New York Mets | The New York Observer

Baseball and the Heart of New York City

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:43:00 -0500

My parents moved to Brooklyn in 1955 when I was almost two years old, and by the time I was four, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants had played their last home games in the five boroughs. Until Casey Stengel and the Mets arrived in 1962, the only baseball team in town was the New York Yankees. It was during that time, while the Yankees held a monopoly on New York baseball, that ...

Mets Mess Moves Reporters to Rally 'Round Rubin

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:47:54 -0400

Be sure never to consult the Mets’ book on public relations.

On Monday afternoon, Mets general manager Omar Minaya held a press conference to announce that the director of player development, Tony Bernazard, was being let go. This came days after Daily News Mets beat reporter Adam Rubin broke a story that Mr. Bernazard had taken his shirt off in front of a bunch of minor leaguers and told them to take a swing...

The Anti-Homers

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:38:52 -0400

On a recent Saturday night at Citi Field, the Mets were getting killed. Down 5-0 in the top of the 9th inning, they had only one base hit, and were about to drop their third straight to the Yankees. In those three games, they had been outscored 29-1.

Late-night heroics didn’t appear to be anywhere on the horizon, but the Mets broadcasting triumvirate of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling were on TV,...

Subway Series Time, But the Real Action Is in Philadelphia

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:55:16 -0400

Memo to Major League Baseball: Next season, if you want to put the Yankees-Mets series center stage, don’t schedule the games immediately after the Yankees play the Red Sox and the Mets play the Phillies. No Yankees-Mets series could ever be meaningless, but the one that starts tonight comes as close to feeling anticlimactic as any series played in mid-June.

The Mets are in worse shape than the Yankees, but ought to feel...

Summer of Glove!

Tue, 26 May 2009 20:22:28 -0400

In this summer of our discontent, a season of buckling banks and wheezing newspapers, it might be well to remember that as far as crisis years go, 2009 is a wimp. But when it comes to New York City, disaster breeds resurrection.

As in: 40 years ago, 1969. Richard Nixon had been elected president with bullet-headed, venom-spouting know-nothing Spiro Agnew as his vice president; the war in Vietnam was in full throttle; New York...

Wood War: Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Tue, 26 May 2009 08:33:08 -0400

UPDATED FROM ORIGINAL: But I don't want to ruin the suspense either. So please read through to the bottom for some news!

The New York Post: Welcome back, holidaymakers! While we've been away the tabloids have been hard at it: there's been more swine flu and even a giant tiny scary terrorist plot! We will just have to see if we have the opportunity to talk about those Woods in the coming days. Looking at...

Wood War: Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Mon, 11 May 2009 08:56:41 -0400

New York Post: The trial of 84-year-old Anthony Marshall, son of the late great socialite and heiress Brooke Astor, has all the elements of a Trial of the Century: Every Monday through Thursday, muckraking journalists, the sliver of obsessed public, and various luminaries of the Manhattan social and charity circuit pack the lower Manhattan courtroom to catch the latest, whether it's defense attorney Ken Fisher dangling a diamond necklace before the jury and asking...

Can the Best Pitcher in Baseball Redeem the Mets?

Thu, 07 May 2009 11:21:01 -0400

“The best pitcher in baseball,” according to Sports Illustrated’s May 4 cover story, is Kansas City’s Zack Greinke, who is 6-0 and leading the major leagues with a 0.40 ERA.

SI is wrong. They might have changed their minds had they been at the game last night, where Johan Santana threw seven shutout innings, allowed two hits and struck out 10 against the world champion Phillies to extend his record to...

In Defense of Ramon Castro

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:14:34 -0400

Make no mistake, the Mets made a tremendous strategic upgrade when they changed managers from Willie Randolph to Jerry Manuel in June 2008. The former struggled with the elementary questions of bullpen management and player and media communication; the latter excels at all three.

But even in a game Manuel managed supremely for nearly nine full innings, a 4-3 loss yesterday to the Florida Marlins, Manuel’s decision to pinch-hit Omir Santos for...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:57:05 -0400

The New York Post: Madonna has always had a hard time making it past co-op boards, with the notoriously fusty upper crusties feeling that too much publicity was a bad thing for their otherwise anonymous buildings. But it seems the East of Lexington location was not enough to deter Madonna from plunking down $40 million on a 13-bedroom, 14-bathroom Federal monstrosity on East 81st Street. We were hearing that a connected garage was the...

The Mets' Other Guy

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:16:44 -0400

Mike Pelfrey’s 2009 season did not start well. Yesterday, in the first inning of his first start of the season, the 25-year-old pitcher faced nine Reds hitters and gave up four runs, thanks to two walks, two extra-base hits and an untimely error charged to shortstop Jose Reyes. Struggling with his command, Pelfrey danced around trouble the rest of the night, and departed after five innings without giving up another run. He picked up...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:05:50 -0400

Daily News: Jiverly Wong's letter declaring his intention to commit mass murder in Binghamton was meant to be released to the media: It was to News 10 Now in Syracuse that he delivered it before he murdered 13 people, in an apparent response to paranoid impulses, given the contents of the letter. But this letter was no Unabomber manifesto, the ramblings of an unholy fool destined for tragedy; it's the sad and quite coherent...

Dare We Believe?

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:38:50 -0400

While much has been made of sideshows this spring ranging from Johan Santana’s brief elbow troubles to the signing of bench-bat Gary Sheffield, the outlook for the 2009 Mets is...not that bad.

The team won 89 games last year despite a horrible bullpen due to strong contributions from both the lineup and the starting rotation. And while both the lineup and rotation essentially intact, the bullpen has been upgraded considerably.

A...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:53:55 -0400

The New York Post: Gloria Vanderbilt is 85 years old, and she has written an erotic novel that is giving Post columnist Andrea Peyser the vapors. "Gloria is a dirty old lady," the display reads over a picture of Ms. Vanderbilt from her glory days as a designer. That it's a Ms. Peyser affair inside isn't flagged, so front-page readers won't feel the disappointment when they get to the story and find that Ms....

The Year of Jose Reyes

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:14:37 -0400

Jose Reyes, running off the field after a great play with a grin on his face that makes Tom Sawyer look like Mickey Rourke, seems to have no idea of the burden he carries around.

Major League Baseball has become, largely, a Latin game. Other great Latin players came here after All-Star careers on other teams, but we’ve had Jose since age 20. Dominican-born Reyes is the first great Latin superstar to...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs? (UPDATED!)

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:38:52 -0400

The New York Post: Last night, the President and First Lady arrived in England, bringing along hundreds of security guards and lots of vials of Barack Obama's blood. No, this isn't some kind of remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, though the British press is trying to play it that way. And that's a lot of what you get when you turn inside to read the story in today's Post, flagged on the...

Meet the Mets' Fifth Starter

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:57:03 -0400

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.—With the 2009 season a week away, the Mets have not announced who their fifth starter will be. But on Saturday, tucked away on a minor league field shaped to mirror the dimensions of Citi Field, Livan Hernandez made his strongest case yet for the spot, while early favorite Freddy Garcia provided more evidence that he simply isn’t up to the job.

Hernandez threw 97 pitches over seven innings against a collection...

Stop Demonizing Business

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:32:35 -0400

To be sure, this is the season of knee-jerk reactions. Suddenly, corporate America can do nothing right—in fact, everything from executive compensation to promotional budgets has been denounced as a waste of taxpayer funds. What a shame that so few elected political leaders understand the real world. The irony became stronger in recent days as the government rolled out its plan to deal with toxic assets. Clearly, some government officials have begun to realize...

The Anti-Shea. Great.

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:27:27 -0400

This weekend, I made my way out to the Willets Point–Shea Stadium stop on the No. 7 train, and for the first time with my own eyes, I saw that my beloved blue dump was gone. The only things left of Shea, the home of the Mets for 45 years, were some mounds of ash, concrete and rubble.

Behind the ruins, I still saw the Van Wyck Expressway in the background, the chop...

The Pedro Feliciano Project

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:43:07 -0500

For players in Caribbean winter leagues like Pedro Feliciano, each game is an exercise in multitasking.

Feliciano, who is currently pitching for Leones de Ponce in Puerto Rico, has the immediate task in front of him—helping his team to the Puerto Rican playoffs. Feliciano also has the unenviable task of putting a difficult 2008 behind him. And add to that Feliciano’s expected lead role in the bullpen for Puerto Rico in this spring’s World...

Mets Buy K-Rod and a Chance to Contend in 2009

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:56:31 -0500

From the moment the Mets announced that Billy Wagner would miss the 2010 season, both fans and the media focused on the prize closer of the offseason, Francisco Rodriguez.

With the news that the Mets have agreed to a three-year deal with Rodriguez today, it is clear that New York came to the conclusion that K-Rod was a necessity, too.

With the addition of the finest closer on the market, the Mets have begun to...

Time for the Mets to Close on a Closer

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:26:40 -0500

The Mets have casually approached the free agent closer market, and rightfully so. Both Francisco Rodriguez and Brian Fuentes are top choices, but it appears that only the Mets have both the money and the inclination to spend it on a closer, leaving them free to choose.

So New York has let the market come to them, and while Rodriguez, who set the all-time record for saves in a season in 2008, once expected...

Memo to the Mets: Let Heilman Start

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:47:51 -0500

As Thanksgiving approaches, the Mets are still two reliable starters short, with only Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey and John Maine assured of spots in next season’s rotation. Oliver Perez remains unsigned, and if the season opened today, Jonathon Niese (total career starts: 3) would likely be the number four man.

Meanwhile, embattled reliever Aaron Heilman has reiterated his desire to start for the Mets or be traded to a team that will use him as...

Time to Bid Fond Farewell to Pedro

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:39:43 -0500

Time to Say Goodbye to Pedro.

Pedro Martinez’s agent said this week that while several teams are interested in his client’s services for 2009, the Mets remain his top choice. And on the surface, Martinez is still a good fit for the Mets.

Even if New York re-signs Oliver Perez, their fifth starter remains a question mark, with Jonathon Niese (with his three career major-league starts) the heir apparent. The Mets have little depth...

Save Oliver Perez!

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:35:14 -0500

As the Mets assess ways to improve their pitching staff this offseason, Oliver Perez, who has been a mainstay of the starting rotation, is mentioned as one of several options. But if the Mets are serious about consolidating 2008’s gains, they have no choice but to sign Perez, who is the best of their plausible alternatives, both in 2009 and beyond.

The Mets, despite a laughably poor bullpen, remained in playoff contention until the season’s...

How to Suck-Proof the 2009 Mets: Massive Expenditure on Relief

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:35:04 -0400

So what are the poor, pathetic, sidelined Mets to do as they approach roster decisions this winter?

At first glance, their options for building a team that can play consistently good baseball for an entire season are grim: A weak free agent class provides little in the way of help, either offensively or with starting pitching.

Fortunately for the Mets, though, these were both strengths in 2008, and figure to be again in 2009.

Instead, the...

In a Final Shea Tragedy, the Offense Goes Away

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:53:53 -0400

It’s not just that the Mets lost to the Florida Marlins Sunday, 4-2, to finish out of the playoffs—it’s how they lost.

There was little question that New York’s bullpen would provide an obstacle for the team’s stellar starting pitching and offense to overcome. But in the final three games of the season, while the starters and relievers held to form, the offensive production that made the Mets a playoff threat simply disappeared.

In the...

Curiouser and Curiouser

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:44:11 -0400

The Mets continued their season of stupefying depths and dizzying heights with arguably their most improbable win yet—a 7-6 result over the Cubs on Thursday night, one night after a 9-6 loss to the Cubs that saw the team strand a runner at third in each of the last five innings.

The ups and downs have, against all odds, put the Mets in a tie with the Brewers for the wild-card playoff spot, and just...

How Bad Is the Mets Bullpen?

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:28:41 -0400

It has been argued (by me) that overcoming a bullpen as terrible as New York’s this season is a tribute to both the tremendous offensive talent and frontline starting pitching the Mets possess.

But as Sunday’s 7-6 loss to the Braves demonstrated, the reverse is also true. It takes a historically awful Mets bullpen to undo the great work by New York’s offense and starting pitching. If Sunday--which saw the bullpen allow four runs (and...

How to Win With No Relief

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:05:36 -0400

The Mets don’t look like a winning team customarily looks. It seems impossible to imagine that a team with a bullpen so unreliable, and utterly devoid of quality performers, could manage to make the playoffs, let alone contend for a championship.

But as the Mets showed again Thursday night in a 7-2 victory over the Nationals, good starting pitching and good hitting can often overcome even a horrible bullpen. And unlike 2007, when the Mets...

Mets' Failure Is a Team Effort

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:04:00 -0400

The great parlor game of New York’s 2008 season has been seeing whether a team can overcome criminally negligent pitching out of the bullpen and win a division title. But as the Mets showed Tuesday night in a 1-0 loss, and over their last five games, a bullpen may be overcome—a bullpen and offensive drought cannot. With Philadelphia’s 8-7 win over Atlanta, the Phillies took over first place by ½ game with 12 to...

Shelled Game: Mets Scramble to Assemble a Playoff Bullpen

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:12:17 -0400

Total Chaos for Mets Postseason Pitching Generally, the roster questions facing a first-place team are few. The Mets, who lost 7-4 to the Atlanta Braves Sunday, lead the Phillies by one game, yet the pitchers who would make up their postseason staff are still largely a mystery.

Between the 18 pitchers currently with New York since rosters expanded on Sept. 1, as well as the currently injured John Maine, there are just a...

For Now, 2008 Offense Beats 2007-Style Pitching

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:38:34 -0400

All season long, the 2008 Mets have been invariably compared to the 2007 version that lost a near-certain chance at the playoffs. Every series, particularly against Philadelphia, the team that benefited from New York’s late collapse, has been inspected for signs of a return to last year’s disappointments, or definitive proof that the Mets had moved beyond their 2007 failings.

But in the two-game series with Washington Tuesday and Wednesday night, which New York swept,...

Your Less-Chokey 2008 Mets

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:50:04 -0400

It was easy to think back to New York’s epic collapse in 2007, when the Mets lost a seven-game lead with seventeen left to play, after New York lost to the Phillies on Friday night and Sunday afternoon. The results allowed Philadelphia to move within a game of the Mets, before the series conclusion on Sunday night.

But from start to finish, the Mets showed in their 6-3 victory over Philadelphia on Sunday night that...

LOL: Phillies Catch Mets Disease

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:02:31 -0400

New York’s 8-7, 13-inning loss to Philadelphia Tuesday night played out like a single-game version of the Mets’ 2007 collapse. In fact, the Mets even managed a miniature replica of last September, when they blew a seven-game lead with seventeen games to play, by losing a seven-run lead with seventeen outs to play.

But while the Mets won’t – shouldn’t -- stop hearing about their 2007 collapse until they clinch a division title, Wednesday...

No Bullpen for a Playoff Contender

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:19:06 -0400

The struggles of the Mets’ bullpen in the season’s second half astounding even by comparison to the very worst teams in recent memory. Following Sunday’s 6-4 loss to Houston, in which the bullpen gave away a 4-3 seventh-inning lead, New York’s bullpen ERA since the break is 5.89. To put this in perspective, no National League team has a higher full-season ERA than Pittsburgh, at 4.44.

The bullpen is awful by the standards of the...

This Was Once a Rivalry?

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:16:48 -0400

In the Mets’ tiered ticket pricing plan, only Opening Day, the Subway Series and the final regular season game at Shea Stadium cost more than a ticket to any of the three games this week, a series New York swept with a 5-4 walkoff win last night.

...

The Mets' Last-Ditch Youth Movement

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:51:08 -0400

With injuries to veterans like Moises Alou, Ryan Church and Luis Castillo, the Mets have taken to using a number of young players in an attempt to patch right field, left field and second base. The result has been increased playing time for Argenis Reyes, Nick Evans and Daniel Murphy, who have combined for 208 at-bats this season.

Since Murphy’s call-up, with all three playing major roles, the Mets are 12-6. Both Murphy and Reyes...

No Great Choices for Mets Closer

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:54:59 -0400

The news has been bad and keeps getting worse for Mets closer Billy Wagner. A forearm strain has morphed into elbow pain, and Wagner faces a further diagnosis Tuesday at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. There is no timetable for his return, and even if he does come back, it is far from certain that he’ll be able to take on the regular work of a closer.

This potential loss brings a...

The Problem With the Marlins

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:53:38 -0400

Last September, the Mets hosted the Marlins at Shea Stadium, but the cellar-dwelling Marlins could do little besides play spoiler to New York’s season. The 2008 Marlins began a three-game series at Shea Friday night fresh off of taking two of three from the Phillies, and very much in the hunt for a National League East title.

While the Marlins lost two of three to New York this weekend, Florida still stands just ½ game...

Pedro Versus the 'Rust'

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:26:20 -0400

The only answer the Mets have about what they can expect from Pedro Martinez following his outing in Wednesday night’s 4-2 loss to the San Diego Padres is that they can’t know what to expect. As he has throughout his short season, Martinez provided both reasons for optimism and gloom during his 6 1/3-inning appearance. It was his second start back from a layoff caused by a groin injury and extended by his father’s...

What the Yankees and Mets Didn't Get on the Trade Deadline

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:20:47 -0400

Both New York teams hit the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline with multiple areas in need of improvement. The Yankees did something about their problem at catcher, left field and even bolstered a bullpen that had already been effective. Only the largest of the Yankee problems, starting pitching, was left unaddressed.

The Mets, meanwhile, in need of another outfielder as well as an additional bullpen arm, elected to go with what they have.

Both New York...

The Mets and Yankees? We’re Back, Baby!

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:51:03 -0400

Springtime was not kind to New York’s baseball teams. For the Mets and Yankees, April and May brought not hope, but dismay. Both teams looked as if they would be lucky to finish the season without losing more games than they won. Injuries hurt—Alex Rodriguez, Phil Hughes, Moises Alou and Pedro Martinez all went down early in the season—but more than anything else, the teams looked sloppy and apathetic.

Now, in midsummer, the...

The Return of the Real John Maine?

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:05:42 -0400

The John Maine the Mets need in order to maximize their potential over the season’s final 61 games returned last night, throwing seven strong innings in New York’s 6-3 victory over Philadelphia.

That Maine was missing in his previous four starts. After pitching at least six innings in 12 of his first 16 outings, Maine had failed to do so in each of his last four.

The difference between Maine’s outing Wednesday and his previous failures...

The Pedro Problem

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:51:29 -0400

When Pedro Martinez exited his July 12 start against the Rockies after four innings, the Mets were quick to downplay his injury, which Martinez said was tightness in his shoulder as a result of compensating for a groin injury. Manager Jerry Manuel said there was “no doubt” Martinez would make his next scheduled start, which would have been this past Sunday.

But Martinez did not make that Sunday start, nor is he starting Tuesday...

The Next Pelfrey?

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:44:11 -0400

Once the Mets traded four prospects to obtain Johan Santana this past offseason, the team had more or less cleared out its farm system of attractive prospects, with one notable exception in Fernando Martinez.

So in this June’s draft, New York knew it had to take players that could make quick work of the minor leagues.

The Mets had three of the first 33 picks, and selected first baseman Ike Davis, shortstop Reese Havens, and...

Can Billy Wagner Close a Big Game?

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:48:52 -0400

It is not surprising that Billy Wagner pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to save New York’s 10-8 victory over Cincinnati Thursday night. After all, since coming to the Mets, Wagner has been one of the most automatic closers in baseball, converting 87 percent of his save opportunities. To put that in perspective, just under 60 percent of all save opportunities were converted in the National League in 2008’s first half.

But Wagner seems to have...

Live Bait

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:20:44 -0400

While the streaking Mets actively shop for a corner outfielder to replace the injured Moises Alou and Ryan Church prior to baseball’s July 31 trading deadline, 19-year-old Fernando Martinez, who can be either the long-term solution in the outfield, or the bait for the team’s short-term answer, showcased his talents at the Futures Game Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

Martinez had one hit in two at-bats on Sunday, and as he has done since signing...

Castro Moves Up

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:40:17 -0400

A day game after a night game is normally the province of a baseball team’s backup catcher. Why, then, was Brian Schneider, the man Omar Minaya described as his “regular catcher” when the Mets acquired him this winter, in the starting lineup for the July 10 day game against the Giants?

It’s because Ramon Castro, whose strong bat has been a big part of New York’s recent success, had played the night before—a far more...

Can the Mets Keep It Up?

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:07:42 -0400

The Mets did a lot of heavy lifting on their recent road trip, amassing a 5-3 record against the National League East-leading Phillies and the wild-card-leading Cardinals.

The success of the road trip, punctuated by three straight wins in Philadelphia, catapulted New York into the thick of the National League playoff race. The Mets further solidified these gains with a pair of shutout victories Tuesday and Wednesday against the Giants, and they now stand...