Garden-Based?

  Sure, there is baseball and hockey going on. Plenty of the former and one final matchup on the ice. I will get to that. 

But first, I want to digress. My wife, daughter and I went inside the Garden. We even had lunch there and spent almost three hours on the grounds. 

This was a bucket list item for me. Plenty of others joined us at the Garden. Wearing New York Knicks merchandise. And it was picturesque. 

But thee wasn’t any basketball being played at this Garden. It was the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. 

According to the guide brochure, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden was founded in 1910 and “this vital urban sanctuary features more than 12,000 kinds of plants from around the world.” Pretty amazing. 

I have a somewhat disjointed understanding of Brooklyn. My family’s origin is from that borough. While primarily focused on Coney Island, I have explored some parts of Brooklyn, but not its entirety by a long shot. 

We took the Goethals Bridge to Staten Island and traversed the always-crowded Staten Island Expressway to cross the Verrazano Narrows Bridge; I harken back to a time when there was still a ferry crossing that part of New York Harbor and I can vividly recall watching the bridge rise from those cold and forbidding waters along the tortuous Belt Parkway. If you wondered, the name comes from three of four parkways which comprise the Belt System: the Shore Parkway, the Southern Parkway (not the Southern State Parkway which originates from the Cross island Parkway—the fourth parkway in the Belt System but signed differently) and the Laurelton Parkway. 

Our directions took us onto the usually murderously-trafficked Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Except that the traffic seemed to be headed to the Belt Parkway and we only stayed on the BQE until the first exit for Fort Hamilton Parkway. 

The route to the Garden took us through southwestern Brooklyn and into the heart of the borough beginning on Fort Hamilton Parkway. I am unsure where I was driving, but I was in a very densely-populated section which could have been Sunset Park of Bensonhurst, because we encountered a lot of Hasidic school buses parked seemingly everywhere. 

En route, we passed Maimonides Medical Center. I had heard of it, but had no idea of its location. In researching this blog, I learned that the hospital was located in the Midwood and Madison Park sections of Brooklyn. 

Names of familiar streets popped up throughout the trip to the BBG and back home to Springfield: Ocean Parkway; Flatbush Avenue; Bedford Avenue; Prospect Avenue; Atlantic Avenue, to name a few. I saw the Brooklyn Museum building because we parked in their lot; the Brooklyn Academy of Music; The Barclays Center, home to the Nets and New York Liberty; Prospect Park and its zoo. Plus I recognized that the former Ebbets Field, the venerable home of the Brooklyn Dodgers until the team’s exodus to Southern California after the 1957 season wasn’t far away from where we were. 

The Brooklyn Botanical Garden is so large that it has three entrances—one on Flatbush Avenue, one on Eastern Parkway and another on Washington Avenue. There is a Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden complete with fish and lily ponds. The Garden has a Cherry Walk and a Cherry Esplanade, which must have been beautiful with the blossoms earlier in the Spring. 

Shakespeare has his own Garden and there is a Fragrance Garden and the Discovery Garden—the sole places you can actually touch the plants. Name a variety and the Garden has it: annuals; bluebells; trees; herbs and vegetables; fruit trees from seemingly everywhere in the world; lilacs; magnolias; maples; pine trees; perennials; peonies. Additionally, there is the Steinhardt Conservatory which houses a variety of exotic plants from different environments which is diverse and bountiful. Most magnificent was the Cranford Rose Garden, with the roses still at least 60% in full, beautiful bloom. 

Touring this facility required a lot of walking and a lot of time. Even with a stop for a sumptuous lunch in the restaurant near the conservatory, we spent almost three hours there and could have spent more. 

The trip back through Brooklyn to the Manhattan Bridge and then on Canal Street to the Holland Tunnel was arduous. Then again, what would one expect but near gridlock conditions on a Sunday afternoon?

It was good to be back in New Jersey. In plenty of time to see the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees tangle in the Bronx. Boston won the opener of the three game series on Friday night, handily spanking Ryan Weathers and the Bombers pitchers to the tune of 5-3. Then the skies opened up in the New York Metropolitan area and the nationally-televised Saturday night game was postponed. 

Cam Schlittler got the nod for NYY on Sunday. In 5.2 innings, the American League E.R.A. leader at 1.87 allowed four hits and one run in the top of the sixth inning while striking out five and walking one. Boston’s Ranger Suarez gave up six hits and a run in 6.1 innings, walking no one. 

New York slugger Cody Bellinger started the eighth inning rally with a solo shot way over the right field fence. Following Bellinger’s lead, Ahmed Rosario singled and moved to second, whereupon Trent Grisham’s single plated Rosario. Anthony Volpe kept the two out merry-go-round going by walking and he and Grisham scored on Jazz Chisholm’s blast to right field.  Final score: NYY 6, BOS 1.

A note on Chisholm. He wears injured slugger Giancarlo Stanton’s big pants when he comes to the plate. For this at bat, Chisholm used injured team captain/great hitter Aaron Judge’s bat. Obviously it is the bat which contains the home runs, not Judge’s prodigious talent. 

The Yankees extended the magic on Monday night in Cleveland, as they came from behind to overtake the Guardians 7-5 in extra innings. Paul Goldschmidt, perhaps a future Hall of Fame inductee, continued to slug, as he hit a three run home run and raised his batting average to .274. Still room for him to get better, as Goldschmidt left four on base.  Bellinger, Grisham and Ben Rice contributed to the offense with two hits each. NYY used 8 pitchers to get through this game.

On Tuesday, rookie Spencer Jones, playing in place of Judge hit a long drive for his first MLB home run and Chisholm continued his hot streak using others clothes and equipment by striking the game-winning home run on a night when ace Gerrit Cole struggled. 

NYY received more bad news on the heels of Judge’s rib cage injury which has sidelined him indefinitely. Primary catcher Austin Wells had been suffering from cervical headaches, enough to place him on the IL to undergo treatment. 

With all of the troubles the team has endured, they remain neck and neck with Tampa Bay for the AL East lead and have the most victories in the league, plus lead in many other categories. Imagine how good this team might be when all of the key injured players arrive healthy and ready to go.

As well as the Yankees have played, the area is agog over the New York Knicks. Having come home from Texas with a 2-0 lead over the San Antonio Spurs, expectations were high for a Madison Square Garden celebration this week with two wins over the Western Conference champions.  After all, this had become a team of destiny in the minds of its loyal fan base, starving for the first championship since 1973. NYK had won 13 straight games; why not finish the deed off quickly and win two more?

Celebrity row had the famous present for the raucous event. Derek Jeter and Eli Manning sat next to each other. New York sports royalty if there ever were two iconic players of recent vintage in their particular sport. The prices for resold tickets are astronomical. Madison Square Garden was the place to be—President Donald Trump was there, booed by the fans more intent on winning a championship than honoring a native New Yorker who became a politician. 

The problem with this gala going on at the Garden, not to be confused with the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift All-Star nuptials scheduled for July 3 at MSG, is that the invitees were the Spurs. And they have one heck of a team. Full of talent and tremendous pride.

Don’t forget that both NYK wins on the road in the NBA Finals were of the comeback variety. It wasn’t as if they were blowing out SAS and larger-than-life Victor Wembanyama. 

Wemby and crew took it to NYK both physically and athletically in Game 3. The Spurs met the challenges of the Knicks and outlasted them to a score of 115-111. The Spurs ruined a feel good party in the process and made sure that there would be company on their return to Texas for some more basketball. 

Nobody was safe in this game—star NYK guard Jalen Brunson was continually mugged—and don’t New Yorkers know a good mugging. Wemby gave Brunson a forearm shiver that New York Giants Hall of Fame LB Lawrence Taylor would have been proud of. There was no call against Wemby. Even former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was run over at court side by Knicks sub Jose Alvarado; that’s not fair for an 84 year old NYC dignitary. 

Biased as I am, I agreed with New York head coach Mike Brown that the officiating was inconsistent at best and seemed to be heavily favoring the Spurs while overlooking some egregious fouls to NYK players. Conspiracy theories abounded that ABC/Disney wanted to generate ratings and more profits by skewing the officiating against the Knicks. 

Dare I say the game was “rigged,” to use one of President Trumps’s favorite phrases about elections? I felt like I was reviewing old film of the Bad Boys’ Detroit Pistons teams which unmercifully beat up on their opponents in winning two titles in 1989 and 1990. Which resulted in a crackdown on flagrant fouling. Evidently that retro style is back in vogue for a very good basketball team which could just win by playing the game right. 

Game 4 became the pivotal contest in this best-of-seven Finals. Of course, MSG was once more frenzied. With the fans more on edge with the heretofore invincible Knickerbockers anything but that. 

Things didn’t start out well at all for NYK. SAS threw haymakers at them and they kept landing. Seemingly everything the Spurs did wen their way. The Knicks couldn’t keep pace with them and were seriously outplayed. 

San Antonio led 76-49 at the half. Victor Webanyama looked nearly invincible. The lead actually swelled to 29 points at one point during the game. SAS made 11 of their first 16 three point shots. They rarely missed free throws while the Knicks missed a ton and shot poorly or were harassed by an unrelenting Spurs defense. 

Until the resilient Knicks, a team which came back from 22 points down in the fourth quarter in the Eastern Conference Finals against Cleveland, began to fight back. And the Spurs offense suddenly went ice cold. 

Led by Brunson with 36 hard-fought points, the Knicks stormed back into the game in the fourth quarter after cutting the SA lead to 15 at the end of the third quarter. Brown brilliantly inserted Jose Alvarado into the lineup and his speed and agility helped on both offense and defense. 

With 1:22 left to play, NYK took the lead on a shot by Brunson. With a miss on a breakaway by Josh Hart and a subsequent foul  by the gritty Villanova player, the Spurs regained the lead with 30 seconds to go. 

The Knicks defense and poor shot selection by SAS gave the Knicks one more chance. Brunson hoisted a three point shot which rimmed out. OG Anunoby charged down the lane and tipped the ball into the basket with 1.2 seconds left on perhaps the most iconic set in New York Knicks history other than a very gimpy Willis Reed’s two baskets to start Game 7 of the 1973 Finals. 

NYK held on and the already delirious Garden celebrated in a way loyalists had never seen, staying there for at least 15 minutes after the miracle took place. Taylor Swift showed up at court side, replacing Trump. Perhaps she is now the good luck charm. 

No team had ever done what the Knicks accomplished with this comeback. Certainly not in Finals annals. Only the LA Clippers overcame a 31 point margin versus Golden State in a 2019 playoff game. 

Now the series returns to San Antonio with NYK holding a commanding 3-1 lead. Only Cleveland has ever won after trailing by that deficit. 

This series, if you have not been watching, has been must see TV. The ratings reflect it. So does the level of play—poor officiating and all the histrionics involved. Game 5 is Saturday night. 

The NHL has had a really good Stanley Cup Finals. Lots of scoring and close contests have been the norm. All of the games have been decided by one goal. 

The Vegas Golden Knights made one bad decision to challenge a referee’s decision which resulted in the call remaining intact and Carolina rallying to score a power play goal and win Game 2. VGK would have been on the precipice of sweeping the four games entering Tuesday night’s Game 4. A ricochet off the goalie’s skate and into the net in overtime also helped. 

More crazy bounces, including a full rink bank shot into an open net concluded a 5-3 Carolina win. The Hurricanes look like the better team and have the ability to win it all if they continue to execute their smothering defense. Timely goal scoring and luck also helps. Back to Raleigh they go for Game 5.

So that you remain informed, the College Baseball World Series begins in Omaha. Oklahoma upset #2 Georgia Tech to secure a trip to Nebraska. The Sooners are joined by first timer West Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Texas and upstart Troy from the Sun Belt Conference, which comes in with a 38-30 record; one of those victories is over Rutgers while the Trojans have held their own against top flight competition in the regular season. 

Troy previously eliminated a very good Florida and Miami teams in the regionals before knocking out Arkansas-Little Rock in the Super Regionals.  Five SEC teams, one each from the ACC and Big !2 and Troy are in the CWS. The Sun Belt must grow good dreams. 

I know that the World Cup begins this week. Just like the French Open in tennis, I can’t seem to get into the greatest sports spectacle in the world besides the Olympics. Maybe it’s the outrageous prices FIFA has extorted and the New Jersey transportation nightmare which will occur. But the pitches will look spectacular, the grass so smooth and luxurious. 

And the fact that the United States Men’s Soccer team does not appear to be very good isn’t helpful to getting me in front of a TV set with the Yankees and Knicks playing so well. Can you fault me? This isn’t like Olympic hockey. 

We are one week plus away from the start of Summer. The heat has come back to New Jersey. My tomato plants are thriving, multiple yellow blossoms on them all and the peppers and spices are doing fine. Daily watering is a must, along with the bi-monthly application of Miracle-Go into the pots which consist of mulch dirt from the township. 

My attention will be riveted to the Yankees and Knicks. After all, with recent my visits to Brooklyn, across the river from the epicenter of basketball where I passed heading downstairs to Penn Station, the finely manicured field at Yankee Stadium which I saw in person last week and my daily attention to watering my plants, I think that, for the most part, I have become Garden-Based?