RIP Anna Benson

(Note: Double the content here at Y2K. First up is Sip's piece about the divorce of Kris and Anna Benson. Immediately following that post is A.F.O.M.G.'s tribute to the top 10 songs that immediately remind us of the Mets. Enjoy.)

I thought I would take today off. But I just couldn't.

See, back in my 14 months in the show, the paralegaling game that is, there was one certainty every single day.

That I would work? Afraid not. See, paralegals may be the most useless people in the world, and there were days when I sat at a desk and did absolutely NOTHING.

Think? If you count Y2K, thought, well yes, but good thing for me AFOMG does the editing.

No, the one thing I would do every single day was go up to the cafeteria and get a big breakfast, eat at my desk for an extended period of time, and then sit for about ten minutes, till it was game time.

I would rise up from my chair, grab my girl in my hand, and take my stroll 15 feet down the hall.

I had a date with perfection, her name, the NY Post.

I would sit on the can for a good 15 minutes, 2 objectives in mind. One, the sports section. Second and more important, Page Six.

My first stop on the shitter every day was Page Six, the Post's daily trashy gossip column. No reason to deny this, Senior turned me onto it back when I became a bar mitzvah, a man, and since then I have never looked back.

So yesterday, a Page Six legend left us.

It was announced that Stripper Legend, Mets Legend, and legend of many the spank banks Anna Benson has filed for divorce from #4 starter legend Kris Benson.



What a shame. When I think about my future nuptials, I imagine a relationship like theirs and a wife like her. ALL CLASS.

Anna's reason for filing was apparently that she caught Kris cheating on her.

Now you all remember what she said if she found out Kris was cheating on her back in NY. Ya know, that she would fuck every memmber of the Mets organization from the players to the locker room attentdants?

You have to wonder if the "baseball only on his mind" kid, D Wright was upset. Cliffy was telling him that he may have found his shot at losing the old V Card but it all happened a week too late.

So J Schubes is smiling down in Charm City: Baltimore. Word on the street is that Melvin Mora has just planted his seed in Anna to the tune of Tentuplets, giving him 97 kids.

And J Schubes, Orioles Fan of the game back in the Summer of '04, might even get a crack at her too.

Her exploits aside, the news of their divorce demands that we consider the trade of Anna's husband once again. It was widely speculated that the trade of Kris Benson for Jorge Julio and John Maine was not a salary dump or a final move to shore up the bullpen, but rather it was a wife dump. When talking to KFC last night I told him that my least favorite of Wheel and Deal's moves was the Benson deal, that it got us nothing and lost us pitching depth.

That said, if the divorce had happened three months earlier, would we still have made this move? Would this divorce have rid Kris of Anna and the Mets of the distraction she posed? Is the Mets front office kicking itself for not only missing out on the chance to score with Anna Ballgame but also for losing a consistently average major league pitcher?

Tough questions all; who can say?

It's all good though. Opening day is on Monday and the Mets are undefeated!

VCD,

SM

The Sounds of Summer

What’s up guys, A Friend of Mr. Glass’ here. Big day for us here at the site as today concludes the final work week without regular season baseball. It hasn’t been easy, but by god, we’ve made it.

Now I promise to make a formal prediction about the upcoming season of Mets baseball before the first pitch is thrown, but before we take a look forward, I wanted to take a quick look back.

See, here at Y2K we try and give you a little something something that you can’t get anywhere else. With that in mind, there’s a topic I’ve been meaning to write about all offseason, but never got around to doing.

That changes now.

Maybe I was just desperate for baseball, or anything Mets related, but I distinctly remember hearing the song "Hypnotize" by my man B.I. up above a few months back and being flooded with memories of one overweight individual.

Not Biggie. Nope. Butch Huskey.

For parts of 1 and a half seasons, Big Butch never stepped to the plate without the sounds of “Hypnotize” blaring through the speakers at Shea.

And that got me thinking that there are any number of songs that I instantly associate with certain players, or with the Mets in general. So without further ado, allow me to present 10 songs that always remind me of the Mets. These songs are presented in no particular order, for the most part.

10. Jay Payton – “Got Your Money” (ODB); Derek Bell – “Big Pimpin’” (Jay-Z); Huskey – “Hypnotize” (Notorious B.I.G.)

So I’ve already talked about Huskey but I didn’t feel like I could leave him off this list. This is about as thugged out as it’s gotten over the years at Shea, although Payton’s choice of ODB’s 1999 smash easily takes the cake in terms of the most explicit song ever broadcast over the Shea airwaves (of course, they only played the intro, but the point stands).

Honorable mention for the thugged out list would include Mike Cameron’s choice of “Welcome to New York City”, also by Jay-Z. This one couldn’t quite crack the list, however, largely because I associate the Obie Trice knockoff “Welcome to Detroit City” too heavily with my junior year of college, not Mets baseball.

In any event, anything that reminds me of Derek Bell makes me smile.

He lived on a yacht. He wore his uniform baggy. He spotted a friend of B.O.A.F.O.M.G.'s sitting in the stands and sent the batboy over to get her number. And for something like the first two months of the season he hit .400, before getting displaced by Timo Perez and then, years later, initiating Operation Shutdown.

9. Kaz Matsui – “Bruce Lee Theme”

No idea who this song is by or where it comes from, but this one takes the cake for being the biggest headscratcher on the team. I have no idea how it would be possible for this song, or at least the part of it they play, to psyche a person up. Maybe that’s cultural ignorance talking, but all I know is that Kaz has sucked in both of his major league seasons. This song, bizarre but nonetheless awesome as it is, does not appear to be helping.

8. “Don’t Stop Believin’” (Journey)

Journey defined 1980s power ballads the way the phrase “Ya gotta believe” defines Mets fans, so it only makes too much sense any time the people running the sound system decide to pump the shit out of this song during Mets games.

I can’t remember when it was (it may have happened during several seasons), but there was a time there when the Mets would play this song after every victory. It might have been 2002, given the team’s slogan that year, “Always Believe,” drew its resonance from Tug McGraw’s immortal pledge.

(As I said in a fantasy draft last night, has there ever been a more derivative slogan than that one? Can't you just picture the sloganeers sitting around a room, depressed, completely out of ideas, and asking themselves what the most generic slogan they could possibly get away with would be?)

Anyway, whatever season(s) it was, chances are it wasn’t the last time you’ll hear Journey’s 1981 classic at Shea.

7. “We Will Rock You” (Queen)

I know what you’re thinking. How on earth does he identify this ubiquitous song with the Mets?

Easy answer: The 1986 Mets Tape.

Truth is, I was raised on that tape. I can’t even conceive of how many times I’ve seen that video. As anyone who’s familiar with the tape knows, “We Will Rock You” is heard each time the calendar flips ahead to the next month, but that's nothing compared to the culminating cheer of "We willl... we will... ROCK YOU!" that the Game 7 crowd jubilantly cried in the run-up to the team’s first title in 17 years.

Meanwhile, that was 20 years ago. Yeesh.

6. Mike Piazza/Robin Ventura – “Ice, Ice Baby” (Vanilla Ice)

Easily the most obscure entry on this list, “Ice, Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice greeted Mike Piazza to the plate exactly one night in his Mets career.

The year was 2001. Desperate to break out of a season-long funk, Piazza had dyed his hair platinum blond.

Back in those days, Mets players were permitted to wear facial hair, and few players took more creative advantage of that right than Piazza.

One day, the Monster showed up with a most unusual design shaved into his beard. Describing it is nearly impossible, the best I can explain is this: imagine entwined, interlocking vines with a little space between the vines. That’s kind of how Piazza’s beard looked that night. Needless to say, it looked ridiculous.

Seizing upon Piazza’s fashion don’t, Rockin’ Robin had the Shea tunesters swap Piazza’s customary heavy metal with Vanilla Ice’s breakthrough rap song. Piazza was not amused, and the song was never heard at Shea Stadium again (at least in the context of Piazza). But to this day, every time I hear that song, I think of Robin’s prank.

5. Lenny Dykstra/Wally Backman – “Wildboys” (Duran Duran)

Another track that needs no explanation for any viewer of the ’86 Mets tape, this song encapsulates one of the more exciting aspects of the '86 team. To quote Keith Hernandez, everybody likes the “hardnosed, Pete Rose type players” that Backman and Dykstra were. I still remember my friend, the street legend known as Sepa, sweating the shit out of these two guys. I was always more of a Strawberry guy, but Backman and Dykstra, as immortalized by Duran Duran, were strong picks for favorites on the '86 team.

4. “Who Let the Dogs Out” (Baha Men)

I really wish this one didn’t have to make the list. This song sucks, and it always bothered me that it was the victory song for the 2000 Mets. I think it was a Timo Perez product, but I could be wrong about that.

One way or another, the song sucks but that team was great. Lot of great memories. Each victory in late 2000 came packed with a little Baha Men; whether that's something we should be proud of, that's debateable, but hey, there's no accounting for taste.

Neither the team nor its victory song could hold a candle to the one that preceded it, however, and that brings us to No. 3 on this list.

3. "L.A. Woman" (The Doors)

A classic. I’m tempted to say that no other song is as closely identified with a single team in Mets history as this song is with the 1999 Mets. A Robin Ventura product, "L.A. Woman" blasted triumphantly after every win. While the whole song is great, the part that will always be most fondly remembered by Mets fans is the “mojo rising” segment that begins in between minutes 4 and 5 of this 7-minute song.

“Mojo rising” became a team motto on par with “Ya gotta believe” for the 1999 team, and even to this day you still occasionally see a sign about getting the mojo rising.

That song is identified with the entire 1999 team, but for me, I’ll always best remember it playing after the win in Game 5 of NLCS, the grand slam single game. Easily the greatest postseason game I’ve ever been to. Who better than Robin to get the game-winning hit, and what better words to hear than "mojo rising" over the loudspeakers. The way it starts slow before building to a near orgasmic crescendo -- what's not to love?

And as I stood there with the Hound, me freezing, finally able to put my jacket back on (I had taken it off immediately before John Olerud's game-tying home run, and consequently had to leave it off for the next 10 innings on a drizzly October night), with Robin Ventura getting mobbed by his teammates while Jim Morrison grew ever more energized in the background, I had a sense that it might never get any better than that. It was heaven.

2. “Get Metsmerized” (1986 Mets)

The infamous rap song produced by the 1986 Mets. Confession time: I’ve never actually heard it. Chances are you haven’t either, but I’ve definitely read about it, and am desperate to hear it someday. If anyone knows where I can get a copy, please tell me. If anyone has a copy and is coming to the tailgate, please bring it. I’d kill a youngling to hear this song, what do I care?

Years later, Dontrelle Willis and Juan Pierre would freestyle during the Florida Marlins’ victory parade following their championship win over the Yankees in 2003. Their raps were terrible, but possibly better than “Gets Metsmerized” from everything I’ve heard. One way or another, baseball met rap music with the 1986 Mets, and “Get Metsmerized” lives on in the imaginations of youthful fans who never had the pleasure of hearing Howard Johnson spit it.

1. “You Belong to the City” – Glenn Frey

The final song on this list is yet another entry from the 1986 Mets tape. The song appears on the tape in just the moment when the announcer is explaining how that Mets team captured the heart of the city. It was a time of Yankee embarrassment and Mets domination, it was a time when the pulse of the city hung on the Mets' every move.

That's the way I like to think of the Mets today. Sure, it's not the case. This is, at the moment, a Yankee-dominated town. But for me, whenever I hear this song, I realize that this hasn't always been a Yankee town, nor will it forever be one. For there was a time when it was all Mets all the time, and if we're lucky, and if the Curse prevails, we may just see that time come round again sooner than we think.

Anyway, that's all I got. If I left off any crucial songs, please feel free to suggest them on the comment board.

I'll be back with predictions for the upcoming season later today or during the weekend, and it was Sip's plan to write a piece about the breakup of Mr. and Mrs. Anna Benson, so keep checking in for those.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Here We Go

So I have about as good a 4 day weekend ahead of me as I could imagine.

Hop the redeye Thursday night from San Jose to JFK where I arrive @ 6:30 (Note: first Reader to volunteer to pick up Sip from the airport gets 5 percent of Y2K, which, if AFOMG and I have our way, should be worth about $40,000,000 by 2008)

Reunite With the Cousin, J Schubes, AFOMG, the Penn Crew and some of the other Dutchmen for a big night in NY.

Saturday we have the Final 4.

Sunday we open the season with the #2 squad of Y2K, The Tribe, kicking off the season.

And then we have Monday. Maybe the best day ever.

We have Opening day, the best event of the year. We have the NCAA Finals. And we find out who is bad in 24.

So life is good for Sip. But is it good for the Mets? Below, we'll have the 10 keys to the Mets season. Most are baseball related, but others have to to with certain issues, completely non baseball related that will have what I believe is as big of an impact as anything on the field.

10. Carlos Beltran

This guy has to get his act together for a number of reasons. First, and most obvious, he stunk last year and is being paid like a top 5 player in baseball. Last year he was lucky to crack the top 100. We're paying this guy for 5 tools. On a good day last year we saw 1.


More importantly, we need to give D Wright one more year of not completely being "The Guy." By 2007 the Mets will be the team of the Golden Boy, however, I'd like to give him one more year to develop.

Luckily, there's hope yet for Beltran. He'll start the season 28 years old. The break-in year that we've grown used to for big money guys in New York is behind him. Between Carlos Delgado and David Wright, he's no longer expected to be the biggest thumper in the lineup. A lot of the pressure is off, time for him to play like he's capable of playing.

So Carlos, step up. Next year is now.

9. Nick "The Voice's" Paralegaling needs to come to an end

Clearly an issue of karma. Nicky started with me at Paralegal U back in August of '04. While Young Sip maintained the few ounces of dignity that he could muster by getting out of the game late last fall, The Voice still remains in the show.

The kid needs to get out. He is supposed to be out of the game by June, but that bet is fading fast.

Truth is, if Nicky remains in the show, my energy will not be fully focused on the Mets, shifting the energy of a city and drowning the Mets' hopes.

8. The rotation needs to stay healthy

One major injury to Pedro and the season will look grim. A lot of pressure is falling on his injured toe.

But the rest of the old rotation, mainly Tommy the Spy and Shitty Trachsel, need to pitch 200 innings. These guys are both approaching their 50's making this a lot to ask, but we need them.

Everything needs to go right this year, and everything starts with pitching. We need Bannister to come in here and be a serviceable No. 5 starter. We don't need to ask for the world from him, but if he can go for a .500 record, well, that's basically what we would have gotten out of Kris Benson.

As for Zambrano, look, he's never going to justify the trade, but he's put up some good numbers this spring and if he can parlay that into a regular season with 11-14 wins out of the 4 hole I'd take it.

7. Fez needs to be taken out

If for some reason something bad happens to Wilmer Valderrama this year, I know god will be on my side. Man do I hate that fuck. At his bday in Vegas at the club we were at, the guy MC'd the place, and it was flat out painful. Knowing that that guy is a "playboy" in holiday makes me quiver and led cousin Jason to put it very simply:

"Case in point why life isn't fair... if he gets to bang all those chicks, I should have at least been granted a Jabril Hodges three at the buzzer to secure the Long Beach State cover." (Referring to meaningless championship week bball, in which Jason felt the need to invest his children's college fund... which is why he is my hero).

6. Need some help from the Braves

The Braves have been the class of this division since I was about 8. I don't like the Braves. So we need some bad things to happen to them. What will start it all is that their bullpen is straight bad.

They have Chris Reitsma closing and a middle relief filled with journeymen.

We need to get out to a decent sized lead in this division because John Schuerholz is a deadline wizard. Last year, with the bullpen in disarace he stole Kyle Farnsworth from the Tigers when most other teams didn't even know he was available.



One injury to John Smoltz, combined with a declining Tim Hudson and the Braves could crack. We will need that help.

5. D Wright, Keep Growing

As I have said many a time, this is the guy that will bring us our championship. He has seen his last vacation in July for ten years and he will hopefully see his last spot in the lineup other than 3 or 4 in no longer than a couple of months.

We need to hope that this kid just keeps growing. We shouldn't force him to take over this team, but if he just happened to do it on his own, that would be a good sign.

4. Brother Sip pops the question to wifey

My brother sometimes get overlooked on this site. Let's just say he is a Sippy Momo Sr. in training. All class.

He found the right girl a while's back and now it's his time to take the plunge. He has the classic fears that most guys do, but truth is, there isn't a member of our family not pulling for this one.

Let's just say if big bro pulls this off then karma will be at an all time high in the Momo family.

It will be at its highest since Senior called Bob Stanley's wild pitch. So make it happen big bro, and maybe we can celebrate later this year with a wedding ring for you and a championship ring for the Mets.

3. Uncle Cliffy and Aaron Heilman

These were the two biggest non-David Wright bright spots of '05. Cliffy was healthy and Heilman was dominant. Both were great, having seasons well beyond what we expected.



Everyone is penciling in the numbers for these guys, especially with Heilman, as though it is a lock that they repeat their '05 production.

Not so fast. These guys need to do it again. As I said before, everything needs to go right for this one to work. Otherwise, there is simply not enough pitching for this team to win.

2. The Warriors win the championship

Right now I think we are 4 out of the playoffs with about 10 to go. Still, despite a tough 1 point loss to New Orleans/Oklahoma tonight, the boys have looked great of late.

Big Fella's big scoring about 19 per over his last 8 and the Warriors look like they belong.

Let's just say that if somehow these guys can pull off the miracle, sneak into the playoffs, and creep their way thru the Western conference playoffs, only to upset the Pistons in the finals, well, then anything is possible.

Even the New Mets.

Good things always happen in bunches for my sports teams. The Mets and Giants won in '86. The Mets and Giants made the World Series/Superbowl in 2000.

Why not the Mets and Warriors in '06?

Crazier things have happened...Heck, George Mason is in the Final 4.

1. BILLY WAGNER

We brought this guy on board to be on the mound for the last inning of our season in October. He's the first dominant closer that we as Mets fans have seen in at least my entire life.

But still, BW comes with a ton of question marks.

Mainly, he hasn't proven that he is a postseason closer. That's not his fault; he hasn't been there enough. We need more and we need to see it.

Second, can he stay at this level? Wagner definitely faded towards the end of '05, blowing a couple of huge saves at the end of the season. Let's hope that rust disappears and Wagner is a go.

Add Wagner to last year's team and the Mets might very well have made the playoffs.

Well next year is now, and we need the little guy in the back of the pen closing it down.

So anyway, those are the keys to the season. I'll be back for the Opening day special.

Can't wait to see everyone at Shea.

VCD,

SM

The Inside Man

So I just caught the new Denzel Washington flick, The Inside Man, and I left the theater entertained. I found out that the 5th star of the movie was an old buddy of mine from college, Carlos Gomez, of 3rd floor butcher fame, and a neighbor of loyal Y2K friends Kenny from Camp and Goat.

I do recommend the movie, it is very entertaining. But movies become special when they provoke thought. I left that movie with something on my mind, something that I just couldn't kick from my head.

The Inside Man.

As always, the Mets are on my mind right now. We are 5 days from the season, the year after 2005, where we can buy one Carlos and get the second one free (an embarassing slogan may I add).

So, as always, young Sip remains quite the pessimist. After all, these Mets can't win, can they?

Today, I embrace the 5 inside men, members of the Mets lineup and front office that may not be who we think they are. They may be playing for us, but working for someone else.

5. Tommy Glavine

The easy target. This guy signed a 4-year/$45 million deal with the Mets back in the 2002-03 offseason and has been making double that for the 134-time NL East Champion Atlanta Braves. Since Tommy got here he has said all the right things while the Braves have kept winning. He even engaged in a public spat with Braves GM John Schuerholtz this spring when the contents of Schuerholtz's upcoming book, including a passage revealing that Glavine wept before signing with the Mets, became known.

So Glavine's talked the talk but he hasn't exactly walked the walk in his 3 years in Flushing, during which time Glavine has gone into the only kind of funk Willie Randolph doesn't like. In 3 whole seasons, Glavine has had exactly two good stretches, has never finished a season over .500, and is 33-41 overall in his Mets career.

Meanwhile, the Braves keep winning. Coincedence? Maybe. But let's see Tommy win a big game against the Braves in September before we can truly trust him.

4. Willie Randolph

You can see the chemistry in his eyes. He looks into the face of his enemy, and all he can talk about is whether or not the roll on his sandwich is fresh toasted.

Willie was a Yankee for a long time. Sure he threw AFOMG a ball back when he had a cup of coffee with the Mets back in the early 90's, but this guy is a Yankee.

I like Willie as a manager, but I notice him shying away in games against the Yankees. Could he still be playing ball for the Evil Empire? If sending in Braden Looper to wrap up the save in a pressure situation is any indication, I'd say the chances are strong to very strong.

3. Carlos Delgado

This guy had no interest in coming to the Mets a year ago. Delgado publicly served Mets special assistant Tony Bernazard, calling him the highest paid translator in the game, and basically reduced Omar Minaya's sales pitch to something along the lines of, "Look, I'm Latin, you're Latin... what more do you need to know?" On top of all that, his agent, David Sloane, publicly shat on the Mets for weeks after the negotiations ended with Delgado signing with the Marlins.

Yes, he was traded and has since said all the right things, but this guy clearly doesn't want to be here. Could it be that he asked the Marlins to trade him to NY, the media capital of the world, so he could throw the season and recieve the most possible coverage in protest of the War in Iraq? You gotta wonder.

2. Omar Minaya

I still am selling Wheel and Deal. He's a man with a fat pocketbook who knows how to use it. In spite of all the praise he gets for turning the Mets in to contenders, he has not made a single steal on any deal so far.

This guy came from the Expos/Nationals after he was denied the Mets GM job after Steve Phillips. Could Wheel and Deal be bitter that he didn't get the opportunity earlier? Could that be why he has mortgaged the depth of our rotation in return for basically nothing? I don't know.

1. The Real Momo

My oldest friend in the world may very well be "The Inside Man" that we are all looking for. After years of peer pressure, we convinced Mr. Momo, to that point a die-hard Yankee fan, that he had to become a Mets fan. Basically, if he wanted to be our friend, he had to like the Mets. Momo agreed, the year was 1996.

The Yankees went on to build their dynasty the second Momo left, while the Mets, were, well, the Mets. Sure, we made it to the World Series in 2000 but of course, kick in the junk central arose, when the Yankees went on to dominate us.

Momo was at the heart of it all. He was there to ruin the Mets' unforseen run in the fall of 2001, when his elated phone call about how the Mets were going to make the playoffs just as soon as Armando Benitez wrapped up this save officially jinxed the rest of the season. And he's been on board ever since.

For the last two years Momo has worked a job for the Atlanta Braves, working in stadium opps and with the press. This is a very solid job for a young man out of college.

Could it be that Mr. Momo, my brother by both friendship and stolen pen name, is the inside man for the Braves? That the Mets will not win until he is no longer?

So with this, I ask our readers to ponder something. Must I take my friend out? Is friendship more important than Mets baseball? Do I need to do this for the team?

Let me know. I'm here for you guys.

5 Days till opening Day

E-mail Sippymomo@gmail.com for Opening Day at Shea plans.

VCD,

SM

Pedro, Carlos and Omar: Last Year Was Then

(Please note. Sip has a post on Fantasy baseball leagues, the way they should be, below this post)

What’s up guys, A Friend of Mr. Glass’ here. I’ve been threatening to write a review of Adam Rubin’s book about the 2005 Mets for the past two weeks and change, and now, after much heel dragging, the time has finally arrived.

Rubin’s book was released amid fevered anticipation from Mets fans. At least one fan camped out outside the Barnes and Noble on 82nd and Broadway on that fateful evening in early-March, the day before the book was released.

Judging from his unshaven face, his tattered clothing, his shopping cart full of odd objects, and the unfortunate smell, this was one die-hard fan of the orange and blue who had been willing to camp out for weeks, maybe months or years at a time in order to get his copy.

So I’ve got nothing on that guy, but there I was on March 7, not the first in line, but there soon enough to pick up my coveted copy of Pedro, Carlos and Omar: The Story of a Season in the Big Apple and the Pursuit of Baseball’s Top Latino Stars.

Title rolls right off the tongue doesn’t it?

Rubin, a writer for the official newspaper of Yankees 2000, The New York Daily News, has produced an odd little book here, one that I ultimately found unsatisfying.

Part of that dissatisfaction may not be altogether fair. Compared with the two other Mets books I’ve read, George Vecsey’s classic Joy in Mudville and Jeff Pearlman’s The Bad Guys Won, Pedro, Carlos and Omar had two strikes against it before it ever stepped to the plate.

Strike 1 is the simple fact that whereas Vescey’s and Pearlman’s books celebrated championship clubs, Rubin’s did not. Assuming the author’s optimism for the immediate future of the Mets for a moment, reading Rubin’s book is a bit like reading a book about the 1985 Mets. It’s interesting, but at the end of the day you can’t help but feel a little disappointed, or that you want to ask who the hell cares?

The truth is that a lot of people do care, and lord knows I’m one of those people. I absorb virtually every piece of information about the Mets that I can. I’m a junkie for the little details, the little personality traits or quirks that define individuals and the team itself.

And that leads us to Strike 2, which is the real trouble with Rubin’s book – it goes into exactly the wrong kind of detail. Where Pearlman’s book charmed us with details that we didn’t already know (Rafael Santana putting his purportedly massive dick on Tim Teufel’s shoulder on an airplane for example), and where Vecsey’s book recalled conversations with the eminently quotable Casey Stengel, Rubin’s book recalls the story about Pedro running through the sprinklers that you’ve already heard about countless times. It’s not that it’s a bad memory, it might even bring a smile to your face, but one thing it’s not is it’s not anything new.

In fairness, there were some new little factoids I learned from Rubin’s book. For instance, all season long I wondered why the announcers referred to Dae Sung Koo as Mr. Koo. Fran Healy was especially fond of referring to the Korean junkballer by the Mr. Koo moniker.

Turns out there was actually an explanation. As Rubin reports on page 74, Koo simply preferred to be called Mr. Koo by his teammates, and Healy et al extended that preference to themselves. Now you know.

I also learned that Ramon Castro “conspired with the usually reserved Beltran to draw a face on a watermelon and leave it in Cliff Floyd’s locker, placing Floyd’s hat on top for maximum effect” (Rubin, 162).

In case you’re not howling with laughter, the reason is probably that that story simply isn’t that funny. And that’s kind of the theme of a lot of the behind the scenes stories Rubin relates.

It’s plain he wasn’t trying to write a sequel to The Bad Guys Won, but hey, baseball’s supposed to be fun, we know these guys aren’t saints, what’s the harm in relating a few stories about who put the moves on Anna Benson at the company party?

The disappointment of what’s not in the book is only compounded by a lot of the content that actually did make it in there, and therein lies my chief complaint with the book. Rubin spends an extraordinary amount of time giving play-by-play breakdowns of games that happened at various points last season.

I don’t care how big a fan you are, on some level these recaps are bound to be boring. The sensation is a lot like reading a months-old (or in some cases, a year-old) newspaper. You know everything that happened that day. You know everything that happened in the immediate aftermath. You know everything that happened for several days on end.

It’s just not really interesting to recall that D’Angelo Jimenez broke open the Mets’ third game of the year with a 2-run double, or that Tommy Glavine might have had a better result the night before if he hadn’t been squeezed by home plate umpire Chuck Meriwether.

More importantly, none of these are things that you didn’t know already if you paid attention the first time around. And as was mentioned earlier, that’s the real failing of Rubin’s book: so much of the book is devoted to recounting details that you already know.

And yet these are the details that flesh out Rubin’s narrative. Are these recaps excruciating? No. Are some of them enjoyable? Yes. But ultimately the question I asked myself most often was why? Why did Rubin decide that this book was a good idea? Why was this book allowed to be written?

The answer should be encouraging for Mets fans. There is an underlying sense throughout Pedro, Carlos and Omar that 2005 was a precursor to something greater. Rubin clearly believes it was. He closes his book with those memorable words from Beltran’s introductory press conference: “The New Mets had headed in a different direction – the right direction – the direction of winning” (Rubin, 210).

Perhaps Rubin and the good people at The Lyons Press thought that 2006 would be a watershed year in terms of interest in the Mets (they could very easily be right, incidentally). Maybe they thought a championship was forthcoming, making a book about the 2005 season, the table-setter season, decidedly relevant. But that’s a very large gamble to make, and if there is no pay-off, this book becomes more and more of a head-scratcher.

Taken for what it is, Pedro, Carlos and Omar isn’t a bad book. It's not poorly written, it’s just that it’s so limited. It’s basically a chronicle of the 2005 season. The ups and down of Beltran, the zaniness and electricity of Pedro, the development of Wright – it’s like, yeah man, I know.

If you’re one of those people who’s got a Mets-themed clock on your wall, you should pick up this book. If you’re anxious to relive the past season of Mets baseball, pick up this book. If you think you can’t understand 2006 without understanding 2005, pick up this book.

But if you’re hoping for a behind the scenes tell-all about the 2005 Mets with no punches pulled, leave this one on the shelf. It’s not that it’s altogether uninteresting, but if you know your Mets, you already know everything there is to know about Pedro, Carlos and Omar.

- A.F.O.M.G.

The Real Fantasy Baseball

So I'll be the first to say that no fantasy sport is better than fantasy football. With one head-to-head game a week and every game in front of you, complemented by plates of wings and fries and stale beer and Southern waitresses who by 7:00 p.m. look like Heidi Klum serving you, life is perfect.

But baseball remains my true love. And being an avid fantasy player I've always given baseball a crack.

But for years I had a problem. When I would take Mike Piazza with my first pick every year, I would get stressed hoping he would get the RBI instead of Fonzie hitting before him.

Or I would hate myself for having Derek Jeter as my SS.

Or worse, to have a player playing against the Mets for three straight days and feeling compelled to root for him. I just couldn't handle it.

I wanted the Mets to win, but I wanted my team to perform.

So last year I solved the problem. I wanted the Mets to have no effect for or against me, and I wanted no Yankees on my team.

That is when I introduced the AL-Only No Yankees Fantasy Baseball League.

With 12 of us in the league and 13 AL teams to choose from, the talent pool was ridiculously diluted. The draft was fucked from the beginning because one of the kids not there autodrafted every Yankee on yahoo.

So we ended up drafting in an AOL chatroom, a draft that took us roughly 7 hours to complete.

Still, the experience was the most educational fantasy experience of my life.

We weren't playing with All-Star teams. Instead, me and cousin Jason went nuts discussing Danny Haren for Erik Bedard after each had had 3 career starts.

Scott Podsednik became a god.



All of a sudden the Royals quad squad of Andy Sisco, Mike MacDougal, Jeremy Affeldt, and Ambriox Burgos found themselves actually impacting the starting lineups of our fantasy teams.

I knew every player in the AL and I loved it.

I watched every Mets game stress-free and had no reason at all to not completely root against the Yankees.

The league was perfect!

So this year we discussed. Should we do it again?

That would be too easy.

So my good friend, Jon Zimelis, former defensive stopper and the agent of Y2K, came up with an idea with a few strippers in hand at a friendly Gentleman's club in lAs Vegas.

"Sip, how bout we play with the teams from the bottom half of the league's payroll?"

I thought for half a second. I was buying the shit out of it.

It worked. There would be no Mets, no Yankees, I could stockpile my team with Indians and Brewers and I would learn more about baseball.

Of Yahoo's top 100 ranked players, only 34 came from the bottom 15 payrolls.

So Garret Atkins and Chris Capuano, here I come. Jhonny Peralta, I'll see you in the 2nd round. And of course T Haf, you will be the 1st player selected in this year's draft.

To all you fantasy baseball players out there, I really recommend some sort of a creative league or at least a league where the talent pool is shrunk.

Who cares who has a better season between Gary Sheffield and Vlad Guerrero? They're both really good.

But give me Doug Davis vs Joe Blanton... now at least we are thinking. We are learning our game, learning its players, and discovering that there is more to baseball than the top 3 free agents available in every offseason.

VCD,

SM

Yankees 2000: Bigger, Faster, More Explosions

Hey everyone,

Exciting times around here at Y2K as the start of a new season looms ever closer. The advent of a new season means more consistent baseball news and happenings, all of which increases the volume of things Sip and I have to write about.

With that in mind, we wanted to give a heads up to our readers that our publication schedule will remain consistent in some ways, but you can expect to see certain changes as well.

Going forward, readers can still look forward to a post by 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. On days like today, however, there is the main post by Sip and a secondary one by myself. Secondary posts will be more common throughout the season, and they can be written any time of day.

In addition, posts on the weekends will also be possible. If there's a big win, a crushing loss, or a major transaction, you can expect one of us to write about it the day it happens regardless of whether it's a weekday or a weekend. No promises on the frequency of weekend updates, but be advised that where it would have never happened before, it may happen going forward.

Anyway, we appreciate all your support throughout the offseason, and we look forward to another season of Mets baseball in 2006. The wait is almost over, boys and girls, chin up.

- SM and A.F.O.M.G.

Two Points for Optimism

What's up guys, A Friend of Mr. Glass' here. This isn't a full-fledged post (Sip's provided that below), but there were a couple Mets-happenings this past weekend that warranted mentioning on the site.

The big news, obviously, was Pedro's masterful return to live competition yesterday. On a windy afternoon in Port St. Lucie, the Met ace worked efficiently through 3 innings against the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles fielded what was, as far as I know, a close approximation of their Opening Day lineup, which is to say that the lineup Pedro was facing consisted of bonafide major leaguers.

As Paul Lo Duca would comment afterward, Pedro's performance was a huge mental boost. When the game began I was panicking that he would have a bad outing, that I would see my hopes for this season flash before my eyes and just as quickly fade away.

But no. With his hair puffing out from beneath his cap, Pedro threw 21 of his 35 pitches for strikes, fanning Miguel Tejada and Kevin Millar along the way. The only blemishes were a 4-pitch walk and a single on a pop up that landed about 5 feet from home plate when David Wright and Lo Duca collided.

Martinez didn't turn up the dial velocity-wise; he topped out at 88 mph on the radar gun all afternoon. But as we saw last year, velocity isn't necessarily the key for Martinez. His strikeout numbers will decline if his velocity is in the high-80s as opposed to mid-90s (we saw that happen in 2005), but he's talented enough to pitch effectively without all the Ks.

After his outing, Pedro was pleased with his performance, and said that if his toe felt like it did yesterday then beat reporters for the team should stop writing about it because it's fine.

As we all know, a healthy Martinez is critical to the Mets' success this year, and yesterday Pedro passed his first test with flying colors. Yesterday was just the first step, but you could hardly have asked for anything more.

So anyway, cheers to that.

Almost lost in the ballyhoo over Pedro's return to the mound was the strong relief work of Victor Zambrano. Tricky Vic tossed 6 innings of shutout ball in relief of Pedro, and while that probably does little for our general confidence in the guy, it sure is preferable to him getting shelled, wouldn't you agree?

So yesterday was a good day on the pitching front. And for you Brian Bannister boosters, it only got better at 6:45 p.m. when Marty Noble posted his Mets Notebook at mets.com. Citing unnamed members of the Mets' hierarchy, Noble reports that the most likely scenario is that Bannister begins the season as the fifth starter in the rotation while Aaron Heilman moves back to the bullpen.

Now I know I just wrote a piece promoting Heilman as the team's fifth starter, but I'm not going to argue this one too strenuously. As I said in that post, the debate between Bannister and Heilman was a good problem to have, and if it shakes out this way I'm not going to fight it.

You really can't argue with the logic espoused by one of Noble's sources that a bullpen consisting of Billy Wagner, Duaner Sanchez, Aaron Heilman, Chad Bradford, Jorge Julio, and a southpaw to be named later figures to "make us lights out from the seventh inning on."

And you can't really argue the importance of a strong bullpen given a rotation that figures to specialize more in 6-inning outings than 8-inning outings.

So Mr. Bannister, good luck. Mr. Heilman, I feel for you pal. Chances are this isn't your last chance to crack the rotation, so keep your chin up, accept the assignment to the 'pen with grace, and let's all get to work with winning some ballgames.

Sip thinks we're an 87-win team, the Glass thinks it's more like 93. I'm an optimistic kind of guy, what can I say?

Next year is now in 7 days. As you can read about in Sip's post, Yankees 2000 will be hosting a little function in the Shea parking lot, with 30-bangers and fresh toasted Caribbean lime Subway sandwiches.

Now if it would only get a little warmer so that we don't all freeze our asses off out there.

- A.F.O.M.G.

One Happy Sip

So I feel like shit. I have my first 0 for the Final 4 in my life, I have work in the morning and I am six pounds heavier after the 9th straight weekend having 10 visitors at my house in SF.

Still, I am one happy Sip.

Why you ask?

It's not because the Women's Final 4 is this week. In fact, I think I'd rather spend a long day in synagogue than watch that pollution. To my three female readers, a couple things.

First off, what's up? I love all my blogging groupies and would be happy to wine and dine you back at Blondies sometime.

Second, it's official. Women's sports are really, really bad and the fact that ESPN is showing women's basketball over repeats of "Thru the Fire," the greatest movie in the hisroy of the network, just sucks.

But it's not enough to break my spirits. So what gives, you ask? Why is he so happy?

Very simple. One week till Opening Day.

I was going to surprise my old friend AFOMG this weekend, but I figured we have to start planning now.

Young Sip is hopping the red eye to the Big Apple this Thursday night to return for Opening Day.

This will be my 11th straight Opening Day and I couldnt be more excited. It all started with me, The Black Balky Bartokamis, my brother and his crew showing up at Shea for that memorable rain storm in 1996. It was Rey Ordonez's first game, and he, not Derek Jeter, was the talk of the town.



He made the throw from his knees from about 100 feet past 3rd base that ignited the Mets' comeback victory. It was a memorable day, and unfortunately leaving Jawn at the subway station is something that I will forever regret.

So 1 week till the season. Next year is now and I couldn't be more fired up.

This is the first invite to all our loyal readers and friends. Monday, April 3. 10 a.m. in the Shea parking lot, the festivities begin. Expect the sounds of "L.A. Woman", Team Facelift, and possibly "Who Let the Dogs Out" to blare out of the Y2K-mobile.

I'm hoping all the big guns can make it out. Word on the street is that Happy Will can't get out of work. This is a problem that we will have to deal with. HW, make it happen. You're too good for that.

To the rest of you, get in touch with me this week and we'll make some plans. Even if you don't know me, get in touch, Sippymomo@gmail.com, or the comments board works as well.

We should all meet, we are all a family. AFOMG will make a poster for the car. AFOMG, get on that.

Could't be more excited.

And Pedro looks like he is pretty healthy.

We will see how it goes, but the marathon is beginning. Is this the year?

I doubt it.

But if for some strange reason it is, well fucking A. We deserve it.

VCD,

SM

Post: Bann the Man

As I've said before and will say again, anything Senior says, Young listens to.

My dad has always been a baseball guy, more for my sake I think than because of any deep-seated passion on his own behalf. But that doesn't mean the guy doesn't know baseball. And if there's one thing he has always pushed it's the Pen.

"Sip," he would say, "the Game is won in the 7th-9th innings."

I agree with the Senior. I really do.

Which is why I want to see Aaron Heilman in the pen, and young Brian Bannister in the rotation.



I feel this way for fairly straightforward reasons. Heilman makes our bullpen strong. He is a very solid middle reliever who along with Duaner Sanchez would give the Mets a formidable 1-2 punch leading up to Billy Wagner.

Without Heilman in the pen, the bullpen is weak. Plain and simple. And that is a problem.

We also have to look at Heilman vs. Bannister in the rotation. With Heilman, it's not like we are talking about the second coming of Pedro Martinez here.

The guy has had less than a handful of quality starts in his career. His 93 mph fastball out of the pen drops to 90 over 100 pitches and all of a sudden his changeup, his out pitch, isn't plus plus.

Heilman has basically proven as much as a starter as has Bannister. Both were high prospects and neither has proven a thing in the starter's capacity as a pro.

Sure, some will say that Heilman has had a great spring. Truth is that means little to me for a couple reasons. One, when Heilman has pitched in the spring he hasn't been pitching 7 innings.

His longest outing was a 5-innning start against L.A. on Wednesday. He's thrown 14 total innings this spring in 4 games started. Take 5 away from 14 and you get 9, divide that by 3, and Heilman averaged 3 innings per start in 75% of the games he's pitched. He's been pitching in brief "bullpen like" stints.

Two, as a general rule, Spring Training means dick. Remember Butch Huskey's 8 HR spring? About as good as it got for Old Butch. According to Billy Beane in the book Fantasyland, "Spring Training means shit!" Gotta agree with that sentiment, so Heilman's performance doesn't do much for me still.

The way I see it even if Heilman would be a better starter than Bannister, Heilman as a starter would not be as valuable as having Bannister start and Heilman in the pen.

I know many will disagree, but this is how I feel.

I don't know much, but I know that.

Stay up,

SM

Counterpost: A Risk Worth Taking

Hey everyone, A Friend of Mr. Glass' here. So it's decision time, is it? Heilman-Bannister. The day has finally arrived.

First things first, we can all agree that this is a good problem to have. Unlike the days when has-beens Scott Erickson, James Baldwin, David Cone and (the admittedly unforeseeably) never-was Tyler Yates battled it out for spots in the rotation, Aaron Heilman and Brian Bannister appear to be two honest-to-goodness prospects who could have roles on the Mets for years to come.

You can't fit two into one, however, and with the Mets' all but completely unaccountable decision that Victor Zambrano will be the team's fourth starter, you're looking at one of these guys getting the nod over the other for the fifth spot in the rotation they both covet.

So who's it gonna be? Without having read Sip's piece, I'll assume his argument goes something like this: as good as Heilman has been this spring as a starter, he's more valuable in a bullpen that desperately needs a third reliable arm.

Let's examine that bullpen, shall we? In spite of his injured finger, Billy Wagner is Billy Wagner. He's one of the best closers in the game until proven otherwise, and we're all confident in his ability to close it out in the ninth. Based on his solid (if not awe-inspiring) track record, his WBC performance, and his awesome goggles, confidence is also high in Duaner Sanchez.

But one guy no one is confident in is Jorge Julio. Depending on who you talk to, this guy is either a latter day Armando Benitez or the second coming of Mel Rojas. In spite of the former's regular season success, this is not confidence-inspiring company for any Mets fan.

Combine the uncertainty over Julio with the Mets' lack of a proven left-handed specialist and the age and somewhat questionable talents of our starting pitchers, and many a fan is left wondering whether we've got the horses to get us through innings 7, 8, and 9 with a bullpen consisting of Wagner, Sanchez, Armando Rojas Julio, and a bunch of other misfits.

With all that in mind, these fans conclude that it makes more sense to have Heilman in the bullpen. As has been written on this site and others many times before, Heilman was brilliant out of the pen last year, particularly in the second half of the season.

So why mess with a good thing? Why not plug Bannister into the fifth starter spot and leave Heilman in the role in which he excelled?

In all fairness to Bannister, who certainly deserves the good long look he's received this spring based on his performance last year and the numbers he's put up in Spring Training thus far, I'm not sold on him starting the year in the rotation as the best option.

Yes, he's done extremely well in Spring Training, but it goes without saying that the competition in Spring Training is not the same as the regular season, especially this year when many lineups were without their biggest hitters courtesy of the World Baseball Classic.

The reason I support Heilman in the rotation is that I think he's got more upside than Bannister and becuase I have more confidence in the bullpen than other people do. I hate to ape another blogger, but Mike Oliver made a great point over at MetsGeek today: "As much as I like Bannister," Oliver wrote, "I do not envision him outperforming Heilman in the rotation. The Mets need a starter at this point more than a reliever."

Ask yourself this question: do I expect Brian Bannister to be better over 30 starts than Aaron Heilman? If the answer is no, why not see if Heilman can turn his dominating bullpen stuff into dominating starter stuff? Nobody ever saw a fantastic reliever and said, Man, if I could choose between having that stuff for 1 inning a game or 7 innings a game, I'd choose 1 inning game.

And yet this is the decision the Bannister boosters are making with Heilman. They probably point to his track record as a starter and say he's never had success. First off, that's not entirely true. He's shown flashes. His 1-hitter against Florida last year comes to mind. Second, anybody who's watched Heilman over the years saw that he was a better, more confident pitcher in 2005 than he ever was before (at least in his time as a Met).

So I say, give the guy who limited opposing batters to a .223 average and a Mr. Glass-like .299 on-base percentage a chane to do his thing as a starter.

You don't want to make it open-ended, find. Give him a 6-start test run. If he falters, you've given Bannister a chance to further prove himself at Triple A, and Heilman won't feel like he's getting gypped out of a spot he deserved.

Besides, our bullpen really isn't as shaky as people seem to believe. Sanchez and Wagner get us through 8 and 9 pretty comfortably. If a big lefty comes in with a couple runners on and Sanchez on the mound, just hand Wagner the ball and let him record a 4- or 5-out save if necessary.

Besides those two, you've got a pretty capable corps between Julio, Chad Bradford, and potentially Royce Ring to get you through the 7th. Is it the best bullpen in the league? No. Does its success hinge on Heilman? No. It's better with Heilman, but the rotation is better with Heilman if he can translate his bullpen success into starting success, and the rotation is more important.

Heilman's earned the chance to take the position. If he's anywhere near as good as he was in the pen last year you're looking at at least a No. 3 starter, and possible a No. 2. If he can't hold it up, the worst thing that happens is you move him to the bullpen and call up Bannister.

It may not be pretty in April and May if Heilman doesn't deliver on his promise, but at the end of the day it's a risk worth taking.

- A.F.O.M.G.

I Am So Back

(Note: Double the content here at Y2K. Sip's written about Pedro missing Opening Day below, while I've done a bit of a roundup of Mets news from the past week. Enjoy.)

What's up guys, A Friend of Mr. Glass' here. If this post seems a little unfocused, the reason is that it began its life as a test run. See, the company I work for has the means and the wherewithal to block various websites that are not germaine to the work we do here.

It sounds worse than it is. I can't check my gmail account from work, but beyond that I had never come across a blocked site at work among the 20 or so that I check regularly. Never, that is, until late last week, when I attempted to post a column from work only to discover that blogger.com, the engine that powers this website you're reading right now, had been blocked.

The dream was over. Or so it seemed.

Bored, I decided to check out blogger to see if maybe it was just a one time thing. As you can see, indeed it was.

Now this doesn't really impact you, the readers, very much at all. I don't normally write from work, I save that for when I get home. But it does mean something to me. It means I won't have to wake up 10 minutes earlier in the mornings to edit. So that's nice.

But anyway, now that I'm back I might as well post some musings on the Mets don't you think? Here's what's going on in Metsville that hasn't been widely discussed on the site.

1. Dust settling on position battles.

A lot of readers probably don't realize this, but Yankees 2000 is huge in Japan. For whatever reason, we get a goodly amount of hits a day in the Land of the Rising Sun. It might have something to do with Bobby Valentine. Or Kaz Ishii. Or possibly Tsuyoshi Shinjo.

Speaking of which, remember Shinjo's first home run? Against the Braves on Opening Day when he threw the bat 10, maybe 15 feet in the air in celebration? Or how about that little hop he did before catching a fly ball? Or shinjyo5.net, easily the greatest web site of all time? Or those wristbands?

My god, the wristbands! RIP, Tsuyoshi.

Anyway, one guy who probably doesn't contribute to our Japanese audience is our beleaguered second baseman, Kaz Matsui. Originally the poster child for the "younger, faster, more athletic" Mets and a key component of the "defense up the middle" mantra espoused during the Jim Duquette era, Kaz has been an out and out flop. I was down on a certain New York real estate magnate for saying it when I still had hope for the guy, but truer words were never spoken than when The Donald declared KazMat the biggest bust in New York. (In fairness, Carlos Beltran is the current owner of that title.)

But after the former Japanese iron man suffered what seems like his 10th or 11th injury in a Mets uniform, it appears that the Kaz Matsui era may be over. OK, that's probably premature. But what is certain is that come Opening Day, Kaz won't be the starting second baseman. That will either be Jeff Keppinger or, more likely, Anderson Hernandez.

A lot of Mets fans think Keppinger gets a bad rap. He puts up consistently solid numbers in the minor leagues and yet is never considered a top prospect. Kepp hit .337 last year at Triple A before in 255 at-bats before a spiking injury to his leg shortened his season.

All signs point to this guy being either the next Ty Wigginton or the next Melvin Mora. That is, he's somebody that fanboys are going to love irrationally before flaming out before the age of 30 or he's going to be traded to someone else and become an All Star. As far as I can tell, those are the only two options. That is, he will never star for the Mets.

Instead, Anderson Hernandez is going to be given every opportunity to be the solution to the Kaz Matsui debacle. After an exceptional 2005 (excluding his 1-for-18 performance in September for the big club, of course), Hernandez went on to hit .307 in Winter Ball with a .386 OBP. His defense is said to be exceptional in spite of the fact that he's a natural shortstop.

So AHern, good luck, we're counting on you. If you fail, Keppinger may get a shot, but more likely he'll be traded along with Victor Diaz and possibly Brian Bannister for the Red Sox' Tony Grafanino. Grafanino will likely be an altogether serviceable second baseman for 2006, maybe 2007. Keppinger will go on to earn a batting title with Boston, father quintuplets, and become a smiling reminder of everything that is wrong with our front office.

Oh, and speaking Diaz, no chance he starts Opening Day. Expect the X Man, Xaveir Nady, who has exceeded expectations with his excellent spring (alright, I'm spent) to man RF for the Boys come April 3.

2. Tommy the Spy to start Opening Day.

Sippy Momo has written a post about this issue today (see below), but let me just say that I'm not as concerned as he is about all this. That Petey's not starting the opener kind of sucks, granted, but he's been throwing simulated games and bullpen sessions consistently the past two weeks, he's gearing up for his first actual game this week, and I'm confident that he'll be ready to pitch shortly after Opening Day.

Remember, Pedro only threw 11 Grapefruit innings in 2005 and he went on to meet all of our expectations. If his toe is comfortable, I expect Pedro to be fine. That all said, it's gonna be a wait and see start-to-start proposition, no two ways about that.

3. SNY still struggling technically, Lewis picking his game up.

As mentioned in my recap of SportsNet New York's (SNY) debut, the network experienced technical difficulties throughout its maiden evening. A week later, the situation has improved but judging from last night's 2-1 win over the Dodgers, some kinks still exist. Here's hoping they get them sorted out by Opening Day.

Meanwhile, Siafa Lewis is sounding more and more comfortable in his role as Matt Loughlin impersonator, which is good to see. Lewis interviews players throughout the games somewhat regularly, so he's had plenty of opportunities to shore up his skills, and his interviews have improved over the course of the past week. I'm wondering what will come of these interviews during the season. Maybe one a game? Maybe none? We shall see.

4. Rickey-Time in camp to school Mr. Glass.

As readers are probably well aware, the Mets have invited Rickey Henderson to camp as a special instructor. Rickey's technically available to everybody, but his prize pupil is clearly Jose Reyes.

Rickey, who purportedly thought Jose's name was Ray, is charged with helping Reyes improve his on-base percentage and improve his base-stealing instincts.

Naturally, Reyes got thrown out in his first stolen base attempt of the Rickey Henderson tutelage era. Keep at it, Rickey!

5. The Yankees suck.

Big day of Yankee bashing in area newspapers today as the steroid spotlight landed once more on Jason Giambi and, in a new but not altogether surprising twist, on Gary Sheffield. According to the Post, Giambi took steroids to appease his overbearing father, who I think I recall wept at Giambi's introductory press conference in 2001.

Sheffield meanwhile just seems to have used them because everyone else did. Fair enough. He also denied the allegation yesterday in uncharacteristically curt fashion.

The steroid use of both players is detailed in the book "Game of Shadows", excerpts of which were released earler this month, much to the discredit of Barry Bonds.

Meanwhile, according to Harvey Araton in the Times, Johnathon Damon is a massive herb, and actually argues that he's less a sellout than he is a poseur. Here's the link: http://select.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/sports/baseball/23araton.html. I'm open to either argument I suppose, but I'm still leaning toward Damon the Sellout. But that's just me.

Anyway, that's all for now. Look for a post-counterpost tomorrow on the merits of Aaron Heilman and Brian Bannister as the Mets' fifth starter. As for my book review, it's coming.

- A.F.O.M.G.

The One We Can't Lose

The team stood around its diminutive coach. They were embarking on the biggest game of the biggest season of their lives. While the team had a ton of names, superstars even, there was one that had all the charisma. He was the one that the fans loved, the one who stole our hearts and was a particular hit with the women.

He was the big ticket, the showstopper, the guy that got you to tune in everyday, even though the product never really ever changed. You knew what you were getting with this guy, and yet you were always excited.

His name...

Zack Morris.

Morris carried the 1993 Bayside Boys Varsity basketball team on his shoulders. While many scouts never even saw him shoot a jump shot, Chad Ford, in his early days of scouting had this to say about Morris.

"Upside, Freak, Monster. I saw this kid playing in his back yard and I can tell you he is going to be a top ten player of all time. And by the way, you will never find sweeter frosted tips than this guy's."



Little did Chad know that Darko would come along, but that wasn't his fault.

Anyway, going into the big game against Valley, Bayside needed Morris to step up. They needed his heart, soul and body.

He never saw the floor.

Thanks to Bozo Belding, Zack suffered a freak leg injury that kept him out of the game while simultaneously bringing him into the hearts of many a Bayside-area nurse, who were all ridiculously attractive.

Still, Bayside didn't have a chance and of course, they lost the game.

Why Morris, you ask?

First off, Saved by the Bell sometimes gets lost in the mix on this site and I felt it was owed its neccesary recognition, a la Nick the Voice.

But second, we at Shea have our own Zack Morris. And like Zack before the basketball game, our Zack has us very nervous.

It was announced yesterday that Pedro Martinez, the glue of this team, the one player without whom we have no chance at the playoffs, will not be ready for his Opening Day start. Yesterday's announcement confirms that Petey's injured toe will keep him out a couple more days than originally hoped, with the thinking being that he'll hopefully start sometime later in the first week of the season.

Every fear that I had when we signed the aging Martinez has hit me at the very start of year two. What scares me most is how little is discussed of Pedro. Clearly any bad news would be terrible pr for the Mets, devastating ticket sales, fan morale and even player morale.

But what is worse is the lack of good news. We haven't heard many positives about Pedro this spring which scares me. Without him the Mets are a .500 team. With him, they could win 90-95 if everything else gels.



But old Petey is the glue. Could you imagine a Bayside without Zack Morris? At least they would have Slater. Look, I love Tommy the Spy as much as the next guy, but he's no Slater and we all know it.

Give me a Mets pitching staff without Pedro and I give you the cast of Strictly Ballroom, Yankee2000's No. 1 worst movie of all time. The staff would be dreadful. Already every pitcher on the staff is pitching a rotation spot up.

Glavine is no more than a 3rd starter now. Trachsel, if healthy is a 4, Heilman is a 5 and Zambrano is a 9.

Pedro is our guy. This article is meant to make you nervous. There is a little too much optimism floating around this site, we call it "The Happy Will Influence."

Let's all knock on some serious wood for this one.

Or better yet, let's knock on something else. I ask that we all take a hammer to one of our toes today. Clearly this will hurt, but hopefully this will bring Pedro the feeling of unity and support that he needs in order to receive a quick and full recovery.

VCD,

SM

Soriano... Maybe if it Were Rafael

The big topic of convo today amongst my nearest and dearest fans of the orange and blue has been the speculation that the Mets might go after Alfonso Soriano, who receently refused to play left field for the Washington Nationals.

Kenny from Camp threw out some hypotheticals to me, notable Soriano for Kaz Matsui and Victor Diaz.

On paper it seems like a great trade. It makes sense both for the present and for the future. This isn't the Knicks getting the best player in the deal but screwing up their future.

Soriano is on a 1 yr deal, for 10 million dollars. The guy's in his walk year and wants to enter free agency as a big hitting second basemen, which has been a decidedly scarce resource in Major League Baseball since Bret Boone got off the juice.

Indeed, as a 2b Soriano's numbers are down right sick, at least offensively. How many 2b hit you 30-35 hr and drive in 100 runs while stealing 20-30 bases? Not too many.

But as an outfielder he has flaws. There are enough 30 HR-100 RBI guys in corner outfield spots to render his numbers, if not pedestrian, then nothing altogether extraordinary. Soriano and his representation must know that, and they know that come contract time he may not be worth 12 mil per season as a leftfielder.

So Soriano to the Mets...My thoughts. In all honesty, I don't want to see it happen.



Before the deal for Delgado and Nady, maybe, but not anymore.

The Mets are getting really close to that perfect fantasy lineup. Everyone on the team can go for 30-100 and all of a sudden we are creaming ourselves.

But that is not what wins baseball. How many World Series have the Yankees won since they put together their murderers row? The answer is 0 (as per the Curse, naturally).

Contrary to popular belief, a baseball team needs chemistry. Sure, it's not like basketball where a set play is affected by all 5 guys on the court. Still, there is more to baseball than just the individual at the plate and the pitcher on the mound.

Little things make a baseball team win. Joe Torre has spent the last 5 years trying to manage the egos of his players, and while he seems to have done an admirable enough job of that, those egos still limit his ability to manage a game. Indeed, he can't well signal for a sac bunt in a certain situation when his 6 hitter, who happens to be a former MVP, is at bat.

He can't call for a hit and run because his 9 hitter, Robinson Cano, can hit the ball out of the park, but doesn't make enough contact.

Bringing in Soriano would no doubt bring the Mets another thunderous bat. Their lineup top to bottom would be devastating.

But the lineup would be a team of individuals. Willie Randolph couldn't manage this team, his players would just have to perform. Soriano is exactly that type of player: the guy can sock dingers and thus drive in runners, but when he's not doing that his .309 batting average suggests he's probably sitting on the pine.

This is not a winning formula for baseball and it never will be. Couple all that with Soriano's shoddy defense at a defensive priority position for the Mets and Soriano seems like less and less of a good idea. (That is, given Delgado's limited range, a slick fielding second baseman would add run-differential value even if he were the team's 8 hitter. No matter how athletic he looks, Soriano is a shitty fielder.)

So Soriano? Sure! If it were the Mariners hard throwing RHP (a few arm surgeries ago) Rafael Soriano, then we'd be talking.



Because right now this bullpen is a huge problem.

Jorge Julio looks about as bad as he could and all of a sudden not 1 (Cameron) but 2 of Wheel and Deal's offseason maneuvers are looking very bad. Although in fairness Nady has been killing the ball in Spring Training so maybe there's hope for that deal yet.

This is the main reason why I'd like to see Heilman in the Pen. More on that though Thursday and Friday.

12 days till opening day!!!

VCD,

SM

The Classic was Classic, but not as Classic as Mr. Classic

Let me first drop kudo's on Young Sip for the title of this blog. Nice work Young.

Then I want to give a big shout to Upper West Side legend and my boyhood hero BOAFOMG for the longest response in the history of Yankees2000.

I promise you I will get into the Bannister vs. Heilman debate later this week in a post-counterpost with AFOMG, as I know we have differing opinions.

As for Big Al in the first inning, all I can say is Game 6 1999 NLCS... Dead on BOAFOMG.

As for your third paragraph. There must have been 14 words/ideas that I totally didn't understand. That said, I would love to be GM of the 2006 AL Champion Indians one day, but Mark Shapiro is a genius and should be there for some time.

So that was yesterday. Today we talk about how "The Classic was classic, but not as Classic as Mr. Classic."

Last night marked the end of the WBC. In the end, it didn't really do much for me, but it wasn't all bad. In fairness, one thing I loved seeing was the pride of the other countries (that is, nont-US teams) in the Classic.

It was a beautiful thing as a sports fan to watch the national pride of all the Latin countries so unambiguously displayed. In the place in the world where baseball means the most, it showed and it was really nice.

Americans, like myself, love their teams. I love the Mets.

These Latin countries love their players and their country. It is obvious during the season when fans come out to watch their favorite players play and it was completely obvious during the WBC when Americans were busy watching the NIT as the rest of the world shutdown for 17 days of the WBC.

The Classic also ended in as classy a celebration as I've seen. I've never been a big fan of Japan. Blame that on WWII, Pokemon, or whatever it is, but my feelings definitely changed watching their win.

They won with class. Not with the bullshit class of the Yankees.

They shook each other's hands, hugged their manager, and were gracious in victory. Maybe I'm getting older or more mature, but I really thought it was nice to see.

Watching Ichiro pose for pictures with two Cuban players was just, well nice.

So as I said, the class was classic.

But nothing can top Mr. Classic.

So AFOMG shot me an e-mail yesterday that read " alk about stories that you never thought you'd see."

Well this week it happened. As reported in the official newpaper of Y2K, The NY Post (Editor's Note: Questionable, Sip, questionable), our old friend and favorite hater of all races and sexual preferences has apparently turned over a new leaf.

John Rocker, AKA AFOMG's Clone, was spotted this weekend at some NYC hotspots, promoting Spike TV's worst show ever, Pros vs Joes, with a lovely co-ed at his side.



Nothing unusual there I suppose, only the co-ed was not who you would expect...

The co-ed was African-American.

Almost impossible to believe, right? First he pitches for a team in New York and now he's dating a black woman, this from the guy who was quoted calling a black teammate a "fat monkey" and that "The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. I'm not a very big fan of foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?"

So forgive Young Sip if he was caught a little off guard by yesterday's headline in Page 6:

"Rocker Pitches to Black Babe."

Johnny Rocker. You sure are a moron.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is great that you are giving women of other races a chance. No reason why you shouldn't. But imagine this.

Imagine if you acted like this 6 years ago. You wouldn't have been hated and put under the national microscope for all the wrong reasons, and it's altogether possible that you wouldn't have gone crazy, flamed out, and fallen out of baseball during what should have been your prime. Not to mention that you probably would have gotten far better tail as a premier closer in bsaeball than you would as opposed to a recovering "diehard racist" and washup.

So Johnny, glad to see you've changed your ways, but you are a real idiot. Some things never change I guess.

VCD,

SM

The End of an Era... Big Al RIP

I've never been very political. While some of my friends, AFOMG included, were off reading up on world news, I often stuck to one of the simpler things in life: sports.

As a result, I don't have the strongest of political views. Ask me who I would vote for in the next presidential election and I'll tell you, very simply, anyone but Hillary Clinton.

Her candidacy is one of the only political topics I'll jump into. I feel strongly that any person who would allow herself to get completely played by her husband in front of the entire world only to stick by him just to further her career belongs in US Weekly, not the White House.

So I'm sorry to go off on a political tangent here, but politics may have met their match today, and Yankees2000 is proud to publicly endorse its favorite politician.

On Sunday, after a long 19 year career, Al Leiter announced that he was retiring from the game. And entering a new game.

Big Al. Man, did I love that guy.



For 7 seasons from 1998-2004 Al toed the rubber at Shea. He was outspoken and fidgety but most importantly, he was just a damn good guy.

He brought so much to the team that we often lose track of how great Al was. In his 7 years at Shea, Al was 95-65 with an ERA well below four.

Despite a subpar 99, Al was a huge part of the great runs of the Mets teams of 1999-2000. While Mike Hampton may have been the ace in 2000, Al was the heart of the pitching staff.

To hear him grunt with every 89 mph cutter almost became comical.

To watch him bang his glove when he made a mistake made you smile.

But most importantly, at the end of each day, Al would give you a quality start. When he was on the mound we felt like we had a chance to win, which as a Mets fan, is not that common a feeling.

So Al is no longer with us. He is giving up baseball to take on the worlds of broadcasting and maybe even politics. He's always been a big Republican advocate in NYC and truth is, I can deal with that.

If Al ever ran for office, I wouldn't care if his plans were to eliminate all bloggers, [Editor's note: and all slightly-overpaid small forwards gutting it out in obscurity in Oakland]. Whatever Big Al wanted I'd be on board.

And more so, if you put together a Leiter/Ventura campaign to take the White House in 2012, I would give up everything I was doing to make it happen.

So Al, farewell. You'll definitely be missed but certainly not be underappreciated.

Speaking of underappreciated, Chip and JJ, much love. [Editor's Note: Big Maciej has always felt a great amount of respect for Sippy Momo Sr., for being an Upper West Side Dad par excellence, what with his desire to spend weekends reading in Connecticut and attending basketball games in unsavory gyms in Harlem and even join his sons' friends at Blondies].

VCD,

SM

The Birth Pangs of a Network, the Death Rattle of a National Team

What's up guys, A Friend of Mr. Glass' here. You know, it wasn't too long ago when finding material for a post was a chore. Now here we are 2 weeks before the season even starts (god how great is it to be able to say that it's only 2 weeks?) and I'm loaded with material.

Indeed, either of the subjects below might have earned their own individual posts, but given that SportsNet New York (SNY) debuted yesterday and Team USA got bounced from the World Baseball Classic last night, I figured enough shit had gone down in the past 24 hours that couldn't wait until Monday.

In case that doesn't quite qualify me as being "loaded with material," consider also that I've been meaning to write a review of Adam Rubin's new book, Pedro, Carlos and Omar: The Story of a Season in the Big Apple and the Pursuit of Baseball's Top Latino Stars for the past several days. That one's gonna have to wait until Monday though, cause you know me, I can be kind of long-winded.

SportsNet New York debuts at 5 p.m. EST.

Truth be told, I wasn't able to watch every minute of the action last night. I had to get drinks with my coworkers and that kept me out of the house until 8. Fortunately, I had planned it all out in advance and when I got done with dinner I watched as much SNY content as I could.

As for the results, they were kind of a mixed bag. There were numerous technical difficulties; while I trust the Mets brass to right the ship by opening day, I can't say they weren't annoying in the meantime.

In terms of gripes, I found myself a bit disappointed in the job done by field reporter Siafa Lewis. Lewis' gig is basically the SNY of Matt Loughlin's on MSG/FSNY. It's entirely possible that he was nervous on the network's first broadcast, and there's no reason to think he won't grow into the job a bit more, but I found his interviews a little flat.

Part of the problem may be that I was a big Loughlin fan, and it's always difficult to fill the shoes left by an industry giant such as him. It's a tough road to hoe, but here's to hoping he gets better in time.

My last gripe concerns the music used on SNY -- the theme is a little much if you ask me. It almost sounds like it's got something to prove. I found myself wanting to ask it to chill the fuck out, but that never happened (that is, I asked, but it didn't respond). Oh well. It only gets played so often so I can live with it.

That all said, the rest of the night was pretty much one big positive. I love the Daily News Live concept. Basically they have a roundtable discussion with several reporters or columnists from the Daily News, the only true New York daily in the game, to talk New York sports. Yesterday that meant a lot of college basketball talk, which was salt for a guy like me.

But in my mind's eye I caught a glimpse of over-analysis of every random Mets game come those warm summer days, and I smiled. Something to look forward to, indeed.

SportsNite seems like the perfect alternative to SportsCenter. It's New York-centric, it doesn't employ Stuart Scott, Steven A. Smith or any of the other blowhards that ESPN does, except for Steve Berthiaume, but I like Steve Berthiaume. I like his name. Berthiaume. Fun to say.

Before moving on, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my three highlights from the night. One came from the Mets Pregame show, the other two from the Mets-Braves game that was the first game broadcast on the upstart network.

3. Tell us how you really feel, Keith.

The No. 3 moment came in the pregame show. Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez were discussing the glut of Mets players who would be returning to Spring Training now that Venezuela and Puerto Rico had been eliminated.

In the course of this discussion, Cohen gave a set-up question to Hernandez about how ready WBC players would be, to which Mex responded something along the lines of the following: "Now that they're done with the BS, they should be able to use the rest of Spring Training to get ready for the season without any significant setbacks in terms of readiness."

That's not a direct quote, but the pivotal part, in which Hernandez referred to the WBC as "the BS" is absolutely true. As soon as the words left his lips, Cohen, who had been facing Hernandez, whipped his head around and stared dead into the camera with his eyes stretched about as wide as possible and his eyebrows lifted as far up as they could go.

Maybe it was an honest mistake, maybe he'd blown a few too many lines of coke, maybe he just doesn't like the Classic. Who's to say? It was a great moment in TV journalism one way or another.

2. Mets score twice in the bottom of the ninth, beat Braves 6-5.

Sure it's meaningless, but it's a hell of a lot better to be able to say that the Mets beat the Braves in the first game broadcast on SNY than the reverse. Someday we might care about these things.

1. Gary Cohen's home run call.

I've written about this once before, but Gary Cohen's homerun call is just perfect. That almost gutteral sounding "And it's outta here!" as if the words came from the deepest depths of his stomach. If there's a better homerun call in the business, I haven't heard it yet. It's not flashy or gimmicky, it's just honest, emotional, and to the point.

So needless to say, when Cliff Floyd crushed that pitch to deep center field for a 2-run homer, I was filled with a sense of deep satisfaction. Mets baseball, if only in exhibition form, is back.

Thanks for playing, Team USA.

Well that was embarrassing, eh? A heavy favorite to at least make the championship game, Team USA was shown its exit from the inaugural World Baseball Classic after suffering a 2-1 loss at the hands of Team Mexico. In what might have been his last start ever, Roger Clemens took the loss after surrendering 2 earned runs through 4.2 innings of work.

As much as I'd love to pin the blame for this one on the Rocket, truth is it belongs squarely on the hitters' shoulders. This was a feast or famine kind of team, and in yesterday's game they just couldn't get it done.

When Team USA threatened in the bottom of the ninth putting runners on first and second with 1 out, the game was genuinely exciting. The competing chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" and "Mex-i-co! Mex-i-co!" leant the game the playoff atmosphere the tournament needs if it's going to succeed.

No level of excitement could save Team USA, however, which was bounced from the tournament when Vernon Wells hit into a game-ending double play.

As Mets fans have grown awfully fond of saying, there's always next year. Or maybe "there's always next time" is more fitting for Team USA, which won't have another chance at WBC glory until 2009.

There's reason to believe that next time around the American team will have a more complete roster of stars, and won't have to turn to say, Dan Wheeler, for middle relief. For god's sake the guy was a Met castoff two years ago, I don't care how well he did for Houston last year, there's gotta be a better option out there.

Anyway, we all know Sip doesn't like the WBC because of the timing and all that jazz, but put the Glass squarely in its corner. I think the timinig is fine (maybe start it a week earlier next time?). Pitch counts and ties have got to go, or at least the latter does. If the former were simply amended slightly I'd be happy.

All in all, it's a fine little tournament, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it concludes. The smart money's gotta be on the Dominican Republic, with Korea second in line. Look for the DR to take this one down, and look for a little village called Los Conucos to party all night.

Anyway, that's all for the day. I'll get around to writing that book review sometime next week. Until then, have a good weekend.

- A.F.O.M.G.

The Real Problem with the WBC

(Note: Somebo