As I settle into a Jersey City Hudson Mall Applebee's while waiting for my Lyft car's splash flaps to get service, I figured now was as good a time as any with the Mets game about to cue up in front of me to get back to work.
This game not so long ago would have set itself up for a 2 o'clock start, but only by mountain time standards. I should be driving, picking up some afternoon North Jersey customers after driving the gig in Denver the last 10 months, but alas, fates have a way of bringing at least the start of the afternoon Mets game from Washington to my eyes.
It has been quite the ride for me the last year, with the events beginning back in August 2017 when my dad was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer on his birthday, of all days. That set in motion time well spent (and time well filmed) with my dad, my oldest sister, my niece and my nephew before his death in May, the eve of Memorial Day. There is a lot to be digested over the next while for me, but I look forward to getting back into the groove as I settle into whatever new normalcy this all will be. One way or another, and I know I did some things right before this forever line of demarcation in my life, I look forward to doing things substantially more right than wrong going forward.
For now, though, I'll settle into some Applebees appetizers.
While I haven't been posting, the Mets have gone ahead and lost a series to the Good Brew Crew, won a series to the Bad Dad Crew, and now dropped another series to the Great Red Crew, continuing to keep that RISP number at a loser's level. With myself, my aunt, uncle, cousin and lil sis on hand for Father's Day at a rather full, actually, Citi Field, I was happy to see Curtis provide a spark at the top of that lineup with an awesome Pepsi Porch leadoff home run. I have been settling into the family of Mets fans that is Two Boots that the poor sight of the Mets in San Louis has not generally been in mine. Though I did not work Monday Night, I do not have cable, nor plan to anytime soon on my budget, so my sight generally does not take in the Mets live, rather listening to Howie and Josh describe the sight that's in their eyes.
It's clear, however, that we all need to just smile. Unless we take some serious political protest stance in some fashion or another, which would be interesting to see but I'll tell ya right now that I won't be the leader of the revolution, this team will most likely fail to be properly managed all the way from the top down. The Wilpons do not know how to run a ballclub, let alone know what it means to run the New York Metropolitan National League Baseball Club. I have very little faith, no matter what happens- no matter whether they have a winning season over the next couple of years- that the Mets can have sustained success with the Wilpons at the helm.
So, when I think about what I want to write on this blog at this particular moment, all I can think of is playing the song below, because every time I listen to it, it puts a huge smile on my face. Don't read into any of the lyrics, though I'm sure many of you may do so. That was not my intention, no matter how poignant it may seem at this particular Metsian intersection. I just want to smile, and tonight, when I got home from Two Boots and settled down, the song came on, and I just smiled. So, screw it, man. Let's just listen to Bob Marley.
I didn't know it was possible, but apparently that's what last night's 6-2 win was. 2:45 in length in fact.
My flight from San Francisco landed into the low-clouded tri-state area, specifically Newark Airport, at 1:45 in the morning local time. Wanting to check the score,I turned off the airplane mode on my phone, but of course texting people first that I had arrived safely. Once that had been done, MLB At Bat made its way open.
As it was loading, which is rather quickly when the service is good, my eyes realized without seeing the score that I could click the MLB.TV button in the upper-right-hand corner and take off from where I left off, when it was 2-1 in the earlier innings. When I have time (or really even when I don't) I like watching the wins on the MLB.TV replay access, most of the time just going through the most important innings. The thing is, you want to watch the whole thing anyway because it's unbelievable how on their games Gary, Keith and Ron (and Kevin) are at all times, win or lose. One could argue the losses can be even more entertaining because of everywhere they go in conversations. So, I was happy to be able to avoid the score and listen to those guys.
I quickly found out the Airtrain I had planned to take to Newark Penn Station was being "critically repaired" since May 2, and there was a shuttle bus operating...only the last shuttle bus had taken off at 2 and wasn't taking back off till 4. I hadn't made it off the plane in time for that. There is an express bus, but that finished at 1 and wasn't starting back up till 4. So, whatever I decided to take, I'd have to wait in the airport till 4 (and I quickly decided the bus directly to town was worth the extra $3.50). At least I had a Mets game to watch. I had an hour and a half to kill, and an hour and a half left on the game.
That timeline got eschewed a bit, as my service kept freezing the video with the audio still playing, and yes, as I said above, I like LISTENING to those guys, but I wanted the video as well. Yeah, they inform us of things like this info from Gary in the 4th inning...
So, the Mets have now had the lead in 15 of their last 16 games, including tonight. They've had at least a 2-run lead in 13 of those 16 games, including tonight....And yet, here the Mets are sitting with a 6-game losing streak and feeling as though the world is falling apart. Why? Because they already lost 21 games this year where they had a lead, and they've lost 11 games this year in which they had at least a 2-run lead. Last year, all season, they lost 14 games in which they had at least a 2-run lead; and we're not even close to halfway through this season.
Though Gary, Keith and Ron tell the story as well as comment, let us not fail to give credit to the entire SNY team, especially the director who is editing the moving picture to those words.
So, I kept fidgeting with the app, scrolling 30 seconds back, skipping some seconds ahead, restarting the app, yada, yada, yada. The restarting worked, but the scrolling didn't really. The gist is, I was only at the 6th inning by 3:11am because I couldn't deal with just the audio working. (During all that, I was surprised to see that there was still a game going on in the Majors but wasn't curious enough to take a look. I wonder how that ended...)
I had checked the wifi situation earlier in my travels, but none open for Newark travelers. I decided to check it again, and it turned out Dunkin' Donuts, which I had inadvertently made my way next to, radiated free wifi. So, I ditched the phone and headed onto my laptop to wrap up whatever I could of this game.
I arrived to the bottom of the 6th. Along with information Kevin delivered on Jeremy Hefner and his Tommy John Surgery rehab (he threw 15 pitches from a mound in St. Lucie yesterday, and has been keeping a diary every day during recovery) the Milwaukee pitcher Marco Estrada walked 3 batters in the inning, with a Daniel Murphy fly out and Chris Young strikeout sandwiched in. After Lucas Duda walked to load the bases with 2 out, the new guy, catcher Taylor Teagarden, headed to the plate in his first game as a Met, without the Mets atrocious bases loaded batting average on the season attached.
And in his first game as a Met, Taylor Teagarden is going to have a moment.
--Gary as Taylor approached the plate
With a 1-0 count, the righty Teagarden laced it the other way into foul territory, walking up the line when Gary knew pretty quickly it would be hooking way foul. Then, Estrada dropped a strike onto the outside low corner of the plate. A perfect pitch.
Keith: It's a good strike right there. NOW, it's 1-2, he can do whatever he wants.
Gary: Bases loaded, two out...and Teagarden hits it out to right. Braun retreating, to the warning track, at the wallllll, IT'S OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!
It was basically the same pitch, but raised. Estrada did not hit the corner this time, and Teagarden muscled it the other way, dipping the ball onto the other side of the right field wall, something we all want to see right-handed Mets hitters do more.
I finished watching the inning, and skipped to the 9th to see if anything had gotten out of control, as it tends to do. I wanted to be done with the Mets before I got on that bus. The score was 6-2, and at that point, you have an idea things will go well for Jenrry Mejia and the Mets as the broadcast timeframe of 2:57 is in front of you, and it would have had to be quite the quick meltdown and lockdown by the Brewers for us not to exit with a Mets W.
So, with 10 minutes to spare before I had to catch the bus back into the city, I read up on Derek Fisher and the Knicks.
Last year, late in the season when we had lost 5 in a row, Jon Niese started against the Phillies and shut them down for 9 innings, completing the game for a 5-0 win.
Though Niese did not have the same dominant game he had on that August day, he was once more called upon to shut the losing streak down, and he did more than his part last night with 7 innings of 3-run ball, off 4 hits and 5 walks, striking out 5. He would have been even better had it not been for his former teammate Justin Turner tattooing him in the 7th for an original dimension game-tying 2-run homer, erasing the lead Niese helped grab with a double in the 5th inning, the only pitcher other than Jacob deGrom with a hit on this team. Turner had also helped the Mets by bobbling Daniel Murphy's grounder to let the 3rd run score in that same 5th.
Back to Niese in the 7th, however, as he battled through and picked up the win when Wilmer Flores and Juan Lagares combined in the bottom half to get the lead right back; Wilmer singling to lead off the inning and Lagares driving him in with 2 out on a single as well.
The offense was really the star of the show last night. No, we did not have an explosion, but the productive outs that were missing in our features for so long were had by the likes of Eric "Soup" Campbell, who has done nothing but play like a serious pro since he arrived from AAA.
The AB of the night, though, and the AB of his year so far was Curtis Granderson in the 2nd inning. This is where I came in, turning on WOR probably 7 pitches into the 12-pitch AB that ended with a double over Matt Kemp's head, taking 3rd base on the outfielder's bobble. Watching some of the early parts of the game later, it was clear in the 1st inning that Zack Greinke, who had been on fire this year (and really for his last 100 starts), did not have his command when David Wright had an 8-pitch AB that unfortunately finished the inning with a strikeout looking. Curtis fouled them off and fouled them off until driving it to center, scoring on Mr. Campbell's sac fly to tie the game at 1.
As I walked Queens Boulevard towards the bridge getting ready to call Gary Mack for Mets Musings, Howie Rose had a call to match the amazing moment he was witnessing, as Yasiel Puig made one of the greatest catches you will see, almost doubling up The Duda at 1st (Howie's call is around the 2:10 mark.)
Yasiel Puig is quite the amazing talent, but the infamy of the Cuban player not having his head in the game or being unaware of the rules was evident throughout the series. He looked silly gunning the ball towards the plate with 3 out the other day. Lucky for him and the Dodgers, that didn't affect those actual outcomes, whereas last night, he burned his team on an infield fly that tailed to the outfield in the top of the 6th, where the rule clearly states, "run at your own risk."
Oh, and of course, the man got doubled off on this, in Eric "Soup" Campbell's 1st Major League outfield start.
And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Mr. Jenrry "Back-to-Back" Mejia, who took a page out of Jose "Papa Grande" Valverde's antics book to lock down his 2nd Major League save.
And some other items of note:
Though he did get caught stealing in the bottom of the 3rd, David Wright should attempt to steal more bases if he's going to be a singles hitter. I think, however, we haven't seen more steal attempts because he's still rather timid following his hamstring issue last year.
SNY needs to change the defensive alignment graphic that is still the original Citi dimensions. It's been like 3 years, you guys...
Speaking of SNY, whether or not the Mets are struggling, Gary, Keith and Ron are ALWAYS on their game.
The Dodgers were in an alternate road uniform that was a grey version of their home unis, with the classic "Dodgers" across the chest as opposed to "Los Angeles." I'm a stickler for having your nickname on your uni at home and your city on your uni on the road. Unless it's the Phillies, where there's really no difference from saying "Phillies" as opposed to "Philadelphia."
So, we salvage the final game, getting the timely hits we had not been getting. Curtis has been impressing me with his approach lately, Flores is hitting when getting the chance, and Eric Campbell should probably be playing wherever we can get him in the lineup. Clearly, one game is not going to turn my opinion around on Sandy and Terry, but a win is a win, and I'll take it. No matter how much a massive losing streak could possibly help purge this team, seeing and hearing a solid, well put-together win always trumps any vitriol that had been building up. That's all you want to see: The New York Mets win, not keep botching winnable games, and look like there is some actual growth with this franchise. As I stated before, Mr. Gary Mack was my eyes and ears during last night's contest as I walked over the Queensboro Bridge discussing the Mets with him on Mets Musings. Make sure to take a listen on this Friday in May. Have a great holiday weekend, folks...and as always...
Last night might be the first time I really cared about 2014 Mets baseball.
Clearly, I've been lacking when it comes to writing, watching, or even discussing the Mets. Even on the podcasts (one of which I'll embed down below) though I may ramble, I feel as if I cannot give a full opinion because of my lack of Metsian observation the past couple of months. Then again, I've picked up the general things that are being thrown down in the Metsosphere.
I went out of my way, however, to watch the highlights of yesterday's game, where Anthony Recker and the Mets, down 6-4 to the Braves in the 9th, won 7-6 on Recker's 3-run shot.
And then there's this gem, which is another reason Juan Lagares HAS to be starting in center:
Yeah, it's spring training. Yeah, nothing is counting towards the standings. But memories are still created. I mean, listen to that crowd when Recker hit the home run. Listen to the crowd AND Mr. Burkhardt and Keith. It's an early division match-up, and though it completely changes when the pages turn to April (well....this year, March 31...) there's still a lot of people with plenty to prove, making the juice flow a little more in the above match-up. Certainly some fun highlights to watch.
And prior to watching them, I made my way from the neighborhood of Flatbush to Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in Brooklyn while discussing some Mets baseball with Mr. Gary Mack of Mets Musings. Take a listen below.
Once again, if you did not listen to the podcast, enjoy it on your commute or at some point in your thursday. And read my WBC opinion piece from yesterday on Rising Apple. Please.
Today on The Rising Apple Report, I will be joined by Staff Writers Rich Sparago, Michael Lecolant and Danny Abriano. AS WELL AS Steve Keane from The Kranepool Society... AND Ted Berg, formerly of SNY and currently writing about baseball for USA Today. It's gonna be quite the podcast at 6:30PM EST tonight. (Side note, the game is on, and Carlos Beltran is playing for the Cardinals today. This is kind of a time where I realize I am rooting for him (and his health) all year...for I want him to retire as a New York Met.) More on that at Rising Apple towards the tailend of the week.... Enjoy the rest of the game to those who can watch it.
There isn't much else to say except that I'm so stoked I there is any form of Metropolitan baseball on TV tomorrowyou guys. So many storylines to focus on, I'm pumped for the analysis to begin. Who knows what this year could bring? So stop all your whining (for those who do) and enjoy some New York Mets baseball for a change.
On it's way after that called 3rd strike is a lull. No matter what happens from October 29, 2012 to February 13, 2013, we find out nothing as to what it will truly mean on the field. Spring Training helps get some kind of idea as to what you're dealing with, but even then, until that 1st day, there is nothing. Everything that happens in baseball and involving my favorite team will mean the world to me in the moment...but baseball. Baseball being played at the type of level it was played last night, does not come till Monday, April 1, 2013, which my newly downloaded iCalendar has told me is a 1:10 start time between the 2013 San Diego Padres and the 2013 New York Mets.
Yes, those New York Mets. The Highiest of Highs, The Lowiest of Lows. The Floppiest of Players, The Piccasso's of Pitching. The Marvelest of Marv's, The Miraculous Moon Walkers. The Yoiest of La Tengos, The Scummiest of Bunches. The Worst Team Ever.
The Champions of the World.
(of baseball.)
Around the 5th inning, even before I thought about the idea of Angel Pagan winning the World Series, or seeing the shot of him in center field when that last out was recorded, I was imagining R.A. Dickey on a World Series Mound at Citi Field in the 4th game in THAT uniform, pitching his heart out well enough to be on the mound in the 9th inning with 2 out, and the ruckus as he strikes the last batter of the year out with a wicked knuckler, the entire Mets family erupting into pure unadulterated elation. (In this scenario, the National League, after having won the last three All-Star games, gets its dose of what is disguised as the Citi Field Curse and loses next July in Flushing. And R.A. Dickey would have to have pitched a 7th game for the pennant and the earliest he could pitch is game 4.) It's a pretty specific scenario that played out in my head, but I'm sure other fans have similar moving pictures in their heads as they watch year in and year out other teams celebrate come Late-October. The truth is, in all honesty, and with all my sincerest regards, we will know nothing till Friday, July 19, 2013, when the New York Mets open up the 2nd half hosting the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets will have to play good baseball in the 1st half as well, but nothing will be secure in most Mets fans' minds till they see these guys lock it down in the 2nd half, whether that's in July, August or in meaningful games in Effin' September. This isn't just a recent issue. This is a historical issue. There's a core forming within the depths of this Metropolitan franchise, and they have one more year under their belt. We saw glimpses of the kind of camaraderie this young group can have, and maybe with another year, and with The Older Professor and the Big Brother helpin' them along, it can translate into more success past July 19, and then into the kind of camaraderie those New York Giants of San Francisco have (that phrase was delivered to me at one of the NY Giant Fan Get-Togethers from this past week.) There is a lot of work to be done, but I'm as excited as ever. I know the New York Mets will be the Orangest of Blues come 2013. And I look forward to extending moments like the one below into the 2nd half.
In the bottom of the 2nd inning, the Mets loaded the bases with 0 out. Andres Torres struck out swinging, though, leading me to recite a familiar refrain: here we go again. Edison Volquez, however, had terrible trouble locating most of his pitches for strikes, and he walked Josh Thole for the 1st run of the game. Jeremy Hefner struck out swinging (instead of making contact and grounding into a double play) giving Ruben Tejada a chance with 2 out. He walked as well, giving the Mets a 2-0 lead. 2 runs handed to us is fantastic, but had that been it and they failed to tack on more, the inning would have been viewed by me as a disappointment. Jordany Valdespin, however, did what you're supposed to do to a pitcher struggling to throw strikes: make solid contact with the strike that he throws. The 'Spin Master delivered a 2-run double, easing the tension of what could have been another edge-of-our-seat high LOB thriller. Instead, the Mets took control of the game thanks to tack-on runs, a solid outing by Jeremy Hefner and a good job by the bullpen (sans Bobby Parnell), winning 6-2.
Hefner has done nothing but keep the Mets in every start since Johan went on the DL. He took advantage of a free-swinging Padres team and kept his count real low over 6 innings. Other than when he gutted it out and raked his way to his 1st Major League victory, this was his best start of the year. They are apparently putting him in the bullpen as the long-man when Johan arrives back, and I wholeheartedly agree. We should expect him to make another start or two before closing the book on the 2012 New York Mets...whenever that may be.
Mike Baxter. Continuing to make Metropolitan history with a record 5 walks. No At-Bat for you tonight, young man. He also tied the National League record for most walks in a 9-inning game, the last batter being Ryan Howard in 2006. The Kid from Whitestone doesn't cease to impress.
"And the strange relationship between Bobby Parnell and the 9th inning continues."
--Gary Cohen, SNY
I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad to see Frank Francisco back. We've actually missed him.
And the '89 throwbacks were nice, but I was happy to see the regular road uniforms. They are MUCH, MUCH better. The Mets this year finally got it right by going back to what they got right in the first place...when they were dead last.
Seriously pumped up to see Matt Harvey close the series out with his 3rd Major League start. He'll take on Jason Marquis at 3:30PM. You know, the Jason Marquis who's from Staten Island and has always wanted to play for his home team...blaa, blaa, blaa, blaa, blaa, kick those Padre butts.
The Mets defeated the Marlins B-Squad by a score of 7-0 yesterday. Unfortunately, since the Mets were the visiting team, this game was not televised, but I've been informed that Justin Turner, Josh Thole and Jon Niese all had solid days. The three of them will each get a bigger write-up as the spring goes along and as ideas for blog posts percolate. The Mets will take on the Marlins at the Domain today around 1pm on SNY. Whether Jose Reyes makes the trip will soon be revealed.
Speaking of percolating ideas, I wanted to be done with the photos of 2011 the day the 2012 season introduced itself with some form of baseball, but there are still a couple/few awesome photos I want to share. So, I have decided to open up a "Bonus Round" of 2011 Photos, and how deep this will go is unknown.
I do know that this photo was taken during a stretch of home games where the Mets kept taking short leads into the 7th and blowing them day in and day out. This one, I believe, was an eventual 3-9 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Cut down on those kinds of games, and we should win around 94 of them.
Easier said than done.
But do it, Mets.
The Citi Field Media Booth is located on the 2nd Deck of the ballpark on the 1st base side of Home Plate
