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I was invited to attend batting practice on the field yesterday as a member of the media. Shooting from the warning track instead of jockeying for position behind the dugout with the autograph hounds was a delightful experience.
[Be sure to read the game post, too.]
Click to continue reading BATTING PRACTICE, CITI FIELD, 7-28-10.
It’s easy to get lulled into a false sense of security, even if you know better, even if you’ve been burnt time and time again. You think, the Mets are home. It’s a Johan start. I am still gun-shy after the roadtrip, not ready to commit to the concept that The Team Is Different, because I am not seeing a different team yet. Tonight, even more so.
Even with all of that, the last thing you expect to see in a Santana start is to go through the opposing lineup once and then come back to the top (and get a few deep) IN THE FIRST INNING. Not to mention, of course, the 6 runs. I know people claim they heard boos, but I don’t even think people were booing Johan per se (if they are, they’re idiots) but rather OH MY GOD SIX IN THE FIRST INNING?
Click to continue reading THERE MUST BE SOME WAY OUT OF HERE. [7-28-10]
Let’s get this out of the way first. Obviously, the win was awesome and fantastic and Jeff Francoeur earned genuine applause from me tonight, instead of the usual derisive commentary that escapes the side of my mouth when he is at bat.
But I sat there thinking: Why the hell couldn’t you idiots do this on the road? And I was more than a little disgruntled. Sure, Wainright didn’t have his best stuff tonight, and Niese did have good stuff. It’s not that I wanted them to lose tonight in order to prove some idiotic theory, just seriously - really? 8-2? Where the hell was this offensive power on the west coast?
Click to continue reading I’LL GO CRAZY IF I DON’T GO CRAZY TONIGHT. [7-27-10]
I just thought I’d use the news of the Haren trade to post one of my photos of his second-to-last start with the Diamondbacks. (It is amusing to consider that we saw his last two starts with the Dbacks.)
I would have loved for this to have worked out for the Mets but at least he’s going to the Angels, and not anywhere else, if you get my drift.
The end came as it always does, ingloriously, us beating a hasty retreat up the stairs to the concourse so we can get out of the ballpark as quickly as we can. Oliver Perez may still have been standing there; I don’t know, because I wasn’t looking. Randy Newman booming out “I Love L.A.” as we bob and weave through the Dodgers fans who are strolling confidently out of Dodger Stadium as though their triumph was somehow predestined and they hadn’t run out of position players and didn’t throw an uneffective Broxton, Weaver and then Sherrill. By the time we navigated the acres of parking lots back to our rental car, we couldn’t even remember which Dodger had teed off of Oliver and had to look it up on Gameday so TBF could complete his scorecard. I guarantee you we hit the quickest exit out of Dodger Stadium ever executed by a non-home team fan who stayed for the entire game. In this town, that is sadly an accomplishment to be proud of.
Click to continue reading SAY GOODBYE TO HOLLYWOOD. [7-24-10]Mets v Dodgers
7-22-10
Dodger Stadium
It was almost love at first sight, me and Dodger Stadium. It was just as gorgeous as all of the photographs. The sky was bluer than blue, the palm trees silhouetted in the distance, the air crisp and clean. History hung heavy in the place. There were families and teenagers and a sprinkling of Mets fans. I sat in seats two rows behind the fancy-shmancy seats right behind home plate, my seats just as good except that I didn’t have a free buffet in the club downstairs. I sat there and felt enormously lucky. It has been an amazing trip.
Mets v Dbacks
7-21-10
Chase Field
However bad you think it might have been, sitting in Chase Field tonight, let me assure you it was worse. It was worse because there was, again, negative offense; because Jason Bay achieved the Golden Sombrero, because the guys behind us said things like Luis Castillo was the Mets’ version of Eric Byrnes, because the dad in the front row behind the dugout wearing the Affliction shirt waved at the cameras and taught his son to wave at the cameras at every single goddamn opportunity. There was that goddamn snake noise, there was an acrobatic mascot with a mask that looked like a homeless Disney fox running around the field, there was a large scary Randy Johnson running around the other side of the field.
The Mets lost. In extra innings. To the Diamondbacks.
And it was not surprising.
Click to continue reading THIS ONE GOES TO 14. [7-21-10]
