BOBBY V

I've taken some time digest to the baseball season,and while it wouldn't be the worst thing, I don't want Manuel back. I'd like to see Wally Backman, or yes...wait for it.....Bobby V.

This team has talent, and they are young, Bobby V could make it work.

LAST GAME AT SHEA

TIME TO SAY GOOD BYE?

Pedro is done, the Marlins own Big Pelf and we have no one to start on Saturday.

This can’t be good.

While I can think of 10 games that we “BLEW” I can’t think of any that we “stole” like so many have been stolen from us. After last September and this week, it’s making me much colder, much less excited about my team. These next 4 games could very well be the turning point in my Mets life.

Now I’m not naïve enough to say that if they fail to make the play-offs I’m done with them and I won’t watch them next year. That’s unrealistic, but I truly feel if they fail over the next 4 days, I can’t imagine going into 2009 investing the same commitment to them game in and game out, day in and day out that I have in the past. I wouldn’t expect to leave work early on opening day to see game 1, or exchange pitch by pitch texts with Neil while on vacation in Disney for 7 games straight to stay in the loop. I don’t think I’ll be yelling at my kids for making noise, when in reality I’m angry because Luis Castillo can’t get the run in the from 3rd base with one out in the 2nd inning.

Will I be fooled in December when the Mets bring in a new closer and 2 very highly priced set up men…no I won’t care, they went out and got the best pitcher on the planet this year and he did all he could, but he couldn’t save them, because as good as he was, this team blew 5 of his wins. So after a second straight year of failing when the money was on the line I won’t be invested and infatuated with them 24/7. I can’t be, there are more important things than sitting on your hands hoping Ryan Church will hit a 320 foot fly ball with 1 out and the based loaded.

I’m actually happy to say Jay was right, there won’t be TV in the wine loft, this way I know of at least 2 nights a week I won’t be able to sit and watch the my team tease me into thinking they are a contender, then just show me in September that they are a pretender.

I won’t miss having to listen to sport talk know nothings who give the “Big game by Santana, the Mets should easily go 4-2 now which means if the Brewers go 5-1,which they probably won’t do, they are in.” Oh yea, the problem with that speech is THE METS DON’T GO 4-2 WHEN THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO OR WHEN THEY NEED TO. Thank God Howard Stern is on all day long on Sirius 100.

There will be some summer nights when it hurts, and I am sure winter nights when I cry myself to sleep, breakups always do that, but over time wounds heal, we find other things to occupy our time, and we move on.
35 years of watching 90% of this team’s every at bat, every pitch, they’ve given me some great memories, and a lot of happiness, but with that always comes a ton of pain, and disappointment. After watching the same old same old last night, I think it’s best for both of us that on Sunday I’ll take one last trip out to the place I first saw a baseball game, first saw Tom Seaver, and first fell in love with this team and sport. On Sunday we’ll share one last night together, and as I say goodbye to Shea Stadium, maybe it’s best if I say good bye to the New York Mets.

METS LOST - NO CHANGE TO MAGIC NUMBER

PAINFUL

2 WEEKS LEFT

Here we go again, and yes we're still one game up, and yes the starting pitching has been solid, and the middle of the lineup has been hitting the ball, but the losing is just unbelievable. There are 14 to play, this week it's 4 against the Nats and 3 more next week against the Braves. Watching sports for so many years I've never dealt with what the Mets put us through last year, and now what we are going through again. The amount of winnable games they have lost is unreal.

But...they are still ahead, and we'll track the magic number this year, and hopefully this time we'll get it down to 0.

UGH

I can't take many more of these losses

THE METS AND THE BULLPEN (updated)

Simply put, it's been unacceptable.

This pen has blown way to many games. No one feels comfortable when we see the starting pitchers pitch count nearing 100 with a 2 (or even a 5)run lead, because we know here comes the awful tandem of Heilman, Sanchez, Feliciano, Smith and Schoeneweis. They gotta go. Every last one of them.

There's still 2 weeks left in the triple A season...I DEMAND they all be sent down, and bring up Eddie Kunz, Al Reyes, Ivan Maldonado, Willie Collazo, and Nate Field.

This has to be done, I can't sit on my couch with a nifty 3-1 lead after 2 comfortable hours of baseball thru 7, then have to endure 1 hour of 5 awful pitchers trying to get the last 6 outs....AND FAILING!!!!

Faithful readers...have I let you down yet? No, I have not..Willie had to go, he went...I offer solutions, Omar needs to act right now, send them down and let them remember what it's like to ride the bus and play in front of 3,300 fans who care most about the sausage race (pardon). We play 2 key games against the Phillies today and tomorrow, in Philly...we know that band box is a nightmare to bullpens, and withthe worst pen in the game I see nothing good happening. I WANT COLLAZO TO GET OUT UTLEY TONIGHT NOT SCHOENWEIS. WHEN BURREL SOMES UP TONIGHT IN THE 8TH WITH 2 MEN ON AND THE METS UP BY 2 WE NEED NATE FIELD TO GET HIM OUT.

Omar...this is not negotiable.

Am I being extreme? Hell yea I'm being extreme, and that's because I was the same guy last year who stayed calm and said, "we have 17 games left to play, all we have to do is go 8-9 and then Philly has to go 15-2 just to tie us"...well guess what, we didn't even go 8-9 and Philly not only tied us but passed us...I WILL NOT SIT BY IDLY THIS YEAR AND FAIL. Wake up Omar, bring up the reserves, and let's win this thing!!!!

DELGADO TURNS AROUND HIS SEASON

And according to this blog,it's all thanks to the Brooktwon WSOP Blog.

As faithful readers know we called for the firing of Willie Randolph early this year when we saw things had not changed from the embarrassing collapse of 2007. We installed the weekly Willie Watch, and apparently that feature became an instant "must see" each week in the Mets clubhouse and through out major league baseball. Finally Omar agreed and as we all know Willie was let go, and very quickly the Mets climbed the standings and are right back in contention where they belong.

Now as for Delgado, who is an admitted reader of the blog (he apparently loves Wine Loft News of the week) it seems the post where he was called out and renamed Carlos Delgottago, finally made him realize that the Met fans were down on him and we had had enough.

Well since that post, Delgado has raised his average from .229 to .253 and has hit 7 home runs and driven in 20 runs and are 14-6 in those games. Keep up the good work Carlos, we're watching, and rooting for you guys every at bat!!!

FERNANDO MARTINEZ

According to BMets.com, outfielder Fernando Martinez has been selected to participate in the All-Star Futures Game on July 13th at Yankee Stadium. Martinez will play for the World Team under Tino Martinez.

I'd love to get this kid in left field for 2009!!!

METS

I think Pedro is done

IT HAD TO BE DONE

Ok, so I missed it by one day.

Unfortunately the story today will not be about replacing Randolph with Jerry Manuel and moving forward, it will be about the way this situation was handled, but in reality, it had to be done. This team was under performing and someone had to take the hit. There is plenty of blame to go around, but the team was going south and something had to be done.

Wille ruined my September last year and I couldn't have him ruin my summer this year. He won't be missed, he’ll get another job in baseball, and he’ll ten times more than you and I ever will so I don't really care that he had to fly to California and get let go in the middle of the night.

And as for the Yankee fans calling this classless and embarrassing, mind your business, your organization isn't that far removed from running Joe Torre out of town, and all the Billy Martin insanity.

I WOULDN'T WANT THAT "DIRTY" YANKEE $$$ EITHER

READ THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE FROM THE DAILY NEWS...AND IF ANYTHING EVER HAPPENS TO ME AND JOBA CHAMBERLAIN REACHES OUT TO HELP MY WIFE AND KIDS, PLEASE TELL HIM TO KEEP HIS $$$.


The fiancee of a crane operator killed in last week's tragic collapse on Wednesday rejected an offer of help from Mets star Ryan Church because her future hubby was a Yankee fan.

A day after burying Donald Leo, Janine Belcastro said she couldn't accept the offer from the right fielder and his wife.

"Don was a die-hard Yankee fan," Belcastro said in a statement. "It would not respect his memory if he accepted this."

The grieving Belcastro added that she "greatly appreciated" the offer.

The money was to come from Church's participation in a Mets' fund-raiser for a variety of causes. A spokesman said Church will choose another charity.

There are so many things wrong with this team I can't even begin to list them all

The Mets bench is hitting .165

SUPER TUESDAY

Who will win more games in 08? Pedro or Joba?

I really believe Pedro’s got one more run in him.

While Joba’s figuring out how to be a starter and having to go through batters 2 and 3 times a night, which is something he didn’t ever have to do when he was dominating as a one-inning guy, Pedro will be making one more run through the National League, winning games with his stuff and smarts. Pedro will win more games in 2008 than Joba – by a wide margin.

Pedro’s arm is healthy and has had a year and a half off. Pedro is also motivated by the need to earn one last big payday. Pedro wants to leave NY the hero is is, and will always be in Boston.

Neither pitcher is going to do very deep in games, and the Mets’ bullpen is better than the Yankees’ specially with Joba not in the 8th anymore (how are they going to get through innings 6-8 without Joba? Kyle Farnsworth? Latroy Hawkins?)

Also the Mets are the better team and are going to finish with the better record. And they play in the National League. Pedro can work a line up, and use 80-mile per hour fastballs against the eight and nine hitters for easy outs. Joba will need to use all of his energy to get through five innings.

Either way, today is Super Tuedsay, as both guys take the mound, for New York, and baseball, it is a very exciting night.

GARY CARTER WANTS THE JOB

Well I'll give the Kid credit for giving an honest answer (that would be pretty refreshing to hear honesty come out of a Met manager's mouth) but I'm stunned at how he pulled no punches and didn't give the standard "I don't want to talk about someone else's job line" you always get.

Personally I'd much rather see Keith Hernandez get the offer, but I don't know if Keith has the commitment to a 162 game grind any more, but at this point, other than Rich Kotite or Issah Thomas I'm happy with anyone other than Willie in there.

Carter, when asked if he is interested in managing the Mets, should they fire Willie Randolph, said:

“Boy, I’ll tell you what, I would love that, guys. When I saw that on ESPN today, Mike & Mike, they were talking about it and immediately I got on the phone and I called Jay Horowitz and I asked, ‘Should I try to call Mr. Wilpon?’ If there is this going on I just want them to know of my availability. I’m only a phone call away because my contract allows me to leave the ball club. I could be in New York tomorrow, if necessary, because if there’s anything at the major league level I can leave this job…The comments that David Wright made saying that, you know, there’s no spark, there’s no fire, if anything I would love to bring that to the table because you know me, guys. I love the game, have a great passion for it and you know my enthusiasm, and hopefully I would be able to bring that to maybe help turn that ball club around. There’s way too much talent there for them to be a game under .500 and to lose four in a row to the Braves. That’s just kind of uncalled for and I think that they’ve just become complacent in some ways and ever since their demise of last year. And if you look at Willie’s record it is right around .500 since June of last year. And when you have that much talent there are a lot more expectations than where they’re at right now.”

SEE YOU IN COOPERSTOWN AUGUST 2013

The news that Mike Piazza is retiring comes 1 day of short of the 10 year anniversary of the trade that brought Mike Piazza to Shea. I will have nothing but good memories of Mike Piazza as a met, and he will go down as one of the best players we ever had.

Not only did he hit, and drive in runs, and make the Mets lineup stronger, he came to this town when the Yankees were the KINGS and made us matter again.

Piazza hit 40 home runs in a season with a whole franchise on his back. He would go on Howard Stern, he was on page 6, and of course he was on the back pages and the talk of sports radio.

"Within the eight years I spent in New York, I was able to take a different look at the game of baseball," he said in a statement yesterday. "I wasn't just a young kid that was wet behind the ears anymore. I was learning from other veteran guys like Johnny Franco, who taught me how to deal with the pressures of playing in New York, and Al Leiter who knew what it took to win a world championship."

Unfortunately the Mets never did win a world championship with Piazza, mostly because in the 2000 World Series they faced a baseball dynasty and Armando Benitez couldn’t strike out Paul O’Neil in game 1.

There was all the Piazza-Clemens stuff, and while I wish Piazza would have gone after Clemens and shoved that bat up his steroid inflamed ass, Mike had to much class to stoop to the level of the time and time again proven classless Roger Clemens.

Unless somebody digs up a boatload of dirt on Piazza in the next 5 years, guess which one of the two is going directly to the Hall of Fame and which one is going to spend all his time in the courts and disappearing ala Mark McGwire.

"He's a first-ballot Hall of Famer and certainly the best hitting catcher of our era and arguably the best hitting catcher of all time," Tom Glavine said.

David Wright said, "He was The Man in New York. He helped mold me into the baseball player I want to be and helped mold me into being a leader on the team."

Piazza was just what Mets fans needed, and he produced one of the epic New York moments with that home run against the Braves in the first game in New York after Sept 11.

The Mets didn’t always handle Piazza like the superstar he was, they screwed up the move to first base, they really didn't defend him when Clemens threw at him and they never surrounded him with the type of talent to put them over the top.

"Mike electrified New York City," Fred Wilpon said in a statement. "We wish Mike, his wife, Alicia, and daughter Nicoletta all health and happiness as he begins a new chapter in his life."

We wish there was somebody who got the whole experience here enough to say, as Piazza once did, "New York without Johnny Franco is like a pastrami sandwich without rye."

Well Wally Matthews put it even better, when he said the Mets without Piazza were like a pastrami sandwich without the pastrami.

HIGHLIGHTS OF PIAZZA'S FIRST BALLOT HALL OF FAME CAREER


1993: Wins NL Rookie of the Year award as member of Dodgers.

1997: Comes in second in MVP voting.
1999: Hits in 24 straight games, tying Mets' franchise record.

Oct. 19, 1999: Hits home run to tie score at 7 in losing effort against Braves in Game 6 of NLCS.

2000: Has 15-game RBI streak, second-longest in MLB history.

Sept. 21, 2001: Hits two-run home run against Braves in first New York sporting event since 9/11.
May 4, 2004: Sets record for most home runs by a catcher.

April 26, 2006: Hits 400th career home run, while with Padres.

WEDNESDAY’S WEEKLY WILLIE (randolph) WATCH

I’m not interested in talking about Willie’s non-sense about his race, or about how SNY portrays him or about the fans being mad that he doesn’t get ejected, or that he doesn’t have any fire. Willie needs to understand that the only reason Willie is on the hot seat, the only reason we, as Met fans, are screaming that we need a change, and that Willie is at fault here is simply because of the last 17 games of 2007.

Willie was the captain of the largest collapse in baseball history and he didn’t know how to stop the bleeding. I don’t care if he yelled, I don’t care if he hit Castillo 2nd or brought Sosa in the 9th inning, all I care about is as far as I’m concerned, in 2007, Willie failed. Willie let us all down.

Willie got the credit for taking an Art Howe team that was awful to the play-offs, and one hit away from the World Series in 2006. I was all about Willie, I was defending him for turning us into winners. Well since the 2nd half of last year he has turned us into a .500 team, and when you have this much talent, and this type of payroll, that won’t fly.

I want Willie to do one of two things. Either shut up, stop making excuses, manage and win, or yell and fight with the media, show them you are in charge, and manage and win. None of this wishy washy, I was misheard crap, I don’t want to hear the backtracking and all the excuses, nothing is worse than these guys who say one thing to the media then do a total flip the next day and say they didn’t say it…tell the media to go to hell, I’m fine with that, but you better figure out a way to win 20 of the next 30 or nothing else will matter.

I have absolutely no faith that Willie can turn this around, I believe Willie is to passive and he is to sensitive. He is focused on the wrong things and appears to be overmatchined here. Like I said a few days ago the time is up, Willie has to go, and until this team is 10 games over .500 there is only one score I can give Willie.

Willie current score - 0

CRAZY MET FAN

When did I become that annoying, stupid Met fan that is doom and gloom every other day and lives and dies on every little event rather than look at the big picture and know that the baseball season is 162 games and not one at bat?

The Mets lose two winnable games to the Nationals and I’m one of those stupid callers to Mike and the Mad Dog, all out of my mind, screaming for the manager’s head and looking to offer trades of Luis Castillo, Marlon Anderson and Angel Pagan for Chase Utley.

I’ve been religiously following this team for 35 years, and we have won 1 time. So that’s 34 seasons of disappointments and failures, but never have I been taking these losses and these games as hard as I did last week. Was it the fact that last year they may have been the most talented team in the NL, and had the largest collapse in history? Is it because we went out and got the best pitcher in baseball this year and we are floundering at .500?

I see a lot of talent on this team, and at any minute they can reel off 6 or 7 wins or a 12 out of 16 couple of weeks and all will be well. They are tied for 1st in the loss column, and we still have 75% of the season left. There really is no need for me to go nuts after losing a listless 1-0 game on a Thursday afternoon. I apologize to my faithful reader(s) for the brief level of insanity.

Never can I remember the core Met fans being so quick to pull the trigger, so unhappy with every move, every decision. I think Omar has done a terrific job building this team, I think he has given Wille everything he needs, and I think this is the best team in the NL. Let’s get through this next 4 game series against Atlanta not losing 3 out of 4, lets keep giving Johan and Maine a couple of runs, and watch Big Pelf continue to blossom, get Pedro back in a few weeks, and see Ollie continue to pitch well against the good teams and there is no reason to expect anything less than a trip to the NLCS.

So in a way I feel a little silly that we win 2 games easily this weekend against a last place team and my whole out look has changed and everything is fixed, but in reality I know it’s not. But I do know they need to continue doing what they were doing, which means Reyes has to hit, Wright has to hit, and the starters have to give us a solid 7 innings each night.

I’m going to try and hold back my overreactions, both negative and positive, and remember there are a ton of baseball left to play. It was a good weekend, lets build on this against Atlanta tomorrow, and please, please…lets knock the crap out of Tommy Glavine.

Hmmm…I wonder if the Phills would take Castillo AND Heilman for Utley???

JOE MORGAN IS A PRETTY BAD ANNOUNCER

Besides getting just a boat load of facts wrong and adding little if no insight into the game, he has nothing of value to tell me.

Last night in the Met win, after the 8th inning Jose Reyes home run, we got this little jewel from Joe:

"You know what I like about that, he ran around the bases."

Not to point out the obvious, but um...what exactly were Jose's options there? Isn't that the rule?


How about this one from little Joe on the David Wright tag up from 3rd on a sack fly:

Alou flies out to right, Wright tags and scores, Joe suggests he might have left the base early, he says it a good 4 or 5 times then finally the replay shows that Wright did not leave early, and Joe gives us:

"His top half left quickly, but his foot stayed on the bag."

Is that possible?

NO MAS!!!

1-0 loss to the Nats and losing 3 out of 4 is unacceptable.

Yes, the Mets didn't hit.
Yes, their base running was awful.
Yes, the bullpen (Heilman) has been awful.

But at this point, I have to blame the manager, and I am unable to sit back and watch a very talented bunch of players night in and night out not perform, and not be put in the right positions to succeed.

WE JUST WENT 3-4 AGAINST THE TWO WORST TEAMS IN THE NL AT HOME!!!

The guys don't hustle, there were at least 2 plays today where guys just were not running full speed all out. What will Willie say? "I know my players, I talk to my players" Guess what..IT'S NOT WORKING WILLIE. People need to be punished, players need to be held accountable, and if the players are not going to be held accountable, then there is only one more other option.

Sooner or later someone has to be held accountable, and this is not just 40 games this year, it's the whole 2nd half of 2007, and while I was a huge supporter of Willie the last 2 years it's time to get off the sinking ship.

Willie must go down. The captain goes down with the ship. Willie must go.

Do I have a replacement? Sure, call Frank Robinson, Buck Showalter, Lee Mazzilli, call Bobby V., call Wally Backman. We have Ken Oberkfell and Tim Tuefel down in the minors, at this point see if Richie Kotite is free (OK, I was only kidding there). I'm done waiting, things are not getting better, it's time.