Pre-season pre-game: a day at the QBC

A bunch of Met fans got together in an Astoria bar last Saturday afternoon. A bunch of Met fans has been getting together in some bar or other in the bleak mid-winter since 2014. The Queens Baseball Convention happened this past weekend, and this grass-roots gathering is starting to become an annual rite of winter. [...]

Can Michael Conforto be a super-sub…for now?

Some semi-significant news came out earlier this week, a report that the Mets have assured Jay Bruce that he will, in fact, be their right fielder for 2017. A number of factors may play into this decision – if it is an official decision at all. The Mets were openly trying to trade Bruce over [...]

Polo Grounds daze: covering the Mets for fun and profit

Happy New Year! You know, life exists in full, vibrant color. NBC didn’t introduce its famous peacock logo in the mid-‘60s for nothing: it brought you quality television “in living color!” Looking at grainy, monochrome images, sometimes you forget that aspect of life. That’s why the HBO “When It Was a Game” specials from awhile [...]

Which Mets pitchers will get a long-term extension?

We’re in that funnel between the old year and the new. It’s a time for reflection and a time for looking ahead, that human dichotomy of celebrating what’s just passed and getting excited for what’s on the horizon. It’s been an odd year, a year of upheaval for many. I won’t go as far as [...]

The ideal Mets’ outfield does not include Andrew McCutchen

We Met fans are starting to get a little antsy. Since Conor Gillaspie deposited a Jeurys Familia slider into the right field bullpen at Citi Field, it has been a winter of relative inactivity – Yoenis Cespedes notwithstanding. It’s nearly Christmas and the Mets still have a tangled outfield and a bullpen that could stand [...]

Whither David Wright?

A chill wind is blowing through our burgs here in the Northeast. The Polar Vortex – a fancy new term for “cold snap” – is swooping down from Canada and threatening to congeal everything in its path. With Christmas a bare two weeks away, thoughts of warm weather and baseball seem quite remote at the [...]

Memo to Sandy Alderson: Do not trade Curtis Granderson

Phase one is complete. Against long odds, Yoenis Cespedes has returned to the New York Mets, though some did see it happening. That was the biggest task on GM Sandy Alderson’s off-season agenda. Let’s face it, letting Cespedes walk would have crippled the offense and driven a stake through the heart of this nascent “perennial [...]

A Mets fan’s message to Cubs and Indians fans

Congratulations, Cleveland and Chicago! As this is written, game two of the 2016 World Series has just concluded and the Cubs have just squared things up with the Indians. The playoffs so far have been pretty terrific. As happens every year, the rest of us get acquainted with players with whom we may not be [...]