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You don’t need to have any experience, just a desire to cover the Mets during the 2009 season.
It’s great to start reading the columns and stories about the Mets that arrive early to camp in Port St. Lucie. Not only do I start to think of how this ugly winter will soon be over but how the ghosts of the last two Mets seasons may disappear. Like they never happened.
27 blown saves. 1 blown managerial firing. The 2009 season will wash that away with a roar into the playoffs. I hope.
The first few days this week we’ve learned a few things. Johan Santana feels fine after his minor offseason knee surgery. But he likely won’t be representing Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. Classic… what a ridiculous name.
Brian Schneider won’t be representing the U.S. in the WBC. Jose Valentin will be back on a minor league contract. I have a feeling that it won’t be long until he’s managing a team in the Mets organization. He seems like a solid leader.
Maybe most importantly Scott Schoenweiss, Aaron Heilman, and Joe Smith won’t be in Port St. Lucie this year. Heilman and Schoenweiss couldn’t come back after last season. 27 blown saves and now the bullpen has been blown up.
J.J. Putz and K-Rod will be here. Get ready for some “Gasolina” and some “Thunderstruck“. It’s a mostly new bullpen expecting all-new results.
Oh, by the way we haven’t learned of any Mets testing positive for anything yet. Maybe we can have a quiet spring training and get ready to take down the World Series champion Phillies.
Photo courtesy of alpineinc
We all knew there were some shenanagans going on with the Mets of the ’80’s. But Darryl Strawberry’s new book won’t leave anything to the imagination anymore according to Page Six’ Richard Johnson.
There were a few years that we all thought the wild child Mets were out having a grea time while bashing their way to a World Series title in ’86 and LCS in ’88. But that romantic notion came to an end with positive drug tests and behavioral problems shortly thereafter.
Now we get to hear the stories straight from the horses mouth in Darryl’s new book. We’ll hear about gallons of beer, speed freaks, coke heads, and sex in the middle of games.
I think I liked the fantastical notion in my head better than the base reality of the book.
The new Mets setup man joins Boomer & Carton on WFAN to talk about not being the closer and steriods in baseball.
Word came from Port St. Lucie today that Johan Santana won’t be representing Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. He had arthriscopic surgery on his left knee shortly after last season ended. The story from Adam Rubin of the Daily News is that the Mets asked him not to participate.
I’m not a huge fan of the WBC, particularly because of the timing during spring training. Not that there’s a good time for an event like this. But I think it would be better if they played after the MLB season ended. Sure, it would be anti-climactic after the World Series. But it would give players a chance to rest afterward before the next season started, and reduce the injury concerns that MLB teams have about the event.
Frankly, it’s hard for me to understand how a team could let its best player like Johan Santana participate at all in this kind of event. The only incentive appears to be MLB’s desire to see this thing succeed. I wouldn’t want Santana playing if he had a hang nail after last season ended, much less knee surgery.
Santana’s a durable player. But if he, somehow, was seriously injured during the WBC it would have such serious ramifications for the Mets season. Each team should be able to select one or two players that they reserve not to play in the tournament. The financial commitments to the top players in baseball should preclude them from participation in WBC, which is essentially a meaningless exhibition.
Fonzie didn’t sign with those Giants, the other Giants. I’m talking about the Yomiuri Giants of the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball. Fonzie last played with the Mets in 2002 before moving on to the San Francisco Giants, Angels, and Blue Jays. He hasn’t played in the majors since 2006.
It’s a little sad to see a player that I liked so much with the Mets relegated to the Japanese league. But when I see that he made more than $47 million during his U.S. career, I don’t feel so sad.
The Venezuelan native put up some very respectable numbers during his career. His line is .284/ .357/ .425 with 146 HR and 744 RBI.
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