full camp

most of the Mets starters (all except Moises Alou and Luis Castillo, I believe) have already turned up in Pt. St. Lucie, but tomorrow's the day that everyone is due. Full-team workouts are planned for Wednesday.

Carlos Delgado reported to camp today, and looks fabulous. He's in better shape than he was at any point last season, and I'm holding strong to my feeling that last year was his first-child year, well documented as one in which ballplayers often play badly.

I've never cared about or paid attention to spring training like this before. Is it only because we're going to Florida next month, or because my fandom has increased so much over the last three years that any baseball is better than none? Hard to say, and in truth, I really don't care. Spring is coming, and I'm a happy fan.

confused

can someone explain to me why I feel badly for Andy Pettitte?

50 Days 'till Shea

It's 50 days until the first game of the last season at Shea. LHJ and I drove by the two stadiums today (it's impossible to call Citi just a construction site anymore-- the whole structure is up, they're bricking the sides, and they're almost done with the area that will hold the Mets offices), and since I wasn't driving I took a good, long look at the new stadium both ways. Though I still doubt I'll even be able to get into the park the first season, I have to say that I'm pretty excited about the new ballpark. It's going to be fun to watch my team in on a home-field that was actually designed for baseball.

But I'm not a Shea hater, not by a long shot-- in fact, it would be fair to call me a Shea fan. I know it's old and falling apart and there are places in the stands where you can hardly see anything (though I don't know why people buy those tickets, but that's another post), but it's also the only place the Mets have called home in my lifetime, the field on which they won their only World Series of my lifetime. It's a deeply sentimental place for me for those reasons alone, and even with all the evidence you need looming just behind center- and right-field, it's hard to believe that come Opening Day 2009, Shea Stadium will no longer be standing.

Our Ace

its true-- everything in The New York Post sucks except the sports pages. but the sports coverage in the Post is the best in New York, and so I read it online during the season.

I've been thinking about my excitement over Santana, and having a real, honest-to-Gd Ace on the Mets for the first time since I was in elementary school, but not writing much. Now I don't have to-- here's a great column in today's Post where Pedro Martinez says it bettter than I could.

me and Jon Stewart, we agree

"Those of you who know me, you know that there is nothing I love more than two things... you know that I loves me some baseball, and I loves me some House Oversight Committee. So for me, yesterday I was like a pig in shit... both of my favorites, together, like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of Investigation..."

--Jon Stewart (WITH his writers, 2.15.08)

this is the testimony to which he refers, just in case you were wondering. which I know you weren't.

Pitchers and Catchers

Training camp officially oppened in Pt. St. Lucie, Florida for pitchers and catchers today, and both Santana and Martinez had some time on the mound. Though it's cold here in New York, today I saw the first sign of spring, and its a happy sight.

in my classroom tonight...

was yet another reminder of one of the fundementals of both test-taking and baseball.

we got him!

sometimes, when I'm at M and V's house and we're doing nothing related to anything in particular, M will say to me, "Johan Santana is going to be pitching for the Mets this year." to be fair, I do the same to him. it's like throwing back a shot glass of excitement.

the Mets have one of the best pitchers in baseball again, for the first time in too long. I'm on the record as a pitching fan. it's going to be a good season.

a tour of Yankee Stadium that I didn't take

LHJ went with a friend of ours who is a Yankee fan, but whom we love anyway, on a "behind the scenes" tour of Yankee Stadium on Sunday. He was generally unimpressed by the tour, but I like this one picture he took...


...for obvious reasons. We're not going to Tampa, but we are going to Spring Training!!

a new start

I should add some posts about the end of the last season. I should do it just because I was there at the fateful game, I have pictures of it, and I wanted this to be a chronicle for the whole season. When it ended so disappointingly, I fell off the blogging wagon. I may still do it, but I'm not making any promises.

But a new season approaches, and it's time to start over. And not just because Johan Santana will be pitching for the Mets for the forseeable future (though I sort of have to pinch myself every day to believe it's true), or because pitchers and catchers report on Thursday. Right now, I'm most excited for our first family trip to Spring Training. M, V, JRG, SJGG and I are going down to Florida at the end of March, and over four days will see three games, two at Tradition Field (the home field for the Mets for spring training, in Port St. Lucie) and one in Fort Lauderdale, against Baltimore, conveniently being played in the afternoon so that we can catch the game and still fly home that night.

We're all beside ourselves with excitement about this trip, which will only snowball as we come closer to the date we leave, what with the pitchers and catchers reporting on Thursday. Did I mention that?