The Epic Battle of the 47's

Last night was the battle of the lefties that wore 47 on the back of their Jersey's. One did not make it through two innings and the other went six innings. One gave up six runs the other gave up one run. Luckily our #47 was the better of the two. Glavine threw 100 pitches for six innings, seven hits, one run, one BB, and four K's. In a night in which Richard Hidalgo got a rare rest, the Mets tee'd off for nine runs which beats their total runs in the four game series against the Padres. Zeile, Williams, Floyd, and Cameron each had two hits and super stud David Wright went 3 for 5 with two runs scored and three RBIs. What can you say? The dude is good. He is now batting .299 on the season. The unbelievable part is some callers on WFAN were calling for the Mets to keep Wiggie and trade Wright as he is unproven. Wiggie is decent, but he is no Wright. Not many people are upset about losing Wiggie anymore. All around a solid 9-2 victory.

Jae Seo goes tomorrow against Odalis Perez and Kris Benson goes against Kaz Ishii on Sunday. Just what the Mets need, two more lefties. I think the Mets have faced every lefty in the league in the past few weeks.

How finally used Stanton and Franco as they should be used, in blowout games where even they could not possibly blow it (although Franco gave it the old college try).

Mike Cameron inches closer to 30/30 with one more stolen base. He needs two homeruns and nine stolen bases.

Tom Glavine inches closer to 300 wins with his 260th win. He can do it, but it will be close. If Moyer can pitch until he is 41, Glavine certainly can.

I was over at The Raindrops checking it out and as I was reading the comments. Someone demanded to see what Al Goldis and Bill Lively looked like.

the last thing wilpon wants is for some radio host to affect his ticket sales. maybe he'll get pissed off and fire someone. at this point, i want this whole goddamned front office nuked-- duquette, the superscouts, leiter, franco, glavine-- every one of em.

Posted by sean at August 27, 2004 05:29 PM
and while i'm pissed off and ranting... what's up with these "superscouts"? these guys seem to have enough say in this organization to affect one of the biggest trades this team has made in years, yet they lurk in the shadows. who ARE bill livesy and al goldis? has anyone ever seen their faces? read an interview with them? are these guys now the decision-makers with regard to player evaluation? and if that's the case, why even call duquette the gm?

i want answers!

Posted by sean at August 27, 2004 05:36 PM

Then I came to thinking, what in hell do these guys look like. We've read about them but we couldn't pick them out of a lineup of AARP members. So, here you go, the men in running the joint:

Not to awe-inspiring. Just old chubby men.

Anyone remember this tidbit from this article?

Kazmir has also provided fodder recently for some who want the Mets to offer him up as trade bait for an established bat, like an Alfonso Soriano for instance. Wilpon shot down that idea as well, much like the way he dismissed Jose Reyes trade rumors earlier in the week.

"There are only 29 other clubs interested in him [Kazmir]," Wilpon said. "But he's not going anywhere."

Cuba won another gold medal in baseball by defeating the Aussie team.

Stupid statement of the day:

"I hope the Americans come to understand that it's not just one
country that rules the world in baseball," Australian catcher Dan Neilsen said. "The United States had the same chance as Cuba had, and it didn't qualify. I hope it's a wake-up call."

The Americas participated in two qualifying pools with the tops two teams going to the Olympics:

Bahamas, Canada, Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico are playing in the A-Pool. Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama and USA are playing in the B-Pool. The top-two teams will qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Now the American team won three consecutive games by beating their opponents by a combined 20-0 score. Yes, they did not even give up a run. Then, somehow an 0-3 Mexican team eliminated TEAM USA in a quarter final round. Mexico won 2-1 in the playoffs only to succumb to Canada in their semi-final match. Now, I know these tournaments cannot go on forever, but any team and can win on any given day. How bout they remove this x-factor and have the best teams go by earning it. Double elimination comes mind or maybe not allowing teams with no wins to make the playoffs adding more rounds for upsets to happen. If you are holding the Olympics once every four years, I do believe they should make the qualifying rounds as fluke-proof as possible. Yes, the United States had the same chance as everyone else to make it, but these teams are not devoid of talent. They can put together a miracle day and beat anyone. Mexico finished 1-4 and the US finished 3-1. Something does not sit right with me on that one. The finals should have been held between the two teams with the best records period end. If a winless team can make the playoffs, why even play any games prior to the playoffs? Regardless of all the garbage, the USA team does not win gold every Olympics. When they beat Cuba in 2000, it was an upset. They are not the gold standard for teams, just a solid team.

How exactly did the Aussies make it? By beating South Africa three times in row in best of five series. Not exactly as hard as the road traveled by the USA team. Look, it is obvious other countries are gaining skilled players in baseball and that is awesome, but Team USA was one of the two best teams in the America's again this time around. They still outscored opponents 22-2 and those two runs came at the worst time. I do not think they need a wake up call, they still look pretty good to me. The term shit happens comes to mind in regards to the USA's early exit and it is as simple as that.

Did anyone catch this amazing race? It started off bizarre enough as the entire crowd was booing so loud, they could not start the race. The locals were upset that their own Kostas Kenteris was not in the race and they were letting it be known. He was not in the race because he missed a drug test and was "involved" in a motorcycle accident. However, once the race got started it was a dominating performance by USA. Shawn Crawford took gold, Bernard Williams took silver, and Justin Gatlin took bronze completing the sixth time the United States has taken all three medals in the 200m.

Bernard Williams on the booing preceding the race:
"It was like 'Showtime at the Apollo," said Williams, an amateur comedian. "I was waiting for the Sandman to come out."

That quote is definitely a gem.

Ichiro Suzuki (as of last night anyway) was on pace to hit 257 hits this season, which would tie him with George Sisler for the all-time record of hits in one season. This one is going to go down to the wire and should be exciting to watch.

In St. Lucie's loss to Palm Beach, Mike Piazza and Scott Strickland made appearances. Scott when one innings surrendering no earned runs and struck out two. Piazza went 2 for 3 with two RBIs and one double.

Kazmir gets his next start tomorrow against Mark Mulder. This is going to be his first big test in the majors. Hopefully he'll stick it too Mulder.

Aarom Baldiris had his first big day in Binghamton. He went 3 for 5 with two runs scored, a double and two RBIs.