213 Miles From Shea

Ron Artest has a very interesting public image. There was incident in Indiana a few years back, there is of course him as a world champion and then Artest post championship, talking about his music career and that he has a single in the works. Well apparently, (I had no idea) but Ron Artest is a huge Mets fan being from Queens and with ESPNewYork, he has created a music video for his beloved baseball team:

I'm a fan. I thought it was hilarious. Later today I'll have the lyrics posted so we can start to break down the lyrical mastermind of Ron Artest…but not at 1:30 because he has to get ice cream with Jason Bay.

The players knew this was going to be an important game.

Well, you could have fulled me.

The team overall didn't play with a lot of heart tonight. It wasn't just because they lost, it just looked like they were flat. I can't really cite any specific examples, but generally when I watch a game I get excited or feel pumped in some way. This game was just putting me to sleep. It just seemed sluggish, and it didn't help that it looked like Braves were playing a good clip.

Anyway the dagger of the game came in the bottom of the first where Santana allowed 3 runs in the first inning. He locked it down after that striking out a total of 11 in 7 (while allowing 4 ER) but the Mets bats couldn't really help him. There was that RBI by Beltran, but that wasn't enough as the Mets offense struggled for another game since the All-Star Break. The only positive was the end of the line up got some hits tonight, but not many, as the lineup continues to be full of holes.

This loss places the Mets at .500 for the season. Now I'm not saying the season is done. The Mets can still, very easily, make a serious run at a playoff spot. But they find themselves out a point now where they can really dangerously fall off into oblivion and disappear from hunt for a meaningful September.

The Mets look to put the Diamondbacks and the month of July behind them tonight as they go down to Atlanta for a key series against the Braves. Santana will look to be himself tonight against Atlanta. On the season he is 8-5 with a 3.11 ERA. He had a pretty terrible start last time out as he allowed 7 ER over 5.2 innings of work. Against Atlanta this year he has been very good sporting a 1-0 record allowing only 2 ER in 14 innings of work. The Braves have these numbers against the Mets:

For a second straight day, the Mets will have contend with a pitcher named Hudson. This Hudson is 11-5 with a 2.40 ERA as he is having a terrific season. In his last two starts, he rebounded for a terrible 6.2 inning 6 ER start by pitching 14 innings with only one ER. He had a 7 inning shutout performance against the Amazin's in early July. The Mets have these numbers on Tim:

Lets Go Mets!

This is the most important week this season.

If it goes well for the Mets, then maybe there will be other weeks that are more important.

If it goes poorly for the Mets, then its doubtful that there will be future weeks that are this important.

The Amazins find themselves at a crucial crossroad starting today as they take on the Braves in Atlanta before facing Phillies in Philly. While there has been a lot of criticism of the way the Mets handled the deadline (maybe unjustified) and a lot of criticism for letting players like Perez and Castillo back on the team (justified), all of it means nothing if the Mets play well. Playing well can make this all go away, and playing poorly can make the majority of the Mets probably go away.

In the coming weeks, depending on what happens this week, there will be talks of ownership needing to become less involved, whether it is the GM's fault, can we get a better manager, we need better players OR there will be talks of making that final push, capturing that playoff spot, who is a hero, etc etc etc. All of those conversations, many which will happen here on this site, really will be decided on the Mets performance this week.

In terms of that performance, we sort of know what to expect. On the whole this year, the starting pitching has been very good and the back end of the bullpen has also been very good. The offense though, with the exception of June, has not clicked. Frustratingly, on the nights when the offense clicks, the starting doesn't, and then the middle of the bullpen gets into the game, and things tend to unraval. We'll see what happens this week, and as always Lets Go Mets!

In 1967 Coke launched a really nice, (now) vintage campaign where they challenged consumers to match their favorite team. Consumers would get sheets with spots on them to place bottle caps where on the bottom of the caps would be images of their team players. Most teams have seemed to have a single sheet with players making action poses, etc, with their heads missing where the caps would go. The Mets and the Yankees actually shared the same sheet and were a 35 cap set. I am not sure but I think the prize for collecting all of the caps for a team was a full, color photo set of the team. Anyway after a lot of searching I found an image of the Mets caps:

(via Worth Point)

These things are really neat and very collectible because there are two huge collector markets that target this. First there are sports fans and Mets fans who would want this and then there are Coke collectors and Coke has a lot of great products.

If you have something along these lines, or something you would like to share on this site please let me know by sending me an email (with a picture) and we can talk about your collection. Of course, I will give you credit for the find, the picture, and the information.
– elliotteichman@gmail.com

Last month this article was the Brooklyn Cyclones. This month…its the Brooklyn Cyclones show. Brooklyn knows hows to make great promotions. Anyway here are notable promotions from around the farm (also sorry that this article is a few days late, I lost track of time):

Buffalo: Interesting juxtaposition of theme nights on August 24th. The game will feature both Faith Nights (something that I am not crazy about, actually sometimes offended by) and Video Game Night. Depending what goes on during Video Game Night, it could be a direct contradiction of Faith Night. Also they will be giving out later in the month Fernando Martinez bobbleheads (no photo).

Binghamton: August 24th is Plunger give-away day…..what?

Port St. Lucie: Nothing Special

Savannah: Nothing Special

Brooklyn: The Best Bobble-Head Ever:

Yeah Ike Davis Upside Down Bobblehead!

Another Fantastic Bobble (Ron Darling in a Cyclones Uniform):

Also by the Cyclones this month, an Irish Jersey and a Black Jersey.

It's a big day for the Amazin's on and off the field. Off the field the Mets will be honoring Frank Cashen, Johnson, Strawberry and Gooden by inducting these heroes of 86 into the Mets Hall of Fame. On the field, the Mets will try to win another series and go 4-2 on the road trip by buidling off last night's walk-off win against the Diamondbacks. Jon Niese will get the nod today and he will get go against Hudson in his first start for Arizona.

Niese starts the rubber game. On the season he is 7-4 with a 3.43 ERA in his last start he was terrific as he picked up the win in 6.0 innings allowing only one earned run. In five starts in July, Niese threw 32.2 innings with a 2-2 record and a 2.48 ERA and 27 K. His only really bad start in the month was against Arizona when he allowed 3 ER over 5 innings. The Diamondbacks have these numbers on Niese:

The Mets get to see Hudson make his first start for Dbacks since he was traded from the White Sox for Edwin Jackson. Hudson 23-year old right-handed pitcher who has struggled so far this season since his call-up with his control. In 15.2 innings this season Hudson is 1-1 with a 6.32 ERA (a far cry from his 3.38 ERA over 18.2 innings last year). As you can probably guess, Hudson has not seen any Met batter over his career.

Lets Go Mets!

Frank Cashen became the General Manager of the Mets organization in 1980. Right before 1980 the Mets were in the National League cellar three years in a row and Payson sold the the team to Doubleday and Wilpon. Doubleday and Wilpon needed a General Manager and they were tipped off to explore Frank Cashen who, as Jeff Pearlman in The Bad Guys Won points out, asked a series of questions to the owners of the Amazins (pg 23):

Cashen completely re-built the Mets from that moment on, and re-built them in ever way. He focused on talent, development, signnings, trades, media (which was no where near Shea at the time), extending the fan-base (similar issue) and taking the Mets into victory lane.

Memories of his success, especially that conversation with Fred Wilpon, need to especially be remembered today with the whole Wilpon-Omar-Jerry situation. Ownership has to take pressure off Omar to allow him to make the best possible moves because if the Mets want a good new GM, they are going to have to show the baseball community that a GM would want to work for the Mets. If the Mets want a new firey manager, than they will need to show that manager that respect trickles down.

The Mets play the second game of the series tonight after losing to Arizona again this season last night. It was bizarre and stressful game last night as the strike zone was about the size of an apple, the Mets had power to rally (early), Valdes self-destructed, and Citi-Field continued to fall apart. The Mets look to turn this around tonight as Takahashi takes on Enright.

Takahashi is 7-5 on the season with a 4.47 ERA. He rebounded in his last start allowing only 2 earned runs in 7 innings of work against the Dodgers, but the Mets couldn't get anything done offensively so he got saddled with the loss. He also pitched a scorless inning of relief against the Cards in the Mets during that 13 inning game. Takahashi missed the Dbacks last week, and since he is a rookie, the he has not seen any of the Dbacks in his career.

Enright is having a very good rookie season as he is 2-2 with a 2.73 ERA over 29.2 innings of work. He was terrific against the Mets (just what you wanted to hear, right) in his first start against us this season as he allowed only one earned run in 8 innings of work while striking out 8 batters. The only Met who had succes against him was Thole who hit his first homer of the year against him.

Lets Go Mets!

In the last two days it hasn't been our emotions that have been taking a beating at home, its our home that has been taking a beating.

On Thursday Cardinals pitcher MacDougal threw a wild pitch that sailed over his catcher's head and straight into the advertisement behind home plate. A combination of the speed of the undisturbed ball plus angle of entry caused the ball to rip though the advertisement and leave a huge gash:

The destruction of our new ballpark in its sophomore year continued last night as Angel Pagan took his frustration of how bad the game was going last night in the late innings on a glass shield. Ok, so it wasn't intentional but a foul ball by Pagan went straight into a glass panel cause it to crack (but not break, sorta like a car window in a reasonable impact). Picture below: