The Mets Beat KC 9-3 in Game 3 of the World Series

The Mets certainly did not want to fall behind 3-0 so this was a must win situation.  The bats finally came to life as David Wright and Curtis Granderson hit home runs to highlight a 9-3 victory.  Noah Syndergaard  pitched well but had to be taken out after the 6th inning.  Bullpen performances by Addison Reed, Tyler Clippard, and Jeurys Familia were perfect as the Mets held on to win.

Game Recap

The Mets are still trailing in the series 2-1.  Steven Matz pitches tonight while Matt Harvey is scheduled for game 5 on Sunday.  In any event the Mets will have to win one game in Kansas City if they are to take the series.

The Mets Overcame a 2-0 Deficit in the 1986 World Series

Things didn't go too well for the Amazin' Mets as they lost decisively 7-1 to the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 of the World Series.  It doesn't look promising as they are now trailing 2-0 in the Fall Classic, but let's look back at 1986.  They lost the first two games of the series 1-0 and 9-3 at Shea Stadium.  They bounced back to win the series in 7 games.

This year they lost the first two on the road and return home for the next 3 games.  There is always the advantage of being the home team wih the fans in the stands rooting for you.  The Royals will be at another disadvatange as their pitchers will have to bat.  Let's hope the momentum will change.

This is a Good Night - A New Bob Dylan Book and the Mets Start the World Series

I received the books seen above from Amazon.com when I came home tonight.  I didn't have to schlep it from a bookstore :).  Anyway it is an encyclopedia of all the songs that Dylan recorded in chronological order.  The compilers give their interpretation of the songs and list all the musicians at the sessions.  I just had a little time to skim through it before dinner and Jeopardy.  I am impressed with what I have seen.  Remember Dylan's songs are vague and open to interpretation.  This is a big coffee table book so I won't be able to take it on the trains to work.

In 10 minutes I will turn off my computer and watch the Mets play in the World Series for the first time in 15 years.  I will have more on that in future journal entries.

Random Comments of the Day

I don't understand why people congratulate me as the Mets are in the World Series.  I didn't do anything. :)

Very often I take the subway to the Union Square station to get the New York Metropolitan Library Council.  I usually take the #7 to Grand Central and take the #4 or #5 to go downtown.  Both of those trains are always very crowded so today I took the N Train at Union Square to the #7 at Queensboro Transit.  It was much less crowded.

I got a laugh when I heard that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie got a slap on the wrist for being loud in the quiet car on Amtrak.  His excuse was that he didn't realize that it was the quiet car.  What would be his excuse if he was caught on the Newark Light Rail without a validated ticket?  Duh, I thought the ride was for free.  They should punish him by putting him on an NJ Transit train that gets stuck for 2 hours in the tunnel under the Hudson River.

Steve Jobs - Bob Dylan Fan Extraordinaire

Today we walked over to the local multiplex to see Steve Jobs.  It was noted in the film that Steve was a big fan of Bob Dylan as he made references to his songs.  My only disappointment was that the story ended in 1998 as I thought there would be treatment of the development of the iPod, iPhone, iPad.  Steve faced pancreatic cancer after the time frame covered by the movie.

My friend Roy told me that he always sits through all of the credits after every movie he sees.  Today I couldn't walk out as Shelter from the Storm was played during the credits.  It made my list of favorite 25 Dylan songs for personal reasons.

It Will be the Mets vs Kansas City Royals in the World Series

Last night the Kansas City Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 to take the ALCS 4 games to 3.  I was watching the game until 11:20 last night when there was a rain delay with the score tied.  When I woke up I found out the KC won the game and the series.

I don't know that much about the KC Royals, so I don't feel qualified to make objective predictions.  Here is a preview from the CBS New York web site.  In a short series anything can happen.  I think the hitting for the Mets will have to be hot for them to win.  The starting pitching will have to go long as the middle relief has been inconsistent.  Jeurys Familia has been lights out but you never know when he can have a bad game.

Lets go Mets!!

The Mets Win The Pennant! The Mets Win the Pennant!

In last night's Game 4 the Mets score 6 runs in the first two innings and held on to beat the Cubs 8-3 to gain a sweep of the NLCS.  Lucas Duda drove in 5 runs and NLCS MVP Daniel Murphy hit a home run in his 6th straight postseason game to set a record. Now the Mets have to wait to play the winner of Toronto/Kansas City ALCS in the World Series.

Game summary

At the beginning of the season I would have been happy with an 85-77, but Sandy Alderson made the right moves before the trade deadline to put the Mets over the top.  They finished 90-72 in the regular season which was only the fifth best record in the National League.  But they got hot during the playoffs.

Now it is time for all of the fair weather fans to come out.  I have been a Met fan since the team's inception in 1962 and have suffered through some very difficult times.  I was there in the early years, the late 1970s after the Seaver trade, the early 1990s, and the collapses in 2007 and 2008.

Since I had a 10 ticket package I had a chance to buy World Series tickets.  The price for upper deck seats were $210 while standing room cost $125.  I guess the wealthy fair weather fans will get the tickets.

Lets Go Mets!

I Received an E-mail from Max Kinkel Today

My readers who are not radio enthusiasts may not know that Max Kinkel was a radio personality who did overnights on WCBS-FM for many years.  He had enthusiastic followers who phone him very late at night.  He likely broke the format of the oldies station by talking to listeners on the air.  If I remember correctly he left the station in 1995.  For a while he did morning drive at WNNJ (1300 AM) in Newton, NJ.  He hasn't been on the radio for years.

Today I received an e-mail from him:

Bruce Slutsky  are you an Orville Slutsky descendant who's
family owns Hunter Mountain?

I answered that I was not.  For many years I was asked if I was related to the Ellenville Slutskys who owned the Nevele.

I mentioned to him that Vic Monachelli who was one of his greatest fans passed away earlier this year.  I also asked Max what he was doing.

He has not yet responded to me.

Random Comments on a Monday Morning

I a rarely home on a Monday morning, but I am teaching a class from 6 - 7 PM so I am leaving at about 9:15 to arrive at work at about 11:00.  At least when I come in late I miss the rush hour so the commute is a little less stressful.

The Mets beat the Cubs 4-1 last night to take a 2-0 lead in the NLCS.  They could go all the way.  I never thought this would happen at the beginning of the season.  I would have been content with 85 victories and a second place finish.

Wicked the Musical at the Gershwin Theater

Every October Karen and I go to a Broadway show to celebrate our anniversary.  This year we chose Wicked which has been on Broadway since October 2003.  This show certainly gets an A+ for sets and costumes.  There were many children in the audience as the play was about the Wizard of Oz and associated characters.

Below is a trailer from the show:

October 16, 1983

It is hard to believe that Karen and I have been married for 32 years.  It was a warm and sunny autumn day when we walked down the aisle at the Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation.  If I had a scanner at home I would have included a wedding picture.  We are going to see the Broadway Show Wicked to celebrate on Saturday.

Happy Anniversary to Us!!

10th Anniversary of Bruce's Journal

It was 10 years ago today I strated this blog.  Back then I used the blogging service of AOL, but some years later AOL got out of the blogging business and transitioned everyone to Blogger run by Google.  So there have been oaver 2900 entries covering the ridiculous to the sublime.  Thus I have averaged a little less  than one entry per day.  I never indexed my entries so I don't have numbers for my major topics.  Here they are in no particular order:

• New York Mets
• Bob Dylan
• Oldies Music including Youtube files of songs
• Radio
• Family activities

According to Blogger over 300,000 people have hit my journal.  Most of the hits were just for a few seconds.  I assume that most of the people who have read my journal are complete strangers, but there are some acquaintances who read it regularly.  Each entry is linked to Facebook and Twitter so many of my friends and followers have read entries.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mets 13 Dodgers 7 in First Postseason game at Citifield

 This was the first postseason game that I ever attended since going to games in 1957 when I was 8 years old.  There was not an empy seat in Citifeld as this was the first postseason game played there since it opened in 2009.  All of the Dodgers were booed as they were announced before the game.  The biggest boo that could be heard in Los Angeles was for Chase Utley whose aggresive play in Game 2 fractured Ruben Tejada's leg.  I was really surprised that he came out for the introductions, but he did not play in the game.  The biggest cheer came for Ruben.  Rusty Staub who recently suffered a heart attack threw out the first ball.

Matt Harvey was a little shaky as he allowed three runs in the second inning.  He left after the 5th inning after throwing 97 pitches.  The hitting for the Mets really came alive featuring two doubles by Curtis Granderson and home runs by Yoenis Cespedes and Travis d'Arnaud.  The Mets had a 13-4 in the top of the 9th but a shaky relief appearance by Eric Goeddel allowed 3 runs for the Dodgers.  Jeurys Familia came in to protect a 6 run lead, but it the post season you don't want to take any chances.

Beating the Dodgers decisively was the best revenge over the unfortunate incident on Saturday night.

Box Score

Below are photos of Karen and Lee.  My photo did not come out good.

Let's Win this Series for Ruben Tejada

I stayed up last night until 12:30 to watch the Mets play the Dodgers in game 2 of the NLDS.  There was a controvesial play in the 7th inning when Chase Utley aggressively slide into Ruben Tejada causing a fracture to his leg.  The umpires ruled Utley safe and the Dodgers scored 4 runs in that inning and won the game to tie the series a 1-1.

Joe Torre will rule on whether Utly should be suspended.  It did appear that his slide was overly aggresive.  The best "revenge" for the Mets is to beat the Dodgers in games 3 and 4 and dedicate the victory to Ruben Tejada who was a pleasant surprise this season.  There was talk at the beginning of the season of trading for another shortstop but Ruben did very well in the field and at bat.

I'll be at Citfield on Monday night for game 3.

LIU Post 27 Merrimack 24

It was too nice of a day to go to the movies, so we drove out to LIU Post in Brookville to see their football team play for the third time this season.  It was a battle of the defenses in the first half which ended with Merrimack was a 3-0 lead.  Post scored 20 unanswered points in the third quarter to take a comfortable lead.  They held on to win 27-24.

Game Recap

I Woke Up in the Middle of the Night for the Mets

I wasn't thrilled as the Met game started at 9:45 PM last night to accommodate the national TV.  I usually wake up at about 6:10 AM so by 11 PM I am ready to hit the sack.  I saw Daniel Murphy hit a home run in the fourth inning, but by 11:30 I decided to go to sleep.  I woke up at 12:30 and saw the end of the game as Jeurys Familia got a 4 out save as the Mets won 3-1.  Tonight's game stars at 9:07 so hopefully I'll see the entire game after listening to Cousin Brucie for about an hour.

Matt Jackson Jeopardy Superstar

That is not Matt Jackson in the photo, but yours truly in my new Jeopardy t-shirt.  We received a second one for Lee while Karen got a Jeopardy umbrella.  Alex announced last week if you go to Jeopardy.com and click on Store you can buy merchandise.

Meanwhile Matt Jackson is becoming a Jeopardy superstar as he has won $289,000 in 10 appearances.  Can he become the next Ken Jennings?  There is such a luck factor as you never know the categories, daily doubles or the competition on each show.  He has won most of his game decisively.

Matt Jackson

Bob Dylan and IBM Watson Commercial

I was watching the Yankees play the Houston Astros in the wild card game and suprisingly I see a commercial with Bob Dylan and the IBM Watson Computer.  This supercomputer who beat Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in Jeopardy was able to easily determine that two major themes of Bob Dylan's songs are time passes and love fades.  I think this song qualifies:

Time passes slowly up here in the mountains
We sit beside bridges and walk beside fountains
Catch the wild fishes that float through the stream
Time passes slowly when you’re lost in a dream

Once I had a sweetheart, she was fine and good-lookin’
We sat in her kitchen while her mama was cookin’
Stared out the window to the stars high above
Time passes slowly when you’re searchin’ for love

Ain’t no reason to go in a wagon to town
Ain’t no reason to go to the fair
Ain’t no reason to go up, ain’t no reason to go down
Ain’t no reason to go anywhere

Time passes slowly up here in the daylight
We stare straight ahead and try so hard to stay right
Like the red rose of summer that blooms in the day
Time passes slowly and fades away

Copyright © 1970 by Big Sky Music; renewed 1998 by Big Sky Music

A Couple of Radio Comments

I made my yearly donation to WFUV.  I did it today since all donations up to $35,000 will be matched.  As WCBS-FM has changed WFUV has become my #1 terrestrial station.  60s music is now rarely played as CBSFM is trying to appeal to an audience of 25-54 year olds.  I don't mind listening to hits from the 70s and 80s, but I feel that their playlist is too tight.  But 101.1 has been consistantly #2 in the ratings so they must be doing something right.  I still would describe WFUV eclectic as they play music from different genres.  They certainly play more Dylan music than any other FM station.

The New York Islanders announced the WNYE (91.5 FM) would be joining WRHU (Hofstra) and WRCN (eastern Long Island) in broadcasting their games.  It is disappointing that a major NYC station did not pick up their games as this is their first season in the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn.

Mets 1 Nationals 0 in Regular Season Finale

It seems to be a tradition that we go to the last home game of the season.  On paper this game was meaningless, but I did not want the Amazins to go into the playoffs with a 6 game losing streak.  Jacob deGrom did not allow a hit in 4 innings, but taken out as Terry Collins wanted this outing as a tune-up for deGrom.  He changed pitchers every inning to give each some work as the first game of th NLDS isn't until Friday.  There was no score until the 8th inning when Curtis Granderson hit a home run.  Jeurys Familia came in the 9th to get his 43rd save tying the team record.  It wasn't easy as with 2 outs Bryce Harper hit a double.  Jayson Werth hit a fly ball to end the game.

Box score

I met up with radio enthusiast friend Gary Fishbein who works in Food Services at Citifield.  I finally met Ira Sonin whom I've known through Facebook.  Including Lee there were 3 of my Facebook friends at the game.  Karen just does not want to get on Facebook.

The Mets start the NLDS at Los Angeles on Friday.  It is strange that both the Mets and Dodgers were no-hit twice this season yet won their respective divisions.

Random Comments of the Day

I dodged a couple of big delays on the #7 train this week.  I just wish the MTA would get its act together.  The excuse is that maintenance is lacking due to lack of funding.

I received my tickets for one game of the NLDS in the mail today.  It will be on Friday October 9 or Monday October 12.  The Met game was rained out today with a doubleheader against Washington scheduled for tomorrow, but the weather forecast is iffy.  Will they have to extend the season to Monday to determine if the Mets or Dodgers get the extra home game?

I bought tickets for two NJ Devils games on November 6 and February 26.  Perhaps I'll get tickets to one Islanders game at th Barclay Center.