Gettin' Silly with the Philly

It was a nice weekend for the Mets in Philly. Of course, I would have preferred that they win on Sunday to cap off the revenge sweep and kick the Phillies in the nuts at the same time, but winning 3 of 4 is just as acceptable. It is nice, overall, to see the team finally put a nice little streak together after the struggles of early June. I'm not going to officially say "They're Back," but they're pretty close.

So, for some quick hits and observations from the weekend...

Gamesmanship
Philly seems to have some sort of bizarre chip on its shoulder, has anyone noticed that? Starting from the first inning of the first game on Friday, it seemed like the Phillies were doing everything they could to somehow get in the Mets heads. First, it's Manuel checking the rosin on El Duque's hat. Then Hamels was jamming Reyes high and in. But it didn't seem to work at all. It's almost as if the Phillies seemed to think they could somehow bully the Mets into losing. But after sweeping the Mets in New York, you knew the Mets were going to be fired up, and not much was going to distract them. In fact, just about everything Philly tried ended up backfiring. El Duque got pissed off (someone on the Mets noted that "He was stomping around, yelling in 'El Duque-speak'") and subsequently pitched great, Reyes was on base. LoDuca and Beltran hit homers, and Philly only managed to eke out the last game because Heilman imploded in the 7th inning on Sunday. But trying to pull the stuff that Manuel and the Phillies tried to pull was a dangerous game to be playing with a team that looks ready to go on a run, and it certainly didn't gain the Phillies an inch.

Speaking of a Rampage...
With 2 HRs in the nightcap on Friday and 2 more on Saturday, it looks as if Beltran is about ready to go on another of his ridiculous hot streaks. And it's about damn time. We all know that Beltran had been playing hurt, and his struggles at the plate certainly didn't acquit him of anything. He needed to sit, maybe go on the DL. But he didn't. And now he appears to be healthy again and with the Mets going to Colorado and Houston this week, one of those sick, .450/.520/.745, 5HR, 14RBI weeks could be on the horizon for Mr. Beltran.

Also pretty hot of late has been Paul LoDuca. It seems like Paulie has flipped the power switch ever since his blowup last Saturday against Oakland, and even moreso after his blowup to the press on Thursday night. LoDuca's 5 HRs this season have already matched his season total from last year, and 2 of them have come in the past week. Plus, he was snubbed for the All-Star game (although, admittedly, both Martin and McCann are more worthy candidates) and perhaps that will serve to fire up Paul even further. Then there's that suspension hearing...

All-Star Snubs?
I know, I know, nobody really cares about the All-Star game, although I do find it fun to watch for about 3 or 4 innings, once they get through the Ceremonial Crotch-Grabbing that seems to take longer than the game itself. Beltran, Wright and Reyes were naturally voted in, and considering that the balloting process is basically a popularity contest (although kudos go to the fans who voted in Prince Fielder over Poo-Holes), I'm not too surprised. You could make the case that Miguel Cabrera may have been more deserving than Wright or that Rollins or J.J. Hardy were having better years than Reyes, but that's not to denigrate either of them. They're there and they absolutely deserve to be there.

Wagner also made the team, and deservedly so, considering how good he's been this season. But if there was one player on the Mets who was outright snubbed for the All-Star team, it was John Maine. Pitchers like Penny, Peavy, Sheets and Smoltz are all worthy and all deserving of an All-Star selection. But the one argument, and it's a good one, is whether or not Cole Hamels should have made the team over Maine. Now, we've seen these two match up more than once this season. The first time, at Shea, at the Home Opener, neither pitcher threw especially great and neither got a decision. The second time, last Friday night, Maine clearly outpitched Hamels, throwing into the 9th inning in a solid Mets victory. Right now, Hamels stands at 9-4, with a 3.87 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 116 strikeouts in 111.2 IP, for a third place team that has been up and down all season. Maine holds an identical record of 9-4, with an ERA of 2.74, a WHIP of 1.15 and 84 Ks in 102 IP. And Maine also won a Pitcher of the Month award for his unconscious April, and the Mets have been in first place pretty much all season. But Hamels has the reputation of being the ace on the team he pitches for. Maine has only been counted on to be a #3 starter on the Mets, although at times, he has pitched like an ace. Maine holds better numbers pretty much across the board. I wouldn't go so far as to say Hamels is a bad choice, but it's clear that Maine has been the better pitcher to this point in the season. Then again, Maine is scheduled to pitch the first game after the All-Star Break, so perhaps it's better to let him rest and rejuvenate for the second half of the season.

All the Eggs in the World can't Fix him...
Finally, we have the case of Julio Franco and his fully organic diet of 37 egg whites a day, and he can still barely make it up the first base line on the last out of Sunday's game. It's getting to the point now where it's like he is just a black hole on the bench. Putting him up at the plate is tantamount to resignation. It's obvious that he's done, and I know he's a leader on the team and a sage for the younger players, but he's a waste of a roster space. I wouldn't want to be in a key spot in the postseason and see Julio coming up. Especially with 2 outs. I'm sure it would not happen, but it is worth the consideration to think about offering him a Bench Coach position and just sort of fade him out slowly but surely as the season wears on.

Happy Anniversary To...
Sunday was the 20th Anniversary of WFAN, who has carried the Mets games on the radio ever since their inception in 1987. We can thank them for creating the monster that is the Sports Talk Radio industry in America.

So, Colorado and Houston this week. Time to break out the bats.

Four Month Media Blackout

I hate to jump in and push myself down here, but I love how the New York Media loves to instigate things. The article about LoDuca in today's Daily News smacks of pure Out-of contextness and his reaction on today's Pre-Game show on WFAN just proves that. Everyone in the New York Media, especially the Daily News, and that hideous Anti-Met Rag, the New York Post seem to have this heightened sense of entitlement, as if they somehow honestly believe that the Athletes would cease to exist without them. They've torn apart A-Rod, whether he's deserved it or not, and since the Mets are a relatively controversy-free bunch, they need to have someone to attack on the Mets, and LoDuca is the easiest target.

I'm reminded of a scene from the recent Broadway play, "Take Me Out," which is about a Gay Baseball player. In the scene, a character, a sure John Rocker caricature, is asked a controversial question and gives an answer which is intolerant. And then, when he is asked why he did it, the character replies, "Hey, you knew that that was the answer I was going to give you, why did you ask me the question?"

And that seems to be why the media likes to pick on LoDuca. They know all the rumors, and the stories about the young girls, and the Playboy ex-wife, and the Racehorses, and the fiery temper and the loquaciousness, and they just lick their chops. Sometimes people are in a bad mood. Yesterday happened to be one of those days for LoDuca. And when the Media picked on him, he fired back. Maybe his words weren't well-set, but if you take it out of context, you totally miss the point he was making, and that's the kind of thing the Media seems to love to leap on. Let's create a controversy where none exists. You know what to expect out of LoDuca.

LoDuca Outburst has Latin Accent [Daily News]
Catcher's Words Tools of Ignorance [Daily News]
LoDuca Tired of doing the Talking [NY Post (tabloid rag BS)]

Let's Play One and One!

I remember back in a bygone era called the 1990s, there were these things called "Doubleheaders," in which one could purchase a ticket to a game, and see two games for the price of that one ticket. Many times, I would attend these Doubleheaders; in my younger, more wily days it was but a lark for me to spend 7 hours at Shea Stadium, from 5pm to Midnight, or from Noon to 7pm, and while away an entire day watching some Mets Baseball.

Of course, going further back in time, the Doubleheader was an even more common occurrence, with Doubleheaders actually being planned as a part of the regular season schedule, not just a result of a Rained-out ballgame. But I don't believe that the Mets have had a scheduled Doubleheader since September 15, 1998, during that Magical 4-game series in the Astrodome. The only Doubleheaders we see at Shea anymore happen because that Sunday game against the Nationals or the Marlins got rained out.

It appears that those days have gone by the wayside, with the asinine concept of the Day-Night Doubleheader now being the norm across the Majors. The Mets had been one of the last teams to hang on to the single-admission Doubleheader (in fact, when they held one last season, on July 8th, this was trumpeted to the public). Now, in an attempt to pack the ballpark with a fresh set of fans, who can spend more money on tickets, and more money on concessions, and souvenirs and parking, the single-admission Doubleheader, one of the great last vestiges of a bygone era of Baseball is just about dead. The Mets have one such Day-Night doubleheader scheduled today, in Philadelphia. If you've got tickets, you can be there for that first game at 1pm, then leave the stadium, see a movie, do your laundry, and eat a full dinner and still come back in time for the second game. Sadly, even the Mets have succumbed to this phenomenon. Perish the thought of losing a Weekend Box Office, that Doubleheader on Saturday, July 28th begins at 12:10pm, with a 7:10pm nightcap. When they announced that, it was a sad day indeed.

I don't think that this is what Ernie Banks had in mind when he said, "Let's Play Two!"

And if You Don't Know, Now You Know...

Haters better recognize, the Mets have now beaten the St. Louis Cardinals four out of the last four times they've played. Which means little in the scheme of things. Nothing will undo that Yadier Molina home run unless/until New York reaches the World Series this season. All they can do until then is to keep administering systematic beatings to the Cards in the regular season. I'll be diarizing this one using the modified Stableford live-blog system: that is, somewhat fewer laborious updates than I'm tempted to post. We'll be posting half-inning by half-inning.

Promotional consideration provided tonight by a couple of Trader Joe's mini frozen pizzas and New York City tap water, finest in the world (El Guapo hasn't been grocery shopping in a while).

Stay tuned, or, more likely, read all this at once at work tomorrow. First post after the top of the first.

Pre-game update: The game hasn't even started yet and my computer's fan is already running like an MF. It's 90 degrees out there and close to that in here. This live blog might be over before it starts.

Top 1: It's taken me a long time to figure out exactly what to call the thing on Spiezio's chin. I finally figured it out, and it's just about right, so let's just dispense with it here: it's a merkin. A merkin. Spiezio doubles to left.

I'm all set to make fun of the fact that the Cards' cleanup hitter is Juan Encarnacion, who at 31 is at least five years younger than I thought he was, and he doubles in a run. Odaliz Perez strikes out someone I've never heard of before last night's game (Ryan Ludwick) to end the inning. 0-1, Cards.

Bottom 1: Todd Wellemeyer! Meet the Mets, Meet the Mets...! Reyes singles, steals advances on a groundout, gets driven home by a Beltran double. Meet the Mets...! 1-1.

Top 2: I glance at the Internet, look up, and there's already two outs as Perez strikes out catcher Kelly Stinnett, who came out of retirement to be Gary Bennett's backup.

Keith is always better when you unfairly take him out of context: "I only have two balls. I can't go to three."

Bottom 2: A word about last night: Gomez's "styling" might not be acceptable or whatever, granted, but did we really need to give all that airtime over to chastising him for it? A mention maybe, but to the extent they went on about it, including in post-game? Really? Can we please give this "right way" stuff a rest for a while?

3: Awkward pause as the crew waits for Willie Randolph to join them for a between-inning interview. He talks about the June slump and injuries. He's still talking as the game resumes, and you get the feeling he'd rather not be. Reyes flies out on the first pitch as the interview ends. Gary Cohen informs us that Willie, sometime during the Dodgers series, picked up a chair and threw it, breaking a door. I feel that much better about Willie knowing that, and I already liked Willie.

Top 4: 1-2-3 for Oliver, including back to back strikeouts, his fourth and fifth of the game. Pitch count a little high for four innings of work (70), but otherwise he's rolling.

Bottom 4: The Cards shortstop second baseman tonight is named Brendan. This won't strike fear in anyone's heart, but he does turn a nifty double play to end the inning.

Top 5: Brendan grounds out 6-4, which is Perez's first ground ball out of the night. The man's a fly ball pitcher, kids. Keith reminisces about Sid Fernandez's starts, when the Mets could play an offense-only infield (HoJo at short, for example) as long as Mookie and Dykstra were both in the outfield. Sid once had a start where no assists were recorded behind him.

Bottom 5: Mets down 1-2-3.

Let me take a second in an uneventful inning to recommend Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports by SLAM columnist Dave Zirin. He writes brisk, to-the-point prose and is refreshingly unapologetic about his (progressive) politics. A great read so far. I'm about halfway through, just starting a section on the NBA's troubled relationship with hip-hop, which for the league is alternately a cash-cow and a scapegoat. Worthwhile reading for sports fans.

Top 6: Kevin Burkhardt tells us about the GourMets Family Cookbook, which I will absolutely be ordering a copy of, you better believe. DO YOU SMELL WHAT WILLIE IS COOKING?!?!


With runners on first and second and Aaron Miles up, beautiful throw by Reyes to end the threat. We're still tied up at one.

Bottom 6: Wright walks as Beltran steals third with two outs. This brings Delgado up, who doesn't have an RBI in that situation, it seems, all season long. It's very hard to watch Delgado go through this. This is just the kind of moment he's supposed to be around for. And he grounds harmlessly to second. I haven't been this depressed since they shot Bodie.

Top 7: Memo to Budweiser, RE: scoreboard ad: It's no longer flippin' cold. Thank you.

The Merkin strikes again! The Merrrrrrkinnnnnnn! That's Heilman's first inherited runner allowed this year. God-fucking-dammit. Valentin had it with time and bobbled it, and now Pujols is up. He grounds out to Reyes in a fielder's choice. 1-2, Cardinals.

Bottom 7: Respect. Hell of a running catch by Brendan to rob Valentin trying to redeem himself. Mets down 1-2-3. CPU fan struggling again.

Top 8: Heilman stays on with Feliciano and Diamond Joe Smith at the ready in the bullpen. Miles hits a grounder past Valentin. It would be a very tough play for any second baseman, but boy is it tough to watch Jose stumble around there with that brace on his 38-year-old knee. Especially after seeing him so surprisingly good at the position last season. (I don't know if he was statistically good or bad last year, but he at least looked pretty good.) Yet another ground ball straight up the middle scores Encarnacion, and Heilman is pulled to a smattering of boos. All right, which one of you told Brendan I made fun of his name? Because that was him right there.

Feliciano ends the inning with one pitch, a comebacker from Skip Schumaker. 1-3 Cards.

Bottom 8: Pedro watch: He threw to hitters today.

Pinch-hitter Ruben Gotay: 3 home runs and 11 RBI in 53 at bats; a .362 on-base percentage. And he plays second base. Hmmm. Russ Springer strikes him out after a long at-bat. After Reyes strikes out, LoDuca drives one deep to left over the Endyzone, making it 2-3 and chasing Springer. Jason Isringhausen comes in and induces Beltran to ground out. Generation K everyone! Feel the excitement!

Top 9: It's getting crazy out there. Taguchi almost gets doubled off running too far on a routine fly ball out by Spiezio, but Beltran's throw to first sails wide pulling Delgado way off the bag. Mota K's Pujols (you suck, Pujols). Encarnacion grounds out, and it's time for some more late-game magic from the Mets. Shawn Green will come up third.

Bottom 9: Can he do it again? Can he do it?! Kind of! Green works out a walk after battling from 0-2 and lining a long foul ball to left. And Valentin doubles in Green! The Cards kick the ball around and Valentin makes it to third. Green was running on the play; he doesn't score otherwise. Good stuff all around. That's Izzy's third blown save of the season.

Ledee walks, pinch-hitting for Carlos Gomez, and takes second on defensive indifference. It's down to Julio Franco and his .196 batting average. And it's a 4-3 groundout to end the inning.

Extras again! I'll be back after it ends with the wrap-up.

Schowenweis post-mortem: Well, get ready for another angry anti-Schoeneweis screed from Mets2Moon, I guess. Not that I can really blame him. Maybe we'll just re-post the first one. Brendan continues his assault with a leadoff home run in the 11th. He's a one-man wrecking crew. Ron has already called him scrappy and compared him to David Eckstein in yet another depressing episode. Kennedy immediately singles and steals second. By the way, Brendan had six home runs in four minor league seasons. After the intentional walk to Pujols, Scotty leaves to a shower of well-deserved boos.

The immortal Randy "Linoleum" Flores will come in to face Shawn Green, who again represents the tying run. Shawn, have I told you lately that I love you and that I never meant all those thoughtless things I said about you in spring training? What things, you say? Ummm, never mind. Let's just focus ont the moment.

Green pops up. Valentin flies to right. Mets2Moon looks up "hired killer" in the Yellow Pages. I go to bed. Good night, kids.

Serenity Now!

"You are not good. Moreover, you are ugly. I want you off my team and out of my life. Remove yourself from my consciousness completely as you continue to give me nightmares. Please let the door hit you in the ass, much in the same fashion most Major League hitters have."

-Mets2Moon, 10:34pm, 6/26/2007

I didn't see any of the game last night until the last of the 10th, when I entered a bar around the corner from where I was working. When the top of the 11th began, and I saw who was pitching, I stopped, put down my beer and exited the bar, standing outside with my back to the window. I turned, if only for a second, a few minutes later, wondering what had progressed in the game. I saw a ball flying over the fence. My subsequent text message to El Guapo was not repeated in his live-blog, but let's just say it was pretty predictable.

I've been counting to ten slowly, in my head, over and over for the remainder of the evening. That's about all I can do right now.