Mets vs Brewers

My high school friend called with seats four boxes behind the visitor’s dugout. I dropped any possible plans (sorry, Dor!) and subway’d it to Shea Stadium. Good game. The Brewers kept it close for 6 innings behind Ben Sheets and then Jorge De La Rosa and Jose Capellan did not. Mets win, 9-3. Some game notes:

Brian Bannister… might need some time in the minors. For a control pitcher, getting up to 112 pitches and for most of the game going 50/50 on balls/ strikes is NOT a good idea. The walks, the bases loaded moments… there’s careful and then there is crazy. Bannister says he’s not sweating enough. He did improve in the later innings, hitting his spots and pitching more crisply after getting some Pedro Martinez advice.

Another high school friend made fun of Geoff Jenkins’ and Carlos Lee’s goatees, talking about how Carlos’ goatee was mediocre, and how Geoff can’t spell his name right and is a poor man’s Jeff Bagwell (with his number, and his name, and his power).

Carlos Delgado seemed to mail in innings 2-7, with the awful strikeouts and the errant throw on a possible double play. He threw from 1B to near-second, and the ball skipped into left field. And then, he beat the laces off the ball.

Securing the victory.

The Met fans howled when mop-up guy Jorge Julio (and his 19.00 ERA) came in, with some yelling “bring back Benson,” referring to mediocre pitcher Kris Benson, whose wife Anna Benson (site is NOT WORK SAFE) is often near-naked and outrageous. I’ll miss her rants on Omar Minaya latining up the team and on Michael Moore.

Here is a gratuitous picture of a failed Brewer pitcher.


The rest of the photo set.

Why we love Carlos Delgado

In keeping with the spirit of free speech and dissent this country was founded on, we see how to deal with a visit to your clubhouse by Vice President Trigger Dick Chaney:

Carlos Delgado's opposition to U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan are well documented. But the first baseman took a tactful approach when Dick Cheney visited the Mets' clubhouse yesterday, before the VP tossed out the ceremonial first pitch at the Nationals' home opener.
Delgado conveniently got busy with pregame preparations as his teammates posed for a picture with Cheney.

"I was doing my routine," Delgado said with a smile. "I happened to be somewhere else. Go figure."

Additionally, I like our new met Xavier Nady:

The Mets' clubhouse recently had been a Republican stronghold, with Al Leiter an aspiring GOP politician and Mike Piazza last year referring to Rush Limbaugh as "American royalty." It's not exactly left-leaning now, but Cliff Floyd identified himself as a Democrat and Xavier Nady said he grew up in a Democratic household.

Nady had the VP sign a bat, but later joked: "I'll probably use it tomorrow. It depends how many I go through." At least, the right fielder presumably was joking.

Who the Foulke is Papelbon?

There is an interesting controversy about to start brewing within Red Sox Nation. Monday in Texas, which was opening day for the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox, the Sox got off to a 7-2 lead behind Curt Schilling when Manager Terry Francona called for his closer.

The closer was none other than Keith Foulke, who was the hero closer for the Sox during that Championship season in 2004 - oh, it seems so far away. His saves were not always pretty, but they were effective. However, 2005 was not too good to him as he spent most of the season on the DL with knee problems. He attempted to come back late in the season, but didn't have the stuff, ballooning his ERA out to 5.91 by giving up 30 earned runs in only 43 appearances.

After much scrutiny, Foulke had offseason surgery to repair his knees and showed up for camp ready to go. His spring training was very strong, but he was still under the microscope until he proved differently.

So, back to opening day, top of the 9th, Sox up 7-2 and even though it was not a save situation, in comes "Cardiac Keith" Foulke. He closed out the game, but in one inning two hits and one earned run.

He didn't make an appearance on Tuesday, since the Sox got shelled when knuckleballer Tim Wakefield tossed BP to the Rangers' young and potent lineup.

But, then there was tonight. Newly acquired pitcher Josh Beckett debuted with a 7-inning, 1-run gem, followed by a solid 8th inning by old faithful set-up man Mike Timlin. The score was 2-1 at the start of the 9th. It is time for the closer, but who comes out of the bullpen? Not Cardiac Keith, but rookie heatster Jonathan Papelbon, who is normally a starter, but has been moved to the bullpen since there is no starting spot for him in the rotation. 24-year old Papelbon came up late last season and showed that the hype was real.

Francona didn't hide the fact that Papelbon will be used as the closer if Foulke does not seem to have his stuff. However, he was called in to close after Foulke faltered after his first appearance. Talk radio in the hub ought to be interesting tomorrow.

It's Opening Day!

Wake me when it's over.

Seriously, this has got to be one of the most overrated days in the sports calendar, right up there with the ESPYs and the Daytona 500.

After a month of games that don't count, we're now subjected to games that matter. And all this hoopla for 0.6% of the season to be complete? If nothing else, this just signals the time of the year that it's actually okay to talk about the Sawx and the Yanks (add your own PTI impression). The same old men write the same old lines about the beauty and timelessness of the game. Seriously, what other sport has men like George Will wax poetic about it?

Don't get me wrong, I dig a good game every now and then. One of my fondest memories was seeing the Green Monster in person a few years ago. But don't tell me to get excited about seeing Frank Thomas suck for a new team or seeing how the Mets can find a new way to come in 2nd place in the NL East.

If you don't mind, I've got some college basketball to watch.

Standings After Day 9

(Or, The "They Might As Well Be Final" Results)

4th place- Molly, with 500 points.
3rd place- Neverecho, with 610 points.
2nd place- Greg, with 630 points.

And our Athletes in Action 2006 Grand Champion...

Pico, with 730 points, thanks to Florida's 15-point beatdown of George Mason.

Congratulations to Pico, who gets to enjoy an entire year of not having his judgement questioned. (At least when it comes to college basketball, that is...)