Mike Lupica on Barry Bonds, The Mets, The Donald, and Charles's Big Announcement
Mike Lupica, longtime friend of the I-Man’s and of the Imus in the Morning program, was saddened to learn that Connell McShane will fill the seat being vacated by Charles McCord on May 6. “I’ve been practicing,” Lupica said, then lowered the tone of his voice substantially and offered, “Ahamadinejad, I-Man. Netanyahu.”
Moving on to his actual area of expertise, Lupica, a sports columnist for the New York Daily News, called Barry Bonds being convicted of a felony this week for obstruction of justice “a big deal,” and stressed that the trial was not a waste of time.
“They can’t look the other way if they think witnesses give evasive testimony,” Lupica said, referring to Bonds, in 2003, telling a grand jury he never used performance-enhancing drugs. “That’s just not how the justice system works in this country.” In his view, the one and only homerun king of baseball is Henry Aaron, who once said that the only thing he ever took “was chewing gum.”
The NBA playoffs get underway this weekend, and the New York Knicks will take on the Boston Celtics, a rivalry that has lost some its, shall we say, luster since the classic games of the 1970s featuring Dave DeBusschere and John Havlicek.
“I think the Knicks have a chance,” Lupica said. “The Celtics have played dreadfully down the stretch since they traded away Kendrick Perkins. The Knicks went through an even worse stretch, but the Celtics are going to have a hard time guarding Carmelo Anthony, because most people have a hard time guarding Carmelo Anthony.”
Digressing, as Imus put it, “like you, me and Jenkins sitting at Juanita’s back in the 80s,” Mike Lupica remarked that much as he likes Donald Trump, there are a few obstacles standing in his way to being taken seriously as a candidate for president.
“He’s got to drop the birther deal,” Lupica said. “And if he’s really going to run for President, which I think would be big fun, every time somebody hurts his feelings he can’t do rapid response.”
The New York Mets, on the other hand, aren’t doing anything rapidly these days, like fending off charges they knew Bernie Madoff was conducting a Ponzi scheme, in which they lost hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Absolutely not,” Lupica, an avowed Mets fan and friend of owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon, said, when asked if he thought they knew about Madoff. “If they were supposed to know, then the SEC should have known.”
Still, it’s not like the Mets have been distracting would-be critics by actually winning a game every now and then. “Everything that could have gone wrong for the Mets since Game 7 of the Championship Series in 2006, when it looked like they were going to the World Series—from injuries, to bad contracts, to Madoff, to an incredible series of bad personnel decisions—it has gone wrong,” Lupica said. “It has been epic for five years.”
Somehow, he has faith that new general manager Sandy Alderson can “begin to get them out of it.”
Sort of like how Imus is hoping Connell can get him out of his mess with Charles. Still gunning for the job, Lupica took his voice as low as it is capable of going (which is still about eight octaves higher than Charles’s) and repeated, “Ahmadinejad.”
-Julie Kanfer
Mike Lupica 
Reader Comments (1)
Mr. Charles:
I have planned my day around your show for as long as my memory serves me.
It will never be the same without you around to keep the "Old Cowboy" in check.
Thinking about joining your all white bible study group to chant prayers for your return
Pray that you will pull a Reggis on us.....and return to your desk
thank you from the bottom of my heart for the information..and laughs
douglas petepiece
ontario Canada
ps...thanks for telling the daggen goobers where charlies will be fishing...lets pray they don't find him