Memories of Port St. Lucie... and First Impressions of 2007

AFOMG's column Wednesday morning got my juices flowing. Spring is here and we return to 7 and hopefully 8 months of exciting Mets baseball. A buddy of mine, Richie the Brawler, was telling me how he was heading down to Port St. Lucie for a few games this Spring. My only response was that I could not be more jealous.

One of the most peaceful days in recent memory for the Sip was spent watching the Mets against my #2 Tribesmen in Port St. Lucie the Spring after the Mets signed Beltran. Me, Goat and the Boy Shye, a Phillies fan but still a legend, watched Yusmeiro Petit throw a couple of decent innings and Beltran go dong on a 3-0 count, I think it was against Cliff Lee. Either way, the day was incredible.

For those who have never made it down to Florida for a game, you're missing out. In Spring Training you are a lot closer to the game. The players are always running around, doing drills or joking around, even during the game.

We grabbed a picnic table right off of third base for most of the game and just soaked in the Florida sun. We were dudes. We were Americans. We were baseball fans.

Being in LA I didn't get a chance to catch yesterday's preseason opener. When I checked out the box score shortly after a few things concerned me:

1. Billy Wagner.

Don't tell me Scott Spiezio has psyched this guy out for good. Or maybe, like Wild Thing Vaughn in Major League II, when he reaches back it just ain't there any more. Someone find Billy an inner city school teacher who happens to be a 10 and maybe this guy can hit 100 mph sometime soon.

2. Our run production, all four RBI, came from a senior citizen, Julio Franco, and one of our three Jews, David Newhan.

I love Julio Franco. What a guy. Taking young Blastings underneath his wing and what not. As for David Newhan, talk about a way to get Mama Sip in the seats. Tell her and her little band of Jewish book club members that there are a bunch of young Hebrews on board and all of a sudden we are trading in Tuesday night's at the Momo house for trips out to Flushing. Dare I say that these are no longer the "New Mets," but rather, the "Jew Mets"?

With fellow children of Israel Shawn Green and Scott Schoenweis, we all better pray the Mets don't have a meaningful game on Yom Kippur. Not with Brother Koufax lurking around Port St. Lucie passing on his wisdom.

3. Good old Oliver Perez.

One of Willie's "guys," Perez showed Wednesday a lot of what scares the pants out of all of us fans of the orange and blue. That whole giving up a lot of runs thing. I know this guy's stuff is "electric" and I know he had an awesome year back when I was still in college, but the red flags have been raised early.

* * * * *

Any way you look at it, all we can do now is smile. The reason we write and you read is baseball, and baseball is finally back.

If we were going to lose to anyone on Wednesday I'm glad it was to my former fantasy captain, Curtis Granderson. When asked by Sports Illustrated what he would name his fantasy team if he had one, Granderson responded, "Team Black." I of course named my team after him and have grown to love the leadoff hitter that strikes out a ton but looks cool doing it.

Not much else for now. Had a huge smile on my face when I saw a little bit about the top fantasy players this year, the two listed: Albert Pujols and Jose Reyes. Last year I was shocked. This year I would only be disappointed to not be back playing in October.

Either way, call up your dad or your brother or whoever else got you into baseball and thank them for what they did.

Good to be home.

Vaya con dios,

Sip