Night in the city.

I spent this past weekend down in New York City visiting Asher. This was part of what has turned into a summer-long series of trips to keep me out of Rochester. Next weekend I head down to Ithaca to help the parents put in more cabinets, but I have the following weekend free.

One thing I always make a point of doing when in New York is taking at least one trip to the Blind Tiger. It's a nice low-key bar in Manhattan, with a good menu of food and really good beer selection. This trip I was able to grab some Samichlaus on tap. This is one of my favorite strong beers, and is phenomenal on tap. It has a nice thick, sweet flavor, with a nicely balanced alcohol warmth. It also happens to be 14% ABV.

The primary reason I was in NYC this time is that Shea stadium is (deservedly) being knocked down after the season, and I needed to see it in person once more before the end. The Mets began a three-game series with the St Louis Cardinals on Friday night. This wasn't a game I was able to see much of, but Asher and I caught the end of it when we got back from eating dinner. Mike Pelfrey (9-6, 3.67) pitched 7 great innings, giving up 1 earned run on 7 hits. The Mets battered the Cardinals' starter, Mitchell Boggs (3-2, 7.41), tagging him for 6 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.
Final Score: 7-2, Mets

On Saturday the Mets continued the series, and this was the game that we went to. Asher and I met up with Craig and Hannah and saw what wound up being a marathon baseball game. Since Pedro Martinez's father died last week, he was with his family, so they called up a pitcher from AAA New Orleans. This pitcher's name is Brandon Knight, and he has been dominant in the minor leagues this year. The minor leagues are not the majors, though. He allowed the first five hitters to reach base, four of them scoring during the inning. Through the game the Mets managed to take a 5-4 lead in the fourth inning, then lost it in the sixth. Because Knight was piling up the pitch count while not being terribly effective, they brought in Carlos Muniz in relief. That wound up allowing four more runs to score. In the end, the game went on for 14 innings, and wound up ending with an Albert Pujols 2-run homer.
Final Score: 10-8, Cardinals (14 innings)

Alright, I would finish this blog about the three games, but I'm distracted watching youtube videos of George Carlin. I'll finish this shit later.

Weekend Series

I am now off to NYC to visit some friends and watch the Mets in the second game of their series against the Cardinals. Finally, I get to be at Shea when the Mets are actually contending. It should be a good time.

A small glimmer of hope begins to stir.

Tuesday night the Mets began what was looked at as a big series with the Phillies at Shea. Both teams were tied for first place in the NL East with 53-46 records. The three games had the following pitching matchups:

• Santana(8-7, 3.05) vs. Blanton(5-12, 5.08)
• Maine(9-7, 4.20) vs. Meyers(3-9, 5.82)
• Perez(6-6, 4.15) vs. Moyer(9-6, 3.76)

These matchups certainly seemed to favor the Mets, though I'm smarter than that and expected little.

The first game featured Philadelphia's newly acquired starting pitcher, Joe Blanton, against our ace, Johan Santana. A big game with first place on the line is exactly the kind of game Johan was brought over from Minnesota to pitch. He pitched pretty well, actually, going 8 innings while giving up 2 runs on 8 hits. Blanton, on the other hand, hasn't really been having the best season. He was floundering with Oakland, and didn't fare much better in this game. The Mets managed 5 runs off of him. It would have been more runs except that there were some very nice defensive plays on the part of the Phillies. They threw two runners out at the plate during the game, and Chase Utley made a great diving catch in the right side gap with the bases loaded and 2 outs.

Taking a 5-2 lead into the ninth, Manuel pulled Santana for bullpen help, which proved their undoing. Since Wagner was out for the night with shoulder spasms, they turned to Duaner Sanchez, who is continuing to make good progress coming back from injuries received in a taxi accident two years ago. Unfortunately, he hadn't progressed enough, because the Phillies loaded the bases with no one out, and it was all downhill from there.
Final Score: 8-6, Phillies

The second game featured another Philadelphia pitcher having a poor season. Brett Meyers was actually demoted last month to the minor leagues because of his control problems. They brought him up this week in hopes that he could bolster a very mediocre starting rotation. He pitched against John Maine who has been having a lot of trouble himself of late. Maine hadn't pitched past the fifth inning in any of his previous three starts. He said he came into the game looking to attack the strike zone more and not walk as many hitters (5 walks in each of his last 2 starts, ouch).

I was not able to watch this game as I was helping a friend move into her new house, but it wound up being a pretty good game. Maine looks like he may be moving past his control issues, pitching 7 good innings, while Jose Reyes broke a tie in the sixth inning with a go-ahead 3-run homer. This was the second night in a row the Mets had a 3-run lead on the Phillies going into the ninth inning, but they had Billy Wagner this time. He pitched a quick ninth inning for the save.
Final Score: 6-3, Mets

The final game in the series was today in the early afternoon, meaning I once again missed it. This would have been an interesting game to see. Oliver Perez and Jamie Moyer are both having exceptional seasons against each other's team. Perez has a 0.35 ERA in 26 innings against the Phillies this season, including today's game. Today he pitched 7 2/3 innings, giving up 1 earned run while striking out 12. Moyer also pitched really well, going 7 innings giving up 1 earned run on 2 hits.

It was the eighth inning in this game the made all the difference. In the top of the inning, Oliver Perez wound up with the bases loaded and 2 outs. Aaron Heilman came in to relieve Perez, and got Jayson Werth to fly out to deep center. In any other ballpark, that would have been serious trouble, but Shea can hold most of the long fly balls that it sees. The bottom of the inning was beautiful. Carlos Delgado, who slumped horribly for the first 3 months of the season, has been on a torrid rampage of National League pitching this month. With two outs and Robinson Cancel on base, J.C. Romero, who left-handed hitters are anemic against this year, walked David Wright to get to Delgado. This also happened two nights previous, and that resulted in a monster 2-run homer by Carlos. On this occasion, Delgado laced an opposite field double into the left field corner to put the Mets up by 2 runs.
Final Score: 3-1, Mets

So, now the Mets have sole possession of first place in the NL East. I've been calling all season for them to not even be in contention at the end of the season, as just watching the team play left me with no real hope. They looked like a team with no fire or passion whatsoever. Since they fired Willie Randolph as manager, the team is now 21-12 under Jerry Manuel. I don't know how much that had to do with it, but the team looks fired up right now. They still have major flaws on the team, especially at the corner outfield slots and second base, but they're looking to give me a little bit of hope for the rest of the summer.

Of course, I've always known my beloved Mets to find ever more horrifying ways of destroying my hope and spirit, so we'll see where this all goes.

Personal responsibility at its best.

I have long railed against the lack of personal responsibility in America. If you know me, you know that I generally think people are too stupid to think on their own. When people think for themselves, they typically do stupid shit then refuse to take responsibility for their actions. The following story pretty much sums it up where a woman left her 4-year-old son in her car while she spent three hours in a nail salon getting her nails done for her wedding that day. This was in Florida, mind you, and the child died on the way to the hospital.

"Investigators say the woman may not have known her son was in the car.
They explain he may have climbed in to the vehicle without anyone noticing."

Obviously her nails were so important that she couldn't pay any attention to her kid who's four years old! Whenever I am with a friend that has children, they always know exactly where those kids are. If the kids have run off and we don't know where they've gone, then the search is on! It's all a basic sense of responsibility that any adult should have. Of course, that is one of the major issues with American culture today: no one seems to understand the need for personal responsibility anymore.

People should seriously need a license to procreate.

What goes up....

The 10-game winning streak the Mets have been on has finally come to an end. It's obvious, if you watch the team, that there was no good reason for them to win that many in a row in the first place. Their tenth win in that streak was indicative of why the team struggles so often. Johan Santana went 5 innings and got hit hard, while the bullpen coughed up the lead as soon as they had one. The Mets lack any real innings-eaters, with the possible exception of Santana. This lack of depth from the starters leads to a severe strain on the bullpen and that will lead to them breaking down before the season ends. The game following that win was 5-2 loss that showcased the flaws in their number 3 starter: John Maine. Maine has good low-90's velocity with good movement on his fastball and a good curve, when he's throwing it for strikes. His issue, and one that seems to creep up on him during each season, is that he gets wild with his pitches when he starts letting his left shoulder swing out too far. Maine needs to throw from over his right shoulder, not from his side. When he's on top of the ball, it has better movement and will sink instead of staying level. When he pitches more from his side, the ball levels off or starts rising, allowing it to either enter the hitter's wheel-house or miss the strike-zone completely. Anyway, that was what happened to him yesterday, he couldn't find the strike-zone.

Unless this team can keep the offense going consistently and somehow find some depth from its starting rotation, they will find themselves out of contention by September.

Home Run Derby

Yesterday was the home run derby at baseball's All-Star Game. The biggest story to be associated with it before the event was the fact that Alex Rodriguez opted not to participate. This fact, of course, caused ESPN's crack team of hack journalists to immediately jump on him for not attending. For not attending an event that is glorified batting practice, A-Rod's ego is called into question: " But it's not important enough, apparently, for Alex Rodriguez to risk not living up to his own ego. How sad is that?" (Thank you, Jayson Stark, for helping to continue the demise of real journalism). However, what's not said is that A-Rod would also be called out for egotism if participated and won the event. Then there's the possibility that he would participate and lose the event to some other player. That would lead to comments defaming his 'clutchness' and declarations would be made about him not being a 'real Yankee' (whatever that means).

Personally, I stopped caring about the All-Star festivities many years ago when it became apparent that the players didn't really take it seriously anymore. Watching Barry Bonds get taken out of the game a few years back for a replacement in the field (players typically don't see more than two or three innings these days), then walk out of the dugout through the clubhouse and just leave the stadium, well... that was very representative of how little most of the players cared. Watching Pedro Martinez decline to show up to the game because he didn't feel like it, that kind of killed it for me.

"This time, it counts", of course. Now that Bud Selig has decided to continue to destroy his legacy (which wasn't really bad before this and steroids happened) by making the game count for home-field advantage in the World Series. I had already ceased caring about the game before this decision, but the decision itself forced me into a boycott of the whole damn thing. I will not watch an All-Star Game again until that rule is removed. The home-field advantage in the World Series should go to the team that won more games during the regular season.

Bah, I can't wait until real baseball starts up again when the Mets play the Reds on Thursday for the start of a four game series. Here's hoping the Mets can continue to play the way they did to get on that 9-game win streak before the break.

First Post

So, this is the first post. Yay. I guess the first thing I'll do is describe what sort of crap will be going into this blog. Those that know me know that I love the following things:

• Baseball
• The New York Mets
• Brewing beer
• Drinking beer
• Playing video games
• Watching anime

This blog will primarily be filled with my rantings on these topics, with some other topics making appearances from time to time.

So, yeah, that's it for now. I'm in the middle of doing laundry.