What I did last Friday...

I really didn't know what to expect when I made my way into The Orchid this past Friday night in Koreatown portion of downtown LA, anticipating the start of the Mahalo 15,000/17,000/19,000 terms party. I guess I expected to be more nervous than I was.

To reset, I was asked by one of my colleagues here at Mahalo, Nicole, to serve as a "co-host". The party, you see, was karaoke, and so I suppose because I've sang at karaoke bars once or twice, I was a natural fit to lead others through the evening.

But to be fair, all I really did was sing a lot (maybe more than even I'm used to) and punch in the numbers for what the others would sing. Now there was a lot of video shot from the night, and a lot of pictures were snapped away. However, there has been a "website posting embargo" which forbids me from even showcasing any of the action from that night. I'd have an easier time getting Wayne Gretzky to come out of retirement than posting anything from that night.

I would use this space to "dish" on happenings and let loose with some fun (not embarrassing) stories, but all I can do is respect the "What happens at Mahaloke stays at Mahaloke" mantra and list my play list of selections, which for those that know me wasn't exactly my A-List material:
Let Her Cry, Blue Eyes, Sweet Caroline, Bridge over Troubled Water, Enter Sandman, U Can't Touch This, Pretty Woman, Born to Run, Every Breath You Take, You Got It, and Born in the USA. There were also several instances where I joined in on songs, and even one instance where I was the subject of a song (many took to inserting my nickname in a version of TLC's "Creep", which took on quite the double entendre).

Still, a great time was had by all (you'll just have to trust me on that).

On Saturday, the first ever "Mahalo Hoops" outing took place on the campus of UCLA, and featured some athletic play - with me just trying to keep up. Still, those that know me will no doubt understand that I was able to have a few "get me involved" moments.

Today was slightly disappointing, in that some of my fellow co-workers talked up dressing in Halloween costumes for the party, and then when the overwhelming majority wanted a more 'formal' approach to the Friday night dress code, I figured we'd just make up for this today, the actual holiday itself. And I was initially encouraged that I wouldn't be alone when I noticed several commuters on my way in had done the same.

Nevertheless, except for C.K. Sample's dog, I was the only fool willing to actually wear a costume today. So much for team spirit! I am including a photo taken for those to see me as an umpire:



Oh well...

As for this weekend's version of "the Most Important Game in the History of Organized Sports", I am picking the Belichick Gang to win, but rooting for the Colts. Like any big game with an even match-up on paper, count on turnovers and special teams play to be the difference makers.

Cocktails anyone?

ITEM ONE: The World's Smallest Indoor Karaoke with Drinks Party

So the Mahalo company shindig, which will be referred to as "Mahaloke", takes place this evening here in Los Angeles. It is ironic for me to have the chance to witness many of comrades in arms 'throwing back a few' on the eve of one of my favorite sporting events, "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party".

For those not familiar, this would be the Florida-Georgia football game, held every year in Jacksonville, and featuring a great deal of consumption in and around the stadium. In many cases, the drinking will begin today, some 24 hours before kickoff.

In the last couple of years, the two schools have tried to move away from the "Cocktail" moniker in the name of their rivalry, and with good reason. I lived in J-Ville for roughly 2 years, and only attended the 1997 game. And I can tell you that the action outside the stadium was much more intense and dramatic than inside the stadium. Of all those between the ages of 17-24 in the United States that were drunk that day, about 65% of them were concentrated in the Alltel Stadium parking lot.

It was a long standing tradition for many a tailgater (or should I spell it "tail-gator"?) to enjoy drinks with people on both sides of the rivalry, marking a special neighborly rivalry for just one day. But in recent years, civility has given way to intensity, and there were several years where the event was marred by violence and deaths, due to both the violence and the alcohol.

So both schools, the Southeastern Conference, and the NCAA, have been trying to encourage the media and fans to move away from the name of the event. But that won't prevent diehards from still referring to it as it is. And it won't stop alcohol advertisements from appearing in the programs sold at the stadium, or in commercials on TV and radio coverage of the game itself.

It's an issue that every major sports league, pro or college, seems to try to sweep under the rug and place a couch over, hoping the viewer won't notice: how to preach responsibility about drinking while taking bags of cash from alcoholic manufacturers.

As for our party tonight, I know that I'll be too busy acting as co-host to drink a lot, not that I would drink a lot if I were just attending. Hopefully our party tonight, and the football game tomorrow in Jacksonville, goes without incident.

ITEM TWO: "California is, dare I say, en fuego..."

I moved out here in March, and to my delight until this past Sunday, there has been a grand total of 4, count 'em, 4 days of rain here in "SoCal". It seemed unnatural for someone who has lived back East my whole life, and I had been told by many7 locals here to expect for us to pay for it. I just didn't figure the tab would be this high.

It's been unbelievable, and a little bit unnerving, to watch many pockets of this area burn to the ground while others go untouched. It reminds me of when I lived in South Florida back in 1992 and seeing the aftermath of destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew, where one community was completely devastated and the two surrounding it had no impact at all.

I'd also like to nominate the hotels that are price gouging people fleeing their homes for the "Have Tony Sopranos Boys Whack Them" award.

ITEM THREE: Time to take off the Scrubs?

Despite the fact that my esteemed blogging colleague Lon (a.k.a. Crushed by Inertia) is a Zach Braff hater, which I totally understand, I am a big fan of the TV show that Braff into a star big enough to allow people like Lon to hate him in the first place: Scrubs. I watch the show because, in no particular order:
(1) John C. McGinley, who plays Dr. Cox, is very funny
(2) Sarah Chalke is a member of "My Future Ex-Wives Club"
(3) I thought the writing was good

Well, if last night's season premiere is any indication, this last season of theirs maybe a case of sticking around one year too long. It's a delicate balance for most successful television shows, trying to gage whether to stop a show leaving the audience wanting more, or cherry-picking off past success in order to grab one more year's worth of checks.

I can't remember watching a single episode and not having at least one laughing-out-loud-to-the-point-of-cackling moment - until last night. Instead, I was left shaking my head wondering if I'm going to be tuning in to the next episode. I mean, I don't mind the "will JD and Elliot get together or not" saga that figures to drag on right until the end. But I just found myself feeling like I went to a steakhouse and having a salad as my meal - very unsatisfied with stomach churning, wondering where I went wrong in my thought process.

As an aside BTW, for those that know me, I will eat a Caesar Salad occasionally, but when it comes to salads in general, I refer to the Toby Ziegler line from The West Wing when he says that he could, "cover this thing with tons of barbecue sauce and it would still taste like the ground..." (miss that show).

Hopefully Scrubs, will get it together. If not, I may begin to echo Lon's sentiments, but aim the venom at more than just Mr. Braff.

BCS Madness

It's official, college football is having it's wildest, most unpredictable season in history. And fans can't get enough of it. Part of the reason we love it so is because just when we think we know everything and can't be surprised, we get our collective hats handed to us.

With apologies to The Ohio State University (who hasn't played anybody of substance yet), the Top 10 of the first BCS standings is unrecognizable: South Florida? Boston College? South Carolina? Kentucky? Arizona State? It's a bizzaro world where the school bullies are getting punched in the face by the supposed "weaklings".

It's like the top programs are like the celebutants: Michigan is Paris Hilton, getting thrown into D-1 "jail" for losing to Appalachian State; USC is Lindsay Lohan, convinced they have no issues before getting busted for dabbling in cocaine (narrow wins over Washington and Arizona) and drunk driving (losing to Stanford? at home?); Florida is Britney Spears, who just can't stay out of the headlines no matter what; and now both LSU and California, #1 and #2 losing the same day, becoming the Nicole Richie and Kim Kardashian of our little girls club.

As for me, we still have 6 more important losses needed to further my cause that leads to more division amongst college football fans than who's better, Angelina or Anniston, for Brad Pitt - a playoff system.

My thoughts on a college football playoff system haven't changed since 2001, when I wrote this article for AllSports detailing my plans for the right way to institute a playoff system within the current bowl system format. The big arguments against a playoff continue to be that the regular season would have less meaning (as the NFL if it's regular season is cheapened by a playoff system) or that the current system works.

So here are the 6 remaining undefeated teams, and who we need them to lose to. This way, with no undefeated teams and a bunch of 1-loss teams, the "who deserves to be selected" arguments can be so loud that only serves as a way to flip many of those onto the playoff system bandwagon:

OHIO STATE: The Yuck-eyes have played only 1 game against a ranked team so far, and have wins over such powerhouses as Youngstown State, Akron, and Kent State. Now comes the meaty part of their schedule: they have roadies at Penn State next week and at Michigan November 17, with home games against Wisconsin and Illinois. Kepp in mind too that they host Michigan State this week, who broke up their perfect season bid of 1999 with a win in Columbus.

SOUTH FLORIDA: Tampa's college is a great story, and they should be #1 right now with quality wins over West Virginia and at Auburn. Who'd have thought that, except for the Jaguars in J-Ville, USF would be the best team in the state of Florida, college or pro. Still, they are Rutgers tonight, and we'll see how they do being the hunted instead of the hunter. Later in the year, they host a Cincinnati team with just 1 loss.

BOSTON COLLEGE: Not since Doug Flutie's magical heave to Gerald Phelan in the Orange Bowl Stadium with time running out 23 years ago have the Eagles generated this much excitement nationally. They haven't been dominate, but they have been precise. Still they have road games at Virginia Tech next week and in Clemson in November they will need to survive, as well as two visits by former Sunshine State powers Miami and Florida State and the ACC Title game.

ARIZONA STATE: The early season wins over Colorado (who account for Oklahoma's only loss) and Oregon State (who account for Kim Kardashian, I mean, California's only loss) look a little better now. Still, the Sun Devils will see the heat of their schedule intensify the next 2 weeks with games versus Cal next Saturday and at Oregon November 3rd - in addition to a visit by USC Thanksgiving Night and their traditional rivalry game with Arizona December 1.

KANSAS: Here's a team that never has football success, so when it happens, it's easy to scoff at it because of the lightweights on their schedule like: Central Michigan, Southeast Louisiana, Toledo, and Florida International. They don't play the Big 12's Big 3 this year: Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech. Still, not even the most passionate Kansas football fan can expect the Jayhawks to Rock Chalk to wins at Colorado this Saturday and later in the regular season against Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, and Missouri. And if they get through that gauntlet, they will still have to win the Big 12 title game against one of those Big 3 they skip.

HAWAII: This team, in my opinion, actually has the best chance to run the table because the only tough game they have left is against Boise State, but at home. Still, you could easily see them get skipped over by two different one-loss teams.

To further the playoff argument, we also need the following 1-loss teams to lose again, preferably in this fashion: LSU, to Alabama (a loss to Saban, wouldn't that just tweak them to no end) or in SEC title game to Florida; Oklahoma, either to Texas Tech or Oklahoma State, so they play the Big 12 title game with 2 losses; Texas Tech, to Texas or to a 1-loss Kansas team in the Big 12 title game; South Carolina, to either Tennessee, Florida, or Clemson; Kentucky, to either Florida or Tennessee; West Virginia, to Rutgers or Louisville, or even Pittsburgh; USC, to Cal or UCLA, or even Notre Dame, and California, to Stanford.

Oh, and I would invite Appalachian State to play in the playoffs this year... provided they win the D-IAA (I refuse to call it the subdivision) playoffs again.

10/18 UPDATE: South Florida lost to Rutgers! And then there were five...

New sounds from The Boss, and same old sounds from The Boss

Item One: Thank you Cleveland

As I mentioned last week, only one thing could provide me with some solace about the monu-Met-al collapse of my team down the stretch in the baseball season, and that solace came in the form of the Cleveland Indians defeating the Evil Empire, eliminating them from the playoffs in the first round for the third consecutive year.

All that money spent, and all it could purchase the Yankees was 1 playoff victory, which is 1 more than my company's softball team has - and we don't even have a softball team (yet). So now, I could care less who wins the World Series, because at least it won't be the Yankees (again). 7 years, $1.5+ billion in salary (you read that right, billion), and no rings to show for it.

And then Steinbrenner, jackass that he is, says that Torre will go if they don't win? Hey George, there you go, always able to find a scapegoat. How about taking the hit yourself for a change? How about your GM? Or, and this shocks me that he always gets a pass, how about Derek "4 for 17 with 1 RBI and no runs scored" Jeter? The captain is supposed to lead, not let others take the fall for him.

Thank you Cleveland for also preventing us from seeing another "victory lap" from Roger Clemens. Made me feel great seeing him limp off the field Sunday - hey Roger, get a better cell phone connection and stay retired this time. If nothing else, it will save us from having to hear Yankees announcer Susan Waldmyn from climaxing on the radio again.

Typical Steinbrenner, fire the manager. Hey George, maybe Buck Showalter will come back to manage for you, or Clyde King, or Yogi. Hell, knowing you, you'll find a way to exhume Billy Martin's body and have him manage again. Your act is tired - sell the damn team already or have someone else run it - do the one thing you didn't do your entire reign as owner by selling the team and leaving with some class and dignity.


Item Two: Springsteen is still a Magic Man
When I heard that Bruce Springsteen had put the E Street Band back together for another studio album and tour, I winced in hesitation at first. Consider that music has changed (whether for the better or not is another topic), he'll always have any album measured by the classics from early in his career, and the advance info about the songs being "laced with politics" had me concerned. Like any great athlete or entertainer in the latter stages of their career, you hope for the best and expect the worst, hoping they "didn't stay on stage too long". But when I saw them on The Today Show, I just had a feeling of anticipation I hadn't felt about his music since the Live album came out.

I've listened to "Magic" all the way through about 10 times now, and while it doesn't stand on it's own measured against his top work, it still delivers what I want out of music. And unlike The Rising (which I found cathartic after 9/11) and his solo efforts, what makes this album work for me is not just Bruce, but the band as well. It's great to hear Clarence Clemons regain his title as best saxophone player on the planet; it's refreshing to here Roy Bittan's piano provide a strong undertone; Max Weinberg can still bang the drums as well as anyone; and despite the fact that most of us are still a little bit twirked off because of the way The Sopranos ended, you can hear a lot of Silvio, I mean, Steve Van Zandt's influence.

Speaking of influence, I credit my father for cluing me into the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds years ago, and you can hear some of that in "Girls in their Summer Clothes". My favorite track so far is "Long Walk Home".

Throughout the album, you can hear pieces of the old great albums of his (Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and The River - my all-time fave), yet the songs don't sound like leftovers from early albums that were thrown in. Yes, if you listen solely to the lyrics, it does sound like a political ad, with plenty of anti-Bush, anti-war messages. But as was the case in the 80's with Born in the USA, you can enjoy the music for what it is and use the lyrics to spark discussion and reflection about where we've gone wrong as a country. You can clearly hear this if you listen the The Rising album and then Magic back-to-back. Still, the great thing about his music, and the meanings in the lyrics, have always been about the context of the music. Maybe I'm showing my age, but I like somebody who isn't just singing about bouncing in low-riders and pimping their Ho's.

Is the album as great as The River or Born to Run? No, but I'll put it this way. Jack Nicholson was brilliant in The Departed, but that performance wasn't anywhere close to his roles in Five Easy Pieces or Cuckoo's Nest or The Shining. But it still was brilliant for this time period. Magic delivers what true Bruce fans want and need: the great sound of a band in tune with it's leader, cranking out hard charging and thought provoking sounds, providing some well-needed substance in this current "style always wins" era of music. In other words: it sounds like Jersey when I listen to it, complicated, diverse, battle-scarred. Go buy it.


Item Three: Random stuff
So things are going great for Mahalo these days. We're making tremendous inroads within search, we've started to see a turn in opinions from those that initially didn't know or didn't want us to succeed, and it's growing rapidly. Some doubted we'd stay standing long enough to reach 10,000 search results by years end. Well, we're streaking past 15,000 and the group is turning it up another notch. You've gotta check out some of the How-to's we're generating, and the Greenhouse is kicking ass and taking names. Looks like I'll be returning to days after completing a 90-day run on the overnights. While I lament the solitude of the evenings, I'm excited about rejoining my daytime colleagues, and stepping up my game in the process... I've disbanded the Friday Football Forecast website, so I'll occasionally make some selections here going forward from time-to-time... and I'm really glad that hockey is back - but it's obvious my Devils are going to struggle a lot this year...Finally, sounds like a company outing is happening at the end of the month, and rumor has it that it will involve karaoke. For those of you that have seen my act back East, I guess you know what's in store for those that haven't seen it yet here out West, "...wait 'til they get a load of me!" Keep you posted on that...

One more time Yankee fans, "Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead!!!!!"

Yellow tape surrounding Shea Stadium

It could be worse, the Mets could be the only team in baseball history to blow a 3-0 series lead and lose like the 2004 Yankees did to Boston in the ALCS.

This, and another year of re-running the Mookie Wilson Game 6 1986 World Series highlights, is all I can cling to for another year as a Mets fan. Now I know what it must have felt like as a Sox fan to watch Bill Buckner limp off the field after gaffing that infamous little roller up along first.

If you know me and are planning on interacting with me in the next few days, here's a heads-up: a nod of approval, a pat on the back, and a 'let me buy you a drink' suggestion are probably the only things to start and/or finish a conversation with me about this week. Don't suggest anything else in a conversation, because trust me, I will very quickly find a way to turn any such conversation into a rant about how a team can blow a 7 game lead in the NL East with 17 to play. Better to just hand me a piece of paper with a suicide hot line number on it and quickly walk in the other direction.

Give the Phillies credit, by the way: they won games these last 3 weeks that they had to in order to put themselves in position to take advantage of the situation. Now we'll see if these Phils are able to be the Philadelphia sports team that finally rids their town of the dreaded Curse of Billy Penn. For Phillies fans that have seen their franchise become the first in pro sports to lose 10,000 career games, the first pitch of their post-season will at least do one thing: make it so that the memory of Mitch Williams giving up the 1993 World Series ending homer to Joe Carter get removed as the last post-season baseball moment in Cheese Steak Land.

And it wouldn't even be so bad to endure this collapse if the Mets were the only New York team. Not only do I have to endure a post-season without the Metropolitans, but I have to endure it knowing that "The Evil Empire", who were left for dead in July as being out of the playoffs, have once again emerged as one of the post-season participants.

So who's to blame? Well, that's easy enough - ME! Yeah, the first year I live in California for an entire baseball season, the first year I live the entire season in a time zone other than Eastern, the first year I admit to watching more (dare I say it) Dodger games than Mets games (I mean, how do you not want to watch games called by Vin Scully?), and the Mets respond to the first season since 1993 that I don't attend a game at Shea (a.k.a. The House that Mookie Built) by having it drip down the back of their collective legs.

Not that I don't lack for company in the blame department. I agree with GM Omar Minaya that Willie Randolph did a great job managing this team this year. He did, and that's because Minaya gave him a flawed team with which to manage. After all, if you starting pitching staff consists of: Tom Glavine, a 40+ year old lefty who can't go more than 6 innings; Pedro Martinez, a guy there was no guarantee you'd get back at all this year, and who you couldn't count on to pitch deep into games even if he did come back; Roberto Hernandez, a 50+ year old pitcher; and two unproven guys in John Maine and Oliver Perez, who them Mets squeezed every ounce of ability this year; then you better have a bullpen as good or better than last year's pen.

Last year, a late-inning Game 7 homer away from the World Series, the strength of the Mets was their bullpen. This year, it was their weakness, which was never more evident than down the stretch of the monumental collapse. It stands to reason that if you don't go out to acquire starters than can eat up innings, the bully better be able to put out fires. This year's group can only be described as the "Fahrenheit 451 Gang". Not even John Franco choked away games this badly.

Not the regulars are exempt from blame. Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, Wright - they all struggled at times during the year, never seeming to be in sync at all. I'm willing to give Reyes, my favorite player, a pass for hitting just .205 in September, because he and Wright were the reason they played well the first 5 months.

So what to do now? Well the panicky move would be to fire Randolph and/or Minaya. But one of the reasons I have always loathed the Yankees is because of the pant load that owns the team and his penchant for overreacting about everything concerning managers and players. So it would be hypocritical to expect the same of the Turtlenecks, -er, Wilpons.

That said, here's my Mets Advocate Moment: first, rebuild the bullpen - I'd start by seeing if they can pry away Jonathan Broxton from the Dodgers; second, trade Lastings Milledge (who played well when given the chance) and whatever else it takes to get the unhappy Johan Santana from Minnesota; third, get another starting pitcher that can eat up innings by the boat load (maybe Harang from Cincy or God forbid trying to get Kazmir back from Tampa). After all, like location is with real estate, baseball still comes down to pitching, pitching, pitching.

Thank goodness Springsteen's new album comes out Tuesday. I'll need a significant amount of Bruce Juice to wash down the taste of the Mets choke.

remembrances of 9/11

Hey everyone, yesterday is a day that is always tough for me to get through. As someone who lived through that experience in New York, it always reminds me of many emotions I and others went through in that time period:

- knowing many people who died that day, not just victims in the towers but also firemen who raced into the buildings to try and help
- how numb we all were those first few days afterwards
- how powerless I felt
- how grateful I was for those I knew that did survive
- the outpouring of genuine unity, which we have long since abandoned
- and how we slowly started to move forward, knowing we'd never be the same again

As I watched a lot of the television coverage and read some of the print coverage as well, I noticed that 6 years out we are no closer to closing the wound then we were that day. And in all of the rhetoric of who's to blame and whether we should continue to mark the anniversary the way we do, all I know is this:

No one is responsible for the acts of these madmen, and we are all responsible for the acts of these madmen. We should do everything we can to move on from this tragedy with lessons learned and turn the page, but we should also never ever move on and minimize the importance of the lessons we learned from this tragedy.

Jim Valvano, the former basketball coach who died from cancer, said before his death, "If you laugh, if you cry, and if you think, that's a full day." Well coach, I certainly did some thinking, but there was no laughter, just a lot of crying.

In December of 2001, I wrote an on-line article for a website called All Sports. Twice a year, I re-read it because of the subject matter, and apparently I'm not the only one. I had dozens of e-mails and a few cell phone voice mails today from people who re-read it today. Still others were unable to find it, as the site has removed the page. So, for all those that inquired, and those that haven't read it, you may do so below. WE WILL NEVER FORGET - WE SHALL OVERCOME!


Two heroic athletes we should always remember
My Remembrances of Gretchen Dater and Jeremy Glick
December 21, 2001
By: Jonathan Moncrief

Christmas is a season of mixed emotions for me. I, like many people, am grateful and thankful for all the blessings I have in my life. These would include first and foremost the members of my family that care deeply for me, as I do for them. Not to mention all the friendships I have developed over the years, and the other blessings too many to mention.

Sports have also been a blessing in my life. I have taken great pleasure in experiencing, both as a competitor and a fan, many moments of success and achievement.

Yet, I am also reminded at this time of year, especially this year, of all the evil in the world. I am reminded of how powerless I really am, and how mortal I really am.

Sports, and the athletes that participate in them, have always been a coping device for me. I have been a sports fanatic all my life. Love to play sports, love to watch sports, love to talk about sports. In part, I think this is because the people I developed friendships with growing up also had similar levels of interests in sports like me.

That’s why I want to take a moment to recognize two of my friends that I can’t celebrate this season of cheer with. These are two people who I knew in my younger days, and I knew them then, and now, as athletes.

Their names are Gretchen Dater and Jeremy Glick.

Every year on December 21st since 1988, I remember Gretchen Dater, my former classmate at Saddle River Day School. Actually, I think about her often, but the anniversary date of when she and 269 others died as a result of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbee, Scotland, amplifies it. My recollections of her are of a kind and gentle young woman, someone who always wore a smile on her face and enjoyed a good laugh. My recollections of her are of a young woman who was beautiful, at an age when a young man starts to really notice those kinds of things about young women.

My recollections mostly, though, are of a school girl who didn’t buy into the stereotype of most girls back then, which was not to play sports with a passion like boys did. Mind you, this was before the explosion and popularity of women’s sports in this country. This was before women’s tennis and golf tours were popular, before the WNBA, before the WPSL.

Gretchen played sports with a fearlessness you rarely found in girls in those days. Whether it was in physical education class, or the girl’s soccer team, she always played hard. When she played floor hockey (my sport of choice) in “Phys Ed” class, she not only knew how to shoot a puck, she shot it hard. She always had my respect for that. To me, she wasn’t just another pretty girl.

She was an athlete.

Maybe that’s why hearing of her tragic and untimely death was so hard for me to accept when I first heard about it. She had so many positive qualities. Even when I knew her, you could see her artistic talents and abilities. These talents were what led her to become an art student at Syracuse University, and eventually an exchange student in London, from where she was returning home for the holidays when tragedy struck.

It was also hard to accept because it personalized the tragedy. It made acutely aware, in the early stages of adulthood, just how quickly and senselessly it could all come to an end.

Every year on the anniversary, my thoughts and feelings are always ones of anger and sorrow. Her parents were among those who championed the cause to bring those who did this unspeakable act to justice. Two such men were convicted this past January for this crime in the Netherlands, yet the real mastermind of these murders, Muammar Qaddafi and the government of Libya, remains “at large” in my mind.

Yet, tragically, we as a nation did not learn the lessons of December 21st, the lessons of air safety and the safety of our citizens that Pan Am Flight 103 taught us. For the families of the victims of that horrible terrorist attack, they have been left to ponder why it took our government 12 years and the unfortunate events of September 11th to become so enraged at state-sponsored terrorism and so united in purpose to defeat it.

For me, I wonder why I had to lose another friend. I knew Jeremy through his brother, Jonah, whom I was a classmate of for four years at Saddle River Day School. Jonah was a good friend for the years I attended school there. I attended his Bar Mitzvah, and it was through this friendship that I came to know Jeremy, as well as his other siblings.

My father put a basketball hoop and backboard on my driveway so that I could have friends over to play games with. He even put “flood lights” up so I could play at night. Jonah was one of those friends who played ball with us. My recollection is that he liked the idea of playing basketball at home so much, he convinced his father to take a section of their backyard, dig it up and pour in concrete so Jonah and his brothers could have a “home court” advantage.

I can distinctly remember many Sunday afternoons playing basketball with Jonah and Jeremy, and their little brother Jared, as well as other kids. Just like at my house, they had “flood lights” put up so the games could extend into the night hours.

I also remember both Jonah and Jeremy as being extremely skilled in judo and wrestling, as well as soccer. They may not have looked physically imposing, but believe me, they were as strong as anyone I knew back then at my age. I was taller than them growing up, so I used my height advantage in basketball games, but it was never easy matching up against them in any sport they played.

I lost touch with them after I transferred to a different high school. It turns out, from what I’ve read since September 11th, it was a huge loss for me that I lost touch with them.

After all, if you’ve read any of the accounts of the kind of family man, father, friend, brother and hero Jeremy has been portrayed in the stories since the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, wouldn’t you agree he was the kind of person you’d want to have in your life? When I first heard his name in connection with the story, it didn’t register. After all, I assumed it couldn’t be the same person I knew.

Yet, when I read the story with quotes from his older sister, Jennifer, and from his mother, Joan, I cried like my own brother had died. In some ways, for that period of my life, he was my brother.

He was an athlete.

My regrets about Gretchen and Jeremy, other than them not still being alive, is that I didn’t know them more than I did. Yet, I knew them enough to remember the many good things they had to offer. I am proud to say that I knew them both, and the memories I have of them, albeit minor ones, will be memories of passion and athletic determination that I will carry with me forever. Knowing the kind of people they were, and how valiantly they faced the defining moment of their lives, I only hope I have the same kind of courage if put in the same situation.

Sportswriter Mike Lupica said shortly after September 11th that he will never again use phrases such as heroic and courageous to describe athletes again in the games we watch. I couldn’t agree with him more.


A fund has been set-up for Jeremy's daughter, Emmy:
The Emerson Glick Foundation
PO Box 911
Windham, NY 12496.

Broken Down Carr on the side of the road

They are learning quickly in Ann Arbor what they already know in Columbus and Happy Valley and East Lansing and other stops along the national coach's caravan:

When spelling the name of Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr, be sure you start with two "L"'s (as in losses).

To be fair, Carr didn't make (or fail to make) any clutch tackles, blocks, or kicks, but if the buck stops with the head coach, and he makes millions in salary every year, then someone should turn down the temperature on his customized coach's seat. This week, it is scorching hotter than Lindsay Lohan's crotch supposedly does.

Yet, with all the talk about how Carr should be held accountable because he allowed his team to be under prepared enough to face a little a 1-AA school, allowing them to come into "The Big House" and take a big old dump in the middle of the field, to me there's a bigger issue that should be addressed - he, like many other coaches at all levels of football, can't seem to grasp "when to go for 2".

App State had a late 3rd quarter lead of 31-20, when Michigan tailback Mike "Coach, You Gotta Have" Hart scored on a 4-yard touchdown to close the gap to 31-26. With still one quarter left, and being "Mighty Michigan", many like myself figured they would kick the extra point and cut the lead to 4. But Carr decided to go for 2, and when they failed, the deficit remained 5 points.

This may not have seemed like a big play, but it was. Going for a 2-point conversion before the 4th quarter is risky, because it only has at best, statistically speaking, a 50/50 chance for success. And when you fail, you tend to chase after the "lost points" with every/any subsequent score. It reminds me of the story former New England Patriots great Russ Francis likes to tell about Pro Football Hall of Famer Ted Hendricks. One time, Hendricks was drinking so many beers that, as he was finishing his business "liquidating himself" in a locker room bathroom stall, he dropped a $10.00 bill he was holding. After announcing this to anyone within ear shot, and showing Francis the money floating aimlessly, Hendricks produced a $100.00 bill from his pocket, dropped it into the bowl, and reached in to scoop both of them out. Hendricks then stated, "I wasn't going in there for just ten bucks!"

It's the same concept when you go for 2 early in a game and fail - you wind up chasing after it the rest of the game. So when Hart's fourth quarter, 54-yard dash gave the Wolverines a fourth quarter lead of 32-31, Carr was forced to go for 2, to make up for his earlier mistake. Success would have meant a 34-31 lead, but again Michigan failed on the conversion attempt. Had they simply kicked extra points, as I pointed out to those watching the game with me at the time, the lead would be 34-31, and the eventual 24-yard field goal by App State with 26 seconds left would have only evened the score at 34 apiece, forcing overtime.

Instead, the field goal by Julian Rauch meant that Michigan needed a last-second attempt to win on a field goal that was blocked, creating the greatest upset in college football history.

It bothers me to no end to watch coaches, who seem to have 900 assistants nowadays, blow the decision of when/if to go for 2 points. As a Notre Dame fan who watched his own team struggle to gain first downs, much less score points, against Georgia Tech, I can only thank Lloyd Carr for at least providing some cover in the national spotlight for the "Fightless Irish".


BTW: Be sure to check out the premiere of the Friday Football Forecast this week, where we attempt to correctly predict the results of 5 NFL games this weekend.

Fantasy Football for Newbies

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Anyone's Son

I also wrote the narration for this promotional video for the feature film project Anyone's Son.

4CHOSEN: The Documentary

Here it is, the trailer for 4CHOSEN The Documentary, which I helped write and produce, narrated by Montel Williams.