Oliver Perez

Best. Signing. Ever.

Return of the groundhog

OK, this Cards series has been horrible. Obviously, Maine needs to pick it up big time. And Pelf needs to pitch.

Ollie's been up and down, I can live with that. Livan Hernandez? I mean, what can you really expect.

Murphy's fielding has been bad. No other way to say it. You know there are going to be growing pains. But you can't look so bad as to completely undermine the confidence of the guys around you. On the flip, his hitting has lived up to billing, and he's been one of the few getting clutch hits.

And speaking of which, it seems we once again are capable of massive offensive explosion, but churning out that key run remains very difficult.

Pouring salt into the wound

As if the Nationals season wasn't going bad enough... Apparently their jersey company couldn't even spell their team name correctly.

The Geek

Funny recap of yesterday's game over at The Geek. Sadly, the Mets are looking like a broken record, and you can basically just use a fill-in-the-blank approach to summarize each game.

One thing that's disappointing to me is that this is the first season in many years where I really have almost no interest in the team. Usually I'm psyched to see the season start, but given the crushing endings to '06, '07 and '08, along with no changes to starting rotation or break-up of "the core", I'm just not pumped for '09. Even Citi Field, which I'd love to check out this year, is disappointing in that they dramatically reduced seat capacity by about 13,000, and jacked prices way up.

Hopefully my enthusiasm goes up as the season progresses, because I surely need something to wash away the filthy aftertaste of the Jets doing their best Mets impersonation.

Johan Santana

Man, is that guy freakin' amazing or what? What else can you say, the guy is simply the best.

Countering the groundhog

Lots of news to like at this point.

1/2 game up on the Philthies. At this juncture, till the Fish show me their lineup has staying power, Philly's the only team in the division I'm looking at in the standings.

Bullpen ranks 1st in NL ERA. Parnell, Putz, and K-Rod look outstanding. Feliciano, when used properly against left handers situationally, has been effective.

The heart of the lineup is on fire. Wright, Delgado and Beltran are off to scorching hot starts (.314, .343, .333 BAs going into tonight).

Church looks recovered from scrambled egg brain syndrome, off to a .400 start. Meanwhile, Lastings Milledge has been demoted to the minors.

Wouldja look at that? Luis Castillo is hitting .385.

The Gangsta hasn't done or said anything completely stupid thus far.

CitiField is awesome. Everytime I see Delgado hit one to the wall (or over it), my heart is gladdened by the sight of green seats and black and orange on the wall. Mel Ott, Christy Matthewson, Bobby Thompson, and our namesake Say Hey Kid is smiling somewhere.

You can put lipstick on a pig...

...but it's still a pig.

And that pig is our starting rotation. This team will go as our 2-3-4 pitchers go, especially 2-3, and right now that's going nowhere.

NL East is going to be very tight this year. If we're within 5-10 games of first place by All-Star break, i'd predict a trade to get some serious pitching upgrade.

2 games

and 2 corner outfield plays that cost us "W"s. We could easily be 5-2 instead of 3-4 right now, but for Murphy's error in LF against the Marlins and Church's misplay in RF tonight.

Reyes stranding the bases loaded with 2 outs and the Mets trailing by 1 in the 6th was a big blow tonight, and turned out to be our last scoring chance.

On the flip side, Murphy's 2 out RBI single to right with 2 outs in the 5th, followed by D Wright's 2 out, 3 run, game tying jack were definitely clutch. Too bad the fielding let us down.

Luckily, I'm going to Wednesday's game. As we all know, the season doesn't really start till I get to a game. So it's a new season come Wed.

I love CitiField

Really happy with the new ballpark (don't call it a "stadium").

However, one thing I'm not happy about are the Byzantine pricing arrangements and naming conventions.

I'm gonna throw a few terms out at you, and you tell me where in the stadium park you think it's located.

Promenade Club
Baseline Box
Caesars Club
Excelsior Level
Ebbetts Club
Metropolitan Box
Delta Club
Left Field Landing
Promenade Box

Talk about your tough luck outing for Johan

12 K vs 1 BB, and 7 IP with no ERs, and you take the loss. Ouch.

Some Met obversations

Jose Jose Jose has had a great week to start the year. He's focusing in the field and at the plate.

Church looks to have regained his early '08 form. He's killing the ball and playing a solid RF.

Murphy is off to a good start, and he's still looking like he might be on a track to unseat D Wright as my favorite Met.

The rotation has looked good, other than Ollie's meltdown. Pelf and Ollie sort of had Bizzaro outings. Pelf was shaky in the first, but then battled through. Ollie looked untouchable early, and then fell apart. Livan gave us 6 scoreless before the fish plated a couple in the 7th. Apparently Maine (shoulder) and Hernandez (knee) are pitching pain free for the time in multiple seasons, and Johan's spring "injury" seems pretty overblown after his first start. Guess we'll find out more tomorrow.

The revamped pen is obviously a huge improvement.

That's not to say they're going to be dominant top to bottom. Parnell, Green and O'Day have combined for some Maalox Masher moments early on, but I'll still gladly take where we are now over 12 months ago.

Delgado looks like he wants to make a contract year push.

Our offense has been tacking on late runs, something that was sorely missing last year.

Finally, the gangsta: he's growing on me. His weird, overly friendly, chuckling interview style doesn't exactly give me the impression he's a taskmaster, or all that knowledgeable. But for a team with a shattered psyche in need of a shrink, having a class clown for a manager, and a loose clubhouse, might not be the worst thing in the world. It's not a subscription for multi-year success (IMHO), but it may be a path to forgetting yesterday's epic fail.

Overall, after our first 5 games (all on the road), with a 3-2 record and our ace taking the hill tomorrow, I give us a B+. Now let's see how things develop as the season settles in.

Saw a highlight of Griffey going yard.

Boy does he ever look right in an M's uniform. Should never have left.

Baby Blue Champs

It's nauseating to watch. Really.

On the flip, I've got to hand it to Ol' "Gaddumit" Roy. His team peaked at the right time and obliterated the opposition. They didn't face any real game pressure in the entire tourney.

I should point out that between Duke and UNC, there have now been 6 titles (3 each) in the last 18 years, a full 1/3 of the years.

That should pretty much lay to rest "best rivalry in college sports". Michigan-Ohio State football (1.5 national championships in the same period), Alabama-Auburn football (1 N.C.), or any other rivalries don't even come close to that.

I will hand it UF though. 2 football N.C.s and 2 basketball N.C.s since 2006 makes for it's own great rivalry between the two programs.

P.S. Big East teams in the final game: 0. In "the greatest year for any conference. Ever."

Opening Day

First blog!

My how the "mighty" have fallen

From today's Post:

Manuel said left fielder Daniel Murphy is very likely to bat full-time in the No. 2 spot in the order, bumping second baseman Luis Castillo all the way to the eighth hole in the process.

That's quite a fall all the way from possible leadoff to #8. I wonder why it had to happen... Oh yeah, it's because Castillo bites.

ACC vs Big East

So the McHump has been McFlapper, yapping in my ear about the "Biiiggg Easssttt Biiattch!!", given what a great year the B.E. is having this year.

Which got me thinking, "why does it seem like the Big Least has been the bitch of the ACC since I started watching college basketball two decades ago?"

So I thought reason #1 might just be that I'm homer, as a Duke Alum with a huge mancrush on K.

Then I decided to look up the tourney results and settled on reason #2: the fact that the ACC has actually dominated the Big East in terms of NCAA results in the past twenty years. To wit,

1990-2009 Final Four appearances:

Big East: 7
ACC: 20

1990-2009 National Championships:

Big East: 3
ACC: 6

So then I got to thinking, but maybe the "resurgent" Big East outpaced the ACC if we only look at the most recent decade, 2000-2009. Wrong again. National Championships, 3-2 for the ACC; Final Four appearances, 9-5 for the ACC.

Yup, the Big East is having a better year in 2009. The irony is, the ACC might still grab the Nat'l Championship, although I'd actually be hoping we don't. I'd even rather Connecticut, my second most hated team, wins over UNC.

And if history is a guide, we'll look back on '09 as the exception, not the rule.


UPDATE:

I decided to all the way back into ancient history and did the same analysis in the 1980's: "The heyday of the Big East." Suffice it to say that the strucutral advantages that the Big East had in those years, specifically the stranglehold over the D.C. and NYC recruiting pipelines that G'Town and St. John's provided, have evaporated. And those were the vaunted years of Hoya Paranoia, Chris Mullins, and Rick Pitino at Providence. And yet the results? Dead even:

1980-1989: Final Fours entries, 8-8; National Champions, 2-2.

That was the high water mark for the Big East. And even then it was a draw. And the ACC has pummeled the Big East since. And now, with Calhoun's program in trouble with the NCAA and potentially looking at sanctions, Pitino flirting with Arizona and thinking of leaving L'Ville (and let's face it, they're not really a Big East team anyway), and Boeheim nearing the end of his career, how big will the fall off be?

Two more decades of ACC domination, IMHO.

Nova-Pitt was Epic

Great effort by both teams. Congrats to Nova and to Pitt for a great season.

Well, it's definitely been a big year for the Big East

And, let's be honest, they're pretty much due. What's it been, 15 years since the conference was supposedly "back" and Felipe Lopez graced the cover of SI?

Of course, it can't be a great feeling to have the success come on the back of a bunch of questionably ethical decisions for the conference's flagship programs; like Boeheim getting Syracuse to wipe the slate clean for his star 2-guard after the university had suspended him for the year. Or Calhoun's program potentially crumbling under his feet due to substantial recruiting violations.

Still, there's no way to knock Wright and 'Nova, or Dixon and Pitt. I'll be rooting for those two schools the rest of the way. I'm also a big Izzo fan, and would love to see the Spartans make a run.

Tickets anyone?

So I went to mets.com today and clicked through for tix to Opening Day + 4 game pak. I opted for "best seats available" and picked 4 games, 2 tickets each. Lo and behold a pair of tickets were available in Metropolitan Box seats for each game, with a package total of ....... (Drum roll please) ...... $1650.

What?

That works out to $165 per seat per game. Now, call me crazy or old fashioned, but since when should tickets cost $165 per game, even for great seats and a great team (the latter of which the Mets have yet to provide). Of course, I realize that seats are worth "whatever someone will pay for them," and by having shaved 10,000 seats out of Citi compared to Shea certainly that will drive prices up. But I still have a hard time believing that people will find it worth $180 to attend an early season game against the Marlins.

Apparently so do the rest of the fans, which is why seats are still available this close to Opening Day.

The Next Big Thing

How 'bout a kid who throws 101 in college? He's already assumed to be the first overall pick in the next MLB draft, and his name ain't Sidd Finch. It's Stephen Strasburg, and it looks like the Nats have the inside track. Though Boras wants to try and end around the draft, which has "Yankees" written all over it.

A quote from the Wizard

"I like the game now, but I don't like the game as much. I have never cared for the showmanship, and I think there is too much showmanship in the game today. While I think the players today are just unbelievable - their athleticism - I don't think team play is as good as it used to be."

-John Wooden

ht: DBR

So after Black Friday for the ACC,

and the absolute demolition of Wake Forest by the juggernaut known as Cleveland State, I felt compelled to go check out the fan boards over at WakeInsider.com.

Some real gems from a thread entitled, "Well.....im going to get ******* drunk":

I hate my father for accepting a job at Wake during my mailable years. he is a jerk for allowing me to fall in love with this University. i want to cry. i want to break ****. i want to punch baby animals. and i want to do worse. instead. i will sit here at home...mope...and drink. **** My Life.

Wow. Then there's the poor preparer:

I am out of beer like a dumbass. My only option is my girlfriend's premixed cosmos or long island iced teas in the fridge. I am drinking them as fast as I can pour.

FML

The same poster later came back with an update:

This stuff is disgusting. I want to pass out from drunkenness but am wide awake from sugar overload. Plus I want to kill someone.

Ah yes, that homicidal feeling that awakens when you realize your team that you were imagining getting to the final four just crapped the bed in the first 2 rounds for the seemingly 10th time in a row.


This last quote is great too. It starts with a list of alcohol consumed. Pretty standard, really. It moves on to take the defeat with stoic optimism, and is then compeletly overwhelmed with dread:

12 pack dead.
1/2 bottle stoli dead
1 sparks dead

we move on. we strong Deac fans must move on. but for tonight...we drink our ******* faces off.

God hates us all.

I offer these little glimpses as foreshadowing of my mood tomorrow night, should Texas eliminate Duke.

My man Herb

You may remember me saying a couple of years ago that I'd be rooting for ASU after they went and picked us Herb Sendek from NC State. He's always been a class act. A slightly goofy, bookish, uber nice guy, who seems like he should be teaching history, not coaching a basketball team. Yet his players seem to genuinely love him, and they always play hard for him.

So I had to laugh when the DBR highlighted this batch of Sendek quotes, I guess b/c they were trying to make fun of him. But they're exactly the kind of goofy quotes I like the guy for:

“If you only evaluate somebody’s impact on their numbers, you can really miss the totality of what they’re influencing in the game.”
“You could probably drive yourself wacky trying to read into every possible psychological variable that could go into play in [today’s] game. I think on the one hand, we all recognize the value that experience brings. … On the other hand, I think our guys have other kinds of experiences. … That can help mitigate the fact that no one on our team has been in the NCAA Tournament yet.”
“There is work to be done. We stay in the moment and focus on the next game. We don’t think much about the past or the future.”
“What I did at State is open to discussion based on how you define success. I felt that we accomplished a lot.”
“I thought we played some of our best basketball of the season, notwithstanding the last 20 minutes against USC.”
“James’ presence on the court creates opportunities for other guys to score. Sometimes he doesn’t get the credit he deserves because of all the attention he draws that allows other people to eat.”
“As much as you can, you try to have the discipline to stay in the moment.”
“More than anything else I think it’s important for us to stay in the moment. Enjoy what just happened and then get our rest and try to recover the best we can for tomorrow. I think it’s important that we really just try to frame this in the now.”
“I have to hazard a guess that different coaches define it different ways, so we’re not all voting on the same things. There’s a difference between most valuable player and most outstanding player.”

And Herb’s first public swear word:

“I just don’t want our guys responding to a referee’s call, because the next play is getting ready to start. We ask our guys at the beginning of the year, ‘You have a choice. You can pick one. You can either coach, officiate or play. Just pick one, because it’s hard as hell to do any one of the three, let alone two of the three.”

If you've ever suffered through a decade of poor play,

(and I know you have), you have to appreciate Bill Simmons griping about the Clippers and Coach Dunleavy. This article, in which he chronicles his Clips forfeiting an 18 point lead to LeBron and the Cavs, needs to be read to be appreciated.

Here's the climactic sequence near the end of the column. The action picks up with the Clips down 1, with the ball:

0:06: My section is arguing about which terrible play the Clips will run here to save the game... These are the moments when I wouldn't trade my Clips tickets for anything. I'm not even kidding.

Well, Dunleavy just upped the ante -- he just put in ice-cold 3-point specialist Steve Novak, who hasn't played all half. This is a Dunleavy crunch-time staple: How can I get the coldest guy on my bench involved in the biggest play of the game? So far, so good. It's like watching the Bizarro Auerbach in action.

So, Gordon is inbounding the ball from the left hashmark near midcourt. Thornton, Novak and Randolph are stacked at the top of the key. Baron is under the basket. Thornton cuts through to the left corner. One Mississippi. Obviously, he's not getting the ball. Baron starts moving up toward the top of the key, only the Cavs know he's getting the ball -- (two Mississippi) -- so they block his way. Everything is congested. The fans start panicking. Three Mississippi. Baron accelerates past the 3-point line, only LeBron sees him and jumps in the way so he can't get the ball. This is an awesome play. Four Mississippi. Gordon finally passes to Randolph, who takes two dribbles and …

(Oh no.)

Picks up his dribble and …

(Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!)

Launches a 28-foot 3-pointer with a hand in his face. His third air-balled 3 of the night. Actually, it was more than an air ball -- it almost killed the ball boy.

Cavs ball, 1.8 seconds left.

The fans are in disbelief. Randolph's teammates are in disbelief. Dunleavy is making a face that my friend Sal later describes as "A face I have never seen a human being make before." What ensued in the next 20 seconds could best be described like this: Imagine being trapped in one of those big hospital elevators with eight other people. One of them pulls his pants down and just starts going to the bathroom -- not No. 1 but No. 2. At that specific moment, the doors open for the next floor. How fast would everyone else in the elevator flee for the door? Lightning-fast, right? Like, Usain Bolt-level fast, right? That was the entire stadium after Z-Bo's air ball. He basically took a dump on the 3-point line.

And so we fled for the exits.

Some good news

Check it:

After throwing 46 pitches in his seventh bullpen session of the spring and speaking with his pitching coach and a member of the media relations department, Johan Santana said on Wednesday he is making progress and that his objective is to start the Mets' Opening Day game on April 6.

Heh.

SP

Well, with Santana's injury looking more serious by the day, it's certainly proving to be a good decision by Omar not to get another starting pitcher this offseason. Who needs Lowe really? We've got 8 closers, Jose Jose Jose, Beltran and Delgado. And of course B. Schneider.

Cutler

Jets should make a trade for Jay Cutler now, while he's pissed at the Broncos for trying to trade him and pick up Cassel.

Not a good sign

Well, looks like some in-fighting and poor decisions are already flaring up. Warthen and Santana are in a back and forth about who is to blame for his elbow problems.

Hmmmm, do you think Mets management could properly handle the one and only hope we have for reaching the postseason? No Johan = no chance.

Vintage quotes from athletes and coaches

"I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes first."
-George Rogers, N.O. Saints RB

"He treats us like men. He lets us wear earrings."
-Torrin Polk, Univ. of Houston reciever

"Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."
-Joe Theismann, football commentator

"You guys line up alphabetically by height."
"You guys pair up in groups of three, then line up in a circle."
-Bill Peterson, FSU football coach

"I told him, 'What is it with you son, ignorance or apathy?' He said, 'Coach, I don't know and I don't care.'"
-Frank Layden, Utah Jazz President, on a former player

"Son, looks to me like you're spending too much time on one subject."
-Shelby Metcalf, Texas A&M basketball coach, recounting what he told a player who received four F's and one D.