I ‘m getting ready to head for the hills A/K/A my annual week long camping trip with my sons Boy Scout Troop. Our camp may resemble the prison scene in Godfella’s as we’ve decided to cook all our meals this year. So we’ve packed up cans of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, onions, peppers, chop meat and sauseeeege (Italian sausage to you out of towners.) so as the boys go off to earn their merit badges, the dads will be over a hot burner “makin’ the gravy”

The leaders office has computers and internet access so I should be able to put up a post or two during the week when I get a little time off from cooking, cutting wood and yelling at kids plus it’s the All-Star break so I won’t be missing much as I don’t revere the All Star game like I did when I was a kid so it might be a good time to go into the woods.

I haven’t read any game stories last from last night as I have a lot of last minute things to do before we leave so I’m still a little foggy on why Jose Reyes hit second last night and is schedule to hit in that spot again today. I’ve heard a theory that he is seeing a lot of sliders in the lead off spot so by flip floping Pagan and Reyes he may see more fastballs as Jose is still plagued by the sore oblique.  After watching Reyes slide back into second last night and coming up sore, I would think management would order him to forgo the All Star game and take the three days to rest his injury.

Hard to kill R A Dickey for last night as he continues to pitch great. If anything, the Mets half of the 6^th inning is what did the team in. With Ike Davis on second and Jason Bay on first, no one out, up steps Josh Thole. Ike is not exactly fleet of foot in fact, and I say this will all due respect, Ike has Ed Kranepool speed, and Thole, a contact hitter up, how about a hit and run? Nope, Jerry Manuel decides to go with the bunt, and Bobby Cox, being the Hall of Fame manager that he is, smelled it from a mile away so he put on the wheel play (a Bobby Valentine favorite play as well) where 3^rd baseman Omar Infante and 1^st baseman Troy Glauss charge in and mentally challenged short stop Yunel Escobar covers 3^rd and 2^nd baseman mar-TEEEN Prado covering first. The play worked for the Braves beautifully. If Thole was a little bit more experienced he would have pull back the bunt and swung away. As Keith Hernandez said, “Thole might have been afraid of his manager yelling at him” if he did that. If Manuel chastised Thole for a heads up play like that, then he’d be a more clueless strategist  than I make him out to be.

The Mets wrapped up a fine weekend in Baltimore with a three game sweep in front of a friendly crowd of Mets fans who made the trip down I-95 to Camden Yards, I’d love to get on the Orioles but I feel for ex-Met Juan Samuel and recently axed manager Dave Trembley because my youth baseball team is having an Oriole-like season so I just want to say misery lovers company fellas’

It’s games like today that show the huge step that Big Pelf has made this season. Last yer he would have fell apart as his command was off and he just did not look very comfortable on the mound but Pelfrey proved how important the mental side of pitching is. There are days when your physical tools are on auto-pilot and then there are days like to day where you physically misfire but you have enough savvy to make adjustments and keep yourself and your team afloat. Sure we all love those 3 hit 10K shutouts but sometimes watching a guy keep his team in a game on brains is a real museum piece as well.

I’m usually not one to vote for the All-Star Game but after the surge that David Wright is on I feel it’s my duty as a Mets fan to stuff the ballot box. David Wright deserves to be the starting 3^rd baseman for the National League in Anaheim.

 

 

Trying hard to put up a post today as I replay a tough loss over and over in my mind, no not the All Star Game, I gave up on that at 10PM when RESCUE ME came on, no I’m talking about my Babe Ruth team losing 8-0 to the top seed last night.

Don’t let the score fool you it was a closer game than that. We had one bad inning (the 3^rd) letting in 4 runs on a couple of errors and a some solid base hits. But the biggest obstacle was the pitcher we were facing a 13 year old with a big time yellow hammer that buckled my guys knees. We could only muster two hits on the night and three base runners total (my son accounting for two of the base runners with a walk, reaching first on a strike out/passed ball and two stolen bases) and now we face an elimination game on Sunday. Not much to say to the kids but “Hang with ‘em.

After the game we went home to watch the All Star Game and the first thing my son told me was “Dad, let’s get all the when I was a kid stuff out early so we can just watch the game” I guess like how the All Star Game was played during the day and how the two leagues played the game like it was a World Series game and how the NL had all the stars and always won and because of that the AL couldn’t draw fans so they sullied the sport with the DH, and how I miss Curt Gowdy calling the big games and that’s when I get the hand and “that’s enough old timer” and I quiet down.

I was listening to Joe (Bada Bing Bada Boom) Beningno and Evan Roberts yesterday and I agree with Joe that there is so much baseball available for us to watch that the All Star Game is no big deal, as it used to be a chance for fans to see players they never get to see much but with the Extra Innings package and ESPN and MLB Network and Mets and Highlander games on every night there isn’t a team or a player I haven’t seen add in that there is no more rivalry between the NL and AL with so much player movement and the fact that both leagues are not run as separate entities (remember when there were League Presidents ?) That has made the All Star Game hum drum.

Admit it you were hoping that President Obama would have brought Artie Lang with him to the game to hang with Doofus Joe Buck. Now that would have been riveting TV.

 

What’s the big deal about Johan Santana pitching in the All Star Game? I know he threw 114 pitches on Saturday but com’on if he gets in the game he’ll only toss one inning anyway which is maybe 17-20 pitches tops. Nolan Ryan shakes his head in disgust.

 

I’m piss at Petey for the fact that he is signing with the Phillies. If he signed any place else even the South Bronx I would be as pissed. I defend Petey here as I’ve been a fan since his Expo days and looked at his signing as a big jump in creditability. Petey for the most part never lived up to his contract with the Mets but was always received like a King by the fans. But the Phillies?  Petey you disgust me!!!!!

 

So the question is, have we seen the best of A-Rod? Welcome to the post PED Baseball Era. This is why sure I’d love Roy Halliday on my team but I’m not giving him a new contract and Halliday is last player the Mets need. Your seeing the shift already with younger, faster players taking center stage in baseball hopefully Omar takes notice.

 

“Who lives in a pineapple under the sea”……….. Maybe Spongebob Square Pants could buy the Mets?

 

The Mets Police has a clip from NEWSDAY on the Mets making adjustment to $iti Field like a video board in RF, more Mets-centric memorabilia throughout the park and getting the thumbs up from MLB to show the game live on the video scream to help those with obstructed views. Now if they can find a way to mange the line at the Shake Shack where you don’t have to get into a fist fight when some asshole tries to cut the line I’ll be happy.

 

I watched the Home Run Derby last night and here are some thoughts that ran through my head:

• It’s too bad Michael Jackson is dead as he could have put the Home Run Derby on a continuous loop to help him with his sleeping problems. In fact next year I’m going to take drugs before watching the HRD again

 

• Can someone get Erin Andrews a meal? Christ, she is so gaunt she could star in her own After School Special. I don’t get the fascination with Andrews, I can walk out right now on West Broadway and find 20 women way hotter than her, guys who need to put on pants and get out of Moms basement.
• I had this awful nightmare, Steve Phillips, Joe Morgan, and Chris Berman were announcing the Home Run Derby, then Doofus Joe Buck showed up and all the did was talk about Doofus Joe’s dead father. Then Berman kept using these tired old nicknames and calls and he was sitting in this huge container that was collecting the cascade of sweat that was pouring off him that was used like generated the electricity back to Bristol. Then Joe Morgan started speaking in tongues and all kinds of snakes and serpents were flying out of his ears, and Steve Phillips was having sex with a midget who was toweling off Albert Pujols. WHOA that was scary…….what that wasn’t a dream? It was real? AGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!