TERRY MOSHER
TOP OF THE TOWN – Wow, Seahawks trade for Jamal Adams, strong safety from the Jets. Double wow. Adams, a fourth-year player who is just 24, is really, really good. But did the Seahawks give up to much for him? According to Adam Schefter of ESPN the Seahawks gave up safety Bradley McDougald, a first round pick and a third-round pick in the 2021 draft and another first-round pick, this one in 2022. The 6-1, 215-pound Adams was the 6th pick overall in the 2017 draft out of LSU. He made his second All-Pro selection last season when he had 75 tackles and one interception (he had 115 tackles and one interception the previous year. Adams was in a contract dispute with the Jets and had requested a trade. Adam’s father George played seven seasons in the NFL with the Giants and Patriots as a running back. … Another wow. Have you seen Kyle Lewis? He reminds me a little of Ken Griffey Jr. The 20-year-old Lewis (he just turned 20 on July 13) is 6-4 and 205-pounds and is as polite as Griffey was and may have just as much batting power. He hit six home runs in his first 10 games as a Major League player last season with the Mariners and in his first at-bat this season on Friday in Houston homered off Justin Verlander, a mammoth 436-foot blast off a fastball. That’s the last fastball Verlander threw him. Verlander learns quickly. The Mariners lost the game 8-2 after leading 2-1 on home runs from Lewis and Kyle Seager. Defeat was not surprising. Houston has won the last 14 games between them. The Mariners are scheduled to play just 60 games this season (if the virus allows them that) and if Lewis, who hit seven home runs last season in 19 games after he was called up from the minors in September, hits at the same rate this season he will smash 22 of them. Not bad for a kid who is just out of his teen years. But don’t look for many highlights from this team in those 60 games. The Mariners are a year, maybe two years, away from being highly competitive. It was obvious from just watching a few innings yesterday the Mariners are way over-matched against Houston, which is loaded with talented stars. … There is a new national vibe swirling about professional sports teams. The day when a guy like Colin Kaepernick is blackballed from his career after Donald Trump angrily went on the attack against him and (bleeping) players for kneeling during our National Anthem is over. Kaepernick is still out of the pro football game, but the mood in America has changed since the killing of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests are still on-going in cities across the land. Society is beginning to recognize that, yes, there are injustices against blacks, browns and minorities and that this time it must be corrected. This is not being disrespectful of the American Flag, as some still see it as, but a cry to fix the injustices that have soiled our life since the first African slaves were shipped to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 and our white-dominated society has made it tough for the blacks and browns and minorities from getting a square deal because of laws meant to keep them down low on the economic scale. But that is ending. The climate has shifted and despite racism from our President and his allies, times are changing and there is clear hope now that elections will begin to open the door to more sharing of national power by blacks, browns and minorities. In the meantime, there will be kneeling before games and the Black Lives Matter slogans will appear in public more, often on jerseys worn by professional athletes in their respective sports. It is not going to go away, and that is a good thing… Speaking of white power, it is beyond belief that the Senate Republicans would take the weekend off when there are urgent matters to resolve and get passed in bills. The $600 a week unemployment benefit runs out at the end of July and there is no negotiations going on because the Republicans have gone home for the weekend. The Democrats want to extent that $600 and the Republicans, if they want to extent it at all, want to do it at a much lower weekly rate. A surprise win for the Democrats is the Republicans are rebelling against Trump who wants a payroll tax and that won’t be in any relief package. Cutting the payroll tax is just another way to deal cuts to Medicare and Social Security, which Trump has been trying to do since he got elected in 2016. Cutting the payroll tax would be a severe revenue loss for Medicare and Social Security and would ensure those two programs would be dramatically cut. If you haven’t got the message yet, Trump wants to rid you of all health care and Medicare and Social Security. It’s what a despot does – make his citizens depend on him and him alone for everything. Republicans also want to make it tough for workers to sue their employers over unsafe work conditions (are you also getting this message that the Republicans and Trump are protecting corporations over you?} One good thing is that the majority of Republicans agree with the Democrats that 10 military bases named after Confederate officers need to be renamed. Trump is opposed to it and says he will veto any bill that has that in it, but bi-partisan support is so overwhelming that his veto can be overridden. … A sad note: Regis Philbin has died at 88. Philbin was known for his contagious excitement and incomparable storytelling on screen as a talk and game show host. He holds the Guinness World Record for most hours on U.S. television, many of them live and unscripted. According to a story on his passing, “Philbin was born on August 25, 1931, in the Bronx to Florence and Frank Philbin. After attending Cardinal Hayes High School, he went to the University of Notre Dame, from which he graduated in 1953 with a sociology degree. He then served in the U.S. Navy for two years as a supply officer before following his dreams of being on television, at the urging of a superior. He got his e goTop of Form
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start working as an NBC page before becoming a newscaster and got his first big break working as Joey Bishop’s sidekick on “The Joey Bishop Show” in the late 1960s. After the show was canceled in 1969, Philbin hosted various late night and early morning talk shows before landing a star-making gig with Kathie Lee Gifford on ABC in 1985.
“Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee” became ratings stalwart for the network, in large part due to the hosts’ chemistry and Philbin’s antics. The show continued to reel in viewers after Gifford’s departure in 2000, with Philbin even winning a Daytime Emmy for his solo work. His undeniable morning show success was gratifying for Philbin, but he said hosting the ABC prime-time game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” beginning in 1999 was “kind of the highlight of my life.” Philbin underwent an angioplasty in 1993 and triple bypass surgery in 2007. Since then, he worked to maintain a healthy diet and cholesterol level. He was married to Catherine “Kay” Faylen from 1955 to 1968. They had two children together, daughter Amy and son Daniel, who died in November 2014 at age 49. At the time of his death, Philbin was married to his wife of 50 years, interior designer Joy Philbin, with whom he had two daughters, Joanna and Jennifer. “There’s just something about Regis,” Joy Philbin told Parade in 2011. ‘There’s always something new on the horizon and it keeps our lives active and fun. I’d rather be with Regis than any other person in the world.’”