213 Miles From Shea

Some players are born to have slogans and Ike Davis was one of those players. As soon as he started to fly through the system, the Mets Faithful already knew that Ike Davis was destined to have a catchphrase, a slogan, a chant, and a T-shirt:

(Two Eight Nine Shirts)

Yes this was now are slogan, rescued from political pass from Eisenhower and back into the public spotlight. And it works too! It's not like we are rhyming with “We Like Ike” it's the exact same slogan. We just have to hope that no other team uses this slogan for a ridiculous voting campaign for some sort of popularity contest that is just a propaganda machine for Major League Baseball……..

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The Rangers have used “I Like Mike” in their effort to get former All-Star MVP Mike Young into the game this year on the final fan vote, not that he has a chance sine he will be going against Swish and Youk. So this is obviously not as big of a deal as I'm presenting it as, I just wanted to point out that someone is encroaching on our sayings and chants….when was the last time that happened?

(via If Blogs Run Free and Ump Bump)

Some quick hits to go with your Thursday morning Fruity Cheerios:

The Mets bounced back from a tough Monday night game against the Reds with a classic game last night as Johan Santana pitched the second complete game shutout on the Mets pitching staff. The other pitcher on the Mets staff to do that this year? Well it would be the pitcher who will be going tonight, Niese, who threw a one hitter earlier this year. Jon is 6-2 over 82 innings this season with an ERA of 3.62. Since returning from the DL, Niese is 5-0 in 6 games with a 2.43 ERA. He did pitch against the Reds earlier this season where he picked up the loss while allowing 4 ER over 6 innings. The Reds have these numbers on Jon:

If you have been following my previews, you probably realized I made a pretty large mistake yesterday (and I apologize about that). Yesterday I wrote about Arroyo being the starter for the Reds well actually he is the starter tonight. The Mets will get to bat off against Arroyo tonight who is 8-4 on the
season with a 4.25 ERA. In his last three games he is 2-1 with a 2.84
ERA. Arroyo did pitche against the Mets the first time these teams met
this season and he was the only Reds starter to get a loss against the
Amazins as he allowed 4 ER over 7 innings pitched. The Mets have these
numbers agianst Bronson:

Lets Go Mets!

No, I'm not talking about merchandise (for once) here, I'm talking about MLB.com's opinion writer Bauman. At the risk of sounding extremely cynical, I cannot possibly take his Monday entry on the All Star Vote seriously. Bauman makes his arguement that fans voting is the best thing possible for the game. Mainly, that it makes it democratic and helps teams that are not in big markets. Before I rip into while I believe his main arguement is deeply flawed, I want to address where my cynacism comes in. I feel that this is like reading an article from an Oil Company that 100% gasoline powered cars are the best possible thing for the world. There's an inheriant conflict of interest when an arguement about fan voting being the way to go comes on the source that provides the service. It just seems wrong. Thats the type of situation that you try to teach people recognize the motives of the writers or the financial supporters. Bauman has a right his opinion, and this really may be his opinion, but it is his connection to the MLB that makes his stance weak.

Anyway back to his actual opinion. It's really funny that he believes that voting helps smaller market teams. I have to respectfully disagree. He says that his proof of this is having Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria making the team coming from a small market team.  In my opinion, their making the team is a combination of their level of play but also the media hype machine. There is a very good chance that these players would have been selected to the team before the season actually started because these are players the media loves to talk about. Crawford trade rumors were all over the place over the winter. Longoria has been the darling of the sport since he made his debut. Their election to the team, beyond their skills, shows the success of large market areas and the evolution of a national market that hypes the same players over and over again.

Bauman would have been correct in his argument if players like Gonzalez got superior recogniton in fan voting or if someone like Olivo made the team as a starter. However this was not the case. It is my opinion that voting perputates the larger market and media dominance over the game, rather than the skills of the game itself. This is of course fine. The All-Star game is the game of where fans pick the players, so its more like a popularity game which is alright, we just have to change our definition of All-Star (which is something I wouldn't want to do).

Some quick hits to go with your Wednesday Morning 7-11 Coffee:

Last week Johan pitched 7 innings and allowed one earned run on his way to a no decision.

This game featured the full on ace Santana that we have not seen for a good minute. Johan threw 9 fantastic frames on his way to his first complete game shutout since 2008 where he pitched one against the Marlins on three days rest to keep the Mets post season hopes alive. He did it again tonight pitching a three hitter. I would say moment in the ninth inning would be the best of the game, but there was a moment earlier in the game that could also be considered the best moment in the game so here are your two best moments of the game:

The other moment of offense in the game came from Jason Bay with a crucial 2 run single. He probably won't be remembered for that in this game but that single provided some crucial run support for the Amazin's. If that didn't happen, it's very possible that Santana may not have been allowed to finish the game.

The Mets look to bounce back with another game against the Reds tonight. Santana showed us in his last game that he can be Santana as he finally pitched a Santana-esque outing where pitched 7 innings and allowing one run in a no decision (in other words, not to be outdone by vintage Santana, the Mets bats decided to make sure it felt the same by providing no run support). Last season Santana was dominating against the Reds as he pitched 2 games, 12.2 innings and allowed only one earned run as he put up a 2-0 record. The Reds have these numbers on Johan:

Lets Go Mets!

Yesterday we took a look at the 2010 Logo Set for the MLB Postseason. What's interesting about the logo's is that they are so different than logos used 2007 and earlier, but very similar to logos 2008 and later. The argument that I'm presenting, is that we are witnessing (very slowly) the idea of the Post Season as the Fall Classic. It's been referred to as the Fall Classic for a while but in terms of logo art, the idea of “Fall” has really been pushed on us.

Let's first take a step back, yearly logos for the World Series as far as I can tell, started in 1974. They changed (in terms of shape) yearly until '78 where the '78 and '79 logo's were nearly identical (note all images are from Sportslogo.net):

After 1979, the World Series had essentially the same logo from 1980 until 1986. The big initial change for this logo switch was for the first time since 1977, MLB put the year of Series in the logo, which was necessary to tell the logos apart from each other. And then they had the same logo from 1987 until 1991. If you notice, up until this point, the message in the art is baseball, and Americana (ie. Red, White and Blue):

Starting in 1992 thought, the concept of “World” really came into play in the art again. The MLB kept the idea of keeping the same logo set from 1992-93, changed the color for '94 (although there was no series in 94), then they changed the color of the logo in '95, and then changed the color again for the logo for '96 and '97:

Honestly from above, they all look incredibly similar, with the exception of the 1995 logo. The main common theme that started in 1992 and really will be pictured all the way through to 2007 is this idea of the globe, especially the globe designed in this grid form. After '97 season, the logo took slight change for the '98 and '99 season:

This was the first time the logo got more dynamic looking. The key characteristic of this logo was that it formed the bridge to the 2000-03 logos, which all looked very different, except for a few common themes that linked them together. The 2000 logo also really started this notion for a while (in fact until this day) that year to year the logos need to be different. Here is the first set:

So two themes here. The first is the one that started in 1992 of the globe that is portrayed like a grid. This look continues for a few more years. The one theme that starts in 2000 and ends in 2003 is this sweeping or flying baseball across the back and in front of the logo. Besides those themes (and of course the MLB logo and year) these logos on the whole are different and unique. The next set of similar logos started in 2004 and ended in 2006:

Once again, the grid sphere. However where the sphere has generally maintained a common shape over the years, it was stretched, then became an actual sphere, and then streteched again. Two things I wanted to point out before moving on are the pennants in the '04 logo and the stiches on the '05 logo. Now here is my opinion, the 2006 logo is really the last logo for this concept of “World” in world city. Using the ability to see beyond the year 2007, looking at all of the logos toghether, the 2007 logo becomes the bridge to new fall theme because it downplays the global-grid theme:

Notice that the two other symbols pointed out in the 2004 and 2005 logos are in the 2007 logo above. It still has a circular look to it, but at this point is it a world or is it a baseball? Of course they want you to think its both (again a shout out to 2005) but its really the end of this “globe” idea. Starting in 2008, the fonts, colors (which I'll argue starts here), and symbols start to change to push this idea of “Fall” and “Classic”:

It is obvious from the above, that 2008 is the official start of a new set of logo design. First the words “Fall Classic” have been added to each logo. Also the colors, continuing from 2007 (thus my arguement for it being a bridge) are muted, they feel older and more classy. The fonts have now changed as well. They have left this space like, futuristic feel to return to a “classic” font. Also, outside of the word “World” there is no feeling of “World” which hadn't happened since 1991. Finally, the most crucial symbol addition is the leaf at the bottom of the symbol.

If I was more cynical, I would say this is a push to make the World Baseball Classic or appealing, because of the play of Classic but I think it has more to do with the Super Bowl and other major sports. Baseball's arguement for America's game is that has been here for so long so this push for classic, especially the Fall Classic is a push to keep reminding people that there is so much history in this game.

After a less than stellar road trip, the Mets open up a tough homestand tonight as they will start a series with the Reds before taking on the Braves. Amazingly on the road trip where the Mets went 3-4, they are still only 2.0 games back from first in the division and still hold the Wild Card spot by half a game. The Amazin's will face a team that started a bit of spiral earlier in the season on a road trip as the Reds took 2 of 3 from Amazins, with all three games being decided by one run. Before breaking down the pitchers for this matchup, I just wanted to talk about perceptions. The casual fan might see this series and say “Oh the Reds? That should be easy”. Well if it was last year that perception would be true but these Reds are a first base club and are playing good and dangerous baseball.

Big Pelf will be looking for a bounce back performance from hot and humid San Juan where he allowed 4 ER in 4.2 innings of work in a no decision game that the Mets eventually won 6-5. Mike has now pitched 104.1 innings on the season with a 10-2 record and a 2.98 ERA. He didn't face the Reds the first time around this season but last year he was 2-0 in two games against the machine while posting an ERA of 5.25 (7 ER over 12 IP). The Reds have these numbers on Pelfrey:

The Mets bats are coming off of a 14 hit, 9 run day in Washington and will try to bring that jump back to Citi. Harang on the season is 6-7 with a 5.02 ERA. In his last four games he has a 1-2 record over 23.2 innings while posting a 4.56 ERA. He missed the Mets the first time around this season and last year posted an 0-2 record in as many games against the Amazins while having an ERA of 6.75 (6 ER over 8 IP). The Mets have these numbers on Aaron:

Lets Go Mets!