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Welcome Back David, We Missed You!

Today the Mets get back their unofficial captain and star third-baseman.  After all, how can the Mets take on the Goliath challenge of making the playoffs without their David?

 

The Mets playoff chances appear to be hanging by a thread, despite still technically controlling their own destiny as far as the Braves are concerned.  While they are playing just well enough to not fall out of it, they’re not gaining any ground either.  Another week without gaining ground possibly spells the end of Carlos Beltran as a Met, but looking to sell at the deadline or not, the Mets will get reinforcements.  David Wright returns tonight, and it looks like the road is marked for the return of Johan Santana.  I wouldn’t rule out Sandy Alderson making a trade that can help the Mets, both this year and in the future, at the trade deadlines.  Perhaps it’s unlikely, but you never know what’s going to be out there.

 

We’ll start with David Wright.  He’s tearing up Florida in the minors, and here’s hoping he’ll continue to tear up Florida in the majors this weekend.  It’ll be nice to have him back. Everyone time someone mentions the Mets third baseman I instinctively think David Wright, and Daniel Murphy’s name starting with the same letter doesn’t help.

 

So welcome back David Wright, and here’s to a great end of the season for you.

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Give Carlos Beltran Your Love

Carlos Beltran is one of the all-time greatest Mets.  I know he doesn’t have a ring, but it’s not for lack of ability or clutch hitting.  He’s got a 1.3 career post-season OPS over 21 games.  He’s near the top in almost all franchise leaderboards.  He’s a leader in the clubhouse and cares about his team, and the community.  You couldn’t ask for a better guy than what we’ve gotten from Carlos Beltran over these last seven years.

It seems practically inevitable that he’ll be traded by the trading deadline even if many of us, emotionally, don’t want him to go.  With just two home games remaining before the trading deadline, time is growing short to thank Carlos Beltran for all he’s done.

So cheer when he’s announced. cheer when he makes a great play.  Cheer when he gets a hit, and when he draws a walk.  If he hits a home run, give him a curtain call that lets him know just how much he’s meant to us over these years. 

And if August first comes and he returns to Citi Field with the rest of the Mets?  Keep cheering, because he deserves it.

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No One Could Catch The 7: Reyes is Back!

Tonight’s Mets Lineup: Reyes-SS, Turner-2B, Beltran-RF, Murphy-3B, Pagan-CF, Bay-LF, Duda-1B, Paulino-C, Gee-RHP

Jose Reyes is back on the lineup, and none of the National League could catch him in hits while he was gone. 

I repeat, Jose Reyes is back at the top of the Mets lineup where he belongs. 

Lookout Cardinals.

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Appreciating the Fans, 1986, and Explosions at Citi Field

Pyrotechnics Night at Citi Field Friday was a bummer because the Mets lost, but everything else was pretty nice.

I’ll start with the 1986 stuff, because this is the 25th anniversary and while the Mets aren’t having a single day, they’ve been sprinkling in cool stuff all season long.  They’ve done this one before, but they did some trivia stuff between innings where they had the players come out to award the prize.  Of course, that made everything else pretty easy.  When Rusty Staub appeared in the list, even if you didn’t know the answer to the question you knew it had to be him since he was there at the park.

Continue reading “Appreciating the Fans, 1986, and Explosions at Citi Field”

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Biggest Week of Mets Baseball in Years

This next week or two may be the biggest games the Mets have played since the last week of 2008, and they also might be the biggest games they’ll play for years.  The Mets record, as well as the Phillies and Braves, will greatly determine the look of the team going forward this year, and maybe even next year too.

Sandy Alderson has said he would consider trading Carlos Beltran right now a white flag, but if the Mets play poorly over the next two weeks, that white flag is inevitable anyway.   It’s probably not just Carlos Beltran either; The Mets won’t get a ton for guys like Chris Capuano or Jason Isringhausen, but if the chances of contention plummet there will be little reason to keep them.   If they manage to climb closer in the race, the small return from trading those guys won’t be worth gutting the team.  In a way, the Mets could finish a handful of games above or below .500 based on how they do in these next bunch of games.

Either way this season will likely be viewed as a step in the right direction, but if the Mets fall out of it here and restructure the team with next year in mind, the record and excitement levels will fall.   That probably won’t be enough to prompt many to invest in this team, raising projected income and in turn, payroll.  As the memory of the last Mets game fades, we’ll be subjected to more financial news regarding the Picard lawsuit and the Madoff mess.  Their will be speculations about Einhorn’s control, about how much the payroll can possibly go up, and if the Mets will actually field a competitive team.   So the only real news will be mostly doom and gloom again, which won’t help sell tickets.  Just today someone called into WFAN in the brief 20 minutes I had it on proclaiming there is no way the Mets compete for five or six years.

If the Mets climb back into the race and get closer, Sandy Alderson will be more likely to keep players like Beltran, and may even look to add a reliever or someone, especially if the player can be helpful beyond this year too.   Whether or not they can or will win a playoff race is not the point here, the point is that if they stay close and prove that they can play with anyone it suggests that the Mets may not be years from competing.   They could go into the offseason with fans thinking they’re getting close and with the right moves, including resigning Jose Reyes, the Mets could be a very good team next year.  

There’s going to be a lot of stuff to watch with this team this year, and if they remain competitive and winning games they’ll bring in fans to watch versus fans switching gears to what could be a returning NFL season or something else.  Jose Reyes could have a record breaking season, as despite spotting the opposition 11 or more games, he’s still got a commanding lead in base hits.  David Wright will be returning, one of the Mets franchising players who they’ve sorely missed.  Johan Santana may return, and while that’s still up in the air, as is his effectiveness, it will be nice to see him on the mound again.  I would like to be at his first game back if I can at least.

It all starts tonight against the Phillies with your hero in attendence.   The Phillies aren’t taking the Mets seriously, opting to give  Halladay and Lee some extra rest coming off the break and pushing them back until after the weekend.  Facing Vance Worley, Cole Hamels who the Mets routinely beat, and Kyle Kendrick is not a daunting task.  Hopefully the Mets can get a hot start to the second half, while exposing the Phillies pitching depth, and start catching both them and the Braves who are playing the Nationals this weekend.

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1969 World Series Tickets

Not trying to step on the toes of Metspolice’s ’80s week, but I came across these 1969 playoff ticket stubs (Not mine, I wasn’t alive) and figured the Thursday before the second half would be the perfect time to post them.  (And a much longer post I have planned complaining about FIP is lazily unfinished)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s the clinching game of the NLCS, which I’d forgotten was only a five game series.  Game 3 of the World Series, presuming they mean game 3 and not home game 3, would’ve been the Agee catch game and the first World Series game ever at Shea Stadium.

 

 

 

 

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Official Sponsor of the ’69 World Champion Mets

My in-laws owned a deli in Brooklyn in the ’70s.  One of the beers they sold was Rheingold, and a result they had this display board hanging in the deli, and then collecting dust in the basement until this weekend.  The bottom reads: “Enjoy Rheingold here, and at the home of the World Champions”.  Well, in 2011 that deli, and Shea, are gone, The Mets are no longer World Champions, and you cannot get Rheingold at their home. (Check out the Citi Field Beer List for what you CAN get)

 

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I Love The All-Star Game

I attended the All-Star Game in person in 2006 in Pittsburgh, and it really changed my opinion of the game in general.   It’s a true celebration of the greatest sport on Earth, and that’s something I can look forward to.

 

Just because I enjoy the game does not mean I don’t recognize that there are a lot of problems with it.  The biggest is the huge amount of players that do not participate, and truly do not want to participate.  There are problems with the voting, with the ballots, and with how much the game matters.  There are similar issues with the Home Run Derby, including it’s length.  I did actually like the way it was done this year, with two players selecting the rest.   It’s harder to say no to a coworker than it is to a boss.

 

So I’m going to enjoy celebrating baseball this week, and wish I was there.  If you don’t like the festivities (And if you don’t, I question why you clicked on a link that said “I love the All-Star Game”), don’t watch.  That’s fine, the Mets will be back Friday.  Just please refrain from tweeting and arguing about how much the game sucks and this and that. Why rain on my parade?  I try to keep the negativity to a minimum myself when I see my timeline filling up with boring soccer tweets, or college basketball tweets, so do me the same courtesy.  I don’t need to see you tweeting about how you’re so much better because you’re not watching the game.

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Trying to Finish on a High Note

The Mets are looking to finish the unofficial first half with a positive note, despite losing Jose Reyes this week for six or more additional games.  They have three All-Star pitchers to face to get there, although the name Vogelsong doesn’t exactly fill you with fear.

 

With the Braves and Phillies rarely losing lately, the Mets have had trouble making up ground even when playing well.  Which is why it’s important that they win some of these games against All-Star pitchers before they lose anymore ground.  They still have plenty of time and plenty of games against their opponents, but you can’t let them get too far ahead either.

 

The Mets will have a chance to finish anywhere from one game under .500 to five games over.  Merely winning the series would put them a comfortable three over, whereas losing it would drop them to just one.   The Braves and the Phillies play each other this weekend, so one of those teams will have to lose at least two games.  The Mets winning ensures they can at least gain ground on one of them.   They then have a chance after the break to gain even more ground on Philadelphia directly.

 

If the Mets can win some of these games, including some of the ones after the break, they’ll start getting healthier with Jose Reyes, David Wright and maybe even Ike Davis returning to this offense.  Adding those guys would suggest that the Mets would be better than they have been so far.  There’s no saying that that will be enough to propel them above and beyond their competition, but it should be fun to watch.  Hopefully the Mets can give those guys an opportunity to still be in the race when they return.