Biggest Game of The Year

My boss is a big Phillies fan, and yesterday morning I walked into his office and proclaimed last night's game as the biggest game of the year for the Mets.  A chance to have  a winning road trip, take 3 of 4 from the Phils, move to withing 2 1/2 games of first, and find out what Pedro has left in the tank.  Howie Rose must have heard me, because he said the same thing about 50 times during the radio broadcast last night.  My boss said the Phillies were due for an offensive breakout.  He was right.  But, too little too late....  Mets Win!

Mets Fast Forward

Mets Fast Forward is a great program on SNY, especially the morning after a west coast night game.  They show the highlights of the previous game, in a one-hour period.  This is a great way to watch a game...  except when SNY runs the results of last night's game in the crawl at the bottom of the screen!!!  Brilliant, just brilliant.

Not To Worry Ed McMahon...

..you may already be a winner in the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.

Link: Ed McMahon: It's The Economy

 

Schneider Still Sidelined

Brian Schneider remains in the hospital with a staph infection in his left thumb, unsure when he'll be able to return to the team.

Says my brother in law Len:

"I just wanna know how many times Schneider took the old saying 'rub some dirt on it' literally over the past few weeks.  Obviously, the old adage needs to be changed to, "just rub some alcohol in it so you're not hospitalized and intraveneously fed for a week'.  "

Re: Confusion

This is a controversy.  In some places I'm reading Wright tried to convince him to go out... in other places I read Wright told him NOT to go.  Delgado was asked about it after the game and he claimed he's only given two curtain calls his whole career... after his 4 homerun game, and when he hit his 400th.  He says he has too much respect for the game to give a curtain call after a solo homer in the seventh.  I don't know what to think.

Mets Beat Braves, Fashion Beats Smoltz, Delgado Beats Ball But Won't Beat Fans

The Mets beat the Braves today at Shea, taking two of three from Atlanta.

 

John Smoltz looked really bad today.  I don't mean his lousy pitching performance.  I mean the schmuck buttoned his jersey wrong and pitched six innings with the ATLANTA across his chest all askew.

Apparently Delgado thought he was Beltran of 2006 today and refused to take a curtain call.  Unlike Julio Franco, David Wright couldn't convice him to go out there.  As Ron Darling noted in the broadcast, the fans are undefeated in this town.  So now Delgado can go play first base in wherever Rey Ordonez is playing, along with the rest of the idiots who tried to take on Mets fans.

Mets Retired Numbers: Mike Piazza vs. Gary Carter

At Opening Day, the Mets announced that Shea would go up as an official "retired" entity, along with the #s 41, 14, 37, and 42.  To date, Tom Seaver is the only Mets player to get his number retired.  We speculated on who else might get the honor.  I felt confident that Gary Carter was the next to be bestowed the honor, because he's now a Hall Of Famer, like Seaver, led the Mets to a World Series, like Seaver, and his number has not been used by the Mets since he was elected.  My friend said that Mike Piazza deserved to have his number retired much more than Gary Carter, because he felt that Piazza spent more of the best years of his career with the Mets than did The Kid.  Additionally, he felt Piazza was more of a "Franchise Player" like Seaver, as compared to Carter, who was more of a cast of stars on the 1986 squad.  My friend went so far as to say that Strawberry, Hernandez or Gooden deserved to have their number retired than Carter.  So, he challenged me to take a look at it.  

 

I still don't think that the Mets will retire anyone's number who is not in the Hall Of Fame, but after looking at this, I have to agree that Piazza is more deserving of having his number retired by the Mets than Gary Carter is of the honor.   

 

To calculate % of career as a Met I used games played as a Met / Games in players career.

I compared Carter's offensive stats with Piazza, even though I don't think it's fair since they played in different eras.  When you look at their careers side by side keeping that in mind, they are pretty similar,  But after looking at their Mets careers in context of their total careers,  Piazza was more of the franchise player than Carter was, and Piazza played more of his best years with the Mets than Carter did.  And actually, Ed Kranepool arguably deserves the honor more than anyone.

 

What do you think?

Citigroup reports $5.1 billion loss on hefty write-downs

NEW YORK - Citigroup Inc. lost $5.1 billion during the first quarter and will eliminate about 9,000 more jobs, as poor bets on mortgages and leveraged loans lopped billions of dollars from its investment portfolio
 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080418/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_citigroup

 

I'm sure the 9,000 people losing their jobs will LOVE to see Citi Field inaugurated next year.  Wonder how many paychecks they could write for the money spent on naming rights?

Opening Day is Just A Day Away!

Wow - Monday kicks off the 2008 Mets season. I am stunned when I look back and think about the last year for me, personally, since the last time the Mets played an Opening Day. A lot of ups and downs, tons of twists and turns, and more change than you could imagine possible in a year. My wife and I did just about everything you could do in a year. We got a second dog, got pregnant, adopted out said second dog after she relentlessly fought with first dog, sold a house, changed jobs, moved to New Jersey, lived in a hotel for a month, bought a house, and gave birth to our little Mets fan. Somehow in that time period we also managed to squeeze in a planned trip to Mexico and an unplanned trip to Iowa.

And now here we are. Somehow this blog survived through it all (barely), and we're staring straight-faced, just hours away from Jose Reyes stepping into the batters box to start the new season, with none other than Johan Santana making the Opening Day start. My first season back in the Northeast, and the Mets' last at Shea. Spectacular.

There's been a lot of dismay expressed by Mets fans lately, over El Duque and Fernando Tatis making the roster over Ruben Gotay and Mike Pelfrey, respectively, and to that I say this: A March where our biggest gripes are the identities of the fifth starter and the sixth infielder is a very fine month indeed. So Gotay is now a Brave? Meh. Could that "come back to bite us," as many fans and reportedly one Met expressed? Perhaps. But not every Met that goes to the Braves is Matt Franco. Some of them are Todd Pratt. And Pelfrey needs to grow a pair before he can pitch every fifth with the big club.

Is the team perfect? No. But perfect is what the New England Patriots were. At least before my son was born during halftime on February 3rd.

Lets Go Mets!

Mets News Heard This Afternoon On ESPN Radio - All Star Game at Citi Field

Schuck and His Lap Dog were doing some Big East basketball thing today, so I swung the tuner over to ESPN Radio.  Just before noon, some crack reporter (can't remember whom) called in with a report after speaking with Jeff Wilpon.  His breaking news update:

 

• Jeff said that an announcement will be made soon about an All Star Game to be played at Citi Field
• When asked about Willie Randolph's job security, Jeff said "he's under contract for the next couple seasons"
• There is some flexibility in the budget to add payroll if the right opportunity comes along
• There is a job waiting for Mike Piazza in the Mets organization, whether in broadcasting or in some capacity, whenever Mike decides to retire.  Jeff said he's waiting for Mike to retire to discuss options with him. 
   

So there you go.

Transplanted Ex-Mets Update: Armando Benitez

Everyone's favorite ex-Mets closer Armando Benitez has signed a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays.  I remember going to Photo Day at Shea one year and seeing Armando pout because he wasn't getting a big enough crowd from the fans for pictures.  I never had so much appreciation for John Franco as when I saw Armando struggle so much as closer, despite a ridiculously fast fastball.  It proved that John Franco's save total wasn't just a matter of pitching in the right innings, but that to be a closer requires a certain special kind of mentality that transcends "stuff."  I rarely agree with Schmuck and His Lap Dog, but they are dead-on when they say the Junkees would be much better served grooming Joba to be the closer of the future than trying to re-invent him as a reliever.  Why Russo keeps bringing up one poor start as a college player is beyond me, but you can't expect them to ever make a point without at least one knucklehead comment.

Know what's hilarious?  Here in Central Jersey, I can get SNY on DirecTV, but not the YES network or the Phillies stations.  Meanwhile, down in the baseball wasteland of North Carolina, I was able to get both the Mets and Yankees stations, as well as the Nationals on MASN, and could get Braves games on the radio. 

There's going to be a hockey game at Yankees Stadium next winter, to close out the building.  How do we push a movement to have the Jets play at Shea in November?  After all, the friggin Jets were named after the planes that flew over their heads as they played in Flushing, for crying out loud!

My 7-Pack tickets showed up in the mail this weekend!  As Carlos Baerga once said, "Show Up At Shea," because Abu Dhabi Field seats are gonna be real hard to come by.

Billy Joel is a Jerk

So, 50,000 people or whatever bought tickets to a Billy Joel concert thinking they were going to see the last concert ever at Shea Stadium, and now they are only going to see the second-to-last concert ever at Shea. Nice. What a jerk.

 

http://mets.lohudblogs.com/2008/02/19/piano-man-encore/

 

Transplanted Ex-Mets Update: The Joe McEwing Era has ended

Tell Cooperstown to start etching the plaque.  Metsblog passes along word that Joe McEwing has hung up his cleats.  Somewhere, Tony LaRussa is having a whiskey sour in his honor. 

 

Whenever I hear McEwing's name, I think of when my buddies and I had the Sunday pack in the loge section, and behind us sat this husband and wife pair who had an unhealthy obsession with McEwing. "JOOOOOOOOEEEEEEYYYYYYY!!!" they would scream like loons at the guy, over and over and over again.  "Best player on the team!," they insisted, while the guy took a mini bat and banged it on the metal railing, incessantly.

 

ONE TIME McEwing got a big hit after their chanting, and in response the clown remarked "See? It pays to be rude."

Name Doug's Kid!

Doug in the comments section of the previous post, has a son due in two months, and presumably a very patient spouse.  He says he's looking for "just the right Met name" for his new kid.

 

He says Shea is in the running, but it's too feminine and too Irish.  Doug, don't forget that Larry Chipper Jones named his daughter Shea in honor of how well he hit in the ballpark.  If that's not the biggest kick in the teeth to Mets fans I don't know what is.  I think Shea is still a good dog name, though.  Next dog I have I might name after Chipper's daughter.

 

Seaver is another option for Doug.  I like this idea.  I'd probably cast my vote for this one.

 

I named my dog Mookie, but that would probably give your Jewish grandmother some agita.

 

Let me throw a few names out there:

 

Tug (but I hope you're a better dad than McGraw was)

Murphy (but you thought Shea was too Irish)

Agee

Carter

 

Other suggestions, readers? 

Booooooooorrrrrrrring

Man, is this just the most uneventful offseason in Mets memory, or what? We traded arguably our most exciting young player this side of Jose Reyes for a rightfielder who can't hit lefties and a catcher who can't hit anything. Other than that, the biggest baseball news coming out of Flushing is we have a neato first base coach in 2008.

If the players we sign can't be stars, at least they have semi-interesting names: Steven Register, Matt Wise, and Angel Pagan. If only these players were any good, New York's copy editors could have a lot of fun writing headlines about them.

Metsblog must have posted 8,000 different articles about Johan Santana rumors, and absolutely nothing of substance to report. Not really Matt Cerrone's fault, but it's really gotten retarded. If Hank Steinbrenner coughed up a nickel for every time he said the Junkees were in or out of the Santana Sweepstakes, Cashman would have the $200 Million it's gonna take to sign the guy. The Mets don't say a damn thing - just leak rumors to Schmuck Francesca that the Twins want Reyes and the Mets won't trade him.

I've plunked down my bills for two sets of seven packs, ensuring that I'll see the last ever Shea opener and the final regular finale at my church... I am just so damn used to the Mets winning the World Series in December every year that I just can't get over the lack of a big splash this year. Heck, how about a little splash? Sign Mike Piazza to be the backup backstop and run Rapist Ramon out of town already. I'm glad we no longer have any known juicers on the roster, but I'd be even happier if we didn't have anyone who had been convicted of assault on a female either. Hey, it's my soapbox I can preach if I want to.

Roger Clemans looked liked the biggest liar in the world on 60 minutes this month, but if he really does follow through with the lawsuit - I mean really follow through and drag it all the way through the courts, and really takes the stand under oath before Congress and says if he used steroids he should be kept out of the hall of fame and be made to give back his Cy Youngs, I'll give him a smidgen of the benefit of the doubt. Until then he's Roider Clemens to me. And Paul LoDuca can shut the hell up.

Man, I wish I had more real baseball to write about.

My son is due in 27 days and we had a baby shower this weekend. I am proud to say that besides all teh other very generous gifts we got, I'm excited to report my kid's brainwashing will begin on day one, when he arrives into this world equipped with Mets pacifiers, Mets receiving blanket, several Mets T-shirts including a David Wright #5 tee, Mets shorts, Mets plush baseball, a Mets rattle, a Mets picture frame, and perhaps best of all, a Mr. Met crib mobile. Awesome.


Now we'll just see if the kid shows up on Feb. 15th, the day pitchers and catchers report. That would be the second best arrival date after Feb 2. Groundhog Day, of course. So for the rest of my life I can embarrass the kid by telling the story of his birthday, when the doctor held aloft my new baby boy, who then saw his shadow and we had six more weeks of winter.

Wocka wocka wocka.