Frayed Knot

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Like I said ... Yawn. This is why spring training coverage mostly suxx and why most football coverage drives me nuts too; that in the absence of actual games there's so little of [u:7c7dee629c]real[/u:7c7dee629c] substance going on that we take non-stories like this and ponder them as if if actually meaningful.

So we have the first entry in the 'most over-played story of the first week of spring' contest. Some fans get all pissed off over this kind of stuff, thinking that it's bad because it'll give the other side "more incentive" to play hard ... as if some sentence spoken in February will have some tangible effect over the next 7 months. Others get all excited (as some on the radio did yesterday) taking this as a sign that their guy is super-duper psyched for the coming year. Personally, I yawn.

.........

The thumbnail summaries of the 6 regular season matchups from 2000 that I mentioned earlier were a sign of the frustration to come: [u:520823f497]June 9 (YS): Mets 12 - Yanx 2[/u:520823f497] Leiter goes 7 and Met bats torch Clemens (Piazza GS) [u:520823f497]June 10 (YS): Yanx 13 - Mets 5[/u:520823f497] Bobby Jones is bad and the pen (Mahomes & Cook) even worse [u:520823f497]July 7 (Shea): Yanx 2 - Mets 1[/u:520823f497] Leiter gives up only 6 baserunners thru 8, but 5 (and both NYY runs) are to [u:520823f497]the first 5 hitters in the game[/u:520823f497]. Yanx then go in order until an 8th inning single. [u:520823f497]July 8 (Shea):Yanx 4 - Mets 2[/u:520823f497] Bobby Jones gives up 4 hits & 3 BBs over 7 ... but 5 of those runners are to [u:520823f497]the first 6 hitters in the game[/u:520823f497]. He then gives up only 1 run on 1 hit over the next 6 [u:520823f497]July 8 (YS): Yanx 4 - Mets 2[/u:520823f497] (2nd game of home-and-home DH): Rusch yields 5 hits/0 walks over 8 innings but (stop me if you heard this one) 4 of those hits and all 4 runs come in a 5-batter span. Mets get 7 hits off Clemens and leave 7 on. [u:520823f497]July 9 (Shea): Mets 2 - Yanx 0[/u:520823f497] Hampton (7 IP) & Benitez (2) toss a 7 hit/3 BB shutout Zeile's 4th inning lead-off HR and Mora's 7th inning SF provide the runs

AG/DC wrote: ="Valadius"]I was at Game 1. Fucking Benitez ruined everything. Timo Perez went 0-6. Perez, Alfonzo, Piazza, and Ventura went 2-22 combined. Baseball is hard. Closer-baiting stnks. Fonzie - coming off a .324/.425/.542 108 RBI season - was 3-fer-21 in that series, all singles and 1 RBI (on a groundout). Amazing that his poor series is almost never brought up as a factor and that he's almost unquestionly remembered as a "clutch" player by many fans.

Brady Clark (35 y/o in April, a brief NYM back in 2002) gets a NRI contract to join the last outfielder scrum. They also made the Ben Johnson re-acquiring official. I seem to recall Clark being labeled a 'Can't Lose' guy on account of his DEFENSE!!!! back in a different world many moons ago.

I remember making a post (back in the old MoFo days) on all 11 games the Mets & Yanx played that season: 6 reg season + 5 WS - The first two were blow-outs (1 each way) but then the remaining 9 were all 1 & 2 run games with us coming out on the short end in 7 of them. - and as if that wasn't bad enough, we out-hit and/or out-baserunnered them in many of those 7 only to get out-scored as the MFYs managed to infuriatingly bunch theirs all in one inning It's not that we deserved to win, it's just that virtually everything that could go wrong did that whole fucking year.

If you were a catcher what would you use, the old-style catcher's mask or the newer hockey-style helmet? In the immortal words of the late Spiro Agnew: No Lo Contendre P.S. I think the helmet scheme is kinda cool. It looks like the helmet under the mask (with a bit of flourish added) - just all in one piece.

... but then trips rounding the bases. Writing for FOXsports online, Whitlock - a columnist for the Kansas City Star - nails Roger for being a crack addict, addicted to the attention and privelege that goes with being a celebrity: ... if [Clemens] isn't telling the truth, all he's really fighting for is the right to show up in any restaurant in America and get a table without waiting, a round of drinks on the house and some groupie telling him he's the greatest. He's a crackhead, a celebrity addicted to human lips resting on the crack of his/her rear end. He then goes off track a bit by labeling the mainstream media as a pro-Roger cabal, something I'm certainly not finding to be true. Roger, it appears, is consumed with image. He's worried about what guys like Bob Costas think. Roger wants to give Costas, Lupica and all the other baseball-is-America keepers of the faith a reason to believe Roger is better than Barry [bonds]. Costas sold that line of garbage on Bill Maher's HBO talk show last week. Somehow Costas argued that Brian McNamee's sworn statements about rear-ending Roger and his wife with HGH was less compelling evidence than the gossipy book "Game of Shadows." Maher, even more incredibly, bought Costas' line of (spit) and argued that jealousy motivated McNamee's testimony. And you thought Johnnie Cochran was a slick lawyer. Clemens has his own Dream Team of attorneys and media groupies. Whitlock's had some semi-public feuds with other journos, especially Lupica who he accused of getting him tossed off of ESPN's round-table issue show 'The Sports Reporters', coincidently over this same issue. Whitlock's version is that he became a pariah with that group by not wanting to indict Bonds as baseball's sole steroid villian and so Lupica had him black-balled from the show. He then loses me entirely by taking the idea that Roger has these protectors in high places and spreading it out that paint with a really broad brush: White folks can't wait to forgive Clemens. All he needed to do was offer the same kind of half-hearted apology Jason Giambi gave. A momentary show of contrition and the steroid witch hunters would've returned to their primary mission of tar and feathering Barry Bonds. Right now, the masses are upset with Clemens because he's turned attention away from Bonds by claiming innocence and glad-handing congressmen. The witch hunters never wanted to burn Clemens at a stake. You never heard them talk about Clemens' hat size, muscle growth, physique change and career resurrection with the kind of passion and righteous indignation they discussed Bonds. For years we've been shown pictures of a 21-year-old Bonds juxtaposed against the 40-year-old Bonds. This is supposed to be undeniable proof that Barry did steroids. I've never seen one ESPN show do a similar picture graphic of Clemens Yes Whitlock is black, although when I've read him he's generally been willing dish it out on both sides including being a very loud voice in taking on the destructive nature that the 'thug/rap culture' has had on sports in particular and the black community in general. That's why I'm disappointed in the back of this article. He's usually better than that.

Willets Point wrote: ="attgig"]he's julio franco '08. But half his age! And twice his weight!

Benjamin Grimm wrote: That's kind of a dis on Porky Pig, isn't it? Oh absolutely. Porky's much cuter.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: McNamee looks a bit like Andy Dick, doesn't he? Not as much as Henry Waxman looks like Porky Pig

Dr. Ron Taylor gets cited

seawolf17 wrote: Or, they could leave the apple where it is, as part of the parking lot. Then people could take pictures with it, but the new ballpark can move forward. Perhaps that appeases everyone? That would be cool. Fence off the current one where it is and put a newer (and hopefully better looking) version in the new joint. Problem is, Jeff will probably think that it'll cost them 5 parking spots @ $10/per x 81 home games = .... Sorry, no can do.

I'm not really sure what the purpose of this current dog-and-pont show is. At least last time Congress could claim that they were trying to push MLB into a stronger testing policy (and could claim some influence there). But this one seems to be totally a hearing to determine which among Clemens or MacNamee is lying about the other and I don't understand why they care all that much. That said, this should be fun theatre - especially since the guest list is essentially down to the two protagonists. The best part is that not only is someone lying here but one of them is doing so SPECTACULARLY !! No nuanced difference in interpretation here, it's a choice between labeling Rajah as a hard-working, milk-drinking jock or a raging, 'roiding, bullying asshole. And, this time, the revolution will be televised.

I've used that: Saenz, Everywhere there's Saenz, gag about 15 times already. Went with the homophonic switcheroo heading instead.

Usually the term for having a blood alcohol level of .48 is deceased.

Mets ink veteren (37) PH/DH/1B/3B Olmedo Saenz to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training. The RH hitter is coming off a bad year with the Dodgers but has shown good power in the past with decent walk rates.

sharpie wrote: Luis, not Jose Castillo. Yeah, him too.

Considering those returning players who are probables for this year's 25-man roster, we go into the year w/a 24 y/o as the one with the most continous service time on the team and only 4 who were Mets prior to opening day '05: 2008 NYM SeniorityPLAYER1st NYM Game Pedro Feliciano*Sept 4, 2002Jose ReyesJune 10, 2003Aaron HeilmanJune 26, 2003David WringhtJuly 21, 2004Pedro MartinezApril 4, 2005Carlos BeltranApril 4, 2005Ramon CastroApril 7, 2005Billy WagnerApril 3, 2006Carlos DelgadoApril 3, 2006Endy ChavezApril 6, 2006John MaineMay 2, 2006Orlando HernandezMay 26, 2006Mike PelfreyAugust 8, 2006Oliver PerezAugust 26, 2006Moises AlouApril 1, 2007Joe SmithApril 1, 2007Scott SchoeneweisApril 3, 2007Jorge SosaMay 5, 2007Jose CastilloJuly 31, 2007 * time not continous, wasn't on 2005 team.

Valadius wrote: Perez isn't going anywhere. Whether he does or doesn't isn't really the point of the exercise here. Perez is just one of the potential FAs with an expiring contract whose spot will need to be covered in 2009. Nothing says that any or all of those spots can't be covered with a new deal for those very same players. All the author of the piece is saying is that, contrary to what the Met fan writing fears, the Santana deal isn't a one-year shot at the moon that will fuck up team payroll beyond '08. As for Perez, he's a Boras client (ie. no friendly deals) whose '08 season could make his future worth be anything from a cautious 1-year "let's see" deal to a 7-figures/per multi-year bonanza. I'd be very surprised if a contract gets done with him either prior to or during the season.

]Hardin told the Times that if Novitzky ever "messes with Roger (Clemens), Roger will eat his lunch." I don't think Novitzky is someone they want to fuck with. This issue is a virtual crusade to him and he brings a whole buncha weapons to the fight.

OK, I admit it, I was just looking for an excuse to use that subject heading. But anyway, [u:eab9d94e58]The Hardball Times[/u:eab9d94e58] takes out its cyrstal ball twice today and looks at the future of Santa Anna as a NYM. First in Santana Claus: The Trade that Keeps on Giving they compare him to other multiple CY winners at a similar age and find him to be in elite company and reasonably likely to provide Wilpon with his money's worth. Then they take a rather sabermetric look at what his contract means to the team for 2009 and beyond - a look prompted by a somewhat hysterical note from a Met fan fretting that they had put too many eggs in the near-term basket. The basic conclusion was that the post-2008 departures of Pedro, Delgado, Hernandez & Perez could probably be replaced on the open market for a similar cost/production ratio (if done correctly of course) even while carrying Santana's huge contract and dealing with a gutted farm system.

Newsday: Ehrhardt destroyed all but a handful of his [as many as 1,200] signs after a falling out with Mets management when Doubleday and Wilpon purchased the team in 1981. The Mets brought him and his placards back in 2002 for the team's 40th anniversary ... In his later years, Ehrhardt still followed the Mets but mostly to root against them because he was still bitter [his daughter] said.