New York State of Mind

I drove down to the City yesterday for business. I don't mind the drive unless there is too much traffic on the Merritt Parkway and yesterday it was 65-75 MPH the whole way.

The radio makes the trip go by pretty quick and normally I listen to WEEI until just outside Hartford and then switch over to WFAN. Listening to the FAN made me think of baseball for the first time in days. The Mets had just clinched the Eastern Division title the night before and all the calls pretty much fell into two categories; "Hi Joe - Frank from Yonkers, long-time Mets fan and I'd just like to congratulate Willie Randolph and the boys" or "Hi Joe - Mickey from Queens and I just want to congratulate the JV team oh I mean the Mets on their celebration last night because as a Yankee fan all we are allowed to celebrate is World Championships."

Up in Massachusetts there is hardly any Red Sox talk anymore - everything is about the Patriots. The Sox are mentioned about as often as the BC football team. On the FAN everything yesterday was about the Mets with some Giants and Jets talk mixed in.

My meeting was at 2:00 and I got down there about 12:30 - just in time for lunch. I stopped at a local diner and read the NY Post while I ate. It was mostly the same pap I had been listening to on the radio with a bone-head idea by Joel Sherman about adding another wildcard team in baseball thrown in.

One thing did catch my eye though. The good news that Peter Gammons was ready to resume at least part of his duties for ESPN. Gammons was supposed to do a piece for both the 6:00 SportsCenter and the 7:00 Baseball Tonight. I was bummed because I wouldn't be home to see it but glad nonetheless that Peter Gammons was well enough to go back to work.

The announcement about Gammons returning to ESPN also mentioned that Jeff Brantley is being eased out of the BBTN broadcast team. Since the Red Sox had floundered I really haven't been watching BBTN but if it is true that Brantley is no longer in the plans - then that's good news indeed. Now if only they could jettison that human waste of breath John Kruk.

On my drive home I was pretty much waterlogged with WFAN talk so I switched to Sirius stations 103 and 104 to listen to some comedy. I heard the Jim Gaffigan Hot Pockets piece twice on the ride and laughed my ass off both times. For those who have never seen it: