213 Miles From Shea

Like an Ike Davis home run, there's no doubt about it that this season has been full of ups and downs and turning points. The Mets got off to a horrible start as they opened with a 2-6 to 4-8 record. They then played a classic, 20 inning game where one of the heroes of the season, Mike Pelfrey, picked up a save to cap off a nearly 8 hour game that had nearly 700 pitches. The Mets would then call up rookie Ike Davis and go on a great run at home that took the team to first place. Then the Mets started on a terrible slide again featuring a low light of 4 game sweep at the hands of the Marlins on the road. At this point of the season the Mets were so good at home, but so bad on the road. It looked like Jerry and crew were gonners but the Mets then put up a 5-1 homestand against the Yankees and Phillies including three consecutive shutout wins against the team from Philly. After another bad road trip, the Mets went on to put together another strong homestand (5-1) followed by a 7-2 road trip where the Mets then helped put themselves in contention for the division. Why they stuttered as of late, they will enter the second half of the season 4 games out of first place and 1 game out of the Wild Card.

In the second half of the season, the Mets have two things to look forward to. The first is the return of Carlos Beltran, who when healthy, is one of the best players, albeit quiet, in baseball. The second thing to look foward to will be second half of the season Johan Santana, who has recently returned to his former self.

Top 3 Surprises:

Disapointments:

Some quick hits to go with your Wednesday Morning Cheez-Its:

It finally happened. After 14 years, 13 losses, and the switch to making the game actually mean something, the National League has finally won the All-Star game. The last time the NL won was 1996 and now they got one in 2010. The hero of the night for the National league was McCann who hit a key 3-run double to put the National League up on the scoreboard and ahead of the American League. As All-Star games go, since so many players are used in the game, when one player makes a key play like that, they usually win the MVP award, therefore Brian McCann was your 2010 All-Star Game MVP.

The game was scoreless (shocker) until the fifth inning when Cano hit a sacrifice fly that put the American League up 1-0. From that point on it looked like the game was going to go the American League as no one else could string together some hits. That was true until the top of the seventh when McCann came up with the bases loaded and cranked out a three run double and for the first time in the game, the National League enjoyed a lead (3-1). That was it for scoring tonight.

David Wright in the All-Star Game:

David Wright was solid tonight in the Mid Summer Classic. Going into tonight's game, Wright was 4-11 with a HR in previous All-Star contests and tonight he was able to put up the batting line:

So, historically, Wright is a 6-13 batter in the All-Star game which is pretty fantastic when you realize that all 13 of those AB's were against All-Star pitching. Wright's first AB was the first hit for the National League as he reached first base with only one out. However he was followed by a quick, tailored made double play ball hit by Braun. In his second AB, Wright got another hit, this time as the leadoff batter. During Braun's AB, Wright was able to steal second base, but wasn't able to see the ball go into centerfield, and could not advance on the bad throw. He would get to third by a single, however was (rightfully) held there. Then Hart struck outand McCann flew out to the end the inning, leaving Wright at third base.

Other Notes:

Moments ago, during the All-Star game introduction talk by a Fox Announcer, the Announcer was highlighting the young pitchers that will be starting the All-Star game, including the young flame-thrower, David Wright.

What?

What he meant to say, of course, was David Price who is the youngest starter since Dwight Gooden to start an All-Star game. Price is not the same person as the 5-time All-Star thirdbasemen David Wright. Price does have one thing Wright does not. The Rays have just celebrated Price with their Price Price Baby t-shirts on the same night as a Vanilla Ice performance.

This whole thing has taught me one thing. Twitter is actually useful for something. I wasn't sure if I just heard the AL pitcher introduced as David Wright, so I typed Wright into twitter, and the quick tweets of many angry and confused people confirmed the misintroduction.

All the festivities over the last few days leads up to the big game tonight, the 2010 All-Star game. Going into the game, the Mets originally had two players that would represent the club, Jose Reyes and David Wright. Wright will be a starter while Reyes was originally placed on the roster as an injury replacement, but now he has an injury note as well, so Furcal will now replace Jose. Anyway the rosters are loaded. There are two story lines going into this game. The first is this game continues the rather recent tradition of the game meaning something as the winning league gets home field advantage for the World Series. As like anything that carries that importance in baseball, that decision is still controversial. The other story line would be the American League winning 13 out of the last 14 All-Star games (there was one tie in there). Could this finally be the year whent he National League wins one? I hope so. Lets take a look at the batting order. First the American League, with their starter David Price (the youngest All-Star starting pitcher since Dwight Gooden):

And your National League batting order with starter Ulbado Jimenez:

GQ has put together a nice top 5 / bottom 5 list of baseball broadcast booths in the country. As Mets fans, we have felt since Gary, Keith and Ron made one of the best booths in the business but it always actually means something when an independent source confirms our notions. GQ was a fan the mixture of the personality between the three, the even play by play calling by Gary, the pitching knowledge that Darling brings and the hitting insight of Keith. Their criticism of the booth was how during boring games they can get really off topic, but that is one of my favorite aspects of trio.

I had the same reaction that I think many fans did reading this article. “Hey! Why are they not ranked number 1?” Then I clicked the button to see who was number 1. It was, of course, Vin Scully. I was immiediatley content with the Mets team being behind the announcer great. Scully does one of the hardest things in sports being the only person in teh Dodgers booth and everything about him screams baseball. He truley deserves to be named the best booth of the game.

Now I'm not going to go in-depth with the bottom 5, but I was so happy to see the Nationals be on that list. Look, Washington has some big names. They have Bob Carpenter doing the play by play and their before and after game team (not considered part of the booth) contains local celebrity and voice of gold Johnny Holiday (voice of the Terps!) and Mets fan favorite Ray Knight. What drags the Nationals down to the bottom of the league is their color announcer, Rob Dibble. Dibble just bumbles around up there. He's not very insightful and he is really, really disrespectful to the other team. If I wanted to hear someone be disrespectful about baseball players on the other team, I would go to a hometown bar to hear intoxicated people do it better, and more coherently than Rob. The article points how if the opposite team makes an amazing play Rob's reaction is usually “UGHDHSJFISIE WE GOT ROBBEDDKDNHFIDKDI!” I'm forced to listen to this booth, living in DC, when the Mets come to town and the game is blacked out on MLB.tv (and the radio audio isn't syncing well with the MASN broadcast here). Many times, I have resorted to watching the game on mute.

Some quick hits to go with your Tuesday morning Apple Jacks:

In a Home-Run Derby that didn't feature many engaging story lines, Derby veteran Ortiz wins the contest for the first time in his career. For many, Ortiz was the favorite for this contest as he was one of a few players who actually played in the contest before. Generally, first time participants do not fare so well. Besides Big Papi, Miguel Cabrera was the favorite for many going into tonight.

Chris Young (1), Wells (2), Swisher (4) and Holliday (5) were all eliminated in the first round. The total amount was slightly surprising for Wells and Swisher who were both considered outside chance winners for the Derby tonight. The star of the first round was Cory Hart who provided that wow factor belting out 13 jacks. Also advancing was Ortiz, Cabrera and Ramirez.

The second round really belonged to Oritz and Ramirez who hit 13 and 12 homers respectively. They really put on a show as David had his classic swing and Hanely was really smacking those balls hard out of the park. Cabrera hit 5, and that wasn't enough to crack the top 3. Hart had a good chance coming into this round only needing to hit 8, however the long, about 90 minute break, from hitting had him go cold and he wasn't able to connect on anything.

David Ortiz opened the final round in a big way with 11 homers and Hanley could only respond with 5.

I'm excited for tonight. The last two summers I have worked in the wilderness where my access to technology was extremely limited. For the most part this was alright, but there was always one night I wanted to be able to watch TV and that would be the Home Run Derby. The only word that describes the Derby (especially when there are 0 New York Mets in it) is fun*: It's one of those nights where you see baseball stars just having fun, you get to see the ball hit far, and just a lot of gimmicks (like all of the hit it here signs). 

Anyway on Saturday the field was set this year will feature some old favorites and will feature some newcomers to the mix:

Out of the above group I'm really divided between rooting for two players. The first would be Ortiz. I just have memories when I was younger of Ortiz sending shots into the night and sending the Yankees packing. However I probably won't root for him. I will be rooting for Chris Young. He's been one of my favorite players to watch on the Diamondbacks and I really do not want a Yankee/Marlin/Cardinal to win it.

*When there is a Met in it, like in 2006, it still is fun but then there is a degree of worry that enters the competition. I wouldn't want a Met to get injured in the game or mess up their swing (which some suggested happened to Wright after the Derby where he had over 20 jacks going into it and only 2 afterward).