Category: Media

Mets News Top Stories April 10, 2009

gary-sheffieldThe Mets arrived in Miami last night to begin their weekend series with the Marlins. The biggest story looming is the addition of Livan Hernandez to the roster so he can start tomorrow night. Of course, this wouldn’t be an issue if Gary Sheffield hadn’t signed as a free agent last week. The big decision is whether the Mets release Marlon Anderson, owing him $1.1 million for this season or go to 11 pitchers. Likely, Darren O’Day would be the odd man out if that was the case. Jerry Manuel has hinted that Anderson will be out.

Also of note is that O’Day and Francisco Rodriguez were teammates last season of Nick Adenhart, who was tragically killed in a car accident after starting for the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.

An interesting media story is that Chris “Mad Dog” Russo is not allowed to do his Sirius satellite radio broadcast from Citi Field or Yankee Stadium. CBS Radio and WFAN have exclusive deals with the Mets and Yankees about radio broadcasting rights. Apparently, this was even an issue during spring training last month as well.

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Maple Street Press 2009 Mets Annual Magazine

Maple Street Press 2009 Mets AnnualThe folks at Maple Street Press were kind enough to send me a copy of the Mets season preview magazine from Maple Street Press (MPS). The magazine is 128 pages packed with Mets information to get you fired up for this season.

Before I get too deep into this I’ll tell you that this is not a paid advertisement from Maple Street Press. The magazine costs $12.99 and can be purchased at many newsstands and book stores in the New York area. You can also purchase a copy from their website at Maple Street Press. Also if you read this post to the end, you’ll see that MPS sent me two copies to give away to readers of The Mets Report.

Here are my thoughts on the magazine. For a Mets fan, it’s great to read a detailed season preview that’s more than just a couple of cursory pages about the team like the national preview magazines that cover every team. This covers everything from the last couple of disastrous seasons to historical teams and a lot of information about Shea Stadium and Citi Field.

The highlights of the magazine are:

  • “New Home, Old Worries: Can The Mets Change Their Stripes at Citi Field?” by Greg Spira and Matt Silverman- This introduction to the magazine sets the stage for the 2009 season with all of the information about offseason trades and free agent signings. This is a great way to kick off the magazine. Very strong writing and coverage of the team. The one oddity of the article is that the authors specifically mention that the Mets have a new $800 million revenue stream called Citi Field yet are keeping their payroll at the same level it was a year ago. There’s absolutely no mention of the Bernard Madoff scandal that reportedly bilked the Mets owners out of several hundred million dollars. That was one of the biggest stories of the offseason and there’s not one word in the article about it?
  • “There Are Some Words: The ’69 Teams Turns 40, But It Never Gets Old” by Greg W. Prince- In my mind, Prince is the most creative, talented writer covering the Mets today. Hands down. MPS did a great job of securing Greg to write an article for the magazine. I would’ve been disappointed if he wasn’t represented here. As always, Prince turns in a well written and unique description of a topic that we’ve read and talked about for 40 years. Not many writers can cover a story that’s been covered so completely with a unique take on it.

The lowlights of the magazine are:

  • “Keys to the Citi: New Home Promises A Whole New Ballgame” by Tara Krieger- Unfortunately, Krieger turns in a very pedestrian story about Citi Field. Maybe it’s me, and I’ve already read too much about the new stadium and seen too many pictures. But I really didn’t get anything out of this article that I didn’t already know. I think that the hardcore Mets fan would want more than we get here.
  • “Seconds Anyone? The Susan Lucci Playoffs” by Howard Megdal- This article was disappointing because Megdal is a pretty good writer. The concept of this article pitting historical Mets teams against each other in some sort of contrived playoff was poor. Honestly, I was bored after about four paragraphs. You can skip this part of the magazine and won’t be missing anything.

Overall, I recommend the magazine for purchase despite the lowlights described above. Remember that this is 128 pages packed with Mets information. The Krieger and Megdal articles only account for about 10 pages, so the success rate is really high. Reading about Doc Gooden’s outstanding early career brought back some great memories for me of his starts being must-see TV.

Lastly, as I mentioned earlier in this post I have two copies to give away this week to readers. Watch the site for a contest that will be starting tomorrow.

Phillies Hamels Clarifies Mets Chokers Comment

Cole HamelsThis story won’t go away. Cole Hamels agreed with WFAN’s Evan Robets that the Mets were chokers. And the story keeps raging on. Hamels appeared with WIP in Philly with Howard Eskin on Friday and clarified his comments about the Mets below.

On why the Mets are thought of as “chokers”:

“The word choke means you weren’t able to fully come through when you were supposed to. I think the Mets had the top teams, they pretty much had the championships in the bag and they weren’t able to come through.  A lot of guys will perceive them as choking in the end and not ,fulfilling their end of the bargain because they should have taken it.  You know what, it really does show the strength and hard work and I guess the deep down guts that we have to take it away from them.”

Eskin thinks Hamels calling the Mets “chokers” was WFAN putting words in his mouth:

“I wouldn’t have thought of it myself.  I like to do most of my playing out on the field and I don’t need to be mentioned in the media or trying to attack someone because that’s not the person I am.  I’ll attack you when I’m out on the mound.”

I never thought that it was that big of a deal that he agreed with Roberts about the Mets. Hamels didn’t bring up the topic on his own. Clearly, he needs to be a little more media savvy though.

What I don’t like is him going to to discuss the issue in further depth. It’s about time for him to shut up about the issue.

Thanks to Sports Radio Interviews for the story. You can listen to the full interview here.

Phillies’ Rollins Ends Mets Talk

Jimmy RollinsPhiladelphia Philles shortstop Jimmy Rollins spoke to reporters yesterday at spring training in Clearwater, Florida. Among other topics he discussed, he said that his World Series hardware will put an end to his talk about the Mets.

The Mets and Phillies have engaged in a three year war of words. And the Phillies have come out on top in the standings for the last two seasons. Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes have continued the verbal sparring this spring, mentioning their disdane for Cole Hamels calling the Mets “choke artists” during a radio interview in December.

From SI.com:

It has been pretty funny just to hear it going on and on and on,” Rollins said. “I sit there and I laugh and say, ‘This is still going on. They’re still rolling with that?

It’s going to be a fun game any time we play them,” Rollins said. “But I guess when Cole is pitching, they are going to step it up and, of course, we are going to stand up for Cole, so that is going to force us to step it up. But that just brings out the best in both teams. We’re going to win, but it definitely will bring out the best in both teams.

I have to say that I’m surprised we haven’t seen the war of words spill out onto the field over the last few years. There haven’t been any bean ball wars that escalated the situation. Hopefully, it’ll stay that way. Now that the Phillies are the world champs they can rest on that without engaging with the Mets this season.

Announcement- Mike And Mad Dog Show Is Done

Neil Best of Newsday is reporting that WFAN Radio announced tonight that Chris “Mad Dog” Russo is leaving WFAN. Mike Francesa will do the show on the Mets flagship station by himself for now after the 18 year partnership has ended.

“Mike and Chris pioneered the genre more than 18 years ago and have shaped the sports talk format into what it is today,” WFAN operations director Mark Chernoff said in a statement.

“As we embark on this next step in WFAN’s history, we wish Chris nothing but the best and look forward to all that Mike will do in a role in which he has excelled at for years.”

The report says that Chris Russo is expected to move to Sirius satellite radio.

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Audio- Gary Cohen, Jon Heyman On Trade Deadline

SNY play-by-play man Gary Cohen joins Michael Kay on ESPN Radio to talk about the state of the Mets. He discusses the Mets trade needs, Manny Ramirez rumors, and the bullpen.

ESPN Audio

SI baseball writer Jon Heyman joins Chris Russo on WFAN radio to talk about the trade deadline deals.

WFAN Audio

Lunch Links- Mex, Billy Martin, MLB Network, and More

While I’m here getting pumped up for the Phillies series, I decided to put some links out today. Some of them I’ve had for a while now but I think you’ll like. Anyway, onto the links…

  • This one is from July 7th but I thought you’d want to see it anyway. David Pinto wrote a piece for Yahoo Sports about the parallels between the Yankees 1978 firing of Billy Martin and the Mets firing of Willie Randolph.
  • David Peters, a PhD professor of engineering from the Washington University of St. Louis wrote a tremendous piece about how lefties have an advantage in baseball. It’s really compelling information and got picked up by Sporting News.
  • Cyril Morong, writer of the excellent blog Cybermetrics, writes that fast players such as Jose Reyes aren’t “blocked” from hitting doubles and triples with slower runners on base in front of them.
  • ESPN’s Jayson Stark picks the Phillies to win the NL East in his “That’s Debatable” column.
  • John Donovan tries to make sense of the NL East in his column for Sports Illustrated.
  • Awful Announcing has some good information on the upcoming MLB Network. Included is the rumor that they’re considering adding analyst Harold Reynolds from SNY to the network.
  • SI’s Jon Heyman gets into the latest trade rumors including the Mets interest in Seattle Raul Ibanez and Cleveland’s Casey Blake. He says that Omar Minaya especially likes Blake.
  • SNY analyst Keith Hernandez talks to WFAN’s Boomer & Carton about the Mets and his reported dispute with Jose Reyes. Listen here.