The blog for Mets fans
who like to read

Search
GET THE BOOK!
Faith and Fear Book
Faith and Fear in Flushing: An Intense Personal History by Greg Prince (foreword by Jason Fry), is available now via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online booksellers.



This Month
April 2006
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30
About Us
Faith and Fear in Flushing made its debut on Feb. 16, 2005, the brainchild of two longtime friends and lifelong Met fans.

Greg Prince discovered the Mets when he was 6, during the magical summer of 1969. He is a Long Island-based writer, editor and communications consultant. Contact him here.

Jason Fry is a Brooklyn writer whose first memories include his mom leaping up and down cheering for Rusty Staub. Check out his other writing here.

To comment on the blog, register here. Or you can email us at faithandfear@gmail.com

Use Facebook? Come check out our page, or drop by the personal pages for Greg and Jason.

Or follow us on Twitter: Here's Greg, and here's Jason

Faith and Fear Shirts
Faith and Fear Numbers
The Faith and Fear in Flushing "numbers" shirt has been seen from Verona, N.J., to Venice. You can get yours right here -- price about as cheap as we can make it.

Blog Park @ FAFIF Yards
Dream Seats (Sit Back and Enjoy)
Amazin' Avenue
Metphistopheles
MetsBlog
Mets Guy in Michigan
Metstradamus
Mets Walkoffs
Mike's Mets

Field Level (Close to the Action)
Always Amazin'
BlueAndOrange.net
Eddie Kranepool Society
Hot Foot
MetsGeek
The Mets Police
Real Dirty Mets Blog

Loge (Unique Perspective)
The Ballclub
Brooklyn Met Fan
Dana Brand Mets Fan Blog
The InterMet
Loge 13
Mets Are Better Than Sex
Mets Grrl
Met Silverman
My Summer Family
No No Hitters
Optimistic Mets Fan
Remembering Shea
Section 528
Take the 7 Train
Yankees 2000 Curse

Auxiliary Press Box
Daily News: Surfing the Mets
John Delcos' NY Mets Report
Flushing Fussing
Improve Conditions (Tim Marchman)
Journal News: The LoHud Mets Blog
Newsday: On the Mets Beat
Post: Mets Chat
The Record: Amazin' Stories
Star-Ledger: On the Mets
Times: Bats (Mets Posts)
WFAN: Ed Coleman

Mezzanine (Great Distance)
213 Miles From Shea
Archie Bunker's Army
Chicago Mets Fan
It's Mets for Me
Let's Go Mets
Lone Star Mets
Mets Fan in Chicago
Southern Mets
Transplanted Mets Fan

Upper Deck (What a Crowd!)
24 Hours From Suicide
Betty's No Good
Bitter Bill
Global NY Mets Fan Blog
Go Mets Die Braves
Gotta Believers
I Hate the Mets
Matt Himelfarb
Met Baseball
Mets Fans Forever
Mets Fever
Mets Heads
Mets Lifer
Mets Merized Online
Mets Prospect Hub
Mets Prospects
Mets Today
Metsies & Other Musings
Misery Loves Company
Mostly Mets
Mr. Metzyzptlk
Never Forget '69
Oh Murph
Perfect Pitch
Pessimets
Pick Me Up Some Mets
Priced Out of the Citi
Rational Mets Musings
The 'Ropolitans
Seven Train to Shea
Studious Metsimus
The Wright Stuff
Ya Gotta Believe
Zisk Online

Mets Extra
You Could Look It Up
Baseball Almanac: Mets
The Baseball Cube
Baseball Library
Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Reference: Mets
Cool Standings
Cot's Baseball Contracts
ESPN: Players
ESPN: Scores
Hall of Fame
Metaforian
Mets by the Numbers
Retrosheet
Salary vs. Performance
Ultimate Mets Database

The Youth of America
Buffalo Bisons
Binghamton Mets
St. Lucie Mets
Savannah Sand Gnats
Brooklyn Cyclones
Kingsport Mets

The Braintrust
Daily News
The Journal News
Newsday
New York Post
The Record (N.J.)
The Star-Ledger
New York Times

Road Apples
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Miami Herald
Philly.com
Washington Post

Press Notes
Ballhype
ESPN Clubhouse: Mets
ESPN Local
MLB Press Pass
Sports Illustrated: Mets
Sports Illustrated Vault
SportsSpyder
Yahoo Mets

Grant's Tombs
Polo Grounds
Shea Stadium
CitiField

Out of Town Scoreboard
Ballparks, Arenas & Stadiums
Ballparks of Baseball
Ballpark Tour
Baseball Pilgrimages
Clem's Ballpark Diagrams
Digital Ballparks
Frank's Ballparks
Jay Buckley Baseball Tours
Mike McCann's Engaging Images
Stadium Page

Frequency
Bob Murphy
CW 11
Gary, Keith & Ron
MLB Extra Innings
Neil Best's Watchdog
NY Baseball Digest
Radio Roadtrip
SNY
WFAN
XM Radio
YouTube: JPhilips41

The Picnic Area
19th Century Mets
100 Greatest NY Days
Armchair GM
Bad Mets
Brooklyn Ballparks
Bugs and Cranks
Carl's Mets Page
CBS Sportsline: Mets
Centerfield Maz
Crosstown Rivals
DGW Photo Blog
Eephus Pitch
Flushing University
Forgotten New York
Gotham Baseball
Hot Dog Vending at Shea
Howard Megdal
I Heart Mets
Inside Pitch
Jackie Robinson Foundation
Knuckleball From Hell
Long Island Ducks
Mathematically Alive
Meet the Matts
Met Camp
Met Fan Book
Mets Fan Club
Mets Images
Mets Pulse
Mets Short
Mets Tube
Mets Zone
New York Mets Hall of Records
NY Mets Report
NY Sports Day
NY Sports Dog
NY SportSpace
A Piece of Shea
Productive Outs & Cracker Jack
Pro Sports Daily: Mets Rumors
A Quest for Keith
Record Online
SABR NYC
Save the Apple
SportSnipe
Steve's Mets Photos
TNYM
True Fans Bleed Blue & Orange
Very Unofficial Mets Site

Extreme Baseball
At Home Plate
Baseball Analysts
Baseball Bookshelf
Baseball Card Blog
Baseball Crank
Baseball Fever
Baseball Limo
Baseball Talmud
Baseball Think Factory
Baseball Toaster
Blogging Baseball
Bobby V's Way
Brent Mayne
Cardboard Gods
Cardboard Junkie
The Dead Ball Era
The Dugout
Dugout Central
Excruciating Baseball Lists
Hardball Times
Israel Baseball League
Japan Baseball Daily
Jewish Major Leaguers
Life in the Minors
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
Quality At-Bats
Rob Kirkpatrick 1969
SABR
Sports Collectors Daily
Squeeze Play Cards
Stats on the Back
Streetplay
Super '70s Baseball Cards
Topps Baseball Card Blog
United States of Baseball
USA Today
Write On Sports
Yard Work

Multipurpose Stadium
American Legends
Blooming Ideas
Brooklyn Mutt
Can't Stop the Bleeding
The Daily Fix
Dan Shanoff
Deadspin
Gelf Magazine
Getting Paid to Watch
Get Untracked
Gil Meche Experience
Hot Stove New York
Jeff Pearlman
The Jestaplero
Joe Posnanski
Ladies...
Legend of Cecilio Guante
Mike's Neighborhood
New York Magazine: The Sports Section
Riding With Rickey
Scratchbomb
Straight Flushing
Uni Watch
Uni Watch Blog

The Rotunda
Amazinz
Crane Pool Forum
Grand Slam Single
Happy Recap Board
Mets Refugees
The Mofo
Talk Baseball

Everybody's Comin' Down
Mets: Official Site
The 7 Train
LIRR

View Article  OK, 160-2
Well, rats.

It's a funny game -- you go from marveling at being behind in exactly two innings to wondering how on earth the team got beat by the likes of Tomo Ohka. Stifled, in fact. Well, so it goes. I'll take 8-2 for the next 10 games with nary a complaint. Meanwhile, some thoughts:

* Does Jorge Julio have options? I'm not ready to run him out of town on a rail or moan that I would have preferred more time in the lukewarm bath that was Kris Benson, not with what the radar gun shows on Julio's fastball. But he's obviously all kinds of messed up and he's equally obviously a sensitive sort. The fans were booing him during Opening Day introductions (which was ridiculous, but too late for that) and Julio doesn't look like the kind of player who can keep that from getting into his head and doing all sorts of damage.

* Speaking of booing, the Carlos Beltran nastiness seems to be behind us. A week ago the stadium would have been deafening after he let that weird little dunker from Prince Fielder fall in front of him. Today the fans shrugged it off. Who says New Yorkers can't let bygones be bygones now and again?

* What exactly does Jose Valentin bring to the table? I know you're supposed to give a player 40 games before making judgments, but that can't apply to pinch-hitters. Valentin has shown absolutely nothing.

* Still, Valentin might stick around given Victor Diaz's continuing fits of dopiness, like that awful misplay last night. The way Willie looked at Diaz from the dugout, I wouldn't have been entirely surprise to see Victor immediately turn to stone. Something tells me he'll be looking at the real-estate listings for coastal Virginia before too terribly long.

* On the flip side, the chiding finger wag Delgado gave Wright after his poor throw last night was priceless, particularly with that million-watt smile of his.

* Gary Cohen gets unconditional love from me, but some SNY producer should talk to him about those shots of the booth. Every time we get one there's Gary staring at Darling or Keith like he's Superman using his X-ray vision, then turning that same laser-beam look into the camera. Frankly, it's a little creepy. Gary! Relax! You're among friends!

* Speaking of SNY, why do I have to look at Derek Fucking Jeter every half-inning? If he's not hitting against Josh Beckett in a videogame, he's trying to sell me a Ford or showing me around his "crib" or just smirking about something or other. I thought the whole idea of our network was less looking at DFJ. Instead, I probably see him for more minutes per game than Cliff Floyd. Enough. I hearby announce my boycott of all products using His Smugness as their spokestool. *

I'm gonna quit before this gets all Larry King. Ben Sheets tomorrow. Ulp.

* Since I don't play console games or have a car, I'll grant this is completely symbolic.
View Article  Carry On and Carryover
Good morning, fellow fans of the best team in baseball. Our winning streak is extended to seven, our co-best start in franchise history remains intact and so does our four-game lead over the second-place team — five in the all-important loss column, a queue I thought we might wind up visiting after vintage Glavine gave way to shaky Aaron, but, as mentioned previously during this most pleasant skein, it's a team effort. There will be nights when it's Heilman picking up the starting pitcher, just as it was the formerly unlikable starter who gave the generally dependable bullpen a wide enough berth to stumble but not falter.

A fella could get used to this kind of sameness. On this count, I won't be careful what I wish for. You know that Twilight Zone episode in which the small-time crook dies and thinks he's gone to heaven because he's receiving everything he's ever dreamed of — and receiving it with no exertion of effort — and he tells his celestial guide, played by Sebastian Cabot, that he's bored with it and he wants to go to the "other place," and Sebastian Cabot cackles and tells him, "This IS the other place!"?

Well this ain't that. This is pretty sweet. 8-1 feels about as ideal as could be and an immediate-future template on which I will gladly sign off. No complaints, Mr. French. No jadedness here, not with the likes of Carlos Lee looming for at least another eight at-bats this weekend. As the sun shines over Metsopotamia and I prepare for my second try at my first game at Shea, I say carry on, Mets, carry on.

The standings say we're 8-1, but I'm thinking we're riding a 20-5 wave. No, that's not a projection, but what the Mets have compiled dating back to last September 16. What am I, some kind of Jimmy Rollins advocate? Have I lost my sense of direction? Don't I know that when one season ends, it ends and that we start fresh?

Yes, I do know that. But it strikes me that the way Willie's Mets didn't quit at the end of 2005, after they initially collapsed, may have carried over at least a little. True, some of the heroes of the Great Salvation — Jakey, Bert, Piazza, Padilla — are no longer a part of it all, but I think the culture carryover is genuine. You may dimly recall that the Mets were rocking through the Wild Card race when they essentially stopped playing ball at the end of August, spiraling into a dreary and familiar 3-15 disappearing act. Just when it seemed like a case of Howe We Doin' was in full effect, they turned themselves around and finished 12-4.

It could just as easily be attributed to picking up uncontested points in garbage time, but I don't think so. Randolph instilled a blend of professionalism and expectations throughout 2005 and his team never quite reflected it until those final two weeks when they seemed to play like the slogan said. Next year was finally now, albeit better better late than never. Remember, they were beating the Marlins and the Phillies who desperately needed those games, sweeping the Nationals on the road who had just embarrassed us at home and taking a couple from the Braves, which is never a bad habit to get into.

It's the first season in quite a while when the Mets aren't trying to erase some predecessor humiliation, and I don't think it's a coincidence that the results have been positive. The highly touted imports aren't saddled with the burden of changing the atmosphere and the holdovers have are benefiting from persevering through the growing pains of 2005.

Except for David Wright, who dared to strike out Friday night for the first time all season. Tsk, tsk, don't let that happen again, young man.

Congratulations to our heretofore Snigh-deprived readers in Western Connecticut whose cable provider, Charter Communications, has gotten with the program and added the most important network in the world to their suddenly vital television machines. In particular, I'm happy for my friend Larry who badgered customer service representative "Jim" for a reported half-hour last week until "Jim" hung up in tears. "Just give this guy his Mets games already! I can't take another phone call like that!"

Like the 2006 Mets, whatever it takes, folks, whatever it takes.