Tales Of A Transplanted Mets Fan

Transplanted ex-Met Mike Hampton reminisces about Shea Stadium

2008-08-21T08:58:00.001-04:00

From today's Sporting News interview with Mike Hampton:

Q:What came into your mind when you arrived at Shea Stadium on Tuesday?

A: Honestly, the 2000 NLCS. We were facing the Cardinals. The atmosphere was just electric. It was just the best time in the world for me career-wise. Just to be able to go out there and win and get to go to the World Series is something I will never forget.

Junkees Add Another

2008-07-30T20:49:00.003-04:00

Apparently they didn't have enough players on their past or current roster who had been accused of steroid abuse, so they added another today. The Yankees traded resurgent reliever Kyle Farnsworth for declining Ivan "Not so Pudge-y anymore since steroid-testing" Rodriguez. Welcome to the Junkees, Pudge.

Billy Joel is a Jerk (Part II)

2008-07-26T14:49:00.000-04:00

I got a couple angry comments to my recent post, "Billy Joel is a Jerk." Yeah, I admit, I have a love/hate relationship with the guy. I love him because I grew up with his music, and as a Long Islander he's practically a local hero. On the other hand I hate him because he's eschewed pop music (for dubious reasons) and he's become a greedy bastard who milks his fans for every penny.

He gave me more ammo recently when it was announced that he'd be performing the last concert ever at Shea Stadium. Tickets went on sale, and sold out in like an hour or something. So what did they do? Added a second show, of course! Meaning, those 50,000 people who bought tickets to what they thought was the Last Concert Ever At Shea Stadium suddenly found themselves with tickets to... The Second-To-Last Concert Ever at Shea Stadium. Nice.

"Forgiveable," people said to me. It's nothing to get worked up about. I just have a bias against the guy and will look for any reason to dis him, they said. OK. It's going to be the same concert anyway, right? Yeah, except until the concerts actually happened.

The Wednesday night show, according to a friend of mine who was there, featured an overweight, out-of-breath, "pumpkin-headed" Joel who was barely able to hit the notes. But the stage looked cool. And there were special guests! A group of A-minus list pop stars like John Mellencamp, the overrated John Mayer, and Don Henley. OK, not bad.

Until Friday night rolls around. Same pumpkin-head, same stage... But the special guests? A little different. How about Roger Daltrey, Garth Brooks, Steven Tyler, and... Paul F*ckin McCartney. Are you kidding me? Are you KIDDING Me. Everyone knows The Beatles performance at Shea Stadium (the first concert ever at Shea) in 1965 is one of the most famous concerts of all time, and who better to put a lid on the whole thing than Sir Paul himself. (Yes, McCartney was in a band before Wings) Holy moly. So, you still don't think the Wednesday-nighters got ripped off?

Transplanted ex-Met Carlos Gomez hurt while making catch

2008-07-26T14:45:00.000-04:00

Carlos Gomez sustained a lower back injury when he crashed into the padded wall while making a catch in yesterdays Twins game against the Indians. Making a long chase after a Ben Francisco fly ball, Gomez jumped, caught the ball, and slammed into the outfield wall. He crumpled on the warning track and spent several minutes writhing in pain before he was immobilized on a backboard, loaded on a cart and transported to a Cleveland hospital. Gomez returned to the ballpark about 10 minutes after the end of the game, saying he "never had so much pain in my life," An MRI came back negative.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8379808/Twins%27-Gomez-hurt-while-making-catch

Sign Ollie!!

2008-07-26T09:26:00.001-04:00

The friggin Junkees traded for Transplanted X-Met Xavier Nady, the right-handed bat the Mets have been missing ever since they traded him for Oliver Perez and Bert Hernandez a few seasons ago.

After a mind-wrenching, several-seasons-long stretch of alternating brilliant/horrible starts, O'Perez finally has found his groove, mere months away from free agency. In April and May we were wondering if the Mets should try to sign him to a contract. Even though lefthanders with his stuff aren't easy to come by, his inconsistency drove us to agita so often that we were just about ready to be done with him. Well, the time has come to grit our teeth and overpay for the Scott Boras client. He's a lefty, he can dominate the Phillies (and Junkees), and he's young. And yesterday sealed the deal: signing O'Perez is the only way we can stomach seeing our boy Nady (whose jersey was hung up in the Mets dugout during the 2006 playoff run to honor the player who had to be traded because Duaner Sanchez's favorite restaurant didn't deliver) play right field for the friggin Junkees every day.

You hear me, Omar????!!! Sign Oliver Perez!

I'm headed to Shea tonight to see the FIRST PLACE METS take on the Cardinals. The Brandon Knight era begins. I think this guy is technically a rookie, since he's only been in 11 games in his career, even though he's closing in on his 33rd birthday. Hope the bullpen is rested. Yes, they are. Thank you Mike Pelfrey!

David Wright News

2008-07-08T10:15:00.001-04:00

I started stuffing the ballot for David Wright to be named to the all-star game, but then I remembered how much his performance tailed off after last year's appearance and thought that maybe he's better off taking the three days off. If he makes it in by 4 votes, blame me.

Biggest Game of The Year

2008-07-08T10:07:00.001-04:00

My boss is a big Phillies fan, and yesterday morning I walked into his office and proclaimed last night's game as the biggest game of the year for the Mets. A chance to have a winning road trip, take 3 of 4 from the Phils, move to withing 2 1/2 games of first, and find out what Pedro has left in the tank. Howie Rose must have heard me, because he said the same thing about 50 times during the radio broadcast last night. My boss said the Phillies were due for an offensive breakout. He was right. But, too little too late.... Mets Win!

Mets Fast Forward

2008-06-12T13:31:00.001-04:00

Mets Fast Forward is a great program on SNY, especially the morning after a west coast night game. They show the highlights of the previous game, in a one-hour period. This is a great way to watch a game... except when SNY runs the results of last night's game in the crawl at the bottom of the screen!!! Brilliant, just brilliant.

Not To Worry Ed McMahon...

2008-06-12T13:21:00.001-04:00

..you may already be a winner in the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.

Link: Ed McMahon: It's The Economy

Schneider Still Sidelined

2008-04-29T14:32:00.001-04:00

Brian Schneider remains in the hospital with a staph infection in his left thumb, unsure when he'll be able to return to the team.

Says my brother in law Len:

"I just wanna know how many times Schneider took the old saying 'rub some dirt on it' literally over the past few weeks. Obviously, the old adage needs to be changed to, "just rub some alcohol in it so you're not hospitalized and intraveneously fed for a week'. "

Re: Confusion

2008-04-27T22:01:00.001-04:00

This is a controversy. In some places I'm reading Wright tried to convince him to go out... in other places I read Wright told him NOT to go. Delgado was asked about it after the game and he claimed he's only given two curtain calls his whole career... after his 4 homerun game, and when he hit his 400th. He says he has too much respect for the game to give a curtain call after a solo homer in the seventh. I don't know what to think.

Mets Beat Braves, Fashion Beats Smoltz, Delgado Beats Ball But Won't Beat Fans

2008-04-27T16:48:00.001-04:00

The Mets beat the Braves today at Shea, taking two of three from Atlanta.

John Smoltz looked really bad today. I don't mean his lousy pitching performance. I mean the schmuck buttoned his jersey wrong and pitched six innings with the ATLANTA across his chest all askew.

Apparently Delgado thought he was Beltran of 2006 today and refused to take a curtain call. Unlike Julio Franco, David Wright couldn't convice him to go out there. As Ron Darling noted in the broadcast, the fans are undefeated in this town. So now Delgado can go play first base in wherever Rey Ordonez is playing, along with the rest of the idiots who tried to take on Mets fans.

Mets Retired Numbers: Mike Piazza vs. Gary Carter

2008-04-18T11:33:00.001-04:00

At Opening Day, the Mets announced that Shea would go up as an official "retired" entity, along with the #s 41, 14, 37, and 42. To date, Tom Seaver is the only Mets player to get his number retired. We speculated on who else might get the honor. I felt confident that Gary Carter was the next to be bestowed the honor, because he's now a Hall Of Famer, like Seaver, led the Mets to a World Series, like Seaver, and his number has not been used by the Mets since he was elected. My friend said that Mike Piazza deserved to have his number retired much more than Gary Carter, because he felt that Piazza spent more of the best years of his career with the Mets than did The Kid. Additionally, he felt Piazza was more of a "Franchise Player" like Seaver, as compared to Carter, who was more of a cast of stars on the 1986 squad. My friend went so far as to say that Strawberry, Hernandez or Gooden deserved to have their number retired than Carter. So, he challenged me to take a look at it.

I still don't think that the Mets will retire anyone's number who is not in the Hall Of Fame, but after looking at this, I have to agree that Piazza is more deserving of having his number retired by the Mets than Gary Carter is of the honor.

To calculate % of career as a Met I used games played as a Met / Games in players career.

I compared Carter's offensive stats with Piazza, even though I don't think it's fair since they played in different eras. When you look at their careers side by side keeping that in mind, they are pretty similar, But after looking at their Mets careers in context of their total careers, Piazza was more of the franchise player than Carter was, and Piazza played more of his best years with the Mets than Carter did. And actually, Ed Kranepool arguably deserves the honor more than anyone.

What do you think?

Citigroup reports $5.1 billion loss on hefty write-downs

2008-04-18T10:37:00.001-04:00

NEW YORK - Citigroup Inc. lost $5.1 billion during the first quarter and will eliminate about 9,000 more jobs, as poor bets on mortgages and leveraged loans lopped billions of dollars from its investment portfolio

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080418/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_citigroup

I'm sure the 9,000 people losing their jobs will LOVE to see Citi Field inaugurated next year. Wonder how many paychecks they could write for the money spent on naming rights?

Opening Day is Just A Day Away!

2008-03-29T21:00:00.002-04:00

Wow - Monday kicks off the 2008 Mets season. I am stunned when I look back and think about the last year for me, personally, since the last time the Mets played an Opening Day. A lot of ups and downs, tons of twists and turns, and more change than you could imagine possible in a year. My wife and I did just about everything you could do in a year. We got a second dog, got pregnant, adopted out said second dog after she relentlessly fought with first dog, sold a house, changed jobs, moved to New Jersey, lived in a hotel for a month, bought a house, and gave birth to our little Mets fan. Somehow in that time period we also managed to squeeze in a planned trip to Mexico and an unplanned trip to Iowa.

And now here we are. Somehow this blog survived through it all (barely), and we're staring straight-faced, just hours away from Jose Reyes stepping into the batters box to start the new season, with none other than Johan Santana making the Opening Day start. My first season back in the Northeast, and the Mets' last at Shea. Spectacular.

There's been a lot of dismay expressed by Mets fans lately, over El Duque and Fernando Tatis making the roster over Ruben Gotay and Mike Pelfrey, respectively, and to that I say this: A March where our biggest gripes are the identities of the fifth starter and the sixth infielder is a very fine month indeed. So Gotay is now a Brave? Meh. Could that "come back to bite us," as many fans and reportedly one Met expressed? Perhaps. But not every Met that goes to the Braves is Matt Franco. Some of them are Todd Pratt. And Pelfrey needs to grow a pair before he can pitch every fifth with the big club.

Is the team perfect? No. But perfect is what the New England Patriots were. At least before my son was born during halftime on February 3rd.

Lets Go Mets!

Mets News Heard This Afternoon On ESPN Radio - All Star Game at Citi Field

2008-03-13T15:11:00.001-04:00

Schuck and His Lap Dog were doing some Big East basketball thing today, so I swung the tuner over to ESPN Radio. Just before noon, some crack reporter (can't remember whom) called in with a report after speaking with Jeff Wilpon. His breaking news update:

Jeff said that an announcement will be made soon about an All Star Game to be played at Citi Field
When asked about Willie Randolph's job security, Jeff said "he's under contract for the next couple seasons"
There is some flexibility in the budget to add payroll if the right opportunity comes along
There is a job waiting for Mike Piazza in the Mets organization, whether in broadcasting or in some capacity, whenever Mike decides to retire. Jeff said he's waiting for Mike to retire to discuss options with him.

So there you go.

Transplanted Ex-Mets Update: Armando Benitez

2008-03-11T20:53:00.001-04:00

Everyone's favorite ex-Mets closer Armando Benitez has signed a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. I remember going to Photo Day at Shea one year and seeing Armando pout because he wasn't getting a big enough crowd from the fans for pictures. I never had so much appreciation for John Franco as when I saw Armando struggle so much as closer, despite a ridiculously fast fastball. It proved that John Franco's save total wasn't just a matter of pitching in the right innings, but that to be a closer requires a certain special kind of mentality that transcends "stuff." I rarely agree with Schmuck and His Lap Dog, but they are dead-on when they say the Junkees would be much better served grooming Joba to be the closer of the future than trying to re-invent him as a reliever. Why Russo keeps bringing up one poor start as a college player is beyond me, but you can't expect them to ever make a point without at least one knucklehead comment.

Know what's hilarious? Here in Central Jersey, I can get SNY on DirecTV, but not the YES network or the Phillies stations. Meanwhile, down in the baseball wasteland of North Carolina, I was able to get both the Mets and Yankees stations, as well as the Nationals on MASN, and could get Braves games on the radio.

There's going to be a hockey game at Yankees Stadium next winter, to close out the building. How do we push a movement to have the Jets play at Shea in November? After all, the friggin Jets were named after the planes that flew over their heads as they played in Flushing, for crying out loud!

My 7-Pack tickets showed up in the mail this weekend! As Carlos Baerga once said, "Show Up At Shea," because Abu Dhabi Field seats are gonna be real hard to come by.

Billy Joel is a Jerk

2008-02-20T17:17:00.001-05:00

So, 50,000 people or whatever bought tickets to a Billy Joel concert thinking they were going to see the last concert ever at Shea Stadium, and now they are only going to see the second-to-last concert ever at Shea. Nice. What a jerk.

http://mets.lohudblogs.com/2008/02/19/piano-man-encore/

Transplanted Ex-Mets Update: The Joe McEwing Era has ended

2008-01-17T10:27:00.001-05:00

Tell Cooperstown to start etching the plaque. Metsblog passes along word that Joe McEwing has hung up his cleats. Somewhere, Tony LaRussa is having a whiskey sour in his honor.

Whenever I hear McEwing's name, I think of when my buddies and I had the Sunday pack in the loge section, and behind us sat this husband and wife pair who had an unhealthy obsession with McEwing. "JOOOOOOOOEEEEEEYYYYYYY!!!" they would scream like loons at the guy, over and over and over again. "Best player on the team!," they insisted, while the guy took a mini bat and banged it on the metal railing, incessantly.

ONE TIME McEwing got a big hit after their chanting, and in response the clown remarked "See? It pays to be rude."

Name Doug's Kid!

2008-01-17T08:34:00.001-05:00

Doug in the comments section of the previous post, has a son due in two months, and presumably a very patient spouse. He says he's looking for "just the right Met name" for his new kid.

He says Shea is in the running, but it's too feminine and too Irish. Doug, don't forget that Larry Chipper Jones named his daughter Shea in honor of how well he hit in the ballpark. If that's not the biggest kick in the teeth to Mets fans I don't know what is. I think Shea is still a good dog name, though. Next dog I have I might name after Chipper's daughter.

Seaver is another option for Doug. I like this idea. I'd probably cast my vote for this one.

I named my dog Mookie, but that would probably give your Jewish grandmother some agita.

Let me throw a few names out there:

Tug (but I hope you're a better dad than McGraw was)

Murphy (but you thought Shea was too Irish)

Agee

Carter

Other suggestions, readers?

Booooooooorrrrrrrring

2008-01-14T20:23:00.000-05:00

Man, is this just the most uneventful offseason in Mets memory, or what? We traded arguably our most exciting young player this side of Jose Reyes for a rightfielder who can't hit lefties and a catcher who can't hit anything. Other than that, the biggest baseball news coming out of Flushing is we have a neato first base coach in 2008.

If the players we sign can't be stars, at least they have semi-interesting names: Steven Register, Matt Wise, and Angel Pagan. If only these players were any good, New York's copy editors could have a lot of fun writing headlines about them.

Metsblog must have posted 8,000 different articles about Johan Santana rumors, and absolutely nothing of substance to report. Not really Matt Cerrone's fault, but it's really gotten retarded. If Hank Steinbrenner coughed up a nickel for every time he said the Junkees were in or out of the Santana Sweepstakes, Cashman would have the $200 Million it's gonna take to sign the guy. The Mets don't say a damn thing - just leak rumors to Schmuck Francesca that the Twins want Reyes and the Mets won't trade him.

I've plunked down my bills for two sets of seven packs, ensuring that I'll see the last ever Shea opener and the final regular finale at my church... I am just so damn used to the Mets winning the World Series in December every year that I just can't get over the lack of a big splash this year. Heck, how about a little splash? Sign Mike Piazza to be the backup backstop and run Rapist Ramon out of town already. I'm glad we no longer have any known juicers on the roster, but I'd be even happier if we didn't have anyone who had been convicted of assault on a female either. Hey, it's my soapbox I can preach if I want to.

Roger Clemans looked liked the biggest liar in the world on 60 minutes this month, but if he really does follow through with the lawsuit - I mean really follow through and drag it all the way through the courts, and really takes the stand under oath before Congress and says if he used steroids he should be kept out of the hall of fame and be made to give back his Cy Youngs, I'll give him a smidgen of the benefit of the doubt. Until then he's Roider Clemens to me. And Paul LoDuca can shut the hell up.

Man, I wish I had more real baseball to write about.

My son is due in 27 days and we had a baby shower this weekend. I am proud to say that besides all teh other very generous gifts we got, I'm excited to report my kid's brainwashing will begin on day one, when he arrives into this world equipped with Mets pacifiers, Mets receiving blanket, several Mets T-shirts including a David Wright #5 tee, Mets shorts, Mets plush baseball, a Mets rattle, a Mets picture frame, and perhaps best of all, a Mr. Met crib mobile. Awesome.

Now we'll just see if the kid shows up on Feb. 15th, the day pitchers and catchers report. That would be the second best arrival date after Feb 2. Groundhog Day, of course. So for the rest of my life I can embarrass the kid by telling the story of his birthday, when the doctor held aloft my new baby boy, who then saw his shadow and we had six more weeks of winter.

Wocka wocka wocka.

Transplanted Ex-Mets Update: Hideo Nomo

2008-01-04T16:22:00.001-05:00

Transplanted ex-Mets pitcher Hideo Nomo has signed a minor-league contract with the Kansas City Royals.

Hey, never count this guy out against a comeback. How many times in his career has he seemed to be done, only to pitch well again?

Roger The Dodger

2008-01-03T10:06:00.001-05:00

New Year New Blog

2008-01-02T13:59:00.001-05:00

It's been quite awhile since I last posted in this spot - understandable to all of my readers, I mean both of my readers, I hope. I changed states, changed jobs, and pretty much everything. My wife and I are expecting our first child just about six weeks from now, and from that pont on I'll begin my attempts to make sure my son is a Mets fan.

So, since I'm now in New Jersey, I guess I'm technically not a Transplanted Mets Fan, but I am of course still a Mets fan with a need to vent my thoughts. My surfing ability is limited from my work computer due to a firewall, and my blogging ability is limited at home due to time constraints, but even though my new job blocks my own blog from the company firewall, I can still post via e-mail... So that's what I'll do.

It's been a frustrating offseason following a frustrating season, but my buddies and I bought two Shea Stadium ticket plans anyway. We'll go to Opening Day and get our schedule magnet, and we'll go to the last regular-season game at Shea Stadium as well. We bought tickets for three seats, to 14 games in all, and are dividing them up amongst the four of us. I'm choosing my games carefully, making sure not to abandon my wife for too many nights too close together. Despite the warnings from my friend, I am determined to get my kid into Shea Stadium before they knock the place down, just so I can get a picture of him there, to prove he was there! And if I can get his first word to be "Mookie" I'll be proud papa indeed...

So Happy 2008, Fellow Mets fans far and wide. Hope you'll continue to read this spot, even though now I am technically <gasp> a New Jersey Mets Fan.

Jose Reyes Chant in Greensboro North Carolina

2007-08-25T22:22:00.001-04:00

I have just three days left in North Carolina, and a few of us went to the Rock 92 BrewFest to have a good time during our last weekend in Greensboro. It was a four hour, all you can drink affair, and about three hours into it people were getting a bit drunk. Spontaneously, an Ole! Ole Ole Ole! soccer chant breaks out from these three or four college kids. I chime in, but of course sing it it with "JOSE" instead of "Ole." I did it really loud too, because otherwise you'd never even notice it, right? My buddy Dustin joined me in my Jose chant, while the other frat boys continued with the oles, probably unaware that I was pirating their fun.

I spotted a dude across the room in a Mets cap, eyeing me, wondering if I was a Mets fan, or if I was just some drunk named Jose who was imparting his own name into the song. Suddenly another guy comes running over and starts singing along with the Jose chant. At this point it was pretty even between the guys singing Ole and the ones singing JOSE. I think even one of the guys who had started the Ole chant had changed to Jose, just for the heck of it. Finally after a while we stopped and I asked the guy who had come over if he was a Mets fan. He said no, he's a Nationals fan. "Expos Suck!," I screamed. He said "No, I'm an ASTROS fan." I said, so what's with the Jose chanting then? He gave Jose a Reyes some kind of weird backhanded compliment and then called him an illegal immigrant or something. All righty then. So then I saw the guy with the Mets cap walking by, the one who was confusedly watching us sing. "PAUL LO-DU-CA!," I yelled. His face brightened and he gave me a knowing point.

That's the great thing about Mets fans. You spot a Mets cap in a foreign place and you can bet he's a real Mets fan. You see a dude in a Yankees cap in Greensboro, and odds are he's just a frat boy.

JOSE! JOSE JOSE JOSE! JO-SE! JO-SE.