213 Miles From Shea

The Mets go for two straight tonight as the ace Johan Santana takes on Jamie Garcia. Last night, the Mets took on one of the best pitchers in the league in Wainwright and unloaded on him as the bats finally came alive and smashed in 8 runs as the Mets took the opener 8-2. Santana is 8-5 on the season with a 2.79 ERA. He picked up a win in his last outing as he allowed only one run over 7 innings. In the month of July he has made 5 starts with a 3-0 record over 38.0 innings pitched and a 0.71 ERA while walking 10 and striking out 26. He got a no decision earlier this season against the Cards in one of the most famous games of the season where he threw 7 scoreless innings in a 20 inning game. The Cards have these numbers on Johan:

Where was Garcia on that day where the Mets and the Cards played 20 innings? Garcia was starting that day!. Yessir, this is a rematch of that nearly 700 pitch game. He pitched 7 scoreless innings that day and on the season he is 9-4 with a 2.21 ERA. The Mets have put up the following numbers on Garcia over his short career:

Lets Go Mets!

As normal, the beginning of a new month means its time for our monthly tour around the majors for creative promotions. Same rules as always. To make this list, the promotion has to be interesting, a free jersey, crazy or a lapel pin. Today we will explore the American League, tomorrow the National League. Yesterday was Mets only and Friday will be Mets minors. All images via MLB.com:

Baltimore: The Orioles finish up their three part mini-bobblehead series with Nick Markakis. The three bobbleheads join together to create the Camden outfield. Also the Orioles are doing something that I have heard before, but I guess I never really recognized it. They will be giving out backpacks for children that look like catcher chest protecter. This one is of course for Matt Wieters, picture below:

Cleveland: Lofton “The Catch” Bobblehead. Ineteresting perspective for the website shot:

Kansas City: When most teams want to celebrate an anniversary of a championship, they give out hats, pennants or posters. The Tigers are giving out a coaster set. I love the combination of history and function:

Seattle: Free Jerseys For Kids:

Texas must be thinking on the same lines as Baltimore:

Some quick hits to go with your Wednesday morning Cranberry Juice:

(MLB.com)

The Mets had a big win tonight (my attempt in the title was to spell it french). In the first inning tonight it looked like it was going to be one of those days again as the Cards put up an early run, however thanks to Wright, Beltran and Davis in the second inning the Mets put up the tying run. The big blow was by Frenchy. In the 4th inning where the Mets had two runners on, Frenchy smashed a homer way out and put the Mets up 4-1. This was huge hit as the Mets just started rolling after that putting up two more innings of multi-runs, including another homer, this time by Reyes.

Niese was fantastic tonight as he racked up 6 innings allowing only one run. Acosta put up the other run as the Mets bullpen only allowed one run. The Mets had another complete game at home as they for some reason they play really well in Citi. All of this came as Jerry was not managing tonight. That was, in my opinion, a coincidence.

The big story for the night was the offense. They put up the best showing against Wainwright this year, who now looks to be the frontrunner for the Cy Young award. The Mets were able to get hits and drive in runs while they had RISP, something they haven't done at all for what feels like a month now. In terms of what the Mets have to do, this was exactly what the Doctor order to start off the homestand.

The Mets try to turn this all around starting tonight with Jon Niese vs Adam Wainwright. The Mets are coming off of an abysmal road trip with a lot of questions coming to this week. There are ton of off the field issues going on (coaching, trades, releases) but ultimately it is about what is done on the field and while the Mets pitching of late has been spot on, the bats have been whack.

Niese has a 6-4 record this season with a 3.54 ERA. He wasn't as good in his last start as he has been in previous allowing 3 ER over 5 innings but he still managed to strikeout 6 batters. In the month of July he has a 1-2 record while pitching 26.2 inning with a 2.70 ERA. Niese's only start against the Red Birds was a memorable one for all the wrong reasons. He was cruising through 1.2 innings until he went to cover first base, get injured and was gone for the rest of the year. During his young career, only a few Cardinals have AB's against Niese. Holliday and Ludwig are both 0-1 while Pujols is 1-1 with a double.

The Mets bats will have to face a now infamous foe in Mets history, Adam Wainwright. More specifically, we could have a rematch of that moment that ended the 2006 season. To make matters worse, Wainwright has been terrific this year with his 14-5 record and 1.94 ERA. In fact, in the entire month of June he has allowed one earned run. The Mets scored more runs on him than that the first time this season (3) however Wainwright picked up the win in a complete game outing where the Cards edged the Mets by the score of 5-3. To give you an idea how long ago that was/feels, that was the series of the 20 inning game and right before the Mets called up Ike Davis. Anyway the Mets have these numbers on Adam:

The season is winding down but the hottest month of the season is on its way. How are the Mets going to get fans to stay in the stands instead of heading to the comfort of their air conditioned homes (where they can change the channel when the Amazin's play bad)? Well the Mets marketing department hope they have the solution with the August 2010 promotions (All images via mlb.com):

August 1st: The Mets open up the month with a highly anticipated event as they induct fan favorites: Gooden, Strawberry, Johnson and Cashen. This players, manager and GM were integral to the success of the 1986 Mets and finally get their place in Mets Hall of Fame history. Fans get into the action to with a Hall of Fame Hat:

It's a nice hat. The only complaint is that it would have better if they could incorporate the inductees onto the hat. It would make it look more cluttered but this is one those times where clutter is better than the clean design.

August 13th: The Mets want to keep your beer cold. But they don't want anyone to keep it cold. They want the ace of the staff with ice waters in his veins to keep your beer nice and frosty. Behold the Santana Koozie:

August 14th: Obligatory Green and Orange Hate:

August 15th: One for the kids:

August 29th: Another one for the kids. This one is a Mets Build-a-bear:

There was a no-hitter for the sixth fifth time this season last night as Matt Garza for the Rays pitched a historic game, and it was historic for a few reasons. First, and fore most (now giving away the title of this article), it was the first no-no in Rays history. It was also the third time this year the Rays were involved in a no-hitter (two have been pitched against them) and 2010 now has the most no hitters since 1991 when there were 7, and there are still two months left in this season.

At the start of the season, there were four teams in Major League Baseball who have never had a no-hitter (Mets, Padres, Rockies, Rays). The Rays and the Rockies each have had their first one this season as the no no-no's club has become exclusive to two teams, us included. To some degree, its fitting in some sort of cosmic humor that out of the four teams on that list, the two of them that haven't had no-hitters this year are above and beyond the oldest with the Mets being established in 1962 and the Padres in 1969. The universe if laughing at us while the young recent expansion teams get to baseball history. For the Mets, and I'm speaking for myself here, I don't if any of you take this as personally as I'm starting to, it is like watching your friends at work or at school constantly get recognition. You are happy for them, and happy to be associated with the history, but it is getting to the point that even being humble is frustrating.

Actually, I think Nelson Figueroa has a great analogy for it. It is basically like the Mets farm system. The older players who should have been due a long time ago are being looked over while the young players who should get some more seasoning (to at least go through what the older players have) get called up too quickly. Ah the universe again, making a microcosm of the Mets not pitching a no hitter in our minor league system.

Maybe we will get one soon (doubt it), we've been close this season (Niese ftw).

Over the last month or so, I have focused a lot on Shea Stadium in this section and while I should probably stop doing that in order to give it some diversity, there are times I can't help myself. This is one of those times. Everything I've shown so far for Shea Stadium basically takes the item and keeps it to being a collectors showcase item. There really hasn't, unless you count the cup holder, much function of these items. Shea Stadium Chairs could function, but when you pay a huge amount of money for the chair, do you really want anyone sitting on it? Well marketing wiz's created this interesting item to give some function to Shea Stadium memorabilia:

(via MLB.com)

Yes, those are cuff links. The orange part is actually made out of the plastic from the Shea Stadium chairs. This is a fairly interesting idea because its a piece that doesn't scream Mets. In fact, you would either have to bring it up in conversation that they are Mets pieces or someone would have to prompt you to explain where you got those orange cuff links. The only downside to them are that they are about $150. That being said, its always interesting to see when products get transformed into something else entireley.