$&#*@in' Familia, But What a Diaz

Monday nights these days are set aside for improv classes as I try to get out of my head a bit. A bit is a bit of an understatement. Improv is therapeutic that way as you have to be on your toes and ready to accept offers as they come from your fellow improvisors. There technically aren't any wrong things you can say; just say it, stop thinking. It is only wrong to throw off the rhythm and flow.

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Photo via Metstradamus

I found myself turning off the radio feed of the game just before the Mets scored their first 2 runs of their eventual 7-6 win over the Phillies on Jackie Robinson Day. At points where my attention wasn't directly needed, whether it be myself improvising or giving the respect ones on stage deserve, I saw a prototypical Mets-Phillies battle ensuing as I was checking the score on the At Bat App. It was the type of game we have gotten plenty used to these teams partaking in against one another. Back and forth, up and down, never a moment where you felt any particular relief on either side of the respective fanbases.

And I don't want to get into the Noah Syndergaard factor right now. The Phillies' ace, Aaron Nola, was pitch-for-pitch basically not as sharp as well. The biggest issue right now is the bullpen for us, other than the Jason Vargas issue.

I got out of the improv class just in time to see a runner on and no outs with Jeurys Familia on the mound in the 8th. He both did a poor job of sticking to the script as well as keeping the rhythm and flow of the scene moving with a Mets 1 run lead at 6-5. After his sensational breakout season of 2015 where, from my memory, he was the most reliably consistent closer the Mets had ever had (up until his 2nd quick pitch in a row to Alex Gordon in game 1 of the World Series) he has resorted to typical Mets closer fashion, i.e., forcing you to self-manicure with your teeth as the clippers. Whatever is going on with him, he cannot seem for one second to find the plate with any pitch he administers, lolligagging the ball every which way. When he's over the strike zone, his pitches are way too hitable, and he provides no sign he will be getting any better any time soon. At 3 years and 30 million dollars, let alone the familiarity factor of why Brodie decided to offer him the sizable contract, Familia must figure out how to get out of his head before he is a non-factor on the field but a huge factor on what we know is a tight, specific, non-altering budget the Wilpons have come up with.

In the end, however, the Mets persevered. They came up with big hits in their first extra inning game of the year to pull a much-needed division win against the Phillies in their first match with Bryce Harper in a different logo's red. We were all wondering why Edwin Diaz wasn't in there instead of Robert Gsellman in the 8th inning after Familia walked the world. Apparently the answer is they are committed to only using Diaz for 3-out saves. While I'm not sure I agree with this, Gsellman settled down in the 9th inning after walking in the winning run and WOW did Diaz deliver when he got the opportunity in extras, striking out the heart of the Phillies order to close out the game. 

Also, if the Phillies fans weren't aware of Jeff McNeil before last night, they sure as heck are now, as he collected 3 hits, 1 RBI and made 2 spectacular defensive plays.

They were able to push past the lost momentum from the Atlanta weekend and get what we hope is back on track. Lock down the series tonight and render Wednesday's day game only playing for icing on the cake.

Stay focused, but out of your head. Transition, revelation, resolution. It's a long season, but sharpen the senses now and it will make the rest of the stretch that much easier.

And please, figure out how to throw more strikes!

GET. IT. OVER.

LET'S. GO. METS.

It's Over

I believe we are beginning to see the end of the Terry Collins era.

I almost didn't even WANT to write about the Mets 'cause I contain so much vitriol.

This past weekend, I have never seen the level of understanding amongst the fanbase that Terry is not fit to be manager of this ballclub. I have been saying for a very long time that Terry Collins should not be manager of this ballclub. I don't believe he will ever be able to lead a team to the playoffs. So, whether or not there's other things going on when it comes to the Juan Lagares situation, or anything involving the Mets, things that the public doesn't really have to know about or have any right to know. You're starting to see, at least in the public eye, a man becoming more delusional with the managerial decisions and becoming more and more defensive about it. And you know what? You've got a GM I'm growing more and more agitated with for not doing anything about it, and SIGNING the guy back up in the first place (I guess you could go all the way back to hiring him in the first place, but I get what Terry is and Sandy seems to as well, considering a 2-year deal is NOT a ringing endorsement.)

My faith in Sandy's judgement is waning because of the Terry Collins situation. He has clearly begun a grand foundation reconstruction with the minor leagues, and for that, I'm willing to accept that is Sandy Alderson's lasting legacy with the New York Mets. But I need to begin seeing better judgement with the Major League ballclub.

Our blood was boiling Friday night, when us Metsian nerds, myself and the Brooklyn Trolley Blogger Mike Lecolant, took to the airwaves post-game and vented our frustration on the Rising Apple Report. The sound bytes are as relevant today as they were on Friday night, and we'll spew even more sound bytes later this evening on a whole new episode of the Rising Apple Report.


Thank God for the off day. I don't want to see any of those guys today.

I'll think about the Mets...but I don't have to LIKE it.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for the latest on a Brooklyn Baseball TV Series I am developing, Like the Bedford & Sullivan Facebook page, follow on Twitter here, and listen to the research process here.

Searching for Carolyn After Another Mets Loss

I hadn't been planning to go to last night's Mets game. I actually made a "responsible" decision after earlier having deciding to go. I said, "At some point, I really can't afford all this, can I?" Then, a friend of mine whose company was selling tickets for groups of children to go asked if I wanted to buy 3 for $40. I told him I would only go for free right now, unfortunately. He said, "Fine then, for free," and we figured out when to meet.

Well, I really can never pass up free Mets tickets. If I were able to afford every game, I'd attempt to work around going to every game :D 

Oh, jeez. I've been texting too much...

Anyway, I went to the game ready to be an Upper Deck Roamer with my 525 section. Tip for those that buy an upper deck seat: Just go sit in sections 512-518 until the Mets are good again and people start crowding the place up. Right behind home plate, arguably, outside of it being really cool being really close, the best seats in the house. You can see the whole field, and they made the place so intimate that there's never "too far away" and you just watch baseball from the angle of the whole diamond. It's beautiful.

That doesn't mean that when my former boss asked if I wanted to meet and he gave me a ticket to get into the Delta Club and we went and sat in section 12 that I would turn down being field level.

It's just a different way of viewing things. Neither are necessarily better than the other, but it's loads of fun seeing the players actually look human-size for a change.

Well...speaking of the "players", the Josh Satin-for-Eric Campbell move makes loads of sense. Here's a dude who hasn't done a lick for us this year, regardless of whether he needs playing time, compared to a super-utility player in Eric Campbell that is CRUSHING it in the PCL. This was a slight digression, but I bring this up first because Josh Satin looked as horrendous from up close last night as his demotion states he did.

So, the Mets squandered opportunity after opportunity and they clearly deserved to lose. You just feel it in the air on night like last night. It was nice to tie it up...but I'm tired of saying that.

In extras, I started talking to a lady behind me named Carolyn (don't know if that's how we spell it...) but we seem to hit it off in conversation and were both equally as pissed off at the way the Mets go about things these days. And she was even more pissed off because her roommate, who was a Tigers fan and wished he wasn't still at this long and excruciating game had said to her "I hope the Phillies win." (Oh, yeah, forgot to mention...before it went extras, it took a freakin' 4 hours for 9 innings...for a 3-2 extra-inning loss)

Now, let me first say that I've NEVER done anything like this. I've never gone online looking to find someone who I met that I was unable to get contact information of, let alone write about it soliciting contact. She and her dude roommate (made clear...) kept going while myself and the group I was with were still in the Delta Club. I last saw her heading towards the subway, probably 200 feet ahead of us.  The subway can fit a lot of people on one train. Who knows where she may have gone to? But it didn't feel like exchanging information would have proven fruitless.

Again, I would normally be very reserved when it comes to doing stuff like this. But hey, you only live once, there's a side of me that a hopeless romantic (not to make anyone think I think this is going ANYWHERE...) but I felt like conducting a social experiment in the age of devices before fate could potentially have us run into each other again at a future Mets game. So, if you're Carolyn from Brooklyn who's a Mets fan who talked to a Sam and was in Section 12 with her dude roommate at the Mets 3-2 loss to the Phillies last night, or know Carolyn from Brooklyn who's a Mets fan who talked to a Sam and was in Section 12 with her dude roommate at the Mets 3-2 loss to the Phillies last night, I'm easy to get in touch with. My email should be somewhere off that way ------->


Anyway..

Firstly, I am doing a Brooklyn Ballpark Bike Ride Tour on my Bedford & Sullivan podcast at 5pm ET today with the Brooklyn Trolley Blogger and fellow Rising Apple writer Mike Lecolant. He'll be calling in as I go from the Ebbets Field flagpole at Barclays Center to Washington Park to Ebbets Field and some other parts of Brooklyn. It's an extended episode, and we'll go for 2 hours. Make sure to tune in.

And secondly, I filmed this video at the Mets 7-6 extra-inning loss on April 26, where my friend Adam Spiegel shares "False Facts" about random Mets fans. Take a watch.

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for the latest on a Brooklyn Baseball TV Series I am developing, Like the Bedford & Sullivan Facebook page, follow on Twitter here, and listen to the research process here.

What THEY Said

Don't think that my absence on here has meant I've been too busy to be paying attention to the Mets. I'm ALWAYS paying attention to the Mets, but I clearly haven't been paying attention to putting my experience into words on here. For what has just happened, today, I will let the Mets Fan Incarnate speak for me on that:

They couldn’t pitch in Denver. They couldn’t hit in Miami. Throw it all into a blender, designate a deserving scapegoat or two for assignment and you wind up pouring yourself a tall glass of mediocrity, which is more or less the best you could hope for in the short term. We probably figured that in March, which doesn’t signal the end of the world, only a continuation of what was coming all along. There’ll likely be quite a bit of blending the worst we anticipated with a few not so unpleasant surprises.

--Greg Prince, Faith and Fear in Flushing

Yeah. Laugh it up, Terry.

And that's because Terry Collins isn't the man to man the ship when this team is finally ready to compete. I wish Wally would just be the guy already, but that's not going to happen in the middle of the season. I like Terry and I like the respect he garners, but he needs to be reassigned. Period.

Another link I wanted to bring up is the below about changes that (could really never be) done because of structural issues but would have been nice when you got the only chance you had. AND something Brendan Weingarten suggests I was JUST SAYING to a couple people at Citi Field the other day (well, I said they should have built left and right field reversed):

I love going to Citi Field, but there are some things I would change. For instance, I would take out the Upper Decks in LF. It’s an unpopular place to sit at Citi, and is almost always empty. It blocks a great view of the Flushing Bay, which is only visible between the gap of the LF Upper Decks and the Scoreboard when you sit in the first base-side Upper Decks. There is a barely visible Out-Of-Town Scoreboard that seems like it’s an afterthought. Maybe not now, but once the money is there, and we don’t need more to spend on players, I’d rip these seats out...It would make for a big concourse, and allow the view of the bay in. On the concourse, there could be statues of Seaver, Carter, and Piazza overlooking the field that would make Citi more unique. Concessions with a more open view to the field, and a larger horizontal out-of-town scoreboard where the building behind the upper deck is would make for a better fan experience. The cutoff would be where the Acela Club (Large LF Restaurant behind foul pole) stops.

--Brendan Weingarten, Take the 7 to Citi 

First of all, and I didn't put this as a comment on the guy's page yet, but I think structurally, since they said they couldn't do much to the outfield walls because of structural issues, taking the entire left field side out would probably be impossible without some major restructuring that would probably be extremely complicated. Let's be honest: no matter how much of a joy it is to take a game in at Citi Field, they half-assed the whole place and didn't do enough to make it their own. I was looking around and thinking about Flushing Bay out there the other day, and I said that they should have designed the place in reverse. They should have had the large upper deck on the right field side and have left field open with Pepsi Porch or whatever. The only thing I can think of is that they just thought that was an ugly view, with a highway and an airport. Bull. It's the charm of Flushing Bay and Willets Point. Embrace the place you live in. My God. As my fellow Rising Apple writer, the Brooklyn Trolley Blogger Mike Lecolant, has stated: You only get one chance at some things in life.

Lastly, I will have Greg Prince speak for me once more:

I took part in a little Mets fan group therapy Wednesday night on the Rising Apple podcast. Listen here and heal thyself.

With Greg, Steve Keane of The Kranepool Society, The Brooklyn Trolley Blogger, Rich Sparago and myself, there are plenty of amazing quotes to go around.

Enjoy the off day, everybody. As the cliché goes, they can't lose today.

16-17.

LET'S. GO. METS.

New Sports Internet Radio with Rising Apple Report on BlogTalkRadio

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for the latest on a Brooklyn Baseball TV Series I am developing, Like the Bedford & Sullivan Facebook page, follow on Twitter here, and listen to the research process here.

Regarding Jhonny Peralta, I Yield the Floor To Rising Apple

By now, it is well-known amongst the Mets fan base circle...at least the ones who monitor the Hot Stove at obsessive levels...that the Mets met with shortstop free agent Jhonny Peralta at the GM meetings, which is a rare thing to do at the annual November event. Generally speaking, these meetings are exclusively executives, and it helps lay the groundwork for potential deals that could take place either before or during the Winter Meetings in December. When you're coming off a 50-game suspension, however, it makes sense to be as active as early as you can.

Mike Lecolant of Brooklyn Trolley Blogger and a fellow Rising Apple writer says everything perfectly about why that number would be outlandish for the Mets to pay, and also quotes a well-informed Rising Apple reader. I suggest you click on this link and read Mr. Lecolant's opinion of the entire matter.

Over here, however, we have a Random Nothing of the Day. And this one ain't too long so you can press play, then in less than a minute get on with your day.

Enjoy your Friday everyone.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for the latest on a Brooklyn Baseball TV Series I am developing, Like the Bedford & Sullivan Facebook page, follow on Twitter here, and listen to the research process here.

Today's Podcast & The Random Song of the Day

Tonight on The Rising Apple Report, Staff Writer Michael Lecolant of The Brooklyn Trolley Blogger will make his long-awaited debut. He will join Rich Sparago as Matt Musico's guests to discuss the most up-to-date Mets Spring Training info.

Taryn "The Coop" Cooper of A Gal for All Seasons (captured there next to Scottie H. by talented Sharon Chapman) will also call in to discuss her history as a blogger, and of course, the 2013 New York Mets.

It's going to be once again a thrilling half-hour of Mets talk, so make sure you tune in at 6:30 tonight!

THE RISING APPLE REPORT EP 8. - A GAL FOR ALL SEASONS JOINS THE RISING APPLE REPORT

Here's the Random Song of the Day.

(And don't forget to head back over here at 7:00PM for Julian's Met of the Week.)

GAMES. ARE. COMING.
LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for Rising Apple twitter updates, click here.