I turned on the game in the first inning and apparently Tuesday’s series opener was Roger McDowell day at Shea Stadium. Every player was wearing his number 42. I never would have guessed Roger was that important to the Mets. Sure he was a integral part of the World Champions bullpen but I really would have expected In fact, I assume that McDowell’s stature must have impacted Lastings Milledge and Paul LoDuca as they convinced their team to also wear 42. Amazing. I would have thought that Gary Carter or Keith Hernandez would receive that honor first. Of course they could have been honoring Butch Huskey…

Sorry for the random post, I started watching the archive at midnight and finished up around 3 AM.

Great game today out of Jose and David. With old age such a factor on this roster, the two are crucial to the Mets success. Its almost fortunate that Reyes didn’t hit for the cycle. After every Reyes homerun, he seems to hit a funk at the plate with an increased uppercut (see Jose‘s last at bat for a visual aid). Walks, singles, doubles and triples are fine.

Mike Pelfrey looked very solid in 7 scoreless. With El Duque and Pedro out, Pelfrey is essential to the Mets chances.

Welcome back Filthy Sanchez!

I have missed having Sanchez in the pen. A 6-0 lead in the ninth was a perfect environment for the goggled one’s comeback. Given the cold weather, the teams early mediocre start, Willie would have gambled putting in Sanchez in a key situation.

The Bottom line is that the Nationals are a weaker team the Mets need to make a habit of beating this year.

The Great Booing Debate of ‘08

Every year, it seems, the debate of to boo or not to boo is an issue in the Mets season (though it’s usually not until May). I suppose last seasons end left some residual angst and cynicism. For the record, I feel that booing should be exclusively reserved for two reasons:

1. Lack of effort. Steve Trachsel’s give up performance in the 06 NLCS comes to mind, a certain Braves southpaw’s third of an inning, this extends to the Mets front office.

2. Players you truly hate. Whether based on previous transgressions or solely on douchebaginess. Roger Clemens, Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones, Guillermo Mota, Jimmy Rollins.

If you’re going to boo a slumping player, cheering for him during success is hypocritical.

I would hope fans at Shea were booing management and Omar Minaya giving up on Lastings Milledge and trading him to a division rival. Kind of insulting to Church and Schneider but whatever. If that isn’t the case, it wasn’t like Lastings demanded a trade out of Queens. I can understand harboring ill will towards Paulie Ballgame after the Mitchell Report and some of his remarks. Who are we, Astros fans? It’s not that big of a deal, just bizarre.

Seriously, the whole Jackie Robinson day is getting out of hand.

Stop writing your angry email.

I agree that Robinson’s contributions to baseball were monumentally important to the game of baseball as well as American culture. I also agree that his courage to break the color barrier and the man himself should be and is respected universally throughout baseball.

That said, Jackie Robinson thing borderline absurd. Every player wearing 42 is off-putting and confusing. When I see Reyes or Wright not wearing their respective numbers my brain takes a minute to adjust. Besides that, it’s creepy. What’s next, every player hitting righthanded? The broadcast team referring every player to as Jackie Robinson? Rachel Robinson starting at second and leading off? It’s becoming like that bad SNL sketch in the 80’s after Bart Giamatti died and MLB mandated every player change their name to Bart and the sport would be known as Bartball. Tap the brake, MLB, it’s getting ridiculous. His number is retired in every ballpark in the Majors; we named a rotunda in his honor at Citi Field; he has a whole day. Every player in 42 is excessive and unnecessary.

Resume your outraged email.

This is getting depressing. The fact that this was the last season opener Shea will host is merely a sad footnote. Vintage Oliver Perez today:

Step 1. Cruse through the order
Step 2. Lose the plate
Step 3. ?????????
Step 4. Profit

Though this was disappointing (speculate on your own as to your personal level of devastation), it’s not cause to start the panic. The Mets had what was essentially a shortened spring training due to injury, the sample size on the season is too small to indicate any kind of trend and the Phillies are a legitimate National League contender. The sky isn’t falling. Yet.

That said, Jose Reyes has got to draw more walks to get on base. Again, it’s a small sample size, but one walk in 27 at bats is not confidence inspiring especially when coupled with a .250 OBP. It’s been said many times, by many other Mets bloggers and writers that the as Jose Reyes’ season goes, the Mets season will go with it. That is a fairly obvious statement since Reyes leads off the offense, thus drawing more at bats, Reyes also sets the tone, for what that’s worth.

A six game period is a small sample size, so this is anecdotal at this stage of the season. Six home runs in six games is troublesome though half of those homers were surrendered by pitchers now on the DL (Wise 1 and Pedro 2)

This is depressing me…

Carlos Delgado’s solo shot was a temporary stress release. At this stage in Carlos’ career, those will likely be much like Mike Piazza in his last years in New York: impressive and infrequent.

Sample size aside, this season hasn’t started out as confidence inspiring.

With El Duque having a setback (surprise), tomorrow Mike Pelfrey’s performance can change that.

One more thing, Wally Mathews, in his game recap, shows he’s a class act:

Granted, the Phillies won, 5-2, but as long as you don’t measure success by the final score, there were plenty of positives to take home.

Rick Astley got some airplay. Jimmy Rollins got hurt. It was sunny. And even though Tuesday felt a lot less like the start of something new than a continuation of something old, you just know it can get only better.

Stay classy Wally!

I’m not even going to rant about today’s loss to Atlanta. Yuck.

Never blog angry.

However, it never fails to amaze me how a few months of winter can make me forget how terrible the FOX broadcast team of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver are at their chosen profession. During the top of the ninth, McCarver contrasted Rafael Soriano’s cool demeanor to Jose Reyes’, and I’m quoting this, “zest for life.”

I know.

What the hell does that mean? Is Jose some kind of pro life extremest roaming the streets of New York City and other Major League cities exacting retribution on abortion doctors and blowing up planned parenthood clinics?

Maybe Jose should start a hip hop boy band called Zest 4 Lyfe. Jose could get a giant tattoo with the band’s name across his chest, David Wright could be the shy one, Ryan Church could be the gay, er, I mean, artistic one and Joe Smith could be the bad boy. I smell a sitcom.

Great offensive output from the Mets tonight. Carlos Beltran and David Wright were robbed of home runs. Carlos robbed by to a blown call by the umpires and David due to the fact that the Marlins play in a ridiculous football stadium with a 600 foot deep centerfield fence. Carlos getting screwed doesn’t change my belief that instant replay is unnecessary for Major League Baseball. Would instant replay have given Beltran a homerun instead of his third double? For those of you who say yes, ask an Oklahoma Sooner fan about the game against Oregon. When baseball is dragged reluctantly into adopting something new, I doubt they embrace it with open arms. The umpires get it right so often that when they blow a call, it’s a glaring error.

Also, throwing a red flag on the field is effeminate and demeaning for both the manager and umpire crew.

Regardless of the blown call, I can’t imagine why the crew reversed the initial homerun ruling. Rick Reed is a great umpire and crew chief. If Carlos would have sold it more, he would have picked up the first Mets home run of 2008.

BTW, if Carlos hits 73 more homeruns this year, will he get an asterisk (in a good way) home run king title?

David Wright is just raking at the plate. David’s off-season work we’ve heard about paid off, for the first three games anyway. The Mets need a big season out of Wright this year to supplement Delgado’ decline. That diving stop at third was a gem and more surprisingly, David didn’t airmail the throw over Delgado to a hotdog vender on the concourse area. When David hits his prime, it’s going to be scary.

Castillo is growing on me. Luis is a tough out. If he can stay healthy, the Mets may finally have the one-two table setters they thought they had with Kaz Matsui and Jose Reyes.

Castillo could be the Mets answer to Dan Uggla. That guy scares the crap out of me. They have a lot of hitters that scare the crap out of me. The Florida Marlins are afraid of success. If they wouldn’t have run Joe Girardi out of town, the NL East could be better than the NL West this year.

Bottom line, great cathartic win after Pedro’s injury and walk-off loss last night. This season might not be a total disaster after all.

Around the National League East

In case you missed it, Scott Spiezio has been given a minor league contract with Atlanta. Braves general manager Frank Wren was quoted as saying, “Well ya know, a big part of our fan base are douche bags. With Andruw [Jones] going to LA, we felt that took a lot away from our appeal. With Chipper [Larry Jones] and of course Tommy [Glavine] coming back, we felt we were one player away from a complete team of douche bags. Scott brings a heavy douchbagginess factor to our organization that we feel will restore the Atlanta Braves to the franchise of douchiness excellence we’ve established over the past two decades.”

Excuse the absence for the last two days; I was attending the National Grammar Rodeo in Canada. I’m not sure if I’ll be returning next year, it’s just not about the grammar anymore.

That’s what she said…

Whew, they really pushed the limits on that one. I was having panic attacts post 4:00 PM CST that Bill Smith would change his mind, send our kids back and get on the phone with Theo Epstein.

*EXHALE*

He’s ours!

When it was all over, save for the physical, the deal came out to about $152 Million which includes what Santana was owed on his remaining salary and Johan is a Met through 2014 after the doctors sign off tomorrow.

Lets get ready for PSL and the season to begin.

In my entire life, I’ve been a Mets fan and I think I can safely say, this is definitely one of the low points of fandom this organization has seen in my lifetime. The fact that this team let a 7 game lead slip away in September is nauseating. Some may point to 1998 and I say hogwash, in 98 we weren’t supposed to even be there, though certainly disappointing and frustrating it indicated a bright future that lay ahead. The Vince Coleman affair made me ashamed, but I never felt a connection to Coleman. At the end of game six of the 1999 NLCS, I was certainly disappointed but not ashamed. The 1999 team fought with every fiber of their being to get as far as they got.

Now? Pathetic. A team who is so talented, as they will gladly tell you, couldn’t answer the bell with their leader, staff ace and one of the man credited, and deservedly so, as the reason for their turn around. It goes much deeper than that of course, these past weeks have been a foreshadowing of things to come. We as a fan base that prides itself on always believing refused to see it coming. Now its here. This team doesn’t have the heart to answer the bell. In reading the above article from the New York Observer, I couldn’t help but think, “how can you not care, when I care so damn much?”

If you like, hold out hope for this season, I would like to, but I cant. This team has been complacent with it’s complacency for so long, I don’t think they have a battle left in them. I actually spent the better part of an hour pricing airline tickets to see if maybe I could come to Shea and will this team in the playoffs. I found an affordable, or as affordable as airline tickets to New York can be, and when I went to make sure there were Mets tickets available, the site told me it was “down for maintanence.” Well it looks likes the Mets are too. This is certainly one of the dips in franchises long and dubious history.

Tied for first, three to go. I don’t think they have it in them. I hope they prove me wrong. I’m going to keep watching though, tied for first place is still first place, at least there’s hope. 

I am still going to hold out hope. What else is a Mets fan supposed to do. I hope the players realize they are about to let down a loyal and rabid fan base that never says die. We have very long memories. I keep reading the great Dana Brand’s genius, that I believe defines all real Mets fans:
      

This is what has hooked us. This is what we long for. This is why, however much we hate them at times, we love to love this team. However good the Yankees become, they never tempt us. We are stubborn and resolute. We are millions. We
are Mets fans.

Tied for first, three to go. I don’t think they have it in them. I hope they prove me wrong.

Wake Up Mets!

Why is this so hard? I mean, sure any team can beat any other team on any given night, that’s why you have to play the games. But honestly, could we try to hold the worst offense in the NL to, I don’t know, under 30 runs over three games?

I knew it might be bad, I didn’t know it was going to be this bad. Has the entire bullpen contracted Mono? After the last few games, I really doubt this teams ability to qualify for post season play.

I don’t want to harp on strategy or Thursday morning Manage here, but Willie should have gone to El Duque earlier; match up be damned. Sure he would have gotten torched by the media if it backfired, but how could Duque have been any worse than we’ve seen lately? I really hope I wasn’t right back in July.
It’s time to drink heavily and watch the 1999, cheap ass Mets season video, Amazin Again. Can we at least see if Dennis Cook, Turk Wendell and Octavio Dotel are available?

From here on out, the Mets have to look at this like a four game season, forget this god-awful series and play out the last four, hope the starting staff can go deep, get the pen as much rest as possible and hope the offense throws up double digits. However, as great of a pitcher as Pedro is, I don’t seeing Petey go complete.

Let’s hope it all feels better in the Morning…

Good lord this is excruciating. Watching the division lead slip away is almost too much. Right now there is a battle raging in my head. Two sides, let me introduce you to the Rational side and the emotional Mets fan side:

Rational Side: I agree with Willie in juggling the rotation. I really don’t want to go through a post season without Pedro and El Duque.

Emotional Mets Fan side: LAWRENCE AND PELFREY FOR GOD SAKES, THERE ISN’T GOING TO BE A POST SEASON! WE NEED PEDRO AND DUQUE NOW!

Rational Side: They are a solid team, they can turn it on when they need it.

Emotional Mets Fan side: WE CAN’T BEAT THE GOD DAMN NATIONALS, HOW THE HELL CAN WE GET PAST A TEAM WITH A WINNING RECORD!

Rational Side: Willie’s a winner, he knows what he’s doing.

Emotional Mets Fan side: CAN WE GET BOBBY VALENTINE ON A PLANE, WHAT’S HE DOING RIGHT NOW?

Rational Side: Guillermo Mota Sucks!

Emotional Mets Fan side: Guillermo Mota Sucks!

Rational Side: WE NEED TO START WINNING SOME GAMES NOW!

Emotional Mets Fan side: WE NEED TO START WINNING SOME GAMES NOW!

Rational side: Are they going to do this to me again?

Emotional Side: MOTHER F@*!%*R, THEY’RE DOING IT TO ME AGAIN!

Rational Side: I hate baseball!

Emotional Side: I LOVE BASEBALL!

I think both sides have come to an agreement, we still believe, we have to. Face it, if they didn’t, they would have both been long gone by now.

Let’s Go Mets!

I know, cheesy title, what do you want?

I’m not sure how the second sweep of the Mets at the hands of the Phillies bodes for the Mets. The first sweep served as something of a wakeup call, spurring the Mets to their best stretch of the season. This time, who knows what happens now. With a steady diet of Fish and Nats’ games slated to finish the season (with one plate of redbird for variety), the Mets should be able to fend off the Phils and secure their second straight NL East title.

Should the Mets secure the title while simultaneously taking a two week batting practice session to gear up for the playoffs, so be it. This weekends sweep of the Mets makes it more likely that a clinching game occur at Shea, possibly even against the Cards. The NL East title isn’t a lock quite yet, but three and a half games back with the leader up against the East’s celler-dwellers, probably isn’t the ideal place for a team with its sights set on the division. Those Cheesesteak eaters are focused on the Wild Card. Going to sleep last night, the rather disturbing thought crossed my mind: What if they get it?

Lets go Padres!

P.S. Mota sucks!