terrific young team especially the pitching staff. It brings back memories of the days when Bert Blyleven used to to throw gas... See Bert's pic below. I found this pic on another blog awhile back.
In the NL... I'm hoping the Mets can pull it off.... their hitting has been pretty consistent and the starters have been doing the job better than their other division rivals. I'm picking them again this season to win the East, but with substantially less confidence of years past. 2nd place in the East might not be enough this season with the Cardinals and Brewers fighting to finish 2nd to the Cubbies. The Cards looked great for most of the season but the Brewers added CC Sabathia to a rotation anchored by Ben Sheets and their young sluggers Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder seem to have enough to take the Wild Card. Remember... Wild Cards are so hard to predict, because all it takes is a hot streak on a weak schedule for a team once thought dead to breathe life into its season. That was the case with the 2007 Rockies who rode a late season hot streak all the way to the World Series. Over in the West, The D-Backs have a terrific rotation of Brandon Webb, Dan Haren and the ageless Randy Johnson. I think they are going to hold off the Dodgers to take the West even though their bullpen looks a little shaky lately. Plus they just added Adam Dunn... the Dave Kingman of the new millenium.
Post Season Awards:
AL MVP - I thought it would go to Josh Hamilton at the All Star Break but you gotta go with Carlos Quentin. He leads the AL in homers, and who knows where the White Sox would have been with out him. He is the Carlos Pena of 2007... this guy came out of nowhere from a part timer in Arizona... and the DBacks could have used him this year with all the injuries suffered by Eric Byrnes.
AL Cy Young - Cliff Lee has had an awesome season and I would give it to him, however if Fransisco Rodriguez breaks the all time saves record, he should get it.
AL Rookie of the Year - Evan Longoria gets all the hype but Tigers starter Armando Gallaraga has been gaining steam now standing at 12-4 with a 3.17 ERA after the pitching challenged Rangers cut him in the spring. Longoria has played 104 games with 20 homers and 71 Ribbys.
NL MVP - Too close to call. If the Cardinals make the playoffs, I would go with Ryan Ludwick who has Quentinesque numbers. If they don't and the Mets make it, I would give it to David Wright. Nonetheless, there could be a scenario where the Mets pen knocks them out of the playoffs, and if that were the case it would cost Wright the award and probably give it to Chase Utley if both the Mets and Cards are out. I'm gonna put my faith in the Mets pen that they will make it, the Cards won't and that Wright will win the award.
NL Cy Young - I had picked Zambrano at the All Star Break but Brandon Webb has pretty much iced it.
NL Rookie - Edinson Volquez 15-5 2.73 ERA on a crummy Reds team.
Well now its time for the Democrat's Convention. I might chime in with some thoughts about it. But then again, I might not. Nonetheless, we will definitely be back September 5th which is my 4th wedding anniversary for our first week of NFL Picks with the popular Pumpstradamus.
CLIP OF THE WEEK
Let's hope Michael Strahan decides to come back. Here is that classic stomp clip from last year's parade. And to think that event included an amusing speech by Eliot Spitzer! As TMZ.com would say... Memba him?
Well... here we go with another sports column.... and amazingly at the end of next wk, it will be time for our first week of NFL picks... featuring the very popular Pumpstradamus. And as we wind down into the last week of August on that dreaded path to Labor Day, it is time once again to revist the baseball scene with our Baseball Quarterly Report.
First... I gotta admit I was wrong with last weeks column speculating on the possibility that Mad Dog Russo's departure from WFAN was engineered by Mike Francesa. Doggie's quick jump over to satellite radio to not only host his own show, but also to program his own channel makes it obvious that Dog really felt it was time for a change and this whole transition had been in the works for many months. I actually am starting to think of subscribing now that I have realized that I can get satellite radio on my cell phone. We'll have to see how many shekels that is going to cost. As for Francesa.. I hope he hires a good sidekick/update person because he really doesn't have it what it takes to carry a 5 1/2 hour show by himself. Granted he knows his stuff, but its hard to maintain a Mad Dogesque stamina running a talk show solo over that long a period. Maybe the FAN should hire Warner Wolf to do the same stuff he does for WABC/ESPN.... do sports updates with a weekend show tossed in. That would inject some personality into the show. Sid Rosenberg would be a good addition too... he could be the Artie Lange of the Francesa show.
Baseball coverage fascinates me. When it comes to the NFL I'm really more interested in the Giants and Jets than the other teams. Yet when it comes to baseball... even though we hear a lot of Mets and Yankees talk here in NJ... fantasy baseball players like myself develop a keen awareness of the national baseball scene. I actually follow the national baseball scene more than the out of town NFL games... and its quite disappointing that the Newark Star Ledger seems to have dropped its long running Sunday Baseball column. Yet they have enough resources to deal with that crappy NJ.com website and its dastardly bulletin boards?
Anyway, we will first start with the locals...
The Yankees - it's over folks. They have no shot at passing Tampa Bay and Boston for the division title, and just to get the wild card they would need to not only finish 2nd in the East but still end up with a better record than either the White Sox or the Twins. Ain't gonna happen as the post season streak will come to an end. But they did get Carl Pavano back!
Speaking of Pavano.. isnt it interesting how we work in a society where workplace signs are posted mandating employees to report an injury no matter how minor it is. Then in George Carlin-esque irony, we have baseball... which has a website boldly announcing all the on field injuries. I can't understand why the fans were busting Pavano's chops these last few years... the guy was hurt on the job! (Granted he did suffer some injuries in a car accident he kept hush hush) If you were on the job and cut your finger you would make a whole case out of it. Pavano suffered an on the job injury that required major surgery. And in the NFL.... if you suffer an on the job injury... you don't have a guaranteed contract... they cut you - you're fired! Maybe Gene Upshaw's replacement can change this. Can you imagine getting hurt at work and then getting fired for it?
The Mets - Here we go with my controversial idea for the Mets.. especially in light of John Maine's possible season ending injury. I became a big Pedro Martinez fan on October 11, 1999 during Game 5 of the best of 5 playoff series between the Red Sox and Indians. Pedro was getting over an injury and was not even supposed to pitch in the game. He was unable to start, but surprisingly came in from the bullpen in the 4th inning of an 8-8 pitchers duel, Pedro pitched 6 innings of hitless relief to help the Red Sox win the game 12-8 and the Series 3 games to 2. He also did have a crummy relief appearance in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS when the Red Sox beat the Yankees after being down 3 games to none... but that game was so surreal and bizarre that you gotta take that appearance with a grain of salt.
I think about that 1999 game when I realize that the Mets have an outstanding rotation, and a pretty decent offense that has been able to compensate for shaky corner outfielders and a not so Beltraaaaaanish season by Carlos Beltraaaaaaaaaaan. Nonetheless, the starters and offense are quite outstanding compared to the other NL teams which puts them in a great position to win the division, except for the fact that the Billy Wagner-less bullpen has been awful. The Mets have gotten a couple of bandaids by acquiring Luis Ayala and Anthony Reyes from Tampa Bay. Ayala has been ok and Reyes was the Rays stopper in 2007... but who knows how much he has left in the tank. It would be cool to see him pitch in a mop up game batting 9th so that the Mets could go into an inning with Reyes, (Jose) Reyes, and (Argenis) Reyes due up. Has a team ever had 3 guys with the same last name bat consecutively?
Anyway, going back to that Pedro appearance mentioned before, could he be a 9th inning option after the manager opined about having a starter move to the pen? Pedro might not have the overpowering heat he had back in the old days, but a stopper only needs a strikeout if he has a runner on 3rd with less than 2 out. Plus he is a seasoned veteran with post season experience. The Mets got a break in the schedule these last few weeks playing a bunch of sub par teams, but now that that stretch has come to an end, its time to enact a battle plan to avoid the same late season tumble the Mets endured last year. Perhaps Pedro to the pen might be the answer.
As for the playoffs there are a few races left:
In the AL, the Angels have sewn it up and the only question is will K-Rod break the all time saves record. Over in the East, the Rays have been hanging tough despite injuries to rookie sensation Evan Longoria, outfielder Carl Crawford and stopper Troy Percival, The Red Sox traded away Manny but Jason Bay is a very underrated player who could develop into a big star. The Sox now have an outfield of JD (Drew) JE (Jacoby Ellsbury) and Jay Bay. The rest of the division could all finish above .500. Over in the Central the White Sox and Twins battle it out for the division with the 2nd place finisher trying to get the Wild Card. These 4 teams could battle down to the wire.... with only 3 making the post season, but I am going to go with Tampa succumbing to its injuries but icing the wild card with the Red Sox winning the division, and the Twins winning the Central with their terrific young team especially the pitching staff. It brings back memories of the days when Bert Blyleven used to to throw gas... See Bert's pic below. I found this pic on another blog awhile back.
In the NL... I'm hoping the Mets can pull it off.... their hitting has been pretty consistent and the starters have been doing the job better than their other division rivals. I'm picking them again this season to win the East, but with substantially less confidence of years past. 2nd place in the East might not be enough this season with the Cardinals and Brewers fighting to finish 2nd to the Cubbies. The Cards looked great for most of the season but the Brewers added CC Sabathia to a rotation anchored by Ben Sheets and their young sluggers Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder seem to have enough to take the Wild Card. Remember... Wild Cards are so hard to predict, because all it takes is a hot streak on a weak schedule for a team once thought dead to breathe life into its season. That was the case with the 2007 Rockies who rode a late season hot streak all the way to the World Series. Over in the West, The D-Backs have a terrific rotation of Brandon Webb, Dan Haren and the ageless Randy Johnson. I think they are going to hold off the Dodgers to take the West even though their bullpen looks a little shaky lately. Plus they just added Adam Dunn... the Dave Kingman of the new millenium.
Post Season Awards:
AL MVP - I thought it would go to Josh Hamilton at the All Star Break but you gotta go with Carlos Quentin. He leads the AL in homers, and who knows where the White Sox would have been with out him. He is the Carlos Pena of 2007... this guy came out of nowhere from a part timer in Arizona... and the DBacks could have used him this year with all the injuries suffered by Eric Byrnes.
AL Cy Young - Cliff Lee has had an awesome season and I would give it to him, however if Fransisco Rodriguez breaks the all time saves record, he should get it.
AL Rookie of the Year - Evan Longoria gets all the hype but Tigers starter Armando Gallaraga has been gaining steam now standing at 12-4 with a 3.17 ERA after the pitching challenged Rangers cut him in the spring. Longoria has played 104 games with 20 homers and 71 Ribbys.
NL MVP - Too close to call. If the Cardinals make the playoffs, I would go with Ryan Ludwick who has Quentinesque numbers. If they don't and the Mets make it, I would give it to David Wright. Nonetheless, there could be a scenario where the Mets pen knocks them out of the playoffs, and if that were the case it would cost Wright the award and probably give it to Chase Utley if both the Mets and Cards are out. I'm gonna put my faith in the Mets pen that they will make it, the Cards won't and that Wright will win the award.
NL Cy Young - I had picked Zambrano at the All Star Break but Brandon Webb has pretty much iced it.
NL Rookie - Edinson Volquez 15-5 2.73 ERA on a crummy Reds team.
Well now its time for the Democrat's Convention. I might chime in with some thoughts about it. But then again, I might not. Nonetheless, we will definitely be back September 5th which is my 4th wedding anniversary for our first week of NFL Picks with the popular Pumpstradamus.
CLIP OF THE WEEK
Let's hope Michael Strahan decides to come back. Here is that classic stomp clip from last year's parade. And to think that event included an amusing speech by Eliot Spitzer! As TMZ.com would say... Memba him?
Sunday, August 17, 2008
The Blog and The Dog: One is Back and One is Gone!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand good afternoon everybody how are you today?
It's interesting to note that the FAN announced the Doggie departure by proclaiming that Francesa had signed a new deal to be the "solo" afternoon host. Also, keep in mind there is a new NY state law that doesnt allow "no compete" clauses anymore, a broadcasting industry twist that changes the playing field that used to keep media personalities off the airwaves after they left one station to head to the next. I remember Arnold Diaz appeared mustacheless on 20/20 one night, the same night he appeard on a spot on Channel 5 to announce that he was coming back to NY TV real soon.. with a mustache! Good thing there isn't a no compete clause in the mortgage industry: Last month I left one job at 10:05 AM and was at my desk at my new job at 10:10 AM!
I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I have been following the saga on the terrific Neil Best's fine blog....(Not to be confused with Neil Fein's best blog). But I am wondering if this move was iniated by Dog's desire to expand his career elsewhere or was this a move engineered by Francesa? He saw that the station took a hit losing Imus... did he gamble that they would find him valuable by telling brass that he would only stay if the station allowed him to sign a "solo hosting" gig? Now with much fanfare lauding the new Mike solo gig, Dog is gone... even as the FAN website was touting a number of Russo promotional remote appearances?
I really like the Doggie - I met him many many years ago pre WFAN when he was hosting a little weekend talk show on WMCA where I did one of my two college internships... (the other was at WFAN). Here is a coincidence nobody caught. Mike's first show Friday featured a number of car commericals voiced by Patricia McCann. Back in the WMCA days, Doggie's talk show was on right before a show hosted by.... Patricia McCann! Russo was exactly the same way off the air then, as he is more than 20 years later on the air! And he was a really nice friendly fella too. I actually told him that one day he would replace the late Pete Franklin as the afternoon host on WFAN! And with Pumpstradamus like accuracy - I was right! Dog actually took me to Shea for Tom Seaver Day, and used his press credentials to get us out on the field to watch the ceremonies. What a day that was! Seaver was my hero at the time and it was fantastic. Later, Doggie and I sat in the Press Box during the game and I rattled off some stat about the game that was repeated a moment later by the Press Box PA announcer to which he exclaimed in typical doggie-esque fashion "Good job Nate! Good job!" A newspaper reporter heard this exchange and approached Dog and asked him if he was Chris Russo. I wondered if it was the first time he had ever been recognized in NY. Perhaps a star was born that day!
While still toiling in the obscurity at WMCA, Dog started moonlighting at WFAN picking up odd over night fill in shifts. It didnt take him long to get noticed as his loyal San Fransisco Giant fan-dom led him into a fiery on air debate with Mike Francesa over who is a better player - Will Clark or Don Mattingly. The 2 kept battling it out on the Imus show, and on Sept. 5, 1989 - (exactly 15 yrs before my wedding day!) the Mike and the Mad Dog show was born.
I think they actually did some shows together before the official 9/5/89 premiere. I thought they were on the air the day Bart Giamatti died which was September 1st 1989. The only reason I remember was I was working at a now defunct little AM station in Plainfield, NJ and I was anchoring a 30 minute news show at 5pm. At a few minutes to 5 the AP wire had an urgent announcement that Giamatti had suffered a massive heart attack. I had no way of leaving the studio during the show to get more AP updates, and there was nobody there to check the AP machine in the next room. So I was resourceful - I took a transistor radio to the studio and monitored WFAN and while I read other news stories about local mashugas I was getting Giamatti updates. I was really hoping he would be okay because I really admired him... but unfortunately his death was announced on WFAN near the end of my 30 minute broadcast, which was repeated by myself with the announcement that "Broadcast Reports indicate that Baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti has died". I more than made up for that theft, when I moved to a different station and the competing station always listened to me and stole my news stories.... even the ones where I mispronounced names (purposely).
Mad Dog picked up the nickname from NY Daily News Media Columnist Bob Raisman who like myself tends to pin nicknames on people - most of which don't stick. The Mad Dog moniker stuck.
I think the FAN made a mistake and the way this contract signing unfolded, makes it appear that Francesa played it out to have his own show. Unless Russo was behind the scenes clamoring for a solo show elsewhere these last few months, it just seems like the Doggie got stabbed in the back. But in his defense, Francesa was very humble and polite on Friday's show which consisted of hours of pro Russo calls. Who knows what the real story was... and who knows if we will ever know... until of course one of them publishes a book.
There was other stuff going on during our little blogging break:
OLYMPICS - Memo to NBC: Is there anything else going on besides swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball? With all these skimpy outfits.....All Ive seen all week are tuchises!! Michael Phelps has already dethroned Eli Manning as Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year... even if Bret Favre leads the Jets to a 16-0 season!But c'mon let's get to the track and field already!
THAT POOR MISSING KID - Why do I get the feeling that the cop with the missing wife Drew Peterson is wathcing this since it is keeping the news talk shows away from him. But this story gets stranger by the day as the kid's mom is in jail, yet it looks like her only crime... and its a pretty big one... is not reporting her kid missing. But is the kid missing? Why do I get the impression this kid was sold to somebody else? And these grandparents - c'mon their daughter is a single mom - she only has a part time job, yet they dont find it odd that she would leave for work and then a long vacation afterwards. What single mom can afford to take such a long exotic trip? And this "babysitter" who the mom says took the kid? They found her.... she claims she doesn't know the family.... yet the mom knew her name and where she was from. And then the bizarre love hate relationship that the grandparents have with the media just makes it even stranger since one minute they are begging the media to spread the word to help find this poor kid and the next minute they are snapping at them like bickering afternoon drive sports talk show hosts! It gets weirder by the day!
JOHN EDWARDS - Wow, are the Republicans having a field day or what? My original prediction of a Edwards vs. Giuliani election never materialized, and maybe thats a good thing. But wait a minute.... wasn't Rudy also committing adultery by two timing his wife Donna Hanover by publicly cavorting around town with his girlfriend Judy Nathan? Amazingly Republicans say what Edwards did was worse because he lied when confronted by reporters who asked him if he was cheating on his wife. Rudy was not such a tzaddik either publicly dumping Hanover by announcing his intentions during a press conference! And then... last weekend I was watching Geraldo Rivera's show on The Fox News Channel and Geraldo of all people had the audacity to rip into Edwards for two timing his wife!! Geraldo?? Who does he think he is... Mother Teresa?? Look at his sordid past!
THE NEW AND IMPROVED KOSHER- Speaking of Conservatives....The Jewish Conservative movement is behind a new idea to make food officially "kosher" if it passes stringent religious requirements AND the company that produces the food treats its workers properly and respectfully. There has been a lot of controversy lately because of the raid on the Rubashkin plant in Iowa that led to the arrrest of a huge number of illegal immigrants who were working at the slaughterhouse. This led to this new kosher concept, and amazingly the ultra-Orthodox, and the plant owner is one of them, seem to mock this attempt to avoid the embarassment of this type of news story. I see in the new Jewish Week that Rabbi David Lincoln is being ripped by Ultras after he criticized them on a cable tv show for trying to minimize wrongdoings in their community when they become public.
A periodical published for an ultra audience really took some shots at the Conservative attempt to correct this - or as they call them the "deviationist Conservatives". This periodical also had a glowing review of a tour of the plant that sounded like Mike Francesa touring the Yankee Monuments. The best line of this journalism described the "huge air conditioned dining hall where the employees ate". But how do you explain the large number of illegal immigrants that were discovered at the plant? Did they all coincidentally arrive there to watch Lucha Libre on the TV in the "huge air conditioned dining hall"??
Don't get me wrong - I like my ultra Orthodox brothers and sisters, but maybe they should write their newspapers in Yiddish so my fellow "deviationist Conservatives" won't understand what they are writing about!
CLIP OF THE WEEK
Earlier in the year I wrote about Andy who used to own the deli in my former office building. He was kind of forced out for a new deli whose owner bolted out in the dead of night breaking his lease and leaving the building deli-less until a new caterer moved in. Anyway, a tribute video was put together for Andy that I just recently discovered on You Tube and here it is - if you go to approx 8:50 of the video you will see what the big problem is in America - Shoplifters!!
SPECIAL CHINA CLIP OF THE WEEK
I get a kick out of the Chinese introductions to the National Anthems... not to mention the little music breaks piped in during the breaks on beach volleyball while the women adjust their wedgies. Here is an old clip of the Chinese version of Hava Nagila!
It's interesting to note that the FAN announced the Doggie departure by proclaiming that Francesa had signed a new deal to be the "solo" afternoon host. Also, keep in mind there is a new NY state law that doesnt allow "no compete" clauses anymore, a broadcasting industry twist that changes the playing field that used to keep media personalities off the airwaves after they left one station to head to the next. I remember Arnold Diaz appeared mustacheless on 20/20 one night, the same night he appeard on a spot on Channel 5 to announce that he was coming back to NY TV real soon.. with a mustache! Good thing there isn't a no compete clause in the mortgage industry: Last month I left one job at 10:05 AM and was at my desk at my new job at 10:10 AM!
I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I have been following the saga on the terrific Neil Best's fine blog....(Not to be confused with Neil Fein's best blog). But I am wondering if this move was iniated by Dog's desire to expand his career elsewhere or was this a move engineered by Francesa? He saw that the station took a hit losing Imus... did he gamble that they would find him valuable by telling brass that he would only stay if the station allowed him to sign a "solo hosting" gig? Now with much fanfare lauding the new Mike solo gig, Dog is gone... even as the FAN website was touting a number of Russo promotional remote appearances?
I really like the Doggie - I met him many many years ago pre WFAN when he was hosting a little weekend talk show on WMCA where I did one of my two college internships... (the other was at WFAN). Here is a coincidence nobody caught. Mike's first show Friday featured a number of car commericals voiced by Patricia McCann. Back in the WMCA days, Doggie's talk show was on right before a show hosted by.... Patricia McCann! Russo was exactly the same way off the air then, as he is more than 20 years later on the air! And he was a really nice friendly fella too. I actually told him that one day he would replace the late Pete Franklin as the afternoon host on WFAN! And with Pumpstradamus like accuracy - I was right! Dog actually took me to Shea for Tom Seaver Day, and used his press credentials to get us out on the field to watch the ceremonies. What a day that was! Seaver was my hero at the time and it was fantastic. Later, Doggie and I sat in the Press Box during the game and I rattled off some stat about the game that was repeated a moment later by the Press Box PA announcer to which he exclaimed in typical doggie-esque fashion "Good job Nate! Good job!" A newspaper reporter heard this exchange and approached Dog and asked him if he was Chris Russo. I wondered if it was the first time he had ever been recognized in NY. Perhaps a star was born that day!
While still toiling in the obscurity at WMCA, Dog started moonlighting at WFAN picking up odd over night fill in shifts. It didnt take him long to get noticed as his loyal San Fransisco Giant fan-dom led him into a fiery on air debate with Mike Francesa over who is a better player - Will Clark or Don Mattingly. The 2 kept battling it out on the Imus show, and on Sept. 5, 1989 - (exactly 15 yrs before my wedding day!) the Mike and the Mad Dog show was born.
I think they actually did some shows together before the official 9/5/89 premiere. I thought they were on the air the day Bart Giamatti died which was September 1st 1989. The only reason I remember was I was working at a now defunct little AM station in Plainfield, NJ and I was anchoring a 30 minute news show at 5pm. At a few minutes to 5 the AP wire had an urgent announcement that Giamatti had suffered a massive heart attack. I had no way of leaving the studio during the show to get more AP updates, and there was nobody there to check the AP machine in the next room. So I was resourceful - I took a transistor radio to the studio and monitored WFAN and while I read other news stories about local mashugas I was getting Giamatti updates. I was really hoping he would be okay because I really admired him... but unfortunately his death was announced on WFAN near the end of my 30 minute broadcast, which was repeated by myself with the announcement that "Broadcast Reports indicate that Baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti has died". I more than made up for that theft, when I moved to a different station and the competing station always listened to me and stole my news stories.... even the ones where I mispronounced names (purposely).
Mad Dog picked up the nickname from NY Daily News Media Columnist Bob Raisman who like myself tends to pin nicknames on people - most of which don't stick. The Mad Dog moniker stuck.
I think the FAN made a mistake and the way this contract signing unfolded, makes it appear that Francesa played it out to have his own show. Unless Russo was behind the scenes clamoring for a solo show elsewhere these last few months, it just seems like the Doggie got stabbed in the back. But in his defense, Francesa was very humble and polite on Friday's show which consisted of hours of pro Russo calls. Who knows what the real story was... and who knows if we will ever know... until of course one of them publishes a book.
There was other stuff going on during our little blogging break:
OLYMPICS - Memo to NBC: Is there anything else going on besides swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball? With all these skimpy outfits.....All Ive seen all week are tuchises!! Michael Phelps has already dethroned Eli Manning as Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year... even if Bret Favre leads the Jets to a 16-0 season!But c'mon let's get to the track and field already!
THAT POOR MISSING KID - Why do I get the feeling that the cop with the missing wife Drew Peterson is wathcing this since it is keeping the news talk shows away from him. But this story gets stranger by the day as the kid's mom is in jail, yet it looks like her only crime... and its a pretty big one... is not reporting her kid missing. But is the kid missing? Why do I get the impression this kid was sold to somebody else? And these grandparents - c'mon their daughter is a single mom - she only has a part time job, yet they dont find it odd that she would leave for work and then a long vacation afterwards. What single mom can afford to take such a long exotic trip? And this "babysitter" who the mom says took the kid? They found her.... she claims she doesn't know the family.... yet the mom knew her name and where she was from. And then the bizarre love hate relationship that the grandparents have with the media just makes it even stranger since one minute they are begging the media to spread the word to help find this poor kid and the next minute they are snapping at them like bickering afternoon drive sports talk show hosts! It gets weirder by the day!
JOHN EDWARDS - Wow, are the Republicans having a field day or what? My original prediction of a Edwards vs. Giuliani election never materialized, and maybe thats a good thing. But wait a minute.... wasn't Rudy also committing adultery by two timing his wife Donna Hanover by publicly cavorting around town with his girlfriend Judy Nathan? Amazingly Republicans say what Edwards did was worse because he lied when confronted by reporters who asked him if he was cheating on his wife. Rudy was not such a tzaddik either publicly dumping Hanover by announcing his intentions during a press conference! And then... last weekend I was watching Geraldo Rivera's show on The Fox News Channel and Geraldo of all people had the audacity to rip into Edwards for two timing his wife!! Geraldo?? Who does he think he is... Mother Teresa?? Look at his sordid past!
THE NEW AND IMPROVED KOSHER- Speaking of Conservatives....The Jewish Conservative movement is behind a new idea to make food officially "kosher" if it passes stringent religious requirements AND the company that produces the food treats its workers properly and respectfully. There has been a lot of controversy lately because of the raid on the Rubashkin plant in Iowa that led to the arrrest of a huge number of illegal immigrants who were working at the slaughterhouse. This led to this new kosher concept, and amazingly the ultra-Orthodox, and the plant owner is one of them, seem to mock this attempt to avoid the embarassment of this type of news story. I see in the new Jewish Week that Rabbi David Lincoln is being ripped by Ultras after he criticized them on a cable tv show for trying to minimize wrongdoings in their community when they become public.
A periodical published for an ultra audience really took some shots at the Conservative attempt to correct this - or as they call them the "deviationist Conservatives". This periodical also had a glowing review of a tour of the plant that sounded like Mike Francesa touring the Yankee Monuments. The best line of this journalism described the "huge air conditioned dining hall where the employees ate". But how do you explain the large number of illegal immigrants that were discovered at the plant? Did they all coincidentally arrive there to watch Lucha Libre on the TV in the "huge air conditioned dining hall"??
Don't get me wrong - I like my ultra Orthodox brothers and sisters, but maybe they should write their newspapers in Yiddish so my fellow "deviationist Conservatives" won't understand what they are writing about!
CLIP OF THE WEEK
Earlier in the year I wrote about Andy who used to own the deli in my former office building. He was kind of forced out for a new deli whose owner bolted out in the dead of night breaking his lease and leaving the building deli-less until a new caterer moved in. Anyway, a tribute video was put together for Andy that I just recently discovered on You Tube and here it is - if you go to approx 8:50 of the video you will see what the big problem is in America - Shoplifters!!
SPECIAL CHINA CLIP OF THE WEEK
I get a kick out of the Chinese introductions to the National Anthems... not to mention the little music breaks piped in during the breaks on beach volleyball while the women adjust their wedgies. Here is an old clip of the Chinese version of Hava Nagila!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Casino Royale - A Movie Club Column
Hey... is the All Star Game over yet?
If only I was the Commissioner of baseball.... Besides giving the Mets the World Series each year, I would first get rid of the silly rule that the All Star Game "counts". Its the All "Star" game and people want to see the stars they vote for... not the backups that played the last several innings of that 15 inning marathon. I would make a rule that each manager needs to have 6 pitchers (including 3 starters) on the bench going into the 8th inning... and 4 pitchers (including at least 2 starters) going to the 9th. Then, if the game goes extra innings. allow free substitutions so the players voted in can come back into the game, but once you run out of pitchers, everybody gets together, sings kumbaya, shakes hands and goes home. And if its a tie... who cares? Its about the "all-stars", not the "game". Last week's Costas HBO show with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays showed you those players played competitively in a game that didn't "count", when the legends rattled off their All Star won lost records, and Hank bragged about winning all but one of those games.
Today we review our final James Bond movie picked by new papa Steve - Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.
Personally, I would have preferred that the producers kept Pierce Brosnan as James Bond... that way he would have been too busy when they were casting Mamma Mia and we would not have been subjected to his horrific singing! I saw a Mamma Mia matinee during the recent heat wave and lets say right off the bat - I hate musicals... (except for The Sound of Music). but I love Abba. I liked Mamma Mia on Broadway (see February 2, 2007 in the archives), so there is some bias when I went to this movie, I agree with the Star Ledger critic who says that Meryl Streep is way too old for this role, and that Brosnan as an American is a horrible singer, but I thought the movie deserved more than the one star he gave it. It is also not a good idea to see the movie too soon after seeing the musical... for me, a year a half was enough time so that the movie didn't disappoint. As a matter of fact all of the non Batman fans at the Friday afternoon screening stayed through the closing credits since it included a nice little treat that was similar to the post finale portion of the stage musical.
This movie shows how hard it is to put a stage musical on film, since some of the numbers in the show do not translate as well on screen, especially a dance featuring the guys on the island dancing with scuba flippers that just comes together a lot better when you see it unfold on the stage. The story is about the 19 year old daughter of a single mom who invites 3 suspected dads to her Greek Island home for her wedding - pre DNA it's the Daniellyn Nicole Smith Story. However, even though she looks younger, Meryl Streep at 59 is a fine actress, but for her to play the mother of a 19 year old who was the result of a "young indiscretion", just doesn't make sense - this role should have been played by a 40- 45 year old actress.... And even though Christine Baranski turns in yet another excellent performance as Streep's friend, her role and Brosnans might have worked better if they had been played by the less famous actors I had seen in the Broadway show - Judy McLane and David McDonald.
Besides Pierce Brosnan's unfortunate availability there is another link between Casino Royale and Mamma Mia. I saw on IMDB that Mamma Mia was the first movie to use the famed Bond movie Pinewood Studios after a fire broke out there after Casino Royale wrapped up shooting.
Casino Royale takes Bond into the new millenium.... by making it "the first movie" in the series taking place right after Bond is promoted to 00 status making it a bit of a time bender. It's not a prequel per se... just a mulligan on the prior back story... sort of like the first Christian Bale Batman compared to the Michael Keaton era. Casino Royale is based on the first Bond book of the same name, but legal maneuverings prevented the producers from putting this movie together until 2006. Because of that, the movie has no established history with some of the popular regulars so there are none of Moneypenny's flirty wisecracks, nor Q's gadgets and the cranky gadget training sessions.... Neither character appears in this movie. Bond doesn't even know yet that he prefers his martini shaken not stirred.
Casino Royale starts off in black and white! and doesn't use the traditional pre credit action sequence. I thought my dvd player wasnt working when I saw it was in b and w! This is the scene where Bond earns his stripes to warrant the promotion to 00 status. Bond earns it by showing off his cleverness... a far cry from the somewhat bumbling womanizer he will evolve into when Sean Connery becomes Bond. Bond might be too smart for his own good when he not only figures out "M"s real name (as predicted in the movie's opening credits - "You Know My Name") but breaks into her apartment and figures out how to hack into her computer. Bond doesn't get off on the right foot with "M" and goes off on his own for his adventure evoking memories of 24 when CTU is abuzz when Jack Bauer goes off one of his little unapproved side tangent terrorist hunts.
The plot revolves around a multi million dollar poker tournament where Bond is expected to beat out a terrorist named Le Chiffre who plans to win the contest in order to fund his terrorist operations. Even though this movie doesn't have the exciting pre credit action sequence... things pick up almost immediately after those opening credits. Bond's pursuit of a terrorist, starts with a bomb maker who he pursues in a wild and crazy foot chase through Madagascar that invovles people jumping off buildings and climbing walls and all kinds of other gravity defying hijinks. Bond also gets involved in a crazy airport chase with one of Le Chiffre's henchmen... that ends up in the parking lot with a surprise for the henchman. There are other memorable action scenes here too including Bond having to rely on his own wits and some luck to save his life after he is poisoned.... and a touching affair with a woman whose post poker tournament make out scene doesn't trigger the closing credits which makes you realize that this way too long movie is still not over yet.... and based on the Lanzeby movie, this chickie might not have such a happy ending.
I usually mentally write my reviews and then as I start to type I meander over to see what the Great Roger Ebert has to say. Incredibly he gave it 4 stars and loooooved it... but I was not quite that impressed. Bond loses a ton o' money on one hand when he thinks he sees terrorist Le Chiffre's "tell"... but even Cheers had its classic Harry Anderson poker cheating episode where Coach admitted that his "cheat" of scratching his nose only happened because his nose actually itched. And during the hand he asked several times if people saw him scratch his nose because it itched. Of course they played the hand.... lost... and then discovered that Coach's nose was really itching. But the whole idea of a terrorist fundraiser through a poker game strikes me as a bit nutty, especially in an era where we are over innundated with TV Texas hold 'em tournaments that are aired on virtually every tv channel. Maybe Gabe Kaplan providing commentary might have been more interesting, although there was one exciting hand where 4 people went all-in - I wasn't sure how realisitic that was, but one of my poker playing buddies told me that scenario actually does happen once in a blue moon...... kind of like my Royal Flush in Double Down Stud last Christmas! Personally, I like Omaha HI-Lo better than Texas Hold 'Em.
The Craig Bond is also a lot more serious - the movie is rarely funny compared to the other ones, and Bond only gets off one really good wisecrack when a potential suitor, the oddly named Vesper Lynd (no relation to Danielynn or Paul Lynde) responds to his "You're not my type" with "Because Im smart?" To which Bond retorts..."no, because you're single.:. " . You also know something is up when Bond gets his poker winnings from a banker who asks him for his password so the money can be wired to his account. As soon as we see him share his password with his Bond girl du jour (and it was not Bosco), you could see that something bad was gonna happen.
There is also a character in the movie who risks her life to save the life of a mysterious loved one who is never shown. That woman meets her end in a rather incredible Indiana Jones-esque building malfunction that will make you very nervous next time you enter a waterfront house! The "loved one", is never shown in the movie, but he is slated to appear in the next Bond movie coming out in 2009, and that character's appearance along with another character who may or may not have been a "bad guy" has already generated a lot of buzz - since the next Bond movie takes place just a few hours after Casino Royale ends,....... Its almost like when the first Bale Batman Movie's ending teased the arrival of The Joker.
I think in retrospect, maybe I should have watched these Bond movies backwards - starting with Craig and ending with Roger Moore and Sean Connery, because as the movies progressed, the Bond quality never lived up to the bar set up Connery and Moore. Not that I take particular issue with Craig per se, but he has tough shoes to fill in this movie, and this 21st century movie audience apparently likes its heroes to be more brooding and serious which makes you miss the old tongue in cheek humor of the Bonds of the earlier movies.
Overall, the story is interesting - the action is compelling and the music is okay. We don't hear the Bond theme as often as usual, but that could be the movie producer's attempts to distance this Bond from the other Bonds. Its too bad we didnt have Money Penny... but its a downright shame we didn't have Q and his gadgets... although Bond's computer hacking skills seemed to be quite impressive. On a scale of 1 to 4 Bladders meaning how less likely you would be to leave in the middle to go to the bathroom - Casino Royale gets 2 and a half bladders.... And Mamma Mia - it also gets 2 and a half bladders. Casino Royale might have been better with Pierce Brosnan, and Mamma Mia might have been better without Pierce Brosnan.
Here is the list of the prior Bond reviews:
October 19, 2007 - Sean Connery's Goldfinger
December 7, 2007 - George Lazenby's On Her Majesty's Secret Service
January 18, 2008 - Roger Moore's Octopussy
March 23, 2008 - Timothy Dalton's The Living Daylights
June 16, 2008 - Pre Mamma Mia Pierce Brosnan's Tomorrow Never Dies
Now time to announce our next movie series - Christian Bale had that notorious role in American Psycho playing the incredibly bizarre Patrick Bateman...which is why we will do.... "From Bateman to Batman - the Christian Bale 4 pack!"
CLIP OF THE WEEK:
Lemme tell you a little Clip Story. When I first started posting audio and video files online I used a company called Streamload. They were bought out by Media Max which is when everything went downhill. Due to Media Max's unreliability, I started uploading my files elsewhere, posting videos on You Tube and my Mortgage Podcast on Clickcaster. A few months ago, I got an email breathlessly announcing that Media Max was bought by The Link Up and TLU was going to migrate all files to its new site! Yippee - they emailed me a link to a manual file mover if I chose to do the move myself. I decided that to do the job right, I might as well do it myself, but alas - the link didn't work so I was at their mercy along with thousands of other customers. Well, the old Clickcaster became inaccesible and NONE of my files were moved to TLU - except one. Now, TLU just announced - they are closing in a couple of weeks and all the non migrated Media Max files are - gone permanently! For me, it was just a bunch of podcasts and videos that are saved on any of our 3 computers, but many of these other customers used that service for work, and they were billed every month for this (lack of) service and now they have... nothing. If any lawyers are doing a class action suit against the owners of Streamload/MediaMax/TheLinkUp, count me in!
Now the only file still on TLU - get it while it lasts - Jersey Dreamin' - The Jim McGreevey Song - by McG and DJ Fine Freddy. Please see the archives from June 4th for the liner notes how this song is about how Jim McGreevey used his homosexuality as a smokescreen for the real reason he stepped down.
See you later in the summer.
If only I was the Commissioner of baseball.... Besides giving the Mets the World Series each year, I would first get rid of the silly rule that the All Star Game "counts". Its the All "Star" game and people want to see the stars they vote for... not the backups that played the last several innings of that 15 inning marathon. I would make a rule that each manager needs to have 6 pitchers (including 3 starters) on the bench going into the 8th inning... and 4 pitchers (including at least 2 starters) going to the 9th. Then, if the game goes extra innings. allow free substitutions so the players voted in can come back into the game, but once you run out of pitchers, everybody gets together, sings kumbaya, shakes hands and goes home. And if its a tie... who cares? Its about the "all-stars", not the "game". Last week's Costas HBO show with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays showed you those players played competitively in a game that didn't "count", when the legends rattled off their All Star won lost records, and Hank bragged about winning all but one of those games.
Today we review our final James Bond movie picked by new papa Steve - Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.
Personally, I would have preferred that the producers kept Pierce Brosnan as James Bond... that way he would have been too busy when they were casting Mamma Mia and we would not have been subjected to his horrific singing! I saw a Mamma Mia matinee during the recent heat wave and lets say right off the bat - I hate musicals... (except for The Sound of Music). but I love Abba. I liked Mamma Mia on Broadway (see February 2, 2007 in the archives), so there is some bias when I went to this movie, I agree with the Star Ledger critic who says that Meryl Streep is way too old for this role, and that Brosnan as an American is a horrible singer, but I thought the movie deserved more than the one star he gave it. It is also not a good idea to see the movie too soon after seeing the musical... for me, a year a half was enough time so that the movie didn't disappoint. As a matter of fact all of the non Batman fans at the Friday afternoon screening stayed through the closing credits since it included a nice little treat that was similar to the post finale portion of the stage musical.
This movie shows how hard it is to put a stage musical on film, since some of the numbers in the show do not translate as well on screen, especially a dance featuring the guys on the island dancing with scuba flippers that just comes together a lot better when you see it unfold on the stage. The story is about the 19 year old daughter of a single mom who invites 3 suspected dads to her Greek Island home for her wedding - pre DNA it's the Daniellyn Nicole Smith Story. However, even though she looks younger, Meryl Streep at 59 is a fine actress, but for her to play the mother of a 19 year old who was the result of a "young indiscretion", just doesn't make sense - this role should have been played by a 40- 45 year old actress.... And even though Christine Baranski turns in yet another excellent performance as Streep's friend, her role and Brosnans might have worked better if they had been played by the less famous actors I had seen in the Broadway show - Judy McLane and David McDonald.
Besides Pierce Brosnan's unfortunate availability there is another link between Casino Royale and Mamma Mia. I saw on IMDB that Mamma Mia was the first movie to use the famed Bond movie Pinewood Studios after a fire broke out there after Casino Royale wrapped up shooting.
Casino Royale takes Bond into the new millenium.... by making it "the first movie" in the series taking place right after Bond is promoted to 00 status making it a bit of a time bender. It's not a prequel per se... just a mulligan on the prior back story... sort of like the first Christian Bale Batman compared to the Michael Keaton era. Casino Royale is based on the first Bond book of the same name, but legal maneuverings prevented the producers from putting this movie together until 2006. Because of that, the movie has no established history with some of the popular regulars so there are none of Moneypenny's flirty wisecracks, nor Q's gadgets and the cranky gadget training sessions.... Neither character appears in this movie. Bond doesn't even know yet that he prefers his martini shaken not stirred.
Casino Royale starts off in black and white! and doesn't use the traditional pre credit action sequence. I thought my dvd player wasnt working when I saw it was in b and w! This is the scene where Bond earns his stripes to warrant the promotion to 00 status. Bond earns it by showing off his cleverness... a far cry from the somewhat bumbling womanizer he will evolve into when Sean Connery becomes Bond. Bond might be too smart for his own good when he not only figures out "M"s real name (as predicted in the movie's opening credits - "You Know My Name") but breaks into her apartment and figures out how to hack into her computer. Bond doesn't get off on the right foot with "M" and goes off on his own for his adventure evoking memories of 24 when CTU is abuzz when Jack Bauer goes off one of his little unapproved side tangent terrorist hunts.
The plot revolves around a multi million dollar poker tournament where Bond is expected to beat out a terrorist named Le Chiffre who plans to win the contest in order to fund his terrorist operations. Even though this movie doesn't have the exciting pre credit action sequence... things pick up almost immediately after those opening credits. Bond's pursuit of a terrorist, starts with a bomb maker who he pursues in a wild and crazy foot chase through Madagascar that invovles people jumping off buildings and climbing walls and all kinds of other gravity defying hijinks. Bond also gets involved in a crazy airport chase with one of Le Chiffre's henchmen... that ends up in the parking lot with a surprise for the henchman. There are other memorable action scenes here too including Bond having to rely on his own wits and some luck to save his life after he is poisoned.... and a touching affair with a woman whose post poker tournament make out scene doesn't trigger the closing credits which makes you realize that this way too long movie is still not over yet.... and based on the Lanzeby movie, this chickie might not have such a happy ending.
I usually mentally write my reviews and then as I start to type I meander over to see what the Great Roger Ebert has to say. Incredibly he gave it 4 stars and loooooved it... but I was not quite that impressed. Bond loses a ton o' money on one hand when he thinks he sees terrorist Le Chiffre's "tell"... but even Cheers had its classic Harry Anderson poker cheating episode where Coach admitted that his "cheat" of scratching his nose only happened because his nose actually itched. And during the hand he asked several times if people saw him scratch his nose because it itched. Of course they played the hand.... lost... and then discovered that Coach's nose was really itching. But the whole idea of a terrorist fundraiser through a poker game strikes me as a bit nutty, especially in an era where we are over innundated with TV Texas hold 'em tournaments that are aired on virtually every tv channel. Maybe Gabe Kaplan providing commentary might have been more interesting, although there was one exciting hand where 4 people went all-in - I wasn't sure how realisitic that was, but one of my poker playing buddies told me that scenario actually does happen once in a blue moon...... kind of like my Royal Flush in Double Down Stud last Christmas! Personally, I like Omaha HI-Lo better than Texas Hold 'Em.
The Craig Bond is also a lot more serious - the movie is rarely funny compared to the other ones, and Bond only gets off one really good wisecrack when a potential suitor, the oddly named Vesper Lynd (no relation to Danielynn or Paul Lynde) responds to his "You're not my type" with "Because Im smart?" To which Bond retorts..."no, because you're single.:. " . You also know something is up when Bond gets his poker winnings from a banker who asks him for his password so the money can be wired to his account. As soon as we see him share his password with his Bond girl du jour (and it was not Bosco), you could see that something bad was gonna happen.
There is also a character in the movie who risks her life to save the life of a mysterious loved one who is never shown. That woman meets her end in a rather incredible Indiana Jones-esque building malfunction that will make you very nervous next time you enter a waterfront house! The "loved one", is never shown in the movie, but he is slated to appear in the next Bond movie coming out in 2009, and that character's appearance along with another character who may or may not have been a "bad guy" has already generated a lot of buzz - since the next Bond movie takes place just a few hours after Casino Royale ends,....... Its almost like when the first Bale Batman Movie's ending teased the arrival of The Joker.
I think in retrospect, maybe I should have watched these Bond movies backwards - starting with Craig and ending with Roger Moore and Sean Connery, because as the movies progressed, the Bond quality never lived up to the bar set up Connery and Moore. Not that I take particular issue with Craig per se, but he has tough shoes to fill in this movie, and this 21st century movie audience apparently likes its heroes to be more brooding and serious which makes you miss the old tongue in cheek humor of the Bonds of the earlier movies.
Overall, the story is interesting - the action is compelling and the music is okay. We don't hear the Bond theme as often as usual, but that could be the movie producer's attempts to distance this Bond from the other Bonds. Its too bad we didnt have Money Penny... but its a downright shame we didn't have Q and his gadgets... although Bond's computer hacking skills seemed to be quite impressive. On a scale of 1 to 4 Bladders meaning how less likely you would be to leave in the middle to go to the bathroom - Casino Royale gets 2 and a half bladders.... And Mamma Mia - it also gets 2 and a half bladders. Casino Royale might have been better with Pierce Brosnan, and Mamma Mia might have been better without Pierce Brosnan.
Here is the list of the prior Bond reviews:
October 19, 2007 - Sean Connery's Goldfinger
December 7, 2007 - George Lazenby's On Her Majesty's Secret Service
January 18, 2008 - Roger Moore's Octopussy
March 23, 2008 - Timothy Dalton's The Living Daylights
June 16, 2008 - Pre Mamma Mia Pierce Brosnan's Tomorrow Never Dies
Now time to announce our next movie series - Christian Bale had that notorious role in American Psycho playing the incredibly bizarre Patrick Bateman...which is why we will do.... "From Bateman to Batman - the Christian Bale 4 pack!"
CLIP OF THE WEEK:
Lemme tell you a little Clip Story. When I first started posting audio and video files online I used a company called Streamload. They were bought out by Media Max which is when everything went downhill. Due to Media Max's unreliability, I started uploading my files elsewhere, posting videos on You Tube and my Mortgage Podcast on Clickcaster. A few months ago, I got an email breathlessly announcing that Media Max was bought by The Link Up and TLU was going to migrate all files to its new site! Yippee - they emailed me a link to a manual file mover if I chose to do the move myself. I decided that to do the job right, I might as well do it myself, but alas - the link didn't work so I was at their mercy along with thousands of other customers. Well, the old Clickcaster became inaccesible and NONE of my files were moved to TLU - except one. Now, TLU just announced - they are closing in a couple of weeks and all the non migrated Media Max files are - gone permanently! For me, it was just a bunch of podcasts and videos that are saved on any of our 3 computers, but many of these other customers used that service for work, and they were billed every month for this (lack of) service and now they have... nothing. If any lawyers are doing a class action suit against the owners of Streamload/MediaMax/TheLinkUp, count me in!
Now the only file still on TLU - get it while it lasts - Jersey Dreamin' - The Jim McGreevey Song - by McG and DJ Fine Freddy. Please see the archives from June 4th for the liner notes how this song is about how Jim McGreevey used his homosexuality as a smokescreen for the real reason he stepped down.
See you later in the summer.
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