564 replies to this topic

[ranitidine]

I knew I was going to miss Benson but I didn't realize how soon and how much. Zambrano is a bum.

Yes. He belongs as last man in the bullpen. Now that Julio seems to be coming around, it's time to move Heilman into the rotation. I don't miss Benson, by the way.

[Lex]

Yes. He belongs as last man in the bullpen. Now that Julio seems to be coming around, it's time to move Heilman into the rotation. I don't miss Benson, by the way.

Zambrano is 1-3, 14 IP, with an ERA of 9.64.

Benson is 2-2, 24 IP, with an ERA of 3.7.

Well, it's all moot anyway and I agree with you about Heilman. They can't afford to send Zambrano out there any more.

[ranitidine]

Tonight, I got home at 10:00, as I had been working on a brief. I was hungry. But the Phillies got a three-run homer and Wagner came in. I asked Lippy to put dinner on hold. We finally sat down to eat at about 11:00. I will say no more as I believe in the conahurra.

[Melonious Thunk]

Tonight, I got home at 10:00, as I had been working on a brief. I was hungry. But the Phillies got a three-run homer and Wagner came in. I asked Lippy to put dinner on hold. We finally sat down to eat at about 11:00. I will say no more as I believe in the conahurra.

mazel...who could believe it,,,?

[Shrike]

Oh no. The title of this thread makes me hear the Mets jingle. I need a song of removal!!

[Lex]

Oh no. The title of this thread makes me hear the Mets jingle. I need a song of removal!!

Get used to it. You'll be hearing it in October.

[Suzanne F]

From your mouth to God's ear. poo poo (warding off the Evil Eye)

[Lex]

From your mouth to God's ear. poo poo (warding off the Evil Eye)

A 7 game winning streak, the best record in baseball, and an 8 1/2 game division lead. I feel like singing.

[Shrike]

I can't believe you did that! Hope Pedro's hip, toe and shoulder is okay.

[Lex]

They just swept Philly. 8 straight wins, a 9 1/2 game division lead.

[ranitidine]

I am kvelling from them.

[Lex]

Lately I see brand new Mets caps on the subway. Not a flood, but a steady and growing stream. Even a sprinkling of the hip hop nation has joined in, abandoning their pink and red Yankee caps for the blue and orange but still managing to keep the bills of these brand new caps stylishly flat.

I am working on my 5th Mets cap myself. I never throw them out - I just lose them after 5 or 6 years and then I have to go to the trouble of breaking in a new one. For perverse reasons I've especially enjoyed wearing those Mets caps in the lean years. Walking around the city you got little smiles of recognition from other fans. You might be crazy but at least you weren't a front runner.

I feel a little funny about all the new caps, not that I was always a Met fan myself. I was born and raised in the Bronx and rooted for the Yankees as a matter of local pride. Then a funny thing happened in 1979 when I moved to Brooklyn. I fell in with a bunch of Mets fans. When they asked me to go to a ballgame, implicit in the request was that we were going to Queens and not to the Bronx.

The Mets teams of those years were simply awful but I had a wonderful time at those games. One of the benefits of seeing a bad team is that you could sit pretty much wherever you wanted, close to the action on the field. It was also a little strange - Shea stadium was largely empty and the cheers echoed. I remember going to a Bat Day game and seeing only 5,000 people in the stands; the Yankees drew 50,000 to a similar event.

On the other hand the people who did show up were the nicest fans you've ever met. They were friendly and really knew the game. It was routine to wind up in conversation with strangers by the 2nd inning and by the 6th you were telling jokes and buying each other beers.

Then a funny thing happened - the Mets gradually got very good. There's a very rewarding feeling that comes with watching a bad team get better and better. It's silly but you feel like your investment in time and emotional energy has paid off. On the down side the makeup of the crowds at Shea changed. The same 5,000 fans still came to the games but we were joined by 35,000 new faces.

Many of them were just fine but lots of them were only there because the Mets were a hot ticket. It was easy to spot these people. They were over dressed for a baseball game and had little interest in the game itself; they only seemed to pay attention to the home runs. On the other hand some of the worst of these new fans brought dates who looked like models so it wasn't all bad.

By the early 1990's the team was bad again and the new fans had found other places to go. I suspect many of them wound up in the Bronx, not that I missed them all that much.

This year, with the Mets regularly drawing over 40,000 on the weekends those same fans are filtering back to Shea. Now when I see all those brand new Mets caps on the subway I always wonder what hat those people were wearing last year.

[ranitidine]

I love your post, Lex, which I just read for the first time. Someday, maybe I'll go into my personal baseball history. But for now, how do you all like us setting a franchise record today, for most runs ever scored in a single inning, highlighted by two grand slams. Incredibly, I missed most of the fireworks. I drove home from an afternoon at the office, parked the car and went to the supermarket on the ground floor of the garage to get a few items Lippy had asked me to pick up. I shut off the car radio as Delgado was coming to bat in the top of the sixth, Mets trailing 5-2. By the time I got home, turned on the TV, and figured what channel the game was on today, Beltran had just hit his home run, and the Mets led 11-5. Boy, are they fun to watch.

[porkwah]

oh man, i missed it. turned off the radio when they were down 5-1. went to my spanish lesson then stayed for dinner.

[ranitidine]

Hey, it's the day after the night before. Where's the kvelling?