Thursday, June 03, 2010

GRIFFEY & GALARRAGA.

It was one of those moments, me checking Twitter while making dinner, TBF reading something online, the Mets game on in the background.
“Ken Griffey Jr. retired today,” I said.
“It looks like Galarraga is throwing a perfect game in Detroit,” he said, picking up his phone and dialing his uncle in the D.

Of course, you know what happened - the former was all but forgotten a few minutes later.

I do not have much to add to the discussion about Detroit (except to say that I am not in favor of MLB overturning the call), but regarding Junior, I will point you to my friend Alan’s fantastic photographs and something I wrote a couple of years ago.

As for the Mets, I am heartily tired of losing to the walk-off grand slam. And I am equally sorry about the Daniel Murphy news. This rollercoaster of a year continues. I look forward to returning to Citi to see some live baseball next week!

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

WITH SINCERE APOLOGIES TO BOB DYLAN.

Update: Please read Kind Commenter Ray’s contribution, “Positively 126th Street,” in the comments. Must see.

Oliver Perez Shall Be Released

They say every man can be replaced
Yet every pitcher’s ERA must persevere
So I remember every face
Of every LHP who put us here

I see our hope come shining
From the AL West to the NL East
Any day now, any day now
Oliver Perez shall be released

TAKING THE CITI FIELD TOUR.

Starting May 29, the Mets are offering ballpark tours of Citi Field on weekends when the Mets are on the road. I took one of the first tours Saturday morning, and as a ballpark tour addict, I am happy to report that it is worth your time and money.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

THIS WEEK’S PODCAST.

Our guest for the Memorial Day Throwing Like A Girl was Minda Haas. Minda is a hopeless Royals fan (and employee of their Triple-A team). She blogs about them at Royal Blues, and is also behind the site Minor Leagues, Major Problems, which is still in its infancy. Minda described herself as follows:  “I live for dollar beer night, good defense and high socks.”  We also talked about Roy Halladay, Joe West, Evan “Sh”-longoria, and discussed the right way to pose for a naughty photo that might some day be posted on the internet and that you should never, ever hug a mascot.

Friday, May 28, 2010

YES.

This doesn’t mean the season is over, that isn’t only May, that there aren’t still a lot of games to go, that I’ve cleared my calendar for October. It just means that we swept the Phillies in this series. We shut them out for three games in a row.

We’re allowed to celebrate this. We’re going to celebrate this. We’re celebrating this.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

BARAJAS FOR ASG.

I usually don’t write about games I was not at, because I don’t feel I have much to offer that’s interesting, unique, or couldn’t be obtained with ease elsewhere - but these two games have been so remarkable - combined with the weekend’s efforts against the MFY’s - that I am breaking my resolution to comment.

We got rid of our tickets to the Subway Series. Even with the wins, I still feel okay about that, mostly because in the People’s Seats, it stops being fun and starts being armed combat, and our tickets were for Friday night’s game. To be honest, I also had no stomach to watch the team be trampled underfoot. But it was remarkable, wasn’t it? There’s no other word for it. It was simply remarkable. Watching Jennry Mejia on Saturday was just about as good as watching David Wright hit that ball above Johnny Damon’s head in 2006 - and in some ways, better, because we haven’t seen what Mejia can truly do yet. We tried to find something affordable for Sunday but couldn’t. It didn’t matter, even from home, those games were great to watch.  We yelled, and screamed, and scared the poor cat, who is new to the family and not used to the humans happily yelling at the big square light-up box.  It was a refreshing change. It was delightful. It was a relief.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

CAN’T HARDLY WAIT.

I have died and gone to heaven. This maddeningly short 1 minute and 20 seconds of Paul Westerberg at Target Field was filmed as part of the upcoming documentary “40 Nights Of Rock And Roll”. He sang “a new baseball-related song” as well as another Westerberg original. [via]

Meanwhile, back in New York, we get Neil Sedaka singing the anthem and the most progressive we get is Black Eyed Peas and Coldplay. I despair. Continually.

Monday, May 24, 2010

EMPIRE STATE, 2010 EDITION.

When your tripod breaks and you’re standing on a deserted North Brooklyn street, you get the shot however you can and get the hell out of Dodge.

METS WIN!

EMPIRE STATE.

I’ll be out with a tripod tonight in a different vantage point, looking across the river from Brooklyn:

Small victories, little things to celebrate. We don’t know how many of them we’ll have this year so I’ll embrace them wholeheartedly when they present themselves.

LATEST PODCAST WITH LISA WINSTON.

Yesterday was quite possibly our best show ever, with the fabulous Lisa Winston. If you don’t know Lisa, she’s been covering Minor League Baseball for over 20 years. She served as Minor League writer/editor at USA Today Baseball Weekly for 14 years, and joined MLB/MiLB in 2006. Today she works as Special Assistant for New Media and Player Development for Opening Day Partners, a company which designs, owns and operates Minor League ballparks and teams. Listen to the show (where she shares a great Jose Lima story) and follow her on Tumblr at Queen of Diamonds. We are thrilled that Lisa found time in her super-busy schedule to talk with us.

This coming Sunday (5/30) we’ll be talking with Minda Haas, long-suffering Royals fan, employee of their Triple A team, and author of the blog Royal Blues. She is also behind the site Minor League, Major Problems.