I'm Goin' To Opening Day!

So, I was in Utah this weekend to attend to some family matters. This would have been okay except for the fact that Mets tickets went on sale yesterday, and my in-laws only have diap-up internet access at home so my efforts to snag Opening Day tickets online would have been crippled! Luckily my wife's mom, hereafter known simply as 'mom,' is a saint and agreed to get up at 6:30 Utah time to take me to her office where broadband access was available.

So from 6:55 AM to 9:30 AM I hit redial again and again on the two cell phones I was armed with and waited not-so-patiently in the Mets online ticket waiting room, as teh counter went from 60 down to zero, supposedly attempted to connect to the ticket window, and reset back to sixty. This went on for two and a half hours.

Finally, at 9:30 AM (11:30 NY time) I gave mom some mercy. I gave up on the online endeavor, especially after hearing that my buddy Tubby was able to get past the waiting room, only to be shunned from buying tickets.

All the way home from the office I continued to redial the number (TANGENT ALERT). Why do I still say 'redial' even though I am not "dialing" anything? Is this a word that will make me sound old in front of kids who have no concept of how phones used to work before touch tones? Okay, not I am sounding old to myself. Let's get back to the subject at hand...

We got back to the house at about 9:50, and I kept on hitting redial, my wife took her phone and kept hitting redial, and then my sister-in-law, hereafter known simply as "hero" picked up her cell phone and started trying. Lo and behold, eight minutes later, she got through! I heard the words I'd been dying to hear all morning:

"Thank you for calling the New York Mets ticket office, where Mastercard is preferred."

Opening Day tickets were, of course, sold out. But not really sold out. I could still buy tickets to Opening Day, if I bought a six pack of games. I agreed. And now, $690 dollars on my AmEx later, I own six seats for The Pedro Pack, which includes Opening Day, The Friday Night Mets/Yankees game, and 4 other games which I haven't even bothered to check the dates for. Six seats for each game.

My friends and I are all set for Opening Day now. Hopefully Pedro Martinez will be as well. As for attending the other six games? That is going to be a challenge, seeing as I still live in North Carolina...

Anyway, Lets Go Mets!

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Metsui goes deep

In 2004 and 2005, Kaz Metsui hit a home run in his first at bat of the season. He is getting ready to recreate that feat this year. If he can hit a dinger off Mets new fireballer, then he should be capable of a three-peat, no? From Newsday...

"...Matsui, who has fallen so far he needs to win his job back, surprised an overflow crowd of skeptical fans by taking [Billy] Wagner deep during live batting practice."

Kaz had to be jonesed about that, huh?

"Being able to hit well off a good pitcher gives me encouragement," Matsui said through his interpreter. "But I don't want to get all jumpy and happy."

Don't worry Kaz, Willie's around to burst your bubble.

"He's in great shape," Randolph said. "He probably just got lucky and walked into one."


Oofah.

A-Rod The Spineless Phony Shows His Character In My New Home State

From Peter Gammons's ESPN Insider Blog:

On Feb. 3, A-Rod attended North Carolina State's baseball opener, dressed in red, per the Wolfpack. On Feb. 4, he was at Cameron, dressed in a Duke shirt, cheering on the Blue Devils.

After reading this I promptly e-mailed my Duke and NC State loving co-workers to show them why I despise this guy and why they should too.

When many of the people here in the south hear me talk about "Opening Day," they still think I'm talking about the start of hunting season. I'm working on them, slowly but surely...

Mike V's First Prediction Of The Year

Freddy Wilpon made his prediction for the 2006 season yesterday, saying the team is ready to "take off," so in honor of his prognostication, I'll make one of my own. I should note that my predictions are almost wrong, but here goes anyway:

Bret Boone, who is competing for the second base job with Metsui, Keppinger and Hernandez, will have an outstanding spring... and then will be traded for pitching before Opening Day.

I just really can't see the Mets giving the job to Boone. Long term, they have to be rooting for Keppinger or Hernandez to win the job, and they'd probably be happy to see Kaz do better, just to vindicate the "scouts" who wanted to sign him in the first place. But Boone, at the end of his career and with a miniscule contract, is much more valuable as trade bait.

So, we'll see. Don't let me forget to look back at this prediction on April 3rd!

South Of Shea

One thing I didn't anticipate when I moved down south was that Southerners refer to anyone born and raised north of Baltimore as a "yankee." As a true-blue Mets fan, I tried to convince my new co-workers that this was just not acceptable! Please, please call me anything but that! I even offered up suggested replacements for the dreaded "y" word:

• Northern Elitist Scum
• Yellow-Bellied Liberal Bastard
• F*ckin' New Yorker

They just didn't understand. You see, they can't even tell the difference between the Mets' and Yankees' quite distinctive interlocking 'NY' logos! So I tried to explain it to them this way: Let's say you are a huge, huge, Dale Earnhardt fan, okay? You've tattooed his number on your shoulder. You watch every race and curse his opponents. You only buy the products that sponsor his car. You with me? Now, you get into an argument with someone and the guy tells you to quit being so "petty." See how that would burn you up?

I'm here nearly sixteen months now, and I am still battling the label. I even considered getting a vanity license plate that read IH8YANKS. My wife wasn't sure how that'd go over. So, the battle continues...

Back, Back, Way Back

I returned from my Costa Rican vacation to learn that Mets tickets go on sale this coming Sunday. I have never actually tried to camp out at Shea to buy tickets, so living in NC doesn't make much of a difference, especially since with Vonage I wouldn't have to pay long distance charges to call (718) 507-TIXX, but I unfortunately will be in Utah this Sunday, so won't be able to use my broadband internet access to try and buy the tickets. I don't even remember the last time I didn't go to Opening Day, but this year it will be a challenge to get tickets, as I will be armed with only my wife's- and my- cell phones & the dial-up internet access at my in-laws. I think I am going to hope that one of my buddies will score the tix! But we will see.

Meanwhile, the funniest thing I read is that Jose Lima has been invited to camp! I think he's just there to keep Pedro entertained; I can't imagine he'll make the team. From today's Newsday...

Major League Baseball refused Lima permission to wear No. 42 because he didn't have it the last two years with the Royals or Dodgers. He will wear No. 99 instead. "I'm not mad," Lima said.

I guess the Mets aren't on planning on retiring Turk Wendell's old number, huh?

Oh, Rickey

The Mets announced today that they are inviting Rickey Frickin Henderson to Spring Training this year. No, not as a potential outfielder, and no, not to fill out the clubhouse poker tournament either. They want him to teach Jose Reyes how to steal more bases.

Rickey Henderson was fun to have on the club during the 1999 season, even though he was absolutely painful to watch play left field. This guy could not go back on a ball to save his life. A ball that was hit too deep right was automatically extra bases. Meanwhile, Melvin Mora was flat out amazing in center. ((TANGENT ALERT)) If only Rey Ordonez didn't fall apart, causing the Mets to play Mora at short, where he was mediocre at best, maybe we would have had more years of seeing More of Mora play the outfield and develop as a hitter.

This is why I hate Rey Frickin Ordonez. I blame him for everything that went wrong in 2001. Like I said, Melvin Mora was an absolute joy to watch in the outfield. But when Rey Ordonez got hurt in 2000, Melvin was asked to play shortsop and suddenly was viewed as a "utility guy." (This is how I remember it anyway). He was no Ozzie Smith at short, so Steve Phillips shipped him off to Baltimore for Mike Bordick, who turned out to be a pretty big disappointment himself. Last I checked, Melvin Mora was a rather good player.

Meanwhile, Rey Ordonez also is partially to blame for the Mets failure to sign Alex Rodriguez in the 2000/2001 offseason. With Rey Ordonez incapacitated, but with the Mets still on the hook to pay him big bucks for three more seasons, he had absolutely no trade value so The Mets couldn't trade him to free up dollars for the A-Rod tent.

Then, after stinking up Shea for another two seasons, O-Rod called Mets fans stupid. Great guy. Really hope his comeback attempt is successful.

Anyway, back to Rickey Henderson. He hasn't played in the majors in like two years but he still isn't technically retired. He likes to compare himself to active ballplayers and scoff, "if that guy can get a job, why should I be out of baseball?"

Well, I am outta here myself. I'm going on vacation, and will be gone all next week. In the meantime, Pitchers and Catchers report, so hopefully there will be more things to rant about when I get back. Meanwhile, I'll be teaching Costa Rican kids how to hit a curveball. Actually, I don't know how to hit a curveball, so maybe I'll just teach them how to blog.

Awards Show Season

I meant to watch The Grammys last night, but completely forgot about them. Instead, I watched a cool episode of Lost. I'm surprised that Lost was a new episode last night, going up against The Grammys, and I'm curious to find out how the ratings of each show were affected... In any case, I have no comments on The Grammys because I didn't buy much of the music that was nominated, but if you need to get some awards commentary from me I'll do my best:

Over at Faith and Fear in Flushing, Greg takes the time to list his assessment of The 100 Greatest Mets Of The First Forty Years. This is actually a list that was complied last March, but it's interesting to review again a year later. Still glad to see Mookie Wilson at #11, Mookie being the guy I named my dog after.

But what I am most happy about is that with the 2005 contributions of Pedro Martinez and David Wright, it's safe to assume that the next time a list like this is compiled, #98 Lenny Harris will have been permanently bumped off the list.

Here's a guy who was only kept around because he was buddies with Mr. Piazza. The fact that he broke the record for most pinch hit at bats in a season, as well as the most pinch hits in a career, only serves to remind me that he was too horrible to start games very often.

He might have a great personality, but I'd much rather see him as a character on some outrageous sitcom than on any kind of Mets list.

Mets' Super Bowl Picks

http://click.mlb.com/ct/click?q=f9-mtBTQxOZE_FTHDISMQP4dG4R

Willie Randolph and Cliff Floyd are picking Pittsburgh, while David Wright and Tom Glavine pick Seattle. Billy Wagner says even though he is a Steelers fan he really likes Seattle so he is rooting for a tie.

When the Braves played the Yankees in the World Series I was rooting for an earthquake.

Mets on DirecTV

Although I haven't been able to locate the original article online, Kranepool posted that the NYPost's Phil Mushnick is reporting that the Mets' new TV network, SNY, has reached an agreement with DirecTV.

No, this would seem to be extremely good news for me, seeing as I have DirecTV and I am a big Mets fan. Especially when in years past MSG, FSNY and YES network were all part of DirecTV's sports package, allowing viewers to get all of those channels and more, for just $12 a month. It would stand to reason that SNY will now be a part of that sports pack right?

When we moved down to NC in November 2004, we moved into an apartment. Mind you, this apartment was beyond my wildest imagination for what an apartment could be. A two-bedroom ground floor spread with everything you could want - tennis courts, fitness center, a pool, for just $700 a month. It was great, considering the 500 square foot sh*thole we lived in on Long Island with a higher rent.

Anyway, the first thing I did when we moved was call DirecTV to come and install a dish.The only problem was that we weren't allowed to bore holes into the property, so I had to settle for Time Warner Cable until we were ready to buy a house. Now, I thought Cablevision was about the worst company in the world until I started dealing with TWC. These guys are even worse, believe it or not! So I suffered with Time Warner until May, when we bought our house and I was finally able to get at DirecTV and, I expected, my Mets.

The guy comes and installs the dish, and lo and behold, Mike and The MadDog show up on my screen on the YES network. I tune over to FSNY and talentless twit Fran Healey is asking dumb questions to Willie Randolph. Sweet!

My joy quickly came to a halt that night however, when I tuned in to watch a game and there was nothing but black on the screen. I called up the folks over at DirecTV and after talking with a bunch of schmucks for two hours was able to surmise that for my $12 I got all the programming that YES and MSG had to offer, EXCEPT FOR GAMES! No, to get the games I had to subscribe to the ExtraInnings package for 40 clams a month, which shows about 50 games a week, without guarantee that the Mets would be on any given night. I balked.

Instead, I subscribed to MLB.com's radio package, which for $15 A YEAR I got to listen to the home or away radio broadcast of every game of every team in the country. A couple times (mostly when Pedro was pitching) I even plunked down a couple bucks for MLBTV.com and saw the game on the old laptop.

This season I'm going to give in and buy tea ExtraInnings package. I heard about a scam where I could tell DirecTV I moved back to New York, and they would start sending me the New York channels, but I haven't found anyone who has actually done this, and I also read something about "spot beams" or something, where the channels are only directed at certain regions of the country... I don't know what to believe, really, but I give up. Those bastards are getting my dough this year.

Enjoy the football game today everyone. I'm rooting for Amstel Light, and for Keith Richards NOT to have a wardrobe malfunction.

Pitchers and Catchers report in less than two weeks.

The New York Mets of Flushing

Why in the world did I decide to start a Mets baseball blog in the middle of the winter? There's not a shred of anything to write about.

At least I'm not an Angels fan. These poor souls out in Orange County, CA have to suffer through daily reports about a lawsuit over the name of the team. I don't know about you, but they'll always be the "California Angels" to me. But back in 1996, in some cockamamie deal with Mickey Mouse, they changed their name to Anaheim Angels. How cool was that for residents of Anaheim? The only thing anyone knows about your city is that there's an amusement park there, and suddenly you have your own Major League Baseball Team. The folks in Jackson, New Jersey never got that lucky.

So everything's all fine and dandy, and the team even manages to win their first World Championship in 2002. Then, last year, in what must have been a real kick in the knees to their fans in Anaheim, the new owner orders the word 'Anaheim' off any and all promotional materials. He wants to glom on to the Los Angeles name, and start calling the team Los Angeles Angels. But the team is still contractually obligated to have Anaheim in the name of the team, so since last season they've been The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Way to give back to your fans, buddy.

So, what's worse? The football Giants and Jets leave New York, for New Jersey of all places, but keep New York as their team's city of record. This is kind of a kick in the face to Jerseyites - your state is good enough to play our games in, but we're too embarrassed to publicly acknowledge it.

Like I said, I'm still pulling for a Marlins relocation - They can be the Florida Marlins of Charlotte, and I'll be able to see the Mets at least 8 or 9 times a year.

Marlins On The Move

Last season I was hoping that Carlos Delgado would get hurt, and have to rehab in Greensboro, where I could throw eggs at him. This season I hope he hits 50 homeruns. What a difference a year makes, huh?

This week the Marlins made it known that they were doing everything they could to stay in south Florida, as they discuss potential new stadium sites in the area northwest of downtown Miami. previously they announced they were investigating moving to Las Vegas when their Floridian obligations are complete.

Since their inception in 1993, the Marlins haven't been able to draw any kind of fan support. They claim if they could only build a new stadium, everything would be different. Look, I haven't been to Pro Player Stadium/Dolphins Satdium, and I am sure it has to stink playing baseball in a football stadium, but if two World Championships in six years doesn't get an area charged for baseball, I seriously doubt that a glitzy ballpark and eight dollar hotdogs will.

The Marlins should just forget Florida and also forget Vegas, and just move to Charlotte so I could get my major league fix whenever I wanted. If North Carolina can support a hockey team, they surely could support a baseball team. There are plenty of Braves fans around here, waiting to be converted!

Go West, Old Man

I breathed a big sigh of relief last night, after learning that Mike Piazza has signed a one year deal with the San Diego Padres. I was still holding out a tiny glimmer of hope that he would decide to come back to the Mets and back up Paul LoDuca, but my biggest fear was that The Evil Empire was going to sign him. It really would have killed me to see him playing for the Yankees. Piazza has been the face of the Mets for the past 8 years, and it just would have been wrong to see him donning the pinstripes. It also would have been tough to see him play for the Phillies, as the Mets would have to play against him about 18 times next season, since they are in the same division.

Most fans were hoping that he would sign with an American League West team, where we could root for him from afar but never have to root against him, but this is almost better. If he has a good year, it will will stick it to the Dodgers, who traded him away 8 years ago, and either way Mets fans will get another chance to say goodbye when the Padres visit Shea in August.

Coincidentally, I actually am going to be able to visit San Diego a few times this year, and the Padres are in town the same time I am, June 23-27! I'm going to have score myself a ticket. I'd love to be able to root for Mike to hit one out of Petco Park.

Boring!

This is the worst time of year to be a baseball fan. The Red Sox replaced traitor Johnny Damon yesterday with a guy with comparable stats and a much better name, Coco Crisp. Outside of that, there's not much news out there. Oh, unless you count speculation that in 2007 the Devil Rays are changing their name to "Tarpons," or just to "Rays." My guess is that the focus groups will pick the safe bet, "Rays."

The Daily News was an amusing read this morning, for only one reason. Comparing Mike Lupica's column with guest columnist Charles Farrell's.

Here's an exerpt from Mike's:

Nobody is suggesting that a conversation about racism is necessarily racist, whether it is on the radio or in a bar. But Mets fans who actually worry about this, who worry that Minaya, a Dominican raised a few blocks from Shea Stadium, a splendid New York success story, is loading up on Latin players because he is Latin himself, need to take a look at themselves. Because what they are talking about is racial quotas. They are talking about that.

And here's Charles's:

Bravo to you (Bob Raissman, Minaya Talk is Cheap, Jan. 25) for taking your very sharp scribe's pen and jabbing it squarely in the eyes of the bigots - yes bigots - who are accusing Mets GM Omar Minaya of Latin bias because of the Hispanic players he is bringing to the team. Sometimes you think it is 2006 and then something happens that puts you in a time warp back to 1956.

Can we just get on with the season already?

By the way, I was on the anti-WBC bandwagon for awhile, feeling that it should be played in November, not March. I agreed with the critics who felt interrupting spring training for an exhibition where key players could get injured was a bad idea.

Then I found out that the WBC Tournament is eight games long. Eight. And that's only the two teams that make it to the Finals. Teams eliminated in the first round will have played just three games. I think the players can handle that. And as a fan, gee, which is better, watching All-Stars play to win the WBC or watching the B-squad of the Nationals play the B-squad of the Braves on TBS?