The list of top 10 Mets prospects is out over at TOP PROSPECT ALERT.com and I’m at the point where any 5 of the 10 should be shipped out to Minnesota along with any product that Billy Mays hawks on TV (is it me or is Billy Mays the biggest advertiser on SNY I can’t wait until he comes out with the automatic ass wiper) 

I just gave the Skill Sets $1,155 for 4 tickets for each of the seven games of the “SHEA GOOD-BYE” package.
I bought this package out of sheer emotion and nothing to do with whom ever Omar gets to fortify the pitching staff this deal is between me, my wife and kids, and a tenement of a ball park.
I went to Shea with my late father and brothers back in 1964 when believe it or not Shea was a brand new state of the art stadium. Both Ebbits Field and the Polo Grounds were all brick and mortar structures from a bygone time. Shea was all steel and shiny with plenty of parking and access from all the suburbs where the white flight landed.

As a 6 year old kid who just started to fall in love with the concept of hitting and catching and hanging out with the leading men of  family, Shea will always hold a big spot in my heart and soul. Sure I bitch and moan about the leaks in the over head pipes and the constrictive leg room in the seats and the world famous puddles of urine, beer and other bodily juices on the men’s room floors but still as much as I anticipate the opening day of $iti Field, the date the bulldozers knock down Shea will leave me weeping.

If September 28^th 2007 does become THE last day ever of Shea (and I really, really hope it’s not) I know I’ll be emotional. Not just for the fact the Shea era will be over but I’ll be at the game with my wife, son and daughter. Did I ever think forty three years ago that someday I would attend a game with my own kids and spouse? Are you kidding? My biggest problem that day was not to eat too many hot dogs and popcorn (does anyone remember the popcorn that came In the Mr. Met meg- a-phone?) so I’d be able to eat more junk food at the Worlds Fair across the street after the game.

What a cycle life is. When the renewal notice came in the mail and I was bitching and moaning about the increase I could see my son was a little worried that I wouldn’t renew them. He knows that before he was born I had season tickets to the NY Rangers but as the price rose and with the responsibility of husband and daddy making it more an more difficult to get to as many games as I wanted, I gave them up. So he thought I was going that route again.

But I can’t. I wouldn’t want the Skill Sets to know this but this franchise is now part of my DNA. Even before I started blogging about the team I lived and died with them but because of this blog, I have not only gotten in deeper with the trails and tribulation of the team but I have met so many fabulous people along the way. You can’t put a dollar sign on that.

As I said my dad is gone fourteen years an done of my brothers lives in Virginia and the other still lives in NY but we don’t get to many games so instead I will be with my wife, son and daughter who will cheer that the KISS CAM puts mommy and dad on the Diamond Vision. I’ve come along way since that Mr. Met meg-a-phone and so have the Mets.    

Time to clear the minutia from my head, so as Murph would say “Fasten your seat belt:

If you think its tough being a Highlander player these days with the PED’s accusations flying and what not, how about showing your support as a Highlander fan? This poor bastard on Staten Island (and no, I didn’t call this in to the 120 Precient on him) spent a week at the Rock Resort (a/k/a Rikers Island) because he fit the description of a thief all because of his Highlanders jacket:

{The Staten Island man’s odyssey began Nov. 10, when cops approached him with guns drawn as he walked home from his girlfriend’s house in Port Richmond.
“They were screaming, ‘Where’s the weapon? Where’s the stuff you stole? Where are the credit cards?’ ” he said.
“They threw me up against a fence, and I was asking, ‘What’s going on? What did I do? I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ ”
Turns out Soto, 35, loosely matched the description of one of three young men who had robbed a teen at knifepoint nearby. The victim told cops one of the men was wearing a Yankee jacket. }
See if I owned the Mets not only would I help this guy sue the living shit out of the NYPD and Staten Island D.A’s office but I’d have a day at Shea for him and his family and shower them in Mets attire.
 

More stupid Highlander Hijinx this time from Jennifer-Bronx Robber Baron- Swindel  who if she worried more about the needs of her booze and whore chasing ex-husband like she does about figurines at an overrated Manhattan restaurant Maybe Ms. Robber Barron-Swindel would be less of a bitter old frow:

{GEORGE Steinbrenner’s daughter Jennifer Swindal doesn’t want any Mets figurines taking prominence over her beloved Yankees. The ‘21′ club on West 52nd recently redeco rated its gift area and prominently displayed a vintage figurine of Casey Stengel - who managed both the Yankees and the Mets - in a Mets uniform. Swindal noticed and immediately had her office send the eatery “a much larger figurine of Yan kee player Joe DiMaggio at bat,” which now is towering over the tiny Stengel statue }

With all the screaming and yelling about the increase in ticket price I’m sure I won’t be the only on in logging in to Mets.com tomorrow to purchase a seven-pack, even though I may have to sell one of my kids to pay for them.

There is no excuse for the NY Rangers to lose to the Gretzky Wolves at MSG Hell they shouldn’t lose to them at Sky Rink (is it still in business?) I’m still not ready to rant and rave yet but its coming close as I think somebody has got to go either Tom (The Riddler) Renny or Jaromir Jager. By the way, where the fuck is Slats Sather? Did I miss the wake?

I saw Jimmy Dolan leaving MSG last week, in a short yellow school bus. Isaiah was driving. Starburry was the matron.

You know your team is so bad that they not only suck but they suck to the third degree, and that describes the J-E-T-S . All the game stories in the NY rags are how they didn’t get the shit kicked out of them in Foxboro yesterday. No medal for trying kids. Oh and by the way Mangenieus, if I ran those ridiculous option plays you ran with Brad Smith against my son on Madden 07 I think he would put himself up for adoption.

Don’t forget kids Wednesday night SPORTSTALKNY at 9PM the guests will be Ed Willies author of the THE REBEL LEAGUE a book on the World Hockey Association (I hope all you Bobby Sheehan fans call in) and The Farmer Boy Mark Littell –The Farmer Boy-former KC Royals pitcher and now pitch man for the NUTTY BUDDY –a must see video. So listen in join us in the chat room and with your phone calls.

MISSING: GM OF THE NEW YORK NATIONAL LEAUGUE BASEBALL CLUB

GOES BY THE NAME OMAR

LAST SEEN IN NASHVILLE TN

LAST KNOWN SIGHTING WAS IN A BASEMENT IN FLUSHING (126ST AND ROOSEVLET AVE)

IF YOU SEE HIM PLEASE HAVE HIM CALL BILL SMITH IN MINNEAPOLIS MN, HE HAS SOMEONE WAITING FOR HIM THERE.

OK, OK 20% IS NOT SO MUCH I’LL PAY IT, I’LL PAY IT FOR MY SEASONS TICKETS PLEASE JEFFY DON’T SHOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Can someone wake up our GM and let him know the NL Pennant in 2008  is getting away from us. It looks to be headed west as the Snakes, LA Carpetbaggers, Rocks are getting better fortified not to mention the Cheesetakers in our own division and even the North Side Chicagoans.

I hate to press the panic button but shouldn’t Omar (and maybe he is) get his ass moving on getting Johan Santana to Flushing. The Mets were an under .500 team from June 1 to the end of the disaster of a season. All the teams I mentioned have now surpassed the Mets. If Omar or Willie Randolph thinks this team as it’s now assembled is a contender then maybe George Mitchell was searching for the wrong pharmaceuticals.

At this point it looks like the Mets are the team that Santana wants to go to. I ready to shower him in Jeffy’s inheritance and give the Twins a hefty package of prospects. Twins GM Bill Smith knows he’s not getting Jose Reyes and the Highlanders are not dealing and the Red Sox are just in it to break Pack-a-Day Hank’s balls.

So let’s go Omar make it happen as I’m getting antsy with all the gloom and doom of this past week please give me something to make me give a shit about the 2008 season  

I come home from a hard day of work to sit down and have a little pasta and chicken and watch a team that is giving me nothing but joy this fall into winter the Boston Celtics. I got Mike Gorman and my man Tommy Heinsohn doing the game (love those Tommy Points) and Doc Rivers has finally smarten up and is giving Big Baby Davis more minutes. During a commercial I even set my channel guide to click on at 11 AM Sunday for Arsenal-Chelsea on Fox Sports Channel (don’t laugh I may start a new blog The George Best Society for the great footie player and ‘Playa”) 

I stop off at ESPNEWS as I make my way back to the C’s game and lo and behold what do I see run across the crawl:

 the Diamondbacks have acquired RHP Dan Haren from the A’s for for pitchers Brett Anderson, Greg Smith and Dana Eveland, OF Carlos Gonzalez and Aaron Cunningham and 1B Chris Carter.

YIKES!!!! The Snakes just added Harren to Brandon Webb, Doug Davis, Micha Owings and Randy Johnson. Two Cy Young candidates and one Cy Old.

Gonzalez was the #1 ranked prospect in the D-Backs system as per Baseball America Anderson #3 Cunningham #7 and Carter # 8

Maybe this is the deal that gets the ball rolling on either Erik Bedard or Johan Santana packing their bags and moving to Queens and how much pressure now is on Omar to land either pitcher. It may be that both Carlos Gomez and Fernando Martinez plus three of the usual pitching prospects have to be moved to get either ace.

You know the war drums are beating in Metsville as the natives will be up in arms over this trade and the inactivity of our GM. If Omar stands pat and goes with the forces he has this could a red hot summer on the Mets blogging circuit. Com’on Omar pull an ace out of your hat!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

I’m done here the C’s are up 10pts I LOVE RONDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

After hearing and reading all the hubris over the Mitchell Report, I figured I would add my two cents. So as I read the stories in the fish wraps and read articles on the web and listened to the wailing of media and some fans crying “Say it ain’t so Rocket Man” So please allow me to purge my brain with this stream of thoughts:

·        Has anyone heard from Suzyn Waldman? Is she in her garage with the door down and the engine running OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS!!!!!!

·        I don’t know why I’m not all bent out of shape about players taking PED’s to get an edge or why I’m not thinking of them as cheaters. As much as I despise MF Clemens I can see why he took the juice as his career was on the down side. In fact fromer Red Sox GM Dan Duquette has every right to give a big middle finger salute to Red Sox Nation as he was 100% right when he said MF Clemens was on the downside of his career as we see when he was shipped to Toronto and he started juicing he got himself back in the game.  But take a look at this list, talk about your C and D List ballplayers. Most of these guys juiced up just to stay from being career minor leaguers. Last night on SPORTSTALKNY host Mark Rosenman brought up the name Kevin Baez. Baez was a Mets farm hand (shortstop)in the 90’s who got just about a cup of coffee in the big leagues. Baez could never make that jump from Triple A to the ML so maybe if he used a PED he would have and had the opportunity to make at least 1 or 2 million a year as a backup infielder. But he made the choice not to. Some guys like Mark Carreon, and Matt Franco did and it looks like it was the difference in playing in the big leagues than the bushes. When I was in high school, after graduation my baseball coach told me of a try out camp the Philadelphia Phillies were having in Central Park. I knew I had no shot but I went anyway. When I got to the field and saw kids my age 6’2 or 6’3 with speed and power (the three things I lacked) I knew it was time to take the test for the NYPD or FDNY.  So I can sympathize with a player doing by what ever means necessary to make the jump.

·        Now don’t take that as me condoning taking PED’s as I don’t especially teenagers who I worry about more than pro athletes as I see the kind of pressure parents put on some kids  to become the next Jeter or Wright instead of wanting them to be the next John Grisham or Jonas Salk. This talk of athletes being role models is a crock of shit. A child’s role model should be his parents if it’s not you have a real serious problem.

·        How about Paul LoDuca named in this report? I have to admit at first I was taken aback by it but then I thought about it and I said “of course it makes perfect sense”. No so much that the Mets treated him like an Amish kid leaving the family farm but that as a catcher you need something to rejuvenate your batter body come August and September so HgH is the way to go for that.  Another guy giving out a one finger salute is former Dodger GM Paul DePodesta who was raked over the coals for dealing the heart and soul of the Dodgers to Florida. In the report it mentions that the Dodgers knew of LoDuca’s juicing and when he came off it his production went way down so when he went to the Marlins they knew he’d go back on a cycle of drugs just to show them they made a mistake. I guess he was off them last year as he broke down like a cheap claming horse. Very shrewd there Omar.

·        I am a proud union member (Communication Workers of America Local 1180) and I support every union in this country (The one time I was proud to be a Staten Islander was when Wal –Mart was forced to not open on the Island as they are anti union and SI is a very big union boro) but the union works for the workers not the other way around. Some big name, high profile players need to call a meeting of the rank and file and work out a way to negotiate a drug testing plan that preserves their rights and protects the game. The rank and file has to tell Fehr and Orza what they want and stop these to lawyers from making them look like assholes. The last thing baseball players need is another trip to Capital Hill.

·        Which brings me to Congress. Please Henry Waxman and Tom Davis go away. If you guys have no other important business in D.C. then find a public rest room to hang out in. No more dog and pony shows as a tax paying American I beg you STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

·          Yes I know for a guy who said he didn’t care about the Mitchell Report I have a lot to say about it (910 words)  so I’m full of shit just like the players.   

Check out Hot Foot for the names of the juicers. Ramon Castro is on it as is Mike Cameron, Scott Schonewiess, and Maurice Vaughn. Castro? I thought that was all rice and beans.

Rich Garces is on the list. Are you kidding me? El Guapo? No way

How the hell is Frank Thomas not on this list?

Also go over how many of these guys had injuries like detached biceps or triceps of torn ligiments?  

As the media waits for the Mitchell Report like a 5 year old on Christmas Day word is leaking that the Highlanders will have a lot of players mentioned in this report.  I wonder if YES will have Bob Shepard do a voice over for YES  ”Your Watching YES home of the juicers”.

The big name leaked is of MF Clemens and  I AM SHOCKED!!!!! Again fans don’t care, but anything bad happening to MF Clemens wll, makes me happy.

All this is to put pressure on the MLPA to allow for more testing, randomly and unannounced. It also helps to get Congress of the back of MLB becuase the one thing that makes Bud Selig and the Lorad of Baseball shutter is the loss of their anti-trust exemption. So after this parade of idiots today, Selig and Fehr will sit down and Selig will tell him how fucked both sides would be if they lose that exemption. So lets get more stringent testing, let Congress push out it’s chest with pride that they fixed baseball and let’s sit back and count the cha-ching    

Sorry for any typos but I’m in a hurry today, don’t forget to tune in tonight to SPORTSTALKNY at 9PM click the link and join us.