Wednesday, August 02, 2006

nail-biting thrills (not)

I thought by now I was used to the continuum of suspense, the rollercoaster, the ups and downs. Tonight, however, I don’t know if I’m just tired or if it was really that bad, but my mumbling in the kitchen about my lack of confidence that the Mets would pull this one out in the 9th earned me a mini-lecture from TBF, something about “you don’t have a lot of confidence in your players, now do you”.

At that moment, my answer would have been a resounding “no”.

I wish d.wright would pull out of his slump.  And Cliff - well, you know, Cliff.
TBF: “Wow, is that the first ejection this year?”
MG: “No. Lo Duca - and Duaner, in Milwaukee.”
TBF: “Wow.”
MG: “Pretty good?”
TBF: “Um, yeah.”

Tomorrow I will be trying very hard to watch Pedro and Dontrelle Willis, while I frantically pack for a long weekend in Seattle. We’re back at Shea on Tuesday, for the return of the Mikes. This weekend, we’ll be watching Oakland play the Mariners (but no Barry Zito, two games on three days is all we can cram in amongst the other obligations).

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duaner is gothamist’s “idiot of the month”

Yes, Gothamist’s sports coverage is puerile at best. But this has got to be the most dumb-ass article I have seen, since the one that complained that Patti Smith hogged the Bowery Ballroom every New Year’s Eve, depriving indieflavorbandofthemonth from that venue, and couldn’t she just die already?

TIEN MAO, YOU LIVE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD, WATCH YOURSELF.

[kidding.]

[well, sort of.]

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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

x to the z

No sooner do I publish my sacred Mets iPod playlist then do I have to revise it, removing “X” by Xzibit, since #22, Mr. Nady, is no longer with us.

I quite liked X (and not just because he looked like Joaquin Phoenix), but as the season went on, I was more and more uncomfortable when he was out there - not quite Victor Diaz-level uncomfortable (I swear I had grey hair last summer brought on entirely by Victor Diaz’ presence in RF), but I was never 100% sure he was going to be able to generate the rubber arms and Roadrunner-like legs that an outfielder seems to need as part of his arsenal (except Carlos Beltran, who, while he will dive when the situation warrants, carries himself with elegance).  I always breathed just a little easier when Endy was out there. Endy would get to that ball or die trying.

And maybe I don’t know anything about stats - although lord knows I try every day to learn a little bit more - it would seem that my gut instinct is supported by the numbers - acknowledging of course that Endy doesn’t quite have the hits yet either. But he is fast and furious and full of spirit.

Apropos learning about numbers, TBF and I set up a private wiki a while ago so I could ask my baseball questions and get my baseball answers and have everything aggregated in one place, and also so I could refer to it and not have to keep asking. This is important, because explaining the infield fly rule to me a year ago registered about [] that much, and maybe reading and re-reading it again right now gives me a whole other set of questions to ask.  So I can add it into the wiki and TBF can see that I added something. While I love sitting down and asking questions while we’re driving or eating or watching a game, sometimes it makes more sense to write it down and get the answer written down, and I love that it is all tracked in one place.

It’s worked well for us, we’re just sorry we don’t have more time to spend on it now. We had included lists of games attended, and the promotion schedule, and pictures from the wire services that we liked.

One of TBF’s graces is that he never, ever, ever, ever grows tired of the questions, or the asking, or the explaining, or the re-explaining, or the, Oops, sorry, I know you explained all the trading deadlines last year, but I didn’t know enough then to care about them, so how about you go through them all again for me, honey?  He will explain anything multiple times, in more detail than you could ever possibly want, with as much enthusiasm as he did the first time.  “Can I ask a baseball question?” is always met with “Of course.”

(...something that those of you bemoaning the fact that your S.O.’s can’t stand baseball might wish to take under advisement. :-) )

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