Just when you thought the Mets would fold up the tents and head into the off season with the refrain of “Same Old Mets” from the Flushing Faithful, echoing in their ears,  they not only reverse course but do so in impressive fashion.

After dropping 4 in a row to the Brewski’s and Phuck Phaces, the fan base was going over their fall/winter plans just glancing at SNY or tuning in to Howie, Wayne and engineer extraordnaire,  Chirs Majkowski   but then something amazing happened, two of the most unlikely players, Nick Evans and Mike Pelfrey led the team to a win against the Phuck Phaces to save face since the Philly Phucks embarrassed the Mets in the first two games of the series.  After the off day, Chris Capuano gave SNY some winter programing by pitching the game of the year for the Mets.  If you don’t think this was the game of the year, find a clip of Howie Rose making the call of the final out as it was classic Howie, staying in professional mode but letting you know there is still a lot of Mets fan in him.

Then came the hurricane and the Bravos ran out of town and in came the Fish and a good ol’ twi-nighter at Citi Field. The first game was started by Mets fan fav R.A. Dickey who was stellar as usual but this time he got the WIN but personal wins are not what Robert Allen Dickey is about:

“Wins and losses are nice, but it’s not the metric that I measure my season by,” Dickey said. “If the team gets the win, I know it sounds cliche, but that’s what you want as a starting pitcher, to go out there, put up quality starts and the result be a win for your club. So that’s what I try to focus on. We’re playing pretty good ball right now.”

Then in the second game, Dillion Gee had a great bounce back game which is quite encouraging in such a young pitcher. Maybe it was having Jose Reyes back, or maybe the it was the BP Jersey’s the team wore or maybe Old School Dan Warthen threatened to send Gee into the Iron Triangle draped in a suit of pork chops to fight off the pit bulls (are people really surprised there are dogs roaming 126 Street chop shops? They ‘ve been there since Jack Fisher and Joe Christopher were Mets) whatever,  it’s stellar pitching and the mighty bats of The Dude and DFA Evans have the team back on track.

Another reason why you should be proud of your NY Mets. A kid was stuck between the eyes last night by a foul ball. Justin Turner saw the kid get hit and it made him sick to his stomach, he was so bad off he had to go confide with Nick Evans who also watched the flight of the ball strike the young man. Turner was still worried about the kid after the game that he tried to get info on how he was, and sent word on Twitter he was still waiting and hoping to hear from the boy’s family. Justin Turner is a good man.

The Mets are also ready to make a PSA for an Anti-Bullying Campaign:

 The New York Mets today announced the launch of an anti-bullying public service awareness campaign designed to educate and support our children about all forms of bullying. The PSAs will begin airing today, Monday, August 29, during games at Citi Field and on SNY to help deliver the message to the broadest audience.

Jason Bay, Chris Capuano, R.A. Dickey, Daniel Murphy and David Wright are among the players who participated in tapings for the segment.  The content was developed in conjunction with StopBullying.gov, an official U.S. Government Web Site managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Education.

The Mets place a high priority in supporting children in the community.  For 18 years, the organization has been a proud sponsor of the Student Athlete Leadership Conference Series, a mentoring program that includes an anti-bullying and civility message with particular attention paid to language and behavior that is derogatory and offensive based on racial, sexual and ethnic biases.  Over the years, thousands of high school athletes have been trained to promote positive activities to hundreds of thousands of elementary school students across Long Island.

This is another great job by Mets management and their outreach in the community. I would hope they would also add  “It Gets Better” video to help stop the attacks and homophobia that Gay and Lesbian teens face too many times in their everyday lives.

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Suddenly I turned around and she was standin’ there
With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair
She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns
“Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

That is the Willowbrook section of Staten Island. The pond in Willowbrook Park  over flowed

There is never a good time for a hurricane to hit your town but when you are in the middle of remodeling your basement and your yard is full of debris and trash you want to get rid of, well 7 inches of torrential rain and 60 mph winds are not what you need to add to your everyday life upheaval .

My new French drain did its job as it should but I did get a leak in my dining room ceiling but my biggest fear of losing power did not happen and I‘m real thankful for that otherwise my basement would have been under a few feet of water. After all this a portable generator is on my must get list.

A couple of final thoughts on Hurricane Irene, while watching TV and following on Twitter you could tell who rents and who owns, the people who were out getting wine and movies to ride out the storm were renters. The folks out buying plywood and filling sand bags were owners. I was up all night Saturday hoping that the drains and sump would work, at one point of the storm I sat in the basement just watching the rain water flow into the pit like Niagara Falls praying the sump and sewer system could handle all the water, I’d much rather have been sleeping off a drinking and movie binge. Second, I’m not real crazy about living on Staten Island but god damnit do the local TV news outlets know the place exists?  I saw more reports on LI and Westchester and Hoboken NJ than I did on Staten Island. I know it’s the forgotten boro but the only TV station to cover anything on the Island was FOX5 who had reporters in the Bulls Head section and by Midland Beach.   Memo to the NYC Media, close to 300 residents of Staten Island lost their lives on September 11^th 2001 please don’t forget us during your over the top coverage of the tenth anniversary of the attacks.

Back to baseball today as Mets play a twi-nighter against the Fish. Let’s hope that Dillion Gee can have a strong performance today and that R.A. Dickey get a much deserved win and a big welcome back to Jose Reyes and his healed hammy.

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I don’t know about you but I need a break from we’re all gonna die coverage of Hurricane Irene, so I figured I’d keep  you up to date with some of the events  at Citi Field this weekend, well today and tomorrow because on Sunday we will all be waiting for Irene to come through town. Blizzards, below zero temps, record rain fall, 100 degree temps, and earthquake and now a hurricane, maybe these end of the world zealots aren’t the assholes I think they are.

Tonight at Citi Field the Mets will hold the first Mets Social Media Night. For $41.00 you get an $18 food and beverage credit, a seats in the Big Apple Reserve section and a greet and meet with Justin Turner (@RedTurn2 on Twitter) in the Bullpen Plaza before the game. There will also be giveaways and text and Twitter contests all through the evening.

Tomorrow the Mets will have a couple of events going on before the game.  At 1:15 PM NYC Firefighter Matt Long will give a talk about his recovery from a terrible accident he was involved in when he was biking to work during the 2005 Transit strike where he was hit by a from a private bus line shuttling commuters  during the strike. Long was a 9/11 responder and is the author of the book The Long Run which chronicles his recovery from life threating injuries.

As you enter the ball park tomorrow the Mets are asking that if you have some old baseball equipment gloves, bats, spikes, or catchers equipment that is collecting dust in your basement or attic to please donate it to the Baseball Tomorrow Fund, which collects equipment to distribute to youth baseball teams affiliated with the Greater New York Sandlot Athletic Association. The drop off area for the equipment will be the Jackie Robinson Rotunda.

If you are a football fan, you should check out the NY Football Blogs Podcast with me and Frankie “The Sports Guy” Maniscalco. Each week Frank and I have guest from in and around pro football and a look at fantasy football as well. We are also affiliated with SportsRantz.com, a site for sports fans to discus and mingle with other sports fans around the world.    

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The word that David Wright was put on waivers and claimed by the Colorado Rockies is no big deal. For now.

Every team puts its players on waivers and when they are claimed either work out a deal or pull them back. Wright was pulled back but that doesn’t mean that Sandy Alderson won’t call Dan O’Dowd during the off season to talk trade.

Why not? Look, we all love D-Wright and this is no indictment on Wright but this team has some huge holes, pitching and defense to name two in general and these deficiencies  have to be address this off season or August/September 2012 will be a mirror image of August/September 2011.

The difference between the second half of this season as opposed to the last two seasons is this team still plays to win unlike the last two Mets teams of 2009 and 2010 and that is a compliment to the manager who deserves to have his 2013 option guaranteed after the season.

Sandy Alderson and his staff have a lot of work to do this off season with re-signing Jose Reyes a top priority. As we see, this is a much different team without Reyes not just his bat and defense but his personality as well ignites this team.

Alderson has no allegiance to any of the players on this roster but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know that Reyes and Wright are fan favorites same as he knew the venom the fan base spewed at Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez, which is why he will try very hard to sign Jose Reyes and I’m sure he doesn’t want to deal off Wright but he knows it’s his job to make this team better and if dealing Wright makes the team better then he’ll trade him.

This off season will be about acquiring pitching, pitching and more pitching as well as finding players who can play defense. You can be feisty and hustle and play balls to the wall baseball but if you can’t pitch or defend then you are a second division team and if dealing David Wright brings back some pitching I can see Alderson pulling the trigger.

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With the Eddie Kranepool Society World Headquarters (my basement) under some renovations (nothing better than waking up on your day off to the sounds of jackhammers attacking your basement floor) and some family issues that have come up the last couple of days, I haven’t had time to post on the site, I hope to have some stuff up tomorrow

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On Friday the Mets invited some Mets bloggers back to Citi Field to participate in Terry Collins’ pre and post game press conference and to watch the game between the Mets and Brewers from the press box.  I want to thank Danielle Parillo Director, Communication and Shannon Forde Director, Media Relations for the hospitality they’ve shown us and for the invitations to these events and the Mets management for trying and so far succeeding in changing the atmosphere around the club and bringing transparency and communication back to the fan base via the voice of the fans, the Mets bloggers.

During the evening I sat with Mike Silva of NY Baseball Digest and Mike mentioned to me a post he was writing dealing with Mike Pelfrey and how the Mets should explore making Pelf the closer for 2012. We tossed the subject around with the pros and cons and mostly if Pelf can handle the day to day pressure of closing and if he could get a strikeout when he needs it. All in all it was a subject that stirred a debate and was great conversation. That being said, I was shocked to see the lightweight Mets beat reporter for the NY Daily News write the same exact story that Silva posted on Saturday in today’s paper. I won’t link the News story but if you see someone using a Daily News to pick up after their dog in the street ask if you can have the sports section to read the ripped off story.

I still feel a bit intimidated when I go to these Mets bloggers events. Before the press conference, Danielle informed the blogggers that we could ask Terry Collins a question but she warned, he wasn’t in a very good mood. Now I had a question for the manager as I wanted to know if in the Mets minor league system, of which Collins was the Minor League coordinator, do the coaches and managers have classroom sessions, kind of like they do in other sports, where they go over video of a game and correct mistakes in base running or on defense like throwing to the wrong base or being out of position and to go over the rules of the game?  

When Collins entered the room the first thing he said to Jay Horowitz was “I’m out of here at 4:05” it was 3:55 when he said that. The media in the room that I recognized were Adam Rubin, Howie Rose, Gary Cohen, George Vesey and Ed Coleman.  The bulk of the questions were about Jose Reyes and his sore hammy. It seems Reyes was able to run on a track at a training facility in Long Island and I guess the manager wanted to see him run the bases at Citi but whatever, the look and mannerism of the manager gave me the impression the last thing he wanted to do was answer a questions from the media much less from bloggers.  

When Shannon approached me with the microphone to ask a question, something in my mind told me, “ehhhh you better pass here. It’s a pretty good question but maybe save it if you meet the manager in the off season when it’s a little calmer” So I passed my turn to the next blogger, who passed to the next blogger who passed to…..Well, I guess you see my point, none of us wanted to raise the skipper ire.

One of the pleasures of watching the Mets warm up and take BP is interacting with Jose Reyes. Reyes was taking some ground balls and playing catch with Justin Turner, then hit the cage for BP. When he was done he headed to the clubhouse and as he got close to me I asked him how he was feeling and how the hamstring was and he answered. “I’m feeling good Papi, I’ll be ready soon” This was the second time I’ve spoken to Reyes (the other was during an event in the offseason)    and both times he called me Papi and you know what, it made my day both times.

Yesterday I posted the audio from the bloggers sit down with R.A. Dickey. Before R.A. came out we were hanging out in the Mets dugout. I put my bag down and hopped up on the wall in back of the benches to sit down. As R.A. came out he sat right next to me. Luck of the Irish eh? We all introduced ourselves and of course I had to add that I’m @kranepool on Twitter to which Dickey gave me a laugh and said “ahhhh ok pleasure to meet you in person” No R.A. the pleasure was all mine.

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Here is the audio of the Mets Bloggers interview session we held with R.A. Dickey the past Friday night at Citi Field. As always, Dickey’s answers are well thought out and thought provoking. I asked R.A. about him having any preconceived notions about playing and living in NYC and how he was preparing for his climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro

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Although I have a lot to blog about after attending the  Mets-Brewers game last night, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to give a better detailed account of the evening.

But I guess its safe to say that Mike Pelfrey is pitching or non-effective pitching for lack of a better term is making Sandy Alderson decision clearer about DFA Big Pelf

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A quick post for today as I’m heading out to Citi Field for another Mets bloggers event.

Former Mets cleanup hitter (still can’t believe this guy was the opening day cleanup hitter last season) Mike Jacobs has become the first professional baseball player to be suspended for HGH usage. Jacobs took the banned substance to help with rejuvenating his body from series of knee and back injuries he suffered as a member of the Colorado Sky Sox . I feel bad for Jacobs as here was a guy who played in the big leagues, drawing a big league paycheck but flopped to the point he headed back to the bushes.

Jacobs was worried that he’d become just another guy and be forgotten by MLB GM’s even with his 23 HR and 97 RBI so desperate times call for desperate actions it seems.

To his credit, Jacobs has taken full responsibility for his actions:

“A few weeks ago, in an attempt to overcome knee and back problems, I made the terrible decision to take H.G.H.,” Jacobs said in the statement, a rare confession of doping in a sport where many players who have tested positive denied ever knowingly using a drug. “I immediately stopped a couple of days later after being tested. Taking it was one of the worst decisions I could have ever made, one for which I take full responsibility.”

50 games is a serious sentence and most likely Jacobs’  done as a big leaguer. Sad

The Mets have suffered from a Humpty Dumpty defense this season (All the mangers horses and all the mangers coaches, couldn’t put the Mets defense back together again, or something like that) Manager Terry Collins to his credit has gotten the team to participate in taking infield before games, which no other teams do, but as Andy MuCullough lays out nicely in this piece in the Star-Ledger, it hasn’t help much as the Mets are statistically one of the defensive bottom feeders in baseball. Add the lousy bullpen and shaky starting pitching it’s quite shocking the club is near the breakeven point in wins and losses.

Welcome back K-Rod, the trade the worked out well for both sides. Again, well played Mr. Alderson

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Taking a break from all the Mets minutia, I am proud to announce that I will joining Frankie “The Sports Guy” Maniscalco for another season of NY FOOTBALL BLOGS LIVE on Blog Talk Radio.

Our first show tonight is live at 9PM with out guests Sports Agent J.R. Rickert, Anthony DiMoro of Sportsrantz.com and a segment on Fantasy Football.

In between Frank and I will discuss the Jets, Giants and Bills after the first pre-season game and take a look at the weeks news concerning those teams.

So with no Mets baseball tonight, how about listening on some football talk at NY FOOTBALL BLOGS LIVE on Blog Talk Radio.     

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