31 March 2014

Opening Day: All I Really Need to Know I Learned from the New York Mets

Never abandon a good plan out of panic.

It ain't over 'till it's over.


Disappointment is proportionate to potential.

Never run your mouth the night before it's your turn to pitch.

When it's over, it's over.

Timing is EVERYTHING.

You can't "stay pat and stay on top," but "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

If you CAN handle the heat, you'll be great in the kitchen.

If they're gonna beat you, make 'em earn it--no intentional walks.

Numbers are far less important than personalities.

You can't buy a pennant, but you can darned sure trade one away.

Use caution when doing yard work.

Loyalty always means more in hindsight.

The truth hurts sometimes, but lies always do.

Enthusiasm is contagious. So is stupidity.

The most important thing is knowing what's actually important.

If you can beat no one else, at least beat the Cubs.

If at first you don't succeed, moving to third won't help.

26 February 2014

Ladies and gentlemen, your Scandal o' the Day:

photo credit: @mets via @AmazinAvenue via @jquadddddd
Why is Matt Harvey goofing off in front of a photographer instead with the rehab staff getting his arm stronger?

And you think it's a coincidence he's latching himself on to David Wright in the middle of the #FaceofMLB semifinals?  Please. He'll probably be dating a Kardashian by the end of the season.

Unbelievable....  Who does this guy think he is?!?!?!

22 February 2014

Sounding the conspiracy alert

I was kinda half-joking yesterday about my comments getting yanked off of MetsBlog, but...

  • Matt Harvey threw for the first time since his surgery this morning.
  • MetsBlog posted an entry about it timestamped 12:44pm Eastern.
  • As of roughly 7 pm Eastern, only one comment on said entry existed, and it wasn't even on-topic.
Now, you know good and well there's no way only one person left a comment on that story all day. It's also pretty freaking unlikely that of everyone whom you can safely assume left a comment, only one passed muster when applying the usual criteria of whether or not it crossed the line of civility and decency.

Clearly, a unique level of hyper-sensitivity is being applied when it comes to what fans are allowed to say on an SNY-owned forum regarding Harvey's situation.  Why is this?

Are the Mets desperately trying to control the narrative and shape public opinion of Matt Harvey, thusly trying to control his perceived value among fans when it's time to craft his next contract? As I mentioned yesterday, anti-Harvey comments were allowed to stand while my indirectly derogatory thoughts re: the state of the franchise got the ax.

Are the Mets so insistent on Harvey not distracting from the rest of the season, they're squashing any visible hints of how much fans are really interested in him?

It's just bizarre.

Anyway, let's see how long this comment of mine lasts:





So far, it's made it past the 30-minute mark.

21 February 2014

A thing to make you go, "Hmmm...."

Twice today, some hours apart, I made a comment under this entry over at MetsBlog about why everybody seems to be wigging out about Matt Harvey all of a sudden.  Every armchair manager on the internet thinks he's rushing his rehab because--get this--he expected to start throwing when his surgeon told him he'd be able to start throwing.  Also, that little incident in which he spoke before spoken to has made a lot of fans (at least the more internet-vocal ones) look at him as more and more of a renegade.  To be fair, others defend him and say that the Mets could use a little more of Harvey's fire.

In both of my comments, I discussed this conflict and made the case that the Mets have been so sanitized for so long--they've gone so long without a player who projects the same swagger that Harvey does--that nobody really knows what to make of him.  The way he embraces the spotlight and so aggressively desires to be "the man" is quite simply making the Metsiverse as a whole uncomfortable because it's become a foreign concept.

Here's the interesting part.  Both of those comments were deleted.  I've no idea how long the first one lasted, but the second one was pulled down in the time it took me to microwave a bowl of leftover casserole.

Meanwhile, comments accusing Harvey of trying to play Superman and lacking restraint in his rehab schedule still stand.

Apparently, either the Mets are still really touchy about the whole "don't have an edge" thing or are already making an effort to control any Mets vs. Harvey narratives.