2006: The Cool Mets and the Sellout Returns
God knows I embraced Carlos Beltran's labelling the Mets as the "New Mets" upon his signing. I say "New Mets" maybe 20 times a day, 19 of these times being completely non-sensical.
What's ironic about the whole situation is that this brand of baseball the Mets are putting on the field is, well, new.
All of a sudden these Mets have a swagger to them. A month into the season they remain the talk of the game. And more importantly, everything around the country is really positive.
We have the quirky Ace in Pedro.
We have the uber-talented smiling kids in Wright and Mr. Glass (Reyes).
We have the imposing presence at the back of the 'pen in Wagner.
We even have the dong-mashing Spanish dude who gets intentionally walked more often than anyone not named Barry Bonds.
These New Mets are pretty fucking cool.
Now lets face it. As much as I loved the Monster, he sure made the Mets and their fans an easy target. With the Sam Champion rumors and the regrettable comments about Juan Gonzalez's 'King Kong' arms, Mets fans caught the south side of many gay jokes.
Add that to the fact that we were constantly losing and being a Mets fan wasn't all too great.
Times have changed. And change is good.
All of a sudden Brokeback Central has made its way to our crosstown rivals.
So I don't know if you guys caught SportsCenter today, but it showed a clip of Johnny Damon walking into Yankee Stadium with his good pal and proud owner of the Steve Francis/Stephon Marbury Award for fucking up teams, Alex Rodriguez.
I want to thank SportsCenter for this image as it makes it really easy to hate this guy more before he returns to Fenway. Basically Damon was GQ.
He had spikey hair, a snazzy shirt and tight pants. He looked like every 'Bobby' that you hate. He was the guy going into Marquee thinking he owned the place. Man this guy sold.
In one year Johnny Damon went from the scruffy, tough, rugged 'Idiot' to the pansy, toolish 'Yankee.'
He has fully embodied the Yankee image of clean living which to me is really sad. This guy went from being really really likable, to really really unlikable with one signature of his name.
So tonight Damon returns to Fenway. This may be the one day in my life that I wish I were a Red Sox fan.
I hope they destroy this guy. I hope they make him cry. I hope he returns to his posh hotel room in Boston and for at least a minute realizes what he has done.
He commited baseball treason. He is the Nina Myers to Boston's CTU. He is a turncoat. And worse, he is a fake.
At the same time, I am glad that Damon is a Yankee and that he is embrassing in his Yankeeness. All it is doing is making that team more hatable. Even SportsCenter is spotlighting their pussiness. Is there any other reason they would show two players walking into the stadium?
The fact is, the Yankees being hatable is becoming national news. Just as the Mets take off.
I really don't know what all this means. What I do know is that we have a 6 game lead at the end of April and that feels really strange and really good.
Vaya Con Dios,
SM
What's ironic about the whole situation is that this brand of baseball the Mets are putting on the field is, well, new.
All of a sudden these Mets have a swagger to them. A month into the season they remain the talk of the game. And more importantly, everything around the country is really positive.
We have the quirky Ace in Pedro.
We have the uber-talented smiling kids in Wright and Mr. Glass (Reyes).
We have the imposing presence at the back of the 'pen in Wagner.
We even have the dong-mashing Spanish dude who gets intentionally walked more often than anyone not named Barry Bonds.
These New Mets are pretty fucking cool.
Now lets face it. As much as I loved the Monster, he sure made the Mets and their fans an easy target. With the Sam Champion rumors and the regrettable comments about Juan Gonzalez's 'King Kong' arms, Mets fans caught the south side of many gay jokes.
Add that to the fact that we were constantly losing and being a Mets fan wasn't all too great.
Times have changed. And change is good.
All of a sudden Brokeback Central has made its way to our crosstown rivals.
So I don't know if you guys caught SportsCenter today, but it showed a clip of Johnny Damon walking into Yankee Stadium with his good pal and proud owner of the Steve Francis/Stephon Marbury Award for fucking up teams, Alex Rodriguez.
I want to thank SportsCenter for this image as it makes it really easy to hate this guy more before he returns to Fenway. Basically Damon was GQ.
He had spikey hair, a snazzy shirt and tight pants. He looked like every 'Bobby' that you hate. He was the guy going into Marquee thinking he owned the place. Man this guy sold.
In one year Johnny Damon went from the scruffy, tough, rugged 'Idiot' to the pansy, toolish 'Yankee.'
He has fully embodied the Yankee image of clean living which to me is really sad. This guy went from being really really likable, to really really unlikable with one signature of his name.
So tonight Damon returns to Fenway. This may be the one day in my life that I wish I were a Red Sox fan.
I hope they destroy this guy. I hope they make him cry. I hope he returns to his posh hotel room in Boston and for at least a minute realizes what he has done.
He commited baseball treason. He is the Nina Myers to Boston's CTU. He is a turncoat. And worse, he is a fake.
At the same time, I am glad that Damon is a Yankee and that he is embrassing in his Yankeeness. All it is doing is making that team more hatable. Even SportsCenter is spotlighting their pussiness. Is there any other reason they would show two players walking into the stadium?
The fact is, the Yankees being hatable is becoming national news. Just as the Mets take off.
I really don't know what all this means. What I do know is that we have a 6 game lead at the end of April and that feels really strange and really good.
Vaya Con Dios,
SM
posted by Sippy Momo at 3:31 AM
4 Comments:
This doesn't follow from Sip's post, but I just wanted to express my disappointment with our final at-bat yesterday.
There is absolutely no reason that Carlos Delgado should have been swinging on that 2-0 pitch in the 9th. Not only has the guy been struggling, but there was nothing so important in that situation as just getting guys on base. Reitsma threw 6 of his first 7 pitches for balls, and that pitch to Delgado, while utterly hittable, might have been low for ball 3. You get the first two guys on and you've got something serious cooking.
I don't doubt that Delgado is one of the smarter players in the game, but this was one spot where he needs to know to take a pitch, he needs to make the pitcher earn outs. Willie, likewise, should have instructed Delgado to take a strike, especially after Reitsma fell behind 2-0.
Gary and Keith did a nice job of harping about it at the time, so maybe this was a bit unnecessary, but whatever, I wanted to vent.
Delgado is not up there to walk. He rocks a single and it's first and third and the pressure really mounts. You don't walk your way off the island...
Completely disagree. Walk's every bit as good as a hit in that situation. The only run that matters is the third run of the inning. If you are in an advantaged position to bring the third run of the inning to the plate, against a pitcher who's been shaky all season and who had struggled to find the plate, there's pressure enough on the guy. By swinging away, Delgado/the Mets gave Reitsma exactly what he needed -- the first out of the inning. I'm not saying you give Delgado the take sign the whole AB, but at least make Reitsma throw a strike. Up 2-1 you're still in control of the AB, especially with your best hitter at the plate.
But say that pitch is called ball 3 (especially possible on a day that saw 15 BBs). Say Reitsma continues to struggle at the plate, he walks Delgado, runners on 1st and 2nd, he grooves one to Wright just to throw a strike and then who knows what's gonna happen.
The point is, in that situation, you've gotta make the opposing team earn outs. Make Reitsma do the work. Make him labor. If he settles in during an at-bat, by all means start hacking, but don't give a struggling closer any help.
You've gotta give Reitsma the chance to bring the tying run to the plate. Six out of seven for balls including two ugly pitches to start against Delgado sure looked promising.
To Happy Will: The line about not walking off the island is a classic -- but I think we're all clear on the fact that Delgado hit his way off that other island a long time ago and is now making big money on Long Island. Point being, he doesn't need to prove he can hit the ball at the expense of a smart at-bat, and he should have taken the pitch in that situation. I'm with AFOMG on this one.
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