My first game of the year was, not coincidentally, Reyes’ first appearance in New York City.
Some people behaved well; some people behaved stupidly. Most importantly, Johan Santana pitched an absolute gem, and despite that, the Mets managed to win the game.
More after the jump.
Click to continue reading JOSE REYES RETURNS [4-24-12].
Happy Opening Day!
This is the first Opening Day in 5 years that I haven’t attended in person. I just can’t spare the vacation day. I thought it would be harder than it was, but it was okay, and I am glad to see that I am genuinely looking forward to Mets baseball.
We took advantage of the “please please please buy a ticket from us for Opening Day” special which gave us free tickets for Sunday. So I will see the Mets and the changes to the ballpark before my first officially ticketed game on June 1.
Things are quiet here because behind the scenes I am getting things ready to move to a new platform, and don’t want to also have to migrate a ton of new content as well. Imagine the old internet “under construction” graphic here.
Hey, look, it’s a presale code for 2012 Mets tickets!
Starting Wednesday, February 29th at 10:00 am, visit this page and use the code “HODGES”.
I will refrain from my usual comments about how the passwords and presale process are so transparent as to be useless and fail at creating any kind of feeling of urgency or exclusivity.
Years ago, years before I ever imagined I’d be writing about baseball, my friend Steph in Montreal was writing about it all the time on her web site. She wasn’t a baseball blogger, she just wrote about her life, and her life involved baseball - a lot of it. She would write about going to games with her dad and by herself and about the Expos coming into the restaurant where she worked, and at the end, the very end, she was writing editorials and letters to the editor about why the Expos should stay in Montreal. She was a huge inspiration to me and metsgrrl.com and was the first person I thought of today when we heard the sad news about Gary Carter.
Well, the day has arrived. The day where the scab on the pain of losing my team, the Expos, always threatening to fall free, is ripped off entirely. The twist in my stomach and tears in my eyes because Gary Carter, more affectionately The Kid, #8, lost his battle to cancer today.
When Caryn asked me if I wanted to say anything about this, I felt myself cringe. Would it be right for me to pay homage to a man who in absolute all honesty has been on my shit list since it was revealed he was questioning entering the hall as an Expo when his time came? Should it be me to bring to mind his greatness when the last few times I pumped my fist in the air toward Carter it was the fabulous emotional cocktail of anger spiked with betrayal?
But here I am writing. Because, of course saddened when I followed the stories in the Gazette of the tumours spreading and worsening, robbing him of his life piece by piece, I didn’t realize what would happen when this inevitable end came. And it’s this: I forgive him. No, I more than forgive him. I completely forget about it, who cares, you were an Expo AND a Met, it was me, not you, Gary. I’m so sorry.
Click to continue reading A MONTREALER PAYS TRIBUTE TO GARY CARTER.Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Yeah, I got nothing to say. But I do have 6 years of photographs.
I think it’s kind of insane that in my quietest blogging year ever, I get nominated as one of the blogs in the Shape Magazine Best Sports Blogger contest, but - I am nominated, and if elected, I will serve, as they say.
Vote for me, so that the Yankees and Red Sox blogs don’t win (and thanks to Matt Cerrone’s retweet earlier today, I’m beating both of them right now).
You do NOT have to register to vote!
Vote early, vote often, and thank you!
Tuesday night, I sat in the first row of the promenade reserved infield, leaned over the railing, held my breath and watched Jose Reyes on third base, a base he had obtained by getting a single and then strolling over to second on a throwing error and then, of course, stealing third base. This was after watching Jose Reyes make the Home Run Apple light up not once but twice, improbably, impossibly, twice - once was amazing but twice just felt supersonic.
And now he was doing what he does best, which is annoy pitchers as he dances while taking a healthy lead down the baseline. He is dancing down the third base line like he is going to steal home and he totally unnerves Aroldis Chapman, flame throwing Aroldis Chapman, and the fans who are in the ballpark erupt in a cheer without aid of scoreboard idiocy and I murmur, wouldn’t that be something? In this 3/4 empty ballpark on the second to last night of the season, wouldn’t that be something?
Wouldn’t that be something, indeed.
Click to continue reading MY GOODBYE TO JOSE REYES.The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball
Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner
245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor
New York, NY 10167
Dear Commissioner Selig:
Your actions at last night’s Mets-Cubs game at Citi Field on 9/11/11 were reprehensible. Not allowing the Mets players to wear the NYPD and other First Responder hats - at a meaningless game you co-opted as a platform to grandstand MLB’s relevancy - was inexcusable.
Learning that you not only denied the Mets’ official request to wear the hats, but that a MLB representative went the extra yard to confiscate them from the team at the conclusion of the pre-game ceremonies, so that no one could defy your order and do the right thing and wear them anyway, makes me ashamed to be a fan of Major League Baseball.
As a result, I will not purchase one new item of MLB clothing, whether a New Era hat, a Majestic Athletic shirt or jersey, or any other officially sanctioned MLB item, for the duration of 2011 and for the entire 2012 season, and very likely beyond that. My household could previously be counted on spending significant dollars in MLB merchandise every year; I can assure you that will no longer be the case.
Sincerely,
Caryn Rose
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NOW WRITE YOUR OWN LETTER. You have the address. Don’t email, don’t tweet, don’t just blog about it, don’t comment, don’t sign a petition - write your own letter and put it in the mail. That will count. That will make a difference.
I will be participating in A Night of Baseball Stories on Wednesday, September 14.
WORD, Largehearted Boy, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn are pleased to present a night of baseball storytelling (and free beer provided by our pals at Six Points brewery) featuring readers Jens Carstensen, Jason Diamond, David Gutowski, Sean Manning (Top of the Order, Things That Need Doing), Howard Megdal (Taking the Field), Caryn Rose (B-Sides and Broken Hearts). Attendees may be required to sit according to team affiliations.
Details here. Hope to see you there.
