Monthly Archive for September, 2006

[image:195:l] It’s official. We’re playing in October for the first time since the Subway Series of 2000. Let my stressing begin.

Mets finally got it done Monday night after getting swept in Pittsburgh against 3 lefty starters. Mets can’t touch lefites. This is not a good sign. But we’re in and that’s a good thing. But it’s a stressful thing as part 1 of this posting title described. Watching the Mets in October is like watching a cat trying to cross a highway from the side of the road where your defenseless to do anything but watch, cringe, moan, shout, contort, gesticulate, and turn away. And yet this is what we Mets fans want.

One might say we want it too much after watching the celebrations Monday night. Some stuff about it was great. Really indicative of what being a Mets fan, and a NY Baseball fan is all about. The elecricity at Shea was unrivaled. In October it will be better as long as enough real fans are able to get tickets. It was even great when 40,000 + sang Sweet Caroline together chanting something in those 3 beat intervals after Neil Diamond sings the title words or “I’d be inclined.” Fortunately they weren’t throwing in the kinds of filler in that non-lyrical interval of the song myself, and I’m sure many others, including our own Angray Bob have been known to do.

Horrible things.

Things of great wrongness.

But it gave me chills. Always does when we get this kind of stuff going on around the Mets. Boston and the Bronx are in the same league as far as generating this kind of atmosphere. But if their equal, and that’s debatable, no one does it better. [image:196:l]

But there is a problem.

Afterwards the team took it too far. They overreacted to a mere division title. Champagne and laps around the stadium are the kinds of celebrations you want for the World Series. It doesn’t feel appropriate to do that for winning a lousy division, one of 6 divisions, especially when you also have a wildcard in each league. Just think the team we officially eliminated from divisional contention with the clincher, the Phillies, have a good shot at making the playoffs as a wildcard. This means that after finishing 12-15 games in front of them they might still get in and suffer no disadvantage for their season long inferiority that 1 less home game in each series.

When we went to the Series in 2000 we did so as a wildcard. The braves won the division then. They didn’t celebrate excessively because they’d been there. Done that. The Marlins have won 2 World Series titles in the past decade. Both years the Braves won the division. Just like the Mets did. Florida finsihed 2nd to them. So much for winning the NL East. 1st or 2nd? Not that big anymore. Nice, worthy of a modicum of celebration yes. But not laps and cigars worthy.

Back in 86 and 88 when we last won the East it meant a bit more. There were no wildcards and only 4 divisions in Baseball. If you won the division it meant alot more and you were 1 step away from the World Series. Now you’re still 2 steps away and a 2nd place team has every right to cellebrate as much as you.

As I watched the post game goings on I thought to myself, “self, tomorrow Yankees and Braves fans, not to mention some national media, are going to be all over us for carrying on like we just won the World Series.”

And they did.

And I don’t blame them. They’re right.

You have to act like you’ve been there and like you expect to be there again. The Yankees are going to clinch the AL East in the next day or two. They’ll enjoy it. They’ll celebrate. But they wont go crazy with champagne and cigars. I’m not even sure they’ll have the divisional champ T-shirts the Mets had ready to break out. [image:194:l]

Who cares about a divisional T-shirt. Or cap. That’s not going to wear very long if you go down in best of 5 1st round sereis.

But it was the first time for alot of our guys and I can forgive a little exuberance. But that part of me that believes in the Baseball Gods shudders at the retribution they may cast upon us starting in less than 2 weeks when the playoffs commence. I fear it could be our last celebration for a long time.

But I cried when they clinched. Though it was an excessive celebration and even unseemly in its 21st century Baseball ettiquette and it doesn’t mean what it used to, I cried.

I’m a Mets fan. I love the team. It changes your DNA to be one of us. Or maybe it was in the DNA before and we were drawn to them despite the pain we knew we’d feel. I mentioned in recent Giants post that I chose them while the Mets sort of chose me. I’ll get more into that in part 3 of these diaries which will come right before Game 1 against whoever we’re going to play either Oct 3rd or 4th. But it runs deep. And so does the pain. Oh the inevitable pain. The inevitable 14 inning monster of a game with backs and forths. The 1 that gets away from us. the one that looked lost and causes weeks to come off our lives.

So it begins.

[image:192:l] Football season is here. Not many sports fans around here but it’s not stopping my Confessions Of A Mets fan posts, and I’m not letting it stop me making picks and talking about my Giants.

Ok this puppy tomorrow-tonight at the Meadowlands has been built up quite a bit for a while. Giants vs Colts, and mainly Manning vs Manning. Eli vs Peyton. Little bro tries to get out of shadow of big brother.

I’m a Giants fan for those who care and don’t know. The madness and nuerosis this instills is nowhere near the kind instilled by the Mets. I’ve loved Football since I was a kid, been a fan of Big Blue since late 70′s. But Baseball and the Mets exist on a different level for me. It’s sort of like your first love compared to all the rest. Or a lost mutt of a puppy that follows you around and you can’t resist because you relate to him as opposed to a pedigreed dog you pick at with your family touring breeders kennels.

You see I chose the Giants, while the Mets sort of chose me. I’ll get more into the Mets part of that in a October Confessions post. As for the Giants they weren’t my first favorite Football team. The Rams were. Mainly because of a t.v. movie called Something For Joey about the real life story of Penn State RB John Capelletti who went on to play for the Rams after winning the Heisman for his dying little brother. I was a kid and it made me cry. I brought into all the cheesy drama and heartstring tugging that I now consider myself either too jaded or too sophisticated to be moved by. I mean it wasn’t even Brian’s Song quality. But it wasn’t that far off too and B’s Song made a whole generation of sports fans around my age cry.

I dressed as Rams DE Jack Youngblood for Halloween one year. Had a helmet and the #85 jersey. I think it was 85.

But somewhere around 1980 I came to the conclusion that being a fan of a team 3000 miles away in the days before cable and satellite, was not very practical. I was a Mets fan and a Rangers fan so I really felt I had to choose one of the local teams to be my favorite. It is a testimony to my lifelong tendency to overthink things and for calm deliberation, that even at the age of 12 or 13, I consciously set out to make a practical and informed decision about who I would root for for the rest of my life when it came to Football.

The Giants and Jets both stunk but the Giants stunk a bit more. That was a factor. I hated front runners even then. I saw those kids who switched allegiances with the prevailing wind and I was disgusted. I considered myself better and wanted no doubt that who was more likely to win was not a factor. Just the fact that I was switching from a Ram team coming off a Super Bowl appearance against my 2nd favorite team then, the Steelers, to take on either lowly N.Y. team was a badge. But the Jets seemed more hopeful at the time and so I leaned towards the Giants.

The G Men had recently come off the humiliation of the famed Pisarcik fumble against the Eagles. They were a national joke. A local embarrassment.

There would be no confusing my motivations.

And then there was my somewhat anal love of low scoring games. In Baseball I always dug the pitching duels. An 8-7 ball game makes me uncomfortable. All that running around. Crooked numbers all over the scoreboard. Unseemly really. The lack of control is too much. Both from the pitchers and for myself. I feel I have some control over a 2-1 pitchers duel. I like every hit to matter. I want to care about every pitch because it could decide the game. One of the reasons I never liked Basketball much was all the scoring. A defensive game in the NBA is 90-87. That’s 177 points people! That’s alot of meaningless scoring. It’s out of control! And that’s a low scoring game. It only adds to the national superficiality and need for instant gratification.
I like low scoring because it’s not that gratifying that often. So when it is I really feel it.

This philosophy is perhaps responsible for much joyless misery in my life.

But I digress.

Even when they were as bad as they were back then the Giants had a reputation for playing decent defense. The Big Blue Wrecking Crew label existed even then. I liked that. I felt I could grow within that mentality. Ball control and smash mouth defense. There’s alot of control in that kind of philosophy of football and that was always the Giants motus operandi.

I might only get to cheer for my offense once, twice a game.

Beautiful!

And finally there were the uniforms. I loved those Rams uni’s. They made the jump from bad t.v. drama to the NFL an easy one. Neither the Giants or Jets had great uni’s but when it came down to basic color patterns, blue vs green, there was really no choice left to make.

Since then I’ve come to love green. But most of my life blue was my favorite color after an early youth dalliance with purple. And even now as my appreciation for all that green represents-youth, nature, verdancy-innocence etc- has grown, I remain unconvinced that it is an appropriate base color for a sports uniform.

So the Giants it was.

Over the years the bond has grown and they truly became my emotional favorite despite that intellectual/anal retentative beginning. I’ve enjoyed 2 Super Bowl Championships and 1 other trip there. They’ve been up and down. The good years certainly were true to the ball control smash mouth mentality I’d hoped to find a warm and cozy home within.

Now the G Men are a bit different. More flashy than in the past. defense not dominant but it has its moments. Last year we won the NFC East and got blown out in round 1 as I predicted. I thought the team was overrated. This year there’s mixed opinion about them nationally. Locally its very optimistic. I’m not sure where they are getting it from. There’s talk about dominating defense where I see a still weak though overhauled secondary and an iffy linebacking crew besides Antonio Pierce in the middle. Our Ends are good but Strahan is up there in years and Osi could be a bit of a fluke. The new kid Kiawanuka looks sweet but it was just exhibition games.

And the offense, ah well here’s where the hype comes in. Peyton Manning is one of the best ever. Our boy Eli has not been anywhere in his class. Elil has, through 2 years, been rather mediocre. Draft day 04 I didn’t want to make the trade to move up and get him. I wanted to save the picks and take Ben Rothlesberger who just went on to QB the Steelers to a championship. The year before I wanted Phil’s boy Chris Simms. He had a break out year in Tampa Bay last season. I was a Phil Simms guy since before it became fashionable to be after 86. I was there for him when he was booed regularly and people wanted to start guys like, well, like guys whose names I can’t even remember anymore.

Oh yeah, guys like Scott fracking Brunner.

I loved Phil. He’s become a great announcer too. I’ve long held a strong belief that anything that issued from his loins could only be a goodness unto the world.

So I wanted Chris to keep the tradition here. Especially since he grew up in Jersey and my little cousin met him in high school.

But we got the much ballyhooed Eli.

And I like Eli. I really do. He’s sly wit and a guy with a personality I can relate too. He’s not too up not too down. He makes fun of his brothers penchant for overreacting when receivers drop balls or after touchdowns. In a very long and good N.Y. Times article on him over a year ago I really got sold on him. Just a smart dude. I remember one part where he talked about Peyton and other players running down the field wagging their index fingers “number 1, number 1.” Eli said something along the lines of, “Hey its not like they just found the cure for cancer.”

He’s a good QB too. I’m just not sure he’ll ever be great or worthy of this buildup for this Sunday Night Football debut on NBC. [image:193:l]

I hope Eli gets it done. I really like him. I even like his brother. Peyton’s got a great personality. He’s really genuinely funny in all those commercials he does. Lately Eli’s teamed with him on some cute ones like the one I just saw on ESPN where they’re touring the ESPN facilities with their parents and trailing behind while giving each other wet willies, kicks in the arse, etc, as Archie scolds them to behave.

But I worry this game will expose him and become a symbol of a Giant mistake in that draft. I worry Eli will lose the love and confidence of those around him which I suspect has wavered since his decline over the last few weeks and the playoff game of last season. I worry he’ll not only pale in comparison to Peyton, which is almost definite, but that he’ll do so to many others as well and that fans will start to boo the guy. I’d hate to see a guy like him become embroiled in a QB controversy in N.Y. He wasn’t necessarily my choice, but I like the guy and want him to succeed.

I don’t like his receivers. I think Burress and Shockey are overrated prima donnas and dirtbags not fit to be hung out to dry by an errant Eli throw. Tiki’s gold. Gold Jerry gold! But i grudgingly root for our #1 receiver and tight end.

But I think the Giants are looking at a rough season despite alot of hype and picks to the contrary. And though not one person has even come close to suggesting it, probably not even thinking it, I can see Eli getting booed and fans calling for the backup Lorenzen, known as the Hefty Lefty. He’s basically an out of nowhere guy with limited talent, but he’s kind of overweight and lefty. And he knocks guys down and looked ok in preseason after barely getting a # 3 QB job last year.

So he’s kind of likable in that weird eccentric blue collar way New Yorkers love.

I hope it doesn’t come to that. No one thinks it will. I am the first person to suggest it might happen soon. I am quite sure of this.

And I think the Colts win tomorrow-tonight. Big. Just throwing out a score to indicate the type of game were looking at I’ll say 44-10 Indy. On our turf.

Ugly.

But I’m looking forward to the game and hopefully being proven to be worrying too much.

We’re Big Blue and we can’t let them midwestern dome dwellers come into our building and run roughshod all over us. Giants tradition, despite that playoff loss in January, will hopefully not allow such an outcome.

As for the season here’s some other picks:

Leaning towards Dallas as NFC rep in Super Bowl. Hopefully having that dirtbag Owens will cause more and more problems and that Judas Iscariot-Benedict Arnold-Annakin Skywalker-level traitorous bastard Parcells will continue to never win a Super Bowl since leaving the Giants.

But Owens may be containable for a year even though there are already problems. They’re facing my pet Jaguars in Jacksonville week 1. They’re my pets because they can’t score and they play real good defense. Very comfortable with that.

And if I ever move to Florida, as unlikely as that is, I have to adopt a local team as my 1A team to the Giants and I can’t like the Dolphins. Tampa is possible with Chris Simms but they’re in the Giants conference.

But though the NFC East is billed as best in league I think it’s a bit overrated and believe the South may be better. Carolina, Tampa, Atlanta, and New Orleans is a whole lot of football. ALways like the Saints as a pet team and after all that happened to them after Katrina how can you not hope all goes well. That horror season did get them Reggie Bush. If he’s as big as forecast and Drew Brees imports that San Diego magic he had going, that makes them interesting even though they figure 4th best in the division.

If not Dallas I think Super Bowl team comes out of there even though Seattle in West is defending champ. Carolina and Tampa Bay most probably though Atlanta is always dangerous with Vick.

Afc is still better conference though the gap may narrow. Leading contenders there are considered New England, Denver, Pittsburgh and Cincinnatti. I’d throw in Baltimore who could relegate defending champ Steelers to 3rd place. They finally have a QB in McNair and though the Steelers already are 1-0 after Thursday night opener over Miami, and without Big Ben, I got to think the magic carpet ride they had last year gets a bit winded in 06.

Miami, even after that loss to Pitt, could also be back strong. Don’t see a Super Bowl with Culpepper, but I like Saban as coach and think they could dethrone Pats for division.

The Jets? Well let me say i like them. Though they lost the decision for my allegiance a quarter century or so ago, I’ve always rooted for them to do well and can enjoy a Jet game. But they could be real ugly this year. No offense at all. Nothing. Nada. Even Curtis Martin appears done. They could set a record for shutouts. If they’re anywhere near 500 than Mangini really was a great choice for coach and perhaps will be in the class of his mentor Bill Belichek.

Super Bowl?

Panthers-Bengals.

Or Cowboys

OR Buccanneers.

Against Bengals.

I feel most secure about that. Bengals will win it all as long as Palmers knee holds up. He’s the best QB in NFL besides Peyton now.

Go Blue!

[image:191:l] Ok I’m going to say something unusual. In fact this is probably the first time I or perhaps any human has ever strung together these particular words in this particular order:

The Mets are so good it’s almost boring.

Maybe in 86 I or someone else might have made a related comment. But certainly it is the first time that sentence has been uttered in the past 2 decades.

They could go down quick in October as alot of offensive powerhouses without great pitching have over the years but these guys are still damn good. And no one in the NL has great pitching either so if we get lucky with Pedro and Glavine’s health, or get into the battle of the bullpens, we could be looking at the World Series. And if we do it’s looking like there’s a decent chance the Yankees will be there too.

I’m not picking this. Odds are still against both, much less the two of them making it through the ups and downs, the who’s hot and who’s not, the injury bugs, and the testimony to pitching, that are all part of October Baseball.

But the Mets are kick ass good this season.

There I said it.

And if they lose to the Yanks in the Series again this site will be officially abandoned by me and I will do everything in my power to destroy it and the internet as a whole.

You have my vow!

As some who know me can testify, October Baseball, when the Mets are involved, can be a very, very stressful time for me. They have a habit of playing gut wrenching endless games that wreak havoc on fans nervous systems. Part of me enjoys Metsless playoffs because I can enjoy the atmosphere without the personal stake and stress. And it’s cool watching the Braves always lose.

There are friends and coworkers who can tesitfy to the extremities of abnormality and frenzy I’ve gone through during such games. I don’t think our regulars here including Bob and Brandonicus have ever seen this, this, fanatic thing. I had just met Brandonicus around the time of that last Mets playoff appearence in 2000. Bob I’d known already but was more peripherally involved with those first couple of years. I’ve never actually watched a game with either.

Though i do remember that night in October 99 and though Bob probably doesn’t, he was there at the shattering end of a long night’s journey into the edge of a miracle that turned into the deepest cut.

It was the National League Championship Series. We got in as a wildcard, won our first round series and met archrival Atlanta in a best of seven to see who would play the Yanks in the Series. We went down 3 games to zip. It was over. No team had ever come back from that until Boston did it to the Yanks in 2004. But we won game 4. We won game 5 in extra innings and dramatic fashion. Game 6 started with Leiter putting us in a 5-0 hole.

But we battled back. Piazza hit a huge homer off Smoltz who came in out of the bullpen to try and stave off this miracle in the making and keep the Braves from having to face us in a pressurized game 7 that no team had ever had to face in their situation. We actually took the lead in extra innings. All this was on their field.

I had started watching the game at work. Staff at the place Brandonicus now manages watched me go through physical and mental contortions reminicent of the famed Astros NLCS game 6 in 86. It was a 16 inning wild one which we woon to move on. I was so exhausted by games end from the pacing, kneeling, jumping, stressing, climbing, and general contorting, that I think I slept 12 hours the next day.

In 99 it started at work. By the time I got off duty the game was in full force and I met my friend Josh at his place which he then shared with his brother. I was there when Benitez choked up that extra inning lead convincing me it was not meant to be even though the game was still tied.

Josh may have gotten glimpses as he prepared to get ready to meet Bob and others at the diner. He may have seen things which should not be seen. Heard things very few gay men have ever heard.

It was agony watching Benitez do what most Mets fans knew in our hearts he would.

So then Josh was ready. I toyed with staying, or making him stay. But I was so crushed i couldn’t stand to sit there and sacrifice more of my time for what would inevitably end in pain.

But I couldn’t help putting it on the car radio.

By the time we got the the diner Kenny Rogers had been brought in and Andrew Jones was up with the bases loaded. I sat there in my car listening while Josh, Bob and others congregated inside. I listened as Rogers went to 3 balls. I knew waht was coming. The coward of the county would hand Atlanta the series, our hearts, and even a bit of our souls.

But I listened, hoping against hope, as Rogers walked in the winning run.

I shut the radio off and walked the walk of the dead inside into the diner to join my friends. I vaguely remember someone, I think it was Bob, asking me who won. I don’t remember whetehr I gave details. I don’t think I cried or shouted. I may have cursed. But I know that no one at that table knew what I had been through, or could understand the bond of pain I felt with so many kindred Mets fans, so many of whom I wished I was together with back in the city in a perverse way much like I would wish 2 years later after 9-11.

Anyway it’s a wild ride.

And it’s starting again in a month.

Be it a short or long run, it begins soon.

So in an effort to take anyone concerned through the mind of a diehard Mets fan during playoff time I will be posting regular diaries before and after games throughout the Mets run be it 3 and out in the first series (which would at least provide early relief), or game 7 of the World Series (which may kill me). I’ll probably name them Confessions Of A Mets Fan as well. So consider this part 1.

I’m probably more practical about these things then i’ve been in the past. They haven’t played in October since 2000 and the Subway Series and Ive grown alot since then. Gotten more jaded and less effected by stuff. But a part of me will always retain certain qualities that will come out here and again. One of thos qualities is becoming a rabid, nuerotic mess during and around Mets playoff games.

I think it will be more tempered. I don’t expect championships with our pitching. But this is still a good team. And a special one. They have character and guys I like to root for. Just tonight Carlos Beltran saved the game in the 9th giving up his body to make a play smashing into the wall-fence in Houston. This was despite the Mets having a 15 game lead and Beltran suffering a bad collision last year. Still put it all out there for his team. That stuff breeds emotional connections for fans and teammates.

So I really want to see this team win. But I have perspective. And I remain a Mets fan in the blood.

We shall all see how this manifests in October.