Classic Rant #730 (May 4, 2012): An Anniversary, and Some Tidbits

Today is the third anniversary of this blog. I can't believe that I have been doing this so long, but yes, it's true.

What I set out to do with Ranting and Raving was to create an outlet for me to write about what I wanted. As a professional writer, I am paid to write about topics that others want me to write about.

That's fine and good, but you can get into a rut doing this.

So here, at this blog, I am allowed to write about anything, whether it be about the Yankees, Lindsay Lohan, some news items of the day ... anything!

And I am enjoying myself immensely--and I hope you are too.

So here's another column, and I have decided that it’s time to take short peaks at various items that might be of interest to you.

These don’t warrant an entire column of Ranting and Raving, but a little looking into here and there can’t hurt

• Woman Arrested For Bringing Young Daughter Into Tanning Booth: I have never understood the need that some of us have for tanning ourselves. I’m not arguing that black isn’t beautiful, but let’s be honest about it, it’s not safe to fry yourself either.

This case really hit the nail on the head because a mother who supposedly brought her young child into the tanning booth with her herself looks like a red lobster. The women is in her 40s, but I swear she looks like she is in her 70s, or she is some type of red aberration.

She is completely disgusting, and if the charges are true, she should fry, baby, fry.

• New Single From the Reformed Beach Boys Is Out: “That’s Why God Made the Radio” is the first single from the album, and it was released on April 25 to iTunes as a download only.

I don’t accept this at all.

In order to push the forthcoming LP, which arrives in June, their record label should put this out as an honest-to-goodness 45 RPM single, or at least as a CD single. That would whet the appetite for the album.

Remember, this is a band that most people under the age of 40 have no clue about. This is an album that is not going to get played at all on radio, or at least sparingly. The single itself hasn’t received the greatest reviews, but for Baby Boomers, “owning” a digital file isn’t the same as owning something that you can hold in your hand.

Put it out as a 45 RPM single, and make it a “gift” from the band to the fans who have supported them, through many ups and downs, during the past 50 years.

• Andy Pettitte Testifes At Roger Clemens Trial: Okay, answer this one honestly:

Do you have the slightest care about this trial at all?

True baseball fans like myself don’t really care, at this point, about the nuances of this trial. It’s all water under the bridge.

These guys cheated by using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), and more importantly, they may have hurt themselves physically by doing so.

Enough is enough. Did Clemens lie in his previous testimony? Does Pettitte remember, for sure, what Clemens told him about his supposed use of PEDs?

Again, who cares? Play ball!

• Brooklyn Welcomes the Nets: This is another one of these bizarre stories which kind of make me scratch my head. The Nets announced their new logo the other day, and one single, solitary player showed up at the event, the oft-injured Brooke Lopez.

The Knicks are the team of choice for professional basketball in New York, always have been, always will be. The Nets have always played in their shadow, no matter if they played in New Jersey or on Long Island.

Why will playing in Brooklyn change anything?

The Nets should have tried to carve out their own niches somewhere far, far away. If the Seattle Supersonics can move to Oklahoma City and become the only game in town there, why couldn’t the Nets do the same thing, maybe in Montana, or Wyoming, or some other place where major league teams don’t have a foothold. Why Brooklyn?

And the new Barclay’s Arena isn’t in the greatest part of Brooklyn either. Families should watch out; the panhandlers there don’t make it exactly family friendly territory.

• Newt Gingrich Announces End of His Presidential Campaign: This is another one you have to scratch your head about.

What took him so long to do this? Was he thinking that maybe, just maybe, he could stage a miracle and upend Mitt Romney?

Or did he stay on to make some sort of statement, one that only he seems to know, or care about.

I have no idea who I am voting for come November, but I can tell you that I am certainly not voting for anyone named Newt …

Mitt and Barack don’t seem like good names to vote for either.

Whatever happened to Tom, Dick, Harry—or even Larry?

• Mariano Rivera Likely Done For the Season and Career In Doubt: Well, the Red Sox Nation is now rejoicing--the great Mariano has struck out!

Well, he tore his ACL during batting practice when he was shagging a fly ball in the outfield. His cleat got stuck in the turf, and he fell to the ground ...

Along with whatever hopes the Yankees had to win the World Series this year.

Honestly, while this might be the straw that broke the closer's back, so to speak, there is so much more that can be said about this year's Yankees team, and it isn't good.

They have a roster that was severely micro-managed by the suits (re: the Michael Pineda deal, which has a chance to go down as the worst deal the Bronx Bombers have ever made), have aging stars who are on the verge of breakdowns at any time, and they just really aren't that good, period.

But the simple presence of Rivera made them a nick above any other team. 

Without him, they might be dead this year, certainly deader than they would have been with him always ready in the bullpen.

I need to attend to some personal busine

Rant #2,077: It's Over

Finally ...

The Super Bowl is over and done with.

I did not watch one millisecond of the game, and I didn't even know who won until about a minute ago, when I turned on my computer, and was bombarded with Super Bowl stories right on Yahoo.

Yesterday, my wife and I did the usual stuff we normally do on a Sunday.

It was not a "holiday" in my household.

I took my son to work, I went with my wife clothes shopping for both her and our son, I came home and watched a sport that I am more interested in than football--basketball--and I watched the New York Knicks lose once again, on one of the most bizarre referee decisions ever.

After the refs made a mistake--only granting a player on the Atlanta Hawks two free throws when he should have had three, for being fouled while attempting a three-point attempt--the Knicks scored themselves, but the play was negated when the refs literally rewound the game, back to the time when they made the mistake.

The Hawks player took his extra free throw, made it, and play resumed, as if the Knicks play never happened.

This has to be one of the most ridiculous calls ever, but according to the NBA rulebook, it is an actual rule, one that is never used, and one which I first witnessed being put in place during yesterday's game.

Then, another bizarre play happened, when an inbounds pass was grabbed by a Knick, but he was on the out of bound lines when he snared the pass.

Never happens, but it happened yesterday.

Of course, with the Super Bowl taking prominence, you will probably never hear of these things, unless you are in New York, Atlanta, or are an avid NBA fan.

Nobody cares about anything on Super Bowl Sunday except the Super Bowl.

I noticed that there were plenty of policemen out in force yesterday, even early in the day, making sure that people weren't partying too hard.

When we did the clothes shopping, there literally were few people in the store--the prior week, stores were packed, with people doing such shopping then rather than on Super Bowl Sunday.

Later in the day--which I spent after the Knick game watching an early 1950s exploitation film about wayward women, the less said about it, the better--I went out to the local eateries to get my family dinner, and while pizza places were doing a brisk business, the places I went to--Taco Bell and the local Greek restaurant for my wife--were as dead as could be.

Yes, the world seemingly stops for Super Bowl Sunday, but my family plugs on.

After we ate dinner, my wife and I watched another horrible movie--all you need to know is that Jessica Alba, one of the worst actresses ever to grace the screen, was in this movie, which was so bad that I don't even remember the title--and it served us well even though it was so bad, killing a good 100 minutes of time while making absolutely no sense at all.

As the evening pushed on, we both decided we had had enough, and we went to sleep.

I guess I still had my own version of "Super Bowl Fever," because I had trouble getting to sleep, and ended up going into the living room of our house, finally dozing off on the recliner we have.

I then went back into the bedroom, and fell asleep until my usual wakeup time, and here I am right now, at my usual perch in front of the computer typing this thing out as it nears 4:30 a.m. in the morning, having already eaten breakfast.

Look, I know, football is America's national obsession, but honestly, I don't buy into it, in particular at Super Bowl time.

I just have no interest at all, nor does anyone else in my immediate family.

The NBA is my game during the winter, and yes, I live--and mostly die--with the Knicks, a team that has had a black cloud over it since 1973, the last time the team won the NBA championship.

But now that the Super Bowl is over, the sports pages--after a couple of days of over-analysis of what happened during the NFL championship game--will turn to our national pastime, and to me the world will be whole again.

Pitchers and catchers for all MLB teams will be reporting to Florida and Arizona in the coming days, and once baseball begins, you just can almost feel the summer coming, right in the middle of February.

Those 162 games in 180 days is what I look forward to, and while the NBA still has a couple of months to go in its regular season, baseball will be top of mind from mid-February until early November, when the World Series ends.

Football? What's that?

Tomorrow, I have some personal business to take care of, so I won't be around at the blog, so I will next speak to you again on Wednesday.

By then, your football fever will hopefully have subsided. Take two aspirin and meet me at the mid-week point.

Classic Rant #729 (May 2, 2012): Extinguished

Seemingly everyone in New York loves the Knicks.

Sure, there is a "new" team in town, the Brooklyn Nets, but everyone knows that the Knicks own New York, and have for 60 years.

When you talk pro basketball in New York, you mean the Knicks, no one else.

And when the Knicks are good, they are the only professional sports team in town to galvanize the fans to stand behind them.

I am a huge Yankees fan, but when the Yankees are good, you still have plenty of Mets fans who could care less. And the same goes for our football and hockey teams, too.

But when the Knicks are good, they are the talk of the town.

Well, they are currently the the talk of the town now, but for all the wrong reasons.

After a tumultuous regular season, where they pretty much walked out on coach Mike D'Antoni and saw him replaced with the highly capable Mike Woodson, with "Linsanity" defined and stamped out seemingly in one fell swoop, and with an assortment of injuries that would keep a lesser team down, the team somehow found its way into the playoffs.

Their opponent, the Miami Heat, are so much better than the Knicks that it's ridiculous.

But the Knicks had a chance to do something in this series, even though they were two games down.

They were going home, and anyone who has ever seen a Knicks game at the Garden knows how loud it can get there. The fans really are the team's sixth man.

But after a second loss to the Heat on Monday, forward Amare Stoudemire, one of the team's leaders, decided upon himself that the Knicks are not only down and out, but dead, too.

Being frustrated with his team's play against the Heat and his own play, Stoudemire took it out on a glass enclosed fire extinguisher, which he punched in a tantrum tantamount to a kid punching his pillow when Mom won't give him any more candy.

The problem is that the pillow pretty much takes what you give it. The glass enclosed fire extinguisher doesn't budge.

Stoudemire has lacerations on his left hand, and a small muscle in the hand had to be repaired via surgery. He is out for Game 3 and probably out for the playoffs, period.

What a boneheaded thing to do.

When Stoudemire came to the Knicks, he was looked at as the savior. As the Mets of basketball--a perpetual also ran with two world championships in all its decades of existence--the Knicks had been a joke for years. With Stoudemire coming on board, the Knicks, all of a sudden, became very attractive, a fun if still under-talented team to watch.

Stoudemire became a huge force, having an excellent regular season, and being an MVP candidate.

He was the first piece of the puzzle, and with numerous other personnel changes, Anthony came on board. This was supposed to be the start of something big.

The Knicks made the playoffs for the first time in years last year, and fizzled out against the hated Boston Celtics.

This year was supposed to be better, but the strike-shortened season and a lot of inner turmoil kind of spoiled things, even though the team managed to rise above all the nonsense and make the playoffs.

But Stoudemire wasn't the same player this year. Due to an assortment of injuries and personal problems, he had a poor year.

But the Knicks made the playoffs, and the series with the Heat could provide him a showcase to redeem himself.

Now he goes ahead and does what he did.

What a fool.

During his early days in the league, Stoudemire had a bad reputation as a moody, but very talented, player, very immature for his age. He barely got out of high school, never played in college, and some looked at that as a reason for his immaturity.

But coming to New York seemingly changed all that.

But it really didn't, did it? He is still very immature, based on this act.

And now, if you didn't know it already, the Knicks are dead in the playoffs, and Stoudemire might have played his final game with the Knicks.

He was shopped around during the season--including as part of a proposed Dwight Howard deal--but nothing materialized. He has a huge contract, and that put some other teams off.

But if the Knicks sweeten the pot with some cash, I am sure they might be able to move him during the summer.

He has damaged his reputation beyond repair in New York, and as I said before, the crowd in Madison Square Garden can get very loud--even when they boo.

And they will boo Stoudemire next season, you just know they will.

Maybe there is a silver lining to this cloud, but right now,  I don't see it.

Maybe the Knicks can win a game or two at home, but against the trio of James, Bosh and Wade, I severely doubt it.

But you never know.

But whatever the case, Stoudemire's act was not only boneheaded, it was selfish. No, he didn't mean to do what he did, but he did what he did, so that is that.

Oh, to be a Knicks fan! You really have to dig down deep, and the Knicks are going to have to do that too.

But to me, the Knicks' season went up in smoke when Stoudemire punched that glass enclosed fire extinguisher.

I am sure that the remnants of that thing will sell for a lot on eBay.

Tomorrow, I have some personal business to attend to, so I won't be writing a Rant. But I will be back Friday.

Rant #2,076: Single a Simple Song

The world has gone PC mad.

I know that this statement is true when I hear that Canada is going to change some of the words of its national anthem in a step leading toward gender equality.

Canadian lawmakers have decided that the anthem, which has been around for more than 100 years, will have a couple of its words changed to reach this goal.

Instead of the line "in all thy sons command," the anthem's lyrics will soon change to "in all of us command."

There is some sanity in our neighbors up north, because not every lawmaker is on board with this change. It still has to pass some legislative hurdles before it becomes law, but the belief is that it will do just that in the coming weeks.

The song has been rewritten before, so there is a precedent for doing this, but my question is why does this have to be done this time around?

Evidently, political correctness is not only killing the U.S., but it is killing other countries, too.

I also recently heard that this is not the only PC thing going on in Canada.

Later this year, gender-neutral birth certificates could be an option in Ontario.

In other words, a newborn's birth certificate could say "boy," "girl," or I guess "neither," "other," "choose not to say," or something else.

Funny, the last time I looked, if you had a wee wee you are a boy, if you didn't, you were a girl, and well, that is the way it is, isn't it?

And now that thinking has crept into our own country, where Washington state is thinking along those same lines.

Again, I ask you, what is the point of this change?

We should celebrate the fact that some of us are male, some of us are female, and yes, there are anatomical differences between the two sexes.

And I think parents are really fouling up their kids if they choose to raise gender-neutral children, children who have no idea who they are from their earliest moments.

Why must we be so PC anyway?

You cannot please everyone, which the PC ethic tries to do.

It also inhibits personal thought, having others do the thinking for you.

To me, it is a ridiculous way to live, and I will never subscribe to such stupidity.

What is happening to us, not just as a country, but as a civilization?

You really have to ask yourself this if we buy into this PC thinking.

It is absolutely crazy, but many people believe that this is the only way we can move ahead as a civilization.

I say if we just treat everyone fairly, we don't need this phony PC stuff to guide us.

We have been doing fine for how many years? We don't need new ways of thinking to take away our beliefs and thoughts.

And whose rights are being abridged without this PC nonsense in place? Has any woman ever pleaded discrimination because the Canadian national anthem is not, so to say, gender neutral?

Please, there are more important things in life to be dealing with.

This stuff is pure nonsense.

This stuff was forced down our throats years ago, or so we have forgotten.

Remember when certain groups wanted us to remove the prefix "man" from certain words, like "manhole" and "mankind?"

Humankind is a word anyway, but we continue to use the word mankind.

Well, we never began to use the word "personhole" or "humanhole," did we?

This is all so silly, to be wasting time on utter nonsense, but I guess people have lots of time on their hands to make everything gender neutral--"humankind" be damned, but they are going to make these changes anyway, because it fits their political agendas, even though it is not really for the betterment of anything that I can see.

Heck, everyone has to have a hobby, I guess.

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

Classic Rant #728 (May 1, 2012): King Kong's Pole

Today, the Empire State Building turns 81 years of age.

Back in 1931, this modern marvel was dedicated today, all 102 stories of it.

I guess in today's world, a collective groan will go up when talking about this, but back in 1931--the year that my parents were born, by the way--this was truly something to behold.

The world had never seen anything like it at that time. It stood, figuratively and literally, for so many things, but first and foremost, it was not just an office building, but a landmark that signified, in the post-World War I world, that anything could be accomplished with a supreme expense of fortitude.

Remember, the world was in the throes of the Depression at that time, but the building still got built.

So many stories go along with the building. Seemingly everyone who has visited it, who has marveled at it, who has gotten married at it, or who has simply dreamed about it, has a story to tell.

King Kong used it as something of a phallic symbol while he clutched Fay Wray. Planes have hurled into it. People have plotted to blow it up. Still more have often wondered, "If I drop a penny from its highest point, what would happen?"

I have been in the Empire State Building numerous times, but I remember the first time. I went with my uncle. I was a very little boy, maybe five or six years old, and he took me up as far as you could go.

Back then, they had no guard rails, or at least no guard rails as they have now.

I peered out over it, and I thought you could see the universe from there.

It was incredible.

And now, with its 81st anniversary, it isn't even the tallest structure in New York anymore.

The newly built World Trade Center building--with its own incredible history--at 1,776 feet, is higher.

But the Empire State Building still towers over it in presence, and in actuality. Although it doesn't add to its height, antennas that are perched on the top of the structure--radio and TV antennas--make it higher than the other building, although the actual height of the structure is what counts in measuring these things.

Whatever the case, at its 81st birthday, the Empire State Building stands as a monument to the American way, which basically says you can rise up from nothing to be something in this country.

Although that has been challenged many times over the past 81 years, it still rings true.

This is the greatest country in the world, and the presence of the Empire State Building solidifies that belief, gives us something to point to when we exclaim that we are proud to be an American.

While it is probably the most famous man-made building in the world, its grandness really can't be measured.

Sure, many point to the Statue of Liberty as the structure that most spells out the world "America," but remember, that was a gift from the French.

If you want to see real America, think of the Empire State Building.

You can't go wrong with that type of thinking.

Rant #2,075: Hair

Oscar Gamble died yesterday at age 68.

If you don't know who Oscar Gamble was, do you remember him, perhaps, by this photo?

Yes, if you are into hirsute pleasures, Oscar Gamble was your man.

He sported the best afro in sports in the late 1960s through the early 1980s, but "The Big O" backed it up with his ability as a baseball player.

Gamble played for several teams during his 17 big league seasons, including seven with the high-profile New York Yankees, helping to power the team to league championships and to the World Series.

He hit 200 home runs during his career, and when he came up to bat, and you saw that floppy afro under his cap, you knew that whatever team he was playing for had a chance to put runs on the board.

There is a story that when he was with the Yankees, manager Yogi Berra took him aside as he was ready to go up to the plate and told him to take a couple of pitches so the runner at first could have a chance to steal second base and put himself in scoring position.

Gamble reportedly told Berra that there was no need for that.

"When I come up to the plate, I am already in scoring position," he allegedly told his manager.

Crowned by his haircut, Gamble was a character that such stories like this grew around, whether they were true or not.

He supposedly was a good all-around guy, loved by his teammates, and about the most personable fellow that you could ever deal with.

He knew how lucky he was, and his swagger was based on his ability to start, pinch hit, or do whatever it took for him to be on the winning team.

Gamble passed away from a rare tumor in his jaw. According to his wife, he was diagnosed with ameloblastona about nine years ago. It got worse over time, and less than two years ago, it became ameloblastic carcinoma, and he underwent several surgeries.

And no, unlike many major league ballplayers who have had mouth, jaw and gum cancers, he never chewed tobacco.

And during his battle with cancer, he lost his hair and was as bald as a cue ball.

Although he played for so many teams, Gamble was a member of the Yankee family, appearing at Old Timers Games, Fantasy Camps, and at other gatherings linked to the Bronx Bombers.

In a statement, the Yankees said, "It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of former Yankee Oscar Gamble. His prodigious power, unique style and joy in wearing the pinstripes made him a favorite of fans and the Steinbrenner family."

How true. He was one of my favorites, that's for sure, and when I heard of his passing yesterday afternoon, all I could think about was that hair ... and his ability to hit for power in big, clutch situations.

Another one of my baseball heroes is gone. No, he was not a Hall of Famer, but it really didn't matter; he was a one-of-a-kind personality with that big hair, bit talent, and big personality.

That is how I will remember Oscar Gamble.

R.I.P.

Classic Rant #727 (April 30, 2012): Why Don't We Do It In the Road?

Well, we haven't had a real dumb story in quite a while, but after a relaxing birthday weekend--where I did next to nothing, which was fine with me--here is a good one to start the week.

Two teenage girls who fell asleep on a rural Pennsylvania road while sunbathing, and were struck by a car, were reported to be in fair condition.

The two 13 year olds decided to take in the sun on Sunday afternoon (natch), and they were hit by, believe it or not, a 19-year-old relative, who had stopped at a nearby stop sign and made a turn before striking the girls with his car.

The man was questioned by police about the incident, but evidently, no wrongdoing was found.

The girls were airlifted to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and they were doing as well as they could be doing after such an incident.

Well, we all remember the Beatles' tune "Why Don't We Do It In the Road," but I think that even John, Paul, George and Ringo didn't mean this literally.

What could these girls have been thinking?

And why were these girls so tired that they actually fell asleep in the middle of the road?

And, wouldn't you call being hit by a relative something of a strange coincidence?

Very strange, very strange.

Hey, I could have talked at length about this being the 223rd anniversary of George Washington taking office in New York as the first president of the United States, or this being the 112th anniversary of the fabled Casey Jones saving train passengers as he stayed at the controls of a runaway locomotive.

I could have spoken about all of those, but two girls being hit while sunbathing in the middle of the road intrigued me more than those stories.

I must be a sucker for stories that show complete human stupidity, but there you have it.

Heck, if they decided to sunbathe on the side of the road, there would be no story, and I would have to pontificate on Washington and Jones.

Maybe that would have been a blessing, maybe not.

Maybe I am going senile at age 55.

Whatever the case, I just wanted to bring the girls' plight to your attention.

I guess you should just look at it as something light for a springtime Monday morning, something to go along with your breakfast that won't back you up too much.