Ramble On...
I’ve got a lot to get out about Fantasy Baseball, Football and Hockey, what’s wrong with the WNBA, Mike Piazza’s final home game at Shea, my work softball championship team, Petko Park and Angels Stadium, Pearl Jam, Ken Macha and of course, the Baseball Playoffs. Here we go…
Ken Macha ruined any chance the A’s had to win the AL West this year. It boggles my mind how people feel that he is a great manager. He is not. He was the 2nd coming of Art Howe, and for some reason every Oakland fan liked Howe. They never managed well in important games, i.e. the playoffs, and Macha blew it for them in 3 games in the final 10 days of the regular season. Why does he keep relying on Juan Cruz and Jay “I have a child molesting mustache” Witasik to pitch in crucial situations? The same goes with Joe Torre and Alan Embree. Why rely on them when they have failed you so many times? I don’t get it.
So on that note, I guess everyone can understand my jubilation over the A’s not bringing back Macha to remain as their manager. I was emailing back and forth with my buddy Brian today, and here was our exchange…(keep in mind it started off about the ever important Montclair State University’s homecoming…so we were talking about boozing, of course, not caring about MSU football)…
Ok, I am going to see if J wants to come into town
Are you going to Alexus on Friday... I am pumped for this weekend
We have to watch Texas-OU at Bill's, Texas is going to murder them
Macha is out.. you have to be happy about that
I am definantly down for texas-ou at bills...i am going to pretend i actually went to UT on saturday...
i am very very very very happy and pleased about macha not coming back
i will probably be at alexus on friday..i will want to get there in time for the yankee game
Who is going to replace Macha....Pinella? You add a power bat and a middle reliever (possibly Dotel when he returns from injury)and the A's are by far the best team in the west
Alexus closes at 10, we need to watch the whole game, Arod blew it yesterday
shoot, i didnt know it closed at 10...d@mn it...
yeah, a-rod did blow it...wang pitched a good game..
i doubt pinella would go there...billy beane is a very close watcher of his managers and apparently pinella doesnt like that...there’s talk that pinella will be in the yankees YES broadcast booth next season
no clue who the a's will hire...i would like to see them go after Jim Tracy though
What if they bring back Art Howe... I think your head would explode
HAHA...someone called into espn radio yesterday and asked that...i almost flipped
My honest opinion is you would not like anyone but Mark Miller as manager of your beloved A's, maybe the Yanks will fire torre and he would go to the A's to spite the yanks
So Brian is definantly right, I probably wouldn’t be happy with anyone but myself running the team. Shoot, the Rangers just hired a 28 year old GM, why not hire a 23 year old Manager? I sure would do a better job than most people, I would guarantee that...Yes, I am that confident.
So while we are on the topic of baseball, the Yankees were dominant in their first game against the Angels, scoring 3 runs in the first inning. Why was Garret Anderson playing so shallow though? I mean, I sort of understand why he was, to stop 2 runs from scoring, but still, Cano does have some pop in his bat. He’s not Ozzie Smith here. But what are you going to do? Moose impressed me. I really didn’t think he would dominate like he did. I liked how Torre used Leiter in that game, and then Flash was lights out, but Mo’ wasn’t unhittable, although Cano did make an error. I don’t understand why the Yankees don’t have someone on their bench to be a defensive replacement for Cano late in the game. He’s cost them games in the past because of his defense. Defense is very important. If you’re winning in the 8th by a run or 2 or 3, take him out. But they can’t do that. Mark Bellhorn isn’t exactly Bill Mazerowski out there.
So then onto Game 2, poor Wang. He pitched a really good game, only for it to be blown by A-Rod. And then Orlando Cabrera with the big blow to make it a 4-2 game. And I don’t want to hear Yankee fans complain about Torre leaving Leiter in the game, only to give up that HR to Bengie Molina. That was one heck of a pitch by Leiter. Molina just got lucky and golfed it over the wall somehow. But where were the Yankees bats? They were 0-9 with RISP. You can’t win games if you can’t get those runners to score.
But Yankee fans, don’t fret, you have Randy on the hill tomorrow night. He should be able to shut down the Angels and take a commanding 2-1 lead, with Chacon pitching game 4. You did what you had to do, split the 2 road games in LA.
White Sox up 2-0 on the Red Saux. Who saw this coming? I surely didn’t, especially since I predicted the Saux to take it 3 games to 1. Total blow it game 1, which I did not expect at all, and then yesterdays game was great. Mark Buehrle did not pitch well, but did what he had to to keep them in the game. Wells pitched brilliantly up until the 5th innings, but still, wasn’t his entire fault. The blame is put on Tony Graffanino. Costly error which should have been an inning ending double play resulted into a 3 run HR by Tadahito Iguchi 2 batters later to put the ChiSox up 5-4, and they didn’t relinquish the lead after that. But Saux fans, don’t worry, although I know it is difficult to say that you guys. You came back from 3-0 deficit last year, and remember, you rarely lose at home. If they make this go to game 5, I will guarantee the BoSox do not lose the series.
Cards/Pads series is pretty much a done deal, even after one game.
I am very upset my favorite player, Tim Hudson, pitched so poorly yesterday. I know he doesn’t have the best track record in the playoffs, but he’s not awful at all. In the past the A’s just didn’t score runs for him. His first playoff game he lost 4-2, but tossed a complete game, won 2-0 at Yankee Stadium in 2001, got a no decision in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Twins in 2002, but didn’t pitch extremely well (4 runs in 5 1/3---and not 4 ER though, so its not as bad as it looks), pitched only 4 innings against the Twins in Game 4 of that 2002 ALDS (But he should have pitched only Game 3…Art Howe did not set up his rotation correctly. That year, Twins bashed righties, but couldn’t hit lefties. He should have had Mulder pitch Game 1 and Zito in Game 2. The following year in 2003 he pitched Game 1 against Boston and got a no-decision while pitching well. Allowed only 3 ER in 6 2/3 innings. But then started Game 4 and got injured with an oblique injury, forcing him to leave after the 1st inning. That was the turning point of the series. But then he didn’t pitch well at all last night (5 BB alone). I expect him to bounce back though and pitch well.
My fantasy Baseball season is complete. I was in 4 leagues, finished in 4th place in 3 and who knows where in another league. I wasn’t pleased. In the Roto league I was fighting for 1st/2nd place up until the last week and a half where my team took a spill. It seemed like my pitchers couldn’t pitch well. In my All Point league format, I was fighting for 3rd place in the last week, but I decided to bench Johnny Damon because he had an achy shoulder and wasn’t playing every day, so I played Coco Crisp instead. What a mistake. If I didn’t make that move, I would have taken 3rd. But then the heart breaker of them all, I finished in 1st in the regular season, .5 ahead of the 2nd place team. Had a buy in the 1st round, then in the semi-finals I lost by one save, One F’n Save. I wasn’t too pleased 1 Save which he got on the last day. I ended up coping with that and was ok playing for 3rd place, but what happens? I am up 11-8 going into the last day and we end up tying 9-9-2, all because he somehow came back and tied my in runs. So what happens if it’s a tie? They go by lower ERA. And of course I sat Zach Duke this week and pitched Carpenter thinking he would bounce back and make sure he was on a roll going into the playoffs. So I ended up not winning 1 penny.
I decided to run a Fantasy Hockey league. I had no clue what I was doing during the draft. I won’t lie. I felt like a Scores girl in a trivia contest. So I decide to draft my 2nd goalie in the 8th round, and I picked Kevin Weekes, the goaltender of the New York Rangers. Well, needless to say I got ripped on by my buddy Burger. Apparently he stinks. I guess I don’t have much of a shot of winning this league. Ha. Oh well. At least the Devils won their first game 5-1.
Other fantasy news: I have 3 different fantasy football team, 2 are on the cbssportsline site (the best fantasy site) and the other on ESPN. I am sharing 2 of the teams and the other is on my own. All my teams are currently 2-2. But I remember raising the question a month ago about who I should draft #1 overall in the league where I am the only owner (Team Ray Finkle). It was between L.T. and Peyton. I decided to go with L.T. Reason being, I couldn’t wait until picks #24 and #25 to get my 2 running backs. So far it’s paying off, so far (knock on wood). Let’s hope that it stays that way and helps me win it all.
I went to go see Pearl Jam this past Monday night in Philadelphia. First, the tri-stadiums they have there with the Citizens Bank (Phillies), Eagles Stadium and Wachovia Center (76ers and Flyers), it is the perfect place to pre-game. I had gone to a Phillies game back in July, but I didn’t exactly realize the perfect location of the other stadium and arena. So anyway, of course the concert was great. Opened with Wash, threw in Harvest Moon, played Hail Hail, In My Tree etc.., just a great show. Not the best Pearl Jam show that I’ve been to, but it was still great.
I need to mention that I also visited two more ball parks in August. I and 4 other friends went out to visit our close friends out in San Diego. We decided to get Padres tickets to go see a Rockies/Padres game at Petko Park. Petko is a gorgeous stadium, absolutely updated with Plasma TVs all around the stadium and the food was spectacular, especially the chicken burrito. Negative though was no beer guy making his way up and down the isles, but there is a beer vendor right outside the section we were in, so we didn’t have to walk far, which was nice.
I also made my way up to Angel’s stadium 4 days later with 2 other friends. I had to go because Oakland was in town, fighting for the division title. Very nice stadium, but not as nice as Petko. Unfortunately I did not eat, but they did sell very good beer there, along with liquor, which surprised me, because I know Yankee Stadium doesn’t sell liquor, but for good reason. But we did get to watch one of the best games I’ve ever seen live. What a great pitching duel between Barry Zito and Bartolo Colon. Zito pitched 9 complete innings, Colon pitched 9 1/3. The A’s finally won the game in the 11th after Bobby Kielty hit a homerun to put the A’s ahead 3-2.
Speaking of California, my work softball team, DOIM (Dept of Information Management) won the final game of the 3 game series of the softball championship. I was really pissed that I missed that final game, but I had this trip planned for over 6 months. We swept in the semi-finals, where I ended the game with a walk-off grand slam single (think of Robin Ventura), which also allowed me to receive MVP for the series. I continued my hitting in the championship. We won the first game 10-1. The only run allowed was a lead off HR. We did not allow a runner past 2B after that. And I also made a full extension diving catch for the final out of the game. It was Jim Edmonds-like I was told. We lost the 2nd game 9-6, I wasn’t happy, but I knew we would win the final game, but I just wanted to be there for the trophy celebration. I’m just glad we won. We have bragging rights. One of my greatest accomplishments ever…and yes, I am proud of it.
On ESPN.com, in The Sports Guy’s latest mailbag, someone posed the question of why the WNBA is no fun to watch. And Bill Simmons brought up a great point, which he also stated on Jim Rome Is Burning…because what’s the point of sitting and watching a game being played that you know you could honestly be the 6th man on the two teams playing? I agree. I’m not saying that I could actually be 6th man, because, after all, I am a horrendous bball player. But I get the point. It’s just not as fast paced as men’s and not as athletic. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth.
And finally, Mike Piazza’s final game as a New York Metropolitan.
My friends Juse and Burger went to go see Piazza’s final game. They were having a tribute for him and everything. Make it really special. I mean, they should, look at what he has meant to this franchise. My buddy Burger brought this to my attention. Look at everything Piazza has also gone through as a Met, playing for Bobby V, losing teams, all blame put on his shoulder for not winning, accused of being a homosexual, and not once did he complain. He took everything like a man and handles everything like a class-act. He is the perfect role model. So we figured this was going to be a great day, get to the stadium, drink some beers, head in, see the tribute and watch him play his final game. So we get to the stadium, we drink a few beers, head in and go to our seats, which were located next to the Mets bullpen. But the first problem arouse. You would think that Piazza would be on the cover of the scorebook, but nope, Carlos Beltran was. So we head to our seats and Piazza headed out to the bullpen to warm up Victor Zambrano, the starting pitcher that day. He tipped his cap while everyone gave him a standing ovation and I clicked and took a lot of pictures. Going into the bottom of every inning, the Mets played interviews and some of Piazza’s best highlights throughout his career as a Met. He received a standing ovation every time going to the plate, then even every time he grounded out (he went 0-3 on the day). Then going into the bottom of the 7th, the Mets played a tribute and delayed the game. Great tribute for Piazza, where he received 2 curtain calls. And I must mention one of the classiest moves was that Rockies manager, Clint Hurdle, had his players stay at the top of their dugout and give Piazza his due respect. So Piazza didn’t get the chance to bat in the 7th, so he was due up 3rd in the 8th. Piazza goes out to catch the warm-ups, but then Willie Randolph calls Piazza in and replaces him with Mike DiFelice. Mike DiFelice. What the heck is that about? He had one more at bat. They probably would have grooved one in for him and allowed him to take a hack for an attempt at a HR. I will talk more about Willie in another post about how he has continually disappointed me even after I defended him time after time after time. So the crowd grew weary, booed DiFelice. I don’t blame them. It wasn’t directed at DiFelice, but at the fact that Piazza was taken out of the game. They were down 11-2. Willie left Cliff Floyd in the game and allowed him to hit in the 8th, then took him out and replaced him in the top of the 9th. So why not allow Piazza to hit. But whatever. The Mets had another tribute for him on the jumbo screen right after the game and Piazza blew kisses to all directions of the stadium. He was touched. We were touched. I know I’m not a Mets fan, but I am a fan of the game. I did have a chance to meet him while working for ESPN Radio, Poughkeepsie 3 years ago, and he was a class act then as well. I had to give him my due respect, he deserved it.
Until next time….
Ken Macha ruined any chance the A’s had to win the AL West this year. It boggles my mind how people feel that he is a great manager. He is not. He was the 2nd coming of Art Howe, and for some reason every Oakland fan liked Howe. They never managed well in important games, i.e. the playoffs, and Macha blew it for them in 3 games in the final 10 days of the regular season. Why does he keep relying on Juan Cruz and Jay “I have a child molesting mustache” Witasik to pitch in crucial situations? The same goes with Joe Torre and Alan Embree. Why rely on them when they have failed you so many times? I don’t get it.
So on that note, I guess everyone can understand my jubilation over the A’s not bringing back Macha to remain as their manager. I was emailing back and forth with my buddy Brian today, and here was our exchange…(keep in mind it started off about the ever important Montclair State University’s homecoming…so we were talking about boozing, of course, not caring about MSU football)…
Ok, I am going to see if J wants to come into town
Are you going to Alexus on Friday... I am pumped for this weekend
We have to watch Texas-OU at Bill's, Texas is going to murder them
Macha is out.. you have to be happy about that
I am definantly down for texas-ou at bills...i am going to pretend i actually went to UT on saturday...
i am very very very very happy and pleased about macha not coming back
i will probably be at alexus on friday..i will want to get there in time for the yankee game
Who is going to replace Macha....Pinella? You add a power bat and a middle reliever (possibly Dotel when he returns from injury)and the A's are by far the best team in the west
Alexus closes at 10, we need to watch the whole game, Arod blew it yesterday
shoot, i didnt know it closed at 10...d@mn it...
yeah, a-rod did blow it...wang pitched a good game..
i doubt pinella would go there...billy beane is a very close watcher of his managers and apparently pinella doesnt like that...there’s talk that pinella will be in the yankees YES broadcast booth next season
no clue who the a's will hire...i would like to see them go after Jim Tracy though
What if they bring back Art Howe... I think your head would explode
HAHA...someone called into espn radio yesterday and asked that...i almost flipped
My honest opinion is you would not like anyone but Mark Miller as manager of your beloved A's, maybe the Yanks will fire torre and he would go to the A's to spite the yanks
So Brian is definantly right, I probably wouldn’t be happy with anyone but myself running the team. Shoot, the Rangers just hired a 28 year old GM, why not hire a 23 year old Manager? I sure would do a better job than most people, I would guarantee that...Yes, I am that confident.
So while we are on the topic of baseball, the Yankees were dominant in their first game against the Angels, scoring 3 runs in the first inning. Why was Garret Anderson playing so shallow though? I mean, I sort of understand why he was, to stop 2 runs from scoring, but still, Cano does have some pop in his bat. He’s not Ozzie Smith here. But what are you going to do? Moose impressed me. I really didn’t think he would dominate like he did. I liked how Torre used Leiter in that game, and then Flash was lights out, but Mo’ wasn’t unhittable, although Cano did make an error. I don’t understand why the Yankees don’t have someone on their bench to be a defensive replacement for Cano late in the game. He’s cost them games in the past because of his defense. Defense is very important. If you’re winning in the 8th by a run or 2 or 3, take him out. But they can’t do that. Mark Bellhorn isn’t exactly Bill Mazerowski out there.
So then onto Game 2, poor Wang. He pitched a really good game, only for it to be blown by A-Rod. And then Orlando Cabrera with the big blow to make it a 4-2 game. And I don’t want to hear Yankee fans complain about Torre leaving Leiter in the game, only to give up that HR to Bengie Molina. That was one heck of a pitch by Leiter. Molina just got lucky and golfed it over the wall somehow. But where were the Yankees bats? They were 0-9 with RISP. You can’t win games if you can’t get those runners to score.
But Yankee fans, don’t fret, you have Randy on the hill tomorrow night. He should be able to shut down the Angels and take a commanding 2-1 lead, with Chacon pitching game 4. You did what you had to do, split the 2 road games in LA.
White Sox up 2-0 on the Red Saux. Who saw this coming? I surely didn’t, especially since I predicted the Saux to take it 3 games to 1. Total blow it game 1, which I did not expect at all, and then yesterdays game was great. Mark Buehrle did not pitch well, but did what he had to to keep them in the game. Wells pitched brilliantly up until the 5th innings, but still, wasn’t his entire fault. The blame is put on Tony Graffanino. Costly error which should have been an inning ending double play resulted into a 3 run HR by Tadahito Iguchi 2 batters later to put the ChiSox up 5-4, and they didn’t relinquish the lead after that. But Saux fans, don’t worry, although I know it is difficult to say that you guys. You came back from 3-0 deficit last year, and remember, you rarely lose at home. If they make this go to game 5, I will guarantee the BoSox do not lose the series.
Cards/Pads series is pretty much a done deal, even after one game.
I am very upset my favorite player, Tim Hudson, pitched so poorly yesterday. I know he doesn’t have the best track record in the playoffs, but he’s not awful at all. In the past the A’s just didn’t score runs for him. His first playoff game he lost 4-2, but tossed a complete game, won 2-0 at Yankee Stadium in 2001, got a no decision in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Twins in 2002, but didn’t pitch extremely well (4 runs in 5 1/3---and not 4 ER though, so its not as bad as it looks), pitched only 4 innings against the Twins in Game 4 of that 2002 ALDS (But he should have pitched only Game 3…Art Howe did not set up his rotation correctly. That year, Twins bashed righties, but couldn’t hit lefties. He should have had Mulder pitch Game 1 and Zito in Game 2. The following year in 2003 he pitched Game 1 against Boston and got a no-decision while pitching well. Allowed only 3 ER in 6 2/3 innings. But then started Game 4 and got injured with an oblique injury, forcing him to leave after the 1st inning. That was the turning point of the series. But then he didn’t pitch well at all last night (5 BB alone). I expect him to bounce back though and pitch well.
My fantasy Baseball season is complete. I was in 4 leagues, finished in 4th place in 3 and who knows where in another league. I wasn’t pleased. In the Roto league I was fighting for 1st/2nd place up until the last week and a half where my team took a spill. It seemed like my pitchers couldn’t pitch well. In my All Point league format, I was fighting for 3rd place in the last week, but I decided to bench Johnny Damon because he had an achy shoulder and wasn’t playing every day, so I played Coco Crisp instead. What a mistake. If I didn’t make that move, I would have taken 3rd. But then the heart breaker of them all, I finished in 1st in the regular season, .5 ahead of the 2nd place team. Had a buy in the 1st round, then in the semi-finals I lost by one save, One F’n Save. I wasn’t too pleased 1 Save which he got on the last day. I ended up coping with that and was ok playing for 3rd place, but what happens? I am up 11-8 going into the last day and we end up tying 9-9-2, all because he somehow came back and tied my in runs. So what happens if it’s a tie? They go by lower ERA. And of course I sat Zach Duke this week and pitched Carpenter thinking he would bounce back and make sure he was on a roll going into the playoffs. So I ended up not winning 1 penny.
I decided to run a Fantasy Hockey league. I had no clue what I was doing during the draft. I won’t lie. I felt like a Scores girl in a trivia contest. So I decide to draft my 2nd goalie in the 8th round, and I picked Kevin Weekes, the goaltender of the New York Rangers. Well, needless to say I got ripped on by my buddy Burger. Apparently he stinks. I guess I don’t have much of a shot of winning this league. Ha. Oh well. At least the Devils won their first game 5-1.
Other fantasy news: I have 3 different fantasy football team, 2 are on the cbssportsline site (the best fantasy site) and the other on ESPN. I am sharing 2 of the teams and the other is on my own. All my teams are currently 2-2. But I remember raising the question a month ago about who I should draft #1 overall in the league where I am the only owner (Team Ray Finkle). It was between L.T. and Peyton. I decided to go with L.T. Reason being, I couldn’t wait until picks #24 and #25 to get my 2 running backs. So far it’s paying off, so far (knock on wood). Let’s hope that it stays that way and helps me win it all.
I went to go see Pearl Jam this past Monday night in Philadelphia. First, the tri-stadiums they have there with the Citizens Bank (Phillies), Eagles Stadium and Wachovia Center (76ers and Flyers), it is the perfect place to pre-game. I had gone to a Phillies game back in July, but I didn’t exactly realize the perfect location of the other stadium and arena. So anyway, of course the concert was great. Opened with Wash, threw in Harvest Moon, played Hail Hail, In My Tree etc.., just a great show. Not the best Pearl Jam show that I’ve been to, but it was still great.
I need to mention that I also visited two more ball parks in August. I and 4 other friends went out to visit our close friends out in San Diego. We decided to get Padres tickets to go see a Rockies/Padres game at Petko Park. Petko is a gorgeous stadium, absolutely updated with Plasma TVs all around the stadium and the food was spectacular, especially the chicken burrito. Negative though was no beer guy making his way up and down the isles, but there is a beer vendor right outside the section we were in, so we didn’t have to walk far, which was nice.
I also made my way up to Angel’s stadium 4 days later with 2 other friends. I had to go because Oakland was in town, fighting for the division title. Very nice stadium, but not as nice as Petko. Unfortunately I did not eat, but they did sell very good beer there, along with liquor, which surprised me, because I know Yankee Stadium doesn’t sell liquor, but for good reason. But we did get to watch one of the best games I’ve ever seen live. What a great pitching duel between Barry Zito and Bartolo Colon. Zito pitched 9 complete innings, Colon pitched 9 1/3. The A’s finally won the game in the 11th after Bobby Kielty hit a homerun to put the A’s ahead 3-2.
Speaking of California, my work softball team, DOIM (Dept of Information Management) won the final game of the 3 game series of the softball championship. I was really pissed that I missed that final game, but I had this trip planned for over 6 months. We swept in the semi-finals, where I ended the game with a walk-off grand slam single (think of Robin Ventura), which also allowed me to receive MVP for the series. I continued my hitting in the championship. We won the first game 10-1. The only run allowed was a lead off HR. We did not allow a runner past 2B after that. And I also made a full extension diving catch for the final out of the game. It was Jim Edmonds-like I was told. We lost the 2nd game 9-6, I wasn’t happy, but I knew we would win the final game, but I just wanted to be there for the trophy celebration. I’m just glad we won. We have bragging rights. One of my greatest accomplishments ever…and yes, I am proud of it.
On ESPN.com, in The Sports Guy’s latest mailbag, someone posed the question of why the WNBA is no fun to watch. And Bill Simmons brought up a great point, which he also stated on Jim Rome Is Burning…because what’s the point of sitting and watching a game being played that you know you could honestly be the 6th man on the two teams playing? I agree. I’m not saying that I could actually be 6th man, because, after all, I am a horrendous bball player. But I get the point. It’s just not as fast paced as men’s and not as athletic. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth.
And finally, Mike Piazza’s final game as a New York Metropolitan.
My friends Juse and Burger went to go see Piazza’s final game. They were having a tribute for him and everything. Make it really special. I mean, they should, look at what he has meant to this franchise. My buddy Burger brought this to my attention. Look at everything Piazza has also gone through as a Met, playing for Bobby V, losing teams, all blame put on his shoulder for not winning, accused of being a homosexual, and not once did he complain. He took everything like a man and handles everything like a class-act. He is the perfect role model. So we figured this was going to be a great day, get to the stadium, drink some beers, head in, see the tribute and watch him play his final game. So we get to the stadium, we drink a few beers, head in and go to our seats, which were located next to the Mets bullpen. But the first problem arouse. You would think that Piazza would be on the cover of the scorebook, but nope, Carlos Beltran was. So we head to our seats and Piazza headed out to the bullpen to warm up Victor Zambrano, the starting pitcher that day. He tipped his cap while everyone gave him a standing ovation and I clicked and took a lot of pictures. Going into the bottom of every inning, the Mets played interviews and some of Piazza’s best highlights throughout his career as a Met. He received a standing ovation every time going to the plate, then even every time he grounded out (he went 0-3 on the day). Then going into the bottom of the 7th, the Mets played a tribute and delayed the game. Great tribute for Piazza, where he received 2 curtain calls. And I must mention one of the classiest moves was that Rockies manager, Clint Hurdle, had his players stay at the top of their dugout and give Piazza his due respect. So Piazza didn’t get the chance to bat in the 7th, so he was due up 3rd in the 8th. Piazza goes out to catch the warm-ups, but then Willie Randolph calls Piazza in and replaces him with Mike DiFelice. Mike DiFelice. What the heck is that about? He had one more at bat. They probably would have grooved one in for him and allowed him to take a hack for an attempt at a HR. I will talk more about Willie in another post about how he has continually disappointed me even after I defended him time after time after time. So the crowd grew weary, booed DiFelice. I don’t blame them. It wasn’t directed at DiFelice, but at the fact that Piazza was taken out of the game. They were down 11-2. Willie left Cliff Floyd in the game and allowed him to hit in the 8th, then took him out and replaced him in the top of the 9th. So why not allow Piazza to hit. But whatever. The Mets had another tribute for him on the jumbo screen right after the game and Piazza blew kisses to all directions of the stadium. He was touched. We were touched. I know I’m not a Mets fan, but I am a fan of the game. I did have a chance to meet him while working for ESPN Radio, Poughkeepsie 3 years ago, and he was a class act then as well. I had to give him my due respect, he deserved it.
Until next time….
posted by Mark D. Miller at 5:56 PM
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