It’s not unusual to have friends and family members with different sports rooting interest as you, I have many friends and relatives who root for the Highlanders, Knicks and the Jets,  even a couple of Devils, Islanders and Nets fans thrown in the mix as well. This week the Giants fan contingent of my inner circle have been in constant contact about what to expect from our Giants tomorrow as they take on the Patriots in Super Bowl 42 and what is fascinating  is how the dominant fan gene takes hold when we discuss the game.

The Highlander/Giants fans of the group are so super confident that the Giants will win, it has the Mets/Giants fan breaking out in a cold sweat. Highlander/Giants says the Giants front four will dominate and that between Justin Tuck and JPP, Tom Brady will be leaving Indianapolis with a toe tag on his man Uggs. Mets/Giants says “it’s Tom Fuckin’ Brady” and he not only has a score to settle with the Giants for Super Bowl 42 and he also played like shit in the AFC Championship game to where he vowed to Pats owner, Bob Kraft he feels he let him and the organization down. Mets/Giants is nervous because he fears Brady’s A game. Highlander/Giants says “Fuck Brady’s A game”.

Highlander/Giants says “ancient history “ when Mets/Giants brings up the team was 7-7 late in the season and how the  Redskins loss in Week 15 is still on my mind. Highlander/Giants then says “that was the last time the G-Men lost, they are on a 5 game winning streak looking better each time out” That when Mets/Giants says “that’s what worries me, the team is due for a bad game and a loss”, to which Highlander/Giants says “I swear to God I don’t know why I’m friends with you (Highlander/Giants family member give me the old you can pick your friends and not your relatives response)and if that wasn’t enough cruelty, Highlander/Giants pours salt in the wound by adding “and you dwell on negative shit forever, Jimmy Qualls, Mike Scioscia, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright….move the fuck on already”

I can’t help it. Fans of multiple sports teams have a dominant sports fan gene, mine happens to be the Mets fan gene.  See the Giants fan gene I have is strong when it comes to history and loyalty with pride in winning as well. The Giants have won 7 Championships (4 pre-Super Bowl NFL Titles and 3 Lombardi Trophies) same with the Boston Celtics gene that also adds arrogance from our late leader the Great Red Auerbach.  The NY Ranger fan gene runs close to the Mets fan gene in that the Ranger fan gene reacts to overpriced free agent flops and overall anger and disappointment with the team and management.

So as I get ready for tomorrows Super Bowl, a Super Bowl I will watch at a GIANTS FANS ONLY party that will feature more Mets/Giants than Highlander/Giants, my hope is that Highlander/Giants doesn’t keep up their rhetoric during the pre-game dinner as I would hate to sit down to a meal with my hands over my ears yelling “I CAN’T HEAR YOU! I CAN’T HEAR YOU! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!!

Posted under Uncategorized

Mike Silva at NY Baseball Digest has an outstanding piece on his site this morning on Carlos Beltran and his time as a Met and his comments on Mets fans needing to “get over 2006”.

I have to say it took me a while to appreciate Beltran and his contribution during his tenure. I think the turning point in the relationship came when Beltran went to Colorado to have surgery on his knee after the club, namely Omar Minaya and Tony Bernazzard handled his medical care piss poorly.  Beltran was furious when the club made it seem he went rogue and receive an unauthorized procedure on his knee. When the truth came out it was Minaya and the team who were disingenuous.

What soured me with Beltran at the beginning of his Mets career was the double dealing he did behind the Mets back by offering himself to the Highlanders at a discount after the Mets made their substantial offer. It pissed me off because I saw Bobby Bonilla all over again. Bonilla, after getting the best offer out there from the Mets during his first free agent foray, took that offer to the Phillies to see if they would match it or go higher. By all rights, Bonilla was within his right to find the best deal possible and it was in my right as a Mets fan to call him a greedy prick.

The other problem Beltran had was not wanting to be the out front guy in the clubhouse. Some guys thrive in that spot, some guys, it’s just not their personality.  Beltran to his credit produce as well or better than any position player the Mets ever employed but his personality as seen through the media left something to be desired. But in listening to players in the clubhouse, where the opinions count, Beltran was not just respected but revered.

As for Beltran telling Mets fans to move on from 2006, it shows the major difference in how fans are more of the fabric of a team than the players.  Can I get over Beltran watching a wicked curveball break over home plate for strike three thus curtailing the Mets from getting to the World Series?  No, and I shouldn’t.  I’m a Mets fan, I can’t be traded or released or designated for assignment. I could leave as a free agent but the thought never entered my mind. I’m here for life. Players come and players go but fans are here forever. I still hold a grudge against Yogi Berra for not using George Stone properly in the 1973 World Series, costing the Mets a  championship, what makes Carlos Beltran think he’s  so special to escape my scorn?

Posted under Uncategorized

gotta love Hank and the Broadway Hat

Most under-rated athlete in NYC

I’m soooo happy Danny Ainge didn’t my favorite Celtic RAAAAAAJJJJOOOONNN RONDOOOOOOO    

It’s tough to spend time on Mets minutia today with trying to finish up loose ends at work and get ready for what should be one of the best nights Madison Square Garden has seen in quite a while as the Rangers and Flyers meet tonight and the Giants-Jets get together tomorrow and the Knicks-Celtics start the NBA season on Christmas, it’s hard to get worked up over Rob Johnson signing a minor league deal to fight for a backup catcher spot with the Mets .

I am pumped up for tonight’s Rangers-Flyers match up at MSG. Between the way the Rangers have been playing along with all the hype of HBO’s 24/7 (I need to tape Coach Tortorella’s between periods ass ripping of his team against the St Louis Blues last week  “Fucking screw it on straight, screw it on and let’s get ready to go each shift” has become my new mantra I’ve been using it at work all day the non-hockey fans think I’ve lost my mind but then again most of them don’t know what to make of me anyway)  and Winter Classic and first place (though very early in the season ) on the line, I can’t wait to get to the Garden tonight.

For as long as I can remember as a NY Football Giants fan, I have never given the NY Jets much thought. Sure I have friends who are Jets fans but there has never the animosity like I have with buddies and relatives who root for the Bronx Bastards. The Jets were…. Well just the Jets. They played in the other conference and since they played each other, except for every 4 years, only in the preseason there really hasn’t been any reason to have an opinion positive or negative on the Jets. Until now.

It really hurts me to write this but there are four teams in NYC that are sports royalty, The Highlanders, Giants, Knicks and Rangers. The Mets are the closest of the underling teams that could break into the big four, but not these days. For all the bluster that comes from Rex Ryan, the Jets are not close to being in the same stratosphere as the NY Football Giants. I don’t dislike Rex Ryan although he really, really needs to shut the fuck up, I do respect his coaching acumen but it’s too bad he has to take the personality of his dad Buddy because all this hot air he spews sooner or later has to be backed up with something. Sure he has had success as HC of the Jets but he needs to mind his coaching manners.

Head coaches, no matter what always show respect to one and other in public (look at the fall out from the Jim Schwatrz, Jim Haurbugh brew ha ha earlier this season) it’s great that Rex thinks that he is better that Bill Belichick or Tom Coughlin but when you disrespect these men who have accomplished more than you ever had in this game, you come off like a fucking buffoon.

Neither team in this contest has much to crow about this season. Both teams are huge disappointments with flaws a plenty and as much as Tom Coughlin has told his players to let the Jets do the talking and keep their mouths shut, when you have motor mouths like Antrell Rolle and Brandon Jacobs it’s a hard to rein them in.   

Like I say I never gave the Jets much thought but thanks to Rex’s big mouth not only do I want to see the Giants beat the living shit out them, if the Jets make the playoffs, I’ll be rooting hard against them. By the way, all Giants fan should be thanking Rex and his players for doing what Coach Coughlin has had trouble with so far this second half of the season, motivating the Giants players. Rex should have gone with the let sleeping dogs lay but after seeing how the Jets put a picture of a bleeding Eli Manning on the cover of their defensive play book, I hope JPP knocks Mark Sanchez out of the game on the first offensive play from scrimmage.   Oh and Fireman Ed is an asshole.

Celtics-Knicks is a great way to start off Christmas Day and as a fan of the C’s, it’s good to see the Knickerbockers relevant again. I am my Celtics have one more run left in them and a good start would be by beating up the Knicks on Sunday.   

Posted under Uncategorized

Tomorrow at Citi Field there will be a press conference to announce plans for the New York Mets 50^th Anniversary celebration. There will be special days to commemorate past Mets players and moments in Mets history. The big news however is the 2012 Mets will look like Mets, dressed predominantly in blue and orange.

Of course this is a blue and orange letter day for The Mets Police who has fought the good fight for a years to bring back the traditional Mets home and road unis , even going as far to concede the use of the dreaded black tops on a limited basis to get the organization to stay strictly blue and orange.  

The Mets have gotten the message as the black tops and hopefully the black and the garish black and blue caps will be relics of the past.

More about this tomorrow as I’ve been invited along with other Mets bloggers to attend the presser to get a firsthand look at the new/old uni’s.    

I have been called a “Sandy Alderson apologist” by some but I have to hang my Mets cap on to something positive and Alderson’ track record says he can be successful with limited funding and his way of doing business, building the farm system and implementing a regiment throughout the Mets minor league system is exactly what I believe in. Ed “Rusty Jr.” Marcus writes about the Alderson honeymoon today at The Real Dirty Mets and how some Mets fans want a miracle but what is needed is patience.

If the balmy temperature’s here in NYC don’t have you thinking baseball, how about the release of the Mets 2012 spring training schedule then.  There is a bit of a twist for next spring as the Mets and Bronx Bastards will meet at the end of the exhibition season. The Mets and Highlanders used to meet regularly during spring but once Dave Kingman blasted two home runs off Catfish Hunter in a televised game back to NYC in March of 1975 (big build up for this one as it was Tom Seaver vs. Hunter who had signed the biggest free agent contract in baseball over the winter, New Years Day to be exact) Big Baby George said he had enough of the Mets. See the Mets used to rule the NYC baseball world.

Oh, and mark Wednesday March 7^th on your calendar as that’s the day the Mets face ex-teammate Jose Reyes and his Flamboyant Fish for the first time in Jupiter.

Posted under Uncategorized

On this  date in 1961, the National League held it expansion draft as it welcomed two teams into the league for the first time in 70 years, the New York Metropolitan Baseball Club (Mets) and the Houston Colt .45’s (who became the Astros )

Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times takes a look at how both teams went about putting together their inaugural teams.  The Mets were run by former Highlander GM George Weis and went more for players with New York baseball roots, like Gil Hodges, Duke Snider and Don Zimmer whereas the Colt .45’s under Paul Richards, took a Moneyball approach looking for undervalued commodities especially in the pitching department in the later rounds of the draft.

A lot of stories this weekend were about the Big 3 getting bounced out of the postseason.  The Highlanders and Red Sox are strapped with bloated contracts that can’t be moved and the Phillies are stuck with payroll restrictions and an older lineup with not much farm help in sight. This is why it won’t be the devastating blow that many Mets fans think it will be if Jose Reyes signs elsewhere.  If Reyes is up for a 4yr/$80-$90 million deal with the Mets, that would be perfect, any more years than that, then take care Jose. Remember all that talk about Reyes getting a Carl Crawford like contract? There is no way Sandy Alderson would ever do that; even if the Skill Sets still had Bernie Madoff money he wouldn’t do it. I still say Alderson hopes there is the one dumb owner out there who will go six years  for Reyes so he can bow out of the bidding. As we see this post season you can have all the bling, bit it don’t mean a thing.

I’ll make this prediction now; Joe Girardi doesn’t last the season in 2012 as Highlanders manager. I could see Lou Pinnella taking over as interim while grooming Jorge Posada to take over as skipper in 2013.

Posted under Uncategorized

Lot’s of talk about the Mets giving the Highlanders the thumbs down on their proposal to bring the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Highlanders to Newark NJ for one season as the clubs stadium gets a much needed overhaul.  The Mets are being made out to be the villians here when they did nothing wrong. As per the agreement with MLB before either the Mets or Highlanders try to do something like this they issue of territorial rights has to be addressed. The Bronx Bastards did just that and the Mets said no.

The outcry you hear most is that the Mets are being petty and by not allowing the Highlanders to let their Triple A team play in Newark is not in best interests of the City of Newark or baseball fans. That is pure out and out bullshit. I’ve been in Newark many more times that the folks who are crying about this so called injustice and I can tell you no Highlanders fans from Basking Ridge, or Bernardsville are coming into Brick City to see the Triple A Highlanders.  I’ve been to Riverfront Stadium in the past and found it to be a nice ballpark but in recent years the park has not been kept up and lacking in any positive atmosphere to the point I really have no desire to go from Staten Island to Newark (about a 20-30 min ride) to watch a ball game. In fact the same conditions can be found in the Ball Park at St. George where the SI Highlanders play. The Newark Bears have fallen on hard times and it has nothing to do with the city but with poor management and the fractured economy as well.

Throughout this whole Mets bashing argument there has been no mention of the fans of Scranton/Wilkes Barre, who I doubt will make the trip to Newark to watch their team play. I would guess there are colleges that have baseball fields in the Scranton area that could be converted into a temporary home for the Triple A Highlanders like what was done back in 1999 for the SI Highlanders, turning the College of Staten Island baseball field into a temporary home until the St. George park was built.  

As Mets fans, we all know that is the shoe was on the other foot, Highlander President Randy Levine would have to told Freddy Skill Sets to kiss his ass. That’s the Highlander way. So now that it’s Freddy who gives the Highlanders his ass to kiss, he’s a bad guy. As much as I’ve killed the Skill Sets over the years here, I’ve got their broke ass backs on this one.

Posted under Uncategorized

Here is today’s stream of (un) consciences in no particular order of importance or relevancy:

Why send Lucas Duda to the Instructional League to work on playing right field when he can just be left there for the next 45 games of the season.  While we’re at it, let Mike Baxter play some 1^st base and even a little centerfield as well. I don’t know if you’ve heard but the Mets are not going to the post season….shhhhhhhhhh……keep it on the downlow…….

It’s been a pleasure watching the maturation of Jon Niese as a pitcher and a player this season. Niese seems to be over his problems of fatigue and injury. His BB is down as his K/BB ratio is up to 3:1. He’s kept the ball in the park as well with his HR rate lower than last year but his hits to innings pitched is still high. He has become one of the young leaders of this team as he handled the disappointment of a loss due to the two errors of neophyte shortstop Ruben Tejeda like a seasoned pro.

Terry Collins has stopped with giving pep talks and is focused on watching who gives all and who gives none down the stretch of the season. Good move, I’m going to do the same thing, no more rally cries for Mets fans to support this team. If you can’t see the positive change this season in this organization, you’re not worth preaching to anyway.

When it comes to the 10^th Anniversary of the attack of September 11^th, the last thing I’m concerned with is what time the Mets are playing and what kind of caps they’ll wear. Quite frankly, the day should be a day of remembrance and reflection on the tragic events of that day and how that day has changed our lives forever.  

The news that ESPN 710 in Los Angeles will be broadcast New York Jets games this season made we wonder if the Dodgers and Giants ever broadcast games back to New York when the left after the 1957 season?

Jerry Reese is lucky he’s not the GM of the Mets or Highlanders as the outcry of his non-moves and letting key Giants players leave would be off the charts hysterical. Can you imagine the screaming headlines if Sandy Alderson or Pee Wee Cashman, after two seasons of not making the playoffs and losing a game in embarrassing manner to your biggest arch rival, stood pat while big time free agents signed with other teams?  Football may be the number one sport in America but baseball still rules the roost in NYC.

If you are not following Giants VP of Communications, Pat Hanlon on Twitter (@giantspathanlon) you are missing out. Hanlon is the loyalist of loyal Mara employees and will take on all critics of Big Blue. Rex Ryan gets a lot of pub for his outlandish behavior but he’s a wallflower compared to Giants Pat.

By the way, all the Giants fans that are ready to leap off the George Washington Bridge thinking this season will be a disaster calm the fuck down. Let the season play out before you leap off the bridge.

Congrats to David Wright as he passed Ed Kranepool as the All-Time Mets leader in Total Bases. See, I can take the high road sometimes.

Posted under Uncategorized

I was all set to read a bunch of Mets stuff today and write a nice post on what I missed since I was gone for the week but to tell you the truth I’m exhausted.

We boarded our flight from Orlando at 7PM last night figuring we’d get into Newark by 9:30 or so and get home by 10:30-11:00, no bad at all. Well, that didn’t go as planned. We sat on the runway of Orlando Int’l Airport for an hour and fifteen minutes with screaming babies and the nastiest flight crew that JetBlue could find (gee, I’m sorry I asked for another bottle of water, but I’ve been sitting here for over hour, you Grand Pa Munster lookalike old fucking hag, so make it fucking tolerable will ya?) so by the time we landed in Newark and headed to the long term parking lot which I believe is right outside Atlantic City, it was about a quarter to one when we stepped into the house. By the time we get all situated and browsed a week’s worth mail and then caught up on some baseball highlights, it was 3AM when I collapsed in bed.

I did wake up in time to see ManU storm back from a 2 nil deficit to take the FA Community Shield (a kind of Mayor’s Trophy Game) from Manchester City , 3-2. The EPL gets under way next weekend as does NFL pre-season (this looks like a very long season for us fans of the New York Football Giants, the over/under on Bill Cowher to the Giants in 2012 stories is at  1,237 ) and baseball is headed toward the dog days of August, only to emerge into the September Pennant races and post season. It’s a great time to be a sports fan.

So now I need to shower and get dressed and head down to St. George to watch the Cyclones-Highlanders game which is a part of my Father’s Day gift (all games between the Cyclones and Highlanders) thankfully it’s a 4PM game so I can come home and get my mind ready to go back to work tomorrow. There is nothing worse than the first day of work after a vacation

Posted under Uncategorized

Blogging will be a bit spotty here next week as I’ll be heading down to Florida for a week of R & R, unlike the week I spent upstate in the woods camping this is a real vacation.

Lots of positives for the Mets organization last night as the club swept a four game series from the Red Legs for the first time ever, Johan Santana pitched in a rehab game in St Lonesome and his arm did not fall off, and Daniel Murphy is now 3^rd in the NL Batting race behind Ryan Braun and Jose Reyes. No Mets player has ever won a Batting Crown and the way Reyes is playing this season there is a very good shot that he will be the first. Who knows after that, maybe Zack Wheeler could be the first Mets pitcher to throw a no-hitter in 2013.

Speaking of Mets pitching phenoms, Matt Harvey was on the mound last night for Bingo against Harrisburg and Nats phenom, Bryce Harper. Harvey had a very strong showing and K’d the much hyped Bryce twice but the B-Mets went down in defeat 2-1 in 14 innings. Harvey went 7 innings and K’d 10 and walked only 2.

Sad news about Hideki Irabu taking his own life yesterday in California. As Mike Silva points out, Irabu’s downfall in coming to the U.S. to pitch was his insistence to pitch for the Highlanders. The San Diego Padres held his rights and after a contentious back and forth with Padres ownership, Irabu forced a  trade Irabu to the Bronx where the pitcher thought it would be just like in the movies. He soon found out the myth of the Bronx Bastards failed to mirror the reality of playing for an overheated blow hard  self-promoting owner, who didn’t give a shit about anyone but himself.  Maybe Irabu life would have been different if he stayed in San Diego or Japan. We’ll never know but playing for the Highlanders did not improve his quality of life.    

Lost in the euphoria of the Mets four game sweep of the Red Legs and the fact they have been road warriors all season, is that the dreaded black uniform top and cap has been making many more appearance the last month or so than it did during the early part of the season.  I’ll never understand this fixation with the black jersey and hat when the Mets road greys are one of the best looking uniforms in all of baseball. Now that Sandy Alderson has put this organization in his vice-grip hands, I am begging him to order all the black uniforms gathered up for an end of the season bon fire at Citi Field. I sure this guy will bring the gasoline and matches.   

Posted under Uncategorized

Yesterday was a triple header day of baseball for me.  First my Babe Ruth League played a double header, yes that’s right a DOUBLE HEADER during a heat wave. We started at 8:30 AM and we finished up at 1PM winning the first game 7-6 and playing the second game to a 4-4 tie that was called due the heat after 7 innings the regulation amount of innings for Babe Ruth baseball. After a nice cool shower and lounging in air conditioning while watching the Highlanders-A’s contest from the Bronx (I muted the TV as it was Michael Kay and Paul O’Neil  doing the game and radio for Highlander games is not a option and besides I think I have a pretty good handle on the game of baseball that I really don’t need to hear the commentators unless of course it’s our own GK & R) I headed to St George for the SI Highlanders v. Tri City Cats of the Houston Astro organization. It was Boy Scout night so this was more a social call than an actual sitting and critiquing a baseball game .

So even with that I still woke up early enough to watch a replay of last nights Mets-Fish game . I think it safe to say Terry Collins went a bit to far with Chris Capuano. It looks like once you get to the third time around the lineup for Capuano, he falls apart. It will be interesting to see how Collins handles Cap in his next start as he he gets to the third at bats in the opposing line up.

Jason Bay looks like a boxer who looks toward his corner during a fight he knows he doesn’t want any more of. It’s like he wants Terry Collins to throw the towel on the field to end his season of futility. Making things worse for Bay is Lucas Duda is on fire and really needs to get into the lineup.

Maybe all this farewell to Beltran is a bit premature. What if Alderson doesn’t like the prospects offered to him for trade and says “Fuck it” and keeps Beltran for the rest of the season? Who you be surprised?

Posted under Uncategorized