Meet the Mets
After dropping the final Subway Series to the Yankees, the Mets are just 2.5 games behind first place Atlanta, but all I can think about right now is how the Mets can do better.
Yesterday, Sam wrote a pretty scathing piece about Omar's tendency to depend on familiarity when making personnel decisions. Brian Mangan at Fonzie Forever disagreed with Sam, at least as far as his timing goes, saying that the Mets have actually made most of the moves that the blogging fanbase has clamored for. The problem for Brian is that most of those good moves were only necessary BECAUSE of the mistakes the team made at the beginning. Imagine what the team would have been like had GMJ never been on the roster to begin with or if Oliver Perez had never been given $12 million/year. Credit should be given for remedying mistakes, but that doesn't mean you are free from blame for the underlying problems.
Speaking of underlying problems, John Maine had a setback with his shoulder. It's almost not even news anymore.
The Mets are now showing interest in the Indians' Fausto Carmona.
It looks like Wally Backman has really fired up the Brooklyn fans.
Hisanori Takahashi has seen enough of Lady Gaga.
The Mets, trying to bulk up the Bisons, traded for Toronto's 30 year old journeyman Jorge Padilla.
And, finally, the greatest idea SNY has had to date: Seinfeld in the booth with Keith.
Around MLB
The Orioles are looking at another former Met manager (who also was a former Oriole skipper).
Stephen Strasburg's curveball is so good that it's faking out the umpires.
Jim Leyland doesn't buy all this chemistry crap.
Racing pierogi in hot water over Facebook comments about Pirates. (I'm not proud).
Why has Lady Gaga become such a big story in New York baseball over the last week?
And why did the Marlins think it was a good idea to import the vuvuzela to baseball?
Fox has had stunning success with ad sales during their MLB broadcasts this year.
Outside of MLB
There are two major stories in movie news that you need to be aware of. First, you can now access every single Nicolas Cage movie on Netflix with a single click. (h/t Patrick Flood) When you're done with The Wicker Man, be sure to add the new Catholic Classic, the Blues Brothers, to your queue.