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Opening Day

BASEBALL! It’s begun, and so far Johan Santana appears to be the real thing. After watching the Nationals, and David Wright’s good pal Ryan Zimmerman, hand the Braves their first loss of the season last night it was a good feeling to watch the guys take the field for the first time and come through like they should. And the best part is we get to flip on the television and see them do it again tonight! That’s eight strike-outs for Santana, now lets see how many Pedro gets.

In other news, the biggest story in “Yankee Country” was again not baseball, but weather. The ghost of Babe Ruth is giving them grief, 86 years after he christened the structure with a home run, they’re knocking it down.

For an interesting article I wrote about why Opening Day should be a national holiday to celebrate our national pastime, click here.

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Letters to the NL East, part 5

Letters to the NL East, Part 5 of 5

Dear New York Mets,

Expectations soar this year. You disappointed us horribly last year, and I hope you disappointed yourselves too. Whether we like it or not, the marketing department has introduced the element of revenge into the advertisements. It’s important that you guys keep this revenge fresh in your minds.

No more taking it for granted that you’re good, instead you need to rub other teams faces in it. Up 9-2 in the ninth? No reason to take that for granted either; steal that base, bunt those runners over, score that extra run. It’s never enough, and you should never be satisfied with being ahead, whether it’s in a game, a series, or the division.

I want to see some attitude this year, and I don’t care about how the other teams feel about it. I don’t care if Jimmy Rollins thinks the Phillies are awesome or if Hanley Ramirez hates the Mets. You guys are better than they are, and there is no reason not to act like it. They don’t like you dancing on your on-deck circle? Fine, dance on their on-deck circle. Don’t be afraid to throw inside, and hard. It’s punishment time for the rest of the NL East, and you are the enforcers. Your opponents should feel like they were in a wrestling match and body slammed to the mat repeatedly. You should be playing like the Phillies punched your mother, and the Braves knocked up your sister. Remember, there are no unwritten rules of baseball; Play tough, play hard, and it doesn’t matter how you get there in the end, just get there.

Your lifelong fan,

Optimistic Mets Fan

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Letters to the NL East, part 2

Letters to the NL East, Part 2 of 5

Dear Lastings Milledge, Paul Lo Duca, and the Washington Nationals,

Ooo, A shiny new ballpark! Now lets see if you can use the revenue that usually comes along with a new ballpark and an increase in attendance to keep it filled for years to come. On paper you look like you might be a little better than last year, improving slowly. Someone has to fill out the bottom of the division, but luckily It looks like you’ll easily be able to stay ahead of the Marlins in that regard.

Milledge and Lo Duca, we get it, you don’t like how you were treated or the opportunities you were given or not given in New York. Unfortunately, that’s life in New York and baseball. Talk all you want in spring, but the season is starting now and it’s time for you to stop worrying about New York and start worrying about Washington. Turns out, I actually wanted both of you to stay on the team, but you both had to open your mouths enough to piss off the powers that be, which only hurt the possibility of you sticking around. Now that you’re in the political correctness capital of the country, no one’s watching you guys to see if you’re saying the right things.

Your Former Fan,

Optimistic Mets Fan

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Fantasy Baseball

I know it’s early, but I’m impatient for the season to start. So I created a “Mets Bloggers” fantasy baseball league on Yahoo.

Unfortunately we can’t all take Johan.

League ID#: 17569
League Name: Mets Bloggers

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What’s up doc?

All quiet on the Mets front. They raised ticket prices, which is no surprise. I hate that so many sports franchises seem to treat it solely like a business and forget the working class little people that love and enjoy the game. My last TOTK.com article was about this.

There are still rumors floating around about Johan, and I doubt there is a prospect I would miss past Santana smacking around the Phillies on opening day. We’ll see what happens. It’s not 2008, 2007 is in the past. The holidays are over, and if your not that big a football fan like me, it’s time to start counting down the days until pitchers and catchers report.

Btw, I still have a fourth seat of my Mets Saturday Pack available, if you happen to be one of those fans that wants to go, but has no one to go with regularly. It comes with a nice 27% price increase over last year!

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Mitchell Report

I’m sure you’re all just dying to hear what I have to say about the Mitchell Report. Well I wrote my TOTK.com article on it this week. Big Names, Bigger Needles.

The report is just the tip of the iceberg.

I’m amused that Roger Clemens is scared of needles, but it’s very sad that it seems like the only reason he didn’t take HGH in addition to steroids is because he didn’t like the “Belly button shot”.

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Rumor Mill

Rumors abound!

I like all the rumors, because it keeps baseball talk alive, and I can only take so much of the same football stories all week since nothing happens between Monday night and Sunday afternoon, but I do hate chasing around rumors. There are so much unsubstantiated stuff, so many halfway-educated writers decided what the Mets just HAVE to do to be good next year, and so many little things to keep track of.

I’m happy with what the Mets have done so far. I don’t think we needed Easley, but I like Anderson and Alou. Let’s see what happens for the rest, but I don’t know that I’ll have a good sense until April, after I’ve seen and heard about all the bullpen prospects the Mets have for the season. Because I think the bullpen is the biggest issue, as much as I would like another starter. I wouldn’t be panicing with Pedro, Maine, Perez and Humber, Pelfrey and El Duque. Maybe pick up a marginal guy now or later or both and see what happens. I want them to resign Lo Duca, and Castillo, and I think they will.

So let’s see where this goes, I just can’t take real interest in the zillion of rumors and trades that are suggested every day. Too many writers, not enough stuff to write about.

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King of Sports

I have a couple of posts planned here and there about this and that. Including my thoughts on what the Mets need to do this offseason.

For now, here is a link to my last article on TOTK.com about why as we all turn to other sports to watch, I still view baseball as the best of them all. King of Sports

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Eyes on the Prize

What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. So at this rate, the Mets should be superb by October. Going into last weekend you figured the Mets had only a week left of baseball, and then a week of coasting. It looks like they decided to do it the other way, taking off for a week, hopefully followed by a week of good solid baseball. They went from being probably the first or second team to clinch, to a team letting the competition have a shot at the prize.

If the Mets play doesn’t give you faith in a postseason berth, and why should it, you have but to look south, at Philadelphia. This team is truly abysmal. They can outhit just about anyone, but when it comes to the playoffs and October, hitting just doesn’t get it done; You need to be able to pitch. The inability for the Phillies, and the Braves, to play truly competitive baseball for any length of time has been a double-edged sword. Sure it makes winning the division a little easier, but It bestows an air of confidence on the Mets that they haven’t deserved. It’s about time for the Mets to grab the prize that’s been sitting their all season long for the taking, before they knock it into the Phillies lap.

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Brave Woes

We got the one game, which of course is less than optimal. However, we retain a comfortable four loss lead in the division. This was a much more important series for them than for us. Had the Mets won two, the Braves would be six back and in trouble. Now they’re not as much in trouble, but like they have for the past three months, they’ll be playing a series this weekend for third place.

Worry-warts are saying that this is the same old Mets team, struggling against the Braves. I think differently. That particular struggle was put to rest last year. The reason the Mets are 4-8 against the Braves this year is precisely that they’re not that good. The flip side is that the Braves know that the Mets are the team to beat, and they don’t seem to have any sort of struggles in playing the Mets. While the Mets see the Braves as just one of the teams they have to hold off, the Braves see these games as must wins. The Braves know that they have to beat the Mets to get to the top, and they play these games appropriately.

The Braves have to play this games this hard, because they’re not that good. They know they need to get through the Mets to win the division, because even winning what they have against the Mets, they’re not in first. If the Mets had even split these 12 games with Atlanta, I’d probably be discussing resting players already. All is not lost though. The Mets have two options that they can very easily take. The first is to start playing like they’re capable, beating teams left and right, starting with the Marlins this weekend. If they play strongly, there is no way the Braves can catch up. The other option is to play the six remaining games against the Braves hard, and put the distance between them that way.

The Mets have the capability to play well, and to win this division. They are easily the best team in at least the East, if not the whole league, and when they play well no one else has much of a chance.