Here’s my seminal moment watching the Paris Olympics. Not watching Simone Biles take more golds; when she unexpectedly landed out of bounds on her final floor route, Biles had to settle for a silver medal (for the record, she told Lester Holt of NBC News that she was fine with her haul in Paris).
It wasn’t watching Sydney McLaughlin-Leverone obliterate the field in the 400 meter hurdles. Way to go Jersey girl! But not that either.
It certainly wasn’t seeing Snoop Dogg’s mug at a number of events. Or viewing the harrowing road of the US Women’s soccer team getting to the Olympic finals. None of that.
Definitely not watching US citizen Armand Duplantis, born in Lafayette, Louisiana and who went to LSU, compete for his mother’s country, Sweden, and repeatedly set world records in the pole vault. Although quite interesting. Nor was it Noah Lyles winning the 100 meters race by the slimmest of margins.
Instead, it was a moment that I could not have predicted. I went to my gym—Brooklake Country Club in Florham Park where my wife and I are gym members only—and walked into the gym area. There I saw one William Joseph Raftery watching the TV screen intently.
Those who follow sports and specifically basketball know him as Bill, the former head coach at FDU Florham and Seton Hall, a New Jersey scholastic legend from Hudson County. Or more likely in his second career as an analyst/commentator for the NCAA Men’s Final Four.
Mr. Raftery is a member at Brooklake C.C. He and his wife occasionally frequent the gym. We say hello and goodbye. He does his thing and my wife and I huff and puff through our routines.
This past Tuesday was different. I came upon him watching the quarterfinal game between Serbia and Australia as the first overtime period wound down.
And he started to talk to me and another member about Serbia’s Nikola Jokic, the former NBA M.V.P. with the Denver Nuggets and one of the greatest players in the world. It was like time had stopped and this famous announcer was sharing his observations. When Serbia stole the ball in the last seconds, Jokic, to avoid getting fouled, stepped away from a defender and threw an outlet pass to get the ball up court and secure the win for his country.
I made mention of this occurrence to him and he agreed how talented Jokic was to do this. Mr. Raftery then talked about the line Jokic had—24 points, 14 rebounds and 8 assists. He shook his head at how good Jokic was.
I added that Serbia came back from a 24 point deficit—which he didn’t see on the screen and he commented that must have been earlier in the contest. And with that, he went back to his workout and I began mine. He said good bye when he left, as he always does.
It will be easy to guess that I will continue to watch more of the Olympics. Heck, I watched the US Men’s team complete a Brazilian BlowOut (hair style aficionados will get that one) later in the day.
To steal a line from his genre and CBS, this was my shining moment. Better than Al Roker asking me a baseball question at the 2008 MLB All Star Game—he had no clue what was going on. In fairness, I never asked Al about the weather.
Bill Raftery has a major hoops pedigree. Our interests crossed over an Olympic basketball game. How cool.
John Schneider is not my favorite manager. He is with the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Jays visited Yankee Stadium this past weekend. Where his team took on the suddenly revitalized Yankees and the red hot Aaron Judge.
When Judge hit a first inning 477 foot home run on Friday, tying Babe Ruth for the franchise record for homers in the opening frame with his 16th, Schneider had seen enough. In the ensuing at bats, he had his pitches avoid pitching to Judge, or, he took the bat out of Judge’s hands by ordering intentional walks. Three in one game. And even one with two outs and no one on base.
This was taking the bat away from Judge in his home ballpark, with fans who paid plenty of money for seats in the Bronx stadium. Not fair—and the rabid New York fans let him know it.
The Yankees rebounded from a loss on Friday to take two of three from the Jays and to win the season series. Judge went 4 for 8 with 2 home runs.
MLB has to do something to stop this kind of game management. It won’t be until next season. Toronto isn’t making the playoffs unless they go on a torrid winning streak. The Yankees might actually have a chance to make it to the World Series as they are even in their overall record with Cleveland and Baltimore.
With this type of philosophy, Judge won’t have a shot at breaking his 2022 American League-record 62 home runs. Nor will he have many opportunities to directly help his team to a victory. Which is flat out wrong.
Let’s talk about the Chicago White Sox, an original American League franchise. They are in the news because they are so bad. Bad enough to tie the 1988 Baltimore Orioles for the longest losing streak in the American League. That fell short of the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies, a team that somehow, in the last year of an eight team league, managed to lose 23 straight games—two more than the Sox and Birds.
The White Sox were fortunate to play in Oakland on Tuesday night. The A’s, playing in what appears to be their last season in Oakland, are a robust 47-69 and not smelling a whiff of the playoffs. This battle of the worst teams in the American League was played before a paltry 5,867—if that many.
Not to worry about the ChiSox running up a lengthy winning streak. Oakland won Wednesday’s game. The Sox face the Cubs for two games at home this weekend. Then the suddenly resurgent Yankees come visiting on Monday. And the team will have to do all this without manager Pedro Grifol, who was fired on Thursday.
This bunch of White Sox players has a dubious mark ahead of them. The worst record for a MLB season belongs to the expansion 1962 New York Mets.
That group of rejects and youngsters, managed by the aging Casey Stengel, the former winning manage of the crusty New York Yankees, was flat out horrible. I watched the Mets as often as I could while maintaining my allegiance to Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra and Bobby Richardson, whose batting stance I liked to copy. It was painful to see.
The Mets played in the Polo Grounds, an old ballpark abandoned by the Giants when they moved West to San Francisco for the 1958 season. While the ghost of Willie Mays may have been around, it must have been hiding in the bowels of the dank, decrepit park the Metsies called home—unless the Giants were actually back in town to play the Mets.
So much bad play was seen by 900,000 fans that first season. Nonetheless, a loyalty grew with the Mets as they tried to find their own footing. Moving to Shea Stadium in conjunction with the World’s Fair in 1964 gave the team a bright new home. It wasn’t until 1969 that the Mets broke free of their losing ways, winning the World Series.
With their 28 wins, the White Sox are on a pace to win fewer games than the Mets did in 1962. I feel for the faithful South Side fans—just a few season ago the team was relevant. It would be ignominious if the team won less than 40 games, the total NYM won, or lost more than the 120 NYM lost. And I don’t think the future is that bright, either.
My problem is that I don’t have a stake in the plight of the White Sox. I don’t know whether to root for them to break the record or let the Mets still hold the distinction of being the worst team in MLB history. But I will try to watch.
I will be on vacation for a while. Where I am going, soccer (futbol) is the main sport. I hope I can follow the Yankees while I’m gone. They are playing those White Sox.
Adios for now.
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