This one’s private. If you would like one thing jaded and cynical from me right now, you could find that elsewhere on this part, the place I’m writing concerning the Knicks — who, even in good instances have a tendency to attract out the skeptic and the critic out of your soul. It’s OK. I gained’t take it personally.
And positive, it’s Christmas Eve Sunday morning. It’s a day designed for good cheer and good tidings and good will towards males. There have been numerous years once I took that as a problem, a dare to shake off all of the fantastic vacation spirit and remind you that the Mets nonetheless aren’t deep sufficient, or recount the entire soccer follies our native groups have perpetrated. The juxtaposition all the time delighted me. Nonetheless does, if I’m being trustworthy.
Simply not this time.
Simply not this 12 months.
As a result of 2023 has been a very good 12 months for me. If you happen to’ve learn this column for any size of time, you recognize that 2022 wasn’t fairly so good. I had some well being points. That culminated in having to have my left leg amputated beneath the knee. I used to be completely happy sufficient to have the ability to share that story this 12 months, and so a lot of you have been sort sufficient to achieve out to me after that piece ran in The Submit on June 4.
I bear in mind final New Yr’s Eve, simply after the ball dropped, and I used to be with my spouse and a few mates. I made a pledge to them that I might cherish each second of 2023 given the way in which 2022 had gone — and, let’s be trustworthy, 2020 and 2021 weren’t precisely banner years for any of us, both.
“I’ll drink to that,” the stunning Leigh Vaccaro mentioned, and since she was with me by way of the entire darker moments of these three years, I’m completely happy to report that she has shared the entire good things in 2023. Since my birthday is Jan. 1, I benefit from the uncommon quirk of understanding how outdated I used to be throughout daily of each calendar 12 months my entire life. So if it seems like I’m channeling the Chairman …
“Once I was 56 …
“It was an excellent 12 months …”
… nicely, I’m. It was. It begins with Leigh, who is aware of higher than anybody — higher, most likely, than even I do — how significant it’s to me now to do easy issues: to stroll into press packing containers (or simply to stroll, interval), to play 9 holes of golf, to money a profitable ticket at Saratoga, to step on a treadmill once more.
I can’t think about what this Christmas season would really feel like, and be like, with out the chums who helped maintain me by way of the entire difficult days that got here earlier than. There got here one very darkish second once I was sequestered in a 19-day in-patient rehab. I used to be having a nasty day. My occupational therapist, Jackie Corcoran, sensed that. And like the entire wonderful of us who helped me get by way of rehab — therapists, nurses, medical doctors — she knew exactly the life raft to throw.
“All I do know,” she mentioned, “is that each time I come get you for a session, I’ve to kick a special good friend of yours out of your room. You know the way fortunate you might be?”
I did. I do.
(It was a very good 12 months for Jackie, too. She obtained married. Even when it was to an Eagles fan.)
My colleagues right here at The Submit? Typically readers ask: Do you guys all get alongside? There are numerous outdated tales about teammates at numerous New York papers who may barely stand the sight of one another. I’ve a secret: There isn’t certainly one of them that I’m not proud to share a web page with, or a press field with, or a beer with, not one who’s handshake once I stroll right into a stadium or an area isn’t one of the best second of a day.
Lastly … look, you and I’ve an attention-grabbing relationship. I deal in opinions daily. Typically it seems I’m unsuitable. Typically I grow to be a pinned tweet on “Freezing Chilly Takes.” All the time, you work together. All the time, you let me understand how you’re feeling. Typically, you’ll acknowledge the mug, and there’ll be a dialogue in particular person.
All the time, it jogs my memory of one thing:
It actually is an excellent job.
And it actually is an excellent life. Buon Natale.
Vac’s Whacks
I’ve given this years of consideration and am now able to render a verdict. “Die Onerous”: not a Christmas film. It’s a film that takes place at Christmas. There’s a distinction.
Endlessly Met Cleon Jones and his spouse, Angela, hosted a vacation social gathering this week for near 200 youngsters in Africatown, Ala., a city he’s invested a lot of his coronary heart prior to now few years in an effort to revitalize his hometown. “We noticed numerous smiles,” mentioned Cleon, now 81. “There’s nothing higher than making youngsters completely happy, particularly round this time of the 12 months.”
A few sensible younger entrepreneurs, Michael Gold and Mike Schroeder, have created a recreation to assist train youngsters the nuances of soccer: Future Followers. It makes use of a storybook, straightforward questions and characters to spark curiosity in studying the foundations of the sport. It’s not a online game, so mother and father need to play it in particular person. Test it out.
Man, it could be enjoyable to see what it could appear and feel like late Christmas afternoon if it’s Giants 10, Eagles 6 heading into the fourth.
Whack Again at Vac
Rick Bause: Contemplating the sorry state of New York sports activities — almost a dozen years with out a single championship — N.Y. now stands for Subsequent Yr … or Not But. It’s a crying disgrace.
Vac: Friggin’ Los Angeles …
Jim Gondolfo: Friggin’ L.A.! Me, I’m going to like watching Senga beat him within the Nationwide League Championship Sequence!
Vac: A window of positivity! Attaboy, Jim!
@drschnip: Day by day as a Jets fan brings me nearer and nearer to Patty Hearst and a real understanding of Stockholm Syndrome.
@MikeVacc: Thanks for slamming that window shut, Doc.
Mark Dantonio: Saints’ D had Tommy D. for lunch, you might say hen cutlet to hen … nicely, you recognize? Put one other manner, with the Eagles looming, truthful to say this momentary love affair has doubtless ended sooner than that one with Fawn Liebowitz?
Vac: I need to’ve been good this 12 months, if Santa is delivering me “Animal Home” references.