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7/16/08 - Pitching and Pageantry...(and catching too)!
2008-07-16 21:19:00
It was mostly pitching and pageantry but it was all about catching too.

7/14/08 - Finally Getting It
2008-07-14 20:25:00
A joyful tribute to the Mets performance and their 9-game winning streak, plus a tip of the hat to Jerry Manuel in leading this Mets team back to within a half game of the NL East.
More About: Finally

7/8/08 I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia
2008-07-08 21:07:00
Rather than write about Federer-Nadal or the battle of the Williams sisters, or even about the stupid fans baseball selections for the All-Star game, I'd rather be in Philadelphia . Philadelphia,where the Mets dismantled the Phillies in 3 out of 4.

Gee Whiz! Jie Zheng !
2008-07-04 23:48:00
Nothing I've seen this week gave me quite the same feeling of exhilaration as watching Zheng Jie scare Serena Williams in the second set of their Wimbledon semifinal match, eventually won by Ms. Williams 6-2, 7-6 (7-5). As good as both Williams sisters are, the difference may be the difficulty Serena had in defeating the fiery Zheng.

7/1/08 - For Want of an Outfielder...
2008-07-01 23:15:00
A reaffirmation of the worth of the Mets through a comparison of their personnel to the best team in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays. The comparison reveals the Mets compare favorably to the Rays in pitching but need an outfielder desperately and also need better defense from their infielders.

6/27/08 - A Nice Quandary
2008-06-27 21:50:00
Puzzling what story to pursue, between Maria Sharapova and Wimbledon, the Mets-Yanks doubleheader, or the NBA draft choices of the Knicks and the Nets. It's a nice quandary.
More About: Nice

6/24/08 - Credit Where Credit Ain't Due
2008-06-25 00:26:00
David Wright made the big mistakes but Johan Santana seemed to take the heat for it. Or did he?
More About: Credit

A Manuel For Success
2008-06-19 19:43:00
The Mets won their first game under Jerry Manuel tonight, coming from behind to defeat the Anaheim Angels 5-4 in ten innings, a game that may have been the Mets biggest win in two years. Not only was it a come-from-behind win but it came against a first-place team on the road
More About: Success

6/17/08-Better Late Than Never
2008-06-17 19:56:00
Well, the timing was horrible, but then it would have been bad whenever the final decision on Willie finally came in. That the decision followed a great team performance is ironic at the very least. That it came at about 3 AM in the morning smells funny, like those stories of the Colts and Irsay leaving Baltimore in the middle of the night.
More About: Late

6/14/08 - Dumb and Dumber
2008-06-14 20:48:00
An analysis of the use of pitch counts by the Mets, Yankees and in MLB in general, and how this problem has added to the unfortunate Mets situation.
More About: Dumb

6/10/08 - Michael Strahan - One of a Kind
2008-06-10 21:00:00
A tribute to Michael Strahan, Giants 15-year defensive end.
More About: Michael Strahan

6/6/08 - Great Equalizers...Clay...Distance et al.
2008-06-06 19:18:00
All week I have been amazed by the French Open tennis action, and what a difference the surface has made in the outcome of matches and tournaments. Thank God for clay, I thought. The great equalizer will be the distance, of course, in the Belmont not that there aren?t other variables to consider. But there are equalizers in all sports, in football-injuries, in baseball-pitching, and in basketball-home court, unfortunately.
More About: Great , Clay

6/3/08 - No Stuff Is No Stuff
2008-06-03 20:53:00
Pettite said with regard to Joba's start tonight "...Stuff is stuff and Joba's got great stuff." It's also true that "No stuff is no stuff" and Heilman and Farnsworth are examples. The Yanks should pick up an 8th-inning pitcher. The Mets should use the onethey have.

5/30/08 - Down on the Farm
2008-05-30 20:30:00
There I was last night knowing what to expect; "here it comes," I thought to myself, Feliciano can?t do his job, and now Willie calls in, not Joe Smith or Duaner Sanchez, but instead a fellow named Muniz. Muniz and Vargas for the Mets, as well as Darrell Rasner for the Yankees, have had an effect on their respective teams beyond their performance.
More About: Farm

5/27/08 - Throwing It In...
2008-05-27 19:50:00
Keeping Willie at this point really makes no sense though. The Florida Marlins are leading the NL East with a 30-20 record, which puts them on a pace to go 97-65 for the season. The Mets, currently at 23-26, would have to go 74-39 for the rest of the season in order to tie the Marlins That means they'll have to win 2 out of 3 games for the rest of the season in order to take the division. Very unlikely.

5/23/08 - A Clean Sweep All Around
2008-05-23 12:07:00
Are we having fun yet, Mets fans? How much of this bad baseball do we have to watch? For whatever reason, and maybe it isn't FAIR, Mets management must make a move. Two moves, perhaps, eventually. Willie has to be fired now. I know he's sorry, but that has nothing to do with it. I know he's black, but that has nothing to do with it. I know his players aren't playing good baseball, and that has EVERYTHING to do with it.
More About: Clean , Sweep

5/20/08 - A Tale of Two Carlos's
2008-05-20 21:33:00
Willie Randolph will take his beginning-to-be-performing Mets team into Atlanta this afternoon, no doubt hoping for a continuation of some hot hitting from his two Carlos's, Delgado and Beltran. When these two buddies from Puerto Rico are hitting, there isn't too much else that has to go right, or Wright even.
More About: Tale

5/16/08 - The Big Mistake
2008-05-16 20:28:00
The Mets and Yankees will meet for the umpteenth time in still another Subway Series (yawn) this weekend, and was there EVER a Subway Series with less at stake? The under-performing Mets go into this latest matchup in 3rd place in the NL East while the Yankees have been even worse overall, inhabiting last place in the AL East. But given all that, it sure seems as if the Yankees are the better team. I t would be hard to imagine a worse loss than the Mets had last night. This seemingly rudderless bunch made the big mistake again, this time losing the game on the basepaths, but it's always been something with them, either horrible relief pitching or batting slumps or just bad decisions.

5/13/08 - D'Antoni Sono Buoni
2008-05-14 00:23:00
After hearing a lot of nonsense about the hiring of Mike D'Antoni as the new Knicks head coach, I was assured by the latest interview by WFAN and YES with both D'Antoni and Donnie Walsh, the new GM.
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5/9/08 - Still More Ado About Nothing
2008-05-09 22:01:00
Well, here we go again! The Lords of Discipline in all their wisdom are once again attacking my favorite pitcher, Joba Chamberlain, for pumping his fist and yelling . It doesn't seem to matter to them that Joba is young and naturally exuberant, that he just struck out the guy who had nailed his first pitch fastball for a 3-run homer on Tuesday, or that he had had to listen to a potpourri of self-important analysts giving their two cents on whether he'd be able to handle it emotionally.

5/6/08 - Going to Church
2008-05-06 21:07:00
In a season full of surprises for the Mets, Ryan Church has been the most pleasant surprise of all.

4/29/08 - Hope Springs Eternal
2008-04-29 18:54:00
Maybe the Giants really started something that Super Bowl Sunday in February. Those incredible men in blue and their nasty defensive linemen, and most heartening of all, a host of new guys to lay low the "greatest team of all time" Patriots, guys making their bones, if you will. Of course, none of that had been expected. And if it had been expected, it couldn?t have been so incredible of course, all of which brings me around to some new heroes on the baseball diamonds of the Major Leagues, and the hard courts of the NBA, still other new faces or names you never heard to shake the countenances of the powerful.
More About: Hope , Eternal

4/25/08 - Omar's Home for the Aged
2008-04-25 22:18:00
Omar Minaya has put together an experienced but very old team. Delgado and Castillo especially have shown their age. A team this old needs a manager who will recognize when a change is needed and then make it. Can Willie manage?
More About: Home

4/22/08 - Go Get 'Em Hank !
2008-04-22 20:53:00
I say kudos to Hank Steinbrenner for his blustery attack on the Yankees decision to keep Joba Chamberlain in a relief role. He sees his franchise going down the tubes this year, he knows who is leading his bunch of planning miscreants, and he doesn't like it. Not one little bit.

4/18/08 - Hooray For The Draft !
2008-04-18 20:13:00
I look forward with relish to my annual exercise of figuring out who my New York teams will select. What do they need, will they draft for need at all or will they select the best player available? Will they trade up, trade down, make a last-minute trade? Will some of our favorite players find themselves in a different uniform this July? What players were lost or acquired in the off-season through free agency?
More About: Draft

4/15/08 - Paper Tigers?
2008-04-15 23:05:00
In this topsy-turvy world of the 2008 Major League Baseball season, perhaps no statistic is more anomalous than is the 3-10 won/loss record of the Detroit Tigers . The Tigers were the pre-season favorites of quite a few pundits to be World-Series bound in October, but, with their heavy hitters off to a bad start and their pitching looking horrendous, the band-wagons are empty....everyone's jumped off. But not your intrepid reporter. Not yet, I won't.
More About: Paper

4/11/08 - Put A Lid On It ?
2008-04-11 21:38:00
After Joba Chamberlain struck out Jose Guillen for the final out in the 8th inning last night, he simply walked off the mound. That was right around the time Jose Reyes, the mercurial shortstop for the Mets, scored the winning run against their nemesis, the Phillies, and, although he couldn't totally wipe that infectious grin off his face, the celebration was a bit subdued for Shea, especially in light of the occasion.

4/8/08 - "Self"-Made Men vs. the Pre-Anointed
2008-04-08 21:04:00
Memphis Coach John Calipari had pooh-poohed foul shots all week long. He intimated that it wouldn't come down to the foul line. His team was too good, too athletic, too composed. He referenced 16 points that made a championship team and said his team had them all, that his was a "dream team". Bill Self gave his team a good feeling about itself, let them know that they were already the best team Kansas had ever seen...that if they just did everything they had done all season, they had a good chance to win this game. But he instilled an image in his team's collective consciousness, that of winning a Championship. It was the kind of speech you'd wish for your son to receive before the biggest game of his life.
More About: Made

4/4/08 - 2010 - A Cap Odyssey
2008-04-04 22:54:00
If anyone can bring the Knicks back to respectability, it's the gentleman named Donnie Walsh. Seemingly the perfect fit for this franchise under seige, he brings a lifetime of basketball experience and a New York legacy to the Knicks top-ops spot. And unlike Larry Brown, who had similar qualifications, he'll have the power to mold the entire basketball operation to his liking. But he has taken on a prodigious challenge. The Knicks have the highest team salary in the NBA and will finish this season with one of the worst records in the NBA

4/1/08 - A "Lastings" Impression
2008-04-01 19:46:00
As happy as I was with the performance of Johan Santana in the opener, I marveled more at the performance of players we gave away such as Lastings Milledge and Carlos Gomez.
More About: Impression