Dream On

Lance Berkman has gotta stop eating Thai food right before he goes to bed. From Astros beat guy Brian McTaggart's Twitter, via Mets Fever:

Lance Berkman just told me: "Last night I had a dream I got traded to the Mets." He didn't say who the Astros got in return.

Funny, last night Lance had that dream where he's hitting .220 as a Met and Tony Bernazard is chasing him with an 18 inch needle trying to give him a cortisone shot while shirtless. And he woke up in a cold sweat and couldn't even make it to the bathroom before puking all over himself. Yeah, I hate when that happens.

Perhaps Berkman is looking for a change subconsciously, but will not admit it to himself. I couldn't find an interpretation of a dream involving a trade to the Mets, but if he's dreaming about a job change, perhaps these guys can explain:

The "you’re fired" dream could also be a sign of fear of rejection or an indication that you subconsciously want to end some relationship or situation (work or personal) in your life. Maybe you secretly fantasize about leaving your job or escaping from your cubicle. (...) One way or another, your dreams are probably telling you that it’s time to make some kind of change in your life.

If this passage helps you Lance, then it's time to go demand that trade. Maybe this passage can explain some other people's dreams as well. (*coughOmarcough*)

The Physical Challenge

Two things caught my eye all the way from the upper deck on Friday.

One was Johan Santana ... not only the seven shutout innings, but his battles with Lance Berkman. The first inning epic, 11 pitches long, was indicative of how the early part of the night was going to go ... long, arduous, and meticulous. Thanks in part to Berkman, Santana had a pitch count of about 60 with two outs in the third inning, and a five inning outing was looming over the stadium like a cloud of smoke from Derek Bell's boat.

And then came the fifth inning. Berkman came up again with runners on second and third with the immortal Geoff Blum on deck. I turn to my friend and hold up four fingers ... a sign that surely I thought was coming from the dugout after Brian Schneider had a long talk with Johan on the mound. But Santana must have pulled a Rick Vaughn and given Schneider the "I want ... Berkman!" speech because Schneider went down in the crouch. And that's where my baseball companion for the evening gets the +1 for the Double Dare reference and says: "Johan is ready for the physical challenge."

Turns out he didn't know how right he was, as it wasn't an "unintentional-intentional" walk as we thought it might be. But instead, Santana turned the messy stunt of fielding a hard comebacker up the middle off Berkman into the turning point of Santana's night, as Johan wound up going seven innings ... a feat that seemed impossible coming out of the box.

And speaking of physical challenges ...

The other thing that caught my eye is the same thing that caught everyone else's eye: the return of Ryan Church.

First batter of the game flies out to Church, and he kinda gets turned a couple of ways chasing that ball. He looked about as disoriented as I was climbing down to the box seats in the upper deck (I had forgotten how steep the upper tank was.)

But in the midst of Ryan Church's own physical challenge, he beat out a base hit in his first at-bat back to set up Schneider's two run HR. With what Ryan's been through, running down the line ... and running in a straight line ... is a victory in itself.