Wednesday, February 06, 2008

MEET THE PRESS.

I realize this has been analyzed twelve ways to Sunday already, but here’s some thoughts:

• Johan was exceedingly well-spoken and composed. He was not rattled. This bodes well.
• If you listen closely, he has a little bit of a Midwestern accent - just like Delgado has the slightest trace of a New York accent. (I mean, Delgado’s English is almost perfect, but he’s definitely got those Bensonhurst “R’s” sometimes.)
• Not too many cliches. It didn’t feel rehearsed, it just felt like he thought about what he might want to say before he said it.
• He may give the other snappy dressers on the team a run for their money.
• Willie looks very bald without a hat, which is how we see him 99.9% of the time.
• David Wright, you couldn’t shave? I know it’s the off season, but still.
• However, the big shit-eating grin on DW’s face said it all, and was only matched by the big smile on TBF’s the entire press conference.
• To the moron with the $5 digital camera that was in front of the SNY camera, I hope someone beat the crap out of you later.
• Alan Schwartz: Can we just have him ask all the questions?
• Our Spanish comprehension was pretty good as a group.
• TBF was pleased, nay, delighted that the jersey was “the proper jersey” and “the proper hat.”
• This was a big event so I was pleased to see the Mets actually ACT like it was a big event.

You know what? We got Johan Santana.

I just can’t say that enough.

THIS IS IT.

I have been in meetings all day, uptown and downtown, and surrounded by Yankees fans. The press conference is taped on the DVR and I imagine we will order something nice and sit and watch it together.

That’s our idea of a good night at Chez MetsGrrl + TBF.

I haven’t peeked beyond the pictures. I just want that classic press conference moment when he puts on the jersey and the hat. So formulaic, but the formula is part of the appeal.

More later, but for now (and especially for my friends from the great state of Minnesota):

MetsBlog photos from the press conference
AP Wire

Monday, February 04, 2008

NO, SERIOUSLY.

You didn’t believe me, did you?

I was delighted to learn on MetsBlog yesterday that the Mets were telling people that shirts would be available today. Given their past successes in making merchandise available to people who want to buy it, I was not optimistic that the mental giants in the merch department would step on it any time before Opening Day.

But the MetsBlog post made it abundantly clear that shirts were available - they were even available yesterday! - and so at lunchtime, I sent TBF a text:

LUNCH PLANS? WANT TO GO TO CHIPOTLE* + METS STORE?

He met me on the corner of 5th and 42nd. With great excitement, we walked down the block and entered the Team Store, where, with uncharacteristic common sense, the SANTANA 57 shirts were hung just inside the doorway - what was left of them, anyway. There were four hangers empty and two still full.

I pounce. I rejoice. We once again burble how happy we are. While I am paying for my purchase, the phone rings. “We have black in XL and XXL. Jerseys will be in later this week.”

Of course, since THE GUYS WHO WORK AT THE METS TEAM STORE ON 42ND STREET ARE YANKEES FANS, the entire process, which should have been a joy and a delight, was somewhat muted.

(On that note, I have heard these guys telling tourists that they couldn’t tell them anything about Shea Stadium because they were Yankees fans. One of them even had his Yankees-themed iPod barely out of sight under the counter today. No, seriously, they couldn’t get a job at the *Yankees* team store? These were the most qualified individuals to hold these particular jobs? At the major presence the Mets have in Midtown, we have YANKEES fans representing? WTF?)

It is silly, I know, to buy a shirt I can’t even wear yet, except around the house, or maybe to the gym. Opening Day is two months away. And I could have waited, I could have saved my $20 and put it towards a jersey, or something.

But I wanted to buy the shirt today. At the Team Store. It’s like running around the arena to find the place that’s selling the event-specific shirt or the event-specific poster. It’s like waiting in line at 11:59pm on a Monday night so you can get the record coming out THE NEXT DAY at 12:01 sharp.

It is my ritual, my way of doing things from other lives that fits here, makes sense here, makes sense to me. I don’t know what you’re ‘supposed’ to do but this, this felt dead right. I want to be able to say in years to come, Remember when we signed Santana? Man, I cut out of work on a busy day to run and buy a shirt so I could have it right away.

It may not be “Where were you when you heard we traded Seaver” or “Where were you when you heard we signed Piazza?” but it’s what I got. You have to start somewhere.

*(For those not denizens of Midtown Manhattan, they are, conveniently, adjacent to each other.)

Saturday, February 02, 2008

“EVERY BATTER LOOKS LIKE HANNAH MONTANA.”

Kick ass. Kuff and the Buttheads [check their MySpace page] of Mets Weekly fame have already written their ode to Johan Santana.

all the pain from last year is gone
the fans are happy with fred wilpon
omar smiles because the deal is done
willie says, “let’s go johan”

Friday, February 01, 2008

ABRAXAS.

[I realize that I am going to regret, much later, using all my Santana references now.]

You know where you don’t want to be waiting for crucial baseball news?

In a hair salon.

While I realize that this may seem obvious, it wasn’t until I was sitting in my neighborhood salon, smeared with haircolor and my hair do more of a hair don’t, and frantically trying to get signal on my PDA, that I realized that this was THE WORST POSSIBLE PLACE to be waiting for the final countdown.

[cue music]

Because nobody walking into Zoe’s Beauty Supply was going to 1) know anything or 2) care about my issue. Wait, I take that back: Anna, the woman who does my hair, cared deeply about the results (although she freely admitted she wasn’t as insane as I was). She, however, had customers. And cousins. And more crucial gossip than how much the Wilpons were eventually going to fork over to Johan Santana.

TBF was at the gym.
Coop was out at dinner, and asking me for updates.
Will was - well, somewhere, and asking me for updates

I am sitting in Greenpoint with hair color on my head and trying to figure out WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH THE SANTANA TRADE.

I lose signal, and decide to sneak to the front of the shop. The only problem with that, of course, is that the front of the shop is a boutique and has AN INCREDIBLY LARGE PLATE GLASS WINDOW facing Greenpoint Avenue.

And I am standing there looking like Phyllis Diller on a bad hair day.

One of the drunks from the bar next door comes staggering up the street and peers into the window. When he sees me, he does a double take.

It’s at about this point that I decide enough is enough and skulk back to the salon. I have enough signal to try one more time.

DONE DEAL.

Thank god. I sink back into the chair, and start texting people with details.

“Uh, Caryn? Can someone rinse you now?”

Um, yeah.

STOP IT. JUST SIGN THE PAPER ALREADY.

Sources: Santana extension talks stuck on number of guaranteed years

WAITING, WATCHING THE CLOCK.

DEADLINE EXTENSION? WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING DEADLINE EXTENSION