vic fortezza

Baseball writers are proffering their opinion on the Skanks acquisition of Ichiro from the Mariners, the team he spent eleven years with. His once awesome hitting skills seem to be in steep decline. Being a Yankees-hater and a fatalist when it comes to the Bronx Bombers, I predict that the 11-time all-star will be revived, embraced by their front-running fans, and become instrumental in another Bronx championship. Add 30 points to the batting average, ten homers to a slugger's total, and 25% more pitching wins to anyone who dons pinstripes. Phooey! The NY Post had several superb articles today: Brian Costello profiled Hall of Fame RB Curtis Martin (Patriots, Jets), who revealed that he actually hated football, describing it as a "headache." He used it to stay out of trouble as a youth, and as a means to acquire wealth as a professional. As someone who played and coached at the high school level, I can attest that it is no picnic. I loved game day and film review, but the rest of it was a grind. Boxing legend Jake LaMotta, 90, the subject of Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed Raging Bull (1980), is still going strong. Like Mike Tyson, he is doing a one-man show, off-Broadway, singing and telling stories. Given his take no prisoners boxing style, how in the world is he still alive, let alone coherent, not suffering "...the pocketful of mumbles" Paul Simon described in The Boxer? He must have amazing genes. Now there's a brain that should...

I just read about the penalties the NCAA imposed on the Penn St. football program. Wow - four-year probation, no league championship game appearances, no bowl appearances, a cut in scholarships, and the vacating of 111 wins since 1998. I didn't expect that last part. This knocks Joe Paterno from winningest coach in history to twelfth. According to Yahoo, Florida St.'s Bobby Bowden becomes the Division I leader with 377 wins, although Eddie Robinson had 408 at Grambling, which is also considered Division I, so I don't understand the discrepancy. I wonder if an asterisk and explanation will be placed in the record book next to Paterno's name. After all, he did earn those wins legitimately, despite his unacceptable behavior regarding the case. Perhaps this ugly, distressing story will now begin to fade into the background. Of course, the victims will have to cope with demons the rest of their lives. If there is a lesson to be learned, it is to come clean immediately. Eventually, the truth will out. Cover ups always make things infinitely worse. Penn St. students, faculty and alumni must be devastated. It is also a sad day for Italian-Americans, especially those from Brooklyn. One of our own has fallen mightily. I guess Cuz was intimidated by the forecast, which called for severe thunderstorms during the afternoon. We did not play our Monday round of golf, interrupting the groove we had going the last four weeks. Here in Brooklyn it's 5:46, and we've yet to see rain,...

Here's another troubling sign for America: Last quarter 246,000 were added to the rolls of Social Security Disability. There were only 225,000 jobs created. The government printing press must be working overtime to cover all the outlays. I just read a recap of the British Open. Australian Adam Scott had a four shot lead with four holes to play, and bogeyed all four closing holes, while old favorite Easy Ernie Els made a birdie down the stretch to steal the storied championship. It must have been gut-wrenching drama. After last Monday's round, I commented how golf can be a cruel mistress. Although Scott is young, talented, rich and handsome, I feel for him. No matter what level one achieves, golf is fiercely psychological. No one can predict what will happen to Scott's game after this. He should use Rory McElroy as an example. The young Irishman, who collapsed in the final round of the 2011 The Masters, rebounded at the very next major, winning the U.S. Open going away. Good luck, Adam. Since the price of gasoline has gone up about 20 cents the past few weeks, I decided to take advantage of a partnership Stop n Shop has with Shell. Customers accumulate points at each shopping trip. After Saturday's run, I noticed I'd surpassed 200 points, good for a 20 cent per gallon discount. I got an extra dollar's worth of fuel. On the down side, why in the world does a quart of skim milk cost 1.89 at S...

I needed a break from the sampling of mystery writers I've been doing the past few years. I was in the mood for serious fare. Among the donations given to me was Adolph Caso's The Straw Obelisk, which I'd never heard of. I balked when I read the jacket and saw that it was an anti-war novel. All reasonable people know that war is the worse thing imaginable. I need something more provocative than that. Fortunately, I told myself not to be so narrow-minded. After all, if I didn't like the book, I could always put it aside, although, anal retentive, I've done this only once in my life. I found Henry James' The Golden Bowl unreadable, its sentences convoluted beyond belief. Recently, World War II has been rehabbed by staunch liberals like Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan), Tom Brokaw (The Greatest Generation) and Tom Hanks (Band of Brothers), excellent works that focused on the monumental accomplishments of G.I.'s. The Civil War, of course, has always been the ultimate PC war, more so even than The American Revolution. The War on Terror is probably supported by a majority, but not nearly in proportion to the other three. Of course, the Vietnam War is the left's ultimate whipping boy. Very few pundits made the argument that the hardline taken in Korea and Vietnam led to the fall of communism, which almost everyone celebrated. Wars continue to be re-evaluated throughout history. We still don't know whether the Iraq War was a success, and...

What's to be said when a maniac breaks down an emergency door of a theater, hurls a smoke bomb, and opens fire on innocents? The political arguments will rage. The left will demand greater gun control, the right slacker so that an armed citizen might kill or severely wound such a murderer before fatalities climb. I'm in the right's corner, although I doubt an armed citizen would have prevented much, if any, of the deaths in that theater. Then again, who knows? But I do believe that stricter gun laws would result in more incidents like this one. What a blot on humankind. Columbine, now this - maybe there's something in the drinking water in Colorado. I saw an interesting film last night, courtesy of Netflix. According to IMDb, Take Shelter (2011) had a budget of one million dollars and brought in just above that. A family man, 35, suffers nightmares. Is it the onset of the paranoid schizophrenia his mother began suffering at approximately the same age, or is it a premonition of a storm to end all storms? Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain turn in first-rate performances as husband and wife. TV stalwarts Kathy Baker and Lisa Gay Hamilton bring their talents to cameos. The pace of the film is slow and it's a tad too long, coming in at about two hours, but the story is absorbing. I think it would appeal especially to fans of M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs), whose career has been...