August 9, 2025: MLB's 1st Female Umpire

Jen Pawol (left) and Marlins manager Clayton McCullough

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

August 9, 2025: The Atlanta Braves swept a doubleheader from the Miami Marlins, 7-1 and 8-6 at Truist Park in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia. Michael Harris II hit a home run in the opener, and Marcell Ozuna hit 2 in the nightcap.

The 1st base umpire in the opener, and the 3rd base umpire in the nightcap, was Jen Pawol. This made her the 1st female umpire in the history of Major League Baseball. A few women had tried to make it, including Pam Postema, who umpired in Class AAA, and umpired games during Spring Training of 1988. But none had ever gotten to a regular-season game before Pawol.

Jennifer Pawol (no middle name) was born on December 29, 1976 in West Milford, Passaic County, New Jersey. Derek Jeter lived in the same town for the 1st 4 years of his life, and Olympic Gold Medal skier Donna Weinbrecht also grew up there. Pawol played softball and soccer at West Milford High School, continued playing softball at Hofstra University on Long Island, and began umpiring high school softball games.

She went to a professional umpiring school in 2016, and began umpiring in the Gulf Coast League in 2017. By 2023, she had reached Class AAA. Two years later, she "got the call." During that first doubleheader on August 9, there were no complaints about any calls she made.

The next day might have been more important, because umpiring behind the plate is more important than doing so at any base. In what turned out to be another 7-1 Braves win over the Marlins, she correctly called 99 out of 104 balls, and 41 of 47 strikes.

That translates to her called ball accuracy being 95 percent, compared to the major league average of 97 percent; and her called strike accuracy was 87 percent, compared to the major league average of 88 percent. In other words, in her 1st major league game, as a rookie home plate umpire, she was only slightly less than the average.

Online, plenty of toxically masculine "traditionalists" complained about her even being in the major leagues. However, neither Braves manager Brian Snitker nor Marlins manager Clayton McCullough argued with her, not even once. Over the rest of the season, not one man in uniform argued with her at any time.

*

August 9, 2025 was a Saturday. These other games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Houston Astros, 5-4 at Yankee Stadium II. Trent Grisham hit a home run in the 8th inning to win the game for David Bednar, in relief of Luis Gil. José Altuve went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-4 at American Family Field in Milwaukee. The Mets got home runs from Pete Alonso, Starling Marte and Juan Soto. For Alonso, it was his 252nd career home run, tying him with Darryl Strawberry for the Mets' all-time leadership.

* The Sacramento Athletics beat the Baltimore Orioles, 11-3 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-4 at Comerica Park (now Fifth Third Park) in Detroit. Mike Trout went 1-for-5.

* The Cleveland Guardians beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1 at Rate Field in Chicago.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-0 at Target Field in Minneapolis. Noah Cameron pitched 5 2/3rds innings of 6-hit shutout ball, and 4 relievers completed the 8-hit shutout.

* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-1 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at Globe Life Field in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-5 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Petco Park in San Diego. This game went to extra innings, the "ghost runner" rule came into play, and Xander Bogaerts was ghost runner for the Red Sox in the bottom of the 10th inning. Ryan O'Hearn was intentionally walked to set up the double play. But, Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Ramón Laureano singled Bogaerts home.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 9-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Shohei Ohtani went 2-for-4 with a solo home run.

* The Washington Nationals beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-2 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 7-4 at T-Mobile Park. Julio Rodríguez hit 2 home runs, and Cal Raleigh hit his 44th homer of the season.

August 3, 2025: Baseball at the Speedway

August 3, 2025: Major League Baseball hosted the Speedway Classic, an attempt to set a new record for the largest crowd in the history of the sport.

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

The game was set for the night before, a Saturday night, and they got one inning in, before rain came, and the umpires suspended the game, for resumption the next day.

Before the game was delayed, there was a concert that featured musical performances from country superstar Tim McGraw (son of legendary relief pitcher Tug McGraw) along with pop artist Pitbull and country music star Jake Owen.

To celebrate its upcoming 250th birthday in October, the U.S. Navy was placed front and center, with MU1 Kathryn Dobyns performing the National Anthem, with the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard providing the colors. The flyover was four Navy F/A 18 Super Hornet jets from VFA-103 of the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach.

Prior to the first rain delay, there was a Hall of Fame and NASCAR-themed ceremonial first pitch. Former Braves 3rd baseman Chipper Jones threw a first pitch to Chase Elliot, while Big Red Machine catching great Johnny Bench caught Kyle Busch's first pitch.

The Braves did not score in the top of the 1st. In the bottom of the 1st, the Reds got 3 straight singles, from Matt McLain, Elly de la Cruz and Austin Hays, to take a 1-0 lead. That's when the rain came, and the umpires decided to suspend the game.

When play resumed on August 3, neither manager, Brian Snitker of the Braves with Austin Cox, nor Terry Francona of the Reds with Chase Burns, was willing to risk his starting pitcher any further, and essentially made this a "bullpen game": Each team ended up using 6 pitchers.

A 3-run home run by Eli White off Brent Suter in the top of the 2nd gave the Braves a 3-1 lead. (With a name like Brent Suter, he sounded more like one of hockey's famed Sutter brothers from Viking, Alberta, or its Suter family from Madison, Wisconsin, than Hall of Fame reliever Bruce Sutter, who did pitch for the Braves.)

The Reds pulled a run back in the bottom of the 2nd, but the score remained 3-2 Atlanta until White hit his 2nd homer of the game to lead off the top of the 7th. The Braves won, 4-2. Hunter Waldrep pitched 5 2/3rds innings of relief to be the winning pitcher, while Suter was the losing pitcher.

The attendance was 91,032. That made this the best-attended competitive regular-season game in Major League Baseball history, breaking the record set of 84,587, when the Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the New York Yankees at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on September 12, 1954.

But it did not break the record for highest attendance of any competitive game. That remains 92,706, for Game 5 of the World Series on October 6, 1959, when the Chicago White Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Nor did it come close to the all-time record for any baseball game, an exhibition game the Dodgers set up at the Coliseum to celebrate their 50th Anniversary in Los Angeles, on March 29, 2008: 115,300. As you can see in the photo above, temporary seats were built around the infield, but the permanent seats behind the 3rd-base line were not sold.

It remains to be seen if MLB will try another racetrack game. Somehow, I doubt that Churchill Downs will host Louisville's 1st major-league game since 1899 anytime soon.

*

August 3, 2025 was a Sunday. These other MLB games were played, keeping in mind that the Braves and the Reds officially had the day off, just in case a postponement was necessary, as turned out to be the case:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Miami Marlins, 7-3 at LoanDepot Park in Miami. Edward Cabrera outpitched Luis Gil, the previous season's American League Rookie of the Year, who was making his 1st start of the season due to an injury, and really needed at least one more minor-league tuneup. Kyle Stowers hit a home run for the Marlins, while Trent Grisham and Jazz Chisholm hit them for the Yankees.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 12-4 at Citi Field. Frankie Montas barely made it into the 5th inning. Francisco Lindor hit a home run for the Mets, to no avail.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Houston Astros, 6-1 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-0 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Cristopher Sánchez pitched 8 innings of 5-hit shutout ball, and Jhoan Durán pitched a perfect 9th.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Washington Nationals, 14-3 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-0 at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, where the Rays played the season due to hurricane damage at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. How many Dodgers does it take to pitch a 7-hit shutout? This time, 5, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowing 5 hits over 5 2/3rd, and the bullpen allowing 2 hits the rest of the way.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-4 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. The Royals scored 5 runs in the top of the 10th, and the Jays could only pull 2 back.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Guardians, 5-4 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-5 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The San Diego Padres beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-5 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Sacramento Athletics, 6-4 at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

May 4, 2025: A Trophy for Harry Kane

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

May 4, 2025: Bayer Leverkusen and SC Freiburg play to a 2-2 draw at Europa-Park Stadion in Freiburg im Briesgau, Baden-Württemberg, in southwestern Germany. Freiburg jumped out to a 2-0 lead over Bayer, the defending Champions of Germany's national soccer league, the Bundesliga. But Bayer scored in the 82nd minute, and then found the equalizer in stoppage time, the 93rd minute.

It wasn't enough: Bayer needed a win to keep their hopes for a 2nd straight title alive. Instead, they handed the title to Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V., a.k.a. Bayern Munich, who had played RB Leipzig to a 3-3 draw at Red Bull Arena in Leipzig the day before. (The "e. V." stands for "eingetragener Verein," or "registered association.")

It was the 34th league title for Bayern, meaning "Bavarian," who had won 11 straight titles before Bayer Leverkusen won it the season before. What's more, the league's trophy, officially called Der Meisterschale ("champions' bowl"), but often called Der Salatschüssel ("salad bowl"), was the 1st trophy won by their English striker, Harry Kane.

Born in 1993 in Leytonstone, East London in 1993, and growing up in Chingford, also in East London, he nonetheless followed most of his family, and rooted for North London team Tottenham Hotspur, a.k.a. "Spurs." This was a big mistake, as they had an atrocious record, while their North London neighbors, Arsenal FC, won many trophies.

Spurs won the League Cup in 2008. Kane reached their first team in the 2009-10 season. Although he became the Premier League's 2nd all-time leading scorer, behind only Alan Shearer -- though often for diving to win penalties, making his achievements dubious -- Spurs continually fell short of winning trophies:

* They reached the Semifinal of the FA Cup in 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018, 

* They reached the Final of the League Cup in 2015, but lost to West London team Chelsea FC; and again in 2021, losing to Manchester City.

* In Premier League play, they finished 2nd in 2017, 7 points behind Chelsea; 3rd in 2016 and 2018; and 4th in 2012, 2019 and 2022. Infamously, in 2016, they and "Cinderella team" Leicester City were in "a two-horse race," but, tailing off, Spurs finished 3rd behind Leicester and... Arsenal. Man City won it in 2018.

* And in the UEFA Champions League, they reached the Quarterfinals in 2011 and 2013, and the Final in 2019, losing to Liverpool FC.

Kane's luck with the England national team was no better. He became their all-time leading scorer, but didn't make their team for the 2010 or 2014 World Cup, or Euro 2012; were eliminated from Euro 2016 in the Round of 16 in a massive upset by Iceland; finished 4th at the 2018 World Cup, when Kane refused to pass to open men in the Semifinal against eventual winners France; lost the Final of Euro 2020 to Italy on penalties, although Kane made his; lost to France again in the Quarterfinal of the 2022 World Cup; and lost to Spain in the Final of Euro 2024. England has never won the Euros, and hasn't won the World Cup since 1966.

Indeed, trophies seemed like a foregone conclusion when Kane joined Bayern for an initial 100m euros (£86.4 million) in August 2023. The club had won 11 successive Bundesliga titles before his arrival.

Kane even had a shot at silverware on his debut, but Bayern lost 3-0 to Red Bull Leipzig in the German Super Cup at Allianz Arena, with the England captain coming off the bench for the final half-hour.
Was he cursed? When Bayern were then knocked out of the DFB-Pokal (Germany's version of the FA Cup) by 3rd-tier team Saarbrücken, some may have believed so.

Leverkusen ran away with the league as Bayern finished 3rd, their lowest position since 2011;  while, in the Champions League, Thomas Tuchel's side were beaten by eventual winners Real Madrid in the Semifinal.

"People made bad jokes about him," explained Taufig Khalil, commentator for ARD Radio. Bayern Munich won the German championship 11 years in a row, Harry Kane came for 100 million-plus, and the next season, Bayern Munich did not win a single trophy!

"It was tough for him. He came to Munich because he knew this is the club where you can win trophies, where you will be on top. And then he came, and it was a very bad season last year."

"There are many people who, throughout my career, only talk about the fact I haven't won a title yet," the England captain said recently, as Bayern Munich's Bundesliga crown began to look more inevitable. "It would be nice to silence a few of them."

Kane even saw the irony in the fact his 14-year wait for a senior trophy might end while he watched on from the stands as Bayern faced RB Leipzig on Saturday, having been handed a one-game suspension following his 5th yellow card of the season last week.

"It's kind of my story that I'll miss the Leipzig game," said the 31-year-old. "But no worries, I'll celebrate more than anyone else."

Kane even made his way to the touchline ready to join the party until a stoppage-time Leipzig leveller meant the wait was delayed by a day when second-placed Bayer Leverkusen drew 2-2 at Freiburg on Sunday.

That saw Vincent Kompany's side secure the German title, and means Kane has finally put to rest the notion that a glittering individual career may finish without any silverware.

The striker had been following the Leverkusen game with fellow England international (and former Tottenham teammate) Eric Dier and the rest of their Bayern teammates, and posted a video on social media of them singing the Queen song "We Are the Champions" after the title was confirmed.

The 2024-25 season also marked the end of a 17-year trophy drought for Tottenham, as they won the UEFA Europa League.

*

May 4, 2025 was a Sunday. American football was out of season. There were 2 games in the NBA Playoffs. The Indiana Pacers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 121-112 at the Rocket Arena in Cleveland. And the Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets, 103-89 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

There was one game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs: The Winnipeg Jets beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-3 at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg. Adam Lowry scored the winning goal at 16:10 of the 2nd overtime.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Tampa Bay Rays, 7-5 at Yankee Stadium. Taj Bradley outpitched Will Warren. Cody Bellinger hit a home run, and Aaron Judge went 1-for-5.

* The New York Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-9 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. A wild game: The D-backs led 7-1 going to the bottom of the 4th, and 8-6 going to the bottom of the 9th. The Phils tied it, but the D-backs scored 3 in the top of the 10th, and the Phils could only score 1 in the bottom half.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 11-6 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1 at Truist Park in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia.

* The Sacramento Athletics beat the Miami Marlins, 3-2 at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

* The Cleveland Guardians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-0 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Stephen Kolek pitched 5 1/3rd innings of 4-hit shutout ball, and the bullpen completed an 8-hit shutout.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-1 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros, 5-4 at Rate Field in Chicago, in a game shortened to 7 innings due to rain.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 4-0 at American Family Field in Milwaukee. Freddy Peralta pitched 6 innings of 4-hit shutout ball, and the bullpen finished a 5-hit shutout.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-1 at Globe Life Field in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Los Angeles Angels, 13-1 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-3 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

January 20, 2025: Trump's Indoor Inauguration for Oligarchs

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

January 20, 2025: Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, by the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington.

As with Ronald Reagan's 2nd term in 1985, it was too cold to have an outdoor ceremony for Trump's 2nd term, so it was moved into the Capitol's Rotunda, with a much smaller crowd. Of course, before anyone knew that it would be so cold, there were plans for protests, which threatened to be larger than the crowd who showed up to cheer the Inauguration. And Trump's 2017 Inauguration crowd had been a lot smaller than he'd hoped.

And so, either bowing to the cold, or bowing to his own cowardice about seeing the crowd coming to see him being too small, Trump had the ceremony moved indoors. And that turned out to be one of the less unusual things about this Inauguration ceremony.

As with his 1st Inauguration in 2017, when outgoing President Barack Obama attended, this time, outgoing President Joe Biden attended. Trump had not attended Biden's Inauguration in 2021, and had left Washington that morning.

Unlike with his 1st Inauguration, this time, Trump did not place his hand on a Bible during his Oath of Office. This had only happened twice before. In 1825, John Quincy Adams placed his hand on a law book. And in 1901, there was no Bible in the house where Theodore Roosevelt was sworn, in under emergency conditions following the assassination of William McKinley.

While he mentioned Biden, along with other distinguished attendees, at the start of his Inaugural Address, he did not pay tribute to him during the Address itself. Every incoming President had done so since Gerald Ford had asked for prayers for Richard Nixon in 1974. Even Trump had praised Obama in 2017. No praise for Biden this time.

He began:

My fellow citizens, the golden age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first.

Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.

And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous, and free. America will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before.

As Biden would have said, it was malarkey. America had never been less respected than it was during Trump's 1st term. Dictators from Russia to Saudi Arabia to Iran took advantage of him. The only "weaponization of the Justice Department" had been the one he ran, which Biden stopped, and whic Trump now renewed.

Among the attendees were some right-wing populists from all over the world: From parties such as Britain's Reform UK (Nigel Farage), France's National Rally, and Germany's AfD. Also in attendance were some of the world's richest and rottenest men: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin. It was an Inauguration for oligarchs: Of the rich and right-wing, by the rich and right-wing, for the rich and right-wing.

By the next day, Trump had practically handed the Administration over to Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which cut billions of dollars in spending on some of the most beneficial things the federal government had been doing. It got to the point where Musk, born in South Africa and thus ineligible for the Presidency, was being called "The Co-President." This wasn't mocking him: It was mocking Trump.

Where was I at 12:00 Noon, when he was sworn in? I was at the Essex County Courthouse, on Market Street in Newark, my parents' hometown, engaging in a one-man protest and demonstration. In front of the Courthouse, opened in 1904 with Greek-inspired columns, is a statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln, sculpted by Gutzon Borghlum, who would later design Mount Rushmore. I had recently passed my 55th Birthday, and was the age that Lincoln was when he ran for re-election in 1864, during the American Civil War.

The back of the Courthouse faces Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., formerly High Street. Across from it is an annex, the Martin Luther King Jr. Justice Building. Inscribed over its doors are words of Dr. King's: "INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE." In front is a statue of King, holding two pieces of paper, one labeled as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the other labeled as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, both of which would not have become law without both his activism and the subsequent action of the federal government.

I took this picture. It had snowed in the last few days.

As it happened, it was the 3rd Monday in January, the federal holiday that honors Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement, as his birthday was January 15. He was 39 years old when he was assassinated in 1968, one day after making a speech in which he said to his supporters, echoing the Biblical figure of Moses, "I've been to the mountaintop, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!"

I needed those words at that moment. Because Dr. King wasn't just speaking to black people, to African-Americans, to, as he put it in his "I Have a Dream" speech 5 years earlier, "the Negro community." He was speaking to all Americans. Even the ones who hated him for his race and for his various stands.

I walked back down Market Street to Broad Street, and stood at a spot where, on September 15, 1960, my father, a freshman at the school now known as the New Jersey Institute of Technology, reached out and offered his hand to a man in an open convertible, shaking hands in a campaign motorcade: Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. A few minutes earlier, on the Belleville stretch of Broad Street, that motorcade had passed by the building that then served as Belleville High School, and is now the town's Junior High School. My mother, a freshman there, looked out the window and saw Kennedy.

Kennedy won that 1960 election, but was assassinated less than 3 years into his term, at the age of 46. In 1965, a bust of him was installed on a column in Newark's Military Park, roughly across Broad Street from the spot where the two Johns, Pacholek of Newark and Kennedy of Boston, shook hands. (Unlike Kennedy, my father's friends never called him "Jack.")

And on this day in 2025, I crossed that street and stood before his bust, and the Lloyd Bentsen phrase came to my mind: "Donald Trump, you're no Jack Kennedy."

In 1968, doo-wop singer Dion DiMucci made a brief comeback, with a song that had been written about these three men who had been taken far too soon: "Abraham, Martin and John." I stood before their memorials that day, and I felt as though I could carry on in opposition to the tyrant who was now perverting their ideals.

The fact that Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated 2 months after Dr. King, at the age of 42, and that his son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had betrayed everything the family stood for, and had accepted the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services, for which he was completely unqualified, from Trump, did not escape my notice.

Meanwhile, Trump had already survived two assassination attempts the year before, although there was evidence that both had been staged, to gain sympathy for him at times when his polling was bad. There would be more.

*

January 20, 2025 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. Football was between rounds of Playoffs. There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 119-110 at Madison Square Garden. Jalen Brunson scored 34 points.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Dallas Mavericks, 110-105 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 108-106 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The New Orleans Pelicans beat the Utah Jazz, 123-119 in overtime at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. CJ McCollum led all scorers on the day with 45 points.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Phoenix Suns, 118-92 at the Rocket Arena in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Houston Rockets, 107-96 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 112-99 at the Intuit Dome outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Zach LaVine scored 35 points.

* And the Boston Celtics beat the Golden State Warriors, 125-85 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

And there were 9 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-1 at the UBS Arena.

* The Boston Bruins beat the San Jose Sharks, 6-3 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-3 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3 at the United Center in Chicago. Sebastian Aho scored the winning goal, with 4:01 left in overtime.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-1 at the Ball Arena in Denver.

* The Utah Hockey Club beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-2 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. The UHC became the Utah Mammoth the next season.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Vegas Golden Knights, 5-4 in a shootout at the T-Mobile Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-1 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

* And the Seattle Kraken beat the Buffalo Sabres, 6-4 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.

January 19, 2025: The Economy When Joe Biden Left the Presidency

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

January 19, 2025: These were the economic conditions on the last full day in office for President Joe Biden:

* The previous Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had closed at 43,487.83. That was an all-time high. (It didn't change on Monday, January 19: Due to the federal Martin Luther King Day holiday, the stock market is closed.) The day he was inaugurated to take over from Donald Trump, it was 30,930.52.

On March 23, 2020, early in the COVID lockdown, it bottomed out at 18,591.93. It could be argued that such a thing might have happened even if the President at the time had done everything right in regard to the pandemic.

* The unemployment rate is 4.1 percent. Biden became the 1st President ever to leave office having created jobs in every full month in office. Trump left it as the 2nd President ever to leave office having a net loss of jobs. The 1st was Herbert Hoover (1929-33). As bad as both George Bushes were (the father, 1989-93; the son, 2001-09), they managed to squeak through with slight gains at the end.

* Inflation, the very thing Trump campaigned on and won in 2024 (along with the allegedly connected fears of immigration and crime), is at 2.9 percent. When Trump left office, it was 1.7 percent -- but that was after COVID had artificially held prices down, because purchasing had gone down. Because of the return to buying in late 2020, and especially in mid-2021 after the last of the COVID restrictions were lifted, It hit 9.0 percent in June 2022, its highest rate in 41 years.

On August 16, 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, having gotten it through a very closely divided Congress, and it worked. The rise in inflation was only slightly his fault, largely the fault of COVID and Trump's stupid response to it; the drop inflation was all him. But he and Vice President Kamala Harris did a lousy job of showing people that in 2024.

* As for the 2 items most often cited by 2024 voters as being too expensive: The average price of a gallon of gas in the United States is around $3.12; while the average price of a dozen eggs is, oddly, about the same.

Trump's idea to raise tariffs isn't going to lower prices. That usually does the exact opposite: It raises prices. And, in his interview with Time magazine after being named its Person of the Year, the dumb schmuck admitted that he wasn't so great and powerful when it came to prices: "I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it's very hard." He spoke like a child. That's because he has the understanding of a child, when it comes to the economy and pretty much anything else.

And I have barely even touched on any other issue: Crime, immigration, the environment, foreign policy, the corruption of Trump and his flunkies, etc.

These are the bases for which Trump's handling of the economy should be measured. Will the media hold him to account if he handles it badly? Or if he handles any other issue badly? They have shown no indication that they will.

But to it's all on him now. He has effective control of all 3 branches of government, and the media. And, for those of you who voted for him, it's also all on you. Whatever happens over the next four years, it's because you chose this guy.

If it works out in your favor, you are well within your rights to gloat.

If it doesn't -- if Trump crashes the economy a second time, if crime gets worse, if the immigration problem is not fixed, if there is a foreign-policy disaster, if there is another pandemic -- I am well within my rights to tell you that I told you so.

Because, in spite of whatever dictatorial ambitions he has, I do have that right.

As for Joe Biden, who, today, says goodbye after spending 50 of the last 54 years in elective office...

Thank you, Mr. President. You, too, Dr. Jill Biden. You, too, Vice President Kamala Harris. You, too, everyone who worked for them. (Except you, Merrick Garland and Robert Mueller, who turned out to be as useful as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.)

Godspeed, folks.

*

January 19, 2025 was a Sunday. In the NFL Playoffs, the NFC saw the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Los Angeles Rams, 28-22 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia; while the AFC saw the Buffalo Bills beat the Baltimore Ravens, 27-25 at Highmark Stadium in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York. Both games were played in snowfall and on slick fields, and both went back and forth before a winner could be established.

The day before, in the AFC, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Texans, 23-14 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City; and the Washington Commanders beat the Detroit Lions, 45-31 at Ford Field in Detroit. For the Lions, it was a stunning defeat, following a season that saw them go a franchise-best 15-2, win the NFC North Division, and achieve the Number 1 seed in the NFC Playoffs.

For the team formerly known as the Washington Redskins, it was their 1st advancement to the NFC Championship Game in 33 years. For over 10 years, they had been a great team, reaching 4 Super Bowls and winning 3. For the next 30 years, they had battled mediocrity.

For about 25 years, under the ownership of Dan Snyder, they had become just about irrelevant, and even embarrassing, on the field and in the boardroom, before Snyder sold the team to a group led by Josh Harris, which had also bought the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL's New Jersey Devils, in each case with little success, and little reason to believe the renamed Commanders would get any better -- but anything would have been better than Snyder's regime.

Baseball was out of season. There were 7 games in the NBA:

* The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 127-101 at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Orlando Magic, 113-100 at the Kia Center in Orlando.

* The Miami Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs, 113-100 at the Kaseya Center in Miami.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 123-109 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, 116-102. This was the 1st time the teams had played each other at the Clippers' new home, the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California -- a mile south of the Lakers' former home, The Forum.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Washington Wizards, 123-100 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Chicago Bulls, 113-102 at the Moda Center in Portland.

And there were 3 games in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 5-4 at Madison Square Garden. Patrick Laine scored the winning goal with 1:40 left in overtime.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Ottawa Senators, 2-1 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

* And the Dallas Stars beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

January 8, 2025: "Los Angeles Is On Fire"

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

January 8, 2025: The worst fires in California history roared through the Los Angeles metropolitan area. They started the day before, but the biggest damage was done on this day.

As a magazine article a few days later put it:

There’s a common misconception that beneath the asphalt, Los Angeles is a desert. It isn’t. It’s grassland. And part of the natural cycle of the grassland ecosystem is fire...

There was a huge conflagration in Malibu in 1929. Then 1930 and 1935. Then 1938 and 1943, and so on, averaging two per decade up to the current day.

There’s a reason this happens so much in Los Angeles: It is unique among American cities for the degree to which it directly abuts wild nature. Older cities grew more gradually. Around the urban core of cities like Boston, Atlanta, or St. Louis emerged suburbs, around them exurbs, and around them rural agricultural zones. Only then do you reach wild forests, mountains, or prairies.

Los Angeles grew up in a hurry. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, development occurred so rapidly that urban and suburban density extends unabated all the way up until it collides into wildlands. A long portion of the city’s perimeter is fenced in by the Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains.

And, just as those mountains stop weather systems in their tracks, leading to the smog that has bedeviled the Los Angeles are for over 100 years, so, too, do they lead to the occasional wildfires.

The night before the 1992 Presidential election, Jay Leno hosted The Tonight Show, and said, "Perot is predicting a landslide. Bush wants to shake up the people. Clinton wants to light a fire under the people. They should come to L.A.: They can do all three at once!"

But January 2025 was unusual, in that it was 5 major fires at once. When it was over, large neighborhoods such as Pacific Palisades and Altadena were, essentially, gone, looking like photographs of bombed cities in World War II.

On February 1, it was announced that the fires were fully contained, though not yet put out. Over 57,000 acres had been burned, over 17,000 structures had been destroyed, and 29 deaths were attributed to the fires.

*

January 8, 2025 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. College football and the NFL were each between rounds of its Playoffs.

There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Toronto Raptors, 112-98 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Detroit Pistons, 113-98 at the Barclays Center.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Washington Wizards, 109-103 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 119-100 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 129-122 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Chicago Bulls, 129-113 at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 121-105 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

* And the Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 126-103 at the Ball Arena in Denver. So the Clippers were on the road. The Lakers were not scheduled.

There were 3 games in the NHL:

* And the Florida Panthers beat the Utah Hockey Club, 4-1 at the Prudential Center. 

* The Washington Capitals beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-1 at the United Center in Chicago.

* And the Florida Panthers beat the Utah Hockey Club, 4-1 at the Prudential Center.