Archive for February, 2011

Reading this morning’s Faith and Fear post reminded me of the kind of baseball the Mets played back in the sixties and seventies.

They were a very slow team, it seemed as if their philosophy on the stealing bases was that it was stealing, and they did not want to win a game by stealing. Individual players on other teams routinely had numbers higher than the entire Mets team.

No one was very fast, speed was never a part of their game. All they had was pitching. Other teams had home run hitters and guys that could steal a base. The Mets had outstanding pitching and Bud Harrelson and Felix Millan scooping up grounders.

There was a different mindset back then. If we were to see this type of play today, the press would be buzzing. Back in those days, if a team was behind by about three or four runs after the seventh inning, they did not try to upstage the other team by taking an extra base, or running hard on a routine ground ball. In this gentleman’s game, if you went against this, you got a fast ball in tour ear.

If the 86 Mets played this way, they may have only won about seventy games. One of the hallmarks of that team was that if they were behind in the seventh, Davey would glance to Keith, Gary or Straw and pretty soon they had the game in their back pocket.

Looks like everything is running smoothly in Met camp. One thing that does concern me is the positive press on Ollie and Luis. Are we being softened up so we are not too mad when they travel north with the big club? Will April be played with twenty three players because Ollie and Luis had a nice spring? I sure hope not. Maybe they got their shit together, if they have, and they can contribute, by all means, just don’t let a small glimmer of hope be amplified by a large pile of money.

Full squad finally hits the field Monday. Tonight, they are at the bowling alley. Hope no one drops a ball on their foot, or gets a blister.

Will be away for about a week, so the three of you that are reading this, I will be back.

Watching the Terry Collins news conference on SNY, he has wiped his nose on his sleeve, and rubbed off what ever was left on his shirt more times than he has blinked. I hope this guy never does coke, or his head will explode. As laid back as Jerry was, Terry is a hyper. At the start of the news conference, he was told to put down his water bottle, and you heard him utter “crap” into a live mic.

He is saying the same thing that I have been saying. The line up is good, and if everyone plays up to their potential, the Mets have a very good lineup. I didn’t like that he thought Castillo has a good chance to make a contribution to the team. If the Mets come up with Castillo and Perez on the roster, they are going to need to play their asses off the get the fans on board with their decision. Maybe the Mets like playing a few guys short. The first few months of last season roster spots were wasted by Gary Matthews Jr., Mike Jacobs and Frank Catalanato. The last few months two spots were wasted by Castillo and Perez.

If R.A Dickey is so smart, why is he riding a bike without a helmet? (pic 2)

If the Orioles ever need a live mascot, J. P, Riccardi can step right in. (pic 9)

Terry Collins has been waiting for this since 1999. He has had time to reflect, and is anxious for the season to start. This is first time that I actually think that he is the right choice. I had been rooting for Wally, who I am happy to say is now managing in Speidies land.

Baseball is not played on paper. If it was, the Mets would have won the pennant in 2006- 2008. Teams that were deemed flawed, the Phillies; Rangers; Rays and Giants come to mind, have all been recent winners. Sometimes, it can come down to a funny bounce, or a normally sure handed fielder taking their eye off the ball for a split second, and that crappy expression from a few years ago seems to make sense here, boom goes the dynamite, the game implodes and suddenly, the other team wins.

Expectations are very low for the Mets this year. It is going to take a lot for me to stop watching them. Although, if they trade Reyes, I will be might skip a few days, and in that time that I expect to discover that Sandy Alderson is the result of M.Donald Grant’s sister, and Dick Young’s older brother getting drunk one night in Pittsburgh.

Looking forward to hearing Terry’s locker room speech. How many times do you think Jerry’s name will slip out during a post game interview while Kevin B. meant to say Terry.

The 2011 season will be here soon. Football is over, it was a good Super Bowl, however, I was disappointed with the commercials. I did like the House /Joe Green parody, and anytime Roseanne gets knocked on her ass by a giant log is worth seeing, even though the editing was brutal, all of a sudden Roseanne lost about twenty pounds and seemed to be shorter just before the log hit.

Spring training is heating up, and before you know it, we will be listening to Gary Keith and Ron. Sure hope Ralph shows up, even though you have heard many of his stories, they are still fun to listen to.

Trying to get the VA on the phone this morning, and it is like trying to get Ollie to throw two strikes in a row, an almost impossible task.

2009 was a horrible year for David Wright. New surroundings, and no protection apparently caused to swing at pitches he never would have swung. Some think that Frenchy had something to do with this, others, just David’s mental approach was flawed.

In years past, David was about the best two strike hitter in the league. As a matter of fact, I used to love to see David work the count to 0-2, because then he amped up his game. Last season, when ever David got the count to 0-2, it was an almost automatic strike out.

Everyone agrees that David needs to step up to the plate, pun well intended, and become the hitter he used to be. Hopefully, he spent the winter studying tapes of his 2006-2008 seasons. This way he may return to the stance and position in the batters box that led him to almost MVP form.

What has gone on with him? Even his fielding took a dive. All of his ole’s at balls to his right have cost a few runs, and when he starts to think about his throws, Ike better watch out, because there is going to be one that bounces right to his throat.

Please wake up David. Please do not think so hard. Practice makes permanent, I hope you return to the perfect practice that you had in years past.

Thirty players should be in St. Lonesome by the end of the week. Maybe they can have a Super Bowl bonding party. It beats renting shoes at the local bowlarama, and less chance of injury.

So far the players are all saying the right things about TC, hope they are right. Come to think of it, didn’t all the players say nice things about Jerry and Willie?