With a rare Saturday with nothing to do (just one basketball game today, my daughter’ and that was a home game at noon which means just a walk around the corner from my house ) I decided to give my eyes and fingers a day off but since the computer was on as my son finished a report for school, I figured “what the hell’ I’ll throw out a quick post so with The Grateful Dead Steal Your Face vol 1 and 2 in the background away we go.

Seems there was a very nice turnout in the cold for the last day of Shea wake. Dave Singer at NY Sports Dog has a clip of those in attendance singing my favorite song. It looks like by the end of the week Shea Stadium will be just a pile of rubble. After looking at the clip of the folks singing Meet The Mets it occurs to me that the Skill Sets are not worthy of such loyal and passionate fans.

I see where the Rays have signed LOOGY extraordinary Brian Shouse to a two year deal which seems a bit much for a 40 yr old lefty but now there is a logjam in the Tampa pen and they are looking to move Chad Bradford. Bradford is up to make $3.5 mil in 2009 and how would he look in the Mets pen in the 6^th or 7^th inning? Damn good if you ask me. I think I’ll just slam my hand in a car door now and save me the pain for when Omar tells us the Mets have no interest in Bradford.

I missed St Joseph of Torre on Larry King last night ( I was at Devils-Pens game more on that in a minute.) But a couple of things about this book. Torre didn’t get involved with this book for the money or for notoriety this was his revenge against the Highlanders for the way he feels he was shoved out the door by Two Packs A Day Hank, Shallow Hal and Pee Wee Cashman. Make no mistake St. Joe is one scorned ex-employee and he wanted the world to know it. As impossible as this may seem I know a few people close to the Highlander high archy and others who have dealt with St Joe and they inform me there are Two Joe’s, public Joe who is gracious and suave and then there is down and dirty Joe who lets all the Brooklyn come out of him when you rattle his cage.

With that low rent asshole David Wells coming out with his dumb ass statements against Torre (remember Wells got his ass kicked by a Guido midget in a Manhattan diner so I doubt he has the onions to punch Torre in the face) it reminded me of a story my Highlander operative relayed to me.

One Old Timers day, Wells was not scheduled to pitch and during the regular game decided he wanted to go up to the owners box and hobnob with the old timers while his teammates were engaged in a game. As he was trying to finagle getting a cocktail he saw the Highlander Clipper, Joe DiMaggio and struck up a conversation. After a while Wells took off his uni top and undershirt so he could show Joltin’ Joe the faces of his kids and mom he had tattooed on his upper torso. Needless to say, the sight of a shirtless Wells did not go over well with the old timers and swells in the Bronx Robber Barons Box. At that point the phone in the suite rang and on one end was one angry manager as word got to St Joe that Tons o’ Fun Wells was up in the owners box swillin’ and chillin’. Wells was told to get back to the Highlander bunker and when he arrived, St Joseph of Torre morphed into Brooklyn Joe and had to be restrained for giving Wells a good old fashion Brooklyn ass kicking. No wonder Torre laughed when he was told of Wells’ comments for St Joe knows who the real “punk ass” is.

 

Went to the Prudential Center last night for the Devils-Penguins game a good one as the Devils came back from 2 goals down to tie in regulation and win in OT on Jamie Langenbrunners second OT winner in two nights. I really like The Rock. It has great sight lines and the wide concourses make it very manageable to get around but I have (of course ) a few issues. First, the area around the arena is mostly office buildings and the streets are the darker than the other side of Mars. There aren’t any places to go get something to eat before the game so you either eat at home or eat at the arena which is your standard arena/stadium fare. The area you enter to get into the arena is small and when there is a big crowd on a cold night the open doors create a wind tunnel and you freeze your ass off waiting to get in. Then when you get in they have security guards who use a wand on you to search for weapons which for some reason cracks me up as I say to myself ‘are you kidding? This is Newark” Who doesn’t have a piece on them”? Add to that the guards all look like they just got out of the Rahway State Pen. Forget President Obama, when a black guy in a “doo-rag” and gold teeth is patting my pasty white ass down looking for a shive well that my friends tells me there really is Change in America. One last thing, how can a concession stand that is one of the biggest I’ve seen in an arena run out of hot dogs and pretzels after the first period of a hockey game?

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We had a great conversation last night on Pro Baseball Central with Mark Henderson of the Washington Nationals blog Nationals Pride. Check out the podcast at Pro Baseball Central or click on the blogtalk radio link on the right hand side of this posting. Also if you are on Facebook check out the Bring Hondo Home application as the guys at Nationals Pride are trying to pursued the Nats management to bring Frank Howard back to DC in some coaching or front office capacity. As most Mets fans know Big Frank was a coach here and with the Highlanders and is one of the great guys in baseball and would be an asset to any ML teams’ staff.

 

Got to hand it to my fellow Mets fans for coming out last night for the Million Manny March (even if there were only about 40 people there) in front of the SNY studios on 6 Ave. And give kudos to SNY for not chasing the fans “off their lawn” and giving them some air time on the Mets Hot Stove Show.

 

Speaking of Manny, Mike Silva at NY Baseball Digest is being rational about Manny to the Mets and what bugs the shit out of me the most is he makes sense. Our conversations over Manny to the Mets and most things Mets related are like Col. Trautman and John Rambo in First Blood:

 

Trautman: Mike Silva: You did everything to make this private war happen. You’ve done enough damage. This mission is over, Rambo. Do you understand me? This mission is over! Look at them out there! Look at them! (Omar, Tony B, Dave the Lawyer, Uncle Saul, Matt Yaloff, Lee Mazilli, Jeffey and Fred Skill Sets) If you won’t end this now, they will kill you. Is that what you want? It’s over Johnny Steve, It’s over!
Rambo: Steve: Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don’t turn it off! It wasn’t my war! You asked me, I didn’t ask you! And I did what I had to do to win! But somebody wouldn’t let us win! And I come back to the world and I see all those maggots at the airport Gate A, protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer bullshit blogger and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me? Who are they? Unless they’ve been me and been there and know what the hell they’re yelling about!

 

Reality sucks!

 

I don’t think you could be bigger fuck ups than the empty suits that are running Citi Group. First, you become the biggest welfare recipients in the country and when you get your first WIC card you go out and try to buy malt liquor and cigarettes instead of baby food and diapers. These assholes still don’t get it. NO MORE PRIVATE PLANES!!!! And because they have acted so irresponsibly the Congress is looking at their deal with the Skill Sets on the naming rights to Chop Shop Park (a/k/a $iti Field) Hopefully the US Treasury and Congress will step in and void the naming rights deal for the new park so the Skill Sets can give the new pleasure palace it’s rightful name “NO MANNY DUE TO MADOFF PARK”

 

Tomorrow at Shea there will be a wake for the old girl as she is just about demolished. I would love to attend but too many chores on a Saturday for me but I would like to send this out the flock.

 

With John Maine coming to terms on a one year deal worth $2.6 mil came under his $3mil arbitration figure, so Omar Minaya wins the Showcase Showdown on The Price is Right.

 

Nik Kolidas over at Kiners Korner has a great post and pics of the Final Days of Shea. As I read

Niks’s post and looked at his great pics I had my iPod on and it was set to shuffle and R.E.M “Losing My Religion” came on. Some omen huh?:

 

 

 Every whisper

Of every waking hour I’m

Choosing my confessions

Trying to keep an eye on you

Like a hurt lost and blinded fool

Oh no I’ve said too much

I set it up

 

I’m off to The Rock tonight for Devils-Penguins two teams I despise kind of like going to a Phillies-Braves game. But since Marty Brodeur is out I can’t yell ‘FATBOY” so I guess I’ll just heckle the shit out of Cindy Crosby.

 

 

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Tonight at 9PM EST on Pro Baseball Central Joe and I will be joined by Mike Henderson who is one of the writers on the Washing Nationals blog NATIONALS PRIDE. We will discuss the state of the Nats, what the outlook is for them in ’09 and more so join us and join by calling in at (646) 595-4462 on Blog Talk Radio-Pro Baseball Central.

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You know he will come back to haunt the Mets

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I don’t know how he got in there but Michael Leggett of RANDOM FANDOM RED SOX NYC got a picture of the place St Joseph of Torre did most of his writing for his new book and where Joe Girardi went to cry after not making the post season. Also check out the link to Harvey Araton; story on the lucky folks of the South Bronx having two stadiums to call their own and the pics of the final days of Shea.

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17 days until pitchers and catchers but it’s just one more day until Pro Baseball Central so join Joe McDonald and me tomorrow night on Blog Talk Radio at 9PM to join in on the baseball chatter call in to the show at (646) 595-4462. More Pro Baseball Central news later.

 

J-Man is one cool dude, as he has taken up our fight for Manny by letting all parties involved know he’d love to pencil 24 RAMIREZ into his lineup card:

 “But that’s [general manager] Omar [Minaya], that’s the Wilpons, their thing,” Manuel said to a group of reporters yesterday at the Holy Apostle Soup Kitchen in Manhattan, where he was helping unload supplies for City Harvest, a group that provides supplies for the needy around the city. “I’m like the fans: If we get him, cool. If not, we’ll deal with it. We have a pretty good team.”

 

It pays to have job security, I wonder if J-Man would put the Manny burden on managements shoulders like that if he were in the last year of a contract instead of starting a new deal? Never the less it’s good to have J-Man on our side.

I also like how J-Man dealt with the most overrated question about Manny, how to deal with him in the clubhouse:

“If you’ve got a guy who performs on the field, you can handle the rest of that stuff. I don’t think it’s an issue. I don’t have a problem with the clubhouse. I’ve got an office that’s about so big,” Manuel said, holding his hands close together. “The clubhouse, I let them do what they do.”

 

Look I have never played in professional sports but I have played on teams throughout my life with guys I despised so much I wouldn’t pee on them if they were on fire but as long as we were teammates I had their back and they had mine, maybe it’s the long season and the time together that atmosphere in the pro clubhouse means a lot but I’m sure if Manny is hitting home runs and protecting D-Wright in the batting order and giving Carlos Delgado beaucoup RBI opps in his walk year,  Manny would be the Man of the Year in the Mets Cave.

 

More Manny, this comment from Matt Cerrone (hope you’re feeling better Matt) on Manny and the Mets:

also, i have a feeling the team may have miscalculated just how vocal their fans would be about manny… i

listened to WFAN last night from 3 am to 4 am, thanks to my asthma and a cold, and every single Mets call was about manny… over and over and over again… manny, manny, manny… i’m not saying this is a reason for the Mets to change course, not at all, they should do what they see fit, but they may want to consider how they are spinning this to the public, especially if there is any chance ramirez ends up signing a one-year deal with the Dodgers,because, if that happens, i suspect most fans are going to lose it…

 

If I have one major pet peeve with the Mets organization it is they are clueless about their fan base and I get the feeling they couldn’t give damn about us. If the Skill Sets showed one once the passion of its fan base the name “Mets” would be acknowledge with more respect instead of laughter.

 

According to reports the Mets have sold 25,000 per game so far as just about everyone who committed to buying season tickets has poinied up the dough. But guess which seats are not selling so fast? Yes those high priced club seats that hold the ample ass’ of those captains of industry that have thrown us into this recession. Don’t worry Skill Sets the working folks of NY won’t let you down.

 

      

 

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So there was J-Man looking more CEO than Gangsta’ last night on Daily News Live when the first question asked of him was “Wadda bout Manny, would you have a problem managing him”? and the Mets Warlord pulled no punches:

 

“I don’t think so.  I don’t have a problem with people that produce in the form and fashion that Manny Ramirez produces.  We shouldn’t spend that much time in the locker room anyway, our job is to be on the field – and Manny Ramirez has proven that he is probably one of the best right-handed hitters of our generation.  To have a shot at managing him would be exciting for me.  I’ve had Albert Belle, Frank Thomas, tremendous right-handed hitters.  I would love to have the opportunity to watch Manny hit every day.”

 

I really feel that there are discussions between the Mets Gang of Four (Omar, John Rico, Tony B and Sandy Johnson) on the Manny situation going on, maybe it’s just wishful thinking or maybe it’s the Omar modus operendi of laying in the weeds to swoop in. As we approach February, the Dodgers offer of 2yr/$45 mil is still on the table with Manny/Boras still holding out for 4-5 yrs for $100-$125mil. No one is paying that for Manny. But why can’t the Mets stoke this negotiation with a 2yr/$50 with an attainable third year option? Worse case scenario, Manny/Boras turn it down Best case, they accept and we get Manny or they turn it down but you send the message to your fan base that you are willing to go the extra mile to sign an impact player like Manny.

 

Believe me it’s not like I want the Mets to throw money away . I wouldn’t even think of signing Bobby Abreu or Adam Dunn for anything more than a 1yr ML vet minimum same with Ollie Perez (3yr) and Ben Sheets (2 yr), I’d love to sign either guy but not at their price but Manny is a living breathing Hall of Fame player who has played on nothing but winning teams plus he brings a real swagger to the team and brings respect to the Mets which this team has lost in the last two season.

 

In part two of Mike Steffano’s interview with Joe Janish of Mets Today, Joe sums up the biggest problem with the disconnect between the Mets fans and management:

 

  If you could change just one thing about how the Mets franchise is run, what would it be?

Easy. I’d make a commitment to building the franchise for the long-term, emulating the Braves and the Twins. I’m not on board with the idea that New York fans don’t have the patience for rebuilding — that’s nonsense. YANKEE fans may not have patience, but the large majority of loyal Mets fans would be fine with struggling for a few years IF they saw that there was a plan in place, and there was commitment to the plan. We toughed it through the early 1980s, and were rewarded with some of the most exciting seasons in the team’s history from 1984 to 1990 — with teams built around a core of players that we as fans could easily root for, and felt more attached to because of continuity and because we felt we “watched them grow up”.

 

Under my watch, the long-term plan would start at the very bottom of the organization, with the scouts and the low levels of the minors — where the focus would be on instilling fundamentals and developing consistent execution in all phases of the game. Teenage phenoms would not be rushed through the system because they have a great bat or a live fastball — they’d have to develop their entire game in a ball before moving up to the next level. That’s where the current regime frustrates me — they say they’re committed to a “win now” mentality, but then they stop short of acquiring the final pieces and start talking about the farm system. A lot of mixed signals.

 

I agree 1,000 % with Joe. If the front office said they were committed to building with youth especially young pitching and a defense over offense no one would be happier than me. I would be singing the praises of Omar and the Skill Sets. But as Joe says, the Mets tell us they are a “Now” team so if you are a “Now” team then sign the two “Now” guys that are out there Manny and Ben Sheets.  If you’re building a team for the future then give Randy Wolf and Jon Garland 1 yr deals and let Jon Niese, and Bobby Parnell work on their craft in Buffalo. Whatever, the Mets need to decide which direction you want to go and stick with it.

 

Frankie Maniscalco is getting ready to launch a Fantasy Baseball League over at NYBD.

With President Obama looking to close the Guantanamo Bay camp maybe the government could keep it open for a little while longer and give Kirk Radamski, Brain McNamee, Jay McGwire and Greg Anderson permanent housing there.

 

Speaking of Radamski, Doc Gooden vehemently denies the accusation that Radamski was his personal Wizzanator. On a lighter note, it seems Gooden is still glowing from the reception he received from Mets fans on the Last Day of Shea:

 

    “I want to set the record straight,” Gooden said. “When I went back to Shea last year it really hit me how much the fans care for me, it still gives me goose bumps. I want to do the right thing for them and my family. I love the fans and I appreciate how much they care for me.”

   

Welcome back Doc.

 

 

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I use Baseball-Reference so much that I felt an obligation to sponsor a page on the site as there is no better site for baseball stats so I found two former Mets that had no page sponsor so I grabbed them:

Ken Boswell

 

 

 

Duffy Dyer

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While we wait for the Mets to make a counter offer to Ollie Perez (3yr/$30mil, plus unlimited White Castle burgers after every home start,  20 free oil changes in one of the auto repair shops next to $iti Field, use of the Oscar Myer Weiner car from the 1964 World Fair on weekends, 10 free hair cuts at Hiram’s House of Hair Styling in Corona and the right to pick the in-flight movie on flights to Pittsburgh) and due to the fact that have to do some real work here a few links that are well worth your while..

 

A big Happy Birthday to Mike Silva of New York Baseball Digest, check out his great Q&A with Dr. Mike Marshall.

 

Mike Steffanos of Mike’s Mets has the first part of an interview with Joe Janish of Mets Today up on his site for your entertainment

 

This Joe Torre tell all is a bit over blown but in these tough times when it’s tough to spend $25 bucks on a book (There is no greater place on earth than the New York Public Library) you have to admire the publisher to get the word spreading like a five alarm fire through the media for this book.  I love Tom Verducci and I’m sure this book will be well worth the read so I may drop some of my limited discretionary funds on this tome.

 

I always wondered why Wes Westrum never wrote a book about what a pain in the ass Jack Hamilton was or the how Kevin Collins used to stalk Ken Boyer

 

 

 

 

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Looks like the Ollie P negotiations will go on for a while but I have a feeling he will sign back with the Mets sometime this week.

I love how people are telling Mets fans to pipe down on the Manny to the Mets talk, it either comes from media types who have no allegiance to the Mets expect that they cover them for a paycheck (that’s you Ed Coleman ) or some “anonymous” GM that most time is a figment of a writers imagination. The bottom line is the Manny makes the Mets a World Series contender and I will write about Manny every god damn day if I have to to get the Mets to sign him and plant in LF.

Joe McDonald has a slide show of pics showing the final days of Shea. It’s just a matter of weeks until Shea becomes a $tit Field parking lot.

Well what do you know, all was not well in Highlander universe during the rein of St Joseph of Torre. Can’t wait to read this book.

Never underestimate the stupidity of people

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