Ridiculous

Now I love baseball. Anyone who knows me knows I eat, sleep and
breathe baseball. For those of you who don't, I grew up in a family
where my dad wanted a boy and had three girls. We all like baseball
but none as passionately as me. For the first 17 years of my life I
was a Mets fan. My sister was a Mets fan, it's what I knew. I loved
Neil Allen, Keith Hernandez, Lee Mazzilli, David Cone, Kevin
McReynolds, Dykstra, McDowell, Backman, HoJo, Darling, Mackey Sasser...

At the end of May, 1989, I broke my ankle and spent the nearly the
entire summer on crutches. There was nothing else to do but watch the
Mets (had more day games back then) and read sports books. I became
devoted to reading Mike Lupica every Sunday in the Daily News. The
Mets weren't just ball players, they were my friends. I knew
everything about them, their wives, kids and dogs' names, their
favorite food.... I began studying the history of the game, the magic
of the numbers involved. I knew useless stats and definitions.

When I was 17, after the trade deadline, the Mets put David Cone - MY
ALL TIME FAVORITE ball player on waivers and he cleared, enabling them
to trade him to Toronto. I was heart broken. I had already endured
them trading Dykstra & McDowell for freakin' Juan Samuel, but
this?????? How could they do this to their fans?

I swore then and there I would never be a Met fan again....

If you've cut off the Mets, what else is there??? The Yankees. Growing
up, I had attended the Albany Colonie Yankees games so players like
Bernie Williams and later Derek Jeter had a soft spot in my heart.
Plus the Yanks had signed Paul O'Neil, I knew of him from watching the
National League. In 1995, they traded for David Cone and my love of
the Yankees was official. I discuss my favorite Yankees memories in
another blog, this one is concentrating on the Mets. I will say that
Aaron Boone and ARod are officially the reason I hate the Yankees, but
Randy Johnson & Joba Chamberlain are close behind!

By the late 90's the Mets were interesting again. All of the players I
had ever watched were gone, but they had some fun guys come over like
John Franco, Robin Ventura and Todd Zeile. I had liked Robin Ventura
since 1992 when I saw him play at the Hall of Fame Game (yet another
future blog) and was locked in the theatre with the entire White Sox
team, including Frank Thomas (who I HATE) and Steve Sax. The Mets were
fun again. The 2000 World Series was traumatic in many respects seeing
as Cone was relegated to the bull pen after a horrible season. It was
like he had left everything he had on the field @ Yankee Stadium on
July 18, 1999.

On April 4, 2003, I was sitting in Shea Stadium in a freezing drizzle
watching Cone get his final career win (#194 - I think). He was in a
Mets uniform, right where it had all started.

But the Mets did me a HUGE favor by trading Robin Ventura to the
Yankees for Dave Justice whom I could not stand. Every homerun Robin
hit in 2002, I called my sister and thanked her for. He even made it
to the All-Star game that year.

But the Yankees pulled the same stunt the Mets did, and traded Ventura
to the Dodgers for Bubba Crosby and Scott Proctor because they acquired
Aaron Boone who later hit the improbably homerun to crush the Red Sox
that October. And would tear his ACL in the off season playing pickup
basketball, prompting them to sign A-Rod.

Red Sox Nation, here I come. Now, it's not like I just jumped ship.
My cousin lives in Boston and has season tickets. Since the summer of
2000, I have been going to Fenway to see games. It was a gradual
evolution, mostly because of Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe. But Cone
ended up a Red Sox as well for the 2001 season.

When the Mets brought up David Wright from AAA, they referred to his
all that morning as a YOUNG ROBIN VENTURA. That sealed the deal, I'm a
David Wright fan. 2006 & 5/6th of 2007 were great times to watch the
Mets. Unlike the Yankees which were a collection of primadonnas, they
were fun, scrappy kids. I even grew to LOVE Tom Glavine who had been
the enemy on the Braves.

Now growing up, I never knew who the GMs were. You knew the plays, the
coaches and the manager. The GM and other executives were little
snapshots in the yearbook but meant nothing. Do people realize that
the 1996 World Champion Yankees were a team assembled by then GM Gene
"Stick" Michael and former manager Buck Showalter?

This brings me to my issue with the Mets firing Willie Randolph. He
has the same even keel temperment that Joe Torre had. It worked for
Joe for many years and up till September of last year, it was working
for Willie. It is still my opinion that bringing Rickey Henderson
anywhere near Jose Reyes is what ruined a great player. David Wright
cannot right this ship on his own and the stress of trying has affected
him this year. Billy Wagner is a great closer, better than Benitez or
Braden Looper, but he has days where he's completely mental. Pedro has
been fragile since his Sox days, maybe even before... M. Alou, whom I
adore, is old. El Duque's age has been an enigma for YEARS. Now,
Willie didn't assemble this team. Omar did and while I like Omar, he
needs to shoulder some of the responsibility. Wagner blew three saves
in a row. Willie used him in those situations b/c that's his JOB. But
the patheticness of the Mets right now is not solely Willie's fault.

And the way the management handled it, dismissing him @ 3am our
time???? How childish is that? Willie has always been a class act.
He deserved much better than he got.

I firmly believe the reason the Yanks haven't won a World Championship
since 2000 is because of the team Brian Cashman (or PipSqueek to my
mom). He goes after the players and more often than they'd like to be
reminded, the manuvers don't work out.

If you look at the teams who have been winning since 2000, Arizona, the
Angels, the Cardinals, the Red Sox (twice)... they played "small ball"
and did not live and die by the 3 run HR. They played as a team and
each player contributed. The Mets could have had that if not for last
September but the Yanks will never win it again until they recognize
that flaw and fix it. And by fix it, I do not mean hand the ball to
Joba the Hutt.

Okay, here's the link to an article defending Willie:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/25199779/site/21683474/

"And games that never amount
To more than they're meant
Will play themselves out..."
--- "Falling Slowly"