Saturday, June 21, 2008

MAINE-TALLICA.

I’ve been talking about making this shirt all season.

Now I just have to figure out how to get one to Mr. J. Maine.

Friday, June 20, 2008

WKND INFO TROLL: ADVICE ON ST. LOUIS AND KC

Thanks to one Mr. B. Springsteen, TBF and I are now headed to the Show Me State in August to see the last E Street Band shows of the tour. In desperate need of a vacation, we are going to bookend it with visits to friends, barbeque, Sonic Drive-In, photography, and BASEBALL.

It’s too bad the Mets aren’t in town but we’ll make the best of it. The Braves are playing the Cardinals and the Tigers and the Rangers are playing in KC. There’s a ballpark tour in St. Louis, and we know about the First Pitch Seats already. In KC, well, prices are cheap. We’re straight on geography and hotels.

But… we’ve never been to the parks and would love tips and advice, and especially local tips and advice. Food? Drink? Barbeque advice? Dos and don’ts? Music advice (besides Blueberry Hill)? Throw ‘em out.

IT’S CALLED THE LOGE, NOT THE LODGE.

For the benefit of everyone doing Google Searches about Is The Lodge At Shea Good? or Lodge Seats Shea Stadium:

loge [lohzh]
–noun
1. (in a theater) the front section of the lowest balcony, separated from the back section by an aisle or railing or both.
2. a box in a theater or opera house.
3. any small enclosure; booth.

lodge [loj] noun, verb, lodged, lodg·ing.
–noun
1. a small, makeshift or crude shelter or habitation, as of boughs, poles, skins, earth, or rough boards; cabin or hut.
2. a house used as a temporary residence, as in the hunting season.
3. a summer cottage.
4. a house or cottage, as in a park or on an estate, occupied by a gatekeeper, caretaker, gardener, or other employee.
5. a resort hotel, motel, or inn.
6. the main building of a camp, resort hotel, or the like.
7. the meeting place of a branch of certain fraternal organizations.

Isn’t it nice that we had a night off? We enjoyed it, and we needed it. Let’s see if the Mets did.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

HOW’S THAT WORKING FOR YA?

There was no internet in my office today, which means, effectively, that there was nothing we could do. I spent five hours waiting around for a part to come in that would resolve said internet outage, only to be then told it would still be a few hours, and then gave up and came home.  The whole time, I’m thinking - how great, I don’t have to read about any more of this nonsense… before I walked out on the street and paid attention.

So much for the ‘we’ll do it in the middle of the night, so it won’t make the morning papers in NYC!’ plan, dudes. That went well, dontcha think?

We’ve had to deal with weeks of this bs. Now we’re going to have to deal with MORE weeks of this. Because this week will be the whole “Mets on the road dealing with Willie’s firing!” both in LA and in Denver (because what else are they writing about in Denver right now), and then it will be “Mets come home after Willie being fired!” next week.... especially since remember who we play next week?

The Mariners.

Who just, um, fired somebody.

Good times ahead. I predict we’ll stop talking about this… in 2009, or whenever the Wilpons decide we should all find out about the ticket prices for next year.

Gothamist has all of today’s papers nicely displayed. *sigh*

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

MEET THE NEW BOSS.

And life goes on.

NEW DAY RISING.

What a completely cowardly way to do this. Another strike against Omar. At least the clock is ticking for him now, too.

Now what?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Monday, June 16, 2008

CLOCK STRIKES TEN.

As most of you know, I like Omar. I take umbrage when morons try to interject the type of racist nonsense I term “The International Latino Baseball Conspiracy”.

But last night, listening to him in the post-game press conference, I lost a tremendous amount of respect for him:

“I can’t answer that [whether Willie will be the manager for the rest of the season].  He is my manager today, and I have the right to evaluate him as we go along.  Let me put it this way, he is always being evaluated...It’s a situation that I’m constantly evaluating.”

What a terrible answer - not just for the media, but for Willie, for the fans, and for the players on the team. Terrible.

Every person I run into is asking me if Willie’s going to be fired. And I was going to tell someone this morning to shut up - and then I realized that at this point, I stand just as much a chance of being a reliable source of information. Everyone is reporting something different every five minutes. Everyone has an inside source. Everyone knows for sure.

It sucks enough being a fan right now. This is not making it any better. At least people had respect for Omar before. He’s just looking terrible right now, and not just because of the players he is giving Willie to put on the field every night.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

THE RANGERS HAD A HOMECOMING.

I think the point at which it should have dawned on us that the weather was NOT clearing and the game was not going to be played was this:

Friday, June 13, 2008

THE TOP 10 THINGS I WANT THE METS TO DO *RIGHT NOW* (THAT THEY NEVER WILL).

From the home office in beautiful downtown Greenpoint, Brooklyn, I bring you THE TOP TEN THINGS I WANT THE METS TO DO RIGHT NOW (THAT THEY NEVER WILL).

10. Stop speaking in those useless baseball cliches. Everyone. I don’t want to hear anything about “helping the team” or “it’s disappointing” or “best effort,” whether it’s Willie or a player. Plain speaking will serve. Please look to the Tigers or the Mariners for a way of talking to fans about HOW MUCH THE TEAM SUCKS without candy-coating it. The line needs to be “It’s unacceptable,” and spin control stories about closed-door players-only meetings are insulting our intelligence.

9. Make EVERY PLAYER available after EVERY GAME. Hire translators for the players who are more comfortable expressing themselves in Spanish and have them readily available (and not Sandy Alomar).  THERE ARE NO MORE EXCUSES.

8. Johan Santana gives interviews to anyone who wants one about he feels about the team’s collapse. As others have pointed out, he has been painfully absent. He’s gotta be mighty pissed right about now, and it’s about time he got to express that and we have the right to hear it.

7. GIVE DAVID WRIGHT A GODDAMNED DAY OFF. The kid is exhausted.

6. Hold an after-game press conference with Omar and televise it. Not a formal, stand-behind-the-podium thing in the Diamond Club, with Jay Horowitz hovering in the background. Informal and open. His in-game appearance with Ron and Gary this week was laughable and the best example of the Mets’ deplorable PR and spin control.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

OUR NEW MANIFESTO.

Greg says it best:

I stand by my statement of clarity: the Mets suck. A team does not have this stretch of games without internal suckitude defining its very soul. A team does not get the trademark Johan Santana start for which all had been waiting and then throw it away without some incredible suck.

Billy Wagner...somebody check his middle initial. I’ll bet it’s an S.

At least I’m not a beat writer. At least I don’t have to manufacture something out of nothing.
At least I’m not a MLB writer, having to spin content out of thin fucking air.
At least I wasn’t tempted to go to this game, even though Santana v. Haren hurt to miss on some level.
I would say that I feel bad for Johan, but $137m has a way of making things okay I bet. (Which is mean. But I’m cranky right now.)

Hey, at least there’s no game tonight! Go home and enjoy the weather. Take a walk. Ride a bike. Go out and throw a baseball. That’s what we’re going to do. See you in McCarren Park.