Pitino After SJU Bops Butler: "We are becoming a total team"

 

RJ Luis Jr. goes up for a layup. @StJohnsBball.

The St. John's Red Storm have now won three straight games, after they won on the road on Wednesday night at Butler, 82-59, to improve their record Big East Conference play back to an even 9-9.

St. John's Flips Script, Closes Out Creighton With Late Flourish At The Garden

 

Daniss Jenkins with the ball at the perimeter, amidst the "white out" at The Garden. Photo by Jason Schott.

St. John's has stumbled a lot in the second half of games throughout the season, but on Sunday, they flipped the script on that as they closed out Creighton, 80-66, on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

The Red Storm have now won two in a row to inch their Big East record back to nearly even, at 8-9, while improving their overall record to 16-12. This was their strongest win of the season, as it came against a team ranked 15th in the country.

St. John's began this one, as they do most games, with a 20-10 lead eight minutes in. That was quickly reversed, as the Blue Jays took a 25-24 edge on a Steven Ashworth layup at 7:21 of the first half.

From then on, St. John's went on a stunning 17-3 run to close the first half, one in which they shot 55.9 percent (19-34) to Creighton's 33.3% (11-33).

In the second half, Creighton chipped into St. John's edge, briefly pulling to within five, at 55-50, on a Trey Alexander jumper at the 9:05 mark.

St. John's generally was up seven until the final five minutes, at what is usually the time things begin to go sideways.

Instead, it was St. John's who went on a 9-0 run over just one minute and 54 seconds to take a 72-56 lead, capped by a Daniss Jenkins jumper at 2:52. 

Creighton did cut it to ten, but Joel Soriano drained four free throws in the final minute to seal the win.

St. John's shot 47.2 percent (34-72) for the game, with 34 points in the paint, as they took a lot of runs right at the hoop, and they dished out 24 assists while committing only three turnovers. Their defense held Creighton to 39.7 percent (25-63) from the field, and forced them to commit 13 turnovers. One big difference was, since St. John's owned the inside, they only made eight three-point attempts, making two, while Creighton took 26 attempts from behind the arc, making just six of them, or 23.3 percent.

The Red Storm was led by Daniss Jenkins, who had 27 points on 12-18 from the field, including 1-2 on three-pointers, with six assists, two steals, and a rebound. Jordan Dingle had 18 points (8-13 FG), one rebound, and one assist. Joel Soriano had 12 points (4-10 FG), seven rebounds and five assists.

Creighton was led by Trey Alexander, who had 31 points (nearly half of the Blue Jays' 66) on 12-23 from the field, 4-8 from behind the arc, with four rebounds and three assists. Ryan Kalkbrenner had a double-double with 12 points (5-11 FG) and 10 rebounds, with four assists. Baylor Scheierman also had 12 points (4-16 FG, 1-10 threes), with five rebounds and two assists.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: "I really don't know what to boast on because I'm not sure if the offense was better than the defense or the defense was better than the offense. When you have 24 assists and only three turnovers, that's a special offensive night. When you hold them to 39 [percent from the floor] and 23 [percent from three], especially in the first half, the defense was great. So many times the shot clock was ready to go off and that's when you know you are playing great defense. I'm really proud of the guys. It was a great performance. We had two really good days of practice...Our strengths have always been the fast break and pushing the pace and I don't want to let up from pushing the pace because they are not going to sub much. I wanted their legs to have to sprint back and play you in transition as well as against the press and the guys did a fabulous job."

On if this was the best team performance of the season: "No question. No question because we played both ends of the floor and we kept trying to push it, win the game and not be afraid to lose the game. I told them, 'Don't look at the scoreboard, keep pushing.' As I said, we had two great days of practice. Believe it or not, we played a terrible game against Georgetown. Awful defensively, we gave up like 13 uncontested layups and I said that has to stop and we have to push the pace. I said everyone is going to play, be ready to play, be ready to go in and they were. I told Glenn Taylor [Jr.], you got to rebound the ball for us. He did a fabulous job tonight."

On Glenn Taylor Jr.s performance: "I met with him and said, 'Glenn, you are not driving to the basket, you are not rebounding, you are not playing great defense. I need you to start doing that. You are capable of it; you are a great athlete.' He did it tonight. He rebounded, he played great defense, he did a lot of really good things."

On if this win gave the team belief it can win games in the Big East Tournament: "I think our guys have always believed it could be done. Sometimes, because they are new, they don't know how to get it done. They get frustrated sometimes and they try to play so hard, they try to get it back in the next 10 seconds. We told them every four minutes that we want to make sure we are moving the basketball. They did a fabulous job with it."

MARCH MADNESS IMPLICATIONS: This was the kind of "strength of opponent" victory St. John's needed, but it doesn't excuse the fact they are still just 8-9 in Big East play, with their final three games against opponents weaker than them - at Butler (7-10 Big East) on Wednesday, at DePaul (2-14) on Tuesday, March 5, and against Georgetown (0-16) on Saturday, March 9 at The Garden. For the Red Storm to make March Madness, they need to win these three and two at the Big East Tournament starting March 13, and that would give them 21 overall wins.

RFK Jr. Will Be On Ballot In Hawaii

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Provided by his campaign.

Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign confirmed on Thursday that they were informed by the Hawaii Office of Elections that he will be on its ballot in November.

Kennedy's supporters collected the 862 required signatures to establish the "We The People" party in Hawaii. They actually supported three times the number of signatures required by today's official deadline.

This means that the We The People party will nominate Kennedy as its nominee in Hawaii. 

"Mahalo to the people of Hawaii who made this great accomplishment possible," Kennedy said in a statement released by his campaign. "I'm inspired by how enthusiastic people are to collect singatures, create new political parties, and rally for real change. This kind of energy is what will get us onto the ballot in every state and fuel our voter registration and GOTV (Get out the vote) operation as we head toward election day."

This is the third state that Kennedy has confirmed he will be on the general election ballot as Hawaii joins Utah, where he's already on the ballot, and he has amassed the necessary signatures to make the ballot in New Hampshire.

The signature gathering effort was led by the "We The People" Hawaii Party Chair Kim Haine, who said in a statement, "Maholo to all the amazing volunteers across our island state who worked so hard to make this happen. We're excited and honored to be a part of this historic campaign to preserve peace, prosperity, and freedom for all. RFK Jr. truly embodies the spirit of aloha, and we know aloha can change the world.

Kennedy visited Hawaii in January and saw the aftermath of the Lahaina wildfire, one of the worst examples of government inefficiency and corruption. Please click here to view the video of his visit. In addition, RFK Jr. held a rally on the island of O'ahu where hundreds of people heard him speak about how he will restore the middle class, unwind the war machine, unravel corporate capture of agencies, end the chronic disease epidemic, and secure the border. Please click here to view the video of the rally via Robert F. Kennedy Jr's YouTube page.

Earlier this month, Kennedy's supporters filed political party paperwork in six states, including Hawaii, as well as California, Delaware, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas.

The inspiration for the We The People party, according to his campaign, came from the fact that they "are the first three words of the U.S. Constitution. These words symbolize that our government draws its power from the people that it was created to serve."

St. John's Answers Pitino's Put-Downs With Win In DC

 

Jordan Dingle goes up for a layup. @StJohnsBball.

Three days after St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino tore into his team after a brutal loss to Seton Hall, the Red Storm went down to Washington, DC, and earned a road win over the Georgetown Hoyas, 90-85, on Wednesday night.

Books: "The Unit" By Adam Gamal

 

The Unit: My Life Fighting Terrorists As One Of America's Most Secret Military Operatives

By Adam Gamal, with Kelly Kennedy

St. Martin's Press; hardcover, 384 pages, with 16-page color photo insert; $32.00; available today, Tuesday, February 20th

Adam Gamal served in the most elite units in the United States Army, and he made over a dozen deployments before he retired in 2016. His awards include the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, and the Legion of Merit, and he is currently an international consultant for a security organization. Adam Gamal is a pseudonym created to keep the author's family and himself safe from harm. 

RFK Jr. On Julian Assange

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Photo by Jason Schott.

Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a video on Monday on the Julian Assange situation.

London judges will decide on Tuesday if the WikiLeaks founder has exhausted all of his appeals in British courts and will be extradited to the United States.

Bobby In Brooklyn: RFK Jr. Takes Part In Fireside Chat At Gentlemen's Factory

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Eric B. before the event in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo by Jason Schott.

Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was in Brooklyn on Sunday, taking part in a fireside chat and Q&A session with Hip Hop icon Eric B. in honor of Black History Month at the Gentlemen's Factory.

Kennedy took questions from the panel, and the unique thing is it was not clear who supported him and who does not, which is unique for a candidate to put himself in that position. 

St. John's Stumbles Late Once Again To Fall To The Hall

 

Joel Soriano snags a rebound. @StJohnsBball.

St. John's third and final game at UBS Arena this season did not go as well as their first two outings there, as they had another rough second half on their way to a 68-62 loss to local rival Seton Hall on Sunday evening.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Visits First Baptist Church Food Pantry in Queens

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the First Baptist Church Food Pantry. Photo by Jason Schott.

Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and hip hop icon Eric B. volunteered and offered support to the First Baptist Church Food Distribution Center in Queens on Saturday afternoon.

RFK Jr. Statement On Who Gets Secret Service Protection: "Double standards abound"

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

On Friday, Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley received  Secret Service protection, while Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been denied multiple times by the Biden administration and the recently impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Books: "Black Writers of the Founding Era" From Library of America

 

Black Writers of the Founding Era: A Library of America Anthology

Edited by James G. Basker and Nicole Seary; Foreword by Annette Gordon-Reed

Library of America; hardcover, 750 pages; $40.00

One of the most rewarding books that you will add to your collection, which will deepen your knowledge of American history, is this comprehensive anthology ever published of Black writing in the turbulent decades surrounding the birth of the United States.

The Black experience had an astonishing richness and diversity in the time of the American Revolution, and it is revealed here through an unprecedented archive of historical sources, including more than 200 poems, letters, sermons, newspaper advertisements, slave narratives, testimonies of faith and religious conversion, criminal confessions, court transcripts, travel accounts, private journals, wills, petitions for freedom, even dreams, by over 100 authors.

There are works that have been famous for a long time, such as Phillis Wheatley's poems and Benjamin Banneker's astonishing mathematical and scientific puzzles. In addition, there are plenty of first-person narratives that offer little-known Black perspectives on the events of the times, such as the Boston Massacre and the death of George Washington.

The writers featured here provide viewpoints all over the spectrum, both enslaved and free, female and male; northern and southern, soldiers, seaman, and veterans; painters, poets, accountants, orators, scientists, community organizers, preachers, restaurateurs and cooks, hairdressers, criminals, and carpenters.

These are bold eloquent contributions to the public debates of the time, about the meanings of the revolution and the values of the new nation, to their intimate thoughts preserved in private letters and diaries, some of which have been unseen to the present day. These writings also dramatize the many ways in which protest, activism, and community organizing have been integral to the Black American experience from the beginning.

In addition, there is a 16-page color photo insert that presents portraits of some of the writers included and images of the original manuscripts, broadside, and books that have preserved their words.

In this excerpt, Basker and Seary write in the introduction: "African Americans have long been denied their rightful place in our memory of the founding era. In 1857, in his infamous Dred Scott decision, Chief Justice Roger Taney tried to rewrite history by claiming the Founders had not meant to include Blacks among 'the people' encompassed in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and therefore they had no legal or civil rights. Taney effectively sought to erase Black people from American citizenship and American memory. Three months later, Abraham Lincoln publicly criticized Taney for his 'erroneous' history. Quoting Justice Benjamin Curtis's dissenting opinion, Lincoln pointed out that 'colored persons were not only included in the body of 'the people of the United States' by whom the Constitution was ordained and established,' but that the Declaration itself was intended by its authors 'to included all men.' The heated controversy, which played out on a national stage, suggests how precarious the place of African Americans could be in our history. Black writers such as William Cooper Nell in the 1850s and William Wells Brown in the 1860s attempted to write Black people back into the record, but their efforts had little impact and were soon forgotten. It would be a century before works like Benjamin Quarles's The Negro in the American Revolution (1961), Dorothy Porter's Early Negro Writing, 1760-1837 (1971), and Sidney and Emma Kaplan's Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution (1973) would mark the beginning of a new era of more inclusive and honest history.

This volume is meant to address the marginalization and invisibility that have long haunted African American history. It restores to view the writings of more than 120 African Americans during the founding era, from the eruption of resistance in the American colonies in the 1760s, to the death of George Washington and the election of Thomas Jefferson at the end of the century. During the years of the American Revolution and the creation of the United States, there was an upwelling of Black voices, a turn to activism, and an outpouring of new ideas in the African American community. Apart from the writings of a celebrated few such as Phillis Wheatley, Benjamin Banneker, Richard Allen, and Absalom Jones, almost all the authors of the 200 works in this collection have been long forgotten. They are brought together here for the first time.

The texts in this book chart the Black presence and make visible the Black experience in a period for which we lack even basic information about most of the Black population - names, birth and death dates, hometowns, spouses, children, relatives. Hundreds of the burial grounds that might yield such information have been for centuries untended, forgotten, paved over. In recent decades the recovery of such sites as the African Burial Ground in New York City have inspired similar projects from New England to Georgia, while also reminding us of how much we still don't know about the lives of Black people in the founding era. Similarly, scholars are still debating even the basic number of African Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War. Estimates range from 5,000 to 8,000, and nothing like a definitive list of soldiers' names, regiments, and dates of service has yet been compiled. The sixteen Black Revolutionary War veterans whose writings are included in this volume bring into focus the lives of individual Black soldiers, the sacrifices they made for the American cause, and the deprivations they endured in their later lives. They prompt us to remember that there were Black soldiers among the American forces at Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill, that Black men fought in all the major battles down to the Battle of Yorktown, and that the first American to die at Valley Forge was a Black soldier from Connecticut names Jethro."

About The Library of America: An independent nonprofit organization, the Library of America was founded in 1979 with seed funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation. It helps to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping in print, authoritative editions of America's best and most significant writing. 

Library for America editions will last for generations and withstand the wear of frequent use. They are printed on lightweight, acid-free paper that will not turn yellow or brittle with age. Sewn bindings allow the books to open easily and lie flat. Flexible, yet strong binding boards are covered with a closely woven rayon cloth. The page layout has been designed for readability, as well as elegance.

Books: Library of America Collections on Frederick Douglass & William Faulkner

 

The Frederick Douglass Collection -  A Library of America Boxed Set

By Frederick Douglass; edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and David W. Blight

Library of America; boxed set, 2097 pages; $82.50

This exquisitely-produced collection of the works of the great African American freedom fighter Frederick Douglass include all three of his classic memoirs and the best of his landmark, passionate speeches and journalism.

For more than five decades, starting with the antebellum period through the Civil War and Reconstruction up to the Gilded Age, Douglass used his voice and writings to advocate for abolition and emancipation, equal rights, and human dignity. He developed a prophetic style that was saturated with scriptural cadences and a fierce moral urgency. This gathers together both volumes of the Library of America's definitive collection of his collected writings.

Autobiographies, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., presents all three of Douglass' memoirs: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written in 1845, is a powerfully compressed account of the cruelty and oppression of the Maryland plantation culture into which Douglass was born and of his escape to freedom. In My Bondage and My Freedom, from 1855, Douglass expanded on the account of his slave years with astonishing psychological penetration. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, first published in 1881 and revised in 1893, recounts his efforts to keep alive the struggle for racial equality in the years after the Civil War.

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer David W. Blight edited Speeches & Writings, the largest single-volume edition of Douglass's writings ever published, with 34 speeches and 67 pieces of journalism presented herein. It includes such classic works as "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?," which was Douglass's incandescent skewering of the slaveholding rebublic; "There Was a Right Side in the Late War," a scathing rebuke of the push to rewrite the Civil War's history; "Lessons of the Hour," on lynching and the emergence of Jim Crow; and as a special feature, the 1853 novella "The Heroic Slave," which was Douglass's lone work of fiction.

Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies is kept in print thanks to a gift from Roland and Paula Hirsch to the Guardians of American Letters Fund, made in memory of Felix Eduard Hirsch, Elisabeth Feist Hirsch, Paul Gottleib Heide, and Charlotte Dale Heide.

Frederick Douglass: Speeches & Writings is published and kept in print with support from the Berkley Family Foundation and Elizabeth W. Smith.

William Faulkner: Stories (LOA #375)

Edited by Theresa M. Towner

Library of America; hardcover, 1150 pages; $45.00

This latest volume of the collected writings of William Faulkner from the Library of America presents all the stories the author gathered for his book collections, in newly edited and authoritative texts. 

These 54 stories were carefully curated by the author in three classic collections - including Knight's Gambit, Collected Stories, and Big Woods - that have their own artistic coherence and integrity.

Faulkner called the short story the "most-demanding form after poetry," and the works here show that he not only mastered the form, but revolutionized its possibilities, as he took an breadth of vision and placed it into narratives that conjure an intimate sense of place and the abiding presence of history and legend.  

In Knight's Gambit, from 1949, there are six stories that feature Yoknapatawpha County lawyer Gavin Stevens, a literary precursor of Atticus Finch. While sympathetic to the foibles of his small-town and country neighbors, Stevens, who was trained at Harvard and Heidelberg, is equal parts detective, confessor, and knight-errant, single-minded in his pursuit of justice but clear-eyed in his understanding that "justice is accomplished lots of times by methods that wont bear looking at."

Collected Stories, released in 1950, won the National Book Award and is regarded as one of the major works of American short fiction. The 42 stories were grouped by Faulkner into six thematic sections that survey the range of his literary universe, from World War I France to Hollywood to the towns and forests of Mississippi. It was published just months before Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and includes such memorable works as the Gothic-inflected "A Rose for Emily," the heartbreaking "That Evening Sun," and "The Brooch," which is a powerful and unsettling story about a man torn between his mother and his wife.

Big Woods (1955) is the final collection that Faulkner oversaw through press, and the hunting stories in here were significantly revised for book form, linked with what he called "interrupted catalysts,"brief passages adopted from earlier novels and stories. "The Bear" is the first story in the collection, one of Faulkner's enduring masterpieces, and it is a haunting tale about the initiation into adulthood and the terrible pull of the past. The stories that follow move into the twentienth century to trace the disappearance of the wilderness and the cultures it sustained.

The volume concludes with an appendix that contains two classic stories not included in Collected Stories, "The Hound" and "Spotted Horses," plus his 1950 Nobel Prize acceptance speech and the fictionalized autobiographical essay "Mississippi."

Theresa M. Towner, the Editor of this engrossing volume, holds the Asbel Smith Chair of Literary Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is the author of The Cambridge Introduction to William Faulkner and Faulkner on the Color Line: The Later Novels, co-author of Reading Faulkner: Collected Stories, and editor of Digitizing Faulkner: Yoknapatwpha in the Twenty-First Century.

About The Library of America: An independent nonprofit organization, the Library of America was founded in 1979 with seed funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation. It helps to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping in print, authoritative editions of America's best and most significant writing. 

Library for America editions will last for generations and withstand the wear of frequent use. They are printed on lightweight, acid-free paper that will not turn yellow or brittle with age. Sewn bindings allow the books to open easily and lie flat. Flexible, yet strong binding boards are covered with a closely woven rayon cloth. The page layout has been designed for readability, as well as elegance.

Notre Dame Football At Yankee Stadium In November

 

Yankee Stadium hosted the Pinstripe Bowl this past December, with Rutgers beating Miami. Photo by Jason Schott.

On Wednesday, the Notre Dame Figthing Irish announced that their 2024 Shamrock Series game against Army will take place on Saturday, November 23 at Yankee Stadium. 

That weekend will be about more than just the game on the field, as there will also be a number of educational, service, and fan-centric events in the New York metropolitan area leading up to the game. 

This marks the third time this annual event will be held at Yankee Stadium. The first one was held in 2010, when Notre Dame beat Army, 27-3, in the first college football game at the new Stadium, and in 2018, when the Irish were ranked third nationally, they dominated Syracuse, 36-3.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of when Notre Dame played at the Polo Grounds on October 18, 1924, and they upset Army, 13-7.

That team featured the fabled Four Horsemen backfield of Jim Crowley, Elmer Layden, Don Miller, and Harry Stuhldreher, and their win at the Polo Grounds led Grantland Rice of the New York-Herald Tribune to bestow that nickname on them. 

The Shamrock Series began in 2009 when Notre Dame started to 'take a home game on the road,' as their press release termed it, and they played at the Alomodome in San Antonio. Notre Dame beat Washington State, 40-14, in that one.

Notre Dame is 11-0 in Shamrock Series games, and this is 52nd time they will meet Army, with the Irish leading the overall series 39-8-4. They have met 23 times at Yankee Stadium, with 22 of them at the original, from 1925-29, 1931-46, and in 1969, and once at the new one in 2010, as mentioned above.

In addition to Yankee Stadium, Notre Dame has played Army in the New York area at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Shea Stadium in Queens, and Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Kennedy Releases New Video On Hawaii Wildfires & Government Ineptness

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Lahaina, Hawaii, located on the island of Maui, in January to see the devastation wrought by the wildfires that destroyed the historic town last August.

Kennedy's campaign has released a video of what he discovered when he met with residents at the site of the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history, with 100 people killed.

"I visited Lahaina last month and saw the tragic reality up close: the Maui wildfire's cascading environmental impacts and toxic aftermath will likely last for years," Kennedy said in a statement accompanying the video's release. "Hazardous debris, chemicals, and undrinkable water plagues the town. The government's mismanagement of the poisonous material cleanup is wreaking havoc on Lahaina's residents, farmland, and groundwater, and risks poisoning the local reef."

Wildfire experts have said that an underlying cause of this fire was the legacy of land clearing by big agricultural interests that took place over the last two centuries. The transformation of native Hawaiian ecosystems to non-native grasslands had made the land more susceptible to wildfires.

Kennedy said, "That original merger of state and corporate power and the injury that came from it is now being compounded by the response, which is short-sighted and money-driven. They are going to take the waste and they are going to do something that is going to ensure the poisoning of the reef. It's just the worst example of government inefficiency and ultimately corruption...

"This unprecedented disaster has diminished everybody in our country because Lahaina was such a jewel. I used to come to this town and it was such a magical spot in the world. It was unique - the roots, the history, and the culture of these extraordinary islands and extraordinary people. It was all taken away because of mismanagement, and because of corporate control of the landscapes by the big agricultural industry that rerouted the water and dried up this lush, verdant area."

Kennedy surveyed the damage with two long-time residents who had a lot to say regarding the federal government's response to this tragedy.

Eddy Garcia is a regenerative farmer in Maui, and he took Kennedy to ground zero of the wildfire to see the burned-out homes, automobiles, appliances, PVC pipes, and other debris. He explained how the fire was an inferno that quickly burned through the town, and the government is doing nothing to stop the PCBs, furan, and dioxins from leaching from the half-burned PVC pipes and AC units into the soil and water.

Then, Garcia pointed out 300,000 gallons of fresh water from a local spring that had been captured in an underground parking garage six months ago. He said the only solution that the government has offered is for this contaminated water to be pumped into the ocean.

There is a sentiment among people Kennedy has met with, and Garcia echoed it when he said, "You're going to give billions to other countries but squabble over a few million to help a town that lost everything?"

Janet Spriter is a local homeowner and artist who lost everything, and she showed Kennedy the ruins of her property, telling him that "nothing" had changed since the day of the fire. 

Kennedy vows that, as President, he will implement comprehensive wildfire management policies and support robust wildfire and emergency-response policies in communities at risk.

According to his campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s wildfire management policies will:

- Stop big corporate interests from abusing landscapes and making them more susceptible to fire.

- Unravel corporate capture in the five federal agencies responsible for wildland fire management - USDA's Forest Service, Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service.

- Restore and regenerate degraded lands.

- Maintain ecologically health, resilient, and fire-resistant forests and grasslands.

- Protect the nation's remaining old-growth forests and revamp forest management.

- Keep combustible materials at manageable levels using controlled burns and other methods.

- Utilize fuel breaks and manage potential wildfire fuels in wildland-urban interfaces (places where homes and infrastructure come into contact with wildlands).

- Create community fire resilience zones in at-risk urban areas.

- Clean up toxic chemicals released by materials burned in urban fires.

- Establish better wildfire emergency response protocols.

- Provide more support for wildfire victims.

MAUI NEEDS US: Please click here to watch this poignant video of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Lahaina.

A screenshot provided by the Kennedy 24 campaign. 

St. John's Can't Pull It Out Late In Providence

 

Daniss Jenkins goes up for a layup. @StJohnsBball.

The St. John's Red Storm had a slow start, a torrid finish to finish off the first half and another tough second half as they fell to the Providence Friars, 75-72, on Tuesday night.

This was a crushing loss for the Red Storm, as this drops them to 6-8 in Big East Conference play, and 14-11 overall, pushing their NCAA Tournament hopes in as much peril as they have been at any point this season. St. John's had started Big East play with a 4-1 record, so they have now dropped seven of their last nine games, including their last five contests on the road.

Providence, who nearly beat St. John's at Madison Square Garden on January 10, came out firing in this one, and raced to a 20-7 lead.

Still trailing by 13 points, at 28-15, halfway through the first half, St. John's closed the opening frame on a 23-5 run to take an improbable 38-33 lead into the half. They were backed by nine points off the bench from Sean Conway, who buried a trio of three-pointers; seven points from Daniss Jenkins, and Jordan Dingle chipped in six.

St. John's picked up where they left off to open the second half, and found themselves up seven, at 46-39, when Chris Ledlum buried a hook shot at the 17:45 mark.

Providence then went on a 10-2 run capped by a three-point play from Josh Oduro at 15:53. Eventually, they would go up seven, at 63-56, when Devonte Gaines drained a three-pointer at the 9:08 mark. 

Despite it appearing that Providence would maintain that lead the rest of the way, St. John's stunned them with an 8-1 run to tie the game at 70 on a Jenkins basket off a turnover with 1:37 left.

Corey Floyd Jr. responded with a layup to give Providence the lead back 11 seconds later, and they would hold on for the 75-72 win. 

The Friars shot 53.8 percent (14-26) in the second half, compared to St. John's shooting just 39.5 percent, or 15-38, in an all-too familiar story.

Providence was led by Josh Oduro, who poured in 28 points - an astonishing 26 of them came in the second half - on 9-16 from the field, 1-2 on three-pointers, and 9-10 on free throws, with four rebounds, four assists, two steals, and a +16, meaning Providence scored that many more points than St. John's when he was on the floor.

Devin Carter had 14 points (3-7 FG, 1-2 threes, 7-9 FT) and 11 rebounds to give him a double-double, with four assists and two steals. Davonte Gaines had 11 points (3-7 FG, 2-6 threes), with one rebound and a steal.

St. John's was led by RJ Luis Jr., who had 16 points, on 7-14 shooting (0-3 on threes), and 14 rebounds to give him a double-double, with two assists and a steal, but he committed five turnovers as well. Daniss Jenkins had 13 points (5-13 FG, 1-6 threes), three rebounds and three assists. Joel Soriano, in his first game coming off the bench this season, had nine points (3-8 FG), seven rebounds, and an assist.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after another tough loss, and he opened with this statement: "This was a hard-fought game. You have to give Providence a lot of credit. They made their free throws down the stretch. As I looked up today during shootaround, I saw two things that made me proud. There were two Final Four [banners], 1973, I played against them, and, of course, 1987." (Pitino coached Providence from 1985-87)

On if he considered using a timeout at the end of the game instead of playing it out before Daniss Jenkins missed a jumper, and then after an offensive rebound, Jordan Dingle missed a three-pointer with six seconds left: "No, because I knew they were going to foul. I was thinking about it the entire time, but I knew they were going to foul. As long as we get a look at the basket, it's okay, but whenever we run, they are a team who will foul."

On the team's mindset entering the final stretch: "If you don't win the next six games, you win the Big East Tournament. That's what competitors do. You keep fighting until your time comes. You never know when your time will come. Hopefully it's this year."

RFK Jr. Releases "Stop The Crisis" Video Documenting His Second Trip To Border

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the border. Provided by the campaign.

Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a new video on Monday documenting his second trip to the southern border in Arizona, "Stop The Crisis."

Kennedy took part in a roundtable on February 6 that was hosted by Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, and included Mayors, attorneys, chiefs of police, medical professionals, chamber of commerce leaders, and a superintendent of schools so he could learn firsthand about what is currently happening with the border crisis and how to fix it.

"The humanitarian crisis at the border and the influx that's coming in is an existential threat to our country and our values," Kennedy said at the roundtable. "I want to focus today on what your ideas are on how to we can stop this as quickly as possible."

Kennedy toured the new multi-agency southern border operations center in Sierra Vista, and visited the border near Coronado National Memorial. He learned how the drug cartel is coordinating "load car" drivers to get undocumented individuals into Tucson. 

Sheriff Dannels told Kennedy, while at the border, that when "President Biden took over he declared the southern border a non-emergency, which shut down all the developments on the border."

Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre told Kennedy that drivers are recruited almost entirely through Snapchat, Instagram, and other social media. He said a 17-year-old who attends one of the top high schools in the area told him, "Everyone in my school knows this is how you make money."

Sierra Vista Herald Managing Editor Matt Hickman, in explaining how Presidents Trump and Biden have no real interest in ending the border crisis, said, "Another important thing to consider is how much of an enormous political football the border has become and how much of an impediment that is. At this very minute in Washington, DC, we're just seeing political rancor, and I think it's very important for independents like Mr. Kennedy to keep up the fight because only the voice of independents can make any kind of wedge in this issue." 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Border Policy:

- Secure the border and end the humaniarian crisis and national security crisis.

- Build wide gates for people who wish to enter the United States in a lawful, orderly manner.

- Deploy well-trained personnel and resources including technologies that were installed at the border and then dismantled by the Biden administration, such as cameras, lights, and motion detectors, coupled with physical barriers in key areas.

- Make passport cards available to any American citizen who can't afford them.

- Eliminate the influence of the criminal cartels that have turned immigration, drugs, and human trafficking into a multi-billion dollar business that victimizes both American citizens and immigrants with themselves.

- Work with Mexico and other countries to stem the tide of migrants.

- End military adventurism and foreign policies that destabilize other countries, to stop the tide of outward migration.

Stop The Crisis: To view the video on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s visit to the border, please click here.

Midnight At The Border: Kennedy's first trip to the southern border was on June 6, 2023, when he visited Yuma, Arizona, and he released this video, which was Part 2 of his Running on Truth series to open his campaign, to show his findings. Please click here to watch it.

Marquette Mauls St. John's In Second Half

 

RJ Luis Jr goes up for a basket. @StJohnsBball.

In the latest in a familiar pattern for the St. John's Red Storm this season, they had a strong start to the game and were smoked in the second half, in this case by the Marquette Golden Eagles on their way to an 86-75 win on Saturday night.

St. John's dropped to 6-7 in Big East play (14-10 overall), while Marquette, who entered as the 7th-ranked team in the country, improved to 9-3 in the Big East and 18-5 overall. Marquette took both games against St. John's this season, as they also won a nailbiter at Madison Square Garden on January 20.

After the teams played even for the first seven minutes, the Red Storm went on a 12-2 run capped by a Chris Ledlum three-pointer at the 9:36 mark that made it 28-18. They kept it going, powered by 12 points from Daniss Jenkins and 11 from RJ Luis Jr., to take a 47-38 lead into halftime.

The second half was a different story from the jump, as Marquette went on a 17-7 run in the first four minutes and 44 seconds to take a 55-54 lead on a David Joplin three-pointer.

St. John's would battle back, and reclaim the lead, at 65-62, on a Nahiem Alleyne three with 10:24 remaining. 

Though they would be tied at 69 with 6:37 left, St. John's never led again. From when Marquette led 75-73 with 4:11 left, they  closed the game on an 11-2 run, with the win sealed by a Tyler Kolek three-pointer with 36 seconds left that made it 86-75.

In the second half, Marquette shot 59.4 percent (19-32) to St. John's 35.5 percent (11-31), and behind the arc, Marquette was 8-15 (53.3 percent), while St. John's was just 4-14, or 28.6 percent from long range.

Kolek put up 22 points in the second half, as he shot an astonishing 9-13 from the field and 4-6 from behind the arc, with seven assists and four rebounds. He finished with 27 points and 13 rebounds to give him a double-double, along with seven rebounds and two steals in the game.

Stevie Mitchell had 14 points (5-8 FG, 2-3 threes), with a rebound, while Oso Ighodaro had nine points (4-8 FG), nine rebounds, and four assists.

St. John's was led by Daniss Jenkins, who had 22 points (9-19 FG, 4-9 on threes), with six rebounds and six assists. RJ Luis Jr. had 13 points (6-11 FG, 1-4 threes), with three rebounds and an assist. Chris Ledlum had 11 points (4-12 FG, 1-5 threes), with seven rebounds and five asssists.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: "I don't have much to say. We realize that our defense is not great, so we have been trying to pick up our offense. We did a great job in the first half and in the second half, our defense was very porous, just by attention to detail. We are very disappointed. We'll get on with Providence and move forward." (SJU is at Providence on Tuesday night)

On how the team came out after halftime: "Well, [Marquette] came out and shot an open three and shot an open three. For no rhyme or reason in the zone, we didn't pay attention to their personnel and it's happened before. You know, they did it to us at our place, but when they shoot 52 percent from three, I don't care how good you're shooting the ball. You're not going to win. Our defense has hurt us most of the season and tonight was no different."

On opportunities the team has had but has gotten away from them: "Well, that's what happens in the first year when you're not a disciplined defensive team. That's what happens. It's not going to happen in the first year. It's not going to happen. I'm sorry, it's not. We'll play hard and you'll see some displays of brilliance at times, but it's not going to happen because unless you have a mindset of guarding people on every single possession, it's not going to happen and that's the mindset that they have. We're improving offensively, but defensively we still have the same problems. It is what it is. It's the first year. We are building a program and you gotta build a program on defense."

St. John's Demolishes DePaul At UBS Arena

 

Shawn Conway (30) falling back after he released a three-pointer that made it 26-16 St. John's at the 8:50 mark of the first half. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm got what they needed on Tuesday night, making the most of one of their three appearances at UBS Arena this season as they rolled to an 85-57 victory over the DePaul Blue Demons.

This breaks a stretch in which St. John's lost five of six games and brings them back to .500 in Big East Conference play at 6-6 and improves their overall record to 14-9. That is significant because 20 victories is generally the benchmark to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

St. John's was led by their dynamic duo of Daniss Jenkins and Jordan Dingle, who each poured in 14 points. Jenkins did it on 5-8 shooting, including 4-6 on three-pointers, with three rebounds and three assists. Dingle shot 5-13 overall and 4-10 on threes, with five rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Joel Soriano had 11 points (3-7 FG), eight rebounds (including four on offense), and two assists.

St. John's did what was expected to start this one with DePaul, who fell to 0-12 in Big East play (3-20) overall, and raced out to a 33-17 lead when Nahiem Alleyne buried a layup at the 7:01 mark.

DePaul responded with a sudden 11-0 run over the next two minutes and 10 seconds, and it was a five-point game, 33-28. St. John's found stability as the first half wound down, and took a 38-29 lead into the break.

The second half began much as the first did for the Red Storm, as they raced out to a 15-4 run capped by a Jenkins layup on a fast break at the 14:52 mark that made it 48-33. That lead would balloon to 26 points, 61-35, on a pair of Zuby Ejiofor free throws at the 11:10 mark. SJU was well on their way to putting up 47 points on 50 percent shooting, or 16-32, and 9-20 from behind the arc.

The amazing thing is that, for the game as a whole, St. John's shot 42 percent (29-69) overall, slightly better than DePaul's 38.3 percent (18-47), but this game was won on the boards, with St. John's hauling in 45 rebounds, including 19 on the offensive end, to 18 for DePaul.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the win, and he opened with this statement: "We did a good job of moving the basketball in the beginning when we weren't making many shots. I told the guys, they are all good shots, keep shooting. I wasn't upset at Jordan Dingle for going 0-for-11 [on three-pointers in the last three games]. I was upset he didn't try to go 0-25. He was counting his misses and not moving enough to take the shots. I've been with him with every player development drill, and he sets all types of records with his shooting. I felt tonight, he came out and missed the first two or three and then he let it happen. We need that because he is a great shooter. He has improved his passing, and we needed that. [Daniss Jenkins], besides having a great year, he never takes a possession off. He is tougher on the guys than I am. He's tougher on the guys in a good way because he holds them accountable. He's having a phenomenal year. 

"I think we are seven or eight points away from being a ranked team and that sometimes happens in a first year. We took Creighton to the wire at Creighton, Connecticut to the wire in Connecticut, Marquette in The Garden. We could have won all those game, but we didn't because we don't do the little things that get you over the hump in those close ones. I'm happy tonight, in a lot of different areas, but I'm happy we got movement and let those shots fly."

On the volume of three-point shots: "I wanted movement and I wanted them to take open shots. I didn't want them to count their misses. [Opponents] are looking at the stat sheet and saying, 'give them the outside shot.'...I want them to take it, I'll take 40 threes if they can shoot 37 percent. I'll take that every night."

On Jordan Dingle: "This is something you don't see in the Jordan Dingle line; four assists, no turnovers and two steals. That's pretty good as well. Look, we need him to score. The more he moves, the more [Jenkins] will get him a wide-open shot. He is good off pick and rolls. He is a heck of a basketball player and is playing with other guys that are really good. He is improving and getting better. I want him taking more shots than he is taking, but 13 [shots] is pretty good. 10 threes is pretty good. I'm happy with that."

On Daniss Jenkins: "Look, he is the MVP of this basketball team. He is a great point guard. Good size, good athleticism, works every single possession on defense. Every possession the entire season and he works every possession in practice as well. I'm real proud of him."

St. John's Stifled Late By The Champs

 

Tristen Newton dropping in a layup that put Connecticut up 20-19 at the 8:19 mark of the first half. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm gave the Connecticut Huskies a battle on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, but UConn put up 41 points in the second half on their way to a 77-64 win.

St. John's fell to 5-6 in Big East Conference play (13-9 overall), and this was the fifth loss in their last six games. They have now lost twice to Connecticut, the defending National Champion and No. 1 team in the country, who improved to 10-1 in Big East Conference play and 20-2 overall.

As would be expected with a noon tip, the game began with a series of streaks. After St. John's guard Daniss Jenkins got the scoring started with a three-pointer, on his way to 13 points in the opening frame, Connecticut responded with a 14-2 run.

St. John's followed with a 13-3 run to take an 18-17 lead eight minutes into the opening half, and that expanded into a 27-22 lead at the 6:02 mark when RJ Luis hit a pull-up jumper (pictured below). St. John's would take a 37-36 lead into the half.

Photo by Jason Schott.

The second half was a different story, as Connecticut took the lead, and though St. John's kept it within five points midway through it, UConn pulled away late.

Cam Spencer, who had 17 points in the second half, hit a jumper at 7:29 to make it 64-54, 49 seconds later, buried a three-pointer to make it 69-54, capping a 13-3 run that essentially sealed the game. (Pictured below)

Photo by Jason Schott.

Spencer led UConn with 23 points on 7-13 from the field, a superb 5-7 from behind the arc, with five rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Stephen Castle had 21 points (7-12 FG, 2-2 threes), three rebounds, and two assists. Tristen Newton had 18 points (4-11 FG) and 10 rebounds to give him a double-double, seven assists, and two steals.

St. John's was led by Daniss Jenkins, who had 19 points on 5-12 from the field, including 3-7 on three-pointers, with six assists and two rebounds. RJ Luis Jr. had 11 points (5-9 FT) off the bench, with five rebounds. Joel Soriano was held to six points (2-6 FG), with four rebounds and two assists.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: "It was a great crowd. A couple of key plays, turnover-wise, led to our demise. But they are better than us and those key plays, not only when we are down three or four, but when it goes to eight or 10, to a team that shoots free throws like this, you're going to lose the game. But, it's been the same problem all season; we're not a great shooting team and we're not a great defensive team. When a team shoots 49 percent form the field, almost 47 percent from three an they outrebound you by 15 (UConn's 38 to SJU's 23), you're not going to win many games. So, they're better than us. They have beaten us twice. I think Daniss [Jenkins] is playing at a high level - unfortunately, nobody else is, and that's one of the reasons why we are not playing great against great teams. So, we'll give them all the credit; it was a great performance by them at every phase of the game...

"I'm not overly disappointed; I'm really not because they were better than us. I was disappointed the other night with Xavier. We're trying to make three-point shots. We're not a great shooting team, and that's something you've got to be awesome. If you're not a great three-point shooting team, you've got to be a great defensive team, but we're not. So, we've got to keep getting better, keep improving."

On his concern level after St. John's has lost five of six games: "So, we are not a great basketball team. This is the Big East; I've been through it my first year with Providence, so it's going to take time. We have to get five or six Daniss Jenkins, guys that can do multiple things and play good defense, but they are going to continue to play hard, just have to play better. We have to improve as a basketball team defensively, improve with our offensive rebounding. We have to improve with not making turnovers at crucial times that make the lead go from three to six, six to eight, even though we didn't turn it over a whole lot."

On the confidence of his team: "I just told the guys 'they're Number One in the country, they're better than us.' It doesn't mean you can't beat the Number 15 team; you know, it's just, they're the Number One team in the country. We hope to get there someday, but they're better than us."

On what St. John's must change to put them on a definitive path to make the NCAA Tournament: "I think we come close a lot, like Creighton on the road, or Connecticut at Connecticut, Marquette, we come close against really good teams, but we turn the ball over. Like RJ (Luis), we all see is a very, very talented young man, made two crucial turnovers that killed us tonight, so you can't blame him, he's just learning the game. So, it's always been the turnover, or the loose ball, or the rebounding that has to get better, but without question, it's our defense. We're slow laterally, we're unathletic, and we're small - outside of that, we're pretty damn good!...We just need to get better, whether we are or are not remains to be seen with the way we've played against - one thing is, our schedule has been difficult and you can see, if you look at it and say, 'okay, St. John's is an average to good team, where are they going to take their lumps if you look at the schedule coming up.' you can sort of figure it out. Xavier wins 85 percent of their games, Connecticut's the Number 1-ranked team in the country, so if we can get on a little bit of a run, they'll get their confidence back, but we've go to get - He's (Daniss) playing like one of the top two, three point guards in the league - we've got to get the other guys to play at a high level, and we're not getting the high level right now."

On St. John's becoming rivals with UConn: "I don't think we're anywhere close to being a rival with them. I think as far as the crowd, very appreciative of the fans, they sold out Madison Square Garden, and maybe it could become a rivalry some day, but it's not now. Look, I lost my ego with the Celtics (whom he coached from 1997-2001), I realized I wasn't the great coach I thought I was. I call ego 'edging greatness out.' In a spiritual sense, I call it 'edging God out.' When you think you're better than somebody, you're not. Coaches have nothing - it's all about preparation. The players win and lose basketball games, the coaches are like jockeys. If they make the wrong move, you can lose a few, your horse and your team."

Yankees To Play In Mexico Ahead Of Season Opener

@Yankees.

The Yankees announced on Friday that they will be playing a two-game exhibition series in Mexico City against Diablos Rojos del Mexico, the most successful team in their league

The games will take place at Alfredo Harp Helu Stadium on Sunday, March 24 and Monday, March 25. These games will in essence conclude spring training ahead of Opening Day on Thursday, March 28, when the Yankees will be in Houston against their rivals, the Astros. 

While the Yankees are the most successful team in Major League Baseball with 27 World Championships, the Diablos Rojos has the most titles in the Mexican Baseball League, 16.

This will mark the Yankees' first trip to Mexico City since March of 1968 when they also played exhibition games against the Diablos Rojos, known as the "Pandilla Escarlata." That series was played at Parque del Seguro Social. The teams split the series, as the Diablos beat the Yankees, 5-3, on March 18, 1968, and the Yankees took the second game, 9-1, two days later.

For Yankees fans interested in making the trip, ticket sale information will be provided at a later date through the Diablos Rojos.

Pitino On UConn Matchup: SJU Has To "Play the best game of the season" To Beat Them

 

Rick Pitino addressing his team during a timeout on January 20. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm will face the defending National Champion who is currently the No. 1 team in the country, the Connecticut Huskies, tomorrow, Saturday, at noon at Madison Square Garden. 

UConn leads the Big East Conference with a record of 9-1 (19-2 overall), while St. John's is in a four-way tie for fifth at 5-5, with an overall record of 13-8.

St. John's nearly beat UConn on the road in their first meeting on December 23, as they lost 69-65. The Red Storm began conference play with a 4-1 record, and have lost four of five since then, including an 88-77 loss at Xavier on Wednesday ahead of this matchup.

PITINO PREGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media on campus on Friday morning, and here's what he had to say on the matchup: “We have to play the best game of the season to beat a team like them because this team does not have a weakness. They have size, they play great defense and they have a great bench. I would venture to say when they are 100 percent now with Cam Spencer and their center [Donovan Clingan] being back, this is a team that [last year at Iona we] played in the [NCAA Tournament] First Round and I'm not sure they aren't better than that team. They have a few more answers in certain spots. [Stephon] Castle is playing much better, [Clingan] is back, Spencer is terrific, their power forward is terrific, their bench is terrific and they are very well-drilled in every facet of the game. We will have to play a lot better than we have all season and rightfully so. They are number one in the country. If we were playing Houston or UConn or Arizona, you have to play great to beat them." 

On what the atmosphere at Madison Square Garden will be like: "This will be a neutral game, this will be 9,500 St. John's fans and it will be 9,500 UConn fans. To play the number one team in the nation, at 'The World's Most Famous Arena' with a sellout crowd, we couldn't do it without Connecticut. So, I'm very very appreciative."

On the team's outlook heading into the matchup: "The one thing about our basketball team is that they weren't too down after the loss and they weren't too up after beating Villanova. We try to keep everybody on an even keel because that's how the Big East is. If you don't bring it every night, you are going to lose regardless of who you play. It's just the Big East and that's how the Big East should be. On any given night you could get beat. There are very strong home-court advantages."

Mets Announce Promotional Schedule

 

Citi Field. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Mets announced their promotional schedule for the upcoming 2024 season, including special events on the calendar.

In addition, the Mets listened to their fans, who can look forward to Saturday home games between March 28 and May 25 having a 1:40 p.m. start, and from June 1 through September 21 first pitches at 4:10 p.m. This was the result of a Mets fan survey that showed nearly 90 percent of respondents wanted earlier game times on Saturdays to bring their families or large groups to the games.

There will be fireworks nights on four Friday night - May 31,  June 28, July 26, and August 16.

Here is a look at the Mets giveaway schedule:

Bobbleheads: 

Mr. Met London Telephone booth bobblehead - Saturday, May 11 (in honor of the Mets playing the Phillies in London in June)

Hello Kitty light-up bow bobblehead - Sunday, May 26

Brandon Nimmo bobblehead - Friday, July 12

Francisco Lindor streetwear bobblehead - Monday, July 29

Artist Series: The Mets will be collaborating with well-known artists, who have incorporated their unique artistic style into limited edition items.

Joel Mesler beach tote - Saturday, May 25

Rashid Johnson bucket hat - Saturday, July 13

Fan Favorites: 

Rugby shirt - Monday, April 1

Hogwarts House scarves - Saturday, April 27

Pride hat - Friday, June 28

Basketball jersey - Sunday, June 30

Soccer jersey - Tuesday, July 9

Mike Piazza Mercury Mets jersey - Saturday, July 27

Football jersey - Sunday, August 18

Reversible hoodie - Wednesday, September 18

Fan appreciation beanie for all fans - Saturday, September 21