That loud, crushing sound Mets fans heard Monday was the final closure of their window of playoff opportunity.
John Lackey to the Red Sox?
Roy Halladay to the Phillies?
The Mets? They are seemingly sitting on their hands with their heads deep inside some other body part.
They lead the league in excuses, but little else these days.
This was a team built to win in 2006-2008 and they lost in the playoffs in 2006 and collapsed both other years.
Then age and injuries overtook them and 2009 was a disgrace, new ballpark aside.
Now, outside of the remaining possibility they will overpay for Jason Bay, it seems no impact players will be heading to Flushing this off season.
Who knows? Maybe everyone will get healthy and the Mets will compete for a time with what they have and a few low-profile additions.
But I wouldn't bet on it.
For the moment, this looks like the start of one of their 5-year periods of being uncompetitive and irrelevant.
Let's just say I'm not rushing to renew my Sunday ticket plan.
12.14.2009
12.10.2009
Farewell E&P
All of my colleagues in this every-changing, ever-challenged newspaper business probably know this already, but just in case....
It was announced today that Editor & Publisher, which has been THE newspaper industry trade journal for something like 125 years, is shutting down.
No print. No online. Not even a lingering tweet or two.
The news came from by parent company The Nielsen Co. this morning.
In a bitter bit of irony, I learned this news not from the E&P website, but from The Poynter Institute's Romenesko media news site.
How sad that this iconic newspaper industry outlet was beat to the punch on the story of its own demise.
Maybe they were too stunned to post or thought that if they didn't publish the news right away somebody in corporate might change their minds.
It is sad to see. When I was starting out, trying to land my first job in newspapers, it was the place to learn what was hot and important in the industry. The classified section at the back of the-then weekly magazine was the ultimate source for jobs. Few editors with openings -- we had them back then -- ever let a job search proceed without posting a classified ad in E&P.
When I grew to be an editor I did so too, until cheaper online sites like journalismjobs.com came along.
I must admit, I went for cheaper there and I stopped my print subscription to E&P a couple of years ago once it went from weekly to monthly in print. It was just to easy -- and too free -- to read it online. And online was updated every day.
So what killed E&P is pretty much what is challenging all print publications these days.
For too long we have given our valuable content away for free. Some efforts are under way now to try to erect pay walls. My sense is that will be of limited success, but it is worth exploring.
As for the end of E&P, it will be missed by people like me who have been in this business for decades and grew up on it.
But as we are learning increasingly, nostalgia doesn't pay the bills. Original content people can't get elsewhere -- at least for a few seconds after it is posted on your web site -- and plenty of it is key.
E&P no longer had enough of that. Just ask Romenesko.
It was announced today that Editor & Publisher, which has been THE newspaper industry trade journal for something like 125 years, is shutting down.
No print. No online. Not even a lingering tweet or two.
The news came from by parent company The Nielsen Co. this morning.
In a bitter bit of irony, I learned this news not from the E&P website, but from The Poynter Institute's Romenesko media news site.
How sad that this iconic newspaper industry outlet was beat to the punch on the story of its own demise.
Maybe they were too stunned to post or thought that if they didn't publish the news right away somebody in corporate might change their minds.
It is sad to see. When I was starting out, trying to land my first job in newspapers, it was the place to learn what was hot and important in the industry. The classified section at the back of the-then weekly magazine was the ultimate source for jobs. Few editors with openings -- we had them back then -- ever let a job search proceed without posting a classified ad in E&P.
When I grew to be an editor I did so too, until cheaper online sites like journalismjobs.com came along.
I must admit, I went for cheaper there and I stopped my print subscription to E&P a couple of years ago once it went from weekly to monthly in print. It was just to easy -- and too free -- to read it online. And online was updated every day.
So what killed E&P is pretty much what is challenging all print publications these days.
For too long we have given our valuable content away for free. Some efforts are under way now to try to erect pay walls. My sense is that will be of limited success, but it is worth exploring.
As for the end of E&P, it will be missed by people like me who have been in this business for decades and grew up on it.
But as we are learning increasingly, nostalgia doesn't pay the bills. Original content people can't get elsewhere -- at least for a few seconds after it is posted on your web site -- and plenty of it is key.
E&P no longer had enough of that. Just ask Romenesko.
11.19.2009
I don't qualify
I was born and raised in New York City and only briefly lived in the Midwest.
I not only went to college, I graduated with two degrees and went on to get a Master's. Plus, I was educated in part by Jesuits.
I don't hunt.
I don't fish.
I don't drive a truck.
I don't drink much beer.
I like to read things that challenge me.
With all those qualities in hand I have come to accept two things:
We're just not folksy enough. We think being educated is a positive.
As for me, there's this other major character flaw I've borne for more than 30 years.
I work in the media.
It's a wonder they let me vote and have a drivers license.
Later.
I not only went to college, I graduated with two degrees and went on to get a Master's. Plus, I was educated in part by Jesuits.
I don't hunt.
I don't fish.
I don't drive a truck.
I don't drink much beer.
I like to read things that challenge me.
With all those qualities in hand I have come to accept two things:
- I will never be the subject of a country music song.
- And Sarah Palin will probably never consider me a real American.
We're just not folksy enough. We think being educated is a positive.
As for me, there's this other major character flaw I've borne for more than 30 years.
I work in the media.
It's a wonder they let me vote and have a drivers license.
Later.
11.04.2009
Back from where we'd never been
One week ago today, Mary and I were riding a van with a tour guide and a couple from New Hampshire, exploring the south rim of the Grand Canyon and the adjacent Navajo Nation.
Grand doesn't quite describe the Canyon. Magnificent, awesome and spectacular come closer, but if Grand is enough for the people who named it, guess it's good enough for us.
The tour was part of a really fun week-long trip that started and ended in Las Vegas and also included a detour to Hoover Dam. Neither of us are really gamblers -- Mary likes the slots a little and I played a few times -- but Vegas was still a lot off fun. We about broke even and took in shows staring Ray Romano, the winners of "America's Got Talent" and a "Rat Pack" tribute cast -- the guy doing Sinatra was pretty good.
Neither of us had ever been there before and I wouldn't place a Vegas wager on us ever going back. But much like our 25th anniversary trip to Hawaii three years ago, this was a blast from start to finish.
Among the highlights:
-- Getting the two-seat, more leg room row on Southwest both coming and going. When you have a five-hour flight ahead of you and are 6-foot-5, leg room is everything.
-- Seeing Romano at the Mirage the night we flew in. It started at 1o p.m. -- 2 a.m. by our east coast body clocks -- but we hung in there and laughed it up like natives.
-- Getting to see some of our favorites from "America's Got Talent," a show Mary and I watched quite a bit this summer. The woman who should have won -- in our opinion -- opera singer Babara Padilla --was even better live and I got to meet her after the show. We also loived the Texas Tenors and when those three guys and Padilla teamed up, it was fabulous.
-- Getting to learn all about the Grand Canyon on Wednesday and then heading out to explore it ourselves on Thursday. It just takes your breath away.
-- Dinner at the Hard Rock cafe with that iconic huge guitar out front, and drinks at Caesar's Palace.
-- The musical fountain show outside the Bellagio
-- Not working for a week and spending great time together.
The only down sides: It was pretty damn cold at the Grand Canyon -- 16 degrees when we woke up there Thursday -- and Wednesday night we found ourselves in a hotel pub where a couple actually wanted to watch a stupid early season hockey game instead of the World Series, and talked the bartender into putting it on the big screen TV. Amazing. For a few minutes I wondered if I was still in America. Needless to say we found another place to watch.
We planned this trip initially because we needed to use money we had on account with Southwest after we cancelled last spring's trip to Arizona, when son Dan was left off the travel roster with the Division III College of New Jersey baseball team
So basically, to some degree, we owe the great time we had -- not to mention the fact that Dan is now on the roster of the much better Division I George Mason University baseball team -- to the TCNJ coach being a jerk and not wanting to play those recruited by his much better predecessor.
Thanks, Coach.
Later.
Grand doesn't quite describe the Canyon. Magnificent, awesome and spectacular come closer, but if Grand is enough for the people who named it, guess it's good enough for us.
The tour was part of a really fun week-long trip that started and ended in Las Vegas and also included a detour to Hoover Dam. Neither of us are really gamblers -- Mary likes the slots a little and I played a few times -- but Vegas was still a lot off fun. We about broke even and took in shows staring Ray Romano, the winners of "America's Got Talent" and a "Rat Pack" tribute cast -- the guy doing Sinatra was pretty good.
Neither of us had ever been there before and I wouldn't place a Vegas wager on us ever going back. But much like our 25th anniversary trip to Hawaii three years ago, this was a blast from start to finish.
Among the highlights:
-- Getting the two-seat, more leg room row on Southwest both coming and going. When you have a five-hour flight ahead of you and are 6-foot-5, leg room is everything.
-- Seeing Romano at the Mirage the night we flew in. It started at 1o p.m. -- 2 a.m. by our east coast body clocks -- but we hung in there and laughed it up like natives.
-- Getting to see some of our favorites from "America's Got Talent," a show Mary and I watched quite a bit this summer. The woman who should have won -- in our opinion -- opera singer Babara Padilla --was even better live and I got to meet her after the show. We also loived the Texas Tenors and when those three guys and Padilla teamed up, it was fabulous.
-- Getting to learn all about the Grand Canyon on Wednesday and then heading out to explore it ourselves on Thursday. It just takes your breath away.
-- Dinner at the Hard Rock cafe with that iconic huge guitar out front, and drinks at Caesar's Palace.
-- The musical fountain show outside the Bellagio
-- Not working for a week and spending great time together.
The only down sides: It was pretty damn cold at the Grand Canyon -- 16 degrees when we woke up there Thursday -- and Wednesday night we found ourselves in a hotel pub where a couple actually wanted to watch a stupid early season hockey game instead of the World Series, and talked the bartender into putting it on the big screen TV. Amazing. For a few minutes I wondered if I was still in America. Needless to say we found another place to watch.
We planned this trip initially because we needed to use money we had on account with Southwest after we cancelled last spring's trip to Arizona, when son Dan was left off the travel roster with the Division III College of New Jersey baseball team
So basically, to some degree, we owe the great time we had -- not to mention the fact that Dan is now on the roster of the much better Division I George Mason University baseball team -- to the TCNJ coach being a jerk and not wanting to play those recruited by his much better predecessor.
Thanks, Coach.
Later.
10.21.2009
Which decade do you identify with?
I was born in the 1950s.
I started high school in the 1960s.
I graduated college and got my first real job in the 1970s.
I met and married my wife and we had our first three (of four) children -- David, Katie and Danny in the 1980s.
In the 1990s, I really came into my own in my career, becoming top editor of two papers and winning president's rings as one of my company's top editors. We also had our fourth child - Megan.
This decade, I've made it to USA TODAY, seen two kids graduate college, sent two others on their way to college and survived -- so far -- in the struggling newspaper industry.
The other day I read a piece asking about which decade you felt was really yours.
Yes, it said, you've lived in all of them. but which one shaped you, had the biggest impact, influenced who you are?
For me, I think I did most of the defining of who I would become in the 1970s.
I love 60s music and the 69 Mets
I love my wife and kids.
I hate the fact that I most came of age in the days of disco
But that's the fact.
That's when I went from a naive, shy kid to almost and adult who could take care of himself.
That's when I started the career that has helped pay for those kids to go to college.
That's when I went on my first dates, kissed my first girl,. had my first girlfriend, had my first part-time job and met the most people I am still friends with today.
That's when I went to my first concert, my first car and my first job in the media.
Lots of stuff has happened all the other decades...hard to believe this first one of the new millennium is almost done.
But the 70s' made me who I am...Stayin' Alive.
Later.
I started high school in the 1960s.
I graduated college and got my first real job in the 1970s.
I met and married my wife and we had our first three (of four) children -- David, Katie and Danny in the 1980s.
In the 1990s, I really came into my own in my career, becoming top editor of two papers and winning president's rings as one of my company's top editors. We also had our fourth child - Megan.
This decade, I've made it to USA TODAY, seen two kids graduate college, sent two others on their way to college and survived -- so far -- in the struggling newspaper industry.
The other day I read a piece asking about which decade you felt was really yours.
Yes, it said, you've lived in all of them. but which one shaped you, had the biggest impact, influenced who you are?
For me, I think I did most of the defining of who I would become in the 1970s.
I love 60s music and the 69 Mets
I love my wife and kids.
I hate the fact that I most came of age in the days of disco
But that's the fact.
That's when I went from a naive, shy kid to almost and adult who could take care of himself.
That's when I started the career that has helped pay for those kids to go to college.
That's when I went on my first dates, kissed my first girl,. had my first girlfriend, had my first part-time job and met the most people I am still friends with today.
That's when I went to my first concert, my first car and my first job in the media.
Lots of stuff has happened all the other decades...hard to believe this first one of the new millennium is almost done.
But the 70s' made me who I am...Stayin' Alive.
Later.
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