Friday, May 01, 2009

The Chan Ho Experience

It's always nice to beat the Philadelphia Phillies. But I'll be honest with you: If the Mets didn't do what they did to Chan Ho Park tonight, I would have gone on this space and called for the decertification of the Mets franchise. I would have lobbied the family of Chub Feeney to get that done.

Friday night was one that they had to have, and should have had. Thankfully, they didn't play down to the level of competition (translated: they didn't turn Chan Ho Park into Greg Maddux) and they indeed got that 7-4 win Friday night.

(As much as Mets fans and Phillies fans are blood enemies, fans of both teams will walk arm in arm on one fact: and that's the fact that Chan Ho Park stinks no matter what side of the rivalry he's on. I mean, Mike Pelfrey almost hit a homer off him.)

And I humbly pass along my title as soothsayer to Bobby O, who predicted before the game that Pedro Feliciano would be the deciding factor. He certainly was as important as anyone, as he pitched 1 2/3's innings facing the hard lefties and the somewhat difficult righties and minimized the damage in the sixth and seventh innings. Sure, one may point out that he did give up a dinger to Chase Utley and that he received a gift when Greg Dobbs ran the bases as if his eyes were bigger than his stomach. But last year, Pedro wasn't getting anyone out in that situation. He did what he had to do, which was get the ball to Putz (I love him more today than yesterday ... but hopefully not as much as tomorrow) and Frankie.

I don't know what to expect from Oliver Perez tomorrow. Well no, I take that back. I fully expect he's going to pitch like garbage. But it seems that whenever I have a strong feeling that way no matter who the pitcher, he comes up huge. And Perez does pitch well against the Phillies, so I'm all for Ollie staying in the rotation tomorrow. He absolutely can come up huge. I don't expect it, but that's why it could happen.

And by the way, Gary Sheffield will most likely be in the lineup tomorrow against Jamie Moyer. Lifetime, he's hitting .481 (13 for 27) with four home runs. So I expect success. But that's why an 0-for-4 will most likely happen.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was at the game, right behind home plate in fact, getting ribbed BIG TIME by Phillie fans. It was getting to me, until I saw Chan Ho Park trot out there. Imediately, all of the hecking became just noise. I simply repeated those 3 lovely words to them "Chan Ho Park". Nothing else needed to be said. By the third inning, the heckling was silent.

weesle909 said...

You have a better chance of picking the Kentucky Derby winner tomorrow than figuring out what O.P. will do. But the smart money is on him pitching like the stuff that comes out right below the horses' tails.

fredstradamus said...

I think Ollie will pitch a gem ... since that's his pattern: gem, clunker, gem, OH MY GOD!, gem ....

I also see Shef getting plunked.

Metstradamus said...

Yeah but his pattern this season has been clunker, awful, passable, oh no!, clunker, that makes the curve a little harder to figure out.