It seems Highlander fans have selective memory. Yesterday I went to the Brooklyn Cyclones-Little Highlanders game at the Richmond County Bank Ball Park in the Land That Urban Development forgot A/K/A Downtown Staten Island. Of course I was decked out in my Brooklyn attire because (a) the Cyclones are of course a Mets farm team and (b) I still consider myself from Brooklyn, I just happen to have a home in Staten Island and to tell you the truth I don’t know who Staten Islanders despise more Brooklynites who moved to the Island or Muslims but I digress. As I went into the ball park the Highlanders were leading the Mets 4-0 after a Mark Teixeira Granny against the suddenly ordinary Johan Santana. When the game ended the public address announcer comes on and asks for everyone’s attention. Now I’m thinking that since it was getting very dark and windy, looking as if a huge thunderstorm was on the way he’ll anounnce that  all the folks out in the open seating area should prepare to go to the concourse in case of severe weather, no that wasn’t the announcement. The big announcement was the Bronx Bastards beat the Mets 4-0 thus taking 2 of 3 from the Amazin’s.

Now a Highlander fan next me looks over and says “Well, now we know who the best team in NY is” so I say “We do? The season series  is now tied at 3 wins apiece” Mr.  Doodle Dandy (in his JETER 2 shirt of course. I swear to God, you can always tell the dumbest Highlander fan by what shirt the wear and it just seems like the biggest assholes wear JETER 2 shirts) looks at me and says “this is the only time they played each other this year” of course I say “Au contraire my simple minded friend, the Mets took 2 of 3 at Citi Field back in May” Then Mr. Doodle Dandy gave me the line of the day, week, month, year, decade and I’d add the century:

“I don’t pay that much attention to the team until October”    

STUNNING!!!!!  

By the way the SI Highlanders beat Backman’s Boys for the first time in this first three game series.

A very busy Memorial Day weekend continues, first it was a trip to the Staten Island Homeport for Fleet Week and a visit on the battleships in port, then yesterday it was chillin’ and grillin’ in the backyard and today my family is honored to march in the Staten Island Memorial Day parade as both my kids will be flag bearers and then off to another barbeque. How can anyone like winter over summer ? I dread heading to work tomorrow for the fact I have to wear real pants and a shirt, I could be extremely happy spending the rest of my life in shorts, t-shirt and flip flops.

Take time out of your busy weekend to give a thought about the brave men and women of our military who have put their lives on the line for us and for our country and if there is a parade in your area today try to get out to it and show your support for those who have given the supreme sacrifice.

I’m not happy with just one win in Milwaukee this weekend, if this Mets team would have gone 11-12 on the road, to go with that great home record of 19-9 that’s 30-21 overall just a shade under .600 ball and in 1^st place in the NL East. Now it’s on to the 1^st place SD Padres and their top ranked pitching staff, 2 out of 3 here for the Mets would be sweet.

At some point Jeffey Skill Sets has to have a sit down with Ollie Perez and Scott Boras to get Perez to go to Buffalo. I’m sure Perez’ teammates are not happy by his selfishness and me attitude but when the team comes back home this weekend, just the sight of Perez at the ballpark will set off an ugly reaction by the fans. Jerry Manuel said in so many words that it would take a disastrous situation before he calls Perez on the bullpen phone so really Ollie man up and go to Buffalo.

Fernando Tatis was in the lineup for Ike Davis yesterday and batted clean up. That’s worse that the other Manuel line up staple of whoever plays 2^nd must bat 2^nd.  Do any of the other coaches go to Jerry and say enough is enough with these ridiculous lineup he puts together ?

If my vote means anything I vote YES on brining Dontrelle Willis to the Mets.

There is nothing sadder than seeing a house without an American flag outside of it especially on a holiday like Memorial Day.

So thankfully I’m off today from work and due to the rain and cold I canceled baseball practice for this afternoon, for the good of the kids because when I am in my cranky bastard mood and add in that we practice at a field next to South Beach on Staten Island and it’s cold and damp, that is a very explosive combination. Add in that my pitchers have been falling into the bad habit of pitching from behind on just about every hitter that last three games, nothing would good would come from being around people today.

So I will hit my Man Cave at 1PM to watch the Mets-Nats, close the door and activate the OLD MAN IS CRANKY alert to serve as a warning.

You’re surrounded LeBron,  come out with your hands up!

I was able to go to last night’s game on one of those spur (or as Archie Bunker used to say “sperm” ) of the moment deals. My son was with his friends when one the boys’ dads called and said he had gotten tickets to the game from his job. My son called me and asked if we could go and I said “Giddy up! Let’s go”

First it was the latest I’ve ever left for a game, 90 minutes before first pitch. I’m usually in the ball park at least two hours before game time, but when the folks we were going with had to get home from work so, you do what you can do.

Now from my shack on Staten Island to $iti Field it’s approximately 23 miles. In a place like say, Bismarck North Dakota, a 23 mile trip may take 15 minutes but in the Greatest City on Earth at rush hour it takes close to 90 minutes. We got our seats just before first pitch.

Needless to say, I did not get to inspect my brick in the Fan Walk, but I did get a glimpse of the old Home Run Apple which looks like it has found the perfect home. We passed by the new McFaddens which looked awfully dark. The bouncers at the door, one really big dude who had a chin like a Jai-Alai Cestna, scared the shit out of me so I didn’t look sideways at the place or ask a question but I’ll pose it here to any of y’all who have been inside the place. I believe it’s open all year round and on non game days? If so, who in that neighborhood is going to frequent the place? Do they serve food or is it a joint just to get a load on?

We sat in Section 106 down the right field line, close to the field but we had these annoying Asian tourists in the five rows in front of us who felt the urge to take photographs during game action. In the first inning the crowd in the section just called out “Yo sitdown” but by the third inning it was the whole section screaming “SIT THE FUCK DOWN” which I guess were the magic words as all cameras were finally put away.

By the third inning I had seen enough of John Maine and decided it was time for the Shake Shack and Box Frites. Seeing that I was comped tickets and a ride to the game, the least I could do was offer a Shack Burger, Fries and a beer to my host. Even though the crowd was as large as any I’ve ever seen for a second game of the season, 90 degrees in April will do that (remember when the Mets used to do Second Opening Day ? Rodney Dangerfield was a guest one year when they did this promotion as the second game of the season gets “no respect, no respect at all”) and I’ll be honest if it were 35 degrees and windy, my ass would have been on the couch at home watching this game, but I digress. It only took an inning and a half to get my Shake Shack order and beer but to cart the provisions back, I looked like a contestant on “Minute To Win It”. It’s not easy balancing four burgers, four fries and two beers from the center field food court to section 106. But here is the best part of the night, as get to the steps of the section and feeling a great sense of accomplishment that I have not dropped nor spilled any of this fine fare, the usher…..opps excuse me…the Hospitality Attendant, seeing me struggle to get to my row has the balls to ask to see my ticket. I give this dolt a look and say to him “Are you fuckin’ kidding”? Now get this? This asshole is offended by my language. I tell him call a supervisor or a cop and as soon as I put this food down I’m coming back up to show you my ticket.  He then says “no that’s all right”.

After I eat my burger I go back up to tap a kidney, on the way back I find Mr. Hospitality Agent ( I wish I wrote down this guys name as I’d put it in this post, in fact because of this guy, for now on, whoever pisses me off at $iti Field will have their named printed on this site) and I ask him, “let’s look at the logic here, I have two arms full of food and drink, you know my ticket is in my pocket. Since my hands are occupied, how did you think I was going to get the ticket out of my pocket, to show you”? “And your not cute enough for me to let you put your hand in my pocket” All this guy could do was turn a nice shade of crimson. Now I could have stopped there but I couldn’t, I had to add, “Don’t you feel foolish”? What can he say or do? He can’t call a supervisor because he’ll look like a dope and he can’t argue with me because now I’ve got a posse backing me up all he could do was apologize. Asshole!

Oh yeah the game! Not only was John Maine ineffective, he looked very uncomfortable on the mound. Jerry Manuel can run this start through the spin cycle all he wants there’s no way he or the front office are not concerned with Maine’s start last night. His location on the majority of his pitches weren’t even close to hitting their target and it seemed every Marlin hitter started their at bat with a 2-1 or 3-1 count. I don’t think Maine ever topped 90mph on his fastball all night and the speed of his fastball and change was much different.

There’s not much I can add about the bonehead play by Fernando Tatis in the 7^th that ran the Mets out of a potential big inning. You have to know your home court. The backstop at $iti is not very deep but also, with your best hitter at the plate and two out, Tatis shouldn’t even think of running unless the ball went off the backstop and up the first base line. Bad baseball right there. Give Tatis some props for manning up after the game and talking to the press and admitting he fucked up.

That Tatis throw out at the plate, by the way, emptied $iti Field. There was a mass exodus complete with heads shaking and faces etched in disgust.

Hey Jenry Mejia, We’re not in St Lonesome anymore uh?

I know, I know it’s only two games but I’ve seen enough of Mike Jacobs.

Tough to kill D-Wright on the steal of second in the 9^th that set up the IW of Jason Bay. GMJ is about the only guy in the lineup besides Wright, Bay or Frenchie that gives you any confidence as a Mets fan to get anything done. How sad is that?

Over at Metsblog, Matthew Cerone asks the question Should the Mets add a character race like the Brewers Sausage race or the National President Race?  Now to me, all these racing games at the ball park reek of the bush leagues but if the Mets were to have one at $iti Field why not use rats ?

First, this city is known for it’s rat population (4 legged and two legged) so finding rats to work cheap wouldn’t be a problem. There are also plenty of cats on 126th St who frequent the shop shops and sometimes meander over to the ball park so you could have a cat chasing the rats just to speed up the festivities.

Have one rat per boro.

The Manhattan Rat could have on a Brooks Brothers suit to represent Wall St

The Brooklyn Rat could be a hipster type who has just discovered Williamsburg and Greenpernt (also known as GreenPOINT)

The Queens Rat could be Hiram Monserate

The Bronx Rat could be decked out in a Highlander uni

And last but not lease the Staten Island Rat would have tons of hair gel and a humongous crucifix around his neck .

I’m sure Shelly Silver could find a way to have para-mutual betting on these contests.

5 days until pitchers and catchers

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

If what I’m reading in the local fish wraps is correct, it seems the Mets have been mathematically eliminated (Hey Kathy and Joe is it time for a sequel? ) for the 2010 season.

It doesn’t look like any big ticket items will be on Jeffey’s credit card this winter, so the question is why go half assed? Why not just blow the whole team up?

As it stands now, only the Nationals stand in the way of the Mets of the Mets hitting rock bottom in the NL East (for the first Stephen Strasburg-Big Pelf match up, I will be going into solitary confinement) so unless Jeffey (Omar is GM emeritus by the way, as he is earning his million a year as being the Skill Sets “Spider”) decides to empty the more bountiful than they lead us to believe, Mets coffers, the only thing we’ll have to look forward to is Alex Cora  player/interim manager bobble head day.

I leave you with this from Bill Madden’ Daily News column:

Mets? Did somebody say the Mets? They won’t spend the money for Holliday, Bay or Lackey and apparently, they’re only interested in signing low-budget Latin players, having shown little or no interest in Byrd, Figgins, DeRosa, Wolf or even Staten Island’s Jason Marquis, while waiting for their markets to come to them. At the same time, the Phillies and Braves wasted no time in addressing their needs. Sad.

{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”

 

The first thing I want to know about the child is was he overweight. I’m not picking on the kid if he was fat I’m asking because in 10 years of Little League coaching I’ve had 10,11 and 12 year olds that were so over weight we didn’t have baseball pants to fit them or shirts. I had a 12 year old who wore a 40 waist pants and XXL shirt (his parents thought it was so cute that Big Mike was playing ball even if he couldn’t run, catch or swing a bat without weezing) so maybe this young man was a bit to heavy and that led to his injury.

My next question would be is the child a special education student? Many parents never tell coaches that their child suffers from ADD or ADHD. I am not an educator or a psychiatrist so when I yell at a kid for not paying attention or not looking at me when I’m speaking, it’s because I think the kid is a goof off, if I know in advance that the kid has issues I’d approach him a different way but Little League is forbidden to ask if a child has behavioral problems. That is a huge issue. I’ve had many kids like that, in fact one kid was just a real nasty sort and one day at practice when he was tired of hearing me tell him to catch the ball with two hands he told me to go fuck myself. My son heard this and was ready to beat the kid to a pulp. Finally when the mother told me he didn’t take his “meds” that day I realized the kid was sick.

I volunteer for lot’s of things because I believe in giving back. No one grew up in a better environment than me and I tried to give that to my own kids. I always feel for children who come from homes where it’s not ideal and I’ve always felt that sports is a way of showing kids that teamwork and pulling for one and other is a life lesson and for the most part kids are great it’s the parents that suck.

One thing Little League needs to do is run coaching seminars in the winter to help ladies and gentlemen who would like to volunteer and either don’t know the rules or they are intimidated by other coaches. I’ve had teams where I needed two other people to help me and it was hard between the apathetic parents (the majority unfortunately ) and the ones who feel they are limited in what they know or can do about the sport. If the parents had some guidance the program works a lot smoothly.

I hope this woman will be happy with the money she gets (I know the ambulance chaser who took the case will put his take to good use <sarcastic>) and maybe her conscience won’t bother her when she passes the New Springville Little League field when it’s gates are locked and the grounds are full of weeds and the kids who’s could have made great friends and learned that there are people who not only are there to teach you to play baseball but to listen to your problems and try to help you are all gone but then again when you sue a local Little League you have no conscience.

I wanted to hurl when I read this. Although having served on jury duty on Staten Island I’m not surprised. To be quite honest, when I was on a panel for a civil case involved the MTA and a woman who fell on a bus the answers by the folks on the panel to the attorneys questions were embarrassing. Some woman claimed she couldn’t serve on the jury because she had to be home every day at 4PM to make dinner fro her husband. Another man said he lived in Totenville and coming downtown was a “pain in the ass” for him. So this moronic verdict is not shocking. 

A non-Mets but a baseball story here. I just read where a woman from Staten Island sued the New Springville Little League and Little League International because her son, aged 12 at the time torn up his knee sliding into second base. Her claim was the coaches were negligent in teaching her son how to slide properly.

 

 

I wanted to hurl when I read this. Although having served on jury duty on Staten Island I’m not surprised. To be quite honest, when I was on a panel for a civil case involved the MTA and a woman who fell on a bus the answers by the folks on the panel to the attorneys questions were embarrassing. Some woman claimed she couldn’t serve on the jury because she had to be home every day at 4PM to make dinner fro her husband. Another man said he lived in Totenville and coming downtown was a “pain in the ass” for him. So this moronic verdict is not shocking.

The first thing I want to know about the child is was he overweight. I’m not picking on the kid if he was fat I’m asking because in 10 years of Little League coaching I’ve had 10,11 and 12 year olds that were so over weight we didn’t have baseball pants to fit them or shirts. I had a 12 year old who wore a 40 waist pants and XXL shirt (his parents thought it was so cute that Big Mike was playing ball even if he couldn’t run, catch or swing a bat without weezing) so maybe this young man was a bit to heavy and that led to his injury.

My next question would be is the child a special education student? Many parents never tell coaches that their child suffers from ADD or ADHD. I am not an educator or a psychiatrist so when I yell at a kid for not paying attention or not looking at me when I’m speaking, it’s because I think the kid is a goof off, if I know in advance that the kid has issues I’d approach him a different way but Little League is forbidden to ask if a child has behavioral problems. That is a huge issue. I’ve had many kids like that, in fact one kid was just a real nasty sort and one day at practice when he was tired of hearing me tell him to catch the ball with two hands he told me to go fuck myself. My son heard this and was ready to beat the kid to a pulp. Finally when the mother told me he didn’t take his “meds” that day I realized the kid was sick.

I volunteer for lot’s of things because I believe in giving back. No one grew up in a better environment than me and I tried to give that to my own kids. I always feel for children who come from homes where it’s not ideal and I’ve always felt that sports is a way of showing kids that teamwork and pulling for one and other is a life lesson and for the most part kids are great it’s the parents that suck.

One thing Little League needs to do is run coaching seminars in the winter to help ladies and gentlemen who would like to volunteer and either don’t know the rules or they are intimidated by other coaches. I’ve had teams where I needed two other people to help me and it was hard between the apathetic parents (the majority unfortunately ) and the ones who feel they are limited in what they know or can do about the sport. If the parents had some guidance the program works a lot smoothly.

I hope this woman will be happy with the money she gets (I know the ambulance chaser who took the case will put his take to good use <sarcastic>) and maybe her conscience won’t bother her when she passes the New Springville Little League field when it’s gates are locked and the grounds are full of weeds and the kids who’s could have made great friends and learned that there are people who not only are there to teach you to play baseball but to listen to your problems and try to help you are all gone but then again when you sue a local Little League you have no conscience.