metirish

Can he keep his concentration up for a whole game though, he seems to get side-traked a lot during games.

Yes ] "Everything clicked right away," Martinez said. "I was really shocked at how good of command I had, adding and taking off velocity at this stage. It was great." ]I was a little pumped up because I really wanted to get out there, get it out of the way and get back to my normal routine, and hopefully be part of the team once we start," Martinez said. "It was a big load off my shoulders."

Rickey will even teach Franco a few tricks...cool article.. ] Mets Get Master's in Art of the Steal By DAVID PICKER Published: March 26, 2006 PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla., March 25 — With the powerful Florida sun overhead, two men walked slowly down the left-field line before a recent Mets game. The older man did all the talking. The younger man never moved his lips as he nodded. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image James A. Finley/Associated Press Rickey Henderson, left, is a special instructor for the Mets at spring training. José Reyes, right, is his prime pupil. Then, they stopped. The older man, Rickey Henderson, put his arm around the shoulders of the younger man, José Reyes. Twenty-five years separates them, and yet not even an envelope would have fit between their hips. With baseballs from batting practice whizzing past, they resumed their cerebral stroll through some of the game's finer points. On Tuesday, the Mets welcomed the 47-year-old Henderson as a special instructor for the final days of spring training. He is here primarily to work with young players like Reyes on the art of reaching base and stealing. Henderson is perhaps the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history. During a 25-season career in the majors that ended with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2003, he stole 1,406 bases, a record. A spot at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., surely awaits him. Despite such lofty credentials, Henderson did not seem like an obvious candidate to join the coaching ranks. For starters, he aspires to play another season even though he has not fielded any offers since spending the 2005 season with the San Diego Surf Dawgs of the Golden Baseball League. And during his major league career, he battled the perception that he was a self-centered player who ran hard only when it suited him. But five days into his first coaching job, Henderson seems a natural. "When he talks, I listen and then I listen some more," said Reyes, the Mets' 22-year-old shortstop who led the National League with 60 stolen bases last season. "He tells me stuff that I didn't know," Reyes said. "And he's so funny. He explains things and makes everybody laugh." Before games, Henderson roams around the batting cage giving tips to players. He also meets with them in groups in the outfield. He recently told Reyes to stop trying to outrun the ball when stealing second base and start looking for hints in a pitcher's motion that reveal whether he will throw toward home plate. He also told Lastings Milledge, another rising star in the Mets' constellation, that a relaxed and fluid motion toward second base is the key to an explosive jump. Henderson seems aware that his playing career, in all likelihood, is over. But with each nugget of advice that he passes along, he seems to realize that a new career as a full-time coach, and perhaps one day as a manager, becomes more intriguing. "This is a first for me, getting the feet wet," Henderson said from the Mets' dugout, a pink wad of chewing gum wedged in his mouth. "I'm seeing if this is something I enjoy and want to do more. The organization has given me a great opportunity to see how I feel about it. And so far, it's been great." Even the veterans are beginning to jockey for time with Henderson. Carlos Beltran has scheduled a one-on-one session for next week, and Julio Franco, who is four months older than Henderson, is itching to do the same. But what could Henderson possibly teach Franco, who is preparing for his 29th professional season? "A lot," Franco said. "It's not about age, it's about knowledge. He's the best base stealer ever. I want to learn those things. Every year I steal five, six, seven bases. But if I can learn some points, yes. I want to be a manager so I can help others. And I think he's the best kind of brain to pick." The Mets' spring training complex is teeming with young players. But Reyes is the one student the team most wants to see around Henderson. Last season, Reyes played in 161 games but walked only 27 times. He is an exceptional base stealer, but he had a paltry .300 on-base percentage. Henderson had a .401 on-base percentage during his career in the majors. And in the few days that he has been at camp, he has studied Reyes's approach at the plate from behind dark sunglasses, unearthing a flaw. "As a leadoff hitter, he puts the bat on the ball well and he makes great contact, but he's not patient," Henderson said. "He doesn't know how to take two strikes and hit. See, that's how I always played. I'd give you two strikes and hit. I'm not afraid. I think that's what he's got to feel." Henderson then turned his attention to the entire league and spoke with the critical voice of a law-school professor. "I think the guys aren't challenging the catchers as much today and putting pressure on teams and filling up the basepaths," he said. "It's so much into guys hitting home runs. You're getting all these power home runs, and it's eliminating the little guys from doing the running because they don't want to take the power out of the game." This type of honesty and insight is why the Mets brought Henderson to camp. "And it's why I'll be back for a few weeks in June, too," Henderson said. "Doing the same things. Meeting with the guys. Telling them what I see. Doing a whole lot of talking." INSIDE PITCH

]Better than my email to my cable company. They just said "nope". Cooby not sure if you know this, but Comcast are in the process of buying Suscom so nothing will be added to Suscom till that deal goes through, form what I read that should happen in a few weeks,then you will have SNY as Comcast is part owner.

IIRC Darling remarked that Bannister's 12-6 curve is not a pitch you see that much anymore in the game.....

How about "Mets Meltdowns to Remember" or " Oh so close no-hitters"

]It's so nice hearing Ralph Kiner, back when he was still sharp. So different from how he has stumbled in recent years. So true, I only really know him form recent years, pretty cool booth of announcers,, Kiner, McCarver,Steve Zabriskie and I forget the 4th guy.

Game cancelled, SNY showing Mets classics, Mets V Cubs from September 1986.

When I watched Darling on WPIX 11 last week he sounded a lot like Hernandez to me.....

Yeah it's 60 here,I hear the in-game picture sucks, is Bill Webb with SNY, he's the best at game direction.

And here in Yorktown SNY is on......yeeeeeeah

Well he does have a big nose...Pedro confirms he won't start opening day.... ]"Opening Day? No," Martinez said. "Unless I can really work some magic. But I don't think I'll have enough time. I need at least two outings. You're not going to throw me three innings in a game and then straight to Opening Day. "I don't think it's fair to either me, my teammates or anybody. Another start will probably pretty much put me on track to go easy on the first game of the regular season." http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-spmnotes0323,0,7803631.story?coll=ny-sports-headlines

BREAKING NEWS......... ] Book: Sheff injected steroids BY KEN DAVIDOFF Newsday Staff Writer March 22, 2006, 2:44 PM EST "Game of Shadows," the explosive new book that puts together a damning dossier on Barry Bonds' steroid usage, also offers some new details of Gary Sheffield's relationship with the slugger and performance-enhancing drugs. Specifically, Sheffield -- who reportedly testified to the BALCO grand jury in December 2003 that he unknowingly used steroids -- took injectable testosterone and human growth hormone in January 2002, according to the book, written by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. And the Yankees' rightfielder tried to maintain a relationship with Bonds' infamous trainer Greg Anderson, even after Bonds and Sheffield had a falling out. Newsday obtained a copy of the book, which will be sold in bookstores beginning tomorrow. In Sheffield's reported testimony, and a subsequent interview with Sports Illustrated, he spoke of using only "The Clear" and "The Cream," the former an oral drug, the latter applied by rubbing on his knees. Those drugs made an "unknowing" defense slightly more feasible, unlike injectable testosterone and HGH, which is also administered through a subcutaneous injection. Sheffield and Bonds worked out together in the offseasons following 2001 and 2002, and Bonds introduced Sheffield to Anderson. It was a drug calendar kept by Anderson, according to the book, that documented Sheffield's use of HGH and testosterone. When Bonds and Sheffield cut off communication that second offseason, due to several arguments, Sheffield attempted to obtain The Cream and The Clear through Anderson, the book reports. But Bonds ordered Anderson not to speak with Sheffield, and he told people in his entourage that he had offered BALCO head Victor Conte $100,000 if he refused to give Sheffield any more drugs. Jason Giambi's picture is on the book's cover, but he gets off relatively easy, as most of the details of his relationship with Bonds and BALCO had been publicized through the previous reporting of his grand jury testimony. The book does report that BALCO shipped its drugs -- via Federal Express -- to Giambi's homes in New York and Las Vegas and even his parents' home in Southern California.

Lets say the Nationals get really desperate, I'd take Soriano if the price was right, he'd look good hitting 5 or 6 in the order....the way things look the Nationals may have a hard time trading him, very few teams could take on the money.....the next week or two should be interesting.

Yeah but he has a toe problem.

It's starting.......

I wonder if Sandra Oh is related to Sadaharu ....

heep if you go to page 14 here you will find an article I posted that may explain things, Jon Heyman says the Mets have no interest... http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-spsori214670490mar21,0,3683967.story?coll=ny-sports-headlines

I guess they love doing this in Japan....don't drop the legend.

Omar speaks spanglish.

Cool article today on Nady, learn how he pronounces his name... ] Xavier Is a Household Name. At Least It Is in the Nady Household. By BEN SHPIGEL Published: March 21, 2006 PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla., March 20 � Xavier Nady's father calls him Junior, as his father did, as his father did, as his father did and as his father did. The continual line of Xavier Nadys spans six generations and stretches back more than 150 years, to when Nady's great-great-great-grandfather, the man they call X the First, moved his family from eastern France to raise horses on a 660-acre patch of farmland in southeastern Iowa. But the actual first Xavier Nady lived in the 1500's, in the French hamlet of Auxelles-Bas, in the Alsace region of France, and he started the tradition. In some generations, the name was Xavier Louis. In others, it was Xavier Francis or Francis Xavier, because of St. Francis Xavier, the first Jesuit missionary. "It's just a good Catholic name," Nady's father said in a telephone interview. "I don't know why else they would have chosen Xavier." Xavier Clifford Nady, or Xavier VI, said he did not know much about his early ancestry, other than he pronounces his first name differently, putting a modern-day signature on a 16th-century name. Nady's father pronounces it ZAY-vee-yer � "That's the correct way," Nady said. But Nady, whose Mets teammates call him X or X-Man, prefers EX-ay-vee-yer to, ahem, exaggerate the X. "Why not, right?" Nady said. "It's pretty cool." Nady had the distinction of being the first major leaguer with a name beginning with an X to hit a home run, when, as a rookie with the San Diego Padres, on April 2, 2003, he clobbered a pitch from San Francisco's Damian Moss. Of course, the competition was not steep. There are only two others � pitchers Xavier Hern�ndez (whose real first name is Francis) and the Manhattan-born Xavier Rescigno, known as Mr. X � and they had a combined 109 at-bats. Nady said he did not know Hern�ndez, but last season, Rescigno wrote Nady a letter, delighting in their shared Xavierness, and they met before a game in San Diego. "It was really cool, one Xavier to another," Nady said. "How often do you see that? Probably not often, unless the Nadys are around. The Xavier Nadys share much more than a name. To a degree, all have been sportsmen. The early Xaviers were said to be capable horsemen, and the later generations revealed aptitude on a ball field. Nady's grandfather, known as Big X, coached baseball at St. Martin's University in Lacey, Wash., and three sports at a Des Moines high school. Nady's father pitched for Boston College and the University of Colorado before becoming, like his father, X the Third, a lawyer. Hardly anyone called them Xavier � X and Big X sounded better � and it was not until Nady's father started practicing law that he began answering to his first name. "It didn't hit me until I had to put my name on the letterhead," Nady's father said. "I couldn't very well put just X on there." Nady grew up in Salinas, Calif. � the lettuce capital of the world � and starred at the University of California, Berkeley, before he was drafted by San Diego in 2000. Viewed as one of baseball's top prospects, Nady never found his niche with the Padres. Where the Padres saw a utility player, Mets General Manager Omar Minaya saw a potential cornerstone, an exceedingly talented 27-year-old player with great potential that could only be realized if he were given a chance to play a full season. Nady was dining with his former teammate Brian Lawrence in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, when he saw his name and Mike Cameron's scroll across the bottom of a television screen announcing his trade to the Mets. He has emerged as the favorite to be the Mets' opening-day right fielder, batting .366 with a team-leading 11 runs batted in, and will be given every opportunity to extend his record for, well, almost every hitting category by a player with a name beginning with X. A greater honor, perhaps, would be being compared to great players of French extraction. There have not been many. Only eight players were born in France, including Padres Manager Bruce Bochy (Landes de Bussac), the former Expos pitcher Charlie Lea (Orleans), the former Phillies shortstop Steve Jeltz (Paris), and the Hall of Famer Nap Lajoie, who had Quebec roots. Maybe someday, if Nady does not attain that goal, a future Xavier Nady will. "If I'm fortunate enough to someday have a son, he'll definitely be Xavier the Seventh," Nady said. "What else would he be called?" INSIDE PITCH

Japan plates two more runners....9 to 5 Japan......

yeah tough play at the plate but the right call....