No one is talking baseball in NYC today as the Jets have taken over this town as they ready themselves  for the AFC Title game against the Colts.

Even though I’m a die hard NY Football Giants fan, I hope the Jets win today as I know too many Jets fans who have never seen thier team win a cahmpionship and that’s sad.

What I can do without and it is one of the biggest flaws that NYC has are the front running bandwagoners.Every local news cast is full of these assholes who all of a sudden discovered football and are Jets fans. They were Highlander fans in October and now Jets fans in January. Must be nice to pick and choose who and when to root for a team.

As much as I rant against the Mets here, I love this team more than an grown up should. In fact it scares me a bit how much I care about the NY Mets.  Sure I’d love to see them win championships and be the talk of the town like the Jets are now and the Bronx Bastards seem to always be but right now I’d settle for a team and organization that is respected and plays good hard fundamental baseball.  I don’t think that’s too much to ask for is it?

Jets 19

Colts 17

Lito Sheppard with the game winning TD with .30 seconds left in game

Saints 35

Vikings 17

The Who Dat’s vs. Gang Green in South New York City Fl.

who is that player in the pic? and don’t cheat

For as bad as the NY Football Giants season has been, yesterday took some of the sting out of the painful failure, as team owner John Mara, stepped up big time by calling out his coaches and players for a lack of mental and physical toughness and lack of effort. WOW, how strong are those words? Sure the cynic in me says, “John Mara needs to sell his Private Seat Licenses, so this is all a business move” but the Mara family have owned this team since it’s inception in 1925 and Giants have been one of the top teams in the NFL this decade and watching and listening to him he looked legitimately pissed off. 

The way John Mara handled the day after the season is the way an owner of a team that not only disappoints but embarrasses themselves by quitting, and make no mistake the NY Football Giants quit, should. He stood up like a man and articulated that, yes his team suffered injuries but they were not an excuse for not showing up the last half of the season. He acted swiftly by axing way over his head offensive coordinator Bill Sheridan and put every player and coach on notice that if you don’t or  you can’t give him what he wants, then he will go out and find personnel that will. As a Giants fan, I appreciate Mara’s words and action very much.

Contrast John Mara’s words and actions to the stumbling, fumbling, mumble-oid of an owner like Jeffey Skill Sets who acted mealy mouthed and clueless in his season post-mortem of the season to forget. There is a reason why the Mets brand is laughed at through out baseball and it starts at the top.

Speaking of our favorite baseball team, I brought out my pinstripe uni top for toady’s Bay Day celebration. In fact my co-workers have wished me happy Bay Day when I reported for duty. I’ve become a charity case, as even the Highlander fans have stop teasing me and feel sorry for me. I hate being a charity case or a baby face, I’d rather be a heel.

There are rumors that the Mets could trade Rogers Castillo for Mike Lowell. What would the Bosox want with Rogers Castillo when they have Dustin Pedroia and Marco Scutaro? Lowell would be a nice fit for the Mets, as he’s a respected vet with 2 World Series rings ( as you know I’m a major proponent of bringing in winners to this team)  I just wonder if he can play some 1^st base and spell David Wright sat 3^rd base.

From reading some of the stories, if Carlos Delgado can stand up straight, the Mets would love to bring him back for a 1 year incentive laden deal. That’s why it seems the Mike Lowell talk is interesting as a platoon of Lowell/ Delgado could be what the Mets are looking at for 1^st base in 2010.

The details of the Jason Bay contract are as follows:

$8.5 mil bonus and $6.5 mil salary for 2010

$16mil for the next 3 years + 4^th yr option

Full No Trade Clause.

Not a killer contract, now the question is this. I have a MILLEDGE 44 pro uni top. Do I go and have the MILLEDGE taken off and add BAY? Your thoughts please?

Waiting on the Bay presser. I’ll be commenting on Twitter during the presser.

First probelm, half of Staten Island is here. I’ve been stopped in the lobby about 5 times since geting here by people saying “Don’t I know you from so place” ? I didn’t gome 160 miles to hang out with my felow Staten Islanders, that’s what the SI Ferry is for.

The problem is most of them are Highlander fans and they folks here who are not Highlander fans are Phuck Phace fans. Of course I’m decked out in my Mets best threads, Sweatshirt, jacket, and my classic blue New Era cap.

After tossing out insults to me both sets of fans say to me “”I don’t know if you heard, but the Mets signed Jason Bay” No really? Then I go into  Moe Green mode “Do you know you I am”? at that point my family runs away from me.

I want to wish all of tou who comes to sight each day a happy and healthy New Year and just to let you know how appreciative I am that you folks come here each day not just read my posts but leave such great comments. Agian thany you guys so much.

Hopfully   I survive this weekend and I’ll be back here Saturday

What does your Dickey do? Mine throws a knuckleball

Hello? Where have you been hearing that the Mets should get David DeJesus and Gil Meche? Hello? Is this thing on?

Fork please! Carlos Delgado is as done as a Christmas goose.

When it comes to Assclowns nobody beats Highlander fans. Some of these geniuses have been calling WFAN or Twittering that they hate the deal that brought Javier Vasquez to the Highlanders for Melkey Cabrea and a couple of bush leaguers. Sometimes Highlander fans your stupidity is breath taking.

Thank you Mike Vaccaro, thank you for a wonderful column this morning.

Why do I get the sad feeling that we will see more Red Sox stories in the fish wraps this summer than Mets news?

Well, thank God that’s over. Because I work in Lower Manhattan, I had no choice but to suffer through that awful parade yesterday. I had thought about taking the day off and not subject myself to the pageantry of douchebags that would be on display but then I thought why should I waste a vacation day on a bunch of jerk offs? It’s good thing I did go in yesterday because the entertainment was hilarious.

I’m on Church St so the parade route is up one block to Broadway and over several more blocks but I guess the suburbanites from East Bubble fuck were lost as most of them just clogged up Church St. There were some fans who I guess were long time Highlander fans but for the most part it was your typical bandwaggoners which is basically the overwhelming majority of Highlander fandom. Now that last statement will piss off a few of the Bronx Bastard disciples who come here to this site as they are obsessed with what we Mets fans are up to and I want to thank them for that as it’s the highest compliment we can have. Now I’m not saying all Highlander fans are clueless. The majority of the Highlander bloggers I’ve been around are so smart and sophisticated it makes me wonder what happened in their life that led them to the dark side. But for the most part Highlander fans can not recite their history the way Mets fan can.

Sure thye all know Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle and Berra and all the players who were on the Championship teams but how many of them can tell you about guys like Stan Bahnsen, Shane Rawley, Roberto Kelly or Steve “Bye-Bye” Balboni ? Just the hard core fans which are a minority.  Look I know Mets fans like you and me are hardcore but if I mention the name Mackey Sasser or Mike Vail or Glendon Rusch more times than not I will get a “ah yeah” smile from a Mets fan about players from yesteryear.

See the big difference between Mets fans and Highlander fans is that we have a passion and love for our team, the Highlander fan has a love and a passion for Championships.  Now that’s not to say we don’t love a championship you bet we do and we get angry and sometime nasty when we don’t win but after about a week of being pissed off, we go to Mets.com looking for next season schedule to see when opening day is and the first home game so we leave that date open to make sure we’re either at $iti Field or in front of the TV to watch our Mets.

Reading some of the stories today most Highlander fans were talking about how great the day was but now we need to win Championship 28. How fucking ignorant are you?  Can’t you just enjoy the moment?

Mets fans are funny because as we bitch and moan about our team and the price of tickets while we’re either writing a check or pluging a credit card number into a web site to make a purchase.

I’ve been fortunate enough to see the Mets win two Championships, maybe it’s just experience as I thought after the each one, the World Series trophies would come in droves. Well I learned they don’t. I thought Gil Hodges would the Mets manager forever. He wasn’t. Of course Tom Seaver “The Franchise” would be a Met 4 Life. Didn’t turn out that way. Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry were going to walk in Cooperstown together. Nope. Add in losses to the Dodgers in the NLCS in 1988 and to the Cards in 2006 and of course the recent collapses if anything you’d think I’d have turned my back on the Mets and crossed to the dark side. NO FUCKING WAY!!!!!

After watching the people at that parade yesterday and listening to Highlander fans calling WFAN and talking out of their ass I must say it has made even prouder to be a Mets fan and to associated with the Mets fans.

I don’t know what moves the team will make this off season but hopefully they make enough to put the team back into contention but no matter what I’ll be at $iti Field on opeing day and so will you because you’re a Mets fan and you should be proud of  that.

{Sidebar: one of the biggest differences between living on Staten Island from living in Brooklyn is Brooklynites are much more neighborly. As a kid growing up in Boro Park, I knew everyone who lived on my block. In the summer, the people of my block all sat outside on folding chairs in front of their house and socialized. When I first moved to SI my wife and I started siting on our front steps in the evening. We always wondered why our next door neighbor gave us dirty looks. It wasn’t until a fellow Brooklyn refugee informed us that on SI you sit in your backyard not your front porch, I guess that’s why I know about four people on my block and Staten Islanders want to know why they get no respect}

headed to the parade you don’t venture into Manhatan to often as the terminal was packed with cluelesss Highlander fans having trouble figuring out the Metro Card system.

Every morning I go to the Dunkin’ Donuts on Chambers St and the young ladies at the counter see me and get my X-tra large just milk ready for me. Well today the DD was packed with parade goers who gave me dirty looks because of my Mets cap. No one made a peep though as seeing me chatting with a couple of cops and traffic agents in the store, they figured I was a cop as well, but when I walked to the front of the 10 deep line, handed the girl at the counter my Mets DD debit card to swipe for my purchase and turned to leave, I flashed my card and pointed to my cap and said “Stay thirsty my friends”

I don’t know what the pundits wanted Joe Giraridi to do other than pitch AJ Burnett on three days rest. Do these experts know the other choice to pitch is Chad Gaudin? The same Chad Gaudin who was cut by the Padres this season and a guy who has not thrown a baseball that counts in a month? You think Girardi enjoys being short in the starting pitching department? And why is he the bad guy here? Joey G has done a lot of things this post season to draw the ire of Highlander fans but their anger at JG on pitching Burnett on short rest is not his fault. The wrath of the fans should be on Pee Wee Cashman for not having the foresight to get a veteran starter (Gil Meche, Aaron Harrang to name two who would have been available) at the trade deadline. And by the way, when you sign a deal like Burnett did to pitch for the Highlanders who have to know what you do from April to September doesn’t mean jack shit, it’s what you do in the  post season where you earn your dough. Last night Burnett came up a few bucks short.

Anyone want to bet that Phil Hughes will be in the starting rotation in 2010? But it won’t be in the Bronx that’s for sure. Probably Pittsburgh or Kansas City I’d say.

On the FOX Pre-Game show last night, a show by the way, that makes Public Access TV look like Masterpiece Theater, host Chris Rose, who is so far over his head here he needs to go back to showing clips of golfers getting hit in the balls with their clubs, ask his panel of “Mad Men” extra Mark Grace, “Sufferin’ Succotash” Eric Karros and Charo’s  younger brother Ozzie Guillen, “if Derek Jeter is the greatest Highlander player ever”? At first the Gang of Three were as stunned with the ridiculous question in fact I was waiting for Guillen to throw out an F-Bomb and a scream out “PENDEJO”!!!! but no Oz said that not only was “Jeter God” he was the greatest Highlander ever. Well, I think that’s what he said because when Ozzie started talking I press the Closed Caption button on and my TV and on the screen it said “Are you fucking kidding”? Karros and Grace then agreed with Oz and I just sat there trying to pick up my jaw that his the ground. Jeter better than The Babe? Joe D? The Mick? The Iron Horse? Chicken Stanley? All right he’s a better hitter than Stanley but seriously has everyone lost their mind? His name is Derek Jeter not Derek Jesus.

Taking off my Mets cap and putting my Mets fandom aside for a moment, as a baseball fan I have to hope the Phuck Phaces win tomorrow night to not only set up a Game 7 but for the sheer joy of watching the flop swear flow from Highlander fans. Loosen them collars folks!

WELCOME TO YANKEE STADIUM ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Great, great post today by James Kannengieser over at Amazin’ Avenue commenting on a post by Jeff Pearlman on Mark McGwire becoming the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals where Pearlman gets all righteous slamming McGwire with the tired old cheater line.

Kannengieser brings up the Amazin’ Tuesday even that Pearlman attended and I was there. I have all of Pearlman’s books and I read his blog and SI.com columns as well so yes I’m a fan of his but I don’t always agree with him on his positions.

I agree with Kannengieser, Bill James, Rob Neyer and Tom Tango on this over blown media scream fest about PED’s in baseball. We live in a world of physical enhancement from face lifts, to Botx injections to pills that give men erections for four hours and no one gets outraged but a baseball player, who a grown ass men by the way, making decisions to take something that would either bring them back from injury faster or enhance their ability to play better that was not against any of the rules of MLB until recently.

If you really want to be outraged, turn your anger at the Federal Government who is wasting your tax dollars in trying to prosecute (very unsuccessfully) athletes for using PED’s

It seems the biggest loser so far this World Series is the Rich Folks Fortress in the Bronx. I thought it was just my middle aged ears that couldn’t hear the crowd noise but after reading and talking to some fans who were at the games, it seems the Grey Poupon  crowd just ain’t into cheering. It could also be that real fans A/K/A Poor Bastards in the upper deck and bleachers are closer to Van Cortlandt Pak than they are the playing field and their veil disgusting comments float like a fart in the wind. Sad. Here we Mets fans have a ball park that seats you closer to the action plus we are more passionate and involved in our team than our neighbors in the Northern boro but have a team that can’t find it’s way back to post season baseball. It’s even sadder when a Mets-Phuck Face series in May has more passion that the Fall Classic.

Intimidation is a major component in a sporting endeavor. The ability to get into your opponents head will make the difference between winning and losing when the physical aspect is so close, like it is in this World Series. The Highlanders have always liked to use this physiological warfare when dealing with an opponent. Whether it is the constant in stadium bombardment of how many championships they have won or trotting out old time players or prominent political hacks or just flaunting their monetary wealth, the Highlander are masters of head games. Sometimes is works, but sometimes it doesn’t and it looks likes this World Series is one of those times it doesn’t.

You think Cliff Lee is intimidated buy the Bronx Bastards or their palatial surroundings? Not in the least. When asked twice last night after his Game 1 gem first by Fox garden gnome, Ken Rosenthal, if he was nervous and then by Baseball Network’s Trenni Kusnierek, Lee just shrugged and said “What do I have to be nervous about” Lee went on to say that he prepared and did all his side work so he was ready to go and when you do your proper prep work what’s there to worry about? This was the same attitude that Josh Beckett had when his Marlins and Red Sox beat the Highlanders as well. Mystique and Aura, HA! My ass.

CC Sabathia did a good job last night but this biggest fault was falling behind in counts and the inability to throw strike one on a first pitch. Against Chase Utley he fell behind on his first pitch to the Philly second baseman 1-0 but came back to gain a 1-2 advantage as Utley just missed on two fastballs fouling them off. Utley then made Sabathia work by after getting the count even, Utley fouls off two more pitches and then CC misses for ball three and a full count to Utley. So now Utley has seen eight pitches in this at bat and the whole CC portfolio, now with two outs the last thing Sabathia wants is to walk Utley and bring up Ryan Howard with a man on. So CC tries to bust on inside on Utley but the pitches gets a little too much plate and Utley sends just barely over the right field wall for a 1-0 Philly lead. Sabathia pitched a terrific game but some times when you hook up against a guy who is tossing a classic, who have to be better than terrific.

If I’m Joe Girardi, I’d be very concerned about Phil Hughes. Hughes has been awful this October and the grumbling is he’s scared shit. Not a good rep to have and barking at home plate ump Gerry Davis doesn’t help his bad reputation either.

Speaking of Joey G, I’m done trying to figure out his bullpen moves. After the Phil Hughes melt down of walking Victorrino and Rollins, JG brought in Damaso Marte to go lefty-lefty with Utley and Howard. Now with Werth up JG goes with David Robinson who had nothing as he gave up a four pitch walk to Werth. Now you have the lefty Ibanez with in a bases loaded situation and the Highlanders down 2-0. The situation was calling for Phil Coke. But JG leaves in Robertson who gives up a two run single to Ibanez and 2-0 lead is now a 4-0 lead for Philly. That Ibanez AB was the turning point in the game as far as I’m concerned, the game was over at that point.

I’m fascinated by tonight’s match up of Petey and Pie Man. Petey is a Hall of Fame pitcher who like Cliff Lee will not be intimidated by the surroundings of this game. On the other hand, Pie Man has not shown the ability to step up his game in a big spot. You could say when it’s time to put up AJ Burnett is more cream puff than lemon meringue.

Maybe the collars of the Highlander Nine are loose and comfy but that’s not the case for some of their fans. Most of the Highlander fans that I grew up with or the ones I know who are my age or a little younger, are still very feisty. When I mention 2004 to them, I’m greeted with a narrow eyed reply of “THAT AIN”T HAPPIN’ THIS YEAR YOU STUPID ASS METS FAN” Now, I tell them, “That’s what I want to hear” I want to hear you believe in your team. But the younger more inexperienced Highlander fan who jumped on the bandwagon late in life and thinks they are owed a parade down Broadway every year,  are really, really scared about tonight’s Game 6.

Last night just reading all the little Tweets on Twitter from the Neophyte fans of the Bronx Bastards, I was shocked, SHOCKED by the pessimism of these youngsters. Hey kids, your conduct is very unbecoming of a Highlander Groupie, in fact it’s down right embarrassing. Don’t you youngsters watch YES and don’t you listen to the Highlander Gospel according to John Sterling? Com’on put your boots on and put on your Swish-O-Licious shirts and root for your team and stop questioning your leader Joey G, especially for the way he has handled his relief pitching moves, they are right out the Old Torre testament. And how about some of you going out and buying some 43 MARTE or 91 ACEVES t-shirts to show what real fans you are? Shit, anynone can wear a JETER 2 or TEXIERIA 25 but it takes a real fan to wear a MARTE or ACEVES. And stop complaining about Joey G taking Alex Rodriguez out for a pinch runner, sure it was the asshole play of the series but you guys hate Rodriguez anyway? What? Oh alls good with A-Rod, Really? You’re sure? See it’s hard to keep up with you guys on who sucks and who is a living legend. See I thought Swish-O-licious was the greatest thing to hit the Bronx since Grandmaster Flash but word on the Grand Concourse is he FUCKINSUCKS. Eh, what can you do? I got to go, the Rally Monkey is hungry I’m going to Hunts Point to get him some plantains.