213 Miles From Shea

The Mets return home tonight to play some Interleague Play ball against the Los Angeles Angels tonight. The Mets are returning from a successful road trip where they split a series with the Pirates and won a series a way against the Brewers and the Braves. Hopefully they can put the balk last night behind them as the Mets look to improve to .500 again behind Chris Capuano as he takes on Joel Pineiro.

Capuano has 4.40 ERA this season in 73.2 innings of work with a 5-6 record. His last start against Pittsburgh was great as he logged in 7 scoreless innings of three hit ball. In his last 13 innings of work he has only allowed one run. In his career he has never faced the Los Angeles Angels franchise, and there are only two batters on their roster who have seem him. Tori Hunter is 5-12 with a homer against Chris while Bobby Abreu is 3-8 with a double. For everyone else, Chris will be a mystery tonight.

The Mets batters will get a crack at Joel Pineiro who is 2-3 this season with a 4.03 ERA over 58.0 innings. He is 0-3 for his last five starts where he has pitched 30.2 innings with an ERA of 5.87. He has made 6 starts against the Mets in his career where he is 3-0 with a 4.15 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers on Joel:

Beltran 5-16, 2B

Harris 1-14

Reyes 7-12, 2 2B, 3B, HR

Bay 5-11, HR

Murphy 3-11, 2B

Hairston 3-5, 2 2B

Let's Go Mets!

The Brooklyn Cyclones open their season tonight and one of the greatest things about the minor league team closest to home is they generally have some great giveaways. The jerseys are always at the top of the list, but I first want to focus on earbuds which are totally awesome and so practical! Anyway, here is a list of the jerseys that they will be giving away:

Irish Jersey

White Jersey

4G Jersey

Black and Teal Jersey

Blue Jersey

Yes, that 4G Jersey is essentially a Verizon Wireless Jersey. I don't know if I would ever be able to wear it, but for some reason the cynical part of me is really glad that it exists. Anyway as you would imagine with a Minor League team, these uniforms are plastered with advertisements, but its all in good fun because they are free.

The Mets go for the sweep tonight in Atlanta as they end a 10 game road trip before coming home to face the Angels tomorrow night. Last night the Mets battled the Braves and the elements as the game was delayed to start. Dillon Gee went out, tossed 4 great innings, but then rain came again and the Mets had to pass the game onto the bullpen, the weakest link of this ball club right now. The pen came through and held the Braves scorless for five innings as the Mets returned to the .500 mark. Tonight Dickey will get the start against Mike Minor.

Dickey is 3-7 on the season with a 3.98 ERA. In his last five starts he has pitched 32.1 innings with an ERA of 2.23 and he also has a streak right now of two consecutive starts where has lasted 8 innings. His last win was against the Braves where he allowed 1 ER in 8 innings of work. The Braves have the following numbers against Robert Allen:

Hinske 3-19, 2 2B

Uggla 0-13

Gonzalez 3-12

McCann 3-10, HR

Mike Minor is 0-2 this season in 4 starts with a 4.50 ERA. He faced the Mets once last season where he pitched 5 innings allowing 2 ER over 7 hits. In his short time in the majors over his career, the Mets have the following numbers against him:

Beltran 1-2, 2B

Tejada 2-2

(And That's It)

Let's Go Mets!

There was another throwback game yesterday, June 15th, in Brooklyn…errr I mean Los Angeles.

As you probably know by now, the fans in Los Angeles voted on a throwback jersey for the Dodgers to wear a few times this year, and they chose the satin, powder blue Brooklyn Jerseys. Yesterday they played the Reds who decided to play along with the Dodgers and wore a throwback Cincinnati uniform with a classy front and a nice black and red hat. Mainly the reason why I liked them is they went with the clean no name on back.

Anyway here is a picture of the Dodgers uniform and here is one of the Reds uniform. Both images are part of the ESPN slide show which has a lot of nice pictures of the uniforms in action.

The Mets and the Braves play game two tonight as the Mets look for the series win in Atlanta. Last night the Mets won by using a familiar combination of strong starting pitching, small ball hitting, and sorta praying the bullpen doesn't implode. Tonight Dillon Gee will look to start his season 8-0 as he faces Tim Hudson.

Dillon Gee has become quite the story for the Mets. The rookie is now 7-0 this season with a 3.05 ERA. In his last three starts he has logged 22.0 innings of work while posting an ERA of 1.64. The second of those three starts was against the Braves where he pitched 7 innings of shutout ball. The Braves have the following numbers on Dillon:

McCann 2-8, 2B

Gonzalez 3-7, 2B

Hinske 0-4

Uggla 2-6, 2B, 3B

Freeman 1-5

The Mets will face Tim Hudson tonight who is 5-5 on the season with a 4.06 ERA. He has pitched 16 innings in his last three starts with a 4.50 ERA, where his only bad start was against the Mets where he allowed 5 ER over 7 hits in 4 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers on Hudson:

Beltran 26-72, 4 2B, 3B, 4 HR

Reyes 18-62, 3 2B, 2 HR

Bay 5-15, 2B, HR

Pagan 8-16, 2B

Let's Go Mets!

Yesterday we took a look at the San Francisco Giants Players Signature Series Jerseys, and today we will take a look at the Boston Red Sox. It is also their first year having this line of clothing, which is slightly surprising. One would think with their National Market, they would have had it already. Anyway, let's take a look:

Like always, there are somethings I like, and somethings I don't. The only thing I'm really against with these is a picture of the player on the bottom of the back of each Jersey. Besides that, they actually look…good. For example, if on the Youk jersey the lose his photo, it's a nice Jersey. It has a WS badge, a badge of his facial hair, his nickname and the town nickname. It's pretty much that way for all of these that they have some creative elements and some head scratching elements.

The Mets and Braves start a series tonight in Turner Field as the Mets look to to some positive damage in the NL East. Last night the Mets just couldn't get it going as they dropped the series finale to the Pirates by the score of 3-1. Jon Niese looks to lead the Mets tonight against a familiar foe in Jair Jurrjens.

Jon Niese is 5-5 on the season with a 3.51 ERA. In his last five starts he has pitched 33.2 innings pitched with an ERA of 1.34 and 33 strikeouts. He has been something to watch of late as he has been utilizing his pitches beautifully. Two starts ago he pitched 7.2 innings, allowing 2 ER while striking out 7 getting a no decision. The Braves have the following numbers on Jon:

Uggla 6-16, 3 2B

Jones 4-8, 2 2B, HR

Ross 3-8, 3B, HR

McCann 0-6

Schafer 0-5

Jair Jurrjens is having a terrific year as he is 8-2 with a league leading 1.82 ERA. His only “bad” start recently was against the Mets as he allowed 4 runs, 3 earned over 6 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers on Jair:

Pagan 2-27, 2B

Reyes 3-20, 2B

Beltran 2-19

Murphy 7-21, 2 2B, 3B

Bay 3-15, 2B

Harris 7-14, 2B, 3B

Thole 3-8

Let's Go Mets!

Citi-FIeld is no longer special. Well ok, it is still the home of the Mets, but part of what made our centerfield iconic was the eateries. Remember way back when, all the way back to 2009 when Citi opened its doors? Part of the draw was the Shake Shack, Blue Smoke, etc, all in the outfield with the Mets skyline from Shea on top of it.

When people talk about the most recent surge of ballparks, they are talking about what the literature calls post-modern ballparks (yes seriously, there is literature in academia on the subject I'm about to share with you). Generally ballparks are broken into three categories. There are the old ballparks like Wrigley and Fenway, the modern ballparks like Shea Stadium and then the post-modern ballparks. The modern ballparks were McDonaldized, in that they were about efficiency and things like that. Cookie-cutters are the other name for them but they were designed purposefully (to make money). The post-modern ballparks are an example of a manufactured de-McDonaldization where they are still designed to be efficient, but are also manufactured to look like they aren't, to bring back fans to grimy world of corporation ran baseball. (All of this is based on a course, Sport in Society, offered at the University of Maryland College Park with they the cynical comments being my own).

Our Center Field was advertised to us as an example of something that was supposed to be unique to Citi-Field, but turns out, it isn't.

In today's Washington Post, which you can read here, Dan Steinberg reveals the new attraction opening at Nationals Park. They have their own Union Square, featuring the Shake Shack, Box Fritas, Taqueria and Blue Smoke. The article specifically mentions how the Shake Shack will feature Citi Field pricing from back in 2009. (Also, tip of that hat to my friends at 15Min2Exit for the link)

One of my personal qualms with Nationals Park is its lack of identity. They pay homage to all DC sports, then pay homage to the greats of baseball from other teams, including rivals, on the concourse. If you walk in one one entrance it feels like a block party, if you walk in other side, it feels like a serious baseball establishment. Now they are adding another layer of problems where on one side of the stadium they offer DC's finest food in Ben's Chili Bowl and on the other side of the stadium they have food from New York. The exact food from New York!

Bottom line: when I go to a ball park, I expect it to be a different experience, even if that different experience is manufactured. When I'm in Baltimore, I don't expect to find New York Deli (oops, they have that), when I'm in Queens, I expect to find New York food that I can't find in other ballparks, and when I'm in DC, I expect to actually know who the home team is based on the stadium.

(I do recognize of course that the Mets probably had little to do with this at all)

Oh No! I thought we would avoid it this year, I really thought we would avoid it, but they came out with another like of Players Signature Series clothing. If you recall, in 2009 the Mets were the only team involved, and no big names were really involved. Last season it was the Yankees, Phillies, Mets and Twins, where all of the big names of the Mets that were involved got injured or just had bad seasons. This year the Mets avoided it all together, or were asked not to participate (who knows) and the four teams involved this year are the Yankees, Phillies, Giants and Red Sox. It also seems this year it is just T-shirts and Jerseys but not hats (shame because I'm starting a ridiculous article series on July 1st regarding hats).

Anyway let's take a look at the jerseys the Giants players “made”:

After looking at these, I think I realized why I dislike the ones with an image of the player on the back below the numbers, despite that they are tacky. I'm a fairly short person (with a small torso), so if I was wearing Lincecum's for example, that would mean, even with a small Jersey, Lincecum would be on or below my butt, awkward. I do like Matt Cain's though, only because I'm a fan of writing above and below the numbers (but I don't like camo or his nickname or most importantly the Giants, so that would never happen).