Thursday, February 18, 2010

WELCOME TO 2010.

That rodent in Pennsylvania can go take a hike as far as I’m concerned. This is the TRUE sign of the end of winter.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

A LETTER TO THE NEW YORK METS. (THE ACTUAL PLAYERS.)

Dear David, Jose, Johan, Carlos, and the other 124 players in PSL right now,

You all just got to camp and the media is lining up to get interviews and quotes and hand-held video and camera photographs. I know. I get it. I’m seeing it.

Here’s what I want to hear from you, since you have to say the same thing about 50000 times: I want to hear that you’re working hard. I want to hear that you are confident. I want to hear that you know that last year was unacceptable. I want to hear that you worked hard in the offseason and came into camp in shape and ready to go. I want to hear that you are optimistic about the season. I want to hear that you’re looking forward to the season. I want to hear that you are confident in your abilities. Hell, you can even say you’re confident in your teammates’ abilities, even if you’re not quite on board 100% with that. You gotta share a clubhouse with these guys.

Your attitude should be calm and confident. Cocky is not going to cut it. Cocky makes you look stupid. I don’t want to hear that “We expect to win the National League East”. “We expect to dramatically exceed our performance last year and make our fans proud of us” would do just fine.

“We’re expecting to go out there and win the National League East, go deep in the playoffs and win a World Series.”

David. Cocky makes us yell things at the computer or television screen, because we heard you say all those things for the last couple of years.

I’m not saying you have to hang your head or wear a dunce cap or answer every question with, “Yeah, I know, we suck!” But please.

That said, I COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED THAT PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT TOMORROW. Why are there no cards for this auspicious occasion? Why are there no sterling silver Tiffany earrings in the shape of little baseballs? THERE WOULD BE A MARKET FOR THESE.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

NO. WE DON’T WANT CHARACTER RACES.

Matt Cerrone’s question over at MetsBlog (that he’s hearing that the Mets are “thinking” about having character races - so either they’re talking about and someone told him, or they told him so they could see what fan response would be) has me banging my head into the wall. This franchise keeps ignoring obvious ways to make the fans content and instead flails about seizing irrelevant, ridiculous ideas like character races. This is right up there with the “Sweet Caroline” debacle. You can argue it until you’re blue in the face, but that song has a strong association with Boston and continuing to play it at Citi Field, especially when it was met with constant loud booing that they could hear all the way in the press box, was just bullheaded. A source told me that the reason they doggedly insisted on playing it was because it was one of Jeff Wilpon’s favorite songs. (We also have him to blame for foisting Coldplay upon us).

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

SCRAPING THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL.

I am not posting this as approval for this deal. But it was an excuse for me to drag out a photo of Mike Jacobs from last year (when I went down to Baltimore just so I could watch Zack Greinke pitch) and a reason to update the blog two days in a row.

ENJOY THE SNOW

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

TRUCK DAY!

It’s Truck Day! The equipment truck is leaving for Port St. Lucie! Pitchers and catchers report in 9 days!

It’s so exciting, isn’t it? I just LOVE truck day. I love the live video feed on mets.com of Mr. Met helping pack the truck. I love watching the photo ops of the players who haven’t left yet, pretending to help pack the truck. It’s awesome that they let the kids from Harlem RBI and the Girls & Boys Club come and help pack the truck too, it’s a great event for them. I appreciate that WFAN is broadcasting live from Citi Field and that there’s a discount at the team store and free coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts for any fans who want to stop by and watch. I think the giveaways of those promotional Opening Day t-shirts is a fantastic thing.  So many teams make a great, fun event around Truck Day, I’m so glad the Mets are one of them. It really breaks up the monotony of the winter and gets people thinking about baseball.

Of course, none of the above is true (before you go running out to Willets Point). I made it all up on the spot without thinking about it too much. I’m not claiming any originality, I’m just mimicking what I see other teams all over MLB do on Truck Day.

Monday, February 08, 2010

OKAY, DONE WITH THE FOOTBALL.

Football over.
The equipment truck leaves tomorrow at 11am.

FINALLY IT IS TIME FOR BASEBALL.

And not a moment too soon.

I know. It’s still going to be a tough year. But it’s still going to be baseball. Baseball!

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

JUST START ALREADY PLEASE.

Honestly, what can I possibly say about more no-account, pointless signings? Nothing, that’s what.

I just want the season to start.

On a positive note, we bought our first set of tickets (BOS @ OAK) for our monster West Coast roadtrip. Giants on-sale later this week (and we’ll be there for Tim Lincecum bobblehead day, which delights us to no end).

Really. I’ll be there with bells on once the season starts. Right now, it’s just waiting and bitching.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

“You got a book,” TBF said, pointing at the thin, flat package waiting for me on the kitchen table.
I picked up the bubble mailer and started to open it. I wasn’t expecting anything, thought it might be some random PR mailing. After a few seconds, the item inside felt less like a book and more like… a picture. In a frame.

It was a photo of Opening Day 2009, from the Mets.
“Oh,” said TBF. “It’s our ‘you just bought tickets from us’ gift.”
Except that it wasn’t. There was a little slip of paper - easy to miss - that said “Happy Holidays 2009”.