Red Sox Down in Flames: Come Get Some

As I fell asleep last night, the Yankees led Tampa 7-0, and the Red Sox and Baltimore were in a rain delay. Woke up a bit after midnight to see Tampa celebrating on the field. As I tried to wrap my foggy brain around what I was seeing, I came to realize the Yanks had blown the game..which normally would have really pissed me off.

However, last night was a night unlike all others. Indeed, Boston had again crashed and burned. Together with the Tampa win... well Red Sox Nation can go back to rooting for cry baby Tom Brady, as the Sox are stick-a-fork-in-em-DONE. It's a damn shame I say.

So I started the morning doing a jig in Papelbon's honor. While I have no delusion that Yankee pitching will hold up through 3 playoff series, the sheer joy derived from Boston failing to make the playoffs in such dramatic fashion, will be enough to sustain me through the off season.

Red Sox fans can go suck an egg. Playoffs baby!

These are really the only choices we have?

I don't care which way your personal politics trend, do you really think either side has a really good (not even great) option?

This country is so screwed.

Yankees Clinch: The World As It Should Be

Yankees clinch the AL East. Jorge shows the true colors of a champion. A great moment, in a season of great moments for the three remaining members of the core four.

Playoffs Baby!

9/11: Ten Years of Tears

It is now 10 years. For all the "time heals all wounds" logic, it doesn't. The images are still as vivid today, the horror has not diminished, the tears still come way too easily.

I recently heard an interview with Brian Williams of NBC, in which he was asked about the differences around the country, of how people moved on after 9/11. One instance he mentioned was how 3 months after the attack, someone in California told him "New Yorkers need to let it go... after all it's been 3 months. " Well now it's 10 years and for those who live in the NYC area, it is still very much... an unwanted presence.

So, for those who cannot imagine what we feel, here are some of the reasons why we cannot and choose not to let it go.

If you had ever taken a bus or car ride into the city from the east or west, the Twin Towers were visible. From September 11, 2001, for at least a month, the lower part of Manhattan was a cloud of smoke, obscuring the horrible reality of losing two of the largest buildings in the world. When the smoke finally cleared, the new skyline presented a void which made your stomach turn.

I remember the start of the news crawl at the bottom of the TV screen. This was something new and you could not turn your eyes away. Vividly, I recall a blurb that ran throughout the night. It was for employees and families of Cantor-Fitzgerald, directing them to meet at a hotel. It seemed to have a desperate tone, and later we would learn virtually the entire company was killed as a plane destroyed their offices.

There were the pictures of the lost posted everywhere in the downtown area. Posted by friends and relatives with haunted faces, desperately trying to hold onto the hope that their loved one would be one of the few to make it out of the towers alive.

The TV shots of all the medical workers outside the hospitals. All brave men and women who rushed to their ERs to assist with the injured. But there was no one to help. The towers did not give up many injured, nor did they easily give up the dead. Of of the 2823 people killed in the World Trade Center, only 291 bodies were pulled from the rubble. A little over 1100 remains have been identified. Most families were grateful to have even a finger of their loved one to bury. Just think about that for a minute.

Watching someone make a conscious choice of a quick death over slowly burning to death, is an image that will never be erased from those who saw it first hand. A friend who witnessed this cannot speak of it to this day, nor can he watch anything about the attacks.

Manhattan was closed. Except for the water ferry, no one who lived in New Jersey made it home that day. Even if you made it across the river, traffic was closed for miles into New Jersey. If you lived in the outer boroughs, you walked with thousands of others in a state of shock, but with comfort that you were not alone.

And the silence. Planes stopped flying for 3 days. Hearing a plane for the first time after they started flying was unnerving.

The first year commemoration brought the Tribute in Lights. For some reason, I had been in Manhattan and was driving back to Jersey after dark. Coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel there is a turn where the lights are visible. It looked like a path for all the lost souls to find their way to heaven.

And that is why we will never forget.

We Can All Do Something

The northeast is barely finished with Irene, and now New Orleans is battling another hurricane. To drive down streets which were completely submerged days before, and see the lives of the people who live there out in the street, discarded as trash, is heartbreaking to the casual observer. To be the one who has discarded their possessions, one can only imagine their fear and despair.

Say a prayer, light a candle, volunteer to help or hold a hand.

But do something.