NEW YORK, NY — The Opening Weekend to Major League Baseball’s 2025 regular season came and went with a number of teams getting off to a hot start out of the gate and for others, not so much…
For New York Mets fans, three things are certain: death, taxes, and the Mets having trouble winning games against the team from Space City, the Houston Astros. Even during the miraculous Mets season of 1969, the Mets had a record of 2-10 against the Astros, and most of those defeats were of the lopsided variety. You could not blame longtime Mets fans for cursing when they saw who their Flushing heroes were playing to start the season when the 2025 schedules were announced.
Image Credit: MLB
It was not the worst-case scenario for the Mets who were able to win the middle game of the season-opening series, considering how many times they have been swept in Houston over the past sixty-plus years.
Although the hitting was paltry, the Mets’ starting pitching, an understandable question mark going into the season, held up well in its first test of 2025. Clay Holmes, Tylor Megill, and Griffin Canning acquitted themselves well, as did the Mets bullpen.
The late Ed Kranepool, who remains the longest-tenured Mets player in team history, witnessed his share of his team’s futility against the Astros. The Mets will honor his memory by wearing a #7 patch on their uniforms this season.
Ed Kranepool speaks at Citi Field during a ceremony to honor the 1969 New York Mets on Saturday, June 29, 2019 – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
Mascot races are a between-innings entertainment staple in Milwaukee where various folks in sausage costumes compete to cross the finish line first, and in Washington, DC where likenesses of Abe, George, Thomas, and Teddy compete for true presidential glory. The Mets will be joining them, with the five boroughs represented by costumed mascots running around Citi Field. Manhattan will be represented by a skyscraper; Bronx by a giraffe (Bronx Zoo reference), Brooklyn by a pizza slice (a Brooklyn Bridge costume would have been more apropos), a ferry for Staten Island; and a replica of a #7 subway car for Queens.
At the risk of sounding like a New York snob, mascot races should be relegated to second-tier markets and minor league ballparks. The World’s Borough should be represented by our most famous symbol, the Unisphere in Flushing Meadow Park which was constructed for the 1964-65 World’s Fair.
Image Credit: Henry Ordosgoitia (Henry O.)/Latino Sports
Granted, it is more intricate to create, but it would be well worth it.
Citi Field was voted by the readers of USA Today as having the best food of any baseball stadium for the third straight year. Quality food suppliers are the reason for that. Pat LaFrieda, whose meat dishes have long been a US Open staple, is adding its tomahawk steak and loaded fries to this year’s offerings. Two new concessionaires, Naz’s Halal Food, and Gyro Jimmy’s, will be selling chicken, beef, and lamb gyros.
The Mets will continue to offer a space for popular Queens neighborhood restaurants. Ozone Park’s Arepalicious will occupy it for the first half of the season, while Maspeth’s Thai Tai Eatery gets second-half honors.
New Food at Yankee Stadium
The Yankees are not slouches when it comes to cuisine either. Celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Marcus Samuelsson will once again have outposts at Yankee Stadium. Lobel’s, the Yankees counterpart to the Mets’ Pat LaFrieda, will be adding pastrami sandwiches to its menu this year. Likewise, the Yankees in-house caterer, Legends Dining, will be selling lobster rolls. Sweet P Bakery, a company out of Norwalk, CT, which employs workers with various disabilities, will be offering its delicious cookies to fans.
A Thrashing in the Bronx
Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
It is safe to say the Bronx Bombers have adjusted well to life after Juan Soto judging by the way they thrashed the respectable Milwaukee Brewers in their opening three-game series in the Bronx.
“Fight for Glory” coming soon on Apple TV
It may not be pleasant viewing for Yankees fans, but Apple TV Plus’s three-part series about the 2024 Dodgers-Yankees World Series. “Fight for Glory,” is a well-done documentary. This is not surprising since Imagine Entertainment, run by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, is the force behind it. Derek Jeter is also listed as executive producer.
Image Credit: Apple TV
“Fight for Glory” does not employ a narrator. Instead, it uses testimony from players, their families, and managers Dave Roberts and Aaron Boone, close-up shots of fans in the stands, actual calls from Dodgers and Yankees radio, as well as Joe Davis, Fox Sports’ play-by-play voice to tell the story. Howard and Grazer were able to have their cameras get access to the big moments in the five World Series games which the viewing public did not get watching the games on Fox. They were also able to get their cameras into the teams’ clubhouses after the games to get quotes from Aaron Judge and 2024 World Series MVP Freddie Freeman.
Reigning Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis Jr. enters transfer portal as he tests NBA Draft waters
St. John’s University Red Storm guard, RJ Luis Jr., who was the Big East player of the year, announced he would both be entering the NBA Draft, and if that does not pan out, the college basketball transfer portal. Either way, his time in Queens has ended. Luis had a tough game last Saturday as they were eliminated from the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament by the University of Arkansas Razorbacks.
Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino is hoping Joson Sanon, who played last season for the Arizona State Sun Devils, will be able to fill Luis’s sizable shoes. Sanon hit 37% of his three-point shots this past season, which was a glaring Red Storm weakness, especially in their last game.
Happy 80th Birthday to Walt “Clyde” Frazier
Walt “Clyde” Frazier turned 80 years young last week, He is still as sharp and witty on the air as he has ever been and thankfully has no plans to retire from serving as a Knicks analyst on MSG Network telecasts.
MSG honors Sam Rosen
Sam Rosen, the Rangers’ longtime play-by-play voice, will be retiring at the end of this season.
Image Credit: Madison Square Garden/Getty Images
The Garden honored him last month with a day in his honor before the disappointing Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks.
JJ Watt to join Ian Eagle in the CBS Booth
Forest Hills High School alum, and CBS’s #2 NFL play-by-play voice. Ian Eagle will be having a new booth partner come the fall. Former linebacker, and certain Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, JJ Watt will be leaving the CBS Sports studios at Manhattan’s Broadcast Center to serve as Eagle’s analysis commentator. CBS is hoping their top two game analysts, Tony Romo and now JJ Watt, will match the star power and quality of Fox’s Tom Brady and Greg Olsen.
New Practice Facility in the works for New York Liberty
The New York Liberty will be constructing a practice facility which will be in Greenpoint on majestic Newtown Creek.
Image Credit: New York Liberty
They should consider putting up a basket on the other side of the waterway in Maspeth so that Liberty players can practice their half-court beat-the-buzzer heaves.
“Paul American” on MAX
Few have utilized social media and YouTube to generate fame as the brothers Jake and Logan Paul have. Jake fancies himself a boxer, while Logan has dabbled in World Wrestling Entertainment. Their latest attempt to augment their celebrity is a new reality series on Warner Brothers Discovery’s streaming service, Max.
Image Credit: Max
It is titled “Paul American” as a humorous twist on “all-American.”
Manischewitz and future NFL Draft pick Jake Retzlaff
Speaking before of food, Manischewitz is dispatching a food truck around various parts of the metropolitan area before Passover. Among the items for sale will be boxes of matzo with the picture of Brigham Young University quarterback Jake Retzlaff who jokingly calls himself “Mr. BY Jew.” Retzlaff is likely to have an NFL career in his future. He outplayed certain 2025 NFL Draft first-round pick Shedeur Sanders in January’s Alamo Bowl. Manischewitz will resume its “deli on wheels” after Passover, and the odds are Retzlaff’s image will appear on its other products.
Queen Taste at the New York Hall of Science on Tuesday, May 13th
The Queens Economic Development Corporation’s annual fun food event, “Queens Taste” which celebrates the many great restaurants in our borough, will take place Tuesday, May 13 at the New York Hall of Science.
“The Golden Ticket” on Netflix
Netflix will be launching a new physical competition reality series which will be titled “the Golden Ticket.”
Image Credit: Netflix
Think of it as “Survivor” meets Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
“Mid-Century Modern” on Hulu
If you miss the days of witty network multi-camera sitcoms which were filmed in front of a live studio audience where the laughs were genuine and not canned, check out “Mid-Century Modern” on Hulu.
“Mid-Century Modern” stars Nathan Lane, Nathan Lee Graham, and Matt Bomer as a trio of longtime gay friends who move into a big home in gay-friendly Palm Springs. The series title refers to the prominent style of architecture in that southern California desert city. One of the running gags in the first episode is the use of the 1993 hit, “Whatta Man,” by those former Queensborough Community College students and friends, Cheryl James, Sandra Denton, and Deidra Roper, better known to the world as Salt-N-Pepa.
Image Credit: Hulu
The producers of the series are David Kohan and Max Mutchnick of “Will & Grace” fame. The director of the debut episode was the legendary James Burrows. On a sad note, this marks the last series for comedic actor Linda Lavin who succumbed to cancer just before the end of 2024.
You can read more of Lloyd Carroll’s columns posted weekly on The Queens Chronicle.
