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So much has been made of the DJ Carrasco-Ryan Braun-Terry Collins-David Wright spectacle from last night, it taken the focus off of Dillion Gee and the second straight start that he was a very hittable pitcher. Gee has had a problem this year making fat pitches to batters, he’s throwing strikes but they are very hittable strikes as his .346 BAP will attest to.  Gee’s ground ball to fly ball rate has jumped to 2.14,much higher than any time in his three year big league career so you could say with the lack of range in the middle infield with Rony Cedeno and Daniel Murphy has hurt him in his last two starts.

When was the last time we saw David Wright get all worked up like he was last night after Terry Collins lifted him in the 7^th inning ? I was happy to see that from Wright and I was glad that after he blew up, he came back to the dugout and went over to Terry Collins to explain his side of being pulled. What we are seeing is Wright not only showing leadership with this club but finally being comfortable in that role. I also like that Collins made his decision to take both Wright and Murphy (who also was pissed to be lifted) and let both guys vent and then explained why he made the move he did.

I agreed with Gary Cohen’ take on Carrasco hitting Braun , no one knows what was in his heart if he was throwing at him on purpose or if the pitch just got away from him but to think that Carrasco, a guy whose job is on shaky ground, would just  throw at player and get kicked out of a game in which he needed to show that he can pitch effectively, makes no sense. I’m sure Collins will talk to Carrasco today and let him know that if he was throwing at Braun on purpose it was a stupid move. I’m sure David Wright will let Carrasco know it as well.

So something we knew would happen was officially announced today that the NY Mets will host the 2013 All Star Game at Citi Field in 2013. I am looking forward to this event and all the festivities that surround the Game. I’ve been to one All Star game in my life, in 1977 at Highlander Stadium and I missed the 2008 one as I was on a camping trip, I’m more excited for the Fan Fest at the Javits Center and all the pomp and circumstance that will surround the city than I am for the actual game.

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Attention my fellow Mets fans, I have a pair of Field Level seats for this Thursday’s 1PM Mets-Reds game and I want one of you loyal readers of The Eddie Kranepool Society to have them, so the first person to identify the player in the picture above by Tweeting me, will win the ducats.

3 hints:

He was born in Renton WA

He made his ML debut on September 6^th 1982

He saved 15 games for the Mets in 1984

So if go to Twitter right now and  Tweet me with this players name, the first person to do so will win the Field Box tickets and the opportunity to see R.A. Dickey pitch the first no hitter in NY Mets history.

 All you need to do is go to the Will Call window at Citi Field with a valid photo ID to claim the tickets. So you get an R.A. Dickey start (vs. Matt Lattos) a sunny 75 degree day and free tickets. What’s not to like!

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I’m having a tough time putting my thoughts into words this morning after spending my night at Madison Square Garden and witnessing one of those great sports moments   that will talked about for years and years.

The black and white of the box scores says Rangers 3 Capitals 2 but that in no way describes how this game was played.  This NY Ranger team is simply one of the best teams in the history of my sports fandom.  It hasn’t much to do with the winning but more with the amazing work ethic and the fact when I was ready to write them off they dug down deeper than me and many other Rangers fans could ever imagine. Funny thing is as I watched the pre-game warm ups, I thought about how many games I’ve witnessed in this building and how times have changed over the years.  For some wild reason images of John Fergurson, Phil Esposito, Ron Greschner and my favorite whipping boy Willie Huber were entering my head.  I looked around the Blue Seats and thought about Nick Fotiu throwing pucks to “his people” in the upper reaches of the 400 section after warm-ups. I thought of the day Bryan Trottier was named coach of the Rangers (that’s when my hatred for Glen Sather began) as the day I was ready to turn in my Broadway Blueshirt and of course the  euphoria of 1994 Stanley Cup winning team.

I don’t know where this playoff season is going for the NY Rangers but as nerve wracking as the ride is, I’m riding with a lot of Ranger fan pride. Time to close this series out boys tomorrow night!

I had no idea what was going on between the Mets and Phuck Phaces until my phone buzzed with a text telling me the Mets had won 5-2. When I got home I went searching for Rangers highlights to find out how the hell Broadway Brad Richards got that puck by Braden Holtby and to relive the resurrection of Marc Staal, I stopped on ESPN as Baseball Tonight was queuing up highlights of the Mets win (by the way, what’s up with John Kruk? He’s sitting behind a desk all hunched up like someone was lobbing hand grenades over his head. Why so tense Krukie? )  and I know there is this whole controversy over hitting batters for no reason but because they are young and talented and many times fans go overboard on wanting their pitcher to take off someone on the oppositions head with a pitch but to me if Shane Victorino doesn’t hit the dirt on his first at bat tonight I will be very angry. Victorino’s take out try on Justin Turner was an out and out dirty play and a scumbag like Victorino will continue to make that kind of play until someone sends him a message.  I don’t want Miguel Batista (YIKES!!!!) to drill Victorino in the noggin but I do want to see a pitch just under his chin.

 How do you figure out Jordany  Valdespin ? I’ve heard a few stories on how he is immature and was such a problem he was read the riot act by a few folks in the Mets minor league system. So far he seems to be exuberant as a young man should be in the big leagues and a player his teammates have embraced. Maybe it’s the fact that Terry Collins can handle a young guy feeling his oats and the fact that the team has solid mature veteran players unlike the cranky red asses who gave rookies a hard time in the clubhouse in years past. Hopefully with a little success in the big leagues, Valdespin will see what it takes to stay up here and matures before our eyes.

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What a terrific day it was yesterday at the New York Mets 50^th Anniversary Conference at Hofstra University. A big tip of my Mets cap goes to Greg Prince who work very hard to make the 3 day conference a huge success, and in the words of Yogi Berra, “made this day necessary” Dana Brand would be so proud of the conference and of you Greg.

I came away with this thought on the way home from Hofstra last night, the Skill Sets may hold the papers to the team, but it’s Mets fan who are the real owners and for that the whole Mets organization should be thankful.

It’s always fun to meet up with the Mets Blogger-ratzi at events like this especially my blogger panel teammates, John Coppinger and Taryn Cooper, as well as Shannon, Kerel, Michael, and the Mathews Callan and Artus . Let’s Go Mets!!!!!

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Photo of great catch by Capt. Kirk from the NY Daily News

There are days the Mets fan base annoys and puzzles me and then there are days I can see they get it, today they get. From reading through my Twitter timeline it seems the majority of Mets fans agree, last night’s loss was the toughest of the season to take.

What has made my day is that Mets blogger extraordinaire, Metstradamus wrote a post on last night’s game that is exactly how I feel, so like a hobo hoping on box car for free ride, if you read Metstradamus post twice, you will get his take and mine on last night’s game.

I will add it was nice to see the maturation of Jon Niese on the mound last night. Niese tried to muscle the ball the first three innings going heavily with his fastball and not keeping the ball down. In the 4^th he started to get a good feel for his curve ball and cutter and then pitched more effectively.

I really wish Terry Collins would stop talking about Andres Torres getting the centerfield job back when he returns from the DL. Torres is not even a league average player, so TC and the Mets have to stop acting like there are brining Willie Mays back, Torres had one solid year, he’s 33 years old and he’s not the future of the NY Mets, Kirk Nieuwenhuis is.  The young core of this team is what gives me hope that the future is bright for the Mets. I don’t expect Nieuwenhuis to keep hitting at a .371 clip but I’d rather he’d stay up here go through a dry spell at the plate and learn how to battle through in the big leagues.

It’s easy to dump on Jason Bay for striking out in a big spot but as per the Pitch f/x of his 10^th inning at bat against Clay Hensley, the real villain of that AB was home plate ump Kerwin Danley.

Don’t forget tonight is the World Premier of Knuckleball! At the Tribeca Film Festival with a free showing of the film at the Tribeca Drive-In  (World Financial Center Plaza, West Street between Vesey and Liberty Streets) the festivities kick off at 6PM with the film showing at 8PM

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I started this blog back in 2001, when I first bought a computer that had this hook up to my phone line and came with a disk for something called America Online where you could get e-mail and access to the World Wide Web.  I started reading websites by people who were basically fans.  The web was dominated by Red Sox sites and the only real Mets site was Bryan Hoch’s Mets Online  (I wonder how many Highlander fans know that the MLB Highlander beat writer is a Mets fan) which was more a message board type with some good articles by Hoch thrown in for discussion.

After reading these sites and a few others I thought maybe I could start up something that covered the everyday goings on of the NY Mets. So I opened up a Blogger account and The Eddie Kranepool Society was born.  I had no idea who would read this site and I figured I’ll do it for a season and if no one other than family and friends read it I’ll just move on.  During that first summer I took a week off to vacation up at Cape Cod, so I didn’t write for the week and never checked my e mail, how could I ? There was no Wi-Fi nor did I have a laptop, I barley had a cell phone (where is my old flip phone from T-Mobile by the way?)  so it was a chillaxing vacation.

When I returned home and went on my computer and dialed up my AOL account I saw there were a lot of emails from folks who were reading the site every day and were concerned about what happened to me and why wasn’t I writing about the Mets?  To say I was surprised by this would be a huge understatement. So instead of unpacking from vacation, I wrote a post explaining my disappearance to which I received e mails that these folks were relieved that I was ok and still writing. It took me awhile to comprehend that I connected with a segment of Mets fans who shared my passion for the team.

One of the folks who corresponded with me was a man by the name of Dana Brand.  All I knew about Mr. Brand was he was about the same age as me, we both shared a great passion for the Mets and we both took brown bag lunches with a frozen can of soda wrapped in tin foil to games at Shea Stadium. Then I found out that Mr. Brand was Dr. Brand, he received his doctorate from Yale in American Literature and was totally freaked out. How was this man, a scholar, not only reading my blog but he loved how I wrote. Huh?

I got to meet Dana at a book launch party he had for his book Mets Fan in which he gave me a mention which of course really had me thinking he’d mistaken me and my work for someone else. When I arrived at the party and introduced myself, Dana gave me a vice like handshake and a big smile and said “I am so glad you could make it, I’ve been really looking forward to meeting you” again I thought, does he know who I am? We sat and talked for a while as other guests arrived (take a look at this picture from the book launch, it’s the Mets bloggers version of the Cavern Club) and the passion and enthusiasm that Dana had for the Mets was dazzling. One of the subjects he was most excited about was a conference he was in the midst of putting together to commemorate the 50^th Anniversary of the New York Mets. He explained to me that this was going a real big event that will cover everything and anything Mets related for the past 50 seasons. I told him that this sound great and something I would definitely look to attend and that point Dana stopped me in mid-sentence and said “attend? I want you to be part of it” “What? What the hell am I going to do”? I was shocked to say the least and every time we’d meet up at Shea or Citi Field (I’ve mentioned how we were like two grumpy old yentas complaining about Citi Field) he’d remind me about the conference. His enthusiasm for the event was contagious.

The 50^th Anniversary of the New York Mets Conference will finally become a reality next weekend (Thursday, Friday and Saturday the 26^th, 27^th and 28^th of April) and as excited, anxious and proud to be a participant (myself, Taryn “ Gall For All Seasons” Cooper, John “Metstrdamus” Coppinger and Greg “Faith and Fear In Flushing” Prince will be panelists in a Q & A session titled Fielding Questions: The Passion of the Bloggers) there will be some sorrow in knowing that Dana will not be there with us.

As you all know, Dana passed away just about one year ago at the all too, too young age of 56 but I know that all the participants and folks who come out to the conference will make this as much a celebration of the contribution that Dana made to Mets fandom as it will be for the team he loved. Every team would call itself fortunate to have a fan like Dana Brand.

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The good news is the Mets are 6-3 and took 2 of 3 from the Phuck Phaces in Filthadelphia. Should they have swept?  It not only would have been very sweet but I would have had a much better vibe about this team than I do this morning if they did. Do not get me wrong, I am very happy with this start and any time you can go to Filthadelphia and win a series is a solid positive but again the Mets allowed a team to get 4 or 5 outs in an inning will be the difference between the club staying in playoff contention or dropping to the second division.  The Mets are just not good enough to make a lot of mistakes.

Mike Pelfrey had another solid start yesterday, sure that WHIP of 1.80 is not good at all and he does leave pitches up in the zones that get smashed but yesterday after the first inning that looked like the beginning of a disastrous start, Pelf made adjustments and relied a lot on his sinker, a 90+MPH sinker I might add, and got ground ball out after ground ball out. Nice job out of Pelf.

I know Mike Nickeas is here for his defense but I don’t see how he is this solid defensive receiver.  Throwing out Juan Pierre at third was more on Pierre being an idiot making the third out at third base, than Nickeas being Jerry Grote. I’ll give Nickeas a bit of a hat tip as he seems to call a decent game but his backhanding of balls in the dirt and inability to keep balls in front of him has me turned off a bit.

Teams that have 2-1 leads going into the 7^th inning have to get those last 9 outs and the ones that do are the teams that are pennant contenders. So far the bullpen has done a great job (Bobby Parnell, Jon Rauch and Frank Francisco) but yesterday when the frontline relievers weren’t used and the second tier arms came in the game, the results were a disaster. It wasn’t all Ramon Ramirez, Miguel Batista and Manny Acosta’ fault as Ruben Tejada made a bad throwing error and Scott Hairston played left field like he had marbles instead of spike on his shoes but again this team has a super model thin margin of error.

Congrats to Mets Fan Rich for sending in the correct answer to yesterday’s trivia question (R.A. Dickey gave up 6 HR’s in a game tying a modern MLB record) and winning the VIP tickets to the Tribeca Film Festival showing of Knuckleball! On Saturday April 21 at 8PM. This event is open to the public for FREE. So come on down and get a chance to meet R.A. Dickey, Charlie Hough, Tim Wakefield and Jim Bouton.

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 Jason Bay hit a home run last night. No, seriously Bay hit a home run last night. Yes, Jason Bay of the NY Mets

Oh well, my positive spinning of the Mets was good while it lasted. As great as last night’s win was over the Phuck Phaces and as enjoyable as it was watching The Dickster , Bobby Parnell and Frankie Firsco dominate. I have some issues with Terry Collins and more importantly a couple of players who I am very fond of.

First the manager, TC can spin it as much as he wants that he felt batting Justin Turner third was a the correct move as to not disrupt the rest of the lineup but let’s be real here, Turner is no 3 hole hitter. I understand the premise of not bunching lefty bats against Cliff Lee but Turner replacing Wright in the 3 spot? That’s a Jerry Manuel move. If TC had put Jason Bay in the third spot of the lineup I’d have defended that move. But Justin Turner? Please!

Look I am now and forever a proud member of the #IMWITH28 Club (I have the t-shirt to prove it) but for Christ sake Murph you have to make the routine play and 2^nd base. That was the second time this week that a routine ground ball went under Danny Boys glove and it has to be the last.

Speaking of Murphy, TC and Sandy Alderson cannot put Murphy at 3^rd base if (when?) David Wright goes on the DL with his fractured pinky (speaking of DW’s pinkie, there were some on Twitter questioning Wright and his threshold of pain for not playing last night and looking at the DL until he recovers. If you are questioning Wright’s toughness or his fight to get back on the field, then you’re an idiot) I agree 100 % with Toby Hyde that Zach Lutz should be promoted from Buffalo and planted at 3^rd base until Wright gets back. For better or worse, Murphy is the 2012 2^nd baseman and if the TC/Alderson go back on that, it shows real indecisiveness on their part and doesn’t help Murphy with his comfort level at 2^nd. DW, if he hits the DL, will most likely be out just the minimum 15 days, so moving Murph makes no sense.

Its plays like Josh Thole made on the bases last night that infuriates the living shit out of me. Since the Mets won last night everyone can chuckle at that bone head base running blunder by Thole, put its plays like that, that this team cannot afford to make. Between Murphy’ ground ball through the legs and Thole getting duped by Jimmy Rollins, (and by the way Jon Niese better put a fast ball under J-Rolls fucking chin in his first at bat just to send him a message) that can sink this team as the Mets are not good enough to fuck up like that.

Just think the Mets won the game last night and are 5-2 after the first seven games and I’m still agitated. Just look at it as some tough love.

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There is a segment of this fan base that really needs to stop listening to sports talk radio for your own good. There are too many of you that take the word of the gasbags on WFAN and WEPN as sports gospel. The biggest offender seem to be the wanna- be shock jock on WFAN in the early AM who threw out a line that a Mets “official” said the club was going to honor Chipper Jones during the Braves last visit to NYC. I guess the fact that the wanna- be shock jock’ partner, the fair haired Norman Esiason has been taking days off here and there (maybe NFL Norman is trying to tell wanna- be shocks partner Norman that this morning gig is bad for you imagine and credibility) left the wanna-be shock with nothing to talk about since his scope of sports knowledge seems to be whatever is in the daily fish wraps and what he reads on blogs, so with no partner to banter with he decided to join in on every media types favorite target of belittlement, the NY Mets.

After it was broadcast over the biggest waste of 50,000 watts in radio, that the Mets were thinking about honoring Chipper Jones, the lunatic fringe of Metsopotania flew into a Tweeting rage. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m a lifelong Mets fans I’d have laughed my ass off over the over reaction by some fans but instead I’m left shaking my head and letting out a great big “sigh”.

The Mets are not going to hold a “Larry Jones Night” at Citi Field. If anything they will have a short and sweet pre-game annoucemnt that no one will even see as it will be so far from game time you will still be on the Shake Shack line. The will give Jones a plaque and acknowledge his Hall of Fame career and wish him the best on his retirement. It will take you longer to decide what dipping sauce you want with your Box Frites Belgian fries.

Yes I understand that Jones was a one man wrecking crew against the Mets for his career but I also understand the he thoroughly enjoyed competing on the New York stage and he appreciates the rich history of New York baseball.  As I’ve mentioned many times, he loved to interact with Mets fans and always found time to sign autographs. Ask David Wright about Jones and how he has helped Wright with encouragement or a batting tip here or there.

I guess if you haven’t been witness to Jones’ mingling with Mets fans all you would see is a guy who beat our brains in but if you’ve seen Jones up close at Shea or Citi dealing with Mets fans you know he’s a classy guy. The Mets are just acknowledging that class.

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There are times when I’m glad I was wrong, and this is one of them and I have a lot of company. Not many Mets fans thought Johan Santana would be ready to take the mound at Citi Field on April 5th but the word out of St. Lonesome is Santana will indeed be the NY Mets opening day pitcher. Maybe that will movtivate some Mets fans to buy a ticket for opening day.

This is a big step for Johan and the Mets as it gives the fan base some hope that this will not be the dismal season many predict and hopefully a healthy and productive Santana will help raise the game of the rest of his teammates. Don’t underestimate the fact the Mets ace will pitch on opening day, I can guarantee you the teams of the NL East and rest of MLB look at the NY Mets a lot differently than they did a month ago.

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