Other sports are games. Baseball is love.

There was a major league baseball game in Philadelphia today, played between the Phillies and the Atlanta Braves. I found myself up against a strange set of feelings; there was baseball being played for real, but I didn't want either team to win. Never the less, by the time I got home, Alexis and I wanted nothing more than to watch the remaining innings of the game.

We're both exhausted, not sleeping well, and probably should have been in bed by the time the 8th inning rolled around. But there was nothing in the world either of us wanted to do more than watch that game. I have strongly negative feelings about both the teams on the field tonight, but watching them there, playing their game, their love-- that was magical. And in the end, it's easy to look at the result of tonight's game this way: we're a half a game up on the Phillies going into tomorrow's game. It's more a loss for Philadelphia than it is a win for Atlanta in mine eyes.

There was some super-fine pitching going on there, too, even if I do hate Derek Lowe.

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.

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.

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.

my dubious streak continues

Game 17: Braves 9, Mets 6
12-5 for the season

the best I can say about this game is that the Mets continue to lose when I don't watch the game. I was teaching through tonight's game, and so was only upset in retrospect by the blowing of the 3-run lead that the bullpen pulled off in this game.

one always needs to look on the bright side: aside from the extraordinary hitting that ARod is doing for the Yanks right now, they were just swept by the Red Sox and continue to struggle so mightily from pitching trouble that even ARod finally hitting like he's always been able to hit isn't saving them.

a perfect day at Shea

Game 16: Braves 2, Mets 7
11-5 for the season

a glorious day was had by all at Shea on Saturday-- unless you play or root for the Atlanta Braves. but even those folks should have been able to appreciate the first beautiful day of the year at the ballpark; it was sunny, warm, and in all ways a perfect day for a ballgame.

I bought tickets in the cheap seats for the game, but LHJ went to the firehouse before I got up in the morning and returned with a friend's season ticket seats for the game. The seats are 11 rows back of the Mets dugout on Field Level, and watching the game from that perspective is always a thrill-- even upstairs in the ballpark, it's easy to forget that those are real live people playing the game, and they all look so very human from just a few feet away.





Jose Reyes leads off first at the top of the 2nd inning. He stole second base shortly after I snapped this shot.

Moises Alou has a weird stance-- his knees both lean in, bowl-leg-like. I won't criticize, though-- he's hit quite well from that stance so far this season.

Mr. Met came to do a between-inning spot for 1-800-Flowers just two rows back of us.

I'm not sure why Mr. Met was playing peek-a-boo with that guy, though.

Oliver Perez winds up.

this girl, sitting just two rows in front of us, held up her glove at every pitch. hope springs eternal, especially with those still young enough to wear a pink glove.

Willie Randolph keeps a close watch on the game.

I think I'm the only white girl in New York who thinks Jose Reyes is more attractive than David Wright. But how can you resist that kind of tallent combined with that smile?? Wright never smiles on the field.

the Big Apple out of the hat after Ramon Castro's homer in the 5th. Castro won our immediate love and respect by having the Imperial March (Darth Veder's theme) from Star Wars as his batting music.

Perez jumps over the baseline when he's leaving the field after every inning. This is his jump, taken to thundering applause when he left the game in the 7th. I was happy for the way Ollie recovered from his (terrible) last start, and that the fans were willing to forgive him that game as long as he came back and pitched like we know he's capable of pitching. He did, and got a fantastic reaction from the crowd to his performance.

It's such a treat to see Howard Johnson back in a Mets uniform, coaching 1st base. He tries to pretend that people aren't cheering for him as he walks back to the dugout, but with the number and volume of the "HoJo! HoJo!" chants, I can't imagine that he misses the love he's getting.

I love discovering new things in the ballpark, like this lame-duck sign.

simple logic

Game 15: Braves 7, Mets 3
10-5 for the season

It actually seems rather straightforward, like every if X, then Y statement: so far, if I don't watch the game, then the Mets lose. or, in FL notation:
Didn't Watch the Game --> Mets Lost
and, it's contrapositive, Mets Won --> Watched the game

Happily, this seems to hold true whether I watch the game live, on DVR, on TV or in the park. Note that my watching the game does not guarantee that the Mets will win. I've seen two of the losses, so the converse statement (Mets Lost--> Didn't Watch the Game) does not hold true. Interesting It'll be just my logic geek kind of fun to see how long this streak lasts.

A few other true statements for the season so far, from someone who's obviously spent too much time with the LSAT in recent years:

Ask JAF for the final score of the Mets game --> Mets lost
Attend game at Shea --> Mets win
Warm Weather --> Mets play better

I didn't watch this game, and the Mets lost. Nothing more to say about it than that.

(edited because upon re-reading, I realized my logic was wrong! very embarrassed...)

Read Willie's lips

Game 6: Mets 2, Braves 3
4-2 for the season

If you were watching the end of the game on SNY, you didn't have to have any real facility with lip reading to understand what Willie thought of that last call. I tend to agree with him-- it seemed as though the ump was cold and wanted to go home, and I can't really blame him. It was clearly warmer at Turner Field today than it was for yesterday's game, but still cold. It's hard to be mad at anyone who was willing to extend the strike zone just a little to get warm. Umpires are people, too.

El Duque pitched really well. It feels important to say that, lest it get caught in the shuffle of a frustrating loss. Sure, he gave away a homer to the first Atlanta batter, but he then retired the next 8 guys he faced. He had 6 strikeouts when he left the game, one for each inning he pitched, and held Atlanta to only 1 run. It's fun to watch him land pitch after pitch. Aaron Heilman gave up two runs that on an average day for the Mets lineup wouldn't have mattered, but today sure did. I can't be mad at the guy-- he's usually so reliable, that Aaron.

Delgado had an excessively bad day (3 strikeouts in his first 3 at bats!), and Wright took 4 trips to the plate finally to hit the ball where he wanted to-- in front, rather than into the glove, of Andruw Jones. Most significantly from the offensive side (and the defense, while nothing inspiring, wasn't embarrassing like it was yesterday) , Reyes was stranded on base twice in the first three innings. That's not what this team usually does, and they all looked pretty frustrated with their performance.

A silver lining was the performance of Ramon Castro, the backup catcher. In his first at bat of the 2007 season, he hit a solo homer (which immediately followed Shawn Green's first homer-- and 9th hit-- of the season). It's good to have someone who can so well fill in for LoDuca when Paulie's knees need a rest.

BJC is picking me up to go to the tailgate at AH's place in Queens at 9 am, so I'll be heading to bed soon. I doubt, however, that I'll be asleep soon-- I'm so excited for the game tomorrow, I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve, anticipating the riches under the tree in the morning.

Homemade scorecard

I decided to score Saturday's game, but didn't feel like running to the firehouse to print out a scorecard. So I made one on some loose leaf.

this was the Mets' performance.


and here's the Braves, with some notes of my own.

I never miss a play when I score a game at the park (when I leave my seat, I leave my scorecard in the hands of someone who can pick me up), but I missed some plays in this game. I used a friend's suggested notation for those at-bats I missed in the scorecards above.

You can see them better if you click on the images to enlarge them.

A chill in Atlanta

Game 5: Mets 3, Braves 5
4-1 for the season

We had to lose sometime, and I was pretty sure after the first inning that this would be the game. I believe we've discovered the only drawback of having a team that's made up primarily of guys from warm climates; cold really messes with them. Many folks commented that it was colder today in Atlanta than they could remember it having been in October in the past, and the way that the players moved their gloves really showed how stiff they were.

It started out with a silly error from Delgado, and though we ended up with just two errors charged to the team, they were much sloppier in the field than "just" two errors would imply.

Not Good Things:

1. The boys to the left of the field, Reyes and Wright, both had a bad day. Three of Smoltz's four strikeouts were on Wright's at-bats, and though he drew two walks, Reyes did not produce as he has in the last three games.
   
2. The first and second Mets errors of the season happened before the 6th inning was out, and that typified a defense not performing well enough to back up Glavine, who does not rely on devastating speed or breaking balls to take down batters. Glavine gets batters to put the ball on the ground, and relies on the guys behind him to do their jobs as well as he's doing his job. See Game 1 for an object lesson on how this is supposed to go.
   
3. I'm going to have to admit that V and M's daughter did not bring with her magical abilities to make the Mets win every game, but I'm still hanging on to my premonition that she's at least a good omen.

Good things:

1. LoDuca had a nice homer, Delgado went 2 for 5 with a walk, and Green had three hits. All appearances to the contrary, Glavine had a good outing on the mound.
   
2. Tim McCarver is the high tide that raises all boats in baseball broadcasting.
   
3. I scored the game on loose leaf while watching it on TV. It was actually quite fun.

Onward. It would be nice to leave Atlanta ahead 2-1 in this year's head to head series against the Braves, and to see El Duque perform well again.

What was that about Mets pitching?

Game 4: Mets 11, Braves 1
4-0 for the season

We got home from dinner in the bottom of the 6th, when the Mets were up 5-1. Amazingly, even at that late point in the game, we didn't miss seeing even half of the team's runs scored. It's hard not to feel elated about the start of this season, even as I know that getting too excited now is a fool's choice-- it's the beauty of MLB is that the season is long, and no four-game performance predicts another. Never the less, one can't argue that this is anything less than a fantastic start to the season, and that pre-season performance means little once the season starts.

Oliver Perez was a hothead last year, the epitome of a young pitcher with great stuff who needed to learn to calm down to reach his real potential. I was struck in watching him tonight by the change in his demeanor on the mound; he didn't have the wild reactions to each individual pitch that he did when he was pitching last year. Sure, he still hops over the foul line on the way back to the dugout after every inning, but he looks in all ways much more relaxed than he did last year. He doesn't even get as much air in his jump over the foul line as he did last year. Perez chalked up 6 strikeouts (and a number of truly beautiful pitches), and when they took him out of the game in the bottom of the 8th, he'd retired 10 Braves in a row. He even hit, and scored two runs. The only disappointment is that after letting him hit (and watching him score a run), Willie and Rick Peterson replaced him on the mound to start the 8th inning. I know it's practically unheard of for a starter to go more than 7 innings these days, but Perez had not yet started to lose his stuff when he was taken out of the game. I wonder if I'll ever again see a pitcher throw a complete game, or even 8 innings.

Speaking of Oliver Perez, we've been through the full rotation of pitchers. I'm really hoping that we stop hearing dire warnings about Mets pitching sometime really, really soon. As Gary Cohen said at the end of the broadcast of the game, there's been "outstanding Mets starting pitching performances so far this season." I'm also glad to see that while the ESPN guys were touting the Braves' starting pitching, my father looks to be correct in his assessment (relayed to me on Tuesday night) that Atlanta's bullpen is "made of glass."

The story of the game beyond Perez's performance is clearly Jose Reyes and his two triples and 4 RBIs. He's just so much fun to watch, just as electric as the commentators always say. The outfield continued to produce, with four hits and and RBI between them. When the Braves intentionally walked Beltran to load the bases with two out in the 8th inning, LHJ said "I know he's not hitting like the rest of them yet, but that's a mistake. Delgado can punish you." How right he was.

So, we beat another 3-0 team by 10 runs. Not a bad way to end the week.