I don't hold against Billy Wagner his sudden rediscovery of his inner Brave any more than I'd fume at Brian Schneider at this point for remembering what a Phillies fan he'd always been. This is what ballplayers who aren't Chris Coste do when they go to a new ballclub. They find a reason to have always wanted to be where they suddenly are. I'm sure Billy comes closer than most to meaning it when he says stuff like, "I remember Bob Horner hitting four home runs in a game." ... Billy wasn't quite
If I've learned anything from the returning Keith Hernandez these past few years that he has analyzed Mets games. it's that ballplayers like to come up with new names for old things, particularly if they save the players some syllables. Thus, it was no surprise to me when I started hearing Keith make occasional reference to "fundies" ... as in fundamentals ... Fundamentals: four syllables. Fundies: two syllables. Look how much effort a ballplayer saves in the shortening ... Keith gives me the
The never-say-die Mets didn't say die until the ninth in the afternoon portion of Sunday's quasi-doubleheader. But their offense failed to come to life in any tangible way until the eighth, so the late-inning heroics effect that proved so popular the day before was kind of dimmed and doomed ahead of time ... It really pays to score four in the first and take your chances from there ... Gosh, Saturday's game was so much fun, making it that much more of a shame that we had to trudge back to our
It's a measure of how far we've fallen (with farther to go) that I switched off the TV feeling that the Mets had eked out something akin to a moral victory by only allowing the Phillies to beat them by two runs. Nelson Figueroa bit and scratched and came out of things only vaguely mussed, Ken Takahashi conducted himself well and our Triple-A lineup was gallant in tilting at a few windmills before its predictable unhorsing ... Now that it's over, though, it's just another loss on the march to 90
Tell me if this sounds familiar: Runner on first, ball hit through the infield to center ... runner out at second ... I'm sure it does. But just how familiar is it? We're so used to seeing the 2009 Mets pull boners out of their oversized hats and then learning that such missteps are either virtually unprecedented or thought extinct since the days of Chris Cannizzaro that it's surprising to find a Met doing something embarrassing that another Met did not that long ago ... When Angel Pagan
In retrospect, why were we surprised? Didn't it stand to reason that David Wright would go down too? And didn't it make sense that, having failed to injure himself sliding into third or stretching for a bag or descending the dugout steps or conducting other maneuvers that have waylaid unwary Mets, the cruel baseball gods would finally strike Wright down in frightening, decisive fashion, via a fastball from the hand of an enemy pitcher? ... I don't mean to make light of what happened in the
SAN DIEGO -- Brian Giles feels Carlos Beltran should think twice about trying to come back this season ... Giles should know: The Padres' veteran outfielder struggled thoughout 2007 with much the same injury as Beltran -- bone bruises in the knee ...
To start off on a rather obvious note, game recaps are supposed to say something about the game you just watched, or missed, or fell asleep during, or were going to watch and didn't and now feel guilty about it. Let's dispense with tonight's game in relatively brisk fashion, then: ... 1. Mike Pelfrey was bad. Again ... 2. Daniel Murphy had a miserable night against a tough lefthander, then it got worse. He wasn't even in your picture when Anderson Hernandez confidently fired the ball to first
According to the New York Times, in 52 at-bats with Carlos Beltran out of the lineup, David Wright has hit .212, with one HR and three RBI.This morning on WFAN, Darryl Strawberry said he believes Wright is dropping his back shoulder when hitting, and he has asked Howard Johnson to work with Wright on standing taller [ ... ] ...
Carlos Beltran was 0 for 4 last night, reducing his average from .404 to .388 – it was the first game this season he did not reach base.According to Steve Popper in the Bergen Record, Beltran is the first Met since Cleon Jones, 40 years ago, to hit .400 or better this deep into the season.…i have always wanted [ ... ] ...