The Other Team

I'm not much of a trash-talker. sure, if I'm antagonized, I can verbally throw down with a Yankee fan, but I don't seek out the confrontation. hostility isn't a part of my fandom, and I don't understand those for whom hostility toward another team is as defining a quality of their life as a ball fan as love of their own team is a defining quality.

yes, I hate the Yankees. but I don't hate the Yankees the way my father does, the way my uncles do, the way anyone who ever was a Brooklyn Dodger fan does. and I don't hate the Yankees the way any Boston Red Sox fan does, for obvious reasons. I hate the Yankees for two reasons-- first, because the Mets can do nothing without it in some way being compared with what the Yanks are doing (check out my ongoing NYC sports press watch for evidence of this). the other reason is that, while I count a number of Yankee fans as friends, the overwhelming majority of Yankee fans I've observed and come into contact with are represented well by the Yanks' biggest fan.

and yet today, the strangest thing happened-- while watching the Yanks struggle against and lose to the Blue Jays today, after being swept at home by the Angels and on their way to get beaten into the ground in Boston over the weekend, I actually felt a twinge of sympathy for the Yankees and (ok, some of) their fans. I remember what it feels like to watch your team seem to lose all luck, spin out of control and spend more than a decade in the woods. it happened in the '90s for the Mets, but not since before I was born were the Yanks as bad as they are now. it must feel as though the world is crashing down on them, and they have no idea what to do to hold it up. it's legitimately sad to watch.

well, it is for a minute anyway. thankfully, the feeling passed quickly, and I went right back to enjoying the Yankees slide into American League oblivion.

watching games the Mets don't play

when I was a girl, I didn't understand why my dad watched games on nights when the Mets weren't playing. if it wasn't about our team, why did he care? now, I understand-- watching baseball is fun, and is a particular kind of fun when the outcome doesn't really matter for your team (like Cubs v. White Sox, for instance) and another kind of fun when it's sort of good for my team either way (Braves v. Phillies). it's also a little bit about addiction; nearly a third of the way through the season, a game at some point during the day becomes the expected routine, a routine that you want to engage in, that feels good and seems to have no health-related drawbacks. it's a desire that can be fed by watching games the Mets don't play in, though it's never quite as satisfying a meal as when it's the Mets that are playing.

flaw of sampling?

I've only been keeping track for three days, and already my trusty spreadsheet shows that the Yanks were twice as likely as the Mets to be the lead sports story in the local press in that time. while neither LHJ nor I are even remotely surprised by these numbers, I'm compelled to point out (as any good critic should) that the three days which surround Joe Torre being booed at Yankee Stadium for the first time ever aren't exactly a fair sample of what's headline-worthy in New York sports over an average three days. so, the watch continues into the long days of summer, but I am willing to take on anyone willing to bet that at the end of the season, the Mets will have more headline coverage than the Yanks in the New York sports press.

one could argue that the Yankees slide is a bigger story than the Mets rise, in absolute terms, but I would counter that this is only so because the media is so focused on the Yankees and their success in the Torre era. no matter what the year, there's some reason to think that what's going on with the Yanks is just a more headline-worthy story than whatever is going on with the Mets. it's not fact, it's attitude.

Braves fans have it good

particularly those who live outside of Atlanta, because a national cable network (TBS, owned, of course, by the same man who owns the Braves) carries all their games. must be nice. when I lived in LA, I had to resort to a bar to see Mets games live, when they weren't on during the work day (a 7:10 start in New York is still two hours before I left work in LA). then, I "watched" them on ESPN Gameday.

sweep the fish

Game 49: Mets 6, Marlins 4
32-17 for the season

the Mets were playing very shorthanded today, with Green and Gomez both active but not able to play in the outfield. after considering LoDuca in left field (which would have been awesome!) and rejecting the idea because his shoulder is bruised from the injury yesterday, Randolph played Easley in left field. it was the first time he'd ever played that position in a major league game, and he did just fine. with only four everyday players on the field (Beltran, Delgado, Reyes, and Wright), the way the game was won is a real testament to the strength of the Mets bench.

Carlos Delgado is definitely coming out of his slump, and even had his second steal of the season today (it was also his second double steal, and the first one of the season was Carlos' first in many years. he hits, he doesn't run). but the real reason we won today is that the Marlins' starting pitcher, Olsen, has no control of his emotions, and the Marlins defense gets to be called a "defense" only because they play defensive positions, not because they are able to act defensively on any kind of regular basis. Olsen's control is great until something bad happens in the field-- then he completely loses it, throwing wildly and taking a few pitches to calm back down. he certainly doesn't seem like a guy you'd want to hang out with, particularly once you've heard that he's known for having fights with his own teammates. and with the Marlins as teammates, Olsen finds himself frustrated by what goes on behind him on the field quite a bit.

truth is, you just can't play bad D against a good team and expect to win, and that's why the Mets took all three games in Miami, even while fielding the B-team.

with an off-day and surgical consults for both Green and Gomez tomorrow, Willie has some time to decide what to do in terms of the DL and putting players in the outfield. I might say me'sheberach for Pedro, Shawn, Paulie, Carlos, and Jose V. but even if I don't actually pray for them, I'm sending all the injured Mets best wishes for the speediest possible recovery.

keeping tabs

I've decided to keep track of whether the Mets or Yankees get the lead story in the local press, both television and print. Click on the link to see the spreadsheet.

Here's how it works: the team that was the first story on the evening news and the team that was the story on the back page of the two local tabloids (the New York Daily News and the New York Post) gets 1 point, and the team that was second gets two.

as a result, the team with the lower score is the one that gets more headlines and lead stories in the local NYC press.

I've already had two outlier situations-- one in which both the front and back page of the Post was about the Yankees (in which case I gave the Yankees no points at all, rather than the 1 they'd record if they were just the back page story, and the Mets their usual 2 as the second story), and one in which the front page was about the Yanks and the back page about the Mets (in which case I gave both the Mets and Yanks a 1 as the lead story).

I'll update as I make appropriate adjustments, but I'm sure this spreadsheet will prove LHJ's and my theory that the NYC sports press usually leads with the Yanks, no matter what is happening with either NY team.

Good News and Bad News

Game 48: Mets 7, Marlins 2
31-17 for the season

Good News!

• Carlos Delgado had two home runs. His at-bats have been looking good since he went down in the lineup, and he seems now finally to have broken out of his slump.
• John Maine came back from a three-start slide, with a good night on the mound and a win.
• Endy Chavez had another gorgeous catch, this time in right field.

Bad News.

• Shawn Green was on crutches this afternoon, having fractured a bone in his foot the night before. Obviously, he didn't play.
  
• Carlos Gomez came out of the game having hurt his hamstring after touching first base in the early part of the game.
• Paul LoDuca came out of the game when it appeared he hurt his thumb, the same thumb he had surgery on in the off-season.

Bottom line: we're winning with a large part of our lineup on the DL, but only against the worst fielding team in baseball. It'll be interesting to see what happens when the Giants come to town next week.

it's good to be in Miami

Game 47: Mets 6, Marlins 2
30-17 for the season

El Duque is back, and looking fantastic. he threw six shutout innings, allowing only two hits and not a single walk, retiring 15 (or was it 16?) hitters in a row. the lineup wasn't doing well against the Marlins' Sergio Mitre, who pitched 7 good innings and really made a show of the team-wide slump the hitters seem to be in (with the obvious exception of Paul LoDuca, who's just red hot). but the Marlins' bullpen is pathetic, and the Mets scored 5 runs in the top of the 9th (including one on a hit from Reyes, just his second in like 22 at bats) to win.

Pedro was in the dugout tonight, as animated as always but looking really, really healthy strong. Orlando's thighs look like steel, too. their time in South Florida has done them well, and it was good to be in town to see them.

Smoltz's 200th Win

Game 46: Mets 1, Braves 2
29-17 for the season

the team is struggling in general, but I don't think that we could have beat Smoltz last night even at our best, because he was at his best, and good pitching will beat good hitting nine times out of ten. though I still think that the Mets are a better team than the Braves, something about playing the Braves brings out the worst in the Mets, especially at the Ted.

Oliver Perez, King of the Braves

Game 45: Mets 3, Braves 0
29-16 for the season

the Mets have lost all but three of the games they've played against the Braves so far this year, and all three they won were credited to Oliver Perez. the way Gary, Ron and Keith were talking about him tonight-- Cy Young material, capable of winning 18 games in a year-- was impressive, but no more impressive than my feelings about him. As Jose Reyes is the most exciting every-day player in baseball, Oliver Perez is the most exciting pitcher in baseball today. Clemens may be the most distracting, but Perez is the most exciting.

Paul LoDuca had his 200th career double tonight, and David Wright (with 8 homers this month) is most definitely back in his groove. Carlos Delgado hit in 6th spot for the first time in 10 years tonight, and it seemed to help-- he had two good singles, one to the opposite field, in his first tow at bats. though he ended up 2-4, the second two at-bats were good ones. I have a feeling he's on his way back, too.

Glavine vs. Smoltz again tomorrow night.

ugly

Game 44: Mets 1, Braves 8
28-16 for the season

the series against the Yanks, while fun, was not really all that important. this series against the Braves, while still early in the season, is much more important.

and we had a bad night. it got ugly early, and sent M and me to the broadcast of the Yanks vs. Red Sox game by the top of the sixth. and because every cloud has a silver lining, the Yankees lost.

the Kings of New York have the night off

the Empire State Building shone blue and orange tonight on all four sides, in honor of the Mets having taken the Subway Series 2-1. the Mets themselves were in Atlanta, resting up for tomorrow's game.

Mets-Yanks brings out the demonstrative in fans

more freaky than awesome.


more awesome than freaky.

the scorecard says it all

here's how the Mets lost to the Yankees, play by play:




(as always, you can see the scorecards much more clearly if you click on the image)



if my dad had been there, he would have been making notation of the ball-strike count when the hit, walk, strike out, etc. happened, and I know it would show what he's been seeing for a while with that extra notation-- falling behind the hitter is a killer for a pitcher, and the 3-0 is particularly deadly.

off night

Game 43: Yankees 6, Mets 2
28-15 for the season

If I'd known Tony Randazzo was behind the plate on Sunday night, I would have lowered my expectations for victory. to the extent that guy has an eye, it's one trained to see calls as they go against the Mets. never the less, I was so excited all day on Sunday-- like a kid on Christmas Eve, eager with anticipation of the excitement to come. I practically skipped to the train.

dang! that's a lot of people!

others were not as successful at fighting the urge to bring a broom as I was.

CBN's tickets were in the Mezzanine, just down from third base-- a good vantage point, with a direct view of the scoreboard and into the Mets dugout. I'm so annoyed with myself because I keep forgetting to bring the small binoculars I bought for our safari in Africa to the ballpark, so I've now put them in the bag I bring to games, but I would have loved to have had them on Sunday night for the view I had of the Mets bench.





the apple, up for the 7th inning stretch (though was also up earlier, in the 2nd, when David Wright hit a home run for what proved to be his only hit of the night).

CBN and I went to Mets games together in high school, and I was honored that he asked me to join him at his first game of the season on Sunday. it was great fun to be at a game with another real fan, someone who pays attention to the game and the team, and also just to be there with him-- it's been more than a decade since we'd been at Shea together, and it was fun to be there with my old friend again.




the good time we were having in the stands was not represented on the field on Sunday night. in truth, though I was hoping for a sweep, I didn't expect it, even against the struggling Yankees. and that's a good thing, because my expectations would have been severely disappointed. Maine struggled from the beginning, and the five Mets pitchers we saw by the time the game was over collectively had a horrible time with falling behind in the count-- they just could not pull ahead, and the Yanks were able to hit them as a result.





the Mets have a hard time against rookie pitchers, because they rely heavily on tape to prepare. this game was no exception-- the Yanks rookie pitcher Clippard held the Mets to 1 run on 3 hits in the six innings he pitched.



as much as I hate the Yankees, a real ball fan has to have respect for the great Mariano Rivera, the best closer ever to play the game. I am a real ball fan, and a lover of pitching in particular, and I have enormous respect for the talent in Mariano's arm.




this may be the last time I see Rivera pitch live, and it was a pleasure to watch (including the ultimately useless homer from Easley).


there was some predictable Mets/Yanks fans scuffling, but that'll get it's own post, hopefully tonight.

I ♥ Mike Lupica

At the end of Lupica's column today, which was focused on the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports in general and with Jason Giambi and Floyd Landis in particular, was this vignette:

The Mets have now had Guillermo Mota, one of their better relief pitchers, test positive for steroids and too many players in their minor league system do the same.

So it is time for them, up and down the organization, to make sure they are more relentless about drug use in baseball than any other organization in the game.

You lead by example, the way they have with a Dominican-born general manager and an African-American manager, this at a time when all pro sports preach diversity in management and do so little about it.

Now the Mets can lead the same way, in New York, with a franchise this prominent, when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs.

It starts with convincing kids that they don't need this stuff - starting with their first "B-12" shot - to be great, even though they've grown up at a time when they think they do.

I couldn't agree more, Mike. and I’m grateful to you for articulating one of the things I love most about the current incarnation of the Mets, from the front office to the field (in bold, above). it’s a team that looks like and sounds like the New York I grew up in, and it’s not just the guys on the field who spoke Spanish at growing up (and probably still do at home now).

we visited four Southern African countries on our honeymoon, and when asked for a favorite, I have to say Botswana. yes, South Africa is gorgeous, and our time in Krueger was amazing—in terms of the animals we saw, it was a far more successful safari than those we had in Chobe National Park, in the north of Botswana. but Botswana was the only place we stayed where both the workers and the bosses of the businesses we came in contact with were black, which I believe contributed to a demeanor in the folks we met there that was different than that of most of the black folks we met in South Africa and Zambia. the Setswana (as they refer to themselves) are citizens of the country often called Africa’s biggest post-colonial success story, and her people are as kind and friendly as Mma Romatswe led me to expect they would be.

similarly, it seems a no-brainer that part of the reason the Mets are such a tightly knit bunch (see their hairless heads for all the proof you need) is that their leadership reflects who they are and where they come from. in my mind, it's this characteristic that makes the current Mets team quite possibly the best representation of the New York they play in than ever before. it's true that the owners are still all white (as are many of the owners in Botswana, though a much smaller percentage are white owned than is true of MLB teams!), but the leadership comes from the same place as the workers. it's a good dynamic.

this is not to say it's perfect (our one Asian player is still in the minors), but it's certainly true that part of what binds my emotional connection to this current team is that in the same year, the Mets have more Jewish players than any other team (3) and were the first team ever to have three men named Carlos in the starting lineup. that's a good way also to describe the floor I grew up on. they reflect my New York, and I love them for that.

I think this goes the other way, too. part of why I don't like the Yankees is that they represent what I see as some of the worst of New York-- the desire to win at any cost, and to get nasty when things aren't going perfectly or questions your performance. Lupica finishes today's column with this bon mot about the man who embodies Yankee fans to me, which pretty much says it all:

"Rudy (I, Me) Giuliani takes credit for everything good that happened in New York while he was mayor, but now we're supposed to believe that he only had his big command center at 7 World Trade Center on Sept. 11 because he listened to other people.

Right."

New York Sports News, update

today's Daily News has a half-page picture of David Wright on the front cover, with the headline of "Mets Lick Yanks Again," and while the back cover focuses on the Yanks' death spiral, it mentions the Mets in the sub-head and has both the Mets and Yanks emblems on the top of the page.

this seems to me much more fair and balanced than the usual headlines, and it seems only fair to say so.

Quotable Randolph

"Today's world is going as fast as Jose Reyes moves from first to third -- and that's fast, believe me. That brother can run."

-- Willie Randolph, addressing Fordham University's Class of 2007, which includes his daughter Ciara.

nicknames

David Wright introduced the Mets batting order on the FOX telecast on Saturday like this:
Jose Reyes, the most exciting player in the big leagues;
Endy 'The Catch' Chavez;
Carlos 'Mr. GQ' Beltran;
Carlos Delgado, the Puerto Rican Mr. T;
Yours Truly (Wright);
Shawn 'I miss my hair' Green;
Paul Lo Duca, our Eddie Munster;
Damion 'Hit Man' Easley;
and Tom Glavine, my favorite player when I was in grammar school.

Paulie did the same thing on the last FOX broadcast (with only slightly different nicknames-- and introducing David "I dig myself" Wright), but I can't find copy of it anywhere.

I'm sorry I missed the Yankee who must have done the same thing-- it's hard to picture him looking like he's having as much fun with his team as our David is.

New York Sports News

is ridiculously biased. no matter how the two teams are playing, the lead story is always about the Yankees. when they're winning and the Mets are losing, that's an obvious news choice. but last year the Mets and the Yankees ended with nearly identical won-loss rations, which-- let's face it-- was a much bigger story for the Mets than for the Yanks. never the less, the lead story on the back pages and local news broadcasts was far more often than not about the Yankees. this year it's even more egregious-- the lead stories are usually about how the Yankees are blowing their season, followed by stories about how the Mets are winning.

two examples, one from each of the last two games:

• though the picture on this morning's sports cover of the Daily News was of Endy hitting his homer last night, the headline-- "10 Count "-- was in reference to the Yanks being 10 games behind Boston in their division, and the sub-headline ("Endy's homer has Bombers on ropes as AL East gap widens") doesn't even mention that the team that put the Yanks 10 back is the Mets, and they're from... oh! that's right! New York!
  
• the Mets won the second game of the series tonight, and the first thing out of Bruce Beck's mouth on the 11 o'clock news tonight was "The Yankees lost another game tonight..." no doubt that's true, but given the fact that the winning team hails from the same city as the losing team, would it kill you to say "the Mets won again tonight..."?!

all this bias among sports writers and broadcasters makes me love Sue Simmons all the more. she's a Mets fan, doesn't ever try to hide it, and can be counted on to make a comment after Beck's report that will warm the heart of any else who loves her team.

winning in the rain

Game 42: Yankees 7, Mets 10
28-14 for the season

we watched the beginning of this game on mlb.com Game Day, the middle at a bar, and the end on the radio going downtown. we parked just as Wagner started pitching to Matsui, and with one out already recorded, I decided that if the Mets blew the lead, I didn't want to hear it happen.

and thank goodness I got out of the car, because that final Yankee run and the two men on base when the game ended would have frayed my nerves more than it turned out to be worth. Billy Wagner has pitched perfectly so far this year for a closer, in that he has yet to give up the lead or let the game tie up, but the Yankees have been his achillies heel, and it looked for a little while there in the 9th like they might come back into the lead against Wagner once again. despite a crazy throw to home plate, though, he did his job and ended the game.

but perhaps the best news of the day is that David Wright had two homers, 4 RBIs, and was intentionally walked three times. way to come out of a slump, kid. we're all proud of you.

you have to feel for the rookie pitcher who broke his finger on Endy Chavez's hit in the first inning, and now is out for at least three months. but I can't bring myself to feel for the Yankees as a whole, not while Torre is still saying stupid shit like "I'm happy with how we played, just unhappy with the final score."

I'm just working to control my urge to bring a broom to tomorrow night's game.

Subway Series

though there's plenty to enjoy this year, I'm not among the 80% or so of baseball fans who profess to enjoy inter-league regular season play.

I do like, however, how the Empire State Building is commemorating this weekend's series. I look forward to all four sides being orange and blue on Monday night.

Endy! Endy! Endy!

Game 41: Yankees 2, Mets 3

27-14 for the season

sometimes, sportscasters use phrases like "Fan Favorite" and it sounds trite. but when they call Endy Chavez a Fan Favorite, they are speaking the absolute truth. if the fans had our way, we'd probably build a statue for Endy, lest we forget what miracles can come in long-overlooked packages.

He's a bench player, but whenever he's on the field, good things happen. I used Endy's unbelievable catch in what turned out to be the Mets last game of the '06 season in some powerful Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on myself after the crushing loss-- every time I got sad thinking of how the season ended, I replaced that thought in my head with the image of Endy leaping up, reaching his wrist back over the fence, and landing with the ball in his glove. it worked every time. this year, he's already been instrumental in a number of Mets wins, but none more so than last night in the opener against the Yankees at Shea. the Mets were behind 2-1 in the bottom of the 5th when no less of a pitcher than Andy Pettite (I love how he's convinced everyone to pronounce his name as "pet-it" rather than it's actual pronunciation as a synonym for "short") lobbed one over the plate that Endy hit out of the park. that's right-- a two-run home run, to give the Mets the one-run lead they'd hold for the rest of the game.

The badly slumping team from the Bronx actually played decently last night, but they just aren't as good a team this year as the Mets are. The margin of the final score was prescient-- the Yanks have lost the vast majority of one-run games they've played this year-- the Mets have won the vast majority of the same kind of game. They just look kind of sad out there-- what with the clubhouse dissent over Clemens' contract (and the need to pay him more than a million dollars a game created by a pronounced lack of starting pitching), Torre looking old, sick, and disinterested, and ARod back to his unpredictable self, it seems like the Yanks might finally be learning what it is to lose. I hope for them that their fans can handle it.

putting the band back together

Game 40: Cubs 5, Mets 4
26-14 for the season


the day started out poorly for me, with my stomach being messy, which meant I wasn't able to get to Shea until a little after noon, at which time it was too late to get onto field level with my nose-bleed ticket. though I walked the length of the park on the next level up looking for my dad down in the orange seats, I was unsuccessful. I guess we'll have to try again later in the season.





this must have been a give-away at some point in the last 15 years. it was pretty cute to see a grown man carrying it.

though I wasn't able to get onto field level, I did spy Willie having a conversation with some folks out the side of the dugout 45 minutes or so before game time.

the field was messed up by the rain yesterday and then the playing on soggy ground, so the choir that sang the National Anthem was forced to do it on the dirt.

our seats were where I usually sit, in the upper deck as close to home as possible. SRL and I were there when the game started, but when KJB showed up he was really freaked out by the height. rather than force KJB to look away from the game the whole time, we set out to find seats closer to the field.

after being kicked out of the Lodge boxes all the way in right field, we settled in the back of the section, a little closer to 1st base. I remembered why so many people think of Shea as a crappy ballpark-- in most of the Mezzanine and all of the Lodge sections, the overhang means you lose sight of the ball when it goes up in the air. since I normally sit in the upper deck, I don't face that problem, and so have great sight lines and not many complaints about the stadium.

we missed a little more than a half-inning before getting settled again, which caused me to stop scoring the game entirely-- missing so much made it seem futile. I'm now a bit sorry I stopped-- it would have been fun to get the bottom of the 9th down-- but it doesn't really matter. it was the first time I'd been to a game in a loooooong time with folks who aren't really invested in baseball, and so it seemed better to hang out with them than to cling to my desire to score the game.

Carlos Gomez, just a bit older than 21, is having the time of his life in the show. He'd picked up his first two RBIs the night before.

BFFs for more than half our lives: we've been having so much fun putting the band back together since they both moved back to NY last summer.

at the end of the 8th, it was looking like the Mets were going to lose 5-1, and SRL had to head back to the city for a work function. KJB and I moved down to the boxes at that point, and so were in a great position to see David Wright get a hit and an RBI in his first major league appearance as a pinch-hitter ever, and to watch Carlos Delgado hit the ball that drove in the winning run of the game. it did look as the ball was moving off of Delgado's bat and toward right field that it was going to be an out, but the Cubbies second baseman dove for it and missed...



...and the crowd went wild!

the team was too excited by the awesome win to do any kind of formal lineup-- the jumped all over each other and then off the field. it was the perfect way to end the last game before the Yanks come to Queens this weekend.

later on that night, after a yummy dinner and lots of fun hanging out with my cousins and their awesome partners, JRG and I rested up for the excitement of the weekend series against the Yankees. her papa is pretty excited about this series... his mom kept teasing him last night that you could say "M, how's the baby?" and he would say, "the Mets are going to bury the Yanks this weekend!" which may be true, but in fairness, he'd be saying it right after having given his daughter the perfect swaddle and while cooking dinner for all of us.

holding our breath

Game 39: Cubs 1, Mets 8
25-14 for the season

Jose Reyes hurt himself either on his swing or his first step toward first in his 5th at-bat of the game, in the bottom of the 8th. he came out of the box limping. limping! Jose Reyes, limping! I could cry just thinking about it.

before the game was over, the report from outside the clubhouse (emphasized as completely unofficial) was that he'd felt tightness in the left hamstring in between pitches (you can clearly see it in the replay of his walk outside the batters box), and was scared that he'd really injure himself if he ran. the implication was that it was precaution that had him lamely gaping toward 1st, an action taken to prevent getting hurt rather than a reaction to being hurt.

upon getting the report from outside the clubhouse, Gary, Keith, and Ron started talking about all of Reyes' prior injuries-- he was out for portions of the '03 and '04 seasons for ankle and hamstring problems, respectively. I was shocked. this is the hazard of taking a break from the love of a team; I had no idea that there was a time when folks thought Reyes would never be a consistently healthy player. I had no idea because there hasn't been even a hint of Reyes being injury prone in the last two years-- the two years since I started paying attention again. it hurt. I felt like a bad fan for not knowing this about Jose-- like I'd somehow let him down by not being aware of his history of injury.

never the less, I blame the haircut.

Willie Randolph's demeanor in the top of the 9th and once the game was over was reassuring-- he was smiling in the dugout after getting a report from the assistant trainer and was teasing his young pitchers (Maine and Perez) on the way off the field. i reminded myself that Willie wouldn't have appeared so jovial if he thought Reyes was really injured. his press conference after the game bore that theory out-- he said that Reyes is ok, that it was just a slight cramp, that Jose says he's fine. "I don't think it's anything serious," he said. I choose to believe him, rather than acknowledge the fact that Willie would be unlikely to tell the world in a 1 am press conference that his star player is really hurt. I guess we'll see tomorrow.

Ruben Gotay came in to run for Reyes and stayed in at short. this is interesting because Damion Easley's best position is shortstop. I won't be surprised if we see him in the shortstop position at tomorrow's game, but I also won't be surprised if he stays at 2nd tomorrow, since he's hot at the plate and there are those managers who wouldn't want to chance disrupting that by making him think about playing a different position. I hope we won't need to find out, because Jose will be playing shortstop.

the important information that came out of Willie's post-game press conference was that Moises Alou is going on the DL and Jason Vargas is starting tomorrow's game. his ERA is over 7.00 in triple A. I'm not all that optimistic about our chances, but my pessimism has been blown to pieces before, and regardless of the outcome of the game, I know I'm going to have a great time, since I'm going with SRL and KJB.

in all this injury gloom (Pedro. El Duque. Valentin. Alou. Baruch Hashem, not Reyes...) and all my frustration with myself for not being at Shea tonight--just for the irregular experience of it all, and the real possibility that I'll never have another opportunity to be at a Mets game in Queens that starts at 10:16--its almost easy to forget what a fun, well-played game this was. it was really quick-- 2 hours, 38 minutes by my count-- because Jorge Sosa only allowed one hit in his 7 innings pitched, had 5 strikeouts in that span, and the Mets were efficient with their run-scoring. Sosa had a fantastic outing and goes to 3-0 for the season with the Mets, with only a 1.80 ERA. the wild-card pitcher who pulls it together rather impressively upon getting to the big club is a recurring phenomenon on the Randolph/Peterson pitching staff, and for a pitching fan like me, it's great fun to watch.

it was an offensive bonanza, too, with every single starting Mets player getting a hit in the game. Carlos Delgado had his first steal in (no kidding) five years on a double-steal with Beltran in the 3rd inning. Delgado's laugh upon reaching 2nd said it all. the third Carlos, Gomez, the call-up from New Orleans who's now got a .400 batting average and a .400 on-base percentage with a .600 slugging percentage in his two games in the show, had another great night, this time in the opposite field from the one he ran so well last night. he's the third youngest active player in baseball, and he's having the time of his life. it's a pleasure to watch. David Wright and Paul LoDuca had good nights too, both with RBIs and LoDuca even drawing an intentional walk with just a .290 batting average-- so fearsome is this particular hot streak, apparently. and the MOT in right field his having a great season thus far at the plate. sure, he's not so reliable in the field, but Shawn is batting .322 with 20 RBIs.

so while there is plenty to be happy about at the end of this game, I will be holding my breath until I see that Reyes is healthy and able to steal bases as he has been thus far this season. I'm hoping that this thing with Jose is as nothing as SNY is trying valiantly to reassure me it is. the short interview with Jose in the clubhouse they just aired for the first time (at 1:40 am) didn't reassure me much-- he seemed rattled, and looked like he'd been crying. I just want to give him a hug.

Quotable Hernandez

"You Mets fans, you're nuts. Absolutely out of your minds."

--Keith Hernandez to Gary Cohen, who had just admitted to keeping a hunk of grass and dirt from the field at Shea the night the Mets won the '69 pennant in a tupperware container in his mom's shed for more than 20 years.

I enjoy being a girl

I don't remember a time in my life when I particularly wished to be a boy.

in fact, tonight may be the first time.

if I were male, I would probably feel totally comfortable being in a mostly empty stadium with a bunch of people who were drinking through the three hour rain delay. I'd probably feel completely comfortable walking back from the stadium to the LIRR track alone at 1 am in an unusually small crowd if I weren't a relatively small and relatively defenseless woman. and so if I were a man, I would probably have hopped in my car the second I saw at 10:02 that they were going to start playing the game at 10:15, and be watching the game at Shea right now, rather than on my couch writing about it.

I'll be over it soon... but it might be easier if it didn't look so much like it would be a lot of fun to be there right now, watching the top of the 7th at midnight in a game with only three base runners thus far.

spoke too soon!

the game has just started at Shea. it's 10:20 pm. I have a ticket.

I am so tempted to hop in the car and go to Flushing.

is that insane?

eta: I can't believe I'm missing the first 3-Carlos (Beltran, Delgado and Gomez) starting lineup in baseball history!

can someone explain to me

why Aaron Sele still has hair on his head?

his excuse ran out last Thursday, and my Jose lost his curls. Aaron needs to see the world's best paid barber forthwith.

rain out

here's my ticket to tonight's game.




look right under the "SHEA STADIUM," the part where it says "NO REFUND IF RAINED OUT."



and now look at why I'm not at Shea tonight.

on the upside, this will give me time to catch up on some posts, and maybe finish off the Africa trip in our travel blog, finally. on the even more upside, I've got two more games to go to this week-- the first tomorrow afternoon with SRL and KJB, the second on Sunday night (yes, against the Yankees) with CBN. I'm so excited for both games-- and to get out to Shea around 11 tomorrow morning to watch batting practice with my dad from the field level. he'll be sitting field level for the game with a friend of his with S, K and I are up in the nosebleeds, but I'm really excited to see BP with my dad-- I think it's been more than 20 years since we did that.

coming from behind to win...

Game 37: Cubs 4, Mets 5
24-13 for the season

... is a thrilling thing to witness, particularly when it happens in the bottom of the 9th at home.

of course, it's not good that the Cubs were able to take and hold the lead for most of the game, but it was sweet to watch Chicago punished for insulting Carlos Delgado by choosing to pitch to him over Carlos Beltran. Delgado didn't do it with power or hitting-- he did it with a great at-bat, making Cubs reliever Michael Weurtz throw 10 pitches, get tired, and walk home the winning run.

this is a locus at which some ball fans part ways with other ball fans. there are those fans who feel at least a little let down by Delgado's failure to hit a heroic walk-off grand slam homer when presented with the opportunity. then there are the other kind of fan, who sees the talent inherent in working a pitcher the way Carlos did at the end of the 9th and recognizes that talent as equally impressive/important as one's ability to hit homers. it was a truly professional at-bat and it did the job just as well as a walk-off homer would have done-- but even a little better, because if he'd hit a homer, Chicago could chalk it up to his bat finally warming up. instead, he worked Weurtz over, and made the opposing pitcher walk in the winning run for the home team.

I was in the car driving home from teaching as the bottom of the 8th ended, and though my practice is to go into the firehouse to say hi to the others there when I pick LHJ up after work, I called when I got there and said I was outside but not leaving the radio-- the game was tied 4-4 in the bottom of the 9th, two on, two out, Beltran at the plate. he was in the car quickly then, putting the car in gear to drive home just as the Cubs decided to finish Beltran's at-bat by intentionally walking him and taking their chances with Deglado. we drove home through Delgado's at-bat, parking just as the 8th pitch of the at-bat was coming across the plate. "Make them pay, Carlos," I muttered under my breath. "Make them pay for that insult."

he did. it was beautiful, made better by Howie Rose calling it.

here's an interesting question-- if you're Lou Piniella, and your bullpen has been giving you pretty consistent trouble, why do you go to your bullpen in the 6th inning against a lineup like the ones the Mets send up when you're ahead in the game, but only by 2 runs? my dad told me that Piniella said something I really agree with about the way pitching has changed in major league baseball in the last 10 years or so-- "it seems like you're just looking for the guy who will lose it for you." this makes me even more confused by the call in this game, but not sorry-- after all, I'm sure their going to the bullpen early aided in the win.

Best Record ≠ Best Team

Game 36: Brewers 1, Mets 9
23-13 for the season

I had a bit of an argument (ok, not an argument-- a conversation) with a guy sitting next to us at the game on Saturday. toward the end, when we were losing miserably, this guy said aloud "well, what do you expect? the Brewers are the best team in baseball."

I try hard not to get into it with random people in the stands, but I'd had two beers and couldn't let that go.
So I said, "they have the best record in baseball. That doesn't make them the best team in baseball."
"They're 24 and 12! They're the best team in baseball!"
"They've been playing exclusively in the NL Central, the Dodgers and Washington. That they have that record against that kind of competition merely makes them a competent team, not the best."
"You can get to the playoffs without being the best team-- just by winning the most games," he pointed out.
"You're right-- but in that case they're the winningest team in baseball, still not necessarily the best."
"That's fair. I admire your passion."

oy. is it a good thing when a guy in the stands complements you on your passion? I'm not so sure. it may mean "you're an obsessive freak." you never know.

however, I think my point was well shown in this last game of the early-season series with Milwaukee. yes, the Brewers beat the hell out of the Mets on Saturday. but they lost on Friday, and the Mets came right back to win 9-1 (on another awesome performance from Oliver Perez) on Sunday. that's what happens when you're no longer playing the NL Central; simply being a good team isn't enough to win a series. and the Brewers, while on their way, are not much more at this point than a good team. it'll be fun to watch their kids develop, but for now-- no matter how many games they win, Milwaukee is not the best team in baseball.

I missed the majority of this game for tutoring, but caught good parts of it on the radio, and am reveling on Perez's ability to learn and come back from flameouts. I'm loving the Mets young pitchers, and enjoying watching them develop.

in the stands

one of the particularities of attending most games at Shea is the sound of a cow-bell at important moments in the game. the cow-bell is weilded by a guy we all know as Cow Bell Man. he happened to be in our section for one of Pelfrey's few strikeouts on Saturday, and the sound is unmistakable.



the "yeah" at the end of this video is LHJ, excited by the strikeout.




the inning over, Cow Bell Man left to bring his sounds to other sections.




ha! I'd never seen this shirt before, but I love it. click on the picture for the hilarious detail.




for the All-Star Game? for President? I'm confused.





I do love my new sweatshirt.

April is Over

Game 35: Brewers 12, Mets 3
22-13 for the season

LHJ and I went to today's game, and witnessed the Mets ravaged by the Brewers. A week ago, I would probably have been devastated. but it's not April anymore, and so every win and every loss doesn't have the same effect that it did even a week ag0; I am better able to recognize that the best teams have awful days, and the worst teams have great days (not that the Brewers are among the worst-- they're not), and getting worked up over any win or any loss in the regular season is a fool's game. we're all allowed to be fools in April, but once May comes, we need to wizen up.



ouch, ouch, and more ouch. I can't say I'm sad that Pelfrey was on his way back to New Orleans after this game.



ineffective offense will screw a team every time.

in happier news, I made a prediction that turned out to be right-- Jose Reyes had no more hair on Saturday. it didn't help him hit, but I'm happy to report that he is still adorable.

The Shear Report

as of the start of this evening's game, the only guys in the Mets clubhouse with full heads of hair were Jose Reyes and Aaron Sele.

athletes are a superstitious bunch, and anyone looking for signs in the fortunes of the players since the locks came off in San Francisco will have no trouble finding them. the unifying gesture has not been good for the Jews, who lost thick curls; Shawn Green is 0 for 10 since he made himself look like a Holocaust victim, and David Newhan had another failed pinch hit tonight. David Wright, on the other hand, is hitting .333 with 4 RBIs and a homer since he went bald, while he was only hitting .246 until that date. Carlos Delgado has hit two home runs since he went bald(-er than usual).

but it's Paul LoDuca's performance that has to foil any belief in the Samson effect. Paulie was hitting before he shaved his head, and he's continued to hit since (it's a 9 game streak now). Carlos Beltran hasn't seen any real change since the shave, either; he was hitting just a little before, and he continues to hit just a little since.

the interesting case for me is Jose Reyes. as Willie Randolph said, his isn't just hair, it's a style, so it's different. I think his hair is fabulous, and it would be a crying shame for him to lose it. but at the same time, he's the only everyday player on the field with hair-- and he ended his 14 game hitting streak tonight.

I will not be shocked if Jose is bald when we see him at Shea tomorrow.

Toto, I don't think we're in the NL Central anymore

Game 34: Brewers 4, Mets 5
22-12 for the season

the Brewers came to Shea today with the best record in baseball, having won 24 and lost only 10. though the Mets had a good road trip (5 for 7 in Arizona and San Francisco), the Brewers just finished an even more impressive home stand (9 of 10), so I was not optimistic about our chances going into this game. Jeff Suppan, who killed the Mets in the NLCS last year, was on the mound for the Brewers, and though Jorge Sosa pitched well his last time out, he was hardly a sure thing against a red hot Milwaukee lineup. however, I failed to control for the fact that 17 of those 24 wins have come against the NL Central and that three more were against the Nationals. the Brewers were the ones who had something to prove at Shea tonight, and indeed they proved that they've played very well against mediocre teams.




though Sosa walked the Brewers lead-off man, LoDuca caught him stealing (he's got 10 of 16 runners, 63%. no one ran against him again for the rest of the game. I have to admit, with Paulie behind the plate and in the clubhouse, I don't miss Mike Piazza at all. ). Jorge retired the next 9 batters, and gave up just four hits in the 6 and 2/3 innings he pitched. Two of them were solo homers, but with only one walk (that very first batter) until the 7th inning, Sosa had a good outing, and the fans let him know it when he was replaced by Pedro Feliciano with two outs in the top of the 8th after giving up the second of two walks. Feliciano had a great strike-out against the pinch hitter Corey Hart, and was replaced on the mound by Aaron Heilman in the top of the 8th.

Aaron had a fantastic road trip, but looked like he'd left his arm in San Francisco, giving up an infield hit to Weeks and then a home run to Hardy, bringing the Brewers within a run of tying up the game. But Heilman battled back, striking out Prince Fielder (son of Cecil, with a duplicate of his father's body) and retiring the next two batters to end the inning. Billy Wagner pitched as brilliantly as he has all season, bringing his ERA down to an astounding 0.58 after 16 innings, and ending the game in less than 2.5 hours.




how about that 4th inning? though it can't change last October, it sure felt good to watch the Mets beat up Jeff Suppan (though in fairness, they could have done better-- Reyes stranded two at the end of the inning). Easley's homer in the 7th turned out to be necessary for the win, thanks to the homer Heilman gave up to Hardy in the top of the 8th. Both Wright and Delgado hit (which was especially nice to see, again, against Suppan, and because they're the guys who need to be getting the grove right about now), and LoDuca continued his hitting streak.

off days and umpires

there's no Mets game today, which feels strangely un-tethering... no matter what I do tonight, I won't miss a game, but at the same time, no matter what I do tonight, I won't see the Mets play. turns out I won't be teaching, either, so L and I will have a falafel and ice cream date.

I've been thinking a lot about umpires this week, because there have been a number umpire-related incidents involving the Mets so far this season, and because yesterday it was the umpire who decided the game. which is not to say that umpires don't usually decide the game-- at an elemental level, that's their job-- but the changing borders of the strike zone during the last game in San Francisco had a decisive impact on the game's outcome.

last week, Tony Randazzo blew at least three calls in the first two innings, and then threw Willie Randolph out of the game (after he'd turned to go back to the dugout, natch) when he pointed out that if you're gonna blow a call at first base twice in a single inning in favor of one team, it's only fair to blow the same call in favor of the opposing team when presented with the opportunity. though we ended up winning that one in extra innings, it was the kind of event that makes you wonder why they don't use instant replay in baseball.

once in Arizona and once in San Francisco, a well-hit ball bounced off the top of the fence in the outfield and bounced back into the park. both, upon reply, reveal themselves to be ground rule doubles, but both were called home runs by the second base umpires because of fan interference. of course, in neither case did the fan actually interfere. the second time, the guy who made the call was Bruce Froemming, the umpire of longest standing in the majors. he made the call from the dirt behind second base. if that's not presumptuous, the word needs a new definition.

the littlest Mets fan and her blanket

V and M's daughter, JRG, is the most beautiful baby in 17 years.

her dad and I used to watch the final game of the '86 World Series over and over back in the days when his family had a VCR and mine did not, and have very similar preferences when it comes to baseball-- we even met up completely by chance at Shea once, because we'd both bought seats in our family's favorite place in the park, and naturally that meant we were four seats away from each other.

I've been spending a bunch of time out at V and M's place since JRG was born, and it's been lovely for a million different reasons, but not least because I've had a chance to discuss the team's progress with M so often this season.



that's me holding the 6-week old baby on Tuesday. my mom made that blanket for her-- note the subtle Mets-colors theme; it's primarily blue, orange and white, with pink highlights. its a gorgeous blanket for a gorgeous baby!

Armando Benitez is a head case

Game 33: Mets 5, Giants 3
21-12 for the season

it sure looked like a perfect afternoon for baseball in San Francisco. the game started out with an interesting mistake-- when Carlos Delgado lined out to the Giants' first baseman, everyone assumed that he forced Beltran out at first and that the inning was over. the replay showed that Klesko, the guy playing first, never actually touched first base. the inning should have gone on, but no one caught it on the field.

David Wright has been breaking bats left and right-- I didn't count how many in Arizona (though there were definitely a few), but three last night and one in his first at-bat today. it was looking like the positive effect of the shearing might only have lasted one night, but he had the two-RBI double in the 9th that gave the Mets the win. sadly, it seems to be that those who look good with a shaved head keep doing well (Delgado had another good day, with a double and a homer, LoDuca had two hits, and Ruben Gotay had his ninth major league home run), while those who look... erm... funny with the new 'do had some trouble behind the plate today, for the first time in a while.



Mets scorecard. from a scoring perspective, it was a first for me-- I don't remember ever scoring a catcher's interference before, and it was a catcher's interference that sent Shawn Green to first base in the 4th inning. thank goodness for Gary Cohen, who mentioned off-handedly that it ought to be scored just as E2. seems kind of boring for such an unusual play.

it was, of course, Armando Benitez who gave up the lead in the top of the 9th-- as soon as Reyes had the hit that shouldn't have been, Benitez just got so wound up in his pissed off that he couldn't pitch decently anymore. it would be hard for me to decide whether I'm happier not to have him or Steve Traschel wearing a Mets uniform anymore, but the nice thing is that I don't have to choose-- neither one of them will ever pitch for my team again.



check out the Giants' first two outs of the game-- both guys Paul LoDuca caught stealing. he's throwing better than he ever has before, having caught 60% of the guys who've run against him thus far this season. his papa should be proud. Maine didn't have a great game-- and got his first no-decision of the year-- but the bullpen and the hitters managed to pull it out.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Brewers (with their best record in baseball) this weekend. looking forward in that nervous kind of way.

bald men do it better

Game 32: Mets 4, Giants 1
20-12 for the season

in the clubhouse this afternoon, all but four of the Mets players and many of the coaches shaved their heads. apparently David Wright was the instigator, LoDuca the antagonizer (and second to go under the razor), and Beltran the barber. the announcers on both the radio and TV speculated that David wanted to do it to change his luck at the plate, and it sure seems to have worked-- he had two hits and an RBI tonight, after going something like 1 for his last 18 before tonight's game. the first of his hits was an RBI, which is significant not only in that he hit right from the get-go, but also in that he was batting second when he did it, scoring Reyes from 2nd (where he'd gotten on a ground rule double just a minute prior). Paulie seems to have benefited from the shearing too, getting three hits in four at-bats tonight.

the Mets scored all their runs in the first two innings (the Giants' only run was a solo homer from--who else?--Barry Bonds), but that's all they needed, because Tom Glavine pitched brilliantly, and the defense was error-free. Glavine got up to 108 pitches in seven innings, and gained his 294th career win.

David Wright may be more attractive without hair-- he looks like less of a baby. Ramon Castro and Oliver Perez both look pretty good bald, too. Shawn Green, on the other hand, has really really big ears and looks awful without his thick curls. of the four who didn't shave, Glavine and Sele are reportedly going to after photo sessions this week, and there's no word on why Aaron Heilman didn't join in the party. Jose Reyes, though, didn't shave for more obvious reasons-- when you're already batting .348 with 23 RBIs and 19 stolen bases (on pace to steal more than 100 this year) and have the best head of hair in baseball, you don't fix what ain't broke.