Rant #2,981: New Year's Day

This has been a crazy week, what with the Aaron Judge home run watch and all, but this weekend, at least for me, it will be time to get my head on straight and get back to basics.
 
For myself and for Jews around the world, the beginning of the holiest period of the year begins on Sunday at sundown with Rosh Hashanah, a holiday which signifies not just strength, but also reflection.
 
This holiest period of the Jewish year culminates with Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown on Tuesday, October 4, when Jews around the world will forsake the good things we have in life for 24 hours to show God that we are worthy of another year of life.
 
This used to be a time that my family and I would go to synagogue and pray for forgiveness for our sins of the year, but honestly, we no longer are members of a temple, and we go through this period at home.
 
I have found that you can reflect at home—and later fast—just as well at home as you can at shul.
 
No, it is absolutely and positively not the same experience, but it is still a worthy one, and I must say that after fasting for Yom Kippur, I do feel better in mind and in spirit in doing so, but no, I admit that I don’t get the same “oomph” that I used to get from going to pray at the synagogue and waiting for the shofar to sound to end this holy period.
 
It is a conundrum that I have had to work through my head for the past more than a dozen years or so, but celebrating the High Holy Days with my family has made it a bit easier to get through for me.
 
But it can never be the same for me, as my father is gone, but I do what I have to do to get through it all … and feel better when I break the fast with my family in my presence.
 
Let's look back at the holiday by going back to Rant #91, dated September 18, 2009. Here it is in edited form:
 
"Rosh Hashanah is the start of the holiest period during the year for Jews around the world. Although I am not a religious Jew by any stretch of the imagination, I do participate in the High Holy Days, which includes both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. They are holidays that ask Jews to examine their strengths, and weaknesses, during the past year and to reflect on how they can improve themselves during the upcoming year.
 
They are holidays of both introspection and group prayer. During Yom Kippur, observant Jews fast, to show their forgiveness to God, and also to show their strength.
 
It is with this understanding of what the holiday means that I have always had this conundrum with how the rest of the world should look at these holidays. Should the “outside” world recognize this holy time of year or simply ignore it?
 
Living in New York, where there are a large amount of Jews, has made these holidays pretty well known by the non-Jewish population. In fact, schools are generally closed during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
 
I once found out years ago that the reason New York City schools close on these holidays is that since such a large portion of their teachers are Jewish, it was not prudent to open when three-quarters of the teachers would be out.
 
This year, there are the usual myriad controversies revolving around whether certain events should be held on these holidays or not.
 
Professional sports leagues will go about their business during these holidays. When my son was in Little League, the league would, every year, schedule games on the first two nights of Passover. Although Passover is not one of the holiest occasions on the Jewish calendar, it is a holiday which revolves around the family, and the traditional seder, and garners wide participation even among non-observant Jews.
 
The league, of course, never had a game on Easter Sunday.
 
Should things just stop because a major religious holiday is being celebrated?
 
I don’t have an answer, and it is something that has puzzled me for years. These are religious holidays, and thus, they are more personal than say July 4 or Labor Day are.
 
The bottom line is this: do we suspend our usual day's activities because a major religion has one of its holiest days to celebrate?
 
Years after I wrote this, I still have that question. We have been all inclusive now as a society, recognizing holidays that we didn't even know existed just a few years ago.
 
I think with the Jewish holidays, one must truly decided for himself how he will celebrate and honor these holidays, and to what extent.”
 
Those last two paragraphs are actually from a subsequent Rant, #2,220 from September 19, 2018.
 
I tacked these two paragraphs on to the original excerpt because I do think that they kind of blend into each other.
 
These are questions that I continue to have and to reflect on during this period, and I will probably always have these questions in mind when the High Holy Days come about each year.
 
To my fellow Jews, have a wonderful new year.
 
And I also wish a wonderful new year to my non-Jewish friends, because it is a nice thing to do, and more importantly, it is something that I want to do.
 
We can all follow whatever path we want to follow, but we are all members of the human race, and understanding and acceptance during the Jewish New Year, beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur, is paramount.
 
Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.

Rant #2,980: Maybe I'm Amazed

Well, no Aaron Judge homers last night, but the Yankees have 15 more games left during the regular season, so there is plenty of time for him to hit more.
 
The New York Post had a story alluding to what I said yesterday, that those home run balls will be worth plenty of money—
 
So much money, in fact, that word is that the Yankees have placed some minions—team employees--in specific places in the Stadium where he might hit those homers, and if they can get those balls, there won’t be any argument or negotiations or debate about who will get those balls—the Yankees will.
 
Of course, the best-case scenario is that Judge hits the homers where no fans can get them—into the hitter’s eye in dead centerfield and into the two bullpens—and then the balls will go to the home team, by default.
 
The person who caught the 60th home run ball was just your average 20-year-old baseball fan, who was there taking in the game with his friends, and there was no negotiation at all—he simply swapped the ball for a face-to-face meeting with Judge and a few signed bats and balls.
 
That is it—but you can bet the ranch that the people who get the 61st and 62nd balls won’t be so gracious.
 
Economics of the current time tell you that that will simply not be possible.
 
When Sal Gallante caught Roger Maris’s 61st homer 61 years ago in 1961, he kept it for a short time and had his 15 minutes of fame.
 
He subsequently sold it to a restaurant owner for $5,000, which in today’s money is about $46,779 adjusted for inflation, according to The Dollar Times (https://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=5000&year=1961#:~:text=What%20is%20%245k%20in%201961%20worth%20in%20today's%20money%3F&text=Adjusted%20for%20inflation%2C%20%245%2C000%20in,over%20this%20period%20was%203.73%25.)
 
The restaurant owner then gave the ball to Maris, and I don’t know if the Maris family still owns the ball or it is in other hands.
 
Barry Bonds’ supposedly tainted 73rd home run ball from 2001 was sold to comic book and action figure mogul Todd McFarlane for $517,500, but you have to figure that in today’s world, Judge’s 61st and 62nd homers will go for maybe double that price, if not even triple or quadruple what McFarlane paid for Bonds’ homer ball.
 
So that kid was really nice for surrendering the 60th home run ball to Judge for basically not much of anything.
 
I don’t know what the ball would have gone for on the open market versus what the kid got for his efforts, but I am sure he could have paid for his college education with the sale of that ball.
 
But he was a nice guy.
 
Me, I wouldn’t be so nice.
 
If I would get any of those subsequent homers, I would keep it for a while, see the value go up the longer I waited, and finally sell the ball through an auction house and wait for my millions to come in.
 
Look, my situation is quite different than this 20 year old, so do you think that I am being selfish?
 
There are a million others who would do exactly the same thing, and I bet will actually do the same thing when one of them gets either the 61st or 62 homers.
 
Boy, would it help me to pay for my retirement!
 
But since I don’t have a ticket to any of the remaining games, it ain’t happening, so I am more likely to win the lottery than I am to get Judge’s historic home run balls.
 
It is nice to dream, though …
 
The Yankees won yesterday against the Pirates by a score of 14-2, and Judge only had two doubles in the rout.
 
The Boston Red Sox come into the Stadium for a four-game set starting tonight, and you can bet that the hated Red Sox want nothing to do with Judge’s home run history.
 
It will be interesting to see if Judge can hit his historic homers against the team that, with the Yankees, makes up the best rivalry in professional sports in this country.
 
I think that everyone is pulling for Judge to do just that, except for the Red Sox and their fans, who have been embarrassed enough this season by the team’s poor play, putting them in last place in the American League East.
 
And it would be equally embarrassing if Judge hits any of the historic homers into the Red Sox bullpen, and one of their pitchers catches the ball … sort of like rubbing it in.
 
We shall see what happens, but again, the idea is for Judge not only to hit his homers, but for me at least, for the Yankees to win those games and head into the playoffs lean and mean and ready to take on all comers.
 
Sure, I could use the money for those homers, but sitting at home, the wins are much more important. 

Rant #2,979: Hit Me With Your Best Shot

I hate to be repetitious, but the Aaron Judge story is just so intriguing that it bears watching for the rest of the Major League Baseball season.
 
Yes, he hit his 60th home run last night, as the Yankees beat the Pirates in a real nail biter, 9-8.
 
His home run not only tied Babe Ruth’s 60 in 1927, but it set the table for a Yankees’ comeback.
 
They were down 8-4 to one of the worst teams in baseball this season in the ninth inning, Judge’s home made it 8-5, and a few batters later, Giancarlo Stanton—who once hit 59 home runs in a season for the Marlins—gave the Yankees a comeback win with with a walk-off grand slam homer.
 
So even though Judge’s homer was one for the record books, it wasn’t even the most important long ball in the inning—which fits Judge’s take on this perfectly.
 
He has said since Day One that homers don’t mean as much as wins do, and I am sure that he was way more impressed with Stanton’s dinger than he was with his own.
 
Judge’s saga needs to be looked at at many different angles, which again, makes it so intriguing.
 
One of those angles is worth, and let me explain myself when I say that word in relation to Judge’s home run barrage.
 
Since we are in a world that values worth, what something costs, and what something will cost on the open market, the question is this:
 
What ball will be worth more: his 60th home run, which caught up to Babe Ruth, probably the greatest baseball player of all time; his 61st, which will catch Roger Maris’ American League record (and which some acknowledge is the actual all-time record, less the steroid era records); or the 62nd, which will establish a new American League record (and again, a homer which some believe will be the new, steroid-free record)?
 
You have to understand that as much as people bad-mouth baseball as being too slow and not of the times, the greatest record in professional sports in this country—and several others, like Japan—is the home run record.
 
It is certainly the most cherished, and has remained so for more than a century.
 
So when someone does what Judge is doing and about to do, even casual and non-sports fans sit up and take notice, and that is what is happening right now.
 
So when Judge launches another homer into the stands, probably at Yankee Stadium, what ball will be worth more on the open market—if it even gets there?
 
“The even gets there” portion of that question is the tricky part of this scenario, but let’s not put the cart before the horse.
 
What ball is going to be worth more if it can get to the open market? What fan will get that lucky ball and maybe make some money off ot it?
 
It is hard to say.
 
He has hit number 60, so I am sure some fan has it right now, or has already had a pay off from the Yankees and/or MLB for that prized possession.
 
But there is no steadfast rule that the fan has to take the Yankees or MLB’s bait, and such a ball could go on the open market, which will dictate how much the ball is worth.
 
And then, you have his presumed 61st homer,, 62nd homer, who knows how many others he will hit, what will they be worth?
 
It is really hard to say.
 
No one knows who caught Ruth’s 60th homer, but it now resides in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, and I think it was donated by a private collector to the museum, who I am sure paid a pretty penny for it.
 
Teenager Sal Gallante caught Maris’ 61st homer in the old Yankees Stadium bleachers, and he became a celebrity for 15 minutes. The ball passed around to many owners—at many prices—and I believe a private collector now owns it.
 
Barry Bonds’ 73rd homer—however tainted it was—has passed around to a few owners, and they have paid high prices for the ball, in the many thousands of dollars. I have no idea where the ball is now.
 
But unless Judge hits the ball to dead centerfield in Yankee Stadium—or elsewhere in other stadiums the Yankees will visit during the last 16 games of the regular season—some fan will grab his presumed 61st and 62nd homers, and unless MLB and the Yankees get some sort of eminent domain rights over those balls, two fans will have a nice payday coming up if they choose to put those balls on the open market.
 
Will the 61st homer ball be worth more than the 62nd homer ball?
 
What happens if Judge goes on to hit, let’s say, 65 homers—does that devalue the 61st homer ball and/or the 62nd homer ball, and make his last homer of the season the most valuable of the 60th, 61st, 62nd, and however many he hits?
 
Sure, it is nothing but a side story to this entire event, but it is fun to think about.
 
But like Judge has said repeatedly, wins are more important than homers—which is true—but who will win the most when Judge hits his next home runs?
 
Former Red Sox first baseman George “The Great” Scott used to call his home runs “taters,” and using that as a reference, some fan will have a lot of taters on his plate when he grabs Judge’s nest home run ball.
 
That’s going to be a lot to mash around, I can tell you that for sure.

Rant #2,978: Bad Boy

Believe it or not, yesterday’s Rant about how I spent this pass weekend—visiting my son’s place or work, watching Aaron Judge hit home runs, and going to a record show—received a warning from Facebook, because according to the social media outlet, it violated its community standards.
 
After I received this message, I went through the Rant with a fine-tooth comb, and for the life of me, I cannot find anything that goes against any standards at all, Facebook, or otherwise.
 
The only thing that I can think of is that a troll—a person who simply lives to complain about everything that is posted, no matter what it may be—reported me to the social media platform because for whatever reason, they did not like my post, and Facebook ran with it.
 
Was the troll anti-work? Is he or she a Boston Red Sox fan? Maybe the person prefers cassettes to vinyl records?
 
I have no idea, but this is maybe the second time I have ever been cited for violating the community standards that Facebook has set forth.
 
There was one other time that I can think of where I committed such an horrid act.
 
This was several years ago—way before the Ranting and Raving Blog commenced operations—maybe 14 or 15 years ago.
 
I don’t remember the exact instance, but I put up a photo which included a woman who was, let’s say, not just very endowed, but extremely so, and she was wearing some outfit that, maybe unknowingly, showed off her curves.
 
Again, mind you, she was not the only person in the photo, and the photo was not about her, but she was in the photo nonetheless.

Believe it or not, I think the photo had to do with "climate change," but I honestly don't remember.
 
Not only did Facebook jump all over this photo, but if I remember correctly, I got canned for seven days for having the audacity to post it.
 
Nowadays, you can find way worse on Facebook, including pictures of women in all stages of dress and undress, but that particular photo that I put up—which was not sexual in nature at all—got me thrown in Facebook Jail.
 
Flash forward to today, and I don’t have the slightest idea why I got a warning for what I put up yesterday … and I received the warning only on one particular site, and not on the other site where I put my daily Rant up for members of these two sites to see, and that is why I suspect a troll was the culprit in the warning.
 
And like I said, I have seen much, much worse put up on Facebook, including the following:
 
• Women in all stages of dress and undress.
 
• Posts filled with every curse word imaginable (I have a policy, which I have stuck to from the beginning of my Facebook participation, to never use curse words in any of my posts).
 
• Racist and anti-Semitic posts.
 
So I am sure the question that you have is this:
 
“After you saw the warning, what did you do?”
 
I disagreed with it, which you can do via Facebook.
 
They provide you this thing to read, which is more of an “in general” encapsulation about why you received the warning.
 
Then they give you the option of agreeing or disagreeing with what they said, and I disagreed.
 
And at that point, that was that.
 
I guess the troll won, because now Facebook will be looking at my posts with a more discerning eye,
 
Heck, the very post that you are reading now might just get me banned.
 
But the Ranting and Raving Blog will continue unabated, even if I cannot post on Facebook for a while.
 
I guess that is the price you pay for talking about things that are on your mind—
 
Even if they are as docile as the things I talked about yesterday.
 
I have heard of people getting into Facebook Jail for even more docile things, so maybe my time has come.
 
Open those gates … if I have to, I am ready to enter.
 
But I hope that the Facebook Jail is like the Mayberry Jail on “The Andy Griffith Show,” where the keys to the two cells were in plain site of those being “incarcerated” there …
 
And Otis the Drunk and the others could expect a hot meal from Aunt Bea as part of their time in the clink.