The Worst Fans in Baseball?

"Knowledgeable". "Passionate".

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the New York sports fan.

These are the words the papers and the talking heads use to describe New York sports fans every day. Players are told to use these words when they describe the local fans. The fans believe it, the columnists back it.

And it's all a bunch of bullshit.

Knowledgeable and passionate fans understand why Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy are struggling as rookies on the biggest stage in the baseball world.

Knowledgeable and passionate fans understand that Carlos Beltran could have 25 RBI if things went his way the first couple of weeks.

Knowledgeable and passionate fans know that Joe Girardi shouldn't be judged as a manager after 30 games.

Knowledgeable and passionate fans don't boo when a player takes a 2-0 strike.

* * * * *

I went to Sunday's Mets game and was embarrassed. It was probably the 300th time I had been to Shea in my life; I was with my cousin -- a good buddy of mine -- and the Mets beat the rival Braves. All seems right, right?

But it wasn't. Something had changed.

Mets fans had become irrational dickheads.

I don't mind booing. Booing is perfectly fine to me when it makes sense (i.e., Knicks basketball over the last 5 years).

But being New Yorkers does not give us a free pass to boo irrationally. We can't just yell because we feel like it. Yes, I know the whole argument: "I paid good money for my ticket so I can do what I want."

But under this logic you can throw a glass of water at a waiter, shove an usher, yell at the deli guy. In each case, you're paying for a service / product and taking something out on the person who is providing it.

The whole "I paid, I can boo" thing is retarded. You can boo because no one is on the other end telling you that doing so is wrong. If a player yells back he is a villain. So essentially, the booer has a free pass.

And New Yorkers love this. Or at the very least new Mets fans seem to love this.

* * * * *

It wasn't like this back in the day.

Things changed after 2006. All of a sudden, the Mets had to win. Winning was our entitlement and anything less was unacceptable.

Time was that to be a Mets fan was to be OK, because no matter what else they said about you, you weren't a Yankee fan. You weren't rooting for the Evil Empire, so as a fan, you were the good guy.

Today, Mets fans are worse than Yankee fans.

While both fan bases are filled with 90% morons, Mets fans have taken the bitterness that made us charming for the first 23 years of my life and made us an embarrassment.

Shea Stadium isn't fun anymore. We don't laugh at our shortcomings, we just get angry.

The Mets used to be lovable losers. Now, we are hateable winners.

2007 sucked. No way to get around that. But to a real Mets fan, that was 1 year of 20 or 30 or 40. This isn't a team that wins. It's a team that loses. Maybe thats why '07 bothered me less than the rest.

But to go to the ballpark this year only to hear a chorus of boos, it just isn't right.

I'm not soft. I'm still New York. But this is all above baseball. This is people thinking they are doing what they are supposed to be because they think it's what "New Yorkers" are supposed to do. And it's not.

To be passionate and knowledgeable is to truly follow and understand a team.

Being upset doesn't make you knowledgeable. It just makes you an asshole.

And it's a bummer. Shea sucks these days, and Shea is supposed to be home.

I'm really curious for your thoughts right now, because these are mine.

Vaya,
Sip

Step Back from the Ledge

So Carlos Delgado didn't take a curtain call. Have any of the people ripping him for not coming out been watching this team the last two years he's been on it? Every single time the fans have asked him to take a curtain call he's looked embarrassed, perhaps even a little sick. Come to think of it, I'm fairly certain Jose Reyes used to take his curtain calls for him.

And we're supposed to get upset because yesterday he didn't take a bow after hitting two solo homeruns? When did Mets fans become so obsessed with instant gratification?

It was a good weekend. The Mets took two of three from the Braves, beating their two best pitchers on consecutive days no less, and we're now 8-4 at home. They say good teams play .500 ball on the road and win two out of three at home. Add it all up and you get 94 wins.

In fairness, the Mets haven't played .500 ball on the road to this point, but the season's young.


The season's young, but you wouldn't know it from reading the papers, or from listening to the fans (Vic Zeigel wrote the first "it's getting late early" article of the season 11 games in, for christ's sake).

I think everyone's obsession with seeing the Mets get off to a quick start proves they've learned all the wrong lessons from 2007.

I mean, all you have to do is take another look at 2007, the season fueling Mets fans' ire. The Mets were 14-8 in April, the Braves 15-8. The Phillies, your eventual division champs? 10-13. David Wright, he of the 30-30, near MVP season, had zero home runs and six RBI.

Would I have liked the Mets to play dynamite baseball in April? Of course. But it's not everything. When I think about it, there's some comfort to be taken in knowing that the Mets haven't played their best ball and have still played to a .542 winning percentage.

Baseball's a funny game. As Bobby Valentine used to say, no team is ever as good as it looks when it's playing its best ball, nor is any team as bad as it looks when it's playing its worst. We probably haven't seen either extreme yet, but I think we've played toward the lower end of our potential so far -- again, a good thing in the long run.

Mets fans just need to take a deep breathe. It's April 28th. The Florida teams are in first place in the NL East and AL East. The Tigers are in last. The Mets, for all of the fans' negativity, are in second place.

We won't know what we're dealing with here for at least another month, and probably another two months, frankly.

If, as the seasons wears on, it becomes clear the Mets aren't a championship club, believe me, I'm all for blowing them up and starting again with a core of Wright, Reyes, Santana, Maine, and hopefully Ollie.

But the time for that hasn't come. For now, give them a chance. They just might surprise you.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Friday Good, Bad, Ugly

The Good

Aaron Heilman, obviously. [Cue laugh track. Crash! Bang! "Aaron! You got some splainin' to do ..." ]

But seriously folks. As far as I'm concerned, the Mets' 11-10 record is just fine, considering our health situation and how crappy we've looked at times. There's basically no ground to make up at this point, as the Bravos and Phuckheads are right with us in a clump. We're not the Dodgers, nominal contenders in the NL West, who already find themselves a whopping seven games behind the D-Backs. (But seriously, Joe Torre, I'm sure Nomar is the answer to your problems. Just keep hitting him third until you can't take the winning any more. Christ.)

Over .500 at much less than full strength, well, you'll take at at this point. Just consider the lineup the Mets ran out in support of Nelson Figueroa in the day game at Wrigley earlier this week:

SS Reyes
RF Pagan
3B Wright
CF Beltran
1B The Ghost of Carlos Delgado Past
2B Easley
LF Clark
C Casanova
P A guy from Lincoln High School

The results were what you'd expect -- five hits against Ted Lilly, the Bear Stearns of pitchers, and an ugly loss. Hoo-ah. What do you want for nothing?

I'm just not all that worried yet. We've got Moises Alou coming back within the week, and he'll hit while he's in the lineup. Castro and Schneider will be healthy at some point, and when they are, they'll give us a hitting boost out of the lower part of the order. I fully expect Beltran and Reyes to snap out of it. The bullpen will straighten out.

Metsblog linked this up today, but Billy the Kid basically agrees. He was on the ESPN radio with Michael Kay [cue laugh track] yesterday, and when asked if the team had found its identity yet, said, "No, and we shouldn’t have, it’s only 20 games…You don’t expect to be at your peak level. I think we are right where we need to be."

Just so. We've got the Bravos this weekend, a should-be-series-win against the Pirates, and then a tough West Coast road trip on the agenda. Let's re-evaluate after that. I see us coming together and picking up a couple of games, but we shall see.

The Bad

Please. Make the bad man stop:

First, Guillén gushed about Jeter. Guillén said Jeter had “everything in his life,” and then listed how Jeter lives in New York, has money and has four World Series rings. Guillén paused, smiled and, while trying to describe Jeter’s social life, delicately, especially for him, added that Jeter was not married.

“I look around when I was at the All-Star Game to see if he’s got anything I don’t like,” Guillén said. “I said, ‘Man, you’re the perfect man.’ Too bad I don’t have a daughter.

Ha ha ha ha ha! Anyone else get the impression that if Ozzie Guillen's firstborn had been a girl, it wouldn't have gone well for her or the wife? Just picking up that vibe for some reason. Also, someone might want to point out to Ozzie that, should she and Derek get together, the perfect man would likely bequeath his daughter a fancy New York sexually-transmitted disease. I believe those translate across all languages and cultures.

But pray continue:

Sounding like the president of the Derek Jeter Fan Club, Guillén kept the compliments flowing.

“He’s the best thing ever in the game,” he said. “He’s got everything you want. Who’s better than Derek Jeter? Nobody in the game."

Hmm. Well. "The best thing ever." I don't think I've heard that one before, actually. Even from the Paul O'Neill Fanclub. Now recall that this man is paid millions of dollars to run a professional baseball club. As there's nothing to possibly say to something like that, I'm going to dunk my head in a bucket of ice water until the pain goes away. Should be some time next week.

The Ugly

This is what I wrote in my season preview about Luis Castillo:

The guy's a stubby little bundle of energy, but you can only be so energetic on a pair of knees that sustained untold damage from a couple years on the Metrodome turf. His right peg was 'scoped over the winter, and it's really not back all the way. The knee has been balky in the past, as has the left one, and there's every reason to believe that both will worsen with time. ... And if Castillo's speed is compromised even a little bit, he quickly becomes a fairly sizable liability. His solid OBPs have always been compiled via a combination of plate discipline, dink singles, corner doubles and infield hits, and losing his legs takes two of those four options off the table. ... Without speed, Castillo basically becomes a much-poorer hitting version of Jose Vidro, which ain't helping anyone.

This might have been understating things a little bit. Not because Castillo's speed won't go if his knees continue to bother him -- it will. But I didn't realize that the knee, as it does with Big Papi, affects Castillo's ability to drive his swing with his legs.

This is basically how every Castillo at-bat goes these days:

• Gary Cohen makes a huge deal about how Castillo looks like George Burns coming up the dugout steps; Gary and Ron then discuss Castillo's agreement with Willie that he can ask off when he's hurting too bad.
• Luis, wearing a sharp pair of Tsuyoshi Shinjo's old wristbands, gingerly leans into the box and takes at least four pitches.
• When he does swing, it's with a choked-up grip a pitcher would be embarrassed of, and the swing is all arms; a slashing, diving jab swing.
• Groundout, dink, flare.

Now, Castillo has some of the best bat control around, and he's been able to kind of make this work so far. Kind of. I mean, the one extra-base hit and .288 SLG in 66 at-bats speaks for itself, but the guy is unquestionably skilled at putting the ball where he wants to. The problem is that as Castillo remains in the lineup, all the woes that we've discussed are likely to become worse, not better, and we are going to probe the depths of how effective a guy with less power than Cheddar Ben can be.

How far up will opposing outfielders play him? 30 feet behind the infield? Do we think Castillo will ever drive the ball to the wall again? I'm not kidding. Do we? And if not, we're going to run into a humiliating Castillo Shift before long where Shane Victorino is whispering in Chase Utley's ear the whole time and daring Luis to make him pay. This has to happen, unless Castillo proves he's got something in his arsenal other than infield singles, loopers and shallow line drives.

And that, friends, will be ugly.

BONUS UGLY: Joe Smith makes the case for removing caffeine from the clubhouse before games.

The Fat Kid That Lost His Way

(Again, apologies for last weeks meltdown. We're not too computer savvy here and our server was in Barney.)

Remember when you were a kid and social status was based solely on athletic ability?

For the most part, this rule lasted through high school. The kids who sucked at sports found art or music or whatever else by their senior year, but that didn't really matter at American High.

Then, there's college. As Adrian Grenier told Designated Dave in his breakout hit, Drive me Crazy, "At State you can leave Designated Dave back home" (or something like that).

In his wisdom, Adrian was telling us that eventually the social order starts to balance out.

At age 21, the grand equalizer takes place. All of a sudden, there are bars. No longer do you need the invite to the party. You just flash an ID to a giant man, and you are cool.

Then you graduate, and all of a sudden life ain't so grand for washed up jock bloggers.

Because all of a sudden there is a new social currency. MONEY.

Women love guys with it. Fancy night spots prey on it. Nice clothes, good seats, and vacations require it.

So there he is, Joey I-Banker, 23, a loser all his life but sick at math, with more money than he knows what to do with. Timmy Normal Dude hates this guy. His D-Bag-Ocity is terribly transparent. But it doesn't matter. In Penny Lane's "real world" this guy is a winner.

And now Joey I-Banker is 28. It's five years later, he has a rezo at Nobu, a table at Tenjune and he has actually convinced himself that he is, in fact, a winner. He is pulling in 7 figures, has a chic on streets I have never heard of and a girlfriend named Laticia who loves French food, Manolo Bloniks (SP?) and bars with one word in the name.

"People love success, they hate successful people." - Fall River Dreams

9 times out of 10, Joey I-Banker sucks. And 9 times out of 10 it is because we, the normal people, don't have his coin, even though we owned him in dodgeball back in the 80's, that's what fuels our anger.

But for all the reasons we hate Mr. I-Banker, there is one thing we can't take away from him: He earned his keep. He may have stolen our women or taken our spot at the cool table at the cafeteria, but at least he earned it.

For that you need to tip your cap.

Which brings us to the one thing worse than Joey I-Banker. Let's call him "Joey Inheritance." He is the fat piece of shit who turned 21 and all of a sudden stumbled on cash. He is angry at the world for handing him a shitty hand (you know, aside from the money part) and he's taking it out on his credit card and anyone else who stands in his way.

Which takes us to the only thing in the world that is EVEN worse. Such an undeniable asshole that even his own people hate him. It takes him five minutes to show his hand and it ain't pretty.

For 17 years he was just the son of a businessman. He was awful on the eye, dumb and nonathletic: a social pariah.

Then his dad took a shot at a new business and struck gold. Twenty years later, this business became an empire. And another ten years later it was time for Daddy to pass the family business down.

And so it was that 6 months ago we were introduced to Hank Steinbrenner.

George Steinbrenner may have been the worst, but at least he earned it. The Yankees were his to embarrass. He bought them with money he earned and he was the owner during their amazing ascent to become the $1.3bn franchis they are today.

Meanwhile, Hank Steinbrenner was Tommy Boy, without the witty flare and charm.

He was the guy that was rude to the helpless waitress who was just trying to earn a buck while she struggled as an actress.

And then he was handed the keys to the world.

Everyone wants to own a baseball team. Can you imagine anything cooler? This guy was handed the Yankees -- in the eyes of most, the greatest team in the game.

And in 6 months, he has staked his claim as the most hatable person in baseball.

He's the guy in the poker game that yells at his opponent who just beat him for making a bad call.

And this week, he may have saved Yankee-bashing for a long time to come. Just three weeks into the 2008 season and already Hank the Brat is unsatisfied.

He hates his rotation -- a 19 game winner, 2 $10,000,000 starters and 2 top prospects.

Three weeks into the Yankees' "rebuilding" season and already Hammering Hank is whining. He is angry that Johan Santana is not a Yankee. He is unhappy that the Yankees are playing .500 baseball in April. And he is mad that Joba Chamberlin is not a starting pitcher.

All of a sudden, last September's hero, should never have been there to begin with.

All of a sudden, the kid that the Yankees didn't want to throw 200 innings should be throwing 200 innings.

And all of a sudden, Mike Mussina, eight years into his career in pinstripes, should be humiliated to the entire baseball world, hearing from his owner that he should not be in the rotation.

Hank Steinbrenner is going to ruin the Yankees.

It took him all of three weeks to do the following:

1. Undermine his GM
2. Embarrass / anger a top ten pitcher of the last decade
3. Give up on a rebuilding project
4. Tell his manager, who is already in a no-win situation, that he is doing his job wrong

It took George Steinbrenner 6 years to realize that his meddling was hurting the organization. He finally let go of the reins and told his baseball people to do baseball.

It was a revelation in Yankee Land. It kept Brian Cashman in the Bronx and has led to the Yankees developing one of baseball's top 5 farm systems.

The question now remains, how long will it take Hank to realize that his sloppy Joe-drooling self is a detriment? That every time he opens his mouth he is destroying the team that he does not deserve?

All we can do as Yankee haters is hope that this never takes place.

Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of imageshack.com, wikipedia.com)

Pick Your Poison

Like Obie Trice, we're back! I don't know what was wrong with Google, or Blogger, or us, or the cosmic balance of the universe, but there were some serious technical difficulties holding us down this past week. Lord willing, we're all past that now. Thanks for bearing with us. Both of you. No, wait, where are you going? Come back.

Anyways, the Mets looked great in Philly while we were gone, taking two of three and almost sweeping the series. I've got a bunch of thoughts on how the season's gone to this point. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to share them right now. I could try to write something about the team, I suppose, but all that would come out was some mangled, Asperger's rant on Aaron Heilman. Nobody wants that. I'm going to give him a week to right the ship, and myself 10 seconds to breathe, and with any luck, I won't muss up the apartment.

Instead, I'm going to focus on the laugh-out-loud boys from the Bronx who, when they aren't hosting Christ's vicar on Earth for a boring-ass, Lakers-preempting Sunday sermon, are tripping over themselves like the Three Stooges. (Note: My roommate is a big Lakers fan, and there were serious problems when he found out that Game 1 of his playoff series wasn't going to be on television because they were televising the Yankee Stadium Mass live. I haven't heard an anti-Catholic rant like that since John Hagee was over for brunch last month.)

Item -- Hank Steinbrenner attempts to sabotage own team

Really, this isn't a big deal. It was a random interview gone wrong, with Hank all riled up about Joba and the slow start, and he said some stuff that he really didn't mean. Some reporter from the New York Times caught the new Boss on a bad morning, that's all. Possibly after the Boss had been slugging some Mamajuana Energy. (Read the entire article linked there -- you'll be glad you did).

Nothing is going to change -- the new Joba Rules, with the innings limit and the eventual (not immediate) move to the rotation will continue as planned. It's just glorious to have a guy completely willing to throw his entire baseball operation under the bus at a moment's notice. It's exciting, right? It makes the Yankees more fun to follow, I know that.

And, of course, it keeps Brian Cashman on his toes. I'd ask for a raise.

Item -- Yankee fans force LaTroy Hawkins into changing his number

I bet most of you saw this last week. Hawkins, one of the Bombers' middle relievers, had been getting killed by Yankee fans for daring to wear No. 21, formerly the number of Paul O'Neill. Booed and heckled during warmups and every time his name was announced, constant "PAUL O-NEILL, clap-clap-clap-clap-clap"s whenever he did anything. Some pressure was mounted, and Hawkins eventually switched his number to No. 22.

You can pretty much pick your poison on this one. Adjective me!

Classless

Naturally. Yankee fans yield to no one in this area. Of course, O'Neill also refused to be left out of Classlessfest 2008, going on WFAN and telling Hawkins to go fuck himself:

What can I say? The fans have always been unbelievable to me there,” O’Neill said in a telephone interview from his home in Ohio. “I don’t really know how to explain it. It makes you feel good that the fans still think of you as wearing that number.

Well, I have an idea about what you can say, you jackass. Something along the lines of, "I appreciate the support, but LaTroy's just trying to do his job for the team, and he doesn't need to be given such a hard time" might have been appropriate. The "Aw, shucks" routine is lame when it comes from actual humble individuals. Coming from a preening creep like you, it comes across as actively venal. Hawkins needs your condescending bullshit like he needs a fastball in the eye.

Again, it bears repeating -- Paul O'Neill thinks it's perfectly fine for Yankee fans to aggressively hector anyone who wears his old number. Unbelievable.

Ignorant

Maybe you think the whole Roberto Clemente thing is a little overblown. Maybe you think he wasn't quite as good as everyone remembers, that Al Kaline was probably a better player. Maybe you think the halo effect surrounding him is undeserved, and the accompanying hagiography is a bit much. You might really just not like the Pirates.

All that could be true. It is still true that Clemente is a seminal figure in the history of baseball, a Latino icon and one of the true heroes of the sport, in a mythical sense. He is a major figure in the Hispanic community, in his home country, even in the history of the 1970s. He is a mainstream figure in a way that few baseball players, much less baseball-playing minorities, are. The campaign to retire his number is not some quixotic lark -- there's a valid argument for it.

Treating Hawkins' desire to honor Clemente like it's a slap in the face to O'Neill is just retarded. It's provincialism at its worst. Clemente is the far more important figure, and it's just ignorant to pretend otherwise. And when it comes to mocking someone for earnestly feeling otherwise, well, see Adjective Uno.

Stupid

LaTroy Hawkins, when in a good place, is a pretty solid pitcher. From 2002 to 2004, as a setup guy, his WHIP hovered around 1.00. In 2005, thanks to some completely undeserved pressure from the Chicago media (Jay Mariotti calling him "LaToya," for example), he couldn't handle being the closer for the Cubs and had to be shipped off to San Francisco; his WHIP ballooned to 1.46 and his ERA went from 2.63 to 3.83 on the season.

He struggled in the wasteland that is Baltimore in '06, posting a crappy 1.46 WHIP/4.48 ERA season, but in 2007, pepped up on community and Christlove in the supportive confines of the Colorado clubhouse, he managed to look highly decent -- 1.23 WHIP, 3.42 ERA in 55 1/3 Rocky Mountain cold innings. Not so shabby, really.

Here, then, we have a guy with a track record of success and a live arm, but a guy with a history of doing poorly when pressured in an uncomfortable way. Again, it's possible I'm missing something extremely important in this CliffNotes version of LaTroy, but that's the outline -- decent if treated properly.

Well, far be it from me to suggest that Yankee fans might not want to go FAR out of their way to alienate their new, sensitive relief ace. Let's just say it might not have be the smartest play, all things c0nsidered.

Hypocritical

The money line from the AP piece:

Hawkins didn't want to discuss the change Thursday, saying the focus on the number was "unbelievable." On Tuesday, he told cbssports.com he made the decision after speaking with Yankees captain Derek Jeter and reliever Mariano Rivera, who played alongside O'Neill.

"I figure if it's important enough for Jeter and Mariano and some other veterans to ask me about it, it's not worth it to keep wearing the number," Hawkins was quoted as saying.

Remarkable. For Jeter, I mean, there's nothing left to say. The guy is an atrocious joke of a captain, and always will be. What kind of a leader takes the fucking fans' side in a scrap like this? It almost defies description, it's so backward. For a guy who hasn't done anything wrong, who's supposed to be a new, important cog on your team, trying to fit in ... to not back him publicly in a thing like this? Anyone who refers to Jeter as a leader again should really be shot. There really can't be any argument at this point.

But the real villain here, actually, is Mo. No matter the circumstances, it takes a certain kind of balls to go up to a guy and tell them you think he should change his number in order to placate the fans. But it takes a truly special set to do the same ... WHEN YOU'RE WEARING JACKIE ROBINSON'S NUMBER. This cannot be overstated.

Let's just think about it for a moment, m'kay? Major League Baseball retires No. 42 universally in 1997, with a grandfather clause. Anyone wearing the number at that point can keep it, but nobody else can take it going forward. That's the rules. Rivera was perfectly within his rights to maintain wearing it, and now, he's the only one.

Yet it's certainly possible to conceive of Rachel Robinson or someone taking offense at players' unwillingness to change their numbers. I mean, it's retired. It is Jackie Robinson's number, henceforth, officially. By grabbing on tight to 42 with his grubby hands, Rivera is on some level equating his importance with that of Robinson's. It is, according to Mo, of the utmost import for him to keep his number, enough so that Jackie will simply have to wait until Mo retires to have the digits to his name alone.

Which is fine, it is. It is not a big deal, and if anyone wanted to make a huge fuss about this, they could have simply not included the grandfather clause. But it is unquestionably a conscious, proactive assertion of rights by Rivera. It is selfish, in a narrow, unimportant sense; selfish all the same.

But when it comes to someone else wearing the non-retired number of a Latino legend in the service of eventually getting it retired, Mo thinks he's got something to say. He thinks his opinion is more important than Hawkins'. He thinks you should do the "right" thing, with the right thing defined as abandoning the cause of a legend in favor of kowtowing to a bunch of drunken fuckups. He has "veteran" advice to dispense.

With all due respect (read: none), Mo, pipe down. You do yourself a disservice every time you open your mouth. Just stay up on the mound, throw the cutter, keep your pie hole closed, and let us try to remember you as the strong, stoic type. It'll be better that way.

Mets Fans: The Awful Truth

(Note: This piece was written the morning of Wednesday, April 16, when the Mets were 6-6. Technical issues delayed its release but I wanted to get it out there. Needless to say, things have changed a bit since last Wednesday; the Mets beat the Phillies two of three, for one.

This post might piss the hell out of some of you but I'd like to preserve it for posterity. Check out Nails' piece below, also written last week.)

It was the bottom of the 8th during Tuesday's game. Me and the Hound were watching as David Wright hammered that double into the gap in left-center, discussing the state of the fan base.

There's been a lot of talk about fans booing lately. Fans booing too much. Fans booing unjustly. Fans booing justly.

"You know what it reminds me of," he asked. "Remember when you were young when we used to go to Wrigley Field and Fenway Park?"

"Of course," I answered. There were a series of trips when I was between the ages of 12 and 16.

"I remember thinking then -- this was before the Red Sox finally won again -- you know, you'd go to Wrigley, where the team hadn't won in ages, and everyone was happy. They'd go to watch the Cubbies and they'd have a few beers and if they won, great!

"And then you'd go to Fenway. And more than anything else, what struck me back then was that the fans were angry. Like they were just always waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"And you know, maybe it's not quite that bad at Shea yet, but maybe it's getting there."

* * * * *

As he said the words Gary and Keith were updating us on the Phillies' latest comeback. Down 3-0, the Phillies came charging back, scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th to beat Houston and send the fans home happy.

And that's when it hit me, a thought so upsetting I hate to vocalize it even now.

Deep down, I'll bet a lot of those booing Mets fans (and even some of the non-booing Mets fans) wish they were Phillies fans.

Give me a moment to explain. You all still love the Mets, no one's doubting that. But if you could wake up tomorrow and the team in Philly was wearing Mets jerseys and the team in Flushing was wearing Phillies jerseys, you'd secretly be happy. Because underneath it all, you wish your team played like the Phillies do.

You wish your team had the cocky, showy shortstop with the big mouth and the bigger game.

You wish your team had the young ace pitcher, the one management was smart enough (or not dumb enough, characterize it as you will) to trade away for a junkballer who could be fixed in 15 minutes.

You wish your team had scored 4 runs in the 9th last night to win it 4-3.

You wish your team had overcome a 7-game deficit with 17 to go. You wish your team played with that kind of passion.

* * * * *

At the end of the day, it was one game in April. But as Gary and Keith updated you, and as they said the words with that knowing sigh, it just twisted the knife even more.

Say what you want about them, believe if you want that the Mets are the better team (and I, for one, think they are and that they were last year), but that team in Philly doesn't quit. Gary knows it, Keith knows it, and somewhere, you know it.

And when we boo, whether we're right or wrong, it's not that we wish we were Phillie fans, it's that we wish we rooted for a team that competed like Philly's does.

And I don't know about you, but I'm desperate for this Mets team to make everyone stop feeling that way.

The good news is we know they have it in them. Most of these guys were here in 2006, that magical year when everything just came together (before, of course, it all came crashing down).

They had so much passion then; they played like they wanted it so much. Was it lost somewhere in the devastating arc of that 0-2 curveball? Was it lost in the return of Guillermo Mota?

More importantly, What will it take to bring it back?

- A.F.O.M.G.

The 2008 Mets: We'll Get Them Next Time

(Note: Guest post for you today. Nails wrote this piece Monday morning, but it got lost in our technical difficulties (see below). Well, better late than never. Enjoy.)

I've been wondering, over the course of the last week, whether I will ever like a Mets team as much as the 1999-2000 Mets.

Sitting at Shea with about 10 friends from high school through a 3 hour rain delay before Curt Schilling shut us out through 8 innings only to see the Mets fight back for the 6-5 win in the ninth… Sip's birthday out in the right field upper deck where Monster went yard off Trevor Hoffman… Buzzing the flight attendant every 10 minutes on a cross country flight to get updates on the Mets-Diamondbacks series before the pilot finally came on the PA to announce that Todd Pratt had hit a game-winning home run.

And, of course, Robin Ventura. Whether he was sliding across the tarp at Yankee Stadium dressed like Monster, turning L.A. Woman into a cult favorite of Mets fans throughout the private school scene, or hitting his Grand Slam Single (which I didn't realize had gone out until about 5 out-of-body experience minutes later when I looked at the scoreboard), there was really nothing like rooting for those Mets teams.

They also played their hearts out. Based on runs scored and runs allowed, the Mets "should" have been a 0.568 team over those two years. They ended up playing at a .588 clip. The 2000 Mets made it to the playoffs with the ferocious outfield tandem of Benny Agbayani, Jay Payton and Derek Bell (RIP).

It generally didn't matter who the opponent was. The Mets just did not have losing in their blood. I remember making a rare appearance with the old man up in the green mezzanine seats for a Mike Hampton July start against the Pirates. He was absolutely dominant coming up to bat in the 8th inning with a 4-0 lead having pitched one of the best games I've ever seen. Bobby V asks Hampy to bunt and, after not getting any of his three chances down, Hampton walks back to the dugout, slams his bat into the turf halfway there and let's out an expletive that could be heard from my seats 100 yards a way. This from a guy throwing a three hitter.

With these memories in mind, I've wondered if I would ever like a Mets team as much as those guys. I certainly don't the 2008 Mets.

At first, I wondered if maybe it was just a problem with aging. Junior spring of high school through freshman fall of college are pretty good times in your life. Basically every friend you have lives in the same place as, except for summer camp, you've never really met anybody who lives elsewhere and never had friends spread across the country for jobs or school. With little to do, even less responsibility, and a new discovery called beer, it's a pretty good time to be a baseball fan.

But then I think of some friends of mine who are Red Sox fans and clearly get the same joy out of their team today that I got from the Mets back in high school. Not just the Schilling with Ketchup on his socks Red Sox team, but last year's and this year's. Nah, it can't just be a function of where you are in life that made the '99-'00 Mets so loveable.

So I wondered if maybe it was me. I used to go to 30 games a year, now I make it to 15. I spent most of the last 8 years living outside the reach of WFAN, Mike and the Angry Puppy, and TimeWarner Ch. 26. Maybe it's not them, it's me?

That too doesn't ring true. I went down to Florida this year for opening day against the Marlins, Johan's first start as a Met. I honestly could not have had a better time. The weather was beautiful, the baseball perfect, and Santana magical. I'd have to split hairs to figure out where it ranked among my top 5 ball games of all time.

And then the last two weeks have played out. I'm already sick of non-Mets fans reminding me the baseball season is a marathon not a sprint. Mets fans know what I'm talking about. We watched this same nonsense for most of last season (not just the September collapse, but the entire last 5 months of a really talented team playing 0.500 ball). A.F.O.M.G. emailed on Thursday night: "I am so tired of watching the Mets lose this exact same game over and over again to the Phillies." Sip and I had a beer on Saturday night talking about how tough it is to root for this Mets team.

This team has all the talent in the world and it… just… can't… win.

You can pretty much summarize this team's problem in one sentence: Our highest paid player… our cleanup hitter… our potential MVP bat has a penchant for bunting in critical situations. WTF? I am fairly confident there has never been a team in baseball history where, in critical close and late situations, the star hitter stands at the plate and the other team's catcher runs out and yells "Hey guys, look out for the bunt."

Our #5 hitter, after popping out with the bases loaded in one of the most embarrassing games I've ever listened to, is asked whether he is disgusted or angry after the game and responds, "About what?"

There is not one player in the bridge between our starters and our closer who you can be confident will not turn any given game into a complete and utter catastrophe. Aaron Heilman wants to start and, reports recently say, other teams do not understand why he's never been given the chance. Here's why. I've probably seen the guy pitch 150 games. He causes the Mets a loss about once ever two appearances. Why would any team start a player who is a mathematical certainty to take your team out of the game by the third inning. I realize his numbers don't necessarily prove my contention. Maybe he dominates when I don't watch and I should just stop watching the innings that he pitches. Game theorists would call this a win-win situation.

The only contribution Luis Castillo will make to the Mets over the next four years is getting out productively.

I don't want to be negative on the entire team as individuals. Santana has shown us a lot in his first three starts, I think a lot of the problems with this team would be lessened if Pedro were with us for an entire year (he seems to loosen the team and the fan base up every bit as much as Robin did), you gotta love Nelson Figueroa and his story, and I think at the end of the year we'll look back at the concerns about Reyes' second half of 2007 and start of 2008 the same way we know do D-Dubya's second half of 2006 and start of 2007.

But, at the end of the day, this team finds ways to lose games. David Wright does everything you could ask of a player – no doubt he's my favorite player in baseball right now. He answers every question after a tough loss, he works out as hard as anybody, great with the fans, good guy off the field with his family. You couldn't ask for a better superstar. The guy is so committed that in the minors his home/road splits sucked because you couldn't get him out of the batting cage at home and he wore himself out. But, at the end of the day, he's the leader of this team. He needs to find ways to win. It's time for fans to stop making excuses for him, it's time to stop talking about what his batting average was in September of last year. It's time to win. Figure it out.

There is nothing worse than when a sports team is losing towards the end of the game and Gene Hackman comes on the jumbotron. "If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book we're gonna be winners."

Bullshit.

At the end of the game, the scoreboard tells you whether you're a winner or a loser. Tom Seaver once said that second place is the first loser. For the last year, the Mets have been the favorites in the National League and have ended up losers. It's time for somebody to step up and say enough is enough.

Bobby V used to say at the start of every game, "This game is the most important game of the season, because it's the only one we're playing."

The Mets decided not to have a team marketing slogan this year. Yet their play on the field and attitude after the game proves that this year's slogan is the same as last year's:

The 2008 Mets: We'll Get Them Next Time.

- Nails

Whoa on Swoll

(Note: We've been experiencing technical difficulties at the site, thanks for staying tuned. We'll get some fresh content up for you today, but in the meantime, enjoy what you missed. This article and Cheddar's article below were written Sunday night and Friday morning, respectively.

A.F.O.M.G. would like to note his piece was written before the fan base decided the loss on Sunday was the worst thing that ever happened (WTTEH). If this post seems completely out of place in the post-WTTEH world we now live in, please accept my apologies.)

I know I'm supposed to write about the Mets, but right now, I just can't.

OK, I can. It's tempting to say Sunday's loss was extremely depressing, but actually I didn't think it was. Yes, I'm pissed we lost the game, a game we were leading 6-2.

But I'll say this: the Mets kept creating scoring opportunities, and that's a good sign; at the risk of sounding like Art Howe, they battled.

They hit in to double plays in 5 straight innings I think it was -- more often than not that's not going to happen. If they can keep channeling the intensity that put them in position to score runs in inning after inning today, they'll be fine.

Tough one to lose, but hey, Atlanta and Philly lost too, so so be it.

(Meanwhile, could someone tell Vic Ziegel to get a grip? It's getting late early at Shea? The Mets are 5-6. The Phillies are 6-7. The Braves are 5-7. All of them are staring up at, that's right, the Baby Marlins. Is it getting late early at Citizens Bank and Turner Field?)

But leave that alone for now.

Who else caught 60 Minutes on Sunday? Guys? No?

Well if you had, you'd have seen a truly amazing story about a regular man, John Kanzius, who might have found a way to 1) cure cancer, and 2) solve the world's energy crisis.

How? Radio waves. Radio waves! Ha!

So how's it work? Well, you can read the entire transcript (and I really suggest you do) by clicking here, but to summarize it involves a machine that we'll call a radio wave generator.

Radio waves are entirely harmless to humans. If you run your hand through the field created by a radio wave generator, you won't feel a thing. If you run a fluorescent light bulb through the field, however, the light bulb will turn on, which is neat to watch.

What's it got to do with cancer? Well, Katzius theorized that if you injected microscopic-sized metal particles into cancer cells (called "nanoparticles"), and then ran these metal-filled cancer cells through the field created by the radio wave generator, the heat would be so intense that the metal would burst, thereby killing the cancer cell.

Sure enough, tests done on rabbits and rats have killed cancer. "Grossly inspecting the animal, we did not see not see any damage to the surrounding tissue," Dr. Geller said.

Is it a cure for cancer? Not yet. The trouble with cancer, of course, is that it spreads. This method easily kills cancer cells in a tumor, the next step is targeting cancer cells that have escaped the tumor. That part I can't really summarize, but they're working on it. Read the transcript (search for "metastasize") .

So what's it got to do with energy?

Kanzius discovered that if you put saltwater, the most abundant, most renewable resource on the planet, in to the field, the saltwater would ignite on fire to a temperature of up to 3000 degrees. That energy has been used by researchers associated with Kanzius to run small appliances. There's no reason this technology can't be used to power a car some day.



Want to learn more about it? Dig it on YouTube above.

I don't understand a thing about science, nor do I normally find science particularly interesting. Whatever. This stuff struck a chord with me. I think everyone likes the idea of not needing to depend on the Middle East for energy. As for curing cancer, if we can avoid the Krippin Virus, I think everyone's for that too.

* * * * *

Last time I write about science, I swear.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Relieve this

Quick thought which I'll try to amplify this afternoon. So in last night's game, with a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh and Damion Easley on second base, Willie pulled Feliciano from the game to send Marlon Anderson up to pinch-hit. I liked the decision at the time, and liked it even more when Anderson put together a great plate appearance, seeing 10 pitches and fouling off a bunch of tough ones and generally giving Ryan Madson the business.

He eventually grounded out to second to end the inning, but he did his job just fine, and I agreed that you had to put someone in there with a guy in scoring position.

Of course, a half-inning later, I felt pretty differently. Heilman came up and promptly gave up a bomb to Howard, walked Burrell, gave up a Delgado single to Jenkins ("Delgado single" defined as a base hit directed anywhere from one to three inches to the right of a completely immobile first baseman) and ended up being booed off the mound. I was pelting my TV screen with jelly beans, and cursing Randolph's decision to pull Feliciano before Howard came up.

Now, as much as I don't think Howard would have gone yard off a lefty in the same majestic manner, which obviously would have changed the trajectory of the game somewhat, sober reflection tells me you have to pull the pitcher there for Anderson. Yet the problem with having a suddenly unreliable setup guy is that you can't stick him in there and feel comfortable. Not when he's given up two runs in three straight appearances. I mean, I don't think Heilman's done or anything, but you've got to use him a little more conservatively until he gets back on track.

Which means what? I guess it would be inconceivable to have Wagner ready to go for a two-inning save in that situation. (Two lefties coming up in the next inning, huge rivalry game, series decider) Now, I think you have to consider using him there, but nobody else seems to think that's a possibility. Obviously, two-inning saves aren't ever going to be regular items, they should be more of an option than they are now. But I know this is a losing fight, so whatever. He won't be in for two.

This is where bullpen usage patterns get really annoying. It's still your best option to bring Wagner in to start the eighth inning. Especially because if he mows down the side (Howard, Burrell, Jenkins), you at least have the option of bringing in Heilman (or someone else) to pitch against the bottom half of the Phils' order (Feliz, Coste, Werth) in the ninth. Let's put it this way -- if you had to line up your two best relievers to face those two sets of hitters, you'd send Wagner in to face the first group, every time. You wouldn't have to think twice.

But again, this can apparently never be done. A closer HAS to pitch the ninth inning, bar none, even if the save situation disappears because you HAD to put a worse pitcher having a tough time of it in to face the most powerful hitter in the game.

Something about that doesn't sit right with me. Wait, check that -- a lot of things about that don't sit right with me. It helps that we pulled out the W, but it didn't even need to come to that. I'm not looking for a crazy amount of innovation from Willie, but even a little thinking outside the bullpen box would be a huge bonus.

Also, hurry back, Duaner.

Next Year Is Now

First big game of the year tonight. With this series agains the Phils knotted up at one game apiece, the Mets have a chance to send a message to the Phillies, and perhaps more importantly, fans like us, early.

I believe Willie when he says the Mets aren't shook of the Phillies. He's right when he says we've lost a lot of fluky kind of games, and the idea they've dominated us is wrong, no matter what the won-loss record says.

But that's much too practical for fans. Fans care about wins and losses. For a lot of fans, a win tonight would go a long way toward convincing them that this 2008 Mets team is not simply the 2007 Mets in disguise.

A loss would bring up the same old storylines: the Phils have our number, the Mets have a psychological hurdle to overcome, it's 2007 all over again.

The truth is, the memories of, and questions about, 2007 won't recede until we make the playoffs. Sometimes I think the conversation will change when the calendar turns to 2009, but with guys like David Wright and Jose Reyes not going anywhere, talk of the collapse will persist until a Mets team proves it can withstand the heat of a playoff race. Just the way it is.

But in the meantime, the Mets can strike a blow for changing the conversation by dropping the Phils tonight. It'll be John Maine against Adam Eaton. I'll take that matchup. I'll also take a few more hits out of Wright and Reyes.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Wow That Sucked

Opening Day's are just supposed to work out.

Not this one.

The Mets failures are no mystery. The lineup without Alou is thin of power at the bottom. Delgado's ding dong, one second after AFOMG whispered to me: 'I don't think this guy will ever go yard again," was a very nice surprise. But turning on Jamie Moyer's 82 mph junk is not what concerns scouts, unfortunately. And then there is the pen.

2006 seems like so long ago. Feliciano, Bradford, Heilman, Sanchez. That pen just never blew leads. Teams win from the back.

But it wasn't the game that had me feeling different. It was getting out to Shea for the first time since last opening day.



I had scene some 70-80 games live since last year, but all in the confines of new modern parks on the other side of our country, none at my beloved Shea: A place, that I'm sad to say, is falling apart.

Getting into the stadium was impossible. There were 4 ushers frisking the 5,000 people waiting to get into my gate.

The concession stands forgot to have concessions. The hot dogs and pretzels were cold, they were out of ice and straws.

Bathroom lines went from home plate to Center field.

I'm no diva. But this was kind of sad. $35 for a ticket in the upper deck should have gotten me more than this. (It was $6 back in 1996)

But then there she was, sitting in the backdrop of left field. Good old Citi Field.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the new stadium. Shea might be a dump, but it's my dump. Some of my fondest memories have been at the park and I'm not sure that change is always a good thing, even if it means a more comfortable seat.

Still, Citi Field is the Kate Hudson to Shea's cast of Hairspray.




She looks beautiful, clean, modern and elegant, While our beloved Shea falls apart.

It's way too early to say anything about the 2008 season. But early signs are definitely a little grayer than many of us had hoped. Which makes the sight of Citi Field somewhat comforting.

2009 will be a season of "Change." (Insert Political Joke Here).

Finally a fresh start in a fresh home for a franchise that for my entire life, I have expected to lose.

In my mind, I see the closing of Shea like the end of the Major League. If this is it for the old girl, if no matter what she is gone after this season, then there is only one thing left to do:

"Win the whole fucking thing."

Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of mlbroadtrip.com and timeinc.com)

Opening Day: A Blogger's 2nd Christmas

Opening Day at Shea.

It used to be a better meal. Now, its a better life.

I think back to 1996. A gritty, half pubescant 13 year-old Sip got the ok from Mama and Senior to ditch school and head out to Shea with his buddy and his older brother and crew.

There was a certain buzz around New York that hadn't been felt since the late 1980's. A SS, who was going to change the way baseball was viewed in the Big Applem was about to suit up for his first season. A career of celebrity, all star games and championships were all that we could expect.

His name was Rey Ordonez.




...............


Here we are some 12 years later and a lot has changed.

Rey Rey didn't pan out. Another equally regarded SS from the other side of the tracks unfortunately did.

But so be it. We have a lot to smile about.

No longer is opening day about Bobby Jones or Derek Bell ding dongs.

No longer can you walk out to Shea Stadium at 12:45 and pick up tickets.

Opening Day is now about two things. The start of spring time and the start of what we all believe can be a championship season at Shea.

I spent so many years with Zero expectations that it is in someways hard for me to make the adjustment. With sports I am a pessimist. It's just the way it is.

Today is my favorite day of the year. Shea has always been a second home to me, a place where I go with my buddies and just zone out. I like to not think. I do it a lot.

That today is the last time I will walk into Shea Stadium for Opening Day may even bring a tear to a newly sensitive Sip.

Win or lose, at least we're not from Canada.

Go get 'em guys.

New Keanu cop movie coming out on Friday. Whose coming with me?

Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of Allposters.com)

Lost Weekend

Well that sucked.

I think what you saw this weekend was a pretty good display of why people are pretty long on the Braves again. Tim Hudson and John Smoltz are just a fierce combination, while Chipper Jones and Mark Teixeira form a dangerous heart of the order. (Does Hudson have the same tattoo as Jack Bauer by the way?).

I don't know what they should expect out of Glavine, but if he produces the way he did the last two years for us he'll give them an entirely credible third starter (remember, he was our No. 1). Mike Hampton probably shouldn't be counted on for anything, but when he's healthy he's good. Rafael Soriano has all the character traits of a young Armando Benitez, which has its good and has its bad.

The good news for us is that Johan Santana has proven, through two starts at least, to be as excellent as advertised.

The bad news is that our offense looked as punchless in this series as we'd worried it might. Yes, a lot of that came against Hudson and Smoltz, but a lot of it came against the Peter Moylan and Will Ohman, too. Honestly, our offense looked terrible this weekend, David Wright in particular.

Obviously I'm not worried about Wright, but I think concerns about our offense more generally are warranted to a degree. I like a lot of Luis Castillo's game, but it is really a bummer that he is basically incapable of extra base hits / hitting the ball in the air. Brian Schneider is Brian Schneider. Ditto Angel Pagan, who has been fine, but is no kind of every day outfielder. As for Carlos Delgado, sometimes I wonder if I'll ever see him hit a home run again.

Alright, that was overly negative. The Mets are 2-3. The best team in the division is 3-3. It sucked to get swept, particularly to drop a game that Johan started, but this just isn't that big a deal. We're still 5 games in to the season.

Far more important right now is getting amped for Opening Day. Y2K will most definitely be in the building with Sip and A.F.O.M.G. holding down the Upper Deck. If the Phillies sweep us again it will be seriously depressing.

Sigh. I really hope we win tomorrow.

- A.F.O.M.G.

The Singalong to End All Singalongs

So the Mets are finally considering some songs to replace Sweet Caroline in the 8th. Thank god. Y2K, the little site that could, gets no love for begging for this a year ago, but whatever.

The list of songs the Mets are suggesting is generally horrifying. Before reading the list I would have said nothing could have been as bad as "Sweet Caroline", then I saw the theme from Friends was an option.

No matter how many times I ask myself how it's even possible for that to be an option, I never get anywhere close to an answer. Can you imagine 55,000 people singing that song in unison? If that wins I'll hang myself.

In fairness, if you're drunk enough by the 8th inning, which happens, some of these songs could be fun. "Land of 1000 Dances" and "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" fall under this category to varying degrees.

As for the other songs:

• Brown Eyed Girl: Love it. Introduced Nails to it. Don't think it's right for a ball game.
• Livin' On a Prayer: A classic, yes, but come on, this song belongs to the stroke of midnight at Jake's Dilemma / Bourbon Street / Off the Wagon. Is nothing sacred?
• Movin' Out: When the fuck did Billy Joel become Mr. Met? Isn't he a Yankee fan?
• I'm a Believer: I mean, sure, it has the word "believe" in it, but come on, if you want this as the song I suggest you take the next train to Kansas City.
• Build Me Up Buttercup: It's like, yes, I enjoyed "There's Something About Mary", but something about the lyrics "Why do you build me up (build me up) / Buttercup, baby, just to let me down" kind of reminds me of 2007. Pass.
• I Love Rock N' Roll: I love rock n' roll (is that really where the apostrophe's supposed to go? Weird) too, and it's anthemic as all get out, but it just doesn't work for me for this song. Sorry.
• I'll Be There For You (Theme from Friends): Seriously, what the fuck?

So that's that.

As I reviewed the list it came to me. My mission.

Some how, some way, I'm going to get the Mets to make Glenn Frey's "You Belong to the City" one of their theme songs.

Not familiar with this mid-80s gem? Here's the video, which is also awesome.



(Not a fan? I defy you to tell me this is a worse suggestion than the theme from Friends.)

As it happens, it's the Mets that introduced me to this song. Prominently featured in the fabled 1986 Mets Tape, which defined a generation of Mets fans, "You Belong to the City" is the perfect song for the Mets. It's catchy, the lyrics work, it's singalong-able, it has obvious Citi Field compatibility, and, you know, it's about New York.

I've long wanted this to be the song the Mets play after victories, but the more I think about it, the more I think it's perfect for the sing along.

Consider the lyrics:

"You were born in the city / Concrete under your feet / It's in your moves, it's in your blood / You're a man of the streets" or the crawl to the crescendo "You can feel it, you can taste it / You can see it, you can face it / You can hear it, hey, you're getting near it, hey / You wanna make it, cause you can take it / You belong to the city, you belong to the night / You belong to the city, you belong to the night / You belong / You belong."

It's a song New Yorkers can sing about themselves and the team they love.

I can see it now. Images of an illuminated stadium at night. Images of the crowd in celebration. Images of Reyes rounding the bag at second and diving head first into third. Images of David Wright watching a game winner on his way to first with the crowd going nuts behind him. Gary Cohen's home run call. Bob Murphy's call of the Buckner play. The green light. The orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. Something! Anything!

It's not going to happen in 2008, but that's no matter. Some day we'll make this thing work.

I'm happy to hear your suggestions for how to do that.

- A.F.O.M.G.

A Blogger's Return

(Note: For reaction to the game last night, please see A.F.O.M.G.'s piece below.)


Finally, the Sip, has come back to Y2K.

A couple of months out of the show can make some bloggers soft. Women, booze, the road. But not this blogger. While my mind, body and soul may have been halfway around the world my heart was always with this little website of ours.

And just in time. Quite the coincidence that my return coincided with the start of baseball season. Coincidence.

So I couldn't hook you up with previews or predictions or whatever else. Unfortunately I was doing everything in my power to chase down the great bankrobbing-surfer Bodhi-satva through Australia. My apologies for that.

So today I give you the abbreviated quick version. Enjoy.


The New Mets

I'm not as high on these guys as the rest of us seem to be. The lineup is average. Three great hitters and a lot of junk. The rotation could be great. It's also one or two injuries away from being average.

We have seen the good.

- Johan Santana was awesome opening the season. The stat line wasn't what impressed me. It was the way the Marlins two big league hitters looked against him. How many bad swings did Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla take against the Amazins' new ace?

And it will only get better. He was topping off at about 90-91 mph when in midseason form his fastball will top off at 93. His changeup, the game's best pitch, already looks great and when he can get his slider over a strike he is almost unhittable.

- D Wright looks great. Apparently he went nuts in the gym this offseason. No reason why he can't hit .340, especially now that he has Beltran protecting him in the lineup.

-Everyone seems to have a hard on for John Maine. There is good reason for this. The guy is good and should get better with experience and confidence. But his impressive spring training means nothing. March is a month of fastballs. Pitchers build their arms by throwing the straight ball. John Maine throws 80% fastballs, so of course he is going to look better than the rest.

Do I think he can win 16-18 games? Sure. But calm down folks. Let's see it first.

The Bad

- The Mets' lineup 5-8 is bad. The key to the season in my opinion is Carlos Delgado and Moises Alou. If we can get 40-45 home runs out of them combined then the lineup will hold up. But otherwise, there is just too much pressure on the top. All of a sudden teams will be walking Carlos Beltran to get to Delgado.

- Willie. He's the Carlos Beltran of managers, minus the talent. He's just so boring. He has no schtick. Maybe being in Japan for two weeks has me sweet for Bobby V, but I just want something more out of a manager.

Overall Projections

The National League is really catching up with the AL.

The NL West may be the best division in baseball. The Dodgers, with the additions of Andruw Jones, and the continued growth of Chad Billingsley as well as their plethora of young talent (Kemp, Loney, Ethier) are going to be really good.



The Rockies are fresh off the World Series. The Diamondbacks, fresh off a 90-win season, added Danny Haren, return Randy Johnson in a week and return a lineup that featured 6 starters in their first full year last season.



Then there is the Padres who throw Jake Peavy and Chris Young at you twice every five days. And even the Giants, with Zito, Lincecum and Matt Cain can easily sweep a series.

In short, west coast trips are going to be brutal.

The NL Central remains the weakest division in baseball. The Cubs and the Brewers should duke it out for supremacy. The health of Ben Sheets and Yovanii Gallardo will determine the division.

Finally, the NL East.

Everyone is talking about the Braves. They are the new sexy pick and for good reason. If they can get 500 innings from Glavine, Smoltz and Hudson, and if their lineup produces the way it should, they are going to be good. And the Phils are what they are. A great lineup, shitty pitching, holler back.

The Mets can be the best team in the National League. They could also be the 6th best. Going into Tuesday's game, the Mets had what looked like the top rotation in the league. Santana, Pedro, Perez, Maine is nasty.

But Pedro is hurt. For how long, we don't know.

The lineup has the potential to be bad. So many questions hoover around this season.

Is Carlos Delgado done?

Will Moises Alou play 100 games?

Is Angel Pagan the next John Maine? A top prospect who never got his shot only to reinvent himself at Shea.

Can somebody step up behind Aaron Heilman and Pedro Feliciano in the setup role?

Which Carlos Beltran will we see?

Johan Santana could win 20. He could also win 15 like he did last year. I'm just not ready to pencil the Mets into October. The National League has gotten so good over the last 12 months. We need to hope that the NL West just beats each other up so much that two playoff teams come out of the East.

The biggest thing the Mets have going for them is the near 40 games against the Nats and Marlins. That's a lot of games against ZERO good starting pitching. The Mets need to win 25 of these to make the playoffs. These are gimmies.

Sip's Predictions

NL East - Mets
NL Central - Cubs
NL West - D'Backs
NL Wildcard - Dodgers

AL East - Red Sox
AL Central - Indians
AL West - Angels
AL Wild Card - Detroit

Mets vs. D'Backs
Cleveland vs. Detroit

And for the 5th consecutive year I'll go with a Mets-Tribe World Series with the Amazins coming out on top.

Call this the blogosphere's version of Chris Berman's 49ers-Bills Super Bowl. I think so.

NL MVP - David Wright
NL CY Young - Jake Peavy
NL ROY - Kosuke Fukodome
NL MOY - Lou Pinella

AL MVP - Grady Sizemore
AL Cy Young - Erik Bedard
AL ROY - Clay Bucholtz
AL MOY - Eric Wedge

The Yankees


Ahh the Yankees.

I am too much at peace right now to irrationally hate. But if there is going to be a season for the Yankees to sink this could be the one. The rotation can really slip. Chien Ming Wang is really the only sure thing at this point.

Pettite is already hurt. Mussina is done. Phil Hughes is 21. And Ian Kennedy is a finesse guy who will need a few years before he reaches his 12-win/5th starter potential.

So I gotta pick them not to make the playoffs, even though, like always, they inevitably will.

Enjoy guys.

Catch me and AFOMG at Opening Day. We'll be signing autographs in the blogger appreciation tent out in left center field.

Vaya,
Sip

Pop Goes the Season?

It's easy to assume the worst at a time like this. Losing our No. 2 pitcher. Losing in extras on a home run by some no-name.

No denying it, Game No. 2 was every bit as depressing and deflating as Game No. 1 was uplifting and encouraging.

But that said, let's keep a little perspective for now.

In 2007 we started off 4-0; it's possible we could not have looked better. Fat load of good that did us.

In 2005 we started 0-5 then won our next 6, which included a sweep of the same Astros team that would later appear in the World Series.

Remember that it's April. A marathon not a sprint and so forth.

Let's see what they say about Pedro. He's going to miss some time, but, again, keep it in perspective. Remember when Monster popped his hamstring in, what, 2003 I think it was? The man had to be carried (carted?) off the field. Walking wasn't even a possibility.

Pedro walked off without any assistance needed. He'll miss some time, but it sure didn't look like he was bound for the 60-day DL. I'm not a doctor, and hamstrings are funny things, but put it this way, I've seen worse.

I liked that the team fought last night. You fall behind 4-0 it's easy to fold; the team last night didn't fold. They didn't win, but they didn't cave. That kind of attitude will serve them well.

So on to Game No. 3, on to Mr. All-or-Nothing. Ollie, we'll all feel a hell of a lot better if Dr. Jekyll shows up tonight.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Y2K 2008 Mets Preview: Bullpen

[Baseball can't start soon enough, and to get you ready for a full season of action, Y2K wants to help you meet the 2008 Mets. We'll break down a roster position each day heading into the opener. Today it's the bullpen, which looked great yesterday. Even Schoenweis. The only way we're going to go 162-0 is if he comes up big.]

Projected closer: Billy Wagner
Age: 36
2007 line: 68.1 IP, 2.64 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 80 K, 22 BB
2008 PECOTA: 65 IP, 2.82 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 67 K, 22 BB

Projected setup man: Aaron Heilman
Age: 29
2007 line: 86 IP, 3.03 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 63 K, 20 BB
2008 PECOTA: 70 IP, 3.51 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 54 K, 23 BB

Projected setup man: Duaner Sanchez
Age: 28
2007 line: did not play
2008 PECOTA: 40 IP, 3.46 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 30 K, 16 BB

Other projected relievers' 2008 PECOTAs
Pedro Feliciano: 55 IP, 3.43 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 44 K, 24 BB
Matt Wise: 50 IP, 4.00 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 35 K, 17 BB
Scott Schoenweis: 50 IP, 4.11 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 32 K, 21 BB
Jorge Sosa: 40 IP, 4.72 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 69 K, 38 BB
Joe Smith: 30 IP, 3.28 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, 26 K, 27 BB

Discussion

Wagner has to be considered the best closer in the National League. It's true. I'm as big a Takeshi Saito fan as the next guy, but if there's one thing we've learned with Asian pitchers over the years, it's to wait and see if their stuff holds up during the second pass around the league. Kaz Sasaki (formerly of Seattle), Byung-Hun Kim, those guys had multiple-year runs where they were dominant relievers. And then there's what happens when you're a bullshit artist who gets figured out.

Shingo Takatsu, 2004: 2.31 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, second in Rookie of the Year voting
Shingo Takatsu, 2005: 5.20 ERA, 1.65 WHIP, dumped and then signed by (natch) the Mets

For this reason, despite his awesome 2007, I don't think you can say Saito is the best anything yet. (If I were a Red Sox fan, I'd be similarly concerned about Hideki Okajima).

Who else is there? Jose Valverde has a nice campaign out in the desert, but he's alternated good and bad seasons a la Saberhagen for a while now, and is another "Show Me" guy. Trevor Hoffman is still kicking, but he ain't what he once was. Ol' Jason Isringhausen has a perfectly fine comeback year, a nice statistical match with Wagner's, but he's even more of an injury risk and doesn't strike out nearly as many guys. It's possible the Braves' Rafael Soriano will come back from a year on the shelf and start blowing guys away again, in which case he'll be on the same level as Wagner, but that has yet to be determined. The rest of the crop are a bunch of new guys (Kerry Wood, Manny Corpas, Brandon Lyon), hurt guys (Brad Lidge, Eric Gagne) or passable guys who simply aren't as good as Wagner (Chad and Francisco Cordero). The Mets have a competitive advantage with Wagner.

Same thing with Heilman, who for all his one-time moaning about getting into the rotation has turned into a really effective and valuable setup guy. He's not infallible, and doesn't have any of the Joel Zumaya/Joba flair that a setup guy occasionally picks up, but he gets the job done. I'm completely comfortable with him playing a role in big games, which is kind of the test for a reliever. Same thing with Feliciano, who walks guys he should be able to get slightly too often, but is in my opinion one of the most underrated rally killers out there. He was death on lefties once again in 2007 (.168 BAA, 30 K in 28.1 IP) and held his own against right-handers when they were in there (.221 BAA, 1.43 WHIP). Despite Willie getting picky from time to time, he's not a LOOGY; he's a guy who can put in inning-long appearances in the right slots and can be extremely effective. At his salary, he's a steal.

The rest of the Mets' bullpen will depend on how Duaner Sanchez comes back from his taxi ride to the dark side; whether Joe Smith looks more like first-half Broadway Joe or second-half New Orleans McGee; whether Jorge Sosa is as crappy as PECOTA seems to think he'll be; whether Matt Wise is any good whatsoever (I have no insight); whether Scott Schoenweis continues to embarrass himself. I'm only positive one way or the other on the last item (answer: yes).

The Metsies had the second-best ERA in the NL last year from the seventh inning onward, at 3.50, with a better WHIP than the one team ahead of them (1.24 to 1.32 over San Diego, which has a 3.29 ERA). Bullpens are kind of moving targets, but the short and only possible take I can give here is that our relievers were a considerable asset last season, and are lined up to repeat that performance. Good luck to us.