In case you hadn’t heard, Mets’ uber-phenom Matt Harvey took a trip to sunny Florida yesterday to consult with Dr. James Andrews, the guru of Tommy John surgery. This is an exploratory visit, if you will, to determine the extent of the ligament tear in Harvey’s forearm. If it’s a teeny-tiny tear, then Harvey might [...]
Your intrepid columnist made his second appearance of the year at Citi Field on Friday, August 23. The night was rife with portents. The Detroit Tigers and the animal known as Miguel Cabrera rode into town for the first time since June, 2010. Detroit arrived red hot, having won 17 of their previous 26 contests, [...]
“Bring your kids to see our kids!” So went the lame entreaty from the Mets to bring your kiddies, bring your wife out to the ol’ ballpark: Shea Stadium, 1978 vintage. The fossil front office tried to drum up interest in a whole new crop of Mets. In the absence of Tom Seaver, Dave Kingman, [...]
This is an old song, but Met fans are conditioned. “Hope for the best, expect the worst,” goes the mantra, at least since Carlos Beltran stapled a bat to his shoulder in October, 2006. We all knew this one was too good to last, didn’t we? Matt Harvey – the bellwether of the young pitching [...]
Team of the future in N.Y.? It’s the Mets – ESPN.com, August 21, 2013 “The Mets will have to really screw it up to not be good next year” – Mike Francesa, WFAN radio, August 20, 2013. There’s an awful lot of enthusiasm out there for a team that currently stands 58-67 and a tidy [...]
When this season started, everyone pointed to the Mets’ outfield as a major weakness. At the time, everyone wasn’t wrong. Coming out of Florida, the “set” lineup was Lucas Duda in left field, Collin Cowgill in center and a combination of Mike Baxter, Marlon Byrd and Jordany Valdespin manning right. Not exactly a group that [...]
Your intrepid columnist likes to think long thoughts, sometimes. Jenrry Mejia was mowing down Dodger after Dodger for six innings until he was betrayed by some bad defense -- “Oh, Murph…” goes the Twitter lament when Daniel Murphy makes a gaffe like last night’s – and atrocious umpiring. A graphic on SNY told the columnist [...]
At the 2013 Baseball Writers Association of America dinner, when New York Mets GM Sandy Alderson was asked about the state of his outfield, he quipped, “What outfield?” On April 23, the Mets promoted Juan Lagares from AAA Las Vegas. On June 18, the Mets acquired Eric Young, Jr. from the Colorado Rockies. Until June [...]
OK, so the Mets lost in Miami. Again. That drops their record against the Fish – Bob Ojeda was annoyingly cute with this nickname on the postgame – to 5-9 overall, 3-6 in Magic City. In a vacuum, this record looks horrible -- and it is –- but context is key. That loss last night [...]
In the classic Hollywood storytelling arc, the formula is “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.” This basic structure has worked since anybody figured out that you could tell a story with some celluloid and a screen. It’s worked for Gable and Lombard, Hepburn and Tracy, Funicello and Avalon, Hanks and Ryan. It’s [...]
Sometimes it’s tough to tell what the outlier is. Jeremy Hefner is coming off a recent eight-start run that raised a few eyebrows. From June 4 through the All-Star break, his stretch comprised 51 IP and a scant 10 ER – good for an ERA of 1.77. That’s an “ace”- type number. For comparison’s sake, [...]
Can you feel the shift? Your intrepid columnist can, despite what some of his colleagues think. Citi Field is looking noticeably fuller and those there noticeably louder than in recent weeks. At least that’s how it played on SNY during last night’s ultimately frustrating loss to Atlanta. Maybe the crowd size was a bit of [...]