Lots of entertainment tonight.
Highlights:
* It's a family game. Take Jose Valentin getting tagged out at home plate by little brother Javier after a rather eventful trip around the bases, including a no-doubt-double-take-inducing wave of the arm from Manny Acta. Jose had 360 feet to go; unfortunately, his tank apparently held enough fuel for 350. And no one could have guessed that Ken Griffey Jr. would find the best cutoff man a centerfielder could imagine in the pitcher's mound. Bam! Jose looked like he'd have been happy to take a few minutes there at home plate. Can't say I blame him.
* How perfect was it that Xavier Nady then promptly hit a conventional home run, with no need to tire oneself out or pick up third-base coaches or tangle with catchers? It's an unfair game, Jose.
* Trachsel going deep was high comedy in itself, particularly when he was then trying to rechannel his mantra and recalibrate his visualizations or whatever it was he does while the rest of the dugout wanted to bullyrag him for a home run.
* With the game safely in the W column, watching the Yankees and Phillies trade broadsides was entertaining too. There was no bad outcome at that point: Phillies win, they pick up no ground and I can wallow in a big mucky field of Schadenfreude; Phillies lose, we get back to 9 1/2 games and the Servants of the Beast still spend tomorrow muttering about how Moose didn't look right and they gave up seven runs. Life is good.
* Braves lost. They're 11 under .500 and John Smoltz is being asked if he'd accept a trade to help the club. Hypothetically of course.
* Keith dropping a muuuultitasking from that Red Roof Inn commercial that sticks in your mind like a bit of popcorn under a tooth.
* With Delgado reaching 20 home runs and Beltran at 19, Todd Hundley's single-season home-run mark seems like it could definitely be in jeopardy. Good. Nothing against Hot Rod, but I always thought that mark would be Piazza's and should be Piazza's. Never happened, but it's time for a new name atop the column.
* Four Mets -- Wright, Reyes, Lo Duca and Beltran -- are atop the All-Star balloting at their positions, and Glavine has to have earned a trip. For some strange reason my image of the All-Star Game has undergone a recent change from "ludicrous exhibition" to "cherished stitch in the fabric of the game." (My innate hypocrisy is always at the ready should I need it.)
* The Cyclones are back!
Lowlights? Hell, 33 years of being a Met fan ensures I can root around until I find a few. Let's see:
* Gary Cohen is too smart to either not have read Moneyball or to be misrepresenting it on the air. On what page in what possible universe does Moneyball suggest a hitter not be aggressive on a 2-1 pitch in favor of trying to work a walk? C'mon, Gary. You're better than that.
* Speaking of SNY, a pox on in-game interviews. Let Trachsel go take a leak and get an ice bag instead of discussing the ups and downs of his splitter. I've got half the night and all day tomorrow to dissect such things, as well as any points Sandy Alomar or Willie Randolph might have to make. Right now I've got a game to watch and so do they. Could we please do that?
* The Cyclones are back, but they got beat. They got beat by the Staten Island Yankees. They got beat 18-0 by the Staten Island Yankees. The grasping at straws in the postgame press release is pretty entertaining: "Wantagh native and Stony Brook alumni Nick Abel pitched the only back-to-back scoreless innings of the night. In addition, the Cyclones had runners on base in nearly every inning". Nearly every inning, huh? Still, the folks in the Cyclones press office did admit that this was one with "the final outcome never truly in doubt". Two touchdowns and two safeties and it was never truly in doubt? Gee, ya think?
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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. Like a Word With Us?
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Comments
Re: Laugher
by
hsimms
on Wed 21 Jun 2006 01:32 AM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
SNY - When come the closed captions so I can groove to
my tunes while the Mets kick butt ? SNY havn't responded to my email. Doesn't seemto be a prob when Mets are on WPIX. Re: Re: Laugher
by
Jason
on Wed 21 Jun 2006 02:21 AM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
I've wondered that too.
Surprised the differently abled (or whatever the term is these days) haven't raised hell about this. Reggie Jackson once claimed Tom Seaver was so good blind people came out to hear him pitch. Shouldn't deaf folks be able to see what Gary Cohen says? Re: Laugher
Another lowlight: Mets fans acting stupid.
I've seen my share of fights in the stands over the years, and I don't mind so much when its Mets fans battling Evil fans. I personally wouldn't spill a beer on someone or deck a guy, but I could understand the desire to annihilate an obnoxious visitor from the Bronx. Last night, however, was disgraceful. I was in Loge Box 15, and had a good view of the going-on a few sections over towards rightfield. Basically, loge people throwing beer and soda upwards to try to hit mezz box fans, mezz fans throwing bottles and spiling things down to loge, security late and ineffective. It got so bad that in the top of thr 9th, Delgado and Valentin actually turned to see what the commotion was. It was out of control. On the other hand, got to see some good things, too: pitcher homer (has it really been 4 years since the last one?), inside-the-park-almost, and the return of the Savior. Re: Re: Laugher
by
BrooklynRaider
on Wed 21 Jun 2006 11:38 AM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
I was in the Field Level section right below all the goings-on. Just drunken stupidity in the last inning of a laugher, but I agree with you on the slow response by Shea security. It just went on and on and it seemed like nobody was dealing with it at all.
Anyway, a fun night to be at the stadium, from Trach's homer to the Great Valentin Brothers Homeplate Showdown. I loved that Jose V. got a standing ovation for that play. Re: Laugher
by
Jacobs27
on Wed 21 Jun 2006 09:30 AM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
I was at that Cyclones game, Jason. It was pretty much the definition of awful baseball. While I was there we committed 4 errors. We could easily have been charged with 6. Our started, Jorge Reyes, (4-5, 5.20 ERA last year) sucked and then departed for someone who was even worse, and so on. Never seen so many line drives. The 'Clones did have some runners in scoring position, but they showed a remarkable Metsian inability to drive them in.
Bright side: 1) The 'Clones almost smashed a home run. A drive was caught over 400 feet to straight away center, but it wasn't enough. 2) After a bit of a tussel, I was able to come up with a foul ball thrown by J. Reyes. Close enough. 3) There's a big picture of Jakey on the wall, ridiculously skinny in his Cyclones uniform, alongside Duke Snider. Darker Side: Scott Kazmir is also on that wall in his Cylcones duds...oh well. Re: Laugher
by
Greg
on Wed 21 Jun 2006 10:06 AM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
Yankees beat Phillies? Distasteful but useful. As with everything when you own a ten-game lead in the all-important loss column (and a nine-game lead in the not-to-be-sneezed-at win column), benefiting from a Skanky victory feels different from how it did circa 1999.
Then: Oh please, Mr. Pinstripe, please help us! Now: What's that? You won too? Another game in the standings for us? Just put it over there with the rest of 'em. Now run along. Damn, it continues to feel good to be a gangsta. Re: Laugher
by
sp
on Wed 21 Jun 2006 12:10 PM EDT | Permanent Link
The best part of the SNY broadcast was Gary Cohen describing the 3-0 1st inning lead as "shades of The Road Trip". 5 games have passed since the Mets returned to Shea yet the road trip has earned its place as The Road Trip with no further explanation necessary.
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