I Am Grumpy

I sure am grumpy. Perhaps it’s the 6 vials of blood drawn from me on Thursday morning before 7:30. After a while, the technician had to push my forearm to fill the last big container and then the two smaller bottles. At least I exceeded expectations with my urine sample. 

I know I am not happy about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I find myself a prisoner of news transmitted from CNN on my cell phone and then when I watch local news on WCBS or national news reported by Lester Holt on NBC. What is happening is almost unthinkable and it is going to get a lot worse. Any mention of nuclear weapons harkens me back to our grammar school hide-under-the desk drills during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

Maybe it’s the inordinate amount of stuff I am doing at home to pare down the place in anticipation of completing the second phase of our makeover. It takes a ton of planning and manpower to complete the plethora of tasks before the project is over. 

Possibly it is the movement away from pandemic precautions. While the transmission rates and hospitalizations are down dramatically, I am still seeing over 1,000 daily hospitalizations in New Jersey. Applying my crude math, that is between 30-45,000 new cases per month. In this phase, it is at least 500,000 cases per year. Just in the Garden State. 

Yet the move is to open up the country to reflect how we have conquered COVID. Politicians berate children about wearing masks while some reports have state that the vaccine does not effectively protect younger children. The NFL and NFLPA have relaxed their protocols going forward. Yet the Phoenix Suns lost star player Devin Booker to COVID protocols as the NBA stretch run is in earnest. 

Without a defined plan as to how to protect the country going forward if another strain infects us like did like Omicron did in December and January, are we fooling ourselves? Making mask wearing offensive is not necessarily the right message to everyone, including athletes. 

I happen to be hypersensitive about this subject because I had a pretty rough experience with the disease just under two months ago. I am hardly convinced that we have the right mindset or even the tools ready to deal with another wave. 

I have been tempted to go to games again. I would like to go to Madison Square Garden to see the Devils and Rangers there on Sunday night—if I can get by the ridiculous prices the tickets are going for in the upper levels. At least there, there remains a proof of vaccination requirement. 

I found it both hysterical and stupid to see the outrage over New York City’s mayor  to changing the rules regarding vaccines so that Kyrie Irving can play with the hometown Brooklyn Nets.  Yes, Kevin Durant is finally healed after being out for 23 games due to a MCL sprain. Sure, fans would love to see the Nets become instant title contenders like the Sixers became when James Harden joined Joel Embiid in Philadelphia. At least in the City of Brotherly Love the mayor didn’t have to think about altering the rules to accommodate the fans and critics. 

Rutgers sure has me fired up. I cannot watch them in the first half of games, digging holes that many times they cannot extricate themselves from. Wednesday night in Bloomington, Indiana was another one of those instances. 

RU battled back from 8 points down, holding the Hoosiers in check until the end. That’s when junior guard Paul Mulcahy, having a rough night and clearly frustrated by the physicality of the Indiana defense, lost his cool. He swung his arms at an opposing player on a play near the Rutgers bench, earning a Grade 2 offense and ejection. IU converted all their free throws and were able to sink a three point shot with just under 11 seconds left to tie the contest. 

It took a Ron Harper, Jr. clutch three point shot to put the Knights ahead for good. Harper then seated the inbounds throw, ending Indiana’s last gasp. Too gut-wrenching for me. 

Just as aggravating are the “bracketology” experts. These so-called experts still have RU looking in from the outside regarding the NCAA Tournament. This team has beaten every school above them in the Big Ten, plus Michigan and Indiana. With a win against Penn State on Sunday in what will surely be an emotional day for super senior Geo Baker, now deemed a must win for entry into the NCAA’s, RU will end with a 12-8 record in one of the three toughest conferences in America. 

What more will they have to do to prove how good the team is? Why are Quad 3/4 losses from the beginning of the season—to programs like UMass, De Paul and Lafayette—used against them when their resume from January on is demonstrably better than a lot of other schools? Will they have to win in the Big Ten Tournament to insure their place in the field of 68? I just don’t get it and it rankles me. 

Don’t get me started on the musings about Tom Brady—will he or won’t he play again? Give me a break!

And my teams are in the dumpster. The Jets haven’t been good for a long while. Ditto the Devils, and the playoffs last year was a one year aberration for the Knicks. 

Golden State is slumping terribly. As much as the Nets badly missed Durant, the Warriors really miss Draymond Green. Watching the team flounder without Green and an ill Play Thompson is unbearable. 

I can’t even fathom what the Yankees are going to be like. Because everything is in limbo. 

Thus, my biggest bit of hostility is directed towards baseball. Fittingly so, given the level of hatred among the parties. 

I have tried to think of every bad descriptive word for the MLB and MLBPA. I will spare you that long list. That’s the level of vitriol the sides have for each other. 

Watching video of Commissioner Rob Manfred, in golf clothes, practicing his golf swing on a balcony of Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida, was a visual I could not bear. It explained everything I needed to know about the cavalier attitude of the owners. 

Speaking of owners, on Monday, the terse announcement came from Derek Jeter and the Miami Marlins that the famed Yankees’ shortstop was stepping down as the Marlins’ CEO and divesting himself of his 4% ownership stake. Jeter felt that the team wasn’t going in the right direction. The Marlins thanked Jeter for his work.

Read between the lines here. There is a group of “hawks” among the owners—from a minority of small market teams—who would like nothing more than to break the union. The enmity created by previous negotiations through the years has completely consumed those “billionaires’” as they have been aptly described.  I said to a few people that they remind me of the “Robber Barons “ of yesteryear. Profiteering at its finest.

I don’t hold Tony Clark and his group of players without responsibility. Competitors by nature as ballplayers, they want what they consider is fair given the money that is available. Which is a huge sum. And it is why the factions cannot seem to find a common ground. 

Both groups forget who is really being held hostage. It is the fans. While continually pledging loyalty to the followers of the sport, the warring sides have forgotten how much is spent to go to a game, to purchase TV packages, merchandise, etc. In households where they are not making nearly the minimum salaries young ballplayers are making right now. 

Pardon me for being so cynical. Baseball is losing its grip on the product and what it means to the country. Public arguments over this mind of money sickens me. It is a game, not something involving life and death as is happening in Eastern Europe, where families flee the onslaught of war and many will face shortages of food, water and lives. 

Where will all of this end? I don’t know. Will I go to see baseball this year? Yes, because I made myself a promise to see all of the MLB teams play at home and I have intentions of seeing four of the five parks I have left to visit. 

But I will go holding my nose. I will watch the Yankees with disdain, which will heighten my misery if they once again fail to win. Baseball—and its partners in crime—just don’t seem to get it. 

Writing this diatribe didn’t make me any happier. Sure I will have to wake up and go to another rough session of physical therapy for my ongoing issues. I will continue to wear a mask to protect myself until I have greater assurances that my safety will not be compromised. I will watch gas prices rise like yeast. And I will go to Home Depot and Shop Rite to pay inflated prices. While the sports world gives me very little solace.

Yes, I am grumpy.