Today on the fourth of July, The Yanks went down to the Red Sox in the Bronx. It felt good, after being reminded that today is George Steinbrenner’s birthday from the first inning on. The second inning was spent regaling the Steinbrenner legacy, even when it went against history, referencing the early dynasty’s the Steinbrenner era has actually seen more fans in the stadium. Neglecting that every team in the majors has much higher attendance.  Recalling the 25^th anniversary of Righettis no hitter, there were less than 41,000 that day.  Which of course was in the beginning of the steady Steinbrenner decline over the 80’s, as of this writing the Yankees did not win any world series from 1978-1995, however that era may eventually be completely expunged from the record.  Along with any mention of the name Howard Spira, and while Yogi has forgiven Steinbrenner and ended his embargo of the stadium, Howard Spira and the blackmailing of the hall of fame rightfielder remains.  And here is where Met fans can sleep well, because though we seem to be forced through every karmic face of pain and tragedy, trapped by fate like we pissed off Superman’s father, at least we have not sold out.  And every Yankee fan that can remember knows the shame and disgrace of much of those 18 years, and the prolonged empty seats it produced.  But they have gotten success, , ‘the bitch goddess whose smile hides a taste for blood.’  And willfully they have thrown out the past and without the past, there is no character, and no chance for growth, just the yearly prayer, that Mariano Rivera stays healthy.  Because when he is gone, the house of cards collapses, and a generation spoiled by the guarantee of success will have to work out the losses.  Meanwhile Mets fans eat tragedy for breakfast,   Oedipus was a pussy.

‘A disturbed and frightened man is like the golden eternity experimentally pretending at feeling the disturbed-and frightened mood; a calm and joyous man, is like the golden eternity  pretending at experimenting with that experience.’ Mets win 11 - 1. 

It is not the time of night that Willie Randolph was fired.  Somnambulic  Steinbrenner Manchurian Candidates bark out knee jerk condemnations, all in the same vein. The worst firing in New York history, and like that poof, the Steinbrenner legacy is wiped clean, dust across chalkboards and tabula rassa, now when you think of dismissals think of the Mets.  From Yankee beat writers of the 80’s, the gaul is stupendous. Allusions to The trading of Tom Seaver, ‘The Midnight Massacre.’ But this is just obsessing over the execution, which is after all,an execution, and firings are like breaking up, it’s hard to do them real good.  And like an ex girlfriend we’re supposed to obsess now about the callousness of the break up, and later realize the long term ramifications, life goes on and you are left with the pieces.  And that’s the real tragedy, because by next week the cameras will have packed up and left the House of Randolph  and Willie will be left with the pieces.  And the pieces of a legacy that started bursting with optimism hope and pride and everything seemed to work, even free agent signings.  And everyone was riding high into October, and then everything fell apart.  And now that is his legacy.  He won’t ever get that chance to erase 2007.  It will remain.  And now, every day stuck with  one eye on the standings and wondering ‘what if? ‘  Two brutal winters and then a fall for Willie Randolph, didn’t even make it to the first day of summer.

From about Game 6 on, the consensus opinion throughout the New York media outlets was Eli Manning ‘was who he was.’  This was Eli Manning, many pointed to his middle of the pack ratings, ESPN put together a top 10 quarterback poll and the very reasoned considered opinion from the newspaper, to the radio and on down was, Eli Manning was who he was, and that was all anyone would ever get for him.  Then he won the Super Bowl and now everyone in the world agrees, Eli Manning is a special remarkable player who won a super bowl in just his fourth year.  Selah.  Things will change just like that with success.  And in a world where technology is so alive and God is dead, success, Eureka Watson! Success is all.  In Adam Rubin’s column today, a condemnation of the Minaya era, we stand at the crossroads of, they are who they are.  Rubin bemoans the shortsightedness of the Minaya era which began on the proposition that the organization would build up its minor leagues and fill the ball field with atheletes.  And 70 sum odd million dollars later.  Here we are.  And though Rubin mentions that where we are is not certainly the end, noting the front page of a Houston paper of 2005 that proclaimed R.i.p Astros season (14 – 25), a team that played the White Sox in october in the series.  And then Rubin returns to his course.  A chorus these days that howls and chortles with equal elacrity. 4 games ago, Castillo was leading the team at .323. with runners in scoring position.  Delgado has continued to raise his average, now at .245.  And the Mets were righted.    4 games in San Diego, 4 tight games that could’ve easily gone the other way without a few big plays by the Padres, and now back to they are what they are.  And here is the point, and it needs to be said for the children.  Don’t listen.  Don’t listen to the mets writers and most of all don’t listen to older fans, because they are misleading you.   Despite the horrors that have occurred under this administration (and we have seen some things), it’s lack of final success cannot change the forethought given to all of the moves.  You see what they do not often talk about are the previous disastrous administrations that we have known.  Rubin first chooses to attack the rise in payroll going from $55 million in ’04 now up to $120 million.  Well, if you look across sports, no matter the league, the highest salaries are in New York,.  It’s standard not a result of Omar, or Isiah, or Cashman.  That is what it is.  It is something to get Omar on and later on write  a book about how it’s the current wave.  In fact I’m sure ownership has a mandate that x amount of money must be spent to justify the various rate increases and demands for new ballparks and tax incentives and keys to the city and television channels. The Mets channel would be less a revenue source if the mets looked cheap.  So, you can get him now, but later Omar will just be another guy in the role of spender.                Remember the teams before Omar and Willie.  Nobody writes or talks about Art Howe, or even the various disasters under Valentine.  The real disasterous signing under Philips, Mo Vaughn, Baerga, Alomar, Burnitz, Cedeno, etc.  And those were good years compared to the early and mid nineties.  And even harkening back, Cashen was kicked out not long after ’86.  The drum beat for Davey Johnson daily, not 3 years after ’86.  And after he was gone the cycle of who’s fault the mets bullpen and inability to hit with runners in scoring position was caused by.  Hitting coaches were fired, managers, legends like Buddy Harrelson, were hired and fired.  And there became unto shea, empty seats.               So, contrary to all of the negativity that comes from the scrawls, this is an up time.  Carlos Beltran is the greatest free agent the Mets ever signed.  Write now you’r going to google a search, thinking that can’t be right.  But what started with George Foster has continued until Beltran.  Beltran has been a slight Met miracle.  Overcoming all of the negativity to continue to be good.  Many good careers are buried in that infield dirt at Big Shea.  And all of the people in the papers and the radio want you to forget it.  They hope the young ones will believe, and they’ll get rid of these guys and feast on the next ones, who will guaranteed be worse.  After re-reading an article about the 2003 opening day, and what a disaster that was, I am reminded how right headed the organization has become.  How proud that the organization went from eschewing players it deemed controversial, ignoring  it’s Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn fan base and only courting it’s white long island fan base.  The team has brought in great players, the first black manager in new york history and dynamic players to turn on to every night.  Beware, 2003 is always around the corner.     

  He sings, we’ll see.  And sometimes, no matter how much youtry, it’s hard to hear.  Especially when you are surrounded by a cacophony of hideous ghouls,miserable failures, and cold hearted strangers that have found a place.  And they become the bethrothen,the restof us, who may try to enjoy a season without the redolence of meaning areengulfed in the whirling wraiths of character assassination and media napalm.

After watching Pelfrey yesterday, it seemed more apparent that when Schneider is back, this will be a different team.  So, every thought and disquieting nerve twitch that occurs with these endless walks and elongated innings. Slumping players, journey men (Gabe Kappler?) and role players (Augie Ojeda) putting together monster games, it still comes hard to stomach.  And yet, everything is tempered by the return of a catcher who has the game calling skills of Schneider, along with his everyday familiarity with the National League.         Watching Santana pitch the first inning.  After Ojeda gets to second with one out, he locks in like a pitbull, striking out the next guy and ending with a weak ground out to second.  Striding off the field, hat shading eyes, arms arched like gunslinger, or John Wayne.   Called strike, followed by a ball, followed by a pitch fouled off, that seemed like its purpose was to be fouled off, and you get the sense that this is a master working, like a chess player thinking a few moves ahead.  Above the board feeling completely at ease with his approach, their  responses and his proper responses  When he loses he probably feels no apology, he understands the game better than the rest of us.  What it must have been like watching Don Drysdale stride off the mound.  From Sunday’s Times:    ‘The difference, Pelfrey said does not have to do with the fact that the backup Raul Cassanova has acught his last three starts.  ‘It didn’t matter if you would have been back there.’  It’s early season and the most keen sense now is scepticism  towards any rush to judgement.  Unfortunately, the rush to judgement is the primary role of media outlets.  So, in this paragraph the question of his success with Schneider and the failures without are quickly dismissed.  Once again the suggestion is made to rush to judgement, this time on a downbeat players word.  Meanwhile Mets fans early season unease, a mix of brief moments of heart pauses.  Beginning from the first inning on.  Indicative of those who withstand tragedies and months later find themselves breaking down, even momentarily.  Dark moods and ugly feelings emerge as games slip away. And yet the one thing we learned last year, was  the end is what counts the most.  It’s a long season and the end is what counts the most.  And the most sensible of us ignored the spring training hype, turned off WFAN right after the game ( completely eschewing drive time) hoping that logic and the pain of past experience would allow the proper space between us and the Amazin’s.  But the heart is a disturbing machine.  And here we are again, now for some insane reason, the twinges that come in the first inning seem less a reaction to anything going on in front of us, like an amputee and his phantom limb, it is the ghost of games past, and we are like sleepwalkers with the ghost of Christmas present.   Though some guys have started real slow, and journeymen are calling games, and a few impact players will be coming back, fans  still cannot resist the rush to judgement.  Ironically, all judgements last year at this time would have had the Mets playing Boston in the world series.  It’s a long season indeed.  So when Mike Pelfrey says it could have been Ben Schpigel behind the plate, that could mean several things.  First, Pelfrey is a team player, and he’s not about to blame a 35 year old journeyman catcher for his problems, he also may actually believe that they are only his problems, but that doesn’t mean he’s right..  And if statistics are reliable, there are many that indicate who’s catching a game has a tremendous impact on team e.r.a.  And that’s what they got Schnedier for.  And behind him is Castro, who has caught this team for years who is somewhere in Florida, coming eventually.  But for now there is Raul Cassanova, and a minor leaguer named Molina (no relation).  So, it is still early.  It is still early when it’s still 56 degrees.  And finally, Brandon Webb went to 7-0 yesterday,  The Cy Young winner has pitched to the same catcher for his last 60 games (Chris Snyder).  Testament.    

What is the importance of a catcher?  For the most part, the most successful teams of the last several years have been very strong at catcher.  Ivan Rodriguez, Yadir Molina, Torrealba, even AJ Perzinski got hot in october. So, as the Mets struggle without their starting catcher or his backup, it’s hard to judge where this met team will end up at the end of the year. People are rushing to judgement, because that seems to be the only thing to do.  But it is april, and 35 year old Cassanova is calling games with a vague familiarity with the current staff.  

April 15, 2008Lo, we awaken to a weekend where the home team lost 2 out of 3, and played just well enough to lose.  There is an ugliness and now everyone seems to take notice.  It is the wretch of New York, and it continues.  The Giants won the super bowl, tellingly, they won all their important games, away from new york.  It was a record breaking season, for a visitor.  A continuation of last years Met trend of winning more road games than any team in baseball.  Usually a sign of a great team.  Alas, they were below average at home.  What can you say about a team that feels away at home.  ’My ticket price went up 38 percent since last year.’  (an average) Joe was quoted in the Times. Combine that with the absence of parking, the crush of public transportation and fans moods have been distorted before the first pitch has been thrown.  Meanwhile the  new stadium looms over the walls, blocking out the horizon.   And on the radio they proclaim the final year at shea.  And beneath that, the average fan knows, the new stadium will bring greater competition for fewer seats and new exorbitant prices that will turn our home to something closer to MSG, a corporate bastion where even in the most dreadful season in the teams history, the place is nearly full.   Companies will swallow up more and more seats, prices will rise, and the fans anxiety will need to be displaced.  And in this world of terror and inflation, the fan is just an everyman.  an everyman who has found his every man pursuits priced out by the new rich and the corporate.  So, without any other place or form to unleash his anxiety, he turns to the players.  After all, by the time you’re done laying out several bills for a leisurely pastime, for that much money, it oughta be something else.  And it isn’t.  And teams lose.  During a baseball season the best of the very best lose at least 60 times.  But, there is a fever here.  And it’s enflamed by radio personalities, espn, espn.com (while we’re at work), a seemingly endless array of what was in the past, experienced, then maybe viewed at the 11 o’clock news and forgotten.  Not anymore, and both Yankee and Mets fans must now assiduously avoid all broadcasts after a tough game. It’s book time!  Because the climate is toxic. And the players will suffer the worst of it.  Santana must surely be shocked 1 home game and the venting has begun.   Watching Mota pitch against the Mets, and allow 8 baserunners in a row without the mets managing to score, it appeared like the mets could have demolished the game at any time.  But, they did everything they could not to score.  And when it was all over, when the blood thirsty fans who wanted nothing less than Mota’s head received nothing but a long ultimate tease, it fostered an ugly type of imagining.  In the end, the players were teammates with mota last year.  They know that all that hate Mota caught last year, could just as easily be them.  It would be logical for their sympathies to lie with Guillermo Mota rather than the rabble in the stands.  And deep down when Delgado’s bases loaded lazy fly ended the inning, after the bases loaded no out double play (of first to home), after all of the big tease and 3 ball and no strike counts, perhaps inside the mets smirked.  Take that you hateful mothers.  We get paid anyway, and you people are just miserable from the start.  And they might be right.  But where does that lead us?  The hate that hate created.  Lo unto us, it could be a long season, because there is no joy in mudville.Next weeK:Season 2 Casey’s walk year 

Orange and blue dropped a tough home opener to the Phillies.  Vescey drudged up memories of 2007 for his article in the Times.  But, in all fairness, if you had actually watched the game, it was more a sense of things not falling right.  Which is part of what happened last year against the Phillies.  But, it’s a new season, and sometimes you sting the ball all day, which the mets did, and people are there, which the Phillies were, especially Shane Victorino.  Anyway, this early in the season the less said the better.  Mets fans are apt to think of losing 3 of the first 5 games in ‘86.  And Foster’s double and Hojo’s big homerun off the bench in St.Louis propelling the mets to a 4 games sweep and a consequent runaway with the division.  Last year proved we need to get over that.  April  is the time to struggle, deal with adversity (the Yankees seem to do that every year).  To get caught up now we’ll create a permanent sense of unease and tension at beautiful shea, let’s leave that to the people of Philadelphia.  We are New York.  Big Blue showed us the power.  We must enjoy the last year at Shea before the Empire moves in and Dubai field exiles the lower budget elements of our base.  Buckle your seat belts, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.  

I’m baaaaaacccckkk. just because the Giants’ season is over does not mean that I’ll deprive you loyal readers of my insight and intelligence. It is I, the Giants Genius with more veratrol directed at the most dispised team in football, and no the SB loss didn’t garner any sympathy nor lower the level of abhorrance. I would’ve wrote sooner, but in my uuuhhhh “celebration” of the G-men’s victory (I choose not to divulge how I celebrated), I tore a tendon on one of my fingers in my right hand. But I shall abandon you not my loyal readers, and I’ll deliver the 2nd part of my 10 reasons to hate the pats (that’s right they don’t even deserve uppercase letters).

Reason # 6: They Cheat

First off, let me begin to say that I am not reffering to their coach. But believe me he will be on this list. Without having to elaborate, they’ve already had suspensions because of players taking performance enhancers. How sweet it is that the most memorable play of the Superbowl one of the players was the one defending Tyree. The pats have a very good offensive line, the best reciever/QB combo in the league and a top rated defense, yet they still had to cheat? As if that’s not enough, I’ve heard nearly every opponent accuse them of being cheap shot artists. This is exactly why I didn’t want to see history made on sunday. The pats sure as hell don’t earn all of their victories.

Reasons # 7, 8 & 9:  The coach

Yes, I hate this man so much that I couldn’t squeeze it into just one reason. I seriously complentated having this as it’s own article but for now this will suffice. Think back to the year 1999. Parcells had just stepped down as the Jets head coach and Belichik stepped in. After one day the man resigns with no clearly defined reason (doesn’t that sound familiar) and goes to the patriots. So he quits on one team after just a day then has the audacity to migrate to the team’s archrivals. Basically it’d be akin to Torre quitting the yankees to go to the Red Sox. So then what happens? One of his own coaches decides to persue a headcoaching job with the Jets. Keep in mind he was going from an assistant to a Head coach, so that’s understandable. But Belichik instead acts like a dumped girlfriend and gives him a no-eye-contact, coldfish handshake after the first meeting between their clubs. (John Fox, the former D-coordinator of the Giants was embraced by Fassel when the G-men played the panthers for their first time). That’s the most hypocritical thing I’ve seen in a sport full of hyprocrites. I’m suprised more people haven’t brought this up. To top it all off, the man is a proven cheater despite having an extremely talented roster. His actions both during and after “Spygate” is not those of an innocent man. Instead he reacts like a child with hurt feelings and runs the score up to humiliate opponents that had nothing to do with his cheating or his getting caught. I don’t want to hear the excuse “everyone does it” because if everyone did it alot more people would’ve been caught. In baseball, many players cheated, andquite a few of them have gotten caught. If everyone did indeed cheat wouldn’t alot more coaches be getting disciplined? I arrest my case. In my opinion Belichik deseves all the scrutiny and uncertainty that will come from Spygate and he has no one else to blame but himself. The same way Bonds and Clemens’ Legacies are being questioned so should Belicheat’s. Whew, I told you this could’ve been it’s own column.

Reason # 10: Randy Moss

The reasons are endless. You’ve heard of most of ‘em. But I’ll give you my 3 biggest problems. Randy Moss had the opportunity to be the greatest reciever ever. Period. He’s faster than anyone who can cover him, taller than anyone who can cover him, and has great hands. He has every single tool imaginable to be a great reciever, but doesn’t use them. Jerry Rice, who’s still the best ever, had great hands and an almost unnatural work-ethic, but he wasn’t as fast or as big as Randy. Nothing angers me more than wasted talent. He underperformed so badly in Oakland that they willingly gave him away for a 4th round pick. Put it this way: I like Terrell Owens more. Owens has done questionable things but you can never question his heart. The 2nd reason I despise Moss is he’s never showed up for big games. Remember that 41 - 0 humiliation that the G-men hung on the Vikes back in 2000? Guess how many catches Moss had in that game? Go ‘head and google it, I’ll wait….  Notice the similarity? It’s inexcusable that a player who set the NFL record for TD catches in a season, only had 3 receptions in the entire post season. A player who puts up gaudy numbers in the regular season but fails on the biggest stage. Regularly. The 3rd reason is his mouth. He managed to shut up this year, but that doesn’t excuse him from some unforgettable quotes like “I play when I want to play” or the Marshall plane crash was “was a tragedy, but it really wasn’t nothing big.” So basically we have a wasted talent, that disappears in big games and can’t keep his mouth shut. The perfect trifecta of reasons to hate him.

Well, I hope this post satisfied the Patriot hater in all of us. The fact that they lost in the Superbowl and were denied history in front of the biggest audience in Television history (I checked) makes it so much sweeter. Had the Giants just won the Superbowl, I’d been happy. But they beat/manhandled/embarrassed the patriots. A week later and I’m still on cloud nine. I’ll give you my post game celebration/analysis later this week. I truly hope this tendon heals soon.