Daily Archives: September 17, 2007
…this is incredible…truly, truly impressive…
According to PR Newswire, entrepreneur and philanthropist Marc Ecko announced today his acquisition of Barry Bonds’ 756th home run ball and plans to allow the public to determine its fate.
The ball was purchased for $752,467 at Sotheby’s/SCP Auctions this past Saturday.
The public can now go to vote756.com and choose to either a) give the ball to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown; b) permanently brand the ball with an asterisk before sending it to Cooperstown; or c) put the ball on a rocket ship and launch it into space.
To watch Ecko’s appearance on NBC’s Today Show, click here.
…hat tip to jason for the information…
Over the weekend, the Mets announced that 2B Anderson Hernandez has been named their Minor League Player-of-the-Year, while RHP Kevin Mulvey earned Pitcher-of-the-Year honors.
Hernandez hit .301 in 554 at-bats with 84 runs scored, 28 doubles, five triples, five home runs, 42 RBI and 16 stolen bases in 128 games for Triple-A New Orleans.
The 22–year-old Mulvey was 12-10 with a 3.20 ERA in 27 starts between Double-A and Triple-A.
…i’m not too concerned about the Phillies at this point…yes, the Mets lost eight straight, including two consecutive series sweeps…but, the Mets lost because they played sloppy in the field and on the base paths…i don’t care who you play, when you commit six errors in a game you’re going to lose…
…the Mets tightened up a bit this past weekend…i’m sure they really wanted to return the favor to the phils and put the proverbial nail in their coffin, but we all know in baseball you can’t press…
…if anything, they failed this weekend for trying a little too hard…
…my real concern from this weekend is the lack of passion i saw from Willie Randolph, when it came to defending his players…we can all second guess randolph’s bullpen usage, which as cerrone asked yesterday, ‘who else do you want him to bring in’…no matter who it is, if he fails, everyone is going to second guess…the issue i have with willie is the fact not once this weekend did he back up Paul Lo Duca or Marlon Anderon after they were ejected for arguing balls and strikes…granted, i thought paulie was a bit out of line during friday’s game, but still i’d like to see willie get a little fired up and defend his players…who knows, it may rally this team behind him…and perhaps that is what this team needed this weekend and for going forward…
Tagged Mike Nichols, Willie Randolph |
If the Mets play just .500 baseball over their final 14 games, the Phillies must go 10–3 to tie for first place in the National League East.
If the Phillies go 8–5 over their final 13 games, i.e., simply winning each of their final four series, the Mets can lose nine of 14 and still tie for first place.
Prior to yesterday’s game, the Mets announced that Brian Lawrence will start today, in place of Orlando Hernandez, who continues to feel pain in his foot.
…from what i can gather, el duque is not happy about 
this, as he feels he can pitch, and wants to pitch, but the Mets rather he rest up, which is probably the right move…by the way, either the side of his foot hurts or the top hurts or the bottom hurts…it’s one of the three, and, from what i understand, it all depends on who you ask…
As such, expect the following rotation this week…
Monday: Brian Lawrence at Nationals
Tuesday: John Maine at Nationals
Wednesday: Mike Pelfrey at Nationals
Thursday: Tom Glavine at Marlins
Friday: Pedro Martinez at Marlins
Saturday: Oliver Perez at Marlins
Sunday: (Orlando Hernandez if painless)
In the NFL, the New England Patriots were recently investigated and found guilty for using technology to steal signs from the opposing team.
In MLB, the Phillies should be investigated for employing a Wizard against the New York Mets, according to Bryan at MetsLifer, who writes…
“Apparently, an unidentified elderly man with a long white beard, wearing a purple robe and pointy hat was spotted sitting in the Phillies dugout for the last eight games against the Mets.”
…or, like i said yesterday, Jimmy Rollins uses voodoo…it has to be one of the two…
Tagged Phillies |Carlos Delgado hit in a batting cage over the weekend.
…from what i can gather, his strained hip flexor is feeling better…not great, but better…he can take soft swings with the bat, he can make casual throws and field some ground balls, but until he takes full blown batting practice with the team, and can run out of the batter’s box, his essentially still on the shelf…
To watch SNY’s two-minute post-game, with Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling and Gary Cohen, click the play button below…
Tagged SNY |David Wright, on the weekend series, while talking to reporters after the game, as well as quoted in the Daily News…
“I’m definitely upset. I’m disappointed. They’re a divisional rival. They talked it before the season and they’ve backed it up the last two series. They’re a good team. They’ve embarrassed us…I hope guys in here take it personally…
“If you would have said in February or March that we’d have a 3.5-game lead with two weeks to go, the majority of the guys in here would have said we’ll take it. But, we’re in a position to bury these guys and clinch this thing this weekend and we failed miserably…
“I think guys are upset, but you can’t allow this to affect the way we go about our business in Washington. We can either step up and bury those guys, or we can allow this to be in our minds. Hopefully it’s the first thing.”
…the question is: how do the Mets respond…
…they got swept by philly two weeks ago, and i recall many reports and e-mails, etc, slamming the team for being emotionless, having no shot at the playoffs, etc, and yet a week later all that criticism was magically gone, whisked away, silence, because the team looked amazing for 12 games…they played great, solid, on-all-cylinders baseball…in fact, it may have been their best baseball of the season, as many fans and experts said…then, blink, swept again, and, blink, pessimism…again…i’m starting to set my watch to it…
…so, like david says, ‘hopefully’ they step up and bury the Nationals and Marlins and move on to October, at which point i suspect we’ll all be full of confidence and excitement again…
Willie Randolph, on yesterday’s loss, and sweep, against the Phillies, talking to reporters after the game…
“It was a bad time to play bad baseball, especially with the Phillies behind us. We were there about two weeks ago and we responded, so now we’ll have to respond again – bottom line. Everyone thinks it’s easy to win divisions, and stuff, but we know it’s not. You know, last time we went through this we responded well, so this is just another challenge for us to respond again. And, we will.”
Asked if he talked with his team after the loss, Randolph told reporters that he did not, adding, “There’s no reason to.”
…i guess, but, even if he did talk to them, he isn’t going to tell you…willie would see that type of honestly as a sign of weakness…so, don’t assume anything from his quotes, at least that’s becoming my motto…
…the thing is, from what i can gather, there was little emotion in the clubhouse after yesterday’s loss…this will bother some fans…but, not me…because i understand that this team is what it is…willie’s stamp is on them…like it or not…he projects a level-headed, even-keel, focused, one-game-at-a-time attitude, and the team reflects it back…stop wishing for the Mets to be a football team, because a) they don’t wear pads or play just 16 games, and b) that’s not their style…
…the problem is that their style, which is also their biggest strength, may actually be their biggest weakness…
…as i see it, willie’s lack of urgency, lack of aggression, lack of signaling any one game out over another has two net effects…the first, which is a good thing, is that the team rebounds well, and outside of one bad stretch in july, it never really goes on a long prolonged losing streak, which will help them weather a lot of storms and always be in great position at the end of a season…the second effect, though, which is bad, is that no one game becomes more important than another, and on a day like yesterday, or in October, that is not the case…yesterday was important…every game in October will be important…and i fear that when the bell rings, and every pitch is the most meaningful pitch of the season, the Mets overall team will still be even-keel, level-headed, sensible and not very urgent, which will not go well…
…so, i’d love for willie to push these guys harder, assuming he isn’t already…i mean, i’m not by his side all day, so i don’t know what really happens…but, i can only assume he isn’t…however, if he did, if he did go crazy and fire them up, maybe today they’d feel like they just blew the season and they might respond negatively and go in the tank because of the pressure…who knows…what i do know is that what he does has put this team four losses up with 14 games left…what i fear is that this same strategy will get them swept in October…
Tagged Willie Randolph | Newer posts →
