Chop this.

I was almost there when the Mets sent Dave Williams and Oliver Perez to the mound in a doubleheader and won both ends.

But last night, they shutout Brad Penny and the Dodgers.  Jose Reyes hit an inside the park home run and Glavine cruised.

At first, I just thought they shouldn't have a problem getting out of the National League...  but now...

Now I really believe they are going to win the World Series.  Its all too perfect..  twenty years later.  1986.  2006. 

No one is going to stop this team... not the Braves, Dodgers, Cardinals, Padres...  not the Yanks, Tigers, or White Sox.  

So if anyone has any access to playoff tickets, I'm all ears...

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"That's all we got?  One goddamn hit?"

You can't say goddamn on the air."

"Don't worry...  nobody's listening anyway."   (Click my avatar to hear the movie quote.)

Is it me, or when a no name rookie comes to town, doesn't that usually spell trouble for the Mets?  I vaguely remember getting shutout by Chris Reitsma somewhere along the line, too, a year or two ago.  Rotoheads, time to short Chuck James, because once you dominate the Mets, you're unlikely to be heard of again.

On the subject of Steve Trachsel, what's the record for the highest number of wins in a season for a picher who fails to make the post season roster?  Because, right now, my rotation is Pedro, Glavine, Maine and El Duque, with the pen lining up as Wagner, Feliciano, Heilman, Bradford, Mota, Oliver, Hernandez and then either Bell or Ring if you take 12. 

This team could use a righthanded bat.  Oh, that's right, we had one and traded him for Roberto Hernandez, who we now don't really need because of Mota.  Heath Bell could have gotten a shot at moving up the ladder, too.  Oh well.

Having a lead this big in the East gives us too much time to worry.

Oh and I forgot to mention... A couple of weeks ago, it was Beatles night at Shea.  When Chad Bradford took the mound, they played Yellow Submarine.  It was hilarious.  That should play everytime Underhandford takes the mound.

Both Pujos and Howard homered again last night...and so did Bonds, actually.  Barry, where were you all year when my fantasy team needed ya?

Or at least, that's what I'm worried about with the Mets.  We've been on cruise control all year, and will probably cruise right into the World Series (although if Maddux keeps that coccoon in his poll, maybe there will be a formidable NL competitor).   But if we show up the way we showed up last night, we're going to get our asses mailed back to us in little Etsy knit pouches.

This Nady trade really blew...   You mean we couldn't have gotten a Roberto Hernandez quality reliever for a smaller bat than Nady?  Or some minor leaguers?  Now with Floyd hurt, we're talking dealing for Sean Green and his salary.   Is he that much more of an improvement than Nady?  Nady certainly came a lot cheaper and had more upside.  I thought Xavier Nady might have turned out to be this team's Kevin MacReynolds...  not a huge bat, but a solid and consitant one.  Oh well...   so much for that.

Fordham's first game at Roosevelt Island's Copobianco Field felt like practice...   Actually, it was practice, because the ABA Stingers didn't show--not a one of them.  That means Fordham was able to post their first win of the season, which, of course, isn't the way this hungry team wants to win.

"This sucks.  I wanted to play," manager Charlie O'Donnell, known for his eloquence, told reporters after the game.

The nightcap didn't prove as successful, however.  It turns out that, unlike the first game, 90% of success isn't just showing up.  It turns out you have to hit and field, too--two little areas that Fordham has been struggling with as of late.  Monday's struggles resulted, unfortunately for this expansion franchise, in a 17-2 drubbing.

AIG took advantage of the cozy Copo confines early, scoring five in the first and six in the second--all off rookie starter and Jay Buhner impersonator Jason Gianetti.

Teammates tried to comfort Gianetti after his performance and the following exchange took place in the clubhouse:

"That ball wouldn't have been out of a lot of parks."

"Name one."

"Yellowstone."

Patti Dickerson took over in the fourth, providing one of the lone bright spots in the game.  Patti turned in a solid mop-up effort and will be likely to start the team's next game.

Fordham's only two runs came late in the game.  Kevin Rodricks lashed a double to left, tearing the stiches off the ball (which is amazing considering the Clincher softballs don't actually have stiches).  Charlie O'Donnell, coming off a shoe string catch in center the inning before, then followed up with a monster, albeit lonely, blast to the concrete in right center.  That would be it for the Fordham offence though.  Rumors have it that the team is considering letting go hitting coach Amanda Hickey. 

There were a couple of other bright spots for Fordham.  Ryan St. Germain threw out a runner at home from right field--the other end of which featured a nifty tag from catcher Nicole Horsford.  Chrissy Guerrero turned in a solid defensive effort at second base as well.

There were no photos from the game, however, due to the illness of team photographer and emerging offensive star Anntoinette Mirsberger.  She should be off the DL by the next game, marking a return to the photographic documentation of the team's hijinks and shananagans.

With last night's rainout which will probably not get made up because my Fordham alumni softball team is out of it, the third of my three softball teams' seasons came to an end.

Sunday morning, my fastpitch men's team, the Warthogs, got eliminated in the first round of the playoffs after a 16-11 season.   Two and out...   and we basically gave the games away... didn't want it enough.  Very disappointing end to a good season.  Here's a hit to right  from the game.  I don't wear #21 on this team because someone else had it when I joined, so I just picked an utterly ridiculous number.

Wednesday night, my Zog team, Waiting for Turiansky, which crawled its way into the playoffs going 5-6-1, lost to the 11-1 Pubstars, after winning our first playoff game.  We were winning for one inning after I led off the game with a home run to right center.  I seriously have no idea why anyone plays on the left side of the field when I get up.  I have no ability to pull the ball in any form of this sport whatsoever.   Then it was 3-1 them...  3-2, 6-2, 6-3...    so in the 5th and it was 6-3 and I really felt good about the fact that we stayed in it as long as we did.  One big inning could do it.  Unfortunately, the wrong team had the big inning.  We lost 13-4.  Still, good season and we're excited to be playing again in the fall season.

As for my Fordham team... well... we're just not very good.  We went 3-9.  Oh well.  Perhaps we'll draft well in the offseason.  If you're a Fordham grad, and you can play shortstop or firstbase in particular, and can hit drop me a line.

So, the totals, including playoffs...    55 games...  25-29-1.   Eh.   Room for improvement. 

Ugh.  Not many bright spots in a 16-3 loss.  After two innings, Fordham was down 2-0 and it looked like Charlie O'Donnell might turn in another serviceable start.  Then, the wheels came off the train.  Five walks, some singles, and some defensive misqueues opened the door and Linkshare never looked back.  In fact, Fordham didn't actually push a run across until the last inning, when they scored their only three runs, mostly on walks.  Kevin Rodricks turned in an inning saving catch in Saskatchawan after reliever Brian Cuthbert served up a bomb to left, but that wouldn't prove to be enough.

The manager had this to say to the press at the end of the night during an interview at the Third Thursday bar, P.J. O'Hurley's:

"They outhit us.  They outpitched us.  They outplayed us in the field.  So, really, when you think about it, by category, it was only a 3-0 loss." 

Either way, we got a nice turnout after the game at the bar.  Remember, each 3rd Thursday of the month, we'll be out at a bar celebrating the happiest of hours.  Tonight, we had a couple of '04 grads show up, as well as much support from the '99 crew.  Come on out next month.  "Y'all come back now."

Link: ESPN.com - MLB - L.A. deals Ishii to Mets for Phillips.

The New York Mets plugged a hole in their starting rotation Sunday, acquiring left-hander Kazuhisa Ishii from the Los Angeles Dodgers for catcher Jason Phillips.

Only the Mutts can plug a hole by digging a deeper one.  Kaz Ishii has great stuff, but, like Victor Zambrano, none of it is near the plate.  Trust me from someone who could never put it together and find the plate, guys who don't throw strikes very rarely succeed in baseball.  They put your fielders to sleep and they don't go late into games, eating up your bullpen.  Ishii's ERA last year was 4.71.  Did anyone watch Jae Seo pitch the other day against the Marlins?  You're telling me he can't put up better than 4.71 over a full season?  Who couldn't?  Its one thing to replace an injured pitcher with a real replacement, but Ishii?  You couldn't pay me to watch this guy pitch.  All of the sudden, I'm not feeling so good about this season.  Don't get me wrong, Jason Phillips is the worst base clog this side of Johnny Helmet, but he did bat .298 in '03.  One bad season and we're done with him?  Wasn't he the Mets leading hitter this spring?  I don't know.  I can't remember the last time this team made a deal that made me say, "Wow, I really like that deal."

Link: Newsday.com: A new Met TV deal.

Elliot Spitzer just won my vote for Governor in 2006, provided he doesn't do anything really stupid between now and then.  Getting the Mets back on TV... that's all it took.  I'm an easy vote.

This post was written by David Murphy.  He was our shortstop and won our last two games on walkoff hits.  He was also a part of several championship Fordham intramural teams.  They even made a Geocities page about it.

Here's Dave:

The Rams Alumni softball team brought a successful finish to a dismal season last Monday night.  For the second time in as many games, the sons and daughters of Mother Fordham battled back in the final frames to finish the year on a victorious note with a 8-7 win over the vaunted Mizuno machine. 

“Regardless of the final win-loss record, I’m proud of this team,” manager Charlie O’Donnell said after the game.  “I don’t think we’ll ever be accused of having the most talent in the league, but there’s no question that, as a team, we have the heart of a champion.”

Fordham struggled throughout the season with spotty defense and a lack of timely hitting.  It wasn’t until the final stages of the season that Fordham seemed to find their groove.  All told Fordham went 5-8 missing a playoff birth by a significant margin.  Even still, O’Donnell saw seedlings of hope develop in the expansion franchise.

“When we came into the season we didn’t know what to expect,” O’Donnell said.  “There was a big learning curve with this club but I think we definitely came into our own.  You could see that, on both sides of the ball, we definitely began to gel as a unit throughout the last few games.”

Both of the final two contests in 2005 proved dramatic for the Rams.  After a thrilling walk-off home run victory in the previous game, Fordham showed no sign of a let down in the last game of the season.  Fordham went up by three going into the last inning when the same shoddy defense that had haunted them all season began to rear its ugly head.  Pitcher Patty Dickerson, the indisputable team co-MVP after logging countless innings on the mound, saw misplay after misplay result in four unearned runs for Mizhuno. 

That led to one final chance for a comeback by the Jesuit educated bunch. In the bottom of the fifth, the always selective Ron Zapata led off with a single.  He moved into scoring position on a hit by Jason Gianitti.  Two batters later, Pawtucket’s own Ryan St. Germain singled in the tying run and moved the winning run into scoring position for shortstop Dave Murphy.  Murphy, also a Pawtucket native, doubled home the game winner with a line drive to right ending Fordham’s inaugural season on a high note.

“I just got the pitch I was looking for,” Murphy said after the game.  “We’ve battled back before, and the guys just did a great job of getting on base and I was fortunate enough to get a pitch I could handle.”  Murphy’s six hits in his final six at bats for Fordham this season were a big change from his hitherto lack luster performance.  Many Rams’ observers lay the blame of Fordham’s largely unsuccessful campaign squarely on his shoulders.  The captain of two Fordham University intramural softball championships with Team Shame, struggled mightily throughout 2005.  Many believed he simply could not adjust to playing without the teammates that surrounded him from 2000-2004 at Fordham, capturing those two titles. 

For Fordham, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times in 2005.  Although the team chemistry seemed to mix well, particularly by the end of the season, a series of people moving to go along with inconsistent play on both offense and defense resulted in a sub-par performance. 

Second baseman Trevor Freeman seemed to sum up the season best when packing up his locker in the Fordham clubhouse saying, “Maybe it’s because I’m an Oakland fan, but my mentality is, hey – wait till next year!”

And that is just what Fordham plans to do. 

Zog Sports is a fun bunch that runs charity softball, dodgeball, kickball, football, soccer, etc. in the NYC area.  They need an operations manager.

Here's the job description.

E-mail a resume and a coverletter to Christie.

So the Mets lost again today, getting swept by the Reds and starting off the season 0-3.  Brian IM's me, because he has Danny Graves on his fantasy team, and asks me if I know how the hell its possible that, in a 6-1 game, where Graves throws two pitches to a single batter, he can pick up a save.   Enter Wikipedia.

According to Wikipedia:

In baseball statistics the term save is used to indicate the successful maintenance of a lead by a relief pitcher, usually the closer, until the end of the game. A save is credited to a pitcher who fulfills the following three conditions:

1. The pitcher is the last pitcher in a game won by his team;
2. The pitcher is not the winning pitcher (for instance, if a starting pitcher throws a complete game win);
3. The pitcher fulfills at least one of the following three conditions:
   1. He comes into the game with a lead of no more than three runs, and pitches the remainder of the game, gaining at least one out.
   2. He comes into the game with the potential tying run being either on base, at bat, or on deck. In other words, the potential tying run is either already on base or is one of the first two batters he faces.
   3. He pitches at least three "effective" innings (this is the only subjective criterion and is judged by the official scorer).

No more than one save may be credited in each game, even if more than one of the previous conditions is fulfilled.

So basically, Graves enters with the bases loaded in a 6-1 game, making the tying run on deck.  (Even if he gives up a salami to the first batter, its still only 6-5.  Only the next guy could tie the game.)  There are two outs, but that doesn't matter.  According to criteria #2, he gets a save.  So, Danny Graves, by getting at least one out without giving up back to back home runs, gets a save.  If that isn't the cheapest fuckin' save I've ever heard of, I don't know what is.  Jeez... I could have done that.  Two pitches with a five run lead...  don't strain yourself Danny Boy.

I don't understand this guy at all.  Check out his four starts so far:

Date                     Opp.                     W     L      S      IP           H        R    BB   K            

Oh, and btw...  Julio Franco is obviously well into his sixties.  Forty-six?  Right.

On Thursday, we had an open softball practice for our Fordham team and conveniently enough, it was the 3rd Thursday of the month, so we followed it up with a Young Alumni Happy Hour as well.  (If you haven't been to one yet, its a lot of fun.  Make sure you go to the Fordham website to update your contact info if you haven't already done so to get on the mailing list.  We're working on an RSS feed for event news, but that's down the line.)   We practiced with some people from the GM team and played an exhibition team.  The all-Fordham team won 9-6 versus a mix of GM and Fordham players.  Kevin and Larry both went yard.  Antoinette grounded out, which is major progress! There are lots more pictures online at my Flickr site.  Here are pics from Third Thursday and here is the growing collection of Fordham Softball '05 pics.  If you're using Flickr and you have softball or Third Thursday pictures, tag them "FUSoftball05" and "ThirdThursday" respectively. 

If Billy Wagner doesn't start shutting hitters down 1-2-3, they're going to start playing "Johnny B. Goode" instead of Metallica.

So it looks like Pelfrey is the odd man out of the rotation for now...  He was impressive, but still pretty young.  We'll probably see him again in a few weeks.

Oh, and instead of losing Nady, wouldn't it have just been easier to resign Roberto Hernandez last season?  What we gave up to get what we have in all these trades hasn't impressed me at all.  I hope Chad Bradford emerges as the #1 righty out of the pen, just because I have a soft spot for submarine pitchers.  Combining him with Hernandez reminds me of the '91 Mets combo of Innis and "Senior Smoke" Alejandro Pena.

Tonight, at DeWitt Clinton Field, the Fordham Softball Rams take on the Fordham Softball Marroon in a crosstown, intra-alumni faceoff.

Roommates will face each other.

College drinking buddies.

Ex's.

Gametime is 7:30PM. 

Be there for the softball, stay for the discernment and Jesuit style introspection.

If there is a single softball game I want to win this whole season more than anything else, its this game.

So Henry Owens made his major league debut the other night.   Threw gas.  Anyone up for keeping this guy in the bullpen a little while?

Pelfrey goes tonight.   This guy is a real stud.  Dare I say Gooden-esque?   I'm sure he'll probably get clobbered or something tonight, but that's ok.  I'm sure he'll have a long career here and I'm looking forward to seeing how he does.  Hopefully, if nothing else, it means the end of Lima Time. 

Lima Time really sucks.

BTW.... Jose Reyes?  Didn't you watch Jeff Kent growing up?  Baseball 101.  Don't slide into first base.  You always get their faster running through it.  The only reason you slide anywhere else is to avoid a tag and because you can't overrun other bases.  Lifestyles of the young and not so bright. 

I have a dream.  One day, the Mets will have a lights out closer that will make us all forget about Franco, Benitez, Looper...

Doesn't seem like Billy Wagner wants to be that guy in the early going.

Man, if only we hadn't traded Izzy.

In any case, if you're into locker room humor, you have to read the comments to this post about David Wright hanging out with some St. John's girls...  HILARIOUS.

My fav quote:  "Wright probably took his shot with two strikes."

So, yesterday afternoon, I played a pickup softball game with some Zog folks.

But, unfortunately, I left my new glove at the field.  :( 

I could have kicked myself.

Seperately, I have a Zog softball game tonight and I'm short players for it.  I posted on Craigslist and this guy named Gary responded.  I picked up a few players and now I think I'm good (but if anyone wants to join us, let me know... its a 6PM game on 101st/Amsterdam).  Then I realized that I should probably post in the lost and found section about my glove, too.

So Gary responds again and says, "Hey, wait... were you playing with ZogSports last night?"

Turns out that not only did Gary play first for the team I was on, but he also spotted who found my glove and took it for safe keeping.  I guess he just has an RSS search going of anything to do with softball.  So the glove has been located, some ringers have been added and Craigslist saves the day. 

The bats finally came alive for Fordham's home debut at DeWitt Clinton Field at 52nd Street and 11th Avenue.

Temporarily displaced for a season while Hecksher Field is being renovated, the Fordham Rams came alive in the 2nd inning, sparked by shortstop Alex Pakla's solo blast to left.  Fordham would notch 5 in that inning, and the scoreboard would show 10-0 before Calarendon Insurance even had their first hit...  in the 4th inning.

The wheels almost came off the train in the fourth for Trever Freeman, making his first career start.  After keeping Carendon hitless, whiffing three through the first three frames, hard hits, dropped balls, and poor throws opened the door for the vistors to come within 2 runs, making the game 10-8.  However, with four more runs in the 5th and another blank frame on the mound, Freeman and the Rams made sure that was all they heard of their first victims.  The carnage ended when the Mercy Rule kicked in during the 6th after Fordham went up 20-8.

The game also featured the Fordham debut of Kristin Schwab, whose four hit splash set a record for Fordham first appearances.  Ryan St. Germain, Charlie O'Donnell, Ron Zapata and Jason Gianitti also had multi-RBI games.  Antoinette Mirsberger chipped in with two hits as well, while Chrissy Guerrero played a solid game defensively at second.