Category Archives: Words

(Tugs collar, fidgets, exhales)

Posted on by
Reply

So obviously that wasn’t the Jets’ best game. Mark Sanchez threw a couple of interceptions and tried to throw a couple more, the Broncos’ purportedly porous run defense stymied the Jets’ lauded rushing attack, and Gang Green eked out a win thanks to a well-timed penalty on a desperate pass.

Here’s the good news though: The Jets still won. Some have said the win is a testament to their grit and fortitude, and though I don’t think those qualities are nearly as overrated in football as they are in baseball, I suspect the win speaks more to the Jets’ talent than their toughness — though in football sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between the two.

The Jets won, sure, in-part because of the penalty, but also because they were good enough to stay in the game despite being outplayed for most of it.

Their defense was good enough to contain the Broncos’ high-flying offense. Antonio Cromartie played another spectacular game, and Darrelle Revis — even with his hamstring at 90%, by his account — looked a lot more like Darrelle Revis. They looked good even on the few plays they got beat; take 34 shots at NFL receivers, even in tight coverage, and you’re bound to connect on a few.

And their offense was good enough to move the ball despite Sanchez’s youthful hiccups. Though it appeared the Broncos came in prepared for the running game, the Jets’ o-line manhandled the Denver pass rush and appeared to give Sanchez plenty of time to work through his post-interception tentativeness. Plus Brian Schottenheimer made good use of the fancy stuff.

The Jets proved good enough to win even in a game they played poorly, and when a bunch of things didn’t fall their way. They head into their bye week with the best record in football, likely salivating at the thought of a Week 8 matchup at home against a banged-up Packers team that looked very lucky to stay with the Dolphins so long on Sunday.

So chin up, Mark Sanchez. The Jets are looking awfully handsome these days.

Sandwich of the Week

Posted on by
3

This week’s sandwich came heavily recommended from various readers, Twitterers, and my friend Brad, who works near the shop in question. I appreciate sandwich recommendations so please keep them coming. I know there is no shortage of delicious sandwiches in this fine city, so if you’ve got one you love, I’m down to, you know, eat it. Especially if it’s within a reasonable subway haul from Rockefeller Plaza or a reasonable drive from Central Westchester, and especially if it’s something of an offbeat sandwich, since there are only so many things I can say about burgers.

(I don’t mean that. I can’t say enough about burgers. I’m sorry I even suggested otherwise, ground beef. I love you.)

The sandwich: Hot roast beef from Defonte’s of Brooklyn, 21st and 3rd Ave., Manhattan (also apparently in Red Hook, but good luck tearing yourself away from the taco trucks).

The construction: House-made Italian bread with roast beef, fresh  mozzarella, fried eggplant and au jus.

Important background info: I probably should’ve ordered the hot roast beef to stay — especially considering the wonderful smell at Defonte’s — but it was a nice day and I passed Gramercy Park on my way, so I figured I’d take it out and go sit on a park bench with my sandwich. Somewhere deep in my head I’m sure I knew that Gramercy Park is closed to the public and accessible only via key to residents of specific area buildings, but it slipped my mind on Friday, focused as I was on this much-hyped sandwich.

I walked a full lap of the park looking for an open entrance, panicking, knowing that my sandwich — with that au jus on it — was growing soggy. When I figured out I wasn’t allowed in, my head filled up with anti-capitalist angst as I hauled ass toward Union Square. Dammit, this city has so little green space, what exists should be for everyone! Those sons of bitches have a lot of nerve, locking people out. Damn-near shameful.

I eventually found a suitable bench on the northeast side of Union Square park. But soon after I opened my sandwich, a lady sat right across from me and started feeding squirrels, and I could see the little bastards eying my roast beef. That’s mine! Away from my sandwich, rodents! Move on, Willard-woman, please let me eat in peace. Next some panhandlers came by with cardboard signs and guilt trips. Man, isn’t there some way to make this park more exclusive?

What it looks like:

How it tastes: A bit soggy, as I feared, but still really, really tasty.

My particular mound of roast beef came from near the end of the roast, but it was still rare, moist and tender. This was a huge thing for customers at the deli — there were a lot of people who just didn’t want roast beef until it was cut from the center and rarest part of the meat. I always thought the rareness factor was at least a tiny bit overrated, but obviously I recognize that the butt-end of a roast beef is usually dry and unappetizing. Not the case at Defonte’s (though this wasn’t quite the very end), at all. Helps that they’ve got it soaking in jus, of course.

Speaking of: Something in this sandwich was quite garlicky, and I’m guessing it was that jus. Which is good. Garlicky is good. Every time I lifted my hand near my mouth for the rest of the day I smelt buttery garlic and remembered the sandwich, a nice little reminder of a delicious sandwich past.

And when I got good bites of the fried eggplant — when it was crispy — it perfectly complemented the roast beef and added some crunchiness to the sandwich. It was soggy a bit too often, unfortunately, which was a shame because it’s clearly what makes this sandwich especially notable. That’s not Defonte’s fault, of course; blame me for taking the thing to go and the people of the Gramercy area for locking their park (and that woman inside for not coming over and opening the gate for me when she saw me standing there, pathetic, obviously eager to eat a sandwich).

My one quibble would be the amount of fresh mozzarella. I should probably mention that this is a complaint I have with every food item in the world that’s not a massive hunk of fresh mozzarella, but on the hot roast beef the delicious cheese got overwhelmed a bit by the huge amount of meat. No disrespect to meat, obviously, but if I were constructing this sandwich myself, I’d probably substitute another layer of mozzarella for the last few slices of roast beef to balance out the proportions a little bit.

What it’s worth: Sandwich cost about $10, plus two rides on the subway and about 10 minutes of walking for me. But look at that damn thing; there’s enough there for two meals. Good luck trying to stop eating it after the first half, though.

How it rates: Please excuse me for avoiding a proper rating for the second straight week. As I enjoyed it, this sandwich still merits a rating in the mid-to-high 80s: delicious. But due to the potential here and all the vehement recommendations, I suspect that under the proper conditions this might very well have been a Hall of Fame sandwich. I guess think of it like the Tony Conigliaro of sandwiches: An Italian stud on a Hall of Fame trajectory but sidetracked by misfortune. Only obviously the story of the hot roast beef is far less tragic, since it will end with me eating another.

Frenchy Tracker update

Posted on by
6

Two more Jeff Francoeur stories in area papers, bringing the total to six thus far. If you’re playing at home, that’s three articles for every plate appearance Frenchy’s had in the ALCS, and nearly an article per pitch he’s seen. Even in a rough outing, it took CC Sabathia all of seven pitches to retire Francoeur twice last night. Frenchy swung at five of them.

Kudos should to go Andy McCullough of the Star-Ledger for turning in a balanced Francoeur feature, one that, after swipes at the Mets, mentions Francoeur’s petulance upon losing his job in Flushing and success in a diminished role in Arlington.

The second Francoeur feature comes from Mike Sielksi of the Wall Street Journal, he of the memorable “No Cameras for Francoeur’s Milestone” piece which some have claimed was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. This Francoeur piece is straightforward and rather damning. Sielski calls Francoeur a role player — rightly — and writes that “he needs to understand and acknowledge it.”

But best of all, Sielski includes this stunning tidbit:

Even then, though, Mr. Francoeur couldn’t contain his delusions of grandeur when it came to the money he might command on the open market.

He isn’t eligible for free agency until after next season, but during a conversation before a game in Philadelphia, he referenced Jayson Werth, Ryan Howard and Joe Mauer—three of baseball’s elite players—in talking about the factors that might affect where he played in the years to come.

Wow.

From the “particularly ominous e-mails” folder

Posted on by
1

Ted, you better review the McRib when it is rereleased. Possibly Nov. 2.

– Kevin, via email.

Kevin: Duh.

This is actually the first I heard about the glorious return of the McRib, but a quick Googling reveals this helpful website, which identifies the locations of known McRib-distributing McDonald’s restaurants.

I trust it will still have weird grill-simulating stripes.

Things Sandy Alderson said

Posted on by
9

“Managers are very controlling. You look at the managers today and the ones that are ‘my way or the highway’ are very few. It’s a remnant of another generation. If an organization is worth its salt – why would you turn that company over to a middle manager? So the attitude (in Oakland) was, ‘We have a philosophy and we’re going to find a manager who is going to implement that philosophy. We’re not looking for someone to tell us how to run the team, or upon which theory it should be predicated. We already have that. We want someone who is going to implement it for us.’ That’s a very different approach.”

– Sandy Alderson to ESPN, via MetsBlog.com.

I’ve maintained all along that I won’t make any sweeping declarative statements on the Mets’ general-manager hunt and I’m not about to roll back on that now, but it’s hard not to get excited about Alderson based on this and just about everything else I’ve read about the guy.

This quote, in particular, makes me think about the way the Jenrry Mejia situation unfolded this spring, and reminds me that a strong general manager with a sense of priorities can and should overrule a field manager clamoring for short-sighted decisions in the name of middle-relief help.

Mets fans — in the MetsBlog comments section linked above and elsewhere — knock Alderson’s taste in managers because he hired Art Howe. But that neglects to consider that Howe, presumably hired by Alderson as a manager willing to implement his and then Billy Beane’s grand plan for the A’s, helped Oakland to three straight playoff berths and consecutive 100-win seasons before butting heads with Beane and fleeing for Flushing.

As Mets fans we hated watching Howe appear comatose at the helm of some truly awful clubs at Shea, but clearly he was, at least for a while, a capable company man in the middle-management role Alderson described.

Obviously philosophies related to reporters “years ago” are different than those employed actually running a team, and so it’s too soon to praise Alderson without evidence that, if hired, he practices what he preaches at the Mets’ helm. But just the suggestion of a top-down organization with a clear pecking order and a well-conceived, thoroughly implemented plan is enough to capture Mets’ fans imaginations after the last administration.

Drafting fictional players

Posted on by
Reply

The 1974 NHL Amateur Draft was an example of these tactics coming to a head. The draft was conducted ahead of schedule and via secret conference call in order to prevent leaks. The system, however, had a significant downside — it was tediously slow. And for the first time ever, an NHL team drafted a Japanese player. With the 183rd pick in the draft, George “Punch” Imlach, general manager of the Buffalo Sabres, announced his team’s selection: Taro Tsujimoto, the star center of the Tokyo Kitanas….

A few weeks into training camp, Tsujimoto had still not shown his face in Buffalo. Disgraced by the mocking? Visa troubles? Nope. Tsujimoto hadn’t arrived because Imlach had made him up; the byproduct of a bored general manager frustrated by the league’s cloak and dagger draft.

– Dan Lewis, Now I Know newsletter.

Cool. I think drafting fictional players and hyping them up is something I’d definitely be tempted to do if I were running a professional sports franchise. You need a good endgame, though, because otherwise you’re just going to end up with an empty roster.

Anyway, this tidbit from Lewis’ newsletter reminded me of a couple points: First, late in the 2010 season, Chan Ho Park earned his 124th win to pass Hideo Nomo as the winningest Asian-born pitcher. It’s weird; I think I’ve come to associate Park so closely with his big contract in Texas, his brutal one-start stint with the Mets and his diarrhea kerfuffle from earlier this season that I forget he was actually the first Major Leaguer in the recent wave of imports from the Far East. He actually tossed two innings at the beginning of the 1994 season, a full year before Nomomania set in.

Second, now seems like a good time to pop Lewis’ newsletter, which is awesome. It’s basically one random bit of trivia a day, and it’s a breeze to read. You can subscribe here.

Frenchy Tracker, go!

Posted on by
7

Today on Twitter, I set the over-under on Jeff Francoeur-themed sidebars in New York papers during the ALCS at 20.

So far we’re at two, this epic from the Daily News and this one I can’t read from Newsday.

I will try to stay vigilant, but I’d appreciate all the help I could get in monitoring this situation. So please, if you find a story about Jeff Francoeur in a local paper, please alert me via the comments section or the contact box at the above right.

But I’m not interested in stories that just quote Jeff Francoeur somewhere — that’s basically all of them; they have to be about Jeff Francoeur. Items in notebook/roundup pieces are fine as long as Francoeur gets his own dedicated subhead inside the article.

Why do I care? Because I’m a jackass, primarily. But also because I’m really, really interested in knowing how Jeff Francoeur feels about his first taste of the postseason in New York, what it’s like for him to be back here after leaving so recently, what he thinks about Cliff Lee, how he has fit into the Rangers’ clubhouse, his favorite places to eat in New York, and something about his dogs.

Darrelle Revis stuff

Posted on by
2

“We’d all feel better if he did practice,” Ryan said. “Let’s see how he’s moving around. It could be that we think he looks great and we fly to Denver and all of a sudden, he’s not great.”

Revis was amenable to taking the cautious approach that would give him an additional 15 or so days to rehab and rest before the Packers game. However, he’s fully aware of the fickle nature of hamstring injuries. “I can rest this game and rest the bye and come back and it’s still the same situation,” Revis said.

Revis hasn’t lost sight of the big picture.

“It’s a long season,” Revis said. “We don’t want to re-injure it.”

– Manish Mehta, N.Y. Daily News.

Little bit of strangeness coming out of Jets camp about Revis and his injury. Maybe I’m paranoid because I’m a Mets fan grown accustomed to the miscommunication and mishandling of injuries, but it kind of sounds from this and a couple other articles like Revis doesn’t feel up to playing on Sunday and Rex Ryan is trying to push him toward it.

But then earlier in the article, Ryan admits he put too much trust in Revis to diagnose himself before Monday night’s contest and that, as a competitor, Revis will always want to be out there.

Obviously I’m not a doctor so I’ll resist speculation. It seems like playing it safe is the best option, even if passing the ball is pretty much the only thing the Broncos do well.

But then the counter to that is to argue that Revis needs reps to get up to speed, and so should push through the injury if it’s not going to get any worse since that’s what he needs to do to return to playing like Darrelle Revis.

Because the big issue is that Revis got tossed around and beat badly by the likes of Percy Harvin on Monday night, and the Jets’ secondary — presumed to be a strength heading into the season — appears like it could be the club’s Achilles heel if Revis can’t get right.

I’d err on the side of caution. Brian Bassett agrees. Obviously every game is important in a 16-game schedule, but resting Revis now betters the chances he’ll be full strength and again dominant during the playoffs, plus provides the added benefit of more reps to Kyle Wilson, who could use some getting up to speed himself.

Oh yeah, Nick Evans

Posted on by
5

The most interesting guy who played first for the Mets in their full-season minor leagues in 2010? Nick Evans. Yeah, that’s a long way from being The Most Interesting Man in the World, but it’s a start. Evans beat up AA pitching at a .294/.366/.527 rate and kept going in AAA where hit hit .314/.385/.557. Along the way, he totalled 44 doubles and 23 home runs in 125 minor league games. He even hit a little bit in the big leagues this time through, going .306/.324/.472 in 36 AB. He’s always hit lefties much better than righties and could well be a cheap bench piece next year who could play a little first, left or third in a dire emergency.

And that’s the weird part of Evans’ whole season. The Mets did not prepare him for a utility role. He played 12 games at third in AA and four in AAA, and just two in the outfield. Early on, the idea was that playing Evans at the same position everyday would help him get comfortable. At some point, like when he was crushing the ball, he should have played more third and more left to put himself in a position to help the big league club.

– Toby Hyde, MetsMinorLeagueBlog.com.

One of the less-heralded baffling decisions among the many made by the last administration in Flushing was not letting Evans regularly play the outfield in the Minors this season, even though he reportedly requested time there. It will be interesting to see how the next front office handles the oft-forgotten Evans, who has nothing to prove in the Minors and no options remaining on his contract.

Since Evans mashes lefties — including in his small 121 at-bat Major League sample — and offers some defensive flexibility, it seems like a no-brainer to keep him around in the righty bench bat role once filled by Fernando Tatis.

Since left field and third base will be filled by right-handers and right field will likely be manned by a switch-hitter, there probably won’t be a ton of chances for Evans until someone gets hurt. As Duke suggested in the comments section yesterday, Evans could probably combine with Lucas Duda to create a reasonable-hitting corner outfield platoon, though that could be a bit frightening defensively.

That’s really all I have to say about Nick Evans, I guess. Slow day in Metsland. Basically, the dude is too good, too young, and too inexpensive to be passed through waivers, and it will be a pretty damning indictment of the next GM if he or she goes out and spends a couple million on a righty bench bat only to cast Evans aside.