Philadelphia Then and Now

Hoping to gain ground on the first-place Phillilies, the New York Mets give the ball to ace Johan Santana this evening in a series-opening bout with Philadelphia lefty James Happ (is this the best Brett Meyers fill-in they could find? Sources say Jose Lima is looking for work.).

Santana sports a 7-7 record with a 3.01 ERA while Happ enters with one career Major League start under his belt (4 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 HR, 2 BB), but the real story today transpired 232 years ago in the very same city the Mets and Phils will do battle in tonight.

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress took the first official step in forming what we now know to be the United States of America. These brave men stood against the tyranny of a monarchical rule and their essential contributions to what became our great nation must never be forgotten.

Happy Independence from Salvatore Speaks.

The Declaration of Independence

Mets, Tennis Pundits Left Scratching Heads

Shake your head. Sigh. And ask yourself, what could possibly happen next?

That is about all Jerry Manuel or any New York Mets’ fan could do last night when the Cardinals’ struggling Chris Duncan blasted a game-tying two-run home run in the eighth inning of St. Louis’ 8-7 victory last night.

Well, what happened next was a ninth-inning, game-ending solo shot by Troy Glaus, but that was almost a guaranteed given after the light-hitting Duncan spoiled what had been a relentless, valiant offensive effort on behalf of the Mets.

The Mets have lost games by almost every way imaginable this season. Some may say “that’s just baseball” or “it will even out over the course of a long season,” but when a man hitting .107 against left-handers amid other woes crushes the first pitch he sees off your lefty specialist for a round tripper, what is there to say?

After his team battled back to take a 7-5 lead following a disappointing start from Pedro Martinez, Manuel, who may not fully understand the concept of a double switch (see Yankees-Mets on June 28), played it right in setting up the lefty-lefty match-up against Duncan.

A fourth outfielder at best on the Major League level, Duncan is now batting .242 with six homers over 65 games. Some may remember him as the man all Mets’ pitchers wanted to face during the 2006 NLCS (it certainly wasn’t Yadier Molina or So Taguchi). He went 1-for-8 during that series, playing in only five of the seven games.

And there Duncan was last night, adding to the growing number of miserable Mets’ moments this season. Moments where Billy Wagner squandered Mike Pelfrey’s best career start one night and came back the next day to rain on Johan Santana’s gem. Moments when the Mets win in Anaheim, home of baseball’s best manager, but lose in San Diego, home of baseball’s worst record at the time.

So there were the Mets again last night. They had overcome a tough start from Martinez (5 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 4 K) pounded out a few clutch hits to take a 7-5 lead. What looked like (dare we say?) a win to build upon turned into another head-scratching, stunning disappointment that begs the question, what will happen next?

The Mets have been living this tease of a season for 84 games now. Conventional wisdom may say something's gotta give eventually, but the last year and a half have been anything but conventional for the Mets (and being the first team to blow a seven-game lead with 17 to play is just the tip of the iceberg).

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Quick Hits: Tampa Bay swept the BoSawx once again. Could the Rays be baseball's version of surprise Beantown busters? The Giants humbled the arrogant, elitist New England fan base. Unfortunately, Kobe and the Lakers couldn't follow suit, but that is because LA's engine was missing its Diesel. ... Roger Federer has made it through to the Wimbledon semis once again where he will face Russian Marat Safin. I never thought that could have been possible after listening to all the pathetic pundits that suggested Federer had something to prove at this year's tournament. Despite his failure to win either of the first two majors, which includes a disastrous showing in the Roland Garros final, Federer, arguably the best player in world history, does not have a damned thing to prove at this stage of his remarkable career. Everyone must have forgotten that Federer is the only man in history to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open back-to-back for four successive seasons and I'm betting he will do it again.

Mediocre Mets Get to Church On Time

Three days, four games, and the New York Mets are right back where they started.

The recently-completed Subway Series ended with a 3-1 Mets’ victory that pushed the Amazins’ record to a less-than amazin’ 40-41.

For over a year now, the Shea Stadium Faithful has been teased more than the patrons of your local gentlemen’s club and this past weekend was a prime example of the false sense of hope Mets fans have endured.

The Mets won one, lost two, and then salvaged a split by winning the finale. Carlos Delgado turns in an incredible, nine-RBI performance in the series opener, and then closes the series with a 1-for-10 clip at the plate. Oliver Perez can be even more maddening, flashing brilliance one day and looking more dismal than the economy five days later.

Baseball is a game of streaks and slumps, but don’t confuse that with inconsistency.

The Mets are a .494 baseball club with exactly half of their regular season schedule complete.
Their manager can talk all he wants about how the team will come around, and the players can keep telling themselves that they have championship-caliber talent. Just as they did this past weekend, they have shown how good they can be, and have been as equally nauseating at times.

Right now, Omar Minaya’s hand-crafted specialty is a .500 baseball team that encounters just as many ups as downs.

As disappointing and maddening as that assessment may be, it is not time to stop believing, yet. Teams have muddled in mediocrity before eventually proving their merit.

The Rockies were a .500 team for much of last year before an unbelievable late-season surge put them in the World Series. The 2006 St. Louis Cardinals (remember them?) finished the regular season at 83-79 before somehow capturing the world championship.

The Mets could wind up being the 2008 version of the aforementioned clubs, but for every day they remain mired in their current mediocre state, that outcome becomes less and less likely.

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Church on Sunday: The Mets couldn’t have picked a better day for Church. On Sunday, fittingly enough, the Shea Faithful welcomed back Ryan Church into the lineup after the right fielder missed nearly a month of action due to lingering effects of his second concussion this season. With the fifth through eighth slots in the Mets’ lineup rivaling that of the Long Island Ducks, Church’s return was nothing short of a blessing. The left-handed hitting outfielder promptly produced two well-struck singles during his first MLB action since June 5. Instantaneously increasing the legitimacy of the Mets’ offense upon his return, Church is batting .304 with 10 homers and 35 RBI over 184 at-bats as a Met. Damion Easley, Fernando Tatis, Marlon Anderson, and Trot Nixon, who were all fill-in options for Church, have combined to hit five round trippers and drive in 32 runs over 247 at-bats. Welcome back Ryan!

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Lynch Loses License: As noted earlier, there may have been a bit of uncertainty surrounding the fantasy draft prospects of Buffalo Bills second-year running back Marshawn Lynch after the former Cal standout was flagged for clipping an Ontario woman with his SUV. Thankfully for those hoping to acquire Lynch once draft season rolls around later this summer, the 22-year-old will be wearing a uniform that is blue, not orange, come September. Lynch won’t be driving to training camp this year though, and it has nothing to do with astronomical gas prices. As a result of his hit-and-run incident that left the Canadian victim with minor injuries, a traffic court judge revoked Lynch’s New York State Driver’s License. While pleading guilty to “failure to exercise due care toward a pedestrian,” the Bills’ starting running back said of the incident, “It was raining real hard, there was a dancing pedestrian in the middle of the street. I slowed down to let her go and continued on my way home. I didn’t know my car had hit anyone or anything.”

Where Is Igawa When You Need Him?

I guess Tyler Clippard was unavailable this weekend due to a prior commitment. But luckily, Brian Cashman was able to lock in an old friend.

With the battle-tested Dan Giese, who now has one career major league start under his belt, facing surging Mets’ right-hander Mike Pelfrey in the first half of Friday’s Subway Series double dip, the Yankees will show off their latest acquisition in game two.

The inflated Sidney Ponson (and that adjective describes more than his ERA), who hails from the baseball hotbed of Aruba, will take on Pedro Martinez at Shea Stadium on Friday night.

Recently acquired from Texas, which had a surplus of good pitching, Ponson will don the pinstripes for the first time since the memorable campaign of 2006. In his 16.1 innings as a Yankee that season, the burly right-hander surrendered 19 earned runs (10.47 ERA). One can only hope he looks half as good when he toes the rubber at Shea on Friday night.

Oh wait, now I realize why Cashman brought back Ponson. This guy is a horse that is capable of giving his team a lot of innings. In addition to the 16.1 he threw for the Yankees in 2006, he pitched another 68.2 frames for St. Louis that season to the tune of a 5.24 ERA. Then, last season, his workman-like 37.2 innings yielded a 2-5 record and a 6.93 ERA. Ok, so he’s not a horse, he just looks like he swallowed one.

Ok, let me reel myself back in and look at the situation from a different perspective.

Ponson could easily wind up as the winning pitcher in tonight’s game. Although his counterpart, Pedro Martinez, can still get major league hitters out, he is not the same Pedro that got the best of Don Zimmer a few years ago.

Ponson will receive more good news when he finds out the Mets batting lineup will include the pitcher’s spot (National League rules are in effect tonight much to Hank Steinbrenner’s chagrin) as well as Carlos Delgado.

I can’t predict how this series will go, nor can I even proclaim confidence in the Mets’ ability to put up a crooked number off Ponson.

I can guarantee one thing though.

Win or lose, Ponson is likely to put a dent in the Diamond Club Buffet, so get there early and be thankful that Jose Lima won’t be anywhere close to Shea tonight.

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The New Jersey Nets must have been subscribing to the Brian Cashman theory during last night’s NBA Draft. If it doesn’t work the first time, try, try again. Those Jason Collins enthusiasts know exactly what I’m talking about.

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Victory for Liberty: In the most important news of the day, yes even more significant than Maria Sharapova’s stumble at Wimbledon, the United States Supreme Court deemed the District of Columbia’s ban on hand guns unconstitutional in a 5-4 vote.

The high court’s protection of the Second Amendment, which states the people’s right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, is a victory for liberty. If you don’t believe me, then read the following short story.

There once was a leader who prohibited a certain sect of society to participate in the firearms business. This leader launched a campaign to disarm the individuals that comprised this sect of the population. Only months later, this leader’s army invaded the neighborhoods of the disarmed and easily incarcerated many of these folks.

The aforementioned story is a true one, and the leader’s name was Adolf Hitler. Before the infamous Kristallnacht of 1938, Hitler stripped the Jews of their guns in preparation for completely stripping them of their freedom.

Guns are a means of protection that empower us to individually preserve our lives and liberty. Not to mention, if the government can find a way to rescind our right to own a gun, then they can surely find a way to rescind others if they chose to do so.

Presidential hopeful John McCain (R) praised the Court’s decision as “a landmark victory for Second Amendment,” and later went on to say “This ruling does not mark the end of our struggle against those who seek to limit the rights of law-abiding citizens. We must always remain vigilant in defense of our freedoms.”

Meanwhile, his counterpart, Barack Obama (D) attempted to straddle the fence on the issue. Obama made a comment that I still don’t fully understand and I don’t know if he does either. “I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms, but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through commonsense, effective safety measures,” stated Obama.

So, is he saying that legal and registered hand guns are the ones being used to hurt children in these crime-ravaged communities? Or is the senator from Illinois saying that hand guns are the culprit of violence in these crime-ravaged communities? Or is Mr. Obama simply saying something that will help make him president?

Pacman's Name Game Not Al-Wright

Click Here to View Pacman's Rap Sheet courtesy of Bumpshack

Adam “Pacman” Jones, the habitual criminal that doubles as a NFL defensive back, issued a proclamation stating that he wants everyone to drop the nickname and just call him Adam.
His reasoning? Well, the man who has been arrested six times since 2005 said the following about his old nickname: “There's really just a lot of negativity behind it.”

When I hear the word “Pacman,” I think about all the quarters I wasted playing that primitive video game during the days of my youth. So Adam, are you sure it’s the name you need to change?

Does the negative connotation accompanying the mention of your name have anything to do with the fact that you have been involved in 12 separate incidents that required police attention since the Tennessee Titans drafted you in April 2005?

It seems to me that the problem is with the person and not the name, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell must agree considering he suspended Jones for the entire 2007 season in response to the cornerback’s connection to a shooting outside a Las Vegas night club that left a man paralyzed.

Goodell recently granted Jones permission to begin football-related activities with the Dallas Cowboys, but did has not yet fully reinstated the beleaguered star for 2008 regular season play.
After a year to think about his mistakes, Jones has supposedly realized that he must change his ways.

If this is Adam’s best attempt at remaking his way of life, then I’m afraid he is no different than the man whose entourage was responsible for a triple shooting. Just last month news reports alerted he was being investigated for failure in paying $20,000 in gambling debts. New name, same old “Pacman” Jones.

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Flagged: Buffalo Bills' running Marshawn Lynch probably won't find a second career in teaching Driver's Education courses, especially after his hit-and-run accident that left a Canadian woman wounded in Ontario on May 31. Lynch is expected to reach a plea bargain, and this off-season incident should not deter you from taking him in your fantasy football drafts. Although I wouldn't choose him as my designated driver, I would certainly take him in the top ten of this year's draft. A hard-running, pass-catching back, Lynch ran for more than 1100 yards as a rookie and could be a driving force on one of the NFL's possible surprise teams. ... Carolina Panthers' receiver Dwayne Jarrett enters his second professional season with six catches for 73 yards and a DWI. He pleaded guilty to driving while impaired Monday after being arrested back in March. ... Neither Lynch nor Jarrett were arrested by reserve Miami police officer Shaquille O'Neal. The 7'2" O'Neal was asked to forfeit his special county deputy badge as a result of his recent freestyle rage against former teammate Kobe Bryant.

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Call it long overdue. Credit the day off his manager gave him on Tuesday. Say it’s just one game.

Regardless, David Wright answered the bell last night and let his bat do the talking.
I must admit, just the other night, I began to doubt Wright for the first time since he took New York by storm three years ago.

Two innings after I saw him butcher a routine grounder that set the stage for pitcher Felix Hernandez’s grand slam, David Wright carried a .273 average to the plate and stepped in for his second at-bat of Monday night’s 5-2 setback to Seattle. Previously lost in the commotion of Billy Goat meltdowns, the Willie saga, and the team’s overall uninspiring performance, it finally struck me.

David Wright is quietly enjoying a very sub-par season to date.

The third baseman compounded that thought by grounding into a 6-4-3 double play. After an 0-for-3 night, Wright left the ball park with a .272 average and a bruise on his ego courtesy of Johan Santana.

Suffering the loss and seeing his record fall to 7-6, the Mets’ $137 million dollar pitching ace shifted attention to Wright’s costly miscue. “We didn’t make the routine plays,” said Santana at the post-game presser.

Wright responded by homering in each of his first two at-bats during his return to the lineup on Wednesday.

When the Mets were in danger of being swept at home by baseball’s worst team, Wright saved his team from the embarrassment that Santana couldn’t save himself from two nights earlier when he permitted Hernandez to become the first AL pitcher in 37 years to hit a grand slam.

Cheers for Beltran, Jeers for Fans

Was that Lenny Dykstra? No, but had the Mets current centerfielder been wearing No. 4 last night you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

Carlos Beltran single-handedly produced a run by exercising the grit and toughness that became the beloved Dykstra’s trademark.

With the Mets trailing 5-0 and looking absolutely hapless against dominant right Felix Hernandez in an eventual 5-2 loss to Seattle, Beltran smoked a double off the left-center field wall. With one out and Trot Nixon batting, Beltran caught the defense napping and flew to third.

Then, after Nixon struck out, Beltran completed his trip around the bases with some of the most inspiring, gutsy, heads-up baseball I haven’t seen at Shea since Bobby Valentine was managing the club.

As Hernandez’s pitch hit the dirt and scooted about 10 feet to the left of the Mariners’ catcher, Beltran shot towards home and slid in hard and safely. Hernandez, an absolute pleasure to watch, incurred a game-ending injury on the play, but it was simply an unfortunate by-product of Beltran’s hustle.

I have not always been kind to the stoic Beltran whose numbers have yet to justify his seven-year, $119 million deal, but the man plays centerfield arguably better than anyone in Mets history (Nails included) and has had a knack for the clutch home run.

At times, Beltran’s lackluster numbers, although above average amongst MLB centerfielders, looked even less impressive because of Beltran’s lack of emotional display. To a fan base that wears its heart on its sleeve, Beltran appeared overly quiet and somewhat disinterested at times.

The thing that had been absent from the first 410 regular season games of Beltran’s New York tenure was on full display last night.

Hopefully, the appearance of this missing link was not an aberration.

Something tells me that if gritty, heads-up play becomes commonplace for Beltran, then he will quickly become the special performer we all were excited about when the Mets signed him.

Beltran couldn't have picked a better time to practice this sort of play. With the Mets still attempting to break through the malaise that lingers from "The Collapse," this is just what the doctor ordered. But as last night's final result showed, they need it in much higher and more frequent doses.

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Surprisingly it wasn’t the booing that was inappropriate at Shea Stadium on Monday night.

In a disappointing move, a number of the fools on hand cheered when they discovered that Felix Hernandez had become a casualty of Beltran’s hustle and was writhing in pain on the third base line.

Then, it got worse. Trying to shake off the pain and remain in the game, Hernandez hobbled to the mound with his manager and trainer looking on. When Hernandez’s wind-up ended with the young right-hander bent over in extreme discomfort, a number of downright classless individuals began gleefully cheering.

Yes, anyone witnessing Hernandez’s dominance would have realized that the likelihood of a Mets’ comeback bid increase, but to take joy in this young man’s suffering was downright despicable.

I have lost my voice at games in the past from both cheering and booing. I will always defend a fan’s right to express one’s self, and I don’t think that right should ever be taken away from a paying customer. With that said, it may be helpful to abide by a small rule of thumb, only do it if it’s justified.

A lackadaisical, overpaid ball player who chose not to hustle deserves the loudest of boos, while Beltran’s play last night deserved the greatest of cheers.

But what had Hernandez done to deserve this ill treatment? He didn’t throw at Mike Piazza’s head. He has never been on record saying anything demeaning about the Mets and their fan base. He simply brought his “A” game to the ballpark and put on a show for those in attendance.

It is disenchanting to think that for an inglorious moment a contingent of the Shea Faithful stooped lower than their rivals down the Turnpike. For a moment we were on the same level as the people who booed Santa Claus.

Mets' Fans Should Be Feeling Rocky Mountain High

Despite a tumultuous week for the New York Mets’ organization, one that made the housing market look somewhat stable, Mets’ fans should be smiling on Monday morning for both obvious and forgotten reasons.

Sitting in front of a television during Sunday’s 3-1, series-winning victory at Colorado, I couldn’t help but turn my frown upside down as I enjoyed CW11’s broadcast.

First, the obvious. With a relatively all-around sound effort on Sunday, the Mets capped a 4-2 road trip with another series victory. Starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey continued to blossom, winning for the second time out and looked good doing so (reminder: this would have been victory number three in a row if Billy Wagner didn’t flush Pelfrey’s eight-inning gem down the toilet on June 11). Carlos Beltran launched a two-run, third-inning bomb with a swing that was reminiscent of the 2004 postseason. And the Phillies did their part too, losing their fifth straight (loss No. 10,000-something) and watching their lead on the Mets shrink to 3.5 games (2 GB in loss column).

In revealing both his potential and mettle through 5.2 scoreless innings at hitter-happy Coors Field, Pelfrey also reminded us about the forgotten. The first reminder came in Colorado’s half of the second frame after second baseman Damion Easley botched a potential double-play ball to give the Rockies men on first and second with no outs.

Pelfrey promptly induced a taylor-made 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Yorvit Torrealba to quell the threat. Yorvit Torrealba. Remember him? The man that left four runners on base yesterday and struck out looking to lead off the ninth inning was a signature away from being Pelfrey’s battery mate this season rather than the easy out he was this past weekend.

Mets’ GM Omar Minaya has made moves of all different varieties – good, bad, and downright awful -- since taking the reigns at Shea in September 2004. He brought us Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran, two overpriced players that are worth it in the long run for various reasons. He added Billy Wagner, and more recently Johan Santana. He discovered two 15-game winners in John Maine and Oliver Perez when their former teams were ready to toss these promising arms into the scrap heap.

But, remember, he also traded Brian Bannister for Ambiorix Burgos and topped that deal by sending steady reliever Heath Bell to San Diego for Ben Johnson (not to be confused with the English playwright that brought us the ever-great “Volpone”).

So, as I watched Pelfrey work out of a two-out, two-on jam in the fourth inning by forcing the light-hitting Torrealba to fly out harmlessly to left. I was thankful for the deal that never got done, and I’m sure Minaya was too, considering this catcher would have drawn more comparisons to Mackey Sasser than Mike Piazza.

Torrealba agreed in principle to a $14.4 million, three-year deal with the Mets in November 2007, but the Mets backed out at the 11th hour, citing a failed physical.

What exactly happened remains a mystery, but I’m not complaining. Before a 2007 campaign that saw him hit a whopping .255 over 396 at-bats, Torrealba had spent seven seasons at the major league level and played no more 66 games in any of them.

Aaron Heilman may be the only one wishing the Torrealba deal had gone through since the Rockies’ backstop would have provided the Shea boo-birds with another target.

Those boo-birds, myself sometimes included, can’t say boo tonight though thanks to the fact that our beloved ball club returns home with some life. Our promising young right-hander, who once had a habit of driving us mad, notched two straight road victories. Our centerfielder, who proclaimed the Mets “the team to beat,” looks poised for a mid-summer explosion. And Yorvit Torrealba won’t be behind the plate tonight at Shea when Mets’ fans are treated to a pitching delight.

Joba Disbelief and McCain Relief

I left work yesterday not knowing the outcome of the Yankees-Padres game, but as I tuned into WFAN during the evening drive I began to think something remarkable happened earlier in the afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

Yankee fan after Yankee fan continued to call and offer praise for Joba Chamberlain’s masterful pitching performance. My initial thought was: no hitter? Boy, was I off on that one!

The way these people were talking, one would think Joba just pulled off something that has never happened in New York Mets’ history, something that only Jon Lester has done this season.

Moments later via the 20-20 update, I learned that Joba did indeed do something remarkable. He pitched 5.2 innings of one-run ball and needed just over 100 pitches to do it. Wow.

To all those drinking the Joba-Girardi Kool-Aid, relax. Let me put this in perspective for you. Oliver Perez went SIX innings on Wednesday night against the Angels, and we all know what a stud he can be at times. So I wouldn't exactly call any starting performance that ends after 5.2 innings masterful. Statistically, Joba didn't even qualify for a "quality start." How can something that isn't even considered quality be brilliant by any means?

To be fair to Joba, he is improving. His 5.2 innings of one-run ball yesterday trump his final collegiate effort for Nebraska when Manhattan College’s Matt Rizzotti and John Fitzpatrick ripped back-to-back jacks off Joba on the way to sending the future Yankees starter to a 4-1 home loss in the opening game of the 2006 NCAA Lincoln Regional.

I, as every other fan in baseball, would love to have Joba on my favorite team’s roster, but let’s not anoint him as the next Jimmy Key just yet.

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With gasoline at $4/gallon and diesel (used to power engines that bring food to our grocery stores) at $5/gallon, Americans are suffering at the pump.

Both presumptive presidential nominees are touring the nation, campaigning and sucking up fossil fuels along the way, but only one man has yet to provide a solution to curb the current energy crisis.

Senator John McCain (R) recently called for lifting the ban on Outer Continental Shelf drilling, which will allow us to take advantage of the resources that lie off our coast. It will give us access to the same resources that China is currently sucking up thanks to Cuba’s allowance to let the Chinese drill in the Gulf.

Senator Barack Obama (D) staunchly opposes lifting the ban and claims that America must focus on finding new sources of renewable energy.

Obama’s point is well-taken, but narrow-minded.

It is undoubtedly time to sincerely develop alternative sources of energy that will eventually eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels, but that will take time. Even when the world is able to mass produce a car that runs on water or hydrogen, time will be needed to phase in the new way of life. One can’t expect millions of gasoline-burning cars and thousands of diesel trucks to disappear instantaneously.

While we develop our plan for the future, we have to address “the now.” Now, a number of Americans are struggling to get to work and to feed their families. These hard-working folks deserve relief, and they deserve it now. Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.