Dumb Hicks

Ok, so let's get this straight. Tom Glavine pitched with the Braves from 1987 through 2002 and will head into the Hall of Fame with a Braves cap. He left the Braves, but not because he did not want to play with them, he still lives in the area, and says he would like to come back there to finish his career. The guy is consummate professional and did everything right for that team including be a big part of eleven division titles and one World Series title. He gets booed and was booed at first to the point where he did not want his kids at the game.

"I don't enjoy it. I don't understand it," Glavine said of his rough reception. "It doesn't affect me the way it did the first few times. There's nothing I can do about it."

Julio Franco was pinch hitter and backup player for five years and amassed twenty nine homeruns and gets an ovation that is usually reserved for returning mega stars.

"It gave me chills," said Franco, who left Atlanta to sign with the Mets in December. "I was expecting the fans to be nice. But that was overwhelming. That shows the class that this town has."

Do they really? Don't get me wrong, Franco was well like and deserved some love, but so does Tom. Glavine should have been much more of an iconic figure for that town and he gets treated horribly time after time when the breakup should was not a messy one. The Braves simply did not want him back. They both went to the same division rival, but one is booed and one is cheered. F-in ponderous. So what do you do if you are Glavine?


Kick their dumb team's ass.

Glavine was brilliant in the Mets win and notched his 278th win in front of all those idiots as the Mets won 1-0 and has John Delcos said in his article, "there is no prettier score in the sport". Nope, 1-0 is much sweeter than the Yankees blowout win yesterday and Glavine sparkled for seven innings to push the Braves seven games behind the Mets and as Michael Morrissey points out, the Braves have not been that far out of first since June 2, 2001.

While on the topic of Tom Glavine, CBS Sportsline had a must read from the other day that featured Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux talking about each other and baseball in general.

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My new bat sure is nicey nice. My last x-bat made it though two at-bats before breaking and was in Met colors. Hopefully, this one does better.

From Peter Abraham:

Injury of the week: Former big-leaguer Kerry Robinson, now with Class AAA Omaha, had to leave Monday's game after having chest muscle spasms. It started when he laughed at some kids involved in a pregame promotion. "Can't we make up a better injury than that?" said Shaun McGinn, Kansas City's director of minor-league operations. "Can't we say he pulled a muscle while taking extra batting practice or by lunging for a ball in the outfield or something?"

Umm, yeah. Try and live that one down.

Also from the above link, two great Mets points.

First, the overlooked and seemingly under appreciated Steve Traschel.

Steve Trachsel is 52-52, 3.87 with the Mets, and most of that came with some dreadful lineups behind him. He deserves a lot more respect than what Willie Randolph gives him.

He was the Mets most consistent pitcher for the Mets from 2002 and 2004 and that includes Al Leiter in my opinion and he really does not seem to draw much of Willie's respect. From last season, they seemed to have a little something going on and he is not one of Willie's favorites from what it looks like being on the outside of things.

Second, the mishandled injury situation with Carlos Beltran.

Now there's another injury, and this time Beltran shut it down. He couldn't win either way.

The Mets, who never handle injuries well, should have recognized the situation and put Beltran on the disabled list immediately. That removes any doubt. Instead, the player is left looking soft, which will only widen the chasm between he and the fans.

Again, I never said Beltran was at fault for being cautious, but not getting DL'd was a mistake and this situation was botched whether it was by Beltran or by the Mets.

"I felt great," Beltran said after the Mets' 1-0 victory last night. "The good thing is I played the whole game and my hammy didn't get tight."

Glad to have him back since he makes this team a lot better, but hopefully the Mets learn from this. The way the organization has handled injuries over the years is ridiculous.

From the Journal News:

Tuesday’s starter: The Mets are undecided about who will start Tuesday in place of the injured Brian Bannister, but speculation points to minor-leaguer John Maine over veteran Jose Lima for two reasons.

Lima pitched seven innings for Class AAA Norfolk Friday, and it makes no sense to work him on three days' rest this early in the season.

The second reason is Maine is on the 40-man roster and Lima is not.

Going with Lima on short rest would necessitate making room for him by taking somebody off the 40-man roster and designating him for assignment, which means the team has a chance to lose that player as a free agent.

Agreed. I'm kind of excited to see Maine pitch if it is in fact him who gets the nod.

Adam Rubin does seem to think it is a slam dunk for Maine to get the start though.

The Mets made no official announcement, but having Jeremi Gonzalez pitch for Triple-A Norfolk last night cemented John Maine as Tuesday's starter at Shea against the Nationals in place of Brian Bannister (right hamstring strain).

All signs do point to Maine. I agree on that assessment.

"I don't throw the hardest," Maine said. "Just like any other pitcher with an average fastball, I have to locate it."

Bob Raissman throws out some man-love for Gary Cohen.

When SportsNet New York suits hired Gary Cohen to be their Mets play-by-play voice, many knee jerks raised a non-issue. It was this: Could Cohen make the transition from radio to television?

Stupidity has no limits. Don't tell anyone, but there is no transition.

Some have said he still describes too much as if he was on the radio, but I have no seen it.

To this day you can still hear guys who worked on baseball radiocasts - like YES' Michael Kay - making radio calls on TV. It's kind of funny. Especially when the voice is describing, in detail, something viewers can see - like the crowd rising.

Any dig on the worst TV guy I've seen in Michael Kay is good to me.

In the fourth, with Bonds at the plate again, Cohen got into the steroids issue. Instead of presenting the usual, boring lines we've already heard (Should the records count? Will he get in the Hall of Fame? Blah, blah, blah) Cohen took a different trip.

He called the Bonds situation an "American tragedy." Cohen said Bonds was already a first ballot Hall of Famer midway through his career. "Now, no matter what he accomplished (before the late 1990's), this is a man who is going to be looked at as a villain," Cohen said. "And it didn't have to be that way."

This likely upset those who already want Bonds' entire career erased from what's left of baseball's conscience. Still, Cohen was telling the truth.

Precisely. This is not just Cohen either, the Mets broadcast team is very honest. The way Keith was gushing over the job that Mike Remlinger did last night would not have happened anywhere else. They call the game so objectively and give credit to whomever deserves it and as we have all said many times, it is simply a treat to listen to Mets broadcasts. They seemingly set the standard when compared to whatever small number of other broadcasts I have listened too.

I can pick up what Bill Madden is laying down....

Amid all the moaning over Victor Zambrano, Jorge Julio and Kaz Matsui, and the questions about Carlos Beltran's mettle, this much we know about the Mets and the task that lies ahead for them: The National League East is a bad division that can probably be won with fewer than 90 victories.

Even with the valid concerns about the back of the Mets' rotation and the depth of their bench, this team constructed by Omar Minaya will be hard-pressed not to win 90-plus games.

....but my concern with this team is not the regular season, it is how they stack up in the playoffs with those holes. To go all that way to the playoffs and be compromised for things that could have been dealt with is reprehensible.

Mike Pelfrey brought it in his AA debut.

"I had a good result," Pelfrey said by phone after the game. "I walked two guys, and I hate walking guys so I wish I could have thrown more strikes. But overall it went good. High-A, Double-A, whatever, it's still playing baseball. Everything felt good. Really, it was just another game."

So far in pro ball, he has a 1.30 ERA, 6.51 h/9, 1.30 bb/9, 11.06 k/9, 8.50 k/bb, and a 0.86 WHIP.

"It's all about getting comfortable out there," Pelfrey said. "Once I got into the third inning, I was able to throw some more strikes. As the game goes on, you get more comfortable. It was just going out there and getting experience."

Feel free to be very excited.

I have Mike Gonzalez on my damn suck-ass fantasy team and I like the call that Jim Tracy made by pulling him when he saw a sticky situation he did not like.

"We did what we had to do," Tracy explained. "When you're seeing that from the dugout, when you see a situation you're uncomfortable with, it's time to make a move."

It ended up working out, but I like when managers go against conventional wisdom. I'm not one who buys that you need to die with your closer if he clearly does not have his best stuff because he is your closer and it is good to see that Tracy is not afraid to do what he thinks needs to be done to win.

If you can't beat 'em...join 'em.

Randolph steadfastly predicted the 30-year-old former Japanese shortstop would be a more productive player.

"I know how he struggled, and maybe other people think I'm wrong," Randolph said. "But I still think he's going to be different this year. He's had a nice, little start. He could have a good year. We have him in the eight hole, and he's got a lot of talent to be hitting there. You wait, if we can keep him in the field, we're going to get more out of the eight hole than most teams, maybe more than any team."

Instead of saying negative things about Matsui like one of hits should not have been a hit, Randolph tries the supportive approach in the media. A truly novel idea.