World Series Nostalgia

I imagine there are children in New York City in the 8-10 years old range who are loving this World Series appearance by the Yankees. It's new for them - they've heard all about these world champion Yankees of the past (decade) and they're probably very excited about their team playing for a championship.

I remember when I was one of those kids.

The 2000 World Series came at a time that I didn't live in New York, but more importantly, during my first full year in the workforce. As such, I was transitioning from someone who cared only about sports to someone who had other things on his mind (a new relationship with the woman who would later become my wife, an entry job in what I thought would be my career). I worked nights, so I saw the games, but I don't have a distinct memory about that post-season.

It's 1986 that comes back to me whenever the World Series rolls around.

I remember being in the schoolyard after school and people from the Daily News were handing out scorecards (I still have them) for the NLCS. A very cool book - 7-10 newspaper pages with spots to keep score of every game. I remember taking them home and my parents being very suspicious about how I got them. I had to convince them they were free handouts. To this day, though, it's strange to me why they were handed out at an elementary school.

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

The Dreaded Bases-Loaded Walk

Ryan Madson's bases loaded walk to give up the go-ahead run in Game 2 of the NLCS reminded me that it was 10 years ago that Kenny Rogers did same for the Mets in the NLCS.

The stakes were higher in Rogers' case - it was the bottom of the 11th of Game 6, and the run not only won the game but also clinched the series for the Braves. I can't imagine a more anti-climactic event than a series-ending bases loaded walk.

The bases loaded walk has been the bane of my existence this past decade or so - it just drives me nuts every time I see it - throw a strike! So with tomorrow being the 10-year anniversary of Kenny Rogers' becoming my number one baseball enemy...I turn to prose for therapy:

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

Just Another October

This happens to me every October.

I start to get real day-dreamy as I watch the playoffs, wondering what it would be like if my team was in the playoffs every year, battling it out for a chance at a world championship.

There's just so much mediocrity in my teams it's hard to wrap your head around it. The Phillies, thanks to the Mets' collapses, have won three straight division titles. In my lifetime (I'm 31) the Mets have won three division titles.

There's no such thing as "get 'em next year" in my sports life. Only once (once!) have the Mets made the post-season in back-to-back years. (1999-2000) There were plenty of 'should haves' (1987, 2007, 2008, close calls in 1998 and 2001), but that doesn't mean anything.

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Misery Loves Company

Dear Tigers Fans,

I know how you feel. Your team is filling the record books for all the wrong reasons. Just a couple of weeks ago you had World Series visions dancing in your head. You were on the cover of Sports Illustrated. You were feeling good.

And then, though it really took place over the course of a month, it felt like everything came crashing down at once. Suddenly another team is celebrating, and you're going home.
I know you don't want to hear this right now...but I know how you feel.

I am a Mets fan.

It's horrible. Sitting pretty at the beginning of September, then watching another team play in October.

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

Putting Band-Aid on Broken Mets

It's like making sure to turn off the oven while the house is burning down.

The Mets Monday fired first base coach Luis Alicea, while re-assigning bench coach Sandy Alomar and third base coach Razor Shines.

The good news here is that this creates some possible openings for the likes of, oh, I don't know, Hall of Famer Gary Carter. First base coach, then when Jerry Manuel gets off to a slow start in 2010, pull a Colorado Rockies, fire the manager, and put Gary Carter in to lead the Mets to a playoff berth.

Of course, they won't.

Hitting coach Howard Johnson will keep his job. So will pitching coach Dan Warthen and bullpen coach Randy Niemann.

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Last Day of Baseball Season

At first glance, that may not seem like news. To understand why it's notable, you would have had to have been reading my work for at least the past couple of years. (You can catch up here and here, if you're so inclined.)

Those past couple of years have featured some marathon days of baseball and football watching, requiring some fancy television maneuvering on my part and some luck in the television schedule (the Jets on network television for my rabbit-eared TV, with the Mets on the baseball package on the cable TV).

The days with the above set-up have ended in utter disappointment, making me wonder which is worse - that one day of disappointment, capping half a month of terrible play by the Mets where they miss the playoffs on the last day of the season (not much worse the second year than the first, to be quite honest), or elimination from any chance at contention by June. I would say each leaves a bad taste in your mouth, with the latter bringing back bad memories of my high school years to go along with the disappointment. The only good news here is that early on I knew this Mets season wouldn't come down to missing the playoffs on the last day of the season.

So much, though, conspired against me having my usual "Last Sunday of the Baseball Season" set-up. To wit:

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

Give the Kid a Chance

Dear New York Mets,

As another disappointing season comes to a close, I'd like to make a pitch for an opportunity to turn the franchise around.

I know as an organization you say you are committed to the losing ways of Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel. But I know that it's not too late to make a change.

You can have a man who has Hall of Fame player credentials. He knows how to play the game of baseball. He has done nothing but win since he began his managerial career. And I'm pretty confident that if you pick up the phone, this person would leap at the opportunity to manage the Mets.

His name is Gary Carter.

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

Phillies Closer Nightmare

Enough Already!!!

To quote Green Day: Wake me up when September ends.

I don't want to write or debate about the Phillies current closer predicament any longer. This is ridiculous...and almost laughable because the team is on the verge of collapsing like the Mets have the last two seasons.

The Florida Marlins are five games back and play the Phillies six more times, including the final series of the season at home which should make things interesting.

(Continue to Philadelphia Sports Scene)

Hey, It's Still Baseball Season

So I'm watching the Mets on their way to what's sure to be a slaughtering by Philadelphia, and realizing that you're probably wondering what I do with this next month, considering it's the first time in five years that the Mets have not had the ol' "meaningful games in September" thing going on.

Besides rooting for David Wright to hit doubles.

And the answer is quite simple - I root like the dickens for Josh Johnson and the rest of my fantasy baseball team.

Let me give you some history. (Wow, fantasy baseball history! The excitement is dripping from the walls!) Each year four of us from college get together and do our fantasy draft - a four-person league. Because it's such a small league, we have to narrow down the baseball universe, so it's just American League and National League East teams that we choose from. Hence the super-clever league name, "East Coast Bias".

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Sunday Paper

I'm a little disappointed in the way things played out with the new and improved extra-protective batting helmet that David Wright tried out this week.

I'll admit - the things look silly. Players from the Mets and Rockies apparently called Wright The Great Gazoo, referencing the Flinstones character...I think it brings to mind Michael Dukakis. Regardless, I think they're necessary, and I don't think David Wright helped matters much by deciding to ditch the helmet after one game.


According to Wright, the change was due to comfort rather than appearance, but he took enough ridicule from all angles that I have to think he was somewhat worried about his image.

And that's the problem, because Wright is a star, and his image could have helped garner more widespread use of the product.

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

Welcome Back, David Wright

In a season full of disappointments, there was one highlight - maybe the highlight of the 2009 season - for the Mets on Tuesday night, when David Wright came back off the DL and went 1-for-3 in Colorado.

The initial reports were that Wright might miss the rest of the season after he was hit in the head by a Matt Cain fastball in mid-August. No one knew what to expect, since the injury was a concussion, and the Mets were going to be extra cautious with their star in an already-lost season, following a poorly-handled concussion and recovery suffered by Ryan Church with the team last year.

But Wright and the Mets played it smart, and there he was Tuesday night, back in the three spot in the lineup, and he got a hit into left-center field.

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A Look into Mets' Future

With both Johan Santana and Oliver Perez set to undergo surgery today, we turn to the 200 Miles From the Citi futurives (opposite of archives, I made it up) to see just how pivotal a day in Mets history this was.

July 28, 2025 - Cooperstown, NY - Ollie and Johan. Johan and Ollie. Like Tinker, Evers, and Chance; Smoltz, Maddux, and Glavine; Schilling and Johnson; the names have been intertwined in baseball history.

They celebrated together on the mound after Perez relieved Santana in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, capping the Mets' fifth World Series championship in seven years. They kidded with each other as back-to-back co-Cy Young award winners in 2010 and 2011, beginning a stretch where each alternated as the NL winner of the award for eight straight years. And they sit together this weekend reflecting on a remarkable stretch which began with both of them on the disabled list and ends here, as they prepare to be inducted together into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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Minaya, Manuel Escape Ax

Fred Wilpon’s announcement Saturday that Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel would return next year was the Mets owner’s version of hitting into a double play and killing any potential chance for a team rally.

Wilpon told the New York Post’s Mike Puma that general manager Minaya and manager Manuel, who have presided over this wreck of a season, are safe for next year. "Am I going to bring Omar (Minaya) back next year? Absolutely. That's a fact,” Wilpon told the Post.

As for Manuel, Wilpon said “Jerry is my guy.”

Really? Why?

(Continue to New York Minute)

Winners vs. Losers

I hope the fact that the game ended on an unassisted triple play (capping off a wild string of plays to end the game) doesn't overshadow the fact that Oliver Perez is a mess.

I don't think you could find a starker contrast in pitchers than Perez versus Pedro Martinez.
Put simply: Pedro Martinez is a winner. Oliver Perez is not.

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The Mets' Worst Week Ever

Alright...maybe it's not the worst week in the history of the New York Mets...but when it comes to psychological damage inflicted on Mets fans, it has to rank right up there.

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