Sad

So it's a pretty bad time to be a Mets fan. As A.F.O.M.G. said, we are the Phillies' sons. And watching the game yesterday with Happy Will and Chris the Reds Fan was pretty much the worst moment of my life since being in the upper deck with Young Sip for Game 5 of the 2000 World Series.

Gotta be honest: This season, the Rays meant more to me than the Mets. From about July onwards, I would check the Rays score followed by the Pink Sox, and then the Mets/Phillies.

Does this make me a bad Mets fan? Am I on par with Happy Will who famously denounced his Mets fandom to become a Red Sox fan, only to rethink his decision two weeks later?

I don't think so?

It's easy to say this year's Rays team was everything a baseball fan could root for. I agree and I honestly think anyone who was rooting against them is a bad person.

But it goes further. The 2008 Rays were everything a Mets fan of my age has ever hoped for. The 2008 Rays-1969 Mets comparison is really easy. But when you get down further, this year's Rays team was the conglomeration of everything us Mets fans have been dreaming about as long as most of us on this little blog have been fans.

You gotta start with Generation K. On eof my first memories of being just indescribably excited for a Mets game was when Bill Pulsipher made his first Major League start. Then Izzy came up and Paul Wilson was our first round draft pick stud.

The comparison with Scott Kazmir, James Shields, and David Price is just the beginning of why this year's loss hurts so much.

Move on a few years to the 1999 Mets. The greatest infield ever. Well, I'll never acknowledge that any team beats us on that, but the 2008 Rays give us a damn good run for our money.

Veteran leadership? We had Robin. The Rays had our guy, Cliff Floyd.

Then we have the hope that so many of us assumed would lead to years of dominance. Wright and Reyes. Pretty tough, given how the last few years have played out, to be more excited about our duo over the Rays tandem of Longoria and Upton.

So, look, I'm never gonna jump ship on my Mets. They've meant more to me through my life than anything else. Some of my best friends growing up are friends of mine because of our mutual love of the Mets.

But it seems fitting that the Rays lost the World Series in 5 games, just as we did 8 years ago.

This year's Rays team meant a lot to this long suffering Mets fan.

Sitting in my room in the most pleasant school ever known to man with some great friends watching the Rays lose was nothing like sitting in the Upper Deck of Shea (RIP) with Young Sip eight years ago.

But it was closee. Mets fans lost last night. That the Phillies had to be the team celebrating vanquishing a tema that representned everything I've rooted for in baseball over the last 27 years made it all the worse.

If I've learned anything in my life, that's baseball.

- Nails

It's Official

We are the Phillies' sons. They are the team to beat, and we are complete and total also-rans.

Hard to know when we'll ever make it there.

Sigh.

Hard to watch.

- A.F.O.M.G.

A Sip Farewell

It is with great pleasure, sadness, and just about every emotion possible that I write to you all today.

While I don't consider myself the Joe D of blogging, I've had a pretty decent run.

But like all good runs, this one has to come to an end. A crazy life has taken young Sip in a lot of directions and for better or worse, this life has taken me away from the blogosphere.

Young Sip is no longer the Young one anymore.

This site has taken me to New York, San Fran, LA, Phoenix and Australia. It has been with me thru 3 jobs, a screenplay, a university and a number of freak run ins with Y2k favorite Eric Byrnes.

While Yankees2000 has lived up its name, It is looking like there is a decent chance that Phillies1980 will soon be no longer.

Writing this website has been one of my favorite things to do. I had a place to write about my passion on a website that I shared on a regular basis with my best friend and to a lesser extent with some of my closest friends and family.

So here we are 3 years and a few weeks later and it is time to hang up.

Never fear though my loyal Y2kers. AFOMG, the Robin Ventura of this little site, is going to keep bringing you the 1's and 2's on a regular basis. And I'm sure the Sip will be back to drop some knowledge (or lack there of) from time to time as well.

But today is the end of a routine for me. One I have had for a really long time. One that I have really enjoyed.

To all the regulars who have stuck with us, thank you. You make writing enjoyable. I hope that you continue to come back to the site. You the readers are as important as anything we write.

And to all the fans of the Orange and Blue, let me promise you this.

We will have our chance to celebrate sometime soon.

Thanks to AFOMG, Cheddar, Nails, Cousin, Cousin Dan, Happy Will, KFC, NTV, Lister, Big Maciej, Sip Sr. Mama Sip, The AFOMG family, Keanu, Byrnesy, Coop, Mets Fan from 75 and the Worndown Boy Boy. The list could keep on going but I might run out of blog space.

Its been an awesome 3 years.

Vaya con Dios,
Sippy Momo

The Team to Beat

“Let me tell you this: Without Santana, we felt as a team we have a chance to win in our division. With him now, I have no doubt that we’re going to win in our division. I have no doubt in that... So this year, to Jimmy Rollins, we are the team to beat.” - Carlos Beltran, February 17, 2008

* * * * *

My, my, my, what a long, strange trip it's been from February 17 to October 27. As I write this, the Phillies aren't yet World Champions. It's 2-1 in the bottom of the 5th. Kazmir just got screwed by the ump and it's two runners on with no one out. Either way, one gets the feeling where things are headed.

When I think about the 2008 Phillies, I don't think of some unstoppable juggernaut. I think of a good, but by no means great, team.

That's no discredit to them. Certainly, worse teams have won the World Series (hello, 2006 Cardinals). To consider them undeserving wouldn't be fair.

More than anything they've done one thing really well: they've built on the success, and perhaps more importantly, learned from the failure of 2007.

It's all so different from the Mets.

Indeed, what's disconcerting about this group of Mets is the consistent failure to grow in any real sense. They've failed to learn from their setbacks; instead, they seem to succumb to them.

* * * * *

The last Mets team to make the World Series, the 2000 team, was a group that grew over time. In 1998 they fell just short. In 1999 they made it to Game 6 of the NLCS. And then in 2000 they made it to the World Series.

Other teams show similar progressions. The 2002 Red Sox finished with 93 wins and missed the playoffs. The 2003 team made it to Game 7 of the NLCS, and the 2004 team, well, you know.

How about the Phillies? In 2006 they finished a game short of the playoffs. In 2007 they won the division but got bounced in the first round of the playoffs. In 2008, well, stay tuned.

The point is, many championship teams don't appear out of nowhere. They face adversity and the ones that win are the ones that learn from the setbacks.

For whatever reason, the Mets were unable to maintain their organizational momentum. They made strides in 2005, made it ot the NLCS in 2006, and have fallen on their faces ever since.

Today the Mets are an organization without momentum. They used to talk about becoming a model for other franchises, of becoming a year-in, year-out presence in the playoffs. Look at them now, they're basically a national punchline, or at least the poster children for unfulfilled potential.

* * * * *

It's with that history in mind that we need to look at 2009. Indeed, 2009 is the make or break season for this group of players.

What I like about Jerry Manuel is he seems to understand the value of teaching. He has said that one difference between himself and Willie Randolph was that Willie didn't want to talk about 2007, that 2007 was in the past and there was no use in talking about it.

Jerry thought otherwise. He thought the Mets needed to think abut their failures, they needed to understand them, accept them, and most importantly, learn from them.

There's little evidence they've done any of that since Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. If this collection of players is ever going to script a positive future, they need to start by owning up to their past.

That doesn't mean making defensive preseason proclamations; it means understanding why they've fallen in the first place. It's the only way they can ever pick themselves up again.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Indecision 2008, Rays-Red Sox Edition

As I write this, it's all tied up in the bottom of the fourth inning of Game 7 down in Tampa Bay. Like every other game in this ALCS, it's a bit of a schizophrenic viewing experience for the Glass Man here tonight.

That's because no matter how many times I run through the prevailing logic, I can't make up my mind. Am I rooting for the Sox or the Rays?

On it's face it should be easy. The Rays are a great story; you all know that story by now so I won't recap it here. Suffice it to say that that part of me that understands perpetual underdog-ism to be an quintessential part of Mets fandom demands that I root for the Rays.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, have had more success in recent years than any team in baseball. Their transformation from perennial choker to postseason juggernaut is truly astounding (inspiring, even, for anybody who's watched their team choke time after time), but success hardly inspires sympathy.

But in spite of all that, I find the Red Sox still lay a powerful claim on my affection. I don't think it's just the Yankee hating thing; sure, I revel in it when the Red Sox beat up on the Yanks, but the Yankees are watching the playoffs this year same as me, and it's not like the Red Sox need to win a third championship in five years in order for everyone to understand that the dynamics of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry have changed.

Maybe what it is is that I know how much baseball means to those people in New England, and I know how much those 86 years of losing impacted them. The losing was a central part of the region's identity for such a long time, that even today, after all the success they've had this decade, they still seem to appreciate how special and rare it is to cheer on a winner.

They haven't yet forgotten what it is to suffer, nor have they forgotten how unreasonable it is to expect a championship every season, as Yankee fans do.

Nothing against Rays fans, who, lord knows, know a thing or two about losing, but who are their fans exactly? Who among them was there during all the down years?

I remember speaking with a doorman at my parents' apartment this summer. A Yankees fan as long as I've known him, I asked him what he thought about the Yanks' chances. "Yankees?" he asked incredulously, and he scoffed. "Nah man I'm a RAYS fan!"

He was half-joking, of course, but you can't help but feel that a disproportionate number of Rays fans out there have just jumped on the bandwagon. Hell, my buddy Nails might be their biggest fan.

But maybe I'm not being fair to them. Maybe they are the spiritual successors to the '69 Mets after all; maybe I owe it to the ghost of Scott Kazmir to root for them.

Go Rays?

Go Red Sox?

Here I am, right where I began.

* * * * *

In the end, I guess all that matters is that one of them beats the Phillies.

2-1 Rays now, 1 out, top 6. By the time you read this, chances are it'll probably be a moot point, but I'm curious, who are/were you rooting for in the ALCS, and did anyone else out there feel similarly conflicted?

- A.F.O.M.G.

In Politics, as in Baseball... The Beltranian Candidate

One of the debates raging among the voterati this political season (and the last several seasons for that matter) is the question of whether elitism (that is, the state or character of being elite) is or is not desirable in a presidential candidate.

This always struck me as odd; we want our schools and businesses to be elite, just the same as we want our second basemen and managers to be elite.

But as I thought about it some more today, it finally made sense to me. The key to my newfound understanding was, of all things, a little debate that's raged in the circles of Mets fans for some time.

Specifically, the question of whether Carlos Beltran is part of the problem, or part of the solution with the Mets.

To Beltran boosters, it's all about the stats. A perennial 30-home run, 100-RBI guy who can steal a base and play gold glove centerfield, Beltran, to half of Metsville, is an elite centerfielder.

By most metrics, there is no counterargument. Some will say he's overpaid (but honestly, who isn't in this game?). Some will say he gets hurt too often. Others will say his OPS isn't consistently top tier. But at the end of the day, to his defenders, Beltran is every bit the core-type, elite player that he gets paid to be.

To his detractors you can take those statistics and throw them out the window. Sure he looks good on paper, but what about his gut? What about his passion? Is he the guy you want up there in the pressure situation, in the bottom of the 9th with two men down and the bases loaded (ok, bad example) or answering the phone at 3am, as the case may be?

To his detractors, Carlos Beltran is elite in that emotionless, pompous way that Northeastern liberals are supposedly elite. He's elite in that I'm-better-than-you-and-you-better-respect-me-because-my-statistics-say-so kind of way that once in a generation minds like Sean Hannity would doubtlessly love to hate.

Worst of all, he hobknobs around with LIBERAL Hollywood types like Marc Anthony and J.Lo, even going so far as to have a LIBERAL renewal of LIBERAL wedding vows.

Oh, and lest we forget, he's been palling around with Carlos Delgado, a man who refused to observe the playing of God Bless America, for years.

So, you know, he's probably a terrorist.

* * * * *

On November 4, all of us will have a chance to vote for or against a Carlos Beltran candidate. Unfortunately, this offseason only one person will have the luxury of voting for or against a Carlos Beltran centerfielder, and that's Omar Minaya.

But because powerless, inexpert punditry is the spice of life, I put the question to the Mets fans of Y2K.

Carlos Beltran: Take him or leave him?

Curious as always for your thougts.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Three Years Later

It's hard to believe its now three years since she all started.

A man who had reached the peak of office boredom and decided to write a Maguarian like mission statement about something he felt was so true.

Three years later and one thing is true.

The Yankees remain cursed.

Baseball will never be the same thanks to our beloved Yankees. Its a game where teams are measured by their ability to compete relative to their financial situation.

That's not competitive sports. There is nothing competitive about that.

The Yankees are baseball's greatest flaw.

That CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets have a better shot of ending up in Pinstripes than in Milwaukee is the main reason why baseball will never be truly great.

The Yankees are a trust fund baby in a game of hard workers.

Some things just aren't right.

That some how Johan Santana ended up at Shea instead of Yankee Stadium is a sign that there is at least some one looking out for that which is right in the world.

Thanks for 3 great years.

Vaya,
Sip

Change Machine

It's a different kind of October, and if you believe what you read, it's going to be a different kind of Mets team come April.

The hardest team to blow up is the team that's forever in the hunt, forever on the cusp, but that's exactly the kind of team that needs blowing up in the first place.

Now, by "blown up" I don't mean you go and trade the core of the team; Wright, Reyes, Beltran, Johan, Pelf Man, they're part of the solution.

That's 5 guys. What about the other 20? Are they part of the solution too?

I want to think we all agree Luis Castillo, Scott Schowenweis, and Marlon Anderson are not part of the solution. So now we're down to 17 (hey, that's good luck!).

Of those 17, a lot of them have a little of column A, and a little of column B.

Endy Chavez is a tremendous defensive asset, but is he worth carrying on the team when he's basically a non-factor at the plate?

Ramon Castro is an asset as a hitter, but he's broken down two years in a row, is he worth carrying?

Aaron Heilman had a terrible season in 2008, but he was a reliable setup man in 2007 and our 8th inning guy for our dominant 2006 bullpen (7th before Duaner went down), what do you do with him?

What about Ollie, he was the team's third starter this year. There's value in that. But is there value in that at 5 years and $60mm?

Tough questions.

* * * * *

One thing's for certain, what the fan base is thirsting for are gamers. Watching the playoffs, I've been struck by how much Mets fans would love a guy like Kevin Youkilis, or an A.J. Pierzynski, or a Scott Kazm... hello!

It's the same reason that Johan Santana's stock, almost impossible, has risen among Mets fans since word broke out that he was playing on a gimpy knee the last month of the season (speaking of which, in the long run, is it actually a good thing we didn't make the playoffs? What if Johan had blown out his knee that first start in October?). They appreciate his hustle, they appreciate his competitiveness.

As I said in my post on Opening Day this year, fans relate to players with passion because that's what fans know: passion.

Passion is the uniting theme of fandom. Fans follow their teams year after year, day after day, offseason after offseason, off-year after off-year, because the team is part of their lives. Fans, in short, give a shit.

Too often the past couple years, this Mets team has looked like it doesn't give a shit, or at least it's looked joyless or indifferent. Under Willie Randolph, that was definitely the way the team played.

Fortunately, we have a manager now who has found a way to bring the fire out of his players, but what if certain players just don't have it in them?

That's the general manager's job. Omar Minaya, our newly minted long-term GM, has a major task ahead of him this offseason. Does he dare part ways with Carlos Delgado after a 38-home run season? Would he ever trade Fernando Martinez? Can he bear to say goodbye to Pedro?

* * * * *

It's all on Omar this offseason. The plan cannot just be to fix the bullpen. The bullpen is the most glaring issue, yes, but this team needs more than patching up.

It needs an attitude adjustment; the team needs to bring guys in who won't allow themselves to fail.

It needs a roster that's constructed in such a way that Nos. 22 through 25 on the roster aren't guys you'd dread sending up there to pinch hit.

More than anything though, it needs to give fans a reason to believe again. Two massively disappointing finishes in a row, patience is stretched thin.

Omar, it's your move.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Another Day Another Blogger

K-Rod is not the answer.

Not the answer that is if you are any baseball team playing outside of New York City.

5 years at $15 per is simply too much to spend for a closer who's velocity has dropped from the high to low 90's in the early stages of his career. While there is no denying that Rodriguez is great, the closer is an inter-changable position and he is not worthy of those kind of dollars.

It's just not a sound investment.

But these are the New Mets and this is a fan base that, like that of the Yankees, demands a postseason every year.

So the Mets can and probably will "overpay" for the single season saves leader. But what would that mean?



K-Rod to the Mets brings the Mets that much closer to the Yankees: A team with a financial advantage that uses this advantage to win.

While I understand that this is baseball, I never have been comfortable with this being Mets baseball.

And I don't mean paying for free agents.

Free agency is part of the game and any and every team can play that game.

But overspending is not a part of baseball as a whole.

It's a luxury that few teams can afford, one that always makes me feel uncomfortable.

Carlos Beltran and Billy Wagner never felt like Mets to me.

They came to Shea because the Mets gave them more years and more dollars than other teams who wanted them would. They came to Shea for the paycheck.

Whether they have said the right thing or performed well on the field adds or takes nothing away from my feeling for these players. They never truly wanted to be a Met.

For this reason, I could never love K-Rod.

I couldn't love a guy who left the best team in baseball because he wanted $10 million more dollars. I would never believe that his heart was in the right place.

I'm already very uncomfortable with the idea of next season.

Citi Field just doesn't really sit right with me for the Beltranian reasons above.

If I felt that the only reason for the Citi Field to be born was because the Mets wanted to play in a nicer park, then I would be 100% for it.

But Citi Field to me is about so much more.

It's about Seat Licenses, Exorbiant prices, and Dollars.

Shea might be a shit-hole, but it was our shit-hole and it had charm. As expensive as the seats have gotten, you never felt like you were being taken.



All in all, I'm pretty down on where the Mets are going off the field, but unlike most, I could not be more confident of the product being put on the field.

I think the Mets are the best team in the NL East going into 2009 and expect them to make the postseason.

I just don't know how I'll feel if we get there with K-Rod pointing to the sky from my $150 upper deck seat Citi Field.

Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of francisspecker.com, fromtheflightdeck.com)

The Come What Will Postseason

I'm used to October being a time of high anxiety. I'm used to dreading the prospect of the Yankees or the Braves winning the World Series, or the Red Sox suffering another crushing defeat.

(You'll note there's no mention of the Mets here; I'm not used to anything with the Mets in October.)

As I watched Wednesday night's Cubs-Dodgers and Angels-Red Sox games, I realized how different this October is.

Now sure, I have my favorites. I'd love to see the Rays make a run. The Cubbies would be a great story (but it sure looks bad right now). Two World Series titles later, I still have a soft spot for the Red Sox.

But the real change is that this time around I have no real knots in my stomach.

Granted, the idea of Philadelphia winning it all doesn't sit well. But if that's the worst outcome, I can deal with it.

Look, this isn't last year. This isn't last year when the only reason the Phillies were in the playoffs was because we choked the whole thing away, when we folded to the Phillies losing 8 straight head to head games, and 12 of our final 17 overall.

This year we simply got beat by the Phillies. It sucks, I'm not happy about it, but somehow it goes down easier for me. The Phillies played their best ball in late September, we played middling ball, and the end result was the end result.

(Still don't see it my way? Fine. But you can't tell me there's anything more nauseating than the nauseating than the idea of another Yankee tickertape parade.)

So I can stomach the worst case.

For me, the question of the best case scenario is a tale of three teams: the Red Sox, the Rays, and the Dodgers.

Another title for Boston would firmly entrench the Red Sox as the team of the decade (team of the new millennium, if you want to go there). As Sun Tzu said, and I'm paraphrasing here, the enemy of the Yankees is my friend.

The same general principle applies to the Rays, whom the Steinbrenner family has an odd fixation over.

But for me, my horse is the Dodgers. Sorry Cubs fans, I really feel for you, but this chance is just too good to pass up. If the Joe Torre-led Dodgers win, Hank Steinbrenner might combust. An offseason's worth of questions for Yankee management would ensue, followed by an endless stream of questions about Joe Girardi.

So yes, come what will, but if Joe Torre can work a little magic out there in LA, well, he might finally earn the accolade that's eluded him so long: the respect of Y2K.

- A.F.O.M.G.