Knucksie & More

RIP MLB Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro, 81. He spent 24 seasons at the highest level, playing for four different teams, leaving at 48. He was the most successful knuckle-baller ever, winning 318 games, which ranks him 16th all-time. His career ERA was 3.35. He won a record 140 games after age 40. He was a five-time All-Star, five-time winner of the Gold Glove Award. He led the NL in wins in ’74 and ’79, led all of MLB in ERA in 1967–1.87, and was the NL strikeout leader in ’77. He had a no-hitter in 1973. His total of ​5404 1⁄3 innings pitched is the most by any hurler in the post-1920 live-ball era. Atlanta retired his #35. Awesome, sir.

According to an article at nypost.com, NFL ratings are down almost seven-percent. Is that due to a protest against its woke policies? Certainly in part. I’ve pretty much stuck to my guns, eschewing the youtube highlights I’d come to love. I do watch a couple of plays sometimes while a show I’m viewing is in commercial and nothing else of interest is on. And I still check the box scores of the Giants and Jets. I guess all that makes me a hypocrite.

Kudos to Steve Cuozzo for going against the grain in his article at NYP and highlighting areas where New Yorkers have reason to hope the city is on the verge of a comeback.

Former NYC blowhard mayor Mike Bloomberg tried to influence races nationwide with his deep pockets. Even if he’s given credit for the mail-in voting that was President Trump’s undoing, his other efforts failed miserably. According to an article at NYP, he dumped $100 million into Florida only to see the needle move backwards there for his party. Trump not only won Florida by a million more votes than he did in 2016, Republicans expanded their majorities in both state chambers while ousting two Dems from congressional seats. And the $60 million he spent to support Dems in House races across the country gained nothing. Not only did no Republican incumbent lose a seat, Dems lost at least a dozen seats to the GOP. Even the $60 million he spent pushing gun-control candidates had little to no effect. This year saw a record for new gun ownership in America: Five million now own at least one, 40% of them women. Remember that this phony ran as a Republican in NYC, taking cynicism to new heights. Then again, there isn’t much difference between Dems and most Republicans. I wonder how much money Bloomberg is pouring into Georgia. If the Dems gain those two seats, all of his other losses become irrelevant.

I hope this headline from nypost.com doesn’t lead to cops putting the kibosh on the floating book shop: “Mayhem in the streets: Illegal vendors are overtaking NYC.” The busy corner of 86th and Bay Parkway, right where Vinnie used to play his two-string guitar, has become inundated with peddlers. I set up just past 85th, a block and a half from the chaos. And selling books, art, music on the street is legal outside commercial zones, which is where I work.

It was a picture perfect day for selling books curbside but, unlike yesterday when passersby opened their wallets despite the cold, almost no one was buying. My thanks to the gentleman who did a swap and buy of Russian books, and to Mr. Conspiracy, aka Steve, who purchased Love for Sale: Pop Music in America by David Hajdu.

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