Farmer Ted

I only make good conversation with former Mets in airports.

Who wants to try this one out? DaveKingman.com / davekingman26@aol.com

My prediction is he tweaks a muscle, spends time on the DL, can't do much more than pitch out the pen, then gets exposed in the Mitchell investigation.

Just looked at the teams stats on espn.com: NL Batting: 1st NL Pitching: !st NL Fielding: 12th

Hah freaking hah. TWO Mets, Seaver and Staub. Mike and the Mad Dog don't count. What shocked me was Rusty wearing black cotton sweat pants and a rather tight fitting gray t-shirt.

Found myself side-by-side with Rusty today at the Palm Beach airport checking out magazines in Hudson News (me looking at Maxim; him at Time). That's one BIG dude. A youngster, about 8 or 9 years old, with a Mets hat walked by. Rusty said 'hey, nice hat'. The kid had no clue.

Feliciano still with a goose egg ERA on the season. Sling it.

Those Sawx announcers are always like that. Well worth getting the MLB extra innings package if the Mets aren't on. Some good lines: "He was asked to leave for ruining a good piece of pizza" and "He's been ejected and never again allowed to buy pizza."

I can't find the article, but when Philly was eying locations for the new Phillies ballpark, city officials brought in a feng shui expert looked at five or so proposed sites and the worst was the current location. The two best were in center city and another on the Delaware in NE Philly. Frankly, watching that team the past few nights, they're going to be trouble. Once Howard hits a few more dingers and Utley gets on base more, no one will be doubting them. It was just funny how Rich Hoffman was ready to pack in for the Phils on April 13th.

The baseball beat writers in Philly are in panic mode. Good. Rich Hofmann | Even Phillies admit it's getting late early NEW YORK - Fathers and sons, arm-in-arm, trundled down the ramps at Shea Stadium after the game ended and joined in the time-honored chant, "Yank-ees suck, Yank-ees suck." Two minutes after the final out was recorded, the Phillies were an afterthought. With that, welcome home. At two-and-seven. Their worst start in 20 years. There is little to say, seeing as how the aroma is currently traveling faster than the speed of sound. The Phils are just playing lousy. They are squandering what has been excellent starting pitching. They should have about six wins by now, based on how good the starters have been - including Jamie Moyer, who gave up three earned runs in six busy innings last night. But they have two wins, only two. It will be interesting to see the reception they receive tonight in the little ballpark at Lake Hopebegone, where the feelings are strong, the history isn't good-looking, and the frustrations are above average. "We're just putting ourselves in a tough situation, just like we have the last couple of years," Pat Burrell was saying after the loss, another loss, this one by a 5-3 score. "Now we have to fight to get back on top. "We just flat haven't played as well as we should. You can always point fingers - 'This is why, this is why' - but in the end, we're not winning. We have to find a way just to come out and win, period. "We're playing well sporadically, but we're not doing it all at the same time," he said. "That's what is hurting us." Burrell entered last night hitting .357, but he was as quiet as the rest of them against Tom Glavine and Friends - except for Jimmy Rollins, who clubbed two more home runs. Glavine struggled early and had a high pitch count after two innings, but the Phils let him settle in. As manager Charlie Manuel said, "He made some adjustments and we kind of got anxious on him." It is their way now. Two-and-seven and everybody is anxious. Again. "From the end of last season to now, I thought we would be able to pull it off and come out and play strong," Burrell was saying. "We just haven't done it. The good news is that it's early. Everybody says that. But you know what? We can't have that attitude. We have to play like it's September and we have to do it right now." If you are looking for great insight into this nascent disaster, look elsewhere. There is very little to be said that hasn't already been said. Repeat: They're just playing lousy. A couple of nights, the fault has belonged with the bullpen. Most of the rest of the time, it has belonged to all of them - who have not hit in the clutch, and who have not hit much of anything the last couple of nights, other than Rollins. "I know we're going to hit," Manuel said. "Our offense will come around. I know we can score runs and we will." He is probably right. You have to believe that Chase Utley (.231, three RBI) and Ryan Howard (.212, one HR, five RBI) will find themselves pretty soon. The problem, though, is the timing. Every franchise has a place in its life cycle, and this franchise's place is one where another slow start is unacceptable. Their fans won't take it. The people in charge should not take it. If this limps along like this for another week, general manager Pat Gillick owes this manager and these fans a move of some kind. He owes Manuel another bullpen arm. He owes the fans a sign that this season is not yet over. And there really is very little time to get this thing turned around. Even in a year when Daylight Saving's Time has already arrived, it really can get late early around here. Because they are wasting this starting pitching. That is the real sin of the thing. It would appear that they have the hardest thing knocked, or close to knocked. Starting pitching is such a big part of this game and the Phils have shown a bunch of it so far. Given that, 2-7 is ridiculous. "We've talked about it," Burrell said, when asked if anybody among the players says out loud that the turnaround needs to happen now. "We have talked. We've had meetings and stuff where we say, 'It's time to go get 'em.' But it's one thing to say it, another thing to do it. We haven't been able to pull it together. Now's the time." It had better be.

Mrs. Ted guessed Uribe but none that I remember. These Phils are annoying. Having no output from Delgado isn't much of a help either.

Watching on the Phils comcast with Harry Kalas. Trivia...only Mets player with the last name beginning with U? Easy one. I think Harry's been checking out the UMDB.

An easy trip for Indians fans in Chicago, just 90 miles.

19,031. Attendance for the Indians "home game" in Milwaukee. Not sure if the fans in Milwaukee are that good, or they just wanted to see a really good game for once. That's a lot of peeps in the stands.

March 31: Seattle--Re-assigned to Minor League Camp: Infielder (1): Rey Ordoñez He doesn't appear on any minor league rosters affiliated with Seattle so he may still be on AZ working on that smooth swing of his.

Can of Whoop Ass, opened. http://www.stickergiant.com/Merchant2/imgs/250/sp0816.gif (sorry, can't seem to post images, just links)

4-2 on the opening road series of the season. I can't complain, especially since the Mets went down with hope in two of those losses.

From the Philly Inquirer.... The Phillies said yesterday they would look at ways to improve college nights at Citizens Bank Park after Wednesday's first college night got out of hand. Rowdy fans threw objects from the upper deck onto the field and fans below. There were 31 ejections Wednesday, which is higher than normal. There also were reports of fights. If they were playing the Mets, you know who would have been blamed.

Jeter is bi-racial so he is only eligible to wear a 4 or a 2. 4 is retired so he has to wear a number that lame players wear, 2. Oh, wait a minute...

NEW YORK (AP) -- After negotiations that went into extra innings, baseball struck a deal to keep its "Extra Innings" package of out-of-market games on cable television. Under pressure from Sen. John Kerry, baseball and iN Demand reached an agreement in principle Wednesday on a seven-year contract, a deal that likely will allow the sport's new TV network to be available in at least 40 million homes when it launches in 2009. Baseball announced an exclusive seven-year, $700 million agreement with DirecTV on March 8, but viewers who would have lost TV access to the games complained. "The concern expressed by our fans who would have been forced to switch to alternative carriers or were unable to switch was something we tried to be responsive to," baseball chief operating officer Bob DuPuy said. Kerry had asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the original deal, and during a hearing last week in Washington he pushed baseball to resume talks with iN Demand, owned by affiliates of Time Warner, Comcast and Cox. While baseball had set a March 31 deadline, the sides kept negotiating and announced a deal Wednesday night, an agreement that still must be finalized. "All we ever wanted was a victory for the fans, and this outcome is a big step forward," Kerry said in a statement. "Everyone kept talking and pressing until we had a deal that protects the rights of most fans to follow their hometown team." IN Demand began making games available to cable systems in progress starting at 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday, president Robert Jacobson said. The package will be available for $159 this year through a free preview period that will extend into next week, he said, but the 2007 price for those subscribing after that has not been set. "I'm exhausted but happy," Jacobson said. "We always needed to feel like we were treated fairly relative to the other distributor. We felt like got our fair share." As part of the agreement, iN Demand and DirecTV each will receive about 16 percent equity in the new network, a person familiar with the deal said, speaking on condition of anonymity because that detail wasn't announced. Under the original agreement, DirecTV was to be a 20 percent owner. In Demand will make the "Extra Innings" package available to other cable companies, which also would be required to carry the MLB channel. Baseball is willing to resume negotiate with Echostar's Dish Network, baseball spokesman Rich Levin said, but DirecTV president Chase Carey said he anticipated for now that his company would be an exclusive satellite carrier. The dispute was largely over baseball's desire to have a deal that will allow its network to be widely available on a basic cable tier. At 40 million homes, it would be one of the largest launches in cable history. "It provides both the financial stability and the exposure to ensure a successful launch of the channel and bring the game to as many fans as possible," DuPuy said. Because of the new deal, DirecTV will pay less than it would have under the original agreement. "The economics are better for us on the 'Extra Innings' side," Carey said. "Clearly there were benefits you had in capturing subs (subscribers). We were paying a lot of money to get it. At what price? We weighed all the positives of each."

A "link" to the Lee story. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/02/sports/baseball/02lee.html?ex=1267419600&en=063dccf0be18fe8f&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

2005- Port St. Peek-a-Boo: Mets minor league manager Leon Lee arrested for exposing himself to five women on the fourth floor of the PSL Holiday Inn.

Just caught our lovely third sacker on an ESPN commercial.

David Wright obliged with another endorsement.

Mets.com lists Newhan as the the #3 guy at five different positions. That's one multi-faceted mofro.