Still no SNY on DirecTV

Another day goes by without an agreement between DirecTV and SNY. Some people are really upset about this, but I just took a look at SNY's programming schedule to see what I'm missing this afternoon:

1:00PM	All Star BBQ* Finals - NYC
2:00PM	Inside Poker 02
2:30PM	Nissan Postgame Live
3:00PM	WC - FIVB* Beach Volleyball
4:00PM	NLL Game of the Week: Cal @ Edm

Where do I start? First of all, BBQ in NYC? That might have held some interest before I moved down South and found out what REAL barbecue tastes like. Next, a show called Inside Poker. I just played poker for the very first time last weekend. I had a good time, but I am not nearly into it enough yet to watch people play it on television. Beach Volleyball. That, I could get into, assuming WC means "womens championship," but I can't be sure. Finally, what the hell is NLL?

Everyone seems to believe there will be an agreement before Opening Day. Based on this afternoon's lineup of programming, I think I can be patient.

The 2007 Outfield

It's never too early to think about the future of the team. RIght now I'd like to look at the 2007 Mets, in particular the outfield:

Obviously Carlos Beltran isn't going anywhere, even though this bunting crap is frustrating to see. For some reason the guy comes up in RBI situations and decides to bunt for an infield hit. Ridiculous. This season seems to be Cliff Floyd's last in New York, as Lastings Milledge has been all but annointed our 2007 leftfielder. As for right field, if the Nady/Diaz combo doesn't pan out, the Mets should make a run at bringing back Melvin Mora, who may be a free agent at the end of the season. He's been playing 3rd base for the Orioles, but he was dynamite to watch in the outfield when he played for the Mets. Of course the best part about watching Melvin Mora play is that he often looks like he's about to cry.

Viva Las Legas

Returned from a quick jaunt to Las Vegas to find out that Pedro is a no-go for Opening Day, so it looks like I'll be watching Glavine pitch on April 3rd. The only question now is if he'll pitch the second or third game of the season. selfishly, I'm kinda hoping they save him for the friday game against Florida, which should put him on track to pitch the April 12th game in D.C., which I'll be attending. Anyone have any insight as how the rotation is supposed to shake out, with the off-days?

Steve Phillips The Big Shot

For those of you who don't subscribe to ESPN's Insider, you don't have access to the latest column by Steve Phillips, where he explains what he would do if he were the Nationals' GM and Soriano refused to play the outfield. This is some of what he says he would say to Soriano:

"I will not trade Jose Vidro; I will not trade you; you will play left field or you will be placed on the disqualified list. If you force us to make that move, you will lose out on your $10 million salary and you will lose out on the thing you have been waiting for: free agency. If you think your value is reduced by moving to the outfield, you should consider what your value will be after spending most or all of the upcoming season not playing. You should consider that people will perceive, rightly or wrongly, that you are a selfish player. And you likely will get booed everywhere you play for the rest of your career.

"This is going to play out in one of two ways, both of which you control. You will either come to your senses and take a long-term perspective and see this as an opportunity, or you will cripple your career and force our hand."

Easy for Steve to say, sitting in ESPN's broadcast booth. Is this really the kind of straight shooting talk he did as Mets' GM? I'm reading this and picturing his negotiations with Alex Rodriguez in the 2000 offseason:

"Listen, A-Rod. This is going to play out one of two ways: You will either take our lowball offer and see this as an opportunity to play for what is right now New York's second team, and all the pressure to improve the franchise will ride on your shoulders, or you can take Texas' offer, which is double what ours is, and you will be viewed as a greedy player and get booed everywhere you play for the rest of your career, because I'm going to leak to the press that we were willing to pay you whatever you wanted until you said you wanted a tent in the Shea parking lot."

SoriaNO, thank you!

Today is a day I'm glad I'm not still living in New York, where I'd find myself listening to the so-called experts on WFAN. From what I understand, the airwaves are all a-flutter with rumors of the Mets trading Victor Diaz for Alfonso Soriano.

Look, on paper it's a no-brainer. Soriano is a proven hitter, and Diaz isn't even a proven major leaguer, but the truth of the matter is that a defensively-challenged second baseman who also happens to be a very selfish player is the last thing this club needs right now. A deal might have made a little sense before Omar acquired Carlos Delgado, but with Delgado now able to provide the offensive 'oomph' the club had been lacking, Soriano's bat is less necessary. At the same time, Delgado's lack of range makes the defense we get at second much more important than the offense.

Now, if Soriano were willing to play Right Field for the Mets, that might be a different story. But that's a moot point, of course.

Any objective observer can see that a deal for the Soriano makes no sense for the Mets, but New York is all about star power, so the media just can't help themselves. But giving it serious air time puts a serious knock on their credibility.

If anyone is within earshot of this drivel, and would like to enlighten me as to which knucklehead is saying what stupid thing, please post a comment.

Two Weeks From Opening Day

Opening Day is two weeks away. My wife and I will head up North next Friday, see some old friends, get some great pizza and bagels, and meet up Monday morning to head over to Shea for Opening Day 2006! We'll have to make sure to get there on time, as the Mets have planned a pretty cool treat for the ceremonial first pitch. Jesse Orosco is going to throw to Gary Carter, commemorating the 1986 World Championship winning battery. Expect a loooong standing ovation, especially if Gary makes good on his promise to jump into Jesse's arms, a la '86.

As for the actual game, the Opening Day lineup is shaking up as such:

SS Reyes
C LoDuca
3B Wright
1B Delgado
CF Beltran
LF: Floyd
RF: Xavier Nady
2B: Hernandez
P: Glavine

I'm thinking Nady and Hernandez have won their battles for their respective positions at this point. Nady and Victor Diaz have put up similar stats this Spring, with Nady faring slightly better, but Nady's experience will probably land him the Opening Day job. Keppinger has outslugged Hernandez thus far this Spring, but the statements made by Willy lead most reporters to assume Keppinger won't be given the job out the gate.

As for the pitcher, Pedro Martinez doesn't seem to think pitching Game One is that big of a deal, and Glavine's schedule is geared towards pitching that day. Lord Forbid the Mets mess with Glavine's precious schedule again, so I expect to see Glavine on the hill that day, with plenty of quotes about his goal to reach 300 wins in the papers that day.

From a financial standpoint for the Mets, it's actually better for Pedro to start the second or third game. Opening Day is sold out anyway, with or without Martinez, but they might sell more tickets one of the later games with Martinez pitching than they would otherwise. I'll just have to accept that I won't see him pitch that day, and will be resigned to coming home and watching him pitch on TV. If I am willing to fork over the cash, that is.

I have DirecTV, which hasn't announced plans to carry SNY yet, but I'm outside the local region so I'll have to subscribe to Extra Innings to get the game. If I sign up by April 2nd, it's $160 for the season. Man, that's expensive. It stinks to have to pay for 60 games a week when I only want 7. I might go with MLBTV again. It's half the price, at $80 for the season, or $15 a month, and I can watch the games from my laptop when I travel as well. I'll also surely get the Gameday Audio package from MLB.com, which is the best bargain of all. For $15 I get every team's radio broadcast, for the whole season.

The thing is, I've always loved listening to baseball in the car, and an internet subscription won't help me with that. So I'm also still thinking about getting XM Radio, which for $13 a month gets me every game, plus all the music channels as well.

I am very indecisive about this. I feel torn about spending so much for the Extra Innings package, when living in North Carolina allows me to see at least 33 games anyway (whenever the Mets play the Braves or the Washington Nationals). What should I do? Speaking of the Nationals, I will be traveling to D.C. on April 12th to see The Mets play a road game there. Maybe I'll get lucky and see Martinez pitch that game?

Leiter Hangs Em Up

Al Leiter retired today. He really should have retired a couple years ago, when he became a five-inning pitcher. Now he's a only valuable as a lefty specialist, and he doesn't want that gig. Al's a nice guy and he kind of left on bad terms, but I hope in retrospect he realizes Omar was 100% right in pulling his offer off the table and chasing Pedro Martinez instead.

I always thought Al was a bit of a baby there. Omar made him an offer, and Leiter said no. Sometime later, probably after he saw it was better than anything ese he could get, Al came back and wanted the deal. Well Omar had already decided to go after Pedro, and told him the contract offer wasn't on the table anymore. Leiter whined to the press, who had always given him a fair shake.

Leiter played for both the Marlins and The Evil Empire last season, and stunk pretty bad for both clubs, so he should be able to see that the Mets knew what they were doing by moving on. It would be nice if he came back to the Mets now as a coach or as a broadcaster, as he's shown he's very capable there in his work with ESPN. Maybe he can also make up with Chris Russo. Leiter was a bit of a baby with that whole thing too.

The other prediction writers have made is that he has a future in politics. I am not sure I would support Al The Candidate, but I do appreciate the way he pitched for The Mets in his time with the club. I've even forgiven him for that time he told The New York Times he was having trouble "staying motivated" while pitching in 2004.

Anyway, all the best to you, Al... good luck!

Mets New Batting Helmets

How cool do the new Mets batting helmets look? Usually I am more of a traditionalist, but these are futuristic in a very cool way:








Delgado Franco

I don't know if they will use them in the regular season, but I guess it depends on if the players feel the vents or other features are helpful or not. I think they're cool looking though!

Photos from Newsday.com

Mr. Wendell Lyrics

Here, have a dollar, in fact no brother, man here have two. Two dollars means a snack to me, but it means a big deal to you...

Remember Turk Wendell, that crazy pitcher who wore bones around his neck and used to slam down the rosin bag between pitches? That same Turk Wendell was in the news this week as he asserted that "it's physically impossible" for Sammy Sosa to have put on thirty pounds in one offseason and become the prolific hitter he became in the late nineties. Some quotes:

"Here's a guy [Sosa] who goes from 30 homers to 60 homers every year, and just as fast he's out of baseball. Can't get a job. How's that work?"

"Everybody in Chicago knew what was going on, just like everybody in baseball knows about Bonds," Wendell told the Herald. "The coaches knew. So did the managers and owners. How could they not know?"

"Then, Jose Canseco comes out and says it and everybody rips him, and now everything he said was true. A lot more will come out about guys who nobody's talking about yet, too."

Then he makes an even more dire prediction:

"You still see Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto and Johnny Pesky around, but this era of players is going to be dying early," Wendell told the Herald. "The stats don't lie. The stuff will kill you."

Oh, Turk. Ya gotta love him.

Metsui Down

As if Kaz Matsui hasn't played poorly enough this Spring (.184 BA, and too many errors), he got hurt yesterday, spraining his knee while sliding into second. He and Willie expect that the injury will only sideline him for a day or two, but every injury he's suffered in the past has seemed to linger endlessly. In any case, all things being equal, Kaz has played the worst of all the second basemen who were competing for the allegedly open job.

My pick for the position was Jeff Keppinger, and he has played the best, but recent reports have said that Willie considered him a longshot at best and Keppinger's apparently headed to Norfolk to start the season regardless.

If Matsui's injury lingers though, this may open up a spot for the kid. We'll see... Of course I wouldn't mind if the job went to Anderson Hernandez either, but it just seems unacceptable to me to allow Matsui to continue his mediocre ways with the big club.

My NCAA Tournament Bracket

I don't know a darn thing about college sports. Somehow, however, it's inevitable that every March I will get involved in the tournament that determines the national champion. Every year, the one guy at work who actually watches college hoops will rope everyone else into participating in the bracket.

Now that I've moved to North Carolina, it's even worse. They LOVE the college basketball down here. It doesn't hurt that there are four teams (Duke, UNC, NC State, UNCW) from this state in the tournament this year, but these people follow the sport THE WHOLE SEASON.

So I have picked my teams for the bracket, despite the fact that I have never seen one team out any of the sixty four play in my entire life. I picked Villanova to win the whole thing, partially because I actually know the name of their coach, Jay Wrifght, because he was the coach at Hofstra while I attended.

I was almost starting to care who won the tournament, until while I was reviewing my highly-educated picks, when I saw that the championship game is played on April 3rd. April 3rd! Frickin' Opening Day! Do these people have no shame???

Bobby Valentine's Blog

My favorite Mets manager of all time is Bobby V. I love how much he wants to win, and how much he doesn't mind talking about how much he knows about baseball. Like Muhammed Ali said, "it ain't bragging if it's true,"

After Bobby V was fired and replaced with Art Howe, and the Mets stunk just as badly, I showed up at Shea with a sign that read "See? It Wasn't Bobby V's Fault!" We had second row seats beside the visitors dugout so my sign was very visible. A security guard made me take it down, even though he didn't understand what the sign meant.

"Is that a negative sign?"

"Bobby Valentine wouldn't think so," I replied.

He made me take it down anyway.

Please check out Bobby Valentines blog at www.bobbysway.jp

I Despise Tom Glavine

I don't hate Tom Glavine just because he's stunk for the Mets. There are plenty of players who fit that description., and I don't have enough energy to despise all of them the way I despise Tom Glavine.

Tom Glavine has only done one thing consistently since he arrived in New York: whine.

Whine, complain, and make excuses. Questec computers, Roger Cedeno and Armando Benitez are all the scapegoats blamed for the fact that Tom Glavine's chase for 300 wins has stalled since joining the Mets. He talks about that 300 wins all the damn time. He comes off like such a selfish ass every times he mentions his goal to reach 300 wins. The only wins he should care about are team wins. I don't want to hear him talk about his personal win-loss record until he's retired.

It's been especially tough living in the South, with plenty of Braves fans around to remind me of the pitcher Glavine used to be.

And that's what makes his whole demeanor even rougher to swallow. The worst thing about it is that he's already a Hall of Famer based on his career stats. He doesn't need to hit that number to reach the Hall.

Even this year, when Freddy W and Omar have compiled a team that gives him the best chance of reaching the World Series since signing with the Mets, he is still a whining, selfish, pain in the ass.

From David Lennon's column in Newsday, on June 10th:

Tom Glavine is a stickler for routine, so when the Mets shuffled his schedule to make him their contingency plan for Opening Day, he didn't seem overly thrilled about it.

Opening Day is the only game I know for sure I'll be watching from the seats at Shea, so I want to know that the guy who's on the hill for the Mets that day is thrilled to get the honor to pitching on Day One.

And now his old GM in Atlanta writes a book and exposes that Tom Glavine had serious second thoughts after agreeing to come to the Mets.

This guy is a real bastard. I honestly hope that teh Mets win every game he starts, but I hope he doesn't get credit for any of them. I'm begging for a bunch of late-inning, come from behind victories for the Mets when Glavine starts.

And here's my latest prediction: no matter how well or poorly he does this season, this off-season he'll sign with the Baltimore Orioles and rejoin his old pitching coach Leo Mazzone.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (and Kidneys)

Some ailment notes:

The most famous toe in baseball is still an issue. So much so that when Pedro said the bullpen mounds in Port Saint Elsewhere were too hard, Freddy Wilpon had bulldozers come in and level them. No kidding! Someone should tell Pedro to pass along the word to Mr. Wilpon that the "hot" pretzels at Shea are cold and slimy. What Petey wants, Petey gets!

Today we also learned that Clifford Floyd has kidney issues. Oh, boy. Apparently his father passed away at a young age from kidney failure, and our leftfielder's kidneys are only operating at 48% efficiency right now. He's peeing blood, and he's been ordered to cease and desist with the fast food, soda, and salt. Get this man a salad! Seriously, this is not good, baseball aside. Hopefully Cliff will be all right. Even professional baseball players have to watch their diets.

World Baseball Classic

Sometimes I feel like the only guy who thinks the world Baseball Classic is cool. I'm real happy to be able to see real games played in March, instead of half-hearted exhibition match-ups with only one or two starters that last through the game more than a few innings. I hope I'll be able to watch a couple games. I think this thing is gonna be big. Don't forget, nobody thought the Superbowl was a big deal it's first year, either.

While I was away in San Francisco, my TiVo recorded a couple Mets spirng training matchups, one against Puerto Rico. I have a lot of TV to catch up to!

One thing that made my cross-country flights more enjoyable was listening to MLB Radio's daily podcast on my iPod. Everyday is a half hour show that is essentially a "best of" from that day's MLBRadio's broadcast. Yesterday I listened to Tommy Lasorda preach about how great the WBC was, and I also heard Darryl Strawberry report from Mets Spring Training. I highly recommend the podcast!