Remembering Mario Cuomo

Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who died yesterday at age 82, was among other things, a brilliant speaker and quite a sports enthusiast.

His thinking was complex and he was a gracious, accessible gentleman on the few occasions that our paths (his, one of hard work, determination and beautiful longtime romantic love, immersed deeply in family) crossed.

A few of my lighter recollections of those meetings will follow, but first my heartfelt condolences to his family. His wife Matilda was beyond gracious and accommodating on the occasions I interviewed her.

We met as she worked tirelessly for such causes as mentoring and proper immunization for children. Those two being bipartisan and more important great causes, if there ever were some.

Mr. Cuomo was a good enough baseball player to make it far in the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league system in the 1950’s.

I remarked to him that was pretty darn good and his retort, reminded that the Pirates of the ’50’s were one of the worst major league teams ever, how good could their minor league team have been?

Once, The New York Times asked regarding Mario Cuomo; Sandy Koufax or Saint Thomas Aquinas? I know a little bit more about Sandy and mentioned him to Governor Cuomo.

He amazed me with the fact, not that he was at the game nor that he knew that Koufax fanned 15 Yankees to set a then World Series record in game 1/1963.

No, what amazed me is his recalling that the superb Yankees second baseman, Bobby Richardson, who was extremely difficult to strike out, had struck out three times in that game.

The last time I saw Mr. Cuomo, other issues were on my mind. He saw that my collar needed fixing and did so. What a wonderful gesture. Those issues, while important and stressful, were less so after his act of kindness.

Now we all need to fix or straighten/ “buck up” our collective “collars” in these hard, derisive times. That is a much more difficult task, without one as brilliant, caring and communicative as Mario Cuomo.

Matilda and Mario Cuomo