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.