The Mets opened their Grapefruit League exhibition season Thursday afternoon with a 12-7 win over the Cardinals. I know the games don't count, and I'll get real tired of them real soon, but it's nice to see actual scores of actual baseball games.
Supposedly at this point, the pitchers are supposed to be ahead of the hitters. Rare was the pitcher ahead of the hitter in this game. Steve Trachsel pitched poorly, Billy Wagner pitched well. The good news out of this game was Xavier Nady's four hits, with 6 RBI, including a grand slam. Carlos Delgado was 3-for-3.
MAILBAG/PEDRO* UPDATE:
"Dear JohnnyMets,
Just a quick email to say 'JohnnyMets called it.' Pedro pulled out of the World Baseball Classic. I guess the toe just proved too much.
Dave in Brighton"
Thanks Dave...although I'm not really sure I called it. I really thought Pedro* would pitch in the World Baseball Classic at some point. Turns out, the Dominicans didn't want to waste a roster spot on Pedro*, if he wasn't going to be available until possibly the final round, and it would have wasted Pedro*'s spring for the Mets. I didn't realize this, but Major League teams aren't allowed to use a guy in spring training if he's on a WBC roster (which I guess makes sense in all cases except for a guy who is somewhat injured like Martinez*). I'm cool with this whole thing, though, because now Pedro* can focus on the regular season, and get ready for the games that count, as far as I'm concerned.
DARREN DAULTON: Yesterday I promised more from Darren Daulton....so here it is. Turns out, the date he mentioned as the end of the world, as I'm sure you've heard somewhere by now, is the end of the Mayan calendar. But I already mentioned all of that - the new development is that yesterday I heard Daulton on Dan Patrick's show on ESPN Radio. Nearly all of the callers I heard at the end of the show called to support Daulton and tell him how brave he was to come forward with something like this, because he was subjecting himself to ridicule. Well, he sure is. I'm not buying it. I'm willing to take the risk that there will be egg on my face when the world ends in 2012.
SCHEDULING STUFF: I just discovered that Sunday afternoon, the Mets' split-squad game against the Puerto Rican WBC team (featuring Carloses Beltran* and Delgado) will be on ESPN. Monday's game will be too (against Cleveland), but I'll be working...maybe I'll TiVo that. Also, it seems I do not have ESPN Deportes, so hopefully a lot of these games in North America for the WBC will be on regular ESPN and ESPN2 so I can watch them.
I'm determined not to screw up this year on Opening Day. The Mets open up Monday, April 3, against Washington, at 1pm. I'm going to try to avoid human contact, TiVo the game (last year I had to rely on the old-fashioned VCR), and not set the TV to ESPNEWS before I watch the game on delay. See last year's April blog entry to see how I messed up on Opening Day. The good news about this year is that I have a shorter commute to watch the game.
SNY UPDATE: I don't want to have to write a letter to SNY, but there is no e-mail contact on their website (which is up and running), and I really want to be the official blogging partner of the station. Also, it doesn't appear that I have SNY on my DirecTV package...at least yet. This won't affect my ability to watch the Mets games, because I'll still get them through the baseball package - but I do want to watch all of the Mets programming (and Jets programming) the station will feature when it's not showing baseball.
This was a fast week. TGIF. I'll be updating all weekend - especially postgame Sunday. Also coming within the next week - the promised fantasy baseball updates (maybe that will be within the next couple of weeks) and some insight from the wife about our newest addition, coming World Series time. The newest addition is coming World Series time - the insight from the wife is coming in the next week. Think baby names, a la Shea Jones, offspring of Chipper.
Showing posts with label Darren Daulton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Darren Daulton. Show all posts
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
BILLY, BARRY, AND BOONE....AND MUCH MORE
Leading off, good news leading up to the World Baseball Classic - Billy Wagner is not participating. Wagner withdrew from the WBC on Wednesday, saying he didn't think he'd be effective enough this early on. He says he's not a good pitcher in March, and didn't want to bring down the U.S. team. I'm glad he won't be suffering a season-ending injury during the WBC, but part of me was hoping Wagner got that "bad pitching early on" out of the way in the tournament, and was ready to go by the time the Mets' season started.
Secondly, 2B Bret Boone retired Wednesday, saying he just didn't have the motivation to play anymore. Boone's numbers have fallen off dramatically the past couple of seasons...just saying....I don't think he was going to give the Mets those types of huge numbers this year. Actually, I'm willing to bet he wouldn't produce anything close to those numbers. And he was probably thinking the same thing.
Lastly (in my opening remarks, anyway), one day of Barry Bonds dressed like a woman for 'Giants Idol' was amusing. Day Two, on Wednesday, was borderling disturbing. Also, take note, ESPN - Pedro Gomez isn't suited to doing anything that isn't remotely serious. He looked pained trying to smile in his stand-up (on-camera piece) in his 'Giants Idol' report from Arizona.
IN OTHER 'BALLPLAYERS I DISLIKE' NEWS: Roger Clemens is pitching for Team USA in the WBC. With the Astros the past couple of years, and now with the U.S., I've decided I am tired of rooting for the team Clemens plays for, while rooting against him. I don't want to root for him to pitch poorly, get knocked out in the second inning, and then root for the Astros/Americans to come back and win. So despite my like of the Astros (in other words, they're a team I usually don't mind rooting for), I will root for no further Astros success until Roger Clemens is no longer on that team....unless they call up his son Koby. And speaking of Koby....are you kidding me that he homered off his dad the other day? And then Clemens brushes him back? Yeah, how long have they been planning that media coup? For 18 years, probably.
AND NOW TO 'BALLPLAYERS I LIKE': Al Leiter is entering the rotation of Team USA - replacing C.C. Sabathia, who withdrew from the team along with Wagner. That'll be fun to watch - I like rooting for Leiter still.
HE'S NUMBER ONE: The talk out of the Atlanta Braves' camp on Tuesday was that Tim Hudson will be the team's Opening Day starter, taking over the number one role from John Smoltz. Smoltz said he's fine with it - he's just happy to be starting and healthy entering the year. You may remember Smoltz' arm almost fell off at the end of last year's playoffs. (Hopefully the Mets will give Smoltz plenty of time to rest this year, with a nice October off.) Meanwhile, I was surprised to read that Hudson will be the Braves' sixth Opening Day starting pitcher in the past six years. I thought there'd been more stability there recently.
COMMENTS ON THE 'COMMENTS': It's only fitting that Kevin would be the first to comment - he's done so much for this site out of the Southern Bureau (also, the publicity he has given the site is unmatched - both on the web and over the airwaves). More on him later. As for The Wife, I'm anticipating many a comment from her, and yes, I do feel very bad for Mrs. Wilk. But this is a Mets site, darn it, not a 'Scrubs' blog.
AS PROMISED, MORE FROM KEVIN/MAILBAG/'86 METS ROUNDUP: Three topics in one shot here - first, the e-mail:
"Johnny...
You going to see this movie??
http://www.game6film.com
Before you get all excited - watch the trailer. I think its a Red Sox love story. Ugh.
kevin
JMDBSDC Southern Chief."
Well, I watched the trailer. If you're going to do the same, I recommend you treat yourself to the "Large Trailer". Why would you choose the small one, that's what I want to know. Go ahead - check it out....I'll wait.........
As you might expect, I have lots of thoughts on this movie. First of all, it's a brilliant concept. I love the idea - "What were you doing that night?" It's great. But I think it's all wrong here. First of all, the game seems to serve as something of a backdrop (I have no basis for this, but that's what it seems like to me), and I feel like it would be torture for me to see the movie (which, of course, I'm probably going to do anyway). I think I'll be sitting there with my antennae up looking for any clues as to what it was really like to be a Red Sox fan at that moment - or looking for factual errors....or trying to re-live that night. It's an obsession for me. So I think I will be disappointed. But I have to check it out anyway.
Next, if you explore that site (how long did it take you to even figure out where the links were? I dragged my mouse across the screen about ten times before I realized those words on the newspaper were the links...but that's just me. I thought it was a big screen that was just promoting the "Where Were You?" contest.), you'll see that you can read other people's submissions about where they were. This is another obsession of mine - I like hearing about the champagne and T-shirts being hurried away from the Red Sox clubhouse after the Mets tied it up....Keith Hernandez in the clubhouse after making the second out....Ron Darling's yet-to-be-told on johnnymets.blogspot.com story about that night.
I skimmed through the stories about where people were, and I came across one that particularly struck my fancy - a guy who was a freshman at BU, from New York, living in Warren Towers (a dorm at Boston University where I and every one of my readers has lived...unless my readership increases dramatically soon), surrounded by Red Sox fans (both true blue and wannabe). He has a good story going, and answers my question about what it would be like had the Mets been any good when I was in college in Boston...but he loses me when he insists that Ray Knight was on third base after the wild pitch to Mookie Wilson. The wild pitch advanced Knight to second, not third, and he scored when the ball went through Buckner's legs. Now, the other fact that disappoints me about this guy is that he insists that Wilson would have beaten Buckner to the bag (which I agree with) had Buckner caught the ball. But he says that would have won the game for the Mets. All that ensures is that Knight would have gone to third, and Wilson would have been at first for, I think, Howard Johnson. So at best HoJo wins the game - at worst it's extra innings. I hope that guy doesn't win the contest - because he needs to get his facts straight.
Speaking of getting facts straight - I have a very poor long-term memory, unfortunately. I know people who can remember things from when they were 2 or 3 years old. I have trouble remembering much about when I was younger. So, sadly, I'm not sure where I was the night of Game 6. Chances are, I was at home, or at my friend Steven's house. I know we watched some of the World Series at Steven's. I feel like those were Games 1 and 2, though. Either way, I need to talk to my dad and try to remember about the night of Game 6. I can't believe this hasn't come up before - but I DON'T know where I was. I sure do remember the game, though - perhaps all of my future watchings of Game 6, on ESPN Classic and on tape, etc. - have diminished my original memory of the event. But that's probably a topic for the day I appear on Dr. Phil, with my wife and future child - as to why my obsession with the '86 Mets makes me an awful husband/father.
Oh - one more thing about that movie - seeing Bebe Neuwirth in the movie would probably also confuse me, because while the guy Michael Keaton plays is cheating on his wife with Neuwirth, I'm going to be thinking that Neuwirth is cheating on Frasier. Because if that movie is taking place in '86, she's Lilith, darn it.
I need to go to bed - it's too late for a school night - but coming tomorrow, I'm going to try to touch on Wednesday's Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio, on which I heard Dan talk to Darren Daulton for a little bit. And callers came to Daulton's defense!
Secondly, 2B Bret Boone retired Wednesday, saying he just didn't have the motivation to play anymore. Boone's numbers have fallen off dramatically the past couple of seasons...just saying....I don't think he was going to give the Mets those types of huge numbers this year. Actually, I'm willing to bet he wouldn't produce anything close to those numbers. And he was probably thinking the same thing.
Lastly (in my opening remarks, anyway), one day of Barry Bonds dressed like a woman for 'Giants Idol' was amusing. Day Two, on Wednesday, was borderling disturbing. Also, take note, ESPN - Pedro Gomez isn't suited to doing anything that isn't remotely serious. He looked pained trying to smile in his stand-up (on-camera piece) in his 'Giants Idol' report from Arizona.
IN OTHER 'BALLPLAYERS I DISLIKE' NEWS: Roger Clemens is pitching for Team USA in the WBC. With the Astros the past couple of years, and now with the U.S., I've decided I am tired of rooting for the team Clemens plays for, while rooting against him. I don't want to root for him to pitch poorly, get knocked out in the second inning, and then root for the Astros/Americans to come back and win. So despite my like of the Astros (in other words, they're a team I usually don't mind rooting for), I will root for no further Astros success until Roger Clemens is no longer on that team....unless they call up his son Koby. And speaking of Koby....are you kidding me that he homered off his dad the other day? And then Clemens brushes him back? Yeah, how long have they been planning that media coup? For 18 years, probably.
AND NOW TO 'BALLPLAYERS I LIKE': Al Leiter is entering the rotation of Team USA - replacing C.C. Sabathia, who withdrew from the team along with Wagner. That'll be fun to watch - I like rooting for Leiter still.
HE'S NUMBER ONE: The talk out of the Atlanta Braves' camp on Tuesday was that Tim Hudson will be the team's Opening Day starter, taking over the number one role from John Smoltz. Smoltz said he's fine with it - he's just happy to be starting and healthy entering the year. You may remember Smoltz' arm almost fell off at the end of last year's playoffs. (Hopefully the Mets will give Smoltz plenty of time to rest this year, with a nice October off.) Meanwhile, I was surprised to read that Hudson will be the Braves' sixth Opening Day starting pitcher in the past six years. I thought there'd been more stability there recently.
COMMENTS ON THE 'COMMENTS': It's only fitting that Kevin would be the first to comment - he's done so much for this site out of the Southern Bureau (also, the publicity he has given the site is unmatched - both on the web and over the airwaves). More on him later. As for The Wife, I'm anticipating many a comment from her, and yes, I do feel very bad for Mrs. Wilk. But this is a Mets site, darn it, not a 'Scrubs' blog.
AS PROMISED, MORE FROM KEVIN/MAILBAG/'86 METS ROUNDUP: Three topics in one shot here - first, the e-mail:
"Johnny...
You going to see this movie??
http://www.game6film.com
Before you get all excited - watch the trailer. I think its a Red Sox love story. Ugh.
kevin
JMDBSDC Southern Chief."
Well, I watched the trailer. If you're going to do the same, I recommend you treat yourself to the "Large Trailer". Why would you choose the small one, that's what I want to know. Go ahead - check it out....I'll wait.........
As you might expect, I have lots of thoughts on this movie. First of all, it's a brilliant concept. I love the idea - "What were you doing that night?" It's great. But I think it's all wrong here. First of all, the game seems to serve as something of a backdrop (I have no basis for this, but that's what it seems like to me), and I feel like it would be torture for me to see the movie (which, of course, I'm probably going to do anyway). I think I'll be sitting there with my antennae up looking for any clues as to what it was really like to be a Red Sox fan at that moment - or looking for factual errors....or trying to re-live that night. It's an obsession for me. So I think I will be disappointed. But I have to check it out anyway.
Next, if you explore that site (how long did it take you to even figure out where the links were? I dragged my mouse across the screen about ten times before I realized those words on the newspaper were the links...but that's just me. I thought it was a big screen that was just promoting the "Where Were You?" contest.), you'll see that you can read other people's submissions about where they were. This is another obsession of mine - I like hearing about the champagne and T-shirts being hurried away from the Red Sox clubhouse after the Mets tied it up....Keith Hernandez in the clubhouse after making the second out....Ron Darling's yet-to-be-told on johnnymets.blogspot.com story about that night.
I skimmed through the stories about where people were, and I came across one that particularly struck my fancy - a guy who was a freshman at BU, from New York, living in Warren Towers (a dorm at Boston University where I and every one of my readers has lived...unless my readership increases dramatically soon), surrounded by Red Sox fans (both true blue and wannabe). He has a good story going, and answers my question about what it would be like had the Mets been any good when I was in college in Boston...but he loses me when he insists that Ray Knight was on third base after the wild pitch to Mookie Wilson. The wild pitch advanced Knight to second, not third, and he scored when the ball went through Buckner's legs. Now, the other fact that disappoints me about this guy is that he insists that Wilson would have beaten Buckner to the bag (which I agree with) had Buckner caught the ball. But he says that would have won the game for the Mets. All that ensures is that Knight would have gone to third, and Wilson would have been at first for, I think, Howard Johnson. So at best HoJo wins the game - at worst it's extra innings. I hope that guy doesn't win the contest - because he needs to get his facts straight.
Speaking of getting facts straight - I have a very poor long-term memory, unfortunately. I know people who can remember things from when they were 2 or 3 years old. I have trouble remembering much about when I was younger. So, sadly, I'm not sure where I was the night of Game 6. Chances are, I was at home, or at my friend Steven's house. I know we watched some of the World Series at Steven's. I feel like those were Games 1 and 2, though. Either way, I need to talk to my dad and try to remember about the night of Game 6. I can't believe this hasn't come up before - but I DON'T know where I was. I sure do remember the game, though - perhaps all of my future watchings of Game 6, on ESPN Classic and on tape, etc. - have diminished my original memory of the event. But that's probably a topic for the day I appear on Dr. Phil, with my wife and future child - as to why my obsession with the '86 Mets makes me an awful husband/father.
Oh - one more thing about that movie - seeing Bebe Neuwirth in the movie would probably also confuse me, because while the guy Michael Keaton plays is cheating on his wife with Neuwirth, I'm going to be thinking that Neuwirth is cheating on Frasier. Because if that movie is taking place in '86, she's Lilith, darn it.
I need to go to bed - it's too late for a school night - but coming tomorrow, I'm going to try to touch on Wednesday's Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio, on which I heard Dan talk to Darren Daulton for a little bit. And callers came to Daulton's defense!
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
TIME FOR A CHANGE
I'm going to try to spice up the blog a bit this year, since we all expect 2006 to be THE YEAR, and traffic will probably hit an all-time high. So I'm starting with the look of the blog, and there will be different features that I will be letting you know about as the season draws closer. (I'm very excited about the METS-FAN-O-METER, which is still an idea in my head, but will appear in some form by the beginning of the season - it may also have a different name by then...not the blog - the METS-FAN-O-METER). I've also decided that blogs with pictures and clever links are the wave of the future (is it 'way of the future' or 'wave of the future'?). So that's where we're headed.
Also, the wife is expecting, and I don't want my child to think I'm running a rinky-dink site here. Yep, big news of the personal variety - due date is September 30 - hopefully just in time for the World Series Championship.
Mets' camp is kind of quiet these days - there's lots going on in Jets camp, but that's a story for another site.
That just leaves me with a couple of comments. Earlier in the offseason, word was that Willie Randolph was very resistant to a lineup with Carlos Beltran* in the 2-spot - he really wanted Beltran* to stay number three in the lineup. Today, though, it sounds like he's willing to consider moving Beltran* - the Daily News has a report where Randolph says he'd rather have Beltran* steal 40 bases than hit 25 homers this season.
I'm going to go on record, today, February 22, 2006, and say Beltran* will hit .316, with 21 homers, and 93 RBI, stealing 37 bases for the year. I would be more than happy with that, and I bet a lot of Mets fans would. I also bet Beltran* is hitting in the two spot for the majority of the season - it was one of the moves Randolph made last year that worked perfectly. Boy, those numbers look really good. I can't WAIT for baseball season!
I mentioned yesterday the big '86 Mets Reunion August 19 at Shea. I hope to be there - and I'll try to get pictures for johnnymets.blogspot.com. I'm not sure how many Mets home games I'll be going to this year, but I do know I will see them at least twice on the road. I'm taking a trip to California in April, and in addition to seeing an A's game and a Dodgers game, the wife and I will be seeing the Mets play the Padres in San Diego. I'm psyched about that. I'm also excited about seeing the Mets at Fenway in June - we're going to the Tuesday night game. Hopefully I'll be able to somehow score tickets for the rest of that three-game series. My goal is to see as many Mets games as possible this season. Hopefully I'll be taking some trips to New York.
This isn't an '86 Mets Roundup...just a "Former Baseball Player Update": Did you hear this comment from Darren Daulton? I'm not sure what the source is - I heard it yesterday on Jim Rome's radio show - apparently Daulton has become a bit, well, religious, and says God has spoken to him, and Daulton says (via God, I guess) the world is going to end on December 21, 2012, (12/21/12) at 11 am. I think it was 11am - the point is, it wasn't 12! And my question is, why not? If someone is going to go through the trouble to end the world on a cool date like 12/21/12, why would it happen at a weird hour? Why not 12 o'clock - or 9pm (21 o'clock in military time)? And I guess the more important question is, what has Darren Daulton been doing since retirement?
Also, the wife is expecting, and I don't want my child to think I'm running a rinky-dink site here. Yep, big news of the personal variety - due date is September 30 - hopefully just in time for the World Series Championship.
Mets' camp is kind of quiet these days - there's lots going on in Jets camp, but that's a story for another site.
That just leaves me with a couple of comments. Earlier in the offseason, word was that Willie Randolph was very resistant to a lineup with Carlos Beltran* in the 2-spot - he really wanted Beltran* to stay number three in the lineup. Today, though, it sounds like he's willing to consider moving Beltran* - the Daily News has a report where Randolph says he'd rather have Beltran* steal 40 bases than hit 25 homers this season.
I'm going to go on record, today, February 22, 2006, and say Beltran* will hit .316, with 21 homers, and 93 RBI, stealing 37 bases for the year. I would be more than happy with that, and I bet a lot of Mets fans would. I also bet Beltran* is hitting in the two spot for the majority of the season - it was one of the moves Randolph made last year that worked perfectly. Boy, those numbers look really good. I can't WAIT for baseball season!
I mentioned yesterday the big '86 Mets Reunion August 19 at Shea. I hope to be there - and I'll try to get pictures for johnnymets.blogspot.com. I'm not sure how many Mets home games I'll be going to this year, but I do know I will see them at least twice on the road. I'm taking a trip to California in April, and in addition to seeing an A's game and a Dodgers game, the wife and I will be seeing the Mets play the Padres in San Diego. I'm psyched about that. I'm also excited about seeing the Mets at Fenway in June - we're going to the Tuesday night game. Hopefully I'll be able to somehow score tickets for the rest of that three-game series. My goal is to see as many Mets games as possible this season. Hopefully I'll be taking some trips to New York.
This isn't an '86 Mets Roundup...just a "Former Baseball Player Update": Did you hear this comment from Darren Daulton? I'm not sure what the source is - I heard it yesterday on Jim Rome's radio show - apparently Daulton has become a bit, well, religious, and says God has spoken to him, and Daulton says (via God, I guess) the world is going to end on December 21, 2012, (12/21/12) at 11 am. I think it was 11am - the point is, it wasn't 12! And my question is, why not? If someone is going to go through the trouble to end the world on a cool date like 12/21/12, why would it happen at a weird hour? Why not 12 o'clock - or 9pm (21 o'clock in military time)? And I guess the more important question is, what has Darren Daulton been doing since retirement?
Labels:
1986,
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Off Season,
The Baby,
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