Die Hard Sports Fan

Ryan Church was supposed to be back in time for the Subway Series, as we pointed out the other day.  That didn’t work out as planned, but Church is expected back tomorrow according to Mets.com.  Ryan is to return after missing 27 of the team’s 35 most recent games because of the aftereffects of the concussion that he suffered on May 20 in Atlanta.  Jerry Manuel said, “Hopefully, he can continue having the year he was having.”

The Metropolitans can definitely use their best player right now.  He will get to play in one game against the Yankees, then it’s on to St. Louis and Philadelphia.  Both are teams the Mets are trying to catch up to in the Playoff hunt.

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Carlos Delgado deserves some props for his 9 RBI day yesterday at Yankee Stadium.  I’m always so quick to bash this dude, and deservedly so.  The 9 RBIs was a career-high for Carlos, and it set a Mets record as well because 8 RBIs was the previous record set by Dave Kingman in 1976.  That’s a long standing record that Delgado just broke.  A whole bunch of Mets’ players had 7 RBI games.

According to Mets.com, Delgado had this to say about his career day, “It seems like I haven’t caught a break this year. But I don’t complain. I figure that things are going to happen when you make them happen. You make adjustments, you go out there with the right approach, you swing at strikes and you kind of control your own fate. You want to come in, especially with guys in scoring position — you want to come up with a big hit. You understand how big the Yankees and the Mets series are, and you want to contribute.”

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Last night, the Yankees and the Mets commenced the final Subway Series at Shea Stadium.  The Mets had the edge in the pitching matchup with Pedro Martinez up against Sidney Ponson.  It didn’t quite work out that way though.  Martinez only pitched 5.2 innings allowing 6 Hits, 6 Runs, 6 ER, 5 BBs, and 4 SOs.  Meanwhile, Ponson pitched 6.0 innings allowing 5 Hits, 0 Runs, 0 ER, 4 BBs, and he had 4 SOs.  The Yankees ended up winning the game 9-0.  The Mets got blanked after putting up 15 runs in the earlier game in the Bronx.  The hitting and pitching last night was pathetic.

According to Mets.com, Petey wasn’t thrilled with his outing and had this to say about it, “I’m not doing my job, and that’s something to worry about. … It’s time for me to start getting better and not getting worse. I don’t know if I’m trying too hard; I am thinking too much about it or trying to be too fine. Health is here, that’s the good news. Health is here. I feel healthy, and I just have to take the responsibility for what’s happening right now.”

Sometimes it’s hard to watch a Hall of Fame worthy pitcher pitch in the twighlight of his career.  Pedro has been like this for two years already, and the injuries have probably taken more of a toll on him than age alone.  Like I’ve said before, I have no expectations of him so it’s easier to absord when he does poorly or end up on the DL.

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So the Mets are playing their final game in Yankee Stadium right now, and they are stomping the Yankees 15-5.  That’s good news.  Delgado actually hit a grand salami when the score was 7-3.  Then Delgado hit a 3-run dinger giving him a 9 RBI game which is a Mets record.  I’m impressed, but I wish that he could spread that around a little more evenly.

At 8 p.m., the two teams will kick off the final Subway Series at Shea.  The only way that they will face each other this year is if they each make it to the World Series, which is very unlikely.  It is a little sad that the final season for both New York clubs is just about halfway over.  However, I’m looking forward to checking out the new stadiums and the teams will continue to play each other.

The Metsies should at least win 3 out of 4 because the pitching matchups are in their favor.  It would be great to watch the Mets win the final Subway Series in the old ballparks.  Here’s a look at the probable pitching matchups.

06/27/2008 - Sidney Ponson (4-1) - Pedro Martinez (2-1)

6/28/2008 - Andy Pettitte (8-5) - Johan Santana (7-6)

06/29/2008 - Darrell Rasner (4-5) - Oliver Perez (5-5)

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Jerry Manuel had some very interesting things to say during last night’s post game.  I waited up for a while for some articles to be written about it, but had no such luck.  I had to wait until today, and the quotes are from Newsday.

First, Manuel had this to say about getting ejected, “I thought that Mr. Runge was kind of baiting Carlos. That’s how I saw it. I could be wrong. So I wanted to go out and make sure everything was OK and it got a little heated. I thought he did step into me. I did not step into him. How they choose to handle that I have no idea, no clue. That was definitely the case.”  So Jerry got bumped by Brian Runge which allowed Runge to use the bumping as an excuse to eject Jerry.  Once Runge bumped Manuel, Manuel got his moneys worth and finally walked away.

Then Carlos Beltran, who never has anything to say, started shouting at Runge.  Beltran had this to say after the game, “After what he did to Jerry I really got mad. Because he really bumped Jerry to get an excuse to throw him out of the game. I just let him know that that was weak. This is the first time that I’ve been so angry in my career and I feel like I have a reason. If I get punished for my actions, he should get punished for his actions, also, because that was horrible.”  So Carlos backed up his manager who just backed him up, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  One thing that Beltran said that is not in the article is that the manager is supposed to back up his players so take that for whatever it’s worth.

Then Manuel began talking about the actual game where they got landslided 11-0 to the the Mariners.  Manuel said this about Oliver Perez, “I’m definitely concerned about his struggles right now and we’re going to have to address it at some time. We’ll have to seriously address it.”  Yes he does because I can’t watch Ollie anymore.  Next, Manuel said, “Right now, we’re a bad offensive club, period.”  That’s for damn sure.  In order to address these issues, Manuel stated, “It could mean some tough decisions. Could be lineup changes, could be rotation changes, could be all types of changes. We have to do what we have to do to get this team on track. We have such great fans and they’re just waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for us to do well.”  I love what Jerry had to say last night because somebody in this organization needs to admit that problems exist for them to be addressed.  There are too many players on the roster that need to be shipped out of town.  Most importantly, the fans do deserve better.

** After writing this post, I found the entire transcript of the post game at The Star-Ledger which includes Jerry Manuel’s comments and Carlos Beltran’s comments.

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Seattle is winning this game 11-0 in the Top of the 9th, and the Mets couldn’t do anything right today.  With that said, we got to witness something that we haven’t seen since before Willie Randolph.  In the fourth inning, Carlos Beltran was at the plate with an 0-2 count.  There was some chatter back-and-forth between Beltran and the ump.  Then home-plate umpire Brian Runge began sweeping up home plate so he could talk smack to Beltran about the count.  Jerry Manuel came running out immediately to argue the fact that Runge was trying to lure Beltran into an arguement.  Manuel exploded on Runge, and I loved every minute of it.  We haven’t seen that in so long.  Jerry was obviously ejected.  After he walked away, Beltran began arguing his case which led to his ejection.  Hopefull Runge will be penalized for that.  The game is final now Mariners 11 - Mets 0, but at least Manuel fought for his player.

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Question: Jerry, the first few months of the season there’s been a lot of booing at Shea. Sometimes it’s been really vicious. How much does that drain a team? Manuel: That’s a good question. I don’t know if it drains a team as much as it affects that individual. I think it does have an effect on the individual more so than the team. But, in saying that, we have to get to the point to where when they boo one, they’re booing all of us. And we have to understand and stay that close knit and be able to deal with that as we go forward. Question: One guy who has been really hammered is Aaron Heilman … Manuel: He seems to have done very well. He has responded very well. Again, it’s difficult. It’s painful. But it’s also growth. It’s growth for him. It’s very, very – I’m going to say this, and I hope y’all don’t take this wrong. I know you’re going to run out of here with something crazy on this. It’s very, very fertile ground for growth at Shea Stadium. It’s fertile ground for a team’s growth and development. Sometimes fertile ground has fertilizer. (Laughter in room.) Fertilizer is a good thing. It’s a good thing. You get the greatest results, you get the most beautiful plants, when you put it in that type of fertile soil. That’s what we have the opportunity to do. Don’t y’all take that wrong because I know what you’re going to do with it.

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Everybody wants to know if replacing Willie Randolph with Jerry Manuel will be a successful story.  Unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait it out.  But who wants to wait it out in New York?  The media has written a bunch of articles about changing managers in the middle of the season during the past week.

Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News provided some statistics that I found interesting, “There’s no guarantee of success just because a team has made a managerial change - from 2002-07 there were 20 skippers replaced in-season; only three of those teams made the playoffs and six finished in last place. The fired managers had a combined winning percentage of .426, the replacements .451.”  That’s not too shabby.  McCarron provided this reason, “Managers who have been replacements say they have had to convince a team, wounded by the uproar surrounding the previous skipper’s failure, that it can still compete. They must immediately open lines of communication and deal with potential lingering issues concerning playing time or how the players felt about their deposed leader.”

John Harper of the New York Daily News wrote another article about the managerial change, and he pointed out that, “Perhaps no less significant, Manuel isn’t afraid to address internal issues, even the sensitive issue of a racial divide that may or may not exist in the Mets’ clubhouse. If nothing else, the perception seems to exist, and that was enough for Manuel to make a point of talking about it already with his players.”  The description written by Harper seems to cover some of the reasons noted by McCarron on why replacement managers tend to fail more often than not.  If perception is reality then it seems like Manuel can overcome what the other replacement managers weren’t able to.  One week into Manuel’s Mets, they look like they have a little bit more life in them.

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Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News pointed out that Ryan Church is expected to return for the Subway Series this upcoming weekend.  Church is supposed to take BP at Shea today.  Jerry Manuel wants Ryan to begin a rehab assignment with the Brooklyn Cyclones tomorrow at Hudson Valley.  It’s great if he could come back because he’s been our best player this year, but I’m a little uneasy after how the Mets handled that situation.  I hope he’s really 100% by the time he comes back because concussions are not the type of injury to mess around with.

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Mets.com released the comments made by Fred Wilpon about Willie Randolph and Omar Minaya after a news conference at the commissioner’s office.

I think Willie did a good job. I think that the results the last, say, 14 months were not up to what we thought it had to be. What Omar finally decided was that he had to make that change.

Obviously, we’ve been playing well in the last few games.

He [Omar Minaya] called me at the end of the doubleheader and asked me whether we can meet. He told us what his recommendation was going to be, and that what he wanted to do was replace Willie and replace the two coaches, and that he wanted to do it expeditiously. He wanted to do it in person. And he said, just like he always does, trades and everything else, he said, `I want to just think about it overnight.’

Management and the owners approved of what his plan was, so we were OK with the switch and we were OK with his recommendation, and he implemented that recommendation.

The intent here clearly was to respect Willie, to respect his feelings and to do it in person. It’s never easy to fire anybody. Believe me, it is not easy to do, and Omar took a lot of time. We took a lot of time listening to him and thinking about it.

It’s all a matter of performance, and Willie knew this when he started. Recognize we gave Willie the chance — Omar gave Willie the chance to be in this position. He had never been a manager in the Major Leagues or Minor Leagues.

I think Omar has done a great job. Everybody who makes decisions is not going to make all right decisions. He has made some great decisions. … Our Minor Leagues are in much better shape than is being reported.

It sounds like bunch of Malarkey to me.  I don’t understand how Willie did a ‘good job’ while Minaya did a ‘great job’ when they share the same record.  Both of them were responsible for the ups and the downs.  I believe that Omar has to take more blame than Willie for giving him too many old players that cannot contribute on a daily basis.  I’m also not sold on Wilpon’s comment on the farm system.  If it was stronger than the Mets would be able to start getting rid of the bums in the clubhouse.  We saw how nobody wanted the Mets prospects last offseason.  Are Wilpon’s comments about that to the fans or to the other GMs?  Did Randolph oversee the farm system?  No.  It’s all on Omar now.

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