The Wheels Come Off (...Yeah...I Went There...)

If you asked me going into the series with the Athletics whether I would take a split against the best team in baseball, I would have gladly said yes.

With the way the Mets have been playing and the way they went about splitting the series, the good feelings have not dissipated.

The Mets battled at the end with 5 runs on 2 home runs: Lucas Duda's pinch-hit 3-run HR off a lefty, and another by Mr. Power, Chris Young. AND Curtis kept his ridiculous hot streak going with a 3 for 4 night to push his average to .242. THAT is starting to look more familiar.

The most concerning thing to come out of that last game is the way Zack Wheeler followed up his 3-hit shutout against the Marlins. 

With this one, the only thing you can do is brush off a 2-inning dud against the best offense in baseball and go get 'em next time.

I just don't want this game to remind me so much of THIS game.

Can't completely compare the two considering that in 2012, we had been playing much better over the course of the 1st half at the time of that failed comeback against the Cubs than we had been leading up to THIS failed comeback.

Hopefully, we don't play as miserable going forward as we did after that failed comeback.

Time for Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh.

I like that town and have to make it back there for a baseball game sometime.

Keep pushin', Metsies.

SAY. HI. TO. IKE.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. For more from myself and others on the Mets, head over to Rising Apple. 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.

Where Did THAT Come From?!

No matter how good and energetic the Mets looked in Miami, their 10-1 win yesterday was the LAST thing I saw coming, especially at home AND against the best team in baseball, the Oakland Athletics.

The story lines were ripe for dissection.

You had the Mets coming off of a solid road trip, about to take on the best team in baseball, whom they once lost a World Series to in 7 games.

And sidenote: forget about that 1973 fact and the novelty of the two teams facing each other. The Mets and the Athletics' logos are just aesthetically pleasing next to each other.

Anyway...

You had Bartolo Colon on the mound, facing his former team who opted to not bring him back. They decided to give a 2 year, 22 million dollar deal to the man on the mound for them last night, Scott Kazmir, who was facing the Mets for the 1st time in Queens since the infamous deal that sent him to Tampa Bay in exchange for the greatest pitcher of all time, Victor Zambrano. AND Scott's been the best pitcher in the American League this year.

On top of that, you had Chris Young facing his former team, with reports surfacing on the off day Monday that he may be released Thursday.

And let's run with that one for a second.

I thought it was a ridiculous leak, and one that made no sense if you were really contemplating releasing him when Juan Lagares returns Thursday, then that's basically squashed when you then have to go to the press and say, "Those reports are false."

It brings up what Josh Thole talked about when saying how everything is a story here, and no matter how much I think it's clear the last thing any players anywhere need to pay attention to is anything but the baseball they need to play, it is true that the New York atmosphere is something fierce and rather unique, other than maybe Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago.

There might be something to the leak, though, where a conspiracy theory can be formed that it was calculated and a last-minute ditch effort to light a fire under the 7.25 million dollar man. At least for one game, Chris Young responded and resoundingly so. We'll see what happens...

You also had Travis d'Arnaud fresh off his AAA stint, where he tore the cover off the ball. Though he still struck out twice, a 3-run bomb certainly takes a load off. Though he wasn't in the 5-hole as myself and Keith Hernandez had hoped, Terry didn't bat him just ahead of the pitcher's spot, which was a step in the right direction.

Speaking of the 4 home runs the Mets hit (the 1st time all year they have done so in Citi Field, with the only other time in 2014 coming at Yankee Stadium), the only bomb that wasn't an original (stupid) dimension home run was Curtis Granderson's, a dunker over the Mo's zone wall which gave us a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 2nd. What's awesome about THAT shot was that the dugout was still abuzz from it when Chris Young launched his 1st of the night.

The team certainly looks to have new life, which can be traced back to when Bartolo Colon collected his 1st hit in 9 years last week against the Cardinals (and collected ANOTHER one last night!) They've got the towels twirlin' and the bats properly swingin'.

Tonight, Zack Wheeler goes for the 1st time since the best start of his career last week, so I am very much looking forward to how he follows that up, especially against what has been by far the best offense in baseball.

KEEP. 'EM. SWINGIN'.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. For more from myself and others on the Mets, head over to Rising Apple. 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.

Stop Comparing Different Eras' World Series TV Ratings

Every year around this time, articles are written about how only 14-15 million people watch the World Series games, as opposed to 50-75 million people of '86...or '73...or whatever. And how that's "just sad." How it's a problem for baseball.

Stop it. Just stop it right now.

I think logic dictates that this isn't that surprising. And logic dictates that you cannot even remotely compare the numbers to former times in America's television watching past.

Please people, come on. It's rather simple.

There are thousands of channels now and the internet, and whole new generations with completely different priorities than watching a baseball game.

Don't get me wrong. Of course I believe they SHOULD be watching a baseball game, but think about it...

Take 40 years ago when the Mets were taking on the A's in a 7-game World Series.

The average game that year got 35 million viewers.

If we look at the New York region, there were roughly 13-15 channels to choose from.

And no internet.

And less televisions per household.

Most television households now have thousands of channels on cable. And internet. AND on-demand on both the television AND the internet.

Is the problem that America is less enthused about baseball?
Or is the problem that there is so many things to distract us at any given moment?

That's a loaded question, but to compare different eras in terms of World Series television ratings is a complete waste of time.

In fact, I'm done discussing it.

Guess what we can find whenever we want on Youtube?

TAKE. IT. EASY.
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, and follow on Twitter here.