Same old same old

People tell me I'm too negative with my teams. They tell me how I don't have it as bad as a lot of other team's fans do. Those people root for teams who never have success. I root for teams that are usually in the mix but always fall short. My hope goes up and up and the pain and the inevitable fall is that much farther. And that's way more aggravating. Those other fans' expectations don't get as high, they can get numb to the pain. You know what? I want to be numb. I want to know what it's like to be numb to the pain of losing. And I guess most sports fans have one team they live and die with above all others. For me, it's the Mets.

And people tell me how we're the best team in the National League. The talent is remarkable. We have such a great shot to make the World Series. The tell me "Adam, you have to forget about the bad moments, remember the good."

1) I have to forget Mike Scossia' homer off Doc Gooden in the 1988 NLCS that turned that series that we should have won right around.

2) I have to forget shortly after that we traded Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell for Juan Samuel and then Mookie Wilson for Jeff Musselman.

3) I have to get over the bust of the early 90's led by Vince Coleman, Eddie Murray, and Bobby Bonilla.

4) I have to forget Jeff Kent couldn't play in New York and he found his Hall of Fame swing right after we traded him for Alvaro Espinoza and the poster child of lost bat speed, Carlos Baerga.

5) I have to forget Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden's potentially Hall of Fame careers were sidelined by substance abuse problems.

6) I have to forget that phenom pitchers Jason Isringhausen, Paul Wilson, and Bill Pulsipher all got injured and Generation K turned out to be a dud.

7) I have to forget that in 1998, the year we got Mike Piazza, all we had to do was win one of our last five games to at least force a tie for the wild card and they couldn't win a game and the hated Cubs stole the spot.

8) I have to forget that Kenny Rogers walked Andruw Jones to end our comeback in the NLCS, where we lost to Atlants in 6 games.

9) I have to forget management didn't think it was necessary to re-sign John Olerud after 1999 and let him walk.

10) I have to forget we were so desperate for a shortstop in 2000 we traded Melvin Mora for Mike Bordick, who did nothing after his first Mets at bat.

11) I have to forget the loss to the Yankees in the 2000 Subway World Series when Armando Benitez blew Game 1 and that was the end of the series right there.

12) I have to forget Steve Phillips' free agent raid where we got Roger Cedeno, Mo Vaughn, Jeromy Burnitz, and of course, Robby Alomar, al of whom turned out to be complete busts.

13) I have to get over that we traded a future All star outfielder in Jason Bay for two lousy pitchers, Jason Middlebrook and Steven Reed, neither of whom were Mets for a calendar year.

14) I have to forget the disaster that was Kaz Matsui at second baseman.

15) I have to get over that we actually traded Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano.

16) I have to forget we've had such illustrious number one draft choices like Stanley Jefferson, Alfred Shirley, Kirk Presley, Ryan Jaroncyk, Robert Stratton, Jason Tyner, etc etc.

17) I have to forget after Endy Chavez made that incredible catch in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, Jose Valentin struck out with two runners on and one out, and we never scored another run, and blew what would have been a prime opportunity to take the World Series.

Tell me why. And how after games like we saw today. This was as numbing a regular season defeat I have seen in any sport in maybe 6 or 7 years. After losing the first three games to Philly, I knew we were in trouble. And when Philly went up 5-0 on El Duque, our best pitcher, after 3 innings, I could onjly hang my head and sigh. But the Mets rally to tie in the fifth. Lastings Milledge and Carlos Beltran with RBI singles. But then immediately, the Phillies score three runs off the washed up Aaron Sele, all after two outs were recorded in the bottom of the fifth. 8-5. And I'm at work and somehow I managed to stay reserved.

Then the eighth inning. Credit to Marlon Anderson for a big double and Chavez' clutch single. And to Phillies manager Charlie Manual for intentionally walking Jose Reyes, who would score the go ahead run. So it's 10-8 Mets, we get six outs, we at least get one win in this series, the division lead is back up to 4 games and we go to Atlanta.

Then Billy Wagner comes in to get a six out save. He had not pitched in a week, complaining of a dead arm. He strikes out Chase Utley before Burrell hits yet another homer. 10-9. He walks a batter, but gets out of it. The Mets do nothing in the ninth. Then the bottom half. Jayson Werth, who has come out of nowhere, singles. Carlos Ruiz nearly homers, but the ball is caught on the warning track, one out. Tad Iguchi, who they just got from the White Sox, pinch hits. Wagner doesn't even pay attention to the runner and he steals two bases, putting the tying run in scoring position. He singles. Tie game. Wagner has thrown 37 pitches to this point. He had to be removed here and they should have brought in Aaron Heilman. But Willie leaves him in. Rollins gets walked intentionally, Gets a full count on Chase Utley. He singles down the right field line, Iguchi scores. Mets get swept and the lead in the NL East is 2 mere games. An absolute travesty. And after this loss, do you think they're winning in Atlanta tomorrow night? What are you smoking, give me some. I could use it.

Of my core teams, I've had two championships in my lifetime that I can remember (NY Giants in 1990 (when I was a Giants fan) and the Rangers in 1994), the last one coming 13 years ago and that is it! The rest has been cruel teases (92-99 Knicks, 98 Jets, 06 Mets) and garbage (Rangers from 1998-2006, Knicks since 2001). This Mets team is going to straight to the garbage pile.

Let's move onto football and hockey. Because first place or not, this team is more dead than Michael Vick's NFL career.

I'm not in the mood

Except to say this. The only good thing that happened tonight was the Cubs losing. And the rest continues to spiral downward. Atlanta wins, the Mets lose 3-2 and will likely get swept tomorrow and wind up with a 2 game lead. And then it's on to Atlanta, the most vile baseball town in America.

I'll keep this simple.

1) Do the Mets know they're allowed to score more than two runs in a game? In this ballpark against average pitchers?

2) Shawn Green, for what you did in the ninth inning, with a chance to win the game, I hope you burn in hell.

An absolutely brutal night

The only thing that saved this from being as bad a night of baseball as there could ever be was the Braves lost. Barely. Nonetheless, I got to see Chipper Jones hit a game-tying homer in the eighth inning off the immortal Armando Benitez. Boy, did that bring back memories.

Then the disaster at Wrigley. For all these pity party Cub fans, you don't have a clue about baseball. Actually most Cub fans are incredibly delusional anyway. Brewers lead 3-0, Jeff Suppan (a true piece of crap by the way) pitches well. Cubs rally. Bottom of 7, Suppan hits Floyd. In comes Scott Linebrink, one of the best setup men in baseball over the last five years. And the Brewers traded three top prospects to San Diego for this guy. Before you know it, single, double. Tie game. Fly out, then Linebrink makes a ridiculous error and the go ahead run scores. Lee adds a single for good measure 5-3. Of course, the Brewers threaten Two on, two out. Gabe Gross takes Bob Howry to 12 pitches before popping out. And the Cubs are of course on their way to a division title, taking a million bandwagon fans along for the ride.

Then onto THE game. The absolute ageda, misery, torture, and pain that was so bad I felt like a pit bull trained by Michael Vick. When Carlos Delgado by the grace of God hit a two-run homer to give the Mets a 2-0 lead, everything looked great. Little did I know that would be the last time a Met would touch home plate. And Paul LoDuca. Goodbye. He left more guys out in the field then Tiger Woods. Two double plays with at least one runner on base. And I have to watch Jose Reyes refuse to take pitches. He went 0 for 5 tonight and saw 13 pitches! For a leadoff hitter! And he's 0 for 9 in this series.

Then after Tom Glavine pitches an excellent game, we come up in the top of the eighth.
After two strikeouts, Beltran and Alou walk. Delgado comes up against JC Romero and reverts back to from, striking out on a fastball right down the heart of the plate. Then the lovely bullpen comes in the bottom half. Our most reliable reliever, Pedro Feliciano, starts. Jimmy Rollins promptly homers. 2-1. Utley grounds out, all is well. Then the Met killer, Pat Burrell, comes up. He walks and their best power hitter, Ryan Howard flies out. Oh, but not before pinch runner Shane Victorino steals second and moves to third on a horrible throw. Then Aaron Heilman comes in. I like Aaron, but I am losing faith quickly. Aaron Rowand dribbles an inside pitch down the line. And it trickles parallel to the foul line. Fair ball. Victorino scores. Tie game. Greg Dobbs walks, loading the bases, before Heilman gets a ground ball to send the game to the ninth.

We do nothing in two innings against Brett Myers. Meanwhile, Mr. Steroids comes in. Guillermo Mota. Gets a 1-2-3 eighth. Now all year long, even when he has one clean inning, Willie Randolph tends to leave him in the game and then everything goes to hell. So guess what? Mota comes in for a second inning. And I knew right there the game was over. Victorino, the fastest player nobody knows about, singles. Howard homers to left. Game over, Mets lose 4-2, their third straight loss and second straight in this series. The lead in the NL East is down to four games.

I don't want anyone to tell me about we're leading the division or we have all this talent. This team is not good enough to win a playoff series, I can't say it enough. The bullpen stinks, the offense is more up and down than a pogo stick. Bottom line is this: this year has not been fun. Last year was great. This team is just not any fun to watch. It is time for them, and I specifically mean the bullpen, to produce.

You can't make this up

I actually should have posted this a few days ago. This past Tuesday was the final day of three that I worked my entire school alone without my partner who was in Wisconsin celebrating his wedding anniversary. So I had been loaded with a lot of work and pretty happy things would be slowing down a little bit.

So I have 5 minutes to go before I leave and I check out what documents the campus has scanned that I can accept. I get to this one student (whose last name I won't disclose) and and it's labeled FA-other. Usually that means something to do with benefits like social security or military, or maybe a plus loan override. In this case, it was a change of name document. Not something I've seen more than once or twice, but I open it up and it looks all official, "I hereby declare so and so has changed their name..." and all that. Then I looked at the name of the student. They changed their name from Samuel D to Jada D. Yes, you read that right.

On their proof of graduation, it says Samuel on the document but Jada under the profile. But the best is yet to come. Then I go into their student information page and what does it say for their gender? Non-disclosed. That's one decision they made I agree with. Some information we just don't need to know.

On a side note, I'm ready for the rain to take a hike until March.

The review, the pain

Well I had lunch at Ted's Montana Grill yesterday. When I first walked in, I noticed that a lot of the restaurant was made of wood, fake wood, but I like that look. And I expected more of a bar and grill type atmosphere. Instead there was one flat screen TV at the bar and straight to the left of the bar is the kitchen which is completely visible to the customers. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of being able to see the kitchen, but what does it matter. And at every booth, there's a mirror on the wall. I don't know if this was give the restaurant more light with the dark wood or (co-owner) Ted Turner's practical joke, or what. The other thing is the wall at out booth was really high, so I felt a little closed off from the rest of the place.

A few things I noticed on the menu. They have fresh lemonade, but you can only get one free refill. I guess that's a good sign it really is fresh. I was surprised they only offered four appetizers aside from soups and salads. I like that they have blue plate specials, seven rotating items that are only served one day a week. Saturday's bps was barbecue bison short ribs. Tempting, but I passed.

We started with a ramekin of sliced pickles being brought to our table. I'm a pickle fan, so this was a good start. Now it was a cool day outside, so I was in the mood for something hearty and I went with the bison chili. I don't order chili much , so I don't have much to compare it to. But it hit the spot. It had cheese onion, a few jalapenos, beans, and a lot of ground bison.

Then I ordered a Philly bison burger, which has bell peppers, grilled onions, mushrooms, and American cheese. Out of this world. The vegetables were cooked exactly right. The bison tasted like very lean beef. Bison has more iron and about a quarter the fat of beef, so that makes sense. Even after eating the burger I didn't have that heavy feeling in my stomach that I sometimes do after eating a regular burger. And the cheese complemented everything. The kaiser roll was fresh and thick so the juice of the burger didn't make it soggy. I hate it when that happens. And the fries have that fresh taste too. I also tried a few pieces of roasted asparagus, which was seasoned very well.

I'm not a big dessert eater, but for whatever reason, I went for a slice of key lime pie. Now klp's are very hit-or-miss for me. This was as good as it gets. It wasn't too sour as it is at Cheeseburger in Paradise or Pappadeaux. It had a lighter taste, almost like cheesecake. And the graham cracker crust had some bite to it, like it had cinnamon and fresh nutmeg.

All in all, the atmosphere was okay but the food was very enjoyable. It was a very good experience and I would certainly return for some more bison and key lime.

Now onto the Mets. Now they have won five of six games, but have you ever seen a less inspiring such streak? And last night, everything went right. Braves lose, Phillies lose, Mets win. And they lose Damian Easley with a torn ligament in his ankle, a Grade 3 sprain. He was just running to second on a wild pitch and all of a sudden his ankle completely turns and gets jammed into the infield dirt. It was horrifying to watch. This is one of our best hitters of the bench, a guy who has had clutch hits all season, and was batting .280 with ten homers.

So let's see, on the DL are both catchers (LoDuca and Castro), our top setup man (Sanchez), our ace starting pitcher (PEDRO), our fourth outfielder (Endy), our second baseman (Valentin, granted, who's lousy), and our top two outfield prospects (Gomez and Martinez). The more things like this happen, the more I'm thinking this season is headed for aggravation.

By the way, the Cubs may be in first place in their division, but six NL teams have better records. In other words, even if they make playoffs, they're likely not doing much anyway. Let's see what they do when they don't hvae the NL Central to beat up on.

Music pick: "Yard Sale" Sammy Kershaw

The Scooter, bison, CEC

It was sad to hear the news that baseball legend Phil Rizzuto had passed away this morning. Even though I was never a Yankee fan when growing up in New Jersey, it was always fun listening to his broadcasts in the 80's and early 1990's. He was a little zany sometimes, but he was so charming. Whether it was announcing birthdays of half of New York City, talking about his love for cannollis (which I am suddenly in the mood for!), leaving the games after the sixth inning to beat the traffic, or "Ho-llllly Cow" he was a pleasure. Thanks for the memories, Scooter.

Well, I have in mind the next restaurant that I'm going to try: Ted's Montana Grill. Supposedly, they're known for their bison steaks and bison burgers. A friend of mine who went to this place said it was one of the best burgers they've ever had. Now I haven't had much game meat, but what I've had, I've enjoyed. The elk meat I had was okay, but I am a pretty big fan of buffalo meat. I was actually in Whole Foods this weekend and I walked by the meat counter. And I saw bison steaks selling for about 22 bucks a pound. Despite my appetite, that's a bit rich for my blood. So there are four locations in Chicagoland. I'll probably visit in the next two weeks and post my review.

And what a week of work this is going to be. Tomorrow and Thursday, all the schools' DFA's (basically the school's financial aid leaders) will be visiting us. And they will be spending a lot of time with us, watching how we do everything. And from Friday through Tuesday, the guy I split SBI-New York with will be gone on vacation. So I have to make up all his work, plus carry my usual load. Oh, and we just hired four new people into our team with two more coming next month. Let me put this in perspective. When I came on board last January, the team expanded from 6 to 10. Now it's up to about 18. Crazy stuff going on.

The champ is here

Always an adventure running into Greg and Stacie. Man, I wish we were in the same playoff tournament bracket with his team. Would have been fun. Now I have no problem with the man. But then I showed up at Melas Park today for the game. I'm checking out the playoff schedule and he comes up to me. And what is he sporting on his head? An Atlanta Braves visor! Mr. Cardinal Mr. front-running St. Louis Cardinals fan, especially during my heartbreak last year, and now he's a Braves fan? Come on man, are you a Colts fan too? By the way, I hear he's a Anaheim Ducks fan, at least until next June!

Back to the game, our final regular season softball contest. The big showdown I was talking about against Rommel didn't happen last week, due to rain. So they played a game before we played the fifth place team. If both teams had the same result, we would have to play a positioning game against them next week at 8 a.m. And then we could have two more playoff games right after that. So we find out that Rommel lost by seven, leaving the door wide open for us.

Most of our games have been high-scoring, 23-8, 21-20, 16-15, 21-21, etc. Not today. The humidity was crazy and whenever we hit the ball in the air, it just kept hanging. The pitchers threw strikes, the defenses were on top of their game. In the top of the third, they scored a run on a blooper that I couldn't quite haul in. I made one of my trademark dives, but missed it. But I did make 5 other catches in the outfield, including one that I had to really run back on, but I got it and prevented at least one run from scoring.

On offense, well, there was one highlight. Paul, our left handed slugger, whose wife just had a kid last week, drilled his third or fourth homer over the 285 mark in right field. And that was all we'd need. We won 2-1, finished 7-1-1 (after not winning a game two years ago) and have the No. 3 seed out of ten teams in the playoffs.

I don't know who our opponent is yet, but it'll be the No. 6 seed, which is set for the worst team in the B Division. And it's single elimination, so it's time to man up.

What do you do?

You spend the beginning of your life visualizing yourself as an adult. You have this fantasy as a kid, whether it's a passing thought or you ponder on it daily. You'll have this dream job, get married at such and such an age, live in this place and there won't be too many serious problems that come your way. The one day you realize it's not going to happen. Things just never seem to turn out how you plan them.

I got some advice today about something I can do with my future. I'm not about to go into it here, it's not something I would have thought of otherwise. I don't want to abandon my old plans, because I want to be able to utilize my skills or lack thereof or whatever. I mean, some people talk about there's one person for every person in terms of marriage. Does the same go for our work and where we spend our time? I believe God gives everyone different natural gifts and abilities but then we have to develop them. If we don't use those gifts, are we not living our lives the way they were intended to be lived? And in a broader sense, why do we tend to always want the things that we know we'll never be able to get?

And I have had several instances in the last few days where I said things where I not only put my foot in my mouth, I think it was more like my knee joint. I guess I'm just feeling this strange mixture of gratitude for what I have and frustration over what I don't have. And here I am tonight, actually it's 12:45 am, eating El Ranchero chips and spinach artichoke dip and drinking a Sunset Wheat. Mets lose again, what a shock. Now onto a few other things.

1) I finally got to meet John Ortberg, probably my favorite pastor in the world. I got an autographed copy of his new book and though I have a few other books to finish before I get to his, I'm excited to read it.

2) Chris Rock may be crude, but he's funny and intelligent.

3) What in the world is Project 161?

Music pick: "Pour Me Another Tequila" Eddie Rabbitt. (May God rest his soul)

Quite a week of baseball

Well I've started my 26th year on earth. A friend of mine, who's in her 50's, has told me 26 is the best year of most people's lives. Well, we'll find out soon enough.

Since I watched two games live this week, that's what we're talking about in this space. But before that, let me point this out. Just picked up Johnny Cash's Live From Folsom Prison album from the library. It's no wonder this album is so legendary. Honest music from the soul, well played, lyrics that hit home with the prisoners in attendance. It's funny, yet serious; uplifting, yet sobering. Excellent stuff.

Milwaukee was excellent on Thursday, and all in all, it was a 13 hour deal. The 2 hour trip to Madison and following 1.5 hour commute to Milwaukee went smooth. Nef and I caught up on old times. He's give me a bit of an idea on what it's like being a husband and father of two infant girls.

After arriving at Miller Park, I headed straight to the brat stand and got one with that secret sauce and grilled onion. 4 bucks, it's good stuff. And a Honey Weiss to top it off. Nef had some ice cream and as hot as it was, he had the right idea. It was seriously humid in that stadium. Then the game. Brian Lawrence, who hadn't pitched in the majors in a year and a half started on the mound for New York. And he held Milwaukee at bay. Damion Easley nailed an inside-the-park home run and Wright and Reyes both went yard in the Mets' 12-4 win. Took 2.5 hours to get back to Madison. The traffic getting out of there in rush hour was insane. I wound up home around 9 p.m.

Saturday at Wrigley Field was a little different story. I got to the city around 12:45 and headed straight for Merkle's, where there was a Mets fans rally. There must have been 20-25 of us in that tiny pub. We hung out, drank a little, and it was cool meeting some fellow backers of the orange and blue.

I watched batting practice up close and saw a conversation going on near the batting cage. Omar Minaya, Willie Randolph, and Lou Piniella. Since they were teammates on the Yankees in 1997, I'm sure Wilie and Lou discussed "The Bronx is Burning" and how inaccurate ESPN made it. I actually think it's an entertaining series, but I know Willie isn't a big fan of it.

The Mets stranded two runners in the first. John Maine pitched well for two innings but in the third, everything collapsed. With two outs and runners on first and third, Ryan Theriot dribbles a grounder off the mound and towards Jose Reyes. He fields the ball and fires it to first and the umpire calls Theriot safe, allowing the first run to score. It aggravated me because I'm still convinced Theriot was out. But Maine lost it and allowed five more runs. The Cubs shouldn't have had one run, instead they scored all their runs in the 6th. The Mets got two homers from Moises Alou, but never for a minute did I think they were winning.

I thought about going to the rubber match tonight, but I was a little tired and I knew if I went I wouldn't get home until around midnight and I'd be pretty worn down for work tomorrow. And the Mets did win tonight 7-3, taking the season series 5-2. Congrats to Tom Glavine for winning his 300th game tonight. I just couldn't go home for this one. So I actually went back to Rookie's for the first time since last December to watch it.

The Mets have officially befuddled me. In my last post, I ripped them. Since then, they've won 4 of 5 on the road against the Brewers and Cubs. Now comes three games against Atlanta in Shea Stadium. I really don't know what to expect. But we've lost three 3-game series to them this year. It's time for a change.

Not too much coming up this week outside of work.