Centerfield

I can't believe what I'm hearing here. I hate the MFY's as much as anyone else, but rooting for them to lose is a far, far distant second to me rooting for the Mets to make the playoffs. Go MFY's. Go Mystique and Aura. Go Power Pinstripes Pride People. To root for the team directly behind the Mets citing their big lead strikes me as getting way way too comfortable here in June.

Balancing on a plane is hard enough to do, but that last Snape seems to be levitating at the same time.

I think he sounds great. Much better than when he did after his stroke...definitely seems like he's making progress. I can't say I'm too thrilled about the format they have him in at SNY. A three-inning stint never allows him to get comfortable and the tie-ins to his stories seem forced. I'm ok with the once a week bit...but let him sit the whole game so he can let the dialogue come to him. By the way, anyone know what Ralph's beef with Branch Rickey is?

This is good to see...from today's News: Milledge, incidentally, was by no means tardy yesterday. One day after causing a mild stir by arriving 70 minutes before game time, Milledge was on the field roughly four hours before the game doing early work.

I can certainly see what you guys mean about him being a weenie. Maybe it's because he plays next to that fake, conceited captain-in-name-only Jeter that he doesn't seem so bad. The way I see it, it's this.... Jeter is a prick. If a bunch of guys get together, you won't want him there and will have no qualms about lying to him or telling him he can't come. After all, he's a prick. A-Rod is a weenie. And if you have a get-together, you will feel bad about not inviting him. Eventually one of they guys will invite him anyway (and tell the rest of the guys, "Come on, give him a chance, he's a good guy."). But his over-zealousness will ruin everyone's time meaning next time you will be forced to lie to him and tell him there is no get-together even though you feel bad about doing it.

Quotes of 2006: CF (As he's being struck by lightning): Hey! It's Jupiter!

I'll say. As Scarlet predicted in an email to me a little while ago, when they become mobile, your life, as you know it, is over.

This may cause me to get struck by lightning here, but I think Alex Rodriguez actually is a stand up guy. I think he's a bit of a wuss...and sure that slap play on Arroyo was bush-league. But he has had to apologize for his contract ever since 2001. And that is not fair. At any point, he could have lashed out and said, "Hey, that wasn't my decision to offer me that much money." But he hasn't. He's accepted that such criticism will follow the money. He could also really get upset about the booing on the heals of an American League MVP. Or the way the press features a photo of A-Rod every time the Yanks are struggling. Or get upset about the bullshit "clutch" argument used to canonize Jeter and demonize A-Rod. But instead, he stays gracious about it. I hate him because he's a Yankee, and I hope he sucks and hits .200 from here on out. But if MFY fans get sick of him, they can ship him across town to play second-base. (We can't be expected to move clutch, True-Mets like Reyes and Wright).

Am I crazy? I have no problem with anything A-Rod said there.

I think Ozzie, as a general rule, needs to chill out a bit.

Ok, so we all loved the Karate Kid. What do we think about Karate Kid Part II? As I posted in the other thread, Bill Simmons hated it. I thought it sucked ass too...but for other reasons. I’m okay with sequels not being as good as the first movie. I’m even okay when sequels suck...you gave it a shot, it didn’t work, life goes on. I have a problem when the sequel is so bad, and creates new loopholes, that it actually takes away or ruins the original movie. The latest example of this is Terminator 3, which not only blew ass, but rendered T2 completely meaningless. Karate Kid Part II sucked ass, and brought the original down with it. The movie starts well enough. It picks up in the parking lot after the tournament. Kreese is giving Johnny the business about finishing second. Miyagi steps in, Kreese challenges him, ends up fucking himself up, then gets humiliated when Miyagi pinches his nose and makes a clown noise. It’s funny, it provides closure, and it shows that the Cobra Kai weren’t bad kids at heart, just misguided. I like the scene. I heard that it was a proposed ending to the first movie, and if it had been today, I guess it would have been an alternate ending on the DVD. I like the way the first movie ends, but I’m glad I got to see this scene too. Then everything goes completely to shit. In the next scene we find out that Ali has left Daniel for a football player from UCLA. One of the best stories about the first movie was that a girl like Ali could go for Daniel despite the fact he has no friends, is a wuss, and his mom drives him on dates. So, he learns karate, wins a tournament, gets a car, and naturally she dumps him. Considering his whole rift with Cobra Kai began because of Ali, now it hardly seems worth it. I’m thinking Daniel should round up some Cobra Kai and kick Ali’s new boyfriend’s ass. Next we see Daniel and Mr. Miyagi traveling to Okinawa to care for Miyagi’s ailing father. The conflict here, is that when Miyagi last left Okinawa, he pissed off his friend pretty badly over a girl and now, all these years later, his buddy Sato is still mad and wants to challenge Miyagi to the death. (Sato is an interesting guy...he’s clearly not over their feud, and seems very anxious to fight Miyagi as soon as possible. One has to wonder, though, why Sato didn’t take any action for the last 30 years. You’d have to think Miyagi would be pretty easy to track down in the States. Was he meaning to get around to it? Did he forget about it until he saw Miyagi running around the island again? They really don’t explain this aspect of the plot well enough.) We learn a few things when we arrive in Okinawa. First, Miyagi’s old girlfriend never married, and conveniently enough, has a niece that lives with her who is just about Daniel’s age. Secondly, the language spoken in Okinawa is not Japanese, but rather, broken English. For example, when Sato confronts Miyagi, he speaks in English. Miyagi’s old girlfriend speaks to him in English. You start wondering why, if they speak it so often, they don’t speak it better. And finally, the last thing Okinawa has to offer is Chozen, Sato’s nephew who, of course, hates Daniel. Simmons calls him “Japanese Zabka�

Beautiful 62. What an appropriate thread for this weekend. Those of us fortunate enough to have our fathers around should consider making another memory.

Ew, marathon is Kaz Matsui. Boo! marathon sucks! Boo!

What FK said.

What a great memory. If there are more like the ones he mentioned, I'm sure it was 91 well spent years.

It was ridiculous how badly Posada was crowding the plate. I have always thought, if it were possible, that there should be some imaginary line extending six inches or so off the plate, and if you were dumb enough to get hit by a pitch while in that zone, you shouldn't get a base.

Well said Scarlett. For the record, I have no problem with local announcers being "homers" to the extent they are fans. Gary and Howie have no qualms about representing themselves as fans and you only need to listen for ten minutes to recognize their rooting interest. My problem with local announcers is when their narrow-minded view of their team affects their ability to view things in an unbiased manner. Add to that the sense of entitlement reflected in a guy like Michael Kay and you can understand why I hate him so much. I also hate guys who are more concerned with self-promotion than the game. So of course, you can understand why I dislike Sterling...and to a lesser extent, Chris Berman. I like Berman when he does NFL primetime, his schtick is great for highlight shows...but when were live Chris, leave the nicknames at home.

Wright 2 Reyes 2 Beltran 2 Chavez 1 Heilman 1 Sanchez 1 Wagner 1

Understatement content?

Wagner on the radio. Wow, he really is a country boy.

PUT IT IN THE BOOKS!!!

Come on Billy. Throw strikes.

Oh well. Beltran strikes out. Bum. Up to Wagner to close out the road trip. I hope he's sharper than he was the other night.

Lastings Milledge recommended Kazmir be traded to Zambrano. Lastings Milledge wrote the script to Major League 2. Lastings Milledge likes the anti-smoking commercials on SNY. Lastings Milledge thinks Derek Jeter is clutch and A-Rod a choker. Lastings Milledge loves it when they use rock anthems in commercials for detergent.