Mike Vaccaro Responds To The Q

When I got home from Trivia Night last night, I had an email waiting for me from one Mike Vaccaro, the New York Post sportswriter. You may remember that I wrote a post here last Sunday about the column he wrote about the Mets crushing Game 7 loss. He said that "even the most ardent Yankee hater would have sympathy pains" for what the Yankees' fans went through the night the Yankees choked away a 3-0 lead in the 2004 ALCS. (See my post "No Sympathy From Me, Ever" from last Sunday for more on it.)

I not only answered him back here, but I wrote him an email right after. It wasn't angry email, just one explaining to him that he got it all wrong in the paragraph he wrote about the Yankees. I really didn't expect a response back from him, as I knew he was probably covering the World Series for the Post. But to my surprise, there was a response from him. (And he wrote it an hour before the start of Game 3 in St. Louis.)

It was a nice response from Mike, and he was very gracious.

It seems you weren't alone, and that I may have erred in assuming empathy where there was none. It seems a lot of non-Yankees fans couldn't have possibly enjoyed seeing that collapse more, and, like you, still enjoy the memory completely.

I stand corrected.

I have always respected his take on New York sports. He wrote some sympathetic articles about the Red Sox as they were charging towards the 2004 World Series championship. Earlier this year I read his book, "Emperors and Idiots," about the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry, it is a terrific read. And I really appreciate him taking the time to write to me in what was probably a very busy time for him the last few days.

Thank you Mike.

And speaking of Trivia Night, the new categories went down rather well last night. Movie quotes got the best response. I heard the groans I expected when I announced that World Series trivia would be a special category (from those people who aren't baseball fans), and music lyrics went over fine, but the feedback I got from some people was that some of my choices were rather difficult.

I plan on bringing back both movie quotes and music lyrics next time, but I will fine tune them a bit. And at this moment, I don't know when or if Trivia Night will be held next week, as next Tuesday is Halloween. A decision on that will be coming soon, and I'll let you all know what we decide to do.