The Amazin' Mets

[JCMAN320]

Mets contemplating uni changes for '10
Home gear could be cream, with no pinstripes

By Tom Singer / MLB.com

09/29/09 9:51 AM ET

As part of changes being contemplated for their 2010 home uniforms, the Mets may leave the pinstripes to the neighbors better known for them.

And with a strong comeback from their disappointing 2009, the Citi Field denizens could legitimately be called the cream de la creme.

Though Jay Horwitz, Mets vice president of media relations, wouldn't detail how the club would alter its home uniforms, the New York Post reported on Tuesday that the alterations could include a departure from the pinstripes that have been a part of the home whites since the team's 1962 inception.

And they may no longer be home whites. The Mets may switch to cream-colored uniforms similar to what the San Francisco Giants wear in AT&T Park.

[JCMAN320]

Mets shortstop Jose Reyes tears hamstring while running

By Brian Costa/The Star-Ledger
September 30, 2009, 8:19PM

WASHINGTON -- Mets shortstop Jose Reyes tore his right hamstring Tuesday while running to test his torn hamstring tendon, a new injury that will likely require surgery. The tear was revealed Wednesday afternoon when Reyes underwent an MRI at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

It was the second time this season Reyes suffered a new injury while rehabbing from an earlier one. He first went on the disabled list on May 26 with tendinitis in his right calf, then tore the hamstring tendon during an extended spring training game in early June.

Reyes has appeared unlikely to play again this season since he was shut down in early August. And the Mets said later that month that he could need surgery to repair the torn tendon.

But even with the Mets well out of contention, Reyes continued to rehab with the hope of returning, even if only for the last weekend of the season.

That hope went from miniscule to nonexistent Tuesday when Reyes hurt himself while running at a Long Island training facility.

There was no immediate announcement from the Mets on surgery for Reyes, but that seemed to be all but a formality.

One hundred thirty-three days after he last appeared in a game, Jose Reyes is finally, officially, definitely, unquestionably ... done for the season.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Just sew this on a white shirt

[TREPYE]

The dung pile to top off this miserable Mets season; Phils vs. Yanks. Game 6 Angels vs Yanks was officially my last game of the season. It cannot get any worse...can it?


October 27, 2009

Mets Fans Have Choice of Two Evils in World Series

By A. G. SULZBERGER
In recent years Mets fans could measure baseball seasons by degrees of suffering. Since a called third strike dashed championship hopes in 2006, the team has been defined by fall flameouts, until this year, when there was an early summer flameout.
But the misery of this uninspired season has been unexpectedly heightened by the indignity of watching their most despised division rival face off against their despised crosstown rival in the World Series.
Chuck Rose, the owner of the Pine Restaurant and Sports Bar near Citi Field, said he was so disheartened that he could not even choose between the Phillies and the Yankees. “I hope it rains for 40 days and 40 nights,” he said, adding that he might dedicate one television in the bar to a replaying of the 1986 World Series, when the Mets last won the championship.
Mets fans have approached the looming showdown, which one blogger nicknamed Satan’s Series, in a variety of ways. Some have sworn off baseball until spring training, while others have tried to sort out which team they dislike less.
“This, my friends, is Baseball Armageddon,” wrote John Coppinger on his blog, the Musings and Prophecies of Metstradamus, who falls in the boycott category. “There is no happy ending. Satan has been unleashed.” And, he continued, “The next two weeks are going to be the worst two weeks on earth.”
The Mets Clubhouse store, where everything from shot glasses to winter jackets carry the team logo, had an air of desolation Monday afternoon as a trickle of frustrated fans wandered in. (Just blocks away, the Yankees Clubhouse was doing brisk business and was decidedly more upbeat.)
“I had to come somewhere and commiserate,” said Dave Rakowski, 48, a lawyer in town on business from Allentown, Pa., which he said had an even mix of Yankees and Phillies fans. “I just needed to be around this stuff,” he said against a backdrop of blue and orange.
While Mr. Rakowski swore that he would not watch any of the series, other customers tried to explain their calculus for new allegiances. The Yankees, some suggested, at least represent New York (even if they did buy their way into the World Series). The Phillies, others offered, play baseball the right way as part of the National League (even if they have repeatedly assaulted the Mets with phrases like “choke artists”).
“I’m going for the Yankees because I can’t stand Philly,” said Anthony Ciarcia, 25, a Mets fan from Pine Bush, N.Y. “It’s not an ideal situation, but that’s what it comes down to.”
Said Ravi Ramcharan, 35, from Valley Stream, N.Y.: “I hate the Phillies, but for this series I am rooting against the Yankees hard. I really don’t like the Yankees.”
Jason Tejada crossed his index fingers, as if trying to ward off a vampire, when either team was mentioned by name. As a lifelong Mets fan, he has been miserable throughout the playoffs, which he could not escape because the games were always on at the Knollwood Country Club in Westchester County, where he is a bartender. As the Yankees inched toward victory on Sunday night, he left the bar for 20 minutes to avoid witnessing the celebration. “My stomach couldn’t take it,” he said.
At a Modell’s Sporting Goods store in Midtown Manhattan, Eli Vargas was at his station within hours of the Yankees’ victory on Sunday, dishing out celebratory caps, shirts and other pinstriped paraphernalia to ravenous crowds. But amid the bustle, looking both ways and hushing his voice before proceeding, he confessed to being a Mets fan. “But it hurts because I imagine what if this is all Mets stuff, how happy I’d be.”
As he described growing up in Flushing, Queens, close enough to see Shea Stadium, he said: “I’m having a real tough time right now. They tell me the longer I wait, the sweeter it’s going to be. But I was 3 years old in 1986, so I don’t really remember. I want to know what it feels like to win.”



Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

The dung pile to top off this miserable Mets season; Phils vs. Yanks. Game 6 Angels vs Yanks was officially my last game of the season. It cannot get any worse...can it?

Now you know how I felt in '86.

[OmegaNYC]

^^^

Lol. Well, the way I see it is this: I'm rooting for the Phills to loose, not for the Yankees to win.

[TREPYE]

Now you know how I felt in '86.

Made worse to you by the fact that it was a classic.

....so thats how it could get worse. I hope its a forgetful 4 game sweep either way.

[NYatKNIGHT]

In '86 I held my nose and rooted for the Mets, because:

1) Friends who are Mets fans were, lets face it, a lot more fun to be around, at least for those few weeks.

2) The Mets have "NY" on their hats.

3) Rooting against the Red Sox is so deeply ingrained that if it was the Red Sox vs. the Aliens-Taking-Over-The-Planet, I would not think twice about rooting for the Aliens.

[nycla3]

From this die-hard National League Met fan whose first game was at the Polo Grounds, the Phillies are the team the Mets wish they were...good manager, solid guys, hard to find anything to truly hate about them on the field and by all accounts, good guys off as well.

I will always, ALWAYS root against George Steinbrenner.

[JCMAN320]

Yankeehater!!!

[OmegaNYC]

^^^

I think that word describes anyone outside the Metro area.

[TREPYE]

This offseason the Metsies should prescribe to their first managers advide on how to become a better team...

"This here team won't go anywhere unless we spread enough of our players around the league and make the other teams (terrible), too." -referring to the 1964 Mets 53-109 record

(Casey Stengel)

Thereby the first step to take using this sage advise...

TRADE THAT LOLLIGAG SCURB LUIS CASTILLO!!!

Or somehow sending him to the Phillies.....this would be one of the greatest warfare tactics since the Trojan Horse.

[ZippyTheChimp]

HA HA. Don't remember that one. Like, "Can't anybody play this here game?"

Bengie Molina to Mets?

[nycla3]

Don't get me started on the Ol' Perfesser...

"Come see my "Amazin' Mets, I've been in this game a hundred years, but I see new ways to lose I never knew existed before."

"See that fellow over there? He's 20 years old. In 10 years he has a chance to be a star. Now, that fellow over there, he's 20, too. In 10 years he has a chance to be 30."

On three catchers in camp: "I got one that can throw but can't catch, one that can catch but can't throw, and one who can hit but can't do either."

Warren Spahn: "I'm probably the only guy who worked for Stengel before and after he was a genius."

Why'd you draft Hobie Landrith, a catcher first in the expansion draft, Case? "You gotta have a catcher or you're gonna have a lot of passed balls"

[hbcat]

In '86 I held my nose and rooted for the Mets, because:

1) Friends who are Mets fans were, lets face it, a lot more fun to be around, at least for those few weeks.

2) The Mets have "NY" on their hats.

3) Rooting against the Red Sox is so deeply ingrained that if it was the Red Sox vs. the Aliens-Taking-Over-The-Planet, I would not think twice about rooting for the Aliens.

Knight --

Exactly! Now I know why found myself cheering on the Mets in '86. I never knew why before.

NY trumps Boston and NY trumps Philly. Aliens trump Red Sox. Alliance with Stalin over Hitler and fascist Japan. Life demands such choices.
It's comforting to know who one's real enemies (and "friends") are.

hb