Happy Ballclub Day, Revisited

Rejoice with us all, as today The Ballclub celebrates its 8th Anniversary of providing you, loyal readers, with some of the Finest Hardest-hitting most Unique viewpoints on your favorite team and mine, the New York Mets. We are looking forward to April and beginning our 9th season (8th if you really want to be technical since I skipped 2011 altogether, but nobody wants to remember that season anyway) with you all once again. For the first time in many years, Opening Day for the Mets actually feels like something we can all look forward to.

Enough Of You

I'm far too exasperated about today's game to really write anything tangible, beyond "Everyone that isn't Matt Harvey or David Wright stinks," and besides, I've been writing that all season. Matt Harvey took his first loss of the season today, although he's pitched well enough to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-0 right now.

Instead, I've decided to rant about something else.

Today, there was a story circulating around about the Mets approaching a dating site for Cougars with the idea that they would push them to vote for David Wright for the All Star Game. The idea came about because David Wright, who has remained one of the Mets Matinee Idols throughout his career, was voted by this site as "MLB's Hottest Cub." A silly ploy, but, hey, why not? Back up your feelings with some votes. I fail to see why this would be so illogical, or even newsworthy. Of course, somehow this was leaked to Deadspin, which has sort of become a bastion of Met Haters (This oddly did not happen when Will Leitch was in charge, and he was as anti-Met as they come), who will take pretty much any story they can find related to the Mets and spin it so that the Mets come off looking pathetic and ridiculous.

This is what bothers me: So, the San Francisco Giants can go to all the lengths they want to stuff the ballot box to the gills, essentially rigging things so that guys like Marco Scutaro and Brandon Belt are elected starters for the All Star Game, thus ensuring more deserving players aren't elected. David Wright may not be all-world, but among his peers in the National League, he's probably the best one going right now. Yet, somehow, Pablo Sandoval eked him out at the last second last year, and again leads him by close to 200,000 votes this year in spite of the fact that he's probably not even in the top HALF of NL 3rd Basemen. But, since the San Francisco Giants are a "respectable" team, nobody really bats much of an eyelash at them or their chicanery. Every team tries to get the vote out for their own guys, but what the Giants have done is kind of ridiculous.

So, then, why are the Mets, who are trying to get their DESERVING 3rd Baseman elected to the All Star Game, which by the way is being played in HIS HOME BALLPARK, subject to ridicule for their methods? It's because they're the Mets, and the Mets are inherently stupid and should be made fun of for any reason possible. This is the way the Mets are now portrayed. It started off with the Bernie Madoff scandal and seems to have spiraled from there.

Well, I've had enough. Leave the Mets alone. Mets fans have suffered enough over the past 6 seasons. We don't need the blogosphere picking on us for trying to get our guy voted into the All Star Game, we don't need to get ridiculed for every little stupid thing that happens, and we don't need places like the Post making everything into a Met-slamfest. We get it. We stink. It's going to be several years before it gets better. Stop picking on the Mets just because they're the Mets. Just let us suffer in silence and try to get our guy into our All Star Game.

Boggs for the Mets

Every so often, I like to give a shoutout to my beleaguered Blue Jay Brethren to the North at Tao of Stieb. But there's another Blue Jays blog that has provided me with the impetus for today's column.

About a year ago, I was poking around other team's blogs, and I chanced upon a blog titled "Drunk Jays Fans," which is written by what appears to be a hearty bunch of gentlemen. It was on their sidebar that I saw a floating Wade Boggs head with the number 70 next to it. The explanation wished me "A Wade Boggs Weekend." The accompanying story blew me away.

Apparently, legend has it, Wade Boggs, already known for other off-field exploits, was known to down as many as 70 Miller Lites on a cross-country road trip. Many teammates have corroborated this, and Boggs has reluctantly admitted it himself. As a result, Miller Lite is now referred to as "Boggs" in certain circles.

Where am I going with this?

Well, after hearing caller after caller after caller and two overly indignant hosts fillet the Mets and Citi Field over the past week, I'm ready for a Wade Boggs Weekend. Yesterday it was the dynamic duo of Benigno and Roberts on WFAN screaming, and I mean quite literall SCREAMING about how beautiful the new Yankee Stadium is, and how Citi Field is a dump, and we should be ashamed, and how dare the Mets do this to us. One of them actually had the nerve to say, and I quote: "If you like Citi Field, you're not a real Mets fan."

Seriously?

How about coming up to Section 518 and I'll show you a Real Mets fan. How dare you say that! You're a pair of closeted Yankee Fans! That team has you by the balls so bad, and you're both clearly so insecure about them that you're afraid to say anything negative about them. But when it comes to the team you supposedly root for, well, they suck and everything they do sucks. But you've got season tickets and you'll be at Citi Field tonight. What a pair of loony Yankee-loving Hypocrites. I'd seriously like every one of my readers here to pick up a phone or log on to WFAN and tell Joe and Evan what a pair of duplicitous pricks they are. They are Yankee Castrati of the highest order. I'm not a real fan because I like Citi Field. Give me a fucking break.

That said, there are a pair of very fair and even-handed reviews of Citi Field floating around the internet, one of whom I would consider a FAR more reputable source for fair writing than those two clowns. It's been 3 games. Things can be fixed.

Then, there's the team.
So, Wednesday night, expecting the worst, Oliver Perez comes out and throws one of his good games, the Mets look fairly clueless most of the night offensively, but capitalize on some poor defense by San Diego and come away with a routine victory.

Thursday night, expecting the Best, John Maine does a very good impression of Oliver Perez, coughs up an early lead, the Mets fall behind and can't catch up, thereby losing the first series in the History of Citi Field to the San Diego Padres.

Why does this feel eerily like I'm watching last year's team play? Oh, wait, because for the most part, it IS last year's team. Thought so. I guess that means we can look forward to the Mets not being able to get out of their own way for the next couple of months or so. I mean, the upshot of all of this is Delgado is hitting like a house afire, so maybe it's not all the same, but if they have a game against Milwaukee where they manage to hit into 5 DPs this weekend, I'm going to be very concerned.

Basically, take everything I've written here into account, between the idiot radio hosts, and the overreacting fans, and the team itself...Well, as they say, Have a Wade Boggs Weekend. I certainly will.

Happy Ballclub Day!

Today is The Ballclub's second birthday. As always, we would like to step back from the state of our team for a moment and Thank everyone who has stopped by here for a read, or a kind word, and everyone who has befriended us on Facebook and MySpace.

The second season for The Ballclub was difficult, and that's being kind. For myself, and for just about all of my Blogging Bretheren, the 2008 season became less about the games themselves, and more about the sanity of an entire fan base. There were enjoyable moments, and there were certainly great games. But as a whole, there wasn't much relaxation. In many ways, I think many of us expected things to end the way they did. That didn't make it any easier when it happened, but if nothing else, this particular team had conditioned us to expect the absolute gut-wrenching worst, no matter how much we were led to believe otherwise. Much of the same team is expected to return for the 2009 season, the same old team in a brand new ballpark.

It may seem like a recycled comment, but maybe the third year of The Ballclub will be the charm.

INVADERS!

Opening Day is more than a month away, but things are already starting to get interesting.

Jimmy Rollins arrived in Phillies camp this week and wasted no time in firing back at Carlos Beltran and the Mets, and the war of words that has begun to erupt between these two teams.

Beltran's comment about the Mets being the team to beat obviously didn't sit well with the defending MVP, who accused Beltran of plagiarism, before proclaiming that not only would the Phillies repeat as NL East Champions, but they would win 100 games in the process.

I've made my feelings about Steroid Field #2 (AKA Citizen's Bank Park) be known. The Phillies might score like a 100-win team, but will they pitch like one? I'm inclined to think not, unless Freddy Garcia somehow morphs into, well, Johan Santana. Don't think that's happening.

But this sort of brashness out of Rollins? No, never.

It stands to be 19 very, very interesting games between these two teams that don't seem to like each other very much.

19 interesting games between two teams whose fans seem to like each other even less than the teams do.

While the war of words begun between players, a turf war of sorts has broken out between the rival factions, and it's starting to get pretty ugly pretty fast.

On Wednesday, Metsblog beseeched Mets fans to buy up tickets at SF2 before the Phillies fans could get them, thereby flooding the joint with Mets fans. This is nothing new. Even at The Vet, Mets fans would raid the stadium in droves, driving down the Jersey Turnpike to catch the Mets on the road. When one, or both teams were horrible, not a rare occurrence, it was routine to hear "Lets Go Mets!" chants in Philly.

In fact, there's a campaign going already to flood SF2 with Mets fans for the nationally televised April 19th Game, among other dates the Mets will be in Philly.

Well, the Philly fans caught wind of this, and they're firing back themselves. In between taking pot shots at Beltran, the New York Times, and Shea Stadium itself, the folks at the 700 Level are planning a Shea Takeover of their own, on September 6th, another nationally televised affair. They've even got a Facebook page set up, with over 500 Philly fans raring to take over Shea and show us that they're tired of us invading their turf. How dare we show such support for our team in great numbers, while nobody in Philly bothers to come up here and mess with us.

Mets fans fire back by stating that the Phillies will just be battling Atlanta for 2nd place by then. Philly fans retort by saying look at what happened last year.

I've never been one to travel around to exotic places to see the Mets. Outside of a few games in the Bronx, I've never been to a Mets game outside of Shea. And I don't anticipate sojourning down to Philadelphia to see the Mets, where I'd likely be spat on, cursed at, dowsed with beer and be told 77 different ways about how the guys in the row behind me did my mother last night. At least they won't tell me to take my hat off during the National Anthem. Besides, my irrational anger would likely get the better of me, and I would run the risk of doing something stupid and getting myself thrown out of SF2. I'll stay in New York, where I have much more back, and what's besides the point, my schedule at the current time only allows me to get to see Philly during their first trip into New York (assuming I procure my seats for Opening Day, and my 7-pack seats for April 10).

But I digress. I'll take my chances watching the games in Philly either from the comfort of my own home, or from Ballclub HQ, East Village Bureau with a few Guinnesses (my days of dancing with Gin Martinis are over following an ill-advised incident at the end of last season). At least this way, should things turn bad, I can just order another beer to numb things out, yell at a cab driver and pass out.

To break up the tension, however, I can always count on the good people at the Tao of Stieb. Although the Blue Jays have put together an admirable squad, they're hopelessly stuck behind the Arms Race from Hell in the AL East, so rather than griping about it, they're praising the physiques of the talented Alex Rios and the lovely Jenny Lewis, and being challenged to eat raw bacon, all the while bashing their own idiotic PR staff for hawking tickets to Tigers and Red Sox fans. As if they didn't have enough problems already. Sorry, guys.

Yeah, this is getting pretty damn ugly. It should be a lot of fun.

Happy Ballclub Day!

Rejoyce with us, Mets fans! For not only did we celebrate the arrival of our Franchise's Future this week, but today is the one-year Anniversary of the inception of The Ballclub.

I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us, linked to us and generally appreciated us in general over the past year. I hope that everyone out there who's read us has enjoyed what I've had to offer just as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Although the first season of The Ballclub did not yield the ending we would have liked, we're raring to go for 2008. What's past is archived away, only to be looked at in happier times. I am looking forward to picking apart another season, one that will hopefully bring us an extended October run.

People Talking

I was all set to respond to a post that recently went up on a new-ish blog all about Julio Franco and the Mets clubhouse and some Latino/non-Latino tensions, all attributed to anonymous sources, but then I wasn't sure it dignified response. I decided on a compromise of sorts. I'm too skeptical even to link to it, but it was covered by Deadspin so you can find it that way if you're curious. I will say this in response to one of the themes of the post: If Omar Minaya looked like Jim Duquette, no one would have ever breathed a word about a Latin bias vis-a-vis the Mets, youknowwhatI'msayin'? Period. You will not convince me otherwise.

There very well might be crankiness that crops up among non-Latinos on the team. Who knows? My point is that this is anonymously sourced and therefore makes for pretty useless rumormongering. The blog in question mentions Paul LoDuca as one of the unhappier white folks. LoDuca continues to say, whenever anyone asks, that he wants to retire as a Met.

Why am I mentioning this at all? Well, I think it's likely to kick up one of those little Internet stirs that might even make its way into the Post or something, and the FAN, if it hasn't already, and ostensibly we're here to give our unsolicited opinions on Mets-related stinks. So: I don't believe it. If it turns out to be true, well, I'll just be surprised, that's all.

There's happier things to think about today, anyway.

Who Reads This, Anyway?

With one month of the season just about in the books, I thought it time to take a look at the statistics of this blog, just to make sure everything was in order as we move further along in the season. Feedburner is the place to do things like this, and one of the more interesting features it has is that you can look up just how, exactly, people landed here.

Now, El Guapo has made a big deal about The Ballclub being the first thing to pop up when you Google "The Ballclub." This is still the case. But, it seems that nobody is searching for "The Ballclub." So, while this is a nice honor, it really means very little.

So, you may ask, what are most people searching for when they happen upon The Ballclub? Well, it might give you some insight as to the clientèle we get here.

Most people seem to land here when searching for "David Wright Girlfriend." I suppose this is my fault, based on the dopey post I wrote 3 weeks ago. But what's interesting is that this isn't even in the top 10 results when that's searched for.

If this is true, then we're probably not getting too many repeat hits from the irritated 16-year old girls trying to find out the dating status of our own Captain America.

Some other interesting searches that land people here.
"David Wright Mets Jewish"
"David Wright Sarah Hughes"
"Fuck Face Baseball Card"
"Leitch Cutting Down The Mango Tree"
"Darren Dreifort Divorce"
"Is The Eephus Taken Out Of MLB2K7"
"Major Baseball Player Wore Fake Mustache Dark Glasses Hat After Being Ejected"
"Vintage Hot Dog"
"Iron Chef America Copper Still"
"Why Did SNY Fire Chris Cotter"
"David Wright Makes Fun of Shawn Green"
"What Type Of Necklace Does Jose Reyes Wear"
"Mo Vaughn Home Run Budweiser"
"Citi Field Iced Coffee"
"Is Casey Kotchman Jewish"
"Jose Valentin General El Guapo"

I know we've covered a wide range of topics, but some of these searches just floor me. Never mind that someone landed here by searching for "Jose Valentin General El Guapo," but that someone was out there searching for this, and was prompted to look here. What makes this all the more frightening is that we are the first site to come up if that's what you happen to be searching for.

And to make matters worse, by writing this post, I'm just ensuring that more people off on the trail of some odd web searches are going just going to land back here. And that the number of young women searching for "David Wright Girlfriend" are going to keep coming back, and being frustrated because neither El Guapo or myself particularly care whether or not Wright even has a Girlfriend. We just want him to get a hit with runners on base, Dammit!

All that said, that should sum up the State of The Ballclub through the first month of the season.

I suppose more could be devoted to the games in Washington over the weekend, but really, is there that much to say? Perez gutted it out on Friday night, and really only made 2 or 3 bad pitches, and one of them ended up costing him the game. He kept the ball down for the most part, and his control was great, and Willie left him in and got him to stretch out a bit, which is good, because we could use some starting pitchers that can pitch into the latter part of games. Saturday, Glavine was Glavine, and Endy came up with another clutch play (sliding home around the tag with the tying run) that will go overlooked. The Bullpen was solid, and the Mets finally broke out in the 12th. Sunday's story was simply John Maine, John Maine, John Maine.

The larger problem is the offense. The starters have been great so far, but the offense hasn't been giving them much wiggle room. Some players are hot, and some players are cold, and that's pretty much par for the course with any team. And the hot bats (Reyes, Beltran, Alou, Green, Valentin) have done enough to win games and lessen the effect of some pretty big names that are off to slow starts (most notably Wright and Delgado, also LoDuca). But the major problem so far has been a wholesale failure to come up with the "clutch" hit; the hit that's going to get that runner home from 3rd with less than 2 outs, or that single with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs, or any other situational piece of hitting. It's been pretty maddening seeing Reyes lead off with a single or a walk, steal second, get moved to third by LoDuca, and then Beltran pops out to the shortstop and Delgado strikes out. I know guys are pressing, or slumping, and that happens over the course of the season, but if the problem doesn't right itself before too long, it will begin to cost the team some victories. It's beginning to become a major concern.

This week, 3 against Florida, and then the always popular West Coast trip. Maybe an extended road trip will help wake things up a bit.

The Takeover

We did it! We're Number 1!

This whole thing has been very tacky of me, I know. What's embarrassing is that the first post that you see when you do the search is one of me begging to have higher search results. I'm shameless.

The Ballclub

What is this and why am I reading it?

In 2006 the New York Mets had a season that erased several years' worth of growing desperation and even anger among fans. The previous few seasons had witnessed an upheaval in the management and front office, a shipping in and out of questionable veteran players, and several disappointments among the touted "can't miss" prospects of the team's farm system.

2006 saw the genesis of a new order in the team, as a new general manager effectively said, "Okay, enough. We're serious this time," and fielded a winning team of established stars, rising young players, and valuable role players led by a capable new manager. The team won 97 games and took its division for the first time in almost two decades. They got to within one game of their first World Series appearance since 2000, and then …

And then that ellipsis appeared. A good reliever gave up a home run to a weak-hitting Cardinal catcher. The Cards' closer threw a perfect curveball to the Mets' number three hitter. And that was that.

But, hey, hell of a ride, right?

The Ballclub is about the Mets and the coming season, and any beyond that we're around to chronicle. I decided to create this site when it occurred to me that there weren't enough smart-alecky white guys writing about sports on the Internet. Now, as to why you're reading it, that's between you and your AA sponsor. But if we offer you a unique perspective that sets us apart from the thousands of other blogger/hacks, or that you just enjoy for whatever reason, we're satisfied with that.