DAY FIFTY FOUR:Nov. 3:
Fifteen to two.Fifteen to two.
Fifteen to two.
Fifteen to two.
There is silence tonight in Mudville. Mighty Casey broke his bat, and watched while a bunch of Snakes smashed fifteen runs to home plate. It's going to take a heckuva pep talk by Joe Torre to get the Yankees in shape for anything short of another absolute humiliation tomorrow night.
In all my years in New York, amid one playoff and World Series after another, I've never seen the city so mobilized for any team, playing any sport. We needed this win, or at least the hope that tomorrow's final set-to in the World Series might bring valiant defeat. But tonight brought only despairing embarrassment, cringing sensations and plummeting spirits. Hell, even the damned pitcher for the Razorbacks got a couple of RBIs.
Brooklyn is so quiet tonight you can hear the sad commiseration.
Other than the money-spending throngs in Midtown today, grabbing fashionable home decorating items faster than they could be stocked on shelves, there was little to cheer about in Gotham today. The future of the city looks lousy, and all hell has broken lose in Ground Zero.
In a few days the city has its last chance to vote for the new Mayor, and polls show the race too close to follow. Though 4-out-of-5 residents of New York City are Democrats, their candidate, Mark Green, may very well lose this election. If he doesn't succeed Rudolph Giuliani it will be less because opponent Mike Bloomberg has run a challenging campaign than that his own party has fallen into dozens of teeny, hate-filled fragments. Denounced as a racist, in so many words, Green has collapsed under the crushing weight of such powerful Democrat opponents as Rev. Al Sharpton and Fernando Ferrer. They have signaled to black and Latino voters that this year they need not vote for the Democrat: indeed, they should not do so.
Meanwhile, the temporary love affair between the NY Fire Department and the NYPD also fell to pieces yesterday and today in clashes over the future of Ground Zero. Firefighters decided to march to Ground Zero and hold silent vigil for their fallen comrades, but when they tried to enter the core excavation area of Ground Zero the police were ordered to bar their way. Clashes broke out. Cops said to firefighters, "Hey man, I'm just doing my job. You can't go there, the Mayor says it ain't safe."
The firefighters responded by decking a couple of cops. "This is sacred ground," they shouted.
The Fire Chief and Mayor explained that it imply wasn't safe for the firefighters to keep tunneling their way into the debris is search of the bodies of their colleagues. The firefighters countered that the Mayor was colluding with real estate interests to speed up excavation and get office rentals up as fast as possible. Meanwhile, there is a World Trade Syndrome, as they are calling it, experienced by hundreds of firefighters who are suffering coughing, sore throats, nosebleeds and shortness of breath. The firefighters say they are victims of toxic fumes belching from the still-burning debris. OSHA inspectors, as well as the city health department, insist there is nothing particularly toxic in the stench. Further, they note that the firefighters never wear their respirators or masks.
For many New Yorkers this is all very confusing. Two weeks ago they had heroes: cops, firefighters, Mayor Giuliani. Now the three are battling one another and none of them are holding up well to close scrutiny. The cops are raking up so much overtime that the Comptroller is warning of a massive impending retirement crisis as hundreds of police officers go for the gold. It turns out that terms of police retirement are based on earnings in an officer's final year of service, so cashing out in a year when one has made 50 grand in overtime simply makes good business sense. But thinking so blatantly of their wallets diminishes the heroic image of the police Ð especially when the estimated toll of predicted pension cash-outs approaches a billion bucks.
There is more to say, no doubt. But the Yankee's devastating defeat has rendered me semi-catatonic. I must now rejoin my fellow Yank fans and go lick my wounds.
Be well. Stay safe. Stand defiant.
Laurie Garrett
