Average Collapse

So he we are, just over one quarter of the baseball season in the books and things don't look much different then they did at the end of last season for the Mets. The only differences are, Johan Santana is leading the pitching staff, Ryan Church is the leading offensive player on the team and Willie Randolph is finally coming under fire for the mediocrity and lack of intensity the NY Mets have displayed. What has remained from last year is, losing big games against lower tier teams, being dominated by the Braves, Aaron Heilman is still horrible out of the bullpen, Oliver Perez is still inconsistent, Pedro is hurt, Alou has just begun his second stay on the disabled list, El Duque (Orlando Hernandez) is nowhere to be found even though he is making a lot of money with an extended contract, Luis Castillo is not hitting much, Delgado is hitting a little, Beltran is hitting a little more and David Wright and Jose Reyes are still the only thing the team has to be proud of. What can fans in NYC expect from their favorite team, The Amazin's? I will take a hack at answering that question, but it might be a bit bias since I still have a glimmer of hope of winning. By the middle of this season, when the All-Star game comes to NYC at Yankee Stadium, the media will be focusing on all things New York and will throw Willie Randolph under the bus and the owners of the team, the Wilpons, will force GM Omar Minaya to look elsewhere for leadership in the dugout. When a team with a lot of talent and a large payroll like the Mets underachieves so much, the Manager of the team usually takes the blame. Its especially apparent when a team like the Mets collapsed at the end of the year last year, missing the playoffs and Willie really didn't show much emotion about it. Willie got another chance to take the reigns this year and to try to lead the team to victory, how he pulled off keeping his job is a mystery to me and to many fans. Other managers and head coaches have lost less then Willie did last year and were fired for it. The Mets need a manager who can evoke emotions from his players and the fans no matter what happens win or lose, so that people know he is actually there giving his all for the team and the city. Willie claims he is a "Joe Torre" type of manager, who is quiet, yet gets his message across. Joe Torre has won more championships then most managers have been involved in, he has the track record of being effective in the clubhouse and has also endured being fired by teams in the past, including the Mets. Willie needs to have his own way of managing, even though he was on the bench with Torre throughout the winning years with the Yankees, he has to separate himself from that and prove that he is his own type of manager. I wish that things were working out for Willie and the Mets, but its not and unfortunately the manager is liable for the record and state of the team and eventually he has to take the blame, it comes with the territory. The Mets are an average team right now and although they claim last years collapse is behind them, in reality it is still right in front of their faces.

Intsantly Relpaying Baseball

Last night (May 18Th) on ESPN Sunday night baseball, the New York Mets and New York Yankees played the last of their two-game Subway Series at Yankee Stadium. The Mets won the first of the two games on Saturday, behind a solid performance from their ace pitcher, Johan Santana and big HR's from Jose Reyes and David Wright. The Mets had to face the Yankees only star this season so far, pitcher Chen-Ming Wang. He has a 6-1 record this season and really is the only bright spot for the Yankees. The Mets faced the challenge and performed the way all Mets fans thought they would from day one. In the fourth inning of the game, the mets were leading 3-0 after Moises Alou hit a 2-RBI single to right field with one out, setting up a great situation for the next batter, Carlos Delgado. Delgado came up to bat with Alou on first base and Ryan Church on third base. Delgado hit a slicing fly ball to the left field corner of the stadium, the ball made its way over the wall and appeared to stay fair, resulting in a big three-run home run for Delgado. The umpire working the third base line, Mike Reilly, initially called it fair and signaled it a home run. That would have opened the game up for the Mets and would have given them a 6-0 lead. Then what happened next was something commissioner Bud Selig should be wary of. The Yankees short stop, Derek Jeter challenged the call, saying the ball was foul, prompting the officials to have a conference on the field. The home plate umpire, Bob Davidson, eventually overruled the call and said it was a foul ball. Mets bench coach, Jerry Manuel and head coach, Willie Randolph began arguing the call, knowing Davidson blew the call. Manuel, usually a soft spoken guy, was livid, screaming in defense of the initial home run call which was evidently the right call. Davidson ejected Manuel from the game and threatened Randolph he was next if he didn't stop arguing. What makes this whole situation frustrating, is that viewers like myself, watching the game at home got the opportunity to watch the replay over and over again. Getting to see the ball hit almost two feet fair inside the foul line and then seeing the umpire at home plate who is an older man and is almost 320 feet away decide it was foul was horrible. Just to make sure Mets fans had the right to be mad, Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, the ESPN Sunday night baseball commentators were stunned to see the umpires call this foul and did not stop talking about the incident for the rest of the game, making the case for Instant Replay. Viewers at home and Joe and Jon had the advantage of replay. But, why is this an advantage? Its not like instant replay is this amazing technological endeavor that only NASA can afford to have. Football, basketball and hockey all have inserted instant replay into their mainstream decision making and it has worked in favor of fairness for all teams involved. Baseball and Bud Selig are making it seem like Replay is something that will taint the "purity" of baseball and it's history. I thought steroids, HGH, free spending and astronomical ticket prices already did that? If a beer and a hot dog can cost $15, why can't baseball have instant replay? Last night, fortunately for the Mets, the botched call didn't affect the outcome of the game because the Mets creamed the Yankees and didn't even need the 3 runs missing from the Delgado foul ball home run. Other times, teams, including the Mets, have been on the other side of botched calls. For example, the Mets' Carlos Beltran hit a shot to left center during the teams third game of the season in Miami, it looked like a home run and was called that initially, but after the umpires conference, they overruled and said it was a double. That did affect the outcome of the game. I think Bud Selig should implement some sort of replay for baseball, especially with the playoffs coming in September and the umpires' calls being the last word in decision making. There should be one other tool available to back up the umpires and make sure they don't have to give statements like Bob Davidson had to do this morning. "I (expletive) it up. I'm the one who thought it was a (expletive) foul ball. I saw it on the replay. I'm the one who (expletive) it up so you can put that in your paper," Davidson said. "Bolts and nuts, I (expletive) up. You've just got to move on. No one feels worse about it than I do."

Obama/Edwards Ticket

I support and will vote for Barack Obama for President of the United States. I am tired of watching Senator Obama and Senator Clinton duke it out during their run for the Democratic nomination. Obama has the lead and seems to me, to be the clear cut winner, he just needs Hillary to back out, swallow her pride and help support her party. The Democratic Party as a whole is suffering while the two candidates fight over the one slot. Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate, is campaigning around the country like he is already the President. The Republican party has always been strong when it came to uniting as one party. The Dems need to come together and realize their goal of ousting the Republicans from the White House, form a unified party and point all their attention towards beating McCain, not each other. When Senator Obama does finally achieve the status of "Democratic Nominee", I believe he should ask Senator John Edwards to be his running mate as Vice Presidential Nominee. Senator Edwards was and still is a very popular speaker and Senator. He was widely popular around the country during his first run for office in 2004, running solo and then with Senator Kerry. He also had good numbers during this current election, but he gracefully bowed out, hoping his fellow Dems would follow suit once one of them came out ahead. He is very smart and is one of the most successful lawyers in North Carolina. He has always campaigned for ending poverty in America, he has also endorsed efforts to slow down Global Warming and amongst many other positions, is Pro-Choice. Although he has said he won't accept, if he is asked to run as VP, I think that if Obama calls and speaks to Edwards as eloquently as he does to the rest of America, Edwards would then change his mind and they can then change the world together.

God is Watching Us

Within the last two weeks, our world has seen the wrath of Nature and possibly God. In Burma, there was a Cyclone that already has killed 35,000 people and is on its way to killing an estimated 100,000. In China there was an Earth Quake that lasted for 3 minutes and was a record 7.8 on the Richter scale. This Quake has claimed 5,000 people and has trapped more the 3,000 students in around 900 school buildings that have collapsed. In Chile, a Volcano erupted killing thousands and here in our country Tornadoes and storms have ripped through the south, and mid-west, killing 50-100 people. Whether your are spiritual or not, you have to think to yourself that we are causing these catastrophes to occur because of our neglect for our environment and mother nature. There are people who believe the world will end in 2012, that God or whatever higher being you believe in will cast his spell on us and restart with a human race that cares about their world and that doesn't take advantage of what we were given. It goes back to the Adam and Eve story from the Christian religion. God gave Adam and Eve anything and everything that they wanted, the only thing he said was don't eat the apple from this particular tree. Of course, as all humans do, they didn't do what they were told, ignoring the advice and ate the apples and were punished dearly. Now I am not religious, although I do believe in God, I don't however believe in a church or the bible. The story of Adam and Eve has significance because it is an example of what is going on now, just on a much smaller scale. Humans have been given this amazing world, with vast amounts of resources and opportunities to live healthy, meaningful lives. Everyone has the capacity to save what is left of this planet and even help promote new growth for our future, it is only able to happen if you choose to do so. Most people choose not to, and continue to abuse our world and continue to think no matter what they do, the earth will keep on giving. Unfortunately that won't only affect those people, it will affect all of us. I hope that there are others out there that are seeing these global catastrophes occur and are thinking about what they can do to help. The problem, is that there are plenty of citizens out there that still believe Climate Change is a Liberal way of thinking. They also believe that God will save them as long as they went to church on Sunday. Thats fine, but when God strikes down upon us with furious anger and vengeance like he/she has started to with the natural disasters, going to church on Sundays will be a distant memory of wasted time. I am not saying that God is causing these natural disasters, I am not saying that he/she ISN'T. I am only saying that nature is acting in a way that makes it seem like it has had enough. It is the same concept of the bully/victim situation in High School. Eventually the victim can't take the abuse anymore, and repercussions follow. I wish our news sources (American Media Outlets) would make some sort of connection to these disasters and catastrophes happening around our globe. Because a lot of people in America, sadly, follow what is said on CNN and Fox News like a clock, instead of thinking for themselves. I say American news because BBC world and other International news channels offer more in depth investigations, leaving the ego-centric and ethno-centric reporting to us. That topic is a whole other blog post that I will get to soon enough, but for now, just watch Headline News and then watch BBC World News and you'll see what I mean.