Craig Calcaterra’ favorite past time is bashing the Mets (he’s a Braves fan so that explains that) which should piss me off, but the does it so well and is very witty that it doesn’t. This week he is at Port St. Lonesome and had two anecdotes that well, quite frankly made me laugh out loud.

  My doctor recommended that I take extra good care of myself while on assignment, so I stopped at a liquor store Saturday night to stock up on some Kentucky medicine. Behind the counter was the friendliest and least discreet clerk I’ve ever met. He asked me if I was in town for baseball and I said yes. He then told me that Mets pitcher John Maine had been in there a half hour earlier, came up to the counter with a bottle of Grey Goose and was getting ready to pay for it when a Mets coach walked in. Maine and the coach talked for a few minutes, and then Maine walked out, forgetting to buy his vodka.  I got this mental image of him getting back to whatever social gathering he was attending and someone asking him where the booze was, only to have Maine go “Ummm, oh. Man.”

Something tells me Dr. Ed Coleman was pissed that Maine came back empty handed.

I woke up yesterday morning to get my continental breakfast on, and in the lobby was a young woman in black spandex pants, Mets fleece and Mets cap yelling at one of the desk clerks.  Seems she left her car someplace the night before — obviously not at Maine’s party, as there was no booze there — and needed to get a cab to go and pick it up. When told it would be 45 minutes before a car could get out there, she yelled “I’m from New York and this sh– doesn’t fly!!  I live an HOUR outside of Manhattan, and I can get a car to my house faster than that!”  I suppose she has a point about 45 minutes being a long time to wait, but I’ve found that one generally doesn’t get what one wants in this world by telling people that you come from someplace better and more important than they do.

You what I find funny about this, whenever I go out of town; I usually like to avoid my fellow bridge and tunnel-ers. My problem is as soon as I open my mouth I reek of Brooklyn and in fact I’m proud of that since it seems the great Brooklyn dialect is a dying language but when one of my fellow outer boro “brudders of sistahs” act up at an airport, hotel or restaurant, someone will inevitably turn to me with a shake of the head, “Humph, those New Yorkers” at that time I break out my Irish brogue, cultivate from years of living with parents born in County Sligo. So if I were in that hotel lobby and asked about Lady Going Ga-Ga I’d have said “Ah tis sad, she’s actin’up” Hey, sometimes it’s best to go undercover.

I rarely ever listen to Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason on WFAN but from reading a post on Mets Merized Online I read that Carton who tries to be a Howard Stern type jock but falls woefully short in the gift to be offensive and very funny, made some irresponsible about Jose Reyes and his health. If these quotes are true and I have no reason to believe MMO is making them up, how could WFAN keeps this low rent shock jock wanna be employed? Then again WFAN has become a station that can only attracted advertisers for hair plugs, hard on medicine and scams to donate cars for children so what should I expect. I’m sure a big pussy like Carton would never go into the Mets clubhouse and say to Reyes’ face what he’d say in the microphone. 

Brian Costa via TWITTER says Frankie Rodriguez is back in camp.

Who is this Nick Evans of which you speak ?

Tip o’ the Mets cap to The ‘Ropolitans for this tip

So Jason Marquis signed with the Washington Nats for 2yrs/$15 mil. It seems the Mets were adamant about Marquis signing for minimum of 5 yrs/$40 mil.

Of course if the Mets signed Marquis for the same deal it would have been very nice but let’s not make him out to be Don Drysdale, okay, he’s a plow horse who takes the ball every 5^th day and most days keeps his team in games.

The big problem for the Mets if John Harpers’ info is correct, the team has placed a priority on adding offense first then seeing how much is left in the bank account to go for pitching. If that’s the case, this Mets team is destined for doom.

Does it really pay to get mad anymore? I have no idea what the Mets plan is this off-season and I’m at the point that I couldn’t give a shit if Jason Bay signs here or not. In fact, my mindset for this coming season is of a late 70’s type mode. I see myself going to as many games as I can at $iti Field because for all the screaming, cursing and acting like baby bullshit I do here, I’m still a die hard Mets fan. I’ll be there (hopefully) on Opening Day and for a lot of other days/nights at $iti Field. So the Mets don’t have to do anything to appease me because even if they were still playing in our beloved Shea with it’s leaky toilets and broken seats, I’d still be there bitching and moaning but with cash and credit card in hand, wearing a Mets jersey, Mets cap, Mets socks (yeah that’s right I have about 5 pair of Mets socks) and standing and applauding when Alex Anthony says “And here they are your 2010 New York Mets”.  You say I’m a jerk and ass whatever but the bottom line is I love the Mets it’s the owner whose guts I hate.  Even Jimmy (Welcome to my Garden Party) Dolan laughs at Jeffey Skill Sets.

Big tip of the Blue Mets Cap to Shannon Shark at Met Police for the first released pictures of the new, old, same Mets pinstriped jersey that looks exactly as the one I bought three years ago that hangs in my closet.

Hopefully some time today I will see this jersey up close and personnel as the plan was to up and out by 9AM for Christmas shopping but my daughter has decided to engage in a marathon sleeping session so our attack of the Paramus Mall is on hold.

Oh well, with the football season done here in NY , I guess all we can look forward to is the big Elmer Dessens press conference to announce his re-signing .

{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”

tip of the Mets cap to Rowdy Yates for the link

First it pains me to do this but I have to tip my Mets cap to Mark Texiera who proved what me and every other Little League coach has preached since we had 5 year olds hitting off a tee, always bust it down the line and on two outs run like your pants are on fire and to Texiera’ credit he did. We have all killed the Mets for lack of hustle so we all have to be honest and give Texiera his due.

When the ball was dropped of course me first words were HOLY SHIT!!!!! plus a stare of disbelief but for some odd reason I wasn’t mad. I mean I should have been “throw the remote against the fucking wall mad” at Luis Castillo, for costing the Mets not only a win but a win against a team that thinks it’s superior but ain’t shit. And to all you Highlander fans out there celebrating this win let me tell you folks something you will be spending your October watching Stan Bahnsen’ and Ron Woods Highlanderorgrophy and not post season baseball. Your manager is a scared little rat that had to bring in the Most Holy Mariano to save this game in the 8th inning. Your boy Joba is the most overrated tub of shit to hit this town since that fat-pussy todt Hideki Irabu, I’ll take Big Pelf over Joba The Hut any day. Sure celebrate the gift that Looie gave you last night but remember up in Boston, the Red Sox say to you, “tell me how our ass tastes”

I can’t find anger toward Castillo. Last year I ripped him daily as he was over weight and lackadaisical and his contract was the huge burden holding the Mets back from upgrading the position.. I had wrote during the winter that the Mets couldn’t give away Castillo with millions of dollars stuff in his pocket, hell they couldn’t give this guy away for free. But the man has shown his pride. He came to camp fit and trim and out to prove he’s no bum. Castillo has been one of the more steady Mets all season both at the plate and before last night in the field. Does he have the range he once did? No and he might never get back to that but at least at 2^nd base his defense is league average. He gets on base in fact with Jose Reyes out, his .376 OBP has kept the team afloat.

If you would have bet me in the winter that on a Saturday in June I’s be writing a post defending Luis Castillo afer a disastrous error, I’d have bet my house that you were wrong. Good think that didn’t happen or my family would be living in a card board box.

The big reason that I can’t get mad at Luis is he took it like a man. He didn’t run off and hide he stood in front of the cameras and microphones and said he fucked up and just by looking at him you could see the pain. I can’t beat a guy up when he’s already hurt.

If you want to take a positive about this it’s that this Mets team may not be a championship team but it’s a all for one, one for all team. Every guy backed Luis up and had his back as did the manager. A lot of Mets fans have been after J-Man lately over his strategical moves and that’s a legit complaint but where a big league manager makes his mark is how he handles his clubhouse and after reading Ken Rosenthal’s story on how the vets on the Mets are miffed at Jerry, Rosenthal looks so clueless he must be a Highlander fan. J-Man has his players back and they have his. Joe Giradi should be so lucky.

What else is there to say? Hang with ‘em Looie and go get ‘em Fernando Nieve? UGH!

tip of the blue and orange Mets cap to Home Run Derby for this link

What you’re shocked that Steve Phillips sounded like a total douchebag last night during the ESPN telecast? Whoever came up with the idea to add Smarmy Steve to the booth needs to be fired. Still smarting over getting canned by the Mets eh Stevie boy ? Well you sucked as a GM and you suck as a TV analyst in fact all you’re any good at is banging secretaries. When Joe Morgan becomes the voice of reason in the ESPN booth then the apocalypses is near. Jon Miller should be arrested for the fucking shirt and tie he wore last night. That outfit was gayer than a weekend on Fire Island.

Tip of the Mets cap to Dave Singer at NY Sportsdog for calling out J- Man for pinch hitting for Daniel Murphy. As I posted on Dave’s site, whatever crime Ryan Church committed to get in the J-Man doghouse, Daniel Murphy must have been an accomplice as he is not getting the Chateau de Bow Wow treatment. With Delgado gone (I think he’s gone for good) can we just let Murphy play first base? Either that or offer the Orioles Jeremy Reed and Eddie Kunz for Aubry Huff.

My evening started out great as I was a guest on The Seven Train To Shea radio show and had a great time with those guys. But after that the night sucked as my Boston Celtics had the rigors of old legs, lack of size and lack of depth catch up with them to lose to the Magic (enjoy it now Orlando as you guys will be gone in 4 to the Cleveland Le Brons) and then the Mets loss coupled with the embarrassing announcing crew on ESPN topped off the evening.