Rant #3,937: Yankee Doodle Dandy

We lost one of the greats yesterday, and I think this person's prominence extended well beyond sports, and even non-sports fans knew his name.

And no, he was not an athlete, but he called the games featuring athletes from America's four major sports--and then some--for probably a half century.

We lost John Sterling yesterday.

Yes, Sterling, 87, made his mark as the decades-long voice of the New York Yankees, with his mouth-swirling, tongue-twisting home run calls being the stuff of legends.

He was there through more than 5,000 games over 36 seasons, just about all the recent successes of the team, only fully retiring less than two years ago, but still around and still talked about as if he was never really going to fully go away for good.

And you know what? I really never liked Sterling as a broadcaster.

Yes, I am a Yankees fan tried and true, grew up learning and loving the game with the Frank Messer-Bill White-Phil Rizzuto trio as my broadcast standard on both radio and television, but I simply could not get into Sterling at all.

As I wrote on Facebook:

"I have to tell you, I was never a fan of Sterling. 

I didn't like his calling of the games, I didn't like that he often ignored [broadcast partner] Suzyn Waldman and everything she had to say, and I didn't like his ego on the air ... but I absolutely respected him and the work he did to bring Yankees baseball to everyone on the air. 

I also remember him as the ABA New York Nets announcer, his work on TBS, and for his own sport talk radio show, where I actually won a prize answering a question about paralyzed basketball player Maurice Stokes. 

He was extremely nasty on that show, in particular to younger listeners like myself, but somehow, I won out that one time. 

Anyway, to all of us, he became an institution on the air, and whether you loved him or didn't, he will be sorely missed."

Yes, I absolutely respected his work, and respected him as the "Voice of the Yankees" for all of those years, but I simply didn't like him as an announcer.

To me, he was too shrill, and his immense ego came out on the radio broadcasts of the Yankees games.

But to others, he completely defined the Bronx Bombers, in particular during the years that the so-called "Core Four"--Andy Pettite, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada--as well as others--Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill--drove the Yankees to several World Series victories under the reign of owner George Steinbrenner.

His after-winning games chant of, "The Yankees win ... The Yankees win!" was beloved by Yankees fans, and chastised by everyone else.

However, Sterling made his mark with his home run calls.

They became the stuff of legend, filled up compendiums of lists, and were his calling card for decades, the reason people who weren't sports fans knew him.

"All rise! Here comes the Judge!" (Aaron Judge)

"Giancarlo, non si puo de stopparlo!" (Giancarlo Stanton)

"It's Gleybar Day!" (Gleybar Torres)

"Robbie Cano! Don'tcha know! (Robinson Cano)

"It's a thrilla by Godzilla!" (Hideki Matsui, known in Japan as "Godzilla.")

And my personal favorite--

"Bernie goes boom! Bern, baby, Bern!" (Bernie Williams)

Every season, when the Yankees would get a new player, the anticipation was great about how Sterling would announce that player's first Yankee home run.

And it wasn't just a New York thing.

People wondered around the country, and probably, around the world, about how Sterling would handle a new player's maiden Yankee home run.

When Didi Gregorius joined the Yankees, Sterling came up with something so simple for a home run call for someone who had a kind of strange name.

"Yes In-Didi! Euphorious and Uproarious!" he said, and that was all you needed to know.

There were so many others, but those just seem to stick in my head, and will be there forever.

I am sure that Sterling will receive a plaque or some other accolade at Yankee Stadium for his work calling the team, and I would think naming the radio broadcast booth after him would be the most proper--

Even though I think it was already named after him some years ago, but I am not entirely sure about that.

Whatever the case, the announcer that brought us both Derek Jeter and Julius Erving (with the Nets) at their best, and so many other great players through his announcing, has left us, but he has left us so much, all over the Internet, that his legacy will never be forgotten.

R.I.P. John Sterling, and I wish I could come up with my own "home run call" for you.

"A Sterling effort by a Sterling man!" is all I can come up with, and it doesn't even come close to the importance that he had to the New York Yankees, the team's fans, and to the sports world in general.

Rant #3,936: No Time

My run of bad luck continues--

Although this is more in the "annoying" category than anything else.

On Friday, I did not get the correct pay for the month by my employer.

I was short quite a bit, and while I won't go into how much, it was a substantial amount.

I contacted my employer, but I did not hear back from them over the weekend.

Not good.

And then in the evening, when I was watching my son play basketball, I was speaking with one of the other parents there, who asked about my health.

She is the parent of one of my son's bowling teammates, so she knew about my ailments.

As I was talking to her, I felt something funny on my left wrist.

I felt the wrist, under my hoodie, and lo and behold, my watch broke.

The band just split while I was wearing it.

When we got home, I tried to fix it, but to no avail--

So I had to order another one, did it online, and I actually received it on Sunday, believe it or not!

I only had the watch for about two years, if even that, and this time, the band just wore out.

I think it had to do with the fact that with all the medical procedures I have been through during the past several weeks, the taking off-putting back on the watch weakened the band to the point that it simply snapped.

Yes, I wear the watch all of the time. 

It is waterproof, so I can wear it in the shower, and I never take it off, even while sleeping.

So it went kaput on me.

Just another expense, and expense I paid for with a wallet that is short a bit of money right now--

Money which I hope to get back sometime this week ...

I hope.

With mounting medical bills, every dollar I have in my account is really, really important, because Medicare simply doesn't pay for that much, in particular when it comes to surgery and procedures that I have had and will have this month and in the future.

Personally, I am feeling OK right now, still not 100 percent myself, but somewhere near it, at least for now.

But these little things simply do not help me feel better, just adding more bricks to my already full load.

Everything is torture, it seems.

But at least this past weekend had some good times, too.

My family and I went out to eat dinner to honor my 69th birthday on April 28.

We went to a nearby what I thought was a Chinese food place, which I picked because we hadn't had that type of food in a long, long time.

My family and I aren't the biggest Chinese food eaters, but I figured that we hadn't eaten that type of fare in a while, so why not now?

But to our surprise, the place turned into an all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue place, which was a bit different than we had expected.

It was OK, and it was nice to relax for a spell.

So I am less my pay and my watch, but full in the stomach.

They say, "A way to a man's heart is through his stomach," so I guess that even with the other voids, at least my stomach felt good.

Now, as for the money owed me ...

They say "Money is the root of all evil"-- 

But it has become the root of my ability to keep up with my bills, so, as they say--

"Show me the money!"

(And who is this "they" I talk about?)

Today is the 17th anniversary of the Ranting and Raving Blog, so congratulations to the blog, to me, and to the readers of this blog for everyone's perseverance!

Rant #3,935: Shaddap You Face

The second day removed from my procedure was a little tough. 

I kind of started to feel it during the prior day, on Wednesday, where my back started to hurt in various spots, and it kind of picked up during the evening.

Thursday saw a continuation of this, but I passed one protocol in the morning that I won't go into here, so I guess you can say that I am on my way ...

To what, I don't know, but I do know that May is going to be a very busy month for me, medically and otherwise.

I have so many things to do, I have a bevy of procedures that are going to be done, and hopefully, by the end of the month, I will better know--and my doctors will better know--what is ailing me, and how in tandem we can fix these things.

Now onto other things ...

The Jimmy Kimmel stuff has riled me, as I think it has just about everyone with a brain in his or her head, but perhaps not for the same reasons as one might think.

Yes, his "joke"--if that is what you want to call it--was totally tasteless, but I don't believe he called on the President to be harmed in any way by saying what he did.

But he did cross the line.

The supposed "comedian"--who hasn't been funny in eons--pretty much made fun of the First Lady grieving for her husband, who he assumed would pre-decease her.

How can this be the least bit funny?

Yes, he dug his grave a little bit deeper with his explanation--that he was simply making fun of the disparity between the President's age and his younger wife's age--but the quip was completely tasteless.

Since when is a joke about death, and the death of a specific president no less, funny?

We know that Kimmel doesn't like Trump, and Trump doesn't like Kimmel, but this feud has reached a level that is reprehensible.

This is what I said on Facebook the other day, and I am going to stand by it:

"Now the FCC is getting involved in this mess. 

ABC/Disney really should, at the very least, suspend him. 

What he is doing is not comedy--it is left wing politicking, and it is just so wrong. 

His explanation about the disparity in ages simply begs the question: why are you so gleefully joking about the potential widowhood of anyone on the air in front of millions of viewers? 

If your wife writes your jokes, what is her angle about making a supposed "joke" about a woman losing her husband?

This is "funny?"

Kimmel is neither "funny" nor "clever."

You just cannot say whatever you want when you have free speech, and there has to be some responsibility shown, especially when your words go out to millions of people each night.

Kimmel's explanation is a poor one, and if he uses his pulpit to spout this garbage night after night, then it is up to ABC/Disney to police their own.

I mean, there really isn't much more to say about it.

Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.

Rant #3,934: I'm Alive

Yes, I'm alive.

I got through my latest health procedure pretty well, although I still have to hear back from the doctor after my polyps--six of them--are fully analyzed.

On the surface, it appears that I might have dodged a bullet based on the doctor's own analysis, but I will await the final word on them before I kick up my body in glee.

And If everything is OK, it was one of the best birthday gifts that I could have ever given myself.

Yes, I had the procedure done on my birthday--

Not because I necessarily wanted it done that day, but because the doctor had no other open spots to do this procedure.

His office was closed during the Easter/Passover break--more for Passover, based on what he and his office told me--and they had a backlog of cases, so it just worked out that my birthday was my day.

I had my gall bladder taken out on my birthday 19 years before on my 50th birthday--that was an emergency surgery--so it is not totally foreign for me to celebrate the date of my birth by having medical procedures done on that date.

It all made my special day kind of weird, but my family helped me get through it, hopefully with flying colors.

I need another such procedure done in six months, but hopefully nothing further about that area in between.

And thanks to everyone for the birthday well wishes ...

Let me tell you, it helped--

And it helped a lot.

Funny things happen after i get anesthesia, when I come to and wake up from the it all..

Sometimes I sing, sometimes I say some gibberish, but on Tuesday, I do remember coming out of it, and thanking the medical staff that worked on me for their help in getting me through all of this.

I also looked at the two nurses who were there--both probably in their early 30s--and telling them, "You are two beautiful looking ladies."

But then I told my wife, who they had summoned in after the procedure to help me get dressed, "But you are the best looking lady here."

And I meant that one million percent.

(But yes, the two nurses were absolutely gorgeous.)

Anyway, after speaking with the doctor, my wife had to go up to the desk to make my next appointment there, so I sat in the waiting area, took out my phone, and went on Facebook--which should have been the furthest thing from my mind--and tried to type out the word "polyps."

I had six--count 'em--six of these things removed, and I guess I was happy with what the doctor said about them.

But for the life of me, I could not correctly type out the word "polyps" spelled correctly.

I think I first spelled it "pollips" or "polips" or some variation of that, but I could not spell it out correctly--

Until I fully came to, and I wondered how "polyps" became "pollips" or "polips" or whatever I wrote, and I corrected my spelling.

Kind of strange how the mind works, especially when you aren't fully out of your anesthesia-induced slumber.

But whatever the case, I got through it, and hopefully, I can move on to the next procedure.

May is going to be a very busy month for me, with numerous doctors' appointments on a variety of my ailments throughout the month.

I am not looking forward to any of this, but at least none are on a birthday or a special day for me--

Except one of them.

I don't have any procedures scheduled for May 9 or May 22, which are the anniversaries of my bar mitzvah and my bar mitzvah reception, respectively--I can't believe it is going to be 56 years for both--but I do have a major procedure scheduled--

For May 15, the day I became a father for the first time, when my daughter was born 38 years ago in 1988.

I guess that once again, I will celebrate the occasion with, hopefully, good health--

And I will be able to wish her "happy birthday" maybe with some pain, but with a smile on my face for getting through another hurdle towards good health.

Let's all hope for that.

But for now, let me just relax a little bit.

I think I have earned that, even with the knowledge that the medical merry-go-round continues to turn for me.

Like they said in "The Jetsons"--

"Jane, get me off this crazy thing!"

Please!

Rant #3,933: Who's On First

I have a bit of a difficult period coming up next week.

I have to have another procedure done, and it will pretty much knock me out for at least the first two days of next week.

So next week, I might have to take a "bye" from this blog ... 

We will have to see how things go and if I am up to anything early in the week and for its duration.

I believe that this procedure will pretty much tell me where I stand with my health, so it is a very important one to have.

Onto other things ...

Now that my son has a new doctor, we had a telephone/video appointment with this physician, which happened yesterday afternoon.

And as usual when something involves me, this supposedly simple task did not go smoothly.

First of all, I tried to connect with my laptop, and it simply would not connect.

I tried my phone, and happily, it connected right away.

Everything went well, and the doctor wanted me to make a followup appointment with him, and to send over my son's recently completed psychological assessment.

As the call ended, I said to the doctor that I would assume that my son, at one point, would have to meet with him in person, and the doctor told me--

"That is highly unlikely, because I am in New Jersey."

Funny, the office I went through to get the appointment is near where I used to work--in my own "garden," so to speak--but we now have a doctor handling my son's affairs who is based in the Garden State.

OK, I guess that is how things are handled today ... not to my liking, but like I said yesterday, I am an old fogey, and after three hours of calls, this was the best we could get.

Anyway, I then tried to call this place nearby, because I wanted to make an appointment and I wanted to find out how to send over the report the doctor wanted--

And the doctor, himself, gave me the phone number to call to do all of this.

Little did I know that this would lead to a solid hour of calling, going online, and getting very little done until the end of that hour.

I called the phone number, got put on hold for several minutes, and then was told--

"No one here can answer your call"--

CLICK!

Befuddled--but again, I think someone up there is testing me--I called another number that I had for this place, and again--

"No one here can answer your call"--

CLICK!

I started to yell and scream, but I figured that perhaps I could get this all done if I went to the patient portal that they provided--

And on which we had to fill out countless forms before meeting with the doctor.

I first went to the "Appointments" tab, and tried to get an appointment as close to a month away from yesterday as possible.

I clicked on a date, and it simply would not take.

I did it again, and it simply would not take.

I could not figure out what the problem was, but I was determined to make the appointment, so I tried again--

And again--

And again--

And I don't know how, but it finally took, and we have our May appointment with the doctor--

On the same day that in the morning, I have to go back to the plastic surgeon to see if the cancerous lesion I had taken off my scalp several weeks ago has healed like it was supposed to.

(Yes, with all the other health difficulties I have, that incident with the staples in my scalp feels like an afterthought, something that took place decades ago rather than just a few weeks back.)

So now, I had to try to figure out how to transmit the form the doctor wanted, and I went to different areas on the patient portal, but to no avail.

I went to one of the emails that we were sent from this place, and lo and behold, one said that if I had any questions, I could send an email to one of the addresses on the email--

I wrote up the email, voiced my chagrin at what had been going on, and sent the email off with the attachment that the doctor wanted.

I also went back to the patient portal, sent a message to them to alert them that I had sent the attachment to them through email, but I could not include the attachment to that message, so it was basically an alert that I had sent this to them and that they should look for it in the email and forward it to the doctor.

I figured for fun, I would call the office again, because I wanted to make sure that they received the attachment--

And incredibly, I got someone on the line this time!

I told the operator that as a new patient, I was not happy with the process, but I also told the operator that I had emailed the attachment to the office, and he gave me their text number--

And I texted the attachment over as well.

(And, by the way, the operator told me they were having "technical difficulties," and I replied that is not a valid excuse, especially for a new customer to go through all of this. He agreed with me.)

So anyway, I did get a message back on the portal that they received the attachment through email, and I replied to make sure that the doctor received it--

And reiterated that I was not too happy with the service.

Well, I thought I was done, and then I received another email, stating that since I had met with the doctor, they wanted me to give them a review of their service.

I thought the doctor did a good job, but the service ...

So I tried to put down my thoughts, and I got a message--

Stating that my review could not be accepted.

I don't know why, and quite frankly, I don't give a darn.

"Oh, that's our shortstop!"

I don't know about "Who's On First," but I do know that I can't win for losing lately, and if God is testing me, I hope that I am passing the test--

And that leads me to the rest of this message ...

Monday and Tuesday of next week are going to be washouts, as my health takes precedence.

I honestly don't know if I will be at the Blog either day, or even for the rest of next week.

So it is going to be like a vacation week for me, or at least a vacation from the Blog.

I could put up a photo of a pretty girl in a bikini to signify a "vacation" like I normally do when I go on a brief respite, but I don't think that would be appropriate.

So as sort of a middle ground, I put up what I thought was an appropriate photo at the top of this entry.

I guess you could call it, "Gorilla My Dreams."

Quite appropriate, I would say. 

So please wish me well, I know that I am going to need all your good wishes, and then some.

Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on--

"Who's on first, I don't know's on second ... "

Rant #3,932: When I Grow Up To Be a Man

I just heard from an old friend, who wished me well with the procedure I will be going through early next week.

It made me feel really good, and I was happy to hear that he was doing pretty well himself.

Goodness, and to think that when we were kids, the furthest thing from our minds was our health--

And getting older.

We looked at people who were our age now as "old fogeys," and never realized that if we were lucky, we would one day be the current version of those "old fogeys."

As I have said in the past, I don't feel old, just older--

Although the past several months have made me feel that yes, I am old.

But when I read stories about people who live past 100 years of age, I have to take a step back.

Am I really old?

No, I don't think I am.

And those people who reach past 100 aren't either, because it is their mindset that is admirable.

They don't feel old even past the century mark, so why should I?

I should be embarrassed to even think that I am old.

I haven't even reached 70 years of age yet--

How can I be old?

But onto other things ...

And yes, I have to talk about someone who just died, someone who was not a major star but who might have touched us all by her performances on TV and in the movies.

Joy Harmon passed away the other day at age 85.

If you don't know the name, you certainly knew her look.

She was in countless movies and TV shows into the early 1970s, and boy, did she have the look.

The blond, saucer-eyed actress--who was sort of that period of time's version of Sydney Sweeney--appeared in numerous TV shows including "The Monkees," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "My Three Sons," "The Odd Couple," and countless other sitcoms, but her "bust out" role was in a.Paul Newman film.

"Cool Hand Luke" featured one of those Hollywood scenes that you never forget. Newman, in jail with his fellow prisoners, was on a work gang, and encountered Harmon's "Lucille," wearing the tightest outfit that Hollywood would then allow, out before them on the road.

These women-starved men were then subject to one of the absolutely sexiest scenes ever put on celluloid, as she washed her car as they ogled and watched, with as much water and soap caressing her voluptuous figure as was going on the car.

It was an incredible scene, not just for the convicts to see, but for the movie audience as well.

She was never a star, pretty much used as eye candy in whatever role she had, and I think she probably knew that.

Her real passion was baking, believe it or not.

She tried out her recipes while still acting, and when the acting roles dried up and she knew that that part of her life was over, she became quite a famous baker, opening Aunt Joy's Cakes in Burbank, Calif., a popular spot for all baked goods, where she worked for the rest of her life.

Again, Harmon was a name most people didn't know, but when you saw her on the big screen or on TV, she was someone that you never forgot.

R.I.P., Joy, you done good.

Rant #3,931: Peace of Mind

I bought a container to put those extra LPs in, and I also bought two storage bins for my next project--

One that will, undoubtedly, take me a bit of time to complete.

I am using the two storage bins, as a start, to put all of my and my wife's CDs together, in alphabetical order.

This is going to be a job for the ages, since we have probably around 1,000 CDs in our combined collection.

I figured out that using these units--the same type which I already keep my 45s in--allows me to keep a total of 56 CDs in each drawer--two rows of 28 each--or 168 CDs per three-draw unit.

Having two units to hold these, I now can put away 336 CDs of normal size.

Box sets and other different-sized CD holders will have to go somewhere else.

So, as I am sure you can figure oymut, if I can fit 168 CDs per unit, and I have just two units dedicated to thus crusade, I will need at least three more units to pack away all the normal- sized CDs.

I can't do it all in one sitting, because 1) it costs too much, and 2) with my health being what it is, i simply cannot do so much at a time.

I have a major procedure to get through next week, so i don't want to push things too much--

And after that procedure, I don't kniw how long it will take for me to recover.

So, I am going to do what I can now, and I will do the rest in the future.

I also did two stories for work, attended a work meeting, and had other things to do, so I actually made a major dent in this job I have created for myself.

It keeps me busy, and if I can do it now--

Why not?

My body might be falling apart at the seams, but my mind and determination remain strong.

Do I still hurt?

Have I recovered from Monday's LP cataclysm?

Will I finish this project before I am old(er) and gray(er)?

Stay tuned as I go along ...

Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

(And yes, if you were wondering, i do have a few "Batman"-related CDs to put in order as part of this project ...

And yes, I still hurt a bit.)