LET THE GAMES (THAT DON'T COUNT) BEGIN

The Mets opened their Grapefruit League exhibition season Thursday afternoon with a 12-7 win over the Cardinals. I know the games don't count, and I'll get real tired of them real soon, but it's nice to see actual scores of actual baseball games.

Supposedly at this point, the pitchers are supposed to be ahead of the hitters. Rare was the pitcher ahead of the hitter in this game. Steve Trachsel pitched poorly, Billy Wagner pitched well. The good news out of this game was Xavier Nady's four hits, with 6 RBI, including a grand slam. Carlos Delgado was 3-for-3.

MAILBAG/PEDRO* UPDATE:

"Dear JohnnyMets,

Just a quick email to say 'JohnnyMets called it.' Pedro pulled out of the World Baseball Classic. I guess the toe just proved too much.

Dave in Brighton"

Thanks Dave...although I'm not really sure I called it. I really thought Pedro* would pitch in the World Baseball Classic at some point. Turns out, the Dominicans didn't want to waste a roster spot on Pedro*, if he wasn't going to be available until possibly the final round, and it would have wasted Pedro*'s spring for the Mets. I didn't realize this, but Major League teams aren't allowed to use a guy in spring training if he's on a WBC roster (which I guess makes sense in all cases except for a guy who is somewhat injured like Martinez*). I'm cool with this whole thing, though, because now Pedro* can focus on the regular season, and get ready for the games that count, as far as I'm concerned.

DARREN DAULTON: Yesterday I promised more from Darren Daulton....so here it is. Turns out, the date he mentioned as the end of the world, as I'm sure you've heard somewhere by now, is the end of the Mayan calendar. But I already mentioned all of that - the new development is that yesterday I heard Daulton on Dan Patrick's show on ESPN Radio. Nearly all of the callers I heard at the end of the show called to support Daulton and tell him how brave he was to come forward with something like this, because he was subjecting himself to ridicule. Well, he sure is. I'm not buying it. I'm willing to take the risk that there will be egg on my face when the world ends in 2012.

SCHEDULING STUFF: I just discovered that Sunday afternoon, the Mets' split-squad game against the Puerto Rican WBC team (featuring Carloses Beltran* and Delgado) will be on ESPN. Monday's game will be too (against Cleveland), but I'll be working...maybe I'll TiVo that. Also, it seems I do not have ESPN Deportes, so hopefully a lot of these games in North America for the WBC will be on regular ESPN and ESPN2 so I can watch them.

I'm determined not to screw up this year on Opening Day. The Mets open up Monday, April 3, against Washington, at 1pm. I'm going to try to avoid human contact, TiVo the game (last year I had to rely on the old-fashioned VCR), and not set the TV to ESPNEWS before I watch the game on delay. See last year's April blog entry to see how I messed up on Opening Day. The good news about this year is that I have a shorter commute to watch the game.

SNY UPDATE: I don't want to have to write a letter to SNY, but there is no e-mail contact on their website (which is up and running), and I really want to be the official blogging partner of the station. Also, it doesn't appear that I have SNY on my DirecTV package...at least yet. This won't affect my ability to watch the Mets games, because I'll still get them through the baseball package - but I do want to watch all of the Mets programming (and Jets programming) the station will feature when it's not showing baseball.

This was a fast week. TGIF. I'll be updating all weekend - especially postgame Sunday. Also coming within the next week - the promised fantasy baseball updates (maybe that will be within the next couple of weeks) and some insight from the wife about our newest addition, coming World Series time. The newest addition is coming World Series time - the insight from the wife is coming in the next week. Think baby names, a la Shea Jones, offspring of Chipper.