A Lil More Eli F.T.A.

The Last Word on this Eli Nonsense

Lots of bitching and moaning about the lucrative contract the New York Giants handed to their quarterback, Eli Manning. No, he's not as efficient as his brother Peyton or Tom Brady, nor is he a fantasy football numbers hanger like Drew Brees. But he's as capable as Ben Roethlisberger, civil sexual harassment suit notwithstanding, has also battled bouts of erratic play like Eli throughout his career.

Does he deserve to be the highest paid player in the NFL? Probably not. But is that 250 square foot studio in SoHo you're renting worth the ridiculous rent? What about the $40 entree at a nearby restaurant? New York City adds a premium to the cost of everything, and athletes' contracts are no different, much to the chagrin of some.

Go Play Inside

The Arena Football League is dead (Long Live the AFL2!!!). Amurricah loves football, but we are generally satisfied with college football on Saturdays and the NFL on Sundays. This is primarily why the many leagues that have come and gone over the years, such as the WFL, the USFL and the XFL, have failed. They tried to feed an over saturated market and tried to compete with the NFL on its own turf.

In fairness, indoor football was/is a decent idea. The AFL offered a product that was at once familiar and different. It brought football to smaller markets eager to watch a team of their own at prices families could afford. A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting the AFL's commissioner, David Baker. Baker had presided over a period of major growth for the league, and at the time, 2006, it seemed like only better times laid ahead. He made the kinda forced analogy that AFL football was more like the football most people play in parks, I guess in his mind he thought those Brett Favre Wrangler ads were real. In any event, arena football wasn't the greatest, but judging by the decent crowds and decent ESPN ratings, it didn't deserve to fail.

Aside from Kurt Warner and Jon Bon Jovi gleaming teeth, the league leaves behind a treasure-trove of teams. Here are a few. Mourn them till u join them.

The common man does not appreciate the long days and tedious months that go into professional graphic design. The common man saunters into his local Modell's or Big 5 and demands a XXXXL shirt bearing the logo of his favorite squadron so that he may saunter around town flaunting his team affiliation. Meanwhile, an army of nearsighted, carpal tunnel syndrome affected, burrito-fed graphic designers hunch over their screen, squinting, using Microsoft Paint to painstakingly cut and paste the outline of Texas and curve the words "Dallas" and "Texans" around it. Actually, that's only half of this logo's story. Making the Texas state flag wave like that required bringing in Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists and using NASA's backup servers. You have no idea how much processing power was needed to make that flag flutter just so. You ungrateful bastards.

This rare picture of Toucan Sam was taken after three days at Woodstock '94. Tripping balls on bad acid, raging on speed-cut cocaine and out-of-his-skull with euphoric rage after Primus' set.

aaaand Boom goes the dynamite. Butt seriously, simple always works best. Who wouldn't want this logo on the back of their teal Starter Jacket?

Not bad, not bad at all. Except, well, the logo already exists as that of the Shelby Cobra.

MATRIX: [reading about Boy George in a pop magazine] Why don't they just call him Girl George? It would cut down on the confusion.
JENNY: Oh, Dad, that is so old.
MATRIX: Ha Ha. You know when I was a boy and rock'n'roll came to East Germany, the communists said it was subversive.
[thinks and smiles]
MATRIX: Maybe they were right.
Hmmm? What's that? Oh, sorry, I was just trying to not let this piece of shit logo ruin my memory of an amazing movie.

"Haaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Yoo-hoo. Wanna play a little football sailor? You look like a natual tight end to me. Oooooo, are you wearing white after Labor Day? See ya later, alligator!"

Thankfully Drew Carey came along to set the record str8 on which Ohio town pumps KISS the loudest.

That would make a sick tattoo on my bicep...............bro.

(Sticky copies of Maxims litter the floor. P-Funks fill the ashtrays. The air hangs heavy with with the scent of Axe Body Spray. KTU blares loudly on the radio)."Bro, if you diss the Gladiatuhs one more time, I will gut you like the fuckin fish that you are."
"Eeeeeeeasy, bro, easy. Sip dis. Relax." (takes sip of Sparks). "You're right, I dunno why I tweaked. Let's go to the City and get laid."

I can't front on this one. It rules. It's the Fonz, in cat form, and he's stoned. I'd pay good money to watch a movie of this dude and the O.G., Heathcliff, go on a road trip and just chill the fuck out, discussing life in all of its intricacies in a droptop on the open road in between scenes of them throwing down in some honky-tonk saloon. It'd be the Y2K+9 "Easy Rider," or "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man" 'cept a zillion times radder.

Thanks to Chris Creamer and Sportslogos.net for the logos.

Women's Tennis Superstars from Back in the Dizzay: Hot or Not?

Last week's most controversial Shea Hey discussion begets this entry. Marinate. I have combed the vaults, dug in the crates (D.I.T.C 4-eva) to bring you the Women's Tennis Superstars from back in the dizzay; to the innocent days when a classy product like Virginia Slims could endorse the biggest Non-Slam tourney at MSG. Now, no e-z task this, but....who is the hottest? And who--the nottest? Obvi, outside entries are ok.

UNNNNGGHH!!! Monica Seles. Frankly, the discussion should stop here. And clearly, time has been kind. She stole a young Coachie's heart at the Virginia Slims Finals back in 1991. Young S-Boomz was also thrrr, he led us on a successful mish from the 400s all the way down to the third row.

This here is Tracy Austin. A tad before my time. But a fave of D-F-Dubbs aka David Foster Wallace. Yowee! More tennis players should play in nighties.

The Shark knows you don't have to hunt in shallow waters. The hottest American?

A chameleon. Is it the, ummm, fierce competitor on the left? Or the creamsicle on the right? We'll call it Advantage: Agassi.

Is she daydreaming of Matthew Perry on the right?The Mza and Bryman both have their points. Basically she's a diesel Alyssa Milano. And while she had a fairly ruff patch in her life, she still got crazy paid at age 13, think about that the next time you consider artificial NBA and NFL age limits.

Mary Pierce. A forgotten queen. Formed one the more bizarre sporting couples with Roberto Alomar, especially in light of recent allegations. The O.G. candidate for Proactiv. But still, braydz for dayz.

Conundrum, Jodie Foster would be the obvi doppelganger to play Martina in her biopic (title? "Pleez Hammer, don't hurt 'em!" or "Iron Curtain Munching" (sorry)) but Jodie Foster is attractive. A riddle. But seriously, rispekt, she's still playing and kicking a lot of ass.

Hana Mandilkova. Nothing special. Nice Bad News Bears look here tho. And I think she may have screwed around with Bjorn Borg. And we know that M.F.er only dipped his Swedish Meatballs in the finest.

The Swiss Miss. Paved the road for R-Fedz. Was I alone in my down-ness? Still down. Secretively saucy she-devil look to her.

Now here's a serious challenge. Gabriela Sabatini. It's crazy-bone-thugs that a babushka like Anna Kournakova was lionized when genuinely talented Amazonians like Sexy-Sabs were toeing the court. And she appears to have aged gracefully into Giada de Laurentiis, only the hottest chick in the saute game.

Finally, we have Arantxa Sanches-Vicario. I dunno. I'm strangely in the mood for a gyro tho.

Perhaps, in the interest of fair play, I will post a sequel featuring the starry racket-wielding studs of yesteryear. Personally, tho, I don't think there's much of a point. My mans Jimmy C has got that shit on lock:

If his rackets are on top of the bag, then what the hell is inside? Condoms? Coke? Champagne? The question, US Weekly style, is who rocked the bowl harder, Connors or Pete Rose?

Revenge for '93 Series Loss?

Quick thoughts on the deadline deals -

Winner: Phillies
Cliff Lee will probably have the biggest playoff impact of any player added near the deadline. No, he's not as great as Roy Halladay, but he's roughly 90% as good, costs less money, and probably cost a lot less in prospects. Lee makes the Phills a much tougher team in the playoffs and the clear favorites in the NL East next year. And the organization didn't have to part with any of their 3 top prospects (according to Baseball America). Great move.

Loser: Blue Jays
It's always hard to know how much to believe about all the rumored deals, but it seems like the Blue Jays overplayed their hand in the Halladay negotiations. The Indians were probably right to start rebuilding, but there's a reasonable argument that they should've kept Lee & Martinez and made a run in a weak division next season. On the other hand, there's no reason to think the Blue Jays can compete in the toughest division in baseball next year (the last year of Halladay's contract). They may still be able to pull off a better deal in the offseason, but for now, it seems that they blew their chance to start building for the future.

Winner: A's
Brett Wallace was the only prospect in Baseball America's recent top 25 included in any of the deadline deals. It's impressive that the A's got him in exchange for two months of a player having a mediocre season. The A's pretty much had to deal Holliday (it might've been risky to offer him arbitration) and didn't seem to have a lot of takers, but still managed to get a very good package in return. I still think it was a mistake for the A's to acquire Holliday in the first place, but Billy Beane still managed to do okay in the end.

Winner: White Sox
Special props to Ken Williams, who always seems to pull off surprising trades. Jake Peavy may not pitch again this year, but he's a great pickup for the next 2-3 years of his contract and there's a decent chance he'll return in September. Peavy may not improve Chicago's odds of reaching the playoffs, but if they do make it (probably a 30% chance right now), he could be a big help.

Naff

American sports fans find it bewildering that soccer matches can end in a penalty shootout. What to make of skipping a game entirely and proceeding straight to a bowling contest in cricket, then? Essentially it's the equivalent of a baseball game being decided by giving pitchers from each team 10 pitches at a batter-less home plate; whichever team throws more strikes out of 10 wins.

This week featured the quarterfinals of England's Twenty20 Cup, the shortest version of cricket. Heavy rain twice forced postponement of the match between the Lancashire Lightning and the Somerset Sabres. Both teams are scheduled to compete in other matches this weekend. Rather than postpone the game to a later date, after all the semi-finals aren't scheduled until August 15th, the two teams took part in a bowl-off behind closed doors at an indoor practice facility.

Each team got ten chances to hit the stumps, Somerset prevailed 5-1. Succinctly summing up the situation, Lancashire's captain Mark Chilton said, "It’s a naff way to go out of a competition."

Here is the "thrilling" video of the bowl out.

The Beer to Have When You're Having More Than One

President Obama will soon be hosting Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. of Harvard and Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley for beers at the White House to discuss Gates' controversial arrest.

The New York Post comes throo with the important question, what beer will they sip on?

We've already seen, at the All-Star Game in St. Louis, that Obama knows how to dress to appeal to the average American, so will he go with a kiss of the hops? Or the beer to have when you're having more than one?

I ask you, readers and fellow boozehounds, what should they drink? And how many beers before they're blasting The Boss' "Glory Days," scarfing pizza, sharing cigs and hugging each other?

The House that David Dinkins Built

Jimmy C. and John Got Theirs Back in the Dizzay.

I love tennis. But, like many other tennis fans, I only watch the Grand Slams, save for cherished memories of seeing Monica Seles in her prime as a young lovelorn lad at the Virginia Slims at MSG. Marketing the non-slams is a thankless job.

This week sees start of the L.A. Tennis Open, an event in its 83rd year that can boast past champions such as Pancho Gonzales, "Hot" Rod Laver, Stan "You can do anything but lay off my ill white kicks" Smith, Jimmy "Chris Evert? Yeah, I hit that" Connors, John "Tatum used to be a prime P.O.A. back in the dizay, eh?" McEnroe, Arthur "Tite 'fro, tighter shorts" Ashe, Michael "Fuck You Ivan" Chang, "Dead Yo Shit" Edberg, Andre "Advantage:" Agassi, Boris "Gurl, I'll freak you in the restaurant's broom closet" Becker, Jim "The Great Ginger Hope" Courier, and Pete "Yawn" Sampras.


This year the tourney doesn't feature one player from the Top 10. Can't be e-z trying to sell L.A. on seeing the Bryan "aren't they just zany??" Bros., Mardy "Go" Fish, Sam "Nobody Asked" Querrey, and Tommy "We Must Protect Zis" Haas. At least they got a little Legends tourney going with Sampras, Chang, Dedberg, Courier and Marat "Nobody pays to see me hit a backhand or move around the court" Safin.

Speaking of Safin and tuff sells, his sister headlines the upcoming L.A. Women's Tennis Championships. Now rankings mean something in men's tennis, but in the women's game today, the rankings mean absolutely nothing. The Williams sisters don't play the minor tourneys so their rankings suffer, but then they show up at the Slams and rip shit up. Now Dinara Safina may be the world's #1, on paper, and it's fine to play up her appearance at the tourney. But it takes some set of balls, and complete ignorance, to have your ad read "Better than Serena, Better than Venus, Better than anyone in the world!!!!" when Safina lost in the French Open final, 6-4, 6-2, and got absolutely annihilated by Venus in the Wimbledon Semi-final 6-1, 6-0. So how can their ad read that Safina is better than Venus? The worst part is, this kind of tournament only appeals to hardcore tennis fans, the kind of fans who know very well that Venus absolutely beat down Safina, why insult your loyal fan base's intelligence with an ad like this?


Back when the U.S.T.A. was threatening to pull the U.S. Open out of N.Y.C. unless a new stadium to replace Louis Armstrong was built, part of the argument was that rotating the host city for the Open would bolster grass-roots tennis in our country. I can partly see the point. Then again, on the flip side,if being able to see the stars in person inspires kids to pick up a racket, shouldn't the NYC area have produced more stars than just McEnroe? In any event, David Dinkins stepped to keep the action in Queens, leaving tennis with the situation it has today where cities like L.A. get the impossible-to-market scraps.

A Reminder to all Tabloid Writers & Columnists

Make what you will of Omar Minaya's broadside shot at Adam Rubin and the Daily News, but never forget the muckdruggery of Dick Young -yup, at the News- that drove Tom Seaver out of the city in 1977 amidst speculation, scuttlebutt and innuendo. I'm certain Mr. Rubin has his facts, but what is he hiding? A bad experience -did Tony Bernazard overhear?- whilst speaking to Jeff Wilpon about a job in the organization probably gave him several axes to grind. Granted, some reporters are unapologetic about burning bridges -Larry Brooks and Peter Vecsey to name two- but I don't think they've filed for jobs with any local sporting club.

Tony Tony Tony

Many Mets bloggers have opined on the Tony Bernazard situation, and we have been asked to do the same. I'm hesitant to do so; let me explain why. Over the last few years, I've read some negative things about Bernazard. I've never read anything positive about him. Based on my limited knowledge about Tony Bernazard's job performance, I'd say he should be fired. But, I have to acknowledge that my knowledge is very limited, and very small in comparison to the knowledge that the Wilpons and Omar Minaya have about Tony B. I blog about baseball and express opinions, but I try to limit my opinions to topics I have some knowledge about. When I criticize a trade, I do it based on information, even though I probably have a little bit less information than the Mets' front office. I don't have detailed scouting reports on Jeff Francoeur, but I do have access to data - Jeff Francoeur had played in over 630 Major League games at the time of the trade and there is extensive data available about how he has performed in those 630 games. I can see that he has performed very poorly, and based on the available data about every other player in MLB history, I know that it is extremely unlikely that a player who has performed as poorly as Francoeur over such a long period of time will suddenly perform well. Therefore, I'm willing to criticize the trade despite the small deficit in information.

With the Bernazard situation, I suffer from a huge deficit in information. Omar Minaya interacts with Bernazard on a regular basis and (I assume) has a much, much clearer idea of what exactly Bernazard's responsibilities are and how well he performs them. I have a few second-hand anecdotes and opinions. It seems to me that Bernazard brings little to the table, but it's possible that if I had a frank discussion with Minaya about it, he could quickly rattle off a list of valuable contributions Bernazard has made to the organization, as well as explanations for why the seemingly sorry state of the farm system isn't Bernazard's fault. And he might be able to tell me that what happened in Binghamton didn't go exactly as it's been portrayed in the Daily News.

I'll also note that it often seems that the Wilpons are overly concerned with how the media portrays the organization. Firing Bernazard would be portrayed positively by the press and give the organization a chance to publicly show that they're shaking things up. I think that's a stupid reason to fire him. If Bernazard has done a bad job, he should be fired. If his presence in the organization is destructive, he should be fired. It seems to me that he has done a bad job and is a destructive presence in the organization, but I'm basing my opinion on very limited information, so there's a decent chance I'm wrong.

When the Man Comes Around

Knowledge Body....Wisdom Godd.
The O.G. Masterpiece for the O.G.
This weekend, the Hall of Fame welcomes one of the greatest.

From Doghouse to Pentouse

Congratulations to Mark Buehrle for twirling his second career no-hitter and first perfect game, and to his battery mate Ramon 'Blastro' Castro. I'm very happy for Ramon, who went from occupying Jerry Manuel's doghouse earlier in the season to playing for a contending team on the South Side. Ryan Church, another player Jerry had it in for, also got a promotion to a suddenly surging Braves squad. I hope Jerry has a great time managing his preferred team of no-talent hacks into oblivion. Keep up the Red Foxx routine!

Of Weis and Men

The recent hullabaloo over LeBron getting yammed on reminds me of prolly the greatest yamming of all time, Vinsanity's international incident yam over Frederic "Daddy, if I had nuts on my chin would those be chin nuts?" Weis.

While doing a little digging on the Frenchman the Knicks chose over Johnnie and hometown hero Ron Artest, came across this pic, good to see, all these years later, that Weis still stays steady stuffed. Remember 'bocker-backers, twasn't all Isiah's fault.

All that dig-dugging , and Ball Don't Lie's dope-dunk roundup got me into peeping other fantastic slams.

Oh, ha ha, he has a lot of kids and got fat. Disrespectful. Someday in the future, post-apocalyptic scientists picking through the detritus of our forgotten society will find this video, and marvel at man's onetime ability to transcend the limitations of his own body, to transcend time and space itself so that all mankind could exult in his beauty. They will particularly be in awe of dunk #5, where Chris Gatling, appropriately enuff, "catches the gat"; but is respectful enuff to exchange love with the man-child reign man.

Divac shook off this extreme sunning with a post-game spread of kalamata olives, smoked mackerel, feta cheese, raw onions and a pack of Marlboro reds. An innocent A.C. Green was once Magic Johnson's roommate so you would think he's seen his share of scary scenes, but here he looks more frightened than the creditors of Charles Oakley's Bronx car wash.

The beauty of the NBA is that while, yeah, doofy 7'++ stiffs get paid millions to clog the key and warm benches and wave towels their main purpose is to get posterized. To be sunns. The way every decent slammer salivated whenever Shawn Bradley came to town. The All-Star Dunk Contest could be so much doper if they let them jam over chumps like Brian Scalabrine and Andrew Bynum.

What do you think is more fun? To hit a World-Series winning bazonga for all of Canada off a closer who calls himself "Wild Thing"? To catch a pass in the corner of the end zone, while keeping only one foot in bounds, to win the Super Bowl? Or is it to smack an awkward Romanian in the face while violently slamming in a ball a good 12 feet above the earth while Starbury and White Chocolate stare slack-jawed?

Props to Jamd and Sports Illustrated's killer archives for the photos save the Webber-Mureson shot, from my personal stash of late 90's Slam Magazines.

How Worried Should We Be About Johan?

As I mentioned in our last post, Johan Santana has an acceptable 4.24 ERA over his last 9 starts, but very poor peripherals. During this span, Johan has struck out 4.9 batters per 9 innings and walked 3.0. The walk rate is a little high, but I'm more alarmed by the strikeout rate. Just to make things a little more precise, Johan has struck out 12.8% of the batters he's faced in his last 9 starts; over his career, his rate is 25.2%, almost twice as high.

This seems like a pretty bad stretch, but maybe it's not uncommon. Maybe Johan has had bad stretches like this before and bounced back. I was curious, so I made a spreadsheet of every career start since Johan permanently became a starting pitcher in 2003. Until this season, his worst 9-game stretch in K% was 17.0%, which came during a July-August stretch last season (before that, it was 17.2% during July-August 2005). His lowest K/9 was 6.4. So, a K% of 12.8% and a K/9 of 4.9 is easily the worst 9-game stretch of his career.

As I mentioned, his walk rate has been poor, too. Put the two together, and you have a weak 1.6 K/BB ratio over the last 9 games. Before 2009, Johan's worst 9-game stretch was a 2.4 K/BB during the 2008 lull (he's had a couple other dips to 2.6 during his career). Again, the current stretch is significantly worse than any prior stretch of his career.

Maybe I'm being too selective by focusing on 9 games. So, I looked at his worst 5-game stretches. During this current stretch, his worst 5-game numbers are a 10.7 K% and a 1.1 K/BB. His previous lows were 14.4 K% and 1.9 K/BB (different seasons). His current 5-game lows are a lot lower than any previous ones. Even his current 9-game lows are worse than any prior 5-game stretch.

I don't really have an answer to my original question. I'm not sure how worried we should be, but it's clear from the numbers that Johan's going through the worst stretch of his career.

Coupon & Cannatar on THE END

Cannatar -
Bad: Winter arrives 5 months early - it's July 21 and the Mets' season is pretty much over. The Mets are in 4th place, 9 games out of first. They're tied for 8th in the Wild Card hunt, 6.5 games behind the leader.

Good: Most of this lousy season can be blamed on injuries (Reyes, Beltran, Delgado), as opposed to poor performances. So, maybe things will be better in 2010.

Bad: Carlos Beltran is one of the most important players on the team and his injury prognosis looks bad. He's probably going to need knee surgery, which could mess with his ability to play centerfield effectively.

Bad: The two healthy stars on the team have both provided good overall production (.874 OPS for Wright, 2.92 ERA for Johan), but there's still reason to worry about serious performance declines. Wright is hitting far fewer homers than he ever has before (5 so far after averaging 30 per season over the last 3 years) and is also striking out way more often. Wright's K rate per season: 19.7%, 19.4%, 19.0%, 18.8%, 26.5%! Over his last 9 starts, Johan has 4.9 Ks per 9 innings along with 3.0 walks. His ERA over that span is 4.24.

Bad: Even when a team is having a terrible year, you can usually find one or two bright spots, something that gives fans a little bit of hope for the following year. Is there a single player on the Mets who we feel better about going into 2010 than we did coming into 2009? All I can think of is Pedro Feliciano, which is pretty slim pickings. Coming into 2009, our corner outfielders were Ryan Church and Daniel Murphy. Church was never a star, but at least we had an expectation of average production. Murphy gave a lot of fans (and front office members) hope that he'd be a .300 hitter. Now, Church is gone and it's clear Murphy's 2008 performance was a fluke. What's our outfield in 2010? Sheffield will be 41. Francouer is worthless. So, add RF and LF to our list of holes for 2010.

Conclusion: It's really, really hard to put any kind of positive spin on the team's current situation.

Fred Coupon -
The worst part about this particular lost season is that there aren't even that many pieces to peddle in trades for prospects. As a lefty specialist, Pedro Feliciano will be in demand (I predict White Sox), and both Gary Sheffield and Brian Schneider could be useful for some contenders, but that's it. One question is, will Omar even make these trades possibly knowing he could be fired at the end of the season? It seems unlikely now, but how will the Wilpons respond to empty seats in August -save for the 1969 reunion game- and September and total indifference from the media?

And if Omar is canned, do we have any confidence the Wilpons will hire the right type of general manager? Someone with an appreciation for sabermetrics and a broader vision than Omar's which involved patching up one hole at a time in the organizational dyke? On that note, almost every employee in the organization needs to go, from every scout, instructor, doctor, to even the people who run the ballpark. Of course, a complete reboot -including ownership- would be best, but that's not happening. I don't even know what to make of this offseason. As you've stated there are several voids all over the field, and judging by the success of Omar's recent callups, the prospects in low-A ball don't look promising at all.


Cannatar -
You're right - there's pretty much nothing for the Mets to trade right now. Maybe a B-level prospect for Sheffield. Or Feliciano, but he could still be a useful part of the 2010 bullpen. Unless there are really bad injury situations with the stars, I think the offseason will be about filling holes to make another run at the division. If the Mets can spend enough money to put average players at 1B, LF, RF, then they probably have enough support for Johan/Beltran/Reyes/Wright/K-Rod. It's not a surefire solution, but it seems much more likely than just imploding the team.

And no, I have absolutely no confidence in the Wilpons. If they fire Omar, they'll probably just promote some incompetent like Tony Bernazard instead of bringing in someone who would actually shake things up. They really need to bring someone in with experience from a better front office.

This is one of those moments when I question why I even root for the team anymore. Am I really going to spend the rest of my life rooting for a team owned by the Wilpons?

Fred Coupon -
Now I've poked fun at the Wilpons' judgment in the past, but if they promote Bernazard, I'm going to make it my life's mission to oust them. I actually do feel some guilt ripping into a family that probably means well, but just has no foresight or common sense. They seem to strive to be the 'anti-Yankees' in that they will not relentlessly (and sometimes recklessly) spend money to get the best available talent, in both the major league and developmental levels. It is very proper they cling to the Brooklyn Dodgers, because they embody the spirit of a second-rate team in a big city.

As far as rebuilding the team goes, you just ask for average players at 1B, LF and RF. That's going to require some draft picks. So sad no one from the minors can earn an everyday job or barely keep up a platoon role. Fernando Martinez should've been dealt before his latest injury, because he's just another name on the Met outfield bust list (Murphy, Milledge, Escobar, Jefferies, etc).

Cannatar -
The draft pick issue is a bit less of a concern this year because the Mets will most likely be among the top 15 teams in the draft next year, which will mean that they can't lose their first pick.

I think it's a little early to add F-Mart to the bust list. He's still only 20! He's the youngest position player in all of MLB. He's 2 years younger than top outfield rookies Colby Rasmus, Dexter Fowler, and Andrew McCutchen. I'm not promising results, but it's way too early to write him off.

Maybe the worst post-Omar scenario is that Jeff Wilpon takes more control of personnel decisions and they go back to the committee approach of the Jim Duquette year.

"Who are these guys?"

(sung to Don McLean's "American Pie")

Oh, and when we went down to Citi
Wanted Mets what a pity,
Got a shrine to Jackie,
Where’s Nails and Mookie?
And while Louie’s drop was a disgrace,
Ryan Church missed third base,
And Murphy fell flat on his face.
The day the season died.

I started bloggin’
Hey hey, who are these guys?
From Cora, Murphy and now Frenchy,
And Frenchy’s got no eye.
Those good players were stuck in the MRI
And singin’ I could get that RBI.
I could get that RBI.

Lord's

Cricket's fiercest and oldest international rivalry, England v. Australia, resumes this summer. The two sides first fought in 1877, and now meet every two years or so to compete for "The Ashes." The two sides battle through a five-test series (each test lasts a maximum of five days) with England's final partnership stoically holding out at the death for a dramatic draw in the first test last week in Cardiff, Wales. (with a little help from a pleasantly-plump physio).


And just today, England defeated Australia at the famous Lord's Cricket Ground in London for the first time since 1934 to put them up 1-0 with three to play. I recently read a history of this ground, "Lord's: The Cathedral of Cricket" by Stephen Green and have scanned in some images of historical note:

Graham Gooch in 1993.

The pavilion at Lord's.

An aerial view of Lord's, Regent's Park and London.

Love the smirk of Mohinder Amarnath in this shot taken after India's 1983 Cricket World Cup victory. (One-Day Format)

A sport so genteel it may be played in a top hat and bow tie.

Terrific action shot from the 2nd Centenary Test in 1980.

The touring Aussie team of 1878 looking like, well, ummm, convicts.

A typical cap worn by the England team during the 1930s. Baseball teams also wore short-brimmed caps in the early days. Cricketeers, such as current Aussie captain Ricky Ponting, still rock the short-brims today.

The suave Pakistani team of 1954. Or an ad for the many uses of Brylcreem.

The snazzy looking Australian team of 1921, well, save for the porker in the upper left.

The M.C.C. touring team of 1926, featuring the future Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home.

Baseball was played at Lord's in 1917 during the First World War.

This is W.G. Grace in a painting from 1890, who played from 1865 until 1908 and is considered one of the all-time greats. Grace dominated with both the bat and the ball as did Babe Ruth in this early career. Save for the beard a helmet and a sponsor's logo on the shirt, he would not look out of place in the crease today.

By 1880, the county cricket clubs around England had developed their own distinct identities, as seen in this drawing from 1880.

Here is an early drawing of one of the first All-England teams from the 1830's. From the start the sport was played in all-whites, a tradition that continues only in Test cricket today.

Here we see the interlocking letters of the Marylebone Cricket Club, in their "bacon-and-egg" colors. The club was responsible for codifying the laws of cricket and are the original inhabitants of Lord's and the keeper of the Ashes.

The three remaining tests may be followed by reading the over-by-over report at the Guardian, listening to BBC Radio, or viewing live streams through various shady web sites. American cricket is covered well at thecrickettier.com, and cricketwithballs.com has done a bang-up job covering the Ashes through posts and podcasts.