---

Bar Chat

12/23/2024

College Football Playoffs Under Way

Add-on posted late Monday p.m. [prior to conclusion of MNF]

NFL

--In games after I posted on Sunday....

The Vikings (13-2) are right there for the overall No. 1 seed with the Packers and Lions remaining on the schedule, Minnesota beating Seattle (8-7) 27-24, as Sam Darnold threw three touchdown passes for the Vikes, Justin Jefferson with 10 receptions for 144 and two scores, including the deciding 39-yard TD grab.  A crushing defeat for the Seahawks, Geno Smith playing a gutty game in defeat.

The Buccaneer (8-7) suffered a devastating loss at Dallas, the Cowboys (7-8) winning 26-24, Tampa Bay in a position to take control of the NFC South, but in the final minutes literally fumbled it away.

Cowboys fans can’t be thrilled at the same time, as wins in 4 of their last 5 hurts them in the draft.

The Patriots (3-12) got off to a shocking 14-0 lead in Buffalo, but the Bills (12-3) despite Josh Allen’s lackluster effort, won it 24-21, as James Cook rushed for 100 yards and a TD, and had a touchdown receiving.

The Dolphis (7-8) stayed barely in the hunt, 29-17 over the 49ers (6-9), as De’Von Achane had a monster game, 17 carries for 120 yards and a touchdown, plus six receptions for 70 yards.

--Playoff Standings

AFC

1. Kansas City 14-1
2. Buffalo 12-3
3. Pittsburgh 10-5
4. Houston 9-6
5. Baltimore 10-5
6. L.A. Chargers 9-6
7. Denver 9-6
8. Indianapolis 7-8
9. Miami 7-8
10. Cincinnati 7-8

NFC

1. Detroit 13-2
2. Philadelphia 12-3
3. L.A. Rams 8-6
4. Atlanta 8-7
5. Minnesota 13-2
6. Green Bay 10-4...plays Monday night vs. New Orleans
7. Washington 10-5
8. Tampa Bay 8-7
9. Seattle 8-7

--Race for No. 1 Draft Pick

1. New York Giants 2-13
2. New England 3-13
2. Las Vegas 3-12
2. Tennessee 3-12
2. Cleveland 3-12
2. Jacksonville 3-12
7. Carolina 4-11
7. Chicago 4-11
7. New York Jets 4-11

--Speaking of the race for the No. 1 pick, Raiders fans are wondering why their team beat the Jaguars on Sunday, 19-14.

--Back to the Washington-Philadelphia contest Sunday afternoon, Washington winning it in the final moments 36-33.  Aside from losing Jalen Hurts to a concussion, the Eagles still could have stayed in the race for the overall No. 1 seed had DeVonta Smith not dropped the ball at a critical moment.

Smith beat Commanders cornerback Noah Igbinoghene to the first-down marker on a third-and-5 from Washington’s 22-yard line with about two minutes remaining, but Smith dropped Kenny Pickett’s pass.

The Eagles could have run out the clock with a first-down conversion.  Instead, Eagles kicker Jake Elliott settled for a 40-yard field goal, giving the Eagles a 33-28 lead.  Washington and Jayden Daniels then marched down the field for the winning score with seconds remaining.

Afterwards, Smith said he wants to move on and forget about his mistake.

“I just dropped the ball.  Ain’t not teaching on it.  Just catch the ball.  Simple.”

Smith, prior to the third-down play, called for the ball.  He said he won’t let one bad drop affect his confidence.

“I ain’t going to beat myself up over it,” he said.  “It’s life.  It’s part of the game.  I made all the tough catches today. And when we needed one (more), I dropped it.  It is what it is. ...Ain’t nobody else fault but my mine.”

I’d like to comment...but it’s Christmas.

College Football

--Yes, the first-round games were a bust in terms of entertainment and close contests, though at least Clemson put up a good fight.

As for the bitching after from the likes of Ole Miss, Alabama and South Carolina fans, SMU and Indiana still deserved to be part of the 12-team field, period.  Stop complaining, SEC.

--As expected, Bill Belichick hired son Steve to be his new defensive coordinator at North Carolina, Steve Belichick having been Washington’s defensive coordinator this past season and doing a good job.

Bill Belichick had spent extensive time around the Huskies program last off-season and during training camp, sitting in meetings and offering suggestions.

Son Steve worked for his father in New England, spending a dozen years with the Patriots, working his way up the ranks.

College Basketball

--New AP Poll, Monday, records a/o Sunday....

1. Tennessee 11-0 (41)
2. Auburn 11-1 (21)
2. Iowa State 10-1
4. Duke 10-2
5. Alabama 10-2
6. Florida 12-0
7. Kansas 9-2
8. Marquette 11-2
9. Oregon 11-1
10. Kentucky 10-2
11. UConn 10-2
12. Oklahoma 12-0
13. Texas A&M 10-2
14. Gonzaga 9-3
15. Houston 8-3
16. Ole Miss 11-1
17. Cincinnati 10-1
18. Michigan 10-2
19. Mississippi State 11-1
20. San Diego State 8-2
21. Purdue 8-4
22. UCLA 10-2
23. Arkansas 10-2
24. Illinois 8-3
25. Baylor 7-3

Maryland is No. 26 if you carry out the votes.  They are going to win it all.  Book it.  St. John’s is 29.

The contests between Ole Miss and Miss. State would be fun to watch in attendance.  They should be wild.  First one is Jan. 18 in Starkville.

NBA

--Poor Orlando.  The Magic lost center Moe Wagner to a season-ending ACL tear in his left knee this weekend, Wagner a Sixth Man of the Year candidate averaging 12.9 points and 4.9 rebounds.

This is a team that has been playing without star Paolo Banchero since Oct. 30 due to a torn oblique, and then Moe Wagner’s younger brother, Franz, playing like an All-Star early on (24.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.7 assists), was lost to an oblique as well on Dec. 6.

Yet the Magic were 18-12 heading into tonight’s contest against the Celtics.

And the Magic won it!  108-104.

Good for them.

--The Knicks (19-10) beat the injury-depleted Raptors (7-23) 139-125...your editor watching the entire contest.  OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns with 31 apiece.  OG was 13-of-15 from the field.  And also +25.

MLB

--As I noted last Chat, the Mets are building their rotation bit by bit, and then after midnight, Sunday, the Mets announced that last year’s ace, Sean Manaea, was returning to Queens on a three-year, $75 million deal.

Manaea, 32, had a career year last season, 12-6, 3.47 ERA, and a career-high 181 2/3 innings.

He smartly opted out of his $13.5 million contract for 2025 to test the open market, and he’s coming back on a far better deal for the Manaea Family.

--The Red Sox signed Walker Buehler, 30, to a one-year, $21 million contract, Buehler taking a flyer it seems on his own career, expecting a big season that he can parlay into a 5-year, $120 millionish deal.

When healthy this guy is good.  I wanted the Mets actually to give him a 3-year, $60 million type contract, thinking he will be healthy. 

Anyway, good deal for Boston.

Golf Balls

--I’m already looking forward to The Sentry Championship first weekend in January to kick off the 2025 PGA Tour season.

I forgot to mention last time I did watch some of Saturday’s action at the PNC Challenge, which features 20 major champions playing with a member of their family, and I caught Tiger and Charlies Woods’ interview after their first round of this two-round event, and it’s amazing how quickly Charlie, 15, is growing up.  And it’s great to see Tiger’s pride in his son, though Tiger is definitely not pushing him.  It just seems Charlie has big ambitions of his own.

And then on Sunday, I tuned in after I posted my column and caught the exciting finish, the amazing Bernhard Langer and his son closing it out in a playoff with Tiger and Charlie.  Bernhard is 67...and no reason why he can’t still compete at Augusta and hopefully make the cut.

But Charlie had his first hole-in-one.  Great stuff, watching Tiger’s reaction.  [I didn’t see the hole-in-one live, the ace happening before I tuned in, but have watched all the replays.]

This is a great little event.  All very positive for the sport.

--But I also forgot to note last Thursday’s “Showdown” on TNT between Rory and Scottie Scheffler vs. Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.  It was a night golf event in Vegas.

Here’s the thing.  I would have caught some of this, Rory and Scottie romping over the LIV duo, but I didn’t freakin’ know it was on!  And I know I’m not alone in that regard.  This was so poorly publicized.

Stuff

--The New York Rangers sudden collapse has been beyond stunning.  From Presidents Trophy winners last year and conference finalists, to a 12-4-1 start this season, the Rangers have gone into a 4-12 free fall, 16-16-1 heading into Monday’s matinee contest in Newark against the Devils.

Before the game, New York designated Chris Kreider a healthy scratch, the erstwhile leader of the club in a massive slump of his own, one goal in his last nine games, with only one assist on the season! 

A few weeks ago, GM Chris Drury shockingly notified his fellow GMs that everyone was available at the right price.  Imagine the message that sent throughout the locker room. 

The Rangers lost to the Devils 5-0.

***Reminder...my annual Christmas Special is at the very end.

Merry Christmas.  Next Bar Chat Sunday p.m.

-----

[Posted Sunday p.m., before late NFL games]

Brief Add-on up top by late Monday.

***My annual Christmas Special is at the bottom***

College Football Quiz: The 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes finished 14-0 and won the BCS title, as well as No. 1 AP, beating Miami in the Fiesta Bowl.  Name the QB, top running back, receiver and coach.  Answers below.

College Football Playoffs

The first round of the playoffs was an immense bust.  There is very little to write on the contests.  Hopefully, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day will provide some drama with the quarterfinal matchups.

--Friday night in South Bend, Notre Dame cruised to victory over Indiana 27-17, the Hoosiers with two late scores to make it seem closer than it was.  The game was a yawner.

And a comeuppance for IU coach Curt Cignetti.  Down 20-3 with 10:34 left in the fourth quarter, Indiana faced a fourth-and-11 at the Notre Dame 48-yard line and many, including the ESPN broadcast booth, assumed that the Hoosiers would go for it with the season on the line.  But Cignetti sent out the punter.

“I don’t get this at all. ...He’s really punting it,” play-by-play man Sean McDonough said.  “That’s a head-scratcher to me.

ND quarterback Riley Leonard then led the Fighting Irish 78 yards for the score that made it 27-3, game over.

Cignetti had appeared on “College GameDay” prior to the contest and said he did not fear any top team.

“We don’t just beat top-25 teams, we beat the s--- out of them,” he said.

After the game, Cignetti said, “They took it to us.  They won, they deserve to win.  We didn’t play our best game, but they had a lot to do with that tonight.”

Jeremiyah Love opened the scoring for Notre Dame with a 98-yard touchdown run.

--Saturday, SMU entered the game at Penn State looking for some magic from quarterback Kevin Jennings and he delivered magic to the other side, three early interceptions, two returned for touchdowns, SMU was down 28-0 at the half, and it ended up 38-10.  That’s it.

Fellow ACC compatriot Clemson then went down to Texas and was down 28-10 at the half to the Longhorns.  Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik rallied Clemson back to 31-24 with 11:43 to play in the fourth quarter after his third touchdown pass of the game, but two plays later, Texas’ Jaydon Blue (14-146-2) ripped off a 77-yard touchdown run and it was game over...Longhorns prevail 38-24.

Blue and Quintrevion Wisner (15-110-2) led a rushing attack that picked up 292 yards.

And Saturday night, Ohio State QB Will Howard made up for his ugly performance in the regular-season finale loss to Michigan with two touchdown passes, both to freshman Jeremiah Smith (6-103-2), Howard passing for 311 yards overall, as the Buckeyes rolled over Tennessee 42-17.

--So New Year’s Eve we have Penn State and Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.

New Year’s Day it’s Texas-Arizona State in the Peach Bowl, Ohio State vs. Oregon in the Rose Bowl, and Notre Dame-Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

I’m already fuming about the 8:45 p.m. start to the Sugar Bowl, which will end up being 9:05, because the freakin’ Rose Bowl has to start at 5:00 PM ET since it is mandatory we get the damn sunset shots on television for the California Dept. of Tourism, bowl officials and the network.

--In the quarterfinals, it appears Georgia will be without starting quarterback Carson Beck when the Bulldogs face Notre Dame, who might have surgery to repair an injury to his elbow on his throwing arm.

--In the FCS (I-AA) semifinals Saturday, North Dakota State defeated South Dakota State 28-21 on a spectacular Bryce Lance one-handed touchdown catch with about 4:00 to play.

Montana State, now 15-0, beat South Dakota 31-17.

--It took less than two days for Wake Forest to announce it had a new coach to replace Dave Clawson, who resigned on Monday...41-year-old Jake Dickert, who was 23-20 at Washington State.  I love the hire.

Unfortunately, Dickert wasn’t able to bring his quarterback from Washington State with him, John Mateer.  He committed to Oklahoma, after the Sooners hired WSU offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and quarterbacks coach John Kuceyeski earlier in the month.

Mateer was considered the top QB in the portal, with 29 touchdown passes last season and 15 rushing.  He had backed up Cam Ward for two years before taking over as the Cougars’ starter in 2024.

Dickert said Monday of Mateer, “I think he’s going to be the best player in the country next year.”

--Michael Vick is becoming a college football coach for the first time, taking the head job at Norfolk State.

--There is a new trend in college football: restructured contracts for the highest-paid coaches that is seeing the likes of Florida State’s Mike Norvell giving $4.5 million of his salary to launch the Vision of Excellence initiative, in essence, donating $4.5 million of his $9.9 million annual salary to the NIL pool.

Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy and LSU’s Brian Killey are also donating, or matching, contributions to their school’s NIL funds.

Some of this has to do with the upcoming settlement of the House v. NCAA case, which will see major athletics on the hook for at least $20.5 million in annual payments to players, and creative accounting has been the rage as a July 1 deadline quickly approaches.

NFL

---Thursday night, the Broncos took on the Chargers in Inglewood, CA, and Denver and Bo Nix got off to a terrific start, scoring touchdowns on their first three drives, but L.A. trailed by only 21-13 at the half, when with eight seconds left, Denver punted, and the Chargers called for a fair catch as time expired.  However, the return man got interfered with, advancing the ball to Denver’s 47-yard line.

Due to the penalty, the Chargers got one more play, and they used the fair-catch field goal rule, allowing Cameron Dicker to attempt a 57-yard field goal with no snap and no rush.  He nailed it.  The first successful fair-catch field goal since Ray Wersching’s in 1976.

Justin Herbert then took over in the second half, throwing two touchdown passes, Denver was held to just two field goals, and the Chargers came away with a huge 34-27 win, both teams 9-6, and L.A. now with the tiebreaker over Denver.

--Saturday, the Chiefs (14-1) moved closer to wrapping up the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC with a 27-19 win at Arrowhead over the Texans (9-6).  Patrick Mahomes had despite his ailing ankle and did enough, while Houston missed an extra point that would have tied it at 17-17, and had receiver Tank Dell carted off, and hospitalized, with a “significant” knee injury, a dislocated kneecap at least.  Awful stuff.

The Ravens (10-5) had a big 34-17 win over the now struggling Steelers (10-5) behind Derrick Henry’s 162 yards on the ground in 24 carries.  It was 17-17, but Baltimore scored the last 17, Pittsburgh quarterback Russell Wilson throwing a pick-six and losing a fumble.

--Early in the week, Aaron Rodgers told The Athletic that he will take some time after the end of the season to decide on his future “unless (he gets) released right away.”

And indeed, the Jets could be moving on, but not officially before June 1, 2025.  If they released him before, New York would carry $74.5 million in dead money on the salary cap. If they release him after June 1, 2025, that number goes down to $4.5 million.

And Rodgers got off to a solid start in today’s game against the Rams, but it was cold, 19 degrees, that impacted the kicking game, Rodgers had a few drops, but New York was up 9-6 after three, and then the Jets, as they are wont to do, imploded, Rodgers fumbled deep in Jets territory, Rams converted, and they would go on to win 19-9, a huge win for L.A., now 9-6 after a 1-4 start, and the Jets falling to 4-11.  Yup, same old Gang Green...more like gangrene...dead tissue.

--The Giants took on the Falcons today in Atlanta and Kirk Cousins was on the bench, replaced by rookie Michael Penix Jr., a huge comedown for Cousins, coming off a torn Achilles, but nonetheless given a four-year, $180 million contract by the Falcons in the offseason.

[The Falcons could cut Cousins before he is due a $10 million roster bonus March 17.  He’s already been paid $90 million for 14 games.]

But this game had the potential to be a huge embarrassment for Giants GM Joe Schoen.  If Penix plays well, Schoen, along with head coach Brian Daboll, will look like complete fools.

That’s because Schoen – who needs a quarterback badly – passed on Penix in this year’s draft.

The Giants drafted sixth overall.  By that point, three quarterbacks were off the board – Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Drake Maye.  Schoen badly wanted Daniels and Maye, at least, and he would have traded up for either. 

But at No. 6, Schoen could have picked J.J. McCarthy, Penix, or Box Nix.  He passed on all of them and took wide receiver Malik Nabers.

Penix went eighth to Atlanta.

So what happened?  The Falcons stayed relevant at 8-7, 34-7 over the Giants (2-11), New York’s team-record 10th consecutive loss.

Penix, after a slow start, did fine, 18/27, 202, 0-1, 73.4.  For the Giants, quarterback du jour Drew Lock threw two pick-sixes.

--Philadelphia (12-3) had a 27-14 lead over the Commanders (10-5) heading into the fourth quarter, but Jayden Daniels engineered two touchdown drives to make it 28-27.

Philly’s Jake Elliott then kicked a 50-yard field goal, 30-28, Daniels threw his second interception, fifth turnover of the game for Washington, the Eagles added a field goal, 33-28 and it was game over....

....Until it wasn’t.

With 1:58 left in the game, however, Daniels drove the Commanders 57 yards for a score with six seconds left, the last play a 9-yard touchdown pass to former Jet Jamison Crowder, Daniels’ fifth touchdown pass of the game, and Washington would win it 36-33 (after converting on the 2-point play).  [But there was offsides on Washington on the TD play...it was obvious.]

The Eagles had lost quarterback Jalen Hurts to a concussion early, replaced by Kenny Pickett, but Philadelphia capitalized on the turnovers and Saquon Barkley had a big game, 29 carries, 150 yards and two touchdowns.

--The Lions (13-2) beat the Bears (4-11) 34-17, Jared Goff with another big game, 23/32, 336, 3-0, 137.0.

--The Bengals (7-8) beat the Browns (3-12) 24-6, barely remaining in the hunt.

--Ditto the Colts (7-8), 38-30 over the Titans (3-12) as Indy rushed for 335 yards...Jonathan Taylor with 218 on 29 carries and three touchdowns, quarterback Anthony Richardson with 70 yards and two scores on the ground.

--The Cardinals (7-8) were eliminated, falling to the Panthers (4-11) in overtime, 36-30, Chuba Hubbard with the decisive 21-yard touchdown run to close it out.

Bryce Young threw for two touchdowns and rushed for another for Carolina.  He’s been improving, week by week.  Has he saved his career, at least in Charlotte?

--Just when it appeared to be dead, the U.S. Senate passed the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act by unanimous consent at about 1:15 a.m. Saturday – a Hail Mary action that required the support of all senators present without objection.  The bill cleared the House in February on a broad bipartisan basis, and it was not clear how D.C. officials and their congressional allies got all the senators on board.

The legislation transfers control of the land to D.C. at no cost, a tremendous win for Mayor Muriel Bowser.  It also means there is the real possibility of bringing the Commanders back.

--Colorado coach Deion Sanders issued a warning to NFL teams Friday – don’t draft Travis Hunter if you aren’t going to let him play both ways.  Deion also said that Hunter could return for another year of college football if NFL teams don’t give him assurances he can play both cornerback and receiver.

“Don’t draft him if you’re not gonna give him the opportunity to play on both sides of the ball.  Now, you can be creative.  He don’t have to do what we did with him here and play every snap,” Sanders said on “The Rich Eisen Show.”

Some teams have already hinted they’d like to see Hunter focus on being a cornerback.

College Basketball

--St. John’s (10-2, 2-0) had a good 72-70 win at Providence (7-6, 1-1) on Friday night, but they went 11-for-26 at the free throw line!  Good gawd.

--Wednesday, Green Bay lost 72-70 at home to Division II Michigan Tech, falling to 2-11 under first-year coach Doug Gottlieb, who was humiliated after referring to Michigan Tech as “Nobody U” just a few days earlier.  “I don’t really like the idea of ‘Nobody U’ coming here.  What do we learn from a game that we win by (20 points).”

Pathetic.

--Saturday, North Carolina (7-5) picked up a vital big win, a terrific 76-74 triumph over 18 UCLA (10-2) at Madison Square Garden. 

The Tar Heels had suffered losses to then-No. 4 Auburn, 10 Alabama, 7 Florida, No. 1 Kansas and Michigan State.  I’d say that’s a brutal schedule, and the Selection Committee will duly note it. 

And then in the second game at the Garden, Ohio State (8-4) took down 4 Kentucky (10-2) 85-65, Bruce Thornton with 30 for the Buckeyes.  Good day for OSU sports fans overall.

--I have written that it will be a massive disappointment if Rutgers (7-5) doesn’t make the NCAA Tournament with their two star freshman, Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, consensus top-5 picks in the next NBA Draft.

And the Scarlet Knights failed again, 83-82 to Princeton (9-4), whose own special duo, Caden Pierce (21 points, 14 rebounds) and Xaivian Lee (21 points, 11 assists) outplayed Harper and Bailey.

--Wake Forest (9-4) laid another egg, this time at 25 Clemson (10-3), 73-62, all of Wake’s four losses by double-digits.  Another Demon Deacon team NIT bound, we hope.

The Deacs’ Hunter Sallis, 26 points, showed off his NBA scoring skills for Wake as a 2-guard, but he is forced to play the point and he is not a point guard. The loss in the portal of last year’s point guard, Boopie Miller, to SMU is killing us. [Let alone losing Andrew Carr to Kentucky.]  The Deacs just aren’t any good, and it’s becoming a joke they were picked third in the ACC.

Wake hit 3 of 13 from 3 and is 26.5% from beyond the arc for the season.  Beyond atrocious.

Our supposed great 3-point specialist, Parker Friedrichsen, is 9 for 49, 18.4%, and, get this, 11 for 71 going back to the end of last season.  He has absolutely killed us...a momentum killer in games.

NBA

--The Milwaukee Bucks won the NBA Cup last Tuesday in Vegas, 97-81 over Oklahoma City, Giannis Antetokounmpo with a 26-19-10 triple-double.

After a 2-8 start, Milwaukee has gone 13-3.

But then on Friday, the Bucks (14-12) lost to the Cavaliers (24-4) in Cleveland, 124-101.

Back to the NBA Cup, players on the winning team made an extra $514,971, while those on the losing team received $205,988.  For some of the guys at the end of the bench, this can be life-changing money.

--Thursday night, Karl-Anthony Towns made an emotional return to Minnesota, where he spent the first nine years of his NBA career, and he went off for 32 points, 20 rebounds and 6 assists as the Knicks (17-10) dominated the Timberwolves (14-12) 133-107.  It was KAT’s sixth career 30-20 game, and he was 5-for-5 from beyond the arc.

In his previous game, last Sunday night, Towns had 22 points, 22 rebounds in a win at Orlando.

KAT got a standing ovation from Minnesota fans before the game.  And they played an emotional tribute video to honor the player who ranks second all-time in franchise scoring history and who played with both Kevin Garnett and Anthony Edwards.

Before the game, Towns donated $25,000 that will be split among two charities he worked with during his time in Minny.  More than 150 local kids came out to root for him.

--Also Thursday night, the Warriors were destroyed by the Grizzlies, 144-93, as Steph Curry had the worst game of his career...0-for-7 from the field, 2 points, and the worst single-game plus-minus of his career...-41.

--Saturday, the Knicks (18-10) defeated the Pelicans (5-24) in New Orleans, 104-93, as Jalen Brunson had 39 points, Karl-Anthony Towns, in foul trouble throughout, held to 11 points and 10 rebounds.

The Cavs are 25-4 after a 126-99 win over the Sixers (9-17).

And the Lakers (16-12) have won three straight following LeBron James’ return, 103-99 over the Kings (13-16), LeBron with 32 points.

MLB

--The Yankees, post-losing Juan Soto, have signed pitcher Max Fried, traded for All-Star closer Devin Williams, and then acquired outfielder/first baseman Cody Bellinger from the Cubs.

The Yankees are receiving $5 million to offset Bellinger’s salary – he will make $27.5 million in 2025 and has a player option for $25 million in 2026 – and sent right-hander Cody Poteet to the Cubs.

I love this move.  Bellinger will receive a lot of playing time and he can be productive, especially in that little bandbox called Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees on Saturday then announced the addition of first baseman Paul Goldschmidt on a one-year, $12.5 million contract.

Goldschmidt, 37, a one-time MVP and Gold Glover who was seemingly headed to the Hall of Fame, has seen his production tail off swiftly, a career-worst .716 OPS in 2024.  But he did hit 22 home runs and played 154 games, and if he can play a good first base and hit 20+ homers, it’s a solid move for New York.

--Mets and Yankees fans were hoping their teams would pick up free agent first baseman Christian Walker, but he signed a three-year, $60 million deal with the Astros.

Walker turns 34 next March but he has been improving with age, not the other way, and aside from having some pop (93 home runs the last three seasons), he’s a three-time Gold Glover.

I’m actually surprised he didn’t get a little more money.

--The Diamondbacks, after losing Walker to the Astros, traded for first baseman Josh Naylor, 27, who had a career-high 31 home runs, 108 RBIs for Cleveland last year.  He can become a free agent after the 2025 season.

The Guardians, who received right-hander Slade Cecconi and a draft pick, then signed veteran first baseman Carlos Santana, 38, to a one-year, $12 million contract.

--The Mets, since landing Juan Soto, have been picking up a little piece here, a little one there, like former Angels starter Griffin Canning, who had a hideous 5.19 ERA last season but pitched 171 2/3 innings.  They still need a top of the rotation starting pitcher and a first baseman, assuming they don’t re-sign Pete Alonso.

But with Soto off the board, baseball fans are waiting to see where Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki ends up...the Mets and Yankees among those who have met with him and his representatives.  But the Dodgers are the favorites to sign him.

--Cardinals star Nolan Arenado blocked a potential trade to the Astros this week, MLB.com first reported.  St. Louis was working on sending Arenado, who has three years and $74 million left on his current contract, and $15-$20 million to Houston until the eight-time All-Star (10X Gold Glover) told the club he wouldn’t waive his no-trade clause.

Earlier this month, he reportedly told the team that the Dodgers, Padres and Angels were on his “wish list” and would also be “willing to accept a trade to the Phillies, Mets or Red Sox.”

--And finally, we remember Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, 65, who it seems died of complications from surgery, according to close friend and fellow teammate, Dave Stewart.  The family, in a statement, thanked medical officials.  Stewart said Rickey had had health issues, starting with asthma, for years.  Stewart had talked to him just the day before.

Henderson was one of the greatest players in baseball history, the best leadoff hitter the game has ever seen, MLB’s all-time stolen bases leader with 1,406, nearly 500 ahead of No. 2 Lou Brock, and baseball’s career leader in runs scored with 2,295...50 ahead of Ty Cobb.  He also had 3,055 hits, 297 home runs, and 1,115 RBIs.

Henderson played with nine teams over a 25-year career, spending the bulk of it with his beloved Oakland A’s, having grown up in the Bay Area.

He won two World Series titles, 1989 with Oakland and 1993 with Toronto.  In 60 postseason games he batted .284 with an .831 OPS.  He was the AL MVP in 1990 and made 10 All-Star teams. 

I’ve written a lot on Rickey over the years, but as a Mets fan, when perusing Baseball Reference, I always seem to gravitate back to Rickey’s age 40 season with the Mets, 1999, when he hit .315 in 526 at-bats, a .423 on-base percentage, .889 OPS, and 37 steals.  He was truly amazing.

The man was in unbelievable physical shape, and never lifted weights.  He said it was all pushups and sit-ups.

Henderson was not only thrilling to watch, but charismatic.  He liked to say he channeled Muhammad Ali through his play.  When he broke Lou Brock’s career stolen base leader with his 939th steal, speaking to a crowd on a microphone, Henderson said: “Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing. But today, I am the greatest of all time.”  That’s Ali-like for sure.

“Without exaggerating one inch, you could find 50 Hall of Famers who, all taken together, don’t own as many records, and as many important records, as Rickey Henderson,” baseball statistician and historian Bill James once wrote.

Henderson was also eccentric.  He often didn’t know his teammates’ names.  He once framed a $1 million bonus check instead of cashing it.  And Rickey famously referred to himself in the third person; once saying, “Rickey don’t like it when Rickey can’t find Rickey’s limo.”

Catcher Terry Steinbach once found him in the Oakland locker room stark naked and mumbling, “Rickey’s gonna have a good game” five minutes before the game.

About 30 seconds before the first pitch, Henderson put on his uniform and announced, “Rickey’s ready to go!”

“He walks down the tunnel,” Steinbach said.  “Gets his bat.  Hits a home run.” [Howard Bryant’s 2022 biography, “Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original.”]

Henderson was upset when he found out the A’s were moving.  After being elected into the Hall of Fame (a first-ballot inductee in 2009 with 94.8% of the vote), he said:

“My career of being a player in Oakland was fantastic.  I wouldn’t give it back for anything else.  I had a wonderful time, the fans of Oakland were the best fans who were ever behind me and even when I was on another team, they always cheered.”

RIP, Rickey.  You thrilled us like no other. 

Premier League

--This is the best time of year for Premier League fans, not necessarily for players, as the action is packed in over the holidays.

But Saturday, Manchester City lost again, 2-1 at Aston Villa.  It is now nine defeats in 12 games in all competitions for City, who are winless in their last eight away matches, as this season from hell continues to spiral downward.

Nottingham Forest, on the other hand, which barely survived relegation last season, is third this go ‘round, 2-0 victors over Brentford yesterday.

Arsenal defeated Crystal Palace 5-1.

Sunday, Chelsea had a costly 0-0 draw at Everton, while Liverpool blasted Tottenham 6-3, a seldom seen score in this sport.  So Liverpool has a 4-point advantage over Arsenal, but with a game in hand.

Standings...played – points

1. Liverpool...16 – 39
2. Chelsea...17 – 35
3. Arsenal...17 – 33
4. Nottingham...17 – 31
5. Bournemouth...17 – 28
6. Aston Villa...17 – 28
7. Man City...17 – 27

Stuff

--Lindsey Vonn finished 14th in a super-G race on Saturday at St. Moritz, Switzerland, to mark her return to World Cup skiing at age 40.

“This was the perfect start,” Vonn said. “Today is just the first step and I’m not looking for more.  Today I really needed to get to the finish. I wanted to have a solid result. And that’s exactly what I did.”

Unfortunately, a second super-G race scheduled for Sunday that Vonn was going to race in was canceled due to weather.

--Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk retained the heavyweight championship Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with another decision over Tyson Fury, this time unanimously, in a rematch that was every bit as competitive as their first meeting in May.

Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) prevailed on all three cards: 116-112.

Usyk said of Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs): “I very respect this guy because I think he’s very tough... Tyson Fury makes me strong.  Tyson is a great opponent. Big man.  He’s a good man.  Tyson, a lot of talk but it’s just show.”

Usyk thanked Fury for an “unbelievable 24 rounds in my career.” 

Fury was dejected by the decision, feeling he had done enough to win.

Fury threw more punches (509-423), but Usyk landed more (179-144).

Once again, Usyk has lifted his nation, if even just for a few days.

Top 3 songs for the week 12/25/1965: #1 “Over And Over” (The Dave Clark Five)  #2 “Turn! Turn! Turn!” (The Byrds)  #3 “I Got You (I Feel Good)” (James Brown)...and...#4 “Let’s Hang On!” (The 4 Seasons)  #5 “The Sounds Of Silence” (Simon & Garfunkel)  #6 “Make The World Go Away” (Eddy Arnold)  #7 “Fever” (The McCoys)  #8 “England Swings” (Roger Miller)  #9 “Ebb Tide” (The Righteous Brothers)  #10 “I Can Never Go Home Anymore” (The Shangri-Las...A- week...)

College Football Quiz Answers: The 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes, 14-0...QB – Craig Krenzel (12 TD passes, 7 interceptions). RB – Maurice Clarett (222-1237-16, 5.6). WR – Michael Jenkins (61-1076-6, 17.6).  Coach – Jim Tressel.

Ohio State beat Miami in the Fiesta Bowl for the title, 31-24 in two overtimes.  Miami committed five turnovers.

---

And now, our annual Christmas special...best read with the children Christmas Eve.

Apollo 8...56 years go....

Growing up, one of the more dramatic memories as a kid was staying up Christmas Eve 1968 to follow the remarkable voyage of Apollo 8. 

If ever a nation needed a pick me up, it was America in ’68, after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, with the ongoing war in Vietnam and the dramatic Tet Offensive, and after LBJ’s sudden withdrawal from the presidential race, the turbulent Democratic Convention, and the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Yes, we were ready for a little space adventure.

Apollo 8 would be the first manned mission to orbit the moon. Commanded by Frank Borman, with James Lovell, Jr. and William Anders, it was launched on December 21 and on Christmas Eve the three began their orbit. What made it all even more dramatic was the first go round to the dark side of the moon, when all communication was lost for 45 minutes until they reemerged at the other side. It was the middle of the night for us viewers, at least in the Eastern time zone, and I remember that Apollo was sending back spectacular photos of Earth, including “Earthrise,” the first ever seen by humans and probably the most iconic photo in history.

Borman described the moon as “a vast, lonely and forbidding sight,” and Lovell called Earth, “a grand oasis in the big vastness of space.” The crew members then took turns reading from the Book of Genesis / Creation:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light;” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

James Lovell would later say, “Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus.” And Borman concluded with, “Merry Christmas. God bless all of you, all of you on the Good Earth.”

---

Ron White, author of “American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant,” had a piece in the New York Daily News (Dec. 2017) on the story of how Christmas became a national holiday, President Grant signing a proclamation on June 24, 1870 making it so.

“The Pilgrims who first came to a new England did not celebrate Christmas. Their memories of Christmas in the old England they left behind were of a season of decadence and debauchery. Nearly two centuries later, in the first year of the new United States, Congress met in session on December 25, 1789 – certainly not a holiday.

“In the early decades of the 19th century Americans began to reimagine Christmas, turning it into church- and family-centered celebrations.  Charles Dickens published ‘A Christmas Carol’ in 1843. Carol singing, tree decorations and gift-giving became regular parts of Christmas. Political cartoonist Thomas Nast, a German immigrant, popularized a jolly Santa Claus in his drawings.

“During the Civil War, Christmas meant a day of rest as well as memories of festivities back home. Robert Gould Shaw, who would receive fame as commander of the 54th Massachusetts, the first African-American regiment organized in the North, wrote, ‘It is Christmas morning and I hope for a happy and merry one for you all.’

“Grant, victorious Union Civil War general, emerged from the war with a passion to reunite the nation.  If he had become a practitioner of a ‘hard war’ during the four-year-long conflict, as the war reached its climax he grew into an advocate of a ‘soft peace.’  He demonstrated his belief at the Confederate surrender at Appomattox when he offered Robert E. Lee a magnanimous peace.

“Grant’s decision to declare Christmas a legal public holiday reveals two sides of this self-effacing American leader. First, although he is not portrayed as a religious person in biographies, a closer look will reveal a quiet man who did not wear his faith on his sleeve, but displayed his Methodist commitment to social justice.  Raised in Ohio in a devout Methodist family, he married Julia Dent, whose grandfather was a Methodist minister.

“His private faith became more public in his presidency. The Washington National Cathedral, whose construction began in 1907, is often thought to be the first national church in the nation’s capital, but Grant played a decisive role in the declaration of the actual first national church in Washington four decades earlier.

“By the Civil War, Methodism had become the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.  In the early 1850s, Methodists made plans to build the first national church in Washington. When it became clear that Grant would be elected President in 1868, Methodists accelerated plans to complete their national church.

“On Feb. 28, four days before Grant’s inauguration as President, he sat in the front pew as the Metropolitan Methodist Church was dedicated.  Grant would serve as a trustee, while Julia chaired the national committee to retire the debt of the church.

“Second, Grant’s commitment to making Christmas a legal holiday needs to be understood as part of his drive to unite the North and the South after the war. Grant began his presidency in 1869 as what was called Reconstruction was unraveling.

“The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution were enacted to guarantee the civil and political rights of newly emancipated African-Americans.  But ex-Confederate generals and Southern newspaper editors, aided by the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan, determined to quickly replace slavery with what would become Jim Crow segregation. In Grant’s finest moment as President, he would take on the Klan with the power of the federal government, even as his own Republican party retreated from its Reconstruction commitments.

“In this tumultuous year, where bitterness and acrimony seem more regnant than peace and joy, we may well ask: Does Christmas as a public holiday unite or divide?  We live in a religious culture quite different than Grant’s world.  Yet his public passion to unite North and South in making Christmas a national holiday can inform and inspire attempts to hold up light amid darkness at the end of 2017.”

---

“Silent night, holy night”

Michael E. Ruane / Washington Post

“On Christmas Eve in 1818, two men with a small guitar entered a church in Oberndorf, Austria, and prepared to sing a new Christmas carol.

“Times had been bad in Oberndorf, where many people worked on the water, manning the salt barges that plied the Salzach River.  The upheaval in central Europe caused by the Napoleonic Wars had just ended.

“And only two years before, the dreadfully dark summer of 1816 – later blamed on ash from a volcanic eruption in Indonesia – had caused famine and deprivation.

“But in that fall of 1816, a young Catholic priest, Joseph Mohr, had written a six-verse Christmas poem that began ‘Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht’ - Silent Night, Holy Night – about the Nativity of a curly-haired Jesus.

“Two years later, Father Mohr enlisted a friend, Franz Xaver Gruber, a local schoolteacher and musician, to come up with a melody for the poem that could be played for Christmas on the guitar. (Legend has it that the church organ had been damaged by mice or water and was on the blink.)

“Gruber’s composition is thought to have taken him about a day to compose.

“As the two men put the words to music that day 200 years ago in Oberndorf’s St. Nicholas Church, they voiced for the first time what is probably history’s most enduring and beloved Christmas carol.

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright...

“The carol spread quickly across Europe.  It was brought to the United States, where, some accounts say, it was first performed on Christmas Day, 1839, in the churchyard of New York’s Trinity Church, Wall Street, by a troupe of traveling Austrians, the Ranier Singers.

“The carol was translated into English in the 1850s by an Episcopal priest at Trinity, John Freeman Young.  He published it in a book of Christmas carols in 1859.   He translated the first, third and sixth verses....

“Young dispensed with Jesus’ curly hair, but added the folksy ‘yon’ and called the child ‘tender and mild.’”

Mohr’s six-string guitar survived and is said to be on display in the Silent Night Museum in Hallein, Austria, on the Salzach river, about 20 miles south of Oberndorf.

Rough translation of the original first verse in German:

Silent night! Holy night!
Everything is asleep.  Only the faithful holy
couple are awake, alone.
Lovely boy with curly hair.
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace.

And Episcopal priest John Freeman Young smoothed it into the classic:

Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child
Holy infant, so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace.

---

St. Nicholas was a Greek bishop, known as the patron of children (as well as brewers and sailors, among others), and a man who likely died in A.D. 343 in Myra, a small town now called Demre in modern-day Turkey.  Though the year of his death is disputed, the day is not – December 6, now celebrated as St. Nicholas Day.

His remains are venerated worldwide, even as nobody knows for certain where he rests in peace – or more accurately, in pieces.  In the early and medieval Christian tradition, the mortal remains of popular saints were scattered among various churches in numerous places to be displayed as sacred relics.

Dating and DNA tests may allow scientists to piece together which relics are actually from the same man.  In 2017 Oxford University scholars announced a first step in that direction: A radiocarbon study that shows a bone long thought to be a St. Nicholas relic and housed in St. Martha of Bethany Church in Morton Grove, Illinois, does in fact date to the time of the saint’s death.

---

Michael Gartland / New York Post

“NORAD’s tradition of tracking Santa’s sleigh began with a wrong number.

“Right before Christmas in 1955, Sears ran an ad offering millions of toy-hungry girls and boys the chance to talk to the big man himself. In Colorado Springs, the retailer published the local phone number to the North Pole as ME2-6681.

“There was only one problem: The number was one digit off.

“And that wrong number rang on the desk of a high-ranking officer in a bunker at the Continental Air Defense Command – the predecessor of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which has the less-than-festive mission of detecting and defending the continent against nuclear attack.”

Col. Harry Shoup took the first call on the command’s red phone. In an interview with the Post, Shoup’s daughter, Terri Van Keuren, recalled:

“ ‘The phone rang, and he picked up.  ‘This is Colonel Shoup, commander of this combat station. Who is this?’”

Silence on the other end. Shoup repeated himself, then “a meek little boy’s voice came over the line.

“ ‘Is this Santa Claus?’ he murmured.

“Worried there had been some kind of security breach, Shoup again demanded the caller’s name. He heard crying, and another query came through the tears.

“ ‘Is this one of Santa’s elves?’

“Shoup recognized he was in a moment that could destroy the little boy’s faith in Santa.

“ ‘Yes, I am,’ he said. ‘Have you been a good boy?’

After the two talked a while, Shoup asked to speak with the boy’s mother.

“ ‘He asked her: ‘Do you have any idea who you’ve called?’’ Van Keuren said. ‘She told him to take a look at that day’s newspaper.’”

So the calls flooded in and Shoup directed his men to answer as Santa.

Weeks later, Shoup, on vacation, dropped in on his men and spotted a sleigh on the huge plexiglass map of North America in the room. A subordinate was afraid he had just lost his job.

Instead, Shoup said, “There’s something good we could do with this.”

And so Col. Shoup called a local radio station with the news the command center was tracking Santa’s sleigh. Ever since then, NORAD has been tracking Santa.

---

Speaking of Santa and reindeer, Edward Kosner had a piece in the Wall Street Journal (11/18/16) on the story of Rudolph, “among other things, the first real addition to American Christmas lore since the first decades of the 19th century. That’s when Washington Irving transformed churchy St. Nicholas into a clay-pipe-puffing, rotund charmer and Clement Clark Moore equipped him with eight flying reindeer and an automatically replenishing, toy-filled sleigh. Gene Autry, the singing cowpoke, made the song into a hit in 1949, and since then it’s been recorded by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald and Destiny’s Child to the Temptations and Burl Ives, not to mention Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and the Cadillacs, the doo-wop group revered for ‘Speedo.’”

So the legend of Rudolph has been deconstructed in a new book by Ronald D. Lankford Jr., who has written books about popular music.  In “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: An American Hero,” Lankford digs up far more than you would think was available, “a parable of American commerce cloaked in benevolence,” as Edward Kosner put it.

“The Rudolph creation story begins in Chicago in January 1939, when Robert May, a nerdy 33-year-old adman at Montgomery Ward – with its bursting catalog and more than 600 stores, a retail colossus second only to Sears, Roebuck – was assigned by his boss to dream up a Christmas giveaway, perhaps an illustrated story like the one about Ferdinand the bashful bull....(so) May came up with an awkward young reindeer mocked by his fellows whose oddity – an incandescent nose – enables him to save the day when a befogged Santa asks him to lead the team for global toy delivery.

“According to the legend, May read his poetic text to his daughter, who loved it. The Ward hierarchy didn’t; some worried that the red nose would remind too many parents of drunks.  But one exec stood up for Rudolph, and the corporation wound up giving away 2.4 million copies of a 32-page illustrated pamphlet to kids brought to Ward stores by mom and dad.  Seven years later, after the end of World War II, another 3.6 million copies were handed out.  With an entrepreneurial corporate boost, Rudolph was launched.

“May’s ‘Rudolph’ was a work for hire owned by Ward, but the company’s chairman gave the adman the copyright in 1947, and May made the most of it....In 1949, May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, wrote the song that has enthralled or tormented people ever since.  He paid $5 to the singer Guy Mitchell to make a demo and sent it to several crooners.  At the end of a session to lay down two 45-rpm Christmas records, Gene Autry devoted 10 minutes to ‘Rudolph’ and made it the B-side of one of the discs.  It eventually sold 2.5 million copies, his greatest hit.

“The legend only grew.  In 1964, another corporate angel, RCA, swooped in and produced a stop-motion animated ‘Rudolph’ special that was shown on TV every Christmas.”

Lankford argues that Rudolph “appeals to Americans because the story is actually an inspirational Horatio Alger tale of pluck and luck leading to unlikely success.  And he ponders whether Rudolph should be thought of as true folklore or as ‘fakelore,’ like Paul Bunyan, or even ‘fakelure’ – a commercial come-on.  In the end, it hardly matters.

Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee.
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,
You’ll go down in history.”

Kosner: “And so he has.”

---

A Visit from St. Nicholas

By Clement C. Moore [Well, he really stole it, but that’s a story for another day. This is the original version.]

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap;
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof -
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes - how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

---

The story of Phil Spector’s “A Christmas Gift for You,” as told by Ronnie Spector in her book “Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness…or…My Life as a Fabulous Ronette”.

“One record that did feature all three Ronettes – and just about everyone else who worked for Phil – was Phil’s Christmas album, A Christmas Gift for You. Phil is Jewish, but for some reason he always loved Christmas. Every year he would spend weeks designing his own special Christmas card, which he would send to everyone in the business. In 1963 he took that idea one step further and recorded an entire album of Christmas music, with contributions from all the acts on his Philles label. All of the groups got to do three or four songs each. The Ronettes did ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,’ ‘Sleigh Ride,’ and ‘Frosty the Snowman.’

“We worked on that one forever. Phil started recording it in the summer, and he didn’t leave the studio for about two months. We’d start recording early in the evening, and we’d work until late into the night, sometimes even into the next morning. And everybody sang on everyone else’s songs, so all of Phil’s acts really were like one big, happy family for that one album.

“While he was recording it, Phil told everyone that this Christmas album was going to be the masterpiece of his career. And he meant it. We all knew how important this project was to Phil when he walked into the studio on the last day of recording and announced that he was going to add a vocal himself. The final song on the record is a spoken message from Phil, where he thanks all the kids for buying his records and then wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, while we all sing a chorus of ‘Silent Night’ in the background. A lot of people thought the song was corny. But if you knew Phil like I did, it was very touching.

“But then I always did have a soft spot for Phil’s voice. There was something about his phrasing and diction that drove me crazy. It was so cool, so calm, so serene. Phil wasn’t a singer, but when he spoke he put me in a romantic mood like no singer could. He was the only guy I ever met who could talk me into an orgasm. 

“Of course, he wasn’t doing that back then. Not yet, anyway. Phil and I were still just sweethearts in those days. We spent lots of time together, and we were very romantic, but we still hadn’t slept together. Maybe that’s why we were so romantic.

“A Christmas Gift for You finally came out in November of 1963. But in spite of all the work we put into it, the album was one of Phil’s biggest flops. It was reissued as The Phil Spector Christmas Album in the early seventies, and nowadays people talk about it like it’s one of the greatest albums in rock and roll history. But nobody bought it when it first came out.

“President Kennedy had been shot a few days before it was released, and after that people were too depressed to even look at a rock and roll record. And they stayed that way until well into the New Year of 1964, when – thank God – four long-haired English guys finally got them to go back into the record stores.”

---

Fr. Alfred Delp

[From “The Little Blue Book”]

Alfred Delp was born in 1907 in Mannheim, Germany.  The son of a Catholic mother and Protestant father, he was raised Lutheran, but became a Catholic at age 14.

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1926, and was ordained in 1937.  The rise of Nazism in Germany prevented him from continuing his studies.  He worked at a Jesuit publication until it was suppressed in 1941.  He then became rector of St. Georg (sic) Church in Munich, where he helped Jews escape to Switzerland.  Fr. Delp joined an anti-Nazi group which hoped to build a new Christian order, based on Christian virtues and practices, after the fall of the Third Reich.

Following a failed assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944, Delp was among the dissidents arrested.  He was tortured and threatened with execution, but the Nazis couldn’t connect him to the plot.  They eventually offered to release Delp if he would renounce the Jesuits and leave the order.  The priest refused.  Fr. Delp was hanged on February 2, 1945.  He was 37 years old.

---

The Gospel According to Luke

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

---

Political commentator Pat Buchanan (The Atlantic, December 2015).  The question was: “What is the greatest comeback of all time?”

Betrayed, scourged, crucified on a cross between two thieves, Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead and sent his apostles to preach his doctrines to the world, out of which came Christianity and Western civilization. Then he ascended into heaven.  His name is known to more people than that of any other man who walked the Earth, and the empire that crucified him is gone.

---

Those of us who are older remember here in the New York area the advent of WPIX’s “The Yule Log,” 1966, which looped 17 seconds of jittery 16mm film, treating apartment-dwelling New Yorkers who yearned for the joys of cozying up to a crackling fire, the first TV-screen-sized “fire,” with flames shot at the mayor’s mansion beneath a pair of stockings. 

I’ll never forget seeing it for the first time.  Those of us who had a house kind of laughed, but then it made total sense, and you found yourself just turning it on in those early years.  It was really kind of ingenious.

In 1970, WPIX introduced an upgrade, looping seven minutes of higher-quality 35mm film.  That version ran annually through 1989 and was revived in 2001.

---

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

A famous letter from Virginia O’Hanlon to the editorial board of the New York Sun, first printed in 1897:

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor -

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

....

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

---

World War I – Christmas Truce

By December 1914, the war had been picking up in intensity for five months. Ironically, the feeling during the initial phases was that everyone would be home by Christmas, though little did they know it would be Christmas 1918.

On Christmas Eve 1914, along the British and German lines, particularly in the Flanders area, the soldiers got into conversation with each other and it was clear to the British that the Germans wanted some sort of Christmas Armistice. Sir Edward Hulse wrote in his diary, “A scout named F. Murker went out and met a German Patrol and was given a glass of whisky and some cigars, and a message was sent back saying that if we didn’t fire at them they would not fire at us.” That night, where five days earlier there had been savage fighting, the guns fell silent.

The following morning German soldiers walked towards the British wire and the Brits went out to meet them. They exchanged caps and souvenirs and food. Then arrangements were made for the British to pick up bodies left on the German side during a recent failed raid.

Christmas Day, fraternization took place along many of the lines, including a few of the French and Belgian ones. Some joined in chasing hares, others, most famously, kicked around a soccer ball. British soldier Bruce Bairnsfather would write, “It all felt most curious: here were these sausage-eating wretches, who had elected to start this infernal European fracas, and in so doing had brought us all into the same muddy pickle as themselves. But there was not an atom of hate on either side that day; and yet, on our side, not for a moment was the will to war and the will to beat them relaxed.”

In the air the war continued and the French Foreign Legionnaires in Alsace were ordered to fight Christmas Day as well. Plus, most of the commanders on both sides were none too pleased. Nothing like the Christmas truce of 1914 would occur in succeeding years (outside of a pocket or two) and by December 26, 1914, the guns were blazing anew.

[Source: “The First World War,” by Martin Gilbert]

---

“May You Always”

From 1959-2002, Harry Harrison was a fixture on New York radio, the last 20+ years at the great oldies station WCBS-FM. Unfortunately, he was forced to retire, which ticked off many of us to no end, but he will forever be remembered for a brilliant greeting titled “May You Always.” Enjoy.

As the holiday bells ring out the old year, and sweethearts kiss,
And cold hands touch and warm each other against the year ahead,
May I wish you not the biggest and best of life,
But the small pleasures that make living worthwhile.

Sometime during the new year, to keep your heart in practice,
May you do someone a secret good deed and not get caught at it.
May you find a little island of time to read that book and write that letter,
And to visit that lonely friend on the other side of town.
May your next do-it-yourself project not look like you did it yourself.

May the poor relatives you helped support remember you when they win the lottery.
May your best card tricks win admiring gasps and your worst puns, admiring groans.
May all those who told you so, refrain from saying “I told you so.”

May all the predictions you’ve made for your firstborn’s future come true.
May just half of those optimistic predictions that your high school annual made for you come true.
In a time of sink or swim, may you find you can walk to shore before you call the lifeguard.
May you keep at least one ideal you can pass along to your kids.

For a change, some rainy day, when you’re a few minutes late,
May your train or bus be waiting for you.
May you accidentally overhear someone saying something nice about you.

If you run into an old school chum,
May you both remember each other’s names for introductions.
If you order your steak medium rare, may it be so.
And, if you’re on a diet, may someone tell you, “You’ve lost a little weight,” without knowing you’re on a diet.

May that long and lonely night be brightened by the telephone call that you’ve been waiting for.
When you reach into the coin slot, may you find the coin that you lost on your last wrong number.
When you trip and fall, may there be no one watching to laugh at you or feel sorry for you.

And sometime soon, may you be waved to by a celebrity, wagged at by a puppy, run to by a happy child, and counted on by someone you love.
More than this, no one can wish you.

---

Ross Cameron / Sydney Morning Herald…I first read this in December 2009.

[Excerpts]

“Jesus is easily the most influential person in history, and the most universally loved….

“Of his early life, the record is almost blank; we are left with a few fragments….

“He was deeply literate in Jewish scriptures but silent on writings outside that tradition. We may assume he lived his entire life within 160 km of his birthplace – he never describes a foreign custom or place. After a major spiritual moment under the influence of John, he launched into local prominence as an itinerant preacher at age 30. Tradition holds that Jesus was a public figure for three years but modern scholars strongly believe a single year is more likely….

“Riding a wave of fame and popularity, Jesus moved the road show to the heavily garrisoned provincial and religious capital of Jerusalem, entering the city in the lead-up to the most holy day of the Jewish year. The Roman authorities are not known for their tolerance of burgeoning mass movements. Jesus fairly quickly found his way to the agony and humiliation of public torture and execution by order of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate – famous for casual brutality. It was a routine event in a typical day in a Roman occupied city.

“History’s great riddle followed. His supporters immediately claimed Jesus rose from the dead. The four biographies of Jesus often contradict each other on minor details but nowhere so much as in the resurrection narratives. The difficulty with dismissing the claim altogether, however, is how otherwise to explain the instant, unprecedented explosion of the Jesus movement across the Mediterranean. The willingness of so many sane first-century beings – many of them witnesses – to suffer death rather than deny the central tenet of their faith, is also cause for reflection….

“We are left to ponder how one year in the life of a seeming nobody could transform the Roman Empire and the entire planet. The reason for the triumph of this nobody is to be found in his first recorded words. ‘Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.’ Jesus is specially kind to the weak and the outcast – to women, the poor, children, a madman in chains and a hated tax collector.

“In the pre-Jesus record, in virtually every human society, vast faceless classes of people were less valued than domestic animals. The world’s second-greatest philosopher, Aristotle, while writing the 101 course of every academic discipline, fervently endorsed the keeping of slaves as natural and desirable to good order. Slavery continued for centuries after Jesus but the impulse to end it was Christian. Beyond the Jewish scriptures, to which Jesus gave a megaphone, no one cared about those on the margins. Jesus establishes the sublime idea that everyone matters.

“Today that single thought has transformed our sense of what it means to be human. Major political parties of the earth, whether left, centrist or right wing (with the possible exception of the Greens) agree the welfare of the whole human race is our common goal. ‘Blessed are the meek’ evolved into ‘All men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’

“From whatever perspective we come, thinking people ought to be able to agree, the birth of Jesus was a good day for mankind. I suspect I may never quite shake the childlike hunch that there is some uniquely divine imprint on the central individual of the human story. Happy Birthday, Jesus.”

---

[From Army Times]

Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army was in a dire situation during the frigid winter of 1776. His army had been defeated and chased from New York, and forced to set up winter camp for his remaining 5,000 troops at Valley Forge, Pa., only miles from the capital city of Philadelphia. With morale at its lowest point of the war and enlistments coming to an end, Washington desperately needed a victory to secure reenlistments and draw in some new recruits. The outcome of the revolution was at stake.

On Christmas night, Washington’s troops began to gather on the banks of the Delaware River at McKonkey’s Ferry. His plan was to cross the partially frozen river by midnight, march to Trenton and surround the garrison of Hessian troops (Germans fighting for the British) in the city in a predawn attack.

Before the Army had even launched a boat across the river, it began to rain, then hail, then snow. Washington was behind schedule. Remarkably, the force crossed the river without a single casualty. At 4 a.m., Dec. 26, the ill-equipped army began to march toward Trenton, some with rags wrapped around their feet instead of shoes.

Washington had achieved complete surprise with the dangerous crossing. The battle began when the Army encountered a group of unprepared Hessian sentries at about 8 a.m., and by 9:30 the garrison had surrendered. The Army had killed 22, injured 83 and taken 896 prisoners.

By noon, Washington had left Trenton, having lost two men in the battle, and returned to camp at Valley Forge. He had won a major victory, inspiring the needed reenlistments. News of the battle drew new recruits into the beleaguered Continental Army. The revolution would live to fight another day.

---

Smithsonian magazine had a piece on the first known references to building snowmen, or snow sculpture.

In 1494: Snow sculpture gets its Michelangelo – literally.  “One winter, when a great deal of snow fell in Florence,” Giorgio Vasari wrote, Michelangelo created “a statue of snow, which was very beautiful,” in Piero de Medici’s courtyard.

1690: The first known snowmen in the Colonies are built to stand guard at the gates of Schenectady while the human sentinels head to a tavern. That night, French and Indian forces plow through the meager defenses, devastating the town.

1969: Though a creature capable of melting clearly shouldn’t smoke a corncob pipe, the “Frosty the Snowman” animated cartoon – based on the sappy 1950 song first recorded by Gene Autry – serves up the snowman archetype for generations.

---

A number of years ago, Rich Lowry wrote an op-ed in the New York Post on the genius of “White Christmas”:

“America’s classic Christmas song was written by a Jewish immigrant.

“Born in Russia with the name Israel Baline, he was the genius songwriter we know as Irving Berlin. He wrote ‘White Christmas’ for the 1942 Hollywood musical ‘Holiday Inn,’ starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.

“On set, the movie’s hit number was presumed to be another Berlin composition, the Valentine’s Day song ‘Be Careful, It’s My Heart.’ At first, it was. Then ‘White Christmas’ captured the public’s imagination and hasn’t quite loosed its grip since....

“Some estimates point to sales of all versions of ‘White Christmas’ topping 100 million....

“It is a song built on yearning. In lines at the beginning of the original version that aren’t usually performed, Berlin writes of being out in sunny California during the holiday: ‘There’s never been such a day/in Beverly Hills, L.A./But it’s December the twenty-fourth./And I’m longing to be up North’.

“(Colleague Mark) Steyn thinks that if America had entered World War II a few years earlier, the song might never have taken off. But 1942 was the year that American men were first shipped overseas, and it was released into a wave of homesickness. (Berlin’s daughter) Mary Ellin Barrett says it first caught on with GIs in Great Britain. During the course of the war, it became the most requested song with Armed Forces Radio.

“The irony of the son of a cantor writing the characteristic American Christmas song is obvious. Yet, Berlin’s daughter says, ‘He believed in the great American Christmas.’ As a child on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, he loved to look at the little Christmas tree of his Catholic neighbors. He and his Christian wife Ellin (theirs was a scandalous mixed marriage), put on elaborate, joyous Christmases for their daughters. Not until later would they reveal that the day was a painful one for them because they had lost an infant child on Christmas.

“Berlin knew he had something special with ‘White Christmas’ as soon as he wrote it. He supposedly enthused to his secretary, ‘I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written – heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written!’ The song evokes the warmth of the hearth and the comforts of our Christmas traditions in a way that hasn’t stopped pulling at heartstrings yet.”

---

Some tidbits related to “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” At first, Charles Schulz and his associates didn’t think they’d be able to pull the project off for CBS. Production was crammed into five months and CBS executives were none too pleased with the results. Schulz insisted on the biblical passage, animator Bill Melendez and producer Lee Mendelson weren’t so sure.

The rush to production led to a few mistakes, like Schroeder’s fingers coming off the keyboard while music is playing, and Pig Pen mysteriously disappearing for a second. Plus the barren Christmas tree lost, and then regained, a couple of branches. They just didn’t have time to change it.

Melendez, by the way, wrote the lyrics to “Christmas Time Is Here” in 15 minutes on an envelope, after Vince Guaraldi had come up with the music.  A children’s choir recorded it just four days before the show premiered.

The show was a ratings smash when it premiered Dec. 9, 1965, on CBS.  

Separately, Mendelson recalled speaking to Schulz shortly before he died. “He said, ‘Good grief. That little kid’s never going to kick the football.’”

Linus [From “A Charlie Brown Christmas”]

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shown round about them. And they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men.”

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

---

Merry Christmas, gang!

 

 

---