Big Pelf pitched pretty good  last night,  as Randy Jackson would say “Yo, Yo  It was all right dawg,  couple of pitch problems but better than last week, you can do better dawg”. I have to confess I didn’t see much of this game as I was at a coaches meeting for the up coming Little League season.

The meeting took a couple of hours due to Little Leagues insistance in making it tougher and tougher for coaches to develop kids into pitchers. They have instituted pitch counts which are fine because some coaches do tend to forget that these are kids whose bodies are still developing and although some of them are built like Bruce Dal Canton they are not work horses but the amount of rest we have to give these kid pitchers is ridiculous. If an eleven year old pitches 61-8 5 pitches (the maximum allowed for his age) he must not pitch for three calendar days and after those three days he must skip the next game played. My problem is with skipping that one game. A kid could pitch on Monday, rest Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then say the next game is Sunday, he still can’t pitch.  Now say after that Sunday game you do not play again until Wednesday that means after tossing say the max 85 pitches he now is off eight days.

No wonder these youth leagues can’t find guys to coach, you get so bogged down in paper work you don’t have time to enjoy being on the field. I have to keep track of pitch counts and days for rest and try to put together a rotation of kids who can actually throw a baseball over the plate. Yesterday, my coaches couldn’t make it to practice so I ran it by myself. I spilt the team in two and played a game where I pitched to both teams. It was the most fun the kids have had since I took over this team. Sometime all the drills and instruction and motivation have to pushed to the side and just let the kids be kids and enjoy themselves and the game.

Sorry about that rant;  back to the Mets. I looked at the breakdown of Pelfrey’s night and the most encouraging thing was his ground ball to fly ball outs. Pelf recorded ten ground ball outs and two fly ball outs so it shows that he kept the ball down –Pound the Strike Zone- and of the100 pitches he threw 66 were strikes plus he got the win. I like his quote after the game as well:

 “One thing I’ve quit doing is I’ve quit reading everything.  I quit paying attention to all that stuff…If I come out here and I perform, I think they’ll find a way to keep me around…You never want anybody to go down.  But when Pedro went down I thought, ‘Hey, I’ve got to step up.’  I want to be one of those guys they can hand the ball to every fifth day and not have to worry about it.”

I wonder sometimes if Professor Rick gets a bit too cerebral with the pitching staff. Maybe he needs to be a little more like Roger Craig and take a “Humm-Baby” approach.

Willie needs to channel his inner Bill Martin and put an end to these questions about the Phillies being in the heads of his team. His quotes sure don’t help:

“They’ve been very fortunate, and we’ve given them opportunities – and that’s the way the game goes…You know, the games that we lost, the ones you guys are talking about, the eight or nine in a row, those games could have gone either way and at least four or five them we could have won.  Fortunate bloops, little bouncers, rollers, an umpires call, all those things come in to play.  So, you know, we’ve never felt there is any dominance against us.  They won some games and that happens in baseball – where you’re gonna lose some games they should win and vice-a-versa…

“There’s nothing in our heads that they’re better than we are, that they’re in our heads or that kind of crap – that’s baseball

 Willie the team beat you 9 in a row so stop the happy horse shit. Here is what Willie should have done when asked again for the 1, 546, 365 time about the Phillies and last years race:

“Do you guys ever get tired of asking the same questions? Tell we right now, do you want to talk about last night game or today’s or a game that six or seven months ago?”   Then as soon as one of these ass hats ask you about the teams troubles with the Phillies and last year and yada, yada,, yada you get up from the table and leave. Even the media dim wits would take the hint. Only you Willie can end this line of bullshit questioning.

By the way a tip of the Blue Mets cap to Metsblog for the quotes.

IS THERE ANYONE (MATHEMATICALLY ALIVE) OUT THERE

Kathy Foronjy and Joseph Colburn of the fabulous documentary on Mets fans Mathematically Alive have announced four more screenings of the movie in the tri state area they are as follows:

 NYC Premiere April 29, 2008 at 7:00PM will be at Pioneer 2 Boots Theater 155 E 3 St in Manhattan.

I will be attending this one so come on down and hello.

 Trenton Film Festival May 3, 2008 at 2:00PM Trenton NJ

See the Mathematically Alive web site for more details

Queens Museum of Art May 10^th at 5:00PM the museum is located on Flushing Meadows Corona Park

New Filmmakers at Anthology Film Archives May 14^th at 2:00PM  32  2 Ave at E 2^nd St Manhattan

Check out one of the screenings as their are always a lot of our fellow Mets fans at these events and it cheapers than therapy.

I really don’t want to get into a whole mob mentality with our beloved team but Willie Randolph is really pushing me to that point. I understand it’s just the second week of the season but if the Mets were dropping games to say the Brewers and Cardinals instead of the Braves and Phillies I might take a different view of things but losing to the Braves and Phillies and losing the home opener in a season when the organization is closing out one era and crossing into another is totally unacceptable. And how does our fearless manger respond when asked about this? He says he’s “not concerned” Not concerned? If Willie is not concerned then maybe he needs to be removed from office.

testing testing a b c d e f g h

Before I read Hamerin’ Hank, George Almighty & The Say Hey Kid by John Rosengren most of what I ever thought about the 1973 baseball season revolved around the 1973 Ya Gotta Believe Mets. But after reading this terrific book I had many “of course” moments.Of course that was the year that the Bronx Robber Baron took over the helm of the Highlanders who were very down and very much out at the time.

UPDATE: I’M AN IDIOT. I LEFT OFF THE LINK TO PURCHASE THE BOOK.

here is the amazon.com link 

No going to the game for me today and since I have the whole office to myself  as our inspectorial staff is at a  class, I will get my first real listen to new radio play by player Wayne Hagin. I’ve listens to bits and pieces of Hagin on WFAN and he comes off as a generic type announcer. One game I listened to was he and Ed (Grey Goose) Coleman which between those two and a spring training game I needed to mainline some caffeine to stay awake. But I’ll give a listen today.

Jamie Moyer for the Cheesesteakers and Ollie Perez for the Amazin’s in what looks to be a dry but chilly Last Opening Day At Shea (I just came back from the post office on Church St and it’s cold and windy here in lower Manhattan but you really can’t go by me though as I’m like an old woman lately when it comes to the cold.)   and there are some interesting match ups. Ollie Perez should just give Pat Burrell a/k/a The Met Killer, one in  the ribs as Burrell owns OP to the tune .353/.455/.1.118 in 17 AB’s with 4 HR’s and Jimmy Rollins in 19 AB  hits .316/.409/.684 against Ollie. Against Moyers Carlos Delgado in 65 AB’s masters Moyer hitting .431/.507/.862 with 7HR 16 RBI Jose Reyes as well hits Jamie Moyer well going .350/.381/.450 so maybe this is the game that gets Reyes in gear and remember Professor Reyes has lost tenure and will not be seen on Diamond Vision this season.

Speaking of Diamond Vision it looks like the Mets have been Rick Rolled which makes me chuckle as I do enjoy when the best laid plans of corporations blow up in their faces. As I was reading about Never Gonna Give You Up making it as one of the finalist for the 8^th inning song our office radio which is tuned to CBS-FM played Build Me A Buttercup. It dawn on me that the first time I heard that song was on Wonderrama during the Go-Go dance segment (did I really just type Go-Go dancing?) . How many of you other old farts remember Wonderrama? First with Sonny Fox as the host then Bob McAllister?

I love all this Mets-Phillies brawl talk as it such bullshit. This Mets team doesn’t strike me as a bunch of swashbucklers if you know what I mean unless Darryl Strawberry is on the bench he still the toughest guy in the organization (Where have you gone John “The Dude” Stearns?) Who knows maybe David Wright will channel his inner Ray Knight and flatten Jimmy Rollins if he slides hard into third?

The first week’s results for the Baseball Happenings MVP CY Young and Rookie of the Year Awards voting are posted as this week we started with the AL here how I voted:

 AL MVP

1. A.J. Pierzynski CHWS

2. Carlos Pena TB Rays

3. Mike Napoli LAA

I can guarantee none of these three will ever win an MVP award this year or any year, but after one week all three play on first place teams and all three have made major offensive contributions to their teams

AL CY Young 

1. Rich Harden Oak

2. Daisuke Matsuzaka Bos

3. Brian Bannister KC

15K and a 0.82 ERA in 11 innings give Harden the nod over Dice-K’s 15 K in 11 2/3 innings pitched and 2.31 ERA. Bannisters holding the Tigers to 0 runs and 2 hits in 7 innings gets him a third place vote.

AL R O Y

1. Joba Chamberlain NYY

2Jacoby Ellsburry BOS
3. Dan Murphy TEX

These three are keeping the spot warm until the Rays of Tampa free Evan Longoria from Triple A  Tar Heels Coach Roy Williams ought to be ashamed of himself for showing up at last nights Kansas-Memphis Championship game with the Kansas Jay Hawk on his shirt. It’s fine to root for his former team the Jayhawks but how does it look to your team and the alumni that the team that you’re wearing the logo of the team that knocked you out of the tournament? How would we feel if the Highlanders were in the World Series and Willie Randolph was sitting in Highlander Stadium wearing apparel of the Bronx Bastards?   

I wonder if there will be a Surgeon Generals Warning on the Word Press homepage? I hope none of you morbid fuckers start a dead pool.

I hate when I get like this. It’s only two games in the beginning of the season but I’m so fucking mad about the Mets losing to the Braves. It doesn’t matter who is in those uniforms, the Braves could bring up the whole Richmond Braves team put BRAVES on their chest and the Mets would drop 2 of 3 to them as well.

I’m blaming Willie Randolph for my bad attitude and from reading the comments of yesterday’s post a lot of Mets fans are in a pissy mood as well with the skipper. How he didn’t use Endy Chavez to run for Brian Schneider is puzzling and just as the all around un-aggressive way Willie acts disturbs me. For the second time this season, which is just five games old, the Mets were screwed by bad umpiring. The one on Saturday got reversed but the umpire, Bruce Dreckman who, Willie claims told him he didn’t want to reverse his call because he didn’t know where to put the runners. At that point, that’s where Willie has to lose it and tell Dreckman what a piece of shit umpire he is, but I know that’s not Willie’s way, the same way he didn’t rant and rave when a HR was taken away from the Mets on bad umpiring in Miami. I’m not saying Willie has to be Larry Bowa who wigged out like a mental patient when told to get back in the coaches box, but it would be to see the using the old cliché, A little fire in the belly.

Again it’s early but David Wright is looking to be a little more vocal in the Mets clubhouse:

    “We need to play better,” said David Wright. “This is an early-season test, and we’ve failed so far.” 

Not earth shattering but just hearing Wright say the words we failed is encouraging as he is calling his team out. Now here is where Randolph has to think of lesson learned from St. Joseph of Torre when he was the Vicar of The Bronx and stood with Derek Jeter and backed him to the hilt. If Randolph wants to last long enough to hang pictures in the managers office at $iti Field he better align himself with the Wright Stuff.

Yesterday afternoon I’m filliping the dials and landed on MASN and the National post game show which included Ray Knight. Manny Acta was on with his post game presser, and he looked very managerial. When they went back to the studio, Knight said and I’m paraphrasing, That Acta was one of the best mangers he had seen in his years of baseball in handling the press and the post game comments. All I could think of was seeing Omar Minaya’s face listing to Knight.

So Matt Wise has a sore right forearm. Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Player has an ailment. Gets shipped to NY for MRI. MRI negative. Player takes about 5 to 8 days off. Player entered game. Player comes out of game as ailment still bothers him to where he can’t function in game. Player goes on DL not retro active from the 5 to 8 days he missed but because he entered a game from that day. The 15 day DL becomes 21 days, then 30 days the 60 days and off the 40 man roster. Ailment goes from soreness to reconstructive surgery and player is out for the year. Player comes back next spring tells all “This is the best I’ve ever felt”. Player not able yet to play in exhibition game so he plays in choose up game on minor league field. Player does great against kids and proclaims he will be “Ready when the bell rings” A week before opening day team announces everything with player is fine but he may stay back in Florida just to “gain some strength” It takes player until June to gain said strength and then precautions must be taken as to not re-injure. Season ends in disappointment but Player says this winter he will work hard to get back to where he can contribute. So there you go the history of the new millennium Mets.

Tell me you didn’t see that Texiera Home Run coming? Two quick outs Larry Jones walks Heilman gives up the long ball a homer that barely farted over the fence. How many years have we been watching this now 14 15 years of gaging at the Ted.

And while I have a bug up my butt I know Brian Schineder is a fine defensive catcher and blah blah blah but wouldn’t it be the right move to make down a run late in the game to run for him after he got a hit in the 8th?  

Just back from my first practice with my new Little League team.  We got off to a late start as we usually get our roster by the middle of March so we can get at least a month of practice in but we held our registration open longer than usual to try to get more kids signed up. Every year our enrollment goes down which is very disheartening but the kids who do sign up love to play and that’s what counts.

Last night’s rainout knocks Big Pelf back a few days as when you’re the low man you get the shaft. I can’t believe Willie Randolph even thought about bumping Johan Santana having him work on seven days rest which is insane. It’s tough for Pelfrey to work on what will be twelve days rest but sometimes thems the breaks.

So Titian Tom Glavine hopes Mets fans remember him for five great years and the class he brought to the Mets organization.  Well, I’ll remember him for pitching like horseshit down the stretch last season and for signing with the Mets because they were the only team to over pay him.

The Mets are looking for a new 8^th inning song this year after being shamed to drop Sweet Caroline since they stole it from the Red Sox. Although a territorial fight could have been won since Neil Diamond is a Brooklyn (of course) native but if my memory serves me I believe Diamond is a Highlanders fan but I digress, you can go to Mets.com and vote for one of the song to replace Sweet Caroline (or keep Sweet Caroline which if you didn’t know was written about Caroline Kennedy hence the joy in Boston when the song is played. My head is filled with some much useless information it’s a shame. My kids give me a funny look when I asked them if they want me to help them with their homework. My son usually says “That’s OK dad, go back to ranting about who will replace Pedro”. What a little wise ass. I wish I knew where he gets that attitude from?)

While looking over the list nothing there jumped out at me. Brown Eyed Girl sure Van the Man is cool but I’ll pass. Land of 1,000 Dances? That would get on my nerves by June.  Bon Jovi and Billy Joel are you fucking kidding? I like the choice of Joan Jett but the song is wrong. I’d go with “Do You Want To Touch”:

“Do you wanna touch (yeah)

  Do you wanna touch (yeah)

  Do you wanna touch me there, where?

  There, yeah”

But leave it to long time reader and long time commenter Rich to come up with the logical choice of song:

 1.       This type of crap usually does not excite me, but Boomer and Carton were doing a spot on the “vote for the 8th inning song” deal. There are 10 choices out there, and we have until Monday to vote. I’m campaigning for “I’m a Believer”. If you have to ask why this is the no-brainer of the century, then Steve can already eliminate you from the final game at Shea competition.

You know, sometimes it good to have a grown up around to straighten shit out. I’m A Believer is THE CHOICE!!!! How could it not. Before the home half of the 8^th inning the Diamond Vision would have Tug McGraw in the Mets Clubhouse celebrating winning the 193 NL East, champagne flying and Ralph Kiner holding the microphone and Tug looking into the camera and screaming “YA GOTTA BELIEVE”!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then play the song with great moments in Mets history behind and you will have one stoked stadium. Vote now and Vote often. Thank you Rich for making some sense around here.

You all know my man love for Tim Marchman but Jeff Keppinger over Luis Castillo? Uhhh…..no Tim not even close.

Omar is not actively campaigning for what’s left on the starting pitching scrap heap as Bean Stringfellow has been cat walking Claudio Vargas but Omar might be hot for Vargas but he’s playing hard to get. Woody Williams? Not even a sniff. Freddy Garcia? I can see him showing his stuff come June and the Mets putting in a bid but for now Omar will keep a pat hand.

Speaking of Omar Minaya, listing to Joe (Bada Bing, Bada Boom) Beningno had a throwaway line on his show yesterday that he is hearing that Omar and Willie are going through a rough patch in their relationship. Now remember, Bada Bing-Bada Boom is now part of the SNY family so connect the dots boys and girls. With the Nats playing with tons of piss and vinegar, I bet Omar wished he could pry Manny Acta out of DC and into Flushing. That plus the leaking of First Lieutenant Tony Bernazard loitering in the clubhouse to the dismay of Randolph plays a part in this as well. Stay tuned