BRONX, NY – Those of you who know me, or have bothered to read my weekly Wednesday rants over the years, know that I give an awful lot of crap to our fearless leader, Short Matt. To be honest, a lot of it is warranted. I mean I have been at this for years and need someone to lash out at from time to time. As someone who complains about the writing, filing times, photo placement, and loves sending multi-party texts when you are trying to fall asleep, our bald CEO is an easy target. The guy has way of driving people absolutely crazy. But, here’s the thing, he’s also a great guy.
Yeah, I just wrote those words. Shocking. And it’s not just because the guy landed both me and my brother tickets to Mets Opening Day this year (in what is looking like their last win), but let’s start there. For many, many, many years, my brother Chris would get tickets to Mets Opening Day at Shea and take me. It was a yearly tradition and he always footed the bill and manned the tailgate barbecue. For us, like so many other baseball fans, Opening Day is like a national holiday. This year, with the Mets making it to the Series last year, it looked like we weren’t going to get tickets. But Short Matt came through for me, and for once I got my brother into the game rather than the other way around, which was nice. It was also very nice of Matt to do this for me. He didn’t stop there though. He also got contributors Junoir Blaber and Cheesy Bruin in as well. It was a very nice gesture, from a guy who sees more than his share of middle finger gestures.
Even though we didn’t have a MTM holiday party this year, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Short Matt has hosted more than a couple of these, when I am sure he could ill-afford to do so. His personal finances, by all accounts, are an amalgam of unexpected residual checks, stock market gambles, and prayer. People who don’t even know him have anxiety nightmares about his financial well-being. Nevertheless, his generosity always seems to trump any thoughts about saving for a rainy day. I could cite other examples, including something incredibly nice he did after my mom passed, but I don’t want to embarrass the guy. Besides, his isn’t really monetary generosity so much as it is a generosity of spirit. I’m lucky to have more than a few friends with the same spirit, one of whom writes for this site and another who is it’s #1 commentor, except when he’s retired.
Anyway, I just wanted to take this Wednesday to thank the founder of this site, Short Matt. You can be an incredible pain in the a**, but you’re OUR pain in the ass. I wouldn’t have kept at this for so long if I didn’t have fun doing it and working for you. I’ve met some incredibly nice people through this strange portal of ours and even penned a couple of columns that I was somewhat proud of. The credit goes to you. Are you horrible managing people? Yeah, kinda. Are you someone who pushes buttons to their breaking point? Uh huh. Do you have any idea what you’re doing? Probably not. But you’re a terrific person, and that makes up for all the rest, and then some. Thanks for 2016 Opening Day, boss.
Come back tomorrow for someone who surely doesn’t feel the same way I do… Big Al Sternberg/Fake Sandy Alderson.
