Great Success!

The Mets opened powerfully and convincingly today, pushing aside the Marlins 7-2 on one of those days when everything seemed to follow the proper script. I didn't see the game, but in reading the recap and looking at the box score, it seemed that the Mets opened playing in a way that will carry them a long way this season if they can internalize what they did today and make it something of a routine.

The picture you've been waiting for...and this one wasn't even photoshopped

Some positive and particularly illustrative highlights, I think:

• Johan Santana gave up two runs on just three hits and one walk in seven innings. He struck out eight. That's just a downright good game, and starts like this on a regular basis by are what makes a pitcher like Santana the ace of a staff. You could never really count on Tom Glavine to deliver anything like that when he took the mound.
• Jose Reyes went 2-4. Luis Castillo went 1-3 with two walks and stole a base - that's all the more impressive considering the fact that both David Wright and Jose Reyes got caught stealing today. I'm looking forward to watching a healthy Castillo do his thing. A lot of people wanted the Mets to bring in a power hitting second baseman and/or no. 2 hitter this offseason, but Castillo is the type of classic, prototypical 2 guy who can really help energize a lineup. If his knees hold up, him and Reyes could produce a double leadoff combo that will really wear down opponents.
• David Wright went 2-4 with 2 doubles, and was a major player in the Mets first big rally, a six-run sixth where Wright drove in three with the first of those two hits. That's the type of game that makes Wright look more and more like the emerging on-field leader that he started to be towards the end of last season.
• Carlos Delgado had no hits. Big surprise! I'm going to be hard on him this year.
• Although Matt Wise gave up two hits, Scott Schoenweis and Jorge Sosa bailed him out and Aaron Heilman pitched a hitless ninth while recording two strikeouts as the bullpen backed up Santana's solid start and looked good.
• The Mets committed no errors.

I'll probably stop talking about last year eventually, and it really hasn't left any lasting scars or anything. I was thinking today about how it was a totally embarrassing way to end the season, but it didn't really hurt the same way as watching your star center fielder look at strike three to end the NLCS. Besides, it wasn't meant to be in 2007. Think the Mets would have beaten the fired up Rockies in the Division Series? I rest my case.

Anyway, where I'm going with this is that the Mets played the type of game that they never really got used to playing last year. In a season of maddening inconsistency, they often won in spite of themselves but rarely just played well. Today was a downright good game, and made me even more excited for the season ahead.

Plus the Phillies lost (at home) after Jimmy Rollins hit a game-tying home run in the seventh, only to watch Tom Gordon give up six runs to blow it in the ninth. Haha. Ha. Ahahahahahahaha. I hope the Braves aren't good this year.

And I'm out.

(Photo courtesy mets.com)

OPENING DAY?!

Warning Track Power is currently in New Orleans building houses; I've been down here for about a week and I'll be here for another two. I've been somewhat out of the loop and it's easy to lose track of time down here.

Three days passed without me checking realclearpolitics.com for the latest on the Obama/Hillary slugfest.

Until about 10 minutes ago I hadn't been on metsblog since last Tuesday.

Spring Training is long, too, though it doesn't feel quite as long as NFL training camp. Much like the hot stove season, you get sick of hearing the same things over and over again. It must get hard after a while to be a beat writer during Spring Training. If you're Marty Noble, by the end of March you're probably up late at night making tally marks on your arm to count down the days until Opening Day, all while being forced to write something along the lines of:

Carlos Beltran walked all the way around the Mets spring training complex today, shmoozing with some of the Mets minor league coaches, who apparently were happy to see the star center fielder.

Or,

John Maine said he's sick of Port St. Lucie today. Somebody help me.

Or,

David Wright ate ribs for dinner tonight.

There's been some news to keep up on, mostly perennial spring training stuff. Roster this, roster that...there's a competition for the fifth starter's spot every year it seems. We had a bunch of injuries, but it looks like we're going north sans only Orlando Hernandez, Ramon Castro, and Duaner Sanchez, who all have relatively minor injuries, or are almost fully recovered from a freak taxi cab accident, and should be in New York fairly soon.

Anyway, I've actually been on the road for the entirety of Spring Training this year. I'm doing some traveling and Spring Training is kind of an interesting gauge, I guess, for how long I've been away from home. I've covered the whole thing pretty loosely, and fairly or unfairly haven't made much time for the more frequent posts I try to write during the season. That's how I've covered most of the offseason; with so much of the same stuff over and over again, I've tried to give my perspective on the big events and write something random yet hopefully poignant every once in a while. January was a good chance for me to write about the incredible road to a Super Bowl championship traversed by my other favorite New York sports team, those football Giants.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Opening Day has NEVER snuck up on me like this before. As excited as I am about this season, I honestly thought we had another week. But this is soooo much better. The Mets are already in Miami, and will take on the Marlins tomorrow at 4 before having one of those bizarre Tuesday off-days we get every beginning of the season and then really getting into the swing. I won't be able to live blog the game, but I'll see if I can get up with a fresh post either tomorrow night or Tuesday.

With the season starting, I'll be trying to get back to the 3 to 4 posts a week I wrote last summer, transitioning like every one else from offseason life to the rhythm of another baseball season. As Mets fans, we've got to be excited right now. One thing I did write about a couple times this spring was the confidence level in Spring camp, I get the sense that the Mets really want to do something special to usher out Shea and atone for the giant heap of (unprintable) dumped on the fan base at the end of 2007. I'm withholding judgment, trying to eliminate all expectations, and after last year's let down just generally looking to take it one day at a time. But I still feel good. I think that one way or another, this is going to be a fun season. It's amazing how the acquisition of one star pitcher can really lift everyone's spirits.

Look for Jose to bounce back this year from the roughest of ends to 2007. We hope.

So here we go. Isn't baseball season great? It's one way to tell that spring is here, even if the April weather in Flushing doesn't always cooperate. Baseball season also signals the coming of my birthday (April 13 in case ya'll are interested); this year I'll be 20. Isn't that cool?

Before I check out, here's the lineup for tomorrow:

Leading off and playing shortstop: Jose Reyes

Second, at second: Luis Castillo

Hitting third, playing third base: David Wright

Cleaning up, in centerfield: Carlos Beltran

At first, batting fifth: Carlos Delgado

In left field, hitting sixth: Angel "my name is contradictory" Pagan

Followed by, in right: Ryan "L Millz" Church

And batting eighth, behind the dish: Brian Schneider

Starting on the mound for the Mets is the man of the hour, Johan Santana.

Keep it real, stay fresh, and here's to the 2008 Mets. Happy New Year everyone!

(Photos courtesy about.com, lovefilm.com, cnn.net)

Unease About Delgado

Since returning to action this spring from a lingering hip injury, Carlos Delgado is 0-9, with five strikeouts.  

Everyone is certainly aware of Delgado's struggles last year, to the tune of home run and RBI totals 14 and 33 below his career average, respectively.  

Delgado didn't just drop off randomly; he was hurt.  He denied it, and such speculation was generally dismissed by many people in the Mets organization, but his ongoing recovery from off-season hand surgery clearly hampered him, particularly when he tried to get around on high, inside fastballs.  This was a visible problem all year.  Delgado came through with a big hit now and then, and his numbers were fairly respectable for a Major League first baseman, but league average was a steep drop for Delgado from the dominant force he was at times in 2006, and he basically became a mistake hitter.  I'm not sure I remember Delgado hitting any "pitcher's pitches" last year, and any smart reliever in the late innings knew that all he had to do was throw Delgado a belt-high fastball on the inside corner and Carlos was sure to choke.  In short, even while finishing the year with 20 plus home runs and nearly 100 RBI, Delgado felt like a liability because he consistently failed to come through in the clutch and he was a shadow of his former self.  

And every time he got into any sort of groove, it seemed like he got hurt again.  Last September, he was heating up when the same hip injury that kept him out for the beginning of the spring sidelined him just as the Mets were beginning their tailspin into oblivion.  

Delgado is well on his way to losing it as a hitter, primarily because his body is breaking down. He's always been streaky; he slumped miserably through parts of 2006 even as he hit 38 home runs and drove in 114.  But right now it honestly feels like he's reached the point of no return. 

Throughout the past few months Delgado and Willie Randolph continued to insist that last year was a total aberration for Carlos and had nothing to do with him being hurt.  In one interview, Willie waxed poetic about how the majority of his struggles had to do with a lack of an ability to take control in the batter's box.  Delgado was playing the pitcher's game, not his - always dangerous for any major league hitter.  And Delgado, without addressing Willie's opinion, talked about how hard he's been working this off-season to come back strong in '08.  

But a good deal of Delgado's inability to "take control in the batter's box" would seem to come back to his inability to get around on a high inside fastball.  If a pitcher knows exactly what pitch is sure to get a given hitter out in absolutely every situation, that hitter is going to have a hard time "taking control in the batter's box" from at-bat to at-bat, game to game, series to series.  

Delgado didn't finish an at-bat this spring without striking out until his four hitless at-bats today.  By many accounts, Delgado '08 looked a lot like Delgado '07 through those first five at-bats, struggling with - you said it - the high, inside fastball.  

The league is on notice.  He's going to get even more of these pitches this year than he did last year.  And whether he's hurt, or just old, or whatever, Carlos Delgado will continue to deteriorate as long as he keeps getting the high inside fastball and can't hit it.  By all indications, it's going to be another long, frustrating year for Carlos, and for Mets fans watching him - especially if he continues to be hurt while maintaining that he's fully healthy.  

Delgado looks to be in a state of irrevocable decline.  The Mets would be wise to trade him if they could, but they're not going to find a taker, and they probably won't try to find one either. What might be more realistic, and would thus be especially prudent under the circumstances, would be for the Mets to find a credible reinforcement at first.  Marlon Anderson and Damion Easley are nice utility players, but they probably won't be able to pick up the slack.  Neither will Jose Valentin, if he makes the team.  Omar Minaya's been good the past few years at finding the type of guy the Mets now need to back up first base; perhaps he'll be able to pull something off now.  

2008 looks promising, but the Mets are in sort of a first base quandary.  Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section for what you think Omar and Willie should do to manage a situation that looks like it might end up being a chronic problem.  

(Picture courtesy nycsportsnews.com) 

Johan

Watching SportsCenter the other night, I happened to catch some highlights from the Mets 3-2 victory over the Dodgers in St. Lucie. Johan Santana pitched three innings and struck out four, while yielding one run on two hits.

Nice suit

It's only the spring, but there was something special about that highlight. SportsCenter incorporated all four strikeouts into the highlight, three of which Santana registered with a downright filthy circle change.

We've had Pedro for a few years, but you have to go back slightly beyond my lifetime as a Mets fan to recall a time when the Mets had a dominant pitcher in his prime. I never really got to see Doc Gooden pitch; I was born in '88 and didn't start watching the Mets until '92 or '93.

I've known this, of course, ever since the trade for Santana and subsequent signing went through, and I've been excited to have a chance to watch a bona fide ace who works as hard as anyone do his thing. But something about actually seeing Santana pitch for the first time, even in spring, just made me feel good. I'm so pumped for this season - now if Carlos Beltran, Duaner Sanchez, Ryan Church, Marlon Anderson, Moises Alou, El Duque, Carlos Delgado, Endy Chavez, Jose Valentin, Ruben Gotay, Michel Abreu, and Brian Schneider can all only get nice and healthy for Opening Day, we'll be in business. Who's our trainer?

(Photo courtesy brucekphoto.com)

Staying Grounded

As I mentioned the other day, the Mets are slowly trickling into Port St. Lucie and the mood seems to be pretty upbeat. Everybody's confident after the Johan Santana acquisition, and it seems like the players are just as serious as the fans are about coming back with a vengeance this year and destroying the rest of the National League again, a la 2006. That's refreshing.

We've even got players making Jimmy Rollins-like guarantees. Carlos Beltran, over the weekend, on the Mets' chances this year in light of the Santana deal:

“With him, I have no doubt we’re going to win our division. I have no doubt about that…So, this year, tell Jimmy Rollins we are the team to beat.” (metsblog)

I'm not sure if Beltran, normally a quiet, just-goes-about-his-business type, wanted to stir up some controversy or was just trying to sound cool. But here's Endy Chavez, in the New York Post yesterday:

The Mets' recent trade for ace left-hander Johan Santana is "a guarantee for us to make the playoffs," Chavez excitedly told The Post yesterday after reporting to camp early. (NYP)

If you read the entire article, it sounds less like Endy wanted to send anyone a message, and more like he's just excited about the Mets' having a great pitcher on their staff. Endy seems like he's more Carlos Beltran than Jose Reyes, and fourth outfielders - even legendary fourth outfielders - don't usually make these sorts of predictions. Here's the rest of his quote:

"[Even] if he has a bad year, we're going to get 15 wins out of it," the backup outfielder added. "I mean, he's unbelievable. If he stays healthy, we're going to be in for a great season."

Two things at work here. Number one: aghhhhhhh. After we were doomed in 2007 by complacency and over-confidence, the last thing we need right now is anything that will breed more complacency and over-confidence. We should be confident - we just added the best pitcher in baseball to an already solid roster. And we need to regain some of the '06 swagger that was lost last year. But this confidence needs to be of the quiet, "we're going to beat you and we know it but we're not going to say anything about it" sort, as opposed to the "we're going to beat you and we know it so we're going to broadcast it and end up looking stupid in the end" sort.

Secondly, I'm a little concerned that the Mets' players might be expecting a little bit too much from Santana. Not that he's not likely to win at least 15 games - especially in the National League. But the rest of the Mets cannot let themselves see him as some all-powerful, messianic savior, similar to the kid in CYO basketball who scores all the points.

Johan Santana is an awesome acquisition, obviously; and the Mets definitely know that having a bona fide ace at the top of the rotation is going to be huge this year. But our team and fanbase also need to remember that 25 players win games, series, divisions, and championships, and that Santana is just a piece of the greater puzzle.

Especially after being supremely cut down to size just four months ago, I trust the Mets to stay grounded and not get too far ahead of themselves. Then again, I trusted the Mets to rise above mediocrity for about four months last season and it never happened. This year, though, the last thing anyone wants is another colossal embarrassment. Here's Carlos Delgado, he of the "sometimes I just think we get a little bored" comments at the end of last season:

"You can talk all you want, you can say all you want, but at the end of the day, all that matters is what happens between the two white lines," Delgado said. "I think the addition of Santana is a big key for us. I think we got the best team. It's just a matter of going out there and executing." (newsday)

It's fine to think you're the best, but you have to go out and back it up on the field. The Mets have the right attitude going into Spring Training. Fulfilling this season's potential will be about maintaining proper focus and discipline, and if Willie Randolph is good for anything he should be able to help foster the right approaches to taking back the National League East. The Mets know that they're in solid position to be a juggernaut this season, but for this to happen they also must understand the importance of keeping both feet on the ground.

(Picture courtesy nytimes.com)

Pitchers and Catchers

Pitchers and Catchers have reported to Mets camp, as another baseball season slowly comes upon us.

The four-month slog from early fall to mid-February seemed like even more of an eternity this year. After the way last season ended, the only story for most of this off-season was the tragic irony of the Mets' need for an ace and perceived impotence in the hot stove market. In a year where we as Mets fans are more eager than ever to turn the page, there was little to look up about for most of the winter as the Phillies and Braves made small but significant upgrades, while the haters and the naysayers dumped on the Mets and said we were nothing more than a third place team.

The thing about perceptions is that they can do a pretty effective job of influencing reality. Coming to camp with virtually the same team as the one that collapsed last September probably would have put us in contention, but we'd be hearing it from those haters and naysayers and the entire season would have been played under an asphyxiating cloud of uncertainty and doubt.

There's nothing in baseball, or life, like a fresh start, and instead of doom and gloom the narrative going into Spring Training reads much more optimistically. The biggest thing the Johan Santana deal did was re-establish the Mets as the team to beat in the NL East - sorry Jimmy Rollins. With their dominance in 2006 and position atop the division for most of last season, for the first time since the late 80s the Mets were the team everyone tried extra hard to beat - that made it harder to halt the collapse once it started. The sense, of course, was eventually lost at the end of last year, but now it's back.

For all of the renewal associated with the Mets and being a Mets fan since Willie and Omar took over, the team still hasn't climbed the big hump. We've been competitive, fun to watch, and our games have been well-attended again. But the final hurdle still hasn't been cleared, and in that sense getting Johan Santana almost makes the start of this Spring Training feel like Spring Training in '06.

Spring Training

Back then we had made several major off-season acquisitions, and as the season got underway, Mets fans most of all were cautiously optimistic. We knew we had a good team, but the Braves had still won 14 straight division titles, and we didn't quite make it the year before.

This year, we're humbled by the collapse but also aware that our team just got lucky and acquired the best pitcher in baseball to emphatically fill the hole at the top of our rotation. We had a good team to begin with, better than the haters and naysayers would have given us credit for, but now we don't have to hear about our lack of an ace or marketable prospects. As fans, we're cautiously optimistic yet again, this time that the new buzz generated by bringing in Johan Santana will help us kick out all of last year's demons and own the National League again.

You'd rather have a buzz surrounding your team in mid-February than dark, ominous clouds, and the buzz this season is as bright and sunny as the Port St. Lucie sky. It's a different buzz than last year, when everyone was excited because we almost made the World Series the year before, but there wasn't as much substance behind it because we hadn't really done much to tangibly improve our team.

And the gigantic tease that was last season followed the same script of all talk and no substance. The Mets talked like champions and played like losers when it counted. Now we have the opportunity to make up for it. The sense around Mets camp, so far at least, seems promising. It will be all about making good on this year's late winter buzz.

(Pictures courtesy metsblog, springtrainingonline.com)

2007-2008 Super Bowl Champions

An extended commentary on Johan Santana and the Mets vastly enhanced prospects for 2008 is forthcoming. In Omar We Trust.

But it's necessary first for us to pay homage to the extraordinary Super Bowl Champion New York Giants. Quite honestly I wasn't sure when I was ever going to say that. The Super Bowl Champion New York Giants.


I've written a few times in this space about the Giants and Eli Manning, Spagnuolo's D and the sense I had after they beat the Cowboys that they had nothing else to prove to me. I'm devoted to no sports team more than I am to the Mets, but this is the greatest season I've ever watched. I've been following the Giants, too, since I was five years old. I cried during the waning moments of Super Bowl XXXV, have the 41-0 win over the Vikings on tape, remember the brutal loss in 2003 (the '02 season) to the 49ers, was there when Danny Kanell and co. blew it in '97, and have watched the end of the last two seasons with the same disgust as every die-hard Giants fan. In short, the Mets play for only six months every year. I depend on the Giants to get me through at least 4 of those off-months, and anticipate the first week in September with the same excitement (well, almost) as the first week in April.

This has to be considered one of the greatest Super Bowls ever, one of the greatest Super Bowl upsets ever, one of the greatest upsets - period - ever, and one of the greatest seasons in NFL history. For the Giants, this was the true perfect season.

Not measured in an undefeated record, all-time scoring marks, or having a supermodel-dating quarterback who threw 50 touchdown passes in the regular season. Not measured by the genius of a coach going for a record-tying fourth Super Bowl with an unmatched year of icing on the cake.

No, the 2007-2008 Giants, the little team that could, told they couldn't by the sports pundits, kept alive by the right arm of the quintessential little brother, the Mama's boy who finally found himself, treated their fans to a roller-coaster month of victories against football's best. Over the Cowboys, their playboy quarterback, and their 12 pro-bowlers in Dallas. Over the legendary Brett Favre against the legendary Packers in legendary Lambeau Field in conditions that could be described as nothing less than epic and legendary. Over the New England Patriots, inevitable champions, penciled in at 19-0 since mid-October. 18-1.

You can't help but feel good for Eli Manning

The Giants can't be seen as anything short of a team of destiny. A team that had to fight to even make the playoffs, who lost several big games in the regular season, becomes just the second team in NFL history to win a Super Bowl without having played a home playoff game. (The Steelers set the standard two years ago) This is a team that went just 10-6 in the regular season, but moved past all the uncertainty, began to believe in itself at the right time, and did its thing with grit, guts, moxie, and determination. They stayed in every playoff game - in each they trailed at some point in the second half, but always were within striking distance - and then were carried over the top in the end by the right combination of good luck and outstanding individual and group performances.

When I was younger, I would look at the lines in the paper, having no clue what they represented, and root for the underdog because it always sounded cooler than "favorite." Since I've been a fan, the Mets and Giants have certainly been "underdogs" quite frequently. But these games, the climax of this season, turned into the kind of thing I'll tell my kids about. As I've grown up, I've developed a stronger and stronger appreciation for those times when I can tell I'm witnessing history. This season, culminating in a dramatic Super Bowl upset of an undefeated team, the perpetual underdogs wrote a mythic underdog story. That catch by David Tyree, after Eli Manning somehow didn't get sacked. This whole thing would make a great movie.

David Tyree celebrated his touchdown score, then made one of the great plays in Super Bowl history

It's funny because this game was kind of like the win that started this entire Patriots dynasty, or whatever you want to call it. In Super Bowl XXXVI, no one gave the Pats a chance, with their rookie quarterback and team of nobody's. The Rams were 14 point favorites - a bigger spread, even, than last night's (the Pats were favored by 12). In Super Bowl XLII, the "all-Joes," in the words of Antonio Pierce, prevailed in another sensational ending to another awesome game. Once again, David won. But this game is even bigger just for the gravity of the circumstances going in. Undefeated vs. 10-6. Victory against the most impossible odds.

It's essential that we appreciate these moments, as sports fans or even as casual observers. There are so many more underdogs than favorites in life, much more rugged scrappiness than so-called perfection from person to person. I would appreciate nothing if I were a Patriots fan today. Sorry, New England, I know this sucks. These circumstances notwithstanding, however, you just have to feel good for the Giants right now. The rag tag bunch with the good guy QB and the defense that was literally dropping to the ground in exhaustion in the 4th quarter from trying to stop the Patriots' offensive juggernaut all night are champions this morning. They pulled it off, and if that doesn't speak to the best feelings and values in most of us, I don't know what does.

There will be a parade for the ages in New York City tomorrow. The Super Bowl Champions will celebrate on Super Tuesday, so I'll be up here trying to get out the vote for Barack Obama, but I'm sure it's going to be just as epic, just as legendary, as the end to this Giants season. Soak it up, fellow Giants fans. We've just witnessed a great run to end maybe the greatest year in our team's history. Our season just came.

(Pictures courtesy giants.com, citizen.co.za, newsday.com. Video courtesy bttwtopteam.com)

Don't Get Too Excited, But...

...Metsblog has it that Johan Santana is headed to Queens, pending a physical and the Mets working out a contract extension with Santana and his agent, Peter Greenberg.



If everything goes down like it's supposed to, the Mets will give up Carlos Gomez, Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey, and Deolis Guerra. And?

That's right, no Fernando Martinez or Mike Pelfrey. Pelfrey looks like a bit of a chump out there on the mound sometimes, but it appears that the Twins either wanted Humber more or the Mets withheld Pelfrey when it became apparent that the Twins had to get a deal done and both the Yankees and Red Sox backed down.

That certainly appears to be what happened with Martinez, who reports over the last couple of weeks had indicated would have to be a part of any deal.

The story, which broke initially with usatoday.com, has now been corroborated by ESPN, the Daily News, and Mets.com, which says the Mets have a reached a "tentative deal" with the Twins for Santana. Sources say that the Mets negotiating window for a contract extension is anywhere between 48 and 72 hours. Santana has been reported to be seeking a contract in the range of 7 years and $140 million dollars.

I'm not jumping for joy yet. There's still 72 hours for this whole thing to turn into a pretty big disappointment.

Pony up, Wilpons!

Stay tuned.

(Picture courtesy mets.com)

Your Season Has Come

Yesterday's Giants' win over the Cowboys was one of the great things that's ever happened to me as a sports fan. My team, the battered, bruised, long-shot underdogs - the "all-Joes" - went on the road and played their hearts out against the team with 12 pro-bowlers. Shortly after Tony Romo's final pass sailed into the waiting arms of R.W. McQuarters, the G-Men had officially turned back their top-seeded and hated 13-3 division rivals, wiping the smile off Romo's face in the process and advancing to the NFC championship game in a hard-fought test of true strength and will. It was something to make a movie out of. I could have just as easily been watching "Any Given Sunday."

It's interesting how the 2007 Giants are everything the 2007 Mets weren't. Where the Mets treated the regular season as a formality and paid for it, the Giants battled back from an 0-2 start to make the playoffs as a wild card. Where the Mets spent most of the season acting like they had too much talent to pay attention, the Giants will send only one player to the pro bowl and have spent most of their season making the most out of the talent they do have. Where the Mets lacked heart, let themselves get thrown at, and got pushed around by umpires, the Giants come out talking trash and have thus far backed it up when its counted most.

Suddenly, Eli Manning isn't throwing stupid interceptions. Instead, he's engineering drives that go 71 yards in under a minute before the half and score ballsy game-tying touchdowns. If you cross Brandon Jacobs, he'll straight up fight you. Well-dressed Amani Toomer is the savvy veteran who will take advantage of sloppy pass defense to turn a 12-yard buttonhook route into a 51 yard game-opening touchdown. Who the hell is Ahmad Bradshaw? And from that first win in Washington all the way through week 19, the Giants' defense keeps playing big in big spots.


As much focus as we die-hard fans put on winning and losing, it's a special thing when your favorite team so far exceeds expectations that you can claim victory after a second-round playoff game and feel like your squad has nothing more to prove. These are the moments that keep us going. When we're reminded every once in a while that good things do occasionally happen in sports, we find a way to get it together when our other favorite team blows a 7 game lead with 17 games to play and misses the playoffs (but that's just a hypothetical, of course).

Whatever happens to the Giants in these next weeks is OK by me. Brett Favre is playing for keeps. I know that the tough task of beating Favre and the Packers, at Lambeau, in January, will only be eclipsed, should we even make it that far, by a tougher match-up in the Super Bowl with either the 18-0 Patriots or the team that will have just knocked off the 17-0 Patriots. Anything else the Giants give me this season is a bonus at this point.

Speaking of tough tasks, imagine getting anyone outside of New York or San Diego to watch a Giants/Chargers Super Bowl...ouch.

See you next week. And Happy New Year, too.

(Pictures courtesy getty images, giants.com)

2007: Year in Review or, The State of the Mets

The year 2007 can't really be chalked up as anything more than a huge disappointment for fans of the New York Metropolitans. Our team followed up a breakthrough season with a big step back, we enter 2008 with more questions than reliable starting pitchers, and it generally remains to be seen whether or not the sustained period of long-term success the Mets looked like they were set to enter at the beginning of 2007 will turn out to be nothing more than a sick illusion.

For all the good vibes coming out of the 2006 season, it's not as if the year 2007 got off to a particularly good start. After we lost out on Barry Zito to an unreasonably large contract offer from the San Francisco Giants - which this blogger is happy we didn't match - we spent January, February, and March hearing about how unstable our starting rotation was and how much Jimmy Rollins was going to completely own us this season.

In the end, I guess those predictions may have ended up being pretty accurate.

After a horrid spring training, though, 2007 the season did get off to a good start. We swept the Cardinals, in St. Louis. Jimmy Rollins booted an easy groundball to spark a comeback rally in our home opener. John Maine and Oliver Perez made the Cards and Braves look silly in their respective debuts. If the 2007 season had been a video game, the night we boosted our record to 4-0 would have been a good time to hit SIM and let the computer take care of the rest.

Unfortunately, autopilot doesn't work in real baseball, and after the Mets - already "bored," perhaps - hit cruise control, in real life that first Friday night in April was probably the high point of 2007.

This season, and this year, were underwhelming in just about every way. We didn't have Zito. The crowd at Shea sucked. Jose Reyes wasn't as good as he was in 2006. After we outscored the Cardinals and Braves by a combined 31-3 in those first four games and it looked like we might be in for a special season, the next 158 games were a story of failed sweeps and wasted momentum, blown opportunities and not a single winning streak longer than four games until the beginning of that fateful month of September. So far this offseason, we've heard about Dan Haren, Erik Bedard, and Johan Santana, but we never had a chance for Haren or Bedard and we'll be extremely lucky if lightning somehow strikes and we get Santana.

It's hard to know what to expect from the year 2008. On the one hand, we bring back a still-talented roster that will include Wright and Reyes, Pedro, Maine and Perez, Carlos Beltran and Billy Wagner. In a perfect world we'll have a hungry team, determined to right the wrongs of 2007, that will scratch and claw its way back to the top of the division. The fans that show up at Shea next season, 20% more expensive tickets in tow, will rabidly usher the old ballpark out in style.

On the other hand, we're crossing our fingers praying for the health of Pedro's rebuilt arm over a full season. We're nervously hedging our bets on two somewhat-unstable young pitchers to do what they did last year. We're hoping that the end of 2007 was mostly an aberration for Jose Reyes. Likewise with Carlos Delgado. This will a season of reckoning for Willie Randolph and Omar Minaya.


So we'll see. 2007 was not a good year in Mets history. We had some exciting moments, some good wins, but ultimately we couldn't sustain anything good and any positives were overshadowed in the overall narrative by the collapse.

And in the first few months of 2008, things aren't likely to look any better. The trade/free agent market probably won't yield anything better than Bartolo Colon. We'll be picked to finish either second or third in the NL East next season, and won't stop hearing about how far we've fallen in the last year.

But keep things in perspective. Remember the fact that three years ago at this time, the Mets hadn't had a winning season in 3 years. We had just ushered out the Art Howe era. We had just traded Scott Kazmir. Now, we enter a new year where we'd be defending consecutive division titles if we hadn't gift-wrapped the East for the Phillies last September. We've got some question marks, but overall, even without any more roster moves, we're at least in pretty decent shape. David Wright, David Wright, Citi Field, David Wright.

In a year where it will take 11 months for America to choose a new President, it will be close to that long before we have a sincere read on the true state of the Mets. Viva 2008!

Happy New Year

(Pictures courtesy nytimes.com, nycvp.com, flikr.com)