3 days ’till pitchers and catchers

So how did you spend your Valentine’s  Day ? Me? I spent mine at Madison Square Garden with my three Valentines watching the NY Rangers play their last game before the Olympic break.

Needless to say, I had a better Valentines Day than this guy, who supposedly was proposing to his girlfriend. I’ve read where this may have been hoax, but I can tell you at the time it happened The Garden was buzzing for awhile over this rejection. Hoax or not it boosted my standing at home as my wife said to me “As bad as you are at least you proposed that right way”

In case you were wondering it was New Year’s Eve 1984 at a restaurant at the stroke of midnight on my knee in front of a bunch of strangers.

Some things  just amaze me like who gets a job sticking pimentos into olives, or how can people sit for hours watching cars make continuous left turns but what has me stuns me the most is Bob Raissman actually gets paid to write the crap he does. I’d call Raissman a horse’s but that would an insult to the horse and it’s ass.

After seeing that Forbes has ranked the Mets as the 9^th most valuable brand in sports and the 2^nd most valuable in MLB (guess who’s 1^st ?) it makes it tough to take those “the Mets are broke” stories “ seriously.

So let me get this straight, the first base job is an open competition but Luis Castillo has a strangle hold on 2^nd base. I need to lie down.

MetsGrrl makes the point that the Mets do not need some schlock character race to enthuse the Mets faithful. Of course I agree 100 % and her take on the whole $iti Field experience is right on, especially the playing of Sweet Caroline in the 8th inning, which to the Mets fans credit is booed lustfully when it’s played. If I had a say in it, I’d play Kick Out The Jams by The MC-5 as the 8^th inning song.

Ok, now that Christmas and New Years are over, time to get back to work. That means you Omar Minaya. It’s nice that Jason Bay is going to turn his head and cough for the Mets quacks and the cold cut platter from King Kullen will be laid out at the Shotgun Shuba Room at $iti Field by tomorrow but until Omar and Co. sign or trade for at least two legitimate starting pitchers, well just call me under whelmed.

The Sports God’s must really hate me my guts. First, they torture me all summer with the Mets and then they tease me with the New York Football Giants going 5-0 and then amp me up with a game against the undefeated Nawlin’s Saints only to get the ass handed to them. From that game, the season went down the shitter. Now the Boston Celtics, the one team I root for that shows any heart and fight, are now bitten by the injury bug. Down goes Paul Pierce, KG, Marquis Daniels, and my man Rondo. The NY Rangers either win or lose games 2-1 depending on whether Marion Gaborik scores 1 or 2 goals. My only hope for a good run through the playoffs are the C’s as long as the PP, KG, and Rondo can stay on the court.

Let me add my voice to the “Bring David Cone to SNY” campaign. Talk about your no-brainers. Coney in studio and as a back up to Mex and Ron Darling is a perfect fit. In fact how about letting Gary Cohen get a day off or two and put Mex, Darling and Coney to do the play by play.  Com’on SNY this one is on a platter for you guys.

A must see today is this post from The Mets Police, with a exquisite collection of Mets Pennants. It makes me think back to when the vendors would be outside Shea with  souvenir boards filled with pennants, buttons with action shots of Mets players, and key chains with Mr. Met on them.

Are the Mets married to the mob? A story in today’s NY Post links a bunch of companies that were hired by the Skill Sets to work on $iti Field that have unsavory connections. He can try all he wants, but Jeffey Wilpon will never be a “made man”.

Speaking of my buddy Jeffey, it looks like he is pushing hard to get the NHL Winter Classic for $iti Field next January. I am so on board with this idea that I am willing to burry the hatchet, (not in your back Jeffey, don’t worry) to promote this event at $iti Field any way I can. For the game to have any cache, it must have the NY Rangers in it of course, but who should be the Blueshirts opponent?  Forget about the Islanders or Devils being in it, although a three team playing each other over the Christmas/ New Years break with matinee games should be something the NHL looks to do but if you could over look the fact that I bleed Ranger Blue, no one cares enough about the Isles or Devils for them to make an attractive opponent for hockey fans outside the NYC limits. The other five of the Original 6 teams have already played in the classic and it seems the NHL kept the Rangers out if this series so they could host the NYC event so I’m looking at Rangers-Capitals in $iti Field on 1-1-11. The Great 8 vs. The Terrific 10. By the way, Highlander Stadium seems to be out of the running for this event as their management has decided to host a College Football Bowl game during the time it would take to build a rink in the ball park. Unless they are getting Notre Dame to play in that game, folks around here won’t give a rat’s ass about the game. Everyone will be in Flushing at the Winter Classic. Me and Jeffey doing our Blades of Glory routine YAAAA-HOOOO !!!!!!!!!!!!

So while most Mets fans await the Jason Bay coronation sometime this week , please wake me up when a pitcher of some major league magnitude shows up in Flushing.

Don’t forget I will be on with Frankie The Sports guy tonight on AM 1240 WGBB on Long Island and also on Blog Talk Radio. I’m scheduled to be on at 10:25 PM

Rangers fan are mourning the death today of Bill ‘The Big Whistle” Chadwick who passed away yesterday. Chadwick was the first American to become an on ice official and is credited with coming up with the hand signals used by linesmen and referees. But what Chadwick is most famous for is his role as an analyst on NY Rangers games on TV and radio. Whether it was his critique of the Rangers skating, “The Rangers are skating like cats walking on a marble floor” to his famous plea to Barry Beck “SHOOT THE PUCK BARRY”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  the Big Whistle brought passion and insight to Rangers hockey along with play by play man Jim Gordon and his radio  partner Marv Albert.