Redding v Bacsik: Who Ya Got?

I love when ex-Mets do battle.

Tim Redding on Barry Bonds' 756th home run:

"I mean, the guy that gave it up, I never want to speak ill of anybody. Mike Bacsik is a stand-up guy. He's a little quirky, but he's a nice guy, means well. I think he wanted to give it up. And he can say what he wants in defense or whatnot, but doing the chart, I mean, every ball that Barry hit, the ball was center cut, right down the middle, fastball. You know, I think maybe inside he was thinking he was going to get a little bit more publicity. Maybe, you know, publicity and some money out of it, appearances, stuff like that."

Mike Bacsik, on Tim Redding:

Obviously, I didn't try to give it up. It was a 3-2 pitch, and the pitch before I threw a curveball that was just foul. Did I throw the ball good that night? No, but to say I tried to give up the home run I don't think is very smart. I was fighting for my life in the big leagues. I thought I might get sent down. As time goes by, stories like [what Redding said] will happen. Tim and I had our differences. I don't know what to say to that. Tim is not the first person to say that. I don't want to bash Tim."

Oh yes you do.

"Tim Redding is one of the worst teammates I’ve ever had."

YES! Now we're talking. Maybe Jeff Wilpon can book these two to a cage match at Citi Field for some extra revenue. Dave Matthews can be the special guest referee. I'd buy.

Sadly, that will never happen. There's more of a chance that Wilpon will actually sign Bacsik, who hasn't pitched in a year, to a minor league deal.

Besides, Redding is all booked up doing card shows with Matt Wieters, Brendan Ryan, Blake DeWitt and Seth Smith.

Sunk-o On Cinco

Art Howe would probably say that Oliver Perez battled.

Then again, Art Howe would probably say the same thing about the moth that met its demise at the hands of my bedroom light bulb.

It only matters what Billy Wagner thinks at this point. And I can't imagine that Wagner would have a disparaging word about Ollie's effort on Monday night. After all, he did go six innings and saved the bullpen from everything except two innings. Of course, the six innings Ollie threw weren't particularly good, but we're in the realm of lowered expectations at this point for Perez. Five runs in six innings? He didn't have his best stuff, as evidenced by the bombs he gave up to Rafael Furcal, Blake "Don't Call Me Joyce" DeWitt and Matt Kemp, but in this era of lowered expectations for Perez, eating innings seems to be quite enough.

Hey, at least he battled. More than you can say for the Mets lineup, which did their best to help celebrate the 4,000th game in the history of Dodger Stadium by coming up with a single run (and don't worry ... if you didn't know you were watching a game at Dodger Stadium, SNY took every opportunity to mark the occasion with nice little vignettes scattered about the broadcast to help remind you). The same place that brought you Willie Davis, Orel Hershiser, and Hong-Chih Kuo, now brings you Chad Billingsley's second victory of the season, in which he ironically had 4 K's in Dodger Stadium Game 4K.

(Speaking of which, Dodger Stadium is supposedly undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation. For some reason, that includes trees and a big plastic deer in the bullpen. Because as you know, nothing says "Los Angeles" like the woods. Seriously, who gets paid to think of these things?)