Daily Archives: May 24, 2006
The Mets record in one run games is 13-6, most in the major-leagues…
…outstanding…
In the print edition of Sports Illustrated, Frank Lidz writes a feature on David Wright, who he refers to as, “The Prince of the City.”…
The feature first focuses on Wright’s star quality, and how he is quite adored by the team’s female fans…
Lidz describes two young girls in the front row who looked at Wright with eyes glwoing like “cherries in a glass of buttermilk.”…
…wow…nice imagery, frank…
Wright offers Lidz a few funny quotes on the girls, such as the following…
“When I first got to the majors in 2004, female fans held up signs asking me to marry them. Those girls today were what, 13, 14? I’m 23, but that’s a little young even for me.”…
The column eventually shifts to Wright’s talent…
Braves 3B Chipper Jones, on the infield at Shea, and Wright’s defense, as quoted by Lidz…
“There’s an extra lip in front of the baselines…Balls that hit the lip bounce like they’re on a pogo stick…
“As a fielder, David is as acrobatic as Scott (Rolen) was at that age. And he’s a little ahead of Scott offensively. He can hit for average, hit for power and hit to all fields. David doesn’t just flick singles to right; he’ll hurt you with a moon shot. For a 23-year-old that’s very rare.”…
Lidz also sits down with Wright’s parents, to recall if their son, who seems perfect, had ever done anything wrong…
Mom: “Let me think…Once, in the high school cafeteria, another kid hit David with a French fry. David returned fire with a sandwich and struck the kid right upside the head.”…
Dad: “David got an in-school suspension. I read him the riot act.”…
Mom: “You made that food fight sound like the worst thing that possibly could have happened”…
Dad: “Yeah. And after David left the kitchen, you and I laughed about it.”…
Son: “The truth is, it wasn’t a sandwich. It was a hamburger.”…
…priceless…
Lastly Lidz captures a hysterical story about Wright and Cliff Floyd at an airport on a road trip in which the youngster was forced to lug the veteran’s bags, which were eventually searched by security, after they found a pair of tweezers, which belonged to Floyd, but which Wright took responsibility for, since after all, his job was to carry Floyd’s bags…
Lidz writes…
(Security) plunged in yet again (after the tweezers) and drew forth copies of Ebony, Jet, XXL, King, Smooth, Essence, Black Enterprise, Black-Gen, Black Men’s Swimsuit Extra….
Security: “And I suppose these are yours, too?”
Wright lowered his head and whispered: “Yes, ma’am.”
…hahaha…hysterical…
One final quote from Wright, as quoted by Lidz…
“As soon as baseball becomes a job, as soon as I stop caring, as soon as the smile goes away, I’ll hang up my spikes and do something else.”…
…great story, frank…well done…
To subscribe to Sports Illustrated, for just .85 cents an issue, go here…
For those unaware, former Mets RHP Tyler Yates, who the team released in 2005 following rotator cuff surgery, was signed to a minor-league contract by the Braves on May 3…
…the talk around the minors is that yates’s fastball has been averaging out around the mid-90s, while he has hit 100 on a few occasions…however, he continues to struggle with his command, which was exactly his problem while with the mets…
In four games this season for Triple-A, Yates has allowed two earned runs on five hits while striking out seven along with two walks in six innings pitched…
Yates had reconstructive elbow surgery in 2002, pitched for the Mets in 2004, but struggled and then injured his shoulder in 2005, followed by a hamstring injury this spring while pitching in Orioles camp…
…the buzz from atlanta is that the team sees yates as a realistic option for its bullpen later in the season…
…and thanks to claudia for the head’s up on yates…
A few moments ago, on WFAN, Joe Benigno went on a rant about how whenever Jose Reyes hits a home run, he tends to go in a slump…
One week ago, in an eMailbag response, I noted how this is not true, pointing out the following…
Reyes has hit nine home runs since the start of 2005, two of which came on the same day, and three of which came within five days of one another…
In the week prior to his home runs on April 9, 2005, Reyes hit .259. The week after he hit .333…
In the week prior to his home run on August 20, 2005, Reyes hit .262. The week after he hit .300…
In the week prior to his home run on September, 15, 2005, Reyes hit .267. The week after he hit .280…
In the week after Reyes hit a home run on April 7 of this season, which came two days after opening day, Reyes hit .357…
Lastly, in the week prior to his home run on May 10 of this season, Reyes hit .160. The week after he hit .240…
Unfortunately, I do not have time to call and correct Benigno. However, if you do, go for it, as the show can be reached at 718.937.6666…and be sure to reference MetsBlog.com if you can…
…thanks…
…good luck…
If you’ve yet to do so, be sure and vote in this week’s MetsBlog Fan Confidence Rating by using the poll to the left…
…thanks…
Carlos Beltran, on whether last night’s home run was his greatest moment as a member of the Mets, as quoted by the Daily News…
“When this team wins the World Series, that will be my best moment, not before.”…
…nice…i would expect no other answer from this guy, who clearly puts the team before himself…
…however, as far as i’m concerned, the walk-off homer was his greatest moment as a met…so far…
…last night i wrote that this was beltran’s first great moment as a met…to which many readers harped on me for having a short memory…
…yes, beltran’s home run on friday against the yankees was a huge, as was his home run in the first week of the season last year against the braves…
…however, there is a significant difference between those homers and the one he hit last night…when i think of the other two, i don’t see an exhausted fan base smiling in the middle of the night, i don’t see his teammates jumping, and smiling, and high-fiving him in relief and pride, and i don’t see a dejected second-place team moping off the field…
…the mets and their fans were tired last night, hoping for a hero, and we got one in the form of our highest paid player, a guy who had been beaten on all off-season for not doing the very thing he did last night…
…to me, it was his greatest moment to date because it won a game, it demoralized an opponent, it inflated his team’s fans, picked up his teammates in the middle of the night, and it proved he is capable of being the last hero standing…
According to the Daily News, RHP Jon Leiber will start tonight against the Mets, instead of LHP Cole Hamels, who felt a “pop” in his left shoulder while throwing in the outfield before last night’s game…
Since being called up from Triple-A, in two starts for the Phillies, Hamels, 22, is winless with a 3.18 ERA with 12 strike outs and nine walks in 11.1 innings…
At PhilliesNation, an excellent Phillies blog, Brian points out that Hamels has a long history of injuries, included elbow tendinitis, a broken left hand and chronic back problems…
…so much for number four on this list, i guess…
John at Metstradamus writes that the Mets stole this game, “Like Danny Ocean from Terry Benedict. Like the Hamburglar steals from the metrosexual clown. Like Robby Alomar stole paychecks for years as a Met.”…
Mark from Mets Walk-offs is naturally in action, writing that Carlos Beltran’s home run marks the 336 walk-off win in Mets history, among other walk-off tidbits from the game…
At MetsGeek, Jeremy reviews who may be available in the bullpen tonight, while declaring that last night’s game to be the wildest win this season…
…that’s the thing, there have been so many thrillers and it’s only mid-may…i agree, though, this was a big one…
Vinny at Metsville.com wished he brought an air mattress with him to last night’s game. By the way, as he points out, he’s attended two games featuring Steve Trachsel, and thus watched 30 innings and 10 hours in two games…
Lastly, I Got Your Backman explains how he was forced to miss the entire game, except for turning on the television just as Beltran stepped to the plate in the bottom of the sixteenth…
…wow…nice timing…and nice name for the blog, by the way…
Appearing on SNY, while addressing the media following this morning’s 16 inning, 9–8 win over the Phillies, the team’s manager, Willie Randolph, had the following to say 
regarding…
…the win…
“We just keep battling back, man. Every day we show more and more character, stuff that I already knew – stuff that I knew when I first took over this team, and got here last year and just transfered it over to this year. I’m just real proud of my guys…
“Before we get into how we played tonight, and we did a spectacular job, but I thought the kid Ryan Madson did an unbelievable job. You don’t see a guy who can pitch in long relief and throw over 100 pitches, he threw almost a whole game – I give it up to him because he did a tremendous job keeping them in the game. But, we were a little bit better. Darren Oliver did a tremendous job coming out of the pen…
“You know, we had our opportunities. We always seem to make it difficult sometimes, but we stuck with it and it was a big win for us.”…
…Carlos Beltran, who had some tough at-bats early in the game, but knocked in the game-winning home run in the 16th…
“Yes he did, but he stayed with it. You make a mistake to real good hitters and they usually capitalize on it. He got out in front of that pitch, it was a change-up, and I had a feeling if he came back in the zone he was gonna hit him hard…
“Carlos is one of those special players that if you make a mistake he’ll hurt you, and he did it again tonight.”…
…whether he was thinking far enough ahead as to who would play catcher had Paul Lo Duca got hurt, following Ramon Castro’s and Chris Woodward’s pinch-hit appearances earlier in the game…
“No, man, I was just holding my breath…It’s funny, because, I think, three or four innings prior to that Lo Duca took a bad tip off his chest…and I held my breath for a second there, because if he goes down there, David Wright’s catching, I guess (Laughing). Nah, I’m just saying, anybody for that matter, we’d need to keep somebody in there…maybe we put Tom Glavine in there (laughing), you know, he can hit, he can bunt, maybe we put a left-handed pitcher in there. In that situation you do whatever you can…
…what he expects from Alay Soler (on Wednesday), who makes his major-league debut tonight…
“I don’t know what we’re gonna get from him. I mean, I hope he keeps us in the ball game. I hope he goes at least seven (innings). Our bullpen was totally spent, but, they’re available (on Wednesday), but we need him to give us a nice outing.”…
…hey, who needs coffee this morning…
…i do, i do…
