Saturday, April 19, 2008

FRIDAY MUSINGS for 4-18-08.

Last night’s event with Mets By The Numbers and Benchclearing went swimmingly well, I thought, despite some initial nerves and a minute or two of, WTF am I doing up here interviewing baseball writers about baseball books. But I am good at the interviewing thing, pretty good at the writing thing, and not so bad at the baseball thing, so it all turned out well. Thanks to those who attended, and thanks again to Word Books and Jon Springer for the opportunity. For those of you who didn’t show and live in the area, just see if I buy you a hot pretzel at Shea this year.

—

We didn’t see the game tonight.  I know, Santana-Hamels, but our hearts needed a little solace.  If the car would have made it to Jersey we would have been down the shore, but lacking that we headed for Rockaway, sharing earbuds on the train there and back, getting the last out of the 9th inning two seconds before the A train went back underground. Once we got home, I watched the Reyes collision, just to reassure myself that he was doing okay.

—

A few favorite press quotes:

Adam Rubin

”I see when somebody’s not happy,” Beltran said. “I didn’t think he was happy. I told him, ‘I want you to be the Reyes you’ve always been.’ Him being quiet, that’s not him. … We don’t care if other teams get offended.”

Said Reyes: “Everything is back.”

Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Also from Rubin:

Billy Wagner had the line of the night. Referring to the booing from the Citizens Bank Park fans as he entered from the bullpen, the closer quipped:

“When I ran in, I thought (Scott) Schoeneweis was with me.”

I *like* Billy Wagner.

Jayson Stark:

PHILADELPHIA—As you watched Johan Santana overmatch the Phillies on Friday in his first visit to Philadelphia as a Met, it was hard to resist asking this question:

Suppose he’d been a Met last year.

Hey, Jayson: Suppose my mother was a bus. We could all go for a ride in her.
—
Tomorrow we will miss the game because we will be arriving in Jersey for the family Seder right about the time of first pitch, and although TBF mumbled something about sitting at the other end of the table and stealthing an earbud, I don’t think that’s gonna work. I freely confess that a big reason I agreed to go was so that TBF and I wouldn’t decide to head to Philly at the last minute.

A happy and kosher Pesach to all you readers of the Hebraic faith.

Friday, April 18, 2008

EXTRA INNINGS.

Today is a very, very sad day in the MG household. I’ll update over the weekend.

Some comments from Jon about last night over at MBTN to hold you over.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

PERFECT DAY.

I was still annoyed I missed Tuesday’s game, even though I know it was cold and it was Mike Pelfrey (who I very much like and am very much rooting for), it still would have been baseball and the therapeutic value thereof has already been proven. I am still not sure I made the right decision, especially after TBF came home pleased and happy for a change.

But Tuesday’s game combined with last night’s game (which we watched much afterwards, since we were at this yesterday evening) makes me even more irked, because I want to believe that this is an upsurge, that this is the beginning of a trend, that the Mets have gotten the monkey off their back. And I would have wanted to be there to see it.

Will sent a text message last night (which I didn’t get until afterwards, when we were quarantining ourselves from game results until we could get home) saying something about how John Maine was angry (and that it was hot, but nevermind). Once we got home I totally saw what he was talking about. John Maine not tipping his cap (one of the quintessential Mets hat-tippers) as he walked back to the dugout because he didn’t think he deserved it. Bumping fists with Joe Smith when he came back to the dugout after closing out the 7th inning but still shaking his head reproachfully as he sat back down. There is no complacency here and I’d point out to him that hey, the Cy Young award-winner sitting at the other end of the dugout is getting booed and you’re not, while it’s moronic no one has anything bad to say about your performance.

TBF is all smiles and all, “It’s the 2006 Mets again.” I prefer to just think, these are the Mets we’ve been waiting for. I feel much better heading to Philadelphia like this.

If you’re coming to the reading tonight, we’ll likely be heading to a local watering hole afterwards to watch the end of the game. Hopefully we’ll have another happy ending on our hands.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

TONIGHT, TONIGHT.

I’m not going tonight. TBF has my ticket. I’m not optimistic he’ll be able to give it away at the box office.

It’s going to be freezing. I’m exhausted. I have to be up at 6 tomorrow. The next two days are very busy after work.

And it’s KILLING me that I’m not going.

What kind of baseball fan am I? A lame-ass one.

THIS THURSDAY:  METSGRRL + METS BY THE NUMBERS.

I’ll just quote from the website:

Thursday, April 17, 7:30pm:
Jon Springer, author of Mets By The Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Amazin’ Mets by Uniform Number and Spike Vrusho, author of Benchclearing: Baseball’s Greatest Fights and Riots, moderated by Caryn Rose of metsgrrl.com.
Beer and snacks will be served.
Word, 126 Franklin St., Brooklyn 11222

[Here’s a map.]

It is a 5 minute walk from the Greenpoint Ave. G stop or a 15 minute walk from the Bedford L. Be there or be square.

Monday, April 14, 2008

D.WRIGHT REMINDER.

[There’s some kind of Al Pacino joke here, with the Mets or DW. I just can’t figure it out right now. Anyone else?]

Sunday, April 13, 2008

OUTSHINED. [04-12-08, pt. 2]

Mets v. Brewers
Santana v. Sheets

So I was not here for the other great acquisitions, the other legendary starts. I wasn’t here at Piazza’s first game or Pedro’s first game or Seaver coming back in 1983 (although I have to admit that it kills me to think about all the baseball I could have seen, if I had only known better at the time. I will hold my father responsible.). There is nothing I can do about any of that.

However, I am here right now, and this is the first time that the Mets have acquired a player that I really, truly knew something about. I probably knew more about Johan Santana on a day-to-day basis than even TBF. If I could have snuck into the press conference or watched it live I would have. This has been a big deal to me, and while I realize that it’s also a big deal to most of the rest of you, I really took the acquisition of Santana to heart. Maybe because I understood what was going on and understood the value beyond just two-time Cy Young and the best pitcher in baseball. It was like, hey! this is my guy..

I realize this sounds silly, or an attitude better befitting a 12 year old in their 5th year of Little League, sitting in the upper deck with their team, hopped up on cotton candy and soda. Perhaps in some ways I’m closer to that kid than I am people my own age, in terms of fandom. But I was excited about today, anxious that it might get rained out, inconsolable at the thought that I wouldn’t see Johan Santana’s first start at Shea. When we got home last night and checked the weather, I formulated an entire game plan. Our Saturday plan seats are in the upper deck, which are not great for photographic purposes. I knew there wouldn’t be BP, but the pitchers would have to warm up. We would get there early, I would stake out the bullpen, and I could get some decent shots of Santana the day of his first start at Shea.

Well, we already know how well that went.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

LOOKING CALIFORNIA. [04-12-08, pt. 1]

Mets v. Brewers
Batting Practice

The plan, as my devious mind conceived of it, was to get to Shea early enough to stake myself out in the loge near the bullpen. Being an old habitue, I knew there would be no BP today (day game after a night game), but I also knew the pitchers had to warm up. Everyone would head to the field, while I would head to that corner of the loge near the bullpen. Genius, right? We got to Shea at 11 (no, seriously, 11am), and giddy as a schoolgirl, made a beeline for the loge.

We got a smile out of Nelson as he was finishing his long tossing and walking towards the bullpen: “Nelson! Brooklyn, REPRESENT!” He signed autographs for every single person who wanted them today (No, seriously, every. single. person.)  and who could blame him?

THEY DO EXIST.

FOUND: in the new team store tent-thing out near the subway stairs - THEY DO EXIST!!!

(A nice touch is the Shea 1964-2008 logo printed on the sleeve.)

Funnily enough, yesterday I had written a whole rant about how there need to be John Maine shirts, and was going to start this whole campaign to get the Mets to manufacture them. Oh well.

They have OP shirts, too, but I am still vacillating. It will break my heart when we lose him.

CONEY ISLAND BABY. [4-11-08]

I’ll confess that I didn’t want to go to the game tonight. We had actually talked about getting rid of the tickets, and had tried to get rid of the tickets, but who on earth wants to spend $50+ to go to Shea in April on a Friday night to see Nelson Figueroa, especially with Santana starting the very next day? It had been a long week, lots of early starts for me, and we were heading right back to Shea on Saturday, weather gods permitting. It would be okay, right, to skip this one, sit it out? Maybe send TBF out to Flushing with my ticket and if he got rid of it, great, if not, well, we’d already paid for it. It would be okay, it would be understandable. It is April baseball. I am tired.

That was the thought pattern in my head when I crawled out of bed at 6:20 this morning, and yet, at 4:30pm, I am on the phone with TBF discussing food options and meeting places and times and by 6pm we were on the 7 train out to Willetts Point. When we got on the train at Bryant Park, I was completely in afternoon commuter mode, barreling down the stairs and into the train and letting him hopelessly follow me. And then by Grand Central I was apologizing, and by Vernon-Jackson it didn’t matter too much, and by the time the express was speeding by Sunnyside, I was laughing and making jokes. The closer the train got to Shea, the better I felt.