The Mets and Everything Else

I just can’t focus on baseball anymore. I don’t know what it is. Well, yeah, actually I do. The Mets are playing in the worst stadium in the world out in Puerto Rico against the Marlins and everybody on the team seemed as if they were sleeping.

It’s not just that the Mets lost. It was how they lost. Reyes actually mishandled a ground ball on that awful artificial turf, J. R. Dickey’s knuckler wasn’t knuckling in the high heat and humidity, and, wonder of wonders, Jason Bay actually hit a homer. That was when I was sure I was in the bizarro world.

Anyway, it didn’t feel like a major league game, it didn’t look like a major league game, and it smelled like something very distasteful, except to dogs, who of course will eat anything and usually leave whatever’s left on my lawn.

Two more of these and I’ll begin throwing up.

Truth be told, I’m getting a little concerned. When Santana doesn’t pitch like Santana, there’s every reason to worry. When Angel Pagan isn’t playing, I fret a little more. And the fellow playing second base concerns me a little (Tejada).

But then I remember we’re still not into the break, and, all things considered, if you had told me the Mets would be in contention at the break back in May, I would’ve been thrilled. Those were really the dog days of Gary Matthews and Mike Jacobs, John Maine and Ollie Perez, Reyes batting third, and Omar and Manuel worrying big-time.

Everything they’ve done since those meager times has worked. Ike Davis, Takahashi (who pitches tonight), Jonathan Niese, Reyes back leading off, and all is Wright with the world, heh-heh.

So why worry? Enjoy and try to forget about the soccer for a while.

Watching Japan and Paraguay take it into overtime, or extra time to be exact, I’m thinking it might be more exciting to get on my roof and remove the disgusting wet leaves from behind the chimney. After watching just about every game, or pieces of every game, I’ve come to one conclusion…soccer’s fun to watch if either team has any real strikers.

Otherwise, it’s watching grass grow. As excited as I was to see the U.S. team do so well, they were lucky to score , pouncing on rebounds more often than not. They had teamwork, no doubt, they played hard, but the closest thing they had to a striker, Altidore, just never seemed to get anything done. He could run, he could jump, he could spin, he could do everything but look like a striker.

If he were a wide receiver in football, he’d be Braylon Edwards, a guy who can do all those great athletic things, but catching the ball is not usually one of them.

And soccer needs to take advantage of technology. Either use instant replay on goal chances or get refs who can see, or who don’t cheat. They’re worse than the MLB umps behind the plate if that’s even remotely possible. The officiating in FIFA’s premiere event has been horrendous, costing the U.S. at least two goals and practically eliminating England from the tournament.

Watching the Dodgers play the Yankees the other night, Jonathan Broxton, the great Dodgers closer, got no strike calls on the corners while Mariano Rivera struck a Dodger out on a ball at least a foot outside. It’s disgusting really. The only reason there isn’t more of an outcry is that the baseball season is so long. And they say the calls tend to even out. I say….not always.

At least Wimbledon’s been exciting. I’ve been half watching those matches and it’s nice to have a changing of the guard, which seems to be happening to a large extent, especially on the women’s side. Venus Williams just lost to an unknown with great legs named Pironkova and Clijsters just lost too. And I’m watching now a great match between a Kanepi and Kvitova.

Of course, Serena’s still in there so I’ll be sure to NOT watch the final. Watching her match against Sharapova, it was kind of amusing to see her waste one of her hateful , baleful stares at the umpire for what she perceived as a bad line call, only then to realize that she could challenge if she so desired, which she of course did not. If only she were half as classy as her sister Venus…..

Japan and Paraguay are in a shootout as this is written. I wonder if the umps can screw this up. Paraguay scores on their first attempt. (This is pretty cool). Endo now scores for Japan. Paraguay goes up 2-1…just barely. Japan ties it. So far the shots have been great. Paraguay scores once again as the goalie guesses wrong. Now Japan misses, hitting the bar. Things look bleak for Japan. Paraguay hits again. Japan has to put this next one in and does, right down the middle as he fakes the goalie out. Now Paraguay calmly puts their last shot into the net. Cool finish for sure.

On the LeBron front, the Nets just dumped Xi, thank God, and increased their number under the cap so they can grab two premium free agents. If you think they have any chance of landing LeBron, you’re really an optimist, and really nuts.

I still think King James will wind up in Chicago. And good riddance. I can’t imagine what brand of team basketball would ever be played with a James on the team. I know one thing. Whoever gets him better have a center. If not, they won’t be getting past LA.

But soccer, tennis, basketball and football are only background music, especially prior to the Fourth Of July. I’ll just feel better when the Amazin’s are back in the good ol’ USA and back in a real live major-league stadium, if not the friendly confines of CitiField.

And a nice pick-me-up for the dog days of August would be a big, live-armed pitcher.

Can't Be Distracted from Good Mets Baseball

Just like old times watching Aaron Heilman on the mound for Arizona trying to save it for the DBacks. He walks Jeter, walks Swisher….let’s see, there must be a Yankee he’s willing to pitch to. If he decides to pitch to Teixeira, it could get ugly.

Teixeira goes to 0 and 2. Now a foul ball. He gets Teixeira on a hard ground ball to first but the runners move up. Arod then sac flies Jeter…tie score…blown save… Heilman strikes again. He walks Cano intentionally. Let’s see if he can push the Yanks out of reach totally for an Arizona comeback.

Oh baby! He gets Cervelli to 0 and 2. He might just get out of this with just the blown save. And he does it! He strikes out Cervelli on a hard outside fastball. I’m glad the DBacks have him though. I had enough Heilman for several lifetimes as a Met.

Meanwhile, actually several hours ago, the Mets won again. And R.A. Dickey won again! It looked easy for him too. But Manuel didn’t let him finish it out. He figured K-Rod needed the work, they pointed out from the booth, a booth that actually contained Jerry Seinfeld for a while today. Perfect….Keith, Jerry and Gary Cohen. Nirvana.

But it’s been hard for me to concentrate on baseball at all, what with all the soccer action. (Granderson just hit one out for the Yanks to put them ahead). Watching the Americans squander opportunity after opportunity was driving me to distraction. When Donovan finally kicked in an easy one off a rebound, it was long overdue but no less welcome.

What a finish! It’s great to hear some nice things about this American team after two relatively lackluster performances against England and then Slovenia. But the win yesterday not only got them into the second round, it got them first place in Group C, which gives them Ghana and not Germany. That will probably wind up being big.

I can’t say though that I think Ghana will be any easier than any of the other tough games the Americans have played. On both offense and defense, they seem rather ordinary. They either get lots of lost scoring chances or let in an easy one, or give the crooked officials (I now, that’s way harsh but really) a chance to take the scores away.

But they wound up winning Group C. Pretty amazing, considering England was in the same Group C. Not that I found the Orange particularly good. So maybe the USA is for real, whatever that might wind up meaning. To me, the South Americans look pretty good in this tournament but I suppose we’ll be finding out in good time who’re the real soccer powers in 2010.

Another distraction from baseball for me has been Wimbledon. There’s nothing quite like warm weather and good tennis and white togs on everybody. But today’s action was ridiculous, one match going into a quite ridiculous number of sets in the longest match of all time. And it actually wound up being boring. That’s way too long….go with the tie breaker

Then there’s the drama surrounding LeBron James as to where he’ll be packing his sneakers next year, and almost as much intrigue as to how the NBA Draft will play out, for our local Nets especially. I’m thinking LeBron will wind up with Chicago when all is said and done. He’s from Cleveland, and Chicago’s not that far from home, compared to New York. And things worked out pretty well for Michael Jordan in Chicago.

What a way to make them forget Jordan! Play in the same town, win a few Championships and it’ll be Michael Who? I think Miami will be too hot, New York or New Jersey will be too iffy, and LA will be too slick. It’ll be Chicago.

And as for the Nets, unless Rod Thorn is the best actor in the world, he doesn’t sound sold on any of the players that will be there for his turn at number three. So there’ll be a trade in the Nets future. It’s anybody’s guess who they may be eying. I keep reading about power forwards they might want, and how the top available guys just aren’t optimal.

Maybe new Nets owner Prokhorov will bring in a big Russian, someone along the lines of the gigantic Russian in Rocky III. At least it would be more interesting.

Despite all the background noise though, it would be hard to be totally distracted from the Mets. They’ve been playing great baseball for quite some time now, and, as the core of this team has come on, Reyes and Wright especially, so have the Mets.

Reyes was big again last night, leading off the game with a big triple and then getting stranded but Reyes wasn’t done yet. With two outs in the third, he singled, stole second and scored the game’s first run when Wright delivered a big double. In the 5th, he hit a long homer to right, longer than you’d have thought possible.

Detroit finally managed to get him out in the 7th but by then the game was over. Dickey was rolling and the Tigers were toothless. So it wound up 5-0 at the end of things and the Mets were never threatened. They had achieved another CitiField win, a commonplace event in this remarkable 2010 season.

So Wright and Reyes have been finally fulfilling expectations. Jason Bay, even with his four hits the previous night, still seems too happy to walk in every at-bat, a trait that really isn’t that easy to understand from a guy who’s supposed to drive in runs.

But all’s well for the Mets. Except for the latest muckraking concerning Johan Santana, just about everything’s looking good. I’m hoping Pagan isn’t too seriously hurt after his removal from the game yesterday. Angel Pagan has been amazing.

So good in fact that Mets fans are now hoping Beltran just stays right where he is.

On the Mets and Home Plate Umpires

No hitting at all. Except for Ike, I guess. I’m watching the Mets play the Padres again in the first game of two they’re playing today and it doesn’t look good, once again. These Padres pitchers are really solid, I know, and the Pods do lead their division, but still. They can’t hit either. Snooze.

It’s raining here in beautiful Short Hills but not so much in Flushing Meadows apparently. Ike is at the plate as this is written, facing Gregorson, just one of those nice relievers the Pods send out day after day to befuddle the opposition. And Ike goes down swinging.

But it is what it is. The Mets are fun to watch. They get contributions from a lot of different guys. But they’ll lose their share of games, especially when Wright and Reyes and Jason Bay don’t do too much, which, today at least, is pretty much the story.

Luke Gregorson just struck out the side, Ike, Wright and Frenchie, but at least Wright struck out on a pitch that was about a foot outside. And some people think instant replay shouldn’t be allowed for balls and strikes. Not only shouldn’t there be instant replay but there shouldn’t be any need for an ump calling balls and strikes at all!

Just use the box, the one we see on our TV screens all the time. When the pitch is in the box, it’s a strike. How hard is that? Get rid of those obnoxious umpires who just want to go home anyway. There’s absolutely no need for them. Have a couple of fellows work the bases, including home, and that would be that.

They say pitching is dominating the hitters today. And it’s true. Just have those umps keep calling strikes for balls way out of the zone; just have those lazy umps call strikes on every check swing. If you want the game to come to some semblance of balance again, just get rid of that umpire calling balls and strikes.

I mean, I know it’s traditional and all, but what good are they? There would still be plenty of umpiring jobs available, in every league that couldn’t afford the technology, which basically means every league other than MLB.

There are lots of complaints too about the length of the games. I know there is some time wasted on players arguing with the umpire on called strikes, followed by the irate manager getting thrown out for questioning the ump’s eyesight (and heritage sometimes no doubt). No umpire, no argument. How can you argue with a box?

So let’s recap. Hitting would get better all over the league, games would be shorter, and everybody’d be a lot happier, except for the pitchers, of course, but they’d get over it as every pitcher would suffer equally, and ERA’s would go up one for everybody.

If the technology allowed computerizing the calls on the basepaths, I’d favor that too. That missed call at first base that erased Gallaraga’s perfect game really rankled. I don’t particularly care that the ump cried about it later on, to be perfectly honest. He had to show some contrition. It was right out there for everyone to see. It wasn’t even questionable. It was a horrible call, and one that he stuck vehemently to, before he saw the replay. And everyone saw the replay.

If I’m being harsh on umpires, I’m sorry, but no group deserves it as much as do the major league umpires. They’re arrogant, lazy, usually out of shape and very often too concerned about their impact upon the game, which is significant, I must say, unfortunately. I wouldn’t mind so much if they weren’t so horrible as a group. But they can’t seem to see what everyone else does.

Especially for balls and strikes, MLB should just use the box. It works on line calls in tennis wonderfully. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for baseball. Anyone who has seen their favorite hitter strike out on a pitch they couldn’t have possibly reached with a fishing pole would have to agree.

Think about it. How ridiculous is it to have everyone just be happy if the umpire is consistent with his strike zone? That means, it’s fine as long as a ball 6 inches outside is called a strike all the time. The same goes for those balls at the ankles or at the shoulder. Why should we continue to put up with it? Just get rid of the whole bunch of them.

The Mets just lost. Cohen tells me the last 22 Mets in a row were retired. Geez, that’s pretty bad hitting. Johan Santana was the victim again. You have to feel for a pitcher who never gets run support. I don’t know what mysterious factor is involved, maybe just the fates or baseball gods, whatever, but some pitchers just have no luck at all.

Baseball would still be exciting without that fat guy behind the plate. There’d be a little less melodrama, of course, but I’m sure the Lou Piniellas of the world would still get thrown out from time to time. There’d be more home runs, higher batting averages, more runs scored and very likely affect negatively only those pitchers who exist solely on locating their pitches, which, to me, is just a euphemism for pitchers who consistently get strike calls on non-strikes, thus driving the batters to distraction.

Pitchers with legitimate stuff would rise to the top of the rankings. The Jamie Moyer 47-year-olds would be phased out. When a pitcher lost his fastball, he’d be in trouble more often than not. Baseball would become a young man’s game again, which is as it should be, except in the American League, of course, which would still carry its forty or so designated hitters.

If a pitch is in the box, you get a white light. If it’s outside the box, you get a red light. There’d be no need for challenges. What’re we waiting for?