Turning 75 Soon

  I’ve begun the countdown. It’s under 60 days until I reach the ripe age of 75. It’s that close.

Some may call it old. Others would downplay that statement, saying that age alone isn’t a barrier to enjoying life. 

I would agree that both perspectives are true. I’ve worked my body hard for 75 years but now I find that it is harder to do so many things. Words which seemed to be foreign to me—osteoarthritis and stenosis—are now familiar and I can feel their regrettable discomfort. 

Sleeping a full night isn’t possible anymore. I take what I can get and I welcome naps when possible. Certainly my bladder has a mind of its own overnight and constantly reminds me of that fact. On the bright side, waking at night allows me to take necessary pills for my thyroid and dry eye overnight so as not to interfere with the four other pills I take with breakfast for cholesterol, blood pressure, heart disease and possible asthma-like symptoms. This is before I get to the slew of vitamins and supplements which accompany lunch and dinner. Not to be confused with all sorts of sprays and eye drops to combat mucus and dry eye. And did I forget my twice daily Neil Med bottle? I won’t even get into creams and powders I must apply to my body. 

I see plenty of doctors. They like to try and resolve issues. Except that older bodies create more issues and many of them are, at best, only controllable. For now.

Then there is the siren song of exercise. Once a runner and tennis player, along with lifting sizable amounts of weight, I find myself fighting a flexibility and weight issue constantly. While others say I look great and there are times when I even take a peek and think that my stomach doesn’t protrude too much, my scale brings me back to harsh reality every Wednesday and Saturday morning. 

After all, the aforementioned doctors look at my BMI and suggest that I lose some weight. Easier said than done. I don’t eat red meat and I limit my dessert intake. That scale, a relatively new one, has it in for me, I guess. 

Messing with an already tortured mind has its limits. Smaller portions and more vegetables have become the norm. A healthy diet must include such and such. Follow the Mediterranean Diet—it’s good for you. Keep reading on the subject (and squinting at smaller and smaller print) and you might discover that you will likely need cataract surgery and feel even crankier. And stay away from carbs! 

I want to live as long as I can. I want to enjoy the fruits of a life well-lived and with plenty more to see and do. But I wonder how much of my extensive bucket list I will be able to achieve and how long I will be able to travel.

I want to be free of foolishness, but I know that is unrealistic. In our ever-changing political climate, I am a fatalistic observer in a power game in which I have no agency. But in my personal sphere, my instinct is to give—to help others wherever I can. It was what led me to be an attorney and then a Public Defender. So, too, did I take multiple positions on our synagogue’s board of trustees, culminating in a very fulfilling two years as the temple’s president.

Passion runs deep within me. I will fight for a cause as much as give good counsel when asked. I am not overly demonstrative. Still I have learned how to subtly and not so quietly get a point across.

I yearn to be entertained. Whether it is a movie, book, TV series, sports or a fine meal—I seek enjoyment from them all. Yet too many times it ends up with disappointment. 

Love—I have plenty of that. From my bestie wife to my two wonderful children and one wonderful son-in-law, I am so lucky. I also have cousins and in-laws with their families. Then there are the multitudes of friends  I have made throughout the years who brighten up my days repeatedly with messages of kindness and generosity. 

I played sports with a hunger and desire to be the best I could be. Even if I was 5’5” and no more than 150 pounds in my athletic prime. What did I know that I didn’t belong on a football field or a basketball court with much larger people or that my tennis serve was flat because I had no real angle over the net? 

I hate war and all it stands for. This goes to my roots as the son of a World War II veteran. There is no joy when nations collide; peace is fragile if nothing more. Liberation of those oppressed can only occur with determined, united minds. That occurs only when those attacked are in a position to repel the onslaught. 

Which is why I detest the metaphor in sports that teams or individuals go into battle when they meet. Boxing, mixed martial arts—even football—are legalized violence which can only result in irreparable harm to the participants. 

Life is a meritocracy. We seek to be rewarded for our efforts—whether it is monetarily or through repeated praise. Feeling good is a whole lot better than feeling bad. Romance is a heck of a lot better than despair. 

It is clear that the journey we take in our lives can be only as good as we try to make it to be. We seek to be rewarded for our efforts—whether it is monetarily or through repeated praise. Feeling good is a whole lot better than feeling bad. Romance is a heck of a lot better than despair. Nonetheless, as much control as we seek to exert over our day-to-day lives and beyond, we are subject to the vicissitudes of the world we exist in, which is ever-present. Our mien can be confused, smart, confident or just plain moody.

I read the newspapers and go online regularly. As age creeps up, the obituaries take on a new, sadder dimension. How much longer does one have to enjoy the ride? 

That is the great unknown. It is not a game like poker or chess. You might try to control the outcome, but life is finite, and you just don’t know when, or how, it is going to end. 

Thus, I have reflected upon what it means to me to write this blog. To express my inner thoughts as I approach a milestone birthday. There is a cathartic release that is invoked with the use of words.  

Sports give me joy. Writing about sports allows me to stay in a place where I remain most comfortable. Even if the New York Yankees, New York Jets and New Jersey Devils gave me more agita than happiness too many times over the years. And doubtlessly into the future as well. 

As my birthday approaches, I will continue to report and comment on what I observe in the sporting world as it impacts me—and you who read this blog. Believe me, I could write tons on the Yankees dismal weekend at home against the arch rival Boston Red Sox, touching upon the lack of pitching hitting and the woes of the local boy, Anthony Volpe as he tries to find a miracle cure for his silent bat and erring glove, or how the team has come alive playing sub .500 teams like the Nationals and White Sox. College football has begun in earnest (I kind of knew Arch Manning and his Texas team might have been in over their heads playing at Ohio State—aren’t the Buckeyes defending champs?) And the NFL opens its campaign on Thursday. 

I have more games to go to. Many more to watch, even if streaming is taking away what cable has been offering. A big boo to the pervasive greed and avarice.

I also will interject lists of things important to me which might cause you, my loyal readers, to think and offer your own opinions. Because honest debate is part of sports too, where opinions are constantly scrutinized and debunked as well as praised. 

So, I’m here for the foreseeable future, writing this blog as well as I can. After all, I don’t think that I am getting an invitation to the Travis Kelce—Taylor Swift future nuptials (I wish then all the best—really); my chances of winning the lottery are perhaps a touch greater and that is slim and none.

It is more because they have no clue who I am. Nor that I am turning 75 soon. That’s on me. 

What--No Hockey?

  I have ruminated over topics to write about this week. The pro football pre-season is ending this weekend. Baseball races for pennants and the Wild Card are in high gear. The US Open in tennis begins soon. The Little League World Series is coming to its conclusion. The WNBA is in the midst of its season. All worthy items. Which I will discuss a bit later on. 

I begin with colleges and college football. There have been a number of articles citing the plight of smaller liberal arts colleges trying to survive in this new era of technology. A liberal arts education was once a sought after commodity. Certainly it was an attraction for me when I attended Franklin and Marshall College in the late 1960’s. 

But that was nearly 60 years ago and the generational shift in philosophy and the high costs of education at that level have hurt schools tremendously. I am aware that F&M is making significant cuts to its administration and faculty, as the budgets of the past are no longer sustainable. 

A fellow institution of F&M in the Centennial Conference has even greater issues. Washington College, located in Chestertown, Maryland, is in dire straits. It does not have the endowment like many of its brethren, and its enrollment has been shrinking.

Chestertown is a quiet hamlet near the Chesapeake Bay, isolated from the bigger metropolises in the Northeast. Seemingly that is no longer an attraction for this new wave of students. Which makes its academic attractiveness worth only so much in this highly competitive market. 

As much as F&M has to tighten its fiscal belt, Washington College must do more to survive. And that is the looming question—will Washington College be around on the next 5 to 10 years? For that matter, what will happen with liberal arts colleges if the costs remain absurdly high and the diploma does not seem as shiny as it once was—plus the costs of graduate schools has risen dramatically; the economy may simply make these schools unaffordable. 

To be competitive in athletics requires big budgets. Even at the Division III level. I saw that Centennial behemoth Johns Hopkins University has a very large athletic budget. It can afford to, given that the school has traditionally run a very successful Division I lacrosse program which is a funding source for most of its teams. 

This translates into success on the field combined with a great academic reputation. Student-athletes will flock to a school like Hopkins and the cycle of winning will perpetuate itself. 

Meanwhile, schools with lesser reputations—like Washington College—will be hard-pressed to attract students, let alone field highly-competitive athletic teams. Will they be forced to eliminate sports (The Shoremen already do not field a football team) in order to remain sustainable? Will this happen to other members of the conference as well? 

These are the overarching issues facing the private sectors schools. Add in the political changes regarding international students, LGBTQ and student loans and that will make navigating the short and long-term that much more difficult. 

I certainly do not have an answer for this predicament. Perhaps the schools were at fault by not planning for the future and bloating its budgets to untenable levels.  And with it will go the ability to compete in sports for kids wanting one more chance to play after high school. 

Meanwhile, shifting to Division I, there has been a legitimate question raised by Urban Meyer, a former Florida and Ohio State football head coach, concerning the 10 year show cause levied by the NCAA against former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh’s teams were accused of cheating, which the NCAA found to be true. Harbaugh has denied any knowledge of what was happening under his watch. 

Meyer cites the case of Jim Tressel, the former head coach at Ohio State, who had a penalty issued against his program. The penalties included keeping him from coaching at the collegiate level. 

Tressel began working in pro football as an advisor. The NFL took note and applied the suspension to him in its league. A member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Tressel found subsequent work as the president of Youngstown State University. Now the Republican is the 67th Lieutenant Governor of the State of Ohio. Moreover, he has considered running for Governor in 2026.  

Meyer certainly isn’t unbiased. Ohio State and Michigan have seemingly been enemies forever. Meyer and Harbaugh were foes for a period, which went in the Wolverines favor more than not. 

So when Meyer argues that Harbaugh should be refrained from employment in the NFL (a league where Meyer bombed as a head coach in Jacksonville) like Tressel, his motives seem to be unclean. Besides, would the NFL really take action of that magnitude against Harbaugh, currently the Head Coach of the Los Angeles Chargers—a job Harbaugh took in all likelihood to escape the NCAA sanctions leveled at his Michigan program and by extension, at him? 

Prohibiting him from coaching in the NFL would lead to serious legal action. The results of a court’s decision could further undermine the enforcement of any bans by the NCAA, a group which the major college football powers would like to render even more powerless. 

As for Harbaugh, whatever your thoughts are about his Michigan program and his quick exit from his alma mater before the penalties were announced, he will be fine even if the NFL enforced NCAA sanctions like it did regarding Tressel. He has oodles of money and maybe he can return Michigan as an administrator. There seems to be a path there.  

I have seen snippets of games and highlights from the Little League World Series. I saw that Aruba knocked off Venezuela in what might be considered an upset. The Arubans get to face another giant in Japan in the International Championship. 

I saw Nevada play early on. They looked to be potent. The Mountain West team was knocked off by Connecticut. Nevada prevailed against South Carolina in an elimination game to have a rematch against the Nutmeg State squad in the American final. 

There is a prohibition against gambling on Little League games the United States. For good reason. The kids have enough pressure on them. 

However, there is no bar about betting on the games outside the US. Which is getting very heavy action—more than MLB baseball, the WNBA and anything else going on. Combined. What does that say? 

The New York Mets downed Seattle in the annual MLB game held in Williamsport. The good feeling lasted for a very short time, as the Mets went down to Washington where the Nationals took two out of three games. NYM now stands at 67-60 for the season, seven games behind NL East leader and precariously clinging to the last Wild Card slot, 0.5 games ahead of Cincinnati. A far cry from what was expected from this team.  

Seattle traveled to Baltimore, where the Orioles extended the Mariners’ losing streak to five, leaving them just ahead of hard-charging Kansas City for the last AL Wild Card spot. 

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox face off in the Bronx for four important games, as the venerable foes try to catch Toronto for first place in the AL East while cementing each team’s Wild Card chances. Boston won the first game on national TV, helped by New York fielding blunders and bad relief pitching. This ended a five game winning streak for NYY. Boston is now 8-1 this season versus NYY. 

Out West, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres go head-to-head again. Last weekend, LAD swept the Padres in LA. Then the Dodgers lost two of three to lowly Colorado. San Diego gained ground and is 1.0 games behind its rival as a three game series starts in San Diego. 

For the record, the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers split four games at Wrigley Field. The Brewers maintain a 7.0 game lead with 34 game left to play. 

Paige Bueckers, the former UConn phenom, tied a WNBA rookie record for points in a game this week. Her 44 points were in a losing cause. 

Sabrina Ionescu channeled her inner Steph Curry when she nailed a long three pointer to secure a win for the New York Liberty. Night-night, Minnesota. (I saw an article proposing that Golden State’s Curry is the best NBA point guard ever. That is very interesting.) 

With super nova Caitlin Clark still out, is anybody watching?

I saw all-time tennis great Novak Djokovic throw out the first pitch for last night’s Boston-Yankees game. This could be his last go-around in Flushing Meadows. 

A newly formatted mixed doubles competition, which had lots of money involved and drew the stars from with the women’s and men’s draw, kicked off the US Open festivities. Plus women’s legend Serena Williams announced that she is taking a weight loss drug—one that her husband is a big investor in. Nothing like the circus that is New York and the US Open. 

On Friday night, the New York Jets host the Philadelphia Eagles in the teams’ final pre-season game. I’m eating my tickets like a lot of other NYJ season ticket holders.

A friend of mine was crowing about his New York Giants thrashing New England and going undefeated. It doesn’t count. Undefeated in the pre-season means nothing. You want your team to suffer no significant injuries. 

For me, I hope I don’t have to eat more tickets this season as it unfolds. I wonder if Chargers’ fans are thinking that, too, should Harbaugh have to go?

Finally, it came out that Kansas City Chiefs’ Head Coach Andy Reid was shot at while in his office in April, 2024. Fortunately, one shot missed him by a mere 15 feet. The unknown shooter presumptively must have been a Buffalo Bills fan; the bullet landed wide right. 

Colleges. College football. Baseball. Tennis. The WNBA and a reference to the NBA. Pro football. What—no hockey?

There's A Storm A Brewin'

  Somebody give the Milwaukee Brewers a drug test. Fast. For something has to be amiss with the Brew Crew in 2025. 

Milwaukee opened the season in New York. It must have been a real jolt coming from the Arizona desert where they have their spring training home, dealing with the late March chill. 

For the Yankees absolutely buried the Brewers. After losing the season opener 4-2, the Milwaukee pitching was atrocious, with NYY clubbing homer after homer and putting up 20 runs on Saturday then 12 more on Sunday. 

This was not a good start for a team predicted to battle the Chicago Cubs and the other NL Central teams for supremacy. Let alone a playoff berth at a minimum. 

The home schedule didn’t start off any better, when Kansas City, a team which had its own playoff aspirations, downed Milwaukee by a 11-1 score. I am sure that a ton of Brewers fans were wondering what the heck was happening with their team.

Something must have clicked in Wisconsin in April, as the club won six of its next seven games. Even so, the team managed to lose a game to the lowly Rockies in Denver, part of losing three of four games. Towards the end of April, there was another four game losing streak. 

May also did not start out great, with a four game losing streak, which ended with a 4-0 shut out win over the first place Cubs. At the end of May, Milwaukee strung together an eight game winning streak, with those wins coming against Pittsburgh, Boston, Philadelphia and Cincinnati. The Brewers were back in the hunt. 

In July, the Brewers picked up speed, going 17-7. Which included an eleven game winning streak, stopped by the Cubs on July 30th. 

Through August 13th, the team has been unbeaten for the month. Which has given the team a record well over 70 wins, tops in the MLB, and opened up large leads over the Cubs, Cincinnati and St. Louis, all teams with records over .500.

Milwaukee has an astounding 150+ run differential, with the Cubs the only other team with a 100+ run differential. Moreover, the wins have come over good teams—Boston; Philadelphia; New York Mets; Detroit; Los Angeles Dodgers; and Seattle. If the season ended today, all of the aforementioned teams would be in the playoffs. 

Within the division, the Brewers have played well. Maybe not as dominating, but still coming up on the plus side. It also does not hurt to have the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates around to beat up on. The Brewers knocked Pirates star pitcher Paul Skenes out of the game after four innings on Tuesday night—no small feat. They followed that up with another rout of Pittsburgh, which entitled all of Milwaukee to obtain a free burger, as a local establishment has a promotion that when the  Brewers win 12 straight, it’s burgers for Milwaukee. 

Looking at the batting averages, none of the regulars has an average over .300. Oft-injured and one-time M.V.P. Christian Yelich leads the offense with 23 home runs and 78 runs batted in. It is a solid lineup, with most every player with the exception of catcher William Contreras, having stolen bases in double figures. And Brewers hitters seem to strike out a fair bit. 

The pitching seems to be the key. The starting pitching, including injured rookie  phenom Jacob Misiorowski, is solid. Quinn Priester has the best winning percentage while Freddy Peralta leads all of baseball with 14 wins. Closer Trevor Megill has converted 28 out of 31 save opportunities. Only Texas and San Diego have allowed fewer runs this season.

The number of home runs allowed is on the lower end, while the strikeouts of other teams’ batters is in the top 10. Converserly, there isn’t any batting statistic which blows away the other teams. 

How did this team of no real superstars get to be so good? Experts are unsure. Just after Memorial Day weekend the team had its last rough spot, losing five of eight games. The team was mired at 25-28. 

Then the Brewers exploded. From that date, Milwaukee is 48-16, with a 26-4 record in its last 30 games. With no real signs that the team is slowing down. 

Meanwhile, every big time contender has had rough times which were the opposite of the Brewers winning. Some of that losses for those teams—LAD, Philadelphia, NYM and the Cubs can be attributed to Milwaukee. For that matter, the Cubs have the National League’s second best record since late May and has lost 14 games in the standings to Milwaukee. 

Despite having the best record now in mid-August, I am not anointing the Brewers as the absolute favorite to win the World Series. Bettors tend to agree with this assessment, as the oddsmakers still have LAD, Philadelphia, Detroit ahead of the Brewers and tied with Seattle, which is in a wild card spot in the American League at this point. 

 

Who they have is the reigning National League Manager of the Year Pat Murphy at the helm. He has inspired a lunch bucket kind of mentality—nobody will outwork or outhustle this group. They can sport a revitalized Andrew Vaughn—once the number 3 pick in the 2019 draft who was demoted by the lowly White Sox before finally being traded a bit north—and now is smacking the ball. Plus Isaac Collins is a 28 year old rookie who may be the current leader for NL Rookie of the Year. 

Milwaukee faces a difficult eight games in the division beginning on Friday. At Cincinnati for three games then in Wrigley Field for five games. They travel to Toronto for three games to conclude August. 

Starting with division opponents, the road to October isn’t going to be a cake walk. Chicago could easily sneak back into the picture; the Reds have designs on a Wild Card berth; and the Cardinals are far from dead. Plus Milwaukee hosts NL East leader Philadelphia; and travels to San Diego for the penultimate series in September—the Padres are hot on overthrowing the Dodgers for the top spot in the NL Central.  

This is a pretty great comeback from the humiliation in the Bronx in March and the uninspired play to just after Memorial Day. For now, the Milwaukee Brewers are the feel good story for the 2025 season.

For you Yankees haters, I just want to mention Giancarlo Stanton. The guy is on an absolute tear. Like he tends to do in October during the post-season. Stanton is whacking the ball all over the place. Hard hits galore. 

After a lackluster play in his belated start to the season due to his painful elbows, which included not elevating the balls he was making contact with and striking out too many times, Stanton has put that behind him. He is hitting home runs seemingly every game and driving in multiple runs. 

His offense is much needed during New York’s tailspin. Especially so with Aaron Judge still possibly banged up with his flexor strain.

Since Judge cannot play the field right now, in order to keep Stanton’s torrid bat in the lineup, Yankees Manager Aaron Boone has penciled Stanton on right field, where he can defend less ground. Stanton has done okay given his limited range and speed. 

He always has been a great teammate. Judge and Stanton have a great rapport. This current stretch shows what Boone and General Manager Brian Cashman have echoed about how valuable Stanton is to this Yankees squad. 

Let us not forget that Stanton has slugged 441 home runs, climbing the all-time ladder steadily. With some continued success, Stanton could reach Hall of Fame outfielder Carl Yastrezemski’s 452. Or go beyond. 

Wherever he ends up on the HR list and how the Yankees do—like winning a World Series—may have a lot to do with how Hall of Fame voters perceive his resume. And take into account his injuries and how they have limited him. Stanton sure is fun to watch when he is on a roll. 

One more comment. The torrent of enthusiasm for the unorthodox play of the Savannah Bananas touring baseball team, selling out wherever they go, does not include me. Don’t get me wrong—I liked the Harlem Globetrotters and their style of play. NBA players mimic some of what the Globetrotters brought to a basketball floor. 

What the Bananas do is highly athletic and entertaining. It does not resemble that much of traditional baseball. If your’e looking for entertainment and crowd involvement, then go see them. Their brand of baseball is cheap price-wise and endearing; it’s just not for me. 

With the August heat still upon us in the Northeast, there is a storm a Brewin’ in the Northern Plains.