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Matthew Cerrone

Note: SNY to Air Santana’s Debut Today
By Matthew Cerrone - Feb 29, 2008 8:41 am

Johan Santana will make his first start for the Mets today, as the Mets take on the Cardinals during a Grapefruit League battle in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

well, after nearly five months, 150 posts to MetsBlog, 22,000 words and who knows how many rumors later, johan takes the mound in a Mets jersey and caphallelujah

The game will air live, starting at 1 pm, on .

According to multiple reports and estimations, assuming everything stays on track, by pitching today, Santana is now on pace to start Opening Day against the Marlins on March 31.

Santana talked with reporters yesterday, about pitching in the team’s first home game of the spring, and the first televised game of the season, saying:

“It’s going to be fun for everybody… It’s going to be exciting.  It’s always good to be in the first game, and get the first game out of the way.  I’m not going to try to do anything crazy.  I’m going to try to do my job and try to work on everything and we’ll go from there… I’m going to enjoy it, for sure.”

For more on Santana’s debut, check out the Daily News, Newsday, the Journal News and the New York Post, who, again, write about the relationship between Santana and Pedro.

26 Responses to “Note: SNY to Air Santana’s Debut Today”

  1. stickguy says:

    If Johan had the type of sick sense of humor that I appreciate, he would throw his last warm up pitch, and then immediately grab his elbow like Victor Zambrano.

    Omar and Wilpon would both have heart attacks on the spot!

    I know, no one is nuts enough to do it, but talk about a punk job!

  2. Peter says:

    Will this be MLB audio as well?

  3. ohboy says:

    I’m a Met fan. I bleed blue and orange.

    however…as a Met fan, I have been conditioned to expect that his elbow will pop during warm ups.

    When’s Pedro’s first spring start?

  4. jamie says:

    I might just leave work to go home and watch this. I still can’t get over it.

  5. metties1 says:

    I am trying to figure out if Johan will be able to pitch opening Day at Shea if he pitches opening day in Florida. It can’t work. The best we can hope for is Pedro if they use a 5 man rotation from the get-go (despite having 2 days off). Maybe that will make Pedro feel better about not being the #1 starter anymore…

    • FBones24 says:

      If Johan starts opening day in Florida and they go with a 5 man rotation, he is scheduled to pitch opening day at Shea. I believe that is how it works out. If they decide not to go with a 5 man rotation because of the off days, then it would be Maine or Perez. Anyone correct me if I’m wrong.

      • mrose says:

        i think its still pedro at shea…

        march 31 – johan
        april 1 – pedro
        april 2- maine
        april 3 – off
        april 4 – perez
        april 5 – duque/pelfrey or if its a 4 man rotation johan
        april 6 – either johan or pedro depending on 4 man or 5 man
        april 7 – off
        april 8 – pedro or maine

        so…i don’t see a possibility if johan starts in FL of us seeing Johan at the home opener

        • Nate W. says:

          I think Perez is slotted in as the #3 man and I think he will get the home opener if they use a 4 man rotation.

        • FBones24 says:

          Okay, thanks guys. I don’t know why I didn’t just look at it and figure it out myself. I guess I was dreaming and trying to convince myself that i was going to see either Pedro or Johan opening day. Oh well….we shall see how they play it.

        • mrose says:

          either or….

          makes sense to do LRLR

          But yea…either way, maine or perez as home opener likely..

        • Nate W. says:

          I’m just basing it on the fact that Maine started yesterday, the day before Santana, which makes it less likely for him to go two days after Santana.

      • metties1 says:

        I think you are looking at just the month of April. The first game vs FLA is on Mar 31. There are 3 games vs them and 3 vs the Braves before the Home Opener. So if there is a five man rotation, he would pitch the last game against ATL.

        What they should do is a four man rotation. Johan would pitch the middle game against ATL and the last game against the Phillies… all on normal rest. You gotta have him pitch as many games against those 2 teams as possible

        • Nate W. says:

          I completely agree with the 4 man rotation to start the year. Getting Johan in there agains the Braves, and in the last game of the Phillies series makes the most sense.

  6. lordt78 says:

    I think they should have an encore of this game at 7pm in the evening. I remember they did it with spring training games last year.

  7. stayraising says:

    If you live out of the sny area and get sny on directv can you still see the spring games? this is my first year out of NY. I get the mlb package for the regular season and the sports pack for the off season but really want to see the spring games as well. if not is ther auido anywere? thanks…

  8. mrose says:

    woohoo, got the slingbox setup..i’m ready!!

  9. haplo says:

    Why do I get the feeling Johan’s going to get shelled out there?

    You can almost sense the universe or karma or the baseball gods or whatever deciding Mets fans haven’t been worrying enough lately.

  10. FBones24 says:

    On another note, how come there is nothing on D Wright’s comments this morning in Newsday. Seems like even D Wright is fed up with Milledge. He is going to get buzzzzzed when the Nats play the Mets.

    • Mister Koo says:

      It was up briefly and then taken down. Don’t know why.

      • FBones24 says:

        Yeah, I see it in my RSS feed but not on the Metsblog site. D Wright had a lot to say about Milledge and I think all of it is on point.

        I think Pedro should speak out on this:

        “Who is Lastings Milledge? I have no respect for that guy. He needs to be forcing himself to come up to where I am, to my level … Guys like Lastings Milledge, who are you?”