Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Off The Bench

OK, let’s get right to it. Blake or Jordin? It doesn’t matter to me because Sanjaya is gone, and honestly, the true winner left when Melinda was voted off.

The demise of “American Idol” has begun. It was never the same after Dunkleman left.

Baseball’s exhibition season has ended again, at least for now. Rumor has it that the Mets won two of three from the Yankees, but I couldn’t tell you. I barely watched it, and virtually ignored all media regarding it. It was easier that way.

Honestly, I saw small parts of each game. That’s it.

Back to reality now with the Red Sox, and it’s sad when we must celebrate a two-game winning streak by Torre and company. At the moment though, all is right with the world.

At least until Mike Muissina went out and laid a big fat egg. Sox 7...Yanks 3. Uh huh.

I think Joe Torre was veryclose to being gone. And might still be.

Am I the only one who thought there was something refreshing about Jason Giambi coming out and saying that baseball screwed up and that they owe the fans an apology? Granted, he’s a loose cannon, but I was OK with it. That’s why his teammates like him.

As opposed to Kyle Farnsworth, who needs to shut up and pitch.

The moral outrage over the Roger Clemens family clause is funny. We’re supposed to be in shock because he asked for it and the Yankees gave into it? Barry Bonds essentially has his own locker room, for God’s sake.

He’s Roger-freaking-Clemens, and despite what Tommy Dee (Mets fan, natch) says, he’s not the worst person in sports (Mike Tyson, Albert Belle, Ty Cobb, keep lining ‘em up). He might however, be the best pitcher in the history of the sport. If you’ve got a chance to have him on your team, might you consider giving him whatever he wants?

That’s what I thought.

Over at NYYFans.com, there are some so-called experts who because they write the occasional article for a website figure that they are entitled to be so smug (present company, hopefully excluded). This one is positive that the problems with the Yankees are A) Robinson Cano (don’t ya know) and B) Saint Joseph Torre. I will readily admit that Torre’s managing has not been the best, and Cano has been putrid this season, but come on. Anybody seen Bobby Abreu’s confidence, or a consistent rotation?

Puh-leeze.

He does make one good point, at the end when he says this:

Double Postscript: That was pretty classy of so many Met Fans who cheered when Darrell Rasner had to leave the game after being hit by the comebacker. Do you all feel proud of yourselves now?


I will not accuse my friends in Queens of doing this. I hope that is inaccurate or just an exaggeration, but considering I still remember how loud the cheer was when Kirk Gibson injured himself at Shea in the 1988 National League Championship Series, I wonder.

Anyway, it’s all just continued proof that there are lots of bad sports fans out there, and unfortunately people expect it from New Yorkers especially. Don’t believe me? Listen to the visitor’s broadcast during a New York sports event. You can hear it, sometimes cryptically, during a national broadcast (FOX or ESPN), but it’s obvious on the local ‘casts. I’ve heard it on broadcasts from Cleveland, Texas, and Chicago (the White Sox) when their teams were playing the Yankees. They have stereotypes of New Yorkers and, in these cases, Yankees fans. Unfortunately more often than not, we do nothing to squash those thoughts.

Oh, it seems the Mets fan is unhappy with the fact that they’re not getting slaps on the back in the media for taking two of three from the Yankees. I know that this is new to y’all but here’s the deal – first, this is still a Yankee-town. Deep down, it always will be, but that being said, when there are problems (like being under .500 with a big fat payroll and the manager teetering on being fired) everything gets magnified and put on the back page. The Mets, the better team in New York right now, were expected to win – especially at home. Thus they won. There’s nothing compelling about that right now.

So what I’m saying, nicely, is shut up. Or stop whining. You’ve got a great team – one that might bring the whole ball of wax home this year.

While on the subject of shutting up, can Jimmy Carter please do that?

We get it – you don’t like the sitting president. At this point, who does? But do I need to remind you that me, and many like me, think your presidency was one of the great embarrassments? Short of, say, Warren G. Harding, you might have had the worst presidency of the 20th Century.

Some of you might want to include Nixon, but you wouldn’t dare if not for Watergate, so let it go.

The mass hysteria continues. Seems that Bernard McGuirk, former Imus bald-headed stooge, was to be a guest co-host on a Boston-based radio show this week. That was until another special interest group got up in arms about it. The wimps that run the station promptly canceled it.

I’m telling you, this has got to stop.

Guess I shouldn’t be so sad that I haven’t been on the airwaves in a while. It’s safer for me to keep my credibility and so-called career.

Once again this morning, I dealt with the issue of “watch what you say around him or it might end up in his blog.” Friends and readers, I ask for your trust as I use great common sense when writing this. As I sit here today, I’m faced with two acquaintances that are battling cancer. You can’t have any more details than that out of respect to their friends and loved ones, but I am going to ask for your usual amounts of good thoughts.

I won’t write it if it’s off the record, or if I think it might hurt somebody. But when people that I care about have loved ones who are up against this, I am going to say a small something. Too many good people lately seem to be battling too hard. Life’s hard but it shouldn’t be this hard.

OK, let’s do some happy wishes. We start with a happy birthday for my buddy Cameron, who also just celebrated his first communion last Saturday. While we’re on the topic of communions, congrats to my godson Philip, who also celebrated on Saturday, and wowed everyone in the church with his reading. Philip’s father, the artist formerly known as John Harrison, also celebrated his birthday in the past few days. He swears that he’s 21, but I’ve known him long enough to know better. If he’s 21 in his soul, then that’s the best way to be – young at heart.

More happy wishes – this one to our friends Jon and Rebecca in R-VA (that’s Richmond, Virginia to y’all). They celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary, and I still say that their wedding was one of the most memorable I’ve ever been to. First, I had never worn a yarmulke until that day. Second, to get to the site, you had to drive on a dirt road, passing over a bridge that automobiles had no business crossing. Third, it was at a plantation. Fourth, a ZZ Top-like string trio was the entertainment, playing Civil War-era tunes. Fifth…peeps on the wedding cake! Peeps! Sixth, fried chicken and collared greens and other southern delicacies. Seventh…AWESOME!!

Plus good friends everywhere, and the beginning of a solid marriage. A hearty Mazel Tov!

Again, peeps for the peeps!

Lastly, a happy birthday to Bobby Murcer (May 20). May he, and all of these other good people, have many more birthdays, anniversaries and celebrations.

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