213 Miles From Shea

There is a lot risk in buying a player's T-shirt or Jersey and I should because I have made a lot of these purchases over the years. Now when I say there is a lot of risk, I mean as much risk as can go in to buying some fabric for $15 to $25. The risk is generally summed up in “how long can I wear this shirt?”. Is this player going to be a star? Am I going to like this player enough to represent the name on the back with the name on the front? Will this player get in a conflict with the team that will be overall negative? Will this player suck? Will this shirt be wearable after the player retires?

I've had shirts that have fallen all over the place. I still like to wear my Leiter and Floyd shirts. Wright and Reyes never go out of style. For some reason I am perfectly alright with wearing my Murphy shirt from time to time. There is one shirt that stays locked in my closet under bad purchases while I was young and stupid:

And remember kids, always think before you purchase.

All throughout the season, I have started this monthly series of posts with Mets promotions first. Well, the four Mets promo's do not have photos yet, so I'm gonna hold up writing that article to see if I can wait out for some photos. Anyway here are the American League Promotions for the month of September that caught my eye. All photos are from their respective mlb.com websites:

Baltimore: The Orioles are so excited right now about their new manager, that they will be giving out Name and Number shirts for Buck Showalter. This isn't the first time that the Orioles have done this for a non-player, and since they do so many of these Name and Number shirts every year, it will not be the last non-player they give out.

Tampa Bay: The Rays always push the envelope with the unusual, and this time around its for the kids. Check out the Super Hero cape for the Tampa Bay Ray:

Cleveland Indians: Someone else had to join in on the Snuggie Party:

Kansas City Royals: One way to measure one's age is the inability to understand fads for kids. I work with children and there is one fad that I do not understand at all, and that is Silly Bandz. Well we've already seen it invade minor league baseball (via Brooklyn Cyclones) and now it takes aim at the majors:

Minnesota Twins: Lotsa good stuff going on with the Twins this month. They are giving out a pin for their Hall of Fame ceremony (classy), a wind-up Span toy (interesting) and a Twins themed Fedora (also classy)

Oakland Athletics: Normally I don't include normal baseball hat giveaways, unless they are Special. I think there is something nice, simple, yet unusual about this giveaway:

The Orioles did the best they could this weekend by sweeping the Angels, but it wasn't enough as thanks to the big two on top of the division, the Orioles were eliminated from both the Division and the Wild Card yesterday. While this wasn't a surprise, it does mark the winding down of the baseball season as the Orioles become the first team to mathematically lose all hope. They should be joined in this category very soon courtesy of the Pirates:

The most accurate assessment of the Mets right now might just be a 500 team. They started the season going on huge streaks in both losing and winning directions and since the last losing streak, the Mets have steadied at 500. Some days they look so good that they are going to go on to win 30 of the last 35+ games and then other days, like last night, they look like they might not ever win again. The Mets were back to looking like a winning team today as they got good starting pitching, good timely hitting (the timely part being the key and the difference from last night) and they got some good bullpen help to close the door on the Astros and take the home series.

The second inning brought great returns for the Amazin's as they finally capitalized on walks. David Wright started the inning off with a walk and was moved to third by Ike's 24th double of the year. Thole then followed that up with a walk and Hernandez struck out. So the stage was set for Dickey to come up with the bases loaded and one out. He became the first in what feels like forever to take advantage of the situation and stroke a ball up the middle (which to be fair, should have been at least one out) as two Mets scored. A Pagan groundout would then score Thole.  Luis Castillo later singled Dickey home, only to caught stealing for the third out.

From that moment on the game was all Mets. The Astros scored one run back in the next inning and later in the game Thole smacked his second homer of the year out of the park, and that would be the end score of 5-1.

Pitching was the story for the Mets again today as Dickey through a great 7+ innings of work allowing only one run and he was relieved by Parnell (who for some reason is still the 8th inning pitcher) who got a double play, put himself in trouble and then got out of it and then the game was finished by Takahashi.

Next up for the Amazins will be the Braves as the Mets leave Queens in hope to find some luck on the road.

This is an old clip. Old Old Old clip all the way back from 2006. It is from a fairly terrible TV show (Jim Rome) however the clip is fantastic:

So a few things come to mind when watching that video. First is that Batting Practice Uniforms have changed a lot in the last 6 years or so. The season before that video, the Mets wore Orange BP jerseys, then those blue ones with the black tops came out. They were later replaced with what the Mets wear now (blue with orange black underarms). Also this video seems to take place before BP hats, which are already in their second generation on the field. The next thought is look how young Reyes and Wright are. Wow. Good Clip.

The Mets and Astros play the afternoon rubber game today as they close up their weekend series. The first game featured a weak offensive showing but the Mets were still able to squeak out a win. Last night the Mets bats were awful as there were plenty of batters on base, and there was no hope of getting them home. Well the Mets look to turn that around today as they get behind Robert Allen and beat Bud Norris.

Dickey has been fantastic this season, even though he had a bad start in his last outing where he gave up 5 earned runs in 7 innings against the Marlins (a team that had been giving him trouble this entire season). The last time he faced the Astros he had a very good outing as he picked up the no decision in 8.1 innings of work while allowing only 2 ER. The Astros have these numbers on Dickey:

The Mets batters will have to deal with Bud Norris today who is 6-7 with a 5.03 ERA. Two outings ago he was able to beat the Mets while allowing only 2 ER over 7 innings to the Amazins and in his last outing he was effective again as he allowed only one earned run over 6 innings of work. The Mets have these numbers on him:

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and the Astros play game two tonight as the Mets look to win their second game in a row. Last night's game featured only 3 hits for the Mets, but they somehow managed to pick up win by scoring 2 runs (one on a sacrifce, the other on a bases loaded walk). In other words, the saving grace for the Mets last night was Mike Pelfrey and the Mets look for that same spark in Johan Santana today.

Santana is 10-8 on the season with a 2.94 ERA and has been hard luck in his last two starts. In his last three games overall he has pitched three complete games but in his last two outings he has been on the losing side. One of those games was against the Houston Astros when Santana's only problem was Hunter Pence who hit a three run jack in the first, and a solo in the 8th, those were the only 4 earned runs he allowed. The Astros have these numbers on Johan:

The Mets get another chance at Brett who is 9-7 with a 3.08 ERA. In his last three games he has pitched 21 innings while allowing only 5 ER with an ERA of 2.14. One of his outings during those three games was against the Mets and he was pretty good as he allowed only 2 ER over 7 innings against them. The Mets have these numbers on Brett:

Lets Go Mets!

In the midst of the season the Mets are having, it is sometimes hard to remember that at its root, baseball is just supposed to be a fun game. Speaking of fun games, check out this funny scene with David Wright and the Philly Phanatic filled a few seasons ago in Philly:

On Wednesday we looked at the first edition of the 2010 Elimination Update where it looked like the Orioles were on the brink of the end with an elimination number of 3. As we look again today, we will see how the Orioles some how have held on some form of mathematical hopes while other teams are falling off fast. While no team has been eliminated yet, the Orioles who looked destined to be eliminated first and still can be today, may be able to push it back so a team like the Pirates get eliminated before them (not that it means anything though, except for pride):

The second opinion may not be in yet (should be coming over the next several days) but the dark news for the Nationals franchise is in that their star phenom pitcher will require Tommy John surgery and will need a recovery time of about 12 months (one year – which is normal for pitchers who have the procedure done).

This is a huge blow for the Nationals for a variety of reasons. The first problem the Nationals have is the same that any team has when they lose a player to injury. Strasburg is one of the best if not the best player on the roster right now due to his early success and his high ceiling. This team needs Strasburg on the roster if they want a chance to win or if they want to be able to attract free agents to get them excited about this team. Now they will have the issue of what will he be like after he came back. There are a good amount of pitchers who have had success after the surgery like Carpenter and Burnett. Than there is one player that is so similar to Strasburg: Kerry Wood. Wood was phenomonal before Tommy John. Since then he still has been good, he has been better than average, but never really returned to his standing as a young breakout star.

The next impact for the Nationals is the money. Strasburg brought in on average 12,000 for games that he was expected to start. It is next to impossible to get tickets for a reasonable price when Strasburg is pitching because the fans know when he is on the mound, they have a much better chance of seeing something special. Not having Strasburg is a critical blow for the economic status of the Nationals, who need help to continue to revitalize their fanbase (and now really need help because Strasburg is where they put all their eggs in the basket).

All of baseball is the final group that feels the negative impact of Strasburg getting injured. His existence on the mound was fantastic for baseball as he brought sold out games on the road no matter where he went. He demanded National TV coverage with people watching across the state getting interested in baseball due to this young star. The baseball card market, which has seen some struggles over the last decade had a peak this summer when Strasburg first made it, dipped when he first got injured, came back when Strasburg came back, and we can all guess where its going now that some Kerry Wood fears are coming to fruition.

Strasburg injured is bad for the Nationals, and bad for Baseball.