The best move that John Maine made all spring was yesterday when he put the golf clubs back in the closet and went to Old Scholl Dan Werhten’ Remedial Pitching class at St. Lonesome.

 

Maine has been distraught over his sucky pitching this spring mostly due to apprehension from his arthroscopic shoulder surgery this past winter and from what you read it’s mostly a mechanical failure than anything physical that’s messing up Maine.

 

After viewing video of Maine’ delivery, Old School Werthen lengthened his stride to the plate and tweak his grip on his slider and worked on getting Maine to throw his change up with the same motion as his fastball which not only made a difference in his pitching but it seems to have eased Maine’ worried mind about his ability to be ready for the start of the season. The proof will be on Thursday when Maine is schedule to pitch again.

 

If I’m Freddy Garcia I pray that the Mets allow me to stay in extended spring training and try to regain my pitching prowess. As much as I’m a Garcia fan it’s time for a reality check for the Chief, his best bet is to sign that minor league deal and work out at St Lonesome and report to Buffalo as he still has to prove he can pitch in the big leagues and you can’t do that on the unemployment line.

 

If Kevin Burkhardt is going to succeed in having a larger role on SNY Mets telecasts this season he needs to learn one thing, you can’t tell fans how to act. It’s a losing battle. If people want to boo Luis Castillo they will until they are convinced that he is a productive player. No one has killed Castillo more than me but he shown me this spring that he is determined to show he is worth keeping in the line up and the field. Castillo has worked very hard this spring and has produced so I don’t know why anyone would boo him on opening day but then again I don’t why people who sit behind home plate on their cell phone and wave at the TV cameras like assholes either.

 

Wally Mathews has a column in NEWSDAY toady that held my attention for about four sentences and then I zoned out. Isn’t there a Tribune Corp buyout package with his name on it?

 

Alexander Ovechkin scored his 50^th goal the other night against the Tampa Bay Lighting and went into a pre-mediated celebration where he laid down his stick and put his hands over it like the stick was on fire. Pretty funny stuff and very un-hockey like. Well you would have thought he spit on a picture of Rocket Richard or took a dump in the Stanley Cup with all the outrage that has been thrown his way. I like Ovechkin because he went after Cindy Crosby ,that whinny little bitch, and slapped him around a bit and reminded him that The Great 8 is the best in the game. But the voice of the Northern Territoires  Don Cherry did not like the Ovechkin’ over the top antics. This from a guy who wears Grandma’s drapes as a sports jacket. Look , I’m a hockey fan and couldn’t a shit who likes the sport and who doesn’t but at least Ovechkin gives the sport a showman and someone who sparks passion in a league that fucks up more than it succeeds.

 

I tried to watch the WBC Final last night but there were just too many things working against me getting involved in the game. I worked a 9 hr shift and then came home and ate Chinese food, then I went over my Babe Ruth League team roster. At that point it was 9 :15 and Joe Morgan, Jon Miller and Steve Phillips were in my living room and my head started hurting. Then I made the biggest mistake, I lay down on the couch and took a 10 count.

 

What do you do when you can’t Dictate anymore? You write about baseball of course and that is what Fidel Castro is doing these days with some fascinating stuff (sour grapes?) about the WBC. He let’s his readers know that those Japanese players really, really train hard:

 

In relation to the Japanese I provided some details:

 

“Training sessions are incredibly rigorous and methodical.  They have devised technical methods to develop the reflexes required by every player.  Every day, batters practice with hundreds of balls pitched by left- or right-handers.  As for the pitchers, they are obliged to throw 400 balls every day.  It they commit any error during the game, they have to pitch another 100.   They do it with pleasure, as if it were a form of self-punishment.  In that way, they acquire a notable muscle control that obeys orders sent by their brains.  That is why their pitchers’ ability to place balls exactly where they want them amazes everyone.  Similar methods are applied to all of the activities each of the athletes must carry out in the positions that they defend and in their activities as batters

 

Shouldn’t the American Sports Medicine Institute open a branch in Tokyo?

 

        

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