Food For Thought

From the inside of the flight up to New York from Florida:

Ramon Castro: Psst ... Ollie.

Oliver Perez: Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

RC: Ollie, wake up!

OP: Wh, wha ... what?

RC: Dude, tomorrow night man.

OP: What about it?

RC: We're going to have a game in the new park tomorrow.

OP: I know. You woke me up to tell me that?

RC: We're not in the lineup tomorrow. You know what that means?

OP: No pray tell, what?

RC: We can sneak off to Shake Shack and have some burgers.

OP: Have you lost your mind?

RC: No no. We have to sample all the food.

OP: I'm going back to sleep.

RC: But I can't sleep. I can't sleep without thinking about all the food options I've been reading about. C'mon Ollie. You and me.

OP: No way Fluff, no way. I'm not sneaking with you anywhere. Warthen basically called me a fat bastard in public, and if I sneak off to Shake Shack and get caught I'm going to be hung. I need to stay in shape.

RC: C'mon, Ollie. Haven't you heard? The food is like, phenomenal! We've gotta score some.

OP: You're obsessed.

RC: Ollie! Pulled pork sliders.

OP: Stop it.

RC: French fries in bacon sauce.

OP: Please stop.

RC: Piiiiiiiizzaaaaaaaaa. From a real brick oven.

OP: I'm going back to sleep before you make me crazy.

RC: C'mon dude! Berry parfaits! What's more baseball than berry parfaits???

OP: Lord, deliver me from temptation.

RC: "BUY ME SOME PEANUTS AND BERRY PARFAITS!"

OP: Shut up.

RC: Oliver! You don't understand! We're not in Shea anymore. Gone are the days of dirty water dogs and messy sausage and peppers. This is the big leagues of food, dude! Everyone loves this stuff. Mac and Cheese! Steak Tacos! Cannollis!!! Ollie ... Cannollis!!! And we won't have to pay the seven bucks for a slice of pizza because we're Mets! We're Mets!!!

OP: Fluff, I'd kill you except you'll probably die from the hundreds of pork sliders you're going to eat in one sitting.

RC: Mo Vaughn would have loved this.

OP: I hear Mo Vaughn is going to throw out the first sushi roll tomorrow.

RC: And I'm going to catch it ... and eat it! Because all these food options are going to make us the best team in baseball!

OP: No, it's going to make us the fattest team in baseball.

RC: You don't know that. We exercise and stuff. You want to run with me?

OP: That's my line.

RC: C'mon! I'll race you down the aisle. First one to the flight attendant wins.

OP: Stop it.

"Ladies and gentlemen we've turned on the fasten seat belts sign for our final descent into JFK airport."

OP: See, now I lost a chance to sleep. Thanks a lot, Fluff. Fluff?

RC: Zzzzzzzzz. Shaaaaaaaaaaake Shaaaaaaaaaaack. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

OP: Jackass.

(If you're going to the game today and get a chance to sample the food, your friendly neighborhood blogger would love and appreciate some of your reviews in advance of his trip there on Saturday. Leave 'em here. And enjoy the game.)

Appetizing

Some of you have been offended by the puking pumpkins and the ugly fish. Never let it be said that I don't listen to your concerns. So to find the picture that truly speaks 1,000 words about the Mets 4-1 victory over the Marlins, which included a key hit by Carlos Beltran, another gutsy ... if not crisp ... outing by Oliver Perez, and a huge cushiony home run by Carlos Delgado, one must go to what they know. And that win was tasty.

Better than puking pumpkins, eh? I mean, who doesn't like cheeseburgers?

Oh, right ... vegetarians. Don't worry, I have something for you too.

Whichever way you want to order, this win was appetizing ... mouthwatering even. And before you start thinking "you know, Metstradamus is reaching here with the food references. There's no way that food can be relative to Tuesday night's victory, can it?"

Well, food is relevant not just to be pleasing to your eyes, but it plays on the words that Chris Russo gave us on Tuesday during his ... "show". I paraphrase:

"You know, when a team like the Marlins plays for its dinner, they can be dangerous."

But when a team like the Mets play for their dinner, children go hungry? What does that mean?

It's simply more of the same negative slant that our friends at WFAN drive time deliver. When the Mets win a game the tone is "Yeah, good win, let's not get crazy." Marlins win, it's "Oh, they're scrappy and hungry and they like food. Shame on the Mets for not liking food. The Mets don't care about starving children."

(Come to think of it, that sounds like some of our esteemed commenters. Hmmmmmm.)

Next, Mad Dog will tell you that Oliver Perez must hate food because he hadn't won a game in a month before Tuesday night. He must stink. No wonder he's so skinny.

***

They say that John Maine has a mild strain in his rotator cuff. I guess that's good news since he may go on Sunday. But I tend to think that where rotator cuffs are concerned, no strain is mild.

***

The final nine games against Atlanta will be Teixeira-less, as the great Atlanta sell-off has begun. How are your World Series picks looking?

Teixeira can now channel his energy towards beating the Yankees in the playoffs.