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DVD Review, Six Essential Games at Shea Stadium

I recently had the pleasure to view A&E‘s DVD, The New York Mets: Essential Games of Shea Stadium. I was surprised at how easily I was able to just slip back into the past and enjoy some of these games.

This DVD set contains six of the arguably greatest games played by the New York Mets. Most of these games we all know about, may have seen live, or recently replayed on SNY, but it was nice to see them without commercials. It’s nice to be able to just pop in a DVD and connect with all the emotions and excitement associated with all of these great games, especially after the disaster that was this west coast trip. I don’t know that I would call these the six most essential games, but they are certainly six big ones. Arguably this DVD set isn’t complete without at least a clip of Ventura’s Grand Single, but the rest of the content certainly makes up for it’s absense.

The 6th disc also contains a bunch of special features. Endy’s catch is obviously on there, because it’s everywhere, and might be the only clip from a losing game. Other fun ones to see, some of which I’d never seen before, include the ’86 division clincher against the Cubs, and Gary Carter’s game winning opening day home run in 1985. They had Todd Pratt’s home run in 1999, and also the 2000 clincher against the Cardinals. One of the fun clips to watch was a montage of 2006 walk off hits. It brought back all sorts of exciting moments, and reminded me how the 2006 Mets used to beat up the guy who got the walk off hit, pounded on his helmet and really getting into it. After the Mets clinched the Pennant in 2000, they showed a guy in the left field loge holding up a sign that said “Bring on the Yankees!” I couldn’t help but yell at him from eight years in the future to shut up and root for the Mariners.

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DL and Games

Just yesterday I was debating not going to as many games, and now 24 hours later I’m debating adding tomorrow night for Popcorn Night and Sunday night for Santana’s possible 100th win to the games I’m attending this year. I’m already going Saturday which is yet another Mets cap day. It’s not even because of their win last night, I just don’t believe the Mets can be this bad, and I truly don’t think it can get any worse…but I’ve thought that before too.

Lots of people on the DL, although I don’t know if guys like Jason Vargas really count.

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What’s going on here?

It’s depressing that Shea has become such a hostile place instead of a relaxing place to watch a game. I went to, literally, dozens of Mets games each of the last two years. I don’t feel like I’m going to make it to that many games this year at this rate. I bought a Saturday Plan last year, for the sole reason that it gave me the guarentee of playoff tickets to each round of the playoffs, something that I felt sure after 2006 was going to happen in both 2007 and 2008. Now, even though I was thinking about going to the game on Thursday, I’m probably not going to want to. Where last year I was looking for any excuse to go to a game, lately I’m taking any excuse not to watch.

The thing is, I can’t think of any huge changes I would make, or any big acquisitions that would make this team better. The “on-paper” looks good. There are some disappointments and some weaknesses, but they shouldn’t be causing the team to play like they are. I don’t even think the players know what to do, and I do believe a good amount of them are frustrated.
I’ll probably only flip over to check the score tonight while playing Grand Theft Auto, it’s gotten to the point where even watching them play well for one game just isn’t satisfying. Even the players that are normally fun to watch haven’t been playing like that.

However, I don’t think this can persist all season. I don’t count statistics from half of last year and this year, that’s not how they work. With how the division looks, with the talent on this team, with the nature of baseball, in one month we could be looking back on today and wondering what we were so worried about. Or we could’ve already torn all our hair out.
I still really do think when September arrives the Mets will be in a position to play well and make the playoffs. The Mets need to look at the Super Bowl Champions, put the past behind them, and move forward.

Oh, and to the anonymous Braves fan that commented on my last post…Get a life, or at least sign your name.

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Chipper Jones on the BQE

Just finished listening to Ed Randall interviewing Chipper Jones on WFAN. He happened to mention that he was in the car with Smoltz driving to Shea Stadium. Can you imagine driving on the Grand Central and you look over and see those two next to you?

If you haven’t heard, Chipper won’t be playing today because of back spasms, and might miss some of the Nationals series next week too.

Randall brought up the comment Chipper made years ago about Mets fans not needing to be so upset, they can just go put on their Yankees gear now. We all thought he was betraying Boston-type ignorance about the incapability of rooting for both teams, but the way he explained it today, it was more of a jibe than ignorance. He says he made the comment later after seeing one of those idiots behind the dugout who was wearing one of those half-Mets half-Yankees caps and was disgusted by it.

He also said he’s not changing his son Shea’s, name but that he hopes he grows up to be a great ballplayer one day and gets to hit in Citi Field.

So that’s my interesting Larry Jones tidbit for the day.

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Home Opener 2008

Now that was a rather depressing game. My camera died before the game even started and the spare batteries I brought were duds, and then the Mets were duds. The game pivoted on that double play ball that Delgado field and hit Utley in the back with.

First time they’ve ever lost to Philadelphia on opening day. I was really hoping that we could put last year behind us, but with losing to Atlanta and Philly so far and the poor bullpen, it feels like last year.

It seems like they need some time to really mesh well with each other, the way one screaming fan was pointing out as he stormed out of the building after the 8th inning because no one was standing in the bullpen clapping or cheering for Church to get a hit. You could see it in Sunday’s game where David Wright was surprised by Santana fielding a bunt, and wasn’t at third to field a throw. Little things like this that they’ll hopefully fade away as they get comfortable with each other and really click.

It’s Reyes and Castillo offensively that have been having the biggest problems, but once the lineup balances out a little more with slumps and streaks, things should be fine. The Mets are very much like Mike Pelfrey right now; They can be great, but they need to find their confidence.

All the pre-game stuff was pretty cool, with them unveiling the retired Shea in left field, or the game countdown. It was very neat seeing Citi Field so nice looking in the beginning, sort of a window into next year’s Opening Day. There was a lot of curiosity about how it may affect wind patterns in Shea and make it more hitter friendly, but judging by the way Easley’s and Wright’s long fly balls flew, I’d say it’s much the same.

Opening Day jitters out of the way, I can’t wait for tomorrow. Hopefully the Mets find their strike, and start mashing this poor pitching team that Philly has.

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Opening Day, Closing Day, Subway Series lottery

I’m sure there will be emails going out and all that, but Registration for the Platinum Game lottery is underway through Feb 18th at http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/ticketing/tixop_season08_form.jsp.

Good luck. The same 6 ticket allotment as last year.

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Notes from Early September

Pedro: He’s looking better and better. Hopefully the end of the season doesn’t come before he peaks.

Book review: I just finished a new Mets book, my write-up to come.

David Wright: You all know the story here, and it’s really no surprise. He’s an uncrowned leader and most valuable player of at least the Mets.

Bullpen: It’s looking better. Remember that in the playoffs it’ll also have one or two of our five strong starters.

A-Rod: Suddenly talk has risen about him surpassing Roger Maris. I don’t think he will; he’s actually four or five behind the pace. I’m torn about whether I think he’ll tie the Babe at 60 or fall one short. The Curse of the Bambino will permit nothing else.

Tonight’s game is an example of how the Mets just aren’t going to win every single game, but Reyes has three doubles so far, which is nice to see. Reyes does get into a funk every once in a while, and I think the grind of the season caused Reyes to take longer to break out of it this time.

I really like Wright batting third. I didn’t think I would at first, but somehow this lineup just seems right. Reyes has been getting some criticism about his production this year, but I think it’s mostly unfounded. He doesn’t have as many RBIs or home runs this year, but that’s not his game, and lately the complaints have been that he’s popping up the ball too much. I think he has improved; his runs are a little behind this year, but I actually think they reflect better on him this year. He’s gotten more of those runs manufactured this year, through his many stolen bases, whereas last year Lo Duca and Beltran and Delgado were driving him in. This year the offense behind him was a little slow, which kept him from scoring more often than not.

I will be at Shea tomorrow night, courtesy of the free tickets from the Mets for attending the Mets at the Movies promotion. I’d invite you to come say hello, but the tickets are for section 41, row Q. I think I can find two seats a teensy bit closer than that at least. I’ll also be in my usual seats (UR section 15, Row G) for Saturday too.

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Shea and Citi Fun Facts of the Game

Some Things I Learned At Shea For Last Night’s Game.

1.Jose Reyes is so fast, it took the scoreboard operator three batters after he tied Roger Cedeno’s single season Mets record for them to announce it on the board. (They were ready instantaneously for his record-breaking steal of third) Not to mention that he stole those bases after striking out.

2.There is going to be an Orchard Seating section at Citi Field. It will be in right center field, right next to the new Home Run Apple.

3.Some of you may have noticed that the right field side of Citi Field facing the subway seems to be more finished than the rest of the ballpark. Not surprisingly, this is where the Mets offices will be.

4.The right field ‘excelsior seating level’ will actually jut out over right field.

5.There will be a seating section directly behind the two bullpens.

6.The seats, particularly the ones for the special people behind home plate, are comfortable.

7.The neon ballplayers that adorn Shea Stadium will make the trip to Citi Field, at the very least residing in the home clubhouse.

8.I never knew that shouting ‘drop it!’ at a fielder fielding a pop-up worked, but apparently neither did Luis Castillo because when Geoff Blum dropped David Wright’s pop-up Castillo was still basically on first and had no chance to get to second before Blum picked it up and threw him out.

9.It was inconsequential, and probably mostly unnoticed, but when Alou threw the ball to the plate in the 5th inning, David Wright pretending to grab it and faked a throw to second to try to keep Gonzalez from advancing.

10.If Mota makes the postseason roster, I may cry. How can he explode so thoroughly after two outs? I strongly suspect that he’s no good after one inning, and maybe not on consecutive days either.

11.There are only three places in the entire stadium where you can buy a knish, but I still think it’s the best concession food I can buy.

12.If the Mets were to win the World Series, they could have a Ticker-Tape Parade with torn of 2007 pocket schedules. There are boxes upon boxes of the things in the ticket booths, and that’s just Gate E!

13.One of the ball-boy’s jobs is to run the umpires out their water bottles. I just find this funny.

I’m going to stop at 13 for now, I’ll probably make a longer post about my trip to the “Citi Field Preview Center” another time. Of course, I didn’t get to ask questions because it was 7:10 and I didn’t want to miss the game.

Oh, and if you haven’t already seen it, Texas won the first game of a double-header over Baltimore 30-3 setting a modern day record. It was a come from behind victory, and Littleton earned the save for the Rangers.

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Fiery Ejections and Walk-off Doubles

At Shea for my usual Saturday season ticket plan, I finally got to see the Mets with two in a roll, win a series, and it was fun. The attendance was over 52,920, and it seems that many of the bloggers I read were there as well. The Faith and Fear duo, Metsradamus, and Metswalkoffs. I think they all had better seats than me too.

It was a great game, Orlando Hernandez was pitching well, and so was Joe Blanton. El Duque let up some base runners, but they always got out of it, and he battled through the 7th with nearly 120 pitches. One could think that scoring only one run is just the Mets slumping again, but that’s not the case. All the credit there goes to Joe Blanton, who pitched through eight innings. The Mets did have Ricky Ledee thrown out at the plate on a nice 2-out, runners in scoring position, double by Carlos Beltran. I think Evan Roberts really needs to rip Joe Benigno about that on their show on WFAN Monday, because he’s playing very well. He was running full-speed on Wright’s walk-off double, even though his run was meaningless. He was excited, and he came charging around third, almost catching Castro. It was a botched play in right field, as if he had played it on a hop, Castro wouldn’t have scored. It didn’t matter though, as I had faith in Delgado getting a fly-out there to score him. After struggling against Joe Blanton, as soon as he was lifted for a guy with a 0.00 ERA in 12.1 innings, they jumped all over him. Castro leads off with a double, they walk Belran to the boos, and David Wright hit’s another double the opposite way to right, game over.

The Mets win a series again, every other team in the East loses, and just like that the Mets are again three full games up on the competition. Four and five games in the loss column over Philadelphia and Atlanta. The Mets now have added another team in the A’s that they don’t have a losing record against, having tied the Cubs all-time earlier this season, also on a walk-off ninth inning hit. A pitcher’s duel, a temper tantrum with an ejection and throwing stuff on the field, and a game winning double by David Wright. What more could you ask for in a game?

I did notice a little less campaigning for Paul Lo Duca at the game today, and I wonder why. I think the Mets may have started that push a little early. Now if Paulie overtakes Martin in the voting Monday, Dodger fans will be motivated to vote hard. We should have waited until after that tally came out to push for him, and get him past the unsuspecting Dodger fans. So remember, Lo Duca still needs our votes next week, and you can vote 25 times per email address you type into that box.

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Oakland Athletics Arrive

This weekend Oakland is back at Shea Stadium for the first time since August 20th of 1975. The Yankees won that game 3-2, the difference being an 8th inning Bobby Bonds home run. On an interesting coincidence, the Yankees this weekend are in San Francisco playing against Barry Bonds, who homered last night for the loss.

Oakland lost again last night, as the Mets again showed signs of breaking out of their month-long slump. Obviously one game isn’t enough to proclaim it over, but it looked good. The Mets got hits with runners in scoring position, they tacked on runs throughout the game, Shawn Green hit a home run. Reyes made a great defensive double play and Glavine pitched into the 9th.

Starters going long is going to be important, as the Mets play a long stretch now without a day off, and have two games on Friday, both of which I’ll be at in Philadelphia. Keeping the bullpen from burning out is important, and it looks like we’ll get another shot at seeing Pelfrey on Friday. Probably for only one start, unless Sosa has actually run out of magic powder.

I don’t want to wait until Sunday for this series to be over, and for what it’s worth, the Mets are 5-7 in rubber games. The Mets need to go out tonight, while I’m in attendance, and slaughter the A’s again. The Mets have 10 games left until the halfway mark, and I’d like to see them win at least seven of them, which would put their record at 46 and 35. That’s back to a tolerable 11 games over .500 and on pace for 92 wins. I do think they’ll win a handful more of that, but for now, lets start stringing some wins together. El Duque is due for a good start again. I’m predicting David Wright and Carlos Delgado back to back home runs tonight, be watching!