The worst day of the baseball season has come and gone, and we have baseball again! It should be a clear night for tonight's Reds-Mets game, but a high of 35 degrees. Awesome.
Around the Mets
The "big" controversy this week is the FOX blackout of the first hour of Saturday's Met-Marlin game. The Marlins have scheduled the game for 6:10 to accommodate a Flo Rida concert. The problem is that FOX has the rights to all MLB action before 7:00 on Saturdays. This means that SNY is contractually prohibited from broadcasting the first 50 minutes of Saturday's game and it is causing a minor uproar among the blogosphere (a boycott here) (a letter to MLB here).
After attending games at both parks, Andrew Vazzano does one of the first competitions I've seen between Citi Field and the new Yankee Stadium.
Don't worry guys, Jerry Manuel is upset about the hitting with runners in scoring position too.
I missed Johan Santana's 90 second handshake parade with the entire bench on Monday afternoon. Here's the video. The real question will be does he do it after he gets pulled in the 3rd inning? How will we feel about it then?
Would you do a David Wright for Evan Longoria trade? I don't get the absurd partisan feelings about Wright. We should just be thankful that we have a really really good third baseman (something that the team has lacked for most of their history) and not hate on him when he doesn't hit .450 with RISP.
All that is left of Shea now is a memorial in the parking lot. That seems so crappy, yet so fitting.
In Met ticket news, the Mets have begun auctioning off some of their remaining Opening Day tickets. Also, if you are interested in Bernie Madoff's Met season tickets behind home plate, they are now at a discount. Instead of $80,000 they are now priced at $60,750. What a steal.
So, maybe the worst seats in Citi aren't THAT bad...
Rob Neyer doesn't really understand what the Mets are doing with Ryan Church. He ranks him their second best outfielder.
Around the NL East
Charlie Manuel decided to split up the Philly lefties in the batting order, but it still failed to produce many runs (none in fact) as the Braves and Jair Jurrjens shut out Philadelphia 4-0. Jamie Moyer made the start for the Phillies and was slightly better than last year's debut. Kelly Johnson and Chipper Jones each homered for the Braves.
Scott Olsen made his National debut against his former team the Marlins and it didn't go well. Olsen gave up 8 hits and 8 runs in 3 innings in Washington's 8-3 loss. Prior to the game, Olsen dissed Miami as a baseball town, comparing it to the Gulf Coast League. The Marlins are continuing to impress the national media, as have the Braves. Florida is starting to convince me. Atlanta will have to do a lot more, but that's just because I'm blinded by hatred.
By the way, did you see Lastings Milledge's attempt to make the play in center field on Emilio Bonifacio's opening day inside the park home run? Aren't you glad that we have Beltran?
The Phillies have been invited to the White House to meet President Obama next Tuesday during their off-day. Of course, it appears as though any visiting team has a right to visit the White House.
Around MLB
New Padre closer Heath Bell got the first save of the post-Trevor Hoffman era in a 4-2 victory over the Dodgers. Bell struck out the side in the 9th to close the game.
Ailing Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy threw out the first pitch at yesterday's Red Sox home opener against the Devil Rays. The Sox won 5-3.
Newly acquired Astro Jeff Keppinger got an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th, giving the Astros a 3-2 victory over the visiting Chicago Cubs.
Wow, Canadians apparently can't handle the combination of beer and baseball.
The video from Joba Chamberlain's DUI arrest has made the internet. In it he takes shots at New York City drivers and Yogi Berra. This has to be embarrassing for the Yankees, even though he doesn't say anything that bad. Yogi is pretty short and New York drivers are pretty crazy.
Home run king Hank Aaron celebrated his 75th birthday party late at a party in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama.
Stat Fix
The New York Times has an article on computer simulations. One Met aspect of it, apparently Willie and Jerry both sacrificed a good number of times.