A moment of silence...

Today, we mourn the loss of a vast and beloved place.

A monument to greatness (the '86 Giants) and all that we love about sports (the Jets' Monday night comeback against the Dolphins.

Today we mourn the loss of Giants Stadium. The picture above is of the old stadium, semi-demolished. Metaphors abound!

Thursday night, I went to the "New Meadowlands Stadium" for the first time. Here are some thoughts.

--The upper deck concourse is not covered. So when it rains or its windy (that never happens during football season, right?) all the commoners in the upper deck will get soaked and windblown.

-- There are special "rich people" only exit lanes. In other words, if you bought a PSL, you leave first. If you didn't, you can wait!

--The upper deck is 40 feet higher than it was at Giants Stadium, owing to the extra two rows of luxury boxes.

--The parking lot is separated by class. Rich people over here, poor people over there. I am going to have to take the George Washington bridge to get to my "assigned" parking area.

--To avoid any appearance of favoring the Jets or Giants, the whole stadium is grey. It looks like one of those computer avatars before you choose a color scheme.

-- THERE IS NOTHING BETTER ABOUT IT, at least for the 30,000 of us in the upper deck.

--To borrow a phrase from Titanic (and, I guess, actual cruise ships) the upper deck is STEERAGE (a place where they cram in as many poor people as possible).

In short, I am as disappointed with NMS as I was impressed by CitiField.

To quote Kramer: I may have to take it, but I don't have to like it!

Ryan Zimmerman, Hanley Ramirez, and "hustle"

I am sure you have seen the uproar about Hanley Ramirez not hustling after a ball he booted into the left field corner. Both the play and his comments about manager Fredi Gonzalez were pretty egregious. Basically indefensible.

Last night in the 5th inning, Ryan Zimmerman fell down trying to catch a pop-up that went over his head. After he missed it, he sat on the ground watching the shortstop chase the ball, rather than getting up and playing baseball. He sat there for several seconds watching the play as though he were a fan in the stands. Because he didn't get up and cover third, Francoeur made it to third and later scored on a sacrifice fly.

The only difference between these two plays was that Ramirez at least jogged after the ball, and Zimmerman laid on the ground like a dog.

I am not a big believer in systemic racism, particularly in professional sports. However, these two plays, happening only days apart, lead to an interesting conclusion.

Zimmerman is thought of as Mr. Hustle. See: http://zimsfoundation.org/news/news/washington-nationals-third-baseman-ryan-zimmerman-nominated-for-mlbpaa-heart-hustle-award/

Indeed, during the game, Gary Cohen compared him (in PHYSICAL APPEARANCE!!!) to Scott Rolen, a malcontent who "hustled" his way out of St. Louis.

Hanley Ramirez is thought of as wasting his natural gifts.

I couldn't even find a story about Zimmerman's lack of hustle, let alone a reporter questioning him about it. Who knows what he might have said if he was asked about whether he would apologize to his team and his manager (as Hanley was)?

Everything is about perspective. People are looking for examples of Hanley not hustling, and are ready to jump on him. Zimmerman meanwhile gets awards for his hustle.

I am not condoning not hustling. Not at all. But I think EVERYONE has a mental lapse every now and then. The Hanley play and the Zimmerman play had the same cause (they were both frustrated that they had missed the ball and now would make SportsCenter looking goofy). Who reporters choose to focus on and question about it severely colors (no pun intended) our perception.

Jeff Francoeur- Pinch Hitter!

As I was saying...I am prone to hyperbole.

Frenchie is not the worst player in baseball, if for no other reason than that he shows up every day. On the other hand, because he plays every day, we're forced to WATCH him every day. See: his blooper reel throwing error yesterday.

His rare days off serve as a welcome respite.

Frenchie's replacement today, Chris Carter, was raking all day. He had me at "hello." I know he can't field, but that is something I am willing to deal with at this point.

So what does Jerry do? He PINCH HITS Francoeur in the 7th inning, after the Mets score 3 and are trying to claw their way back into the game. I don't need to tell you what happened (in case I do, he fouled out).

I am sure Manuel will say something about platoon splits. Francoeur has 4 HRs against lefties since the beginning of last year. Big Whoop! That he has a serviceable OBP against lefties (.356 last year) doesn't mean you HAVE to use him the first chance you get. It's his first day off. Let him (and us) enjoy it.

Chris Carter is a no-field mashing DH. Frenchie is, at this point, a no-hit defensive replacement. I don't even think Manuel would dispute that anymore. To pinch-hit a guy with a .280 OBP for a professional masher like Carter is just plain ridiculous.

On the bright side, Niese's injury may mean we get to see RA Dickey, a knuckleballer!, start for us this week. If they aren't going to win, the least they can do is entertain.

Ball four, ball eight, ....

You might have thought Ollie getting pulled from the Mets rotation would decrease the chances of the first three opposing batters walking on 12 straight pitches.

If you did, you'd be wrong.

I can say without hyperbole...

....that I use hyperbole more than anyone else on earth.

On this blog, I often describe someone as the worst hitter in baseball, or the worst PLAYER in baseball.

I was watching Frenchie strike out tonight when I thought, "Man, he is the worst!"

So I looked it up. He's not the worst.

Among qualifying outfielders (71) he is 57th in on base percentage and 52nd in OPS. So, there are almost 20 outfielders that start in baseball that are worse than him. I believe his OBP is down to .290. WOW!

The thing is, when you look at the guys on that list (who are worse than him), they're all either making $20M (Carlos Lee), young and up and coming (Drew Stubbs, Adam Jones), were recently terrific (Carlos Quentin), or play CF. In other words, all those other teams have a REASON for playing these awful outfielders. Why are the Mets playing Frenchie?

I have no idea.

If we didn't have him, would we be trading for Lance Berkman? I guess we'll never know.

On a totally unrelated note....Omar Vizquel (4 hits this season) is batting 9th and playing DH for the White Sox tonight. ????????

You gotta love when a manager makes a lineup so stupid you wouldn't let someone do it in MLB 2K10 on Nintendo, because it would mess with the integrity of the video game.

Is Buster Olney Stealing My Thoughts (and blog posts)?

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog?name=olney_buster&id=5179752&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fmlb%2fblog%3fname%3dolney_buster%26id%3d5179752

Also, if Jeff Francouer had to hit against Ollie Perez this week, what would happen? Could Frenchie really swing at the first (and second and third) pitch while Ollie is assassinating mascots and damaging the screen behind the plate with every pitch? My answer: YES!

Interestingly, Frenchie's best chance to get on base against Ollie would be to hope that the third pitch of his at-bat (i.e., strike three) would be a wild pitch so he could run to first!

In The Cage With My Dad

I sucked at baseball.

SUCKED!

I was always worried the ball was going to hit me. In the field, and especially at bat.

I used to go to the cage, and my father would tell me not to "step in the bucket." He would tell me about the kids who would "run through a wall" to catch the ball. To be honest, I wanted nothing to do with the ball. The farther I was from the ball, the better. My dad was right.

Ever since David Wright got his bell rung last year, he has been "stepping in the bucket." He's scared to swing. He's scared to get hit. That explains his ridiculous platoon splits. It explains why he's striking out every time up. He doesn't swing until he knows the ball isn't going to kill him. It's sad, and pathetic, and (for me at least) completely understandable.

Watch him. Every curveball, he turns his back to the plate. What if it hangs???!?!?! He only hits slow meatballs that get nowhere near him.

David Wright needs some time in the cage with my dad.

Tastes awful! More Filling!

I went to opening day. Mets won. Hope sprung eternal.

Mike Jacobs batted clean-up that day. He has since been cut.

Tonight, Gary Matthews, Jr. (.152 BA) is batting lead-off.

Sweet fancy moses!

I have often complained of certain managers' (read: Jerry Manuel and Willie Randolph) penchant for batting the team's second worst hitter second because he has "bat control" or something.

Manuel has taken it a step further. He has, already this season, batted the worst player in baseball (Jacobs) clean-up. Now he bats the worst HITTER in baseball lead-off (AND Castillo second!).

When asked why, he will undoubtedly say something about the "length" of the line-up. Yup, configured this way, the line-up is a long line of crap.

Manuel makes $1M per year. His main job is to set the line-up every day. I am pretty sure a random number generator would produce a better line-up than the one the Mets put out there today. Santana leading off would not have been worse.

As I was writing this (as if to prove my point), Matthews grounded out in a way that got the runner on 2nd thrown out. Perfect!