Last night was one of those games that even the witty repartee of Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez couldn’t keep me interested.  I read the paper and trolled Twitter while waiting for my favorite pawn shop owners to come on at 9PM.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t meaningful Mets news (as opposed to meaningful games) to peruse.

Ike Davis is running, hitting and fielding, not pain free but feeling much better than he has since what is still the most ridiculous Mets injury I’ve ever seen.  Davis is trying very hard to stay away from the surgeon’s scalpel as he claims the ankle while not 100%, feels much better. Ike will stay with the team in Miami and then return with them to NY to see team doctors, at which time the decision will be made on whether surgery is needed. Again, how Davis has gone from what looked like a non-injury, to what now will be something that will affect Davis for the rest of his career is stunning.

Even with or without surgery, Davis claims his ankle will never be the same. He talked about it becoming arthritic but he feels it will not hurt his plate production. That remains to be seen. What about his defense? Davis was ready to blossom into a perennial Gold Glove first baseman who know how this affect his play around the bag, as first base is all about foot work. From what looked like an innocent trip and tumble on an infield fly has turn out to be maybe a career changer for Ike.

As much as my stomach churns watching Jason Bay’ at bats, I’m starting to really feel bad for him even with the knowledge that the team is on the hook for two more seasons and $35 mil. Bay has played a better left field than we all thought; he hustles (last night he ran out a ball that was clearly going into the first base stands foul) and from the scuttlebutt around Citi Field, he works to the point of being obsessive compulsive in finding his hitting stroke. You can see after every unproductive at bat, it is eating him up that he has not stepped up and provided the big veteran bat this team sorely needs. It would be best for both Bay and the Mets to part company but the $35 mil price tag hanging his toe makes moving to a new team almost impossible. ALMOST. Maybe I have too much faith in the power of Sandy Alderson since the trade of Frankie Rodriguez and his unsightly option that no one thought the Mets could get out from under.  Maybe there is a team out there (West Coast? SF, Seattle, Angels maybe) that sees Bay’s work ethic and thinks a change could do him good if the Mets eat half or little more of the deal? Never say never.

Welcome back to the big leagues Val Pascucci. Pascuicci’ 21 HR and 91 RBI at Buffalo earned him a promotion, perhaps for the last time, to the big leagues. Don’t think the promotion of Passcuicci will go unnoticed in the Mets clubhouse and throughout the Mets minor league system along with the call up of RHP Chris Schwinden, it shows that this front office will promote and reward players who produce. Not only that, with all the talk about the Mets money woes, all the players the Mets have added to the list of call ups have to be paid on a pro rated basis on the ML minimum. Schwinden looks like he will get to start one of the games of Thursday’s DH vs. the Braves, I bet Valentino gets a start in one of those games as well.

Mike Silva of NY Baseball Digest mentioned that the Highlanders Triple A team in Scranton/Wilkes Barre will need a place to play in 2012 as the ball park will be undergoing a big renovation project. One of the spots they are looking at is Staten Island, home of the Baby Highlanders. The move to SI makes sense as the Bronx Bastards own the stadium in St. George and the team, as well as owning the Wilkes/Barre team. The problem they will have besides getting the Mets to allow them to do this (like a scene out of Goodfella’s I can see Freddy Skill Sets and Uncle Saul listening to Randy Levine’s pitch for this project and Uncle Saul interrupting “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Fuck you pay me”) is finding a better management team to run the stadium that will have two tenants.

The SI Highlanders are very poorly run. The team has no sponsors and the majority of their tickets are sold to groups with the added attraction of all you can eat concessions. My wife bought tickets for every game SI played Brooklyn as a Fathers Day gift for me and those games draw the most fans, the majority rooting for the Cyclones. I’ve noticed that the fans that attend games on SI are there for social reasons, not many people pay attention to the game they are more involved in the all you can eat buffet and how unfair it is that they cannot grab a burger, hot dog and chicken sandwich all at the same time.  Staten Islanders are not fond of walking and taking stairs so to take just one item and then go back again is a huge crimp in their lifestyle.

There are ushers and security people employed by the team and it is a great job as you get to see a ball game, do absolutely nothing and get paid.  No one sits in his or her assigned seat. If there is a seat open behind home plate you can mosey on down and sit in it. If you see friend or neighbor at the game just go a sit in the seat next to them, no problem. “Oh wait, this is your seat? And what you wanna sit here?” “Uhh yeah” with that you get the eye roll and the nasty look.

If the SWB Highlanders were to call SI home for 2012 I would definitely  go to their games, especially when they play Buffalo but I don’t know how many Highlander fans would support the team, in fact I don’t think many Highlander fans know who the Triple A team is. If they do play here and want to draw fans just make sure you have an all you can eat plan and add delivery to your seat as an option, you’ll sell the place out every game.

Posted under Uncategorized

I got to see 2011 15^th round pick Phil Evans make his Brooklyn Cyclones debut last night and came away very much impressed by the soon to be 19 year old.  Evans went 1 for 5 at the plate but even his outs were well hit with two of them “hang with em’s” as they were great defensive plays on soild hit balls. In the field Evans and 2^nd baseman Ismael Tijeina had a bit of communication breakdown as to who was to cover 2^nd base if the runner on first was to attempt a steal, but in the 9^th inning Evans made two great leaping plays for the 2^nd and 3^rd outs of the inning to end the game.

I watched the end of the Mets-Nats game this morning and while I agree with Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez on questioning walking Roger Bernadina to pitch to Ryan Zimmerman I feel if this were a game that really mattered Bobby Parmell would have been pulled as Bernadina came to the plate but Collins wants Parnell to show him why he should be the Mets closer in 2012. So far Parnell has been ineffective and I hate to say it, looks scared in these pressure spots. His inability to command his slider has been his biggest downfall. He falls behind in counts and has to come in with his fastball that is all but telegraphed to the batter.

Josh Satin makes his Major League debut today at 1^st base

I see that the Daily Lupica has put out a 50^th Anniversay Mets book with their Phillies Beat Writer as a contributor. No way in hell will that book be a part of my library. If you want a book that details the history of the Mets in detail and with outstanding pictures you need to purchase  New York Mets 50 Amazin’ Seasons by a true Mets fan and historian, Matthew Silverman.

Posted under Uncategorized

Busy morning for me as I Have to finish empting out the contents of the Kranepool Society World Headquarters (a/k/a my basement) as renovation of the command center will take place next week. I need to get a lot done this morning so I can head downtown to St George to watch the Brooklyn Cyclones take on the Baby Highlanders. The Cyclones clinched the NY-PENN League wild card spot last night and will play the Baby Highlanders in the 1^st round of the playoffs starting Tuesday.

Check out this great post that Shannon of The Mets Police has today about bringing back the traditional Banner Day celebration they many of us grew up with as Mets fans. This may be the pet project of the off season writing posts about what should be included in the 50^th Anniversary celebration.  No matter what the Mets do the Mets blogging community needs to get together to let the Mets know, NO BANNER DAY, NO PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted under Uncategorized

I have no idea what kind of scheme Mortimer and Randolph Duke Freddy Skill Sets and Uncle Saul have up their sleeve but I’m sure it’s destined to fail.  I don’t know if it’s some boost of confidence that the Madoff fiasco won’t hurt them as much as first thought, or they sold off some real estate from their Sterling Equities properties, or they finally realized that David Einhorn was ready to pay them $200 mil to be a minority owner but read the fine print that tilted everything in favor of Einhorn taking total control of the franchise, but something has stopped the Skill Sets from checking that box that says I agree to the terms of this contract.

What does this all mean? I have no clue and we won’t have a clue until the season ends and Sandy Alderson sits down with Jose Reyes’ representatives to talk contract. Just when I thought the Mets had the upper hand in the Reyes negotiations, the advantage has swayed back to Team Jose.  All the talk of finding more investors at a $15-$20 mil price tag to make up for the money the Skill Sets told Einhorn to put back in his pocket, better be used in part to re-sign Reyes or it won’t matter which uncle, aunt or next door neighbor ponies up the dough, the Skill Sets have put the bulls eye right between their eyes with the fan base.  If the Jose Reyes signs with another team at a price and contract terms that are not outlandish, you might as well as turn Citi Field into a permanent soccer pitch.

I have ZERO faith that Freddy and Uncle Saul have a plan to save the franchise, this latest scheme of selling more shares in the team has FAIL written all over it, especially when the say they will sell to “friends and family” isn’t that how they got into this mess in the first place?

The clandestine ways of this ownership is why there is such a disconnect with them and the fan base.  I believe nothing that comes out of the mouth of Freddy Skill Sets and his incompetent son.  I’m sure I’m not alone.

What really sucks about this whole ownership in an uproar news, is the focus had finally shifted from the owner’s box to the dugout.  The recent winning streak after such a poor showing against the Phuck Phaces shows that Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins have changed the culture of the clubhouse. The malcontents and slackers who Omar Minaya protected instead of eradicating are gone and players who are committed to winning have been replaced. Sure the record is not pretty but that will come, the biggest obstacle with this team was the acceptance of being lazy and just not being committed to winning baseball games that had been festering like an untreated infection, is gone and that is the biggest story of this season.

Who wasn’t excited by Chris Capuano start last week? Who doesn’t enjoy watching R.A. Dickey pitch and then hear his post game comments?  Who isn’t excited watching Lucas Duda and Ruben Tejada? Who can’t wait to see Matt Harvey, Jeurys Familia, and Zack Wheeler make their way to Citi Field? Let’s just hope that the Skill Sets, as is their way, don’t fuck this up.

Posted under Uncategorized

Took a day off from blogging and social media to celebrate my son’s birthday by spending the day in the city and taking in a performance of Spider Man Turn Off The Dark. The show itself was entertaining it’s no Guys and Dolls but hey what is! I was disappointed in the music since Bono and The Edge wrote the score and the only song I really enjoyed was when Patrick Page, who really saves this show as his role as Green Goblin was the highlight of the performance, sings A Freak Like Me Needs Company to open a second act that salvaged the show for me. The high flying Spider Man and Green Goblin scenes are spectacular as is the make up job doen on Page as the Green Goblin .  Just the fact that Spidey made it this far on Broadway is an accomplishment.

On to the Mets, in no particular order:

The news that John Franco and Mike Piazza will be the participants in the first pitch of the game on September 11^th and the Mets will wear caps of the first responders of that tragic day, will help bring some joy to Mets fans on what should be proclaimed a National Day of Mourning. It’s still hard to believe that it will be 10 years since the attack, of all the scenes of carnage and despair of that day, the vision of seeing the smoke smoldering from the wreckage of the Towers, from my bedroom window still haunts me.

When I first heard about Howard Johnson playing for the Rockland Boulders this weekend so he could join his son Glen I thought it was a silly stunt but then I thought it’s an Independent League so really who cares?

Jason Bay to center field? Flanked by #ImWith28 and The Dude? Better find some pitchers with a high GB/FB ratio.

Safe to say something will happen with the dimensions of the Great Wall of Flushing, like cutting the wall in half to 8 ft. I’ve stood on the warning track under that Great Wall and that is some rarified air up there. Bringing in the fences is not needed but an 8 ft left field wall will make a big improvement and hopefully help the stigma that David Wright and Jason Bay seem to have with the wall.

Posted under Uncategorized