G-Fafif

The onetime Met who told the New York Post at the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom that the "liberals" could go screw off if they didn't like the impending war, has a viewpoint backfire on him. Former major league pitcher Mike Bacsik was fired from his job as a Dallas sports radio producer/personality Tuesday, two days after he made a racially insensitive remark about "Mexicans in San Antonio" on Twitter. Bacsik, a left-hander made famous by giving up Barry Bonds' 756th career home run, was fired by the station after his Twitter outburst, which came after Game 5 of the Dallas Mavericks-San Antonio Spurs series. Bacsik went on Twitter after the Mavericks' Eduardo Najera tackled Manu Ginobili and was ejected, saying "Congrats to all the dirty mexicans in San Antonio." "It's been a rough couple of days," Bacsik told ESPNDallas.com Tuesday. "Obviously, I made a terrible mistake. It was very bad and stupid on my part. The last few days, I've been getting positive e-mails. But the station changed their mind and decided to go in a different direction." Bacsik had been appearing on radio station KTCK. "When you tweet like I did, you can't see the sarcasm," he said. "It's not a good joke. You can't tell if it was pure hate or sarcasm. I never got to say anything. My tweets were talking for me. When you tweet like that, it's not a playful, harmless thing. It's not what it was meant to be." Bacsik, who originally was suspended indefinitely by the station, said that when the tweet went on national television, including CNN, the station decided to let him go. "If you want to do a job like this, your guard always has to be up," he said. "It's tough because my guard was down. I learned my lesson. I'm owning up to what I did. I did a horrible thing. I'm very sorry and will try my best for my actions to speak louder than my tweets." So...was his lesson "guard my feelings about the Mexican population of San Antonio" or think about why he finds that sort of thing "sarcastic" as opposed to hateful?

Maine 4.0 Pagan 3.0 Bay 1.0 Wright 0.5 Davis 0.5 Francoeur 0.5 Nieve 0.5

Wright 4.0 Takahashi 2.5 Blanco 1.0 Davis 1.0 Reyes 0.5 Pagan 0.5 Bay 0.5

Santana 4.0 Nieve 2.0 Bay 1.5 Castillo 1.5 Feliciano 1.0

Z is for zero Fun in October Others sprayed bubbly Our guys stayed sober

W's Wright Despite the silent first letter If his bat had spoke louder Oh Nine woulda been better

U was the turn Omir's career took From Topps All-Star Rookie To Bison yearbook

H was Hernandez For a time Livan large His ERA bloated He was placed on a barge

Tom Verducci has run out of ideas.

Wilson Valdez, Nelson Figueroa, Brian Schneider... ...screw 'em all.

Mostly I am saddened TIm Lincecum did not pitch a complete game today.

Death to Brian Wilson.

Giants up 4-1 heading to the sixth. Per Lon Simmons: It's Bye-Bye Baby (The Giants Fight Song) When the Giants come to town, it's "Bye-Bye Baby!" Every time the chips are down, it's "Bye-Bye Baby!" History's in the making at Candlestick Park Cheer for the batter and light the spark! If you're a fan of Giants baseball, sing "Bye-Bye Baby!" If you want to be in first place, call "Bye-Bye Baby!" Listen to the broadcast on KSFO Turn up the volume and hear 'em go. With the San Francisco Giants, it's "Bye-Bye Baby!"

One minute you're reading this: And the next it's already out of date. No wonder newspapers are in trouble.

There was an episode of the The White Shadow in which the Carver High basketball team (as they were known) is on a long-winning streak, and as if to rub it in, they bring in Abner Goldstein, their slow, inept backup center, and he shows up the opponent. That's what Frank Catalanotto doubling a minute ago felt like. Hope there's no comeuppance for his mindleslly getting caught off second the way there was for Carver High when Coach Reeves called on his buddies the Harlem Globetrotters to teach his kids A Valuable Lesson In Humility.

Your conviction is shared by at least one member of the generation that came of age with Tom Seaver (IP 9).

Ronnie took on this challenge a couple of years ago.

We're calling all fans All you Giant ball fans Come watch the home team Going places 'round those bases Cheer for your favorites Out at Coogan's Bluff Come watch those Polo Grounders Do their stuff. That's the "Giant Victory March," in order since the Giants just marched over the Phillies 6-2 and the Mets have marched into first place. FIRST PLACE METS! FIRST PLACE METS! Works better in October, but it's not so bad in late April.

Richard Sandomir in the Times delves into New York baseball theme songs, finds ours is great and theirs sucks...in so many words. Money quote: �Musically, they�re both decent, commercially written songs,� said Bob Thompson, a co-author of �Baseball�s Greatest Hit: The Story of �Take Me Out to the Ball Game� � and the founder of the Baseball Music Project, a series of multimedia concerts. �But the charm goes to �Meet the Mets.� It�s more endearing.� �Meet the Mets� has also proven to be more durable. It is played at Citi Field, used in promotional ads on SNY and is the introductory music to games on WFAN Radio. But only a short instrumental section of �Here Come the Yankees� is played before and after games on WCBS Radio. FYI, the Mets have taken the field at least two of the last three games (the ones I attended) to Ms. Jarvis's recording of "Meet The Mets". And the players think I'm only applauding for them.

Pelfrey 3.5 Castillo 1.5 Wright 1.5 Francoeur 0.5 Reyes 0.5 Blanco 0.5

Some fundamentals stick to some Mets, according to good followup article from Newsday's Anthony Rieber. Perhaps Mets, Braves understand infield fly rule better now Jose Reyes didn't fully know the rule. Neither did Luis Castillo. Nor Brian McCann. Three ballplayers with a combined 29 seasons of big-league experience did not understand the infield fly rule when it was invoked on a pop-up by Reyes in the seventh inning of the Mets' 5-2 win over the Braves on Friday night at Citi Field. The confusion caused by the actions of McCann and Braves first baseman Eric Hinske led to a run for the Mets when Angel Pagan scored from second on the pop-up after Chipper Jones dropped it. Pagan and Mets third-base coach Chip Hale were lauded for their heady assessment of the situation, and rightly so. But a snapshot of the play and its aftermath leads to the conclusion that the infield fly rule, which has been around for about 120 years and seems fairly straightforward, still is a bit of a mystery to many. Reyes: "I had no idea what was going on. Everything happened so quick." Castillo: "I ran because I saw Pagan run. So I ran." McCann: "When I saw [Castillo] run, I thought that he at least had to tag. I didn't know the whole rule." Bill Shannon: "This is the kind of thing that shouldn't be happening in 'A' ball, let alone the major leagues." Shannon is a baseball historian, author, official scorer and reporter. He worked Friday night's game and blanched when he saw the Braves' misunderstanding of the infield fly rule. The situation: Pagan was on second and Castillo on first with one out and Reyes at the plate. Reyes sent a pop-up to the infield grass in front of third base. Jones converged with shortstop Omar Infante, got tangled up and dropped the ball for an error. Reyes, however, was out the instant umpires invoked the infield fly rule. The fact that the ball ricocheted off Jones' glove and rolled away did not change that. The rule states in part: "An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out." The purpose is to prevent a defensive player from creating a cheap double play or even triple play by letting the pop-up fall, then picking it up and forcing runners on the bases. Once the ball goes up, the runners have to stay anchored as there is no reasonable expectation of the ball falling on a routine pop-up; it wouldn't be fair to allow the fielders to use this fact against the runners. According to Shannon, the rule came about because the John McGraw-Hughie Jennings-Wee Willie Keeler Baltimore Orioles of the late 19th century figured out you could trap a pop-up in the infield fly rule situation and pick up some easy outs. "No one who is alive today has ever seen a baseball game played without the infield fly rule," Shannon said. After the ball clanged off Jones' glove, it rolled toward the grass between the pitcher's mound and home plate, where Braves catcher McCann retrieved it. Pagan and Castillo, who were allowed to leave their bases as soon as the ball hit Jones' glove, each took a base. Reyes, meanwhile, was standing on first base. McCann walked that way, pointing at first baseman Hinske - with Pagan and Hale watching - and lobbed the ball to Hinske. First-base umpire Bruce Dreckman already had his right hand up to signal that Reyes was out, which Reyes didn't know until first-base coach Razor Shines told him. "He said, 'You're out,' " Reyes said. " 'Go to the dugout.' '' McCann said he knew Reyes was out but thought he could double off Castillo. But the infield fly rule states: "The ball is alive and runners may advance at the risk of the ball being caught, or retouch and advance after the ball is touched, the same as on any fly ball." Hinske had the ball and McCann left the plate uncovered. Jones was closest, but he had his back to Pagan. Hale started screaming at Pagan, "Go! Go! Go!" "Boom," Pagan said. "I went." Hinske threw the ball to Jones, but Pagan slid in ahead of the tag to turn a 3-2 game into a 4-2 game. Pagan said he knew the rule because the Mets held a "rule-a-day" baserunning drill for a week in spring training. Bench coach Dave Jauss said topics included appeal plays, balks, interference and obstruction and, of course, the infield fly rule. Reyes was absent for the "rule-a-day" drills. He was home resting with the thyroid issue that caused him to miss three weeks of spring training. So he wasn't quite sure about the infield fly rule. He should be now.

Dodgers manager Joe Torre says he sent Manny Ramirez home to Los Angeles to get treatment on his strained right calf, avoiding the "circus" when the team heads to New York to face the Mets. Torre says it didn't make sense to keep the outfielder around for the rest of the Dodgers' road trip, especially New York "where it would be a little bit of a circus." Do you ever get the feeling Torre would be happier managing a baseball team in a closet? If Manny's on the DL, send him home, sure, whatever. But circus? What circus? For 20 minutes there'd be some reporters looking to get some quotes from Manny on whatever and then they'd move on to hotter topics. Reminds me of Torre seeming genuinely put out that the MFYs, as (sadly) one of your better teams, drew attention when he managed them. Perhaps Joe has forgotten what it's like to helm a team nobody much cares about with players few have heard of and not be considered a genius father figure in the process.

Bay 1.5 Acosta 1.5 Niese 1.5 Blanco 1.5 Francoeur 1.5 Rodriguez 1.0 Feliciano 1.0 Reyes 0.5

Rodriguez 2.5 Santana 2.5 Wright 2.5 Davis 2.5

Takahashi 1.5 Davis 1.5 Reyes 1.0 Bay 1.0 Francoeur 1.0 Pagan 1.0 Rodriguez 1.0 Feliciano 1.0 Maine 1.0