Midweek tidbits

No scintillating commentary today, just a few random thoughts to keep the week going.

• Don't look now, but the Metropolitans are in first place. I realize we're not even 1/6 of the way into the season, but it's refreshing to be competitive again
• "Idol" is tightening up. Will be interesting to see who's in the bottom 3 tonight. Not a big Shania Twain fan, but some pretty solid performances last night
• Got a new putter for Christmas and picked up a new Cleveland 56 degree wedge a week or so ago. Road tested them both for the first time this past Saturday and shot 83, some of my best golf ever. Itching badly to get out again (or maybe that's some kind of rash).
• My favorite new kid quote: Somehow the topic of Roman numerals came up over dinner a few weeks ago, and I was quizzing the kids on what each letter represented. The boys went back and forth, but Molly of course was completely lost on the discussion. To bring the conversation back to her level, at a break in the quizzing she interjected apropos of nothing at all, "You know what's good? I like yarn." That's been my mantra since then.

Something's Rotten In Flushing (but you knew that)

As last season ended, I think most of us Met fans had the sense that it couldn't get worse, but it probably would. The tragic collapses of 2007 and 2008, followed by last year's miserable injury-ridden season gave some hope to the fact that better days must surely lie ahead. They still might, but if this first week is any example of what this season holds, better days are a bit further ahead than 2010.

The rough part of being a fan right now is that the team just isn't likeable. There are a few bright spots, like the ever ebullient David Wright, but as a whole the team just doesn't have character. One bright spot though is that if things continue as-is, tickets won't be hard to come by.

Over Easter dinner I posed a question to the official Finkipedia brother-in-law (law enforcement division), who happens to unfortunately be a fan of the other NY baseball team: higher number at the end of the season- Yankee wins or Met losses. The Vegas line at the beginning of the season for Yankee wins was 94.5, for Met losses was 81. By that metric, it would seem obvious that taking the Yankees in the bet would be the right move. But the AL East is tough this year, and the Mets have so far set their bar at winning only 1/3 of the games in their division and are on pace for 108 losses. At this point, it's still early, and since both numbers stand at 4, still fair to bet either side. I can't really bet on my team to lose and my hated rivals to win, can I?

The Punt of Red October

Now that Satan's Series has begun, I should have plenty of time to catch up with the ol' blog here. Take a minute or two to read the great post that I linked to above- it's from one of the best Mets blogs out there, and puts into words just how most of us who bleed blue and orange are feeling right now.

There is no way I can root for either team in this series. The lesser of the evils may be the Yankees, but only because of the fact that I now live in the Den of Iniquity (otherwise known as the greater Philadelphia area). Yankee fans may be annoying and self-righteous, but Phillies fans are downright insufferable. God forbid the Phils win this year and become back-to-back champions- the city will demand that Congress return to Philadelphia after over 200 years and proclaim it the capital of the United States of Philmerica.

But there's no way I can root for the Yankees either, not with their $200M payroll and their Bronx attitude and their claims of ownership to October, as if they were some baseball team emeritus who get to come back and play in the World Series whenever they damn well please. Not to mention the grief I'd get from Yankee fans for rooting for their team, proving in some way that my team wasn't worth rooting for in the first place.

No, there is no team to root for. I'll root against both teams, pray for rain every night, pray for more horrible umpiring that will surely make the loud, annoying fans of each team more loud and annoying, pray for snowstorms and bug swarms and all the plagues that have corrupted World Series past. And I'll pray for February 15 to come soon, so pitchers and catchers can report to spring training and redemption can begin.

Adding insult to injuries

Leaving a lot of hanging promises on the blog these days (still trying to get around to reading more of that health care bill), so I have to deal with at least one of the unfinished stories from last week.

Went to Citi Field last week for the first time. Beautiful stadium, but as many Mets bloggers and fans have complained about, noticeably devoid of Mets historical artifacts. (Not that there's much history being made lately, at least the kind of history we'd like to have recorded). The game was against the Phillies, whose fans must have bought up every available seat on eBay and Stubhub. Thanks to injuries to almost the entire starting lineup, the Mets fielded a team that was barely recognizable to the casual fan. But the game featured the return of Pedro Martinez to NY, which alone was enough of a storyline to provide some intrigue for what was otherwise destined to be an old-fashioned beatdown of the home team.

It started off just that way, with the Phils jumping toa 6-0 lead in the first inning on two three-run bombs. But rather than allow us to be miserable, the Mets insisted on feigning competitiveness by chipping away at the lead one or two runs at a time. An inside -the-park homer, a few triples, a terrific diving catch in right, Phils manager Charlie Manuel getting tossed arguing a call... all great things to watch that kept the game interesting and kept us from leaving early.

Bottom of the 9th, score is 9-6 Phillies, Mets get a leadoff triple courtesy of an error, then score a run courtesy of another. A weak single followed, setting up runners on first and second with no one out, down by only two. Mets fans are now on their feet. The Phillies fans in front of us, who were gloating and loving life for most of the afternoon, suddenly were a miserable anxious mess. Runners take off with the pitch, line drive up the middle caught by the second baseman, who then steps on second and then turns to tag the runner from first. Three outs, inning over, game over, thanks for coming to the ballpark today, drive home safely. The Phillies fans are silent in disbelief. The Mets fans are silent in shock. Then, realizing what just happened, all 38,000+ yell in unison- some in joy, most in despair- and process out of the stadium together trying to explain to themselves what just happened.

Unassisted triple plays had occured only 16 times before, and only once before in history had one ended a game. It was amazing to watch, and something I'll remember forever. Unfortunately, it means I'll wind up remembering this season too, which is something like most Mets fans that I'd like to forget.

blue (and orange) ribbon day

nothing better to brighten a miserably rainy winter day than a dose or two of baseball sunshine. got a call from erin this AM while i was at work that "the seats" had finally arrived. they were packaged with wooden planks to be mounted on for stability, which need a coat of stain and varnish before i attach them. and while there's some appeal to the character that 40 years of back sweat, stale bud light and gulden's mustard give the seats, a good scrubbing with a magic eraser is in order before they're ready for public viewing and seating.

a few hours after getting the call about the seats, i read this about a huge deal omar had just worked out adding even more reinforcements to the bullpen. it means we give up endy, which just kills me, but overall i think this deal and the signing of k-rod put the mets in striking distance of a pennant.

until i can move my seats in front of the TV to watch the now-anticipated new season, i'll just leave them where they are here in front of the computer, so i can watch this over and over, toasting endy and wishing him well.

there's always next year (though that's what we said last year)

"could've been so beautiful, could've been so right" - tiffany, "could've been"

you know it's bad when you start your post quoting tiffany. but that's how messed up my mind is tonight. see, here's what came in the mail the other day...




it's where i should be tonight- at game #3 of the NLDS against the cubs. never been to a playoff game before, and finally got my chance. i won the online lottery to purchase tickets for the NLDS (this was of course before the flushing in flushing), and bought 4 tickets to the first home game. figuring the mets would take the wild card, by choosing home game 1 i'd get to see game #3, which would have been tonight at shea. best case scenario, mets take 2 in chicago and have a chance to win the series. next best case, they split in chicago and come home for a meaningful game. worst case, they lose 2 in chicago and i get to see possibly the last game ever at shea. instead, i am at home tonight, rooting hard for the brewers, downhearted like all other met faithful.

well, perhaps some are a little more than just downhearted.

a tale of two cities

somewhere in lower manhattan today, david wright woke up around two p.m. still reeking of piss and wild turkey from the atrabilious night before. streaks of eye black still ran down his cheeks, courtesy of the river of tears that turned him from a pretty boy third baseman to an alice cooper look-alike. he clapped twice to turn on the projection screen TV just past the foot of the bed, quickly navigated past the channels of the ESPN family to avoid any sight of the previous afternoon's events, and stopped on CNBC to check how his abercrombie and fitch stock was performing. he rubbed his eyes, not sure if the smeared eye black was somehow distorting his view of the ticker, then stared agape when he realized the carnage befalling wall street. taking a swill from the warm half-empty bottle of miller chill on the nightstand, he muttered to himself, "thank god i'm not a stockbroker", then pulled the sheets over his head and went back to sleep, content with the knowledge that someone not in orange and blue would be on the cover of the post tomorrow.

only half the story

there's no denying that the met bullpen is terrible and has been so most of the season. night after night, they collapse almost on cue. even last night, after a huge 9th inning grand slam to take a comfortable 3-run lead, they tried their best to blow it but barely missed out. tonight, 4 walks in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game (ok, two were intentional, but still...) were painful to witness.

not receiving enough of the blame however is the offense- almost automatic in the first 3 innings but non-existent in the last 3. last night's 9th inning 4-spot was an anomaly. tonight, runners left on base in each of the last 4 innings, including one in scoring position in the 7th and 9th. most of the times the bullpen has blown leads, they've been able to because the offense has not been able to pick up their share of the slack towards the end. earlier this week, when the mets blew a 7-run lead to lose to the phils 8-7 in 13, it was partly because after jumping to a 7-0 lead after 4 innings, the offense put nothing across over the next 9.

1 game up with 26 left to play. not much breathing room. at least there's no chance of a blowout like last season, because with this bullpen, there's no chance we'll be up more than a few games at any point for the rest of this year (if we're lucky). here's hoping we can hold on.

best seats in the house

you might have heard that this is the last year for shea stadium (and that other stadium up in the bronx). new stadium called citi field is being built in what was once one of the shea parking lots, and will open for the 2009 season. shea will go away to make more parking room, but because of building codes in NYC, the old stadium cannot be imploded and must be disassembled.

ostensibly to raise money for the "mets foundation" (whatever that is) and to offer a once-in-a-lifetime memorabilia opportunity to fans, the seats from shea are being sold in pairs to any and all comers.

took the leap and ordered mine yesterday as soon as they went on sale to the general public at 9am. purchased a pair of orange field level seats. thought about getting the red upper-deck seats to remind me of the times we'd go when i was a kid and pay $3 for day-of-game tickets. but, red's not really the color associated with los mets, so i opted for the more traditional orange. i was sure the seats would sell out quickly (hence my 9am purchase yesterday), but it appears only the orange ones have sold out so far. a disappointing commentary on met fans in general, i think.

seats will reportedly be shipped 8-12 weeks after the final game at shea. hoping for a january delivery, which would mean that last game was played in late october.

a deafening silence

well, it was about 9 months in the making, but we all knew it would happen sooner or later. willie's gone as of early this AM, along with two of his coaches.

it's easy to look at him as a scapegoat for the team's failure, but i have to believe at some level he truly wasn't getting the job done. i've always been a huge willie fan, way back to the time he was a yankee second baseman. on the surface, his demeanor suggested he was a good man for the job. but in recent weeks, amid all the turmoil in flushing, i was struck by the audible silence of the players. when asked about willie, most just didn't want to get involved, and some even went so far as to suggest that the mets should just do whatever they were going to do and get it over with. i didn't hear or read a single comment from a player either in support of willie or accepting any blame for the team's collapse.

you have to believe that their silence is an endorsement of this decision. we'll see if by getting their wish this team can salvage this season before it's too late.

first quarter report

hard to believe, but this weekend will be the1/4 way point of the baseball season. mets are 2 games back of the first place marlins and not showing any signs of being a team that can truly contend. here are some of the ups and downs of the young season so far...

first, the ups:

• ryan church and brian schneider - trading milledge for both of them is looking like a huge coup- they're each hitting over .320 and church is leading the team in HR. (as a side note, i think every met fan is breathing a huge sigh of relief that we didn't trade milledge a few years ago for barry zito.)
• john maine - is he the ace of the staff? pitching better almost every time he's out there.
• david wright - late april slump is hurting the average, but he's been solid as far as run production (3rd in NL in RBI) and clutch in the field (8 errors, but gets to more balls down the line than most).
• luis castillo - showing signs of his former hitting prowess and playing above expectations at 2B.
  

and the downs:

• pedro- getting hurt 3 innings into the new year was not a good sign. due back in a few weeks, but how long will he last?
  
• jose reyes - flashes of brilliance in a sea of mediocrity- can't have a leadoff guy with an on-base percentage of .335 and expect to contend.
  
• carlos beltran - sorry, but i don't think we're getting our 18M/year worth. only 3 HR so far- less than guys like paul bako and rickie weeks. ("who?" exactly.)
• the bullpen - some guys have been ok (schoenweis) or even pretty good (smith, wagner), but the disappointing showings from heilman and sanchez, who were supposed to be our solid setup tandem, and the horrendous blowouts by jorge sosa (mercifully cut today, praise zeus) have made every game an adventure after the 6th inning.
  

the rest of the team seems average at best. santana has been fine but not scintillating, delgado seems to be giving us what we should expect (.250 and on pace for about 25 HR), and the bench has been fair but not fear-instilling to opponents.

maybe starting off like they have is their way of avoiding another late-season collapse; if they're mired in 3rd place, there's nothing to collapse from. next update at the all-star break, hopefully with a brighter outlook.