I just have to get this off my chest. You people are all crazy!!

I mean c'mon. I'm a die-hard mets fan. But I'm not an idiot.

It kills me that Duaner Sanchez will miss the rest of the season due to an idiot drunk driver who should be locked up in a cozy cell with every belligerent mets fans who get arrested at shea. It actually kills me in more than just a selfish want-your-team-to-win way.... I feel bad that the guy won't get to pitch in the postseason for us after carrying us on his back 8th inning after 8th inning.

But back to the Parade of Insanity: Nady for Bert Hernandez and a young lefty with great stuff that could benefit from a good pitching coach is not the end of the world!

For crying out loud, Omar had about 12 hours it seems to figure this one out. He had to change gears and fill a huge and unexpected gap in our bullpen. And what did he use? An outfielder. We've got a few of them, some might even say a surplus.

Get over yourselves! Omar isn't a moron like most of you are. He has a job managing a big city team. You have a job that you are avoiding by commenting on Metsblog.com. This deal had to be done. I don't care how old Bert is as long as he can pitch another three months!

I liked Nady, I really did. Great potential. Hits for power. Had some big home runs. But look at what Endy Chavez has been doing and explain to me why the guy's role hasn't expanded. Look at Lastings Milledge wallowing in the minors. Feed his ego and bring him back up. Let him show us flashes of greatness and hit the same .263 Nady was.

Losing Duaner sucks. Bert should hopefully be as good as his 2.93 ERA suggests. I don't know what kind of lopsided fantasy deal you people were expecting.

As I watched David Wright, after being reverse-Jeffrey Maiered out of the Home Run Derby, and Carlos Beltran provide HALF THE OFFENSE AND ALL THE FUN of our NL All-Stars, this is what's going through my head -




Had David Wright jerk the first freakin' pitch, of his first of many years of All-Star games, off of a lights-out Kenny Rogers, out of a park seemingly built for the pull side of his swing? Absolutely. Had Carlos once again come through on the big stage with hits and steals? Yes! This was all tied up. But with one out remaining the cold hard truth was staring me in the face, even before Michael freakin' Young (you hold on to that memory reallllll long and hard my friend) annoints himself the MVP of this stupidity, that WE'RE METS FANS, THE ONLY THINGS THAT COME TO US EASILY ARE TICKETS TO SHEA*

Add me to the list of self-appointed pundits who officially DESPISE this rule. A spectacle put on mostly for the fans should not decide the home field advantage of the sport's championship - it doesn't in any other major sport nor should it here. Call me selfish for the wake-up call as I watched the Mets lose homefield advantage for the World Series * because the only thing Trevor Hoffman was pitching the night before was buffalo wings and beers into his gullet.

But thank you Major League Baseball for instituting a cheap rule to increase the viewership of a single game. You really did get me involved in the game, because what I saw last night made me see RED more than any loss this season.

And thank you, Mr. Wright, by the way, for revealing on camera last night that the NL might actually have a chance in this game and the Mets are by, LEAPS AND BOUNDS, the class of the National League.

Anyway, in an age where Revisionist History IS History, this is my story and I'm sticking to it. Let's go Mets!






* except every 20 years or so

With both subway series' out of the way, a friend of mine told me he was going to his first baseball game @ Yankees stadium, because his friend was coming from out of town and wanted to go there.

With that I had to remind him of the following:


The wife and I moved our family to New York City for the fall so we could experience firsthand the thrill of rude cashiers, cabs that smell like a goat fry and the $19 tuna sandwich.

So we've had a front-row seat to the tension in Gotham lately, with elbows flying in grocery lines, mothers slamming their strollers into each other and half the populace screaming at the other half. And that was before the Subway Series.

Folks in the rest of the country see this World Series as the government versus Microsoft. They don't care who wins as long as a whole lot of New Yorkers suffer. But having studied the Mets' and the Yankees' fans, it seems to me there are some basic differences.

For instance, I've noticed that Mets fans occasionally take the peanuts out of the shell before eating them. In addition, many of them are from families who've been walking erect for two or more generations.

Mets fans are a paper-napkin kind of crowd. Yankees fans prefer their shirts, in the rare event they're wearing them.

Mets fans worship their heroes so devoutly that Mets players find it difficult to leave the house. Yankees fans worship players whose prior felonies make it illegal for them to leave the house.

There haven't been many, but Mets fans take great pride in each and every pennant their team has won. Yankees fans take great pride in each and every pennant their team has bought.

Mets fans enjoy the everyday food of the city -- a delicious hot dog from Gray's Papaya, maybe an egg cream or a street-corner knish. Yankees fans like beer.

Mets fans worship an odd mascot with an XXL head known as Mr. Met. Yankees fans worship an odd mascot with an XXL head known as Mayor Giuliani.

In big games Mets fans pray for another home run off the bat of 32-year-old legend Mike Piazza. In big games Yankees fans pray for another home run off the glove of 12-year-old legend Jeffrey Maier.

After wins at Shea Stadium, Mets fans love to celebrate to the beat of Who Let the Dogs Out. Yankees fans make visitors ask the same question. In fact, Mets reliever John Franco wouldn't let his eight-year-old son, J.J., wear his jersey to Game 1 at Yankee Stadium for fear it would cause trouble. But Yankees fans don't mind jerseys. It's Mets hats that they steal off heads and set on fire.

Mets fans root for outfielder Benny Agbayani, who once tossed a live ball into the stands. Yankees fans root for infielder Chuck Knoblauch, who once tossed a live ball to first base.

The hardest three-year stretch for most Mets fans was from 1977 to '79. The hardest three-year stretch for most Yankees fans was third grade.

A good question to ask Mets fans is, "Do you think manager Bobby Valentine will be back next year, or will he leave for more money?" A good question to ask a Yankees fan is, "Is this the stop for Yankee Stadium, or should I go screw myself?"

Put it this way: Mets fans are diehards, Yankees fans throw DieHards.

Mets fans take advantage of New York's unsurpassed array of cultural treasures, including art museums, opera houses and Broadway theaters. Yankees fans like beer.

At Shea Stadium, Mets fans get used to the wind blowing in from leftfield. At Yankee Stadium, Yankees fans get used to the wind blowing out from the owners' box.

Mets fans seem to be ethnically diverse, with a fan base that includes African-Americans, Asians and Eastern Europeans. Yankees fans have also gotten used to sitting behind poles.

Mets fans use their cell phones during games. Yankees fans use the phones in their cells.

The language of Mets fans can be a little coarse, sprinkling the occasional f word into conversation. The language of Yankees fans can be a little coarse, too, sprinkling occasional conversations in with the f words.

All in all, I'd say Mets fans seem to relish the honor of winning after years of sweat; of standing by their team because it's their team, through feast and famine; of wearing their old, frayed Mets hats past all the bandwagons and Senate candidates in the crisp new hats of the easy team to root for, the soulless one, the corporate one.

Yankees fans like beer.

As I watched England's painful loss to Portugal decided on Penalty Kicks, I said to myself, you know what, I am pretty glad that baseball is America's pasttime, soccer is just shit, well at least World Cup soccer is. I'm told the Premiereship and the more local leagues have proper teams that play together constantly so they can at least put a goal together. I guess it's he equivalent of asking the AL and NL all-star teams to take a break for a while and go play other countriess. So what happens but many games are decided by either completely shitty and/or corrupt refereeing and/or the equivalent of a PBA skills challenge at the concluision of a tie game.

Then I turned on today's Subway Series game and had to suffer through some pretty shitty umping.

A big vaafaungula to today's umpiring crew. You know they say it all balances out but for the life of me it always seems like the Mets garner a bit more of the bad calls.

Today's game made it seem like the crew is actually on the Yankee payroll. (Well, who isn't on the Yankee payroll by now).

In the first inning, we have Jeter legging out an infield hit, yet he's behind the force by about half a step. Just not a call that should be blown unless it's Rush Limbaugh manning 1st and he's just scored some downers..,,,, Please, for such a pest as Jeter, call him out honestly.

Then, an umpire can't manage to get out of the way as Castro trys to grab a routine popup. I'm not aware of what rule pertains to this but I'm pretty sure Fluff had the right of way. Either way, it's up the ump to call interference on himself, how often do you think that has happened?

But the most egregious offense,  by far, was committed by home plate retard Jerry Layne, who just plain ignored Xavier Nady getting hit by a pitch that deflects by a good 30 degrees, you can hear the impact  of ball on bone, AND Nady instantaenously throwing his bat away and heading for first. (And thank you to Fox for televising Nady proclaiming "It fucking hit my leg!"

I have a theory about why he was simply the only person in the stadium or greater television audience who missed this HBP...




What I can't take his obnoxious home plate highness's reaction, ordering Nady back in the box (and where was Willy BTW?), because obviously, Nady was suffering from some sort of delusion. This is the hubris created by no accountability on these umps. This crew blew all these calls, the Mets won despite all that, and they're gonna get on the plane and head on to the next game with no less job security.

I know Instant Replay would slow down a game which can already move glacially. And I'm aware of Bud Selig's desire to maintain the "human" element... (Human Eye, Human Growth Hormone, etc. etc.)

How about splitting the difference and giving coaches some sort of challenge - but to maintain the "human" element, we give them 2 buckets of balls, 1 each to institute a challenge to go to Instant Replay by tossing them angrily into the center of the field (make those ballboys earn that minimum wage folks!) More than 2 challenges and we should be examining their bank accounts for direct deposits from YES.

And can we get a gameball to Joe Buck for pointing out something that some of us baseball fans have suspected for a while - the radar gun trained on Yankee pitchers was showing an extra 5mph per Randy Johnson fastball vs. Fox's own gun, a stat juicing not enjoyed by the other bench. Nice one. Keep telling me how classy your organization is, guys.

Subway Series play - We've won the last 9 of 14 vs. Yankees, and have gone 23-7 in homeruns. So bring on Jaret Wright ya pansies!!! And how about you stop rigging the gun. Whether it's to intimidate/fool our hitters or to justify the ridiculous price you paid for the Big lUNITic, it's pretty lame.