Bittersweet

My favorite kinda chocolate is not that sticky sweet milk crap. It is dark chocolate, which is sweet, but also has a faint bite of bitterness. Maybe I just need something bitter to fully enjoy the sweetness of the rest of it.

The Mets are bittersweet too with the terrible news about Carlos Gomez fracture, Do Luca's sentence, and the bruises of the Colorado massacre. But, they did win last night, 6-2. Johnny M. continued his dominance and grace under pressure and Carlos D made some hits. Progress.

We'll see what happens tonight. Pelfrey is pitching, which history tells us may be more like bitters than bittersweet.

T.G.I.A.A.S.B

Just had a lovely DC July 4th - fireworks on a friend's roof. Came to home to see we are continuing in the self destructive gulf of bad pitching that has Colorado outscoring us 17-5 going into tonight's game. And it's only getting worse.... the Rockies have now scored 15 runs. And no, they are not a football team. They're 7 games out of first place in the super competitive NL West.

First our hitting is as flat as matzoh. Now, our pitching is no better than a Bill Richardson for President ad. Times ain't pretty, friends.


T.G.I.A.A.S.B - thank God it's almost the all star break.

Money Can Sometimes Buy Love (At Least in Baseball)

Washington is always atwitter with a story, a scandal, a drama. Aside from Scooter's weaseling, another big story today is the anemic presidential fundraising of Sen. John McCain.

In politics, money is key. You are constantly compared with your opponents, the money race as heated as the pennant race. In baseball, it seems money doesn't always buy victories. The Yankees, with the highest payroll in baseball, are nowhere near the top of the heap.

What's really interesting is the teams that are competitive with a Dennis Kucinich sized pot. The Brewers (at $70 million), San Diego ($58 million), Cleveland ($61 million) are all in or near first place in their divisions. I realize this is not chump change, but when you look at the Yankees ($190 million), Red Sox ($143 million) or the Mets ($115 million) it looks more Kucinich then Clinton. Check it out here.

Baseball isn't quite like politics - you don't necessarily need the bucks to compete.

UPDATE: Yankees won, so maybe I spoke too soon. And the #3 payroll (the Mets) are crashing and burning in Colorado. Sigh. We'll see. It's June. Just like the fundraising numbers, who's up and who's down will look different come the next quarter.

The Fashion of Baseball

The Mets lost today, although I am not bitter. Oli needed a day off and truthfully, Pelfrey has had worse meltdowns than today's - his last five starts in the majors.

But I am not returning to that place. Things are getting better. The Two of the Carlos Three are making stuff happen. And to help the press coverage, the fan psyche and most important, the team psyche, Carlos boldly predicted after they lost the Twins series, the team needed to go 8 and 2. And they've got 8-2. Movin' on up.

I did not see today's game; I traveled back from Philly after a fab brunch off Rittenhouse Square, which is now my favorite park in America that is actually a square. It could be the spectacular weather that has enveloped the east coast, but I just loved Philly. Although I could never love their team!

So my favorite recollection about Citizens Park was this kinda angry, 50 something, moustached, Phillies fan who asked us dripping with jealous sarcasm, "How many different outfits do you guys have?" Me and the random cute Met fans sitting next to me explained that we had 4 different uniforms.

The guy was obviously jealous, as the Philles (although they have a good stadium), they have just two uniforms. And I poked around today and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the number of uniforms a team wears. The Brewers have 4; the Angels have 4; the Nats, Braves, Orioles and Red Sox all have three.

I know all my blog readers are not quite the fashionista that I am, but you are all baseball fans. Any idea why this is?

The Anna Wintour in me thanks you.

All Carlos, All the Time

Philadelphia - I am happily in my friend's lovely Center City apartment, writing on his beautiful G4, and reveling in the Mets double header win yesterday. We are headed off to a walking class he has been taking about the architecture of Philly so this will be quick. Thankfully, they allow special guests.

We witnessed last night's 5-2 win. My thumbnail review.... The stadium is beautiful. Modeled on Camden Yards, one of the best baseball stadiums around. The weather was perfect b-ball weather, although a little cooler than I would have expected for almost July. Our seats were fabulous, lotsa Met fans and I saw more than a sliver of the pre-Italy Mets. Solid hitting, solid fielding, beautiful 8 plus innings from our beast Johnny Maine.

My two highlights: All Carlos, all the time. Carlos the third (Gomez) with fab fielding and Carols Beltran belting 2 out of the park.

More later, including the bitter Phillies fan who asked me and a gang 'o Met fans about Mets fashion. Speaking of fashion, my very non pedestrian friend wore a beautiful 1980s style Phillies cap sans green fur.

Happy Saturday!

...Go Away

The rain and thunder that is. Tonight's game has been postponed due to rain. And it better stop before tomorrow night because I am headed to Philly to see the Mets! 7:05. Decent seats, a little up, but behind home plate. I hear the stadium is basically great from the nice Philly fans who were selling tix to the sold out game on craigslist. (We'll see what I think of 'em come tomorrow. I suspect it will be quite different.)

My friend who lives in Philly is typically an agnostic when it comes to baseball, but he is planning on being decked out. As long as he is not wearing that ridiculous green fur we'll be okay. Me? Debating between my 25th anniversary shirt, my David Wright shirt or my classic 60's Mr. Met shirt. What's a girl to do?

Phillies are down 5-4, the Braves are off tonight. If all holds, Philly will be in third place in the NL East come tomorrow. But this is baseball. Anything can happen.

UPDATE: Phillies took it 8-7. At least they stayed up late for it.

Rain, Rain...

As a ticket holder of Game One/attendee of Game Two of last year's NLCS, I hate rain delays, especially against the Cardinals.

Full history here, but I attribute the postponement of the game and subsequent lack of a rest day as a factor in the Mets loss last year.

Not going to relive it. Too damn painful. Reminds me of the 2004 election.

UPDATE: Well, the rain turned out to be our friend. 2-0, 6 innings. Mr. Viagra gets his win. All good, but sadly, Passover last seven days. No hitting.

Intervals

Last night I did the dreaded intervals on the elliptical and watched a little Yankees v. O's. For those of you who don't workout, it's doing a couple of minutes at very high speed and a couple of minutes at a lower speed . It's a good workout, but whenever I do it, I am wiped out. Seriously wiped out. Bottom line: I just hate those things.

Doing this while watching the very intervaled Yankees (who have now dropped 6 of the last 7) and then seeing the Mets 5-3 loss to the cocktail weenie Cardinals reminded me that you have to be careful about winning too many games in a row (unless you are the Red Sox this year) - what comes out on the other side can be awful ugly. Look at the April and most of May for the Mets and then the horrible June.

So, I'm not thrilled about Schoenweis again failing to come through or for Oli not getting the win he worked so hard at trying to get. This was mostly a batting problem (yet again), with a dash of bad pitching. But so it goes. Maybe it will make the next couple of weeks a little less painful.

Matzo Bats

Clutch hitting by tribe member Shawn Green tonight was the reason for tonight's 2-1 win over the Cardinals. The pitching is getting better, the fielding greatly improved. But the bats? As stiff as unleavened bread.

Re-Awoken

So, a sweep. A sweep!

Not that the Oakland A's are emblematic of the bad asses in the AL. But they beat the Yankees, they beat Boston, and they beat St. Louis. So they ain't THAT bad.

Although yesterday they looked pretty bad. And the Mets capitalized on every weakness. Unlike Saturday, the bats were on and Jose was on FIRE or at least running like there was a fire.

The Mets are the bear that has been re-awoken. And you know what bears snack on as appetizers? Birds. Cardinals to be exact. Usually around 7 pm.