More Steinbrenner

Even before George Steinbrenner died I was interested in reading his biography "The Last Lion of Baseball" by sportswriter Bill Madden. Steinbrenner was a fascinating individual and the book was an excellent read. It goes into detail about the early years of his Yankee ownership thanks to detailed notes and recordings by early general manager Gabe Paul. The anecdotes about Steinbrenner are priceless. You see how he treats those who worked for and even to the people who liked him, It's humorously appalling.


I would have loved it more if I had not spotted some factual errors throughout the book. The first one I spotted was when Madden mentioned that Rich "Goose" Gossage signed a contract worth 25 million dollars over 5 years with the San Diego Padres in 1984. I thought that that money was way too high for a post peak closer signing for a medium market baseball team back then. 5 million a year would be more than double the highest paid player of the era. So I checked and sure enough, It turns out he signed a 5 million dollar contract over five years.

The second mistake I spotted is my nitpicking on history. Madden writes that The Yankees had beaten out the California Angels by one game for the Al wild card in 1995. In actual fact it was a one game playoff between the Mariners and the California Angels that knocked the Angels out of the running. Nitpicking to be sure, But I like the idea of giving the Mariners their due.

A third mistake was more problematic. Madden points out that the 2000 New York Mets had "...crept into the postseason as a wild card, had beaten both the NL West champion Arizona Diamondbacks in the Division Series and the NL East champion Atlanta Braves in the NLCS to advantage as the Yankees' opponent in World Series."

Okay, a few things were wrong with that. First of all the Mets played the Diamondbacks and the Braves in the playoffs in 1999, And second of all the Mets LOST to the Braves that year in the playoffs. The teams the Mets beat in the playoffs in 2000 were the Giants and the Cardinals.

The fourth mistake was a typo maybe but I think Madden just had the year wrong. He mentions the gathering of the Yankee executives in what to do with Joe Torre after his last season managing the Yankees. Madden says the contentious meeting which would lead to Joe Torre rejecting the Yankees contract offer as happening on October 17, 2008. That was a year off, At that point both Joe Giaradi and Joe Torre had finished managing their first seasons of the Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers respectively.


There may have been other mistakes I missed and I look forward to the book being published in paperback to see if the mistakes were corrected and a chapter dealing with Steinbrenner's passing.

I recommend this book for both Yankee fans and Yankee haters. It's also a fascinating biography of a volatile but savvy businessmen.

Words you'll never hear from my mouth.

This a list of sentences that I'll never utter unless it's for sarcastic purposes.


"Let's order Pizza!"

"Oooo, there's a sale at Wal-Mart!"

"Lady GaGa is HOT!"

"Hi! Grandma!"

"Put extra cheese on my burger!"

"Oh Boy, Jersey Shore's on!"

"I get along with all my ex-girlfriends"

"Boy, that Hannity is one smart cookie!"

"Let's Go Yankees!"

"Sure, Honey! I'll pick up some tampons for you!"

"Cooool Tattoo!"

"I'll watch any movie with Julia Roberts in it!"

"Boy, that Kate Goslin is such a good mom!"

"I'm glad Regis replaced Katie Lee with Kelly!"

"The referees made good calls during Super Bowl XL!"

"Reagan should be on Mt. Rushmore!"

"Jay Leno is funnier than David Letterman!"

Whatever...

As a 43 year old straight white man it may come to no surprise that I'm not a fan of Lady GaGa. The music is vapid, generic, boring, and familiar of at least from what I've heard and that's a lot. anytime I'm in malls and hanging out, I'll hear it.


However, I'm told she has a lot of talent and has a great voice, But I have yet to hear any examples of either.



I love how the people who worship and defend GaGa by saying that she can play her own instrument and writes her own songs.

It's as though we never heard of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Billy Joel, Elton John, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, Roger Waters, Syd Barrett, Adam Ant, Chrissie Hynde, Jack White, David Crosby, Gram Parsons, Eddie Vedder, David Grohl, Chris Cornell, Tori Amos, Jewel, Ian Anderson, Beck Hanson, David Bowie, Joe Jackson, Bono, The Edge, Sting, Mike Scott, Karl Wallinger, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Teddy Pendergrass, Prince, Stevie Frickin Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Ann Wilson, Nancy Wilson, Freddie Mercury, Pete Townsend, Don Iris, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Marc Bolan, Glenn Tilbrook, Liam Gallagher, Thomas Dolby, Sammy Hagar, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehely, Peter Criss, Jerry Cantrell, Bob Dylan, Michael McDonald, Patrick Simmons, Emmylou Harris, Wayne Coyne, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Justin Haywood, Todd Rudgren, Tommy James, Van Morrison, Barry Gibb, Richard Manual, Barry White, Billy Preston, Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Phil Lynnott, Jerry Garcia, Stephen Stills, Mike Nesmith, Roger McGuinn, Ben Orr, Rik Orcasek, Peter Cetera, Terry Kath, Lionel Ritchie, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Curtis Mayfield, Issac Hayes, Gregg Allman, John Phillips, Mark Arm, Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, Paul Simon, Paul Westerberg, Geddy Lee, Sly Stone, Billy Corgan, Donald Fagen, Robert Smith, Mark Knopler, Darryl Hall, Jim Croce, Ray Davies.


All triple threats. It will remain to see how she would compare. But suffice to say, When her career is over, She will not be on the top of this pile.

Thank God This Month Is Over!!!

This had to be one of the worst months I've experienced in I can't tell how long. It was easily the hottest month I have ever experienced in my life and with no AC and several 100+ degree weather it ended up being torture, man.

The Mets, My team lost a slew of games including one I attended live. Their west coast trip was a nightmare rendered worse by the fact I would wake up finding out they lost again.

The one day I decide to go to the shore, I get a ticket at a police checkpoint because I hadn't got my car re-inspected in due time. That was because I was hoping my "check engine" light would go off long enough for me to get it re-inspected. It never happened so there you are. It cost me 1500 dollars to fix what is basically an engine that works fine but emits a little too much smoke.

My social life was dull. I stayed inside most of my non working time and was unable to get anything going outside of myself. I was a virtual recluse. My artwork suffered. I find it hard to draw covered with sweat.

So other than the times I spent with my family particularly my nephew Sean, It's a month to forget and I look forward to a better month in August.

An Appreciation of John Callahan

John Callahan died the other day.


Who was John Callahan?



He was a cartoonist who was published in various alternative weeklies starting in the 80s. He had a dark sense of humor with his work. He poked fun at anything he could with the most acidic sense of humor. His cartoons could be tasteless, insensitive, blasphemous, sexist and borderline racist but almost always funny.


















He had a rough style of rendering brought about by the fact he was a near quadriplegic due to a drunk driving car accident he was in when he was 21. He wasn't driving but he drank so much He didn't know the severity of his injuries. After a few lost years, He went back to his cartoonist interests and developed his style using his hands clasped together and took the alternative comic scene of the early 90s by storm.


He wrote an autobiography complete with pictures called "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot: The Autobiography of a Dangerous Man" is a fantastically funny read. He was able to laugh at himself about his handicapped situation, His upbringing and his outlook on life.














Of course when he made fun of the handicapped, He outraged many people. But he was an equal opportunity offender. He outraged anybody and everybody which for me as a free speech liberal was refreshing. No cows were sacred.

Even snowmen.




















I wish I hadn't lost touch with his recent work and I have seen that he had not lost his edge when I checked it out when he died.

















These are only a few of his cartoons. RIP John Callahan.

The Myth of Summer (A Long Winded Rant)

I wonder why I look forward to summer every year. Summer is about halfway over and I haven't enjoyed it one bit. Summer 2010 has been an extra bummer in many ways. Now when I was a kid summers were cool, No School, Family vacations and what have you. It seemed like endless activity. But When I was an adult, Summer hasn't been special, Or at least no more special than the other seasons. I think the last summer I really enjoyed was in 1983. I was 16.

The summer of 2010 has made me realize how I just can't seem to figure out how to enjoy it, Yet it seems that I may be in the minority on my inability. Still, The weather has been awful. Way too hot, Way too humid to enjoy my normal activity. Sometimes it seems too extreme to even go outside at times. Even my first trip to the beach this year was a bummer.

I guess the major reason I don't enjoy summers is that I have to work. Other than delivering papers, 1983 was the last summer in which a job (Or looking for a job) didn't interfere with my fun. The day was mine to enjoy and I made the most of it. I had nearby neighbors who used to enjoy playing baseball in the dead end street around the block from me, I enjoyed my strenuous bike rides to nearby Chester to pick up my comics and I just went about the neighborhood looking for activities.

Starting when I was 17, Work took much of my time but that was offset by the first summer in which I could drive. That minor bit of freedom allowed for me to explore towns too far to get to by bike. It was also the first summer in which I was able to skip church on Sundays. Work made for a convenient excuse for me to go wandering around the local towns instead of going to church.

I did have a good summer in 1985 after I graduated high school. It involved mostly going to parties. I was denied this before I had my job and use of a car. But it wasn't a "summery" thing. No pool parties, No beach runs other than a post "prom I didn't go to trip" to Seaside Heights. However, I did take a trip late in the summer to Ireland which while enjoyable it too was not really summery. It would be the last vacation I'd take for many years. I then broke my ankle at Action Park right before I went to SVA. Couldn't work after that.

The summers during my art school years usually involved full-time unpleasant jobs to pay but there were some highlights:

The summer of 1986 involved following the Mets while I worked swing shift at a Nursing Home. It was fun to listen to what was a angst free regular season of multiple wins. the rest of the time I grew fat.

The summer of 1987 did feature the best 4th of July weekend of my life. And it was spent in Orange County New York (of all places) at my friends place. It was made extra Great by the fact a rift I had with another friend was healed. A few trips to the shore made it a half decent summer.

The summer of 1988 had a great 4th of July party my parents hosted, Not much else happened though.

The summer of 1989 occurred after I graduated SVA. A transitional year I screwed up. It ended with my pioneering move to Jersey City, Taking on THREE jobs including working for my Dad. Probably the summer I worked more than any other summer of my life and thus denying me summer fun.

I don't remember 1990 but 1991 was when I made the decision to move to Seattle. I traveled up and down the west coast and avoided the ugly Augusts of the east coast. Heck, it was actually cold in San Francisco! I met a lot of people along the way but it was fleeting, Nothing that lasted. But the vacation was tempered by the fact I had to Get a place, Get a job and figure out what I was going to do with my life.

The summer of 1992 started with a nasty breakup involving cheating with a friend of mine. This meant that I had to sever ties with everyone I was friends with at the time in Seattle. A lot of soul searching, A lot of bike riding, Several flings and ironically the best tan I ever had almost made up for it. But it was a lonely summer.

The summer of 1993 started with being laid off from a sleazy night club called Celebrity and dealing with my first bout of forced unemployment. It lasted beyond the summer in which I spent a lot of time with fruitless pursuits of jobs, Even jobs "beneath" my stature. I gained weight, Hung out with people who had such a effed up living situation.

The summer of 1994 I had moved to Federal Way, WA. Yuck. I had a girlfriend who I moved in with, Lost another job I held for less than 6 months, Cobain blew his brains out in spring, OJ took up all the headlines, Baseball season was canceled, I took on a a crappy job to get by, A summer to forget.

The summer of 1995 was better. I still had that crappy job but I had a second job doing caricatures for Guinness that enabled me to travel all around the Puget Sound. It was fun, I saw some great places and met some interesting people. the Mariners went on their playoff run and the city was alive. Still no summer vacation to speak of.

The summer of 1996 was highlighted by a trip to the east coast to my brother's great wedding, My cousin's almost great wedding and a fun camping trip with my friends. I guess it counts as a vacation but I was depressed at losing yet another job and gaining so much weight that I never feature pics from my brother's wedding anywhere.

Don't remember anything about 1997 or 1998 but 1999 was memorable for all the wrong reasons. It started off well, I finally proposed to my girlfriend of 5 1/2 years and used the summer to celebrate. I was ignorant on what was going behind the scenes however. One party with her co-workers ended with me in a heated argument with a racist friend of the host over racism and manners. Whoops! Liquid courage can be a bitch! I walked out of the party and headed down the road. the problem is that the party was 35 miles from home and my fiance stayed behind at the party. IT turns out she was already in a new relationship and when we finally saw each other the next day, we were finished.

The year Two Thousannnnddddddd was miserable but the summer was made interesting by the most dysfunctional relationship I ever had. From roughly Memorial Day through Labor Day I had my rebound relationship with someone who was really weird but who I was attracted to. It's unfair to pin the dysfunction on her. She merely had rules for potential partners that I definitely did not live up to. Physically the relationship was great, Emotionally we were not right for each other. I guess we were lonely. I was STILL getting over the breakup with my fiance and I made this other woman's life stressful with my whining about updated information on what was going on with my ex. It came to a head on Labor Day and finally I was able to muster up the courage to tell this woman I would not continue to wreck her life. She reacted like a heroin junkie who was being told that she would get no more heroin. It was the first time I ever broke up with a woman. Truly the idea that I hope she is doing well ten years later, Better than me I hope. It's not an empty platitude.

The summers of 2001 was mostly memorable due to the Seattle Mariners dominant run for 116 wins, The joy of that was ruined by 9-11 and being excoriated by my aunt for rooting for the Mariners against the New York Yankees because of it.


The summer of 2002 I worked at a restaurant right near the baseball and nearly completed football stadium. It was a fun summer even though I worked a lot. I made lots of money and hung out a lot with co-workers.

2003 and 2004, Not much happened summer wise. No vacations. I did visit my folks once at their new place and went to Seaside Heights a few times. The first time I went to the Jersey shore in more than a decade.

2005 was when I made the decision to move back to Jersey. I was in a relationship with a young woman for about half a year when she moved back to Jersey. I missed her enough to make that decision to move back to Jersey myself. The summer was spent saying goodbye to Seattle, Hello to the red states of America and hello once again to the state I grew up. It was fun going to the beach while I was still not working but like in 1991 I was stressed with the task of looking for work and the stress was compounded by the fact I needed a better job than restaurant work to survive in Jersey.

The summer of 2006 was spent looking for a place to live in with my girlfriend in Spring Lake Heights, Working in a fish restaurant in Belmar, Welcoming the birth of my wonderful nephew, and making good use of being close to the beaches. However most of the time on the beach was spent alone because my girlfriend was a bit weird about beach life. She says she loves it but this is more or less how she spends her time there:
















Still, It was a much better summer than 2007. It started with My girlfriend walking out of our apartment with 4 months left on the lease she signed. She gave lame reasons for the breakup but I know it was for a reason that she kept hidden. She of course got defensive buy any suggestions I made on what I already knew. Still, I was more upset at the financial pit she put me in than the fact she left. She was even more crazy than my "rebound" relationship of 2000. On Memorial Day I lost yet another restaurant job after I got into an argument with my boss. Meanwhile I had gone into overdrive trying to find a better job, Finding an apartment I could afford and bothering all my long distance friends with my anxiety. I somehow got "bait and switched" into taking a part time job at UPS that was totally unsuitable to a 40 year old, Hard physical labor. However horrible the job was, It enabled me to finagle my way into a desperately needed apartment. Life begins at 40 they say, But I had to really use my willpower to prevent my life from ending at 40.

The summer of 2008 was interesting in that I lived close enough to Sandy Hook to take advantage of their beaches. Including the nude one at Gunnison. A liberating experience that with three days off from my new job at EWR I took advantage of. Gas prices were so high I barely drove. No need. It was not a bad summer, except I had no vacation, No girlfriend.

The summer of 2009 had bad weather early on, It was cold and rainy a lot. I had wanted to move from my teeny tiny apartment to be closer to the airport. since my lease ended in July, Much of my time was used moving.


Which brings me to this year. There's still time to have an enjoyable summer but it doesn't look good. I have no plans for any vacation this year. The weather has been horrible and my current place retains heat and has no practical place to install an AC unit in the room I spend 80% of my time in. The heat and humidity puts fear in my taking any long bike rides. My social life has stalled after looking promising back in May. I'm not close enough to the shore to make use of any post work excursion. NYC is to be avoided in the summer. A trip to Citi-Field was almost marred by the 100 degree weather. Thank God my nephew enjoyed himself at the game. Which brings me to the fast becoming bummer that is the Mets baseball season. WILL YOU GO ON A WINNING RUN ALREADY!!!!! I use baseball as a diversion to any personal angst. You're not doing your job Mets!


Anyway, I prove my point in having a dull summer by the fact I can take up this much time writing about it. I'm not a recluse nor am I a party pooper but sometimes I think that's what other think I am.

Downtown Union Center...

I have been living in Union, New Jersey for about a year now. I moved up from the shore to be closer to work and chose Union mainly because I loved the look of the place I saw. I was looking to move to Millburn or to South Orange but the apartments in Millburn were expensive and subpar. I should have given South Orange a look but felt pressured to take the apartment in Union because the owner lower his price to my level.

The place is very close to my work in an okay neighborhood of well groomed modest houses. I'm close to the downtown area that extols the advantages of shopping there. The problem is, that's a lie or a dated sentiment. Union Center isn't what I call a thriving downtown at the moment. On a six block walk, I count a minimum of 20 empty storefronts, Five of which became empty since I moved to Union. Granted, the economy is still stagnant but it's not a ghetto environment but seems to be at a point of redefining itself.

I think.

Three places have opened up in recent months, Two nail salons and a Pizza place. the pizza place is filling in a need not provided by the 4 other pizza places and the two nail salons fill a need not covered by the other ten nail salons on the six block stretch. The five places that closed were two very old school establishments, A 99 cent store and an unfortunate named burger place called Banana Burger.

So Union Center is at period of transition but a transition to what I dunno. It doesn't look like it will become a hipster/yuppie paradise like Hoboken or Red Bank. Not many singles live in the area. It mostly is a neighborhood of modest bungalows with few apartment buildings.

It's blue collar with a growing Portuguese and Polish immigrant population. Their presence is represented by small grocery stores and bar-b-q places. I do fear an influx of 99 cent type store and an increased presence of offices for lawyers and accountants. I can't expect to have each of the available properties to be filled with places I'd really like to see but it's be nice for at least three places to be a place I would frequent.

As it stands there are only five places in Union Center I go to on a regular basis.

One is Burnett Bar-B-Q II, They are a Portuguese place that makes great grilled chicken.

Two is Stop & Shop supermarket.

Three is Quick Chek where I get my morning coffee.

Four is a Polish owned thrift store with a decent clothes collection at great prices.

Five is a small comic book store I only go to once a month.

So, I don't go to many places in my downtown, I ride my bike to towns like Millburn, South Orange, and Maplewood to go to fun stuff like good movies, better bars, Gourmet Groceries and a better places to eat. So what do I hope would move into the empty spaces of Union?

1.A Brew Pub or at least a pub with a varied craft brew selection. Union center has a few bars, None worth a damn and some pretty damn scary. I'm kind of a yuppie when it comes to my bars. I love good beer and pleasant surroundings that's not too froofroo, Like your average Manhattan old school bar or every other bar in Seattle. I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen, I'll stick with the Gaslight Pub in South Orange and O'Connells in Jersey City. It's be nice to be able to drink a lot on a Monday night and stagger home a short distance instead of driving.

2.Another Coffee Shop (Even Starbucks) There's a place called Van Gogh's Ear that is interesting but needs a little competition to make it a better place for good coffee. I would prefer a smaller shop that doesn't have such a full menu.

3.A burger joint. I'm not far from a Five Guys, About a mile but I would like to have one open up closer to me or maybe a Shake Shack or something like that. Hey! How about Red Robin? Also, It's be cool to have a fish fry place.

4.Real Bar-B-Q. An Alabama friend of mine from my fork lift driving days set me straight on what Bar-B-Q really is. What we call Bar-B-Q is actually grilling, That's what the 3 or 4 Bar-B-Q places near me really is. None feature a good BBQ sauce, pulled pork or decent baby back ribs. A place like taht and keeping the southern theme, It be nice if we had a fried chicken place.

5.Any Fast Food Place. The nearby highways are littered with them but the downtown area has none. A Popeyes, Wendy's, Heck even a Burger King would be nice.

6.A Whole Foods Wannabee. South Orange features a great gourmet grocery store called Eden's Gourmet. It's smaller than your typical Super Market but features quality gourmet products. Unlikely to be in downtown Union but I can wish.

7.A Better movie house. the one in downtown Union would be great if it was fixed up better and played better movies.

8.An arcade or a roller rink. I know, How anachronistic. I just find it funny that a roller rink can't survive due to high liability insurance rates but at the same time skateboard parks are opening up all over the place at tax payers expense no less!

9.Art galleries. Only so I can demand some culture.


I only plan on spending one more year in Union so I won't be around long enough to see any of the things on my wish list open up. After that I plan on moving back to Seattle or if I have a reason to stay here in Jersey I'll look to move to Jersey City since that's wher the action is at.