200 Miles From the Citi

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2009-08-29T21:50:00.004-04:00

200 Miles From the Citi is back, and we're at a new location. Click here to continue reading!

A NOT-SO-HAPPY RECAP

2009-07-07T10:07:00.004-04:00

My Aunt JoJo was never one to mince words. She spoke her mind on a number of subjects, and lately I've been thinking a lot about her views on my obsession with sports.

"Why do you care so much?" she'd yell at me. (She wasn't angry. She just spoke loudly and passionately.) "You think they care about you? You think [insert athlete here] cares about what you're doing?"

The athlete in the above statement could have been anyone, though I remember references to Patrick Ewing and Boomer Esiason specifically.

Believe it or not, I was much more obsessive of a sports fan back then than I am now. And in the early 1990s it was the Knicks that were the object of my obsessiveness (probably a result of a combination of their [relative] success, the Mets' and Jets [very] lean years, and the baseball strike).

I remember the day I quit the Knicks, and took Aunt JoJo's words to heart. It was 1995 - Game 7 between the Indiana Pacers and Knicks, and Patrick Ewing missed a layup that would have sent the game into overtime. I still haven't seen this layup, my break with the NBA was so complete. After living and dying through the 1994 season, I saw most of the 1995 season, but I was working right outside Madison Square Garden the night of Game 7. We were listening to the game on the radio. (I tried looking up the video of the play on youtube, and found nothing. I think I'm happy saying I still haven't seen the missed layup after 14 years.)

Anyway, I watched people pouring out of the Garden with my head laying on the display counter feeling like someone had punched me in the gut. I watched those people, and they didn't look terribly disappointed. Or at least anywhere close to as disappointed as I was.

And I decided that probably felt better than the way I felt.

I resolved to take other things in life more seriously. Over the next few years, the NBA lockout and Patrick Ewing's involvement in the Atlanta strip club scandal helped me fully separate myself from the NBA, but I just couldn't cut ties with the Jets and Mets. (I get into the Rangers when I watch them, but I find hockey just doesn't stick in my gut like the other sports.)

But the point here is, I'm starting to feel that way about the Mets and Jets. I'd like to think it's not so much the losing as it is the way the team is (teams are, really) losing. I'm not getting the feeling anyone cares.

Dropped pop-ups, baserunning errors...these are the types of basics that are supposed to be givens with Major League teams.

I still love baseball. I love watching a random game on a summer night. I still love football. I still want the Mets and Jets to do well. I'm just feeling a lot less angst when they don't.

I'm also feeling a lot less inspired to write about these teams. So I think I'm shutting down the blog. Something happened after I hit five years - maybe it was the way the 2009 season was heading, but I don't think so. It started even in the early part of this year. I guess there were just other things on my mind.

That said, those other things on my mind might become my new writing passion - and therefore I might spend my time writing about things like family life, sports in general...maybe just some kind of humor about day-to-day life. So stay tuned, if you don't mind, for information about a new blog that I'm thinking about starting up. And thank you for five years of reading what I have to say.

This is not a good-bye forever, just a see you later for now. Because, as Aunt JoJo might say, "Why do you care about how many doubles David Wright hits? Do you think he is writing about how many diapers you change?"

Or, to answer her question, "Why do you care so much?", I might now answer, "I don't think I do." And if that's the case, I can't justify having you come back to this space every day.

I'VE HAD IT

2009-06-28T23:38:00.003-04:00

I was all set to bring you a recap of my second visit to Citi Field, when Francisco Rodriguez walked Mariano Rivera with the bases loaded.

I just don't have it in me right now. Maybe I'll get to Citi Field later this week.

If I still cared I think I'd cry right now.

I've talked many times about how I can't stand bases-loaded walks, and how it seems like it's just become more and more prevalent in the past decade or so (let's date it back to, say, the 1999 NLCS).

And then you have the Mets' big-money closer not able to throw 3 strikes past the other team's closer.

Nice job, Mets. Fantastic.

FEELING BETTER ABOUT THINGS

2009-06-25T16:53:00.002-04:00

I'm happy to report that my second visit to Citi Field felt good. More like home. I feel a lot better about my relationship with the Mets right now...and it didn't hurt that they won the game.

A couple of items of good news as well:

1) The place can get loud when it wants to. When Francisco Rodriguez toed the rubber against Albert Pujols in the 9th inning it was better than anything I saw on Opening Night. I want to see what the playoff atmosphere would be like there.

2) Someone with the Mets must be reading my blog. Because in the middle of the 8th inning, the Mets no longer play 'Sweet Caroline'...they do a "Meet The Mets" sing-along. Awesome. Just what the new ballpark needs.

I'll have some new pics and other Citi Field updates next week.

ONE MORE GO-AROUND

2009-06-18T11:25:00.009-04:00

I'm sure it hasn't gone unnoticed that it's been hard for me lately to keep up with '200 Miles From the Citi'. Part of this has been a busy home life, but I'm not going to lie - the Mets have been less and less inspiring to me as the season has gone on.

I think I'll address that another day. For now, I'm going to build on some feel-good momentum from last night and touch on a few topics that have been on my mind:

Last night, thanks to a class gift, The Wife and I were able to go to the Red Sox-Marlins game at Fenway Park. Despite the fact that the Red Sox missed the boat on building a new facility, there's always something special about watching a game at Fenway, especially at night, with the light towers. (Maybe because of 'Field of Dreams', I don't know).

It also helped that we had good seats, which is always a better viewing experience at Fenway.

As a nice bonus, last night also happened to be the 500th consecutive sellout at Fenway Park, so we received a commemorative baseball (on the way out the door; the Red Sox are not stupid) and other little giveaways throughout the night - we ended up with a free burrito. Rare giveaways at a place that doesn't really need to draw crowds with free items, so that was nice.

It made me think, though, that the Red Sox, while definitely successful between 2003 and 2009, have a bit of an advantage in that a sellout only needs to be 40,000 tickets sold (or less - 38,000+, I think). While that's more than teams like the Marlins and Nationals could dream of, I wonder how many other teams have had 40,000 for six straight years without being sellouts. The Yankees come to mind - even with their well-known troubles selling tickets this year, they are still over 40,000 a game. Just throwing that out there.

Some other things that have been on my mind:

Last night we happened to catch Brad Penny pitching for the Red Sox. With John Smoltz coming back into the Red Sox' plans for their rotation, rumor has it that Penny is expendable. (There are other options, but the Penny ones have caught my interest the most.) One of the teams rumored to be a destination for Penny is the Mets. I can't tell you how angry it would make me if the Mets traded for Brad Penny. They could have had him, on the cheap no less (unlike Oliver Perez and his 9+ ERA, high salary, and overall ineffectiveness), as a free agent. If they trade someone to get Penny, it might be the final straw that breaks the back of my already high level of frustration with the team.

Finally, you may remember a few years ago when I critiqued all of the Major League Baseball broadcasts. I didn't comment much on the Marlins guys, but I did mention that I was not a fan. They have not climbed the ladder too much in my view, and as I watch their 'sideline' reporter on occasion - I believe it's Craig Minnervini - they've dropped further. He creeps me out. One time in Arizona stands out in particular for me, when he leered at all of the girls in their bathing suits in a poolside interview. Well, that stuck with me, and it didn't go unnoticed last night when he made sure to introduce himself to Red Sox sideline reporter/former model Heidi Watney. Something tells me he doesn't go out of his way to make sure he gets to know the other male sideline reporters (which, it occurs to me, is not an extensive list beyond him) in the league.

So hopefully I'm getting back into updating the site more often. For some reason I hit the 5-year anniversary and maybe even a wall at the same time.

Again, I'll get into this more in a future post, but I'm feeling pretty upset with the Mets lately, though my enjoyment of baseball is still at its peak. Part of my issue is that it still feels odd for me watching the Mets play home games - I feel like I don't recognize anything.

Next week brings another trip to Citi Field. We'll see how things go after that trip. I'll have pictures and a new update on the new ballpark for sure by the first of July...but I will be updating before then as well.

NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT

2009-05-25T10:51:00.003-04:00

Major League Baseball has been reading '200 Miles From the Citi' and has finally gotten the message:

A full slate of games, both afternoon and evening, on Memorial Day.

I've been commenting on this for years (see bottom paragraph).

Thank you, baseball.

UPDATE: I'm kind of liking these red Memorial Day hats around baseball today, especially on teams for whom red is not a primary uniform color. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Mets' logo looks like on the red. If it looks good, I might buy it. (Thanks to Phil Hughes for modeling the look.)

WHEN LAST WE MET...

2009-05-24T10:26:00.007-04:00

There was one thing about the 2006 season that made the Mets' loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS somewhat unsurprising.

No less disappointing...but almost as though, in retrospect, you could see 'it' coming.

The 'it', though, would have been a loss to the Boston Red Sox in the World Series, rather than an NLCS Game 7 loss to the Cardinals.

And the 'it' was the fact that the Mets were beatable...nowhere more on display than during their interleague series with the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

That was the last time the Mets were at Fenway, and of course, all things considered, the season was pretty successful after the Mets were swept in an ugly three-game series in Boston. (Relatively, successful, when compared with 2007 and 2008, I guess.)

The Mets' struggles were personified in that series by Lastings Milledge, who looked lost in left field, clueless as to how to play the Green Monster.

I was at the first of those three games, and looking back, I had forgotten that it was started by Alay Soler. So the Mets' starting pitching is somewhat comparable to those days...although, I guess Livan Hernandez is a better bet than Soler.

But the point is that the past two days have been encouraging. It shows that the Mets can hang with the big boys...and the fact that they're doing it undermanned is even more encouraging.

The Mets won with Johan Santana on the mound Friday night...you hope that happens each time he takes the mound. Mike Pelfrey was in his top form on Saturday, and you hope he looks like that if the Mets are fortunate to make it into October...I'll take 2 first inning runs if he settles down like he did on Saturday - that's how he was when he was at his best beginning last July and lasting for the rest of the season. But all of what has happened so far has been without Jose Reyes or Carlos Delgado in the lineup, without Carlos Beltran in center field (he's been DH), and with the likes of Omir Santos making huge contributions.

And today features Tim Redding against Tim Wakefield. Wakefield has been strong so far this season, but the knuckleball is always dicey, so he could be hittable, and anything positive the Mets get out of Redding is huge.

But even more huge would be a sweep in Boston. It'll wipe the struggles in Los Angeles right from the slate...and give these Mets something that the 2006 team didn't have - the confidence they can hang with the best.

RANDOM STAT: I've been holding onto this one, hoping it continues...but running my baseball pool allows me to keep track of random things - like the fact that until yesterday, Detroit hadn't lost on a Saturday or Sunday all season. I'm sad that ended yesterday....but they're still 12-1 on Saturdays and Sundays.

CHECKING IN WITH THE DUCKS
It's been a while since we checked in with Hall of Famer Gary Carter's Long Island Ducks:

The Ducks have lost 7 of their last 10, and stand at 14-13, 2-and-a-half games behind Southern Maryland, in third place in their division. Some guy named Ray Navarrette, who plays third base, leads the team with 6 homers and 19 RBI. He also leads the team with 7 errors, but I guess with how he's been hitting, you keep him in the lineup.

We'll keep you posted.

Series Recap - Los Angeles Dodgers

2009-05-21T09:18:00.003-04:00

Dodgers win: 3-2

Dodgers win: 5-3

Dodgers win: 2-1

Mets record: 21-19

Ducks on the pond : The Mets only scored six runs in the three game series, and its easy to see why. New York hit just 3-27 with runners in scoring position. Not a good performance against a possible playoff opponent.

David Ortiz mocks you : After Ortiz FINALLY hit a home run last night, it seems like everyone is going deep. Well - everyone except the Mets, that is. The team has now gone seven games since their last home run.

Amazin' Mets? More like Walking Wounded : Jose Reyes could soon be joining Carlos Delgado on the disabled list. Reyes aggrivated a calf injury in Wednesday's loss, and said afterwards it hurt to stand. I'm no doctor, but that's not encouraging.

K-Rod Kount-down : (I jinxed it).
This series: 0 saves
Season total: 11

Current pace: 43

Mets record: 43

Next up: three games at Boston Red Sox

- SB

Series Recap - San Francisco Giants

2009-05-18T15:41:00.003-04:00

May 14: Mets win 7-4
May 15: Mets win 8-6
May 16: Mets win 9-6
May 17: Giants win 2-0

Mets record: 21-16

We're only as good as he is : David Wright got the series off to a great start with four stolen bases on Thursday, and didn't slow down for the weekend. He finishes the four game series 10-15 with 9 rbi. Its no coincidence that as Wright has gotten hot in May (.450 avg, 19rbi), so have the Mets (12-4).

He's human! : Johan Santana finally has a stinker - giving up six runs on Saturday - but the offense picks him up battering Randy Johnson.

Obvious "Cain is Able" joke : The Mets learned what not many people know on Sunday, and that's how Matt Cain may be the most underrated pitcher in baseball. His performance on Sunday kept the Mets from the sweep, but taking three of four is still a pretty good weekend of work.

K-Rod Kount-down : The season is only a month and a half old, and we've already got a new segment for the series recap. We're going to follow Francisco Rodriguez as he tries to break the Mets single season save record.
This series: two saves.
Season total: 11
Current pace: 47
Mets record: 43

Next Up : three games at LA Dodgers

- SB

CRYING WOLF

2009-05-16T09:19:00.003-04:00

Hi, it's me, Johnnymets. Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. It's a busy time of year for me.

That's a lame excuse, I know. But it's really all about the time of year right now. Read: It's not September.

It's hard for me to get swept up in the Mets right now. They've won ten of their last twelve. They have the best record in the majors in May. But that's the problem. It's only May.

And if 2007 and 2008 have taught me anything, it's that it doesn't quite matter where the Mets end May. It matters where they end up in September.

It's the ol', fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me thing. I was fooled twice. If it happens a third time, I don't know that I can handle the shame.

So I'm not getting caught up in all of this. Which is a shame, really. Because the Mets have been playing some exciting ball. A couple of late-inning rallies on the west coast. David Wright has 9 doubles! They're doing it without Carlos Delgado and Jose Reyes.

But I haven't been staying up for the west coast wins. On a Friday night I didn't make it past the game-tying double in the seventh. I went to bed thinking the Mets would probably still lose the game. That's just not something I would have done in the past.

Maybe something will change when summer vacation hits, and I have the time to relax and watch the games. Maybe someone will drop a ticket in my lap to next weekend's series at Fenway Park and I'll get caught up in the excitement again.

But maybe I won't believe these Mets when they cry wolf until I actually see the wolf...in October.

Series Recap - Atlanta Braves

2009-05-14T17:42:00.005-04:00

May 11: Braves win 8-3
May 12: Mets win 4-3
May 13: Braves win 8-7

Mets record: 18-15

Not again : For the second time this season, Johan Santana allowed no earned runs - and lost. Its games like this that they look back on at the end of the season when its tied on the last day.

You messed up : Derek Lowe is 5-1 with an ERA of 3.80. Oliver Perez is 1-2 with an ERA of 9.97. Omar, you messed up.

Not over 'til its over : Down by three in the eighth inning, the Mets come back and win Tuesday's game in extra innings. Carlos Beltran draws the game winning walk, and he's quickly becoming the star of this team. His numbers this year are amazing.

First one to 81 wins : The NL East was supposed to be one of the best divisions in baseball, but only one team (The Mets) is over 500. The parity has led to a close division though.

NY Mets -
Atlanta 1.5gb
Philadelphia 1.5gb
Florida 2gb

If one team gets hot, they could run away with the NL East in a hurry.

Next Up : four games at San Francisco Giants

- SB

Series Recap(s) - they finally lost

2009-05-11T23:55:00.016-04:00

I was going to combine the two two-game series into one post, talking about the winning streak. Then I didn't want to jinx the winning streak by writing about it, so I decided not to post again until they lost.

Thanks to Omar Manaya's decision to go with Oliver Perez over Derek Lowe - here we are. Wouldn't Lowe be a nice #2 pitcher on this Mets team? Eh...I guess that's the next post.

Off to an abbreviated version of what we missed...

May 4: Mets win 6-4
May 5: Mets win 4-3

Mets record: 12-13

MR. MAY : David Wright starts to wake up in this series going 4-9 with 3rbi including a home run. And - perhaps most importantly to Johnnymets - he doubles twice.

Del-don't-got-it : Wasn't that Chris Berman's HR call for Delgado? "Del-got-it". Maybe I'm making it up. Anyways - Delgado's error on Tuesday almost cost the Mets the game. A little suspect over there.

May 6: Mets win 1-0
May 7: Mets win 7-5

Mets record: 14-13

Save me! : Four straight wins, four straight saves for Francisco Rodriguez. The Mets single season save record is 43 by Armando Benitez in 2001. Rodriguez is on pace for 47 saves.

See ya : The Mets hadn't shown much life (before this week), but at least the manager still has the blood pumping. Jerry Manuel tossed from Thursday's game when he made contact with an umpire.

This is not news : Johan Santana was awesome. Yawn.

May 8: Mets win 7-3
May 9: Mets win 10-1
May 10: Mets win 8-4

Mets record: 17-13

Yeah that's great but... : A sweep is huge, but a sweep over the Pirates shouldn't be. Good teams shouldn't lose to bad teams. Maybe the Mets are starting to show signs of a good team.

Who needs Derek Lowe? : Not the Mets when they're playing the Pirates. Three games and they give up just eight runs. And none of the pitchers were Johan Santana!

Seven straight is great : The seven game winning streak gets the Mets back over 500 on the season and puts them right back in the thick of things. For a team that was fading quickly, it could not have come at a better time.

Next Up : three games vs Atlanta Braves. SPOILER ALERT: The Mets lose the first game.

- SB

Series Recap - Philadelphia Phillies

2009-05-04T13:51:00.006-04:00

May 1: Mets win 7-4
May 2: Phillies win 6-5
May 3: rained out

Mets record: 10-13

Worth every penny : Hasn't always been pretty, but Francisco Rodriguez is a perfect five for five in save opportunities this season after Friday night's game ender.

At least one of them is good : Two games, two home runs for Daniel Murphy. He's now hitting .320 on the season with an on base percentage of .376. His play as of late has been one of the few bright spots for a team that has lost eight of eleven.

"I feel embarrassed." : Say what you want about Oliver Perez (and I have - many times) at least he knows he stinks. Saying he felt embarrassed after his Saturday outing is a start. Four runs, six walks in 2.1 innings and the question is - now what? Bullpen? Minors? DL? While that decision is still to be made, one thing is clear - he's out of the rotation.

Yeah, about that...never mind : The problem with the internet is, when you write a bold prediction, you'd better hope its right because it usually stays online forever and everyone knows what an epic failure you were. This guy know exactly what I'm talking about. Give him credit for going out on a limb though.

Next Up : two games at Atlanta Braves.

- SB

SOMETHING'S GOTTA CHANGE

2009-05-02T19:53:00.004-04:00

The New York Mets, as currently constituted, are going nowhere in 2009.

It's not just Oliver Perez, though his performance to this point hasn't helped.

It's not the fact that they walked in the winning run in the tenth inning against the Phillies on Saturday, though that makes my blood boil.

It's not that they seem to lack fire...though that's taking away from my enthusiasm.

It's a combination of all of those things, certainly, but mostly it's the fact that the Mets just aren't good enough right now to do anything this year.

I said it on Opening Night at Citi Field, when the Mets were cheered by the crowd that night...I said, "If it wasn't for the new ballpark, I bet this same group would be getting booed right now." Because while optimism usually reins during the home opener celebration, I think the fans are starting at the setting "fed up", instead of working their way in that direction. I'm as optimistic as they come, and I feel like there's a dark cloud (baseball-related, that is - which I'm starting to learn to ignore...more on that another day) following me around.

Maybe the Mets will turn out to be the best of what has so far been an unimpressive National League East...but that's not saying much. If the Mets are going to do anything in October, they need to make a change...and it has to come before the trade deadline in July.

I think Omar Minaya did a great job with the bullpen this offseason. But I don't know anyone who cares about the Mets who wasn't thinking that the rotation needed work. I never wanted Derek Lowe, but he was available, and so was a player like Brad Penny who was worth a flyer, among others. I wanted to believe that Oliver Perez would show up come the big games...but it doesn't get any bigger than a Saturday in early May when the manager says you have to prove yourself. And he flopped in that game. So Minaya failed the team there...and perhaps his hands were tied financially - but the money that went to Perez could have gone elsewhere.

And now the good work that went into building up the bullpen might have to be turned around to deal for the types of starting pitchers that could have been had in free agency. So a strength could be turned into a weakness in order to turn a weakness into a strength.

And it didn't have to be that way.

But if it doesn't happen....2009 is looking like a disappointment.

Series Recap - Florida Marlins

2009-04-29T18:59:00.003-04:00

April 27: Mets win 7-1
April 28: Marlins win 7-4
April 29: Marlins win 4-3

Mets record: 9-12

And the answer is... : Omir Santos hit the first grand slam in Citi Field history on Monday to become the answer to a trivia question. Two days later, its really the only memorable thing for the Mets in this series.

Can you Cantu? : Yes, he can. Jorge Cantu homered three times in the three game series. That's two more home runs than David Wright has all season.

Bullpen goes ka-Putz : What did Johan Santana do to deserve this? Another blown lead by his bullpen on Wednesday. J.J. Putz gives up the game winning runs in the eighth ruining another fine outing by Santana.

Why can't we get players like that? : A tip of the cap to former Boston sportscaster Bob Lobel who used to always say that line when a former Red Sox player would come back and torch the current club. On a completely related note - former Mets farmhand Matt Lindstrom saved both Marlins wins.

Help is NOT on the way : Freddy Garica was thought to be a candidate for the #5 spot in the rotation when Spring Training began. He started the season in Triple-A and that didn't go well. He gave up 10 runs in 11 innings and was released on Tuesday. Omar Manaya's off-season is not getting a passing grade right now.

Next Up : Three games at Philadelphia Phillies. And if you're keeping track - Oliver Perez will apparently get one more shot at the rotation and pitch on Saturday. If you're going to try and help a pitcher regain his confidence - why have him throw against your arch rival, one of the best hitting teams in the league, and in what is traditionally a launching pad for HRs? Its almost like they want him to fail.

- SB

Series Recap - Washington Nationals

2009-04-26T23:48:00.004-04:00

April 24: Mets win 4-3
April 25: Mets win 8-2
April 26: Nationals win 8-1

Mets record: 8-10

Waiting To Exhale : Francisco Rodriguez was brought in to make those 9th inning leads safe. Mets fans probably had trouble breathing when he coughed up the two-run homer Friday night to make it a one-run game. He managed to close the door after that.

What Else Is New? : Johan Santana was awesome Friday. 6ip, 10k, 1er. Here's how good he is - that one earned run allowed actually raised his ERA.

Pelfrey Steps Up : A day after Santana's gem, Mike Pelfrey pitches a gem (by Pelfrey standards) going 5.2ip, 2er, 1k. Its not great, but with Green, Parnell, and Stokes shutting the door after that - its just what the Mets needed.

Wait a second...WHO, WHO and WHO??? : Green, Parnell, and Stokes?!?!? Who the heck are these guys??? Apparently they're Sean Green, Bobby Parnell, and Brian Stokes. I guess the Mets media guide hasn't quite made it down to the Southern Bureau yet.

He's Not Good : Four starts this season for Oliver Perez and in three of them he can't get out of the fifth inning - including Sunday. If you're too sick to click on that game story here's the highlights from the AP writer:
-the erratic lefty has a 9.31 ERA.
-Perez could be in jeopardy of losing his spot in the rotation.
-“I’m really concerned about him at this point.” manager Jerry Manuel said.
-Perez has allowed 15 walks and 23 hits in 19 1-3 innings.
-He was booed off the field by a frustrated crowd of 40,023

BOOOO!!!! Yeah...you too!! : Perez wasn't the only guy getting an earful. From the same AP story: "even David Wright heard catcalls during an 0-for-4 day that included a run-scoring throwing error from third base. The All-Star slugger has fanned 23 times in 70 at-bats this season."

Next Up : three games vs the suddenly slumping Florida Marlins

- SB

OH RIGHT, THE DRAFT

2009-04-25T19:46:00.003-04:00

I have been less than enthused about the NFL off-season. The Jets' late-season fade left a really bad taste in my mouth, and the frustrations over the years have slow-cooked to a boil right about now.

I'll be excited again in September, but I didn't really follow closely what had been going on this off-season.

But today's draft might change that a bit.

I didn't really think the Jets would go into the season with Kellen Clemens as their most likely option at quarterback. But it was looking more and more desperate if they didn't do anything at the draft.

I'm happy to report they did.
The Jets gave up a lot - but it should be worth it, drafting Mark Sanchez out of USC.

They traded their first and second round picks in this draft along with Kenyon Coleman, Abram Elam, and Brett Ratliff to Eric Mangini and the Cleveland Browns for the fifth pick, which they used to land Sanchez.

Here's why I'm confident:

1) If at no other position, USC quarterbacks have found success in the NFL....no matter how much playing time they got in college.

2) Sanchez seems to have a good head on his shoulders. The Jets, under Rex Ryan, will just be looking for him to make smart plays and not screw things up. Just manage the offense. Sanchez, probably the highest-profile draft pick in an otherwise drab personality year, handled himself very, very well throughout the process the past few weeks, and didn't screw it up for himself. I think that's pretty microcosmic of the job he'll have to do with the Jets.

3) It's not Kellen Clemens.

Listen, I'm sure Kellen Clemens is a decent guy. But I'll always hold it against him that he was the one pitted against Chad Pennington when Pennington should have been given a better deal than he was given with the Jets. And he didn't do well during that time, so I was not looking forward to that day when he eventually took over. Now we won't have to worry about that.

One final note - another reason I'm excited about this season is the coach, and the fact that it's not a Bill Belichik disciple taking over the team. Rex Ryan has not been afraid to speak his mind in the few months since he took over, and I like that. That was part of what made Herman Edwards fun as the coach of the Jets (when he wasn't telling bold-face lies).

Ryan has yet to steer the team wrong with any personnel moves, and I like what he's had to say.
I won't be saying much about the NFL between now and...I don't know...August? But I'll be thinking happy thoughts about the Jets and their new franchise quarterback between now and then.

APPOINTMENT VIEWING

2009-04-24T20:06:00.005-04:00

If I lived in New York, I would be at Citi Field tonight. Matter of fact, every time Johan Santana pitched at Citi Field, I'd want to go.

I think anytime he steps on the rubber at that field, he's capable of throwing a no-hitter.

I especially thought that tonight, going against the Nationals, but he's already given up two hits as I write this.

Instead of a no-hitter, though, he's struck out 8 batters through 4 innings.

I'm telling you, something special every time he steps on that Citi Field mound. (Not that he's been too shabby on the road, either.)

It's one constant in this year that might be inconsistent with the Mets - at least we know what we're getting once every five days.

So if I'm in New York, and Johan Santana is scheduled to throw, I'm going. And if I can only watch on TV, I'll be watching.

It's going to be that kind of year for Santana.

Series Recap - St. Louis Cardinals

2009-04-23T17:59:00.004-04:00

April 21: Cardinals win 6-4
April 22: Cardinals win 5-2
April 23: Cardinals win 12-8

Mets record: 6-9

That was...uh...something : As Johnnymets put it in his previous post, a pretty uninspired performance by the Mets. A sweep against any team - even against a pretty good Cardinals team - is never good. Perhaps a trip home against an awful Nationals team can turn things around.

No Johan = No chance : Johan Santana didn't pitch in this series, and without him the Mets looked pretty awful. We wondered if starting pitching would be a problem on this club, and its pretty obvious now that it is. Check out the ERA's of the starting rotation...

Johan Santana - 0.46
Livan Hernandez - 7.31
John Maine - 7.47
Oliver Perez - 7.80
Mike Pelfrey - 8.10

Four of the five starters have ERA's over SEVEN. Omar Manaya's decision not to address the starting pitching this offseason is looking more and more questionable.

Batting Third... : Carlos Beltran moved up to third in the lineup, and responds with a three run home run. The 6-9 start isn't Beltran's fault - that's for sure. He's now hitting .404 on the season.

Batting First... : Is not the stolen base threat we remember. Jose Reyes has just three SBs this season, putting him on pace for 32 for the year. That's well below the 65 he's averaged in the last four seasons. Does he not have the green light?

Next Up : three games vs Washington Nationals

-SB

UNINSPIRED

2009-04-23T16:27:00.006-04:00

You might have noticed I haven't been writing very much about the Mets recently.

It's not that I haven't been watching - I have.

It's not that I don't care anymore - I do.

It's more that I have this feeling of deja vu going on right now.

I feel like there's no fire in the belly. I feel like the Mets are just going through the motions. It makes it hard for me to care when, once again, the Mets look like they don't.

This was a problem last year, and the solution was get rid of Willie Randolph, because he wasn't the fiery type. Jerry Manuel was.

And that's my problem. This shouldn't be happening under Manuel. His presence was supposed to prevent the same kind of lackadaisacal start as last year. (Don't get me started on the fact that major league baseball players even need to be motivated by someone...as though millions of dollars wasn't enough motivation.)

Manuel is trying to shake things up - he adjusted the lineup for Thursday afternoon's game.

The result - an uninspired 3-game sweep in St. Louis. It's going to take more than a lineup change - it looks like this team needs an attitude adjustment.

So I hope Manuel has another move up his sleeve. Because that's supposedly why he's here instead of Randolph.

ANOTHER OPENING DAY

2009-04-23T08:56:00.000-04:00

Happy Opening Day, Hall of Famer Gary Carter.

The Long Island Ducks open their season today.

And when they take the field, there might be some names and faces that look familiar to you.
Joining Gary Carter on the Ducks are former major leaguers the likes of pitchers Brad Halsey and Dan Miceli (not pictured), and outfielders Raul Gonzalez (Mets, 2002-2003) and Preston Wilson (I couldn't believe it either).

He's also got some former Mets on his coaching staff - Bud Harrelson and Kevin Baez.

The season starts at 7:05pm on the road against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. They come home Friday, May 1st, on Gary Carter bobblehead night. (I can't attend, but a free blog post to anyone who gets me one of those bobbleheads.)

We'll keep you posted on the Ducks' season.

WHAT'S NEW IN 2009

2009-04-22T07:39:00.000-04:00

Perhaps a bit overdue, but I've been so absorbed with the Mets opening up Citi Field that I haven't talked much about what other teams are celebrating in 2009.

There's not as much as there was last year, when teams like the Giants and Dodgers were celebrating 50 years out west, and the Diamondbacks their 10-year anniversary. But a couple of teams have occasions to recognize.

Other than the two stadiums opening in New York, the biggest deal going on in baseball might be in Kansas City, where they are celebrating their 40th year as a franchise as well as the renovation of Kaufman Stadium. I'll have more on the renovation in a minute. But I also wanted to note that the Astros are wearing a patch celebrating 10 seasons at Minute Maid Park (nee Enron). I absolutely can not believe that park has been around ten years. I feel like all of these new ones were just built. Safeco Field is also celebrating 10 years this year, though it opened after the All Star break. And Pac Bell (now AT&T Park) also opened around the same time....I just feel like there's no way these parks can be 10+ years old. Time flies.

Anway, back to Kaufman Stadium. This park might just be the reason I want to visit all of these out-of-town ballparks. Growing up, I used to think there was nothing cooler than the fountains in Kansas City. (Still haven't been, incidentally.) The park got even more beautiful a few years back when they did away with the turf and put in natural grass. And now they've done a full renovation where the park looks very different - more like the new throwback parks, but it still kept a lot of its own charm.
(That's the way it looked the past few years on the left, renovated on the right. I couldn't find any really good pictures of the newer park...click to enlarge.)

Finally, there is one other significant difference that I have seen these past couple of weeks around the Majors - The Ballpark in Arlington (another new ballpark that is over a decade old) has its own new wrinkle: Its high wall in left field is now fronted by a "collapsable" scoreboard.
(Again, this was the best I could do for pictures.) It's a chain-link type fence, with the scoreboard images projected on there, and it absorbs impact. I think that's different from the one they have at the Rogers Centre in Toronto - I think this one wobbles more - I think the one in Toronto is sturdier.

Anyway, check it out if you get the chance - I love all of these little changes from year to year across the majors.

SLOWLY DEVELOPING

2009-04-21T08:53:00.000-04:00

Do you feel, like I do, that things are slow to develop this baseball season?

I understand that it's only two weeks in, but I don't feel like we know very much after seeing two weeks of ballgames played.

The Mets are an example...two full weeks into the season, and they're .500. Perhaps it's indicative of how they'll be all season, and in 23 weeks they'll be sitting at 81-81 (though I doubt it). I wish they had jumped out of the gate, a la the Marlins, and set a tone. But that just doesn't seem to be the way this year is going to go. And not just with the Mets.

Some pitchers' performances this year have been out-of-character. For every Johan Santana or Zack Greinke, there is a Cole Hamels or Tim Lincecum. I don't mind hitters being slow the first couple of weeks, but pitchers are supposed to be ahead of the batters at this point, and I feel like we're not seeing that much.

Perhaps it's too much of a 'fantasy baseball' view on the sport, because with many of these players I focus on their stats for fantasy reasons, and what I thought would be a good fantasy team is having a terrible start...but I feel like it's an overall trend to start 2009.

Speaking of trends...I think now's a good time to stop and look at the starts of 2009 and figure out what's legit and who will fade:

FOR REAL:

-You read it here first, the Florida Marlins will be a threat all year long. This 11-2 start is no fluke - they have the pitching to hang in the East and in the National League Wild Card races all season.

-Speaking of pitching, the Kansas City Royals have it too. Gil Meche and Zack Greinke shut down the high-powered Texas Rangers offense last weekend. Their 7-5 start is pretty legit - I stand by my pre-season prediction of a better-than-.500 record for K.C. this year. Greinke, by the way, hasn't given up a run in 20+ innings so far this year (he has a 34-inning scoreless streak dating back to last season).

NOT FOR REAL:

-The San Diego Padres will fade. It may be sooner, it may be much later in the season (my prediction is early July), but they are not as good as their 9-4 start might lead you to believe. I do love that they got off to such a good start after everyone predicted them to be the worst team in baseball (a bold prediction in a league in which the Nationals exist), but I think they'll sink towards the bottom of the National League fairly soon. (I'm not even going to waste a paragraph going into how "For Real" Washington's 2-10 start is...the Mets have no excuse losing to them at all this year.)

-Baltimore has already begun their fade from the top of the AL East, and Toronto will follow soon after. They're 10-4, and good for them...but too many injuries to an already-thin pitching staff has them playing with smoke and mirrors (and Roy Halladay) right now. Likewise, the Rays' basement-dwelling days, with their 5-8 start, are bound to end soon.

And I just hope everything normalizes pretty soon...because I'm feeling right now like this is shaping up to be a very abnormal baseball season.

NO RELIEF

2009-04-20T15:44:00.004-04:00

The verdict is in from one visiting team, and Citi Field drew less than rave reviews. At least, its visitors' bullpen did.

Todd Coffey of the Brewers (I had the Brewers' feed of the game on Sunday) says that from the visitors' bullpen at Citi Field it's a terrible view - you can barely see second base. He says he has no idea what's going on in the game. There's a monitor, he says, but it's on a time delay. Coffey called the bullpen "poorly designed".

And upon further review, he's probably right.
All in all, it doesn't bother me. The visitor's bullpens always get the short shrift in new places - call it part of the home field advantage.

It's a unique design, the bullpens at Citi Field. The benches are right next to one another. The other day the SNY cameras showed Pedro Feliciano just hanging out and talking to one of the Padres' relievers.

What I wonder is when things turn sour out there. The image of bench-clearing brawls is always of the bullpens emptying and relievers trickling in from the outfield to join in the fray on the field.

Citi Field may become the first park in baseball history where the players leave the bench...and head for the bullpen for the brawl that starts out there.

MORE APPRECIATION: Just publicly showing appreciation for what you already know - the Southern Bureau rocks. I love the series-ending recaps. It's also comforting to know that when I'm sick, like I was this weekend, the blog won't go for days without an update. Also, good nuggets of information - no sooner did the Southern Bureau suggest that Luis Castillo would be back to batting second than he was...for a day.

Series Recap - Milwaukee Brewers

2009-04-19T18:58:00.005-04:00

April 17: Mets win 5-4
April 18: Mets win 1-0
April 19: Brewers win 4-2

Mets record: 6-6

Oh yeah...he's on the team : Its only been two weeks, but here's hoping Gary Sheffield's 500th HR isn't the highlight of the season. Half the fans probably didn't even know who he was.

Simply the best : But everyone knows who Johan Santana is. He once again shows why he's the best in the game with his dominant performance on Saturday. Citi isn't "The House That Johan Built", but its going to be a place he's going to win a lot of games.

1 HR, 4 rbi : That's not David Wright's line for this series. That's his line for the ENTIRE SEASON. Is Citi Field the wrong stuff for Mr. Wright? (ugh...that pun was awful. I'm so sorry).

I'm going to check out the '86 trophy while getting a burrito : Johnnymets wasn't the only one not happy with the exclusion of the Mets Hall of Fame at Citi. Thanks to all the complaints, the Mets will be adding it soon. And where is the only logical place to put it?? The food court, of course.

Next Up : three games at St. Louis Cardinals

- SB

Julia Stiles knows her stuff

2009-04-17T13:00:00.005-04:00

Apparently actress Julia Stiles is a huge NY Mets fan. I had no idea. But I guess the Wall Street Journal knew.

Stiles was hired to write an Opening Day story on Citi Field for the Journal. And would you believe it - its REALLY good. There's even a slam on Oliver Perez.

"Is Oliver Perez's weight symbolic of his attitude after signing a fat three-year, $36 million contract?"

I think I'm in love.

This isn't just some publicity thing either - a Google check shows she's not shy about her Mets fan-dom.

- SB

Thanks to Southern Bureau Grandpa Edition for the heads up about the Styles article. Must admit - the WSJ isn't part of my daily reading.

Series Recap - San Diego Padres

2009-04-17T11:36:00.004-04:00

April 13: Padres win 6-5
April 15: Mets win 7-2
April 16: Padres win 6-5

Mets record: 4-5

Shea it ain't so : Not exactly the best of starts at the new Citi Field. Losing two of three to the Padres? At least the opener was close - unlike the OTHER New York team.

Citi...um...Shea...um...what do I call this place? : Not everyone is on the "Citi Field" bandwagon. And you can buy a shirt if you're one of those people.

He's no Johnnymets but... : Obviously Johnnymets summed up Citi Field better than most, but Padres starter Jake Peavy seemed to like it too. He said, “The ballpark is beautiful. They did it right." The only complaint - no hot water in the vistors clubhouse.

Trade you? NEVER! : Luis Castillo has bounced back nicely from the constant off season trade rumors and "dump this bum" talk. He's hitting 385 to start the season. If he keeps it up, you'd have to think he'll be hitting second again soon.

Next up : three games vs Milwaukee Brewers - and their bench coach Willie Randolph.

- SB

CITI FIELD PART TWO

2009-04-15T20:09:00.008-04:00

Too much to say about Citi Field to confine it to one posting:

I wanted to give you some visuals to illustrate what I was talking about yesterday. Here's the gate comparison I was talking about comparing San Francisco to Citi Field (maybe it's not entirely accurate, now that I see the pictures...incidentally, it was SBC Park when we were there. I kept calling it AT&T Park...I don't even know what it is now. And I've given you the side view of Citi - that's where these high gates are):

And then here's the field comparison I was talking about with PETCO ("Where The Mets Go") versus Citi Field, particularly with the outfield walls:

A couple of more comments about the experience:

-We parked in the lot, and were lucky enough to choose a spot near an exit (we got to the park around 3:30 for the 7:10 start, so we had our choice of spots), which turned out to be a direct shot right out the door. That was lucky.

-But it was great that we had the car there. Since we were there so early, we were waiting for the gates to open, and that's when one of the vendors right inside the gate decided to start selling the 'collector's edition' programs for the first game at Citi Field. (He kept looking over his shoulder like he was doing something wrong, selling them through the gate.) So after I bought the program, rather than carry it around all night, I was able to put it in the car and keep it in nice condition. I was excited about that.

-Interestingly, there was texting interference all night. Clearly I didn't have much trouble sending out texts, since I was able to update Twitter all night, but when I tried to send a picture of the big flag to the Southern Bureau to post on the blog, it wouldn't go through. Then, when I walked through the concourse later in the night, a bunch of texts started to pour into my phone that had been sent hours before. So if you texted me Monday night, that's why I didn't reply.

Finally, Justin in NYC sent this e-mail, which I'm not sure he meant for publication, but I will anyway. Not only is it a good point, but it illustrates how he keeps an ear to the ground for me from the NYC radio stations, which I appreciate:

"Johnny,

Lots of people were calling up and complaining to Francesa today about how they thought Citi Field tried so hard to embrace New York's national league history, that it was ignoring Met-specific history.

They were saying it looks like Ebbets Field and has the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, but none of that has any direct link to the Mets except that Wilpon grew up in Brooklyn. Your thoughts?"

I think this is an interesting point, because it's sort of what I'm getting at when I talk about the Mets Hall of Fame. At Shea Stadium, it was hidden outside the Diamond Club, which I didn't actually go into until last year, the final year of its existence. In other words, the casual fan never saw it. And I don't know where that is at Citi Field - but obviously it's not prominently displayed, because I didn't see it. I would love if it was in the Rotunda, but I don't think it is. (This is what the Arizona Diamondbacks did so well - they have their 2001 trophy front and center as you walk in - and they have zero history. It spices up an otherwise boring ballpark. In Pittsburgh, where there's a ton of history, there's not much visual evidence of it. One of the flaws of a beautiful ballpark.)

But we need to remember, when thinking about this, that the Mets represent National League baseball in New York City. The whole reason they are blue and orange is because of the Dodger blue and the Giants orange. So there is sort of a connection to those teams, and I think it's an appropriate connection to Ebbets Field.

Yes, I would have liked for there to have been a mention of the 40th anniversary of the 1969 champions (which I'm sure will be celebrated this year, but has been overshadowed by Citi Field), and I would love for the Mets to trot out the 1986 Mets every game. I also think the orange stripe around the outfield walls would look cooler on a blue wall, showing the Mets colors. But the championship banners are flying in the new park, and the exterior of Citi Field (you can see it a little bit in the picture at the top) has pictures of Mets from every era.

What history the Mets have is displayed. You just have to look for it. And there's nothing wrong with the Mets carrying the New York National League baseball torch. So long as, now that they've introduced the world to their throwback ballpark, they start putting more of an emphasis on their own history.

NEW YORK: CITI FIELD

2009-04-14T19:39:00.021-04:00

I have a feeling this entry is going to come off in an "I didn't like Citi Field" kind of way. But it's not that at all.

It's just that this ballpark visit was different. It wasn't a visit at all for me...it was a test run. I could make snap judgments on Nationals Park and PETCO Park ("Where The Mets Go") because they were visits. One-time deals (though some of them I liked so much that I may go back in the future).

With Citi Field, I will be going back. Often. And I had to see how it fit, so to speak. Use whatever analogy you like - I was trying it on for size; I dated those other ballparks, this one I am going to marry (that's kind of a weird one). I didn't expect to feel that way - I was over-the-top excited about going. But once I was in the park I knew it was going to be a different kind of visit.

Don't know where else to put this, so I'll do it here, I guess. If you were following me on Twitter last night (which turned into a pretty neat summary of events in the end), you read that I walked past Fred Wilpon outside the park. I am terrible when it comes to recognizing famous people. But I notice when there's an important-looking older person...and we walked past an important-looking older person that looked a lot like Fred Wilpon. So I said to my dad, "Was that Wilpon?" We walked back in the direction we came from, since the other way was a dead end, and passed him again, talking to Mike Lupica. Hence, the picture. I would like to say I barged in there and shook his hand and said, "Congratulations on this fine-looking ballpark" (or maybe I should have asked his permission to take Citi Field's hand in marriage [if it's such a weird analogy, why am I continuing with it?!]), but I did no such thing. I did snap the picture, though, which is kind of an intrusion of privacy that I usually wouldn't do. So I'm getting there.

OK. Now to the park. First of all, there's no denying the park is beautiful. When you think about Shea Stadium versus Citi Field, it's obviously no comparison. Just look at it up at the top of this post. The exterior, modeled after Ebbets Field, reminds me of AT&T Park, as I wrote the other day, with its high iron gates and the curved-window look. I've never been to Coors Field, but the light towers at Citi Field remind me of its light towers. And it's funny the Padres were in town last night, because the outfield walls/dimensions/layout remind me of PETCO ("Where The Mets Go").
What I'm not buying, and I hinted at this on Twitter last night, are some of the biggest deals people have been talking about this whole time. All I've heard about is the overhang in right field, reminiscent of Tiger Stadium. Well, it's not that much of an overhang. Yes, it juts out to the field eight feet, but only where the wall suddenly goes back in right. So it's not the entire right field overhang. No one had made that clear before. And there's been all this talk of how fans can get right up to the visitors bullpen and harrass the opposing relievers. From what I saw, that's not true - there are a lot of barriers...or else you need a ticket for that kind of access that I didn't have.

The bullpen area (that's it above, through the gate), seems to need some work. From what I could tell, it had one of the nicer-looking entry points into the park, but it was really empty. I got the impression from a couple of places that the Mets didn't quite know what to do with them yet. This was one - there are picnic tables set up, as well as the old apple from Shea (new apple also shown at right), where people can take pictures. But it was kind of empty. No concession stands...so I guess you have to carry your food to these tables.
Speaking of concessions, all anyone had been writing about was the centerfield food area, so that was mobbed (I like how they kept the skyline there above the restaurant...not sure if that's the actual skyline from atop the Shea scoreboard). Luckily, quick thinker that my dad and I are, we figured everyone and their brother was in center field...other concessions were probably empty. They were. I had a chicken sandwich, which was good...but everything was very expensive.

The opening ceremonies were nice, but I would have liked some more history. I heard there were old-timers in the building - they should have been introduced and trotted out. Seaver to Piazza was good, and I liked the continuance from the end of Shea...but there could have been more.

(Incidentally, just to throw out a prediction, I bet the Yankees do something involving the old Yankee Stadium when they open the new one Thursday. Like walking across from one to the other. It's still standing...and that has to be by design - they can't possibly be that behind schedule. I'll have some (not-so-great) pictures of those two parks later in the week. )

I feel like I'm throwing out way too much information here, but I have a lot on my mind about this park. So here it continues:

My biggest flaws with the park are:

Someday the Mets will buy out the surrounding area and put in some restaurants and make the area surrounding the ballpark an enticing place. Like Pittsburgh/Baltimore, with their fan walks. They can't exactly duplicate San Francisco's exterior because San Francisco has the water right there, but anything other than junkyards and scrap heaps would be a better backdrop.

Another problem, though I didn't look much for it, was I don't know if the Mets Hall of Fame is displayed any more prominently at Citi Field than it was at Shea. I'll look into that more over the summer.

I already mentioned that there were a couple of places in the park that seemed not-thought-all-the-way-through - the bullpen area was one, and the area above the Rotunda is another. It seems like a usable space, but not a lot is there right now. Maybe that's a good thing...it's not too crowded.

The exits were terrible. Perhaps that's because no one really knew where they were going and it was the first time 40,000+ were trying to leave at the same time - but I didn't see anything other than some crowded stairwells trying to leave the upper sections of the park.

One last complaint (for now, I guess), is that when you come out of the rotunda in the front, you don't walk right out and see the field. There are walls there (some sort of restaurant or the press boxes or luxury boxes are in the way, I think). One of the best things about the park in Houston, and Fenway Park first and foremost, is when you walk out of the tunnel and see the field. I was hoping the field would be right beyond the Rotunda, but it wasn't. You have to walk a bit to get that view at the right - and then the overhang is so low it made me a bit claustrophobic. I didn't love that.

I did love the Jackie Robinson Rotunda - very unique, very appropriate, it's something that sets Citi Field apart.

I loved that there was organ music all night long. My dad made the excellent point that at no point was there blaring music - and the organ played "Meet The Mets" before the game - nothing beats that.

I loved that the first hit at the park for the Mets was a David Wright double. I love that the Mets have a home park that people won't be making fun of. I didn't mind the billboards - people are saying it's too corporate - I think it adds a minor-league-type feel to the park. It feels more throwback that way.

I love that I'll be able to keep going back to this place and find out new things and get more comfortable there as the years go on. I love that this is the place my children will go when they go to Mets games, and I'll be able to compare it to Shea Stadium the way my dad was comparing it to the Polo Grounds for me last night.

Despite the fact that I left the park last night thinking it wasn't perfect (and therefore had no shot of living up to my expectations), I love Citi Field. Like Shea Stadium was for the first 30 years of my life, Citi Field is going to be a sort of home away from home for me. I had 30 years to get acclimated to Shea. I've only had one day at Citi Field.

I can't wait to go back.

TODAY'S THE DAY!!

2009-04-13T11:21:00.003-04:00

Follow "johnnymets" on Twitter for constant updates from Citi Field.

I'll be there before 4pm, probably, with the updates starting shortly thereafter. Game starts at 7pm.

BUMMER: I just read that Harry Kalas died this afternoon at the age of 73. One of my favorite broadcasters - loved listening to his voice. I hope the Mets make an adjustment to their plans tonight and do the right thing with a moment of silence in memory of the Phillies broadcaster.

And knowing nothing about Kalas other than what he did for a living, I'd have to think there couldn't be a more appropriate place for him to go than a ballpark.

Series Recap - Florida Marlins

2009-04-12T23:44:00.005-04:00

April 10: Marlins win 5-4
April 11: Mets win 8-4
April 12: Marlins win 2-1

Mets record: 3-3

Beast of the East? : Don't look now but the Marlins are 5-1 with all the wins coming in the NL East. Jorge Cantu joked they might win 161 games.

So Close : Both Met losses come by just one run. They say good teams win close games. But then again - who is "they" that always says that?

Surely You Can't Be Serious : The Mets lone win this series came because of Livan Hernandez. Yes - THAT Livan Hernandez. I'm serious - and don't call me Shirley. That same Livan Hernandez had an ERA of 6.05 last season for the Twins and Rockies. Put it this way - if the Mets are counting on Livan Hernandez to bail them out, its going to be a long season.

Ace vs Staff : The Marlins might have one of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball (Braves manager Bobby Cox thinks so), but its clear the Mets have the best pitcher. Johan Santana was awesome on Sunday, but couldn't get the run support. So the question is, would you rather your rotation was one amazing pitcher and four so-so's, or five pretty good's? 2009 could be the year we find out the answer.

Next up : three games vs San Diego Padres. Its the home opener Monday and in - case - you - hadn't - heard - already, Johnnymets will be there.

- SB

ONE DAY AWAY

2009-04-11T11:00:00.000-04:00

We were driving past Citi Field on Saturday, and couldn't resist pulling over to check it out.

From the outside it reminds me mostly of San Francisco, with the high, gated doorways. I never went inside AT&T Park, though, so it just reminded me of that from when we walked around the outside.

We parked and walked over to the team store...which is awesome.

From the team store we could look into the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. You could see the escalators that lead up to Field Level. But everything was shut down.

It was quite a tease for Monday's game.

I can't wait.

I'll have Twitter updates all day Monday via text, if you want to know what I'm thinking as I experience the park for the first time.

BIG WEEKEND: Celebrated a championship for a team I root for for the first time in 15 years last night as Boston University's hockey team won (in dramatic fashion, tying the game with 2 goals in the final minute, then winning in overtime) 4-3 over Miami of Ohio. It's the first championship I've cared about since the Rangers in 1994. Which is really pretty hard to believe. Hopefully this is just the start of a period of prosperity.

STILL GOING STRONG

2009-04-11T08:53:00.001-04:00

Some Mets number 5s help me recognize 5 years of blogging:

I distinctly remember how the blog started. I was sitting with The Wife (then the fiancee - I've been blogging longer than I've been married), surfing the net on her laptop, saying, "I want to write about the Mets. How do I start my own website?" She said, "You can start a blog." So I did. That happened on April 11, 2004. The site has come a long way, I think, since those mini-game recaps.

In 5 years we've seen the rise of David Wright, the closing of Shea and opening of a new stadium, Carlos and Pedro* and Johan, and disappointment after disappointment after disappointment. (Not to mention the Jets' share of disappointments...as well as the birth of two children.)

Hopefully the enthusiasm with which I've started off this year stays with me until late October.

A World Series championship would be a nice way to celebrate the end of our fifth season.

FINALLY COMING TO BLOWS?

2009-04-09T18:15:00.004-04:00

I’m not trying to stir up trouble. And all things considered, I’d rather the Mets fought with members of another team than among themselves.

But I have a bad feeling that this is the year Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado finally come to blows in the dugout or in the clubhouse.

I’ve written about this before, and I’ve never been fond of it...and I can’t imagine it’s not getting old for Reyes.

Any time Reyes makes a bad throw, or even a throw that makes Delgado move the slightest bit off the bag, Delgado stares down Reyes. It happened again on Wednesday night, when Reyes threw a ball to Delgado’s right that Delgado didn’t even make a good effort to get in front of. It could have easily been an error on Delgado, but it was scored a throwing error on Reyes. Delgado gave Reyes a look as if to say, “Enough with the bad throws.” The camera I saw (I was watching Fox Sports Ohio, the Reds’ channel) showed a reaction shot of Reyes where he gave a look back to Delgado.

Now, I don’t know anything about their relationship. Maybe they have worked this out in the past that Reyes says he needs the reminders from Delgado to get pumped up and make good throws. It certainly seems that the next time after these situations Reyes throws a strike to Delgado.

But if I were Reyes, I wouldn’t like it. It might have flown when he was younger, but he’s a veteran now, and probably doesn’t want to be treated like a rookie. And Reyes has shown a resistance to authority - remember Jerry Manuel’s debut in Anaheim, when he tried to lift Reyes from the game and Reyes publicly pouted? He wouldn’t fight a manager, but he’d fight a teammate.

One other thing that bothers me about this situation is that it’s one thing for Delgado to shoot a look when someone else isn’t perfect, but he’s not perfect himself. He is notorious for coming off the bag too quickly on forceouts - too close for comfort in some instances. Wednesday night (I fell asleep, but read about this afterwards...I’ll try to watch the video) he got called on it, in the 9th inning, when he came off the bag to throw home after a throw to first.

I bet no one shot him a look....but I hope someone did.

OTHER THINGS: I love that the Southern Bureau is fully on board writing this season...David Wright had a double Wednesday night - too early to count those game-by-game, but the first one's worth mentioning (Ryan Church already has 3)...Just an absolute tragedy for the Angels. I wouldn't be surprised if this derails their season.

Series Recap - Cincinnati Reds

2009-04-09T16:50:00.005-04:00

April 6: Mets win 2-1
April 8: Mets win 9-7
April 9: Reds win 10-8

Mets record: 2-1

The More Things Change... : THE BULLPEN HELD A LEAD!!! Omar Manaya probably chewed his fingernails right off as the Mets clinged to a one run lead in the opener. But J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez did what no one could do last season and held on in the 2-1 win. To make things even better - they did it again the next night.

...The More They Stay the Same : But all chances for a sweep were quickly killed by Oliver Perez. His Thursday afternoon line - 4.1ip, 8er, 5bb. Tough to come back when your starter puts you in an 8-4 hole. And the Mets couldn't.

Go, Go Delgado : Carlos Delgado getting the season off to a good start. Hitting .429, 6rbi, and a HR in the three game series.

Back from the Dead : The debate in the preseason was who would win the NL East - The Mets or the Phillies? Despite their bullpen meltdown Wednesday, the Braves served notice that they will be a force in the NL East as well. The Braves outplayed Philadelphia for a game and 6+ innings before a train wreck of an inning cost them a sweep. The NL East could be a three team race.

Next up : three games at Florida Marlins

- SB

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GARY CARTER!

2009-04-08T07:24:00.000-04:00

It's time to update you on Hall of Famer Gary Carter, as he celebrates his 55th birthday.

This year, Carter brings his act to New York, where he will manage the Long Island Ducks.

He's already started to make noise...apparently he was on WFAN in New York about a week ago and said he was upset that the Mets didn't ask him to catch the last pitch at Shea Stadium. Don't think there won't be plenty of noise coming out of Citibank Park (not to be confused with Citi Field) with Carter this close to the New York media.

Still, though, I love the man, and wish him a very happy birthday. And I also want to take this opportunity to remind you that he has had nothing but success as a minor league manager.

The Ducks season starts on April 23rd. We'll definitely be keeping you updated - and there will be a trip this summer as well.

(Also on this April 8, birthday wishes go out to Dave in Brighton.)

COUNTDOWN...

2009-04-07T20:34:00.003-04:00

6 MORE DAYS!!!!

The weather is scaring me...but weather.com tells me Monday will be partly cloudy and 51.

Good enough for me.

I'll have a lot to update in the next couple of days...keep coming back.

EARLY RETURNS PROMISING

2009-04-06T21:15:00.005-04:00

Without making too big of a deal out of one game, I'll just say that this was exactly the type of game the Mets didn't win last year.

Five and two-thirds from Johan Santana with just a one-run lead...you might as well carve in stone the No Decision.

Especially with the Mets having trouble scratching out runs.

But the bullpen was the star of the show, and the Mets were confidence-inspiring in the final innings.

Now, there's a difference between Cincinnati in April and Philadelphia in September, and Santana starts aren't really a question (we need to see what the Mets look like the other four nights)...but I'll take it.

Because come September every little win adds up, and every loss gets magnified. And a year ago, this would have turned into a loss that would have haunted the Mets all season. Right now, it's a good win.

SURPRISES:

-I'm following Pittsburgh this week closer than I otherwise would have because of the New Baseball Pool (no, I didn't pick them, but I'm rooting for them to take out a lot of people), and that was an impressive comeback in the 9th inning. Moreso, it was a terrible outing by this guy Motte for the Cardinals.

-I think the new Twins uniforms are nice. Didn't expect to see new unis in that game. That's always fun.

-For what it's worth after one game, the Yankees looked terrible. Whoa. That was a stinker.

OPENING DAY REFLECTIONS: So I don't know if I have seasonal depression or what. But I can tell you that I'm 100% happier right now that I have baseball to watch than I was without it. I love my family, love spending time with my daughters and wife, but I missed baseball terribly. And I'm ecstatic that it's back.

Southern Bureau's 2009 Mets Preview

2009-04-05T11:00:00.001-04:00

The Southern Bureau's 2009 Mets season preview is brought to you by the official house band of 200 Miles From the Citi - Matt Sucich with the Vanderettes.

HARMONIUM - The new Citi Field is probably going with pre recorded rock music and not the traditional ballpark organ music, but that's not what really matters. How will the new Citi Field play? Will it favor hitters or pitchers? Having seen some of it on tv yesterday - the large wall in left field made it feel like a pitchers park - but with Oliver Perez pitching, it was still 6-0 Red Sox in the first inning. So who knows? But I'm wondering how quickly it will take the Mets and Jerry Manual to adjust to the new digs. Could possibly set the Mets back a few games.

...AND LOVE - ....and hate. Didn't take long for Mets fans to turn on this team. In that same article in the previous paragraph it reports that the Citi Field faithful are already in September boo'ing mood. Perez was boo'd off the mound (as well he should have been). But I think that could be a big factor with this year's team - how long will the fans believe? They're obviously gun shy - and rightfully so. The last two seasons have been pretty heartbreaking - you only need to read Johnnymets to know that (see 2007 and 2008). While every Met fan does love their team, a slow start could ruin the confidence of the fans and lead to a summer full of empty seats at Citi Field.

STUPID OUTFITS - We've been over the sleeve patch, but I'm happy to see the Mets have gotten rid of their black alternate uniforms. The Southern Bureau hates alternate uniforms - always feels like a slow pitch softball uniform to me.

ALL TIME GREATEST - Yeah...we're all looking at you, David Wright (maybe not in that picture). Its your year to step up and win something. Individually - you're great. I've been in two fantasy baseball drafts this year, and you went first in one, second in the other. I'm sure there are dad's in Queens right now trying to convince their wife to let them name their newborn "David" or "Wright". But at some point, you've gotta win a big game. You're probably already one of the Top 20 players in Mets history (maybe not - Johnnymets or Daddymets could probably correct me), so its time to make that next step.

SETTLE DOWN - As Johnnymets pointed out in a recent post, Sports Illustrated believes the Mets are winning the World Series. Not good. Sports Illustrated has a habit of doing this - and its never works out well for anyone - especially the team they pick.

As a Red Sox fan who sat through several years of "The Red Sox will win it all" issues from Sports Illustrated, its not fun. On the left - that's the 2000 Preview. The title: Why the Red Sox Will Win the World Series (Really!)

Turns out: not really. They finished 85-77 and didn't make the playoffs.

To be fair to the cover boy, it wasn't Pedro's* fault. He won the Cy Young and finished 5th in MVP voting.

Anyways - before we all get too excited about Sports Illustrated, lets all settle down and realize they really don't know much more than anyone else.

NEW YORK IN THE FALL - But with that all said, hopes should be high for some October baseball in Citi Field. They have a much improved bullpen, a great lineup top to bottom, an ace in their pitching staff, and a pretty good manager. Perhaps this is the year the Mets can finally get over the hump.

So will we see playoff baseball in New York in the Fall? I think it all falls on starting pitching. If they can get good starts from #2-#5 in the rotation, they'll be there. If not, it will be a long year with no playoffs at all.

- SB

A SNEAK PREVIEW INSIDE CITI FIELD (UPDATED)

2009-04-05T10:18:00.002-04:00

A couple of reasons this is unusual:

1) Two postings already before noon on a Sunday (and I wouldn't be surprised if the Southern Bureau posts before the day is out).

2) An image of Citi Field that wasn't taken from a moving car.

As mentioned earlier this week, the sister and the brother-in-law got to go to the Mets open practice at Citi Field this morning - she sent me this picture, for which I'm grateful.

Is it possible to be in love with a building? If so, I am.

UPDATE - My sister sent three more pics:

The significance of this last picture is that my sister used to spend Mets games at Shea counting the airplanes flying overhead. Her Citi Field count has started, I guess.

TWO QUICK THINGS

2009-04-05T08:57:00.003-04:00

1) I hate to remind everyone...but I have bad memories of the Mets opening the season in Cincinnati, as they'll do tomorrow (weather permitting...I guess it's supposed to snow there).

You might remember this, in 2005, Pedro Martinez's first start with the Mets. I guess it can't get much worse than that...

(Interestingly, in that post, I picked Jeremy Reed to be 2005's AL Rookie of the Year...he's now breaking camp with the Mets.)

2) Just took a look at the Arizona Diamondbacks' April schedule - they have a chance to jump out to a pretty quick start (not that that served them well last year) - 18 of their 22 April games are at hom. That's amazing! They have just one road series all month - 3 games in San Francisco...and have a road trip that starts on the last day of the month.

Time to get this season going!!!!!

I KNEW I LOVED SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

2009-04-04T08:41:00.004-04:00

Over the years, Sports Illustrated and I have had our ups and downs. We went through a stretch where I just wasn't reading it, so I cancelled the subscription. When I had time again and renewed the magazine, my free gift was stolen in the mail and they never made up for it.

But all is forgiven.

Sports Illustrated is picking the Mets to win the World Series.

I actually can't disagree with much that Sports Illustrated has picked in terms of this year's standings. If I were to have gone through the standings, I would have had the Mets over the Angels in the World Series, like they do (and like I've had every year since 1999, probably).

They also have the tight race in the AL Central that I'm predicting, though the records of the teams there were significantly lower in their opinion than in mine.

So I'm thrilled...at least someone is on board with the Mets, besides me.

But, technically, I haven't picked the Mets to win the World Series. Just in case that matters when it comes to karma.

THE YANKEES OPENED THEIR STADIUM, TOO: Justin in NYC was there for the Yankees' exhibition game at their new stadium last night. He wrote about it here. Part of me wants to ignore the fact that I wasn't at the 'first-ever' game at Citi Field (or the second-ever, or the third-ever, if you count the St. John's game)...but I'll be at the first game that counts, which is good enough for me.

METS SIGN SHEFFIELD

2009-04-03T19:36:00.004-04:00

I guess it's time to get away from the previews and become reactionary.

And I'll say up front - I don't love the move the Mets made, signing Gary Sheffield.

I do think Sheffield has something left in the tank. It's funny this happened - yesterday I was all set to write about the team that acquires Sheffield...but did another preview. Here's what I would have written:

A couple of weeks ago the Boston Globe did a small profile on Sheffield, and how he was fired up this year and ready to put last year's disappointing season behind him. I bought in so much that I made him a last-round pick in my fantasy draft. I figured once he hit homer #500 and put that behind him he'd have a good season.

Then, after what I didn't realize was a pretty poor spring, the Tigers released him, and I heard a couple of rumors about where he would end up - mostly Cincinnati or Philadelphia. And that didn't make sense to me - as much as Sheffield was willing to suck it up in Detroit, he said he wanted to be an outfielder, but I think it's pretty clear everywhere that he would be better off as a DH at age 40. So a National League club didn't seem like a good fit, not to mention the damage a Gary Sheffield could do to your clubhouse. So I was partly rooting for him to infect Philly...and I held back from writing what a good missing piece he could be for the Reds (the veteran bat the very young team needed in their lineup) because I thought the negative influence he'd have on the players would offset the positive.

Now he's the Mets' problem. I find it disruptive - they have Daniel Murphy in left, Ryan Church in right, with Fernando Tatis spelling either/or. Sheffield, defensively, would be a step back from any of the three. Sure, I still think there's pop in the bat...but I worry because Sheffield has worn out more than one welcome. And I don't think Jose Reyes needs another person like Sheffield as a teammate - he doesn't seem to handle those guys too well.

I'm willing to give Sheffield a shot and the benefit of the doubt. But I wish I didn't have to.

METS OPEN CITI FIELD: Notwithstanding the fact that I didn't realize the Mets-Red Sox exhibition game tonight started at 6 instead of 7, and NESN has had technical difficulties most of the night which have prevented me from seeing everything....I love Citi Field. It looks really good. I can't wait to go there in a little more than a week! It does look weird to see the Mets in their home whites and not in Shea.

COMMENT ON THE COMMENTS: I thank "Total AL East Homer" for reading and making their comment - but my point isn't that the three teams atop the AL East will be competing for the division and the wild card with their 95 wins - it's that the other two teams in the division will be 20 games back. In the AL Central, I think top to bottom it has a chance to have everyone in contention until the final days of the season. Unlikely, but I think that's the most competitive division in terms of ALL of the teams battling it out.

RANDOM PREDICTION: AL CENTRAL

2009-04-02T19:32:00.006-04:00

The American League Central will be the most competitive division in baseball in 2009.

Let's break this down - in the AL East, the Orioles and Blue Jays will be below .500. In the AL West, Seattle is terrible. In the NL East, the Nationals will be bad, the NL Central has the Pirates and Astros, and the NL West is the worst division in baseball.

Bringing us back to the AL Central:

The Twins barely missed the playoffs, losing a one-game playoff to the White Sox, who enter the season as defending division champs. The Indians are now two seasons removed from their disappointing ending to the 2007 season and can't be counted out as a threat. This is the year the Royals get back above .500. And then you have the Tigers, who have to be chomping at the bit to avenge last year's disaster of a season.

I think, if it's mathematically possible, you have 5 teams right there that play better than .500 ball all year...making the AL Central the most competitve division in baseball in 2009.

For the sake of argument, here's my order of divisions in terms of competitiveness:

1) AL Central
2) NL East
3) NL West (the Dodgers, Giants, Diamondbacks, and Rockies really all could win the division)
4) AL East (a very good 3-team race)
5) NL Central (a bunch of teams have a chance, but none are all that good...that's right, Cubs. Win a playoff game sometime then we'll talk)
6) AL West (the Angels comfortably win this division...maybe even the American League)

ANOTHER RANDOM PREDICTION

2009-04-01T22:04:00.004-04:00

I hope you remember that I've been saying that the Reds are on the come for a couple of years now.

Because now it's the vogue thing to say. "The Reds are the team most likely to be this year's Tampa Bay Rays," I've heard said in various places...like my "Sporting News" Baseball Preview magazine, for instance (though the Reds sit fourth in their standings).

Well, I'm here to tell you that I think the Reds are another year away. Let's talk Cincinnati in 2010.

This year's version of last year's Tampa Bay Rays will be the Florida Marlins. I bet the Marlins ride their strong pitching to a second-place finish in the NL East...which will probably be good enough for a National League wild card berth.

We're picking a long-shot here, and this is a long shot, but they definitely have the starting pitching depth (and talent) to make a regular season run. It's also the end of their 6-year rebuilding cycle - 1997 champs, 2003 champs, and now it's 2009. (I just thought of that - it wasn't part of my argument coming in. But I really like it.)

The holes are plenty, but the Marlins are young enough that they have a lot of players who could break through this year and show they're more than capable of filling the holes.

And heaven knows they've shown October-type intensity when they've ruined the Mets' past two seasons late in the year.

This year it could very well be another team whose playoff hopes they ruin - in the playoffs.

A RESPONSE TO THE COMMENTS: Thanks to Dave in Brighton for the comment on Chris Davis. I really think Josh Hamilton has a come-back-to-earth-type year this year, so in my mind it's not a tremendous reach to think Davis will be better than Hamilton. Remember Hamilton's second half fade last year? That might have been more of a sign of things to come in 2009.

RANDOM PREDICTION FOR 2009

2009-03-31T21:13:00.003-04:00

Perhaps I mis-titled this segment yesterday. I don't really think these are bold predictions - they're more random predictions. So I'll continue in this new vein to tell you:

The Best Player on the Texas Rangers in 2009 will be Chris Davis.

The reason this is so random is because I was all set to declare Davis the 2009 AL Rookie of the Year. But then I realized, to the best of my knowledge, that he qualified as a rookie last year (and received no votes for ROY). But I thought he put up some impressive numbers -

In just 80 games (295 at-bats), Davis hit .285 with 17 homers and 55 RBI. Project that out to a full season, and I think he gets 35 homers and 100+ RBI - pretty good for someone you haven't really heard of.

And if you have heard of him, I'm sorry that I missed the boat. Those numbers just caught my eye.

Now excuse me while I add Davis to my fantasy team.

BOLD PREDICTIONS FOR 2009 - #1

2009-03-30T21:16:00.004-04:00

OK. Let's cut the charade. If I picked the divisions again this year, you know who I'd end up picking to win everything. So I'm going outside the box this year with some bold predictions. And I'll stay away from most things involving the Mets.

Also, I'm running out of time to go on the record with any kind of picks...season starts in less than a week, and I can't believe I'm finally writing that.

So, without further ado - my first Bold Prediction for 2009 is: Neither the Red Sox nor the Yankees will win the 2009 World Series.

I am aware of the tremendous social risk I take in writing that. Sad as it is, 80% of my readers are Red Sox or Yankees fans (God bless you, Steve in Queens, for knocking down that percentage). But I'm not making the pick to spite you all, or because I hold any sort of grudge that in the 23 seasons since the Mets last won a World Series you all have celebrated 6 world championships and a couple of other league championships, as well as plenty of playoff appearances.

In fact, one of those teams, and quite possibly both, will probably make the playoffs. It will in all probability be the Yankees. But I don't think either team wins the World Series this year. Or even gets there.

It's wrong to base assumptions on the World Baseball Classic, but I think part of the WBC was a harbinger of things to come for the Red Sox. Lots of little tweaks from Kevin Youkilis to Dustin Pedroia...and I feel like it's going to be that type of year in Boston. I feel like someone will be suffering from some kind of nick or bruise most of the year, and they'll never really get to the point where they are as good as they've been the past couple of years. Which means they'll still be good, but not championship-level good.

As for the Yankees, I feel like they have the potential to be this year's version of last year's Tigers. They could be a huge disappointment. Of course, they could get everything to go right and be the best team ever...but these types of spending sprees never seem to go that way, do they?

So I think the age on some of the Yankees will catch up to them (Jeter, Damon, Pettitte, Posada), and that will be a little too much for the new guns to make up for.

I'm not sure who exactly will win the World Series, but I'm feeling pretty confident the AL champ will not come from Boston or New York.

THE NEW SCENE

2009-03-29T10:01:00.004-04:00

As far as pictures taken from the car go, this is not one of our finer efforts, but the last time we were down in New York, about two weeks ago, we snapped this picture of Shea-less Citi Field on our way back:
It was weird seeing just one stadium in that spot...even though for my whole life there was ever only one stadium in that spot.

But there it is. The new view from the Whitestone Expressway. And The Wife is celebrating because she'll never have to take another picture from the car there again.

FIRST PLAY AT CITI

2009-03-28T12:50:00.004-04:00

This thought occurred to me the other day, so I want to make sure I broadcast it before anyone else does.
I don't think there's a better way to open up Citi Field on April 13th than by having Billy Joel sing the national anthem. He was the 'Last Play at Shea', he should be the 'First Play at Citi'. I checked his touring schedule - it doesn't seem like he's doing anything for the month of April. Maybe he's keeping himself free for just this type of occasion. I hope the Mets get him. And for good measure, I'll say keep that symmetrical theme going...Tom Seaver threw out the last first pitch at Shea...he should also open the new stadium.

Incidentally, it bothers me a little bit that the first game at Citi Field will be a St. John's game...this weekend, I think. I understand the need to have some run-throughs before the stadium opens to fans for good, but aren't next weekend's exhibition games against the Red Sox enough? Other than the disaster that was Frank Viola's years with the Mets, and John Franco's tightrope act, there's never been a St. John's-Mets connection - it's a historic game that will make no sense in the history books.

I'm sort of glad the Red Sox are the team playing the Mets next weekend, too - I'll be able to see the games on NESN here, and get a sneak peek at Citi Field. By the way - the Mets sent my dad tickets to a practice at the new stadium the morning of one of those Red Sox games - concessions will be open. Another test-run...another reason the St. John's game doesn't need to happen first.

REASON #5 - FANTASY BASEBALL

2009-03-28T09:45:00.004-04:00

Reasons To Look Forward to MLB 2009

I am not a great fantasy baseball player. I go with my heart too often rather than my head. But the first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem...and slowly but surely I'm improving at fantasy baseball.

So this year my first pick in 'East Coast Bias' (the fantasy baseball league I pay the most attention to, featuring only the AL and NL East players, trophy pictured at left) was Ryan Howard. Last year I drafted Chipper Jones, for example (on-base percentage is a huge factor). I am using my head...not letting my hatred of those teams get in the way.

Now, none of this has paid off yet. My best showing in East Coast Bias was tying the Southern Bureau for first place two seasons ago (after blowing a season-long lead). But it will this year. I feel like I have a very good team (which is my typical late-March feeling).

This year, I'm also involved in another league which uses all MLB players. And instead of a random draft, which we've done in past years, we did a live draft. And that was fun - and I feel I have a great team there, as well. Headlined by none other than Ryan Howard.

So I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to fantasy baseball this year. Also games like 'Beat the Streak' on mlb.com, and my 'New Baseball Pool'...all little extras that will help move the season along.

And at the very least, if I've put the kibosh on Ryan Howard by putting him on my fantasy teams....the Mets will benefit from that.

This idea was going to originally be "Reasons to Look Forward to the Mets in 2009", but I realized there are probably going to be some general baseball reasons as well as Mets reasons. So I've expanded it. Most will have to do with the Mets. Also, I'm counting up, rather than down, as we head towards the baseball season, because I'm just not sure how many items there will be in this feature. We'll go until we hit Opening Day.

AM I READY?

2009-03-27T19:57:00.004-04:00

My bracket's nearly busted. The temperature nearly hit 70 today. Many other years, this weekend is the start of the baseball season.

But I'm glad it's not...because I just don't feel ready.

I mean, I have my fantasy rosters drafted and the starting lineups are just about set. I have the notebook for the 'New Baseball Pool' set up, just waiting for Week 1 picks to be entered. I'm looking forward to the newspaper and Sports Illustrated baseball previews in the next week. So logistically I'm all set. It's mentally, I think, that I'm not.

And I think I know why.

It's this late start. For months, I've known that it was nearly a full week into April before the Mets would take the field (when it counts). And almost halfway through the month when they opened up the new stadium (I guess it could be worse - the Yankees' new stadium doesn't open until the 16th). So I guess I adjusted my mental state to account for all that.

Now, let's not confuse 'not ready' for 'not excited'. It's weird, though, this year - I really am more excited about the place than the event. I can't wait for Opening Day at Citi Field to see the stadium, and to go back all summer long, rather than to see the Mets play. Maybe that will change when I see the team in uniform for the first time (it probably will), but right now I'm excited for different reasons than I usually am.

I haven't even made season picks this year...which is too bad, because I'm in a non-homer mental state, and I might nail the picks.

Maybe I'll get around to that since it's still a while before we see any action that counts.

TWEET: So, I'm on Twitter. I have to credit The Wife - she thought it might be a good way to draw some traffic to the site. So since I want to get back into the everyday blogging life I've abandoned recently, I'll try whatever it takes to get some people to read. So if you're on Twitter, follow me. It's johnnymets. Not quite sure how it works, but I'll even follow you, too. When the season starts, I might be able to 'Tweet' more often than blog...so that might be a nice little add-on feature. We'll see what develops.

MARCH MADNESS

2009-03-18T20:51:00.003-04:00

Gosh...I'm really sorry it's been so long. I figure there's no time to get back into the blog, though, like March Madness time - and I think I'll welcome you back with an annual tradition...my obsessiveness over the NCAA Tournament bracket.

If you've read before, you know I'm a little....different....when it comes to my bracket. And this year, I'm realizing there are some common feelings that come over me at the same time every year. Here's a rundown:

1) Unbridled Enthusiasm: There are few times during the sports year I get as excited as I do between Monday and Wednesday of Tournament Week, when I start filling out my bracket. Wednesday night (like tonight), my heart starts beating a little faster. It's like a kid on Christmas Eve. I put the final touches on my brackets (well, not really - I don't change any picks once I write them down - more like I make sure I've entered them into whatever websites they need to be entered on), like putting out the cookies for Santa. I feel tired, but know that I won't really sleep well - there will be at least one dream of forgetting to submit a bracket. And I'll just want sleep to come so that morning will come faster. Then I have to get through the workday...

2) Hope: Every Thursday around noon comes the realization that my bracket could very well be perfect. It's the last moment that my picks are perfect. I like to savor that feeling for a bit.

3) False Hope: If I escape Thursday and Friday with any semblance of a "good" start, I raise my hopes. Any first round where I post less than 10 losses qualifies as a "good" start for me...depending on repeat losers.

4) Dejection: Inevitably, by Saturday night, I've lost an important game. It tears me apart.

5) Regret: I go back through my picks, wishing I could have a new blank bracket to fill out, and that I had gone with different instincts when I originally made my picks.

6) Second Wind: After Sunday I'll reassess the situation, and figure that if my bracket is busted, so must everyone else's be. And I'll figure out a new method to win the pool.

7) Repeat until the field gets too small, and I give up all hope. And then turn my attention to baseball.

EVERYONE'S IN THE POOL: OK, not quite in the pool, but I'm proud to say my 2-year-old filled out her first bracket tonight. She likes Pittsburgh to win it all. She also likes Cleveland State....which is why I didn't put it in the pool. But she's starting her picks at age 2. That's better than winning any pool in my book. I already can't wait until next year when I can add to her record.

I STILL CARE

2009-03-07T20:26:00.003-05:00

This is just a note to say that the blog isn't meeting its end or anything. I still care about it. And I still care about the Mets, despite their efforts to crush me at the end of every season.

It's just that situations like this whole Johan Santana ordeal right now are hard for me to handle. When it first happened, Santana said that he didn't think he'd miss Opening Day...and then it turned into a story about how he was going to most likely miss Opening Day.

This is a manufactured story. It's one I didn't want to write about because each time I would have written something, it would have changed and I would have had to write something again. It's certainly a serious situation - if Johan Santana is hurt, the Mets' season is finished. And if that happened right now, it would be over before it even began.

But I won't believe Johan Santana will miss Opening Day until I see the Mets play on Opening Day without him. And that's still a month away. This is nothing more than a media needing something to write about from camp, with all of the other star players playing in the World Baseball Classic. Nothing more. Talk to me again in a month.

SPEAKING OF THE WBC: It was nice to see David Wright in prime late-season form, popping out in a clutch spot (with the bases loaded in the seventh) against Canada on Saturday. And J.J. Putz will fit right in with his new teammates, walking a tightrope and turning a two-run lead into a one-run win-and-almost-loss in the 9th inning. It's like he was born to be in the Mets bullpen.

I immediately regret this decision

2009-03-01T10:51:00.004-05:00

There is a great scene in Anchorman where Ron Burgandy - while trying to save the lovely Veronica Corningstone - jumps into the bear pit attempting to be the hero. His bravery turns to fear rather quickly as he declares, "I immediately regret this decision."

Great movie, but a scary parallel this morning - sounds a lot like the Mets. The Citi Field'ers went with what they thought was a great idea, only to regret it just a short time later.

This offseason, the Mets decided not to sign Derek Lowe, he instead went to the Braves, and the Mets said their pitching staff was good enough the way it was and elected not to make a move for another starter.

Obviously that was a bit of a gamble, but with Johan Santana anchoring the pitching staff things still had a solid chance to work out.

Now - Santana is hurting. Early reports have him questionable for Opening Day with elbow problems. And with the Mets having not signed another top pitcher, they're stuck with what they got.

Think the Mets - like Ron Burgandy - regret that decision?

Maybe Santana will only miss opening day, but the words "pitcher" and "elbow problems" don't usually go well together. What if he misses more? What if he's out a few weeks? A month? two months?

If he's out - safe to say - the Mets are done.

A look at the depth chart - without Santana - does not paint a pretty picture for the Mets. A rotation of Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez, John Maine, Freddy Garcia, and Tim Redding will not win the NL East. That rotation might struggle to finish 500.

So why didn't the Mets address their starting rotation this offseason? All the attention was focused on the bullpen woes, but maybe Omar Manaya slept on their true big need.

-SB

PATCHING THINGS UP?

2009-02-21T10:31:00.005-05:00

Perhaps reactionary, perhaps always in the works, the Mets unveiled a patch that they will wear on their hats this season to commemorate the first season at Citi Field.

I say reactionary, because you may remember that the Southern Bureau was among the first to comment on how terrible the design is for the sleeve patch the Mets will wear this season. Others followed in the criticism.

Anyway, the Mets are not doing away with the sleeve patch, but they have added a hat patch (a 'hatch'?) for the season.
All told, it's a better patch...but one's enough. And this is the one that should have been on the sleeve in the first place.

The real crime here is that this hat sells for $35.99. When did the hats get so expensive? I used to collect MLB fitted hats - gave it up about 13 years ago or so...but I don't remember spending more than $25. Maybe $21.99? Seriously, $35+ for a hat?

REASON #4 - THE WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC

2009-02-17T06:44:00.000-05:00

Reasons to Look Forward to MLB 2009

Funnily enough (I like using the word 'funnily' every so often), I don't much care for the World Baseball Classic. Maybe I'll watch it, maybe I won't.

For me, it's more of an inconvenience than anything else. Players will get hurt. The season won't start until April 6th. The USA will get embarrassed by other nations.

But I have a theory about the World Baseball Classic, which I'm about to share with you. It could just be the salve to the Mets' late-season struggles we saw in 2007 and 2008.

You may have noticed I used the World Baseball Classic logo from 2006. That was intentional. 1) I couldn't find one from this year (or I didn't look hard enough - one or the other). But, more importantly, 2) 2006 is Exhibit A (and really the only exhibit) in my argument.

In 2006 the World Baseball Classic was held and the Mets put together their most complete season in the past 20 years. Even when they went to the World Series in 2000, and appeared in the post-season in back-to-back seasons in 1999 and 2000, they weren't as good.

The next two seasons following '06 were utter disappointments.

We all know - the team folded in the final two weeks of September. Now - I ask you to think back to 2006 - remember the Mets' struggles in mid-September, when they lost 3 games in a row to the lowly Pirates when they were attempting to clinch the division? They had a terrible September then, too, but it was overshadowed by the fact that they had built such a huge division lead.

What I'm here to tell you is this - the World Baseball Classic gave the Mets some prep time on the season, so that everything shifted up a couple of weeks. Like every funk, the Mets would have played their way out of the funks of '07 and '08 - they just ran out of games. In 2006, the funk came at the same time, games-wise, but earlier in September, because of the WBC. Then October came and the Mets righted the ship....until Game 7 of the NLCS.

I know it's slightly backwards logic - I hope you're still with me. But it makes sense. The other caveat is that more of the Mets' players will be tired because they will be involved in the games, which they weren't in 2006. I don't necessarily agree - I think the same thing will happen with the slumps those individuals (read: David Wright) would have gone through anyway.

So while I agree with those who say the World Baseball Classic is a bad thing, for this Mets fan, it's going to pay dividends in some fashion. Expect a big year in 2009....provided Wright doesn't get hurt playing third base for the U.S.

This idea was going to originally be "Reasons to Look Forward to the Mets in 2009", but I realized there are probably going to be some general baseball reasons as well as Mets reasons. So I've expanded it. Most will have to do with the Mets (like this one). Also, I'm counting up, rather than down, as we head towards the baseball season, because I'm just not sure how many items there will be in this feature. We'll go until we hit Opening Day.

MY OWN PERSONAL BASEBALL PREVIEW

2009-02-16T11:55:00.000-05:00

Unlike last year, when I made an impulse buy of a terrible baseball preview magazine the night of our fantasy baseball draft, this year I bought my trusty old "Sporting News" Baseball Preview well in advance. It has lots of editing errors, which always drives me nuts, and also doesn't have any baseball move made after mid-January at the latest, which has always bothered me, but I like its layout and I find it the best of the selection...especially with our fantasy draft always waaaay earlier than normal fantasy drafts.

But - I have mentioned this in the past - I take a different approach to reading a baseball preview. Usually I save the Mets until last, but since we draft only from the AL and NL East, I now read those two sections first. And I spend a lot of time looking at players' birthdays.

This year, it struck me that there are a lot of players with my birthday. And Gary Carter's birthday - those are two specific dates that jumped out at me. And there are also a lot of baseball players with some pretty cool birthday numbers that made me want to write about them. So here they are:

COOL BIRTHDAYS

(Inspired mostly by Grady Sizemore, who has an 8/2/82 birthday, which I discovered on my souvenir cup on my trip to Cleveland a couple of years ago)

Mark Reynolds, Arizona - 8/3/83

Jamie Walker, Baltimore - 7/1/71

Jacob McGee, Tampa Bay - 8/6/86

Huston Street, Colorado - 8/2/83 (hmm, now that I've typed that one it looks less cool to me)

Craig Breslow, Minnesota - 8/8/80

Mark Worrell, San Diego - 3/8/83

Travis Denker, San Diego - 8/5/85

Mark Ellis, Oakland - 6/6/77

Angel Salamone, Milwaukee - 6/8/86

And the Mets have a pretty strong contingent in this department:

Sean Green and J.J. Putz share a 2/22/77 birthday

Brian Stokes has a nice palindrome - 9/7/79 (Justin in NYC's birthday, incidentally, which is quite popular among major leaguers, I noticed)

And Jon Niese, potential number 5 starter -10/27/86 - I don't remember when he was up last year that he was born on the day the Mets won the 1986 World Series. That should grant him total immunity from ever being sent down or traded - Met for life. And it should definitely not go as unmentioned this year.

PLAYERS WHO SHARE MY BIRTHDAY (JULY 7)

John Buck, Kansas City, 1980

Alfredo Figaro, Detroit, 1984

Brandon McCarthy, Texas, 1983

Luke Montz, Washington, 1983

R.J. Swindle, Milwaukee, 1983

Leyson Septimo, Arizona, 1985

PLAYERS WHO SHARE GARY CARTER'S (and Dave in Brighton's) BIRTHDAY (APRIL 8)

I can't believe how popular this birthday is. It must be a day for athletes to be born, as well as creative types who excel at sedentary sports:

Carlos Santana, Cleveland, 1986

Jeremy Guthrie, Baltimore, 1979

Bobby Wilson, L.A. Angels, 1983

Eric Patterson, Oakland, 1983

Kason Gabbard, Texas, 1982

Eddie Kunz, N.Y. Mets, 1986

Diory Hernandez, Atlanta, 1984

Yonder Alonso (great first name - he's a first baseman - it'd be awesome if he went to make a tag and the runner beat him by jumping over the tag - "He's safe, because he jumped over Yonder!"), Cincinnati, 1987

Chris Iannetta, Colorado, 1983

Matt Antonelli, San Diego, 1985

Was it worth it?

2009-02-15T11:20:00.005-05:00

It appears as if the Pedro* era is over for the New York Mets.

The Mets have signed Livan Hernandez to a minor league deal, and now it looks like that may have been Pedro's* spot on the team.

Omar Manaya quoted as saying, "I think we are pretty much set and we're going to go forward with the guys that we have."

Translation: No Pedro*.

So now the question has to be asked - was signing Pedro* worth it? Was he worth that four year, 53 million dollar deal?

From a perfomance standpoint - the answer is an obvious "no". He was great in 2005 and the beginning of 2006. Missed most of 2007 and 2008. And when he did pitch in 2008 - his ERA was over 5.50. Probably not what the Mets were looking for, but obviously what the Red Sox expected when they did not give him the fourth year.

But did Pedro* make the Mets important again? Absolutely. His was the first big signing in the "NEW" Mets. He opened the door so guys like Beltran, Degado, Wagner, and Santana would even consider coming to New York for a reason other than the Yankees.

So was it worth it? I think you'd have to say yes.

But was it worth it for Pedro? What's his Mets legacy after the last few seasons? The broken down years, the high ERA, not delivering a Championship, pushed aside for Livan Hernandez....
I wonder if HE thinks it was worth it?

-SB

A PAINFUL REMINDER

2009-02-14T16:08:00.003-05:00

Ah, Valentine's Day. A day some spend appreciating what they have, while others pine for what they don't. Or just ignore completely.

While I'd love it if the third category applied, since I'm not a fan of February 14th, and I do spend a lot of time doing the appreciative thing, today I'll focus on the middle category - sort of love lost/never had.

And I really don't think words do as good a job as the pictures, so I'll get right to it with the only disclaimer that my dad asked if I wanted them for any reason, and I said, "Maybe I'll put them on the blog."
There's also this, just for those gluttons for a little extra punishment:

IT'S TIME

2009-02-13T20:30:00.006-05:00

Used to be that this was a lull in the sports calendar for me.

The Super Bowl was over. Pitchers and catchers were reporting, sure, but baseball season for real was still a full month-and-a-half away, and March Madness was something I counted the minutes until.

But then I discovered a whole new reason to live for mid-February. And that time has once again arrived.

I speak, of course, of the Daytona 500. And NASCAR season in general.

OK, I'll admit - I don't really love NASCAR for the sport of it. I don't know strategy, I don't know much about the drivers/owners/teams. It's the only sport I've watched in which my fantasy league drove the interest.

But that was the whole point. I played Fantasy NASCAR to get me through these dull months between football and baseball...and it far exceeded my expectations. I look forward to the NASCAR races every Sunday afternoon - and when there's a Saturday night race, watch out! I love it.

I get disappointed when there's a rain delay. And I greatly enjoyed my one experience attending a race...even though there was a rain delay. And cancellation of the remainder of the race.

I don't get too upset after a race either. A successful fantasy week gives me a feeling of satisfaction. A bad week is forgotten after an hour or so.

And this year's season comes with an added bonus - the Major League Baseball season starts late because of the World Baseball Classic.

So don't worry about me when it's the fifth of April and the first game of the season is only just getting played that night. I'll have my NASCAR to keep me busy until then.

Starting Sunday.

SO YOU THINK YOU MIGHT RETIRE

2009-02-11T21:18:00.004-05:00

Thanks to some other website, some tips on retirement etiquette. Let's see how Brett Favre did.
1) Discuss in advance with your direct supervisor that you will be retiring.

How far in advance? It doesn't say. But I guess the Jets knew it could come at any moment since they acquired him before last season. So maybe this wasn't a discussion that was desperately needed. But Favre did only tell Jets management shortly before e-mailing the media...thank goodness it happened in that order.

2) Give plenty of notice so that a replacement can be found and trained completely. Notice time varies, but it is better to give way too much notice than not enough.

Well, this all depends on how you look at things. When you consider how Favre held the Packers hostage last year, this is like a year's notice out of Favre. And at least the Jets have the draft coming up to try to get a quarterback to build around. (ESPN's Todd McShay is projecting USC's Mark Sanchez to the Jets at #17 in the draft - can't say I'm not excited about that possibility.) But when you think of it in terms of football games, it's not long enough. Read: all the Jets have right now is Kellen Clemens, Brett Ratliff, and Erik Ainge.

3) Six weeks' notice should be the minimum because it takes at least one week to run an ad and get responses, one week to interview and choose a successor, and then the successor must give two weeks' notice at his/her job. This would allow a two-week training period. If in a supervisory or managerial position, give more than six weeks' notice; tailor the time to your situation.

Quarterback is a very supervisory/managerial position, and should be regarded as such when one retires. It's very hard to find a replacement. You need to give a year's notice if you're the type of player who a franchise depends heavily on. Otherwise you're left with the likes of Clemens, Ratliff, and Ainge.

So Favre is a little bit to blame for some seemingly poor retirement etiquette. But, as they have done so many times before, the Jets might not have made the best decisions here.

Of course, Brett Favre did announce a year ago that he was retiring from football, only to play again in 2008....

All his fault.

2009-02-08T10:11:00.004-05:00

There he is. The man who quite possibly single-handedly ruined the Mets 2009 season.

John Smoltz.

You'd think Smoltz heading to the American League and taking his career 18-15 record, 24 saves, and 3.44 ERA vs NYM would be a good thing.

You're wrong.

John Smoltz started a bad list of events that led to the Mets doing the ONE thing they should not have done this offseason. Lets recap:

DEC 1, 2008: The Braves decline salary arbitration to John Smoltz. The future Hall of Famer is now free to sign elsewhere. The Braves - by all indications - fully expect Smoltz to return.

JAN 3, 2009: Derek Lowe rejects Mets 3yr/36mil contract.

JAN 7, 2009: Smoltz is expected to sign with the Red Sox.

JAN 8, 2009: The Mets and Derek Lowe are far apart on a possible contract.

JAN 9, 2009: John Smoltz makes it official, and signs with the Boston Red Sox. And here's where it all starts to fall apart.

JAN 13, 2009: The Braves, having lost Smoltz, completely freak out and offer Lowe a four year deal worth 60 million dollars. Four days after Smoltz's signs with Boston, Lowe signs with the Braves.

FEB 8, 2009: Ben Sheets - believed to be one of the backups if Lowe signs elsewhere, will miss almost all of the 2009 season with an elbow injury. I'm assuming the Mets figured this out weeks earlier, but probably not before they lost out on Lowe.

That left the Mets with no choice. Because John Smoltz signed with Boston, the Braves then lost their mind, then their backup plan got hurt, so the Mets were left with only one pitcher left to sign.

Oliver freaking Perez.

I've said my piece many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many times about this clown. But in 2009, I'll give him a break. Its not his fault.

So on October 4th - when the Mets are tied with the Phillies for first place on the last day of the season, and Oliver Perez is struggling to get through the 6th inning against the Astros - remember this Mets fans: Its all John Smoltz's fault.

- SB

REASON #3 - THE MLB NETWORK

2009-02-07T13:57:00.004-05:00

Reasons to Look Forward to MLB 2009

I know it already exists, but there's a huge difference between the MLB Network in-season and in the off-season.

First of all, my prediction about what the MLB Network should feature wasn't terribly far off. And that makes me happy. (Unfortunately, some of the great games they have been showing have been ones that I didn't particularly want to randomly come across on a cold January night - like Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. Endy Chavez's catch is a lot less dramatic when you know how that game ends.)

Nextly (like that?), some of the off-season programming has been promising, leading me to believe that the regular season stuff will also be good. I can only watch so much speculative talk, so I haven't spent much time watching the Hot Stove Report...but I like some of the analysts (always liked Al Leiter, Harold Reynolds is good, and some of the other rotating cast members have been good...although there are other elements I do not like at all, like Josh Lewyn and Hazel Mae...haven't seen them yet...but this is a topic for another post), and it will be a flat-out better show when there are actual games to report on.

Another important piece of the MLB Network's Hot Stove Report show has been the response by other networks. ESPN has added a Hot Stove element to its SportsCenter and ESPNews segments that I don't remember in the past. It's probably to try to keep their baseball fans on their channel. So that's been a positive result.

I've mentioned this before. The NFL Network is good. But all things considered, I'd rather have an MLB Network. And now I do. And 2009 will be the first season with full coverage on the network. And that's something to look forward to.

This idea was going to originally be "Reasons to Look Forward to the Mets in 2009", but I realized there are probably going to be some general baseball reasons (like this one) as well as Mets reasons. So I've expanded it. Most will have to do with the Mets. Also, I'm counting up, rather than down, as we head towards the baseball season, because I'm just not sure how many items there will be in this feature. We'll go until we hit Opening Day.

REASON #2 - DAVID WRIGHT

2009-02-06T20:36:00.000-05:00

Reasons to Look Forward to MLB 2009

(Note the reversal of the title and subtitle, for those of you keeping close track)

All right. I'll admit it. David Wright isn't exactly a superstar. Perhaps some of the shine has come off because he slumps at the times the Mets need him the most. But he's far from a disappointment - in fact, he's one of the top players in the game. I'd put him at the level just below superstar (a spot occupied by his teammate Johan Santana, among others).

And he's still a reason to look forward to the new baseball season.

First of all, he's a homegrown talent, and he's fun to root for. I swear - the day I find out David Wright isn't a genuinely good guy is the day I stop rooting for any professional athlete. He's a stand-up guy who hasn't backed down from the media in any situation - good or bad (and every season he's had with the Mets has ended in a disappointing fashion). He also has done everything to indicate that he is a quality individual.

He's also an exciting ballplayer. Though he strikes out a lot, and he hasn't proven to be tremendously clutch at this point in his career (he did have the Mets' lone RBI in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS), he's a lock to hit around .300, get somewhere around 30 HR, and collect more than 115 RBI. And he's improved from year to year, particularly on the defensive side.

I have my own little obsession with Wright as well; his assault on the all-time doubles record...or at least a team record. This will be an interesting year as far as that goes - Wright has always hit around 40 doubles. We'll see how Citi Field plays and whether or not it results in more doubles as a gap park, or maybe as more of a homer park, hurting his chances in this department.

The bottom line is that David Wright is one of the bright spots on what has become an otherwise disappointing team. And the fact that he alone can help me look forward to this season, coming off back-to-back heartbreaking playoff-missing seasons, makes him a very special player...if not a superstar.

This idea was going to originally be "Reasons to Look Forward to the Mets in 2009", but I realized there are probably going to be some general baseball reasons as well as Mets reasons. So I've expanded it. Most will have to do with the Mets. (Like this one.) Also, I'm counting up, rather than down, as we head towards the baseball season, because I'm just not sure how many items there will be in this feature. We'll go until we hit Opening Day.

MEET THE MESS

2009-02-04T21:06:00.006-05:00

From 200 Miles From the Citi on November 11, 2006:

The Mets are reportedly going to announce on Monday that their new field, which will open in 2009, will be called "Citi Field", which is because Citibank (or Citigroup) is buying the naming rights. As far as corporate names go, that's actually pretty good. I'm pleased. Could be much worse. It could be one of those company names that people hate, and instead it would be called "The New Shea", or it could be a company that's going to go out of business and the name would have to change again (like a dot-com, or like Enron). Citibank is stable (although banks are prone to takeovers and mergers), and "Citi Field" is pretty cool for a stadium in a city. I'll take it.

Well, I certainly didn't see this coming. Ah, the ignorance of three years ago, when I thought banks were only prone to takeovers or mergers.

Let me start with this - I don't know if I've ever said this before, but I never understood the 'stadium naming rights' practice. Does rooting for the Astros over the Rays mean I am any more likely to drink Minute Maid products rather than Tropicana? Does the fact the Padres play at PETCO Park do anything for anyone except for me, with my little "Where the Mets go" joke? (I swear if someone ever steals that they had better credit me.)

I never understood why a company would throw hundreds of millions of dollars at a team just to have their name on a stadium. Never understood it. And I understand it less now, with a company that is in serious serious financial trouble pretty much wasting $400 million to call the Mets' new stadium Citi Field.

Now, as I re-wrote above - I love the name "Citi Field". It has a good feel to it, for a good city team like the Mets. It also would have been a good corporate name, because unless you really knew what you were dealing with, you didn't really know it as a corporate name. Except now everyone and their brother knows, because Citi, and somewhat by extension the Mets, have become laughingstocks because of this idiotic deal.

Part of me hopes the naming rights are forced to change because of how stupid this whole thing is. But another part of me (probably a bigger part) wants to keep the "Citi". First of all, I named my blog after the new park, for crying out loud. Secondly, if there's anyone else who has kept as close an eye on the birth of Citi Field, I'd like to meet them and shake their hand. And read their blog...that sounds like something I'd love. I just feel an attachment to the park and its name. (With that in mind, I've put a small photo history of Citi Field at the end of this post - click it to enlarge.)

In the end, something else I wrote in November of 2006 might ring even more true: it's a shame these naming rights scenarios even had to come about. And maybe the old fashioned-way of naming stadiums after people was the way to go...or at least, I'll re-offer a suggestion for the naming rights if there has to be a switch:

Some people are saying it's too bad the "Shea" name is going by the boards...I agree, but it's the way of the world right now - hopefully William Shea will be remembered by Mets fans without the stadium bearing his name. And there is one sponsor that would have been better, which Mets fans apparently voted on somewhere - MetLife.

PLAYOFF PICKS - SUPER BOWL XLIII

2009-02-01T09:10:00.001-05:00

I hate to burst your bubble, you underdog-rooting football fan, but the Cardinals' ride has ended.
I think I'll be rooting for Arizona in the Super Bowl...I don't think I can really be sure until I actually see the teams and the game starts. The weird thing about the Steelers is that I should hate them, since they kill the Jets, but I really don't. Maybe because I like a good yellow/black combination in my uniforms...I don't know.

I do know that when it comes to these big games, championships specifically, defenses trump offenses. I realize the Cardinals are not your ordinary offense, and I do realize that their defense has played much better during this playoff run.

But the Steelers are head and shoulders better than them defensively, and are more than capable of holding their own offensively.

If the roles were reversed, and the strong defensive team was the underdog, a la the Giants last season, I'd be ready to pick them. But I can't really see the Cardinals getting another win. (Not that I've been lighting the world on fire up until now with my picks these playoffs.) So I think it's the Steelers, and the final score is only as close as this because I think the Cardinals tack something on late for the squares pools:
And here are a few prop bets (I love Super Bowl prop bets):

WILL KURT WARNER PASS JOE MONTANA'S CAREER RECORD FOR SUPER BOWL PASSING YARDS (1142 - WARNER WOULD NEED 364 IN SB XLIII) - I say No, though it will probably be close, because the Cardinals will be slinging playing from behind. I think Warner ends up with 330. (This also means I think Kurt Warner will not surpass his other two Super Bowl passing performances - 414 and 365 [incredible Super Bowl numbers, incidentally] - which is another prop bet.)

I love these - WHO WILL CATCH A PASS FIRST - HINES WARD OR SANTONIO HOLMES? I'm going to say Holmes, though Ward will have the more important catches.

WILL EDGERRIN JAMES SCORE A TOUCHDOWN? I say No.

PLAYER TO SCORE A TOUCHDOWN FIRST: WILLIE PARKER OR LARRY FITZGERALD? I don't think Fitzgerald will get in the end zone, believe it or not. I think the Steelers will shut him down. I'm not 100% confident in Parker getting there either, but I'll go with Willie Parker.

REASONS TO LOOK FORWARD TO MLB 2009

2009-01-31T19:39:00.005-05:00

REASON #1 - CITI FIELD For the Mets, this season is all about the new stadium. They can win the championship, I don't care (OK, I care), but that would be secondary....because the Mets won't be a lock for any kind of playoff spot until October. You can't count on anything before then, given their track record. So for the first 5 and a half months of the season, the story will be the new stadium.

There's so much possibility to a new stadium.

Features on how it's playing - favoring pitchers so far, or hitters?

What fan amenities are there?

What are the quirks?

What are the hidden features that no one knows about yet?

The Mets will be a big draw this year because of the new stadium. In the recession we're in, that puts them ahead of other teams who might see people avoiding the ballpark. They should play this up for all it's worth - a feature on the stadium during every game on SNY. Lots of shots from different vantage points. Maybe even a pre-season special. (SNY has been airing this thing with Kevin Burkhart all off-season where the stadium is still only about three-quarters completed. Update that with a final look at Citi Field...and a little bit about the taking down of Shea.)

Citi Field is the number one reason for Mets fans to look forward to 2009. Because while the team itself is no guarantee to fulfill its promise, the stadium should.

This idea was going to originally be "Reasons to Look Forward to the Mets in 2009", but I realized there are probably going to be some general baseball reasons as well as Mets reasons. So I've expanded it. Most will have to do with the Mets. Also, I'm counting up, rather than down, as we head towards the baseball season, because I'm just not sure how many items there will be in this feature. We'll go until we hit Opening Day.

WHILE I WAS AWAY...

2009-01-29T20:32:00.005-05:00

It's one of the immutable laws of my blogging life - if I don't write for a while, lots of things happen. I've been busy with school and life, but the Jets and Mets (and related issues) have been in the news. Here's what we missed:

A COACH NAMED REX: You have to like the way Rex Ryan talks, as a Jets fan. Anyone who talks about winning Super Bowls and says things like, "Watch out, because the Jets are coming", makes you think good things are bound to happen. It also makes you think he hasn't read a sports page in 40 years, but in this case, ignorance is bliss.

Maybe a guy named Rex can make the Jets a tougher team...a force. Maybe things will change.

Or maybe he'll just keep the seat warm for someone else in 3 or 4 years.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR: Aaron Heilman has been unhappy the past few years with his role with the Mets. He wanted to start, and as a result wanted to be traded. This off-season, he was part of the trade with Seattle where the Mets got J. J. Putz. Now, only a little more than a month later, Heilman has been traded again, to the Cubs. He'll be fighting for a number 5 starter job there. He would have started easily in Seattle. (Incidentally, if the Mets face Heilman as a member of the Cubs, bet heavily on the Cubs that day. That's the way things go for the Mets.)

LOL :-): Did you hear the one about Dwight Gooden, responding to steroid allegations with a "LOL" text message? I don't believe any of these athletes who deny steroid use anymore, really....especially the ones with the significant career rebirths after looking totally washed up.

MANNY/MANUEL: Mets manager Jerry Manuel says he wouldn't mind having Manny Ramirez in his lineup. Omar Minaya says he has no interest in adding him to the team. So help me God, I'm already on the precipice with the Mets after the past two Septembers. Adding Manny would push me right off the edge.

That's all I have for now. Thanks to the Southern Bureau for keeping this from being a totally stagnant place the past few weeks. I'll be back at least with a Super Bowl pick, but hopefully posting more regularly as spring training fast approaches.

Week in (yawn) Review

2009-01-25T20:05:00.004-05:00

Maybe he'll be signing a WORLD SERIES '09 ball: The Mets signed Freddy Garcia to a minor league deal this week. That's really all they did. Boring.

According to various reports, the Mets are still interested in several free agent pitchers, and that's probably a good thing. Right now, I can't see Garcia making much of an impact, except perhaps as a #5 starter. Even that might be a stretch.

Sandy Koufax isn't walking through that door: Of course the problem now is - there isn't much left. Its Randy Wolf, Ben Sheets, and he-who-shall-remain-nameless. And apparently that last option is a serious one, as the Mets are reportedly raising their offer to the 2008 Major League leader in walks.

What have we learned?: Since there isn't much going on this week, I'll tackle one more quick topic. Some rumblings that the Mets should trade one of their "big three" hitters, but history tells us they should think long and hard about that. Watching a future Hall of Famer retire this week should probably be enough of a reminder for this franchise.

-SB

A WRECK

2009-01-20T10:35:00.000-05:00

This Shea Stadium situation is much more upsetting to me than I thought it would be. Remember when I thought they would demolish it in one fell swoop and I wanted to be there to see it? I'm second-guessing that thought process.

Though I do almost wish now that it was gone all at once instead of piece by piece.

It's like a train wreck - it's so gruesome to me, but I can't take my eyes off it.

As we drove by Monday for what could be the last time, The Wife asked, "How much longer am I going to have to take pictures every time we drive by the stadiums?" Unfortunately, the answer is not much longer.

As you can see below, the progress in just a couple of weeks since my last visit is pretty staggering. (It doesn't seem like it from the way Shea looks, but these are pretty much taken from the same angle.)

A SAD SIGHT

2009-01-19T10:16:00.000-05:00

I drove by Citi Field and the remains of Shea Stadium this weekend en route to my brother's show.

And as much as I was looking forward to this whole deconstruction process, following the building of the new stadium, I've now decided I don't like seeing Shea being torn apart.

I think I'd rather just see an empty space than Shea in the state it is in now.

maybe somebody IS reading this...

2009-01-18T14:04:00.003-05:00

Here's the problem with blogs...

Dream Scenario: you put in all the time and work, assume millions of people will enjoy your writings, and you'll become world famous.

Actual Scenario: about 14 people read it, 10 of whom are related to you, three of whom are friends, and random dude who is lost 200 miles from NYC and is a bad speller.

But with that said, maybe Johnnymets is starting to take off...

PROOF:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Tip/Wag - Monkey on the Lam

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Just a few days after the "patch post", its making national headlines. Even Stephen Colbert is getting in on the act.

Yours truly suggested the Mets would probably end up with an "Alex Cora type player". A few weeks later, the Mets signed Alex Cora!

Johnnymets wants to see the Mets sign Ben Sheets. Newsday reports the Mets are keeping their eyes on Ben Sheets!

So with the new Johnnymets influence, I feel it is my duty - no - my obligation - to write the following.

Dear NY Mets...

DO NOT SIGN OLIVER PEREZ. HE'S TERRIBLE.

Love always...
The Southern Bureau

MEET THE NEW HC OF THE NYJ

2009-01-16T19:20:00.006-05:00

I haven't been paying much attention to the whole ordeal, but I do know the Jets are looking for a new coach, and interviewing a lot of candidates. (I prefer to wait until a decision is made and not get my hopes up for anyone in particular...I don't really know enough to make a judgment on anyone...and they never do what I expect...and it's always some guy who leads them to an occasional playoff appearance, and then gets fired after about 4 years or so anyway.)

And nothing's official yet...but does this have "Jets scoop up Gruden" written all over it or what?

He was, after all, willing to toss aside the quarterback that led him to the playoffs last year to go hard after Brett Favre. He has won a Super Bowl.

Gruden seems like just the type of guy who would stroke Favre's ego enough to get him to come back...which is really what the Jets' owner wants (though he may be the only guy in that camp).

So maybe the Jets continue along the lines they're on now and hire a Steve Spagnuola...but if they suddenly change course and hire Jon Gruden, don't be so surprised.

PICKS: I wasn't even going to make Championship Game picks, because I just don't care. (We're celebrating my mom's birthday on Sunday and my dad said he tried to make the dinner reservations for earlier in the afternoon, but failed. So we're not watching much...but I told him, "Dad, who even cares?" We'll be back in time for the end of the second game...maybe. I might watch that.) But now that I'm here, I'll make the picks:

EAGLES 31, CARDINALS 17 (I can't believe Philadelphia might win baseball and football championships - enough to get me to root for Arizona in this one)

STEELERS 24, RAVENS 10 (In case you were wondering, any combination of these four teams gives us a new Super Bowl matchup...so any way you slice it, I win.)

OTHER NEWS AND NOTES: Everything should be back to normal posting-wise next week...I'm just about done with the overwhelming amount of school work that hits this time of year.

I'll be in New York City this weekend for my brother's CD release party - that's the album cover there on the left. It's available for $5.94 on iTunes now.

The show is in Astoria on Saturday night. Look me up if you need the info.

Buy me that! Oh...uh...nevermind.

2009-01-11T10:07:00.005-05:00

Creative team needs a buyout: The hot trend in baseball is to have a fancy patch on your uniform to signify anything important happening in your franchise. Mainly its a way to make money - all the fans will want to buy the fancy patch. The Mets decided to do just one of two.

They got the new patch - but they clearly don't want anyone to buy it. Who would want to? That's it on the left. Yes...THAT'S IT. Just the Citi Field logo with "Inaugural Season" on it. No shot of the stadium. No mention of the stadium. Just that.

The patch - and the Mets - are getting killed on a national website, and rightfully so. As the writer pointed out - it does kinda look like the Domino's logo.

Of course - as I type this - I wonder if Johnnymets has already ordered one for the whole family.

Onto the guys who might be wearing that snappy patch next year....

Makes me Red(ding) in the face: Forget Derek Lowe - sign Tim Redding! The Mets have come to terms with free agent pitcher Tim Redding. Redding's ERA last season: 4.95. Is he the number five starter? If they don't sign Lowe, he might be the number two starter! Its becoming clear - the Mets must sign Derek Lowe.

Home of the Brave?: Uh oh. Suddenly the Braves are the front runner to sign Lowe. Atlanta clearly wasn't expecting John Smoltz to bolt to Boston, and now they're in panic-mode. Will the Mets respond? At least they still have Pedro* to fall back on.

Don't go Pedro!: Uh oh....again. Pedro* has begun negoitations with the Marlins. Suddenly the Mets options are dwindling. I need a beer. Several beers. In fact...lets get...

Three Sheets to the wind: Based on the pitching market, the Southern Bureau completely endorses the latest Johnnymets post: The Mets must sign Ben Sheets.

-SB

FREE AGENCY UPDATE

2009-01-11T08:21:00.007-05:00

As I mentioned yesterday, the home computer is on the fritz. It's in and out, shutting down unexpectedly. So I'll try to get these blogs in when I can. It's also a busy time of the school year, so I'm inconsistent with the postings anyway - I'll probably be back to posting more often in a week or so.

But I've been sitting on this e-mail from Justin in NYC for about a week, and it's high time to get to it:

The Rays just signed Pat Burrell. I thought he would have been perfect for the Mets. They're looking for a power hitting left fielder. He is that. Plus, he fits into the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mold. Yet, no one even mentioned it as a possibility. Your thoughts...

First of all, it's great to get an e-mail again. Since the comments section came to the blog, no one e-mails anymore. It's nice. Secondly, thanks for taking the time to write Justin. And thirdly, I'm going to go a step further and list a few other 'perfect fits' for the Mets:
-Brad Penny
-Rocco Baldelli
-John Smoltz
-Takashi Saito

While I agree Burrell seemed like a good fit, I'm also going to give the word of caution that he was one of those Chipper Jones-type Mets killers...while he did damage against the Mets all over the place, he was one of those guys who loved hitting at Shea. So maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't have continued at the new park. But that's a shot-in-the-dark rationalization.

The common denominator with those other guys is that they all ended up being signed by the same team - the Red Sox. And it makes me wonder why the Mets couldn't sign them all. (I haven't even mentioned the likes of A. J. Burnett.)

It's not like the Mets and Red Sox are in the same boat right now. The Red Sox are coming off two world championships in five years, and a loss in Game 7 of the 2008 ALCS. The Mets are coming off back-to-back September collapses that forced them to miss the playoffs in consecutive seasons. However, when it comes down to it, they have the same needs as most everyone else in baseball - pitching depth (and a spare outfielder).
If the Mets were really interested in Burrell (and it was at least mentioned as a possibility in my brain, if not on the site here, Justin...but I'm not sure where else), they should have fallen back on Baldelli. I know he's not an everyday player anymore, but I'm not sure the Mets need an everyday outfielder. They need someone to replace Endy Chavez, coming into games late and providing a spark. Baldelli could have filled that role - and performed even better in it. Or at least platooned with some of the younger guys. Plus he's an easy guy to root for.

Then there are the pitchers. Oh, the pitchers. Sure, they've added the likes of Francisco Rodriguez and J. J. Putz....but what of the rotation? (I watched Tim Redding closely last year for a period when he was on my fantasy team - he was not very good for most of the season.) What of the other bullpen depth? I would think if you're the New York Mets, you spend like the Yankees and Red Sox, and take some chances on guys like Penny, Saito, maybe even Smoltz, just to give yourself some arms so that 2008 never happens again.

Which leaves us now with a Derek Lowe and a Ben Sheets. The price on Sheets is supposedly dropping...I say take the chance. If he's healthy (which is the phrase I'm sure all of the contract negotiations on Sheets begin with), Johan Santana-Ben Sheets becomes one of the best 1-2 punches in baseball. And then Derek Lowe becomes a number three starter if you sign him as well. Lowe needs to be in a spot during the regular season where everything doesn't depend on him, especially in New York. I just have a bad feeling about him coming to New York City and having a lot on his shoulders - I don't know that his psyche can handle that. Come the post-season, I think he'll step up...but he needs to help the Mets get there first.

I doubt the Mets will sign both of those pitchers. I have serious doubts they'll sign one of them. And I hate to be the skeptical Mets fan...but I have my doubts about the Mets' financial viability right now. They're opening a new stadium - things should be great. They should be spending to beat the band - like the Yankees, opening their new stadium.

It makes me wonder about the Wilpons' involvement (the money they lost, not the bad kind of involvement) in the Madoff scheme. It makes me wonder about the deal with Citi for the park's naming rights. It makes me wonder about the current economic situation. It makes me wonder whether all of these things are causing the Mets to be just that more conservative when it comes to spending money. And if that's the case...it's going to set them back quite a bit.

PLAYOFF PICKS - WEEK 2

2009-01-10T08:34:00.002-05:00

So big problems with the home computer. I don't have access to my fancy helmet graphics, but I want to get this weekend's playoff picks out there. Back to basics:

Ravens at Titans (TEN -3, O/U: 34)
Like many people, I haven't bought into the Titans too much. But I think they're better than the Ravens. I think Tennessee just matches up better with Baltimore than Miami did. Now, Kevin Mawae isn't playing, so I'm not sure if that just devastates Tennessee's line. That could make a big difference...but I'm going to assume that they protect Kerry Collins, and he does just enough to win this game. Not a barn-burner by any stretch of the imagination - Titans 17, Ravens 10

Cardinals at Panthers (CAR -9.5, O/U: 48.5)
That's a pretty big number...especially considering Arizona, which got blown out a number of times this year, actually played the Panthers pretty tough this season. Carolina will win, but I'm not sure it's going to be as easy as that line indicates. Panthers 30, Cardinals 24

Eagles at Giants (NYG -4, O/U: 39.5)
It's become pretty fashionable this week to pick the Eagles...and I think I'm hopping on board that train. I'm not sure I can justify it, other than I think the Eagles have all of their weapons, and the Giants will be hurt by the absence of their big-play receiver. Eagles 24, Giants 21

Chargers at Steelers (PIT -6, O/U: 38)
I don't feel as good about this game a day out than I did when I plotted out the playoffs on paper...but I picked San Diego winning in Pittsburgh, so I'm going to stay with that. I love the stat that San Diego has never won in Pittsburgh in the regular season (0-13), but they're 2-0 there in the post-season. Chargers 20, Steelers 17

PLAYOFF WEEK 1 REACTION

2009-01-05T19:28:00.003-05:00

I think the biggest surprise of Week 1 of the NFL playoffs is the fact that four road teams were the favorites, and 2 of those actually won. Home field advantage in the playoffs is so important, and Arizona and San Diego were able to take advantage of that. But Baltimore clearly overwhelmed Miami in Miami, and Philadelphia beat Minnesota in Minnesota...I feel like anytime you win a playoff game on the road, it's quite an accomplishment.

The real feat, though, is if you can win on the road in Week 2.
A couple of other reactions:

SATURDAY
Atlanta at Arizona
-I totally did not see Arizona winning this game. Good for them - I didn't particularly enjoy rooting against them (I did want to see Atlanta win). But I think their run will be short-lived, coming east.
-The Cardinals do have this working in their favor - it's not like they're heading east for a 1pm game - they have the Saturday night game, so the time shouldn't be a factor, at least. Playing a really good team will probably be a bigger factor.
-My final thought on this game is that it was amazing how fast things swung Arizona's way after the fumble on the handoff at the start of the second half. Everything fell apart for the Falcons fast.

Indianapolis at San Diego
-Definitely the pick of the weekend.
The game was a lot closer than I expected - I really thought San Diego would pour it on the Colts...and they probably would have won in regulation if Peyton Manning had not caught the Chargers napping on that long touchdown to Reggie Wayne.
-I put a lot of stock into the Chargers this post-season - our post-season player pool roster has Philip Rivers and Vincent Jackson (both posted 0's on Saturday) - but the game turned out the way I hoped....I think next week's matchup with Pittsburgh is going to also be the best game of the weekend.

SUNDAY
Baltimore at Miami
-I was shocked to see Ed Hochuli as referee in this game, after the start to the year he had. I guess he turned it around after the early errors. I'm also glad, after we saw Hochuli once or twice early in the game, CBS addressed why he was doing the game.
-Chad Pennington has never matched up well against a defense like Baltimore's.
-Speaking of the referees, I had never seen the guy who did the Arizona-Atlanta game before, but he was pretty good. I'm not sure what his name was.

Philadelphia at Vikings
-Maybe I was saving up for next weekend's games, where I'm going to be fully interested from 4pm Saturday through 8pm Sunday, but I really tuned out when this game came on. I watched a little, but I was more concerned with getting stuff done around the house. Again - this will not be the case next Sunday at the same time - I'll be glued to San Diego-Pittsburgh.

I'll have picks by late Friday or early Saturday.

Inspired by the Southern Bureau, I might try to get into some baseball this week. I also might touch on the Jets' coaching situation. Apparently Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski is putting his job on the line just to interview with the Jets. I might advise him that it's not really worth it.

600 Miles From the Citi

2009-01-04T11:02:00.003-05:00

Its the Southern Bureau. In case you're wondering - I'm the one on the right.

Thanks to Johnnymets for the invitation to join the site. Obviously I'm just trying not to get in the way, just keep it going with a (hopefully) clever posting every now and then. I'm more of a baseball guy, so you won't see much on the Jets - and you'll be sick of me during Mets season. So until then - just a few posts until we figure out what exactly I'll be doing around here. Or until Johnnymets fires me.

Here we go:

How Lowe can you go?: Or - how high will they go? Turns out Derek Lowe doesn't think he can feed his family on just 12 million dollars a season. He wants 16 mil. At this point, you've gotta figure the Mets will give it to him. When the backup plan is Randy Wolf, Lowe seems like a pretty good option.

Where's Rey Ordonez when you need him?: The Mets depth chart shows they currently have no backup infielders (I'm not counting Fernando Tatis). Can't you picture an Alex Cora-type player showing up on this team? Second base is obviously a concern too, so I wouldn't be surprised if two backup infielders show up on opening day.

What about the Hanukkah party?: Hopefully the Mets got their money in advance for the naming rights to the stadium. Citigroup decided to cancel their "Christmas Train Display" due to the fact that they're - you know - broke. Annual savings: $240,000. That's a pretty nice train set. My workplace's annual Christmas budget: probably about $14.

Its kinda blurry: Next time I thought I'd give a photographic tour of Wilmington - home to Michael Jordan, former Met Trot Nixon, and future Met Bradley Holt. But in johnnymets tradition, I'm going to take all the pictures from a moving car.

- SB

REVIEW: THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED

2009-01-03T07:45:00.000-05:00

THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED

I'm three weeks late to the party on this, but I finally sat down and watched my TiVo'ed version of ESPN Films' "The Greatest Game Ever Played" - it originally aired following the Heisman Trophy Presentation in mid-December.

The big selling points were the fact that the game was being presented on television in color for the first time, and that current and former Colts and Giants were sitting down together to talk about the game.

When you look past the typical ESPN fluff (hosted by Chris Berman, yuck), it was a very enjoyable couple of hours.

In terms of significance, it was the greatest game ever played - but when you actually watch the game, which this show finally presented me (with a chopped up and edited version) the opportunity to do - it was not a great game. It was tremendously sloppy - something all of the current and former personnel noted.

The field was sloppiest of all - the Yankee Stadium field looked terrible that day. But Yankee Stadium itself looked great. I love watching the old (I'm talking OLD, pre-renovation) videos of Yankee Stadium - color or black and white - and this video seemed to have an inordinate amount of stadium shots - maybe the way football was shot showed more of the stadium. Majestic. I would have loved to see a game there.

Besides the Stadium, some of the current players paired up with the old-timers were really impressive. I've always liked Dwight Freeney, but I was blown away by his conversations with Alex Sandusky (a Colts offensive lineman). I was also impressed by Steve Smith, and I thought Adam Vinatieri and Pat Summerall were interesting. ESPN paired Michael Strahan with Art Donovan. I've seen Donovan years ago doing all sorts of TV appearances, though I can't put my finger on what right now, and he's always been entertaining. It seemed like Strahan was trying to yuk it up with him too much, and that was not fun to watch. When the two of them played it straight, it was very good. Mike Tirico talked with Bob Wolff, who did the TV broadcast in 1958. I can't figure out exactly what bothers me about Tirico, but there's something. I enjoy listening to him do play-by-play...but I didn't like him in this situation.

The most interesting technological aspect of the show was an analysis of what was one of the more controversial plays in the game - Frank Gifford ruled short of a first down (which he insists he had) on a late drive that would have helped the Giants run out the clock with the lead. They did two separate analyses on the screen showing with graphs how Gifford was about 9 inches short. That was cool.

And then two revelations came out that I never knew:

1) Late in the game, a fan ran onto the field. It was a pivotal moment - the Colts were driving late, and for viewers at home, they lost the picture. Turns out, NBC had a plug knocked loose, and one of their workers ran out on the field to delay the game, until the plug was replaced. I thought that was funny.

and

2) Alan Ameche, the famous fullback who scored the championship-winning touchdown in overtime, was not liked by his teammates. A couple of different Colts mentioned it in the interviews. One related the story that when Ameche decided to retire in 1960, he went to coach Weeb Eubank and said, "I think I'm going to retire." Eubank reportedly told him, "That's probably a good idea."

The game footage in a show like this is great - but it's stories like these that set the shows apart. I don't know if ESPN will replay the show at any point in the near future - but it's worth a watch if you see it.

PLAYOFF PICKS - WEEK 1

2009-01-02T17:30:00.000-05:00

Every so often I strike gold making these picks (remember when I absolutely nailed Dallas-Seattle?), and that's what keeps me making them. This year, I'm not in any kind of spread or over/under pool, so I'm doing this for the love of the game. (I am in a playoff player pool - possibly more information to come on that, especially if we end up doing well.)

ATLANTA AT ARIZONA (ATL -2, O/U: 51)
Good-bye Cardinals, hope you've enjoyed your division championship. This has the potential to be an entertaining game, actually - but Atlanta is the better team. They've been consistent all year, and they'll come into this game loose, I bet. The Cardinals will be tight, trying to prove they belong. And they won't do well:
INDIANAPOLIS AT SAN DIEGO (IND -1, O/U: 51)
The more I think about this game, the more sense it makes to me - San Diego is going to win. And they'll go on a run - I think to the Super Bowl. As I mentioned in my Week 17 recap, this is the team that has come so close so often the past few years. Then this year, they looked like they would be eliminated three weeks ago, and everything kept going their way. Call them this year's version of the 2006 Steelers, last year's Giants, whatever. They have this going for them - they have a home game in the first round, which neither of those teams did. I feel pretty good about a San Diego win against an Indianapolis team that isn't as good as its record:
BALTIMORE AT MIAMI (BAL -3, O/U: 37.5)
I love Miami (this year). I love Chad Pennington. But I don't have a good feeling about this game. I don't like the way Pennington matches up against the Ravens defense. I think that's the biggest factor - Pennington will see pressure the likes of which he hasn't seen all season, and the Dolphins won't get anything going on offense. I'll be rooting like heck to be wrong here, and rooting for the Dolphins to win, but I'm picking Baltimore:
PHILADELPHIA AT MINNESOTA (PHI -3, O/U: 41.5)
Perhaps it's because I never bought into Minnesota from the beginning of the year, and I don't think they really belong in the playoffs (though they've earned their spot more than some of the other teams in the playoffs), but I don't see them beating Philadelphia. I'm not sure exactly how this is going to shake out, but I see Philly winning on a late David Akers field goal. Maybe overtime, maybe just in the final minutes:
If I'm reading the point spreads I found correctly, which I'm 99% sure I am, how about the fact that all four home teams are underdogs? So, for entertainment purposes, if you're scoring at home, it's:
1) Atlanta and the under
2) San Diego and the over (I guess - don't these usually have half-point increments?)
3) Baltimore and the under
4) Philly (push) and the under

SUPER BOWL MATCHUPS

2009-01-02T15:36:00.003-05:00

If you've read the blog before (and if you haven't, welcome!), you know I have just a touch of the crazy. Not in the 'bite the head off a kitten' sense, but in the statistical sense.

And my number one obsession is with seeing a new matchup in the championship each year (mostly just with baseball and football, though it crosses my mind at the end of the NBA and NHL seasons).

This year's playoff batch presents a lot of possibilities for a new matchup - and features a lot of teams that follow the rules:
-New York Giants (4 Super Bowls, 4 different opponents)
-Minnesota (4, 4)
-Indianapolis and Philadelphia (2, 2)
(Funny that one of the all-time rule-breakers, the Oakland Raiders, are big-time rule-followers in my book, with 5 appearances against 5 opponents. The Patriots and Broncos are 6 for 6.)

The teams that have no restrictions this year are: Atlanta, Arizona, Carolina, Philadelphia, Tennessee, San Diego, and Indianapolis. Here are the restrictions:
-Baltimore and New York: Saw it in Super Bowl XXXV
-Minnesota vs. Pittsburgh/Miami: Minnesota, as I mentioned, has played 4 separate Super Bowl opponents, but two of them are in the mix again this year.

With my expectation that Miami and Minnesota will be first-round losses, it's really only the Giants and Ravens that are a threat - don't think the Ravens can't plow through the AFC.

For the rest of my picks in this weekend's games, check back a little later today.

HOW DID I DO?

2009-01-02T09:27:00.000-05:00

Today is a day of picks. Later on, I'll print my predictions for this weekend's NFL playoff matchups. Right now, I'll recap my picks from the beginning of the year...which weren't spot-on, but they weren't terrible, either.

I made a few predictions in September - let's start by checking those:

1) The Giants would not repeat as Super Bowl champions. The jury's still out on this one, though the Plaxico Burress thing is going to kill them in the playoffs, I suspect.
2) The Patriots would not win the Super Bowl. Well, I was right, but I didn't predict how - I actually had New England making it to the playoffs.
3) I said the Vikings would not make the playoffs. Whoops.
4) I didn't buy into all that Saints hype, and I said the Saints would not make the playoffs. Point, me.

On that posting I also broke down the Jets' schedule game-by-game, and remember, I thought they'd go 12-4 (with a plus/minus 2 factored in). When you look at their schedule, and think about the games they should have had this year (Raiders, 49ers, Seahawks), 12-4 was a distinct possibility.
Then I made these picks for the NFL season. I'm proud to say I came close on a number of things.
-I knew a team with a good record in the AFC was not going to make the playoffs (I had the 12-4 Jaguars, not the 11-5 Patriots).
-I was 50% on the playoff teams.
-I had the tight race between the Broncos and Chargers.
-I knew the NFC West would be terrible (though I had the Seahawks, not the Cardinals, winning).
-I was way off on the Vikings, Cowboys, Ravens and Dolphins, and sort of on the Titans (had a good record, but I underestimated them).

So I didn't do terribly. And I compared my picks against what Sports Illustrated had predicted in their season preview. I was no better, no worse. And I'm pretty proud of that.

Later on today I'll have my playoff picks...and don't think I won't be comparing my thoughts to the "experts".

WAY TO START OFF 2009 ON THE RIGHT FOOT

2009-01-01T15:56:00.003-05:00

So, anything new with the Jets in these early hours of 2009?

I guess the entire team doesn't like Brett Favre, and Thomas Jones resents the fact that Favre kept throwing interceptions. (If Favre doesn't back out of his Pro Bowl appearance due to injury, I suspect he won't be travelling to Hawaii with many of his teammates, Jones in particular.)
While Thomas Jones was bashing Favre on a New York City radio station on Tuesday, another member of the Jets was anonymously telling a newspaper that Favre was isolated from the team much of the year.

To tell the truth, I'm surprised that none of this came out earlier, when the Jets started losing. After all, let's not forget that the Jets were low on Favre's list of desired locations when he was looking to be traded from the Packers. I'm sure that didn't go over too well with the rest of the team.

This news, which has been crawling across the bottom of the bowl games all day, is certain to make it tougher for Favre to come back as a Jet next year. Which certainly is a strike against the Favre trade being "worth it" for the Jets.

And I guess I got my wish - I was hoping that Favre would make the Jets newsworthy come January. I just thought it might be because of the playoffs....

WELCOME TO 2009

2009-01-01T08:38:00.000-05:00

Perhaps sadly, I feel like 2009 will be the year of the stadium, rather than the occupants, when it comes to the Mets.

Like the sucker that I am when it comes to the Mets, I'll be rooting for a world championship, but last year took a lot of the wind out of my sails. That said, the excitement level for 2009 is very high - mostly because the Mets will finally have a new stadium.

The Wife snapped some pictures on our Christmas trip to NYC, and I have for you some views of Citi Field near completion, as well as the beginning of the demolition of Shea Stadium.

First of all, I wanted to show you one of the images of Queens, New York. When we get on the Grand Central Parkway near my parents' house, right by LaGuardia Airport, this is the scene:
It's going to look strange to me when Shea is no longer a part of that horizon. But Citi Field will look great.

Here's another view that will change in just a couple of months, at the on-ramp to the Whitestone Expressway at the end of Astoria Boulevard (note that when you look at Shea you can pretty much see right through it as they have removed all of the seats...more on that in a second):
Now, a look at Citi Field near its completion (I think it's pretty much done, though I can't see the inside):
And then two looks (click on these so they become bigger, and then look inside Shea to see the damage) as the tearing-down process at Shea has started:

Finally, we drove through the Bronx to see some family on Saturday - and The Wife snapped a shot of the new Yankee Stadium (which also looks really good - I'm going to try to get there this summer as well):

Happy New Year!

2008 - YEAR OF THE GAG?

2008-12-31T08:18:00.000-05:00

Looking back at the 2008 NFL regular season, I think the one theme that stands out is the fact that a lot of teams blew a lot of chances this year. Sure, there were teams that pounced on opportunity: the Arizona Cardinals took advantage of being in the worst division in football to win said division, the Miami Dolphins took advantage of their schedule to be good enough to win the AFC East, and the San Diego Chargers took care of their business to put themselves in a position to win and get in in the final week of the season.

But the Chargers were only able to do that because the Denver Broncos wasted their (very good) chance. And the Dolphins wouldn't have won had the Jets held their ground. And they were joined by the likes of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Chicago Bears, who at one point controlled their destiny, only to let those opportunities slip away. Throw in teams like the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys, and it seems like there was an inordinate amount of teams this year who had a chance to make things happen for themselves, and blew it. (Teams like the Bills don't count - though they got off to a really hot start, they faded too far too fast.)

I noticed a couple of patterns with these teams - the Jets, Broncos, Bucs, Redskins, and Cowboys. The first is, other than the Jets, who lost too many games to beatable teams, the teams really beat up on their weaker opponents - meaning maybe they didn't really deserve to be in the positions they were in because they didn't have the most difficult schedules. (I noted how easy the Broncos' schedule was way back in August.)

But the other thing is a lot of these teams had a big win, followed by a big collapse. Look:

1) The Jets beat the Patriots and Titans in back-to-back weeks on the road, improving to 8-3, then went 1-4 the rest of the way.

2) The Broncos started the Jets on that downward spiral, but that was their high water mark - after beating the Jets, Denver beat Kansas City, then lost their final three, all with an opportunity to clinch the division.

3) The Buccaneers were 9-3, coming off a win that pretty much buried the Saints, then lost to Carolina in a big divisional matchup as part of their 0-4 finish to the season.

4) The Redskins started hot, became everyone's favorite darkhorse, were sitting pretty at 7-4, and then finished 1-4 - including a loss to Cincinnati - to finish the season.

5) The Cowboys' chokes have been well-documented, but they fit this pattern, too - after regaining some hope by beating the Giants, they lost their final two games of the season with everything on the line.

I guess this is all just to point out that as horrible as the Jets season was, they had plenty of company this year. It's just hard to notice that other teams and their fans are sharing your plight in the heat of the moment.

ON THE OTHER HAND, MY YEAR WAS PRETTY GOOD: I have to admit, on this last day of 2008, that I got really caught up in my number of posts this year. When I changed format sometime last year, the new page kept track of posts per month and year. And I decided I wanted to try to post as much as I could in 2008, watching those numbers very closely.

I ended up posting a record 284 times in 2008. Of course, it was a leap year, so you have to subtract from 366 to see how many days I missed instead of 365, but still...I'm impressed.

April and May were tough - a busy time at school. October, a month into having the new baby, was also sporadic. But I wrote this year more days than ever before - by a long shot.

And the reason I did it was because people were reading. I was picked up a couple of times this summer by other blogs, which was a first. And I have my small, small circle of loyal readers, who I really appreciate taking a couple of minutes out of their day to read what I have to say, and either comment on it in writing or in person. Thank you, because I'd like to think I'd do this in a vacuum, but I'm not sure I'd continue if no one read it.

I'm proud of the fact that I was able to keep the writing up this year. And I doubt that I'll be able to match that output in 2009. But I'll try. And I'll have help. I'm excited to announce that in 2009, as I floated out as a possibility in early August, the Southern Bureau will become a regular contributor - I've officially handed over a set of keys. Maybe I can get The Wife to do some more contributing in 2009 as well.

But just like a year ago, there's a lot to look forward to in the coming year. And I will write about it. And who knows, it might just turn out to be more often than in 2008.

WORTH IT?

2008-12-30T06:34:00.000-05:00

The time has come to ask the question that has been on the mind of Jets fans since August - Was it worth it to get Brett Favre from the Green Bay Packers for the 2008 NFL season?
Favre ended up costing the Jets:

1) A conditional fourth round pick.
1a) Since he played in 50 percent of the plays this season, the pick jumped to a third-round selection.
(Had the Jets made the playoffs, since Favre played in 70 percent of the Jets plays, it would have become a second-rounder, a first-rounder if Favre took the Jets to the Super Bowl.)
-And since it is now a third-round selection, the Jets get a Packers seventh-round pick in 2010.

2) A head coach.

3) Probably at least one season once Favre decides to retire, since the Jets have no one ready to take the reins.

The Favre trade won't go down in history as one of the worst trades of all time - the Jets only gave up a third-round pick (if I have the correct info) for a future Hall of Famer.

It's the more intangible stuff surrounding Favre that makes one really question this trade.

I'm willing to bet the rumors that Favre didn't like playing for Eric Mangini (he named his son for Brett Favre - what more would Favre want?) were a big factor in Mangini being fired a day after the season ended. I bet it rubbed Favre the wrong way that he was made to run a lap for a transgression (I forget what it was - but I remember that it was lead-story news, that Favre had to run a punishment lap in Jets camp) when he first arrived. And now the Jets are without a coach, and entering a transition stage. Mangini could very well be looking for a job anyway had he not had Favre at quarterback this year - but with the firing of the coach seeming to link so closely to Favre's ineffectiveness this past month, this is a strike against trading for Favre.

Then comes the question always surrounding Favre - when will he retire? People close to the Jets seem to want him to come back (and perhaps that's why Mangini is no longer the coach), because the Jets have no one to take over at quarterback if Favre goes. So a lot depends on this MRI that Favre had the day after the season ended - if he's healthy enough, I have to believe he'll be back next year. So really, the Jets will be getting two years out of Favre, hopefully a better year, in which case the jury remains out on the Favre trade.

If Favre decides to retire, comes back with a shoulder injury, or in any way strings the Jets along in his retirement decision, it becomes a terrible, terrible trade, which sets the Jets back a couple of years in both the quarterback and head coaching positions.

Where do I stand right now? Well, I want to make this clear - I do not think the Jets would have had the kind of success the Dolphins did this year, or even that they did (9-7 is still a rare Jets winning season), had Chad Pennington been the Jets quarterback. Pennington probably would have been hurt again. The one big difference between Pennington this year and last is that he had adequate protection - something that Favre did not have at the beginning of this year. Favre is tougher than Pennington - he absorbed the hits better (or maybe not - the MRI results may let us know that). So while I love Pennington, I'm not going to sit here and say that the Jets came up short on this Favre deal because look at what Pennington did with Miami. I said it at the time - it was best for both parties to part ways when they did.

And I'll add this - I was excited when Brett Favre came to the Jets. I wasn't looking forward to the NFL season with my usual zeal this year, until the Favre trade happened. And he came through for 3 months, giving Jets fans a lot of excitement. Problem is, the season is four months long. Five if your team is one that makes the playoffs, and the bottom line is that the Jets did not do that.

So I'm not ready to say the Favre trade was a disaster. But it certainly hasn't been a success. And depending on what happens this off-season, it could head towards disaster more quickly than it emerges as a success.

NFL WEEK 17 RECAP

2008-12-29T09:27:00.001-05:00

The 2008 NFL season is over.

Congratulations to Chad Pennington on winning the AFC East with the Miami Dolphins. I was reminded watching the game of the Jets' last division championship, which they clinched on the final day of the 2002 season, when Pennington beat the Packers (led by quarterback Brett Favre) at the Meadowlands. I thought that was kind of funny. Anyway, it couldn't happen to a better guy. Of course, Pennington handled it with class...though I wouldn't have blamed him if he had flipped off the crowd on his way off the field. I hope he wins the Super Bowl.

Before we get to the playoffs this week, though, a look at the week's final season:

BEST GAME OF WEEK 17: A couple of games came down to a final field goal - but all involved teams that had most everything wrapped up. I guess the Panthers-Saints goes as the best, because the Panthers earned themselves a bye with the win, after the Saints came back in a huge way in the game, and Carolina still managed to pull off a last-second win.

BEST PERFORMANCE OF WEEK 17: The Ravens went out and took care of business - I'll give the nod to either Joe Flacco or Le'Ron McClain - Flacco had 297 yards passing, McClain had 70 yards rushing and scored twice.

WORST PERFORMANCE OF WEEK 17: The Dallas Cowboys laid an absolute egg against the Eagles with everything on the line. (The Broncos didn't play much better controlling their own destiny, nor did the Buccaneers, but the Cowboys were the worst.) The Eagles did a nice job, but the Cowboys did worse than the Eagles did well.

BEST GAME IN PLAYOFFS: Next week I think the best matchup might be Eagles-Vikings, though there's something intriguing about that Chargers-Colts game too. I think the Chargers have the potential to be the Colts of two years ago - a very average regular season, getting hot at the right time and making their championship run. This is the same team, after all, that has been a playoff threat then disappointment in recent years - maybe this is the year they turn it around. Not that I want them to...but it might happen.

BEST PERFORMANCE PREDICTED IN PLAYOFFS: There's not much here to predict - this prediction stuff is all over (though I will pick playoff games again starting Friday/Saturday). I will say this though - I'm in a playoff player pool, where you pick players with the hope that they get lots of points and go deep into the playoffs. My friend who I'm doing it with and I were talking about who would be a good quarterback pick, because there's really no obvious choice, the way Kurt Warner has fallen apart and with no other clear cut great quarterback out there this year. It occurred to me this weekend that Matt Ryan might be the choice - because I bet Atlanta upsets Arizona next week, and he puts up good numbers.
-Last Week: I said a 24-10 win by the Dolphins (off by 7 points there), on a 19-23, 279-yard day, 1 throwing, 1 rushing touchdown for Chad Pennington. He was 22-30 for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns. Just another solid Pennington day...and my prediction was close enough for me.

**UPDATE** - Eric Mangini has just been fired by the Jets. I would have fired him last week, after the Seahawks loss, but that was totally reactive. After what I read about Woody Johnson (Jets owner) this morning, I suspect that this was a reactionary move. Maybe they should have taken a week to cool off. I don't love the idea of starting over with a new coach. I just hope a replacement is named quickly...and I hope the other reports recently that Brett Favre did not like playing for Mangini did not factor into this decision.

So here we are again, the Jets looking for another head coach. Same old Jets.

HERE'S HOW IT IS TODAY

2008-12-28T12:34:00.004-05:00

OK. So I'm rooting for Chad Pennington today. For one lonely NFL week out of my 30 years on this earth, I'm rooting against the Jets. Strangely, that means I'm rooting for the team I've had a burning hatred for every other year - the Miami Dolphins.

Now, with the strong winds in Buffalo today, anything could happen, and the Bills might beat the Patriots...and if that happens, and a Jets win puts them into the playoffs as a division champ, maybe I'll root for the Jets. But I can't say right now - I need to see what I decide when and if that situation presents itself.

I'm less angry with the Jets now than I was a week ago. I'm very angry, though, with Jets fans. That's much of the reason I want Pennington to win on the Jets' home field, to stick it to the people who cheered when he was hurt a year ago. And that's part of the reason I'm not going to be there - first of all because I'm not going through that hassle of attending a Jets game in New Jersey with zero parking for a team that will most likely lose (though I will do it next week for the playoffs if they win the division), but mostly because I don't want to be around more people booing Pennington.

A COUPLE OF OTHER THINGS:
-I apologize for the lack of images the past few days - I'm not at the home computer, so I'm going sans pictures.

-I thought it was funny the other day that the Southern Bureau suggested I root for the Panthers. Funny because here I am this week rooting for the Dolphins, who the Southern Bureau, if he rooted for any NFL team his entire life it was Miami, and he's suggesting I go to Carolina. For the record, I'm not looking for a new team. But I do enjoy occasionally rooting for Carolina anyway.

-I'm actually rooting against them today, now that I bring it up, because I want Atlanta to win the NFC South. One of my favorite stats in sports right now is that the team that finishes last in the NFC South one year wins the division the following year. And if Atlanta wins and Carolina loses, that will happen again.

Enjoy the final regular season week of the 2008 NFL season. And good luck, Chad Pennington.

A WII LITTLE CHRISTMAS

2008-12-27T10:07:00.004-05:00

My sister bought Wii recently. So, naturally, I told her to host Christmas so we could all come over and play it. I dubbed it a "Wii Little Christmas", a bit redundant, but we had mini cookies, little hot dogs (Wii-ners), and my brother and his girlfriend got me a mini deck of cards as a gift. It was fun.

And the Wii is awesome.

Afterwards, the Wife confided that for a long time she thought about getting me a Wii for Christmas. But she couldn't justify the cost, what with two children and all, and the time we'd need to play it. I can't argue with her - we barely have time to watch a half-hour sitcom a week, let alone play video games in our spare time (though, somehow, I manage to watch about 20 hours of football a week.....). So I'm not upset with her.

But it is something I'm thinking we should do down the road. Because it's great. We played Wii Sport, but that was all I really needed to see.

I played a few rounds of Wii Tennis with my brother, and I handled him pretty well. Then we (Wii) played some bowling - my brother and his girlfriend, the Wife, and I - my brother kept rolling strikes - I think he might have broken 200 in one game. Can't figure out how he was so successful. But he whooped us pretty good. I came in second place in two games - I think my high was 159.

I hit a home run off my brother's girlfriend in baseball, then knocked her out in boxing in a tense 3-round match. I then knocked out the Wife in the first round - she barely had time to pick up the controller before she was on the ground.

So a Wii Little Christmas was a hit. I over-ate (ironic, maybe, considering it was supposed to be small), had a great video game experience, and got to spend some time with the family. It's a Wii-nderful Life.

HYPOCRITICAL

2008-12-26T10:24:00.004-05:00

I am not cut out of the cloth you need to be cut out of to be a coach in the NFL. I'm also not cut out of the cloth you need to be cut out of to be coached by the people who coach in the NFL.

So maybe I'm not the best person in the world to comment on this situation. But it's kind of got me riled up, so I'm going to.

In today's New York Daily News, Eric Mangini is quoted a few times criticizing Jets TE Dustin Keller. His slowdown in production has coincided with the Jets' tailspin the past month. So, yes, Keller could be in a position to be criticized...but that seems unfair to me.

At least Keller has showed up for most of this season. Jerricho Cotchery hasn't been a factor since Week 3. Laveranues Coles hasn't done much all year either. And none of those people can be any kind of a factor without production from their quarterback, Brett Favre.

So sure, criticize the rookie. Say that this isn't bowl season he's prepping for, that the NFL is 17 weeks long...longer, if you make the playoffs. But spread the criticism around to others who deserve it. And don't forget to look in the mirror. Because this entire team was not prepared to play 17 weeks - they played a 12-week season. And that begins and ends with the head coach - not a rookie tight end.

I SUPPOSE IT COULD BE WORSE...

2008-12-24T09:35:00.000-05:00

The NFL certainly provides plenty of fodder for someone looking to put in perspective their team failing to make the playoffs (I am aware it isn't official that the Jets aren't in...but it might as well be...). So I present to you a list:

At Least:

1) Laveranues Coles didn't shoot himself in the leg and then have David Harris try to cover the whole thing up.

2) Then later find out that Coles was uninsured when he had a traffic accident in the off-season.

3) Shaun Ellis didn't punch Brett Favre in the weight room.

4) There is no such thing around the Jets as "Mustache Monday".

5) Eric Mangini's children are too young to have columnists question their decisions about who they married.

6) A slew of Jets wasn't suspended for using a banned substance hidden in another substance. Of course...there was that one instance.

7) They're not the Oakland Raiders.

The Jets do have their own problems, coaching and off-the-field (both involving one Shaun Ellis). But looking at the landscape of the league, those are a little more run-of-the-mill than the things going on elsewhere.

NFL WEEK 16 RECAP

2008-12-23T08:24:00.006-05:00

One more week - and there are some good games to watch next week. But first, the recap of the penultimate week of the season:

BEST GAME OF WEEK 16: The Chiefs-Dolphins game was pretty good - lots of scoring in tough conditions. The Giants-Panthers was also very good (though due to the circumstances of the Jets game I didn't really enjoy it) with a lot on the line. Games like the Colts-Jaguars, Bears-Packers, and Bills-Broncos weren't bad either.

BEST PERFORMANCE OF WEEK 16: I'm going to avoid talking about all the teams who had a chance to do something to help themselves when it came to the playoffs in Week 16 and failed - there are a lot of them (Jets first and foremost). Instead, I'm going to highlight the Atlanta Falcons, who no one expected anything out of, and came into Week 16 needing a win for the playoffs, and got it. That makes them the best performance of the week.

WORST PERFORMANCE OF WEEK 16: I don't care that it was snowing, I don't care that it was another east coast one o'clock game. The Arizona Cardinals don't deserve the playoffs any more than the Jets do. Throw Kurt Warner's 30-yard effort in with the big-picture 47-7 loss to the Patriots.

BEST GAME IN WEEK 17: With lots on the line it can either be Jets-Dolphins or Chargers-Broncos. So help me if the Broncos lose and the Chargers get into the playoffs. That would upset me as a Jets fan. The Patriots-Bills game will probably intense too.

BEST PERFORMANCE PREDICTED IN WEEK 17: I'm going to go with my heart again, and predict a huge playoff-entering performance from Chad Pennington. I say 19-23 for 279 yards and 1 throwing TD, 1 rushing. Dolphins, 24-10.
-Last Week: Way off with Kurt Warner and the Cardinals.

I THINK I MAY HATE THE JETS

2008-12-22T08:30:00.005-05:00

I'm so mad right now. Problem is, I don't know who I'm mad at.

I don't know if I'm mad at myself because I saw this coming for weeks, and I didn't let myself believe the Jets would take a page from the Mets' end-of-season playbook and take a nosedive. I knew for a long time everything would come down to that last game of the season against Miami, but I'm mad for never thinking that it would be Miami who would be in the driver's seat when that game came along.

I'm mad at Eric Mangini for playing for field position early in the fourth quarter when he could have kicked a field goal and for doing the exact opposite later in the game, playing with awful field position. And for letting his team imitate the 1994 Jets in terms of collapses.

I'm mad at Brett Favre for being so old and wearing down as the season has gone on. It's no coincidence that he's questioning his ability to stay in the game and whether he's too old and the Jets look like a team that's out there sleepwalking through their final month.

Most of all, though, I'm mad at the franchise. I feel like a little kid - I just want to kick them in the shins and yell, "I hate you I hate you I hate you". I feel like I'm wasting so much energy on these teams for nothing in return.

I hate that the Jets are taking 10+ years off of my dad's priority on their season ticket list.

I hate that the Jets have never had their own stadium.

I hate that the Jets turned their back on one of their most successful quarterbacks ever and he's going to lead his new team to the playoffs on the field against the Jets.

I'm feeling very angry right now, and I don't want to write anything I may regret. It's hard to say that after 30 years I'm just going to stop rooting for the Jets forever.

So it's not a permanent divorce...yet. But we're taking a break. Next week, I'm a Chad Pennington fan. I'm flat-out rooting against the Jets. I'm not proud of it, but I feel like I have to do it.

First of all, I want to see Pennington do well.

Secondly, the Jets don't deserve the playoffs.

And lastly, if they made the playoffs, they wouldn't win anyway. At least with Pennington, a team has a chance.

When the season is over and I've had a chance to cool down, we'll see where things stand. But I'll tell you this - I'm not looking forward to an off-season of Brett Favre stringing the Jets along, only to look like he's washed up when the season gets into its late stages. I feel like he's already set the franchise back a couple of years. If he hangs around any longer they'll be going backwards even more.

I know this - I don't think I could make it through an NFL season without a team to root for. So I don't think I'll be totally jumping ship on the Jets. But we're certainly cooling things down for a while. Starting in Week 17.

WEEK 16 LIVE BLOG

2008-12-21T11:47:00.022-05:00

11:48am - I've just decided the conditions today are right for a live blog. There are some interesting situations in today's Jets game (a 4 o'clock start...ugh) - Brett Favre vs. Mike Holmgren, Thomas Jones vs. Julius Jones - and then there's the looming playoff situation. The Jets will be playing in snowy conditions in Seattle, most likely, and the Patriots will be doing the same against the Cardinals in Foxboro. And I hear it will be extremely cold in Kansas City where the Chiefs will be hosting the Dolphins. So it will be an eventful day. I'll watch it all. And I'll write about it. After I get in from my first round of shoveling for the day.

12:10pm - Wow. That's a lot of snow. There's going to be a lot more shoveling today than I thought. Maybe I'll give you a picture later.

I'll set another scene here without a picture...but I'll still paint the image for you. All season I had been wearing a Jets t-shirt with my Jets fleece pants on Sundays for Jets games. After the two losses to San Francisco and Denver, though, I was going to switch things up, and with guests coming over last week I wasn't going to wear the fleece pants anyway. So I went with the t-shirt, jeans, and a Jets hat. That worked out, barely. I'm sticking with that outfit today - hopefully it's still lucky. I can't invite the guests back - they're back in New York. I've also been wearing my Jets sweatshirt for shoveling, so if things aren't going so well maybe I'll switch to that in the second half.

12:25pm - Here's your almost-live picture of the snow, still falling heavily:
Should be similar conditions for the Patriots-Cardinals game...at least the start of it. I think by the end of the game this will be freezing rain and everything will ice over.

1:15pm - I've fed the baby, so at least I'm not totally neglecting my parental duties today. And so much for the Jets getting any help - the Patriots are already up 7-0, and it took the Dolphins all of 18 seconds to go up 7-0 versus the Chiefs. They followed quickly with a turnover, then they had a turnover negated by a penalty. The Cardinals look terrible in the snow...looks like the Jets are going to just have to win their final two games no matter what.

1:41pm - Kansas City is showing signs of life. But to be honest, I don't think any of that matters. The Jets can't clinch this week. So I guess it'll look nice if the Jets are 10-5 while the Pats and Dolphins are 9-6, but the truth of the matter is the Jets need to win their final two games. Period. It doesn't matter what happens with the Dolphins and Patriots.

2:00pm - So a Dolphins win hurts the Patriots, does nothing for the Jets. A Dolphins loss helps the Patriots, does nothing for the Jets. What a weird week.

2:33pm - Update on the wardrobe - I'm really cold in just a t-shirt, so I'm going with the sweatshirt. Hope I don't cost the Jets a win.

Here's something good I just thought of - it's going to be bad weather in Seattle, but Brett Favre played his entire career in Green Bay, so he's got to be unaffected by it, no?

2:45pm - Out to shovel the next foot of snow that's fallen since I last shoveled three hours ago.

3:18pm - I hope the Jets are seeing what the Patriots are doing to the Cardinals (similar to what the Jets did to Arizona the last time I live-blogged, incidentally), and go out and do the same thing to the Seahawks in about an hour. There's no reason the Jets should lose today.

3:55pm - I am enjoying this Dolphins-Chiefs game. And I think since the Jets control their fate by playing the Dolphins next week, I'd rather see the Dolphins win, putting the Patriots in the tougher spot. And I need a fantasy touchdown from Ronnie Brown. So go Miami!

4:16pm - The Jets got three on their opening drive. Came close to getting a touchdown...but I'm encouraged by how they've moved the ball. The thing that scares me is that the Jets have done that on opening drives most of the season, then they go flat. So they need to keep it up.

The weather in Seattle, by the way, doesn't look all that terrible.

4:30pm - The weather is getting worse. That Seattle crowd is loud, even when the Seahawks are terrible. Good for them.

4:37pm - Through one quarter, 3-0, Jets. And I'm not feeling any less nervous.

5:01pm - My daughter may be a lucky charm. Twice I've had her yell 'Defense' at the TV, and twice it's resulted in the Seahawks fumbling (the last two drives). This last fumble came inside the 5. I will definitely be using this to my advantage.

5:22pm - I'm so friggin' angry. 7-3 Seahawks at halftime. The Jets haven't been able to move the ball since the opening drive. And the Seahawks are moving the ball pretty well. This game scares me a lot.

5:44pm - Another round of shoveling under my belt. Haven't even begun to try to dig out the cars (still coming down pretty steadily, by the way). This will be good therapy after the game, though - win or lose. I will need a distraction from the way the Jets make me crazy.

6:05pm - It's the end of the 3rd quarter, Seahawks up 10-3. I feel like I'm going to throw up...and now it's time for dinner.

6:19pm - A delay of game on a field goal...the Jets are lucky to still be down 7 right now with the ball. But they need a touchdown on this drive.

6:24pm - 6:48 to go in the game, and the Seahawks are playing like they're trying to wrap up a playoff spot. The Jets look awful. Like they have the past month. I'm so disappointed.

6:32pm - This is it - 3:06 left, the Jets have it at about their own 10. If the Jets don't get a touchdown, they can kiss their playoff hopes goodbye. And I just might root for Chad Pennington to beat them and make the playoffs next week.

6:37pm - It's not fun being a Jets fan. Disappointment after disappointment. I hope Pennington embarrasses them next week.

GOING BOWLING

2008-12-20T11:04:00.004-05:00

There's a lot of negative press surrounding the college bowl season. But as I get ready to veg out in front of four meaningless (for most) bowl games today (my excuse is that it's still snowing out and there's really nothing else I could be doing), I'm here to tell you that I look forward to these next couple of weeks more than many other parts of the sports year.

Some sports I enjoy for the pure sport. Others I need a bit of rooting interest. College football is one, and the bowl pool I participate in each year provides me with plenty of rooting interest. This year there are 34 bowl games, and I've picked the winner of each one, ranking them from 1-34 in confidence rankings.

The bowl pool is one of my top 3 favorite pools of the year that I participate in - and though I never do particularly well in it, it at least keeps me interested in something in that slow few weeks between my elimination from fantasy football and the NFL playoffs.

You might argue that the bowl season takes away from the fact that college football has no playoff system - well, when they do get those playoffs, I have a strong suspicion it won't change much of the bowl format - and I'll still be able to do this bowl pool in the same fashion.

So be careful when you say no one cares about the Papajohns.com Bowl between Rutgers and NC State. Because I'll be watching, and I'll care.

A COUPLE OF CLICKS YOU MIGHT ENJOY

2008-12-19T14:15:00.004-05:00

So maybe you're snowbound today, looking for something to do. Here are two things I've enjoyed lately that I'll plug:

1) I got an e-mail from a guy saying he enjoyed the site, and asking would I throw some info out there about an NFL campaign going on. Warning him that I probably don't have as many readers as he might think, I said sure. And it looks like it's for a good cause and everything is on the up and up, so here it is:

Chunky Soup is sending soup to the hungry through a campaign on their website. And all you have to do is click over to their site, and vote for your favorite team to win their weekly matchup. The top 8 teams then make the 'playoffs', and winners have food donated to their local food banks. Food being lots of cans of Chunky Soup.

I only wish I had known about this sooner, because the Jets look like they're going to comfortably beat the Seahawks this week (you can only vote once a day), but they're in sixth place in the AFC. I could have made a difference earlier in the season...maybe they'd be undefeated like the Bills currently are. So there's one option for you.

2) My second option is more dependent on your knowledge of sports. For a couple of months now I've been addicted to ESPN's Streak for the Cash game. You may have heard of this recently, because this month someone finally built a 25-game winning streak and won $1 million. I didn't find out about the game until October-ish, and didn't play regularly until November.

They give you a number of options for games each day - hockey, NBA, college sports, prop bets - and all you have to do is pick correctly. Your two options are to play for the longest streak or to play for the highest monthly total. Some people go nuts picking multiple games a day (you can pick your next game right after the previous one ends), going with every European soccer game, in hopes of getting an overwhelming amount of wins in a month. There's a bunch of different strategies you can employ.

Anyway, for me it's like mlb.com's 'Beat the Streak' all year long. If you play your picks right you can have some sort of rooting interest every night of the year. I bring this all up because they're starting new, with a new $1 million prize, on January 1st. I recommend you play.

You can find the game at espn.com, usually in the upper right-hand corner of the front page.

MOSTLY WELL-DESERVED

2008-12-17T19:55:00.003-05:00

Seven Jets made it to the Pro Bowl. For a game no one cares about, that's pretty significant and worth mentioning.

It's also pretty heady stuff - most teams that get 5 or more players to the Pro Bowl are championship-caliber teams. The strange thing about it is that the Jets are precariously perched when it comes to playoff position. For the most part, though, the nods were well-deserved.
Let's look at the selections:

QB - Brett Favre - The Pro Bowl shouldn't be a legacy award, but we all know this happens sometimes. Favre is the least deserving of the Jets named, and might be so banged up that he gives up his spot. Maybe then someone more deserving like Matt Cassel or Chad Pennington will get in. It's not like this is unprecedented....but that doesn't make it right.

RB - Thomas Jones - What a year he's had. Jets records for touchdowns (rushing and overall). He hasn't looked like one of the best in the game at times this year, but with the Jets' struggles in the passing game for most of this year, he's probably the team MVP (at least offensively).

OL - Alan Faneca, Nick Mangold - Another significant piece of the Jets' success this year, especially the veteran Faneca, who is probably directly responsible for the younger Mangold getting to the Pro Bowl. Well-deserved on both counts.

DT - Kris Jenkins - OK. At times he has been dominant this year, but others he's been near-invisible. I'd say this is probably deserved...but only mostly, not 100%.

CB - Darrelle Revis - Definitely deserved. Might make an argument here for Kerry Rhodes as well. They've been the strength of the Jets' secondary. Good for Revis. He was a good draft pick.

KR - Leon Washington - For the first time since Chad Morton's heyday, the Jets have a legit threat on kickoffs. Washington has become a threat to score every time he touches the ball...moreso on special teams than offense, but you still can't relax when he's in the backfield because he might break one.

So all of this is to say that it may look weird for the Jets to have 7 Pro Bowlers, but 5 of them definitely deserve the nod. The other 2 sort of raise expectations for themselves over the final two games of the season.

Because here's the other thing - there's only one Bowl I care about come February. And it isn't the one in Hawaii.

NFL WEEK 15 RECAP

2008-12-16T21:03:00.004-05:00

Another week of NFL action in the books - and only two more of these before we get some playoff action:

BEST GAME OF WEEK 15: Another group of tight games, but none worth really shouting about. A couple shouldn't have turned out the way they did, either. The Jets-Bills was exciting for a neutral observer, I guess, but infuriating in ways, too. Same thing for Titans-Texans and Chargers-Chiefs. All had pretty good endings, but lacked greatness in some form.

BEST PERFORMANCE OF WEEK 15: I can't believe I'm about to write this, but Tarvaris Jackson and the Vikings proved me wrong - they came out and handled the Cardinals, showing they belong in the playoffs, which they will now inevitably make. (I haven't been a believer in them at all.) Jackson, filling in for the injured Gus Frerotte, outshone MVP-candidate Kurt Warner, throwing for 4 touchdowns (on just 163 yards....but he still cashed them in, so good for him).

WORST PERFORMANCE OF WEEK 15: Could be the Cardinals for coming out so flat, and it could be a number of coaches for their poor decision-making that cost them some games. But maybe we'll go with Washington, with everything setting up for them nicely, choking one away against Cincinnati. The Bengals only have nothing to play for, while the Redskins are fighting (and losing) for a playoff spot.

BEST GAME IN WEEK 16: Weird, this. Both the top two teams in the AFC and NFC face off with the winner controlling the number one seed. Steelers-Titans and Giants-Panthers in Week 16. That's really amazing.

BEST PERFORMANCE PREDICTED IN WEEK 16: I'm going to let my heart get in the way of my head here, and predict a big week from the Arizona Cardinals. Nothing about them playing in the east should lead me to believe anything good from them this week, but I'm looking at what they did last week, and if they want to be considered a legit playoff threat, they need to come back and make a statement this weekend against the Patriots. So I'm calling for it. They get the upset, 28-24 in New England, with Kurt Warner coming back with 338 yards and 3 TD's against the weak New England secondary.
-Last Week: I said 33o yards and 3 TD for Peyton Manning (hmm...sounds familiar). He had 318 with just one passing TD.

LOOMING....LOOMING...

2008-12-15T20:41:00.007-05:00

Things that scare the dickens out of me between now and the end of 2008:

1) Clowns
2) The off-chance I'll run into Santa Claus (Christmas is sometimes like Halloween to me)
3) That December 28th game with the Dolphins

The first two are my own little issues. But that last one, I know I'm not alone on. And there are a lot of people jumping on that bandwagon. But I'm no Johnny-come-lately when it comes to that December 28th game. I've been banging that drum for a while.

And don't say I'm falling into the Seattle trap. I know my Jets. They very well could lose Week 16 in Seattle. But I'm a Jets historian - they're more likely to win in Seattle and then lose to the Dolphins in Week 17.

Of course, I'm hoping they don't....but I can't get too excited.

And here's the number one reason this Dolphins game scares me - seems lately they've gotten away from the Wildcat formation, the one that helped them upset the Patriots in Week 3 of the season. The one they didn't really start employing until then. Meaning that the Jets haven't seen it yet (they played the Dolphins in Week 1). And since the Dolphins have gone away from it recently, it might come as a surprise when they start using it again...Week 17....against the Jets.

If the Jets had trouble stopping the run against Buffalo, and against Denver, and against San Francisco, with the back coming out of his traditional spot in the backfield, what chance do they have against the Wildcat?

So that's what scares me most about the Dolphins. Not to mention the fact that when I first mentioned the Dolphins game scaring me, I envisioned a spoiler scenario for Chad Pennington and Miami. Not a situation where they would actually stand to win the division by beating the Jets.

So I'll be wearing out the Sunday Ticket this Sunday. Miami-Kansas City. New England-Arizona. And Jets-Seahawks at 4. I never count on the Jets making it easy...but I never thought just a month ago that it would become this hard.