Louis asked me to write the inaugural piece for the I Was There When series, so I did. Speaking of, I’ve got a chapter in Alex Belth’s forthcoming book about lasting Yankee Stadium memories which you should check out.
Pat writes for PhilliesNation.com.
Lefty Pat Misch, who has had a stellar season for the Mets’ Triple-A team, likely will start Saturday’s game against Roy Halladay and the Phillies.
If Misch is called up, the Mets would have to make a roster move, with reliever Manny Acosta the leading candidate to be sent down.
First of all, I know Acosta blew a game he shouldn’t have been in on Wednesday, but really? Him? Acosta has actually been decent for the Mets outside of that one awful outing and appears a better bet to be good moving forward than Elmer Dessens, who has completely disappeared.
After pitching in basically every other game from the All-Star Break until the end of July, Dessens hasn’t pitched since a 2 2/3 inning outing in the Mets 14-1 loss to the D-backs on Aug. 1. That was actually the last time Ollie Perez pitched, too.
The Mets are carrying two guys in their bullpen who don’t pitch at all. But hey, that’s cool, it’s not about winning games anymore. It’s about… wait, what is it about?
The Mets didn’t have or need a closer today.
Apparently Johan Santana spoke to Jerry Manuel before the game and said, “Don’t come out there today. Leave me alone.”
And so — against all odds, really — he did.
Santana whiffed 10 and walked two in a 115-pitch shutout. He also singled and scored a run, because Johan Santana likes to thoroughly dominate his opponents.
A billion reporters and columnists were on hand because K-Rod beat up his father-in-law last night. It’s going to be fascinating to see how many writers try to spin this single win into something more, even though every player stressed that it wasn’t, and that they try to win every day, and that they don’t know too much about the situation but they support their teammate 100 percent.
Carlos Beltran went 3-for-3 with a double and a sacrifice fly. The two singles weren’t exactly scalded and the double came from the right side of the plate, but a three-hit night is a three-hit night and Beltran said it would give him confidence, even if he still felt a bit uncomfortable. Plus he made a nice running catch in center field. It was almost like old times again.
What a nice little afternoon baseball game.
I don’t want to scoop the video interview I just did with Melvin Mora since it’ll come out sometime early next week and you can watch it then, but know that Melvin Mora is totally awesome and cool.
I’m probably biased because Mora was always one of my favorite Mets in his brief tenure with the team. I thought it was awesome when he randomly became one of the best hitters in the American League for a couple of years, and even kind of awesome when he hit that grand slam last night.
Anyway, Mora told me he cried when he found out the Mets traded him to the Orioles. And he talked about Edgardo Alfonzo’s role in getting him on the Mets’ roster, which was cool. Real good interview, I think — one of my favorites this year.
Also, while this was happening, Ubaldo Jimenez was signing autographs for some fans. Some reporters were in the dugout to interview him so he gave the “one sec” sign to the crowd.
While he was answering the reporters’ questions, he grabbed a bunch of brand-new, official Major League baseballs out of a bag and signed them. I figured he was autographing them for the interviewer or something (even though that’s a big-time media no-no around here), but after he finished the interview he went back to where he was standing and tossed all the balls out to the crowd.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player do something like that before, and it’s particularly awesome that it should be a player who’s, well, particularly awesome. So that’s cool.
And furthermore, the Rockies were pumping Madonna in the clubhouse before the game, and I mean that in the most innocent sense of the term. First “La Isla Bonita,” then “Like a Prayer.” Pretty weird.
It was not immediately clear what sparked the fight between the 28-year-old relief pitcher and his 53-year-old father-in-law, police said.
Moments before the explosion with his family, Rodriguez snapped at reporters who asked why he was not summoned to pitch in a bases loaded situation in the eighth inning.
“Did I f—–g pitch tonight?” Rodriguez snarled when asked if he was upset that manager Jerry Manuel did not ask him to protect a one-run lead. “Why do I have to talk to you f—–g guys?”
– Kristie Ackert and Jonathan Lemire, N.Y. Daily News.
Oh lord. So looks like the 2010 Mets season finally turned to full-blown absurdity last night, prompted perhaps by Jerry Manuel’s downright surreal bullpen management.
Obviously I don’t know what happened in the family room, so I’m not here to making sweeping moral statements about K-Rod beating up his father-in-law. I’ll leave “appalling” and “abominable” to the Daily News, though I’ll admit that it’s pretty hard to come up with a good reason for a 28-year-old professional athlete to be fighting a guy 30 years his senior.
I imagine we’re going to hear a whole, whole lot more about this, so I’ll reserve judgment until some more of the details come out.
The only thing I’m certain of is that Manny Acosta shouldn’t have been in that game last night. If you’re so desperate to have a set “eighth-inning guy” that you need to take a decent starter out of the rotation to anoint him the eighth-inning guy, then holy lord, let him pitch the eighth inning. You’ve got to give him some margin for error. Takahashi allowed two baserunners, yes, but it wasn’t like they both crushed the ball. And if he’s the elusive eighth-inning guy you’ve been searching for all season, he should be good enough to pitch out of a jam. Maybe guys are relinquishing that role so quickly because they know they’ll be yanked from it as soon as they fail the first time and are pitching tentatively.
Anyway, the small upside to the K-Rod thing is that probably no one will say the Mets are too nice anymore.
Bob Ojeda’s doing another third-inning live chat tonight. Check it out, and hey — maybe even ask him a question about pitching, or having been a professional baseball player, or the 1986 Mets, or his favorite foods, or anything at all besides what trades he thinks the Mets will/should make. Please, for the sake of the moderator’s sanity.
Chris McShane, one of the various Chrises knon to comment here, is doing an excellent job with his newish blog Metsimistic. This was a good idea — and check out the poll question.
I probably should have come up with something a little more coherent before the camera started rolling. Meh.
I found out yesterday that I’m going to Chicago on Labor Day weekend to watch and write about the Mets, and also probably eat a bunch of sandwiches.
If you’re in or near Chicago, you should come hang out. Matt Cerrone is going to put together some sort of party, so join me there as I make so many Blues Brothers references they grow intolerable then poke fun at whichever of Cerrone’s numerous bizarre traveling whims has come up in the last day or so.
If you’re not in or near Chicago, the Mets are offering a package that includes tickets and accommodations.
Obviously Wrigley is awesome and I love Chicago, plus the trip should mean different and hopefully interesting content for this blog.
I haven’t figured out exactly what that means yet, but I’m certain it will involve eating. I know about the fake-ass “pizza” they serve up there, and I recognize that it’s pretty good even if it’s not what pizza should be like, so I’ll probably have some of that.
And I know it’s a sausage town, plus I’m certain to go back to the Billygoat Tavern, both because they serve good burgers and because it’s on Lower Wacker, which cracks me up.
But what I’m really excited about — and what I didn’t know existed the last time I was in the Second City — is the breaded steak sandwich. Look at that thing.
If you know any other Chicago-area delicacies, please let me know. I’m not sure how much food I’ll be able to cram in my face in three days, but hey, when in Rome.
Tedquarters 