Yesterday, part of my childhood died.

On a September day in 1989, like may others who fell quickly in love with sports radio, I was tuned into WFAN to listen to the first-ever Mike & The Mad Dog program. I had usually tuned into the Fan at that time slot because I always enjoyed Mike Francesa and Chris Russo’s predecessor, Pete Franklin. But even when Pete unceremoniously left WFAN, I was still going to listen after school—to Mike, who had been in an earlier timeslot with Eddie Coleman, and Mad Dog, who was a weekend favorite of everyone who listened to the station.

So yesterday morning, when I received a text message from a buddy of mine that it was official that Mike and Chris were no more, I honestly felt like part of my childhood died. From age 14 to now 33, Mike and Chris were always a part of my life—they were always part of my daily routine. I even made a habit of listening to them when I lived in Newport, R.I., though the signal wasn’t as good. 

Still—from 9th grade to this very day, two people came into my living room, car, bathroom … wherever. They were always on. 

I have been critical of Mike often. Heck, even yesterday, as people called to say their farewells to Chris, Francesa took time to demonstrate his usual arrogance, by adamantly assuring us there would be no new partner for him on the radio. But that was inconsequential.

The bottom line is that something that had been a staple of this area for a few weeks short of 19 years was gone—never to return.

It wasn’t hard to see Mike and Chris were not the same pair they once were earlier this year, when it was obvious they were angry with each other. That “chat” about whether the Yankees needed a new stadium [see Youtube] demonstrated a lot of anger on both their parts. 

It wasn’t hard to see they weren’t the same when Neil Best wrote a story about information he knew about Chris leaving.

It wasn’t hard to see they weren’t the same when in the months leading up to their 19th anniversary, there was little talk about them entering their 20th season.

Yes, it was rather easy to see they were on a path to different places. And boy did it come sooner than most could have dreamed. And, as usual, CBS Radio did a horrendous job by enforcing its rule that an outgoing personality—ask Don Imus about this—doesn’t get a last horrah show. Instead, Chris spent seven minutes or so on the air with Mike—from a telephone at his place {or hotel … wherever it is he’s staying] on the Jersey Shore.

Months ago, I took a shot in the dark and wrote a column on this site saying I thought the jingles would have to be changed. But I honestly thought that was because of Mike’s arrogance—and I really thought he’d have been the one to go. Instead, it’s Chris.

Like many fans of the show, I’ll miss the show. I’ll miss the malaprops Chris speaks on a regular basis. I’ll miss Dog poking fun of the Yankees. I’ll miss Mike and Chris screaming at each other. 

I’ll miss something that was more a part of my life than almost anything else I can think of. In those 19 years, friends came and go. Relatives died. Friends moved away. Hell, I even lost my cat, Metsy, who was named after—well you get the idea.

But now comes the fun part: Watching whether Mike can handle this show alone. Ask me, the answer is no way in hell. But there’s a lot of talent out there—and without writing it, it doesn’t take a brilliant person to know who I’d like to see paired up with Mike come September or sometime thereafter. I can hope.

But until that time, I say thank you to Mike and Chris for together being a part of my life for nearly two decades. You set the standard by which every sports talk radio host should follow. You set the format that truly works—and that fans demand. Good luck, Chris Russo. Wherever you go, you will do well.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand WFAN will never, ever be the same without you.

It could very well have been Kearny. A small town. A once bustling economic structure. A loss of a lot of tax money when plants closed. A town once dominated by Irish and Scottish immigrants now with many Latino (and Portuguese-speaking) people.

Enter Shenandoah, Pa., a small town (around 6,000 residents) where there were once a score of available jobs. It’s a place where there once was a lot of white faces—but where there are now many more faces from several Spanish-speaking countries, including Mexico, which plays an important role in this place.

Save for the gap in population (there are 40,000 or so in Kearny), Shenandoah and Kearny share a lot of similarities. Once economic hotspots, neither is exactly a perfect picture for economic bliss.

In Shenandoah, like Kearny, the jump in Latino residents is easily noticeable. The jump in Shenandoah was 65 percent since the 2000 census.

Kearny has seen a considerable jump in Latino residents, too.

So in a way, this little Pennsylvania town is a lot like Kearny in many ways. And unfortunately, Kearny is a lot like Shenandoah for the wrong reasons too—the lack of appreciation by many for the diversity of the townsfolk.

Yet we can only hope Kearny doesn’t completely follow in this town’s footsteps, because what happened there recently is almost impossible to fathom. It’s almost incomprehensible that in 2008, something out the history books could happen again. But it did—and this little town is reeling.

The big story: A Mexican immigrant, who was here illegally, were beaten to death, allegedly by four teenagers who were members of the local varsity football team. Though he survived his attack initially, Luis Ramirez eventually died of his injuries these four supposedly inflicted on him. Let’s not focus on the perpetrators in this case though—instead, let’s look at the incident itself.

A man, who granted was not supposed to be in this country, was savagely beaten. He was beaten badly enough that it killed him. And according to numerous published reports, he was killed because he was an immigrant—and because he wasn’t like the faces that once ruled the land in Shenandoah. Others say racism is rampant in this neck of the woods. Some, conversely, say we should turn our attention to other matters, because racism isn’t found there.

Yet whatever the case may be, one thing is absolutely certain: A man died, he’ll never roam this earth again and four teens—including one being treated by the juvenile justice system—stand accused of the beating.

The video on CBS.com (which I’ll embed below this post) shows some white kids saying the underrepresented people (a much nicer word for ‘minority’) have caused there to be more trouble. They claim the circumstances would be different if the victim has been white and not of Mexican descent.

Quite frankly, I’d love to know: What the hell does it matter what this man’s ethnicity was? What the hell cares if there’s a belief that the guy’s getting more attention that if he had been white? What kind of kids are living in this community?

Maybe more importantly, what are these parents teaching their kids? What are these schools teaching these kids about diversity, uniqueness, character? What are they teaching these kids about tolerance?

Ask me, it seems like they’re not doing a damn thing.

And because they didn’t do anything, a man is dead, four teens are accused of killing him—and this little town will never be the same.

Shenandoah is a microcosm of many small towns, where not all the people respect others for who they are, and not for the color of their skin. Given what I’ve seen, this could just as well be Kearny, N.J., where there are still many people who don’t appreciate the diverse cultures right before their very eyes.

This is, of course, not to say there’s anyone in Kearny who would kill someone just because he’s Mexican. But it does mean there are people here who still just don’t get it.

If anything good comes out of this story, it will be that people who are less tolerant than others might just get a better sense that diversity, in its purest form, is not a bad thing. There have been many whites caught committing crimes—why else would there have been a police department in town up to now?

I can only hope something good comes of all of this.

I won’t be holding my breath waiting.

The other night, I had little to do. So, as I do every time I’m bored, I searched my digital cable lineup for something to watch. Though it wasn’t on when I’d be awake, I saw something called “The Boys from Baghdad High.” It was a documentary about four teenagers — all living in the war zone of Iraq, and all of whom were entering their senior year of high school — who were given video cameras to document their school year.

All four of the teens knew each other, though some were better friends with others. They weren’t a traveling group of friends, so to speak.

Three were Muslim and one was Christian. They Muslims were from different sects. And yet, all four went to school with each other, and without issues — hardly the way things were in their very surroundings.

When all was said and done, the producers of the show took some 300 hours worth of footage and packed it into a 90-minute documentary that was some of the most riveting television that I’ve ever seen outside of “24″ and “ER.” 

Perhaps it was the sheer reality that what was on the screen was as real as it gets. Perhaps it’s the notion that I can relate to the lives of teenagers having spent years as a teacher. Perhaps it’s the shocking value of seeing these kids struggle as teens do with teen issues — girls, academics, family, growing up — all as guns were being used, as explosions were happening, as buildings burned, right in their very own neighborhoods.

The documentary brought to life the War in Iraq — a war we often only see in 30-second sound bites on the news or on cable. It brought to life the harsh reality that kids, just like the kids we know in this country, struggle with day-to-day issues. But unlike their American counterparts, they’ve got to deal with the horrors of war. They’ve got to worry about getting shot at and killed as they drive from their homes to school. They’ve got to worry about whether they’ll be able to keep the electricity running through the night with their power generators, since electricity is staggered throughout Iraq.

Yes, the Iraqi teens are a lot like American teens. They wear ripped Abercrombie jeans. They listen to hip-hop. They like to use the Internet. They worry about whether they’ll do well enough to go on to university. But seeing the side shows they deal with — seeing their incredible struggle to survive — demonstrates just how difficult this war is … how difficult life in Iraq is … how different things are for the teens of the United States of America.

“Boys from Baghdad High” is absolutely worth a watch. If you have onDemand and HBO, you can watch the program anytime through August. Check listings for other air times. 

If you watch the documentary, be forewarned: some of the scenes are hard to fathom. One thing’s for sure though — if you don’t come away after watching the show with a better appreciation for what we have here in America, then nothing, I repeat, nothing, will ever affect you in any way.

I am hardy ashamed to admit that I am a liberal. Call me whatever you want. You can use all the Rush Limbaugh-Sean Hannity adjectives to describe me if you’d like — I’ve heard them all hurled at me at one point or another. Yet the liberal in me gets a little less liberal anytime I hear about a politician who has had an “incident” involving some sort of an extra-marital affair.

This afternoon, I sat in my office, waiting for the Internet to come back. It had been out for hours, starting at the beginning of the day. As the day progressed, we had CNN on in the background, as per usual. Out of nowhere, it happened: CNN announced that John Edwards, whose wife was stricken with cancer, admitted to having an affair with a woman who had been his campaign Web site’s documentarian. 

It took my breath away.

This wasn’t supposed to be something John Edwards did. He’s the guy who enjoys going to Louisiana to help rebuild neighborhoods hit hard by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He’s the guy who kept on telling us how he was the poor son of a mill worker who made it big. This John Edwards would never, ever have an affair.

Yet again, another big-name politico in yet another sexual tryst. Add him to the list: JFK, Bill Clinton, Jim McGreevey, Newt Gingrich, Eliot Spitzer, David Paterson, Larry Craig … I could go on forever here.

Sometimes, I just wonder what goes on in the mind of these politicians. Is it the power? Is it arrogance? Is it that their wives are that unsatisfactory? Is it a combo of all these ideas and more?

Whatever the reason is for these extra-marital affairs, it’s all sickening. But it’s even more sickening because so often, the very politicians who are sleeping away from home are the very same ones who keep on telling us how important it is to protect “the (so-called) sanctity of marriage.”

What, in these marriages, is sacred? You’d almost think based on what we hear from the far right that marriage, as it is right now, is perfect. 

Hardly.

Instead, it’s a complete mess. And it’s an atrocious shame. 

John Edwards is just another name to add to a list that sadly will continue to grow. He’s not the last politician we’ll hear of who cheated on his wife, lied about it — and then got caught by the media. In this world, it seems more and more that it’s almost acceptable for one spouse to cheat on the other.

And yet, the biggest issue — even bigger than the infidelity itself — is the sanctity of marriage. 

In so many ways, it’s really broken. And it’s going to take more than a Constitutional amendment to fix it.

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For the newest edition of The Canessa Corner, I thought I’d take a hodgepodge look at the Tri-State Area sports situation. So here it goes.

• You’ve got to really feel for Willie Randolph. Unquestionably, he’s got to be aware of what his former team is doing of late — and that includes a 9-game winning streak, and pulling to within .5 of Philadelphia. When he was fired, the Mets were 5.5 behind Philly.

I often wonder what a fired manager must think when his once-struggling team goes on to a streak like this — one that should propel the Mets to playoff birth.

• With that said, you’ve got to love with Jerry Manuel is doing with this team. He rewards good, solid play with starts, he’s got a great command of the media and he just seems to have brought a new-found fun to Shea, something that wasn’t there with Willie.

Every post-game press conference seems to have part baseball, part stand-up routine. And considering how banal Willie was, this is a refreshing change for most Mets’ fans.

• The New York Rangers appeared, at the end of last season, to be just a piece or two away from being a serious contender for The Stanley Cup. As a New Jersey Devils fan, having had to deal with watching Sean Avery pestering Martin Brodeur was painful. Which is why I just can’t understand how the Rangers could allow Avery to go to Dallas.

Devils fans once had a love affair with the pesky Claude Lemieux. And we knew what a menace he could be. Avery was a modern-day version of Lemieux — and any chance a team has to have a player like that should be capitalized on. But for some reason, the Rangers chose to let Avery walk.

It just doesn’t make sense — and it sets the Rangers back, coupled with the loss of Jaromir Jagr.

• The Devils, meanwhile, continue to show they’re serious about winning another Cup for their 12,309 fans (I’m one of them). Bringing back Bobby Holik, old as he is, will help, and Brian Rolston’s 30 or so goals will bring much needed offense to a team that struggled to score so often.

Perhaps most intriguing with the Devils is a rumor they’re pursuing Sergei Fedorov. This would be a tremendous move if Lou Lamoriello can fit him in under the salary cap — and it’s one that could help the Devils give the Penguins and Canadiens a serious Eastern Conference challenge.

• I never liked the Yankees, but there are some Yankees who I’ve always admired and respected. One was Bobby Ray Murcer, whose death this weekend was bothersome. When you listened to him on TV or doing Old Timers Day, didn’t you just get the feeling he was speaking directly to you? He was like an uncle you always wish you had.

What a tremendous loss this is. Rest in Peace, Bobby. God bless you and your family.

• If you’ve listened to a Mets’ game on WFAN, don’t you get the feeling Howie Rose can’t stand Wayne Hagin? Of course, Hagin is Rose’s third broadcasting partner in four years, but there’s something about Hagin that seems to really piss Howie off.

In Sunday’s game, when a foul ball was heading to the radio booth, Rose tried to get out of the way, but couldn’t, because Hagin apparently didn’t move far enough. So, instead, Howie went the other direction, only to meet a wall.

“I was trying to get out of the way but someone didn’t budge,” Rose said on the air. “The wall doesn’t give that much, Wayne. I was trying to get out of the way, but someone else wasn’t.”

It’s not the first time he’s gotten testy with Hagin. And it probably won’t be the last.

Of course, Hagin’s OK as a broadcaster, but when compared with Gary Cohen and Tom McCarthy — there really isn’t a comparison. Hagin’s very slow in his delivery and shows very little emotion. Sometimes, his home run calls are so slow that a runner is likely between second and third before he says “home run.”

Makes you long for the days of Bob Murphy, Cohen and Gary Thorne.

• Speaking of announcers: Man John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman irritate me. The two absolutely ripped the Mets for the way they treated former Yankee Willie Randolph. Of course, neither of the two homers peeped a word after the Yankees screwed Joe Torre after winning for World Series and after making the playoffs in every year of his tenure.

I don’t mind them being critical of the Mets, but if they’re not going to rip their own team for the crappy way they treated Torre — then they’d be better off keeping their annoying mouths shut.

Then again, this is the same duo who thought it was “dramatic” that the Yanks brought Roger Clemens back last year for one of the team’s all-time greatest busts.

• That’s all for now. Enjoy the week, everyone — and enjoy the All Star Game.

So, here it goes.

• MSNBC did a deplorable job this morning covering the death of journalist and former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. When NBC’s Tim Russert died, MSNBC did itself a big disservice by blanket covering his death. And this, of course, is not to say Russert didn’t deserve the coverage that he got. Because he was a true giant in the media and an even greater human being. But in cases like this, when someone like Snow, similar in age, similar in career, dies, it’s next to impossible for the coverage to be fair.

MSNBC barely covered Snow’s death and conversely, it covered Russert’s passing for days on end — non-stop.

As someone in the mainstream media wrote days after Russert died, it is possible to overdo coverage of the death of someone important. And in Snow’s case, it is certainly possible to under cover all the same.

• Yesterday, I had a chance to ride the NJ Transit Light Rail for the first time. I went from Bayonne to the Newport Centre Mall in Jersey City. Talk about a tale of two cities.

The first leg of the journey passes through much of the Greenville Section of Jersey City — and the second leg through Downtown Jersey City. It’s hard to believe it’s the same Jersey City — it seems like two different worlds. The start of the journey takes place in a depressed Greenville neighborhood, only to end up in the privileged Downtown, with high-end, high-priced posh apartments and office buildings.

I still have never understood how mayors of Jersey City have allowed so much attention to be paid to Downtown, while completely neglecting other parts of the city (yes, I mean Jerramiah Healy, Glenn Cunningham, Bret Schundler and Jerry McCann).

Still, it ought to be interesting to see how the city’s new mayor (there’s an election in 2009 and with any luck, Healy will be packing his bags) handles these other neighborhoods.

• I read this week’s editorial in The Observer. Can anyone explain it to me?

• Speaking of The Observer, I found it interesting Publisher Lisa Pezzolla was the focus of a story in The Kearny Journal this week. Hey Jon Chundak, are you reading this? Remember what happened when you were the focus of a Kearny Journal story? Think maybe she’ll pull her own column now?

• Jersey City’s Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop has successfully gotten two ballot initiatives on the November ballot for Jersey City. One is a pay-to-play type deal and the other would bar sitting members of the Jersey City Council from being employed publicly. This writer is extremely pleased with Fulop’s initiatives — and we’ll have much more on this first victory for Fulop later on this coming week. Way to go, Steve.

• Bret Schundler is planning a run for Jersey City’s Mayor in 2009. Can you believe he actually thinks he could win again? A two-time loser for governor, Schundler has as good a chance at winning the mayoralty as Jerry McCann has at becoming Jerry Healy’s best friend.

• Only East Newark has received extraordinary aid from the Department of Community Affairs for the new fiscal year. This is terrible news for the people of Kearny. Get ready for another tax increse, Kearny residents. (Keep in mind, however, that it won’t be as bad as last year’s. Then again, we’re just a year away from the next Kearny mayoral election — so of course the increase isn’t as harsh. Doesn’t it always happen this way)?

• Speaking of the race for Kearny’s mayor — 2009 should be one of the more intense campaigns. Al Santos, from all indications, will seek another four-year term. Yet 2009 should be a lot different for Al. Chances are good there will be a host of candidates running against him, given Kearny’s tax situaion and a plethora of other reasons. It wouldn’t be all that shocking of there were people in his own Democratic Party who decided on a run. Wonder if Jim Mangin is reading?

• That’s all for now. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and remember: There are just 191 days until the Bush family vacates the White House once and for all! If that’s not reason enough to celebrate, what is?