Just another car accident in Naasau County Neil Miller/The New York Extra
Above photo of accident on the Wet bound lanes of Old County Rd by The Malls/overpass of Meadowbrook Parkway ,Westbury,NY
A photo gallery at the Connequot Public Library by Neil Miller/The New York Extra
Today, The Mountain Jam Orchestra did one 1 1/2 hr long set at the library to a diverse crowd of different ages.With Jim Leach,bass,Steve Killian and Al Murphy, guitars,Phil Franco ,lead vocals,Steve Farella and John Laguzzi,drums, and Jim Sotis key boards the attentive crowd had a fun,if somewhat restrained good time,given the venue.
The set list was the standard Allmans every one knows and loves ,including,Southbound,Blue Sky,One Way Out and more favorites.The night before ,the band played at the always popular Sunset Grill in Seaford, to a packed house, with a waiting line outside.It wont be long till this band will be playing at larger venues on the Island, given their following .
Thurman Munson was a leader on and off the field and 40 years after his untimely death his legacy is constantly remembered. Tuesday night at Chelsea Piers, the annual Thurman Munson Awards dinner continued to live that legacy.
This annual event raises money to support the AHRC New York City Foundation. The organization assists children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“I am most proud of the money we raised ,” said Diana Munson . “To be a part of it has meant a lot to my family.”
Widow of Thurman Munson, the Yankees Captain and catcher, has also kept that legacy going with the Thurman Munson Award. Professional and Olympic athletes are recognized for their accomplishments and contributions to the community.
“It’s truly a tremendous honor,” J.D. Davis said.
The Mets outfielder and third baseman was honored along with Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres, former Yankees outfielder and manager Lou Piniella, former Mets captain John Franco ,and Nancy Lieberman of basketball fame.
They all spoke about Munson. A week or so after the untimely death of Kobe Bryant, they also did not forget his legacy.
So this was not only about baseball and basketball. Over the years, those who have been honored at this event have been role models. They have exemplified the good character and dedication of Thurman Munson.
“I was a 90’s baby, unfortunately, I never saw him play,” Davis said. “But when I got the call that I was being honored, I knew who he was. How big of an icon he was in New York. I was pretty humbled by it.”
Davis, may not become that icon, but has those qualities to exemplify all the Thurman Munson attributes do fit his character.
Last season, he had that breakout year with the Mets and has adopted New York City as that second home. Davis, this off-season, made several trips to New York from his home in California for charitable events.
Quickly, Davis, has adapted to playing ball in this town.
There is the understanding of that significance of being in the spotlight and playing baseball in New York. Thurman Munson, when he donned the Yankees pinstripes also knew that giving back to the community was important.
So, J.D. Davis, along with the others are not recipients of this award because of their name. They are special and are doing something significant as athletes here.
More than baseball or other sports they play for a living, It’s being role models off the field.
Of course, baseball was the talk and prior to the speeches and recipients getting the Munson honor. There was no talk about the recent baseball scandal, no discussion about the Mets ownership change that is in jeopardy.
Though, Piniella, always a good piece for conversation, did say that technology was good for baseball.
And for J.D. Davis, this could be the first of many more awards to come. Assume the Mets provide that opportunity for Davis, to be a vital cog in their plans going forward, helping the community will also be in his plan.
And there is every intention of Davis being in that lineup often, in the outfield or at third base.
He is excited about the upcoming season, and prepared this off-season to get better by watching film. He dropped seven pounds and worked on various ways to get better in the outfield.
“ Reconnected with Luis Rojas,” he said about his new manager, the former quality control coach who was by his side in the dugout last year.
There are those Thurman Munson qualities on the field for J.D. Davis. He has adapted after coming from Houston as the unknown player last season, possibly the best acquisition for Mets GM Brodie Van Wegenen.
“Coming here to New York with these guys, with these teammates and coaches, showing your personality showing you a little bit of flair, playing the game right,” he said.
He got that right. Because, in New York, playing here is about doing the right thing and also being a part of the community. We always saw that in Thurman Munson.
And the best way to have fun, as Munson always said, was win ball games. The Mets won 86 games last year and made a postseason push in the second half.
Davis, and the Mets are anticipated to win ball games this coming season. They also don’t know what to expect from Yeonis Cespedes with a contract that was restructured and coming off surgery.
And then there is this part about J.D. Davis, that talk of getting better. He reminds you so much about the qualities of Thurman Munson.
“Little ways, better at bats,” he said. “Taking notes about failures and what I’ve learned.”
Sounds a lot like Thurman Munson.
Comment: Ring786@aol.com Twitter@Ring786 Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
ROBBINS NEST
By Lenn Robbins
It’s taken two days to see.
Since the first alert on my phone Sunday morning stating the unfathomable had happened – Kobe Bryant, 41, his daughter Gianna, 13, and seven other human beings – taken from us in the blink of a text, we’ve been blinded by grief and uncertainty.
The Lakers-Clippers game was canceled last night, as it should have been. But when do the Lakers return to the court in spirit as well as body? A week? A month? A season?
Prior to the tipoff of Monday night’s prep game between Friends Seminary and Packer Collegiate Institute, the rivals huddled at midcourt, arms around each other’s shoulders, as a 24-second shot clock ‘violation’ counted down.
Generations of Americans are hurting.
There are memorials at Staples Center and the House of Kobe Gym in the Philippines and Lower Merion High School outside of Philadelphia and Mamba Sports Academy, and Reggio Emilia in Italy and the Bryant Park subway stationed unofficially renamed Kobe Bryant Park.
(Memo to City: Don’t change that).
Should everything go back to the way it was before Kobe died or should it never be the same?
Does a reporter continue to write about Kobe or the suddenly surprising Knicks or disappointing Nets?
How do we evaluate any NBA team going forward when so many players lost a friend, idol, mentor, role model, former teammate or opponent?
How can we attend a Super Bowl party on Sunday, cheer and laugh, when four families are in the soul-numbing process of planning a funeral they never expected to plan so soon?
How do we go to church or temple this weekend knowing that Bryant and his daughter reportedly attended Mass Sunday morning at Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Newport Beach, just hours before they died?
A parishioner there, Julie Hermes, told NBC-LA that she recalled watching Kobe with his four daughters after Mass one day.
“He was showering them with cupcakes, and he put them in car seats and buckled them in so carefully,” Hermes said.
That’s what love looks like. And this is Kobe’s last and possibly greatest legacy.
We’ve see men, seemingly the most manly among us, publicly showing their emotions in tears and tributes. LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Spencer Dinwiddie crying. Barack Obama, also a father of daughters, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, expressing their sadness.
“[He was] and a leader in a lot of ways,” Abdul-Jabbar said on social media. “He inspired a whole generation of young athletes.”
Imagine that. A whole generation of young athletes seeing Kobe memorialized as a father and husband more than a player. A whole generation of young athletes overtly and covertly getting the message that there is more to life than a ball or a puck. A whole generation of young athletes seeing men that express their emotions as strong and sensitive.
Imagine this: In death, Kobe has made his most important play.
ROBBINS NEST
By Lenn Robbins
It was early January of 2013 when I bumped into World Metta Peace in the bowels of Madison Square Garden. He broke into a huge smile, gave me a neck-cracking hug and we settled into a couple of chairs courtside to do some catching up.
I had forged a bond with the young man then known as Ron “Ron-Ron” Artest Jr. years earlier when he played at St. John’s. Anyone in the metropolitan area basketball world knew of Ron-Ron, his acts of generosity and volatile personality. He was ‘real,’ as they say, a kid out of Queensbridge who marched to his own thumping, erratic drummer to the NBA.
There were the really good years in Indianapolis, ended by the notorious Malice in the Palace brawl; the solid years in Sacramento and Houston, followed by the magical season when Artest and Kobe Bryant won the 2010 title together with the Lakers.
“Man, Kobe and I went at it before the Lakers,’’ Metta Peace told me. “I was worried we weren’t going to get along when I signed with them. It wasn’t that we didn’t like each other. We wore different jerseys, came from different places.
Bryant had lived in Europe as a child, where his father, Joe ‘Jellybean’ Bryant played professionally. Kobe was fluent in Italian and Spanish and later educated at Lower Merion High School on Philadelphia’s exclusive Main Line.
Artest’s world was a housing project in Queens and a struggling Catholic school on Manhattan’s Lower Eastside – LaSalle Academy.
‘Kobe, people would see his smile, right,’’ said World Peace. “And he can speak, like five languages or something. Nice suits. I’m all ghetto. But we would kill you to win a game. Kill you. That’s what we had.”
We will never see Kobe Bean Bryant’s luminescent smile again, which is almost as tragic as the fact that we will never see the smile of his daughter – Gianna Maria Bryant. Kobe, 41, and Gianna, 13, were both killed in a helicopter crash outside of Los Angeles on Sunday.
The Black Mamba, a nickname Kobe gave himself, is dead. Unfathomable.
Kobe still had so much of life to live but he had accomplished so much in such a short time. It was 14 years ago this week that he scored 81 points in an NBA game. It was just Saturday that LeBron James passed Kobe for third on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
James wrote “Mamba 4 Life” on his sneakers in Sunday’s game against the 76ers.
Bryant is a member of the most exclusive sports club – Pele, Serena, LeBron, Kobe.
And he was on the cusp of business and creative greatness. He won the 2018 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for “Dear Basketball,” a six-minute film based on a poem Kobe wrote. He parlayed a $6 million investment in sports drink BodyArmor into a $200 million payday when Coca-Cola bought the company.
Most of all, he was scratching the surface of being a father. Bryant was taking Gianna to one of her travel basketball games. Gianna had dreams of playing at Connecticut, the Lakers and Celtics of women’s college basketball rolled into one.
Gianna had her entire life ahead of her. There will be no WNBA title, no opportunity to write a poem or become a businesswoman. Unfathomable.
One of the few truths we know is that no parent should have to bury a child. Now Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s high school sweetheart, will have to bury a husband and child, and find a way to raise daughters Natalia, Bianka and Capri.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kobe was asked if he had any regrets.
“Probably the amount of time spent on my craft and spent away from my family,” he said.
Unfathomable.
So what do we now, how do we process this tragedy?
Here’s the only consolation I can find. In their final seconds, Kobe and Gianna had each other. A father and a daughter together because of their love of the city game.
“He loves the game so much,’’ Artest said of Kobe. “You have to take his life to take that game from him.”
So it goes. Another holiday season is here and from yours truly to yours a Merry Christmas and Happy holidays.
There were the usual highs and lows during the 2019 sports year in New York. From the abysmal Knicks, to the continued regression of the Jets and Giants, the Yankees failure to close the decade without another championship.
And the Mets, of course, awaiting the check book of billionaire Steve Cohen as they try to contend and deliver. Hockey is healthy as the Rangers and Islanders are at a pace to be contenders for playoff position.
With all of this, and more, here is that annual Christmas list for the New York sports fan. A little of everything and not being naughty but nice.
Yankees: The Gerit Cole signing to a record nine-year $324 million contract is the missing piece, so says the Yankees hierarchy. Though, as mentioned on these pages,a pitcher with that long term deal is expected to deliver.
The Yankees, as that holiday gift for their fans, got them Cole. It means the supposed best pitcher in baseball is expected to deliver, and at a risk in this long range plan to end their decade drought without a World Series championship.
Though, the appropriate gift of cheer for the Yankees is to get the timely hits in the postseason, which was more of the contributing factor of their failures to go deep in another postseason series loss to the Astros.
METS: The gift has been Michael Wacha and Rick Procello, two pitchers at low cost that add to their depth. If anything, rookie manager Carlos Beltran has been granted some flexibility.
Seth Lugo, the Mets most reliable reliever, can stay in the bullpen as does Robert Gsellman. The need was to revamp a bullpen that was second worst in baseball to the Red Sox in 2019.
The gift this holiday season for the Mets, another bat in the lineup before Opening Day and possibly a healthy Yoenis Cespedes in his final year of a revamped contract.
Most of all, the best gift here? A turn-around 2020 out of the pen for Jeurys Familia and Edwin Diaz. Late inning outs and saves cost the Mets in 2019. Familia and Diaz could be a difference maker, along with Justin Wilson in the mix.
Giants: Yours truly will be the first to admit this is not an area of expertise. However, it is easy to comprehend that stability on the coaching end is important, why it is important to give another year to Pat Shurmur.
There are signs of progress. No more Eli Manning. Daniel Jones is improving, five touchdown passes Sunday against the Redskins. The gift is acquiring a top draft choice, improve the defense. We haven’t seen Saquon Barkley at his best and healthy.
Jets: Same situation with the Giants and that’s coaching stability. Adam Gase? He needs another year. Disagree, of course Jets fans would. You see the continued development of a quarterback, Sam Darnold, and how he can control the ball out of the pocket.
Again, a gift here for the Jets is patience. They are close. And the draft picks will be significant as the long and championship reign of the Patriots is on a decline, which makes the Jets a team to be enthused about in the AFC East.
Knicks: Sell the team. This is not a coaching situation. The answer is get rid of Dolan. A gift of joy for every Knicks’ fan is becoming that franchise champion again that takes the court in the “Mecca” of Madison Square Garden, and having the appropriate basketball personnel to run the show.
NETS: Did you say, can’t wait for Kevin Durant? That 26.0 points per game is a void and a difference maker.
Rangers: Sunday, Henrik Lundqvist made his first start in a week and stopped 19 of 20 shots that prevented the Rangers from losing their fourth straight. And that is the difference, because the veteran in goal can lead this team in his final years.
You want to see a good old NY rivalry on ice with the Rangers and Islanders. It can get there again, of course it begins with the consistent play in goal from the veteran.
Islanders: All good in Nassau County and Brooklyn. The Islanders are leaving a gift this season and striving to become another dynasty before moving to their new digs in a few years over at Belmont Park.
NYRA: Can we get another Triple Crown winner at Belmont Park?
NYCFC: Two years of semifinal and final conference elimination for an MLS CUP. The gift is go another step. The added gift is securing a stadium they can call home as the Yankees kick them out of the ballpark to avoid disrupting their sacred field during playoff time.
Boxing: The sports deserves more championship fights in New York. Barclays Center in Brooklyn is in survival mode as a host for major fights and Madison Square Garden, well the “Mecca” always finds a place for the big fight. Then again, the sport is healthy but no longer in that category of mainstream.and deserves a gift of returning to the heyday of Ali, Frazier, Holmes, Hagler, Hearns, and Leonard.
There you have it. Just some thoughts. From all of us at TheNYExtra.com a healthy and happy holiday season with the gift of joy and a championship.
Comment: Ring786@aol.com Twitter@Ring786 Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
Robbins Nest
The following article, written by Lenn Robbins, Editor-in-chief of the New York Extra is not endorsed by the ownership of the publication. However, Mr Robbins has complete editorial freedom to express his views and is supported in this regard. Neil Miller,publisher and owner,The New York Extra
By Lenn Robbins
Maybe only those that have known the most unbearable sadness can truly experience the most unfetted euphoria.
When Riley Ward ripped off his helmet to show the face of pure, unbridled joy, when he raised his left arm and pointed his index finger skyward, when he was mobbed by teammates, many of who were ecstatically screaming, “Oh My God! Oh My God!” did the guy next to me, also transfixed by the images of the TV say:
“That’s God at work right there.”
This God entity can be challenging to understand. Some would say we’re not meant to understand. Certainly faith can help us make some sense, take some comfort, in the incomprehendable.
Maybe a higher power was at work Saturday night when the high school football team from the Connecticut town where Sandy Hook Elementary School is located, won its first state title exactly seven years to the day that a madman massacred 26 people, 20 of whom were six and seven-year-old children.
Since this is a sports column, let’s give this higher power entity the benefit of the doubt, and discuss religion another day.
Which begs one question:
If God was at work Saturday night, what the hell have our elected officials been doing the last seven years? This isn’t a question for Republicans or Democrats. It’s a question for mothers and fathers, congressmen and senators, governors and the president.
Why has there been no significant change in this country when it comes to making it harder to buy weapons that have nothing to do with self defense but everything to do with mass slaughter?
The second amendment is fine with me. If citizens in upstate New York did not have the right to bare arms, the escapees from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora would have had many more places to find refuge.
As someone who legally owned a gun when living in New Jersey, it was reasurring to have to attend a gun safety course to get that license. The instructor said (I’m paraphrasing here) if someone is intent on doing you harm and he or she doesn’t back away after hearing the chambering of a round, no gun in the world can keep you safe.
We need to keep ourselves safe which means exercising some commom sense.
No assault rifles. No large capacity magazines. No bump stocks.
Hopefully, prayfully, No dead children.
What transpired Saturday night was beyond explanation, just as Mike Piazza’s home run 10 days after 9-11 was inexpicable and eternal.
“I’m so proud of my kids for not giving up,’’ Newtown coach Bobby Pattison told reporters after the game. “We had moments in that game where it didn’t look too good for Newtown … I’m so proud of the kids. I couldn’t be happier.”
Newtown beat Darien, 13-7, on the game’s last play when quarterback Jack Street found Riley through the fog for a 36-yard touchdown and the state LL championship. Kudos to the Darien Blue Wave, a high school I once covered while working at the Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time, which Tweeted:
While a State Championship loss is never easy to swallow, the joy it is bringing @newtownfootball and the entire #Newtown community is certainly numbing our pain. #NightHawkPride #FootballBrothers
Newtown linebacker Ben Pinto’s seven-year-old brother, Jack, was killed in that 2012 massacre. No one can imagine that family’s grief or the grief of any family that has lost a child, especially to gun violence because our “leaders” have shamefully gotten up every morning to their lattes instead of passing gun control legislation.
Riley’s celebration was one for the ages. Like the late N.C. State coach Jimmy Valvano, who couldn’t find a player to hug after the Wolfpack won the 1983 NCAA Tournament, Riley, Lucky No. 13 in your books, raced through the end zone, a self-driving car that had malfunctioned.
He was bathed in the love and joy of his teammates and townspeople. But wouldn’t it be so much better to live in a world in which a high school football team didn’t have to help a community heal because there was no manmade tragedy to recover from?
Surely, we’d all trade a state title celebration for a state of safety for our children. Our “leaders” have no excuses. Get to work!
When Danny Aiello crossed paths with yours truly in 1974, there was no conception who was on the microphone up in a small press box calling plays as the public address announcer at a DeWitt Clinton High School football game.
That voice was clear and distinguished and could be heard all over Paul Avenue and a block away on Mosholu Parkway.. He was very professional and at the time not the well known actor that he would become.
His two sons played football for the school, Danny and Rick ,who yours truly also got to know. Danny Aiello III died of pancreatic cancer in 2010 at the age of 53.
That loss for Aiello was difficult as was the early struggle and stumbling on a career that led to over 100 roles on the screen and the stage.
And today we sadly mourn his passing, 86-years of age after an illness. His big break, “Do The Right Thing” the Spike Lee film that earned him an Academy Award nomination in 1989. He was Sal the owner of a Brooklyn pizza shop and tried to keep peace in the community.
Thing is, Danny Aiello always did the right thing. From those days in the press box, a man who asked for a penny or a nickel, to his success, Danny Aiello was always there for the community, He was there for friends and a loyal role model to his wife of 64 years, sons, and grandchildren.
He never changed. He was my role model up in that press box. He guided me to do the same PA announcing as his acting schedule called on him. Directors and producers called on him and often.
He said then, in 1975, “You have a future as an announcer.” He started to follow me as a cub sports reporter in the Bronx and appreciated the devotion and covering high school athletes for the Bronx weekly newspapers.
They know, as yours truly did as a 17-year old in the Bronx, that Danny Aiello was going to be a hit. He wasn’t shy to ask for a nickle or a cigarette. He always said there would be a day he would not forget and return the favor.
He never forgot. And, Danny Aiello always remembered the community. His late mother was admitted to Providence Rest Nursing Home. He felt there was need to do better there and later became a Board of Director member at Providence Rest over in Throgs Neck.
Sports was his passion when not on the set.
“My Yankees, what’s wrong,” he said a few years ago as we met at Yankee Stadium. His nephew, Bronx native Michael Kay, is the voice of the Yankees on the YES Network and hosts a successful afternoon sports program on ESPN Radio.
Kay was in tears as he paid tribute to “Uncle Danny” Friday afternoon. It was Danny Aiello who pitched and believed in his nephew. Must run in the family because Danny Aiello was an avid sports fan and was also seen many times at ringside watching a fight at Madison Square Garden and the Barlcays Center in Brooklyn.
He always did the right thing, so appropriate and many years before the movie hit the big screen.
That was Danny Aiello, born in Manhattan but the Bronx and the people he met were always in his heart.
In many ways, this career was fit for me. You never know what will transpire as time goes on. But that day up in a small high school press box was one that gave me the opportunity to speak out loud.
Danny Aiello, as he did for many and yours truly was an inspiration. God Bless and Rest In peace. The The New York Extra offers prayers and condolences to the Aiello family, friends, and those who knew him over the years in the entertainment industry.
Comment: Ring786@aol.com Twitter@Ring786 Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
The DeWitt Clinton HIgh School graduate, a school at the end of the Grand Concourse also known as “The Castle” because of distinguished alumni in all walks of life, was a proud alumnus who was instrumental in staging more than 30 plays and musicals on Broadway in four decades.
“I see the potential in so many here in the Bronx,” Simon said when he was awarded by the DeWitt Clinton Alumni Association. He was one of the many at the time that graduated at the age of 16. And from Clinton it was either NYU or City College of New York. He chose NYU and from there the rest is history.
Simon in 1983 was the only living playwright who had a theater named after him on Broadway, “The Neil Simon Theater.”
But his “Odd Couple” play, later an Emmy award winning television series, was Neil Simon and the creativity that consumed the entertainment world for years and still seen in syndication.
He was 91 years of age and passed away Monday morning in New York City with complications from pneumonia.
THE 24th ANNUAL DICKENS’ FESTIVAL
This past weekend December 7th and 8th commenced the 24th annual Charles Dickens Festival in the village of Port Jefferson. It was a weekend filled with holiday cheer! Starting it all off was the grand opening ceremony parade followed by an opening ceremony at The Village Center.
Gallery /Neil Miller /The New York Extra
Volunteers dressed in time period appropriate wardrobe strolled the streets, there was Father Christmas, ghosts of Christmas past, present and future and the beggar boy to name a few. We encountered carolers Chercy, Cheryl, Keeley and Savannah from The United Methodist Church of Bayport who graced the streets with their singing. There was musical shows to enjoy such as a men’s choir, bands, Port Jefferson Elementary Chamber Choir and Orchestra, Christmas concerts and various street performances by Pirates of Fortunes Folly among others.
Family and children oriented activities included ice skating, a fire pit to roast marsh mellows , magic shows, holiday sing a longs, cookie making at Cookie Land, a Chocolate Extravaganza, horse and carriage rides with Oreo and friends. Plenty of hot chocolate and roasted chestnuts for your enjoyment! Tickets could be purchased for renditions of The Nutcracker performed by Harbor Ballet Theatre at PJ High School or A Christmas Carol at Theatre Three.
An event schedule and map of activities/performances was available at the Village center. There was something for everyone. Truly a good time to be had by all ! I’ve already made a notation to return next year as should you! The festival concludes with The passing of the Lantern of Life, a fabulous Pickwick’s Puppet Parade followed by a closing ceremony at Village Hall. Don’t miss out next year it is fun for the young and old alike!!
Or how the Town of Islip disappointed hundreds of Town residents at The Connetquot River Boat Parade
Tonight, hundreds of Town of Islip residents and families were very upset and confused at the annual Boat Parade at Great River Dock in East Islip. For years a parade of brightly lit boats in all their Christmas glory would make several passes up and down the river.
But,not tonite.Instead the boats seemed to congregate by the various restaurants further south on the river.Crying children and angry parents kept asking” Where is the parade? Why are they turning around before coming up to the dock?” FYI ,Great River Dock is one of the listed viewing sites for the Boat Parade. Upon looking at the contributor list to the event,The View ,Snapper Inn,and Oakdale Yacht are listed as top level donors.Is it posible this this played a role in spoiling alot of families fun tonight?? Only the Town of Islip knows.