Day: June 30, 2007

Hey Paul (like we’ve met, right?), I see you’re getting hammered in the media lately. On Thursday, pressed for comments about your blow-up with the umpire,you said to reporters, “You need to start talking to other players….Some of these guys have to start talking. They speak English, believe me.” The result was that “Daily News” reporter Peter Botte began his story with “Paul Lo Duca announced…that some of his Spanish-speaking teammates need to be held more accountable by the media.” The article made you sound like a racist. Exasperated, you said the next day, “Right now I’m a gambler, a racist, and I like 18-year-old girls. That’s the perception of people in New York about me. Is any of it true? No. None of it. Yet no one knows that.”

Paul, as the self-appointed representative of people in New York, I’m here to say in this letter that you will likely never read that the people of New York are able to perceive shoddy journalism and passionate players when they see them.

Continue Reading “Open Letter to Mets Catcher Paul Lo Duca” →

I met Joel Siegel, the perpetually chipper TV movie critic, a few years ago during New York is Book Country. We were both going through a similar fatherhood experience, being fathers of youngsters at a much later point in life than we would have expected–he with his son, Dylan, and me naturally with Caroline. He, however, had written a book about it, “Lessons for Dylan.” I bought a copy of his book from him, he signed it for me, wishing me “Mazel Tov” on the birth of Caroline, and we also chatted for a few minutes over how “Casablanca” may well be the greatest movie ever made.

What a nice guy.

I just read he passed away from colon cancer at the age of 63.

That sucks.

PAD