Friday, July 20, 2007

FRIDAY PHOTO.

The Mets’ recent performance is making me feel relatively uninspired. I decided to go with Lastings because his very presence on the team pisses so many people off for very stupid reasons. Spring Training 2006.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

BOOK REVIEW: The Cheater’s Guide To Baseball

Author Derek Zumsteg is the kind of guy I’d love to find sitting next to us at a baseball game some time. He’s the kind of fan we run into from time to time who loves the game and loves talking about the game. He tells you things because he loves sharing his knowledge about the game and making people smarter about it makes his conversations about the game even more enjoyable.

This is a horrible, horrible title for a wonderful, wonderful book. Yes, the book does discuss the various ways players “cheat,” but what it really does is explain a nuanced, complex layer of strategy and gamesmanship that also teaches you about baseball and its history.

It is not a book for beginners, or the casual fan. It is a book for people who love trivia and hearing great baseball stories. The person who wrote the book is clearly highly intelligent, with copious baseball knowledge, but at no time during the book did I feel condescended to. After reading this book, I finally understand the hidden ball trick. TBF’s been trying to explain it to me for about a year now.  That’s not an easy thing to understand, but it’s also not an easy thing to explain, either.

Click to continue reading BOOK REVIEW: The Cheater’s Guide To Baseball

BOOK REVIEW: Watching Baseball Smarter

I bought ”Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan’s Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks” based on a recommendation from Deanna at Marinerds. At the time, I didn’t make the connection between the author of the book, and the guy with 2,389,087 baseballs and the MLB blog about said baseball collecting.  Because if I had, there is no way I would have ever bought this book. I only made the connection a few days later, watching Kids Clubhouse on SNY (hey. sometimes it’s MILES better than Mets Weekly. And they don’t have a dumb puppet.), when Zack Hample was on the show. TBF’s immediate reaction was, “Oh god, not THIS guy.” But you know what? His on-camera, in-person explanation of the various pitches was excellent and we both felt like we’d learned something. So I now had a different, but still open mind toward this book. He clearly knew his stuff and was able to explain it.

Until I started reading the book.

Click to continue reading BOOK REVIEW: Watching Baseball Smarter

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

BOYS OF SUMMER.

Last Thursday, TBF and I headed up to the Museum of the City of New York to hear Roger Kahn speak as part of their Glory Days exhibit. This was our second trip up, having visited during opening week, when the museum was open late and admission was free. 

The description of the lecture on the Museum’s web site read as follows:

The Era, 1947-1957: When the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers Ruled the World
Roger Kahn, the dean of American sports writers, will moderate a discussion of the legendary plays, moments, and players that made the years 1947 to 1957 the greatest in baseball history.

A more accurate description would have read:

Roger Kahn, Brooklyn Dodger fan, will sit around with two of his good friends, Dave Anderson and Bob Wolff (who have also seen a heck of a lot of baseball back in the day) and kibbitz for an hour. It will feel like you are eavesdropping on three friends hanging out on the back porch on a Sunday afternoon. The conversation will have absolutely no form or structure. It will meander all over the place. You will hold your breath the entire time that it’s going on and not want it to stop. Towards the end of the panel’s allotted time, you will consider running out to the nearest bodega and buying a case of beer in order to bribe them to continue.

[more after the jump]

Click to continue reading BOYS OF SUMMER.

WEST COAST.

I fully intended to watch the game last night, but apparently it was my turn to get the migraine. This had me saying, “Maybe I’ll just get in bed and listen to Howie and Tom,” at 10:15pm, which ended up being me falling asleep not long after that.

I’m kind of glad I missed it.

This particular West Coast swing is going to be tough for me to keep up with, and frankly I wonder if that’s not for the best right now. If we’re going to lose, let me at least not lose sleep in order to watch it.

So I probably won’t write too much about the games; I have a lot of other pieces stacked up that I’ve been saving for a less busy time, or for when game-specific posts aren’t dominating the site.

And I’ll believe Moises Alou is back when I see him on the field with the Mets.

Click to continue reading WEST COAST.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

HEADACHE REMEDY. [7-13-07]

Here are the two pictures that tell you everything you need to know about last night’s game:

The Mets sucked, and TBF got such a monumental migraine he finally agreed to leave at the bottom of the 5th inning (which is, of course, how I knew exactly how bad his headache was. We don’t leave games early.)

More, and more photos (including Rickey), after the jump.

Click to continue reading HEADACHE REMEDY. [7-13-07]

“YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE BACK.”

The Mets owe me a goddamn baseball hat.

A few months ago, TBF and were wandering from the Lower East Side towards Washington Square Park when I said, “Oh, let’s go to the hat store.”
“The hat store?”
The Hat Store is the New Era store on E. 4th Street, made infamous now by the commercial. I had found it on my own a few months before that day, which I hadn’t shared with TBF. This time, we went into the store, and I took him to the back and showed him this lovely tricked-out black and grey paisley-and-sparkle, velvet cutout, Mets hat. More as a joke than anything, I tried it on.
“What do you think?”
TBF got that weird expression on his face. The one he gets when we walk by the Coach store and I see something new. The one right before his wallet comes out of his pocket.
I took the hat off quickly. “We’re going NOW,” I said.
“But I want to buy you the hat.”
“No.”
“If the Mets sweep this weekend, I’ll buy you the hat.”
For Mr. Purist, I-only-wear-blue-with-orange-button-fitted-hat to agree to buy me a non-regulation hat, it had to have looked pretty adorable.
I was in love. I wanted that hat.

The Mets, however, have not cooperated.

Which brings us to where we are now. The Mets have not swept anybody, but I am going to Chicago (and Milwaukee) in August to see the Mets, and TBF wants to buy me The Hat for the occasion, referring to it as my “Cliff Floyd ‘big pimpin’’ hat.” We each had errands in the neighborhood and around downtown today, so we agreed to meet at the hat store at 3:30.

We entered the store in search of the hat, only to discover a slight problem.
They don’t make that hat any more.
The paisley-and-sparkles, pseudo-velvet cutout Mets hat. It’s gone.

TBF is undeterred. He wants to buy me a hat. He starts perusing hats up and down the store. Every time he finds a model that would be suitable, we discover that they only have it for The Other New York Team, but not the Mets (but also for Atlanta, LA, the Orioles, Boston - wtf? Can I see this demographic data?)

After trying on and rejecting a hat I would later learn had a $80 price tag, I settled on this adorable number:

But am still cranky that the Mets cost me my paisley hat.

(Don’t worry. There’s plenty of other things the Mets are making me cranky over.)

Friday, July 13, 2007

IN 1977/I HOPE I GO TO HEAVEN.

Shea Stadium went dark at approximately 9:30 p.m., in the bottom of the sixth inning, with Lenny Randle at bat. The New York Mets were losing 2-1 against the Chicago Cubs. Jane Jarvis, Shea’s Organist and “Queen of Melody”, played Jingle Bells and White Christmas. The game was completed on September 16, with the Cubs winning 5-2.

[thanks, Ray]

FRIDAY PHOTO. [LA WOMAN]

MetsGrrl reader on the West Coast, Andrew Lasky, graciously sent these FANTASTIC photos along from the 6-11-07 Dodgers series. Be sure to enjoy the entire slideshow. Thanks, Andrew!!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

MEMO TO SNY.

WHEN A MET HITS A HOME RUN, WE DO NOT WANT TO SEE FANS HOLDING UP THEIR LAME SIGNS IN THE STANDS. WE WANT TO SEE THE DUGOUT DANCING. REPEAT: DUGOUT DANCING GOOD, UNORIGINAL SIGNS BAD.

kthxbye

xo,
MG