GLENDALE, CO – When your full-time job is in the Internet Sports Entertainment business, without the benefit of a parent company (i.e. guaranteed wage), you tend to have days like yours truly had yesterday. With that, here are today’s topics: Sure Things, Jacob deGrom & Same Old Mets, Stephen Colbert Booed by Brewers
Sure Things
Purchasing a regular airline ticket is pretty much a sure thing. Barring a force mejure, you get a seat and get to your destination 90%+ of the time safe and close to on-time. But when your sources of income are from www.MeetTheMatts, www.RugbyWrapUp.com and gigs associated with them, you often can’t afford full freight to get somewhere you need to be. Yesterday was one of those times and this pundit rolled the dice with a Buddy Pass to get to the Rugby Town 7s. For those not in the know, an airline employee has a handful of passes they can issue to friends and family. That allows that person to fly standby on flights at a vastly discounted price. In this case the round-trip cost between NYC and Denver was $105. Your seat, however, is not guaranteed. Sure, you can see the number of seats available and the number of standby passengers ahead of time but that changes as quickly as a Mets lead in the 6th inning. The 11 AM flight out of JFK, for instance, had 15 available seats and only 7 on the standby list. That’s a great number – a sure thing in this world. It changed on the train ride there, though, and after much consternation and game show-like anxiety, yours truly did not get on… “No worries,” says the gate attendant, “the 8pm looks good.” That’s like Lou Rojas saying, “Yeah, Diaz blew it in the 9th but we have Famila ready for the 10th, 11th, 12, 13th & 14th.” Alas, I did get on that flight.
In the day of faffing, though, the duties to pen today’s column slipped through the cracks. No problem, Cam James, who lives out here and felt guilty about not having time for a beer, agreed to pinch-hit. Happy days!!! When Cam says he’ll cobble a column together, he does! THAT is a sure thing. Waking up on the borrowed space in a buddy’s (there’s that word again) hotel room, all I’d have to do is close out CJ’s 8-inning gem! Unless of course, you get this in reply to your concerned text: “Sh!t. I did say I was getting drunk first. I may have done that a little too well.”
And here we are.
Speaking of sure things…
Jacob deGrom & Same Old Mets
The years fly by, the names change, then they don’t, then they change again. But you can always bet on the Mets historically spiraling catastrophically for large chunks of seasons – at critical junctures – and find wealth in doing so. It is a sure thing. During my faff-fest yesterday, I did see a ticker on ESPN about Jacob deGrom before we took off. During the flight I saw Jeff McNeil getting all squirrely after a conspiracy-worthy ball four that was called a strike. But really, did it matter? No. Pile on the 60-Day Jake news and it’s the same old Mets. They are, if nothing else, a sure thing.
And finally, here’s Jan with the out-of-done scoreboard…
Stephen Colbert Booed by Brewers
Full disclosure: I like Stephen Colbert. He lives in Montclair, teaches catechism and quotes The Bible and J.R. Tolkien regularly. I don’t care about those things, though. I just think he’s funny. And I love the fact that he somehow pissed off Milwaukee. The shtick was fun for all but the guys playing the game – especially the starting pitcher. Brett Anderson stood on the mound following his warm ups during Colbert’s bit before the top of the fifth. After the delay, he coughed up two runs. You gotta do those things before the game starts. With that, we’ll leave you with this:
An apology tour 1 year in the making!
Last year, Colbert accepted our invitation to experience all the amazing things Milwaukee offers. Now, he’s here and learning first-hand why it’s the best. https://t.co/f5qFWxKP6Z pic.twitter.com/rTfuBu3kt4
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) August 21, 2021
