Daily Archives: August 8, 2007
On Tuesday, August 14th, there will be an SNY Viewing Party at the
Hawaiian Tropic Zone, located at 729 Seventh Avenue at 49th Street in
New York.
SNY broadcaster Ron Darling will be in attendance.
Also, on Wednesday, August 29th at 6 pm, Mr. Met and the Pepsi Party Patrol will be on hand at the Ziegfeld Theater on 54th Street for a special screening of the Mets vs. Phillies.
Two tickets to a September game vs. the Braves are included with each admission. For more information go to Mets.com.
On Monday, Red Sox OF Bobby Kielty agreed to a minor league contract with the Red Sox.
…for some reason, ever since he was cut by oakland last week, readers keep e-mailing me to say that the Mets should sign this guy…i have no idea why…
…for what it’s worth, i get no sense that the Mets had interest in kielty, thankfully…from what i can gather, he’s viewed as a below-average center fielder, which would be bad news in shea, plus he’s always banged up, and can only hit a fastball when he isn’t striking out…
Last night, Barry Bonds hit the 756th home run of his career, breaking Henry Aaron’s 
record for the most home runs ever hit in major-league baseball.
…best part, the guy who caught the historic ball was wearing a Mets shirt…nice…any time a fellow Mets fan hits the jackpot, i’m happy, since the ball will likely sell for roughly $500,000…ya gotta believe, buddy…
…honestly, i forgot bonds was even playing…Fresh Prince of Bel Aire was not on TV Land, as i hoped, so i flipped around the dial, stumbled on ESPN, and bonds was rounding the bases…perfect timing…so, you get a sense of how unimportant this all is to me…
…it’s nothing against bonds, or baseball, i’m just not a big records guy, regardless of steroids…i also judge slowly, and this is a super complicated issue that may or may not be as important as i’m being told it is…so, it will probably be years before i reach some sort of clear idea on how i feel about all of this…and, by then, Alex Rodriguez will be breaking bonds’s record anyway, with someone like Ryan Howard or Prince Fielder eyeing it from afar…and such is history, with its dead-ball eras, lubricated pitches, fabric batting helmets, hitter-friendly parks, corked bats, raised mounds, body armor, nine-team leagues, smaller rosters, 
amphetamines, bigger rosters, and so on…
…round and round it goes…
…so, sure, i’m sort of happy for barry and his family, i guess…yes, i do feel bad for fans who care about this stuff…yes, i blame baseball, and especially the player’s union…and i’m a bit disturbed by Bud Selig’s and Hank Aaron’s reactions…but, it all doesn’t keep me up at night…frankly, i’m more interested in what the little leaguer is thinking these days, since, ultimately, that is probably what matters most to the future of the game…and, on that, time will tell, much like my opinions, i suppose…
…added to by Mike Nichols…
…i’m a huge Barry Bonds fans, always have been, always will be…i know there are mixed feelings about him, from his so-called ‘surliness,’ to the steroid controversy, but in my opinion it has all been media driven…
…performance-enhancing drugs, or not, in my mind this is not a ‘tainted’ record…no one but barry and his confidants know the truth about his alleged drug abuse…but, if it is found to be true it still will not take away from his accomplishment because to me it still comes down to talent and the ability to hit that little white ball – and let’s be honest, we’ll never know the truth unless bonds himself admits it…so, the media can illegally leak grand-jury testimony and writers can release the so-called primer of the steroid era, ‘Game of Shadows,’ but it will never change my opinion on bonds until he admits it himself or a positive test is revealed…
…i’m just not sure steroids, or other supplements, is that big of a factor in his accomplishment…is that naive on my part…perhaps…but, in reality, steroids in sports is not that big of a deal to me…
…added to by Anthony De Rosa…
…MLB allowed this to happen and will forever have to face the fact that they sat back and did nothing to prevent a performance-enhanced athlete to break one of, if not the most celebrated record in american sports…
…i do not blame bonds for this…he did what he did while baseball did nothing to stop it from happening…some would go as far as to say that they knew it was happening, but were far too enamored with what he was doing, along with Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, to bring disillusioned fans back to baseball after the 1994 strike…
…barry was an exceptional athlete before he began using steroids…i believe he could have broken the record without the need to do so, but perhaps saw his body breaking down and felt he needed to do something to offset the effects…he will have to live with that decision for the rest of his life, and so will the commissioner for turning a blind eye to it…
…added to by D.J. Short…
…for every Barry Bonds there are hundreds of Alex Sanchezes…hundreds who looked to find an edge, not just to make an impact on the major league level, but to even make it to the big leagues at all…bonds already belonged, he had three MVPs after eight big league seasons; a sure-fire hall of famer, by all accounts…if what he did in the late-90′s is believed to be true, he quickly progressed from the best player of our generation to perhaps the greatest hitter of the modern era…and while it wasn’t against the rules at the time, it wasn’t done by honest means…and there is a fundamental problem with that…i don’t care what you say, true baseball fans don’t tune in just to be entertained…it doesn’t work that way…sure, occasionally i can marvel at a 500 foot home run, but unless it helps my team win the game, it’s just another run…and we just don’t want our teams to win, we want these players to win legitimately…otherwise, they’re no better than professional wrestling or street magicians…
…imagine, if you will, the mets won the world series last october…and along the way, Guillermo Mota secured some crucial outs…only after the world series would it come to light that mota used performance enhancing drugs…how would you have felt…i would have felt sick…it would be forever tainted, despite the efforts of those who were clean…
…every home run that bonds hits from this day forward is an indictment of major league baseball’s failure to act…not just against bonds, but against those who suited up for the opposition, including pitchers who threw to bonds, as well…it’s important to understand that this problem was not exclusive to bonds…all of major league baseball is responsible for what we witnessed late last night…they all have ownership of this record now…it took a kid in a mets jersey to remind us of that fact…
…added to by Regis Courtemanche…
…i was surprisingly emotionless as i watched bonds make history, for better or worse…i was captivated by his every at bat, if only to witness a man break the most hallowed record in sports, regardless of the man…
…i don’t think i can condemn him without more evidence to convict him of steroid use, but my suspicions made what should be an exciting and joyous occasion one of little emotion either way…
…it’s just sad to me because bonds could have made it into the Hall of Fame without any alleged enhancement…
…so, Congratulations*, barry.
Tagged Mike Nichols, Regis Courtemanche |…i know it’s already ancient history, but for anyone who’s interested, i noted my travels this weekend over at Mets Heads since it is rather lengthy…
…i have included slideshows,
videos, and tidbits of info from my amazing weekend in chicago…for
anyone who hasn’t made it to wrigley field yet, it is a must-see part
of baseball americana…
In Chicago Sun-Times, Shamus Toomey explains…
“Catch a Cubs home run ball at Wrigley Field, and you’ve got a souvenir. Catch a homer hit by the visiting team, you’ve got a crowd-pleasing projectile to throw back. That’s the way it works.”
Meanwhile, last Friday during the Mets game against the Cubs, New York detective Chris Innace caught a home run, off the bat of a Cub, while sitting in the bleachers at Wrigley Field.
Innace threw the ball back on the field.
He later got ejected from the ballpark.
According to Toomey, Cubs Spokesman Peter Chase says he was tossed for foul language and being aggressive.
Innace told Toomey he was either ejected for throwing the ball, or to make sure the fan behind him didn’t try to pick a fight.
…hats off, detective…i think i speak for every person reading this site when i say we all would have done the exact same thing…
During last night’s loss to the Braves, in four at-bats, Moises Alou hit in to two rally-ending double plays.
Since returning from the disabled list on July 27, Alou is batting .242 in 33 at-bats with just four extra base hits.
Though he is batting .385 against lefties, Alou is hitting .150 in 20 at-bats against right-handed pitchers.
…he’s making contact, but hitting a lot of balls on the ground…he’s not giving it that classic ‘rip to left field,’ that he is known for…
Through 25 games, David Wright and Lastings Milledge lead the Mets with 16 RBI each since the All-Star break.
Carlos Delgado is second with 15.
Meanwhile, also since the All-Star break, Billy Wagner has not allowed a run, which is best on the team, while Guillermo Mota is second with a 2.40 ERA in 12 appearances.
According to multiple reports, prior to yesterday’s game, Carlos Beltran ran, played catch and took soft-toss batting practice for the first time since straining his left oblique.
Beltran is eligible to return from the disabled list tomorrow, 
though he was sure to tell reporters he is only feeling 75 percent when batting from the left side and 50 when batting from the right.
…of course, the buzz from shea is that it is quite unlikely that he will be activated…and i am torn on this…on one hand, the guy always plays when he is hurt…on the other hand, he is always hurt…in this case, with the oblique, we’re talking about a ton of pain because it impacts nearly every action, from throwing to breathing…
…baseball is not football…the player cannot just strap it on and go push through the pain…it doesn’t necessarily work that way…baseball is built on such refined movement and small adjustments that this sort of injury can be detrimental…i guess what i’m saying is, in this case, i don’t want beltran back until he is 100 percent…the problem is, for him, i have no idea what that even means or when that will ever be…
Last night, in a loss against the Braves, Oliver Perez 
allowed six runs on 10 hits and no walks, while striking out five, through five innings.
The Mets are 11–9 during Perez’s 21 starts this season.
Willie Randolph, on Perez, while talking to reporters after last night’s game…
“I thought they fought him pretty hard, and battled him pretty good…I didn’t think he threw all that bad…
“Obviously, when you give up a home run it’s not the greatest location, but I just give them credit for kind of fighting off good pitches and getting in a position to get a good ball to hit and taking advantage. I don’t think he had any walks, or like that, I just think, again, they just really seemed to have a good approach against him tonight.”
…he pitched a standard ollie game, but atlanta was on him…they clearly learned from previous games this season…this is where experience plays in…perez did nothing to adjust his game plan on the fly, like, say, Pedro Martinez or Tom Glavine or Orlando Hernandez would have done…yes, comparing perez to pedro, tommy and el duque is unfair…i do not expect him to have that ability just yet…he’s young, and is still learning his way, which is totally expected…i’m just pointing out the difference…
In his report for the New York Post, Mark Hale leads by writing…
“A T-shirt from the movie ‘Wedding Crashers’ hung in a Mets locker after last night’s 7-3 loss to the Braves. It read: ‘Rule #76. No excuses, play like a champion.’
…jeez…i actually have that shirt, which you can buy here if you’re interested…
