I Need Some Greenies

(Note: Two pieces about yesterday's game, the first by A.F.O.M.G., the second by Sippy Momo. Enjoy.)

Hey everyone, it's a very frail and tired A.F.O.M.G. coming at you today. Sip's already done a writeup of last night's dramatic 9-8 win, but I wanted to throw up some impressions of what the game was like from inside the stadium.

This isn't a full-fledged post from me, just some thoughts, observations, and questions for any readers out there who might be able to provide answers:

1. The biggest question I had was why on earth Willie decided to pinch hit Ramon Castro for Chad Bradford.

It had just taken Bradford 8 pitches to toss a scoreless 12th and he was our second to last reliever; granted the last reliever was the long man Darren Oliver, but still.

The pitching aspect aside, using Castro eliminated the team's backup backstop (the emergency catcher, Chris Woodward has been used, most effectively it should be noted, in the 8th inning). Using Castro in a bases empty situation, 1-out situation basically wasted our final pinch hitter.

I don't want to harp on this one, but I couldn't make sense of this move. Earlier today I checked the message boards at MetsGeek, where I expected to find a series of posts calling for Willie to be fired, or perhaps just calling him an idiot, but there were no such posts.

Was nobody else scratching their heads over this one, or was it just me and the Hound? Did Gary, Keith and Ron have any theories on the broadcast?

2. Billy Wagner did not throw a single warm-up pitch for a strike.

Not one. His line? 17 pitches thrown, 11 for strikes, 2 Ks, no hits, 1 scoreless inning.

3. The greatest pitcher the Hound has ever seen throw live was Doc Gooden.

Better than Seaver, if only for a short while. Meanwhile, I just learned that if you run a Google search for images of Doc Gooden, one in five is a mug shot.

4. Phillies fans, some of them at least, are going nuts about yesterday's game.

Reading some of the Philly message boards is really quite amusing

(Note: This is not something I normally do. I don't get some sort of schadenfreudic delight from reading about the misery of other teams' fans. I was just reading Buster Olney's blog this morning and I came across an article, then I came across a link, and then I came across the misery.)

At the Philadelpha Daily News (http://pod01.prospero.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=371.3&nav=messages&webtag=kr-phillytm), MEG writes: "I am finished with this team. They're a bunch of gutless-pukes."

KEE writes: "Boy that 13-1 streak meant a lot didn't it? Same old Phils, same old bunch of losers."

Boycotter: "Now Playing: 2005 PHILLIES part II."

I think Phillies fans might be taking the loss a little too hard, but it's tough to blame them. They had last night's game in the bag and they let it slip away. When you're in second place and you're in a bit of a skid, that can be really infuriating.

5. They don't play "Lazy Mary" after the 14th inning stretch.

I had not known this.

6. The Braves lost last night as well.

Their game started at 10:05 and was over well before ours was. Nonetheless, the news of their loss was greeted warmly by the crowd.

7. Around the time of Chase Utley's walk-in hit-by-pitch, the crowd really started to turn on the umpires.

Question to those watching: was Utley's beaning really as absurd as it looked? From my vantage point down the third base line, it literally looked like he walked right into it.

In any event, one spirited individual had some funny cat calls to the third base umpire.

"You are a disgrace to umpiring!"

"Your refereeing is questionable!"

"Stand down, sir!"

"As a linesman you do not rank favorably!"

"You besmirch the legacy of Don Pollard, the greatest living umpire of our times!"

Reading these over now, I find that some are funnier that others, but it occurs to me that you all might find none of them amusing. By the 15th inning, a certain brand of cabin fever dementia begins to set in, and perhaps that explains why I was laughing my ass off.

8. After the Mets had been retired in the bottom of the 11th, Beltran nearly got thrown out of the game.

That inning he had been called out trying to advance to second when his hand slipped off the bag (evidently he was safe, as Lister informed me via text message), and when he walked out to centerfield, a shouting match erupted between him and the second base umpire, Andy Fletcher.

Both men had to be restrained, and it's a damn good thing Beltran, who was really in Fletcher's face, didn't get tossed, not least because of his heroics in the 16th inning. The Mets were out of outfielders at that point; they would have shifted Endy Chafez to center, but who would have played right? Tom Glavine? Pedro?

- A.F.O.M.G.