What can I add about last night’s game that you don’t know already? How can you break down this game when it’s the same old same old? Everyone is screaming for Omar Minaya do something, what that something is and how he can obtain it  no one has an answer to. “GET A BAT, GET A BAT” is a popular rant but last night you scored 6 runs and still lost. What bat do you want? We’ve gone all over the tried names and none of them will make a difference. It’s not complex what the problems are with the Mets and you can look at charts and numbers and load up your nuclear slide rule and you will come up with the same result I do just through simple observation, the starting staff can go deep into games, thus the bullpen is worn out and is now ineffective add in the defense is atrocious and collectively the baseball IQ of the 25 man roster is at Special Ed level.

 

But more pathetic than that are the unnamed players whining for the front office to make a deal to “lift them” which to me is the pussy-fcation of this team. If Michael Jackson were alive he’d tell them to “man up”.

 

This slide is less about who isn’t here but more about the heart of who is here. D-Wright and Gary Sheffield (GARY SHEFFIELD!!!!! For Christ Sake!!!!) are doing everything they can to keep this team in contention with Wright near exhaustion and Sheff ready to blow out his knee. It’s time for other guys to step up and that means you Ryan Church and Fernando Tatis and Alex Cora to take more of a leadership role that he has slacked on recently. Most times team meeting are well…meaningless but I think this would be the exact right time for Wright, Sheff and Johan Santana to close the clubhouse door for a players only meeting to clear the air and figure out who is ready to fight for their season and who is ready to hide under the bed.

 

What a surprise, Carlos Beltran in going for a second opinion on his injured knee and he is going to Vail Colorado to visit Dr Richard Steadman a noted orthopedic doctor who specializes in micro-fracture surgery. See you in March Carlos.

 

“The New York Mets would like to announce the addition of Dr. Conrad Murray to their medical staff”

 

Thanks to The Dirty Mets Blog for a shout out to this site this morning.

 

The Mets Police has a clip of Vin Scully calling Sandy Koufax’ no hitter against the Mets 47 years ago today.

 

I think it’s great that Keith Hernandez, when not telling us that “batters are a bit tardy on the fastball”, is saving lives as a NYC EMT

 

I am thisclose to purchasing a LINCICUM 55 Giants jersey. I’m starting to feel like Nurse Jackie, I’m married to the Mets but I’m cheating with the Giants ( by the way how weird is it to watch Edie Falco as Nurse Jackie banging the guy who played Father Phil on The Sopranos?) especially when Tim Lincicum is pitching. The Giants do everything we wish the Mets would do. The play outstanding defense, they don’t beat themselves with stupidity both on D and at bat, they have solid starting pitching with the best 1-2 punch in the game with Lincicum and Matt Cain, a solid bullpen core that doesn’t get burned out as Bruce Bochy lets his starters go deep into games and sometimes lets them finish all 9 innings. I was never a big fan of Bochy when he was running the Padres bench but watching the Giants as much as I have so far this season he is doing an outstanding job.

 

I will be a guest on Mike Silva’ NEW YORK BASEBALL DIGEST RADIO SHOW tonight at 6:30PM on Blog Talk Radio.

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I know as Mets fans this is not the best time to talk about a book dealing with the Highlanders but MUNSON: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain by Marty Appel(Random House) is a must read as Thurman Munson was a not only a revered Yankee but he was respected by everyone in the game. At the time of his death, which is approaching its 30^th Anniversary (W-O-W!!!!) the big debate with baseball fans when it came to the catcher position was Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk and Munson. All three could hit and Bench was the better receiver and Fisk the more durable but none were tougher or more of a clutch hitter (back in the 70’s we believed in clutch hitting) than Munson.

 

As tough and productive as Munson was on the field he was as complex off it and if anyone could give you a look at the complexity and the esteem that Thurman Munson held with his teammates and his peers it’s Marty Appel.

 

Appel was the long time Yankees PR Director in the heyday of “The Bronx is Burning” era of Yankee baseball.

 

Put your team alliance aside for now and pick up MUNSON: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain by Marty Appel as it is not only gives you an inside look at baseball back in the 70’s but it chronicles the life and times of a player who was headed for the Hall of Fame who was taken at young life as he tried to juggle his responsibility as a husband, parent, teammate and leader.

 

MUNSON: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain can be found in book stores and at

Amazon

BN

BORDERS 

 

 

One of the things about baseball that it has head and shoulders over other sports is it’s characters and one of the greatest of all time was Satchel Paige. In SATCHEL: The Life and Times of an American Hero, (Random House) Larry Tye goes in depth about not just Paige the pitcher but Paige the man taking us from his childhood in Mobile, Alabama through the Negro Leagues, to his Barn Storming Tours to finally making it to the Major Leagues with the Cleveland Indians in 1948 and winning AL Rookie of the Year at the age of 42.  After reading SATCHEL : The Life and Times of an American Legend, and ask yourself where does Paige rank on the list of all time pitchers and if you didn’t think he was a top 10 before you may be surprised you change your mind after reading this book.

 

SATCHEL: The Life and Times of an American Hero can be found at book stores and at

Amazon

BN

Borders

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On March 1, 2000 Rick Pitino then the coach of the Boston Celtics after a loss to the Toronto Raptors that let Celtic fans in a state of despair and booed and jeered the C’s with gusto, came out with one of the classic rants in the history of sports:

 

  “Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door. And if you expect them to walk through that door, they’re going to be gray and old. What we are is young, exciting, hard-working, and we’re going to improve. People don’t realize that, and as soon as they realize those three guys are not coming through that door, the better this town will be for all of us because there are young guys in that (locker) room playing their asses off. I wish we had $90 million under the salary cap. I wish we could buy the world. We can’t; the only thing we can do is work hard, and all the negativity that’s in this town sucks. I’ve been around when Jim Rice was booed. I’ve been around when Yastrzemski was booed. And it stinks. It makes the greatest town, greatest city in the world, lousy. The only thing that will turn this around is being upbeat and positive like we are in that locker room… and if you think I’m going to succumb to negativity, you’re wrong. You’ve got the wrong guy leading this team.”

 

This is the kind of Rant I want out of my Manager of the Mets the self pro-claimed GANGSTA’ I want him to tell everyone that “Darryl Strawberry, Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter are not walking through that door”. I want him to tell the media, fans and his players to shut the fuck up about who isn’t here and worry about who is here. I want him to order his players on the field today in Milwaukee to take infield as I don’t give a rats ass what time they got into town after last night’s embarrassment. I want him to call out which ever sniveling veteran it was who went crying to the papers whining that “A deal would send the message they want to win and will do what it takes to helps us” and let him know the he and the rest of the 25 man roster needs to grow some balls and get their heads out of their ass on defense. You want to give teams 5 and 6 outs and inning? Babe Ruth couldn’t saved your sorry ass.

 

Does this team need a slugger DUH!? But if you think by obtaining Adam Dunn, Adam LaRoche, Nick Johnson or the new flavor of the week Mark Teahen is going to make a difference then you’re blinded by the J-Man smoke screen. This team’ piss poor play is a direct reflection of the manager in the words of the great Bobby Valentine, “Proper preparation prevents piss poor performance” and this latest piss poor weekend is on Jerry Manuel.

 

J-Man is starting to show cracks in his amour. He moans and groans about the team keeping its head above water, and trying to stay in it until the injured get back it seems it had got D-Wright to get his back up when he said he didn’t know about treading water that he plays every game to win. You have Gary Sheffield saying “Management is going to take care of what they think we need, people shouldn’t think we come in here and do double takes at the lineup every day. We should have what it takes to win and we should be doing better, if they got a bat it would be great and everyone would applaud it. That doesn’t mean it should be necessary”

 

Exactly that goes back to players not coming through the door.

 

Maybe Omar should take some time from burning cell phone minutes to go straighten out his manager and let him know if he can’t handle this adversity there’s a guy in Japan who thrives on it.

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Pitching a one hitter against the Mets right now is like going bass fishing and catching a minnow. Sure you caught a fish but how much skill did it take to reel in that little fellow? Same with pitching to the Mets just don’t pitch to David Wright and throw fastballs down the middle to the est of the lineup and you should be fine. End of scouting report.

No problem here with Mark DeRosa going to the Cardinals for pitcher Chris Perez and a PTBNL. Then Mets equivalent to Perez is Bobby Parnell and I wouldn’t trade Parnell for a 34 year old rental player. The Mets problems are beyond adding DeRosa.

With all due respect to some of my Highlander buddies (Ben Kabak, Alex Bleth, Rebecca Glass) just observing Highlander fans most of the young ones are clueless when it comes to not only the rules of baseball or the strategy of the game but have no idea at all about their teams history. The older ones have a Pavlovian way about them as soon as you mention the name of the team they all bark out “26 Championships” I guess what I’m saying they’re a sad bunch. Our team may not win much but we’re a better class of fan.

A little bit of Tim Redding is good a lot of Tim Redding…..ahh…not so good. If there is one pitcher on the Mets that is the picture of a mop up guy in the pen, it’s Tim Redding.

Ol’ Cholly Manuel laced into his team after a another loss on Friday night and his club responded with a 10-0 win over the Blue Jays. After losing two straight to the Highlanders, Jerry Manuel took his team to the Lemon Ice King of Corona and told them it’s not their fault we have a lot of injuries and “You’re all winners YEAH!!!!!” Maybe that’s why Ol’Cholly has a ring and J-Man doesn’t. I’d love to see J-Man lace into his team and remind them this is the big leagues and they need to compte like big leaguers even if he doesn’t believe half of his roster belongs here.

I hate to bring up this Michael Jackson is dead thing again but there are a few things bothering about this whole Jacko worship that’s on going. As I stated the other day I was not a big fan of Jackson the man or the music. Pop music is not what I listen to I’m a Garage/Punk kinda of guy plus all the folks who think that Jackson was the greatest showman alive obviously had never seen a Stones concert, a Queen concert or a Plasmatics concert but that is neither here nor there

My biggest trouble with Jackson is the fact he slept with little boys, and that is fucking sick. My feeling for this does not just lie with Jackson but with the Catholic church as well and it’s the reason why I have no respect for the clergy any more.

Now if you bring up this part of Jackson’s life to a fan of his you get called al kind of names from a racist (which is funny as the guy went above and beyond to be white) or a heartless fuck. And that is because the truth hurts. But his fans and the media have given him a pass on his past crimes and have treated him like an American hero in his passing.

Michael Vick didn’t sleep with little boys (as far as we know) but he did maim, torture and kill animals which is still despicable and I would love to see Vick tortured the same way he did to those dogs. I’m not some crazy PETA zealot but I do own pets and I’ve been around dogs and just the thought that this scumbag gained the trust of the dogs then made them fight and the ones who weren’t fighters he killed makes my blood boil. Again if you are anti Vick you’re a racist, and a heartless reactionary and the man severed his time and deserves another chance. Not to me as Michael Vick is nothing but a fucking coward and also he wasn’t a very good QB either but he will get a chance some place and his past history of cruelty and murder of dogs will be replaced with cheering fans and enablers

What I’m getting to in my long winded way is Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds are just some of the biggest stars in baseball who have been found to use performance drugs to enhance their play on the field and to recover from injury to stay on the field. Of course their actions were wrong as taking PED’s they way they did were unlawful but for the most part not against the laws of baseball well not until the jig was up and the Used Car Salesman acted with shock and horror that players were using PED’s, a performance worthy of an Oscar.

In no way do I condone the actions of the players involved in what is now the Steroid Scandal Era (especially since I’m reading American Icon which will become the essential reading when people look back on this time in baseball) but what I don’t get is how these players are treated worse than a guy who slept with little boys and a guy who killed dogs?

I just wish there was the outcry for the actions of Michael Jackson and Roger Vick like there is for Manny Ramirez who of the three committed the lesser crime.

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Talk about a buzz kill, after Thursday ‘ game and the fact that the Mets took 3 of 4 from the Cards to pull within a half game of first place in the division, I was starting to wonder could this team play just good enough to stay in the race until August when we’re told the walking wounded should all be back in the lineup plus a chance that Billy Wagner could make his way back to the pen. Could it happen? Well, after last night’s cold water in the face, bringing me back to this awful place performance, it’s  going to be mighty tough.

This one was over in the second inning as the Mets decided that the lineup they trotted out on the field wasn’t enough of a handicap that they had to help the Highlanders more by playing shitty defense to leave Big Pelf out to dry. The combination of bad D and having his nuts squeezed by home plate ump Tony Randazzo had Pelfrey close to meltdown mode.  As Ron Darling pointed out on the telecast Pelf was showing emotion but he was still in control and after that awful second inning, pitched well but at 93 pitches through 5 innings and with two on and two out, and Pelfrey due up, Manuel sent up a pinch hitter which was the right call, the batter he sent up was Argenis Reyes and that was the wrong call.

When your lone right handed bat on the bench is Argenis Reyes he doesn’t see the batters box until the game goes to the bottom of 145^th inning. Manuel does not have the luxury of matching lefty righty with  this cut rate roster you have to go with your best hitter on that bench so in that spot you have to have Daniel Murphy hit for Pelfrey.   I wonder if there was some subliminal message that Manuel was sending to the front office with that move?

If ever there was a game to close the clubhouse door and air out your team it was last night but J-Man didn’t do it.  Last night in Toronto, after the Phillies lost to the Blue Jays, Charlie Manuel closed the clubhouse and laced into his club to get its head out of its ass. After the tongue lashing C-Man refused to speak to the media most likely going back to his hotel room with a big bottle of Canadian Club to wash away his frustrations. So which Manuel do you think is GANSTA’?

J-Man mentioned his roster depletion due to injury in his post game talk and it’s pissing me off that he keeps using that excuse as he needs to add a little Belichick to his game.

So now John Maine is getting a cortisone shot and will be shut down as he still has “discomfort” in his shoulder. Can we just send him to Birmingham to Dr Andrews already and get it over with? The Mets med staff is embarrassed one more time and the sad part is it’ll happen again.

The doctor who shot Michael Jackson with so much dope it killed him shouldn’t worry about a job I’m sure the Mets would gladly take him on their staff.

I agree with Gary Cohen, F-Mart is up here to play as a showcase for a trade.

MLB Trade Rumors had a link at deal with the Nats to send Nyjer Morgan to the Nats for Lastings Milledge.  I wouldn’t mind going after Morgan if I’m the Mets.

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Oh those gritty, gutsy Mets. Did you ever think those words would be used to describe our favorite baseball team? Me either but yesterday’s 3-2 win over Cardinals a game Tony LaRussa managed the 8^th inning like it was Game 7 of the NLCS (but it paid off for the stinking genius) was close to baseball as it ought to be. A few observations from the day at $iti Field:

 

Johan Santana had a very difficult time in the first three innings finding the strike zone as he had neither command of his fastball or change up in the first three innings whether this was due to his mechanics or the ineptitude of home plate ump Ron Kulpa  I’m not sure but after giving up a walk to Chris Carpenter in the 4^th Santana all of a sudden got locked in and took control of the game. The mark of a great pitcher is when he can’t get his best pitches over for strikes he still finds a way to stay on top of his game and work his way through until he figures out how to get those pitches working or has a plan B and gets that to work. No panic, no fear that’s Johan Santana.

 

Ryan Church is lucky J-Man didn’t take out his blade and cut his ass after yesterday’s game. Manuel has put the challenge to Church by putting him the clean up spot while Sheffield recoups from his cortisone shot to his knee. So far the challenge not met by Church. With Daniel Murphy on second and Luis Castillo on first, D-Wright had an outstanding at bat. After looking at two called strikes, Wright bared down and then let two balls go out of the strike zone to even the count 2-2, the next pitch Wright just missed (a fastball I believe from Kyle McClellan) and then took the two more pitches for a base on balls. Outstanding at bat. Of course after that Tony LaRussa made yet another trip to the bullpen (and had me make a mess out of my score card) lefty Trever Miller to face Church.

 

Now here was Church’s time for redemption in the game as he misplayed a ball hit by Rick Ankiel in 6^th as he broke in the tried to get back and the ball sailed over his head for a double and Ankiel eventually scored the Cards second run so with the bags drunk it was Ryan Church in the spotlight (“Church bells may ring, ding –dong-ding, church bells may ring, ding-dong-ding”)  time to show the manager, the fans and his teammates the he is ready to step up.

 

Miller seems to have a bit of the yips as he can’t find the strike zone and falls behind 3-0 to Church. Ok now Ryan take a strike here, atta boy. Ok now it’s on a platter for you 3-1 and the pitch………..A CALLED STRIKE!!!!!!!!! Ryan, you are batting in the coveted clean up spot, the bases are loaded, it’s the bot of the 8^th and a 1 run game WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU TAKING ON 3 AND 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

 

Now realizing he’s not up there to leave it up to Tatis, Church swings at the next pitch and fouls it off. Now Church is digging that back foot in the batters box determined to get a hit here but Miller just rears back and blows one by Church who took a huge swing and missed but at that point it didn’t matter this at bat was done at 3 balls 1 strike. Want to bet that Church sits tonight against Sabathia ? If he got a hit there lefty or no lefty he would have earned the start but after that at bat and the play in the 6th inning Church will sit tonight and it’s deserved.

 

The more I go to $iti Field the more I love the place (don’t worry we old timers will always have Shea in our hearts) how can you not. I know it has its faults (see Mets Police for those as he is the Elliot Ness of Mets fandom) and management (are you ready for this) seems to be listening to it’s fan base (S-H-O-C-K-I-N-G I know!) First thing I saw walking in I looked at the scoreboard in right/center and guess what? The lineups were posted ! YA-HOO!. Then in the 8^th inning no Sweet Caroline (HURAYY!!) but Meet The Mets (HURRAH!) now I do have a little bone to pick, how about playing the whole Meet The Mets song? Why do the butcher and the baker and the people on the street always get the short end of the stick all the time?

 

I was no fan of Michael Jackson’ when he was alive so I’m not mourning his death today but I was shocked that he died just for the fact that he is the same age as me. I know it’s not polite to speak ill of the dead but the guy was a walking freak show which was not the worst of his sins, those he will pay for it he hasn’t already. I do feel sorry for him in that he didn’t really have much of a life which again proves my mother theory that even if you have a lot of money that doesn’t mean you’re rich and if that’s the case Jackson died broke in more ways than one.

 

Now someone I was a fan of was Farrah Fawsett as were many young men back in the 70’s. Show of hands how many of you fella’s had this poster in your room (my hand is up) and how many of us looked to date girls with that blonde hair in a flip (hand still up)

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I am on my way to $iti Field to root on our Mets to take three of four from Cards and tonight on PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL I’ll have wrap up of the game plus our guest will be Ben Kabak of River Ave Blues and we will discuss the state of the Highlanders and look at this weekends match up with the Mets at $iti Field Join us live on Blog Talk Radio or listen later to the podcast right here at Kranepool Society or at our Pro Baseball Central site.

I’m starting to sense among  Mets fans that there is a loving embrace for lack of something better with this team of B-listers.  It has become the type of team that suits it fan base better one in which the media and other outside forces mock and belittle and the team picking up on this is developing and us against the world mentality. I mean seriously how could you call yourself a true orange and blue Mets fan and boo this bunch?

Mets fans have always declared “bring up the kids” well the best of the kids are here, F-Mart, Murphy, Evans, Parnell I’ll even throw Santos in the mix  even if he’s not technically “a kid” so now we have to back them up to booing no yelling remember they’re our kids

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I’m at an all day training class so I don’t have much time to post but a few things from last nights game:

You can’t pitch any better than Livan Hernandez last night unless of course you’re Joel Pinero.

The toughest hurrdle for the Mets now is they must play flawless defense and they can’t get down by 3 runs or more in any game. Murphy was kicking himself for the throwing error that led to the first run but when El Hombre knocked in two with his single 3 runs may as well been 13 runs with the way Pineiro was hurling ground ball out after ground ball out.

J-Man tried to take the bullet for Livan on his botched fake bunt/hit and run attempt as Hernandez said after the game he did it on his own and Manuel claimed he put the play on. The thing is on the surface it was a bad play as the bunt was in order but f he executed it then it would have been the Mets Turning Point of The Game.

I watched two games last night the Mets-Cards then I flipped over to the Giants-A’s to see Tim Lincicum and for the first time in I don’t know when I saw two starters pitch complete games. WOW what’ s next a revival of wool uniforms?       

Gotta run school is back in session.

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here is a picture of Jerry Manuel and yours truly from the breakfast today

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I’m just back from the WFAN Breakfast with Jerry Manuel at the Hard Rock Café in Times Sq and it was a most interesting morning.

 

The Hard Rock put out a nice spread and back in the day when animal fat and food drenched in oil were a staple of mine I’d have gone through 3 or 4 plates of food ( at times I have to stop myself from grabbing these middle aged guys in the too tight Dockers with their ample bellies hanging over their belts and telling them “I feel your pain stop killing yourself” ) but now it was just a raisin bagel a banana and an orange.

 

J-Man took the stage with Mike (The Sports Bloviator a/k/a TSB) Francesa. I have not seen Francesa in person in about two years and he looks the same. The guy is shape like a pear and can definitely do the “hippy-hippy shake” the man is as wide as an ol’ Buick Duce and a quarter.

 

Manuel was dress sharp in a light blue gray sports coat and grey slacks (ok now I’m feeling like one of queer eye dudes, I’m going to start singing show tunes in a minute) looking as cool as the other side of the pillow.

 

TSB after taking up too much time with his questions (no one was there to see or hear him) the floor was open for the audience to ask questions. Out of about 200 people in attendance only 20 people came forward to ask J-Man a question. You know I ran up to the head of the line but the point is for all the bitching and moaning I heard while standing on line outside the Hard Rock about his use of the bullpen and how the team is doomed not one of those big mouths stepped up to speak their mind to J-Man. That’s pretty weak.

 

My question to Manuel came from reading quotes in the paper today from Alex Cora. Cora since becoming an everyday player has stepped up on the field and in the clubhouse I loved his quote of  “it takes more than 5 superstars to win a World Series” so I asked how does having a player like Cora who seems to be a hands on guy in the clubhouse take the pressure off the manager ? Manuel said that was an excellent question as did TSB (I got to be careful not to dislocate my shoulder patting myself on the back) J-Man went on to say that Cora has been invaluable to him as he leads not just by example on the field but is looked up too and respected in the clubhouse. With Cora as one of his “top cops” policing the clubhouse it frees the manager up concentrate more on match ups and strategy. I followed that up with how  I perceive Cora has become very influential on David Wright as we see Wright flexing his status as a team leader more as when he confronted Big Pelf to step up and give the team more effective innings and how Wright is giving more quotes of substance in his interviews lately. Again Manuel liked that question (I think me and the skipper had a bonding moment there) and said that Wright has taken to Cora and that the team is Wright’ team. When asked by TSB when (if?) Delgado comes back will that change? Manuel said “No, this is David’s team”.

 

Some other topics that Manuel spoke on were:

 

Jose Reyes- Manuel is as puzzled as all of us when it comes to Jose. Manuel explained that the tendon behind Reyes knee is one that really has no use, that you can function very well without it. The problem is its frayed and that is where the problem is as that’s causing him the discomfort. If the tendon were to just break off, Reyes would be fine. I know I don’t get that either.

 

Johan Santana-He is his stud and the guy that he is relying on every 5^th day to give the Mets a chance to win. With a pitcher like Santana you cut down on the odds of a long losing streak.

 

How the Mets cope through the injuries-Manuel hinted that “small ball” will be the way to go as he “re-invents” the way he team goes about it offensively. He would love to have a big bat in fact he mentioned having a “big bat” several times this morning.

 

On asking Omar for reinforcements-J-Man says he doesn’t go to Omar and ask for players during the season as he feels that it is not fair to his players on board to do that but in the winter he says he talks to Omar regularly and has a big wish list.

 

One question to Manuel was on the way pitching staffs are put together and pitch counts. Manuel said that pitchers today are conditioned to just get to 100 pitches and that their mind set is since I’m at the 100 pitch time for me to come out. Pitchers today are programmed so that 100 pitches means I’m tired (fatigued was Manuel’ word) and it has become so physiological that even if they aren’t tired they talk themselves into believing that they are. Very interesting and revealing comments I thought. I have to keep that in mind when I’m screaming for Manuel to leave his starters in the game.

 

The downer of the morning was Francesa who just would not shut up. TSB seems to forget that he gets to speak to Manuel every week and for fans this may be the only time we get to pick the managers brain. Then of course TSB has to mention the Highlanders. When the Castillo drop was mentioned, TSB had to chime in with how Derek Jeter is great going back of pop ups. There was a collective groan from the fans but as much as I wanted to yell out “Shut the fuck up” I behaved myself. TSB spoke about the Highlanders so much that J-Man told him “that the (Highlanders) better be ready for us this weekend and they should be lucky they don’t see us in the second half when we’re healthy as then they’ d have no chance of winning” and of courses that was met with wild applause. At least Jerry Manuel knows his audience.

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