Saturday, August 03, 2013

RANDOM THOUGHTS


July 29, 2013

As I sit here writing this, waiting for the Macaroni Man to come so we can drive up to Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame, I have just finished reading the newspapers. This summer has been one of pure joy in terms of what I am reading! The headlines are focused mainly on Anthony Weiner and Alex Rodriguez, two shady characters with the moral code of a pimp.

A-Rod
Alex Rodriguez, as far as I’m concerned should be banned for life from baseball, but the cost of keeping his contract that was negotiated by the NY Yankees is a great lesson in why all these ballplayers are overpaid and overvalued. What has he really contributed to the team except high costs, negative headlines, including cheating on his wife, and under-performing, with one let-down after another in the post season, and only one World Series victory. But you could say most of that for all the Yankees because they all share the same record.

A-Weiner
Then we have that chicken head Anthony Weiner, a pervert who should have stayed under the radar and not ran for Mayor of NYC. If he had, no one would have cared if he was alive or dead, but no he craves attention. So what has this deviate done but increase his profile as a pervert, and low-life cheater, and an embarrassment for the future of his child. I look at him and see this desperate attempt, in spite of the overwhelming disgust for him, to continue to pursue the quest for Mayor. So now everyone has gone from polite disgust to outright calling him a pervert.

But sometimes things like these two bums help in the long and short terms. For one thing, I think Elliot Spitzer will not get re-elected after Weiner’s lesson about second chances, and that we do need to maintain a high moral standard in public office. And maybe, just maybe, those ridiculously high overpaying contracts that the owners seem to never stop giving out, only to see themselves wishing the ballplayer will go away, will finally come to an end.

Today, I will go to the place that worships all my childhood heroes, the great players who mainly played for the love of the game, who played it with grace, professionalism and mainly love. The Hank Aaron’s Babe Ruth’s and Joe DiMaggio’s, who made history on the ball field, who filled the back pages of the tabloids with their amazing feats with wood and leather, the pure and simple game of baseball.

Judith Exner
Funny thing is, as a kid in high school, I like millions of other kids, were excited about JFK and politics, about our future, about the man in the White House being so young, who was the shining hope, who after the luster wore off, revealed what all politicians become, or at least seem to with few exceptions, owning skeletons in their closets like Judith Exner.


3 comments:

Jim Pantaleno said...

Hard to comment on Anthony Weiner without making a bad pun on his name. (Even that sentence qualifies.) We all want our heroes to be perfect but of course they are not. Back in the day the press cut heroes a little more slack, but not today. Bottom line: anything you say or do is fair game so be careful or be skewered.

Anthony said...

Do yourselves a favor and rent "42". Courtney and I watched it last night and it will restore your faith in what heroes can do. However, it will also show you that there were always pretty lousy guys in the sports world -- but, as Jim said, the press didn't cover them as much. But Branch Rickey, Pee Wee Reese -- and obviously Jackie Robinson -- come off wonderfully and will make you feel good about baseball and the world again. It was a very solid movie.

--#1 Son

Jim Pantaleno said...

So right Anthony. Jackie (although a hated Brooklyn Dodger) has become a hero to this old Yankee fan. The things he endured and kept silent about, for the good of helping more blacks get into baseball, makes him one of the most courageous figures ever in sports. He not only turned the other cheek, but turned in some incredible performances on the field that helped the Dodgers be a better ball club. We lost him way too soon.