the Sports Illustrated curse

It's bad enough that SI has tagged the New York Mets as the team to win the World Series this year. But then to put CC Sabathia, in all his pin-stripped glory, on the cover?! That's just sadistic.

Boomball

This article in the current New York Magazine is all about how the Yankees look a lot like the image of New York that crashed last fall along with the American banking system. The article builds on a feeling about the Yanks that I've long held; they're the team that represents the richest, most outlandishly displayed wealth that is New York for many people who live here and even more who don't. There is a sense of entitlement that surrounds the Yankees and their fans, one that says that any loss is unjustified, and that a whole nine years without a pennant is beneath them. All in all, I don't like the way the Yankees personify New York.

My New York has as many Latinos on the field as Anglos (often more), a black man managing the team, and another Latino as GM. My New York is proud of its talent but not impressed by it. My New York is the one David Wright, Johan Santana, Ryan Church, and Brian Schneider are happy to call home. My New York is one in which Jose Reyes is as important to the future of the team as David Wright is. Yes, the Mets have a heavy payroll too. Never the less, the people who root for the Mets, and the people the Mets choose to employ, say a lot about the New York that is my home.

responding to a prompt

I was asked a while back to post some thoughts about ARod's most recent debacle. I haven't, mostly because I don't have any original thoughts about *this* debacle. I think the same of Rodriguez now as I did before I knew he did steroids: this is a teenager in an extraordinarily talented adult's body. He's been treated as though rules don't apply to him for most of his life, because of that talent. It's not at all surprising that he took drugs when everyone else was, too.

Though I won't actually say that I feel badly for ARod, I do recognize in him a deeply talented, deeply hurting guy. He wants to be liked and has no idea how to go about doing that-- his social instincts are all off, and yet he follows them. For me, the truly sad part is that he would have been among the best baseball players ever without drugs. He's tainted that legacy, which is too bad-- because in the end, baseball talent may be all the man has.

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.

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.

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.

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.