Category Archives: Mets

Brief conversations about space travel

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Tim Byrdak also drove up to the Space Coast to witness Discovery’s launch. Either because he planned in advance or because Major Leaguers just have way more access to cool stuff than most of us do, he got to watch it from about 3.5 miles away, about as close as you can be if you’re not yourself lifting off. Plus he got to ride on a bus with astronauts and talk about robots and stuff.

Byrdak confirmed that the space shuttle launch was awesome. Apparently from that close, you can feel the rumbling of ignition and everything. Josh Stinson overheard us and said he caught a launch last year from a golf course here in Port St. Lucie. He said he went out to a Par-5 and laid down on the fairway. Not a bad plan.

It’s important, you know

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Joe Janish at Mets Today passes along a Peter, Paul and Mary performance in honor of Carlos Beltran’s move to right field. I knew the song, but only from the following ad. My friends and I thought this was hilarious when we were of Little League age. Anyone remember on which early-90s VHS tape this commercial was embedded in before the main feature? I do, but I’m quizzing you.

Photo of me and Carlos Beltran

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Not sure where Cerrone got this photograph for MetsBlog, but that’s my hand and our microphone indicated by the red arrow:

I’m prone to mild claustrophobia so I usually just sort of stand in the back and listen during these things, but in this case I needed Beltran miked up because we’re working on the video bit. I pulled the SNY mic flag off because Kevin Burkhardt was sitting right there and we thought it would look dumb on video if there were two SNY mics coming at Beltran from different directions.

But the main thing — and you can’t really tell this from the photo — is that my hand and microphone were extended out directly over and about ten inches above Beltran’s troublesome right knee.

It’s tight in that scrum and I had to strain in all sorts of odd ways to avoid being in the camera shot, plus I have the MS, which makes my hands a little numb and prone to dropping things. I stood there white-knuckling the mic, absolutely terrified that I would drop it and hit Beltran’s knee in just the right spot to knock him out for the season.

I didn’t, so all’s clear.

Well there it is

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Every human in Port St. Lucie might have been in the scrum around Beltran, Angel Pagan and Terry Collins, so I won’t bog you down with quotes you’ll inevitably read elsewhere. Plus we’ve got a very Beltran-heavy video diary on the way. The main takeaway from what all three of them said: Carlos Beltran is totally awesome and cool. Collins stressed Beltran’s professionalism, Beltran stressed how he’s doing what’s best for the team (and himself, selfishly), and Pagan stressed how excited he is to be playing adjacent to Beltran in the outfield so he can pick his brain.

Murphy starting at third today

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The Mets have posted their lineup for the Grapefruit League* matchup with the Braves today, and Daniel Murphy is starting at third base. Obviously it’s way too early in the spring to read anything into the lineups themselves, but I’d guess the Mets are probably trying to get him as many reps in the infield as possible.

Murphy hasn’t played third base in a Major or Minor League game since 2008. He has a handful of Minor League and winter-ball appearances at second. This is probably something fans should keep in mind if Murphy looks a bit awkward out there today and, hell, for the length of Spring Training.

I didn’t see yesterday’s game, but I asked Murphy how he felt at second and he said, essentially, that he’s coming along. I asked him if camp was different as a (primarily) middle infielder, and he said, “It’s still catching and throwing, taking ground balls.”

With practice, people can improve at just about everything. Murphy, from what I’ve seen and heard, practices as hard as anyone. It stands to reason that he’ll get better as he does. It seems like a lot of fans have determined already that there’s no chance he’ll ever be able to handle second — especially since, as Mike Salfino has pointed out, very few players have successfully moved from first base to second.

But these games don’t count, and Murph is going to be out there so he can have every opportunity to become a passable Major League infielder in time for the ones that do.

“I want to be out there every day, if they’ll let me,” Murphy said.

And remember that the eyes can deceive; just because a guy looks uncomfortable or unwieldy bending over for a grounder or turning a double play doesn’t necessarily mean he’s fielding his position less effectively than a guy who looks slick. In a not-large-enough sample, the stats loved Murphy at first. He said he wasn’t too familiar with the defensive stats, but when I suggested that there’s some disconnect between the way his defense is perceived and the way it was measured in 2009, he said:

“Well, I’m not very aesthetically pleasing out there. I’ll be the first to admit: I’m not graceful to the eye.”

That’s probably not changing anytime soon. But again: Teams win games by outscoring their opponents, and there are a lot of ways to do that. The Mets don’t exactly have Cirque du Soleil acrobats in camp to save 20 runs from second base, so we might witness some awkwardness and growing pains for a while.

*- Is this a good time to buy grapefruit in Florida? Grapefruit is delicious, though it doesn’t taste anything like grape. Also: We need more grapefruit-flavored stuff. I <3 Fresca.

Random thoughts on a Sunday morning

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I love Twitter as a vehicle for short, decontextualized thoughts and jokes, but sometimes that 140-character restriction is a bear. Half the Mets (and almost all the media) are off to Orlando for a Grapefruit League matchup with the Braves. I had some video business to take care of here, so I’m sticking behind to hang out for the University of Michigan exhibition.

It’s a slow day here in Port St. Lucie, my mind is a bit slowed by five nights of somewhat restless hotel-room sleep (I should really start packing my own pillow on trips), and it’s Sunday morning so I assume web traffic is slow too. So here are some random thoughts that I didn’t feel like limiting to 140 characters:

– Jose Reyes seems really fond of Ike Davis, or perhaps just really fond of yelling, “I like Ike,” whenever Davis does anything. It’s almost always the exact same cadence, high-pitched and very rhythmic, and Reyes must have called it out 15 times during Davis’ batting practice session yesterday.

– I generally cringe at Italian food from chain restaurants, but Carraba’s is pretty decent. It shares a parking lot with our hotel, so it’s a convenient option for meals. Their bread, even on takeout orders, is served fresh-baked and piping hot with a side of olive oil and salty garlicky seasoning. I haven’t done the math yet but I’d estimate the place is about 30 times better than the Olive Garden.

– In some ways, many places share a parking lot with our hotel, because this part of Port St. Lucie is kind of like a huge, below-capacity parking lot. The town is spread out and remarkably easy to navigate, but even the bigger roads just seem to serve as a means of traversing a giant network of parking lots. If you knew the territory well enough you could probably drive the length of the town just snaking your way through lots. Wal-Mart, Publix, condos, movie theaters, bars, Taco Bells, everything has more than adequate parking. New Yorkers here often grumble about the area and if you’re looking for non-chain food it’s a tough haul, but it’s really not an uninteresting setting.

– D.J. Carrasco appears to be a very deft fielder.

– The movie Hall Pass is not very good. There were a few hearty laughs in there, but it does my least favorite thing that happens in comedies: It turns into melodramatic treacle when it comes time to resolve the plot. This is also why I didn’t love another Owen Wilson movie, Wedding Crashers — it was funny for the first half and then suddenly all weepy nonsense. Except unlike Wedding Crashers, the first half of Hall Pass isn’t even that funny. It takes way, way too long to establish the premise for hijinks. Also, it might set a new record for amount of times the title of the movie is spoken during the movie. Normally I am moved to clap whenever that happens, but I honestly didn’t want to seem too supportive of Hall Pass. The upside is Jason Sudeikis is reasonably funny and it has J.B. Smoove in it.

– Follow up on that: You know how in many ensemble action movies there’s that really dramatic shot of all the dudes walking while setting off on a mission, looking all badass, set to cool music? I no longer think it’s funny when comedies do that ironically. I used to, but I think it’s probably time to put that to bed. I’m still down for it in the action movies though.

– Apparently Tim Byrdak also drove up to see the space shuttle launch. I haven’t had an opportunity to ask him what he thought about it yet.

– In Orlando today, a certain Valentino Pascucci will start at DH for the Mets. He’s in Minor League camp, just making this trip with the big club, and I haven’t had a chance to meet him yet. I will soon, though, and it will probably be extremely awkward. I spoke to him on the phone back in 2008 and he seemed like a nice dude, but if he ever Googles himself he’s certain to have seen evidence of my various Pascucci campaigns. So that could be interesting.