{"id":58,"date":"2007-08-06T18:45:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-06T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/?p=58"},"modified":"2007-08-06T18:45:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-06T23:45:00","slug":"the-land-of-the-free-and-the-home-of-the-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/2007\/08\/06\/the-land-of-the-free-and-the-home-of-the-mets\/","title":{"rendered":"The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Here come the Braves.<span style=\"\">  <\/span>Literally, not figuratively, though if the Mets play badly this week it could be both.<span style=\"\">  <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">In some of the time I spend in the Hot Foot Bleachers, I mentioned once that this upcoming series is a lot bigger for <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Atlanta<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> then it is for the Mets.<span style=\"\">  <\/span>I was laughed at, but it still holds true. The Braves are four and a half games back, which means the best they could reach is two losses behind the Mets with a sweep.<span style=\"\">  <\/span>If the Braves win the series, which is what I\u2019m sure they\u2019re setting out to do, that puts them four losses back.<span style=\"\">  <\/span>Three and a half games back with only 48 left to go is what the Braves are aiming for.<span style=\"\">  <\/span>This isn\u2019t a threat to the Mets; the Braves have been hovering around three and a half for a while now, unable to really put on the pressure.<span style=\"\">  <\/span>They\u2019ve flirted with third place more than first place.<span style=\"\">  <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">That said, the Mets still should go out there and win this series at home.<span style=\"\">  <\/span>They need to brush them back with the attitude of \u201cWhat? You\u2019re still here? This is our division now, check in again sometime next decade.\u201d<span style=\"\">  <\/span>They can do this; they just won series against the two contenders in the Central division, they won a seven game road trip against the West division contenders.<span style=\"\">  <\/span>It\u2019s time to show the Braves that there aren\u2019t any contenders in the East division, only a repeat champion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I have heard no word yet on if Willie Randolph is going to pitch his pitchers on normal rest next week, taking advantage of the day off to get <st1:state st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Maine<\/st1:place><\/st1:State> to pitch Thursday against the Braves instead of Friday against the Marlins.<span style=\"\">  <\/span>It would be the right move to get the best pitcher in the rotation to pitch against the team currently sitting in second place in the division.<span style=\"\">  <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I want all the Braves fans to be thinking about one thing Thursday night; the Friday preseason Falcon game against the Jets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here come the Braves. Literally, not figuratively, though if the Mets play badly this week it could be both. In some of the time I spend in the Hot Foot Bleachers, I mentioned once that this upcoming series is a lot bigger for Atlanta then it is for the Mets. I was laughed at, but &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/2007\/08\/06\/the-land-of-the-free-and-the-home-of-the-mets\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Mets&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,3],"tags":[30,226,61,2964,190,29,35],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}