Too Much Sense

Yeah, I know, the Mets traded for Tyler Clippard earlier on Monday, which is a helpful move to shore up the bullpen and more evidence that the Mets aren't just going to sit idly by and let a huge opportunity go to waste.

But then came this late night, out-of-nowhere blockbuster trade between the Blue Jays and the Colorados. After months, or perhaps years of speculation, the Colorados finally dealt Troy Tulowitzki to the Toronto Blue Jays, along with old friend LaTroy Hawkins, and in return received what I can only assume is a hefty load of prospects, as well as one Mr. Jose Reyes.

For the Colorados, a team that's clearly in rebuild mode, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for them to deal away Tulo's massive contract and then take on the similarly hefty price tag Reyes carries.

So what, then, does this have to do with the Mets?

Well, Slapenfield, quite a bit. The Tulo-to-the-Mets talk was going on all offseason until it finally died down. But apparently it heated up again somewhere over the last few days, until it once again became apparent that there just wasn't a match to be had. Tulo's contract right now is probably a bit much for the Mets to bear, seeing as how he's still signed through 2020 (with an option for 2021) and owed upward of $90 million with no opt-out in sight. Moreover, the haul Colorado probably wanted in return was more than the Mets were willing to give up, which is probably the real reason a deal like this didn't happen in the offseason, and it didn't happen again now, because Colorado probably never came off of their asking price. And the Mets were probably right to not meet that price since it likely would have meant dealing a pitcher that they shouldn't be dealing at this point in time.

HOWEVER...Jose Reyes, while still owed quite a bit of money, is due about half of what Tulowitzki is owed, with a deal that expires after the 2017 season, which seemed so far away when he left to sign his "Godfather" deal with Jeffrey Loria and instead ended up with a dead fish in his locker. So to that end, it's not as onerous a contract to take on now that it's more than halfway complete. What's more important is that while Reyes will probably command a prospect of some acclaim in return, he does not command the mother lode that it would have taken to acquire Tulowitzki.

So maybe I'm reading between the lines too much, but this seems to be more than just a little coincidental. Mets need a SS. Colorados are trying to deal their SS. Mets and Colorado cannot agree on mutual terms as Colorado is asking too much. Colorados then deal said SS to another team to pick up a talented, but less expensive SS that they have little to no intention of keeping. Colorado and the Mets re-open discussions? The prodigal son returns home when the Mets need him the most?

This now stands to be a very interesting next few days.

That Future Age Is Here

I'm sure I wasn't the only Mets fan who was kind of put out that there wasn't even a courtesy wave on CitiVision or whatever the dopey screen is called these days from R.A. Dickey while the Blue Jays were in town. I know he wasn't scheduled to pitch—that's kind of irrelevant. Given how the Mets fans and Dickey shared such a mutual affection for each other during his time here, that was the least they could do. We got to see plenty of Jose Reyes, sure, but it's easier to get a glimpse of an everyday player.

Dickey didn't make an appearance against the Mets until the final game of this 4-game home-and-homestand against our friends to the North, and matched up against Bartolo Colon, Dickey sort of gave us a glimpse of what we'd used to root for, as he pitched into the 8th inning, allowing 1 run and 3 hits in another Blue Jays blowout victory, thus ensuring the Mets would go 0-for-Toronto.

I hesitate, however, to say that this is what the Mets have been missing by having traded Dickey away. I know that several Mets fans, and some clueless non-Baseball-following cretins that were won over by Dickey's Pop Appeal ripped the Mets for the trade, but let's consider all that's happened since that deal was made (particularly since there's nothing good to say about the game he just pitched against the Mets).

R.A. Dickey has pitched reasonably well for the Blue Jays, but he hasn't matched the success he had with the Mets. After going 39-28 with a 2.95 ERA and the 2012 Cy Young Award for the Mets, he's since gone 31-32 with a 4.13 ERA with the Blue Jays. No Cy Young award, but he did win a Gold Glove in 2013.

In 2+ seasons with the Blue Jays, Josh Thole has yet to play a full season's worth of games with the team. He has managed only 111 games and 279 At Bats, hitting a paltry .219 with 1 Home Run and 17 RBIs. I don't know if he's even in the Major Leagues and I can't say I care. But I'm quite certain he has continued to spend most of his time perfecting the art of grounding out to 2nd Base. Thole, however, has done much better for himself than Mike Nickeas, the other piece the Mets dealt. Since 2012, Nickeas played in 1 Major League game, on September 10, 2013. He caught one inning in a blowout loss and did not come to bat. After spending all of 2014 in the Minor Leagues, Nickeas then retired altogether.

The Mets, by comparison, turned Dickey and the two Catchers into Travis d'Arnaud, who's battled injuries and inconsistencies but when he's played, he's been rather good, and John Buck, who did a fine job for half a season before getting flipped to Pittsburgh. For Buck's services, the Mets now have Dilson Herrera and Vic Black, even if Black has yet to get his act together and pitch like he means it. Additionally, the Mets now boast Noah Syndergaard, who came with the hype of a front-line starter and although to this point he's pitched like the 22-year old Rookie he is, he's also shown signs that the billing wasn't just hype.

It's safe to say that the Mets probably would never have gotten this kind of a return on Dickey at any point other than the offseason of 2012-13. The trade was so necessary to make it's not even funny anymore. And, sure, he came back and beat the Mets last night, and yes, we miss having someone whose literary and philosophical abilities matched the heart in which his feats were accomplished. But I said it in 2012 and it remains true: You have to give up something to get something, and at that point, Dickey was the most marketable piece the Mets had.

Familiar Friendly Sights

Tuesday night at Citi Field brought about a pair of comfortably familiar performances that punctuated a 3-2 Mets victory. First of all, Matt Harvey, who's looked very un-Harvey-like over his past few outings, got back to basics, and back to pitching like a badass. His 7 innings of shutout ball were punctuated by 4 hits against a tough Toronto lineup, 6 strikeouts, no walks and 3 exuberant fist pumps and expletive-laced motivational screeches.

But you knew that at some point, Harvey was going to get back to this kind of a game, because he was too good and too motivated not to.

Perhaps of more singular importance was the way the game was finished, with Bobby Parnell coming out of the bullpen with the bases loaded and 1 out in the 8th inning and finishing off the game, picking up his first Save in close to two years while keeping the lead intact.

Up to that point, Harvey had clearly made himself the story with his 7-inning effort, which included him helping his own cause by belting an RBI double in the 2nd inning off of Blue Jays youngster Scott Copeland, who clearly looked over his head. The Mets scored 3 runs off Copeland early and he was gone by the 5th. Harvey, of course, was on cruise control, scattering his hits and finishing off with a flourish.

But, the real question was if the Mets could survive the final two innings with Familia unavailable, Robles unavailable and the untested, untried Akeel Morris lurking in the wings. Carlos Torres was summoned to try to get through the 8th inning after pitching an inning on Monday and Torres had one of those outings he's periodically prone to where he's just terrible. The Jays were stinging the ball against him, and only by dumb luck did he pick up one out because Kevin Pillar didn't pick up that the runner ahead of him, Ryan Goins, had been stopped at 3rd base on a Jose Reyes hit. Pillar instead kept steaming forward until he arrived at 3rd and was clearly horrified to see Goins standing on the base, and by that point all Pillar could do was stick a fork in his shoes and take a bite out of them.

But Torres couldn't fix his own mess and instead walked the next batter to load the bases and earn himself a trip to the showers. Then, it was Parnell, and admittedly I was feeling kind of skeptical because Parnell hadn't looked at all like Parnell, even going back to before his surgery last Spring. I surmised over the weekend that he was basically going to have to try and reinvent himself if he wanted to survive. His secondary pitches were deathly when coupled with him throwing 100mph, but when he was only throwing 92, it didn't seem quite as severe. So, he had to pick his spots. Yes, he allowed two of the runners he inherited to score, but when he needed it, he got a strikeout of Colabello to finish the 8th, and given a clean slate to start the 9th inning, Parnell just finished the job himself, and that was the sort of Parnell performance I was hoping to see. I can't call it the Parnell of old, because he wasn't blowing hitters away, but he was keeping them guessing, which is what he's got to be able to do. The age old adage of being a pitcher instead of being a thrower, and if Parnell can be a pitcher, he'll be OK. I think.

So, the Mets have swept the Citi Field portion of this Lake Ontario Series or whatever you want to call it. If you again want to get technical about it, the Mets now have a 11-0 record when playing the Blue Jays at home. That record is less successful when they play at Rogers Centre, but if nothing else, they can do no worse than split with the Jays, which is fine considering they came in to New York having won 11 straight.

Lucky 11th

Some Mets games I've been to have more twists and turns than I'm able to adequately describe. Monday Night's game at Citi Field most definitely can be classified as one of those games. On the heels of seeing the Mets get No-hit last week, this game got off to an eerily similar start. Things turned in the Mets favor in the middle innings when they finally got a hit and some runs, only to slip away at the hands of an overused Closer. Things appeared lost in the 11th inning, but the Mets managed to take advantage of some bizarrely specific circumstances to come back from the dead and win the damn thing, 4-3, stopping the Blue Jays' 11 game winning streak and keeping their perfect Home record against Toronto intact.

My 10th game of the season came a mere 6 days after the ignominy of last week, which I'd prefer to never mention again except that sometimes I have to. The Mets were playing the Blue Jays, a team I'd hadn't seen the Mets play since 2001—because they hadn't played the Mets in New York since 2001. The Blue Jays had also never won a game against the Mets in New York. But, 14 years later, who would pay attention to that? This meant the return of several things to New York, among them Jose Reyes, who received a warm welcome, in stark contrast to when he appeared with the Mickey Mouse Marlins 3 years ago, R.A. Dickey, who was lost in a sea of blue sweatshirts in the Toronto dugout, and the Canadian National Anthem, which I feel squashes the Star Spangled Banner like a grape, and has never been performed at Citi Field—because this was the first time a Canadian team had ever played at Citi Field. As such, they had to get a professional to sing O Canada, because nobody here probably knows it; certainly the school group that sang the Star Spangled Banner didn't.

Then, there was a game to be played, and after striking out Reyes and getting Josh Donaldson to fly out, Noah Syndergaard faced Jose Bautista, and Bautista greeted Syndergaard by clobbering a pitch so far up the 2nd deck in Left Field that Michael Cuddyer didn't even give it a courtesy run. This seemed to unnerve Syndergaard, who then gave walked Edwin Encarnacion and allowed a bloop hit to Chris Colabello (and his .345 batting average) before finally getting Dioner Navarro to end the inning, after having thrown about 15 pitches more than he needed to. However, Syndergaard settled down, and more importantly settled in, and looked every bit like the dominant pitcher we were looking for. Against a lineup that's been bombarding pitchers for double-digit runs over the past few weeks, this was a particularly impressive effort. Though he only managed to make it through 6 innings, Syndergaard allowed only the 1 run, 2 hits and 1 walk in the 1st inning and supplemented that with 11 strikeouts.

Syndergaard's counterpart, Mark Buehrle, had no such pitch count issues, as he set down the Mets in order in the 1st, and then did so again in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, as I began to get more and more apoplectic. It wasn't lost on me that I'd just seen this happen, and that personal hitless inning streak was stretching much longer than I was comfortable with. After 12 innings, I'd had enough of that. After 13 innings, I was really starting to get frustrated. In the 5th, Lucas Duda hit a shot that sort of handcuffed Encarnacion (who clearly plays 1st Base like a DH) and went down the line. I had to wait a few seconds just to make sure it was actually scored a hit. Fortunately it was, so I could finally breathe easier.

Still, for the great work Syndergaard had done keeping the Blue Jays in check, the Mets hadn't cracked the scoreboard. But in the 6th, they broke through for a pair of runs, started when Kevin Plawecki used the often-reviled head-first slide into 1st base to beat an errant throw from Reyes, aided when Syndergaard stayed in the game to lay down a bunt, and finished off by back-to-back RBI Doubles from Juan Lagares and Ruben Tejada.

The Mets turned this lead over to the bullpen. First, Carlos Torres came in and got the lower half of the Toronto lineup in order. This was just fine. Jack Leathersich came in the game in the 8th and got one out, but then walked Justin Smoak, the failed Rangers/Mariners prospect who's mysteriously resurfaced with Toronto. Jose Reyes followed by grounding hard to 3rd, a ball that might have been hit hard enough to double up Reyes, but Tejada double clutched the ball and only got one of the two outs. In Tejada's defense, that was Jose Reyes running to 1st, so it's just as well he assured himself of one out. This, then, brought the meaty part of the Toronto lineup up, beginning with Josh Donaldson. There was no way in hell Leathersich was going to be left in. The only question was who would come in the game. After doing some heavy lifting on Sunday, the Mets bullpen was somewhat limited, to the point where Akeel Morris, a guy you've never heard of unless you watch Spring Training games or collect Bowman Baseball Cards, was summoned from A-ball to fill some holes.

Oddly, Jeurys Familia was summoned for a 4-out Save, one day after he converted a 4-out Save. This wasn't odd in the sense that Terry Collins wanted his best pitcher to go after Toronto's best hitters. But it was sort of irritating because Collins has been working Familia pretty hard all season, and 4-out Saves on Back-to-back days is a tall order, plus the fact that there was no other arm he could trust in that situation isn't really good. George agreed with the move, at least until I mentioned that Familia had picked up a 4-out Save the day before. Then, he thought the move completely asinine. Regardless, Familia came in, struck out Donaldson and got 25% of the way to a victory.

Unfortunately, that's as far as he got. Steve Delabar stopped the Mets in the 8th, so Familia returned still nursing a 1-run lead, which lasted the duration of one pitch in the top of the 9th. That pitch was sent screaming down the Left Field line by Jose Bautista, towards the corner. Were the Left Field foul pole 340' away from Home Plate, the ball might have hooked foul. Unfortunately, the line is only 335' and thus the ball landed a few feet fair for Bautista's second home run of the night, lead gone, 4-out save blown, good vibes gone. Things could potentially have gotten much worse, as Encarnacion followed with a jam shot double. Familia, who was clearly working on fumes at this point, got Colabello to pop out to Duda, but then walked Dioner Navarro. He wasn't putting batters away like he normally does, and Kevin Pillar battled him gamely, but fortunately bounced into a Fielder's Choice, and then Danny Valencia struck out and the Mets emerged from the inning tied.

Roberto Osuna set the Mets down in order in the last of the 9th, and so, after 8 innings of holding the hottest team in Baseball in check, the Mets now found themselves heading to extra innings. Fortunately, the game had been relatively quick to this point, not quite past the three hour mark. This was primarily because Mark Buehrle had spent the first 7 innings working at his usual metronomic pace, averaging :08 between pitches and keeping things moving along. Plus, there wasn't a lot of cocking around with pitching changes, and even a lengthy 3rd inning delay when Home Plate umpire Marty Foster was injured after getting clocked with a foul ball didn't slow things down much.

Hansel Robles, who really hadn't had a chance to calm down after his 9th inning misadventure on Saturday, entered the game and worked a clean inning, even getting through Russell Martin, who I still insist is a low-rent Paul LoDuca. Aaron Loup, a stringy lefthander, came in for Toronto in the last of the 10th, and in spite of facing a pair of righthanded hitters also allowed the Mets nothing.

By the 11th, George was beginning to wind down. I felt I still had a couple of innings left in me, but George, who has to work earlier than I do, said that this would be his last inning. The discussion then turned to the longest games I'd attended, in terms of innings. We'd attended a couple of 13-inning affairs over the years, but 14 innings remains my personal record, something I've been subjected to 5 times. I noted that by time the game gets that long, I start to root for someone to score period, not necessarily the Mets. This, of course, led to the inevitable mention of the fabled Bobby Valentine Moustache game, which took place against the Blue Jays and featured a walk-off hit by none other than Rey Ordonez.

The hope was that this particular game wouldn't follow suit, and when Robles walked Ezequiel Carrera and then gave up a hit & run single to Colabello, the Jays were in business. Robles then got ahead of Navarro 0-2, but Navarro hacked at the 2-strike pitch and hit a fly ball out to Granderson in right, and any fly ball to Granderson in right is likely deep enough to plate a run, and that's exactly what happened as the Jays grabbed a lead, and suddenly found themselves 3 outs from stealing a win and extending their winning streak to 12.

This put me and every other Mets fan in a rather foul mood as Brett Cecil, who somehow is the Jays closer, came in for the last of the 11th. I've always operated under the assumption that Brett Cecil was a former Yankees "prospect," and as such wasn't any good, but it seems that was never the case. He's always been a Blue Jay. So, he retired Lagares to start the inning, but then walked Tejada.

This, then, is when the circumstance and brilliance of Baseball took over.

Michael Cuddyer, who was certainly capable of popping one into the seats, came to bat. He didn't pop one anywhere, instead he hit a ground ball to 2nd base, horrifyingly destined to be a game-ending Double Play. Ryan Goins fielded the ball, and all he had to do was just slap a tag on Tejada, toss to Colabello and finish off the Mets. Tejada, however, broke to a stop rather than running into a tag. He then wisely backpedaled towards 1st, forcing Goins to chase him down in order to make the tag. Goins might have been wiser to try to get the force at 2nd, except that he'd committed to the play and instead chased, and eventually tagged Tejada, but by that point Cuddyer was well safe at 1st, and Tejada had managed to keep the Mets alive for one more batter. This was Lucas Duda, certainly one capable of blasting a pitch into the seats, even against a Lefty. The Jays went into their overshift, as teams usually do against Duda, pulling the infielders over to the right side, and shifting their outfielders over as well, and deep, to the point where Carrera was playing somewhere in front of the Apple, Pillar was in Arthur Ashe Stadium, and Bautista was playing somewhere in Forest Hills. Essentially, they were daring Duda to try and hit one the other way. Duda worked the count full, which meant Cuddyer would at least have a running start as Cecil delivered the pitch. Duda swung and did exactly what was necessary at that particular moment: he lofted a pop fly into shallow left field. With Carrera so deep and the infielders swung to the right, it was easy to see off the bat that nobody was going to catch the ball, and Cuddyer was steaming around the bases. Carrera picked up the ball and perhaps a good throw had a chance to get Cuddyer, but Donaldson for some reason cut the throw off and then fumbled the ball, allowing Cuddyer to slide home with the tying run uncontested. The Mets had staved off defeat, and now had an opportunity to win. Cecil was removed in favor of Liam Hendriks, who came in to face Wilmer Flores. Hendriks only needed one pitch, which Flores grounded straight up the middle for a hit. Pillar made a desperate throw towards home but it was nowhere near close enough to get Duda and the Mets escaped with the 4-3 win.

So, it took longer than expected, but the Mets stopped the hottest team in Baseball and kept their home record against the Toronto Blue Jays undefeated in one of the more rousing games the Mets have played at Citi Field in general, never mind rousing for this season. Duda and Flores will get the bulk of the credit, and they should, because Duda's hit was perfectly placed and Flores earned himself getting bum rushed by the entire team and getting the Juan Lagares Sunflower Seed shower, but this whole inning was made possible because of Ruben Tejada not running into the tag on Cuddyer's ground ball. His keeping the game alive made everything after that possible, but of course, that particular play is basically lost in the box score. The sort of little things that make a game like this memorable. Now, hopefully SNY will show replays of this game in their Mets Classics rotation instead of continually showing that game against the Cubs from 2007.

Je Me Souviens

 Baseball, in some marginal form, returned to the Great City of Montreal Friday evening, when the Mets squared up with the Toronto Blue Jays in the former home of the Montreal Expos for the first of two exhibition games. The second came this afternoon. For the teams involved, at least, they're just two exhibition games. For the city of Montreal, a city I've visited twice in the past year and each time come away with an even more enhanced opinion than I entered with, these are Exhibition Games, with capital letters for the entire city.

The results of the games, both Mets losses, were sideshows to the fact that the games were happening at this locale at all. It harkened back to an era where the Mets would come to Montreal for no less than 9 games a season, my formative years as a fan when Montreal was a vibrant Baseball town, the Expos always boasting the kinds of players that would give the Mets trouble. What happened to the team doesn't need to be revisited, but ten years after the city of Montreal was dismissed as a wasteland for Baseball, over 96,000 fans showed up and packed Stade Olympique for these two games. 

These were less Mets/Blue Jays exhibitions as much as they were celebrations of the city of Montreal and a tribute to the Expos and the players that played there. Friday night, Gary Carter was honored in a ceremony that included his former teammates Tim Raines, Steve Rogers and Warren Cromartie, in a nod to a wonderful era of Expos teams in the late 1970s and early 1980s that ultimately ended heartbreakingly short of greatness. This afternoon, the marvelous Expos team from 1994 was given tribute, with many members of a team that seemed destined for a deep October run before the strike hit, on hand.

It's easy to forget, particularly when you consider just how much of a disparate wasteland Montreal became for Baseball in its final years, just how good a Baseball town Montreal can be. I don't believe that fans of the Expos can be blamed for the failures of Ownership and Provincial Government to invest in the Expos. Perhaps they can be blamed for not showing up, but it's never good for fan morale to have to continually go out and see a team that its own ownership won't support. I think as Mets fans we can slightly identify with that sentiment (though our team isn't going anywhere, fortunately). The stadium itself was one of many problems; Stade Olympique was miscast as a Baseball stadium in its heyday, and now age and years of deferred maintenance have turned it into an outdated, leaky relic. But for the return of Baseball this weekend, Montreal didn't care. They showed up anyway.

It's proof that although the Expos are gone, they are certainly not forgotten. When I visited Montreal last Summer, I was a bit taken aback at how little the Expos appeared to be remembered. Not so. The passion lies within the hearts of the fans. I returned to Montreal in early March, knowing that these games were going to be played at the end of the Month (and although I would have loved to have the chance to go to these games, timing was not in my favor), and the city seemed to have a buzz for the impending return of Baseball. Where I barely saw any Expos representations in the Summer, it was much more prevalent around the City in March. Montreal was excited to have Baseball back. A faction of fans, the appropriately titled "Expos Nation," seemed to treat these exhibitions as a crusade to put Montreal back on the MLB Radar. Sunday, they've teamed up with many former Expos Players, led by Cromartie, to hold a rally in support of MLB returning to Montreal.

Expos Nation is not alone in their crusade. Many former Expos, among them Tim Raines and Larry Walker believe Baseball can thrive in Montreal. Keith Olbermann has gone so far as to float a particular proposal to move the Tampa Bay Rays there (and I strongly considered listing the Rays as the "Montreal Expos" in my AL Preview, but decided against it). Certainly they, or the Mickey Mouse Marlins ought to be likely candidates to move to Montreal—their current fan support is about as miserable as any of the Expos' worst seasons. That's not to say moving a team there would be easy. Much needs to happen, most notably a new stadium and an ownership group that can adequately fund the team. But I'd like to think that these two games this weekend helped to serve notice that there is a place for MLB in Montreal. At worst, perhaps, these Mets/Blue Jays exhibitions can become an annual event. Certainly, 96,000 voices proved that there remains an audience and a voice for Baseball in this wonderful city.

Visiting Old Friends

I mentioned that my other half and I took a vacation to Canada last week, and if you weren't paying attention, that was why I didn't write anything last week, and if you didn't care, then it didn't make a difference either way, but I was indeed in Canada, most notably in Toronto and Montreal, cities which either are or once were homes of Major League Baseball teams. I was fortunate enough to see both of these stadia on my trip, and even go so far as to see a game at the stadium that still has a team playing there. My trip to the Rogers Centre was motivated primarily by the opportunity to not only see a new stadium, but also to pay a visit to our old friends Jose Reyes and R.A. Dickey, who currently ply their trade for the Jays. Unfortunately, I'd missed Dickey's turn in the rotation by a day, but Jose Reyes was still in the lineup for the Jays this afternoon.

Rogers Centre is located in the midst of downtown Toronto, in the shadows of the CN Tower. When it opened, in 1989, it was looked upon as a modern marvel, the first stadium with a retractable roof, world's largest scoreboard, etc. Now, it's sort of a relic from a former era of monolithic multipurpose stadiums, one of the last in the Major Leagues to boast an Astroturf field, and currently the only MLB stadium outside of the United States.

It was a miserably humid day in Toronto, with rain in the forecast, and apparently any time there's rain in the forecast, they close the roof. That's all well and good, but the problem with the Rogers Centre is that there's no Air Conditioning inside (Being in Canada, it seems AC is not widely utilized since I suppose days like this are relatively rare). Thus, as you can see from the above photo, it not only appears as though we're sitting inside a cave, but it feels like you're sitting in a sauna that's been placed in an airplane hangar. Sound echoes off of all the walls and caroms all over the place; the crack of the bat can be heard clear as a bell in the farthest reaches of the ballpark.

The fans in Toronto are surprisingly passionate, both about their team and their country. Even when there's not a game in town, Torontonians are generally seen wearing some form of Blue Jays gear, and on game day, you could sneeze and hit a Jays fan, even if you're not in the relative vicinity of the stadium. Inside, both anthems were sung prior to the game. The last time I'd been to a multi-anthem game was the final game in Expos history at Shea Stadium, back in 2004. Here, the US anthem was sung first and greeted with polite applause. But as soon as "O Canada" was sung, the fans all sang along with the woman performing the anthems, and when the song was over, the stadium erupted in massive patriotic cheers. Also, the Jays mascot, a Blue Jay named "Ace" was prevalent throughout the game. Here, he's accompanied someone out to the mound to deliver the game ball, which was in a box. After they delivered the ball, Ace then took the box and placed it on the head of the poor slob who came out with him.

The game was fairly unmemorable. The Jays jumped out to an early lead on the Minnesota Twins and more or less cruised to a blowout 11-5 victory. Our old friend Jose Reyes was modestly involved. Here, he's batting in the 1st inning. In the 5th inning, Reyes, who may have sensed the mojo of the Mets fan in the building, Homered to left off of Binghamton alum Scott Diamond. Later, he would reach on a Fielder's Choice and score on a triple by Edwin Encarnacion. He was later seen in the dugout laughing and doing one of his patented secret handshakes with Jose Bautista. One thing of note would be that the Toronto fans do not serenade him with the "JO-SE, JOSEJOSEJOSE..." chant. It appears that this is reserved for Jose Bautista. Reyes, a newbie in Toronto, has not earned the same level of adoration.

R.A. Dickey does seem to get a bit of adoration in Toronto. Outside, I took note of a giant R.A. Dickey banner hanging from the side of the stadium. Dickey is also centrally featured in several Blue Jays advertisements and other such ephemera that is in and around the Toronto area. Here, he's holding court in the dugout, and I believe that's Mark Buehrle sitting next to him. Josh Thole is sweeping up behind them. The bald gentleman is a coach of some sort, I would have to assume. A good telephoto lens was about as close as I was going to get to R.A. on this day.

Some other odd Rogers Centre things: The Blue Jays have their own theme song, much in the vein of "Meet The Mets." However, unless you are either a) From Toronto or b) Have attended a Blue Jays game in Toronto, you probably didn't know this. The song is called "OK Blue Jays," and they play a shortened version of it during the 7th inning stretch before they sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame." I was told that the full version of the song takes a number of shots at the Yankees, Red Sox and Billy Martin, to show you how old it is. The concession stands are typically overpriced, as most stadium food is, but maybe it's not, depending on what the exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollar is that day. You can get Poutine at Rogers Centre, if you look in the right place. However, the cake-taker was probably when the grounds crew came out to drag the infield. Since it's an Astroturf field, there's only those dopey "sliding boxes" around the bases, so the gimmick here is that they boast the "World's Fastest Grounds crew". At the end of the 5th inning, a bunch of guys in Orange shirts come dashing out from the Left Field corner, sweep up, change the bases, and then make a mad dash back from whence they came. Ace was out there as well, and at first it appeared they were chasing him off the field, but they eventually ran past him and shut the door in the fence, leaving Ace stuck on the field with no place to go. So, like any good bird, he scaled the wall and left the field.

With the game out of reach and the conditions inside the dome getting sweatier by the minute, my other half and I decided it best to leave after the 7th inning and, like any good Tourist in Toronto, went right next door to the CN Tower, where we got a nice view of the roof of the Rogers Centre from 447 Metres up in the air. And, thus, was my first visit to the Rogers Centre, my first Baseball game outside the United States, and my first game in a dome.

Later in the week, we were in Montreal. I was aware that Olympic Stadium, former home of the Expos, was still around, the tower that hangs over it was an observatory of some sort (noted for being the world's highest inclined tower). The problems that have plagued Olympic Stadium through its checkered life span are well-noted, and it currently sits in some sort of demented limbo, with no real tenant and no particular good use, and is in constant need of maintenance of one kind or another. I would have thought, it being a bit of a tourist attraction, with the tower and nearby Montreal Biodome, that they might have put a little more effort into its upkeep. However, I was mistaken. Olympic Stadium was built for the 1976 Olympics and it looks very much as though very little has changed since then.

Olympic Stadium is situated (if you choose to go by Métro), by the Pie-IX station, which actually leads directly into the Stadium without actually having to go outside. I found this rather touching ad in the corridor leading to Olympic Stadium, honoring Gary Carter, who, since becoming the first Hall of Famer in Expos history, has become a much-beloved figure in Montreal, perhaps even moreso than he is among Mets fans. Montreal also named a street after Carter near Jarry Park, where the Expos used to play. I was, at one point, nearby Rue Gary-Carter, however I was not able to actually find my way onto the street itself. I also heard that there was a Park being named after him, but whether or not that happened, I am not sure.

Then, there's the entrance itself. The corridor that leads from the Pie-IX station to the stadium is sort of creepy, in that "where the hell does this thing lead?" sense. You know where it's headed, but you're not quite sure, and you also know that you can't actually get into where it's going, so you're not quite sure if you're going to have to turn back or not. Eventually, there is an exit which leads outside to Boulevard Pierre de Coubertin.

But, since the stadium itself isn't actually open (and lord only knows what's inside), I can only show you what it looked like from the outside. It looks, more or less, like some demented Zeppelin-like contraption that crashed into the side of a mountain. Perhaps it's more like a frisbee or the Starship Enterprise. I'm not sure. I know it wasn't exactly aesthetically pretty from the inside, and it's not much better from the outside.

Here it is, folks. In all its glory. Former home of the Montreal Expos, place where Darryl Strawberry once hit a ball off the roof and a site that hasn't played host to a Major League Baseball game since September 29, 2004. The tower was built to hold up what was supposed to be a retractable roof, but the roof never worked and eventually kept failing, leading to a continuation of fiascoes over what state the park should remain in. For one season, 1998, the stadium was actually open-air. But by that time, a once-vibrant Baseball community had evaporated, and the Expos languished in Baseball Hell for multiple years before finally vacating Montreal for good after 2004 in one of Baseball's more unacknowledged tragedies.

 The roof is permanent now, supposedly, and here's a view of it from inside the tower. The promenade (or Ésplanade, as it's called) around the stadium appears to be mostly closed off, and there were several construction workers working on top and around of the Stadium, although for what purpose I'm not quite sure. The stadium was built to look futuristic for its time, and I suppose for 1976 it did, but in 2013, it looks every bit like you've just stepped into a time warp. A time warp where just about everything is in French. Just about all of the signage inside the tower is in French, including the buildings you're looking at from the observatory. Downstairs, at the bottom of the tower, there is a little gift shop that sells Magnets and other such tchochkes of Olympic Stadium, as well as shirts and whatnot for the 1976 Olympics. But...No Expos stuff. Where's the Expos stuff? There's also a small exhibit of "The World's Great Towers." And then there's an entrance into a large hall with large swimming pools, that was full of construction dust. Nonetheless, the doors were quite open, revealing what apparently must have been the Swimming venue from the 1976 Olympics. It's now a gym of some sort, but the pool is being renovated. Regardless, any such signage that would indicate this is non-existent, in French or otherwise. Fascinating.

And back outside once again. Au Revoir, Les Expos. You had the honor of playing in what's probably the oddest-looking Major League venue in history. And now, you're gone, and the souvenir shop doesn't even remember you. In fact, most of Montreal in general seems to have forgotten about the Expos, which is a shame. There's a few stores around the city that have Expos shirts or hats, but you've got to search for them a little bit. I can't quite figure why that is. I would have thought, perhaps, that it's out of shame over their team leaving, but in Quebec City, there are plenty of items related to the Quebec Nordiques, and they also moved away 20 years ago.

So, there you have it, the Baseball-related portion of my Canadian Vacation. If only it were 10 years ago, I might have been able to catch two games on my trip, but no. No more Expos. Just the Blue Jays and an empty stadium.

Vacation!

Hiatus for the next week, as I will be on vacation and probably won't have a chance to see much of the Mets as they journey off to San Francisco and Pittsburgh.

Of interest, however, is the fact that I will be paying a visit to old friends Jose Reyes and R.A. Dickey in Toronto this weekend as I make my first appearance to SkyDome in Toronto.


I will also find myself in Montreal, where I will pay tribute to the somewhat-fondly remembered Expos.

Catch everyone at the All Star Break!

In a Future Age

I'll put it rather bluntly: I am going to miss having R.A. Dickey on the Mets. I'm sure just about every Mets fan will. Dickey was the kind of player that you couldn't possibly dislike, and the reasons for that went far beyond the success he found in his 3 seasons with the Mets. He turned from a journeyman to a star, a quirky, quotable personality with a story of survival like no other. Mets fans rallied behind them and, in 2012, they were treated to the kind of special season only comes along so often. But, Baseball being the fickle business it is, just as Dickey's amazing story was reaching its culmination, he was dealt away before the Mets and their fans ever really had a chance to celebrate his Cy Young Award with him. I'm sure I'm not the only Mets fan who aches sorrowfully about this, and Dickey himself tweeted as much earlier this afternoon. I'm thankful that we had this time together. 

All that being said, we have to be careful, as fans, not to become overly sentimental about the Dickey trade. Or any trade, for that matter. It's the way Baseball works. Things may not seem so great now, but I'm of the belief that sometime in the near future, this trade will end up making a lot of sense for the Mets. The reality of the situation is that Dickey wasn't going to get any better than he was last season. Yes, he's a knuckleballer, and knuckleballers can go on forever, etc, etc. But wisely, Sandy Alderson dealt Dickey when he was at the peak of his value, and the haul of prospects he brought back is clearly evidence of this. Sentimentality aside, this trade was a no-brainer for the Mets. The arguments I've heard, and there have been several, against the trade seem to come from 3 places. 1) People thinking with their hearts rather than their heads, 2) People who don't seem to realize what the point of making this trade was for the Mets, or 3) Complete ignorance.

With Dickey, the Mets were able to deal from a position of strength. The Mets were not a good team in 2012, and the chances of them being a good team in 2013 are fairly slim, Dickey or no Dickey. The Mets have many, many problems, like the lack of a decent Catcher or a viable Major League Outfielder. But one thing they did have was plenty of good starting pitching. Dickey was the headliner, obviously, but behind him, Jon Niese was beginning to come into his own. Matt Harvey ascended and immediately showed he belonged. Dillon Gee was proving solid before injury struck. Johan Santana was there too, and pitched really well for a couple of months before things unraveled for him. But while the Mets got a lot of really good starting pitching, most days they didn't hit and the end result was a lot of Met losses by a score of 3-1 or 4-2. The Mets will bring back all four of these pitchers next season (My somewhat blind and also probably foolish hope that they would bring back Mike Pelfrey ended today when it was announced he'd signed with Minnesota). In addition, other pitchers in the vein of Zach Wheeler and Jenrry Mejia are ready to ascend. Point is, the Mets don't really need to worry a great deal about their starting pitching, unless injuries strike, and that could, and will, happen to anyone. Dickey was at a point where he became expendable. Not because he did anything wrong, but because he happened to be a commodity that could bring back good value.

The prevailing thought is, obviously, that you can never have too much pitching, and that's true. But as I keep saying, you can't win if you don't hit, and the Mets offense was pretty miserable, enough so that it just doesn't make sense for the Mets to keep all this starting pitching at the expense of being able to generate any runs to back their starters. David Wright and Ike Davis will hit, but they appear to exist as an island in the middle of the Mets lineup. Being able to bring in a prospect the stature of Travis d'Arnaud is huge for a multitude of reasons. Those unfamiliar with d'Arnaud should know that he was originally drafted by the Phillies in 2007. He wound up in Toronto prior to 2010 in a trade whose centerpiece was none other than Roy Halladay. In AA ball in 2011, d'Arnaud blossomed, hitting .311 with 21 HRs and 78 RBI, and was off to a fine season in AAA in 2012 before a knee injury undercut his season. Prior to 2012, he was ranked the 17th best prospect by Baseball America, and the top prospect in the Blue Jays system. And, he's a Catcher. Last time I checked, the Mets were throwing out a virtual shit stew at that position, involving the punchless Josh Thole, the talentless Mike Nickeas and the retread Rob Johnson, all of whom combined to generate absolutely nothing worthwhile. d'Arnaud is projected for stardom, and even if that doesn't come immediately, I see no reason why he shouldn't start immediately and why he couldn't easily surpass the production from the iron triumverate. Conveniently, the Mets shipped out Thole and Nickeas with Dickey, so d'Arnaud shouldn't have much of a challenge earning the role as starting Catcher.

d'Arnaud is the impact player that Alderson was after when he shopped Dickey, but for good measure, Alderson managed to poach another top prospect from the Jays' organization in 20-year old Pitcher Noah Syndergaard. Syndergaard is still a ways from being a factor, having just finished a season in A ball, but he's built like Mike Pelfrey, boasted a K/9 rating of over 10, and has drawn comparisons to such pitchers as Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay. By time he ascends, he'll probably have learned a bit more stamina and polish, the kind of things necessary for a front of the line starter. Plus, by then, we'll know for sure what the Mets have in Harvey, Wheeler, Mejia and whoever else is kicking around the organization.

The bottom line here is that yes, Dickey will be missed. It sucks that this deal had to happen, but I trust what Alderson is doing here. This is exactly in line with the plan he's set forth ever since he took over. Alderson has targeted specific guys and held out until he was able to get the trade he wanted. So he's flipped Dickey and Beltran and acquired multiple pieces that stand to help the Mets for several years looking forward. It's a slow, tedious process, and it's going to mean another year of probably not competing very much. There are still a lot of holes. But the Mets, as built, weren't going to be any better if they didn't make the trade. Alderson has dealt depth for improvements at a sorely needed position. There are still holes here, but for the first time in several seasons, I think we can actually begin to feel slightly optimistic about the Mets chances. The hope, I think, is that 2013 plays out something like this:

1) The Mets tread water for the season and hopefully finish around .500. Maybe those 3-1 losses start to turn into 4-3 wins every so often.
2) Ike Davis plays healthy all season long and develops into one of the NL's best 1Bmen, like I think he's capable of.
3) Ruben Tejada builds on his solid 2012 season and, to some degree, Daniel Murphy does as well (I'm more optimistic about Tejada than Murphy, but at least Murphy won't embarrass himself).
4) Matt Harvey continues to step up and Zach Wheeler ascends.
5) Someone in the Nieuwenhuis/Duda/Valdespin Pu-Pu Platter turns into a reasonably respectable OF (smart money is on Nieuwenhuis I suppose, but none of them appear likely to pan out).
6) Come the offseason, once Santana and Bay come off the Books, and the Mets can go after a bigtime Outfielder and a solid Starting Pitcher (assuming this is necessary based on the performance of the current rotation).
7) Contend seriously in 2014.

World Series Championships have been won on similar lines of thinking. But in order to get to that point, the person driving the bus has to be willing to make a move that's unpopular or risky. Alderson has made a name for himself making moves like this just about every team he's worked for. Yeah, these are calculated risks he's taking with the Mets. It may not work. But I trust his judgement. He has made the moves necessary to rebuild a farm system stripped bare from mismanagement and short-sighted thinking. This will begin to pay off eventually. It won't be immediate, but this too shall pass.