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In the News Journal, while discussing the ‘war of words’ between his team and the Mets, Scott Lauber quotes Phillies manager Charlie Manuel as saying:
“As long as we whip ‘em, we don’t have to make a big deal about it. They’ll talk. We’ll hit.”
…lost in the emotion and nostalgia of today’s events at Shea Stadium, is the fact that the Mets are playing the Phillies…which, in the grand scheme of the season, may actually be more significant than some blue bricks…
In the New York Post, Kevin Kernan takes it a step further, and leads by writing, “You can call today an opener, the last Shea Stadium Opening Day, but before the Mets can truly open their season, they have to close the books on 2007. This day is a closer, not an opener.”
…kernan is a bit hyperbolic, but there is some truth to what he says…if the Mets lose today, you know every headline and article tomorrow will be about The Collapse and the Phillies and last season and so on…a win will reward the total opposite…ugh…
Thankfully, the players are focused on the Phillies, not nostalgia, according to Jeremy Cothran in the Star-Ledger.
matt, thanks for that pic…i almost threw up.
That was the point.
That Manuel quote is hilarious. THEY’LL talk….oh that’s right…the Phillies are NEVER the ones doing the talking…..classic.
And it’s not exactly like they’re on a hot streak either. We’re both the same amount of games out.
“They’ll talk. We’ll hit.” Well at least Uncle Cholly knows his team can’t pitch.
any game they lose this year will have a potential reference to the collapse, especially against the Phillies, the Mets need to win, because you are required to win several more games than you lose in order to win a division and make the playoffs, but I am utterly convinced the Mets could be 20 games up on the Phillies by Labor Day and a Met lose coupled with a Phillies win would prompt a reference to the collapse by at least Wallace Matthews.
Fortunately, every story gets old fast in today’s media. Comparing losses to “the collapse” will be no exception.
That said, if the team stays in a funk, the story will take on new forms, like “Willie Watch”, rumors of infighting, etc.
I havent heard anyone talk about the fact that we’ve already had two off days and a rainout. Is it just me, or does it feel like that has been keeping the mets from getting in any kind of rhythm.
I’m sure Willie would agree.
I’ve been trying to make this point on all the posts. The players haven’t been in a groove. Maine was pitching with too much rest. Pelfrey will probably struggle tomorrow due to all his rest.
You can’t judge a team in the first few weeks. let them get in the normal flow of playing 6 games a week and then see how they perform.
Ok, the Phillies can hit all they want. Their problem is going to be that they have no pitching outside of Hamels. That’s why the Braves are going to pose more of a threat to the Mets than the Phillies will.
Still, I hate the damn Phillies, and anything less than 2/3 in this series, including a convincing victory today, is unacceptable. A bench-clearing brawl wouldn’t be so bad either :-)
Lets Go Mets!
Hey boys, remember me?
Gonna be a good series, both teams are having their expected struggles in injuries for the Mets and pitching for the Phils.
Your core is looking pretty solid with hot bats from Delgado (needs it to stay like that), Wright, and Beltran, plus some unexpected pop from Church and Pagan. Too bad the pitching doesn’t match up to have Hamels, Myers, Santana and Maine this series. Maybe once they come to Philyl we will see some fireworks.
You guys ready for a hot Pat Burrell or a shaky Adam Eaton who still might have your number? lets play some ball!
yeah we’re ready for a hot Pat the Rat(or is it Bat? i can never remember)
Right now, we have to shut them up. They made an epic comeback and Rollins backed up his prediction by winning the MVP.
Hate to say it but they did whip us last year. i think a nice sweep this week will shut them up a little bit.
can someone please put a post up (i think it was the daily news this morning that wrote about it) about that website makiing the Rick Ahstley song “never gonna give you up” the 8th inning song. I know its a prank but it would actually be different.
not to mention i think it would be hysterical.
Matt has posted on it several times. Where have you been?
I looked couldnt find one. im only on for a small window during the day and usually only comment on the latest thread.
damn.
Correction: Rollins won the MVP because of his prediction.
(Reyes’ 2006 was just as good.)
thats just bitterness coming out. Problem is that reyes had wright and beltran on his team and howard went nuts that year.
Rollins was a stand out mvp last year. i hate him as much as everyone but he deserved it last year
I strongly disagree. And I’m not bitter. The stats back it up.
I strongly agree with Danny. He was rewarded for (1) park-inflated power stats (say what you will, but nothing gets baseball writers in a tizzy like a middle infielder with 30 HR) and (2) his big mouth.
Yeah I disagree too. Wright actually had the best season of any NL position player last year, but he wasn’t going to win after the collapse. Holliday had a better year too, but voters wouldn’t pick him because he plays in a hitters park(?).
Didn’t deserve that Gold Glove either. Neither did Wright, but probably more than Rollins.
Phillies have every right to talk trash right now, they stepped it up last year at the end of the season and the Mets didn’t.
After Hamels their rotation is almost laughable and their bullpen is no better…they better hope Burrell homers each time he’s at the plate.
metsblog is featured on beerleaguer….this should be fun…
the whole phillies team take turns licking michael jackson’s taint
Random , but i’ll go with it. why not.
Better than “the team, the time.”
someone better tell uncle cholly those fench scrappers that rollins burrell and utley were hitting out of cinci are outs at shea. with that being said im nervous about this series because of the pitching matchups. and i worry that if we lose or god forbid get swept the players will really feel the heat and start pressing and it could have a horrible domino effect. hopefully OP brings it today. lets go mets.
fench = fence, guess im so excited i forgot how to type/spell
The series is wildly important for momentum’s sake. If we get swept, I mean, it will be sheer panic for the fanbase. The booing will be out of this world.
If the Mets have a good series, it could be a great springboard.
I don’t think either team is going to sweep, but there is bound to be a game in either direction with big wins. it will set up nicely for the upcoming series in Philly.
The games are always close and exciting. The Phillies have just made the plays when the Mets could not recently. Every game pretty much can always go either way with these two.
I always look forward to the games and wish I could make the trip up to Philly to see at least one this season, but I doubt it. The fans definitely make more of it than the players, and you know the crowd is goign to get out of hand once it gets close.
I have debated this for a while now. At this point I think that the Mets have to go find a reliable innings eater to slot in the rotation. I know that many teams have question marks in their rotations however this was supposed to be our advantage. We can not continue to have 6 starters and 3 with question marks. It does not have to be an allstar but it has to be someone with value. I know the idea is to wait and see what Pelfrey, Elduque and Pedro give us but that is a risky buisness for a team that has wants to win it all.
One would assume that Pelfrey will no matter what struggle at some point this season.
One would also assume that both Pedro and Elduque will come back only to get injured again. We need that reliable, dare I say it Glavine type guy to be our #4. Having Pelfrey, Pedro and Elduque available for the #5 is fine but not for the 4 and 5.
Many are going to say, as I was one of them, well what do you with that extra guy when they are healthy? At this point we would be foolish to assume they are healthy. So you go out and get that #4 starter and when Pedro and Elduque come back you either rotate their starts or put one in the pen as the long man. Pelfrey goes back to the minors.
So now we have to look at who is available? We can’t just wait around and assume or worry about what Pedro or Elduque might think.
totally agree, i was actually one of the people saying right after the santana trade that it was great and all but we needed a 5th starter (mainly bc i felt el duque wouldnt be healthy at all this year, nevermind pedro too). livan wouldve been perfect but now who even is available? my guess is claudio vargas is probably the best option that doesnt require a trade.
We’re counting on El Duque.
For better or for worse.
He’s the guy Omar is in bed with.
sadly i think youre right. but if we were to pick up claudio vargas and i doubt it would cost much at all it may help in the long run.
That was fine when we were also assuming that Pedro would be healthy or that Pelfrey was ready. I agree with HTWZ we needed that Livan type to give us the 5th spot.
This is rediculous. people are saying we need “glavine and livan” types to fill the 5th hole. i think every team would love to have pitchers who are #1 or #2 (or even #3) quality innings eaters to pitch in the 5 hole. but they dont that is why people like glavine and livan pitch in the top 3 slots in the rotation.
on world series calibar teams (esp those built around pitching) those guys DO pitch in the 4-5 spot. look at the indians pitching depth, look at the red sox of 04 and the white sox of 05.
5th spot on 04 red sox was arroyo, who came off of a few struggling years to become a good starter, like pelfrey could for us this year. he wasnt an established innings eater.
And the white sox had el duque in the 5th spot, enough said.
How many years ago was that and was he healthier?
You totally agree? Even with the idea that we go get a 6th starter and have el duque and Pedro alternate starts. meaning each would pitch every ten days.
i dont think we need the arm just yet. we have early off days and pelfrey has not even pitched yet. everyone just assumes the kid is going to faulter but he pitched well early in spring training and it has to be hard to pitch knowing that if you dont have a good start its back to the minors. he has never pitched a game where he could relax and not press.
he didnt even get that in spring training. every start was a test at the end.
give it time there will be still be arms available for cheap
If he wants to pitch in a game he can relax in lets trade him to the Pirates.
Besides I did not say he was bad but you have to assume he will struggle this year and will not pitch 150 innings.
the mets-phillies “rivalry” is contrived
Been saying the same for awhile. Seems like people are butting heads just for the sake of butting heads.
yep. 1 close division race btw the 2 in the mets 46 years hardly makes a rivalry. let’s see if that changes over the next few years before we pretend it’s a rivalry.
just because it doesn’t have deep roots doesn’t mean it isn’t a rivalry.
yes it does. if the race for 1st is btw the mets and nats this year does that make it a rivalry?
I don’t know. CBP is 40% Met fans when they’re in town. It gets pretty heated. That tends to create a rivalry. Certainly the Phils’ fans think it’s a rivalry.
I wouldnt say it iss contrived, it has a very good basis IMO. However, it is too early to blow it up just yet, especially since neither team is leading the NL East.
I do think a lot of Mets fans would rather have a rivalry with the Braves (who I am not counting out, but seem to be the trendy pick on E*PN) only because they are not very vocal. Phillies fans are obnoxious, but thats the way we are.
Um, what? Met fans don’t want a rivalry because (extremely fairweather) Phillie fans are “obnoxious”? On the contrary, the desire to shut up those knuckle-draggers fuels the rivalry. Granted, gloating over one team’s performance is entirely irrational, as neither fan has anything to do with what happens on the field, but it is what it is, and it’s as old as the hills.
it’s fear, that’s why the Mets faithful shy away from the rivalry.
and what fans aren’t “fairweather”? I would say most of baseball has tons of people that fall into that category. How many Mets fans jumped ship at the end of last season? Those seats in Shea looked empty during the last Phillies series.
Yeah, you’re just being a troll. No Met fan “fears” Philly fans. That’s idiotic, and you’re just trying to provoke a response. Whatever. Enjoy the game.
you too, I hope its a good one.
I will have to say that I hate the Braves because of how good they have been and I am in their market. However, I don’t like the Phillies because they don’t shutup. They think they are the greatest but have no time on top to prove it. They were on top one day last year (granted it was the one that counted) but they have earned nothing yet. The Braves did not start out cocky they earned it.
My rivalry is the Braves, the Phillies I see as just ignorant.
I actually think this has the potential to become a great rivalry. Unlike Atlanta, Philly is a short car ride away and CBP always has a ton of Mets fans who make the drive down for those games. The problem is both teams haven’t been good at the same time very often, so now that they are, it’s only natural that a rivalry will develop.
You guys going to have Pelfrey on a short leash? A lot of pressure for a first start of the season.
How much pressure do you have on all your starters besides Hamels?
The only reason this series against the phils is this hype is because most people cant get over last year and the media has OVERPLAYED the whole “team to beat” thing. We have a job to do and the players know that. I just dont want there to be this much pressure on this series. FORGET 07 IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN. And the outcome of this series will not dictate that. Lets just play the game right and hope things go our way. MOVE ON PEOPLE! Its 08 a whole new year
I dont think most fans are fairweather. if mets fans were fair weather they would have 0 fans. they cause enough heartache and stress in their faithful that it shortens life expectancy a good 5 years just by rooting for them.
Im guessing the majority of this list lived through the teams in the 90’s where it was just awful. Pete harnish starting opening day, generation k being a bust, those awful uni’s during the troborg administration, dallas green. nothing fariweather in that
Exactly — being filled with hope upon reading minor league scouting reports on power prospect Butch Huskey and thinking that Jason Phillips could be your long-term answer at first base does not suggest a “fairweather” fan base.
A win today can never make up for the collapse of last season.
No, but it would be a good start. Especially after getting their asses handed to them by the Braves.
If we want to get the monkey of 07 off our backs it starts NOW! We need to win and win big and take 2 out of 3 or sweep them, and that is the only way to shut-up the media on 07. Its that simple, WIN WIN WIN and all will be forgiven. If we drop 2 or get sweept it will be 2007 all over again. Not only that, but, the team has to proove that they can beat the Phillies. They had 7 chances last season and blew all seven. They need to show that was a fluke and NOT the real Mets. LETS GO METS !!