Gov hails falling state COVID figs
Hero Met Mookie: We’ve come a long way on racial divide
Gov. Cuomo praised New Yorkers on Saturday for staying the course as coronavirus infection rates continued to decline to new, nearly three-month lows.
Even though COVID-19 rates are declining a bit slower than elsewhere and New York City is lagging, Cuomo said better days are ahead as more and more people get vaccinated.
“New Yorkers have shown strength and resilience throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’re going to need more of it as we work to get everyone vaccinated across the state,” he said. “The footrace between the positivity rate and the vaccination rate is progressing in our favor.”
The statewide positive test rate dipped Friday to 2.85%, taking the weeklong average to 3.18%, the lowest it’s been since Thanksgiving.
There were 5,445 New Yorkers hospitalized with COVID, the lowest total since mid-December.
Another 85 people died from the deadly virus Friday, a total that has remained stubbornly high even as other metrics have steadily improved.
Fifty-four of the deaths were New York City residents, including 18 from Queens and 15 from Brooklyn. The five boroughs continue a recent trend of being hit the hardest even as statewide numbers drop.
The positivity test rate remains high in the city, especially in the Bronx, where 5.56% of tests came back positive Friday. Manhattan is the only borough where the rate is lower than the state’s average.
The rapid nationwide improvement after the holiday surge has recently leveled off in many parts of the country.
Public health experts are warning lawmakers against lifting social-distancing and mask requirements too soon, fearing a fresh upturn in infections.
Doctors hope that the steppedup vaccination campaign can keep the pandemic on the back foot before more contagious strains of the virus spread.
When Mookie Wilson was a kid in South Carolina, there was no Black History Month. Or week. Or even one single day.
“The only thing we heard about Black history was President Lincoln freed the Negro slaves,” recalled longtime local fan-favorite Wilson, an unlikely hero in the New York Mets’ 1986 World Series championship. “That’s all. I think when I was younger, I assumed that’s the way it was and always would be.”
Wilson, now 65 and back living in his home state, said the worst part about the absence of stories about Black achievements across the decades was the loss of inspiring stories left untold to future generations.
Black history, he said, is as much about the small moments as the larger issues.
“It can be somebody you don’t know about,” he said. “It can be somebody you can’t imagine. If you don’t hear about our history, you will never know the possibilities.”
He speaks from experience. The beloved center fielder recounted his trip to a racially divided University of Massachusetts campus after the Mets’ title triumph over the Boston Red Sox set off a brawl between white student fans of the BoSox and Black student boosters of the Amazin’s.
Mookie arrived in Amherst with Boston’s white second baseman Marty Barrett on Nov. 21, 1986, to call for peace.
“A Black guy and a white guy, who were actually adversaries, came together,” recalled Wilson, who was admittedly uncomfortable about heading into enemy territory. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about how this was going to work out. But it worked out good.”
Wilson stood tall as he invoked America’s racist past in a call for peace to some 1,200 students: “You can’t change the way society was formed hundreds of years ago. But you can influence the way you treat people.”
When it came to Black baseball history, Wilson learned about the exploits of groundbreaking Jackie Robinson from his dad, a former
Brooklyn resident. Their discussion was not limited to baseball as Mookie’s dad provided details on Robinson’s life outside the baselines.
“Jackie went to UCLA,” he recalled. “He broke the color barrier, but that’s a small part of what Jackie was. He changed a culture. They don’t talk about his intelligence, how much he was involved in politics. They don’t tell you that part of the history.”
While the protest marches of Wilson’s youth accomplished much in changing the nation’s laws, he’s quick to note legislation is hardly enough to end racial inequality.
“Laws don’t charge the hearts of people,” said Wilson. “Sad to say that in this day and age. We’ve tried that — affirmative action. It doesn’t change the hearts of people, the racism and bigotry. And that goes both ways, Black and white.”
A chat with Wilson inevitably turns to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, when he chopped a ninth-inning, two-out bouncer toward Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner. The ball slipped between Buckner’s legs and the winning run scored. The Mets tied the series at three games apiece and went on to win Game 7.
The photo of Wilson digging down the line as Buckner whiffed on the ball became part of baseball history. The two men, forever linked, became close friends and remained so until Buckner’s death in May 2019.
“I’ve probably signed a million of those things,” said Mookie of the famous picture. “I enjoyed my time with Bill, and I miss him an awful lot. I don’t know two people closer than we were. It really is odd how that worked out. You can’t explain certain types of things.
“Bill said what happened was meant to be.”