Let's Give This Thing Another Go...

For any of you that were kind enough to visit this blog in the past, I realize that I completely dropped the ball on updating it, or really having it function in any way, shape or form. The job I've been at for the past year demanded a lot of time, too much time, really, to justify extensive blogging, and I just let it drop off.

That said, in the next month or so, I'll be moving back up to NY, and returning to school, so I figure now's as good a time as any to get going again. Come back!!!

Enough about my life...
This is not Mets-related, but today, one of my favorite players of all time had his name added to the ever-growing list of steroid users (or PED's, call it what you will). For all of his shortcomings in the past, his questionable motives, his fake injuries, etc., I've always loved Manny. The AL team that I love (though I have a harder time with them these days, mostly based on the demeanor of the run of the mill Red Sox fan) came into it's own with his arrival, and won 2 world series with him at the helm of the batting order, and boy was it ever fun. He really was like a little kid; he would whine and do things that just drove you over the edge, but then he'd come back, give a goofy smile, and you'd forgive him just like that. Plus, he'd hit deadly pitches 500 ft to the opposite field on 0-2 counts. I agreed last year that it was time for him to go from Boston, but I enjoyed his antics in LA, and while I'm not a fan of the Dodgers, they're among the few teams that I don't call my own that I can tolerate, and root for at times, based on Brooklyn, Strawberry, LaSorda, Manny, and most of all, Scully. I had come to accept his spot in LA, and barring a head-to-head clash with the Mets, I'd root for him there. I was, for the record, among the 99.9% of Met fans desperate to see him signed this offseason, and somewhat angry with Bernie Madoff for hurting that cause.

And now, he's joined the club.

My initial phases of reaction were similar to how I've felt about most of the big name players who have been exposed that I didn't already dislike, i.e., Clemens, Bonds: Surprise, spiked with a twinge of subconscious excitement over a huge new story. Doubt. Belief. Complete denial, and investigation into whatever excuses were given; in this case, the whole possibility that he was merely using some other form of Viagra to keep Manny being Horny was the cop-out. Doubt again, and then acceptance. That, for me anyhow, has been the usual steroid allegations cycle, but in this case, there is a great deal of gloom that has followed that stage of acceptance. Now this era truly is tainted, at least to a great extent. If you stacked up 20 names that defined the 90's and early 2000's, Ramirez, Clemens, Rodriguez, Sheffield, McGwire, Sosa, Tejada, Giambi, Pettitte, Bonds, Canseco and others yet unnamed are all on that list. I'll be stupid and hold out on Piazza, as that is still unproven. What do you do with all this? What can you say? They're falling like comets.

I have no idea, really, what with the records, the wins, the history, but one thing is crystal clear to me, and I never thought 5 years ago that I would say this:

Jose Canseco was right, and he may have saved baseball. All the names he has indicated keep bleeding out, and while I initially thought it was snakish of him to name names, I see his point: no one listened to any complaints about steroid use until A) he brought the media attention to it, and B) he named big names. You can say, "steroids are a problem" and a couple folks may turn they heads and nod in agreement, but when you say, "Roger Clemens used steroids", everyone listens, and they talk about it. Then the media talks some more, then Bud Selig's head becomes slightly less engorged in his rear end, then congress jumps on it, then all of a sudden you have (somewhat) comprehensive testing in baseball, and the sport emerges from a cloak of suspicion into a more or less cleaned-up state. Manny positive or not, his suspension only reinforces that there ain't too many folks getting away with this s**t anymore.

Maybe Jose Canseco is a jerk, maybe not, but you can't call him a liar or a crook anymore, and all of his screaming may have brought our game back to its truest form.

The New York Mets, on the other hand, seem to be on the way up, for a change, and as we speak, they have a 1-0 lead in a 2 game series against Philly, just swept the impossible Braves, and are leading the 2nd game of that Philly series 5-1, behind 3 home runs in the park that doesn't allow them, one each by perhaps the most prominent members of the recently much-maligned "core", Beltran, Wright and Reyes. Maybe Omar calling the boys out lit a fire?

Who cares? They look good, let's keep it up.

Felt Like '06...

IMAGE: ANTDEROSA FROM FLICKR



I haven't heard the postgame responses form tonight on the radio, or read them on the internet, and I don't really care how the fickle mood of the conspiracy theorist Met fans who behave like Yankee fans has been swayed one way or the other, but I can tell you plain and simple: that was the kind of game that just made you feel really good.

It not only made you feel good, but it put a lot of things in perspective after what in my mind was one of the single greatest days of fan overreaction in the history of sports. Maybe some of that negativity coming from the fans trickled in to the clubhouse, or was already present, and lit a fire under them, but that's not my feeling. My feeling is that this is a really good team that's going to amass a hefty sum of wins, and this was one of them, as the 6 losses were 6 of the 60-70 some games any 90-100 win team will lose.

So much for Reyes being done, huh? My expectation was that the slump would ease its way out, possibly beginning with a nice 2-4 game with a SB, and then maybe a 1-4 with a double and an RBI, but the leadoff man, after 2 1/2 days off, returned with quite a bang, going 4-5. Reyes singled, doubled and tripled in succession, and the whole park smelled cycle, but alas hit #4 was a mere single again. All of his hits were hard, and all of them were well-timed. Bravo, Jose. It's just impossible to convey, or rather, to put into words what the effect on this entire team is when Reyes is on his game. All that tension, all of the bad taste that you have in your mouth through collapses and slow starts, it's all gone. When Reyes is on, it just feels like everything's going to be OK.

Not to short David Wright, who homered in his 3rd consecutive game, barely clearing the fence in right center (right center? left center? my memory is escaping me...), doubled twice, and drove in 5 runs, 5 runs. Not a bad night to have David Wright on 4 different fantasy teams. The Captain apparent is now back to .300, and has knocked in a total of 15 runs, tying him with Mark Reynolds for the NL lead.

Beltran knocked one in. Pagan kept his hitting going. Church looked good in the 2-spot, where he was inserted today, notching 1 hit, 1 BB, scoring 2 runs, and successfully bunting Reyes to 3rd in the bottom of the 1st. I haven't seen any signs of late that Luis Castillo is capable of such tasks. Brian Schneider was unimpressive with the bat against his old squad, but looked great gunning Milledge on a caught stealing at 3rd.

Speaking of the Great Lastings Milledge, I liked him when he was here, and I still like him. I wore my custom #44 "Stings" Jersey from last year today, and I'll wear it tomorrow. You can count me out of the Milledge Boo-Birds. To me, he's an exciting player with a ton of potential which he may or may not fulfill, and all of his alleged off-the-field issues were totally overblown. In contrast with the DUI's, assault charges, weapons charges, domestic abuse, tax fraud, and steroid usage that is rampant in all of sports, I was never too offended by Lastings choosing to give high-fives to some fans and recording a rap album. I wasn't, and still aren't gonna listen to it, and probably disagree with some of its content, but that doesn;t influence my interpretation of Lastings Milledge the outfielder too much. I'll cheer for him tomorrow.

Duca, on the other hand, who didn't play today but should be in the lineup for DC tomorrow...
That's really tough, and I may just have to sit it out, not boo or cheer. The guy was a favorite of mine, but was not only on the Mitchell Report, he was very prominently featured, and probably introduced a good number of other players to the juice. He also wrote checks to buy drugs, which is just dumb as all hell. Come on, Paulie.
But I loved him, really did, as much as any ballplayer...
Gonna have to sit down and be silent.

To the issue at hand again, all guns clicked last night, Tuesday night, offensively. The leadoff man led-off, the #2 man got him over, the #3 man got 'em in, and the rest of 'em helped. Pelfrey was truly impressive, picthing 7 shutout innings, though not peril-free, and the bullpen was quick and done. Heilman got some boos after issuing a 4-pitch walk in the 8th, but no harm was done, SO STOP BOOING EVERYTHING, MET FANS! ESPECIALLY BEFORE ANY DAMAGE IS DONE! IT'S NOT GONNA HELP WHEN A GUY IS STILL IN THERE TO BOO HIM!

And who pitched the 9th? An indescribably welcome sight in Duaner Sanchez. He gave up one hit, but was locating well and K'd one batter in his one inning of scoreless work. It has to be remembered that he is working his way back to full strength, so if he gives up some hits now and tops off at 92, that isn't necessarily a permanent thing. Anyhow it was great to see him at all, and great to see him have a good inning; you forget just how dominant he was 2 years ago before in between Heilman and Wags.

Mets Win, 6-0. Solid score, no drama. They're the far superior team of the two, and they showed it. I was never worried, just enjoying myself.

Elsewhere, the Braves got blanked by former standout Scott Olsen in Miami, but the Jose Valverde and the 'Stros really blew it for us, giving up 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th in Philly and dropping a game which they led 3-0 going into that inning. That was an annoying score to see updated on the scoreboard. I'm sure Pedro Feliz is very happy with himself. Ugh.

Tomorrow/tonight, whenever it is, Maine will be facing Matt Chico, who is winless on the year, and should remain so.

It will also be my final game at Shea before I have to move to Atlanta, Georgia, (yes, I know. No, I'm not going to become a Braves fan, we've covered this) although certainly not my final game at Shea. They have things called airplanes and I have something called an obsession and something else called season tickets which I am not relinquishing. Gimme a bye for now win, guys.