Seven days, seven losses. Through it all there was one constant -- SportsNet New York.
This first entry isn't technically from last week but it received some interest from readers. This is Matt Cerrone of Metsblog's shirt for the season (image courtesy of Metsblog):
It's derived from a British World War Two morale poster. TWIS has no strong positive or negative feelings about the motto, but we do prefer it to "In Omar We Trust". To purchase the Keep Calm shirt, click here.
Sunday, April 10th
SNY cameras spotted a couple enjoying a splendid afternoon in one of Citi Field's fancy clubs:
Man: "I'll have the Caber Reyes and my wife will try a glass of Santana's Select. Darling, how does my ascot look?"
Monday, April 11th
Gary, Keith and Ron reminisced about 1986 Mets shortstop Rafael Santana. Santana's OPS+ that season was 58 and he was generally regarded as a competent but unspectacular fielder. His career rWAR per 600 plate appearances was -0.3. Yes, that's a negative sign. Here's SNY's underwhelming Santana highlights graphic:
Keith Hernandez: "Raffy was a great teammate. He was a character, he told jokes, always had a smile on his face. He didn't have the greatest of range, didn't have the greatest arm. But he hit eighth in the lineup and a lot of times he flipped that lineup over for us and got that pitcher up, remember Ron?"
Ron Darling: "He really did and the one thing about Raffy was he made the steady play. That was the key, because with that pitching staff, if you could just make the steady play, and not make any errors -- the staff wasn't going to give up three, four or five hits in a row, it just wasn't going to happen."
Keith Hernandez: "He's a great guy, one of my favorite teammates."
It was kind of an awkward conversation. It's tough to be completely honest about a player's ability when there is a personal relationship involved. Santana wasn't a very good player but Keith and Ron had nothing but their former mate. They obviously value his contributions to that World Series Champion team.
Jason Isringhausen made his first appearance this season and SNY cut to a replay of the welcome given by the Citi Field faithful. Unfortunately, the fans were too preoccupied with the wave to notice that Izzy had entered the game:
In all seriousness, Izzy received a nice hand but enough with the wave already. Especially in high leverage situations.
Apparently Kevin Burkhardt now travels with a bodyguard:
Whoa, don't mess with that guy.
Wednesday, April 13th
Terry Collins seems like a pretty intense guy -- we wouldn't be the one to tell him he has a sunflower seed stuck to his face:
That's all for now. Hopefully it'll be six wins in seven days this week. Send any tips or suggestions to ThisWeekInSNY@gmail.com.