Todd Jacobucci

    The New York Mets.  As I type this, The New York Mets have 46 wins and 52 losses.  They are in 4th place in the National League East, 17.5 games behind the division leading Atlanta Braves.   This may not be too bad especially when you consider The Mets are only 7 games away from a possible Wild Card playoff berth.  However, it's real bad when you consider what this team is being paid.  It's the highest payroll in baseball - in the area of 360 million dollars.  Add to this Steve Cohen, the owner of The Mets, will pay 110 million dollars in luxury tax - bringing the total amount spent on this team to around 470 million dollars.   By contrast, the currently most efficient team in baseball, The Baltimore Orioles.  First place in the American League East.  60 wins, 38 losses.  This for the price of 61 million dollars, with no luxury tax.   There are other teams in pro sports that suffer from inefficiency - but no one comes ...

    "Barbie" was released yesterday, 7/21/23, in The United States and Britain.  The reviews on it are very good.  I haven't seen it yet, but based on all the positive response, I am going to check it out.  

    Some have actually said this is the greatest film of the 21st century.  Is it?  I guess we will find out today.

    Shohei Ohtani is currently the best player in Major League Baseball.     The Los Angeles Angels are in a very difficult position when it comes to Ohtani.  He will be a free agent at the end of this season.  The Angels will most likely lose him because free agency almost always ends in a bidding war - in which case The New York Mets and  owner Steve Cohen will win.  If I am running the Angels - I would most likely trade him before the August 1st deadline.  Otherwise he leaves and you get nothing for him.  We'll have to wait and see how it plays out......

    The Pittsburgh Steelers will begin training camp July 27th, 2023. How do things look for the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers?  Well, they did finish 2022 winning 7 of their last 9 games - narrowly missing the playoffs.    Some believe The Steelers had the best 2023 draft of the entire NFL.   Their off-season free agent signings filled needs.  This appears to be a team on the upswing.    Some even believe this may be a Super Bowl team.   Personally, I think that's stretching it a bit.  How the 2023 Steelers perform is largely based on the man in the middle above - Kenny Pickett.  Will he progress?  Will he regress?  Only time will tell.   I certainly believe The Pittsburgh Steelers are headed in the right direction.  There is plenty of reason for optimism.  I don't think they're there yet, though.  For 2023, I believe this is a 9, maybe 10 win team, tops.   Playoffs are possible, but I predict an ...

    In 1994, the surviving Beatles were given two cassettes by John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono.  These cassettes contained home recordings by John Lennon.  The idea was for the surviving Beatles to build and finish new songs using these recordings.  Two songs actually were completed, and released: "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love".   In March of 1995, an attempt was made on a third song called "Now and Then".  While working on it, George Harrison lost interest.  He abandoned the recording.   However, his efforts on the song did remain.  Fast forward to today - Paul McCartney became fascinated by the technology utilized in the Peter Jackson Beatle epic "The Beatles: Get Back".  He decided to use this technology to take another stab at "Now and Then".  He took Lennon and Harrison's previous work, and added new work from himself  and Ringo Starr.   Thereby allowing all 4 Beatles to appear on a "new" recording....

    Madonna's World Tour ("The Celebration Tour") is due to start October 14, 2023 in London.  There were reports she was taken seriously ill with a bacterial infection.  The tour is currently postponed.  Some think the illness is a fake publicity stunt.  Personally, I find that unlikely.  The demand for tickets was outrageous.  She didn't need any phony publicity stunts to get people interested in the tour.   I hope she is ok and I hope she can perform as planned.  I guess time will tell......