Truth be told, nobody ever asks me, but the nasty weather we've gotten lately has put me in a bad mood, so I thought I would vent and tell you what's bothering me. I'm watching the Yankees-Angels series and of course I'm rooting for my beloved Bronx Bombers. I don't think the Angels fans are real fans. First off, the team is called The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Either you're from Los Angeles or you're from Anaheim. Make up your mind. You never see a church called Christ the King of New York City and 135th Street. Secondly, real baseball fans don't need gimmicks. You go to the ball park and you loudly root your team on. This is done by standing, clapping and/or yelling for your team, much the way Yankees fans do whenever one of our pitchers has two strikes on a batter. The Angels fans employ a "rally monkey" and "thunder sticks." This is both annoying and amateurish. Hopefully, the Yankees will dispose of the Angels and get back to the World Series where they belong……….And I'm getting a little sick and tired of Mets fans reminding me whenever the Yankees lose in the playoffs. The reason the Yankees can lose in the playoffs is because they are in the playoffs — a notion that is inconceivable to Mets fans. If the Mets were in the playoffs, I would root for them because I am from New York. But Mets fans (the word "met" is derived from Latin, meaning "root against another team") should be more concerned with their own happiness. Hey, I'm a Cleveland Browns fan and I don't root for the Pittsburgh Steelers to drown in a gigantic flood, in part because if that happened, the Steelers would most likely still be 14-point favorites against us……………You can tell I'm upset. I've already used italics four times……….Kevin Witt of the Times Herald Record does a Weekly Top 10 where he ranks the area's high school football teams. Monroe-Woodbury at 7-0, and one of the top Class AA teams in the state, is rightfully ranked at number one. It appears that, as far as Witt is concerned, the top spot is all that matters. Taking nothing away from Monroe-Woodbury, Witt seems unaware that there are other teams in the area besides the Class AA powerhouse. The only other area team at 7-0 is our very own Ellenville Blue Devils, who are ranked at # 8. And the Blue Devils only cracked Witt's Top Ten two weeks ago after Pine Bush fell to under a .500 record. There are a couple of obvious points to be made here. How Kevin Witt ranks the Section 9 football teams is really insignificant. What happens on the field is most important. And while there are no criteria listed for the rankings, it is obvious that Witt favors the larger schools. Three schools with two losses each are ranked ahead of Ellenville. One would be foolish to think that Class C Ellenville could be remotely competitive with the larger ranked schools like Cornwall (Class A) or Newburgh Class AA) but it would be fair to ask Mr. Witt exactly what he is basing his rankings on. Because no matter where you come from, 7-0 is still 7-0……….Watched the Ellenville varsity boys' soccer team take on Spackenkill inside the Milton Dome last week in a one-game playoff to see which team would advance to the Mid-Hudson Athletic League semifinals. The M.H.A.L. continues to run its league as though it were the Dark Ages and school size plays no role in championship play as Class A and even Class AA schools can face off against Class C and Class D teams. Everywhere else in the civilized world teams compete against other schools of similar size. It's called fairness. The Blue Devils dropped a 3-0 decision to Spackenkill but with 10 wins and #12 state-ranking Ellenville is headed for its third consecutive Section 9 playoffs. Coach Maxwell Mead has done a tremendous job with this program, and, despite the program not having a rich tradition, has his team believing that on any given day they can beat anyone. A week before the playoff game in the Dome, Mead's Blue Devils hung the first home loss in six years on Spackenkill. I texted Mead with a message that said, "Congratulations, Coach of the Year!" The always modest Mead proved my point by promptly texting back, "Team of the Year!" And that is why Mead truly is Coach of the Year……….The Ellenville girls' soccer team needs two wins in their final two games to make the sectional playoffs. The Ellenville girls' field hockey team has won three or four games this year. That's better than recent years, but one has to wonder why a small school like Ellenville continues to suffer with two mediocre programs when it could have one very competitive program. I saw an Ellenville school administrator last week and said, "We need to drop our field hockey program. It's that simple." I expected some politically correct response as to how the district tries to provide a variety of experiences for our student-athletes, but the administrator was forthright and honest and simply replied, "I know." Before all the field hockey players start writing those Letters to the Editor, let's take a look at some facts. Ellenville is a small school and would be best served by dropping field hockey and strengthening its soccer program. Our field hockey team has not been competitive in many years. Several Section 9 schools have dropped field hockey in the last few years and the prospects of us being competitive against traditional powers like Red Hook or the much larger schools like Kingston are not good. Field hockey, with more equipment, is much more expensive than soccer. It has also been proposed in the last few years that high school field hockey players will soon be mandated to wear protective helmets, which would further increase costs. The bottom line is that there simply are not enough athletes to make both girls' soccer and field hockey competitive. Let's drop field hockey and put our efforts and resources into soccer……….nobody asked me, but...