Can football be far away?

Has a first place team ever been so inept and so uninspiring? After what has transpired, as I have now turned 26 years and 1 day old, I am again one disgusted Mets fan.

It starts with the trade deadline which began today, though the flurry of moves started yesterday. It was one thing when I heard Atlanta was about to land Texas slugger Mark Teixiera. Makes their lineup even more potent. I could deal with that. About 5:30, I'm at the gym getting to the end of my elliptical workout. I'm watching ESPN and I see the Braves are likely to acquire reliever (and former Met) Octavio Dotel from Kansas City for starting pitcher (and a pretty inept one) Kyle Davies. I fell off the machine and said out loud in front of the a lot of people "You have got to be kidding me. This can't be true!"Eighteen hours later, it was. And they add Royce Ring, another former Met pitcher, who we gave up in that ingenious trade along with Heath Bell (who has been lights out for the Padres) for Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins. Ring is in the minors, but I'm sure he'll get some Met lefty out in a big spot this year.

As for the other teams. The Phillies add Kyle Lohse to bolster their rotation, have just gotten back Brett Myers and Tom Gordon, and can barely lose a game right now. The Brewers add Scott Linebrink in the bullpen. The Cubs add Jason Kendall, are going to get Kerry Wood back, and can barely lose a game either. The Padres get Rob Mackowiak and Morgan Ensberg, who will add some life to their lineup. They addressed their needs.

The Mets? No Jeff Conine. No Chad Cordero. No Eric Gagne. Not even a Solomon Torres. We get Luis Castillo to play second base. Good defensive player, good hitter, but Ruben Gotay, Marlon Anderson, and Damion Easley have all been doing a decent job at second base. Their real need was helping this brutal bullpen. And we get nothing to help it. Which means more appearances for guys like Mota, Sele, and who knows who else. Oh, and Carlos Beltran is officially on the DL again and will miss the series against the Brewers, Cubs, and Braves.

And then tonight's game. Remarkable. Tom Glavine going for career win #300. I think SNY had shots of his wife every 3.5 minutes, I was tracking this. Milwaukee takes an early 1-0 lead, but Glavine was amazing on the mound. 6 innings, 2 hits, 1 run, 1 walk. But the Mets show how consistent their offense is. Against Jeff Suppan, the pitcher who kept us out of our rightful spot in last year's World Series, we can't score until the sixth inning. David Wright grounds a single to score Jose Reyes and he would score on a sac fly. Could have taken a 3-1 lead in the next at bat, but on Shawn Green's double, Carlos Delgado gets thrown out at home. Glavine leaves the game leading 2-1 in the seventh.

The the bottom of the 8th inning. Pedro Feliciano, who has been amazing all year, is wearing out quickly. He hits Prince Fielder with a pitch in the back for runners on first and second with one out. Then Willie Randolph brings in Guillermo "The Juice" Mota to pitch and I knew Glavine was not getting the win. Bill Hall nails a ground rule double to tie it. Mota then walks Kevin Mench to load the bases. But to his credit, he comes back to retire the next two hitters and we go to the 9th. With two outs, Reyes gets on and steals second. Castillo, the new acquisition, can come through with a big hit. Flies out to left.

Then the bottom of the 9th. Jorge Sosa, Thursday's probable starter, comes in. Unable to control his pitches, he loads the bases before even recording an out. I figured the game was over. Checked back, saw he got two outs. And then he got Hall to fly out to extend the game to extra innings. The Mets open the tenth with walks to David Wright and Delgado. Moises Alou, the veteran hitter, the guy who will come through in the clutch, grounds into a double play. Easley strikes out, rally killed.

Fast forward to the 11th. Aaron Sele come in to relieve Sosa, who did well. Before I blinked, base hit, base hit. And I'm thinking, it's over, just put me out of my misery. JJ Hardy bunts and Delgado throws a strike to Wright to force the runner at third. I'm still not too confident we the heart of their order up, but we have a chance. Ryan Braun, a red hot rookie comes up. Sele get his to ground into a double play. Onto the 12th.

Castillo, who had done nothing, bunts his way on. Next batter is Wright, who drills a bomb to right field. I thought the ball was going to Lake Michigan. No. Kevin Mench jumps the fence and robs him. Next batter: Delagado. First pitch: double play. Inning over. Prince Fielder leads off for the Brewers. He hits two mammoth shots into the upper deck, but both go foul by a few feet. He still gets a single, but Sele gets the next three out.

In the 13th, the Mets get Moises Alou on second base with one out and then Ramon Castro and Lastings Milledge can't hit the ball out of the infield off the immortal Chris Spurling. Bottom half, Graffanino doubles, Jenkins homers, Mets lose 4-2, what a shock.

Here's the stat I can't get over and this goes back to what I was saying earlier. From the 6th inning on, the Mets pitched only one inning where they got Milwaukee out 1-2-3. That's 1 out of 8. These are the games we would have always found a way to win last year. With the upgrades all these other teams have made, hope is dimming by the day.

Can football be far away?

Heading into the week

I've been eating great today. Tuscan toast, 4 scrambled eggs with cheese, pepperoni pizza, jamba juice, milk and a Carole's oatmeal raisin pecan cookie. Think I'd better do some cardio this week...By the way if you've never seen these cookies, you have got to stop right now and click.

Speaking of which, I've barely gotten to the gym this week thanks to my illness and car trouble. I did 30 minutes of cardio, but hardly any lifting. And amazingly, I felt as loose and comfortable today at swinging the bat as I have all season. Does this mean I should stop training?

Well, we got the win we wanted in softball, 24-9 in a game that really didn't get decided until the 5th inning. I batted 2-for-4, scored once, and made two good catches. But the truth is it really doesn't mean that much. Because it all comes down to next week against Rommel. Whoever wins that game wins the division and is seeded third in the playoffs. And I have to say it is time to man up. Even though we're scoring a lot of runs, I'm not thrilled with our offense. We still swing at too many first pitches and pop balls up. They key to a successful offense in this league is taking pitches, and when you do swing, hitting line drives and grounders and let the other team screw up on defense. And as for our defense, we're still a little uneasy. Until recently, we'd been getting a lot of groundball outs, which we can do with the ability of our infield. Now it's a lot of bloop hits to the outfield and hard grounders that our infielders can't quite reach. And Dan's pitching hasn't quite been the same. To beat that team, whom we owe a receipt for last season, we have to play seven great innings. We'll see what happens.

As I've mentioned, this is a big week of baseball for me with two live games coming up and I'm excited about it and dreading it. Carlos Beltran is now almost certain not to play in either of these series or the really big one which comes the following week against the Braves. Oh the pain. How easy must life be for Cubs fans right now?

Congratulations to Claudio Castagnoli on winning ROH's Race to the Top Tournament last night. And shame on Dad for not going.

Song pick: "Some Broken Never Hearts Never Mend" Don Williams

I am aggravated

OK, I've gone 6 posts without ranting. That streak is over.

1) Got stopped by 4 freight trains today.

2) I seriously hope the person who has been leaving me comments on certain posts is not someone I know. If you're going to leave comments, don't write a bunch of hogwash that is not worh reading and then sign it as Anonymous. That's a cop out.

3) The Jets refuse to get their number one draft pick, Darrelle Revis, signed and in camp. And this Pete Kendall soap opera/drama/fiasco will not go away. Though there is hope for the long term, this season will be miserable with Satan's demons likely buying yet another title led by that scumbag in the blue #12 jersey.

4) And just as the Mets look like they're ready to turn the corner, they hit the wall. Just when Moises Alou comes back, Carlos Beltran goes out. Now Paul LoDuca hurts his hammy. They've lost 3 of their last 4 to pathetic teams. And the future? I am going to see two Mets games this week in Milwaukee and Chicago and I am likely in for a week of pure heartache, ageda, and torture.

Anyway, softball is tomorrow. We need two wins to at least secure second place in the division and a perfect 3-0 will secure the division title. Haven't been able to train much this week due to my illness and car issues, but we'll do what we can.

I'm going to pop in some ROH on the DVD player. I need a break right now.

I feel fall creeping in

And my nights will soon be tied up again with work. Granted, it's not too bad of a job when you're spending half your time surfing the internet and it's 5 minutes from home.

Well here's Part 2 of the radio contest story. I had to drive to the station and pick up the Joe Nichols tickets in person; they wouldn't mail, e-mail, fax, will call, telegraph, pigeon, or horse-and-buggy them. And the station is only open from 8-5 during the week, which is exactly the hours I work. So after a little begging, I convinced Mom to drive to Crest Hill (1 hour away) and pick up the tickets. She did it and I came home around 5:30 that night. I looked at the tickets and they were for the wrong show. Back we had to go on Tuesday to get the right ones. I have the right tickets now, but what aggravates me is it would have been cheaper to just buy the darn things instead of two round trips to Joliet. And the cost of admission isn't even included!

And my car is starting to act as stubborn as my dog. It took me 30 whole minutes to get it started this afternoon. I don't think it was the battery, the alternator, or anything like that, but this is the second time in the last month this has happened. For the last year, I thought the worst problem with that car was the lack of quality of the stereo. Something needs to be done.

The worst ballpark food in the world is at Alexian Field in Schaumburg. Bar none.

Softball is going well, we're 6-1-1, we lost our first game of the season on Sunday by a 21-20 final. Batted 0-for-2 with two walks, scored a run, and made two or three catches in short center field. I didn't play well, but we were really out of synch the whole day. They hit the ball well, no doubt, but we didn't play crisp defense at all. So now there are two games to go before the playoffs. I think with one more win, we'll have a bye in the first round.

I was listening to the news on the radio. They said Starbucks was raising prices of coffee and tea drinks to compensate for the rising costs of dairy and energy. The very next story? Wal-Mart is dropping all store prices to offset the rising price of gasoline. I don't have much love for Wal-Mart, but I found that pretty ironic.

I don't know if any news story has ever disgusted me as much as the dogfighting underground culture that Michael Vick appears to be so immersed in.

How sweet it is

Well I did something today that I've never done before...win a call-in radio contest. I got in my car at 7:15, and began my drive to work. I turned on 98.3 FM, a country station based out of Joliet. I was expecting to hear Quarter After Laughter, when they play a minute of stand-up comedy. Well, today that didn't happen. They announced they were giving away a pair of tickets to see Joe Nichols at the DuPage County Fair. I'm not the type to enter these type of contests, but I figured I may as well give it a shot.

So I waited a few minutes until the Joe Nichols song began playing, which was the cue to call. I heard the guitar walkdown intro of "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off" and dialed the number. I got a busy signal. Dialed again. Another busy signal. Now I knew from my internship at a radio station that the station typically lets a bunch of callers flood the board for a minute and once the craziness subsides, they give the prize to the next caller. So I tried once more. Five seconds of dead air. Then I heard the DJ's voice. I asked "Did I win the tickets?" She said yes. I also won two passes to the radio station BBQ which happens right before the concert.

I was so excited I almost pulled off the road. Now I didn't get to talk on the air. But they did mention my name on the air. And it is definitely a cool feeling when your name is announced on the radio to thousands of listeners. And at work, the lady who sits in the cubicle across from mine was listening to the station while it was going on so the news spread quickly. It was cool.

The only question is who will get the extra ticket...

The happy recap

That's a little shout out to the legend, Bob Murphy. It's appropriate considering I spent the last two days in New York City.

Well I arrived on Friday morning at Newark Airport and Dad and I immediately took the NJ Transit into Manhattan. Considering the airport is only 3 stops and about 20 minutes from New York, you would think the prices would be ok. Well from 8 stops away at MetroPark, a one-way is 8 bucks. From the airport, it's 15 bucks. Throw in round trip, multiple people, and you get the point.

So we took the subway to Katz's, a legendary Jewish deli on the lower east side. It's been around since 1888. If you've ever seen "When Harry Met Sally" (one of my faves, I must admit), this is the scene where Meg Ryan's legendary "faking it" scene was held. Even better, I got to sit at the table where she and Billy Crystal filmed that scene! Here's a clip of that scene. No Matt, I did not re-enact it. We split a hot dog, a corned beef sandwich and a pastrami sandwich. You can't get food like this anywhere else in the country. Amazing stuff. Then, we went to Merrill Lynch on 5th Avenue. This one is next to the Trump Towers, so it's the real deal. And long story short, we went over a few financial issues with the people who worked with my late grandfather.

Then it was home where I got whipped in five straight games of Acey Deucey (similar to backgammon) and painted yahtzee. It happens, but the dice just did not come up my way.

The next day, we planned to take an 11:45 train to NY. Well, it got delayed. And delayed. I guess there was a problem with the Amtrak in front of it and our train came at 12:45. After arriving at Penn Station we went northwest on the subway to Canal Street and walked to Little Italy. The streets were closed to cars, so we had the whole street to walk through. The red, white, and green decorations lit up the streets. And there were so many incredible restaurants to choose from, but we knew where we were going: Umberto's Clam House.

I first heard about this place on WFAN radio, when Joe Bengino and Steve Somers did a six hour radio show from there. It's so much smaller than I imagined it. 20 tables maybe. We had the best baked littleneck clams ever. The clams were fresh and lemon and bread crumbs were amazing. We also had biscuits, which were toasted crisp Italian bread smothered in olive oil and a ton of fresh chopped garlic. There was so much, I could taste the garlic for the next two days! The we had linguine and clam sauce, which was through the roof. I think I would stick with the white sauce over the red though.

Then, it was onto the Long Island Railroad and to Shea Stadum for the Mets-Reds. As I waked down the long boardwalk and approached the old blue stadium which will soon be gone, it was like stepping into a time machine. I used to go 3-4 times a year, but I think now I've been there three times in the last 8 years. Shea may be a dump, but it's our dump. And with Citi Field rising behind the left field wall, Shea feels smaller. Maybe it's that I wasn't there for so long. Walking into a sea of people dressed in blue and orange, that's the way it should be. The Mets paid tribute to lengendary broadcaster Ralph Kiner before the game, who was our Harry Caray/Ernie Harwell on TV. Very well done and I'm glad I got to witness the tribute live. And though the Mets won 2-1, they should have won 10-1. They kept getting runners on, but could not drive them in against the worst team in the NL. The Mets offense is so anemic, every win is like a tooth extraction. The win at home was great, but this team does not have the same mojo they had last year. I admit I am worried.

And their competition is far better than last year. The Dodgers and Padres are for real and we're playing them in seven games on the road. The Braves are red hot. And even worse, the Cubs are white hot and just acquired Jason Kendall to play catcher. There could be nothing worse than to lose to one of these teams in the playoffs. This team must get their act together.

Before I take a bite out of the apple

and head to New York in eight hours, I have a couple of things to say.

1) First and foremost, without going into detail, prayer has got to make a difference. And when groups of people do it sincerely, it can make a huge difference.

2) Why do DVD players on TV's and computers wear out so quickly?

3) The New York Jets are going to have a double DVD set released on August 7. Supposedly, there will be 2 DVD's highlighting this franchise. Now, are there really enough good moments in Jets history to fill up two DVD's? Come on. These are the Chicago Cubs of football. At least the Cubs have their own stadium! But they never get to the big game and break your heart with the way they lose and screw themselves up.

Here's what it should be. Disc 1 can be the good moments. The change from the Titans to the Jets, Joe Namath, the one Super Bowl, the Sack Exchange, Parcells' brief resurrection of the franchise, Curtis Martin, the Monday Night Miracle, and Eric Mangini coming in last year.

The other disc can be all the ageda. Think about the chapters:
1) The peple we lost: Verlon Biggs, John Riggins, not being able to pull off the trade for Brett Favre the year he was drafted, Dennis Byrd getting paralyzed, Al Toon having to retire because of concussions, Vinny Testaverde tearing his Achilles in Week 1 in 1998 when we were supposed to win the whole thing, and of course, Bill Belichick quitting to coach New England and win all those titles.

2) The draft choice busts: Kenny O'Brien (over Dan Marino), Johnny Lam Jones, Kyle Brady(over Warren Sapp), Blair Thomas (over Emmitt Smith), Russell Carter, Roger Vick, etc.

3) And of course, the heartbreaking games: The 1982 Mud Bowl loss to Miami for the AFC title, the 1985 Cleveland double OT playoff debacle, the losses against Detroit and Houston that cost us playoff spots in Week 17 in two separate years, the 1994 Fake Spike game, the 1998 AFC championship loss in Denver, and Doug Brien's missed field goals in Pittsburgh.

Of course, I will be buying it nonetheless. I'd better get a few hours of sleep before I have to wake up. Later.

With that out of the way...

OK, now that I have the aggravation in one post, let's move on to other stuff. All in all, I have to be pleased with this past week. Had another week with a day off, which I think makes 5 in the last 6 weeks.

Ribfest was a solid way to spend the 4th. No broken subways, just long lines waiting for the shuttle buses. It was quite a bit hotter than Sunday. Mom actually dropped by and it was cool to not be there by myself. We split half racks from Texas Outlaws and Uncle Bub's. Outlaws' bold sauce and meaty ribs never fail to satisfy me. Now Uncle Bub's, based out of Westmont, IL, was winning awards for best ribs this year. I really have no idea how. Maybe we got the end of the rack, or we just got bad portion, I don't know, but the meat tasted overcooked and dry. Nothing that a few fresh lemonades couldn't satisfy. One funny moment though. On one of those ribs, I couldn't get a good bite. The meat just kept coming off and I had to eat all the meat in one bite. I couldn't get it down and I accidentally spit a little bit of it and a little of the sauce must have hit Mom's beige shirt...

Randy Travis was excellent and I liked Marshall Tucker Band as well, though I only knew two or three of their songs. But on both days after I was at Ribfest, I had a bad cold for about 6 hours and then it was gone with some Vitamin C and Benadryl. What gives?

Got a raise in pay at work at CEC. Not huge, but it's noticeable.

The summer just began, which for means I have to start finding fall schedules for all the local high schools and entering them into the computer. One school already down, 16 to go.

I'm off to a Kane County Cougars baseball game. And special props to a certain someone who got the left field deck, which means free concessions!

Pure aggravation

I can't take it anymore. The Mets may be in first place in the NL East. But you know what? They stink. The Mets are not a good baseball team anymore. This offense is embarrassing. Four hits in nine innings off Wandy Rodriguez. Five losses in six games.

Jose Reyes does not know how to take a pitch. Jose Valentin's knees have robbed him of his hitting power and fielding range. Julio Franco should be confided to a senior's home for the immobile. Shawn Green had a great start but has shown no consistent hitting in eight weeks. Carlos Beltran is hitting .266 and swings at pitches above his head. Carlos Delgado has lost the ability to hit faster than anyone I have ever seen. And the bullpen. What a falloff from last year. Guillermo Mota is the one major leaguer who should actually be allowed to use steroids. Joe Smith has lost his luster. Aaron Heilman gives up a lot of big hits. Aaron Sele makes me wish we had Mel Rojas back. And what a bust Scott Schoeneweis is.

I don't care they're still 3 games up in the division. Omar Minaya has to make a couple of changes to this complacent group. Because right now the Mets are a joke. This season is headed for a miserable finish.

Ribfest Day 1 recap

Well, these festivals are still fun, but they're becoming less and less fun when you go alone. I guess when you start having friends you want to do this stuff with, it changes your perspective.

After Come Thirsty in the morning and walking Hogan, I drove 40 minutes south to Naperville, IL, home of the rich yuppies. Unlike last year, there was no extra admission ticket waiting for me at the window this year, I actually had to pay my 10 dollars to get in. I went with an ear of corn to start off. Very sweet flavor. Just the right amount of butter too. The I hit Mojo's for a 3-rib taster. Nice smoky sauce. I give these a solid thumbs up. Then I hit Texas Outlaws, my fave. Instead of ribs, I wanted to do something different. So I went with a pulled pork sandwich. I got a long hoagie bun with a lot of pork and dripping with a rich sauce. Amazing. I got a half slab at Pigfoot, which is one of the higher rated vendors at Ribfest. Not bad, but they could have been better.

But the story here is the sauces at Pigfoot. They have five sauces, the new applewood, sweet, mild, hot, and killer. I was going to do hot. One guy dared people to do killer. He said he couldn't handle the heat and his mouth would have burned if he ate ribs with it. So I gave it a taste. Wasn't too bad. And I said it. Out loud. Then the lady with this guy said words that are haunting me now. "You should smother that all over your ribs!"

Now 10 people are watching this. And I couldn't back out. I squeezed that Killer sauce right onto my ribs. The when they were gone, I added a little hot and sweet so I would still be able to breathe. They were fine, but I'll stick with Texas Outlaws in the future.

As for the shows, Los Lonely Boys were very good. They didn't play too many familiar songs, there were a lot of long instrumental jams. But you should have heard the crowd erupt when Henry Garza played the opening guitar lick of "Heaven." And at the end of the song, thousands pf people sang "How far is heaven?" at least 15 times. And you know what's really cool? I know a lot of people at this event weren't Christians but they were singing a song that is really a prayer, a cry for help with a message of hope.

I'll be returning on Wednesday for Randy Travis and the Marshall Tucker Band.

PS The best wrestler in the world, Bryan Danielson, just sent me a second myspace message. Yes, I marked out!