David Newhan Has Sent You an E-Card

Saturday night was the sixth anniversary of a very painful event in this Met fan's life. Six years later, I celebrated it by returning to Shea with one of the very same people that I was with that night. How did David Newhan celebrate? By reminding me that the world still spins on its axis. What kind of world would it be if former Mets didn't return to Shea to beat up their former team? You know how bad Newhan's production was last season? I saw over half if it live. And I didn't go to that many games last season. Now he comes to Shea as an Astro and he's Wade &^#%$@ Boggs. It's unbelievable, yet typical at the same time.

And a Happy Donne Wall Day to you. Hope you got your shopping done, and hung your Jason Jennings press clippings by the chimney with care.

He Called Keith A Bum

The fan that took his anger out on Keith Hernandez tonight (you know, the one that Keith pointed out via SNY's cameras and basically made him a star) and called him a bum had some misguided anger issues.

He should have been facing the field when he made that comment.

Many things went wrong for the Mets tonight, not the least of which was Oliver Perez, who was hit hard and knocked around in Tuesday night's 7-3 shellacking by the Braves. Certainly not a good way to start this huge series. But here's a question: Does it worry you in the least that Perez has had his velocity drop 3-4 miles an hour as the announcers pointed out tonight? Eh tu, dead arm?

I don't know what on Moises Alou is dead. He's certainly been killed lately...whether it be in the outfield miscommunicating with and crashing into Lastings Milledge, or banging into outfield walls. But I don't appreciate that Alou returns the favor by killing Mets rallies...first in the fourth inning grounding into a double play with runners on first and third, scoring a run but wiping the bases clean in front of Shawn Green's single which Alou rendered harmless, and then again in the sixth with Carlos Delgado on first base, killing a rally which would have blossomed after David Newhan sparked a two run fifth inning rally with a triple. When a David Newhan RBI gets wasted, and he has...like...five all year (that was just a guess, but when I checked that total to be accurate, lo and behold he actually has five RBI's this year), you're not doing your job. And Moises Alou didn't get the job done on this night.

But whether they're hurt or not, they get no sympathy from me because not only of the magnitude of Tuesday's game, but because the worst part about this is that you know that the Met bashers (Chris Russo and the like) are going to have a field day on Wednesday "Oh, the Mets can't beat the Braves, they stink". Just another reason to put "Air Bud" in your DVD player instead of watching the YES Network during afternoon drive time.

But if you didn't see the game, if you just heard about it somewhere and read the score, you missed this classic exchange between our announcers:

Keith: "I don't drink anymore."

Ron: "You mean during the broadcasts, right?"

Of course, when the announcers providing commentary on their alcohol intake and pointing out heckling fans provide the largest smiles of the night, that's a problem.

***

Congratulations are in order for Barry Bonds' record breaking home run. Not necessarily for Bonds, but for the guy who caught the historic ball who, among a sea of Giants supporters who have been waiting for a chance to not only see the big home run, but catch it and make some money, came down with it. He deserves a lot of credit for his accomplishment.

He deserves a lot more credit because that fan was wearing a METS JERSEY!!! (And a Mets t-shirt underneath. Great job making sure the Mets were a part of two milestones this week.) Great job, Matt Murphy...who by the way is from Queens, NY! Queens! Giants fans invested their whole lives in following Barry Bonds' career, and the guy who catches the money ball is a Mets fan from Queens! He was on his way to Australia, he buys a ticket to this game on the way down, and the money he will probably get for selling that ball just paid for his trip.

Charity Starts At Home

So Pedro Martinez threw off of a mound today.

Looked good.

Felt good.

Unfortunately, Petey's return isn't going to get the Mets a key hit.

Oh the Phillies tried...tried their hardest to give the Mets a gift on Tuesday, with Pat Burrell running around to occupied bases, and negotiating the outfield with the dexterity of a water buffalo in a Home Depot. What do the Mets do? They hit the ball right at him, of course.

The Phillies even had one of their better fielders, Aaron Rowand, drop a ball with two outs in the ninth putting David Newhan in scoring position (it's the only way David Newhan is going to get into scoring position without being on a date these days). But that golden opportunity went to waste, and the Phillies won the game 4-2 thanks to a Chase Utley home run in the 11th off of Pedro Feliciano.

At least the almost impervious Feliciano and Joe Smith decided to have their blemishes in the same game, just like they did against the Brewers, instead of spreading them out. For that, we can be thankful. But the lineup is lacking that certain something that made them so good for the last two seasons. With Ben Johnson and Carlos Gomez in the lineup, it makes it easier for a 79 year old pitcher such as Jamie Moyer and others to tip toe his way through said lineup.

You'll have to excuse me while I order those hyperbaric chambers to be sent to the houses of Moises Alou and Shawn Green.

Get well soon.

Really soon.

New York Mets: 2007 Division Champs!

That was an awesome scene last night at Shea, wasn't it? Man, if you would have told me that the Mets would have clinched the division in June, I would have told you that you were nuts. But this team is on a mission, and nothing is impossible for this team. Damn, I'm impressed. Now we just get to sit back and wait to see who we're going to get in the first round. Maybe Los Angeles? Maybe Milwaukee? Ooh, the Padres? Their pitching is kind of scary. But with four months to go until the playoffs, the Mets can set their rotation. Heck, we can even give Mike Pelfrey some starts.

What?

You mean the Mets didn't clinch the division last night?

That's impossible. The Mets have to be division champs. Did you see the lineup thrown out there tonight? That's a lineup of a team that had all it's regulars doing a little too much celebrating the night before.

Damion Easley batting third?

Come on, you're kidding me. The Mets won the division last night! Can't be any other explanation. Paul Lo Duca batting fifth? Julio Franco batting sixth and playing third? David Newhan batting...anywhere?

We didn't clinch? Really?

Damn.

All right, seriously. If the Mets had won this game, we would have clinched the division right then and there. There's no way the Mets could have gone out there, with a lineup featuring Damion Easley batting third, against Brandon Webb of all people (who uses Shea Stadium as his own personal playground so much it's a wonder his uniform doesn't read "Atlanta"), then there would have been no use for anybody else to show up the rest of the season. It would have been over.

And with John Maine going the way he was going early, it almost happened. It was looking like one of those games that could have ended 1-0 where the winning run scored on a balk or something (sorry, couldn't resist another Benitez flashback) in the ninth inning.

But then came Chris Snyder and his golf shot into the bleachers off of John Maine and that was that. The way Webb was going, the Stephen Drew bomb off of Guillermo Mota wasn't going to matter. It is a situation worth monitoring with Mota, who got rocked in New Orleans during his "rehab" stint before coming up here. If it doesn't stop, Mets fans will start booing him causing the rest of America to call Met fans hypocrites like we need another label. But Webb was freakin' awesome, despite feeling like jelly.

"The humidity here always helps the sinker and the curve, gives them a little more bite...It's a great pitcher's park with a deep outfield and thick grass." -Brandon Webb

So it's not the heat, it's the humidity. Great.

***

Quick Fantasy Note: The Diamondbacks have just called up this awesome third baseman named Mark Reynolds who's hitting well over .400 in his first 50 or so at bats. I picked him up for my fantasy team, so expect this production to stop immediately.

My expectation of disaster with Reynolds after picking him up prompted one longtime friend to wonder:

"How many careers have you ruined?"

Truthfully, I lost track after Kerry Wood.

The Samson Green Curse

Jose Reyes valued his head of hair so much that he was the last holdout to shave his head. But it's Shawn Green who's the one who's proving to be the Samson of the team.

Since Green shaved his head as part of what the NFL would call "OTA's" (organized team activities), Green has not only seen his average drop from .356 to .314, and let a ball drop in front of him which basically prevented a sweep of the Yankees (despite being more aerodynamic), but now he has a broken bone in his foot and is out indefinitely (the word "indefinitely" never sounds good...it always translates to me as "until the end of time).

Just as fielders used to leave their mitts on the field for the opponents in the late 1800's, Green must have left his curse on the field for tonight's starting right fielder...as Carlos Gomez's hamstring felt the power of the curse as he strained his hamstring in the second inning. Keep in mind that Gomez also shaved his head.

Endy Chavez then moved from left field to right field, prompting fears that the curse would claim poor innocent Endy. Aah, but Endy's head was already freshly shaved before the season started (and before the OTA), so he had three hits and a diving catch in right field on Saturday night. So Endy, despite the wolf being at the doorstep, avoids the Samson curse for another evening.

Another previously shaved head came back to life tonight, as Carlos Delgado's two home runs and five RBI's gave the Mets a 7-2 victory. Combine that with what's happening in Atlanta, as the Braves have dropped two straight to the Phillies, Bobby Cox has been ejected for the 4,841st time, and the Mets have quickly gained two games in the division. Combine all that with the return of John Maine to the win column. He still walked four guys...and he still got himself into trouble at spots...but unlike his last start against the Yanks, he got out of trouble which has been his trademark throughout the season.

The departures of Gomez and Green pretty much means that the Mets outfield is going to consist of Chavez, Carlos Beltran, and...and...

and...

David Newhan?

Ben Johnson?

It's gonna seem like a long wait until Moises Alou returns, which should be this week. After that, hope Alou gets healthy. Because indefinitely is a long time.

***

You might have seen the portion of Saturday night's game where Keith Hernandez was banging poor Gary Cohen's head with those thundersticks. But Friday's game scared me a bit. He was eyeballing the girls in the pool just above the right field bullpen saying "hey, if they had pools by the pool while I was playing, I would have wanted to be a reliever instead of an everyday player." And then the camera got a shot of all those girls by the pool that he was all jealous of...

and they're all like, twelve!

Either Keith is going insane, or his production crew is making him out to a pedophile. Either way, I'll never hear those words "I'm Keith Hernandez" quite the same way again.

I Give This One An A-minus

Even Filip Bondy has to admit that when the Mets aren't giving steroids to your kids, writing offensive song lyrics, and causing general disarray for America's youth, they're playing pretty good baseball.

And as today's 6-5 miracle showed, even when the Mets aren't playing good baseball, they're playing good baseball.

Let's face it, with the lineup that Willie Randolph put out there today, the Mets had no business winning today. None. Ruben Gotay (who let a "cramped" Jose Reyes rest) and David Newhan up the middle? Fluff Castro filling in for Paul Lo Duca? Julio Franco at third base? Jason Vargas on the hill? This was a throwaway game. A Sunday lineup designed to do nothing else but rest the troops for the Yankees series.

This was a game designed to give Jason Vargas a renewed idea about what it's like to be in the major leagues, and not necessarily to have him pitch the way he did over the first five innings.

This was a game designed for me to remind you all that former Brooklyn Cyclone Angel Pagan still has the best name in baseball history. Remember when you had Jim Gott ("Gott" meaning "God" in German) facing Tim Teufel ("Teufel" translated in German meaning "Devil"), and you had those titanic struggles between good and evil and it felt good rooting for evil? Well now you have Angel Pagan. That's an internal titanic struggle resulting in evil consequences for the Mets when boiled over.

This was a game designed, at 5-1 down in the ninth, to remind us that you can't win 'em all. Instead, it reminded us that you can win on any given day. You can win any given game where Ryan Dempster is pitching in the ninth. You can win any given game where everybody is expecting Randolph to pinch hit for Gotay in the ninth with David Wright and Jose Reyes on the bench, but instead he lets Gotay hit and he keeps the rally going with a hit to drive in the third run.

"Nice job by my A-minus boys" -Willie Randolph

You can win any given game where David Wright gets a big single in his first ever pinch hitting appearance, and any given game where Carlos Delgado...0 for 4 and a batting average closer to my weight than his...is up with the bases loaded and no shift put on him, which let that little grounder get through to the outfield to score the tying and winning runs.

Yes, you can win any given game. Three given games come this weekend. One team is hot, one team is not. I've learned that in these situations it's best to stay cautious and stay focused. They say you "throw away the records" when certain teams meet. Well, the Mets were really good at throwing away the records when their record wasn't that good. Now that the tables are turned, we need to learn to throw them away still. It isn't going to be easy to throw the records away. However, I'm thankful that the record is one game better than what it really should have been.

At Least Pete Goes To Barbados

This was not the way that my first game at Shea was supposed to go.

But at least the seats were good.

Actually, that's a severe understatement, the seats were unbelievable! To give you an idea of how good these seats were that were basically field level right behind the plate, the seat number started with an "X" to give you the feel that you were going to a trendy club.

(Actually, those blue seats that were added in front of those original orange seats behind the plate are like going to the club since they were actually chained off. All that was missing were the bouncers that kept you away from the models...just ushers that popped up out of nowhere like they were in a jack in the box to keep people out of those seats in the eighth inning after the cat was already let on to the porch at 9-3. Aah, ushers.)

The seats came courtesy of a commenter we know as "Kingman Fan", who I had the pleasure of meeting through the poetically indestructible Greg Prince, who I had finally had the pleasure of meeting in person (for those wondering if two bloggers getting together would create a more powerful and ground-breaking perspective the likes of which have never been seen before, all we really decided was that maybe Mike Pelfrey needs another trip to New Orleans...and he really didn't need me for that.) Now when I say "Kingman Fan", I really mean it. He had the authentic "KINGMAN 26" authentic jersey to prove it. He'll be happy (or disturbed) to know that he was not the last Met fan I saw today with a Kingman model, as another authentic Kingman authentic popped up at the Roosevelt Ave. train stop while transferring after the game.

(But the winner of today's "jersey you don't see every day" contest goes to the guy with the powder blue Milwaukee Brewer "VUKOVICH 50" jersey. Dude, you win. And did you know he played Clue Haywood in "Major League"?)

Unfortunately, the 1982 references weren't done there, as the Brewers and Mets both played like their 1982 counterparts, which is to say that they played like the American League Champs that they were and we...well we had Dave Kingman. Pelfrey was the Mike Scott of the group, and not the Mike Scott that had learned his "split fingered fastball" (which was a middle fingered fastball in the '86 NLCS), but the Mike Scott that was nicknamed "the human white flag" back in '82. Pelfrey didn't get a whole lot of help from his defense, which somehow turned a fourth inning Prince Fielder pop-up with the bases loaded into a double play, but not before Craig Counsell and Tony Gwynn Jr. tagged up and scored while the Mets were infatuated with getting J.J. Hardy out on the basepaths.

And really, even though the Brewers opened the spigots with eight more runs including Hardy's grand slam against Joe Smith, the game was over after the Mets "Hardy Boy Mystery" in the fourth (first and last time for that reference...promise). Not even David Newhan's pinch home run brought the crowd fully back into the game, as the prevailing thought was that the game should have at least been tied after the botched rundown. But Newhan's home run did send a guy named Pete to Barbados as it was the hometown home run inning, so somebody besides the Brewers fans in the stands went home completely happy.

***

Here are some things I learned for being at Shea for the first time this season. Some things most of you know (since I hope you've all taken at least one trek out to Shea before me in '07), others you may not:

• The bleachers are roped off into sections now. 50, 52, 54, 56, and I think 58 (kind of like jersey sizes, but they're actually a continuation of the upper deck sections). The bleachers is one spot that I have yet to sit in, because it's exclusively either group sales (I don't have that many friends), or Pepsi can night (I'm a Coca-Cola guy). So that's my mission before Citi Field takes its initial bow.
• Speaking of the new park, it has now become officially bizarre to see scaffolding directly behind the outfield. I thought it was weird when it happened in Cincinnati, especially since they tore down the outfield stands of Riverfront Stadium while construction for the Great American Ballpark was happening while the Reds still played in the old cookie cutter. But to see it behind Shea is just totally mind boggling and surreal.
• What is with the spinning Dunkin Donuts coffee cup in the left field bullpen which spins after a home run? It's gotta be the most out of place product placement gimmick ever. But knowing the way our franchise works sometimes, I could totally see that thing following us to the new park, while the Home Run Apple gets left behind or put on eBay because some think it's cheesy. This possibility scares me to death.
• This next thing was also noted here, but I can say it too because I came up with it all on my own, I promise. But do you find it weird that after a fan was banned from Shea Stadium for shining a light into Edgar Renteria's eyes, the Mets have Flashlight day? (I heard that the Mets are going to have reflective mirror night in June, sponsored by Dunkin Donuts of course.)
• During the fateful eighth inning, I ran to the food line behind the plate. I thought there was a really long stoppage of play because there were loud commercials hawking concerts and what not on the television screen. But while I was listening to that thinking I wasn't missing anything, Joe Smith hit Gabe Gross. And I had no idea the game was even going on. Can we turn down the commercials on the concourses while the game is going on, please? Dopey people like me get confused.

***

Sunday is Chris Capuano vs. Oliver Perez, and the Mets had better find a way to bounce back and take two of three from Milwaukee. Because, to paraphrase our ticket benefactor Kingman Fan, they're running out of body parts to shave.

Beware: Falling Rocks

Hey? What's that dropping like a stone? Is it:

David Wright's batting average?

Lino Urdaneta's ERA?

Is it Carlos Beltran's leg strength?

Or is it the streak?

Of course, the answer is a resounding "all of the above", as the Mets dropped their first game in Arizona since it was sponsored by Bank One instead of Chase (lousy bank mergers). Livan Hernandez, who the Mets have hit well in his career, shut the Mets down over seven innings.

To be fair, the Mets had a "B" lineup out there, with Carlos Beltran's "tired legs" giving him a day off, David Newhan starting in left for Endy Chavez, who was in center for Beltran, and Ruben Gotay at second base, this wasn't the Mets best lineup. But David Wright's struggles continued as he took another collar and is now hitting a worrisome .239.

But the good news is that Lino Urdaneta pitched 2/3's of a scoreless inning, giving him an ERA of...well, it just gave him an ERA. Urdaneta had never gotten an out in the major leagues but gave up six runs. So his ERA was quantified with a symbol that I think Prince went by for a few years. But now, he has a career ERA that can be quantified with real numbers. Hooray for Lino. The best part is that his ERA for this season...is zero. The other side of the coin.

The Mets now head to San Francisco for a three game set, and Monday night's pitching matchup is interesting: Ollie Perez vs. none other than Barry Zito, who spurned the Mets to sign with San Francisco, as per his greedy agent's instructions. It will be interesting to see what the wealthy lefty will do against the Mets.

And hey, speaking of greedy Mets enemies, looks like another one makes his return to the evil empire. Let's welcome him back the only way we know how, shall we?

Our signing was a lot cheaper...and Brian Lawrence didn't have to make a huge production out of it.

What You Already Know: The Outfield

Today is the first of a set of previews regarding the Mets that we're going to try to enlighten you with. Most likely though, it will be a lot of rehashing of stuff that you already know. So humor me as we start with an overview of the Mets outfielders.

It didn't seem like Endy Chavez got as many at bats last season as he did, but Chavez ended 2006 with 353 at bats, which is a decent amount as a fourth outfielder. With Moises Alou's recent injury troubles, Shawn Green's slump (we're just assuming), and Carlos Beltran's nagging injury (again, we're assuming), there's no reason to believe that Endy isn't going to get at least 353 ab's if not more. That's probably why we haven't seen headlines that look mysteriously like "ENDY: PLAY ME OR TRADE ME" in the past month or so.

What worries me about Endy is the number 560...as in Endy's slugging percentage in the Venezuela Winter League. Chavez has had problems in his pre-Met days (technically, this is his fourth stint as a New York Met) thinking he's a home run hitter), so on the heels of his strong winter play and his ascension to cult figure status with Mets fans (including myself), Chavez is a prime candidate to fall off his mighty perch, although his strong spring is easing those fears by the day.

There's also Ben Johnson, who the Mets received in the "Ring my Bell" trade with the San Diego Padres during the off season, and former Oriole David Newhan, who was signed by the Mets as a free agent. The acquisitions of Johnson and Newhan signal a change in philosophy by the Mets. They are getting away from the game plan of "hey, let's put some of our spare infielders in the outfield...what can it hurt" (see: Samuel, Juan and Miller, Keith), and moving towards the line of thinking that maybe it's a good idea to have guys who have actually played the outfield in their career come in and back up. It seems to be working as both players are having eye-opening springs.

Johnson has 7 home runs in 195 career at bats. If you project that to a full season...well it's still not that much. But Johnson provides something that the Mets bench, as good as it's been the last 2 seasons, have lacked: pop. Most nights there was nary a true home run threat lurking on the Mets bench as true home run threats like Mike Jacobs and Victor Diaz were either starting for injured players, or in the minor leagues.

Newhan represents versatility. He can play some infield but was primarily an outfielder during his time in Baltimore. Newhan, if he even makes the team, will assume the "jack of all trades" role that was earmarked for guys like Chris Woodward and Jose Valentin who were infielders posing as outfielders.

But there's another reason why the acquisitions of Johnson and Newhan are intriguing:

Oh yeah, Lastings Milledge.

To the astute baseball observer, Johnson and Newhan provide a bridge to Lastings Milledge while giving him the opportunity to spend a full season at AAA New Orleans and not have to worry about riding the bench.

To an insane conspiracy theorist like myself, the two acquisitions are a bridge to Carlos Gomez while Milledge is dangled endlessly in a trade. (Milledge, to his credit, has been noted to have a positive attitude adjustment...whatever that means...revitalizing his chances to be a significant part of this team in the future, and perhaps revitalizing his trade value in the process.)

But besides Beltran, aren't all of these outfielders bridges in one way or another? Green has one more season left on his pricey deal...and one would assume that he isn't in the Mets' long term plans unless he returns to his turn of the century form when he was jackin' 40 dingers a year (and if you're betting on that to happen, I have a Bill Doran rookie card that I want to sell you for the low low price of a thousand bucks). But keep in mind that if Green makes it to October baseball as the starting right fielder, he hit over .300 for the Mets during their run last October.

Then there's Alou, which was a strange signing. There are some that think signing Alou was smart...and it was smart in that it wasn't a 25 year deal at the price of Fort Knox. But others think that his nagging injuries and Cliff Floyd's nagging injuries cancel each other out, while Cliff's relative youth and positive clubhouse influence means a net loss for the Mets. But remember that we don't know much about Alou's clubhouse influence and that it could be just as good as Floyd's. For all we know, Alou could go around the clubhouse extolling the virtues of urinating on their hands to toughen up the callouses while going from locker to locker asking interested teammates if they "need a hit".