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Subway Series greets the new Yankee Stadium

Welcome to the first Subway Series at the House That Ruth Cursed. The Mets get their first shot at the crosstown new Yankee Stadium, but sadly it’s without Delgado.carlosdelgado_homerun_005

The leftfield situation with the place has been very favorable to lefty pull hitters, like Delgado. Given the stadium, I can’t see any reason the Mets lefties shouldn’t start in all three games. Church and Murphy especially. I think Schneider should get at least two of the starts, and you probably want to give Fernando Martinez a shot at his first major league home run.

On the flip side, you want to be careful how you pitch to batters here. Certain batters are getting home runs on check swings so caution is tantamount. I have more faith in the Mets’ pitchers than the Yankees’ so hopefully all will go well even if Fernando (that’s Fernando number three if you were counting) Nieve will be pitching in the series.

Imagine how Babe Ruth’s ghost feels watching the Yankees knock down his house, and then building a place where he could probably hit a home run while sitting down. There is only one major league stadium still standing where Ruth played a major league game, so it’s no surprise the Red Sox have been having success lately. I’ve been wondering if the Mets will have more wins at Fenway Park this year than the Yankees. It seems likely.

The Yankees have been better lately, Red Sox series aside. Are they a better team? I don’t think so. Their pitching is suspect. Pettitte has been having poor second halves as he wears down, Burnett is doing is Pavano imitation, Wang has still not returned from the injury to what he was, and Joba has been merely average. They’ve reinforced their bullpen with starting prospects, but it still reminds me a bit of the 2008 Mets bullpen, and we all know how that turned out. Hopefully they can play a solid series and get out of their with at least two out of three.

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Good Bye and Good Riddence

The Mets game was a disaster, all across the board.  Managing, situational hitting, bullpen.. So while we still have a lead in the wild card and a more than adequate chance to make the division title ours, I’m going to talk about something else.

 

It’s hard to be a baseball fan without at least a little respect for Yankee Stadium (not necessarily the Yankees themselves).  The Stadium has been around for roughly 86 years, and housed some of the earlier stages of baseballs history.  If there is a baseball ‘god’, it’s Babe Ruth, who made the first marks at the Stadium.  So my gut reaction is that they shouldn’t be demolishing something full of so much baseball lore.

 

The Mets fan and Yankees hater side of me enjoys that they’re knocking down something so historic.  You could argue that the Curse of the Bambino that supposedly stopped the Red Sox from winning was actually reversed when the Yankees went through the process of starting to dismantle the Bambino’s house.  The Red Sox won twice, and the Yankees have gradually gotten worse and worse, until this season when they will miss the playoffs entirely.  Going into the final game ever at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees number for elimination is 1.  This means that if they lose, not only will it be the final regular season game in the building, but also clinches that it will be the last game, period.  They’re currently up 5-3 in the 5th, but we’ll see how it turns out. 

 

Physically, Yankee stadium isn’t very nice.  The concourses, specifically on the ground floor, are tight and feel cave like.  The seats aren’t great, and the upper deck is tall and steep.  The entire place feels old, because it _is_ old.  Besides the ‘magic’ behind the historical place, I’m glad they’re knocking it down.  As a baseball fan in New York, I do occasionally find myself at the place, whether randomly or for a Subway Series game, and my priorities when visiting are my own comfort and enjoyment.  I already have to deal with Yankee fans when I’m there, so why add in small concourses, ancient bathrooms, long lines, broken seats and all the other things wrong with the place? 

 

Babe Ruth may miss the place, but I won’t.  May the Yankees live to regret this decision and be doomed to decades of failure.

 

Back to the Mets, I’m sick and tired of Mets fans acting like Luis Castillo is beating up babies and stabbing nuns in the clubhouse.  To me it seems like he plays at least as hard as anyone, and he certainly gets on base more than Argenis Reyes, and more than Easley.  I don’t think the 7th spot in the lineup is the best location for him, but that’s Manuel’s lineup, not Castillo’s.  The guy might not have the range he used to, but he’s certainly not stationary.  If the Mets were pounding in runs, specifically in clutch spots, then maybe you live with a defensive Argenis a little more often.  Right now though, they need both Castillo’s OBP, and his average with runners in scoring position.  

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Book Review: What If The Babe Had Kept His Red Sox?

Book Review: What If Babe Ruth Had Kept His Red Sox?

Chances are you will disagree with the alternate destinations the author takes in these ‘what if’ questions he poses in the book. That’s not the point. The point is to provoke thought on how meaningful and important certain events were to sports and baseball by theorizing about what could’ve happened had they not happened the way they did.

He lays the groundwork for what really happened for those of us that don’t know or don’t remember. Some of the baseball issues he brings up are very interesting. As indicated by the title, one is about Ruth and him staying with the Red Sox instead of being sold to the Yankees. The biggest point he makes is that Boston isn’t as big a city, or exciting a place, as New York and as such Ruth wouldn’t have developed into the huge worldwide icon for baseball that he did. He also discusses park differences, and if Yankee Stadium would even have been built. Certainly the Yankee franchise wouldn’t have been the same without Ruth and his home runs to fuel them, and coupled that with not moving into their own place in 1923 and continuing to share the Polo Grounds with the Giants, they would’ve remained second class (or third class) citizens. He makes valid points about a future path for the Yankees, Red Sox, and Ruth, an while it’s not one I agree with necessarily, it’s still fun to theorize about.

Another interesting baseball alternate-history is what would’ve happened if Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige integrated baseball in the 30s, rather than Jackie Robinson in the 40s. Despite the title, I felt this was the most thought out scenario in the book. There were rumors and suggestions that a team, maybe the Phillies, would consider signing players, particularly these two stars, out of the Negro leagues. There were many different reasons that this did not happen. Not only was there still racism all over the place, but many people felt taking the best players from the Negro Leagues would cause them to suffer and have to fold. However, this would’ve been one of the best ways for baseball to continue successfully. Many of the best players around the league were enlisting to fight in the war, and being able to choose from black players as well as white ones would’ve added some talent to the league that was sorely missing it. He suggests that if both guys were signed by the same team, they’d have the benefit of each other to get through the tough parts of integration, where Jackie had to do it all by himself.

There is a whole section on trades, which is one of the most popularly posed ‘what-if’ questions. Mets fans still routinely like to think about what it’d be like if they had signed Alex Rodriguez, if they hadn’t traded Scott Kazmir, or if they’d signed Vladimir Guerrero. These kinds of regrets and second-guessing of past GM decisions are part of every fan base, and the author here takes some of the bigger trades throughout baseball history and theorizes where the teams involved would be if they hadn’t made them. It’s interesting to postulate about how things would’ve turned out.

Other topics include what if the Cleveland Browns hadn’t entered the NFL? Would they just have vanished into obscurity in the start-up All-America Football Conference? Would the league have folded and all of the players on the Browns dispersed via draft, never to have that successful run together upon entering the NFL? What if Cassius Clay had lost the fight to Sonny Liston? Would he still have become Muhammad Ali? Would he still be one of the most recognized athletes? What about Sonny Liston? Would have retained the title for much longer, or was his time up and was their nothing he could do about it? Did the NHL expand too much too fast? Did doubling in size hurt the quality of the game and the talent pool? Would golf still be the sport it is today if Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus had been anything but extraordinary? Their rivalry really brought fans to the game, and helped make golf into a major event. Had they not both been great, they never would’ve been able to directly compete against each other as much, and had that never happened a lot of the excitement would’ve gone out of the game. These two also altered the game for the other players. Once they started bringing in fans and ratings, suddenly more tournaments started popping up, and bigger prize pools. It was suddenly becoming possible for more than the top one or two guys to make a living playing golf.

Reading through all these what-if situations was fun. Even when I didn’t agree with how things would turn out, It was still interesting to see how much things could change based on small decisions through history.

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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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A trip to Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium

I told myself I would go to Yankee Stadium one more time before it closes. I barely remember my previous visits, and I figured I should have some memories of a stadium that’s been around in some form for over 80 years and hosted players like Babe Ruth. I had free tickets from a friend, so I decided to take advantage. Of course, I neglected to look at the tickets, and they were bleacher seats. The bleacher’s aren’t attached, and staying way out there didn’t sound like a fun way to watch the Mariners. I hung out for batting practice leaning on the wall over Monument Park, and debated climbing over the wall and down the side of the Mariners bullpen into Monument Park to sneak into the main part of the stadium. I decided that my bright orange shirt under my Wright jersey with my Mets hat would make it hard for me to jump down and blend into the crowd, so I didn’t do that. Eventually I walked out, an decided I’d just fork over the money to enter the main part of the stadium. Standing on line I actually ended up buying a scalped ticket, I paid $20 for a $60 ticket that I didn’t end up sitting in anyway.

You’re not allowed bags in Yankee stadium, but they didn’t actually pat me down or anything. I had to show them my cellphone and remove my cap, but If I’d had a gun in my pocket they’d never have known. I brought plastic bags and used them to hold my stuff and started walking around. I spent most of my time in fair home run territory, and it was a nice change to be able to be in fair territory where home runs can actually reach.

There wasn’t really any aggression towards my choice of attire. The phrase of choice was “You’re in the wrong stadium.” There weren’t many Mariner fans, and I only saw a handful of Mets fans.

First the negative. It’s probably mostly biased, but the new Yankee stadium just looks boring and plain. The concourses make Shea look spacious, but I guess that’s the difference of 40 years in design. If possible, the prices are actually more expensive for food. (Not to mention seating) I’ll skip the obvious in that we all know the Mets don’t play there, so that’s a big minus. Plenty of people complain about Sweet Caroline at Shea, but it’s nothing to complain about next to the grounds crew singing “YMCA”. The Yankees still feel the need to play God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch, which also annoys me.

I like being able to be in fair territory with the possibility of catching a home run. There are probably only a dozen home run balls at Shea that land in the seats, but there were a couple Tuesday night. A-Rod’s went soaring over my head and landed in the upper deck. It was definitely on it’s way down, but it was certainly impressive. Abreu’s later landed in the seats about 10 feet to my left. Staring out at the outfield, imagining that Monument Park and the bullpens aren’t there, it’s amazing to think Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs playing in this ballpark. Posada’s home run that easily cleared the fence in left-center would’ve been an out. The new Yankee mascot, the squirrel that hangs out on top of the right foul pole made an appearance, which was more interesting than the Mariners. One thing the Yankees have right is the merchandise. I saw shirts for Jobu Chamberlain, and Phil Hughes. At Shea you can’t buy a shirt for Oliver Perez, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey or Joe Smith. The Endy Chavez catch bobble head came out before the Mets were selling Chavez shirts.

The Mets salvaged a split of the road trip after dropping the first four, which is cool. The division is all but wrapped up, the magic number is 19 and I’ve been to 26 (22 Mets) games this year. I have tickets to four more so far, and I’m thinking about adding another to make it 27 Mets games, officially 1/3rd of all home games. I think the Mets have turned the corner on their lackluster season, and I expect them to play well, and win well, on this long homestand.

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Carlos Beltran’s Key Met Moments

Carlos Beltran had a miserable first season with the Mets, but since thing he’s been a big part of the team. He doesn’t like to be in the spotlight, or to be the star player, but he’s had some big impact games and single-handedly won a couple of games for the Mets over the last couple of years. There are a couple that come to mind.

  1. On May 23rd 2006 against the Philadelphia Phillies at Shea, Carlos Beltran launched a long homer over the Mets bullpen in the 16th inning to send everyone home. No one else seemed to be getting to Ryan Madsen, who was in his 7th inning of relief at that point, and even earned a start for the Phillies off of that performance.

  1. Game 1 of the NLCS in 2006. A classic pitchers duel. The only two runs scored by the Mets off of a Carlos Beltran home run down the line.

  1. Sunday, April 29th, 2007. Carlos Beltran’s home run is the only run scored in a terrifically pitched game. John Maine gets the win, but Beltran was just as important.

  1. Thursday, May 17th, 2007. Carlos Beltran has a pinch-hit walk as part of the Mets 5-run come from behind rally against the Cubs.

  1. Saturday, June 23rd, 2007. Lost among the Paul Lo Duca ejection was a key single to left field by Beltran that would’ve scored the only run of the game, had Ricky Ledee not gotten thrown out at the plate.

  1. Saturday, July 7th, 2007. Beltran smacks a single to right field to score Jose Reyes with the go-ahead run in the top of the 17th with the Mets quickly running out of pitchers. Beltran also made a terrific catch on the hill in center field in the bottom of 14th to rob Luke Scott of a walk-off hit.

His ability to come through when he’s needed (game 7 aside, no one’s perfect, even Babe Ruth has ended a post season with a caught stealing.) is going to play a huge role in where the Mets go this year. He’s able to play great defense, and his playoff performance with the Astros can’t be overlooked. He’s a solid contributor to this team, and most of the difference in his numbers from last year are a result of the inconsistency of the rest of the lineup.

Reyes is going through one of his mini-slumps, but Wright’s been hitting well. Carlos Delgado seems to be picking it up a little bit, but he’s teased us with that before. The Mets outfield is beat up, but after the All-Star break I expect we’ll get to see some of Lastings Milledge, which could add some excitement. The last I heard Moises Alou was on the road back, but I haven’t heard much since then. I think these days off will really help Delgado, and he’ll have his best half-season as a Met yet. Endy and Gomez will probably be lost until September, but they should be around for October, when they can both play key roles.

Hopefully the Mets can end this half with another win, and go to the All-Star break with the attitude that the worst is over. I look forward to seeing the Mets starting on Tuesday night, and after they scored and drove in the only runs last year, seeing if the rest of the league can help them out this year. The more World Series games at Shea, the better a chance I have at getting (more, I’m already guaranteed one game) tickets.