Birthday Gifts

  Saturday was my 75th birthday. It was a fun day with family and friends. Good food. Good times. It was everything I wanted, including the Katz’s Delicatessen apron gifted me by my editor and her husband. I felt blessed.

But this is primarily a sports blog. For I love sports. And I love to talk and report on the topics related to the sports world. 

So on my birthday, I had three football games to monitor and another one on Sunday to complete the weekend. The Saturday games were Rutgers at Purdue; Franklin and Marshall visiting Ursinus; and Jonathan Dayton High School, located just around the block, hosting arch rival Brearley. Sunday’s match involved the New York Jets traveling to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals. Plus the New Jersey Devils were hosting Nathan McKinnon and the ever-dangerous Colorado Avalanche at the Prudential Center in Newark. 

The odds of all of the games resulting in wins for the teams I was rooting for was astronomical. After all, Rutgers had been free falling in the Big Ten standings, and even a visit to a woeful Purdue Boilermakers squad was anything but a gimme for the Scarlet Knights. 

F&M was tied with perennial Centennial Conference top dog Johns Hopkins atop the CC Football Standings. Ursinus had amassed a 4-2 record heading into the clash, although the team was coming off a trouncing in Baltimore at the hands of Hopkins. The Diplomats came to Collegeville sporting a 5-1 mark, slightly deceiving in that F&M barely defeated Muhlenberg and Dickinson in the previous two weeks. 

Dayton had suffered only a loss to my alma mater, Highland Park High school to mar its record. JDHS had demolished the Dunellen Destroyers by a score of 48-0. Brearley had a pedestrian 4-4 record entering the game; one of the wins was against my HPHS Owls by a point. 

The Devils were streaking, winners of seven in a row after an Opening Night loss at Carolina. The Ads came to New Jersey with only one loss in the early season. 

And the putrid 0-7 Jets were faced with starting Justin Fields at quarterback after owner 

Woody Johnson and Head Coach Aaron Glenn showed little faith and patience in him, only because backup QB Tyrod Taylor was unavailable due to injury. New York was facing old friend now foe Joe Flacco, substituting under center for the injured Joe Burrow; Flacco had looked young again in a loss the week before. 

How did all of this shake out? You would be surprised. Really surprised. As was I. 

The only loss was the one game I was least invested in—the high school contest. Brearley eked out a win over the Dayton Bulldogs, securing a playoff spot based on Power Points, a method devised by the NJSIAA to secure the best teams in the post-season by group. Brearley moves on to face Mountain Lakes. Dayton has to settle for a consolation game and now has a 6-2 record. 

Rutgers felt like they owed Head Coach Greg Schiano a much-needed victory for all the effort Schiano invested in this team preparing them for each game. For once, and on the road, RU played with poise and determination. 

Still, it took some late game heroics and a field goal with no time left to secure a victory and a happy plane flight back to New Jersey. Whether this is the last game RU wins this season or not, the team could savor the moment and have some renewed energy when they began practice in preparation for a road game this Saturday at Illinois. 

How did F&M do? Did the Diplomats escape with another victory? Did they remain tied with JHU for the CC lead? 

Yes, the Diplomats downed the Bears. It wasn’t close, for a change. F&M dominated Ursinus and gave its remaining CC foes (Mc Daniel, Carnegie-Mellon and Johns Hopkins at home which could be a Centennial championship showdown) something to think about. Some pollsters were so impressed that F&M was actually ranked in one poll. 

It took overtime for the Devils to prevail and extend their winning streak to eight on Saturday afternoon. That streak would end abruptly when the team traveled to Denver where the hosts attained revenge by an 8-4 score. 

Thus, I was happy where I stood entering Sunday’s last game. My sense of appreciating the Jets this season led me to believe that there was little-to-no chance the Green and White could pull off the upset. 

Maybe it was karma. Or the dedication of the game to former Jets star Nick Mangold, who lost his battle with kidney disease the night before in New Jersey. Mangold was a huge human being who I saw up close when he brought his daughter to swim school adjacent to the gym I belonged to in his adopted home town of Florham Park. Losing him so young was so tragic. He is already in the team’s Ring of Honor. I hope he is posthumously elected this year to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as a worthy tribute to his legacy. 

Fields played his best game of the season. The team excelled in almost all areas. Yet it took a Nick Folk field goal after a great drive led by the embattled quarterback to get into field goal range with very little time left. It also was fortunate that for New York that Flacco was injured and unable to do more, giving the Jets just enough opportunity to shrink the demons following the team.

Final score: NYJ 39 CIN 38. Whatever momentum this game gave the team is muted by this week being the team’s bye week. Still, it was an exciting game that had me out of my seat repeatedly. 

I add in the Kansas City Chiefs win over a depleted Washington team on Monday night and only by mere three points did I not have all my teams win. I cannot remember being so lucky. 

Switching to baseball—if you have been out of the loop regarding the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers meeting in the World Series, then shame on you. For this has been one of the most exciting Fall Classics in recent memory. 

The level of play has been outstanding from the start to where we now stand entering Friday night’s Game 6 in Canada. Both teams sport a number of future Hall of Fame players. Most of them are excelling. 

So many records have been set for World Series and post-season play. Listing them would take too much time and space. 

Vlad Guerrero, Jr. has shown the baseball world why he remained in Canada and is driven to play for his hometown team. The guy is a monster who has an infectious enthusiasm which his teammates absorb. 

What’s not to say about Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese multi-talent who has raised his game to new heights, even if he was almost mortal in Game 4 as the starting pitcher for the Dodgers? 

These teams are so invested in playing hard that Game 3 lasted an outrageous 18 innings before LAD first baseman Freddie Freeman, born in Canada but reared in Southern California, sent everyone home with a walk off blast to give LAD a 6-5 win. Almost everybody on the two squads played in that epic affair. I certainly wasn’t awake when it ended near 3:00 am on the East Coast. 

Even if the Blue Jays win on Friday over an exhausted Dodgers team which seemed flat on Wednesday night and had to endure a long flight facing elimination, it should not diminish what has played out thus far. Far from it. 

There are these names to remember. First, Trey Yesavage, the young Toronto hurler who began the year in Single A ball and set records in the post-season. Then there is Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who has emerged as a star pitching for LAD. The Dodgers’ fate on Friday night is in his hands. And Toronto outfielder Addison Barger has made a name for himself in this Series.

I know I will be watching on Friday night. And maybe Saturday if we are so fortunate. Could there be another walk off homer on the same field where Joe Carter did that to give Toronto its only World Championship in 1993? Who knows?

This is for sure. I am having a blast watching the games I care about. That is what sports is all about. Especially when they are birthday gifts. 

Loyalty

  I went to the disaster known as a New York Jets game this past Sunday. The inept offense allowed the not-real-good Carolina Panthers to leave New Jersey with a victory. 

It was an ugly affair. The redeeming events were that I went with my daughter who, because of a stress fracture on her left heel, was on crutches and needed to sit in a handicap seating area, which was in the sun for the entire game and allowed us to have mid-October tans. 

I knew when the Livingston, New Jersey Marching Lancers Band received a rousing ovation for their performance before the start of the game, it might be an omen. Which it was. Just not in the Jets favor. 

The only things which went right for NYJ were a field goal and two reviews after Head Coach Aaron Glenn tossed the red flags. Otherwise, it was more dreadful football by the guys in Green and White. 

But what touched me was something which appeared on the video board during a time out. There was a salute to a 92 year old fan with a Jewish surname who has been a Jets fan since 1960, the year the team came into existence as the New York Titans and played its games at the Polo Grounds, the former home of the New York Giants—both baseball and football varieties. 

This man was there with his extended family for the game. It seemed like he never missed a game in his nearly 66 years of team loyalty. 

Which made me think. A lot. About myself and my relationship with the New York Jets. 

I had been enthralled with sports at an early age. Television in the New York area was saturated with games of the local teams plus some national games, especially in hockey. My youth included Yankees, Mets, New York Football Giants, New York Rangers and New York Knicks games in person and even a trip to Philadelphia in 1959 to see the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was fun. It was exciting to see the games in person and to hear the roar of the crowd.

In 1977, when I was just beginning my career at the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, my sister and I made the decision to become more than TV fans.  While the Giants had a waiting list for season tickets which reached into the years before your name might be called for available seats, the Jets, now in the National Football League and playing at Shea Stadium in Queens, had immediate ticket availability. 

So we became more than casual TV fans. We made trips every Sunday to Flushing, either driving the Long Island Expressway after navigating the Lincoln Tunnel to Midtown, or taking the packed subway, which included the infamous number 7 train and its curve nearing Queensboro Plaza. 

Jets gear and paraphernalia began to integrate into my life. My Fall and into Winter centered around the home schedule. It became a ritual that has lasted 49 onerous years, with only some winning to compensate for the losing—especially including this year. 

What I have observed over my time in Queens and in New Jersey when the team moved away from Shea Stadium and the unfavorable conditions they had as a second tier tenant, is a love and dedication for the team. Supporters clad in team colors populate the parking lots. There is a vocal, guttural sound which comes from within the stadium when the chant J-E-T-S is formalized. There is a joy in the tailgating, even if the season is dismal, as good food of all varieties and alcohol can overcome seemingly perpetual dejection. 

I have been seated in three locations at the three stadiums which the Jets have called home. Only in the section I presently have seats do I not recognize people who also have season tickets. 

For me, it has become an addiction to remain a Jets fan. Sitting in cold weather when the team is not making the playoffs, bundled up in thermal wear and heated gloves, shoes and socks is a true dedication to the team. Or is my going in the frigid weather simply trying to recoup the significant financial investment of my season tickets? I have become that much more jaded about being a NYJ fan because of all of the losing. 

Yet there are plenty of people like the older gentleman and his family who have a vested interest in cheering for the team. From wherever they come, they cling to the hope of a better day, a victorious result and the friendships they have perpetuated. 

It’s hard sitting through an unbearable season. I did it once in 1996 when the Jets went 1-15. Each coaching and management change becomes the next step in extricating the franchise from its losing ways. 

I saw this during my tenure at Madison Square Garden in the ten years when we shared New York Rangers tickets. Talk about a loyal and faithful bunch, wearing hockey jerseys to the games, rooting fervently for a franchise which, during the time I was there (1977-1986), was trying to reverse the jinx of not having won the Stanley Cup since 1940. Almost always sold out, the Garden would rock, especially during the playoffs or when the team faced long-standing rivals like the Original Six teams, or newer (and sometimes much better) enemies like the New York Islanders or Philadelphia Flyers. It was an intensity I can never forget and still be amazed by how the relationship has endured from generation to generation. 

The hockey fan mentality of the Garden made its way to New Jersey when the Devils were established. A new breed of anti-Rangers was born, not unlike the separatists on Long Island when the Islanders were formed. No less noisy and fervent, the Devils fans were able to witness winning the Stanley Cup before the Rangers did, just as the Islanders fans had. 

Whether it was 40 games to see in hockey or just 8 football games, it becomes a full and complete part of one’s life. It is no different with Rutgers fans and the alumni who populate SHI Stadium or Jersey Mike’s Arena. They pay ridiculous prices to support an athletic program which appears to be destitute, many of them fans of the Jets, Giants, Devils, Rangers or other local teams. 

Being a Yankees fan at least brought more success. Certainly more than the Mets, whose initial years were anything but pretty. 

For many who sought championships, the New York Yankees were the team in baseball, like the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls were in pro basketball or the Montreal Canadiens in hockey, with some winning seasons by the Islanders and Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins. Those in other cities had to bide their time. 

Wearing the pinstripes with the interlocking NY was a right of passage. Many former and present Yankees players were Yankees fans as kids—Gerrit Cole, Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger come to mind. 

When I watched games like the Seattle-Toronto ALCS series won in seven games by the Blue Jays, I observed all sorts of fans excited about their team’s chances to make the World Series. Then there is the woman sitting in the first row in Milwaukee, perpetually charting pitches and keeping score—without any family members nearby. Kudos to her and her allegiance. 

There is faithfulness even in staid LA, where the greatest game perhaps ever played by one player took place when Japanese super star Shohei Ohtani dazzled the Brewers in a series-ending Game 4 by posting 6 innings as a pitcher, allowing a measly 3 hits, striking out 10 batters and walking only 3. While clubbing 3 homers, two of them monster shots at Dodger Stadium. Those Angelinos should wear everything blue and scream their heads off when they face the Blue Jays in the 2025 Series. 

And an aside to New York Giants fans. I watched and felt your pain when the Denver Broncos scored 33 points in the fourth quarter to overcome a valiant effort by New York and snatch victory in a miraculous way that over 1000 teams had not done before when trailing by 19 points with six minutes to go. I know many people in the NY Metro area were screaming at their TV sets, unable to stop what was happening. While the sea of orange in Denver was in absolute shock and awe, heading to the exits jubilant and flushed with victory. 

I recognize that none of what I have written about my teams is totally peculiar to New York. Look at the legions of fans in the South pulling for SEC schools or in the Big Ten and ACC. They are no less ardent about their cheering for their teams. Some are the everyday alumni and fans shelling out significant money for the right to purchase costly tickets. Or they are the big boosters whose influence over the school’s athletic fortunes can lead to coaching changes for non-performance no matter the cost (see James Franklin’s enormous buyout at Penn State) just as much as luring the best athletes to the school through making available significant N-I-L money. All demand winning seasons and hate losing (Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech alums and fans must be reveling in their school’s new-found success on the gridiron after so many years of football purgatory).  

Whatever team somebody attaches to, for whatever reasons, it has its roots in something deep and abiding. It is an outlet for our daily lives and the stress associated with them. Something hard to fathom but something deep and necessary. We want to be winners and we stay true when there is continual losing—see the Chicago Cubs who took forever to break a supposed curse about the team winning the World Series. 

Call it what you want. Fandom for a particular team is cult-like. Psychologists have written much about the phenomenon. Rooting in sports is sure unique as much as it it is similar and goal-oriented. 

I have stayed the course with the Jets over the years with the eternal hope that someday I might see another trip to the Super Bowl besides the win in Super Bowl III. Just like I will be back watching the Yankees continue to strive for the first World Series title since 2009. 

For me, it comes down to one word: loyalty. 

Franklin. PSU. Segura. Baseball. NYJ

  This was a week when the unexpected happened. For the most part.

With Northwestern’s 22-21 win in State College over Penn State, on the heels of the Nittany Lions’ loss to an underperforming UCLA team in the Rose Bowl, PSU fired football head coach James Franklin. It was surprising that it was during the season—the home loss to Oregon didn’t help either, further demonstrating that Franklin’s teams simply cannot win against top flight competition in the Big Ten. 

Having visited the Penn State campus many times while my daughter attended school there, it was evident that Penn State took pride in its athletics. Not all teams were successful—men’s and women’s basketball and baseball come to mind. But soccer, volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling thrived there. 

Still, the big, driving force at PSU was football. With a stadium currently undergoing a massive remodeling to comfortably seat over 100,000 rabid fans, game days in Happy Valley were an event. The big bucks which were poured into the biggest revenue sport demanded excellence on the field and no repeat of the scandals which plagued iconic coach Joe Paterno’s last days. 

Franklin came from Vanderbilt, where he managed to resurrect a dormant Commodores program into a winning one against the highest caliber of SEC teams. He didn’t win a SEC crown during his tenure in Nashville, but he seemed to be an up and coming coach who knew how to develop a winning culture. 

So Penn State grabbed him over 12 years ago with the goal of his leading the Nittany Lions not just to national prominence, but to win the National Championship. The administration gave him all that it could by way of top-notch facilities. The necessary N-I-L money was available to recruit the highest level of student-athlete. The fact that PSU was in the middle of Pennsylvania was overcome by the ability to play in one of the best leagues, if not the best one in the Big Ten.

Franklin’s teams did well enough to earn nice end-of-the season bowl game trips. But he failed miserably against Ohio State and Michigan and even Oregon. That wasn’t good enough for those who poured money into the program and expected especially this team to be a national title contender by its pre-season ranking in the top 3. 

Simply beating Rutgers, Maryland, Purdue et.al. wasn’t sufficient. The repeated failures began to put Franklin on the hot seat. Losing to Oregon may not have been very good. But defeats from the bottom feeders in the league were his death knell as the head coach of PSU Football. 

Thus the administration pulled the trigger and jettisoned Franklin. Many pundits were astonished, given the fact that Franklin had a very large buyout clause which kicked in with his departure. Whether it was in-season or at the end of the 2025 campaign didn’t matter. (There is some mitigation here—Franklin has to actively look for employment as a head coach to offset some of the money PSU owes him for his firing)

I never liked Franklin, going back to his days at Vandy. I thought his brash, arrogant manner of speaking to the media and fans was condescending. His internal drive to win didn’t match his external expressions. 

Then again, he is like a whole lot of head coaches in football and basketball. Full of bravado and short on talent—theirs along with the players recruited. 

James Franklin will arise again on the college football scene. Too many job openings occur yearly. There will be a spot for him at some program which believes Franklin has the right capacity to win. Many ex-coaches with fairly good resumes who have not satisfied the alumni or administration in their last job find new and purposeful employment in win-starved environments. 

Could it be a school which felt it should be playoff bound yearly? Perhaps. Or might it be a Vanderbilt-like college which wants to be in the conversation with the big boys. Look at the current Top 25 which includes names like Indiana, Mississippi, Texas Tech, Georgia Tech, Missouri, Virginia, South Florida, Memphis, Utah, Cincinnati and Nebraska—teams not normally associated with the rankings and are having renaissances. Might it be Arkansas, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, Stanford—big names already in search of a new head man? There certainly will be more schools firing the current guy in the hopes of landing someone of Franklin’s stature. And after the dust settles, does he have to take a TV job for a year or move down a notch to re-establish his reputation? 

As for Penn State, where do they go now that they have fired Franklin? Would they lure ex-coach Bill O’Brien, who had to deal with the aftermath of the Paterno mess, back from Boston College? Indiana’s Curt Cignetti is now out of the running, having secured a lucrative extension. Matt Ruhle, the now-successful Nebraska coach has a close relationship with the PSU AD Pat Kraft; Nebraska is not somewhere to walk away from so quickly. Also mentioned are Tulane HC Jon Sumrall; Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz; Matt Campbell from Iowa State with a proven track record; and yes, going to Vanderbilt and snatching Clark Lea.

There are a whole lot of possibilities beyond the ones prominently mentioned to succeed Franklin. It might even be an assistant coach from a Power 5 school. That path worked at Georgia and Clemson, among other places. 

Whatever the direction this takes, a lot of money will be thrown about to secure the next Joe Paterno in Happy Valley. Remember this—Paterno, a former Brown quarterback, was the top assistant to Rip Engle at PSU before being elevated to the top job. Maybe the interim coach might become the winner of this lottery to keep costs down. 

The legacy at Penn State is based on two consensus national titles before the playoff system was instituted: 1982 and 1986. In 2026, that will be 40 years hoping for the next great team. I wish them luck—just not too much for I’d love to see Rutgers rise up and surpass PSU and others ahead of them. I just don’t think that will occur with Greg Schiano at the controls. Nor would it happen with Franklin. 

And there is one other possibility. That PSU shot itself in the foot by firing Franklin and will be consigned to the wilderness of chasing unrealistic dreams for years to come. 

Some other notes. First, my wife, daughter and I saw comedian Tom Segura perform at the beautiful New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark this past Wednesday night. Segura is not a household name. At least among my generation of older adults. 

Yet I found his humor funny and bright, his wit and delivery were polished and savvy. He even found a way to diss Bill Belichick, the former Super Bowl champion coach in New England and now embattled at the University of North Carolina in his first foray into the collegiate ranks. 

Segura is going to become a known commodity. He has the talent and ability to make a bigger splash than he already has with videos, his podcast and live performances like this one, which was sold out. Go see him if you have the opportunity and keep your eyes open for his upcoming movies and specials. You won’t be disappointed.

Now I can turn to baseball. With the Division Series in full force, I have to say that I am not surprised with the results thus far. The Los Angeles Dodgers always were a highly talented group which actually improved from last season—even if the regular season record didn’t quite measure up to people’s expectations. I was dubious about how good the Milwaukee Brewers really were and their struggles to get past the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS may have told me all I needed to know how they might fare against the reigning MLB champions. That is why LAD has a commanding 3-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Toronto had a brief slumber after expending much energy to dispatch the New York Yankees from the playoffs in the ALDS. Seattle’s two wins on the road have been matched by the Blue Jays bombarding the Mariners in Seattle. It is now a best 2 of 3 series; I think the Jays have the edge. 

Finally, two New York Yankees went under the knife right after the team was eliminated by Toronto. Shortstop Anthony Volpe had his labrum tear from May fixed and star pitcher Carlos Rodon needed arthroscopic surgery to his left elbow to clean up some debris and a bone spur. 

Both will be unavailable early in the 2026 season. That will stretch the NYY infield and starting pitching in March, April and May. 

One might never have known that there was something wrong with Rodon. However, we became aware of Volpe’s injury and saw how it affected his hitting and fielding even after one, then two and then a third cortisone injection. One has to wonder what was discussed with Volpe, the Yankees brass, medical staff to keep him playing rather than opt earlier for surgery which would have placed him in line for a timely return in 2026. Moreover, with Volpe’s parents both doctors, one wonders what their thoughts and input might have been—if any. It seems like something was wrong from the outset. 

Speaking of that, I am going once more to Met Life Stadium this Sunday to see the 0-6 New York Jets either reach 0-7 versus Carolina or record the team’s first win of the season. Call me a glutton for punishment. Especially after the dud in London where the team could not win a winnable game because the pass offense was horrendous. 

James Franklin. PSU. Tom Segura. Baseball. Yet I am going to see NYJ play.