howie?

Art Howe didn't blame Baldwin for all the homers, he said that the BOB is very similar to Coors Field with respect to balls traveling far. Ryan, please use "park factor" or some such stat to prove that this is an absurd comment so that I can hate Howe even more.

We should've hired Steve Howe.

non-baseball: apparently Furdz is going to India? I think it's a lie. him and ravi are going to a burmese stickball camp where they will learn to pitch 100 mph.

here's my 2-cents on a new schedule, (from a mets-centric point of view)
12 games v. 4 other nl east teams=48 games
9 games v. 11 other nl teams=99 games
that equals 147 games, for the 15 remaining to get to 162, it's either 6 v. the yanks and 9 v. 3 teams from a division (the mets and yanks would both demand that the 6 games be left intact in any rescheduling) or 3 v. the yanks and 12 games v. 4 random al teams (could do it based on last year's record like the nfl).

of course, i'd rather see 2 divisions in each league rather than three so there's less of a chance for a bogus division winner, i would then have 2 wild card spots to hand out to the 2 next-best teams based on record. i don't think fans in tampa bay, pittsburgh, montreal, or kc feel any better that their teams are in 5th place rather than in 7th or 8th in a 2-division format. no one gets fooled, and for the teams in the middle of the pack, they'd be watching the wild-card standings after the all-star break rather than their division standings anyway.

Bruce Chen, at 26, is on his NINTH team. Braves, Phils twice, Mets twice, Spos, Reds, Stros, Jays, Red Sox and now Orioles. He's definitely goingto pass Zeile.

from some site: "The Rangers have announced a 30-year agreement establishing Ameriquest
Field in Arlington as the new name for The Ballpark in Arlington. Too bad
the Rangers' highest-paid player didn't get into the bidding. Chan Ho
Park sounds better than Ameriquest Field."

gee, do you think barry was a bit salty there? i bet if the bases were really poo more heads would play stickball.

bryan, without turning the blog into a debate on which sport is more steeped in tradition, soccer or baseball, i'll point out that while both leagues date back to about the same time, almost every team in england dates back to the early 20th century, as opposed to a handful in m.l.b., plus each team began, and continue to remain, deeply tied to each community through their existence as not just teams, but community organizations which are partly owned by the fans themselves. almost all stadiums date back to the 1920's, when stadiums were cathedrals, almost all fans in attendance are clad in team colors and scarves and sing team chants in unison that date back decades as opposed to sitting around and clapping when the screen says so.

Barry Bonds summed up the Spider Man controversy pretty well:
"What the [bleep] are you asking me for? I don't care. Our job is to play ball, not to worry about what add is on the billboard. I don't care. They can have [bleepin'] dog-poo as bases so I have to step in [bleep] as far as I'm concerned. What the hell."

Another reason the front office has no idea of what they're doing... Stubborn morons.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=klapisch_bob&id=1796337

What's the difference if they fire him now or at the end of the season? Do it. Do it!

Yeah, the ads were inevitable. Hard-line purists can complain all they want, but they can't scream about there being only four black starting pitchers (obviously due to a lack of effective marketing w/r/t the NBA and NFL) and criticize marketing efforts. Or they shouldn't, but I'm sure they will anyway.

I'm not sure British sport(s) is more steeped in tradition than baseball is.

Bob Nightengale of Baseball Weekly:

"According to sources close to owner Fred Wilpon, the Mets are expected to fire manager Art Howe at the end of the season, eating the final two years of his contract."

Hooray!

The owners can do whatever they want, it's their business. They have to weigh how much revenue advertising on uniforms and the field can bring in against possible lost revenue over the years by turning off fans. Honestly, I have no idea how many fans will watch less because of it, and it would be very hard to speculate. My instinct is that its a lot of nostalgic media types (i.e., Bob Costas) who will complain, but few actual fans will stop going to ballgames. NASCAR is wildly popular despite all the ads. Ravi's soccer jersey that says "Sega" is pretty dope; I don't even know what team it's for. I think there will be some old-timers who may turn away from the game, but a lot of young people are used to seeing advertising everywhere.
I think the key is for MLB to take it slow. If they cover the uniforms in ads, and people are outraged, then it'll be hard to undo the damage. But if they take it slow (like this Spiderman thing), people will gradually get used to the ads, and if there is a lot of backlash, MLB can reconsider when it has a better idea of the costs and benefits.

remember when spider-man married mary-jane at shea stadium before a game in 1987? yeah.

as long as people continue to support professional athletics whether it be at the stadiums, watching on tv and buying the merchandise, in greater numbers, the salaries of all involved will increase. so owners are perfectly allowed to seek out any soucre of revenue they want. soccer in europe is more tradition-bound and steeped in history than american sports teams, in fact england had its first ever franchise relocation last year, yet they began to have advertising on uniforms over 15 years ago.

WASHINGTON -- Presidential candidate Ralph Nader called the advertisements on uniforms during major league baseball's season-opening series an "obscene embarrassment" and sent a letter of protest Tuesday.

"This overcommercialization is sapping the fun out of being a fan of major league baseball," Nader wrote in his letter to commissioner Bud Selig. "Now, you have sunk to a greedy new low."

The ads appeared on the uniform sleeves and caps of the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays during their two-game series in Tokyo on March 30-31.

While the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs wore similar ads when they played in Tokyo in 2000, and baseball said in advance that the Yankees and Devil Rays would wear patches, Nader said the ads this year "ambushed fans across the country and left them shaking their heads at this obscene embarrassment."

Tim Brosnan, baseball's executive vice president for business, has said he is open to considering additional uniform advertising in the future, but Selig and chief operating officer Bob DuPuy have said it is not under consideration.

"We urge that you immediately put this issue to rest once and for all and eliminate any current or future possibility that major league baseball will accept advertisements on uniforms," Nader wrote.

Mets designated RHP Grant Roberts for assignment.

--that is dumb.

No Pete Harnisch, but they do have a pitcher named Damon Ponce DeLeon.

from New York magazine, how to rebuild the mets to contend in 2006:

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/sports/features/n_10297/index.html

we've been given a second chance. let's go see rickey in newark! i think they have pete harnisch too. is he finally over his depression/chewing tobacco addiction? should we wear dallas green masks and watch him freak out and run away sobbing?

rumours of the yankees' demise were greatly exxxagerated.

Rickey Henderson has signed a deal to play with the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League.

Still.