Darrelle Revis and Jose Reyes | Subway Squawkers - A Yankees-Mets Rivalry Blog

Interesting way to correlate Darrelle Revis leaving the Jets with Jose Reyes leaving the Mets.

My thoughts on two great columns about the lawsuit against the Wilpons

Bob Klapisch makes a very important point about the lawsuit against the Wilpons:

"Let’s stop and remind ourselves there are two sides to every story and Wilpon, no matter what you think of him, deserves the chance to defend himself in court. But it’s just as important to note that Castergine doesn’t fit the profile of your average gold digger.

She’s an Ivy Leaguer out of Penn, a former Division I athlete who came to the Mets in 2010 after working for the Philadelphia Flyers, Orlando Magic and Boston Bruins. Castergine quickly climbed the Mets’ ladder and became the first female senior VP in their 52-year history."

He sums it up with:

"Me? I believe what Castergine alleges in the lawsuit. Every single word."

Keep in mind, Bob Klapisch is a sports writer that has had access to the team's ownership over the years. While he's not privy to internal conversations, he has spoken to people involved with the team in his many years as a sports writer.  Based on his impressions dealing with them, he believes the lawsuit to be true. That's the part that's most troubling for the Wilpons. It's also the part that makes fans tired of the spoiled son of a mediocre owner very hopeful that it could spell his doom once and for all.

Additionally, Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports makes equally scathing points:

"For years, Selig's soft spot for the Wilpon family has allowed him to overlook their need for a loan to stay afloat amid the Madoff chaos, their mismanagement of a jewel franchise into the sort that operates like a low-revenue pauper, their public flubs that made #LOLMets a thing. Selig enabled the Mets knowing majority owner Fred Wilpon planned on gifting the franchise to Jeff, an underqualified bully who never would have sniffed sports-franchise ownership were he not bequeathed his last name."

"...Wilpon carried himself for years, as the cock of the walk, the all-knowing executive who, in reality, knew only how to take a proud franchise and run it into the ground. He directs the Mets with the vision of a mole, and people around the sport – from players to agents to executives – wish he would learn to burrow into the ground like one, too."

Notice how Passan also cited "players to agents to executives" when writing about Jeff Wilpon. I think this is just starting. I don't see it going away soon, unless Jeff Wilpon goes away very soon to rectify it.

Good thing 50 Cent Isn't a Baseball Player

50 Cent throwing out one of the worst ceremonial first pitches in the history of baseball:

As far as first pitches go, it's hard to beat the acrobat from Cirque du Soleil:

Incredibly heart-warming video.

A teenager with prosthetic legs gets to meet his hero, David Wright.

David Wright’s Metsiah Complex | New York Observer

A nice profile of New York Mets 3B David Wright.

This is why Juan Lagares should start in CF.

Look at all that ground he covered!!

I hate to admit it but Joel Sherman may be right.

Joel Sherman makes a good point that I hadn't realized before:

"There is a myth that [Tampa Bay and Oakland win] by drafting well. The reality is neither has, and Tampa Bay, in fact, over the past five or six years has been rather dreadful. What both teams are particularly adept at is finding players who have a few above-average skills then unearthing a counterpart who covers the flaws."

Mets will improve, only question is how | Richard Justice - MLB.com

MLB.com's Richard Justice talks Met fans off the ledge:

"So be patient, Mets fans. This is a new kind of offseason, one filled with possibilities. It may be agonizingly slow. Just know that by the time the Mets gather in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in February, they're going to be far different -- and better -- than they are today. That's worth waiting for, isn't it?"

Yes it is Richard. Yes it is.

Life, Baseball, and Stand-up Comedy

Reading this piece by Patrick Flood reminded me a bit of my six years as a stand-up comic. I've written before about how Patrick Flood was becoming one of my favorite Mets bloggers with his dry humor and vivid use of language.  I was disappointed when he disappeared from the SNY.tv blog network but happy when he briefly surfaced on Amazin' Avenue earlier this year before disappearing yet again.

Then his piece appeared this week, where he explained how seeing things behind the scenes wasn't as fun as those of us on the outside think it is.  The piece is worth reading even if you're not a baseball fan, just from this start alone:

"I have had my sneakers caked with the clay from a Major League Baseball field. I have explored an empty stadium in Florida in the rain. I have sat next to Keith Olbermann during a game and had a brief conversation with him about my hamburger. I have lent a pen to David Wright, and then used that pen to take tests for the rest of my senior year of college. I have tried to explain the infield fly rule to a middle-age man from Scotland who writes a rugby blog. I have successfully snuck into the background of postgame television interviews.

I have also tripped on the dugout stairs as Ike Davis was recording a radio interview, and believe his “whoa, easy there” made it on the air. I have fallen over the soft back of a sofa chair in the Mets clubhouse while trying to lean back casually, and then pretended nothing happened. I have seen far more naked men than I ever wanted, and barring an unforeseen career in adult movies, I believe I will die having seen more naked men in real life than naked women. And I have stolen a hot dog from the media dining room at Citi Field."

It is a great read and it really spoke to me because it describes my time as a stand-up comic.  I took a comedy workshop in 2004 just to avoid having regrets 20 years later of how I could have tried to do stand-up but never did.  After a six-week workshop and a "final exam" performing in front of a live audience, I found myself asked back to perform in another show three weeks later.

Eventually this led to other shows and other venues and even a few private events that paid money, although it was clearly a hobby.  I even won 3rd prize at a company talent show, where I was the only non-musical act out of 24 performers.  Four years later, in 2008, I took advantage of a layoff situation to try to make a career out of it.  Unfortunately, that happened in August 2008 and with the entire financial system collapsing in September 2008, opportunities dried up since no one had any money for luxuries like entertainment anymore.  I still plugged away but found that trying to turn a hobby into a job isn't as much fun because you're constantly stressed about the next opportunity, the next payday, when the big break is actually going to happen, is it going to happen, will the material get stale, how much material do I need and on and on.

Then in February 2009 I performed in a "bringer" show, where you only got stage time if you brought someone to the show.  It was the day of a major snowstorm so no one I knew was able to show up.  I had done bringers before but the producer would always let the comics that didn't bring anyone get a few minutes of stage time near the end of the show out of pity.  However, I trekked all the way to The Comic Strip to do a show only to be told by the producer that I couldn't get my stage time because I didn't bring anyone.  He wasn't willing to consider the fact that there had been a major snowstorm outside so the club wasn't full anyway.

As luck would have it, the headliner for that show, Ted Alexandro, was also running late getting the the club for, I assume to be the aforementioned snowstorm.  I told the producer that if Ted can't make it, he can end the show but if he needs someone to stall for five minutes, send me on stage until Ted arrives because I have enough material to go as long as he needs.  Just as the MC was about to close the show, he grabbed her and said, "Send Amod up there."  Apparently he finally heard back from Ted that he was five minutes away.  As you can see here, I ended up doing a six-minute set:



As I got off stage after this set, I saw the producer of the show standing with Ted in the back of the room.  I mentioned a mutual friend to Ted, so he knew who I was.  (My mentor from the job I left in 2008 is a deacon in Ted's church.)  After the show, the producer told me I owed him for giving me stage time without bringing anyone to the club.  I was tempted to say that I saved his ass from closing the show with the crowd never seeing the advertized headliner for the show.  Instead I begrudgingly got the DVD of my set that I posted above and left to go home.  I did send him an e-mail a day later telling him how I thought it was unethical for bringer shows to be strictly enforced.  I also sent an e-mail to Ted because he was trying to unionize comics and I thought the barker/bringer practice was an issue.  I wasn't surprised when I didn't get a response to either e-mail.

I also decided that I had had enough of this business.  If I want to be funny, I'll get a job and add humor into boring and uptight corporate settings, which I'm proud to say that I try to do as much as possible now.  If I want to do something involving public speaking, I'll stand and yell at a street corner, or go to strangers' funerals and give cheerful eulogies (don't worry, I haven't done either of these.)  I have performed twice since then but both times were to help out my dear friend Judy Vincent in her stand-up pursuits, including one show headlined by the hilarious Vidur Kapur, one of the nicest people in a business that needs more people like him.

In a way, I still do stand-up, however it's the toughest crowd I could ever have.  My audience consists of two people: my 7 and 2 year old daughters.  And I couldn't be happier.

Analysis of Matt Harvey's Pitching Mechanics

Very interesting analysis by someone that was contacted for advice by Matt Harvey's father when Matt was in high school.  I always thought Harvey had great mechanics but as the GIF from the link that I posted below shows, his throwing mechanics as a high school pitcher were actually much better:

Great post about the best broadcast team in baseball

Anthony DiComo of Mets.com has a fantastic post about the Mets' SNY broadcast team, including this nugget about one of their pre-game prep sessions:

"Eventually, their conversation drifted back to that night's broadcast, which was to feature a heavy dose of Harvey analysis. Picker asked Darling to address Bob Ojeda's comments, made earlier in the day, regarding the stress that Harvey's low-90s slider may have contributed to his season-ending elbow tear. That led to a discussion of pitching mechanics in general, which somehow funneled to a commentary on foreign exchange rates, which melted into talk of Hillary Clinton's potential presidential candidacy, then a dissection of Juan Lagares' batting stance."

I'm curious to know how they got from pitching mechanics to foreign exchange rates but sadly that wasn't covered in the post.

MLB.com interview with Zack Wheeler

Nice interview with Zack Wheeler.

Keith Law on the Mets-Pirates trade

ESPN's Keith Law wrote a nice recap of the trade today that sent Marlon Byrd and John Buck to the Pittsburgh Pirates. ESPN Insiders can read the whole post here. As long and dedicated a baseball fan as I've been, it's passages like this one that remind me that I still have a lot to learn about a game I've watched religiously for nearly 35 of my 40 years of existence:

"For about five weeks of Byrd and Buck, the Mets get a very solid second-base prospect in Herrera. Playing full-time at age 19 in the low Class A Sally League, Herrera has shown somewhat surprising pop, with a .156 isolated power and 41 extra-base hits in 109 games. He's got a simple, quiet approach, just loading his hands a little higher than he should, with adequate hip rotation for 15-20 homer power at his peak."

Law also mentions the Mets are supposed to get another "solid" piece as the player to be named later. Players to be named later are generally 40-man roster members that have not cleared waivers so they don't get named until after the post-season is over. So we can eliminate any thoughts of the other throw-in piece being Gift Ngoepe and his .177 Double-A batting average and fascinating backstory.

Chris Walendin of tpgmets tweeted the names of the Pirates 40-man roster members that are not on the active roster:

Pirates on 40-man roster, not on active roster or DL: Vic Black, Brandon Cumpton, Kris Johnson, Kyle McPherson, Andy Oliver, ... (1 of 2)
— Chris (@tpgMets) August 27, 2013

... Stolmy Pimentel, Ryan Reid, Duke Welker, Russ Canzler, Chase d'Arnaud, Alex Presley, Jerry Sands. (2 of 2)
— Chris (@tpgMets) August 27, 2013

It'll be interesting to see who the Mets get. I'm not sure if he'd be a "solid" piece but reuniting the d'Arnaud brothers in New York might be interesting to see.

The d'Eal with d'Arnaud's n'Ame on his j'Ersey

Apparently the jersey manufacturer doesn't make lower case letters, just small caps.

Small Sample Size Song (and Video)

This is funny but also true. Enjoy the video:

Before you tweet anything about Matt Harvey versus the Marlins, please consult this helpful video. http://t.co/662cjNRQwr
— Jeffrey Paternostro (@jeffpaternostro) August 1, 2013

If the embedded Tweet doesn't load, you can watch the video here too:

Matt Harvey, 'tough as nails,' rises to stardom | Ted Berg - USA Today Sports

""Man, he's a stud," Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper says. "I really think he's probably the best pitcher in the league right now."

Humble David Wright is All-Star | USA Today Sports

This is why David Wright is Captain America.

Dear Misters Wilpon, the town is here for the taking. Take it back for the Mets. | Mets Police

Well said Shannon. Well said.

Unlike that other 3B, Wright a credit to his Citi | Steve Serby - New York Post

Nice column comparing David Wright to A-Roid.

Matt Harvey says nude photo shoot for magazine 'was really cool' | NJ.com

The only line worth reading in the article:

"“Obviously, they’re not showing my junk,” Harvey quipped."