Sunday Morning Coffee — March 9, 2025 — Sunday Morning Scramble
By Roy Berger, Las Vegas, Nevada
Good morning. The good news about an hour’s less sleep today is you get your Sunday Morning Coffee delivered that much earlier. Unless of course you don’t live in Arizona or Hawaii and forgot all about the time change. Then it’s an oops. Our basket filled up quickly over the past two weeks with a bit of everything from poking a little political fun across both aisles to music to a perfectly sponsored golf tournament, a surprise surgery and a bunch more. So let’s Scramble:
Donald Trump has never needed anyone to carry his water. Love him or loathe him, he’s done alright as a developer, a reality television mogul and in politics, ascending to the highest office in the world. For the past 236 years, ever since John Adams snuggled up to George Washington, the role of the Vice President of the United States was to be seen at state funerals, the State of the Union address and oversee a nominal project or two to stay busy. That all changed a week ago Friday when JD Vance didn’t get the message that his boss is more than capable of stirring up and carrying on a conflict with Ukraine on his own. So the VP provoked an Oval Office melee. I liked the approach of Mike Pence and Joe Biden when they were in that role. They got it. Be quiet. So did vice presidential illuminaries of the past like Eldridge Gerry, Daniel Tompkins, Richard Johnson, George Dallas, Charles Curtis, Spiro Agnew and even Dan Quayle. The job was always a punch line. Let’s revert.
Wouldn’t the Democrats’ message to the president and his party have been more effective if they staged a last minute boycott or even a mass walkout during last Tuesday’s address to a Joint Session of Congress. All those empty seats say a lot more than Nancy Pelosi’s scowl or Texas Rep. Al Green’s buffoonery or inappropriately sitting on their hands when 13-year-old brain cancer survivor DJ Daniel was made an honorary member of the Secret Service. The kid’s surprise and smile was priceless. At least Elizabeth Warren had a little sense of humor showing a wry grin when Chief Trump tactlessly called her Pocahontas. Next year just stay away. You’ll embarrass yourself less.
Breaking Trump code: ‘It has been said by many,’ really means that no one said it.
Maybe it’s just me but every time my iPhone does an automatic update, I miss my BlackBerry even more.
I have no idea why, but tattoos are illegal in Japan and Iran.
If you haven’t started watching The Americas on NBC/Peacock, do yourself a favor and find it. The cinematography is beyond description and the narration by Tom Hanks is the perfect compliment. Also, The Crowded Room on Apple TV; it’s ten episodes, starts a little slow, but if you stay with it you won’t be sorry.
There is no disputing that Roberta Flack could sing. She was marvelous. We lost her on February 24 at 88 years old. She was diagnosed with ALS in 2022. Three days earlier Clint Hill passed at 93. Mr. Hill was a Secret Service agent and will always be remembered for throwing himself on the back of the presidential limousine that JFK and Mrs. Kennedy occupied when shots rang out in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Agent Hill had an illustrious career with the Secret Service but always blamed himself for not jumping onto the vehicle seconds earlier to take the third shot himself. He wrote a great book in 2016 entitled Five Presidents (whom he served), which became a New York Times bestseller.
Ali McGraw will be 86 years old in three weeks and still looks absolutely mahvelous.
In homage to the late Gene Hackman, I watched The French Connection a couple of nights ago. It was a much better flick in 1971 than by 2025 standards.
Art Shallock, the oldest living former major-league baseball player, died Saturday a month shy of his 101st birthday. Shallock pitched for the Yankees from 1951-54. He was called up to the Yankees on July 16, 1951. To make room for him on the roster the Yankees sent down an underperforming rookie named Mickey Mantle.
Here’s something you never wondered about: of the four major show business statues, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) trophy is the heaviest weighing 12 pounds. Next is an Oscar at 8.5; an Emmy is seven pounds and the Grammy the easiest to tote around from party to party at five pounds.
The tennis times they are a changin’. With Novak Djokovic’s first round loss on Saturday at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, to Dutch alphabet nightmare Botic van de Zandschulp, ranked 85th in the world, Joker has lost three straight matches for only the second time in his 17-year career. Concerning.
The Wall Street Journal tells us when the 2025-26 NCAA hockey season starts next fall, it will mark the first time in 75 years that a Riley is not at the helm of the Army Black Knights. For the 1950-51 season, Jack Riley took over the West Point icemen and stayed for 36 years. In 1986 his son Rob became head coach with a relatively Riley-short stay of only 18 seasons. His brother Brian took over in 2004 and will conclude his two decade stint later this month. Zach McKelvie, a former Black Knight player and current associate head coach, has been named the non-Riley successor in waiting. However, a Riley will still be behind the bench mentoring. Brian Riley’s son Jack, named after his grandfather, will be an assistant on McKelvie’s staff.
Why not Yankee Stadium? I am not making this up. There has been legislation introduced in Congress, most likely not by Representative Green, to put President Trump’s face on the $100 bill. If that doesn’t pass then a separate bill recommends the creation of a $250 note with his image. Also to declare the president’s birthday, June 14, a national holiday. That’s not all— some Republican lawmakers want to carve his face into Mount Rushmore; allow him to run for a third term, and to rename Washington’s Dulles airport Trump International Airport. While we’re at it how about the Yankees adding another world championship at Trump Stadium or the Knicks and Rangers being showered in championship confetti at the world’s most famous arena— Trump Square Garden?
The decade of the 80s was a very transitional one for me both personally and professionally. The music of that era triggers very poignant memories. So when Heart announced that their much awaited 2025 tour would begin in Vegas it was on our to-do list. Andi is also a fan. Heart formed in Seattle in 1973; Wilson sisters Ann, 74, and kid sister Nancy, 70, are the only original members remaining. But that’s more than enough. They are Heart. Ann’s voice and Nancy’s guitar. Ann is currently in a wheelchair, thanks to an immobile elbow she broke in three places in a recent fall following a cancer scare last year. The sisters had been estranged for years, shortly after their 2013 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Last Friday night at the swanky year-old Fontainebleau Las Vegas on the north end of the Strip in front of a packed house of 3,800, all was in order as the ladies emptied their catalogue: Crazy On You, Magic Man, Alone, Dog & Butterfly, These Dreams, What About Love, a great Led Zepplin cover of Stairway to Heaven, and more. They concluded the 80-minute set with Barracuda, a number that Ann and Nancy can still belt at their finest. The show was short, but the good news was the exit doors opened at 9:35 pm. Bedtime of 10:30 was still very much in order.
Maybe it’s just A Sign of the Times. Another show that promises to end early, if it happens, is a rumor that Petula Clark has one more left in her this summer in London. No doubt she Knows A Place, probably Downtown. Ms. Clark is 92.
On March 1, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States. Seems a bit overdue.
Has there ever been a more fitting title sponsor for a senior men’s PGA tournament than the Cologuard Classic that concludes today in Tucson, Arizona?
Tucson is a busy place this weekend. The World Baseball Classic is playing its qualifying rounds in the desert. Team Germany has a 6’3” right-handed relief pitcher named Jaden Agassi. Yep, from that Agassi family— Andre and Steffi. Jaden has dual citizenship from his mother’s German roots. Tennis wasn’t his thing; he played college baseball at USC.
Al Trautwig was the epitome of a great broadcaster. He let the action speak, his words never stealing center stage; instead, they were a great compliment to what we were watching. Al died on February 23 from cancer at only 68 years old. He was Long Island through and through; born, raised, went to high school in Franklin Square and college at Adelphi. As a kid he was a stick boy for the Islanders and a ball boy for the Nets when they played on the Island. He did games for ABC, NBC and USA Network in addition to studio hosting. His broadcasting career started in 1978 and you know he was a great one, never seeking attention, when 10 years later bombastic Howard Cosell told the Washington Post, “I don’t even know….or ever heard of an Al Trautwig.”
One more New York loss but nationally significant is Gary Stevens, who passed away on February 17 at 84. We remember him as the evening disc jockey on WMCA radio, one of the so-called “Good Guys” who was on the air opposite WABC’s Cousin Bruce Morrow. Mr. Stevens was the first to bring many of the Beatles single hits and the whole Strawberry Fields Forever album to us. Gary left radio in 1968 after only three years to become a radio agent/broker. He was also a fellow alum of The U.
Finally, if you ever thought it was too late, it’s not. This from a member of our morning workout crew at the gym. His mom, 87, lives in LA and fell a couple of weeks ago injuring her ribs and puncturing a lung. Fortunately surgery was not immediate but scheduled. A day or two afterwards our friend drove over from Vegas to spend time with Mom. She was still in the hospital. He noticed something awry, like maybe she had more surgery than his parents told him was needed. He questioned her. Sheepishly she admitted she also had breast implants. “Mom, you’ll be 88 years old in July, what are you doing?” he asked incredulously. She didn’t hesitate: “You know your dad always liked large breasted women.” Dad will be 90 in July. Never say never.
I’m proud that Medjet is sponsoring Sunday Morning Coffee. I spent 20 wonderful years with Medjet in Birmingham, Alabama, and can tell you unequivocally they are the standard-bearer for medical assistance membership programs. A talented staff, who cares about its members, is at the forefront of the company’s success. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, domestic or international, a Medjet membership should be an important part of your travel portfolio before you leave home. Check out the Medjet website at medjet.com or just tap on the Medjet logo and you’ll be able to get a look at Medjet’s services, rules and regulations, pricing, and an overview of the organization. And remember, any opinions expressed in Sunday Morning Coffee content or comments belong to the author and not the sponsor. Safe travels with your Medjet membership! — Roy Berger
That’s a lot of information today. Thanks it will keep me thinking for a while.
good stuff as always! Saw Roberta Flack open for Frankie Valli on one of my earliest trips to LV in the '70's, great show as I recall.