Mike Lupica quotes an actual source.

Getting closer to journalism (journalesque?), but it's still baffling.

I also seriously wonder if Lupica understands the meaning of simple words, such as "but":

"Here is the way Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports described what happened to Jenrry Mejia of the Mets on Friday:

'(Mejia) was in the major leagues with the New York Mets at 20. He was established in their bullpen at 24. He was suspended twice after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs at 25. And on Friday afternoon, at 26 years old, Jenrry Mejia became the first player — major or minor leagues — to be banned for life because of a third positive test.' "

Tim Brown of Yahoo sports!

Congratulations to Tim Brown of Yahoo sports. You got an actual real-life mention in a Lupica column.

I'm curious what Lupica has to say about Tim Brown's milquetoast observation. It's just the basics ... who and what ... not a whole lot to comment on.


"That’s it, and that’s all."

Ummm ... here's the whole article by Tim Brown of Yahoo sports.

Couple of things:

1) It's 2016. Hyperlinks have been around for 20 years. Use a hyperlink when you cite another online article. That way, your audience can see for themselves that it's not all that Tim Brown wrote.

2) Lupica lied. While there's not much to Tim Brown's article, there's a lot more than two paragraphs, and I really think Lupica intentionally misrepresented the work of a fellow sports writer.


"Maybe Mejia himself can’t explain why he would keep going back to banned substances, knowing the possible consequences of continued drug use.

Maybe he was willing to take the chance, because he was afraid that he couldn’t perform without the drugs, and ended up throwing away his career, before he is anywhere near the age of 30."

Maybe so.

Is this going anywhere?


"But then Alex Rodriguez, who I keep reading is the toast of the town now, went looking for Anthony Bosch after his career and his reputation had survived being outed as a user of baseball drugs by Sports Illustrated once."

1) ARod is not the toast of the town. You keep reading he's the toast of the town, but you can't cite one article that praises ARod. Because ARod isn't the toast of the town.

2) This is not a "but." "But" is one of the first words a child learns. I seriously can't figure out this transition to ARod. "Maybe Mejia did this ... but probably not ... because ARod did the same thing."


"Rodriguez, so clearly full of his own fears and insecurities, didn’t lose his career.

But he nearly did."

 ARod didn't lose his career. But he nearly did. Hard stop.

That's it?

 
This is what I think Lupica is trying to say:

• ARod's 200-game suspension was not enough of a deterrent to Mejia.
• While Mejia was foolish, ARod was also foolish in a similar way.
• Tim Brown of Yahoo sports shouldn't have commented on Mejia's foolishness without immediately referencing ARod's foolishness.
• Since ARod is now the toast of the town, unknown Mets closer Mejia had every reason to expect that, following his lifetime suspension, he'd also become the toast of the town.

None of this is logical, of course, but I'm trying my best here, folks.

The thrill is gone :-(

No hand-wringing for the children ... no tiny violins playing for the AAA relievers who never got a shot ...

"It didn’t have to be some morality statement; these days no one raises an eyebrow when suspended PED users get a second chance, and plenty of teams have cashed in by taking chances on them.

Heck, the Mets wanted to sign Jhonny Peralta and Nelson Cruz a couple of years ago. But it doesn’t mean they would have been hypocritical had they dealt harshly with Mejia, considering the circumstances."

The Daily News spent so much time and effort chasing down ARod that when the story died, the Daily News fired most of its sportswriters.


"But that’s not really the point. The Mets put their misplaced faith in Mejia and they were rewarded with more embarrassment. They should have known better."

That's all you're gonna get, folks: "The Mets shoulda known better."

I don't think anybody is accusing the Mets of hypocrisy. The Daily News, on the other hand ...

Broncos 30, Panthers 21

A rare non-baseball post.

See what I did in the title?

I made a prediction about the Super Bowl. Like everyone else in America, from President Obama to your mom.

No self-respecting sports writer would avoid making a Super Bowl prediction.Which probably explains why I can't find Mike Lupica's prediction.


A week ago: "Super Bowl won't affect Peyton Manning's legacy."

Today: "Super Bowl 50 stakes sky high for Manning, Cam Newton."

Followed by this doozy: "The Panthers will have the two best players on the field in Super Bowl 50 Sunday night. That means Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly ..." Screech. Full stop. Nothing against Kuechly, but give me a break.


There's a lot of words about the Big Game and I sure didn't read all of them. But I don't see a bottom line prediction anywhere. What a joke.

I think Tanaka is the best pitcher on the Yankees.

Just an opinion.

It's kind of interesting to review the Yankees' starting staff and realize it is full of young power pitchers.

Mike Lupica doesn't like ballplayers who play for the New York Yankees.

He says "no kidding," but he really is kidding. It just isn't funny:

"Before long, we will start to hear that 'Pride of the Yankees II,' the inspirational story of Alex Rodriguez’s comeback, is in development in Hollywood.

I think Jay Z should play him.

No kidding, eventually we’re going to start hearing that this guy is more beloved than Yogi was."

Guffaw.


Let me help you with your Hollywood options:

"That Art of Standing Around: The Story of 2015 Gold Glove Winner Yoenis Cespedes"

"It Ain't Cheating if They Don't Catch You: The Mike Piazza Story"

"No Rings and No MVPs: Let Me Call a Sports Radio Show and Explain How This is David Wright's Breakout Year"

"Cocaine, Cocaine, and More Cocaine: The Mets Ring of Honor"

"Not as Smart as You Think You Are and Shut Up About the DH Already: The Life and Times of  Gary Cohen"

"Annuities and the Future Value of Money: Explaining Bobby Bonilla's Contract"

50% of nothing is still nothing.

Once again, I conclude that nobody watches baseball on TV:

"When the Mets came to terms with Yoenis Cespedes, Sandy Alderson did not only ink a bona fide game changer, he signed a player who is a TV ratings changer — something the Yankees, as of today, do not have."

Nobody will watch regular season baseball games to see Yoenis Cespedes.


"In 2015, before the Mets acquired Cespedes from Detroit, SportsNet New York was averaging a 2.25 household rating, 202,911 total viewers, on its Mets telecasts. Once Cespedes arrived in Queens, the average rating increased by nearly a full point and total viewership increased by over 100,000 viewers."

Exactly.

A paltry 300,000 viewers.



"Who on the current Yankees roster can produce those kind of results? Alex Rodriguez? That’s doubtful. Last season, on the comeback trail, A-Rod was a curiosity. This season, his story is not as compelling, unless the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network uses him in the booth when he’s not playing. Perhaps the Bombers’ Trio Grande — relievers Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, Aroldis Chapman — will quickly turn into eyeball magnets."

It will be easy for the YES Network to attract more viewers than Mets games.

Just put on some replays of NFL games.

Or maybe a live feed  of Isaac Mizrahi selling new slippers in a variety of colors.


"Cespedes is backed by a charismatic choir, the best young starting pitchers in baseball, major attractions in their own right. This gives the Mets a good chance of pushing the ratings needle to the max from jump street on a nightly basis.

Still, the ultimate ratings generator is winning — no matter who is doing it. Success is what eventually captures the 'floaters,' front running fans (and there are a significant number of them) who glom on to the hot baseball team in town and jack up the TV ratings.

Now, they lean Mets. After all, they did make it to the World Series.

With Yoenis Cespedes."

These floaters that Raissman always talks about ... where are they? The Mets got a 3.0 with the floaters.

The Mets will get big ratings when they play the Yankees, the Nationals, and if they have a rematch with the Royals (Opening Day, of course). The rest of the time, regular season baseball games get tiny ratings.

Cespedes is not a monumental superstar by any means. He is, like, the 4th-best LFer. He isn't the second coming of Babe Ruth.

Three words: Return on Investment.

Mike Lupica is stupid:

"There is only one team, still, in baseball history that spent more than $200 million on baseball players and actually won the Series. That was the 2009 New York Yankees. Their payroll that year was around $210 million. They have spent more than $200 million a year for every year since that (the way they did for the five years before that), and haven’t won since."

This is very difficult to explain to stupid people, but this does not prove that spending a lot of money hurts a team's chances of winning the World Series.

Only one team can win the World Series every year, understand?

Another way to look at this test: In the 11 years under discussion, the Yankees won the World Series 1 out of 11 tries. The other 29 teams combined won the World Series 10 times out of 319 tries.

Who has a better World Series winning percentage? The Yankees or the Not Yankees?


Even the conclusion is off: "The Yankees haven't won since."

The Yankees have not been under .500 in 20 years. The Yankees draw 3 million fans every year. I know the marketing spiel, but if you really think Hank and Hal expect to win the World Series every year, then you are stupid.

The product has slipped quite a bit, but the brand is incredibly strong and people therefore keep buying the product.

How did the brand gain so much strength? It certainly wasn't because the Yankees signed a lot of inexpensive players.


"The closest thing to a dynasty in baseball over the past several years are the San Francisco Giants, who have won three World Series in the last six seasons. The most money they spent in any of those years was when they were a little over $150 million. The Mets aren’t there now that Yoenis Cespedes is coming back, but they’re close enough. And maybe the people in charge aren’t the dumbest and cheapest in the world after all."

$150 million isn't chump change, but I think we can all agree that the baseball GM discussion has become overwhelming and tiring. Maybe the contract sizes should be secret and we can all just try to enjoy the game on the field.


"And the team that beat them in the World Series in a five-game series that looked and felt and even sounded a lot closer than that, the Royals, a team that has a batting order that is like barbed wire and enough pitching and plays a beautiful game of baseball, they were at $110 million in 2015 when they won their first World Series in three decades."

Right.

Don't ignore the last sentence ... "first World Series in three decades."

I wonder if Lupica understands that this hurts his small-payroll argument or if he's just ignoring all the conflicting data.


"Here is what Tyler Kepner, the fine baseball columnist for the Times, wrote on Saturday:

'Can Mets fans finally trust that the stewards of their team might know a bit about how to run a franchise?' "

I have nothing to add to this observation, but I think it's the first time I have ever seen Mike Lupica credit another person. It's usually "people are saying" or "lots of people" or "some people" or he just makes stuff up.

Can it be that Mike Lupica has suddenly adopted first-class journalistic techniques?


"The great myth of modern baseball, despite all the evidence, is that there’s only one way to win the World Series lottery, and that is by spending an insane amount of money. It doesn’t work that way anymore. An amazing thing has now happened with the Mets: Six months later, Sandy Alderson surprises you again with Yoenis Cespedes. Amazin’."

That's more like it! Garbage journalistic techniques. The "great myth" that isn't a great myth at all.

The bottom ten in payroll in 2015? Guess what? Only one of them even made the playoffs. That was the Pirates at $85 million ... and that's with ten freaking teams making the playoffs.


I actually agree that the Mets played this nicely. It's essentially a one-year mega-contract that will avoid the long-term commitments that quickly lose their value as the players age without help from PEDs.

But it's oddly important for Lupica to act like the Mets are still a small payroll team ... $27.5 million for one player for one year isn't something a small payroll team can do ... and it's even odder that it's important for Lupica to try to make a case that a small payroll teams are outperforming high payroll teams. They aren't.

Rather staggering.

"But by taking the three-year deal at an average of $25 million per year — including a rather staggering $27.5 million in 2016 — he is making significantly more per season than either Upton or Jason Heyward, which saves some face for both him and his agents.

'That was hugely important to him,' said a source close to the situation. 'He needed to feel wanted, and $25 million a year does that for him.' "

The contract itself sounds like a good compromise for both sides in terms of overall contract side and protections for both parties.

Yes, Cespedes turned away future guaranteed earnings of $25 million ... which is incomprehensible to most of us. But he's also getting a ridiculous amount of money up front ... I don't know how the Nationals offer was constructed, but it's a 37.5% raise over the $20 million annual average contract offer ... and Cespedes gets an opt-out clause after one year.

Though it shouldn't shock anyone at this point, the implication from the quote from the "source close to the situation" is that Cespedes didn't feel wanted by an offer of $100 million.

I know, I know. I'm thinking the same thing. Someone ought to make me feel unwanted with 1% of that offer.

Sure, come play for the Yankees.

Position shmosition.

We'll figure something out.

"Just" 88 wins.

Maybe the Mets will win the World Series.

Something tells me their fans will be disappointed if they don't.

The stellar investigative journalism of the Daily News.

Mike Lupica has been swimming in this ocean for so long, he doesn't see the water:

"I keep wondering why all the people who are such experts on baseball drugs now didn’t tell us a whole lot more about them back in the 1990s when they had the chance."

A so-called senior online sports editor at the Daily News recently posted an article about Alex Rodriguez looking at cheerleaders at a Lakers game. Woodward and Bernstein would be proud.

Mike Lupica himself wrote a book about McGwire and Sosa. That was in the 1990s. Why didn't you tell us a lot more back in the 1990s?
 
Or, more to the point, forget about the 1990s ... why don't you conduct some contemporary investigations? Spend 2 weeks and $50,000 hunting down the dealers for Pedro and Piazza?

You surely won't find something unless you look for it. So why aren't you looking for it? Why do you condemn some players and protect others?

Yeah ... the light bulb goes on ... why do you protect some players and condemn others? Why isn't the Daily News obsessed about Mejia? He plays baseball right here in New York! He was suspended two times in one baseball season! I mean, listen, fellas ... he has friends, he has cousins, he has dealers, he was in New York this whole time. Look under a rock and see what you find, huh?

What about Tim Peterson? If I mentioned the name "Tim Peterson" to the Daily News sports writing staff, their reaction would be just like yours: "Who?"

This guy. Mets minor leaguer suspended for 80 games. Just happened.

So why doesn't anybody in the sports journalism business in New York find out where this guy got his PEDs? Was his supplier the only supplier in supplier history who had exactly one client? Where are the other customers and how deep does this go in the Mets organization? And what is your justification for ignoring all other PED users with all the ink you've spent on ARod?

How does this easily identifiable bias fit into your understanding of the ethics you learned in journalism school?


What do you think will happen when Lupica takes on MLB HOF voting?

It isn't pretty.

He's a never-was mystified by the death of an institution:

"Who passed the law that everybody who does have a Hall of Fame vote in baseball has to explain his/her ballot to us?"

The first principle of journalism is the search for information. Why would any journalist or columnist take an anti-explanation stance? Lupica's job is to cook omelets, but he's anti-egg.

As the baseball HOF strains itself to retain any relevancy to new baseball fans, the only hope is to meet the fans halfway. You can't fool us anymore. The information is widely available and you're no longer the gatekeepers.


Lupica also doesn't know the meaning of the words "irony" and "moralizing":

"You think any of the people accusing Hall of Fame voters of being judgmental and self-righteous about steroid users ever process how judgmental and self-righteous they’re being?

Of course that would involve a level of self-awareness — or at least irony — that is almost impossible to find in the media sometimes.

But it really is my favorite part of the whole process, the moralizers accusing anybody who disagrees with them … of moralizing!"


Lupica is accusing others in his field of lacking self-awareness ... and I just spit coffee all over my laptop.


I will briefly take the bait here and explain what Lupica chooses not to see.

It's difficult to address Lupica's non-specific grievances, because they are non-specific. All HOF voters are individuals and so are their critics. But I'll try to explain the other side in general terms.


1. HOF voters are often inconsistent and perplexing.

2. HOF voters use steroids as an excuse to exclude players they don't like. That's not a valid anti-cheater ethical position.

3. HOF voters invoke the morals clause when it comes to surly interviewees who used steroids. Meanwhile, the HOF is full of racists, wife beaters, drug users, and cheaters.

It's OK if HOF voters are judgmental and moralizing. The problem is, their judgment is off and their moralizing is insincere.

Mike Piazza took steroids and he is not the first steroid user to make the Hall of Fame.

So when the headline shouts "no juice," the headline is incorrect.

I don't know for sure that Piazza took steroids, but I'm not an idiot. I don't have to prove it in a Court of Law, I just have to intelligently observe what is right in front of my face.

For 100 years, human beings were not blasting baseballs 450 feet to the opposite field, and then suddenly a 65th-round draft pick is doing it on the regular.


Next year will be interesting not because of Manny (no chance), but because of writer favorite Pudge Rodriguez throwing things for a loop. A 'roid-head who didn't actually hit an unseemly number of HRs and who was an "old school" favorite for a long time. So we'll see how dedicated the voters are to their dubious anti-'roid principles.


This blurb also caught my eye:

"Starting pitchers Curt Schilling (39.2% to 52.3%) and Mike Mussina (24.6% to 43%) and longtime Seattle DH Edgar Martinez (27.0% to 43.4%) also made sizable gains from last year."

Edgar Martinez at age 37: .324/423/.579, 37 HRs, 145 RBIs, 31 doubles, 100 runs.

Ken Griffey Jr. at age 37: .277/.372/.496, 30 HRs, 93 RBIs, 24 doubles, 78 runs.


Edgar Martinez at age 40: .296/.406/.489, 24 HRs, 98 RBIs, 25 doubles, 72 runs.

Ken Griffey Jr. at age 40: .184/.250/.204, 0 HRs, 7 RBIs, 0 doubles, 6 runs, quit baseball and drove home to Florida in the middle of a road trip.


So when you make a case for Edgar Martinez's HOF candidacy, you are making a case for a man who used PEDs.

Without the benefit of PEDs, 37-year-old men playing professional baseball don't hit 37 HRs and drive in 145 runs.


I'm not saying in the history of the world, no one else has accomplished this. Hank Aaron also accomplished this. Babe Ruth.

There might be somebody else, like, in the history of baseball ... Honus Wagner won a batting title at age 37 in 1911 ... led the league in an unheard-of stat now known as OPS.

So that's three in the history of baseball who were pretty darned good, and I didn't find anybody else, though my search wasn't particularly exhaustive ... and those three are among the game's ultimate immortals ... and Edgar Martinez was probably the best of the bunch at age 37 ... and I didn't check Edgar's steroid-era contemporaries, because I know a lot of them were putting up extraordinary numbers late in their careers.

C'mon, man. Think about it.


We shouldn't be ashamed to use our brains. That's what they're there for.

Piazza took PEDs, Edgar took PEDs, lots of players during this time period took PEDs.

Please, when you vote these people into the HOF, at least do it with your eyes wide open.

Actual baseball.

"Only Aroldis Chapman and the mother of his child know what happened last fall when Chapman allegedly roughed up this young woman and fired off some shots in his garage and eventually had her hiding in the bushes outside their home.

Nobody knows how Major League Baseball, because of new penalties relating to domestic violence, will deal with Chapman, and whether he will start his Yankee career suspended."

Excellent investigative journalism. "Nobody knows anything, before or after reading my column."


"But what we know for sure about Mr. Chapman is this:

In a pretty short amount of time, we have now gone from Mariano Rivera to him."

Of all the projected cataclysms that faced the mid-2010s Yankees, the replacement of Mariano Rivera has gone ridiculously smoothly.

Remember Rafael Soriano? 42 saves in 2012. 2.26 ERA. David Robertson 39 saves and 3.08 ERA in 2014. Miller, of course, was great last year, with support from Betances and others.

So Chapman will be the fourth primary closer for the Yankees since 2011 who is not Mariano Rivera. So far, so good.


Before I get to strategic baseball discussions that fans care about, let me fully address Chapman's potential character problems: Shrug.


Now on to actual baseball:

1) The Yankee bullpen was already their strength. I think it's sometimes wise to enhance a strength rather than focus on fixing a deficiency.

2) Most observers agree that Girardi's biggest strength is bullpen management. Cashman likely had this in mind when he made this decision to align his team's roster strengths with his manager's strengths.

3) It's time to change the game. Six-man rotations, 25 starts, 5 or 6 innings per start, stay fresh for September and the playoffs.

I know the old school will mock the idea of 150 innings, but it's not so much a matter of toughness or injury avoidance, it's a matter of effectiveness.

The Mets also have an effective model with a deep starting staff. But think about how hard it is to assemble a team like that and how tenuous their success is, even with lots of youth and depth. You expect starting pitchers to go on the DL nowadays.

Relief pitchers are fungible (like that word?).

The league is going to move in this direction, anyways. The Yankees ought to beat everybody else to the punch.

Yankees will probably trade Miller and Gardner to the Mets for Wheeler.

Just kidding.

But a man who works for the Daily News proposed this nonsense ... and this man is paid money to publicly express his observations regarding professional sports.

As for my personal opinion, I don't think Wheeler is all that good, anyway.

Of course Griffey should get 100 percent of the votes.

"It might actually happen. With 112 ballots made public so far in the BBWAA vote for the Hall of Fame, Ken Griffey Jr. has been named on all of them. While around 350 ballots remain to be seen, there’s a chance one of the finest baseball players of his generation could go into Cooperstown, for the first time, with 100 percent of the vote."

If not Griffey, then Jeter may be the first to finally break this tradition.

Not to say that this means that either of them are the greatest player ever ... it's just a tradition that isn't cute or interesting anymore.

I can't think of one instance where Brian Cashman made an excuse for a bad acquistion.

"But there are worst-case scenarios as well, and the Yankees made this deal without knowing exactly what those could be. Perhaps it's a suspension far beyond expectation. Or the emergence of charges or more evidence or incident reports or cell-phone video. Or something the Yankees haven't even considered. The circumstances with NFL players Ray Rice and Greg Hardy demonstrated that,"

I guess.

How much are the Yankees on the hook for?

All of these contracts are risky, by definition.



"The prudent choice would've been to follow the Dodgers and Red Sox's lead and back away from Chapman, even at the discounted price. The Yankees didn't have to have Chapman, just as the Dodgers didn't have to pair him with Kenley Jansen. With the free-agent market prices seemingly frozen and quality players still unsigned, there could be other cost-conscious ways for the team to get better in the weeks ahead.

But the Yankees made their choice with eyes wide open. And in so doing, they knowingly forfeited all rights to excuses if this turns out badly because of off-field problems."

Oh no.

Not that.

Anything but that.

I think it's the best ever.

Of course, it's all potential at this point.

Five-Inning Games

I like the acquisition. Sometimes, it's wise to enhance your existing strengths rather than focus on your weaknesses.

Right on cue ...

... the case for Larry Walker.

Not so sure he makes a compelling argument here, but I'd still expect more consideration for Walker:

"Let's deal with the elephant in the room when it comes to Walker -- the 10 seasons he spent playing half of his games a mile high in Denver. Did all of that time at Coors Field boost Walker's numbers? Absolutely. He hit an astronomical .381/.462/.710 (1.172 OPS) in 597 career games at Coors.

But keep two things in mind. First, most players perform better at home. For example, Major League batters had a .739 home OPS in 2015, compared with .704 on the road. Second, Walker still was an excellent hitter away from his home park. During his nine full seasons with the Rockies, he produced an .890 road OPS, and his career .865 mark is 39th all-time among players with 1,000 road games. Griffey, a lock for induction this year, notched an .860. And when Walker was at his absolute best, in 1997, he hit .346/.443/.733 with 29 homers in 75 road games, slightly better than he did at home. So no, he wasn't just a product of altitude."

Pivoting off a HOF article ...

... which includes a pic of an actual HOF ballot ... I'm surprised Larry Walker doesn't get more consideration.

The home/road splits probably explain it.

But then I wonder if anyone who plays in Colorado will every make the HOF.


If you really care about Jerry Crasnick's vote, then you can read the rest of the article. He voted for Bonds and Clemens.

The Mets choked in the World Series.

"What, the grace period is over already with the Mets?"

Says the guy who just explained why Coughlin is going to get fired, even if the Giants beat the undefeated Panthers. I think that's what he said, please forgive me for scanning it.

Says the guy who has already anointed Porzingis.

Point being, Lupica is a typical modern media short-attention-span idiot who suddenly wants to put the monster back into its cage.

There is no grace period. The grace period for "MVP" Yoenis Cespedes lasted less than one month; the grace period for Daniel Murphy lasted less than one week; the grace period for Terry Collins lasted less than one game.


"You know the moment I’ll remember most in New York sports, before the last night of the baseball season went wrong?"

You gave it away when you said baseball ... so I'm going to guess it wasn't an Islanders game ... I'll go with the Mets?


"I’ll remember what it felt like and sounded like at Citi Field when the Mets were still ahead in Game 5, and they were three outs away from going back to Kansas City.

I’ll remember what it felt like and sounded like when Matt Harvey came out of the dugout to pitch the top of the 9th, because I would have done the same thing Terry Collins did that night, and send him the hell out there."

Ha ha ha.

How arrogant: "I would have done the same thing."

Because world-renowned baseball strategist Mike Lupica would have done the same thing, then no one can question the wisdom of the strategy. Mike Lupica and his 20 Championship rings.


"Harvey walked the leadoff guy, of course, and should have been gone right there.

Before long Duda was throwing wide and Hosmer was on his way home, and you know what happened later.

The other team was just better.

Not a lot better.

Just enough."

Harvey choked and Collins choked.

That's what choking is.

It's when you lose because the importance of the moment gets the best of you.


"This was still the October — and November — when we officially got the Mets back.

This was the time in baseball New York when Citi Field finally sounded the way old Shea did across the parking lot.

It would have been great to win it all, of course it would, are you kidding?"

The Yankees almost beat the Red Sox in 2004. It would have been great to win it all, of course it would, are you kidding?


"But how could you ever walk away feeling like losers after a run like that?"

Because the Royals scored more runs than the Mets.

Two guys I don't want to listen to right now.

Pete Rose shrugging off his continued gambling on baseball:

"And so, as Rose sat here listening to his lawyers paint a picture that he's a changed man and Rose himself declare that he's 'a good man,' baseball's banished hit king acted like it was no big deal at all that he's still betting ... still betting on baseball.

That admittance to Manfred was part of the reason why his ban wasn't lifted.

Proving he still doesn't get it, Rose explained, 'I worked hard my whole life. I'm 74 years old and that's the way I get my enjoyment.' "


CC Sabathia talking about MLB pitchers cashing in with huge contracts:

"As for the big contracts being handed out this year, well, he loves it.

'I think it's fantastic,' Sabathia said, then laughed. 'I mean, what can you say? Opt-out clauses and all that. I think it's part of the game. These guys are working hard and throwing a lot of innings. I hope it kind of stays where it is, or gets better.' "

When the player to be named later turns out to be Brendan Ryan ...

... that tips the scales.

Castro is relatively cheap and the Yankees didn't give up much.

Should sign it "Royals in five."

The first place team in the AL East just lost their best starting pitcher.

... and this would force Cashman's hand because why?:

"Armed with owner John Henry’s deep pockets and permission to spend, team president Dave Dombrowski alerted the Yankees and the AL East that, after two straight last-place finishes, the Red Sox are hell-bent on rising to the top of the division David Price helped the Blue Jays win last season.

The Red Sox and Price, the stud lefty free agent, agreed Tuesday on a seven-year deal for $217 million, the richest contract in history for a pitcher.

...

'No reaction,' general manager Brian Cashman said Tuesday evening when asked how Price going to the Red Sox affects the Yankees."

Well, there ya go.

Value Proposition

I'm not sure if it costs money to be an ESPN Insider.

Maybe it's free and ESPN uses your demographic information for marketing.

Without ESPN Insider, I can only view the following:

1) A detailed analysis of Buster Olney's #1 free agent shortstop.

2) A summary of Buster Olney's #2 free agent shortstop.

If you want a detailed analysis of Brandon Crawford and the rest of the list, you can't get it unless you're an insider.

But why would anyone give a damn about Buster Olney's list of free agent shortstops?

Why would anyone become an ESPN Insider when this kind of slop is the bait?

Life must be tough.

No, Comcast, no. Please don't remove the YES Network or I'll miss out on the choice programming.

This is a very stupid propostion.

If losing was the same as winning, then there is no reason to keep score:

"We’re crawling up on a month since the Royals tore up the final act of the Mets’ splendid season, which means we probably are inching toward the day when Mets fans can come to what should be the only conclusion about the 2015 season: It was just about as satisfying as a season can possibly be. Except for the ending."

Yeah, well ...  it's all about the happy ending.

  
"In a lot of ways, fans of every team in New York take their cues from Yankees fans, who have been schooled by their team to find anything short of a championship unacceptable. And that simply is not the way it should be."

I can defend the thrill of the journey, and I don't think anything short of a championship is unacceptable.

But you play to win the game. It's the best thing about sports.


"Sometimes, yes: Teams that fall shy of championships fall shy of that which was expected for them, and so the tinge of disappointment should be there. But that’s the exception."

Only one team can win the championship. So 29 out of 30 teams in baseball will fall short of that strict standard. But that still means 29 out of 30 should feel at least a tinge of disappointment, for crying out loud. Professional pride requires it.


"Here are eight of our teams from the past 25 years who didn’t win titles but did (or should have) made their fans every bit as happy as the first team on our list."

A preposterous notion that does not require further dissection.

If the Mets fulfill their potential, then this 2015 season will be seen as the start of something great. If not, it's just the 2007 Rockies or a million other almost teams ... that didn't quite achieve the, err, happy ending.




This sentence ought to make every Mets fan vomit:

"Bill Parcells famously said there’s no medals for trying in pro sports, but the ’15 Mets make a compelling argument that sometimes there ought to be."

Have a ticker tape pardade for the Mets, why don't you? The Yankees, too, because they made the playoffs.


Check out this blurb about the 2001 Yankees:

"6. 2001 Yankees
It wasn’t just the emotion of the time, it was the grittiness of the team. By Game 7 of the World Series the Yankees were running on fumes and muscle memory and little else, and yet it almost was enough: They came as close as is humanly possible to winning a fourth straight title — and covered themselves in glory more completely than many of the teams of that era that went the distance."


For what it's worth? I can't imagine a Yankee fan celebrating the 2001 almost World Series.

It was a memorable season and exciting series. But Yankees lost ... the Diamondbacks were the winners and the Yankees were the losers. It's really that simple.

Nobody watches baseball.

"But last week, when Comcast blacked out YES, leaving its more than 900,000 subscribers in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania in the dark, the initial propaganda blast wasn’t just directed at Fox-owned YES, but also its programming jewel — the Yankees. Comcast said that, over the course of the 2015 season, most of its subscribers were tuning out the Bombers.

...

This amounts to not very well-disguised double talk. What Comcast is saying is that, for whatever reason, whether it be a lack of marquee stars or a boring style of play, the product the Yankees put on the field is not compelling.

Worse still, Comcast is saying the Yankees, the most storied franchise in all of sports, have become irrelevant to its subscribers."

It's a contract negotiation tactic, not an assessment of the team.

Nobody tuned out the regular season Yankee games because nobody was tuning in to the regular season Yankee games to begin with.

No wonder when I go to work and talk about the games, nobody knows what I'm talking about.

2015 AL MVP

The 2015 AL MVP poll ... wherein we learn that one sportswriter could not think of ten AL players more valuable than Brian McCann ... and another sportswriter could not think of ten AL players more valuable than Alex Rodriguez ... and another could not think of ten AL players more valuable than Mark Teixeira.

BBWAA

Name	Points
Josh Donaldson	385
Mike Trout	304
Lorenzo Cain	225
Manny Machado	158
Dallas Keuchel	107
Nelson Cruz	94
Adrian Beltre	83
Jose Bautista	82
David Price	62
Jose Altuve	44
Miguel Cabrera	40
Edwin Encarnacion	38
Prince Fielder	33
Chris Davis	32
J.D. Martinez	18
Jason Kipnis	17
Kevin Kiermaier	10
Kendrys Morales	7
Chris Sale	4
Mookie Betts	4
Jose Abreu	3
Ian Kinsler	3
Mike Moustakas	3
Carlos Correa	2
Brian McCann	2
Eric Hosmer	2
Russell Martin	2
Michael Brantley	1
Wade Davis	1
Brian Dozier	1
David Ortiz	1
Alex Rodriguez	1
Mark Teixeira	1

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
Josh Donaldson	19
Mike Trout	13
Lorenzo Cain	2
Prince Fielder	2
Dallas Keuchel	2
Jose Altuve	1
Jose Bautista	1
Adrian Beltre	1

2015 NL MVP

BBWAA

Name	Points
Bryce Harper	420
Paul Goldschmidt	234
Joey Votto	175
Anthony Rizzo	162
Andrew McCutchen	139
Jake Arrieta	134
Zack Greinke	130
Nolan Arenado	102
Buster Posey	84
Clayton Kershaw	49
Kris Bryant	34
Matt Carpenter	26
Yoenis Cespedes	24
A.J. Pollock	21
Jason Heyward	15
Dee Gordon	6
Trevor Rosenthal	5
Curtis Granderson	4
Gerrit Cole	3
Adrian Gonzalez	3

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
Bryce Harper	14
Jake Arrieta	6
Buster Posey	6
Paul Goldschmidt	5
Andrew McCutchen	4
Anthony Rizzo	3
Joey Votto	2
Zack Greinke	1

2015 NL Cy Young

BBWAA

Name	Points
Jake Arrieta	169
Zack Greinke	147
Clayton Kershaw	101
Gerrit Cole	40
Max Scherzer	32
Madison Bumgarner	8
Jacob deGrom	7
Mark Melancon	5
John Lackey	1

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
Jake Arrieta	19
Zack Greinke	13
Clayton Kershaw	8
Gerrit Cole	3

2015 AL Cy Young

Not too many Felz voters this year, but here are the comparative results:

BBWAA

Name	Points
Dallas Keuchel	186
David Price	143
Sonny Gray	82
Chris Sale	30
Chris Archer	29
Wade Davis	10
Felix Hernandez	9
Colin McHugh	5
Corey Kluber	4
Marco Estrada	3
Andrew Miller	3
Shawn Tolleson	3
Carlos Carrasco	2
Dellin Betances	1

 Felz Poll

Name	Points
David Price	18
Dallas Keuchel	14
Sonny Gray	4
Felix Hernandez	3
Chris Archer	1
Edinson Volquez	1

.232 hitter wins Silver Slugger Award.

Well, duh.

This guy wants to trade Teixeira.

This guy inexplicably thinks this will save the Yankees $23 million.

Because this guy inexplicably thinks there is a trading partner willing to take on Teixeira's entire salary.

I am so pleased the Yankees had a boring reaction the the Mets' World Series appearance.

No Steinbrenner-esque grab for the headlines or splashy free agent signings:

"Yet even their glorious past cannot rescue the Bombers from exile into unfamiliar territory. The Mets now control the media landscape the Yankees have owned for many moons. Commanding the spotlight is extremely beneficial to the bottom line, especially when it comes to selling tickets and producing TV ratings.

And that’s what this game is really about."

Cool.

If that's what the game is really about, then the Yankees beat the Mets in 2015.

They also beat the Mets head-to-head on the field in 2015.

They call that the Subway Series and hype it up. In 2016, the Yankees will be underdogs and the Mets will be under-performing fat cats.

 
"The Mets are well on their way to doing just that. While their average season rating on SNY did not surpass the Bombers’ average on YES (2.76, 259,223 total viewers), it was the Mets’ most watched season since 2010.

The Mets are positioned to surpass those numbers in 2016. Along with a high-beam spotlight comes the ability to capture the floaters, aka front-running fans. They are not vocal (no first-time-callers/ longtime morons among them) but their ranks are large."

Their ranks are small ... and, once again, the ratings indicate that nobody watches baseball on TV.

If the Mets lose Cespedes to free agency and start off the season 12-14, then the "floaters" will go watch "Better Call Saul."


"Their only loyalty is to winning. And they have been following the Yankees, whether it be purchasing tickets or tuning in to YES. Now this fickle core sees what the Metropolitans have done and they, too, want to invest in the Mets future.

Of course the Bombers will survive. And there’s every chance that, once the season starts, they will thrive.

Still, it’s got to feel strange in the Bronx. For the New York Yankees, the brand with all that history and tradition, are now officially flying under the radar."


"Even though the entire Daily News sports writing staff will be rooting against the Yankees, there is every chance that, once the season starts, the Yankees will thrive."

There are some pretty obvious flaws in Raissman's logic ... if the "floaters" are loyal to winning, then why have they been following the Yankees and tuning into YES? The Yankees have not won a playoff game since 2012.

The fickle core is not a core. It's a fickle periphery.

The fans stay with their team. It's just that dormant Mets fans wake up and buy brand new Daniel Murphy Lip Balm because their team is advancing in the playoffs.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about this guy.

It was just, "going to rehab" ... and the Yankees are out of the playoffs ... and then nobody cares about you or your rehab.

Say "almost" again. I dare someone to say "almost" again.

"He'd struck out nine Royals, and he'd delivered a mid-game stretch of six consecutive outs on whiffs. He'd given up four singles over eight shutout innings and 102 pitches and, of equal consequence, he'd carried himself like a man possessed by a redemptive spirit, releasing primal screams during the game and even encouraging the packed house at Citi Field to pump up the noise."

Redemptive and primal.


"Towel slung over his shoulder, Harvey was some fire-breathing sight in that dugout as he confronted his manager, ordering him to send him out for the ninth so he could shove that innings-limit fiasco down the haters' throats once and for all.

'He's been through a tough summer,' Collins would say. The people in the stands? They'd been through a lot of tough summers with the Mets, and now nearly 45,000 of them were chanting, 'We want Harvey.' "

You know?

If Collins had just sent his starter out there because he trusted his starter more than he trusted his closer?

That would be perfectly understandable.


"How could Collins not listen to them, the same fans who stood and cheered for a middling player, Wilmer Flores, on the July night everyone thought he'd been traded? The same fans who had traveled to Los Angeles and Chicago to watch their long-shot Mets advance in the postseason? The same fans the 66-year-old Collins had hugged and kissed and sprayed with champagne on this once-in-a-career carpet ride to the World Series?"

How could the manager of a baseball team not listen to the fans in the stands?

Is that a rhetorical question? Or is this just Opposite Day?


"It was the right call at the right time, no matter what Collins said in his news conference after this soul-crushing 12-inning defeat was complete."

Soul-crushing is not primal or redemptive.


"Sometimes, good managing and good coaching mean listening to your very best players. At the time Harvey dramatically raced from the dugout to the mound, inspiring an eruption in the stands, how many witnesses truly thought this was a bad idea?"

I agree.

But what about after the walk to the first batter?

Collins actually said that he couldn't take him out after just one batter. I had no idea that was a thing.


"Murphy? Thanks for disappearing at the plate and for turning the art of infield defense into a dark and ill-timed comedy.

Duda? What the hell kind of throw was that?

Familia? Was that Game 1 quick pitch to Alex Gordon really necessary?

Yoenis Cespedes? Do you actually think the Mets are going to offer you a nine-figure contract after playing the outfield and running the bases as if you were goofing around at some celebrity softball event?

Collins? Even your wife ripped you for wasting Familia in a Game 3 blowout and then refusing to use him for six outs in Game 4.

In win-or-else New York, this is often the time to strike down on the Mets with an unforgiving hand. To remind them they night never get another shot at this. To shred them for having all those young-stud arms and, you know, for still not getting it done."

New York is not the only place that's win-or-else.

The 2014 NL Manager of the Year was Matt Williams.

Collins got his contract extension, well-deserved, I suppose. He'll learn quickly what happens if his team doesn't win the World Series.

The thing is, it was an easy play.

I have a proposition, an unprovable idea, a hypothesis of sorts, if you will indulge me.

Murphy charges the ball, flips to first, runners move up.

Next KC batter gets a hit, drives in two, Royals win 4-3:

"The ball was bouncing slowly across the infield grass, and all of Citi Field was thinking about what might happen next. This was an out — not an easy play, but certainly an out — which meant the Mets would be just four outs away from evening this World Series.

Then second baseman Daniel Murphy charged at the roller and tilted his glove toward the infield, just a few inches from scraping the dirt. Just enough space for a baseball to find its way through.

Just enough room to make 44,815 hearts sink.

Because this was not an out. This was an error, one of the most devastating in Mets history. Instead of coming to the ballpark on Sunday with a chance to move one victory away from a victory parade in lower Manhattan, the Mets need a win just to stay alive.

...

Again: It wasn't an easy play, but it was one Murphy had to make. When the ball slid under his glove, Zobrist sprinted around from second to score, and the game was tied."

Turning two would have been exceedingly difficult. I'm not sure if any 2b/ss combo could have turned two.

But why was this not an easy play?

Here, watch it again.

It was fundamentally unsound. Which the Mets are.

Murphy said later (something to the effect of) he should have used two hands and gotten in front of it. Which is true. Which he should have been practicing fielding for the past nine years.

Mets' infield defensive liability hasn't cost them until tonight.

So says Gary Cohen ... apparently forgetting all about David Wright's throwing error which put the winning run on base in Game One.

They don't know what old school really is, so they think they're old school.

No need to invoke Gibson and Drysdale and old school yarns of days gone by. No, the proper reference is right across the Hudson River a mere 15 years ago.

Mike Piazza lying on his back, staring into the sky, blinking; Clemens on the mound, hands on his knees, pretending to give a damn.

Mets fans are experts on high and tight fastballs is all I'm saying.


Or one can look back a few weeks ago, when Mets fans wanted to put Old School Utley in jail. A forgotten play because the Mets beat the Dodgers ... and a quick quiz would reveal Mets "fans" in shiny new orange-n-blue hats couldn't name the injured Mets shortstop if Chris Carlin offered them $100 on Beer Money.

Syndergaard is right: if the Royals don't like it, then they ought to fight ... or, better yet, win the game.

Just like if Tejada doesn't like getting slid into, then he ought to get out of the way.


Syndergaard was fine. Six innings, three runs, and, most importantly, the win. He pitched about as well as Harvey and deGrom. Starting pitchers often look better when their offense scores nine runs, but, whatever.


The thing is: if the first pitch was really so intimidating, why did the Royals bat .600 and score three runs the first time through the lineup?

Gimme a break.

Brutal Game 1 loss could mean quick finish for Mets in World Series.

 

After Harper rings the alarm bells, I feel more confident than ever that the World Series will go seven games.

DeGrom, Syndergaard, and Harvey still start five out of the next six games.

He's the saddest boy in the world :-(

Exclusive: Stop the presses! Sports memorabilia practitioner behaves in unethical manner towards its customers!

I googled.

Lupica + Agbayani found this gem, and I was right. It's the same article:

"After all the heroes of the Mets season, they needed one to step in now against the Yankees. And so Benny Agbayani did that. He had hit in every single postseason game the Mets had played before last night. He had been the hero of Game 3 against the Giants, in the bottom of the 13th. Now it was him against El Duque, on the night when El Duque was trying to get to 9-0 for his postseason career. It was Benny against El Duque in the bottom of the eighth, Todd Zeile on first, the game tied at 2-2. Benny hit one between David Justice and Bernie Williams, hit one hard in the alley. He is part Hawaiian on his mother's side, part Portuguese, part Irish. His father is part Filipino, Chinese, Spanish. In a Subway Series, he was a perfect New Yorker, a melting pot all by himself, suddenly he was the most important guy in town. Justice and Williams chased the ball, Zeile ran all the way home, and now the Mets were ahead 3-2 in Game 3. Bubba Trammell came on later, Bubba, who tried to be the Met hero of Game 1, hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2. This time Armando Benitez, protecting a lead of two runs instead of one, did the job. The Mets got a game off the Yankees last night, at last. Maybe we can get the Series we want, after all. Benny Agbayani, a perfect New Yorker, gave us a shot last night, with a shot up the alley in the eighth.

...

But now Zeile worked a walk out of him and then it was once again Benny's turn in the postseason. Another Game 3 for him. He hit a shot past Justice and Williams. All the way to the wall. Mets 3, Yankees 2. ONE HUNDRED AND ONE wins were about to become one hundred and two for Valentine's Mets. Shea made a sound in the night, a minute before midnight, that said it wasn't dead yet. Neither were the Mets. If they can win tonight, they are even with the Yankees."

Root much?


Lupica + Josh Satin doesn't reveal much. In fact, a felzball entry is near the top of the google search.

I distinctly remember Lupica hyping up Satin on the radio. Because I almost drove my car off the road. Maybe not so much in print.

Wolf! Wolf!

The Colorado Rockies will win the World Series next year.

If they don't, I will keep predicting that they will.

Over the course of several decades, I may end up being correct:

"So you know the Royals will come into Game 1 on Tuesday night thinking that this is every bit their time in baseball, as they try to win their first World Series since 1985 the way the Mets try to win their first since ‘86, especially after the way the Royals won Game 6 against the Blue Jays on Friday night, Lorenzo Cain running the bases the way Junior Griffey ran the bases against the Yankees in another October."

Yes, every team that goes into the World Series is on a roll and every team feels like a team of destiny.

You brought up an anti-Yankee moment from 20 years ago and compared two plays that were actually very dissimilar. Other than the fact that both plays had baseball players score runs via running around the bases.

But, you know ... good job. So stupid ...

• Donaldson struck out looking and it reminded me of Beltran taking a third strike against the Cardinals.
• A guy hit a HR and it reminded me of the time that Molina hit that HR to beat the Mets.
• Some pitcher walked a guy and it reminded me of the time Kenny Rogers walked in the winning run against the Braves.

"Still: It is the Mets who come into this World Series as the best and most complete team in baseball, with the best starting pitching in this world."

I think this is inaccurate.

The Mets won 90 games in a terrible division. The Mets absolutely earned their trip to the World Series. They beat the Nationals head to head, they beat the Dodgers, they humiliated the Cubs.

I don't think they're the best and most complete team in baseball, even after their July acquisitions.

The defense is average at best, the lineup is streaky at best, the "bridge" to Familia is non-existent. It wouldn't shock me if the Mets win the World Series. It also wouldn't shock me if the Royals' lineup handles the Mets' starting pitching and then destroys the Mets' middle relievers.


"They come into Tuesday night riding the same kind of wave that the Giants did the last time they won a Super Bowl, after they were 7-7 that time. And by the time those Giants made it to Lucas Oil Stadium, 7-7 didn’t matter anymore the way the Mets being just two games over .500 with 60 games to play doesn’t matter now."

Right.

The New York Giants.

I thought for sure, up until the point it said Super Bowl, that this was a baseball comparison. I thought it was going to say "the same kind of wave that the Giants did last year with Bumgarner ..."

So now, instead of pointlessly comparing two dissimilar baseball plays 20 years apart, we're comparing two different sports.



"The waiting was hard and mean, especially in baseball New York. The Yankees have only won one Series of their own since ’06. But there was the powerful idea, built over so many playoff seasons for the Yankees over the last 20 years, that not only was this their town now, but always would be."

A made-up idea you have been fighting against for 20 years.

So when it finally comes true, guess what? You don't get any credit for making that prediction.

Because, if it took twenty freaking years? That's indistinguishable from forever, for all intents and purposes.


"Only that changes, and maybe for a long time. Because whatever your rooting interest is, if you had to bet your own money right now, you would bet it on the Mets."

So?

What?

I mean, this is the moment you've supposedly been waiting for.

The Yankees are offering no resistance, but they've never been the enemy. This is a prison of your own making. You could fly the whole time, Dumbo.


Besides, baseball analysis-wise? ... the long-forgotten supposed job of baseball journalists? ... one can easily look at the Yankees' future with optimism, independently of the Mets.

The Yankees can quietly build a good team with unheralded promising young players and it would be a dream come true if Lupica crushed on Daniel Murphy for a while instead of Alex Rodriguez.

The worst thing the Yankees can do right now is react to this so-called rivalry with the Mets. Try to get media attention by making a splash. The Yankees are going to have their hands full with Toronto and other AL East teams for a few more years while they wait for all these long-term contracts to finally expire.

  
"There it was last Sunday night after Game 2 against the Cubs when the loud, cold night had finally ended, and I was with the crowd of people coming down the stairs and out into the parking lot, shouting 'Let’s Go Mets!' as they headed for their cars or for trains, some of the crowd heading towards Roosevelt Ave. and the rest hooking a left up 126th.

And in that moment, you could remember what it was like in this same parking lot when the ‘86 Mets were as big as any New York baseball team had ever been, and people were filing down those old, narrow ramps and out of old Shea; when the huge October swings came from Strawberry and Dykstra and Kid Carter and Ray Knight and Keith Hernandez, the way they come from Daniel Murphy now, and Curtis Granderson, and Yoenis Cespedes."

 What were you expecting when your team makes the World Series?

Toronto hadn't even made the playoffs in 22 years. The Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908. The Royals made the WS last year, of course, but their playoff drought was 29 years.

Are fans in KC sitting on their hands, or something? Does their enthusiasm somehow denigrate the enthusiasm of, say, Cardinals fans?


My gripe is something like this: I am certainly not dismissing the genuine enthusiasm of genuine Mets fans. I'm dismissing the notion that this enthusiasm is somehow unique to the Mets, unique to New York City, that Mets fans in particular are "long-suffering."

I keep hearing, "We've never seen this before," as if Mike Piazza and Edgardo Alfonzo and Robin Ventura and Endy Chavez. never existed. How come nobody remembers Edgardo Alfonzo?

I recall a short-lived Benny Agbayani Obsession. Because: Playoffs! I could probably google Lupica + Agbayani and find the same article from 15 years ago (Lupica + Josh Satin would be truly terrifying).

 
"There is never any timetable for a moment like this, at Citi Field or anywhere else. There was no timetable for the Giants that time. Then Eli Manning threw one to Victor Cruz and by the time Cruz stopped running it was a 99-yard touchdown play against the Jets.

That was no fluke. Neither is this. There are no straight lines in sports, especially not to the Canyon of Heroes."

OK, not sure why it's necessary to cross-pollinate sports moments.

The 2015 Mets have a very obvious NY baseball analogy and that is the 1996 Yankees. Ahead of schedule, young players, fan base surprised by their playoff success, etc.

If it's important to gauge the relative enthusiasm of New York's two baseball teams, then you can't do this in 2015 because the Yankees aren't good enough. I don't think Yankee fans were, you know, quietly exiting the Stadium in October 2000, bored with their third title in a row :-(


"I love when people who didn’t watch five Mets games during the regular season tell you with great certainty why they are now going all the way, baby!"

I love when journalists who didn't watch five Mets games during the regular season tell you with great certainty why they are now the best baseball team on the planet.

What about the other 50 weeks per year?

1. Don't spend one public dime on this idea.
2. There are about a million venues where people can get together to watch sports.
3. The racial/societal tensions in NYC? Please don't realy on the vicissitudes of a sports team to address these important issues.

Do not read the comments section if you feel the need to retain the illusion of a properly educated populace in a representative democracy.

One guy does say that he doesn't flaunt his heterosexuality and he's sick and tired of homosexual flaunting their sexuality and shoving their sexuality down his throat.

Assuming this is a Freudian slip, and the chances that it's not a Freudian slip are close to zero, and he's worried about the discomfort of homosexuals shoving things down his throat, I've heard that Chloraseptic (TM) helps and, oddly enough, squeezing your left thumb.

Doesnt like ARod, doesn't see irony.

"Of the thousands of baseball players and experts Fox Sports could have selected to appear on its postseason shows, it picked the worst."

They might be the next-to-worst, but they couldn't be the worst.


"It chose the most notorious, earnest and purposeful cheater to ever play the game. It chose the man whose name is synonymous with performance-enhancing drugs. It chose A-Rod."

I don't think he's the most notorious, earnest, or purposeful cheater to ever play the game by any means.

Though decades' worth of cheaters appreciate your willingness to let them off the hook.


"Alex Rodriguez, who admitted to using steroids from 2001-03 and then was suspended for the entire 2014 season for his big role in the Biogenesis scandal, isn’t just any old baseball steroids guy. He is the guy."

Except he isn't.

Take the Mets. Their emerging superstar closer who hasn't allowed a run in the postseason.

He is the Mets' backup closer.

Can you even name the Mets' primary closer? The guy who was suspended for repeated steroid use?

Not that Mejia is more famous than ARod, but that is Christine Brennan's fault.


"Congratulations, Fox. What a terrible message this sends to children — if kids actually watched playoff baseball games anymore."

I believe that children are our future.

Prohibit them from exposure to ARod and they will lead the way.


"Experts say the use of performance-enhancing drugs by kids in high school sports has reached epidemic proportions. Seeing superstars suspended or hauled before Congress can act as a deterrent to these kids. Seeing them propped up on pregame shows as faux stars does not."

If seeing superstars suspended or hauled before Congress can act as a deterrent to these kids, then how did PED use by kids in high school reach epidemic proportions?

The Congressional hearings were, like, 10 years ago.

ARod became an analyst on Fox Sports, like, yesterday.


"Perhaps next year, Fox can put together a panel featuring A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens and Rafael Palmeiro. Now that’s truly hitting for the cycle.

Fox Sports’ baseball audience is minuscule compared with the NFL’s, but that doesn’t make the network’s decision any less egregious. In fact, that’s probably why Fox did it, to try to boost ratings. It’s not a coincidence that one of Rodriguez’s fellow studio analysts is Pete Rose."

1) That sounds like an interesting panel because I haven't heard from Palmeiro in a long time.

2) I think it's a total coincidence that ARod's fellow studio analyst is Pete Rose. The link is that they're both cheaters in MLB. Other than that distinction they share with thousands of other ex-jocks, they don't have much more in common.

3) Boosting ratings is not probably why Fox Sports chose ARod to be a studio analyst ... it's the only reason. What other reason could one possibly imagine?


"For all baseball’s talk and action on the subject of PEDs, it has never taken them as seriously as the Olympic world has, and it still does not. That’s why the sport allows someone who has flouted the rules as badly as A-Rod has to still be one of the faces of the game.

This tells us that the game, and Fox Sports, will do anything to get attention.

Anything."

We wouldn't want to give any attention to ARod, would we?

Think of the children.

No.

Grown ups "should" do whatever they want:

"Stop being sour.

Yankees fans, you're upset, and we get it. Alex Rodriguez is on Fox Sports in a suit. Masahiro Tanaka just had offseason surgery. The team just dumped its second hitting coach in as many years. In the Bronx, the lights are off.

Meanwhile, Queens has been electric. The Mets own all the headlines and the back pages and they have a legitimate chance to reach the World Series.

And, Yankees fans, you should be rooting for them. Here's why:"

The particulars of the argument don't matter much.

 Fun? Sure. If you're a Mets fan.

Leadership? Sure. Starting in the playoffs when they started winning, they started demonstrating leadership. That's wonderful ... if you're a Mets fan.

The young arms? They're poised for the future it seems. If you're a Mets fan, that's encouraging.

Guts? I mean ... the bold July acquisitions would be dismissed as mercenary rentals if the Mets were losing. But they're not losing.

Sympathy? Not compared to the Cubs ... or the Royals ... or the Blue Jays, for that matter.



As for the question being posed in the first place: I don't recall Mets fans being implored to join the Yankee bandwagon in '76, '77, '78, '81, '96, '98, '99, '00 (well, that one doesn't count, of course), '01, '03, or '09.

Yankee fan allegiance is not a huge storyline around here, and it shouldn't be, but Yankees fans are sometimes being asked to join the party (what is Mike Francesa doing behind home plate at CitiField?).

"It's a New York thing and we should root for the local team."

No.

Some Yankee fans consider the Mets to be their rivals, so they will root against the Mets. Some Yankee fans (yours truly) don't really consider the Mets to be their rivals, so the proper attitude -- the respectful attitude -- is indifference.

Yankees seeking attention.

It's not about you.

Lupica steps it up on October.

"It was that way for Brian Doyle, who stepped in for Willie Randolph at second base what feels like 100 years ago and hit .438 in the 1978 World Series against the Dodgers. Of course Al Weis, another second baseman, became an unlikely home run hitter for the Mets in the ’69 World Series. And that is just the short list."

I totally have a much bigger list of unlikely NY baseball playoff heroes and that list is easily accessible to me.

I just don't want to share it with you at this time because I wouldn't want to bore you.

There was also, you know ... that guy? ... you know the one ... the guy with the thing? Yes, exactly. That's who I was thinking of. Oh, man, remember when he did that?


"Daniel Murphy, second baseman, is a better hitter and a better ballplayer than Weis was, or Doyle. But it still happens to him now. Does it ever. He has the time of his baseball life, out of the Dodgers series and right into this 2-0 lead in the National League Championship Series against the Cubs. Just like that the Mets are two games from the World Series. And half-a-dozen from winning it all."


The HRs for Murphy are a surprise for sure, but it's not as if he's the #8 hitter.

Those kinds of short-sample-size outbursts happen. They never don't happen.


"But it has been that kind of October for his son. Murphy has made it, finally, to games like the ones he is playing now, after all the empty Octobers in his career. If you are Murphy, and all you’ve ever done is watch somebody else play these games, you had to wonder what it would be like on baseball’s bright, loud, great stage. All athletes, no matter how confident, no matter how strong their faith in themselves and God, wonder what kind of game they will have when the lights get turned up."

Oh, yeah, that God comment reminds me.

Personally? I don't let him off the hook for being an anti-homosexual bigot.

So that's another reason to root for the Cubs.

Baseball is back in the Big Apple!

"Everybody knows the monster pro football has become, here and everywhere else."

Even in Singapore.

So when I say "everywhere," I don't mean "everywhere."

I'll trust the readers to fill in the blanks, read between the lines, come along with me on my linguistic journey, as I expand the meaning of words and thus expand the English language.


"Everybody knows that the Giants’ two Super Bowl wins over the Patriots feel as big as anything that has ever happened in New York sports, at least back to the ’69 Mets and Namath’s Jets."

Almost as big as when the women's soccer team won the World Cup with that lady from New Jersey.


"But then look at what has happened around here now that the Mets are back in play, with a chance to win it all. Look how much of the oxygen in the room baseball takes up even with two winning football teams over there at MetLife Stadium."

Totally valid comparison.

Baseball's semifinal round generates more interest than week 6 of the NFL season for a 3-2 Giants team ... and the conclusion is ... well, there is no conclusion. It's another example Lupica's weird allegiance to Selig.


"The Dodgers may make a splash soon by firing Don Mattingly, as if it was Mattingly’s fault that his hitters left enough runners on base in Game 5 to start a softball team."

Or a baseball team. Softball teams only have one more player. A fourth outfielder ... or, like, a fifth infielder when Lupcia is batting.

Maybe it is Mattingly's fault. Why don't you explore the situation and present some observations and facts?

It's very possible that Mattingly didn't prepare his team mentally or strategically for the playoffs. I know Girardi, for example, is content letting his all-or-nothings accumulate regular season stats that help them in contract negotiations (though nobody on the team even got 100 RBIs this year). It doesn't surprise me that Keuchel shut them down in the playoffs. Partially because Keuchel is flat-out good, but also partially because the Yankees have gotten fat and happy off of hanging curves and middle relievers. What's the backup plan? There ain't one.

I don't follow the Dodgers closely enough to praise or bury Mattingly ... neither does Lupica.


"As you ask another question:

If the Mets’ plan to get back to this moment was so cheap and dumb, how come they’re still playing this season and the Dodgers aren’t?"

The Mets have been kind of cheap and will probably continue to be cheap.

It is a perfectly good strategy if (a) you are willing to wait nine years to make the playoffs, and (b) you understand what happens when you win. Your young players hit free agency at the same time your draft position falls.

So ... is your point the Dodgers' GM is lousy? "Everbody knows that" (heh heh).

That doesn't necessarily let Mattingly off the hook.

Somebody noticed.

"In 523 at-bats, A-Rod whiffed 145 times in 2015, the most ever for a season in his career. Before '15, his highest total was 139, a number he reached twice, once in 2005 and then again '06."

Next up?

David Wright's career postseason batting average.

The Future of the Yankees.

"You want to count Monday night’s sleep-inducing 3-0 loss to the Astros as making the playoffs, go ahead. Yet the last time the Yankees played a postseason series was 2012, when the Tigers swept them out of the ALCS. Adding a second wild-card spot is the product of MLB’s marketing department to keep more teams alive in September and a very flawed concept."

George A. King III just atoned for a multitude of sins with one beautiful paragraph.


"Though Hal Steinbrenner doesn’t possess the knee-jerk gene his father did, Steinbrenner likely will make changes if 2016 is the fourth season without the Yankees playing a postseason series.

Here are five topics Girardi likely will be asked to address Friday."

Girardi is not going to find too many supporters, frankly. Suzyn Waldman isn't going to weep on the air, put it that way.


"1. What was more costly in September, losing Mark Teixeira or the way Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner played?"

Easy answer: the latter.


"Considering the Yankees’ starters aren’t likely to go from 12th in the league in innings pitched (927) to among the leaders next season with likely the same names, does the bullpen need another arm in front of Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller to go with Justin Wilson?"

I am a proponent. The game is changing. Relievers are more effective because it's an easier job, so stop relying on starters to get through the lineup four times ... or even three times.


"4. Whom does Girardi see at second base next season?"

George A. King III, I think it's just "who" instead of "whom."

I'm pretty sure the answer is Refsnyder, half a season too late. Which brings me to my digression ...



October 2012 is when Jeter broke his ankle.

The Yankees had just beaten Baltimore in the first round of the playoffs. It was exciting.


In Game One of the ALCS vs. Detroit, the Yankees scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie up the game ... Ibanez did it again!

Jeter breaks his ankle in extra innings, Yankees lose the game, Yankees get swept by Detroit.

Three years ago. Roughly 500 games ago.

The Yankees have been a boring team ever since with virtually zero realistic chance of winning the World Series.

They have finished over .500 every year and a lot of these games have been exciting for sure. At times, the Yankees have over-achieved for extended periods of time, which is nice and perhaps provides some optimism for the fans.

But I think I speak for a lot of Yankee fans when I say the team is boring and the brand is broken. We're all just waiting for the big contracts to end and the team to get a fresh start. The line about striving to win a Championship every year is stale (one whole ring since 2000?).

So the answer to every question should be the younger guy who has potential. Don't worry about the egos of ARod, Teixeira, Beltran, Sabathia, McCann, Headley. We know what they can do. It's not going to be enough.

Rolling the dice with the youngsters isn't just the best strategy, it's the only strategy.

Jeter's broken ankle was a turning point.

I think Tuesday's Wild Card loss may have been the breaking point.

I think this team needs more than a few tweaks.

Girardi is not above criticism.

"Did he misfire at times? You bet. All managers do. He likely regrets benching Jacoby Ellsbury in the wild-card game. The gamble did not work when neither Chris Young nor Brett Gardner got any hits and now, Girardi acknowledged, he may have some fence-mending to do with a player who’s on a $153-million contract. Though Girardi said he and Ellsbury 'had a great conversation about the move,' it had to be an ego sting for the big-name center fielder.

Of course, as Girardi also pointed out: 'If you played Ells would it have been better? Would it have been three runs better? I don’t know that.

'None of us knows that.'"

"Let's see ... according to my spreadsheet, the probability that Ellsbury's presence would have created three more runs is 1.57% ... but this doesn't factor into account that it was a night game and the temperature was under 65 degrees, and we all know that Ellsbury has historically under-performed by 0.25 standard deviations when the temperature is under 65 degrees."


Listen to yourself: "Three runs better, three runs better, three runs better."

That's really how you analyze the situation?

That's the best you've got?


I mean, Ellsbury's ego doesn't concern me in the least, and I think his Yankee career is salvageable if he gets healthy next year.

Don't judge Girardi by the team's performance in the Wild Card game. What about the final two months of the season? What happened to your team, dude?


It's not so much that Girardi is unable to gauge the attitude of his team, it's that he seems completely unwilling to do so ... and, in response, the team goes through the motions.

Yahoo writers make their playoff predictions.

They make these playoff predictions after the Wild Card round.

Why?

Because the Wild Card round isn't really the playoffs.

Competition

I can't believe all the whining. If you don't like it, then beat Arrieta ... or beat the Cardinals in the regular season. At least Clint Hurdle is acting like a grown man.

Girardi

"The Yankees were already well on their way to a drubbing in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday when reliever Nick Goody unleashed a pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning that the Baltimore slugger Chris Davis swung at and missed. But in a manner fitting for how the day — and the week — unfolded for the Yankees, the pitch eluded catcher John Ryan Murphy and bounced to the backstop, allowing Nolan Reimold to coast home from third.

That put the Orioles ahead by 10-2.

Or so it seemed. Because a moment later, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi signaled to the umpires that he wanted to challenge the play, believing that Goody’s pitch had nicked Davis in the foot. If it had, the play would be dead, and Reimold would have to return to third.

As it turned out, Girardi was correct.

As it also turned out, it mattered little. The Yankees lost, 9-2."

I give him credit for watching this game because I surely had tuned out. 

"Girardi led the Yankees this season, which ended quietly with a 3-0 loss to the Houston Astros in the American League wild-card game Tuesday night, in what has become his distinctive manner — chin out, homework finished and fingers itching to push the right buttons.

If Girardi seems to be forever seeking windmills at which to tilt or hills that he can push boulders up, Sisyphus-like — or pitching changes to execute — that is because that is exactly what he is doing. Tuesday’s showdown with the Astros was hardly the only game he managed this year as if the season depended on it.

Whether he has been too relentless in that approach now seems open to question, particularly because the 2015 Yankees faded as the season drew to a close. Still, he remains the man trusted to push the team as far as it can go. And as Girardi himself might point out, the 2016 season is a mere six months away."

Overall, the team exceeded expectations.

I thought Girardi failed to push the team down the stretch, actually, growing over-confident with a big lead in the AL East and an easy travel schedule.

 

"He was criticized for overusing Dellin Betances, who threw more innings than any other reliever in baseball this season, including a recent appearance against the Mets when he was called upon in the eighth inning with the Yankees ahead, 5-0. But Girardi’s small circle of trust probably affected the Yankees more on the offensive end.

Is it a coincidence that the only players who looked fresh at the end of the season were Didi Gregorius, Greg Bird and Rob Refsnyder (all 25 or younger) and 38-year-old Carlos Beltran, the only regular who was given frequent rest over the first half of the season?

Alex Rodriguez (40 years old), Brett Gardner (32) and Chase Headley (31) all played more than 150 games — and Mark Teixeira (35) was on pace to do so when he broke his leg in August. Jacoby Ellsbury (32) played in 111 of the 119 games in which he was not on the disabled list. And Brian McCann (31), who had three extra-base hits after Sept. 1, started 119 games at catcher — his most since 2010.

Whether Girardi will trust promising young players like Murphy, the versatile Dustin Ackley, Refsnyder or a young outfielder like Slade Heathcott or Mason Williams to take on a bigger role next year is uncertain. Bird might be back in the minors so he can play regularly if Teixeira and Rodriguez return in good health, Cashman said.

Meanwhile, there is little doubt that over the winter, Girardi will examine any data, conduct his due diligence and head to spring training with plans and contingencies. As Cashman said, he does not take anything lightly.

Which may or may not be a problem."

I'd say the bullpen management is an ongoing strength. He rode his old, expensive players too much and should have seen the breakdowns coming. He also clearly doesn't possess the "emotional intelligence" that Torre possessed, and that counts for something.

We knew Young would get the start on Tuesday, but it was a bold move to bench Ellsbury instead of Gardner. 

Gardner rewarded this loyalty with and 0-for-4 and 3 strikeouts.

100 percentage points.

100% chance that one team will win the World Series, but you can't have more than 100% of anything.

How would you divvy up the ten teams?

It's not easy. The 100 points disappear quickly.

Dodgers     16%
Cardinals   15%
Blue Jays   15%
Royals        14%
Mets            11%
Rangers      10%
Pirates          9%
Cubs            5%
Astros          3%
Yankees       2%

Maybe the teams don't care as much about these games as you seem to think they do.

What's at stake in game #162? Not much. Nobody cares, evidently, as actions speak louder than words.

Don't sell this as an important game or a playoff-esque game and then bring Capuano out of the bullpen in the fourth inning.

Same goes for Toronto resting up and conceding home field (in the ALCS, for crying out loud) to the Royals. So that's what Toronto is playing for ... home field in the ALCS ... but only if KC makes it to the ALCS.

They also play the winner of the AL West in the ALSA instead of the Wild Card winner ... as if there's a huge difference there in sub-90 win teams.

Oh, and as for home field in the World Series? That's the winner of the All Star Game.

I can't remember who won the All Star Game, can you?

I don't believe Mike Lupica is a baseball fan, nor do I believe he pays attention to actual baseball games.

The best regular season I can think of -- in terms of weird September comebacks, anyway -- was that season a few years ago when the Rays came from way back and knocked out Boston on the last day of the season. The Cardinals did the same thing to the Braves.

It wasn't that long ago.

It was 2011:

"There has never been a better regular season in baseball than this one, at least not lately."

What is your agenda?

This is such an implausibly ridiculous statement, that I find it utterly impossible that you genuinely feel this way.


"All the way to the last weekend of the season, you had two New York teams in the playoffs, you had Chicago in the playoffs, you had the Dodgers in the playoffs and the Angels still trying to get in."

Well, gee.

When 1/3rd of the teams make the "playoffs," then a lot of teams will make the "playoffs."

There is simply no comparison to the first nine decades of MLB because the teams really had to earn it.


"That’s just the overture.

You had two Texas teams in play and the Cardinals — and their 100 victories — and the Royals in play and the team in Canada with as strong a chance to win it all as anybody."

OK. You're clearly prefer quantity over quality.

I gladly admit that Saturday's game in Texas drew a big crowd who thought they'd witness a division-clinching event. It took to game #161 to get some buzz in Arlington, but it's more buzz than I thought they'd get.

Toronto (aka "the team in Canada") is a huge success story in 2015. Again, that took a division title. I doubt they'd get jazzed up about a wild card, but, on the other hand, they've waited a long time.


"But the country is supposed to have passed the game by.

Sure it has."

Relative to football, I think, but that's water that passed under the bridge a long time ago.


"You know who says that?"

Who?

Who says this?

Who dares to question the Selig Success Story of watered-down playoff teams and luxury taxes and "parity"? Is it one of the usual suspects? Is it one of your unnamed friends, a "huge Yankee fan," or such? Is it Rudy Giuliani? Is it one of the contestants from "Dancing with the Stars"? Is it your father/mother/wife/one of your children? Is it Scott Boras? Is it ARod's platelet-spinning doctor? Is it Mike Baxter, that kid from Archbishop Molloy who saved Johan Santana's no-hitter? Is is Mr. Met?



"People who don’t really know anything about baseball or who never cared about baseball in the first place, and think that the real national pastime is deciding between DraftKings and FanDuel."

DraftKings and FanDuel probably bother with fantasy baseball, but fantasy baseball is undoubtedly a teeny tiny fraction of their fantasy football business.

Which kind of disproves your point, doesn't it? The popularity of football-fueled DraftKings and FanDuel? Millions of Americans ignoring baseball?

If there are enough people who never cared about baseball in the first place, then ... well, you finish the conclusion about national pastimes and such.


I think Cubs vs. Pirates will be an interesting wild card game.

The Yankees will benefit from the wild card this year and the Yankees were the first AL wild card team ever, back in 1995.

I still insist that the 2015 regular season was ruined by the wild card safety net.


The AL East race was boring because Girardi never pushed the gas pedal to the floor. Of course, some of the games were exciting -- Beltran's 3-run HR, a couple of Tanaka masterpieces -- but it was nowhere near the tension of a good old-fashioned pennant race between two legit rivals.

The AL West and all the possible permutations that are coming down to the last week? Imagine if only one of these teams could make the playoffs.

Who loses in this scenario? Pittsburgh and Chicago. Tough. Sorry, but you need to beat St. Louis ... and maybe one of wild card teams would have been compelled to really go for it at the trading deadline, with the knowledge that 95 wins wasn't going to cut it.

That's how I feel about that ... and I've never even looked at DraftKings or FanDuel.

Replaceable

"Where would the Yankees be without Adam Warren this season? They would be waking up in their Baltimore hotel Friday morning, just as they are. The only difference is they may not all still be soaked in champagne."

Or they'd have to replace him with Hansel Robles.

AL Least?

The AL East is the best division in the AL and probably the second-best division in baseball.

Just sayin'.