http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7597-2004Jun26.html

interesting article about how selig got miller park built and also about the expos. if the link doesn't work then it's in sunday's wash. post.

just goes to show that mets management has more or less no idea what they're doing when it comes to talent.

Matsui needs to be locked in a dark video room, strapped to a chair with his eyelids taped open clockwork orange-style, and forced to watch:

a) physics lessons, to be able to tell when someone has no chance of catching a fly ball
b) tape of zeile and timo's antics in the 2000 world series, to learn how NOT to run the bases
c) all 88 games in which elster did not make an error

I hate matsui.

well they're really only paying 1 mil since hidalgo is making 8, weathers was making 3, and houston kicked in 4. and his buyout is only 2 mil, so i don't think it's that bad a deal.

Just looked through my ticket stubs and noticed something amazing - since I've lived here, I've paid to go to nine Mets games at Shea (in 2002 I covered them and didn't have tickets), and they are 8-1, losing only to Randy Johnson last year in the back end of a doubleheader. Those games include the incredible post September 11th Piazza home run game, a Mo Vaughn 8th inning homer against the Yankees to win it on Sunday night baseball (at which Wayne Housie subsequently got a flat tire), and a walkoff shot by Piazza in extra innings against the Padres last year. This year alone, they are 3-0 and have outscored their opponents 19-6, with four of those runs coming off Braden Looper, who sucks. So bring me to games and pay for me. Thank you.

unless someone can convince me otherwise (ryan) i'm not down with the hidalgo trade, who hit .185 in june, .202 in april and no homers since april 13th. while no one appreciated seeing weathers fat face every day, still, he was there every day, our workhorse. plus we're paying half hidalgo's salary and plus the cost of not exercising his dumb option.
as saro says, karim garcia has now lost the right to pee where he pleases.

In case you hadn't noticed, Bonds is way ahead of his own OPS and OBP records, and in line for 3rd all time in SLG for a season.

1985 Draft:
1 B.J. Surhoff C Brewers U of North Carolina
2 Will Clark 1B Giants Mississippi State U
3 Bobby Witt RHP Rangers U of Oklahoma
4 Barry Larkin SS Reds U of Michigan
5 Kurt Brown C White Sox Glendora, CA
6 Barry Bonds OF Pirates Arizona State U

I guess things worked out pretty well for the Giants, anyway.

I think I like Don Baylor better than Walling as hitting coach. For whatever it's worth, the announcers sounded very excited about the work Baylor did with Matsui earlier in the day.

Here's an interesting stat from CameronSucksProspectus that shows how many times he's struck out with runners in scoring position:

85,000,000

My calculations show that they're correct.

I know it's in vogue to bash Mike Cameron, and I'm obviously disappointed in his performance, but here's an interesting stat from Baseball Prospectus showing how many extra base hits the Mariners and Mets OF are giving up (this may not format too well):

Mariners
opposing 2B+3B & as apx % of AB
2003 234 2.3%
2004 390* 6.8%*

Mets
opposing 2B+3B & as apx % of AB
2003 348 6.1%
2004 267* 4.4%*

* Projected over a full season

You gotta love this:

"At least for now, Mets officials are opposed to trading top prospects for a potential free agent like Beltran when they can sign him this offseason and lose only a draft pick. Then again, a former Mets employee says of owner Fred Wilpon, 'He's going to do something stupid. I can just feel it.'"

Next year, Ravi? Shit, I'll take it back right now.

I think Ryan has had 150-minute at-bats in stickball.

sorry ravi, but if it aint getting mathematics, something's gotta give. shouldn't mess with a former budget analyst. first of all, the yankees have never been terrible. hmm, no, guess not, no, hmm, the late 60's, the early 70's. the early 80's after the last gasp of the bronx zoo v. the dodgers, the late 80's/early 90's, perhaps the final bottoming out came when George was SUSPENDED from baseball for spying on one of his players. no, you're right the yankees have never been bad. although i guess it's fair that when they've been as amazingly good as they have been it's hard to ever remember bad times.

below please find year-by-year attendance totals for each team, yankees listed first, then mets. 62+63 the mets played in the polo grounds, in 74+75 the yanks played in shea stadium. until the start of the yankees run (which i pegged as 94-the strike year when the year finished with the yanks in first) the mets up until that point had outdrawn the yanks in total numbers (59,36,147 v. 56,058,972) and also outdrew them more seasons than not. the current yankees run changed things, but only a little, the totals since 1962 show the yankees at 83,979,303 v. the mets at 80,353,821. i'll also note that it is the most dominating run by a team in any sport in our lifetimes and probably since the 60's celtics, oh wait, the early 80's islanders, BRO, the yanks' recent run also coincides with an absolute explosion in the amount of tourists coming to new york city that began in the last term of the giuliani administration, it went from the high teens during the dinkins years, to 36 million a year last year, ever go to a yankees game and notice all the out-of-town visitors?

what it boils down to is my earlier assertion that there are probably close to an equal amount of mets and yankees fans.

62: 1.4 .9
63: 1.3 1.0
64: 1.3 1.7
65: 1.2 1.2
66: 1.1 1.9
67: 1.2 1.6
68: 1.1 1.8
69: 1.0 2.2
70: 1.1 2.7
71: 1.0 2.3
72: .9 2.1
73: 1.2 1.9
74: 1.7 1.7
75: 1.3 1.7
76: 2.0 1.5
77: 2.1 1.0
78: 2.3 1.0
79: 2.5 .7
80: 2.6 1.2
81: 1.6 .7
82: 2.0 1.3
83: 2.2 1.1
84: 1.8 1.8
85: 2.2 2.8
86: 2.2 2.8
87: 2.4 3.0
88: 2.6 3.0
89: 2.1 2.9
90: 1.8 2.3
91: 1.8 2.3
92: 1.7 1.7
93: 2.4 1.8
94: 1.6 1.1
95: 1.7 1.2
96: 2.2 1.5
97: 2.5 1.7
99: 3.2 2.7
00: 3.2 2.9
01: 3.2 2.6
02: 3.4 2.8
03: 3.4 2.1

Chump,
Apparently you name belies your knowledge of baseball attendance.

Going back to 1974, the Yankees have finished amongst the top three teams in AL attendance 18 times.

The Mets? 6 times, all from 1985-1990. The closest since then was in 2002 when they were 5th out of 16 NL teams.

Sure the Yankees only got 3 million fans and have stayed at that number over the last five years, but they have been more consistent in keeping the Stadium packed than have the Mets. And the only two years the Mets did it were 87-88. But you know why? Because the Yankees, unlike the Mets have never gone thru stretches of being terrible, so there is always a demand to watch an average (at worst) product. Sure the Mets when good will draw fans, but that has as much to do with NY being able to support 2 baseball teams than it does with Mets fans being trooer or whatever you think.
I've been to yankee stadium and to shea when both teams were terrible, and there were FAR fewer people at Shea than I remember at Yankee stadium.

The fact is this: The mets suck. Apart from a few aberrations in the past, they always have. And until they get better owners and operating personnel, they will continue to, and when people go to see them it’s only because their success is a novelty.

And Bryan, will you say the same thing about Pedro when he’s wearing pinstripes next year? I know the fans polled in SI article won’t.


I miss baseball.

But I now understand one-day test cricket completely.

I think the only difference between one-day and other test lengths are the number of overs, of which there are 50 (6 balls in one over, 300 total "pitches") per inning (nine outs (which is each batter one one team had a turn), or 50 overs, whichever comes first) in one-day matches.

It's pretty cool.
However the batter can be at bat until he gets out or chooses to stop which could go for something like 150 minutes! ONE BATTER!

Pedro rules.

Sports Illustrated covered New York this week (they are covering a state a week), in a poll of state residents, the yanks clocked in at 50% of the state as their favorite baseball team, the mets at 25%. pedro edged out steinbrenner as enemy of the state, and the mets finsished second to the yanks as favorite sports team overall.

at first glance, the matchup 50% to 25% might seem depressing. i think it's actually encouraging. this poll was taken a few months ago, before the season started. think about it, the yanks just got a-rod, they've been the best team in baseball for the past 7 years, the mets coming off their worst year in some time, which in turn came on the heels of a bad year before. the mets got swept by the yanks last year, all the embarrassment of mo vaughn, alomar, etc. and we still clocked in at 25% favorite baseball team and 2nd favorite team out of any sport overall. that's encouraging.

my own opinion is that before the yanks run got steamrolling in 1998, there were more mets fans than yankees fan. i base this on general perception and cold hard numbers. the mets consistently outdrew the yanks through 1999. the yanks never hit more than 3 million fans in a season until 2 or 3 years ago, the mets hit it several times throughout their history.

i would garner that this recent yankees era coupled with mets embarassment will hurt the mets in the long-run as all these kids are yankees fans now, but i think once the mets get a little better you will see them close to even in terms of fan suppport.

In retirement, and while sitting around the fire during a camping trip, Van Slyke said Kent Hrbek played a tape recording of his best farts.

I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE EMBARASSED TO BE A METS FAN than i was last nite. hiro, pete and myself went to the game, sat in field level (rather easy to sneak in if one person has a field level tick by using the ol pass-back). first of all, mama's of corona ran out of sandwiches in the fifth. but that wasn't the problem, in the 6th, runners on 1st and 2nd, ONE OUT, cameron up. me hiro and pete stand up and try and start a cheer. a few other heads do so as well. the rest of the crowd? nothing doing. nothing. people are sitting not even clapping. then, the ultimate indignity. this middle-aged putz mutters "down in front!" so we sat down, feeling embarrassed for trying to cheer. cameron grounds out, and pete turns around and goes "that's what you get"
then again, in the bottom of the 9th, the house should be on its feet when matsui comes to the plate with runners on 1st and 2nd. we're trying to get the crowd going, on its feet. nothing, everyone's sitting on their hands, half the crowd had left after that 6th inning. only AFTER matsui tied it up did the crowd finally stand up and make some real noise when floyd came to bat. i feel embarrassed for hiro, who came to shea as a guest, i feel embarrassed for mets fans themselves.
have the past 3 years ruined us? made us too jaded to cheer? or maybe it was because we were in field level? whatever it was, it was sad.

That might have been the worst call I've ever seen during yesterday's game. Easily could have blown the game for the Mets. I don't think anyone should be fined if they say that ump sucks. The ump should get fined though.

"The New York Daily News says David Weathers is suffering from triceps tendinitis."

This is nonsense. David Weathers clearly does not have triceps. He, Stanton and Karim could put the Sizzler all-you-can-eat bar our of business.

Arthur Rhodes is back on track after putting together three straight scoreless innings. Rhodes lowered his disappointing ERA to 4.20

-that's not disappointing. man.

As for Bonds swinging at intentional balls, isn't it illegal to step across the plate to swing? Although somehow, Dave Winfield once hit a home run on an intentional ball- it must not have been outside enough.