drumroll, please

on the bridge from the subway to the stadium on Sunday, there was a drummer from the MTA's bring-music-to-the-masses program. I'm sure he did some other tunes during the gig, but I heard only this while making my way to the gate.

not just a river in Egypt

I haven't seen a pitch since I left Shea Stadium on Sunday, didn't listen to, read, or watch any of the post-mortem on the the unceremonious end to the Mets season in the mainstream press or in the blogosphere, haven't read any analysis on which teams are likely to win what in the post-season. I needed a moment to mourn the end of a season to which I'd paid so much attention.


That moment is over now. I've been reading other blogs, and will probably start watching the playoffs this weekend. And I've got lots of posts swirling around in my head-- hopefully enough to carry me through to April.

Let's Go Cubs.

It all comes to this

The Mets pounded the Marlins 13-0 yesterday afternoon, and Washington held off the Phillies, 4-2. So the Mets and Phils are again tied for first place with one game left to play. Best case scenario, that we win and they lose, feels almost too much to hope for right now, and both M and I have a strong feeling that we'll be playing the tie-breaker in Philly tomorrow.

We'll all be there to see it happen today-- my dad, my sister, M and me. If you want excitement, this is the position to be in. Fingers crossed.

You can do it, Ollie

"If there's on guy we're sure can go deep for us," David Wright said, "it's Ollie. He's strong, he's been on his game and we need him to throw a good game."

--also via MLB.com, but a different article.

Willie Randolph agrees with M

it seems Willie is approaching this the way M did last night, as a three game season.

"Now we start over. It's a new season. We start from scratch." Later, the Mets skipper walked through the clubhouse and said this aloud to no one in particular: "We're gonna win this. We are gonna win this."

--Marty Noble, via MLB.com

no, I haven't

while on the phone seeking solace from my father after tonight's loss, he posed this question: "Have you considered that the Phillies are just the better team?"

of course I haven't. no matter who wins the NL East this year, I'm a Mets fan (and repulsed by Phillies fans, which puts me in a category with most baseball fans outside of Pennsylvania). I'll never believe they were a better team, even if they win the league. They may have had better management, better luck with injuries, and the luck to get blazing hot at exactly the right time-- but there will never come a time when I say this years Phil's are better than this year's Mets.

Irony, Part 3

I got the e-mail notification that I was selected in the lottery to buy tickets for the National League Championship less than six hours before the Mets lost sole ownership of first place in their division since May 16th. the buying window opens on Monday, but we'll know the previous afternoon whether there will be a buying window for NLCS games that the Mets are playing in at all.

so true, Bart. so true.

Baseball will break your heart. It's designed to.

--A. Bartlett Giamatti, Commissioner of Baseball , 1989.

a three game season

the Mets are tied with the Phillies for first place in the NL East. After 135 days alone at the top of the division, we've lost it, literally and figuratively. The offense has done everything it can for two weeks, and the bullpen has consistently lost it for the team. That's got to take a toll after a while, got to kill the spirit of the offense, because it seems like no matter how big the lead lead, you can't win. Period.

it all feels a little unreal to me right now, just like it felt unreal when the season was over in Game 7 of the League Series last year. it took a couple of days to realize that I wasn't going to see the Mets play again for five months, and it took seeing that other teams were still playing when the Mets were not to make it sink in. it's something like that right now, except without the reality check of other teams continuing to play while the Mets were no longer. I know this is a spectacular flame-out and perhaps the biggest story in baseball this week, but I must be protecting myself by being emotionally distant from the fact that I may not get to use my post-season tickets. and for some unnameable reason, I am still optimistic that the Mets will make the playoffs-- which is probably another facet of the denial I'm clearly engaging in.

this hurts, but it's not over yet.

one game. one FREAKING game.

there's so much talk-- on the radio, in the papers, on the internet, in my living room-- about what's going wrong with the Mets here at the end of the season, having just been swept by the Nationals and with their lead in the NL East down to one game with four left to play. the theme I hear most is that Willie Randolph isn't passionate enough, but I think that's bullshit. it's not attitude-- it's the actual management that's been the problem. the bullpen is obviously overworked, Mota is obviously not so talented without the steroids, and Jose Reyes is obviously bone tired, was needed a day off three months ago to avert the slump he's been in (Tuesday nights two homers notwithstanding-- the guy isn't on the team to hit home runs. he's there to get on base).

the bad management is showing. and it's excruciating.

Spared, sort of

I was teaching, and so not able to watch live, the sweep in Philly. I was in Seattle, and so not able to watch live, the Phillies sweep at Shea two weeks later. Particularly with the Yankees surging, it was good to be spared the New York press last weekend, but I can't pretend that I didn't check in on the score repeatedly while the Mets were playing the whole time we were gone-- starting from the minute we landed, when I turned on my phone to find that the Phillies had won the first of the weekend. Never the less, its significantly less emotional to keep up with a game on a Treo than it is to watch it live, and so I was spared a good lot of the gut-wrenching that most fans suffered over those three days I spent on the west coast.

Between the travel, the holidays and the teaching, I haven't been able to see many games in the last 10 days. Never the less, the minuscule lead the Mets have carried this week (increased today to 2.5 games, and more importantly to 3 in the loss column) has been nail-biting. Its hard not to be pessimistic, what with the seven-game losing streak against Philadelphia and the mostly lackluster performance in Washington, but I'm managing. I'm buoyed by something Gary Cohen said on a broadcast this weekend-- this team, for all its foibles, has consistently done what needs to be done to keep the lead in the division. I've noticed that too.

There are seven games left in the season, and I plan to attend at least two, possibly more of them, and we bought tickets to the second and third game of the NLDS in the lottery. I'm confident we'll be able to use them.

1.5 (2 in the loss column)

I've got a lot to say about the slide that has left the Mets with just a 1.5 game lead (two in the loss column) as the game starts in Washington tonight, but right now I'm too wound up to say it coherently. I'll be able to write after the game tonight, whatever the outcome both in D.C. and in St. Louis, where the Phillies are playing the Cardinals in about half an hour.

so for now, I'll just say this: I'd still rather be the Mets than the Phillies right now.

NLDS Tickets and a game far away

LHJ and I were both selected in the random online lottery to buy NLDS tickets! I'm pretty sure this means we'll be able to buy tickets for two different games, but even if not, I'm pretty excited. The ticket buying window opens on Monday at 9 a.m., just a few hours after we return from Seattle.

speaking of Seattle, we're going to the Mariners game at Safeco Park on Saturday night. It's been a long time since I went to a ballgame anywhere but Shea-- there's been a Mets-Yanks game at the stadium in the Bronx since I moved back to NYC, but before that it was Dodger Stadium and whatever the name of the stadium that the Angels play in. We're sitting in the outfield-- a vantage point from which you cannot watch a game at Shea. I'm particularly excited that I have good reason to root for the Mariners-- it's they who are trailing the Yankees in the AL Wild Card race, and I'd love them to take it!

so that's pretty frustrating for you, Smoltzie?

"I've run out of things to say. We're not as good as them. They've won every game against us they had to win. That's why they're where they are. We have to find a way to win these close games, and I am talking about next year as well as the next couple of weeks."

—John Smoltz, September 12, 2007, after losing to the Mets.

...of course, I won't be sad when the Braves don't find a way to win those close games, whether in the next couple of weeks or next year.

Shana Tovah, indeed

Game 145: Braves 3, Mets 4
83-62 for the season
1st Place in the NL East, 7 games ahead of Philadelphia

Shawn Green, who will not play next Saturday in observance of Yom Kippur, had arguably the best night of his season last night, on erev Rosh Hashanah. After Mota once again gave up a lead (allowing a two-run homer from Jeff Francouer in the top of the 8th to tie the game), Carlos Beltran singled to start the bottom of the inning, then stole second and, effectively, third. Green came up, and as he has so often since being relegated to a bench-ish role with Alou's return, hit the important single, sending the Mets ahead just in time to hand the ball off to Billy Wagner.

it was a great end to a good game, one in which the young John Maine outpitched the great John Smoltz, and a perfect way to start the new year-- for Shawn Green, and for me.

missing it

Pedro Martinez, who threw well in Cinci in his first MLB outing of the year last week, is pitching at Shea for the first time in a year tomorrow. I've never seen Pedro pitch in person (or if I did, I don't remember it and can't reference my scorecards now because they're packed up in my half-painted apartment).

I have to teach tomorrow. I can't go to the game.

I'm almost embarrassed by how sad I am about this, but I'm going to do my best to rectify the situation and see Pedro pitch once before the end of the season-- and in the meantime, I'll just keep my fingers crossed and my hopes high for his success on the mound tomorrow.

Paulie Wins

because my living room was being painted as the Mets beat the Astros this afternoon, I watched the game at my mother-in-law's apartment. because I'd inhaled much more dust than my poor immune system can handle in preparation for the painting, I took some benadryl before the game began, and passed out for most of Glavine's command performance.

I was awake for the last inning, though, and for the post-game interviews on SNY. Paul LoDuca had a nice conversation with Kevin Burkhardt about catching Glavine and his RBI-double, and when they were done Burkhardt asked Paul if he had anything else to add.



Paulie turned to the camera and with this face said "Rock on, New York!!" he won a bet in the clubhouse for doing that, and I'd kill to know what the terms of the wager were. Sadly, my mother-in-law doesn't have DVR, so I couldn't rewind and catch the whole moment, but it was hilarious.

...when you're having fun.

our apartment is being painted this weekend, the preparation for which included a lot of cleaning, boxing, and disposing of our stuff. in my winter jacket, I found this crumpled ticket.


this was the third game of the year, which I went to with SJG two days after I turned 30. time sure flies...

an annoying sign and another gorgeous baby

this billboard is on the Grand Central Parkway, past LaGuardia, heading for the Tri-Boro bridge. (important note to my parents and husband: traffic was not moving when I took this shot, and I threw the car into park to take it.) note that this is in Queens, less than five miles from Shea Stadium, and then check out the uniform of the guy in the middle, the focal point and biggest figure on the billboard.


That's right, it's the other New York short stop. His team wasn't even winning the wild card when this sign went up, while the Mets have been in first place in their division since May! I suppose I ought to be happy that they deigned to put David Wright up there at all, but why is he the same size as David Ortiz?! Seems to me they're saying that in NYC, Ortiz is as big a star as Wright, which is a joke. At least Smoltz is smaller than the rest of the guys on the sign.



when I finally made it to the city, I had the pleasure of meeting our other new cousin. we all enjoyed meeting E and seeing his parents and grandparents, and SJG was not surprised as she was holding him to see that he was very interested in the Mets game on the television. His dad and grandpa saw Gooden and Strawberry when they were in Single-A ball in Lynchburg in the 80's, which I find indescribably cool.

what a difference a week makes

the Mets left Philadelphia in a sorry state, having been swept by the Phils, their lead cut to only two. they came back to New York last night having had a 5-5 road trip, having swept the Braves at the Ted, having seen Pedro Martinez get an win in his first major league trip to the mound in almost a year, and with their lead back to five.

I like having the lead back, but I also like the fact that this is a pennant race. I hope we're able to bring the momentum back home to Shea (and that it wasn't all lost in that last game in Cincinnati, either), I hope we're able to embarrass the Phillies when they come back to New York next week, and I hope that Carlos Delgado's hip gets better very, very quickly. But I also hope that it's a little while before the Mets clinch the division-- just to keep it fun.

Daddy's Home

Pedro Martinez is starting against the Reds on Monday. He’s restricted to 75 pitches (about 5 innings) and 35 pitches per inning, but he’s starting a game sooner than any previous pitcher who’s undergone rotator-cuff surgery. Whether or not he pitches on Monday like the Pedro of yore is almost inconsequential—it’ll be his first outing against major league hitting in almost a year, and in many ways it’s a rehab start in and of itself—but beyond his pitching prowess, Pedro brings other important gifts to the team. His contribution to the feeling of camaraderie in the clubhouse, to the education of the younger pitchers, and to the fight of the team as a whole cannot be overlooked. I’m sure I’m just echoing the feelings of his teammates when I say that I’m really glad Pedro is back.

Martinez has been in the dugout for three games this year—once in Florida early in the season, and for the two just played in Atlanta. The Mets have won all three games. I don’t expect that there’s some magic there, but I also don’t think it’s a coincidence.

another kind of 300

Sunday, September 2^nd is the Mets 300^th game in first place in the NL East, since the beginning of last season. It’s their 120^th game in first place this year. Considering all the injuries and the inconsistent play of the five months played so far, this seems not bad at all.

swept away in Philadelphia

I think it’s lucky for me that I was teaching through all four of the games the Mets lost in Philly, because it was so hard to hear about even after the fact. I might have been crushed by actually seeing it. The Phillies completed their sweep just as I was finishing class on Thursday night, and while walking to the car and after talking to LHJ (who was enjoying the Staten Island Yankees game far, far away), I called M.

When he answered, I asked, “Are you worried yet?”

“I was just thinking about you and the same question,” he replied.

“I’m in Farmingdale [20 minutes away from M’s house]. How about I come up there, have some pork* and we discuss?”

“Good idea. I’ll put the pork in the oven. See you soon.”

So while V and JRG slept and I ate my dinner, M and I discussed the creeping fear we were both feeling about the team not playing up to their potential, and the anxiety associated with going to play in Atlanta. Though the Braves are in third place (there to stay, I reckon), the Mets have lost all four of the series the teams had played at the start of this one, and seemed unable to win at the Ted for years and years, particularly in September. We comforted each other with the certainty that we’d make it into the playoffs regardless of whether we lost first place for a few games, and with the idea that Pedro’s return would do everyone good.

We also talked about how the team has to some extent been coasting this year, it having been so easy for them last year, they seemed to be playing like a playoff berth was their right. They needed a kick in the ass. One would have hoped that two sub-.500 months in a row would have done it, but it hadn’t. Only two games ahead of the Phillies now and heading to Atlanta, M and I discussed the possible outcomes if we went 1 for 3 in Atlanta (as we had in every other series with the Braves this year). We didn’t dare to consider what the standings might look like if the Mets actually won the upcoming series.

My dad called me while I was on my way into the city on Wednesday, a couple of hours before the Mets lost their third game in Philly. “Don’t worry,” he said. “This is why you build up a six-game lead. And the pitching match-ups favor us in tonight’s and tomorrow’s games.” While his optimism about what would happen at Citizens Bank Park didn’t pan out, he was right about what leads are for. The Mets were two games ahead of Philadelphia when they got on the plane to Atlanta, even after dropping four games in a row to their division rivals for first place.

I don’t think my dad, M, or I thought the first two games in Atlanta would turn out as they did.

*LHJ and I keep a kosher home, but not kosher bodies. One of my favorite foods is pulled pork, and I bought some that I then couldn’t bring home to my own kitchen. Happily, M and V didn’t mind storing it for me in their freezer.

David ♥ Carlos

David Wright couldn't have been happier that his friend Carlos Delgado, struggling at the plate pretty much all season, had the clutch 2-run single in today's game.




when the game was over, David and Carlos reminisced about how awesome that hit was.



and then David gave Carlos a hug, and held on for quite a while.

it's good to have teammates who care about each other.

the sound of my childhood summers

the Mets game is on Fox today, with Tim McCarver providing the color-- except in the third inning, when he switched over to play-by-play to share the booth with Ralph Kiner, after whom that very booth has been named. McCarver and Kiner covered the Mets together for 16 years, over the vast majority of my childhood, including the World Series win in '86. they were a fantastic broadcast team, and it was a real pleasure to listen to them talk baseball again this afternoon, if only for an inning.

Pérez, Wright llevan a Mets al triunfo

Game 127: Dodgers 2, Mets 5
72-55 for the season
1st place in the NL East, 6 Games ahead of Atlanta and Philadelphia

tonight was the Fiesta Latino at Shea stadium, and in honor of the mother tongue of 6 of tonight's starters and that of a lot of their fans, the dress whites showed that the home team at Shea was Los Mets. Gary Cohen wondered aloud in the early innings whether this was the first game ever between two teams with "Los" on their uniforms.



Ollie has been struggling recently, but after loading the bases in the first inning and getting out of the jam, he threw seven scoreless innings. It was nice to see the fierce Oliver Perez back on the mound, and the high-jumping Ollie going over the foul line. It was also nice to see the top of the order hit so well (though why the Carloses seem unable to hit in New York is beyond me), and to see Mike DiFelice have three hits, and to see Lastings dive for a gorgeous catch in center right field, and then hit at and opportune time.

After the disappointing loss last night, it was good to see the team bounce back so well, and play very good small-ball.



the likelihood of a Mets victory seemed so sure by the sixth inning that JRG felt comfortable dozing off, feeling well assured of the outcome.

waiting for the headline

the Mets are, again, the team with the best record in NY. not just by percentage points-- by 1 win and 3 losses.

when will we see a back cover heralding this achievement? will Adam Rubin even mention it?

I'm not holding my breath.

I love them too, Willie

"But I'm proud," Randolph added. "I love this team. We don't cry. We don't make excuses. We just play."

--Willie Randolph after the Mets beat the best starter and the best closer in the NL last night, via Mets.com

oldest catching team ever

Paul LoDuca and Ramon Castro are both on the DL, eligible to play again within a day of each other next week. Lo Duca has been playing this weekend in Brooklyn for the Cyclones in rehab starts, but with both regular starters on the DL, the New Orleans Zephyrs' catching team has taken over on the big club.

The LoDuca-Castro team behind the plate wasn't particularly young to begin with-- Paul is 35, Ramon 31. Still, they look like babies next to their replacements. Sandy Alomar, Jr. is 41, and Mike DiFelice is 36, and both are playing like the talents they are behind the plate. with backup like this, one doesn't miss the regulars quite so badly...

a wave of sadness

Last Wednesday, I was teaching through the game. When I got in the car, Ed Coleman was doing the recap of the game, and since I didn't know how it had turned out, I stayed in the driver's seat with the car in park to hear how it ended. We won, in nail-biting style, and I pumped my fist, turned off the engine, and got out of the car.

As I walked across the street toward the apartment, an incredible wave of sadness came over me, which at first seemed odd, given that I'd just listened to my team win a game. But I realized immediately what it was--

Only six more weeks in the regular season.

wah, wah, wah

I'm sick of all the whining about the Mets, about Willie Randolph, about Omar Minaya, from people who call themselves fans. The whining is happening on message boards, on WFAN, on other blogs, and it bugs me.

I don't understand people who only love their team when they're winning, who impugn the
professionalism of the injured guys on the team, who act as though they're entitled to a team that wins all the time. What's going on here? We're Mets fans. We don't see winning as a divine right, and I would hate to see the ethos of the Mets fan sink into the ridiculous idea that a good team ought to lose only very rarely, if at all. There's a name for people like that-- Yankee Fans.

People boo'ed David Wright at the beginning of the season when he wasn't hitting-- and he practically carried the team last month. People suggest that Carlos Beltran was just being a pussy not playing with a strained abdomen-- and he's been on fire since he came back, clearly showing that resting his muscles was the right way to go. It just pisses me off when people who call themselves fans assume that guys are just slacking, not working hard on being the best they can be.

That attitude reminds me of a story about Babe Ruth. He ran into a young fan before a game once, and the kid asked the Babe to hit a home run for him. "Kid, do you have any idea how hard it is to hit a home run?" replied Ruth. Of course he didn't. I feel like fans deserve the same chastisement when they act like it's just easy for Beltran or Delgado or Wright to hit. They clearly have no idea how hard it is to hit, much less a home run.

The team hasn't been playing as well as they did last year. Perhaps this defies credulity, but I find this much more exciting than being out in first by 10 games and having the NL-East pennant race being a foregone conclusion. By this time last year, we were just waiting for the post-season to care about wins and losses again. This year, it still matters, every game.

For me, that's what the love of baseball is about-- the thrill of watching games that matter. This race is exciting. How is that bad for us as fans, bad for the Mets as players, or bad for baseball?

Answer: It's not. It's fun. Anyone who doesn't think so is a dilettante, not a fan.

The Daily News ♥'s the Yankees

Adam Rubin, the Mets beat reporter for the News, posted in his blog when the Yanks record surpassed the Mets that the Yanks are the kings of New York, the NY team he'd bet on being in the playoffs. This was behind the back cover declaring the same.

Why is this guy blogging about the Mets? And now that the Mets have a better record than the Yanks again, can we expect a back cover heralding their triumph as the kings of New York?

Of course not. The fact that the Mets have been in first place since May 16 and are clearly the best team in their division doesn't matter next to the Yanks being on the march. How far the mighty have fallen, when the best they can say is that they have (excuse me, had) a better record than the team they've always regarded as their inferiors anyway. It almost amuses me to hear Yankee fans talk about the records, when it obviously doesn't matter whether the Yanks have a better record than the Mets-- all that matters is their record against the Red Sox.

And I think we all know how that's going.

ETA: Rubin is on the Francessa Sports Final tonight. I wonder how much he'll piss me off there? I bet the guy is a Yankee fan.

overheard in the clubhouse on Tuesday

David Wright to Tom Glavine: "How's my favorite pitcher today?"
Glavine to Wright: "Smoltzie doing fine."
(Pause)
Glavine to Wright: "And how's my favorite third baseman?"
Wright to Glavine: Chipper's doing fine. too."

--via MLB.com

love for Ramon Castro

at the ballpark last Thursday, I was finally able to capture a short video as evidence for why my family and I so love Ramon Castro.




anyone who uses Darth Vader's theme (The Imperial March, for those uninitiated) as his batting music jumps straight to the top of the cool list with me, LHJ, and SJG.

Ollie gets touched, LHJ scores

when I was nine years old, I knew how to score a baseball game well enough for my father to use the bathroom whenever he wanted to during a game, confident that I'd be able to "pick [him] up" on the scorecard. it's an important milestone in my family, when one has reached proficiency with scoring a baseball game.

LHJ had never scored a game when we met more than six years ago. Last night he went to the game with a friend from work, and scored it for the first time without me there. he did a great job! I was teaching as the game was going on last night, so it was really exciting to see how the game unfolded on his scorecard when I got home.

it was not, however, exciting to see how badly the Braves beat up Oliver Perez in the first three innings.

nor was it exciting to see how much the Mets did not hit.

but I know LHJ is a real member of my family now-- he writes the weather conditions and seat locations for the game on the top right hand corner of the scorecard, as we all do.

the Mets ♥ Tom Glavine

I've got a number of posts about Glavine's 300th, but I couldn't wait any longer to post this picture of Lastings Milledge expressing the intention of his whole team last night-- they were going to deliver him this game, period.


More to come on this, of course.

a Record Weekend

Bonds hit his 755th. A-Rod hit his 500th. and Tom Glavine won his 300th.

does it just defy plausibility to claim that I care most about the last one not because it's a Met that achieved it, but because it's a pitcher who achieved it? Plausible or not I believe it to be true, because lovely though it is to see such a celebration in a Mets uniform, I am sure that if you woke Tom Glavine in the middle of the night and said "Quick! What team do you play for?" He'd blink and say "the Atlanta Braves."

don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled to have Glavine in the Mets clubhouse. he's apparently the world's best teammate, a real leader in the clubhouse, a real teacher of young pitchers. this is the second reason that I am most impressed by Glavine. Bonds and A-Rod have not exactly contributed positively to their clubhouses over the years, but Glavine is universally lauded as the quintessential clubhouse guy. I know he means a lot to the rest of the team, and in truth, watching all of his teammates congratulate him out on the field when it was over brought actual tears to my eyes. it's just that I know Tom Glavine is much more a professional pitcher than he is a Met.

again, don't get me wrong-- my favorite thing in the game is good pitching, and Glavine is a master. this gets to my third reason for being more impressed with Tom than I am with Bonds or A-Rod. I just enjoy watching good pitching more than I enjoy watching home runs.

speaking of watching, the fourth reason I like Glavine's record more than the other two is the grace and humility with which he achieves the milestone. A-Rod stood in the batter's box and stared at his 500th homer until it was sure to be out. It would be hard to specify the statement of hubris that Bonds* displays which annoys me the most, but suffice it to say there are plenty. Glavine is proud of himself, as well he should be, but he is not impressed with himself. The same cannot be said of the other two.

*I can't decide whether I want to devote a whole post to Bonds. I'm mulling it.

the many faces of Christine Glavine

Chris Glavine's husband is on the mound in Chicago right now, going for his 300th win. It's the second time Tom is pitching with 299 career wins, having watched the bullpen give away his 2-0 lead in Milwaukee on Tuesday night, losing him his first try at the record.

The Glavines had 30 family members at the Brewers' game on Monday night, and their man didn't disappoint-- he pitched very well.


Christine was very much enjoying herself while Tom was in the game.


she was pretty disappointed when Mota let the game tie up. I don't blame her. my aunt always said that the hardest position to play on any soccer team is Goalie's Mom, and I bet the hardest position on any baseball team is Pitcher's Wife.

I hope tonight will be nothing but smiles for the whole Glavine family.

Dunkin Donuts for the Mets

Dunkin' Donuts is selling this donut in the NY area in support of the Mets.



I dig the idea, but why is the glaze chocolate? The Mets colors are blue, orange, black and WHITE-- and the vanilla frosting is, imho, yummier. Maybe next year.

Carlos and David's catch, up close

I've written here plenty of times about how I love Carlos Delgado and David Wright's tradition of having a catch out in front of the Mets dugout before home games, after the National Anthem, while the starting lineups are being announced on DiamondVision. Our seats under the net behind home plate afforded me the best view I've yet had of their ritual ball toss.




they start out pretty close to each other, just lobbing the ball.



slowly, they move further apart, making the tosses into throws.



Carlos keeps moving back toward first, and David keeps moving back toward home, until they're really throwing the ball and shagging the throws.



the game winds up with David throwing running shots at Delgado, and ends quickly when they get the sign that they're about to be called onto the field and scamper back into the dugout, just to run out again with their team when we start cheering for our 2007 New York Mets.

I don't know why I love minutiae like this, but I bet it has something to do with my father, who rightly pointed out once Mota came into the game that David was firing the ball back to him on the mound after outs, a departure from the normal toss from third baseman to pitcher-- and then rightly pointed out that now, for the rest of my life, I'll pay attention to the way third basemen throw the ball to the pitcher after an out.

so close

...and yet so far.

one of the things you see when you're a mere 30 feet from the on-deck circle is how close they all are to each other. on TV, it looks like the guys on deck are miles from the plate, but when you're right behind them, it's obvious that they can see quite a bit about how a pitcher's looking from that vantage point. they're right there.



in the bottom of the 9th (when I realized I had little time left to take pictures!), Ramon Castro watched Damion Easley at bat. you can tell that Castro is big on TV, but in real life, it's even more self-evident why his clubhouse nickname is Shrek.

Easley flew out to left field.



Shawn Green swings the bat on deck as Castro takes his turn at the plate.


Shawn Green always watches a pitch or two leaning on is bat that way in the on-deck circle. he also goes through a series of stretches in pretty much the same order every time, just like almost every other major league hitter.



Castro struck out, and Green took his place at the plate, but suffered the same fate. Ruben Gotay never got to bat in the 9th.

as you can see, we had great tickets to Thursday's day game against the Pirates. though I'll recount the very annoying loss in a traditional game day post, the seats afforded me the opportunity to take many more pictures than usual-- more, I think, than should go in one post!

the problem with digital point-and-shoot

I love our Nikon D600. I love the immediacy of digital photography, the ability to edit on the spot, and to record many of the smaller events in life where I wouldn't have bothered to take a film camera. Never the less, shutter delay makes it not the best choice when you want to take many shots in a short period of time.

Like when you have seats so close to home plate you can snap the players coming back into the dugout after an inning in the field.



for instance, you might press the shutter release when Oliver Perez and David Wright are looking up, but not have the image captured until they've looked down at the grass.



you might try for Jose Reyes and Ruben Gotay and end up only with the latter, and blurry at that, because you were trying to catch the both of them looking up and didn't pause for focus.


of course, the inability to really control light and the angle of the sun might make it difficult to see Damion Easley's face anyway.



but you can count on Shawn Green to look up when he hears a nice Jewish girl calling his name!

.500

at the beginning of the season, it felt as though the Mets couldn't lose when I was at Shea-- they won the first four games I went to, and five of my first six. The team couldn't seem to win in June, and I saw four straight losses. At that point, M and I decided that it would be a good idea for me to stay away from Flushing for a while, and I didn't go to a game from June 26th until July 15th, my Mom's 60th birthday. My mom was (as usual) good luck, and Oliver Perez pitched a great game against the Reds. But we lost again when I was at the park this week.

so I'm now 6-6 for attendance this season. I'm not sure whether that means I should go to more or fewer games when they come back from the Midwest to play Atlanta in August.

Irony, Part II

the newest volume of Mets Magazine, the one that is new for this home stand, has an article about Jose Valentin. It's titled "Good to be Back."

Ouch.

don't get attached to pitchers

Especially not young ones. They'll break your heart.

Joe Smith is on his way to New Orleans right now. He's allowed 19 of his last 24 inherited baserunners to score, and you can't pitch like that and throw relief in the major leagues.

I believed that Rick Peterson would be able to fix whatever was going wrong with Joe, but it looks like it's going to take a stint in the minors. I feel badly for the kid.

But I'm looking forward to seeing him again soon.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Mr. Met style.

surprise, surprise

After John Maine hit his home run on Tuesday, MLB.com asked several players what they would have to do to surprise Shea Stadium as Maine had. One of those players was Wright. But he had no response.

But, as a public service, two of his teammates offered suggestions for Wright:

Paul Lo Duca: "David [would] have to get rid of all the mirrors at his place."

Wagner: "Be seen with something less than centerfold material on his arm."

--Marty Noble at MLB.com

condolences

Damion Easley's father, Raymond, passed away yesterday at the age of 63. Damion is still on the BL, and still at home in Riverside with his family.

I'm a sap, I know, but I sent Damion a condolence card this afternoon. I can't imagine the pain of losing a father so young, and I want Damion to know that lots and lots of people who don't know him are thinking about him and his dad today.

Rick Peterson, Psychiatrist

Joe Smith-- the side-arming, relief-pitching phenom who was playing college ball just a little over a year ago-- has been struggling recently. It looked for all the world like he had lost his confidence after a couple of tough appearances on the mound.

But Dr. Peterson was on the case. After another bad outing last week, Peterson sat Smith down in front of a TV, and showed the kid tape of himself getting Albert Pujols out, getting Alex Rodriguez out, getting Derek Jeter out. Reminding him of what he can do. And the next time he was on the mound, on Saturday, Smith was on the offensive again.

It's too bad for the kid that it the grounder he was trying to get the batter to hit got by Reyes, but he went right after Jeff Kent, and on another day the same ball would have been a 6-3 out. If he stays aggressive, Joe will be back in his best form soon-- and like we do with John Maine and Oliver Perez, we will have Rick Peterson, Psychiatrist, to thank.

a game of contrasts, this is

Game 96: Mets 4, Dodgers 1
54-42 for the season
1st place in the NL East, 3.5 games ahead of Atlanta

The way one game played between two teams can be the practical opposite of the game those same teams played the night before is one of the best things about baseball-- it's what makes it fun to watch, every time it's played. These last two games between the Dodgers and the Mets have been a shining example of this Fact of Baseball.

Last night: 22 total runs.

Tonight: 5 total runs.

Last night: at the end of the 7th, 20 runs had scored.

Tonight: 2 runs scored at the end of the 7th.

Last Night: Glavine saw 4 batters in the bottom of the 3rd before being taken out of the game, having given up 6 runs on 10 hits.

Tonight: Oliver Perez struck out 8, and went 7 and 1/3 innings, and allowed only 1 run on 6 hits.

Tonight's game was a beautiful display of National League baseball, in contrast to last night's slug-fest. While I enjoyed watching as the hits kept on rolling last night, I enjoyed watching tonight's very good starting pitching and good relief (for the Mets, anyway) much more. This isn't at all surprising, of course. I'm a National League fan, and so it's a chicken-or-egg situation: do I prefer the defensive, pitching-centered game to the offensive, hitting-centered game because I've been a Mets fan all my life, or have I been a National League fan all my life because I prefer the defensive game? I suspect it's the former, but there's no way to prove it.

intelligent design

After a reporter finished with chatting with Joe Smith on Friday, John Maine chatted with the reporter and asked "What was that all about?"

"The evolution of a rookie," the reporter said.

To which Maine said: "Oh, I didn't know he'd evolved."

--via Marty Noble at MLB.com

Mustachio is out

Jose Valentin hit a pitch off his right shin, fractured the tibia, and will be out for a long time. It's a tough break, no pun intended, though in truth Jose hasn't been playing all that well since he came back from his first stint on the DL this year.

While I love Valentin as a personality and influence on the team, and for the great role he played on last year's team and at the beginning of this year, but the Mets this season are rich from having second basemen. Ruben Gotay has been really hot, hitting .354 going into today's game, and Damion Easley is having a good year too, hitting .257 with 20 RBIs. Easley is right now on the Bereavement List (the BL-- which I didn't know existed until Damion was placed on it earlier in the week), at home not far from Dodger Stadium in Riverside, CA with his ailing father. This means that Gotay has had to bat righty tonight, which he hasn't done much of this year, but that won't last when Easley comes back. Never the less, this could be Ruben Gotay's lucky break, and a good thing for Easley too.

I wish Ruben good luck in his newly important role, Jose best wishes for a speedy recovery, and Damion and his whole family my hope for their healing.

there, I said it.

Oliver Perez with a goatee is very, very attractive.

that is all.

injury report

Omar Minaya just joined Gary Cohen and Ron Darling in the booth at Dodger stadium, and gave an update on the DL:

Moises Alou will be back next week. Given that the Mets batting slump coincided with his injury, I'm hoping his return will have the opposite effect. Endy Chavez, on the other hand, had a second-degree tear in his hamstring, and is still three to four weeks away from returning to the team. I thought it was especially sad that he missed playing in the game on his bobblehead night last week.

When asked about Pedro Martinez, Minaya hedged: late August at the earliest, he's on doctor-recommended rest in the DR right now but it's part of the rehab program, etc., but with Pedro we're really looking forward to 2008. This is a contrast from earlier in the season, when Pedro himself was saying he wanted to be back by the beginning of August and Minaya was expressing nothing but confidence, but of course you never know anything until a guy starts pitching again.

though I was looking forward to seeing him pitch this year, I can wait until next year if it means he's Pedro Martinez again.

flickr searches are fun!

here are my favorite finds from a recent search on flickr:

Green fields of the mind by DC Products.

shea security by redperm

the creepy flushing fog by minicloud

Mets clinch the Division by joshbousel

west coast travel

is a friend to the East Coast dwelling insomniac. when I go myself, I can fall asleep by the very reasonable hour of midnight without trouble, and when the ballclub goes, I have live Mets games to watch deep into the night. there's also the bonus of knowing exactly how Atlanta's home game turned out before the game even starts in California.

I loved going to games at Dodger Stadium, in large measure because I felt like the only one who was there from start to finish-- Dodger fans tend to arrive between the first and third inning, and start leaving by the seventh. It's also got a gorgeous view, up in the hills in East LA. A great place for a ballpark, a great place to watch a game.

highest offensive output of the season

Marlon Anderson, in his return to the Mets, drove in the eighth and ninth runs with a single.

Teammates told Anderson that the Mets now generally score a dozen or so runs every day and urged him not to screw up the average.

"That a lot of pressure," Anderson said.

--Marty Noble at MLB.com

Quotable Darling

"No! No innings! You gotta stay with the scorecard, man."

--Ron Darling on Mets Post-Game Live, responding to a request from his interlocutor to be honest, and admit the inning in which he gave up on his scorecard during tonight's 13-9, 35-hit game.

welcome back, Marlon Anderson

Game 95: Mets 13, Dodgers 9
53-42 for the season
1st place in the NL East, 2.5 games ahead of Atlanta

Anderson played for the Mets in 2005, and loved playing for Willie Randolph. but the Nationals were offering a two-year contract and the Mets were not, so off he went to Washington. He was with the Dodgers in the first half, but played in only 20-some-odd games, and was at home for two weeks before the Mets picked him up. He had a great combination of enthusiasm for his new club and something to prove to his old club tonight, with two hits and two RBIs and a fantastic catch for the first out in the 9th, as well as the last out on a more routine fly to left. Sad though everyone in my family is about the loss of Julio Franco and his coming out music at Shea, I have to say that it was really nice to see such great play from the guy in left field.

"I loved it when I was here, and I still love it now," Anderson told Kevin Burkhart after the game. We love having you, Marlon.

It was for the most part a sloppy game, with the exception of Aaron Sele's great three innings to stem the tide of unending runs for both sides. In the end, it was fun to watch the Mets hit and hit, since once Sele came in, the Dodgers never again got too close. It also felt a bit like a Bull Durham moment-- after being swept the last time they were in LA, the Mets wanted to announce their presence with authority. The message was perhaps obscured in the 9 runs the team gave away, but the 13 runs were certainly authoritative-- every Mets starter not only touched base but also scored a run.

I love you, HoJo

oh, yes I do.

Howard Johnson, the star third baseman of the World Champion 1986 New York Mets, was appointed batting coach after Minaya fired Rick Down for the team's failure to hit at the All-Star break. Since HoJo has been in the position, the Mets have scored 39 runs in in eight games (so far-- it's only the 8th inning in Los Angeles, and it's a slugfest). They'd scored 29 in the eight before the break, which was itself three better than they'd done at the beginning of June.

He's doing more than the numbers show. The guys look confident at the plate again. The guys who really needed to all hit on Tuesday night (Beltran, Delgado, LoDuca, Valentin, even El Duque, who obviously didn't need to hit, but sure wanted to). Though they didn't end up winning last night, it was the bullpen's fault. That was so rarely the case in the first half that hit's hard to get upset about it, especially when Wright hit a three-run homer to tie it up in the 8th. Even though it didn't produce a win, that has been so rare an occurrence that it merely happening is good news.

(photo from metsgrrl.com's flickr)

oh, how I've missed you

it's hard to know where to start when you want to get back on the blogging horse, but El Duque made it easy to know where to start on Tuesday night. he's had the green light to run when he's sure he'll be safe all season, and he sensed that opportunity in the top of the 5th against San Diego, after singling to get on base, and then cantered all the way home on Jose Valentin's double. the man is 40-something, was kept from playing in his prime by Castro's fear that he'd defect (effective strategy, huh?), and still looks like he's having so much fun playing baseball. he goes for it. it's inspiring.

the Mets have certainly played in an inspiring manner since the All-Star break, and because of my age and history with the Mets, I credit all the hitting entirely to HoJo. Johnson has been the hitting coach since the season resumed a week ago, and he's clearly having an effect-- even last night, when Wright's three-run game tying homer wasn't protected by the bullpen and the Mets ended up losing. the guys are hitting. they look more confident.

here's to the second half.

auspicious beginnings

apparently Cole Hamels, Philadelphia's young ace (9-3 coming into today's game, with the 2nd most strikeouts in the NL) wanted to be matched up with John Maine during this series between the Phillies and the Mets. until tonight, his walks-to-strikeouts ratio was something ridiculous like 23-101 (I'm only a couple numbers off in either direction-- but I was mashing the potatoes when Howie Rose gave the numbers, and I may not be remembering 100% correctly), and young Cole hadn't given up more than one walk in a game all year. tonight, he's given up four. he's pitched three innings.

this, along with the Mets win in the first game of today's double header, is an auspicious start to what I hope will be a productive weekend for This Fan-- I've got a lot to update here!

a good Italian temper

I found it hard to watch Paulie lose his temper at the Ump tonight. He totally lost it when he got thrown out of the game, and for a minute there I was honestly afraid that he was going to take a swing at someone-- anyone, really, who got in his way. I think of Paul as the center of the team, and it was hard to watch that center lose control and throw his equipment onto the field.

in the end, though, I think I misunderstood what was going on. Paul has been really frustrated with his team's and his own play in the last couple of weeks, and though things were looking up, he was set off. his teammates were more amused than anything else by LoDuca's antics, and I'll take my cue from them. I'm nervous that he'll be suspended for the knee-pad flinging, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, but at least one guy isn't all that concerned. According to MLB.com, "when it comes to the threat of suspension, though, Lo Duca doesn't seem to be worried. "For what?" he said."

Jump Around

Game 72: Athletics 0, Mets 1
40-32 for the season

it was a great pitchers duel tonight-- El Duque for the Mets, coming back after two bad outings and keeping the A's scoreless on six hits in seven innings, and Joe Blanton pitching for Oakland, holding the Mets to five hits in eight shutout innings in a row. it ultimately came down to the closers, and Wagner is one of the best in the game. Santiago Casilla, bless his heart, is not.

tonight was important for a lot of reasons. one, it was rather important that the Mets win two in a row again, since it hadn't happened since May. two, it was pretty important that the Mets win a series, since that hadn't happened in six straight series. three, Duque had two bad starts in a row, and that had to stop. all of that happened, and every other team in the NL East lost today. oh, and the Yankees did, too.

my favorite moment came toward the end of the 7th, when Duque let two men on base and Willie came out to bring Feliciano in. Orlando convinced Willie to let him pitch, and then delivered with an inning-ending K. when El Duque says "Si, yo puedo," you'd better believe he can do it.

of course, Paul LoDuca lost his shit at the umpire tonight, but that ended up well, too-- it got Ramon Castro in the game, and in the top of the 9th, Shrek hit his second double of the year. two batters later, David Wright drove him in with a walk-off double to win the game. it was in many ways a perfect day.

and when it was all over, the Powers That Be at Shea played the House of Pain classic "Jump Around," a much more fitting tribute for a win from this Mets team than anything Bob Seeger ever sang.

there's my team

Game 69: Athletics 1, Mets 9
39-32 for the season

tonight, the Mets played the way they did in April and June-- not only scoring first, but piling it on, and keeping the opposition to just one run. Glavine pitched like he did at the beginning of the season, going into the 9th inning and holding the A's to just one run. when Willie came out of the dugout after Glavine gave up a single on his first pitch in the top of the 9th, the crowd let him know they weren't happy to be robbed of the opportunity to see a Mets pitcher throw a complete game. Tom didn't mind, though-- I'm sure he quite enjoyed watching the last three outs from the dugout.

Marty Noble had some good coverage of the mood in the dugout after the game was done over at MLB.com:

Glavine had the misfortune of being thrown out at the plate in the sixth inning after his second hit, a single, had produced the final two runs in a five-run rally that all but determined the outcome. He was thrown out while trying to score from first base on a double by Jose Reyes. And he heard about it.

"I think that parachute went out as he came around third," manager Willie Randolph said, "and he started to moonwalk."

Wright was wondering whether Glavine had been carrying Baldwin or a Steinway. (What does a Steinway, anyway?)

And someone compared Glavine's speed to that of backup catcher Ramon Castro, but then suggested that the pitcher would have been thrown out at third if he ran like the thick-legged catcher.

"C'mon," Mets closer Billy Wagner said. "You can't get on him. He's 110 years old."

no reflection

my recent lack of posting has nothing to do with the Mets' laconic play-- I've been busy, as my summer courses have started. CBN and I were at the game on Tuesday night, though, and I'll get a post about it up soon.

I am happy, but not surprised.

Here's why:

"This was the indisputable fact of Friday night's contest. The ice-cold Mets had beaten the red-hot Yankees. Oliver Perez had outpitched Roger Clemens.

On the surface, these were surprising developments. But looking a little deeper, no, they weren't.

Perez had already stopped the Yankees once. Where is the surprise in a second victory? And if the Mets had been slumping, they still did have the potential to find ways to scratch and claw for a run. With a well-pitched game in hand, this was all they needed. They had superior pitching, solid defense and they uncovered just enough offense. It is never really a surprise when this combination results in victory."

--Mike Bauman at MLB.com

boiling blood

check out this article, titled "Father-child bond central to baseball," subtitled "Ballplayers, fans alike have shared the game with dad," on MLB.com. go ahead. please. and try very hard to find even a single reference to a father sharing the game with his daughter, or a mother sharing the game with her child of either sex.

no, don't bother. you won't find one.

apparently, MLB hasn't noticed the number of fans who are women, or doesn't understand how we got to be fans and how we intend to bond with our own children over baseball. I post on a general interest women's message board, and there are more than a dozen regular contributors to a thread about MLB. all women. all fans. many of us learned about baseball and became fans at our father's heels (as I did). the headline and subtitle apply to me, but the article ignores the fact of my existence.

because in MLB world, the way to bond with daughters not through sharing a love of the game, but by "watching cartoons and going to Chuck E. Cheese" with them, the way Twins pitcher Johan Santana reports he bonds with his two daughters. that was the only mention of girl-children in the whole article.

I'm going to write an indignant letter. you should too.

it's really making me see red.

pressing the issue

Game 64: Mets 2, Yankees 0
36-28 for the season

bases stolen against Roger Clemens (44 years old, with a birthday in August) in tonight's game:
Gomez (21): 1
Reyes (24 last week): 2
Wright (25): 1

in addition, Carlos Gomez ended the bottom of the 4th inning in which the Yanks had two on and 1 out by absolutely stealing a home run from Cairo (and fan interference from the Yankee fans), preventing it also from being an extra-base hit (and at least one run, probably two), and then throwing Matsui out at second for getting too far away from the base before the ball was caught and not being able to get back before the throw.

lesson: if you're old, and you're a pitcher, the Mets will remind you that you're old. moreover, if you're the Yankees, the Mets will remind you that they might be old, but you're older. this means we don't rely entirely on power hitting, which made the difference tonight.

Clemens went 6 and 1/3 innings, threw 105 pitches, allowed 2 runs on 7 hits, had 7 strikeouts, and 4 stolen bases stolen in 4 tries. I'm not impressed.

Oliver Perez had his best stuff tonight, and held the Yanks scoreless through 7 and 1/3 innings. He had really tough 4th, but came back with a 1-2-3 5th and had retired 12 in a row when he gave up a double to Jeter and left the game. Ollie threw117 pitches, 66 of them strikes, had 6 K's, and whatever Rick Peterson said to him between his last outing and this one and between the 4th and 5th innings has obviously had the magic Peterson effect. This was the pitcher I've grown so fond of, and it was nice to see him back.

I'll admit to being tense until the end, but wow, it's nice to have watched a game where the Mets were playing like the team I've been rooting for all year.