Yankees are High Fashion?

Arezzo, Italia- Just a quick post from Italy. Sad the Mets lost the Atlanta series, happy to hear Carlos D (not the one from Interpol) is making stuff happen, bummed about Shawn Green.

Italy is georgeous. Rome is chaos and beauty melted together, old stuff in the middle of cities is like the spice that gives it all flavor. Had a quick jet-lagged look around on Friday - went to Piazza Venezia, the Colosseum, and the old Jewish quarter. Jews are everywhere.

A disturbing trend - Yankees hats all over Roma worn by the natives. Guess Yankees are high fashion. Good for baseball, I suppose.

We got our bikes and began our journey yesterday. Picked up bikes in Orvietto, got back on the train for an hour, then rode about 40 kms to Arezzo. Jenny chatted up an Italian woman who recommended an inexpensive, clean and convenient B and B...love that! Ate an amazing meal after an insane thunder and hail storm that we managed to avoid. Took pics of restaurant, but cannot figure out how to upload.

Today, we are off to Lucca, trying to avoid Florence and the tourists. We'll see how it goes.

Ciao!

Vivo Oliver!

I am all about packing tonight, but I did notice that my boy Oliver shut down the Braves tonight. Believe baby! Oli has been the only Mets pitcher to shut down Atlanta so far this season.

Series tied 1-1. It's the Viagra face off tomorrow night... Glavine v. Smoltz. Guess I'll hear about the final results of the series when I arrive in Rome.

Scalped

It's a good thing the Mets have no hair, since the Braves would have removed it in this game. Atlanta is giving the boys from Queens a good scalping. I can't even watch. Pitching disaster. Sosa, Sele. No more "S" words, but you can see where this is headed. I stopped watching in the 4th, but like a train wreck, I cannot stop myself. I turned it back on, it's now 8-1 and I am really stopping this time. I promise.

Like the Yankees game on Monday, the Mets started playing like they were defeated the minute they were 4 runs down. It's bologna, I tell ya. That's not the attitude of champions. Buck up boys. And remember who won against those who employed scalping in the past.

The only thing I have going for me is that I am soon leaving for Italy. Via Italia! I think there will be no scalping there. Certainly, there will be no Braves. Although I still have to get through tomorrow night.

Onward, Upward

Tonight, the Braves. While the Yankees may be the company that sell shit in your territory, the Braves are selling the exact same product right next store. Unlike last year, the Braves are a competitor and I suspect will be nagging at our asses all season long.

Sometimes we spend too much time thinking about other people and things when we are trying to accomplish something. But success is about concentration. Be aware of your barriers to success, make a plan to exploit the weaknesses of your opponent, but keep focused on your goal. It ain't about someone else losing; it is about you being top dog.

Ya Know What Would Be Delicious?

Sweeping the series. But it didn't happen. The Mets bats got shut down tonight by 22-year-old minor league Yankee pitcher Tyler Clippard.

The Mets had a rhythm going into this series and it carried them through until tonight. Friday night's win by Oliver. Saturday's wild ride where they were able to win with a recipe of warm bats, mixed with a healthy serving of capitalizing on the Yankee's defensive mistakes. Yum, delish. Two wins delish.

Tonight was not quite like that. It was a quiet game. Not much cookin' for the Mets. The one rallying moment was a lone home run by hot buns himself... David Wright. It wasn't even that the Yankees defense was all that. Bottom line: Fresh meat Clippard sliced us and diced us.

At least tomorrow night the Empire State Building will be marinated in blue and orange.

Oliver Perez - Winning Pitcher and Philosopher

Last night =Beautiful. 3-2 Mets over their bully step-brother the Yankees. Maybe it is hopeless for John McCain. Well see. It is only May after all. Oliver was on it, i hear he even hit my boyfriend, David Wright, on the tush. Lucky man.

Other than Oli, Endy was the man last night. While losing Moises Alou for a while is not good news, Endy is stepping up and making stuff happen.

My fave piece in all of the coverage as I scanned it quickly (I have to get to the gym for my fave Saturday class) is Oliver saying
“I always play baseball like it’s going to be my last game".

Couldn't have said it better myself. Not about baseball, naturally.

Luck O' Something

Unbelievable. Today, in the NINTH inning, the Mets came back and scored 5 runs to beat the Cubs. Call it the luck of something, but this was walk off victory number 2 for the Mets this week. The winning run today was actually hit by Carlos Delgado, the same guy who won Monday's game by getting the bottom of the 9th, 2 out walk. Nice symmetry to end the series.

What made today's victory especially nice was that the Mets were as broke down as I was today (I had some wine with dinner last night and went to bed too late) because of this morning's nearly 1 am finish. My only remiss is that I am lacking my own top notch backup squad.

Not sure if it's those haircuts or what, but this is delicious momentum for a weekend of hand to hand combat with the nine- games-out-of-first-place Yankees. Nah, I am not gloating. Actually, I am not. If you remember my earlier post, the Yankees are like John McCain and no one has any idea what the hell will happen to either one of them. One thing baseball and politics have in common: you never want to peak too early, a la Howard Dean. What team wants to be known as the Howard Dean of baseball? Right now, it might be the Brewers after their spanking by the lackluster Phillies.

Oli is pitching tomorrow. Let's hope the luck o'something is not just Irish.

They're Only Human

The Mets, that is. Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs pitcher last night, may not be. But we now know that Johnny Maine is. We already knew that Scott Schoenweis was.

Last night, while killing time on the elliptical at the gym, I was watching the Nats v. Braves. I root for the Nats, especially against the Braves. But the poor Nats. Inept pitching, lame fielding. I felt bad, especially since I have seen them play better. They did beat the Braves on Monday, after all.

This got me thinking about the lean days of the Mets and how hard it is to be a fan and continually have your heart broken. It's like having the same man let you down again and again. But after all, they are just human.

P.S. Mets v Cubs

Bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, 2 outs. Pitcher walks 2 batters in a row to load the bases. Full Count, Shea Stadium at their feet.

What happens? Pitcher walks Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes scores. 5-4 Mets. Finally, someone may be more hated than Bush tonight... Cubs pitcher Michael Wuertz.

Deflowered at Shea

Last year when I did the TNR blog, we briefly live blogged the games, which was just fabulous. Aside from the great contributors, it was really funny to talk and comment abou the games while the action was happening. Lacking the technology to do that, I am just going to post some funny thoughts about tonight's game as they come.

So, Rocky Cherry is not a porn star. Believe it or not, he is a rookie pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. The guy has been in the major leagues for something like 3 weeks and he no longer has a cherry. The Mets just scored 2 runs off him and tied it up. 4-4 in the 7th.