Saturday, March 22, 2008

MORE 2008 CREATIVE.

A sojourn around Brooklyn yesterday (en route to DiFara’s) yielded the following:

*sigh*

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

HEY! NEW YORK MEDIA!

While you’re all so busy falling over yourselves, pointing out the fine moral fettle of That Team From The Bronx, just because they went to Virginia Tech to play an exhibition game… why aren’t any of you asking where any of those players were LAST YEAR when David Wright and the David Wright Foundation sponsored a benefit right here in NYC… ONE MONTH after the shootings? He helped create a scholarship fund. He didn’t pose for pictures and sign autographs, although he probably did that too.

You didn’t give David Wright that much attention then.

Wait, don’t answer that.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

STEPHEN MALKMUS LIKES THE METS.

For the indie rock geeks who read this blog (and I know you are out there), you will be as delighted as I was to find an interview with Stephen Malkmus [ex-Pavement, current: Jicks] where he discusses baseball (and mostly baseball, and fantasy baseball, and other fun things) in my RSS reader this morning.

And you will also likely to be as gleeful to discover the following as I was:

YS: I’m hoping John Maine can do it again.

SM: Maybe he’ll have a little less pressure with Santana there. Who knows. Do you like the Mets?

YS: Yeah I’m a Mets fan.

SM: All the Matador guys are. They’re huge into the Mets. They go to games occasionally and get into trouble. They’re really good fans. I picked them up back in the ’90s when they weren’t so good. I’m excited. They’ve got the old question marks like always with Alou and Delgado, so I don’t know what to say about them. You’ve gotta be excited about Santana. That guy is unbelievable. You gotta do it now. That guy pitching in Shea, it’s gotta be great.

[via]

Monday, March 17, 2008

“NO, THE OTHER JOSE.”

David Lennon has the quote about his latest injury upate:

“Just give a chance to a young kid, give him a chance to earn some money,” Valentin said. “My career has been good enough. I’ll go to Plan B—coach, be with my family. Live ‘La Vida Loca.’ Have fun.”

Is it not-baseball of me to be happy that instead of taking the Mets’ money and making another rehab attempt - which may or may not be successful - he’s going to say, “Thanks for the memories” and go on with his life? Is it unAmerican for him to say, “Gee, I got enough money, had a great run, see ya?” It just makes me like him more, even though I have struggled in the past with my ability to truly embrace Jose Valentin.

I will never forget that Milwaukee series in 2006 where Jose Valentin sparked into life and confounded everyone’s expectations.  Yeah, he started to let us down a little bit last year, but so did almost everyone. And I never hated him the way I hated Julio Franco or Moises Alou (who could still redeem himself, I hate to mention him in the same breath as Moses). He showed up. He played as hard as he could. I’d blame Willie or Omar before I’d lay blame at Valentin’s feet.

Vaya con dios.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

2008 CREATIVE.

Photo credit: TBF

We were driving through Long Island City earlier this week when I glimpsed what I thought was new creative over a subway entrance. But I was tired and hungry and although TBF offered to do a u-turn so I could go back and take a photo, I waved it off.

I was working today when the above came into my phone, courtesy TBF’s cameraphone. And I think part of the reason I didn’t make an effort earlier was because I knew I was going to hate it, and I do.

I know what you’re going to say, “It doesn’t matter, it has nothing to do with the team.” But it’s still embarrassing, because it looks like it was put together by a 13 year old with their first copy of Paint Shop Pro. It’s supposed to look modern and edgy, and it just looks sloppy and unprofessional. We’re in one of the advertising capitals of the world, and yet the Mets can’t seem to find (or choose not to find) someone capable of producing world-class collateral, and settle for this garbage.

Also, as Matt Cerrone feared a while back, while the slogan isn’t “This year we are the team to beat,” it might as well be. On the other hand, I appreciate that the team isn’t pretending that 2007 didn’t happen: “Here, look! Johan Santana!! Forget about 2007!! Shiny toy, shiny toy!” I’ll need to see the rest of the campaign before I pass judgment on the tone and positioning. If you see ‘em, send ‘em in.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

THE HATE LIST.

Last week, I got an email from my friend Sarah in Seattle, she of the Mariners Charter Seats. She has a very high-powered fantasy league every year, and TBF was invited to join last year. (I was invited, but I do not have time for fantasy leagues and this is the first year I feel like I would actually be competent enough to be a good participant.) The draft for their fantasy league was scheduled for this past Sunday.

At the risk of creating a conflict in your household over your fantasy team allegiances, I would love your input as I do my research for Sunday.

Filtering out Yankees is easy enough, but beyond that, do you have a list off the top of your head of Baseball Players You Hate The Most?  I would like to put an asterisk next to their names.

My response, after the jump.

WEBCHAT CATCHUP.

Thanks to The Happy Recap for inviting me to participate in last night’s chat. If you missed it, you can catch up with the transcript, here.

Aside from a 30 second blank where I couldn’t remember wtf Timo Perez was (except someone TBF mentioned with expletives around his name), I think I did all right.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

METSGRRL AT THE HAPPY RECAP CHAT ON 3/11.

Yours truly will be participating in a Mets blogger roundtable online chat at The Happy Recap on Tuesday, March 11, at 8pm EST. I’ll appearing with Mike Steffanos from long-time MG favorite Mike’s Mets along with the bloggers-in-charge at Shea Nation and Always Amazin’ (over at nj.com). I would be thrilled to get a little support from regulars, if you had a few minutes on Tuesday night.

To participate, visit The Happy Recap, register for an account (hey, it keeps out the trolls) and click on the live chat button under David Wright in the site banner.  See you there!

Friday, March 07, 2008

IN FURTHER NEWS

Generalissimo Francisco Franco Is Still Dead

When I walked into work this morning, Carlos from Accounting waves at me.
“Please, give me some optimism.”
I stare blankly at him.
“Alou.”
Another blank stare.
“Out with a hernia. 4-6 weeks.”
“Wait - Moises Alou is injured?! Surely you jest. Alou - out 4 to 6 weeks? Nooo. You must be talking about someone else.” I shake my head. “Carlos. It’s Spring Training. It’s Moises Alou.”

As Mike put it this morning:
The bad news about Moises Alou has been dispensed, and the endless string of handwringing and negativity begins anew. The euphoria over the Santana trade is all but forgotten.”

Steve Somers said something similar a few nights ago - oh my god, it’s March 4, the season is over, you’re all going to be calling with the gnashing and the moaning.

Am I the only person in the Tri-State Area that didn’t expect Moises Alou to get through the year injury-free? It’s the eternal TBF-MG debate: TBF reminds me of how great Alou is. I point to his DL stints. He quotes his number of at-bats. I remind him that the reason he got so many at-bats last year was because he was the only guy not falling apart at the end of the year, so of course he was performing, he’d been RESTING for 3/4 of the year. Andrew from row F leans over and reminds us that there’s a rock in his backyard that moves faster than Moises Alou. Some Cubs fan glares at me from the Friendly Confines and speaks of him in hushed, reverent tones. Moises himself looks straight into the camera instead of at Kevin Burkhardt and states for the 53rd time in a 3 minute interview how much he’d like to stay in New York. I say, Moishe, honey, maybe try some yoga?

There are exactly 4,563 beat reporters are down in PSL. The magnifier is on full amplification, everybody’s scurring around trying to find something new to say. OMG METS DEAD IN WATER, WASTED $137.5M ON BRINGING SANTANA TO FLUSHING is going to get more eyeballs than CALM DOWN THE SEASON HASN’T STARTED YET.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

YES, YOU DO DETECT A THEME.

Part of today’s birthday gifts from TBF.

I really wanted a pink glove, but they’re all softball gloves. We’d been talking about this for a year or so now, and a few months ago, while in a sporting goods store, I started trying gloves on and fell in love with this one, because it fit wonderfully and just felt right.

You are looking at my very first baseball glove.